A/N: Man, it's been a while since I could start writing again. So sorry about the massive delay on this one (as well as the insane size of it). But between work, school, and two moves in rapid succession...my life was kind of a mess for a while, and I needed to take some time to sort it all out.
But now that that's all (mostly) over, enjoy your romantic dramedy!
Chapter 4: The Heart of the Matter
The two of them spent the rest of the bus ride in silence. Serena was too nervous to bring up that topic on a populated bus, and Nika's mind was reeling too much to bother asking questions.
That didn't stop her mind from running in circles with those questions, though. Questions like what on earth could possibly drive someone to murder their own parents!?
'No, no no no, she didn't murder them. She just said she wished them out of existence, right? She just made them disappear, right? No, she said that she made her wish and then they died! God dammit, that could mean ANYTHING! Did she wish that they would die!? Did she become a Magical Girl and then butcher them!? Did I accidentally end up in love with a psychotic murder, and why did she have to be so vague and was I just defending her because of Stockholm Syndrome or something and WHY WASN'T SHE SAYING ANYTHING!?'
The questions were utterly overwhelming, leaving Annika too paralyzed with emotion to bother asking. And Serena would never bother answering, not here, not with people around. So the two of them simply shared a pair of bus seats and did their best to pretend the other didn't exist.
It got to the point that Annika nearly jumped out of her skin when Serena tapped her shoulder.
Serena simply gestured to the door, which was quickly opening. "This is your stop."
Nika nodded, and hastily stepped off the bus. She did not, however, expect Serena to follow her off.
"Wh-what are you-?"
"Oh, I…I need a different bus."
"Of course. Right. Well, I'll—"
"Annie…"
Silence settled between the two of them. A pregnant silence, where both had so much they wanted to say, but neither was brave enough to speak up first.
Finally, Serena broke the silence. "Annie, about what I said…you have to understand—"
"Understand what, exactly!?" Anika actually surprised herself with the outburst, but the surprise didn't last long. She'd opened the floodgates, and now there was no stopping herself. "Understand that you…you erased them! Erased your family!? That's not funny, that's serious stuff! And you expect me to just shrug it off and laugh it away!? Crack open a beer and pretend that you're not a murderer!? HELL no!"
"Not so loud!" Serena winced at the volume the conversation had reached, glancing around for anyone in earshot. "Look, they were monsters! How do you think I got this scar!? They were going to sell me on the black market! And the one time I told the cops about it, I nearly died! Then Kyubey shows up and tells me I can get out of it with one stupid contract? What was I supposed to do!?"
"And that makes it better!? Serena, you could've wished for a better family! You could've wished that they love you, or that you lived with someone else, or that they…turned into squirrels or some shit! There were a million different options that didn't involve people dying!"
"Augh! Okay, yes, I get it, I was a stupid kid, okay? I was a stupid kid who did stupid things and made a stupid decision! Please, just…try to understand, okay? Try to understand where I'm coming from on this!"
Annika couldn't bring herself to look at the other woman anymore. She turned away, torn between her desire to run for it and her desire to help her friend.
"Annie…please, you have to understand! This is why I didn't want to tell you, okay? I was scared. I was scared you'd have this exact reaction, but I didn't want you hearing it from Evelynn or the Queen or someone and jumping to conclusions, but please, I'm sorry I told you!"
"You really shouldn't have."
"…Annie, please, try to understand—"
"Serena, I…" Nika took a deep breath, trying to sort out her feelings enough to speak. Finally, she settled on a few words.
"I need some time. To process this."
"Annie, I—"
"Just go home, Serena."
Serena went deathly quiet. Not that Annika cared. She turned and strolled into her apartment building, struggling with the elevator buttons that she could barely make out with her blurry vision. Why was her vision blurry again?
Pressing a finger against her eye made it come back soaked in salty liquid.
Tears.
She was crying.
Great. Fucking perfect.
She stumbled out of the elevator and carefully made her way down the hall. Unlocking the door was a fucking ordeal, but she managed.
Now home, home safe in her cozy apartment where nothing could hurt her, she locked the door behind her and staggered to her bed, shedding accessories and jewelry and clothing the whole way.
Once she landed on her bed, she cried.
How long was she crying for? Minutes? Hours? Days?
Who cared?
What was she even crying into? Her pillow? Her blanket?
Who cared!?
What was she even crying over? Some unrequited love affair with a girl who was out of her league and turned out to be a parricidal psycho!?
'Who cares who CARES WHO CARES!?'
A loud buzzing noise from the floor of her apartment distracted her from her mental freakout. She knew what it was. It was her stupid phone, and it was probably stupid crazy Serena trying to do some stupid romcom bullshit to get them back together.
So she ignored it, wrapped her pillow around her ears, and kept crying angrily to…who, exactly? Herself? Serena? The world?
Did it even matter?
The phone went off again.
And again.
And again.
It was the fifth time it went off that she angrily sat up, pillow at the ready, only to come face to non-face with a white-robed figure. Grinning down at her with pointed teeth, elongated clawed hands extending from under its robe.
Annika simply stared at it.
And where before she'd felt terror at its presence, now she only felt raw fury.
"NO!" she screamed, driving her fist directly into the mass of static that covered its eyes. It felt incredibly bizarre, like punching solidified air, but she didn't care. It winced, and that was enough for Nika.
