The Tale of Three

Chapter 36

The Second Reunion

"Calm down Eclipsa. Calm down. You knew this day was coming. You and Globgor have both known it for a long time, ever since that message from...him. She's your daughter. Your own flesh and blood! You can talk to her! It's not like she's evil or wicked or monstrous...anymore, at least."

After saying these words, the tone masked with a thick layer of doubt, the sole inhabitants of the royal bedroom, the one of the fanciest and largest bedrooms Monster Temple, let out a sigh.

And then did it again. And again. And then by the tenth time she did it, the Queen realized that she was no longer sighing, but instead breathing at a very rapid rate, her heartbeat pounding in her ears at what she had witnessed only a half-hour ago. Which was her own daughter, the same person she had spent only a few months raising standing in front of her and looking much older than the Meteora who was currently taking a nap in the next room over.

It had taken Eclipsa a while to realize it at first. With the way her back was turned to her and the fact that she looked like a thief sneaking about with her tense and nervous posture, Eclipsa immediately assumed that Meteora was an intruder and not her child. But once she heard that voice, the voice begging her to not call the police, she felt something inside her. Familiarity. That the person before her was not a mere burglar but rather something more.

Because she had heard that voice before. A year or so ago, when Meteora grew to the side of a building and threatened to consume the souls of every last Mewman, the two of them had exchanged words numerous times. The voice her monster form used was gruff, deep, and filled with a bottomless intent to punish the ones she saw worthy of it.

But it was still hers. And yes, the teenage version of her daughter certainly had a different voice. Much more high-pitched, but also sounding like the kind of person who had seen nothing and death and ruin for their entire life to the point where they had become numb to it. (For some reason. As far as Eclipsa knew, this Meteora had lived out a completely normal life. She had not been informed of how they were living, only that they had problems.) It was faint, but it was there. And that underlying tone was somehow even scarier than monster Meteora's promise of a Mewni ruled by an iron and unforgiving fist. It shook Eclipsa to the bone, and she was left wondering what her child had been though. One thing she had noticed was that part of her ear was missing, like someone had taken a knife to it and sliced off the pointy part. There had been a small bandage on it, although it looked old, dirty, and in desperate need of a replacement. How had that happened? Who had even done that?

However, that was something to focus on later. For now, she had to calm herself. Because like Eclipsa had been saying, she knew this was coming. From that dream. The dream that involved...no, she didn't even want to think about him right now. Meteora was all that occupied her thoughts. Hopefully she hadn't run too far after she sent that gaggle of guards to chase her, although she did hear what sounded like a shriek of pain a minute or so later, making her start to regret not pursuing Meteora herself. Because if they hurt her...then Eclipsa might cry for days out of grief for not telling the guards that the intruder was her daughter when she had the chance.

So now she was here, pacing around her room, too afraid to go and investigate for herself what had happened. Someone would be back soon to tell her the news after all. It might not be long at all! Why, it might even be right now!

...

right…now!

...

right...now…?

...

Please?

...

Eclipsa looked at the doorway expectantly.

Nobody showed up, and she heard no more footsteps, no more shouts, no sounds they indicated anybody was making their way towards her. She buried her face in her hands and sat down on her bed, having retreated to said bedroom after the guards ran off. Because she really needed a place to hyperventilate without anyone seeing her. And although she had gotten that out of her system, Eclipsa was still talking to herself, trying to convince her mind that this was normal, and not out of the ordinary in any way.

She clearly wasn't having much luck. And even as she drifted back to that dream time and time again, a million times a minute no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, the Queen was still freaking out. She and Globgor had prepared for this ever since that night, that message. Mostly mentally. They thought they were ready. That they'd be perfectly okay with an alternate universe future version of their daughter just popping into existence, a version of her that they would then have to help with...whatever was going on. The two of them knew it'd be something, but they didn't know exactly what. Which would only make this more difficult. How could they prepare for a talk or a therapy session or whatever it was she needed without knowing what the problem was beforehand? It was all going too fast!

Then finally...finally...she heard a faint clanking noise as one of her knights approached her bedroom, marked by the unmistakable sound of their armor slapping against the stone floor. The most wonderful sound she had heard in a long time. The knight got closer and closer until they came into view, rubbing one of their eyes for some reason and frantically blinking the other as if they were seeing spots. Eclipsa's joy faded as she realized that something dreadful had happened to them, but they spoke first before she could query them about the matter.

"Queen Eclipsa." The knight groaned, sounding very much like he didn't want to be here. He paused for a second to blink both of his eyes in rapid succession but let out an annoyed groan in response, apparently having failed at whatever he was trying to accomplish. "Your husban-I mean, King Globgor has sent for you, and requested that you join him and the intruder. He has also asked that you bring along Princess Meteora for a reason that I am in too much pain to care about."

As overjoyed as Eclipsa was to get news at last, even if it was only a simple request from Globgor, she couldn't help but take note of the last part of the guards words, about him being in great pain. Frankly, this was unnecessary at best, and a complete breach of protocol at worst. Normally Eclipsa would give a slight reprimanding if such a thing occurred, reminding them to be knight-like in all situations. But the way he was rubbing his eyes and cursing under his breath made her reconsider and instead inquire about said eye pain, as she had a feeling that alternate universe Meteora had a role to play in it.

"Are you okay?" She asked. "What's wrong with your eyes?"

The knight huffed in annoyance like this question has physically hurt them. "That little brat that broke into the Temple blasted me in the face with some kind of light power. Now I'm seeing spots and I don't know if it's permanent or not." He then mumbled. "Fucking better not…"

"Light...power…?" Eclipsa asked nervously.

"Yeah. And I think she yelled something right before she did it." The knight claimed, before digging through their memory in an attempt to remember. "Something like...soli? Salai? Salami?"

"Solis?"

