Dead Witch Walking

"What's my name?"

She stared at him for a moment, then answered confidently: "Jimmy. No, wait, James… Joe.. No, it's definitely Jimmy. Right?"

Jimmy nodded, though he couldn't keep the worry off his face. She'd never forgotten his name before.

"Well, she did get it, in the end," offered his sister, Gwen, who sat next to him. He supposed that was true.

"Do you remember who you are? Not just your name, but who you are as a person."

She didn't have to think about that one. "My name is Lucy, I'm a zombie and I live over there!" she pointed at a block of flats in the distance. "I think I'm about eighteen, but I'm not sure. And you guys are my best friends!" She grinned at Jimmy and Gwen. Her skin was a pale green and her eyes were not as vividly alive as they would be on a normal person, but Lucy had the whitest, straightest teeth Jimmy had ever seen. They looked strong enough to bite through solid wood, but as much as he had wondered about it, he thought actually putting it to the test would be crude.

So for now he just returned the smile.

"That's good. As long as you don't forget that, I think everything should be fine." Once Lucy started forgetting who she was, it would be over. She was slowly losing more and more of her knowledge, but she still had her self awareness. He didn't like to think of her shambling along with the other, mindless zombies Old Town was inhabited by.

Gwen had found Lucy about a month ago, while scavenging around Old Town. Zombies are not a strange sight in Old Town, but ones that talk and walk upright are. She had seemed absolutely lost, but very much lucid. She remembered her name was something like "Luce" so they'd dubbed her "Lucy" and she had been happy with that. Her hair was golden blond and reached just past her knees, it would've been beautiful if it hadn't been so awfully tangled. Gwen had cut it for her after a few days as Lucy was prone to sitting on it and it matted almost as badly as a werewolf's pelt in some places. So now her hair was a bit past shoulder length, and she usually wore it up in a ponytail with a white ribbon that Governess, their mother, had given her.

When Jimmy had asked her where she came from, she didn't know. She also didn't know how she became a zombie, as she didn't have any bite marks. She lived in a room in the apartment building at the edge of old town, but she couldn't remember her landlord or how she paid for the room. She explained that she was just going about her business until she suddenly realised she didn't know why she was doing the things she was doing, and then she couldn't go back to her old routine.

It was like she'd awoken from her zombie trance. Gwen and Jimmy had observed the inhabitants of Old Town before, and noticed some of them did appear to have some logic to their shambling; some of them carried suitcases and went into office buildings, and there were school children hanging around the gates of the abandoned school. But they didn't speak, and their eyes were vacant; they didn't know why they did the things they did.

It's what had set Lucy apart and why the two of them had developed a kind of sibling-like bond with her. They'd placed notes around the town to help Lucy remember where she was and what her purpose was, and every day they would visit her and try to jog her memory.

Still, it had been deteriorating, and since last week it had been going fast. When she doubted if she got Jimmy's name right, his heart broke a little. It was one of the few things she'd never forgotten, along with Gwen's name and her own.

"You're still at it?" A familiar voice behind him made Jimmy cringe, he'd grown to loathe its judgemental and bored drawl.

"Griff! It's you!" Gwen jumped up and ran over to the owner of the voice, an ashen skinned boy who shrunk away a little as Gwen approached him.

"Oh yes, I remember Griff," Lucy said hopefully, and looked at Jimmy.

"I wish I didn't," Jimmy grumbled. Griff was there every day when they practiced with Lucy. Jimmy didn't know why he showed up, as all he seemed to do was insult their efforts, but he'd be there without fail. Maybe he liked Gwen more than he let on.

Gwen was fascinated with Griff, and when she was interested in a person, she wouldn't hide it. Whether it was a shallow crush or if she was serious was harder to tell, though. But seeing Griff get uncomfortable at having a werewolf in his personal space made up for his presence, a little, Jimmy felt.

"I see she's forgotten who you are. Why don't you give up already?" Griff continued.

