A little ways back, Kairi has finished listening to the tale of Shina Aurora and Alex Whiter.

She's digested all this information as best she could but needless to say she's not at all happy at her mother for just...letting Shina go like that, or not telling her in the first place.

Auris defends herself by stating she knew Kairi would chase after her, and die for it. It doesn't matter to Kairi though, cause it feels like her mother just used Shina for her own ends.

Now Kairi decides to head out and rescue Shina from where she's stuck at.

Auris tells her to take Mew with her, but Kairi refuses, not wanting to drag him into her problems.

After taking some time to breathe and reconcile the fact that Shina and Alex genuinely loved one another, Kairi presses onward to find a ship that can take her to where Shina's at.

She goes right for the Pyramid to find Saturn, but ends up running into Gabriel. Not wanting him to worry, she fibs her way around his presence until she gets to meet up with Saturn.

Saturn's happy to see her, clearly not knowing that Kairi is actually the one who killed Gravitus.

Though some of that elation is obviously cause she wants to experiment on the Neo Drive. Gabriel restrains her for a bit and then leaves, allowing Kairi to get right to the point with Saturn.

Once Saturn has an understanding of what's going on she's delighted to provide Kairi a ride and takes her to her space station.

The ship Saturn has to offer for safe travels is the Prism Cube...a cube. Saturn can't take her for a ride cause she's a busy, so she checks to see if Kairi has experience in space travel. Obviously, no.

Fortunately for them Jupiter soon arrives having taken on a couple missions to settle down a few riled up species following Gravitus' defeat.

Saturn recruits Jupiter to pilot Kairi to where her sister is. Jupiter's glad to assist, her enthusiasm overwhelming Kairi.

The coordinates are set for the Cosmic Cage in the center of the universe and the two head out with Saturn's blessing.

Along the way Jupiter confronts Kairi on her "handle it alone" attitude. She mentions how the Planetary Aurians have only functioned so long because as Saturn says..."Teamwork, works teams!"

Jupiter's tough but there's just some thing she's not good at, such as getting dressed.

So she tells Kairi to cut out the solo act and be willing to accept help. Kairi didn't expect to hear this from her, to which Jupiter brags how her strongest muscles are her heart and the brain. Kairi laughs, knowing the latter isn't true.

The two hit it off a bit from there, with Kairi talking about her bond with her sister.

Jupiter vows to be her big sister until she gets her real one back, and soon after they arrive at the Cosmic Cage.

Seeing many planetoids and space full of life is quite the sight to behold. Eventually they penetrate the cage itself, and land their ship at their destination...

But upon leaving the ship, they find a direct copy of Sancturia staring them right in the face. And stranger of all, there's a bunch of familiar video game characters dashing around like its normal.

Seeing this all go down causes Kairi to faint for a brief period.

Jupiter eventually manages to wake her up and get her back on her feet comfortably.

Kairi's trying to digest all this strangeness while Jupiter has deduced a couple important fact. One, that they definitely can't escape or even contact the outside until they solve what's happening here. Two, despite all these figures wandering around, none of them seem to notice their presence.

But they're definitely real, with Jupiter recognizing many of them based off Saturn's files. And Kairi, loathe as she wants to admit it, feels like Shina has a hand in this.

Jupiter decides they can split up and try to find her. She takes the roofs while Kairi moves through the streets.

Kairi figures she can try and find their house, if this is perfectly accurate to Sancturia.

When she arrives it looks nearly the same as it did two years ago. However, Kairi notices a framed picture of her family. Curiously, Auris' face is missing.

It leaves her wondering if perhaps Shina didn't WANT to return home, which she doesn't want to try and belief.

Jupiter returns, realizing she never got a profile on Shina's appearance. Kairi shows her the picture and that helps a lot. Jupiter, however, figures she should also check and see if there's anyone Shina might be hanging out with.

Kairi thinks it'd be Noel Vermillion, given Shina based her Gunslinger Drive fighting style after hers and talked her up a lot.

While Jupiter goes out on patrol again, Kairi heads out and finds another unnerving sight. There's a temple dedicated to worshiping Shina in place of the Pyramid.

Before her panic gets the better of her, Jupiter delivers the good news that she found Shina hanging out with Noel.

Kairi runs to be by her side without a second thought. At first it seems like a heartwarming reunion is going to go down...