"I! AM! DONE!" Punctuating each syllable with another punch, she managed to drive it away from her bed, enough to reveal a perfect opportunistic weapon, lying where she'd discarded it on the floor.
It grabbed onto her wrist with a vicelike grip, grinning madly, but she didn't care. She scooped up her purse and slammed the accessory up across its non-face.
"I AM SICK! AND TIRED! AND DONE! WITH! YOUR! SHIT!" Each syllable was accompanied by another strike from the purse, forcing it to let go of her arm and flee the bedroom entirely. Annika chased it the whole way, spotting yet another improvised weapon sitting on her stove where she'd left it from this morning's breakfast.
She threw the purse into its face, leaving it to backpedal (or whatever the Wraith equivalent was) as she snatched the frying pan off her stove.
"SO GET! OUT! AND LEAVE! ME! ALONE!" Yet more strikes and swings, this time with the frying pan smacking the wraith in a way that felt incorporeal and yet…impactful.
The Wraith fled the apartment entirely through a wall, apparently deciding that whatever miasma Nika was producing wasn't worth the risk.
That left Annika Mara to simply stand in her apartment's miniscule living room, glaring at a patch of wall as she panted and gasped for air.
Finally satisfied that the monster had left her for good, she turned to return to her bed and her moping. Except…
Nika hefted the frying pan. 'Just in case…'
In the end, she crashed onto her bed and curled up in her blankets and pillows, hiding from the crushing weight that sat on top of her soul and ignoring yet more buzzing from her stupid useless disgusting little phone.
The weirdest part was, she didn't even feel sad, or angry, or upset, or anything.
She didn't know what to feel.
Everything she'd seen and heard and come to understand today…all of it was so far outside her realm of understanding that her brain couldn't even decide on an emotion for massive revelations like this.
The one thing she knew she felt was tired.
So she curled up around her pillows and frying pan and told herself she'd keep an eye open for any more monsters.
"…nika? Nika, you okay?"
Nika woke up groggily, then jumped to wakefulness when she saw a human silhouette over her bed. Reacting more than thinking, she brought her frying pan to bear—
The silhouette stopped the frying pan with a simple forearm to her wrists. "Nika, honey, calm down, okay? It's just me."
Annika blinked. The silhouette was starting to get more defined, especially the hair. Wraiths don't have hair, nor would it be bright blonde with light blue tips…
She blinked again. "Cerise…?"
"Yeah, it's me, sweetie. You okay?"
"How'd—" her voice was so choked up, it was hard for Nika to talk. "How'd you get in?"
"Don had a key. He's in the kitchen making you some hot cocoa, okay? You weren't answering any of my texts, so I got worried and came to check on you."
It was only now that Nika's frying pan returned to its place atop the blankets. "That…that was you?"
"Yeah, dingus, who else would it be?"
"I thought…"
Cerise comfortingly rubbed Annika's cheek. "Just relax, okay hon? Just breathe, sit up straight, and we can talk about the rest from there. Okay?"
"O-Okay…" with a little help from Cerise, Nika managed to sit up against the wall of her bedroom. After a few quick adjustments, mostly with her pillow and frying pan, she was comfortable and awake enough to take her phone from Cerise and check it.
11:37 pm. Ouch. She'd be feeling this tomorrow.
Eight new texts. All from Cerise. All variants on the idea of "are you dead or what?"
Three missed calls: two from Cerise, one from her neighbor.
She set her phone onto her nightstand. "My neighbors…"
"Yeah…apparently, you were yelling a bit. Something about getting out of your home."
"Yeah…I'll have to apologize to them tomorrow."
Cerise raised one eyebrow, like she sensed there was more to that comment. "Is that why the frying pan?"
"Yeah. Sorry for almost bashing you with it."
"Wouldn't be the first time," Don snarked as he entered, bearing two mugs of hot cocoa.
"Thanks, hon," Cerise whispered to him as he passed a mug to Annika.
"Anytime."
Don took a seat at the foot of her bed, sipping at the second mug of cocoa, while Cerise took to sitting cross-legged by her nightstand. Both of them simply stared at her, their faces somewhere between imploring and expectant.
"I'm…gonna take it this is about that mystery girl of yours."
"…yeah. Serena."
They didn't press or pry. They simply waited as she stared into her cocoa.
Nika sighed. "I…what…what would you do if someone you loved…if they told you they did something awful? Like, they felt horrible about it, and it was for the right reasons, but it was still a horrible thing and now you're not sure if you can ever trust them not to do it again. B-but you want to! Because you love her, but at the same time, every part of you is telling you you shouldn't, and you should just turn and run because that's the smart thing to do and—"
"Annika…" Don glanced nervously at Cerise before continuing. "She didn't…do anything to hurt you…right?"
"Huh? N-No, she did that…thing before me. But she told me about it and now I can't let it go and every time I think about her it all gets wrapped up with these horrible things she did and damn it I just want to forget about her!"
"Is this a 'big secret buddies' thing?"
"Kind of…? I mean…it's only tangentially related, but…" Annika curled up and hugged her legs. "…it's still a pretty big secret."
"Can you at least tell us about it?"
