Chapter Text

Ask anyone who climbs mountains why they do it and you'll get a hundred different answers. The prestige of making it to the summit and back, alive. The view from up on high, thousands of metres above civilization. The challenge of it all, clawing your way up bit by bit, entirely under your own power. Because it's there.

Ask Carl why he was climbing a mountain, and his answer was simple: obligation.

Carl wasn't what you'd call an outdoors person. The prospect of climbing a mountain - walking up a few thousand metres of rocky cliff, kept from falling solely by a complex metal clasp and some rope - was terrifying to him. You could do everything perfectly, and if any one piece of your equipment failed, stretched the slightest bit beyond its capabilities, then you hit the ground at terminal velocity, and if you were lucky you died on impact. If you weren't? You broke, maybe shattered a few bones, probably punched a few holes in yourself, and then it was anyone's game as to whether or not exposure or blood loss got to you first. And they'd take their sweet time getting to you. You'd be begging for it.

Not to say that he was an inactive person - he ran. He worked out. He understood taking care of your body was somewhat important if you wanted to enjoy your life past forty. He wasn't lazy. Carl was just possessed of the opinion that the incredible risks summiting a peak away from civilization posed if things went wrong outweighed any of the potential benefits.

And yet, there he was, kneeled next to his couch. Taking inventory of the food he'd scrounged up, and organizing the climbing equipment he'd purchased, and laying out the clothes he'd planned to wear. And when he finished, he was going to pack it all up into his gargantuan backpack (though, backpack felt like such an inadequate term, like calling a cruise liner a boat), and then about ten hours afterwards he was going to pile everything into his car and drive out to Mount Celeste. And then he was going to climb it, all the way to the top. The gear was purchased. The days off were approved. The car was gassed up. He was committed.

He was committed because he'd made a mistake. Not your average, garden-variety sort of mistake, the kind you could fix with an apology and recognition of what went wrong and a promise to avoid it. This was the Big One. Something that couldn't be taken back. He desperately wanted to talk to someone, anyone, about it, but the desire to reach out was tempered by the fear that he would be judged for it. And so he'd spent the past month or so stuck in a pit of despair and guilt... until a second chance arrived, right on his doorstep. A chance to right his wrong. A means that, if properly followed up on, would allow him to look in the mirror and see a person again, and not a failure. Oh, and it piled on a bit more despair and guilt, too. Y'know. For good measure.

Call it The Package. 

The Package was what Carl was obligated to. It sat away from everything else he'd gathered, wrapped in a towel to prevent damage when he tucked it into the shipping container that the sporting goods store called a backpack, a thing that was obstinately not what any sane or intelligent person would bring with them when they were trying to get to the top of a thirty five hundred metre hill. But then Carl wouldn't initially reach for those words to describe himself with, and in any case that was why he was calling it The Package. If anything, he was going to the top of the mountain to get it there, rather than himself.

"Well," he spoke, mostly just to himself. "I guess... I guess that's it. Everything looks fine. I've got enough food and water." He closed his eyes, breathed deeply. "No turning back now." Carl stood, walking over to The Package. He regarded it for a moment. "Don't worry," he gulped, swallowing the lump that formed in his throat when he thought about it. "I'm not failing you this time. I'll do right by you... even if it kills me. Especially if it kills me. Not to harp on that bit, but I'm still not convinced this won't kill me, you know."

Gingerly, he lifted The Package, always surprised when it turned out to have only a third of the heft he expected it to. With all the care and caution he would ascribe to an armed nuclear warhead, he brought it over to the backpack and slipped it inside, before packing everything he needed to around it. When all was said and done, despite The Package's inconvenient volume, almost no compromise was necessary to make everything fit. The sleeping bag, the climbing axes, and the water bottle (though like the backpack, "bottle" was a bit stingy a descriptor as the damn thing was nearly a jug) were all going on the backpack, and the only thing he wasn't able to get in there was a tent. And thanks to the miracle of bivouac sacks, he didn't need one to keep the wind from freezing him to death.

Carl zipped up the backpack, then stepped back to admire his handiwork. It was the first time he had felt proud of something in the past month. He held onto that pride, because it was the first time he'd felt anything positive in about the same timeframe. And given what this was all in service of, he expected it would be the only win he was going to get until this was done.

With everything ready, he pulled out his phone and checked the time. 8:15. He still had an hour or two to kill before he needed to hit the sack. Carl thought for a good second about what he could do - what it felt appropriate to do given the immense weight of the task looming over him.

Then he headed over to the TV, and the old, veteran games console sitting next to it. He'd made his decision.

One last nostalgia trip.

"Snacks?"

"Check."

"Water?"

"Check."

"Sleeping bags?"

"Check."

"Sanitation?"

"Check."

"Camera?"

Theo didn't even flinch. "Oh, that is absolutely checked." In response, Madeline zipped up her own backpack and flashed Theo a thumbs-up. "Then it looks like we're ready to go!"

Madeline heaved her backpack up onto her couch and sat down next to it, pulling her legs up to her chest as she did. Theo, in the meanwhile, left his backpack on the floor and decided to casually sprawl out on the other end. The preparations were done, and they were both committed.

They were going back to Mount Celeste, and they were going to get Theo to the top.

"Can't believe I'm finally gonna go see the Summit," Theo said.

"I can," Madeline replied. "Think of all the great selfies you'll be able to take!"

Theo laughed, pulling out his smartphone and holding it out in front of him. "It's ya boi, Theo, just chillin' on top of this mountain! Hashtag blessed." He snickered. "The ultimate flex. Almost makes me ashamed I'm still on a social media break, that would totally be a good selfie."

"Well, you could always put them up after your break ends," Madeline offered. "You know, if you even remember to take any. I think you and that fancy camera of yours are going to have a field day."

"Oh, absolutely," Theo puffed. "Everything you've been telling me about what the view was like up there was what convinced me to bring my fancy camera along. I don't want to miss a single detail about it."

"You'll get your money's worth out of it. All two thousand and ninety-nine American dollars of it," Madeline recalled.

"Huh. You remembered?"

"You kept going on about it being the "steal of the century"."

"'Cause it was. Seriously, have you seen how much a good, professional camera can cost?"

Madeline nodded, blanching a little as she recalled some of the numbers she'd seen just from idle perusal. "I have. I do not understand how you make enough money to afford one."

"To be honest?" Theo smirked, that same easygoing, approachable smirk he'd been sporting ever since they met in the shade of an abandoned construction zone three years ago. "I don't understand either. And I'm not really sure I care. So far as I'm concerned, I've found my calling. I finally feel like I've got a drive, you know? Like there's a direction for me to go in. Like I'm being an adult. A nice enough paycheck to cover regular visits is just the strawberry on the pie, as they say."

"I'm still happy it worked out for you," Madeline thanked. "I was pretty worried it wouldn't. That you wouldn't find enough work, or that you'd start hating what you love because it was work and not something you did for yourself."

"Well... I mean, lack of work is valid. You know I worry about that from time to time. Even so, you worry too much, Strawberry."

"I do."

Theo sat himself up. "Well, I'm still doing completely fine, so no need to worry about me. Your goth alter ego doesn't need to worry either." 

A beat.

"Speaking of... how is she?"

Madeline shrugged. "The usual. We're cool, you know?" She'd already explained it before, as hard as she found it to put the complex nature of Badeline's existence into words (or as hard as she found it to explain why she willingly called herself that). But she was confident Theo understood: Badeline may have been her own separate entity, but she was still a part of Madeline, a slice of the whole. She'd learned well from the first climb, and she'd stopped suppressing those bits of herself she hated. She'd learned to accept the anger she previously viewed as rude, and the need to focus on herself that she thought was just being selfish, and the ever-present fear about everything that had pervaded her life nearly as far back as she could remember. Sometimes she listened to those things earnestly, because while it may not have been something she wanted to hear, it was something she needed to. Other times, though, she really was irrational and scared and angry and selfish. And she forgave herself for it, because it was okay to be those things. People weren't perfect. Having moments of weakness didn't make her vile and unlovable.

Even if she'd learned it through the metaphor (if you could call it that, since she did actually exist) of talking to a purple-haired, grey-skinned version of herself, Madeline had still found self-acceptance, and with it she'd been doing the best she had ever been. There were still bad days - like the month when she learned that Granny had passed - but all in all, the outliers were bad days, not good days. She could truly, earnestly say she loved herself.

But despite that, some days Madeline missed her other self. Maybe it was a little egotistical, but she made for nice company.

"Man. It'd be nice if I could talk to her more," Theo opined, clearly sharing her opinion. "I liked her."

"Me too," Madeline agreed. "I'll see if I can't coax her out when we get there. I can't guarantee anything - it's her decision. But I can try."

"Well, don't sweat it. If she doesn't wanna come out, that's fine too." There went Theo again - genuine and honest and respectful, like he was all the time. The man made being a saint look effortless. Madeline wasn't sure how he managed it. Some days she wondered if he could even feel anger. On some of her darker days she was jealous of him for how composed he was, and she'd found the solution to that to be acknowledging those feelings, then gently remembering the problems Theo had and dealt with, because he had his fair share of issues to deal with that didn't go away just because he was good at being social. Like the fear he felt some days that this idyll he'd found himself in was temporary, that one day his clients would dry up and his career with them. 

It wasn't entirely rational - the still-rising quality of his work was what kept people asking for it, after all - but then that was the thing about fear, wasn't it? It was never rational.

"But, you know," Theo continued, looking at Madeline like she was trying to look at something inside of her, "if she could come out for her old pal Theo, that'd be sweet."

Madeline laughed. "Maybe that's how you bring her out. Keep buttering her up." For a moment, there was naught but comfortable silence. Madeline glanced over to the clock on her wall, analog like everything else it was possible to have that way. A quarter past eight, it read. "So. We finished packing early. Anything you wanna do before we go to bed?"

Theo thought for a moment, rubbing his beard, before shrugging. "Honestly we've been pretty active today. And we're gonna be REALLY active this weekend. I wouldn't mind sitting back for a bit, chilling out with some TV."

Madeline fetched the remote. "Well, what do you feel like watching?"

"Surprise me," Theo challenged. "I've been hogging your boob tube lately."

Madeline took a few minutes to think about what she could watch that the both of them would enjoy, but then Theo's phone rang and her train of thought derailed off a cliff. Theo, who in his classic style had never actually put his phone away after the selfie gag, took a second to look at who it was. "It's Alex."

"Go ahead," Madeline granted. "Gives me a minute to think."

Theo smiled in thanks, then headed off towards Madeline's "guest room". She called it a guest room - and on the days when she took account of her apartment, cleaning and restocking things that she might have slacked on, she did try to stock it like it was one - but really, it was Theo's room. Madeline didn't have too many guests. Her parents lived in Vancouver too, and all of her local friends usually had their own places to stay. Not that people crashing at Maddy's didn't happen, but Theo was easily the room's most frequent user, and eventually she just let Theo arrange it however he pleased. Nobody seemed to complain.

Madeline smiled. Theo was in town, they were going to revisit Celeste, and everything was packed for the trip. The only thing she had to worry about, if you could even call her brainstorming "worry", was what she was going to set on for her best friend to enjoy.

Life was good.

Chapter Text

The hardest part of getting to Mount Celeste was Vancouver traffic. Even then, Madeline and Theo chose to leave in the early morning, which let them get past the worst of the congestion that usually developed. There was another reason they chose that time, though, as getting from Vancouver to Mount Celeste took four hours. Nearly two hours of that was the West Van-Nanaimo ferry, and the rest of that was the actual drive up Highway 19, taking a left just past Courtenay to get onto the access road that led to the mountain trail. It was a trip that you had to plan around.

Fortunately, it positively flew by. The ferry ride over to Vancouver Island was far less onerous than Madeline remembered it being, because her self-doubt and fear didn't even cloud her remotely as much as they did during the first trip. Instead of brooding indoors and trying to shrink into herself as much as possible, Madeline spent the entire trip on deck, enjoying the cold, early morning surf while Theo snapped a barrage of photos of the landscape they passed by on the way.

When the ferry docked Madeline was surprised that the trip had already ended. An hour and forty minutes had practically disappeared on her. But the ferry had run out of water, so they boarded Madeline's trusty station wagon (a hand-me-down from her parents, which she'd gotten ownership of when she got her driver's license) and settled in for the long drive to the Mountain.

(Strangely, as they rolled out of the ship and the Departure Bay dock, they heard somebody's tire pop. "Ouch," Theo flinched. "I don't wanna be that guy." Madeline voiced her agreement quite simply: "Let's just get out of here before that happens to us.")

The actual road trip part of the road trip wasn't boring either. Theo spent a good half-hour fiddling with Madeline's radio. It was a real nostalgia trip every time he saw it, for Theo was a digital individual, always a fan of the cutting edge of tech. But for somebody who wasn't working in the information technology industry, Madeline had the technological mindset of a security director and a fondness for machines you actually had to manipulate, as opposed to just telling the computer chips inside of them what to do. This was far from Theo's first time seeing it, but it was always a blast from the past to take a look at a car stereo deck that had an honest-to-God cassette player inside it, studded with buttons to control it. Technology from a time when automotive safety innovations like the "crumple zone" were viewed as manufactured weakness, as opposed to a way to keep peoples' eyes from popping out of their heads during a crash at highway speed. It was outright comical to twist the knobs just right and get modern pop music to blast from speakers that were made in the time of mullets. Madeline, for her part, found no lack of amusement in watching Theo fawning over her car's stereo like it were some ancient object from a forgotten era, as much as Theo insisted that yes, the 1980s counted as a forgotten era and an ancient one given neither of them were born to see it.

Once he'd gotten bored of messing around with Madeline's stuff, Theo proceeded to put the tape deck to good use. As it turned out, he'd commandeered his sister's Walkman for this trip (though this time he'd asked before swiping it), and he'd brought along a couple of tapes she'd recorded labelled "Best Anime OPs". That killed the rest of the trip, listening to the best of J-pop and J-rock as determined by Alex - and, in some cases, vigorously debating the merit of Alex's choices. Madeline didn't quite agree with everything contained on the tapes Theo had secured, but Theo was a Good Sibling, and absolutely willing to stand by every choice Alex had made. Fortunately, the two of them being good friends, they kept things more cordial than your average anime forum, and always cut themselves off before they actually got heated over foreign cartoons. Usually, by just playing whatever was next on the tape.

Eventually, as the sun neared its zenith in the sky, their bellies started to rumble, and the end of Alex's last tape was in sight, they finally arrived, reaching the point where the access road merged with the mountain trail. With all the practiced ease of a race driver, Madeline brought the car off the road, shifted her station wagon into park, and cut the engine. Then she leaned back into her seat and stared out the windshield at the Mountain before them. An old friend.

"We're finally here," she breathed. "I'm glad you're here, Theo. The drive up here is boring without somebody to talk to."

"Saving your day as usual," Theo boasted. "My pleasure, Strawberry."

"Man, I'm starving." Madeline undid her seatbelt with a click, and twisted around to grab some of the food she'd packed.

Theo watched for a moment, enamored with how absolutely nothing about squirming around in her seat to get her food actually kept Madeline from trying her damndest. She was tenacious, just like his sister. Sometimes a little too much for her own good. "You wanna wait until we get to Granny's cabin? It'll be better than eating in here."

That made Madeline pause. "Well... I don't know. I haven't been back there since she passed. But we're going to have to pass by it anyways..."

"Well," Theo replied, "if you think it'll kill your appetite, I can eat here just fine. You're the one taking me here, Maddy. It's your call."

Madeline mulled it over for a moment. "Well... I don't think I'd be opposed to stretching my legs for a little bit." She gave Theo a smile. "Let's go."

The two of them disembarked the car and retrieved their bags from the back seat, before setting out along the trail. It was easy hiking up to the city, nothing more than a test of the quality of your footwear. It was easy on the eyes, too, as all around you were the snow-covered forests of the Pacific Northwest, the distant peaks of the Vancouver Island Range, and, of course, Mount Celeste. A challenge Madeline had already conquered. A challenge Theo felt no fear about, because how could he when Madeline was here? He trusted her to get him to the top, completely, implicitly, though not without a few concerns (did they really have to go back to the Celestial Resort and that creepy old ghost? Or, hell, the Mirror Temple?)

Few words were shared between them, as neither felt the need to fill any void that may have been present. They were comfortable in each others' presence, okay with there being no sound other than the crunch of dirt and snow. As Theo took some time to take in the sights and get used to being back at the Mountain, Madeline tried to reach into herself and get the attention of her more concerned half. Of course, she'd never really tried to summon her before. Badeline usually showed up either whenever she was in incredible danger, or whenever she felt like it, and Madeline didn't really feel like trying to throw herself off of a cliff to get her to appear. She knew Badeline wouldn't at all appreciate that. Hey. Me. You there? she thought at herself, which she guessed was just thinking, really. But there was no response.

Madeline shrugged it off. There would be other times.

In what seemed like no time at all, they arrived at Granny's cabin. Madeline's heart twinged when she saw it. It had only been a year since she'd passed. It was so close. She still expected the old bat to be standing out front tending to something, with a wave and a smile and a comment that seemed disparaging on the surface but was in reality as flippant as she carried herself. Madeline had always looked up to Granny after the first climb, for she had reached an esoteric state of zen - she didn't seem to care about anything, and in that she had exalted herself. She lived her truest life, and the advice she had to offer was peerless and perfect, even if Madeline shrank away from it at first. Granny was everything Madeline wanted to be. Confident. Fearless. Peaceful.

And just when she felt like she was finally getting her act together, the old crone up and died on her. Even though she'd been living in a depressive, anxious funk for a good portion of her life, Madeline couldn't remember any harder time than after she'd learned Granny had passed away. It was like the ground had been ripped from beneath her, that she was back in that deep, dark ocean with seemingly no way back to normalcy. She shut herself away from everyone, which in hindsight was an incredible mistake, but she had felt so strangled by the loss that everything she worked to keep up slipped from her fingers.

In the deepest throes of it, she had the thought that if somebody had to be taken from the earth, it should be her. She would gladly have given herself in Granny's stead. Or gone with her to whatever was after this life. It was the closest she had ever come to seriously contemplating suicide, and the thought tripped something deep inside of her. The part of her that she'd unconsciously been shutting out, just like she had used to in her past. The part of her that had been on watch, that was devoted solely to making sure she survived any arbitrary situation she found herself in, at any cost. A part of her that now refused to stand idly by as Madeline spiralled into her own doom.

She had a dream that night, about the moon. About the bird she'd seen during the first climb, that she'd always suspected was a part of Granny like how Badeline was part of her. And in that dream, Badeline came to her with her own Hail Mary, a desperate attempt to course correct. But unlike every other time, she'd spent a year being listened to. A year of being validated and loved, even if she was making bad calls. She knew that she wouldn't have to yell to be heard. She hoped that if she just kept trying, kept being there, she would be able to get through to Madeline.

She was right.

When Madeline woke up, the surface of the water seemed just the tiniest bit closer. And she understood, right and proper, that Granny wasn't coming back. That her time had come. She lay in bed for a while, but then she thought of Theo and the fact she hadn't talked to him in... she couldn't remember, wait a moment, she couldn't remember, how long had she been like this, and she flew out of her bed to her computer-

"Yo. Earth to Strawberry." Theo waved a hand in front of Madeline's face, his lips pursed out of concern. "You okay, Madeline?"

It was then Madeline realized she had lapsed into memory at the sight of Granny's cabin. And that tears were sliding down her face. She felt fortunate only Theo - somebody she trusted - was here to see this. "Just... memories," she admitted, sniffling. "I saw the cabin and I just..."

"It's alright," Theo assuaged. "You gonna be okay? Do you need anything?"

Madeline scuffed the ground. "A... a hug would be nice." Theo kneeled down, Madeline stepped forwards, and the two embraced for a moment, Theo gently patting her back. "There, there. I miss her too, Maddy."

After a minute of taking in the warmth of someone who cared, Madeline's stomach rumbled. "I think we should probably eat before we go any further."

"C'mon. Let's get inside. Food'll make you feel better. Always does with me." The two of them separated before Madeline reached into one of her coat pockets and fished out the key to the front door. It was kept locked these days, now that nobody was around to live in it, but as part of her last will and testament Granny had given a select few people that she trusted spare copies of the key to keep the place clean and organized - and, of course, to ensure they would have a reliable, warm place to stay if they ever decided to go on a mountaineering trip.

Madeline hadn't gotten her copy of the keys immediately, of course. She was too busy having a mental breakdown. But after she managed to pick herself back up, Theo had dropped off the key for her during one of his visits. Granny's will, it turned out, had very specific instructions to hand Madeline's spare key to Theo for safekeeping if she wasn't present to receive it. It was absolutely not lost on her that Granny, too, had predicted she might have fallen apart at the news of her death. Initially, she'd felt low about the fact Granny had expected that of her, but after thinking on it for a bit she realized she was interpreting it the wrong way. Granny was making sure Madeline would always have the opportunity to take what was hers, even if she wasn't able to immediately. And she felt cherished.

Thanks, Granny, Madeline thought, as she unlocked the front door and pushed it open. She disappeared indoors, Theo close behind.

He woke up on time. He was out the door on time. He made it to the ferry on time. Everything was coming up Carl, right until he rolled out of the terminal at Departure Bay and heard a pop like a gunshot. He managed to limp his way over to a parking space, where he could confirm that, indeed, his tire was dead in the water.

He took it as an ill omen, but fortunately for the trip, he was prepared for this. Being a mechanic meant he got a front-row seat to the myriad of ways a car could go wrong, and he always kept some tools of the trade for field repair in his trunk. Like a jack kit. And a lug wrench. And a full-size spare tire, not just one of those tiny run-flats you use to get to a car dealership so they can sell you a new tire at just enough of a markup that you can't complain about it. It was a little pricier than Carl would have liked to get, and it took up more space than strictly necessary in his trunk, but he considered the tradeoffs worth it, especially for a situation like this. All told, it took him about twenty minutes to get the tires swapped out.

It still wasn't a delay he was comfortable with. But this was likely going to be the first in an embarrassingly long series of lumps he was going to have to take. At least this was a minor, extremely fixable problem, and not something that would kill him.

The rest of the drive was about as fun as swapping tires. It was still about two hours until he actually got to Celeste, and that was two hours where the only thing he could do was keep his hands on the wheel and think. Even though he'd set on music to try and calm himself, it didn't really work. Worry filled his chest, twisting up its contents. His skin tingled. Knowing that it was probably just adrenaline coursing through him did nothing about the fact he felt like he'd clamped his car battery onto his nipples. Every time he caught himself thinking about what he was going to do he got a feeling like he was hovering outside of his own body, watching his thoughts from outside his thoughts.

He pulled over in Courtenay, just to try and give himself a few minutes of not having to drive a car. It didn't really help his nerves any, so a few minutes later he was back on the road.

Eventually, so slowly that Carl barely noticed until it was well within his field of view, it peeked over the horizon. The hailing regent of Vancouver Island. The mountain that every other peak, even the Golden Hinde, bowed down towards. It only got bigger and bigger as Carl drove towards it, more of it coming into his field of view, and the sheer size! Just like flying in a video game didn't prepare you for what it was like to suddenly be a few kilometres above ground-dwellers, pictures did not properly convey the immense scale of his destination. He remembered taking a trip up near Living Shangri-La when that was done construction, and he thought that was stupidly huge. Living Shangri-La was nothing compared to the (twin-peaked!) monster that raised itself from the earth before him, as wide as it was tall. He could see, in the distance, other parts of the Vancouver Island Range. Nothing came even distantly close to matching up.

"Oh, fuck me."

He pulled over, set on his hazards. This was too much. He couldn't do this, what was he thinking? He needed to turn around and go home. But the second he got ready to pull off a three-point turn and act on his thoughts, he remembered the backpack in his trunk. The Package it contained.

"No," he said out loud. "No, you idiot. You didn't spend three days of PTO, four hours, a thousand bucks, and your spare tire getting out here to just... what, give up and turn around? You already used up your opportunity to do nothing. You can't throw this away, too." He signalled left, pulled onto the road, and kept driving. 

A few minutes later, Carl had to pump the brakes, as the road simply stopped. There was still a path ahead, well-trod dirt and packed snow both full of footprints, but the message was clear: you drive no further. Bringing his car to a stop, Carl noticed a station wagon was parked there, an old vintage errand runner that looked like it was straight off the set of an '80s family sitcom. But when Carl compared it to his car - a late-90s-early-2000s Japanese sedan - at least the station wagon had style to it. His car was barely a generation removed from looking like most of the other cars on the road, but then he hadn't purchased it for looks. Around the time he'd got it, he was running on a margin of error about as thin as a sheet of paper, and he needed something that was both cheap and durable. And those kinds of cars fit the bill - perhaps they didn't look very stylish, but if you kept up on maintenance, they were practically immortal (as the odometer that was creeping up on 500,000 kilometres could attest to).

Carl pulled off to the other side of the road to park. He killed the engine and got out, straightening out all his clothes and taking a moment to stretch after the long drive, feeling his joints pop back into alignment. He popped the trunk and lifted his backpack out, sliding it on and fastening the waist brace to the tune of his gear clinking and clanking around. Finally, he donned his climbing helmet, closed the trunk, and locked the doors.

"Well... here I am," he spoke, to nobody in particular, but also to himself. "I need to go up three and a half kilometres." He made himself swallow as he stared down the geography in front of him. "No time like the present." Then he set off on the Trail of Destiny, focused on putting one foot in front of the other. It looked like it was easy walking, at least. The scenery was nice, too. If you ignored the giant death mountain in front of him, the pine trees all around were covered in snow, and in the distance he could see other mountains that he didn't have to climb and frozen-over lakes.

It didn't do much to break his anxious rumination, but fortunately for his mental state, what did break it was the sight of a cabin in a clearing. With the lights on. For a moment he was surprised, but he figured it made sense. If you weren't trying to atone for past sins by climbing the sword of Damocles hovering over the scene, it was a hell of a view. The perfect vacation spot. Carl knew a few people that would kill to have this place as a retreat.

It was around the time he'd realized that he had been rudely gawking at the cabin people were clearly inside of that the door opened.

Being inside of the cabin was a healing experience for Madeline. She hadn't been back here since Granny had showed her the Core of the Mountain, mostly because she was afraid seeing all the reminders that she used to be alive would have turned her into a babbling mess. But now that she was actually here, all she could see were fond memories of the time they got to spend together. The cane that she always used to get around. The cookware she owned, which Madeline had used to bake the world's best strawberry pie (at least, in her opinion). A framed photograph of everyone she'd met on the slopes, which Theo had taken at Granny's insistence.

Even the hilariously unfitting gaming chair remained, though neither Madeline nor Theo were actually sitting in it as they ate the sandwiches they'd packed. She'd always perched in that chair whenever she drank tea. It just didn't feel right to occupy it. That was her space.

Washing down the last of her meal with a swig of water, Madeline took another second to look around. "Maybe I should stop by here more often," she decided. "It's nice."

"It is," murmured Theo, through a mouth full of bread and turkey. "Granny was pretty cool to chill with. It still feels calm here, y'know? Almost like she never left."

Madeline nodded, feeling rather bittersweet about the whole affair. Eventually she'd come to terms with the fact that Granny was dead. Barring a frankly nonsensical miracle, she wasn't ever going to come back. But Madeline would always have her memories of the time they spent together, even if it was just something as simple as talking over a phone or reading snail mail (and hey, she still had the letters, too). Nothing would ever be able to take those from her, and in the joy of rememberance, Granny would still be alive in some small way.

That would do, she had decided.

"So. You good?"

Theo polished off the rest of his sandwich. "Yeah. Let's go. The mountain isn't gonna climb itself, huh?"

The two of them stood up, taking just a few more seconds to look around, before they moved to return outside. Madeline made sure to lock the door once she was out, and as the lock clicked shut, Theo tapped her shoulder. "Hm?"

"Hey Maddy, there's another climber here!" Theo pointed towards them, drawing her attention towards the red figure standing a good twenty metres away. "I'm gonna go say hi. Wanna come with?"

Madeline looked at the person in the distance, and felt doubt. She didn't really feel like dealing with somebody else just after steepling so heavily in emotion. But a conversation couldn't hurt. And besides, if whoever was out there was an asshole this cut them off at the pass. Better to do it now than have something bad happen when they were only five hundred metres from the summit.

(The part of her suspicious of everything acquiesced to that. It was a sensible decision, after all.)

"Sure," she agreed, and Theo waved to them as he strode on over, the figure returning the gesture.

As Madeline got closer, the new arrival slowly became more recognizable. They at least looked prepared. A big, red nylon coat (with a blue patch on the left breast), snow pants, hiking boots, a scarf... they were even wearing a climbing helmet, and around their waist she spied the brace for the heavy-duty mountaineering backpack that poked up over their head.

The stranger was taller than she was, which wasn't an easy bar to clear. But not as tall as Theo (as if anyone could be).

"Good morn, traveler," Theo greeted, in the same "stranger from a faraway land" voice that he'd used with Madeline. Once Theo actually started talking to them, they seemed to to pick up their slack jaw. "Uh... hi! Sorry about gawking, I didn't think I'd find a cabin on the trail here. Or other people." The stranger sounded like an East Coaster. They also sounded male.

Theo shrugged it off. "It's alright. Gotta admit, nice place for a cabin, huh?"

"Yeah..." The stranger trailed off, his emerald gaze drifting to the Mountain. Something about the way he spoke was off, but Madeline couldn't put her finger on it. "Picturesque view all around, eh? Perfect place to get away from your problems. Cause a few new ones."

"If only you knew," Madeline chimed in. "This is a really relaxing place to be. But I take it you're not here to relax."

The stranger grinned, lopsided, as he looked over himself. "Am I that obvious?"

"Yeah, kinda," Theo revealed. "You look like you're ready to take on Everest."

"Well..." He looked up, towards the Mountain again, and when he spoke Madeline figured out what sounded off. He was worried. "Doesn't hurt to be overprepared when you're climbing a mountain, huh? I mean, for as metal of an obituary as it'd be I don't think I'm ready to die just yet."

Madeline nodded. "Yeah, it definitely doesn't hurt. So, what's your name?"

"Carl", the stranger (Carl, now) gave out.

Madeline smiled, stepping forwards. Carl figured out what she was going for, and the two shook hands. "Madeline. Nice to meet you, Carl."

"Oh man," Theo bemoaned, "where'd I leave my manners? Back at home?"

Carl stepped up to Theo, hand still raised, head angled up to look at him. "Don't worry, I forget my manners all the time, it's no biggie. You know, unless you don't have a name, then we might have a problem with this fair trade business."

Theo laughed, and shook his hand. "Lucky for you I've got one, then. Theo. Nice to meet you, Mr. Funnyman."

Carl smiled. "I do try. So, do you two live here, or..."

"We don't," answered Madeline. "A friend of ours used to, though."

Carl quirked an eyebrow as thick as it was blonde. "Used to?"

Madeline looked down. It still hurt a little to think about. "She... passed away a year ago."

"Oh." Carl awkwardly shuffled on the spot. "My condolences."

Theo, sensing the conversation needed to be swerved away from the topic of Granny, decided to take the initiative on that. "So. How about you? What brings you to this humble Mountain?"

"I wouldn't exactly call the tallest peak in this mountain range 'humble', but..." He paused for a moment, adjusting his backpack. ."...to climb it. Why else would I show up?"

"Photo op. Sightseeing tour. Camping. News report. Lotta reasons somebody might come to a mountain besides climbing it," Theo summarized.

"All fair reasons. I take it you're both climbers, too?"

Madeline nodded. "We are, actually. I've already summited the Mountain once. I'm bringing Theo to the top this time, because he needs to see it."

Carl's eyes widened. "Whoa. I'm in the presence of a mountaineering veteran. Can I ask a question?"

"Go ahead."

"How's climbing Celeste like?"

That question gave Madeline some pause. How should she answer? How could she answer? If she told him everything that the Mountain could do, would he even believe her? She didn't quite want to be like Granny - standing on the sidelines, muttering vague platitudes in between put-downs - but she supposed there was a reason Granny was like that. Madeline hadn't believed half of what she said until she actually started climbing. No doubt Carl would see her as a raving lunatic if she tried to speak about even one tenth of the magical things that could and oftentimes did happen here.

"This is gonna sound really cliche, but... it's an experience," Madeline eventually decided on. A half-truth would have to do. "I haven't exactly climbed any other mountains, but from what I've heard, Celeste isn't like your average mountain. A lot of strange things can happen while you're climbing it, things you wouldn't really expect... I'm sorry, I can't really describe it all that well. It's something you have to see to believe. But when you do, it'll change you."

"Well... nothing I haven't already heard people say about this place," Carl surmised. "Makes me wonder if there's some kind of mountain cult I'm stumbling into."

"Mountain cult?" Theo was amused at the prospect. "The idea of that is, frankly, ridiculous."

"That's exactly what a mountain cultist would say to sucker naive strangers into their mountain cult," Carl jabbed back.

Madeline had been a little irked by how quickly Carl had written off her advice, though, and that response outright angered her. "We are not mountain cultists!" she shouted.

Carl froze on the spot at Madeline's outburst, turning still as the dead while the color drained from his face. He looked up at Madeline, and she could see a flash of unbridled fear. Not the "fear" her ex pretended to show whenever she threatened to (and then actually went and) broke up with them. Madeline could tell the difference between when somebody was playing scared and when somebody was actually scared. Carl was not playing.

It was gone as fast as it came, though when he spoke next, he sounded noticeably more subdued. "...did I go too far?"

Madeline sighed. She was willing to grant that maybe this was a bad first impression, but that didn't mean she had to apologize for being irritated. "I gave you honest advice and you didn't even take it seriously," Madeline groused. "You just wrote it off."

Carl's gaze swept towards the ground. "Oh. Uh. Sorry. I, er..." He took a moment to try and pull himself together. "That... wasn't my intent when I said that. I was just trying to make a joke, but... yeah. Looking back at that, I did kind of just act like a giant asshole there. I'm sorry, Madeline."

Even though he'd seemed abnormally scared for the type of loudmouth she'd assumed he was, Madeline was still surprised by how candid his apology was. "I didn't appreciate it, but... it's okay. You owned up to it. No offense, but usually when people like you do that they're trying to be mean, not funny. And they get upset when they're called out."

"None taken," Carl demurred. "Jokes are only funny if people laugh at them. If nobody's laughing, you need to change your material."

"Gotta say," Theo added, "that's a pretty mature way of looking at things."

Carl shook his head. "Nah. It's just having basic empathy for your fellow man. I don't go around trying to piss people off." He looked at Madeline for a moment. "I mean, I do that enough already." That got a snort out of her.

He proceeded to look up at the Mountain, yet again, clearly menaced by it. "I guess there really must be something special about Mount Celeste, then. There's a difference between reading a random Goggle Maps review that's got a half chance of being a lie, versus hearing what it's like from somebody who's actually been up the place."

"Yeah, there is," Madeline confirmed. "I wish I could tell you more, but... you do kinda have to see the stuff that's here, or you'll think I'm crazy. I mean, if you don't already."

"Yeah..." Carl trailed off. He stole another glance at the Mountain, and he looked for all the world as though he wanted to be anywhere else but where he was.

"Is this your first time climbing a mountain?" asked Theo.

"Yeah." Carl swallowed, thickly. "This... isn't normally what I do for recreation. It's a little intimidating, I have to admit."

"It can be scary your first time up," Madeline consoled. "Just remember that it's okay to be scared. Fear is what keeps you from making dumb mistakes on the climb."

Theo, meanwhile, looked down the trail, back from whence everyone else had came. "Are you here alone?"

Carl nodded. And in that moment Madeline could only see herself in him. During that first climb, she had been anxious. Scared out of her wits. Perversely convinced in some small way that she wouldn't have been able to do it, that it would have became too dangerous and that she would have had to turn back and limp home. He looked almost exactly like everything she had felt for the vast majority of her ascent. But even then, at least she had Theo to talk to as she made the climb, even if it was intermittent. Carl was doing it alone by his own admission.

Madeline felt bad for him. He wasn't a terrible person. A terrible person wouldn't apologize for their off-color jokes. He didn't deserve to go at this alone.

Maybe they could bring him along.

The second she had that thought, though, her pragmatic half made itself known. You do realize he's a stranger, right? You don't owe him anything. Are you trying to do this to make yourself feel better? You were a little torn up about Granny just now. Remember those people you tried to help who just cast you aside when you stopped being useful? I don't want to see you fall into that hole again.

I know, Madeline thought, I remember them too. But I feel fine, now. And I can't help but see myself in him. He's here all by himself, and he's just as scared as I was back then. You know as well as I do what the Mountain can do to people when they're unprepared. Having Theo around was good for me. He should have friends around, too.

He's bothered by something, continued Badeline. He has a problem. I can feel it. And you're thinking about inviting him along when you're just here to get Theo to the summit? You do realize what this means, given the route we have to take to get to the top. It might get Theo hurt. It might get you hurt.

That, though, was a salient point. It was a risk, given they were going through the Mirror Temple. Anything the man with them was putting himself through was only going to be amplified once they were inside. And Madeline remembered very well what her first time through there was like. It was undeniable that it could all end in tears.

(Off in the real world, Carl stared at Madeline for a moment, concerned. "Is she alright?" Theo knew what was happening, though, and he was always willing to play ball for her. "She just gets like that sometimes. Give her a minute." "Ah, overclocking the processor, eh? Don't worry, I get it.")

I understand how you feel, because you're right, Madeline acknowledged, speaking with her mind into whatever strange void Badeline resided in during these times. It is a risk, so I should at least ask Theo if it's something he wants to do. But if he says yes... I think we should do it. I want to do it. Remember what we learned, after what happened in the caves? When I learned to accept you?

Nobody can climb Mount Celeste alone. Badeline was quiet for a moment after repeating that. If he agrees, then I'll live with it. I just want you to be aware of the risks, okay?

Thank you, Madeline professed. Then she returned to reality. "...when she's trying to figure out how to get past something." Theo was speaking to Carl. "She just stands there for like two minutes looking at the problem and doing the math in her head, and then she goes and nails it. It's an experience."

"Sure sounds like it," Carl concurred. "But... you said she does that if she sees a problem. Am... am I the problem here?"

Madeline allowed herself a smirk. "Hey, Theo. Would you mind if we brought a third person with us up the Mountain?"

Theo had been friends with Madeline for a good three years now, and he'd been hanging out with her for nearly half of that. He knew how she thought, and he knew exactly who she was referring to when she asked. The man made a show of rubbing his beard in thought, before proclaiming, "I don't think it'd be a problem at all to bring somebody else with us. Of course..." Then he turned to look at Carl. "That's if he wants to come along."

Carl took a moment to respond, as he'd clearly been shocked the second Madeline implied she wanted him to join up. His gaze cycled between Madeline, Theo, the Mountain, then the ground in front of him. He was very clearly hesitant about the idea, and it was not at all lost on Madeline, nor her other self. I don't think he wants to come along, noted Badeline.

Well if he doesn't, that's his decision, Madeline figured. But... maybe it's selfish of me to assume this, but I get the feeling there's a reason he's taking a while. Don't you?

I do. I think there's something he isn't telling us.

"I, uh..." Finally, he spoke, and even verbally he sounded like he was stumbling over himself. "Well... sure, I guess."

"You sure you're alright with it?" Theo requested.

Carl nodded quickly. "Yeah, it's fine! I appreciate the offer. Like I said, it is a little scary to be going up something that big. The company will be nice. And I'll get the guided tour of the Mountain, right?"

"I know the place like the back of my hand," Madeline puffed. "And exactly how to get around it. Just listen to me and you'll turn out alright, okay?"

"Okay," Carl parroted. "There is safety in numbers, after all. Now I just gotta hope my equipment doesn't fail on me. All freshly purchased, so on the off chance it does, it's no big deal. Just means I've got a case for a couple of lawsuits."

"Looking on the bright side of life, huh?" laughed Theo.

"Hey, man, it's not all doom and gloom over here. I mean, I've still gotta survive the fall, but I'll be one rich man if I do."

"Well, money can't buy you food out here. Did you pack enough?" Madeline inquired.

"Don't worry about me," Carl responded. "I probably overpacked on snacks. And..." He turned around, to show off the massive water bottle resting in one of his backpack's mesh holsters. "...I brought a hell of a lot of water. If this isn't enough water to get me to the top of this place, then I think it is a sign from God that man was not meant to climb mountains."

Theo took a second to take in the ridiculous water jug he was bringing with him, juxtaposing that with the fact Madeline just had a plastic water bottle. "Yeah... I think that'll do it," he allayed, "but if that's somehow not enough we'll be stopping by a hotel and you can refill there."

Carl looked at Theo like he'd grown a second head. "There's a hotel here?"

Madeline flashed a thumbs-up. "Yep. The Celestial Resort! Fifteen hundred metres up the slope. Fully furnished, and fully functional."

"I... Wow. Who builds a hotel on a mountain? Who builds a hotel on the climb? Next you'll be telling me there's an entire city here."

Theo smirked. "Stick with us and you'll find out."

Suppressing an even more devilish smirk than the one she'd just worn, Madeline set out across the rickety stone bridge that led to the climb proper. She remembered how it collapsed on her the first time she'd crossed. It was a miracle she was even alive when all was said and done, and it looked like it had been rather hastily repaired when she came back down after summiting the mountain. Now it looked professional again. Granny had probably managed to refurbish it one last time before she passed. Even in death, the old coot was still looking out for the people climbing the mountain.

"The bridge is safe, by the way," she absentmindedly informed. "You sure?" Carl nervously queried.

Madeline turned around, walking backwards. "I mean, I am walking on it, right?"

That seemed to set him at ease, or at least as at ease as he could get. With that out of the way, Madeline remembered that she had just been talking to Badeline about all of this. As she turned around, she decided to try and have another interior dialogue. So. Am I there now?

Yes. Madeline's heart soared. Need something?

No, Madeline returned, it's just been a while since we've talked. A while since I've been back here, really.

But you've been listening to me, countered Badeline. Really well, too. What're you trying to say?

That I miss this, Madeline exposited. Talking with words at each other. I mean, even if you are a part of me, it's nice to be able to have a conversation. I miss when we were talking while we came down from the Summit. I miss you.

For a moment, Badeline didn't respond. But her tiny Thank you came bundled with a warmth that coiled around her body, the strange way that she felt self-acceptance on these magic cliffs. A psychic embrace. So. What'cha wanna talk about?

The second Badeline asked that, Madeline tried to think of something to talk about that wasn't Carl (she'd already made her feelings on him quite well known). She couldn't think of anything. She'd managed to get Badeline on the line, which was halfway to her manifesting in reality, and she was so caught up over everything that was going on that she realized she had no idea what else to say to her.

Badeline laughed. Really hard.

It was music to her ears.

Chapter Text

"Man. My words sure do taste good."

Carl still wasn't sure how to feel about his newfound companions. He'd planned to do this alone from the start. He didn't want anyone else to know about what he was doing, out of fear of how they'd react if they learned the whole story. But Madeline and Theo were nice. Not the sort of nice with a blade behind its back. Nor the "nice" that expected rewards for decent behavior. He'd only talked to them for maybe a few minutes, but he got the impression they were fundamentally good people, and they wanted him to come along. How could he refuse? He'd look like a real piece of work if he did, and he'd already pissed Madeline off once.

Looks like I'll need to pull a fast one to make this work, then, he'd thought at the time. But I can do this. I can make this work. I have to.

So he agreed, and they'd set out along the trail. There wasn't too much talk, and Carl was glad for it, because it gave him time to try and think about what he needed to do in order to execute the perfect crime. Of course, right after he'd put together his cunning plan, it was blown away when they crested a ridge and Carl spied a city built into the side of the mountain. There were things he'd expected to see when he'd committed to doing this, like snow-capped cliffs and tall rock faces. Skyscrapers? Road signs? Lights in the distance? He hadn't expected any of those. He'd stared for a good twenty seconds, slack-jawed at the sight, before he became keenly aware of Madeline and Theo staring at him, with big shit-eating grins.

So he ate his words, to the tune of mirthful giggling from Madeline and Theo. "Hey, I did tell you the Mountain was a strange place, didn't I?" Madeline chided.

"You did," Carl gave. "You did tell me. And I didn't believe you."

Madeline seemed to shrug it off. "I didn't believe half the stuff I heard about this place, either. Not until I got here."

"Well, consider me inducted into the mountain cult, then," Carl japed, as they resumed their approach to the city in the distance. The closer he got, the crazier it seemed. Some of the buildings seemed like they were built right into the mountain itself, and he could spy, off in the distance, bright yellow construction equipment. "That's... a crane," he spotted. "Why is there a crane there?"

"They never finished," Madeline supplied.

"They never finished." For a moment, all of Carl's fear of climbing the mountain was forgotten in favor of just how strange the place seemed to be. "Well, why were they building this, then? And for that matter, who is 'they'? Who builds a city into the side of a mountain?"

"A megacorporation," Theo answered. "Not sure why they started building the place, but nobody actually wanted to live here, so they just up and left. If you ask me, I think the government told them to stop, given all the stuff that happens here. Covered it up."

At least this place is proving entertaining, Carl thought. "And now we have political intrigue, too. Mount Celeste doesn't fail to amaze, I see. You got any thoughts, Madeline?"

"I don't think the government told them to stop," Madeline espoused. "I've been here a few times, and the Mountain can be a trying place to be. I just think that people came here, and they found it really hard to live here, and they left. And when the money dried up, the megacorporation left too."

"Do we know which one it was?" Carl inquired.

"No, and we never will," Madeline said. "Whatever they were, they threw everything they had into this, and when they left they scrubbed every indication of who they were away. I'd say it were a waste, if I still wasn't convinced the Mountain ejected them because it didn't want them here."

"Which is why," Theo interjected, "I think it was a government cover-up. Their name was scrubbed, they ran away... there's still construction equipment here! Just lying around, like they had to leave so fast they didn't even have any time to pick up after themselves. It makes sense."

Madeline frowned, just a little. "Theo, I'm not gonna restart this. We've had that argument like twenty times. It never gets anywhere."

"Fair enough," Theo shrugged. "Just keep that in mind when you get there, Carl."

"And no tainting the impressionable newcomer with your conspiratory nonsense!"

Carl pshawed. "Oh, don't worry about me, my third eye's already open. I'm still surprised somebody hasn't investigated 3/11 yet."

"Sounds to me," Madeline returned, though this time it was clear she was speaking in jest, "like you don't want some help climbing Mount Celeste, Carl."

"Alright, alright," Carl demurred. It seemed as though he wasn't going to be able to get a straight answer about who had built this city. Perhaps, Carl figured, he could find one if he looked hard enough.

A few minutes later they began to enter the city proper. The well-trod path turned to gravel turned to asphalt, albeit asphalt strewn with cracks and littered with so many potholes that Carl started to wonder at what point you could still consider what he was walking on a road. Madeline seemed to make it a sport to stay on the road and jump between the potholes, while Theo deftly and gracefully slid between them. Carl, in contrast, bulldozed right on through them, checking his step to make sure he didn't trip up over any. As they navigated the highway, they passed by a weathered road sign, colored a pale shade that might have been considered green thirty years ago when it was fresh out of the factory. Carl paused for a moment to see if anything was written on it, but the only legible item on the signage was a single arrow pointing forwards towards the urban zone in the background. There was a name - or, at least, the fragments of one - but time had washed it nearly clean. Definitely not getting an answer, then, he thought. It seemed even nature had forsaken this city.

Snow began to drift from the sky on their journey. "Here comes the snow," Carl observed on behalf of nobody in particular.

As the skyscrapers loomed taller, the climbing party passed by a field of construction vehicles, a sea of faded yellow-red tones filled with backhoes and excavators and pavers. They must have been strong and mighty, once, but now they were merely homes for wildlife as Madeline pointed out squirrels running along the top of a trencher, to the tune of Theo capturing the event with an incredibly large camera. There was little organization in how they were parked, save for the fact they had been arranged in a neat and orderly grid, waiting for pickup that must have never come. A praetorian guard to usher in the determined. Or the foolish.

Just past the welcoming party lay the actual city itself, the environment abruptly transitioning from snowy plains to Main Street. The skyscrapers above were clearly unfinished. Only one was actually in a state that resembled "done", and even then a crane was perched atop it, permanently frozen in building cadence, while the windows underneath it were a mixture of intact, cracked, and shattered. Above ground level, where most of the utility and business buildings still possessed glowing lights and active signs, everything was in differing states of completeness. Some buildings were lucky enough to have walls. Most were little more than scaffolding surrounding unfinished floor after unfinished floor, in permanent stasis.

Few cars were parked anywhere. Carl didn't need more than a cursory glance at the ones that were present to tell that nothing here was going to drive out intact. "And here I was thinking this would take me away from civilization for a while," Carl mused. "But look where I've come."

"A child of the wilderness, are you?" ventured Theo.

"Oh, no, I am absolutely a city slicker," Carl corrected. "After you've lived out in the sticks and you need to drive 30 minutes for everything but the most basic services, it's really nice to be able to just... get things done whenever you want. You can just, like, go, and it's there."

"I've never really lived in a rural area," Madeline commented. "I've spent most of my time in Vancouver. What's it like "in the sticks"?"

"Well," Carl exposited, "if you can get used to long drives everywhere that isn't the grocery store, it is kinda nice. Traffic beats the city, if you can live with more people who don't know or care about how to drive. You're never too far from nature, and it's usually mostly untouched. And it's quiet. It does have an appeal, I've just been addicted to how convenient urban sprawl is since I got here."

"I wouldn't call a traffic jam convenient," Theo snarked.

"Well I wouldn't call potholes appealing either, and guess what there's a lot of out there," Carl counter-snarked.

"Maybe I should try it sometime," Madeline considered. "I mean, I have the keys to the cabin back there. It does sound like a nice way to unplug, if I ever need to."

"Always worth a shot, right?" As he spoke, Carl passed by a shop. It looked like it was supposed to have been a fine jewelry store, given the advertisements inside it, and the lights were on. But the cases were empty. Had the stock been pulled out when whatever endeavor this city was a part of was cancelled? Carl dwelled on it, and decided it was unlikely. Given how Madeline and Theo spoke, this city's people had made themselves scarce like they were evacuating some disaster. There wouldn't have been time to empty the stores, and in light of that, looters would have taken anything here if there was anything. Glass wasn't enough of an obstacle to stop somebody willing to come out all this way for easy money. More likely, this outlet's wares simply never arrived to begin with.

In the distance, a billboard sat atop a building. Unlike the earlier signpost, it was clearly legible: a car advertisement. "NOW THIS IS A REAL CAR", it proclaimed, about a rather generic-looking boxy hatchback. The billboard looked to be in good condition, albeit a little icy, which spoke to something given the general state of unfinished disrepair everything else was in.

Up ahead, Madeline seemed to notice something peeking out of a nearby alley, and she headed over, kneeling down. "Find another berry?" Theo asked, following her.

"I did!" Madeline stood back up, showcasing a large, ripe strawberry. Behind her, a strawberry plant sprouted up from a crack between the pavement and a brick-walled building.

Carl's eyes widened. "Strawberries grow here?"

Madeline nodded, slinging her backpack off. "A lot of them. I had so many strawberries the first time I came up that I can't remember how I fit them all into my bag. And they ripen in winter, too." She moved to slide the berry into a pouch, but then looked over towards Carl and held it out. "Wanna try it?"

"Sure," Carl chose, heading over and popping the berry into his mouth. The world blurred out of focus as he chewed, overwhelmed by flavor. In basically every way he could think of, it was the best strawberry he'd ever eaten. "Good lord," he moaned, through a mouthful of pulp. "How has this remained secret? I don't think I've tasted a strawberry as..." He swallowed, trying for a moment to describe the face of God. "...strawberry as these!"

"People just don't talk about this place," Theo stated. "A city in the middle of nowhere isn't the weirdest Mount Celeste gets. Maddy said you need to see this place to believe the magic, and that goes both ways - nobody would believe the stuff that happens here. So nobody talks about it."

"It's a good thing, too," Madeline added on as she straightened out her knapsack. "Sometimes I worry about what would happen if the Mountain's... Mountain-ness was public knowledge. But then again..." She gestured to the city around them. "A megacorporation couldn't stay here. I get the feeling not a whole lot would change."

Carl hummed in agreement. "Still. I suppose I shouldn't be talking too much about this place, not that I'd planned to. I'd hate for you to lose all your berries, Madeline."

"Total berry fanatic over there," Theo cracked.

Madeline mock pouted. "Now I'm wishing I hadn't fed him that strawberry. Maybe I could have thrown it at you for that."

"Hey, Theo? You're welcome," laughed Carl.

"God, the both of you are incorrigible!" Madeline lamented. But she was smiling all the while.

The pizza place was an empty hole in the wall. There was a legible menu, and there were working lights, and in the back corner was a dusty neon jukebox, everything visible through the window with only a mild patina of dust smearing the scene.

Click.

Theo only spent a moment inspecting the photo on his camera before moving on. He'd been here before, but it seemed like he was always finding something new to snap a shot of. This city may have been empty, but if anything that made it more interesting than Vancouver or Seattle or anywhere else he'd been.

He'd been taking a few shots of things he'd already seen, too, because now he didn't just have a smartphone with him. He had some real firepower.

After Madeline's first strawberry they'd spent nearly three hours following her through the streets of the city, off the beaten trail of the main path, and places like the vacant pizza parlor were the norm. This section of the city was mostly intact, and it was probably well frequented before it was abandoned. Even so, it was still a pretty harsh uphill climb, with nary but a few moments where the gradient leveled off. And it wasn't all just pleasant walking, either - there were points where Madeline lead everyone else away from blocked off, impassable roads through complicated side routes, down alleyways and through basements. Or into unfinished buildings, where they had to scale incomplete walls just to drop off the other side of them, all to get around festering sinkholes that were swallowing some of the less stable roads.

This wasn't Theo's first rodeo, so he was used to everything that came with scaling the Mountain. But this was very clearly Carl's, and he had many questions as he did his best to keep pace with the inexhaustible supply of energy that was Madeline. Unfortunately, there were few viable answers for what he had to ask. Many things about this city remained cloaked in mystery, like how most of the buildings down here still had power. And every year without maintenance, it only degraded further. Even Madeline, the mountain explorer she was, thought spelunking to go find what powered this city was a terrible idea.

Eventually, after a quick jaunt through a construction site and over some pits filled with anti-homeless spikes that made Theo very happy whoever had built this place had decided to leave, Madeline led them to one of the buildings that had been hewn into the slopes of the Mountain itself. Theo recognized it right after he saw it. It was a weird kind of shopping mall that had decided to build tall rather than long. Madeline had talked about it after she came back from another mountain climbing trip. Up where the building stopped digging into the mountain rock, a crane had been swung through the highest set of windows present. "Whoa," Carl remarked as it came into view. "That's in the mountain. Is that safe?"

"Not really," Madeline blasely replied, "but it's better than the alternative. In any case, we might want to be quick through this place. You think you can handle it?"

Carl didn't look entirely like he could. But he nodded. "I can," he resolved. Without much further adieu, the party entered the building.

It was like walking into one of America's abandoned malls. While the floor was covered in hardened tracks of mud and ice, everything else was clean and untouched. Muzak from the 1970s echoed through the halls, scratchy and faint, yet still somehow playing after decades of isolation. Theo remembered thinking to himself this place would have made a killer horror movie set the first time he was through here.

"This is eerie," Carl muttered. "The garbage bins are empty, the stores are all open... I know you said they'd up and left, Madeline, but it's like they just disappeared. Like they were minding their own business and the Rapture vanished all of them in an eyeblink."

"Yeah," Madeline agreed as they passed through the long hall towards a set of escalators on either end. "Really makes you wonder what happened to this place. All these pointless machines, just left behind as they were..." She veered off to take the escalator on the left, though 'take' was a vigorous description of the action, as both of the escalators were inoperative, little more than overengineered staircases.

Theo took a look at the one on the right, and it became very, very easy to see why Madeline had gone that way: its midsection was gone. Apparently, neither had been built with any support beams underneath them, probably in the name of aesthetics. Whether it was simply the unkindness of time or some determined vandals (as scummy as it was, Theo knew some people were just like that), half the escalator had collapsed into the ice cream parlor below it. Tables and chairs were upended and littered with stairs, while at the severed top end of the escalator the snapped chains that once drove those stairs drooled from twisted metal.

Click. That was gonna make for a great surreal picture.

"Holy crap..." Theo looked away from his camera for a moment. Carl had caught sight of the bizarre wreck, though given how he looked at the other escalator afterwards, he wasn't quite taking it in stride.

"Not a pretty sight, eh?" Theo asked.

Carl shook his head vigorously. "Well... she certainly wasn't overstating it," he replied. "Let's get through this place before it falls apart on us."

The intact escalator was still quite a creaky walk up. It was old and aged and its service life had probably ended a decade ago. Carl practically dashed up it as far as he could until he got up behind Madeline, at which point all he could do was just antsily match pace with her. Theo wondered how he lived when he was that worried about everything. From what he remembered of Madeline talking about her experiences with anxiety, though, Carl must have found some way to survive out there if he could rock all that fancy, new climbing equipment.

The second floor wasn't too different from the first, though it was here that the damage started to become more apparent. One of the windows looking outdoors was covered in a spiderweb of cracks, not yet broken but well on the way. The "Floor 2" sign on the ceiling was hanging by one of its chains, dangling and creaking. A poster, torn at the edges and tattered in places but somehow still intact, featured a very aggressive man hawking some "Man Up!" energy drink (Theo had seen a few of those billboards around, too). A draft wafted through the building, from a shattered skylight a few floors above.

"Man, if the place keeps deteriorating like this," Carl quipped, clearly doing his best to not mind the second set of escalators that was just as creaky and unstable as the first, "we're gonna find a nest of monsters on, what, the fourth floor? The fifth?"

"Six floors here," Madeline added. "I think the sixth is office space. Or was office space."

"Oh, that's definitely where the nest of monsters is."

Theo smirked as they arrived on the third floor, covered in rubble and loose floor tiles from several holes in the floor above as well as a few collapsed support pillars. "Carl, you keep thinking like that and there might actually be a nest of monsters there. I say it's just a bunch of cute bunnies."

