Though this time they said their goodbyes amicably, Nozomi felt the same sadness she felt when she left Last Light, dejected and alone, no longer holding out any hope for the world. It made no sense, because now she could hold Reika in a tight embrace and softly kiss her forehead, now she could offer her a smile as she walked away, the same way she had done to Iona when she left to the Blue Sky Kingdom with companions of her own. Now, just a few days on the road west of Luminosa, Nozomi found it hard to depart, and could not let go of Reika until she had no more choice. Beauty smiled sadly at her, and set out with the Precure headed to the Rose Garden. What they might find there remained a mystery, though they had Noise to guide them, which to Nozomi was only the smallest manner of relief.
They were accompanied by Riko, Sorcielle, Yukari and Rio, Akira and Ellen, and lastly by Kurumi, desperate to find her prince. He is my prince too, Nozomi recalled, but she had other concerns now. Kagami stood by her side, alongside her newly-named companions. Uta, Kanae, Rekka; though Dark Rouge's choice irked Beauty due to the closeness of their names, in the end it was her choice, her name, something to call her own at last. Nozomi repeated the names to herself often, and spoke them aloud as often as she could. Soon, all came to learn them, and though Kanae was just as proud as Karen and refused to let anyone be privy to her feelings, Uta couldn't hide her smile when someone said her name. She was not the false Lemonade anymore, and she was not Shadow's emissary, but her own person, as she had always been.
Wheres Reika and her companions would make a mostly lonely journey, less than ten travelers altogether, an army followed Nozomi towards Palmier: led by Cure Muse, Majorland would make good on its promise to liberate the fairy kingdoms and destroy Nightmare, then marching north to Last Light as swiftly as possible. Already the messages had been sent to all the allies of the Precure, and already their armies were mobilized. And soon they and their resolve would be tested one last time against Dark Fall.
There was the Doughnut Kingdom to free as well, but that would require only a smaller force, led by King Mephisto, who had shared with his daughter a similarly prolonged farewell as Dream and Beauty, but while Nozomi and Reika embraced warmly, smiled and cried and laughed and exchanged glances at each other even as they went on their own way, Ako was made red by her father's affections, loudly affirming that it was not right for her subordinates to see their princess being carried as if she were a child and doted on so publicly, so embarrassingly. Mephisto didn't care one bit, and continued to kiss her cheeks again and again and again until he could no longer delay and departed at last.
The princess was accompanied by Rhythm and Melody, her faithful companions, devoted above all else to bickering with one another. Kanade's voice had seemingly recovered solely to allow her to spew the most colorful of obscenities at Hibiki; Nozomi found herself learning a great variety of insults and words so nasty she actually felt like she was committing a crime by hearing them. Far away, some hundreds of meters ahead, Aoi travelled alone, having decided the Rainbow Rose could use another pair of hands against Nightmare, and certainly hoping that she would have the opportunity to catch up with Akira and Yukari, learning to her disappointment that they were headed to the Rose Garden with Beauty. Cure Gelato mostly stayed by herself now, for presumably she found it hard to strongly relate to girls many years younger than herself, and finding solitude better than mingling with Falsetto, Bassdrum and Baritone.
Lastly, they were joined by Lemonade and Sword, both determined but a bit more distant than Nozomi might like. Her time at Luminosa had been hard on Urara, who now had a harder time smiling than she did before, blaming herself for falling prey to Noise's trickery. Nozomi told her that she needn't find herself guilty, but it was easy for herself to excuse Urara's deeds, as they were close friends. Lemonade preferred to continue punishing herself, though every now and then Nozomi's words managed to force a smile out of her. Nozomi did not expect that Urara would ever be the person she used to be, not completely, because the tragedies they'd known over the past years surely would change them all, but it was in her nature to be cheerful. In time she would laugh again, and, most importantly, sing.
Until then, it was only Uta's voice that drove them forward, a song she had learned during her stay at Luminosa. It's wrong for the armies of Majorland to march to the sound of their footsteps alone, Ako had said, and so war drummers and trumpeters had started playing, but Cure Sword mumbled that she was not in the mood to sing, certainly not martial songs. She'd been convinced to don a prosthetic hand, simple and quite obviously artificial, but Makoto admitted that just being able to raise her arm and not see it end on a stump was a small relief, not because she wished to flee from the truth but because she slowly began to accept that her loss did not need to define her.
By the end of their first day journeying in the fairy kingdoms, none of Nightmare's agents were sighted, only abandoned facilities. Their power remained uncontested only in Palmier, and not for long. Nightmare could not withstand them, but that did not mean there was nothing to fear: time was of essence, a precious thing that could not be wasted, and if Despariah and her lackeys managed to resist for long, that could very well ruin the plans for the defense against Dark Fall. We will strike decisively, Ako had promised, but Nozomi knew that, given the opportunity, Nightmare would take down as much as it could as it fell. That was their intentions at Miwar, once defeat became clear, so why not again?
