John, splattered in blood, his chains dripping along with him silently left the house followed closely by Ash and Alice. His face was a mask of unyielding stone, devoid of any emotion which was causing Ash's mind to reel, the horror she had just witnessed was beyond brutal, etching itself into her memory with chilling clarity. She was trying desperately to decipher the storm raging behind John's eyes but found only an impenetrable void, a stark contrast to the chaos they had escaped.
His voice, when it came, was a low, steady command that cut through the lingering tension. "Elena, seal this entire building. Use roots, sink it as low as you can – get that earth bender to help if you must, but I want this building and what's left inside to be buried as deep down to hell as possible. Ash, Alice, could you both go to the study? It's private and I should be able to find you there once I finish a small talk with Z. I… I need to think for a little bit and see if they have something that could hopefully help fix Alice."
Alice just gave a disarming salute; the fake smile fixed in place and began to walk away as instructed. But Ash hesitated, a knot of unease tightening in her stomach as she looked at him with worry.
"John, what was that?" she demanded, her voice laced with a raw mix of worry and fear. "What made you snap like that! What's happened to Alice?" The questions tumbled out, each one heavy with the unspoken terror of the possibilities, a ball of guilt slowly beginning to knaw at her, she was the one who allowed the candle maker to take Alice originally when he claimed he could heal her, trusting him in her exhausted state without thinking anything of it at the time, only realizing something was wrong when she returned a few hours later very different.
John turned and for a fleeting moment, the mask cracked. Sadness and an almost unbearable amount of pain and guilt flickered across his features. "Please, just go be by her for now, I know you two didn't get on that well but I want at least someone I can trust to be around her for the time being…" he pleaded, his voice breaking slightly. "I promise I'll explain everything later, but right now I need to try and find a way to fix this. I have to make all this right and fix things. I have to help her! So please, just… just give me a bit of time."
Ash met his gaze, seeing the raw agony reflected there. She gave a small but reluctant nod, a silent promise in her eyes that she expected answers later before turning to catch up with Alice. As she departed, she missed the single, solitary tear that finally escaped his control, tracing a path down his otherwise impassive cheek.
Now alone amidst the unsettling quiet, John allowed a few more tears to fall, a brief, silent mourning for what had been. But the indulgence was short-lived. He roughly wiped his face, the moisture replaced by a burning resolve. He had no time for weakness, it was his weakness that had led to this and so he couldn't allow it to keep causing further harm and problems. He had to find Z. They had to have something, anything, that could help. If not, surely, they could conceive of a solution or contact someone who could or help unearth a forgotten method, no matter the cost, no matter what it demanded of him he would pay it if it meant Alice could be restored to how she was before.
With this fierce determination fueling his every step, he rushed out of the underground, seeking the place where Z was last. What greeted him, however, was a bizarre and unexpected sight. Standing before Z was another, slightly shorter cloaked figure. Her hood was pulled back, revealing two impossibly long pigtails that nearly brushed the ground. She was in the process of handing a large, lumpy bag over to Z.
As if sensing his gaze, the figure turned. Her features were surprisingly soft and young, almost childlike, a striking contrast to the unnervingly wide smile that stretched impossibly far, almost past her ears. Within her mouth, countless razor-sharp teeth glinted, over which a long, serpentine tongue slowly slid. The unsettling sight didn't last long though as with a casual wink directed at him the air beside her seemed to unzip with an audible tear that she simply stepped through, vanishing as if she had never been there. Only Z remained, standing a few paces ahead of him, staring after the departed figure well shaking her head before noticing him.
"Wha! What are you doing here?" Z stammered, a hint of panic in their synthesized voice. "I thought I was supposed to be alone here! Look, forget anything you saw and I'll–"
He cut them off, his voice flat and unyielding. "I saw nothing and you will be getting 45% of the total earnings that magically showed up when the people disappeared. But I'm not here about that. I want a healing potion. Or a reverser. Or something, anything that can turn a person back into their original race or form or just turn them how to they were before they were turned into another race." He quickly explained Alice's plight, the words spilling out in a desperate torrent. The silence that followed was deafening, crushing what little hope he clung to.
