The switch resided in another room. When Gakupo turned it on, the collected magic from the containment ignited and spread to the mirrors, powering each one. As the portals opened, Rin felt wind gush out and breeze through her hair. She could almost swear she smelt the Reflected World on the other side of the glass.
"I can leave the power on to run out the magic," Gakupo said as he reentered the room, "but it would be better to fuel these mirrors with a surplus of it."
Meito raised an eyebrow. "That will destroy the mirrors?"
"It'll bring this whole place down if the power stored is that great."
When Meito and the others continued to eye Gakupo suspiciously, Rin put a hand on Luki's arm and said, "I'll make sure he does as he says. The Reflected World is my world, too, and I won't let anyone take it away from us."
Eyes filled with worry, Kaiko leaned in and asked, "How will you get back if you stay behind to make sure the portals are destroyed?"
"I'll find a way," Rin answered, deciding to not mention Grandma Lenka's mirror. "Find me on the NatAct as soon as you can. My username is OrangeBunny80."
"It's gotten quiet," Len observed after a moment. "Think that means we've overpowered them?"
"You mean Mikuo and Nero, or the people who came to help?" Rin tried not to let the worry in her voice be too evident.
"Regardless, we need to act fast," Gakupo replied.
After bidding the Mirror World denizens a farewell and promising to hook up with Rin on the other side, Kaito, Gakuko, Meito, and Luki stepped through the mirrors. All four of them walked through the glass as if it was liquid, and Rin wanted to reach out and touch it. Something that could be walked through shouldn't look so solid.
"I'm going to the other room now to power these portals full force," Gakupo, with a reflection again, said after his counterpart and her friends were gone. "Start leaving now. Once I set the lever, the place should have little more than a minute before it blows."
"What about you?" Rin asked.
Grinning, Gakupo answered, "I'll be right behind. No sense in that poor girl dying as soon as she gets back to her world just because her mirror image had to be stupid."
Without waiting to be told a second time, Len grabbed Rin's hand and ran as he lead her down the hall. They met up with Mikuo and Nero, who guarded the way despite the lack of anyone coming after them. When asked what was going on, Len simply answered that they would talk after they fled the building.
"Then let us lead," Mikuo said as he sprinted alongside the Kagamine teens. "You're going the wrong way. We need to go this way for the exit."
Following Mikuo and Nero, Rin and Len escaped with their friends to see the building surrounded by lots of people Rin recognized. Some she knew from inside the facility, but others she remembered passing during times she was in town. Those from the building – including Meiko and Luka – were tied up and sitting on the ground. In the midst of the crowd stood a figure both Rin and Len were ecstatic to see.
"Grandma Lenka!" they exclaimed as the ran towards the elderly woman, who knelt down and wrapped the two in a tight hug.
"I was so worried about you," she told them, her cheeks wet with tears. "After you two disappeared, it was practically a scavenger hunt to find you again. Thank the gods you're safe and here with me now."
As Rin clung to Grandma Lenka and Len, she couldn't stop the overflow of tears as her emotions spilled out. No place felt safer than Grandma Lenka's arms, and no one was as connected to Rin as Len was. Yet she had to leave them if she was to save them.
Breaking the hug no matter how much she didn't want to, Rin asked, "When is the summer solstice?"
Frowning, Grandma Lenka answered, "It's today, dear. Just in time too, I suppose."
Rin swallowed the lump in her throat. She wouldn't get the chance to say proper goodbyes.
A loud explosion shook the ground, and everyone turned to see Gakupo leaving the collapsing building, an unconscious Kaito dragged right behind. The police approached him and arrested the man on the spot. Rin hoped Gakupo would get a lighter sentence for what he did in the end.
Now it was her turn to save everyone in both the Mirror World and the Reflected World.
As the carriage took them back to Grandma Lenka's home, no one said anything. Rin stared out the window, committing the landscape passed to memory. Even though she looked at nobody, she clutched Len's hand like a lifeline, dreading the moment she would have to let go for good.
Len sat as close to her as possible. Mikuo and Nero were across from the two, also silent. Grandma Lenka sat next to Len, her eyes trained on the book on her lap. If anyone was to break the silence, it would have been her. Yet even Grandma Lenka, the one who always had something wise to say, was silent.
