87. Fall

A/N: Hey there! Chapter time. This upcoming week is break week, so apologies in advance for this. Enjoy the chapter!

Transformation themes:
https://youtu.be/J393gPXcYdQ

"Are we sure about this?" Veritas asks. "This seems like… way more evil than usual. Even for you guys."

"It'll be okay," I promise. "It's not like we're going to let it rampage through town."

I hope, anyway. The kaiju, which looks like a giant, six-legged spider, stares down at me through black, gleaming eyes. I can just tell it's staring at me, even though I can't see what direction its eyes are looking. It might not even have pupils, but still… it sees me.

It acknowledges me as its master.

"It is remarkably docile," Nanaya agrees. "I think you may be even better at this than Melpomene, Antiphera."

"…I cannot deny her talent, but there's no need to point it out in that particular manner," Melpomene pouts.

"It's huge," Veritas says, halfway in wonder and halfway as if it were a counterpoint to what everyone else has been saying. "I've never been this close to one before."

"Hehe, yeah, you weren't quite strong enough to fight a kaiju," I agree, ruffling her hair. She hisses and bats my hand, which just makes me want to hug her. "Hey, it's okay! We weren't strong enough either. They kept Fulgora on horde duty."

"We're both stronger now," Veritas insists. "But… you're sure we can stop it if it tries to get to Earth?"

I hum, focusing my senses back on our large friend. With the power of my incarnate form, I've figured out a good alternative to flying: summoning water and letting it carry me around. I can even raise the water up to lift me into the air like a controlled geyser of sorts. My incarnate form is so incredibly cool! I'm still not sure why Melpomene seemed so freaked out about it.

Rising up in the air, I give our kaiju—I think I'll name him Ploobly—a friendly pat on the leg. The mist swirling around it grasps at my hand, seeking to dig down inside my skin and pour into my soul, but I gently rebuff it, sending soothing reassurances. This massive being is more than just a giant monster; communing with it is so incredibly different from just securing the help of the mantis I used to carry me on Earth. I'm still a little sad that Fulgora killed him, but I'll protect this new friend better. 

What was I thinking about? Oh, right. Can I make sure he doesn't try to attack Earth? Ploobly's mind doesn't seem to be capable of understanding what the Earth is. Or… hmm. Maybe some part of him can, but there are just too many parts of him, so it doesn't much matter. He's… a concentration of the mist, a crystallization of billions of emotions instead of just a biological being. I'm not actually sure if another monster grew into him, or if he just formed out of nothing but the mist itself. His mind is vast and contradictory, a collection of every conceivable feeling all screaming out into the dark. 

He's suffering. He's hurting so, so much. It's his curse and the source of his strength. What was the Great Execration, to create something so sad, yet so beautiful?

I'm getting distracted again. I launch myself up to his head, landing inside the comforting blanket of clawing mist. Ploobly's head is much, much smaller than the rest of his body, but it's still so big I could set up a whole picnic blanket and have a nice lunch up here. …Though the sandwiches might end up growing crystals. Anyway, I put my hands on his head and focus, trying to sort through the chaos of his mind. He fights me a little at first, but it doesn't take much soothing to get him to relax.

It's odd. I don't think I could mess with a person's emotions like this. A soul normally keeps foreign emotions out and holds personal emotion in, but Ploobly's soul is like a massive black hole, devouring so much and becoming so dense that it shatters conventional rules of reality through the sheer weight of its presence. He's endlessly hungry, and I'm not really sure why. He doesn't need to eat in order to live. He doesn't seem to have any particular desire to grow. Here in the Dark World, he doesn't seem interested in doing much of anything. It's only when a portal opens and he tastes the emotions of Earth that he'll fly into a gluttonous fury. Just like every other monster, he'll be drawn toward sources of magic and seek to destroy them.

He doesn't want to destroy me, though, and that means I can add my emotions to him fairly easily. We're kin in some ways. I've also accepted the Great Execration into my soul, even if unintentionally. The more of myself I pour into Ploobly, the more obvious that becomes. These feelings of rage, hate, and, above all, utter helplessness… they're all so painfully familiar to me. But I don't want to succumb to them. I want to overcome them! My happiness was killed, and my light was stolen, but that doesn't mean I have to give up!

