The giant sword tore through the back of Bones’ cloth, his flight faltered down a little and he started to lower. The light started to dimmer and the crowd of ghosts started to float up a little, Bones couldn’t feel anything and the light in his “eyes” started to darken, but he then realized, he wasn’t finished yet. Bones’ empty eyes slanted into an angry frown and with his last amount of energy, he blasted up into the light and he went as fast the speed of sound, leaving a shockwave down under.

Bones then shot out of a white lake and onto the deck of a bridge, the lantern fell on the ground and the fire looked to be going out more, the briefcase was broken open with the three crystal balls rolling. Bones was in deep pain, from the giant sword and the light burning up his cloth, he was breathing heavily now and his mouth was left agape despite how many times he breathed. He then let out a smile and his eyes softened as he watched the golden glass ball roll into the lake, I guess this is what rebelling feels like, Bones thought, his eyes were getting heavy and now his whole body went numb, and his eyes and mouth faded away.

The golden orb sunk into the lake and it went down further, the lake then started to shine a golden color. The trees and flowers around it started getting a tinge of color, like an old painting in East Asia, they even got a bold outline that looked like ink. The color then reached over to a featureless meditating statue that has its legs longer than their head and torso combined, the inky outlines then circled around him and soon, it was a Greyscalian man with a drawn-on black mask and eyes, the same ones as Anchor. His eyes opened and just like what the orb said, it was Coco.

Coco opened his eyes and stood up from the rock he was meditating on, he didn’t seem to remember what happened and it felt like he was asleep. Of course, this was totally fine since this is technically his lake and nobody comes here. He got off the rock and walked on the water and back to the mainland, he didn’t trudge through the water, his webbed feet simply just had him walk. He went back inside his house and got back into his regular attire, it was simply just an old shirt that was intended to be button down but there was no buttons or slits for said buttons with a sash that kept it together with the freakishly long pants. He then went back to his front door to get his shoes, he retracted his webbed flippers on his feet and he slid them in the black and white accented slippers that were perfect for stances and balance. He then went outside again, crouching down so the shark tail shaped horns or his part of the back of his head that was also the tail end of a shark and thought about meeting up with his look-alike friend, Anchor. Coco wasn’t the type of person to focus on what he looked like or how different he looked like compared to other Greyscalians. Coco was also the type of person to mind when things are wrong, but when he saw an empty bedsheet on a bridge with other pieces of junk, he didn’t stand when garbage was lying around in his garden.

He then walked over to it and looked at the things, an empty briefcase with its contents on the floor, a giant black and dirty sword, a lantern that still has its fire in it, and the bedsheets that he noticed before. But the weird thing was the top hat next to the bedsheets, the symbols on it made Coco a little uneasy. He picked it up and as he stared at it for quite a time, he went back inside his house to do about it because it was ruining the mood of the garden and so was the sword too.

Bones himself opened his eyes, he was somewhere… cloudy. The place was completely white and the floor he was standing was white too, he looked around and saw a pair of golden barred gates with a marble sign above with words carved in saying: Obscura et Oblitus. As Bones went closer to the gates, a golden light appeared and then showed a golden-haired woman that was about twice the height of him (average height of a Greyscalian though), she wore a long white gown and a pair of giant bird wings. She smiled at the small ghost looking back at her in awe, “Greetings, small spirit, welcome to the skies above, I am Wint, The Angel of Greyscale. You are brought here due to your sacrificial deeds of saving those you have once taken.” Wint said,

“Wait, what is this place exactly though?” Bones asked, he was more confused about Wint’s explanation, this had Wint drop her divine attitude and just put it bluntly for him,

“Here’s what I mean, you did something bad and since you died doing something good, you’re here now. I’m just here to tell you this so you won’t freak out. Now, are you coming with me or not in paradise here?”

“But…” Bones said quietly, he looked down sadly, “…I want to go back, I want to live.”

“Huh? Do you want to go back? Why though? It’s completely devoid of emotion and color, it’s only there for those who were never known or forgotten.”

