Lock And Key

"**Lock And Key**" is the seventeenth episode of Reflection.

*As the embers of battle die down, the demonic armies forge a new plan: warfare spread across the entire globe! On the surface OPIA attempts to recover, picking up the broken pieces of Fuse City as well as the shattered shards of themselves.*

## Summary

The episode begins a handful of hours before the end of Dying Flame. Fio and Sonnet explore the Sea of Ash around the Derelict on their search for the mysterious "fangs" of the First Tormented. Sonnet is not entirely happy to be on the search. Eventually, the two end up discussing Fio's nature as a Flametouched. Upon returning to the Derelict empty-handed, the pair are greeted by Nectar, who rushes them to the Queen's throne room.

Up on the surface, Willow and Ruth sit atop the corpse of a massive Demon they felled in the aftermath of the assault on Fuse City. After briefly discussing Ruth's aspirations to rise to Willow's level of popularity, she asks Willow to continue helping her with wielding the Sword of Hope, which she agrees to. They test out multiple techniques with the Reflection, including an energy blast and a leaping attack. Elsewhere in Fuse City, Cam awakens in Genesis' lap after spending several hours unconscious. He catches Cam up on the events after the battle. The two then walk across the street, where Mic is comforting a barely conscious Basil. After a brief talk, they take a group photo and Basil promptly falls unconscious. Willow and Ruth arrive in the area, where they head to the center of the plaza and find Robin and Liam piling the corpses of felled Demons. They notice Circuit and Satyr in a conversation with Number Five and the GEIST AI, who are being suspiciously affable, which angers both Circuit and Satyr. Solace arrives in the area as well, and uses her abilities to commune with various Reflections. She specifically asks Willow to meet her at Darkside later in the night for a more thorough communion. Soon after, Ridill and Arg0s arrive to take several Wave Two members and Mic to visit Ace.

Back in the Derelict, another meeting of the majority of Archdemons and Strangers has been convened. After a brief spat between Logic and Isaac, the Queen of Flames announces her new plan. While the assault on Fuse City itself was rebuked, the battle has given them an opportunity to push for a new strategy: if they cannot take the city, they will simply scour the rest of World Twelve. The Queen tasks Stein and The Pristine One with Beleth, and Isaac says he'll look for an area that interests him and head to the surface. Stephano additionally announces that his own side mission was a success, and that he has established a "backdoor" to the First Tormented. The Golden Knight then arrives and explains the situation with Ace's Flame before handing it to Compulsion. He also reveals that he discovered and destroyed a sigil of power placed by Ridill, which Nectar chastises him for as Ridill is notoriously sly.

In the desert outside of Fuse City, Mic, Arg0s, Ridill, and Treble head to the very same sigil in Ridill's van. Before they arrive, Treble gives the pair a long talk about their actions during the battle and their subsequent doubting of their own leadership skills, essentially telling them that doubting their own skills is a much larger breach of the trust placed in them than taking a risky move in a high-intensity scenario such as the earlier battle. They then arrive at the sigil, where Ridill explains her plan to bait out the traitor. Essentially, she in truth created *three* sigils in the desert, each one powering one of the probes used to win the battle. However, she informed each group that their sigil was the only one to exist. So therefore, if any of the sigils were disrupted, she could thin the list of suspects to a single Gate. And, as expected, they find the Gate of Humanity's sigil to be broken.

Meanwhile, Basil continues to drift in and out of consciousness. She sees a brief memory of Ace in an ambulance before awaking in an OPIA hospital bed. She immediately becomes suspicious as she is unable to "smell" any lingering emotions with her ESP. She exits her room to an OPIA building with incredibly muted colors. She wanders the place for a while before stumb bling upon a vision of the Sea of Ash. She attempts to dive into it, but is held back by apparations of her past lives, which she attempts to violently push back. In the real world, Cam begins to notice Basil thrashing in her bed, and forces her awake. She awakens with no memory of the past day, and so Cam catches her up to speed. He explains that, while bound to Basil, hediscovered some of the mechanics of her condition: when approached by certain information, specifically relating to her past lives, her condition activates, and erases her memories. Gene then arrives in the room to do a checkup. Basil questions his credentials, but eventually relents and goes back to sleep. In a nearby room, Ace awakes in his now-Flameless body. He is greeted by Solace, who attempts to commune with Seagazer, but Ace pushes her off and watches her bounce around the room. He is then visited by Arg0s, Willow, Ridill, and Mic, who update Ace on what they learned about his current physical state. After this, the group has a bittersweet reunion as Ace agrees to begin working with OPIA yet again to recover his Flame.

