Chapter 11: Ahead and Behind

-VERTEX THREE: 8.333882^5-

Kibougahana

Simultaneously

Pain... intense, searing pain raced through Cure Blossom's body like rivers of molten lava. The twin slashes of crimson energy from Dark Precure's Tact didn't dissipate when they struck her, as they had when they fought her before. They clung to her, burning like brands, making it impossible to focus, to-

Moonlight was behind her in an instant, delivering a savage kick to her spine followed by a contemptuous chop to the back of her neck. For the second time in as many minutes, her feet left the ground. After a few heart-stopping seconds of uncontrolled flight, she crashed into the side of one of Market Square Pavilion's rolling hills, leaving an impression inches deep in the turf and topsoil. The crimson slashes stuck to her all the while... the impact with the ground hurt, yes, but those slashes were so much worse...

The pain of fighting Moonlight, though, not sparring or mock-battling, but actually fighting for her life against her teammate and trusted friend... that pain was worse than either of them. It's not her fault. The words floated once more through the blaze of agony threatening to consume her thoughts. It's not her fault. This was a spell, or a curse, or brainwashing, or something. There was no way the Yuri she knew was attacking her of her own will. No way...

If Moonlight wasn't in control of herself, there was no reason to hold back. No reason not to fight her with everything she had. Blast it, it was her duty to her friend to stop her, defeat her, and turn her back to normal.

So why couldn't she do it?

Moonlight came to stand over her, ghastly white, her colors muted, her eyes filled with pale fire. In silence, she jabbed the pointed end of her Moon Tact against Blossom's chest, between the burning slashes.

"Moonlight..." Blossom spoke in a desperate whisper, hoping against hope that there was some part of her dear friend listening. "Yuri-san, don't..."

Moonlight said nothing. Light gathered in the jewel at the Tact's end, casting eerie, flickering shadows over her face...

"Hyaaah!" A streak of yellow and orange motion slammed into Moonlight's side with a bone-crushing impact, forcing her to withdraw. Sunshine cringed from the recoil, but she held her ground, standing over Blossom as a human shield. A muscle complained in her upper arm; a shoulder check like that was hardly an orthodox judo technique, more appropriate for an American football field. Now she knew why they wore all that padding. Her grandfather most likely would not have approved, but at least it worked...

"Marine Shoot!" Cool water cascaded over Blossom, finally extinguishing Dark Precure's energy. A hand grasped hers, pulling her upright. "You okay?" said Marine, battered but still alive. The battle was draining even Marine's nigh-limitless stores of energy. Fighting Dark Precure before had been grueling enough, but now it was more akin to fighting a steel wall. A steel wall that fought back, and that somehow recruited another wall that looked just like her teammate, but was every bit as ruthless and deadly as her old foe.

"N-no," said Blossom. She took a second to lean on her friend for support, just a second to-

"Heads up! Sunflower Aegis!" The call came from Sunshine. A golden dome enclosed the three as she raised her weapon, an instant before a huge violet orb of sizzling energy crashed into it like a meteor.

Blossom and Marine ran to help, putting their hands on Sunshine's shoulders to share their power... The strain was shared as well; all three felt sweat break out on their brows and muscles cramp as the sphere bore down, and the shield dipped inward, threatening to collapse. Sunshine gritted her teeth, dug in her heels, and pushed back. This just didn't make sense, Precure attacks only worked on monsters and bad guys, not people... Marine had once been hit by one of Blossom's finishers during a fight with a Desertrian, and she said it felt downright pleasant, so how could-

The violet orb was joined by a second from another direction, this one an angry crimson color. Two full-powered attacks at once was more than Sunshine's shield could bear; it flexed, it cracked, it broke... and the resulting explosion scattered the three Cures like leaves.

A storm of glowing embers swirled around them where they had fallen, the remnants of burning spring grass. Tsubomi lifted her head with a groan. Her Cure Blossom transformation was broken, and she lay within the folds of a long, pink, diaphanous dress, glowing faintly with what remained of her power. As her blurry world resolved itself into more solid shapes, she saw the nightmare vision of Dark Precure and Moonlight approaching her together, striding through the tongues of fire licking over scorched and blackened earth.

She's going to kill us. Yuri-san is going to kill us. They would die at the hands of their dear friend and her twisted mirror image, and no one would know. Mama. Papa. Grandma. Futaba... Her limbs were leaden, numb from pain and refusing to move. If she could have, she would have raised her hand to the grim specter of Moonlight now looming over her as she made one final plea: "Y-Yuri-san, you have to stop! This isn't you, y-you're a Precure... we f-fought together... to p-protect the Great H-Heart Tree! Please, remember..."

A few meters away, Erika lay face-down and motionless, her Heart Perfume within reach of her limp fingers.

Moonlight's hand paused on its way to Tsubomi's chest, and finally, she spoke. "I do remember," she said, in a horrible, hollow monotone that didn't sound like her at all. "I remember that being a Precure cost me more than you can imagine. For years, I risked my life over and over again to protect the Heart Tree, to protect this world... and it cost me my childhood, my partner, my sister, and my father. What did the Tree ever do to bring them back?"

Frigid fingers curled around Tsubomi's heart and squeezed it tight. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks. "Yuri-san, you don't r-really mean that-" Cold, she was so cold...

Behind the crook of Moonlight's arm, Dark Precure hauled someone upright by her short brown hair... Itsuki. Her eyelids fluttered, but she made no move to resist.

"I wanted so badly for all the sacrifice to be worth it," whispered Moonlight. "Perhaps yours will be."

Silent tears ran down Tsubomi's cheeks. Any words of comfort she could have offered her friend seemed feeble, compared to just how much Moonlight had lost. It was more painful than being attacked, more painful than fighting her, more painful, in this case, than existing... but maybe, she thought, maybe... Maybe this really is Yuri-san talking. If she's always felt this way and never told us... No! No, that can't be true! Yuri-san would never say things like that! This is all wrong!

Another voice, a foreign voice, drifted through Tsubomi's mind. It's all gone wrong. Heaven help us, it's all gone wrong...

Tsubomi couldn't think, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything but watch Moonlight's hand come closer, burning with the same horrible pale fire that danced in her eyes.

And then, a blizzard of cherry blossoms blew through the pavilion, blanketing everything in sight, and Moonlight and everything else was lost to view in a blizzard of pink, fragrant petals.

Dark Precure paused, her golden eyes scanning for the source of the storm. The distraction was all Itsuki needed. Wrenching herself free of her tormentor's grip, the daughter of the Myoudouin Dojo slipped under Dark Precure's arm, countered her weight against her own, and with a sharp kiai slammed her into the ground at her feet. No time to waste making sure she stayed down; a move like that would only catch her off guard once, and trying to fight her in civilian form was suicide. Itsuki dived for her Perfume, scraping her right shoulder raw as she came back down at a bad angle and plowed a furrow in the soil. It didn't matter, the Perfume was in her hand, her Precure Seed at her fingertips. "Precure, Open My Heart!" Light and warmth enveloped her as she assumed the form of Cure Sunshine once more and immediately took a stance, ready for anything...

