Chiaroscuro

by Kurrent

A look at Nico and Karolina's love and relationship over the years. (Spoiler: It's never boring for long.)

12. Ch 12: We Interrupt This Program

Author's Note: None. Read.

Cover art is a still from Hulu's Runaways.

I do not own Marvel comics, the Runaways, Hulu or any of a half-dozen other related properties, and I do not make any claims upon Marvel or its characters. All these characters are used under the concept of Fair Use, and I make no profit or income from using any of them.

Chiaroscuro

by Jo K.

Chapter 12: We Interrupt This Program

And now I tell you openly

You have my heart so don't hurt me

You're what I couldn't find

A totally amazing mind

So understanding and so kind

You're everything to me

Oh, my life is changing every day

In every possible way

And, oh, my dreams are never quite as it seems

'Cause you're a dream to me

– The Cranberries, "Dreams"

—O—

—O—

"—The loss of life has been high, but progress has been made toward disabling the worldship before it can reach its intended destination.

"The threat posed by the return of the species known colloquially as the 'Dire Wraiths' is extreme if not catastrophic, and should their living interstellar vessel, fleeing the destruction of the remote planet whose prior inhabitants were infiltrated, killed and replaced by the Wraiths, reach a star system with more habitable planets, the risk of them infiltrating those worlds and turning their inhabitants into more Wraiths is greater than could be stated. Only the combined efforts and sacrifice of numerous worlds was able to end the threat the Dire Wraiths had posed once before, and with the universe more unsettled than ever, it was difficult to imagine interstellar cooperation happening on that scale again—until today."

The live transmission played out on monitors and screens across the planet Earth, but it wasn't limited to just one planet in the Sol system. Thanks to a combination of technology and enchantment, the images and sounds were not only broadcast through nearly the entire universe, the narration was being telepathically translated as well, rendering the images and sounds into a form each viewer could comprehend.

On Chandrilar, homeworld of the Shi'ar Empire, the same images of battle and death were shown on media displays of all sorts. The Shi'ar watched raptly as members of their Imperial Guard, present under direct orders from their Imperator, fought as part of an small army, scores of Imperial Guards with varied powers standing side-by-side with the golden helmets of the Xandarian Nova Corps as they fought their way through a living hell.

"A genetic offshoot of the Skrulls, the Dire Wraiths diverged from their parent species eons ago, seeking their own solar system and embracing dark sorcery as powerfully as the Skrulls rejected it, largely due to the horrors the Skrulls had witnessed from those would become the Dire Wraiths, banished forever from Skrull space and society as punishment for their reprehensible deeds."

On Xandar, home of the Nova Corps, banks of monitors and handheld viewers alike showed the same images and sounds, a mixed force of Xandarian Nova Corps and other sentients nearly three hundred strong, as they fought their way through the nightmarish warrens, cavernous chambers and dark, oppressive corridors of the organic moon-sized space vessel.

"It was the dark rites and twisted sorcery practiced for millennia that completed the species' transformation from Skrulls into the terrors that the Dire Wraiths would come to be known, even transforming the sun of their new solar system into an obsidian black color, a galactic warning to all other sentient worlds that nothing but death awaited them in that system."

Throughout the war-hungry Kree Empire, the same images of bravery and tragedy were viewed by the military as well as civilians and schoolchildren, all regular daily activity paused to watch the life-or-death struggle being broadcast to all worlds through the universe.

"Bathing the Wraiths in dark warmth as well as tainted magic, the black sun enhanced their sorcery over generations but eventually damaged their ability to shapeshift as well as reproduce, turning them into creatures who had to kill other sentients to propagate their own kind, something the Wraiths were particularly well-equipped to do given their ability to perfectly assume the likeness of those beings they killed by driving their drill-like tongues through a victim's cranial protection and consuming the victim's brain."

On the planet Majesdane, the entire world had screeched to a halt as soon as Karolina Dean, the unofficially recognized (but beloved) Empress of Majesdane, had been seen wielding her pink light to slice through the Dire Wraiths as part of the assault team alongside her wife Nico Dean, who was using her own bright pink sorcery to shield the others as well as attack the Wraiths swarming their every movement. Practically all movement on the planet's four continents had stopped as all of Majesdane remained raptly focused on the real-time struggle playing out on holodisplays and flatvids across the world. The luminous Karolina was wearing a short yellow sleeveless tank top with a white racer-back bra paired with a simple, well-worn pair of faded denim jeans; Nico had on a thin, long-sleeved black shirt beneath a partially unbuttoned white silk blouse and black suspenders attached to her black dress slacks, finishing with her favorite black boots, both women dressed more for practicality than for appearance.

"This is correspondent Xavin, embedded in the interplanetary strike force tasked with disabling the Dire Wraith Worldship before it can reach its intended destination of the planet Terra, System Sol."

—O—

The screams of pain, hissing of burning tissue and acrid smells of blood and waste were intensified each time they had re-enter another narrow, winding corridor of the Wraith vessel. Karolina was incredibly grateful for the minor enchantment Nico had placed on her, mitigating the nightmarish sounds and smells as she, Nico and the three hundred soldiers accompanying them slashed their way through the labyrinthine warren of tunnels and chambers making up the organic moon-sized vessel.

The Nova Corps accompanying them on the strike team against the Dire Wraith worldship had been the least prepared for the onslaught of horrors awaiting them in the dark warrens of the vessel. Good men and women and sentients they were, but they had no powers beyond their bravery, their equipment and their Nova helmets, which were disturbingly easily removed. Once the Dire Wraiths found a way past their personal force fields, the Novas had begun to fall.

Or worse.

The Novas had initially been the rear guard of the strike team, forming a wall of protection but vulnerable on the ends, where individual men and women could be briefly separated from the others during the chaos of the running battle. Those poor few who had their helmets dislodged or removed only lasted moments before a rasped, piercing tongue painfully drove its way through their skulls, allowing a Dire Wraith to assume that corpsman's form and voice in order to sow confusion in the ranks until Nico and Karolina had put a stop to that, permanently.

Karolina's enhanced perception could detect the discrepancy in energy signature between a Wraith and a form it had assumed, so it was a simple matter for her to incinerate the clandestine Wraiths as soon as she became aware of the disruption in their rear guard.

It had been a tense few moments immediately after she had done so.

Thankfully, the handful of Galadorian Spaceknights accompanying them had been quick to remind the remaining Xandarians as well as the accompanying Shi'ar Imperial Guardsmen making up the rest of the strike team that the Wraiths were shapeshifters first and foremost, going back to the common lineage they shared with the Skrulls from eons back, before millennia of evil magic had warped their bodies and souls, forever separating them from their Skrull cousins who rejected magic and embraced science. As the slain Wraiths began to rapidly decompose into ash and cinders, posthumously proving their deception as well as the correctness of Karolina's actions, the Novas found surprisingly little comfort in that truth.

Nico could simply see the souls of those around her, making the foulness of the Wraiths' spirits evident to her regardless of their appearance. She, too, had no hesitation in cutting down any Wraith she saw with a blast of mystic energy that disrupted a soul and vaporized the body, and thousands had fallen to her and Karolina both as they and their rapidly dwindling force clawed their way through the worldship, carving a furious path to the central power source detectable deep in the bowels of the moon-sized craft.

If they could find the vessel's power source and disable it, they could stop the craft's progress toward Earth and allow the Shi'ar, Majesdanian, Skrull and Xandarian fleets—the Kree couldn't be counted on to play nicely with others—in pursuit of the worldship to destroy the vessel and all the Wraiths at a safe distance. The worldship itself was shielded with powerful wards, strong enough to prevent almost anyone from entering or leaving the craft, with the sole exception being someone possessing the skill and power of a former Sorcerer Supreme who was intimately familiar with dark magic due to it being part of her very being.

Nico had been able to enchant and use a Majesdanian stargate powered by Karolina to slip their strike team through the Dire Wraiths's protections and into the worldship for a furious attempt to sabotage the craft before it reached Earth's solar system. (This was done over the objections of the Majesdanian Light Brigade, who had wanted to join the strike force; Karolina had activated the stargate before the Majesdanian soldiers were prepared, leaving them behind and sparing them from the horrors and near-certain death that awaited on the Wraith vessel.)

—O—

"What the FUCK?!" shrieked Pandora Dean as she flew, literally, through the double doors of her sister Persephone's office.

The heavy wood doors slammed into their stops without significant damage, bouncing back forcefully but too late to hit the youngest Dean sister, glowing a pearly white as she came to a stop hovering behind her oldest sister, who was standing transfixed before a bank of twelve large monitors, all of them displaying the same broadcast from inside the Dire Wraith worldship.

"Did you know about this?!" Pandora yelled, looking over Persephone's shoulder at the sight of their mothers battling a swarm of large, fleshy pink creatures with grossly lengthened appendages, twitching antennae and ribbon-like tongues, attacking the humans and humanoids with a furious onslaught of claws, weapons and lethal sorcery.

"Of course I didn't know about this," Persephone replied, her voice tight with the swell of emotions burning inside her chest as she continued to watch the battle with the sound nearly muted. "They obviously didn't tell you either, so I doubt they told Nor." She was wearing a black sundress, festooned with skulls and pentacles, with a black lace choker and white cameo around her throat, finished with black Mary Janes on her feet.

"Why wouldn't they tell us?!" Pandora nearly yelled, her heart stinging as it raced wildly. "We could have helped them! We WOULD have helped them!"

Persephone's head finally turned to look back and up at her youngest sister. The two still had a strong resemblance, the main differences between them being their eyes (Persephone's were a deep brown, while Pandora's were a soft blue) and the length of their blonde hair, now that Persephone had gone to a shorter cut a few years ago. Somewhat visible through Pandora's white glow were a pink dress shirt, khaki shorts and leather sandals that laced up over most of her calves.

"Oh, Bug, that's exactly why they didn't tell us," Persephone said sadly. "They knew we'd have gone with them."

Now Pandora could see the glistening tracks of tears on her sister's cheeks and the redness in Persephone's eyes, causing a twinge of regret from her overzealous reaction. The gleaming white light that sheathed Pandora vanished as the blonde's feet settled onto the floor beside her sister. "How long... how long have you been watching?" she asked, her voice unsteady.

"Right after it started," Persephone replied, turning back to face the bank of monitors again. "Kenzie came and told me as soon as she heard. Apparently all of Wizard is currently paralyzed, watching."

Pandora swallowed. "How long have them been in there?"

"Almost an hour and a half. They've lost two-thirds of the strike team."

"Fuck."

"Yeah. The Dire Wraiths are bad news. Gloriana and her mom are standing by around Neptune's orbit, along with Captain Marvel, Blue Marvel, Spectrum, Thor and Alpha Flight."

"Wow, that's some big hitters."

Persephone took in a deep breath, then blew it out slowly. "Let's hope we won't need them. The moms are trying to cripple the Dire Wraiths' ship and drop it out of hyperspace. A shit-ton of capital starships, Majesdanian, Xandarian, Skrulls, even the Shi'ar, are chasing them. I did a scrying myself to confirm it, and it's really fucking impressive how many different worlds want the Wraiths gone. The plan is for the capital ships to annihilate the worldship as soon as it's back in realspace. Too dangerous to try to board it and risk any of the Wraiths escaping."

"What about the strike team?" asked Pandora, not particularly liking this plan.