"I…I guess so, but I don't know if I should! It's such a big deal, and she doesn't want anyone to think of her like that, and I don't want to betray her trust or make her hate me-!"
Cerise stopped her growing rambling with a finger to Nika's lips. "Hush. Just…tell us, okay? We'll take full responsibility, and this is clearly eating away at you, so just…you can say it, okay hon?"
Annika nodded, prompting Cerise to move her hands.
It still took Nika several long seconds to find the right words, though.
"So…she…we got to talking about our pasts, and…big secret buddy things…and the topic came up about our parents. And when I asked her about hers, she got all quiet. And then she started saying that if I was getting caught up in the whole…big secret thing…that I was gonna hear a lot of awful things about her, and it was better if she told me the truth now rather than someone else…giving me the wrong impression, I guess?"
Annika fell silent, simply taking a long sip of her cocoa and trying to figure out how to phrase this kindly.
"And…what was the truth?" Oh Don…ever the pragmatist.
It took a long time for Annika to speak. And when she did, it was nearly a whisper that gave her deja-vu of the moment she herself had heard this particular detail.
"She…she killed her parents, Don. She didn't go into detail, and she didn't say that she did it herself, but she said really clearly that she was directly responsible for it."
A long silence settled over the three of them.
"Did she say why?"
"Yeah…apparently, they were really abusive and horrible and tried to sell her or something. But…but that shouldn't excuse killing people! Especially your parents!"
Cerise hadn't said a word, her face unreadable and concealed by shadows. Don simply closed his eyes. "Nika…not everyone's parents are like yours, okay? Sometimes people are monsters, and those monsters deserve punishment. You're right that murder isn't right, even in situations like that…but…at least…I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should see things from her perspective and understand why she did it."
"I—I do!" Great, Nika's eyes were watering up again. "But…then what!? Am I supposed to just forgive her for it!? Because I don't! I can't!"
Don simply shrugged. "I…I honestly can't tell you that, Nika. You're gonna have to figure it out on your own. But I want you to know that we'll help you out any way we can. Right, Cerise?"
Cerise simply nodded, her face an unreadably-neutral expression.
Don reached over and patter her shoulder. "We'll check in on you tomorrow. But if you need anything at all, don't hesitate to call. Okay?"
The two of them stood to start leaving, only to be stopped by Annika's tiny voice. "Could you stay? I…I understand if you don't want to, I just…I don't want to be alone tonight."
Don paused, then nodded and ruffled her hair. "Of course, hon. Just…Cerise and I need to find a better parking spot. We're in 2-hour parking."
She gestured toward the floor, where her keys might have ended up. "Use the fob on my keychain. It'll get you into the apartment garage. I don't use my parking space."
"Alright. We'll be back in no time, okay? Just finish that cocoa."
The two of them left the apartment, the door latch clicking shut behind them to mark their exit. Annika simply sat on her bed, still hugging her legs and trying not to cry. It was a whole lot easier to do that now that she'd spilled the beans. Don had been right (as usual); all these secrets had been eating away at the back of her mind, and talking about at least some of it had lifted a huge chunk of that weight off her shoulders. And she'd gotten great advice from her ex and best friend about why she felt as messed-up as she did over this.
Now she needed to make a decision.
She needed to decide if she forgave Serena for what she did.
At this point, she could just…not forgive her. Sever all ties, never talk to her again, and just drop her from Nika's life. It…well, at first glance, it wouldn't be hard. But on second thought, it would be hard to ignore the other woman. There would undoubtedly be a Coffeebucks incident where they'd have to talk if Nika wanted to keep her job, and now Nika was caught up in all the same Magical Girl politics that Serena was. Avoiding her would be hard, but…it was probably better than forgiving her.
On the other hand…it would be a whole lot easier to just forgive her for parenticide. But…could she? Could she really? Could she honestly look Serena Williams in the eye and tell her that murdering her parents by wishes or magic or whatever was the right thing to do? This…none of this made any sense, and now she was just taking her train of thought and running it in circles.
She finished off the last sip of lukewarm cocoa and set the cup aside, now free to focus all her effort on trying to wrap her mind around the issue.
Except…she couldn't, could she? That was the issue in and of itself, wasn't it? Trying to figure out her response to this conundrum left her in more of a conundrum.
Naturally, Cerise and Don picked that moment to return.
They didn't say anything. In fact, their silence was somehow more stifling and terrifying. But instead of talking or offering reassurances, they let their actions speak for them. They simply borrowed some nightclothes (poor Don had to cope with a particularly girly tee. Nika and Cerise would've given him crap about it had the situation not been more emotionally taxing), curled up against her on both sides, and held her until she fell asleep.
Even with all the issues and conflicts roiling around in her brain…between the good company, the good cocoa in her stomach, and the reassuring heft of her frying pan not far away…
Annika was asleep within minutes.
Getting someone to cover her shift the next morning was as taxing as it was costly. She now owed Gabby too many favors to count, but at least the other woman was understanding of the issue. Even if they'd just said it was a date gone sour, Gabby seemed to understand. In her own…Gabby-way.
That left Nika and Cerise alone the next day, since Don had a shift of his own to deal with. Cerise didn't start her new job until this weekend, and Annika now had no shift to work and could afford to avoid her classes.