Gathered inside a warm and well-lit tent, for once the Precure could enjoy something close to comfort as they traveled. Only the princess had a pavillion of her own, but Nozomi didn't mind sharing space with friends. The nerves of the battles to come ensured that few there would find it in them to get a good night's sleep, but they were content to join Uta in singing, despite her protests that they were ruining her song by adding their unrefined voices. Of course, despite her complaints, she never stopped singing, and smiled all the while. Nozomi was particularly off-key, but she enjoyed herself all the while - at least until Ako stormed in and said that if they did not shut their traps at once, she would stitch their mouths to one another's asses so they could eat each other's shit. That was as good a cue to go to bed as any: Uta claimed that all this walking had exhausted her beauty and that she needed to restore her flawless skin, but the others were thankfully nowhere near as dramatic.
In the end, only Nozomi, Makoto and Kagami remained awake, sharing among themselves what remained of a bottle of wine that Aoi had started but not finished - legally they were not allowed to do such a thing, but who would ever police them now? After uniting almost an entire continent under their Rose, they'd earned the right to be a little reckless. And if somehow Ako returned and felt she was in her right to cause a scene, they would just pin the blame on Aoi.
"One time," Makoto whispered a secret between friends, "Alice tried talking me into taking some liquor from the castle's wine cellar. Her family was strict, for she was to be the Yotsubas' perfect heiress, and once, on her birthday, she felt particularly rebellious, wishing to have, for once, the opportunity to do something risky. Mana and Rikka said it was wrong," Makoto took a sip of the glass in front of her, "but you should see the look of interest in their faces when I said I would do it."
"Never took you for a thief," said Kagami.
"And I'm not," said Sword. "I hesitated. I thought of how disappointed Marie Ange would be if she caught me, so I turned back and, instead, bought a bottle of grape juice, the kind that's strong enough that it might fool someone who's really naive. And my friends… Well, they didn't grow up with a drunkard for a father, so they couldn't really tell the difference, sheltered as they were."
"Sounds like quite the party," Nozomi giggled.
"With Rikka and Mana acting drunk? It was, yes. They woke up feeling horribly guilty the next morning, and avoided Marie Ange for a whole month until I went ahead and told them the truth, because it was getting too ridiculous. Alice, though, simply drank and, remaining quite sober, convinced herself that she was naturally quite resistant to alcohol. But she enjoyed herself, yes. After Mana and Rikka had fallen asleep on top of each other, right on the carpet of Alice's bedroom, Alice and I retreated downstairs, to the swimming pool, dipping our legs on the water, watching the stars together. Then I gave her a birthday present. The only thing I could afford to give her, especially knowing she already had everything… A song."
"That's really sweet," said Kagami. "I had no idea you were such a romantic."
"Me neither, at the time," Makoto sighed, asking Nozomi to pour some more wine for her, which she did promptly. "Thanks. Well, thing is… I only realized what I felt for Alice after she was gone. After I accepted that Ange could never return. I feared that I had lost my chance, not only to save her but to love her. But I know that's not true. I'm not good in a fight, and I struggle with a shirt's buttons… But I will sing to her again. And then… And then I'll see."
"It'll all end well," Nozomi promised. "For all of us. Kagami, by the end of the week, all this situation with Nightmare and Shadow will be only a distant memory. Only the past, something to be left behind, something with no power over you."
"I know. I know. I'm not afraid. As I told you already, even if I die now, fighting, I'll die as a person, not as a thing. I want to live, but if I must go… Then I'll go with no regrets. And that's more than most can say."
"If I die saving Alice, then I'll be content, too. But if I can live with her…"
"You know, I'm honestly kind of terrified of death. The finality of it all, you know?" Nozomi suddenly felt like speaking very truthfully. "I have stuff I want to do. Like… There's foods I need to eat. I want to visit Iona's home someday, as I've been to Reika's. I owe some money to Rin, too, I'd rather not go to the grave with those loose ends… Oh, and I always wanted to go skiing. So I got all that to look forward to, and definitely hope to die in bed when I'm a hundred years old, but… For you, Kagami, I'd fight to the death. For your freedom, and those of others… I'd give up skiing for that. And cake, and chocolate cornets."
"I feel really loved when you say that," Kagami said, and guffawed. "Skiing, though? Isn't that kind of small for a dream? I mean, you are Cure Dream, that means you have to have huge grandiose dreams."
"I guess saving the world would be alright," she shrugged. "Eternal peace and happiness are fine too. But no, really, grandiose dreams are kind of a scam. You fill your head with them and then you don't really do anything with them, because you think the dreaming's good enough, you think that it'll come true all at once, in one huge lucky moment. It doesn't, though. If you dream of happiness, love and peace, it won't happen out of the blue, you won't suddenly find true love or come to some great epiphany that'll make you happy forever. That's just silly. Instead, you need small dreams. They're the ones that you can use to build something lasting. Eternal happiness is impossible, so why dream about it? What you can achieve, though, is always doing your best. To the world, to the people you love, and to yourself."
"Am I just really drunk, or was this really well-said?" Kagami asked.
"Well, you had half a glass of wine," said Makoto, "so I think it's pretty obvious. Nozomi is right. She's the smartest person here, really."
"No one ever said that to me!" Nozomi grinned. "It feels good. Is this how Reika feels all the time? Damn."
"It just occurred to me," Kagami said. "We've been together since we departed the city of Trump. The three of us, I mean. I've never known anyone for as long as I've known you. All the things we went through together."