"They can all survive in space, which is one of the reasons they chose the groups they did, but they'll have to get clear of the worldship before it's destroyed, and all the fleets have orders to fire as soon as the Wraiths drop out of hyperspace."

The look Pandora gave her big sister was nonplussed. "This plan kind of sucks."

Rather than reply verbally, Persephone put her arm around her youngest sister and hugged her.

—O—

Even though Xavin had found a purpose years ago in fighting corruption across the galaxy by exposing it to public view, xe had still trained as a warrior and protector before anything else. As such, Xavin had no problem using a Light Brigade autoblaster to scythe down Dire Wraiths with one hand while continuing to livestream the assault on the Wraith mothership with xer other hand.

A sudden bloom of heat on the back of xer neck and head made the tall alien duck reflexively; a bloom of pink light washed over Xavin as an enormous sinuous dragon, its body and the flames wreathing it both glowing the rich pink of Nico's magic, undulated as it flew through the open space of the cavernous room they were currently crossing. The dragon bellowed, a roar mixed with a sibilant hiss that vibrated the chitin of the floor beneath them, as it slammed into a mass of Wraiths moving to intercept what remained of their strike team.

The quasimorphous Wraiths shrieked in agony as their partially translucent skin ignited in searing flames, creating a thick cloud of oily smoke as the wingless dragon writhed its way through their numbers, immolating hundreds of Wraiths. When a group of Wraiths took cover behind a green mystic shield, the dragon's jaw dropped down, letting a thick spout of pink and violet flame spew forth; the impact of the fiery blast shattered the Wraiths' shield and engulfed them in a gout of flames, adding their screams to the others.

Xavin chanced a quick look behind xerself, taking in the aged, confident (but still tiny) form of Nico Dean simultaneously maintaining protective shields over herself, Karolina and Xavin; sustaining the two massive pink dragons wreaking destruction on the large chamber they were currently passing through; guiding the strike force toward the worldship's mystic power source; powering the galaxy-wide broadcast via Xavin's enchanted transmitter and still having enough power left to fling swirling pink ribbons of death that sliced through the Wraiths standing between them and the passage leading deeper into the fetid worldship.

Yes, the chosen mate of Karolina Dean had certainly proven to be a formidable protector for Majesdane's messiah, among many other things.

Becoming a mother changed a person, Xavin considered briefly. Xe understood this intimately, but now was not the time to lose focus.

Xavin quickly panned the holocam around the room, manually changing the focus of the images being beamed throughout the galaxy to better display not only the destruction the multi-species strike team was inflicting, but also the thousands of Dire Wraiths in this room alone, to go with the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of Wraiths whose existence the team had now documented, all of whom had to be dealt with to prevent them from infiltrating an unsuspecting planet and spreading their corruption through the rest of the universe.

(At least, Xavin hoped xe was documenting the elimination of an existential threat to the universe and not the story of the universe's destruction.)

Brilliant pink light made Xavin's eyes narrow out of self-preservation; only a second later the sound of sizzling flesh and ichor hit the shapeshifter's auditory organs, as Karolina's sustained plasma blast carved a gleaming pink path through two massive bipedal Wraithforms, each over twenty meters tall, that were guarding a huge door leading out of the cavernous room.

As the screaming of the Wraith beasts mercifully stopped, the two-meter-wide stream of pink light shifted from the creatures to the chitinous door, which started to smoke and flicker with dull green flames as the pink plasma began to bore into the hard, chitinous material.

Xavin tried to do the math on how old Karolina and Nico were; Terrans were difficult for xer to judge age due to the speed of their physical decline, but xe was sure the two women were in their seventh decade. By that time, most Terrans were experiencing dramatic decline in their physical capabilities, so the prolonged display of sheer power the two women had displayed over the last eighty minutes (as Terrans measured time) was singularly impressive.

What Xavin couldn't see, however, was the price that had been paid for that power.

—O—

"Nico."

"It has to be done, Karolina." Nico turned around but was stopped by a light touch on her elbow, never grasping, never pulling, but a gentle touch that made its point just as saliently. "Kar," Nico sighed, turning back around to look at her wife.

"Nico," repeated the blonde, the same tone of frustration in her voice as in Nico's as they prepared for the jump into the Dire Wraith worldship.

Nico looked away from her wife's blue eyes and fought not to have tears well up in her eyes. "Kar..." she began, pausing to take in and then blow out a deep breath before turning to meet her wife's patient eyes once more. "We're old, Kar. We're closing in on sixty-three. And what we're going into, it's going to be a fucking nightmare, pretty much Lovecraft meets Aliens on Event Horizon. My body isn't as strong as it used to be. I'm going to need the extra power."

"At the cost of shortening your life," Karolina finally spoke, her words clipped.

"If I don't augment my magic, then my life'll get a hell of lot shorter real quick, just as soon as we hit that Wraith ship," Nico shot back.

A tear escaped Nico's rigid self-control; as soon as Karolina registered it, her eyes tracked to follow its descent for a heartbeat, then snapped back up to watery brown eyes so vulnerable and flushed with emotion that it made Karolina's breath catch in her chest.

"I don't want to do it, Kar," Nico whispered, stepping close enough for the blonde to wrap her arms around the shorter woman, who gladly surrendered herself to that embrace, ignoring any looks that the rest of their strike force might have been giving them. "But I don't have a choice. We HAVE to stop the Wraiths. They've been rebuilding in secret for decades, gathering their strength in a lost corner of the universe where no one could see them. They killed an entire planet, turning them into more Wraiths and stripping that world bare to build their fucking worldship." Nico sighed and rubbed her face with her right hand, then looked back up at her wife. "They stole a fucking SUN, Kar."

"I still don't know how they did that."

"Neither do I! But they did it, and it killed an entire solar system, billions of lives on that system's other inhabited planet who suffered cold, bleak deaths as the whole solar system tore itself apart." Nico's eyes gleamed with emotion. "And that's just now, in the present. These assholes have been murderers on a galactic scale for thousands of years. They've come back. They're strong again. And now they're coming for Earth. All of them, coming right for our family, our kids and their kids, our friends. Goddess, for everybody on the whole damn planet. The Wraiths have to be stopped before they get there."

Karolina nodded, dislodging tears of her own that snaked down her cheeks. "I... I know," the blonde whispered raggedly, hating that she understood the truth of the situation.

"I have to be strong enough to stop them. I have to be the goddamn Sorcerer Supreme again, just for one day. We can't let Nor try to do this. She's got too much life ahead of her still. Plus we can't risk the Wraiths getting their hands on the Staff of One, either."

Unable to speak, Karolina nodded again as her wife continued, focusing on keeping her voice down.

"Nor's got weddings to see, and graduations to go to, and grandkids to see born. So do Persy and Dori. We can't let any of our girls make that kind of sacrifice, not as long as we still have life left in our bodies. That's why I have to pay this price. Taking months or years off the end of my life won't matter if Earth doesn't make it to the end of this week!"

Karolina nodded her head, sucking in a breath as her mouth opened into a smile, the sheer depth of love she carried for her wife surging over her. "Oh, god, Nico," she said wetly, wiping at her eyes and softly shaking her head. "Always so dramatic."

The dark-haired woman smiled through her tears. "You knew I was dramatic going in, and you still kissed me."

"Yeah, and it was the best idea I ever had," replied Karolina, taking Nico's hand in her own. "But when I said I had a problem with you doing this, I wasn't telling you NOT to do it. Not exactly."

Nico blinked, confused.

Karolina's smile softened a bit more, becoming more wistful. Calmly, she said, "I want you to do it to me, too."

Seeing Nico's darkly-painted lips open to protest, Karolina quickly said, "Nico! I need the power boost, too, and you can't argue that. My powers are waning just like yours, because I'm still half-human, and I need to be at my best just as much as you do. You know that."

Nico's walnut eyes looked up into Karolina's ocean blue. "I couldn't ask that of you," she said, her voice just above a whisper.

"You're not. I'm insisting."

Wordlessly Nico stepped forward, wrapping her arms around her wife as Karolina did the same for her.

"We're a package deal, remember?" Karolina said softly, her eyes shut tightly in an attempt to stave off her own tears. "We've always known we were going to go together, most likely doing something brave and stupid, and I'm not having you mess that up by shortening your life and not mine, leaving me alone for months or years."

Nico laughed into the warm softness of Karolina's shirt, clenching her wife a bit more tightly as she felt emotion tighten its own grip on her heart. "I forgot, it's all about you, right?" she asked playfully, speaking into the soft fabric of Karolina's shirt.

"Hey, it's worked well for forty-four years, so why change it now?" said Karolina, her lips pressed into Nico's soft, dark hair.

Nico carefully lifted her head, giving Karolina enough time to pull back, so she could look up into the blonde's eyes again as they eased open. Despite the tightness in Nico's chest and throat, her eyes shone brightly through the wetness pooled in them. "I wouldn't change a thing," Nico said firmly, holding Karolina's intense gaze. "Not one fucking thing."

The blonde smiled through her own tears. "Neither would I. Our story isn't over yet."

Nico closed her eyes again and pressed the side of her head against Karolina's shoulder. "Thank you," she said softly.

"Is there something specific you're thanking me for, or is this just kind of a general blanket thank you?"

Despite the seriousness of their situation, Nico smiled at her wife's teasing. "Thank you for being here with me. Both right here literally and for, you know, what we were just talking about."

"Oh, Nico, sweetie..." Karolina pressed a kiss to the top of her wife's head. "I'm always here, and I always will be."

"Thank you... for not making me do this alone."

"I can't trust anyone else to take care of you, you know."

"I wouldn't listen to anyone else anyway."

"Well, that's the truth."

"I don't tell you this enough, but you're pretty incredible, Karolina Dean." Nico lifted her head and stood on her tip toes to press her lips to Karolina's, looking into those blue eyes she loved.

Karolina returned the kiss, holding Nico's body tightly and not letting her smaller wife drop back down onto her feet just yet as Karolina looked down into the dark brown eyes she loved in return. "I love you, my tiny goth princess," she said warmly, smiling widely.

Nico's earnest expression softened as a smile widened across her face. "I love you too, my tall sunshiny princess." She leaned her head against Karolina's shoulder again. "I love you too."

—O—

"Can... you..." Coraline Chavez-Dean gritted out through her clenched teeth as she grappled with the massive Sentinel robot, "please... hurry... up!"

"Almost through the protective enchantments," her sister Lydia spoke quickly as she continued to unravel the overlapping spells that had been woven through the runes covering the decrepit-looking but surprisingly powerful machine. "This is Diablo's work. It's damn, damn good."

"Stop... admiring... it..." said Coraline as the machine ignited its foot-mounted rockets and tried to bodily push past the much smaller twenty-year-old standing between it and its target, an array of thorium-salt reactors that powered most of Southern California and Nevada.

"I'm allowed to appreciate a master's work, Cori!" Lydia snapped at her younger sister, looking up from the golden glow of her sorcery tugging at the crimson runes painted on the massive robot. "He's been doing this for six hundred years!"

Cori spun to the side, not releasing her grip on the former Sentinel's hands; her fingers had dug into the osmium-vanadium plating of the robot's palms to provide a secure grip on the machine's hands, and that grip enabled the young woman to pull the Sentinel through her spin, using the thrust from its rockets against it to twist the construct around, putting its back toward its target. "Not... when... I'm... fighting... it!" she hissed at her sister through the exertion of maintaining her grip on the enchanted machine.

