Simone crossed her arms and looked at Assassin, “The more you kill me the harder this is going to get. We shouldn’t have killed Damsel either. We didn't have a choice though.”

“What do you mean?” Mia looked at Simone.

“What do you think is outside those doors? They are the darkest parts of both of us.” Simone crossed her arms.

The Guide did a little dance, “I can explain! To keep sane Simone separated herself into many different entities of herself. However, due to extreme torture the negative Simones killed all the positive ones. The real Simone put me asleep so that I could eventually help who would come save us! By the time Lewis comes to help us there are seven sins of Simone left.”

In any case, Mone walked over to Assassin and started to pull his daggers off of him, “Hey fucking stop! HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE THEY ARE?!”

“How the fuck do you think I know where they are?” She scoffed as she even got the more hidden ones off of him. She was practically taking Assassin’s clothes off.

“ARE YOU FUCKING MAD?! STOP!”

“I forgot how shy you used to be,” Simone stared at her Lewis and sighed. “It was cute.”

Lewis rolled his eyes as Simone disarmed Assassin, and smirked. “Stop teasing me. It might cause…” He paused. “Actually, I don’t know if it will cause any problems.” He looked to Xeik, “Hey, will this cause problems?”

Xeik was smiling as Mia hummed to him, and looked over to Lewis, slightly annoyed that he had to answer a question. “Should be fine. As long as none of you die die, everything should be okay.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Edge asked.

“Well, Damsel can regenerate. Lewis and Simone are clear too. They’re practically immortal as it is. Everyone else, well…if you die, it might have a severe effect on your internal psyche. Not sure exactly the repercussions, but better safe than sorry.”

Lewis shrugged, “So nobody dies. Everything else seems fair game.” He smirked. “Could just dismember all of the younger Lewis’. Would keep them out of my hai-”

“Actually, maiming might be a problem too, now that I think about it,” Xeik said, turning his attention back to the group.

Dawn was staring at Mia with wide eyes. “Wow…you’re pretty…”

Simone waved her hand, “I vote the Assassin and Edge.” She was glaring daggers at the two of them. “Snow is fine. Look at him cooing over Damsel~ We were so cute.”

“Simone no! Xeik said no!” Mia stomped her foot breaking the floor.

“Watch the floor! Lewis and I took like eight years to pick the new flooring for this place…” Simone was tapping her foot as she watched the floor fix itself.

Lewis put his hand up slowly with dead eyes, “It took Simone eight years. I didn’t care.”

“IT WAS A GROUP EFFORT,” Mone puffed her face out and crossed her arms.

“…There’s no stopping her when it starts… She is an absolute monster,” Lewis had dead eyes as he looked at Assassin and Edge. “You should see her at auctions…”

“…What’s wrong with auctions?” She tilted her head at him.

“…You just look so beautiful when you are viciously stomping noblemen into the ground…” Lewis said cautiously before watching Mone go over to sit down. He looked at the others and mouthed, “She is an absolute fucking monster never let her figure out what auctions are.”

Mia looked at the younger Xeik and blushed, “Thank you… I think you’re pretty too!” She got excited when she said it.

“Mia is so cute!” Mone hugged Mia. “It was only yesterday she told me I was stuck up and I booted her outside our house, Lewis!”

Mia huffed again and looked away, “Mone is strict.”

Edge seemed like he was starting to calm down, but in reality he was getting more and more annoyed. It was at this point in Lewis’ life where he felt that actions spoke louder than words. He needed to do something, kill something, anything, anyone. He started to pace back and forth, but the constant banter between the annoying women and his other selves was getting on his nerves.

Lewis noticed this, and walked over, which caught the attention of Snow and Damsel. The other two followed, watching to see what happens.

“Edge, calm down. I know the feeling. But remember..sometimes on jobs, you need to sit and wait. This is one of those instances.” He smiled. “Just calm your breathing.”

Edge glared at the older version of himself. “Easy enough for you to say, you whipped bastard.”

Snow and Damsel’s eyes widened. Snow seemed more alarmed than anything, “Wait…am I…whipped?”

Edge smirked, “Sure are, you fucking wuss. I bet you can’t kill worth a damn.”

“Says the idiot who butchered a few jobs because he was impatient,” Lewis replied. “I was there, remember?”

“Did I really calm you down that much?” Damsel asked Snow.

“Like hell a flat chested bitch like you could ever make me feel anything,” Edge replied with a venomous tone.

