For some reason, this chapter got eaten and went bye-bye. Well, here it is again. I'll put up the next part of this whenever I find it. Probably tomorrow.

Since this isn't even the third time I've put up the preamble for this chapter, I'm not going to go on at length about it again. Instead, I'm just going to warn you now: Things are going to get weird before they get sane.

Niflheim is Mal4Prez's creation. The rest of the background is my own.

Feedback got eaten, understandibly enough. Luckily, you won't need to wait as long to see the next few bits, but still every little bit is nice.

The Ecstasy, Part 1

George glanced around furtively as the dust started to settle. The enemy had finally given up the ghost, which was a good thing, because he was tired. Damned tired. Only Belle had any energy to her, and he wasn't willing to pay the price she'd paid to get it. So he did what he had to do, to protect his 'family'.

“Is it over?” Junior asked, looking hopefully to his father. “Are they done?”

“They're done, son,” George nodded slowly, slipping his old, failing handgun back into his pack. It had served him well for the entire Wither, so he couldn't just throw it away. Even if, as the situation was, he could replace it with something far superior. George reached down, relieving one of the corpses of the fancy, well-maintained rifle.

A clipped scream sounded, ending wetly, not too far away. Probably Belle, he thought to himself. He'd long ago stopped caring about the brutality she showed to people, so long as they weren't his people. It was too much effort, and gorramit, she was just too useful to kick to the curb. He inspected the gun carefully, smiling, despite his face's protestations, at his sudden good fortune. There were plenty of people who'd pay a handsome sum for a weapon like this. He hadn't seen a weapon like this on Niflheim in a damn long spell.

“What do we do with the bodies?” Junior asked, hooking his hands around the straps holding their own packs to their backs. George looped