Chương 22: 21: Happy Birthday To You

For the next half hour, they talked about anything except Syndicate, pods, or Talons. Katherine shared fragments of dream memories: the taste of mango, sunlight on skin, the warmth of a crush. Butter listened while absently working through her snacks, offering the occasional practical observation. Above them, distant impacts continued to roll through the fortress. Reality shook, metal screamed. Something large exploded. Katherine glanced nervously toward the ceiling.

"Shouldn't we help?" Butter shook her head.

"Why would you hunt tigers with a hunter carrying a knife when he already has a rifle?" Katherine blinked.

"You'd just get in his way." Another distant shockwave rattled the chamber. Katherine stared at her.

"Why are you wise all of a sudden?" Butter grinned.

"It comes and goes." Katherine rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Then what's the plan?" Butter tossed a gummy worm into her mouth and pointed vaguely upward.

"Let my brother handle the big game. Anything that makes it through that door, I'll handle." Another distant impact rolled through the fortress.

"We're here to bring this whole place down," she continued.

"And trust me, there's a lot of opposition packed into this fortress. Or nest, as I prefer to call it."

"Nest?"

"Magpies." Butter gestured at the pods.

"They steal dreams. It fits." Katherine reluctantly conceded the point.

"So we destroy the nest?"

"Eventually." Butter's smile faded slightly.

"The problem is the dreamers." Her gaze drifted across the endless rows of pods.

"If I just break everything and pull them out, a lot of them come out damaged. Dysfunctional. Some outright insane." Katherine's stomach tightened.

"Their minds have been living somewhere else for years," Butter said quietly.

"Sometimes decades. You can't just wake people up from that and expect everything to be okay."

"So what do you do?"

"First, we destroy the command center. That should be somewhere near the heart of this place." She scratched her cheek.

"Unfortunately, that's also where the really nasty stuff tends to live."

"How nasty?" Butter considered it.

"Stronger than me." Katherine choked on her own breath. Butter nodded.

"Multiple, too. Maybe dozens."

"Dozens?"

"Hopefully not dozens." Butter popped another gummy worm into her mouth.

"Dozens would be annoying." Katherine stared at her.

"Your definition of annoying is terrifying."

"I get that a lot." Another tremor rolled through the fortress. Butter's expression grew more thoughtful.

"After the command center goes down, the real work starts. Releasing everyone. Stabilizing them. Healing damaged minds." She glanced toward the pods again.

"That takes time. A lot of time. Months, probably."

"You've done this before?"

"On smaller branches." Butter nodded.

"Nothing remotely this big, but yeah. We've destroyed Syndicate facilities before."

"And?" Butter winced.

"A lot went wrong." The answer carried enough weight that Katherine didn't ask for details.

"So this time," Butter said, brushing sugar from her fingers, "we're being strategic. No smashing random buttons and hoping for the best." Another explosion echoed somewhere far above. Butter pointed upward.

"My brother handles the monsters. I handle anything that slips through. Then we figure out how to save everyone without accidentally breaking them." Katherine looked around at the endless sea of sleeping pods. She realized destroying the fortress might actually be the easy part. Katherine's gaze drifted toward the prosthetic. The lights running through it glowed a calm blue. She didn't ask, but she understood. Blue meant Butter at her calmest. Eventually, Katherine's curiosity drifted back toward the magic.

"The Gloom... it's like your blood? But also colors?"

"A sliver of deeper reality," Butter explained around a piece of chocolate.

"Colors are just how people perceive it. Yellow is persistence, blue is structure, red is raw power. They work together."

"And the bandages? Melody?"

"A focus and a weapon. Reality's noisy. Melody hums a tune that quiets a concept." Katherine glanced at the closed Aria resting on Butter's lap.

"And that?"

"Different." Butter tapped the blue cover.

"Melody edits. The Aria proposes. It's a dialogue with possibility." Katherine leaned forward.

"So anything you draw becomes real?"

"Provided I can pay for it." Butter flexed her regenerated hand.

"The drawing is just a request. The Gloom is the currency that convinces reality to say 'yes.'" Her smile thinned slightly.

"Something like Oblivion's Maw is expensive. The first time I summoned it, it nearly tore me apart. Felt like my soul was being unraveled to spin the threads. Even now, keeping it around too long leaves me hollow." Then she shrugged.

"A tub, a chair, a dress? Easy." A faint shimmer of yellow, blue, and red passed across her skin.

"The Gloom regenerates. I could make thousands of those. It's not about size. It's about conceptual weight. A bath is simple. A creature that eats singularities is not." Katherine's eyes drifted to the blue sketchbook resting on Butter's lap.