"Yeah... that'd be a little better," Carl chuckled, as he stared at the piles of rubble and the chunks missing from the ceiling. Fortunately, while he may have been easily distractable, he seemed to be fast to get back onto the horse as they ascended to the fourth floor. The floor here was shaky and loose, every footfall shortly followed by the sound of a bit of plaster shaking free from the other side. Theo hurried his step, as he didn't want to be here any more than anyone else did.

"You know, given how many escalators are here," Carl noticed, as they headed up to the fifth floor, "it's kinda surprising that this place doesn't have an elevator."

"I know, right?" concurred Madeline. "You'd think there'd at least be one under construction, but no! Nothing."

"Must be intentional," Theo surmised. "Make you spend all that time getting to where you want, tempt you to part with a few extra dollars. Like how grocery stores put the milk right at the back of the store to make you walk past everything."

"Then again, given how this place looks like it's doing, I think I'd probably still be taking the stairs," Carl figured. "If there were elevators here, getting into them would result in either nothing happening or summary execution."

"Yeah, probably," Theo acceded, as they arrived at the fifth floor, greeted by a massive skylight overlooking the rest of the city. Through the shattered glass, of which only a few jagged edges remained in the sill, partial high-rises, exposed I-beams, and abandoned machines stretched nearly as far as the eye could see. The snow gently wafting down from the sky made the lights on in the distance take on a fuzzy glow, the mirror image of a rainy night. It was beautiful.

Raising the camera, getting the right focus, taking the perfect picture? Easy every time. In Theo's opinion, using a full-size camera was just like using a smartphone. You just had a lot more settings to play with, and you needed to if you wanted the picture to come out any good.

Carl clearly saw the same beauty Theo did, because he'd stopped near him to stare out the window at the scene. He looked enraptured. Theo gave him a nudge. "Great view, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Carl breathed, in that sort of distant way that people spoke when they weren't really paying all that much attention to anything other than what was in front of them. "It is."

They stood there for a moment to appreciate the view. After a minute, Theo looked over towards Madeline, who was emerging from a messy pile of overgrowth that was once a flower shop, another strawberry in her hands. It was probably going to be time to move soon, so he tapped Carl's shoulder. "You good?"

Carl nodded. "I'm good. Where to next?"

Madeline pointed towards a nearby hallway as she started walking towards it. There was a doorframe there, absent a door. "Through there. That has the staircase that'll take us to the top floor. And the washrooms."

"You mean there's no washrooms anywhere else in the building?" queried Carl.

"Nope!"

Carl took one last look at the fifth floor and its decrepit shops. "Well, there you have it. The people who designed this place were pure evil. No wonder Celeste kicked them out." Then he turned and followed Theo into the hallway, towards the next climb.

The office was a cloistered farm of cubicles that looked so generic it managed to defy description. This wasn't even her first time through here, yet Madeline struggled to think of how to explain just how drab and boring it was. Fortunately, she didn't have to stay very long. It was a straight walk through to the only window present, and the only bit of spice there: it was broken, and stabbing through the window was a crane that lead to some otherwise difficult-to-access rooftops. An easy alternate path through the city, albeit not a particularly fast one.

"Crane's stable, right?" Carl, right on cue. His fear was palpable, and quite vocal. It grated just a little, but Madeline could empathize with it. This mountain was scary to a first-timer. "It is," Madeline confirmed. "Wasn't actually like this at first until somebody decided to move it. I guess they must have figured nobody would care enough to sue them for it."

She pulled herself up onto the crane and steadied herself on the metal gantry running along the jib. She knew far better than to look down. Then she turned around, watching Theo climb onto the crane, then Carl pull himself up after.

"By the way, don't look down!" she called out.

Carl looked down on the spot as if commanded, stumbled, and fell to his knees on the gantry, swearing. Theo laughed it off. Madeline sighed.

Smooth, came the pragmatic voice in her head.

Shush, Madeline thought.

And now you want me gone? cackled Badeline. You're a real class act, darling.

"Alright," Carl yelled as he stood up. "I'm good! Learned that lesson! So... why're we headed this way?"

Madeline flashed a thumbs-up and started walking along the crane, towards the ladder down onto the roof it was mounted onto. "It's a shortcut! We go across the rooftops of these buildings and through the construction zones and it'll put us out near the end of the trail through the city."

"That plan sounds a bit dangerous," Carl waffled.

"Trust me," Theo interjected, "it's better than the alternative. The actual trail itself goes through some pretty gnarly parts of town where they didn't even finish landscaping before they started trying to build. It's actually more dangerous down there than it is up here."

Madeline slid down the ladder, checking to make sure that the floor was stable for her landing after she started. It was fun to go fast, feel the wind whipping through her hair, even if it blistered her hands and cut her skin to do it too much around these parts. "Comforting," she could still hear Carl sigh over the sound of her landing. While her companions took a minute to climb down the ladder like sensible people, she took in the view of the city, and where they were headed. If she squinted, she could just barely see the massive epitaph she slept by on her first trip here.

In the corner of her eye, she spotted a swatch of red, and walked over to the corner of an air vent, where another strawberry plant poked up between the concrete and the metal. She picked the strawberry, determined it to be fresh and ripe, and slid it into her backpack in the span of a second. She would have liked to say that she was an old hand at finding them, but some days it felt like the berries found her instead.

For another two and a half hours after that she lead the adventuring party across the canopy of this unfinished urban jungle, through the route she'd found during one of her many trips to the Mountain. It was incredible just how safe going this way was compared to the actual trail through the city. This took into account regular occurrences like walking up 40 year old scaffolding that shook violently under their weight. Or the careful tightrope walking across exposed I-beams iced over so faintly you had to know what you were looking for to see the hazards. Or climbing across ladders precariously balanced across rooftops so that you wouldn't have to try and make a running jump. Or the one part of the climb so far where they actually had to climb, up an apartment block, which had few exterior furnishings beyond a climbing rope threaded through several pitons hammered into the stone of the building.

Madeline took far too much pride in seeing the utterly astonished look on Carl's face when she managed to scramble up the side of the building without safety equipment, simply through knowing where all the ledges and good handholds were, and excellent utilization of her core and upper body strength. It took Theo and Carl a good five minutes to scale up the building using the rope to climb. That was four minutes and thirty seconds Madeline got to herself, and as she looked at the rather ill-fitting advertisement for the "Ideal Beach Body" that seemed just a touch more iced over than the last time she was here, she felt Badeline being smug about her achievement, too.

All of those hazards and danger, and that was still preferable to the inexplicable drops and rises of the old route she'd taken. The leaps of faith across factory assembly lines that had fallen apart, over pits of disused, rusty construction equipment that looked like it could transmit tetanus just from looking at it wrong. Climbing up twisted, sharpened, frozen metal that nicked at her hands even when it was smooth. Every time she stumbled or slipped, all it took was a look down at the ridiculous gaps she had managed to traverse the first time to realize how good she had it up here, sweating over every piece of exposed dais.

Of course, the route being safe r didn't mean it was safe .

One of the path's few jumps was near the end, from the end of a crane to the roof of one of the precious few buildings that were intact in this part of town. It wasn't too far a jump, all things considered, but they were decently high up. A fall wouldn't end very well. Madeline made it with speed to spare. A bit too much speed, actually: she slid across half the roof. Theo made it, though he stumbled and nearly took a fall on the landing. "Easy every ti..." he began.

Then Carl didn't make it.

He ran across the gantry, but when he moved to jump, he slipped on a patch of ice, his left leg shooting behind him. He fell forwards, reaching out with both arms for the roof of the building, all in an instant. Madeline started running, but Carl hadn't gotten enough air. He wasn't going to make it. Horror slowly froze her chest as she realized that he was going to hit the side of the building and fall to his death-

No.

Madeline felt herself shoot out of herself. With a sound like rushing wind, Badeline - corporeal, present, mobile - blasted across the roof in the blink of an eye and grabbed one of Carl's hands. There was a thump as he hit the building, but Badeline did not falter, and with that arm alone she pulled him up the side of the building and dumped him onto the roof, purple hair billowing in the wind.

Madeline stood there in disbelief. Theo let out a whooping cheer. Carl was too busy roleplaying an air pump to notice any of this.

"Holy moly, Badeline!" hollered Theo. "What a save! That could not have been more perfectly timed!"

Badeline whipped her hair, looking very clearly at Madeline and Theo. She grinned, showing off her fangs. "You're welcome," she crowed.

"You're... you're here," Madeline muttered, dumbstruck.

"That I am, darling," confirmed Badeline, as she walked over towards her other self. "Seemed like you needed a hand."

"Yeah," Madeline admitted, finally finding her voice around then. "I did. Thanks for saving him. If you hadn't come out..."

"He woulda died," finished Badeline. "Wouldn't even be dignified, either. Some idiots left a few I-beams down below that jump, pointed up. Our little tagalong woulda been speared on them."

"Yeesh," cringed Theo. "Good thing you decided to come out. Speaking of, how's it been, Goth Maddy?"

Badeline headed over towards Theo, a real smile on her face, and the two performed a rather complicated on-the-spot fist bump maneuver. "It's been real, Theo. We've been getting along fine..." She looked back at Madeline for a moment. "Most of the time, anyways. If you're wondering about that time she called you after Granny passed?" Badeline proceeded to jerk both thumbs at herself. "That was all me."

"She... did help me a lot to process it," Madeline sheepishly admitted, scuffing the faintly snow-covered roof as Badeline headed back over, seemingly making the intentional decision to walk like a normal person rather than float like Madeline knew she could do.

"Aren't you glad you've got me around?" puffed Badeline.

"Okay," came the voice of their newest arrival, "I'm seeing double. That's, uh.. not good, I don't think." Three heads turned as one to look at Carl, who was shakily pulling himself to his feet. It would have been hard to tell if it was anxiety or actual injury, if it weren't for the helmet and the joint pads. "Madeline, do you have an identical twin you haven't been telling us about, or am I just brain damaged?"

"Brain damaged," jabbed Badeline, who had started floating up into the air. Carl vacantly stared, looking very confused about the fact Badeline was floating, so Madeline decided to step in. "I do, in fact, have an identical twin I haven't been telling you about," she affirmed. "Theo knows about her, though. It's a long story, but she's a part of me that the Mountain manifested as a person." She looked towards her alter ego. "Do you want to introduce yourself?"

Badeline blinked slowly. "Badeline," she placidly offered.

"Badeline," Carl repeated. "Carl. And the mountain... made you. How?"

Badeline shrugged. "Magic," she said. It wasn't quite the truth, but when it came to what had made her split off, it was close enough.

For a moment, Carl looked like he didn't believe her, but then everything seemed to click. "Madeline, is this is what you meant when you said strange things happened on the slopes?"

"That," Theo expressed, "is exactly what she meant, and that's only the half of it."

"Right." Carl dusted himself off. "So, whoever saved my ass back there... thanks."

Madeline glanced over at Badeline, who was busy frowning. She didn't want to acknowledge Carl. Madeline didn't blame her, but she elbowed her anyways and gave her a Look.

"You're welcome," drawled Badeline, in a barely motivated voice. Carl nodded. If he'd caught onto Badeline's unwillingness to really give him a response, he didn't seem to want to push the issue.

"Are you hurt?" Madeline inquired, suddenly remembering after the rush of her other half finally appearing that Carl had nearly died.

"Just my dignity, I think," Carl responded, stretching and patting himself down. "Nothing feels broken. Or torn. I'm good to keep going, barring any more attempts on my life. Where next, then?"

Madeline pointed towards a nearby stairwell. "Down the stairs. This place is pretty well built, considering the state of the city around it. Only a few more places we've got to run and we'll be out of here."

"Hallelujah," praised Carl, before the party set out on the last leg through the City.

Badeline would have very much preferred to be in Madeline's head. Now that Madeline had stopped beating her down every time she had tried to offer up a solution to their ills that involved even a remote level of self-assertion, it was much comfier and nicer inside her. Most of the time she was barely aware of her own existence. To some, perhaps, a horrifying thought - to be so closely assimilated with something that you stop being consciously aware of your own individuality. And it was a horrifying thought to Badeline at first. But after all this time, it felt more like their thought processes being so closely aligned there was no real difference between one or the other. Maybe it felt like that because she was a part of Madeline that wasn't supposed to be separate from the whole. It was hard to quantify just what, exactly, she was, and Badeline didn't really care to try and figure it out. She was her, and that was all she needed to know.

All in all, though, it wasn't too bad to be corporeal again. There was a certain thrill to having a body, and being able to do things, and talking. But all the stuff that she wanted to do with her body, she didn't feel comfortable doing, because she was now constantly in the proximity of a ticking time bomb.

Something about Carl rubbed her the wrong way. She didn't know what Carl thought of her in turn, but she aggressively did not care. The only people she cared about here were Madeline and Theo, and bless their hearts they were kind, but was this the time to be charitable? Mount Celeste was dangerous. Mountain climbing in general was dangerous, and Carl was an unknown quantity even before the fact that he was clearly emotionally constipated, as much as he tried to hide it with terrible quips. And the Mountain had a very funny way of trying to help people like that, which was nearly indistinguishable from preying on them. His presence near them was putting everyone at risk, and then on top of that she had to save him after he slipped up on the world's easiest jump to keep her better half from becoming actively traumatized.

But Madeline genuinely wanted to help Carl out, and she seemed to understand the risk she was being exposed to in the process. Badeline vehemently disagreed with the prospect, based on past experiences Madeline had doing exactly this, but there were a lot of things she had been saying for the past year or so that Madeline didn't like, and yet she still trusted Badeline enough to follow through on them. It would have been churlish and downright immature for her not to reciprocate the trust they were building, even if she thought this was a mistake.

So she tried to enjoy being a person and tried to come off as unapproachable, which given her rather literally "ghastly" appearance was pretty easy. All she had to do was float and go boo if Carl approached her for anything trivial that Madeline wasn't interested in. It wasn't ideal, but life wasn't ideal. She'd live.

Madeline led everyone through the remainder of the path. It was through the high-rise they were on top of, then out onto some construction scaffolding surrounding another incomplete building that looked like it was built halfway into the mountain. Then a drop into that building: the first floor was finished. Madeline took the drop like a champ. Theo climbed nearly halfway down before dropping.

Carl hesitated, clearly a bit nervous about the fall before he stepped off, and as Badeline floated down she took morbid pleasure both in how anxious he felt and the stare she got as he watched her casually negate gravity. At least there was one positive thing about him being here.

It wasn't too far from there to get out of the city. The party was now assembled in an icy concourse, and a gym's rock climbing wall was loosely balanced against the actual rock wall that lead up and away from the city. A billboard that failed to convince Badeline the watch on it was a "symbol" hung over the area, its clear existence yet another reminder of the skewed corporate priorities of those who ran this city. In the other direction was something Badeline remembered mostly from Madeline's memories of her first climb, a wasteland of unfinished buildings and difficult terrain that looked outright impossible for a human being to cross. It was hard for her to understand how Madeline got through this the first time.

Carl felt the same way. He stared for a bit, and eventually Madeline caught him. "Enjoying the view?"

Carl turned to face Madeline. "How did you get across all that?" He gestured with an arm to the expanse behind them that they'd managed to cheat their way past thanks to Madeline's earlier exploratory efforts. "God, if I knew how I'd do it again with a GoSkill on for the Internet to see!" she giggled in response. "But if I were you, I'd just feel lucky you didn't have to go through that."

"Yeah," Carl granted, still very clearly intimidated by that obstacle course's mere existence. "I'll go ahead and take your word for it." Then he started heading towards the rock climbing wall.

As Badeline floated over towards it, Theo fell in next to her. "It's great to have you back, Baddy," Theo gushed. "Can I call you Baddy?"

"I guess," warbled Badeline. "It's like calling her Maddy, right?"

"Yup!" Madeline shouted from the rock wall she was currently scrambling up. "Pretty much exactly like that!"

"I never really got to hang out with you a whole lot," Theo continued. "You were there for like five minutes that one time, and then you and Strawberry were off."

"You had the party," countered Badeline.

"That was one evening," Theo parried, as Carl started climbing the wall, Madeline having already scrambled her way up it. "I've hung out with Madeline for like a thousand times that much time! So like, you mind if I chill out near you?"

"Sure," she permitted, watching Carl's measured ascent. At least he had some semblance of survival instinct going for him, so he probably wouldn't intentionally get people killed.

Theo seemed to catch onto her look, maybe because he absolutely knew this whole time that Madeline had a friendly talk with her before they invited him along. "Not a fan, huh."

Badeline shook her head. "He's hiding something. It's so obvious, and on this mountain it'll get him dead. It might get us dead, too. Why doesn't he just talk?"

"My money's on him dealing with something personal," bet Theo. "He doesn't seem that bad, just..." He trailed off for a moment, trying to figure out a nice way to describe the problem.

Badeline, of course, had no such compunctions about being polite. She called it Like It Was. "Like his mouth moves faster than his brain?"

Theo snickered as Carl finally made it to the top, and he stepped forwards to start his own climb. "Yeah, about. But he doesn't seem mean. He'll tell us when he's ready."

Badeline casually floated up next to him, ready to catch Theo if he fell. "If you think so," she frowned. There was quiet for a moment, and through the wind and the creaking sounds of the city she heard the conversation above her.

"...be heading through that." That was Madeline. "It's not as bad as the city is. Just... maybe don't go to sleep there."

"Dare I ask why I shouldn't pass out in the spooky magic mountain castles?" And that was Carl.

"I had a really freaky dream about them, and it resulted in Badeline coming to life... or splitting off from me, I guess," Madeline informed. "Like I said a few hours ago, strange things happen on the slopes. So take a nap here at your own peril."

"Well after that near-death experience back there on the cranes, I don't think I could sleep if I tried," griped Carl.

"Speaking of, how are you feeling?" Madeline segued.

"Well, I did nearly die, yeah," Carl reported. "Odd bits of me still hurt, and I'm pretty sure your dark side doesn't really like me all that much. But given what this place seems like, I guess I'm doing fine."

Madeline immediately came to Badeline's defense. "Badeline isn't really comfortable around new people all the time. She'll warm up to you in a little bit. You just need to wait it out."

"Ooooh," Carl understood. "She's a grouch. Got it."

Badeline balled her hands into a fist and looked up. "I heard that!"

She could hear Carl sigh, in some type of resigned way. Like he was expecting her to be assertive and defend herself from being insulted. If he was gonna be like that, he could go and screw himself. Maybe she could pre-empt all of this by throwing him down the mountain like she did with Madeline the first time up.

Okay, let's not do that, she decided after a second of thought. Madeline would probably hate you for it, and it's kind of an unreasonable use of force anyways. She thought for another moment as Theo pulled himself up onto the plateau overlooking the city. That, and he wouldn't fall very far down from here.

The plateau was barren and flat, half-covered in snow. In one direction was the rest of the City. In the other, the sprawling, rotting castle complex that Madeline referred to as the "Old Site". The epitaph for fallen climbers was nearby, extruded out from the mountain's soil on a carefully tended pedestal. Badeline knew what was inscribed on it without even having to focus. It was a grave for the untold many who had fallen here before Madeline's most recent trip, and for the untold many who would fall after. And hopefully, not for anyone presently gathered.

"Anyways... are we all doing okay?" Madeline looked over everyone. "We've been at it for a few hours, and I know I can be a little much when it comes to this. Anyone need to rest?"

"Nope," Theo chirped. "I'm good to go for a while longer! A little hungry, though."

"Honestly," Carl began. "I'm winded . How long have we been at this for? Can we take a break? Am I allowed to ask that?"

"You can, Carl. It's alright. We're at a good rest spot anyways," Madeline proclaimed. "Let's take a break for a few minutes and eat. We've got a lot of mountain ahead of us."

Badeline floated off the ledge, watching as everyone settled in. Madeline walked over to the ledge, sitting down on it before pulling her backpack off and rifling through it for snacks. Theo took a second to look over the sprawling vista of the city before them, then started focusing for the perfect shot, Badeline floating out of the way to give him some extra room to work with.

This was nice, all things considered. Nothing but the sound of the wind and Theo's camera. Maybe it was hard to discern given her normally assertive demeanor, but Badeline appreciated peace and quiet as much as (if not more than) the person she'd budded off from. She slowly came down to earth next to Madeline, smiling.

Theo took a few extra moments to study his picture. "So, Carl, how're you enjoying the Mountain?"

The smile disappeared. Ah well. She couldn't really blame Theo for ruining her good vibes. Being actively welcoming at all times to everyone was just who Theo was. Madeline was eating some trail mix, and seemed happy, but as Badeline casually listened in on their conversation, she didn't hear anything.

"Carl?" Badeline turned to see Carl. He'd found the granite monument, not that it was hard to find, it was a good 15 feet tall. And it didn't take somebody like Carl to figure out why he was standing in front of it.

Just as Badeline thought she should go poke Madeline about it, Theo started walking over. Badeline felt a little relief. At least she wouldn't have to bother Madeline about him. "You alright, dude?"

Carl seemed to snap out of it and focused on Theo. "Yeah, yeah, I'm... I'm good."

Badeline could hear the frown in Theo's voice when he said "You don't look good."

Carl seemed to waver for a moment. "Well... I'm fine now . But the gravestone..."

"A bit too real after that slip of yours, huh?"

Carl nodded. "Yeah. A nice reminder that the next time I cock something up on this mountain I'm gonna be sharing that gravestone with everyone else who's fallen here. Maybe the rent won't be terrible."

Badeline tittered, just a bit. Sure, maybe he was a walking death flag, but he actually was funny sometimes. A second later, she could feel Madeline's frown on her, and turned to face her. "What? I'm not laughing at him. Honest. That was actually kinda funny."

"Well, at least somebody's laughing," Madeline bemoaned, turning away from her trail mix to look at Theo.

"...That's dark, man," he eventually ventured. "You sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine ," Carl bristled. "I just... sorry, I've got a pretty robust sense of humor, you know? Everyone's got their own ways to deal with stress. Some people drink. Some people smoke. Some people get angry and break stuff. Some people do all of those things. Me?" He cocked a sardonic smile and flicked a thumbs-up at Theo. "Jokes. If you ask me, I think my coping mechanism's healthier. Laugh at death and it takes a bit of power away from it, right?"

"Fair enough, my dude," Theo acceded, at least partially convinced he was telling the truth. "But if you need to talk, don't be a stranger, okay?"

"Alright. Thanks for the concern."

"NBD," Theo blessed. "Strawberry had a funny way of dealing with stress, after all."

"I drank and found hot takes on the internet to yell at," "Strawberry" chimed in.

Carl quirked an eyebrow. He clearly hadn't expected that of somebody like Madeline, but then he didn't know her like Badeline did. "Wow, really?"

"Yeah," Theo interjected. "Honestly, some of her rants are kinda scary. I really do not want to piss Strawberry off the way some of those idiots did."

"Share with the class?" Carl quizzed.

Madeline grinned nervously. "Maybe later. We have a mountain to climb first."

"Well, you did say that was how you used to cope..." noted Carl, "so what do you do now?"

"Meditation," Madeline filled in. "Cleaning. Exercise. Archery."

"Archery," parroted Carl.

"She could take your head off at fifty yards," boasted Badeline. "We really are an incredible shot, Madeline."

Carl looked at Madeline for a moment, as if to size her up. Badeline couldn't tell if he was doing so seriously or at play. "Well. In light of that... remind me to try and avoid invoking your wrath again," he finally stated.

"Don't worry," Theo assuaged, "I'll make sure it doesn't come to that."

"And if it does?"

"I'll hold you down so she can beat you up."

Carl didn't sound too bad when he was laughing, Badeline decided.

"Well, if you're alright... get some food in you," Theo advised. "Maybe you'll lighten up a little, eh?"

"Maybe," Carl conceded. "I am pretty hungry." He sat in front of the headstone, pulling out some snacks, as Theo picked out a spot to sit between them.

Things got a little quieter for a few minutes as everyone ate. Badeline turned her attention back to the city before them and zoned out, coming to when Madeline pulled herself off the ledge to face Carl. "You never did answer Theo," she brought up. "How're you finding the Mountain?"

"Well, it tried to kill me," Carl complained over a meat stick. "So... Idunno, "friends" seems like a pretty strong word to use at the moment."

"That just kinda happens to everyone up here," Madeline spoke. "You get used to it."

"Well, how did it try to kill you, Madeline?"

"It didn't try to kill me, but..." Madeline threw an arm around herself, and Badeline leaned into it almost instinctively. "Safe to say that me and Baddy here had a few disagreements about the climb. It took us a while to come to an accord on things."

Carl laughed. "Talk about literally fighting yourself, huh?"

"She did say that," Theo remembered, munching on a protein bar.

"Well, how about you, Theo?" Carl went on. "How'd the Mountain try and ruin your day?"

"Stuffed me into a crystal," Theo absentmindedly recalled.

"How'd you get out?" At least he was improving somewhat. Carl was starting to take everything that happened on the Mountain at face value - as he should. Strange things happened here, after all.

"Strawberry saved me, much as I saved her by opening some paths she couldn't get to. She carried me all the way out of the temple we were in and threw me at some giant eyeball monster. No idea what happened after that, but when I woke up we were out."

"The crystal broke!" Madeline declared. "And I had to drag you out of the Mirror Temple, Theo. You were lighter in the crystal."

"You've got no right to complain, Maddy," Theo snapped back, as he pulled out a protein bar. "I've seen what you can deadlift. I refuse to believe you were actually inconvenienced by that."

"Deadlifting uses weights properly scattered on a bar," Madeline enumerated. " You were slumped over me every which way and I had another you's worth of stuff in my backpack to carry, too."

"And if you hadn't done that, you wouldn't have me in your life." Theo made a show of folding his arms even though he was still actively eating his protein bar. "Checkmate."

A beat.

"He's got a point," Carl backed, gnawing on some trail mix of his own from the safety of the peanut gallery.

"He does," Madeline acknowledged. "Theo's a great person. He's one of the nicest Americans I've ever met."

"Wait," Carl inquired, "Theo, you're from America?"

"Seattle-bred."

"Huh," Carl reacted. "I wouldn't have guessed. You sound Torontonian."

"How about you?" Theo piggybacked. "You don't sound like you're from around Maddy's part of town."

"'Cause I'm not," Carl credited. "I grew up in Newfoundland. About as far away as you can get from Vancouver while still being Canadian."

Madeline decided to make an inquiry of her own. "If I can ask, why'd you come to B.C.?"

"Oh... the economy," Carl explained. "Newfoundland's a place that, historically, has relied on abundant stocks of cod to fuel its economy. So, humans being humans, the stocks ran out in the early nineties, and they never recovered from the hubris of our factory trawlers. Which isn't to say the place is a dump. Far from it. Newfoundland is a beautiful place. It's got sights you can't see anywhere else in the country. But..." He sighed, focusing intently on the dregs of his trail mix. "I just didn't feel like I had a future there, you know?"

"Lotta distance to cross," Theo ascertained, "going from one coast to another."

"You'd be surprised at how boring it can be to fly," joked Carl. "I think I slept through most of the trip up, actually. Awake solely to scuttle off one jetliner and onto the next."

"I've never been on a plane," Madeline disclosed.

"Ehhhhhh," wavered Carl, "you aren't missing much. Unless you pay out the nose for the first class seats where you can sip vintage wine and have caviar delivered to you, it's like riding a bus. Only it's quieter, the ginger ale is inexplicably better, and if anything bad happens you're gonna be a footnote in an NTSB investigation."

"Kind of a pessimistic read," prodded Theo.

"Well, call me Mister..." Carl trailed off, thinking for a moment. "Who invented pessimism?"

That got a laugh out of Madeline and Theo just for the absurdity of the question. Even Badeline found herself smirking.

As everyone finished eating, Madeline tapped Badeline's shoulder to get her attention, then jerked her head away from Theo and Carl, towards a strawberry plant. It was an implicit ask to talk that Badeline nodded to. "Hey guys, I think I found a strawberry over there, I'm gonna go grab it." Madeline stood up and started treading towards what did, indeed, look like a strawberry plant in the distance, and Badeline idly floated along behind her.

Madeline kneeled down next to the plant and inspected the strawberry, Badeline huddling in next to her. "You doing alright?"

"Yeah," sighed Badeline. "I'm living with it. I still don't like him."

"I'm not asking you to. I know you don't trust him."

"Well... at least things aren't going aggressively bad. Or bad at all, really." Badeline looked up, towards the summit of the Mountain. "But there's still a lot of mountain to climb yet. And we're not even at the worst part."

The Mirror Temple. It went unsaid between the two of them, because neither had fond memories of it. "Well, Theo only got stuck because he wandered off. So if we keep Carl near us and we don't let him leave, we'll be fine."

Badeline watched Madeline pick the strawberry and stuff it into her backpack's designated strawberry pouch. "I hope you're right."

"And maybe he'll feel comfortable enough to talk about whatever his deal is, and this won't be a problem," Madeline speculated, as she headed back towards Theo and Carl, who were having a conversation. "Who knows with the Mountain?"

"Mmm," Badeline hummed, as she came back just in time to listen in.

"...not trying to fight the fact that it's unhealthy, because deep frying in and of itself is unhealthy," Carl seemed to agree. "Every time you eat something that's spent 10 minutes marinating in a sea of fat and grease, your heart adds another word to its resignation letter."

"Then why're you trying to get me to eat it?" challenged Theo.

"Because after two hours in your driveway, shoveling out eight inches of snow, a perfectly golden cod fillet and some chips on the side are the objective best thing to return inside to. Like, don't eat it every day or the police report will list your cause of death as "chestburster", but you gotta have it at least once in your life after that sort of thing."

"Well, maybe I'll try it after I get eight inches of snow dumped on me," Theo closed out.

"Lively conversation," commented Badeline.

"Had to kill time while quality control ensured that berry met federal standards," Carl bantered.

"That's... how many now?" Theo wondered.

Madeline slung her backpack off and looked into her berry pouch. "Three. Not as many as last time, so I might need to bake something a little more reserved after."

"You're gonna bake with those?" Carl exclaimed.

Madeline nodded, a smile on her face. "Yep! I made a pie the last time I did. Not really sure what I'm gonna do this time, but I'll think of something."

"You'll love it," Theo added. "Trust me. The stuff she can do behind a stove is insane! "

"Well, I need to get something to work with first," Madeline spurred. "And there's only one way we can do that."

Carl looked on towards the castles ahead of him, with the same strange mix of "fear of the unknown" and "determination to move forwards" that his body language constantly radiated. Badeline wanted to know what his secret was. He had to have one, and she was sure it would explain everything, render him predictable. Perhaps even exonerate him from "potential cause of everyone's death", but maybe that was hopeless optimism. "Forwards, eh?"

"Forwards," Madeline assented.

Forwards, they went.

Chapter Text

The muscles in his limbs burned, ever-so-faintly. The woman in the lead, with red hair that spilled down nearly the entire length of her body, sauntered off towards the imposing, probably haunted keep in the distance like it was an old friend. He'd just gotten out of a city that was never finished, by a megacorporation that no longer existed, after summoning a purple-haired, gray-skinned duplicate of one of the people he'd met after he nearly died screwing up basic parkour.

Everything about today, and the impossible things that paraded in front of him, felt like a fever dream. Ordinarily, this sort of chaos was something that Carl lived for (at least, if his television habits were anything to go by). But things were a bit different, he supposed, when you were climbing a mountain with important cargo in your ruck. Mount Celeste was clearly not an ordinary mountain in any way whatsoever, and there was absolutely no telling what Carl was going to have to deal with next. When it came to important things like this, he was only ever comfortable if he was five steps ahead of everything else. But this mountain was doing its damnedest to make that impossible.

The castle in front of them looked like it had endured for even longer than the city behind, and it proudly wore its age on its sleeve. Bits of the outer walls were missing here and there, mostly just crumbled bits of external regalia. But by and large, it was very much intact despite looking like it hadn't seen a maintenance crew for a few centuries, and it stood up well to the flashes of light that accompanied the machine-gun click of Theo's camera as he snapped pictures of the path they travelled and the things on it.

"So we've got a hotel, a city, now a castle... Madeline, how many more things are going to be on this mountain that shouldn't be on a mountain?" Carl asked.

That question stopped Madeline in her tracks for a moment, right in the middle of the open front gate, and she scratched her chin as she tallied up everything she'd seen and done here. "Uh... a lot," she decided on. "Like, just about everywhere noteworthy we're going to go."

"Mind spilling the beans on anywhere?

"What, so you can worry about it beforehand?" scoffed Badeline.

Carl frowned. "A little presumptive there, huh, buddy?"

"Yeah, Baddy, that was kinda direct," Madeline pointed out, Badeline folding her arms and grumbling in her weird G-minor-voice, "but she's got a point, Carl. You did say this was your first time climbing a mountain. It might be best if you just dealt with things as they came instead of worrying about what might be coming up next."

"Plus it means everything here is a surprise!" supported Theo, as the party walked (and floated) into the castle proper. "It'll stick in your mind a lot more freshly when you remember this. Because you're gonna. There's no way anyone forgets their first trip up the Mountain."

"I believe you on that," agreed Carl. "I'm gonna remember the city down there for a very long time."

Past the gate was a harsh uphill trail, leading up to a blocky, square redoubt. The steep grade was accentuated by its arrangement in what looked like an oversized set of steps. The owners of this castle had likely leaned into the climb as a defensive measure. If you were a medieval soldier, you had to actively focus on pulling yourself up the "steps", and you were likely going to have to do it while the castle's defenders were there, poking at you from hard-to-reach high ground with bladed longarms, every "step" of the way up.

Madeline didn't have any problem at all hopping and jumping her way up the steps, and Badeline just floated on past all of them with a smug look on her face that irritated Carl a smidge more than he felt comfortable sharing. Carl and Theo started off walking up to each "step" and then pulling themselves up to keep going, but Carl managed to figure out a slightly better way when he slipped and caught himself by flopping down onto all fours. As it turned out, scrambling up the slope was much faster than trying to walk, and much more possible when it wasn't 400 years in the past and you weren't trying to push through an army of pikemen. He imagined it looked quite undignified, crawling and pouncing his way up a very walkable hill like a plastic turtle, but there was a saying to be had about stupid things that worked.

Badeline did indeed think it looked undignified. "Look at Carl, Maddy," she indicated, pointing him out. "Doesn't he look a bit doofy doing... whatever he's doing?"

"Yeah," Madeline laughed, as she plucked another berry from a plant that had sprouted up through the stone, "kinda. But it's working for him. Look at where he is compared to Theo." Theo had fallen behind a little. He'd clearly seen what Carl was doing, but he didn't really feel a need to try and copy it. The safe way worked, and it would get him there in one piece.

"Mmm," hummed Badeline. "So it is. I guess not everyone can be us, huh?"

"It's why I'm staying here," Madeline noted. "We both know if nobody was following us we'd already be halfway up the Mountain by now. But I'm here to bring Theo to the top. I can come here any other time, for any other reason, if I feel like I need to move fast."

A few seconds later, Carl clawed his way up to the entrance to the keep, huffing and puffing. He drew to one knee. "Man, this place is a workout! I'm surprised I'm not steaming up given how intense it gets."

"Well, don't get too comfortable," Madeline cautioned. "This is still pretty easy, as far as the Mountain goes. The real climbing starts once we get through this place."

"Joy," Carl deadpanned. "And here I was thinking I'd bought those climbing axes for self-defense against bears."

"Heh. Lucky for you, bears don't live up past the City. So you might want to focus on things you're more likely to use those for."

"I don't know," Carl held, "based on my limited experience with this mountain I'm kinda expecting I might need to brandish them as weapons at some point. Not gonna lie."

"Against what?" pressed Badeline.

Carl shrugged. "Hell if I know. But nothing about this place is anything I ever expected it to be. I'm just kinda rolling with the punches."

"Hey, Carl!" Theo pulled himself up past the last riser and slugged his way up to the entrance, clutching a blue patch in his left hand. "You dropped this!"

Carl looked down at his left breast. It was missing. "Huh. My... uh... whatever the hell that was I just did must have knocked it off. Thanks, Theo."

"No sweat." Theo handed Carl the patch, and he stuck it back onto his coat with a hearty smack. Up close, Madeline could clearly make it out. The patch depicted a pointy object leaving contrails as it flew between the earth and a strange blue-and-black double diamond.

Madeline made a mental note to ask about it later. "Carl, you're probably going to want to stick with me as we go through this place. I know the way through."

"I mean... that was kind of my plan already," Carl touted. "You know. Coming up to this giant haunted castle. I am many different kinds of dumb, but I'm not, like, suicidally dumb."

Badeline folded her arms in silent disbelief.

"It can be like a maze," Madeline admitted. "I'm not saying you can't go exploring if you feel like it, but you should let me know so I can go with, alright?"

"Wouldn't wanna get lost in the spooky, haunted castle, now would we?" added Badeline, who knew exactly what kind of voice she had and how to use it to maximum effect.

Carl sighed, a tinge of aggravation making itself known as Madeline and Theo went to enter the castle. "Knowing my luck, the only thing that's going to be haunting this castle is you."

"If you knew how true what you just said was," harangued Badeline, as Carl entered the Old Site himself, "you'd be eating those words too." She floated in behind him.

The Old Site had creeped Madeline out a little at first. Of course, it was because she had been dreaming her first time through, and she'd spent half of it being chased by Badeline back when the two of them hated each other. Now that she was friends with herself, the Old Site was just a castle. A really old, really dusty castle. You could smell the age in the air.

Madeline sneezed. "Bless you" rang out from three people at roughly the same time. Maybe the air had a smidge too much age in it, Madeline thought.

The keep itself was sparsely furnished as Madeline led everyone else through it. Nothing here held any degree of opulence. The tables and chairs were basic, wooden designs that looked older than everyone gathered combined. Barrels littered some of the hallways. Madeline wasn't sure if they still had anything in them, and she'd decided long ago that if they did she didn't want to find out just how moldy their contents were. Lanterns hung from the ceiling, the flames kept lit by generous mountain climbers. Some of them she'd relit herself, on the occasions she'd returned to Mount Celeste.

There were a few fireplaces here and there, but they were all silent. Occasionally Madeline would pass by old armories - mostly cleaned out of their stores, but with a couple of broken muskets lying around in various stages of rust. "God, this place gives me the creeps," Carl voiced after passing the second room of weapons, proving Badeline's earlier supposition right in the process. "It's almost like a castle got teleported over from Europe, but... there's just nothing here. Nothing but furniture and barrels, anyways..."

"Not every fortress the British built used wooden walls," Madeline exposited. "They used stone fairly often whenever they wanted something permanent to defend territory they'd claimed, inhabited or not. Usually they sunk them into the earth to try and help withstand cannon fire, but I guess on the Mountain they didn't feel afraid to build up. They probably thought nobody else was going to be able to get anything heavy up to fight them with."

"We don't really know why they left," Theo continued, answering Carl's question before he could even ask it. "They were as thorough as whoever made the City. Didn't leave anything behind to clear things up. I think down there is a cover-up, but here? There wasn't a government the same way you guys have it now. I bet the Mountain evicted them."

"Mountain didn't want them here, and it booted them out..." Carl thought on it for a second. "Ghosts, man. Only way it makes sense. They got haunted into leaving. I mean, this is a colonial British fortress, if what Madeline is saying is right. I don't really need to get into the sort of shady stuff our ancestors did in the 1800s, do I?"

"Well I haven't seen any ghosts around here," Madeline said. "If there were any, I guess they must have considered making the British leave enough work."

"Then how do you explain Badeline?"

"I'm not a ghost, dumbass," sighed Badeline.

"Then... uh... what are you?"

"Me. And her. It's complicated."

"In any event," Madeline interrupted, "there's nothing to worry about. Like I said, as long as you don't suddenly decide to take a nap here, there's nothing the Old Site can do to you but make you sneeze."

Carl didn't seem to believe her, but he did stop pressing the issue, which was close enough for the time being. He looked around for a moment, still paranoid, clearly expecting something to jump out of the walls. Madeline hid a smirk. It was a little funny to see somebody so spooked out by a place so harmless.

"You said Mount Celeste booted them out," he eventually spoke. "Like it's alive."

"And you're hanging around with a floating magic person," observed Badeline. "I'd consider having a bit of faith about the Mountain."

"The friend of mine from earlier, Granny, said Mount Celeste was a place of healing," Madeline spoke, deciding to give Carl an actual answer. "And she was right. There's a... power it wields, Carl. That it uses to try and help others. Maybe it's not exactly a person the same way we are, but it's certainly not just a giant pile of rocks."

For a moment, Carl wondered if it would try to help him. He wasn't sure how it could. But he couldn't ask, as it would tip his hand. Nobody could know. Instead, he asked: "Granny?"

"She was old," Madeline related. "Her actual name was Celia, but she liked being called Granny. Said it made her feel dignified."

"Heh. Well, it's definitely a positive outlook to have on aging, huh? Better that than despair."

"She was definitely a positive person," laughed Theo. "I don't think she ever got upset or angry about anything! She was utterly fearless. Always in control."

"And very direct," piled on Badeline. "Granny had no patience for dancing around things. She always cut right to the point she thought you were trying to make, and she never bothered sugarcoating things."

"Sounds like a bit of a pain to deal with somebody so confrontational," Carl commented.

"I wouldn't say she was confrontational," Madeline corrected, "but it was a little hard to be around Granny at first. But eventually, you learned to appreciate her. You could always be sure she was never lying to you or hiding anything. She always told you exactly what she thought, and she was right more often than not. It's nice to have someone like that around to keep you honest."

Carl fell silent for a beat, thinking about it. Granny would probably have seen right through him and given him hell. "A shame she's gone," he said anyways. It was polite.

"It is," Madeline mournfully lamented. "I miss her."

"Me too," Theo concurred.

"Yep," went Badeline.

There wasn't much conversation for a while after that as Madeline wound her way through the halls, going a little off course. Going towards somewhere she always made the time to stop by when she came around these parts. Badeline appreciated it, even when she wasn't physically around.

They came into a relatively large and spacious room, which was probably the personal quarters of whoever had once been in charge of this redoubt. For the most part, it was as empty as the rest of the place, only possessing its own tiny ration of barrels and furniture. But there were two exceptions. The first was a massive, double-wide, ornately framed, broken mirror. Cracks sluiced across its length and width, all radiating out from a single point that didn't show any signs of being struck.

The second was another strawberry plant. Madeline moved to liberate it of its crop.

"Well... I can think of a few reasons why that broke," Carl mused.

Madeline caught his train of thought and went to redirect it as she slid her new strawberry into her berry pouch. "And I can tell you why it broke. Theo, remember that one time you asked where Badeline came from, and I told you she hopped out of a mirror?"

"...woah," breathed Theo. "You were born here, Baddy!"

"That I was," affirmed Badeline, flicking her hair. "It was the first time I'd seen the opportunity to get out of her head in a while, so... I took it. Shame about the mirror, but it was an acceptable sacrifice."

"Well, what was the first thing you did? You know, after casually jumping out of a mirror," queried Carl.

"She ran," Madeline answered.

Badeline sputtered for a moment. "I... but, well - c'mon, it was the first time I even had a body! Maybe you should try incarnating into a corporeal form for the first time and see how you like it!"

"Hey, nobody's judging," Theo assuaged, though he was very busy trying to decide if taking a picture of Badeline's birthplace was a particularly smart idea or not, given what happened the last time he'd snapped a shot of a mirror. "You sound like you were a bit freaked out at the time. I mean, if I were in your shoes I'd be a little spooked too."

"...I was," conceded Badeline. "I didn't really expect it would work, and I sorta didn't have a plan for what to do after that."

"Well, it's not a bad idea to get the hell out of Dodge and figure out what to do later," Carl surmised. "Better to run now and come up with a good plan than... whatever the alternative is, I guess. I can't really see you two hating each other."

"Yeah, I don't know what would have happened to us if she'd just confronted me then and there," Madeline thought. "But I like to think eventually we would have made up with each other anyhow."

"Probably," nodded Badeline, who had floated up to the shattered mirror and placed a hand on it. "I mean, things got violent anyways in those caves under the Mountain, and you still came out of that fine. And we came out of it better than ever."

"Violent?" inquired Carl.

"When I said we were fighting each other the whole way up, I didn't mean that to be a metaphor," Madeline explained. "Near the end, we actually did get into a fight. But I can talk about that later. Let's give Baddy a few minutes, alright?"

The Old Site was a place of great nostalgia for Badeline. It - in particular, the room she was in - was where she was born.

("Born", of course, wasn't an entirely accurate way to describe how she had split off from Madeline there, but there wasn't exactly anything better to use.)

For a few minutes, things were blissfully quiet as she reminisced. It was nice to think about where everything had started, and about how far they'd come since that first climb. Badeline could stay there for a very long time if nothing else was pressing her. But Theo was with them now, and even if they'd brought somebody else along with them, this trip was about getting him to the Summit, hopefully within three days.

Eventually, Badeline pushed away from the mirror. "I'm ready to go," she announced. "Lead the way, Maddy."

Madeline took up the lead as they exited the room, leading them back on a path through the castle. It remained as empty as ever, which was fine by Badeline. The only person she really needed to be around was her better half.

After a few minutes, though, something stopped their progress: a wall in the middle of nowhere. A wall that looked like it had the consistency of jelly, and that glistened in the torchlight of the Old Site. Inside it was a field of stars so deep it was as though an onlooker was peering into another universe.

"Whoa!" Theo snapped a picture of the star wall. "Rad!"

"Yeah. I wouldn't be able to explain this to you, besides the fact that when I dreamed about the place, these were here," Madeline remarked. "And they came back when me and Badeline made nice. It makes you wonder how much mind can change matter here."

Carl stepped forwards to poke it.

"You might not want to touch it," Madeline suggested.

Carl stopped. "Why?"

"Because if you touch it, it sucks you in, pulls you through, and throws you out at the other end. It's very sudden."

Carl took a second to look at the strange starfield wall. "So... that's not a wall?"

"I guess it's more like a block," Madeline supposed. "Either way, it is safe on the other end, you're just not going to have a very good time if you don't go in ready to be spat out."

"And we do have to go through this to keep climbing the mountain," Carl said.

"Yes," Madeline confirmed.

Carl turned to stare at the wall and sucked in a breath. "Well... for Queen and country!" He ran at the wall and dived into it. The jelly sucked him in so many stars hundred of billions of stars an entire universe spread out in front of him and parting to make way as he screams at impossible superluminal velocity through the airless void but he does not need to breathe as he embodies purest speed like a rocket screaming into the black but here the stardust makes it more of a purple and almost immediately afterwards, spat him out. Overwhelmed by the stimulation, Carl did not immediately consciously notice that reality was now reality again, and he faceplanted into the stone floor, skidding across it and leaving a trail in the dust. A second later, Madeline hopped out of the wall and jogged over to check on him. "Carl? You alright?"

Carl let out a very confused moan before he rolled over to face Madeline. Fortunately, he'd somehow managed to avoid breaking his nose, though his face was scratched up quite a bit. "...what... what was..."

He looked back towards the wall just in time to see a purple dart close in, before, with a low, wet pop , Badeline emerged from the block, floating into the air. She quickly positioned herself in front of it as a black dart grew larger, and then Theo popped out, right into Badeline's waiting arms. She gently lowered him to the floor, where Theo stumbled around for a few moments before trying to rest against the block, which only sucked him back in.

Badeline looked mortified. "Uh... oops."

Madeline sprinted right back in, disappearing into the jelly, leaving only Badeline and Carl in the room. They shared a look of mutual confusion before Badeline flew back in herself.

Carl laid there for a moment, letting the scrapes on his face sting. But going through that had been pretty exciting, and he did hope Theo was alright. Pushing himself to his feet, he jumped into the overwhelming sensation of raw velocity but now he is used to it. He tries not to pay too much attention to the stars because they shoot past too fast for him to pick them out but now that he is a little more focused he can notice the ascending bubbling tone that comes with travel here. He looks at himself and sees a blonde dart of energy emerged on the other side, where Theo was wiped out on the floor. Carl didn't exactly stick the landing, but falling to his knees was better than a faceplant. "You alright, Theo?"

Theo slowly raised a hand and gave off a thumbs up to the wall. "Nailed it," he groaned.

"So. Have we all learned a lesson about jumping through the magical star block today?" challenged Madeline.

In response, Madeline got two groans that seemed to mean "yes", and "I've learned that our boys are idiots" from Badeline.

"Guilty as charged," replied Carl. "Honestly... that was kinda fun, besides the bodily harm. I'm gonna do it again!" He turned around, ran at the wall, and did it again, disappearing into the night sky collage.

There was a pregnant pause. Theo broke it. "Well, at least he's having fun. And all we needed was some inexplicable, potentially dangerous magic!"

"Says the person who yelled YOLO before jumping into the inexplicable, potentially dangerous magic," joked Badeline.

"Hey, you know it's true! You do only live once, so it's best not to have any regrets! Aaaaaaand Madeline said we have to go through it to get higher, so I had to anyways."

"We do," Madeline acknowledged. "So maybe let's keep going before-"

A blonde dart closed in on their side of the wall. A few seconds later, Carl popped out, landing on his feet: he'd acclimated nearly as fast as Madeline had. "As fun as this, and damn this is fun, I think we might wanna actually go climb the mountain."

Madeline nodded. "Let's get to it, then!"

The next few minutes weren't particularly eventful after everyone made it through the star block. Madeline lead them through the above-ground catacombs of the Old Site for a few minutes more, passing by the usual empty rooms and barrels, until they finally approached a rather unassuming door.

"Alright. This door leads to the basement levels," Madeline informed. "As best I can tell, this served both as a prison, and as a secret escape route if the fort was lost. There can be some... unsettling things down there, so I wouldn't look around if I was squeamish." Madeline stared directly at Carl as she uttered that.

"No looking at the aftermath of colonial torture," Carl repeated. "And you say this place isn't haunted when it very clearly has a murder dungeon."

Madeline opened the door, and began heading down the incredibly long staircase. It took a minute or two just to get down it, a length of time probably meant to intimidate prisoners as much as it was to ensure no sound or smells made their way into the rest of the castle.

The air grew colder and damper as the mountaineering procession entered the Old Site's dungeons, which were just as sparse as the upper levels. Barely anything remained in the cells but more dust. Madeline still wasn't too sure if the British had stripped even the jail cells of what little furniture they must have had when they abandoned this fort, or if the cells were supposed to be empty on principle. But the obvious spots where people were supposed to be chained to the walls said enough about the levels of barbarism the "civilized" could resort to if they felt it necessary.

"You know, Carl, maybe you were onto something," Theo contemplated, as he looked around the dungeons. "This is some primo 'ghosts of the damned rise up to kill us' territory."

"When I die, my last words are gonna be 'I told you'," exulted Carl. "And then probably horrified screaming."

Madeline couldn't help a little titter at Carl's incredibly overactive paranoia about a castle that, if you weren't asleep, was completely harmless. "The only ghost I've seen here is further up the mountain. And he isn't really the murdery type."

"You say that..." Theo began.

"Don't worry, Theo, Mr. Oshiro is fine," Madeline reassured. "Remember what I told you when we planned this out? We had a talk. We apologized. He's okay. I wouldn't be taking you to the Celestial Resort if I didn't trust him."

"I know, I just... I still remember what it was like being there. Something just wasn't right about that guy."

"Great," Carl worried, "so there are murder ghosts on this mountain."

Madeline frowned, her mirth dispersing a little. "Carl, Mr. Oshiro is nice. He can have a bit of a temper, but it's solely when it comes to the Celestial Resort. It's his baby. Just don't do anything you wouldn't do to people who work in retail and you'll be fine."

Carl took a deep breath. "Alright. The murder ghost is not a murder ghost. He runs the hotel." Half a second passed. "He runs the hotel?"

"Yep," Madeline confirmed. "All by himself. Admittedly it's seen better days, but he's really been cleaning up his act recently."

"Oh hey, a skeleton! Creepy!" exclaimed Theo, who immediately raised his camera towards one of the open cells and snapped an image of the dusty pile of bones, lying there next to a manacle hanging off of the wall. Madeline supposed the British hadn't been too eager to remove everything from this place. It was hard to tell what kind of person those bones must have belonged to, but Madeline could make a few guesses.

Carl, of course, frowned as he took in the skeleton. They were dead. Probably didn't die painlessly or quickly, either. He scrutinized every inch of the carcass, trying to catch a glimpse of some kind of tell that would give away paranormal activity. There was magic on this mountain, as one of their companions proved just by existing around them. That meant there had to be a ghost in this thing, and he was not going to let it surprise him when it decided to strike.

Slowly, he became aware that something was breathing down his neck. His skin prickled. His heart skipped a few beats. Slowly, he turned around to face his own death.

"BOO!" screamed Badeline, directly into his face. Carl yelped backwards, falling onto his ass and scrambling back towards the skeleton as Badeline broke out into peals of laughter.

"What the hell?" Carl yelled, just a little pissed off at what Badeline had done. "That was not cool!"

"Are you kidding?" cackled Badeline. "The look on your face was priceless!" She bowled over in the air, hovering while she laughed.

"Oh man , she got you good!" Theo joined in, getting a good laugh out of the situation. Madeline watched the proceedings with a sheepish, apologetic smile on her face. Badeline could be like that, but she still wasn't sure how much she liked the fact that her other half had decided to prank Carl when she clearly didn't like him.

"You might want to apologize to him," Madeline eventually offered. "I don't think Carl appreciated that."

Badeline looked over at Madeline, hanging upside-down in the air. "Apologize for what? The fact that in one fell swoop I just took his mind off of all the stuff he was worried about and focused it onto something else?"

Carl frowned. He didn't buy that excuse for one second. But he didn't feel like he could speak up about it, so instead he picked himself up and grumbled, "Well couldn't you have done that in a less disruptive way?"

"I could have," acquiesced Badeline. "But then it wouldn't have been as fun."

"Badeline." Madeline's voice was much more firm, with a tinge of anger. Metaphorically, she'd put her foot down. Badeline sighed, returning herself to an upright position.

"Alright. Sorry for helping you, Carl."

"I'm sure you are," grumbled Carl. "Now if you're done freaking people out, we do have a mountain to climb by descending through this place, don't we?" He set off ahead, thoroughly annoyed and trailed by Theo.

But Badeline was right. He wasn't looking around like he was expecting ghosts to jump out of the walls any more. Madeline decided it would be best to take that as a little victory.

"I'm a loose cannon cop, but damn if I don't get results," crooned Badeline.

Madeline smiled, just a little bit evilly. "I see you've come over to my line of thinking, then," she asserted.

"If I did, I'd be acting nicer. What I'm doing is tolerating him."

Madeline headed off down the tunnels after everyone else. "That's all I ask."

The dungeons were finite. Soon, after enough crawling, some more shenanigans with another star block, and Madeline finding yet another strawberry hanging out where plants shouldn't be growing, they made it back out into the blowing snow and biting wind. The sky was still blue, but the sun had continued its inexorable march towards the horizon. Theo never thought he'd be thinking this, but he hoped Madeline would be able to get them to the Resort quickly. As much as he didn't trust that Oshiro dude to not have some kind of creepy basement cellar he took everyone who stopped by into, he very much preferred sleeping in a warm, insulated building to bunking in a tent in the cold.

It didn't take them long to come across another glowing light, lit by power lines that snaked down beyond the trail they were on and back towards the City. It was another relic of the radical decade: an information booth from the livelier days of the Mountain. It was unstaffed and the door had been locked, but a power pole next to it held a phone, with a physical telephone line that lead to the outside world. Theo adored it. In the days of fiber optic internet and cell towers, he found a physical, electric telephone cable charmingly quaint, and he took a second to grab a snapshot of it and the booth it was next to.

"There's a phone over there," Madeline mentioned, mostly for Carl's benefit. "If there's anyone we feel like we need or want to call, this is going to be our last opportunity to do it for a while."

"Don't worry, Strawberry." Theo drew his phone. "I'm getting signal up here. If there's anyone I gotta call, I can do it myself."

Badeline merely shrugged. Madeline proceeded to look over at Carl, who was staring at the phone. "Carl?"

"I don't think there's anyone I need to call," he alleged.

"You sure?" Theo asked. "No shame in talking to somebody back home. It might help you out, you've been kinda squirrely and high-strung all day."

Carl walked up to the phone for a second. He racked his brain, but really, who could he call? Nobody without tipping his hand, that was the answer.

He could feel the stares boring into his back, so he decided to give an explanation. "I, ah... I didn't tell anyone I was climbing a mountain," he admitted, turning around.

"...you didn't tell anyone you were climbing a mountain," parroted Badeline, her voice a mix of disbelief and disapproval.

"Well I told them I was going for a hike! Which is close enough. I didn't want them to freak out about me getting myself killed."

Madeline frowned. "Carl, you should have just told the entire truth up front. If your friends are your friends, they'll show concern, but they'll respect your decisions. You shouldn't lie about yourself to the people you care about."

Truth be told, Carl didn't want people asking questions. He knew that if he told his friends he was climbing Mount Celeste, they'd think he'd have lost his marbles for spontaneously deciding to do that. And they sure didn't need to know why he was doing it, either. He knew how revealing that was going to end. But the way Madeline put things, it was hard for him to ignore that he had lied to his colleagues. Even if it was just a white lie, it still wasn't the truth. He sighed, his ears burning underneath his headgear. "I... yeah," he stuttered. "They'll just freak out after I get back. Not my best decision, when you put it like that. Either way. Nobody I can call. Let's keep going."

So they kept going. Theo found the mood to be rather distinctly awkward for a bit. Carl looked like he was regretting making the decision to tag along. Madeline looked like she was regretting making the decision to ask. And Badeline looked like she wasn't eating enough fiber. Fortunately, the tension broke as they approached a cliff face.

The cliff was on the Mountain trail, so it was clearly well traveled. There were several ropes dangling down its length, threaded through a tapestry of nuts and hexes and pitons. Some of the bolts were modern, contemporaneous designs made of colorful plastic. A select few were steel monoliths in comparison. As if to accentuate the generations that had scaled this mountain, a nylon rope of advanced, synthetic design dangled next to a weathered sibling made of hemp strands laced together.

Madeline went up first, the unspoken rule of climbing with her. She took a good thirty seconds to look at the cliff face and plot out a way up it, and then she flung herself up the entire rock wall free solo, not remotely caring about her lack of safety equipment or the backpack she was carrying with her. It was a mesmerizing display, watching her tear her way up the forebodingly large cliff at breakneck speed without using any tools, a spectacle only enhanced when Madeline made a detour over to a hole in the wall for seemingly no reason. A few moments of fishing around in it later, she pulled yet another strawberry free, before immediately revving back up to her usual relentless pace. Theo and Carl let out a whooping cheer at about the same time when Madeline got up to the top, then leaned over the edge to flash a thumbs up back down at them.

