Some Galahs Go On An Inky Mission: Chapter 8

Mango's Adventures in Angst-Land: Chapter 7

(Author's Note: *Ahem* *INHAAALE* IIIIIIIIIIIT'S TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!)

"Whooaa!" Mango said, waving her fluffy arms in an attempt to keep herself from falling over.

"No, no! We can't have you falling, now can we?" A teeth man - Caine, Mango remembers from her excruciatingly long hours of both calming a fussy Kiui and researching - said in an upbeat voice, preventing Mango from falling face-first onto the floor.

"Mango, who's there?" Kiui asked through the headphones. Mango ignored her and instead pulled the innocent kitten card, making a curious face and folding back her ears, asking innocently and curiously, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Nice acting, ten outta ten." Kiui said sarcastically. Mango tuned out Caine's voice as Kiui continued, "Focus, Mangie. Don't forget, we're here to get Scylla and then get out -"

What Mango didn't notice was a pair of eyes peering at her, thinking, What is she doing here?

This place is corrupted.

Mango's Adventures in Angst-Land: Chapter 5

(Author's Note: Short chapter again! But this time, a funny scene comes in. Reference of Pokemon.)

"Alright, let's do this!" Kiui exclaimed, stretching her fingers a little before typing something into the monitor. The password was rejected. Kiui looked annoyed, but before she could try again, Mango stopped her.

"Let me try." Mango said, typing in:

Pokemon Puzzle League

The monitor opened with a beep. Mango gave a snarky smile to her sister, who turned into a cat with banana-yellow scales, kiwi-green eyes, and gray fur and yowled, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO -"

As Kiui screamed as though she was in pain, Mango softly chuckled. "Sis, you were going to hack the monitor, not log into the thing. You really have a bad habit of hacking into technology." Kiui still throws a childish tantrum over this.

The Blizzard: Chapter 3

(Author's Note: Now we get to see what Demetria's mother thinks about this! Hehehe...)

Demetria woke up to the sound of arguing.

"No, she's an adult now. Demetria doesn't need to go school now that she's at the age of nineteen!"

"Well, clearly she needs a way to rein in her powers; they're already out of control! We saw what happened with the castle, and she was barely able to take back control over the blizzard, but even then, your daughter passed out from using her powers on her own. She needs help."

Demetria groaned. "Will both of you PLEASE shut up!?" she shouted, startling the the two out of their argument.

"You know what? That was a fair reaction, and I'm sorry that we were too loud." Merlina acknowledged, making Scylla snort in amusement.

"Funny, but I gotta go. Have fun, you two!" Scylla said, teleporting away before anyone had the chance to reply.

Mother and daughter proceeded to have a staring contest. It was a serious business. Merlina hissed, "You left without telling anyone what you were doing or where you were."

Demetria growled. "Scylla knew!"

"But she's unpredictable, and you knew that!"

"So you're saying you don't have faith in me or Scylla, is that it?" Demetria jabbed.

Merlina remembered conversations like this before,  where she and her daughter argued about the lone missions Sylvia, Hikari, and their parents agreed on sending Demetria on. Merlina sighed. "You're not ready to face the world with your ice powers spiraling out of control like this."

Demetria narrowed her eyes at this, looking distinctively like she was when her powers first manifested, almost destroying an empire in her awakening.

Merlina whispered, "Little Ice Queen, please trust me when I say this; the more you keep trying to tame your powers, the more they're not going to listen. Rest yourself a bit, PLEASE." Merlina's thoughts pleaded to Demetria that she would listen.

Which Demetria did, softening at her mother's upset expression. Demetria would do anything for her mom when she got like this. Demetria sighed. "Fine, but just for today."

Merlina smiled. "Thank you."

The Blizzard: Chapter 8

(Author's Note: A mention of a near-death experience and an endangering experiment. Also, this chapter happens almost a year after the Incident.)

"MANGO DRAGONFRUIT MOCHISOLAR OF THE MERCATS, COME HERE, YOUNG LADY!" Hikari shouted, causing Demetria to flinch. The one day Demetria was supposed to be visiting the nightmare-ridden Mercat (that was Kiui) was interrupted by the yells and hisses of the cat side of the Mochisolar family.

