"So you can't...activate it, or anything?".
Nora's hands trailed along judas's arm, getting a feel for his muscles and searching for anything strange. And the prince shook his head, "I've never been able to control it, it just tends to come and go and i never know why, and sometimes it reacts alongside me.". Nora nodded along as she continued to examine him, "You're magically infected...it's a lot different then being infected by a sting or a bite, or by eating something particularly bad that morning...".
Her face seemed rather sad, "What you have might be nearly impossible to get out of you without proper care...". Sky was pacing in the corner, crossing her arms and kinda keeping to herself as nora wrote more things down in her journal. It was a medical journal of course, normally used for regular illnesses she studied at home and occasionally was used to other details she wasn't sure about sharing to anyone in public considering the humiliation she'd receive.
"Did you parents ever..."
"Tell me how I got infected? No, they just told me it was a bug that had been attached to my mom and It got passed down during my creation. I get the feeling it's not a story they like telling or thinking about for that matter", nora continued to write stuff down and he rubbed his arm. "I can't even get my grandparents to tell me, not even great great grandpa relicor, who an kinda be a bit of a chatterbox, just refuse to really talk to me about why this happened to me...".
"I guess they must have a good reason then...".
This didn't seem to be making judas feel any better, his face turning away to face the wall, "Maybe, but i'm going to be king soon as well and yet...they still won't tell me, i'm sure whatever it is i can handle it, I'm...I'm not gonna be angry at them...", though sky turned her head and stopped in her tracks, "Jude, you've been stuck with that thing as long as i can remember, and it's kinda taken a toll on you...maybe your folks just don't want you to blame them for whatever happened."
"I wouldn't blame my parents sky, i mean...they never would want to hurt me...".
"Well yeah, of course not...I just mean...you know, you find out something you don't wanna know about and you end up looking at them very differently...", the demon was reminded of when he had spoken to her about his parents possibly being behind everything, or even when he told sky she needed to not let focus on who her mother was in these other alternate universes. because it might just warp her mind. He bit his lips, "They're my parents sky, even if they screw up...or do something wrong, they still love me...and I know them...".
"You got a lot of faith in your parents Judas, you know that?".
He laughed, "They're not perfect, but i don't want to end up hating them...I really wouldn't be here without them and I'm sure I could understand if anything...well...happened.". Nora was glancing between them, but she didn't say anything, they had to be a little more careful about talking about some of these details in public. But then again Nora was the person they knew that would least want to tell anyone anything about what was going on or what they were up to.
Luckily she didn't ask anything, going back to the task at hand. "I like your parents...they always seem to be so happy together...they're always having fun and they get to go on adventures together all the time. I think it's...kinda sweet..". She had probably told him this before, but she seemed to stop talking before she could go further on it, he had to assume nora wasn't entirely used to going into big and detailed conversations about how she felt on a lot of matters.
She would just put her bit in, and then be ashamed and not say much else. Judas thought about the ball, how she liked to be at the butterfly castle and look at all the roses in their gardens. She seemed more at peace when she wasn't under so many stressful situations, and his arm probably counted as one. He'd taken Sky's advice to a degree and kept his mouth silent about Angel's mom, Nora wasn't exactly a miracle worker and putting a life on her shoulders was probably a bad move when he thought about it a bit longer.
Though he still wanted to speak to her about Angel.
She'd always been kinda scared of him, perhaps worried he held a grudge against her family the same way he did against the Buttterflys. Though, considering he never could be found on her lawn, yelling at the king and queen of the spiderbites, it seemed his main grudge was still with the Butterflys. Still, maybe getting Angel to talk things out with Nora and Sky would help them get his trust, find out what he was up to, if he was up to anything.
It couldn't exactly hurt.
Though there was no telling how Angel himself would react to it, since Sky and Judas commonly didn't really help with the boy's personal issues.
Sky was eyeing him and they both then shared a glance to nora, who was still busy, "Maybe someday, you can hang out with my parents again, they kinda like you too. They think you're very sweet...". Nora blushed and tried to hide behind her slimy hair, her eyes diverting from the demon's. "Well, that's very nice of them...I wish my parents said more nice things about you, well, they do say you appear to be very nice and respected but yeah...".
"It's ok nora...I'm a little used to it..".
"But you're so nice...I don't think you're scary...".
"You don't, but a lot of others do...even my parents can be...scared as well..".
Sky leaned against the nearest wall, avoiding the slime if she could, "Me and jude have been growing up with this kinda thing for our entire lives, so yeah, it's kinda freaky and everyone's worried. But...I still think it's kinda stupid people want you off the throne for it, it's not even your fault and you can't help it either. You're like...a good person to be king, you care about everyone, you like to take charge, you don't let people talk down to you when they do..".
"Yeah and I also happen to have a dangerous parasite inside me...it's hard to blame everyone for being afraid...", Nora pinched his arm, judas letting out a small yelp as she took notes, "And this curse originally came from...a former queen's spell?". Sky nodded, "I mean, Crescenta's chapter is mainly full of useless spells that mean very little...like, i really don't know why you have a spell to infect someone with an evil parasite but leave it to her to create one...".
"Does it have a counterspell to fix it? Don't all spells have a counterspell?".
"Star's tried it, but it doesn't seem to work on me, my folks have considered a demonicism, and even the magical dimension but...I guess they weren't cures that would've been very effective.".
