Walking back into the apartment with Cerberos and Yusuf close behind her, Ruby suddenly stopped dead, unsure of where to look first.

To her right, every single item of food was out of her fridge and arranged by colour on her tiny kitchen island. Caim was up and about, regarding the meagre spread critically.

Beyond him, Berith had the refrigerator itself mostly apart and was installing an elaborate series of pipes into the door, his tongue poking out of his lips, more like a cat than a person.

“Hey, you can thank me later for stopping him and Bill Nye over there from redoing your apartment while you were outside,” Alice said from the couch. Amon sat next to her, cat still on his lap, eating brightly coloured pouches out of an orange container.

“That’s detergent!” Ruby shrieked, her brain deciding that was the thing she could actually handle first. “Don’t eat that!”

Amon sunk down into his grey hoodie. “ ‘Ere jooshy an’ mountain fresh,” he said sheepishly around a mouthful.

“Ruby, the only way I’ve decided I can avoid crazy from this is to roll with it.” Alice turned her attention back to the Great British Bake Off. “If the sexy digimon wanna eat laundry pods or replumb your fridge to spout the Sacred Wine of the Ancients, I say go with it.” She shrugged broadly. “Also, I’m starving.”

Amon offered her the jug, lifting one white eyebrow, and Alice just rolled her eyes.

“Well, I was going to make dinner, but you’re such a bloody New Yorker,” Caim grumbled from what passed as her kitchen. “Random condiments. Three bottles of beer from Trader Joe’s, four half-eaten takeaway containers from various restaurants, a half pound of artisanal farmer’s market bacon that’s set to go bad, and,” he held up a battered margarine container. With a flourish, he pried off the yellow lid and took a sniff. “Approximately a quarter pound of I definitely cannot believe this isn’t weed butter.”

She was only half listening to him, though. Caim was shirtless, his shimmering hair caught up in a messy bun. But when she’d seen him half-naked before, his golden skin had been flawless, save for the flickers of light dancing beneath it. Now, she could see the scars. So many of them- old, deep gouges and burns that ran across his face and down his chest. And there was his arm.

The arm that the white knight had mangled was now a delicate confection of golden gears and silver wires, bejeweled clockworks winking from the inner layers. He froze at her expression, then looked down at himself, face twisted unhappily. She blinked and in the next moment the scars were gone. Caim looked exactly as he had outside the subway, but the mechanical arm still remained.

“Ish dishgrashful,” Amon interrupted loudly from the couch before she could say anything.

“Again, you are eating laundry detergent, I don’t think you get a say in what’s disgraceful,” Ruby snapped.

Cerberos stepped past her and gently took Caim’s arm. “Be careful. You need to get used to it, still.”

Caim reached up and brought Cerberos’ head down to meet his. “It’s beautiful, thank you.”

“I knew you’d be insufferable if I gave you an ugly arm.” Cerb said, carefully examining it. He said something else, soft words with too many looping vowels and alien consonants. Ruby realized abruptly it was how Caim had spoken when he’d first appeared.

She’d understood him then. And now he was shutting her out.

Caim answered in the same language, softly, then shooed him off and pulled his shirt off a nearby stool. The sleeves lengthened and covered his arms as he tugged it on. “Ruby, we need to summon the others if you’re ready.”

“Your arm?” She reached out for it, and she stopped herself, hand falling to her side..

Caim flexed it, wiggling his gloved fingers. “Everything’s fresh paper and ink, Author,” he said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. “No worries. Now, shall we?”

“When do I get an explanation to all this?” She wagged the phone at him, trying not to look at the grey sleeve that hid his arm. “The big guy took my phone apart, and I still can’t get into the magical tutorial.”

“Also, Valefor is greyed out,” Cerb added, putting the door back on the fridge for Berith. “Care to explain?”

“I’ll tell you when the others are here. No need to explain it twice.” Caim’s smile faded.

“Well, I hacked the game enough when I was looking at her phone to let us bring everyone else here.” Cerberos folded his arms and leaned against the fridge, glowering, before Berith shooed him off. “We split up because you said she would finally come for us, and now…”

“We discuss it once,” Caim sighed. “Once only.” There was a long beat where the two stared at each other and Caim lifted his chin, eyes hard.

In a moment, Amon was on his feet, detergent pods pocketed in his cheek, and Berith stepped slightly in front of Cerberos.

Ruby and Alice shared nervous glance. “You got a bat or some pepper spray in case we have to break this up?” Alice whispered. “Maybe a hose?”

“Okay, then! Summoning time!” Ruby said loudly as Alice stood too, eyes darting between the group. Everyone shifted uncomfortably, and Caim’s shoulders sagged a little bit. “So, we go back to the roof?” Ruby looked down at the glittering books on the screen. The scars on Caim’s cover matched the ones she’d seen on his skin.