Mango came into the living room and stopped when she saw Demetria. Mango waved nervously. "...Hi?"

"Alright, what did you do to get called out like that?" Demetria asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

Mango hesitated, a look of trauma crossing her face, before she raised her hands to sign, 'No need to worry, it was just a small donation.'

"Mangoo, you can't lie to me. I saw the look on your face, and you only use sign language if you did something really bad or if something traumatizing is happening." Demetria grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and sipped on it, watching her cousin closely.

Mango looked nervous, steeling herself before signing, 'I got strapped into an experiment and nearly died twice because it drained my life force and I forced myself unconscious!'

"MANGO!" Demetria gasped. Yeah, she's joining in on the punishment party on that one, because what Mango did was dangerous and incredibly reckless.

'I was TIRED!'

"Just go to Aunt Hikari - NOW." Demetria pointed to the security office, where her aunt was. She didn't want to deal with this.

'Fine, fine.' Mango grumped over to the security room.

Demetria sighed, sipping her hot chocolate and headed to the kitchen. "One of these days, the girls are gonna give me a headache." A yellow-and-grey dart flew past Demetria, almost making her trip. "Kiui!"

"Sorry not sorry!" Kiui meowed back.

"Hey, Kiui? Can you call Ashley?" Hikari called. Demetria's eyes widened as she realized this is becoming a family issue. She's gotta go before Demetria gets wrapped up in it.

"OkayIgottagobye!" Demetria rushed, heading back to her residence.

An Apocalyptic Christmas

(Author's Note: I'm sorry to anyone that don't celebrate Christmas, I don't know very much about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other holidays that many cultures enjoy during December. I promise to make a holiday-related story every December. Happy Holidays!)

"Hey, Scylla?" Sophia asked, startling Scylla out of her thoughtful gaze at the falling snow.

"What's up, Sophia?" Scylla asked. Sophia seemed both nervous and excited, as she showed Scylla an old poster, filled with scribbled-out words and pictures. All but one word: Christmas.

"What's Christmas?" Sophia wondered.

Scylla took the poster and chuckled. "Oh, it's my favorite holiday. Usually there's decorations, presents, caroling -" Scylla paused, sighing as she looked at Sophia. "But obviously, not in this universe. Here, there's nothing but a wasteland." Scylla looks at the snow. "I used to enjoy celebrating it, but once my adoptive mother died, I had no longer the privileges of honoring the holiday, besides opening gifts." Sophia had tuned out Scylla's words at this point, making a snowball. Once Sophia was done, she threw the snowball at Scylla, who dodged and laughed. "You'd have to do better than that." she said.

Sophia growled in fake frustration. "Oh, you're so ON!" she laughed, rolling up multiple snowballs and throwing them at her opponent.

-------------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~------------------------------------------------

"Hey Scylls?" Adam asked, peeking through the watch post's door.

"Come in." Scylla answered, not turning around as she mapped out some areas of Mobius.

Adam creeped in, being sure to shut the door so the cold wouldn't sneak inside. "So, uh, while you were working, Sophia told us about the whole... Chrysler holiday -"

"It's called Christmas, but go on with what you were saying." Scylla clarified.

"Oh, so, as what I was saying, Sophia was telling us about Christmas, and then Aite got this brilliant idea to make some snow angels and stuff -" Scylla turned around, a puzzled look on her face. She gestured to Adam to keep going. He continued, "And now we have a surprise for you." Scylla shrugs.

"Alright, show me. I've done enough work for the day." Scylla replied. Adam led the alpha outside, twisting through many piles of snow and trudging through more than ten miles of snow, and after about....six hours of walking through the snowy parts of the desert, Adam and Scylla reached a tree sparkling with twinkling light spells, colored royal violet and cobalt blue. Underneath the tree was Sophia, Aite, Ajal, and Diana with faded choir lyrics. Scylla stared in wonder, her eyes sparkling with childish delight as memories of past years of Christmases flashed through her mind. Adam eventually had to ask Scylla if she was okay, to which she looked at him and replied, "Did...Did you guys do all of this? For me?"

Adam smiled, saying, "Of course! We wanted to celebrate Christmas with you. Why would we do this otherwise?"

