The black and white smoke coalesced to form a large shadowy fox with red eyes. Nine tails extended behind it.
"Clever children," it barked. "I should have known the dangers of human ingenuity."
Leora groaned. "Oh give me a break! After all this it still manifests?"
"Back off!" Sun-ah brandished her club.
"You can't scare me," it tilted its head. "I've been alive for eons. I've seen humanity's greatest triumphs and most devastating failures."
"Then why would you want to be immortal?" Seb gripped his sword.
"Why not?" It laughed hollowly. "I've done everything else."
Tara threw a rock at it, but it only passed through the smoke. The fox spirit turned and stared at her.
"Just-just get out before we finish you, for good!" She stammered.
It smirked. "I was banished from this dimension by creatures more powerful than you, Supreme Everine, yet I was still able to thwart them and return. What can you possibly hope to accomplish?"
A shining red dart shot out and stabbed one of its tails, causing it to howl.
"You may not be hurt by the natural elements, but let's see what magic can do," Leora's face was like thunder. "You should recognize it. After all, it's like yours."
The fox sneered. "Your mongrel powers are no match for mine."
"How about two mongrels?" Miranda stood beside her sister. She was still slightly unsteady but levelled a convincing glare. "Things are a little different out here compared to inside my head. I doubt you're stronger than both of us."
Blue and red energy gathered around the sisters as they linked hands, the colours whirling together. A violet cloud with blue and red sparkles expanded outwards, the sheer power compelling everyone to retreat.
A magical battle began then, a struggle of wills and wits. Impossible structures rose out of thin air. Dragons, phoenixes, and other mythological creatures made of energy engaged in their own combat. Swirling hurricanes of red, blue, purple, black, and white shuddered and died, filling the air with beating winds and hail as the storms intensified.
The sisters fought with ease and skill, perfectly in sync. It seemed both seconds and lifetimes passed in the breathlessness of battle, but soon the mages had pinned the fox spirit to the ground.
"Now what?" Leora wondered.
"Now you need to banish it to the limbo dimension," Forseti stated calmly. "Tara, I need you to weave a Celtic knot with golden thread."
As she began doing so, Forseti handed over a pair of tiny scissors to Bella. "When I tell you to, cut it right in the middle."
"After all that hard work?" Tara fake protested. She was already finished; such a simple pattern didn't need much time or thought.
Forseti looked up at the sun. "Once it hits the mid-point we have a ten second window."
Sorsha gasped. "Bella your hands!"
The scissors were red hot, causing her fingers to smoke.
"I don't feel it," Bella stared.
"Your fire element is protecting you," Forseti squinted. "Okay…cut it now!"
Bella did so and the golden thread disintegrated. A small, black tear opened behind the spirit, as if someone had cut a tiny hole in the fabric of reality.
"Back to your cage, beast," Forseti ordered.
"Ha!" it snorted. "You call me a beast, but you should know—I didn't take anything that wasn't already there. Their dark desires and dreams were so deliciously malignant. I barely had to touch them before they swelled into a whole persona!"
Miranda turned pale.
"Go away!" Leora commanded. "And take your poison with you!"
It sneered and tried to say something else, but a powerful wind sucked the words away. Leora and Miranda's restraints peeled back, fighting against the pull of the portal. Within seconds the fox spirit was whisked away, and the tear resealed.
Silence reigned.
"That's it?" Bella blinked. The scissors had cooled off and she handed them back to Forseti.
"Not quite."
Percy and the other members of Themis had approached them undetected, but they were in bad shape. All of them were injured in some way and having trouble walking. Ryder was at the very end, avoiding everyone's gazes.
"There's the matter of what brought Miranda to Themis' attention," Percy supported Gwen, who was favouring her left side.
"We took care of it," Tara's brow knitted. "Didn't we?"
"You don't want to be immortal anymore right?" Seb had to make sure.
"Definitely not," Miranda shuddered.
"That was something we learned of later," Amaya's expression twisted. "Miranda Mayshadow, you crossed the line when you took a human life."
There was a sudden chill in the air.