The two ended up lazing around on Annika's couch, watching whatever corny crap they could find with Nika's streaming service.
Cerise had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time. She barely laughed at the movie, and even when she did, it was a halfhearted chuckle. She barely ate before claiming she was full. She didn't even comment on Don's choice in borrowed nightwear. Something was seriously wrong, and while Nika had her suspicions…she also didn't want to pry.
The two of them were halfway through some weird-as-fuck interpretation of Treasure Island meets Gulliver's Travels when Cerise finally made a multi-syllabic comment.
"Annika?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm going to ask you a few questions. I need you to be perfectly and completely honest with me. If you can't say anything in response without breaking your contract of secrets or whatever, then keep quiet for yes or say 'bananagram' for no. Got it?"
"Uh…sure?"
"You either got it or you don't."
"I-I got it."
"Promise me?"
"Yeah, I promise."
"First question: Did Serena attack you last night, in any way, shape, or form?"
"No."
"Okay. Second question: Were you yelling at someone last night to get out of your apartment?"
"….yeah."
"Third question: Who were you yelling at?"
"…"
"…fine. Fourth question: Did that person hurt you in any way, shape, or form?"
"Bananagram. Why the interrogation?"
"Just bear with me, okay? Fifth question: Why did they leave your apartment?"
"I beat them up with my purse, and then my frying pan."
Snrk! "I would've paid so much cash to see that happen. Okay. Sixth question: Did you call the cops about it?"
"Bananagram."
"Alright then. Seventh question: Does this home intrusion have to do with your big secret crap?"
"….."
"…got it. Last question: Why the ever-loving fuck can't you tell me about this stuff!?"
"B-Because I made a promise, okay!? I'm not going against that!"
"Fuck your promise! That could've been your life on the line last night! Are you seriously gonna put your stupid promise to a liar and a murderer over your own goddamn life!?"
"I-It—It's not like you'd believe me if I told you, anyway!"
"OH REALLY!? Fucking TRY me!"
Annika was about to shout something else at Cerise, before an idea flashed through her mind. Specifically, a brief mental image about a particular map from yesterday.
"I can show you, okay? We need to go somewhere nearby, but I can show you what this is all about, as long as you promise not to tell anyone."
Cerise's brow furrowed slightly with worry. "Don?"
"…fine. If you can get him to believe you, then go ahead and tell Don everything. But if you want to see the truth about this big secret thing…then follow me."
"I'll grab my stuff. And this had better be worth all the fuss." Cerise stormed off to grab her bag from Nika's bedroom.
Nika herself grabbed her purse, moved its contents to a backpack, and added her trusty frying pan to the mix.
From the curtained window, an elongated shadow caught her attention. Because sitting in the window was a silhouette of the distinctive shape of Kyubey. She could almost feel his dull red eyes boring through the curtains into her mind.
"Don't you dare try to talk me down from this, Kyubey," Nika thought, focusing on the words and hoping it would understand.
The response was plain and simple. "Why would I? At this point, nothing I could say would dissuade you."
"We going or what, Nancy Drew?"
She stared firmly at the catlike figure, before turning to the front door. "Yeah. Just follow me."
"…okay, Nika? I know I agreed to see it, but what kind of group hangs out in this part of town if they aren't hookers or vampires?"
"Just trust me, Cerise. Okay?"
"I mean, sure. Just…y'know…there've been a lot of shootings in this neighborhood lately. Can't blame me for being a little nervous, right?"
Annika ignored her, looking around the area. There were a lot of homeless people sleeping on the streets here, which was surprisingly normal for this part of town. What was less normal for this area were the harsh glares the two of them were getting from those people, or the dead-eyed thousand-yard stare of the ones who weren't shooting out murder glares.
Oh yeah, and the Wraiths. Those were new.
They patrolled the streets in little clusters, like invisible gangs of white-and-grey ten-foot-tall specters. Some simply wisped by, flashing a menacing sharp-toothed grin as they passed. Others were clustering around the homeless people lying on the street, and either just standing there or grabbing onto them with taloned hands. All in all, there were probably three Wraiths for every person they saw.
But it still wasn't enough. Because Cerise hadn't commented on them. Which meant she couldn't see them yet. And Annika was beginning to suspect she wouldn't until they found a Nightmare.
At the very least, the Wraiths were ignoring the two wayward visitors. Either they weren't giving off enough Miasma to be worth chasing over the homeless folk in the streets, or word had spread about how Annika was armed with a frying pan and wasn't afraid to use it. Nika herself chose to believe the latter.
So that left the two of them walking down the streets of a bad part of town, the oppressive atmosphere of misery and despair surrounding them on all sides and pressing down on every part of Annika like a physical force. Like background noise you hear all your life and only now become aware of, Annika felt it on all sides and from all directions pressing in like the claws of some living monster. And even if she couldn't see the Wraiths, Annika got the sense that Cerise felt it too. She might not know what she was feeling, but at least she was aware it was there. A fact that gave Annika a lot of hope that her stupid, hairbrained plan might actually work.
All she needed to do now was find the thickest, densest pocket of Miasma in this massive hotspot, and she'd have herself a Nightmare.
Easier said than done, of course. The atmosphere of the place was so much of a dense blanket that telling what was a spike and what was just more hell was nearly impossible. But she'd be damned if she'd stop over something like that.
