The door opened to a single long hallway. Unlike the stark environments of the hot lab, this area had simple carpeting that would not have been out of place in any industrial office in the world, a bit of padding for the feet with no aesthetic concern given. The hallway was lined with heavy doors, like the entrance, each with a single keypad to the side. Above each door a red light was shining, save for the one at the very end of the hallway with a green light above it. The only thing that might be considered odd was a dumbwaiter set into the wall, with a robot that would grab something flat and rectangular, and deliver it to a slot in each door.

"This is unlikely to be where the faeries are kept," Shika observed.

Heart turned and looked at her oddly. "What makes you say that?"

"The robot is designed to deliver food trays. That implies that those kept in this hall are treated as humans, if hostile ones," Shika explained. "It is most likely that this area was designed for the containment of collaborators who are considered a high risk."

Heart blanched for a moment, then steeled herself. "This is just one more crime these people need to answer for."

Shika just shrugged. "If you wish to rescue anyone else, I suggest you hurry. The source of their magical energy is almost certainly beyond these hallways, which makes this placement most curious. Be careful, I suspect the doorways are warded."

Heart nodded, and quickly examined the doors. Strangely, only one door seemed locked. "...so few people? You'd expect more, wouldn't you?"

Shika shrugged. "Your emotional attachment to the idea of people as generally good may be blinding you. Also, the YTF is not a police organization. Very few humans have significant magical power, which would be a prerequisite to being kept here as opposed to a more mundane prison. The bulk of the political criminals are likely not here."

"Of course, that makes sense," Heart conceded before turning her attention back to the door.

Her heart stopped when she heard a cold voice come from the entrance. "What the fuck are you doing down here!?" Blossom stood there, her frame backed by a bright spotlight that made her seem like a shadow as she stalked down the hallway. "This wasn't the deal, Heart. You girls were just looking for information and instead Egret's got you all on international news while you're starting a riot behind her back!"

Heart choked. "What? I haven't done anything other than open the door that would so much as set off an alarm!"

"Well, the hospital above you is on fire!"

"I didn't do that!"

Shika raised a hand for quiet. "Blossom, I assure you I would never set a hospital on fire before my change. Therefore, Heart would not do so."

Blossom snapped her tact in Shika's direction for a moment, but then sighed. "You...dammit, you can't lie."

"Not true, but there is no logical reason to now," Shika said.

Blossom gave this a moment's contemplation before deciding to put it out of her mind as not worth discussing at the moment. Instead she tapped a few numbers into the keypad. A cheerful voice announced "Cure Blossom recognized. Access denied."

Blossom felt her head swim in confusion. "Access denied? I've never had my authorizations denied!" She tried again.

"Access denied," the voice announced. "Further attempts to access this system may be met with deadly force. Have a nice day!"

Heart shook her head. "I guess there's some things even a Cure isn't trusted with."

Blossom glared at her. "Then I want to know what it is. Break it down."

"Eh!?"

"You heard me!" Blossom put her hands on her hips. "Break this door down, now!"

Heart winced at the tone, and aimed a careful kick at the sliding door. It inched aside. Another blow, and it flew into its' enclosure in the wall. Sitting on the other side, in a plain iron cell with a thick mattress on the single bunk, was a tall-looking man with long blonde hair. His beard was long enough that he had been in the cell for months at least, but his bright blue eyes shone with mirth and renewed hope. "I knew you'd manage to come through, My Sweet Heart."

Honoka looked back to her friends, hoping for a moment of inspiration. When nothing came, she took a deep breath. "Yes, you've had some very impressive achievements. Of course, there have been setbacks, I'm sure."

"We have one of the better success rates out there, actually," Egret said smugly. "Most of our research lines have played out successfully, so far. Of course, we're reaching the end of what can be done with the 'assistance' we've had from our enemies. Labyrinth in particular was a boon. Without them, we'd have needed decades to get this far."

"Labyrinth? I'm sorry, can someone fill me in? I'm not aware of the details."

Berry stepped up behind Honoka to whisper in her ear. "They were a lot like us, but they'd pushed their magic to the point where a central computer controlled most of their lives, including when they died."

Honoka's eyes widened. "Wait, you used research like that?"

"Why shouldn't we? After all, I'm sure you or your colleagues have done work dependent on unethical research. Modern science is based on those early works." Egret chuckled when Honoka winced. "We didn't conduct those experiments. There was absolutely no way we could have stopped them even if there had been prior contact, which there wasn't. And we had no way of knowing where the technology had come from. So tell me, Cure White. Tell us all what we should have done!"

Honoka could hear the mutterings of approval in houses across the world in her mind. I walked into that one. Dammit, they can't have thought of everything! She glanced up at the video screens again.

"We're waiting, White," Egret smirked.

White blinked, realizing all the ads had winked out, including one for the new clothing lines aimed at . . . it clicked. That could work, "Ahem. All right, we'll get back to science in a bit. What about you, then. The way Gemini explained your job, you've got a significant amount of say in the media, yes?"

"You could say that," Egret replied. "Not total control, of course, but we do have to control what gets said in case the enemy watches television. And before you laugh, it's happened."

"Okay, so you have to run a censor just to be safe. That's not what I was getting at," Honoka smiled a bit. "Tell me, has there been an increase in the human trafficking issue?"

Egret had a sinking feeling on where this might be going. "...a bit. Nothing the police can't handle."

"So there's been one," Honoka started to pace again, playing it up while Egret cursed internally. "A particular focus on. . . Precure-age girls?"

How is she figuring this out? "A bit older for the most part. Age of consent and all that."

"Which is?"

"...fourteen."

Honoka grinned. "Really? Even at the prefecture level?"

"A national law was passed overriding those rules a few years ago." Everybody knows that so there's no point hiding it, but why did she have to bring it up?Egret was really starting to panic now.

"And I'm guessing prostitution's also started to become a real issue,"

Egret shrugged. "Not so much as in the nineties. After all, there's enough money for everyone...mostly."

"Mostly?"

Egret shrugged again. "There's always going to be a poverty line. People who can't find a way to work don't get to share in the prosperity to the same degree. The family takes care of the rest, but the numbers don't show that."

"But even so. . . "

"If a fourteen year old wants some extra money, I guess I don't see the problem with it if her parents are okay with it." Egret tried her best, but she couldn't hide her discomfort with the idea.

"If you don't like it, then why do it?" Egret winced at Honoka's sudden question. The follow-up was even harder. "Because you noticed that every group of Precure was unusually close, and took your inspiration from historical armies to strengthen the Precure's. . . connections with each other?"

Egret swallowed hard. ". . . what my girls choose to do in their private quarters isn't my concern. They've earned whatever downtime activities they want, as long as no one gets hurt and they can still fight."

Sword ran behind the others through the endless hallways. Diamond turned left and right at each corridor, and Sword could only trust that she knew what she was doing despite having no idea how Diamond knew which way to go. The terms on the doors she managed to glance at gave her no clue as to their purpose, and frankly she didn't think Diamond would be doing much better. I just wanted to save the Princess, and now we're likely going to be trapped in the wrong universe.

That was when she heard a voice in her head. Really? From what I know of it she didn't really care about you. You were her prodigy, yes, but never more than that.

Wh...what do you know about it? Sword thought back at the voice angrily.

Suddenly a memory, or maybe a fantasy, of being held close by Ange flashed through her head. You didn't just want this. You wanted so much more, even if you didn't really know what it was. After all, Cure Sword, you were the one who ignored Johnathon. Thought he was just another knight, all those times… Images of Ange paying particularly close and inappropriate attention to one blond knight in particular flashed through her head. It was your job to know everyone close to your beloved Princess, but somehow the fact that she had a fiance got by you?

