Three seconds after they had arrived in the carnival space, Aureus promptly vanished with a small explosion. It was just enough to make Tristan stumble sideways slightly, looking to the spot where she had been. Briefly, he appreciated the fact that she had clearly not made the explosion as strong as she could have. Unless he missed his guess, she had intentionally made it just strong enough to push him a bit, but not do any serious damage. She had simply seen what she thought was an opening to escape and get back to Kushiel, so she immediately took it.


    Of course, it wasn’t that simple. Tristan didn’t bother trying to chase after her. He just looked around, frowning at what appeared to be an empty carnival. Where the hell was everyone? Someone should’ve come up to greet him by now. Hell, they had been with Bucket in the outside world, so where was she now? Something was very wrong here.


    Thinking about that, he drew a communication coin from his pocket and focused on trying to use it to get in touch with Vanessa since she was the brains of their little operation, but nothing happened. Strangely enough, nor could he access any of his powers at all. Come to think of it, from what Flick and Marina had said, they couldn’t access their powers in this place either. None of them had been able to once they came in here. And yet, Aureus was able to use hers. Yeah, this whole thing was… weird and unsettling. He had to find out what was happening.


    To that end, Tristan engaged in the quickest way he could think of to get answers. “Hey!” he shouted, starting to walk through the aisles of rides and games. “Hey, guys, anybody here?! It’s Tristan! I think I’m here to help? It’s okay, you can come out! Anybody?! What’s going on?!”


    He had made it through a couple aisles like that with no luck before a nearby explosion caught his attention. It was Aureus, of course. She appeared and stalked toward him, jabbing a finger toward his face. “What sort of game is this? Where are we? There’s no way out of this… whatever it is. When I go too far in one direction, I appear on the opposite side. It appears to be impossible to teleport any further than the limits of this place.” She made an annoyed growling sound under her breath, finger still pointed at him. “If you don’t release me right this moment–”


    “Hey babe,” he interrupted, “does it look like I know exactly what’s going on here? I mean, okay, I know more than you do about it. But I’m just as trapped. So hold on a second and I’ll tell you what I know. But I can’t just let you go, even if I wanted to. I don’t have any control over this place. And I can’t find any sign of the people who actually do. Maybe we can find them together if you chill.”


    The girl paused for a long moment before lowering her finger. “Tell me what is happening.” Her voice was still tense, but she seemed at least somewhat willing to listen. Which was an improvement over the possibility of her hitting him with an explosion. Especially since he couldn’t access his powers, so any fight between them would be an incredibly short one.


    So, Tristan told her the whole story about Denise and how the Carnival had become a thing. It was a rather long discussion, so he kept walking through it, searching through all the booths and rides they could find for any sign of the people who were supposed to be here. Unfortunately there was nothing and no one. He was getting more worried by the second as that went on. The Carnival couldn’t just be gone, right? They wouldn’t simply vanish forever without a trace. Something else had to be happening here, something obviously very wrong. Whatever it was, they had to find everyone, had to bring them back here and… and fix it. Unfortunately, the only people who were here to do that were himself, with no powers, and Auereus, who basically wanted nothing more than to go straight back to Kushiel and help her try to murder all of them.


    At least she quietly listened to that whole story without interrupting or making more threats. Once he was done, she was silent for a few moments, apparently absorbing all that while he continued to call out various names of the Carnival members, trying to get any response whatsoever. But it was all to no avail. The whole place was just empty. Disturbingly, distressingly empty.


    Finally, Auereus gave a heavy sigh of annoyance before looking straight up. “Fine,” she announced, “let me see.” With that, there was another explosion that made him stumble out of the way, wincing a little. She was gone. No, she was up in the air. The girl had teleported probably to the upper ceiling of this place. He could see her up there, doing several more explosive teleports through the sky while looking down. She was getting a bird’s-eye view of everything. Helping. She was helping. Sure, maybe it was just because she wanted to get out of here too, but still. Tristan was going to take what he could get. Finally, she reappeared nearby, brushing herself off while looking at him. “The large building with the gravestones and what I believe are supposed to be frightening images. There are signs of people there.”


    “The Haunted House,” he realized aloud. “Maybe they all went there to hide or… or something. They found Theodore in that place before. Maybe it’s a safe spot for them or something. Come on.” Immediately, he started running that way, with the Seosten girl making another resigned yet annoyed sound before she followed after him. Together, the two raced past dozens of rides and games to reach the gate of the haunted house. Sure enough, there were lights on inside. He couldn’t see any actual people or anything yet, but it was the most promising sign so far.


    Without wasting another second, Tristan walked right through the gate and up toward the front door. He ignored all the decorations meant to scare people. The idea of the Carnival people just outright vanishing into thin air and this place remaining completely empty was terrifying enough by itself. He liked those people. They couldn’t just disappear forever. He had to find them, now.


    Taking the steps three at a time, Tristan grabbed through the heavy door and hauled it open, silently cursing the fact that he still didn’t have access to any of his powers to make this easier.


