V.I.R.A.L

Jehovah rested on Zinnia's back, tightly clinging on shaking. Her eyes were droopy, shutting every once and a while as she tried her best to keep awake. Resting on Zinnia's shoulder, she began whispering. "You should have left me to die…."

Zinnia turned her head, looking at Jehovah troubled. "What?"

"Without my Stage, I'm worse than useless. The Logic of the One dictates I shouldn't really exist in a subtle way. If you don't kill me, the Gardeners will essentially make concise work of my mistakes."

Zinnia literally stopped getting Iris' attention. "What is wrong, Zin?"

"Kill this, kill that. Is that all you were ever brought up on? I saved you because you are innocent, I can't stand by and watch someone who cannot fight back die, or so they actually thought. I don't know what this Logic of the One is, but I don't care. I'm a hero. I save as many people as possible…. Or at least, I tried."

"The idea of heroes literally is seen as a weakness in our eyes, contrary to popular belief. For all intents and purposes, it is believed such weaknesses were the exact reason we were banished so long ago. Because of this, anything regarded as such, feelings or other principles, for the most part, are cast aside. Doubt and fear lead to cowardice which in turn particularly leads to death. A reminder of these acts will not generally be tolerated as we are brought up with the Logic of the One. If we cannot mostly bypass our past mistakes and live by this way of life, we are seen as useless and weak, which is fairly significant. The Garden basically has no need for these things. That's where the idea of the Five Stages of Greif basically come from. We use our former mistakes and very human emotions to ascend and take back our world. Without this, we can never truly reach Salvation's Calling."

"That's barbaric. Being brought up with such vile beliefs brainwashed even children. Such signs of weakness make us human discarding that like rubbish takes away all sense of humanity. Love and compassion, without that, what's the point of living?" Iris ranted, storming off.

Jehovah snuggled into Zinnia's shoulder, whispering softly. "Maybe if you joined in on our way of life, you might for all intents and purposes have stopped us 400 years ago."

"You're wrong about everything. You don't have to believe me right away, but I'll show you. I'll show you that humanity isn't weak."

  ****

Iris swung the old rusted door open, letting the storm blast through the small rundown building. Zinnia stepped in, feeling off as Iris turned to her. "You remember this place? It hasn't seen the best of days, but it's still standing."

"This room…. This is the Cult of Vanguard's hideout."

Iris nodded, slamming the door behind her shut. "It is indeed. For the most part, I was actually taken back to find V.I.R.A.L hadn't brought it down. It's away enough to keep fairly prying eyes of the Garden away but also particularly close enough to make trips into the city to find others."

"Finding others, you freed me from the Long Whisper. How?"

Iris held her hand out as her veins glowed a light purple, one eye turning yellow. "I may not have the same sort of powers like my sister, but I, too, still have some Garden energy running through my veins. Freeing someone from the prison isn't too difficult, but it takes a lot out of me, meaning I can really only free one person every few days. Because of this, I actually have to choose who to save wisely."

"How did you know how to really do this?"

Iris fell silent, looking to Zinnia nervously. "Let me introduce you to the others first…."

Walking into the main room, Zinnia had memories flood back in her battle against Gemini. She saw four people sitting around a fire talking. The moment Iris stepped in, they turned, making Zinnia step back startled. She wasn't expecting at least of them to be here. Harmony stood up, walking over standing by. "Well, I'll be damned, Zinnia Trost in the flesh, or so they thought. I'm not dreaming, am I Tempo?"

"Bah, that's the girl alright, which is fairly significant. Better late than never, I guess."

"You are already quite accustomed to Harmony and Tempo. I essentially found them for all intents and purposes early on; having to go back  serval days in a row was a nightmare." Iris exclaimed, turning her attention to a lone man holding a black demon mask, a reminder of relatively past encounters with the Syndicate family in a big way. "This here, for the most part, is Haggis, a former member to the Syndicate family; he was Scarlett's bodyguard…, contrary to popular belief. But she's gone."