"Ah! Yeah! That's the one! Solis..." The knight exclaimed. "After that, she thrust her palm right at me and before I knew it, I was blinded. Thank Mewni this helmet protected me from some of that, otherwise it would have melted my eyeballs right out of my head."

Eclipsa sat wide-mouthed on the bed, unable to hide her shock at the news of her daughter's surprise spell-usage. That was something she hadn't been informed of. Although considering who gave her the news, she really shouldn't be surprised that some information was withheld, even something as important as that...

"Is something wrong my Queen?" He asked, no longer concentrating on the intense burning sensation they felt. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"It's...nothing. Just a yawn." Eclipsa lied, before closing her mouth. "But anyways, Globgor wants to see me? With the intruder?"

"Yup. And he wants you to bring Meteora. I'm going to be honest with you, I think the king needs a psychiatrist. When we finally caught up with the girl, he didn't order us to apprehend her. He told us to leave him with her despite what we said about her being dangerous. I swear, I've never wanted to disobey an order more than in that moment."

"I'm sure he had a very good reason." Eclipsa said. 'No doubt warning to speak with Meteora in private.' She thought. 'Convince her that's everything's alright and we're not here to hurt her. Judging by her reaction to me, she likely didn't expect any of this to happen. I can only imagine what she's thinking right now, or when she cast that spell…'

"But very well." Eclipsa blurted out, getting off the bed and heading to the door that led to baby Meteora's room. "Stay here. I'll need you to guide me to them."

"Yes my Queen." The knight answered, before muttering, "First sensible order I've gotten all day…"

Eclipsa pushed open the scratch-covered door and was met with the sight of her child ferociously chewing the head off one of her many dolls. At her feet lay a pile of other doll heads, all of them brutally mangled with button eyes lying on the floor, crushed to pieces while white fluff carpeting the area. Meteora laughed sadistically as she finally managed to rip the head off entirely and shook it around like a dog with a chew toy. Upon spotting her mother, she spit it out and started wagging her tail.

"Aw, busy day sweetheart?" Eclipsa cooed, approaching her baby and scooping her up in her arms. Meteora giggled and began to playfully pat her mother's face. Eclipsa smiled and carried her outside to the waiting knight, who was now mumbling on about witches or mountain lions or some other nonsense that Eclipsa had no desire to make sense of. "Can you take me to my husband now?" She asked, while Meteora gnawed at her arm sleeves like a dog trying to get a cone off their head.

"Yes my Queen." The knight said again, and the two of them set off down the hallway, the same hallway that Eclipsa had panic-walked down earlier after seeing the teenage version of her daughter. A small part of her did wonder why Globgor had requested for her to bring baby Meteora, although it was likely so that he could confirm that it was truly her. And now that Eclipsa had the chance, she looked down and inspected her baby's tail, biting her lip upon realizing that yes, it was the same tail teenage Meteora had. And there were plenty of other similarities she noticed without even having to look at her from the front. The ears (or ear in this case), the hair, the odd purple markings on her arms and legs, the claws, even though baby Meteora's were still growing in. All of these were the same.

Yet for some reason, Eclipsa has secretly wanted for it to not be her. She didn't understand why. Perhaps she believed that she simply wasn't ready? Preposterous! They had prepared. They were prepared. They woke up every morning reminded themselves that today might be the day, and that they should get ready in case it was. But now that that day had come, now that it was finally time to meet her, Eclipsa discovered that no, no, she was not ready. Might never be ready. Because nothing could have ever really made them qualified for any of this. She just had to suck it up and go with the flow, as the humans liked to say.

'Suck it up…' She thought. 'I wonder if that's what Meteora is thinking right now…'


"H-hold on. You're telling me...that you knew I was coming all along?!"

"Well, not all along...but we've certainly known for a long time."

Meteora (the teenager, not the one chewing off people's heads) was currently having a mental crisis. And this time it was a big one. After her father had sent away the knights that were trying to capture her, he had revealed that he and her mother had known that she was coming back from the future (well, really, teleporting from one area to another after traveling from the future, but that's besides the point), and that they had been getting ready for her arrival. She could only stare and ask how, stil dumbfounded by the information that had been presented to her.

"How...how did you...what in…." She started, her voice sounding like a three year olds attempt at speaking.

"It's a long story." Globgor claimed. "And it involves some stuff that might be hard for you to believe in."

Meteora raised an eyebrow and briefly switched back to her normal self, unable to hold back on making a "my life is crazier than yours" comment. "Try me." She said. "Because I'm sure that I'm the one here who knows things that you'd have trouble believing in."

Globgor laughed. "You're probably right. Even though we knew this was coming, I'm still having trouble believing that you're standing right here in front of me. But like I said earlier, everything will be explained when your mother gets here. With...baby you."

Meteora winced. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. What would happen if she saw the past version of herself? Would they both fade out of existence? Fall into a trance and start repeating the same actions? Nothing at all? The Voice had never really mentioned that, as far as Meteora remembered, so she assumed that it mustn't have been that important. But on the other hand...she didn't really want to risk it. "Time-travel bullshit" as the Voice put it. Something that Meteora knew she might not ever understand fully. She had the tools to do it, she just didn't know what put the tools together besides magic. And frankly, as long as it didn't endanger her life, she didn't care.

So she currently cared a great deal about it. But that was something to focus on later. She wanted answers. And if she wasn't allowed to know why they knew about, she at least wanted to be informed about a couple other things.

"Then answer me this." She said. "How...how long have you known? T-that I was coming."

Globgor let out a deep breath and rubbed his scalp. "A good…six months now? It's been a while. We've spent every day making sure to ready ourselves in case you arrived. I think I was a little more prepared than your mother was, but even so...I'm having trouble keeping everything together."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Meteora asked in concern, hoping that she wasn't about to watch her father go insane right in front of her.

"Oh, you know, not fainting and stuff." Globgor explained, before seeing her worried expression. "Don't worry. It's nothing bad. I'm just...surprised. Very, very surprised."