"That's...peculiar...".
"My parents say it might be due to well...the fact I wasn't zapped with the spell, it was sorta...transferred to me? So it's kinda a whole other category now...like it's...fused with my Dna or something...". nora seemed to understand, processing the details, "If it's fused with you, and it's in your dna...well...that does make things a lot weirder...but it's like...a parasite isn't it? It latches onto you and kinda survives because of you? Since it's like it's own thing...?".
"Yeah, that's how my mom always described it yes...", she nodded along, "Well, then maybe it's not fused to you, maybe it is still a parasite, but maybe it's different from the one your mom had. It hasn't hurt you and if it's it's own thing then it has to still be a living creature stuck with you...so there has to be some way to flush it out...do you uh...do you know where you can find the spell, the spell that created you and your brothers?". She seemed to do better when she worked, judas noted, guess medicine and curing others brought out more confidence in her.
"No, i've never seen it, my father closed it off a long time ago, after mason. Who knows where he keeps it now, it could be in the archive, his office, could even 50 feet underground after what it ended up doing to me, i'm not sure where we can find it...", he turned to her with a knowing look, "But i can tell you want to see it in order to figure out how to remove the curse...don't you?". Nora nodded but Sky didn't seem quite as ok with this as they did.
"I dunno, i mean judas...that spell...MADE you. Trying to play with it...might be more trouble then it's worth...like, wasn't it based on some old spell from one of your great-grandmas or something?", her friend glanced to her," oh no no, i'm sure all nora wants to do is well...look over it, get a feel for it, i'm sure she won't end up doing anything crazy with it...she's just going to need more details on the whole thing and figure out how to separate this creature...from me.".
"I'm sorry if i worried you...I don't wanna hurt judas...", Nora mumbled softly, "I just think in order to find a cure, we should figure out how this got into him in the first place...if we can go through it, we can find out how this might've happened...and then figure out...how to remove it from him..". She twiddled with her fingers, "I'm not too great at curing magical illnesses, just normal ones, so I guess any info i could get would really mean a lot to me..".
"We can try, right sky?", judas was giving her a pleading look, and the princess sighed, "Well, yeah of course we'll try, though your parents probably aren't willing to tell us anything, they aren't really proud of what happened to you...". Judas moved his arm away from nora and stood up, "Well, i'm going to be king soon, maybe i can convince them to help? I'm going to need to know as much as possible if i'm to do great as a king right? They can't baby me forever...".
He fixed himself up, "We'll work something out, honestly i'm just happy to see you nora, thanks for uh...helping me, It means a lot to me..".
"No, thanks for uh...being so nice to me...i'm uh, still a little scared my parents are gonna walk in you know?".
She motioned to the door, one that was currently hit with a few demon spells, and somehow sky managed to at least get one spell in that would at least keep the door closed long enough for her and judas to teleport out if they had to, "Don't worry, our enchantments should work just fine, though i wish we didn't have to sneak in here at all...i wish we could just hang out more normally, like me and sky do...we could go on our own adventures together..".
"I-I'd like that."
They exchanged smiles between the three of them and Sky coughed into her hand, "Hey uh...nora, hope you don't mind but uh...judas has something else he kinda was interested in speaking to you about." Judas sent her a look but at the same time she was right, he was going to have to speak up, "Yeah sorry, i guess I better get this out of my system before I forget shouldn't I? Uh...Well, Nora, hope this isn't super weird but we wanted to ask you something...".
Nora blushed heavily.
"H-How do you feel about Angel?".
Whatever Nora thought he was about to ask her, it was clear it was not that. Her eyes widened and she looked rather confused, as if he said something strange, before processing what he said and shaking her head, "Angel? Oh...I uh...I dunno, w-why are you asking me ?". Well, this was practically what Judas was kinda expecting bringing this up to her, especially since Nora seemed to be so anxious around the guy and didn't even seem like she enjoyed being in the same room as him.
"Well, I just think...we should all try and well...maybe become friends...kinda...".
His answer didn't seem to work for her at all,"Well, no, it's more like...with everything going on and us being rulers soon, I just think maybe...we should all work things out. You and well, you and angel have had a complicated relationship and maybe...we can fix whatever it is between you two that makes everything so...awkward.". Nora shook her head though, "Judas...that's...nice...but..you can't fix everything...I-I uh...me and angel...I don't think he seems to like me...".
"Angel barely likes anyone honestly", Sky mumbled, "Sorry if we brought it up and made things weird, jude kinda insisted cause I guess he thinks maybe if we all talk it out or something we might get well..we might get angel to stop being a pain...since he seems to have personal beef with all of us...". Nora blinked at him, "Oh well, That's very sweet of you, that you care so much...but you know...everything, with your family history...I-I don't think I can talk to him or...just make everything better...I can barely look at him...".
She grabbed onto her slimy hair, playing with it, "He's...a little scary to look at, all those red eyes and I just...I don't think he likes me very much.". Then she tripped on her words, "Not that i don't mind red eyes! or multiple ones!", she could barely look at judas, "Sorry, i made things weird...I don't hate angel I just...I don't think we'll be able to be friends like you want us to...I can't even leave to just go and speak to him...It's...I'm glad you care but...W-We can't.".