However, Shina does not run into Kairi's arms, continuing past her to pick up a second Kairi that looks like she did two years ago.

Kairi tries to call out to her sister, falling into despair as Shina ignores her every word and gives the younger Kairi a piggyback ride.

Kairi falls to her knees and cries.

And then she's approached by a familiar, bitter voice, calling her out for such a weak bond with her sister.

Kairi turns and angrily stares up at the one and only Aurian Pluto. His smug demeanor bringing her to rage and activate the Angel Drive to threaten him.

But Pluto stands resolute, fearing her anger no longer.

Jupiter approaches, figuring she smelled his stench here.

However, Pluto has nothing to do with what's going on with Shina. As to how he arrived here, well...

After Gravitus drained his aura he was flung out into space. His body drifted for a couple of days towards a star, where his body would surely burn.

Instead, it suddenly turned into a black hole and sucked him up. The Divine Drive kept his body intact, but the twisting, warping influences of the black hole still made him sick with pain.

He was spat out in this location, where he arrived upon the Cosmic Cage after a little more drifting.

While the two were distracted with his story, he got to raise his blades to Kairi's neck. He's annoyed how power seems to keep getting handed out to unprepared children like candy these days. Clearly this is the work of a devil wanting easy souls...

He reminds his two guests how his power is a divine right, and that he will still rise to providence and reign over the universe as a new king.

Kairi tries to fight back but he swats her staff aside, calls her weak, and chooses to take care of affairs elsewhere.

Jupiter calls him an asshole then tries to help lift Kairi's spirits. She recognizes how none of this is right and the bad omen is centered entirely around Shina.

And more than likely, its the prisoner of this cage who has their hands on her mind.

Piecing stuff together, Jupiter chooses to drag Kairi along to where Shina is and then hopes that Kairi will trust her with what she plans to do next.

Jupiter rushes Shina down and throws a mighty punch without hesitation. Right before the blow connects, a sagely spirit emerges and blocks the attack, time crawling to a standstill.

Jupiter recognizes the spirit, who quickly commands Shina to activate the Cosmos Drive and force Jupiter away with an exertion of power.

Shina transforms into a serene azure goddess embodying the stars of the cosmos, aiming her sights upon both Jupiter and Kairi, calling the former a traitor and the latter a fake sent by Gravitus to deceive her.

Back in Sancturia, Mew's baffled at the news that Kairi's gone off to space without letting him know, and demands Auris to tell them cause he senses she'll be in trouble.

Auris refuses, respecting Kairi's desire to go alone.

Joe Dark doesn't think this is worth getting riled up about, seeing how strong that Kairi chick seemed to be. Mew disagrees, as he can't shake the feeling that something is wrong.

Joe Dark groans and then tries to threaten Auris with his dagger, only for Mew to tell him that won't work.

The shift in aggression winds up luring Gabriel in. When he hears what's going on he assures the others that Kairi will get Shina back without a fight.

But then everyone catches on to Auris' continued unease, with Riku forcing her to admit that Shina's true location is the Cosmic Cage.

Gabriel goes deadly quiet, then commands Mew and the others to find Saturn, now.

Joe Dark's dragged along against his will, though seems more resonate to the cause when he hears this Shina girl loved Alex Whiter.

Gabriel, in the meantime, stares Auris down and questions how she knew about the Cosmos Drive, saying how it was meant to be a secret HE took to the grave.

She saw him say it at one point in another timeline and figured out the rest from there.

Gabriel lectures her on how Shina was only supposed to meet Alex and then stay on Plit until Kairi got the Neo Drive. Now it seems Auris knowingly sent Shina to Hell with no guarantee she'd return.

Auris had faith in her heart, but Gabriel mentions that the THING inside the cage doesn't care about such meaningless things.

He stood by her side all this time and though he didn't agree with some decisions she made he tried to have faith in her.

But this is a line too far for him. He KNOWS about the altars she lights in dedication to her lost children, and believed they meant she mourned their lives.

Yet now she's just willingly sending Kairi to die too, essentially digging both sister's graves.

Auris can only weakly mutter that she doesn't know what else she could do anymore, stating how she lost her clairvoyance.

She doesn't know how to explain the why or how, only that its left her scared.

Gabriel doesn't believe that she's useless without her cursed eyes. She's been strong ever since she was a child, yet also kind, which is why Sarajin loved him so.