"So," Theo broached. "You going up next?"

"Rock paper scissors," Carl responded. "One round. Winner goes up first."

They threw hands. Theo chose paper, because he was loose and ephemeral and easygoing, and it suited him. Carl chose scissors, because he liked the idea of force paired with precision.

"That settled it really fast."

"Yeah," Carl recalled, "it always does that. It's a good way to leave things to Lady Luck."

"Have fun!"

"I'll try!"

Carl went up next. He fished a belay device up from his belt and clipped it onto one of the sturdier, more modern looking ropes. Then he pulled the climbing axes off of his backpack. He slipped them out of their sleeves, which (after his quick test of how good they were post-purchase) he was convinced weren't there to keep them safe from the world, but to keep the world safe from them.

With a CHUNK, he drove the axe into the cliff. Then he pulled himself up, a little uneasily, still not entirely sure how much he could trust his tools, and swung the other one on in. To the tune and rhythm of the miners of old, working with manual labor rather than power tools, he pulled himself up the dirt and rock. Not as fast as Madeline, but the only way you were going to be faster than Madeline was if you just flew a helicopter up.

Theo gave him a few minutes, then clipped onto a rope himself. He climbed the Mountain the way sane, normal people without magic doppelgangers or secret issues did: pulling himself up the rope bit by bit, using handholds where they were easy to get to. He was slower than Carl was, but so far as he was concerned, getting to the Summit intact mattered more than getting there first. Slow and steady might not win the race, but it'd definitely finish it.

Badeline floated up between them as they climbed. She had full faith Madeline could ascend the Mountain without needing her help, so she decided to act as another means of security for the other two climbers with them (mostly for Theo, mind, but if Carl fell she was perfectly okay with letting him fall just a little longer than he needed to). She kept an eye on the both of them, hovering between them as they clawed their way up one move at a time.

Carl arrived second, grasping Madeline's hand when she offered it. Although he tried to pull himself up, it was really more Madeline pulling him up. He looked at her for a moment after he'd arrived. "Damn, you're strong!"

"I am. As heavy as Theo was my first time up, well... I can deadlift about 325 pounds."

Carl let out a low, very clearly impressed whistle. "I can't remember how much I can, but I'm pretty sure 325 pounds is a hell of a lot more than what I can manage. You could probably just pick me up at will!"

Madeline took a second to slide her backpack off to free up some weight. Then she walked over, grabbed Carl by the hips, and lifted him a good four feet into the air for a few moments like he was a mannequin, before setting him down.

Carl laughed the second afterwards, amazed. "Well, that settles it: strongest person I've ever met. Easily."

"You should see some of the people at the gym I go to," Madeline stated, as she grabbed and donned her backpack.

"I haven't met 'em. They don't count."

Badeline poked her head up over the ridgeline. "Theo's almost here!"

Madeline strode on over, and a few seconds later pulled Theo up and over the edge. "Amazing how she can just do that," Carl professed.

"Found out how strong Strawberry is, huh?" Theo smiled. "It's always a trip."

"Carl, we've got another rock wall to climb soon," Madeline briefed, "but there's a bit of a trail leading up. I wouldn't go putting those climbing axes of yours away."

"Good to know," Carl thanked, as he attempted to spin one around in his hands and instead flung it into the ground.

"Maybe don't do that," cautioned Badeline. "You know, unless you want to nail your foot into the floor."

"You ever considered that maybe I want to do that?" japed Carl, as he walked to retrieve the axe.

Badeline placidly watched as Carl pulled it free of the earth. "Well, far be it from me to get in the way of you living your best life."

"I'll be heading up the trail," Madeline appraised. "You two can follow whenever you're done bickering."

"Excuse you," Carl accused, as he immediately started to follow after her, "we aren't bickering! We're having an adult discussion about life decisions."

"Like stabbing yourself in the foot with sharp objects," backed Badeline, floating along all the while.

"You know," considered Theo, "while I'm not about telling people how to live their lives, maybe you shouldn't stab yourself. Strikes me as kind of a bad decision."

"I'm gonna stab myself just to spite you," Carl reacted.

Badeline snorted, despite herself. "Maddy, dear, maybe we should have left him down there. It doesn't sound like he's got long left for this world."

Madeline laughed, despite herself. "Try to resist the impulse for a few hours, Carl. Eventually we'll find something you can stab in place of yourself."

"Aww."

"Carl," inquired Badeline, deigning to refer to him by name, "is everything you say this dumb?"

"Not during work hours."

Badeline gasped. "He has a job! It's a wonder how you have one with that mouth of yours."

"Is everything you say a thinly veiled insult?"

"Thinly veiled?" Badeline smiled, revealing her fanged incisors as she did.

Badeline's bloodlust was starting to get a little uncomfortable. Madeline decided to try and reign it in a little bit. "Carl, where do you work?"

"Gotta be some place that makes a lot of money," Theo assumed. "Given how much of that stuff you're wearing is brand new."

"Well, you say that, but now you won't believe my answer," Carl warned.

"Hit me."

"Car mechanic."

Theo took a second to size him up. "Yeah, I don't believe you."

"I don't spend my money on a whole lot," Carl enlightened. "All this stuff was sorta an impulse buy. I think my wallet's still in police custody after it saw the bill and tried to murder me."

"Do you enjoy your job?" asked Madeline.

"I do," Carl attested. "I don't work too much overtime, but maybe that's just my boss being cool. There's always a new problem every time you come into work. It keeps you thinking. Gives you a hell of a lot of stories, too. A lot of people either don't know or care about how to maintain their cars."

"I check my oil and my tire pressure every month," Madeline offered. "I'm not that big a gearhead, so anything heavier I let the professionals handle."

Carl clapped his closed hands together, his climbing axes clanging off of each other. "Congratulations, Madeline, you still care more about your car than half of our shop's customers. I had one guy come in and he said he was starting to hear noises coming from his engine, that it was hard to get started on cold days. Took a look at his oil and it was almost solid sludge. I cracked open his engine half-panicked and - get this - the pistons were melting into the cylinders."

"I'm not a big car guy," Theo confessed, "but that sounds kinda bad. How close am I?"

Carl's response was to make an explosion noise with his mouth.

"Pretty close, I take it."

"On the money, really," Carl went on. "Fortunately he brought it in before his engine tried to make a break for freedom. Billed him top dollar to save him from his lifestyle choices that day."

"You shoulda let him leave," proposed Badeline. "Teach him a lesson about regular automotive maintenance."

"I was a little tempted to, but like, half my job is saving people from their bad decisions. That, and he's not gonna learn anything if his engine just goes boom on him. But, like, enough about me. Where do you all work?"

Theo took that opportunity to strut his stuff. "Carl, you're lookin' at the best freelance photographer in the Seattle metropolitan area! You need me to capture something in an image, I can get it done, lickety-split. No job too big, no detail too small."

"I've seen you taking pictures of everything that looks interesting along the way with that cannon of a camera you've got there," Carl recollected.

"Workplace expense," Theo wrote off. "It helps make the job easier, so it was worth every penny. And I spent a lot of 'em that day."

"You sound like somebody who really enjoys their job."

"Photography's been my passion ever since Vovô got me a tiny little disposable camera for my seventh birthday. I've been snapping shots of everything ever since. Let me tell you, my smartphone was simultaneously the best and worst thing to happen to me!"

"Taking into account your InstaPix, I'd err on the side of best," Madeline allayed. "You've got a lot of good shots on there."

"True," Theo sang. "Anyway... it can get hard sometimes. I'm freelance, so I gotta go find work as much as it finds me. The hustle can get pretty intense and hard to deal with some days. But when everything's going fine?" The smile on Theo's face stretched from ear to ear. "I'm doing what I love and getting paid for it. Wouldn't trade it for the world."

"Maybe one day you'll get noticed by some big magazine and get a nice, salaried position," Carl predicted.

"The dream," Theo quipped. "Speaking of magazines, Strawberry?"

"Right. I'm a column writer for a magazine based in Vancouver. Usually I write about social issues. Usually. We're pretty flexible, so occasionally I do other stuff."

"Social issues, huh? Lot to talk about, then," Carl presumed.

"Some days it feels like there's too much to talk about," Madeline vented. "Like it's somehow some kind of Herculean task to be nice to people. To respect differences."

"Preach!" shouted Theo.

"To the choir," added Carl. "Don't worry about me, I drink my daily ration of respect women juice. I feel ya on that. It must be stressful to write about, though."

"It can get challenging at times," Madeline declared. "But our mag reaches quite a lot of people. I'm not the only writer there, of course, but I feel like it helps to bring attention to things people might not go out of their way to see, even if it's hard to learn about some of the things I have to write about. But sometimes I get letters from people who said that the articles I've written have earnestly changed beliefs they'd held for years. Every time I get one, it feels like vindication. That what I'm doing really is changing hearts and minds for the better. And whenever it gets too hard to do my job, I just read the letters for a bit. It helps. A lot."

"...wow," Carl murmured. "God, now I feel weird. You're working to change the world one person at a time, Theo's doing what he loves, and... Idunno. I've never really felt a huge affinity for cars. I couldn't tell you why I decided to become a mechanic. Besides 'money', of course."

"Hey, no shame in not knowing what you're doing," Theo comforted. "Trust me, this whole photography deal? Came at the end of a very long time in my life where I felt lost and adrift. First time I climbed the Mountain was right after I quit an office job that would've paid mad stacks. I just wasn't feeling it, you know?"

"So you up and quit. In the United States, at that." Carl whistled. "It's a miracle you'll make it up the mountain with those brass balls of yours weighing you down."

"I wasn't worried. Figured there'd be another job somewhere down the line." Theo cocked a smile. "And I was right."

"Well... we've heard from everyone else." Carl looked over to Badeline. "You got a job?"

Badeline shrugged. "I hang out in Maddy's head and try to tell her when I think bad stuff's around."

"You pay rent?"

"Not a cent."

"...damn," Carl decided. "And here comes Badeline, right out of left field, with the best deal out of any of us."

"She's lucky I love her," Madeline jabbed.

"You're lucky you love us," retorted Badeline.

"I hate to break up this intriguing conversation, but we can always keep talking after we get over this," Theo called out, pointing out another cliff face in front of them.

That was the blueprint for the rest of their day: lighthearted conversation about nothing in particular mixed with focused mountaineering. As they pulled themselves up and over rock walls and hiked over, under, across, and through trails, the Sun dipped below the horizon, painting the snow and rock a brilliant orange.

Eventually, several hours after they had set out from the edge of the city, their journey came to a temporary end as they crossed a conspicuously well-maintained (and clearly recently repaired) stone bridge, stretching across a vast and almost intimidatingly spiky chasm.

Across the bridge, the last dregs of the setting sun's light reflecting off its grid of windows, was the Celestial Resort.

Chapter Text

"Keep holding it there, please."

Two balls of indistinct red-and-black fuzz hovered in mid-air, eyes shut in exertion as they held up the midsection of a plank. With the both of them there keeping it up, the plank didn't do much more than very lightly vibrate, which freed up both hands to nail it over the open windowsill. The window it used to hold had been gone for maybe the last five or six years, and while a lot of the broken windows had been quite easily fixed, this one was going to need an entirely new glass pane cut to fit, and it was going to be a few months until that could be made. Boarding the window up to try and keep the drafts from getting too far in was an ugly choice, for sure, but it was the best option available at the moment.

Officially, Mr. Oshiro was the Celestial Resort's concierge. Unofficially, Mr. Oshiro was the Celestial Resort, by virtue of being the last man standing. Nobody else was here any more, not since the place first closed down, which made him the functional sole owner and proprietor. Not that he ever told anyone that these days. He was sure that somebody else owned the title deed for the place, and the last thing he wanted was to open the front doors to find somebody claiming they were the rightful operator, with Mounties in tow behind them.

He sighed as he ruminated. The mites drifted over, concerned.

"Yes, yes, don't worry," he assured, patting each of them in turn. "Our renown has dwindled... but that might be for the best, these days. That'll be all I need you for. You can go play with the rest."

The mites made a high-pitched noise that Oshiro had come to think of as cheering, and zipped off. They were, in the past, his fears made manifest. Every time his worries consumed his mind and rendered him unable to think, they had shot out of him and coated the place in so much fuzz that it eventually congealed into a sludge. It wasn't even something he had been consciously aware of. Not until Miss Madeline had stopped by, at least.

Oshiro remembered their first meeting quite well. She was the first customer he'd had in the past decade, and he had been blinded by the opportunity to finally see to somebody. He'd pulled out all the stops to get her to stay in their world-class presidential suite, not cognizant of the fact that Miss Madeline was just passing through, and actively didn't want to stick around. It was only after she'd pointed out the state of disrepair the Resort was in that Oshiro seemed to recognize how disheveled it was.

Madeline had not so much helped clean things up as done it all by herself, out of a sense of pity for his mental state and a desire to be nice. Oshiro had appreciated the help, but he wrote it off, perhaps a bit more sharply than he should have. Madeline wasn't an employee, after all, and there were people that were supposed to be getting the cleaning done around here.

(There weren't.)

Immediately after getting her into the presidential suite, something inside Madeline snapped. It was almost like she'd become a different person when she told Mr. Oshiro everything that she had been secretly thinking to herself about the Celestial Resort and its future, such was the incredible level of vitriol sent his way. For a moment, he'd been gutted by the cruelty.

But then he'd gotten a little mad. Berserk, even. He may have tried to kill Miss Madeline. There'd certainly been some property damage he'd caused, when the dust settled and he closed the Resort for remodeling. Mr. Oshiro still didn't like to think about that moment.

As Madeline ran off - what she'd wanted to do this whole time - and he re-entered the Resort, unburdened by the need to see to a customer, he finally began to see. The broken windows and cracked floorboards. The books and towels scattered across the floor for years. The cobwebs. The leaking pipes. The layer of living sludge that had covered vast sections of the Resort, which he'd then promptly added to when he had a full on panic attack about just how horrible he'd allowed the Celestial Resort to fall to under his watch. And it was he that had allowed it - because there was nobody else here. Mr. Oshiro had always thought the staff had just been getting lazy due to the lack of visitors.

But they were gone. He should have known better. It was only him.

For a good day or so Oshiro merely floated about the Resort, wallowing in despair and talking to himself. Thinking about how badly things had degraded. About how he should have just let Madeline go through. He was only broken from his reverie when the service bell rang again - for the old woman who lived on the mountain.

She'd brought tea.

They had a short conversation. The woman had come to check up on him. She'd knew that Madeline had went through the place, and she had a hunch that it hadn't gone particularly well. Oshiro confirmed that. Madeline had been rude and arrogant and correct. The Resort was dead in the water.

"Well, it's been like that for a very long time," the old woman had said. "Like you said - all Madeline did was point it out. She's managed to make peace with herself, you know." (Oshiro didn't immediately understand that.) "Perhaps you'd like to come down to my cabin for some tea when she gets back? It shouldn't be long, knowing her."

Oshiro had balked. "But... the Resort! I have cleaning to do! This entire place must be refurbished, top to bottom!"

"Well, you're working up here alone," the old woman had continued. "It's going to take you a very long time to finish. If you ever do. What's one or two hours out of your day in the face of that?"

She had a point, as much as Oshiro didn't want her to. So he took directions to her place, and decided to get as much cleaning as he could done before he had to go. But the rooms were so big, and he was only one man. Eventually he threw a book at a wall in anger and shouted something that he wouldn't dare be caught saying in front of paying customers.

When he turned, he noticed a few of the mites were staring at him. Afraid. They made eye contact. As it turned out, they were indeed alive, for some definition of "alive".

In that moment, Mr. Oshiro saw opportunity.

An hour later, multiple rooms had been cleaned up and polished, the detritus removed and the surfaces cleaned, all thanks to the help of the strange little fuzzballs he'd been making. For the first time in a very long time, Oshiro felt proud. Sure, the rest of the Resort was in an incredible state of disrepair, but he'd done something about it. Then he took a look at the time, and realized he was going to have to hurry down the Mountain to make it to the old woman's cabin. She was going to be waiting for him, after all.

He'd been in such a rush that he didn't even notice how some of the sludge lining the halls had begun to recede.

The visit turned out to be a small party. The old woman was there. So was another tall fellow Oshiro hadn't seen before, name of Theo. A few seconds later, Madeline arrived. Trailing right behind her was also Madeline, but with purple hair. Oshiro would come to know her as a Part Of Madeline, and the actual person who cursed him out when she had stopped by.

If Madeline picked up on how awkward Oshiro felt to be around her, she certainly didn't show it as she baked probably the most impressive strawberry pie he'd ever seen or tasted. They sat around, and had fun, and made jokes, and drunk tea and ate pie. Oshiro decided it was probably good to get out of the Resort every once in a while. He was sad to see everyone go as the little get-together tailed off.

But he did have a job to do, so when he returned to the Resort, he threw himself into deep cleaning the place. It was hard, long, and grueling work, but it was something to focus on. It occupied his mind, instead of whatever else he would have been worrying about. Eventually Oshiro caught onto that, noticing that he didn't feel as high-strung about things any more. The near-constant anxiousness he felt simmered into the background. It was something he could ignore. Could push past. As his worries dissipated, so too did most of the mites and sludge, vanishing into thin air. Disappearing in puffs. Oshiro was particularly thankful for the sludge disappearing. He wasn't too sure how he was going to be able to clean it.

It took him a while to notice that he wasn't talking to himself as much.

Several of the mites continued to stick around, though, and in them Oshiro found companionship. They were dutiful helpers. Perhaps not the brightest employees, but they performed tasks quickly, admirably, and to exacting specifications. Oshiro let them have the run of the place when he wasn't busy cleaning, and that was all they seemed to want. Oshiro also found companionship in the old woman from before, who started to drop by more often after, as she put it, "you started fixing up this beaten-up old place." She didn't help - she always preferred to stand back and watch the mites work. But she was always up for conversation and tea, and that was fine by Oshiro.

Life went on, happier and busier than it had been for a little while. Oshiro even started getting visitors, albeit at a much slower pace than in the Resort's glory days. Not all of them wanted to stay a night. Some were just passing through.

Oshiro had learned his lesson. He let them.

One day, one of those visitors was Madeline. She came bearing a gift basket and an apology.

They sat down and had a very long, heart-to-heart talk. The long and short of it was that Madeline had been stuck in a rut. She didn't really feel like her life was getting anywhere. In fact, she felt like she had been actively unraveling at the seams, and she was scared that her thoughts were going to lead her to to dark, harmful places. She'd decided on climbing a mountain simply to prove that she could, that she was going to be able to do more than live a sad life by herself, which was why she'd been in such a rush to leave the Resort. The Part of Her that had shown up (Badeline was her self-bestowed name, apparently) was a manifestation of everything Madeline hated about herself, whether she'd admit to it or not. It was also, simultaneously, her best advocate, willing to do the things she wasn't in order to help keep her where she wanted to be.

"I just wanted to go," she'd said. "I stayed to help because I wanted to be nice, but... if she hadn't stepped in for me, I don't know how long I'd still have been here. Sorry again about that, by the way."

"It's fine," Oshiro had wrote off. "She was right, loathe as I am to admit it. The Resort was in quite the state of disrepair. I suppose I should be thanking you for opening my eyes to it!"

Badeline had been unnecessarily cruel, but she had also been correct. Oshiro hadn't deserved her attitude, but he'd been pushing Madeline far too hard to stay when she clearly didn't want to. After a couple of rounds of the classic game of Canadian Chicken, they eventually decided mutual forgiveness was the way to go, and buried the hatchet. Once things were settled, Madeline continued on.

(The strange thing was that she had insisted on going through some of the more obviously run-down, heavily infested, difficult to traverse wings of the Resort. Like she saw the clutter, damage, and general impassability as a challenge. Oshiro had never wrapped his head around that.)

The old woman had been happy to hear that he and Madeline had made up. "That girl's a fighter," she had reminisced. "Went spelunking in some of the mountain caves, just for kicks. Just like me, back in the day. I'm sure wherever she is, she's going to go far."

Life continued. When it got interesting again, it wasn't for a good reason.

The old woman had died.

Oshiro had gotten used to her companionship. And her tea. But she was pretty old, and it was surprising she'd lived this long on the slopes of a place like Mount Celeste. It still didn't make it hurt any less. Mr. Oshiro completely stopped his work to mourn. He slipped back into panic attacks and mites and sludge, and more of it when he realized that it was happening every time he freaked out. The old woman was a constant presence in his life, something he hadn't had for a very long time. Without it, he was gutted.

The mites weren't. He'd trained them well, and by then they'd acquired perhaps their most important skill: critical thinking. Even in the absence of his directives, they kept cleaning up rooms, fixing leaks, repairing things, and doing what they could to keep the Celestial Resort functioning (for some definition of functioning, at least) while Oshiro mourned. And they stopped by to comfort him when they could, mostly by just nuzzling him. They didn't really have limbs.

One day, Oshiro found out there was a visitor staying at the Resort, being entirely overseen (albeit with some communication difficulties) by the mites. It stoked a flame in him, a reminder that life wasn't going to wait for him to stop feeling sorry for himself. The show had to go on, regardless of his personal feelings. He still mourned, but he returned to his duties. Once again, he found having something to do helped him deal with it.

And now the Celestial Resort was almost finished its "remodeling". There were still a couple of rooms that needed to be cleared out, but for the most part the place was spotless. Boarded up windows like the one he was sitting in front of were the exception, rather than the norm. It had taken a few years, but he was nearly there. Pride bloomed in Oshiro's chest. It was incredible to think of how long he'd - no, they'd come since then.

He heard rapid, high-pitched warbling from behind himself. The mites were probably still worried about him. "Yes, yes, don't worry. You two did excellently," he complimented, without thought.

The warbling seemed to get even more intense.

"What? What is it?" Oshiro turned around. Both of the mites jerked towards the doorway. A second later, Mr. Oshiro heard that most wonderful of sounds: the service bell, ringing nonstop. He knew exactly what that meant, and exactly who was coming.

He smiled over the din. "Showtime."

The sun pressed against the horizon, setting the landscape ablaze. In maybe half an hour, the light would be gone, and without visibility, it would no longer be safe to continue climbing. It wouldn't be comfortable, either. Without the ultraviolet heat of the nuclear furnace the Earth whirled around, a dense chill would settle over Mount Celeste.

It was a good thing, then, that the party of mountain adventurers Madeline was leading around had finally managed to come upon the Celestial Resort. It had been an incredibly long day full of physical toil. Madeline was the least winded of those present, but even then she felt like this was an appropriate time to take a break. Eat something. Nap for eight hours straight.

Theo and Carl, in contrast, were both dragging themselves along the bridge, worked to the bone. Theo had displayed slightly better endurance, owing to his previous experience with Mount Celeste, but even then that only got him so far. Carl had petered out far earlier, but forced himself forwards anyways out of spite. His stubborn perseverance reminded Madeline of herself.

"Alright. Keep in there a little longer, we don't have much further to go." Madeline looked over to Carl. "This is our stop for the night. The Celestial Resort. It's a fully functional resort hotel, 1500 metres above sea level. You'll be able to sleep the night away in a warm bed."

"Woohoo," Carl cheered, though it was clear his heart had punched out and was commuting home for the night.

Theo looked to Carl, then to the Resort. A couple of synapses in his brain fired, in a very particular way. "Hey, Strawberry?"

"Yeah, Theo?"

"We made reservations here, didn't we?"

"We did. I remember it was like herding cats to get you to agree. Why do you ask?"

Theo looked at Carl again. "Because I don't think we planned on bringing him along."

Carl very quickly intuited what that meant: he didn't have a room there. His response was to drop to the floor and play dead. Progress stopped, for a moment.

Badeline floated on over to Carl, poking him in the side. "Shall I get a stick to see if he's still alive?"

Madeline felt rather mortified. It had completely slipped her mind that you did need to pay money to stay at the Resort. "Sorry, Carl. I... forgot about that."

"It's alright," Carl moaned, prostrate. "I had to drive here, I brought my wallet. I'll pony up whatever the murder ghost asks."

"You don't know how much he wants," accused Badeline. "For all you know, maybe he's going to price gouge you. Are you really in that much of a hurry to get up the Mountain? And if you are, why?"

Carl was silent for a moment, before he rolled to look at Badeline. "Well, do you see any other magic mountainside hotels around here? And if you do, can you teach me how to open my third eye so I can see them?"

Badeline huffed as Madeline crouched down and offered a hand. Carl accepted the help, and found himself back on his feet so quickly his head swam. He dropped to a knee to avoid falling over again, in a more painful fashion. A few seconds later, he was back upright. "I'm good! I'm good. For the next fifty metres, anyways."

The party crossed the bridge, and Madeline held open the rather heavy, wooden front door of the Celestial Resort for everyone else to pass through. After heading through the vestibule, they emerged into the lobby of the Resort, laden with banners, several double-tall windows, and a mural of the Resort itself, with Mount Celeste's peak standing behind it. But more importantly than that, it was warm indoors. Theo and Carl perked up almost immediately.

"Oh man," went Theo, "I almost forgot what warmth felt like."

"I am gonna make sure everything's taken care of before I sit down," declared Carl, "because I don't think I am getting back up again."

"Babies," Madeline teased, as she sauntered on over to the counter and rung the service bell.

Nobody came.

Nobody came for a good few seconds.

"Was that supposed to do something?" asked Theo.

"He should be here by now," Madeline noted. "He must be busy." She decided to wait.

She stood there for a whole ten seconds before Badeline floated over and started ringing the bell like a madwoman.  Neither Theo or Carl wanted to dissuade her from her course of action. Madeline stood dumbfounded for a second, but just as she moved to try and pull her off of the service bell, it happened.

The lights cut out momentarily. In a blue flash, a skull appeared, levitating upwards and dragging a skeletonized torso out of the air in the process. Organs sloshed up to fill the body, visible only in the half-second before muscle began knitting itself over a now-complete human form. Skin grew over the ensemble so quickly that Theo blinked and missed the entire process.

"HOLY SHIT!" yelled Carl. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"

In another flash of light, Mr. Oshiro floated before them, the lights returning to normal. He looked pretty upset, but he held eye contact with Carl, who was feeling a very confusing mix of terror and shame so intense he wanted to retreat into his clothing and never come out again. Everyone else was simply too flabbergasted by the intensity and vulgarity of his response to even try and form a coherent sentence. Badeline tried, but all she could do was open and close her mouth several times in a row.

Oshiro eventually managed to find his tongue, though he couldn't hide the hurt he felt at being swore at as he showed up at the front desk. "Would you like to repeat that question in a more civil manner?"

Carl's mouth moved, but words didn't come out. The room seemed to have doubled in temperature. "I'm, uh... I'm a little new at this whole paranormality business, and I did not expect you to show up the way you did," he eventually enunciated.

Mr. Oshiro gave him a look for a moment, not quite getting what he was saying, before turning to Madeline. "Is he with you, Miss Madeline?"

"...Yes," Madeline grumbled, momentarily aggravated. "It's his first time up the Mountain. He's got a bad case of the jitters." A look at Carl, however, was a reminder that Mr. Oshiro was a ghost, and that Madeline had been about as shocked when she saw him appear her first time up, too. "Carl? You hurt Mr. Oshiro. I think you owe him something."

Carl got the memo, and jumped on the chance to get the situation over with. "Right. Sorry, Mr. Oshiro. I, ah... that won't happen again. Now that I know to expect it."

"It's okay," Oshiro forgave. "Mount Celeste can be an intense environment to vacation in. I understand. But that is no excuse for your actions. Here at the Celestial Resort, we do not tolerate verbal abuse against staff members. I will have you removed from the premises if I hear you are harassing staff again. Am I clear?"

"Crystal."

"Now then." Mr. Oshiro returned his attention to Madeline. "It's good to see you, Miss Madeline! I understand you reserved a room for yourself and a companion."

Madeline nodded. "Yep. I booked myself the presidential suite, and my friend Theo the room next to it. One night's stay." She proceeded to pull out her wallet and withdraw multiple golden hundred dollar bills, which Mr. Oshiro gladly took.

"Excellent!" Oshiro tapped away at his cash register, deposited the money, and floated over to Theo. "It's good to see you as well, Theo. I'm glad you decided to stay the night at the Resort."

"Madeline was nothing but glowing praise," Theo recalled, a tinge of anxiety present in his voice. "Said you'd really managed to clean up the place since the last time she was there."

"Yes, yes. We engaged in some pretty heavy remodeling after her visit revealed several deficient areas of the resort. There are still a few rooms that need work, but we have cordoned those areas off. You shouldn't have any issues during your stay!"

"I'll let you know if I do," Theo half-heartedly reassured. "You know. Respectfully."

Mr. Oshiro floated up to Badeline. "And you, Miss... Badeline, yes? It's been a while since we've last spoken."

"It has," agreed Badeline. "Madeline made nice with me, so I haven't come out that often."

"Have you been doing well?"

Badeline smiled toothily. "We've been doing well, yes."

"Splendid! Now, I know we've had a bit of a rough history, so allow me to extend you the courtesy of a free room, as a show of goodwill."

Badeline tugged at her collar, looking to Madeline for support. Madeline smiled in response. "Can I stay with Madeline?"

"Of course," Mr. Oshiro approved. Finally, he floated on over to Carl. "You must be Carl, then. You do look quite prepared for Mount Celeste."

"In all the ways that don't matter," Carl griped. "But yeah, that's my name." He extended a hand to Mr. Oshiro, and the hotelier shook it. "Nice to meet you, even if I made probably the worst possible first impression."

"I've had worse," Oshiro absolved. "In any event, though, I'm afraid I wasn't informed you were coming."

"I was, but... the past ten hours have probably been the longest of my life so far. I kinda forgot in the middle of it all." Carl turned towards his newfound friends. "If it weren't for Badeline, I'd be too dead to give you money right now. Speaking of giving you money, I'd prefer not to sleep out in the cold. How much is a room?"

"Ordinarily," began Mr. Oshiro, "I would recommend the spacious and comfortable presidential suite to you. The view it has of the Mountain cannot be matched! But our friend Miss Madeline has already taken it. I assume a standard room will do?"

"Yeah," confirmed Carl. "I just need a bed to sleep in, really."

"That will be two hundred dollars," Oshiro rattled off.

Carl sucked in a breath. That was his entire "emergency tire" fund, and he didn't have a spare in his trunk any more. But he wanted to sit down, and he was dimly aware that he was holding everyone else up. He withdrew his wallet and handed two hundred dollars in cash over to Mr. Oshiro, who inspected them for a second before completing the transaction. "Thank you for your business. I hope you all enjoy your stay at the Celestial Resort." Reaching behind the desk, Oshiro withdrew and handed out three different keys. "Can my helpers take your bags? They'll see you to your rooms."

At his cue, six fuzzy, red-and-black dust bunnies emerged from a nearby doorway, floating on towards the party. Madeline and Theo unhooked their bags and passed them to a pair of bunnies each. Carl, for a moment, thought of doing the same thing, until he remembered what he was carrying inside his. Two of the dust bunnies floated in front of him, making strange noises. Carl found himself rather suddenly unwilling to trust something so important to things he had just met.

"No, no! I'll be fine, thanks," Carl deflected. The strange noises became sad, very quickly.

"I insist," insisted Oshiro.

"So do I," snapped Carl, who then immediately realized how snippy he'd gotten. He sighed. "Look, your buddies there are nice. But don't worry about me. I came ten hours up here with this thing on my back, two more minutes won't kill me." One of the mites was still very sadly warbling, so he leaned down and moved in to pet it.

Madeline shot forwards. "NO, DON'T-"

Carl heard a sizzling noise. He immediately withdrew his hand, and flipped it over to find that the mite had managed to melt away the entire surface of the glove where he'd pet it. He found out because with a hand-shaped hole in his glove, the rest of it peeled away from his fingers under the force of gravity, sagging at the wrist. In that moment, he felt incredibly thankful he hadn't given his backpack away.

The mite stared at his glove, scared out of its tiny little mind.

Madeline got there right afterwards, and looked at his hand. "Carl, are you okay?"

"Me? Yeah. My glove?" He flopped it around. "Degloved."

Oshiro floated over, tensed for more yelling. "Carl, we at the Resort would like to deeply apologize for the damage to your personal effects."

"It's alright," Carl let off. "To be fair, I didn't expect this would be the way it went, but I figured I'd probably go through a pair of gloves or two while I came up here. I've got spares."

"In the future, don't touch the mites," Madeline stressed. "Yes, they're adorable. Yes, they're friendly. Yes, they will vaporize you. Just... let them be. Give them a snack if you want to make them happy."

"Well, after this, I'm absolutely gonna let them be," Carl assuaged. "Hey, Mr. Oshiro, can your buddies still show me to my room?"

"They can understand you just fine, you know," Mr. Oshiro clarified.

The mites began floating off deeper into the Resort along with the ones carrying Madeline and Theo's baggage. The party walked (and floated) on behind them.

Mr. Oshiro watched them go, feeling quite satisfied with himself. "Excellently navigated, Oshiro. You handled it well. Some customers just need permission to relax."

Having managed to resist the urge to settle into the incredibly large bed in her newly occupied suite for just long enough to ditch her cold weather clothes, Madeline proceeded to enter the sizeable lounge in the Resort and plop herself down into a recliner. She sighed in happiness as she sank into the seat, which was as comfy as it was big. It was well-cushioned for somebody maybe twice her size. Badeline (still wearing her gear, mostly because she wanted to) floated down to sit on the armrest as the two of them waited for their old and their new friend to get back from their rooms.

With nobody else around, Madeline decided to ask about the elephant soon-to-be in the room. "Well, it's been a full day. How's Carl been?"

Badeline sighed, thinking. "Less bad than I thought. I don't know, I was expecting him to blatantly harass you. You know how jokesters can be. Think they can just demean you and then say 'oh, it's just a prank, bro, I was just being funny.'" She paused for a moment to linger on her own thoughts. "But he's just a loudmouth."

"He has tact," Madeline proffered. "Sometimes. I wouldn't call him a loudmouth."

"Alright, I'll give him that," supposed Badeline. "He's a loudmouth who knows when to shut up. That's a skill most of them don't have. But... I just don't like him, okay? This trip was just supposed to be us and Theo, and now we've brought along some guy off the street who's probably going to get us hurt when we go through the Mirror Temple. I know I said I didn't want to see you fall back into the hole of finding self-worth solely through helping others, but at this point I wish he'd just talk about the bee in his bonnet. Maybe a bit of back patting might keep him from killing us all."

"I hear you on that," Madeline commiserated. "I mean, seriously. Who doesn't tell their friends that they're climbing a mountain? Even I told mine. It's sort of a big deal."

"And did you see the thing in the lobby? Good lord, I thought I was going to have to get into another scrap. Seriously, where the hell does he get off thinking that sort of outburst was anywhere near appropriate?"

Madeline sighed. "Baddy, remember what happened the first time we saw Mr. Oshiro?"

"We didn't swear," fussed Badeline.

"We didn't. But we still got pretty spooked when he showed up. Not that I don't agree with you in a way, but it isn't like he's trying to be an asshole. He unironically said 'I drink respect woman juice', he apologized immediately when we met him... I think he's just a private person. He probably isn't talking because he just doesn't feel comfortable enough to speak up with us yet."

"I hope you're right," sighed Badeline. "But take it from an objective observer - your track record with these things isn't very good."

"Shut up, you!" Madeline exclaimed.

Badeline smiled. "You can't make me. You know we love the sound of my voice."

"I do." Madeline was silent for a moment. After all that climbing, it was nice to be here. To breathe. "All that aside, you doing okay, Baddy?"

Badeline inspected her nails. "Physically, or mentally?"

"Well... I guess both. Or neither. Whichever one you think fits."

"I feel... okay, I guess. I'd rather not have come out, but being a person isn't too bad. I just like your head better."

"It's always nice to see you around, Badeline," Madeline beamed. "Whatever the reason is for a visit."

Badeline smirked. "You just like looking at yourself, don't you?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Pretty face, rich hair, vibrant eyes... oh yeah. We're a real looker. Who wouldn't want to look at us?"

Madeline let her mind wander for a moment as she stared out the window. The sun was gone, and the twilight was dimming. If she was outside, she wagered she could probably see Venus by now. "...I don't know. The people that hate us, I guess."

"Madeline, darling, there's like five of them," scoffed Badeline. "And all of them are dicks anyways. They don't deserve our face. The only thing they deserve is my fist in theirs."

Madeline laughed. When Badeline was relaxed, she tended to be very spontaneous and direct, freewheeling between thoughts in a rather loopy manner. She was Madeline's interior monologue made manifest, including the bits of it she wouldn't ordinarily tell people about.

"That's maybe a little extreme, don't you think?"

"The ex," deadpanned Badeline.

Madeline nodded, slowly. "Oh yeah. Punch his face in all you want. I'll record it. We'll have the memory of it whenever we want it."

"Well, if you ever want to take me up on that..." Badeline fingergunned Madeline. "Standing offer."

"I'll remember it if I ever meet him in a parking lot somewhere," Madeline promised. She relaxed into the soft chair, feeling her fingers and toes and cheeks warm up, listening to the crackle of the fireplace and the sound of tumbling wood as one of Mr. Oshiro's mites hucked another log into the hearth. It was healing.

Something was missing.

"I sure could go for some hot chocolate right about now," Madeline opined.

"Heh. Yeah," went Badeline. "It'd really hit the spot, wouldn't it?"

"It would. Shame I forgot it in my room."

"Shame."

A moment passed. "Baddy, could you be a dear and get me my hot chocolate?"

"Why."

"I'm tired," Madeline dragged on. "And this chair is cozy. I don't wanna get up."

"Be strong, Madeline. You're a big girl. You can get it. I believe in you!"

"Baddyyyyyyyyyy," whined Madeline, in the most petulant tone of voice she was able to muster, "you don't get tired. You're magic."

"I'm you, Maddy. I can get tired too."

"Why are you being so mean to meeeeeeeeee?" Madeline whimpered.

"I am doing no such thing," denied Badeline, with a great big smile on her face.

"Then why aren't you getting me the hot chocolate mix and the mug from my bag? Pleeeeeeeeeease?"

"Because," underscored Badeline, "you need to take care of yourself. What if something serious happens, like... like, like you need to go get your TV remote off the floor, and you don't have your friendly neighborhood psychological shadow to get it for you?"

Badeline was being really serious tonight. Madeline had to deploy her ultimate trump card. "I'll throw in something to make it worth your while," she suggested.

"I know what we packed into our bag. What could you have that would possibly-"

"I'll give you a hug," Madeline offered. "A good one."

Badeline raised an eyebrow, but judging by the faint blush and the laser focus she held on Madeline, her weakness had been discovered. "How good?"

"Like, really good. Really, really good. Better than any hug I've ever given you."

"You, uh, have only done that like three times," remembered Badeline.

"Exactly my point! You haven't witnessed my full power. And maybe if you got me my hot chocolate for me... you could."

Badeline made a show of carefully considering the offer. "Well... you sure do know how to bribe me, Maddy dearest." She pushed herself off of the chair and walked off. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Try not to fall asleep or I'm drinking all of it."

Madeline sat there, visions of chocolatey goodness dancing across her tongue, and did her level best to not fall asleep. It was a pretty easy job, because half a minute later Theo (clad now in a longsleeve shirt and a set of long johns) dropped into a nearby chair, carrying his water bottle, a mug, and his own ration of hot chocolate mix.

"Oh, hey Strawberry," he mumbled. "Didn't see you there."

Madeline smiled. "How are you, Theo?"

"My arms burn," Theo replied. "My legs burn, too. So do my abs. And my lungs. I think I might be on fire, Strawberry."

"That might not be good for you. Need me to get the fire extinguisher?"

Theo took an inadvisably long swig from his water bottle. "Yes please. I have completely forgotten how hard it is to climb this place. Maybe I should lift weights."

"I can give you some of the smaller ones I've got. Just to start you off with."

"I will absolutely consider that," Theo considered. "How about you? Has the unstoppable Madeline, notorious alpine conqueror, finally run out of steam?"

"I like this chair," Madeline decided to say. "It's soft and comfy and perfect to sit in after a ten hour day of lifting my own body weight three hundred times."

"Yeah. You've definitely run out of steam. Where's Baddy? I wanna talk to her. A lot. About everything."

Madeline jerked her head backwards. "She went to go get my hot chocolate for me. Because she is a very nice facet of my personality."

"She is nice," Theo concurred. "With a bit of a mischievous streak, too."

"I wish she'd come out more often," Madeline wished. "But she really does like being cooped up with me now. I guess that's her decision."

"It is my decision," affirmed Badeline, as she hopped back onto her previous perch and passed Madeline her hot chocolate mix and her strawberry mug, emblazoned with her name. "It's as comfy for me in there as it is for you in that chair, only, like, all the time."

"Wow," Madeline said, understanding entirely why Badeline didn't come out more often in that moment. "I mean... I'd still like it if you came out more, but I get why you don't now. I'll try to ask a bit less often."

"Eh. Don't sweat it, Maddy."

Madeline proceeded to stare at her mug and the packet of mix.

"It won't make itself," Theo commented. "At least not for the next thirty years."

"Baddy-"

"No."

"But-"

"You only said I had to get it," detailed Badeline. "Not anything else. You can make your own hot chocolate."

"Party pooper." Madeline peeled herself out of the warm embrace of her beloved chair and slugged her way over to Theo. "You want me to get yours done, too?"

"Please," Theo requested, offering up his own supplies. Taking his stuff, Madeline ambled off towards the lounge's kitchenette and its microwave, while Badeline took the moment to slide down the armrest and right into Madeline's spot.

"She's gonna want that back," Theo cautioned.

"If she wants it back that badly, she can pry me from it. Or maybe do something even more dreadful."

"Pray tell," snickered Theo, "what could be worse than pulling you out of that chair?"

"Take a second. It'll destroy your delicate sensibilities." Badeline cleared her throat. "She could ask!"

Theo gasped like he'd just seen a murder. "The indignity! You wouldn't dare subject her to that, would you, you fiend?"

"Theo, I tried to kill her," drolled Badeline.

"Your point being?"

"My point being that I absolutely would subject her to that. Because I am a fiend."

"Would Miss Fiend kindly move, like, a foot?" Madeline petitioned, having returned from the microwave with two piping hot cups of hot chocolate. She passed Theo's mug back down to him before lightly sloshing her own in Badeline's view. "I'll let her have some of my hot chocolate if I do!"

There was a moment of silence. "Heartless," Theo arraigned, sipping his chocolate. "Utterly heartless."

"Oh, I am." Badeline scooted over a bit to let Madeline sit down next to her. The chair was just wide enough to fit the both of them in at once. It would have been uncomfortably cramped for Badeline, if it wasn't her better half she was sharing that room with. "But now I've got Madeline and hot chocolate. So who's really the winner, here?"

Madeline handed her mug to Badeline, who drank very greedily from it. She didn't try to stop herself. She trusted Badeline to not drink literally all of it. "A shame Alex couldn't be here."

"Oh, man, this trip would be great if Alex was here," Theo yearned. "I know how well you two get along. If she saw Badeline come out she'd practically squeal!"

Madeline had a good laugh over that. "A shame she's got that big bar exam coming up."

"It is," Theo nodded. "But when she passes it, she's no longer going to be a lawyer in training. She will be an official Lawyer-with-a-capital-L, as recognized by the state of California! I have not gotten any less hyped about that."

Madeline frowned a bit. "I do feel a bit guilty about bringing you out here when she's getting ready for that-"

"Badeline," Theo cut off.

"Yes, Theo?"

"Please remind Madeline of what I told her the first time she worried about how Alex was going to do while I was gone, would you?"

"Gladly." She looked over at Madeline. "I think Theo said something along the lines of 'the second I brought it up she practically pushed me out the door'. He also said that she was, in her own words, 'totally fine' and 'ready to ace that exam two months ago'."

Madeline smiled as she sipped some hot chocolate. Theo had practically fallen over himself to explain that everything was kosher. "Yeah... he did say that. I just-"

"No justs here, young lady," scolded Badeline. "I'm not worried about this, Maddy. And I worry about everything!"

Madeline breathed in, then breathed out. "Alright. I'm still talking to her after this is over."

"If you apologize," warned Theo, "she'll find where you live and throw the book at you."

"She knows where I live," Madeline countered. "You've told her. I'm almost sure you've shown her."

"The entire book, Madeline," Theo continued. "Do you even know how big lawbooks are these days? Because I sure didn't until she brought home a copy of the California state laws. And that's just one book. There's more!"

"I'd listen to Theo, darling. He's spitting straight facts."

"Alriiiiiiiiiight," Madeline giggled. "I get the memo. I believe you. It's all fine."

"You'd better," advised Theo. "I can't guarantee Alex won't bring more than one book!"

Madeline took another sip of her drink. "So. How was Mr. Oshiro, Theo?"

"Well... you were right, Strawberry," Theo articulated. "He is definitely a lot less creepazoid than I remember him being. There's still just... something that isn't really right about him, though. I don't know. I don't trust like that."

"Yeah, he's a bit stilted and awkward. I guess that's what happens when you've been stuck inside a rotting hotel for the past... God knows how many years. But it's good to know you're feeling more comfortable around him."

"More comfortable is absolutely a good way to put it," Theo specified, "'cause I wouldn't say I really like him too much yet. But I'm sure he won't try to serial kill us either." He took a generous pull of his chocolate. "So, Baddy. Really. How's it been since the first climb? It's been a few years."

"I told you, didn't I, Theo? I live in Maddy's head. We're doing a lot better, so I'm doing a lot better too."

"I know that," Theo remembered. "But it's been like three years since I've been able to talk to you. And I wanna make up for lost time, because you're as much a friend as Madeline is."

Badeline frowned for a moment, trying to think about how to explain what "we're doing a lot better" meant. "Well," she began, "the biggest difference is that Madeline is listening to me. Which is sort of a metaphor. When we're away from the Mountain, I can't talk to her. I become..." She thought for another moment, snapping her fingers together.

"Take your time, Baddy," Theo allayed. "Don't stress your noodle putting it to words if you can't."

"I can, though! It's like, I just become the parts of us that she doesn't... ehm, used to not like. Anger, fear... caution, I guess... they're all things Madeline used to think were undesirable. Things that held us back. The things that embody me. And now she knows better, and she treats me seriously. When I think Madeline needs to do something different, she actually considers those feelings now. And... yeah, sometimes I'm wrong. Sometimes I'm too paranoid or too scared of what'll happen to us. But just as often, we end up in a better position because of me. Theo, do you know how it feels to be validated like that? It means the world. Sometimes - get this - I actually believe we can do incredible things, and I'm believing more often than I ever was. I can't go back to how it was before."

"And I wouldn't dream of going back," Madeline followed up with. "I don't think I could if I tried."

"Don't try," appealed Badeline. "Anyways, like I said when I showed up, it hasn't all been roses and good times. Granny..." She paused for a couple of seconds, finding the subject incredibly hard to bring up even before her own personal hangups regarding talking about emotions in front of people who weren't Madeline.

"Yeah, you don't have to say anything about that," Theo comforted. "That was a horrible time. I know it was really bad on Madeline. I can't imagine what it was like for you."

"Yeah," admitted Badeline, electing not to bring up how it had been a return to the bad old days. How it'd driven Madeline deeper into depression than she'd ever been. About just how terrified she had felt when Madeline had that first indirect thought of self-termination. Theo didn't need to know any of that. "Horrible is a word that describes it very well. And I'd like to leave it at that, thank you. So, we've had our ups, we've had our downs, but it's just been so much better like this. Climbing the Mountain is easily the best thing we've ever done. I mean, besides transitioning."

"You sound a lot happier, too," noticed Theo. "Like, you always kinda had a bit of a dour mood going on back at the party. Even when you were being all cocky and mischievous. But now you sound so much more satisfied. Man, now I'm really wishing Alex was here. She'd love you."

"Maybe you can bring her here sometime," spitballed Badeline. "We wouldn't have to climb anything. I promise you if Madeline ever comes to the Mountain with Alex I'll try as hard as I can to show up for her. You know... if she doesn't freak out."

"Yeah... she might. A little. But trust me, once we get her used to the idea that you exist she'll adore you. You're just like Madeline, but goth!"

"Heh. If you say so," granted Badeline. A second later, she heard a thump very close by and turned to look at it.

It was Carl, having dropped into a chair across from the two of them. He looked a lot smaller without the five tons of stuff he was wearing. His hair was a brilliant golden blonde, and also what could be scientifically termed "a mess". He looked towards the other three gathered. "Hey Maddy, Maddy Two, Theo! Sorry I'm late, I got a little lost."

"How much of that did you just hear," breathed Badeline, floating up into the air defensively.

"Not enough to understand anything," shrugged Carl. "Something about somebody else freaking out?"

"Nah, don't worry," Theo explained. "Just me talking about trying to get Baddy to meet up with my sister at some point. I'm sure they'd get along."

Badeline exhaled, returning to the couch. He hadn't heard. Good. She still didn't know exactly how much Carl was on the up and up, and she didn't trust him not to judge them for who they were.

"So, Carl. How are you feeling now that you're sitting down?" Madeline queried.

"I hurt in places I didn't know it was possible to feel," Carl answered. "I'm going to be so sore tomorrow. How about the rest of y'all?"

"Mood," Theo said.

"I'm a bit tired," Madeline relayed, "but I'm good."

"Peachy," echoed Badeline.

Carl sank into his chair. Then he caught sight of Madeline's mug. "What'cha drinking?"

"Hot chocolate."

"Damn," swore Carl. "I knew I was missing something when I packed."

Madeline thought for a moment, then offered her mug. "Want some?"

"Nah," declined Carl. "I'd rather not dirty up your mug with my mug."

"There are straws here, Carl," informed Theo.

"Where?"

Theo pointed over towards a straw dispenser in the kitchenette.

Carl thought for a moment. "Well, if you're offering..." He pushed himself out of his chair and walked over to grab a straw. Upon his return, he took Madeline's mug, dropped the straw into it, and took a good sip of the hot chocolate still there. It hit the spot, and it was an act of conscious effort to withdraw the straw and give the mug back to Madeline. "I should not have taken you up on that," he said immediately afterwards. "Now I am really regretting not bringing some of my own."

"Could take some of mine," Theo extended.

"Eh. I'll live." Carl fell back into his chair, twirling the straw around his fingers.

Theo took a second to size up Carl's head. "You've sure got some funky hair," he commented.

"Thanks. It's a curly disaster. It doesn't really grow out so much as grow thick. I'm pretty sure if I tried to shoot myself in the head the bullet would bounce into the wall. I've broken so many combs over my life I think they see me as an archdemon."

"Might wanna try using a thick-toothed comb," Theo observed. "Maybe some hair gel. Lean into the whole 'curly' thing, you know?"

"Maybe," mused Carl. "Idunno. I'd prefer it straight. It'd probably be a lot easier to work with."

"Trust me, I've got a couple of friends with curly hair. It isn't impossible to make it look good," Theo told. "That's the good news. The bad news is that, unfortunately, you need to apply effort."

"No," went Carl.

"Hey man, it takes a lot of effort to make this pomp look good." To accentuate the point, Theo fluffed his front-loaded poof of hair. "I'd say it's worth it. Wouldn't you?"

"Yep," Madeline agreed, Badeline merely nodding her head in response.

"...it does fit you," Carl gave. "I guess I just have to find the style that works best with me."

"If you want, I can hook you up with one of my buds after this," Theo suggested. "He's a hairstylist. He'll give a few tips of his own if I ask nicely."

"I'll take you up on that. But while we're talking about hair, how do you work with yours, Madeline? It's so huge and long."

"That's what he said," tittered Badeline. The conversation vigorously dissolved for a few seconds right after that.

"Well. God damn if that wasn't some perfect timing," Carl complimented. "Now, as I was saying before Badeline made me out like a pervert-"

"- which you are -"

"- seriously, you've got so much hair. It must get in the way whenever you try to do stuff. How do you like... live?"

"It did take a bit of getting used to," Madeline elaborated. "But I wanted my hair long. And eventually it got long. I do have to watch out for it sometimes. I try to sleep on my back, because if I sleep on my sides and roll over my hair will become a giant ball of frizz. But it's easier to live with than you might think."

"Well, I've gotta admire the dedication. You can go really, really far in life if you just want something enough."

"Oh, don't we know it," Madeline concurred, patting Badeline on the shoulder. "Want is how I summited this place the first time around." Then she looked at Badeline. "Well, that, and a little help from myself."

"Nobody can climb a mountain alone," mentioned Badeline, repeating what Madeline had told her. "Fortunately for Madeline dearest, me being with her means we technically weren't alone."

"Lucky you," appraised Carl. "I wish I had an extra me around to help me out with stuff. Maybe skip all the 'making peace with yourself' stuff first."

"Not optional," Madeline said, promptly shutting Carl down. "If you want your doppelganger to be friendly you have to get into a fight with them and win. It's Mountain law."

"It's why I don't have one," added Theo. "I'm a lover, not a fighter."

Carl thought for a second. "I have a set of axes. I'd probably win. Wouldn't even have to swing 'em."

"Threatening your other half into compliance is not an effective way of making friends," drawled Badeline. "Trust me. I've tried it, it does not work. Also, he'd have the axes too. You'd have to axe fight him."

"Man, that'd be awesome for all of the five seconds I'd last before I took an axe to the temporal lobe," Carl laughed.

Theo took another drag of his hot chocolate. "You could absolutely take yourself, man. Madeline did it. You can too."

"Ordinarily I wouldn't speak against Theo, but... no. You'd probably die," disagreed Badeline.

"I'm not really a fighting kind of person either," confessed Carl. "Not unless I have to be. Maybe I can have a nice talk with myself. If I meet him."

"I hear he might be climbing this very mountain," Theo joked.

Carl made a show of considering the thought. "I wouldn't wanna meet him. I hear he's kind of a dick."

"He is," chimed Badeline. For once, she wasn't being mean. Carl frowned anyways, which only caused Badeline to laugh harder at how he exaggerated it.

"Madeline," Carl complained, "tell yourself to stop being mean to me!"

"What I do is none of my business," Madeline swerved. "You're just gonna have to deal with it, Carl."

"Durn." Carl turned to look out the window. Night was here. The sky had given way to the stars beyond. The moon hung in the sky, providing some level of light, but it didn't reveal much of notice. Just snow and dirt, and then the star-spackled abyss. For a moment, vividly remembering the space block, Carl considered clocking out.

Madeline drained the last of her hot chocolate. "Hey, Carl," she quizzed, "what was that thing you were wearing?"

"You might need to be specific," yawned Carl. "I've been wearing a couple things tonight."

"The little patch on your coat. It looks pretty neat. What is it?"

"Oh, that. It's, ah... just something from a game I play," Carl demurred.

"What one?" pressed Theo.

Carl hesitated another moment. "...Air Combat."

"Never heard of it," Madeline said.

"Well the name is pretty self-explanatory, but..." Fortunately, Carl already had a sales pitch he'd used when he talked to some other friends about it. He hoped it'd work - he was too far in to quit now. "Imagine what Metal Gun Subterfuge would be like if it was about fighter pilots instead of spies."

"Oh, that paints a picture," stated Badeline.

"Yeah, it's not entirely interested in depicting completely realistic dogfighting. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. The patch is the squadron logo of the player from Air Combat IV. First one I ever played, back when I was..." He paused, trying to peel back layers of nostalgia. "...was I twelve? I think. Either way, it was the game. The one that gets you hooked for life, you know?"

"I know," Madeline validated. "It was The Legend Of Zoldie: Pendant of the Ages for me."

"Oh man, that one's a classic. If you really like it, don't look at what the speedrun community did to it."

"She knows," Theo related. "One time when I was visiting her she told me about it. They managed to figure out some, like, ridiculous input sequence that fools the game into loading the end credits. It's wack."

"Don't forget," Madeline reminded, "you need to name your save file a very specific character string so it'll work!"

"God, I remember watching a run of that. I could barely understand what was going on. It was some freaky voodoo black magic stuff, for sure. Anyways, like I said... that was the game for me. So when I got my first bits of disposable income when I was in college, that patch was the first thing I ever bought. It's seen me through a lot. Hopefully, it'll see me through this too."

"Well, you're a braver guy than me. It's not my style to wear nerdy stuff out in public," revealed Theo.

"Eh. Air Combat is... I don't wanna come off like some pretentious hipster and say it's obscure, but it's definitely under the radar enough that I can usually get away with it without too many questions. It helps that all the logos look like stuff you'd see in real life."

"Ah, but we'll know," jested Badeline. "And we'll be judging you for it every second. Silently."

"All that says is that I haven't found a design you like yet." Carl grinned, deviously. "There's a lot of them. And I still have a lot of disposable income."

Badeline scoffed. "Alright then, buddy-pal. It's your money."

A comfortable silence descended upon the group. Carl in particular was glad that hadn't deflagrated, though he wouldn't have been able to explain how it could have if somebody asked. The crackle of the fireplace was joined by a sound vaguely resembling what you'd hear from a TV tuned to a kid's channel. Theo went and took a look, and saw a few of the mites from earlier. They were zipping around so fast it was hard to keep track of them, and judging by the way they bumped into each other, they were playing tag.

"So," Carl inquired, "what's the story behind those little burny guys?"

"Mr. Oshiro made them," Madeline answered. She didn't even look. She knew what Carl was talking about. "He's got some anxiety issues. They used to be pretty bad, and whenever the thoughts became too overwhelming they just... shot out of him. I still don't really know why."

"Weird ghost stuff, I guess," Carl surmised.

"Pretty much. About that, don't call him a ghost. Or talk about paranormal stuff around him. Mr. Oshiro still thinks he's alive, so it's probably a little rude to try and correct him on that."

"Noted," Carl said. "Even though he's totally a ghost."

"He's a lost soul. The Celestial Resort is a lot more to him than just a hotel," Madeline continued, for a moment echoing how Granny spoke about him. "It was his life, and he enjoyed working here. But it was closed down a long time back by its original owners, for reasons beyond their control. Reasons I haven't been able to figure out anything about. And Oshiro was too attached to just leave..."