Judas smiled, "Don't worry about the "Eyes" thing, i know what you mean...i'm sorry If i made things awkward, we just wanted to see if maybe we could sorta...work things out between you two but I guess that was high hoping...". Judas sounded rather dissapointed, but then again what did he expect? He couldn't just convince Nora into doing something she lacked interest in doing for many years of their lives. Even if he could convince her, how would he convince Angel?
"How's his mother?".
"Hmm?".
The princess looked up to him, "How's Queen Arana?"
Her companion sighed, "She's not much better as far as I know, wish I could say she's fine, but as far as I know from my parents she's getting weaker...I don't think any of us have had the guts to talk to Angel about her or even ask, considering it's a touchy subject...when you try to he gets very defensive and mad...understandably so, but yes...". The girl sighed, "His mom always seemed so nice...even when angel wasn't, she liked to keep him close and everything...".
"Yeah, it's hard to imagine what he's going through...even if he's being a butt at times...", they could hear Sky snort, "he's well...he's kinda desperate to help her in any way he can, I guess he thinks my mom and stuff could cure her with our powers...which...maybe? I guess it depends how severe the illness is but even we can't do everything, I mean, i can't recall many previous queens curing anyone with magic like that...It all seems to be healed the natural way..".
"Has she been looked over by anyone professional?", Nora asked shyly, "I uh, i don't know exactly what the medial care like is over there, but the kingdom has been in poverty for so long I wouldn't be surprised if It were awful...". The Butterfly princess bit her lip and thought back to conversations she had with Angel in the past, "Well, they're sorta getting better, they somehow got back to making silk? So i guess they're starting to be able to trade again, but I dunno if that means much in terms of affording a good doctor...".
"Wait a second, make silk?".
Judas stood up and looked at Sky oddly, "He claimed his kingdom was going back to making silk? Since when? My parents haven't mentioned anything like this to me...". She only shrugged, "I dunno, in one of our lessons he told me they were making it again, I guess they figured out how to do it again...". Judas didn't seem to like this answer, his face trying to process it, "That's...strange, as...his species needed more magic to do something like that...you've seen them, his kingdom hasn't had that power in centuries...".
"Well, apparently he says he does now...maybe he was lying, i have no idea...", then again, angel was not much of a liar, a thought that seemed to come to judas as well. "I think we're going to need to have a talk with him soon then, or well, at least take a closer look...Sky...invite him to spend time with us. I think we might need to speak to him about some of these weird claims going on...", sky raised an eyebrow, knowing this meant he had a lead.
"Me? invite him?".
"Yeah, invite him to spend time with us...we both should talk to him, like we said, try and get us all on good terms. That's never going to happen unless we actually attempt to become friends with him, not to mention I have some question for him right now I kinda want answers to...", nora closed her book, finishing her notes, "and you both can uh...help me find the information I need to see if we can find a cure for your arm issues judas, hopefully...".
"Sorry about bringing up angel...I never should've brought that on you...".
"No judas, it's ok, I'm not mad...you just want to help me, but...I guess...If i want to talk to him...maybe I should do it on my own...like I did to hang out with you..", she was still acting rather sky, but judas found her demeanor adorable and sweet, "Yeah, yeah you should...sorry if i were y'know, trying to dictate your life on accident...I should know better considering your parents, then to be telling you what to be doing with your life and who to hang out with..".
"Judas...you're...you're one of the nicest people I've met...it's ok...you didn't mean any harm...", she stood up, "Don't...beat yourself up over me...ok?". She reached out an arm and gently took a hold of his, "You mean well, don't beat yourself up so much...". He nodded, "Yeah sorry, I guess i'm just worried about...well...I guess I just didn't want to hurt anyone else...". Nora was looking at him rather funny due to his response and he reassured her.
Sky was grumbling at their constant apologizing, man, these two...
"Me and Landon are kinda fighting, I still need to talk and work things out with him...", Nora's face then relaxed and she nodded, sky's eyes turning to him curiously, "Wait, what are you both fighting about this time? This isn't over something stupid is it?". One look at his face told her it sure wasn't, him taking place on the wall next to her, "Landon thinks well...he thinks I believe myself to be superior to him, and that our parents treat me differently then him...and he's mad about it...".
"Oh, that old chestnut huh?".
"He keeps shutting me out, he doesn't even wanna talk to me about any of it...and I want to, I want to talk about it but he clearly doesn't...", Nora walked over, her fingers clamping together and listening in, "I suppose I should just give him space, I think he needs it, I think our parents are almost ready to un-ground him soon enough anyway. I just want to at least talk to him and work things out so we can be on the same page and I don't have to stress about him..".
"Then don't I guess...", the blunette mumbled, "Wait till he talks to you or something, just let him be alone...". Nora sighed softly, getting the other's attention, "Hi, i'm sorry if i'm being a bother...but time's almost up, I think you better get going before my parents might walk in...". She didn't seem eager for them to remotely leave, her tone growing sadder only for judas to put his hand on her shoulder, "It won't be the last time we see each other, I promise to get what you need soon...".
She only smiled sweetly at him, "thanks for coming over...I-AHH!', she panicked as something long yanked on here forehead, scared it was an snake or something only to realize is was thin and yellow. It was a simple measuring tape and she could hear sky behind her messing with it. "Hold still, i need to get a good idea of what hat size you need...". Judas snickered, "Don't worry, she does this all the time when she wants to make us gifts it's ok..".
