Chapter 44: Separation Anxiety

A nice and perfectly sunny day in Sancturia meant only one thing for the Aurora Sisters:

"C'mon sis! Lets burn those calories right off!" Shina pumped her fists in the air on a brisk jog through the streets, donned in a lovely light-blue sports bra and loose fit gym shorts.

Behind her was Kairi, forced into a green sports bra and similarly designed shorts, but unlike Shina chose to wrap her hair in a tie. Kairi was lagging behind a few feet and drenched in sweat.

Shina spun around with fists tucked at her hips and jogged in place. The sweat glistening on her skin felt like lingering drops from a nice warm shower.

"I-I...am gonna die..." Gasped Kairi.

"Nonsense, you're doing great!" Shina raised her fist skyward and rallied her sister's spirits with something she just this second made up, "Work those calves! Run those feet! Exercise, can't be beat! Goooooo, SIS!"

Kairi raised a finger and gasped some more, "J-Just let me get a drink first...!"

Shina clicked her tongue twice and shook her head, "This wouldn't happen if you cut back on the late night salt crackers."

"Howdoyouknowaboutthat?!" Yelled Kairi with a cute little frazzled look.

"Heh heh!" Shina smiled, watching her sis drop to her butt and pop the cap of her water bottle.

Suddenly a bright flash of light appeared behind her and right as she turned around, Saturn was there with a hand on her arm and the other nudging her glasses up.

"I'm taking your sister bye!" She shouted to Kairi.

"Pbbbbbblllltttt...!" Kairi spat up her water and got to her feet.

"W-Wait a sec, wha-" Shina felt herself being dragged away by Saturn's warp technology, the sudden shift from solid, to molecular matter, to solid again leaving her brain feeling like it was just out of a blender.

"-t?!" She stumbled back and her arms briefly flailed out in front of her, "Whoooooaaa..."

"Ah, sorry about that!" Proclaimed Saturn...somewhere in front of her. As her vision readjusted she saw they were on one of the little brainiac's ships. Might be the same one she was on before? What was it called again? Something Something Space Related?

"-and you never know when you need to pick up and go!" Saturn said with her fists proudly on her hips.

"Oops! I think I missed something important..." Shina chuckled and itched the side of her embarrassed face.

But given that maaaaaaay have clued her in on why she's been sis-napped from Kairi, "Ummm...you mind telling me why I'm here again?"

"Oh right I totally forgot!" Saturn crossed her arms and delicately explained the situation as quick as she could, "I have need of your Cosmos Drive again!"

"Again...?" Shina turned her head aside briefly and was struck with inspiration, "Oh so we're heading to Macros' place!"

"Unfortunately..." Said Saturn with her head in a sag.

"Macros is an odd bug, but I don't think its worth that kinda hostility..." Shina left her to rant for a bit and looked around. There, she saw a couple capsules tucked away in the corner.

"Hmmm?" She wandered over on her tip-toes and poked her head above them. They were covered in frost save for their faces. On the left was a guy with orange-ish skin and red hot pepper hair, on the right was a sweet little girl with a pixie-like face and snow colored skin.

"Oh hello there cutie patootie!" Shina's eyes glowed with luster as she leaned towards the little girl and saw her smile even while unconscious, "Gosh you're even cuter than little Maria. I'd like to put some gumdrops in your hair and just eat you up!"

"Ah ah AH!" Saturn suddenly ran over and applied a hand directly to her face to shove her up, "No sweating on the pods!"

Shina looked down and realized that she's still in her drenched work-out skivvies, baring even more skin than on the beach, including that nice baby holding lump on her stomach.

"Ack! Right!" After the initial shock she laughed it off, "Oh well, its about a 100 light years too late to change out..."

She then tucked her hands back and fiddled her fingers around, "Sooooo, who are these two?"

"You don't know?" Saturn said like that should be common knowledge, "These are two of my teammates! Mercury's on the left, and Uranus is on the right!"

Shina could feel her lips contract inward to stop a snicker. Saturn wagged her finger out and said, "There's a time and place for that missy!"

"S-Sorry..." She replied with a smirk, "So what's up with them? If yer needing my Cosmos Drive again..."