"The Aria." Butter glanced down.

"The Aria."

"Can I see it?"

"Sure." Butter handed it over without hesitation. Katherine accepted it carefully, as though it might explode. Instead, it felt surprisingly ordinary. Worn corners. Frayed edges. A sketchbook. Slowly, she opened it. The first page held a brightly colored velociraptor rendered in vivid yellows, reds, and greens. The creature wore an absurdly enthusiastic expression. CLAP was written beneath it in large letters. Katherine turned the page and found a cartoonishly strange ostrich staring back at her.

Its feathers were painted in impossible colors, its legs absurdly long. FEET She snorted.

"Feet?"

"It runs really fast." You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"I would've never guessed." Katherine kept turning pages. A massive kangaroo filled the next spread. Thick muscles bulged beneath patterned fur while teal spirals pulsed across its body. Rabbit ears rose from its head. JUMP The next page revealed a sleek chocolate-and-gold robot with four arms and glowing joints. PUNCH-R"Puncher?"

"Punch-R," Butter corrected.

"The hyphen is important." The pages continued. A smoky badger with perpetually drooping eyes labeled SLUMBER. A wicked-looking crimson scorpion named STING. A floating jellyfish made of stained-glass geometry. A wolf composed entirely of ribbons. A frog wearing what appeared to be a crown. A chubby dragon in a tuxedo. A centipede longer than a train. A dragon made of folded paper. Page after page. Creature after creature. Each unique, colorful, and lovingly illustrated.

Then Katherine reached a page she recognized. Her breath caught. Oblivion's Maw. Even as a drawing it felt wrong. The ink seemed deeper than black. Stars glimmered beneath layers of darkness. Looking at it for too long made her eyes ache. She quickly turned the page. There were more. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. The further she looked, the more she realized the notebook wasn't a collection of weapons. It was a collection of ideas made living.

"You drew all of these?" Butter nodded around a mouthful of candy.

"Yeah."

"They're incredible." Butter shrugged.

"I like drawing." Katherine ignored the understatement.

"No, seriously. These are amazing." Her fingers traced the edge of another page. Every creature possessed personality. Tiny details. Expressions. Notes scribbled in the margins. Some looked terrifying. Others looked adorable. All of them felt alive.

"So what do they actually do?" Butter leaned back in her chair.

"They all have abilities. Different concepts. Different specialties."

"You can summon any of them?"

"Provided I pay."

"With Gloom?"

"With Gloom." Katherine flipped to another page.

"And they all cost different amounts?" Butter pointed at Oblivion's Maw.

"That one could bankrupt me." Then she pointed at the sleepy badger.

"Slumber is cheap."

"Because he's smaller?"

"No. Because he mostly naps." Katherine laughed.

"They're all like that?"

"Pretty much. Size doesn't matter nearly as much as what they are. Most of them are greedy little monsters, though. The moment I summon them, they start drinking Gloom."

"Even your own creations?"

"Especially my own creations." Katherine looked back at the pages.

"So that's why you dismiss them so quickly."

"Yep. Short bursts." Butter tapped the notebook.

"Keeping them around gets expensive fast. The stronger they are, the hungrier they get." Katherine slowly turned another page. The artwork was incredible. Alive in a way photographs never could. They had personality. Affection woven into every stroke. For a while, she forgot about Syndicate facilities, Talons, singularity bombs, and impossible monsters. She sat beside Butter, flipping through page after page with growing fascination, completely absorbed by the notebook.

Butter watched her for a few seconds before smiling.

"You really like it." Katherine didn't even look up.

"It's amazing." The smile widened.

"Yeah," Butter said softly.

"I think so too." Butter paused, a frown slowly forming.

"Wait." Katherine blinked.

"What?"

"How did you even perceive those fights?"

"The fights?"

"With the Talons." Butter pointed at her.

"They were moving fast enough to cross kilometers before a normal human could process a thought." Katherine sat upright.

"Oh." She pointed at herself.

"The blue fluid."

"What about it?"

"I think it did something to my brain." Butter tilted her head.

"Explain." Katherine searched for the right words.

"My body's still normal. Mostly. But my thoughts feel... faster." She tapped her temple.

"Like the gel soaked in somehow. I could see things happening. I couldn't react to them, but I could understand them." Butter scratched her chin.

"Huh." Then she started giggling. Katherine narrowed her eyes.

"What?" Butter pointed dramatically.

"You have a blue brain." Katherine considered that for a moment, then nodded.

"A big juicy brain." Butter immediately gagged.

"Oh, that's gross."

"It's true."