"Hey…what's that guy doing?"
"Huh?"
Annika turned around, having utterly failed to realize that Cerise had stopped walking with her (she made a mental note to keep better track of her human friends). Instead, Cerise was several feet behind her, staring off down a narrow alleyway.
Grimacing slightly, Annika ran back to her friend and followed her gaze. Except…what she saw in that alley stunned her to her core.
Wraiths.
Just past the alley, in what must have been a parking lot of some kind…there was an enormous crowd of Wraiths, clustered so tightly that they were practically a singular object, all staring at the same thing. The nearest few turned back to look at Annika and Cerise, before deciding they weren't worth it and turning back.
There had to have been hundreds of them. Not even in the Labyrinth had Annika ever seen so many—
"Hey, Annika, can you see what he's holding? I can't quite…"
"What who's holding? Who are you even talking about?"
"That guy. The one in the parking lot." She gestured right into the middle of the crowd of Wraiths.
Right in the middle…
Where they were all looking….
"Hey…what's he doing…?"
But why would they all be clustered around just one—
""Oh no…""
Taloned hands were drawn from under the Wraith's robes, rearing up to lunge.
Cerise started running forward. "Dude! Dude, STOP!"
BLAM!
Like the starter pistol to a race, every single Wraith in the crowd piled onto the man. And as they did, they…melted into each other, morphing into an enormous pitch-black mass that grew and wobbled with a mind of its own.
"Cerise, get back!" Annika shouted.
"But…he just—He just…shot himself! I need to call 9-1-1, make sure he's okay!"
"Cerise, GET BACK!"
The dark blob began to flex out in bizzare ways, various body parts appearing on its surface at random. Eyes, mouths, arms, feet, vines, claws…all appearing in its surface before vanishing just as quickly.
"What the fuck is your hangup, Nika!? He just shot himself! W-We need to help him!"
Reality began warping around the blob as it took a more solid shape. Specifically, it looked human, but with huge wing-like blobs growing out from behind its back. The whole thing sprouted from a giant flower, which itself was surrounded by a nest of deadly-looking brambles.
The ground around the Nightmare began twisting and shifting, changing shape into God-knows-what.
Annika dashed forward, grabbing Cerise and trying to drag her away from the reality-warping demon-thing, only for the world to twist around the two of them until it turned into the hellish landscape of a Labyrinth.
The sky here was pristine and beautiful, but only right at the top. The closer your gaze got to the ground, the more it was filled with greenish-brown poison and dirt that filled your mind and clogged your soul. The ground itself…it wasn't even ground, really. It was a mass made of hundreds of thousands of people, all frozen in time as they desperately crawled over each other to reach the sky. But the ones at the peaks of the spire-like mounds didn't look terribly happy. If anything, they looked scared, all their gazes fixed on one thing.
The Nightmare.
It had taken the form of a beautiful angel, pristine and white-robed and pure. Brilliant golden wings held it high above the mass of desperate suffering frozen people, while a golden longbow and a quiver full of thunderbolts kept those people well below it. Once again, though, the familiar static-covered face and pale-grey skin marked it as a Nightmare, and the white robes would've made Annika think it was a Wraith were it not also thirty feet tall.
She didn't know how she knew all those details. She just felt it, somewhere in the back of her brain. Just like she felt the angel's piercing gaze turn onto her and Cerise.
"Annika…where are we? What is that thing!?"
"You can see it?"
"OF COURSE I CAN SEE IT! I WANT TO STOP SEEING IT! How do we get out of here!?"
Annika kept her gaze fixed on the Nightmare above them, as it hovered overhead to look down on the two of them. "I…I'm not sure…"
"WHAT!?"
"This plan may not have been entirely thought through, okay?" The Angel drew a thunderbolt from its quiver and prepared to fire it down on them, prompting Annika to draw her frying pan. "Get ready to run."
"A frying pan!? You can't be—"
"RUN!" Annika grabbed Cerise and threw the two of them to one side.
KRA-KOOM! The flash of lighting and blast of thunder nearly deafened Annika, but she pulled her wits together, grabbed her friend, and started running for it.
The Angel drew another thunderbolt, keeping pace with them easily.
Annika tried to think of a way out, an escape route, anything. She briefly thought of using her frying pan for defense, only to realize it probably wouldn't do much against a thunderbolt. Even if it was a magical thunderbolt and not a real one, it probably qualified as "really fucking hot". A frying pan was a one-time defense against that, at best.
She shoved Cerise around a spire of frozen clamoring people, nearly losing her own balance in the process before Cerise pulled her into their "hiding" spot.
"What the fuck is going on, Annika!?"
"A warm welcome to the Big Secret Club, that's what."
"This is crazy!"
Annika quickly tried to take in their surroundings. Serena had said that Labyrinths were like pocket dimensions, which meant they had to have limits and boundaries. So if they picked a direction and kept running, they'd eventually leave. But the worst part was how open it all was. There were no rocks or trees to hide under, and the spires were a comfort more than anything. It would be fine if the Nightmare couldn't fly, but unfortunately it could. Plus…the flower and brambles weren't anywhere to be seen…and Annika had felt like they were important-
"ANNIKA!"