"Got it!" Lydia yelled gleefully as she finally unraveled the key thread of the intertwined enchantments and felt the intricate mesh of protections surrounding the decommissioned Sentinel collapse.

The dull red glow in the Sentinel's photoreceptors faded into a pale yellow as Coraline watched; she instantly released her grip on the robot's hands and swooped down and to the side, dodging the now-clumsy attempt to grab her by flying between the Sentinel's articulated fingers. She drew back her right hand as she arced upward, timing her flight and a powerful punch using her entire upper body to deliver a massive blow to the side of the robot's head.

Metal squealed as it sheared and shattered, pieces of armor, circuits and wiring flying in multiple directions as the robot's head essentially exploded from the force of Coraline's punch.

"Took you long enough," Coraline said in Spanish to her sister, who was flying in to catch the toppling torso of the enormous robot.

"Stop griping," replied Lydia, in Japanese, as she used her arms to arrest the robot's backward motion. "Help me set this thing down somewhere it's not going to block traffic."

"Wow, Japanese, huh? Slow day, or did I piss you off?" answered Cori in same language, trying not to grin too obviously as she grabbed the Sentinel's left leg, lifting the machine off the ground between the two of them, letting its right leg dangle below as they flew. While the two of them frequently shifted from English to Spanish and back again during conversations, they didn't use Japanese as often, mainly because their mother Gloriana had never learned Japanese and always assumed the two spirited girls were plotting something when they conversed in Japanese around her.

"Knock it off," Lydia grumbled as she shifted her grip to the Sentinel's shoulder, digging her fingertips into the armor to more securely grip the construct.

"No, now I want to know what's got your panties in a bunch!" Cori gleefully said in Spanish. "You and Iz have a fight?"

"Cori," replied Lydia, answering her sister in Spanish as well. "Now isn't the time."

"Well, according to WizMaps, the nearest junkyard is five miles away, and we can't fly too fast, or pieces might fall off this antique. I'd say we've got plenty of time."

Lydia's sigh was audible even at the other end of the huge robot as they flew slowly. "Izzy... wants me to take some time off of being in the Young Avengers," she said, in Japanese this time.

Coraline reflexively stopped flying to process that sentence; their forward momentum yanked her along behind Lydia and the Sentinel, making her wobble a bit awkwardly until she regained flight stability. "Wow," she finally managed to speak. "Damn, that's..."

"There's more," Lydia said quickly. "But I'm waiting to tell you until we've got this pile of junk on the ground."

Nothing more was said for a few minutes, until they had placed the Sentinel on a large patch of scrubby dirt in the center of a sprawling junkyard. Police vehicles that had been following their slow flight were pulling up inside the junkyard, and one fast-acting officer was already out of his car and placing sawhorses and stringing police tape between them to start forming a cordon for the giant robot's body.

"Looks like the news crews are here," Coraline said to her sister, who was standing beside her on the Sentinel's chest, as they watched the news vans begin to gather as well, still keeping their distance from the two heroes and the now-immobile giant robot.

"Izzy asked me to marry her," Lydia blurted out, her face starting to flush as she turned to look at her younger sister.

Cori's mouth dropped open as she turned to face Lydia as well. "What... the... fuck, Lyd?!" she haltingly spoke. "You both just turned twenty-two! Are you ready for that?!"

"We've both grown up a lot, Cori," Lydia quickly replied. "We've been strong and steady for the last three years, plus we're older than the nanas were when they got married," Lydia quickly replied.

"But not as old as our moms when they got married! Even they had some rough patches, and they had known each other literally since first grade!"

"And Iz and I have known each other since we were babies!"

"And you two had more ups and downs than a hooker's skirt for years!"

"One, offensive to sex workers, and two, we've both grown up a LOT since we were teenagers!"

"I don't judge or belittle sex workers, and you know that!"

Lydia sighed. "Yeah, I do."

"THANK you. I was just using it as a funny expression."

"...But you've not liked Iz for a while."

Now Cori was the one to sigh. She took a few seconds to cool her temper before she replied. "I will admit that at times I might have been quick to pass judgment on Izabel."

"Wow. Understatement of the year."

"BUT she broke your heart, Lyd! More than once!" Cori looked up at her sister, and Lydia was surprised to see wetness gathering in her little sister's eyes. "She hurt my sister. And that's hard for me to forget."

"I hurt her, too, Cor. Goddess knows she and I played fast and loose with each other's feelings for that first year or two after we started dating, but we were still teenagers. There was so much we still had to learn."

"And you think you've learned it all now?"

Lydia's eyebrows raised at the question. "I think we have a better idea of all the shit we don't know at this point, and we definitely haven't learned it all." Lydia looked up into the clouds scattered across the sky. "But I want to keep learning with her," she finally said.

Coraline didn't reply. She just kept watching her sister, and she knew Lydia well enough to read the uncomfortable sincerity in her older sister's body language and facial expressions.

Lydia shrugged her shoulders, glancing back at the collection of blue and red lights that was now nearly a semicircle around them and their landing zone. Her voice was quiet but determined when she said, "I love her, Cor. I really do."

"Enough to give up being a Young Avenger?" Coraline asked quietly.

Lydia carefully considered that question for several seconds before looking back up to her sister's eyes. "I don't know, Cor. I don't know the answer to that. But... I think I need to find out."

Coraline felt tears start to form in her eyes as she considered being a superhero without her big sister beside her. It felt surprisingly lonely.

"She's starting grad school at MIT in two months," Lydia said. "I'm going with her."

"I'm not going to talk you out of it, am I?"

"No, dumbass. You're not."

Coraline sighed wearily. "Did you already tell her yes?" she asked. "About getting married?"

Lydia's hazel eyes lifted up to meet her sister's gaze again. "I didn't tell her no..."

"Which is not the same thing as saying yes! Dios!"

"I told her that I needed to talk to you before I could give her an answer."

The look on Coraline's face was incredulous. "What?!"

"I said—"

"I know what you said! I was trying to convey how amazed I am at your level of stick-your-head-up-your-ass!"

"Is that a real word?!"

"Are you a real dumbass?!"

Lydia paused, her mouth open and her face flushing with emotion. Suddenly her chin trembled and a tear streaked her right cheek. "Oh my god, I'm going to miss you so much," she blurted out, her hand shooting up to cover her mouth.

"Come here," said Coraline, opening her arms to hug her big sister, who fell into them. "God, you are so stupid sometimes. I don't know why Izzy puts up with you. It's the sex, right? You have to be amazing at sex for her to deal with all the shit you bring to the table."

Lydia laughed through her tears as she buried her face in the shoulder of Coraline's lavender-and-white top. "You're such an asshole," she mumbled. "I don't even know why I love you."

"Because Mom and Madre got everything right the second time around, after they made their mistakes with having you."

"Bitch," Lydia said, with love in her voice.

"Dumbass," Coraline replied, just as warmly.

Lydia tightened her grip on her little sister. "I really am going to miss you."

Coralina sighed. "Boston's not that far. Plus, we can teleport. You can set up an anchor once you and Iz find a place to stay. That way I can come annoy the shit out of you both any time I want."

"And we can come home to see you and our families." Lydia nodded, her gaze drifting back to the news vans and people now gathering down below them until a yank on her right arm made her turn to look at her sister again.

Coraline carefully scrutinized her big sister's face for several seconds before she finally spoke. "You better tell her yes," she finally said, gently rapping Lydia on her left shoulder.

Heart suddenly pounding again, Lydia looked into her sister's eyes. "Yeah?" she asked, surprise evident in her voice.

Cori nodded. "Yeah. Izzy loves you, you've both grown the fuck up, she's good to you and now you're good together, so you tell her yes and stop leaving her hanging. Tell her tonight. Promise me."

Lydia's mouth had gone dry. This was really happening.

"LYD. You tell her yes, TONIGHT. Understand?"

The older girl nodded. "Y-yeah, I will."

Coraline grabbed her sister's upper arms and held them lightly as she leaned in, grinning. "You deserve to be happy, Lyd. You deserve a chance to live life the way you want. If you want to step out of the hero thing and see how things play out, then go for it. Go to college. Get married. Start a family. I'll still love you no matter what you do, okay?"

Unable to speak as relief and joy flooded her body, Lydia's body and auburn hair erupted into coppery light. She flew the short distance between them to throw her arms around her little sister. "Ohmigod, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she yammered rapidly.

Coraline felt her own tears start as she tightly hugged the young woman who had been her friend, her confidant, her sparring partner, her co-conspirator, her protector, her mentor for her whole life. "It's gonna be tough without you, no lie," she said through a thickening throat. "But I'll survive."

"Yeah, you will," Lydia spoke, shifting back into Spanish. "Your head is hard as adamantium."

"Hey, my stubbornness is one of my best qualities. Madre tells me that all the time."

"She only tells you that because you're just like her."

"Beautiful? Intimidating? Powerful?"

"More like a pain in the ass."

"Ouch, what a wicked burn. Oh, wait, I don't get burned. I'm indestructible and I absorb energy."

The sisters patted each other on the back, then stepped back, releasing each other from their hug.

"You have to come visit us," Lydia said. "We're getting a place with an extra room for you to use whenever you visit."

"Seriously?!" asked Coraline, surprised.

Lydia nodded. "Of course, idiota. There are going to be ground rules, though. No alcohol."

"Still underage, plus I think it all tastes like cough medicine, which is nasty."

"You're not bringing any boys back to our place. Girls, negotiable."

"Well, that's a bit sexist, isn't it?"

"Girls pick up after themselves, don't pee all over the toilet and don't leave places smelling like locker rooms. Boys do. Not sexist. Truth. Plus, if, Goddess help you, you ever get pregnant, I do NOT want our moms pinning the blame on Izzy and me. That'll be all on your stupid ass."

"Oh, fuck me," sighed the younger sibling.

"No thanks."

Coraline rolled her eyes. "First, I use the contraceptive spell and the STD spell Obaa-chan taught us. Second, I have a bit more responsibility than that!"

Lydia sighed. "Yeah, you do," she admitted. "I'll give you that."

The two sisters paused for several seconds, comfortable in their shared silence until the gathered group of reporters and camera operators took that silence as an invitation, several of the reporters shouting out their hero names at once.

"DAWN! DAWN!"

"LUNA! LUNA!"

A grimace flitted across Lydia's face, with its mirror crossing Coraline's as they looked at each other.

"Looks like the peace is over, huh?" Coraline said, looking at her sister.

"Looks like it," agreed Lydia. The two of them smiled at each as they floated off the Sentinel's chest down to the ground, silently beginning a race between the reporters and camera operators positioned a short distance away to see whom could run the fastest, all careening to a halt in a rough semi-circle around the sisters.

"Do the two of you have any comments about the current attack on the Dire Wraith worldship being led by your grandmothers?!" one slightly winded woman practically shouted at the two young heroes.

"Um, what?" Lydia asked, utterly confused.

"Yeah, I'm not sure what you're talking about," added Coraline, just as much in the dark.

The woman who had spoken started fumbling with one of her pockets, only to stop when one of the other reporters thrust a tablet forward, broadcasting live video from the worldship; the sound was turned off, but the images clearly showed the bright pink of Karolina's illuminated form flying down a large, rough-textured passageway.

"What the fuck..." Coraline swore, leaning in to better see the video playing on the tablet.

Lydia manifested her Wizard AM-x3 pocket secretary from the astral plane; all her protective enchantments were still in place and active, and the phone was quiet, its display black.