I… Sword slowed to a halt. Get out of my head!

Why? I could get you what you want. It wouldn't be hard. Rescue your Princess, and just let me do the rest for you…

You...you're… Sword whimpered. It was so tempting suddenly.

The voice pounced. All you have to do is give in. A slight pulse. I'll make your wish come true, little Cure.

The next thing Sword knew, Diamond was shaking her. "Sword, are you all right?"

Makoto wanted to tell her about the voice, but instead her mouth said "It's nothing. Just got confused for a second." Suddenly she had a feeling she should say something else. "Mana's that way." She pointed through a wall.

"How do you know?" Rosetta asked, puzzled.

Sword blinked. "I...I just do."

Diamond blanked for a moment, then sighed. "I don't have a better plan. Let's go."

Johnathon Klondike took in the picture of the girls in front of him, then blinked. "Wait, a twin sister?"

"That's not it!" Mana and Shika said at the same time. Then Shika carefully stepped out from behind Mana, to show the hole in her chest. Johnathon made a soft 'oh' noise while Mana elaborated. "We honestly weren't looking to rescue you, but since you're here and we're here, can you tell us anything about the YTF?"

"I'm afraid not much. They weren't exactly forthcoming with the details."

Blossom snorted. "Well, you are a criminal, whatever that means these days."

Mana shook her head. "Blossom, not helping. Johnathon, can you walk?"

"Give my sword back and I can fight." Johnathon confirmed, but Mana sighed.

"Things are a lot more complicated. You never gave the sword to me, but to her. . . and her Jikochuu's got it."

"Well, that's bad news." Sir Klondike's tone indicated he was taking this in more stride than he probably should. "I rather liked that sword."

Shika spoke suddenly. "Actually, Cure Gemini is on your side. If you ask politely, she might even return it."

That got his attention. "Wait, a Jikochuu capable of turning on the thing that created her?"

"It's complicated." Mana restated. "No time to explain it all. Were you ever charged?"

"Not with a crime, if that's what you mean."

Mana thought about it. "Come on, we'll need you to say something about it later."

Shika stuck her head into the cell. "I see the pipe. The magic source is beyond these cells."

"Ah, yes." Johnathon confirmed. "They captured most of the generals who attacked the Trump Kingdom. I heard them screaming as they were dragged by. I would have helped, but. . . "

Mana winced at the news. "I don't think I like where this is headed."

The four left the cell and got to the door at the end of the hallway. Blossom didn't even try her clearance this time, simply kicking the door straight in.

Beyond was a single large room filled with a series of tall glass tubes. Some were barely half a meter around and two meters high, while a very few were almost to the height of the ceiling. Their placement was awkward, but they were all hooked up to identical devices pumping a strange, glowing green liquid between the tubes and a single, central apparatus filled with more of the liquid. The central mana pipe, along with several others, branched off from that spot, carrying the results throughout the facility. The glow alone was bright enough to illuminate the room.

Mana noticed that, in addition to the pipes leading away, more seemed to be hooked up to small chambers on the sides of the central device. Shika acknowledged it just as quickly, and began walking towards the largest, barely big enough to fit her if she curled up, when everyone's eyes fully adjusted.

Because floating in the center of each tube was a faerie. Eyes closed, occasionally they twitched in pain. All of them were painfully thin, but even more disturbing was that some had started to decompose. The edges of their limbs, their torsos, or even heads showing ragged edges where they were dissolving into energy, their faces still showing the barest signs of agony.

Blossom shrieked and covered her eyes, as if to shut out the horror in front of her, before throwing herself against Johnathon, wrapping her arms around him in a desperate attempt to stay standing. Mana swallowed back her bile. "I'm going to be sick."

Shika carefully put a hand on her back. "Force yourself to smile. It will help hold it down."

"How can you be so calm about this?" Blossom suddenly turned to shriek at her.

"Why does everyone keep asking things like that when they know the answer?" Shika's voice carried the barest hint of exasperation. "This bothers even me, but there's no way I can get worked up about it, so please stop pretending I should."

Mana gulped and lifted her camera to start filming. "Blossom, can you try to get us a signal?"

Johnathon put a hand on her shoulder and carefully led her to the nearby computer terminal, making sure to keep his body between her and the gruesome scene around them. Shika shrugged and went over to the device again. Mana glared at her. "What are you doing?"

"They're dead, Mana." Shika explained. "You're welcome to finish them off, but in order to survive I still need something from them."

Nozomi stared at the younger version of herself. "Not Cure Nightmare?"

Dream pouted at her. "Why does everyone call me that? I haven't made nightmares for anyone, ever!"

Kokoro winced. "Be careful," she whispered to Nozomi. "She's doing. . . something. I can protect us, but I don't know for how long."

Nozomi gave the girl a wink out of the corner of her eye before putting her full attention on the younger Dream. "But what is it that you do?"

"I grant wishes!" Dream giggled in delight. "So many people, so much sadness. It hurts. So I give everyone a wonderful world where they have everything they want!"

Nozomi swallowed. "But. . . it's not real."

"It's real to them." her attention turned to Kokoro. "Oh, you poor thing,"

Nozomi paled as she realized what was coming "Kokoro! RUN!"

"I'm not leaving you!" Kokoro grit her teeth in determination while Dream began the wind-up.

Nozomi recognized the magic. The gathering of pink lights into a butterfly shape on the wrist-phone the younger version of herself still had. "Precure...DREAM ATTACK!" She had prepared to shove Kokoro out of the way, but instead of a single large one, the insect shattered like a mirror, each sparkle forming a tiny pair of wings on its' own and filling the clearing.

Nozomi called up the magic. Light flowed through her own body. "PRECURE SHOOTING STAR!" The shield formed in front of her, as she aimed at Dream.

A light hop and Dream was simply off to one side, while the butterflies that Nozomi missed aimed and started flitting towards Kokoro. The purple Artificial tried to jump, but one of them caught her ankle and sank in. Her eyes widened, and she stumbled on the landing. "Oh." She yawned. "Nozomi...my love...I…" Nozomi caught her as she started to fall over. "...N...Nozomi?"

"Kokoro, c'mon, stay awake!" Nozomi shouted at her.

Kokoro yawned again. "It's so nice," she mumbled. "I don' wanna."

"Kokoro! Please!"

Kokoro mumbled, her eyes closing. "Lemmie sleep...dream…"

Dream giggled. "See! She's so much happier!"

"Kokoro, you can find someone else! I'm sure you'll find someone else! Please, you don't have to." Nozomi shouted again.

Kokoro's eyes were closed, and for a moment she didn't reply. . .

The front armoring panel of the mecha gently lowered itself into place around the transformed Yayoi. The instrument panel in front of her lit up, with just a few controls and several panels that she recognized as showing battle damage on the armor she was now wearing. She slid her arms into the bands next to them, and yelped when her legs were clamped down as well. With a deep breath, she calmed herself and took a few hesitant steps. "Wow, it's just like walking."

Peace's voice came over the radio. "Cool, huh? Betcha wish you'd had this when taking out that Oni guy, huh?" Yayoi ignored her, carefully taking another few steps. She closed her hands around a pair of handles, and felt a satisfying "thump" in each arm. "Okay, so you found the railguns," Peace explained. Yayoi lifted her arms up and saw that the rails had extended. "Cast your Peace Thunder to fire them. The software will show you where you're aiming, so be careful. Well, that's what they told me anyway."

