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The bedroom was huge. In one corner was a computer and a few other electronic devices sprawled over a table. There was a door in the far-right corner that led to a bathroom and another door that revealed a walk-in closet. The pale, yellow walls led up to a ceiling far above, small little balls of light hanging down from it. In the dead center of the room was the bed where two dressers stood on either side decorated with their own knick knacks and lamp types.

So where were the Queens one might ask?

They were jumping. On the bed with their crowns and gowns, they were having a pillow fight. Feathers scattered their chambers like a release of white doves at a wedding. They could barely see the floor in the mess as they had already gone through a lot of pillows. Installed in the room’s vertices were speakers that blared 2000s pop music so loud the room vibrated. The two Queens giggled and laughed as they hit each other repeatedly with the sleeping instruments, having the grandest of times. Elias walked over to the front of the bed and spoke in a normal voice.

“Willow.”

He was ignored.

“Faith.”

Still ignored.

“Your Highness!”

Not even a glance.

“Guys!?”

Still nothing.

“HEY!” Elias screamed, his face turning pinkish. Halsey smirked at that, leaning against the wall.

The two women stopped their fighting, and as the last feathers fell to the floor the music stopped and they screamed, tackling Elias in a hug. He rolled his eyes as they squeezed him tightly, trying not to hurt his wings which fluttered in surprise.

Hershey shifted his feet nervously as the couple noticed them. They gasped and let Elias breathe as they stormed the other bodies. The darker skin-toned woman with the red and gold dress wrapped Beta and Hershey in a hug while the caramel-colored woman with the purple and gold dress wrapped Matrix and Halsey in an awkward embrace. Then they switched, the second the Queen let go of Matrix and Halsey the two took at least two steps away from each other.

Once things settled, the two women started to introduce themselves. “We want to welcome all three of you to our kingdom. I’m Willow, but you can call me Will, all the cool kids do,” the red and gold one said. Her nose was too small for her face, but her large and cheerful smile along with rolling brown hair made up for it.

“And I’m Faith, you can just call me Faith,” the purple and gold one followed. Her nose was much larger, although her smile was equally as bright and hair equally as long. “So you’re the three my Elias keeps talking about,” Faith said, shaking Elias’s chin. Beta was surprised at the way she touched him so easily, Hershey and Matrix equally astonished.

“Stop touching me,” Elias argued, yanking his chin away.

“And Halsey was so excited to meet all of you,” Willow said, grabbing Halsey’s arm and pulling him to her. “I think he just wanted to meet other dead. Elias isn’t always the nicest person to be around.”

“Yeah that’s true,” Halsey muttered, and Elias hit him in the shoulder, Halsey hitting him back.

“We’ve heard a lot about you as well,” Beta said, smiling at the innocence of the scene laid out before him.

“So…which is which?” Willow asked.

Matrix looked at the other two before speaking. “Oh. Well uh…that’s Beta, that’s Hershey, and I’m Ma—”

“Matrix! You’re Matrix! El talks about you the most!” Faith exclaimed, startling Matrix along with the other dead.

Matrix raised an eyebrow and looked at Elias. “Oh really, El.”

Elias glared at him and sat on the disorganized bed. Matrix took note of his sudden guarded attitude. “Sorry,” Faith said, apologizing to them all. “El’s not too great with people.” But El said nothing in response, rolling his eyes and letting them make jokes.

“Oh come on, nothing?” Matrix taunted. “El, we can’t help you if you don’t open up to us—”

El shot up and took a daring step forward. “You’re the one who said you wanted nothing to do with me, so that’s what I’m doing. You can take your sarcastic bullshit and shove it up your impenetrably tight ass.”

“Elias!” Willow, Faith, and even Halsey, said in unison. Matrix was taken aback by the sudden outburst; he was just having fun.

Beta couldn’t help himself, instinctively clenching his innocent fists.

“Oh, you can’t even talk,” El said, looking toward Halsey. “You’re torn between me and…that?” He gestured to Matrix and Matrix responded by blinking once and scoffing.

“Wow, and I thought I was a monster,” Matrix responded. “You’re a piece of—”

“Shit.” The whole room turned to Beta as he said it, confused by his sudden forwardness. Beta scoffed, smiling just a little bit. “All this time I’ve been lying to myself, trying to follow a code that I don’t believe in. And you…” Beta looked up at Elias. “I did it all for you…” He shook his head. “What a mistake that was.”

It was then that Halsey, standing just slightly behind Beta, saw what he had been hiding since he first crash landed on Plato.

A small, but fluffy, reddish tail.

Halsey’s brow furrowed. “Beta—”

And that’s when things went haywire. El flew out of the Queens’ window, the glass shattering as he tumbled to the forest floor. Beta ran to the window and jumped down after him, landing much gentler than anyone would have expected. “Oh my God!” Halsey cried out, rushing to the window and jumping out, letting his wings go free. The wind caught and let Halsey glide down. Matrix followed him out the window as well; Hershey, Willow, and Faith, however, took the stairs.

As Beta started walking toward a disoriented El, Halsey swooped in and tackled Beta to the ground. Once he got him down, Beta disappeared in a cloud of red smoke. Halsey turned around quickly the way all people turn to prepare for a teleportation attack. But instead of that, the ground did all the work, swallowing him up like it intended to eat him. The dirt sunk, bringing his whole body down with it like he was sinking in quicksand. It stopped just at his belly button and Halsey couldn’t feel any part of his lower half. As Beta reappeared like magic, stalking back toward a now fully functional El, Halsey stuck his hand out and tripped the superior being, leaving his head just level for El’s foot.