Anything except the shape that fell from the storm and into her arms, then grabbed onto her brooch as if trying to tear it off. Sunshine's response was automatic: she snatched the thing up and reared back her fist... and then it spoke. "Itsuki, I'm here!" squealed the tiny bundle of orange and white fur. "It's gonna be okay, ~desu!"

"Potpourri," she breathed, hugging her fairy close. "Don't scare me like that, I could have taken your head off!" Violent shudders passed through her body, threatening to make her throw up. She was so on edge from the fight that she almost did something unthinkable to her partner, her baby... This madness had to stop, and fast. "Get behind me, Dark Precure's going to wake up any second now!"

Tsubomi stared upward, hardly daring to believe. Perched atop a street lamp, there stood a handsome, dark-haired man, dressed in old-style Japanese casual clothes and a long crimson scarf, commanding the storm of petals with one upraised hand. He made not a sound, and when Moonlight whipped out her Tact and fired a glowing shot at the stranger, he didn't even move... he simply blinked out of sight, reappearing behind her like her shadow. With a puff of smoke, he disappeared. In his place was an enormous, shaggy green creature, three meters tall to the peak of its single crooked horn, built somewhere along the lines of a great ape. Moonlight turned on her heel a second too late; one long arm swatted her aside as if she were a troublesome gnat, and she flew half a kilometer before she touched ground again.

"Coupe!" Running to the giant fairy, Tsubomi spoke his name with relief and buried her face in his furry chest. As his arms embraced her, she found herself trembling, helpless to stop. "Coupe..." Blast it, she couldn't take this... it all came rushing out of her: the pain, the fear, the confusion. Tsubomi cried as she had not done in years, clutching her grandmother's fairy partner as a castaway would clutch a raft on a turbulent sea. Great heaving sobs tore out of her, drawn from a well somewhere deep in her heart. Or even deeper than that...

"Wh-wha-" Too shocked to cry anymore, Tsubomi stopped, holding very still save for her fingers curling tight in Coupe's fur. For an instant, she had the strangest feeling, as if someone else were crying along with her. Then a prickling sensation on the back of her neck, a strange tingling in her skin...

"Tsubomi!" The high-pitched voice came from somewhere in the heart shape on Coupe's chest, breaking the spell. A small face with round brown eyes emerged from the heart, followed by a pair of huge, fan-like ears. "Tsubomi, what's the matter, ~desu?" said Chypre, Tsubomi's fairy partner.

And then another face, near-identical to the first save for his blue-accented fur. This one spoke in a more masculine voice: "Come on, you and Erika and Itsuki need get up and fight back so you can save Cure Moonlight!" Coffret waved a tiny paw. "We need the Precure, ~desu!"

Sniffling, Tsubomi took off her glasses, wiped her eyes, and nodded. "Y-you're right. You're right. This has got to stop..." She fumbled for her Perfume, slid her Precure Seed into its groove, and shouted: "Precure, Open My Heart!" Reborn in a flash as Cure Blossom, she turned around to plunge into the petal storm and find Erika... "Huh?"

... only to find Erika already rising to her feet, helped by a young girl that Tsubomi had never seen before: a girl with long golden hair and beautiful scarlet eyes, wearing a simple turquoise sundress. Once Erika was steady, the little stranger turned to Tsubomi and smiled a wistful little smile.

"Friend of yours?" Erika teetered back and forth a bit, wishing the world would stop spinning around her. Whoever this kid was, she wasn't about to question the help, but it felt like she had just appeared out of thin air between one eyeblink and the next...

"I've never seen her before," said Blossom, with total honesty. "Who are you? We should get you home before-"

"Enough." The booming voice was accompanied by a pulse, a shockwave of dark energy that swept away the remnants of Coupe's petal storm. Dark Precure stood, both golden eyes burning with power, her wings spread wide. Those eyes landed on the little stranger, and narrowed.

"Oh no you don't," Erika growled, gritting her teeth and stepping in front of her. "Listen, I dunno who or what dragged you out of Hell, but you're gonna go right back if I have anything to say about it! Precure, Open My Heart!" A blue flash, and she was back in Cure form, itching to fight. "No more cheap moves! My heart may be as vast as- eh?! What gives?"

The little stranger tugged at one of the petals of Marine's skirt, shaking her head.

Blossom, Marine, and the three fairies stared at her.

"You... you don't want us to fight?" said Marine. "But-"

Before she could finish, Dark Precure moved. Drawing her Tact, she shot forward at unbelievable speed, tucking her wings in close... and pointing the jeweled end of her weapon straight at the little girl. No time to react, no time to-

Crack. Her Tact struck a triple layer of shining barriers: one from Coupe, one from little Potpourri, and one from Sunshine, all taking position before them. Even Dark Precure's hideous strength was stymied for the moment by their combined energies... but only for the moment. Glowing red cracks advanced through the barriers, weakening their structures...

Once more, Sunshine dug in her heels, pouring her energy into holding her shield a little longer. "Nnngh..." The sound of her effort escaped through her teeth. "Blossom, Marine, get her out of here! We need to set up a Shining Fortissimo now, before Moonlight comes back!"

The little stranger stepped forward and grasped Blossom's hand... and the pink Cure turned white as a sheet, foreign images flashing through her mind, a high-speed slideshow of burning cities, spreading darkness, screaming faces... and a signal beam, a line of light lancing out into the void...

"Blossom? Blossom!" Snarling, Marine yanked herself out of the child's grip and raised a fist. "What are you doing to her, you-"

"Wait!" The shout came from Blossom, pale and shaken. "She... she wants us to come with her!"

"Buh?!" Marine's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Are you mental?! We don't even know who she is, let alone where she's taking us! And how do you know what she wants?!"

"She... she told me, I can't explain... but we have to go, now..."

"Go where?! Blossom, you're not-" And Marine stopped, completely speechless for what had to be the first time in years, for there was now a door, a perfectly ordinary white wooden door, standing by itself behind them. The little stranger practically dragged Blossom to it, and motioned Marine and the fairies to follow. "H-hey... oi! Wait up!"

At the front line, Potpourri moaned softly and shut his eyes, wobbling dangerously in midair. His shield flickered, then faded...

"No! No..."Sunshine caught him and cradled him with one hand, and strained the other behind her tambourine, redoubling her effort. "Potpourri..." She spared a glance over her shoulder to see what was going on. "Guys, what-" Words failed her as Blossom disappeared through a doorway right in the middle of the pavilion, vanishing from sight... Chypre emerged from Coupe's shaggy fur and flew through after her, with Coffret close behind. Marine went through, after some hesitation... and the instant they passed through the frame, they were simply gone. Now there was only the little blond girl, frantically waving for Sunshine and Coupe, beckoning them to hurry...

Sunshine turned back to the enormous fairy. "C-Coupe... I-I think we have to..."

Coupe stood still and silent as ever, arms raised, showing no sign of effort at all at keeping the shield maintained. But there was something in his beady eyes as they peered down to fix Sunshine with his eternal stare... acceptance, and understanding. He was giving her his blessing to go.