She has no reason to fear Gravitus' shadow. Finally, she can have the family she always wanted...But only if SHE is willing to put in the effort to keep it.

Gabriel leaves without another word, while Auris stews in her misery.

Remembering how much she loved and raised Shina and Kairi, however, causes Auris' rage at herself to reach a boiling point.

Declaring "No more graves", she rushes for the temple of her ancestors and reaches into the flame housing the orb she used to call Mew before. Pulling out a strange cube, she moves to meet up with the others.

At the Pyramid, Mew, Riku and Joe Dark wait for Gabriel to arrive before advancing into Saturn's space station through the portal.

Gabriel wastes no time on Saturn's surprise at their appearance and declares this to be a "Protocol ENIGMA" threat.

Saturn is stunned silent for a moment and then quickly guides them to one of her fastest ships, wondering what the scenario is.

Gabriel says they will head to the Cosmic Cage, upon which Saturn realizes she MAY have just sent her best friend into a bad situation.

Auris then arrives, showing her determination to help going forward.

Mew's happy to have her on-board and all of them, including Saturn, enter the ship and fire off in hopes of catching up to the others.

Along the way Gabriel explains the threat they are up against.

The Grand Cosmic Aurian Sage is one of the oldest living Aurians, and Aurians today owe the existence of Sancturia and many other things to him.

Yet he's also a selfish man whose ambitions had threatened all life in the universe three generations before Auris' time, which Gabriel was first born in.

The Sage is responsible for the sin Gabriel committed that led to his servitude, and also why all the Planetary Aurians exist to begin with.

The Sage was also so powerful, that its why the Neo Drive was first created, as a counter to his Cosmos Drive.

Thus it should be easy for Kairi to stop him...Except Gabriel reveals that the Sage's soul was sealed within the Cosmos Drive, his desires too grand to be silenced.

And thus he's probably possessing Shina, making it difficulty for Kairi to want to face her.

Mew has confidence they can win though.

Back to the present, Jupiter is getting upset at Shina for neglecting her little sister's cries, but Shina ignores her, continuing to believe only what she has been led to see.

Before Shina can attack, however, she is forced to evade a bombardment of dark spheres from Mew.

Everyone but Auris drops in from the ship to assist, with Mew happily joking at Kairi coming here alone.

She's stunned to see them all there. Gabriel calmly draws his katana and tells her it'll be ok.

Mew and Shina's eyes meet, with her clearly stunned to see him, given who he looks like.

However, Mew's attention is drawn more towards the spirit of the Sage floating behind her...As his cloak parts, revealing him to be a chimera bug man with some minor human features.

Mew has to take a moment and confirm from Gabriel that yes, that is indeed the Sage.

Thus a bunch of things start clicking together in Mew's head. Not helping matters is when the Sage murmurs how he recognizes Mew's power as that of "Devimoth's"

Mew then blacks out for a moment as he connects the last time he saw "D." to what the Sage looks like now.

A fight's about to break out when suddenly, Mew yells for everything to CEASE.

He needs some answers, most importantly, why the HELL the originator of Aurian culture is a goddamn bug.

The Sage is utterly baffled by the existence of Mew, while Shina, however, actually finds herself curious to know more about her history as well.

The Sage obliges to answer only cause she wants it, and begins to detail the Aurians' past.

It all began tens of millions of years ago. The first Aurians were bugs, confined to the dirt of a world far from god's light.

They existed only to be fed upon, too feeble and brainless to understand a purpose beyond that.

One day, a Goddess arrived, teaching them the ways of aura. She was there only for a brief time, but impacted their lives forever, including that of the Sage.

But then came a great darkness, that expanded, threatening to consume all in its path. Their world was lucky to survive, and for their endurance they were rewarded.

Six lights shot forth from the darkness and crash landed upon their world, granting the six that were brave enough incredible power. These were the first Drives.

Lepido, the present Sage, gained the power of Wisdom, and thus the inability to lose memory of whatever he learned.

Ficklewick, the Spider, gained the power of Master, and could thus master anything he set his mind to. He became the weaver of seams, and built the Aurians their first clothes and homes.

Aegisan, the Beetle, was granted Valor, becoming a warrior of incredible renown and the crafter of many weapons.

Stingle, the Wasp, had a very peculiar power in Final. With it he could crystallize his thoughts into pure power. With Ficklewick's help, they created many Drives, locking them away within the Archive.