    No, come to think of it, he actually was still stronger than he should’ve been, given his size. The big door came more easily than it should have. And then there was his memory. He could still remember everything that he’d seen since developing that. Well, everything he cared to pay attention to, anyway. Did that mean his Seosten powers were still working and it was just the Heretic ones that were out? Keeping that in mind, he slipped a penny from his pocket, still holding the heavy door with one hand. With a flick of his fingers, he sent the penny across the wide porch to bounce perfectly off a knothole in the distance. Which made Auerus give him a strange look, but he didn’t respond, too lost in thought for the moment.


    Okay, yeah, he still had the accuracy power. But what did that mean? Why would he have access to that, but none of the Heretic powers? It was obviously the same deal with Auerus herself. She didn’t have any Heretic powers to erase, since hers came from Tartarus. Or rather, from the parents she had inherited this Tartarus gift from. So whatever was blocking access to the Reaper-derived powers wasn’t doing so for powers from Tartarus. But did that mean it wouldn’t block any powers aside from ones from Reapers/Heretics, or would it block all powers except for the ones from Tartarus? Wait, his Seosten memory wasn’t a Tartarus thing, it came straight from his genetics. But was that because it came from his genetics, or–


    Oh boy, now he felt like Vanessa, obsessed with figuring all this out as he got more and more lost in his own thoughts and theories. That had to stop right now. Sure, she wasn’t here, but he didn’t have to fill in for her. Obviously, there wasn’t going to be an easy answer to all this. Especially not one that he would find just standing there in the doorway like a lump.


    Just as that thought came to him, Aureus gave him a hard shove from behind, sounding more annoyed than usual. “Are you going to stand there for a full planetary rotation, or go inside and find out if those people are in there? We don’t have time for you to have some sort of breakdown or whatever this is.”


    Coughing, the boy shook his head. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not having a breakdown. That’d take more than this. It’s fine. I was just thinking about how much fun this whole situation is and how I hope we get to partner up like this all day long.” He gave her a quick grin before turning back to step into the front foyer of the building. “Hey guys!” He tried again to call out to all of them, silently praying that they would actually answer this time. “Hey, it’s Tristan! Anyone in here? We didn’t bring any cupcakes or anything but I swear if I knew we were coming I would have!”


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    “Tristan!” To his indescribable relief, there was actually a reply to his call that time. A familiar, pink-furred, rabbit-like version of Denise came scrambling into view out of a nearby doorway, nearly falling over in her eagerness. “Is it really you? Are you really here!?” She stopped short upon seeing both of them standing there in the entranceway, her eyes jumping to the golden-haired girl as she stumbled a bit in surprise. “Wait, who–what?”


    “Bijou!” Tristan blurted reflexively, stepping that way to gently take the skittish girl’s hands. “It’s okay. I uh, Bucket was with us in the outside world. We were visiting Aureus over there and something happened. She said something about something being wrong and suddenly we were in here without her. There’s no one out in the main carnival area. Are you guys all in here? What’s happening?” He didn’t want to terrify the girl even more, or make things worse, but they had to find out what was going on, and she was the only one they’d been able to find so far.


    Of course, that changed a second later, as three more figures came through the same doorway. Bang-bang, the male Aspect dressed up in military fatigues, was first. He was accompanied by Flak, the red-skinned female Aspect who controlled fire, and Feisty. That last figure let out a gasp of relief upon seeing them. “Oh thank God, you made it. We were afraid Walker might’ve lost her grip on you when she was pulling you in here. She thought she might’ve lost you partway in.”


    “So Walker did pull us inside? Why? What’s happening?” Tristan looked around at the four of them. “Is everyone in here? Why are you guys hiding out in the Haunted Mansion?”


    Flak shook her head, retorting, “We’re not hiding. We’re investigating. And trying to fix it.”


    Before Tristan could respond to that, Aureus interrupted in a sharp tone. “Investigating what? What are you trying to fix? Whoever this Walker is, if they’re responsible for this, bring them up here to send us back to the outside world, now.”


    “Dude,” Bang-bang replied, “make up your mind. Do you want us to tell you what’s happening, or bring Walker up so she can send you home?” He carried right on without waiting for a response. “Scratch that, we can’t do the second thing anyway, since she’s not here right now.”


    That certainly caught Tristan’s attention, and not in a good way. “What do you mean she’s not here? Is she the one in the outside world herself right now? Is something going on out there?” It occurred to him then that this whole thing could’ve been because some terrible situation was going on outside and the Aspects had pulled them into this place to save them. The thought of that was enough to make Tristan almost panic all over again. He immediately tried to focus on either his connection to Sarah, whom he had possessed most recently, or the default link he had to his mother (and briefly pondered why he hadn’t thought to do that in the first place). If the first one was down, the second should still be up. But there was nothing. He couldn’t recall, either partially or fully, to them from wherever this was. Which wasn’t exactly surprising considering everything, but since he’d still had Seosten and Tartarus powers, it had been worth a shot.


    Meanwhile, the group of Aspects exchanged glances before shaking their heads. Flak turned and gestured for them to follow. “Come on, you better see this for yourselves. Maybe you’ll have some idea what to do about it. Or even what it is. Cuz we’re kinda stumped. And freaking out.”


