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Dissonance

Event VII

Realization

"...Itsuki?" Hibiki woke up, still sleepy and feeling pretty sore. She was laying on her side, her forehead touching the blond woman's collarbone. Both of Itsuki's arms were holding her tightly, a sensation Hibiki wasn't quite used to.

"Awake now? You're really cute when you sleep, you know." Itsuki was smiling at the barely awake, pink haired girl. They had completely forgotten to cancel Cure mode before they fell asleep.

Hibiki could feel that they were sleeping naked together, but she wasn't embarrassed anymore. After all, she had spent half the night sleeping with Itsuki. As far as she was concerned, it was the best night of her life. She had never felt that good. Hibiki was quite taken by the older Cure.

"I wanna go back to sleep... There's no sense to getting up in this place anyway..." Hibiki wrapped her arms around her new lover, burying her face in Itsuki's breasts.

"Sounds like a good idea... I'm still tired from last night." Itsuki paused briefly, then kissing the top of Hibiki's head. "I hope nobody heard us. You were quite loud when you came."

"I couldn't help it... I just felt so good." Hibiki's face was turning into a deep crimson. Whose fault did that woman think it was that she got so loud?

"I did too. Although I have to admit, I didn't think my first time would be with a girl that's younger than me." The words made Hibiki lift her head, a questioning look in her eyes.

"Does that bother you? That I'm only sixteen? I turn seventeen in five months." Hibiki was a little worried that Itsuki might think it's a problem that she was so much older than her.

"I don't mind. I just didn't expect it. Before we were all sent to this place, I didn't even know I really was into girls. Maybe I'm not even really into girls and I only like you." Itsuki moved her right leg between Melody's, poking Hibiki's feet with her own.

"Stop it... " Hibiki hid her red face from Itsuki and moved up just a little, barely enough to reach her lips. The first kiss since she woke up. The memories of the last night were still quite vivid.

Itsuki had never really shared a morning with anyone like that before. Hibiki was acting really different from usual, but it was kind of cute. Poking Hibiki's cheek, the pink Cure pulled a grimace. "I'll go back to sleep..." Melody pushed herself against Sunshine, resting her head on the woman's shoulder.

Itsuki didn't particularly dislike the idea. She really didn't need all that much sleep but it felt like she had barely slept about five hours, which wasn't quite enough even for her. A nap for an hour or two didn't sound so bad. "I'll join you." Itsuki just kept the position she was in, Hibiki snuggled into her arms, one of her legs between the girls.

It didn't take five minutes before Hibiki had gone back to sleep, amazingly enough, not making any wild moves. Itsuki took a little longer to fall asleep, Melody's smell keeping her awake. The girl had just this kind of natural perfume coming from her. She had already noticed that last night but didn't really have the time to think about it.

Half-asleep, Itsuki started to think about herself and Hibiki. They fit together very nicely and she liked her. But she wasn't sure if what she felt was really love or just attraction. Without any experience, it was hard to tell. But regardless of that, she liked being with Hibiki.

The two years difference in age would become downright irrelevant as soon as Hibiki turned eighteen, so that didn't bother Itsuki at all... Then... there... "Why does she smell so good..." Itsuki's thoughts faded away as she inhaled deeply and completely passed over to the land of dreams.

=== Dissonance ===

The first people to sit down together for a meal were quite an unlikely collection. Karen and Komachi, Miki, Urara and Honoka. There was no sign of Nagisa.

Breakfast was simple and in western style that day. Toast with marmalade and coffee. There didn't seem to be much of a difference in cost for food. "Did you exhaust Nagisa the whole night?" Urara was looking at Honoka while biting into her second toast.

"Jealous?" Honoka was not the type to have a large breakfast and instead preferred just two cups of black coffee.

"A little. Of Nagisa." Urara had grown sick of pretending years ago and just said whatever she was thinking now. "I'm surprised you two aren't exhausted.." Urara was now looking at Karen and Komachi who both nervously blushed.

"We didn't do anything to be exhausted," Karen put it quite bluntly and looked at Urara. "But you're pretty curious about other people's love life all of a sudden. I thought you didn't care." Karen was being sarcastic but that was lost on Lemonade.

"That's just something you assumed. I never really said I don't care about you. I don't know what you take me for but I still consider you my friends." Urara's mood took a dive. She knew fairly well that nobody but Rin gave even a rats ass about her anymore.