"Never describe your brain as juicy again." Katherine's grin widened.

"My large, moist, incredibly intelligent blue brain." Butter made a wounded noise and threw a chocolate wrapper at her. Katherine laughed so hard she nearly fell out of her chair while Butter looked personally offended by the existence of the phrase juicy brain. As the laughter faded, Butter's ears suddenly perked. Katherine had stood up.

"♪ Happy birthday to you..." Butter blinked.

"♪ Happy birthday to you..." Her mouth slowly fell open as Katherine smiled her way through the song.

"♪ Happy birthday, dear Butter..." Butter just stared at her.

"♪ Happy birthday to you! ♪" Katherine clapped enthusiastically, bouncing on the balls of her feet before breaking into a couple of excited little jumps.

"Happy birthday!" A faint blush spread across Butter's cheeks.

"… Thank you." Katherine grinned so brightly it was almost infectious before dropping back into her chair. Butter rubbed the back of her neck, still pink, then sat down as well. The two settled back into their seats, surrounded by snacks and quiet conversation while distant tremors continued to ripple through the fortress overhead. It was peaceful. Almost normal. The chamber felt less like a nightmare and more like a room, the pods' hum fading into distant white noise.

Katherine's gaze drifted across the endless rows of glowing blue capsules. Beneath the machinery, she could almost hear it - the whisper of a million stolen stories. Syndicate of the Magpies. The name settled coldly in her mind. Magpies stole shiny things. The Syndicate stole shine itself. A laugh. A first kiss. Childhood fear. Love, hope and dreams. Everything that made a life worth living. Her eyes moved to the amber-lit cells lining the far wall.

Each one held a universe of consciousness refined into fuel, a soul reduced to a silent battery. It was a gallery of stolen miracles, a library burned to keep the lights on. Katherine looked down at her hands, clean beneath the blue glow. They had held Symphony. Trembled before her father. Tasted mango beneath a sun that had never existed. Every piece of her heart. Harvested. Reduced to power.... The air changed. The sterile chill deepened into a cold that seemed to draw warmth from memory itself.

The blue glow of the pods dimmed. The endless machinery hum faded away. A new silence settled over the chamber, pressing on eardrums and tongue. Understanding arrived a heartbeat before fear. The peace evaporated. Something had arrived. Butter was on her feet instantly. The chairs, snacks, and table disappeared back into nothingness. The Aria snapped back into her hand as her pink eyes swept the vaulted ceiling and endless rows of pods. Katherine froze, a piece of toffee halfway to her mouth.

"Butter...?" Butter's gaze locked onto the far wall.

"Something's coming."

"What? More Talons?" Butter slowly shook her head.

"No." The word carried a weight that made Katherine's stomach drop.

"It's a Syndicate experiment." She let the silence stretch, letting the hum of the pods, the distant thrum of stolen lives, fill the space between them.

"Like... me." The words hung, fragile and terrifying, carrying with them the weight of revelation before Katherine could even respond. Her legs trembled as she stepped back, eyes widening.

"They… they made you?" Her eyes drifted over Butter's pale skin, luminous pink irises, and the faint haze of power that always seemed to cling to her. For the first time, the pieces fit together. Butter wasn't a human who had become extraordinary. She had been made engineered. And whatever was approaching carried the same signature. Katherine took another unsteady step back. The realization hit harder than she expected. She had spent the last hour treating Butter like a strangely powerful girl.

Now she understood she was standing beside something the Syndicate had built. Butter finally glanced at her. There was no fear in her expression.

"It isn't coming for me." Her gaze shifted toward the endless sea of glowing pods.

"It smelled the farm." The rows of dreamers stretched into darkness.

"All these dreaming minds. All this harvested potential." The lights reflected in Butter's eyes.

"It's coming for the batteries." She took a stance, her bandages beginning to glow with a soft pink radiance.

"Get behind me. And whatever you do, Honeycakes... don't move from your position." Katherine didn't move. Instead, she stepped forward. Butter glanced at her.

"Honeycakes?" Before Butter could say anything else, Katherine wrapped her arms around her. The hug caught her completely off guard. For a second, Butter simply stood there.

"Are you alright?"

"I don't care." Butter blinked.

"What?" Katherine squeezed tighter.

"I don't care if you're a Syndicate experiment." The pink glow running through Melody's bandages softened.

"You're still you."

"Honeyca-""You're kinder than most people I've met." Her voice trembled, but she kept going.

"You rescued me. You fed me. You listened to me. You gave me clothes and a bath and gummy worms."

"That last one is admittedly important." Katherine laughed weakly.