El launched the side of his foot into Beta’s head, knocking him momentarily to the side. But as he stumbled, he disappeared again. Reappearing behind El, he sensed it and unsheathed his sword. He was too slow in the act and Beta knocked it out of his hands, twisting his wrist so far that it began to break. As Halsey still struggled to get out of the ground, all of a sudden, his eyes started to bleed and he was blind. It didn’t take much to assume, somehow, Beta was doing it. Luckily, Matrix was still there, using his powers to snap Beta’s neck.

El yanked his wrist away and stumbled backward, surprised that Matrix took such drastic measures. Halsey’s eyes went back to normal and he rubbed them viciously as they stung. But, it didn’t last long, for Beta’s head snapped back into place. He ran toward El and shoved a foot in his stomach, knocking all the air out of his system. He fell down, leaving Matrix up. Matrix tried to blast Beta away, but all it did was make his shoes slide against the smooth grass at a very low rate. Beta still fought it though, even with everything Matrix was throwing at him. Seeing this, Halsey transformed. Metal sprung from his back like a second pair of wings, engulfing him. They smacked against his entire body, clamping and twisting it like he was an old car. Eventually, Halsey compacted just the right amount and the metal receded, revealing a bunny as it hopped out of the whole made in the earth and went through the process over again to turn back, now free.

Beta grabbed Matrix by the neck, not rough, but gently. “This isn’t your fight,” he said, shoving him to the side. “What do you care about El anyway?” Beta said, speaking to Matrix as he picked El off the ground with ease. “You never liked him.” Beta swung his hand behind him, smacking away the skillfully detected gun at his temple before Halsey could shoot. He grabbed Halsey by throat with a much rougher grip than Matrix. He grabbed El by the throat with his other hand and dragged them as he walked toward Matrix. “Halsey didn’t even remember you,” Beta pointed out, squeezing harder. “This is what demons do.”

El cried out, transforming into a rhino and breaking free, ramming himself into Beta’s side. Beta threw Halsey down, leaving a terrible bruise on his neck. As rhino El tried to attack again, Beta held his hand out in a “please stop, this is pathetic” gesture and El blew up in flames, transforming back into his old self instantly. El dropped to his knees with Beta’s command. El looked up at him not submissive, but ambivalent—trapped between confusion and anger. “What are you, Beta?” he asked.

Beta’s eyebrows furrowed and he tilted his head at him. “I’m an angel.”

And right before the final blow was about to be bestowed, he felt it.

Beta stumbled backward, letting his invisible grip go on El. Matrix took this opportunity to force Beta on his butt and he went easily.

While he was down and seemingly disoriented, El wasted no time grabbing his sword and driving it through Beta’s shoulder blade. He would’ve driven it through his heart if he was just a bit surer of Beta’s true powers and intentions. As Beta tried to wiggle out of the sword’s grip, El stuck it in deeper, watching it come out on the other side.

He left it in there, backing away and looking around at the crowd that had developed out of the ordeal. They had pushed themselves a fair distance away with the assistance of the Queens and Hershey.

Hershey ran over to them once he saw that Beta was going pale. Matrix told Hershey to stay where he was, watching Beta carefully. He felt sympathy for him, like he always had for Beta…but he could see now that the Beta he thought he knew was not the real one.

The real one was horrifying.

“No,” Beta said to himself, yanking the sword out of his shoulder violently and tossing it aside. Blood began to seep back into his body and the hole closed, much slower than he liked. “Wait…Wait!” he cried out to no one in particular.

“What the hell is going on?” El asked, mainly directing his question to Matrix who had no answer.

Beta snapped his head up to look at El with sinful eyes. “I won’t let it end like this.” And with those words, Beta closed his eyes and focused, letting his head droop.

And then the screaming commenced, but not from Beta.

“Halsey!” El and Matrix called together, both of them running over to him as he rolled over on the ground, writhing in pain.

“My wings! My wings!” he said, moving his shaky hands to his back. He screamed out again as Matrix and El tried to sit him up right. He wouldn’t have it, struggling against their grip. “He’s in my head!” Halsey called out, and El then turned to look at Beta. He stood up, grabbing his sword off the ground.

Do you agree? Beta’s voice asked, ringing like church bells in Halsey’s head.

“Yes! I submit! I submit! Just please make it stop!” Halsey cried out, vibrating at uncomfortable rates in Matrix’s not-strong-enough arms.

As El held the sword up over Beta’s head, ready to drive it through his neck if it would mean an end, Halsey’s screaming stopped and a blast of energy blew them all away. El and Matrix blasted back, away from Halsey and Beta. A bright light took over both of their bodies, blinding the crowd momentarily until it disappeared. El blinked once, trying to focus back onto Halsey. But once he did, it wasn’t hard for him to see what was missing.

His wings.

El’s eyes widened as he saw where they had ended up.

Beta stood up slowly and shakily, flexing his new bat-like wind seekers. “Ow,” he muttered, rubbing his neck. He turned to Halsey, who was still on the ground, sweating and breathing heavily. “Stand,” he called out. This was probably one of the most gut wrenching things Matrix had witnessed.

Halsey did. Not only that, but there was now a visible mark on the side of his cheek.

It was an octagon with a tear drop inside…

...and a slash going right through it.