I think I still want to be a hero. I'm just not sure what that would entail right now. Do we really have to keep killing monsters? Do we really have to starve the Dark World to feed the Preservers? Everything the Preservers have touched, every Earth Guardian I know, current and former… we're all in so much pain. Melpomene's right. There's something deeply, deeply wrong about all of this. I don't think she knows how to fix it. I definitely don't know how to fix it. But just like her… I have to keep fighting.

It's the only thing I know how to do.

Antiphera… 

Fulgora? 

She doesn't respond, but a deep melancholy starts to settle on my thoughts, my muscles tensing as I feel her presence stirring in the back of my head. But then… nothing. I push the thoughts of her from my mind. The more I think about Fulgora, the more likely I am to become her, and neither of us want that.

…Oh. Neither of us want that. That's… different.

"Antiphera?" Melpomene calls out, her voice muffled behind the kaiju's miasma. "Are you alright in there?"

I summon some more water to push me up out of the thick of it, popping my head out to take a breath of moderately fresher Dark World air.

"I'm okay!" I confirm. "I'm just communing with Ploobly. It's not a sure thing, but I'm pretty sure he'll listen to me."

"P-Ploobly…?" Melpomene asks.

"Yeah! He's Ploobly! I decided this."

"Er, well, okay. You just seemed a little scared for a second, so I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"You can feel emotions through all that miasma?" Veritas asks, wrinkling her nose. Gosh, it's so nice being able to feel stuff like that with the mists this thick. "It's all just messy noise to me."

"Well… I am a fair bit more experienced than you, dear," Melpomene says. "Are you sure you're okay with joining us today? We may end up fighting your former team."

"Good," Veritas says, punching her own palm. "I've been wanting to beat up Amaterasu anyway."

"What about Aurora?" I ask. "She's the one authorized for Dark World expeditions."

Veritas hesitates at that, briefly sending a nervous glance toward Nanaya. The memory of Aurora's skull being shattered by Nanaya's knee is still vivid, and it flashes through my mind at likely the same time as it does for Veritas. I'm… still a little conflicted about that. Nanaya nearly killed Aurora, the absolute last person in the world to deserve bad things to happen to her. But also, she accepted our surrender and saved Aurora's life. Plus, Melpomene likes her. She can't be all bad, right?

"Aurora is not part of our objective today," Nanaya says. "Letting her escape or taking her captive unharmed are both perfectly valid options. But I certainly can't speak for the safety of having a kaiju around. Perhaps you should focus on separating her from the others?"

"Maybe I'll do that," Veritas concedes, craning her neck back up to stare at the kaiju and me. "What do you think?"

"I'll share some of my love for her with Ploobly," I say. "I think it should do the trick, but I've never really done this before. We'll have to see!"

Melpomene suddenly clears her throat. It's an awkward, artificial sound.

"…I'll protect the girl, if it comes to that," Melpomene promises. "She isn't part of our objectives today, yes? If all goes well, we'll be handling things without a fight in the first place."

A big grin spreads on my face.

"Aww, Mel!" I coo. "You'd protect an Earth Guardian for me? I thought you'd foresworn the protection of any pawns of the Preservers."

"I-It's not for you! She's just… a child, so—"

"Pfft!" I snort. "A child!? Sure, okay. Like that stopped you from impaling us and scattering our incarnate guts all over the Dark World. You're not fooling anybody!"

"I-I… that's not, I mean…" Melpomene stammers. And then, more quietly, she mumbles: "I thought you'd forgiven me for that."

"I did, silly," I confirm. "That doesn't mean I can't tease you about it. What's the point of getting stabbed in the soul and dying if you can't make jokes about it afterward? Hup!"

With a kick of my tail, I launch myself out of the summoned water keeping me upright and start falling head-first off the kaiju toward Melpomene. She squawks in surprise, her incarnate weapons briefly appearing and disappearing for a split second before she reaches out to catch me. She stumbles a little, but manages to hold on, and I can't help but break out into giggles. 

