THE CLICKING OF A CAMERA BEING TURNED ON, followed by the blinking light of the recording, standby light flashing. We hear jumbling as the camera is focused, and we see a close up of PARIS MONET, who's clearly holding the camera incorrectly. 

PARIS: Is this thing on? 

XANDRA CHO (offscreen): Can't you see the red light, dumbass?

PARIS, frowning: Okay, you don't have to be mean, Xands

XANDRA (offscreen): My name is Xandra. 

PARIS: And my name isn't London, but Theo doesn't give a shit, so why should I?

The camera shakes, being passed to DEXTER THORNESS, who holds the camera properly, and zooms out so his face is in frame. He smiles. 

DEXTER: Hello! 

THEO SUN-LAURENT crowds in, squeezing his face next to DEXTER's. 

THEO: Who are you talking to?

DEXTER: I don't know. Our future selves? 

NAOKI MAE (offscreen): Are you recording? 

THEO: Yes, we're making a fantasy porn video. 

ILLIAS CROSS (offscreen): Stop making Dexter embarrassed, Theo, we talked about this. 

THEO: Sorry, Mom! 

DEXTER: Uh--

The camera is snatched by XANDRA, who holds the camera up in widescreen, and behind her we can see crumbling buildings encased in vines and ivy. Small black pits have opened cracks in the sidewalk, which our characters carefully avoid, winding around them in long snakelike paths. They're walking the streets, armour and weapons strapped to their bodies. THEO and PARIS chase each other in and out of screen as XANDRA speaks: 

XANDRA: For some context, since these dimwits can't make a proper video, we're on our very final mission before we're admitted to the level of an authorised Keeper. That's people who fight demons in the dream realm. 

ILLIAS (entering screen): Also, just so you know, you can't show anybody this. 

XANDRA: I'm not stupid.

ILLIAS, frosty: I never said you were. 

PARIS (squeezing between the two): I'm gonna kill someone with my lightsabers! 

THEO: Rome, we're gonna get copyrighted. Shut up about your Star Wars shit, and put your mouth to actually good use, like--

XANDRA: If you finish that sentence I'm going to pants you so fast you'll feel a friction burn on someplace unspeakable. 

THEO: Ah. Gotcha. Shutting up. 

PARIS (muttered): Plus, we're not even releasing this. We can't get copyrighted, dumbass. 

THEO: What did you say? 

PARIS: You heard me.

They begin bickering, and XANDRA storms away, leaving the camera to ILLIAS, who blinks at the camera slightly. 

ILLIAS: I have no idea how to use one of these. 

THEO (offscreen): Old man! 

PARIS: I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, SUN-LAURENT.

We hear the sound of PARIS's lightsabers activating, a humming sound. THEO yells and we see them sprint behind ILLIAS. 

ILLIAS: Guys, seriously, this isn't the time--

The recording cuts out. 

WE CUT TO NAOKI TURNING THE CAMERA ON AGAIN, checking her hair in the screen, scrunching her nose when her hair won't lay flat, then shrugging. Instead she turns the camera to the building before her. It's a small brownstone, with an iron gate and a stone path leading up to the stained glass door. Dried up potted plants frame the house like dead gatekeepers. A matted rug reads WELCOME. The others are gathered around the door, steeling themselves, and keeping quiet. We can hear a faint disturbance, but nothing is clear.

NAOKI (offscreen): We're here, at the house of the one and only Kasey Rodriguez. Cheerleader, chemistry ace, and popular lacrosse star, Kasey is mostly beloved by the student body. Except for me, of course, since she tried to run against me for student president in twenty-one. 

THEO (turning to look at NAOKI behind the camera): You ran in twenty-one? Weren't you, like, a sophomore? 

NAOKI (offscreen): I won in twenty-one. And twenty-twenty. I only lost in twenty-nineteen because I was brand new. 

THEO (unintelligible): Nerd. 

NAOKI (offscreen): What did you say? 

ILLIAS (putting a finger over his mouth): Shhh. Monsters, remember? 

NAOKI (offscreen, whispered): Sorry. 

ILLIAS, to the group: You've done this before. You can handle this one on your own. 

XANDRA: You sound so confident. You should be at least ten times more worried. 

PARIS: I hate to agree with a natural disaster, but Hurricane Xandy is right. We are not prepared. 

THEO: As long as you have me, you'll be fine. 

PARIS: Oh, now I'm reassured. What can you do, again? Tell me I'm sad?

DEXTER (cutting over THEO, who's about to speak): Enough! 

They all shut up, slightly stunned and embarrassed. 

DEXTER, shyer now: We have a mission guys? 