Tellis, the Praying Mantis, had the power of Limit. But it was unknown as to what his power could accomplish at the time.

Finally there was Devimoth, who was cursed with the power of the Anti Drive. Its touch on his mind made him go insane, ranting about "venom", "the static veil", and a "beast who devours all".

His insanity turned violent, forcing the other Sages to lock him away within the darkness.

The remaining Sages then spent millions of years crafting entire worlds to fit the individual members of their species.

It was a time of great prosperity and growth for them all that seemed like it would last forever.

...However, Lepido noticed a terrible change unfolding among his people. They were changing, growing taller and more...human-like.

Tellis was responsible, and Lepido turned on him in rage. Tellis believed that Aurians were stagnant and needed to evolve to handle their growing power, believing humanity to be a superior race.

It would be a slow process to help them adjust, but it could not be stopped.

Stricken with madness, Lepido banished himself from his people's sight and toiled in his madness for many more years.

But the whispers of knowledge told him what path his people took. The remaining Sages took the Aurians to Genestasia, creating the city of Sancturia, and leaving his son behind to start the first lineage of the Ten Sages.

The sages then banished themselves to the four corners of the universe.

Lepido could not let this stand, following thoroughly to the bone the teachings of his divine Goddess. Though his people had lost their faith, even believing her beauty had never existed at all...He could never forget.

Determined to "fix" the sin of Tellis, Lepido began to traverse the stars, hunting down his former brothers and devouring them whole to gain their power. He gained Valor, Master, and Final...Leaving Limit as the last.

But when he hunted Tellis down, he found his former friend had made himself "ill" with the plague of humanity too. He had planned to cast aside immortality and live the last few years of his life watching his people from a citizen's point of view.

Lepido cursed him out for denying the original purpose of Aurians, and madly devoured him whole. Yet to his last, defiant end, Tellis "cursed" Lepido with humanity too.

All this did was further fuel Lepido's desperation. Now that he had created his Cosmos Drive, he moved quickly, weaving his essence through every atomic fiber of the universe.

But before his plans came to fruition, the Ten Sages of the time fought against him, sealing him away within the Cosmos Drive.

His story at an end, the Sage hopes this has enlightened these blind fools to the truth.

But this doesn't tell Mew why the Sage is possessing Shina. The Sage says how the girl reminds him much of the Goddess, making her perfect to carry out her will.

Shina isn't hearing any of that though, the Sage filtering out what she hears to keep her on his side.

Nevertheless Shina agrees with the Sage's words, as the Aurians losing their way is what gave birth to Gravitus in the first place.

She plans to fight them all to the death, it seems, and Mew apologizes to Kairi ahead of time for having to punch her. But he makes it clear that while he's picking up the slack for her now, Kairi's going to have to be the one to deliver the wake up punch to Shina in the end.

Everyone piles on Shina to try and get a hit in, with her dancing around them with ease and parrying even Jupiter's toughest blows.

Shina is disappointed in the Planetary Aurians for being nothing but Gravitus' thugs.

After Riku and Joe Dark distract Shina for a while, Saturn uses her Containment Drive to create a multi-layered prison around her.

This allows Jupiter to apply her force and create a feedback loop that makes it stronger and stronger until it SHOULD be enough to knock even the Cosmos Drive user out.

However, Shina tanks the blow and dares them to hit her harder than that.

Saturn's getting some really good data though and its clear that's where her priorities lie, much to even Jupiter's dismay.

Fortunately this all provided enough time for Mew to sneak in from behind in the shadows and attempt to directly strike at the Sage's spirit.

He only manages to slice an arm off though, but its enough to get the Sage to demand Mew's head.

Shina's also pissed too for having to face this person who looks like Alex. She tries to attack Mew only for Gabriel to stand between them, tying to get Shina to focus.

Shina feels so betrayed by his loyalties the most, as unlike Auris, she thought he could still be trusted. Shina's also mad but not surprised that her drunkard mother couldn't bother to show herself.

Shina then easily takes Gabriel down and prepares to kill him, only for Mew to grab her from behind in a Full Nelson.

He tries to line her up for Joe Dark to get a free hit, but she dematerializes and reforms behind Mew, blowing him away and then charging right at Joe Dark.

She wonders why the hell he'd be working for Gravitus, to which Joe Dark yells at HER for even suggesting such a dumb idea.