When they pulled up to the house, the suppressed emotions finally burst forward. Rin turned around and held onto Len, desperate for his touch. He clung to her just as strongly. The others spoke not a word as they slid out of the carriage, leaving the two alone.
"We have to go," Rin whispered after a minute. "I . . . I can't stay here much longer. I want to say goodbye to everyone. I'll never see them again, so I don't want to leave without a final farewell."
Nodding, Len led her out of the carriage and helped her down.
"Len! Rin!"
Chest aching, Rin dropped to her knees and accepted Olivia with open arms, Len following suit. The girl cried too hard for her words to be decipherable. Rin, holding Olivia close, rubbed circles on her back and shushed her.
"Olivia, I need you to listen to me," Rin finally got the courage to say. Len's grip on Rin got harder. As Olivia pulled away only the slightest, Rin fought to maintain eye contact with the girl. "Olivia," Rin took a deep breath, "I need to go."
"Go where?" Olivia sniffled.
Rin felt her heart break. "Back to my world."
Understanding flashed behind Olivia's eyes. "No." She shook her head. "Rin, do you have to leave? Can't you stay here? I finally have a sister. I don't want to lose you."
"Olivia, listen to me." Rin brushed loose hair behind Olivia's ear. "Your mirror image doesn't want to lose his sister, either. If I stay here, you'll have Len and me, but he will have nobody. Is that what you want? Do you want Oliver to grow up without his sister?" Olivia shook her head. "Then I have to go, Olivia. I'm sorry, but you'll have Len. He's not going anywhere. You'll never be alone, understand?"
"I think so," Olivia said, eyes puffy and cheeks splotched.
"I won't forget you," Rin promised, wiping tears from Olivia's eyes. "I'm never, ever going to forget you."
"I'm never going to forget you either, Rin."
"Come here." Rin held Olivia and let the girl cry into her shoulder. It was only a minute before Olivia calmed down enough for Rin to let her go. "Goodbye, Olivia."
"Goodbye, Rin." Once she was able to separate herself from Rin, Olivia dashed to Grandma Lenka and hid her face in her grandmother's skirts. Rin didn't know it was possible for her heart to break even more until that moment.
Standing to her feet, she approached Mikuo and Nero and wore a mischievous grin on her face. "Wreak havoc for me, okay, boys?"
"Anything for you, Rin." Mikuo, seemingly unable to contain himself anymore, gripped Rin in a hug. "It's not going to be the same without you. Rin, you don't know how much more interesting you made life here."
"Only because you were here to make it interesting first." Rin returned the hug. "I'm going to miss you, Mikuo."
"Miss you, too."
After letting go of Mikuo, Rin held nothing back as she pounced on his cousin. "I'm going to miss you the most," she whispered in Nero's ear, so quiet that she hoped nobody else heard.
Nero held her close. "I never had a friend like you before, and I never will again. Rin, I don't think you understand the kind of hole you're leaving in my heart."
Clinging to Nero, Rin said, "Too bad our adventures had to end so soon, but the memories we did make will always be close to my heart, just as you are." She held on just a little bit tighter. "Goodbye, Nero."
"Goodbye, Rin." When they pulled away from each other, Nero planted a kiss on Rin's forehead. The sign of affection was warm, and it made Rin's head tingle. She hated that it was the first and last time Nero would ever get to be so close to her.
"Rin." Said girl looked to Grandma Lenka. The elderly woman smiled. "Tell that lousy grandfather of yours I said 'Hello.'" She held out something to Rin. "For you."
When Rin accepted it, she felt her heart in her throat as she observed what it was. What Grandma Lenka was giving her was the picture she took just before Rin, Len, and the others went to see the flower show. Rin dragged her fingers across the picture. It was a piece she could take with her, to always remember the world she was never meant to see but got to live in with its people.
Before she could say anything, Rin noticed that another picture was stuck behind the one of her and her friends. Peeling the other picture away, Rin's breath caught in her throat. She had seen it before, but not in this world. It was the two identical teens sitting next to each other and looking into the camera as if they knew the secrets of the universe.
"Now, stop gaping." Grandma Lenka pushed Rin towards the door. "The more you dally, the more you increase your chance of missing the solstice. You wouldn't want to be stuck here for a whole other year now, would you?"