Annika's gaze darted upward at whatever was casting the shadow that'd just fallen over them. Lo and behold, the Nightmare had caught up with them, another lightning bolt at the ready.
Annika grabbed Cerise, gearing up to throw them both to the side. Only to be interrupted by a barrage of green magic bolts that tore open one of the Nightmare's wings and forced it to flee.
Wait…green?
Annika ran around the spire (Cerise angrily shouting about not being left behind) to look in the direction the shots came from. And lo and behold, standing atop a distant spire was a short-yet-heroic figure.
"Kristina!"
"Who?"
"Big Secret Buddy number 3."
Kristina jumped off the spire, slamming into the ground not two feet away in a way that looked like it really hurt. Somewhere in the back of Nika's mind, she was remembering that Kris was a Magical Girl who didn't have to worry about that, but the rest of her instinctively winced. Kris herself only looked slightly different from when they'd first met. Like something of a cross between a cowgirl and a '50s greaser, adorned with a bright green gem on her belt buckle and wielding two ornate silver six-shooters.
She also looked really angry. Which was only slightly more pressing.
"What the HELL are you doing here, Blondie!? And why do you have company!? Do you have any idea how much danger you two are in!?" She angrily shoved one of her pistols against Annika's forehead. "You'd better have one FUCKING FANTASTIC explanation ready!"
"Yeah, but I figured—"
"No. You know what? Just shut the fuck up and get running. I'll handle the rest."
A loud screech drew their attention, and Cerise's panicked cry of "Oh god, it's coming back."
"Then GET! FUCKING! GOING!" Kris aimed her pistols and fired a rapid-fire barrage of green bolts, only to growl when they completely missed.
"What? Kris, what's wrong!?"
"Didn't you hear me!? Get going!" Kristina leaped out of the way of another lightning bolt, while Nika and Cerise were left to get thrown backwards by it.
"Kristina, I can help! Just tell me what's wrong!"
"This stupid fucking smog is messing with my—"
With a loud crackle like thunder, the ground around Kristina broke open and sprouted dozens of vines surrounding her. They looked like brambles, but every thorn was replaced by a syringe, and the vines themselves looked more like barbed wire.
Kris just barely leaped out of the way before they snapped shut. Except when she landed next to the two humans, Nika caught sight of a massive gash on her leg where one had caught her.
"This is insane! Where's this coming from!?"
"Annika, we should get out of here!"
"But—"
"Listen to your friend, dammit!"
"I'm just saying, I think there might be two of them!"
Kristina looked like she was about to reply, before grabbing the humans and diving out of the way of another lightning bolt, followed immediately by more vines shooting out of the ground and grabbing for them. Before they even knew it, the three of them were just barely clearing the smog. And that's when she saw it.
A massive lily-looking flower sitting at the lowest point of the ground, spewing a continuous stream of greenish-brown smog out of its…whatever you call the thing in the middle of the flower.
Before she could get a better look at it, though, the three of them dropped back into the smog and crashed to the ground.
"Just get out of here, already!"
"Kristina, there's two of them!"
"What!?"
"There's two nightmares! One's the angel, but I think the other's a smog-spewing flower that's creating all these brambles!"
"But two Nightmares in the same labyrinth!? That's insane!"
"I'm just telling you what I saw, okay!?"
"This isn't happening! This isn't happening!"
"Not helping, Blondie!"
"Wh-but it's crucial information!"
"Not you, Blondie, the other-" Kristina interrupted herself by grabbing the two of them and catapulting herself away from yet another lightning bolt. "Sonuva bitch, I officially hate this place!"
"What's going on!? Just tell me!"
"It's this stupid fucking smog! It keeps messing with my magic! It won't let me go all-out, I can't see that Nightmare clearly when I'm down here, and it's seriously pissing me off!"
"You can't see it clearly?"
"YES! I just—" Kristina cut short mid-rant, before turning to Nika. "Can you?"
Annika smiled. "With perfect clarity."
Kris gave her the most predatory grin Annika had ever seen. "Blondie, grab onto me and hang on tight."
"Right. Cerise! Grab on!"
"This is insane! This is fucking insane!"
"Where'd you get her?"
"Best friend." Annika grabbed Cerise and hoisted the other woman over her shoulder, as Kris pulled both of them into a princess carry as she leaped into the air.
The trio alighted on top of one of the spires, as Annika and Cerise were unceremoniously (though somewhat carefully) dropped onto it.
"Vines shouldn't reach us up here, so leave Other Blondie behind. Blondie, you stay on my back. You're my eyes on this one. If I'm gonna miss, call me out on it!"
"B-but I'm not—"
"BLONDIE!" Kris grabed her by the shoulders, fixing her with a harsh glare. "If you wanna get out of this one alive, then you need to do exactly what I say. So get on, before the flying bastard notices we're up here!"
"He already has!" Cerise screamed, pointing upwards.
Kris reacted first, turning on her heels and crossing her arms in front of her. As she did so, a translucent green barrier appeared in front of her, only to be destroyed by a powerful lightning bolt a split-second later. It didn't stop the lightning, but it seemed to make it turn just far enough off course to miss the three of them by a hair.
"No time to argue!" Kris grabbed Annika's wrist and all but dragged her onto Kris' back. The two of them leaped away just as the Angel nocked another arrow.