"She didn't forget!" Gwen cried. "She just had to think for a second. Gosh Griff, you're such a downer. I bet a smile would really suit that handsome face of yours." Griff returned Gwen's smile with an expression made of stone.

"All I'm saying is that you're hurting yourself with this. All your effort is going to be for naught in a couple of days, hell, maybe even tomorrow, and you'll have to deal with that loss. Why not say goodbye now, when she's at least still a little lucid."

"Get out, Griff." Jimmy jumped up. He strode towards Griff, who didn't budge, and Gwen quickly got between the two of them.

"She's not going to forget," she said over her shoulder to Griff as she tried to keep her brother at bay. "If we keep helping her she'll be okay."

"What's it to you, anyway?" Jimmy hissed. He heard Lucy get up behind him.

"I'm not going to be gone tomorrow," she said in a small voice. "I remember myself, and I remember my friends and you, too." An uncertain smile formed on her lips. Jimmy didn't understand how she wasn't mad at Griff. He was ready to punch him. Gwen was glaring at him.

Griff moved back a pace. "I wouldn't be so sure," he said, in a slightly higher voice than before, "because you said the exact same thing yesterday." Then he turned and hurried off.

"He thinks he's so cool with his insults and his superior tone but look at him," Jimmy angrily gestured, "he's practically running with his tail between his legs."

"Maybe that's because you were about to jump him?" Gwen proposed, sounding slightly ticked off.

"I should have! All he does is antagonize us, and he makes Lucy feel bad."

Gwen looked at Lucy, who looked a little puzzled.

"I… I don't really mind," she said. "He's not really nice but I don't remember half the things he says after he's said them anyway, and I like the company. I only have four people I can talk to, and I barely ever see Governess, so…"

Jimmy sighed. "I'm sorry for getting so worked up. But the things he says… They're just not right." He turned to Gwen. "And you should stop defending him just because you think he's hot!"

Gwen shook her head fervently but didn't say anything. Clearly she felt "because he is hot" was an adequate enough reason to do a lot of things.

They walked Lucy home, as they usually did. Lucy mentioned she liked some flowers that were growing out of a wall near her apartment complex. She'd been pointing them out without fail for two weeks now. Jimmy knew he should feel bad that she couldn't remember the flowers for longer than a couple of hours, but seeing her face light up every time she noticed them filled his heart with warmth.

"Do you want to come in?" She asked when they were in front of the building. Gwen and Jimmy looked at each other. They'd never seen the inside of it before.

"Do you not remember which floor you live on?" Gwen asked. Lucy shook her head.

"I remember. But I thought it might be nice for you to see. It's kind of empty, but you've invited me into your home, so I feel like you should see mine, too."

"That makes sense," Gwen said amicably. "Let's see your super cool awesome room, then!"

The building was much as you might expect, with many doors and stairs. The biggest difference between it and a normal apartment building was that some of the doors were open and you could see the inhabitants inside, staring at a television or rummaging around in their kitchen. They looked a little frightening with their sallow, greenish skin, but Gwen and Jimmy knew they were safe. Zombies were known to only attack humans, not werewolves or other monsters.

Lucy's room was on the second floor, room 217. She had actually locked her door, unlike many of the other inhabitants, and, like she'd warned them, the room was rather bare.

One thing immediately grabbed Gwen's attention, however. A brilliant blue light shone from around the corner, in the bedroom. There was something highly unnatural about it; this wasn't a lamp or a television left on, this had to be something magical.

"What is that?" she asked in wonder. She tried to run towards it, past Lucy, but Jimmy grabbed her arm and stopped her. "Manners," he said gently. Gwen had a tendency to forget all etiquette if something caught her interest, like strange lights, or Griff.

"Oh, that," Lucy said, and she beckoned them to follow her into the room.

"I'm not sure where I got it, it's always been there," she explained as her friends stared at the source of the light in amazement. "I can't talk to it but the light it gives off makes this place feel a lot more homely, don't you think?"