"Got it," Yayoi murmured. As her eyes flicked across the screen, another cross-hair appeared. Her fingers carefully felt, and found a trigger. She pulled in slightly and heard the whirr of a pair of large electronic motors.

"Those are the minigun controls. Pull in slightly to prime them, then pull the trigger all the way to fire. You've got about ten thousand rounds in each gun, that'll last for thirty seconds of continuous fire. The software tracks your eye movement to aim within a limited arc in front of you."

Yayoi took a few more hesitant, coltish steps before a voice cheerfully announced "Time's up!" and she was forced to scramble on the mech's ungainly legs to avoid a bolt of light that clawed a mark into the solid metal ground. She pressed her back against one of the cubes of metal housing the assembly equipment, panting heavily, eyes widened in fear.

"I wasn't ready!" Yayoi cried back, jumping as the machine she was hiding behind exploded from another railgun shot. She barely managed to hide behind the next one before the smoke cleared, Peace's delighted laughter echoing in her cockpit. Yayoi quickly started to duck between the lanes, realizing her opponent was now in 'having fun' mode and wasn't paying close attention. I don't know how to use this thing! I have to finish her in one shot. She glanced down at the instrumentation, and quickly worked it out. It's all set up like my favorite video games. Okay, she's. . . there. She briefly disengaged from the arm controls to switch the overlay to one that seemed to work like X-ray vision. The railgun arm extended again, and she took careful aim through the growing cloud of smoke. Just one shot. . .

And she'd be a murderer. She's crazy! She's probably killed tons of people, shooting wildly like that. Electricity arced along the rails. She'll kill your friends. Take the shot!

The rails slid back into the mech's arm. She lowered it. I can't!

Peace turned to look straight at her, and then leaped over the machines to land right behind her. "Found you!" Yayoi started to turn, but she was rattled in her seat when a powered fist crunched into the side of her armor, and slammed into the glass screen when it landed against the far wall.

Rosetta was starting to get winded as the corridors twisted them around and around. Sword's 'direction' might have helped since they were no longer running blind, but it wasn't much. She wasn't sure how the others were holding up, but she knew she couldn't show it. Besides, a deep breath and she'd recover, as long as she was still in Cure form.

Aww, poor Alice, a voice whispered in her head. So tired. Maybe still just that little girl who had to spend almost all her days in bed after all. . .

That's . . . that's not right Alice thought back against the voice, trying to push it down. I got better. I just needed some exercise.

Oh, really? Then why is your counterpart on death's door? Sagittarius should have all the same problems as your body, but she's almost dying.

She's. . . she'll get better, she just needs some help.

The voice pounced. Ah, help. Like Mana would give?

If she could, yes, Alice found herself agreeing.

Yes, lovely, sweet Mana, now in danger. You'd love to have the strength to save her, to swoop in and show her just what she means to you. . . I'll make your wish come true.

Rosetta slowed to a stop. "I. . . think it's this next corridor."

Sword and Diamond gave her an odd look. "How can you be sure?"

Rosetta blinked. "Well, it's the same direction Sword pointed earlier, and I think this way doesn't look as used. They're probably somewhere people don't go, right?"

Sword groaned in exasperation. "We're lost anyway, so let's go."

Honoka had needed a moment to think, tugging at her costume nervously. There was something off about what Egret had said. Then it occurred to her. "What about Blossom?"

"What about her?" Egret shrugged. "I think I rather bend over backwards for her, with all the leave time, freedom to choose her own methods. I even unlocked her trust accounts so she could spend that money keeping her grandmother's botanical garden running. Even if I did have to encourage its' selection as a research facility for our needs to guarantee it."

"And yet," Honoka interrupted, "You have chosen to 'overlook' her grandmother's status as a Precure herself, but only in exchange for Blossom fighting."

"The status of Cure Flower is not open for debate," Egret tried to say hastily, then realized her mistake.

"So you admit Cure Flower still exists, and is neither part of the YTF nor has she lost her powers," Honoka continued.

"I can neither confir-"

Honoka chuckled, cutting her off. "That'll be a 'yes' then. So anyone's free to leave the YTF at any time, unless they've made themselves too valuable. And then you'll hold an old woman hostage to her good behavior."

"I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or status of Cure Flower at this time," Egret stated firmly.

Honoka pressed on. "And about that 'research facility. I heard something fascinating from Gemini. About a large number of plants that didn't come from Earth. What were the words, miss Gemini?"

Gemini coughed. "Last known examples of their species."

"Now, why is that?"

Egret narrowed her eyes. "Resources are limited. We cannot prioritize other worlds over Earth, and sadly, in most cases they're on their own."

"Funny, because normally they come to us asking for help," Honoka knew it was approaching the endgame. "Begging, with no way out but the Precure. . . and you swoop in and take their hope!"

"WE HAVE NO CHOICE!" Bloom suddenly screamed, pushing Egret aside. "WE TRY TO SAVE THEM WHEN WE CAN!" She took a deep breath. "April 24th, 2012. The goddamn Wicked Witch from every faerie tale attacked Kansai International Airport. Fifty airplanes fell out of the sky into Osaka. Over two hundred thousand dead.

"May 13th, 2011. The entire world is briefly gripped by a strange sense of depression. Surgeons nearly stop operating, air traffic controllers around the world go catatonic at their stations and have to be removed. People stop driving their cars as they lose awareness of anything but the feelings in their own hearts. All from one note of the Melody of Sorrow before we stopped it. Luckily, we can't attribute anyone's death to that incident directly thanks to the sacrifice of Yamabuki Inori. We've examined her brain under MRI. She'll never awaken from the effects of the Melody of Happiness."

Bloom was up in Honoka's face now, barely restraining herself from some form of violence, but her voice had gotten quieter. If not for the microphone, the people in the audience wouldn't have been able to hear her at all. "May 5th, 2010. Dune, out of Generals, attacked directly in the middle of spring. Kibougahana city was destroyed, nearly fifty thousand people dead before he was stopped. Fortunately, the Heart Tree elected to intervene and brought them back to life. The city will never recover, though, and most of the people who lived there have moved on. It's a ghost town.

"And that, Cure White!" Bloom snarled. "Is just the last three years."

White shrugged. "Funny, because none of that ever happened on our side."

"Tokyo never happened on your side either!" Bloom started to stalk towards her. "Two million people died from the same 'hands off' approach you take. Don't you dare try to tell me we're doing the wrong thing, bitch!" Honoka gasped at the sudden turn of language. "You've been incredibly lucky! We don't have 'luck!' We have to try to make it up through little things like 'working hard' and 'skill!'"

Egret tried to grab Bloom's shoulder, but Bloom wasn't having any of it and shook her off. "We don't get the luxury of pulling some amazing new trick out of our asses when we need it! Every advance is earned through blood, sweat, and tears. Or, if we DO get lucky, we pry it from our enemy's cold, dead hands! So we just don't have the power to save everyone! We have to look out for our own first!"

Egret blinked as Regina, who had been quiet for the duration of the debate, suddenly whipped out a strange-looking firearm. She nearly raised her arms, then laughed. "What, why so desperate to end this suddenly, Princess? You don't kill people, or turn them into monsters. Don't get your hands dirty, you let your pet humans do that for you."

Regina winced at the description. "Egret, did you ever stop to think why I don't do that? The rules aren't for people like Mana, and Alice, and Itsuki. They know what's right and what's not. The rules are there for people like us. If I let myself do what I think needs to be done, I'd be the monster you keep making me out to be."