Sunshine swallowed, cradling Potpourri's small body to her chest. "I'm sorry," she whispered to Coupe. She turned and ran for the door, letting her shield fall. Behind her, fault lines raced through the sole remaining barrier... and Coupe stood behind it, glowing faintly, buying time so that she could get away. A trail of glistening teardrops followed Sunshine as she ran for the mysterious door, scooping up the little stranger and throwing herself through the frame... The instant before she passed through it, she heard the thunderous crack of Coupe's shield shattering echoing off the pavilion's rolling hills. Coupe...!

And-

And beyond the doorway was a swirling tunnel of incomprehensible light in all different colors... Reds, greens, blues, and yellows, flowing and swirling and bleeding into each other like river rapids, and a few colors Sunshine had never seen before... a dizzying, ever-shifting kaleidoscope stretching to infinity. Ahead were the shapes of Blossom, Marine, and their fairies, streaking through the tunnel at dizzying speeds, living comets...

Hyperspace, thought Sunshine, reminded of all those sci-fi movies. She held Potpourri's sleeping form tighter as the tunnel's current caught her, she couldn't go back if she wanted now... "Blossom! Marine!" Her words echoed, distorted, sounded strange to her, as if the sound of her voice were both delayed and... and somehow emerging from her mouth before she spoke the words.

They heard her; somehow they turned and shouted her name, and Blossom visibly sobbed with relief.

The little stranger squirmed from her grip, and swam, or floated, or flew up to her teammates and their fairies, pointing a small finger ahead, to - to what? There was nothing ahead that Sunshine could see except the tunnel's endless expanse. At a gesture from the girl, she rose up to join them...

A hand grasped her ankle, and pulled hard. Sunshine shrieked and looked down...

Dark Precure was below her, livid with rage, her pallor more ghastly than ever in the tunnel's ever-shifting light. And just behind her was Moonlight, gaining fast...

All of Sunshine's training, all her skill fled her mind. On solid ground, by herself, it would have been child's play to wrench herself free and counterattack. But floating in the stream like this, with Potpourri in her arms, helpless... "Let go!" she screamed, lashing out at Dark Precure with her heel. "Let GO!"

Moonlight's hand caught her other leg, and their weight slowed her, dragging her back. Frantic, Sunshine howled up at her teammates... "BLOSSOM, MARINE! HELP ME!"

They turned, flailing their arms and legs, trying to swim, or float, or fly to her aid, reaching for her hand. The little stranger turned as well... and Sunshine saw something like mortal terror flash in those beautiful scarlet eyes. She spread her arms and legs wide, as if to offer herself, and the energies of the tunnel of light coalesced around her. The tunnel, her friends, their fairies, and the little stranger shrank away from her, drew down into a pinpoint of multicolored light... and vanished.

Silence.

An icy surge of pure, primal fear raced through Sunshine's veins. No... There was nothing left but a void that surpassed blackness. Herself, her poor little fairy, her adversary, and her friend-turned-enemy, hanging in empty, dark, endless space, alone...

Before she could even finish contemplating the horror of it all, before she could let out the scream building up inside her, two hands closed around her neck. Another plunged into her chest with impossible ease, and she knew no more.

-VERTEX THREE: 8.333882^9-

Pikarigaoka

Simultaneously

Two streaks of light arced through the crumbling sky, crashing and battering against each other, throwing off fat sparks whenever they touched. Inside one of those streaks of light was Iona Hikawa, Cure Fortune. During the struggle against the Phantom Empire, back in the days when she worked alone, the appearance of the feared warrior in violet heralded a shift in the battle. Fortune was used to being intimidating, even after all this time. She was used to her very presence sending the forces of evil into consternation, if not outright panic. She was the star of hope, the pillar of strength where others faltered. Cure Fortune didn't get scared, or worried, or intimidated.

Now the world was upside down, falling apart, the sky above her breaking into pieces as if someone had hurled a rock through a giant window pane... and Fortune was stricken with fear, her mind howling in confusion and her body on autopilot. Again she met her opponent with a thunderous crash... the one opponent in all her many battles that terrified her to her core, that made her pillar of strength shatter to pieces, just like what was happening to the sky... the one opponent she never thought she would face again.

Her sister, Maria Hikawa, Cure Tender.

The kind face of the older sister she loved was now distorted into a grotesque leer, her eyes burned red. She wore a blackened, high-collared mockery of her Cure uniform, accented with enormous butterfly wings. Her hands grasped Fortune's with impossible strength as the two pushed back and forth, their combined energies crackling and spitting, tearing at each other like wild animals in a frenzy...

Fortune had lost her sister to darkness once before, had once had to battle her corrupted form alongside her friends and comrades as part of Happiness Charge Precure in order to win her back. To lose her again, in a way that should have been impossible... The wrongness of it unnerved her more than she had words for.

And this time, fighting alone, an unshakeable fear gnawed at the pit of Fortune's stomach. For as strong and feared as she was, Tender was always stronger. Whatever she was, Tender was twice that. And when it came down to the two sisters fighting each other one-on-one, whether in their family dojo during a sparring match or here in the skies as Precure... Tender always won. Always.

Her hands creaked in protest as Tender crushed them in a merciless grip. "Onee-sama," she groaned, staring into her sister's crimson eyes, desperate to find something of Tender's real self there. "Wake up! You have to stop this!"

Tender smiled, drew her close. That smile was like Maria's, but wrong... "It won't hurt much longer, Iona-chan," she said, and her voice contained echoes of the sister Fortune knew.

Then, from that vantage point, she slammed her knee into Fortune's gut with brutal force.

All the breath left Fortune at once. She heaved a choking gasp and gazed at Tender in pained disbelief... just before her sister released her and let her plummet back to the ground far, far below...

"Fortune!" Cure Lovely, Megumi Aino, saw the violet streak of light plunge from above, heard her teammate's impact with the street from blocks away in Pikarigaoka Park. This just wasn't right, it wasn't fair... These old nightmares were supposed to be gone, dead and buried. But someone or something brought them all back, tearing her city apart... Lovely dashed backward, trying to lose the pale, flaxen-haired young woman in black who was her opponent.

"Weak," spat Queen Mirage in disgust, charging forward to close the distance. "I don't remember you being this weak, Cure Lovely. Are you giving up so soon?"

Lovely had no answer, except to pound away with her fists at any opening she could reach. Her fists and Mirage's were a blur of motion, blows exchanging faster than human eyes could follow. Each time one hand met the other, another shockwave ripped through the park, felling trees and further cracking the ruined cobblestone pavement.

Half a mile away, what was left of the Pikarigaoka Bridge floated half-submerged in the Shikuji River, a wreck of twisted steel and concrete that barely resembled the beloved landmark it had been an hour before. Being hurled through it didn't hurt Lovely that much, thanks to her Precure form's heightened endurance. When she got a good look at the bridge's mangled remains, though, the bridge that she had crossed with her beloved friends so many times... Whoever was responsible was going to pay dearly for that.