"I was under duress," Miranda pointed out calmly. "I was being possessed—"
"It is impossible to determine whether it was the spirit or you who perpetuated the deed," Dan pronounced gravely. "Either way, judgment must be passed."
"However unwittingly, you condemned an innocent soul to be anchored to a terrible apparition, trapped forever in limbo," Letty told her.
Miranda blinked. "I don't…I'm not sure when the spirit crept into my head," she stammered. "I'm definitely not sure when it started to take me over."
Leora scowled. "You are not touching my sister—not after all the trouble we went through to get her back!"
"Wait, what are you going to do to her?" Cameron was puzzled.
"Two choices," Gwen clicked her teeth. "Exile to a nightmare realm or a quick death."
"Neither option is worth it!" Leora snarled.
"Wait," Forseti interrupted. "The eclipse is still happening. What if you used your power to reverse what you did?"
Everyone stared at him.
Sorsha hesitated. "But…if she attached May's Shadow to someone's soul, the Shadow needs to go somewhere else, right?"
"Don't worry, I have a plan," Miranda's expression was determined. "Leora, can you help me with this?"
Her sister tilted her head and stared into her eyes. "Are you sure?"
"I need to fix this," she whispered. "Please, jie…let me do something right."
Whatever Leora saw made her relent unhappily. "Fine. But we need to move away from everyone, the last thing we need is someone else becoming an accidental casualty."
"No problem," Miranda clapped her hands, and suddenly the sisters were about 150-something meters (about two American football fields) away.
"You guys should probably set wards," Miranda sounded as if she were right beside them. "Tell us when you're ready."
Themis and Forseti worked together to place magical boundaries while the five teens used their elements to create a natural blockade.
"She's not going to do what I think she will, right?" Seb voiced.
"I hope not," Sorsha was worried. She reached for his hand and he took it gently.
Cameron exhaled. "I wanted her to suffer like we did, like Miss T did, but she suffered all that and more," he muttered to Tara, who was wrapped in his arms. "I'm tired of people hurting."
"Me too," she agreed.
Bella was standing in front of Ryder, who was so ashamed that he refused to look at her. "Bell, I—"
"Don't you dare break up with me," she warned. "Fire still trumps garden."
A ghost of a smile quirked on his lips. "True. But after everything I did…I'm not sure how much was me and how much was that thing. I think I hurt people, Bell, including you. How can I live with what I did?"
She took his hands. "By living better," she told him. "By choosing to help people from now on. I expect you'll feel guilty for a while, but you have to face it."
Ryder hung his head. "Bell, the fox spirit said it didn't take anything that wasn't there already, and I knew it was telling the truth. That darkness, those horrible feelings…they're a part of me. That creature fertilized all the bad seeds in my brain, but they were already there! And now…they just keep sprouting all kinds of dark thoughts, and…what if I can't resist them? What if I'm permanently damaged?"
His face was so devastated that Bella wanted to give him a tight squeeze, but somehow she sensed he needed space. She settled by gently touching his shoulder.
"Even if there is evil inside you, there is also good," she said softly. "There are bad and good seeds in all of us. Sure, yours were awakened and enlarged thanks to a forcible possession—"
"Not making me feel better."
"The point is you were able to control them before, and I believe you can do it again," she finished.
Ryder finally met her eyes, and a wistful expression appeared on his face. "When did you get so mature?"
Bella grinned. "I'm not sure, but I can say it's been a long time coming. By the way, your last name isn't really Hunter, is it?"
"Why?"
"Just…Ryder Hunter? Really?"
Meanwhile, Forseti found himself having to undergo a rapid-fire interrogation from his (former) colleagues.
"So Nemesis can back me—" he stopped. "Wait, where is she?"
Everyone looked around.
"I haven't seen her since we took down Ryder," Sorsha realized.
Sun-ah snorted. "Typical. If there's one thing Nemesis hates, it's paperwork. If she stayed until the end she'd probably have to do a full report."
Everyone groaned.
"The perks of a secret organization?" Cameron quipped.