Bloom whirled on her. "What are you saying?"

"That right now, I'm sure if you keep talking, things far worse than me will happen to this world, and I love this world!" Regina had tears rolling down her face. "Please, stop this, before I have to…"

Egret went completely pale at Bloom's next words. "What, the way your kind keeps dumping their problems on us, and now you want us to meekly help out? No dice. Huma-AAAAHHHHHH!"

Regina had turned the stun pistol on Bloom and shot her. The dart stuck out of the woman, shooting high voltage through her body for several seconds before she slumped to the ground. Egret started to summon power to her hands. "Die!"

"I didn't want to! But the world's about to die! Everyone out there! If you're still listening, please! This isn't just about you!" Regina pleaded, staring directly up into a drone's camera.

A million voices echoed back from across the void of the city. "Ji...ko...chuuu…."

Unaware of the chaos breaking out above her, Heart gathered her wits about her and started to fiddle with the machine in front of her. This lasted for all of about a minute before she banged her head against the central tube. "I haven't got the first clue how to work this thing,"

Rikka's voice chuckled. "Allow me,"

"Thanks Rikka." Heart stepped back from the console, grateful that her friend had "Hey, waitasec!"

Rune chuckled again, a little lower. "Surprised? Or just like my new look?"

Heart blinked several times, then looked at Shika, who shrugged helplessly. "What's going on?"

"Well, the end of the world as we know it, but there's still a little time," Rune purred. "You want to try to save that doll, and I think I've got this thing figured out…"

Blossom surged forward and threw her fist into Rune's face, tossing the new Jikochuu across the room. "Hands off!"

Rune laughed. "Now that's really not my policy, Blossom. I'd probably call you a traitor, but right now that'd be a bit hypocritical, wouldn't you say? So instead. . . ooh, all these lovely indiscretions when you just can't stand that girlfriend of yours, all etched right across your Psyche."

"H-hey, stay out of my head!"

Rune purred. "I can't read your thoughts, Tsubomi. Just your desires." Tsubomi's eyes suddenly went blank as she stiffened. "Too easy."

"Let her go, Rune!" Heart shouted. "I swear, this time I won't go easy on you!"

Rune cocked her head. "Really? Still at it even though it's the end? At this point nothing can stop it. It's your world that can still be saved. I'll even give you a hint – you haven't seen the big secret yet. There are three faeries missing from this room. They're right under us. I can feel them. Faeries so powerful they make King Jikochuu look like a joke."

"They're that powerful?"

"Oh yes." Rune grinned. "If you had that power, why, you could save everyone. Ever."

"No! Why are you telling me this?" Heart jumped back from the transformed girl.

Rune purred. "So, there is something in your heart besides the drive to make things better. I wonder what it is..."

"Mana, don't listen to her!" Sharuru stuck her head out of the Commune form she had taken. "She's trying to make you a Jikochuu!"

Rune purred. "Oh, far from that. You wouldn't be any fun as a Jikochuu. No, Mana. I want you to be mine!"

Heart blinked rapidly. There was something wrong about Rune, but it was. . . with a start, she realized it was the same quality that Regina had that had caught her eye. That total disregard for what others thought. Sure, Heart would never put aside what they needed, but sometimes the idea of just telling them to shut up and let her do what needed doing was too much, and she always felt guilty for feeling that, even if she never did. But Regina never would, and now. . . and having someone who needed her to help them, guide them, take care of them. . . other thoughts started hitting her, like just how well that mockery of a Cure's outfit fit Rune now. "Wh..what are you doing!?"

"Nothing you're not letting me do," Rune answered, sounding completely honest. "Since the first time you saw Gemini and Regina together, you've wanted something like that. Well, I'm here for you Mana."

"There's no way to help them?" Mana found her voice saying without her will. For the first time, a part of her didn't want to go into it.

Rune shook her head, looking almost sad. "In your world, there's a fighting chance even if this should happen. Here, they won't come through as an army, but a plague. There isn't one person besides you in this city who wouldn't succumb eventually, and by yourself you're not yet strong enough. It's over."

"Wake her up!" Nozomi screamed at Dream again.

Dream, for her part, gave a moment to consider before her head cocked. "It's over." She suddenly sighed. "I can't save any more of them now. I can't even leave this place without permission thanks to the binding."

"What do you mean 'it's over?'" Nozomi tried to restrain a shriek, but was only partially successful.

Dream shook her head. "They're coming. The monsters. Because people can't have what they want, the monsters take them, make more monsters. The only way to stop it was to create beautiful dreams, and now they're here and there won't be any more new dreams. Just me and my sleepers." She smiled. "You can join them, if you want."

Nozomi trembled in anger. "Wake them up! Wake them all up!"

"They'll just become monsters if I do that, me." Dream shook her head. "It's better this way. The Heart Tree will live on, and maybe some day there will be more people who won't be able to turn into monsters. That would be lovely, then I could slip into the dream myself. But until then I have to stay awake…"

"The Heart Tree?" Nozomi blinked. "Wait, Tsubomi said something about it once...it was the source of her powers…"

"Yes, that's something it can do," Dream said cheerfully.

Nozomi closed her eyes as she turned away from her counterpart. "I don't know if you can hear me. Maybe you can't hear anyone but your own. But I need help. This world is about to perish. If you care about humans, if you care about your Precure. . . please, help me."

Unseen by either of them, Kokoro's pendant began to glow.

Dream cocked her head in confusion. "What will that do?"

"I know I'm not from this world!" Nozomi ignored her, trying to address the being here. "I know I left the fighting behind! But I want to help! I want to do this again, one more time! Please…"

Dream shrugged. "I don't think it heard you. Oh well, I have a dream for you now."

Nozomi opened her eyes. "Once more...please….one last time."

Suddenly, wind began to rustle through the glade. Dream looked around frantically. "That's not possible! There's no wind here, not like that!"

Kokoro's eyes opened. "Nozomi. . . I heard the tree. . . there's a new flower for you."

"Thank you." Nozomi smiled and walked up to the tree, a branch lowering with a single golden flower, and at the center a gem in the shape of a butterfly. When she touched it, she felt her being flood with warmth. Dream screamed as a pair of shimmering butterfly wings sprouted from Nozomi's back. "I'm sorry, Dream. But it's time for you to wake up now."

Dream scattered more of her butterflies, but Nozomi dismissed them with a single gesture. Nozomi started to float towards her, and Dream scrambled backwards until Nozomi was right on top of her. A single touch to her forehead, and suddenly Dream's transformation ended, and a fourteen-year-old Yumehara Nozomi was laying on the ground. ". . . wh..what happened?"

Cure Dream, the real one, smiled down at her. "You've been dreaming for a very long time. But it's okay now. You can sleep safely. I'm sure you're tired."

And she did.

Egret snapped around, bringing her hands up in front of her. "What's going on?! What did you do?"

Regina shook her head sadly. "I didn't do anything. This is all your fault."

Black put a hand on Regina's shoulder. "How long do we have?"

"An hour," Regina glanced up at the sky. "Maybe less."

"You'd better explain, kiddo."

Regina swallowed and nodded to Black. "There was a barrier around this world keeping us out. It's why I was stuck here when I turned my back on my father. But the selfishness in people's hearts weakens it. There used to be something constantly renewing it, but after the destruction of the Trump Kingdom it started to fade. This would have happened in a few months anyway, but. . . "

Egret swallowed. "Just now we destroyed it completely."