"Ah yes! Of course!" Saturn crossed her arms and slipped a nudge up at her glasses during that, "To abridge a long, boring story...Mercury's deal is that he's actually two guys stuck in one body. One of those guys is the big brother of Uranus, who was hit with an eeeeeeeeeeevil curse that inverted her conscious and subconscious state of minds."

"So like, Uranus sees reality as a dream, and dreams as reality?"

"A-yep!" Saturn gave a hard nod.

"That's...horrible?"

"It is when she uses her magic to turn inanimate objects into desserts!"

"...Ya know that doesn't sound too ba-"

"AND her Drive can freeze people in absolute zero temperatures, making THEM inanimate objects!"

"Oh," And then it struck like an icicle to the heart and she let out a gasp, "Oh my goodness that's horrible! She's eating-"

"No no no NO! She ain't a cannibal!" Saturn persistently proclaimed.

"Still..."

"I know I know. But we're gonna put a wrap on that nonsense today!" Saturn then leaned down at her watch and murmured, "Juuuuust as soon as we make one other stop."

Just like that she snapped her fingers and the ship came to a complete, jerking stop, and Shina tumbled onto her hands and knees.

She got right up and looked out the window, squinting her eyes against a merciless attack of golden glitz and glamor.

"What in the universe?"

"Yeah we've arrived, come on in!" Saturn said somewhere else in the ship. And just as soon as they had arrived at this seizure inducing strobe festival they were off trailblazing through space once more.

And the only mention of what the heckin' heck was going on came from a familiarly suave, womanly voice, "Thank you for being punctual Catherine."

Shina dried her eyes off with both hands and turned around, finding Saturn speaking to a fair, purple-skinned lady in a fancy suit decorated with some blatantly telling gambling motifs. But were it not for the voice the money green hair would've given it away.

"Oh hey, you're that one girl from the beach uhhh..." Shina stalled for time snapping her fingers, "Neptune! Yeah!"

The pretty gambling lady turned with a subtle smile and remarked, "Ah Ms. Shina. Pleasure to make your acquaintance again. Priscilla sends her regards for the lovely food eating contest."

"I wasn't even trying to compete, I was just really hungry that day." Shina gave an embarrassed grin.

"Hmmm," Neptune closed her eyes momentarily and then turned to Saturn, "Catherine, we're set to be on schedule right?"

"Yeah, you should be back at the casino before closing time."

"Excellent." Neptune's pleased smile was intriguing.

"Oooooh, got some plans for the evening?" And Shina was gonna try and pry 'em out of her cold, luscious lips.

Neptune extended a pool stick from her hand and poked her on the nose, "You're too young darling."

"Young? Lady I'm growin' a baby in my belly!" She pouted and felt a bit like her sis.

Neptune retracted her stick and that led to another point, "So whaddya need her help with? Shouldn't my Cosmos Drive be enough?"

"Our powers aren't that unsimilar. But a matter like this requires a little more," Neptune pinched two fingers and as she pulled them apart, a card appeared between them, "Finesse."

She then flicked the card over to Shina, who fiddled it around in the air before clapping it between her hands. She then looked and saw the young Uranus on it, representing the "7" card.

"You wouldn't send a novice doctor to brain surgery, no?" Said Neptune with a playful wink.

One relatively eventless flight later the ship arrived at their destination. Shina hardly believed she'd be back at this odd planet, nor that it'd look exactly the same given its owner's eccentricities.

Neptune was left to levitating the pods out of the ship while her and Saturn stepped out to meet up with the man of the hour. And unsurprisingly, he was right there waiting for them.

"Ah, this time you're the one who is late Catherine." Said Macros with a gleaming smile.

"Yeah yeah, you better not have skimped out on preparations just to win one over on me." Replied Saturn as she walked up and rammed her finger towards his nose.

He pulled back with little attention drawn to said finger and replied, "Of course. Tell your lovely stage assistant to bring the patients to the usual spot."

Shina could feel the cold shooting out from Neptune's eyes as she passed by with the pods in tow. She then felt Macros' glare locked onto her and turned his way.