ILLIAS, proud: Dex is right. Focus. Being a unit, something cohesive and unified, is going to make sure everybody gets out alive. If you fight, you die. 

NAOKI (offscreen, behind the camera): Okay, go for it! Don't fuck up! 

THEO (over his shoulder): Language, Mae. 

NAOKI laughs softly, but we can hear the anxiety in her tone. She's nervous for them. 

PARIS rests his hand on the doorknob, looking to the others. 

PARIS: Ready? 

XANDRA nods surely. THEO looks a little less certain, but isn't going to let his fear cow him. DEXTER pauses, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath. When his eyes open, he looks determined. 

DEXTER: Go. 

They slam through the door, bursting into action. NAOKI slips through behind them with the camera. We enter the building, and it's nightmarishly dark. The wallpaper hangs in shreds from the walls, portraits are scraped eerily, and stains mar the floor. 

NAOKI sets the camera on a side table in the front, and leans in the hallway, on screen, across the way from the camera. Her frame is tense, nails digging into her arms, even as her face looks placid. 

ILLIAS stands behind her, alert, listening to the crashes and screeches as the others fight off the Damia. 

ILLIAS (touching her wrist): You okay? 

NAOKI: Fine. 

ILLIAS: You don't seem okay. It's normal to be nervous, Noki. They're like our kids. I feel like we're letting them into the wild or something. 

He laughs, which turns awkward as NAOKI is irresponsive. 

ILLIAS: Noki? 

NAOKI: What. 

ILLIAS: Are you... He shakes himself, editing his sentence. You're upset. 

NAOKI: ...

ILLIAS: Because I danced with Paris? 

NAOKI: ...

ILLIAS: Or because I still want to be friends? 

NAOKI: ... 

ILLIAS: Can you just say something, goddamnit? 

NAOKI, low and dangerous: I don't think you want me to. 

ILLIAS: I do. I want to hear everything you say. 

NAOKI turns to face him, and though she's significantly shorter, she seems to loom over him, a predator toying with her prey. She's about to be cruel, and she knows it. So does he, yet he doesn't turn away. 

NAOKI: You want to hear how much I hate you? How much you make me sick? Here, let me give you a demonstration. 

She deepens her voice, mocking. 

I'm Illias Cross. I think I know everything, and I'm always right! LOL, I'm so cute and everybody loves me, even when I'm a bit of an asshole, because I'm rich and white and male! I make promises I don't keep! I manipulate people into being scared to lose me because I'm just so irresistible and I can get whoever I want! Teehee, I'm so special, someone turn me into the poster boy for an ideal high school boyfriend! 

ILLIAS: ...

NAOKI (continuing): My girlfriend, pardon, ex-girlfriend, is so silly and dumb, she needs me to teach her about all her own emotions. Mansplaining? What's that? I'm just being right! You're being sad, Noki. That's when your pathetic little heart gives out and can't be fake happy anymore, so it's crying instead! What's that? You find it hard to trust me because in the past people have manipulated your emotions so you didn't even trust yourself? Wow, that's so hard. Let me do the exact same, and manipulate you into loving me and relying on me, so you're never going to find independence again! Wow, what a great guy I am. Plus, everybody thinks we're in love! 

ILLIAS: Naoki--

NAOKI: I'm not done talking. 

ILLIAS: I love you. 

NAOKI: Funny way of showing it. Dumping me, because I'm not emotionally mature? Then promising me that you love me anyway, and you'd never replace me, and you'd wait for me to figure my shit out? Then breaking said promise and dancing with Paris? 

ILLIAS: It was just a dance! You danced with Theo! 

NAOKI, fiercely: I never promised I wouldn't dance with other people. I may be immature, and toxic, and bad at communicating, but I would never make a promise I couldn't keep. 

ILLIAS: It's just a dance. 

NAOKI: And you're just a boy. I'll find others. You already have, apparently. 

ILLIAS: It's not like that. 

NAOKI turns away from him, and spots the camera, forgetting that it was on. She crosses to it, picking it up. 

ILLIAS (off screen): Apparently, you still haven't fixed anything anyway. 

We see her face contort, and for a second, she looks capable of great evil. Then another second passes, and she's only broken, a glass bottle smashed on the concrete. Perhaps dangerous, but mostly just shattered. NAOKI turns away from the camera, and we see a tear streaking down her cheek in the dim light. 

NAOKI, broken: I don't know how. 

The screen goes black. NAOKI turned the camera off. 

THE CAMERA FLICKS ON AGAIN, and XANDRA grins fiercely into the lens, a few scrapes and bruises on her face. 

XANDRA: We killed it. 

PARIS (off screen): Literally! 

XANDRA, cont.: That was the easiest Damia we've ever had. 