She caught me, see? She caught me! How is that not funny? She's the reason I can't walk, the reason I'll never get to talk to Minerva, the reason Fulgora hurts me so much, the reason I have to start everything over with nothing, grasping toward a joy I can only remember having… but in the end, she caught me. Disgust and hate surround her like a cloud, filling the world around her with a vibrancy like no other. But still… I wrap my arms around her broad shoulders and squeeze. 

She stiffens, seeming to have absolutely no idea what to do with the hug but being unwilling to simply drop me. This, I decide, is also funny.

"…The two of you are certainly getting along well," Nanaya grumbles, which is even more funny.

"Hahaha! Don't worry, don't worry!" I assure her, patting Melpomene's cheek. Hehe, it's warm! "I'm sure she'll be itching to give you all the smooches you want after we get Thea back!"

"Ew," Veritas huffs while Melpomene sputters incoherently.

"That is not what I… hngh," Nanaya growls. "You really are nothing like Fulgora, are you?"

"Of course not!" I insist.

The absolute last thing I want is to be anything like Fulgora. I hope she just stays buried in the back of my mind forever. Don't think about her. Don't think about her…!

"Okay!" I say. "I should probably get back up there and work with Ploobly while we wait, but I think overall we're ready, right?"

"If you and Melpomene are confident in your control of the monsters, then yes," Nanaya confirms. "I can open the portal at any time."

"What about you, Veritas?" I ask.

She doesn't respond.

"Veritas?" I ask again.

"Huh!?" she startles. "Oh. I'm fine. …Mrs. Mckay says you're supposed to look at people when you talk to them, you know."

Huh? But I am looking at her. Er… well, I guess my head is facing pretty much the opposite way, but I'm looking at her in spirit!

"Veritas, I'm blind!" I remind her. "That rule doesn't apply to me anymore."

"Really?" she asks.

"Probably!" I confirm. Probably.

"Oh. Okay, then."

"Are you ready, though?" I ask.

"Yeah, of course I'm ready!" Veritas insists. "I'm always ready, I'm an Earth—!"

She cuts herself off, glancing down at her hands. Red crystals have started to grow over her fingernails, almost like claws.

"I'm trained for this," she says. "I'm ready to fight whenever."

Hmm. She sounds conflicted. I guess that makes sense. I feel like I probably should be conflicted, but maybe I'm just not entirely sane.

"Okay, sounds good," I nod. "Then I'm going back up."

"Min—I, I mean, Antiphera!" Veritas suddenly blurts.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Can you put your… I mean, the thing you're doing so the kaiju doesn't attack Aurora. Can you… do that for me too?" she asks. "I mean, if you… if that's possible."

I make the conscious effort to turn my head to face her, so I can give her a smile. She's scared. She's terrified, but not of the kaiju.

"Easy peasy," I assure her. "I'll put in extra. Thanks for all your help, Veritas. You're the best."

She nods, opening her mouth to speak, but she has to close it to swallow a lump in her throat. Instead, she just nods several more times before turning away.

"Okay, toss me up, Mel!" I say.

"You want me to throw you?" she asks incredulously.

"Well it's either that, or I get you all soaked summoning enough water to swim up there," I shrug.

"Well don't blame me if I have bad aim," Melpomene huffs. "I don't throw things. I shoot lightning like a civilized person."

"You and me both, sisteeeeeee!" 

Melpomene grabs me under the armpits and chucks me overhand, sending me careening back into the kaiju's body. I manage to grab on and hoist myself back up to the head, Ploobly only shaking slightly in discomfort. I return to my position on his head, taking a deep breath of miasma and focusing my power.

Countless souls, dissolved into an unrecognizable mass of pain and malice. That is the coat of a kaiju, a hyper-concentrated version of the miasma in the air. Resentment lingers, resentment gathers, resentment festers. But that is not the whole of this creature. I wonder if I could excise it? Could I partition the bad away from the good? Quarantine it? Or maybe even cut it away entirely?

