"The time is out of joint — O cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!

Nay, come, let's go together."

- Hamlet, Act I, Scene V, 188-190

SHATTERED SKIES: THE MORNING LIGHTS

By BHS

ACT II: UNFAILING

Chapter 20: Meeting at the Crossroads

The Lighthouse, Vertex Point Five

Homura Akemi and Madoka Kaname sat across from each other in the cavernous room, neither saying a word, both too lost in their own thoughts to attempt to speak to one another.

For her part, Homura didn't trust this "Fantine" person, not one bit. To be honest, she didn't trust anyone other than Madoka, but she was particularly disinclined to take this Fantine at her word.

True, she was responsible for saving them from the void. Allegedly.

Yes, she provided a safe place to hide from Joker's rampage.

Indeed, she taught them how to use the Immaterial to make this place, a facsimile of Homura's old apartment from before her fall, before Madoka's ascension. Sculpting the smooth, rainbow-shimmering glass-diamond-soap bubble substance into any desired shape was trivial for someone used to manipulating time and reality, but Madoka was slower to get the hang of it. Homura suggested she might be more comfortable in a recreation of her own home... but Madoka shot that one down in a hurry. The Immaterial could replicate almost anything from itself, down to the finest detail... anything except for life. Even if Madoka did master it enough to recreate her room, her house, her neighborhood, it would be empty of what made those places home.

In addition, everything made from the Immaterial, no matter how faithfully crafted, lacked the true color and substance of real matter. Objects made of it felt, sounded, and even smelled right, but they would forever have that distinctive rainbow sheen and be just slightly faint and transparent, as if not quite real... as if crafted from dreams or memories. The effect was unsettling; Immaterial objects were so close to perfect, but not quite.

Then there was the matter of the food. Fantine told them both that time inside the Lighthouse didn't work the way that it did elsewhere, so not only hunger but all biological needs, food and sleep included, were rendered moot as long as they stayed in its bounds. However, Fantine explained that if they really felt like eating, as long as it wasn't made from living creatures, they could use the Immaterial to make food for themselves... as a comfort more than a necessity. It invariably had the same appearance as everything else made from it, and the taste was always bland beyond bland, but the smell and texture would be right, and at least that counted for something. She didn't need to eat, of course, but she understood Madoka's need to do so, just to feel normal.

For now, they sat there, in the faux-apartment from so long ago: cavernous white circular room with an enormous decorative clock set into the floor, all the furniture curved to follow its shape, and dozens of holographic screens floating overhead. Neither had spoken or moved for a long time.

It occurred to Homura that there was nothing stopping her from using her own powers to make real food. Madoka might appreciate that. Cakes... she was fond of cakes especially, she remembered. Cakes were easy to make; she merely had to arrange the right molecules in the right combinations to make sugar, flour, milk, eggs-

A voice cut through her thoughts, stemming from the Immaterial crystal at her side. The lack of echo in the room indicated that the speaker was communicating to her alone, and Madoka couldn't hear. Please, don't, said Fantine's voice.

Homura's brows knit together. This telepathy, or whatever it was, was far too similar to the Incubators' kind for her liking. Being spied on was even worse. And why shouldn't I? What's stopping me? You?

If I have to, yes, said Fantine. Part of the reason I brought you here was to hide you both from Joker. Overusing your powers could lead him to us, and I can't allow that.

And why is that? thought Homura.

You know that I can't tell you.

Of course, she thought back, crossing her arms. It was a familiar answer by this point. I don't know how you expect us to trust you when you won't even reveal yourself. All we know of you is your voice. How can we tell if you're on Joker's side or not? Or someone even worse?

Fantine's voice grew grave. As things stand right now, there are very few beings in existence worse than Joker, on that you have my word. As for me, I'm someone trying to keep you safe, and that's all you need to know at the moment.

Thank you very much for that, Homura thought with the bitterest sarcasm she could project.

You don't have to like it, Miss Akemi, but you have to accept it. There's more at stake here than even you can comprehend.

If so much is at stake, why not be honest with us? What is there to lose?

The voice fell silent.

Are you there? thought Homura. Fantine?

Silence.

Well, thought Homura. Fine, then.

"Homura-chan," said Madoka, rousing her from her stewing. "About before..."

Instantly, Homura put up her guard.

Madoka's expression was troubled, her gaze far away. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't ask, but... it's just so confusing. How did we-"

"I think it may at last be time for some explanations," said Fantine's voice aloud, from both the comm crystals and the walls of the faux-apartment. "I'm sorry for making you wait, I had to be sure everything was aligned."

"Aligned?" Madoka blinked in confusion at the comm crystal, for lack of anything else to blink at.

"It's not important. Your guide will be there in a moment."

Rising from her seat, Homura tossed back her long black hair. "Finally. I hope these others are worth meeting, after all this time."

"Not you," said Fantine. "Not yet. Only Madoka, at least for now."

"Me?" Perplexed, Madoka looked back and forth from the comm crystal to her friend. "Why just me?"

"I'm sorry, it'll be clearer once you're all together."

A growl built in Homura's throat as she snatched up the comm crystal. "Wherever Madoka goes, I go. Anything you have to say to her, you can say to me."

"Homura-chan, that's not-"

"Miss Akemi, please." Fantine's voice was soft, cool... dangerous. "Don't test my patience. As I told you, you may not like your situation, but you have to accept it." And privately, to Homura's thoughts, she added: You won't like the consequences if you don't. As hard as it may be for you to grasp, this is bigger than you and Madoka. I am not an enemy... don't make me one.

Homura squeezed the comm. Is that a threat?

It was supposed to be a warning, but fine. If you won't listen to that, listen to this, said Fantine, with all the warmth of a steel plate. It's for your sake that I've decided not to reveal the truth to that poor girl, yet. Even I don't know how she'll react if she learns that you were the one who betrayed and imprisoned her... Miss Devil. There was an edge on those two words that could have cut through stone. You could be a very useful ally in the fight that's coming, but you're a wild card, Homura Akemi. I don't know if I can trust you to do the right thing, but I also don't know if the Lighthouse could even survive Madoka regaining her powers from you; the presence of a Goddess in this place could rip all realities apart at the seams. So until I'm sure whether or not it's the right course of action, I've decided not to end your sad little charade.

However, she said, her voice tipping into a deadly serious tenor. I can't say the same for the others I've gathered here. Some of them are pretty volatile, Miss Akemi, the kind that won't take kindly to learning that the Devil is in their midst. There are people here that have faced crises and beaten monsters you've never dreamed of. Even with all your power. do you really want to risk antagonizing them?

Homura froze, the blood pumping through her black heart turning to ice. It was a bluff, it had to be. No one who knew her secrets like Fantine apparently did would be so callous as to reveal them to Madoka, directly or indirectly.

But Joker knew, and he had almost done so.