Scylla brightened, instantly exclaiming, "OH, THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANK -" She took in a deep breath, steeling her emotions as she cleared her throat. She said formally, "I mean, thank you for making this extraordinary surprise for me, I appreciate it." Diana burst out laughing, while the others hid their chuckles. Scylla tilted her head slightly, confused when she asked, "What?"

"I-It's nothing, I promise." Aite stuttered as Diana died on the snow, laughing herself to the point of wheezing. Scylla shrugged, thinking about how the gesture of kindness was extremely sweet, but unnecessary, due to the fact that there was a current apocalypse going on! 

"Let's get straight to the caroling!" Sophia cheered.

"Caroling? But there's going to be Soulless around anytime soon, so we need to -" Scylla protested.

"It's fine, Scylla. We've got this, really!" Ajal deflected, waving the worried EXE to a seat.

"Okay..." Scylla said nervously.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

"I TOLD YOU!!!" Scylla shouted as she burned down the area with violet flames. They had gotten into a fight with a group of Soulless a few hours into the caroling.

"I know, I know, but it was worth it!" Aite rolled her eyes. "At least you enjoyed it!"

"Zielo's got a crisis going on." Sophia muttered, causing Ajal to chuckle.

"What's so wrong with this dimension that he has to create semi-sentient zombies?" Diana asked.

Scylla mumbled, "That bastard's got so much wrong in his head, I'm surprised that he can even think through his master plan." The flames extinguished as soon as they reached the snow. Adam rolled his eyes, murmuring something like:

"Where's our heroes when you need them?"

Scylla froze, rushing through the memory of the last time she..."observed" the Sons of Heephis, as to say.  Scylla whipped around, her eyes blazing with a surge of sorrow and a hint of anger as she said, "We don't talk about them. When they come back, THEN we can talk about the Sons of Heephis." Adam gulped, fearful of Scylla. When she gets like this, they don't argue with her, otherwise she'll somehow put the fear of God (pun intended) into the Gaia pack. Adam eventually nodded his agreement.

"Adam, you knew better than to mention them in front of the Gaia leader." Ajal hissed.

"It was a slip up! I promise!" Adam protested.

Scylla starts to walk away, Diana and Aite following as Sophia called out, "OI! YA BETTER GET A MOVE ON, OR YUR GONNA BE LEFT ALONE TOGETHER!!!" She turned and ran to catch up with the others, Adam and Ajal following behind soon afterwards.

__________________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-------------------------------------------

A flurry of gifts were given in a matter of minutes.

It's Christmas, so there was a lot of drama. No peace was found as Scylla broke up what she had felt was a hundred fights within the past few hours. It was that exhausting.

Eventually, it was time for opening presents. What Aite, Ajal, Adam, Diana, and Sophia had gotten made them ecstatic for Scylla opening her present, for some reason. It all made sense when she opened it.

In the gift, Scylla had been given a pair of locket earrings, both bearing engraved images of the Gaia pack. Tearing up, Scylla whispered, "Oh...You didn't have to do this for me."

"We know, but we wanted to." Diana replied.

Scylla wrapped her family in a hug, telepathically hissing gratefully, Thank you so much, but the best gift right now...Is with you.

-------------------------------------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'''''''''''''-------------------------------------------

"Scyllie?" Young Ashley asked.

Scylla smiled gently, wiping away stray tears from her face. "Yes, Small One?" she wondered.

"Why are you crying?" Ashley said curiously, tilting her head. The kind of tilt that made Scylla laugh even if she was crying.

"I...I just miss your parents, aunts, and uncle, th-that's all." Scylla replied, looking at the Christmas tree in the room, instantly thinking back to the sparkling tree Aite, Adam, Diana, Sophia, and Ajal had created years beforehand.

"Can you tell me what they did during the apocalypse, Alpha?" Ashley pressed, using her bright, pleading, puppy-dog eyes that Scylla rarely ever refused against her.

Scylla chuckled. "Alright, alright, but you need to sit down to hear the story. Can you call in the others?"

"OKAY!" Ashley shouted, speeding through the house to summon the rest of the children.

Once the six children arrived (including Ashley), Scylla sat them all down and began, "Once, during the apocalypse...." She told the Christmas story to the younglings, who, one by one, fell asleep.

It was a peaceful Christmas that year.