Whoever was responsible, it wasn't Mirage. Mirage couldn't be acting of her own will. She had to be under a spell again, just like Cure Tender, but who was pulling the strings this time? Red was reformed, she had seen to that, and there was no one else she knew of with the power or motive to turn them evil again. Her only hope was to end this quickly and find her way back to Princess, Honey, and Fortune... only together did they have a chance of making things right again.

Mirage's staff leapt to her hand, and a savage downward swing brought it crashing down against Lovely's crossed arms. The blow reverberated through the pink Cure's body, forcing her down to one knee. She fought just like the old Queen Mirage, but with the addition of some bottomless well of new strength. Again and again the staff fell... her guard was breaking, she couldn't stand it much longer... Lovely drew her limbs in as close as the dared, huddling into a ball and gathering her power. Before the staff could come down on her neck, she shouted her attack: "Lovely Explosion Bomber!"

A sphere of pink energy and intense concussive force erupted from Lovely's body, blowing a crater inches deep in the stone pathway at her feet and ripping the staff from Mirage's hand. The blast wave swept her off her feet and hurled headfirst across the park, her flight only stopped by a street lamp in her path, which bent over double as she slammed into it.

In her crater, Lovely shuddered, hugging herself tight. Too close. That was way, way too close. Please let her stay down, please...!

No such luck; Mirage didn't stay down. Staggering to her feet, her adversary glared at her with madness burning in her crimson eyes. "I'm going to make you pay for that, Cure Lovely," she hissed, purple lips splitting into a hideous grin. "Just like I made that fool of a kami pay!"

A dagger stung Lovely's heart. "Blue..." No, no, it couldn't be. She couldn't have. Not after they finally made amends, she couldn't have, it was too cruel... "What did you do to Blue?!"

Cold laughter bubbled up from somewhere inside Mirage. "I trapped the fool inside one of his own mirrors... it's only fair." She swayed back and forth, clutching at her forehead and peering at Lovely through splayed fingers, the grin stretching wider. "He imprisoned me in the Axia Box for all those years... it's only fair..."

The scream that tore from Lovely's mouth then was terrible to hear. It was a sound of deepest shock, of betrayal, of a hurt scabbed over but never completely healed... and before she knew what she was doing, she was off the ground, her wings extending from the back of her uniform, hurling herself into Mirage like a blazing pink comet. "Blue loved you!" Each blow of her fists landed with a resounding thunderclap, echoing off the park's hills. "He loved you! He trusted you! How could you... How could you?!"

One punch struck Mirage's cheek with a sickening crack. She reeled off balance, her neck snapping backward... no sooner was she recovered from the recoil than she saw Lovely as a whirl of motion, a heavy iron disc clutched tight in both hands, sparkling tears falling down her cheeks...

She saw no more than that, as Lovely connected with the manhole cover she had ripped from the ground. There was a sound like a church bell heard through a foot of concrete as she hurtled backward, a living missile, red stars exploding in her vision... and then, the crystal tinkling of countless panes of breaking glass as she crashed through the House of Mirrors on the border of the park's festival grounds. Shards were everywhere, glittering like diamonds...

Appalled with herself, Lovely dropped the cover, which struck the cobblestone at her feet with a heavy, ringing clang. She stared at her hands as if they belonged to a stranger. That... Good God, I could have killed her with that move, what's wrong with me?!

Part of her knew, of course. Part of her knew all too well. It was that part that needed to be pushed back into her deepest recesses, now that Mirage was finally down for the count-

-and incredibly, as she thought that, Queen Mirage picked herself up from the wreckage of the House of Mirrors. Battered and bloodied, shedding pieces of glass, she stood fixed Lovely with those mad eyes and summoned her staff. Shadowy power gathered at its crown, bathing the park in hellish light, a light that when unleashed would wipe this place clean from the earth-

No time to think. Lovely had to stop her, with the only attack that managed to pierce through her weariness, her terror: "Lovely Beam!" Twin lasers erupted from her eyes, lancing in straight lines across the park... They bathed Mirage and the falling glass shards in pink light...

... and the many shards reflected that light, amplifying Lovely's attack tenfold. Mirage howled as she was consumed in a barrage of power coming from every direction at once. Though the darkness inside her demanded that she fight on, it was too much for her body to bear. Her eyes rolled backward... she was unconscious long before she hit the ground.

With a low sob, Lovely stumbled backward.. It's over, right? It has to be over... A blanket of numbness settled over her, and it took a concentrated effort just to remain on her feet. I beat her. Now I gotta help the others, then help Blue... Fighting as Cure Lovely was usually such a rush, it always left her exhilarated, feeling like she could do anything. But this... this was a different kind of fight, a fight that drained her soul instead of igniting it. So tired... Come on, Megumi, she thought, giving her cheeks a hard slap. 'Shiawase Happiness', remember? No time for self-pity. No time for crying. What would the others think? I've gotta help... like I always do. She rubbed her eyes, forced herself to put on a smile, and turned to leave the park-

"Natto Orb," said someone above her.

A round shape dropped down on Lovely, visible out of the corner of her eye. She raised a fist and threw it at the shape without stopping to think... and the shape exploded, blanketing her with something wet, slimy, and incredibly sticky. Countless stubborn, clinging strands rooted her to the spot, like some poor bug caught in fly paper. All her fabled strength was of no use; the more she struggled, the more mired she became. "No...!"

"Geez," said the voice, "you two were really going at it! Guess you and Mirage must have some issues, huh?!"

Lovely looked up. The source of the voice was a girl dressed in extremely revealing performer's clothes, little more than a bikini top and a transparent skirt and tights that were the same fiery shade of red as her hair and eyes. She sat atop a huge red ball, floating in mid-air with no visible means of support like a helium balloon. Curious, bright eyes looked down at Lovely, and a smirk spread across the girl's face that seemed to reach beyond the confines of her lips. "Yeah," she said, "now I get why Joker wants you."

"Who?" Lovely stopped fighting with the glue-like substance long enough to stare at the girl, totally confused. "Who are you?"

The smirk widened. "Name's VesVes, of Dead End's Amazoness Quartet. We were hiding out over there in the House of Mirrors... until you smashed it. Good job, by the way, that was so cool! Maybe you could do that again as part of our act, huh?"

"'Act?'" Calm, she had to stay calm. If she could summon her cards and PreChanMirror without this girl noticing...

"Yup," said VesVes, leaning back on her ball and crossing her arms behind her head. "Dead End's putting on the best show the worlds have ever seen, and you're gonna be one of our star attractions."

The Cherry Flamenco PreCard materialized at Lovely's fingertips. The sticky mass was thickening around her by the second, making it ever more difficult to move, but all she had to do was reach the compact on her hip. Stall her just a little longer! "What do you mean?" There, she had the compact's pouch open...

VesVes's smirk escalated into a cruel, savage smile. "What do you mean, 'What do you mean?' A strong girl like you? You can beat the crap out of anyone who gets in our way!"

It took a few fumbles to do it, but the card slid into the compact. Perfect. All she had to do now was- "Precure, Kururin Mirror Change! Che-"

"Nuh uh," said a new voice from directly behind her, high-pitched and childish with a barely-repressed giggle in it. "PallaPalla doesn't like that costume. Try this one on instead~!"

