A/N: I've mentioned this already but there's a lot of stuff in this story inspired by RWBY. So, in this instance, Arcadia is this world's version of a semblance. If you don't watch RWBY, don't worry. The story will still make just as much sense.

Also, I gotta give credit to dxvilsnight for giving me the idea for Kuza's little alternative worlds rant towards the end of this chapter

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Chris gently ran his hand over Kuza's hair repetitively as a soothing mechanism. His submissive's head rested on his chest while he stared blankly at the ceiling. The amount of time he's spent looking up and just thinking, he's practically memorized the pattern of the wood grain. Every book he had gotten his hands on, he'd read. Any stories he could write, poems he could dream up, had exhausted his mind. There was nothing left to distract him from his loss.

"You okay?" He softly asked his mate.

Kuza glanced up at him, replying, "Me? Are you okay?"

He relaxed his head back against his pillow, muttering, "I will be."

"I'm here if you need me." He gently grabbed Chris' hand to comfort him, "I just, um, I don't want to push you to talk about it or any of that shit. But, I'm here. Whatever you need, just tell me."

"Can we just.. talk? Not about this, but about other things. I don't really care about what, just anything." He said with a small shrug.

Kuza laced his fingers together, setting them in the space between his chin and Chris' chest. Looking up at him, he thought. The thin lines in his face were still faintly present. They'd dissolve with time, and they certainly didn't take away from his handsomeness. "You never told me what your Arcadia was, or any of the others."

"You never told me yours or Ghost's either." He spoke in a teasing tone, "And to be fair, you didn't ever ask."

He rolled his eyes playfully, "I'm asking now."

Chris chuckled, "I know, I'm sorry. I'm just fucking around with you. You're kind of cute when you're annoyed."

His little grin flattened, "I'm not cute."

"Yes, you are." He smirked, "Anyways, I have a rapid healing factor. Kind of like Wolverine, except I can lend it to other people in a way. So, like, Wolverine and a reverse version of Rogue... What?"

"You're such a nerd." Kuza snickered.

"Shut up." He whined like a teenager, "You won't be calling me a nerd if I ever have to heal your ass. I'm surprised I haven't already."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He couldn't tell if his long haired beauty was serious or not with that question. Was he really that thick? Chris laughed lightheartedly, "You're a little reckless, Babe."

"I- yeah, okay, I am, but I haven't gotten hurt from it." He responded.

"That I know of. Not like you'd admit to it, but maybe I'll ask Ghost to tell me one of these days."

Kuza crawled into his lap more as he sat up. He smacked Chris' chest lightly, laughing, "Don't you dare. That little bitch will rat me out on so much shit if you let her."

He snickered some and folded his hands behind his head, "So, what's your Arcadia, then, Princess?"

"Call me princess again and I might just have to use it on you. I can turn blood into snake venom. When I do it on myself, I'm immune to it, for the most part."

"For the most part?"

"Yeah," Kuza set his hand on his arm out of discomfort. He relaxed onto Chris' thighs, diverting his eyes, "It still hurts but it doesn't kill me. Not like it would if I did it on someone else."

Chris sat up a little to look him in the eyes. "Why have you tried it on yourself?"

"Uhm... Just being young and dumb, I guess," He shrugged, "Ghost's is compulsion. She can make others do things by touching them and putting the thought in their head."

He stared quietly for a moment, concerned at how quickly Kuza changed the subject. Having a power like that was extremely rare. He'd personally never seen it and he thought he'd seen everything by now. Chris decided it was for the best to play along and not upset him.

"As if Vinny isn't a pushover already." He joked. They both laughed and Chris sat up the rest of the way as he continued, "Vinny's is... Hard to explain. He can touch a creature and his muscles can temporarily learn to copy their muscle memory. So, for example, if he absorbed the muscle memory of a fish, he could swim like them. If he absorbed the muscle memory of a hunter, he could learn to fight like them. It used to be great but I mean, now that there's no animals left, he doesn't have much use for it.

Ryan-Ashley lost her Arcadia when she got sick. She used to be able to make giant spiderwebs with her hands. She was a great trapper, though she never really wanted to use her powers to hurt animals. Josh is the same way with his. He can hypnotize land mammals. If they wanted to, they could've really used their abilities to do some harm, but they never did.

Ricky could set his weapons on fire, which is why he liked to use a bow. Flaming arrows. Ryan could... connect, so to speak, with his sword. He could in a way put life into it and speak to it. I know it sounds weird and I can't really explain in properly. After him and Ricky merged, he gave him a quarter of his power to make him a better archer. When he combined his Arcadia with Ryan's, he learned how to guide his arrows with his mind. He never missed a shot. Unfortunately his abilities didn't work well in this cold."

"So, that's why Ryan always stepped up to the plate to fight? Because he was the only one who could really use his abilities anymore?" Kuza asked.

Chris nodded, "Pretty much, yeah. I don't want you to think that now that you have his Arcadia, that automatically means you have to take on his responsibilities."

"With great power comes great responsibilities." He muttered.

"Now who's the nerd?" He teased.

Kuza batted his chest playfully. He had a hard time faking being mad at Chris. When his dominant laughed, he couldn't help himself from smiling. It was short lived, just like any happiness is these days. There was a knock at the door. Josh knocked, to be polite, but he didn't wait for them to ask him to come in.