Carl understood what Madeline was getting at, and it was pretty dark. "And that's why he's still here. Man, now I feel really bad about that outburst."

"You should," japed Badeline. "If you'd pissed him off enough, he probably would have tried to kill you."

"Badeline, stop guilt tripping Carl."

"Hey, it's the truth! I speak from experience!"

Carl let his head sag forwards. "God, I'm too tired to deal with this," he chuckled. Then he brought it up just enough to watch the mites play.

"They're cute, aren't they?" Madeline asked.

Carl hummed. He seemed to agree.

Eventually, the conversation wound down. Everyone was too exhausted and tired to keep going, and they did need to be awake early tomorrow. It was winter, so sunlight came at a premium. If you didn't want to spend an entire week camped out on the Mountain, every second counted. Madeline, Badeline, Theo, and Carl bid each other a good night, and retired to their rooms.

The presidential suite certainly looked a lot better than it had when Madeline had been here three years prior. It was incredible just how much a good dusting, some fresh linens, and a new mirror did for the place. Madeline wasn't entirely sure how Mr. Oshiro had done it, and she made a mental note to ask him about it later.

"You're forgetting something," intoned Badeline.

"I am?" Then Madeline remembered what she'd promised. She headed on over to the bed. "Oh. Right. Why don't you come and get it?"

Badeline stalked forwards. She closed in, slow and unsure, still not entirely comfortable dealing directly with her own feelings yet. As she grappled with the eternal struggle inside her soul, she wasn't on the ball enough to react to Madeline reaching out and grabbing her. With a solid grip, Madeline dove backwards, dragging the both of them onto the bed.

Madeline was very warm. The bed was very soft. The door was very locked. Badeline basked in the contact, very content to lay there and let Madeline stroke her (their) hair.

"Hugs don't have to end," was all Madeline had to offer. Badeline understood then what she'd been promised.

She relaxed, letting down all of her guard. She greedily snuggled into Madeline, taking as much warmth as she could get away with and then some. She hadn't noticed how tired she was, which she guessed was how tired they were. She certainly didn't notice Madeline getting up and sliding the both of them under the covers, because the comfort had lulled her into sleep long ago.

Madeline and Badeline slept well.

Off in his own room, Theo stretched and sat down on his bed. He signed into his phone and popped open his contact list, scrolling to Alex. He was still getting signal up here. It didn't seem any worse than at the base of the Mountain, really. For a second, Theo wondered why.

Then he got to tapping.

Hey Alex! Everything's going fine. We're bedding down for the night, just thought I'd let you know we're all okay. Picked up a new friend along the way, he's been sweet! It's been a real hoot. Hope your studying is going well!

He sent the message and stared at his phone for a moment. With nothing else to do, he defaulted to autopilot and tapped home.

Theo caught himself, thumb hovering over the Instapix icon. "Nuh-uh. You're still on break, Theo. No Instapix for you." For a moment he considered deleting the app entirely, but then he didn't want to go through the painstaking process of setting the entire thing back up the way he liked it.

He pressed and held, setting the phone into "organize apps" mode. Then he went and dragged the Instapix icon all the way to its own little page. It was a genius move: he'd have to scroll five or six times to get to it. Opening the app was going to require conscious thought, rather than just a desire to check in because he was bored.

Theo set his phone back to his home page. He placed it on the nightstand next to his bed. Then he slipped under the covers and counted sheep until he lost track.

Theo slept well.

The first thing Carl did when he got peace and quiet was crack open his backpack and slide The Package out of its protective covering. The towel had been a good idea after all, because despite all the jostling the day had brought, there wasn't so much as a chip on it. He wrapped it back up in the towel, then went to inventory his food supply. He'd been draining it about as much as he'd expected to, which meant that if he needed to he had another four days' worth of meals on him. Far more than he'd need, with any luck.

He slipped everything back into his ruck, then climbed into the bed. It felt soft and smelled fresh, and it was surprisingly comfy for a place with a ratio of one broken window to every intact five. Remodeling was probably a process when you only had a bunch of weird dust bunnies to work with.

Carl would have worried. He would have thought about Madeline, and Theo, and Badeline, and how exactly he was going to keep The Package and what he planned to do with it a secret from them. He would have sweat bullets over how they'd react if they found out why he was here. But he was just too drained from the most strenuous exertion he'd ever sustained in his life, and a few moments after slipping under the covers he was out like a stone.

Carl didn't sleep well.

Chapter Text

The thing about life, he's found, is that it has a bad habit of not waiting for you. There's a hundred different ways that you can get roughed up in an alleyway and left gutted and hollowed out, barely able to muster the energy to act like a normal person. Time doesn't care. It will continue its ineluctable, second by second march into the future, regardless of your personal condition. So no matter how hard things weigh on you, you have to keep moving, lest you slip beneath the waves and never return.

So too, here.

"Banshee Lead, I can't shake the lock, music sour!"

"Black 12, missile at your seven! Break! Break!"

"This is Viper Two, I've lost power! Eject, eject, eject!"

Everything is going to hell in a handbasket. Comms are jammed with frantic pleas for help and moribund descriptions of failing aircraft, painting a vivid picture of a collapsing frontline. The sky is colored orange by both the sun and the burning wrecks of broken fighters, all falling down towards the horizon. It would be beautiful, in a macabre way, if it weren't for the sense of crushing defeat that hangs over the scene.

In some way, Carl feels that this - the terrible situation he's found himself in - is all his fault. If he'd toughened up in the distant past, maybe he'd be somewhere else entirely. If he'd just taken a different action a few hours back, maybe he wouldn't have locked himself into what is very clearly starting to look like a no-win situation, where the game's already over, he's lost, and all the rest of this is just him playing catch-up.

Doesn't matter. Tough luck. Life didn't wait for him, so here he is, keeping up.

"This is Silver 2, my entire squadron's gone, I'm the only one left! Three bandits on my tail! Someone help me!"

"Phantom Lead to all elements, we've lost control of the airspace, pull back! I repeat, pull back!"

"Where's Rapier? Can anyone see him? If we can just hold until he gets here we'll be saved!"

His fighter is top of the line. It's been that way for a long time - in the two decades since it first took air, only one other airframe can really be said to meaningfully oppose it. It is gray and sharp, a knife in the form of a stormcloud, full of advanced technology. It can defy aerodynamics on command. It's slippery and hard to track. Fighting it is like trying to fight a marble, which is hard enough when the marble doesn't have air-to-air missiles. It isn't so much a machine as an extension of his will.

It's not enough.

"This is Red 5, I've lost my left wing! The ejection handle's jammed, I can't get out!"

"Angel Lead, please! Did you see what happened to Jester! Was there a parachute?"

"My arm! I can't feel my arm!"

Carl ducks and dives and dips. He jukes missiles without even consciously thinking about it. He picks out the green squares in his vision and hunts them down, waits for them to turn red, and thumbs two missiles at the tone. In the rare event that's not enough to make the squares disappear, a quick spray of gunfire is usually enough to force it. He flips over, switches to his multi-targets, and looses four more rockets. Doesn't really matter where they're going, it's a target rich environment out there. Most of them will find new homes. He doesn't wait for the impact notifications. Once they're launched, it's back to the hunt.

Ordinarily, Carl finds peace in this loop. It's like a howling, explosive form of meditation. On the best days he doesn't even think about what he's doing. His conscious mind dwells on the things that bother him. His unconscious mind flies by pure instinct. He nips and tucks at the issues at hand as he rips and tears at the foes arranged in his path. He thinks about the banalities of his life, the ways he needs to handle delicate situations, the standing of his debts. He doesn't think about the spine-crushing turns, the angles he needs to ensure a hit, the omnipresent missile warning screech that's burned into his brain so vividly sometimes he hears it when he sleeps.

This is far from an ordinary day. Every synapse Carl has is thinking about the array of targets, the weapons load, and how best to use the latter to erase the former. The regret he feels weighs heavy on him. He swears it weighs on his plane, too, it's not turning as hard as it ought to. His screens give him gibberish. Readouts change before his eyes. The odds are stacked against him, and in the face of it he keeps thinking about how much of an idiot he's been this entire time, no matter how hard he tries to focus. He thinks about every stupid mistake he's made, and he puts himself into a tilted state, and keeps making mistakes. Missiles shoot past their targets, launched at a bad angle. Carl fires without a lock, and the rocket sails off into the ether. An incoming heatseeker strikes home amidships, jerking his aircraft down and to the right. Every failure compounds.

"Rapier, I just lost my wingman! What the hell were you doing?"

"Rapier, please! I don't know how much longer I can - oh - God, HEL-"

"-I repeat, they gunned her out of the sky! She'd already ejected, and they came around and Swiss cheesed her! What kind of monsters are we-"

He is trying so very, very hard, and it's not enough. His radar shows the blue dots disappearing much faster than the red dots. The radio is alive with the sound of fear and panic. His allies are dying and he is not fast enough to save them, and it's all his fault. It's hopeless. He shouldn't have come here. He shouldn't have taken up their offer. He should have just gotten over himself and went to-

"All aircraft, be advised, massive target inbound! It's the size of half a city... what the hell is it?" That's his AWACS - Airborne Warning And Control System. The eye in the sky overlooking his every move, the benevolent overseer that passes him objectives and information. Even she is terrified, now, trying to behold something that her much larger jet's much stronger radar still can't make sense of. The dread crescendos.

He sees it emerge from the cloudwall due Southwest, rolling into view like a monster from a horror movie. Calling it a "flying fortress" is like calling an artillery piece a "gun". It is an airborne dreadnought. It is much, much larger than anything that flies should have any right to be, a massive grey wedge with obvious weaponry visible even from this distance. The radio falls silent. Somehow, that's louder than the screaming on it before.

How does he win against this? How does he survive?

He can't move. He's moving the flight stick, he's sure. But the plane isn't responding, so maybe he isn't moving the controls. It's hard to tell, the hate and the fear is so overwhelming now that it's making him nauseous and dizzy, or maybe the missile from earlier took out his oxygen generator and now he's hypoxic. He is rooted in place and helpless and he wants to scream but he can't as a red glow shines over his cockpit glass, the dreadnought charging a laser of the caliber used to cleave mountains and he tries to get out of the way but nothing works and nobody can help him and he deserves what he gets as the laser fires and the sky itself opens up to smite him and he swears he can hear a hate-filled scream, and then he woke up.

Carl's eyes shot open as he laid prone in bed. Anguish corkscrewed around his chest, constricting. He couldn't think, so he closed his eyes and tried to focus on his rampant breathing even as tears slipped away from him. He needed to calm down. Get over the pain, for now. He had places he needed to be, and soon. Slowly it cleared away, shoved aside for a nebulous "later" like he'd always been doing, and he could think again.

His heart was on a rampage. It felt hot. Way, way too hot. Carl pushed himself up to discover that the bedsheets were stuck to him, both ways. The blanket was damp. He'd sweated through it in his sleep. Carl had to peel it away from himself.

"What the hell," Carl sniffled. He was wide awake, and he remembered the dream very clearly - particularly how he'd felt. Far more clearly than any other dream he'd ever remembered having. He pushed himself up to try and sit against the wall, to find that he'd soaked through his clothes, too. He'd been too tired to ditch them, and now they clung to him. They were going to smell horrible, he was sure. He had no idea how to deal with it, but he felt incredibly grody. He needed to shower before he could even begin to think.

He walked into the bathroom attached to his room, stripped down, and turned on the hot water. A little ridiculous, he thought, as he stood in the shower and let the streams cascade over him. Problem: too hot. Solution: add extra hot. Awfully counterintuitive.

Carl washed himself down with the Celestial Resort's surprisingly high quality soap as he started planning how to handle this latest crisis. Getting himself clean was the easy bit. Getting his clothes clean was going to be a lot harder. Air drying was out of the question. Carl expected that Madeline would probably be on the move in the next hour or two. He had seen a laundromat while he was wandering the Resort's halls, confused, but it was going to be a real humdinger to get his clothes washed and dried without anything else to wear.

There were towels in the bathroom. Carl stared at them for a bit. He really, really didn't want to go out only wearing a towel, but if he wanted inconspicuously smelling clothes, did he have a choice? It was that or go commando, and of the two one of those options was objectively worse.

Eventually he shut off the water. He didn't have a whole lot of time to debate this. A full wash and dry cycle was going to take a while, and it was time he didn't feel he had to think about every decision he could make. If he didn't want more questions, he was gonna have to wear a towel and run for it.

"For Queen and country," Carl muttered.

When Madeline woke up, everything was warm and soft and okay. She felt easily the comfiest she ever had in a very long time. She didn't want to get out of bed, only to curl up tighter with Badeline and go back to sleep and be cozy.

Unfortunately, she looked out the window and the sun was rising. Sunlight meant climb time. As tempting as it was to just lie there, cuddled up, and be warm and happy forever, the Mountain wasn't going to climb itself.

Madeline looked down to Badeline. She brushed a lock of hair away from Badeline's face, taking a second to be supremely self-indulgent. "Hey," she whispered. "Baddy. Time to wake up."

Badeline snorted.

"We have to climb the Mountain," Madeline continued. "We gotta get up."

Badeline made a cute noise. "Five more minutes," she mumbled, half-asleep and clearly as cozy as Madeline felt.

"...alright. We can have a few more minutes. But we really do need to get up soon."

Madeline gladly took a few more minutes to soak in the self-love. It was something she still needed to give herself more opportunities to do. When it finally came time to move, she felt bad for Badeline. But somebody had to be the responsible one around here, and some days that was Madeline. "Alright. Badeline. I'm getting up."

Badeline whined. It was adorable, and it stayed Madeline's hand for about one second before she pushed herself up and out of bed. Badeline, of course, did not let go of the hug that she had so graciously earned last night, and Madeline ended up dragging her out of bed, bringing the covers with them. She marched over to the mirror to take a look at herself, a tangled pile of limbs and hair and bedsheets, and she lost it, dropping to her knees and laughing at the absurdity of it all.

"I don't wanna leave," admitted Badeline, in a rare moment of vulnerability. "This is nice. I don't know when we'll be able to do this again."

That put an end to Madeline's laughter. "If you ever want a hug, you can just do it, Badeline. Nobody's going to stop you."

Badeline buried her face into Madeline's shoulder, very embarrassed. "It's not the same when there's other people around."

Madeline understood immediately. It was kind of surprising just how snuggly Badeline was being in the first place. She had never been a very touchy-feely kind of person the first time up the Mountain. Not that she wasn't receptive to touch, but she never actually went to go hug somebody herself. Something about her must have changed since then. Since Madeline started treating her like she was there.

Madeline sat down and held Badeline for a moment. "Look, I didn't want to get out of bed either. But we're here to get Theo to the summit, right? So we gotta get up and get ready. I don't know if we'll get another moment to ourselves here, but I promise you I'll try to find one. Okay?"

"Okay," nodded Badeline.

Madeline thought for a moment. "And if Carl says anything you can give him a good thwack."

"Off the mountain?"

"...maybe just a normal thwack, then." Madeline stood up, and Badeline let go, allowing her to go freshen up for the day. Fortunately, Badeline didn't have to do things like "shower" or "brush her teeth", though she did have to comb her hair. Even just shifting around in her sleep had frazzled it quite badly, so Badeline took the opportunity to use Madeline's comb to get her own hair straightened out. It wasn't the easiest task in the world (remembering how to use it wasn't the same as actually using it yourself), but by the time Madeline had emerged from the bathroom, fresh and put together, Badeline had done an excellent job.

"Ready to go have breakfast?" Madeline asked. "They've got a full dining hall."

"It's just one ghost and his army of dust bunnies," mused Badeline. "I don't know how he can do it."

"Well, let's go figure it out. Worst comes to worst, we just eat more trail mix." Madeline grabbed her wallet, then opened the door and headed on towards the Celestial Resort's canteen. 

"It's still a little weird to see a normal hotel here," Madeline spoke.

"As opposed to the terrifying hellhouse full of living red sludge taken straight from your nightmares?"

"Mhm. If anything, it's harder to get around. The sludge made landmarks when I was through here the first time. Now it's just hallways."

"Only you would say that, Madeline," snarked Badeline. "That the freakshow motel full of red goo that burns things is easier to find your way around than a house."

Madeline grinned. "Am I wrong?"

"...no. Not really."

Silence reigned for a moment, before a distant humming thump slowly began to fade in.

"You hear that?" inquired Badeline.

"Sounds like the laundromat," Madeline surmised. "I'm surprised it's still working. This resort had a lot of amenities, but I figured most of them wouldn't really be functional after so long unattended."

"Who could be using the laundromat at this hour of the morning?"

"Probably the mites?" The laundry noise was getting louder. "I think we're gonna pass by it as we go. We can look in."

A moment later, they came to a door, with a plate above it that read "Laundry Room". Madeline opened the door, expecting to see the mites doing laundry, or Mr. Oshiro washing something.

What she got was Carl, clad only in a towel, and looking like he'd been caught stealing from the cookie jar.

The silence was as tense as it was awkward. Carl had absolutely no idea how he was going to explain away why he was here. It was lost on him that Madeline and Badeline, at least for the moment, were so confused about the sight in front of them that they didn't exactly have anything to say either.

"Uh... mornin'?" stammered Carl. It came out a lot less confident than he would have liked it.

"Carl," Madeline pronounced, "what are you doing?"

"Washing my clothes," he answered.

"In a towel," pressed Badeline, who had begun to gently levitate.

"Yes. In a towel. I don't have any spares, and... it got..." Before he could even finish Carl stopped himself. He didn't think there was any way Madeline was going to buy what he had to say, let alone her twin. "I had a bad dream."

"What about?" Madeline queried.

"Nothing in particular," Carl explained. "I was in a plane, fighting a war, and it was going badly. It was just... really intense, and when I woke up I'd sweated through my clothes and the bedsheets. Figured I'd take advantage of this place's laundry services so that I didn't stink the whole way up the mountain."

Madeline shared a look with Badeline. She didn't really have to ask him what his nightmare was about. The fact he had one in the first place was evidence enough. Few things on Mount Celeste were ever coincidental.

Madeline liked Carl. But all this dancing around the issue was starting to get under her skin. They were going to make it to the Mirror Temple today, and the worse off he was, the worse off everyone was going to be. "Carl. I'm going to be level with you. I know that there's something wrong with you. I know you're not telling us what it is. I'm going to give you a warning." She turned towards one of the room's windows, which had a decent enough view of the rest of the Mountain to come. "You don't have to tell me. But it doesn't matter if you tell me or not. The Mountain is alive, and the Mountain is going to know what's troubling you."

"It'll make you face it," joined Badeline, wielding the same authoritative tone of voice. "Mount Celeste likes helping people. But the first step to solving a problem is to admit you have one. And the longer you put it off, the more direct it's going to get, until it makes you face your fears. It will be ugly. You won't enjoy it. And it might endanger the rest of us." She left her demand unsaid: fess up. Now.

The speech was like a spear through the chest. Madeline had known this entire time. Had he really been that obvious about this? Was he that transparent? Did it matter, at this point? "I... look..." For a moment Carl floundered in pure panic, fear spiking in his brain. "You're right. There's... there's a reason I'm climbing Mount Celeste, okay? Yeah. This isn't exactly my ideal kind of vacation, but I'm here on business. Personal business. I'd really prefer not to get into the gory details, I don't really feel too comfy bringing it up with strangers."

Even now, with a smoking gun, he was still trying to play it off. Madeline had to force her indignation down. This was still a crack in the dam. That meant it was going to burst, regardless of Carl's feelings on the matter. "Alright. Fine. Maybe it'll help if I give you something to think about. When the Mountain helped me, it tore out part of my personality and gave it a body and a mind."

Carl hadn't been ignorant of Badeline's backstory, but hearing it phrased like that made it click in a way it hadn't before. "Wow. You must have been dealing with some heavy stuff. I hope things don't go that badly for me."

"It might," deadpanned Badeline. "All depends on what you're dealing with. If I knew I could probably give you a better estimate."

"You'd probably just tell me it absolutely would," Carl griped.

"What was that thing you said yesterday? 'A little presumptive, huh, buddy?'"

"Well, I'm sorry for making an assumption about somebody who clearly doesn't like me," Carl grumped further.

"Uh..." At the sound of Theo's voice, everyone turned around to find him standing in the doorway to the laundry room, flanked by two mites and very confused. "Am I interrupting something, or..."

The first thing Theo did when he woke up was check his phone. Ordinarily, it was a reflex he was trying to shake, but he wasn't going to look at Instapix.

Hey Theo! Good to hear you're having a good time up in Canada and making some new friends! Studying is indeed going well, it's just dress rehearsal at this point. I know everything. Stay safe up there, and tell Madeline to stop worrying about me, I know she is!

"Heh. I'll definitely tell her, Alex." Theo shut off his phone before he got tempted to do anything else. He stretched, then sat on his bed, closed his eyes, and focused on his breathing. Theo wasn't exactly a meditation guru (he'd fallen off the horse here and there), but he liked to think he was pretty good at clearing his mind. It was really helpful to do, especially on bad days where things started to seem like they were too much to handle. Taking a few moments to recenter himself usually helped with whatever he was worried about.

The thought crossed his mind he hadn't tried to meditate last night. Theo always tried to get in a few minutes in the morning and the evening. But Mount Celeste was a brutal place to hike, and Theo forgave himself for being so exhausted that even after a full mug of hot chocolate he pitched into bed and slept. (That, and self-forgiveness was a very important thing to practice in general.)

After a few minutes of emptying his head, Theo felt his stomach gurgle. He was hungry, and Madeline had said the Celestial Resort could provide breakfast. He checked the time: ten past eight. Everyone else was probably up by now. Theo pocketed his phone and left his room, wandering around for a little bit. He didn't exactly know where the breakfast hall here was, but that wasn't a problem. Either he'd find it eventually, or stumble on somebody who knew.

The latter happened, as he bumped into Mr. Oshiro. Theo fell back onto his ass. Oshiro, however, just bounced backwards like a ball floating in a pool. "Oh dear! I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Theo. Are you alright?"

"It's alright," Theo wrote off, pushing himself to his feet. "Not the first time I've taken a big fall on this mountain. Won't be the last."

With everything settled, Oshiro decided to quiz the Resort's newer visitor. "Have you been enjoying your stay at the Celestial Resort?"

"Yeah, it's been fine. This place really looked like it was in need of some renovations last time I was here," Theo observed as he looked around. "But it looks a lot better now."

"Yes. Like I said yesterday, Miss Madeline's first visit was quite revealing. It's been hard work getting the Resort back up to par, but with the help of my companions, I've managed!" Mr. Oshiro seemed different, now that Theo was here without anyone else. He didn't have that weird sort of creeper vibe going on about him, talking to himself in a hushed tone of voice about getting visitors to stay in the resort. If anything, now he seemed confident in himself and genuinely helpful. Almost like a different person.

Theo still didn't feel completely okay around the guy, but he was now convinced that the worst Mr. Oshiro was capable of was just being hideously socially awkward. Which, y'know. That was just a mood some days. "So. Mr. Oshiro. You know where the breakfast hall is?"

"Go down the hallway here, make a right, take the next right, and you'll hit a staircase. Go down it, straight down the hallway until you see the "Dining Hall" sign, and you'll be there."

Theo whistled. "Damn. You just rattled that off like it was second nature!"

"Oh, but it is," revealed Mr. Oshiro. "I know this Resort like the back of my hand! Not everyone does, of course. If you're having trouble, my assistants can help you." Two mites rounded the corner at that moment, zipping up to Theo.

"I'll definitely take their help, then. Anyways, I'm gonna go get me some grub and meet Madeline. She's probably already there waiting for me."

Mr. Oshiro nodded. "That woman is full of energy! I don't understand how she does half the things she does."

"Trust me, man. I hang around with her way more than my finances would like me to, and I don't know either. I guess there's just some things man was not meant to know." Theo pulled away to go head towards food. "See you around!"

Mr. Oshiro waved goodbye before floating off, returning to whatever it is he was doing. Theo kept on going, exactly as directed - down the hallway, next two rights, down the staircase, the mites trailing behind him the whole way. They didn't do anything, so Theo supposed they were just waiting to see if he strayed off the beaten path. But as he soldiered forth on the correct route, he heard voices coming from the laundry room. It sounded a lot like Madeline. Food was good, but if Maddy was here, maybe she hadn't eaten yet.

I wonder what she's doing in the laundry room? Theo decided to find out. He went to open the door, the mites chirping curiously as they trained him.

He saw Madeline, with Badeline, arguing with Carl, who was wearing one towel around his waist and nothing else.

To say Theo was confused was like saying the sun was hot.

Madeline took that moment to seize the initiative and defuse the tension clearly building between Carl and Badeline, as much as she felt like letting it run its course. "You're not. We just found Carl down here washing his clothes. In a towel."

Theo slowly nodded as he entered the laundry room. The mites stayed behind, even more confused than Theo was about all of this. "Oh-kay. Carl. What's going on?"

"Oh, God, not you too," Carl moaned.

"What? Dude, what you're doing isn't even close to something a healthy, functioning person does. It's okay to not be okay, but like, if something's wrong, you can talk to us, you know?"

"I just met you yesterday," Carl grumbled. "Like, yeah. Something's going on. I appreciate the concern. But do you really expect somebody to whine about all their life problems to people they just met?"

"It's not outside the realm of possibility, is it?" posited Theo.

Carl found he had no answer for that one. "No. Not really. Still. I just... I don't really feel comfortable bringing it up. And I know y'all mean well but I'm really feeling pressured to share parts of my life I don't like talking about. So, like..." Carl looked over towards the dryer, which quietly hummed along, tumbling the inner layers of his mountaineering outfit while oblivious to the heated conversation taking place in front of it. "This has been running for a while, I figure it'll get done soon. Why don't y'all give me some privacy and go get some food in you, and I'll come along as soon as I'm decent?"

Theo was at once suspicious and worried. He wanted to talk to Madeline about this, and leaving would give him a perfect opportunity to. "Alright, man. Hopefully you get your stuff together."

Madeline didn't seem so eager to leave just yet. "You sure you don't want us to wait with you? Then we can all eat together."

"Y'know, I like that idea," Carl confessed, "but at the same time I'm not wearing underwear. If this towel drops, and I can't guarantee that it won't, what you will be exposed to isn't my fault."

"...point." Madeline about-faced and marched out the door, clearly disinterested in Carl's wares. Badeline floated along with her, but not before giving Carl a cheeky wink that only served to fluster and bewilder him in equal measure.

Theo followed along out of the laundry room. He waited until Badeline dropped to the floor and started walking again, which was a clear indicator that she considered them all to be out of earshot. The second her shoes touched earth, Theo spoke. "Man. That boy ain't right."

"It is irritating me so much how Carl seems to actively refuse anyone who just wants to listen," Madeline groused. "So I guess he can just deal with it himself, if he's going to be that way. I'll chain him to my hip when we go through the Mirror Temple and that'll be the end of it."

"Eugh," Theo vocalized. "I almost forgot we're going through that place again. Given Carl's... Carl-ness, you sure there's no alternate paths, Strawberry?"

Madeline shook her head.

"We've been up here a few times," supported Badeline. "The best you'll get is that a path will take you through an alternate wing of the Mirror Temple. Every single trail on this mountain leads to and through it. If you want the summit, the Mirror Temple isn't optional."

"Great," complained Theo.

"I can make it worse," cracked Badeline, who then proceeded to make it worse before anyone else could stop her. "You know how the Mirror Temple works, Theo. It just magnifies the Mountain's power. It's not controlled by anything malevolent. All it does is react to the feelings of the people that enter it. I can practically smell how upset that brat in the laundry room is." She sighed. With her exhalation went the venom in her voice. All Badeline had left was worry. "Even if he told us, I don't think it would help."

"I'm sorry, Badeline," Madeline apologized. "If I knew this what was Carl was going to be like, I'd have just wished him good luck."

"It's okay. We've been through worse. And in any case, we're stuck like this. All we can do is minimize the damage, because it's inevitable. Don't think about him. Think about Theo, and yourself."

"Maybe we should, like, try to gang up on him," Theo suggested.

"I do love ganging up on people," agreed Badeline. "What's the plan of attack?"

"Simple, easy, effective. Just tell him that we're all incredibly concerned about his mental health and state of well-being, and that his constant refusal to actually open up to us about anything other than the vaguest indication that bad stuff's happening is seriously upsetting us when our hands are just slapped away the second we reach out to him."

A beat.

"Idunno. He might have a point with the whole pressure thing. Sometimes it hurts more to talk about something you haven't really processed, ya know? But communication is a two-way street. If Carl brushing you two off is really turning you off that hard, well... we did just find him drying his clothes in only a towel. I think now's about the time you stage an intervention. If you want to."

"I was hoping we'd beat him up," moped Badeline.

"You can hold him in place so that he doesn't run away," Madeline proposed.

"Excellent idea! I'll do it as soon as we jump him." Badeline looked to Theo. "When do we jump him?"

"Uhhhhhhhh," droned Theo, who hadn't expected to become the mastermind of this plan. "Idunno. I wouldn't say now, that might just really cheese him off right after the whole kerfuffle we just had. Maybe when we get to a safe enough spot at Golden Ridge?"

"Theo," Madeline reminded, "you do remember what Golden Ridge is like, right?"

"I do," Theo confirmed, remembering what Golden Ridge was like only after he was told. "Which is why, in retrospect, I have decided we should jump Carl at the gondola, right before we go to board it. It's not very windy up there, and there's a lot of space so he won't feel claustrophobic or hemmed in. But it's still like basically eight thousand feet up, so he can't run from it."

"I'll be holding him down anyways," emphasized Badeline. "He won't be able to run. Or do anything other than focus on you two."

Theo rubbed his beard for a second. "Okay. Maybe just hold him down if he tries to make a break for it. Which I figure will happen around the time Madeline starts yelling."

"You really think I'm gonna yell that early, Theo?" Madeline implored.

"If he keeps acting the way he does, probably. You'll be entirely justified, in my opinion."

"We're here," remarked Badeline, as she opened the door to the dining hall. It was a very large place, filled with well-dressed tables and wooden seats, that looked ready to service nearly a hundred people at any one time. These days, maybe five or six was the most it was likely to see at once. One or two mites floated about the place, fixing things here and there, but the room was eerily empty.

A mite floated on by and ushered the group to a nearby table before disgorging several menus onto it and leaving everyone to their business. Leafing through the menus revealed that the Celestial Resort, in its past, had a quite expansive array of comestibles for the discerning food snob. It also revealed that many of the options had been crossed out due to "supply shortages".

"You know, I'm starting to have second thoughts about this whole 'eating in' business," Theo said, as he combed through the menu and processed the fact nearly half the entries were not up for order. "Not too sure if what we're gonna get will be edible."

"Well, if we end up getting mold for toast, we can always just excuse ourselves and eat in our rooms," Madeline offered.

"It'll still be awkward."

"Nothing is awkward if you assert yourself," asserted Badeline, nose buried in the menu.

"Hey, Baddy," Theo quizzed, "you gonna get anything?"

"Probably," remarked Badeline. "I mean, I don't have to eat, but food still tastes good."

Theo took a few moments to comb over the menu. "I'm gonna get some French toast. That's not hard to make. They'd practically have to try to mess that up."

"Ooh, strawberry pastries! I'm gonna get three," cooed Badeline.

Madeline snorted. "Don't you wanna get something a little more healthy, Baddy?"

"Hey, I'm not the one that has to work out. That's all you. I can do whatever I want."

"When you're the one having a sugar crash on the Mountain, don't come crying to me." Madeline looked through the menu for a second. "Huh. Eggs benedict isn't crossed off the menu. I think I know what I'm having."

As Madeline put her menu down, the doors to the dining hall opened and Carl entered, festooned in freshly laundered clothes. For a moment he considered taking a seat at another table, but dismissed the thought and slinked into an empty chair between Madeline and Badeline. He waved, lightly and meekly.

Badeline slid him a menu with a catty grin: the mite had known there was a fourth member yet to arrive. "So, Carl. How'd the laundry go? Wash away your sins?"

"Yep," replied Carl, with just a tinge of frustration in his voice. "Didn't know washing machines could do that, actually. The mites keep them well maintained."

"Well, good to know there's no guilt weighing on your conscience," persisted Badeline. "Maybe you can tell us about that thing you were so worried about later."

"Later. What's for breakfast?" Carl pulled the menu up to his face to try and completely remove Badeline from his field of view. A second later, now up to speed, he lowered the menu. "Man. What a selection. This place has seen better days, hasn't it?"

"It has," Madeline concurred. "This was a world-famous resort. It certainly wasn't lack of demand that caused the Celestial Resort to close down. I guess Mr. Oshiro has had problems getting food, given the menu."

"I'm not sure how he'd even get it. Like, the dude's a ghost. If he tries to go out to Courtenay and visit a grocery store, they're probably gonna call an exorcist. And I don't think any wholesalers have a going rate for helicopter delivery."

"I've decided that I am not going to ask too many questions," Theo uttered. "I'm going to get my food, and if it doesn't look like it's mostly just dust, I'm gonna enjoy it."

"Smart man," Carl complimented. "Oh nice, they've got pancakes! I haven't had those in a while."

The mite from before drifted by at that moment, dropping off a sheet of paper and a pen. For a moment, the table stared at it.

"Do you want us to write down our orders?" Madeline asked.

The mite nodded, and made a very strange noise that sounded like somebody cheering, put through about five post-processing filters.

"Sure thing." Madeline wrote down her name and her food, and passed the sheet over to Carl. The paper made its way around the table and back to the mite, who balanced it on top of its head and headed off towards the kitchen.

Carl watched the mite go. "One of those little buggers almost burned my hand clean off. But that sheet of paper's doing fine." He looked to Madeline. "And, come to think of it, your guys' bags were, too. Madeline, you're the mountain guru. Wanna bless me with some knowledge?"

"I've got nothing," Madeline conceded. "If I had to guess... they must be corrosive towards things that you recognize as part of yourself, and not inanimate objects."

"So if I just tossed one a glove I wasn't wearing, the glove would be perfectly fine?"

"Until you put it on," presumed Badeline. "Then it probably wouldn't be very fine, and your hand probably also wouldn't be very fine."

Carl snorted. "Well, probably, but at the same time who puts on a glove while it's lying on somebody else?"

"I can see you doing that," shot Badeline.

"Really."

"Dude, you were just in the laundry room in a towel like nobody else was gonna walk in," Theo recalled. "Sorry, but I gotta go with Baddy on this one."

"I mean, I would absolutely try to do that if it wouldn't burn my hands off," Carl granted. "Since Badeline brought it up."

"See? Don't get snippy at me when I'm right," fluffed Badeline. "You'd jump off a cliff if you thought it was a good idea."

"I mean," went Carl, "if you thought it was a good idea, wouldn't you?"

"You first," snipped Badeline.

"Well now I am not doing it. Clearly you just want me to go break my legs."

"You'd be breaking a lot more than your legs if you jumped off the plateau here."

"Baddy, you can float," Theo pointed out. "That kinda gives you an unfair advantage here. Maybe Carl should get a parachute."

"So you want me to jump off a ledge too, Theo?"

"Safely," Theo specified. "It's not a whole lot of fun if you die at the end."

"I've always wanted to try bungie jumping," Madeline contemplated. "Maybe I should after Theo goes back to Seattle."

"I agree," Theo consented, "just so I can get some time to ready myself for it before you take me out bungie jumping the next time I drop by."

"You do that a lot, Madeline?" Carl queried.

"Yep! Every other time he stops by we usually try to do something outdoorsy at least once. Something to keep us active and out of chairs."

"Usually, it turns out to be some freako adrenaline junkie stuff," clarified Theo, "because Madeline's become a thrill seeker recently. I guess after you climb a mountain, just hiking starts to get boring."

"Come on, Theo," Madeline pleaded, "we only capsized once. And it was a manufacturer's defect, we got reimbursed!"

"That's still why I get to choose every other adventure we go on. And the next one's my choice."

"C'mon, Theo! It'll be fuuuuuuuun!"

Carl looked over to Badeline. "They having fun?"

"Yeah," acknowledged Badeline. "They never actually bicker over anything serious. We did that, like, once. It wasn't a very fun time."

"Hm." Carl's stomach rumbled. "You got any idea wh-"

"Nope," interrupted Badeline.

Carl sighed. "Fine then. Keep your secrets."

"...coming to the Mountain was something you wanted to do!"

"To get you to the summit! And need I remind you that you agreed to it?"

A curious chirrup broke up the mock argument, refocusing everyone's attention on a mite that was carrying a platter of food overhead. It didn't exactly have any fast and easy way to set it down, so it hovered there for a moment.

Carl stood up. "I think he wants us to take it."

Badeline also floated up. "Let me help. That way we won't spill anything."

"You mean that way I won't spill anything." Carefully, Carl took one end of the platter, Badeline the other. They lifted it off of the mite, then set it down onto the table. Satisfied, the mite drifted off, leaving everyone to tuck into their meals.

"Wow," Theo gasped, after his first forkful of French toast. "This is... this is really, really good. Like, I kinda expected it to be crap, but this is amazing! How'd they cook this?"

"Do they have chickens in-house? This egg is fresh," Madeline lauded, through a mouthful of sandwich.

"I have forgotten how good pancakes are," murmured Carl. "I should learn how to make my own."

Badeline reclined in her chair, a half-eaten pastry in her hand. She chewed thoughtfully, then swallowed. "Pretty good," she judged.

There was silence for a few minutes as everyone took in fuel for the journey soon to continue. When the food was gone, Theo leaned back in his chair. "Maddy, I take back everything I said. This place isn't half bad after all."

"I told you, Theo. I wouldn't have made reservations if this place wasn't legit."

"Well, we're leaving soon, aren't we?" Carl prompted. "So either way, you're not gonna have to be here much longer."

"Man, I almost don't wanna go back outside. It's nice in here."

Madeline stood up. "Well, we gotta get to the summit sometime. Let's go pay for our food and get ready."

It didn't take very long for everybody to get back to their rooms and slip on their high altitude clothing. Theo, of course, took a few minutes to have a shower since the amenities were available (he'd been more concerned with eating something than cleaning up at first).

Finally, though, everyone gathered at the back exit to the Celestial Resort, clad in their coats and scarves. Mr. Oshiro, along with a small retinue of mites, had been waiting there for them. "I trust you all enjoyed your stay at the Celestial Resort?" he inquired, to a chorus of affirmatives. "Good, good!" He opened the door to the back exit for them. "Enjoy the rest of your trip up Mount Celeste! And if any of your friends come up here, let them know about us!"

"We will!" Madeline promised, as she lead everyone through the vestibule and into the outdoors. After having spent a day in comfort, though, the cold hit everyone present like a truck. Even Badeline shivered a little at the sudden change in the air.

"I'm glad I'm wearing layers," Carl professed. "Helps me remember that cold is a social construct."

"Good mindset," Madeline noted, even as she shook a little. "As long as you're wearing warm enough clothes, you'll be fine."

Carl took a second to look at Madeline and Theo. "Neither of you are wearing hats."

"You think a hat would be able to contain my hair?"

Theo tugged at the yellow scarf draped around his neck. "I've got a scarf. And a big beard. I think I'm well insulated."

Badeline folded her arms in mock indignation. "No concern for me?"

"Can you even get hypothermia?" Carl grilled.

"Nope!"

"Then explain to me why I should be concerned."

Badeline scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Because you're my friend?"

Carl stared flatly for a moment. "That's a bit of a stretch." He decided it would probably be a good idea to pre-emptively change the subject, lest he and Badeline get physical. "So, Madeline. What's our next stop?"

"Golden Ridge," Madeline supplied. "You'll see why it's named that when we get there. I think you'll greatly enjoy the fact there's a very minimal amount of Mountain magic there. It's just rock and wind. A lot of wind."

"No climbing during gusts, then?" ventured Carl.

"Don't be silly," chastised Badeline. "It's all gusts up ahead."

Theo sagely nodded. "Nothing but constant wind once we really get into it. You'll just have to make deal. Trust me, it is not pleasant."

"Golden Ridge runs off this first peak of the Mountain, up towards the second," Madeline exposited. "Go down right, and you'll fall down a very, very steep drop into a valley you'll probably be able to see when we reach the Ridge. The other way leads in between the two peaks. This part of the Mountain warms and cools much faster than the parts below it, and it faces into an air current. So you get constant, high winds. The only time it stops is at sunrise and sunset, when the wind changes direction."

"Well, good thing I've got something for this." Carl slipped his backpack off and zipped it open, digging around inside it. Badeline took the opportunity to walk closer to try and sneak a peek, but Carl zipped it up before she could, grasping a pair of reflective ski goggles. "At least I'll be able to see into the gusts without my eyes getting blown into the other side of my skull."

"Man, all you're missing is a pair of skis or a snowboard and you'd be able to just shred down the Mountain when all this is done," laughed Theo.

"Leave that for the insaneos with a death wish," Carl joked, as he pulled the ski goggles on. "I'm perfectly fine taking the way back that doesn't result in a drop off a thousand foot cliff face."

"Maybe if you had a parachute..." intoned Badeline.

"Maybe." Carl stood back up and re-fastened his backpack to himself. "But I'm definitely not gonna get to do it if we spend so much time goofing off down here that we don't even make it to the top."

"Fair enough," surrendered Badeline.

Madeline continued to spearhead the expedition as everyone marched along up the Mountain. The Celestial Resort, as if it were trying to continue advertising itself as hard as its current proprietor wanted to, resolutely stayed in view until Mount Celeste itself eclipsed it. For an hour or so, nothing much interesting happened. It was the grueling, backbreaking part of mountain climbing that, under ordinary circumstances, probably wouldn't seem very interesting: minute after minute of hiking and climbing, putting one foot in front of the other and sometimes one arm above the other, clawing up the Mountain solely through musclepower.

Of course, that was if you didn't count Madeline scrambling up anything resembling a cliff face in record time without even bothering for safety equipment, or Badeline intentionally waiting until Carl was halfway up something before floating on by just to aggravate him, or Theo taking pictures and video of both of those things, just to have keepsakes.

It was a slow grind through cold and rock, though at least it was a slow grind with a nice view. But soon, something in the air changed. The wind, which had been still apart from the occasional gust, slowly began to pick up. The world on the side facing the Mountain gradually began to fall away as Golden Ridge peeled off of Mount Celeste's first peak.

One last rock outcropping lay ahead, a tunnel the only way through it. "I can hear sloshing," Carl relayed. "Is that normal?"

"There's a hot spring up ahead. Not sure where the water comes from, honestly," Madeline informed.

"Any way around it? I'd rather not die of hypothermia because I picked the wrong place to wash my clothes."

"Yeah, don't worry," Madeline assuaged. "I swam through it my first time, but I know a way you can get past it without getting wet. Which we should all take." Heading into the tunnel, the chill draining from the air as they went, Madeline paused just before what was very clearly a drop down into the spring itself, and moved through a very thin passageway, the lighting causing it to blend in very well with the wall.

"Whoa," went Carl. "Anyone would miss this the first time up unless they were told."

"I didn't," Theo bragged, as he slid on through. It was a tight fit to get through, but everyone emerged on a short outcropping next to the actual hot spring itself. Everyone save for Badeline, who had gone through the drop and now floated just above the water, acting like she was sipping a cocktail on vacation.

Carl looked around, the pseudo-cave well lit by the hole in the top the water fell from, and spotted a small building in the middle. A list of rules was plastered onto it. All simple stuff for a swimming pool. "Was this part of the Resort?" he wondered.

"Probably," Madeline figured, looting another strawberry from a plant that, somehow, was growing in solid rock. "Maybe somebody else built it, but I can't see who else would be operating a hot spring up here."

"Come on in!" cried Badeline. "Water's fine!"

"We should totally drop by here to swim sometime!" Theo yelled back in response.

Madeline merely headed over towards the building and opened the door. "This way. We have to go through the change room, it's got a door back outside."

The change room itself, once everyone got into it, was a little cramped. It looked to be serving double duty as a pool supplies room, and there was even a dusty first aid kit hanging on the wall. The door on the other side led to another vestibule, which itself led back to the great outdoors, the wind, and the cold.

Carl looked downhill, and saw a trail leading downwards. "You think we could have taken that instead, Madeline?"

Madeline shook her head. "I've been that way. It adds another hour and a half to the trip. It's nowhere near as much of a good idea as it sounds."

Carl shrugged, as the climb up Golden Ridge resumed. A few minutes after setting out from the hot spring, the view became clear as crystal. To the left, the space between the peaks - rocky, spiky crags that shone brightly in the sunlight. To the right, a long, long drop down into the valley Madeline talked about, massive and sprawling, full of trees and snow. It was more evident here just how little ground there was keeping an innocent slip from turning into a tragic fall, and it was good motivation for everyone who couldn't float to move carefully and watch their step. All the while, the wind continued to whip up, faster and faster.

Carl raised his ski goggles for a second, then brought his scarf up to cover his nose before letting the goggles rebound onto his face. "Is this where the fun begins?"

"It is!" Madeline yelled. "Move slowly and don't be afraid to stop if you have to!"

Bravely, the mountaineering party forged forwards. The farther they crept up Golden Ridge, the heavier the winds got. Scarves began to levitate. Clothes started to violently flap against skin, seeking to break free. The squall drowned out all but the loudest voices, so small talk came to a halt, and conversation focused entirely around what to do next. There was nothing to do but push forwards, pull upwards, and think.

Carl did a lot of thinking. He tried not to look too hard down to either side of the ridge, even though the view was incredible. He kept his head up and focused forwards. But something was growing in the pit of his stomach. Now that he was alone with his thoughts he couldn't stop dissecting what had happened in that laundry room. They knew. They knew something was bothering him, and they had flat out told him as such. And the Mountain was alive, and it knew too, and it was going to help him.

He'd been through an abandoned city and a castle full of magic space and talked to a ghost running a world-class luxury resort, all in the same day. How Mount Celeste was going to "help" him was something he couldn't fathom, beyond Badeline's mention that it was going to make him face it, without a care as to whether or not it was safe. It didn't seem like Badeline was lying about that just to mess with him, either. There was, cloaked in her voice's edge, genuine concern about what could happen.

Carl was no longer sure, as he made it to another cliff face and watched Madeline fearlessly dart up with it, her red hair blowing every which way, that he would be able to get through this squeaky clean. Maybe he was being more obvious than he was giving himself credit for, or maybe Madeline was just very perceptive. But there was a very real chance they'd learn why he was here, and the thought filled him with pure dread. He'd been with them for an entire day now. He couldn't weasel his way out, not without causing them to think he'd gotten lost or died. He just had to hope they didn't find out before he made it to the top.

And what then? How was he going to get away with this without being seen? Carl imagined the summit wasn't a very big place. Everyone was going to be there at roughly the same time, and everyone was going to leave at roughly the same time, as the safest way to traverse a mountain was in a group. The chance that Carl would be left alone for just a few minutes, even if it was all the time he needed, wasn't very high. And he couldn't go down without doing what he'd come here to do in the first place. It wasn't an option. It was an incredibly visible act to perform, too. If the wind blew the wrong way, they'd know for sure what he was doing, and then the jig was up (let alone if one of them wondered where Carl was and turned around to go see what was happening). Even if he managed to get away with keeping things secret until he reached the top, everything could unravel there and then.

This was increasingly starting to look like a no-win situation, where the game was already over, he had lost, and all the rest of this was him playing catch-up. And it was all Carl's fault. He should have just toughened up and went to do what he should have done in the past, no matter how much he hated what it entailed dealing with. He should have politely declined Madeline and Theo's invitation and climbed solo.

Tough luck. Carl shook his head to try and clear his mind. He couldn't think about any of that now. He was here, and life wasn't going to wait for him to figure out a Plan B. He just hoped-

Somebody tapped his shoulder. It was Theo. "You gonna climb, or should I?" he shouted.

"Right!" Carl drew his axes. fastened himself to the safety line that was flapping about to an almost dangerous degree, and got to climbing. He'd gotten a little distracted navel-gazing there.

(In retrospect, he was probably being very, very obvious.)

Even as he got moving, he found that he couldn't shake it. The weight of his guilt. The dread of the news spreading. It pressed down on him like his backpack, big and heavy and threatening to drag him back down to earth.

His backpack did feel a bit heavier. Carl supposed he was just winded. Nothing to it.

One axe in front of the other.

Two hours in, the wind had reached a fever pitch. It was hard to hear yourself think over the gusts, and if your feet left the ground for any reason the wind pushed you through the air. Progress had slowed substantially in light of this, not to mention the wind chill. With the wind ripping away this fast, it bit through the layers everyone was wearing, and on Golden Ridge there was no safety from the storm. All you could do was keep moving up until you got past the wind.

Badeline didn't feel the cold herself, sure. But she was a reflection of Madeline, and that meant she, in a sense, felt some of what was happening to her. And Madeline was freezing solid, just like the last time she was up here. Not that it was stopping her from pushing forwards anyways. She'd started climbing in a manner that vaguely resembled "cautious" because of the wind. Badeline, too, had been limited by the weather conditions. Floating caused her to be pulled away by the wind, so she had to walk, with mass, like a plebian.

Climbing was also a little frustrating. She had Madeline's memories of how to do it, but the muscle memory hadn't copied over, so she was slower than Madeline was, which irked her to her core. But now wasn't the time to complain about it. She could do that after they'd traversed Golden Ridge safely. And while she could safely return after being blown off the ridge, she didn't want Madeline to worry (God only knew she worried way more than was healthy for her when it didn't come to the Mountain).

After scaling a rock face, she stood by to watch Carl climb up, which was uneventful right until a particularly strong gust of wind broke off a sharp piece of rock and sliced the safety line below Carl. Carl didn't seem to notice as he was too busy emulating a flag, flapping in the extreme gust as he desperately held on to the one climbing axe that was still embedded in the mountain. Despite her personal thoughts, Badeline started moving to help him alongside Madeline, but before either could start descending the wind calmed down and he was able to get a grip.

The fear of death lit a fire under his ass. He'd taken a good minute or so to get halfway up before the gust nearly killed him. It took him a good ten seconds to get up the rest of the way, and he looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack. In spite of everything that had happened, Badeline felt a distant desire to see if he was alright, but she wasn't too sure what she could do. Fortunately, Madeline had him covered, and the two conversed for a second before continuing to move on.

Idly, Badeline had the thought that given what was coming up, maybe it would have been better if Carl had blown off the Mountain. Almost immediately, she hated herself for it. She was wishing death upon somebody. Even when she'd fought Madeline the first time up, she didn't want to actually kill her. She just wanted Madeline to go home. Anxious, she jogged up the ridge as quickly as she could and tapped Madeline on the shoulder.

Madeline pulled another strawberry free from a plant that dangled off the ridge in the winds, then looked at Badeline, waiting for her to talk.

"I HAD A BAD THOUGHT," divulged Badeline.

"ABOUT WHAT?" Madeline hollered.

Badeline looked back at Carl for a moment to make sure they were far enough away. "CARL," continued Badeline. "YOU SAW HOW HE NEARLY DIED. I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE BETTER IF HE DID FOR A SECOND. BECAUSE OF THE MIRROR TEMPLE."

Madeline frowned, concerned even now. "IT'S AN INTRUSIVE THOUGHT. YOU KNOW WE HAVE THOSE."

"I KNOW."

"HAVING THEM DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING. IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT IF YOU DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT."

Badeline would have liked a little more reassurance. But even at this close proximity, walking as they talked, they had to yell just to be heard. It was exhausting. Badeline broke away and steeled herself. There was still quite a while to go, and they weren't going to be able to get a break until the gondola.

Ten minutes later (or maybe it was thirty, or an hour, it was hard to tell), Madeline held up a hand as she stopped at a break in the ridge. It was a very long drop, which was impractical to try and push through even before the wind. Luckily, a black cube sat there, unmoved by the gale. Arrows adorned each face of it, pointing forwards towards the other end of the break, and the path ahead.

"DON'T HAVE A NAME FOR THIS," Madeline instinctively explained after she noticed Carl and Theo had caught up to her. "IF YOU STEP ON IT, IT TAKES YOU PLACES." She didn't say much else. Speech was a resource this far up. Carl didn't voice any complaints or further questions. Even with his facial protection, he still had to practically scream to be heard.

"ON THE COUNT OF THREE WE ALL STEP ON," she dictated. "WHEN IT'S ABOUT TO HIT, YOU'LL HAVE TO JUMP OFF. JUMP INTO THE WIND. GOT IT?"

After a few shouts of affirmation, Madeline steeled herself. "ONE." She tensed up. "TWO. THREE!"

Madeline and her friends moved as one, stepping onto the block. Even over the din of the wind, they could hear it humming to life, and it smoothly began moving forwards. Despite its glossy surface it had enough grip to keep people anchored to it so long as they didn't try to catch the wind, and the drone it made as it glided through the air was something they felt more than heard. No-one dared move a muscle. Whether this was their first, second, or seventh time going through Golden Ridge, they knew that if they moved too far, the wind would take them, and then they were beyond help.

The ride seemed to last forever, yet when the block pulled up to the other side of the ridge, only about a minute had passed. "GET READY!" Madeline screamed.

The second before the block touched the other side of the break, Madeline yelled "NOW!" Everyone jumped off the block, into the wind, and were pushed by it as they flew where they needed to be, landing on the other end of the drop. One second later, the block met the rock, and the whine broke as it crumbled into nothingness.

Carl watched it go. "I THOUGHT YOU SAID THERE WASN'T ANY MOUNTAIN MAGIC HERE!"

"I SAID "MINIMAL", CARL!"

"HOW MUCH LONGER DO WE HAVE?" asked Carl, dropping the issue.

"ANOTHER TWO HOURS UNTIL THE GONDOLA!"

Two more hours of climb was not something Carl felt ready to do. But the wind blew fast here, and there didn't seem to be any easy rest spots or alcoves in the wind. His digits were starting to go numb. Staying here was certain death. Carl leaned into the wind and began pressing forwards. A moment later, everyone else followed him.

Three and a half hours in, after hitching a ride from two more blocks (one of which had to be coaxed upwards, though that was as simple as Madeline looking up at where it needed to go), the wind finally started to die down a little and the chill began to recede. It wasn't the end of the climb, but it was the light at the end of the tunnel, and things started to get far easier with the absence of wind violent enough to throw the unbraced.

No conversation was shared. Golden Ridge was an exhausting place to travel through. Madeline, Theo, Badeline, and Carl moved as one, unified by a single goal: get to the gondola, where the wind would die completely and they could rest.

Thirty minutes later, after one last climb up a cliff face through moderately calm air (and another one of those near-ubiquitous strawberry plants), Madeline saw it - the gondola, very clearly weathered despite its ornate design. It was dented and rusty and its windows were smudged. And it meant peace. "Hey, guys! We made it!"

Madeline's words roused a whooping cheer from everyone else as they dragged themselves the final metres up to the gondola, its boarding grate, and the bottom end of the cable. Theo found a good spot to sit down and take a breather, next to a rock wall on on side of the ridge. Carl didn't even bother with that, flopping into the dirt like a hog. Madeline didn't bother to ask if everyone needed a break. It was absolutely clear that they did.

Madeline herself sat cross-legged on the ground, watching for a moment as Badeline floated into the cable car to check it over before turning her attention to the goofs they had brought along. Carl looked over to Theo, looking every bit like a bandit as he didn't bother lifting his ski goggles or pulling his scarf down to talk. "How did you survive this the first time up, man?"

"I cannot remember!" Theo replied, with a surprising amount of energy given the exhaustion on his face. He tapped the rock wall he'd sat up against. "I fell off of this thing the first time I was up."

"You did?"

"Yeah. Took a shortcut up around here. Ended up on top of this. There wasn't an easy way to get down, so I just... stepped off."

Carl took a moment to respond. "Were you like, alright?"

"I nailed it," Theo affirmed. "Faceplanted right into the dirt. Hurt like hell, but I didn't break a thing."

"It didn't occur to you to climb down."

"Nope!"

"Alright," Carl accepted. He didn't want to deal with that. It was easy not to, really, because it took conscious effort to form thoughts after the nightmare wind tunnel he'd just pushed through. Everything was so much quieter and more peaceful up here. He could hear everyone breathing, and the creaking of the gondola, and the sound of snow falling onto the ground. It was a welcome break from the action.

"You should eat something, man," Theo advised.

"I don't feel too hungry," Carl stated.

"That's because you just survived a death gauntlet," interjected Badeline. "You probably burned about as many calories worrying as you did moving, and I'm not just saying that to insult you. Trust me - it's gonna catch up to you. Eat a snack."

"Since when did you start to care about me?" Despite his words, Carl heeded her advice, pushing himself up, unfastening his backpack's waist brace so he could carry it, and dragging himself over near Theo before rummaging through his backpack for the first edible thing he could find. After a moment of staring at him, everyone else did the same thing. There was no talk for a few minutes, such was the communal need for calories.

Madeline took a swig of water to wash down some dried apple slices, then looked over to Carl. "So. How did you like Golden Ridge?"

Carl looked at her, or at least she assumed so. He'd pulled his scarf down to eat, but the ski goggles stayed on even as he polished off a granola bar. "We have to go back down that, don't we?"

"Yep!"

Carl slid down to the ground. "Tell me there's a way past those block passes."

"There is."

"Thank God. Thank all the gods." Carl sat himself back up to take a pull from his own water jug. "That was a miserable experience. My hands still feel cold after that."

"Well, if we're lucky, we might get there by sunset," comforted Theo. "The wind will calm down a bit. Won't be as dangerous. You might even enjoy the view!"

"It was a pretty nice view. There seemed to be a distinct lack of gold there, though. Y'know. For a place called Golden Ridge."

"Go there around sunset and you'll see why it's named that," Madeline elaborated. "It's the best place on the Mountain to watch the sun rise or set. The view from the summit is good, but at those times of day, Golden Ridge has it beat."

"I'll take your word for it." Carl pulled himself back up into a sitting position. He inspected the cable car for a moment. "Is that thing safe?"

"It is," Theo endorsed. "I did break off the handle last time I was in there, but..."

"It was put back on," Madeline detailed. "Wasn't me, even though I absolutely would have done it. But somebody went and put a new control handle in it. I'd bet it was Granny."

"Well, good on gram-gram to cover us like that," Carl thanked. "So. Where does the cable car take us?"

"To the Mirror Temple."

"I take it 'funhouse mirrors' isn't what we're in for, huh," Carl bantered.