    Giving Aureus a brief look, Tristan shrugged. “Sooner we find out what’s going on, sooner we can get you back outside.” He left out the fact that as far as he was concerned, she still wouldn’t be running back to Kushiel no matter how long it took them to leave this place. Yeah, maybe she thought it was the best choice for her, but she’d been essentially brainwashed to trust that crazy, vindictive bitch practically since birth. Or maybe literally since birth. She didn’t really know what she was doing, or how bad the woman she thought she owed all that loyalty to actually was. She didn’t know any better in general. Maybe… maybe there was still a chance to help her. And if they could help her, they could help the rest of those people, the Olympian Children, as people kept calling them. And maybe, just maybe, the best way to do that was to get her to help with whatever this situation was. It couldn’t hurt anyway. Or at least, he hoped not.


    Either way, the Seosten girl didn’t object audibly. She just followed as they were led through the haunted mansion to a set of stairs leading down into the basement. Bijou spoke apprehensively on the way. “We were just trying to remodel in here, to make the place a little prettier, you know? And we found a door. But, we don’t think the door was always there. It was a new door.”


    Bang-bang nodded as they started down those heavy cement steps. “Yeah, it was definitely new. None of us saw it before, not even Theodore and he spent a lot of time in this place.”


    On the way down, they explained a bit more together. Apparently they had all come to talk to Theodore and try to make him feel better about Flick being gone, when they found this mysterious new door in the basement of the mansion. The whole group had begun investigating the door itself while trying to find out if any of them knew anything about it. They tried opening it, to no avail… at first. Then, with apparently no warning, the door had opened and some sort of powerful, invisible force had begun sucking several of the Aspects through. Which included Walker, though she had acted quickly by pulling Tristan and Aureus inside for help, calling out about what she was trying to do as well as the fact that she might’ve lost her grip on them. Then she and about half of the other Aspects had vanished before the door shut once more. Those who were left had been frantically trying to figure out how to open it again to go after their companions. Which explained why no one had been around to notice the other two arrive, or the fact that they had been wandering around out there looking for them.


    They had reached the basement area by that point. Sure enough, there was a massive door in front of them, against the far wall. Actually, it was a set of double doors. They reached all the way to the ceiling, standing just over twelve feet tall and each was about six feet wide. They also looked very out of place in the dingy basement, with gold and ivory patterns along with what looked  like a bit of ruby stone around the edges. The doorknobs also seemed to be made of gold, and had some sort of intricate lock.


    Seeing the doors there, Tristan stared for a moment, trying to comprehend where they could’ve come from. “Are you sure none of you guys accidentally made them? I mean, you do have control of this place. Or Denny does, or… yeah.”


    Besides Bang-bang, Flak, Bijou, and Feisty, the other Aspects gathered around the doors were the pixie known as Peanut, the aquatic Jordan, the glass-like Crystal, Bucket, the hooded and cloaked vampiric Belfry, the wooden Butternut, and the so-called ‘twins,’ Tick and Talk. In the outside world, they always appeared together, as a single figure whose right side was more masculine while the left side was feminine. In here, however, the two were only metaphorically joined at the hip. Both looked quite similar, with slim forms and light brown hair that was kept shorter and messier on Talk’s part. Tick wore a white shirt, while Talk’s was pink. It was his favorite color.


    The whole group insisted that none of them, nor any of the Aspects who had vanished (which included Denny and Theodore, worryingly) knew anything about why the doors had appeared. They were all terrified about what might’ve happened.


    “Okay, okay,” Tristan interrupted while they were going on. “Let’s just see if we can get it open again and go from there. We have to find out where these doors lead.”


    “Oh,” Aureus informed them, “I will get them open right now. Move.” She pointed both hands that way, clearly ready to send an explosion that way to literally force the issue.


    Before she could do so, however, the doors actually opened from the other side. Tristan quickly stepped in front of the Aspects, who all seemed panicked about the possibility of being sucked through like the others. But this time, there was nothing. Nothing, that was, aside from two familiar people who came into view from that side.


    “Denny!” he blurted. “Theodore! What–guys!” He moved that way, accompanied by everyone else, aside from Aureus, who still looked ready to throw an explosion or two that way.


    “Tristan!” Denny blurted, holding tightly to Theodore’s hand. “Oh good, you’re here. We need help. We need all your help to save the others.”


    “Save the others?” That was Butternut, sounding suspicious as always. “From what? From who? Where are they?”


    “They’ve been… s-scattered across the Archives,” Theodore put in, visibly wincing.


    Tristan blinked several times at that, confused. “Scattered across Archives? What do you mean, Archives? Whose Archives?”


    “My people’s.” That was a new voice, as a figure Tristan had never seen before appeared in the doorway. She looked to be in her late teens, with very pale skin and bright pink hair with black highlights. She wore pink, hole-filled jeans, dark combat boots with pink laces, and a long-sleeved black shirt with a neon pink skull and the words ‘One Of A Kind’ filling most of the front.


    “Hey there. I’m Jones. Seems like this place is connected to the Reaper Archives. And all those other Aspects of yours have just been scattered over a whole bunch of them.”