"Chris," He started off carefully, though the others knew exactly where this was going.

"You don't have to tell me. They're gone, aren't they?" He asked.

Josh felt a sting in his throat. He didn't want to admit to such a horrid thing. Losing Angelo was quick. It was, in a way, like ripping off a band aid. This, though... This was so much worse. It had been slow and torturous. He gave a short nod as he stayed at the door.

"The ground outside is too cold to bury them in. We can't put their bodies in the snow because it'll attract Sullen. I don't want to have to burn them." He said.

"I know," Chris shook out a breath, "I know we should honor their wishes, but... Josh, I can't..."

Kuza hesitantly looked between the two, his eyes landing on his mate, "Their wishes?"

"Ryan was a survivalist, through and through. He was always able to look past morals and do what was practical. Of course, Ricky would agree with anything he said, and, well besides, Ryan was right when he told us what to do with their bodies when they die. He wanted us to use their bodies for whatever we could. Use the bones for weapons and tools, use the skin for leather, use the muscle for food." Chris explained.

"He wanted us to cannibalize them, pretty much." Josh added.

"We need the resources, but... I can't do that to them." Tears started to well in his eyes. Chris pushed him off his lap. He needed to walk around to calm his nerves.

Kuza watched with concern as his partner began to pace. "I... I shouldn't be admitted this but, Ghost and I have done it before in the past. The only people we ever spared were Dex, her brother, and her brother's mate. The others, we had to use their bodies for their resources. If it's what they wanted, and it's what you need, we can do it for you." 

Chris stopped his obsessive walking in circles to look up at him. It seemed like he almost looked through him, his heart slowly tearing in half. They'd never been through something like this before. No matter how tough Chris' skin could be, he couldn't even think about the topic without his eyes stinging. 

"It's for the best, Chris." Josh painstakingly stated.

Every word in his head tormented him. He closed his eyes, releasing a trapped breath, "I know. I'd like... I'd like to let the others say goodbye, if they need to. Then, I'll let you."

"Give us a minute?" Kuza asked Josh.

He set his hand on the doorknob, pulling it shut as he replied, "Take all the time you need."

The bloody eyed creature approached his mate carefully. His emotions were raw. Tenderly, he set his hand on the side of his face. Chris grasped it frightfully, scared to let go. 

"It'll all be okay. I promise. They're still together, and they're not in pain anymore. That's the important part. I know you miss them but their souls are still with us." 

Chris choked on his weeps, "I'm sick of losing people."

"Shh, hey, you still have me. I'll always be here." Kuza reassured him.

His hand fell away from his mate's. That should've been his shoulder to cry on but he didn't want it. Chris moped past Kuza, leaving the room without a word. Kuza didn't know if it was his emotions over his loss that pulled him away, or what he said. Was he upset to realize he'd be left in Kuza's company the rest of his life? He'd probably wished it was own mate's life he lost than his best friends, Kuza thought.

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Ghost kept her hands crossed over her abdomen as she apprehensively stared at the ground in front of herself. She couldn't believe she was back in a cold, stony cellar with two dead bodies again. They'd made the journey they did to get away from this. A sheet covered the vessels that once held amazing, generous souls. Even being covered up, she felt a pain in her chest to know what was underneath.

"Do you ever wonder what could have been? If it weren't for the ravishers, if the world hadn't gone to shit, what, or... who would they have been?" She pondered out loud.

Kuza set down the small blade he was cleaning off. He looked at a painting on the stone wall. It was a creepy wraith looking drawing. Ricky's doing, he assumed. "What'd you mean?" He asked.

"I mean, would you and I still be living well? Or would we have both fucked ourselves and ended up in the projects or something? And them," She gestured her hand down, "You think Ricky would've become a famous painter? Or maybe they'd both be musicians. I heard Ricky sing once, when he was making dinner. He had a beautiful voice."

He handed her a sharp dagger as he replied, "I like to think that there are different realities. That, somewhere, somehow, there's another planet where there's other versions of us. And maybe, on one of those planets, there's a version of Ricky that's one of the best painters in the world, and there's a version of Ryan that gets to play his guitar to millions of people. And maybe, in that world, being gay is normal. Maybe they have kids, they're happy."

"You really believe that?"

Kuza knelt down, pulling back the sheet covering their cold bodies. "I'm not entirely sure, to be honest, but I find it's comforting to imagine that somewhere, there's a version of us that's not unhappy or discriminated against."

"Or alone." She muttered, starring at the familiar blade in her hands.

He sighed, "Yeah, or alone. There's a cloth on the workbench you can use to wrap his eyes."

Ghost drawled over to the wooden table. She found the velvet fabric he was referring to. Kneeling down on the opposite side, she pulled back the sheet covering Ricky's face. They had to remove the eyes first but it was easily the most painful part. She lifted his eyelids, revealing his duel colored eyes. They'd already hardened and turned to glass. With a little intervention of the tip of the knife, they popped out easily. 

She carefully wiped any dried blood off on the corner of the sheet. Then, delicately wrapped them in the cloth beside her. Ghost stood up and placed the bundle in a oak box on the shelf. Kuza handed Ryan's set to her and she rested it beside the first pair. She picked up a few other tools from the bench and went to work carefully removing their tattooed skin.