Regina nodded. "The upside is that the Jikochuu are basically animals. If we destroy the portal, they'll probably end up leaving about one in a thousand mortals and go to sleep. It's the end of modern civilization, but the human race should survive. Barely."

Egret went completely pale. "Wh..why didn't you tell us this?"

Gemini finally spoke. "You wouldn't have believed her. . . and she didn't want to think about it." The girl turned to Regina. "Is there anything that can be done?"

Regina shook her head. "Unless you know of something that is even more powerful we could appeal to. I don't believe in miracles."

Everyone was surprised when Luminous spoke next. "The Queen of Light and the Dark King. You didn't kill them, did you?"

White looked at her sharply. "The Power of Creation and Destruction. That was. . . "

Regina interjected suddenly. "That could work, but would they do it?"

". . . no." Luminous sighed. "I don't think just solving this would be in their nature."

Gemini glanced up at the gathering storm clouds. "Regina, take me and Luminous to them. Luminous, find them if you can."

Yayoi's body slammed against the viewscreen in front of her before falling back into the harness. Dazed, she tried to get to her feet, only to hear the sound of deforming metal and realizing that Peace had grabbed her from behind. "Hold STILL!" came the shout from the deranged girl, punctuated by a burst of gunfire that resounded through the cockpit deafeningly. If Peace had anything else to say, it was lost to Yayoi before she found herself being tossed into another one of the sparking machines creating new armor panels for mecha.

There was a long pause that Yayoi used to recover her hearing. She quietly gripped the railgun control and started calling up the magic. For several seconds neither moved, until suddenly Peace was whining. "There wasn't a kaboom! I wanted an earth-shattering kaboom!"

Yayoi decided it was now or never. "Precure...PEACE!" Her call was cut off as her counterpart was suddenly pointing her own railgun at her. Yayoi had to scramble to avoid the shot, literally crawling on hands and knees as she was blown away by the jetwash.

"That's better!" came the rather cheerful call. "Hey, do you wanna give up and get to the making out yet?"

Yayoi wasn't sure whether the idea she was joking or the probability that she wasn't was more terrifying. And in the end it didn't matter because she was going to lose. Twenty minutes is just not enough to get the hang of this thing! I'm too slow! This realization came just before another punch from Peace sent her through two more machines. This time, the last one must have contained something volatile, because the world around her lit up, before the left and right viewscreens went out. All she could see was Peace's mecha, looking at her, eyes glowing a menacing red. It's all over. All she could do now was sit still and take it. The armored plate around her would hold up to anything short of a shot from the railgun. And as long as her counterpart was babbling about some twisted shipping fantasy, she wouldn't actually use that on her. Eventually Peace would get bored with wrecking the power armor and declare herself the winner. All Yayoi had to do to get out of this was stay inside, perfectly safe.

Yayoi swallowed. If this doesn't work, I'm worse than dead. Just as Peace was pulling her fist back to punch her mecha yet again, Yayoi hit the button marked 'Eject.' Without warning, she was flung out of the harness and up to the ceiling. Gracefully, she twisted her body about so her legs absorbed the impact, and then flung herself to the opposite end of the hangar. She only barely stumbled on the landing, the knowledge that she couldn't mess this up pushing her to heights of grace she normally only dreamt of having.

Peace was looking at her, somehow giving the impression of being puzzled. She ignored it and started gathering power. She ignored it when her insane double started to laugh as well. "You really think we didn't account for my own powers? Go ahead, you'll just charge up my batteries."

Yayoi focused. The power gathered about her. "Precure…" A lightning bolt crashed into her from out of nowhere, but she didn't cry out, didn't flinch. The power grew, higher than it ever had before. "Peace Thunder…"

Peace started casually walking towards her. "Oh, we're going to have so much fun!"

"...HURRICANE!"

"...eh?"

Instead of a simple, if large, lightning bolt, the winds whipped around Yayoi's body. The lightning merged with the wind, creating a terrible cyclone filled with lances of plasma, tearing through the remaining machinery in the room as floor panels were ripped up in its' wake. Peace covered her face with her arms, the robot mimicking her motions, but it did no good. Where the Hurricane touched, armor plate bent and tore under the strength of the assault. Yayoi screamed, the magic pulsed, and the mecha's arms bent backwards before the attack passed into the main body.

Peace's last protection against a world trying to kill her was violently torn apart about her. But worse, at the same time memories came flooding back. Orders, capture or kill a fellow Precure. The argument. Happy telling her to stand down, March trying to take over. Fight between her friends. Had to stop them. Happy in the crosshairs. Never giving up.

...what did I do?

Peace screamed until oblivion finally took her.

Yayoi fell to her knees as the Hurricane dissipated, only taking a moment to catch her breath before crawling to the side of her counterpart. She put a finger on the jumpsuited girl's neck. "...good, she's alive. I...think I'll take a nap"

Yayoi passed out right next to her.

Diamond found herself trailing behind the others. How can they be so sure of where they're going?

A voice in her head answered. They've found out what they want, of course. People are always so much more confident when they have a real goal to reach for.

I know what I want, she answered defiantly. Rune.

I'm flattered, but that's not really it. Diamond was sure she could hear an overly dramatic sigh. Become a doctor? Really? Oh, you'd like that, I'm not even going to try arguing. But why? Because it will really impress a certain someone in your life, maybe?

Diamond swallowed. Mana will be happy no matter what I do.

Well, now, interesting. She can be taught. Diamond gritted her teeth at the mocking laughter. But really, there are so many more exciting things you could do to be more appealing to your best friend. You know she's interested. After all, there's Gemini. . .

I do NOT care what that girl gets up to in the privacy of her own world.

Oh, but you do… Rune countered. Because everything Gemini might do, your precious Mana might do.

Diamond shook her head as she ran. Stay out of my head! Besides, Mana's interested in someone else!

Rune laughed again, and this time it seemed to be genuine amusement. Mana would never be satisfied with just one, you know. Not when her friends want more. It's true in every other aspect of her life, why not romance?

...why not…

Shika was not, contrary to what she told others, completely without emotion. That was basically true when the magic ran out, but her 'active' state would best be characterized as having an echo of Mana's true self. She almost, but not quite, knew what she should be feeling moment to moment, but somehow that failed to translate into the real thing. It was an existence of constant, low-level frustration.

But to say she felt 'nothing' wasn't accurate either. There had been an experiment, quickly stopped once the physicians heard it, where she had been asked to watch movies that she was fairly certain her parents did not want her seeing. And not just pornography, but highly realistic and graphic violence of several kinds.

While incomplete, the results had been quite enlightening and very disturbing, even to her. She didn't need the complex sensor net to tell the scientists that she had . . . enjoyed, that would be the word. Enjoyed the 'adult entertainments.' Indeed, the disturbing part was the reaction was almost identical regardless of how explicit or extreme what she was shown was.

Even moreso, though, was the violence. It certainly wasn't as enjoyable as the other things, but she hadn't really felt the least bit disturbed by it either. That bothered her. She had, at first, dismissed it as realistic special effects. Then she was told it was drawn from a video sharing site from home movies for depicting the real thing.

So watching Rune attempting to seduce Mana, she had known what to expect from her traitorous mind. It was kind of fun to watch. Rune seemed to have finally realized she wasn't Mana, referring to her as a 'doll'. Not accurate, but Shika saw no reason to correct her former friend. That Mana seemed open to the idea didn't bother her either. If the world really was to be destroyed, then what they did down here didn't matter. Perhaps she could join in. That might be an acceptable finish to a short life.