They were looking at what was unmistakably a fairy in a cage. She was sitting on the floor of the cage and had been staring down until she noticed Gwen and Jimmy. She had gotten up and put her hands against the cage, which appeared to be made of some sort of glass. Her skin was a deep blue and speckled with little lights; she looked like a small galaxy was trapped inside of her.

"Lucy, that's a living thing, you can't keep her in a cage!" Gwen cried. Lucy looked surprised.

"Really? She's been in there since I can remember. I haven't fed her or anything and she looks fine to me." Gwen gasped in disgust.

"You have to let her out." She made a grab for the cage but quickly corrected herself and reshaped her clawed hand into angrily pointing at it with her index finger.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," Lucy said in a small voice. "I just never thought about it."

"That's okay, we understand," Jimmy said as he threw a ticked off look at his sister. "But Gwen's right, you should let her out." Lucy nodded, and with a guilty face she picked up the cage and fumbled open the door.

When she opened it, the fairy flew out with amazing speed, her wings moving so fast they emitted a faint buzzing noise. Before anyone could do anything, she went out the open window, and she was gone, a trail of sparkles like miniature stars fizzling out in her wake.

"Aw, now my room looks really drab," Lucy lamented. She looked at the cage, and then shrugged. "But the cage by itself is also pretty good decoration, I guess." She put it back down. Gwen went up to the window to see if she could find a trace of the fairy. She expected not, even though the town being shrouded in an eternal night might help with spotting a glowing creature.

"You really can't remember where you got that fairy?" Jimmy asked Lucy. "They're incredibly rare, and they don't even live in our country. You'd have to go abroad to get one of those." Lucy shook her head. "I really wish I knew how I got her."

"Um, guys?" Gwen called from the window. "I think that fairy wants us to follow her."

She turned around to look at them. "Because she's at the end of the street and I swear she's waving at me."

When they got to the end of the street, the fairy flew away from them again, but after a few metres she turned around to check if they were following her.

She led them to the edge of town, through the farmlands, and into a small isolated forest just on the edge of the next town over. It was quite a walk, and Gwen and Jimmy were tired. Lucy, being a corpse, was not. "What do you want us to see," she asked the fairy, who was now flying back and forth between the trees.

Lucy looked confused, but then realisation seemed to wash over her face. "Oh, I know this place. I climbed out of the ground here." She pointed at a spot of disturbed leaves.

"So someone buried you?" Gwen asked. "Does that mean…" she stopped herself and stared at the spot, her brows tightly knit together.

The fairy was now angrily rustling the leaves in the spot itself.

"There's nothing there anymore," Lucy said. "It was just me down there. I'm pretty sure, at least." Before anyone could say anything else, something poked out of the ground.

But it didn't disturb the leaves. As it rose up further and further, much to the fairy's joy, they noted the being had a faint glow and was partly transparent…

"It's a ghost!" Gwen exclaimed unnecessarily.

The ghost stretched. She was now fully out of the ground, her feet firmly planted between the leaves. She had long, golden hair and her eyes had stars in them. It reminded Jimmy a little bit of the fairy, except the ghost's eyes were pink. She looked around.

"Goodness, when did this happen?"

She sounded just like Lucy. In fact, she looked just like Lucy too, before they cut her hair, though Lucy had dull grey eyes, with no stars in them.

"Are you… Her soul?" Jimmy pointed at Lucy. Lucy grinned at the ghost.

"I'm Lucy, nice to meet you! Were you buried here, too?"

The ghost seemed to recognise her instantly. "You're me! But… How?"

The fairy made some undecipherable noises, and the ghost nodded as she listened. Then she sighed. "It's so much like her to do something like this." She stomped her foot. "Me losing wasn't enough for her, no, she had to go and reanimate my body. Ugh, she's so petty!"

Jimmy and Gwen looked at each other in confusion. "Um, who are you talking about? Or… what?" Jimmy asked carefully.