Nora blushed.
Sky took off the tape and examined it closely, "hey, i did say i was totally gonna make you a hat, there's no way i can make one unless i have the right measurements in order to make it, then it would just become pointless wouldn't it?". The half slime girl seemed surprised, as thought she didn't actually think Sky would go through with making her anything. But Sky seemed to notice this, and put her tape measure back in her vest," It'll look cool, trust me...".
"thank you sky...that's..nice of you..".
"Well, we are friends now, officially...you might as well...it'll give me something else to do..".
The girl blushed and before she could think about it she pulled both royals in for a small hug, "Thank you guys so much you didn't have to do this for me...I uh...". Then she stopped hugging them, as if they were fire and they burned her on accident. She looked embarrassed for going in for a hug with the two of them, but they didn't really seem to mind. Judas especially as he pulled both of them back in, "It's ok, we'll see you very soon, thanks for your help nora..".
"So you found nothing, and told someone else we were working together?", Luna felt like pulling out her hair, though her company didn't seem nearly as bothered as she did. "Relax, landon's fine, i mean, this dumb alliance would be more useful with more people anyway..". The boy next to her rolled his eyes, "I mean, if this is your biggest complaint you should tell judas but yeah, then again if it were that simple you wouldn't be making this stupid group anyway so.".
The blonde's eyes dimmed.
"It's not like you found anything more useful anyway, I almost got attacked by some shadow monster, i mean, i literally could've died out there or something. How useful would i be if i died out there? Heck, isn't someone gonna suspect something if i die out there? Yeah, i should just die in the woods, judas isn't gonna ask questions at all, and find out what was happening.", she huffed and crossed her arms, "i'm not required to die for this team y'know...".
"But you didn't find anything? At all?".
"No, i didn't, i told you, it was dark and rainy and i couldn't find anything. Not some sort of secret den, nor a passageway, nothing. I'm not exactly gonna find everything you want in a day, doesn't stuff like this take weeks or months to work out, in a large forest no doubt? Like it's just me luna...". the girl continued to pinch the bridge of her nose, this day was not going according to plan at all, if anything it was going the complete opposite. Everything was falling apart around her, and it was driving her nuts.
"I know it's just you but you're still a competent magic user and you faced off against something you could've blasted away, but didn't? Celeste when you sign up to take these risks you need to be ready to fight back! Why aren't you fighting back? You were so eager to use magic to get results, you have that wand for a reason, if someone is after you or your wand you should've fought it off, captured it!", the younger princess refused to look at her, huffing.
"You weren't there...".
"If i were there i would've taken that thing down myself, you are a capable princess Celeste. You need to take some action for yourself, you complain and want but you don't do anything on your own, it's as if you don't even really want to go home at all...", there was silence in the room, and luna thought for a moment and decided to drop the conversation, "We need to work together Celeste, both of us need to put the effort in if we're ever to go home...".
Celeste finally glanced at her, ignoring her words.
"Look, are we done? Because the longer we stay here the less we can...investigate i guess?"
"No, i still need to talk about you having him here", she turned to look at the demon in the room, who was still scowling at her. "Why didn't you just erase his memory? How are you even sure we can trust him at all? Because he's technically your brother?", she put her hands on her hips and the brown-eyed girl just took a look over to landon and shrugged, "I mean, i just kinda do, he's earned my trust a lot more then you kinda have since we got here...".
"Why?".
"I dunno, he's just been a lot nicer to me..."
"I also didn't kinda force her to handle tougher projects on on her own where she might be killed, so i think that's an advantage..", landon remarked, much to Luna's irritation. "If you wanna work with anyone, you really should i dunno...treat them like a person? Not as though they're disposable? I mean, you're doing this so both of you can return home right? Celeste can't really go home unless she's in one solid piece...you kinda just sorta need to-".
"Don't tell me what i'm supposed to do, I've been training to be a queen since i was small and I've had to command soldiers and armies and even my own agents to handle tasks for me, I know how to handle this kind of stuff. You may be a prince but you are not trained like i have, you have not seen or dealt with the kinds of threats I have. Do not tell me that you somehow are better just because so far everything has not gone according to plan..", she crossed her arms at him, and landon felt angry.
"Don't talk to me that way..".
"Then don't tell me how to run my ship, if you want to be a part of this team, then don't question my authority...", She turned from him and celeste could spot the boy twitching in agitation, more then he had been from the guy who insulted him a while back she ended up zapping. She almost felt tempted to zap Luna, just to shut her up, but she also knew she was no match for this girl, with or without her wand. She was taller, stronger, and more adept at magic all together.
All she could do was glare as she regained her composure and went back to being a stick in the mud as she always seemed to be. "If you want to help, then fine, I want you to take a closer look at Sky's and for me. You're friends right? Better you then me, I want you to get a closer look at it's gemstone. Well, the opal one, I never really talked much about it before but I have some suspicions and to confirm them we need to get a closer look at that wand..".
"I'm not just gonna...take sky's wand", he grumbled, "She keeps it on her all the time cause her moms would kill her otherwise, and judas would tell mom and dad if i laid one finger on the royal magic wand if he found out about it.". Luna raised an eyebrow, "I'm not saying..."Take it", i just said to get a closer look at it, i'd do it myself but Sky doesn't entirely seem to like me-". Celeste snorted, "-So as a long time friend, i want you to take a few photos of that gem in particular..".