"After I'm done explaining, you're going to wish that was what we were getting into," Madeline embellished. "The Mirror Temple is a place where the Mountain's magic is at maximum strength. It's an environment that reacts to the people entering it. Concepts and ideas can take physical form. You can get lost... somewhere else. I know it might be hard to believe after what we just went through, but it is easily the single most dangerous place to be on Mount Celeste."

"Trust me, dude. I got lost for 30 seconds and that was enough time for me to get pulled into some weird alternate dimension and get trapped inside a crystal," Theo remembered. "If there is anything on this mountain Strawberry wouldn't joke about, it's the Mirror Temple."

"Well if it's that much of a pain in the ass, can't we go around it?" Carl solicited.

"That's not the point," muttered Badeline, who stared at Carl like she'd been reading the previous five chapters and had already resigned herself to what was sure to come. "I told Theo this earlier. There is no 'around it'. Unless you want to climb five hundred meters up the side of the Mountain with no safety equipment, the only sure way to the summit is through the Mirror Temple. It isn't optional."

Carl took a moment to process that information. "So that cable car is going to take us straight into the mouth of Hell. And we're gonna have to push through it."

Madeline, Theo, and Badeline all shared a look. They were in agreement: now or never. Madeline took a deep breath, then stood up. "Carl. Remember what I said just now. The Mirror Temple reacts to the people entering it. That includes you."

"Your point being?"

"We have asked you, so many times, if you have been doing okay, when you have clearly not been doing okay," Madeline vented. "And every single time we have you've just written it off! Do you even know how frustrating it is to deal with you when it took this long for you to admit there was even a problem in the first place?"

Carl opened his mouth to retort, but Badeline noticed. "You stay quiet. You have no ground to stand on. We found you naked and washing your clothes because you had a nightmare! You can't walk away from this."

"Since when the hell did you care about my mental well-being?" snapped Carl. "All-"

"Since your lack of it could hurt my friends!" interrupted the now aggressively floating Badeline. "Madeline was depressed when she entered the Mirror Temple. That manifested as floating monsters that tried to maul her to death. Theo was anxious when he entered, and that got him trapped in a crystal. And you think you're just going to be able to walk in there and have a good time?"

"Dude, we've been concerned ever since we found you staring at the monument to lost climbers," Theo interposed, doing his best to be more approachable about the subject. "Look. I get what you're dealing with is personal, and it might be hard to talk about. But have you thought about what it's like for us when we keep trying to help and you just keep pushing yourself away from us? It sucks. It sucks to watch you clearly tearing yourself apart and refusing everyone trying to stop you. We just wanna help."

For a moment Carl didn't say anything. He knew they were concerned. He also knew that the second he spoke up, they were going to stop being supportive and start being judgmental. But now they were mad at him anyways, so maybe it didn't really matter what he picked. Maybe it just wasn't possible to avoid what was coming up. But the Mirror Temple was the most dangerous part of the Mountain. Carl had survived everything else, far more intact than he'd expected he would be. If he could get through the Mirror Temple in one piece, what did it matter if they called him out for the failure that he was? It would hurt, because it would be true, but he'd still be there afterwards. So would the Mountain. He could do what he'd come here to do, and then he could get down and go home.

Carl sighed. Even flirting with the concept of exposing himself like this was existentially terrifying. "Look. You said it yourself, Madeline. The Mirror Temple is the most dangerous place here. We can't afford to be fighting right now. So how about we make a deal. If I stick by you the entire time and I don't wander off, like I've been doing before, can I make it through safely?"

"Assuming nothing goes wrong, yes," Madeline verified.

"Then after we get through the Mirror Temple, I'll spill. I'll talk about everything, come Hell or high water."

Silence blanketed the area as the offer was considered. Theo and Badeline both looked at Madeline, their expressions clearly communicating they trusted her to make the call on this one. Madeline in particular remembered what Badeline had said. It probably wasn't likely at this stage that talking now was going to help. The Mirror Temple was going to get to Carl, however it was going to, and there wasn't anything they could do to change it. Madeline didn't have fond memories of her first time through - being chased by horrifying things that wanted to murder her while hustling a crystallized Theo through room after room of obtuse obstacles. But it had been quiet since then. And even if one of those things did manifest, Badeline was here, and Madeline knew that she could fire lasers from her hair if stressed. It probably wasn't a very polite thing to rely on, but even under ideal circumstances, she wasn't planning to take the scenic route in the Mirror Temple with friends around.

Madeline stepped forwards, extending her hand. "Deal."

Carl reached up and grasped Madeline. The two shook hands on it. "I'm holding you to this," Madeline warned.

"I mean, what'd be the point of a deal if I didn't deliver?" Carl quizzed.

"Shut up and get in the cable car," commanded Badeline.

Carl sighed as he stood up and headed on over. "I wish I'd made a deal to get you to stay quiet." Everyone else followed him into the gondola, save for Badeline, who decided to go and sit on the top of the thing, like the bad old days.

Once everyone was aboard, Madeline shut the doors and pushed the lever forwards. The gondola, in all of its ancient glory, sputtered and coughed before lurching to life, clawing its way up towards the cloud layer, and the danger that laid in wait just past it.

Chapter Text

For the first two minutes of the gondola's travel, nobody spoke a word. The tension in the air had practically solidified. Carl, the only person present who hadn't been to the Mirror Temple before, was caught between his desire to keep secrets and his knowledge that he was on extremely thin ice. The rest of the cable car's passengers had absolutely no good memories about their time in the Mirror Temple, and an aggressive disinterest in reliving anything they had seen or done there. Theo had begun to fidget with his phone, and Badeline looked positively destroyed.

"Remember," Madeline stressed. "Stick by me. Don't go exploring. Don't even look at anything funny. We can't even chance the possibility that things go wrong."

"Yes'm," squeaked Carl.

The ride was quiet and uneventful for the next minute, and then the gondola broke the cloud layer and the Mirror Temple came into view. It was an enormous, vaguely blue granite spire, jutting out of the side of the Mountain. Some parts of it, squares almost like windows, were ruby red, and they were nearly blinding to look at as sunlight reflected off of them. The spire was imposingly wide even at the distance of first contact, and it stretched nearly as high as Mount Celeste did. The gondola cable seemed to terminate just before it - right at its entrance.

"Christ," breathed Carl. A second later he became quite aware of his own very heavy breathing. It felt like the times on Golden Ridge where he had to look into the wind. No matter how hard he sucked back air, he didn't feel like he was catching his breath. "Guys... I think I'm having trouble breathing," he said.

"The air is thin up here," Madeline informed. "Not a whole lot of oxygen. You'll have to make deal."

A moment later Carl noticed that everyone else (except, of course, Badeline) was breathing a little heavier than they usually did. "How high up is the Mirror Temple?"

"Twenty-five hundred metres," stated Badeline. "Just about the point where people start having altitude sickness."

"Well, I guess I'd rather be losing my breath because the air's thin than because whatever the hell the thing we're going to is... I don't know, stealing it from my lungs."

"Just stay calm and take things slow, dude," Theo advised, though he didn't exactly seem enthusiastic about where the cable car was going either. "No need to rush this far up. We're nearly there."

Carl did his best. But the Mirror Temple kept growing, larger and larger. Every second that passed made that previous comparison he'd made to the mouth of Hell seem more and more apt. It almost felt like the place was opening up its jaws, inviting them in.

His backpack felt weird. He adjusted it. Probably just stuff knocking around.

Finally, after a long time that still felt too short, the gondola came to a stop. The Temple loomed over the world, but Carl couldn't see an entrance. Just a trail. A clean, clear walking trail through the rock. "Man. This trail is completely clear."

"It is," Madeline confirmed. "We've got a bit of a walk to get to the Mirror Temple. No climbing. Just a hike up a giant switchback."

As Carl followed everyone else along the trail, he couldn't help but feel like something was very wrong about that.

It was well past noon by the time they finally made it all the way up the trail and to the Mirror Temple proper, Madeline having become two strawberries richer in the process. A small stone bridge lead into a massive causeway. Strangely, while it seemed to have the profile of a decaying building, on closer inspection all of the parts of it that looked like things had broke off from them appeared to have been intentionally built that way. Beyond the weather, and a hole or a crack here or there, they were largely intact.

The feeling of walking into a hungry thing's maw intensified as Carl crossed the bridge. He shrunk in on himself a little, adjusting his backpack as he watched Madeline keep an eye out while she entered the faded stone hallways. Even Theo was more reserved in this place, which only increased how spooked Carl was - he had never actually seen him break from his easygoing, relaxed demeanor at any point.

Carl's backpack still felt off. He adjusted it, then noticed that Badeline had decided to float directly behind him, watching him like a hawk for any sign that he would go wrong. Carl noticed almost immediately. "There something on my face?"

"I'm making sure you don't go berserk in here," declared Badeline, as matter-of-factly as possible.

"Because you're just dying for an excuse to beat me into a coma, aren't you?"

"Both of you, shut up!" Madeline snapped. "This is not the time or the place to get into a fight! Do it later if you want, but if you've got nothing nice to say to each other, don't say anything."

Badeline and Carl shared a look of mutual enmity for a moment. Then Carl decided that he wasn't going to get Badeline to leave him alone, and decided it would probably be better to just go forwards. As he entered the Temple proper, he did his best to ignore the floating woman behind him, opting instead to look at how impossibly ancient the walls seemed to be. Their age pressed on him, made them seem to close in. "Madeline, how old is this place?"

"Very," Madeline answered, the ire in her voice draining as she spoke. "Not even Granny knew who, exactly, built the Mirror Temple. Maybe it was the area's Aboriginals. Maybe it was another band of people. Given just how old this place looks, well... maybe it was something else that built this place. Maybe the Mountain grew it. We just don't know. There's even less to learn about this place than there was about the Old Site."

"I think I've had enough mystery for one lifetime," bemoaned Carl, as he adjusted his backpack.

"Well said," Theo agreed. "If I can get through this place without learning something new about it, I'll be a very happy man."

"Yeah," Madeline concurred as she walked through the dim hallways, lit only by strange, glowing diamonds, teal things that rotated silently in place without noise or explanation. "Just don't worry. I know what this place is like and I'm keeping both eyes open."

"I'll do my best," Carl unsteadily resolved, as he adjusted his backpack. Something's not right, he thought. But he wasn't sure what.

Several minutes passed like that, in the desolate hallways of the Mirror Temple. The sounds of boots clomping over the marble floors and objects shifting around inside a rucksack were underlain by a hollow breeze that could be heard echoing through the hallways more than felt on skin. Madeline, Theo, and Badeline all knew that it was just because the Mirror Temple was an intimidatingly massive complex, half-built into the Mountain. The sound was just wind from the outside running through. But to Carl, who did not have this knowledge, it sounded like the rattle of a dying thing. It contributed to an atmosphere of wrongness - a feeling that he shouldn't be here. Did he deserve to be? Did it matter?

They passed into a grand hall. It looked a lot larger than a room like that, inside the Mountain, had any right to be. Dominating the hall was a massive statue, lit by two more of the diamonds. It was a tall, thin pedestal, that looked vaguely like a statue of a humanoid being. But it was clearly holding up a massive orb, tentacles sprouting from either side of it, with a singular eye that was nearly Carl's size. It felt like it was staring at them. At him.

Carl shivered. His shoulder blades were starting to burn with exertion. Carl adjusted his backpack and found that it didn't help. Only leaning forwards alleviated the weight. That set off an alarm in his brain: his backpack hadn't been that heavy during the climb up, had it? It was heavy, but it wasn't the neutronium brick he felt like he was carrying at the moment. "What the hell?" he muttered to himself.

That caught Badeline's attention. She'd been slacking off from her duty of Watching Carl to keep an eye out for any spooky monsters that might have been hiding in the Temple's walls, but Carl's quiet muttering refocused her attention. "Oh, what the hell's going on with you now?" she asked, floating over to him.

"If I knew, do you think it'd be that big of a problem?" Carl bitched, as Madeline and Theo caught on to the fact something was wrong. They gathered around Carl, who was beginning to strain visibly to try and stay standing.

"Carl," Madeline said, to grab his attention while she slipped a berry that had been in the corner into her backpack's berry pouch. "What's happening?"

"I feel like I'm trying to haul a boulder," Carl observed. "My backpack feels twice as heavy as it did the day before..." He grunted. "I think it's getting heavier!"

"Off with it," commanded Badeline. "Before it breaks your spine."

Carl hesitated for a moment - he still had important cargo in there. The Package needed to be delivered. But he couldn't deny that this was actually starting to hurt him, so he unfastened the waist brace. Practically the second he did, the backpack slid off of his arms and fell to the ground with a heavy CHUNK.

"I swear it wasn't making that noise before," Carl stammered, half-panicked. "What the hell is with this thing?"

"What could be in there that's even causing that?" Madeline wondered.

"Hell if I know," lied Carl. He'd started to put together an image of the situation, and he didn't like it. He tried to lift his knapsack again, to find that he physically could not. It was so heavy now that it was practically glued to the floor.

"I don't buy it," denied Badeline. "Carl. What is in there that you're sweating bullets over?"

Carl wasn't listening, because as he tried to lift his backpack, he noticed something weird about it. Namely, that it was moving. No. Accelerating. Being dragged across the floor towards something. Carl looked ahead, in the direction where his ruck was being dragged, and saw it.

A mirror.

In the second it took Carl to process this the backpack had shot out of his hands. Carl moved to chase after it, but it skipped off the floor and flew into one of the mirrors, disappearing. It was smooth and instantaneous, like the physics engine running the universe had suffered a momentary glitch - or, at least, it would have been, were it not for the fact that the mirror rippled like water as it sucked The Package and at least three days worth of trail snacks off into the aether.

Carl stared ahead into the mirror for a moment, his mind filled with static as he tried to grapple with what just happened. Unfortunately, the only answer the Mirror Temple deemed fit to give him was his face, and the hiking party behind him. "What just happened?" he eventually asked, as he'd gave up on trying to figure it out.

"Looks like your backpack got sucked into a mirror," Theo remarked.

Carl's eyes darted towards the empty spot on the floor where it had previously sat. Then the mirror it had disappeared into. "I... I don't get it. No, this doesn't... where is it?" He looked towards Madeline, his eyes burning with a previously unseen desperation. "How do I get it back?"

"Carl, you remember how I said you could get lost 'somewhere else'?" Madeline began. "I think your backpack just fell into there."

"Okay, good," Carl interrupted, having heard what he needed to. "How do I get there?"

"Well, since you kindly asked," growled Badeline, "that somewhere else is the place where Theo trapped himself in a crystal. When Madeline went there she got hunted down by monsters born of her own despair. It's incredibly dangerous, so if you want to go kill yourself, well... your funeral, bub."

"That didn't answer my question," Carl glowered.

"That's because you aren't going there," Madeline stipulated. "Carl, understand this: you are talking about walking into the most dangerous place in the most dangerous part of Mount Celeste. I'm the best mountain climber I know and I barely made it out alive the only time I've ever been there. So unless you have a very good reason for going there, you're sticking right behind me like you promised you would."

"No, you don't get it-"

"Then make us get it," Theo implored.

"Please," Carl begged. "I can't. I can't say what it is."

"You can," countered Badeline. "You have a mouth and language skills, just tell us already!"

"You'll hate me for it!" lashed Carl.

"Did you murder somebody?" Madeline speculated.

Carl's defensive posture sagged for a moment. "What? No!"

"Then why are we going to hate you? How self-obsessed are you?"

"Well, you're doing it right now!"

"Can you blame her?" defended Theo. "When this is how you've been acting?"

"Oh, screw this," Carl expressed, stalking forwards and fully embracing his own self-destruction. "I'm finding it myself."

"Like hell you are!" Madeline shot forth, placing herself directly between Carl and the rest of the Mirror Temple. "You aren't going anywhere until you give us a good reason why!"

"Out of my way," Carl threatened. The second he moved to step past Madeline, though, Badeline grabbed his arm, twisted it behind his back, then forced him down onto his knees.

Carl cried out in pain, but Badeline was officially Extremely Pissed Off, and not at all moved by it. "You'd better have a good explanation for this, you milquetoast bastard! SPEAK!" she shrieked.

"Like hell I'm going to tell anything to you, you goddamn psychopath!" groaned Carl.

Madeline kneeled down to face Carl. "Oh, trust me," she uttered, a familiar venom dripping from her voice. "You are. Because I am officially out of patience with you. Either you speak up or I let Badeline throw you back down this mountain!"

"No!" floundered Carl, misfiring on all cylinders as he tried (in vain) to struggle out of Badeline's grip. "You can't do that! You can't! I need to get to the summit! I need my backpack!"

"Then tell us why!" demanded Theo, who, it seemed, had finally lost his patience and allowed himself to get slightly huffy. "Seriously, look at yourself! You're freaking out over... what? We don't know! Because you haven't told us! What are you keeping in your backpack that's so important you feel like you need to throw all of us aside and get yourself killed for it?"

"MY MOTHER'S ASHES!"

The silence was ear-splitting. Even the breeze stopped. Nobody spoke, because nobody was quite sure of how to react. Badeline's grip went slack, and Carl wrenched himself free. He pushed to his feet and took a step away, but he didn't move to run. There wasn't a point to it any more. Instead, he turned around.

The dam had broken, and everything spilled out, all in one go. "Yeah! Mom's dead! And I wasn't able to make her funeral, to see her off one last time, because I was too weak to face up to Dad on top of that! I made that choice!" Carl huffed and puffed, shoulders raised and nostrils flared, bracing like he expected a bat to come out swinging at his head. "I know what you're thinking, right? Look at this guy, didn't even make the funeral of the person that raised him right! Does he even care? He can't be a good person, he's just a piece of shit!"

No response came, sans the return of the wind.

A moment later, Carl noticed how everyone looked. Madeline had an empty, glazed over look on her face, the kind you get when the things someone says take you somewhere else (in her case, to that crystallized moment in time when she got the news that Granny had died).

Badeline was genuinely shocked. She did not at all disbelieve what Carl was saying, but as Madeline's "defense mechanism", she was not properly equipped at all to handle this. All this trouble, all this hostility, over this? Something absurdly relatable? Her anger was, surprisingly, at odds with something she didn't think about too often - her empathy. She was at a loss for what to say or do.

But it was Theo that blasted away the last of Carl's defensive, pre-emptive anger. The man looked genuinely hurt. As if the concept of being that judgmental was causing him physical pain to even comprehend. In spite of that, he was the first one to speak. "You... you really think that?" he questioned, heartbroken.

Carl swallowed thickly. "You mean... you mean you don't?"

"...no? No! God, no! Carl. What would that make me if I thought of you that way for, what, a moment of weakness?" He gestured towards Madeline, who had snapped herself out of the funk, and who now looked on Carl with a very peculiar mix of exasperation and pity. "What would that make Strawberry? You're calling yourself a piece of shit? We would be just as bad if that's what we thought of you."

Carl did not know what to say in response to that. Fortunately, Madeline took the liberty of a response from him. "Why didn't you just say something?" she quavered, still unsure whether to be angry or empathetic, and eventually deciding to be something worse: disappointed. "Why did you have to be this combative about it? We've all lost people who were important to us, even Badeline. We would have understood! I just don't... why did you think we'd even try to bully you for that?"

"I..." Carl was quickly turning red, and his throat was closing up. This was not how he had expected things to go. Nothing about this was anywhere near that. "It's... I don't know, it just... I hate myself over it, okay? I've regretted that choice every day. It's a stupid reason to skip off on something so important."

"No," Madeline countermanded. "It's not. You were overwhelmed, and you were faced with the prospect of having to deal with somebody I'm assuming is just The Worst. Am I right?"

"Yes," disclosed Carl.

"So you didn't go because you weren't capable of dealing with all of that at once."

"I could have-"

"No you couldn't," interjected Badeline. "This is an emotional issue. You felt like you couldn't handle it? That meant you couldn't. Sure, maybe you should have gone. But the only wrong choice you made was not telling us, the people who wanted to help. And I am not going to accept you beating yourself up over it as an out for how you've acted. I want an apology. To all of us. Now."

She was right, much as he didn't want to admit it. All Carl needed to think of was Theo, who still looked a bit like he'd been shivved, to confirm that. He was scared, and uncomfortable, and far more vulnerable than he had ever wanted to be, but if his grasp of the situation was right (and for once, it was), they didn't hate him. They had just thought better of him.

Carl looked down, not initially able to muster the strength to make eye contact through his burning coat of shame. But he had to apologize. "I... really did think you'd all hate me if you found out. I was so scared of being hurt." He forced himself to look at Theo. And at Madeline. "I was hurting you. Wasn't I?"

"You were," Madeline nodded.

Carl swallowed. "I didn't even notice. Funny how fear does that to you." As hard as it felt to look everyone else in the eyes, he did. Even Badeline. "I hurt you all, then. I'm sorry."

"Don't ever put words into my mouth again, and we're even," demanded Theo.

"Just talk to us," Madeline insisted. "We won't judge you for your problems. And it's easier than everything else you've been doing to avoid the issue."

Badeline had nothing to say. But she didn't look at Carl like his existence was a personal affront any more. "Alright," he conceded. "Okay. I can try that." The fear subsided.

Then he looked back at the piece of the floor where The Package... well, no, where his mother's remains had been taken from him. Into the most dangerous part of the temple. A place where they could not be recovered. A place where nobody gathered with him actively wanted to go.

"How dangerous is that place? Where the ashes are now?" queried Carl.

"Yes," supplied Badeline. "It's 'yes' dangerous."

Carl's heart sank into his chest. All this effort, all the climbing... all for naught. He couldn't even do what he'd come here to do in the first place, and then why the hell even bother with it? "God damn it!" he swore, kicking the ground. "I guess that's it, then."

"What's it?" Madeline quizzed, a little calmer.

"I brought an urn up a mountain, isn't it..." Carl caught himself with a sigh. No need to be snippy. Not any more, anyways. "...sorry. I wanted to spread Mom's ashes at the top. Apologize for... for not making it." He backed up and sat down against the wall. "See her off properly. That's all this was about. That's all everything I did was about. And now I can't even do that." He lolled his head back, tears welling up behind the ski visor he still hadn't lifted up. "I'm a joke."

Carl only spent a moment wallowing in the sadness that had become familiar to him before Madeline and Theo decided to walk over and sit down next to him. "I'm sorry for your loss, Carl," Madeline empathized.

Carl looked over to Madeline and forced himself to smirk. "It's alright. This is all my fault. I was so scared of what people would think if I tried to talk about something like this..."

"It's hard for a lot of people, man," Theo noted. "Emotions can be hard for people to work through. Especially if you've never really done it before. It sucks, and it doesn't really stop sucking. You just, like, figure out how to do it. You know?"

"Yeah, I'm not very good at emotional stuff," Carl admitted. "I've spent a lot of my time ignoring it. Like every other man, am I right?"

"Like a lot of them," Madeline half-agreed. "But it's never too late to start climbing out of the hole you've made for yourself. The grass really is greener over here."

"Mmm." Carl pushed himself to his feet, looking around. "And the worst part? I was so close to doing this! I could see the top of the Mountain on the ride up! And I screwed myself out of this. God, I've been so stupid, all this time! I just keep digging holes for myself that I can't climb out of so I don't fall into the holes I think I see. God, I really am a piece of-"

"Oh, I can't deal with this any more!"

Everyone looked at Badeline, who had not gone near Carl. She had stood there, staring at him. Trying to process what she was hearing, and not doing a very good job of it. Carl had been a vexatious brat the entire time up the Mountain, an irritating thorn in her side who rubbed her the wrong way with nearly every action he took. But watching him sit there, sad and defeated, giving up on what he'd lied and deflected so hard to protect, conjured up images of Madeline lying around her apartment after she'd learned Granny had died. 

She had let all of her responsibilities fall through her fingers, and drifted away from her friends. She loafed around, crying, barely eating or drinking much and not enjoying any of it. The world was grey and devoid of life, and it had sucked so much. And as much as Badeline wanted to just hate Carl and let him stew in the puddle he'd made, every time she looked at him all she could see was Madeline lying in bed, too sad to muster the effort to use her e-reader.

At that moment she understood why Madeline had invited him along. She got why Madeline saw herself in Carl, because while she might not have been doing it the same way, here she was, seeing Madeline in him too.

Maybe, thought Badeline, the Mirror Temple wasn't too dangerous. Badeline only had to think back to her fight with Madeline to remember what she could do under pressure. She could project energy balls from her hands and fire lasers with her hair. And, sure, the floating monsters were terrifying, the same way a memory of a distant phobia was terrifying, but what could they really do to her or her friends while she was around? Nothing. They'd get cut in half with a laser, and then even if they just came back a second later, they'd get cut in half again. And again. And again. As long as they needed to get the memo.

It was still better than watching somebody that driven behave this utterly defeated. She just couldn't deal with this any more.

"What?" Carl begged. He couldn't even muster the energy to try and act defiant. He sounded so tired, and that only made it worse.

"You! Right now!" vented Badeline. "You're just... you're sitting there, and you've given up, like a crippled puppy. Six hours ago you were lying to our faces so you could make sure that mission of yours to spread ashes without us noticing was successful. That was how much it meant to you, and you're just going to drop it? I can't accept this."

"Badeline, lay off!" Madeline shouted. "Look, I'm pretty upset about how he's been acting, too, but you aren't helping him."

"I know. I haven't been helping him. But what if I could?"

"How?" pondered Carl. "How would you even want to?"

Theo, however, was one step ahead of Carl. And he knew exactly what Badeline was suggesting. "Whoa. Hold on. You aren't suggesting..."

"I wouldn't ordinarily," disclosed Badeline. "This is pretty dangerous. You all could get hurt. But..." Badeline dropped to the ground and walked over to Carl. "Look. You've been an annoying, unwanted pest the entire time I've been awake here. I don't like you. But that doesn't mean I can just sit back and watch you suffer, because you have been. You've been kicking yourself the entire time you've been here, it's been so obvious! I've been down the road you're on. I know just how much it sucks. Would getting your mother's remains back help you?"

Carl took a moment to respond, entirely dumbfounded both by how candid Badeline was being, and the fact she was actually talking to him like he was an equal. "...yes," he spluttered, eventually. "It would. Very much."

"Then you're coming with me, Carl. We're getting your mother's ashes back and then we're blowing this popsicle stand. Madeline, you still remember where the mirror room is, right?"

Madeline was awestruck. Badeline had been grumpy and upset about Carl nearly the entire way up the Mountain, and yet here she was, volunteering to help him out. Entirely of her own will. She knew how much risk it posed to Madeline and Theo, and she'd said as much. For a moment, she thought back to that time in her dream. The last bit of it, the really long room. She'd died fifty times there, but every time she had just come back, right at the start of it. She lost hope.

Then Badeline had shown up. She had given her a pep talk. Badeline had told her she could make it. And after that? She did.

The memory lit a flame in her chest.

"I do. And that settles it," Madeline announced. "If Badeline's decided she wants to help you, I'm helping too."

"And you've got my axe, man," Theo contributed. "I don't like where we're going, but you apologized. And you're asking for help. I don't really wanna go, to be brutally honest, but I'd be remiss if I didn't pitch in."

"I'm sorry," demurred Carl. "I know it's dangerous-"

"Stop," imposed Badeline. "None of that. You can self-deprecate as much as you want when we're out of here, but right now you have a goal. And your only thought should be accomplishing that goal. Got it?"

Carl steeled himself and nodded. "Got it."

"Well, it may be dangerous and ill-advised, but there's a thing I enjoy saying when I'm gonna do something very risky with little to no forethought," Theo shared.

"What?"

Theo withdrew into himself for a moment, sucking air into his gut through the biggest breath Carl had seen him or anyone else take on his mountain. Then, arcing his head to the sky, he belted out an incredibly loud "YOLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Carl stared, bewildered.

Badeline turned to Madeline, holding in giggles. "Maddy, dear? Lead the way."

"With pleasure," Madeline boasted, before she changed direction and headed down another hallway, pointed towards the center of the Mountain. Some of the walls had strange markings on them, that resembled hieroglyphs.

"What does the writing on the wall mean?" Carl wondered, starting to regain a semblance of confidence.

Madeline shrugged. "I don't know. We don't really have any means to translate them. Could be directions. Or labels. Or koans. Maybe even warnings. But I'm not exactly a linguist, or an archaeologist. I wouldn't even know where to start with this sort of thing."

"If only bringing one here wouldn't blow this place's cover," mused Carl.

"I get the feeling that some things are best left unsaid," Theo opposed.

Carl found it hard to disagree with that.

Fifteen minutes into their trek, Carl and Theo had lost track of where they were going, and they were relying fully on Madeline to lead the way forwards. Fortunately for them, Madeline remembered very well the layout of the Mirror Temple (or, at least, the ways you needed to go in order to get through it).

Theo looked to Carl. Carl wasn't too focused. He was a bit wrapped up in himself, in fact.

"Hey, Carl. You good?"

Carl nodded. "Yeah, I'm good."

"You sure?"

"Good enough," Carl specified. "Just thinking about repressed memories. Nothing that'll keep me from getting through here."

"Wanna talk about it?" Madeline invited.

Carl bit his lip. He didn't really want to, but... well, he'd spent this entire time not talking about it, and look where it had gotten him. "I guess. I mean, I thought we could do this after we got through here."

"Well there's not a whole lot going on," perceived Badeline. "We're not in the worst of it yet. Maybe you could try that whole 'talking about your problems' thing now, while it's not dangerous."

"Alright," Carl surrendered. "I'm an open book."

"Sorry if I'm being too forwards," apologized Theo. "But you said the reason you chose not to go to your mom's funeral... was your dad?"

"Yeah."

"I take it he's pretty unpleasant to be around."

"He is," Carl divulged. "He was..." He paused for a moment, trying to fathom exactly how to explain the image of his father to them. "...Mean," he decided on. "Very mean. For the life of me I can't remember any time where he wasn't upset. It was like being alive was pissing him off."

"He sounds bitter," Madeline expressed.

"I'd use "angry" more than bitter," Carl corrected. "I mean, yeah, he was bitter too. But he was angry a whole lot more. He was just this... this frothing ball of seething rage. Looking for any opportunity he could find to take it out on whoever or whatever was around. Sometimes, it was Mom. Usually, me."

Nobody really had anything to add. Carl kept going. It was just spilling out now, and he couldn't really control it. "He yelled and screamed at the slightest provocation. Do something wrong, make a mess, break something, speak out of turn, and he would not hesitate to give you a piece of his mind over it. Didn't matter if you meant it or not. The punishment was getting screamed at until you understood what you'd done wrong, or until you broke down."

"That sounds horrible," Madeline empathized.

"It was. Worst times were when he didn't yell. You could still hear the anger in his voice... it's almost scarier than the yelling was. He'd still belittle you, though. I think the only way he knew how to interact with people was through dominating them. Or attempting to."

"How did you live with that?" gaped Badeline.

"Painfully," Carl snarked. "But I had friends. Friends with sane families. Adults who were normal." He paused for a moment, his voice wavering. "A mother who loved me very, very much. If it weren't for them, maybe I wouldn't have lived with that."

Silence. It was very clear Carl was swallowing back tears. Madeline didn't say anything, if only because of the magnitude of what they were about to do.

"...anyway... I'm far away from him now. He doesn't know where I am or how to contact me, which means he can't keep spewing rage at me. And I've got a job that pays well enough for me to survive on my own. I want to say I'm over him. I mean, being in a home that's nice and calm has really helped, and most of the time I don't think about him." But he looked around, at the place they were all in and the direction they were going. "But..."

"Hey, man, it isn't easy to get over that sort of thing," Theo comforted. "Having a lazy or an evil parent at home isn't always something you can just get over by getting out. I have a friend whose mom was a real piece of work. Your pop sounds almost exactly like her, just less manipulative. She had some pretty hardcore trust issues for a while. It only got better when she went to see a therapist about it."

"Mmm," Carl hummed. "I mean... yeah, he left an impact. I don't really do well with yelling. I'm really thankful that my boss is a saint. Every once in a while we get a really difficult and abrasive customer, and..." He looked away, ashamed. "She has to pick up after me."

"Explains that time when we met you," Theo thought out loud. "You made that joke, Strawberry got real ticked off... you jumped like you'd seen a ghost. Makes way too much sense, now." He paused for a moment, thinking. "You ever considered therapy?"

"No," Carl offhandedly wrote off. "I don't think it'll help. All it seems like is me bitching about my problems to some rando. How's that..." Carl trailed off, quickly realizing that at this current moment, he had been bitching about his problems to some randos. "...going to... damn. That's, what, the third time I've owned myself here?"

"Trust me, it helps a lot more than you might think," Madeline exposited. "I used to think the same thing. It's why I got drunk all the time. Yeah, a therapist is just some rando. But that means they don't have any preconceived notions about you but what you give them. And they're specially trained to help walk you through your problems and to give you the tools you need to solve them. Coming to the Mountain really helped me out, but I think going to therapy is what helped everything I learned here stick. Even if I couldn't really talk about most of it."

"There's probably a few mental disorders related to hallucinations," Carl badly joked.

"There is a catch, Carl," warned Badeline. "You have to want to fix yourself. You have to want to be better. Therapists can give you all the tools in the world you need to help face and solve your problems, but you need to be the one to use them. Even, and especially, when it gets hard. The only person that can fix you is yourself."

Carl sighed, turning the idea over in his head. "I guess I can see what the big deal is, then. Maybe after we get off the Mountain."

"If you need help, don't be afraid to ask," Madeline offered. "It can be confusing to navigate the mental healthcare system."

"And by the way, Carl?" Badeline frowned. "Your dad's the real piece of shit. He was your parent! His job was to take care of you, not to verbally abuse you!"

"Yeah, well, you'd have to tell him that," Carl griped. "And he's so stubborn he makes Madeline look like a doormat. You'd have better luck selling a TV to the Amish than you would convincing him to change his ways."

"I'd sock him," said Badeline.

"He'd definitely try to beat you up."

"I'd win."

Carl did not try to argue that point as the party arrived in front of a tall slab of stone that looked like it was blocking off an entryway. It looked carved in much the same fashion as the rest of the Temple, and five red gemstones were lodged in its front face, two for the top and bottom each and a large one right at the center. Grooves in the wall above the stone suggested that it was supposed to raise up to grant access, but there was no clearly visible way for that to happen.

"So, do we have to lift this?" Carl inquired, completely serious.

"Nope," Madeline popped, picking another berry from a plant that was growing out of the floor but had somehow not fractured it in the process. "Badeline? Could you be a dear and do the thing?"

"Since you asked so nicely." Badeline walked over to one side of the slab. Then, in an eyeblink, she was on the other, and to the tune of the same wind burst Carl heard when she'd saved his life, the gemstones on the slab turned green and it flung itself into the ceiling with reckless aplomb.

No chunks of stone fell from the ceiling. The slab had seemingly stopped itself right at the top of its travel. Carl stared for a moment, wondering just how that worked.

Theo broke him out of it with a light nudge. "That's gonna come down soon," he cautioned. "You should go to the other side."

Carl looked at Badeline. "How'd you even open it?"

Badeline's response was to dash again, zipping over to the other side. She grinned wolfishly at Carl, knowing she hadn't at all answered his question, then dashed several more times in a row across the entrance to intimidate him. (It worked.)

"It's just motion sensing. Badeline likes to show off, but you could just wave it open with your hand if you wanted," Madeline properly explained. "Now get in here before you have to test that."

Carl nodded, entering the room that the slab had been blocking. It was rather small and cramped, and sitting in the middle of it was a red bubble, bobbing in the air on invisible waves, just above them. As the party walked under it, Carl looked up and saw that there was a shaft above them.

"What's this?" Carl asked.

"A red bubble," Madeline clarified. "If you get into it from one end, it'll go in that direction until it breaks, or until you break it."

"So this is a magic elevator," Carl spoke, properly connecting the dots.

"Yep!"

Carl walked underneath the bubble and jumped into it. With a pfloomph, the world suddenly became very red, and then the bubble shot upwards, emitting a wandering-pitch warbling as he catapulted up through the shaft. It was an incredibly fun ride, broken when the red bubble struck the roof of the room it had entered and Carl, now bereft of his ride, fell down. Only through a stroke of luck did he avoid falling back down through the shaft, instead landing hard on his side on the floor.

After he stood up, his side now carrying one more bruise to go with the set he'd previously acquired, Carl took a look around the room. Ancient lamps crackled with green flame, casting an ill pallor. The light of the flames flickered and danced off of the massive mirror on the far wall, splintered and damaged, the two strange buttons that projected out of the ground to either side of it, and the dusty, crimson curtain that laid on the floor before it. In a better time, maybe Carl would have just thought of it as some strange type of oddity. But now he could only see it as one thing: gateway.

Carl heard the warbling of the red bubble coming up through the shaft, and the second after it came out it popped as Madeline rolled out of it and to a stop on the floor. "How was the trip?"

"My side hurts," complained Carl. "I hope I didn't just break a rib."

"That's why you don't immediately jump into the magic object and wait until I tell you you're supposed to break it at the top so you don't fall," Madeline chided. "You really need to stop doing that."

"I do." A second later, a third bubble blasted up through the shaft and Theo burst it, landing prone on the floor. "Nailed it," he gasped, as Badeline floated up through the shaft and touched down at the edge, before heading over towards the massive buttons to either side of the room-dominating mirror with Madeline.

"Carl," Madeline asked, anxiety edging into her voice, "are you sure you want to do this?"

For a moment, Carl found himself unsure if he really wanted to. Madeline was getting worried over this. The same Madeline that had thought nothing of the death gauntlet back in the city. The same Madeline that never stopped to take a break herself at Golden Ridge. It only impressed upon him the danger of this place even more.

But he was here. He'd gotten here through everything else. And he had friends with him (hopefully). Carl discovered, in that moment, that he'd regained something else the Mirror Temple had taken from him.

His resolve.

"I spent three days of PTO, a thousand bucks, and my spare tire getting out here," Carl asserted. "I've been here for a day already and we aren't too far from the top. And I already used up my opportunity to do nothing. I'm not turning around."

"You're ready, then. Theo?"

Theo gulped, the first time he'd ever seemed nervous about anything, and adjusted his collar. "Not at all! But we gotta go through sometime."

"Alright. Here goes." Madeline and Badeline jumped up at the exact same time and stomped down onto the buttons, which punched into the floor with a deep, rocky chunk. There was a loud, high-pitched noise, sort of like a note being played through a synthesizer, and then the mirror's cracks disappeared. The mirror itself disappeared, really, replaced with a swirling purple vortex to nowhere. Everyone present felt themselves being dragged towards it.

Carl stared at the dark abyss at the center of the vortex as he slid through the room towards the mirror. This was the gate to Hell, opened up before him to swallow him whole. Not the entrance to the Mirror Temple. This singular mirror in particular. Where he was going was so ardently dangerous and hostile that he knew for sure he still didn't grok just how harsh of a place it was to be.

But his mother was waiting for him, locked inside that urn. Hell it may have been, but he had business.

Carl jumped, and let himself be pulled into the wormhole, passing the frame of the mirror. The last thing he remembered was a darkness so deep and all-consuming that even his own sense of self vanished into it.

Chapter Text

It is shattered.

Carl stares at it, broken into unrecognizable shards on the floor, a mess of jagged terracotta blanketed in little grey dust, and feels an all-consuming fury unlike anything he's ever felt in his life fill his chest. It makes the world around him vibrate. It burns clean and pure. He is hyperfocused, but the world around him is a fused blur of colors and motion.

Footsteps, running off, clearly those of the perpetrator. Driven by vengeful spite and a desire to give whoever did this a piece of his mind, Carl stands up from the mess on the floor and stomps off, his feet falling like bombs, to find who has desecrated the final testament that once, while he was growing up and vulnerable, somebody had genuinely cared about the person he could become.

He storms through the house. He walks quickly, and yet travels slowly. The contradictory nature of his movement is lost on him. Just as anger has imbued him with bloody determination and unshakeable conviction, it has also narrowed his awareness to a fine needle-point. His only conscious thoughts have to do with finding the person that broke that vase (priceless, utterly priceless, not because of its construction but because of what it contained, what it meant), following their footsteps as they try to run away. Carl is not thinking about his paradoxical movement. Nor is he thinking about why the urn is broken. Or why he is in a house.

Soon enough, the trail runs cold, right in front of the room of the culprit. How does Carl know this is the right place? He just does. He can feel it in his bones. He knocks on the door with a tenderizing drumbeat. "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! AND I KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE! COME OUT!"

There is no answer, so Carl asserts himself and smashes the door open, storming the room. He gazes around, nostrils flared, at the bed with the racecar blanket, and the tiny CRT television set up on a clothes drawer, and the black rectangular prism that sits next to it. Something feels familiar about the setup as he gazes around the room. But it just doesn't click. He isn't even sure why he's having these thoughts.

Then he sees the closet door, on the other end of the room, and he stops having them.

He walks open, throws the folding door open with a crash, and stares down at himself. A tinier, younger Carl, not much older than 14. Staring up at him. Petrified. This stops Carl in his tracks, punches right through his fury. Wait a minute. That's me. But...

There's a dresser, right across from the closet. It has a mirror. Carl spins away and walks over to look at himself. But he doesn't see his own face. He sees a face that is much older, with much thicker facial hair. A face that seems to hover in a permanent glower, one that causes the primal monkey-brain part of himself to freeze in place.

It's Dad. He's Dad.

He screams in terror. He knows he is, he feels it in his throat, but he can't hear it because the reflection of Not-Him is also screaming, at him, so loudly that it crackles his ears like a jet engine at full thrust. The reflection reaches out, grabs him by the scruff of his shirt, and drags him into a world he didn't recognize.

Carl looked around, frightened out of his mind. What he saw didn't help him. He was still in the Mirror Temple, but it looked wrong. It didn't look like a building. It looked like a landscape. A barren wasteland, devoid of anything interesting save a ceiling made of the same rock that presumably littered the far distance. Massive rubies floated in the air, of various different shapes and cuts, all of them jagged. The world held an angry red tint. When he looked down, he still saw walls and floors, albeit purple walls and floors. They reminded him of how the Mirror Temple had looked when he entered, if the ceiling had been suddenly and violently torn away to expose the world beyond. And if the walls had grown bright red tentacles, wiggling for prey. It was a terrifying visage, and only then did he really start to understand just how hostile this "somewhere else" was.

He also saw Madeline, Badeline, and Theo, who had sat down near him. "He's up!" Theo cheered.

"Welcome to the world of the dead," deadpanned Badeline. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I belong here," Carl quipped back, instinctively. He tried to stand up, away from the segment of wall that he had woken up sitting against, but it felt hard to get up. In fact, it felt hard to do anything. It was like a phantom weight was pressing on him.

"Save your strength," Madeline stated. "It feels like the gravity here is heavier. Which is new."

"Maybe I shouldn't have come here," Carl griped, and the world seemed to intensify at that moment. Theo and Madeline looked around. Badeline didn't. She got up, seemingly unencumbered by the heavy gravity (because of course she wasn't), and walked over.

"You're doing it," she pointed out.

"What?" Carl blabbed, not too sure of how to take it.

"It's how the Mirror Temple works," explained Badeline. "You're beating yourself up over this. You're putting pressure on yourself. So the Mirror Temple puts pressure on all of us. It amps the gravity and makes it harder to move."

"Well how do I stop it, then?" cried Carl.

"Focus," commanded Badeline. "Don't think about what you're doing or we'll get crushed to death here. You have something you need to do. Do it."

"Sure thing, Carl," Carl complained. "Don't think about the white elephant."

"Yeah," agreed Badeline. "Think about the black elephant, and you'll stop thinking about white elephants pretty quickly."

The logic was sound. Carl struggled to his feet. It took him a couple seconds, and it felt like somebody had tied weights all over his body. His muscles burned with exertion just standing. Carl readied himself to start going through whatever this place happened to be, but then he had the thought that he should maybe talk.

"I had a dream," Carl murmured. "Somebody had broken the urn. That Mom's ashes were in. And I was pissed. I stormed across... I think it was my old house, trying to find who did it. I can't ever remember being that angry about anything in my life before."

"Who was it?" Theo asked.

"Me. Tiny little scared... thirteen? Thirteen year old me, I think. I took a look in a mirror and realized I was Dad. The Dad in the mirror must have known better, though. He pulled me through after screaming so loud I thought my ears were going to explode."

"Man. Your dad must suck," Theo commisserated.

"That's a way of putting it, yes," Carl concurred. "But I really don't like the look of this place. How about talk about my dumb life later, get out of here now?"

"I like that plan," Madeline complimented, as she pushed herself to her feet. She didn't seem encumbered either, but unlike Badeline, you could tell that she was putting in the effort to stand up. She offered a hand to Theo and helped pull him to his feet.

Carl moved again to start walking, but realized pretty quickly he didn't know where he was or what cardinal directions were. "I should've brought a compass," he thought out loud.

"Lost?" Madeline asked.

"I mean, I don't even know where to start with this place," grunted Theo. "And I've been here before, too."

There was a moment of silence as the gathered mountaineers contemplated what direction to go in.

"Well," Madeline figured, "there's only one path leading out." She pointed down, along the strange half-hallway off into the distance that curved subtly like a real trail but was still clearly made of the same brick the rest of the Mirror Temple was. "Maybe that's forwards. Maybe we just go forwards. Last time I was here that was what worked."

Everyone agreed that was about as good an idea as anybody else had for navigation, and so they set out on the hardest walk of their lives. The air was as molasses, and it pushed back against movement. Walking was a struggle. Madeline and Badeline ended up getting a good distance away from Theo and Carl before realizing just how far they had gotten, and waiting a moment for the two of them to catch up.

Carl looked at Madeline. "How?"

"I don't skip leg day," Madeline answered.

"God, this sucks," grumbled Theo. "I was not made to walk through a place like..." He paused for a moment, before he splayed out his arms (with great effort) to indicate the Mirror Temple. "This!"

"If either of you need help, we can help out," Madeline offered. "Don't be afraid to take a break here, either. This is definitely a challenging place to be." She caught herself smiling when she said that.

Carl caught on. "Well... you're welcome." He tried to take a bow, and ended up throwing himself into the ground head-first, yelping in pain. Badeline walked on over and helped pull him back to his feet, looking him over for a moment to make sure he wasn't seriously hurt.

"No theatrics, dummy," she chided, satisfied by the bruise on his forehead.

"I should hate myself extra hard just to make your life miserable too," Carl joked. It took Badeline a moment to realize that he was joking.

"Wouldn't surprise me," shot Badeline, with actual mirth in her voice. "You've got a habit of shooting yourself in the foot, Carl."

Carl shrugged, as hard as it was to do. "I can write you a novel on why I do that, if you're interested."

"Save it," laughed Badeline. "You'll be telling me all about it later. Then I can write it."

Carl sighed. He had made that promise, after all. "Madeline, I hope you don't plagiarize anything in those columns of yours!"

"I've been tempted to sometimes!" Madeline called, as she stood up from where she had momentarily kneeled down. Despite the devastated wrongness of the world around her, the strawberry she held, and the plant she'd harvested it from, seemed perfectly normal.

Their journey took them to a strange tunnel, oddly intact and roofed compared to the rest of this forsaken land. It looked quite strange, like it had been stolen from somewhere else and quietly plopped down where it currently stood. It wasn't very long, either. Carl felt his hackles raise. Something wasn't quite right about that. He looked over to his companions, and saw that they all felt the same way.

"Be careful," Madeline warned. "I don't know what this place's deal is, but it has to have one."

They entered the hallway, lit by the same crystals from the earlier Mirror Temple. Their presence offered some small measure of comfort and reality, made it a little easier to exist (though that was also probably because you couldn't see the world outside). Strangely, though, once everyone had went through the tunnel, they found that there didn't seem to be an exit.  There was just a wall.

"Huh," Theo went, beads of sweat flowing into his beard. "Maybe we weren't supposed to go through here."

"Well, let's turn around," Madeline sighed. Everyone about-faced and returned down the hallway, Carl keeping to the right side of the hallway as he left. Badeline decided to fall in behind him, while Madeline and Theo decided to spread out on the left.

"Well, that was weird," Carl commented, after a few seconds of looking at his boots (and the floor, which glowed green in some places but not in others). "You did say the Mirror Temple was hostile, Madeline. I guess it wants to try and waylay us, huh?"

There wasn't a response. Carl looked back to see that Madeline and Theo weren't there. Badeline, however, still was.

"That's not good," muttered Badeline. "Where'd they go?"

"Hopefully not too far from here," Carl hoped. He kept on walking, but he didn't emerge back into the desolate badlands of the Mirror Temple.

Instead, Carl and Badeline emerged into a three-way junction of hallways that clearly extended out past where the tunnel was back in "reality" (it wasn't really reality, hopefully, but there weren't a lot of useful metaphors down here). Neither of them moved past the junction, staring at the hallways with twinned suspicions.

"You think going back is gonna work here?" Carl wondered.

"Maybe," surmised Badeline. "Let's try it."

"Okay, play along with me here, but let's stick to the same side of the tunnel we just walked through. I've got a weird hunch." 

"Don't hurt yourself thinking about it," snarked Badeline. She did follow Carl as he retraced his steps through the tunnel, though. They stuck to whichever wall was to their left, reached the end of the hallway, U-turned, and kept pushing forwards.

"Going through it near the wall to our right took us to that junction," Carl began, as he walked down the left side of the hallway. "So maybe if we go through near the wall to our left, it'll take us back."

Badeline kept her opinions to herself. They were already lost, so what was the worst he could do? Get them both more lost? Fortunately, she didn't have long to wait. A minute later, she heard Madeline and Theo both shouting for the two of them. She looked down the tunnel, and saw the broken world that she should have been seeing - as well as Madeline and Theo, who could now see the both of them and started walking in.

"Oh, sweet, I was right!" exclaimed Carl. "I had no faith that was gonna work. I was just eyeballing it."

Badeline blinked, staring at the outside world, and Madeline doubling back to help Theo along because she'd shot off ahead again. "Huh. Sometimes you do make use of those brain cells of yours."

"On occasion," Carl self-effaced.

"Where'd you two get off to?" Madeline grilled, after everyone reconvened. "You had us worried!"

"This tunnel's weird," exposited Carl. "You gotta stick to a certain side in it to get anywhere. You two were on the other side of the tunnel from me, right?"

"We were," confirmed Theo. "Where'd you guys end up?"

"In some weird little terminus of hallways," informed Badeline. "Didn't look like there was anything mean there, but they must work the same way."

"Then we stick together," Madeline determined. "Stick to one side and walk through until we leave. Just like going through a maze. What side's the right one, Carl?"

"Right side, I think," Carl replied. "Our right side, it's relative. I just hope it doesn't take too long. My legs feel like they're on fire."

"Just take a break," Madeline suggested. "Do you need one?"

"Not yet."

Madeline's response - half out of a flair for the dramatic, half because, ashes or not, she didn't want to be here - was to soldier on ahead. Carl watched her go for a second, then started muscling on behind her, walking with the strange stagger-gait he'd started to pick up in this place. He had to pantomime walking through thick mud to get anywhere here, and a quick look behind him confirmed Theo was doing the same thing.

They curved through the hallway, hugging whatever hall happened to be rightmost, and emerged in the junction. Madeline didn't stop. She just kept on going, taking the right hallway, walking down the right side. Everyone else followed. The hallway led to another junction with more hallways. And then the rightmost path there led to another. And in some of the hallways were mirrors like windows. Looking into them didn't show a reflection, but instead the real Mirror Temple outside of whatever this place was. Quiet, drafty, and now empty.

The physical exertion, combined with the identical hallways, made it hard to tell how long everyone had spent slugging forwards through the altered gravity. But Carl was starting to hear something, on and off. The echo of footsteps that didn't sound like anyone else's, that always stopped whenever he listened too intently...

"I'm being paranoid," Carl groaned.

"About what?" gasped Theo.

"I think there might be someone following us. I'm hearing footsteps, and they aren't any of ours. They keep stopping whenever I listen."

Madeline held up a hand, and everyone stopped. There was utter silence in the tunnel. Not even wind.

"He's probably right," supported Badeline.

"You think so?" Madeline challenged.

"Think about it. If there ever was a place for something to inexplicably appear and try to terrorize us? This is the place. There's no way it's friendly, either, whatever it is. Not in this... realm, I guess. This is the exact sort of spot where if somebody new starts following you, chances are they don't want to be your friend."

"Well, let's keep going, then," Madeline resolved. "The sooner we get out of here, the faster we'll get whatever's following us to lose our tail."

"Amen," Carl assented.

But as they continued on through the tunnel complex, Carl kept double-checking behind himself. Just in case.

Eventually, they made it out. Theo called for a break, because he was exhausted already, so the party stopped at the exit to the tunnel to sit down for a moment. Despite how cold it remained in this place, Carl was drenched in sweat. He felt like he had when he'd reached the Resort yesterday, and there was probably still a while to go. They'd just gotten here, after all.

But then they'd been in the tunnels for a long time... but still, hadn't they just gotten here? It was hard to tell the time, and Carl had left his phone at home so he wouldn't get distracted. "Hey, Theo," Carl panted. "You got the time?"

Theo took out his phone and stared at it for a second. "You tell me," he drolled, showing Carl the phone's lock screen. It was a selfie of himself, a woman who Carl supposed was Theo's sister, and a cat. The time was frantically cycling.

"I hope this isn't another bad dream," Carl bitched. "I've had enough of those on this damn mountain."

"I don't think this is a dream," assuaged Badeline. "Would I be here if it was?"

"Bad dream," Carl specified. "Which you absolutely would haunt."

"Guilty as charged," purred Badeline. "It'd be funny."

"Maybe this place is some kind of weird shared dream," Madeline mused. "Or maybe it's only half dream. Maybe dreams are magic and the Mountain's magic being so intense here means it's pretty much just a dream. But I think I'd like to think more about this when I'm not in here."

"Can we get moving, guys?" Theo whined. "I know I just said I wanted to take a break, but I don't wanna stick around here any more."

"Sure," Madeline agreed. She picked herself up, then caught sight of it.

The strange tunnel complex (which, on the outside, didn't just look exactly like the tunnel they'd entered, but had existed entirely inside it) had led out into a massive courtyard, which in this place was maybe a plain. It was a lot of empty space for something insidious and angry to find them, filled as it was with crystalline structures sized appropriately enough to contain an individual person. At the center it was dominated by a massive eyeball that stared unceasingly at them from its pedestal. Madeline, of course, knew it wasn't staring at the entire group.

It was staring at Theo. An unending gaze boring into his soul.

"Should I be worried?" Carl queried, as Madeline pulled him up to a standing position.

"I don't know," admitted Theo, as Badeline did the same thing. "That thing just gives me the creeps. I was a pretty big InstaPix junkie when I came up here the first time. I think it's supposed to represent the unsavory side of social media. How putting your life on display means you're being constantly watched. Every action being judged. It can get hard."

"God, that sounds like it," Carl empathized. "I can't imagine what it'd be like to have people constantly observing my life at all times."

"Well, it was the thing that put me into a crystal, too," Theo added on. "So forgive me, but I super ultra don't want to be anywhere near that thing."

Madeline waved her hand in a "follow me" motion. "I think I know where to go." She pointed out an artificial-looking cliff, off in the distance. In the intense gravity, its height was legitimately intimidating.

Fortunately, it looked like a straight shot to the cliff didn't cross the center of the courtyard, so Theo set off. Exhausted he may have been, but he did not want to be around that thing longer than he had to be. The humongous eye kept tracking him anyways, moving so slowly that it almost seemed to not move at all. A moment later, everyone else moved to follow.

"So this realm is just some giant hall of metaphors?" hypothesized Carl.

"You got it," acknowledged Badeline. "Everything in here has meaning to somebody, potentially even people we haven't met before. That weird-ass tunnel was probably somebody's fear of getting permanently lost."

"Which is why this place is so dangerous," Madeline continued. "You never know when you're going to bump into somebody else's fears. Or what those might take the form of."

Carl looked back behind himself, at the tunnel. Nothing else was there that he could see at the exit. But he wasn't starting to like the conclusions he was drawing. Focus, he thought, remembering what Madeline had said about moving forwards. If they were quick enough, it wouldn't be a problem.

Quick, of course, was relative in a place where you weighed twice as much as you used to. It was a long, quiet struggle over to the hill. Carl began to wonder if he'd even have the strength left to climb the Mountain after this. Would Theo? Had he just ruined this entire trip for the three other people he was with?

"Focus," Carl reminded himself, in between sucking breaths. The more he worried, the more pressure he put on himself. The more pressure he put on himself, the heavier gravity became here. And the heavier gravity became, the more everyone would be exhausted by the end of this. The only thing that mattered was reclaiming what was rightfully his. And then getting the hell out of here before they met some nameless individual's fear of drowning, or something worse than that.

Madeline, as she heard Carl talk to himself, remembered what Carl had parted with a while back about his dad. She turned it over in her head for a few moments. "Carl."

"Yeah?"

"You alright?"

"As okay as you are," Carl cracked.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Your dad sounds like a prick. How did your mom even get together with him?"

"God only knows!" guffawed Carl. "I mean, a few times during my teen years when I felt brave, I asked Mom the same thing. She always told me that he wasn't always like this. That he was nice, caring, considerate... that in the past, he was somebody who could be loved."

"What changed?" inquired Badeline.

"She never said," Carl revealed. "Not even when I tried to pry. She just looked sad. I mean, bear with me on this one, but eventually Dad caught onto the fact that I hated how he treated me. So he started to justify it, saying that he was toughening me up. Making me into a man. He always went on about how the world was an evil place, that it didn't care about me, that it would break me at the slightest provocation. That I needed to be ready to live in a society where everyone was trying to push me into the dirt. So, given how much he kept talking about that, I guess the thing that turned him from somebody who could be loved into a giant prick must have been incredibly bad, but... I don't care. Not any more, anyways. That doesn't excuse how he treated me."

The mood had grown rather sombre. "You, uh... you guys sure I'm not bothering you-"

"No, Carl," Madeline interrupted. "You aren't. I just feel so sorry you had to go through that. Like you said, you didn't deserve that. Nobody deserves that. Everyone deserves a home where both of their parents, whoever they might be, love and care for and support them. Even if they make mistakes or break things. Your father failed you and your mother, whether he wanted to or not. He doesn't deserve you in his life."

