We waited, keeping the narrative flow going as we did so. The black tendrils were receding now, the malign influence waning, so that the system seemed more alive every second, in its own awkward, vicious way. However, it took all our strength just to push it back that far, it wasn't retreating entirely and we probably didn't want it to escape somewhere into a dimension we had no access to whatsoever. That was assuming the continent we stood on wasn't accidentally levelled by one of the capital ships firing in the wrong direction. Bolstered by the prayers to Spatula, the music, the roar of the vibrant energy flowing through my fingertips and the certain knowledge that lack of resolve would itself lead to failure, I kept going on, until, finally, Diggory's voice rose to a crescendo and he leapt up, brandishing the knives in the air. Twin bolts of light, emerald and ruby, leapt from them, lancing straight into the sky. Then I remembered that the sky wasn't dark tonight, and that it couldn't have been physical space I was seeing this in.

A rift of darkness opened up in the space where our minds joined. It had been pitch black anyway but this was somehow darker, something pulsing, crackling, vital. Surges of dark purple rippled across its rim, collecting in thicker pools as I tried to stare further in but was met by primal terror, and I realised what I was seeing: deletory space. With a cracking, tearing sound somewhere in-between a peal of thunder and a lightbulb dying, a column of the same darkness erupted from it, hitting the roiling cloud above Xinae's head, melting it instantly and punching straight through the portal it had created.

We drifted alone, now, in silence. Unbeatable cold cut through me. I tried to hunch up but I had lost contact with my physical body. Surtur was screaming and yelling curse words in every single language he had ever learned, swiping in random directions in the vain hope that something in the void was secretly a wall. Bunfire desperately tried the communicator on his wrist. We were lost, I realised, disconnected but still trapped inside the place between worlds. That blast of raw deletion had broken something. Maybe it had broken everything. A wave of panic hit me as I realised that I had no assurance that anything in the Universe still existed except the souls of two other people. And with nothing to support our existence, we would simply decay over time, fade away into dust, the last things still existing in the whole of eternity.

"Oh, calm down," said an arrogant male voice. Two individuals walked towards us, appearing out of nowhere as if this were a dream, and the dream logic had decided the two had always existed. Both were athletic-looking humans, one male with red hair and a neatly groomed beard, one female with blonde hair. Both were tall and proud in bearing, with a shimmer around them that gave them an unreal appearance, almost like holograms. They wore pristine, official-looking long white coats, maybe the senior scientists in a very well funded laboratory. The female was looking at me a little like an interesting anomaly in a scientific experiment. The logo on their pockets was a black, broken circle that sort of merged into a 'C' in a clever way that reminded me of a power switch. As they came closer, Bunfire backed away. Even Surtur stopped what he was doing and slung his sword back over his shoulder. The man regarded the fire giant, smiled and nodded, a gesture almost of recognition.

"I expect you'll be going back to work soon," he said.

"Um… yeah… if it's all back in place."

"It'll need some rebuilding. Everything will. If I were you, I'd have a small Ragnarok this year, then wait to go back to normal this year. Putting it out of synch will only make things worse in the long run. You never know, the smaller Ragnarok might become a tradition in itself."

"Who is that?" I whispered to Bunfire, who looked more terrified of the strangers than he had of the thing we had just been fighting.

"Scribe, watch you say and don't get too close unless you're asked," he whispered, "These people are from the Completion Screen!"

"They are?" I frowned.

"Well, I think so..." Bunfire looked confused, "Why, do you not think they are?"

"I don't know. They just don't quite feel…"

"Of course we're from the Completion Screen," said the woman, "Your friend contacted the Completion Screen and we answered his call. We're not the Game Over screen. They don't look anything like us, and besides, they didn't actually come in person, they just deleted things like they always end up doing," she said, looking a little irritated, "Ergo, we are here representing the Completion Screen."

"Which friend?" I asked.

"That's what Diggory's swords did," explained Bunfire, "Just once, in a dire emergency, one of them can contact Game Over and one can contact Completion. Then he has to take them back to base when he wants to recharge them. It stops him spamming them and wasting everyone's time instead of dealing with minor problems on his own."

"They had been used when I met him," said Surtur, "On what, I wonder?"

"Sorry, I really don't remember. I probably intended it that way. Can't have been anything good, or they'd have taken it off me."

