Stu had called it a night early this evening. The training with Tom had exhausted him and after dinner he was going to get some much-needed rest. Heading to bed early he colpsed into its comfort. He y there zoning out slowly, feeling more rexed he rolled over, to his surprise there was Chaos. He sat up unexpectedly, asking, “What? What do you want now? Why won’t you just fuck-off!?!”

  She sat there grinning in his bed before saying, “I’m trying to, but you keep pying hard to get. I like how this time I didn’t try to mess with you, and you still knew exactly who I was.. So, have you given my offer any thought?”

  He stared at her like a zombie. Frowning at her he said, “Fuck-off Evil Chaos! I’m tired!” He rolled over in bed facing away from her and pulling the bnket over his head.

  She curled up against his back rubbing her face on his shoulder. She said, “So, is that a yes then? I could sweeten the offer, even though what I’ve offered is pretty sweet…”

  Stu pulled the bnket off his head, looking back at her saying, “I told you before, not interested. 3/10, remember? I do..” He pulled the bnket back over his head.

  Evil Chaos whispered, “I can give you total control of your powers..”

  Without coming out of the bnket Stu asked, “What do you mean total control?”

  She started pulling the bnket from his face, he didn’t stop her. She leaned over looking at his face and grinning. Evil Chaos spoke confidently, “Your power comes from me, or didn’t you know that? That hot dispy at the st house was just a taste of what you could be capable of, that is, if you had control of the power. I didn’t want you to lose your god and I thought you would appreciate the taste. So, tell me Stu, how did it feel?”

  He sat up in the bed while putting some distance between him and her. He said, “It felt right.. Not powerful or wrong, it just felt like it was where I was supposed to be..” He looked lost in his thoughts.

  She smiled saying, “I know, that’s because you’re the Steward of Chaos. You are the Steward, and as I’ve said before, I am Chaos..”

  Stu looked up reminding her, “Evil Chaos..”

  Her smile faded for a moment as he said that. She quickly regained her composure saying, “Alright, you still think I’m evil.. Let me ask you a question though; I’m from a time before good and evil ever existed. I’m from a time before existing even existed. I was there in the nothingness before pce even existed. How can either of the Chaos’s be good or evil?”

  Stu thought about it. He looked at her questioningly before saying, “Alright, you want me to think that you are not evil? Alright, I can do that, I think..”

  Evil Chaos threw her hands in the air victoriously saying, “Thank me! We finally are making progress!” She smiled wide.

  Stu looked at her like she was weird before continuing, “Yeah.. About that.. I was going to say; you could prove you aren’t evil..”

  She looked at him curiously asking, “How exactly do you propose I do that? I’m not giving you control over my power, so you can forget that. I won’t give over my only leverage on getting out of that forsaken doorway.. Enlighten me..”

  Stu showed a serious expression as he said, “First thing you could do to prove you aren’t evil is give Prosperity her eye back, that would go a long way in helping your argument.”

  Evil Chaos sat on the bed staring at Stu silently. He couldn’t read her expression as he waited in the silence. It felt like forever went by before she spoke, “Hmm.. Give her eye back? Interesting offer, but honestly it’s impossible.”

  Stu almost jumped up on the bed yelling, “You said before that you could!”

  Evil Chaos looked up at him saying, “Yeah, well, technically I could and technically I can’t. You see, those damned daggers are God proof, but the rules aren’t. The rules say the damage done with them can’t be undone, it didn’t say the parts couldn’t be changed out though.. What I was originally offering wasn’t so much to give her old eye back but to give her a new eye altogether..”

  Stu settled down some and rexed slightly. “Alright, and what would giving her a new eye entail? We steal another god’s eye or what?”

  She smiled at Stu saying, “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you fold your hand out and close your eyes?”

  He looked at her questioningly; still, he didn’t trust her at all. Reluctantly he closed his eyes and held his hand out. Felling her closed hand pce itself in his, she let go of something that felt like paper. She then moved to kiss him, his eyes shot open. He was alone in his dark room; he looked for the window. “Oh, right. Underground..” Grabbing his phone, it was after 8AM. A piece of paper slipped from his hand and fell on the floor. Picking it up and trying to read it, but it was useless. It said Broth/HoxA/HoxD19/Synth/ and it was followed by a string of numbers and letters that were scrawled across the paper in its entirety. Stu couldn’t understand any of it, except Broth..

  He tried to dial Broth, but there was no signal in his room. He sighed at the inconvenience of no signal and no beautiful boobies. Stu got dressed, grabbed his stuff and made his way out into the new living room. The girls were all there, already up as usual. He figured they only slept about four hours a night if that. They were all still shy around him after everything, Chaos being the exception. She looked at him with a smile asking, “How are you doing today?”

  Stu took a seat and said, “I’m doing okay. Spent the whole night with Evil Chaos so, you know. I really didn’t get much sleep.” The room went silent as he looked up at the girls all staring at him in shock. Thinking about what he said, he realized how that may have come across. “We talked.. That’s all..”

