For When the Truth matters Most...
Before Lucy had returned to shore, Ave had been scrounging around the airship for whatever weird trinkets Verum had asked him to find. It wasn't too long before he stumbled into the ship's treasure room.
Filled to the brim with random stuff Kiola had both taken and earned over the years, it would be rather impressive to normal person... But Ave wasn't really normal. He noticed a bizarre blade with a trigger and rose engraved on its wooden handle, and since nothing else in the room really matched the description he'd gotten, he figured that was the blade.
With a quick point of his camera, a large chunk of the hoard was dragged inside the camera. Maybe he should have tried aiming a bit better, but that's neither here nor there.
He swiftly left, briefly passing by his still bound sister as he searched for a heart. After a few more minutes of searching deeper and deeper into the ship, he eventually got fed up and called Verum for some help.
"Hey... So, I've checked this entire ship besides from the main deck. You got any idea were the heart is?"
"Why are you asking me? I'm not there, am I?" Verum groaned down the phone. Ave didn't really have an answer, but persistence was key. "Well you're the one who wants it. So come down and get it yourself then."
As Ave was about to hang up and go help his sister, he heard a loud sigh behind him.
"Fine then."
He shot his head around to see Verum standing behind him with a grin. "W-What? W-When did you get here!?" Ave questioned, lowering his camera as he stared at the rodent. "Truth is, I just appear where I want to." She shrugged as she walked past him, her tail dragging across his white sneakers.
"So, Stream Queen, I'm guessing you've seen some weird stitched up black girl right?"
"Uh... No. Next to everyone on this ship is white." Ave remarked, giving a light snicker under his breath as he went for the door, only for Verum to lean against it to stop him. "Not their race, dumbass. Like she is literally a shade of black and looks like a monster."
"There was this one thing above deck... But I think Shaki and Grim have it handled." He said before shoving past the truth telling rodent. Verum could only sigh as she watched him leave, only to see the sight of Eva and Senshi still bound by webbing down the hall.
"Oh.... I didn't know you had a bound sister kink." She joked, walking beneath the two with a grin. With just a slight glance from the rodent, the Centipede looked terrified as Verum moved Oia out of the way so she could free the two with a quick slice from a summoned sword.
The two crashed to the floor, Verum staring down at the two with a terrible grin before she threw Eva to the side with a pillar of light.
"Heyo, Senshipede."
It was a casual greeting. Yet for some reason it terrified the arthropod as she looked up at the rodent. Verum gave a light giggle, lightly tapping her on the back as if they were old friends. "What's the matter? We're friends, right?"
"Oh Mollia, Oh Mollia, Oh Mollia..." Senshi muttered to herself in a panic. "Yeah... No. Mollia ain't here, Bugga Boo. Now if you fancy keepin' your Spider girl alive and well, could ya tell me where the Heart is?"
Sesnhi seemed hesitant, but a stomp from Verum that barely missed her was a great motivator. With a hitched breath and a lot of stammering, Senshi revealed the sub-minds where being kept.
"Thanks-" Before Verum could run off and claim her prize, Ave swiftly sucker punched her in the stomach. "Why the hell did you do that to Eva!?" He yelled, pointing at his sister's arm, that was bent in all wrong way from the throw.
Verum couldn't have cared less about Eva. Even still, she remained calm as her body rewound the injury. "Look, you're right. It was rude of me." She placed a hand on his shoulder with a delightful smile. "But the truth is... I don't care."
Senshi watched in horror as swords of light and shadow suddenly stabbed into Ave's back. Each one plunging deeper and deeper into his body. As his blood dripped over Senshi, Verum looked seemingly bored by her own actions.
"Hey, what happens to the people inside your camera when you die?"
Neither of the two really knew what would happen, but Ave decided to try his best to not find out. "I... It all disappears... I think. J... Just a bit of old media." He said with a slow breath, barely alive.
"Hmm... Is it you who has the power or is it the other one?"
Ave froze up as he leant himself next to his sister. In truth, it was neither of them who had a power. The camera was just an old artifact thrown around from person to person in their world and Verum picked up on that through the silence of the siblings.
"In my name... You know, this cast does have to many characters." With a devious grin, Verum raised a finger gun at the two and muttered; "The new truth is you two weren't even real."
