the Stravian GASP base. Our sudden apparition in Amal and Amane's lab startled them. Vials dropped and crashed against the diamond floor tiles—a distant reminder of the structures that had once been dominant on this planet under Ta'Zan's tutelage. Ridan damn near burst into full dragon mode before he realized it was us.
"Whoa there, Flamey!" Raphael blurted, putting his hands out in a defensive gesture. "This room ain't big enough for you to go all out on us, buddy!"
Ridan breathed a sigh of relief, clearly thankful that he didn't need to rip out of his GASP leather suit to fight unexpected intruders of the hostile kind.
"Also, dude! What kind of reaction was that?!" Varga said, struggling not to laugh. "It's just us!"
"Well, just you and four Reapers. Oh, and a friggin' Hermessi riding for free in Fallon's body," Ridan responded with a serious face, then burst into laughter and darted across the room to catch Herakles in a bear hug. "Ah, I missed you!"
"Buy me dinner first," Herakles replied.
Ridan moved to hug Raphael, who politely pushed him away. "You're not my type, sorry."
"Jeez, you're still a grade-A jerk," Ridan grumbled.
Amal and Amane came forward, both of them silently staring at the Reapers. They'd only seen the one who represented the Reapers from the Stravian sanctuary, and none of them were First Tenners like our eerie friends. I could honestly understand their fascination with these creatures. Had it not been for our urgent Hermessi situation, I was sure we would've spent most of our days gawking at Reapers who revealed themselves to us like this.
"It's a pleasant surprise," Amane eventually said. "Welcome, all."
Seeley nodded. "Thank you for keeping a dragon around. I don't often come across one in my line of business," he replied, giving Ridan a broad smile. "You fellas are hard to kill, I'll give you that."
"But not impossible," Soul added, his galaxy eyes narrowed, as if he were contemplating the challenge.
"I swear, if you weren't dead already, I would kill you just for the fun of it," Herakles replied, crossing his arms, making Ridan chuckle.
"Aw. He does love me," the dragon joked.
"How can we help?" Amal asked, utterly amused by these exchanges between Ridan, Raphael, and Herakles. The three had a long-running history since before the Blackout. "I presume you're here because you're in need of assistance?"
Taeral took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Yeah. So, you probably know by now that Death has gone missing, which presents us with quite a conundrum."
The twin Faulties' shoulders sagged. Sadness darkened their bright orange eyes, and they both tucked locks of white hair behind their ears. They were identical in almost everything, including their reflexive movements—yet their characters were surprisingly different. One of them had fallen in love with a dragon, for starters.
"We heard," Amane said. "I am sorry. What can we do?"
"Not much, actually, unless you have a way to find Death, which you certainly don't. And that's okay," Taeral replied. "We just need a place to get our crap together. To figure out what we're going to do next."
"According to the Hermessi, the ritual will likely be completed in less than a day," I said, trying to keep an even tone of voice and failing miserably. There was no easy way to explain how close we were to the total annihilation we'd struggled so hard to avoid. "We can't operate unless we have a plan."
"And to have a plan, we just need a little bit of peace and quiet. The Reapers figured Strava might be a good place to start, since—and you're gonna love this—it used to be a favorite haunt of Death's." Varga chuckled.
Amal smirked. "Should we consider it an honor?"
"Since you weren't alive when she was walking this world, yeah," Soul replied. "I doubt you would have liked it much if you had been."
"Why would you tell them something like that?" Widow muttered. "You're making her look bad."
"She made herself look bad, with her whims and tantrums and constant mind-changing." Soul scoffed. "I love our maker, obviously, but let us not clutch our pearls here. Death is anything but perfect."
"I am," Raphael cut in.
Amane cleared her throat. "Perfect or not, do you know where to find her?" she asked Soul, who shook his head. "So, then, your input regarding her personality is totally useless."
"Kelara!" Seeley exclaimed, straightening his back as he stared into the void. "Yes… Yes, I'm with them. We got Thieron." I understood then that Kelara had gotten in touch through their