These others Fantine mentioned... odds were that none of them could stand against her at full power, but how could she be sure? And what would unleashing that much power do to Madoka? Or to Fantine's sanctuary?

For the second time in days, Homura found herself backed into a corner. No way out, not without causing her beloved more harm.

There's a passage from a famous poem by Milton that you might be familiar with, said Fantine. There was a certain smugness in her voice now, the smugness of someone who knew they had struck a killing blow.'Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.' I think it's quite applicable to you, don't you? It's almost eerie. But there's another passage from the same poem that's less well known: 'Abashed the devil stood, and felt how awful Goodness is, and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely, saw, and pined his loss...'

In short, you have no idea how much worse this situation could be for you. Have I made my point, or shall I go on?

Damn. Homura fumed in silence, forced to accept defeat but unwilling to admit it.

Their mental conversation took less than a second, so all Madoka saw was her friend's features twisting into a barely perceptible grimace. It was always tricky to read Homura's moods, but she was better at it than most anyone, having learned to read the telltale signs. "Homura-chan? Don't be angry, it's all right." She smiled and laid a hand on Homura's shoulder. "I trust Fantine-san, I'll be fine."

"Madoka." Homura took her hand, held it tight. "If anything happens, call out for me. I'll be right there."

"I know."

The door to the faux-entrance hall slid open, and a very small figure stepped through...

"Oh," said Madoka.

Homura's eyes widened. Madoka only saw the being's outer shell, the form of a red-haired toddler with astonishingly blue eyes. To the Devil's eyes, however, the being that stood in the doorway was a whirling storm of temporal energy compressed into a humanoid shape, elements of multiple timescapes fused together... a walking paradox, but an impossibly stable one. Was this a projection of their mysterious benefactor, or a byproduct of her power? Either way, Homura found it that much easier to believe Fantine really could do what she claimed...

Fascinated, Madoka bowed to the toddler. "Um, hello there," she said. "Nice to meet you."

The tiny girl bowed in return and beamed an angelic smile up at her.

"Are you..." Madoka's voice trembled. "Are you... Fantine-san?"

Laughter echoed through the room, a sound like ocean waves. "No, she's not me," said Fantine's voice. "You're not the first one to think that... she's my little Stranger, my friend. It's difficult to explain, but she's... I suppose you could say she's what remains of those who were erased from the normal flow of time. Bits and pieces of people."

"Remains? E-erased?" Madoka stepped back in a hurry.

"It's all right," said Fantine. "She won't hurt you, and you can trust her, I promise. In fact, part of her is a friend of yours..."

-static-

And as she spoke, the Stranger changed in the space of an eyeblink. Now she was an older girl, roughly eight or nine years by the look of her, with long snowy hair and unusual eyes, ringed in many colors...

Madoka's lips parted, but her words were stolen by a flood of returning memories. It was as if several missing pieces of a puzzle clicked into place; suddenly, she understood. Not only had someone been missing from her idyllic life, but that that someone's absence explained all those wounded, sad smiles that Mami wore when she thought no one was looking... of course. Somehow, some way, Mami felt the loss of her best friend, despite having no memory of her...

And Homura remembered as well, all in a rush: her first clue that something was wrong in the false Mitakihara, the weird little doll-creature that Mami Tomoe carried around that so resembled a Witch she fought many times before. Mami called it "Bebe", but it soon revealed itself as another Puella Magi, sent back to earth and into the Incubators' trap by Madoka herself... When Homura took the fall and rewrote the universe to her own whims, that girl was caught in the wake of the change just like all the others. Unlike Sayaka, who was determined to be a nuisance, this one accepted the new reality and was never any trouble... except for the trouble her disappearance from history caused Mami...

"Nagisa-chan," said Madoka in a hushed tone.

The Nagisa-Stranger grinned, and it was that same mischievous Nagisa grin that Madoka now remembered. Her colorful eyes brightened with excitement.

"Nagisa-chan!" Madoka stumbled over a footstool in her rush to embrace the girl, who returned the hug in earnest. "I c-can't believe it, how...?!"

Homura relaxed just a bit. The other Puellae Magi would have been cause for worry, but Nagisa, or rather an image of Nagisa, she could deal with. Nagisa she could tolerate. And so long as she didn't go spilling secrets...

The tearful reunion was interrupted by a gentle reminder from Fantine. "It's time, Madoka."

She nodded in a vague direction. "I'm ready. Just... just let me talk to Homura-chan for a minute more, please."

A pause. "All right."

Madoka turned and took a deep breath to steady herself. "Homura-chan," she said. "Whatever it was that happened before, the parts I can't remember..."

All of Homura's muscles tensed.

"You said we used to fight monsters like Joker, and like those things that he turned Mami and Kyoko into..."

"Yes," said Homura.

"I can't even imagine that. Was I really a..." She paused, for the words seemed too silly to speak aloud. "A magical girl? Was I good at it?"

Pain. Pain squeezed Homura's heart in a vise of freezing iron. There were times she wished she had done away with the very concept of magical girls, erased even the idea of them from her universe. Too late now. Despite how much it killed her to say it, there was only one answer she could give: the truthful one. "You were the best. Of all of us."

There was that smile, that wonderful smile. Her arms wrapped around Homura, her cheek rested against her shoulder, warm and soft. "Thank you, Homura-chan. If they need me to be one again... well, knowing that you believe in me is enough."

Homura's heart broke.

The Lighthouse, Vertex Point One

Usagi Tsukino stood on an endless flat plain that strange substance that was like glass, diamond, and the surface of a soap bubble all at once. Immaterial, the voice that referred to herself (itself?) as Fantine called it. She frowned down at the... floor? Ground? ... and crossed her arms. Her brows knit together. "I still don't get it."

Next to her, Chibi-Usa Tsukino sighed. "It's really not that hard, Usagi. You just have to think of something or somewhere that you remember, and the Lighthouse makes a sort of copy of it for you. Here, watch me again." Chibi-Usa closed her eyes and concentrated...

The reaction from the Immaterial was immediate. It rippled like water, gathered itself up, and stretched in a thousand directions at once. Gigantic spires burst from the liquid mass, jutting out straight and proud, the tallest of all in the center.

Opening her eyes once more, Chibi-Usa smiled at Usagi with just a hint of smugness. "See? Easy."

Usagi couldn't answer. She stared open-mouthed at the Immaterial duplicate of the Crystal Palace now standing right in front of her nose. It was a near-perfect recreation of the place she remembered from her travels to the 30th century, just as impossibly huge and just as intimidating as it was back then... or would be, or whatever tense it was. Only the Immaterial's distinctive prismatic shimmer marked it as a construct of the Lighthouse. "H-How..." Usagi sputtered. "You just- you just made your whole castle, and I can't even-"

Chibi-Usa shrugged. No longer needed, the castle melted back into the plain. "I've had more practice. Hotaru-chan and I have been here longer."