"It's being broadcast live on pretty much every television and video player across the world," said the still-somewhat-breathless reporter who had first spoken to them.

"We keep our phones locked down magically," Lydia said. "Freaking telemarketers. Ugh." As soon as she deactivated her enchantments that blocked everything except calls from p-secs attuned to hers, her phone lit up with the same broadcast, audio playing as well.

"—The Shi'ar members of the assault team have continued to fall beneath the withering counterattack of the Wraiths, despite their powers, bravery and dedication. At first, the superpowered Imperial Guards seemed to shake off the attacks of the Wraiths, until a change in tactics started to neutralize many of the Imperial Guards' powers. The Guards' well-known zeal was used against them, with small groups being lured away from the relative safety of the main assault team and into lethal ambushes. The Wraiths' sorcery was also used to great effect to those Shi'ar outside the range of the main force's mystic shields, neutralizing their powers as well as killing the Guards outright."

"Is that Xavin talking?!" a surprised Lydia asked to no one in particular.

"Sounds like it," Coraline quickly replied, only just resisting the urge to pull the p-sec out of Lydia's hand to get a better view of the chaotic melee displayed on the small screen. (They had broken quite a few media devices over the years that way.)

Seeing her sister's hand twitch in the direction of her p-sec, Lydia cautiously moved the device away from her sister. "I'll widescreen it," she said, not wanting to ask their mom for a new device. Again.

"Thanks," replied Cori.

A gesture of Lydia's left hand manifested golden runes around that hand as well as the device in her right hand; instantly a larger version of the video shimmered to life in the air before them, nearly life-size, as the sound likewise became crisper, deeper and more audible (and in surround sound for each viewer—Lydia and Coraline had spent quite some time optimizing this particular spell.)

"At this point, Shi'ar losses are approaching ninety percent. The Nova Corps have fared somewhat better after the initial infiltration attacks, largely due to their composure and well-established combat tactics allowing them to adapt to the heavy losses. Even so, the Xandarians have lost roughly seventy percent of their initial numbers since the raid on the worldship began. Thankfully, the half-dozen Galadorian spaceknights who joined us on this mission have proved much more resilient. The Galadorians have been battling the Dire Wraiths for centuries, and the legends about their most honored spaceknights, such as Rom, Starshine, Ikon and Firefall, have proven to be true based on the valor and battle prowess the spaceknights have displayed today. The Galadorians have taken a few minor injuries, but none of them have fallen. Their gleaming armor stands out even in the chaos of combat, rich metallic colors shining amidst the dark gray and pallid pink forms of the tens of thousands of Wraiths we have faced so far, with hundreds of thousands, possibly millions more hidden away in the corners of this Worldship.

"But the vanguard of this strike force remains an army of two, both retired members of the Avengers: the Terran Nico Dean, who served as this dimension's Sorcerer Supreme for over two decades, and her lifemate, the Terran-Majesdanian Karolina Dean, the People's Empress of Majesdane."

The video feed cut to Coraline's and Lydia's grandmothers, the burning pink with yellow and purple accents of Karolina's form hovering just over Nico's body as the witch wielded a bright pink katana of light in her right hand and hurled spells of the same rich pink with her left. Together the two of them slashed through a pack of Dire Wraiths in seconds, only to abruptly pull up short as a horrid screech came from something not visible in the frame of view.

"What the fuck—" Cori gasped, as a chill ran down Lydia's back beneath her suit's pale yellow top.

"A Deathwing! One of the Wraiths' most feared creations! We encountered one shortly after breaching the worldship, resulting in the loss of over twenty Novas and Imperial Guards before the Spaceknights and the strike team leaders could engage and defeat the beast!"

As Xavin's camera zoomed out and moved to focus beyond Nico and Karolina, the enormous purple-black silhouette of a vaguely bird-shaped creature larger than a five-story building filled the projected image, towering over the two women in the foreground, the edges of its shifting shape swirling and emitting smoky tendrils of blackness as it flapped its wings, holding station above the two women.

"Goddess," swore Lydia, her voice quiet and eyes wide.

"Fuck," added Coraline, just as reverently.

—O—

The unholy screech of the Deathwing was still echoing in the cavernous room as Karolina and Nico burst into motion, the glowing blonde shooting up toward the cargo hold's high ceiling and the smaller jet-and-silver-haired Nico running toward the malevolent creature.

The dark, horn-like walls of the large cargo area suddenly became awash in brilliant pink as light burst from Karolina's body, filling the open space of the hold with brilliance and warmth. The Wraiths, being creatures of darkness, instantly recoiled from the bright color, seeking any nearby shadows out of self-preservation; even the mighty Deathwing, over fifty meters tall and twice that in wingspan, shrieked and shied away from the burning pink light.

Nico's pink katana vanished as chains that glowed crimson with swirling ribbons of pink threading around and through the glowing links materialized around her arms and hands. She thrust both hands forward, sending the dark red and pink chains lashing outward toward the giant bird-like monster.

Blinded by Karolina's radiance, the Deathwing never saw the mystic bindings approaching its enormous wings. A splatter of inky dark purple shot from each wing as the shining chains and ribbons punched through both wings before circling back around to repeatedly loop around not just the beast's wings but its body as well, binding the Deathwing's enormous pinions to its body as Nico's Chains of Condemnation, as she had named her improvement on the Crimson Chains of Cyttorak, started to painfully tighten.

Oily black smoke began to rise upward where the pink and crimson magic seared the Deathwing's darkness as the chains constricted around the gigantic creature, painfully pinning its wings and holding the creature fast as, on the other end of the mystic bindings, Nico stood firmly on the ground below, her feet and legs anchored by her magic as she impossibly held the gigantic monster in place despite its thrashing and screaming as it struggled to escape.

A gleaming pink lance of light split the air between Karolina and the Deathwing, stabbing down its open maw and punching out the back of its head to bore into the chitinous wall of the cargo bay. The creature's shrieks turned into a brief wet gurgle before its mass slammed into the rough floor with a crash that was felt as much as heard. The Deathwing's inky body rapidly began to hiss and steam as its form evaporated into thick, grimy smoke that left behind only dark cinders and sooty ash.

—O—

"Well, damn," Coraline whispered, her eyes still fixed on the video hovering in the air before them.

"Go Nanas," Lydia quietly said with a smile. "Badass."

"Were you two aware of your grandmothers' plans to lead this attack themselves?"

Lydia and Coraline looked back up to the reporters and camera operators, now well over a dozen surrounding them, with numbers fairly evenly splint between men and women.

"I had no idea they were doing something like this," Lydia said first, her lips tingling. "Where are they, did you say?"

"The broadcast says it's coming from a Dire Wraith worldship that's on its way to Earth."

"I've never ever heard of the Dire Wraiths," admitted Coraline.

"I've only heard Aunt Lenore mention them once, when she and Madre were talking about galactic threats. But they both said the Wraiths had been wiped out."

Coraline grimaced. "Obviously not." She pulled her own p-sec from astral space. "We need to call Madre and Mom. If those things are headed here, we need to be ready."

"I think they probably already know, Cor," Lydia said, causing Coraline to pause with her thumb about to unlock her pocket secretary. "Entire world? Live broadcast?"

"Oh, yeah," replied Coraline. "So what do we do?"

Lydia looked back at the battle scene before them. "I guess we watch."

—O—

The hissing of a mystic portal taking shape behind them drew both Persephone's and Pandora's attention away from the sight of their mothers once again leading a charge down yet another torturous, rough-walled dark corridor in the Dire Wraith worldship.

The dark blue-green color of the glowing lines and sigils that appeared in midair made both women relax slightly, but they had learned over the years to never fully let their guard down when surprises appeared. As the air inside the gateway shimmered to reveal a shorter woman with long jet hair who looked remarkably like their mama Nico other than having bright blue eyes, the two sisters finally relaxed.

"Did you know about this?!" Pandora blurted out as their middle sister Lenore stepped through the portal.

"I had no fucking idea," Lenore said, more than a bit petulantly. "You'd think that as the Sorcerer Supreme they'd have at least let me in on it. Or taken me with them." She lifted her right arm out to the side, allowing the Staff of One to manifest in her grasp. "They damn sure could have used the Staff's power, at the very least."

All three sisters turned to the monitor banks in time to see what remained of the strike team come to a halt as they met a fierce wall of resistance in the forms of scores of Dire Wraiths and horrors that were neither humanoid or animal but rather a grotesque blend of the two, firmly entrenched and forming a teeming barricade to block the narrow passageway.

"I tried to join them, to help," Lenore finally said, her voice subdued. "Found the worldship, even in hyperspace, but it's warded tight as a funeral drum against any teleportation or gates. No idea how Mama managed to get through it."

"Because she's Mama," Pandora said, grumbling. "She doesn't take no for an answer."

Lenore and Persephone both nodded at that statement, the synchronicity of their movements unnoticed between the three sisters.

"Did you realize that Mama and Mom were still so powerful?" Pandora asked after a few minutes of quiet observation as their moms' strike team ripped their way through the fortified unit of Wraiths and their creations with surprising ease.

"No," replied Persephone. "Kind of blew me away, some of the shit they've been doing. I thought they were getting old."

"I know, right?!" Pandora said with a sad laugh.

"They're—" Lenore began, only to stop too late. She tightly held her lips shut, even as both of her sisters turned to peer at her intently.

"What, Nor?" asked Persephone.

Lenore looked at her older sister, feigned innocence on her face. "Hmm?" she hummed.

"Don't play dumb," Pandora added. "You were about to say something, then stopped. What was it?"

Lenore looked at her baby sister, who hadn't been a baby for decades now but still had that gleam of idealism in her blue eyes. Lenore didn't want to tell her or Persephone what she had seen. She didn't want to take their hope and stomp it into dust.

"Nor," asked Persephone, her voice slow and patient. "We can handle it."

Lenore's blue eyes snapped over to meet her big sister's deep brown. A silent recognition passed between them, and a single tear slid out of the corner of Persephone's right eye as she realized that whatever it was Lenore didn't want to tell them, it wasn't going to be good.

But they needed to know. And decades ago, the three sisters had sworn to never lie to one another. Not everything needed to be told, of course, but any direct question deserved an honest answer.

Lenore nodded, shaking loose tears of her own. She turned to Pandora, whose face was trembling with emotion, eyes wet with unshed tears.

"What is it?" Pandora asked, her voice rising.

"There's a reason they're so powerful," Lenore finally said. "They're burning their lifeforce for the extra power." She drew in a shaky breath. "They're literally killing themselves."

"What?!" Pandora blurted out.

"Fuck," Persephone swore softly, shaking her head.

"I... I recognized the enchantment Mama's using on them both."

"I haven't noticed any enchantments other than protective ones," Persephone said.

"You wouldn't be looking for this one," replied Lenore. "It's dark magic. Really dark magic. It's normally used to drain the life of sacrificial victims to empower the caster."

"But they're using it to empower themselves?" Pandora asked. "Draining themselves, not someone else?"

Lenore nodded, sadly. "I came across the enchantment a few years back. I talked to Mama about it, and filed it away as a last-ditch use kind of thing. I guess... I guess she did the same."

"Oh, Mama," Persephone swore softly, blinking at the tears trying to escape. "Dammit."

"How fast?"

Lenore looked at Pandora again, whose cheeks were now flushed.

"How fast?" repeated the blonde. "How fast is the spell killing them?"