It's a curious thought. As I work, I can't seem to get it out of my head. My senses take in the entirety of the kaiju's body, its long, thin legs, and its bulbous abdomen that looks like it would just be so much fun to bounce on if I had the time. Far below me, Nanaya opens the portal. A small one, not large enough to let through more than a couple people at a time, and certainly not large enough for the kaiju… though it could easily rip the portal the rest of the way open if it chooses. Still, my soothing seems to have taken hold, and Ploobly makes no move to act. For now, his purpose is fully aligned with ours.

Beside one of Ploobly's legs, Veritas waits, flexing her fingers anxiously as she tries to avoid picking at her crystals. Melpomene stands near her, standing straight and tall with her arms crossed, an imperious visage on display to whoever comes through that portal first. 

And behind her, stretching out far beyond the range at which I can sense, thousands of smaller monsters lie in wait, gathered together under her power. The largest swarm of monsters… ever, possibly. She tamed them all, brought them under her banner. Even Ploobly was hers until I offered to take the burden. Like puppies, the familiar scent of her hate guides them to their mother. 

I'm not sure what she was doing, exactly, but even she was straining under the scale of it. That's why I offered to help. She just didn't feel like she had as much purple magic as usual today.

The monsters were probably eating it, or something. But it's alright. I'm sure she'll be okay. Last time she fought the Earth Guardians, it was haphazard. Opportunistic. And, perhaps, a little overconfident. But this time, we have a plan.

I really hope it actually works, but I have a sinking feeling it probably won't.

- - -

"I hope you enjoyed that," Castalia says nervously.

"I had an incredible time," I respond honestly as we head through the teleporter back to base. "That was an indescribable experience. And… I really appreciate you sharing so much of yourself with me. I know a lot of that was very personal."

"It is not really private," Castalia says. "I just do not talk about it much."

"Well, I love learning more about you," I say. "And I also loved looking at all those stars."

"Stars are very good," Castalia agrees. "I am going to go sleep now."

"Oh! Uh… yeah, I guess that makes sense," I agree. 

It's a bit of an abrupt end to the date, but given that we might be waking her up in the middle of the night to fight Melpomene, she should probably get as much sleep as possible, wherever possible. Castalia is not an early riser.

I head toward Thea's room as Castalia floats off, knocking on the door and letting myself in after I hear a muffled grunt of acknowledgement. I find my master inside, tapping rapidly at her keyboard. It looks like she's writing… a sorting program? Ah, to help her parse the data from my body, probably.

"Hey! I'm back," I greet her.

"Hey," she says, not looking up from the screen. "How did it go?"

"It was pretty awesome," I admit. "It's absolutely gorgeous up there. We should take you up sometime."

"I don't know if I'm powerful enough to safely brave the vacuum of space like you two," Thea says. "And more importantly, you shouldn't feel obligated to include me on dates with your girlfriend. That's obviously the mind control talking."

"…I don't think it is," I insist. "Or at least it's not just that."

"Luna, stop," Thea says firmly. "Stop tempting me about this. You have to be doing it on purpose at this point. You just keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and it's really becoming hard to ignore it all. If you keep coming onto me, then one of these days I'm going to end up saying yes."

I'm a little startled by that answer. It's hard not to focus on the end, even given how many orders were packed into the start.

"Thea… if not for the whole slave thing, would you want to date me?" I ask.

Thea sighs.

"I don't know, Luna," Thea says. "I've been an Earth Guardian since I was eight. I've been trapped in the Dark World since I was twelve. I barely even know what dating is. But… you're basically the coolest person to ever exist. You're strong, and smart, and funny, and you know how to just do things and make decisions. You act on your feelings, and you don't fuck up absolutely everything as a consequence. Plus you're a hyper-advanced robot, and I could do nothing but stare at you for hours without getting bored, and like… yes, obviously, I would be overjoyed to be someone special to you."

"You are someone special to me, Thea," I insist.

"Yeah, well, I can't be happy about that yet," Thea says. "I can't, Luna. I can't let myself enjoy any part of this."

"No, Thea," I say. "Please don't make yourself miserable over saving my life."

"Did I even need to do this!?" Thea fires back. "I tied you to me because I thought I needed to save you from the Preservers, but Uma'tama went to bat for you one hundred percent. I could have just waited until I had a better solution!"