“Amon’s barrier should contain it right here,” Caim said.

The Shield scrubbed a gloved hand over his face. “Break my spine. We should’ve done that before,” he groused. “I hate when you’re smart.”

“How come no one called the cops on the light show you guys threw before?” Alice asked while Amon fumed.

“You ever see a fireworks display?” Caim asked as he fished his coat off the couch.

“Of course” Alice cocked her head.

“For a moment, you’re transfixed, but in a little while, it just fades to a vague memory of something momentarily beautiful,” he said.

“What Mister Gilded Bindings here means is that people generally don’t remember seeing us, no matter how big a fuss we make.” Amon bumped Caim’s shoulder with a grin as he moved to an open space. “Everyone that saw the summonings forgot a few minutes after everything was over. Same with the stacking clowns.”

“I find the idea of forgetting you to be… hard,” Yusuf said from the kitchenette. “Any of you.”

“If things hadn’t gone so bad, you’d have dropped us off and then continued on with your inspiration.” Caim tugged his hair out of the bun, letting it fall, shining, over the dull grey fabric of his shoulders. “You would have remembered Ruby maybe, or Alice. But not me.”

“That’s sad.” Yusuf looked up at Cerberos. “I don’t think I like that at all.”

“It’s better people only remember stories of us,” Berith said from around Cerb’s bulk. “Caim. We run an increasing risk, the longer we delay, that they’ll come here.”

“You’re right. Amon?” Caim glanced at the other man.

Ruby could see a flicker of light dancing through the patches of deep purple-brown and pale gold of Amon’s skin. His bright eyes were closed, and he seemed to be listening intently to something only he could hear. “BARRIER,” he finally said, the bracelets on his arms splitting apart. The walls of the apartment rippled like shutters, the lights flickering and breaking apart into refracted rainbows. “I’ve left it open for them only.”

The game felt different as Ruby touched the screen. There was no painful jolt this time, but tingling warmth that spread up her arm. And there was no chirping, no bleating, just a long, low chime--a ringing hum that made her teeth itch.

“Triple summoning active. Grendel, the Sword. Fenix, the Storm. Liath and Dubh, the Archer,” that woman’s voice purred and Ruby swore there was a smug note to it. She didn’t like it one bit. “Valefor the Berserker, attempting to summon.”

The puzzle books and magazines on her coffee table scattered in the burst of wind. Her books lifted away from their shelves, pages riffling wildly. Alice stepped behind her, gasping softly. The daemons gathered around each other and she thought she saw Caim scrub a tear from one eye.

Four figures resolved out of the flutter of paper, as the roll of energy washed across the apartment and crashed against the walls of the barrier space Amon had constructed.

The first was sinewy, his handsome, craggy face half covered with a blindfold. Bronze skin and wild hair so dark, Ruby thought she saw stars flickering in the depths of it. He leaned on a silver cane, grey coat snapping around his legs.

Beside him, the next one was younger and smaller. He had oil-slick rainbow hair with a shock of blinding, sparking white, different from the pearly radiance of Amon’s, falling over his eyes. There were scars across the delicate gilt of his round face, as deep and jagged as the ones Caim had hidden, but he smiled like sun breaking through a cloudy day.

The final two were pink gold and sunset sapphires, Ruby thought inanely. One with wild curls and the other with messy straight hair. One serious and the other grinning, and it seemed like they swapped with each passing second.

Caim opened his mouth to say something, but one of the twins flung his arms wide. “The greatest city in the world!” he burst into song. His voice was the most beautiful thing Ruby had ever heard.

“Angelica!” the other immediately sang.

“Eliza!” the first responded, and they immediately turned to the one who’d appeared first. “And…!”

“Get mildewed,” the one with the blindfold said in a voice that sounded like a cement mixer full of bricks.

[What about me?] the small one with the lightning in his hair signed quickly.

Ruby scowled, wondering if understanding the graceful dance of his hands was Caim’s doing as well.

“Are you kidding me, Fenix? You have to be Lafayette, nobody raps as fast as you can.” The second twin hugged him. “’Sides, Grendel’s the perfect Peggy.” Berith and Cerberos joined them and the earlier tension blossomed into a warmth and joy that suffused the entire room.

“Where’s stupid Val?” The other asked, and then tackled Amon with a forehead press.

Grendel strode past the others to Ruby and Caim. He took Caim’s mechanical arm in one hand, but he turned his blindfolded gaze towards Ruby instead. “Tell them, Caim,” he said, never breaking looking away.

Caim let Grendel slide his sleeve up, fingers blindly tracing the filagree of the new arm. “Valefor is probably going to be here in a moment or two,” Caim said grimly. “And it’s probably not going to be as a friend.”