"Don't argue at breakfast please. And I think you need to talk that out, looks like you have quite a few misunderstandings to clear up," Miki, like Honoka, was more of a coffee than toast type. She was on her second cup already and didn't mind the bitterness of black coffee in the slightest. If she had time to eat breakfast at all in her busy schedule, she would eat something healthy, like a sandwich with tomato, pickles, lettuce and cheese. But toast with marmalade was poison for her figure.

At the same time, Erika, not quite fully awake yet, joined their little round. "Mornin'..." Almost in trance, Erika grabbed a piece of toast from one of the baskets on the table and shoved it into her mouth without putting anything on it. Suspended in that state for about a minute, Erika almost seemed to have fallen back asleep.

"Some of the things she does are really amazing," Karen commented.

"In many ways." Urara added. Just leaving her like that, they enjoyed the quiet of the morning before everyone joined.

It took a whooping five minutes, give or take, for Erika to realize she was sitting on the table with a piece of toast in her mouth. "Morning..." The others couldn't help but laugh, Honoka almost doing a coffee spit.

"Don't fall back asleep. People are gonna draw on your face." Urara warned the navy blue haired woman.

"Yes, yes... Uh... I hate mornings..." Erika really did. It was a complete turn around from her teenage years where she was always the first one up. But now that she was almost eighteen and often working till late at night and yet still forced to wake up at dawn. The first piece of toast vanquished, Erika reached for another one, this time actually putting up the effort to get some marmalade on it.

As Erika had pretty wild hair to begin with, the others didn't notice at first, but she had quite the bed hair. She was also the only one that was not in Cure mode, still wearing her civilian clothes.

With Erika in the state she was in, half asleep and on an epic quest to destroy the toasty empire all by herself, the table was still relatively quiet until Karen brought up an important topic. "Have we decided who is going to change yet?"

Honoka put down her cup of coffee. "Not yet. It will be difficult to determine who has to go, to be honest. We're a team of three, a team of four, another team of three and Blossom and Marine. Blossom cannot change for four more rounds, so I am really against voting out Marine as that would leave Blossom as the only one of her team on this side." There was more to her reasoning than just concern for Tsubomi. Miki caught on quickly. Honoka had fought along-side Marine before, she knew what she was capable of.

"Voting out either you or Nagisa wouldn't be very clever either." Karen wasn't thrilled with the idea of facing either of those experienced Cures in battle.

"Eventually, it'll happen anyway, but right now, I'd like to keep us in the best possible condition for the next fight." Honoka was aiming to win. Even though participants received personal favor in a battle, the team itself gained nothing if the match was lost.

"It'll come down to either Rouge or me." Lemonade stuffed the last bit of toast in her mouth and leaned back on her chair. "It's pretty simple, really. Our team is the one that's the least united and we already voted out our leader because she's griping with the rules and pulling a tantrum. Karen works as one of the leaders together with Miki and Honoka. She's really close to Komachi, so it's unlikely that it'll be her. Miki won't vote on her own team and they're only one short of being complete. The chances are high that whoever that is will come over with the next exile run."

Everyone on the table looked at her, surprised how thought through her explanation was. "Don't give me that look. I just added one and one together. It'll become a lot worse for you as soon as Rouge and I switched. Blossom will still have two matches to go before she can change again at that point, so that will leave pretty much only the Black – White team or the Fresh Team if you don't want to leave Marine out. But this will be decided by majority vote, so who knows." Lemonade shrugged. "I really don't mind to go. It's not like the other side is evil or anything."

"I didn't think you could be this analytical Urara. I'm really impressed." Karen looked to her old friend.

"Well, it basically is as Lemonade said." Miki put down her cup. "It would help the moral if we could get someone to volunteer to change every time, but that most likely won't happen."

"I think it'll be best if Rouge goes. She's still close to Nozomi and I don't think she's forgiven Marine over there yet." Lemonade pointed at Erika, who had fallen asleep again, this time resting her head right on the table. Urara still had... business with Marine. "I'll ask her. If it comes down to it, it'll most likely turn out to be her anyway."

"If she refuses, we can still take votes." Honoka looked around. Everyone present would vote for Rouge after listening to Lemonade. The woman was quite good at subtly manipulating people's opinions. It was already determined that Rouge would go, going by that logic.

"Morning everyone." Love was quite lively despite how early it was and she had dragged Inori with her. Miki sighed, knowing that their quiet morning was now officially over.