"My point is, I don't care where you came from." She looked up at her.

"You're better than most humans anyway, Sugarbear." Butter stared, then barked out a surprised laugh.

"Sugarbear?" Katherine nodded.

"Sugarbear."

"Oh my. That is a terrible nickname."

"So is Honeycakes, but I didn't complain. So don't either."

"You did complain though."

"Not the point." Butter's lips twitched.

"Unfathomable." For a moment, neither of them spoke. Butter's expression softened. Slowly, she returned the hug. Her arms wrapped around Katherine, and her chin came to rest lightly atop her head. The chamber remained silent around them. Eventually, Butter sighed.

"You're going to make this emotionally inconvenient, Honeycakes."

"Good." Butter chuckled, and they finally let go. For a moment, she simply stood there, gaze drifting across the endless rows of pods, the amber-lit cells, and the machinery that never stopped humming.

"My mother created the Syndicate." Katherine blinked.

"What?"

"The oldest faction. The first one. Where Apis was created." Butter's jaw tightened.

"There were facilities all over the world. Cities dedicated to this. My mother built a nightmare." Katherine stared.

"Your mother..."

"My allies and I have spent the last year tearing it apart." The scale of it settled heavily between them.

"Is she still alive?" Butter shook her head.

"No. Both my parents are dead." The finality in her voice discouraged further questions. A few seconds passed before Katherine's lips twitched. Then she grinned.

"So this is basically a rebellious daughter destroying her mother's evil empire?" Butter raised an eyebrow. Katherine's grin widened.

"I used to read dark romance novels. This is exactly the kind of plot I would've highlighted." She gestured at Butter, the pods, and the impossible nightmare surrounding them.

"The villain's daughter falling for the heroine and burning it all down." The moment the words left her mouth, she froze. Butter stared at her. Katherine's face immediately flushed.

"I mean - not falling falling. Figuratively. You know what I mean." Butter remained silent. Unfortunately, that silence triggered something. Fragments surfaced. Morwenna's blind eyes. The Aswang's claws. The Tenebrae's cold. Katherine gasped.

"It was happening... but not happening." Butter turned toward her.

"What?"

"My dreams." Katherine pressed her palms against her temples.

"Morwenna was real. The Aswang were real. The Tenebrae..." Understanding hit her all at once. The dreams hadn't been lies. They'd been possibilities. Warnings. Pieces of futures she hadn't understood. Slowly, she lowered her hands and looked at Butter.

"Are you...?" The question escaped before she could stop it. Butter tilted her head.

"Am I what?" Katherine's face immediately flushed.

"Are you going to be the romantic interest?" Butter's gummy worm stopped halfway to her mouth.

"I mean..." Katherine's hands flailed.

"In my dreams there was always someone. A love interest. Then you showed up and you're..." She gestured helplessly.

"You." Slowly, Butter lowered the gummy worm. Katherine's face somehow grew redder. She wasn't even sure why she'd said it. Yet now the thought refused to leave. Butter stared at her. Katherine wished the floor would open. Somewhere above them, another distant impact rattled the fortress. Finally, Butter scratched her chin.

"Did you just diagnose our friendship as a dark romance novel?" Katherine stared at the ground.

"... Maybe." Butter turned away, but Katherine caught it. The corner of her mouth twitched. She was smiling.

"Stay behind me, Honeycakes."

"Sugarbear." Butter snorted. And Katherine, heart pounding for multiple reasons now, couldn't tell whether she was more terrified of what was coming or what she had just admitted. Probably both. Definitely both. The pink glow brightened slightly.

"I have an idea." Katherine immediately looked suspicious.

"I could put you in the snack dimension." Butter gestured vaguely.

"You stay there until I'm done. Perfectly safe." Katherine crossed her arms.

"And?"

"And please don't eat all the cake." Katherine stared.

"That's your concern?"

"There's a very good chocolate cake in there. A large one. Wedding size."

"I'm not leaving you." Butter paused.

"Honeycakes."

"Nuh-uh." Butter sighed. Katherine ignored her and ran toward a particularly dense support column, thick enough to conceal several vehicles. She positioned herself behind it and folded her arms.

"There." Butter stared.

"Honeycakes."

"You do your thing. I'm staying." The two locked eyes. Butter finally groaned.

"Oh my." The pink light flowing through Melody brightened until it painted the chamber in soft rose hues.

"Stay tight. We'll have a feast later." Katherine grinned.

"Deal, Sugarbear." Butter rolled her eyes, though another small chuckle escaped her. Then she turned toward the darkness and raised Melody as something vast began to stir beyond the endless rows of glowing pods.