"I lost the game!" The ghost pouted, like Jimmy should know what she was talking about. "I played a game with Rosabell and I guess I lost, so now I'm dead, and you're…" she looked at Lucy and tried to find the right words. "You're just some thing she made to humiliate me further. Don't get me wrong," she held up her hands defensively when Gwen and Jimmy took offense, "I don't have anything against you, but put yourself in my shoes. You're a brilliant witch with more power than anyone on this planet, and then your 'best friend' turns you into a zombie. A drooly creature that can only stumble around and moan a bit, with no mind of its own. Just so she can laugh at me! ...You, I mean." The ghost looked for approval, but nobody said anything.

"I don't drool," Lucy said after a moment.

"She's not mindless," said Jimmy. "She might have the body of a zombie, but…" he looked at Lucy, who looked back at him with interest. "I think she still has a soul. Or a heart, at least." He scratched a fuzzy cheek. "B-but anyway, I don't like how you're insulting her, whether she's you or not. It's really rude."

The ghost looked back at him with slightly raised brows. Then she turned to Lucy again.

"Our name is Marlucy. But I guess you remembered that."

Lucy clapped her hands excitedly. "Oh yeah, that was it! I knew it was something with Lucy in it."

"If Rosabell won our game, that's bad news." A shadow fell over Marlucy's face. "She's as powerful as I am, though I guess considering she beat me, she's stronger… But I can't do anything like this. I can feel my presence from this plane is fading already."

The fairy clapped her hands to her face. Marlucy said something reassuring to her, but she started crying regardless. Her tears were like silver. It was unlike anything the werewolves and Lucy had ever seen.

"She's not going to stop at my death," Marlucy continued. "She's always wanted to control this world. I might be gone but I think you can stop her! You are part of me, after all."

Lucy's eyes went wide. "But I don't know how to do that! I don't even know who Rosabell is! And I don't have any powers, I… I can barely remember my own name!"

Marlucy held up her hands, as if trying to quell Lucy's fears. "I know, but I think I can fix that. But we don't have much time left."

She took a step towards Lucy. "I'm going to try something. If it works, we'll be one again for a bit. But only for a little bit, then you'll go back to being Lucy alone. I can't do much in this form, I've been dead for too long, but I can fix one of Rosabell's mistakes, and I can help you well on your way to fixing the rest, too." The stars in her eyes shone brightly, and she looked very serious. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," Lucy said, and Marlucy stepped into the same spot she was occupying.

For a moment the small forest was engulfed with a bright light, then it shrank to an aura around Marlucy. She wasn't transparent anymore, and her hair was now shorter, like Lucy's.

"There's something I need to do, feel free to follow me, but don't get too close," she said to the werewolves and the fairy.

As they were walking, Marlucy talked to Lucy. They were like two sets of consciousness in one body, though Lucy now had no control.

I will bring Old Town back to how it used to be, Marlucy said, and I will leave you my powers. Do you remember the Pretty Cure? No, answered Lucy. Lucy didn't remember anything from before her climb out of the ground, and even most of the things after she had since forgotten.

They're a legend where I'm originally from, Marlucy explained. They're defenders of good, and only the strongest magical beings can grant their powers onto people. I can give you their powers, you and four others. But you have to choose carefully who you'll grant these powers to. Marlucy tapped the pocket on their dungarees. Lucy felt they were suddenly heavy with something. There are five gems. One of them is yours. You'll know when someone is fit to become a Cure, the gems will change. Five heads are better than one. I believe your powers can grow beyond a fifth of my power, and you'll be able to defeat Rosabell. How will I find them, asked Lucy. But Marlucy shook her head. They'd arrived at Old Town, and there wasn't enough time for everything to be explained.

Jimmy, Gwen and the fairy had followed closely behind. Flowers had grown wherever Marlucy had put down her feet. The shade of night seemed to lift wherever she went. The fairy was still crying. They couldn't talk to her, so they didn't know how to console her except for giving her sympathetic looks.

They were now standing on top of the hill overlooking Old Town. "Please give me some space," Marlucy said. They stood off to the side a little.