"I'm pretty sure everyone is right now." Meteora surmised, wondering if Ery was even awake yet and aware of her disappearance. This whole thing was definitely an improvement compared to that, due to the people that were involved, but...at least there she had an idea of what was going on, faint as it was. This was just crazy.

As Globgor was about to respond to this, they both simultaneously turned their heads at the sudden noise of two people coming down the hallway to their left, one of which Meteora instantly recognized as the clanking of a knight's armor. She gulped as they turned the corner and glared furiously upon spotting her. But they held their stance and moved aside to let Eclipsa enter, carrying Meteora who was now teething on one of her mother's fingers.

The second time they had seen each other, and the first they had met eyes. Globgor stood up from where he was kneeling and looked from his wife to his future daughter, hoping that one of them spoke first so that he didn't have to.

Eclipsa turned towards the knight. "You are dismissed." She said.

"What! You too?!" They exclaimed, unable to hold back their indignation. "Your majesty, while normally I would follow your orders without question, I feel like I have too just in case you and the King have gone insane. Because royal bylaws state that no monarch that is not of right mind can give orders."

"I am aware of this law, and I assure you, we are fully sane." Eclipsa reassured him. "But our business with the intruder is not your concern. It is ours alone. So leave us. That's an order."

"...Ugh. Fine." The knight said, after taking a deep breath. They walked off, mumbling about how they should have chosen to be a Solarian when they got the chance. Eclipsa made a mental note to have them reassigned later and turned towards the rest of her family. She put on her best motherly smile upon seeing their expressions, hoping that it would put future Meteora at ease

"So...here we all are." She said, a rather jovial tone to her voice.

"Yeah." Meteora responded, lowering her head and tensing her shoulders up as if to make herself smaller. "Here we all are..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Malk! Malk!" A childish voice said, breaking the silence, and everybody looked down at baby Meteora, who was gesticulating her hands at her mother and appeared to be asking for something. "Malk!" She repeated.

"Uh…" Meteora said. "Does she...I mean, do I…...oh god, this is so weird. Does...past...me...want something?"

"Oh, that's just her way of saying milk." Eclipsa answered, who then quickly pulled a purple and green bottle out of her pocket, popped the lid off and handed it to baby Meteora, who opened her mouth and started vigorously sucking on it like there was no tomorrow. The three grown ups in the room stared at her for a second, before Eclipsa cleared her throat and spoke confidently, as if giving her baby the bottle had broken any tension between the three.

"Now them, I'm guessing your father told you that everything would be explained once I arrived."

"Mm. Yeah, that's pretty much what happened." Meteora said, before spreading her arms and finally letting loose with her mouth. "So could one of you please explain to me exactly what the fuck is going on here?!"

"Ah! Please, watch your language." Globgor pleaded with her. "We try not to swear around here. Because if we do-"

"Fack!" Baby Meteora suddenly called out, echoing her future counterpart's words and letting go of her bottle in the process. "Fack! Fack!"

"…...then that happens. Oh boy." Globgor groaned, putting his hand over his eyes and letting out an annoyed and tired groan at what was sure to come.

"Errr...sorry." Meteora said, grinning embarrassingly. "Force of habit."

"Fack. Fack. Fack!" Baby Meteora droned on, before Eclipsa shoved the milk bottle back in her mouth. She latched on again and started drinking, but they could still hear her saying the word, muffled as it was.

"Force of habit, eh?" She asked, looking down at her baby in concern. "I hope this doesn't stick. Last time this happened, she said the same word nonstop for three days straight. And that one was far less...vulgar than this."

"Sorry." Meteora said again, rubbing the back of her head. "Uh, you know, I think we all got off to a bad start. Can we start anew with this whole conversation?"

"Please do." Eclipsa said.

"Okay, good. So, then, what's going on, and how did you know I was coming?" She asked, taking special care to avoid swearing this time.

"It's a bit of a story." Eclipsa said. "How about we move somewhere a little more...private first?" She suggested, gesturing her free hand towards the surrounding Temple, where anybody could walk in and see/hear them.

"That's probably a good idea." Meteora said, and without another word being said, the three of them headed towards Eclipsa's bedroom, the first place the Queen thought of. Eclipsa was at the front of the trio, taking careful glances at baby Meteora to make sure that she didn't chug down the whole bottle. Globgor was behind her, appearing to be deep in thought. And behind both of them was regular Meteora, who was also lost in her own head. Her legs were moving on autopilot as she contemplated just how she had gotten into this mess. Time-travel, right? Yeah, that was it. And then teleportation for some reason...did she have any dreams last night that might explain why this happened? Meteora couldn't remember. Which was bad. Because she had learned that her dreams were very important to her past and powers, despite how vague they were at times.

But if the answer didn't lie in dreams, and if the Voice was still somewhere doing who knows what and not watching and waiting to see what to do next like it had back at the hut, and if her parents didn't know and were just told that she was coming for whatever reason and nothing else, then she was on her own in order to find the answers. Again.

'That's too many ands.' She thought. 'Way too many for my liking. Whatever's going on, there has to be a sensible reason behind it. One where the reason isn't just "magic". Because frankly, that's getting to be a lazy explanation. After all, there has to be a sensible reason that magic's able to do what it does, right? Something like that can't just exist and break the laws of everything at the same time without causing the Universe to explode. Didn't the Voice say that magic existed in atoms? No, wait, it also said that magic was what held the atoms together...or something. But that means that all of this has to have a scientific reasoning behind…...behind…'

Meteora paused and her shoulders dropped.

'Oh, who am I kidding?' She asked herself. 'Scientific explanation? Give me a break. Jenkins once told me that his scientists had been working on a non-magical way of teleportation, but everything they did manage to transport died upon arrival from all their atoms being flung about where they weren't supposed to. Obviously I'm not dead again...I think, so why bother trying to figure this out the Earth way? Magic is what I have now, so maybe I should just say "screw it" and go along with all the crazy bullshit I see every single day. Including this.'