“I want to live, no bosses, no witches, just peace, and forgiveness.”

“Well, we can’t force you to stay here, then it won’t be such a paradise. I guess I can pull some strings and open the gate for you.”

Wint went over to the golden gate and unlocked the lock on it, she opened it and it showed a black, grey, and white portal inside. The portal then revealed the same lake Bones died at, “Well what are you waiting for? Wait, Greyscale looks a little colored. Oh well, it’s only a tinge, it won’t be much that drastic of a change so the Greyscalians will be fine, so, jump in!”

Bones still had that worried look when he asked to go back, he didn’t know it would be so easy. He put his foot back, he ran and he jumped right into the portal.

Coco was sitting on his bed, he found the sources of the bad feelings from that hat was from those ugly symbols on it. The hat was now a simple giant black gossamer top hat with a big blue silk band around it. Peace was now back to the garden, Coco laid the hat on top of a grey mannequin wearing a white outfit with just a tinge of blue in it; fit for a student of Coco’s teachings, of course, that will never happen. Coco then went to continue training and preparing for his visit to Anchor in his usual tree until he heard something rattled. He looked around to find where it could be, but he found nothing. Coco went back to his routine but then he now saw the mannequin shaking now. The top hat then started spinning and sucking in the outfit with it, the hat then spat it out showing it was now like a blanket with the cuffs of the former outfit now an accent on the bottom of the blanket. The blanket stood up with the top hat on it, it was now up to Coco’s thigh which was basically average height. Coco stood in place watching it, the blanket looked around, groping at things and it felt a big pen brush that still had ink on it. It grabbed it and started to bring the brush closer to itself. Coco couldn’t see what it was doing with it and when the blanket turned around which showed, it had two big black empty eyes with two blue pupils that looked like it was glowing and a mouth that seemed to convey confusion or innocence. Coco decided to just ignore it and he walked around him and started to pack again.

Bones was now looking around the place, it was a simple house with some flowers from outside and some essentials along with some kind of oven with something melting in a pot. He slipped outside and looked around to find the things he left behind. He took in the serene and sunny lake and he walked around to where he remembered where he left off. He then saw the two small crystal balls floating on the lake near a reverse waterfall, Bones shifted his eyes into a confused look on why these are floating but the golden one wasn’t, and secondly, where was the golden one? Bones’ question, however, was left unanswered as he noticed the lantern had no light, he picked it up and his started to tense, Oh no! Where could it have gone?! Did it die!? Bones panicked in his mind, he always had that lantern for his life, if it wasn’t alight then he didn’t know what to do. And when he didn’t know what to do, he cried to himself.

Coco was watching the whole thing unfold from afar, he seemed to have felt sorry for someone for the first time and the first person to in Greyscale. Something seemed to have awakened inside him, but he just didn’t know.

Coco walked over to Bones who was now sitting on the edge of the bridge looking toward the foggy distance. He sat next to him and turned his head to him, “Hey…” he said quietly to him, Bones looked back still tearing up and smudging his eyes, “…you alright?” Coco asked him, Bones nodded a little; he was obviously lying, “Well, if that’s how you feel. Here, I wanted to give you this.” Coco handed him a black lantern that was similar to Bones’ old one but it had a stained glass pattern of blue and black glass instead of regular glass, “I made it out of this black sword and the glass reminded me of you.” Coco explained, “I know it won’t replace it, but it’s at least a step in a direction.”

Bones held the lantern in his hands, he didn’t know what to say, or even how he felt. He left the lantern on his free side and he sniffed a little on the inside. Bones stood up now and Coco stood up also now, “…Hey, things are going to be fine. I know it, myself.” Coco said. Bones then quickly went over and hugged Coco as tight as he can on his legs, Coco couldn’t hug back since he would probably have his hat fall off so Coco just patted the top of the hat and that was it, “You want someone to come with you?” Coco asked him, Bones nodded.