DEXTER (squeezing into the frame): It was huge, too! But we actually worked really well together. Xandra, that move, when Paris distracted it and you went in and cut its legs off--

PARIS (overlapping): And then I stabbed it in the eye, and Theo shot it with his gun--

DEXTER (overlapping): And then you were so fast I literally couldn't see you it was crazy--

PARIS (overlapping): And I was like boom fuck yeah! and I smacked the shit outta that beast--

Their voices fade into background chatter as XANDRA grins at them. She leaps in to correct something, putting the camera down and forgetting to shut it off. We can only see parts of a light fixture, popcorn-textured ceiling, and the occasional bit of XANDRA's hair or PARIS's flailing hand. Their conversation is a jumbled mess, faded out, filled with happy chatter and unintelligible banter. 

Closer to us, quiet and over the background of XANDRA, PARIS and DEXTER's conversation, is THEO and NAOKI. 

THEO: Are you okay?

NAOKI: Me? Yeah, why?

THEO: I could... feel what happened. A little. 

NAOKI, guarded: What do you mean? 

THEO: Don't play dumb, Mae. The fight. I felt it. 

NAOKI (after a few beats): How? 

THEO: I don't know. Maybe it's residual feelings. I can't feel anything else you're feeling, even right now. I just felt that. 

NAOKI: Don't try.

THEO: I won't. I wouldn't. I just thought I should ask. It felt... horrible. 

NAOKI, softly: It was horrible. 

THEO: Want to talk? 

NAOKI: It's fine. Nothing we can't fix. We've had fights before. 

THEO, unconvinced: Okay. 

NAOKI: Don't worry, Theo. Just focus on your powers. We have to find out how to use them in the field. 

THEO: I've been getting some ideas. Don't know anything for sure yet. 

NAOKI: Well, I trust you. You're smart, even if you pretend to be stupid. Well, maybe you're not pretending. 

THEO: Hey! 

NAOKI, laughing: Get outta here. Go celebrate with the others. You deserve it. 

THEO walks away, his shoes tapping on the floor. We hear NAOKI sigh, collapsing into a chair, and it sounds like she's folding in on herself. 

NAOKI, to herself: You deserve it. 

A red battery symbol flashes in the corner of the screen, and the camera goes black. Battery low. Battery dead. 

THE CAMERA POWERS UP ONCE MORE, and its cameraman is unaware of its recording. We can only see parts of a classroom, a whiteboard, some desks and a rolling chair. The window is half-shuttered, veiling the desolation behind it. ILLIAS is sitting in the rolling chair, staring off into space. 

ROX (off screen, accompanied with a knocking sound): Knock, knock, Lieutenant. 

ILLIAS (bolts up): Come in, General. Sorry, just thinking. 

We hear ROX entering, shutting the door behind him, and taking a seat at a desk before ILLIAS. We can see his leg, and parts of his shoe, which tap the floor thoughtfully. 

ROX (off screen): Thinking about what? 

ILLIAS: ...

ROX (off screen, though his hands rest on the desk assuringly): You can tell me, Illias. I'm your mentor in life, not just Damia-slaying. 

ILLIAS, sighing: It's Naoki. 

ROX (off screen): Mm. 

ILLIAS: She's mad. Understandably, but can she ask me to wait for forever?

ROX, surprised (off screen): Did she ask you to wait? 

ILLIAS: Well, no. I know she still loves me, and we want to get back together but... I can't date someone who doesn't even trust herself, let alone me. 

ROX (off screen): That makes sense. 

ILLIAS: She's trying, I can tell, but she doesn't know how. She thinks she's always right. Sometimes she is, I can admit that. But she won't open up, and it's just hurting both of us. I made the right decision. 

ROX (off screen): But did you do it the right way? 

ILLIAS pauses, torn between dismissing his mentor, and falling into his arms sobbing. 

ILLIAS: I--

ROX (off screen): Don't tell me. Tell her. If you want to make this work, you'll communicate. You'll adjust to make her see. But you can't force her to do anything. She's a person, your equal, not a coworker to command. 

ROX stands, crossing to ILLIAS and ruffling his hair. He cups ILLIAS's cheek gently, clapping his back. 

ROX: You'll figure this out, son. You always do. 

ILLIAS: Thanks, General. 

ROX exits, the door shutting with finality behind him. ILLIAS lets out a soft, quiet sob, almost like a laugh. 

ILLIAS, muffled: I wish he wasn't so smart. 

author's note! 

happy wednesday! i did promise you wednesday updates, so here's a prologue to part two. 

teehee i hope you guys are in emotional turmoil now <3 

welcome to part two! let's get this party started >:)