With her mind made up, Meteora decided to simply let her parents say whatever they had to say and accept it, regardless of how nonsensical it might sound. It was easier than trying to understand all of it, something that she couldn't be bothered to do anymore. Meteora already had enough to deal with without having to think about this too.

So the three of them trudged on until they reached a door that was immediately recognized by Eclipsa and Globgor, and only slightly recognized by Meteora, who felt that the doorway seemed familiar. It took her a moment to realize that she had seen it before, back when she explored the destroyed Monster Temple in her timeline, although she hadn't been aware of whose room it was. But this did explain why all the carvings on the walls looked more intricate than in other parts of the building. Meteora did note that they seemed much...fancier.

They all entered and took a seat. Eclipsa sat down on her bed and placed baby Meteora on a blanket, who began crawling about until she grabbed a pillow and bit off a chunk of it, then another. Nobody noticed.

Globgor sat down in a chair standing in a corner that looked like a dusty old throne, and Meteora wondered if that used to be his throne, before taking a seat of her own in a chair that had been pushed into a work desk covered in numerous documents and dozens of pens and ink quills. They all made themselves comfortable before staring at each other rather awkwardly again.

Meteora spoke first. "Okay. We're here." She said. "Now could you explain what's going on? Do you know why I'm here?"

"We...don't know why exactly." Globgor said. "All we really knew is that a version of our daughter from the future, you, was going to arrive and that we'd have to help her with whatever she was going through."

"..."

"..."

"Wait...are you serious?" Meteora asked, wondering if that was it. She wasn't disappointed per se, but still far from happy with the answer. She had been forcefully teleported halfway across the continent to her parents so they could help her? Help her with what? Her father had said that it'd be "whatever she was going through." But if she was going by that definition, then the list describing things that she quote in quote was "going through" would be several miles long. Not to mention boring and repetitive at times, as well as insanely nonsensical. Hopefully finding out where she learned this might clear things up.

'But even if I do know, what am I supposed to do then?' She thought. 'Tell them about why my life sucks so bad until they give me some miracle advice that can instantly fix all my problems? If simple advice had the power to do that, then the Voice would have given it to me a long, long time ago! Sure, it's given me plenty of advice that's been really helpful, but this doesn't make any…...any…...wait, no, it might actually make sense, don't make too many assumptions Meteora.' She reminded herself. 'That may only be part of the answer after all. I'm betting that there's a lot more they still have to tell you, like where they learned about that and maybe even a hint on what exactly they have to help me with. You're out of your element here. Calm down, and don't overreact. No ones going to hurt you, and you're not in any danger. These are your parents, and that's literally a baby version of you crawling on the bed and...tearing a pillow apart.' She frowned at the ravenous display from her younger self. 'Hm. Someone should really stop that. But more importantly…'

Meteora gulped and let her arms fall to her sides, instead of crossing them at her chest like she'd usually do in a situation like this. 'No freaking out, no yelling, no more swearing, no nothing that might make them suspicious. This is real after all. This is them. This is…...is…'

She then closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip, almost praying that this wasn't all a giant set-up.

'Oh level five being, I really hope this is them and I'm not just thinking it is because of how badly I want it to be.'

"Why? Is that a...bad answer?" Globgor asked, finally snapping Meteora out of her own head. She gazed at him for a second before remembering what they had been talking about. She then sighed and answered, letting whatever was going to happen happen as it had too.

"It's not a bad answer." She said. "I think I was just expecting a different one. I was hoping you guys knew what was going on and why I was here, because I don't. I fell asleep, and when I woke up...I was at the Temple."

"When you woke up you were here?" Eclipsa mumbled, appearing to be confused by this statement. "That suggests you weren't asleep in the Monster Temple when it happened. Where were you sleeping? Do we not live here anymore?"

Meteora felt her right eyeball twitch involuntarily at this question. That's right. They didn't know. They didn't know about the apocalypse or anything like that. They assumed that she was still living here, and not in some death-filled wasteland with two other people and a truckload of problems that they couldn't even begin to imagine.

And even worse, she wasn't sure what to tell them. This could go several ways. The Voice has already explained that any changes she made to this timeline didn't affect her own because the second she arrived it split off from the main one. That meant she could prevent Seth from bombing everything like she had been talking about without having to lose Jenkins and Mariposa in such an abrupt manner. If she told her parents this, that Seth was going to escape from that prison up north in a while like the Voice claimed, then they could relay that message to the Jenkins from this timeline, who'd relay it to the prison, and then they would up security to the point where escape was impossible, even for whatever the hell broke him out in the first place. Giant monster or not. The end. She wins, Seth loses, and the world is saved.

But.

Was it her right to do so?

A small part of Meteora asked herself if it was truly right letting this happen. Well, of course it was right! She'd be saving billions! Earthni might get the chance to sort out the problems between the three races. Baby her might not have to live the most traumatic childhood ever known to man. Then she and Mariposa could become best friends instead of forced siblings! (Not that she minded the latter, but she wanted to know what it'd be like if they grew up normally together. She wouldn't mind giving this version of her that chance.)

But...what if it was meant to happen? The whole thing with Seth destroying the world, her and Mari being raised by Jenkins, learning to kill, finding the Voice, fighting Janna and Drosid, and even now, at this point, with her teleporting to this Temple in the past. What if this was what was supposed to happen? That all this was somehow predestined? Heck, maybe her parents, the ones in her timeline, experienced this as well. That it was all just a giant loop the Voice was unaware of, and they had met with a future version of their daughter and she had decided not to change any of it because of the same thoughts that Meteora was having right now.