Marlucy's outfit changed, her striped dungarees transformed into a brilliant gown in all the colours of dawn, stars glimmered whenever she moved. Her ponytail had come undone and she was now wearing a giant pink witch's hat. It was adorned with a large brooch in the shape of a star. She wore a cape around her shoulders, and her hands were covered by gloves. In her left hand she held a wand. She wore small boots with stars on the side, and socks that reached up to her thighs. Her face was very much Lucy's, but everything else had changed dramatically.

Marlucy held up her wand and said an incantation. A cloud as bright as sunlight sprang forth out of her wand and grew faster and faster. It spread out over Old Town and started to descend like a fine mist. When it came low enough to touch it inhabitants, here and there voices could be heard uttering surprise and shock.

Gwen and Jimmy looked on, their mouths open in astonishment. The fairy was cheering for Marlucy.

They will have their lives back now, Marlucy said to Lucy. And you know how to use my wand. Be aware you won't be able to do feats as big as this all by yourself. But if you gather your friends and keep doing good, I know you'll be able to achieve anything. But what if I forget, Lucy asked in a panic. She'd just seen so many new things to take in, she wasn't even sure if she still remembered all of it. You won't forget, Marlucy said. I've stopped the deterioration of our body. You won't lose your mind any further. You'll only be a zombie in the sense that you won't breathe and your heart isn't beating, but other than that you are very much human.

"They're not zombies anymore," Gwen shouted and she pointed at the people in the town below them. "Marlucy, how did you-" but when Gwen looked over she saw Marlucy was gone. In her place was a very bewildered looking Lucy, who did not glow and who did not have flowers going around her feet. She was holding something in her hands.

"Are you alright?" Jimmy went over to her.

"I think so," said Lucy. she was holding five gems, two of them shining dully.

"You just turned all of those people back to normal!"

Lucy shook her head. "Marlucy did that. I can't do that. I'm just the corpse she left behind, I… I have no idea what to do."

Jimmy was a little startled. He'd never heard Lucy be so somber. "What are those rocks?" he said, not knowing what else to say.

"They belong to the Pretty Cure," Lucy said. "Marlucy told me. They're legendary fighters and they will save this world." Jimmy frowned.

"Save it? From what?"

Lucy's expression went dark. "There's a witch in this world, and she has bad intentions. She killed Marlucy, and she turned everyone in Old Town into zombies. That's why Marlucy turned them back. But if I don't stop her, she'll do more bad things." She clenched her fist tightly around the gems. "I have to find the other Pretty Cure, though I… I don't know how. But I will do my best!"

That sounded more like the Lucy he knew. He felt a little relieved, though the whole thing about their world being in grave danger worried him. He'd never noticed anything being spectacularly off, except maybe…

"Does… Does that mean you can fix the time?" He looked up at the sky. For as long as he'd known their world had been shrouded in the night. For some inhabitants this had been a virtue (mainly the vampires), but for others, like him, eternal night posed a problem. They had to deal with twice as many full moons, for one.

Lucy also looked up. "I hope I can, eventually. When I've found the others."

They looked back to Gwen and saw she was trying to console the fairy, who seemed to be beside herself with either grief or anger, it was hard to tell which. She frantically flew up and down, swinging her tiny fists through the air and shaking her head.

"I'm sorry Marlucy left you behind," Lucy said as she walked over. The fairy stopped thrashing. "She asked me to take care of you. I hope you're okay with that! And… I'm sorry about the cage. I really didn't know any better…"

The fairy flew over to her and said something. When Lucy shook her head to indicate she didn't know what she was saying, she sighed.

"Your name is Nova, right?" Lucy held out her index finger. "It's nice to properly meet you."

Nova took her finger in both hands and shook it with some effort. She still looked sad, but she had calmed down a little bit.

"It might be tough to communicate when we don't share a language but I think we'll figure something out," Lucy said.

"I think she can understand you," Gwen said. "When I was talking to her, she responded to what I was saying, even though I couldn't tell what she was saying." Lucy looked at Nova, and she nodded.