"Ah, there you are," the man turned around to regard Diggory, who sauntered towards them as though he was just out on a stroll. He scratched the back of his head and grinned at me, "Now you're all together again, safe and sound, can you kindly leave? Your actions have already affected this place and you haven't even tried to play by our rules. I'll forgive you this once because our own people do nothing but try and break them. One of them just went too far this time, I guess. I won't bother punishing her, though. She's with her sisters, and I believe they're alone together on a mining barge in the middle of nowhere. Whatever's going to happen is probably worse than anything we can dream up."

"Oh, their destiny went back to normal? Does that mean they forgot about us?" I frowned.

"I never said that. They might complain about money all the time, but they can easily afford a new mining ship here and there," he waved away the question, "Anyway, they've got things to do and so have you. I'll let you visit each other once things have settled down a little."

"You're not really from the Completion Screen, are you?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"There's no way a place like that can have permanent endings."

"Which is why we need to watch over it even more closely," he said.

"Diggory, are you really sure about your decision?" asked the woman. The adventurer nodded. He had walked over to stand beside the Plotbunny.

"It's tempting to go back with you – I'm sure Xoria would need the extra pair of hands – but I already made a promise to someone," he looked up at Surtur, who grinned.

"You said you'd help out Spatula, too," said Bunfire, "And the Emergency Player Characters might want you back, now they know where you are."

"I did say that, hm? I suppose someone else might actually want me back, at that," Diggory sighed.

"You never know, your destiny might even get fixed now that it has to work at repairing itself," said the woman, "You're going to be busy just finding out who you are. But if you ever change your mind, or even want a break from it all for a while, you're welcome to come back and ask for the Revorse sisters."

"You probably won't see us again, though," said the man, "We like to keep out of the way as much as possible. We only step in when things go seriously wrong."

"Well, why didn't you do so earlier, then?" asked Surtur.

"You had to do your job before we could do ours," he replied. Then he turned on his heel and walked off, the woman following him. As they receded from view, I found myself waking up. Spatula had made me a cup of tea. At least, I hoped it was tea.

---

"Oh, come off it! If me improving your tea experience with a few divine revelations is all you have to worry about, life must be getting better for you already," said Tracy.

"You're right. You definitely aren't possessed. You spent less time trying to kill me when you were possessed," I groaned, trying to evade her attempts to pour still-hot tea into my mouth. Perched on the back of the chair, Mittens batted at her hair.

"You aren't the only one making a fuss, now that nobody has anything better to do," reported the cat, "When I last checked up on Plotbunny Central, the security forces are running around clucking like hens just because the Yule Cat appeared on radar again. If they'd just calm down and listen, I'd explain that he just popped in to chat with Bunfire while he was on his rounds! It's almost Yuletide, by the way. You should get me a new collar."

"Only if you help!" I yelled out loud. Tracy gave the cat a suspicious glare, who shot down the back of the chair and out of the room, muttering some excuse about going to see Unfluffykins who was still with the girls on the mining barge somewhere. A possible topic to distract the priestess from her latest attempts at murder occurred to me, "Hey, Tracy, do you know what happened to Spatula?"

"Don't talk about the Goddess as though she's just another personal friend! Our experience does NOT mean you can forget all your manners!" she snapped, "If you must know, she's intervening in some very sensitive diplomacy between the Masayans and the Infernals. Which, by the way, you could probably help with if you would stop lazing around and go back to work!"

"But you ordered me to rest after my ordeal and they're probably going to try and kill me as well when I go back..."

"No excuses! She wants to see you anyway. Something about a VIP invite to the Ragnarok Fringe Festival."

"How sweet of her! I never thought of the Defeat Goddess as a generous type."

"She's not. Well, she is when she hands out defeat, but not with anything else. Bernadette gave them to her to pass on."

"I thought the ticketing idea was an absolutely awful idea that we must never speak of again."

"It's not a ticket. Everyone's invited, no questions asked, even Loki. These are just special VIP invites. They make you less likely to die horribly in a fire," she explained, "I'll tell you something that'll make you want to come with me: Diggory got one as well! We'll finally be able to see him again! I have so many questions..."

I sighed, "Tracy, you know I don't need excuses to take you out somewhere, right? Other than it's you. I'll do it just because I like being with you. Do you understand?"

She spluttered, went red and splashed most of the tea over my lap. I screamed in pain and she ran to fetch a holy icon, swearing that she would use a healing prayer on me. She then accidentally defeat-cursed me. Things went downhill from there.

Oh well, at least I tried...