A Dangerous Encounter: Chapter 3

Scylla raised an eyebrow as she folded her navy blue raven wings against her wolf body, wondering what the grey hedgehog was going on about.

The grey hedgehog continued. "My brothers fell into the deep ominous pit of sin, and betrayed me in response. They became imperfect, so I took the liberty of eliminating them."

Scylla scoffed, muttering in a growl, "Like YOU were even born perfect anyway."

The grey hedgehog said, "But Heephis, unfortunately, sent prerequisites before his death. Those prerequisites being you three."

Scylla barked a laugh, thinking, "Well, he chose great entertainers!"

The grey hedgehog continued, "Since you have originated from the deepest parts of Heephis' soul, you partake our appearances."

That led Scylla to be confused. "What does that merciless bastard mean?" Scylla wondered.

The grey hedgehog carried on. "As for me, what once was three had become one."

Scylla made a red-eyed face, growling, "Of course that dust-maker absorbed his brother's souls. As if that wasn't bad enough." Scylla rolled her eyes.

The grey hedgehog said, "I am the only god of existence. I no longer hold responsibility for the Control of everything. I have taken Heephis' and Celios' power, and became the only divine being."

Scylla was about to pop an artery out of anger at this so-called "divine being," but forced herself to calm down.

The grey hedgehog then said proudly, "I am everything. I am nothing. I am perfect. I am Zielo."

Scylla had to put her paws over her mouth to keep from laughing and breaking her illusion. Her wings slowly opened once the urge to laugh went away. It didn't take her very long to lose that laughter, though.

A sharp sound of shattered emeralds and a blast of a broken, erased energy had Scylla tensed. All Chaos energy was destroyed in this multiverse. Well, except for Scylla's Chaos powers.

Scylla felt herself become the vessel for Chaos energy, leading her to panic. "W-wha? H-h-how? Why?" Scylla yipped. She looked at Zielo, and saw the shattered bits of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Scylla understood what happened now, and it made her remember that all energy has to go somewhere.

Which led to one last question. Why did the Chaos energy choose Scylla to be the vessel?

Zielo forced the younger hedgehogs to the edge of a cliff. Zielo had mentioned something about Sonic, Silver, and the black hedgehog playing some kind of game with "god."

Scylla followed the hedgehogs quietly, not trusting Zielo with the young Mobians. Transforming into a raven, Scylla flew above the gods and saw the remains of Tin-Can. Scylla wanted to ruin Zielo right then and there, but stopped when she saw the look on Sonic's face and what he saw; a female hedgehog with the same strange, violet marking as the other people from earlier.

Zielo's laughter was heard from out of nowhere, as he said through the female Mobian, "She is the perfect slave because she used to be yours."

Sonic, Silver, and the black hedgehog were thrown off the cliff.

Cawing out, "NO!" Scylla dove down, refusing to let more innocent people die.

A Dangerous Encounter: Chapter 21

20 years ago…

The two EXEs laid their baby on the rocky cliff gently, being careful to be quiet and make sure their child stays comfortable. Once the baby is settled, the female EXE kissed the baby on the forehead, whispering, "My bittersweet baby, I'm so sorry for leaving you without any parents to support and love you physically, but we will always be there for you physically." The EXE choked on her loving words, tears streaming down her face.

The male EXE held the female close, while stroking the baby's cheek gently but firmly. The male chuckled as the baby attempted to bite his hand off, murmuring, "My fierce and beautiful daughter, always be watchful and strong even in the most hopeless moments. We love you so much, Scylla." He slowly took his wife's wrists and asked her, "Are you ready, Diamond?"

Diamond nodded, "I'm ready, Quartz." The two EXEs shapeshifted into diamond-clear and quartz-black ravens, flying into their very last battle in the sky. Baby Scylla wailed for hours, the screams growing loud as a huge blast took out many EXEs in the sky, including her parents.

It was only moments after her parents died that a goddess took the baby EXE under her wing. Her name, Scylla later learned, was Helias.

Scylla would remember the traumatizing moment forever.

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Present day…

"Sophia!" Scylla shouted, a hint of fear flashing in her expression. That fear soon turned into anger, allowing her to fiercely spit, "Let her go, Zielo!"

Zielo chuckled. "Or else what?"