Beneath them, the zombies-turned-humans were congregating.

"Should we go talk to them?" Jimmy looked at the others. Lucy was already on her way over there before they'd made their decision.

Old Town instantly felt less eerie now the zombies were gone. Its citizens were slightly puzzled, most of them not remembering their time as zombies, but the fact that they remembered who they were before Rosabell changed them helped the town get back into gear relatively fast. Initially people had been afraid of Lucy, who was now the only person left with green skin, but when she explained to them who she was they grew hopeful.

"Can you make it day again," someone asked. Lucy explained again that she wasn't strong enough to do that yet, but she would do her best to change it as soon as she was.

"Will you protect us from the monsters?" Lucy didn't know what to say to that.

"We're humans," the person continued, "and everyone else… We're kind of prey to them, you know. Vampires, werewolves…"

"I'll have you know we have a very strict lockdown policy when there's a full moon!" Jimmy interjected angrily.

"I'll protect you," Lucy said. "I might not know many things, and I might be weak right now, but I'll do anything to protect you." And considering the feat everyone had seen her perform that day, that was a reassuring gesture. Nova cheered for her as she spoke.

Eventually it came time to go home, which considering the lack of daylight, meant for most people the moment they felt tired. To Lucy's surprise she felt herself get tired as well. She said goodbye to Jimmy and Gwen, and went on her way home.

Despite the renewed life in town, the way home was very quiet. Lucy wondered if it would always be like this and felt a little let down; the atmosphere was very eerie.

And then, as if she came out of nowhere, a witch stood in front of her. She was level with Lucy, but she had such a strong aura of resentment around her that Lucy felt small in her presence. She looked as impressive as Marlucy had, like the night manifested in human form, two crescent moons glimmered faintly in her pale eyes. "Rosa-" But Lucy didn't get to finish her sentence, as Rosabell punched her to the ground.

This was such a mundane act of rage that Lucy was too stunned to react. She tried to get up but as she moved her arm Rosabell kicked it out from under her and when she fell on her side the pointed toe of a boot kicked the air out of her. She felt like a fish out of water gasping for air; what the hell was going on?!

"Despicable," Rosabell hissed. Her voice was low and trembled with rage. "I beat you," she went on as she dug her heel into the hand Lucy was trying to protect her face with. "You disgusting cheater! I'm not losing to your corpse!" She punctuated every word with a kick. Lucy was scared of Rosabell's rage; she'd never even met her before. She was thankful she couldn't feel any pain, though it might be better if Rosabell didn't know that.

She heard Nova shout at Rosabell, trying to get her to stop abusing Lucy. She heard a muffled "thump", as if someone caught a ball mid-air, and Nova stopped shouting. Rosabell stopped kicking. What's happening? Lucy thought.

Her stomach sank when she peeked through her fingers and saw Rosabell was holding Nova in a clenched fist. Nova's face was contorted in an expression of pain, but she couldn't make any sound.

"No!" Lucy shouted and got up. Her ribs felt weird and there was an unnatural amount of pressure on one of her eyes, but she didn't care. As if by instinct she grabbed the pink gem from her pocket and clenched it in her fist. "Let her go," she demanded.

Rosabell looked at her with nothing but contempt. Her fist trembled lightly.

"Stop it!"

Suddenly a pink light burst forth from Lucy's hand and engulfed the entire alleyway.

It was like she was briefly transported to another dimension.

Once again she changed form. Her hair grew long and turned white, the white bow in her hair became a deep burgundy and resembled bunny ears. The gem in her hand attached to her throat with a bow of the same colour.

Her shirt and dungarees were replaced by a dress; a white top, a corset and a skirt with a bright pink pattern on it that strongly resembled the coils on a brain. Her trainers were replaced with a pair of deep pink boots, tied with a pink ribbon. Her hands were now gloved, with tiny pink bows on her wrists.

Her eyes turned pink, not unlike Marlucy's eyes, but the center was a vivid blue. She grinned as she felt she could take on the whole world now, whether that was true or not in this moment did not matter.