"Only a couple hours longer!"

"Not like that means a lot here. Come on, Usagi, you're making this harder than it has to be. All you have to do is think of something, anything. You did it before without even trying."

"But that was- never mind, I'll try one more time. If you can do it, I can too!" With that, Usagi screwed her eyes shut and clenched her fists, puffing out her cheeks. She thought long and hard of what she wanted, focusing on every happy memory she had of it... its distinctive smell, its sounds, its feel...

At her feet, the Immaterial rippled.

"That's it, it's working!" Chibi-Usa clapped her hands. The sooner Usagi got the hang of this, the better. "It's-"

"Nnnngh... h-hang on..."

"... Usagi, what is that?"

Usagi cracked an eye open. Her face split into a radiant grin. "Hey, it worked! Look at that, I did it!"

"It's..." Chibi-Usa rubbed her eyes, unsure if she was seeing correctly. "It's a ramen cart."

So it was. A perfectly ordinary ramen cart made of Immaterial stood before them. There were thousands like them all over Tokyo, pushed around on big red wooden wheels by vendors looking to make a quick hundred yen or so. Most of them didn't even sell good ramen... they bought hundreds of packets of the cheap instant stuff wholesale, cooked it up, claimed that it was homemade, and charged triple the price for it.

"It's a ramen cart," said Chibi-Usa again, in disbelief.

"Of course it is!" There was no disguising the pride in Usagi's voice. She lunged for the cart and snatched up a plate and a packet of chopsticks.

"Usagi..." Chibi-Usa's eyebrow twitched.

"What?" There followed a loud, prolonged slurp as Usagi funneled ramen into her mouth. Living with Mamoru clearly hadn't done much to imbibe her with feminine grace and manners. She sucked in a few stray strands and made to dive back for more... but she paused, a puzzled expression flitting across her face. "... The flavor's not right."

"Really? I always thought you ate too fast for your taste buds to register anything."

"Har har. No, the flavor's not right. Here, try some."

Reluctantly, Chibi-Usa did. Usagi was many things, but she knew her food, and she was right. The noodles were perfectly hot and steaming, they had the right texture, not too done and not too soggy... but the flavor wasn't there. Not bland or muted, it simply wasn't. Sort of like chewing unflavored tofu, but tofu at least tasted like tofu. The ramen tasted like... nothing. Hot, steaming nothing. Hardly pleasant. Chibi-Usa grimaced as she swallowed. "Ugh. I see what you mean. Are you really going to eat the rest of-"

"Gimmphh uh brek," said Usagi, already well into her second helping. "'M hnngry!" Gulp. "I haven't eaten since I got here."

The younger Tsukino pressed her face into her palms. "God. It's a wonder you haven't eaten Mamo-chan out of house and-" She froze, horrified with herself. "Oh no. Usagi, I'm so sorry-"

Usagi was stopped in mid-slurp, a lone noodle dangling forgotten from the corner of her mouth. As the cart melted back to the floor behind her, her eyes watered and began to fill with tears.

"Usagi, I didn't mean it!" said Chibi-Usa. Stupid, stupid, stupid! sang her inner thoughts in a gleeful cackle. The last thing Usagi needed right now was to be reminded of Mamoru, how she was forced by circumstance to leave him on Earth. True, he stayed behind for the good of the planet, but he only had Helios and the spirits of the departed Kings to support him. Otherwise, he was all alone... and the Witches and that thing that Joker had turned Makoto into were still out there somewhere, trapped inside the planetary shield with him. Chibi-Usa knew that the anxiety of not knowing if he was all right or not was slowly killing Usagi, no matter how laid-back and goofy she acted on the outside. "It just slipped out, I swear... Come here. I'm sorry."

Softly, Usagi put her arms around her future daughter and wept into her shoulder. This wasn't a normal, everyday Usagi crying fit, one of the hideously noisy ones that started and ended at the drop of a hat... now Usagi wept in silence.

Poor Usagi. This isn't fair, thought fought so hard for so long, sacrificed so much, and now, after they finally thought it was over for good... some new evil jerk had to come along and ruin everything. This isn't fair. Usagi's suffered more than all of us, she deserves to be happy. And now... Now her beloved Mamoru's status was unknown, with no way to contact him. Ami was missing, presumed dead. Rei had become two Reis, who were now somehow merged into a strange new whole and still trying to come to grips with what that meant. Makoto had turned into a monster. Minako was in the infirmary, still sleeping off whatever Joker did to her. Michiru was injured by a corrupted Haruka's hands, and Setsuna... Chibi-Usa shivered. No one seemed to know where Setsuna was. Just herself and Hotaru and Usagi left alive, present, and healthy. The Sailor Senshi had come back together at last, only to be torn apart again.

A meter or so away, the Immaterial rippled, forming a simple doorway. Once it solidified, the Stranger stepped through... not in her transformed state as the girl in white and pastel, but as a teenager wearing a simple denim overshirt and a skirt, curly brown pigtails swaying half a step behind her. Chibi-Usa and Hotaru had seen her around on occasion as she recovered from her injuries; perhaps she dropped her transformation to conserve her energy. She smiled and bowed politely.

"Usagi," said Chibi-Usa, patting her on the back. "Someone's here."

Sniffling, Usagi pulled away and wiped her eyes, then put on a smile and bowed back to the Stranger. "Oh. Hi."

A voice rang out through the room, steely, with a hint of ocean waves. Fantine. "Hello, Usagi. I'm sorry to keep you waiting so long."

"N-No sweat," said Usagi. She hoped Fantine didn't notice her crying, but the odds of that were slim. Fantine seemed to see everything. "Do you need me for something?"

"Yes, please. Follow the Stranger, she'll show you the way."

"Um." Usagi lingered, casting a wary eye on the girl, hesitating for reasons she couldn't explain.

After a moment, Chibi-Usa tugged at her arm. "Usagi, it's okay. She saved us, remember?"

A sigh from Fantine. "If you'd feel more at ease, she can change into someone you're more familiar with. If you please, little one."

-static-

For the first time since coming to the Lighthouse, Usagi smiled, really smiled. It didn't matter that the Stranger wasn't really the tiny girl who helped to guide her through that last terrible battle five years ago. Her presence, her warmth, was the same. It made sense; in half of Usagi's memory, she was sent from the far future as a comfort, someone who would stay with her when everyone else was worse than gone... Just looking at that precious little smile let her know it would be all right.

"Okay," said Usagi. "Lead the way."

The Lighthouse, Vertex Point Three

Nagisa Misumi, Cure Black, hit the punching bag once again. It didn't help any more than the last time she hit it. At least she wasn't punching them across the field anymore, for however much that mattered.

