A delicate hand raises a small crossbow skyward...a splinter spins on fletches through the night winter air towards a floating shadow with crimson eyes and spread wings. The shaft pierces the heart, and with a yowl the cat falls into the Winterfell snow. Koen looks up from where he has crashed in a heap to see a lithe girl shrouded in white furs. He recognizes Kira's face through her stinging tears. He barely has time to say "Thank you" before the hunger of Undeath is lost in the suspended state of Torpor.
In the time between times and the place between places, the neko's sister of brass and gears loses her soul's housing in the shock of re-entry to her home dimension. The steampunk android risked all to rescue a fellow construct from Hostel, a dimension that had lost its moorings and hurtled towards the future...and collapsed into Oblivion. Reality reassembles the survivor from the remains of both entities...and Qli-Nova is left to come to terms with her spliced identity.
When the Seventh Son has no remaining heirs, the Bloodwing shall inhabit another Seventh Son.
Bloodwing had not counted on this clause in the Curse manifesting again, especially after being torn free from the current heir to the curse. But the simultaneous loss of Koen and Qlippothic set this primordial edict in motion. The disinherited Demon-Prince is caught off guard, and drawn into the body of another. Being the passenger from behind another's eyes, he is trapped as his last Host was, until he masters this new form. His one solace is that he recognizes the terrain of his new symbiote.
He is Caledon.
Dr. Mason is pulled from the rubble of his underground laboratory by a team of his robotic creations, both massive and miniscule. A wheeled mechanoid injects a massive syringe of glowing green liquid into the chest cavity of his broken creator. The Doctor takes a heavy gasp of air again as his muscles, nerves and blood vessels are reknit.
"The cure! I almost had the CURE! My poor son! I WILL bring you back!"
In Winterfell, the sound of nails driven into wood is muted by the falling snow. Several pairs of hands lower the neko into a coffin, wooden stake still in place. The lid covers the lifeless body and is quickly nailed shut before the rise of dawn.
The android rushes down to assist in carrying the Doctor to safety. Through shattered goggles, blue eyes stare at the figure that both resembles his greatest creation, but glows from components so advanced that even a Spark must stare in awe.
"Qli? Is that you?"
"Yes...and no...Father?"
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