Young Writers Society

Queenie blinked, then looked down. She fidgeted for a second, then crossed her arms, trying, and failing, not to look ashamed. She wasn't supposed to have soft spots. Not for animals, not for tragic pasts, and especially not for children.

That last one had been tested.

She swallowed a lump in her throat.

"Sorry," she signed.

She turned away and went back to sitting on the floor in silence. She couldn't stand the quiet, usually, but now she preferred it. If she could take Nich's amnesia, have it wipe her mind clean, she would.

"It's complicated," Grim admitted. "I'm not sure I fully understand it myself, but Kirux was made when someone fell into darkness. That happened a year ago. According to him, he's supposed to get the memories of that person, but whatever happened wasn't normal - Kirux didn't have any memories. He's a new person who just looks like the one who came before him. I don't know how exact the comparison is, but he's essentially a human kid who has all of the muscles and reflexes of his predecessor."

Lunis folded his arms and stayed in place, not reacting to Kendrik pushing against him. "That makes a little more sense," the panther said. "How old was the other guy? Hopefully not ten or something - ten-year-olds don't catch me off guard and drag me through portals."

"How old is he?" Grim asked, looking down at Kirux.

Kirux sniffled and pulled back a little so he could sign a response. "Riku was sixteen," he signed, "but close to seventeen."

"Almost seventeen," Grim translated. Kirux immediately moved closer to Grim again. He wasn't crying as hard as before - Grim suspected that Kirux just really was in the mood for hugging someone, and Grim was the closest target.

But he didn't mind comforting Kirux.

Queenie hugged her knees, "If he's so young," she wondered aloud, "how are we to know he's capable of all the world-jumping he's going to have to do to get us all home? I mean, how does he even know where our homes are?"

A sudden thought occurred to her. A very unpleasant thought.

Her father wouldn't like the idea of someone being able to bypass any security measures he put in place like Kirux could. If he ever found out about that, she had a pretty good idea of what her next orders would be. She shivered.

Kirux turned around at the question, temporarily pulling away from Grim again.

"I can!" he reassured her. He sniffled again and wiped away some of his tears with his sleeve. "I've gone to a lot of worlds before. I went to Ariel's world, and Riku's world, and King Mickey's world, and more worlds than that, too. And I know where your homes are if you tell me."

Grim translated this for the members of the group that didn't know sign language, then turned back to Queenie. "I've never seen him travel to other worlds, but I think the way he was created makes him more like a child, but with the ability to do things that a child normally can't do."

Kirux nodded in agreement, then promptly went back to hugging Grim - this time making it very clear he just wanted to hug him.

Queenie furrowed her brow, "Ariel...Micky....Wait. You mean, like Mickey Mouse? And princess Ariel? The Disney characters?"

Yes, this was a crazy situation but she had to draw the line somewhere. The famed characters being real seemed a pretty good place to do that. Then again, the personification of the Grimm Reaper was translating for a mute one year old in the body of a seventeen year old, so in comparison the Disney classics being real people wasn't so hard to believe.

But still, she didn't want to believe it, if only because she didn't want to find out that the princesses she'd grown up crushing on we're all actual people somewhere in what was starting to look like a multiverse.

Kirux started to move his hands, and then stopped, staring at Queenie as he seemingly tried to understand the question being asked. Grim wisely stepped in before he could get too confused.

"Have you heard of Kingdom Hearts?" Grim asked.

"Only seventeen," Lunis grumbled, pouting. "I lost to a scared kid in the body of a teenager - that's just great."

Taber would have to find some way to make the panther a little less grumpy, but, right now, the current conversation had started going in some very interesting directions. "Uh, Kingdom Hearts?" he said, smiling sheepishly. "Disney? Er, am I missing something here?"

Queenie raised her eyebrows, "Apparently these people are from the world of some dumb video game from my world. I never bothered to pick up video games, so I'm not exactly up to date on the plot, but it's notoriously confusing."

She thought again about the princesses and fought back a blush, with limited success. Good gods, why couldn't she have developed stupid girlish crushes on band members and celebrities like everyone else?

Of course, how was she to know that the multiverse theory was true, and that Tiana and Mulan, and all the other girls Queenie's young mind wouldn't stop thinking about back before her hands were so incredibly bloodsoaked, were real somewhere within it?

This whole thing was giving her a headache.

"Whatever," she shook her head, "It doesn't matter. Can we just...You guys still need to get home. I'd say it's been about ten minutes..."

She didn't even realize she'd excluded herself until after she said it. You guys still need to get home. As if she didn't. And she did, she couldn't deny that. Going home was her only real option, right? To say otherwise was to kid herself. To play a cruel game with her own mind.

Taber didn't understand what a video game was, or what about them was making Queenie blush (it looked a little strange on her, given how blunt and grumpy she'd been beforehand, but it'd be a little rude to say that). At least she helped him remember why they were all standing around.

"Yeah, it's been that long, right?" the wolf said, looking over at Kirux. "Are you ready? It's completely okay if you're not - that portal thing sounds a little scary. And exhausting."

Kirux thought it over, then shook his head.

"Five more minutes," he signed. Grim once again played translator. "It's not scary! I'm just still a little tired."

Queenie nodded, forcing herself to look annoyed even as relief flooded her.

"Five minutes," she said, then, "In that time, how about we figure out where we're going to go first." They hadn't discussed it at all, who they were going to drop off first.

Ryder appeared to have the most pressing issues back on his world, but she didn't know enough about the others to confirm. Then there was her own life. No. She wasn't going to think about that. The others were likely to vote that she go home first, seeing as she had proven herself to be at least a little dangerous to them and made no attempt to be likable, and she wouldn't have grounds to protest.

She clasped her hands in front of her to keep them from shaking. If this were Kroy, she would find someone to stab right about now. Father always had someone he would prefer wasn't breathing, so calming her nerves was just a matter of asking who that was. She doubted she could get away with stabbing someone here, but thinking about it helped a little.

She still owed Ryder a bit of pain over picking her up. Maybe she could.... No, he wasn't human, there was no telling what would and wouldn't hurt him. She wanted to be sure before she made him wish he was never born.

"Oh!" Taber said. "I think looking for Nich's boyfriend is a great thing to do first - the whole amnesia thing is kinda sad, and I want to help Nich get his memories back as quickly as possible."

Queenie nodded and was silent, remembering, again, that she was supposed to be opposed to the idea of staying away from her world longer than necessary.

With that thought came the grim reminder of what she was going to be going home to. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced the thoughts away, counting her weapons once again.