Enxi lay in their bed alone, feeling the emptiness of the whole house, the whole town, the whole world. They felt the dripping sickly hot feeling of the blood that wasn't there on their hands, but was at one point. The wind whistled past their airs, micking the whispers of those Enxi knew were long gone, or short maybe? She couldn’t tell anymore. The cracked window let cold air fly right through the blanket placed over it, Enxi looked at it, at the pink blanket that had been donated to cover the hole, at the glass still shattered on the floor from months ago when it had broken.. when it wasn't just them in this house. Enxi squeezed their one barely working eye closed, not wanting to have another whole breakdown, as they didn’t have the energy to spare.

Before the tears Enxi desperately tried to avoid could freeze their eye shut, a weird noise caught them off guard, and they raised their head slowly, the large cold crystals that took up half the face and slithered down their spine and torso, were slugging and clinking along with her. They looked around the room, which was still as cold and empty as it was an hour ago. 

With a sigh, she hauled their body out of their bed and onto the floor with a thump. For a moment, Enxi was worried the loud noise had bothered the residents below, oh she hoped Ruin wouldn’t be mad.. Enxi couldn’t handle getting yelled at right now, or worse.. Enxi dug her right hand onto her left arm, right beneath where the spiky crystals had started to stem from, slowly moving to cover the whole arm, just as they had almost fully done with the right.

Before Enxi could spiral any further, a much warmer hand was placed on top of theirs. Enxi looked up, pulling back out of fear, this had to be Ruin. 

“I'm sorry- I didn't mean to make that much noise I jus-” Enxi threw out the words quickly, defusing the situation before it began.

“Enxi, calm down. It's me, Nyxx.” 

Enxi looked up, and sure enough, in front of them was not a snarling Ruin, but instead a very concerned Nyxx, their dark purple hair and black eyes looking at them, the mask they usually wore over their mouth was now hanging on one of their ears, so Enxi could see their scarred up mouth.

“Nyxx..? what are you doing here I thought..” Enxi paused, their eye scanning the others' faces, unsure if this was real.

“Dead? Unlikely! You, on the other hand… look half dead.” Nyxx looked at the dark circles under the younger's eyes, and how thin and cold the arm in their hand was.

“It's.. been a hard… What- couple months, year?” 

Nyxx’s face went from worried to extremely worried. “Enxi. It's been 23 years.” They spoke plainly, as if it was common knowledge, and not just dropped onto Enxi, shattering all they thought they knew.

“...What?” Enxi's voice shook, their mind flashing through all the time they had spent here in this room, alone. it had almost elapsed the time she had spent in this house not alone, at least physically.

Nyxx stood up, looking around the room, or at least what was left of it. For a while, Nyxx tried to imagine the type of life Enxi had been living here. With a sigh, they turned back to Enxi, “I'm not letting you stay here a second longer.”Enxi looked up as Nyxx walked across the room, opening their hand to reveal floating crystals, which flew out, slicing through the air as if it was a piece of paper, leaving glowing white streaks behind. Once a full hole had been created, the once wall of Enxi’s room fell away revealing a portal to a… castle? Enxi scanned the place the portal led to. She had seen Nyxx’s portal making abilities before, but where was it going to? Enxi didn't have the strength to ask, so they just looked up at Nyxx with confusion lacing the part of their face you could see. Nyxx was about to speak, before a chillingly familiar voice rang out.

“Splatter? Where the hell are you? I swear to god, if you three are playing impromptu hide and seek again-!”

Enxi froze. Neptune? What was he- but they had- 

“-Neptunes dead.” Enxi stated as if they hadn’t heard his voice a few seconds ago. They looked up at Nyxx, her face plastered with confusion, fear, and guilt, “What- ..Nyxx… what's-”

Nyxx put a hand on their shoulder, smiling calmly, “Calm down Enxi. This is a different Neptune, from a different timeline. He doesn’t know you, or anything that happened.” they spoke quietly, and looked back through the portal.

Enxi looked back through it as well. A… different Neptune.. One who didn't know Ruin, or Daylily, or Ghost or… them. He didn’t know how many scars on his body she had caused, he probably didn’t even have those scars-! This- this was another chance! A new start. They could make things right with Neptune, to not leave him trapped with Ruin, to save rather than hurt him! 

But as they walked through the portal alongside Nyxx, carrying only the stuff they needed, there was this sinking feeling in this stomach. They weren’t happy with this. This wasn't what they wanted. It felt.. wrong. 

They didn’t deserve another chance. They didn’t deserve to be standing anywhere near Neptune again, otherwise it might end the same way. 

Then they realized. 

This wasn’t a new start.

It was another chance to fail again.