"I would rather be awake and serving you than stuck in a scrap coma!" I counter. "I was getting tortured for power by the cage until you fixed me! You made the right call, and I'm happy you did."

"It's still not right," Thea presses.

"Thea, what's not right is how miserable this is making you!"

"Luna, have you seriously not noticed how you've treated me differently ever since this started!?" she snaps. "The favoritism, the sleeping in my room, the ways you're always taking care of me, the constant flirting? It's terrifying!"

"I… again, I can stop if you don't like—"

"Of course I like it!" she shouts at me, finally looking up from her laptop. "I love it, Luna. And that's why you should stay away from me until I've fixed you. I've already let you do too much for me, and I don't want to… I don't want to get too used to it, okay? Head back to your room."

"…Have you had dinner yet, Thea?" I ask.

"Head back to your room, Luna," Thea says. "I'll make it an order if I have to."

That's… a no. But saying that she'll make it an order if she has to is as good as making it an order anyway. Everything I try to do to help her just hurts her. Everything she says to me is tainted by my compulsions to make her happy. 

The cage wasn't made for a master that I love, and it wasn't made for a master that doesn't want me, either. But I suppose the curse of the Great Execration reaches far beyond what it was likely made for, too. They wouldn't be called the Antipathy if they had an abundance of empathy for collateral victims.

"Sorry, Thea," I say. "I'll let you focus."

"Please," she begs.

I exit her room and shut the door behind me, feeling sick and listless. I wander into 'my room' in a bit of a dissociative episode, so I'm surprised to find Anath in my bed even though I had every reason to expect her to be there. She doesn't have her own room, and it's the room we brought her to when she first got here.

"Luna! Hi!" she greets me cheerfully, though her smile quickly drops. "Luna…?"

"Hey, Anath," I greet her. "How are you feeling?"

"How are you feeling?" she asks, hopping off the bed and circling around me once before staring me in the face.

"…Bad," I admit, since it's not like I can lie to her about it without closing my plating.

"Yeesh. Did you get dumped?" Anath asks.

Huh…? Oh!

"No, no, the date with Castalia went great," I assure her. "It's just… the whole thing with Thea. Er, do you know the whole thing with Thea?"

"She wants to smooch you, but you're too busy smooching Castalia," Anath nods.

"Not… not that thing," I sigh. "I mean the slavery thing."

"Oh. Oh! Oh gosh!" Anath yelps. "That's bad! Are you okay? Do you need help? Wait, you can't ask for help. Should I beat Thea up?"

"Don't beat Thea up," I insist.

"But you have to say that!" Anath says. "Oh no oh no…"

"Anath," I groan. "Seriously. It's not that. It's just that Thea thinks the best way to handle the fact that I'm compelled to serve her is to stay away from me."

"Okay," Anath nods, smiling vapidly like she expects me to continue explaining.

"…That's it, Anath," I say. "She's pushing me away, and it hurts."

"Oh," Anath says hesitantly. "But… she's right, though? Like, what else would you do? Nana was manipulating me, so I ran away from her."

"It's not the same!" I say, raising my voice a little. "I love Thea! And Thea loves me, but we still—"

"Do you think I don't love Nana?" Anath asks, a sad look on her face.

I let out a groaning noise, covering my face with my hands.

"No, Anath. Sorry. I just meant that Thea and I aren't trying to manipulate each other. We're not trying to…"

To what? What did Nanaya do that we aren't doing to each other? Keep Anath ignorant to control her better? I've been forced to avoid being fully upfront with Thea on multiple occasions. Keep Anath in the Dark Rebellion like a cage? I am literally a cage, forced to go wherever Thea does and plan my whole life around her desires. My date with Castalia is something she had to explicitly allow. 

Not thinking about things might be a pretty good coping mechanism for most Cage horseshit, but it seems to be failing me here. Still… it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel like it's the same at all!

"Anath… the difference is that Nanaya is a bad person," I tell her bluntly. "She's awful. She's selfish. She wants to burn the whole world down just to hurt the people she's mad at. She's violently abusive, devilishly manipulative, and just generally a writhing mess of vitriol and hate. She's not even trying to be good, while Thea and I very much are."