Kristina twirled her pistols in her hands with a slight flash of green. "Where is it?"
"There!" Nika called out, pointing right at it before hastily adding, "About to fire!"
Kris' foot smacked into a faceless screaming statue before leaping straight upward, the lightning bolt vaporizing the top of the spire instead of the two of them.
"Keep pointing at it!" Kris hollered. Nika obeyed the order, and Kristina had her guns follow Annika's finger (even if the smog was incredibly thin this close to the Angel's altitude, Kris was obviously taking no chances).
Kristina began to grin. "Alright then, you bastard! EAT THIS!"
And with a loud hum, the tops of Kristina's silver six-shooters opened up and sprayed out bright green…
…wings.
Giant minimalist wings made of brilliant green magic that splayed out to either side of them. They obviously weren't made for flying, but they still thrummed and buzzed with immense power.
And when Kristina pulled the triggers of her twin guns, those wings instantly swept right back into the pistols to emerge out the barrels as enormous green beams of lazery death.
Their combined aim proved true, and the two beams hit the Angel right in its torso, forcing it to dissipate into miasma (and one Grief Cube) with an unholy screech.
The two of them fell back to the ground, landing with a pose straight out of a comic book. Kristina flourished her guns with another flash of green magic, spared a brief glance at the gem on her belt with a grimace, before grinning back at Annika. "Now that's how it's done!"
Then she blinked, only now realizing that Annika had been shouting at her in a panicked frenzy during the entire fall.
Annika frantically pointed to the brambles that surrounded them, wrapping themselves into a loose dome.
Nika practically died from panic right then and there. There was no jumping out of this. They were trapped, well and truly.
"Fucking smog!" Kris growled, readying her guns as the vines closed in for the kill.
Only for a flurry of blue flashes to completely eradicate the vines surrounding them.
While Kristina blinked, as if in a slight daze, Annika watched Serena flip over the two of them, her scythe-berd changing into an axe-berd even as she brought it down onto the ground. As she did, the entire ground around the three of them seemed to shake, like something just beneath it was flailing in its death throes.
"Serena!" she shouted, pulling herself off of Kristina's back. "You saved our lives!"
"What are you talking about?" Serena muttered softly. "I'm just killing things. It's what I do, isn't it?"
Before Annika could wrap her head around what the object of her affections had just said, Serena leaped away towards a distant pit that Annika could only assume was the flower she'd seen earlier.
"Ugh…I feel drunk…" Annika quickly whipped back around to face Kris, who was staggering slightly and rubbing her head. She did indeed look drunk, which Annika would've found pretty funny were it not for the circumstances. "Stupid smog…"
"The smog…Kris, please! Get back up to Cerise!"
"Whaaaaa?"
"The smog! It's messing with your head! You need to get up and out of it as quick as you can!" Apparently, the smog did more than just throw off a person's aim. It also seemed to dull their reflexes. Bigtime.
"I…yeah…back to—"
"Back to Cerise, yes! Once you're out of the smog, you should be able to see the flower at the center of this place! Do that wing-shooting thing again and that'll take care of it, right?"
Kris chuckled. "I would, but…I'm pretty low on magic. That move burns through what I have like crazy."
"The grief cube…"
"Be a dear and get it for me, wouldja?" As much as Annika hated to admit it, Kris was certainly more palatable in this state.
Even so, she didn't have the time to focus on that. She had to get that Grief Cube to Kris, no matter what. So she turned vaguely in the direction where she last saw the Angel Monster. Except…shit, where was that!? This was gonna be like finding a needle in a haystack, which happened to be in a minefield, which happened to be on a battlefield. Annika was quickly beginning to reconsider her choice about helping out.
'No, FOCUS!' Biting her tongue to try and stop herself from panicking, Nika dashed off in her best approximation of the right direction. Scrambling, panting, nearly tripping over the grasping arms and screaming faces of the landscape around her.
A few brambles pulled themselves up from the ground in front of her, preparing to strike as Annika staggered headlong into them. Almost on instinct, she raised her frying pan like it was a shield blocking the brambles while the force of their impact knocked her flat on her back.
She howled in pain as something with sharp edges tore into her spine, rolling off of it with just enough time to look down and-
...the Grief Cube!
Desperate and panicked, she snatched it up in her grasp and shouted at the top of her lungs, "I've got it! I've got the cube!"
KRA-THOOOM!
An enormous wall of syringe-thorned brambles sprouted up in front of her, poised for the killing blow while also blocking her off from her friends.
In hindsight, she should've seen that coming. Serena had said that Nightmares were substantially more intelligent than Wraiths, and that probably included the ones who looked like plants. If it was clever enough to calculate landing points and set traps, then it would've seen what happened to its buddy and realized the Grief Cube was the key to its demise.
The Grief Cube that Annika was currently holding in her hands.
Suddenly more terrified than she'd ever been, she raised a shaking hand and frying pan in a halfhearted defense.
They rushed at her, and she was about to close her eyes and prepare for the end. Until, that is, they were all cut to shreds in a flurry of blue magic arcs.
Serena hit the ground hard, staggering heavily, but nontheless holding her scythe-berd out to one side. Her face was clouded over by hair and shadows and an unreadable expression, while her body language was somewhere between "lost in thought" and "near-blackout drunk".