"I see the pregnancy is coming along nicely." He stated with a casual weight in his tone.

"O-Oh, yeah...Roughly two months in now!" She came up as a response, eventually.

He closed his eyes and whispered, "A shame about the father. Alex Whiter will be missed..."

He then raised his head with a minor frown and said, "You have my sympathies."

It was a pair of comments so odd that it wrapped around to being normal at such a breakneck pace that Shina was left staring at him a good five seconds after he turned around and followed the others.

"...H-How did he...?" She kept that blank look as she tucked her hands back and followed them along, "Wow, they don't call 'em the best biologist for nothing!"

Nothing really to note on the way to the lab. They got inside, and Neptune loaded the pods up next to Macros' latest arrangement of creepy machinery. It was a little similar to what they used to help Maria, just bigger.

A metallic claw carefully opened Mercury's pod and lifted him into one of the machines. When that was done Macros turned to Shina and asked, "So, do you know what we're doing here?"

"I'm guessin' pretty much the same thing we did with lil' ol' Maria?" She replied with partial confidence.

"Yes roughly, but there'll be a slight complication this time," Macros turned and glided his hand over the machine Mercury was in, "This man has two minds inside of him. You're going to have to carefully pull out the memories that belong to him alone."

He turned with a wry shrug and smiled, "Its only two-thousand years to rustle through, you should be fine!"

"R-Right, nothin' to fret over at all!" Shina forced a grin even when Macros no longer cared about it.

"So what about Uranus? We gonna do the same thing to fix her mind problem?"

The answer for that came from Neptune. First by poking her in the back of the skull, then by verbalizing it a little more nicely, "Focus on Mercury, leave the young one to me."

"Alright alright don't gotta be so rough..." Shina rubbed the back of her head and strutted over to the space between machines. Some answers would've been nice right about now...

Everything was arranged as it was before. Hands went in the gloves. A lotta concentration was required. The Cosmos Drive was gonna get a better work-out than she was getting a while ago.

"Huh, I wonder how sis is doing right about now..." Shina shook her head and squeezed her eyes further shut, "Focus Shina! This is a delicate process..."

This is such a boring time sink. Can't even spend a second thinking about the juicy steak waiting at home tonight. There's like two geniuses in the room and neither of them came up with a way to let her mind wander a bit? Come on!

Hour one...maybe the bones were done by now? She wasn't allowed to peek. Something about it being distracting. So what? Her eyes get to be caked over in that icky brown stuff instead? Does nobody have an ear dropper here?!

Hour two...sounded like the muscle and skin was being worked on now. Her legs felt like goddamn wooden stilts. All that time pumping her thighs is gonna go to waste if she had to stand around any longer than this!

Hour three...Oh good grief can this end already?! How many memories can this one guy have? And what's up with all the shots of a pale-skinned spiky haired gremlin anyways? Snow Miser looking mother fu-

"Ding!" Went an egg timer.

"Alright, we're done." And Macros' signal allowed Shina to huff out a lively gasp of air and throw her eyes open to the bright world around her once more.

"Whew thank god!" She slid her hands out of the gloves and clapped the sweat off her palms.

For all that hard work she deserved to sneak a quick peek at the results. She leaped right in front of the newly furbished machine and stared at the glass...

Only for Macros to slap his hand against her face and push her away gently.

"Honestly, why are humans so attached to the naked form?" He muttered in a humored tone, snapping his fingers so that his knitting machines may clothe the naked Mercury.

Shina pouted her lips and backed off in a huff, "I get dragged halfway across the universe just to stand around for three hours and not even get to see my work finished! Guess this must be how fans feel commissioning art at Anime Conventions..."

The clothes work wasn't gonna take long fortunately. She was allowed to poke her head around the other machine, but now another face occupied it. It was that gremlin looking guy from Mercury's memories, the second mind that had occupied the body.

Even unconscious he looked certifiably insane. But at least that ain't their problem right now.

Saturn and Neptune had spent all this time playing various card games, of which Neptune seemed to be thoroughly dominating the ever-growing frustrated little scientist.

"Aaah! How do you keep doing this?! I ran dozens of equations in my head to get the right cards!" Saturn tugged at her hair while Neptune smoothly shuffled the deck with a wry smirk.