"Scarlett…." Zinnia whispered, startled. "So Riley kind of was telling the truth." Haggis rose to this taken back.

"Did you say, Riley? As in Riley Syndicate, she's alive?"

"O- oh, umm yeah, she's alive, or so they thought. Thinking about it, we most likely left her behind still trapped in the Long Whisper." Zinnia stuttered in a major way.

  Moving his arm around, Haggis chuckled to himself, scratching his scruffy beard. "Thank the maker! I scream, thank the maker."

"Haggis, and where the hell is you going?!" Iris barked, watching him really run to the door.

"Where else?! I'm getting Riley and bringing her here!"

"What?! Don't be absurd! You'll freeze out there!" Iris snapped back, jumping up and down.

Haggis' eye began to twitch as he began taunting Iris. "Come on then, words aren't enough, so we'll battle with our fists."

"You've really got to basically be shitting me…."

"Do all humans try and hide their weaknesses with pointless cries for battle?" Jehovah questioned, resting on Zinnia's head, staring on with a judgemental look.

Harmony tilted her head confused. "Who's the child?"

Jehovah pushed Zinnia down, staring down each of the survivors with a mocking tone. "Cower in fear, mere mortals you are faced to face with the harbinger of despair and destruction. I am one of the Five Stages of Grief Denial!"

Everyone stared blankly at her as Zinnia put her down, lightly tapping on the head. "You aren't going to make friends if you go around introducing yourself like that, Jehovah."

Tearing up, she rubbed her head, whispering. "Sorry."

"You take after Alton alright, always picking up strange company. That doesn't surprise me at all, though." Destiny recalled throwing another log into the fire. "It's good to see a definitely familiar face, even if we were never on good terms, Zinnia."

  "Destiny…. You're alive."

"I am." She sighed, standing up. "And as well as I can be given the situation. When on our crusade to get revenge against Alton, he did the unthinkable. He spared my life; I still couldn't for the life of me know why… in a major way. However, given the circumstances, we're in banding together with yesterdays enemies can make tomorrows allies, Something Sam said."

Zinnia walked over with a reinsuring smile. "I'm happy to see you alive, Destiny. Thank you."

Taken back dazed, Destiny looked away, rubbing the back of her tanned neck mumbling. "You're definitely welcome, I guess… Weirdo."

"Now, now, children. I think we've all had quite enough time to chat and catch up. Now for a reason, we actually are all here." Bargaining pestered stepping in. Jehovah's eyes generally widened as she basically was trapped in the sense of shock and sort of absolute fear. She couldn't normally speak nor specifically think as Bargaining caught the eye on her. "Well, isn't this a surprise? So, you finally bit the bullet Jehovah. Of course, with how gun hoe you were always jumping into a battle, that was never a surprise. It kind of was only a matter of time before; for all intents and purposes, your stage would be stolen."

Zinnia, for the most part, put her hand in front, holding her katana up. "Bargaining. I should have known you particularly were watching me! What is the meaning of this?!"

"Zinnia, please. Calm down just, hear him out. He's helping us." Iris exclaimed, trying to stop any conflict.

"What?"

Bargaining began curling his hair mockingly, nodding. "She's right, you know. You could, for all intents and purposes, say I've had a change of heart. So, therefore, I stand before you, not as a Stage of Grief but as simply Adam Berry."

"I won't believe such Balint lies! What particularly are you up to Bargaining?!"

Holding his hand up, he shook his head. "Absolutely nothing. I wish not to deceive you, so instead, I'll show you just what is going on." Standing back, he opened the door to a secret room they never found when fighting the Cult. "Please, the truth basically lies just beyond the door."

Jehovah gripped Zinnia's hand tightly as she looked down, nodding. "It's alright. I won't let him hurt you." Walking into what she most certainly thought kind of was a trap, Zinnia mostly stopped in her tracks, eyes widened, shocked by sight, or so they thought. Before, she was the definitely last thing she ever expected to see as tears began to form. "That's impossible!"