Anath hums, closing her eyes for a moment before reaching out and taking my hands in hers, staring into my optical sensors with a calm expression that I'm not sure I've ever seen on her.

"…Well, I don't think that's true at all," Anath says. "I think Nana is very kind. She cares about me so, so much. She makes sure I'm eating right and washing up and taking care of myself. She fights me and helps me blow off steam when I'm too excited, and she sits with me and gives wonderful hugs when I'm sad. She saved me, Luna, and then she saved me a hundred, a thousand more times after that. She gave me a family again. I don't think that was a manipulation or a plot."

"Then why did you leave?" I ask. Because that must be the difference then, right? There has to be something. There has to be.

"Because… a person can be happy and sad at the same time," Anath says. "They're not opposites. They don't cancel each other out. They're just there at the same time, in everybody. Good and evil are just like that. I can think she's the most wonderful woman to ever live and still know she's wrong. And… maybe I'm part of why she's wrong. I don't know. But I know I can't be the one to help her. No matter how much I love her, I just can't. I tried, but it's beyond me. That's why I came to all of you. Her and Fulgora both need help that I can't give. I'm just too stupid!"

She giggles a little, pinprick tears glistening in the corners of her eyes as she grins a sharp-toothed smile at me. Only those tears mark it as any different from the smiles I've seen on her face dozens of times before.

I don't really know what to do, or what to say, so I just lean forward and give her a hug. You can't really go wrong with Anath if you just give her a hug. She hugs me back, patting the back of my metal head. Maybe she and Thea are right. Maybe I should just stay away from Thea until all this shit is solved.

I just really, really, really don't want to. I don't want to live a life without her. I can barely even think about it without feeling sick. I'm greedy like that. I need her and Castalia both.

"Wanna play Mario Kart with me and Amaterasu?" Anath asks.

"…Sure," I agree. "But I am going to absolutely kick your ass."

"Hehe. We'll see!"

We do see. I kick both of their asses so hard they'll be sore in the morning. I forgot to buy Amaterasu an extra controller for multiplayer games, so she and Anath each play with one of the joy-cons and I play with my brain. They both insist this is cheating, but it's not. Not any more than I'd be cheating with a normal controller, anyway. I even simulate the input delay. 

It's a nice distraction, but eventually the organics have to go to bed. I'm left alone with Anath, snoring away on my bed as I curl up in a corner and contemplate whether or not I want to just turn my thoughts off until morning. It's convenient to be able to do so but also kind of scary. Plus, I'm supposed to be doing emotional control exercises.

I don't feel like I could possibly be any less prepared for emotional control exercises, but I suppose that's sort of the point of emotional control as a skill. That and having reliable access to laser beams. 

Joy. Contentment. Thankfulness. I need to cultivate these kinds of emotions in myself and become able to focus on them no matter the situation. But how can I do that when the knowledge that Thea doesn't want to be anywhere near me looms large? 

'A person can be happy and sad at the same time. They're not opposites.' That's what Anath said. A soul is plenty large enough to hold more than one truth. When you have tears in your eyes, it's still possible to smile. It's even possible to mean it.

I just don't know how.

I struggle with the problems for several hours, trying and failing to stay focused on my own happiness until the wee hours of the morning. It's around three AM when a sudden scream instantly puts me on high alert.

That was Thea!

I rush out of my room and down the hall without thinking, bursting into her room in a panic.

"Thea!" I shout, spell core spooled up and ready to shoot… but there's no one in her room but her.

She's standing over her desk, hands on either side of her laptop, gripping the table hard enough to crack it. Her things are strewn over the floor like she tossed them around in a rage.

"It just doesn't make sense!" she shrieks. "How is it supposed to make any sense? Why did I ever think it would make sense!? I can't figure out the programming of an entire frigging person!" 

"Thea—!"

"What are you doing here!?" she shouts at me. "I told you to stay out of here!"

She has bags under her eyes. She hasn't slept, and she hasn't eaten.

"You need food and rest," I insist, holding my ground.

"Oh my god, no wonder you drove Mel crazy," she hisses, clutching her head and starting to pace. "Just leave, Luna!"