The shimmery stuff that Fantine called "Immaterial" was presently arranged in the shape of the Verone Academy lacrosse field. Maybe an indoor gym would have been more appropriate for boxing, but the field was where Black felt most relaxed, aside from the park where Akane usually set up her takoyaki cart. Recreating that place hurt too much, so the lacrosse field was the next best thing.

As per her specifications, the field was set to a bright spring afternoon, the grass fragrant and freshly-cut, the sky sunny and cloudless. This room really was amazing, she had to admit. Sort of like one of those holodeck things in Star Trek...

She winced as her fist struck the bag again. Not because the impact hurt, but because Star Trek was science fiction, and the thought of science naturally led to thinking about Honoka. Where was she now? Was she even still alive? Or was she simply gone, erased as Pollun, Lulun, Hikari and her brother had been? How long had it even been since she stepped through the door with the little stranger? There was no way to tell; time in the Lighthouse didn't work like it did outside.

Since her arrival, Black had cooled her heels here, playing around with the Immaterial to create stuff she could use to take out her anger on. At first she tried recreating her ball and crosse, but after scoring a few dozen goals unimpeded, the idea of catching up on lacrosse practice lost its appeal. The Immaterial couldn't create life, after all. Even if she went through the trouble of recreating the right number of players as "dummies" (for lack of a better term), they would only move how she directed them to move, not on their own. No challenge at all.

Then came the punching bags. It took a few tries to get them right. In her Cure form, normal, sand-filled punching bags tended to burst after one or two hits. Through much experimentation, she came up with the idea of filling them with powdered cement and forming the bag itself from carbon fiber, the stuff that Honoka claimed could stop bullets. It was the strongest stuff Black could think of, and it seemed to work. The bags still broke their chains and went sailing across the field after too much abuse, as the piles of spent ones stacked near the opposing goal would attest, but they worked for a while.

Whenever she grew bored of hitting things, she sat and talked to Mepple. Mepple rarely talked back, of course. Being transformed for so long depleted what little energy he had left. When he could answer, it was almost always in short, halting sentences, punctuated by labored breathing. It made Black's heart hurt. Mepple was such a motormouth normally, and to have him reduced to this... It reminded her of the months after the first battle with the Dark King, when he and Mipple went into hibernation to recover their strength. Except that it was even lonelier than it was back then, for now there was no Honoka to talk to.

Honoka. Where are you?

A particularly vicious blow made the punching bag spin a full circle on its chain.

So Black talked to Mepple about whatever was on her mind. Lacrosse games, Fujipi, her favorite foods and TV shows... and missing Honoka, naturally. That subject came up a lot. She didn't even know if he could hear her most of the time, but it felt good to talk to him anyway.

Cure Black, said the voice in her mind.

Black started. Sometimes she forgot all about the comm crystal the Stranger gave her, tucked into one of her gauntlets. "Uh, hi!" she stammered. "What's up?"

I'm sorry to keep you waiting, said Fantine's voice. Everything is aligning now, so it's time for you to meet the others.

"Other magical girls, huh..." Black wiped the sweat from her brow. It was a good thing time was so weird here; she couldn't exactly take full showers when transformed. If she were sweating like normal, her costume would stink to high heaven by now. That made her stop to ponder: could she even take her Cure uniform off without turning back to civilian form? Or take it off at all? What if she discarded everything else and just held on to Mepple, would she be Cure Black or plain old Nagisa? Her brows knit together. If Mepple saw her undressed (which would NOT happen if she had anything to say about it), he would probably make some wisecrack about her weight or figure. If he were feeling himself, that is.

So occupied was she with her own thoughts that she almost missed Fantine's next one. Not just regular magical girls... other Precure, too.

"Whoa whoa whoa," said Black, staring down at the crystal. "One of the psycho twins said something like that, too. What do you mean, 'other Precure?'"

You and Cure White were the first, said Fantine, but there have been many others after you.

"How does that work?"

You'll remember. You've met them before, after all.

Black blinked. "... Hang on. Even if there were other Precure, how could I meet them and not remember them?"

A strange quirk of your universe's vertex. There have been many times when your facets align and all of you gather together... and afterwards, when you go your separate ways and return to your facets, you always forget until the next time you're needed. Even I don't know exactly how or why it works.

"Facets?"

Not the best term for them, I admit, but it'll have to do. The facets are sort of the... branches of your vertex. Offshoots. Every so often, a new one is formed and new Precure appear.

"I don't believe this... how many of them- of us- are there?"

It fluctuates. There's almost always at least two Cures, but depending on the particular facet, there could be hundreds.

"Holy..." whispered Black. Right now, she couldn't even picture ten Precures, let alone hundreds. "With that many, why can't we stomp those Dead End guys into the ground?"

Most of them have been captured, or worse.

"Like Honoka."

A sad reply. Yes, like Honoka. But there's one Precure that I don't think even Dead End knows about... because she only appears when all of you are together. For some reason, she both is and isn't one of you, one who connects your worlds but is forever apart from them. That's part of why she ended up here...

"Who do you-"

A doorway appeared from the Immaterial, and the Stranger stepped through. Those beautiful ruby eyes sparkled as she bowed to Black, her golden hair spilling over her shoulders.

"Oh," said Black. "It's you. Hey the-"

-static-

And Cure Black began to remember. Just the sight of the Stranger changing into an older girl in white and pastel colors was enough to stir up what was buried: yes, there were many other Cures. She had fought alongside them. And there was one who was special, one with powers none of them quite understood... an anomaly, an illusion, a phantom, an...

"Echo," said Black in a hushed tone. "You're Cure Echo. Ayumi..."

The Echo-Stranger smiled. Though she couldn't speak, her kind golden eyes said it all: Nice to see you again.

TSAB L-Class Inspection Cruiser Arthra

Infirmary, Intensive Care Unit

"She's waking up! Oh, thank the Saint King..."

"Fate-chan!"

"Nnnh." That small, pained moan was the first sound Fate Testarossa Harlaown made in days. Her lips and throat were dry and parched. "Wha-"

"Lie still, Fate-chan. Just take it easy."

"Fate..." An orange blur stood at her side, fidgeting with anxiety, and only just restraining herself from seizing Fate in a hug.

There was only one person that could be. "H-Hello, Alph," she said, trying to smile. The effort hurt. "Are you... okay?"

Her trusted familiar sobbed. Strange, that wasn't like Alph at all. "Don't start with that! Asking me if I'm okay..." she said, strain evident in her voice. "I'm just glad you're finally awake."

A hand grasped hers, and a second patted it. There was something odd about its texture. "Don't try to move too much just yet. Do you need anything?" said Nanoha's voice.

Fate licked her lips. "Water, please."

At once, the orange blur leapt across the room. Mere seconds later, a glass was pressed to her dry lips. Fate drank; the cool liquid soothed her scratchy throat. "Mmm."