=== Dissonance ===

"It's much..." "...too quiet." Michiru and Kaoru sat at the table, bored with watching Saki and Mai eat rice and miso soup for breakfast.

"You two never change, do you?" Mai smiled to their friends while Saki was busy stuffing her face. She had been starving ever since last night. Her stomach had woken up both her and Mai in the morning.

"But it really is boring." "There's nothing to do." Kaoru leaned back while Michiru leaned forward. They had to do something to ease their boredom.

"Bear with it. We're not on vacation here. It seems you're forgetting that." Mai's tone took a dive. Sometimes, those sisters were a tad unreasonable and a little annoying. They were their best friends, even before Nagisa and Honoka, but they could really push one's envelope at times.

The Kiryuu's were saved from a painful death by boredom seconds after Mai had reminded them where they were. A very exhausted looking Setsuna dragged herself into the room, sitting down at the table and almost lifelessly staring at the empty bowl.

"Aren't you..." "...going to eat?" They have had little contact to Setsuna prior to that morning so they were intrigued what had her down that much.

"Right..." Setsuna had spent the night in her own room, ridden by guilt. How would she explain to Love what she did? It just happened on a whim. There had been a spark between her and Ellen but... she shouldn't have acted on it. Now she ruined a potential friendship with the only person that could relate to what she went through and might even have ruined her own relationship based on how Love reacts.

Her eyes red, her face pale and her hair wild and unkempt, she looked like she hadn't slept at all. Which was close enough to the truth. The more she thought about what she did, the more she realized what a horrible thing she did both to Love and Ellen.

Even if it was just a kiss, she had clearly felt attracted enough to Ellen to act on it. And cheated on Love. There she was, one time away from Love for just a couple of days and she was already cheating on her. Was her conviction really that weak?

"Mai, this one's..." "...already dead." Kaoru and Michiru pointed at Setsuna, who had frozen up putting rice in her bowl.

"Leave her, you two. What are you, twelve?" Mai sighed and gave the bored sisters an annoyed look. "People have their own problems, just leave her alone."

And Setsuna was not the only one to be troubled and look exhausted. While the purple haired woman was slowly eating, not without stopping and sighing heavily every now and then, another troubled Cure joined the fray.

Moonlight, in her Cure form, walked up to the table and sat down across from Mai, getting her food and eating quickly. No words were lost and she didn't even seem to register that there were other people around. There were huge, black bags under her eyes. There was no doubt that she hadn't caught as much as a moment of sleep the whole night.

What should she do? On one hand, she knew that she wouldn't be able to continue being with Momoka without eventually breaking down. It worried her too much. Momoka had moved out of her parents house two years ago and urged Yuri to live with her. And Yuri was afraid that a situation like that would lead to enemies taking Momoka hostage or worse.

If she broke up with her, there was a good chance that Momoka would consider their friendship to be finished as well. But Yuri cared too much for her now to put their friendship over her safety. Was that what Muse was saying? True friendship, truly caring about someone meant that sometimes it was necessary to do things that would end up hurting them?

"Still thinking?" Yuri hadn't noticed but Muse had entered the room and sat down next to her. She was still in her adult form, which got quite the reaction from Mai and Saki, not knowing who the black Cure was.

"Muse... yes." Moonlight wasn't in the mood to talk a lot. She was exhausted and hoped to be able to fall asleep after she ate something. Thinking the whole night about Momoka and Miki, she was at her limit.

"Get some rest. You'll be able to think clearly afterwards." Muse could see just how exhausted Yuri was. Her usual elegance was gone entirely.

"Everyone's so gloomy today," Saki whispered to Mai.

"Don't pry. We're on the same team, but we don't really know them that well," Mai whispered back to Saki, not eager to mess with other people's troubles.

The gloomy atmosphere only got worse when Beat stepped into the room, saw Setsuna, walked past her and sat down at the other end of the table, constantly looking at Setsuna from the corner of her eye.

She was in the wrong too, she knew that. Ellen had spent enough time in human society to know it was really bad to kiss someone that was already seeing someone else. Her mind knew that. Her mind accepted it. But her heart was telling her something else. She had felt happy when Setsuna kissed her. She wanted to kiss her again.

Beat hadn't spent the entire night awake but even so, she didn't catch more than a handful hours of sleep. She just couldn't get Setsuna out of her head. She had never been really in love before and then it just happened like that. It left her helpless and confused. To make it all worse, Setsuna was already the partner of Cure Peach.