"Maybe you should run the numbers again?" She replied, her honeyed words sweet enough to attract a horde of bees.

Saturn plopped back down, clapped her knees and exclaimed, "Darn tootin'! Science and Math can beat your luck and I'm gonna prove it!"

"Maybe I oughta try my hand at that..." Shina tried to take one step towards them but Neptune's shift in gaze suddenly made a lion roar in her head, and she backed away slowly, "N-Never mind..."

"Aaaaaand done!" Proclaimed Macros, backing away from Mercury's machine, which began to open.

"Mrrrr...where...where am I? I was doing a favor for Catherine when I suddenly felt really, really tired...and cold. Really cold. My body's...stiff. Have I been asleep for a while? Ughhh, what a pain...And I just know he's gonna complain about it too when he gets up..."

His eyes open to embrace the outside before him, in a place unfamiliar yet welcoming. There was a strange blue-haired man looking down on him, and this bubbly blonde haired beauty leaning in a few feet away.

"What a weird dream..." Was what he initially thought until, with a rock, the machine began to rise and the force upon his body felt real. Too real.

And how that wasn't enough to wake up that jerk Raphael clued him in to something else bizarre, "Wait. My mind...I can...think on my own now?"

Secrecy. Sanity. Safety. It was easy to take these things for granted until you shared head-space with a lunatic for two-thousand years. But now his thoughts had clarity. They weren't getting jumbled up in that gremlin's unhinged white noise.

He immediately clasped his hands onto the sides of his head and gasped, "I'm free...!"

And with a spring in his step he launched out of the machine and threw his hands in the air, "I'm free! Yahoo!"

He pranced about in place, his heels clicking together like a writer madly typing up a novel. His body built up a massive natural sweat in seconds but he didn't care. This was the happiest he'd ever been in his life.

He turned to the right and the strange blue-haired man was also dancing.

"..." He slowed his pace down and stared the man in the eyes until he too stopped dancing.

He then looked at the blonde-haired girl and between them noticed Saturn and Neptune. His heart was running laps in his chest as he smiled and remarked, "Sorry...what's going on?"

The blue-haired man put his hands behind his chest and remarked, "Call me the warden who freed you from the prison of your own mind. I am Commandant Macros, master biologist and friend to your ally Saturn."

"Uhh you forgot to cut the 'r' in 'friend' there ya scoundrel!" Proclaimed Saturn.

"Let her be," Macros waved back and looked Michael in the eyes, "So, how does your new body feel?"

"New body?" He looked down. Same clothes. Same skin. Same feelings. What was "new" about it?

He had a feeling deep down that he should check the other machine, and when he ran to it he saw none other than Raphael resting unconscious inside of it.

"This helpful young girl here transferred everything that belonged to you into this new body," Macros' comment made him turn around and pay attention to the blonde-haired girl, "So...do you feel funny at all? No mistakes were made I assume."

There was no questioning it. He felt fit as a fiddle and his mind was in working order.

"I don't know who you are, or how you did it miss but..." He couldn't tell if he was crying or this was just more sweat piling onto his face, "Thank you, I owe you a life debt."

"Awww think nothing of it!" The girl waved her hand down with a cute little blush. Then with a light gasp she proclaimed, "Oh silly me! I haven't introduced myself!"

She ran up, grabbed his hand with a surprisingly tough grip and shook it up and down, "I'm Shina! Shina Aurora!"

"...Aurora?" Before the familiarity could be answered Neptune stepped beside them and coughed.

"Feel free to get to know each other later," With a forceful parting of their hand she laid hers on top of his with a cold touch and looked into his eyes with sincerity, "This may be sudden but...are you prepared to save your sister?"

"Vivi...?"

Neptune nudged to the left and Michael went running towards a nearby pod. He laid his hands over the pane of glass separating him from his peacefully slumbering little sister.

"Oooo so now's the time for you to take center stage!" Went Shina, clapping her hands in excitement, "So what's the plan?"