Bit by bit, her vision began to clear. She made out Alph's furry wolf ears first, then her white-tipped tail swishing back and forth, then her eyes, reddened and puffy. On the other side of what she assumed was a hospital bed, Nanoha sat in a chair... a normal one, not the mobility chair. Her eyes were tired, but her smile was radiant. "Welcome back," she said, giving Fate's hand another pat.

The strange, rough feeling of Nanoha's hand made Fate look down. "Nanoha, what-" She stopped, her breath seizing in terror.

Both of Nanoha's hands were swaddled from the wrists up in thick bandages. The tips of her fingers were shiny, crimson, and unnaturally smooth... evidence of deep burns that hadn't fully healed.

It wasn't hard to follow her gaze. "I'll be all right," said Nanoha, as if suggesting otherwise was out of the question. "Don't worry about me, a few more healing barriers and I should be just fine. Compared to the Gadget Drones, this was nothing."

That did little to reassure her. "Nanoha, how-"

Another voice from the doorway, where someone leaned against the bulkhead. "I think that should wait until you've had more time to recover, Fate." Admiral Lindy seemed more tired than Nanoha and Alph put together; deep lines and bags of exhaustion gathered beneath both of her eyes.

Fate blinked. Though she knew that Lindy stood at the door a few meters from the bed, for some reason she didn't seem as far away as she should. As if the distances were wrong. No, more than that, she seemed oddly flat. As if-

Fate drew in a short, sharp breath. She remembered. Or she remembered most of it. Carnaaji, the Wolkenritter attacking, the resurrected Will of the Book of Darkness, the abomination called Moebius 90, and that horrid woman...

"Where is she?" said Fate, trying to sit up. "What happened to Viluy?"

Alph pushed her back into the pillows that surrounded her, and she felt Nanoha's hands tremble and clutch hers tighter.

Lindy moved from the door, holding something to her chest. "Fate, there's... there's something you need to see. During the fight on Carnaaji, that woman..." Her voice hardened, then trailed off as she brought the object forward. A mirror. "I'm so sorry."

Fate heard Nanoha choke back a sob.

With dawning comprehension, Fate gazed at her reflection, at the black fabric patch that now covered her right eye. "She-" whispered Fate. Every instinct told her to reach up to touch the patch and examine the wound, while her mind threatened to shut itself down if her fingers confirmed what her eyes - her eye - was now telling her. Numb. She felt numb...

Next to her, Nanoha sucked in a breath. "This was... this was the best we could do for you right now, Fate-chan." The tremble in her voice shuddered down through her bandaged hands to the tips of Fate's unfeeling fingers. "If we could go back to Midchilda, we could get you a c-cybernetic implant, o-or replace it with c-cloned tissue, but-"

"But right now we can't go back." Lindy's words hardened again, shocking Fate with their bitterness. "Fantine has forbidden us from contacting the TSAB. Not only can they not send us support, they apparently can't even know where we are."

Fate blinked, then shivered. The sensation was bizarre; she didn't care for it one bit. "Where exactly are we, Lindy-san?"

Nanoha again. "We're docked at someplace called the Lighthouse. Fantine-san described it as 'a place between the worlds', but..." Words tumbled out of her in a rush. "It doesn't look or feel like interdimensional space, and Amy-san can't map our coordinates, and we're-"

"Stuck here," Lindy finished. "For how long, she won't say. Every time I try to talk to her, she brushes me off. All I want is some information, but-"

"Oh," said Nanoha.

There was someone new at the infirmary door. A little girl Fate had never seen before, with concentric rings in her eyes of red and yellow, and white wavy hair done up in two tiny pigtails. She couldn't have been more than seven or eight years old. Clutching her blankets, she asked: "Nanoha? Who is that?"

"We're... not sure." Nanoha chewed on her bottom lip. "Fantine-san... she's the voice or the AI of the Lighthouse, we think... Fantine-san calls her 'the Stranger.' She lead us here..." To the girl: "Is something wrong?"

The Stranger beckoned with one finger. The message was clear: Follow me.

There was a mass shuffling of bodies and chairs in the tiny, cramped infirmary as Nanoha, Lindy, and Alph all rose to comply. Fate tried to do so as well, captivated by this girl for no reason she could understand... but Alph pushed her back down.

"Lie still," said her familiar. "You need your rest."

"It's okay, Fate-chan, Lindy-san and I will-"

The Stranger shook her head at Lindy... then pointed to Nanoha, and beckoned again.

"Look." Lindy rubbed her eyes. The stress of these crises was beginning to weigh on her. "I'm sure Fantine has good reasons for all this secrecy, but Cadet Takamachi is my officer. I'm her CO, and this is unfamiliar territory. For her safety, I have to insist that you-"

Again the Stranger shook her head.

Something in Lindy snapped. "This is ridiculous, how are we supposed to even trust you, or this Fantine?!"

-static-

The Stranger flickered... and shifted. Between one instant and the next, her entire appearance changed.

Alph's ears stood up straight, and her tail fur puffed up in alarm.

Lindy dropped the mirror, which shattered to pieces on the metal floor.

Nanoha stared in bewildered silence.

And Fate let out a small, strangled scream.

Where there once had been an unfamiliar little girl standing in the doorway, there was now a different, younger girl, about five years old, with long, blonde tresses and beautiful ruby eyes that were a mirror of Fate's.

The Stranger had turned into Alicia. Alicia, her lost, late sister that Fate had never known, outside of a fantasy world in the Book of Darkness. Alicia, the template body that was used for the project that created Fate and gave her her name...

The Alicia-Stranger looked at them all with those eyes that were just like Fate's and an expression of sympathy... as if she could understand how shocking, how upsetting, how impossible this was, and could do nothing but apologize for it. She bowed politely, her hands clasped in front of her. When she rose, she beckoned to Nanoha once more: Follow me.

The Lighthouse, Vertex Point Two

"Okay," said Kero. "Let's see what we've got."

"Mmm-hmm." Sakura Kinomoto nodded and stared down at the Cards spread before her. Working carefully, she sorted them one by one into three piles while Kero hovered over her, watching.

"WINDY is still normal," she said once she was done. "So are FLOWER, FLOAT, SONG, SWEET, ARROW, TWIN, BIG, CLOUD, RAIN..."

"JUMP," Kero continued, "DASH, BUBBLES, WAVE, FLY, GLOW, MOVE, THROUGH, LIBRA, and DREAM. That makes twenty Cards Joker couldn't change... or wouldn't. Mostly the gentle ones."

Sakura chewed on her bottom lip and reached for the second pile, the Cards that shifted from Sakura to Clow form depending on how she looked at them. "And over here are SHADOW, ILLUSION, LIGHT, WOOD, SHIELD, MIRROR, FIREY, DARK, WATERY, SLEEP, THUNDER, SWORD, and EARTHY."