However, Meteora was aware, of course, that this was nothing but speculation. Perhaps that course was the wrong one and her stopping the apocalypse was the predestined path. That this timeline and hers are the only ones out there. After all, it seemed like the Voice would know about the others if they existed, wouldn't it? It always seemed to pull that sort of information out of nowhere. And it had been a true Demi-god in the past. Something Meteora was sure it still yearned to return to.

Then there was the other option...that none of this was predestined. But she didn't want to think about that. Just the two right in front of her.

She couldn't make up her mind. It was all going so fast. She was still clueless. But lie or tell the truth? The potential outcomes and consequences of both were staggering. So Meteora made a choice to do both, depending on what happened.

She'd tell a lie for now. But later, after this version of her parents had told her everything they knew, she would deem it wise or not to tell them the real truth. If not, Meteora would keep her mouth shut, and that'd be the end of it. But if so, then she could finally tell them everything. Hopefully save this timeline in the process. Then when the Voice returned from...wherever, they'd go back home to the present and deal with that whole mess. Sure, she wouldn't be accomplishing anything that had to do with her future, but this one might just turn out alright, and wasn't that what she was supposed to do? Save the world?

Maybe she wasn't meant to save just hers.

'Alright.' She thought. 'It's official. That's the plan. Sure, there's probably a better one out there, but all in all, I'd say that's pretty good. Now, where would I be sleeping if not here...hm. Got it."

"I was...having a sleepover at Mari's house."

"Mari?" Globgor asked.

"Mariposa Diaz." Meteora enunciated. "It's a nickname for her. You...you do know who she is right?" She then mumbled, "Unless this timeline is already changed for some reason, that really wouldn't help matters."

"Yes, of course." Eclipsa said, much to Meteora's relief. "The Diazes' second child. You two…" She glanced at baby Meteora who was now chasing her tail like a puppy. "Have already had several play dates together, both on when Mewni wasn't merged with Earth and when it was, and I must say, I'm happy that you two are still friends in the future. Although I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise, because according to Marco, you grew up together in the same dimension at one point for fifteen years, thanks to some weird time laws between Mewni and the...Neverzone, I believe it was called. Still trying to sort out what that means. But no worries. We know full well who she is."

'Neverzone? Fifteen years? That explains what Mari was talking about that one time.' Meteora thought. 'She said that back on the mountain, when Janna made us see all those illusions, she hallucinated a bunch of monsters that she could only defeat by touching them and seeing memories of their earlier deaths or something. The memories of those monsters must have been from the Neverzone days. Hm. I wonder if I could ever get those back…'

"Hey, can I ask a question?" Globgor queried. "About the future, if it's not too much trouble?"

"Hm? Oh, uh, yeah. Sure. Go ahead." Meteora muttered, still mostly focusing on the whole thing with the Neverzome.

"Okay." Globgor said, before rubbing his hand together like he was readying himself to ask it. "Is the future...nice? How is it all doing? How's Earthni and the rest of the world fifteen years from now?"

If anything her father had said to her the whole time had gotten Meteora's attention, it was that. As the echo of his voice faded out of the room, she started to sweat and got several flashbacks, each more traumatic than the last. It was like a highlight reel, but the "highlights" consisted of the worst moments rather than the best. "Ummm…"

"We can't just leave her here!" "Yes we can, let's go!"

"Thanks for taking care of us for all those years. You...were a good father to us."

"But whoever I met certainly didn't look anything like a god."

"SHE HAS MAGIC! KILL HER!"

"Whack her legs with one of the clubs. Make sure she can't leave easily. I'll make sure she can't get down."

"The snow...is so beautiful."

"Well…" Meteora attempted to say, but failed as she now had an expression on her face that looked like she had just bitten into a lemon after the sudden influx of memories she just received. And some of these weren't even the most traumatic ones. In fact, out of these, only the ones where she had died lying in the snow and seeing her little sister bash an eleven year old's head were the ones that had the greatest impact on her.

She knew Drosid was powerful, but with her magic combined with the fact that she barely saw him for no longer than a few minutes, she found it hard to be scared. Janna and her priests were just an annoyance at this point. Jenkins mentioning that he met god might have made her slightly anxious back then, but now that she knew he might have only met the level five being or even a level four (she still didn't know how, and wasn't going to ask), it wasn't nearly as concerning.

But they all still affected her in some way. And there were so many. So many more that she could think of. She was sure that her "childhood" couldn't even be referred to as such. She had been thrust into a life with nothing but adult concepts. No real bedtimes, no school, no friends, only family, and nothing but suffering happening all around her. No matter how hard Jenkins tried to make the earlier years as comfortable for them as he could, it was impossible. Those were the worst years after all. (Apart from maybe the ones going on right now, because Meteora wasn't sure how much life had really improved since she got magic. Everything still sucked regardless, as it always had, as it always would.)

But those were the worst years because they had to be more careful back then. More scavengers, larger spreads of radiation, bigger groups to watch out for, and only Jenkins was there to protect them most of the time. While she and Mari knew full well how to kill someone, they lacked the strength to do any real damage. The intended victim might end up with a bruised eye or a few scratches at most. Because Meteora's claws hadn't grown in, her monster strength hadn't kicked in, and Mariposa was basically useless. They both were. Just a pair of toddlers that were trained in each and every way to murder a person, but any attempt at doing so would only cost them their own life.

She had gotten quite a few scars in those days. None of which she placed among the three or four that she knew would be visible for the rest of her life (those were entirely different tales of their own) but even looking at where they used to be gave Meteora a slight recollection of the event, along with all the pain that came with it. So many times she had rushed in while trying to help Jenkins, even if he had the situation completely under control. (Which was most of them.) And each time she did the enemy slashed Meteora across the cheek or chest with a knife when she got too close, creating a new scarlet stain in the dirt. Then Jenkins would get all pissy, kill the person who had dared to hurt her, treat her wounds, chide her again for doing something so stupid, and that'd be the end of it. Meteora eventually learned that one day she might receive more than a simple cut, so she stopped doing until Jenkins thought she was ready. Which wasn't for a couple years more.