"Are you even gonna tell us why you need photos of her wand?", landon was calming down but celeste could tell he was still mad, even if he was being more silent about it now and trying to push it all back. "You don't need to know right now, just see what you can do, celeste i want you...since you're well, living with the lucitors as is, to get me some information about Sunny. I'll admit i underestimated her and her abilities but she seems like an open book, I need to know where her power is coming from..".
"And you're not gonna tell me why you wanna know that either, right?".
"Yep, see, you got it.", her smug grin made celeste want to punch her.
"Let's go landon...", she bumped him and they got off the bed and started heading out, both giving the girl glances as they closed the door behind them. "What's her problem? Geez, no wonder judas got so pissed with her, she's too...intense...". Celeste only kicked at the carpet, staring down at it, "Yep, but she also gets things done as well, I get the feeling back home she's probably not the nicest person in the kingdom. Yells at everyone maybe..".
"Do you?"
"Do i...what?".
"Do you yell at everyone? You seem angry all the time...".
"Touche...you looked like you might burst while you were in there...then again she was kinda being a jerk to you. Like, geez...she went all ham on you for pointing out her stupid mistakes she should've seen coming a mile away...", her venting seemed to strike some amusement out of the boy, "You allied with her, but you don't really even seem to like her very much, not that i'm really surprised why you don't seem to like her. It's just...why'd you be her ally in the first place?.".
"I dunno, guess i thought this whole thing would be different with her in charge, i want to take risks and get us out of here but like...i never planned on trying to almost get myself killed or something.", she let out a deep annoyed breath, "I guess in her universe she can boss everyone around because she's the princess of them there...i'm a princess and i don't give a heck about what anyone thinks of me, i don't need people to do anything for me..".
"No one?".
"Not a single person...".
She stopped in her tracks, "I guess i better go find miss sunshine, and you do...whatever it is you gotta do...". She was trying to part ways but landon shook his head, "No, i'll go with you, sky's probably with judas anyway and yeah...". Celeste didn't seem to oppose this though as they returned to the underworld in a snap, and the warmth of the place washed over them quickly. Landon put his hands in his pockets, moving forward along the dark halls.
"Hows that song coming?".
"Hmm?"
"Your violin song, you performed it in front of me that one time?", landon seemed embarrassed as he realized which song she meant, "It's doing fine, i'm still practicing with it...and on some other songs as well. But my mind has been...blank, i'm having a hard time doing music recently like I used to." He sounded a little sad, his insecurities catching up with him rather quickly, "I think being grounded and mad has gotten me in a rut and...I can't get out of it..".
"Maybe you need to do something besides music...i mean, with art, don't you have to take a break or something like that to get inspiration?", then she remembered the boy next to her was grounded again and grumbled, "Well, still, you need to like...find some inspiration. Your family, friends, your...pets...I dunno.". He turned his head away, "I feel so useless sometimes...Judas is lucky enough to be this cool cursed kid who everyone cares about, and mason is stupid talented in the garden...".
His comment on judas made the girl raise an eyebrow, "Lucky? Isn't your brother kinda miserable or something? With the whole evil arm thing? Why would you call him lucky for being curse with some freak arm? That sounds like the opposite of being "Lucky" to me, if i had something like that i'd be even more angry then i already am.". Landon went silent for a moment, thinking his answer over and biting his bottom lip softly and in deep thought.
"I dunno, it just, It makes him special...like how the wings make mason special...I mean...look at me, i'm nobody, no one cares about me or even remembers me. I'm just the middle brother of three who no one seems to care about or consider, with a stupid tail and a violin...", seems his anger at judas was about more then just seeds. "He complains about the curse all the time and so do I but...I dunno...maybe i'm just jealous I...didn't end up with something like that instead...being important to everyone around me...being special...not being..invisible...yeah it's a curse, but it's also kinda...good for him..too..".
"But he hates it...doesn't he?".
"Yeah, of course he hates it, my entire family hates it, the stupid high commission wanted to cut his arm off at one point or something...but...it seems better then feeling like you're useless all the time, like your family cares more about your brother then you..."
She didn't even comment on it, not even an insult.
"You...ok dude?".
"No..".
He sure didn't sound ok after admitting all of that, in fact he looked like he might cry, "Don't you even tell him that, that i'm...jealous of him or anything...". And to his surprise, Celeste nodded, for once not looking like she was about to hit something and more understanding then anything. "You don't need a stupid curse to be..."Special" or anything, your brother seems to kinda hate it and i've seen the thing, being "Special" doesn't seem worth all that pain...like, is it really worth it?".
He didn't comment as they reached Sunny's room. Stopping the duo in their tracks as celeste unhappily knocked on the door, "At least sunny's a bit of a talker, she might think it's weird i'm asking her some questions though, since i don't really normally care much about these alliterate realities...well actually i wanna know what has turned luna into a pain but other then that...". landon leaned against the wall next to the door, "Invite her to hang out or something then...I dunno.".
"Does that sound like me?".
"Er...fair point, i dunno...just...i dunno, be creative or something.", he was looking off into the distance and not really paying much attention as celeste knocked on the door again, noticing she wasn't getting much of a response. "Huh...is like...sunny out doing something weird with lexi again?", she pressed her ear against the door, "Uh...sunny? Yeah, are you in there? Like, it's kinda getting late and i kinda wanted to talk or something so...".