"Horrid, most of it," Makoto spat. "You know, if I look back and account for everything, we've mostly suffered together, then suffered some more. Everything that could have gone wrong at Trump went wrong, then Morgenluft was a complete mess where we nearly died multiple times. We came back to the Phoenix Tower just to find out the Rose we believed in was a lie, and I don't even need to mention Miwar. All in all, we really had a bad time together. And yet… And yet, if I could turn it all back, I wouldn't. Despite losing my hand, despite all my mistakes. I'll never be happy about those things. I'll never look back and smile and say it was worth it, or that it made me stronger, and if anyone says that to me I'll tell them how condescending they are before letting them know I still have one good hand. But our time together… I don't even want to think about the person I would be without it, because she cannot exist. I am… I'm happy to be with you. I am happy to have something to die for, but also to have reasons to live. I…" She smiled, finally. "I think the wine's hitting me a bit too hard. That has to be it. Never been this prone to sentiment…"
"Sentiment is good," Nozomi said. "Honesty, too. And you're right about all this. We haven't won yet. We may still lose, or we may fall in battle and never see our Rose triumphant. But years ago, when the stars went out… I smiled then, because I felt I had to, because I thought that was the only weapon I had against despair, but I knew only darkness then. Now, despite everything, I do think there's some light, foolish as I might sound. It might not shine for me, but it can shine. Already we've proven so much. We proved the strength of our wills and how far we could go. It's more than I ever believed I could do."
"I'm tired," Kagami complained. "Being happy is exhausting. I don't get how people do it. I need… Just need to rest my head, close my eyes a little while. But one last drink, first. If I die without at least getting a little bit tipsy, just to know how it feels, I'm going to be so furious."
This was not a world to be lived in.
This was not a world for men, a world that made sense. It went on forever, for so long that Setsuna had lost track of days and miles and direction. There was no end to Labyrinth, no end to this second world hidden beneath the earth, this world that had never seen the sun.
And yet it was bright, always. Everywhere there was light, shining inside the buildings, on the paths between them, somewhere above, far above, so far from sight that there was nothing there but the white shining forever. Setsuna wished she could it a mockery, but she knew she was not being laughed at. She knew that even as she walked through perpetually deserted streets that had never been used, even as she passed by lampposts that shone for thousands of years without ever being seen, even as she looked up to see buildings constructed atop buildings atop buildings atop buildings, pyramids of concrete and sterile greys and whites, even as she saw stairs leading down, stairs leading up, stairs leading somewhere inscrutable, even as she looked into the distance and saw nothing but an endless expanse that was at the same time absolutely void and absolutely cramped, she knew she was not being laughed at. She knew there was no cruelty in Labyrinth, no evil and no sadism.
And that was the most terrifying thing. Moebius was no man, no monster, he was nothing. Unfeeling, only a computer program, unaware of its own existence, as conscious as the concrete Setsuna trod upon. This cruelty was performed upon the people locked here for no particular reason, only cold calculations far beyond what a human mind could comprehend. During her first week of journeying through the depths of Labyrinth, Setsuna had thought this was the heart of the world's evil, that this was where an atrocity beyond name had been committed, that Moebius was the cruelest being to ever exist. But now she knew that to be foolish. Moebius did not even exist. Moebius decided nothing, thought nothing. There was no sense to be found in his actions, no catharsis in his destruction. To despise him was akin to despising the sun, despising the tides, despising nature in its indifference.
They navigated this man-made indifference instead. During the first days, Setsuna and Love had plenty to talk about. They were hopeful that soon they would destroy Moebius and end this. It was to be a difficult endeavor, one that would take several lifetimes to conclude, once the time came to bring all these people into the light. But they were hopeful. There, in the distance, Westar would point out, and Setsuna would believe for an instant that she was looking at the heart of Labyrinth, at Moebius's control tower, but it was always out of sight, always miles ahead, always a week's walk away. Now the group had grown silent but for their footsteps, until weeks and days stopped meaning anything, for Labyrinth sapped everything of meaning. Moebius is caught in a loop, Hideaki explained. The simplest thing, the smallest mistake, the most thoughtless oversight. There was no meaning beyond that. An accident, a mistake by someone who died thousands and thousands of years ago.
They stood before a square building. Impossibly tall, impossibly wide, impossible long, the sight of it proved, if nothing else, that Labyrinth could still surprise Setsuna. This was the first sign of progress she had seen in… She could not even say. This, Hideaki told the group, is a data bank.
This was a treasure in the midst of the endless void. The infiltrators had learned so much about Labyrinth from this sort of data, and as they delved deeper into Moebius's domain, they would no doubt stumble upon even older data. The history of the world from millennia ago, before Labyrinth fell to Moebius's command… It was all there to be found. They did not have the time to investigate all they could, but to waste the opportunity would be foolish.
"These are ancient," said Hideaki. Setsuna and Love inspected some of the archives together, disks placed in endless cabinets and long drawers, all perfectly organized, though the dates were so distant, and in Labyrinth's complex notation system, so they meant nothing to Setsuna. Hideaki, however, seemed able to decipher them. "Thousands and thousands of years old… Older than the fall of Labyrinth, older than… Older than the first time the stars went out."
