“Alright Private Luna, excuse me, Specialist Luna now, right? Yes, we've received your report on the incident. As of right now, we're classifying this as Top Secret. It would severely hurt morale if everyone knew how close they were to destruction. You are restricted from further talk on this matter, understand?”

Luna lies slumps forward, her voice tired and despondent.

"Yes, of course."

"We wish we could hold a ceremony, but unfortunately due to the sensitive nature of the operation, we are unable to."

Luna nods, not caring.

"However, you were listed as Specialist Crabby's beneficiary, so this medal goes to you."

The squid pushes a small tray in front of her. Inside, lies a Silver Sun, one of the highest medals of valor. She sighs, stowing the medal into her inventory.

"Finally, there is the small matter of the contribution points. Your squad currently had it set up so that all points would go to Specialist Crabby?"

He doesn't wait for her acknowledgement before continuing,

"Due to the... extreme... nature of the mission the points are rather high for the entire squad. Also, as his beneficiary, all those points now fall onto you. They're enough for you to buy out your military contract and retire outside the Incursion Zone."

Luna stares, dumbfounded at the proclamation. As if she even cared about that right now. It has only been three days since... since Crabby has disappeared. Luna asks,

"Is... is there any sign of Crabby?"

The squid jerks, not expecting the question. His voice turns soft, and she can hear the pity in his voice as he replies,

"I'm sorry Specialist. No recovery operation will be taken. When he called for fire the Air Force responded. There is nothing to recover after a dragon’s attack."

Luna nods and then turns to leave. As she exits the debriefing room a small tap on her armor gets her attention. Looking blearily around, she feels a pull from a room just ahead. As she enters, Luna sees an old woman. From her looks, this must be the hag Crabby told her of. They stare at each other for a moment until Luna breaks the silence.

"Can I help you?"

The hag nods, "Do yae have it girl?"

Her question confuses Luna, and the extra emotion is just too much right now. She turns to leave and as she reaches for the door handle, the hag quietly whispers,

"I can sense it on ye. Take out the shard, let me see it."

Luna freezes, and turns around, staring the hag in the eyes. The creature walks up and whispers,

"There's still hope child."

With shaking limbs, she pulls the piece of Crabby's claw from inventory. For some reason it's still warm, and as she looks at it, it's almost as if he's there beside her. With a trembling voice Luna asks,

"What do you mean, there's hope?"

The hag looks at the piece of claw before handing it back to Luna. She then stares off into the distance, as if trying to find the words to speak. Finally, the hag says,

"It's an old road yer crab is walkin' on... not much seen in this [system] age. He's fallen to the beneath he has, and maybe, just maybe he can crawl out of it."

"The beneath?"

"Aye, where broken things go to be forgotten. Shadowrealm some call it, others say it's the Dreamlands. It shares space with the Fey realms it does."

The new information rocks Luna back in shock. But there's one part of it she latches onto.

"He… he can come back?"

The hag huffs, and then looks to the starfish in front of her.

"Don't get yer hopes up girl. It's a one in a million chance."

Luna leans forward, excitement filling her voice,

"But... but if he could, how soon could it happen?"

The hag stares at the starfish in front of her. Finally, she says, "You just hold onto that spirit anchor girl. He'll lock onto it and use it to guide his way home. As for how long that'll be... if it happens at all, it'll take as long as it takes."

"Yeah, but..."

"As long as it takes."

***

In the Divine Realm,

“Well, that was successful, I guess,” said Aethir rising off the couch.

“Successful, Crabby is undead now!” screamed Toriana.

The three gods had gotten together but moment's prior, and with divine speed watched the entirety of Crabby's journey in the military.

Aethir shrugged, “Well, technically he turned into ash towards the end but I was talking about saving Incursion City., Which was the overall mission anyway. You should have your Bards sing about that, you don’t even need to mention Sergeant Smith, or the part where he is now a wraith. Bards like a good underdog story right?”

“But Crabby,” sighed Toriana as she deflated.

“Died valiantly,” replied Aethir. “I’ll give it to you, if luck existed, it would be his highest stat. Unfortunately, now he’s very dead. To be honest, I’m sad to see him go, he grew on me. I’d have picked him up as a Paladin as quick as I could after his performance.”

“He’s a wraith,” said Lira, bringing up her divine interface and running her claws across it. The keys clicked far faster than they should have. Let me see where he’s fallen to in the beneath.

“Knock Knock,” came a warm voice as a green crab scuttled into the room. Plants coiled from her shell, gently curving and supporting her movement. A warm glow suffused the area, leaving everyone with a feeling of well being. Yet inside her eyes, a storm raged, mother nature untamed. As she entered, she made eye contact with Lira. A silent battle raged, until Wisdom spoke first,.

“How’s life?” Lira said.

Ischyros, the aspect of Constitution met her challenging gaze.

“How’s death?” She replied.

The awkwardness grew until Aethir cleared his throat. “Uhm, I have to go find out who changed the teleporter coordinates.” He vanished before anyone had a chance to say anything.

Lira turned to Toriana, “Did you send for her? Why is she here?”

Charisma defended herself, “I know sapient undead aren’t allowed to stay on the material plane for very long. I thought the two of you could work together, you know? The old quest system?”

“We discontinued that because it was never effective. It was just a waste of what limited power we had.” Constitution said.

Lira scoffed, “You mean you sabotaged any chance of returning to life.”

“More like you refused to let anyone go when they entered your domain.” Ischyros said.

Toriana clapped her claws together, getting their attention.

“You two need to put aside your differences for the moment and look at the big picture.” With a tap of her divine interface, she pulled up Crabby’s history, from beginning to now. With divine speed, the two aspects scrolled through and quickly made the connection. Their expressions quickly grew in shock.

“Is this true?” said Ischyros.

For a rare instant, a grim expression was plastered on Charisma’s face. She said,

“Yes, he’s [REDACTED] now.”