Yet nothing happened.
The two still existed, much to Verum's confusion. "Guess even I have limits..." She sighed. The twins let out a light sigh of relief before being incinerated by a blazing white light that instantly consumed them, leaving only the camera left in their place.
"Can't go wrong with a classic though, right centipede?"
Senshi stared at the rodent with terror before letting out a hiss of fright and trying to scamper under the door. Verum watched as she made her escape, not really wanting to bother with someone who she thought was so beneath her.
As the rodent grabbed the camera and poked her head into the medical bay, she noticed Oia hiding in the shadows underneath Ayre's bed. Yet her focus shifted onto Kiola and a delightful idea from her past sparked in her mind.
But her plans were interrupted by Nvr bursting into the hall and shoving the rodent's head to the floor. The twin's camera slid underneath the dragon's bed as Nvr whispered;
"Hiiiiiii..."
"Heyo." Verum responded before summoning swords of light and shadows above herself. The bioweapon wasn't phased by the swords that fell from the ceiling and into her back. Verum let out a bored groan before rewinding her position in time, appearing just behind Nvr with a smirk.
"You look well. Did you get a hair cut?"
"No... But he did."
"I don't like that implication." She mumbled before a fleshy vine shot through her head. Verum fell limp against the floor with a loud thud while V-9 slowly slunk out from the doorway. The two knew what was going to happen next, watching as the fleshy chunks of what was once Verum's head slowly rewound back together.
"Got to say... That was a cheap shot-" The rodent was barely able to finish her sentence before Nvr2b ran her fingers down her chest. "[Ruptured Shambles]"
Verum's body exploded into a mess of gore that went across the entire hallway. Yet once more, Verum was rewinding herself back together. "You guys know I'm immortal right? I've-" Again, V9 fired a vine through her head.
Yet she came back. "-Got time on-"
Again, Nvr used Ruptured Shambles. And yet again, she came back. "-Time on my side."
Again.
"You know it's..."
Again.
"Pointless. I could just..."
Again.
"Kill you with a snap of my..."
Again.
"Fingers. It's pretty..."
Again.
"Sad. Just give..."
Again.
"Up. Okay? Or is this another one of those times where I have to actually do something." Verum asked with a sigh, crossing her arms as she looked between the two. The two repeatedly struck the rodent down again and again, yet every time, like clockwork, she came back.
At this point, Verum was starting to get fed up with the constant cycle of death and decided to just get what she came for. Turning to Nvr, she put her hand out with a smile. "Can I have Tika's Heart? Truth be told, you will do as I say."
As V-9 went in for another killing blow, Nvr raised her hand to stop him. Verum watched with giddy delight as the bio-weapon pulled out a few of her stitches and reached into her chest before pulling out a slow beating heart.
Verum snatched the heart out of the silent bio-weapon's hand with excitement, her mind flooding with more ideas. V-9 was baffled by his friend's choice, it was like she under a spell. But that didn't matter right now, he quickly rushed to grab the heart yet, with a simple new truth, he went silent as well.
"Hmm... A ship isn't actually a bad call... Oh, Rat always wanted to do sky pirating!" She laughed to herself, grabbing the camera from under the bed before heading up to the main deck.
She noticed Senshi jumping over board and onto the boardwalk below, where she spotted a familiar face in the form of Ami.
"A familiar face...! This is gonna be fun." She mused, turning back to look at her new prize. Then again, both Shaki and Grimm were still bound.
So why not replace the two with two bio-weapons. That was Verum's thought process as she tossed the two overboard, giggling to herself before disappearing below deck to enact a new plan.
"And she did all of that in two minutes?" Min quietly groaned, letting Senshi catch her breath after explaining what she saw. Meanwhile, Ami had just managed to fix her sister's card captured state and as Avis slowly regained her bearings, she quickly yelled for her guitar.
Ami was a bit confused as she passed her sister her instrument, asking what was wrong.
But the only thing the Harpy could say was; "We've got to bail." Before two portals opened up at the edge of the boardwalk. Ami noticed how on edge her sister looked as two distinctive voices called out from the portals.
"Everyday... It felt like everyday, time moved faster and faster."
"But right now? Time feels weird."