It was now Carl's turn to be quiet. He swallowed audibly. "Madeline... I..." He seemed to fold in on himself. "Nobody's ever said that to me before."

"Really? You never talked to anyone else about it?"

"I mean, I tried," Carl remembered. "But nobody ever agreed with me like you just did. Sometimes they just didn't believe me. Thought I was faking it for attention, or couldn't really get how somebody could be like that. But most people tried to write it off. 'Oh, he was doing what he thought was best for you!' 'He's your father, I'm sure he loves you, why don't you talk to him?'" He shook his head. "Face enough of those reactions and eventually you learn to stop talking about it. And when people really feel the need to ask, you learn to lie about it. It was easier to just say we had a good relationship and make up what I wanted him to be like than to tell the truth."

"And that's why you did all the things you did before we got here," concluded Theo. "Writing things off, straight-up lying to us... you thought we were going to judge you, so you did everything you could to avoid telling the truth to keep yourself safe. All this time, it was a defense mechanism."

"Yeah. I mean, not everything I said was a lie. I did move here because there isn't a whole lot of work back home, but... usually when Newfoundlanders move to a place where there's work, it's Alberta. Or Ontario. I chose BC because it was the farthest place I could run from Dad without needing a passport. Literally across the country." Carl sighed again. "I guess I've been running from him ever since I was of age. I've never really stopped. It's always been about being independent and beholden to nobody first, and then anything else I want to do second."

"Well, maybe after all of this is said and done you can figure out what you really want to do in life," Theo proposed. "Stop surviving and start living."

"Yeah," wished Carl. It was a very distant thing to think about. But a nice one. "Maybe. I think for now I'm just gonna be happy this mountain didn't pull an evil twin out of my head."

A moment later, Carl realized that Badeline was still here. "Uh... no offense!"

The way Carl had said he'd been running from his father had started to turn some gears in Badeline's head. And she didn't like the way they were turning. She chortled anyway. "None taken."

They reached the cliff, after ten or thirty minutes. It was imposingly high in the weight of the Mirror Temple.

"I don't see a safety line on that," Theo uttered.

Madeline looked over it. "Doesn't look like there's any way to set some up. But there are handholds, it seems." She brushed a brick that jutted out from the hill, projecting just enough to be grasped, but not enough to be grasped safely. "Looks like it's free climbing only, here."

Carl reached for his axes. He clasped thin air before he realized that they were on his backpack, so obviously he wouldn't have them. "Well... even if I had my axes, this place doesn't like making it easy on us. I get the feeling they wouldn't work."

"Probably not," inferred Badeline. "Looks like it's climbing the old fashioned way, the whole way up."

"Are we even going to have the strength?" Carl pondered.

"You have Baddy," Madeline reminded him (and Theo, too). "She'll catch you if you fall."

Carl and Theo both steeled themselves as Madeline began climbing up the hill, before the two of them followed along.

It was the hardest climb they'd faced yet.

Adrenaline shot through Theo's body as he clawed his way up the hill. Theo was not exactly a stranger to taking risks (you had to brush elbows with the concept to even consider climbing a mountain), but what he was doing right now felt downright dangerous. With no safety wire, the gravity that was constantly, actively trying to pull him down felt oppressive. He knew Badeline was behind him, and he had complete faith in her to catch him if he slipped and fell. But all the same, Theo still felt hypervigilant. If this was what Madeline felt like when she did dangerous things, he decided that he would never understand how she could enjoy this.

He stopped to take a break, every part of him burning with maddening ferocity, and took a look down to see if Carl was doing any better. He wasn't. Carl was relieved that Theo had stopped, because it also meant he had to. He was a little stronger than Theo was (by both their estimates), and he didn't have a backpack full of stuff on him, but even then, he wasn't taking it any better. Strength wasn't endurance, and every time Carl pulled himself up the mountain he felt like his torso wanted to rip itself free of his limbs. Badeline floated below Carl silently, keeping an eye on both him and Theo.

The sight of Badeline, ready to catch either of them if they fell, gave Theo confidence enough to keep pushing on, despite how much he desperately wanted to ditch his backpack and leave it in this twisted realm full of tentacles and eyeballs that were still staring at you. But first he looked up, to see that even in this heavy altered gravity, Madeline was still far ahead of them and ascending fast. Which tracked.

Theo pulled himself up, Carl behind him, uneven brick by agonizing, uneven brick. Sweat clouded their vision, to move was to suffer, and breaks to gather strength were as frequent as hands or feet slipping, but bit by bit they clawed their way up the cliff. Theo refused to give up on a friend. And Carl refused to give up on his self-appointed duty.

Eventually, they reached the top. Theo pulled himself up and shuffled over just far enough for Carl to also pull himself up. Neither of them knew how long they had been stuck in their tortured existence, but they had made it, and they sat there, panting, hearts racing, catching their breath after the marathon they had just ran.

Madeline, the kind soul she was, waited for the two of them to stop hyperventilating before she started talking. "Are you two okay?"

Theo and Carl both looked at her. Neither knew what to say, though the look in their eyes made it clear that they weren't to Madeline.

"No," Carl said anyway. "I hurt."

"Well..." Madeline half-frowned, looking behind her. "Don't look at where you need to go next."

"I won't," Carl heaved. "I don't have it in me."

"Tell us," Theo wheezed.

Madeline grimaced at Badeline, who floated off the edge of the mini-mountain they'd just climbed. Badeline shrugged.

"We have to climb down again."

Carl looked at Badeline. "Please kill me," he beseeched.

"No," denied Badeline. "The idea isn't fun any more."

"That implies it was," Carl begged. "Think like you used to for a second. Please."

"Carl, tell me you don't mean that," Theo pleaded. "I don't have the breath to tell whether or not you're joking."

It took Carl far longer than Theo would have liked to answer. "No," he finally said. "I don't mean it."

"How are you doing, Strawberry?" Theo inquired.

"I'm tired," Madeline related, with a little thrill in her voice. "That was a challenge. It's not exactly climbing Mount Celeste, but I'm proud of myself for having got up here with things being the way they are right now."

"At least somebody's enjoying this." Theo flipped around to look at Badeline. "You, Baddy?"

Badeline shrugged again. "Meh. I don't wanna be here. But we're not dead yet."

Theo relaxed, and let himself breathe. He didn't even have to meditate, because he was too tired to do anything but feel. He ached down to his bones (and, now that he noticed, he was pretty sure his bones were aching, too). He was sure he'd be able to get down this tower if he tried, but Theo could see his limit fast approaching. He knew that he wouldn't be able to do anything else if he did.

"I don't think I can make it," he choked. "I don't have it in me to climb down that hill again. Badeline... can you carry me down?"

"I can," nodded Badeline. "In fact, it might be safer for all of us if we had me take you all down." She looked pointedly at Madeline.

"Please?" Madeline implored. "Can I climb down this? I want to! I can make it!"

Badeline's response was to float over and pick up Madeline. "No. You already had your fun getting up here. As your pragmatic half, I am ordering you to save our strength, and accept my help."

"Alriiiiight," Madeline drawled. She didn't fight herself as Badeline descended down the hill in a straight line, before dropping her on the ground. Madeline blinked, then had a thought. "Couldn't you have just carried us up and over?"

"Yeah. But I know us, and I know you were practically salivating at the opportunity to climb in this gravity." She did stare off into the distance for a moment though, prompted by Madeline's request. "Buuuuuuuut I probably should have carried Theo up."

"And Carl?"

Badeline snorted. "Let him work a bit for his goals. He'll complain less." Then she flew on back up the tower, like she was ascending on an invisible elevator, to fetch Theo.

When Theo got to the ground he immediately sat down next to the tower. He looked exhausted.

"I can help you walk if you need it," Madeline suggested.

"Thank you, Strawberry," Theo mumbled, "but not yet. I've got a bit of fight left in me still."

Meanwhile, up at the top of the tower, Badeline and Carl stared at each other.

"Give a guy a hand?" Carl requested.

"Beg," demanded Badeline.

"Badeline. I am not lying to you. I have never felt this tired in my life. My entire body hurts and I can't ignore it. Just..." Carl decided to look back down the tower, where they'd came from.

Off in the distance, at the exit to that weird little out of place tunnel, he saw somebody. A humanoid figure, off in the distance. He couldn't make out anything about them, but as his eyes ran over the tiny white dot in the distance, he got the distinct and terrifying feeling that eyes belonging to something else were running over him, too. Then the dot started moving.

Fast.

Carl looked over to Badeline, properly spooked. "Holy shit, get me down, now!"

With her suspicions confirmed, Badeline floated on over, picked him up, and brought him down the tower. She didn't feel the need to voice that a confrontation was now, in her opinion, inevitable. Doing that wouldn't change anything. She just hoped Carl would be ready for it.

As soon as Carl touched the ground he dropped to a knee and then forced himself to stand. "We gotta go, guys. I saw something coming out of the tunnel."

"What'd you see?" asked Theo.

"A person, I think," Carl expressed. "I couldn't make out a whole lot of details about them. But I felt them staring at me, and I saw them moving. Whoever they are, they know I'm here, and they want me."

Madeline sighed, walking over to Theo and pulling him up. "No time for a break, then. Let's get hiking!"

It had been another eternity. Theo and Carl resolutely dragged themselves behind Madeline. Badeline had decided to stay behind them. It was clear that neither of them had much fight left in them, so Badeline stood ready to pick them up if they fell.

The squad of climbers pulled themselves through a series of rather simple rooms, arranged like an obstacle course. Walls and buttons were strewn throughout them, all of which Badeline triggered, whether they were in the floor, on a wall, or on the ceiling. Each button (or series of them) pressed opened a door at the other end of the room. They were strange mobility challenges with a specific design that Madeline soon recognized and remembered as the rooms she had carried Theo through the last time she was in here.

"This is where... they were," Madeline shuddered.

"They?" Carl asked, trepidation in his voice.

"The monsters," Madeline specified, without specifying. She sounded tiny. Afraid. "Angry. Hungry. Terrifying. Too many teeth and too many eyes. They wanted me dead."

Badeline was on the lookout, even as she moved to open the doors. Her eyes were narrowed. Her hair had started floating. Carl felt goosebumps on his arms just being around her.

"I hope we don't find them," Carl yearned. "Some peace and quiet would be nice."

Immediately after Carl said that, they entered one of the larger rooms and saw it. It floated in the air, a crusty-looking purple blob with tentacles sprouting from the back of it. Its main body was studded with five eyes, a clearly visible primary on the front and four secondaries to either corner, all of them looking in various different directions.

Madeline's blood froze. Theo's heart skipped a beat. Carl stared, dumbfounded.

The thing noticed them. All five of its eyes turned as one to regard the people present. It made a noise, a sort of hissing growl, as it turned red in an instant, its eyes replaced with mouths.

No.

Badeline had already floated up into the air, adopting an aggressive stance as her hair split apart into six distinct tendrils. A ball of pink energy formed inside a circle of hair, projecting a beam of light that settled itself just above the monster's largest mouth. The beam sparked with coherent energy, filaments of lightning arcing off the laser as the ball of power above Badeline's head charged up. It glowed yellow with magic, fluctuating rapidly in size as bolts of electricity leaped into the air, free energy leaking from the singularity of raw magical power.

The beast charged at them, its teeth gnashing as it screeched. It covered the entire room in half a second to mutilate Madeline, so fast that nobody consciously noticed when it had started moving.

It wasn't fast enough. Badeline had her shot lined up, and she knew this monster was so blinded by its ferocity that it wouldn't even try to course correct around what was coming.

The front of the ball opened up, and the magical energy she had focused only had one way to leave: forwards. With an ear-splitting BZZZZZZRT, Badeline's laser fired in a single blink-and-you'll-miss-it pulse. But even though it lasted for less than a tenth of a second at full intensity, it was wide enough to engulf anyone present in the room. And it was bright. Bright enough to overpower the red miasma present in this part of the Mirror Temple. Bright enough that nobody looking would have been able to find any color in the beam, even if they weren't flash-blinded just by looking at it.

It was so bright that it shined all the way through the monster, and the door, and the wall the next room over. All opaque objects, and the pulse met zero resistance in any of them. In fact, it was of such blinding intensity that it unmade the bonds between the atoms of the objects it passed through, setting them free of their burdens of organized chemistry.

The laser tailed off, a wiggly red beam that disappeared the moment after it was fired.

A slurry of yellow-hot liquefied stone splashed down on both sides of the exit to the current room. The new hole that had been punched through the door sizzled, its edges glowing red and smoking from the raw energy of the strike.

A tiny statuette, little more than an eye with wings, smacked into the ground, skittering to a stop in front of Madeline, who instinctively kicked it away from herself.

"RUN!" yelled Badeline, her voice distorted into an unholy, furious screech. "I'LL HOLD IT HERE!"

Everyone did their best to run, given how hard it was to move. Badeline began charging another laser blast to punish the thing when it reconstituted, but the strangest thing happened while she watched.

The monster didn't reappear. The statuette sat there, inert.

Madeline noticed a second later, and slowed her roll to the button across the room. "It... it hasn't come back?"

"Not yet," growled Badeline. She kept her laser charged, aimed right at the thing, ready to strike the second it got back up.

Ten seconds passed in long silence, before Madeline walked over to the statuette, brimming with anxiety and curiosity.

"Madeline, what the hell are you doing?" hollered Badeline. "Get back before it kills you!"

Madeline picked up the statue and stared at it. Her first time through she had remembered rejoicing when she managed to get a good jump in and struck the monster in the head, watching it assume this form. But it had jumped around and made noise, and three seconds later it was back, as ravenous and angry as it ever was.

Now, it was immobile. It wasn't very heavy, and it hummed in her hands. It was still building energy, it seemed, but it was going about it more slowly. Almost as if it were struggling to come back.

Badeline dissipated her laser with a sound like a fuse blowing, floating on over to Madeline and staring at the statue. "It's not coming back," she observed.

"It isn't," Madeline repeated. "Not yet. This was... this was my self-loathing, right? My depression and anxiety. Hunting me."

"It was."

Carl and Theo stood where they were. Neither were willing to get any closer to the crazy woman inspecting the thing that was trying to kill them (and, really, right now they were so weakened that they didn't want to move any more than was strictly necessary.)

Madeline considered the little thing in her hands. "I've been doing better since I was here. I'm a bit less anxious. Less depressed. I don't hate myself as much." She passed it to Badeline, who regarded it the same way an engineer would regard a radioactive fuel cell. "If this is meant to symbolize those things, then maybe it doesn't have as much strength as it used to. Because its strength is my weakness."

"So," brooded Badeline, "it's just going to sit like this, for a long time, until it can come back."  As Madeline noticed a strawberry plant growing out of the corner of a wall and moved to add its fruit to her collection, Badeline floated on over to one end of the room, where there was a fairly sizeable crack in the wall. She wedged the statue into it, good and hard, giving it a few solid tugs to make sure it was in there. "I'd like to see it come back like that."

"Thanks, Badeline," Carl praised. "That... Oh, God, that almost killed us, didn't it?"

"Aren't you glad I'm around to help?" boasted Badeline.

"Very," Madeline lauded, standing up. "Now let's get the hell out of here before that thing wakes up again."

"Or before whatever was following us heard the ruckus," added Carl.

The moment after Carl said that, everyone heard a distant, echoing bellow. "Carl!" the abyss barked, in a voice that Carl recognized immediately. Even after half a decade away, the sound remained burned into his brain. "Where are you? I know you're here! Come out!"

"Oh, Jesus!" Already weak in the knees from his time here, Carl collapsed the second he heard the voice. "God, no, not here, not now, not like this, please!"

Madeline looked at Badeline. The look in their eyes answered each others' questions. Without missing a beat, Madeline strode over to Carl and hauled him to his feet. The voice, though, continued to resound through the rooms. "Carl! I know you can hear me! The longer you try to hide, the worse this is gonna be! I know where you are! Stay put!"

"Carl, ignore him," Madeline directed, in a tone of voice that left no room for argument. "He's noise. He isn't here yet, and he can't hurt us. And if we keep up the pace, he won't. Let's go! Now!"

Madeline's words didn't seem to be enough to shake Carl's fear, but it was definitely enough to get him moving. He stayed on his feet, hurrying off ahead of everyone else as they trudged through the Temple.

"So, that's him, huh," Theo remarked, listening to the raging invective as it slowly faded into the distance. 

"Yeah," Carl squeaked, terrified beyond words. "That's him. That's Dad."

"Sounds exactly like the kind of guy you've been talking about."

"You don't even know the half of it."

"With any luck, we won't have to," Madeline comforted. "We just have to get your backpack and leave. And it shouldn't be long until we can do that, now."

But despite her words, she was beginning to feel doubt.

Just a few minutes later, they finally came to it, sitting in a completely intact room that looked almost normal. It sat atop an altar, with two burning lamps to either end of it, the central object of the room, the focal point of the journey.

Carl's backpack. Within it, The Package. And the remains.

Carl walked over, the symbolism completely lost on him as he fixated on what he'd nearly lost. He reached out to grab a strap and pull it on, and at that moment felt his utter exhaustion. No matter how hard he tried, he simply could not move his own backpack, as the strain he'd been under for the past few hours had robbed him of nearly all of his strength. Carl looked back, towards his friends. "A little help? Please?"

Despite the fact he felt like his arms were spaghetti noodles waiting to implode, Theo pushed himself over, reaching out to grab the strap of Carl's backpack that he wasn't holding. It still weighed as much as Madeline's van, but with the two of them working together, they were able to haul it up and away from the altar. Carl smiled. It wasn't a very big grin, but it was the most genuine one he'd yet sported.

"Nice!" Theo snarled through gritted teeth, burning through the very last dregs of his strength to keep the backpack held up. "We've got it!"

"Thanks, Theo," Carl commended.

"No sweat," Theo minimized. "Well... actually, right now, yes sweat."

"Now for the other half of this little diversion: leaving," proclaimed Badeline.

"Good," Madeline asserted. "I'm beat. I don't know how much I've got left in me."

"Heh," chuffed Theo. "We finally found something able to stop the invincible Strawberry."

"And all it took was nearly getting killed," Carl wisecracked. "Let's make like trees and run for our lives!"

The party set out, for the last time, Madeline hobbling along in front, Carl bearing the weight of his backpack with Theo, and Badeline taking up the rear. As they hustled through the hallway, one final rally with the last of their strength, they noticed something peculiar. Everything started to get lighter.

The oppressive gravity slowly began to lift away. The weight peeled away from everything. Theo was able to pass Carl's backpack back over to him, and Carl was able to slip it on and wear it. Like it was normal.

"Is... is this it?" Carl prayed. "Are we done in here?"

"Oh my God, I think it's over," Theo giggled. "I think we're out!"

Nobody ran, though. Nobody had the energy to run. While, with the exception of the tower, their hike through this place hadn't met with much in the way of roadblocks, it was still a hike in a place with doubled gravity. The same exertion mustered to pull your body up a cliff face had to be used just to stand up straight. Walking had been like a normal walk in a suit of plate mail with dumbbells taped over it. Climbing was submitting yourself to agony, completely. It had been a journey so punishing that nobody could remember exactly how long they'd been in there. But at long last, it was over. The tunnel had a light at the end, which had to be the outside world.

But something got in the way.

It was a humanoid figure, made entirely of marble, an animate Greek statue. Its clothing was utterly nondescript. Its hair was permanently frozen in a state of dishevelment, and its face was similarly locked in something resembling a sneer. Even though Carl was the only one who recognized the face, though, everyone knew what this was.

"...Dad?"

"Nuts," swore Theo.

"Amen to that," Madeline agreed. "This is gonna get ugly."

"Carl," the statue spoke. Its mouth did not move. No part of its face did. "What in the hell have you been getting up to?"

"Life," he stammered. "Making my way through things. You know."

"Abandoning your family, you mean," the statue bellowed, as it moved an arm up to single out Carl. "Look at you! So ashamed of letting your mother down! You should be ashamed for not coming to see her off, you little prick. You make me sick."

Carl withered, and the marble man grew larger. There was no sound, no telltale flash of light or glow of energy. The statue just expanded outwards, slowly. Continuously.

Madeline did not reflect on this, and she stepped forwards. "Hey! That's no way to talk to your son!"

"And who the fuck are you to tell me how I can and cannot address my child's actions?" roared the marble man, swinging away from Carl to focus solely on Madeline. He was clearly belligerent and angry, but he was not the first pissed off man Madeline had dealt with, and he would be far from the last.

"Somebody who's been dealing with him the entire time up this mountain," Madeline shot back. "He's been jumpy and worried since we met him, and you know? I think I understand why he is now, if he had to grow up with you."

"You think that's my fault?" the marble man rumbled. "No. That's weakness. Carl is weak. Fundamentally. I should know, I tried to toughen him up. And do I get any thanks for it? No! What I get is him running away from his responsibilities and never coming back!"

Theo stepped in. "Because he didn't want to deal with you. Honestly? Not surprised."

"See?" He looked over to Carl. "Weak. Oh, woe is me, my father is mean to me. I was making you stronger, you ungrateful bastard! And this is how you repay me? I don't do free handouts, you entitled piece of shit! You owe me!"

The marble man continued to get larger as Carl cowered. In fact, it almost seemed like the world was getting bigger with him.

Badeline got it figured out as she watched this play out. They were being shrunk. The walking manifestation of Carl's parental issues couldn't physically grow any larger without breaking the building they were in, so the Mirror Temple was working backwards and making them smaller. Badeline didn't know if there was going to be a limit to how small they would become, but she knew she did not want to find out either way.

She dashed over to Carl, the sound being enough to shake him out of his terrified funk. He stared at Badeline with wild eyes, desperate for an escape.

"Carl! Listen!"

"DON'T IGNORE ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" the marble man snapped.

"You do NOT have to yell to get your point across!" Madeline cried.

"SHUT UP!"

"Ignore him!" discounted Badeline, positioning herself between Carl and the thing that thought it was his old man. "Listen. We're being shrunk right now, because of your response to this."

"What?" Carl gulped.

Badeline gestured around them. The way out had become larger, and the marble man was by now towering over everyone. "This is what the Mirror Temple does. You're the only one who can stop this, Carl."

"How?"

"You stand up to him." Badeline stepped out of the way.

"I can't," Carl worried. "I've never been able to."

"You have to," stressed Badeline. "This is your problem. We can help you out with it, but we can't face it for you."

"I've always lived under his house and his rules," Carl squealed. "Do you know how hard it is to stand up to somebody who controls your life?"

"You don't live with him any more, do you? You're legally an adult. He's not your guardian. He has no power over you but what you give him."

Carl took in what Badeline had told him as he stared up at the giant, who looked almost exactly like he did in Carl's nightmares. And Madeline and Theo - the brave bastards - now looked exactly as terrified as he once did. The tides had changed quite quickly. They weren't holding him back any more: now, they were being shouted down. Not that they could have stopped him, anyways. Carl knew through experience that there was no way to stop the beast raging above. But he didn't know how far the Mirror Temple was going to take this. He'd never been physically hurt... but he'd always feared it. And the thought crossed his mind that this might be how it ends.

So then, what did it matter if he didn't give it a shot? He'd lied to his newfound friends almost the entire way up the Mountain. He owed them a lot more than one pithy recitation of his unfortunate childhood would be able to give. If Carl was to die here, he decided he was going to die swinging.

He stood up, hyping himself up with nervous energy, as he walked closer to the marble man. He felt like this was where he was going to die. He was going to be struck down the second he spoke up, and he knew it. But this was something that he had to do. He knew how the Mirror Temple worked. This was Mount Celeste being as direct as it could be, and making him face the object of his terrors head-on. As much as he didn't want to die, Carl didn't know what would happen if he kept running, and he had no interest in finding out.

Once the statue noticed Carl approaching, he stopped dismantling Madeline and Theo over their choices of career, and turned to face Carl.

"So," the marble man leered, "the prodigal son. It's about damn time you dragged your ass back to me. What's the matter? Can't live with yourself?"

"What is this about?" Carl bludgeoned. "What do you want?"

The voice dropped to a low, furious hiss. "Don't play dumb with me, boy. You know exactly what I want."

"Well, whatever it is, you aren't getting it."

The marble man stared, confused. "Excuse me?"

"Did I stutter," is what Carl wanted to say. What he stuttered out instead was "You heard me. You aren't getting it. I don't know what you want from me, but I know I don't want anything from you."

The marble man fell back for a moment, in shock. The world stopped getting bigger. "How dare you," the statue blurted, before leaning forwards. "How DARE YOU! I DIDN'T RAISE YOU TO GIVE ME THAT LIP, YOU DIPSHIT!" He had been yelling before, but he was screaming now, as loud as a rocket lifting off the launch pad. Carl flinched back, looked away, and caught sight of Badeline.

She was smiling. Her left thumb was up.

Carl returned his attention to the slightly-less-than-before-giant. "You're right. You didn't raise me to give you any lip. You raised me to be afraid. You raised me to be terrified of my own shadow because I didn't know what was gonna set the Big Man of the House off, so guess what? Me being weak? That's square on you."

"You UNGRATEFUL BRAT!" the marble man screeched, as the world slowly began to return to its normal size. "YOU NEVER LISTEN! YOU NEVER DO AS YOU'RE TOLD. YOU NEVER DO ANYTHING! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AROUND AND PLAY THOSE STUPID VIDEO GAMES OF YOURS! YOU WON'T AMOUNT TO SHIT!"

"I have a job," Carl said. "It pays me well enough to live on my own. Without help or support from anyone. Including you."

"And how do you think you got that job? How do you think you developed the backbone and the thick skin necessary to demand your worth? It was ME! THAT WAS WHAT I DID FOR YOU! HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT?"

"How can you not see how you hurt me?" implored Carl.

"Oh, shove it up your ass, I never laid a finger on you!"

"You don't need to hit somebody to hurt them," countered Carl. "Whether you want to believe it or not, words have power. If words didn't mean anything, do you think we'd have monster trucks or chainsaws or machine guns? We wouldn't even have a civilization."

Carl was high off of defiance now, focused solely on conquering the thing in front of him that claimed it was the worst part of his childhood. He didn't notice the effects that his self-defense was having. That the room had, by now, returned to normal size. And that the marble man was now the one beginning to shrink.

"All that tells me is that you don't even know how lucky you are. You know how much I got beat as a kid?"

"Like that makes it okay?" retaliated Carl. "Like it's suddenly fine and dandy for you to yell at me until I break down every time I do something wrong because, oh, he's not hurt, there's no bleeding or bruises, he'll be fiiiiiiine!"

"See? That's why you're weak," the marble man belittled. "If you can't deal with that, how the hell have you been dealing with all the shit you get in the world from people who don't care about you?"

Carl stared at the marble man, confused. He'd always had daydreams about this exact situation, but something about the way this effigy of his father was phrasing things just threw him for a loop. "I just... what?"

"You know why I do what I do. I told you," the marble man explained. "The world is cruel and evil. It's unfair, and unjust. It chews up everyone it can, good, evil, innocent, whoever - it always does. It did to me. And given how much you're whining about how I "hurt" you and all that emotional bullshit, it is beyond me how the world hasn't already ripped you to shreds yet. I did this so it wouldn't happen to you!"

"Because the world didn't beat me up. You did. I know how much you've said it, that you were just doing it to protect me from people who were worse - but you never stopped to consider that instead of toughening me up you were just pre-chewing me. Throwing me to the wolves ready to be eaten. You wanna know what the miracle is? The fact that I'm here, that I made it through college, that I have a job and I'm clearing my debts, despite how you treated me."

"That just sounds to me like everything I did worked," beamed the marble man. It folded its arms.

Carl stared at it, finally having noticed how much it had shrunk. It was now shorter than Madeline was (which was an achievement), and it looked more like a toy or a decoration than an actual person. "Maybe it did," Carl granted. "But, well, now I'm across the country from you and in a situation where I don't need your support and you aren't a part of my life. Sounds to me like what you did worked a little too well."

The marble man looked up, its body language clearly communicating despondency. "...but... how? How can you not include me? I am your father! I put you onto this Earth! I fed you and clothed you and raised you! You owe EVERYTHING to me!"

"No," Carl bit, moving in for the kill. "I don't owe you shit. You did the bare minimum necessary to raise me. That's not something I have to pay you back for, because I didn't ask to be born. Like you said, you put me onto this Earth. You knew what you were getting into when you decided to have a kid. If you wanted me to keep hanging around, maybe you should have raised me better!"

"Stop giving me that backtalk! Know your place!" shouted the marble man, desperate, as it lost control of the situation. Beams of light began to shoot out of the statue as it started humming. 

Carl was scared. Carl hadn't stopped being scared since this started, and whatever the hell the marble man was doing now only freaked him out harder. But he was too far in this to quit now. However this went, whatever happened to him, he was committed. "Oh, I know my place, alright. And it's nowhere near you. You don't know where I live. You don't know how to contact me. I don't intend to tell you either of those things, because I do not want you in my life."

"Yeah? Well, I'll find out eventually!" yelled the marble man, as more and more beams of light shot out of it, and it began to glow with light. In the distance, Badeline moved to shield Madeline and Theo, as best as she could. "And what'll you do then, when I know where you are and I come to make you pay your dues?"

"I'll tell you everything I said here. And it's up to you what you do with it."

For a moment, the marble man screamed again, with the same thunderous roar he'd commanded when he was first challenged. Then his body was consumed by the light. Then he exploded.

Then, nothing.

Chapter Text

Madeline fell to the ground, deaf and blind. She knew why, because it had happened the last time she'd been through this part of the Mirror Temple. It wasn't just that she couldn't see or hear anything. The sound of the thing blocking their path exploding was so loud that it had disrupted the fluid inside her inner ear and temporarily removed her sense of balance. It was the exact same mechanism of operation that stun grenades used to incapacitate people. There wasn't anything she could do but wait it out.

Once she'd fallen on her ass, she rolled over to lie prone on the ground, trying her best not to mind the ringing in her ears that reminded her maybe climbing this mountain wasn't the best thing to be doing for her health, and waited it out. Like it or not, there wasn't anything she was going to be able to do at the moment. Not if she couldn't even stand up straight. All there was to do was feel the breeze on her face and bide time.

So Madeline bode time. She waited until the ringing in her ears cleared up and until the searing imprint of the marble man exploding cleared from her vision. She waited until she could hear the wind whistling and see the walls of the Mirror Temple before she bothered to get up. Her head lightly pounded, and Madeline was sure she was going to have a killer headache in a few minutes, but for the moment the only pain she felt was her scorching muscles. As Madeline tried to stand, arms grabbed her around her midsection and helped haul her up.

"Thanks, Baddy," Madeline grunted.

"Anytime," replied Badeline. She waited until she was sure Madeline could stand before letting go. The two of them surveyed the room. As expected, the red miasma had dissipated, the tentacles that dotted the walls were gone, and the floors had stopped glowing. They had escaped the Mirror Temple, and all that was left to do now was walk outside. Theo laid on the floor, curled up on his side. Madeline could hear him groaning in discomfort, which meant that he was definitely okay. Carl laid on the floor, motionless.

Madeline's heart skipped a beat.

Badeline walked on over to Theo and crouched down near him. "Hey, Theo," she whispered. "We made it out."

Theo made a very ugly noise before looking at Badeline, squinting in discomfort. "We'd better have." He reached up with a hand and Badeline grasped it, yanking Theo up and onto his feet.

"I'm beat," Theo groused. "I think we might need to stop for the day after we get out of here."

"Madeline's pretty tired, too," related Badeline. "Don't worry, Theo. We'll get a break."

"Alright. Is everyone okay?" Theo, still unsteady on his feet, looked around and spotted Carl, lying on the floor, completely unresponsive even as Madeline knelt down next to him. "Uh-oh. Hey, Strawberry! Is Carl okay?"

"He is!" Madeline stood up. While Badeline had gotten Theo back up, Madeline had rushed over to check on Carl. When she'd come through the Mirror Temple with Theo the first time, freeing him from his crystal prison (and destroying the giant eyeball) had knocked him out. She had been deathly afraid that everything she did was for nothing and that Theo had died, but two fingers to his neck revealed that Theo still had a pulse. And he had still been breathing.

All the same, seeing Carl like that scared her half to death. She couldn't quite shake the thought that maybe he'd actually been hurt, or worse. Fortunately, Carl had followed Theo's example. His heart beat and his lungs drew breath. He was just out cold. Which meant that he was going to need to be dragged out of here. Madeline didn't quite like the thought of it, but she very much preferred dragging a living person out, as opposed to a corpse.

"Can I get some help moving Carl out of here?" Madeline asked. She'd rather have the help than not.

Theo and Badeline walked on over to Carl. The three of them kneeled down, slipped their arms underneath him, then lifted him up and hoisted him into the air in a hammock carry.

"Lord, this guy's heavy!" Theo cried out. "What gives?"

"It's the weight of his sins, I'd bet," snarked Badeline. "They add a couple hundred pounds."

"Really makes me glad I learned to love myself," Madeline expressed.

After a moment to adjust to the weight, they proceeded out of the Mirror Temple, and into the twilight. The sun had set over the horizon already. A thin strip of burning ember over the horizon represented its last ergs. The rest of the sky was an almost imperceptibly dark hue of blue. Slowly, one by one, the stars were starting to come out.

"Wow. We must have spent the rest of our day in there," Madeline marveled.

"Not like we would have gone much further," Theo figured. "I'm beat."

"We don't need to go much further," Madeline assuaged. "Just to the fire pit. It's not very far from here."

The trail leading out of the Mirror Temple was well defined, if snow-capped. While the mountaineering party may have broken through the layer of clouds below them, there were still some above, and snow faintly drifted down as they softly crunched along the trail ahead.  Theo looked behind himself and saw several pillars on either side of the trail, as well as a few red bubbles, silently floating in the wind.

"Why can't we just drag him through the snow?" asked Badeline.

"It would be undignified," Madeline stated. "And I would be the only one dragging him."

"I coulda done it. Saved you a bit of effort." Madeline didn't bother replying. "Just sayin'."

True to Madeline's words, it only took five minutes of walking before they came across the fire pit. The pass where it used to sit was now artificial. The first time up the Mountain, Badeline had thrown Madeline through it, and Madeline had taken most of the path with it. Now, it was a wooden bridge, sturdily built and heavily reinforced, a layer of snow lying atop it. Madeline had helped Granny put it together.

Of course, the bridge being made of wood, that meant having a fire pit right on top of it was an incredibly bad idea. Now, the pit - which still looked as well stocked with kindling as it always did - rested well ahead of the pass, just to make sure an errant ember didn't burn the bridge down. Every time Madeline had been here the fire pit looked ready for a nice blaze. She wasn't sure if it was something the Mountain made, or if people were just obeying some unspoken rule to always make sure it was stocked after you used it, for the next set of climbers coming up. Maybe Granny had refilled it.

Madeline always brought a bit of kindling to the Mountain anyways, just to be sure.

Everyone got right next to the fire pit and then set Carl down, three sighs of relief leaving three mouths as they sat him up against his backpack. Madeline whipped her own backpack off, pulled out a barbecue lighter, and applied a flame to the kindling until it caught, at which point she fell back into the snow next to the fire. Badeline set down next to her, while Theo carefully lowered himself to sit up against his own backpack.

Minutes passed. Nobody said anything. Worked to the bone, they stared at the fire pit as the flames danced across the kindling and set everything ablaze.

"Are we all okay?" Madeline eventually ventured.

"We're pretty tired," relayed Badeline. "But I know you wouldn't have it any other way."

"I'm exhausted and in pain, and I think I'm gonna have a killer headache," Theo groaned. "But we're out of the Mirror Temple. I'll be alright. Eventually."

Carl was dead silent. If you didn't actually look at him and see him breathing, you wouldn't know he was alive.

"Well, that could have gone better," grumbled Badeline, staring at Carl. "But it also could have gone much worse. Why couldn't he have just told us?"

"You know why, Badeline," Madeline sighed. "He thought we'd ridicule him."

"I feel sorry for him, y'know," Theo empathized. "Imagine being that worried about literally everyone you meet. Makes me wonder how he even survived out there before he came here."

"The same way all the other people who ignore their emotions do, I guess," Madeline thought. "I hope he'll be alright."

"I hope he tells us everything," wished Badeline. "He made a promise. What he said in there isn't enough."

"Easy, Baddy," Madeline cautioned. "You'll get your story. For now you should relax."

Badeline sighed, and stared into the warm flames as they reached higher, a little bit at a time. But she couldn't quite get it out of her head. She really wished Carl would wake up. Badeline wanted to square everything off.

"Distracted?"

"As much as I usually am," replied Badeline.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Badeline sighed. "I already said everything when I told Carl why I'd be helping him. He's been an impetuous wretch this entire time up here. Everything he's done has rubbed me the wrong way. And it's all because he's in mourning. I want to hate him, but..." She looked down. "Even if it's in a distant way, I know what it's like to lose somebody."

"I mean, you can totally be mad at and sad for him at the same time," Theo reinforced. "That's a valid combination of emotions to have."

"I know, I just-"

Madeline put a hand on Badeline's shoulder. "Maybe we should talk about something else. Carl will wake up eventually. And then you can gab with him all you want and work things out. But until then, we know it won't do us any good to keep dwelling on it."

Madeline had a point. Badeline sighed again, watching the flames lick at the sky, then turning to look at Madeline as she rustled through her backpack and pulled out a chocolate bar.

"You brought chocolate?" Theo exclaimed.

"Yep!" Madeline tore the wrapper open. "I always bring a chocolate bar up here. That way I get a nice little treat after a near-death experience. And then if I don't have any near-death experiences, I can just eat it on the way home!" She proceeded to start eating it, square by square, relaxing into her backpack.

"That's a smart idea," complimented Theo. "Maybe I shoulda done that. Ah well. Live and learn, am I right?"

Madeline nodded in between bites.

"If only we had some marshmallows," Theo daydreamed. "Maybe we could have made s'mores."

"You'd still need crackers," pointed out Badeline. "That is a good idea, though. Madeline, we need to bring a s'mores kit up here next time."

"How did I not already think of that?" Madeline questioned.

"Because you didn't have your smart buddy Theo with you to tell you," fluffed Theo. "But now you do. You're welcome, by the way."

A second later, Theo had the thought that maybe he should eat something. He started digging around in his backpack to pull out more trail snacks. He knew that if he didn't start eating now, he was going to feel the mother of all hunger pangs tomorrow.

"By the by, Badeline," Theo said, as he rifled around. "That laser blast you pulled off was sweet! How'd you do it?"

"I just, ah..." Badeline blushed, very softly. She may have been used to Madeline complimenting her, but she wasn't used to others doing it. "I just did it, you know? I can't really explain how I did it. I just did."

"You think you could shoot a couple things for me on the way down?" Theo pulled out another protein bar. "Nothing big or anything, just to see a couple things explode in a way that doesn't hurt anyone."

"I can try," surmised Badeline. "I don't know if it'll work without a threat, but I can give it a shot."

"Well, I'll tell you what I told Strawberry before we came here." Theo took a bite out of his snack. "If you can't do it, that's fine. I just want you to try."

Badeline smiled. "I'll give it my best shot then, Theo. Just stay out of the way. If I cut you in half because you stepped in the wrong spot, I'm not liable."

"Well, we'll see what my legal counsel has to say about that when she represents me in court," Theo joked.

Madeline pocketed the wrapper for her chocolate bar. "I hope Alex is doing alright."

Madeline's worry jogged Theo's memory, and he took out his phone and tapped away at it for a bit, opening his texting app. "Hey Theo," he read out loud. "Good to hear you're having a good time up in Canada and making some new friends! Studying is indeed going well, it's just dress rehearsal at this point. I know everything. Stay safe up there, and tell Madeline to stop worrying about me, I know she is!" He stared pointedly at her after making sure to place emphasis on the relevant part of that message.

"Well, if she says she's fine, I guess she's fine," Madeline surrendered.

"Good," Theo said, as he pocketed his phone. "Don't make me have to pull that out again, Strawberry. I will."

Off in his own little corner, Carl snorted. Badeline noticed. "I think he's waking up," she pointed out.

Madeline grabbed Badeline's shoulder. "Don't rush him as soon as he gets up. Let him get his bearings and figure out that all of that wasn't a dream. He'll talk."

Badeline relented, at least for the moment.

"You think that, uh..." Theo trailed off for a moment, trying to pin a name to the tentacled, multi-eyed thing he'd seen in the Mirror Temple both of the times he'd passed through. "That monster. The one I saw last time we were up. You think it's woken up yet?"

"Eugh," Madeline shivered. "I hope it stays asleep forever."

"Probably," fathomed Badeline. "It was coming back. Just slower. But it's still stuck in wherever the heck it was. We're out. It can't get us."

"It had better not be able to get us," Madeline carped. "I still have nightmares about those things every once in a while."

"I don't blame you. That thing looks hella spooky," Theo sympathized.

"Just be happy your monster was an eyeball that only stared at you funny," Madeline complained. "At least an eyeball can't chase you."

"Maddy, dear, what have I told you about tempting fate?"

"Nothing, actually." Madeline smirked. "It's what I told myself about tempting fate."

"Maybe you should listen to yourself at a time like this," counseled Badeline. "Sometimes you've got pretty valuable advice."

"Shuddup."

Badeline and Theo laughed. A few seconds later, they heard something else.

Carl moaned, low and pained, as the waves of consciousness slowly ebbed over him again. His head thundered. It took him a moment to realize that the rest of him was thundering, too. Every bit of him. He opened his eyes to an incredibly deep and bright starfield. Up here, away from any sources of light save for the well-fed fire in front of him, it was the most detailed night sky he'd ever seen. It was like what he'd seen in the space block.

He took a moment to drink it up. It was a truly beautiful sight. While he did, memories surged through his head unbidden.

Endless hallways.

A giant eye.

A climb that hated.

A laser blast.

The stone man.

Almost immediately he looked around to try and find his backpack, and quickly found the straps were still around his shoulders. Carl sighed and relaxed.

"Welcome back," Madeline greeted.

Carl made a noncommittal groaning noise. "My everything hurts."

"Don't worry. Our everything hurts too," Theo commisserated.

Carl slid the straps of the backpack off of him and then sat up a little straighter, looking at everyone. A moment later, he realized that he still hadn't taken off his ski goggles since Golden Ridge, and he pulled them up and away to rest against his helmet. "How long was I out? Did I hit my head?"

"About ten minutes," Madeline informed. "That's better than Theo did last time. It took him an hour or two to wake up again."

"Last time." Carl ran through all those memories in his head again. They were so vivid and real, like he'd just woken up from dreaming them. "So I didn't hit my head. And all that stuff I remember..."

"Was not a dream," finished Badeline. "All of it happened. From your backpack zooping off to the confrontation with that statue. It was all real."

Carl ran through several complex emotions at the same time. They knew, but then they hadn't judged him, but then they were sad that he'd judged them, and then they helped get The Package back of their own free will. He slumped against his backpack. "What a night. Sorry about how I acted back there, I just-"

"It's alright," Theo forgave. "I get it."

Carl hummed.

"How're you feeling?" Theo inquired.

"Exhausted," Carl communicated. "But I'm alive. I don't think I'm bleeding, either. At least, I hope I'm not bleeding." His stomach growled, and he slowly pushed himself up so that he could bring his backpack around and start digging through it for snacks. "Are you all okay?"

"Nope!" chirped Theo. "I'm in the same boat you are."

"I'm pretty exhausted too," Madeline advised. "So even if there was light, we'd be bunking down for the night anyways."

"We're out of danger," muttered Badeline. "So I'm good."

Carl pulled out a bag of trail mix to start munching on, then set his titanic backpack up so he could sit against it. "I don't think the night sky has ever looked this good."

"You never went camping?" queried Theo.

"Once," Carl kvetched. "And let me tell you, I sure wasn't paying attention to how good the sky looked."

"Shame," Madeline mourned. "You don't really need to be this high up to see it like this, but once you get out of the city the stars really start coming out."

"Yeah." In between mouthfuls of trail mix, Carl stared up at the sky. "It's almost disorienting. You can barely make out the constellations over just how much stuff's up there."

"You ever think about if we're alone in the universe?" Theo pondered.

"A bit," Carl opined. "I don't think we're alone. The universe is unimaginably vast. The odds, I think, are against us being alone. There's gotta be some kind of life that can understand us out there somewhere."

"Then how come we haven't found anything yet?" Madeline pressed. "It's nothing but dead skies up there. Every time we find some kind of "alien signal", it turns out it's just a star doing weird star stuff."

"Maybe they're hiding," Theo supposed. "Or they don't want us to find them because they don't think we're ready to be good galactic citizens yet."

"I think it's just a distance thing," Carl ventured. "Space is huge. Space is stupid huge. The nearest star to us, Proxima Centauri, if we headed on over there travelling at the speed of light - the fastest speed possible in the universe - we'd still take four whole years to get there."

"Without an FTL drive," Theo specified. "And they're aliens. They've been around longer than us, right? Maybe they know something we don't. Maybe they can go faster than light."

"Maybe, but I might as well be thinking about the practical uses of astral projection if you're gonna make me consider something blatantly impossible like a faster-than-light drive."

Theo smirked. "Ever been to Roswell?"

"Nerds!" cried Badeline.

"Yep," deadpanned Carl. "Go tweet about it to the Internet on your smartphone, why don'tcha."

"I don't have a smartphone," snipped Badeline. "Madeline does. I don't."

"You're part of Madeline. You still count."

"Hey," Madeline laughed, "don't drag me into your alien fight. I have no stake in this."

"Of course you don't, Strawberry," scoffed Theo. "You don't even believe in aliens."

"And you were just pressing us on why there were no alien signals," Carl accused. "You absolutely are participating in this alien fight."

"I think they're trying to drag us into their alien fight," observed Badeline. "You should do something about that."

"I think I will," Madeline agreed. "And what I'm gonna do is say that it doesn't matter. Whether or not they do exist, the fact remains that we haven't seen them. So just like how Carl isn't going to take into account impossible technology that we think can't exist yet, I'm not going to entertain thinking about aliens until I actually see that we've met them."

A beat.

"She's using basic logic," Carl gasped. "We can't have that!"

"Idunno, it's pretty convincing," Theo mused, rubbing his beard.

"Oh, so you're just gonna abandon me, is that it?"

Theo made a show out of considering it. "Yep," he popped.

"Balls," Carl swore. He'd polished his trail mix off by then. Ever conscientious, he slid the bag into his backpack to avoid littering, before looking up at the sky again for a moment. "Well, at least I know somebody's up there."

"Who?" asked Badeline.

"I've put it off long enough. I made you all a promise, so it's high time I showed you something," answered Carl, as he turned around and reached into his backpack. He didn't even need to rummage around. A second afterwards, he pulled out an oblong thing, wrapped in a green towel, and beckoned everyone forwards. Badeline got up and walked over, Madeline and Theo shortly following.

"Everyone," proclaimed Carl, with a sad smile, "I'd like you to meet Mom." Then he undid the towel.

It was a crematory urn, colored an abyssal blue, and speckled with a starfield nearly as bright and deep as the one above them all. Littered across the urn were constellations traced out in thin lines.

"You wanted to know what I was gonna get myself killed for?" Carl lightly patted the urn, with no small amount of reverence. "It was who. She was cremated. It was what she wanted."

Madeline took in the urn, from a respectful distance. "It's beautiful, Carl," she whispered.

Carl nodded, tears beading at the corner of his eyes. "She picked it out herself. Told me that if it was really her time to go, she wanted to be in control of what came after. The last time I talked with her... well, God, if she hadn't outright told me she was dying I would never have guessed. I don't know if she was just holding back for my sake or if she'd made her peace with things... I didn't have it in me to ask." He looked at the urn again, yearning. "Maybe I should have."

"What was she like?" inquired Theo.

Carl was quiet for a long moment, watching the fire dance as his new friends settled in where they were. "She cared," he eventually decided on. "That was who she was. I mean, Dad was an asshole, so maybe my memories are a bit skewed, but she really did care about me, and she never meant to hurt me. Sometimes she did, but, hey. Accidents. She was like that with her friends, too. Always the one looking out for them. Always busy doing something for somebody. She never seemed burdened by it. Maybe she was and I just wasn't able to pay attention, but helping others was something she liked to do."

Badeline looked at Madeline, as if she was asking permission to do something. Madeline nodded.

"Not to rain on your parade," spoke Badeline, "but... she probably was. Madeline has..." She wavered for a moment, not used to this. She felt vulnerable.

"It's okay," Madeline comforted. "He won't judge us."

Badeline nodded. "She's had problems with helping others. She kept putting too much of ourself into bad people who kept hurting us, because that's what she thought being a good person entailed. Helping even if you were suffering."

"It's a hard lesson to learn," Madeline shared. "Selflessness is a good thing, but you can still have too much of a good thing. If you're too selfless, you'll start putting the needs of others above your own even when it hurts you. You'll equate self-esteem with what others think of you."

Carl frowned at Badeline. "She did love him, though. Remember? Or, well... the person Dad used to be. Whoever they were. I guess Mom wanted her lover back. I really can't blame her for that."

"Still, she could have left!" protested Badeline. "And she should have, for your sake. Your father was hurting you, and from what you told me he'd shown no interest in changing. She should have been out the door with you in tow."

"Could she have?" Carl was starting to sound properly incensed. He had a thought, and looked to Madeline. "Madeline, have you lived your entire life in Vancouver?"

"Yeah," Madeline confirmed.

"What does that have to do with anything?" hassled Badeline.

"Badeline, I grew up in the sticks," Carl ranted. "I lived in an outport community that was an hour's drive from the nearest town. Everybody knew everybody there. There weren't any social services. There wasn't a women's shelter she could have run to. There wasn't even a hospital! All of that was an hour's drive away! I was lucky to have a school I could go to that was remotely nearby, and it was still half an hour away in a bigger town down the road. What could she have done?"

"Something! Anything was a better option than staying with your father and letting you get abused!"

"Like it was her choice?" Carl was starting to look righteously pissed off.

"Baddy!" Madeline yelled. "You aren't helping him right now. You're being too aggressive."

Badeline swallowed, and nodded. "Carl, look, I-"

"What, you just wanted to take another opportunity to shit on me?"

"Both of you, shut it!" Madeline snapped, hurling herself to her feet. "I've had it with the both of you snipping at each other! Which, yes, means you too, Carl! You aren't innocent either. You're both talking this out. Now."

"What? Why should I, Madeline? Your evil twin's been the one snapping at me the entire time up this Mountain!"

Badeline threw herself up, but Madeline extended an arm to stop her. Sure, she was just as pissed as Baddy was, but taking it out on Carl wouldn't solve this, especially since she knew why Badeline had been sniping at him. Instead, Madeline closed her eyes. Deep breath in, deep breath out.

"Carl," she began. "Trust me on this one. Let Badeline explain herself. Don't say even a single word in edgewise until she is done. Then you can talk. Okay?"

Carl glared at Badeline for another moment, but he relented. "Okay."

Madeline turned to Badeline and lowered her arm. "Baddy? Sit down. Tell him why you don't like him. Be honest. And don't be mean. It matters this time."

Badeline looked over to Madeline, then sighed. She plopped back into the snow. "Carl. Remember back in the Mirror Temple? When I called you an annoying, unwanted pest?"

"Oh-"

"Not. One. Word," Madeline hissed. "Baddy. Be nice."

"That's how I've felt about you," persisted Badeline. "Look. We've - I mean me and Madeline when I say that - we've sort of talked about it while we were going up. Madeline was in a really bad place during our first climb. She was unraveling at the seams. She gave energy to bad people that hurt us. She didn't like us. She was paralyzed by normal life, and crushed by her depression."

Badeline looked down, at her color-shifted outfit that matched Madeline's almost precisely (save for the fact it was less worn). "And that was how I was made. You've probably put it together by now, but I'm... was everything about herself that she didn't like. That she wanted to just put in a box and forget about, forever. Her pragmatic half. The part of her that wanted to keep her safe and protected. When Madeline came to climb Mount Celeste, just to prove that she could, that was when I came out. And when Madeline said that we had disagreements on the climb, what she meant is that it took me throwing her down the Mountain for her to realize what she was doing wrong." She closed her eyes. "And it took me a lot of actual, physical fighting to realize that she'd actually understood that. And that she wanted us to work together."

Badeline looked back at Carl. He'd softened. His gaze was locked on her, but he didn't say anything. He waited for her to finish saying her piece.

Badeline felt outright alien as she spoke. She felt like she was laying herself down to be dissected. "And yes, I hated you. You were doing a really bad job of trying to hide what was bothering you, and I just... I got worried! I was worried the Mirror Temple would have a reaction. Exactly the way that it did. I was worried that it would get Madeline hurt. Or Theo hurt. Killed, even. And then there was the joke, too. Madeline got really angry. I was worried that she was helping you out to make herself feel better for having scared you. I didn't want her to relapse and put time and energy into somebody that'd only hurt her, again."

"You wanted to keep Madeline safe," Carl concluded. "You thought I was a risk. And that's why you've treated me like dirt the whole way up, isn't it?"

"I had to come out to save your life because Madeline would have been traumatized if you died. And it meant I had to hang out near somebody that I couldn't say for sure wasn't a risk to our life and limb. Can you really blame me for being upset?"

"Yes," Carl immediately lashed out. "I can, and I will. Because you didn't have to treat me like garbage the entire way up. You didn't have to belittle me every time I spoke. I could tell you hated me after you saved me, but you just kept trash talking me nearly every chance you got! Do you know how it feels to be treated like dirt just because you exist? Because trust me, you sure spared no expense making sure I knew that!"

"I'm sorry, okay?" wailed Badeline, as she retreated in on herself. "I just wanted Madeline and Theo to be safe! I didn't want anything else! I didn't want to do anything else! I just wanted everything to be okay."

Theo and Madeline both stared onward, waiting to see how the situation would resolve before passing judgment, and desperately hoping that Carl would make the right move. Carl, in the meanwhile, looked at Badeline. Badeline, the tormentor. Badeline, who had spent the entire trip up antagonizing him at nearly every opportunity.

Badeline, who now looked like she wanted to shrivel up and die of remorse.

Carl wanted to stay angry. But Badeline was sorry. She wasn't faking it. And if he kept holding a grudge in spite of that, he knew exactly who that would turn him into. He looked down at the urn, sighed, and placed it gently into the snow.

As Madeline and Theo watched, Carl stood up and walked over to Badeline, who stared at him in trepidation. He kneeled down, and exhaled a breath he didn't even know he was holding.

"Look. I didn't know this," Carl declared. "All I saw was you tearing me down for no real reason, so I assumed that was the kind of person you were. But you know what they say about assumptions."

Badeline stared blankly, still scared.

"You... you do know, right? Makes an ass out of u and me?"

Badeline continued to stare, confused.

"Tough crowd," Carl quipped. "Anyways, I didn't know any of that. So I said a lot of things that I'm pretty sure didn't improve your opinion of me. And I guess it also didn't help that all of your suspicions were kind of right. Given, y'know, the Mirror Temple. You thought I was a risk to your companions' lives, and I thought you were a stuck-up prick. And we were both right, so we never even tried to think past that. Because why would we?"

"What are you saying?" insisted Badeline.

"Well, you said you were sorry. I believe you. For what it's worth, I'm sorry too."

"For what?"

Carl shrugged. "All the mean things I've said." He kneeled there for another moment, thinking. "How about we make a deal?"

Badeline raised an eyebrow.

"We've both been trying to tear each others' guts out, and there's a lot of bad blood between us. Maybe it's better if we just... started over."

"Started over?"

"Yeah. We pretend that none of the things that we've said or done happened. We take all the mean things that we've been tallying up about each other, and we just drop 'em. Forget about 'em. Water under the bridge. And we try to be nice. I think it'd be easier for us than if we tried to make up for every little thing we've done to each other."

"You'd do that?" wondered Badeline. "You'd just... forget it all? Forget that you hate me too?"

"Baddy. I don't want to hate you. I did in the past. Hell, I did thirty seconds ago. But I don't any more. And you don't want to hate me either, do you?"

Badeline shook her head.

"Then we do this. Clean slate. Forgive all our sins in one fell swoop. We agree that we got off to a bad start, so we decide to try again." He extended a hand to her. "How's that sound?"

Badeline stared at Carl's hand for a second. "You'd really do that," she repeated, as if trying to convince herself of it. "Forget everything."

"You're not a bad person, Badeline," Carl supported. "I will if you will."

Badeline gave it another second's thought. She reviewed the situation in her head. And then she thought something very specific: what would Madeline do?

The answer was obvious.

Badeline reached out and grasped Carl's hand. The two of them shook, and committed themselves.

"Carl," Carl introduced. "Good to meet you, uh..."

"Badeline," finished Badeline. "Good to meet you too."

Madeline smiled and relaxed, returning to her seat in the snow.

"Man, you two are gonna be super good friends," Theo appraised, plopping down himself. "I can tell."

"Well, I'd toast to it, but I don't think Badeline's got a water bottle." Carl trekked back over to where he'd been sitting. "So, then. Where were we?"

"Talking about your mom, I think."

"I'd rather talk about something else," warbled Badeline.

"Right," Carl picked up. "Well... that was Mom. The kind of person worth going to a funeral for. But I didn't." He took a moment to take a swig of water. "Like I said back in the Mirror Temple. I came out here specifically to get away from Dad. I could have gone anywhere in the country I wanted. Hell, there were a lot of good places back home. But B.C. was as far as I could go, so it's where I went. Soon as I was old enough to legally be considered an adult I was gone. That's how much I didn't want to be around Dad."

"Why a mechanic, then?" Theo quizzed. "Any particular reason you picked that for your job, or..."

"Not a very big one," Carl demurred. "Or a good one. I didn't just want to get away from Dad, I wanted to stay away. Which meant that I needed to keep myself afloat. So I decided to try and get into a skilled trade, because I figured that'd give me good work if I applied myself. And learning how to take apart a car wasn't too bad, all things considered. I didn't have any experience with it before, and look at me now! Proud automotive technician for the past two and a half years."

"You didn't get any assistance?" Madeline grilled.

"I woulda liked some assistance," Carl admitted. "But part of how I got out was that I may have kinda sorta not told Dad anything about where I was going. I only told Mom, under the express condition she never tell Dad. If I got any level of financial assistance he could have used it to track down where I was living and show up unannounced one day. So I supported myself. Got a retail job."

"Working a job and going to college?" Badeline whistled. "Sounds like hell."