Scylla hissed, "Don't test me."

Zielo inspected Sophia closely, watching as she struggled to escape his grip. Zielo looks at Scylla, who was about ready to burn the god down. "How about a deal?" Zielo asked. "Your friend will be free, and in exchange, you become my slave."

"Don't listen to him! Run, Scylla!" Sophia pleaded, letting out a pained strangled sound and Zielo tightened his grip on her. Dang, the caring traits of werewolves are sometimes a bad trait in a dangerous situation.

Scylla thought about it. "How do I know that you're not going to break that deal? If anything, you could break her in half as soon as I start walking to seal the contract." Zielo squeezes Sophia's neck, making Sophia squeak in pain. Scylla jumped at the sound, raising her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, fine! I give myself up! Just… Don't do anything to her."

Zielo let Sophia go, allowing her to leave as Scylla lowered her head slightly, secretly planning something under her somber expression.

So, what is she planning?

A Dangerous Encounter: Chapter 17

A couple of hours later, Scylla found herself on land again, in the form of a human. Her raven-blue eyes reflected the crazed glee she felt as she stood at the edge of the abandoned island, waiting for the eventual arrival of the Soulless. A part of her wondered if her family were safe, but she knew nowhere was truly safe during an apocalyptic event. How many Soulless have they had to destroy since the beginning of this blasted zombie timeline?

Too many to count, that's for sure.

And that's only within a few weeks, if not months. Who knows how many more will be forced to die for their cursed master? What's it going to take for them to stop?

Nothing, because the god who orchestrated the entirety of the apocalypse was selfish and greedy for power.

Scylla finally spotted something. It was small, yes, but it was nothing compared to the violet lights in the distance that signified the presence of the Soulless. They were coming.

Scylla retreated to the gray ashes of what had once been the grass, trees, and bushes that outlined the island. From there, Scylla opened her mouth and let out a blood-curling shriek that echoed for miles on end.

The water was splashing from several miles away, allowing Scylla to run towards the trees in the middle of the island and hide in the branches. She started to have doubts about her plan.

What if the Assimilation ring doesn't work?

What if they won't listen?

What would the pack say about this?

This was a bad plan.

Why did I make this plan? To cope with having to fight Zielo someday?

What kind of strategy is this? A dumb one?

How are we going to restore the world when this apocalypse ends?

Scylla's thoughts was interrupted when the Soulless were fumbling on the island's shores, muttering something along the lines of, "Master's gonna enjoy his new slave."

Scylla shuddered, reluctantly sliding down the tree she was hiding in and tapping the ring five times.

A large number of pained screams filled the air, making Scylla smirk and enjoy the sounds of agony. She let her EXE form take over, walking over to the large group of Soulless. Her grace was unnerving and terrifying to those who saw it. It was like she was going to kill the Soulless right then and there. But Scylla only whispered, "All of you are mine now."

Some of the Soulless looked at Scylla, terrified of what she might do to them. Scylla smirks and said in a lighthearted tone, "Don't worry, I'm not going to make you do anything stupid, like a suicide mission or something like that."

"But what about -" One of the Soulless started.

Scylla clicked her tongue, holding up a hand and interrupting the question. "I don't want to hear you say, think, or wish for your god to save you. He's the one who corrupted you, and I am here to fix that. If you rebel against me or even run away, I will not hesitate to track you down and turn you into ashes. Do I make myself clear?"

Most of the Soulless gulped, afraid of what would happen to them if Scylla made good on her threat. They nodded, offering fearful smiles at the terrifying woman. One Soulless nervously replied, "O-of course, we won't let you down, Your Terrifying Lady."

Scylla smirked, snapping her fingers and letting the Soulless be slightly free. What the Soulless didn't know was that they were standing still long enough to allow Scylla to get a firm hold on their souls, so if they actually escaped, she'd destroy the souls almost instantly.

Talk about making good on the threat, am I right?

A Dangerous Encounter: Chapter 11

Daylight came, causing Scylla and the other Dark Gaia members to transform back into "regular" humans. As of last night, they had made a backup plan, and they finally caught up with Shadow, Sonic, and Silver. However, the Dark Gaia pack had stayed five kilometers away from the Sons of Heephis.

Scylla turned to the pack, asking, "Do you want me to cast an illusion over us? No one will know of our existence."