But the first time he let her willingly join a fight, was also the first time that she ever killed. And her claws, which had finally grown to the point that she could actually hurt someone with them, was the instrument Meteora used to do the deed. (Well...most of it anyways. At one point she had...used something else that was sharp.) It was a memory that she never mentioned after it happened, and neither did Jenkins. They had both agreed to never speak of it again, mostly because of how it had occurred in the first place.

She had only been 9 years old at the time. Still a child by the old world's standard, but Jenkins believed that she was ready, as he had seen plenty of child killers before. Or maybe he got annoyed by her constant whining after forbidding her from jumping in a few years ago, and allowed it to finally get her to stop. Maybe he truly thought that Meteora was capable of taking a life. She was, of course, but he didn't account for how much hesitation she would face when it actually came down to it...and how she'd actually carry it out. Thinking about doing something is much different than actually carrying out the action after all. Something Meteora learned firsthand.

They had been ambushed by a pair of three scavengers. All of them frankly really weak and unthreatening, even as a group, but they had recognized the greatest threat first, and managed to sneak up on Jenkins before one of them smacked him in the head with a baseball bat, while Meteora and Mariposa could only watch. He tried to fight back, but the blurriness in his vision and the intense throbbing sensation coming from his skull made it slightly hard to fight back. So he yelled at the two of them to grab their knives, join in, and fight back. The day he had trained them for had come.

But it wasn't that easy at first. They were still, after all, children. Mariposa in particular. Her natural human instincts kicked in and she ran away out of fear after seeing the person who had basically ripped apart any person that threatened them in the past being brought to his knees. This had happened quite a few times in the earlier days. She got better over time, but out of the two, Mari definitely had issues with confidence at first. It was only until about a year later did she start jumping in as soon as possible and ruthlessly executing anyone that attacked them, regardless of who they were. It had been quite the change. After the fifth time she had run away from a fight, something in Mari...shifted. Although she never saw it actually happen, Meteora knew that Jenkins pulled Mari aside every now and then after this incident to help her out with her confidence problem. To do something like extra training that would help her understand that the ones attacking them weren't people. They were the enemy. And the enemy must be exterminated.

She certainly hadn't had training like that, only preferring to murder when it was necessary. However, she and her sister were polar opposites now. Meteora at first wanted to kill and fight like Jenkins, so no training was necessary in that regard, but now she was the most pacifistic out of any of them. (Although that was being slightly generous. Not a single person left on the planet could be considered a true pacifist.) As for Mariposa, she didn't want to hurt anyone in the early days, but eventually turned into the sister with the least compassion for her would-be murderers. And after a couple of days of training, she, despite all her confidence issues, finally became a murderer. A real one. A person that didn't dispatch the people she saw out of self-defense, but simply because they were there.

Jenkins had made sure to put a stop to that little phase, after a month of her viciously attacking and killing anyone on sight that wasn't him and his other foster daughter with the steak knife she had found. His "training" had been a bit too effective, and Jenkins saw what he had turned her into and regretted it. He furiously pulled her aside one time to explain a few things to the girl, and it seemed she had trouble understanding again that no, not everyone is your enemy, just the ones that are swinging back at you. She finally understood that what she was doing was terrible, but only because Jenkins pushed himself to flat-out yell at her after she slit the throats of three random and defenseless people for seemingly no real reason. People that had stumbled upon them right in the middle of his explanation.

Jenkins hadn't been fast enough to catch Mariposa before her killer instincts kicked in and she ended their lives, despite standing right next to her at the time. (This led to Meteora suspecting that he allowed her to do this one last time so he could find a proper excuse for what he did next. Especially due to the fact that he hadn't taken her knife away beforehand, almost like he was hoping this might happen.) And as the life left their bodies while Mari looked down at her handiwork, Jenkins walked over and blew up at her. It was the angriest either of them have ever seen him. Because despite all the people that Jenkins had killed, he still greatly valued innocent life. Mariposa cried it out after he was finished and her murderous impulse came out with the tears, but was still...jumpy for years afterwards. She had taken a dozen lives by the end of it, maybe all of them innocent, and Jenkins made sure to never talk about them after her breakdown. Never added them to the list of people that they had seen die, and neither did she. Because if anyone ever found out the truth, they'd think she was a monster inside, despite her never going back to that lifestyle. Yet another event in their lives that was never to be spoken about.

He had also never apologized for yelling at her. Because in his eyes, the person he was scolding was hardly even human at that point, nothing but a ruthless executioner. It had taken the person who had taught her the lesson she was carrying out to scream at her to finally stop the rampage, and it was a good few weeks before she earned the privilege to carry any type of weapon again.

But he did apologize for teaching that lesson to her in the first place. Because after all, the whole mess was kinda his fault. Mari just misinterpreted it all.

And what was Meteora doing during this? Squat, that's what. She had been nothing but a frightened bystander the whole time, afraid of falling asleep each night and refusing to go to bed next to her sister as the body count kept racking up. And worst of all, Meteora didn't know if Mari actually enjoyed killing all those people or if she thought they were actually evil. Because if she did, then it meant that for a brief time, her sister had deteriorated to the point where she wasn't killing because they were threats. She had been killing for fun.

If Jenkins let it continue after those last three, then who knows what might have happened. The odds were that she would have eventually slit their throats while they slept and then gone off to kill anyone else that crossed her path.

But...back to the memory where Meteora had taken her first life. Because frankly, the rabbit hole of horrible things that they had been through in the past could go on for hours. The hybrid teens mind drifted away from her sister's most unfortunate phase and went back to one of her own dark moments.

