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Zoe found herself floating in clouds, but she wasn't sure if they were clouds. She didn't know how clouds looked like anymore. She didn't remember.
She could fly, but she felt that her arms and legs were too weak to move.
She looked around and the fog combined with the light made it hard to see, so she squinted.


The light suddenly stopped shining and she opened her eyes. She floated up and, confused, tried to remember what had happened.
However it was like her mind was blurry. Everytime she tried to recall the past, only jumbled details remained.
She could only remember a sense of emergency and fear and... Sparkles?


She looked down and saw the hazy setting. The scene was blissfully serene, nevertheless it seemed off.
Something was wrong.
This place seemed... Unknown.
She thought that this was a sky. But it wasn't. Something was telling her that this wasn't a sky. Something was telling her that she needed to wake up, that she was lost.


Wind started to make her floating unstable abruptly and she begun tumbling through air. She could feel her instincts telling her that she had to break out of this.
But how? As she slowly realized that this was probably a dream, she tried telling herself to wake up, but she remained in it.
She started panicking as the wind grew stronger. She tried to close her eyes, blink a lot, nothing could free her.
She was trapped in a dream.
And then...


She woke up in a bed and immediately sat up.
"What..." She stammered.
"Zoe! You're awake!" Ruby said. "You had fainted when... Tia cast that spell."
"We moved you to my bed so you could rest. I had to stay with you to make sure you weren't harmed." Tia said, completely unshaken.
The memories crashed in Zoe's mind and she felt furious.


"How could you do this?!" She screamed at Tia.
Tia rolled her eyes annoyed and sighed. "I'll explain."
" "Explaining" doesn't erase what you did!" Zoe roared.
Tia didn't answer this, instead staring at Zoe with a tired expression.


Zoe looked away.
"There is a way to fix this." Tia said.
Zoe, Ruby and Dan waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't.
"How can you even revive people?!" Dan said anxiously.


"I can tell you, but you won't like it." Tia said, hesitating a bit.
"You'd rather all humanity doesn't exist?!" Ruby said.


There was a long pause.
"Listen," Zoe started. "I gave up trying to reason with you. Just tell us how to undo this mess."
"Fine," Tia said. "we'll need to talk with the Grim Reaper."


Zoe, Ruby and Dan burst out laughing sarcastically.
"What?" Dan yelled.
"I told you, you don't even believe it." Tia remarked.
Zoe sighed. Nothing seemed impossible to her now.
"How in the world would we even reach the literal Grim Reaper?" She said.


Tia scowled. "There is a way, but we'll need money." She said.
Zoe, Ruby and Dan looked at each other dumbfounded. This was becoming more and more surreal the minute.


"Okay, you're definitely messing with us right now." Zoe said. "What are you even talking about?! First, you tell us we can "talk with the Grim Reaper" and now you're telling us "we need money". Make it make sense!"
"If you won't listen to me just like earlier, then what's the point of telling you? Just trust me!" Tia shouted.


"Last time we trusted you, you lied to us." Ruby remarked.
Tia got up from the chair. "The only reason I lied was to keep you from freaking out." She said. "I had to lie that they were only "missing", because if I had told you the truth you would have been way more shocked and unwilling to understand me."
"You took advantage of the fact that we don't know anything about magic, and now you're trying to justify it as "you wouldn't listen"?" Ruby asked.


"Urgh, okay! I admit, it's my fault I did this huge mistake! Now you have to help me, this is why I teleported you all here! You have no other choice, unless you hate for everyone to be alive!" Tia snapped.
Zoe, Ruby and Dan all looked at each other.
This was just like before. They couldn't do anything else and they felt trapped in this decision.
Zoe stared at the floor when she said, "Alright. It's not like we can do anything else."


She looked at Tia. "But don't think we're doing this 'cause we trust you. As you said, unfortunately there's no other choice!" She screamed at her.
Tia nodded. "This will be a group effort. I expect every one of you to take this seriously, regardless of how strange it might seem."
Meanwhile, now that things had become relatively calm, the truth had sinked in their minds.
Everyone in the world was not alive, at least for now.

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