The first time… There was something terrible about that, though Setsuna already knew it had happened. It was like the world had never learned from the horror then, but still… Thousands of years had passed, so who could be blamed? If it was mankind's destiny to suffer the same tragedies again and again, then the destiny of the Precure would be to always be there to face them.
Hideaki removed one of the data disks, placed it onto a projector in a nearby chamber; on their way, they passed by over a dozen nearly identical rooms like the first one they'd seen. There was a great deal of redundancy in Labyrinth's detailed archives, Hideaki explained, and even if a specific disk did not yield any interesting information, it could guide one to other disks, and the impeccable organization of these computers made it an easy matter to find what was wanted, if time-consuming. As they rested in the chamber and Westar began to cook the foul-smelling rations they had brought with them, Hideaki investigated. They had not rested in a while, so this appeared a fine opportunity to do just that, as well as indulging their curiosity.
"It's surreal," said Love. "I had thought Verone's libraries were massive, but this is… Larger still. And yet so much of it is meaningless… Recordings of empty corridors, an endless sea of statistics, the testing of prototypes… I'll take the libraries any day."
"Still, in the middle of this uselessness there's more secrets than you'd find in the Phoenix Tower's archives," said Hideaki. "Less inflammatory, perhaps. But anything we can learn here would be an earth shattering revelation in any ordinary circumstances, for these archives predate… Well, everything. A world before the Precure…"
Setsuna dined as she waited for Hideaki to find something interesting. He manned the computer with ease, despite their complicated layout and screen that Setsuna couldn't even begin to understand. Though the food smelled bad, it didn't taste like much at all, which was likely a blessing in disguise.
The computer screen shifted, and Hideaki called everyone's attention. Images moved one by one until they made way for a stunningly clear recording, and in it, Setsuna saw… Labyrinth, she realized. As it was once, long ago. But it was not like the Labyrinth she knew, for it was full of life, and its streets were busy, not with slaves walking from their homes to their work but with people free to go where they willed. And clear skies… That was the most striking difference. Setsuna could not imagine a Labyrinth touched by the sun, yet there it was.
The image shifted again, now to a man dressed in red. He spoke words that Setsuna could not understand. She could make out some of the words he spoke to the crowd that had gathered to meet him, but only one in ten, and even so only fragments. He may as well have been saying gibberish. The recording paused, frozen on the man's visage. Fierce, he was, with a fire in his eyes, an ambition and drive but in a way Setsuna could not describe as unkind. And, clearly, he was an important figure, all onlookers remaining silent to hear his words. Then, however, Hideaki pressed a button and a new image appeared before them all. This one was far more familiar.
Moebius. Though the surroundings were very much like the ones before, the sight of Moebius in broad daylight was dreadful. His immense form was projected upon the tallest towers of Labyrinth, and he spoke to all, his voice booming. Even now, Setsuna felt her legs tremble as fear took her. She was relieved to see the red-clad man appear once more to cast down Moebius, his image disappearing from the towers of glass, but soon it appeared again, elsewhere, and while at first the populace of Labyrinth had stood before Moebius, they began to flee in a panic as the streets closed in on them, the pavement swallowed them and the machinery that ruled Labyrinth turned against their creators. The streets ran red with blood, for all were pitilessly mowed down by Moebius's machines until nothing remained of them that could be recognized as human. And, all the while, the man shrouded in red fought, but was driven away and fled, leaving the cowering populace at the mercy of Moebius.
And Moebius was bereft of mercy. Setsuna looked away, and in instants Hideaki put an end to the gruesome images and sounds that flashed and roared. Setsuna looked up to see people put into chains, experimented upon, vivisected and converted into mindless drones. All of this, all was Moebius's doing. This horror made it easy to forget that Moebius was unthinking, unfeeling, a void.
"Ah," Hideaki said, inspecting a smaller screen to his right. There was naught but text on it, and the professor read far too quickly for Setsuna to keep up. "Red, brother of the god Blue… It's true, then. The later records were incomplete, but this proves it."
"Proves what, exactly?" Soular asked. "Red, Blue… The gods know little of how to name themselves. For shame…"
"It proves that as Blue was once the world's warden, so too was Red, long ago. Labyrinth was his domain, and he guarded it, until… Until Moebius happened."
"Moebius didn't happen," Love reminded him. "Moebius was made. How could Red allow such a thing?"
"There is no force in this world that can rob people of their free will," he said. Evidently he was forgetting Mirage. "Not even divine decree. Perhaps he even gave his people his blessing in their pursuit of perfection and knowledge. Alas, perfection was never reached, not even by gods. After that, you all know what happened. The stars went out, though Moebius has never been able to discern the cause, and Red perished not long after. Moebius's plans for expansion were foiled by the twin Roses, and forced him into hiding beneath the earth. And…" He looked closer, eyes darting from left to right then down and up, for the letters of Labyrinth's oldest writings were arranged in spirals. "Of course, in the thousands of years since then, Labyrinth performed experiments on the few remaining gods, extinguishing the sparks of their divinity one by one. All to feed Moebius, to make the machine a deity above all others. Unsuccessfully, it would appear."
"I take it that Infinity was part of that," said Love. "A power source? But Chiffon is just a fairy, no?"
