It had been almost two months since it happened. You know, the sort of situation that you let drag out when they're really important, like getting your textbooks for college or having to do a big class project worth more than half your grade. It had been a long time, too long, and I still don't know why but after months of leaving my DVD set of School Rumble untouched, right when I got to ripping up the plastic foil and popping the disk into my DVD player, my insane brain decided that I had let my problems fester long enough and that I ought to do something about it.

I guess I'm just a spontaneous girl.

I didn't even take my ID or cash, just my car keys, the star brooch from my high school days, and the last letter I had received in the mail. I know it doesn't make sense to you why I need those items when I'm on a mission like this, but when the cops stop you for speeding on a freeway they're not going to care if you're speeding because you're trying to stop the world from ending, they just ask for ID, papers, and give you a ticket.

It takes about four hours to reach my destination, not because of the cops (total idiots) but because of the traffic caused by a slug ball taking space in the middle of the freeway. Stupid noob beasts. They used to take only minutes to beat, not an hour! I was already in a bad mood with the ticket I stuffed in my glove compartment, then the slug ball happened, and the icing on top of this repulsive ice cream cake; my old mail box had a bunch of letters like the one in my back pocket stuffed inside it. Seeing that was my boiling point, as bizarre as it sounds. You'll get why later.

I didn't bother touching the mailbox as I walked towards the front door.

When was the last time I had touched that block of wood? Five years ago? Maybe. If I don't think about it I won't know, but it's too late for that. Part of what I am entails me to having a calculator inside my head, so questions involving numbers are answered faster than normal. The answer, in case you care, is four years, two months, ten days, twelve hours, and seventeen seconds. That was the exact amount of time that had passed since I had closed that door, leaving behind my old world for my current one.

It's almost sad that I didn't feel nostalgic when I entered my old home. All I felt was a yearning for an ending. That, and I still wanted to watch my School Rumble DVD's.

Ignoring the dusty family portraits, the smell that only my home holds, and any other blast-from-the-past memorabilia that was left in that place, I made my way to my old bedroom and kick the door down. It didn't matter. It wasn't like anyone would buy the 'haunted house on Elkwood road' where all the monsters are born. Well, you and I are one of the few people who know that this place is where the monsters emerge, everyone else just thinks of it as that house that's creepy, abandoned, and the perfect place to get a good scare on Halloween.

And…there it was, my bed, also known as the 'portal between worlds' and –eww, was that another slug ball? It was and oh glob, I noticed all the slime and grime these beasts had left, and right on my good covers!

"Okay, it's now or never Lily" Yes, I talk to myself and I'm not afraid to admit it as I'm taking about all of this. If you want to know this story then you're going to hear all of it, even the parts where I talk to myself.

I pressed the star brooch to my left ear. It's silly, considering girls kiss their items or place it close to their hearts, but I guess I was meant to hear the light instead of feeling it? Whatever, I stopped questioning my life after my fourth transformation. So stars fly out, blah blah, 'stardust' cough-glitter-cough, and I was back to wearing that ridiculously revealing outfit –Oh, wait…upgrade! My boobs were most certainly visible compared to beforehand. From sweet to sexy. Yay...

"Okay Lily, calm down and jump!"

I do just that, landing on the beasts head, pushing it back into the portal while getting goo on my leather boots. Bleh. The only good part of my outfit and it's the part that always gets the dirtiest. Any who, I did what any semi-intelligent girl would do and followed it. I was Alice except I had been to Wonderland before, I knew what to expect, knew where I had to go, and I was not a prepubescent girl who was too curious and emotional for her own good. I choose to fall into the rabbit hole instead of accidentally falling into it; a big difference between the me of that day and the me of the past. Why? Because it was a choice, not a responsibility I was forced to take.

Instead of going through the dramatic and overly expected battle that usually occurs when the 'good guy' lands into the monsters lair, I dodged the beasts hits and jump over their heads. I was rusty, impatient, and I wasn't a magical girl anymore. Those rules did not apply to me, not since I had graduated high school.

The gate wasn't too far away from where I had landed. It looked all dark and 'menacing' like it was meant to look, like it had looked like all those years ago. Honestly, it's nothing but a semi-cheap, semi-real imitation of a haunted house. In the past it would have done its magic, but I was older and I had been through scarier stuff than beasts with a boss from the past; eating expired food. Hey, stomach pains are the greatest pain in the world and there's no way you can argue against that, got it?