Gwen shrugged. "You'd be surprised how many records we need to keep dealing with supernatural crimes."
A mist of red and blue began to gather, thickening into a fog so dense the sisters could barely be seen.
"How do we know when it's working?" The words were barely out of Cameron's mouth before lights shot into the sky.
"I think it's working," Tara observed.
The lights zoomed high, spreading into a circle and hovering. They called thin threads to each other that wove into a complex pattern, resembling a net. The gigantic shape then began to spin, faster and faster until darkness appeared in its centre and spiralled outwards.
"Whoa," Seb was slack jawed.
"When fueled by a solar eclipse, the Mayshadows can make stable dimensional rifts," Letty muttered to herself. "We should make a note of that."
A black, bat-like thing zoomed out of the portal towards the ground, letting loose an eerie shriek. The portal snapped shut and a blast wave surged through the air, knocking over trees and sending rocks flying. Their wards rippled but held, and the strength of the wave forced everyone to sit.
"I'm glad they made us stay here," Cameron mumbled.
"Me too," Tara and Bella chorused before grinning at each other.
The gust of air had ripped away Leora and Miranda's fog, and now they could see Leora on her feet, braced against the ground, as a dark, fluttery thing flew into Miranda's open mouth. A glowing figure nearby solidified. Within seconds it was over, and both the figure and Miranda collapsed.
"Miranda!" Forseti shouted. He was about to jump past the wards when Sun-ah grabbed him.
"Not yet," she warned.
"Why didn't she anchor it to an object, why would she take it into herself?!" He babbled. "What if it infects her the same way the other thing did?!"
"May's Shadow isn't really sentient," Tara explained. "It's more like a force if anything."
Forseti didn't look appeased.
"Hey, you heard that jing," Ryder told him. "It only took a sliver to control me, but for her it took most of its power. Don't count her out so fast."
Miranda got on her knees, coughing.
"Are you okay?" Leora approached her cautiously.
She tried to smile. "Just great…"
The figure behind her moaned and turned over. Tara and Cameron gasped.
"Now that was certainly exciting, but definitely not enjoyable," the old woman struggled to her feet, Leora rushing to help her stand. "Thank you dear."
Cameron dashed out, past the wards, running at top speed.
"Cameron!" Tara sped after him.
Sun-ah rolled her eyes. "You guys, the wards are there for a reason—hey!"
Forseti took advantage of the distraction to wrench himself free and sprint to Miranda.
She groaned.
"Should we go after them?" Sorsha asked apprehensively. "I mean, if anything happens we won't be able to protect them from here."
Sun-ah face-palmed. "Sure. Why not."
The lady was chatting with Leora when Cameron almost slammed into her.
"Whoa—! Cameron! You almost knocked me over!" Miss T gasped.
He hugged her tightly. "I missed you," his voice was muffled.
She gently hugged him back. She looked up and met Tara's eyes.
"Hello, dear. How are you?" Her gentle voice set something off in her, and Tara jumped forward and embraced her tightly.
"I'm so glad to see you!" She sobbed, tears falling.
They stood there for a while. Once they finally let go, the three of them saw the others clustered around Miranda, who was still kneeling on the ground, bent over as she breathed slowly.
"You good?" Leora rubbed her back comfortingly.
"I'm getting used to it," Miranda croaked.
Forseti watched her with concern. "What were you thinking?!"
"May's Shadow is an extremely malignant entity," Leora explained. "But thanks to our heritage, Miranda should be able to carry it without any ill effects until we find the appropriate vessel for it."
Miranda surged forward for a second and everyone jumped.
"I'm good, I'm good!" She stumbled to her feet. "Seriously…"
Forseti and Leora supported her on either side.
"If we could return to the current timeline?" Leora glanced up. "I think totality is just about done."
Everyone looked up to see the darkness moving pass the solar disc.
"Aw man, we missed it," Seb joked.
"Hey, we'll get to see it again," Cameron elbowed him. "But…how do you end a time shift spell?"
The Themis operatives shifted.
"We got this," Sun-ah grinned. "Just hold on."