Neptune wandered over to the pod and drew her pool stick wand behind her. Her eyes rested between Michael and Shina as she explained in careful detail, "The key to saving his sister is to send his mind into hers, and reawaken the dormant consciousness."

Michael slowly stood and pointed at his chest, "Send...me inside her mind?"

"Yes," Neptune graced him with a nod, "An unfamiliar presence will send her into a state of irreparable shock."

Michael felt his determination swelling, even as Neptune remarked, "But there is a risk. If you cannot convince her that you're real, you'll be lost inside her mind-"

"I don't care," He clenched his fists and swung one up before his chest, "For the first time in my life I'm feeling motivated. Send me in. To hell with the risks! My sister won't suffer a life of dreams a minute longer!"

"The may luck, nay, your will guide you." Neptune took a couple steps back and gestured her wand towards the ground, summoning a gylph to her feet while inciting a spell in a completely foreign language to him.

She glided two fingers around in the air then thrust them at his head, striking him with a bolt of violet magic. He felt the weight of his body fleeting, becoming lighter than air, as he escaped the physical plain of reality and was plunged into his sister's head at a breakneck speed.

Then came darkness. A silent, ethereal void where only the winter's chill existed. He felt his body crawl through the crinkling depths of hardened snow, until it grew deeper, and thus softer further in.

"Vivi!" He shouted, receiving an echo in return, "Answer me! Vivi!"

The black skies parted, making way for a wintery land where monsters made of sweets roamed the arctic wastes, guarding a castle of ice that stretched up to the starry night sky above.

The cold was killer on even his warm body. Sweat hardened to frost and broke off with every move his muscles made. He trenched through the snow, daring the gaze of the quiet beasts to take even a peek at the castle up high.

"VIVI!" He screamed until his throat was coarse, "ITS ME, YOUR BROTHER!"

He saw a glimpse of dark blue on the outcrop near the very, very top of the castle's highest tower. Unmistakably his sister, dressed in a child-like gown of snow.

His voice narrowly reached, and the response was naught but hostile, "Who comes to see me, trapped in this winter castle?"

Her immature voice couldn't hide the harsh, nipping bite in her tone. He could just barely see her hand be waved in his direction, dismissing his welcoming presence entirely.

"Are you another kidnapper, come to take me away? Begone! I don't want to see my prison be exchanged for another!"

"W-What...Vivi! What are you saying ITS ME, MICHAEL!" He shouted one more time.

"Do not deceive me you lowly knave! You are scum, the rot of the planet, crawling to corrupt my purity with your filth...!"

She was being ridiculously overdramatic, but in this realm of the mind her word carried the power of the law. The monsters, stirring quietly in the snow, now aggressively turned themselves at him.

"My guardians will make quick work of you! So says I, Princess of the Ice!"

And attack quickly the monsters did. He fleet footed his way out from them collapsing on top of him and drew his fists to pummel the few that didn't fall victim to their aggression.

They swiped away at his body with sharp peppermint claws and chocolate coated pretzel legs. The pain in his body was as real as it could get, and their strength felt beyond anything he had ever faced.

Speed and quick blows held the beast's at bay just a little. Targeting their weak joints delayed the inevitable, as they reforged their brittle bones in seconds.

In a move even he considered dumb he jumped onto the monster's backs and made a dash for the castle. One of the monsters rose from the snow and smashed him down under claw.

"This is bad...I can't make a break for it there's too many of them!"

The atmosphere trembled, cracks forming in his vision. He grit his teeth and turned up the heat, putting just enough pressure on the beast to give him freedom. He then dashed again between the beast's legs and stretched his arm out towards the castle yonder.

"VIVI! HOLD ON! I'M COMING TO SAVE YOU!"

"You're no savior! You're just another liar in fancy clothes!" She spurned his advances, and the atmosphere continued to tremble, cracking under the winter's chill.

He stayed his ground, face fraught with devastation, "She's not listening to me...she's treating this like..."

His jaw began to drop, "A...Fairy...Tale."

The shadows of many monsters drowned his body. Silently he squeezed his fists and raised his voice towards the sky, "The Princess cried, but it did not deter the Prince! For he was a gallant soul who boldly charged towards the castle riding a chariot of fire, pulled by mares as large as houses!"