Lovely never had a chance to see the new attacker, or what it was she pressed over her face. All she saw was the thing's underside, filled with what looked like crude oil. The other side was an eerie, grinning mask with yellow eyes and an ornate red mark on its forehead, but all Lovely saw was oozing blackness... It pressed against her face, poured into her mouth, into her eyes, into her brain... The strands holding her down snapped as she reached up to claw at it, but its blackness seeped over the mask's edges, seizing hold of her cheeks, cementing itself to her skin... Lovely couldn't scream. Couldn't blink. Couldn't breathe...

The two Amazons watched her as she thrashed, VesVes frowning at her sister in blue as she came to stand by her side. "Cutting it a little close, don't you think?"

PallaPalla giggled again and stuck out her tongue. For an older sister, she sure didn't act like it, VesVes thought. "PallaPalla just wanted to make it more fun!"

No.

No.

I have to get it off, have to help the others...

But why? The voice that answered was eerily familiar. You're exhausted. You've been fighting so hard for them. Don't you deserve to rest, just for a minute?

She knew that voice, it was like cold iron pressed against the back of her neck... No! You're not real, you're not real! You're just a fake that-

I'm as real as you are, Megumi. I'm your shadow. Come on, be selfish, just this once. After all you've done for other people, you deserve it. Close your eyes and rest, just for a few seconds...

A jungle had overtaken Pikarigaoka's shopping district. Enormous vines the thickness of tree trunks erupted from the streets, and their offshoots climbed up walls, snaked into windows four stories off the ground, and smothered entire buildings in greenery. And where there weren't vines, there were mirrors: hundreds of the same coffin-shaped mirrors crisscrossed with red ribbons that were a regular sight back during the Phantom Empire's invasion, each holding a motionless human figure inside. Three such mirrors stood at odd angles in front of the famed Omori Gohan restaurant: a mother, a father, and an older daughter... the Omori family, minus one.

The missing daughter, Yuko Omori, alias Cure Honey, stood before those mirrors, projecting a golden, heart-shaped energy shield. For her family, her friends, and her home, she would hold the line here... not one more person would suffer while she still drew breath if she had anything to say about it.

Pounding away at her shield was another Amazon, more burly than her sisters, her green hair arranged in a tripartite style that defied both belief and physics. Growling in annoyance, she laid out at the barrier, calling to the yellow Cure behind it in a rough, boyish voice. "Oi! C'mon, fight back already, will ya? Geez, I thought you Precure were s'posed to be tough!"

Honey cringed; she felt every punch that the Amazon threw, vibrating deep into her bones. This is looking worse and worse. I have to fight back, but- But the moment she moved, her family and her home would be defenseless, and these girls had already proven how little regard they had for mercy... Lovely, Fortune, where are you?!

Above them, the fourth Amazon sat with her legs crossed atop one of the gigantic vines overgrowing the city, dressed in pink and yellow hues. "Don't get ahead of yourself, JunJun," said CereCere in a chiding tone, idly turning the Card over and over in her fingers. What a strange but wondrous bit of magic the Cards were... The WOOD, as the name emblazoned on it read, amplified her powers over plants more than she could have imagined. Using her Seeds of Despair by herself, she could barely take over one building. With The WOOD, though, the whole district was hers with hardly any effort. It was almost disappointing; now she had little to do but watch and wait while JunJun had her fun. Her opponent was already dealt with.

Buried somewhere deep within the forest of vines, a Precure clad in blue squirmed in the grip of hundreds of creepers, all coiling around her endlessly like snakes. Cure Princess, Hime Shirayuki, had no idea who the weirdo sisters with the tacky clothes were, what they wanted, or how they even got here without Ribbon or Glasan or someone feeling their presence... but it didn't matter. They brought back Queen Mirage and Dark Tender somehow, they had to be stopped... but these blasted vines! Princess clawed at them, yanking away one that threatened to wrap around her neck. "You... stupid... jerks!" she gasped in the general direction she had last seen the Amazons, flailing her arms to keep them free of the morass. "W-when I get... my hands on you...! Princess Cutter!"She tossed her head back and forth; twin blades flew from each of her two giant pigtails and carved through dozens of the encroaching creepers. But they just kept growing... "Princess Cutter! Princess Cutter...!" Blade after blade tore through the greenery, until at last she saw a patch of clouds and broken sky. Now she just had to reach it...!

Princess shrieked as creepers seized her by the shoulders, trying to drag her back into the forest's embrace. "Nnngh! No... no way... let go!" She was so close, one more push, one more push! "Princess... ROCKET!" The attack name burst out of her as her attack names usually did, in a fit of random inspiration in the heat of the moment. It wasn't exactly elegant, but it worked; she blasted forward as if she had been shot from a cannon, tearing free of the vines and emerging into open air, to a squawk of surprise from CereCere, who nearly fell from her perch.

"Princess!" Honey's voice sang with relief. Now the tide could turn... filled with new energy, she expanded her shield and slammed JunJun into a tangle of roots, then ran to Princess's side as she touched down. "Are you hurt? Do you need me to heal you?"

"I'll be fine," Princess moaned and spit out a stray leaf. "Bleh, but I'm not eating salad for a month..."

Honey couldn't help but beam at her. "More room for rice, then!"

That was Honey... a one-track mind. "C'mon," said Princess, grabbing her arm. "We gotta find the others!"

"Oh no ya don't!" Plant fibers exploded from JunJun's body as she tore herself free, a bright green tornado of motion. "CereCere, get down here! We ain't finished yet!"

A cradle of interwoven vines lowered her sister to her side. "Assuredly not. Which Cards do you have?"

"Just POWER, SHOT, and FIGHT," said JunJun, summoning them to her hand.

CereCere raised a pink eyebrow. "Typical... you have such a limited imagination, JunJun. Still..." Taking The SHOT between two fingers, she turned to the Cures and smirked, an expression at odds with her delicate appearance. "I think this one should do ni-"

The two Amazons vanished in a blast of gold and violet light and searing heat, a beam of densely packed shooting stars. JunJun roared and leapt in front of her sister, thrusting her hands out in front of herself to hold off the beam... and her heels made gouges in solid concrete as the stars pushed back with even more force. It only took one flinch for the beam to overwhelm them both, plowing them backward into CereCere's own vines.

Princess's heart surged in her chest. She knew that move... "Fortune!"

Their teammate leaned against a vendor box behind them, her Fortune Tambourine steaming as it cooled down. She looked as if she might collapse at any moment, her uniform tattered and a trickle of dried blood marring one temple. "Barely lost... onee-sama," she said, clutching one side and breathing heavily. "Only a matter of time before... she catches up. Gotta find... Lovely..."

Honey was drawn to her side as if by a magnet. "Easy there, don't move. I'll fix you up." She raised her baton high, opened her mouth for the invocation...

...and Fortune and Princess saw Honey silhouetted against a bright crimson flash as something struck her from behind. Her body crumpled, her scream cut off abruptly... and in the fading light of the flash, a new coffin-shaped mirror appeared in her place, smoke rising from its edges. Honey was inside the pane of glass, arms crossed over her chest, eyes closed, motionless...