Then she opened the door, a scoff coming from landon.
"Still bursting in on people huh?".
"You snuck into my room last night thanks...".
Without another word she took a step in, landon not really following her and making himself comfortable on the wall, only to hear a gasp from the brunette as she stumbled back outside of the room after only being in there for less then a minute. She looked panicked, as thought she'd seen something horrifying, prompting landon to help her off the ground and panic himself. "Uh...celeste, what happened in there-", only to be interrupted by the scared voice of the girl, yes, celeste the grumpy girl...was scared.
Her brown eyes were wide and breathing was hitched, she had only been in there for a short period of time and whatever was in there had already terrified her beyond belief. She pushed the boy away from her in typical celeste fashion and took a moment to process everything. She shook her head and landon could spot her tugging on her hair and backing away from the door, she brushed at her dress and immediately looked to Landon, bewildered.
"Landon...how old was sunny again?".
"Uh..what?"
"How OLD was she? She told us right, you better remember!"
"uh...14 i think?".
The girl was still panicking, shutting the door before Landon could take a look inside for himself to see what was happening,"Whatever you do, do NOT go in there, trust me...you especially do not want to be going in there right now...she's...". Then she immediately pulled out her compact, ready to contact Judas, she was typing so fast she was messing up several words and Landon tussled his hair, "Wait...Celeste, what's happened, what are you talking about...nothing like...she's not...is she?".
That's when he noticed something was sticking to Celeste's dress.
A pink blood moon, like sunny's markings.
Celeste turned to him gravely as she finished typing.
"Mewberty...she's going through mewberty...".
Judas had arrived to the scene rather fast, sky at his side. It seemed they were already together when Celeste got a hold of them, and both didn't quite seem happy to hear the news that one of the girls they were trying to keep secret...was going through one of the most dangerous and explosive forms of puberty that could ever happen on mewni. If Sunny was spotted going through it, it'd be more then a little fishy, people would know something was wrong.
All mewmans had the potential to go through it, but mewman queens were the common ones for their constant linkage to magic to awaken it.
So either they would have to admit the truth or make up something about why Sunny had so much of a magic linkage despite having no reason to be. And neither of those seemed to be good options, Judas seemed to be flashing back to when Sky had mewberty, and how much of a mess that had been for him and everyone who had dared to wander into the castle that day. He could only image what adding demon blood to it would do to someone like Sunny.
"Is she...still in the room?", he asked meekly, Celeste was still nervous but her attitude returned for a little bit. "I mean, i didn't really spend enough time in there to check! I'm surprised she didn't tell any of you, considering how buddy-buddy you both seem to be with her", Judas was frowning, worried for the sake of the girl. Landon still refused to look at him in the face, though luckily Jude's attention seemed to be on his technical half-sister then him.
"I guess it just was never a thing she felt like bringing up...it is puberty after all, it can't be pleasant to talk about with anyone.", he seemed reluctant to touch the doorknob and head inside to check on the girl, as though she'd jump out at time as soon as he did so. "We gotta go inside jude, if she gets out or something and we don't find out about it right away things are only going to get worse...", sky was right and he knew it, they had to go in right away.
He reached out for the handle.
But then he stopped.
"Wait...sky...you should do it...".
"Wait...why me?", she gave him an odd glare then it immediately came to her why Judas should not be the one that goes in there, "Well...uh...what if she's also into girls?". Judas gave her a weak smile, "It's still better to send you then me unless we know for sure...just take a look inside and text us what you see...ok?". Sky looked disgusted to have to enter a mewberty ridden room, but it seemed the majority was in favor of this vote by the looks of it.
She unhappily opened the door to the room and gave the group behind her a final look before heading inside slowly and closing the door behind her to get a whiff of very strong pheromones. And she meant VERY strong pheromones, not to mention the room was covered in goop and slime covering the walls with little angular moons everywhere, it looked like something out of a horror movie, as though any second a monster would jump out of the dark.
"Sunny?".
Calling out to her was probably a stupid idea in the long run, since she'd just be asking for the small girl to attack her under the influence of mewberty. But Sunny did not show up, in fact, the only noise Sky heard seemed to be coming from Sunny's bathroom. And on looking at it sky noticed the leaking coming from it, and all the stuff surrounding it, not to mention all the banging that was going on inside of the bathroom that further helped Sky's guess.
Sunny had barricaded herself inside.
She pulled out her compact slowly, texting judas what she was seeing and sending him some pictures of the scene at hand, not even daring to approach the door. At least sunny was polite enough to try and keep herself from possibly escaping, even though she had not decided to text her companions about the incident. Thankfully she was still in the room and not...roaming around the castle or all over mewni at the very least where they couldn't keep her under control.
However, the banging in there was sending chills down sky's spine, was this as horrifying as it had been for her friends?
"Pffft, hi sky!".
"AHHHHHHH!"
Sky jumped and fell on the ground, scrambling to get herself together as she took a breath and tried to find where that voice was coming from, to find Galexia peaking her head out from some of the gunk on the walls, she must've been so covered in the stuff Sky hadn't even noticed her there. She didn't seem bothered of course, smiling and delighted to see the girl again, "How are you? Sunny's in the bathroom, said it was an emergency and she's been in there ever since!".