"There is no such thing as just a fairy," Hideaki reminded her. "Fairies are drawn to the primordial magics of the world, born from the roiling chaos of creation. Before there were men, there were fairies. And before there were any who called themselves gods, too. Of course, the average fairy that now lives is so disconnected from that impossibly distant past that they would appear ordinary, but within them, inevitably, is the seed of all magic and power. They don't awaken anymore, save for Chiffon's, and only through Labyrinth's interference. She is a catalyst, and is now part of Moebius."
"Her power is linked to the stars, Klein learned," Setsuna said. "Magic, stars… It's all connected. We always knew that, but never to which extent…"
"Indeed. Through studies we have tried to decipher these connections and to channel them, and I recall reading in forbidden texts that Cure Selene had attempted to create artificial constellations, that she might reach the stars down on earth. All the rest of the documents had been purged, however. One can only wonder why."
"This is a bit too much for me," Westar complained.
"Yes, every problem that you can't punch your way through makes your head hurt, I know," Soular said.
"A problem that can't be solved with a good hit isn't a problem to be solved. Ask the Precure that. Why is it that when they rush into battle they are noble and luminous but when I do the same I'm just some savage?"
"Because you are one," said Soular. "Now, all of this is fascinating, but unless there's a button there that can remotely destroy Moebius, it's only a curiosity."
"You're right," said Hideaki. He stepped away from the panel, and faced his companions. "Though it feels like a shame to abandon this place, knowing we may never find our way back to this data bank, I have learned the cost of unfettered curiosity. If nothing else, I have learned the directions to the central computer. We keep going… In the same direction we were already heading towards, because there is not another. I had hoped to find good news about Infinity, but it seems that Moebius has incorporated her… I pray we may free her, and that she is not destroyed alongside Moebius."
"Now, the two of you are Precure," said Soular, "so you'll want to save her, but if the worst comes to pass and there is no rescuing her…"
"I know," said Setsuna. "I know. But it won't come to that. Come, let us finish eating. We will dwell on the past later, when we have time for that. For now, we must keep going. All of Labyrinth depends on us."
Even now, as Noise gave directions to the Rose Garden, Reika was not entirely certain she believed where she was going. The Rose Garden was a legend, an allegory, like the Garden of Thorns. Ellen had been there, too, and Reika knew she was no liar, but when legends came alive, she was always taken aback. Reika liked to judge herself rational, thoughtful, for growing up in Märchenland taught her that while the magical world is not as distant from the ordinary as it may seem, one mustn't rush to conclusions and believe that all tales are true.
This one, however, was. This and many others. Everything that came out of Noise's mouth filled her mind with wonder, every question he answered made a dozen others spring to the tip of her tongue. This dark creature was a living history of the world, though he had been sealed away in the Axia for much of it. Still, he had seen the world before there were Roses, before there were Precure.
As the group crossed the border and reached Bavarois, Reika found herself wishing they could rest soon, that she might question Noise some more. Riko had questions of her own, too, and Sorcielle as well, and Yukari even more. Kurumi and Ellen, meanwhile, were content to just sit down and enjoy some fruit they'd picked from a tree on their way, while Rio and Akira handled the most practical affairs, like lightning fires, inspecting tracks, and triangulating their position in the wilderness of Bavarois, then comparing it to Ellen's directions, which were vague and often incomprehensible. When they returned, Sorcielle had almost finished the group's meal for tonight, but apples and pears and oranges were all being shared among the Precure.
"Do you mind?" Noise extended his hand towards the fairies, asking for a bite of the pears they shared. Kurumi tossed one to him, and he gladly tasted it, savoring every instant. "Ah… Not requiring sustenance makes one so easily forget the delights of food. That the earth itself should give us such bounties… It only proves Flora right. Nature is the mightiest of all forces, and the kindest."
"Actually," Riko said, in a way that even Reika found almost obnoxious, "fruits don't really exist for our sake, and neither does nature. It exists only to perpetuate itself, and a fine taste only makes it more likely to be preserved and allowed to spread by other species."
"What, you saying that plants have thoughts and plans of their own?" Ellen asked. "And we're just being used by them?"
"Sorry, were we talking about nature or about Mirage's Rose?" Yukari questioned. "My dear Magical, it would appear that you've retained some of Mirage's teachings after all, that you would voice such cynical thoughts about nature…"
"It's just biology, actually," said Riko. "Not to be rude, but have you all not been educated? You know, schools, universities…"
"My studies were fine," Yukari shrugged, "but oftentimes they had to be interrupted because our duties as Precure came first. My friends suffered more than I did, so I often had to tutor them with numbers… Which was simple enough, for they were all three years younger."
"Not me," Akira laughed. Yukari didn't seem to find it nearly as entertaining as Chocolat. "I did always need help, too, though it seems I turned out alright. Would have liked to study medicine, but duty kept me busy, and when it seemed I might have the time, well, the world fell into darkness."
"You have to be joking that you even remember needing help," Kurumi said. "I mean, who gives a shit? Failing school tests, grades and all that garbage… That's utterly irrelevant now."
"Actually, one mustn't ever be content to neglect their studies," Sorcielle chimed in. "When all this madness is put to an end, I hope to resume my classes as soon as I can find a proper tutor. I suggest you all do the same, for a trifle such as the end of the world is no reason to halt your learning. And goodness knows that in the future we shall have great need of skilled laborers."