Don't say that. Please don't say that. Please don't ever say something like that to me again. This is nothing like what happened with Melpomene. It's completely different…!

"I can't just leave you when I know you're not taking care of yourself!" I argue. "Whatever problem you're dealing with is going to feel a lot more manageable after food and sleep. You know I'm right."

She stares at me, helplessness and anger churning within her along with, of course, fear. She's terrified, as she so often is, that the way things are will never change. Her fear of never seeing the sun again has been replaced with a fear of never being free of me.

"Don't make me say it, Luna," she begs. "Just go."

And again, those words are the same as giving the order. But if phrasing it that way helps her even a little… I guess that's fine.

"…Alright," I say. "Please get some rest when I'm gone, okay?"

I turn to go, but the moment I step out into the hall, a golden flash of joy heralds Uma'tama's unannounced arrival.

"It's time," they say. "A portal has appeared. Wake everyone up and gather in the teleporter room."

Shit! Now, of all times? With Thea and I suddenly at each others’ throats? Plus, it's the middle of the night, so Castalia is going to be groggy as all hell. Then again… I probably shouldn't underestimate her. She's been an Earth Guardian for long enough to survive a sleepy fight or two.

"Luna? Thea?" Uma'tama asks, glancing between the two of us. "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine," Thea lies, shutting her laptop and stomping toward the hall with me.

"…Please get something from the kitchen, Thea," I press her again, because no amount of her being pissed at me means I'll just be fine with her going to a dangerous fight hungry.

"Fine, geez!" she huffs, stomping off in that direction. I should probably get Castalia up first, but I turn and head for Amaterasu's room instead, just because it's in the other direction.

"Luna, wait," Uma'tama says. "For you."

They hand me an entire case of yellow LCIs. Woah. That's… a lot of power.

"For emergencies only," they insist.

"Got it. Thank you," I tell them. "[Sᴋᴇᴛɪsᴏʜ]"

I put the LCIs away in my storage and head over to Amaterasu's room, giving it a swift knock and cracking it open. She's on her feet in seconds.

"…What?" she asks.

"It's time," I say simply.

"Wakatta," she acknowledges. I nod and head back to my room to wake Anath, calling Aurora's cell phone with my mind as I walk.

"…Hello?" the groggy eleven-year-old answers.

"We're going after Fulgora," I say. "Meet in the teleporter room."

"I'll be there in five minutes," she promises, and then hangs up.

I find Anath sprawled out on my bed, snoring as loudly as when I left. I pat her on the shoulder, and her eyes shoot open.

"It's time," I tell her.

"Already, huh?" Anath says. "Teleporter room?"

"Yup," I confirm.

Man, they all wake up fast. Anath gets up, and I leave, heading back down where I came from toward Castalia's room. I pass the kitchen on the way there, spotting Thea scarfing down several slices of plain white bread and downing it with water. It's… not nothing, I guess. I don't call out to her and instead keep going until I reach Castalia's room.

I open her door carefully, keeping the light switch off so I don't hurt her eyes. I can see her just fine either way, the lights on her medical equipment supplying more illumination than most of the Dark World. Lying there with a breathing mask on her face, she really does look like she should be going to a hospital, not to battle. But the fact is, we need her. The whole world needs her. Everyone has needed her since she was far, far too young for anyone to reasonably ask for anything, yet she gave us everything. She still gives us everything. She'll continue to give us everything until the day she's no longer needed.

Or until she dies.

"Hey, Castalia," I say, gently brushing her cheek. "I need you to wake up."

Slowly, her eyes flutter open. Even more slowly, they settle on me.

"Lu… na…?"

"It's time," I tell her. "A Dark World portal has opened."

She sucks in a weak breath and nods.

"I Kɴᴏᴡ Wʜᴏ I Aᴍ."

Light and love fill the room, the frail figure on the bed lifting into the air, the mask and tubes falling away. With a flash of breathtaking power, the Castalia I fell for is floating in the room again. 