"Well if it isn't Queen-"

"Please Kaito, you and I both know my real name is Lily. So let's cut to the chase. I'll give you a few wacks on the head and go through the last gate."

He sighs. It shouldn't be hot, it should just be annoying. Why does evil always have hot guys on their side? If they are ugly on the inside, shouldn't they be ugly on the outside as well? Ugg, hormones. Spoiler: they never really go away, even after puberty.

While I was internally cursing the magical villain clichés, Kaito started talking about blah blah can't let you though blah blah battle blah or riddle, more blah's. I had almost forgotten how being a magical hero or villain entitled straight A's in speech. Stupid class.

A part of me wanted to fight and get it over with, and not some fake fight where you toss some miracle punch that knocks out a guy twice your size. A real fight, with weapons and glitter. I may have been rusty but the 'good always defeats evil' law is eternal and applies to retirees too. I didn't give into the urge, sadly. Why? Because I didn't want to give Kaito any false satisfaction. I was not returning to my old life. I was no longer a bumbling teen looking out for her gal pals while fighting to preserve justice, love, sparkles, and the World. I was simply Lily, a young adult who was stopping herself from avoiding problems that had been festering for months. I was there to end that nightmare of a fairytale. I was the last chapter and I was going to finish it with a sigh, not a bang.

I told Kaito the truth.

I told him I thought he was the world's biggest idiot for sticking to the dark side. I told him I had disliked him ever since he thought it would be funny to open up a portal to Monsterland on my bed. I told him he's incompetent, insufferable, immature, and had the worst timing on the face of the planet. I also told him how handsome he is. How he's caring, has a soft spot, is a good listener, a good kisser, and even with his domain over ice he had the warmest body that I used to wish would be around to hold on the especially miserable days of my life.

I said it all with a straight face and not once did he interrupt me.

It was just him and me –or is it him and I? Whatever. I might be great with a bow and arrow thanks to the glitter gods that bestowed me that revealing outfit with kickin' boots, but I still believe, even now, that the toughest weapon on my belt is words.

I don't know the amount of time that passed since I fell through the rabbit hole, (Okay, we all know that's a lie due to the mental calculator I got in my head, but I'm not going to think about it) I was still a rebel Alice having an extended tea party with the not-so-mad hatter.

"I always loved Meiko. I still do. I just ended up falling for you too." It had been around seven years (Still refusing to let the invisible numbers flash facts in my brain) since I met Kaito, four of those months spent dating him. Even when he had asked me out he never confessed. It was the closest he had ever gotten to saying he loves me.

We were both getting grime on our clothes from sitting on the ash-coated ground, recounting the years spent without one another while holding hands. He told me about all the battles he had faced, the new girls he believed had potential but would never amount to the expectations my pals and I had exceeded back in our time, and how he was still stuck in the on-again, off-again relationship loop that is his love life with Meiko -one of my old gal pals slash ex-magical girl slash (haha) previous fire elemental.

In return I talked about my uninterrupted college days spent in a whirl of fun, boredom, frustration, tears, and lots of work. I top it off by telling him how I hadn't lived in that housesince I graduated and that my parents decided that if I was moving they might as well move too, so they packed their bags with me and left to the next town, the one the monsters were starting to try and siege. He was surprised with the amount of normalcy in my life and finally saw why he could never find me when he popped into my room or around the high school. Why there? Because most retired magical girls tend to stay close to where it all began. Sort of like old guard dogs who still hover around their 'property'.

"Meiko's memory may be gone but she still has the instincts. She's working as the school nurse." Kaito told me. We both had to laugh at that because Meiko hates kids and never liked school. If it weren't for those instincts she'd be working anywhere else but there, maybe not working at all. I always did see her as a freeloader, stay-at-home mom, or a barista. Don't question the last one.

I finished the reunion by showing him the letter. All it took was a glance for him to step to the side and open the gate for me like the gentleman he'd forever be. The beasts screech while I gave him a quick kiss to the cheek.

"I hope I'll see you again, Lily."

He meant it.

"Me too, Ice King."

And so did I.

The gate closed.

More sparkles later and I landed in another room, to a place I was forbidden to enter years ago. I was inside the shed of my high schools gardening club, also known as the secret room where the true last gate is located –that and it's the magical girls meeting room.