Kero nodded and crossed his tiny arms. "We saw him use SHIELD, SWORD, and ILLUSION, and you were both usin' SWORD at the same time. So it's safe to assume that these thirteen Cards are shared between the two of you. However that works."

"And over here..." said Sakura, reaching for the third and final pile. These nineteen cards were all hazy and transparent, barely substantial. She tested each and every one of these, and none of them worked for her, no matter how much power she put into them. "MIST. STORM. FIGHT. SHOT. FREEZE. POWER. LOOP..."

"CHANGE," said Kero, his voice grave. "VOICE, LOCK, SILENT, TIME, ERASE, RETURN, CREATE, SAND, MAZE, SNOW, LITTLE..."

"... and then there's NOTHING." Sakura shuddered. "At least she turned back to herself before-"

"But she shouldn't be NOTHING anymore," said Kero. "She should be HOPE, 'cause she fused with the Nameless Card when you sealed her back then."

"I know. It doesn't make sense."

"So if my hunch is right, NOTHING and those nineteen gho-" Kero stopped himself and reconsidered his choice of words. "Er, let's call them spirit Cards... they're all under his full control. Looks like he nabbed most of the aggressive or attack-type Cards. Not good."

"Not good at all. Kero-chan, what are we going to do?" said Sakura, gathering the Cards back into one pile. So many of her friends taken from her... and Tomoyo, and Shaoran, and her father, and all of Tomoeda...

It wasn't hard in and of itself to recreate her house from the pretty rainbow glass that Fantine called "Immaterial". What was hard was recreating it with the knowledge that the real thing was... gone. Destroyed, like the rest of her town, by Joker's cruel whim. It was only with Toya and Yukito's support that she managed it... the house was just as beloved to the both of them, too.

In this facsimile of her bedroom, Sakura's bed was here, as was her desk with Kero's tiny bed in one of its drawers, her favorite pink desk lamp, Kero's miniature TV and favorite game console... but without her father, without Tomoyo there to cheer her on at every step, without Shaoran close by, it didn't feel like home.

A knock at the door interrupted these melancholy thoughts. For a moment, Kero froze, pretending to be a stuffed animal... old habit.

"Hey," said the gruff, stoic voice on the other side. "You busy?"

"Nope. Coming." Sakura rose to her feet and opened the door for Toya, trying to smile. "Hi, onii-chan. Is everything all right?"

Toya shrugged. "Could be better, but at least Yuki's here and no one's trying to kill us. I just wanted to tell you... you have a visitor. Downstairs."

"Hoe~?" Sakura blinked. "I didn't hear the doorbell. Is the Stranger back from-"

"Nope," said Toya. "Someone else. I don't know how to explain, just come and see." Catching sight of her perplexed expression, he smirked. "It's not often I'm more confused than you are."

"Onii-chan!"

"Come on," he said, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. "Downstairs."

The moment Sakura dismounted the last stair and turned the corner, a red and black blur leapt over the living room couch and rushed in her direction. Her thoughts raced with sudden panic... she grasped for her key, the invocation on her lips, when-

"You...!" said the blur, seizing her by the shoulders with great force. "You... how dare you let Shaoran be... be...! I'll never, ever forgive you, Sakura Kinomoto!"

"Hoeeeee~!" Sakura squealed. The blur resolved itself into one of the last people she ever expected to see... "M... Meilin-chan?!"

The face that Sakura knew so well held an expression so familiar and nostalgic that she almost laughed: crimson eyes narrowed and glaring, pink, puffed-out cheeks, pursed lips. It was the same expression that so terrified her in the early days. But then it melted into a gentle if fiesty smile, as the Hong Kongese girl in the fiery red cheongsam pulled back and embraced her as a friend. "Sorry," said Meilin Li. "I had to get it out of my system. Don't worry, I know it wasn't your fault."

"Meilin-chan..." said Sakura, still baffled. She was a welcome sight, of course, but how could it be that Meilin was here, of all places? "I don't understand..."

Leaning over the stairway banister, Toya rubbed the back of his head. Meilin was never exactly his favorite of Sakura's circle of friends, but considering the circumstances... "That makes two of us."

Finally releasing Sakura, Meilin put her hands on her hips and glared over her shoulder. "Well, of course I had to come! Shaoran's in danger, isn't he? And so is Tomoyo! You need my help to get them back!"

This was too much. Sakura moved to the couch and sat down, her head spinning. "I can't believe it. This is so weird..."

Meilin sat next to her with a sigh, putting her hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, I can hardly believe it either."

"How did you even get here?! Weren't you at home in Hong Kong?"

Flustered, Meilin looked away, her cheeks reddening. "Well," she said, twirling a finger in one of her black pigtails. "I... I heard about what happened to Tomoeda on the news, a-and I got worried for Shaoran, of course. I knew I had to go, so... so I convinced Mother and Lady Yelan to send me back to Japan by telling them the Cards were probably in danger."

Toya stared. He knew that Meilin was still a bit obsessive when it came to her cousin, a blind, deaf, and dumb person could tell that... but to outright lie to the Li family about her intentions? "Kid..."

"Well, I had to, didn't I?!" Meilin huffed. "You all were gone, so that Eriol guy and Mizuki-sensei and I were the only ones left who had experience with them!" Now her eyes wandered to her feet as she shuffled them, avoiding Sakura's gaze. "S-so I w-went to... you know... where the city..." She swallowed. "Wh-where it vanished, and I couldn't find anything. I was so worried, I didn't know what to do or where to go..."

"Meilin-chan..." Now it was Sakura's turn to lay a comforting hand on the other girl's shoulder.

"I started looking around for anyone who could help me, and ended up in Tokyo," said Meilin, "and I found this tiny little old-fashioned shop in between two big buildings. There was a lady inside, a witch, who knew who I was, and she told me she knew where you'd gone... and she'd send me there to find you and help you if I-" And Meilin stopped, falling unusually quiet.

"If you what...?" Sakura leaned closer.

"It's not important right now, really." Meilin's eyes disappeared beneath her straight black bangs. "The important thing is helping you get Shaoran and the Cards and everyone back where they should be."

Clearly Meilin hadn't changed much at all. She was still stubborn as a whole petting zoo full of mules, and nothing and no one could drag more out of her until she was ready to talk. Now Sakura did laugh, wrapping her arms around her old friend and embracing her. "Thank you, Meilin-chan. It's so good to see you."

A voice resonated from the comm crystal in Sakura's pocket. "I'm happy she's here too, though I don't really approve of people coming here without my invitation..." Fantine sounded more than a bit put off.

Meilin blinked. "Kinomoto-san, your pocket is talking..."

"That's Fantine-san," said Sakura, withdrawing the small spire. "She's the spirit of this place, I think. Fantine-san," she said into the crystal, "do you know the witch that sent Meilin-chan here? Can she help us?"