Sorcielle spoke in a monotone so perfect that Reika really couldn't tell if she was being serious or if she was trying to joke. This was always difficult for Reika, but Sorcielle was something else entirely, never laughing, never smiling. In that sense she was the opposite of Yukari, who always had an easy smile on her lips.
Shadows gathered all around them, but the warmth and light of the fire were so pleasant that Reika forgot the dark. Fires were not to her liking, but she had come to accept that they could be pleasant, if not nearly as much as a beautiful winter storm. And, of course, it was much better when shared in the company of friends.
Though perhaps it was proper to call them allies rather than friends. Only when they parted ways did Reika realize how many of her closest and truest friends had left with Nozomi or Iona, or headed towards Last Light, leaving her in the company of what were mostly strangers. The Cures that were bonded to the Blue Rose had known each other for some time, and Rio as well, but Reika, Magical and Arcane were outsiders, almost as much as Noise, who just chewed his pear slowly, savoring it with glee that hardly seemed fitting for a being as sinister as him.
"It does make me sad, though," Riko said, just as Sorcielle began to pass plates of baked potatoes and salted bream to her companions. "That we were robbed of these opportunities. To have no responsibilities but studies, to share in the laughter of friends underneath a tree as we try to decipher chemistry or alchemy together…"
"Chemistry is alchemy," said Akira, nearly igniting a passionate debate over which terms were appropriate to use, a divide that had lasted thousands and thousands of years, for the inhabitants of the mainland saw them as the same subject, whilst in the northern continent they were two very distinct disciplines. As Verone hosted students from all over the world, its alchemy and chemistry departments were notoriously combative, confused, and, above all, utterly unproductive, as most theses produced were less about the application of their learning and more about proving their enemies were great blundering fools.
Reika had been invited to study at Verone, once. Her refusal, despite her family's insistence, was one of the few times in life she had dared defy them, as well as a very proud moment.
"Well, I'm glad to be done with all that," said Ellen. "I'd love to study music some more, of course, but I've no idea how you humans tolerate all the other… Stuff. History, geography… So many names," she declared, while Kurumi nodded with enthusiasm.
"That stuff is what separates us from animals," Rio decided to join in the conversation. Once, Reika would have intruded in to prove her point, but now she no longer felt the need to correct others - nor to have an aneurysm trying to do so. "Dung beetles don't care about the past, and it matters not one bit to them that their ancestors were dragging around dung, just like them. But that's not us."
"Oh, but Rio, haven't you paid attention to what Noise told us in Luminosa?" Yukari asked. "We may shovel dung differently than our ancestors, and with different clothes and traditions and names, but it does appear that we are still dealing with situations that began long before any of us were born. Mirage, the Roses and their wars… Why, I might almost reach the conclusion that we're playthings of the past, and that the only power we have is to make the people of the future our playthings as well."
"That we have repeated mistakes of the past does not erase our worth," said Reika. "We are not in this world to be perfect or to exist free of conflict and misfortune. Ours is but to right all the wrongs we can in the time that is given to us. In doing so, we will have used our gift of life as well as we could. And, together, we have taken important steps. It well may be that in the future we will commit the same errors we have committed again and again, and that the world we aim to build won't last forever, but until it's dust in the wind, we must work to make it last as long as possible."
"I find that sentiment beautiful," Noise said. "Truly, I do. For the Red Rose and the Blue Rose alike have been built atop a foundation of bones, yet never acknowledged them. The past was always something to be buried, sealed away. In a way, perhaps Mirage's machinations are simply the punishment for this, one final trial that this world must endure if it will truly survive into the future."
"You're an optimist now?" Riko asked.
"I must admit it feels better than what I was before," he said, "but I wouldn't use that word, no. I've seen idealists come and go, and whilst I slumbered within the Axia, realms rose and fell countless times. But, like weeds, only the Red Rose was always there, in some form or another. The world returns to pain and sorrow, its natural state, but it needn't be that way. I long for the day I can finally die. Not because I am tired of life, but because I can perish only when sorrow no longer makes sense, not even to me. I will be happy to go, then. But who knows when that will be…"
"First, we need to get there," said Reika. "Now, you've been to the Rose Garden before," she turned to Ellen and Noise. "What should we expect?"
"A cold reception," Cure Beat told her. "Blossom will not be happy, for she will judge us all as intruders. She has taken Flora's mantle, and we'll have a hard time convincing her to back us."
"It is not Flora's mantle she would have claimed," said Noise, "but her spark, the seed of her divinity. Ah, poor Flora… If only I could have been by her side at the end, as I had promised her… But so many years had passed that I doubt she would still care about me as I care about her. It was always her gift, you see, to ignite passion in the hearts of men. The Director had loved her, courted her, tried to win her hand, and that love is the reason he created Eternal, did you know? The grandest of the world's treasures, all to be gifted to Flora, a display on the Director's part that, just like the woman he adored, he meant to preserve the beauty of the world. But of course they could never understand one another. I wonder if he knows she's dead…? I wonder if he cares."
"How ancient must the Director be, then?" Kurumi questioned. "His power is well-known, though his body is bound to his armor, lest he dies… I knew he was old, but this is… Significantly older than what I believed."