  Prosperity asked, “Did you talk about putting a bun in the Chaos oven again?”

  Chaos made that sound again freezing, “eep..” Prosperity smiled for the first time since the fire.

  Rubbing his face in frustration Stu said, “She definitely is trying to get it. However, she is currently trying to convince me that she’s not evil.” He looked at Prosperity saying, “I may have a way to get you a new eye. Are you interested? I’m only going forward if this is something you want. If you don’t want it, then tell me right now.”

  Prosperity was caught off guard by Stu’s direct confrontation. She hesitated, looking at him then at the other girls for an idea of how to respond, but they all just looked at her waiting for an answer. Extremely softly, especially for her, Prosperity asked, “Is it actually possible?”

  Shrugging his shoulders Stu responded honestly, “I don’t really know, but Evil Chaos seems pretty confident. I think this might work; I can almost feel it in by blood. So, are you interested Prosperity? This is totally up to you.”

  Prosperity ran to Stu and jumped on his p in the chair hugging him. She was crying uncontrolbly and saying, “Yes.” Over and over again. He wrapped his arms around her to comfort her as she buried her tears in his chest. Muffled, but still speaking she said, “I’m sorry, but this is beyond anything I could have hoped for.. I’m sorry to break down. I’m sorry..” She continued sobbing in his arms. Even he hadn’t realized how strong she had been about her eye; there was no way he was expecting this kind of reaction from her. She always took everything on the chin, but she had emotions too. Stu looked up at the other girls, and they were hiding their tears as best they could. Stu resolved himself, he knew this was the right thing to do. He continued holding Prosperity for over an hour as she just kept her face buried in his chest. Eventually, she regained her composure some.

  Stu asked, “Are you alright?

  She looked up at him with very red eyes saying, “This was just a lot, all at once. I’m fine though.”

  She tried to get up, and he continued holding her on his p. He kept his arms firmly wrapped around her. Bluntly speaking he said, “Prosperity, I’m sorry. You were so good at hiding your pain that even my bullshit detector didn’t catch on. I should have known how much this bothered you, and I should have taken the time to address it with you. You have done so much for this House. I have failed you as a friend, and for that I’m sorry.”

  Prosperity shook her head saying, “No, you didn’t fail me.. I’m just not as strong as I should be for you. You deserve…” He kissed her before she could say more.

  Stu pulled back from her lips and said, “Don’t ever say that again. If you ever tell me a lie like that again I’ll actually get mad at you. You have been stronger than myself, so don’t sell yourself short. Deal?”

  She nodded wide-eyed, she asked, “What do we do now?”

  He chuckled at her saying, “I guess I need to get ahold of Broth.”

  Wrapping her arms around his neck she leaned up and kissed him again. She asked, “Do you have to do it right now?” She looked deep into his eyes.

  Chaos said, “Um.. Yeah.. I think you are feeling better. So, maybe it should be now.” They looked over at Chaos who was still sitting there with her arms crossed watching intensely.

  Prosperity smiled slyly saying, “It’s okay Chaos, I don’t mind if you join us too.”

  Stu’s eyes grew wide, and Chaos threw a pillow hitting him in the face. He yelled, “What did I do?”

  Chaos said, “You thought that I’d do that, with her? Really Stu?”

  He blushed, “Right, sorry.. I swear it’s involuntary, I’m a guy..”

  Prosperity looked up at him and said, “I’m game, let’s go try whatever you were thinking about.” Chaos growled getting up and grabbing her by the ear and dragging her out of the room yelling at her the whole way.

  Stu sat there for a moment wishing he could just get ten minutes alone with one of the girls. Then reaching in his pocket and retrieving the piece of paper; this was the next thing though. Sadly, it probably wouldn’t get him any closer to that sweet god nectar. He sighed getting up and heading outside. Looking at his phone, there was signal once more.

  He dialed the phone, Broth answered, “Sup buddy?”

  Stu asked, “Do you think you might be able to tell me something about a bunch of gibberish with your name on it, if I send you a picture?”

  Broth sat silent for a minute before saying, “Huh? What does that mean?”

  Stu sighed taking a picture of both sides of the paper and sending it to him. He said, “I got this from someone, and I have no idea what it means. I figured since they put your name on it you might understand it.” He waited for confirmation from him.

  Broth excitedly said, “Yeah man! I understand this, it’s genetic coding for biological chemical interactions between cells. As a matter of fact..” The line went silent for a moment. “Aha! Found it, Hmm.. This is pretty good stuff, I feel like I’ve seen something simir before. Give me some time and I’ll figure out what this means, this is the first thing you have asked me to do that actually falls into the area my degree is in! This is finally exciting!”

  Sarcastically Stu said, “Yeah, it sure is.. I guess call me back when you know something..” He hung up the phone hoping for the best, Stu needed this to work.