Mew lies down for a moment and groans in pain all over. Riku walks up to him, noting how Kairi's not made a move and perhaps he was wrong to have faith in her.

Mew's not inclined to disagree, and wonders what they should try now.

Riku suggests they do the same thing they did against Justek, though Mew's not having much faith in that plan this go around.

Riku's confidence changes his mind on that quickly, and the two bond their elemental energy together to recreate the Phoenix of Hope.

Hope quickly strikes Shina in the face and makes her flinch, then he transforms into Chaos Form and dares the "Goddess" to face them.

Shina refuses to lose her happiness again and tackles the Phoenix of Hope, the two clashing with equal wills.

Joe Dark enters his Dark King form and joins the fray as well, working in tandem with the Phoenix to get Shina to settle down.

Their fight tears through this fake Sancturia, with the Phoenix trying to drag her away from the others.

Shina's control over the Cosmos Drive allows her to bust out a lot of different powers to keep both her powerful foes at bay.

She confronts the Phoenix on his continued resemblance to Alex, pissed at him for tormenting her when all she's trying to do is the right thing.

Joe Dark starts telling her off for her delusions, saying it makes her more pathetic than anything else.

Shina says everything here is real to her, and he's just upset because no one's ever loved him.

Joe Dark calls her out by mentioning how is this world is so real and so perfect, then why isn't Alex Whiter around?

Surely it'd be so easy for the mighty Cosmos Drive to bring him here...

Its painfully obvious to Joe Dark that perhaps she never actually loved him to begin with.

The Phoenix tries to stop him from prodding the bull any further but he doesn't relent, bluntly telling Shina that he can't possibly understand what Alex would've seen in her either.

She loses focuses and starts screaming, launching powerful waves of attacks as she declares she won't lose this feeling of happiness ever again.

The Phoenix and Joe Dark nearly use her anger to slay the spirit of the Sage, upon which the Sage demands she concentrate and deal with them properly.

Shina uses a special trick of the Cosmos Drive to grab hold of her two foe's auras and rip them out, effectively leaving them powerless.

The Phoenix splits back into an exhausted Mew and Riku, with Mew calling foul on such a broken power.

The Sage then tells him to whine about it in the afterlife, before commanding Shina to fling them across the fake Sancturia until they're too broken to move.

It seems they're going to die until an unlikely savior steps in...Pluto.

Pluto plans to bargain with the Sage, believing he's more worthy a successor to the Cosmos Drive than this dimwitted girl.

Though the Sage acknowledges the points in Pluto's favor, ultimately he is not a girl, and thus cannot replace the Goddess.

Pluto calls him a disgustingly blind fool and then reveals he's chained up the fake Kairi. He reveals the true folly of Shina's character by quickly cutting the fake Kairi's neck.

The real Kairi and Shina both freak out differently, with Shina jumping Pluto and beating the crap out of him ferociously.

She's only stopped only when she hears the fake Kairi crying, upon which she pulls away and uses her power to heal her wound.

And after all this time of distracting Shina...Auris finally makes her debut, clad in a silver armor with her sword and shield at the ready.

She aims her irksome gaze at the Sage himself, demanding he let her daughter go.

Auris is clad in the Null Armor, a dangerous armor the Ten Sages had crafted to seal Sarajin within and make him easier to execute.

It nullifies spiritual power in exchange for boosting physical power...Which in Auris' case, dampens the Anti-Genesis Theorem's effects on her.

Shina's eyes are full of hate, while Auris' are full of pride for her daughter having made it this far. She no longer can see her as a little girl, but a fine young woman.

Though she may be stronger, she's certainly not wiser. Shina believes she simply hates that SHE created peace while she did nothing but sit on her ass.

Auris denies this dream world as "peaceful", saying its no different than what the Ten Sages of her time wanted.

Shina says she thinks she knows so much, but her clairvoyance never saved anyone but herself. She has learned a lot about her mother through the Cosmos Drive's wisdom, and believes she never loved her.

Auris states how a child doesn't owe a parent any love, and she can judge her as she wishes. However, Auris restates with full confidence that she gave her children as much love as she could. She was simply too cowardly to admit such.

Shina refuses to believe her.

And she doesn't have to. Yet Auris will be there for her, every time she's hurt, or cries. Because she's her mother.

The Sage tires of the sappy talk and asks Shina to kill her.

