When the convention finally opened, we started making haste to the 1st panel, before abruptly stopping to look at a cosplayer. Said cosplayer was small, chubby, and held a sign saying looking for Jaune Arc, which we both reflexively blanched at the sight of it. I didn't know RWBY well enough to have an opinion, but I knew that Pyrrha didn't look like that. Inigo was about to ramble on how she ruins the look of Pyrrha, but I quickly covered his mouth.

"Well she's definitely a eye catcher... not in a good way of course."

We then avoided ever looking at the girl who had that sign, seeing plentiful amounts of cosplays that were actually good. Though the best one we had seen was coincidentally a Jaune Arc cosplay. While the dude himself looked as if he'd be better dressed off as Shaggy from Scooby Doo, the costume was so well designed it almost looked as if it came from the show.

As we went about our panels, Rooster Teeth showed off a few interesting things I never had tried before. Stuff like ASMR, death battle, and a few new games that Inigo was eager to test out in the expo hall. After the cosplay judging was all said and done with of course. We didn't win the contest since the costumes were of low notoriety as expected between Destiny's & Rooster Teeth communities. I told him the beginning armor wasn't going to work at all anyways.

As we were about to leave, the same teenager with the crab shirt had stopped us.

"Hey there! Mind if I take a picture? Those costumes are dope!"

Inigo quickly agreed, and I just shrugged not seeing the harm in it. He gave the phone he had for who I presumed was a friend of his to take a picture with, wishing to pose with us. Inigo did a flexing pose, while I just copied Solaire as it was Inigo's idea. After a few moments of getting the picture just right, we went straight back to walking back.

"So you guys are beginning guardians slowly being infected by SIVA right?" The crab teen suddenly said.

We both blinked a bit, and turned to look at the kid. "I'm sorry what?" We both said.

"Your gauntlets ya silly geese, they're not part of beginning armor! They're so metallic looking too!"

We looked down towards our arms. Sure enough instead of the regular cosplay gauntlets I had expected, I had found a completely different look on my arms. Gauntlets that I KNOW I didn't have before, moreover been put on. My mind raced into overdrive, wondering who or what did this, and I began to hyperventilate a bit.

"Uhhh, you ok dude? Rather strange to be freaking out over your arms. Pretty sure most of humanity has them right?"

"Yes, yes I'm fine. Could you excuse us for a moment?" I said, as I dragged Inigo to the nearest bathroom, letting out a yelp as I pulled him in. As I slammed the door shut and locked it behind me, I quickly took a look around to see if there was anybody nearby. Once I made sure the room was empty, I released my frustrations.

"WHAT THE FUCK INIGO!?"

"ME?! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!"

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO GAVE GHOST MINIATURE FLIGHT SYSTEMS!"

"I DIDN'T ADD 'Mutate human lifeforms into terminators' AS A FUNCTION!"

"WELL WHO ELSE COULD'VE DONE THIS HUH?!" I threw my arm up in front of his face. "EXPLAIN THIS!"

He paused for a moment, before realizing something I had yet to. "That guy you were talking to at hotel, who was he?!"

I paused at the sudden revelation he gave me, my face paling from the horror of the situation we were set in. Taking my silence as an answer without note of my facial expression, he shouted the question again. "WHO WAS HE?!"

"I'll actually be honest Inigo... I never knew the guy."

"...What?!"

"We'd forgotten our ghosts at the previous hotel, and I was wondering how I would break the news to you."

"That doesn't explain how in the world our arms got-" His face paled too. "You've gotta be kidding me... HE showed up at our door?!"

"I wasn't thinking of it at the time! I was just so relieved that I wouldn't have to deal with you freaking out that I-" I didn't get the chance to finish my sentence, as he grabbed my collar with his newly acquired robo arm.

"YOU BOUGHT OUR GHOSTS BACK WITHOUT ASSUMING IT COULD BE SOME SORT OF TRAP FROM THE MERCHANT?!" I quickly kicked Inigo off me, sending him stumbling into a bathroom stall.

"I WOULDN'T HAVE ASSUMED SOME REALITY TELEPORTING MERCHANT HAD RIGGED OUR GHOSTS WITH A MECHANICAL PARASITE! BESIDES HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN YOURSELF FREAKING OUT?!"

"YOU MADE AT LEAST 2 STORIES ON THE CONCEPT FOR FUN! OF ALL PEOPLE YOU SHOULD'VE REALIZED IT!"