Still, there was a flaw in that argument. "What is the other secret you mentioned? The chance to save the world?"

Rune looked at her, startled. "I haven't used the machine yet. You're just a doll, why do you care?"

"Your deception annoys me," Shika replied in a tone that suggested moderate boredom rather than the irritation she felt. "If Mana wishes to indulge you, by all means continue. But I am uninterested."

Mana seemed to be dazed by this sudden turn of events, but Rune just cocked her head. "Not quite true. You don't have a Psyche, but I can almost see something like it in there."

"It could be said most selfish urges begin in biology," Shika conceded. "Intellect and biology without true emotion might create that illusion. If Mana cannot save the world, then it naturally falls to me to do so, since I do not wish to die."

Mana swallowed. "Shika, thank you, but. . . Rune, what's the other way?"

Rune smirked. "Sure you wanna know? There's something down there that would have King Jikochuu running away wetting his pants, if he wore pants. Your friends are already mine. We could have a very pleasant ten thousand years, you know."

Mana gulped. "Can I keep my options open?"

Rune purred. "Well...if you insist." The door opened behind them, revealing Diamond, Rosette, and Sword. "But first….looks like I win, Diamond." A sudden snapping of the fingers, and all three stiffened, just like Blossom before. Mana threw Rune back with a sudden shove, summoning the Love Heart Arrow, but Rune only laughed. "Oh, Mana, don't be a spoilsport. I promise not to do anything until you've made your final choice."

Mana kept the weapon aimed at Rune for another few seconds, then lowered it. Lowered it, but very pointedly didn't release it. "If I hurt you, they'll never wake up."

Rune chuckled with a low purr. "Believe that if you want," She turned around, and the girls she had enchanted followed as if in a daze. She glanced over her shoulder at Mana. "Coming, Cure Heart?"

But Mana had turned her attention back to the machine. "I still have to heal Shika, at least."

Rune sighed. "Oh, fine. Just pull the large lever next to the chamber, it's calibrated properly for a few decades worth of motion, I think. Oh, and I'll even throw this in for free." She snapped her fingers, and smooth flesh closed over the hole in Shika's chest. "Don't poke, it's just an illusion."

Shika gave her a curt nod. "Thank you, Rune. I will endeavor to make your end painless, if it comes to that."

"You're all heart," Rune's voice was dry and sarcastic. She walked to the far wall, casting a sphere of light and tossing it over her head. Mana squinted her eyes, bringing her weapon back up almost like a shield, but she realized after a moment that she was just staring at a heavy shutter. Rune looked it over. "Tricky….it's warded. I can't touch it, or the controls. Blossom."

Without a word, the enspelled woman held down a button to the side of the thing. The door slowly began to rise.

Black looked down the main lane of the pyramid's garden, through the perfectly straight street and off into the horizon. "We've got ten minutes to come up with a plan to buy time."

Egret swallowed. "Bloom, this is more your department,"

The Cure gave a quick nod. "The warding on HQ seems to be mostly holding, for now. Once Gemini and Regina get through the unwarded entrance, we'll drop the shutters on it. Nothing that isn't human gets in or out."

Black considered that for a moment. "I assume that means that there's ways in. How much of the city's population can it hold?"

Egret answered. "Not including people who aren't on the radar, which is about twenty thousand all told. . . "

It was Berry who looked up at that, startled. "Wait, who?"

"Criminals. The homeless." Egret's explanation was curt. "Plus the black helicopter brigade, people who don't want to be tracked for whatever reason. It's not easy to opt out of the system these days, but if you're really determined you can minimize it. Anonymize internet traffic for credit transactions and have almost everything shipped to disguise your actual location, hire proxies who are on the system to buy stuff for you. . . but because we can't track them we can't actually tell who or where they are. Twenty thousand people's a guess."

Black shook her head. "No time for that now. How long can you keep the population of Tokyo in there?"

"Not the whole population," Sunny interjected. "That's just the people who don't have warded homes or offices. You live far enough underground and you're safe...for now."

Bloom hung her head. "We can hold out for three days that way, at most."

"...and ten minutes is nowhere near long enough to get everybody who needs it into shelter," White realized, with slowly growing horror.

"It's worse," Egret swallowed back her fear. "The invasion portal's operational."

Bloom turned on her with a shriek. "What? It wasn't supposed to be powered on for four days!"

"The chairman overrode me when he heard they'd come!" Egret shouted back. "They moved up the timetable!"

White nearly fell off her feet. "S portal that big...you can't just shut it down. There's no telling what would happen."

Bloom shook her head...and quickly flipped out a cell phone. "New orders for the invasion force. As of right now, Tokyo is to be considered lost. You are to defend that portal at all costs. Not one youkai gets through. Lethal force authorized."

Everyone stopped and stared at the woman as her shoulders slumped over. "We've destroyed this world, but we'll try to salvage what we can. I won't have yours on my conscience as we move into the next life."

Regina hung onto Hikari as they appeared over the chaos of the Garden. Cures scurried around below them, putting out fires as Jikochuu began to appear here and there. "The barrier's down everywhere. The wards can keep us from moving around freely, but they can appear anywhere there's enough people for now."

Gemini glanced down. There were only a few clusters of the creatures thus far, but the biggest was at the base of a skyscraper with a red cross on the roof. "That hospital, right? They seem to be trying to get in, but there's another ward layer."

Luminous swallowed nervously. "That's a lot of them."

Regina squinted her eyes at the building, then laughed. "That's easy enough. The wards are just against teleportation in here. I guess they figured no one was getting in."

"Wait, you mean..." Gemini stared at Regina, not quite believing her ears.

"Looks like the walk-in wards are only on the front doors and windows. We can get in through the roof just fine."

A quick flight to the location, and they had stepped in through the door. It took another few teleporting 'hops,' following the trail of damage, to reach their destination, where Mana, Rune, and the others were waiting for them.

Rune glanced up at the trio with a raised eyebrow. "Well, must admit I wasn't expecting you,"

Gemini's response was to practically snarl. "So you spend six months going off at me about a new body – which I didn't actually ask for, by the way – and then the first chance you get you go full Jikochuu on us?"

"Hey, I didn't ask either!" Rune raised her hands defensively. "Anyway, better me than what would have normally happened. I'll tell you about Lust some time."

"Who?" Regina said, sounding very confused.

Rune gave Regina a speculative look. "So, you really don't know. Well, I don't know everything myself, but you're not a Jikochuu either."

"EH!?" the cry was unanimous.

Rune shrugged, her tone turning exasperated. "Look, I don't know the whole story, and it's not really relevant either. I'm here, you're here. I can't do what needs to happen because of what I am now. But I can see the lines, the magic, and I have hundreds of years of experience in manipulating it locked up in my head from the.." She paused, her mind only taking a moment to settle on the right word"...monster that became me."

"You've got a choice here," Rune continued, looking only mildly troubled. She waved a hand, and the room suddenly lit up. There was no massive apparatus of zig-zagging pipes and tubes. Instead, the floor was covered in a pattern of runes, with tiny gemstones embedded at every point where two lines intersected. At the center was a tiny little vanity, causing Luminous to gasp in recognition. And, in two simple glass tubes filled with bubbling water, were two curled up bodies.

Naked, and appearing to be about fourteen and ten, they seemed very similar. The boy and girl were both blonde, their hair having grown out to a ridiculous length. Their eyes were closed, but it was still obvious with a single glance at Luminous that they were related, or even the same person. She looked away, completely disgusted, and nearly shrieked in terror.