She couldn't just try and steal away someone else's lover like that. Ellen could never do that. Hurting someone for her own personal again was exactly what she promised herself to never do again after she became a Cure.

"Dark..." "...so dark." The Kiryuu sisters were intrigued but not happy at all that so many people were down in the dumps. While they liked interesting things, they did couldn't enjoy them at all if they came with people feeling bad.

It got even worse when a new face stepped into the room. A pink Cure with long, flowing similarly pink hair. Seeing the many unknown faces, Dream grabbed a bowl, a bit of food and quickly left without talking or looking at anyone.

"What was that about?" Saki could understand if someone had their problems and didn't want to talk, but to not even sit down at the table? What was wrong with that woman? "Do you know who she is?" Saki looked at her partner.

"She belongs to the same team Milky Rose did. Her Cure costume looked a bit like hers. I don't know her name, though." Mai was as confused as Saki.

"Morning." A minute after Dream vanished from the room, Rhythm entered and looked over the people present. "She's not here..." Walking up to Ellen, Kanade sat down next to her. "Morning Ellen."

It took a few seconds until Ellen realized that Kanade was right next to her and responded. "Morning Kanade." She tried her best to look cheerful but it failed spectacularly. It was so obvious that something was bothering Ellen that Kanade asked.

"What's wrong? You look really tired..." Kanade wasn't in peak condition either but she hid it well enough for Beat not to notice.

Taking a quick look down the table to Setsuna, Ellen decided it was best to not talk about it while others were listening. "I'll tell you later."

Kanade, satisfied with that answer, started to eat a little breakfast as well. She didn't feel very hungry at all but knew she couldn't just go without eating anything.

With Dream having run past her and everyone else being present at the table, except Melody and Sunshine, Kanade's bad feeling only got worse. The yellow Cure was always together with Hibiki lately and it was pretty clear why. They must be... Kanade shook her head. She couldn't believe that Hibiki would just jump into a relationship like that. That Hibiki? Who was so dense that she never got a clue on how Kanade felt about her?

Speaking of the devil, Melody walked into the room and stopped when she felt the gloomy atmosphere. Walking up to Ellen and Kanade, the white Cure stood up and walked straight past her friend. She didn't want to see her. "Hey Kanade, where are you going?"

"What do you care?" Rhythm didn't even look back.

"Hey, it's not my fault if you're being moody in the morning!" Hibiki went after Kanade who turned around and pointed her finger at her friend.

"Oh yes, it's your fault alright! You never have any idea what people are thinking!" Kanade was getting angry.

"What's that supposed to mean? How am I supposed to know what you're thinking if you don't tell me!" Hibiki wouldn't back down from such an unfair argument.

"Read between the lines Hibiki. It's not that hard." Kanade's mood was getting worse with every word.

"You say that so easily! But you don't know what I'm thinking at all either!"

"I don't think you're thinking anything at all."

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"What if I am?"

"What is wrong with you Kanade? I see you first thing in the morning and you're lashing out at me like I did something horrible!"

"Pretty sure it's not me who you saw first thing in the morning." Kanade had no proof and it was only a gut feeling.

"What the heck is that even supposed to mean?" Hibiki and Kanade were shouting at each other by now, causing quite the stir.

"I'm not going to spell it out for you!" Kanade had enough. Just how stupid did Hibiki take her for? "I'm sick of it. I'm leaving." Kanade stomped out of the hall, running right into Sunshine, giving her a deadly glare and walking off.

"What just happened?" Itsuki was looking back over her shoulder while walking up to Hibiki.

"I have no idea. Kanade just went crazy all of a sudden." Hibiki sat down on a chair, finally noticing that Ellen had left sometime during her argument with Kanade. "Today sucks."

=== Dissonance ===

"I'm worried about Nozomi, so I have no problem with going." Rin was, unexpectedly, not making a fuss about changing teams. She was more than confident that she could get past whoever was stuck as exile with her strength and agility. Few other Cures could match her in a close combat fight or race.

"Are you gonna be fine here?" She was worried about Urara staying behind though. She wasn't exactly best friends with Karen or Komachi anymore.

"Don't worry about me. I still have some business to take care of on this side." Lemonade would not let Marine get away that easily. She had a thing for lively girls like that. Not to mention, it would be nice to relieve some stress.