Shina refuses to use the Cosmos Drive though. She reverts down to the Valkyrie Drive, her mother's former Drive, and draws her sword, still caked over with Alex's blood to make a point to her.

Now, she plans to use this power and Alex's spirit to surpass Auris.

Auris draws her weapons, and demands her daughter show what she has learned.

What begins is a quiet duel between mother and daughter, their dance illuminated by the swing of their blades and the clanging of their steel souls.

The Sage tries to dilute the movement of their dance, demanding Shina to just KILL HER. However, Auris continues to respect the will her daughter has forged through hardship, looking her in the eyes not with shame but pride.

Auris shall not allow the Sage to pollute her ideals just because of his terrible goals.

The Sage wants nothing more than to fix the polluted Aurian race, and return them to zero. His aura, woven throughout the cosmos, will allowing him to revert all Aurians to their bug-like nature. On top of that, he will be able to convert all life into the same type of Aurians thanks to his experiments on the Planetary Aurians.

Auris denies his will and his "Goddess", stating how his "tool" has a name...And its Shina, Shina Aurora.

Auris then decides to let Shina win their duel, honoring the growth she's had throughout her journey.

However, Shina recognizes she could have won. But Auris denies it, saying it was never a matter of who inflicted the strongest wound physically...

She closes her eyes prepared to accept her daughter's last judgment.

And this proves to be the breaking point for Kairi. She finally stands, activates the Neo Drive, and gets between her mother and sister, proclaiming that she will finally be the one to bring her to her senses.

The sight of her angers the Sage due to the Neo Drive, while Shina is still driven to believe that this Kairi is a fake.

Kairi thanks Auris for stepping in when she did, realizing she's been passive long enough, and declaring that she'll be the one to put their family back together.

The two sisters begin their duel over the remains of the fake Sancturia. The Neo Drive's ability to copy any Drives it sees is a perfect counter to the Cosmos Drive's ability to make new Drives on the fly.

Hearing the Sage utter the Neo Drive's name causes Shina's delusion to start breaking. Kairi uses Shina's Gunslinger Drive to further help her understand what's going on.

Kairi gets more and more confident that she can save Shina, while Shina retreats into her own madness, believing fully that she HAS to have been the one to save Kairi, otherwise what else was the point of Alex dying?

Shina begins summoning fragments of her memories that summon hundreds of Alex Whiter's to swarm the field.

Auris steps in and projects a barrier to shield Kairi, giving her time to ready herself to advance upon Shina.

Kairi weaves through the bombing of Alex Whiters around her and pulls out the headband she got from Shina, using it to deliver a big punch to her face and calling her an idiot.

This finally gets through to Shina, who recognizes something she should have from the start...The younger Kairi didn't have that headband.

The Sage doesn't try to defend himself and Shina yells at him for tricking her, recognizing the Kairi before her as the real deal.

Shina uses her power to try and wipe the Sage's spirit away. However, he IS the Cosmos Drive, and thus continues to persist.

His spirit begins to strangle hers for control, stating his devotion to the Goddess is far greater than her dumb love.

Auris steps in, slamming the Null Armor onto Shina to nullify the Sage's advantage, putting them in a standstill.

Kairi then jumps in, activating the power of Devimoth's Anti-Drive due to having watched Mew use it. With it, she's able to grab the Sage's Spirit, tackle him to the ground, then obliterate him whole.

Finally, Shina has been liberated from the Sage's machinations, and Auris pulls the armor off, allowing her to fall to her knees in exhaustion.

Kairi crawls over and the two drop next to each other, crying terribly over finally being reunited at long last.

Shina mourns that she's all grown-up and not as cute, and Kairi laughs.

The two sisters eventually knocked themselves crying so much, leaving everyone else to clean up in the aftermath.

Pluto gives himself over to Saturn willingly, getting put into handcuffs and waltzing over to one of her ships to be taken away to jail.

He makes it clear to Mew that he's doing this to avoid his justice, as Saturn is merciful. He'll use his immortality to outlast Mew and his kind and then try again at becoming a new king over his grave.

However, Mew notes how Pluto didn't have to step in when he did. He thinks there might be some good to scavenge from his cold black heart, and leaves it at that.

Pluto notes his annoying perceptiveness...

On the ride back, Auris holds her two daughters in her lap, petting them warmly as they sleep.

Saturn, meanwhile, has gotten a ton of great data on the Cosmos Drive that she plans to use later...