In the Derelict, Ace's severed Flame, now with a separate consciousness from his body, awakens within a metallic Pyromancer suit. Nectar appears in front of him, and he attempts to attack her, but finds himself restrained. She explains to him his current situation: Compulsion attempted to meld him and a Reflection that would allow her to control him, but Seagazer's presence completely prevented this. The Pyromancers settled for putting Ace's Flame in a spare suit for a mysterious "seventh Pyromancer", with a bomb installed by Logic that would kill Ace if he stepped out of line. The Golden Knight then arrives to take Ace to a jail cell in his section of the Derelict. He explains that he wants to drag as many OPIA and FLOW members down o the Derelict as he can, in order to save them from the end of the world as well as convince them to join his side. After leaving, Fio and Stephano arrive with a variety of food, but Ace is unable to eat, which upsets Stephano. Fio insists that they still have a tea party, which prompts Ace to posit that there's a hidden message in the tea. Embarassed, Fio leaves the cell. Inside the tea, Ace finds a message that reads "seven hours". He continues to converse with Stephano about the Derelict, his past lives, and the Formless Style. However, he suddenly experiences an intense disturbance after realizing just how severely he broke the tenets of the style by existing in this form.

Back at OPIA, Ace's body is greeted by a wide variety of figures. Ridill goes through a variety of tools that they could use to keep his body stored with Flame as not to lose consciousness. He agrees to wear specialized clothing made by Ridill, Treble, and Arg0s, and update his tools if needed. They then leave the hospital room to find Ace a dorm to stay in. They are greeted by Basil, who doesn't immediately recognize him as his Flame currently comes from Mic. They arrive at the dorms, where Ace explores a variety of roomate options while the others catch up with other FLOW and OPIA members. Ace briefly reunites with Vaultwatcher, who has since bonded with Logan.

Later that night, at Darkside, Willow, Cam, and Ridill meet with Lace to begin communion. Using a newly developed robot called a "Reflection Surrogate", Willow is able to directly speak to the consciousness of her first Reflection, which is known as "Keyhole". Keyhole, piloting the surrogate, takes the group to the VR chambers, where he shows them the ruins of an incredibly ancient civilization predating even the Cycle, and how their ancestors initially lost their human forms, and how his world was eventually overrun by the Sea of Ash. He expresses great admiration and pride in Willow as his wielder, calling her an "ideal human". The communion then ends, and Keyhole separates from the surrogate. Some time later, Dr. Verona gathers most of the company in the OPIA lobby to read out the current most highly ranked FLOW members - Willow for "Season One" (the events of Act One), and Mic for "Season Two" (the current Act) so far.

## Characters

### Party

* Ace Galatine
* Arg0s
* Basilisk Id
* Willow Wisp
* Ridill Arondite

### FLOW

* Lyst Solais
* Twice
* Melli Luxity
* Colt
* Satyr
* Ruth Galatine
* Charybdis
* Genesis Aeon
* Liam
* Robin Rumeli

### OPIA

* Dr. Verona
* Director
* Treble
* Mic
* Cam
* Cast
* Circuit
* Danger
* Solace
* Logan

### GEIST

* Number Five
* GEIST AI

### Demonic Courts

* Fio
* Vinter
* Stein
* Isaac
* Logic
* Compulsion
* Golden Knight
* Stephano
* Sonnet
* Rio Fenrir
* Enforcer of Morality
* The Pristine One
* Nectar
* Queen of Flames