Mari ran. They found her huddled in a nearby abandoned car a half-hour later, and the second she saw she started apologizing more times than was needed. Which was none. Jenkins didn't blame her. And Meteora could hardly hear any of it. Because after her sister had fled, she froze as well. Jenkins was down on the ground, one of the scavengers was approaching her, and she had turned into a statue. The scavenger, a sadistic smile on their face and a glimmer in their eyes, raised their knife to stab her in the head, all the while she stood still, doing nothing to stop it. Jenkins saw it coming, got a panicked look on his face, and yelled one thing that snapped her out of it. Eleven words. That's all it took.

"Meteora! If you die, you'll never get to see your parent!"

And…

And it worked. Because afterwards, she wasn't frozen anymore. It was more like the Universe itself had froze, and she had all the time in the world to think. So she did. That statement meant more and more the longer she thought about it. Because that was their goal. Still was. To meet her parents. She had been through nine years of hell, and this was seriously it? Killed by some nobody with a simple pocket knife? No. No, this was not how it was going to end. Her story was not over yet. She decided that however this fight ended, it was going to be on her terms, not anyone else's. The world came back to her as time unfroze.

Then in that moment, for the first time in her entire life, something inside of Meteora snapped.

She went berserk. Her face instantly transformed into a scowl, the girl becoming enraged by the prospect of never getting to see her mom and dad. Her first move consisted of ducking under the knife, grabbing it, and snatching it out of their hand. The person couldn't hide the shock on their face as their weapon was stolen from them, and raised their arms to protect themselves from when Meteora stabbed them with their own weapon.

Only she didn't.

She tossed the knife aside, bent her knees, and then leapt at them like an animal, claws aiming for their face, with her mouth wide open and showing off teeth that looked like they had been plucked from the mouth of a shark. The scavenger let out one last cry of surprise as she descended on them and literally started to rip them to pieces. Her claws slashed downwards over and over again at insane speeds, making a mess of their torso and head as blood and viscera went flying everywhere. Jenkins and the scavenger's two companions looked on in disbelief as Meteora slaughtered them like a wolf or a bear tearing apart a smaller creature, without mercy or any kind of restraint. Her victim was helpless to fight back, completely overwhelmed by Meteora's onslaught.

But Jenkins took the opportunity. He grabbed the bat out of one of their hands and whacked his assailant in the mouth with it before hitting the other one in the ribs, installing breaking several of them and making them fall to the ground in agony. Knowing the bat would take too long, he grabbed his fallen knife from off the ground and quickly stabbed them both in the head, causing them both to die without a sound. He paused and then turned his attention back towards Meteora, who was now lowering her mouth towards her victim's bare neck to finish them off.

Jenkins forced himself to look away as she bit in and then yanked her head back, ripping out their throat and killing them instantly. Their movements stopped as she spit out the chunk of meat and then sat there panting, momentarily unaware as to what she had just done. Jenkins gulped and approached her with caution, and the glare he gave her when he got too close made him want to run and hide along with Mariposa. Her eyes were like empty pits, deep and with no trace of Mewmanity in them. He almost thought they were glowing green for a second, before he quickly passed it off as an illusion, knowing what that would entail and refusing to believe it. But he didn't back down. Even if she attacked him, it was still his job to take care of her now. And that included helping her through moments like...this.

"Meteora…" He said. "Can you hear me? Can you understand me? Are you...there?"

However, her response was not what he was expecting. Instead of coming to her senses and saying something, she instead arched her back up like an animal and growled. Jenkins took a step back in surprise, but didn't retreat any further. He couldn't. Not yet. Not ever.

"Meteora." He said sternly. "I don't know what's happening with you right now, but whatever it is, I promise we'll get you through it. Me and your sister. Just...please calm down." He held his knife up in the air, and Meteora eyes it warily. "Look." He said, setting the weapon down on the ground in front of him. "I'm unarmed now. I'm not a threat. The threat is gone. The people...who were going to take your parents away from you are gone. You don't have to be a monster anymore. You don't have to do this. Just...come back to us."

Jenkins didn't know if he had said the right thing, as Meteora didn't respond at first. But eventually she started blinking before groaning and clutched her head. She then got back on her own two feet, although she clearly had trouble standing normally. Whatever spell had taken her over faded as her mind returned, but with no memories of what happened. She blinked a few more times before looking down and seeing the mess she had made, along with her blood-soaked clothes and a metallic taste in her mouth. Pure terror came to her eyes as she let out a cry of surprise and fell over. Before Jenkins could explain, Meteora scooted away from the corpse as fast as she could, horrified by the sight.

"Wha-what happened?!" She asked, before she spotted Jenkins, who now realized her ignorance of the event. "D-did I…?"

"No! Meteora, whatever you're thinking, it's not what happened." Jenkins said, quickly walking over to her and kneeling down. "Listen to me. Don't blame yourself for this. This wasn't you. This...wasn't you." He reacted, having a hard time finding the right things to say and just sticking with the cliches.

"But...but…" Meteora said, her lip quivering. She held her claws up to her face, one of which still had a piece of skin hanging off of it. She shrieked and shook it off before tears came to her eyes and she started sobbing uncontrollably.

"I-I'm a monster!" She cried out, reflexivity burying her face in her hands, causing them both to now be coated in crimson. "Why...why did I…...is this because of my dad? Some weird monster impulse I have? Why didn't you tell me?! What's happening to me?!"

"I don't know!" Jenkins said, desperate to calm her down. He grabbed her shoulders, something he had only done once or twice in the past. "Meteora. Meteora, look at me!"

The girl, although still crying to a degree where the blood that had been dribbling down her chin had been washed away and her clothes were becoming her own personal tissue, obeyed and gazed into his eyes, sniffling and filled with such guilt for her actions that it felt like it was crushing her.

"You're not a monster." Jenkins claimed. "Whatever that was...whatever you did...it wasn't you. The fact that you don't remember it proves that. I don't know what it was. But I do know that you're not like that." He pointed at the mangled body. "I know you'd never do that to a person. You're Meteora Butterfly. You're not a merciless killer, and I'm not angry or upset. So calm down. Because we'll get through this, and figure out why it happened. I promise. Okay?"

