Fate Is Determined By the Cards: The Lovers

René had been working at "Infinite Destinations Travel Agency" for a good few months now, yet only having scratched the surface of the endless office space she worked in. She had managed to considered somewhat likeable by her co-workers, yet René held a secret with her closest office confidant.

"Hey... Zanir wants to talk to you." Misha said as she leaned against the blue haired woman's desk. "Why? I've done my work." She responded with a tired sigh, having just finished her shift and preparing to leave, but the cat demi-human just responded with a shrug. "I saw him using his tarot cards again. So... Watch out." She sighed, watching as René slowly walked into the Dr's office.

"René, René, René. Pleasure, morning or good night." Zanir said with a smile, twirling around in his seat before disappearing and reappearing behind her, making her jump slightly. "Hey. What did you want to talk to me about anyway?"

He sighed as he pulled off his top hat and pulled out three tarot cards. "Do you know, understand or comprehend what these are?" He asked with a slight smile. René had been subject to the witch doctors many tricks, and since Jaina also had a bizarre fondness for fortune telling as well, she became acutely familiar with the cards.

"Yeah. Tarot cards."

"Well... I drew three this morning, evening or night and I had a startling glimpse into the future." He sighed, disappearing and reappearing in his seat. "I drew these cards three, now all I see is... A tedious task in our future." He said as he laid the three cards on his desk, flipping the first one over.

"The Empress." He said before flipping the second card. "The Devil." He quickly turned the last card to reveal it was upside down. "The Lovers."

"And this means..?" She motioned for him to continue, but he gave a light shrug. "I dunno, no idea and just all round don't know. But my guess it has something to do with a pair of lovers in our midst." 

"Me and Jaina are doing fine." René said flatly but he quickly shook his head with a laugh. "No, nope, not correct. I didn't mean you two, dear. I was talking about Charlie and Eli." He motioned out his window to a vampire wearing glasses and a rather unassuming outfit, who was being yelled at by a middle aged looking werewolf woman wearing a stiff looking skirt. 

"And you called me in here because?"

"You're going to save their marriage."

"I'm fucking what?" René asked with a blank stare, stunned that the Doctor would ask such a bizarre request. "You heard me." He said flatly, getting up and doing a dramatic twirl of his cane before tossing his top hat back on. "My genius, brilliant and down right impressive plan is to send you on a void assignment."

"Whaaat?" She groaned. A void assignment was when a group of employees where tasked with heading out into the infinite void to make sure everything was in order. René hated the task, especially since it was her job on the first day.

"Can't you send Misha or Jae? I think Colt would be up for it as well." 

"I could send you all. How would everyone react if they were forced to go with you?" He smiled wickedly before summoning a pot of coffee with a wave of his hand before drinking it straight from the pot. "But... It's the end of my shift."

"Time is a concept, space is meaningless and you work for me. You're not getting out of it. Run a routine inspection on a few stars and try and make the two lovebirds stop fighting." Zanir said flatly before standing up and stamping his cane to the ground, dropping René, Charlie and Eli into the void.

"What happened!?" The Vampire, Eli yelled as they landed onto the golden pathway in the infinite void they had become so used to. The werewolf, Charlie let out a sigh as she saw René next to them. "Why are you here?" She said with a snarky tone, poking the younger woman with a sharp nail.

"I'm team leader for this excursion... Markeeth said we just have to run a routine inspection of three stars." She said with a bored sigh, beginning to walk ahead as the pathway began to extend. "Come on, man. I'm just bloody IT!" Eli complained as he followed behind. 

As the three of them walked, René tried her best to make idle conversation with the two of them, yet Charlie could only speak in belittling insults and surprisingly hurtful words. Eli was pretty much used to the constant insults at his expense, yet René couldn't help but feel somewhat bad for him.

As they reached the first star, a world inhabited by sentient plant life, the three stood on the pathway and stared at it for a solid hour. "Nothing to report." Eli sighed, continuing to stare as the other two began walking away. 

"So, Charlie... How did you and Eli meet?" René asked with a smile, only to be met by the scowl of a middle aged white woman, the bane of any LGBTQ+ member.