"Oh, it was," Carl validated. "I had basically no free time whatsoever. Once I got back from learning it was straight to my shift. And once I got off work I had enough time to get the housekeeping done before I had to conk out for tomorrow. It was miserable. I only got a "break" from it between semesters."

"But you made it," Theo pointed out. "So how'd you get here?"

"The opposite way Madeline got up the Mountain," Carl exposited. "If I failed out and I didn't have a means to keep making money for myself I'd have to crawl back home and beg Dad for help. And I did not want to do that. As terrible as it got, all I had to do was think about what I'd have to do if all my options fell through, and that was all the motivation I needed."

"So you got through purely on spite," summarized Theo.

Carl flashed a thumbs up. "Bingo."

"How'd you avoid burning out?" Madeline queried. "Even if your reasons were relatable, that sounds like a lot of work to put yourself through."

Carl smiled and stared Madeline dead in the eyes. "I didn't! I got lucky and found a job at my current place a month after I graduated, but even then I still had to re-learn how to relax. How to be a person instead of just a cog in the machine, you know? And I had some very good help from somebody to figure that out."

"Who?"

Carl patted the urn. "Mother dearest," he indicated. "Turns out one of the friends she regularly visited had a phone. And when she heard about our... situation, she didn't mind Mom using it to keep in touch with me. It was a secure line that Dad didn't know about." He stopped for a moment, trying to find some way to render into words how much that mattered. "It helped a lot," he eventually said.

As Carl spoke about his mother, Theo looked at the urn. Something didn't quite add up. "Hold up," he uttered. "So if your pop didn't know where you were, but he was still married to your mom, how'd you get that urn?"

Carl sighed. "A few months back Mom stopped calling. I didn't think a whole lot of it. I figured she was probably really busy with something and didn't have the time. Or that she was trying to throw Dad off my trail. It sucked, but by then I had a stable job and a couple friends, so I just let it be. I figured she'd call back whenever she got the opportunity to."

Carl looked down for a moment, looking at the urn. Using it as an excuse not to look at anyone else. "My dad smoked," he said. "Not quite a pack-a-day, but he didn't care who was around when he did. Hell, even after they made it illegal to smoke in a motor vehicle when a minor was present, he kept doing it while I was in the car until the RCMP pulled him over and ticketed him for it one day."

Theo frowned. He knew where this was going.

"One day, about a month back, Mom called me back. I was so excited to talk to her again, but after a few minutes, she said she had something to tell me. And when she gave me the news? Everything stopped making sense."

Carl swallowed thickly, his voice dissolving. "She had lung cancer. Terminal lung cancer. It was Stage III when it'd been diagnosed, she'd gone into a hacking fit and coughed up blood. The prognosis was good and they rushed her into chemo, but the cancer didn't respond. They must not have given her the right drugs or something. By the time they got it figured out... they found out it had spread to her brain and her liver. She wouldn't tell me how long she had left. Just that it was aggressive, and she didn't have long."

"Oh my God," Madeline gasped. Badeline's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. Theo kept a smile up, because somebody had to.

"Yeah, I said as much," Carl croaked, "with a bit more swearing on top of it. I was terrified out of my mind. It was the hardest conversation I'd ever had. But she was clear about it: she was going to die. Nothing could change that. She'd come to terms with it. I think she was just scared of how I'd take it when I found out, which... trust me, I make it sound like I was composed." He looked around at everyone. "I wasn't. I was a mess. Still am."

He dusted some snow off of the urn. "It all closed off with me telling her that I was going to be out there as soon as I could be. I was going to see her one last time. After we said goodbye, I looked to get a flight, quick as I could, but the closest one was still three days out. I took it."

Carl took a deep, shuddery breath, tears sliding down his face. "The day after I booked that flight, after I got back from work, I got a call from her friend. Mom died in her sleep. And that was that. When she said goodbye, she was saying goodbye."

Carl was quiet for a while. Nobody else wanted to say anything.

"Have you told this to anyone?" Madeline asked.

Carl shook his head. "I didn't know what to do," he breathed, sounding utterly decimated. "The day after, before I went to work, I got a call. Same number. It was still Mom's friend. But Dad had figured out that Mom was using her to talk to me, and he'd left a message. Mom had planned a funeral for shortly after she passed. And Dad wanted me there."

"How'd you take it?" Theo wondered.

"I thought about it at work. Did my best to just... push it down so that nobody would notice. I'd never really gotten to say goodbye to Mom. Not the right way. Seeing her at the funeral would be my last chance to do that. Ever. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought about Dad. I knew exactly what he'd be like if I went. And how much worse he'd get if and when I broke down in front of him."

Carl closed his eyes, hugging the urn tight. "I cancelled the ticket," he sobbed. "I couldn't face up to Dad. Not like this. Not the way I am now. I knew it meant I was throwing away my last chance to say goodbye to Mom. But I just couldn't do it!" Then he broke down and started crying, as everything he'd been damming away for the past few weeks surged out, beyond his control.

A moment afterwards, Madeline got up. She walked over to Carl, sat down next to him, and pulled him into a hug. Carl curled into the contact, sobbing quietly into Madeline's chest, still clutching the urn. Theo walked over a second later, placing a hand on his shoulder as he wept.

Badeline watched them for a moment, feeling rather bittersweet. Then she tended to the fire. Somebody had to.

Carl cried until he ran out of tears. It took longer for the sobbing to stop.

"When Granny passed, it had been two years after I'd climbed Mount Celeste for the first time," Madeline spoke, out of nowhere. "I really hadn't been in a good way when I came here first. Like Baddy said. I was heavily depressed. Incredibly anxious. I actually had a panic attack on the slopes. I didn't really like myself. I constantly did favors for people, whether or not I liked them, even though it ate into my personal time. I came up here because I felt like I was falling apart, and I needed to just do something to prove that I could. But after I made peace with myself, proved I could be a mountain climber, and started seeing a therapist, life stopped being so dark and scary. I started to like myself again. I stood up for myself, without needing other people to do it for me. Things looked like they would be okay."

She looked down. Carl was listening.

"Then Granny died on me. My world stopped. I just couldn't deal with it. She'd helped me so much, she was helping me so much, and now she's just gone? I was able to keep myself afloat for a while, but then... I got word about her funeral. That's when I shut down. I just couldn't deal with it. I started drowning. I didn't do anything. I didn't go out. I didn't talk to my friends, or my parents. I didn't do any work. Some days I didn't eat, or drink, or even get out of bed. I just lied down and cried, because I didn't feel like there was any point to anything at all."

Carl was staring up at her now. "How'd you get out of it?" he murmured.

Madeline pointed over to Badeline, who was still busy tending the fire. She didn't seem scared of being burned, and adjusted things with her bare hands when she wasn't looking over at everyone else.

Then she took a deep breath in. This was a lot to say, but she hoped it would help. And it wasn't like Theo didn't already know. (Oh, the wonders of alcohol. It had taken him about a week to calm down after she'd confessed this to him.) "One night, I thought about killing myself. Not directly. But I just wanted Granny back. If I had to die to bring her back, I would gladly have died. Badeline had been a part of me for a while now, but she heard. And as crazy as this is going to sound, she came to me in a dream the very night I had that thought, and helped me start putting myself back together. I owe her for that."

"It's no problem," called Badeline, over by the fire. "Someone's got to look out for you."

Madeline looked back to Carl. He was looking at the urn again. "And once I started talking to people again - my Mom, Theo, my friends - it helped. A lot. It was a reminder that there were still people in this world I liked that were around, and not going away any time soon. I still miss Granny. But I was able to heal."

Carl contemplated the story for a moment. "But you never went to her funeral. Did you get to say goodbye?"

"In a way," Madeline affirmed. "I saw Granny in the dream, too. I apologized. And do you know what she said?"

"What?"

Madeline did her best to put on a good impression of the crotchety old woman that Granny was. "Hey, what do I care who showed up to that thing? I'm dead! Funerals are for all you suckers stuck living without me."

Carl tittered a little.

"Even if it was a dream, I knew it's what she would say if I got to talk to her. What do you think your mom would say to you, Carl?"

Carl thought for a moment. "She'd probably ask if I was doing alright. Eating well. Drinking enough water. I think she'd forgive me." He paused for a second, choking on a bit of leftover emotion. "I guess I'm just having trouble forgiving myself."

"It can help to talk to people," Madeline told him. "We're not all heartless, judgmental monsters."

"Only some of us," Carl pointed out.

Madeline nodded. "Only some of us."

"And that's why I'm doing this." Carl pulled away from Madeline. "A week ago I got a parcel in the mail. Express delivery." He patted the urn. "It was like hearing she'd died all over again. It took me a while to read the letters it came with. One of them was from the friend. Turned out, shortly after she'd gotten the terminal diagnosis, Mom changed her will so that instead of Dad getting her remains, they were to be given to me through her friend. I can't imagine Dad didn't know about it, but her living grandfather was the executor of her will, so there wasn't a lot he could do other than rant and rave."

"The parcel came with her will, too. Mom had a dying wish. She wanted to have her ashes scattered from the highest point she could be taken to." Carl looked around, at the dark cliffs they were sitting on. "One quick Goggle search later, and "the highest point I could take her to" was the summit of Mount Celeste. So... here I am. Doing my best to patch up my mistakes, even if it's only for me." He sighed. "I just wish it felt like enough."

After a moment of staring at the patterns in the urn, he looked up. Badeline was there. "What did you just say," she demanded.

"Thaaaaaaaaat I wish it felt like enough?"

Badeline kneeled down and stared at him. "Look at you. Sitting here, feeling sorry for yourself. And you can't even see where you are. You have eyes, my dude! Use them! Look around!" She pointed up, off into the distance.

Carl stared ahead. A moment later, he realized that he could see fairly well in the dark. Badeline was pointing to the top of the Mountain.

"You see that?"

"Yeah," Carl attested.

"That's the summit. You know how far away that is? That's 500 metres from here. You're almost there! You have almost climbed a literal mountain, Carl. You've carried all this pain with you the whole way up, and you've been fighting us not to talk about it for three thousand metres. And even with that you still made it here, in one piece, with the funeral urn that you just casually threw into your hiking pack! Why can't you see?"

Carl stared at Badeline, wide-eyed.

"And you know what the best part is? Answer me honestly. Say Madeline didn't feel sorry for you and she never asked you if you wanted to come with us. Would you have kept going by yourself?"

"Yes," Carl answered, without hesitation.

"Boom. There it is. You would have climbed a mountain, grieving a dead loved one, gone through the Mirror Temple the same way you just did now, all by yourself, and I'm damn sure you wouldn't have complained one bit the whole way up. Do you even know how crazy that is, that you even considered doing that in the first place? That's Madeline-level force of will, Carl. Everything you have done here is far more than I think your mom would ever have asked of you. If she saw you now I bet the first thing she'd do is freak out over your personal safety when she saw where you were."

Carl laughed, right and proper this time. "Man. She would."

Badeline stared Carl right into his eyes. "Do you even know how strong you are, Carl? Because you don't give yourself nearly enough credit. You should start. It's good for you."

The way Badeline had put it made things crystal clear. This had always been a crazy plan from the moment Carl first thought of it, but having it straight up told to him by a third party made it click in a way that it never had over the past week of planning or the past two days of climbing. Carl found himself uttering words he never thought he'd genuinely say. "Thank you, Badeline."

"You're very welcome." Badeline smiled. Genuinely smiled, at that, showing off a single, tiny fang. "You could probably stand to be a bit less strong, in any case. Maybe if you were more open about your emotions you wouldn't be here. But since you are..." She patted Carl on the shoulder. "Get her up there, Carl. You have this." And then she was off, back towards the fire.

Carl watched Badeline head back towards the fire. Then, with infinite care, he set the urn down into the snow, turned around, and returned Madeline's hug. "Thank you," he mumbled into her shoulder.

Madeline squeezed back heartily. "No problem," she trilled.

The two separated, and Carl took a second to retrieve and then take a long pull from his water jug. All that crying had made him thirsty. "So. I told you all why I came here," he conveyed, screwing the cap onto his jug. "And Madeline was gracious enough to tell me her story. So, Theo. Any emotionally charged reason behind why you came up the Mountain your first time?"

"Nah," Theo rebuffed. "Nothing big. What I said earlier down the slope is the whole reason. I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing in life. Nothing I did, like, worked, you know? I was flipping between jobs constantly because it all just got soul-suckingly boring. I couldn't handle it. Like I said, I'd landed that office job a while back and I thought I was gonna have it made, but I just... couldn't. I didn't really want to quit, but one day, I remembered something Vovô told me."

"Oh?"

"Turns out, he'd climbed Mount Celeste too. He said that the experience had changed him. Made him the person he was. That it was "special". I'd asked him about it a few times, but he'd never really said anything about it. Clearest thing he was willing to say was 'one day you should climb it and see why'. And the day I quit, it just popped into my head. It was like he was telling me to go there. So I did!"

Carl smiled. "Did you tell him about it?"

Theo frowned. "Well... I couldn't. He's been dead for a while."

The smile dropped away from Carl's face. "Oh. Sorry I asked."

"It's alright. It happened a while back. I didn't really do any better with it than you did, but eventually I started reminding myself that he would've wanted me to stay positive and live my best life in spite of it."

"Well, Vovô sounds like he was cool," Carl commended.

Theo laughed for a second. "Carl, do you know what that means?" After a second he added, "It's alright to say that you don't."

"It's not a name?"

"No," snickered Theo. "It's Portuguese. Means "grandfather". You basically just said 'Grandpa sounds like he was cool' like we were from the same family, dude."

"Oh." A second later, Carl laughed. "Well... I stand by what I said."

"Hey, you're right," Theo concurred. "Vovô was cool. Taught me how to play guitar."

"You can play guitar?"

"Uh-huh. I mean, I'm not super good at it, but I can hold a melody pretty well."

"You should show him, Theo," Madeline suggested.

"Wish I could, but... I kinda forgot my mountain guitar back in Seattle."

"Awwww," Madeline moaned.

"We'll make it an IOU," Carl proposed. "After we get down from here you can come and play something for me."

"Done deal, Carl," Theo assented. "Hope you don't mind Wonderwall."

Everyone had a good laugh at that.

Carl took a second to look at the flames. "Thanks, you guys. For making me talk about all of this."

"I take it you're feeling better?" Madeline asked.

"A little," Carl wavered. "I still feel terrible. Just less terrible. Maybe if I'd done this earlier the Mirror Temple wouldn't have been as bad."

"It might still have been," Theo guessed. "Place is messed up. I wouldn't dwell too hard on it."

Carl grunted, his gaze returning to the fire.

"So, Carl," Theo drawled. "You got any pets?"

"Nah," Carl snubbed. "Never really thought about getting one."

Theo was already digging through his phone. "Wanna meet Spoons?"

"Spoons?" Carl shuffled on over to Theo's phone, to catch a picture of a black cat gnawing on a sock. "Oh, you've got a cat!"

"She likes socks," Theo told.

"I can see."

"Yeah, Spoons is always real great to have around. She's always up to something," Theo divulged.

"She nearly ate one of my socks when you brought her up," Madeline remembered.

"So I should lock my sock drawer if Spoons is around?" Carl contemplated.

"Or just give her a good scritch," Theo recommended. "She likes attention."

"What cat doesn't?"

"True," Theo concurred. "I bet you'd get along with her, Carl. Spoons is real friendly as long as you give her a chance to get used to you."

"She gonna eat my socks while they're on my feet?" Carl bantered.

"Even odds," said Badeline.

Theo scrolled a few pictures over. "There's Spoons in her bed."

Carl quirked an eyebrow. "That's just a cardboard box with a blanket in it."

"Carl, you would not believe how much cats love cardboard boxes. I made the mistake every cat owner does of trying to get her a giant play tower. Sold it off after the fifth month in a row where she didn't touch it."

"Is Spoons an indoor or an outdoor cat?" Carl wondered.

"Indoors," Theo filled in. "A city isn't really a good place for a cat to wander."

"There were two or three cats around where I lived," Carl recalled. "All of 'em were outdoor cats. Loved being able to run around in the wilderness, hunt mice. Their owners always complained about finding 'presents' on their porches."

"Oh God," Madeline quaked. "I don't know what I'd do if I found a dead mouse on my porch."

"Well, I never had to worry about it," Carl continued. "No pets over at my household."

"My parents have a dog," Madeline contributed. "He's named Benjamin. I don't have any pictures on me, unfortunately."

"Is he a good boy?" Carl inquired. "That's the important bit."

"Benjie is a very good boy," Madeline affirmed. "Dad has him well trained. He's the nicest dog you'll ever meet. He's just pretty excitable, and he loves playing and going for runs."

"So he's gonna take me for a walk."

Madeline giggled. "Yep. Bring your running shorts. And be ready for Benjie to double back to make sure you're keeping pace. He will do it. A lot."

"I can vouch," Theo supported. "That dog will run you ragged."

Carl looked off into the distance, down the slope but into darkness. "Well... I think Madeline's mountain training course has prepared me to take Benjie for a walk. I should be fine."

Then he yawned. A few seconds later, everyone else yawned.

"Looks like it's time for you all to get some sleep," observed Badeline. She got up and started dousing the fire with snow. It sizzled and seared as it melted the snow on the spot, flash-vaporizing it into steam, but every heap Badeline piled on made it smaller and smaller.

"I just got back up!" whined Carl.

"Well, we've still got a while to go until we get to the Summit," Madeline explained. "And we have a lot of climbing to do. The Mirror Temple beat us up pretty badly. We should get some rest."

"I, for one, am down for sleeping," Theo added.

"Bedtime, then," Carl gave. He wrapped the urn back in the towel, then reached into his bag and brought out a bunch of fabric that he began to spread out into the snow.

"What is that?" Madeline asked.

"Bivouac sack," Carl answered, as he slid the urn back into his bag and then spread out the sack. It looked quite a bit like a sleeping bag made out of jackets. "I can stuff my sleeping bag inside this, and if it gets super windy I'll be just fine."

Madeline and Theo looked at each other, as they unclipped their sleeping bags from their backpacks.

"Did either of you bring one?"

"...no?"

Carl blinked. "How did you survive up here?"

Madeline shrugged as she laid down her sleeping bag. "It wasn't too bad," she wrote off.

Carl decided to focus on stuffing his sleeping bag into the bivouac sack, rather than try to think about how cold Madeline and Theo must have been during their first climb. Or how cold they were going to be now. Once he got everything settled, he had a thought.

"...dammit! I shoulda just worn my winter clothing to the laundromat. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Probably wouldn't have worked," speculated Badeline, as she finished putting out the fire. The pit quietly smoked with residual heat. "It wouldn't have been as weird as you just wearing a towel and nothing else, but it still woulda been really weird."

"Damn," Carl swore. "Ah well. Couldn't help thinking of it." Unlacing his boots, Carl climbed into his sleeping bag, taking a second to watch as Madeline and Theo got into theirs. Then he looked over to Badeline. "You gonna be okay out there?"

"I'll be fine," pshawed Badeline. "Besides, what could you do? Offer me your sleeping bag and freeze your ass off out here in the cold in my place?"

"Not like this thing'd have room to share, anyways," Carl related, as he wriggled around inside it to get comfy. "It's barely got enough room for me in here. You sure you'll be fine?"

Badeline nodded.

"Suit yourself, then. Night, y'all!"

"Night!"

"G'night!"

"Night."

Carl settled down and closed his eyes. He heard rustling that sounded an awful lot like somebody else climbing into a sleeping bag. Then he only heard breathing, the smouldering of the fire pit, and the soft rushing of the wind.

He was out within seconds.

His sleep was dreamless.

Chapter Text

"Carl. Carl! You lazyass, get up, it's happening!"

Carl made a moaning noise, followed by something that vaguely sounded like the words "five minutes". He was then jerked into awareness when he rose from the ground. Carl flailed, but he wasn't able to do much, stuck inside a sleeping bag that was then itself stuck inside a much larger sleeping bag for sleeping bags.

"Look!"

Carl made a noise that sounded a whole lot like a confused whale call, but it stopped the second it registered what he was looking at.

It sat, blood red and tiny off in the distance, hovering just off the horizon like a nuclear fireball the moment after detonation. It painted the valleys and the crags and the forests a hypnotically deep shade of orange as it slowly lifted itself up into the sky, one tiny bit at a time. Almost everywhere Carl looked was touched by the rising star's light, making the already resplendent view of the land before him outright opulent. It was a sight that he had never in his life seen before, and such was the magnitude of its beauty that he didn't even notice when Badeline set him down on the ground and walked on back next to Madeline.

As the Sun rose over Vancouver Island, Carl laid in the best possible spot to catch its ascent - a makeshift fire pit on the side of a tall mountain. He was helpless but to stare.

Madeline, Badeline, and Theo sat behind him, watching the sunrise themselves. Theo was nearly as transfixed as Carl was, though this hadn't been the first time he'd seen day break from this point (and he had the pictures to prove it). Madeline let the two of them have the moment. They had a lot of day ahead of them yet to summit the Mountain and get back down again. And getting back down was going to be much faster than getting up.

"You're welcome," said Badeline, who had absolutely no compunctions about talking during a moment like this. Not that it mattered. Carl didn't even process the fact she was speaking.

"Man. This'll never get old," Theo remarked.

"It's always beautiful to watch the sun rise this high up," Madeline agreed.

"I'd take some pictures if I didn't already have a few. Commemorate the experience, you know?"

"I'll always have the memories," Madeline told Theo. "I couldn't unsee this even if I wanted to. It's burned into my brain. Like it's burning into Carl's right now."

"He didn't even react when I spoke at him," observed Badeline. "I think he's blown a fuse."

"Eh, give him a moment," Theo commented. "He'll look away eventually."

Madeline sighed. "A shame I never got to see this my first time up. I was too busy falling down the entire Mountain."

"Hey," laughed Badeline. "That's on you."

"Quiet."

"You're only mad because I'm right," sang Badeline.

Theo snorted. "I take it you caught it the second time you came up here, Strawberry?"

Madeline nodded. "Yeah. So it's not that big a loss. Besides, making peace with myself was more than an ample tradeoff."

"And don't you know it," added Badeline.

A moment later, Carl unzipped his bivouac sack and shivered as he pulled himself out of his luxuriantly warm cocoon. But even as the cold slammed him, his mile-wide smile did not waver. "Lord, do I regret not bringing my phone here to capture this. I haven't seen a more beautiful sight in the entire world."

"Don't worry," Madeline assured. "You're never going to forget this."

Badeline cleared her throat. Loudly. "You're welcome," she repeated.

Carl blinked for a second. "Did you pick me up just to make me watch the sunrise?"

"You're welcome."

"I am welcome," Carl concurred. "You didn't have to do that, you know."

Badeline shrugged. "Felt like the right thing to do," she explained. "Madeline would have just let you sleep in."

"I would have," Madeline assented.

"Lucky you, that your evil twin subbed in for you," Carl jested, with only a small hint of the ire he used to carry for her in his voice.

"You were freaked out when I yoinked you up," returned Badeline, devoid of venom. "And that made lifting your heavy ass worthwhile."

"Good morning, Carl," Theo greeted. "How're you feeling?"

"Good," Carl stated. "I'm still a bit sore, but I think getting a few hours' worth of shuteye helped my disposition out. I'm ready to take on what's left of this mountain."

"I hope you are," Madeline cautioned. "This is the hardest part of the climb."

"Is it as dangerous as the Mirror Temple was?"

"No. But just you wait until you see what we need to do coming up. There are no shortcuts up ahead. Constant wind and bitter cold, too. You either go along with what you see, or you turn around."

"Then I don't see a problem. Between the four of us, we'll make it."

"Good." Madeline smiled. "Now go eat some food. We've got a long journey ahead of us."

Carl walked over to his backpack and started rifling through it like a raccoon. He pulled out a couple of choice snacks, and started munching as he watched the sun rise. Madeline took a pull from her water bottle as she watched the sun come up. She'd woken up about an hour earlier than Carl did, and Theo wasn't too far behind. They'd already eaten their food. They were just waiting on him to get ready.

"Wow," Carl called out. "I think I can see Courtenay from up here!"

"Easier to see at night," Theo mentioned. "You can see all the lights in the distance, assuming the air down there is clear."

"It's a nice place," Madeline related. "I don't stop by there often, but sometimes I came to the Mountain to help Granny keep things maintained. It's a good thing it's a pretty good place to pick up parts and materials, because it's the closest stop, too. Besides Cumberland."

"Man, I probably shoulda gone and taken a look at this while it was still nighttime." Carl seemed to let the missed opportunity slide. "Ah well. The sunrise here is better."

A minute later, Carl deposited his trash into his backpack, withdrew his sleeping bag from his bivouac sack, and packed the two of them into his hiking rucksack's spacious depths. "So are y'all ready to go? Because we're officially burning daylight now."

"We are," Madeline confirmed. "The question is if you're ready for what's up ahead."

Carl beamed as he slung his backpack on. "I've never felt readier."

After Madeline took a moment to pull some kindling out of her backpack and set it up in the fire pit for future mountaineers, everyone pulled away from the fire pit, crossed the bridge, and moved to complete the journey they'd set out on.

This part played out a lot more like Carl was expecting mountain climbing to. They got maybe five minutes of walking in before the trail cut off at another cliff face to ascend. And from there, it was nothing but snow-capped cliffs and tall rock faces. The "trails" up here were hard to discern, and were usually just certain areas where things were flat and smooth enough for unhindered walking to be possible. The wind didn't gust as hard as it did at Golden Ridge, but it blew constantly with no end in sight.

Carl and Theo watched Madeline scramble up the Mountain. Carl looked over to his compatriot. "You know, after all the wild stuff I've seen here, this place is boring."

"Yeah, I get you," Theo acceded. "It's just rock and snow. You know, normal mountain stuff."

"Weird to think about." Carl fastened himself to the safety line. "But I think I'm gonna take boring. Boring doesn't seem as likely to kill me."

"Plenty of ways 'boring' can kill you," warned Badeline. "I'd still be keeping an eye out."

Carl nodded, then drew his climbing axes and started axing his way up the cliff. A minute later, Theo secured himself and climbed up behind him, Badeline floating up to act as a second safety.

Things went like that for a little while, until they came to the tube.

After scaling another cliff face, the party were faced with a path that traveled into a small cave. "That looks foreboding," Carl asserted.

"It should," Madeline granted. "It leads to a vertical tunnel you have to climb through."

"How claustrophobic is it?" Theo asked.

"Very," replied Badeline. "Honestly, Carl might have trouble fitting."

"No way around it, I take it?" Carl inquired.

"No way around it," Madeline established, as the group entered the cave. "You can go look at the cliff face outdoors if you want to go see, but you'll need to make a pretty harsh side-climb just to get onto the outside of the tunnel and climb up and past it. Without safety equipment."

Carl eventually came to the tunnel. It was, indeed, a quite tight tube running straight up. He could see light at the other end, presumably an exit higher up on the Mountain. "Ladies first," he offered.

Madeline smirked as she walked up to the tunnel, jumped up, planted her feet on both sides, and began shimmying up at incredible speed. Carl tried to look up and watch her go, but after a second some falling dust got in his eyes. He had to rely on the sound of her scrabbling up the walls.

"Man. That woman does not know any fear, does she?" Carl wondered, as he rubbed at his eyes

"Oh, she has a lot of fears," declared Badeline. "But almost none of them have to do with this mountain. We know Mount Celeste like the back of our hands."

"Good for her," Carl spoke, blinking the last of the dust out. "I hope I'm gonna be able to get through this without getting stuck." Carl didn't seem to have Madeline's flexibility, and it took him a few minutes to pull himself up and into the tunnel before he started crawling up and through. He didn't feel safe. There wasn't any safety equipment, not that it mattered given the cramped quarters. It seemed like there was barely any room to move. Progress was a slow struggle through the dark. This wasn't a cliff face, either. He couldn't get Badeline to carry him up if this was beyond his capability. Now that he was in here, he needed to see it through to the end.

Things were uneventful (for a given definition of uneventful) for a few minutes, until Carl suddenly found that he couldn't move himself up. No matter how hard he tried, he was stationary. In a fit, he stopped trying to climb and tried to fall.

Nothing. He'd gotten himself wedged.

"Uh... guys? I think I'm stuck," Carl called out. But his voice didn't carry too well through the tunnel below him. For a moment, Carl felt the fear of death climb his spine.

Then he felt something brush against his feet. "Whoa," Theo exclaimed. "Carl, you alright?"

"Physically," Carl answered. "But I'm a little stuck."

"Sounds inconvenient," Theo sympathized.

"Just a bit. Not too sure how to get myself free."

Theo considered the situation for a moment. "Maybe try getting out of your backpack? If you're able to get yourself separated you might be able to get free."

"Yeah, but then it'll fall," Carl countered. "Right onto you. I don't even think Madeline would be able to stay where she was if she got smacked over the head with this heavy-ass thing."

"Carl got stuck?" called Badeline, from farther down the tunnel. Theo looked down. "Yeah! We're trying to figure out how to get him down!"

Badeline took a moment to reply. "Theo, come down! I've got an idea! Carl, hang in there!"

"See you around, Carlmeister," Theo dispatched, before he started sliding down the tunnel. This left Carl stuck up there for a few moments. Despite the nearly nonexistent light in the tunnel, Carl still caught sight of a strawberry plant - one that had already been picked clean. Madeline probably grabbed it while she was here, Carl thought to himself.

"Can you take your backpack off? I'll catch it." That was Badeline, having made her way up to Carl. For a moment, he hesitated, a primal fear in the back of his mind conjuring up the image of Badeline deciding to shift just far enough out of the way for his backpack to ricochet down the tunnel, shattering the urn within into a thousand pieces. He marinated in it for a moment, then forced it aside. He and Badeline had made a pact. Carl needed to live up to it.

"Give me a second." Slowly, Carl undid the backpack's waist brace, then slid his arms through the straps to force them away from himself. Reaching out to steady himself in the tunnel, he sucked his gut in, then felt his stomach drop as his backpack slid away.

Badeline grunted, forced down a few feet, but she'd caught it and held steady. "I've got it! Get up there before Madeline gets worried and starts trying to come back down. I'll bring it up with me."

"Thanks, Baddy!"

"You're welcome!" Carl kept going. The tunnel closed in only for another moment, then widened to a somewhat comfortable diameter. After five more minutes of slow scraping, Carl finally managed to grab the ledge at the top of the tunnel, and stared right into a pair of hiking shoes.

"Got stuck?" Madeline queried.

"Badeline stole my backpack," Carl joked, extending a hand. "She'll be bringing it up after me."

Madeline kneeled down at the ledge once she saw Carl reaching up, then grabbed his hand and pulled him up to solid ground. It was effortless, given he'd shed a significant amount of baggage. "How'd you find it?"

"Terrifying," Carl shivered. "For a moment I thought I was just gonna be stuck there, wedged in the tunnel with my pack."

"I'll see if there's a way around that for next time," Madeline promised.

"No need," Carl wrote off. "I don't plan to come back after this. Won't be a reason."

"Climbing with your friends?" Madeline ventured.

"Maybe," gave Carl. "But I think we'll see about that when we get to it." Carl moved ahead of Madeline, walking near the exit to the cave, where it was a little lighter and he could hear the wind better, then sat down.

"How much longer do you give Theo?" he pondered.

"Five minutes," Madeline figured. "He'll be up here before long."

"Not a long wait," Carl acknowledged. "Shame nobody else can climb a mountain like you, Madeline."

"Maybe it's a good thing," Madeline mused. "It's fun to climb the way I do, but it's not exactly safe, either. It is risky to free solo. I'm fine with that risk here, but... I don't know how fine I'd be with some of my other friends deciding that, to be honest."

"It's why I've been such a stickler for the safety equipment," Carl shared. "All it takes is one piece of defective or worn-out gear and being a dead pancake is the best fate I could hope for. God forbid I break a bone or get stuck somewhere."

"God forbid you manage to arrest yourself and prevent serious harm," Madeline pointed out.

"I guess that's a possible outcome."

"You focus on the negatives a lot, don't you?"

"It's a survival tactic, isn't it?" argued Carl. "When you're doing something very risky and you're scared. A healthy dose of fear keeps you from making stupid mistakes."

"You're scared, then?"

Carl took a second to respond. "Yeah," he admitted. "Not as much as I was coming up, but... there's always a risk. There's always a danger. I'm not safe until I'm on the trail back to the cabin."

"It's okay to be scared," Madeline comforted. "Just remember. Try to make sure it's a healthy dose of fear. Too much will paralyze you, and that's just as bad as moving when you shouldn't."

"Easier said than done, but I'll try," Carl vowed. A second later, he heard scrabbling, and Theo pulled himself over the edge and into the upper section of the cave. "Nailed it!" he proclaimed.

"Enjoy the climb?" Carl quizzed.

"It was actually pretty easy once I got into the groove of it," Theo said. "But figuring it out was kinda hard. Felt like if I made the wrong move I'd be taking a very long fall back down through the tunnel."

"At least you didn't get stuck."

"Sure felt like I was gonna," Theo griped.

A moment later, Badeline floated up through the tunnel and stepped onto solid ground, before walking over to Carl. "Here you go."

Carl took the backpack and spent a laborious few seconds reattaching himself to it. "Thanks, Badeline."

"You're very welcome."

"I hope you're all feeling ready," Madeline announced, "because that was just the warmup."

More cliffs, more trails. The wind didn't let up. Free conversation began to dwindle, though it wasn't because of exhaustion. This time, it was because of focus. The summit of Mount Celeste was very close. Madeline, and those following her, had their eyes on the prize (even if they couldn't really see it from where they were). The end of their long journey was in sight. All they had to do was reach for it.

Every once in a while, though, they encountered a grave obstacle. Previously, the tunnel. Now, a sheer cliff.

Carl looked up the face. It stretched on and on and on into the sky, which looked a much deeper shade of blue than he was used to. He supposed it was the altitude. "How high is that?" he thought out loud, not expecting a serious answer.

"Two hundred metres," supplied Badeline. "It's a bit of a climb."

Carl gawked. "So this one cliff face alone is two fifths of our journey. By itself."

"You'll be behind me, right Baddy?" Theo pleaded. "Just in case I slip."

"Don't worry, Theo." Badeline patted Theo on the back. "I've got you covered. This is a pretty easy climb, anyways. It's just a long one."

"Pretty easy for Madeline," Carl noted.

"Hey, you got this far," Madeline teased. "You really think a simple cliff is going to stop you?"

"Ladies first," Carl snickered. Madeline stuck her tongue out at Carl, then started hopping her way up the cliff face. Carl only gave her a few moments to get going before he started clipping himself to the safety line, which receded so far into the distance it may as well have stretched to infinity. Then he took his axes out, and got to work. Theo gave Carl a few minutes to get ahead, before he clipped himself to the safety line and started climbing a little more slowly and conventionally.

At first, the climb was deceptively easy. Even despite the chilling wind that blew across it, from which no real protection existed, it was still far easier than climbing the purpose-designed tower from Hell in the Mirror Temple under the influence of doubled gravity. Madeline was halfway up it before she even bothered to check on how she was doing, and Theo and Carl were able to make excellent progress upwards without feeling like a struggle.

The problem, of course, was just how tall it was. Even the tower wasn't that big - maybe fifty metres at most. This was much, MUCH larger, and for Carl and Theo, who weren't everyday mountain climbers, it started to sink in that this wasn't going to be easy after ten minutes of straight vertical movement elapsed and they were still on the rock face, with no end in sight.

Theo took a moment to pause, wiping away flopsweat with one hand. "Good lord. I didn't know two hundred meters was so much! How close am I to the top?"

Badeline, floating silently under him, looked up for a moment. "Not very," she measured.

"Shoulda asked for feet," Theo grumbled. He looked down at Badeline for a moment, doing his level best to focus on the adorable goth version of Madeline and not at the very, very long fall that was everywhere else. "Hey Baddy. How much could I pay you to carry me?"

"I don't have a use for money," cracked Badeline. "Try something else?"

"Please, Baddy? Just a little bit up the way?"

Badeline made a show of thinking about it. "Or you can do it yourself, entirely under your own power. And when you go home you'll be able to brag to everyone about how you climbed a 650 foot cliff face with nothing but your bare hands. How does that sound?"

"Man, you're right. That'd be a super kickass story. Thanks for the pep talk, Baddy!" With renewed resolve, Theo started picking his way up the Mountain.

"No problem," went Badeline, as she slowly hovered up below him.

Farther up the slope, Carl took a moment to hang from an axe (and the safety line). If he looked out, away from the cliff face, the world revealed itself to him. Distant snow-capped forests, rivers both frozen and uncovered... if he squinted, he could even see tiny spots of civilization, here and there. And of course, sea to the horizon. As he took in the world below him, taking a second to rest from the incessant chunking of putting one inordinately sharp axe in front of the other, the moment in time he existed in crystallized in his brain. He wouldn't know it, but he would come to hold this memory in vivid detail for an incredibly long time.

What a sight, he thought to himself, staring over the landscape. I wonder how much better it'll look from the summit?

He looked back up for a moment. He couldn't see Madeline. The sun was getting closer to its apex in the sky. Carl didn't have all day to gawk. He pulled himself up, swung his other axe into the cliff, and got back to work.

Meanwhile, at the top of the cliff face, Madeline took a moment to pick a strawberry that had managed to grow up there, then sat down and drank some water. This was always an incredibly rough climb, even for her standards. Two hundred metres straight up was a lot of height to go up without any form of safety system. One wrong move at any point and she wouldn't be going home. With Badeline here she felt a little safer, but even then she couldn't help but think that even her pragmatic half had limits, and that a fall here could still kill.

But then that was why she was doing this. That anxiety she felt climbing here was something that she felt acutely everywhere else in her life. Putting herself through this, dealing with it in the most direct way possible, was a form of training. She'd learned about grounding from her therapist - the idea of dragging yourself out of your fears or flashbacks by focusing on the things that your senses were picking up in the present moment, anchoring yourself to reality (which, she'd come to realize a while later, was how Theo's feather trick worked). And climbing this cliff face was a lot like grounding. Sure, the worry was always present in the back of her mind - the healthy fear that kept her from making mistakes, like she told Carl. But when her life was on the line, it was the ultimate form of grounding. There was nothing she could even try to think about but what to do next to get to her goal.

Madeline snorted. Her therapist didn't know how she preferred to climb. Maybe it was better that way - they'd have a heart attack if they learned how she liked to ground herself. They'd be scared for Madeline's life.

Maybe they'd be right, Madeline thought. This is really risky. I might seriously hurt myself one day. I might even die. She took another sip from her water bottle. But I haven't yet. And I made it here.

Madeline decided to close her eyes and wait. She didn't know how Theo or Carl were faring, but Badeline was there to help them and they were actually utilizing the safety equipment present here. She was sure they would be fine.

Fifteen minutes later, her ears picked up the sound of metal spearing rock. Madeline idly wondered exactly how a set of climbing axes were even able to do that, and then on exactly how much money Carl spent acquiring them, before one of them popped up over the edge of the cliff. After a moment of mechanical fiddling noises, Carl pulled himself over the edge and trekked on over to Madeline.

"Man, that was rough," Carl commiserated.

"Yeah, it gets that way up here."

Carl took a second to drink from his own water supply. "Beats the hell out of the Mirror Temple, though. This climb was easy compared to the tower. It was just long."

"Yeah. This was simple," Madeline acquiesced.

Carl looked over towards the edge, and off towards the ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see. This high up, and in the direction he was facing now, you could see more of the Pacific Ocean than Vancouver Island. "Just gotta wait for Theo to get up here now."

Madeline got up, walked over to the edge of the cliff, and looked down it. Her red hair billowed off to her left. "Looks like he's still got a while to go."

"You can see him down there?"

"I have very good eyesight." Madeline turned around and returned to her seat. "It'll probably be a while. Maybe have a bite to eat while you're here. Theo isn't a fast climber, but he's a safe one. I'm not too worried."

Carl laboriously pulled his backpack off. "But you are worried," he pressed, as he rooted around inside it.

"A little. Theo's one of my best friends. I'd hate to see something happen to him."

"Well, Badeline's there with him. Hovering right below him, I think." Carl withdrew an almost comically long meat stick and cracked open the packaging. "Even if the safety equipment fails, I think Theo will be alright."

Madeline looked towards the edge and waited.

Seventy metres down, Theo kept on climbing. He knew that if he really wanted to he could just ask Badeline to carry him up. But as he kept finding handholds and pulling himself up and bringing up his belay device, he found that he didn't really want to. He'd been at it for a while, but he was entirely confident that he could do this. Even if it took forever.

"Are we there yet?" Theo asked anyways, if only to annoy Badeline a little.

"For the thirteenth time, no," droned Badeline. "I think you're asking that just to mess with me."

"You can't prove anything," Theo affirmed.

"I can go tattle on you to Maddy," sassed Badeline.

"You wouldn't," gasped Theo. A moment later, he reconsidered. "Actually, no, you totally would."

"You're damn right."

"I wonder how long Strawberry's been waiting for us?"

Badeline shrugged. "Definitely half an hour."

"Well, at least she's got Carl for company."

For a moment Badeline thought of smack-talking him. But it wasn't any fun if he wasn't around to dish it back out. It was just mean-spirited. And she was trying to be better. "Maddy's a big girl. She'll be alright."

"Nice to see a bit of faith from you, Baddy," Theo complimented. "You can get pretty doom and gloom sometimes."

"Only way to make sure Maddy doesn't go hurt us for no reason," half-joked Badeline. "But I've been a bit less doom and gloom recently. Madeline's smart. I trust her to do the right thing for us. Whatever it might be."

"Well, it's one thing to hear from Maddy that you two worked out your issues. Another thing entirely to hear you say it." Theo looked down at Badeline, smiled, and gave a thumbs-up. "I'm happy for you!"

"Thanks, Theo," thanked Badeline, lightly blushing again at receiving positive praise from somebody who wasn't Madeline. "Now how about we focus on the climb?"

Theo turned around and kept going without another word. Five minutes later, he unchained himself from the safety line and pulled himself over the top of the cliff.

"...and that was when she actually listened to reason, stopped assuming we were trying to con her, and let us swap her tires."

"And it took an hour of begging and having to see a liability waiver," Madeline repeated.

"Yep," popped Carl. "Somehow she didn't get that being able to clearly see your reflection in the tires was a problem. I mean, they'll still handle fine-ish under normal conditions, but you go out onto wet roads or snow with slick tires and you're maybe gonna get down the street before you spin out and crash into something."

"More automotive horror stories?" Theo assumed, as Badeline crested the ridge.

"Yeah," Carl clarified. "Talking about one lady who'd worn her tires down so hard there weren't any treads. Just a flat surface."

"Sounds like slip city."

Carl stood up and stretched. "Yeah," he groaned. "If we'd let her leave she'd probably have drifted right into the nearest building. And I have to admit that I was sorely tempted to borrow a little bit from Badeline's playbook and let her reap what she sowed."

"And you didn't?" whined Badeline.

"Barely," Carl muttered, as Madeline jumped to her feet. She forged on ahead, fearless and full of energy, and everyone else followed behind her.

Badeline touched the ground and decided to walk next to Carl. "Got any more stories?"

Carl let off a wicked grin. "You don't even know."

"...so anyways, he just keeps driving the damn thing into our lot, hollering for us to open the garage door and fix his car, and remember, there's so much fire coming out of his hood that he's leaning out the window to drive!"

Badeline cackled, greatly enjoying the schadenfreude. "What did you even do?"

"Well, I called 911 because I'm not nuts," Carl continued. "But Delilah - she is nuts. So she grabs a fire extinguisher, runs out of the store, starts hosing down the car. She is screaming at this guy to get the hell out of his VMW before it explodes, and the guy has the audacity to argue with her, about his burning car, while he's inside it."

"You're making this up," accused Badeline. "You're lying to me."

"Hand to God, I'm not lying to you. I've seen some weirdo rich guys before, but never one so crazy he'd scream into the face of the woman trying to put out his flaming car about fixing it. Kept that argument up until Van Fire got to our lot and basically tore him out of it."

Madeline looked back at Carl and Badeline, gabbing away like they had been for the past hour, and sighed in relief.

Theo had gotten quite good at reading her mind. "Good to see them getting along, huh?"

"I didn't think they would ever," Madeline breathed. "Everything Carl said just seemed to rub Badeline the exact wrong way."

"They were too much alike," Theo speculated. "They're both snarky pessimists who're too scared of getting crushed by the world to enjoy themselves as much as they should. Trust me, if they didn't get off to such a bad start, by now you'd be wishing they spent some time with the rest of us, Strawberry."

"...nah, no explosion. Van Fire got it put out really fast once they got there. Honestly, cars don't usually explode any more. American safety watchdogs cracked down really hard on that sort of thing after the Fnord Tobiano in the early '70s. You rear-ended that thing going 40 and it'd turn into its own funeral pyre."

"How did they even let that thing be made?" gawked Badeline.

"It was the 1970s. People were making crash test standards at the time, and the execs of..." Carl paused for a moment, considering. "Really, every major corporation at the time were freewheeling in the cocaine dimension. Nobody really cared."

Madeline looked on ahead. The trail they were walking on started to cut underneath a massive outcropping, and soon it would terminate entirely without any clear forwards path. But Madeline knew what going forwards here meant.

She didn't know if this part of the Mountain had already been named, but she was considering bringing up a sign to label it the Tarantula Crawl.

"I hate to break up your riveting conversation," Madeline interrupted, "but this next part's going to be a real challenge."

Carl took a few moments to look around. "Madeline, please tell me this is a dead end."

Madeline pointed out the safety line, which ran across the ceiling of the area they were under. "No, it's not. Today, you're going to climb upside down."

"Madeline, that's insane," Theo opined.

Carl raised an eyebrow. "So you're fine with a giant abandoned city, a ghost's dust mite assistants, and an evil temple, but this is where you draw the line, Theo? A spider-crawl?"

"Usually when the Mountain wants to kill you, it's pretty direct about it," supported Badeline.

Madeline slung her backpack off and fished around for a moment. "I'm going to need my own fall arrestor for this," she conceded. "As good as I am at mountain climbing - and in my humble opinion, I am incredibly good at mountain climbing - I'm not good enough to defy gravity."

Badeline jumped up into the air and kicked back, floating on nothing. "Speak for yourself."

Despite taking the time to withdraw a belay device from her backpack. Madeline still spent a second climbing up the wall manually before she attached herself to the ceiling rope. Then she started spider-crawling across the ceiling. It was clear the prospect of constantly having to account for her safety equipment irritated her to no end, and she scuttled along the ceiling in fits and starts, having to constantly adjust her belay device so that she wouldn't drop off the Mountain, and experience a long fall eventually followed up by a rather unpleasant stop.

Carl breathed in, then breathed out. For a moment he considered the wall he was going to climb, and how he was going to transition to crawling across the ceiling. Then he decided to leave his climbing axes in their sheaths. They wouldn't be of much help to him here. He climbed up the rock wall free solo, as it wasn't particularly tall enough to really hurt him if he fell, then followed in Madeline's footsteps, securing himself to the rope hammered into the ceiling and then slowly pulling himself along. He felt exposed, dangling over what may as well have been a bottomless pit, well aware of the fact that his hands and feet weren't the things keeping him anchored to the ceiling. It was all just a single piece of metal a rope was being threaded through, and he could see the rope sagging under the weight. His heart started skipping beats.

Theo followed along, though he took a bit longer because he opted to anchor himself to the rope from the start. Badeline flitted out below them, watching them as they slowly pulled themselves up to the ceiling, and then across it.

The tension was thick. If there ever was a place for safety equipment to fail, or for the pitons the rope was threaded through to be forced out of the rock of Mount Celeste, it was here. When you and all of the things you were carrying were hanging upside down, the weight combined with the force of gravity to tug directly down on the rope and the means by which it was secured to the rock face.

Fortunately, everything held.

When Madeline finally made it to the edge of the ceiling, she pulled herself over the edge, and nearly fell off the mountain as she ran right into a strawberry. Taking a second to pick it and stow it in her pants pocket, she searched for a moment to find a handhold, then disconnected her belay device and scrambled her way up the cliff face. It had taken her five minutes to get to that point, and it took her 30 seconds to get to solid ground again. Theo and Carl were probably scared sick at the prospect of what happened if they fell, but to Madeline that upside-down crawl was really more annoying than anything else.

When Carl turned the edge, he felt like his heart was going to explode. He could feel every pound of weight that was on him - himself, his clothes, his equipment, the Package - pulling down. He didn't trust the rope to hold all of that up. But after minute after minute of painstaking crawl, practically hanging off of his belay device and the gorilla grip his fists had on the rope (and the ceiling, where he could find handholds), he managed to pull himself around the edge and back into the vertical.

Still half-panicked, not considering himself safe until he was free, Carl forgot that he had climbing axes as he pulled himself up the rest of the outcropping. The only thing he wanted was to lie down on some form of solid ground. And eventually, a few minutes later, he reached the top. He disconnected his belay device, scrambled onto solid ground, and took a few moments to hyperventilate.

Madeline immediately ventured over, having transferred the berry in her pocket into her knapsack. "Carl, are you alright?"

"Jesus, no, I thought for sure I was gonna die!"

Madeline kneeled down. "Are you going to be okay?"

Carl's hyperventilation was slowing down. Maybe he had been having a panic attack, but in any event he was starting to calm down. "Yeah," he gasped. "I think I'm gonna be fine. I just don't ever want to do that again."

"You don't need to do it coming back down," Madeline told him.

"Thank God!"

A moment later, Theo pulled himself over the edge. The experience of having to climb a mountain upside-down had been an incredibly novel one, and any fear that he would have felt was easily sidelined by the uniqueness of what he was doing. He could barely believe doing this sort of thing was even possible, let alone that Madeline had done it to get to the top the first time they'd came here (and, really, every time after that). The only thing that had stopped him from taking a picture to commemorate the experience was how crazy Badeline had gone when she'd seen him going for his camera. "Wow, that was intense!" He detached himself from the safety rope and walked over to Madeline and Carl. "Whoa. Carl, you okay?"

"Yeah," Carl wheezed, his breathing now somewhat under control. "Just feeling incredibly thankful that I'm alive after that."

"You looked down, didn't you."

"I looked down."

Badeline crested the ridge, allowing herself to relax now that everyone was safe. Things had looked really dicey for everyone there, especially Carl given the physical weight of the things he'd been carrying with him. But everyone was safe now, and she could relax. "You do realize you're not supposed to look down, right?" she scolded.

"Yes, Mom."

Badeline made a face. "Don't be weird."

Carl pushed himself to his feet, groaning with effort. "Bit too late to ask that of me."

"It's never too late to quit, Carl. You can do it if you have the strength!"

That got a laugh out of him. Madeline relaxed a bit. "You good to keep going?" she asked.

Carl gave her a thumbs up. "I don't have to do that upside down climb again. I think I could climb the entire Mountain all over again knowing that."

It had been several hours since they'd set out. There was nothing interesting, beyond the view. Just rock, snow, and wind. But nobody present was planning on surrendering to Mount Celeste. They'd been here too long and traveled too far to let anything else the Mountain could throw at them stop them now. Perseverance had been the name of the game here.

Eventually, after one last cliff face, Carl noticed that the path up ahead was easing up. It was still relatively steep, but it had plentiful handholds, and looked like you could just walk the rest of the way up if you were so inclined. Something about it struck a chord in his brain. Clipping his axes to his backpack, he pulled himself up the path, not noticing the fact Madeline, who until now had always been in front, had taken a step off to the side. He scrambled his way to the top of the hill.

In that moment, perseverance paid off.

Despite how it looked on the drive and the climb, the summit of Mount Celeste was quite spacious. It was flat, capped with snow, and surprisingly large, with the space for at least five or six people to comfortably hang out. Lanced into the exact center of the summit was a massive red flag that billowed in the constant wind, hanging from an old, weathered, yet still standing wooden flagpole. Carl pulled himself up onto it, snow crunching beneath his boots, and took a look around to see the world at his fingertips. If he looked one way he could see the Pacific Ocean, beyond a load of frozen-over sea ice. If he looked the other way he could see incredibly far inland. Maybe, if it was nighttime, he'd be able to see Vancouver. And all around him were the smaller mountains in the Vancouver Island Range. Carl felt like he was a god looking on the world below him.

He was completely transfixed. He was so transfixed he didn't notice Theo reaching the summit a minute later. He walked up on top and experienced exactly the same reaction Carl did for a few moments, gawking at the view from on high and basking in its resplendent glory.

Then Theo remembered that he had a camera. He spent a few seconds fiddling around to grab it, then started taking snapshot after snapshot after snapshot. The ocean, the landscape, the mountains, the flag, he even took a picture of Carl gaping at the view, and Carl was still so dumbstruck by what he was seeing that he didn't even notice.

All the while, Madeline and Badeline watched as their friends experienced the transcendence that came with getting to the top of the Mountain.

"Wow, Theo is going gonzo," Madeline declared. "I don't think I've ever seen him snap that many shots this quickly."

"Bringing him up here again is easily the third best decision we've ever made," beamed Badeline. "Seeing him like this makes it all worth it."

"Carl looks like he's having some fun, too."

Badeline took a moment to stare. "I could probably go push him off the Mountain and I don't think he'd notice."

"He's on cloud nine, for sure," Madeline agreed. "Guy looks like he's being born again."

"Climbing the Mountain changes you," exposited Badeline. "Usually, for the better. Maybe it'll help him a bit more to have done this. Especially when he goes to scatter his mom."

"He'll definitely remember how it looked." Madeline stared past the scene for a moment, into her own memories of when she reached the summit. "I know I do."

Badeline kept looking at the scene. She noticed that she was grinning, ear to ear. For once, she didn't feel the need to force it down. In fact, she found that she wanted to stay here forever.

Madeline gave Carl a few more seconds of gawking (Theo, of course, could take as long as he liked to get some good snapshots in). Then she walked on over and tapped him on the shoulder. Carl whipped around to face her, jerking out of his trance.

Madeline smiled. "Enjoying the view?"

Carl grinned back. "I'd say 'you don't even know', but no. You absolutely know. I..." He paused for a few seconds, and Madeline could clearly see him reaching for words. "I can't even describe what it's like to just look and see so much world in every direction. I think I died climbing up and this is Heaven."

"Can't be," snarked Badeline. "I'm here with you."

Carl snorted. "Well, I guess this is a pretty abstract form of Hell." His quip earned him a titter from Badeline.

There was a flash as Theo took a photograph of everyone. "Good lord, Theo, how many photos are you taking?" wondered Carl.

Theo paused for one second to stare Carl dead in the eyes. "Carl, I bought an empty memory stick just for up here. And I can see it on your face - you know just as well as I do how good this view looks. I'm not leaving until my camera is full." He sounded the most serious Carl had ever heard him speak.

"Shoot on, camera man," Carl encouraged. "Get your money's worth out of it." Theo returned to his shots. In the meanwhile, Carl picked a spot that looked nice, and lowered himself into the snow. Badeline sat down next to him.

For a moment she didn't want to say anything, but then she did have the thought she was actually trying to be friends with Carl. Small talk was the correct thing to do, right? "So... how're you feeling?"

Carl didn't respond for a long while. Badeline started sweating bullets, worried she'd upset him.

"I don't really know," he said. "I don't think I've got a snappy word to tell you how I'm feeling right now. I didn't think I'd ever find myself here, really. On top of a mountain. I don't really do outdoors."

"You're not half bad, for your first ever mountain climb," cajoled Badeline.

"Mmm. I mean, the view is amazing. The knowledge that I got here almost entirely under my own power is awe-inspiring, but..." Carl paused for a moment, looking out across the landscape. "Idunno. I just didn't ever think I'd actually get here, you know? Too worried about how hard this was gonna be, and what you'd all think of me... I figured there'd be a point where I'd have to turn around."

"But you made it," insisted Badeline. "And here you are. On top of the world. If I were you I'd try to get out of my own head for a bit and appreciate the view."

Carl decided to try and actually take that advice. He drew a deep breath in, then exhaled it. Theo's pace had slowed, and while the staccato clicking of his camera still rang out over the slopes of the Mountain, he'd started to go for higher zoom shots of the landscape around him. Madeline stood next to the flag. She didn't look triumphant so much as at home. Like this was the place she was meant to be. Badeline looked relaxed, too, which wasn't something Carl had ever seen her before. She always looked like she was a bit on edge or focused, but even she was living in the moment.

Carl tried. He really did try to just turn his brain off and enjoy it. But he had come here for a reason.

Carl unclipped his backpack and stood up, turning it around. "Well, Badeline... I've got one last thing to do."

All eyes turned to him as he withdrew The Package, then slid the towel off of it and back into the backpack.

"I'll put up the camera, then," Theo relented. "Don't wanna intrude on a private moment." He moved to cap the lens of his camera.

"Don't," Carl interposed. "Keep it out. Take a few pictures for me, so I'll have something tangible to remember this moment with."

Theo stared for a moment, but then nodded. He trained his camera on Carl as the man walked to the edge of the Summit.

For a moment, Carl regarded the world below him as he held the urn in his hands. He had opened it exactly once before this, just to make sure that the ashes contained within were ready to be spread. They were. They'd come in a bag, and he poured it out into the urn to make absolutely sure, when the time came, that everything would be ready.

And now the time had come.

"Mom," Carl began, voice quivering. "I didn't make it to your funeral to see you off. I..." He paused for a moment, thinking about what his new friends had told him about his situation. "Found myself in a difficult situation, where I had to pick how I wanted to be hurt. I don't know if I made the right choice, but I came up here to try and do right by you." His eyes welled up as he picked at the still-raw wound.

With a shaking hand, he unscrewed the cap for the urn and dropped it into the snow. "I'm sorry I didn't come. I hope, wherever you are now, you can forgive me." He paused to take a deep breath in. It was funny, in a dark way, how even after all of this, after everything he'd done and been through, he was still barely able to keep it together, directly confronting who he'd lost. "It still hurts to think about the fact that you're gone. A lot. I don't think I'll ever stop missing you."

Carl swallowed, changing his grip on the urn. "I love you, Mom." Then he heaved it forwards, hole first, and hucked the ashes of the parent he loved over the edge of the summit, and into the air.

He watched, high-strung and emotional, as the sandy ashes - the pulverized remnants of a human skeleton - were picked up by the wind. He didn't think too much of it for a moment, until he realized that the direction of the winds had started to change. The cremated remains were whipped up, suspended in the air, held just where they'd been thrown. They collected in a ball, winds changing on a dime to catch every single particle and funnel it into the singularity of dust that had formed in front of them.

