This chapter contains some references.


The next day, in Lycantropolis, a series of footsteps, engine revving and other things were making their way in the Heroes Squad HQ.

Carolina was there waiting for the team to arrive. Brick was already there, as he is second-in command of the entire squad. As NightStar saw potential in him to be in charge of the teams in case she is missing or absent. He did his best to comfort the mother of his friend as she was gripping on the note she left behind in her hands.

As soon as the doors to the computer room opened the entire Heroes Squad entered to assist on the situation.

"We came as soon as we could." Dawn said.

"Thank you..." The older wolf person said. "I really don't know how to handle this situation."

"That's why we're here, to help you." Julieta reassured her old friend. "So what's going on?"

"As you all probably read, my daughter ran off last night." She explained. "...and she left this note claiming she's going to visit some old friends."

"Old friends?" Sprig asked, his face lit up when he knew what she meant. "Oh, you mean the ones she suddenly remembered from an old box Marcy found, who then showed it to her, which also caused her to remember."

"Old box..?" Carolina's face changed from concern to horror.

"Yeah, you know, old, a bit dusty, with some old cape in it if I remembered correctly." Amethyst nonchalantly replied.

The former ruler of Lycantropolis grabbed her by the shoulders. "No, she wasn't supposed to see it!"

"Then why did you keep the box in her closet full of boxes in the first place?" Skipper asked.

"I wasn't thinking any of this straight back then, about what she found in the box." Carolina sighed admitting to know something about the box.

"So you do know something about it?" Pepa said as she started to form a cloud on her head. Thinking what she thinks might be the reason. "What wasn't she supposed to see?!"

"Something she should have forgotten a long time ago..." Carolina muttered. "It was for her own good..."

"Well, good or not, we have to find her." Bo Beep said.

Everyone nodded. Till someone else spoke up.

"Hey, has anyone seen Anne by any chance?" Polly Plantar asked. "Haven't seen her since yesterday."

"Same goes for Sasha." Johnny (Gorilla) asked.

"...and Marcy." Twilight Sparkle added.

Then Luz spoke up. "Also, where are Mirabel, Isabela and Luisa?"

Everyone looked around not seeing the six missing girls.

"You don't think they..?" Fluttershy spoke the most possible theory.

"No! Impossible, my daughters wouldn't even think of going with Arianna like that without us knowing." Julieta refuses to believe something like that.

"Really, wouldn't they?" Anne-Maria bluntly said.

Julieta thought for a bit. The scene transits back to Encanto where she checks if her daughters are still in their beds.

"Mirabel!" Mirabel's bed revealed a stack of pillows.

"Isabela!" Isabela's revealed a mountain of flowers.

"Luisa!" Luisa's revealed a dumbell, acting as a decoy. She gasped, then turned furious. "When I find them, they will be grounded till next year!" She frowned at her husband who shrank at his wife's gaze. He gulped.

Some of the Heroes Squad looked at the tense situation from outside Luisa's room. The healer notices them and retaliates. "What?!"

"Nothing..!" Queen Poppy said as she wanted the other to run off at the sight of her gaze.

Back at the destroyed Earth, NightStar and her friends are seen walking around as they are still in search of NightStar's Stitchpunk friends. They haven't stopped since they've arrived, the wolf girl wasn't gonna stop for nothing till she found them. She decided it was best to use her magic to shrink them to the size of a Stitchpunk. Since there aren't any humans around here anymore so they wouldn't have any problems on being spotted. Good thing the girls brought their own things for this, Sasha suggested it anyway.

But what surprised her is how different this world looked like the last time she was here. The sky is a bit more clear than thirteen years ago. Wild plants grew freely. The air was more fresh than it once was. Was it really the exact same world she came from? Has the atmosphere returned to normal the last time she was here? Did her friends get used to the change?

Now she really wants to find them more than anything.

"NightStar, we've been walking for hours..!" Anne was grabed on by Sasha as the latter was tired from walking so much. "Can't we take a break..?!"

Luisa was carrying Marcy and Mirabel, not that she minded at all. Isabela was really to give up on taking another step as she looked like a mess.

She wanted to say 'not yet', but something keeps her from saying it. One glance at her friends made her decide to stop here. "You know what, let's stop for now..."

When she said those words the girls collapsed in exhaustion. NightStar looked around just to see if any area seemed familiar to her. "I'll go check out up ahead, you guys stay here and rest. I won't be long." She put her hoodie up and ran off.

"Call us if you are in trouble!" Isabela called out as the others were catching their breaths.

For once, NightStar was glad to be back here. Last time she was here, the world was dark and scary for her kid self. Now that it is starting to get better, she no longer fears it. It was quite nice to say the least. Everything was quiet, too quiet, she liked the good kind of quiet. Not the bad ones honestly. They are less worried. Hoping on some debris she went to another area where something about it seemed familiar when she took a glance at it. She walked towards some metal gates where she took notice of a burned down building. One she remembers seeing it many times

Her mind went blank as she started to remember...


13 years ago; August 19, 2009; B.9 (Before 9); 193X in Post-Apocalyptic Earth

The world was dark and scary. One that a child could easily have nightmares of. That was the case for 5 year-old NightStar. She was alone in a big and dangerous world. She didn't know how long she was here. Was it minutes or was it hours? She didn't know, she was trembling in fear. She hugged her stuffed sheep as she quietly walked around lips quivering tears rolling down her eyes. She looked around to see if anyone was there, but no one, not even a single sound of life was heard. She didn't want to be here, she wanted to go home. But she doesn't know how, only her Mom knows, but she's not here. The only things she had with her was her back-pack and Mr. Sheep for comfort. Although she may be young, she somehow knew that she wasn't supposed to make any sound. She didn't know why, but she had this nagging feeling that if she did, something would come at her. She didn't like this feeling, she wanted to at least feel a good one. Not bad. She hates bad things. Only good.