"Yes, despite their partnership," Noise said, "the Director and Despariah could never truly understand one another. Despariah envied his immortality, and longed to surpass him by living forever in youth, beauty and health, like the Director never could, while he, in turn, did as all very old-lived beings do and looked down on all who were younger than him, saw them as lesser. It's a surprise he didn't see fit to call himself a god, though of course if he ever did that, Mirage would have actually acted against him instead of using him."
"You don't call yourself a god either," Riko remarked.
"I'm not a god," Noise said after a pause. "I am not so absurd as to believe that because I am old and powerful I am entitled to devotion or anything of the sort. But truly ancient beings tend to convince themselves of that, so the Director and I are but the exception. Blue, Red, and so many others… They all thought it was their destiny to guide humanity on the right path."
"Much like you tried when you conquered Majorland?" Ellen asked.
"Yes, I fell prey to vanity, like the ones I scorn. I was fortunate to have brave women at the ready to show me the error of my ways, however. Not so much the other gods. They held the fires in the heart of the world, the embers of creation, still burning all those thousands of years ago, and with those they forged the world they thought was best. Blue's creation endured the longest, by far. Red lost his domains, while Flora limited hers, locking herself in her Garden until the world forgot about her and her powers began to wane. The First Selfish was forced to claim the bodies of mortals to remain alive, which vexed him greatly, while Noir and Rapapa betrayed the other gods and taught the secrets of their magic to humans. And then there was Ophiuchus… Flora knew her well, and never said a kind word about her."
"Considering she was capable of seeing the good in you," Yukari said, "that's saying a lot. What's the story behind all that, then?"
"A lengthy one, of course, too lengthy to be recounted within a mortal lifetime. Do not be mistaken by believing that the gods were all birthed from the same spark, all at the same time. Though Blue and Red were brothers, born of the same primordial force, thousands of years separated their ascent. Flora was older than them, and was already ten thousand years old when the brothers found her Garden. Rapapa was older still, for she had witnessed the birth of the fairies, but even before that, there were beings older still. Flora herself didn't know much about them. They were incarnations of the stars in the sky, or perhaps the stars were born of them. With these stories, there might not even be a distinction."
"And yet the stars are the domain of the Precure," Sorcielle remarked. "And of Blue, too, their guardian."
"Because he had no choice, for the deities of the stars had all been slain by their eldest sister. Ophiuchus, the Serpent Star, whose glow was the darkness of night and who plotted to devour all other lights. I was born only after she had perished, and for that I am fortunate, because all that Flora told me about her was dreadful. Now that you know this, now that you have learned that ages ago, the world was full of gods and deeper magic than you can even conceive now, you may also have wondered why exactly Blue, of all of these beings, survived for so long, why he came to be humanity's warden, why the world thrived around him whereas for tens of thousands of years it had been but an empty expanse with life scattered here and there… Why, that's because Blue, Red and Flora slew Ophiuchus. When the power of the old gods began to grow, the Serpent Star devoured them one by one. Some fled to escape her wrath, but three faced her instead, and prevailed."
"When the stars first went out, then…" Reika was wondering. "Whose doing was that? You were not there to witness it, so it was after your time, but if Ophiuchus was already gone…"
"Perhaps some of her power remained, and was used by another," Noise shrugged. "Blue is long gone so you cannot ask him his reasons, but I would wager that this is one of the reasons he created the Axia, because he feared that something remained of the Serpent Star. But inside the Axia, torn from the physical world… There were no such worries to be had."
Instead, there were problems greater still to be unleashed. The evils locked inside the Axia did not merely bide their time and fell upon the world anyways, they festered and grew into something even worse. They fed Cure Mirage's hatred and sorrow, and once again the stars went out. It was true, then, that the nature of history was for tragedies to repeat, though never once did the tragedy become farce. It was just as terrible each time. Reika liked to believe that she knew better now, that she might be able to prevent this… But this she could never know. If her only cause for fighting was to create something that would be forever perfect, then she would have learned nothing from all she had witnessed.
Around the fire, they shared tales with one another all night long. Not the tales of the ancient past that Noise knew so well, but ones far more ordinary. Stories of friendship, of nostalgic longings and of small dreams for the future. Because, far more than any grand ambitions for the world they meant to build, these were what drove them forward, only ever forward.
Clear skies greeted them as they returned home, clearer than they'd been when Yuko left the Blue Sky Kingdom in fear. But here the light was not their ally: as Syrup flew over the great chasm that was once the capital, hundreds of ballista bolts were fired upon him by the legions of Saiarks that patrolled the ruins. He had to turn back, to the south of the abyss, where some of the capital remained. The rest of the way they would have to make on their own, without his wings, and it was not to be a short journey.
Outnumbered and outmatched in this once-familiar land, caution kept their steps slow and infrequent, very deliberate. Every home here had fallen into disrepair and devastation, but that was nothing the Precure had not seen before. But never our home, Yuko thought. Whatever Kanade felt in Majorland or Nozomi in the occupied Fairy Kingdoms, Cure Honey felt now, and it hurt beyond words. She knew these neighborhoods she walked on, because she had been there before, she had seen them full of life. She had delivered her family's meals to a nearby house, and she had visited a school friend once or twice, and of course there was the water park near the city hall that she often visited, feeding the ducks there until a sign was placed near the pond saying there was a hefty fine for those who fed the animals.
