Event/Infested War Chapter Summaries

Prologue

Scene opens on Calliope working in Raguda and Ladiva inquiring about her health and that she seems even more tired than usual. Calliope waves it off saying that she's been writing a lot more lately and she loses track of time way too easily.

Cut to a battlefield of flames and blood and then Mars shoots up from a nightmare. Vane half wakes up and Mars tries to play it off, distracting Vane with cuddles. When both are resting again, there's a otherworld figure who appears briefly before disappearing again.

Chapter 1

Vane is having lunch with the rest of Dragon Knights and Captain, Lyria and Vyrn when Lancelot picks up on Vane's surly mood. Vane confides in them about his worries regarding Mars and his not sleeping. Ladiva accidentally overhears and mentions that she's found Calliope sleeping in one of the booths before her shifts at Raguda lately too.

There's an agreement made to reconvene later and maybe bring Janus into this so that they can maybe try to learn more before talking with Mars and Calliope.

Later, they come together again and Percival brings Beatrix with him as well. And the captain brings Morphe and Phoebe with them. Though Janus gets blindsided by the mention of constant nightmares too. The Dream Twins say that something does feel off but it could just be fluctuations from what happened with Mars and Calliope before.

Chapter 2

There's fluff between VaneMars where Vane's checking up on Mars and bringing up his worries to Mars personally but Mars is brushing it off saying he's fine and instead choosing to drag Vane to teach him to cook something.

That evening, Calliope, while at Raguda, is being watched carefully by Ladiva when Percival and Beatrix walk in. Ladiva pushes Calliope to take a break with them, and while she's talking with them, they notice that she isn't making the stage or musical references that she tends to when excited...and while it's when she's sleepier, she seems very confused when Beatrix brings up the play she had arranged for Halloween with Jack. However, she ends up falling asleep while talking with them.

The morning after is the intervention where it's primarily Janus, Lyria, Vane and Beatrix staring down Mars and Calliope about everything that's been happening. It should be noted that Calliope seems far colder and less playful than she usually is. They're interrupted by an attack on the ship by a few Otherworld beings. While fighting the Otherworld beings surround the pair and catch both Calliope and Mars in a spell before being cut down. Both primals stay standing for a few moments before collapsing.

Chapter 3

Cut to Morphe and Phoebe explaining that the Otherworld trapped Calliope and Mars in separate comas and the power of the Otherworld is rapidly taking them over as they sleep. There's greater progress in Calliope because the remnants of the crystal that they were unable to remove previously, because they had infected her core, created a greater foothold for the power. The state they're in makes it so that only certain people are able to enter Calliope and Mars' dreams.

So the Captain, Lyria, Vyrn, Janus, Percival and Beatrix decide to enter Calliope's dream first. Upon entering, they realize that they're watching memories of Calliope or rather of Robin. But the influence of the Otherworld is obvious, Robin appearing similar to how she looked during the last possession event in coloring. But the group are like ghosts, unable to actually interact with the memories of Robin running around, doing errands and helping with the war councils and the like.

Chapter 4

Janus is the first to notice that something about all of this isn't right. General Frederick, Robin's creator, was known for having doted on Robin as if she was a daughter. Calliope herself always talked about how it was the General who introduced her to music and the arts to have a reprieve from the battlefield. However, in these memories, even while in private, the General is critical and treats Robin only as a weapon. (If Jeanne (Grand) has been recruited, there is mention that this must be like the overwriting of memories that happened to her.)

The group ends up in a memory they can interact with and they try to reintroduce her to the arts to break her out of it. Beatrix is the one who starts to break through the haze of the changed memories by singing a song Calliope had written for her. That's when the General walks in, showing its true colors as an Otherworld agent and asserts control over Robin, forcing them to fight the Otherworld version of the General and the younger Robin.

After winning, the Otherworld presence is removed from Calliope's memories, showing the others the true glimpses of the father that Calliope so treasured. Mini-Robin is with them and there's a bit of doting and teasing over how cute she was when she was younger. While the others leave her dream, Calliope gets to have one last conversation with the last true remnants of her father that the Otherworld had used to mimic his form.

"Follow your own path and be happy, my little bird."

Chapter 5

Calliope wakes up to everyone hovering over her, fretting. In a repeat of what happened when she woke up at the end of Wings of a Robin, Beatrix hugs her tightly but also Lyria and Vyrn pile on.

Following Calliope’s freedom from Otherworldly control, she realizes that Mars is still unconscious, and pleads with the rest of the crew to join them in entering Mars’ dream. The crew immediately refuses, and refuses to budge on the matter. Beatrix in particular physically holds her back from doing so, though it’s not a particularly hard thing to do; Calliope is hardly able to stand as is. Tired and in the arms of the person that bring her the most warmth, Calliope can’t help but fall back asleep, but this time she sleeps peacefully and dreamlessly.

Trapped in a nightmare of his own, Mars is forced to relive a battle that he fought as Andronikos in which his entire squad is slaughtered by the opposing skydweller force. He is not in control of his own body, and is beginning to lose hope that he’ll ever awaken when Captain, Lyria, Vyrn, Vane, and Janus appear… on the wrong side. Surrounded by skydwellers that want Mars dead, the crew is torn between protecting him and fighting him.

They soon realize that they don’t have a choice, however. Mars, or at least his body, advances towards them and makes multiple attempts to kill Captain, who is protected by Vane. Turning his attention onto Vane, Mars again swings his sword with the intent to kill, but manages to regain control of his voice and pleads with the crew to leave before he kills them. Captain and Vane refuse to abandon him within his own nightmare after being unable to help him while he was in the waking world, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that between Mars and the rest of his unit, they’re fighting a losing battle, a notable difference from the actual battle that transpired. Cue a scripted battle in which the crew is forced to retreat. By the end of Chapter 5, Mars’ eyes have taken on a violet hue, and the voice that comes from his body is no longer his own.

Chapter 6

Ending