"H-how long has she been in there?", she made nervous glances towards the door, the pounding of it getting more and more frequent. She pulled out her wand and thought about what angel told her, brows firming and more determined as she whispered a spell under her breath and proceeded to cut the girl from the sticky goop, freeing her and having her fall forward to be caught by sky. "Oh...just an...hour? I think it was an hour at least...she must really have to go.", sky sighed to herself, she needed to get lexi out of here immediately.
"C'mon, judas, landon, and celeste are here...let's get you out and washed up...", keeping her wand by her side she started to move lexi towards the door, but then sky stopped as she herd a hissing coming from the bathroom, as if the girl could tell lexi was leaving her. Sky, even more freaked out then before, rushed them out of the room to find the others. Celeste looked disgusted as she looked over galexia and how caked in goop she was.
Judas held his nose, "Galexia, you better get clean, fast...we'll take it from here...", landon, happy to leave the scene, pushed forward and took galexia's hand, "I'll take care of her...c'mon.". Judas was about to call out to them but he left with her almost immediately before he could even get much of a word in with his brother, sky looking over to him, "I tried to speak to him when you were in there but...he ignored me...he's still pretty mad with me..".
Celeste remained silent, watching the boy's sad glance at where his brother left.
"Let's just worry about sunny right now, she's uh...she's kinda pounding on the bathroom door and uh...i don't know if that's going to keep her for long, she's hissing as well and it's just...kinda creepy...". They needed a plan, and fast, before sunny broke out, Judas turned to Celeste, "C'mon, we need your help, i'm not exactly an expert in this sort of thing so maybe you both can help me figure out a way to keep Sunny from...y'know, leaving?".
"What, because we're girls?".
"No, because you're mewmans, i'm only part mewman but...i've never been through anything like this..".
"So, what are we supposed to do? When a girl's in her mewberty form she's kinda unstoppable, and we're also kinda not supposed to interfere...you know...natural and all that?", celeste had a point, they couldn't interfere with sunny but at the same time...her escaping would only make things worse. "Let's just go down there and well...maybe just make sure she's locked in there good, not interfere, but just make sure she doesn't leave the room, ok?".
Sky looked incredibly anxious, but she had to agree with her friend. "He's right Celeste, we have to kinda go back in there...though it is really gross...cause if sunny gets out, we're all kinda screwed...so let's just...watch her...we can do that...right?". There were nervous glances between the three of them, but they reluctantly agreed and headed back down the stairs. Quietly and carefully, Judas in the lead as they made their way back into the disgusting room.
"We'll just keep track of the door...ok? It'll be fairly simple, we can wait it out right?".
"Well we can't with THAT!".
Celeste pointed to the bathroom room, the door busted right off, causing everyone in the room to tense. Sky and Celeste took their wands out, and Judas was already in battle stance, everyone's eyes roaming around the room. They could hear someone crawling in the dark, along the walls, scuttling and sreetching. Wings could be heard flapping in all directions, and judas's ears were flickering, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.
"Stay calm..".
"Jude...there's a demonic mewberty girl climbing up the walls and you want us to remain calm?", Sky mumbled nervously, "What's our next move, what are we supposed to do? We can't just...hurt her?". Then something fell to the floor with a clanging sound, something Jude knew all too well, it was Sunny's knife. The knife the girl usually wrapped her tail around in order to surprise enemies, judas looked up, but still saw nothing above him, but now he had an idea.
He pulled out his compact.
"Girls, be prepared...".
"What are you-?".
A ringing sound could be heard clear as day from a certain part of the room, lucky sunny kept the compact still on her person. Now having a proper way to find her, sky aimed with her licorice spell, and Celeste with her own spell. It seemed they hit something, judging by the hiss that followed, sky's spell winding around the creature who feel to the floor. She was no longer in the shadows and that allowed everyone to get a very good look at the girl.
Sunny was pink, pinker then usually, eyes glowing, and hair tied up, her horns seemed longer and she had multiple arms, though her wings were a very noticle part of her look now. Both seemingly demon like mason's, but also thin like butterfly wings. She was hissing and growing at the group and no one moved a muscle. "I've never seen a monster go through mewberty before...it's...a little scary...", sky knelt down, hoping sunny wouldn't bite her face off.
"Ok so, we have her...now what are we supposed to-?"
Then Sunny's eyes glowed suddenly, along with her cheekmarks, and before anyone could react the rope burst off of the girl, freeing her. The demon rose back into the air, everyone flying back around her, she hissed at all of them as they fell back onto the walls, stuck to their surface. So much for handling the situation, now they could barely move against the goop along the walls. Judas didn't seem to find this as much of an issue though, fire gleaming from his hands to burn his way out.
He was able to free himself a lot more easily, though it wouldn't last much longer as Sunny went right to attack him, shooting stuff from her hands. Judas using his fire to counteract it, burning up her blasts towards him, trying to keep her from hitting him. Though sunny picked up on this rather quickly, lunging for him instead, forcing judas to stop using his fire powers as to not hurt the small girl, after all, none of what was currently happening right now was her fault.
She was unaware of the damage she caused, or what she was doing, she was taken over by something else entirely.
Both Beautiful and dangerous.