All of the Simone’s snapped their heads in his direction. “What. Did. You. Just. Say?” All of them said it at once.

“Oh no,” Lewis said. “Simone. Simones. Dear. Love of my life.”

“See, whipped,” Edge smirked but the smirk disappeared as every single one of the Simones but Innocent went after him. They tackled him to the ground and were beating him up.

“WHAT DO WE DO?!” Mia yelled, “You know she hates it when someone comments on her bust!” Mia started to pull the Simones off but the real one was straddling Edge holding him by his shirt and she decked him across the face.

“I mean… He deserved it.” The real Lewis said.

“You crazy bitch!” Edge looked at Simone with wide eyes.

“And…” She pulled him real close so he could smell her orange blossom perfume easily. “Don’t you ever fucking forget that fact. I can and will kill you, me, Xeik… I don’t give a fuck.” She let him go and got off dusting herself off as Lewis took her into his arms.

“And for the record… Assassin… Edge… My Lewis became the best assassin in Revaliir. He retired so we could raise our family without any harm happening to the children. It was a decision we made together because some things bring more pride than putting our family in harm’s way.”

“But… I can’t have children,” finally the baroness spoke up.

“You’re right we can’t.” Simone spoke and looked at the Baroness. “We adopted a lot but it was Xeik and his mentor that allowed Lewis and I to conceive. So please respect Xeik even if sometimes he’s too much. He’s the only one outside of the Rose family who we allow to treat our family.” Speaking of that she turned and she bowed to Xeik and Mia. “We’re sorry the evening got ruined.”

“It’s not your fault! How did you know the twins would do this?!”

Simone made a face, “I don’t know how we didn’t realize what was going on. As parents Lewis and I have failed to recognize our kids were having trouble.”

“You can’t watch them all the time! You have seventeen!”

“Lila and Janus… are special. They can feel us and we can feel them. We know how they operate… We can tell when they are upset or hurt or giddy. I don’t know how we missed them having a problem with the resonance. If something bad happened to them,” Mone frowned and Lewis hugged her tight.

“Mone, don’t overthink it,” Lewis whispered to her. “We couldn’t have foreseen that being the cause of the problem.” He kissed the top of her head.

Mone started to laugh as she looked at Edge and Assassin, “Those two remind me of Janus and Lila so much now that I think about it.” She laughed to keep her mind clear. “Of course, I can see myself in them too. Lila has your determination… and Janus definitely got your later patience.”

Edge scrambled away at the earliest chance to start nursing his bloody nose and wounds. Assassin, much to Lewis’ surprise, went and helped. Perhaps he felt a close camaraderie to Edge due to their relatively similar age. The two were probably the closest in terms of personality and judgement. After all, it was only Raith’s training that had broken him of his reckless streak. Past that, the two were quite similar.

Lewis looked over to Xeik, who was still quite enamoured with Mia’s voice. It was here that he could hear his wife speak nonstop, and he seemed almost in heaven. The ex-assassin hated to interrupt, but there were more important things to deal with.

“Xeik. No, not you…the real one.” Both Xeiks had looked at Lewis when he called. “Have you heard anything from Angela yet?”

Xeik frowned, “No. I haven’t. I’m sure she’s quite focused on breaking the connection between you two and the twins. It’s not likely to be something she can do easily without being in Elysia. But, if she stops now, it’ll likely only get worse for everyone involved.”

Edge grumbled, “Anything is better than being locked in here with you disappointments. If this is my future, I’d rather just die.”

Snow smirked, “Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean you have to reject it.” He walked over and looked Edge over himself. “She didn’t hurt you that much. Just a broken nose, and even that isn’t something we haven’t already dealt with. “

The real Lewis rolled his eyes. “Are conversations with me always so…dull? Never realized how emotionless this all sounds…”

Simone stared at Edge and puffed up her face which was something she often only did when it was only Lewis around. “You are a lot better than what you used to be.” Simone smiled up at her Lewis. “But I’ve never minded it. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that I was also like that… Do you remember?”

“The bath,” Snow called out to her.

“That’s right.” Simone nodded. It was before Angela had taken them to Elysia the first time. Just before the first dream dive that made them so much more.

The largest of the two doors out began to shake as if something was trying to get it. It began recklessly more violent until it finally broke the seal. “We have company, Dear… Looks like they have finally noticed.”

“You stupid bastard!” The voice of Simone roared into the room as a bloodied dismembered form broke in. Hard grey eyes were looking at all the Lewis. “I’m going to devour each and every one of you!”