Aite, Adam, Sophia, Ajal, and Diana nodded.

Scylla took a deep breath. She hasn't casted a grouped illusion in a long time, not since...

No, she can't think about that now. Scylla's illusion was soon set over the Dark Gaia pieces. Sweat dripped down Scylla's brow.

"Alpha Scylla, are you okay?" Sophia asked.

Scylla nearly jumped out her human form. "Y-y-yeah, I'm fine. I just...Haven't done this in a long time."

Aite and the others noticed Scylla's condition. Sophia said, "You sure? You're growing pale."

Scylla grit her teeth. "As I said, I haven't done this in a long time."

As they slowly walked closer and closer towards the Ini Pyramid, it started to rain, which was unusual in the desert. Scylla spotted Sonic running towards the pyramid. Scylla chuckled a little, causing her to falter slightly. After the tsunami incident, she expected Sonic to be at least a little traumatized - but she never expected how much it cost him. But part of her insanely enjoyed the revelation that the Sons of Heephis could be suffering as much as the werewolf pack was.

Scylla shoved the unempathetic emotion aside, not wanting to focus on the terrifying parts of her existence.

She could see that Shadow and Silver entered the Ini Pyramid, so Scylla tried to quicken her pace, but she ended up almost collapsing from the energy that was left.

Adam was swift enough to catch Scylla, but Scylla had a droplet of consciousness left to notice a blue blur rushing out of the pyramid.

Scylla passed out, her packmates calling out her name.

In her dreams, she saw two split scene happening at the same time. One of them was Sonic trying to be peaceful with his mother (who was the Soulless we saw in Chapter 3), which eventually turned into a fight against Zielo. The second scene was Shadow and Silver fighting Anna Croi.

Suddenly, in the first scene, Zielo moved out of range of one of Sonic's attacks, causing Sonic to kill his Soulless mother – on accident. Since Scylla was only watching them in the crook of her mind space, she could only watch as Sonic's mother dissolved into ashes. The next moment in the first scene was a blur – Sonic turning Tainted and fighting like a schizophrenic rabid animal, while Zielo dodged every attack and making threats, until finally -

A Dangerous Encounter: Chapter 16

Scylla couldn't remember the last time she was a mermaid. Probably at least four years ago, when she was still practicing her underwater spells. No matter, because she saw the broken shards of the Chaos Emeralds.

Scylla almost choked from swallowing the oxygen-lacking water too quickly. "God..." She managed to whisper, grabbing the colorful shards. "How am I going to fix this?" Her vision swirled as her tears began to rim her eyes. Scylla wiped away the tears and began to sort the shards into seven black bags.

She took a deep breath in after she was done, mentally preparing herself for the rest of the destroyed island.

Swimming around the island, Scylla noted the main drowning sites for the plants and animals, picking up some of the wet Soulless ashes carefully. She took note of the destroyed temple that had once served to protect both the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald.

Now, it was time to take a look at the Master Emerald.

Scylla cautiously entered the temple, bracing herself for the worst.

What she saw was not what she had in mind.

The Master Emerald was practically nonexistent, as if it had disappeared into thin air. All that was left of it was the powdery dust that was suspended in the water.

Scylla stood there, staring at the scene in shock and disbelief. There's no way Zielo would do this...right?

From the looks of it, he would.

Scylla growled, twitching before swimming off. THIS is the reason why the apocalypse needed to stop, effective immediately. Being a vessel for Chaos energy – as in all of it - won't be good. It's already shown its effects. It'll only be a matter of time before Scylla dies of this and the energy finds another, more potentially dangerous place to inhabit. SHE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN.

If it did, not only would she fail as a leader, but she'd also fail at her mission at keeping that dangerous family heirloom safe. She looked at the ring in her hand. Such a simple object, capable of causing destruction by creating a hive mind with the people affected by the assimilation...

Wait, wasn't that what Zielo was already doing? Creating his own hive mind to attack innocent people and cause destruction?

What if Scylla used his strategy against him? Destroying his hideouts would be simple, and there would be more recruits – if not members – of the Dark Gaia pack.

Scylla looked at the ring and stopped swimming. There was an answer – it was on her finger the entire time.

And she was ready to use it.