The gem embedded in the floor next to her had a face.

It took Luminous a moment to get herself under control. "Th..that's me!"

"Indeed. The 'life' of the Queen of Light," Rune gestured grandly. "And your counterpart, the Dark King. Held forever in balance, bound by their very will, the Heartiels, harnessed against them. And...the water above them is heated by the waste from the magic that binds them. Infinite power...turned into electricity and a hot pool to swim in."

Regina snorted in disgust.

Mana stepped in, suddenly. "Everyone, calm down! Rune, stop being mysterious and explain yourself, or let them go!"

Rune pouted for just a moment before shaking her head. "I'm sorry. It's-I'm...I'm still trying to get my head back together. The whole thing is set up to channel the excess power upward...but I can change it. One last act...to steal the powers of Creation and Destruction. Then it's all over."

Luminous shivered as she realized what was being said. "But they'll die!" Rune couldn't meet her eyes. "You want to kill them!"

"I don't want to kill them!" Rune shouted angrily. "But it's the only thing left!"

Luminous returned the angry glare from Rune with an unwavering one of her own. "Wake them up."

Rune blinked a couple of times in surprise. "You should know that the containment might fail if they become aware."

Shika stepped up. "Do it."

Rune sighed. "Fine. We're running out of time, though."

Luminous turned to the younger version of herself whose eyes were opening, glowing with a pale, sickly yellow light. She took in a breath, and spoke in a voice that was at once beautiful and terrible, filled with a rage that erased any trace of the Queen of Light's former kindness.

"Begone, and use what little time is left to you to make peace with yourselves. We will return the cosmos to nothing to begin again."

Rune glanced at Luminous with a slight smirk. "There's your answer,"

Luminous ignored her. "Please! Why would you destroy the universe for the crimes of a few hundred?!"

"...you are us," The Queen seemed somewhat surprised. "...it does not matter. Return to us that we may become whole again!"

Luminous thought, just for a moment, the command was directed at her, but the Heartiels began to struggle against their bonds. The room was filled with terrible, agonized screams as every being caught in the trap began tearing itself apart.

Mana covered her ears. "Make them stop! They'll tear this whole place down with that noise!"

Rune waved a hand...but the screaming didn't end. Another wave, and nothing happened. It wasn't until the third that the noise finally ceased, but it wasn't because of the screamers being stopped so much as a veil of silence surrounding them. "...they've been in pain for ten years. For an immortal who has never experienced anything like that before…"

Shika finished. "...it was intolerable." The pale girl bit her lip in an imitation of Mana's deep thinking that cause Heart and Gemini to shiver. "She will not listen."

"Quite," Rune agreed with a tone of finality. "So, same options. Two powers, and only three people I trust with them. Creation and Destruction. Your decision."

Marine shouted at the seemingly empty streets. "We're here! Just come and get us already!"

Bloom snapped at her "Marine, control yourself. There are over ten million people counting on us this time!"

"So no different than usual, huh Commander?" Marine did visibly calm, crossing her arms behind her back.

Black gave the other-worlders a glance.. "That's not right."

Egret's response should have sounded harsh, but just came across as tired. "It hasn't been 'right' for almost ten years. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you."

Marine interjected into what seemed to be a growing pity fest. "They're coming. I feel them."

That was it. Like a signal, they poured out of the subways and building entrances. It was a tidal wave of blackness with hundreds of red eyes. Not hundreds or even thousands, but millions of the monsters. Each Precure braced for a moment, expecting them to simply wash over the group and kill them through sheer mass, but they stopped at the edge of the garden path.

Sunny blinked her eyes open first. "What stopped them?"

Lemonade glanced up at the top of the pyramid. "Look!"

Despite the distance, the two translucent girls were suddenly standing atop the tower. Nagisa's jaw dropped as she recognized them half a moment after everyone else. "We really looked like that?!" The two spirits looked down at them, eyes falling on Bloom and Egret. Black moved to stand in front of the pair protectively, purely on well-honed instinct, but was taken aback at the sudden impression that they were smiling.

The pair of girls jumped down the pyramid into the park, landing easily next to the girls. They gave Bloom and Egret a hard look, before Black smirked. "It's been a long time you two. I'd like a rematch, but…"

Egret nearly dropped to the ground in shock at the almost-friendly tone. "What..but we..I.."

White shook her head. "It doesn't matter, where we were. You did what you thought was right. Besides, my partner here won't get her wish." She reached out with one hand. Egret pulled back, but White's hand passed through. "The Queen can't bring people back to life. She can't change what is. But whatever she did was enough to reach us where we were."

Black finished. "And you need our help. The barrier will only last a few minutes like this. But we can weaken it and it will last for several hours. Of course, then some will get through."

Honoka grinned. "Thank you."

With those words, there was no more time for talk. The Jikochuu came.

Shika beat the other two girls to the punch. "Very well, Rune. Proceed."

"Whoa, whoa, time!" Mana thrust her hand out. "Shika, what's your plan?"

"I will eliminate every Jikochuu, present company excepted of course."

Mana turned white as a sheet. "You can't do that!" She blinked as she realized the sentiment had been echoed by Gemini.

"Hey!" Gemini stepped back defensively. "Look, it may be easy for you to be a saint, but that doesn't mean I don't care!"

Mana winced. "It's not easy, you know."

"It is, Mana. It really is." Gemini shook her head. "But right now, Shika, you can't do that."

"There are no other options. We do not have time to devise a way to purify the Jikochuu, and if allowed to continue they will destroy the world."

Mana shook her head. "There has to be a better way."

"...there is. Rune."

Mana swallowed. "Gemini, what's your plan?"

"You'll see."

Yayoi's eyes slowly cracked open, only to realize she was surrounded by maintenance techs. She tried to babble out an apology for the destruction, but it game out as a low groan. One of them quickly helped her sit up. "Miss Kise...we need your help."

Yayoi managed to shake her head out. "Wait, you're not gonna lock me up?"

"Well, normally you'd be in a holding cell," the young man in the lab coat admitted after a moment. "But the city's falling. And our Peace is. . . " he trailed off helplessly. Yayoi looked over to where her counterpart had fallen.

Peace's transformation had failed, leaving her in a tattered JSDF uniform. Her hair was frazzled, sticking out in points. Yayoi was just about to force herself to her feet to go check on her, when the other girl screamed. Once it subsided, the tech shook his head. "She's been doing that about once a minute since she woke up, and she won't talk to anyone. We knew her sanity was hanging on by a thread, but orders are orders and we didn't want it to come down on our families."

Yayoi winced. "What do you need me to do?"

"There's one mecha left," the man explained to her. "Actually, it was the first model we built, but Peace never wanted to use it because it didn't have any ranged weapons."

Yayoi didn't squeal with delight. The situation was just too serious. But she wanted to.

"Ohhh...there's just no end to this!" Marine whined petulantly as she punted what seemed like her twentieth crab into the upper atmosphere.

Bloom responded with a shake of her head, manhandling several of the monsters all at once by pushing against a mass that was threatening to break through the weakened barrier. "Marine, I trained you better than that! Of course there's no end to them, this is the end of the line!"

"I know, I know, Tokyo's counting on me, blah blah blah!" Marine shouted back. "MARINE SHOOT!" The bubbles of magic flowed through the barrier, instantly relieving the pressure and sending a virtual storm of Psyches flying into the sky. After confirming they were off, she collapsed to her knees. "I...there's only so many I can do, guys. We need Blossom out here or my heart's gonna burst."