He could feel a change in his sister's expression from ruthless to tender. And at that moment, flames erupted beneath his feet, and out emerged the chariot and horses he described.

He grabbed them by the reins and lashed them forward, barreling through the surrounding monsters and galloping onward towards the castle.

"It was not out of duty to his kingdom, or a want for a reward...The Prince braved these winter lands, battered by the cold and snow to reunite with his sister, whom he thought had been lost forever!" He peppered his words with a bombastic tone befitting a grand epic.

Vivi ran to the edge of the outcrop and began to scream more childishly down below, "A-And though he was alone, he was not afraid! He...he..."

"Had a heart of fire to melt the ice in his path, clearing out monsters and dark magic alike! He was an unstoppable force of nature powered by the greatest element of all: Love!"

The monsters were knocked down like bowling pins, stamped into the ground as dust beneath the gallant steeds hooves.

"His destination was set! His eyes saw nothing else in his way! He...he was going to reach the top of this highest peak! He would climb the tallest tower!" Her eyes began to water, and the distortions in the atmosphere caused her appearance to take on what was visible outside her mind.

"And at the end he'd claim his greatest prize, to be a family once more!" He narrowed his eyes as the ground caved in beneath him, and a mighty golem rose to heights as grand as the castle itself.

"But a m-mi...but a mi-mi..."

"But a mighty golem stood in his path! Yet he did NOT back down! Defying gravity and the weight of the world beneath him, the Prince's chariot shot forth into the sky like a blazing comet, and tore through the golem in one swift strike!"

And rise did his chariot, propelled by the blue flames at his steeds' feet. In seconds he was nearing the golem's chest, as it prepared to crunch him between its palms.

"BIG BRO WATCH OUT!" Uranus screamed tearfully.

"RAAAAAAAHHH!" His roar deafened the golem's cry, and the chariot fulfilled the tale's needs not a second after. Ripping through the beast's chest, he leaped forth from the chariot and thrust his hand towards the outcrop, his fingertips sliding off the edge.

Vivi dove forward and grabbed onto his hand, but her little arms hadn't the strength to hold on. As the chariot rammed through the castle and it began to crumble, the two were sent tumbling off into a gaping abyss.

"A-Ah...!" She cried.

He pulled her against the warmth of his chest and held her tight, "Its ok Vivi. Everything is going to be ok."

She cuddled him and her tears ran warm down his chest, "Its really you big bro. I-I didn't know what to do. Its been cold. Dark. I was scared..."

"Its alright Vivi. Forget about it. You're safe now," He closed his eyes, patted her on the head, and held her gently, "I'm here. Your big brother is here..."

The drop into the abyss ended with a sharp jolt to his back, and he found himself awakened to the sight of Macros' laboratory. Immediately he found his sister on his chest, squeezing him extra tight and making it hard to breathe.

"V-Vivi...!" He strained out. And she pulled away slowly...after a solid minute.

They stood up, and he patted her on the head some more. Neptune was beside them, the sweat doing nothing to ruin her cool demeanor.

"Well...all's well that ends well, wouldn't you agree?" She said, looking to Shina.

"Yeah, another family reunited and it feels so good!"

"Yes...what a d-d-disgustingly happy ending!" Right as that voice spoke Michael turned and found the tip of a sheer icy lance thrust into his face. He coddled Vivi against his stomach and stared beyond the lance to find Raphael up and at 'em, looking no worse for the wear.

"Raphael!" He screamed.

"Oh dear, was I supposed to be watching him?" Macros said nonchalantly.

"Dangnabbit Macros!" Saturn quickly turned to Raphael and motioned for her watch.

"D-D-DON'T MOVE A MUSCLE...!" He pointed his lance at her, then beyond Michael towards Neptune, "And if I even h-h-hear a syllable uttered, you're dead!"

"Shoot...!" Saturn uttered in frustration.

Raphael cackled and pointed the lance back at Michael, grinning his black frosted teeth extra wide, "Hehehe...! What luck! I-I-I'm finally f-f-free...! Our battle can continue at long last, you c-c-coward!"

"Big bro!" Said Vivi in a panic, making Michael hold on tighter.