I knew the minute I touched the dusty gardening shears they would pop up and give me a long stare down, questioning how I got there and what I wanted until they came up with the 'logical' answer; I'm a villain who snuck through their defenses to bring down their magic from the inside. That's got to be it, after all, because I'm wearing black and 'oh my gawd black clothing means she's gots ta be evil! Totessssssssssssssssssssssss'. Then they'd shout their catchphrases while transforming and try to fight me.

My assumption played out in front of me, sans the little jab at their personalities, when I griped the handle of the shears that once belonged to me. I rolled my eyes at their antics while I pulled the shears from their place on the wall, pointing the tip of the blades at the throat of the blond with poofy hair.

"Listen up, Ms. I think I'm a cute cat. You're the me of this group."

"Wa-"

I swung my left hip out, showing off my star brooch. They all gasped. Yeah, having a star brooch is the most shocking thing in life, especially when it had become a flashlight pointing its light at the chick who I was threatening with a gardening tool.

"It's-" The girl with silvery hair (obvious the air elemental slash protector of love of the group) hesitates. She must be the Luka of the group, because the red-head who looked like she was about to pounce on me was definitely the Meiko of the group. Only flame-heads would make idiotic choices like attacking the powerful opponent who they don't stand a chance against; classic Meiko.

"It's corrupted!"

Bingo, mini Luka. A long time ago the star that was on my hip was the color gold, then it turned white and just as quickly switched to black.

I once was the 'everything nice' of my group who turned 'sour'. No, I didn't go to the dark side in a surprising (not really) twist. I just 'lost sight of the light'. I became a magical girl who wasn't good nor evil, just in-between.

I showed mini Luka my tongue. So what if I was an adult? Blossom and Buttercup weren't there to lecture me, so it didn't matter if I broke 'character' -that sweet as sugar girl wasn't me anymore.

"Look, I'll cut you a deal. Let me go through this portal, do what I got to do, and I'll give blondy the power she 'so rightly' deserves."

They were skeptical, which I expected would happen. All of them were except for bonus girl number four who brought up the famous quote from just about any and all movies; "What's the catch?"

I smirked when she said that. I always liked people who were just the right amount of skeptical, like me.

"You're coming with me, time traveler."

She returned my smirk with her own. How I knew she was a time traveler is very trivial, so I won't get into that. All that mattered was that she knew the drill, knew it more than the other girls of her group.

I threw my most prized possession at the still gapping soon-to-be magical girl. What she had spent months searching for was tossed into the air as though it were rubbish. My jaw would be hanging open too if I were in her position. Light exploded around me when puffball caught the star, revealing an average blond wearing baggy blue sweater and black skinny jeans. Nothing big, just a girl without magical in the title.

Twintails and I were the only ones who agreed to the deal, but that didn't matter to either of us as we held hands and jumped through the gate. She screamed a 'sorry' while her pals yelled their extended 'noooooo's!' like the exaggerated teens they were. It wasn't as though it would be the last time they'd ever meet, but they didn't know that, only she and I did.

"You know Lily, even though I know what you're going to do and what will come of it, I still can't help but think you're crazy."

"Aren't we all a bit mad?"

The Cheshire Cat and I both laughed as we traveled through the second rabbit hole. And there it was, the garden of the Queen of Hearts, The Secret Garden; Eden. I was Eve and the slippery serpent was there, sitting on a boulder and shinning with an ethereal glow.

Magic wielders always did exaggerate their status with flashy effects.

Twintails, the Adam of this chapter who looks more like the White Rabbit but is the cat as well gawks at the serpent slash Queen of Hearts. She had probably read and seen pictures of him in whatever it was that future kids used to study. It's no surprise that she was ogling him like some sort of ancient and powerful celebrity, which he likely was in her eyes.

I never did catch her name, did I? Whatever. I couldn't blame her though. I basically reacted the same way when I saw his true form for the first time.

I didn't know what to do at that moment. I mean sure, I knew I was going to make it to that point, I knew what I was going to say, I just didn't know how to build up to that mini-speech I stored in my head. Sort of like when you have to present a project you've rehearsed for weeks but don't know when your turn will be. That's the closest to an example I can think of. Sorry if it doesn't make sense.