“Time to get to work…” Simone started to walk towards her.

“First, I’m going to kill you!” She was screaming and finally, the Simone began to run towards Simone leaving a trail of blood. “I’m going to kill you for what you allowed that BITCH to do to me.”

“Guide was simply following orders to get rid of things I no longer needed. Lewis has enough of you for the both of us,” Simone tilted her head as Wrath finally tried to lunge at her. “You are incredibly outdated as an emotion,” she choke slammed the sin before started to systematically destroy the woman more. “Should you give in I’ll allow you to live… If you don’t I’ll destroy you.” Screams filled the air as Simone cruelly broke the already battered woman.

From the broken door came a stutter and a shake, “Lewis, my love… Can you take care of those?” A horde of undead Simone in various stages of decay started to come into the room. “Snow keep Damsel away. Guide stay near Xeik. Baroness just don’t get killed…” Innocent was hiding with Mouse now as they huddled together.

Looming in the shadows was a naked Simone who was staring at Lewis. "If you come in here, I will kill you." Simone looked up at her. "What you did to Lewis was unjustified." The sin disappeared seemingly okay with just looking at Lewis. At least, she had managed to scare off one.

Edge and Assassin had seen quite a lot during their own days of doing odd jobs and surviving, but neither of them had seen anything quite like this. Well, at least not yet. The two were stunned as Lewis rushed past them, dispatching the zombified Simone’s with deadly precision. If the other Lewis’ needed proof that his skills were still sharp, this was more than enough to set their minds at ease.

Another door burst open, and more of the zombified Simone’s burst forth, swarming towards Xeik. Without missing a beat, Xeik deftly weaved in and between them, severing the ties of mana that fueled their decaying corpses.

The whole battle had lasted only a few minutes, and all that was left in the end were the cries of Wrath as she struggled helplessly against Simone.

“Wrath…I suggest you back down,” Lewis said as he walked up to her. “You’re cute when you get angry, but even that has its limits.” It was not the first time he had flirted with a sin, and it probably wouldn’t be the last time either. There was only one sin that he couldn’t handle, and for good reason. Simone had already dealt with that problem, though.

“FUCK YOU,” Wrath yelled at Lewis still very resilient.

Simone snapped her neck but still, the sin was screaming things at her, “She is so…. Durable… Guess I don’t have a choice~” Her eyes glowed an azure. “You had a chance to live… You who have all of my stubbornness. My anger. The deepest pits of my sorrow. It’s time to go to sleep.” Wrath lit up in blue hellfire her screams filled the air. All that was left was her charred remains and Simone stepped on them until they were nothing.

The zombie Simones caught on fire after dispatching the sin controlling them and Simone held up her hand as the door slammed shut and a magic seal reformed. “It doesn’t look like the others will fight us for now. I was most worried about her but we’ve taken care of it with no issues.”

“Lust isn’t willing to fight,” Guide finally spoke up.

“No, she just wanted to see Lewis… She no doubt covets him. We must keep Lewis away from her at all costs,” Simone sighed a bit. “She would rather just look at him than die trying to take him. Thankfully.” Simone rolled her shoulders. “That’s why you aren’t allowed outside the doors.” She stared at the other Lewis’s. “Snow already knows. He’s dealt with it by now.”

Snow shivered. Out of all of the versions of Lewis, he was perhaps the most vulnerable when it came to Lust. Even the true Lewis had not fully come to grips with what Lust had done to him, though he at least had managed to cope with it in the best way he knew how.

“So what do we do now? Just sit here and wait for those…things to come back?” Edge asked. “Or for this “Angela” person to fix whatever is wrong? Why don’t we just take the fight to them. Works better than just sitting here being a targe-”

“We don’t move,” Snow said, re-emphasizing what Simone had stated. “Even if the real Simone and Lewis can handle it, we can’t. It’s better to just…wait it out.”

“Whipped bastard,” Edge replied, throwing up his hands. “Do none of you have faith in your skills?”

“I have faith that you’re a twat,” Assassin replied. “Fighting them is a waste. Save your strength for something that we really need to deal with.”

“Suddenly taking their side!?” Edge snapped.

“No, I just don’t see a point in wasting my time,” Assassin responded. “But I can find ways to entertain myself…with your corpse.”

Xeik rolled his eyes, “Can you two just shut up?” He looked over to Simone. “How the hell did this turn into that?” he asked, pointing at Snow.