Sagittarius glanced sadly down at her. "If she hasn't come out by now, she's not coming Marine. I don't know what happened to Mana and the others, but…"

Marine felt as if someone had just punched her in the stomach. "Tsubomi...no...she has to be okay! She's gotta be!"

Black screamed at her "Kurumi Erika! Get up! We need you!" Marine didn't seem to hear her, though. "ERIKA!"

"...Tsubomi's gone."

Bloom jumped down in front of the younger girl, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Cure Marine, I trained you better than this!" she repeated, with a hint of fear in her voice. "Get up!"

"Tsubomi's gone." If anything, Erika sounded even more dead than the first time she'd said it. "She's really gone...I thought...we were always together…"

Bloom was about to say something else, but a vulture Jikochuu swooped in to dive-bomb the two. Bloom barely managed to yank Erika to one side, but stood up. "Dammit, she's gone."

"WHAT?!" Berry managed to disengage from her own fight to land next to the pair. "What the hell?"

"Just leave her there!" Bloom shouted. "We can't worry about her now!"

Berry looked like she was about to fire off a scathing retort, but screamed as the vulture came down and made another pass. Marine saw it, but showed no reaction as the talon descended straight toward her eye.

At the last second, a blur of motion pulled her out of the way. Being saved caused Marine to look up in shock, to berate whoever had prolonged her suffering, but found herself confused to be staring at a man in a top hat. "...Baron Salamander?"

"I can hardly take my revenge on you if you're dead. We'll settle our grudge later, Cure Marine." His voice sounded tired, and didn't carry much if any of the threat it should have. He set her down. "If you need to rest, please do so."

"You're a joke, Salamander," Marine panted. "I've seen you in action, youkai." She still seemed stunned that he'd saved her life.

"Hmph. It wasn't time for our last dance," the first Desert Apostle snorted at her. "I still remember how savagely you beat my boy, Cure Marine. Loup-Garou was nothing to you,"

A thousand things to say passed through her mind, but she found herself just mumbling "...sorry."

"Feh," Salamander set her down. "As I said, it isn't time to settle accounts yet. That day will come." He seemed to vanish into the crowd only a moment later, leaving Marine stunned.

Yayoi tested the arms of the last mecha. It was a little stiff, compared to the first, but it seemed to be all right. "I'm not seeing any of the gun controls."

"There aren't any," The tech replied, subsuming his panic at the invasion outside with pride in his work. "The right arm contains a high-frequency blade, powered by your magic. The myomar density is also several times that of the production mechs. You'll be able to punch those damn youkai out of the atmosphere in that thing."

Yayoi found herself giggling at the image. "All right. Peace ready to launch!"

The hangar bay, or what was left of it, was quickly cleared. Warded shutters dropped in front of every exit as she turned to face the entrance. With a shriek and a metallic thud, the outer doors opened and the horde of monsters poured in. Yayoi nearly panicked, but when they shrieked and jumped away from her electrified armor, she realized there was nothing to worry about.

She found herself a whirl of motion, the computer helping translate thought to action. Unlike the other mechs, this one seemed to be loaded up with some kind of assistance software. All she had to do was picture a kick and the armor would all but pull her along. She half-stumbled the first time it happened, but she quickly found that if she allowed it to do its' job the whole thing just felt disturbingly natural. "It feels so light," she couldn't help but murmur.

A quick series of punches cleared the area immediately around her, and she charged, checking a large lobster into the wall and then throwing off several frogs that tried to land on her back, regardless of the pain they experienced. It was truly the glory from her favorite shows made manifest. She briefly wondered why her other self would refuse to use this thing in favor of the clunky guns.

Then she leapt into the sky, and forgot everything for a few brief moments.

Nozomi picked her way down the ruined corridor, Kokoro shortly on her heels. "What is this place?"

Kokoro struggled to move an I-beam out of their way. "It was going to be a catapult for launching some kind of deployment vehicle. Then we got a Labyrinth teleporter and the point became moot. So they just started throwing junk in here instead."

Nozomi climbed over a set of yellow barrels, squeezing between a gap in the second layer. "And you're sure there's a way out?"

"Well, they welded it shut, but you should be strong enough to rip it open," Kokoro explained. "We'll have to shut it again though, or the warding will fail and the youkai will get in."

"I'll just get Rin to do..oh." Nozomi faltered as it all started to hit her at once. "The world's ending, and we're still here. I'll never see them again, will I?"

Kokoro winced, but then put her hands on the young woman's shoulders. "Hey, hey. How many times do I need to remind you I'm a telepath,"

Nozomi stopped nearly crying to stare levelly at her. "I'm trying really hard to forget that."

"Well, it's relevant." Kokoro replied breezily. "Just how do you expect my managers to keep a secret from me? I'll get you home."

"Thanks, Kokoro, but. . . "

"No BUTS!" Kokoro screamed. "I'm not letting you die! You HAVE to make it back, or what was it even worth, huh?" Nozomi stopped, shook her head, and stepped past the purple-clad Artificial and slammed face-first into the shutter. "...oh, we're here, by the way." Kokoro just sighed. "Here…" They quickly grabbed the edge of the manual opening handles and PULLED with all their might, filling the ruined hangar with the sounds of tearing metal and rusted gears being forced back to life as the hangar bay saw sunlight for the first time since its' construction.

Nozomi recognized the golden sunlight pouring in as unnatural, but her eyes were drawn away from that to the pink glow that seemed to be filling the barrier surrounding the pyramid. "What's that!?" Ignoring a cry of panic from Kokoro, she bounded out the door and to the ground, landing in the middle of the Precure gathered there just in time to see everything.

First, the top of the pyramid exploded. A rainbow of swirling spheres of light trailed out, circling around a larger sphere of swirling black and gold. Nozomi glared as Egret shouted "My OFFICE!"

Nagisa had a somewhat better reaction. "Damn. Those girls actually pulled it off! I was getting worried for a minute."

Honoka hung her head in shame at her partner's comment. "Just for a minute, Nagisa? Really, I've been worried since the meeting."

Nagisa couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, if you'd read the psych profiles on the new girls when I bring them home..."

"I let you get away with far too much when we were studying for school. I'm not doing your job for you too." Honoka crossed her arms.

Yuri snapped. "This is not the time. You're grown adults!"

The lights finished swirling about, and floated to the ground. They popped like soap bubbles, and suddenly Heart, Diamond, Rosetta, Sword, Luminous, Blossom, Johnathon Klondike, Shika, and Regina were standing in front of them.

Diamond shook her head out. "Ugh...what happened? Last I remember Rune was…"

Heart shook her head. "It's a long story, and I don't think we have time right now.

Berry grabbed Heart's hands. "What happened, did we win?"

"I'm...not sure." Heart replied, hands shaking, as she looked up to the last sphere of light, shining brighter than the rest, but a mixture of pink, gold, and black.

When it, too, popped, Gemini had...changed. Her golden hair flowed down her back, seeming to glow even under the golden shield. She was no longer wearing her armor, just a tight blouse cut off at the midriff in the same pink color. She had retained the pauldrons, but now they, along with her new blouse, were lined with shining ruffled trim, and a heart pendant was pinned to her breast. She wore a matching skirt as well, with long leg-socks. Her feathery wings still extended behind her back, but one had been bleached white by the power flowing through her. Her eyes opened, having changed to a deep purple color matching her lover's. When she spoke, there was a slight echo in her voice. "I am the Star of the Heavens. Cure Infinity."