A loud sound of metal clanking made her jump back with a frightening gaze along with a loud gasp. She held on to her plushie with her dear life. Was there someone else around here? Is it dangerous? Is it someone who can help her, can she trust them? She then spotted some light from a distance, she didn't need to understand what was coming. Because as soon as she saw it she ran off to hide somewhere. But also being careful on what she is stepping on. She closed her eyes and silently hoped that whatever was out there was gonna leave. The sound of footsteps filled her ears as they twitched, they were coming towards her direction. Panicked, she formed a small sparkle dust ball with her magic, ready to blast it. It was one of the few spells she can perform so far as she was still learning to do magic. She hoped it would be enough to take down whoever was approaching. The more the light and footsteps got closer, the more her magic got tense. It caused her ball of sparkles to create small electric sparks. She immediately got ready to blast it.

When the figure came into her view she let out a loud cry. "Take that!"

The figure got hit by her sparkle ball. Which caused them to fall on their back with a yelp. They eventually recovered from the shock as they sat up. Unfortunately the electric shock must have messed up his vision a bit as it got a little blurry. Despite trying to blink it was proven to be useless.

2, as he was called, looked astonished as he was unexpectedly hit by something or rather someone. He somehow couldn't see well as he did just moments ago. That must have really messed up his vision. At least it wasn't that bad, just a bit blurry when things were far from him, he could see his hand perfectly. The Stitchpunk looked at whoever was the one responsible for it.

He saw something smaller than him, he couldn't quite put it into words. But he thought he heard the voice of a small child before getting hit. But, that was impossible, humans were extinct. Unless, it wasn't a human, since when humans have powers?

NightStar scampered a bit further to hide herself from him.

"Wait!" 2 replied, seeing her getting away. "I'm a friend."

Friend? The little wolf girl wasn't sure if he could approach him, she shivered a bit as she took a glance out of her hiding spot. He saw what looked like a doll, in her point of view anyway. He was a bit taller than her, but he might be smaller if she were her normal size. He might have looked like a doll seized. He was wearing some kind of hat on his head, and it looked like what appeared to be a short candle stuck on it. Of course it burned out because of her blast. He seems harmless if he was that small, but can she trust him? Hesitating, she took one step out of her hiding spot. Slowly, but still cautious, she approached him. Some of these steps were slower, as she was still spooked from the sudden appearance of the strange doll.

2 saw the tiny figure approaching; he could only make out the colors. There was a hint of light purple, followed by some dark purple and dark blue. It seems to be holding something, something white.

The small figure stopped about 3 feet from him. He tried approaching it, only to be met by some kind of a blue bubble forming around it. With whatever created it whimpering with fear.

Instead of saying anything, 2 only crouched down to get a look at it. He blinked. Was that a child?! There was no other logical explanation. But it doesn't look human either, it had ears on top of its head instead of the sides of its head where they should be. Also, was that a tail on them? Did they have to do with whatever force field it just created? But doing that kind of thing was impossible beyond his knowledge. It only existed in made up stories like fairy tales. So it is understandable.

NightStar slowly peaked past her plushie to take a closer look at the strange talking doll in front of her. To her surprise, now curiosity, it doesn't look scary at all. With a little bit of courage, she broke off the forcefield. Now that she got a better look at it, she gave it a funny look by tilting her head.

"Who are you..?" She shyly asked.

So it can speak. 2 simply smiled at the curious child. "My name is 2."

"2?" She was now even more confused. "Why are you named after a number?"

"Well child, that is a long story." He added. "But I don't think you'll like it..."

"Why?" She asked.

"It may not be appropriate for you..." He honestly said, hiding his saddening look.

NightStar was a bit confused about what he said. But she would rather not ask anything further. "Where am I..?" She looked around.

"You are not from here, aren't you?" He wondered.

The wolf girl shook her head without a response.

2 put a hand under his chin thoughtfully. He wasn't gonna leave a child on her own here. The safest place where she could stay is at the sanctuary. But, he had to talk to 1 about it and he knows that the older Stitchpunk will take no for an answer. Still he had to at least try, not for him but for the child's safety.

"Come." He held out his hand to her. "I know somewhere you can stay..."

NightStar slowly but managed to hold his hand. Immediately the two headed back to the sanctuary.

"Say, you haven't even told me your name child." He looked down at her.

"I didn't? Sorry, I'm Arianna Rodriguez, but you can call me NightStar!" She smiled brightly after what it felt like ages that she did…


As soon as the memory faded, she sank down on her knees gripping the ground with her hands. Tears were now streaming down her face as she remembered him. 2, he was the first one to comfort her in this dark world when she came here. He made her feel safe, while she was on her own in this strange world as a little girl. He became her surrogate parent figure for her, which she was grateful for.

'2... I-I never got the chance to thank him properly... For everything...' His death shook her. Because it means that she wasn't gonna thank him properly. That was until his soul was set free that she was able to have one last hug from him before he went.

She knew 2 probably wouldn't want to see her like that, so with a shaking breath she stood up with all her might. Wiping her tears, she took one last glance at the burned down sanctuary before turning around. There stood the old abandoned library. She wondered, if they ended up staying there? With that in mind, she walks towards it to see if they are there. As she put her hoodie on.