Outrage permeated the veneer of Princess's shock. "Honey..." she whispered, reaching plaintively for the glass "H-Honey! Why you-" She clenched her fists and glared daggers at the attacker... and as soon as it had bubbled up inside her, all her anger faded away, replaced by helpless dread.

Strolling casually down the avenue to the north and grinning like the devil was an impossible sight: someone who was Lovely and yet not Lovely. She was a dark mirror of their comrade, wearing a red and black longcoat, her hair darkened to blood red, her eyes the color of ice and twice as cold. "Hey," she said, so casually that it made Princess's skin crawl. "Hime-chan, Iona-chan, c'mere... I've got something for you~."

"Phantom!" Fortune's reaction was automatic, never mind her injuries or exhaustion. Her every nerve pulled taut with tension. This was one of the forms of the person who had taken her sister away from her... with the impossible already happening at least twice today, it only made sense that her nemesis would return too. She dropped into a zenkutsu stance, her features twisting into a snarl...

A hand grasped the crook of her arm and squeezed, hard. "F-F-Fortune..." Princess stammered, her color draining and her eyes wide as dinner plates. "Th-that's not Phantom...!"

"What? What do you-"

Princess swallowed. "Ph-Phantom was in the r-restaurant when... when they showed up... they sealed him in a mirror, I s-s-saw it happen...!"

"Then who is that?!"

Princess couldn't answer. Somehow, she knew. She didn't need to see Queen Mirage and Dark Tender emerge from streaks of black light at either side of UnLovely, she didn't need to see the triumphant leers from the other two Amazon sisters now following close behind. One look at her, and she knew...

It's all gone wrong...

Fortune looked back and forth, from the resurrected Phantom/UnLovely to Princess's stricken face. Realization dawned, and a leaded weight crashed down inside her. "No. Oh no. That can't be. It can't be Megumi, she would never-"

UnLovely giggled; the sound was crazed, unhinged... "We're gonna ge~et a~all of the Pre~cure," she said in sing-song. "Lock them a~all up on the Merry-Go-Round~!"

A thousand battle plans whirled through Fortune's mind. A thousand different ways that she and Princess could beat the four Amazons, Mirage, and Tender, save Honey from the mirror, and get the real Lovely back... each plan more improbable than the last. Seven against two, and only Princess was fighting at anywhere near full strength, so more like seven against one-and-a-half. You didn't have to study tactics to know how good those odds were. Only one option, though she hated to even think of it. "Princess," she said, low and even. "We have to retreat."

"But..." Princess gaped at her, unsure if she heard correctly. Cure Fortune didn't run, Cure Fortune kicked butt and took names until she won, no matter how bad the situation was. "But... but Megumi! And Yuko! And your sister, and Mirage! We can't just leave them here!"

Fortune smiled, sadly and bitterly. How times changed... there was a time not too long ago when Princess would have run away without a second thought from just a single Saiark. Fortune had hated her back then, thought of her as a coward and a disgrace to both her kingdom and her Cure uniform. Now here she was, wanting to stay and fight a battle that seemed increasingly hopeless. "Don't be stupid," she said, taking a few steps back, still crouched in the zenkutsu. "We need to regroup, get help from the other Precure teams-"

One of the Amazons overheard her, the blue one with the cutesy manner. "Silly, there are no other teams!" She laughed a jolly laugh, but there was malevolence in those wide blue eyes... "We took care of them all ahead of time. PallaPalla has a really neat collection of Precure dollies now~!"

"She's lying, there's no way," said Princess, backing up along with Fortune. "There's hundreds of us, all around the world... No way they could have taken them all... not without us knowing!"

"Come here, Iona-chan," Tender cooed, beckoning to Fortune. "You don't have to fight anymore."

"It will only be worse for you if you resist," said Mirage. Her staff appeared in her hand, gathering dark power... power that the Cures could feel from over a block away...

Again, UnLovely giggled. "Don't be silly, Hime-chan. If you don't want to ride the Merry-Go-Round, there's still another way..." She raised a finger, the tip ignited into blue flame... and the flame resolved itself into a mask, a mask with glowing yellow eyes and a red slash for a smile... "Just relax. Let's have fun together~."

Princess froze. Her eyes wandered from the mask to UnLovely's face, desperately searching the darkened visage for any sign of her best friend...

It's all gone wrong...

"PRINCESS TORNADO!" A twister burst from Princess's hands, kicking up dust and debris in a blinding storm. She didn't stop to think... she merely grabbed Fortune's hand and ran, ran for her life, tears trailing behind her...

They finally stopped in a filthy, deserted little alley near Pikarigaoka Station, twenty blocks away. Panting, Fortune fell to her knees, her muscles burning, a jackhammer pounding away in her skull, tiny flickering lights dancing at the edges of her vision. "Did we... lose them?"

Princess waited at the alley entrance. A year ago, running away like that would have been the most natural thing in the world for her. Now? Now it made her sick to her stomach. "Not sure. I don't see them, but... but they could be following us from the air... keep out of sight."

"That girl..." Fortune leaned against a brick wall, closing her eyes. "The blue Amazon. She had to be bluffing. Someone capturing all the Precure in the world... even Phantom couldn't manage that."

Princess said nothing.

After a few deep breaths, Fortune felt a little steadier, the pounding in her head abating a bit. "Just give me a few minutes," she said. "I'll be fine, just-" Something stopped her in mid-sentence. They were not alone in the alley anymore.

She stared at Fortune with beautiful ruby eyes, a young girl with long golden blonde hair, most likely no more than five or six years old. She wore a simple green dress, and dark turquoise ribbons in her hair. And she just stared at Fortune, without saying a word...

"No, you stay there and rest, don't try to get up," Princess was saying, scanning the street for any sign of movement. "If they catch up to us-" Only then did she notice her teammate's silence. "Fortune?" She turned, and saw Fortune and the little stranger looking at each other... "Who is that?"

"I... I don't know." Fortune said, baffled. "Are you lost?"

The girl cocked her head and blinked, then tilted her hand from side-to-side.

"Do you know where your mother is?" Fortune tried again.

She shook her head.

"Where did you last see her?"

Shake, shake.

"No...?" Something about this odd, silent girl gave Fortune the creeps. "Wh-what about your father, is he-"

Shake, shake.

"You're all alone?"

And again, she shook her head. Then she pointed, first to Fortune, then to Princess, then to herself, and finally... to an ordinary wooden door, standing by itself at the end of the alley where there had been nothing but a brick wall seconds before. Just a door, connected to nothing, standing up with no visible means of support...

The little stranger pointed again, with a bit more urgency: to Fortune, to Princess, to herself, and then the door. She reached out and took Fortune's hand...

"Oh," whispered Fortune, overcome with the vision flashing before her eyes. "Oh my."

"Fortune!" That was quite enough for Princess. "What do you think you're doing, kid?!" Raising a threatening fist, she hurried over to them.