"I… I'm sorry, but I don't think that's possible," Z finally said, their synthesized tone now heavy, laden with a terrible finality, clearly knowing or at least realizing why he asked what he did. "If things have reached that level and although it's not completed and still in progress, there isn't a way to undo it. Even if she were to be killed and brought back, which would cost a fortune, she would be returned in the same state she's currently in. The few items and techniques that could do what your asking would either kill her agonizingly slowly through their side effects or result in things becoming far worse for her than they already are." The words landed like hammer blows, shattering the last vestiges of John's hope into dust.
A profound emptiness settled in John's chest, but even in that void, a new, desperate resolve began to harden. "Here," they said, voice now devoid of any intonation, "I'm give you 65% percent of the profit from my trade and I'll throw in 10 free draws on top of the ones you have yet to do." Z told him, clearly an attempt in their own way to support him but John's hollow, empty eyes were fixed on them as he made a different and unexpected request, asking for a list of entirely different items. Z, taken aback, slowly nodded as they seemed to pull each and every item asked for form their large back bag, saying they would deduct it from his coins and give him the remaining when he seemed in a bit of a better state.
Returning to the study, John found Ash waiting for him but her worry was palpable. His words were curt, leaving no room for questions as he told her he would be taking Alice out for a bit, that he wouldn't be back until after dark, but gave very clear instructs for her to keep the place running well and protected in his stead. Before Ash could even voice her mounting confusion or ask what he was planning along with demanding the explanation he promised he had already ordered Alice to follow him and left. All this seemed to do though was leave Ash slightly more distraught than before at the defeated and seemingly broken tone he had. It was a resonance she likened to a protagonist who had just lost their very purpose, their reason for living—like Luffy after losing Ace, or how she felt watching Whitebeard's last stand. A profound, aching sense of loss and despair, that's the best way she could describe the feeling she had just gotten from him when as he took Alice.
The walk was long, stretching into an oppressive silence that neither of the pair broke. John didn't utter a single word and Alice, with her perpetual, unsettling smile, simply trailed along behind him like a shadow, unable to do anything else. He couldn't bear to even look at her, a fresh wave of pain and self-reproach washing over him each time his peripheral vision caught sight of that forced, hollow expression along with the knowledge that it was his fault. The path they took was overgrown, leading them away from the established order to a forgotten corner of this changed world.
Eventually, they arrived at a derelict house, its structure visibly crumbling. Walls had collapsed, leaving gaping wounds open to the elements and the entire place seemed on the verge of total collapse. Slowly, John led her inside, past cracked foundations and splintered wood, into the ravaged and destroyed remains of what was once a warm, inviting bedroom. Dust motes danced in the slivers of light that penetrated the broken windows, illuminating the debris of a forgotten life.
With a small, sorrowful smile, a ghost of his former self, he turned to Alice as he sat on the splintered remains of what was once a bed. His eyes, swimming with unshed tears, were fixed on her, his pain a tangible presence in the ruined room. "I don't suppose you remember this place, do you? Wasn't that long ago for us but time truly wasn't kind to it huh?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper, visibly breaking under the weight of his anguish.
Alice blinked, a rare occurrence, then slowly surveyed the desolate room, her head tilting to the side in a gesture that was unsettlingly childlike. Finally, she shook her head, a clear 'no.' Her response was far too calm, too detached. "I don't remember, should I? Is this some kind of important room? Or am I supposed to do something for you in here?" Her usual bright smile was now so fake, so utterly hollow, that it sent a fresh, agonizing spike of pain through John's already fractured heart. It was a polite inquiry, devoid of all genuine curiosity or emotion, an empty echo that felt so wrong coming from her.
Reaching into his pocket, John carefully took out two small, stoppered bottles, placing them gently on the dust-covered floor. Then, with a heavy sigh, he produced a strange, polished cube. He positioned it carefully in the exact center of the ruined room. With trembling fingers, he pressed the top of it. There was a sudden, blinding flash, not of light, but of pure temporal energy. The room seemed to ripple and then, as if time itself had reversed, the walls solidified, cracks vanishing as paint gleamed clean and pristine once more. The shattered bed reconstructed itself, becoming new and comfortably inviting. A sturdy chair appeared beside it, a small nightstand at its side, perfectly placed. The harsh daylight outside the window softened, as if night had fallen, casting faint moonlight across the restored floor. It was the room. The very room that Alice and John had slept in, side by side, on that first, pivotal night after the entire world and their lives, had changed.