A couple days later the likes of Mew, Riku and Joe Dark are up at the Aurora household waiting for either Kairi or Shina to wake up.

Joe Dark doesn't really want to be around, so he claims, but Mew can see right through him and manages to shut him up when he gets riled up.

Gabriel remarks on how the Sage's demise wouldn't undo the curse on his or the other Planetary Aurians' bodies, and also, without his presence, Shina has full control over the Cosmos Drive.

But he shuts down even the slightest thought about using it to solve problems by remarking Shina is likely not going to want to use it ever again.

For now, they wait for Auris to give them updates.

Upstairs, Auris sits by Shina's side, getting misty-eyed knowing that she's back home safe and sound.

Shina awakens not long after, quickly recognizing that she's back home, and finding that she's been dressed in her old pajamas.

Shina's first response is to apologize to her mom for all the mean things she said. Auris doesn't want her to take those back, as she deserved it.

Shina still thinks it feels wrong, but that's just a part of growing up. Shina thinks growing up sucks, humoring Auris.

Auris hopes when they're both ready, they can talk more as adults.

Shina then confirms if the others are ok, especially Kairi. Auris says they're fine, and then upon remembering her sister Shina realizes she's got a lot of birthdays to owe up for right away.

But first, she wants her mom to do something for her...

Auris goes downstairs and lets the others know the good news. And then, she says how Shina requested Mew go visit her.

Mew's surprised given who he looks like, but figures he can go up and visit. Joe Dark then wants to go after him, but Auris tells him no until he learns manners.

Joe Dark gets bitter and leaves for a walk.

Mew heads up to say hi to Shina, cheering her up with a joke that actually lands, much to his surprise.

She then starts staring at him, calling the resemblance to Alex uncanny.

Mew thinks it'd be pretty awkward for him to stick around long and tries to bail early, only for Shina to want to thank him for protecting Kairi.

She kind of pieced that together from the way the two talked and how she fought, no Cosmos Drive wisdom necessary.

Mew has to admit that Kairi did most of the work stopping Gravitus, which causes Shina to become filled with pride.

Shina's just happy that her sis chose a good man. Though suddenly, with a surprisingly cold tone, she warns Mew not to try anything funny or she'll cause him grief.

Mew finally sees how she can be Auris' daughter and promises not to do anything.

That's really all she wanted to talk about, so Mew decides to head out.

Strangely though, Mew's shadow sticks behind, catching Shina's notice.

Mew knows his shadow can be unruly and abrasive, so tells Shina whack him if he causes trouble.

Once Mew shuts the door Joe Dark emerges from the shadow, "frightening" Shina. When she starts teasing him he prepares to just leave, only for her continued teasing to make him come back so they won't get away with bossing him around.

Shina then gets blunt with him, telling her her name and hoping he does not keep calling her "that girl" or "crazy".

She does have some experience dealing with edgy people cause of Alex, after all.

Speaking of Whiter, that's what Joe Dark wants to talk about. She wonders why he would care, given he was his enemy.

Joe Dark refuses to divulge until Shina being childish on purpose forces him to admit that Alex was his brother.

Shina is shocked, but after some time and laughter later she can see the resemblance. It was definitely a huge surprise for her, but wants to help him learn more about Alex.

But she's not exactly comfortable going over the whole story. That doesn't matter to Joe Dark anyways, he just wants to know what she liked about him.

Though Alex was crude and had a quick temper, he was walking around with a chip on his shoulder because the universe wanted to make him a monster. But he tried his hardest to prove them wrong. Even though he was brave, he was scared. Even when he was distant, he was close. And though he hated, he also cared.

His better traits tended to beat his worst ones, in summary.

Joe Dark doesn't know quite how to feel, so Shina breaks the tension in the air by joking how he's basically her step-brother now.

Joe Dark loses it wondering if her and Alex got married. They didn't, but...Well, Shina doesn't bother telling him what happened.

Joe Dark doesn't get what Alex saw in her and groans.

Shina says they'll be spending more time with each other, so he'll figure it out. Joe Dark takes that as a threat and tries to leave while he still can.

Shina calls him "brother" and Joe Dark demands she NOT.

On his way out, Joe Dark mumbles how Alex didn't deserve to die, letting it slip that Justek did him in, which puzzles Shina greatly.