"Our people are dead Raphael! Are you really going to continue that pointless battle?!"

"I don't give a damn about those d-d-dead wimps! This is my choice! MY BATTLE!" He gripped his lance tighter and a foul, icy stench erupted from his pores, "Without you holding me back, I am f-f-free to rip and tear through whoever gets in my w-w-way! My journey of pleasure shall never end!"

"That's insane!"

"You're the only insane one here! And I will not listen to your pacifistic babbling any l-l-longer!" Raphael reared his lance back. Macros grimaced and began to raise a hand towards his head. The atmosphere was tense and the stench of blood seemed inevitable.

"HOLD IT!" Shina suddenly ran between the two's spat and shoved her hands at Raphael's face.

Raphael flinched and grit his teeth in confusion, "Who the FUCK is this stripped down hoe?!"

"Hi! Shina, Shina Aurora!" Shina propped herself upright and forcibly shook Raphael's hand, "Say, you want to have fun killing a bunch of stuff? I got JUST the solution for ya!"

A couple awkward hours later, back at the Aurora household...

"HAHAHAHA! This is incredible!" Raphael sat hunched over the living room couch, staring deep towards the TV. He was playing a video game that involved killing a bunch of demons on Mars using a variety of guns, a chainsaw, and a series of bloody executions.

"Yeah yeah! Tear 'em up! Rip 'em up! Eat shit demons!" Raphael was having the time of his life, to the sympathy of the poor couch for having to deal with it all.

Michael, Vivi, Shina, and Kairi were standing off by the door looking varying levels of flabbergasted.

"This...this is all it took...? One video game and he's satisfied?" Michael's voice was deflated of all strength. He hung his head and sighed, "All those years wasted..."

Vivi patted him on the back. Kairi meanwhile turned to her sister and muttered, "Shina you have a weird way of resolving things..."

"But it worked right?"

"I AM YOUR GOD, NOW BOW! SPLAT!" Screamed Raphael.

"Define 'worked'." Kairi muttered.

Michael sighed louder and turned to face Shina, "I'll buy him his own console and keep an eye on him. If trouble arises can I trust you two to help?"

Kairi rubbed down the front of her face and waved her hand out, "Sure. Whatever..."

"Moooore importantly..." Shina bent down and picked Vivi up by the waist, then turned around and pointed her at her sis, "Can I keep her?"

"What?" Went Michael

"WHAT?!" Shouted Kairi.

"Awww c'mon, she giggles when you poke her belly!" Shina did just that and sent the little pixie into a fit of laughter, "Hehehe! That's way cuter than anything Maria's done!"

"Please give me back my sister." Michael politely begged.

Shina spun around and stated plainly, "You said you owe me a life debt, so can't I keep her?"

"No way! My sister's worth WAY more than my life!"

"BUT-!"

Kairi karate chopped her on the back of the head and Vivi gently dropped onto her feet. Kairi then squeezed her fist and muttered, "Ignore her. She's child crazy lately..."

"Meanie..." Shina murmured.

"Seven months Shina. Seven months. PLEASE don't escalate this to orphanage robbery."

"Hahaha," Michael laughed and took Vivi by the hand, "Anyways can you watch Raphael a bit longer while I look into getting a house for us?"

"Sure!" Shina said right away.

"Not like he can do anything to us." Kairi said, drained of her vigor.

"Thanks. C'mon Vivi." He turned and headed out the door with her at his side.

"Hey Big Bro!" She happily trotted beside him.

"What is it?"

She pulled away and stopped in place, "Can I show you a magic trick? Pleeeease?"

"Hehehe, alright." Now that she was free from the curse, there was nothing wrong with a little playful ma-

"TA-DA!" She threw her hands up and flames spread over her body, quickly shifting out her winter robe for a small flaming trench coat. Her hair became dark-orange with little lanterns at the ends of her braids replacing the woolly snowcap. Her skin gained a dark tan, and the staff in her hand now had a cup of hot chocolate on top.

Michael felt his eyes bulging from their sockets while his mind could only utter one thing:

"What the HELL?!"

Next Time: The Dangerous World of Elementary School