"I know of her," said Fantine. "I'm not a fan of her methods... or the way she conducts her business." The sentence was followed by what sounded an awful lot like an offended sniff. "As long as she doesn't bring Dead End to our door, we won't have a problem. As for helping... she can, but she won't. So that's that."

"Where exactly are we, anyway?" said Meilin, looking around at the living room, perfectly replicated down to the photos on the mantlepiece. "This looks like your house, but it's all... shimmery."

"It's a long, long story," said Sakura. "I don't know very much myself."

"I think it's time you learned more," said Fantine. "Sakura, I'm sending the Stranger to you. It's time to meet the others."

Sakura nodded. All these cryptic mentions of "the others"... there was Takamachi and Admiral Lindy, but she had only spoken to them over the comm system. I wonder how many more there are?

On the stairwell, Toya moved to leave. "I'll go get the little monster, then."

"No," said Fantine, "for now, just Sakura, please."

"I..." Sakura felt a chill. "I have to go alone?"

"Just until all the doors are fully opened. You only need to be patient a little longer."

"A-all right."

Now the doorbell rang, the chimes echoing through the house. Toya grumbled, descended the rest of the stairs, and threw open the front door. Outside of the front porch, the Immaterial facsimile of the Kinomoto house faded into a flat, featureless plain, broken only by a simple doorway. At Toya's feet, reaching barely higher than his knee, a toddler with baby blue eyes and her red hair in heart-shaped buns smiled an angelic smile up at him.

Toya averted his gaze and fought hard to keep from blushing. He had an image to maintain. "Sakura. She's here."

"Okay. I'll be back soon, I think." Sakura rose from the couch, smoothed the wrinkles out her dress, and took a deep breath. "Meilin-chan, stay here with Kero-chan and the others. If you need anything, just ask onii-chan or Yukito-san, okay?"

Meilin waved a hand. "Go on, I'll be fine. They're waiting for you. Whoever 'they' are."

Toya watched his little sister cross the room and duck under his outstretched arm to join the Stranger. There was an uncomfortable sensation at the back of his throat, the kind he always had whenever Sakura headed off into an uncertain situation... it was much worse this time. All her Cardcaptor stuff, that he could handle, that was at least safe most of the time. This, though? There was a psychopath somewhere out there willing to destroy entire towns. When he thought about how Joker made Sakura cry, how he laughed as he tore Tomoeda apart... His fingers gripped the Immaterial door frame so hard that it let out an ominous creak. To Sakura, he simply said, "Take care, monster. Don't stomp on anyone on the way."

"Onii-chan..." Sakura made a face, then gave him a quick hug before turning to follow the Stranger's tiny footsteps.

It was hard not to stare. Walking a few steps behind the Nagisa-Stranger through a crystalline hallway, Madoka couldn't help but notice the slash across her back, an angled line from one shoulder to the lowest rib on her opposite side, oozing with white light that moved like water beneath the curtain of her hair. As far as Madoka could tell, it wasn't a wound, or a rip in her clothing... it was a rip in the Stranger herself, or rather the image of Nagisa that she wore. What happened to you? Madoka wondered. At least she didn't seem to be in pain.

The Nagisa-Stranger stopped at the foot of a set of glass-crystal stairs, leading through another tunnel in a lazy upward spiral. One small hand gestured to the first stair.

"You... you want me to go first?"

The Nagisa-Stranger shook her head.

"Alone?"

She nodded.

"But... how will I know where to-"

"I'll help you," said Fantine from her comm crystal. "Just follow the sound of my voice."

Madoka was about to speak again, before she heard the notes from the stairwell: a bittersweet, wistful melody in a language she couldn't understand.

"Des yeux qui font baisser les miens

Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche

Voilà le portrait sans retouche

De l'homme auquel j'appartiens..."

Mystified, Madoka followed the sound, up and up and up...

Usagi had to stop and listen halfway up the stairs. She felt nervous leaving the Chibi-Stranger behind, especially now that she had seen that glowing slash on her back... but Fantine assured her she would catch up soon. For now, the sound of Fantine's singing guided her on. She had a beautiful voice, soft and lilting, almost mourning. The words were beyond Usagi, but the melody sounded vaguely familiar...

"Quand il me prend dans ses bras

Il me parle tout bas

Je vois la vie en rose..."

Rose. She understood that much, and her heart ached for Mamoru. It made her pause again, a hand on her chest, something inside tightening, squeezing...

And then, as if from far away, she heard what he would say if he were here: You can do it. I believe in you, Usako.

"Mamo-chan. Thank you." Usagi nodded and climbed higher.

Cure Black took the stairs at a jog. Fantine's voice was pretty, sure, but she needed answers. Questions about Echo and the other Cures swirled in her mind like a dervish, one after another: How many of us are there? How many are left? Will they remember me, or...

"Il me dit des mots d'amour

Des mots de tous les jours

Et ça me fait quelque chose..."

Hang on, Honoka, Black thought. I'm coming as fast as I can, and I'm bringing friends. Wherever you are, just hang on.

Nanoha shivered. In truth, she was a bit glad to leave the Alicia-Stranger behind. The last time Nanoha saw the real Alicia Testarossa was as a lifeless body sealed inside a stasis container, tumbling into the endless abyss of imaginary space with Fate's poor, maddened mother. Fate had seen her again after that, in the Book of Darkness's illusion, but... Fate rarely spoke about that experience, which told Nanoha all she needed to know how painful it must have been.

Of course, it was hardly the Stranger's fault that she took that form. From what little Nanoha understood, the Stranger was an amalgam of lost people just like Alicia... others who had fallen through the gaps in time and space.

"Il est entré dans mon cœur

Une part de bonheur

Dont je connais la cause..."

There was something comforting about Fantine's singing, though, mournful as it was. Not for the first time, Nanoha wondered who she really was.

"C'est lui pour moi, moi pour lui dans la vie

Il me l'a dit, l'a juré pour la vie..."

And that strange wound the Stranger had on her back, just visible beneath her Alicia form's long hair. Not an ordinary wound, but like a tear in a screen, with something bright and moving behind it...

"Et dès que je l'aperçois

Alors je sens en moi

Mon cœur qui bat..."

So many questions. Too many questions. All Nanoha could do was follow the notes, follow the stairs...

"Des nuits d'amour à ne plus en finir

Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place

Des ennuis, des chagrins, s'effacent

Heureux, heureux à en mourir..."

A tear ran down Sakura's cheek as the music washed over her. Whoever this Fantine was, her voice was just as lovely as Tomoyo's... Thinking of her precious friend's life in Joker's hands made her increase her pace, climbing the staircase two steps at a time.

"Quand il me prend dans ses bras

Il me parle tout bas,

Je vois la vie en rose..."

She wondered if Fantine, too, had lost someone dear to her. To be able to sing a song like that, with a voice thick with regret, as if her heart was breaking...