"The version I showed to Mama years ago..." Lenore's voice trailed off. "It traded days for seconds."

"Oh my god..." whispered Persephone, starting to do the math in her head as she looked back at the video feeds.

"How long have they been doing this?!" yelled Pandora, her expression becoming frantic.

"Over an hour and a half," answered Persephone, her gaze fixed on the monitors. "So for a day a second, that's sixty days lost each minute, a year lost every six minutes." She sighed, closing her eyes wearily. "Every hour they use that spell, they're sacrificing ten years of their lives."

"But Mama's a sorcerer, and they live longer than typical!" Pandora said frantically. "And, and M-Mom'll live longer than full humans, too, right?! RIGHT?!"

As she started to sob, Pandora reached out to each side. Wordlessly, Persephone took Pandora's left hand, as Lenore moved to take their little sister's right hand. Together the three of them stood, watching their mothers' lives play out before them.

—O—

The thick blast door protecting the deepest part of the worldship stood no chance before the combined assault of Nico, Karolina, six spaceknights and the last three Novas, though the Xandarians were all gravely injured. The Shi'ar were gone, all having fallen, and one of the spaceknights, Vulcanna, collapsed as soon as the thick door to the inner sanctum exploded inward, stunning the wraiths guarding the ship's mysterious power source and killing several of them.

The rest of the spaceknights launched into the sanctum, followed by shrieks, cries of pain, the sizzling of burning Wraith tissue, the crackling of energy blasts and the roar of living flames as the remaining Wraiths guarding the power chamber met swift, brutal ends.

Nico knelt beside the grievously wounded Vulcanna, whose dark emerald armor had been torn and gouged away across her cybernetic right arm, right torso and right leg. Dark blood and a fluid that looked like a golden oil trickled out of the rents in the Galadorian steel, wounds inflicted by the talons of yet another Deathwing.

Karolina hovered over Nico's shoulder as her wife took the shining emerald hand of the fallen warrior.

"I can't..." Nico began, trying to maintain her composure. "I can't heal these wounds. Not fast enough to save you."

The helmeted head of the Galadorian woman turned to stare at Nico. Its expression couldn't change, but the pause before the mechanical voice spoke conveyed emotion enough. "I wouldn't..." the mechanical voice rasped haltingly, "want you... to waste... your power trying."

"You flew into the path of that attack to save Nico and Xavin," Karolina said to the dying warrior, pressing her left hand to the gleaming green metal of the spaceknight's helmet; she expected the armor to be cold to the touch, but it held surprising warmth as she supported the dying woman's head. "I could never thank you enough, for doing what you did. For saving the woman I love and our friend."

"All our chances..." wheezed Vulcanna, "rest with... the Sorcerer Supreme.. and the galaxy... knowing what happens... here..."

Nico blinked back tears, for the first time since the battle had been joined. She looked down to see that the enlarging puddle of blood and oil gathering on the dull surface beneath them had reached the soles of her boots. "We'll stop them," she swore as teardrops fell, splashing onto living steel. "But I'm not the Sorcerer Supreme anymore."

A long, gasping breath was audible, followed by a worrisome pause, and when Vulcanna spoke again, it was obvious her end was at hand.

"No disrespect... to your successor..." rasped the spaceknight, "... but you... ARE the... Sorcerer... Supreme..."

"Deans," spoke the mechanical voice of Wyrren, another spaceknight. "You are needed to shut down the... power source."

Nico and Karolina both looked up at the massive figure of the spaceknight, his armor a dark blue-silver, matching the enormous axe in his right hand, its bright red glow actively burning away the dark ichor of Wraith blood from its surface.

"Be at peace," Nico spoke softly, pressing the tips of her index and middle fingers to Vulcanna's shiny forehead in a benediction.

"I will..." wheezed the woman's mechanical voice, "... once you have... stopped this ship."

"I will stay with her," said Wyrren, his deep, modulated voice echoing in the narrow, shell-like walls of the corridor. "No creature shall pass us while we still live."

Nico and Karolina nodded, both standing as the huge Wyrren moved past them, kneeling to lift Vulcanna's upper body into a seated position as he positioned her with her back against one of his massive legs, facing down the corridor in the direction from which they had come.

Vulcanna slowly raised her left arm, shaking noticeably but still able to channel enough power to make her emerald arm and hand start to glow a burning gold-orange as plasma manifested around her gauntlet. Beside her, Wyrren gripped his axe tightly, and the glow of its blade surged in brightness.

Karolina gripped the also-warm armor of Wyrren's shoulder, while Nico laid the palm of her hand on his chest. They exchanged a final, knowing look, then the two women turned and ran (Nico) and flew (Karolina) toward the seat of the worldship's power, neither of them looking back.

—O—

Majesdane remained utterly still, the small planet transfixed by the life-and-death drama playing out live on holodisplays across the world.

Jhil Dean stood in the living room of the small house she, her wife Pandora and their husband Isaac had purchased on Majesdane years ago, unable to pull her eyes away from the holograms displayed in the center of the media room. Jhil had her arms tightly crossed over her chest, nervously chewing on her thumbnail when a burst of white light filled the room.

She turned, her long, curly red hair swaying behind her with the motion, in time to see Pandora fly through the white gate anchored in their home.

"Oh, sweet light, Dori," Jhil said, blinking her red eyes against tears that threatened to come once more. Pandora flew over to her wife, tightly wrapping her arms around Jhil.

"I know," said Pandora. "I was watching with Nor and Pers, then I... I had to be here. I had to be here with you and Ikey and the kiddos, just in case..."

Jhil nodded into Pandora's shoulder. Her wife was taller than her, though not as much of a height discrepancy as there was between Pandora's mothers.

The soft chiming that indicated the front door opening was immediately drowned out by loud voices, all trying to talk at once.

"MOMS!"

"MOM! MOM!"

"Are you watching the holo?!"

Jhil turned to the voices, barely succeeding in getting Pandora to do the same; they were in time to see the bright glows of their daughters, Sabrina's orange, Blair's rose pink and Elvira's red, fly into the large, open family room. All three girls started trying to excitedly talk at once; behind them, their notably human father Isaac walked into the room, followed by a Majesdanian boy with a light blue glow and a Majesdanian girl glowing a bright amber, both in their mid- to late teens.

"GIRLS!"

The babbling of their voices stopped instantly at the very rare raised voice of their father.

Isaac walked past seventeen-year-old Sabrina, sixteen-year-old Blair and fourteen-year-old Elvira, leaving them all abashedly waiting as he walked over to his two wives and put his arms around them both, holding Pandora and Jhil both lovingly.

"We saw the broadcasts while we were in the market," Isaac said quietly. "We've been trying to get back here, but everything's shut down. The girls had to carry the rest of us, since Talinn and Syreeta can't fly either."

He placed a soft kiss on Pandora's right cheek. "How are you holding up, love?" he asked softly, getting a muffled sob in reply.

Jhil added a matching kiss to Pandora's left cheek. "It's been hard to watch for me," the redhead said tenderly, lifting her right hand to gently guide some of Pandora's blonde hair behind her right ear. "So I know poor Dori's been torn up."

"Not being able to help is the worst," Pandora said, her voice tight with worry. "I wish I was there, helping them."

"I'm glad you're not," Jhil whispered. "That looks like a living nightmare, what they're fighting. The Dire Wraiths are one of the things that terrify most of the universe, along with the Brood and the Phalanx. We just all thought the Wraiths were gone, and now, to find our they're not, and that they're heading for Earth..."

"Mom and Mama will stop them," Pandora whispered back. "I know they will."

"I believe they will, too," added Isaac, leaning over to kiss the side of Jhil's head. "They'd never let anything so terrible happen."

Jhil lifted her head and turned to meet her husband's worried gaze, her blue eyes and his green sharing a look of worry as they both considered what neither of them wanted to vocalize in front of their wife.

But at what cost?

—O—

Nico and Karolina were still leading their unit down the corridor toward the worldship's power room when a bright green glow manifested behind Persephone and Lenore, causing them both to burst into color, dark indigo for Persephone and dark blue-green for Lenore, a shade much darker than the gleaming green etching mystic symbols into the air.

Lenore's heart rate began to wind down as she quickly recognized the sorcery at work, and she gently held out her right hand toward Persephone, who was in the process of taking aim at the portal but lowered her arm at Lenore's signal. The space inside the sigil-marked circle shimmered to reveal two petite young women, one of them with short black hair, blue eyes and a face much like Lenore's, the other slightly taller with long ash-blonde hair and brown eyes, though both of them sported matching looks of worry.

"MOM!" Ligeia called out as she quickly stepped through the circle, pausing to reach behind her and grab the ash-haired girl's hand, practically pulling the other girl forward before the two of them hurried to Ligeia's mother and aunt. "Are you watching this?!" she asked breathlessly, gesturing toward the live feed displayed on the monitor bank mounted on the wall of Persephone's office. "Do Dad and Edgar and Annabelle know?!"

"Of course we're watching it, and I'm sure that your father, your brother, your sister and everyone else in Kamar Taj is watching too," Lenore replied, her tone calm but a definite quaver of emotion in her voice. "Hello, Yulia," Lenore said to the girl accompanying Ligeia.

"Hi, Ms. Dean," replied the girl, her voice uncharacteristically shy. She was wearing a thin, golden Star of David necklace, a gray cutoff t-shirt that revealed a hint of definition in her lower abdominal muscles, short red running shorts and scuffed white tennis shoes; she was a distinct mismatch for Ligeia, who was wearing a see-through gauzy black top over a black lace demibra, a long black double-layer skirt with ruffled hems, black leather boots that came over halfway up her calves and a pink dog collar with silver studs around her throat.

Lenore sighed. "Yulia. You've been dating my daughter for nearly two years. When are you going to start calling me Lenore?"

The young woman blushed, her fair skin reddening in a way that made eighteen-year-old Ligeia grin wickedly.

"Mom! You're embarrassing her!" said the younger witch, a combination of amused at how cute her girlfriend was at that moment and annoyed at her mom for teasing Yulia.

Yulia squeezed Ligeia's hand. "Gee, it's okay," said the brunette, smiling despite the flushing of her face. "I love your mom, and she's good to me. Better than—"

The slight girl's sob cut off her words; immediately Ligeia turned and took a step closer to gather her girlfriend into her arms. Both of them were petite, but Yulia's dancer build was notably slimmer that Ligeia's compact, wiry strength that came from martial arts.

"Oh, sweetie," Lenore murmured, crossing the room to wrap both her daughter and the young woman Lenore was sure would one day be her daughter-in-law into a motherly hug.

"I take it things still aren't great at home?" Lenore asked softly, placing a kiss on Yulia's ash hair.

The barely eighteen-year-old shook her head wearily. "They... They're still upset," she said. "That I'm still with Gee."

"More like, that you're not dating another mutant," Ligeia added bitterly. "You'd think your moms would be all against racism, right?"

"The mutants have been through so much, especially Illyana and Kitty," Lenore said, rubbing Yulia's back through the girl's thin shirt while giving her oldest child a mildly reproachful look. "We shouldn't judge them."

"Easy for you to say," Ligeia said to her mother, giving her a defiant glare. "You're not the one who keeps getting clitblocked by your future mothers-in-law!"

A loud laugh behind Lenore made Ligeia look over her mother's shoulder to see her aunt Persephone cackling with delight.

"Oh, my GODDESS!" Persephone said, still laughing. "Looks like it's time for the sex talk, Nor!"