And apparently strong too as it pinned him against the wall with uncomfortable ease, all six hands keeping him still as his arms started to be covered in the goop, sticking him right back into the wall, but this time, keeping his hands from summoning their fireballs. Then he saw a flash, the bug girl turning around to spot Celeste, who dropped Sunny's knife from her hand, she must've grabbed onto it after Sunny got captured and cut herself free.
"Alright, playtime's over...", she grumbled, disgusted at her current stated.
"Celeste, don't you dare hurt her, she has no idea what she's doing!".
"Can It jude! I'm taking care of this...".
Her wand glowed and she pointed it at the girl, and judas panicked, Sky struggling to get out as well.
But much to her surprise, the mewberty girl had another trick up her sleeve, a portal opening up for her with her magic and she ducked inside, vanishing from the room and surprising even celeste. The room was in utter shock, just how powerful was this girl? Mewberty didn't allow you to portal to other dimensions right? Or at least it didn't seem like it was supposed to. And yet this small demon girl was able to do it on her own no trouble, it was a wonder why she didn't portal out sooner but then again...she wasn't thinking right.
Celeste free the other quickly, judas panicking fast.
"This is bad, this is SO bad, where do we even start to look?! What if our parents see her!?".
"Judas...".
"What?".
"Can we track her compact?".
"She's near butterfly castle!".
"Of course she is...".
Sky's purple bat-winged cloudy soured through the air, but not really as fast as she would've liked it to be. Judas seemed faster on his own, trying to catch a glimpse of the butterfly monster who was roaming around here somewhere, celeste did not seem happy to be along for the ride but sky was already sending a group text to let everyone know what was happening. She had her wand at the ready but she didn't want to shoot sunny down with it.
After all, it was how she captured her when she first showed up on her doorstep, trapped inside of a bubble and unable to move inside of it. Though at the time Sky had done it more in an outburst rather then while being at the best state of mind, and her magic only seemed to work well when she focused.
As long as she focused, she'd catch her.
She didn't know what judas was planning to do but she assumed he wanted to act as bait to a degree, to lure her so they could capture her. Though there was no way this was not going to look suspicious from the outside perspective, someone was bound to notice they were up here practically at night, and chasing what look liked a pink flying monster. Sky could only hope her folks didn't end up hearing about it and tracing it back to them shorty after.
Judas was still trying to spot sunny, but he couldn't track her down so easily, she moved so fast, probably due to her portaling around the area. Though lucky for him she hadn't gone to a whole other dimension at this point, though her frequent moving was making this almost impossible. He should just stop following her, let nature take it's course, but that risked everything going haywire. He should've asked sunny if she had gone through mewberty yet, should've been prepared for this.
She was already making a bit of a mess and as she came into view he found himself ducking as sky tried to blast her, only to miss entirely. Sunny swooped in towards judas only for him to duck, she hissed as she dodged another spell from sky and another from celeste. She started to head out, the group following her shorty after, she was heading towards the castle gardens now. An open space that was perfect for capturing people within her goop.
And a perfect place to be seen by a ton of people.
Even in bug form, she was still rather smart.
With the three on her tail, she found herself flying in multiple directions to avoid taking a hit, her tail even smacking some spells back at sky and her friends. Sky was lucky as one even breezed right over her head, though celeste was clearly the most stressed as she clinged onto her ride desperately. Sky couldn't help but get the impression she might be a little afraid of heights considering how far they went and how they were now zooming towards the ground of a garden.
Sky went to shoot another spell, but much to her distress, the mewberty ridden girl zapped at her, and the wand fell from her hands.
Oh dear god.
As if this day couldn't get any worse.
If that wand broke there was no going back.
She had to turn, and go for the wand, if that thing broke she was deader then dead, her mom would have to revive her using voodoo if she broke that thing. She hated leaving judas in the dust, but she had to go for it, and she changed directions fast, making a dive for it, only for it to fall into the hands of a woman...who was...also flying. For half a second Sky was about to have a heart attack only to realize she was not looking at someone with giant gold wings.
But large green ones.
"Eclipsa?"
The wand reverted to a large umbrella and sky stopped in her tracks at the sight of the former queen.
she was smiling.
"Need some help dear?".
"Eclipsa I-".
"We'll talk later, let's just go save your sister right now from getting into any more trouble...".
Her sister?
She knew?
Eclipsa handed Sky back her wand, it transforming back easily as the woman made her way down to the garden's the girls following her right behind. Judas landed on his feet rather well, trying to get sunny to attack him, she took the bait this time, knocking him off his feet. He was zapped with more of the goop immediately as eclipsa and the girl's landed, getting sunny's attention, she dove for them but before sky could do much, eclipsa was already ready.
As before her eyes a dome sealed itself over sunny, and the girl slowly fell asleep inside.
"Huh well...that's...useful...".
"I had to use it quite a few times when trying to calm Meteora through her own mewberty...".
Judas was already trying to calm down, standing up and trying to speak to eclipsa without tripping over his words,"Eclipsa, i-i know this looks rather odd, but i swear this isn't...wait...did you say meteora?". Sky and him looked at her oddly, Celeste raising an eyebrow as Eclipsa smiled. She reverted back to her normal form and her fingers intertwined together, "Seems we're all revealing our secrets to each other today, aren't we? Though i was hoping to talk about it when you were older...".
"Meteora...? She's...".
"Yeah, she's alive...".
The three blinked at her and Eclipsa laughed.
"Surprise!".