"We met at a rally."

René didn't even want to ask what type of rally. Just hearing the word rally was enough to make her want to stop the conversation. "Why are you giving me that look? It was a protest over Vampire rights."

"Oooh... Sorry, I thought you were... Never mind." René laughed awkwardly at the misunderstanding. "Yeah. I fought to get myself a vampire slave... And I got Eli. Then the entire slavery system fell."

René just slowly walked back over to Eli as Charlie quickly yelled; "I'm joking! That was a joke! I'm not a racist!" 

As they walked to the next star, the one that René had visited on her first day with Misha, the trio began making sure their was nothing left of the broken star as it had drifted endless through the void. "Huh... This world really is like Misha. Broken, drifting and unsightly." Charlie said with a slight how of laughter.

"Do we actually know what happened to this place?" René asked with a curious glance over to Eli, who shook his head. "This place wasn't really that important. We only ever sent two people here. I think I still have the files."

"Correction. We sent two accidents." Charlie said with a huff. 

"Accidents? That happens here?" 

Charlie and Eli both gave a slight sigh as they explained that this world was more like a back end line. A world not meant to really be bothered with. But one time, when a certain Doctor got drunk, he accidentally sent the wrong soul to this world instead. 

"Then the second time... Their was this young girl, not to smart or confident who we were meant to send to this fantasy world... And..."

"We both sort of got into an argument and kinda sent her off without really looking where." Eli and Charlie both began snickering together at the memory. "What was her name? Wasn't it one of those human names?" The werewolf said with a fond wave of her hand as she tried to recall.

"Oh, it was Ami with an i. Gods, we really got in trouble for that one." He laughed, nudging Charlie's shoulder playfully.

"Back when you were somewhat attractive."

"Please, I look better as a nerd." Eli smirked. 

René looked horrified that they had doomed a child to another world, but decided to just keep on observing the broken star to distract herself. After a bit longer, she felt a sudden ominous presence, like a great power had just been awakened across the stars. She then noticed something peculiar. Another golden pathway in the far off distance with a strange woman with white hair walking along it.

"Hey, are we the only employees out in the void right now?" René asked as she turned to see the two lovers chatting like friends for once. Eli looked a bit confused, scratching his black hair with an awkward smile. "We're the only ones allowed in the section of space. It might just be your mind playing tricks on you."

"No... Look." Charlie pointed up towards a fading pathway of light, confusing Eli more. He quickly pulled out what looked like a highly advance phone, which he began searching through. "There's no one who's supposed to be here right now?"

"T-Time works differently here, maybe it's just a future employee?" Charlie asked with a confused look. But Eli shook his head. "Yeah, but no matter the time or era, we have exact records for every excursion. That woman is not in our database from past, present or future."

"Do we go after her?" René asked with a nervous look, now getting kind of spooked. Both Eli and Charlie gave a nod as the golden path they stood on began twisting and stretching up towards the other pathway. 

The trio began running at full speed, though René was surprised at just how fast the two could run, forgetting that both were, at least to her, supernatural entities. "Eli, call Zanir and tell him!" The werewolf yelled as she shifted into her wolf form, running on all fours to catch up the ever distancing figure.

As Eli struggled to open his phone and call up the Doctor, René jumped onto Charlie's back as the werewolf began running at full speed. "D-Don't tell Jaina I rode another woman!" She yelled back, clutching on as hard as she could.

"Stop right there!" The werewolf growled, making the slowly walking woman stop in place. "Other people? What? Shut up." She mumbled to herself, like she was talking to someone else. Charlie quickly pinned her to the ground while at the same time, René slowly got off, her body shaking from the speed.

"Hey, hey get off me!" The woman yelled in a fancy sounding British accent. Suddenly a burst of flames crackled next to Charlie, though not burning her as a figure with 6 burning tails stood ready with a cane. "Where the hells is the intruder!?" He yelled before realising Charlie had already caught their foe.