"A bit late for that, Aunt Pers," Ligeia said, flashing a cocky smile. "Yu and I have been doing it for a while."

"GOD, Gee Gee!" Yulia swore lightly, blushing fiercely as she lifted her head up to turn and look at her girlfriend. "You really have no filter, do you?!"

"No, she doesn't," replied Lenore, who didn't know whether to snap at her oldest child or laugh at her spirit, so much like Ligeia's grandmother Nico. "And I gave her the sex talk when she was fifteen, just so you know," she added, turning to look at Persephone, who was still laughing.

"Well, good thinking on your part," Persephone managed to say as she finally got her laughter under control.

Ligeia nodded vigorously. "Yeah, it really came in handy! Some great techniques—"

The sound of soft sniffles beside her instantly shifted Ligeia's demeanor and stopped her speech. She turned to see Yulia trying to hold in her tears; a chastised Ligeia took a step closer and held out her open arms in silent invitation. Yulia looked at her girlfriend and gave Ligeia a mildly grumpy look but still stepped into her girlfriend's arms, wrapping her arms around her lover and clinging onto Ligeia's diaphanous top nearly to the point of tearing it.

"It was a bad argument," Ligeia said quietly over Yulia's shoulder. "I think Kitty's starting to accept that the two of us really love each other and that nothing is going to keep us apart, but Yu's other mom..."

Ligeia sighed and pressed a soft kiss to Yulia's hair. "Oh, babe, I'm sorry I embarrassed you," said Ligeia, voice softer.

"Well, you did," said Yulia. "I love your mom and really respect her. I... I don't want her to be mad at me."

Not like my parents, Lenore could hear, unsaid in the younger girl's words. "Oh, Yulia," Lenore said warmly, walking over and gently patting the slight girl's left shoulder as she stepped around the two young women.

"Yulia," Lenore said patiently, waiting until the girl's brown eyes were looking up into her own blue eyes before continuing. "Yulia Rasputin, I think you are a wonderful young woman. I understand that you and Ligeia are still growing, and I understand that things may change in the future, but I know that you adore my daughter and that you've been a wonderful friend and, I believe with all my heart, that you would also make a wonderful partner to her."

The brunette sniffled as she wiped at her eyes. "Th-thank you," she managed to say softly. She felt Ligeia hug her a bit more tightly; she closed her eyes and relaxed slightly, letting Ligeia hold her steadily as she focused on her girlfriend's warmth, Ligeia's soft scent, her shampoo and perfume and clothes, letting those sensations envelop her just like her lover's arms.

"I'm sorry again, Yu," Ligeia said tenderly, her lips brushing against her girlfriend's neck as she spoke. "I just speak without thinking sometimes. And I'm not worried about my mom, or my dad for that matter, knowing how much our relationship has grown. I'm proud of you. I'm proud to be not just your girlfriend but also your lover."

"Proud enough to tell my mother?" asked Yulia, knowingly, looking up and over Ligeia's shoulder at Lenore. The tiny smile that spread across Yulia's thin lips nearly made Lenore laugh as she saw it.

The pause before the normally jocular Ligeia answered was telling in itself.

"Which one?" Ligeia said carefully.

"You know which one. But in case you're unsure, the one that's capable of literally sending you to hell."

"Technically, Limbo."

"Close enough."

Ligeia drew in a calming breath, then gently let it out. "I'd tell her," she finally said.

"Really?!" Yulia said, turning her head to try and look behind her.

"But I'd want to do it with your other mom there, too. To, you know, minimize the risk of being gated to Limbo and trapped there."

"Mmm, playing my parents against each other. Good thinking."

"Well, I'm pretty sure you'd be able to come get me, but I wouldn't want to put you under that kind of pressure."

Yulia turned her body, still in Liegia's embrace, so she could stare into her lover's eyes and kiss her on the tip of her nose. "I'd get your mom to come with me. Or maybe your grandma, if my mama's being particularly grouchy."

"That might escalate things," Ligeia said. "Obaa-chan and Illyana haven't always had the friendliest relationship over the years."

(Yulia's moms Kitty and Illyana were much closer in age to Ligeia's grandmothers than her mom and dad; the two mutants had been notably late to finally admit their feelings for each other, then they waited several years before having children as well. As a result, Yulia, the youngest child for Kitty and Illyana, had been born a few months after Ligeia.)

"True," replied Yulia, "but your grandma was never afraid to stand up to my mama."

"Goddess, no doubt about that," Persephone chimed in. "Watched Obaa-san bitchslap your mama once. Started a huge fight between the two of them."

"Ohhh, when Illyana tried to spank you!" Lenore said with visible delight.

Persephone nodded. "Yep, that was it. Granted, I deserved it, and I did get my ass in trouble. I had to apologize to Illyana and Kitty both, plus clean up the mess in their house—well, at least the mess I had made, the rest of the house and property damage wasn't my fault—without using magic, then I was grounded for a week on top of that. But Mama wasn't about to let anyone else lay a hand on me."

The shocked expression on Yulia's face was nearly comical. "This... this is the first I've ever heard about this!" she exclaimed.

"Well, you better not mention it," Persephone said. "I don't think your moms or mine were too happy with each other for a while after that, but they all finally got over it." Persy's facial expression shifted a bit. "Mostly, I guess."

Yulia looked back down at her (gorgeous) girlfriend.

"I have newfound respect for your obaa," the ash-haired girl said fondly.

"You even pronounced it correctly!" Ligeia said, grinning.

"I've been practicing."

"Does this mean I have to learn Russian?"

"If you want to know what my parents are saying when they're trying to be sneaky."

"Ugh. It's a totally different alphabet!"

"And Japanese wasn't?" Seeing the pouty look on her girlfriend's face, Yulia pressed a light kiss to Ligeia's nearly-black lips. "I'll sweeten the deal," she said, just above a whisper. "I'll give you some extra... incentives... to learn."

Now the jet-haired girl grinned. "Mmm, what kind of incentives are we talking about?" she purred.

Yulia lifted her right hand and gently pressed the tip of her index finger to Ligeia's dark lips. "The naughty kind," she whispered, giggling when Ligeia lightly nipped her finger.

Lenore was trying not to laugh or panic at the sight unfolding before her, her firstborn, her sweet child, flirting with whom Lenore now knew was the girl's lover, for goddess's sake. A light poke on her right shoulder made Lenore turn to look at her older sister, who was barely able to restrain her glee, judging from the expression on Persephone's face.

"They're so cute together," Persephone said, somehow sounding both sincere and teasing at once.

The look Lenore flashed at her big sister was not amused.

"Come on, Nor. It could have been so much worse. You could have found out by walking in on them right as one of them—"

Lenore's hand flew up to cover her mouth. "Oh, shit. I forgot about that!" she whispered. "Poor Pers."

The blonde grimaced. "At least it was Izabel having the orgasm and not Lydia. Not sure I could have survived that. Goddess, the look on Lydia's face..."

"And on yours, I bet!"

"No shit. Izzy wouldn't show her face around me for a month, and Lydia blushed every time I looked at her for weeks."

"Caught with her hand in the—well, in something."

"Only kind of funny, Nor."

Lenore laughed softly into her hand. "You remember all the times we walked in on Mom and Mama?" she asked, looking at her sister.

"Goddess, yes! That time they were in the kitchen?!"

"Or the bathroom! When they fell out of the tub, and we thought one of them was hurt?!"

Persephone laughed loudly. "Oh, Mom was SO PISSED."

"Yeah, she was just about to cum when the shower bar gave out! I would've been pissed too!"

"How about the time we went camping, and they snuck off down to the lake because they thought we were all asleep, and..."

Yulia looked away from Ligeia's mom and aunt, caught up in their reminiscence, and back at her girlfriend again. "How many times did your grandmas get caught having sex?" she asked, surprise and awe equally evident in her tone of voice.

"A lot, according to mom and my aunts. I guess that's part of why mom was always so open with me about sex. It was never shamed or taboo when she and my aunts were growing up, so they were taught that as long as sex was loving, consensual and between people who were old enough and mature enough to be doing it, there was nothing wrong with it."

Yulia smiled, her tears already drying up. "I like their attitudes," she said softly.

"So do I."

"And your mom gave you some really good suggestions."

Ligeia grinned again. "Yeah, she sure did."

"Are you sure she's never had sex with a woman?"

"Nope. I asked her. But Obaa-chan and NiNi made sure that if she ever did, she'd know what she was doing."

"Wow."

"Yeah. I'm lucky to have the family I do."

Yulia nodded once, then placed a soft kiss on Ligeia's lips, knowing full well that the dark lip color would still be visible whenever she got back home. "Yes, you certainly are," she said, smiling as she hoped that one day her girlfriend's family would be her family, too.

"Hey," Persephone said loudly, drawing the attention of the two teenagers. "They're... They're in the engine room."

—O—

"Ohmigod, Nico," Karolina gasped as the two of them entered the midsized room that housed the worldship's heart and power source.

"Well," Nico said as she reflexively halted beside her hovering wife, the two of them both stunned motionless by the sight laid out before them. "That's not what I had expected."

The four spaceknights who were likewise rooted in place before them slowly turned and stepped back, giving Karolina and Nico an unimpeded view of the surreal sight in the center of the room. A massive orrery had been constructed with gleaming black metal; dark purple-brown cables as thick as a human torso ran from the orrery's base across the floor and ceiling alike, separating into smaller cables before diving into the rough walls of the chamber, carrying power, or the mystical equivalent of it, to all corners of the worldship.

Two pedestals rose up out of the onyx machinery of the orrery, which took up the entire center of the room. On one of the pedestals was a gleaming black sphere roughly a meter in diameter, so jet and colorless that it seemed to shine in its darkness. A little over a meter away from it was what appeared to be a miniature sun of the same size, somewhat larger than a human head and burning a brilliant white to contrast the jet orb.

Coronas were readily visible, slowly swirling around both orbs, smoky black for the jet sphere and white with a hint of pale yellow and green for the sunlike orb. Between the two spheres, each corona was reaching toward its counterpart, drawn as if by magnetism toward its opposite. When the smoky darkness and the burning brightness met at the halfway point between the two orbs, they annihilated each other in a spray of rainbow light which was then drawn both upward and downward, pulled as spectral streams into what appeared to be siphons constructed from the same shiny black metal as the rest of the orrery.

For several seconds the two women simply stared, taking in the large, impossible device before them, trying to make sense of what their eyes were telling them.

"Nico," Karolina said, pausing to turn to look at her wife of forty-four years, who likewise turned her head to meet Karolina's gaze; the uncertainty on Nico's face spoke volumes to the graying blonde.

"Yeah?"

Karolina glanced back at the orrery, then returned her gaze to Nico's walnut eyes. "We've seen a lot of weird shit over our lives, but I don't think we've ever seen anything like this, have we?"

Slowly, Nico shook her head in reply. Sweat was starting to form on her forehead; it was uncomfortably warm in the room for her, though her environmental protection spell kept her from any physical harm. She tweaked the enchantment a bit, and instantly the room's temperature began to feel more comfortable to her. She turned to Xavin, still with them, still broadcasting, and enhanced xer environmental protection enchantment as well.

"No," the gray-and-black-haired witch replied. "No, we've not ever seen anything like this."

"Is that..." Karolina said, pointing to the sun-like sphere.

Nico's eyes followed her wife's outstretched arm. "You could probably tell better than me, Kar. What are you seeing with those beautiful eyes?"