"I'll take a bite out of anyone who gets in my way! Cure Cortex!" she shouted when the lights faded. Even though it had felt to her like she'd been gone for several minutes, to Rosabell and Nova her transformation into Cure Cortex had only taken a second.

"Pathetic," Rosabell spat, and she threw Nova at Cortex as if she was little more than a filthy dishrag. She hit her in the chest and Cortex had to hold up her hands to catch her, as Nova no longer tried to fly.

"You're just a stupid corpse," Rosabell went on, apparently not even a little impressed with the lightshow said corpse just performed. "A stupid corpse that used to be my rival. A rival who refuses to accept she lost." She took a step closer to Cortex. "You won't stop me. I don't care who you think you are, but you can't stop me. If you're smart you'll curl up somewhere and stay dead, like you belong."

With that Rosabell disappeared, as if she'd never been there in the first place.

But evidently she had, as Cortex still had broken ribs and a swollen eye socket, and Nova was a small crumpled heap in her hands. Cortex could see she was breathing, but she looked bad. Her wings were bent at odd angles, and the stars inside of her body were dim, some of them flickering, threatening to go out.

What do I do? Cortex asked herself. She was at a loss… Then she noticed a faint pink glow on Nova and her hands. It came from the gem on her choker. Wait, I can do magic, can't I? Cortex thought to herself. If I can transform out of nowhere, maybe I can do magic out of nowhere, too, she thought, and she closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. I need to help Nova, she told herself. I need to help Nova.

I have a wand, she realized. I just need to take it out. She carefully placed Nova on a nearby windowsill. Nova gasped feebly.

Cortex moved her hand in an elegant motion towards the gem on her choker, and produced a wand out of thin air. It was Marlucy's wand, though it looked a little more simple than when Marlucy had used it. Cortex knew exactly the words to say to get it to work.

"Pretty Cure! Lux Stellae Praesens, heal my friend!" She pointed the wand at Nova. Her wings instantly straightened themselves out, and slowly but surely the galaxies inside her body began to shine more brightly again. Her expression went from strained to peaceful, and now she slept a tranquil sleep. Cortex breathed a sigh of relief.

She turned back into Lucy. Then she picked Nova up and hurried home. Today had been the most eventful day of her entire life, though who knows, that might be in part because she couldn't remember most of her life.

"So you beat the crap out of Marlucy's corpse, huh," Griff said as he played with the cuff of his sleeve.

"Why yes, I did," Rosabell said. They were in the cathedral up the hill, ways away from Old Town. This was where the vampires lived.

Griff could think of several disdainful things to say about his mistress' behaviour, but he knew better than that. So he just stood to attention as she paced around the room, his deep red eyes focused on the floor in front of him.

"I used everything to beat her. And then she does this! She's a filthy cheater."

"So she is," noted Griff.

Rosabell took a deep breath and quickly breathed out in an attempt to calm herself. Almost squeezing Nova to death had done a pretty good job calming most of her rage but it was always tough to expel that last bit of it. Marlucy's corpse turning into a Pretty Cure didn't help matters.

"She's weak, now. She's at a sliver of the power Marlucy had, and she's not Marlucy; she's never going to get that power back. I'll be at full strength long before then."

Killing her adversary had taken a lot out of her. If Rosabell had to take a guess she'd say she was about a tenth of the strength she normally was, making her even weaker than Marlucy's leftovers. Luckily she had some tricks left up her sleeve. That had always been her strength over Marlucy; Rosabell plotted and schemed while Marlucy just did whatever she pleased. Chaos, in the end, will always lose to order.

"She's got those werewolf friends," Griff said.

Rosabell scoffed. "They're nothing. If she thinks they will help her fight me, she's truly brainless. I told you, Griff, I've got some of my powers left."

"What's your plan?"

"I've shrouded this world in eternal night. I can condemn it to an eternal full moon, if I want to. And I'd like to see that zombie figure things out all on her own when her friends are locked away inside their house like the rabid dogs they are."