The Universe's Mixer

He wasn't quite used to the idea of being two Erics in one, but he had to get back to the idea of normal that he'd had before all this shit had gone down. If he didn't press himself into it now, he wasn't ever going to get to it naturally. He knew that. He'd just drift and become bitter. Possibly excessively violent.

It had happened for a time when he'd become a vampire. Only reined in by his maker and the commands he'd been given to stop.

So Eric was at Purgatory, ready to play his part. All his vampires needed to work, and that included him. Of course, his place at the establishment was relatively easy. Running it happened naturally, so even the big problems were taken care of quickly. His work within the club itself was much simpler than being a bartender or waitstaff. He didn't even have to man the door.

His place was on the resplendent throne, looking like the king he was. Menacing the patrons into terrified giggles. It was boring, it was tedious, but at least he got to sit the whole time, and looking bored seemed to be part of the charm for the tourists.

Eric's eyes scanned the room, taking in all the patrons. From where his throne sat, he could even see the hunter side. He wondered where Jo was. He'd not seen hide nor hair of her since he'd been back.

Macklyn was with Mara in the kitchen, using an eye dropper to feed her a little bit of blood, when Bran appeared. It was very rare that the spirit was without Eric, so Macklyn had expected him to be along soon. When he wasn't, the hybrid finally set down the makeshift feeder and turned to eye the big black bird who was unusually silent.

After a moment, frustrated, he'd spat out a slightly irritated what, and Bran had filled him in on everything that had happened with Ariel.

From that point, Macklyn had abandoned his task with Mara entirely, and gone to sit in the living room, waiting for his mate to appear. It wasn't that he didn't believe the bird's tale, it was that he wanted to hear it for himself.

They were not supposed to be revealing that information to anybody. Now somebody outside of them knew. It had made him uncomfortable with D, but at least D had been like them. This was entirely different, and it marked the second occasion when Eric had been flippant about their secret. Macklyn was incensed. He'd been very specific at the beginning that their survival depended on the secret. And he'd reiterated the point after D, he was sure.

For Eric to spout off about it as if it were nothing...

Dinosaurs weren't a big deal.

Well, okay. They were. They were a huge deal. They were a monstrous, several story tall, crushing-everything-in-their-way deal. And they were a deal that seemed to be roaming through the City currently, doing whatever they pleased.

Michonne had watched a brontosaurus munching on the top of a City tree near the park, and had gone the other direction, wanting nothing to do with it at all. That had gotten her smack dab in the middle of what seemed to be a fight between a raptor thing that was bigger than her and a pack of smaller raptor looking things that were just a hair smaller than her. She'd tried to sneak her way out of it, but they'd seen her.

The dinosaurs simultaneously fought one another while trying to chase her down, and they still outran her fairly easily. She had to fight or die, she knew. Her sword came out from over her shoulder, and she set her feet, ready to go down swinging.

The pack was between her and the bigger raptor, who was taking them out one by one on the other side. They lunged at her and she swung, hitting one right in the neck. The sword didn't go through the leathery flesh like it did the rotting stuff from the walkers, but it cut deep enough to sever the main artery and put the creature down. She couldn't tell if this enraged the others, who continued their attack with little sign that they even noticed their fallen comrade.

Michonne knew that if she killed too many too fast there would come a point when she and the bigger raptor met face to face, and she did not have faith in her skills to that measure. It was too big, too fast, and a fucking dinosaur. She thought she'd rather face a horde of zombies alone. Or a bear. She'd happily stare down a bear. But if she didn't kill them, they were going to eat her. Literally eat her. While this was not a new threat in her life, Michonne didn't want to be eaten by dinosaurs anymore than she'd ever wanted to be eaten by a walker.

Her sword slashed, biting at flesh and destroying the life of another of the pack.

They had never really set a spot in which to perform this test but Logan had enough smarts to know that a thing of this caliber warranted all of the privacy that could be had. That was why Logan had chosen a secluded grove off toward the outskirts of the main parts of the town, closer to that creepy wall than he'd ever like to be. The energy it gave off didn't settle well with him, he hated the way it coursed over his skin. But he had made a promise to the young mutant and he was a man of his word. He hated everything that the barrier stood for and if he had the opportunity he would have torn the thing apart.

Logan had never mentioned Melody to Giselle. He didn't want the woman to worry about anything or try to interfere. This all could go so awry and Logan did not want Giselle caught up in the action. He didn't tell her where he was, or any thing remotely close to what he currently was planning. There were only three people that knew what the situation called for. Himself, Melody and the woman Logan had brought with him.

The prospect of finding the perfect candidate had not been a difficult one. The young woman he had happened upon was terminally ill, a brain tumor was growing at an alarming rate within the cerebral tissue beneath her skull. It had already produced a lesion the size of a golf ball which was visible if looked at from the right side. The patient had no family, she was by herself. She was perfect.

Logan had brought the patient to the scrap of land when Melody was ready, and once they had arrived Logan texted the young mutant to give her the location. The wind blew around him as he texted. He hated texting. It was pointless. Or maybe he was just old-fashioned. And what the fuck was a selfie?

Shaking his head, Logan punched in the last of the sentence, and sent it to Mel. He snapped the cell phone shut and shoved it into a pocket. It sat gently against the revolver that already had been in the clothed depths. It had been so long since he had used a gun, Logan normally was more hands on when it came to fighting but the point was to see how Melody held up to the bullets. So he had bought a gun and brought it with him. He had not dilvulged that information to the terminal girl, she didn't need to know all of that.

"Where are we?" The young woman asked, looking around at the place. It was quaint for a death scene. "Won't be too much longer now. I promise."