But Serena's heart nearly stopped when she saw Serena's Soul Gem.
It was almost pitch black, and barely even glowing anymore.
Serena turned around to keep fighting, and Annika's breath caught in her throat as she tried to shout at her.
That didn't stop her, though. Annika grimaced and forced the lump out of her throat. "Serena, stop! You'll die!"
Annika could barely hear her over the clamour of more brambles surfacing, but she made out enough.
"Why should I care?" Serena's mutterings were quiet and lifeless, and Nika couldn't tell if that was the smog or Serena herself. "My only real friend hates me. Why should I bother?"
Serena prepared to jump up, but she was way too slow. Her reflexes dulled by the smog. Even a novice like Annika could tell she'd never evade in time.
Hundreds of lethally-pointed bramble vines dove for Serena's Soul Gem, aiming to tear her mind and soul apart for good.
But Annika closed her eyes, gritted her teeth hard enough they felt like they were breaking, and made the greatest mistake of her entire life.
She charged.
Afterward, she chose to believe that there was a war cry and swelling dramatic music. But in truth, her war cry was more pf a frantic, pained scream that was her vent for all the convoluted emotions of the week.
The clang of metallic bramble-vines crashing into her frying pan, though...that was real enough to hurt.
Every muscle in Annika's body screamed in pain, like she was tearing herself in half with exertion alone.
But with the combination of her momentum, her leverage, and every ounce of effort she could possibly muster, she threw the brambles back until she was between them and her crush.
Gasping for air, she turned back to Serena, who simply stared back with the most dumbfounded expression Nika'd ever seen.
"I...but you...I thought you-"
"You...IDIOT!" KLANG!
Even if her overworked muscles prevented it from being too powerful, Annika's frying pan still slammed into Serena's gorgeous face with enough force to knock her backwards a few steps.
"OW! Annie, what the-"
"You stupid blockhead!" Annika screamed, throwing another halfhearted swing that missed completely. "You really think I HATE you!?"
"Well...yeah. Why else would you-"
"DUMBASS!" Another swing, another miss. Nika's tears were starting to flow in earnest now. "Serena, you big dumbass, I'm in love with you! For some stupid, unbelievable, unimaginable reason, I'm head over fucking heels in love with you! And that's why I can't stand watching you kill yourself like this!"
Serena simply blinked as Annika all but collapsed against her, crying in earnest.
"Did you ever even think about how heartbroken I would be if you died!? And you'd honestly let that happen just because I said I needed TIME!? You'd honestly let yourself die over a little SPAT!? I thought you were better than that!"
"But you said-"
"I said I needed time to think! And I did! I still do! But I REFUSE to let things end like this!" Annika grabbed Serena's magical half-jacket and pulled herself up to stare straight into Serena's bewildered blue eyes. "I'm not letting you die like this! Not if I have anything to say about it! Because I care about you, and so help me God I love you, and I want to see you be happy!
"Which is why you're going to put a lid on this stupid tantrum! You're going to take this," she shoved the Grief Cube into Serena's hands, "to Kris, I'm going to escape with Cerise, you and Kris are going to kill this stupid flower, and we are going to LIVE! And then we're going to sit down, face-to-face, and have a long hard talk like real fucking adults!"
"B-but...why? Why do you even care!?"
"Because I want this to work, Serena! I want us to work! No matter how much it takes or how our relationship pans out, I want you in my life! Because I refuse to lose another close friend to a misunderstanding!"
Annika's face softened, morphing from pain and anguish into a genuine smile.
"So hurry up and kill this thing, so we can all go home and have a beer."
Only a moment or two passed by before Serena's face stopped looking so bewildered.
Instead, it became the most beautiful smile Annika'd ever seen.
Serena gently hugged Annika, trying to force back tears of her own.
"Deal."
The two separated, another scythe-berd manifesting in Serena's hand.
"Stay safe, Annie."
"You too."
Serena leaped as high as possible, trying to get out of the smog and find Kris, bramble vines hot on her heels and her gem glowing just a little brighter. Annika, for her part, turned and used the brambles ignoring her as an opportunity to sprint for the exit.
And there WAS an exit. There had to be. Nightmares weren't all-powerful, and it seemed unlikely that their little pocket-dimensions were infinite. That meant that they had an edge, and all Nika had to do was run away from the monster to find it.
Well..."run". Stagger might've been more accurate. She was very close to reaching her physical limits.
Finally, the world around her started to shift and warp, and she started to feel like she was pressing on something. Or...maybe not pressing, but like she was fighting some force trying to drag her back in.
With a howl of frustration and effort, she finally broke through whatever wall was keeping her in. The world warped in earnest, leaving her to collapse onto the parking lot and nearly throw up from exertion alone. The day had been taxing in every sense of the word, both physically and emotionally.
After a minute or two, Cerise warped and twisted into existence in the air behind her, promptly falling to her knees and staring ahead in horrified bewilderment.
"You alright, hon?"
Cerise numbly nodded in response. Before adding, "M-Maybe? I think? I'm not dead, so there's that. But...I-I just..."
'Yeah. I know what you mean."
"What...what even WAS all that!?"
Annika took a deep breath and began.
"So...basically, there's this field in the Universe called the Miasma..."