To the bewildered eyes of everybody on top of Mount Celeste, the ball began to glow. Slowly, with a bassy hum, it widened a bit, lengthened significantly, and morphed into a humanoid form as it levitated down towards the summit. Carl took a step back, thoroughly mystified, as the dust person softly landed on the Mountain, details sculpting themselves as the dust took on color.

"Mom?" Carl murmured, dropping the urn itself into the snow. She looked exactly like Carl remembered her, the day he'd left. One of his friends had volunteered to drive him to St. John's so he could catch the flights he needed to get away from home. They'd all been sad that he was leaving, but they understood why he was choosing to go. Before he walked out to the car, he'd shared one final goodbye with her, and he could still remember everything she'd been wearing and the way she had looked - the ponytail, the skirt, her longsleeve shirt, the butterfly clip in her hair...

He could remember it even more clearly now, because the Mountain had plucked that image from his mind and constituted it here. Right in front of him. Like she was suddenly alive again.

But she wasn't.

"Carl?" Carl's mom asked in turn. For a moment she looked unsure of where she was, but then she beamed with joy at being able to see her son again.

Carl, faced with this spontaneous resurrection, hesitated. He wasn't sure how to handle the situation, or if he should be angry, or if this was just some kind of trial. But nothing looked any different about Mom. She didn't seem angry, or upset. She was happy to see her son again.

Carl ran forwards and embraced her, clinging onto her like driftwood in the Atlantic. His mom returned the hug without hesitation. "It's so nice to see you again, Carl!"

"Me too! I can't believe you're back!" Carl pulled back for a moment to look his mother in the face, and then he remembered where he was. His face fell a bit. "...I really can't, actually. You're not real, are you?"

"You're right, Carl," his mom confided. "I'm not real. Sorry, but I'm still dead. This isn't going to change that."

Carl sniffled. "It's hard to deal with, you know. You being gone."

"I know," Carl's mom told him. "I heard every word you said. They were very nice."

Carl buried his face into his mother's shoulder. "Thank you," he sobbed.

Carl's mom patted him on the back as he cried. "Ssssh," she shushed. "It's okay. I'm here. You'll be okay, Carl."

Carl cried for a few moments more as he slowly processed what his mother had said. "I'm sorry I didn't come to your funeral, Mom," he apologized, muffled by his mother's shirt.

"Don't worry about it," Carl's mom forgave, instantly. "We both know how your father can be. He probably would've just harped on you the entire time you were there."

"Thank you," Carl sobbed, again.

"If anything, I should be apologizing to you," Carl's mom offered. "I know being around your father wasn't doing you any favors, but I just... I didn't see a way that I could leave and keep us afloat and supported. I thought fixing him would be easier. I was wrong. I know he hurt you, and I'm sorry I didn't make things safe for you."

Carl let out a deep sigh, not having expected to hear anything like that. "It's alright," he forgave in turn, before pulling away. "You were doing your best. Like everyone, really. I can't blame you for actually caring about me."

Carl's mother sighed, then took a few moments to look around. "Carl?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are we?"

"On top of a mountain?"

"Carl, are you crazy?" his mother cried. "You climbed a mountain? How high are we?"

"Is that a number you want to hear?" Carl proposed.

"Don't you know how dangerous this is? You could have died!"

"I was trying to get to the highest place I could reach, Mom! You wrote that in your will!"

Carl's mom did not have any of that. "Carl, you could have just found a nice hill, you know! You didn't have to do this!"

"Well maybe write down that you want to be scattered from a hill next time!"

Badeline had collapsed into a fit of giggles with the confirmation that her words had been outright clairvoyant.

"Man, this feels weird," Theo uttered, as he snapped another picture.

"Like it's intruding on a private moment?" Madeline guessed.

"Sorta. But also... teary reunion one moment, argument the next? Idunno. Little bit of mood whiplash, don't you think?"

"I told him!" whimpered Badeline, lost in peals of mirth. "I told him what she'd say and I was right!"

"Keep it down," Madeline urged, before returning her attention to Theo as Badeline resolutely didn't keep it down. "Maybe that's just what their family dynamic is like. At least they seem like they're both happy."

Carl's mother looked over at the three mountain climbers staring over the reunion. "Are they friends of yours, Carl?"

"Yeah," Carl confirmed. "Met 'em on the way up, actually. They've been a great help."

Madeline waved. Theo took a picture. Badeline continued to lose her mind.

"What does the one on the ground find so funny?" Carl's mom wondered.

"Long story," Carl demurred. "Don't mind camera guy, by the way. He's recording this for posterity."

"How sweet of him," Carl's mom commended. "It's good you're still making friends so far from home. How are you doing?"

"Still makin' money," Carl informed. "College debt's going fine.  It's gonna be the better part of a few years until I'm debt free, but I haven't had to dip into the emergency fund just yet, and barring some kinda freak accident - which, might I add, is why I have an emergency fund - I don't think anything about my situation is going to change any time soon. I'm okay. And I'm gonna keep being okay."

Carl's mother let out a sigh of relief. "It's good to know you're finally secure. Some days you sounded so stressed out and hollow, I was worried about whether or not you'd have to limp back!"

"I would rather have died," Carl spat. He wasn't too sure how joking he was.

"Oh, I know." Carl's mom looked over towards Madeline. "So you're the friends my son has made coming up?"

"We are," Madeline revealed.

"How has Carl been?"

"A bit of a handful, to be honest."

"Hey!" Carl shouted.

"He can be a bit much to deal with sometimes," Carl's mom agreed. "Blame his father."

"I will," Madeline pledged. "But Carl's heart has been in the right place. I think he just has a bit of growing to do."

"Do we ever stop growing?" Carl's mom pondered.

"Not really," Theo thought. "I'm still learning new things all the time. I'll probably still be learning new things when I'm an old man!"

Badeline had picked herself up off the ground, and she took a moment to examine the motherly presence before her. "So you're Carl's mom? Or, well, a close enough approximation."

"Yes," Carl's mom said, without specifying which of Badeline's suppositions she was replying to.

"...yeah. I can see where he takes after you," surmised Badeline. "Carl's a bit of a weirdo. But I think you raised him right."

"Thank you!" Carl's mom smiled.

"I can see where he takes after his father, too. Remind me to slug him in the face if I ever see him."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll..." Carl's mom paused, looking up into the air. Then she frowned, and looked back to Carl. "I'm sorry, Carl. I'm out of time."

Carl took a deep, shuddery breath. "I understand," he surrendered. "No point in going nuts over it. You're still dead. This doesn't change that. This is just..."

At that moment, it clicked in his mind exactly why she'd reappeared here, at the top of the Mountain. "A second chance to say goodbye. The chance that I threw away."

"The chance that you never got," his mother corrected.

"Well, it's splitting hairs," Carl overlooked. "I said what I needed to say. But if I can ask? Where are you going, Mom?"

Carl's mother smiled, a proud gleam in her eyes. "I want to tell you, but you wouldn't understand. You will when it's time, so don't be in a rush, you hear?"

"I'll take my time," swore Carl. He could see the color draining from his mother's figure, in a far more literal manner than that statement usually meant. He stepped forwards and embraced his mom, for the very last time. "I love you, Mom."

Carl felt arms curl around him. "I love you too, Carl."

Then the feeling vanished, as Carl's mother disincorporated. When all of the color had disappeared from her form, she blew away in the wind all at once, instantly dissolving into the ashes The Package had once contained. It was fast and complete, and it left Carl staring off towards the horizon, watching the ashes dance on the wind for a few more moments before they remembered that they were ashes, and dropped out of sight.

Carl didn't notice that the wind had shifted just minutely enough to ensure no traces of dust remained on his clothes. He simply sat down where he stood, crunching into the snow.

He felt quite strange as the tears came again. He was crying, but he didn't feel sad. He felt relieved. The weight had slid off his shoulders. Not only had Carl repented - he'd got to send Mom off, the right way.

"I think he's got the right idea," Madeline declared. "Let's just enjoy being up here, for now."

Madeline and her own friends sat down to look peacefully at the world below, as Carl - quietly, without thinking or saying it - forgave himself.

Chapter Text

They stayed up there for a very long time. Maybe it was a few hours. Maybe it was just an hour. Nobody was really counting.

But the sun kept moving. A reminder that they couldn't stay forever.

Carl broke ranks first. He stood up and walked over to the discarded urn, sitting quietly in an urn-shaped hole in the snow. He crouched over it, looking pensive.

"What're you thinking?" Theo asked.

"Whether or not I should keep it," Carl answered. "But now that you got me to say it out loud..." He reached down, collected the urn, and brushed the snow off of it. "Yeah. I'm keeping it." He took another second to retrieve the cap for the urn and complete it, then took off his backpack, wrapped it in the protective towel, and slid it back in.

Madeline stood up and stretched, joints popping as she did. "So, Theo. I never did ask. How do you like the Summit?"

"This place is amazing," Theo gushed. "It's like being in an airplane, but you're not in an airplane! The entire trip was worth it. All of it was worth it just for this. Only problem is that I think you mighta ruined pretty much every other nature view for me by doing this, Strawberry."

"They all suck in comparison to this one," snarked Badeline. "You're not losing out on anything."

"You say that," Theo remarked, "but then I'm gonna take you backpacking at El Capitan and you're gonna love it, Baddy. I just know it."

"Myeh," myehed Badeline, sticking her tongue out at Theo with all the emotional maturity she could muster.

"Your opinion is duly noted," Theo declared.

"So," Madeline called out, "is there anything else anyone wants to do before we get going down?"

Carl walked over to the flagpole. He noticed, up close, that there were several different things pinned on it - patches, pictures, trinkets. Some were new, others were old and weathered, and he could see spaces where things had once been before they were blown off the flagpole. In particular, somebody had managed to affix a fairly large velcro patch to the flag. There were a dozen different things scattered across it, tiny bits of the souls of the people who had gotten this far.

Carl thought on it for a moment. A small part of him didn't quite want to do this, but there was a certain poetic feeling to leaving a bit of himself up here. He pulled the ribbon patch off of his jacket, and stuck it to the flag, making sure it was nice and secure. "There we go," Carl said, turning to face Madeline. "I'm ready."

"Then let's go! We've got quite the walk coming up."

Madeline led everyone off of the summit of Mount Celeste, then began taking them down a different path than the one they'd come up with. Fairly steep, with several flat-ish sections for rests, it was acceptable for getting down, but it was pretty clear that a path this steep that wasn't quite vertical would have presented severe issues if you tried to ascend up it.

It was still dangerous, too - it was very easy to slip and fall. The descent was nearly as nerve-wracking as everything that had come before it.

Not that anyone bothered to talk about it.

"Man, Maddy, this mountain is a trip. First it gives you a goth alter ego, then it brings somebody else's loved one back for a little bit... almost makes me wanna take a trip out here if things go really bad for me," Theo gushed. "Just to see what it'll do to help."

"It's a bit of a risk to take, isn't it?" Madeline questioned. "Honestly you might be safer just working it out on your own time and coming back here when you feel better."

"I mean, I did say almost," Theo pointed out. "All of that sounds like a bit more than I'd prefer to deal with, really."

"Smart man," complimented Badeline. "Besides, you don't need to be messed up in the head for the Mountain to change you. Was your Vovô?"

Theo took a second to ruminate on that. "Good point," he conceded. Then he looked over to Madeline. "How you doin', Strawberry?  You've been going full tilt this whole time."

Madeline gave Theo a thumbs up. "And I've still got a lot of energy left in me yet. But I am starting to get a bit fatigued. It'll be nice when we can finally stop."

"Heh. Can't stick around on the Mountain forever, can ya?"

Madeline nodded. "Not forever. But probably a lot longer than anyone else here."

Badeline coughed. Loudly.

"You don't count, Baddy. You're literally me."

"Not literally," corrected Badeline. "I am a little different."

"But you're still me."

Badeline folded her arms. "I beg to differ. What are you, Madeline, if not just me?"

Madeline mock gasped. "You wouldn't dare insinuate that!"

"Madeline, you know me. Are you really gonna stand by that claim?"

Theo looked between the two of them. "So, uh... which one of you is the real Madeline?"

Badeline shrugged. "No way to tell. You'll just have to shoot us both."

"Hey, that's my line!"

"What, like you're the real Madeline, and I'm not?"

"Of course I'm the real Madeline," Madeline insisted. "You're just the part of us that hates everything."

"Bold words from the part of us that gets stepped on all the time," shot Badeline. "You wanna catch these hands? Because that's how you catch these hands."

"Beating me up only hurts us both," Madeline challenged.

"And insulting me hurts you. We're opposite sides of the same coin, Madeline."

Carl snorted the second he heard that.

"Something funny, class clown?" wondered Badeline.

"Nah, just sounded an awful lot like something I'd heard before," demurred Carl.

"How're you doing, Carl?" Theo asked. "You've been quiet this whole time."

"Idunno," Carl pontificated. "I'm still kinda sad, but like... it's not overwhelming. It feels like I've got room to breathe and not just drown in misery."

"Sounds like an improvement," Madeline offered.

Carl nodded. "It's the best I've felt this month. It's a weird victory, but I'll take it."

Badeline took a second to think. "Do you think you'll be alright?" she asked, with uncharacteristic concern.

Carl himself didn't respond immediately. But after a couple seconds of negotiating the terrain and thinking on it, he agreed. "I think I will be."

Carl stopped and stared. It hadn't really crossed his mind that he'd need to go back through there, not even after they'd went across the big wooden bridge and crossed by the fire pit, the indentations everyone and their gear had left in the snow slowly disappearing thanks to wind and precipitation. But now that he was staring the Mirror Temple down again, he felt fear spike up through his spine. He still remembered what it was like to really be in there, in some place below the reality that he made his home in. He didn't want to do that again.

But everyone else had kept going. And before he could even recognize that fact, Madeline had caught sight of the fact Carl wasn't with them. She held up a hand, indicated their straggler, and started walking back.

"There's no way around it," Madeline said as she stepped next to Carl. "You have to go through it, up or down."

"No, it's..." Carl caught himself immediately after he had started to deny that there was a problem. He remembered very well where that had gotten him the last time he'd come through here. He sucked in a breath. "I don't wanna go in there, okay? The last time we went in there I dragged us into Hell. I can't do that again."

Madeline smiled. "You won't have to. I had to go through it when I was up here the first time. Same way you did. After me and Baddy started to get along, the trip back through it was definitely quieter."

It took Carl a moment to place faith in Madeline. But she hadn't been wrong about anything else up here. What reason would she have to be wrong now? "Alright," he said, mostly for his own benefit. Then he continued on.

They entered the Mirror Temple through its exit, slowly passing into its cavernous maw. The red bubbles were still around, floating gently in the breeze. They passed back into its dim, marble hallways, lit by those teal, floating crystals.

And that was all it was. Carl's backpack didn't try any funny business. Gravity didn't suddenly ratchet up. The air didn't turn red, and the things he saw in the depths of whatever space they'd all descended into on the ascent didn't turn up either. Beyond the same hollow tone of wind blowing through the tunnels, the Mirror Temple remained comfortably inert. Five minutes in, Carl finally relaxed.

"BOO!" shrieked Badeline, who then immediately weaved to the side as Carl swung a frantic, instinctual left hook into the space she was in. "Whoa! On a hair trigger there, huh?"

"Oh, go fuck yourself, Baddy!"

Badeline laughed, riotously. She didn't seem to care about the fact Carl had nearly caved her face in. Carl, still incredibly freaked out, took a second to think about whether or not he still wanted to be friends with someone who was literally named Badeline.

It was only then his mind stopped on the name. Badeline. Bad Madeline, presumably. For a moment he could see why she'd been named that, in light of how she'd been acting. But was it really right to call somebody that? Was that a good name to have?

"Okay, Baddy," Carl said. "If you're done trying to get me to kill you, I've got a question."

"I'm never going to be done that, but go ahead."

"Why Badeline?"

Badeline quirked an eyebrow. "Eh?"

"Like, that's your name. Badeline. Bad Madeline."

"And what of it?"

"Idunno, it's just... it seems kinda weird, you know? To refer to you as the bad part of somebody. It's like I'm insulting you just by saying your name."

"I did choose that name, you know," clucked Badeline. "It's not like it was suddenly bequeathed to me as some moniker of disrespect... as sure as I am that Madeline would have done that before we made nice."

"You chose that name?" Carl wondered.

Badeline nodded, her irritation rising far more than usual at this subject. "Uh-huh."

"Why?"

"My identity isn't something I have to justify," shot Badeline. "It's who I am. Deal with it."

"Whoa!" Carl raised both his hands in mock surrender. "I was just asking about your name. God!"

For a moment neither of them looked at each other. Stewing over the unwanted asshole was so familiar and easy that it took Carl a second to actively fight that and remember that Badeline was supposed to be his friend, even if she was paranoid and a bit tetchy. "Well... Badeline, if it's that much of a sore spot for you, I'm sorry I asked. Maybe we should talk about something else."

Badeline softened up a bit, as she remembered that Carl was indeed a friend, and not some random jerk on the street, and that the track record did show he usually meant well, even if he didn't seem particularly smart sometimes. "No, no, it's alright," she forgave, "it's just... I don't like this place either, Carl. I'm waiting for something to pop out as much as you are. And it kind of is that big of a sore spot for me, so I just... look, it's a long story. Madeline will probably be the one to tell you, when she's ready."

"Alright. If it's Badeline you want to be, then it's Badeline I'll call you by," Carl affirmed.

"Besides, if you really wanna know why I chose this name for myself?" Badeline tossed her hair and put on her most fiendish grin. "Tell me I'm not the baddest bitch in town. Really. Try it."

"Oooooh," Carl said, getting it. "So it's not bad as in terrible, it's bad as in cool."

"Hell yeah. Haven't you heard? It's good to be bad." Badeline reached out with a fist, and Carl fistbumped her on the spot. "See? You get it."

"All you're missing is a good pair of sunglasses. I think round ones would work pretty well on you."

"You think?" asked Badeline.

Carl nodded. "Maybe go badger Madeline into getting some."

"What's this about badgering me to buy things?" Madeline interjected.

"Carl thinks round sunglasses would look nice on us," informed Badeline.

"Hmm," Madeline hummed. "I'll have to try that out."

"Didn't know you gave fashion advice, Carl," Theo teased.

"I'm a jack of many trades," Carl said.

"Yeah, but are you good at any of them?" jested Badeline.

"Eh," shrugged Carl. "I can do a backflip, if you don't mind me landing on my head and breaking my neck."

"Backflips and grievous bodily harm? Sick," crowed Badeline. "Sounds like my kinda night. I'll bring snacks."

"Don't worry, I've got plenty of snacks. But if you wanna be helpful and bring something along, could you bring a neck brace so that I can heal properly after I maim myself for your amusement?"

"Do you take me for a charlatan, Carl?" scoffed Badeline. "Of course I'm bringing a neck brace for you if you're gonna be stupid like that. Somebody has to get you to the ambulance."

"Can't you just bring EMTs?" asked Carl. "Bribe them with food and drinks."

"Carl, this isn't the United States. You can't buy healthcare here."

"Spoken like somebody who's never held a blank cheque before."

Theo caught Madeline looking at him, horrified. "You, uh... you okay, Strawberry?"

Madeline merely indicated Carl and Badeline, gleefully yacking it up about the logistics of a party based around harming one or both of themselves. "I think I've created a monster."

"Relax, Madeline," Theo drawled. "How bad can it be?"

In that moment they passed through the entrance to the Mirror Temple. The gondola sat at the edge of the temple, gently swaying in the wind. Carl didn't even notice as they boarded it and Madeline pushed the lever in the direction of Golden Ridge. With another coughing rattle, the gondola started, lurching forwards but then smoothly gliding down the wire towards its destination.

"...whether or not you want three or five flaming hoops is largely based on whether or not you actually want me to have a chance of making it or not, and I'd like to make my case for the former, because that'd be sweet and you know it, Baddy," Carl argued.

"Yeah, but then I don't get to watch you scream in pain," whined Badeline. "And then what's even the point of all of this?"

Carl didn't respond. It took a moment for Badeline to compute that it was because he was staring out the rear window of the cable car, back at the Mirror Temple as it receded into the distance. "...we're out?"

"We're out," Theo confirmed.

Carl walked up to the window, staring at the massive hexagonal complex as the gondola retreated. Then he raised both of his hands to the window, and offered the Mirror Temple a two-finger parting salute, to the raucous laughter of everyone in the cable car.

Thirty seconds later, the car jammed up and stopped moving.

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me!" Carl yelled.

Badeline yawned, walked over to the door, and opened it. "Don't worry guys, I've got this." She stepped outside of the car, and floated on up top.

"So, uh... you any good at actually fixing these, Maddy?" Theo asked.

His reply was a series of progressively louder smashing noises, ending with Badeline screaming in fury and delivering an impact so furious it shook the cable car. A moment later, as if in fear of the power it had angered, the cable car restarted and continued on.

Badeline floated down into the cable car and closed the door behind her, looking slightly more disheveled than she did when she'd left. "Fixed it," she breathed.

"Thank you," Madeline offered.

Badeline took a seat on one of the couches. "Don't sweat it."

It was the middle of the day. Yet, as everyone descended Golden Ridge, they found it uncharacteristically quiet. Only a light breeze touched across the ridgeline. Carl decided that this was a gift horse best looked anywhere but the mouth, and did his best to hustle through the place before the wind resumed.

"Oh hey, the clouds!" Madeline pointed out a small group of very tiny clouds. They looked way too small to be actual clouds, yet there they were, hovering silently just off the ridge.

Badeline's expression changed, and she looked like a kid in a candy store. "Oh my God, they're here! Carl, you gotta try one of these!"

Carl looked at the cloud like he was trying to figure out the assembly instructions for Swedish furniture. "Uh... how?"

"Jump on it!" Badeline looked more eager than Madeline normally did.

"You, uh..." Carl rapidly looked between the cute little cloud and Badeline's expectant face. "You do realize clouds aren't solid objects, right?"

"These babies sure are," crooned Badeline. "Come on, Carl, live a little!"

Carl still appeared hesitant to actually hop on. For a moment Badeline had the thought that she should just shove him off the cliff and onto one, but then she decided Carl would probably not appreciate that very much, so instead she just jumped off herself and fell directly onto the cloud below her. With a pomf, the cloud received her, sagged, then sprung back up, sending her into the air. Badeline kept actively jumping on the cloud for a few moments to try and get the message across to Carl. "See?"

Badeline's glee turned out to be infectious. Sighting a nearby cloud, Carl undid his backpack, then hopped onto a nearby cloud and found, to his simultaneous relief and delight, that they were both exactly solid enough and very bouncy. "Holy crap, this is amazing!"

"I know!" agreed Badeline. "Did I tell you or what?"

Theo quickly joined in on the fun, though after a couple of bounces he seemed a bit more content (and less afraid) with simply lounging on the cloud as opposed to potentially throwing himself off of it. "Man, why did I not think of this the first time I came up here?"

"It's not exactly very intuitive, to be fair," Madeline admitted. "Usually clouds aren't this solid." For a second she looked at everyone having fun on clouds, and despite the time table they needed to keep to in order to get down the Mountain on time, she sighed. "Ah, to hell with it." Madeline dropped her backpack on the ground and leapt off the edge.

Several minutes of incredibly fun trampolining later, Badeline remembered what she'd promised Theo. "Hey, Theo!"

Theo looked over from the selfie he'd snapped on the cloud. "Yo!"

Badeline brought herself to a standstill and sighted in a nearby cloud. "You see that cloud?"

"Yeah!"

Badeline focused on the cloud and tried to reach for the laser beam. It took several seconds, but then her hair split up, the beam charged, and with another BZZZZZZRT, Badeline vaporized the cloud.

"Nice!" Theo yelled. Carl and Madeline had stopped bouncing to gawk.

Badeline made a rather overdramatic bow in response to the new attention. Then she found another cloud and blasted that one. And another one. "Wow, this is fun! And cathartic!"

"Hey, Baddy! What about that rock?" Carl pointed back towards solid ground, where a rather large boulder was sticking out of the ground.

Badeline sighted it in. The laser strike bored a hole through the rock. The heat caused the remains to rather violently explode, pieces of shrapnel flying out in all directions as a cloud of dust smoked up from where the boulder once stood.

Carl cheered. "Remind me to never get on your bad side again!"

Once everyone was able to drag themselves away from the really fun (and comfortable) clouds and the spectacle of Badeline annihilating things, the trek back down the Mountain crossed paths with the Celestial Resort. It was always a bit strange to approach it from the rear as opposed to the front, especially given it was just perched on the Mountain like that was something normal.

They passed through the back exit (which was also a rear entrance, depending on your perspective), and marched through the Resort's hallways, tracking snow and dirt behind them. A small coterie of dust mites eventually caught wise to the returning visitors, and began picking up after them as they moved.

Eventually, they crossed through the Resort and into the main entrance. Madeline headed over towards the front desk. "I'm gonna talk to Mr. Oshiro for a bit," she said. "You guys go on." As everyone else left out the main entrance, Madeline rung the bell and watched placidly as Mr. Oshiro assembled himself in front of her.

"Good to see you back safely, Ms. Madeline! Your friends are okay too, I trust?"

Madeline nodded. "They are."

"Did you all have a pleasant trip up Mount Celeste?"

"Yes," Madeline said, just a little too quickly to be genuine.

Mr. Oshiro knew, with quite a bit of experience, that when a "Yes" like the one Madeline gave was that strained, it was better to take it at face value and not to ask. "It sounds like you had an exciting trip," he commented, communicating that he understood that Madeline and her friends had probably had a very emotionally draining time up near the peak, but that he wasn't going to pry about it. "I do see you around here a lot. Perhaps your next trip will be less... exciting."

Madeline laughed. "God willing. Next time I'm coming up here by myself to unwind," she confirmed.

"Well, should you ever need a place to relax if the Mountain surprises you, the Celestial Resort will remain open for the foreseeable future," Mr. Oshiro offered.

"And you know me, Oshiro. If I ever need to rest, I'll take you up on it. I haven't gotten to ask, though, how has the Resort been doing?"

"Everything has been going splendidly!" gushed Oshiro. "Remodeling is almost complete. There's only a few more rooms that have to be cleared out, though I'm having trouble sourcing some glass for the last few windows that need to be filled. Most of our usual suppliers have, ehm... ceased operations."

Madeline thought for a moment. "Well, it looks like you've been doing a good job with everything else. You'll get the replacement glass you need eventually. I'd stay and chat a little longer, but I do need to be home tonight."

Mr. Oshiro sighed. He did hate to watch people leave. "Well, if you must be going, I shan't hold you. But before you go, Miss Madeline, I must ask. Earlier, I sensed quite a bit of animosity between Miss Badeline and Mister Carl. Has it gotten any easier to deal with them?"

Madeline looked out the window, where they had somehow found some rather sturdy branches and were fighting each other with them.

"Everything we know and love is reducible to the absurd acts of chemicals! Don't you see? There is no intrinsic value in this material universe!" cried out Badeline. Carl, nonplussed, delivered a hearty thwack that Badeline barely blocked by putting all of her weight into a defensive stance.

"Hypocrite that you are," Carl countered, "for you to trust the chemicals in your brain to tell you that they are chemicals. All knowledge is ultimately based on that which we cannot prove. Now, will you fight?" He raised his branch into an aggressive stance. "Or will you perish like a dog?"

Madeline stared at the mock battle for a few more seconds. Neither of them seemed like they really wanted to hurt one another, but they sure were going at it, and Madeline felt the urge to step in and tell them to knock it off before one of them concussed the other. She looked for Theo, and found him standing on the sidelines, phone held horizontal, capturing the fight.

Relax, Madeline. How bad can it be?

"Not really," she answered.

"Perish like a dog, huh?"

Carl sighed at Badeline, who was grinning like a wolf. "Did you have to hit me that hard?"

"Well, not really," admitted Badeline. "But you had your helmet on!"

"No more fights," Madeline reminded the two. "Even if you're both having fun."

"Yes, Mom," both Carl and Badeline moaned, in perfect unison. Carl poked around for a few more seconds at the new dent in his helmet before leaving it be. It was a nice bit of weathering, a reminder that his protective equipment had seen use and hadn't just been for show. Even if the story wasn't exactly a glamorous one.

The Old Site sprang back up into view. "Man. And to think I used to think this place was creepy," Carl laughed.

"I mean, it sorta is," Theo argued. "Big spooky castle on the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere... real bad vibes coming off of that, huh?"

"Well as long as we don't meet this fort's owners, I don't think we'll have a problem. And given they've probably been dead for a thousand years and change..."

They re-entered the dungeons, following Madeline as she retraced her path back through the cold tunnels. Before long they'd made it back to the normal levels of the Site, and in particular the strange block of jelly full of stars.

Carl, forgetting what he had been told two days prior, poked the jelly and finds himself in the universe of absolute speed again. "Oh," he would say, if he were capable of speech in here. But he isn't, so he contents himself to just thinking about it as he speeds off towards the exit and dropped out of the wall.

A moment later, Madeline emerged. "Carl, what did I tell you?"

"In my defence, it's been a very long weekend," Carl said. "I genuinely did not remember it'd pull you in with a touch."

"Well, at least you stuck the landing this time."

Carl laughed. "Once you're used to it, it's actually pretty easy." Behind him, Theo and Badeline emerged from the jelly. Carl turned to inspect it, this time taking care not to touch it.

"I wonder. You think we'd be able to take out a bit of this with a spoon for further study?"

"Nonzero chance it would eat the spoon," Theo guessed.

Carl took off his backpack, reached into it, and produced a disposable plastic spoon. "If this is a bad idea, stop me from trying it."

"I do think it's a bad idea," repeated Badeline. "Do it!"

Carefully, Carl reached in to scoop up some of the wall with his spoon. The second the spoon made contact, with a whump he disappeared into the jelly, spoon and all.

"There were a lot of ways I was expecting this to go, and that wasn't one of them," Madeline said.

Theo walked up to the wall. Where Carl had touched it, there was no sign of the spoon having done anything to it. "What'd happen if I threw a rock at this?"

"Don't try it until he gets back," cautioned Badeline.

"Duh," Theo shot. "I'm not aiming to brain him."

A moment later, Carl emerged from the wall, spoon-first. "Good news! Doesn't work. Just sucks me in."

"Hey Carl, I'm gonna throw a rock!"

Carl scooted on out of the way in time for Theo, who had liberated a sizeable rock from the floor, to huck it at the wall of space jelly. Rather than get sucked in, the rock bounced off of the wall with an audible, deep boing, zipping over Theo's head before sailing out a nearby window.

"Okay, maybe let's stop playing with the magical dream space jelly before somebody gets hurt," Madeline advised. "We do still have another kilometre or so to go down before I can drive people to the hospital."

"Aww! Come on, I'm sure if we look around there's something more dangerous than a rock we can throw in!" cried Carl.

"Maybe I could throw you in," threatened Badeline.

"But we already know what that does."

Badeline laughed. "Oh, no. I'd be doing that for fun."

The trek back through the city was still about as dangerous going down as it was going up - though as quick as Carl was to complain about it, Madeline was just as quick to point out sections of the first route she'd taken, which looked vastly more hostile to traverse than the skyline they were walking above now. Still, with Badeline watching over them they were easily able to return to the mall, and then to the safer parts of ground level.

With substantially less personal baggage, Carl was a bit more observant this time through, and he slowed the group's progress quite significantly by breaking and entering some of the abandoned buildings. Madeline had expressed concerns over that, but when Badeline agreed with him about the fact nobody who owned this place was probably coming back any time soon, she had to admit that as long as he didn't go and cut himself there probably wasn't too much harm in messing with a place that arguably shouldn't be here at all.

Eventually they came back down to the fine jewelry store. Carl, still feeling up for a little bit of spelunking before they left, decided to try entering it. He opened the door, and was quite surprised when the door opened just fine, and was then much further surprised when the door snapped off of its frozen hinges and he was left holding it.

"Uh... oops." Carl put the door to the side and entered the building, everyone else following him in mostly out of curiosity.

The jewelry store itself looked fairly clean, if dusty. It was warm inside, and the HVAC unit - which had to have been operating for an incalculable amount of time - still faintly hummed in the background. "Good thing there's no jewelry to steal," Carl muttered. "Probably a really good way to give yourself a Mountain curse."

"Who says you haven't been cursed just walking in?" Theo pontificated.

Carl shrugged. "If that's the case I expect a mummy to attack me in the open next week."

"Does it count if I just deck you and walk away?" asked Badeline.

"I think that just makes it assault," Madeline speculated.

Carl walked behind the counter and found an incredibly old computer next to the cash register. The computer seemed to still be active, buzzing away merrily and doing probably nothing of much note. Carl tapped at the keyboard a few times and found that it responded to his commands. "Oh, baby. Jackpot." He pulled his gloves off and got to work.

"Do I want to know what you're doing, Carl?" Theo asked, as he walked over.

"Posting a message from the side of a mountain," Carl answered.

"If you'd brought your phone you coulda just done that whenever."

"Yeah, but a phone can do that anywhere. This..." Carl laughed. "It has an internet connection! God, can it access anything?"

"You could give that thing a hundred viruses, Carl," Madeline warned, walking over but watching the ancient computer with interested eyes. "Are you sure that's a smart idea?"

"Maddy, do you see how old this thing is? Look me in the eyes and tell me a modern, relevant virus can run on this." Carl takked away at the keyboard for a few more moments, fighting a 20 year old user interface that wasn't too far removed from the command line when all was said and done. "...how is this thing loading Twitbird."

Badeline peered in at the screen as Carl entered his login details, though she made it a point not to actually look at his keyboard. "Good question. That really shouldn't be running that. That really shouldn't have made it there."

"So," Theo intoned. "You got access to Twitbird, on a computer that maybe has a few megabytes of RAM total, on one of British Columbia's tallest mountains. What're you gonna say?"

Carl took a second to think. Then he quickly slapped away at the keyboard for a moment.

"you ever just shitpost on the side of a mountain," said the tweet, without capitalization or punctuation. A few seconds of keyboard manipulation later, and Carl had logged himself out and exited out of the computer's very dated but apparently very capable Internet browser. "My work here is done."

"And you just told all of your friends you were climbing a mountain," Madeline noted.

Carl stopped for a moment. But then he shrugged. "Eh. I'm eating that one when I get back home regardless of what happens. This was worth it."

"So, uh, how much longer again?"

Madeline sighed. "Keep it up and I'm throwing the pie into your face, Carl. And last I checked, it's still hot enough to burn your face off."

It had taken the better part of a day, but they'd made it down Mount Celeste, and in record time compared to how long it took them to get up there. When they'd stopped by Granny's cabin, Madeline insisted on all of them staying together for a bit so she could bake them a strawberry pie with the berries she'd collected from her latest journey up the Mountain. Baking a pie, of course, took a while: after actually getting it into the shape of a pie, it had to be roasted (metaphorically) for an hour and twenty minutes straight, and then it needed another full hour (by Madeline's estimate) to cool down to a level where it would be edible and not a burning hazard.

Which left the group of mountain climbers doing what they were accustomed to: goofing off, riling each other up, and telling stories.

"You know, that's something Badeline would say," Carl laughed.

"He's right," said Badeline. "That is something I'd say. In fact, it's something I will say:  keep asking when it's done and I'm burning your face off with it."

"Try me," Carl egged on. "I bet you that pie is cool enough to eat. Right now. Go check."

Without a word, Madeline stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"I hope you're ready to go pitch into the snow," Theo said.

"I hope you're ready to eat your words," countered Carl. "With pie."

A minute passed, tense, before Madeline emerged with the pie sliced up into eight pieces. "Turns out you were right, Carl. Shame. Now you don't get to learn if I was bluffing or not."

Sliding several of the pie slices onto a series of plates, Madeline handed everyone their treat. "Shame," Carl said, as he took his proffered slice.

Once everyone had their food, they chowed down.

"A masterpiece as usual, Madeline," Theo complimented.

"Thank you!"

It took a few seconds for Carl to remember that he existed in the physical world after his first bite. "You could start a business with skills like this," he said. "Make loads of cash."

"I've thought about it," Madeline said. "But it might get kinda boring doing the same thing for 8 hours every day. And half the magic here are the Mountain's strawberries, which... I don't think they're meant to be farmed."

Even Badeline was impressed. "Wow, this is way better than last time. And that's saying something," she said.

"Whoa!" Theo gasped. "Badeline's saying something nice. She never does that!"

"You just haven't seen me do it until now."

Theo took a moment to think over a mouthful of strawberry pie. "That is true," he conceded.

"Could I get seconds?" Carl had already scarfed down his slice of pie.

"There's enough for seconds for everyone," Madeline beamed. "But maybe try to slow down a bit and actually enjoy it this time around."

"...so anyways, that's the third time I've asked Spoons what she's got in her mouth, and this time she's got nowhere to run. She turns around and looks at me, and it turns out she's got a mouse by its tail in her jaws!"

"Eeeeew!" Madeline cried. Badeline and Carl were more content to laugh.

"That's not even the best part," Theo continued. "The second she looks up at me, the mouse is able to wriggle out of her mouth and it just scampers off under the stove, and then she's immediately on the hunt again! Wouldn't have been able to catch Spoons if my life depended on it."

"So how'd it end?" Carl asked. "Did Spoons get the mouse?"

"Yeah, Spoons got the mouse," Theo finished. "Alex ended up grabbing what was left of it with a pair of gloves and dropping it into the garbage."

"I'm definitely locking my sock drawer if she stops by my place, then," Carl joked, to no small amount of laughter.

Everyone looked out at the horizon. The sun was setting, slowly but surely. In a few hours they wouldn't be mountain climbers any more. They would be column writers and freelance photographers and car mechanics. It was back to normal.

"I guess this is it, then?" Carl asked.

"It is," Madeline confirmed. "Climbing the Mountain was an incredible journey, wasn't it?"

"Yeah." Carl let the silence hang in the air for a moment. "Can I get some contact details? Just so we can keep in touch. It'd be a shame if I drove away from here and just fell away from y'all."

Theo was already on the way over, moving through his phone. "I was just waiting for you to ask that! Here's mine." He showed Carl the number on his phone.

Carl, for a second, reached for his own phone inside his pocket. He came up with nothing before he remembered: right. I left my phone at home. Because I'm a dumbass. 

Theo seemed to think that at about the same time. "Right. Left your phone at home."

"Uh... let me get the notepad in my car." Carl headed off towards his sedan, though he took the opportunity to shove his backpack back into his car's trunk.

Badeline snickered a bit. "Man, I'm gonna miss him when I disappear back inside your head," she told Madeline.

"Oh dear, Ms. Badeline. Whatever happened to tolerating him?"

"I changed my opinion in response to new information. Haven't you said doing that is a good thing?"

"I mean, yeah..." Madeline looked away. "I figured it'd take you a bit longer to warm up to him, though. If you did at all."

Badeline shrugged as Carl finally returned to Theo and scribbled his phone number down. "Eh. Can't blame you for thinking that. I didn't think I'd warm up to him."

Carl walked over to Madeline. "So, Madeline. What's your phone number?"

Madeline took the pencil and notepad Carl was holding and scribbled it down for him before handing it back. "There you go."

"I'll give both of you a few short calls after I get back home to make sure it all works." For a moment Carl moved towards Badeline, but then he remembered. "Oh. Right. You're going away after this."

"Yeah," said Badeline. "Once we get far enough away from the Mountain I zoop right back into Madeline's head. It's not as bad as it sounds. Like I said, it's comfy in there."

"Still. Kinda sucks that you'll be gone for a while. You're pretty cool, you know. Shame it took us getting over ourselves to actually start having fun."

"Heheh. Yeah." Badeline rubbed the back of her head. Indeed, she was going away for a while. But for once she didn't really want to. She'd actually made a new friend! And they were a cool person, and not a pile of garbage disguised as a cool person! But everyone here had a job to do, whether or not it was scheduled or freelance work. She didn't know how she could delay this any longer and not feel guilty over making Madeline miss either sleep or a deadline.

But a thought was forming in her head. A very distinctly Madeline-esque thought. And she decided she'd be okay with things if she acted on it.

"Well... Madeline, Badeline, Theo, thanks. All three of you," Carl spoke. "For taking me under your wings, and dealing with, well, me. You guys didn't have to take me with you on the trip up this crazy hillside, but I'd probably be dead, uh..." He paused for a moment, counting on his hands. "At least three times over if you didn't."

"Idunno," Madeline disputed. "You're scrappy. I think you'd have made it. Probably wouldn't have been a very smooth ride, but you really need to work on not underestimating yourself."

"Not a problem at all, Carl," Theo said. "You ever need to talk, my ear's open and you've got my number. I know what it's like to lose a loved one."

"You're welcome," said Badeline.

"Well... ferry's leaving soon," Carl remembered. "And I've got work tomorrow. Think I might need to get going."

Badeline saw her last chance. "Wait!" she cried, deciding to act on it.

Carl flinched a bit, not having expected that. "Uh... what's up, Badeline?"

Badeline suddenly found it rather hard to concentrate on the world around her. Or on saying what she wanted to. Even though she knew nobody here would judge her, the thought embarrassed her.

"I... I want a hug," she stammered out.

Carl blinked.

"Like you said, I'm... I'm gonna be gone for a while. And this is the last chance I'm gonna get to do that, okay?"

"Oh. Sure." Without thinking about it any further, Carl stepped forwards and embraced Badeline. He was just as warm as Theo and Madeline were, and Badeline squeezed back as hard as she could.

Carl did his best not to mind the fact he felt like he was trapped in an iron maiden. It was surprisingly easy, after all - because despite the fact she looked like she was a member of the walking dead, Badeline felt exactly like a real person.

"Thank you," mumbled Badeline, into Carl's shoulder.

"Don't mention it," Carl choked out.

A moment later, Badeline pulled herself free, with a wide, dopey grin on her face.

"Alright. Anyone else want some free hugs before I take off?"

Both Madeline and Theo raised their hands.

"Man, I should really start charging people for this. Get over here!"

Madeline relaxed back into her chair. As nice as it was to take a trip up to Mount Celeste and not have to worry about adult responsibilities, it was also nice to come back into a world that could be fundamentally and easily understood (even if it was only mildly less likely to kill you suddenly and without warning). It was nice to be able to sit down and rest.

She looked over to Theo, who was busy flipping through his camera. Theo had been stuck in his camera for the past few hours - after the goodbyes had been said (at least for the moment), he'd spent the entire car ride back to the ferry, then the entire ferry ride, then the entire ride back to Madeline's place flipping through his camera, looking over all of the shots he'd taken of the summit. If Madeline hadn't been needling him for conversation, she was absolutely sure Theo would have spent the whole time in silent rapture, dead to the world.

Madeline could not blame him. Your first time up the summit did that to you.

"I take it you enjoyed your trip all the way up the Mountain, Theo?"

Theo looked away from his camera for a moment. "Oh, hell yeah. I am never forgetting the view from up there as long as I live. That's real magic, right there."

"The snapshots'll probably help with that," Madeline said.

"Oh, definitely," Theo agreed. "I can't wait to get back home and get these properly developed. They'll look great."

"I'll buy some prints off of you."

"Madeline, you know you don't have to buy things from me," Theo chided. "I can give these to you as a freebie."

"Yeah, well, what if I want to financially support my photographer friend?" pressed Madeline. "Have you thought about that?"

"Eh, not really," Theo said, rather casually, even though they'd had this exact conversation about twelve times by now (and that was the conservative estimate). At this point it was half a joke between them. Theo did genuinely feel bad asking people he considered his friends for cash, but Madeline also felt equally as bad for taking advantage of her friendships for material gain. Usually Madeline won out, though on occasion Theo managed to get away with giving her a gift or two without having to take money in return.

"Well maybe you should. You can use money to buy goods and services, after all."

"You can?" Theo did a very good impression of sounding like his world had been blown open by an incredibly simple fact. "I thought money was just something you hoarded like a dragon to try and get the biggest high score in the afterlife."

Madeline cackled like a possessed demon. "I mean, I guess that works too. This is a free country."

"So you agree that you don't have to pay me for any of my Celeste shots, and you can keep your money and hoard it."

"I am giving you money, Theo," Madeline declared. "I do not care if I have to march all the way down to your home on foot, I will compensate you for your work and you are not going to stop me."

"I'd like to see you try," dared Theo.

Madeline stared him down with the exact look of somebody who would climb a mountain because it was there. Before anyone could back down or escalate further, though, Theo's phone buzzed in his pocket, and he fished it out. "Huh. Another meme from Carl."

"He's on a roll," Madeline said.

"He's probably enjoying his downtime," Theo supposed.

"You know... now that I'm off of the Mountain, I'm satisfied I was able to mentor Carl," Madeline divulged. "I mean, yeah, I would have preferred him to not be as tight-lipped about what was bothering him, but... it's kind of like I was his Granny."

"Like you were paying it forwards?"

Madeline nodded. "Like I was paying it forwards to the Mountain for giving me a helping hand. Maybe I should go tell him to do that for somebody else. Keep the chain going."

"Only as long as you make sure to tell him to tell whoever he ends up taking under his wing to take somebody under their wing," Theo specified. "And you gotta tell him to tell the person he helps up the Mountain the exact same thing, too."

"I think he's smart enough to figure all of that out."

Theo shrugged. "It was good to see Badeline again, too."

"And to think you were worried she wouldn't come out."

"I mean, I'd prefer that next time she don't come out because somebody was about to die, Strawberry."

"I would too," agreed Madeline. "But I'm glad she came out to help. And I'm very glad she ended up making friends with Carl."

"It looked pretty nasty at first, but I figured it'd work out," Theo said. "Like I said, they were too much alike. In my experience, that means either they hate each others' guts or it's love at first sight. There's never a middle ground."

"I don't want to think about what it would be like for an aspect of my personality that's arguably a separate person to fall in love with somebody," shivered Madeline. "Especially given what it'd mean for me."

For a moment, Theo tried to think of a funny quip. But every time he thought about what that situation could potentially be, all he envisioned was a hideously awkward mess. "...you know, I don't think I wanna think about it either. Here be dragons, and all that."

Madeline grabbed the remote to her TV. "Let's go and forget about all of that."

"Let's."

There was a blissful lack of conversation or thought, the television taking over the job of entertainment.

"...it was still a good trip, though."

Madeline nodded. "Agreed."

Carl finds himself on a thin but long island, made of grass. His first instinct is to look around.

There is no sea, off the coasts. There is a massive drop down to Mount Celeste, hanging below. The island is hovering in the air, a good hundred metres off the summit. Strangely, the air doesn't feel thin. And it doesn't feel too cold.

Carl looks over himself and finds he is wearing the outfit he wore on Mount Celeste. Which doesn't make sense. He's been away from the Mountain for a few months, now.

A dream, then, he thinks. Next to him, Carl notices a jet fighter, parked at the edge of the spit, hovering in place. The engines seem to be running at idle, though they're a lot quieter than they should be, which seems to confirm the theory.

Up ahead he notices a single, massive tree, with pink leaves. Standing just past the tree, on the very edge of the island, is an old woman. She's looking at him, expectantly, with a light smile on her face.

Carl walks on over. It isn't as if there's anything else to do on this floating tract of land. For a second he stares down the old woman, wondering how he should approach this challenge the Mountain is giving him.

"What?" the woman croaks. "I got something on my face?"

"Uh, no-"

"Then what're you starin' at me for?"

"This is a dream, you're not a real person, and I'm pretty sure Mount Celeste is screwing with my head," Carl says, confidently.

"You sound crazy!" the old woman says.

Carl blinks. Maybe he was too candid?

"Is what I would say if you weren't completely right!" the old woman finishes, before laughing quite a bit.

Carl laughs, too. Awkwardly.

"Though I'd be careful who you call real in these dreams. Some others might not take that as well as I can."

Carl nods, dumbly. "I'll keep that in mind the next time I have a weird spooky magic dream."

The old woman turns around. Carefully, she totters her way over to the edge of the spit, then sits down, legs dangling over the edge, seemingly without fear of the lethal drop if the wind were to blow the wrong way. She pats the spot next to her, inviting Carl to sit down.

A slightly more measured person, Carl sits cross-legged, so that he is at less risk of falling.

"What's the matter? Scared of falling?"

"Course," Carl says.

"But this is a dream. You said it yourself. What does it matter if you fall?"

"Well, I can't argue with you there," accedes Carl, though he doesn't change how he's sitting. He continues to sit cross-legged.

The old woman looks down, seemingly in direct defiance of survival instinct, at the summit of the Mountain. If Carl looks down far enough he can see the flag. "How was your trip there?"

"It was... a strange time," Carl says. "Nothing like I expected."

The old woman bats his shoulder. "Oh, everyone always says that like they're trying to hide something! Tell me what it was really like."

Carl stares again. This time he's suspicious.

The old woman thinks for a second, then seems to remember. "Oh. What, you think I'm going to make fun of you over something upsetting? God, no! I may be an old bat, but I'm not mean!"

"But you've got no problem making fun of me over anything else," Carl brings up.

"Of course not. I do believe in being honest."

Carl sighs, and he takes a moment to remember. "It was stressful, to be honest. I was scared, and panicked, and not in a good way, and I was acting entirely on fear for most of it. I had friends who I met there that I went up with. Practically took them holding me at gunpoint to get anything out of me."

"Why would they need to know things about you?" the old woman asked. "You're just climbing a mountain."

Carl sighs, again. It feels like he's picking at a scab, and for a second he feels a hot disinterest in telling this old crone he doesn't know anything about himself. But then he remembers what she said, and he remembers this is all a dream and it isn't happening anyways. Even if she hurts him, he'll just wake up after like it never happened. Maybe he won't even remember it. It'll just be an unpleasantly sad sensation and he'll assume it was a dream about Mom again.

"My mother passed away a few months back," he says, detached. "And I have a... complicated relationship with my father. One that compelled me to avoid her funeral so I wouldn't have to deal with him." It still hurts, but it's more a distant ache now than the knife in his chest it used to be.

He's spent a few months working on the "how do I tell people about this" problem (with support from two very good friends of his, of course). He's found this is the best way to do it. No details. No spilling his guts about his entire life, it's not necessary. Just the bare basics of the situation.

"Well, that sounded easy to talk about. What kept you?"

"I thought people would hate me for it. Like I said... complex home life. The first couple of people I talked to about it once I'd moved out didn't really treat it seriously. Some of them really did get mad. So I got worried people would be all 'oh, look at this guy, doesn't really love his mother'."

"Well, that's a shame. I'm sorry to hear those people were like that. Take it from an old bat like me: they're assholes."

Carl laughs. "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking now. Just bad luck."

"My condolences about your dear mother, too. It's a shame you felt you had to exclude yourself. But don't beat yourself up too much about it. The way I see it, funerals are just for the suckers the dead leave behind."

Several neurons activate in Carl's brain. He remembers hearing that phrase before. He cracks a crooked grin. "Well, sorry, ma'am, you're about half a year too late for that."

The old woman laughs. "Which is why you climbed the Mountain."

"Which is why I climbed the Mountain," Carl parrots. "I felt like I had to make up missing her funeral, and when the cremation urn showed up at my doorstep, well... she wanted her ashes scattered from the highest point that could be reached. It was in her will. I took it as a sign."

"So you did manage to grieve her, after all."

"In probably the stupidest, riskiest way it's possible to, yeah."

The old woman looks at him. "So. What did you learn?"

Carl thinks, again, about everything that happened there, and everything that's happened since then. "That... sometimes, you have to trust your friends with volatile stuff? You can't just keep difficult things bottled up inside you forever or it'll make you a stupid, panicky idiot? You have to tell your friends weird stuff like this and hope they won't dump you over it, because if they're your friends they'll support you?"

There is a pregnant pause.

"You don't sound very confident in those morals," the old woman pokes.

"Oh, excuse me. I only just found out about 10 seconds ago that every major life event has to have an associated lesson. Forgive me for trying to rapidly justify everything I've done to a dream woman, who doesn't exist."

The old woman practically howls with laughter. More neurons light up in Carl's brain. Something about her is familiar even though he has never met her.

"So, then. Those friends you met. What about them? You said they basically had to force you to open up?"

"I think they're my best friends, now," Carl says. "They're incredible people to be around. They were mad at me, yeah, but it was more because I was pushing them away rather than trying to help. But once everything got settled... man. They helped a lot. I thought I owed them big time, and it took them a few months, but eventually they got it through my skull that I didn't owe them anything, because they were just doing what good people should. I tell you, Maddy and Theo are saints. I've known them for maybe half a year and I think I would die for them."

The old woman laughs again. "Tell me. This 'Maddy' of yours. How fast did she climb the Mountain?"

Carl spends a few seconds trying to think of the right adjective to describe the pace that Madeline set for them. "Inhumanly," he decides on. "It was like something about the place offended her, that's the level of sheer disrespect she showed for how difficult it should be. If I didn't know any better I'd say she was going for a world record pace. If she wasn't escorting us up the way she probably would have made it, too."

"Yep. That's my Madeline," the old woman says, and it's at that moment the final puzzle piece clicks.

"You're Granny," Carl says. It's less a question and more a statement of fact.

Granny claps. Slowly. "And it took you three minutes to figure it out. I can see why Madeline had to beat that story out of you."

Carl sighed, aggravated. Madeline was right. This lady knew how to push buttons. "Well, Granny, a question for you. What's it like, being dead?"

"I'd tell you, but... it's something you'll only really get when you die," Granny explains. "And believe me, that's not something you wanna rush." She pauses for a moment, then smiles, devilishly. "You'll have to try harder than that to rile me up, boy. I've been doing this since before your father was born."

"Well, can you blame me for trying?"

Granny shrugs. "Not really. How is Madeline doing? I know when I passed on she didn't take it very well."

"Yeah, she talked about it," Carl says. "Badeline helped her get through it."

"Badeline?" Granny asks.

"Uh," stammers Carl, "the... the Madeline with the gray skin and the purple hair? Looks like a goth zombie? Kinda cranky and grumpy but knows how to sling a mean joke?"

"Oh, the Part of Madeline!" Granny says. Then she raises an eyebrow. "You call her Badeline?"

"She calls herself Badeline," Carl clarifies. "As in, 'a bad bitch.'"

Granny continues to stare at Carl.

"'Bad', in this case, meaning 'cool'."

"Oh," Granny says. "You youngsters and your slang. How did she come out, anyway? I thought she liked being in Madeline's head."

"I had a slip," Carl exposits. "She saved my life."

"Did you thank her?"

"Yeah. Not that she liked me. It took us a little while to become friends."

"Sounds like Badeline alright," Granny says, testing how the name fits on her tongue. "She seemed prickly. But she had a good heart even back then."

"Man, it's a damn shame we hated each other. I think we'd have had a lot more fun going up the Mountain if we were friends," Carl pontificates. "Ah well. Life, am I right?"

Granny is quiet, though it is clear she agrees. "You know, I used to be a 'bad bitch', once upon a time."

"You did?"

Granny's appearance changes. It's sudden and without flair, like a scene transition in a television show. Her hair is much longer now, and a flowing, smooth brown. She's wearing a leather jacket. Her poise has changed, too. She's no longer carrying herself like a tottering, old lady. She's carrying herself like she could fight the world with her bare hands and win in half a minute.

"Holy crap! How'd you do that?" Carl asks.

"Dream. Duh," Granny responds, with a much more youthful and slightly less scratchy voice. "You can do whatever you want in here, once you recognize you're in one."

"Oh, right." Carl thinks for a second on this. "Then why do you look like that all the time?"

Granny switches back, like a light turning on, and now she's old again. "Because I like looking like this. It gives me an air of venerability. So, could you be a dear and pick up where you left off?"

"Right. Badeline helped her get through the worst of it, and then she managed to recover. She's doing fine now."

"That's good to know," Granny says. "Not that I doubted she'd be able to move on. Madeline is a real fighter. The only thing that came close to holding her back was herself."

"Weird to hear about that," Carl says. "The way she carries herself you'd never think that was a problem."

"You just didn't see her when she was worse with herself," Granny corrects. "What about Theo? How is he doing?"

"Freelance photographer now. Seems like the job stresses him out a bit some days, but I don't think he'd trade it for the world. Dude's a natural."

"He was calm, but he seemed a little unsure of himself sometimes," Granny remnisces. "Like he wasn't too sure where he wanted to be going. It's good to know he's found his way. So. How have you been doing?"

"Better," Carl says. "I'd been having a lot of trouble processing things. I was stuck in this cycle of feeling bad Mom was gone and then hating myself for not going to see her off, but after I got back, well... Idunno. I think I had to forgive myself for that. Anyway, I stopped trying to force my way through work and asked for bereavement leave as soon as I got back to work and explained it all to my boss. She gave me a month off, no questions asked. Told my other friends what was going on and they were mostly supportive, save for the one jackass I'm not friends with any more. God, that day sucked."

"Think of it this way," Granny says. "He just proved to you he wasn't really your friend."

 "Sure didn't feel that way when it happened, but you are right," Carl agreed. "Honestly, thinking on it, I can't believe I thought things would go worse than they did."

"Self-doubt does that to you. It makes you think the worst-case scenario is always going to happen, that everyone is out to get you. It's hard to get off that horse once you're on it."

"Yeah. I'm still fighting it," Carl says. "Some days are worse than others."

"Then I must be catching you on a good day. You seem like the kind of person who constantly underestimates themselves," Granny points out. "You did get to the top of Mount Celeste and back, alive and unharmed, right?"

"Besides the slip," Carl corrects.

"Oh, forget the slip," Granny counters. "Nothing worth doing was ever accomplished by one person never making mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. What matters is that they had friends to catch them when they slipped up. If nobody ever helped each other we wouldn't have a society!" A pause. "There is still a society, right?"

"Yep."

"Good. So chin up. You're still here, and you're still alive, and you gained some valuable life experience from all of this. I'd call that a win any day of the week."

"I suppose you've got a point," Carl admits. "Some days I just wish I could stop being dumb."

Granny snickers a bit. "Don't we all. But you have to keep at it. You can't stop. Getting yourself better isn't something you can do in a day, after all."

"That's the nature of these things, isn't it? Besides. I think the worst is past me."

Carl casts his gaze past the Mountain, to the Sun hanging high overhead. He smiles.

"I think I'll make it."