"No, ma'am, I wouldn't." Rin hugged Grandma Lenka. "Thank you."
Grandma Lenka returned the affection. "You hold the secrets of these worlds now. Don't let your knowledge go to waste. Use it to make your world a better place, okay?"
When the last of the goodbyes had been said, Rin looked at Grandma Lenka, Olivia, Nero, and Mikuo one last time, committing them to memory. They were her family and friends, and she would never forget them. She wouldn't be who she became had she not received the chance to get to know them.
As she entered the home, Len joined hands and walked side-by-side with her. He had said nothing during her final goodbyes. Rin wondered if he was trying to respect her final words to the people she would never see again or if he wanted to keep their farewell private. Maybe it was a little of both.
"Before I forget," Len said, letting go of Rin's hand and running into the library. When he came back, Blood Rose, the red book Rin and he labeled as their favorite, was in his hands. "Here." He held it out to her. "I want you to have it."
Rin shook her head. "Thank you, Len, but I don't think Grandma Lenka would appreciate you handing out her books like that."
"It's not her book," Len replied. "It's mine. Well, now it's yours, but only if you take it. That way you will always have a piece of this world, a piece of me, with you."
Tears filling her eyes, something that happened a lot since destroying the portals back at the headquarters, Rin reached out and cradled Blood Rose close to her chest. "I will cherish it always," she said, words soft.
Again hand in hand, they walked up steps to the second floor, pulled down the ladder to the attic, and ascended the stairs.
When they got to the mirror, neither said a word. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Len knelt beside the mirror and began chanting. Nothing happened at first, but then the glass began to change. It appeared less solid and more liquid, like those other mirrors were when their portal was open. Rin sucked in a sharp breath. Len did it. She could go home to her world.
Rin should have been happy, but she was devastated.
"You have to destroy the mirror," she told Len as he stood upright. "Once I walk through, you have to break the mirror beyond repair. It's the only way to make sure our worlds never come close to war again."
"Rin," Len looked at her, his eyes pained, "you're asking me to destroy the very thing that determines if I'll ever see you again. How can I break the glass when it's what brought you to me?"
With her free hand, Rin took Len's. It amazed her how their fingers fit together so well. It was almost as if they were puzzle pieces, and once they were separated, the puzzle would never, ever be whole again. "If you don't destroy it, I'll destroy Grandpa Rinto's," she said. "I don't want to either, but we need to be selfless and put our worlds before ourselves." Dropping everything, Rin wrapped her arms around Len one last time. "I'll miss you every day for the rest of my life. I love you, Len. You're my better half."
"And you're my mischievous half." Len returned the hug. "I don't know how I'm supposed to live now that I've met my other half and have to spend the rest of my life away from her."
"We're the same person," Rin reminded him. "We're never too far apart."
As the hug broke for the last time, Rin wiped away her tears as Len collected her dropped items. He handed them back to her, and she nodded in thanks. "Goodbye, Rin," he said, voice cracking.
Rin's own voice nearly failed her. "Goodbye, Len."
Holding her breath, Rin stepped into the mirror. There was rippling, and then the glass was solid again. As the portal closed, the reflection in the mirror changed. For the first time since Rin arrived, Len had a reflection again.
He had to act before he could think himself out of it. Finding a mallet in the corner of the attic, Len picked it up and charged towards the mirror. Acting on impulse, Len raised the mallet with strength he didn't know he had and swung it towards the mirror. Glass cracked.
Again and again, shouting with each swing, Len slammed the mallet into the mirror. The glass cracked more and more, slowly but surely becoming many different pieces. With a final cry out, Len used all his power to hit the mirror.
Shattered glass scattered across the wooden floors. What was once a beautiful mirror was now a frame with nothing but wood in its middle. Nothing would ever come through it again.
Distraught, Len sunk to the floor and finally allowed his tears to fall. He hugged his knees to his chest and rocked back and forth. When he was ready, he would dry his face, go downstairs, talk to his friends, promise that everything was fine, and return with a broom. No one was going to clean the glass but him. He wanted to do it. He needed to do it.
Until then, he would sit with shards of glass surrounding him as he mourned the excruciating pain that came from losing your other half.