Auris returns, asking if she wants anything for dinner. However, Shina's now distracted by what Joe Dark mentioned, thinking how it means if Alex came back to life once...What's to say he REALLY died to Justek either?

Auris does not confirm or deny, instead warning Shina not to chase ghosts. Shina lays down and promises Alex, wherever he is, that she'll do her very best until he returns...

A few days later Shina's more active, catching up on some mangas she missed in the last two years. After Auris delivers her another morning breakfast, Shina's feeling up to doing a little more activity and decides to go head out into Sancturia proper.

But of course she obviously can't do this alone and goes to wake up Kairi, who has still been sleeping all this time.

Shina is enamored by how cute her little sister still looks even now, and pinches her cheeks to wake her up. Kairi mumbles in her sleep, but seems to have heard her.

Shina heads downstairs to wait, and not long after Kairi wakes up in a brief fit of panic and quickly dresses to catch her sister at the front door.

Shina seems to have no qualms with the fact that everyone thinks she's supposed to be dead, and is just ready to head out.

Kairi tries to tackle her to keep her at bay, but Shina takes this as a sign of her wanting to play wrestle like old times and grapples her a bit.

Auris walks in, Kairi hoping she'll offer some sense to this insanity, only to approve of Shina's desire to go out.

Kairi, defeated, is dragged along on Shina's bold journey outdoors. The people pay close attention to her and Kairi feels so embarrassed, wanting to basically die.

She hopes to try and drag Shina somewhere less crowded to avoid problems, only for Shina to want to go right to the mall, the complete opposite of "wide open".

The mall hasn't changed much in Shina's eyes. What else hasn't changed is her wardrobe and she's sick of the same blue shirt and beige jeans combo.

So they go to Wear Weavers, a female focused clothing store with a rather bold and mature selection of clothes.

Kairi starts trailing off in her mind out of worry for Shina's lack of focus on what happened.

For the next hour Kairi's forced to be her chauffeur, carrying the piles and piles of clothes she wants to try on.

When Shina pulls out a crop top and tight bell bottoms combo, Kairi nearly has a heart attack from sheer shock. Forced to lie to make her big sis happy, Kairi's then nearly forced to try on a crop top of her own.

Kairi wants NOTHING to do with such skimpy wears, only for Shina to tease her about how Mew would feel seeing her in them.

Kairi denies all claims about his horniness. Shina refuses to believe it for obvious reasons, and buys the spare top for later.

After this shopping trip Shina wants to pass by her old school and see if she might run into some old friends. They end up finding Bobby just fresh out of his substitute summer school job for the day.

Naturally he freaks out upon seeing Shina's back and alive and well.

The two exchange some conversation though Shina's clearly the one leading it with any sense of confidence. In fact Bobby is so stiff now that Shina has to force him to call her by her old nickname "Shinster".

They then promise to chat again some other time, though Bobby's very lightheaded after the exchange, having not managed much of a word in edgewise. Kairi shares his pain.

The sisters then go to the movie theater, with Shina encouraging Kairi to pick a film cause she wants to see how her interests have matured.

Turns out Kairi likes cheesy B-Grade slasher films. The two head inside and enjoy two hours of that bad movie together, coming out of it feeling happier than before.

But now they're both hungry, and Shina wants to go to an old place she used to love hanging out at. Mambo Italiano is its name, and as you can guess by the name it serves German food.

Upon heading inside the server freaks at the sight of the living Shina, but Shina's lack of social cues in this situation seems to defuse any problems quickly.

Shina focuses on getting them seated so the two of them can have a nice meal together. While they're ordering Kairi continues to recognize the stares towards them and loses focus on her meal.

Shina finally remarks on her being quiet all day and Kairi tells her its nothing.

Shina, however, knows that its because of everyone looking at her being back.

Shina calmly tells Kairi that all that matters to her now is that she's back, and if people wanna stare they can. If they have any questions, they can ask her. But she's not going to let some awkwardness prevent her from catching up on time with her little sister.

Kairi can't see the same silliness radiating off Shina that was present two years prior. The journey out there had matured her in subtle ways, and clearly had made her love stronger.

Kairi apologizes for being rude.

Shina thinks that's nonsense, as she's happy to see her being more assertive these days, thinking its made her a more independent woman.

Now feeling a little more comfortable with one another, the two sisters enjoy a peaceful meal talking about their new interests in certain foods, and embracing a return to normalcy...Albeit a new, exciting one.

Story 3 END