I could have just slapped him, yelled, maybe even beat him up or just let out what I needed to say. Like I said a bunch of times before, I wanted this to end, especially after I had seen that stupid serene like smile that was basically his trademark. I might have done idea number one had I not seen the time traveler who had probably jizzed herself multiple times envisioning this moment, because we all -and by we all I mean that dude who I won't name yet, that chick, and I- had known that this piece of time was ripped out of her whatever it was kids those days used to study. I imagined that she held so much hope for that moment in time. It was the only part in history she didn't already know. She probably spent lots of time envisioning what would happen right then, which meant that not only was she holding her breath in anticipation, but I could do whatever I wanted without worrying about messing up the time space blah blah.

I ended up abandoning my rebel status because I felt it was time to fall into a cliché. I pulled the letter I had taken with me from my back pocket, cracked it open, and took a deep breath.

"Dearest Queen Bee, or should I call you Lily? By now you should have been informed of my demise. The new generation of justice bringers was unable to stop the forces of darkness from killing my physical body, which explains the recent increase in monsters and why they're becoming increasingly difficult to destroy."

I stopped there to look at the twintails because, hey, I'm human and I'm curious. And yes, she so came, if you care to know. He, on the other hand, finally dropped that stupid smile and had given me the sort of look you get when someone is trying to figure out what's wrong with your head. He already knew my thoughts and actions, past, present, and future. He was the essence of light, the 'all knowing'. He's also my step-brother who, before my very eyes, had changed from a snot-nosed creepy who had an obvious crush on me to an all-powerful snot-nosed kid who had a crush on me. Bet you totally saw that coming, or not. Whatever. I continued reading from where I left off.

"I have been patient. I have given you all the time I could to let you heal. I have done all I could do for you, even in death, but I can do that no more. Lily, you are the only one who can resurrect me. No matter what you think or believe, one can never retire from being a magical girl. That will always be a part of you. Please try to understand this. I will be waiting for you. I miss you. With love, God of Light, step-brother, mentor, and admirer, Utatane Piko."

This is totally random, but I think it's important to bring up in case you didn't figure it out. When I was with Kaito I was in 'the underworld' and at that point I was in 'heaven', or the closest thing to either world us fantasy people can reach.

Twintails was crying, which I won't compare to a river because it's impossible for a human being to have so much water in their body, magical or not –well…No, let's just leave it at that. Actually, I'll tell you that her tears fell with movie star grace. There, that sounds better. As for Piko, he gazed at me with the same stare he had given me ever since the star brooch became mine; longing.

"Lily, I-"

"I love you too."

Did you see that coming? They didn't. They ruined that moment by gasping, which I had to respond to with a suppressed eye roll. Dramatic exhales aside, I pulled a Scott Pilgrim and extract a sword with a clock hilt out of the Cheshire Cat's chest.

"That's why I have to kill you."

Did you see that coming?

Whatever.

I wasted no time in plunging the blade into Piko's chest. Unknown girl whose name I never got screamed. It made me wonder why and how she did not see this ending. Her scream vanished along with the rest of the world, leaving Piko and I engulfed in darkness, with him being the nightlight of the…well, night?

That sounded so lame…

There was no blood on my hands, only stardust, which I assumed was the Piko equivalent to blood. Odd, I know. Seeing a blade through his body and stardust everywhere didn't stop him from smiling that stupid smile. So frustrating.

"I love you too." He said as his hands brushed past mines and touched the clock hilt, making the hands of the clock run in reverse.

I still don't know why I did it. No, not the stabbing Piko part. I had to do that. It was what I had been aiming to do the entire day. No, I still don't know why I did the dumbest thing in magical girl history; I blinked.

A/ n:

At long last, I have posted something! It really has been a while. Now why magical girls? Because I have a major weakness for them. That and other reasons I am not going to get into. Why past tense? Because Lily is telling the story to someone (you or another Vocaloid if you like) and I wanted to practice my tenses since I tend to mix my past and present tenses when I write.

I decided to make this a twoshot because I felt a pause should happen at this point, plus Lily needs a water break too. I hope you enjoyed this and I also hope you'll read and enjoy part two; till then~

Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid, School Rumble, the Powerpuff Girls, Alice in Wonderland, The Secret Garden, Scott Pilgrim's the Power of Love sword, and any other references I might have made. I only own the story. Story yes, series of awesome tales no.