Despite the circumstance, a small smile graced Karolina's lips at the compliment. She quickly turned and bent down to place a soft kiss on Nico's head, getting a matching smile on Nico's face, then she straightened back up and looked at the brilliant white-green object.

"It's definitely throwing off stellar currents," she said, narrowing her eyes to peer more closely at the shimmering corona. "I'd say... class F, maybe? Could be a G; the ions emitted are pretty similar between the two."

"Looks like we found our missing sun," Nico said quietly. "Damn."

"So what the hell is that?" asked Karolina, pointing to the black orb that had been paired with the miniature sun. "It's giving off some crazy-looking spectrometric lines like I've never seen."

Nico turned her attention to the other orb, taking it in with her mystic senses as well as her human ones. She sucked in a breath reflexively. "That," she said, not quite believing what she was about to say, "appears to be the black sun of the Dire Wraith home solar system. I thought it had been destroyed years ago, along with their planet."

"As did we," said the modulated voice of Skyfarer, the leader of the spaceknights accompanying them.

"Apparently not," Nico said flatly. "Somehow they saved it, or maybe part of it. I don't know."

"You can't save part of a sun, hon," Karolina said. "Gravity and physics don't work that way. The mass is an important part of the stellar process."

"Yeah, for regular stars. But the Wraiths' black sun was supposed to be as much dark magic as it was an actual star, corrupted by the evil magic the Wraiths had carried out for thousands of years. The usual rules for stars don't apply to it. And there's always the chance that the Wraiths' black sun was never actually destroyed, that it was just an airtight illusion good enough to fool everyone who was there."

Karolina sighed. "Magic," she said wearily.

Nico's arm wrapped around Karolina's hips, which were at Nico's shoulder level as Karolina was currently hovering, and hugged her wife closer to her. "Can't live with it, can't live without it," she added, trying not to show her amusement too much.

An explosion back in the corridor behind them shook the room; Nico would have fallen to her knees had she not been holding onto Karolina.

Three of the Spaceknights moved to the door as sounds of battle began back down the passageway, with two going deeper down the corridor toward Wyrren, Vulcanna and the last Novas while the third stopped and took a guard position at the corridor's entrance.

"We will buy you time to stop the engine, Empress, Sorcerer," Skyfarer said, turning her silvery visage back to Karolina and Nico. "And we will make the price the Wraiths must pay to pass us high indeed."

Nico reached out and quickly grasped and held the blue-silver hand of the spaceknight. "Thank you," she said.

Karolina floated down to grasp Skyfarer's hand as well. "We'll stop this ship," she said. "No matter what."

The shining surface of the spaceknight's face looked at each woman in turn. "We know you will," she said in her mechanical voice, then she turned and joined the last spaceknight, his armor a red so dark as to nearly be black, as they took up a defensive position just outside the room.

"So what do we do?" asked Karolina, focusing her attention on the bizarre orrery as the distant sounds of blasts and shrieks from farther down the corridor intensified. "It looks like they're creating energy by crashing the sun's emissions against the black sun's and harvesting the energy that's released in the explosive reaction, like an antimatter drive. So maybe pull them apart?"

Nico nodded slowly. "That would be the logical thing to do." She lifted her hands; pink light shaped into sigils around her hands as she began testing the enchantments bound into the orrery. "Damn," she swore fiercely; the sheer foulness of the magic that been forged into the black sorcerous steel made her stomach turn and her esophagus spasm.

"Is the magic bad?" asked Karolina, her voice concerned as she watched the emotions race across her wife's face.

"Yeah, that's putting it mildly," replied Nico. "Like swimming in spiritual sewage. Makes the worst shit Rasputin's ever done on a Hellchild day feel like a fucking spring breeze." She concentrated past the nausea in her gut, shifting her focus to the seething wards cast into and laid around the orrery as final protections. "For something that was already well-protected, they sure warded the shit out of this thing anyway," she grumbled, snipping a magical thread here, pulling part of a construct there, untying a bound cluster of spells somewhere else.

After roughly two minutes, as the fighting back in the corridor continued to grow louder and more noticeable, Karolina was starting to float back and forth with anticipation when Nico finally lowered her arms.

"Okay, try it now," said the witch, sweat visible on her forehead. "We're getting too old for this shit."

"Tough one, huh?"

"Yeah. Excuse me while I go puke in the corner."

"There are no corners; it's a round room. Well, roundish."

"Ha ha."

Rather than continue the banter, Karolina's arms came up, projecting a stream of pink with violet and yellow swirls and sparkles that reached out to the miniature sun and enclosed it—only for a huge yellow spark accompanied by a snapping noise and a yelp from Karolina to break the energy field she was projecting.

Karolina dropped to the ground, her energy field absorbing some of the impact but only partially due to its brief disruption; Nico quickly grabbed her wife before she collapsed completely.

"Kar! What happened?!" Nico asked, checking her wife's face, then her hands and arms.

"Energy surge," replied the blonde, shaking her stinging hands. "A really big one."

"Well, it's two suns trying to consume each other. I'd expect there to be a decent amount of energy being generated between them."

"There's magic in it, too," Karolina said, looking at her wife. "In the reaction between the sun and black sun. I could feel it, and it did not like me poking at it."

"Let's do it together, then," replied Nico, getting a confident nod from Karolina as she bloomed into pink light and hovered just off the ground again.

Pink light began to glow around the sun as Nico's sorcery started to form around the miniature star, then the swirling pink and violet of Karolina's energy field overlaid Nico's magic.

This time the brief but bright explosion was strong enough to send both of them painfully flying a few meters backward.

"Fucking assholes," Nico swore, getting to her feet with a snarl on her face.

"Have to agree with you, hon," Karolina replied as she floated back to an upright position and rejoined Nico standing before the orrery.

"Alright," Nico said, pushing up the three-fourths sleeves of her white top. "Let's try a different approach."

—O—

"Spoof it!" Lenore shouted at the wall of monitors.

"Phase the barrier!" Persephone yelled as the same time.

Behind them Ligeia and Yulia quietly looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

—O—

"I'm going to open a hole through the enchantments cast into the metal that are protecting the energy collision," said Nico as pink magic illuminated around her hands once more. "Try to trick it into thinking that the ward's still intact, while letting your energy in. Kind of spoofing it."

Karolina nodded as the pink glow around Nico's hands brightened.

—O—

"HAH!" Lenore yelled gleefully, raising her arms into the air in triumph. "Told you!"

"You suck," Persephone said begrudgingly, lightly shoving her sister's shoulder in a playful manner.

—O—

"Okay," Nico said, straining to hold the incredibly powerful layer of deep wards at bay. "Try it now."

Karolina's light immediately snaked forward, entering the white-green corona of the tiny sun. This time the light didn't try to enclose the entire sun, only form a pink band around its equator.

"So far, so good," Karolina said nervously, bracing herself against any backlash.

"Yeah, try to hurry, okay?" replied Nico, voice tight with exertion. "These wards... are bitches."

Karolina nodded. She tugged on the small sun, but it refused to move. She pulled again, reversing the flow of her light to draw the sun out of alignment away from the black sun, but the burning sphere still refused to move at all. Karolina threw her entire body into it, using her flight to propel her backward despite the tight quarters and even using her upper body to tug on the stream of light, groaning with the effort.

Absolutely nothing. It felt like she was trying to pull a skyscraper off its foundation, with not even a hint of movement from the miniature star.

"Kar..." Nico gasped. "I can't—"

Karolina's pink stream of light vanished, right before Nico's magic failed, letting the wards restore themselves.

"I think..." Karolina said, breathing heavily with the exertion, "I think its mass hasn't changed with its size. It felt like trying to pull Earth out of orbit."

Nico wiped the sweat off her forehead, not caring if she smeared any of her makeup. "I'll say it again," she said, straightening up from where she had bent over. "Ass. Holes."

—O—

Back on Earth, a shining white star flared into existence, hovering chest-high and directly in front of Persephone before shattering, allowing Persephone's wife Gloriana to fly through, immediately wrapping her arms around her wife.

"Oh, mi corazon," Gloriana said, kissing Persephone on the lips. "Madre and I both tried to reach them, to help, but neither one of us can get through the barriers around the worldship."

Persephone nodded against her wife's shoulder. Gloriana was wearing a thin pink paisley print hemi top with a pointed hem and thin straps, leaving her shoulders nearly bare, along with tight yellow shorts and a red ribbon threaded through the belt loops and tied at her waist.

"They've almost done it," Persephone said, fighting her own emotions. "But the cost..."

"PERS!"

Hearing Lenore's cry, Persephone turned, with Gloriana moving forward and keeping her left arm around her wife as she stepped between Persephone and Lenore, who stepped to the side to make room for her sister-in-law, whom she adored. On Lenore's other side, Ligeia and Yulia had taken up position, the two girls holding each other as they watched.

—O—

The sounds of hissing plasma and energy discharges erupted from just outside the doorway to the power room. Xavin panned xer camera in time to catch the surge of fleshy pink and brown Wraiths and gleaming black mystical constructs on down the passageway, now visibly overwhelming the middle pair of spaceknights, boiling over and through them, only to be met by a fusillade of plasma and energy bolts from the final two spaceknights, Bloodward and Skyfarer. The first Wraiths to approach the dark red and silver-blue Galadorians were instantly incinerated in the barrage as the final two spaceknights created a wall of lethal energy in the corridor.

"Come, vermin!" Skyfarer's modulated voice cried out over the din of battle, "Come meet your ends!"

The video quickly swung back to the right, showing Nico and Karolina both glowing pink as bursts of pink sparks came from various points around the orrery, which was surrounded by Karolina's energy field as the two partners worked together to break the powerful deep wards.

"YES!" Nico shouted loudly as a loud, deep snap reverberated through her body and the entire room; instantly the pink glow around the machinery and around Nico vanished as the small woman dropped to her knees on the rough floor. Karolina dropped to the ground as well, her pink and violet light still luminous as she knelt beside Nico, putting her hands on her wife's shoulders in support.

Panting and sweating to the point that her mascara was streaking and her shirt was sticking to her back, Nico looked up, grinning widely. "EAT SHIT, YOU FUCKERS!" she yelled triumphantly at the orrery.

—O—

Persephone put her head in her hands at her mother's gleeful profanity. Lenore laughed out loud, as did Gloriana, while Ligeia and Yulia were in mild and moderate states of shock respectively.

"Maybe a live broadcast wasn't the best idea, Xavin," Persephone said quietly into her hands.

—O—

On Majesdane, Pandora, Jhil and Isaac all heard the laughs and cheers that came from the teenagers behind them; grimly, they realized that more adult words were likely waiting in their immediate future.

—O—

In the library in Kamar Taj, where dozens of students were clustered around the handful of library computers, Jimmy Kaplan and his children, sixteen-year-old Edgar Kaplan and thirteen-year-old Annabelle Dean, all sat quietly for a few seconds, before the father turned to his children.

"Look—"

"Dad. Mom cusses all the time too." The sandy-haired Edgar looked totally calm as he held his father's gaze.

The dark-haired Annabelle nodded, the red ribbons in her two braids waving with the motion. "Yeah, we've heard a hell of a lot worse," she added (quite deliberately).

Jimmy looked at his little girl, then closed his mouth. "You're right," he said, mentally making a note to talk to his wife about maybe not furthering their children's vocabulary quite so much.