The flames quickly died down as Markeeth stepped out, dusting himself off. "Wait... Why the hell do you send me down here if you can do that!?" René yelled in frustration. "Because I can, will and do. And I pay your salary, so don't complain." He smirked, leaning down to the woman.

"Who the hell are you?" He questioned, before having Charlie turn her over. He staggered back when he saw her face. "Oh fuck." The two said in unison. 

"Do you know her?" René asked with a confused look. Even Charlie and Eli were a bit confused as Zanir helped the woman up. 

"This is my... Ex. Rat."

The three of them looked stunned at the reveal, but the woman named Rat, dusted herself off as she casually did up her two long twin braids. "It's Mollia. Rat is over there." She pointed to an empty space next to her. "Is she crazy?" René whispered to Zanir, but he gave a loud laugh.

"No, nope, not. She's just two people. One a badass woman who can do anything she puts her mind to and the other... Mollia." He said with a smirk, flicking the invisible patch of air playfully. 

Everyone had finally made it back to the office, with Rat and Zanir talking in his office. The entire office was gossiping about their boss's Supposed wife, as they had only heard rumours about who she was. 

"No fucking way... Do you have any idea who that is?" Misha said flatly as she stared into the office. Jae gave a casually shrug before going back to their bonsai plant their desk. "Who is it then?" They asked flatly, though clearly not caring.

"That's Mollia Chordarum! She's the hero from my world! I-I thought she was just a myth... But she's also Rat!?"

"Damn that's crazy." Jae said in a rather disinterested voice, being more focused on their plant. "It is... I'm gonna see if I can get her autograph." Misha was surprisingly a big fan girl, making René laugh lightly as she filled in her paperwork from their void excursion. "Well hey. Who knows what their talking about."

Zanir's office was suddenly filled with a blinding white light before a fiery explosion blew off his door. Everyone quickly rushed to see what had happened, since this was more interesting then anything else that had happened in a while. 

The doctor suddenly took to the front of the room as he gave a dramatic bow, taking off his top hat. "Let me introduce to you, my ex wives. Rat and Mollia Chordarum!" He quickly moved out of the way to reveal Mollia, now with her striking black hair back and an ethereal doppelganger with rat ears and the signature white hair standing next to her.

René looked stunned as she stood next to Jaina, who applauded lightly. "Well done sir, Lucinda will be overjoyed to hear." The short blonde woman said with a smile. Zandir quickly choked on his own spit as both Rat and Mollia turned to face him. "And who in our names is that?" They said in unison.

"Uh... Boy, you two don't remember much do you? How many loops did you go through?" He awkwardly grumbled, not knowing how to say this. "Sorry, we've had memory troubles for awhile." Rat said with a light smirk.

"You'll learn soon enough. But right now, I want to congratulate you as our newest employee." He quickly changed the subject, before everyone was deafened by Misha letting out scream. The cat demi-human fell to the floor, having feinted from delight. 

"Uh... Back to work, I suppose." He quickly clapped his hands together, and as everyone began getting back to work and Mollia having left to find a desk, Zanir pulled both Jaina and René into his office.

"Oh, hey sir." The blue haired woman said with an awkward look, not knowing what he was planning this time. "I need to know something. Aside from the pathway of light, did you feel anything else out there?" He asked with a serious tone, seeming like he was worried about something. 

"I did... It was like something had just woken up in the distance. Dunno what it was. Oh crap, I didn't check out the last star I was meant to." She sighed, scratching her head awkwardly. After a bit more talking, Zanir dismissed René, letting her get back to her work. 

"Sir... You know what René felt, don't you." Jaina asked with a smile, standing straight. He let out a sigh, shaking his head. "I can't be sure, but I know one thing. My tarot cards weren't about Charlie and Eli. This will surely go either great, mediocre or awful, but Jaina, I need you to watch Mollia and Rat for me."

"Can do."

"What, you're not gonna ask why?" He smirked, giving a playful tap of his cane. "You ask, I don't question. That's what I learned." She smiled, heading to leave.

"Oh and one more thing. Try and figure out why she's really here. That woman is a liar at heart. A real rat."