These were memories that still made her smile, even though now the streets were cracked and homes not unlike her own had collapsed, gardens once well cared for now overrun with weeds. To see her home like that was like gazing upon something fundamentally wrong, an affront against all that was dear to Yuko. This is only material, she tried to tell herself, to find some comfort, but there was not much to be had. Material these losses may be, but the thought of not being able to return to her childhood home was painful. She had things there that could not be replaced; yes, they were only things, but they still mattered to her, small as they were. Her favorite pillows, the plates she most liked using, the corner of her bookcase where she stored old magazines she read as a child, that she liked to look at now and again to remember what it was that mattered to her when she was younger. None of that could ever be replaced.
The weight of that hit Yuko the hardest when she realized just how much was gone forever. Life was greater than all else, and the lives that were lost were the worst tragedy of the Death of the Stars, but even beyond that there was an infinitude of small losses that would sting forever. Letters from friends, art projects from school, simple cheap gifts that she had made for her family on their birthdays… And then there were the foods she loved, the books she enjoyed reading, the movies that entertained her so. As the Precure fought for their lives, those things were easy to disregard, but now that Yuko had no choice but to walk among the broken shell of her home, seeing ruination fall upon places she knew so well, these things suddenly seemed to matter.
She had mourned and suffered and wept for the grandest of losses long enough. All that remained now were the smaller ones, the ones easier to overlook at first, but that now stung just the same as the larger wounds. But she kept going. Pain was no longer enough to hinder as it did once, for she got used to it, and only became stronger for that. She walked past the ruins without letting the sadness slow her down. With her companions, she rested inside empty homes, their inhabitants trapped inside mirrors, faces contorted into frowns, tears frozen forever on the black glass. Families, some huddled together in a corner of their homes, others separated. There were countless lone mirrors on their way, many on the streets, people who ran out of their houses to catch a glimpse of the horror that fell upon the Blue Sky Kingdom, to be devoured by it as well. If Yuko sought her home, what would she find there? Had her family tried to flee, had they found comfort together in the end? Not the end, she reminded herself, knowing this could be undone. It had to. No matter what it cost, it had to be undone.
Night fell upon them, but the Cloud Citadel remained just as distant as when they first arrived, on the other side of the abyss that had torn the capital apart. The plan, when they set out from Luminosa, was to land directly at Heaven's Hand Castle, and retrieve the Golden Crown as quickly as possible. But they had no such luck: the other side of the abyss was fiercely guarded and Syrup made an obvious target. Instead they would have no choice but to descend into the darkness, then make their way up. They would have to pass through the huge field of mirrors left after the Death of the Stars, like countless graves.
They would have to pass by Maria Hikawa. And, if Megumi's warning was correct, they would find Phantom, too. In fairness, neither were guaranteed to happen. Amidst so many mirrors, Maria's would be difficult to find, and under the cover of darkness, they might evade Phantom's notice. But even then, they still had to get through the fiends guarding the palace. Liberation was no easy matter.
Weeds grew where there once were beautiful gardens, and invaded the broken homes of the city. Snakes and spiders and vermin made their nests in the abandoned darkness, and were the only life to be seen here. Nature started to reclaim the Blue Sky Kingdom, after the realm's expansion drove much of it away, for woodlands had to be felled to build homes, rivers dammed, game hunted. Their return brought a quiet sadness into Yuko's heart, the realization that were they to lose, were this to all disappear, life would move on, indifferent to humanity's end.
But not yet. We're still here. Our plight still matters.
Deeper they delved, towards the torn land. Saiarks impeded their progress, but merely delayed them, did not wound them. And why would they? The Precure had fought these evils before. In Märchenland, Miwar, Luminosa; they fought in the fields of the Dessert Kingdom and in the darkness of Labyrinth, under sun and rain and moon, they braved the harshest of evils and the cruelest cold, shed their blood on dirt, on water, on stone. Sadness gripped at her soul, but not fear, not anymore. She was no child facing a horror she didn't know, a danger she was unprepared to meet. It's been years already, she realized. She was ready. She was strong enough to face this. No longer a despairing and lost girl, she was a Precure. All her childhood she had read stories about the saviors of the stars, the wardens of light and justice, the women who saw pitch-black skies and legions of monsters, who saw their friends die by their side and who saw their homes burn, and who fought on all the same, because if they hadn't, Yuko would not be here to take their place. No longer a starry-eyed initiate who saw those Precure as unreachable paragons, she realized that she was the same as them. Empress, Magician, Priestess, Ange, Flora, Mermaid, Twinkle, Scarlet, Selene, more than she could count, more than she could know… They were her equals.
She stood before the abyss. There were no stairs leading down, no paths carved upon the cliffs, only a deep darkness that stretched on for miles, lit only by the dim lights of the mirrors in the depths. There was no other way. She looked at her companions, and realized they were of one mind. Iona took Hime's hand, and Megumi carried Syrup with her as he took on his smaller form again. Beyond here, they all knew, though no one had to say it, are all of our fears. All of their friends, their families, all there in the abyss, all locked in mirrors, all in Phantom's grasp. Maria was there. In the palace, Hime's parents awaited.
They jumped into the darkness, all of them together.