"Lᴏᴠɪɴɢ Dᴇsᴛʀᴏʏᴇʀ Dᴇᴠᴏᴛᴇᴅ Cᴀsᴛᴀʟɪᴀ," she declares. "Come. Let's go save them."

"Yeah," I agree. "Let's… save them all."

She nods, and we head to the teleporter room together. The others have gathered already, with the exception of Aurora… but even she shows up less than a minute after we get there. Me, Castalia, Thea, Anath, Amaterasu, and Aurora. What an odd team we've ended up with, huh? There are as many Dark Rebellion members as there are Earth Guardians.

It's really the same in the end, isn't it? We're all nothing more than a bunch of fucked up kids.

"You're here," Uma'tama says. "Good. Does everyone remember the plan?"

"Luna, Thea, Anath, and me head into the Dark World, find Fulgora and Veritas, and lure them through the portal," Aurora summarizes. "Then, everyone else keeps them there."

"Shouldn't be too hard," I say with a confidence I don't feel. "If there's one thing I've always been great at, it's convincing Fulgora to try to punch me."

"Odds are, we'll find them with Nanaya and Melpomene," Thea says. "I don't think Mel will try to hurt me, but she might try to kill everyone else."

"Monsters trying to kill us is what we've trained for," Aurora says. "We'll get them back."

"Well said," Amaterasu agrees. "We will be praying for your success from the other side of the portal."

"Then we go there immediately," Uma'tama says. "Hold hands, everyone."

"Priority teleportation…?" Amaterasu asks, surprised.

"Uma'gabo can bother us about the budget all they like once everyone is safe," Uma'tama huffs. "Ready?"

"Ready," Castalia nods, putting her stump on my shoulder.

"Then we go."

There's a flash of love, and an instant later we're in the ever-familiar liminal space, a Dark World portal swirling in front of us. Uma'tama flits forward and gives Aurora a squeeze.

"Be careful," they insist.

"I will," Aurora promises.

Uma'tama nods, and then vanishes. This is as far as the Preserver is allowed to go. As always, the fight is just us.

"No monsters here," Amaterasu notes.

"That's a good sign, I think," Thea says. "The monsters in our castle portal usually don't leave. We're more likely to be in the right place." 

"Alright," I say. "[A W A C S O ɴ ʟ ɪ ɴ ᴇ]. Everyone hear me?"

The last sentence isn't one I vocalize, I just have the spell create the sound of the words very quietly inside everyone else's ears. I get a round of confirmations. Good.

"I'm not sure if this spell will pierce through the portal to let us communicate, but it should," I say. "You can also use it to contact me quietly, if you need to. You don't even need to whisper; if you mumble what you want to say without opening your mouth, I should still be able to parse it. Use it to keep in contact if we get separated."

"Good luck," Castalia says. "I believe in you all."

"We'll be back before you know it," I promise her. "Everyone ready?"

"Yeah!" Aurora confirms.

"Yep!" Anath agrees happily.

"Let's get this over with," Thea confirms.

"Agreed," I nod. "Let's get this over with. Everyone together!"

The portal isn't all that big, but standing shoulder to shoulder we manage to step through all at once. I have no way to know whether or not it would actually matter, but it just seemed like a reasonable precaution. We pass through the raging tunnel of miasma together, exit the other side… and immediately regret the entire operation.

The instant we make it to the Dark World, the portal closes behind us. And in front of us… god.

The kaiju captures our attention first. How could it not? A massive, six-legged beast, twitching with madness and hatred as miasma pours off of it like dry ice in water. But that's just the start of our worries. Behind the kaiju is the biggest swarm of monsters I've ever seen, and in front of it is Melpomene, crossing her arms and grinning with self-satisfied madness.

It's not like I didn't think there would be some kind of ambush. I just thought I'd have the reflexes and shielding capacity at full battery charge to do something about it. But the portal closed nearly instantly. I've never seen Nanaya's portal controls work that fast.

And speak of the devil… I sense her behind us just as Thea intakes a sharp breath of fear. I turn to see her—she hid her magic signature behind the portal, damnit—and find her with a glowing red blade of magic to my master's throat.

The threat is very, very clear.

"Hello, everyone," Nanaya rasps. "Welcome back to the team."