"I can't believe you're interested in Marine. You've got bad taste Urara." Rin wasn't particularly hard to piss off and Marine had done so magnificently. She was still mad. Behaving herself because the others wouldn't stand for internal fighting, but still mad.

"You're exaggerating. She's small but she's actually got a nice body." Urara grinned diabolically and made a groping motion with her hand, making Rin cover herself. They had slept with each other on occasion, but there was not a shred of romance between them. They were just friends with benefits.

"You're disgusting Urara. Stop talking about this, I can't stand her." Rouge walked a few steps away from Lemonade and created her fire claws. They were far out in the castle. Rin and Urara were not only friends with benefits, but also sparing partners. They fought each other seriously, in an attempt to stay in shape when there were no enemies.

"How is that new ability of yours coming along Urara? The one you call... what was it again? Eldo something." Rin had developed her Hell ability during fights with Urara as counter measure to her chains and binding. Metal got hot and even though the golden chains would never melt, they channeled heat and got hot enough to melt even solid stone or burn Urara.

"El Dorado. You should read a few books about it Rin. It's an interesting myth." Urara taunted her friend with a smile. "It's difficult. I just can't seem to properly direct the chains." Lemonade was ambitious as a Cure, aiming to be as strong as possible. Rin was the same. "What about you?"

"It's not quite there yet but I'm getting the hang of it." Rouge's eyes widened and the left fire claw vanished entirely, the right one flaring up. A name helped to visualize any kind of attack, and it often also served as verbal activator. "Heat Crush!"

With a lightning fast move, so quick that Lemonade could only see Rouge's arm moving in a blur, the red Cure punched the ground. Lemonade was hit by a wave of hot air that dissipated. Rouge jumped away a split second after hitting the ground. There was no hole or damage. But the ground, the stone itself, was molten. There was a sphere of about a meter of molten rock slowly cooling down.

"I can only do it with my right hand for now. And its size is not anywhere what I want it to be." Rouge shook her hand wildly. There were clear signs of burns on her fingers. "And I can't fully control the recoil either, making this a pain to figure out."

"At least we don't have to worry about civilians and damage in this place. I guess everything has a plus side." Lemonade knelt down next to the slowly cooling molten rock and watched it, slightly fascinated. It wasn't quite apparent to everyone, but Cure powers held much more than they initially thought. Rin had managed to create claws of fire and at times turn herself into the center point of a massive heat zone. Compared to shooting a single ball of fire, that were some huge steps. But she hadn't stood still either.

"You're amazing to be able to see anything good in this situation." Rin was all but pleased being stuck in some god forsaken place that wasn't even Earth. Thinking about it, no fight had seem more fruitless and never ending that the one they were fighting right now.

"Who knows how long we'll be stuck here? Most of the others seem to think it'll only be a couple of weeks or months at best." Urara stood up and looked to her friend. "But think about it. How many Cures are there? With twelve on each team and the exile, just think about how unbalanced everything became. Every single team won. Personally, I don't think we'll be leaving here." A short pause. "At least not anytime soon."

"So I guess it's a 'see the good in the bad' kind of thing. If we're not going to get out of here anyway, we might as well learn to at least accept it and make the best of it? Is that what you're saying?"

"You know I'm right Rin. Fighting an enemy was one thing. As soon as we beat the source of the evil, it was over. But this here... we can't really beat the other team. This whole thing is designed to keep us fighting."

"You used to be so simple minded." Rin let out a single sarcastic laugh.

"Don't compare me to what I was like five years ago Rin, you know I hate that. People take advantage of simpletons. I learned that the hard way." It was a painful topic for Urara.

"I know. Whose shoulder do you think was it that you cried on? But anyway, I hate to think that we'll be stuck here forever. Hardly seems fair, does it? We simply protected what was dear to us and now we're locked up because some kind of power decided that there's an unbalance of light and darkness."

"Nothing in the world is fair Rin. Like I said, we should just make the best out of this situation. We have exactly two choices. Be miserable the entire time we're here, or get over it. I for one won't be like Nozomi and act in denial about this whole thing."

"She doesn't really have a choice. This goes against all of her beliefs and principles. There's no way she could accept fighting other Cures for some grander purpose."

"Nozomi isn't a kid anymore Rin. She turned nineteen a while ago. Nineteen! She's old enough to realize that nothing good is going to come out of refusing to accept this."