—O—

Karolina helped Nico back to her feet, not removing her right hand from where it rested against the small of Nico's damp back.

"Okay, all the wards are down," Karolina said, her voice tight. Time was running out, in several different ways. "Now we just have to pull two suns apart, despite all their mass, to shut down this ship's power and drop it out of hyperspace."

"Actually," Nico said, her head turning to look up at Karolina. "I have an idea."

Karolina looked down at Nico and froze, her heart skipping several beats at the depth of emotion visible in her wife's eyes. "I'm... I'm not going to like this idea, am I?" she asked hesitantly.

Nico slowly shook her head.

Karolina took in a steadying breath. "Well, it can't be much worse than the empowerment spell that's still ticking away on us, right?"

The pause before Nico answered made Karolina's heart sink into her gut.

"Actually, yeah. It can."

Now Karolina's eyes were starting to water. "Wh-What are you thinking, Nico?" she stammered out.

"Even if we stop this ship, it's still going to drop back into regular space. The combined war fleets that are following us will blow the shit out of it, but in the seconds before that happens, there's a chance that some of the Wraiths could escape, by pods, lifeboats, teleportation, dimensional gates, whatever, once the protective barriers around this ship go down."

Karolina swallowed. "So what are you thinking?"

Nico took a glance over at the doorway. The two remaining Spaceknights were staunchly holding their ground, but the reflected glow of their energy blasts was brighter around them as the teeming surge of Wraiths and monsters slowly drew closer.

Nico turned to look at Karolina again. "I know a spell that'll give us the power to move those suns."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"Because of the price."

Karolina shook her head. "We're already sacrificing our future, Nico."

"Yeah. Now take that to its limit."

Karolina closed her eyes for several seconds, the motion triggering the escape of tears from both sets of her eyelashes. The pink trails down her cheeks glowed on their own for several seconds before Karolina's eyes opened again, shining that bright blue that Nico had loved for so many years.

"So you cast this spell, and we pull the suns apart," Karolina said sadly.

"No. We smash them together."

The blonde's glowing eyes widened.

Nico kept staring into Karolina's eyes, taking the blonde's hands in her own as she spoke. "The explosion will be a magic- and nuclear-powered supernova, Kar. It'll annihilate this fucking worldship and all the Wraiths on it before they revert back into realspace. They won't have a chance to escape. And it'll destroy the source of their power, their black sun."

Emotions swirled behind Karolina's intense stare and she processed what Nico was saying. "We could end their threat right here," she said slowly. "Forever."

Nico nodded, glistening trails of tears slithering down her own cheeks.

"With no one but us here having to die."

There was a pause of a second, then another, slower nod.

"That's the price," Nico spoke, softly.

"And we'll both pay it?" asked Karolina, determination in her voice.

"We'll have to. You'll move the regular sun, I'll take the black sun since it's full of corrupt magic. We'll have to be quick."

Karolina lifted her head, took another glance at the orrery, then looked back down at Nico. "How—" she began only for her voice to briefly fail her. "How long... will we have? Once you cast the spell?"

Nico held onto Karolina's hands, the two of them only seeing each other as they stood facing one other. "One hundred heartbeats," she quietly said.

"My heart's beating pretty fast."

"So's mine."

"So which one counts?"

"The spell will synchronize them. We'll have the same amount of time."

"Oh, good."

"Kar."

"Nico."

Suddenly a flood of tears filled Nico's eyes, and her chin quivered. "I'm sorry, Kar," she said quickly, staring up into the eyes of the woman she had loved for the last forty-four years.

Tenderly, Karolina released Nico's left hand and lifted her own right hand to softly caress Nico's left cheek, wiping away her wife's tears. "I'm not sorry," she spoke gently. "Not in the least. Because I have had the most amazing, wonderful life, Nico, and it's all because I got to spend it with you."

"I-I feel the same," Nico replied, nodding as she spoke. "Thank you for giving me so much love, so much joy over our lives."

They kissed, their lips lingering against each other's for several seconds, then they pulled apart, their heads shifting to press their foreheads together as they gazed into each other's eyes. Karolina's luminosity vanished as she shifted back to her human form, both of them weeping but still smiling broadly as they silently communed for what felt like a minute but was more like ten seconds.

Karolina leaned her head back, wiping at her eyes as she looked at Xavin. "Xavin, we're sorry that you have to be here," she said, still crying but her voice strong.

"Don't be," Xavin said, and it had been so long since xe had spoken that xer voice seemed almost unreal to the trillions across the galaxy witnessing the moment. "It has been my honor to here, to be part of this band of warriors, to assist with and chronicle what has transpired here today. All the galaxies needs to know the sacrifice made here, the bravery of those who fought here today to protect the universe."

"Thank you," Nico added, pausing before adding, "I'm almost sorry I was kind of a bitch to you when we first met."

Xavin smiled behind the camera. "All was forgiven long ago," xe said calmly.

"Nico," said Karolina, gently resting her left hand against Nico's arm. "They're getting really close."

Nico looked at the two spaceknights, now visibly fighting off blows from meaty limbs and long tentacles. She looked back at Karolina and nodded.

Xavin moved forward, closer to Nico, Karolina and the worldship orrery. Nico stood to Xavin's left, before the black sun, facing Karolina as the blonde positioned herself beside the white sun, close enough that the two of them took each other's hands, their arms slightly raised between them.

Karolina quickly looked into the camera and said, "Girls, we love you! We're so, so proud of you, and to our grandbabies who aren't babies anymore, we're proud of you, too! Always remember that."

Nico turned her head to look into the camera. "Hey," she said, struggling to maintain emotional control but knowing she needed to hurry. "We're never really gone, because we're part of each of you. Remember that any time you miss us."

Nico briefly let go of Karolina's right hand to wipe her eyes; Karolina quickly did the same for her own face, then they took each other's hands again, searching each other's face as they pushed their emotions aside and focused on each other.

They were together. And that made any burden bearable.

"A hundred heartbeats?" asked Karolina, smiling through her cascading emotions.

"Yep," replied Nico, grateful she could focus on Karolina to re-center herself.

"Okay. Will it hurt much?"

"The spell uses our physical bodies as literal fuel to transform our spirits into a form strong enough to withstand the heat of the suns and move them from their positions. So probably, but not for long."

Karolina nodded. "I loved that body," she said, staring proudly at Nico. "And I loved yours too."

"Me too," Nico replied, smiling.

Pink sigils appeared around Nico's hands and wrists, quickly spreading to Karolina's hands where they held Nico's, then up their arms before expanding to encompass their entire bodies.

"I love you," Nico said, feeling the spell's power build between them, well past the point of no return.

"I love you, too," replied Karolina, gazing at Nico with so much trust and love that it still took Nico's breath after forty-four years.

The spell reached its crest, primal power rapidly building inside Nico, but she paused, holding it in uncomfortably for a few seconds as she searched Karolina's eyes for any doubt, for any sign that they were making a mistake.

Instead, Karolina gave Nico a small, simple nod, the proud smile on her face never wavering as she squeezed Nico's hands in silent affirmation.

The glowing sigils around their bodies exploded into searing light, the pink flaring into a white hotter than the youngest star. The brilliance lasted for several burning seconds before vanishing as quickly as it appeared, leaving Xavin and the trillions watching through xer camera blinking as their eyes struggled to readjust.

What Xavin saw after xer eyes adjusted, though, took xer breath away.

Floating just off the room's rough floor, two glowing figures faced each other, still holding hands. The figure on the left was an ebon black, so dark that no features could be discerned save for the eyes, which glowed white and light pink. Those eyes were fixated on the other figure, whose pink form with tiny flecks of violet and yellow scattered throughout the substance of her body only differing from Karolina's previous Majesdanian form by being brighter and partly translucent. Like the ebon woman, this glowing woman was fully fixated on her counterpart, her glowing blue eyes locked inexorably onto the dark woman's pink, their arms still raised between them, hands still linked with each other.

"The prophecy..." Xavin breathed out, stunned at what xe was seeing. How many times had xe visualized this in xer mind's eye? How many times had xe replayed every word of the prophecy, picturing how each tiny piece of the puzzle would come together to present a revelation? Countless moments, countless years, trapped with nothing to do but think about this story that had given xer hope when none existed, that had fueled xer flagging spirit and soothed xer wounded heart.

And now here it was for xer to bear witness.

Though there were no facial features to visually indicate emotional states, the pink form and the ebony form seemed to regard each other for a charged moment, then, still holding hands on the side closer to Xavin, they each extended an arm to the side, left for the jet woman, right for the pink. Each hand stopped just behind its respective star, gently cradling each stellar orb, burning warmth for the pink woman, ravenous cold for the ebon one, as they both paused, holding the fate of a universe in their hands.

The two floating figures drifted closer to each other. The pink head and the jet head leaned closer, their abstract faces gently pressing together in a ghostly kiss as the hands holding the black sun and the white sun suddenly surged toward each other, slamming the two stars together in a single instant of brilliant light and noise, then all the screens and displays across the galaxies went black.

—O—

The destruction of the Dire Wraith worldship was cataclysmic, the explosion so massive that two Shi'ar scout ships were caught in the blast and destroyed before they could evade the explosion. Several capital ships were damaged by the blast but managed to drop out of hyperspace before flying into the supernova, with the rest of the fleets quickly following their lead.

The complete destruction of the worldship was verified by each of the pursuing warfleets, further confirmed by mystic scrying.

There were no survivors.

—O—

"What do we do now?" asked Ligeia, crying with Yulia in Lenore's arms.

Lenore placed a kiss on her daughter's head and looked at her sister Persephone, who was likewise crying but unashamedly.

"We go on," Persephone said despite her heavy heart. "We make them proud. We never forget them. And we cherish every moment of every day, because they absolutely did."

—O—

"Hey."

Karolina looked up from the beautiful view of the stars and stellar phenomena where they stretched out beneath her, despite the fact that she was sitting on nothing in the middle of space (or what looked like it). Seeing Nico, who was likewise standing on nothing, looking down at her made the blonde grin that wide, toothy grin that always made Nico smile herself. "Hey yourself," she replied to the jet-haired witch.

Nico extended a hand to the blonde, who took it before illuminating into pink light and flying into an upright position before turning her radiance off.

"Showoff," said Nico, who was uncharacteristically unable to stop smiling.

"You love it," replied Karolina, still grinning.

"Absolutely. Just like I love you."

They moved closer and kissed, and it felt just as sweet, just as heartfelt and right as it had for forty-four years. Nothing hurt, nothing was stiff, and it felt like they had been freed from all limitations.

When they finally pulled apart, they gazed into each others' eyes, Karolina still looking down, Nico still looking up, as they wrapped their arms around each other.

"So," said the blonde, whose entire spirit was vibrating with happiness and excitement, "what do we do now?"

Nico thought for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders. "No idea," she replied calmly. "But we'll do it together."

Karolina's blue eyes sparkled. "That's all I ever wanted."

Nico's dark brown eyes seemed to twinkle themselves as all the stars stretching to eternity were reflected in them. "Me too."

—O—

—O—

Author's Afterword: Thank you for coming this far with me. I really hope you've enjoyed this story, because I've loved writing it. Thank you for all your thoughts, comments, insights and questions. I'll write some more about these two soon, I promise.

I wish the best to you and your loved ones in this terrible, trying time, and I hope this story has given you some positivity, love and joy to help you through these days. Best wishes to each of you!