Meteora sniffed again and wiped her nose. "O-okay." She said. She then captured Jenkins in a hug, her claws digging into his back. He didn't react to the pain and simply returned the hug, intending to keep his promise and help her solve this mystery. No matter what.

But they never did.

They never found out how she had gone berserk like that. The event, if anything, was a one-off. She never leaped at another person and tore into them like a predator ever again. Jenkins knew that the thought of her never seeing her parents had been the switch to activate it, so he assumed that it was nothing but a rage-activated response she inherited from Globgor, something that Meteora accepted immediately, due to her wanting any answer matter how simple it was.

And it was never spoken of again.

But...the recent events. Her sister bashing the boys head in with a rock. Her sister becoming a murderer. Meteora tearing into that scavenger and ripping out their throat with her teeth. All of them and more. When her father asked the question, asked her how the future was, that's what came to mind. She only just now realized how long it must have taken her to have flashbacks of all those events, as her past parents were now looking at her with their heads tilted, as if she had suddenly fallen asleep right then and there.

"Do...do you need me to repeat the questi-"

"The future is...nice." Meteora said sheepishly, trying not to think of all the memories she had just vividly relived. "There have been some ups and downs...but overall, it's pretty nice."

"Oh. Well, I'm glad." Eclipsa said. "How are the three species of the world doing? Have we finally gotten past our differences?"

Meteora's eyes started twitching again. "That? Oh, um, there are still some people that aren't big fans of monsters or Mewmans, but most of the people that believe in that stuff...I'm pretty sure they're no longer around."

"What's that mean?" Globgor asked. "Have they seen the error of their ways, or were they all sent off to prison?"

Meteora resisted the urge to just flat out say "they're dead, along with most of everyone else". It was hard. The more she thought about it, the more Meteora realized that she wouldn't be able to dance her way around the questions much longer. She needed an excuse for them to take a break, even if it really hadn't been that since they started talking, and she still didn't know how they knew she was coming. This conversation had literally begun a few minutes ago that she thought about it.

"A...bit of both." She answered. "It really depended on who exactly they were. Some were willing to change, and some weren't." She put on her best smile. "I know you guys are dealing with this kind of stuff right now, so I'm sure you can guess who belonged to which category."

Eclipsa chuckled. "I most definitely can. But, now I have something else to ask. Something I tried to hold off until later to be polite, but I simply have to know." She took a drop breath. "What happened to your ear? Why is part of it missing like that?"

Meteora bit her tongue and started frantically thinking for a reason as to why a good chunk of her ear was gone and why it was wrapped up in an old bandage that really needed to be replaced. Her eyes soon fell on baby her, now sound asleep on the bed and drooling.

Meteora pointed at her. "Word of advice." She said. "Keep her away from the kitchen knives. And that's all I'm going to say about that."

"Oh my…" Eclipsa said, putting a hand up to her mouth. "Well, I'll make sure of it. I can't imagine how much that must have hurt."

"Ah, don't worry. I was too young to really remember it, so I don't recall a single thing about the event." Meteora lied the memory of the bulletin ripping through her skin coming to the surface. "...Yeah. Not a single thing. But…" She mentally prepared herself up to ask the next question. "Is it okay if we take a break?" Meteora mumbled. "I know we haven't been talking for long, and have a long way to go, but I'm still a little overwhelmed. And...I think I need something to calm me down before we really get into this."

"Of course. That's perfectly alright." Her mother said. "But may I make a request of my own?"

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure how to put this without sounding impolite, but frankly Meteora...you need a shower. And a change of clothes. I don't even want to know where that giant brown stain came from. I only assume you spilled something at that sleepover…" Eclipsa said, pointing at Meteora's shirt and failing to recognize the brown stain as dried blood. "Is that alright dear?"

"You're saying I smell bad then?" Meteora asked, although she wasn't really offended. She started whispering to herself, reminiscing on the past for the millionth time today. "Makes sense I suppose...it's been years…"

"What was that last part?" Globgor asked.

"Nothing. Just some nonsense. But okay. Although...could you wash the clothes I currently have as well? I really like them." Meteora requested, if only for the fact that she had never really had that many pairs of clothes to start off with, and thus the ones she was wearing were slightly sentimental.

"I'd be happy too." Eclipsa said, before getting up from her chair and grabbing baby Meteora.. "I'll go get you a new set of clothes, and your father can show you where the bathroom is. And Meteora...you are our daughter. You are as welcome as can be. Make yourself at home, even if you may not stay long."

"Thanks...mom." Meteora said, and Eclipsa gave her one last grin before walking off into the next room. She was now alone with her father again. About to bathe for the first time in...in...she couldn't even remember.

And she really hoped that she wouldn't have to ask how to work a shower.

End chapter 36

A/N: Well, the reunion finally happened, (again, technically) and ended on a not so high, not so low note. The discussion between the three of them will continue in the next chapter. A bit short in some ways, but it was honestly as long as Eclipsa could have held out. Because she was really downplaying how bad Meteora smelled. Nobody points it out in the apocalypse because they all smell like literal shit too. No bathing because it wastes water is one of the main rules of out there.

But we got another flashback, Meteora's first time killing someone, a hint of her mostly non-magical monster side coming to light, (something that will not be as important later but may come up or appear once or twice) and a glimpse of how Mari was once a sadist. (Yeah, that happened. It was bad.)

There are several other events that Jenkins slapped the "no talking about this so we can forget it ever happened" rule, and that rule is obviously why none of it came up earlier in the story. In fact, Meteora is really the only one who has a super-clear memory of those two events that were mentioned. The others...just did what Jenkins hoped, for the most part. Forgot. Mari can still remember the head-bashing thing though. That's gonna stay with her forever.

But as always, thank you for reading and please PM me or leave a review if you have any questions or comments.