"Il me dit des mots d'amour,

Des mots de tous les jours,

Et ça me fait quelque chose..."

Up ahead, the top of the stairs at last, and at the peak was another doorway, streaming with white light... a warm, comforting light, like the embrace of an old friend. The song came from there, beautiful and haunting...

"Il est entré dans mon cœur

Une part de bonheur

Dont je connais la cause..."

Everything will be all right somehow. Sakura thought her invincible spell to herself as she stepped into the light. It was too bright to see anything, but there was solid floor beneath her feet. She walked on. After a few steps, she felt something faint pushing back against her. Not enough to stop her progress, just a bit of resistance, but it was like trying to walk through a thin screen. Sakura pushed, and pushed, felt the screen or whatever it was break, and stepped into the room...

"C'est toi pour moi, moi pour toi dans la vie,

Il me l'a dit, l'a juré pour la vie..."

And before her eyes could fully take it in, she knew, beyond doubt, that this had to be the Lighthouse's center. Five faceted walls loomed far over her head, upward and out of sight, forming the inside of an enormous, translucent tower. Through the walls she could see the Lighthouse's namesake, an immense beam of surging white light that swept through the void outside in circles, over and over... Its rhythm was in perfect time with the song's final lines:

"Et dès que je t'aperçois

Alors je sens dans moi

Mon cœur qui bat..."

The turning of the beam was so captivating that at first Sakura didn't notice the other four doorways, identical to the one she just stepped through, one in each of the other walls. Figures emerged from the glow that poured out of each one, silhouettes casting long shadows that met in the center of the room...

"Oh," said someone... someone timid, shy, unsure of what else to say. "Um, hello... n-nice to meet all of you."

Then a voice Sakura recognized from when they briefly spoke across the void: "Kinomoto-san. It's good to finally meet in person." That could only be Nanoha.

Sakura bowed in that direction. "Likewise, Takamachi-san..."

"Please, 'Nanoha-chan' is fine. You're my sempai, after all."

"Nanoha-chan." Sakura couldn't help smiling. For someone so young, she sounded so polite, so mature. "Okay. Then I'm Sakura-chan."

The oldest among them, a young woman with twin blonde odango and long pigtails like rabbit ears, began to count heads. "So, Sakura-chan, Nanoha-chan, and..."

"Madoka," said the teenager with pink hair. That was the timid voice from moments before. She fussed with her school uniform, which still had traces of blood on it despite her attempt to wash it clean. "Madoka Kaname."

"Madoka-chan," said the young woman, with a big, goofy grin that made Sakura want to wear one too. "I'm Usagi. Usagi Tsukino."

One of them had not spoken yet, the one with the boyish build and messy orange hair, wearing a black and pink costume that looked like parts of it were armored. She lingered in her doorway and stared at Usagi in utter shock, her jaw agape. "No. No. No way. I can't believe this! You can't be-"

"Eh?" Usagi glanced in her direction. "I can't be what?"

"U-Usagi Tsukino!" sputtered the armored girl. "You're... you're Sailor Moon!"

"Um," said Usagi, feeling sheepish. Generally, she wasn't fond of people she didn't know blurting that out. "Yeah, that's about it."

"That's not possible." Cure Black leaned against the doorframe for support, putting a gloved hand to her brow. "No way. You're... you're an anime character! I watched you on TV when I was little!"

Sakura, Nanoha, and Madoka exchanged bewildered looks. Someone stifled a giggle, it wasn't clear who.

Usagi seemed no less confused. "An... an anime? About me?! Not Sailor V?" Something about that was both exciting and disturbing, and it tipped back and forth from one to the other faster than she could keep track of which was which. Now that she thought about it, she never did ask Minako about what her thoughts on the old Sailor V anime were.

"No! Well, Sailor V was a character in Sailor Moon, but-" Black's mouth opened and closed a few times, with no sound coming out. "You're real. I don't believe this, you're real..."

"I... guess?"

Only now did Black come forward. To the accompaniment of more muffled giggles, she sank into a deep bow. "Um. I'm Nagisa Misumi-"

"Oh," said Madoka before she could stop herself, "That's the same name-"

"- Cure Black," she finished. "I-I don't know what's going on, but... but it's an honor to meet you, Tsukino-san!"

"Just call me Usagi, please! About this anime-"

Before Usagi could ask more, something descended from above, coming from the origin point of the great beam of light. Only when it floated down to their level could the shape be made out: a disembodied pair of transparent blue-feathered wings, with a tiny spark in between them. Fantine's voice rang out from that spark, stronger and clearer than ever before: "Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon. Sakura Kinomoto, the Cardcaptor. Nagisa Misumi, Cure Black. Nanoha Takamachi. Madoka Kaname. I welcome you all to the heart of the Lighthouse, your sanctuary... This is the Crossroads, where worlds meet."

"Fantine?" said Usagi, reaching for it. "Is... is that you?"

"An avatar," said the winged spark. "Easier to converse with directly. Everyone, I've gathered all of you here for a purpose..."

A grin spread across Black's face as she pounded a fist into her palm. "Well, with Sailor Moon on our side, we're sure to win the fight. That's what you want, right? That's why we're here..."

"No," said Fantine, tinged with sadness.

"Wh-what?" Madoka drew back, stunned. "But... but you said war was coming..."

"It is," said Fantine. "Already, Dead End has swept through the multiverse, doing incalculable damage to space and time. Joker is-"

Usagi stood up. All her seeming immaturity was gone in an instant. "Joker. He's leading them?"

"Joker leads them on the physical plane, yes, but the force behind him, the one that's allowing him to exist past his natural end... You've faced it in its purest form, Usagi. You know what it is."

All the color drained from Usagi's face at once. "No. No, it can't be. It's too soon. I thought-"

"What?" said Sakura. "What is it?"

"Chaos." Fantine's voice was hard and grave. "Not just your final enemy, Usagi, but everyone's. All of you have faced it in one way or another. Chaos is a part of the natural order, the cycle of the universe, and it's been convinced to disrupt that cycle, to try to end it altogether."

"Well then," said Black. "We gotta stop it, don't we? White and I have beaten stuff like that before... right?"

"You don't understand," said Fantine. "This isn't something you can win against, not permanently. It's not a physical being you can harm or kill, or a spiritual one you can contain. It's... void. Nothingness. The shadow of creation itself. If it's out of balance, then..." There was no masking the shudder in her voice.

"Fantine...?" Nanoha's voice shook. This was too much, too horrible to comprehend.

"I didn't bring you all here to fight a war against Chaos," said Fantine. "I brought you here to survive the war that's coming, so that your worlds might have a chance at being rebuilt after it's all over. This place, the Lighthouse... it's not a fortress. It's a fallout shelter."

END OF CHAPTER 20

Lyrics ©1947 Columbia Records