A small hand reached out to touch her leg in mid-charge, and... and she saw what Fortune saw, knew what Fortune knew, though she didn't know quite how... Darkness converging, worlds in danger, skies falling, and a ray of light lancing out into the darkness, a signal beam... shelter, safety...

The little stranger let go, and the spell was broken. Somehow, the intent was crystal clear to both of them.

"This..." Fortune swallowed, staggering to her feet. "This door... Princess, I think we have to go through it. We have to follow her."

"I-I know, but-"

An explosion, somewhere not far away... the blast echoes rumbled through the ground at their feet. Another piece of the sky fell nearby, red lightning crackled over the rooftops...

"Princess, we have to hurry." Fortune rose to her feet, feeling a muscle sting in her back. Must have fallen harder than I thought... "Come on."

Princess said nothing.

Another explosion and more rumbling, much closer this time... mixed with the sound of a familiar laugh, twisted into something dark and terrifying.

The little stranger tugged on Fortune's hand. In the blink of an eye, the door moved from the back of the alley to a foot in front of Fortune, and swung open... a churning tunnel through spacetime lay beyond, a mesmerizing whirl of impossible colors...

Finally, Princess spoke. "You go," she said, turning to face the street again. "You're all beat up, you can barely stand, and..." Her words grew husky. "... and if they get me too... it won't matter as much. I know you're strong enough to save all of us."

"Don't be stupid!" Fortune snapped, feeling some of her old temper rising in her breast. "She wants us both to go, what's the point of staying behind and throwing yourself away?! Hime, come on!"

"I can't."

"Please, Hime, don't do this-"

"I gotta stay. I gotta try... for Megumi and Yuko." Her shoulders shook, and her voice teetered on the edge of breaking. A few drops spattered the pavement at her feet. "I gotta prove to them, and to whoever's behind this, and to you... that I'm not cowardly, scaredy-cat Hime anymore..."

"That's ridiculous," said Fortune, reaching for her shoulder. "You know I don't think of you like that! Come with me, we can both-"

"I'm really sorry, Iona-chan." And with a strength that caught Fortune completely off guard, Princess turned, reared back, and shoved both her and the little stranger through the door. The maelstrom of spacetime snatched them up, spiraling them away from the alley, from Pikarigaoka, and from Hime's final, sad smile...

-VERTEX THREE: 8.333882^1-

Wakabadai

Simultaneously

"... have no leads so far as to the identities of the attackers," said the anchorwoman on the television screen. "All citizens are instructed to stay inside with their doors locked until the Defense Ministry determines that the danger has passed. Once again, our top story: tragedy struck Wakabadai this afternoon, leaving dozens dead and hundreds injured in an attack of some kind. Eyewitness reports say that four young girls in strange costumes went on a rampage through the downtown area, leaving bodies and millions of yen in damage in their wake..."

A family of three sat watching the report in the dark, white-faced, the images casting their features in a pale glow. The news had been repeating variations of those same words for the last two hours, but still they watched, desperate that the next cycle would bring the news they prayed for, not the news they dreaded...

A heavy knock on the apartment door nearly caused heart attacks in the three of them. The youngest, a dark-haired little boy of elementary school age, howled in terror and dove under a chair, curling into a miserable, shivering ball. "It's the maniacs!" he shrieked over and over. "The maniacs have come to get us!"

The boy's father stood up, the television's glow throwing the first shallow wrinkles on his face into sharp relief. While his wife attempted to console their boy, Takeshi Misumi gripped one of his missing daughter's spare lacrosse sticks and crossed to the door. He was scared out of his wits, and armed only with a pitiful makeshift weapon, but he would lay down his life before he let one of the madmen responsible for destroying downtown lay a hand on his family.

"Shhh, Ryouta, shhh!" whispered his wife, Rie. "They'll hear you!"

"Too late now," Takeshi said, his voice hollow. "If it's them, they must know we're here."

"I'm sorry," Ryouta sobbed from under his chair, clasping his hands over his mouth to try to muffle himself. "I'm sorry, Mom, Dad, I'm sorry!"

"It'll be all right, Ryouta, it's not your fault, darling-"

"Who's there?!" Takeshi shouted, gripping the crosse so hard his knuckles whitened. "I warn you, I'm armed!"

A pause. Then, a familiar voice from the other side of the door... "... Dad? Dad, it's me..."

"Nagisa!" For a middle-aged man, Takeshi Misumi moved like the wind, a blur of motion as he opened the locks and flung open the door to haul his oldest child into an embrace. "Nagisa, thank God, we thought... th-the whole downtown has been destroyed, and you and Honoka were-" His voice cracked, he couldn't force the word past the lump in his throat.

Instantly, Rie was at his side, joining in the embrace. Her daughter, her precious daughter, she was really alive... "Nagisa! Nagisa..." Tears rolled down her cheeks, she couldn't stop them if she tried.

"Onee-chan!" And now little Ryouta rushed over, and clung to his sister's leg like an overgrown limpet.

Nagisa just stood there, letting them all cry it out. The next few minutes would be hard enough for them without all these other emotions getting in the way... She wanted to cry along with them, but the reality of the last few hours had drained her of feeling anything but tired... she was so tired. They had stopped by Honoka's grandmother's house on the way back to the apartment. Somehow, Sanae Yukishiro already knew of Precure, and of Nagisa and Honoka's secret identities... that made it a little easier to tell her the truth. Still, the haunting grief and loss that flashed through the old woman's eyes when Nagisa told her what had happened to her granddaughter... seeing that drained whatever was left of Nagisa's energy out of her. And now this, which promised to be even worse...

It seemed to take an age for her father to pull back and look her in the eye. "Young lady, if you ever scare us like that again-!"

"Where were you, why didn't you call, we were scared to death-"

"Onee-chan, you're really okay, onee-chan..."

"Mom, Dad, Ryouta," said Nagisa, trying to talk over them. "Please, there's something I've gotta tell you..."

They continued unabated, all three family members babbling at her, their words blending together in a tide of noise. The cacophony ratcheted up the headache that Nagisa felt coming on, igniting just a bit of the spark of her normal self... "HEY!" she shouted, stamping her foot.

There immediately followed a loud crack, and if Nagisa's shout didn't stop them, that noise certainly did. Stunned into silence, Takeshi looked down... and saw that his daughter now stood half-in and half-out of a very small crater in his floor. For the first time, he looked, really looked at his daughter, at the strange black and pink outfit she wore that seemed vaguely familiar...

"Nagisa...?" said Rie slowly. "Wh... what..."

Ryouta being Ryouta, he blurted out the first thing that came into his head. "What's with the weird clothes? Are you cosplaying?!"

Nagisa (or at the moment, Cure Black) felt a vein bulge in her forehead. Forget Dusk Zone, this was going to be the fight of her life. "No, I am not cosplaying, dummy! I've been trying to tell you all- Look, we need to talk. You'd better sit down."

Nagisa sat on one side of the living room table, and her mother, father, and little brother all crowded together on the other side. She supposed she couldn't blame them. Their whole perception of the world and how it worked had just been shattered.

"So?" she said, bracing herself for the storm.