"Try telling that her." They both knew that Dream would not accept the situation. She would fight it to the end, no matter how long it would take.

The two of them went quiet for a few minutes, thinking about Nozomi and the old days. Things had really started to go wrong when they graduated and got worse shortly after. Their happiest time was definitely in the days of just attending school all together after becoming Cures. Despite the fights, despite the battles, it was the time which they had the fondest memories of.

"You don't really have a thing for Marine, do you?" Rouge brought the topic back up. It was bothering her. She disliked the blue haired shrimp.

"Not enough to go out with her or anything. Worried I might stop sleeping with you? You could still try to get together with Nozomi in that case, can't you?" Urara was extremely blunt about their relationship.

"I don't think that's a good idea given the situation. We've been friends for ages, I seriously doubt she will ever see me like that."

"Why not? It worked for Komachi. She had this look in her eyes when she was with Karen earlier. I'm sure they finally hit it off. Only took them half a decade."

"Are you sure? Karen always let herself be pushed around by Kurumi. Everyone except Nozomi thought it was horrible how she treated Karen."

"Not even Karen has infinite patience. I guess she finally got fed up with Kurumi. Or maybe Komachi is just hotter. I mean, she is really hot. She's pretty tall, got a great figure and then those boobs..."

"You sound like an old man. And a pervert." Rin crossed her arms and grinned. "Karen is not the type to go after appearance. We both know that. If she's really with Komachi now, she must have been fed up with Kurumi's bullshit."

"She was quite nice at times but I guess that went all out the window when she got a hold of Karen's heart. Personally, I was annoyed when she told everyone she was not going back to Palmier and instead wanted to live like a human on Earth." Lemonade scoffed. "Tch, she looks human alright, but she really just leeches off Karen. Maybe it'll serve as a wake-up call for her if Karen dumps her."

"I don't like her either, but you shouldn't badmouth her like that." Rin was not exactly Kurumi's friend but she didn't like the way Lemonade talked about her. "But Karen and Komachi are an item now? I always felt sorry for Komachi. Karen is really smart, so I always figured she'd realize it sometime, but then Kurumi came along. We know the rest."

"She looked pretty happy. I wonder if they're sleeping with each other yet."

"Don't pry. You of all people should know how annoying it is when people pry into your private stuff." Rin remembered quite well.

Urara had taken her career as idol quite seriously, aiming to also become an actress. However, as time went on and her fame increased, people also started to badmouth her, start rumors or secretly take photos. When she just turned sixteen, a website came online that showed a lot of fake photographs of her and reported false things. Her popularity took a massive dive.

It was a normal thing to happen in the idol business, especially for someone that young. Hate mail started to come, she got less job offers and rumors circulated quite heavily. In the end, it resulted in Urara collapsing from too much stress. Her career as idol was over shortly after and her personality changed quite violently.

Rin was the only one that knew the real truth. While Urara told everyone she simply dropped the cutesy act, Rin knew that it had hurt her much more than she would ever admit to lose her job and support. She didn't drop the cutesy act. Urara suppressed her entire old personality in an attempt to just forget about her past. The witty, feisty and very dominant Urara she became had since then become her real personality, the old one buried beyond tons of emotions she rather forgot about.

She joined a punk rock band called "Butterfly Revolution". While the fake photos and stories were poison for her as idol, they pulled the people in for when she was part of a punk band. A bad girl that left being an idol behind, got a radical make over and sung lyrics of fighting life and fate. Rin found out about what cost Urara her old job and consulted with the others. The site was taken down with Komachi's help and they wanted Urara to try again.

It resulted in a big fight. The yellow Cure had already changed so much that she didn't want to go back to her old self. Even Rin didn't talk to Urara for weeks until she couldn't stand it anymore and just accepted that it was Urara's own decision what she did with her life.

Karen and Komachi were busy with their own lives and didn't want to deal with any more chaos than they had on their own plates. Nozomi tried to still be her friend but Urara was still in a phase of being hurt by people so she rejected everyone. Rin eventually pulled through and managed to break through her hard shell. Urara told her everything but made her swear never to tell anyone.

It explained a lot. Why her personality took such a turn and why she refused to go back. Someone that got burned by hot fire would always be cautious around it.

"Talking about this... I like you Rin, but I hope you know we're never going to be more than friends with benefits. Just for the record, I don't mind if you go and get yourself a girlfriend. I can see the way you look at some of the others."