"NO DISPLACED WRITER WOULD'VE EVER EXPECTED THAT IN REAL LIFE!"

"ANYBODY KNOWING OF TH-" Our impromptu shouting match was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Are you two lovebirds done arguing in there? I kinda need to pee real bad."

We looked over our bodies once more. During all the time we've been arguing,SIVA has made it's way across our torso,and moving towards the legs. I could only hope little Aaron won't be in danger. We turned our heads to each other, giving both of us a look that said 'We'll finish this later.', before exiting the bathroom without a single word being spoken. Not willing to cause a ruckus, we searched for a place for the virus to take over our bodies.

We eventually settled down in a dark alleyway in Austin, the place looking like the kind of area to be mugged at. Or worse off killed. By this point, it was nearing nighttime, and SIVA had taken the legs. Fortunately with little Aaron still down there. I could still feel him pushing against the metal with his limp strength. Our helmets were worse off, the cardboard fabric ripping apart,as the SIVA slowly moved by fractions of inches towards my face. Inigo broke the silence with a pithy joke.

"What a cliched area to die in, am I right?" We both chuckled nervously, before letting out a sigh of resignation as we sat beside each other with our backs against the wall. "You know..." I quietly said. "I never thought It would've ended like this. I thought I would've lost my life trying to save a woman from being gangbanged, or preventing a bank robbery. Instead I'm greeted by my own will being stripped from me, my body being used for a killing machine."

"I thought I'd die a martyr too," Inigo agreed. "I just hope we don't cause too much trouble."

A sickening silence fell between us for a few moments. "Hey bro?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"Remember when we first watched the Incredibles? You thought that after making a wish in a fountain, in order to be truly invisible you had to remove your clothing?"

"Almost walked out of the house naked might I add."

"What I wouldn't trade for a funny moment like that once more."

"We would've had that. Maybe. But I will admit, that just proved Incredibles taught me better, than the kids who were taught by their parents to close their eyes to become invisible."

I laughed at that. "Dude, there's no way that movie didn't make your past self smarter than the others."

"That's why I went telling the other kids that you could become invisible by making that wish, and doing exactly that. Good thing none of them knew my name back then, neighborhood went ape-shit upon finding out their kids were walking around naked.

I paused for a moment, before chuckling at the unintentional confession. "You sly little bastard. No wonder why the neighborhood turned into a battleground by the time we got back home."

"Wait, I never told you that part of the story? Huh. I guess it would've been for the best to bring it with me to the grave anyways. Thinking about that again, you probably would've gotten Mom to kick me off the Playstation 2 for half a year."

"Yeah, but it's even crazier that everyone around your age believed it. Lucky thing the LAPD came in to pacify everyone."

"I really wonder how exactly nobody remembered what I looked like. Last I checked I ain't a face to be missed back then," Inigo said in thought.

"Probably cause you never got out much," I simply stated. We laid there for what seemed like hours, the sun slowly but surely going down before our eyes, whilst the SIVA slowly obscured our vision. It was sunset before I decided to say my peace.

"Might as well admit my regrets." I then cleared My throat. "I wish I had entered the path of totality, hoped to live my life to its fullest, and die the way I wanted to."

"I wish I would've been around to see the end of America. Probably would've been a nice shitstorm, the aftermath of this election."

I blinked, and turned my half obscured gaze towards him. "You'd like to see world war 3?"

"It'd end up being the end of the world right?" He then shrugged, metal grinding against metal as he lifted his arms. "Might as well make the best of it."

"I thought you'd wanna make a videogame or something." I said, and while I couldn't see it I know he was smirking.

"Well Aaron, it just so happens that I was. With the death on the horizon however, I would guess I'm most likely going to die anyways before I do that." Inigo said, with no humour in his voice.

We sat once more in silence, just simply waiting out our fates. We knew any other person would've tried to get help, tried to pry this virus off of themselves. We knew however, that displacement was inevitable, if not nigh-impossible to avoid. For how can one possibly avoid reality breaking entities taking you?

As the sun disappeared, and the streets grew dark, SIVA had taken most of my vision away, and it became harder to breathe. Inigo and I huddled up and I felt a tear escape my eyes as I closed them for what most likely the final time. I heard metal groaning, and the last thing I felt was a sharp pain in the neck...

Author's Note

Thanks to Vutava for taking the time to edit another chapter!