"I-" Her mother was the first to speak. "This just doesn't make sense. Fairies, monsters, super powers, creatures from another world... Nagisa, how can you expect us to believe-"

"Look at the floor, Rie," said her father, his eyes once again wandering to that little crater by the door. "Look at the floor. There's no way a normal girl could do that, that's half a meter of cement..."

Ryouta seemed perturbed for entirely different reasons. "I can't believe it! You, a superhero? My sister?! What kind of monsters could you ever fight, a giant takoyaki?!"

"Oi!" Nagisa shot him a death glare. Someone really deserved a Cobra Twist for that one... but, she reminded herself yet again, she would probably break both his arms doing that while still transformed. Not that he wouldn't deserve it after all those cracks from earlier about her weight, specifically bursting out of her Cure uniform from overeating...

"Anyway," she said, trying to steer the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Like I said, I don't know what's going on this time, but Honoka..." Here she cringed, clutching her hands in her lap. "I've gotta go after her. That's why I'm still transformed. If I change back, and she changes back at the same time, wherever they took her... Those Dead End bas- guys- could hurt her, and then neither of us could fight, do you see?"

Takeshi frowned and crossed his arms. "It doesn't seem very practical to me, even if it is real. Why would they give you powers that you can't use by yourselves? What happens if one of you gets sick, for example?"

That was actually a good question. Nagisa scratched her head. "Well, uh..."

"And why do you have to hold hands?" Ryouta chimed in. "Can't you just share your powers with each other with a laser beam or something? That's how Taiyouman does it!"

"Taiyouman is from a TV show. This is real."

"I mean," said her father, deep in thought. "I can understand how it's appropriate, you know, as a theme. White and black, light and dark, day and night, that sort of thing. But it just seems like having your powers tied to both of you being together would create more problems than it's worth. Why can't you use something else to transform? Like a belt, for example-"

"I didn't make the rules, Dad!" said Nagisa. This situation was getting seriously out of hand. "Don't ask me how or why it works that way, it just does! Now please, let me finish so I can-"

"I knew it," said Rie, speaking up again. "I knew there was something strange going on with you two, the way you were always sneaking off, and spending so much time together... but I just assumed you were... well..." Flushing pink, she turned away.

"Oh God." moaned Nagisa, putting her face in her hands. "No, Mom, just... no! It's not like that! Please, try to focus, this is important!"

"- or a watch, that would be less conspicuous. Or even a regular cell phone..."

"But... but the way you're always whispering to each other! And holding hands-"

"Hey, now I remember...! That big guy at the aquarium last year, the one who looked like a gorilla! Are you telling me he was one of those Dust Zone guys? Did you-"

"QUIET!" roared Nagisa. She brought her fist down without thinking about it... and with a resounding snap that echoed in the sudden silence, the table between them fell in two. "Crap," she groaned, hanging her head in defeat. "I don't believe this! This is a nightmare, a nightmare..."

"Nagisa?" said a small, tired voice from the pouch on her hip. "If you like, I could talk to them, ~mepo..."

Rie's eyes nearly bulged out of her head. "What was that?!"

"I told you, Mom, he's my fairy partner. His name's Mepple. Mepple, are you sure you're strong enough?"

"Strong enough... for this. Just open the pouch so I can see, ~mepo..."

"Weird," said Ryouta, crawling over the broken table for a closer look as Nagisa unbuckled her pouch and flipped up the lid of Mepple's resting form. "Is that really him in there? A real fairy? Can I see?"

"Don't touch him, Ryouta, I might change back if you take him out!"

Ryouta withdrew his hand in a hurry. "So you're the one onee-chan was always yelling at," he said, his eyes wide. "We all just thought she was crazy!"

"OI!"

"Sorry about that, ~mepo..."

"Do you really have to say 'mepo' all the time? Doesn't that get annoying?"

"What... what do you mean, ~mepo?"

"Stop bothering him, Ryouta! He's... he's sick or something, he doesn't have time for stupid questions!"

"Nagisa! Don't talk to your brother that way!"

"Sorry, Mom... sorry, Ryouta."

"Everyone," said Mepple. Nagisa wondered how it was that he sounded so strong... it was a different timber altogether than the squeaky voice she was used to. "I've fought alongside Nagisa and Honoka for a long time. We've faced danger like you can't imagine, but this... These Dead End people are on a whole other level. I know you're scared... so are we. But we need to go stop them, and we don't have much time. I promise... on my honor as the Chosen Guardian of the Garden of Light... I'll keep Nagisa safe, and I'll bring her back to you. When I do... we'll explain everything." A small, weary sigh, and he fell silent again.

A pall fell over the room. The Misumi family's eyes moved as one back to Nagisa. "Um," she said, feeling uncomfortable. "Pretty much what he said. I wish we had more time to tell you what's going on, but... well."

Takeshi and Rie exchanged wordless glances.

It was Ryouta who spoke next. "You said... you said those guys took Honoka-san, right?"

Nagisa's chest grew tight. "Yeah."

"So you're going to go and kick their butts and get her back, right?"

"That's the plan."

"Then what are you waiting for?!" Ryouta flashed a thumbs-up. "Go get 'em, onee-chan!"

"Ryouta..." An overwhelming urge to hug him seized Nagisa... but again, not a wise idea while still transformed. Instead, she returned the thumbs-up with a grin as confident as she could manage. "Thanks."

Takeshi sighed. "I know you, Nagisa. If you set your mind on doing something, nothing can stop you. I want to say no, but-"

"- but I think we've seen that we can't really stop you." Rie tried to smile, but it was a wounded, bitter expression. Worry lines gathered at the corners of her mouth. "Try... try to be careful, okay?"

"I will, Mom. Thanks, Dad." Nagisa stood and turned her back to her family. No sense in letting them see how scared she really was... if she looked them in the eyes, she would lose her nerve. "Don't worry, I promise I'm coming back," she lied, her chest tighter than ever. "And Honoka's coming with me. Now where's-"

She was barely finished thinking of her when the little stranger stepped out from behind a corner and nodded, to shrieks of surprise from her mother and father. Nagisa had warned them, of course, but seeing a stranger just appear inside their home... that was something that would rattle anybody. Hand in hand, they walked to the front door... which wasn't their front door anymore, but an old wooden door with peeling weatherbeaten white paint and a tarnished brass knob. The little stranger stood on tiptoes and turned the handle... and what lay beyond was-

"I don't believe it," whispered Nagisa, mesmerized by the churning maelstrom of space beyond the door frame. Squeezing the little crystal spire in her free hand, she said aloud to... to whoever it was who had spoken to her earlier... "Are you sure this is safe?!"

After a moment's pause, the strange steely voice answered. As safe as we can manage. Come... the others are waiting. Now Nagisa was almost positive that it wasn't the little stranger speaking to her, the voice felt... too mature. That was the only way she could describe it.

"Nagisa?" said her mother's voice behind her. "Nagisa, we love you."

"Love you too, Mom, Dad, Ryouta." She couldn't look back, it would kill her to look back... so instead she stepped through the door with the little stranger, praying that she knew where she was going.

Hang on, Honoka. I'm coming.

END OF CHAPTER 11