"No need to remind me Urara. I knew what I was getting into from the start. We have quite a few beauties on our team. I guess if I had to give a name, I wouldn't mind spending a night or two with Black."

"You're a bit out of your league with that one." Urara grinned. "You'd have a better chance with Pine or maybe Blossom."

"I'm not really into either of them." Rin was despite all quite picky.

"Well, good luck with the girls on the other team. They have a really cute pink Cure. I fought her in a match. She's really strong. I think she'd be your type."

"I'll see about that when I get there. This isn't a mixer, Urara. You're enjoying this a little too much I think." Rin frowned.

"Just making the best out of a bad situation."

=== Dissonance ===

"We haven't decided on anything yet. I'd like to hear what you have to propose. We'll go from there." Aqua couldn't help but eye the area in confusion. Until the day before, the area for battle and negotiation had always been a large hall with several balconies, many hallways and smaller rooms. But now, there was just a gigantic chasm in front and around them. Several thin towers with platforms were placed at different heights. A total of twenty-four towers for a total of just as many Cures. How were they supposed to fight there?

"Sticking to small fights will not get us anywhere. More people fighting will result in more favor and energy. Moonlight and Berry cannot fight the next battle. I want every single one of us to fight." Windy stood on a platform that was placed at about the same height as the one Aqua stood on.

"An all-out match of eleven versus eleven? I cannot agree with that. It would force both Moonlight and Berry to fight the next battle on their own again."

"Unless negotiations fail."

"You want to intentionally cause a forced match? I won't let that happen." Aqua figured that a battle with both teams included as a whole would be a catastrophe.

"It is the easiest way to create energy and favor."

"And cause dissonance among the teams and us. You're thinking only about the results and leave out the process."

"I didn't. I simply chose to value results over means in this case. But if you disagree, let's hear what you have to suggest." Kaoru was not dead set on intentionally causing a team match.

"I agree that we both need to up the numbers. A single fight was necessary to allow people to rest, but most should have gotten used to the situation by now. We cannot afford to just sit around and let people fight one versus one matches all the time. But eleven is too high a number. A maximum of six to eight people." Aqua stared at Windy.

"Eight. I can live with that. That leaves four for the next battle. Eight it is then. Agreed?"

"I'm fine with eight. Agreed. What about the time? It is still early, so we might set the battle for sometime after noon."

"I can't see how this place has a morning, noon, evening or night, but I get what you mean. Six hours. That will give the runners time to adjust to their new team."

"Participants, eight." Windy said out loud and waited for Karen to seal the deal. "Participants. Eight."

"Time, in six hours." Aqua stated and waited for Windy to confirm. "Time. In six hours."

There was no sign of a door, just a glowing circle in the center of the five meter wide platforms placed on top of each tower. Aqua stepped on hers and saw the battlefield vanish. She had to tell the others about the change in area.

=== Dissonance ===

"I'll go." Passion had spoken up during the debate who would run for exile. Moonlight, Windy and Egret were discussing the matter in what they had started to call the public or living room.

"My partner is on the other side and I sat out last time." There was one more reason she wanted to go. To get away from Ellen. She didn't trust herself enough to stay truly loyal to Love if Ellen said something nice to her.

"I was expecting another round of sitting back but this makes things easier." Moonlight looked at the other two. Neither had objections. "We will see you off then."

"I'm fine, thanks." Setsuna was not in the mood to be in company. Ellen was still on her mind and it bothered her. That and her own breach of trust with Love.

Walking off alone, the red Cure left behind the other tree. She halfway expected Ellen to be waiting at the gate but nobody was there. She hated her own weak will for actually feeling disappointed.

Standing in front of the gate, Passion started to hear something. A tune she remembered quite well, since she had heard it just the evening before. Beat was playing that same song again, somewhere near. Setsuna felt both relieved and disappointed when the gate opened in front of her. Why was she so torn between staying loyal to Love and wanting to explore where her feelings for Ellen would lead?

Stepping through the gate, she found herself on top of a wide tower, with many more towers in front of herself. The sky above her was just black space and yet somehow she could breathe. Somewhere in that area were two more Cures. Setsuna hoped that it wasn't Love who was running for the other team.

Just jumping once, Setsuna was startled by a massive explosion, collapsing a whole tower much further in the area. A purple light flashed through the sky. A shock wave, originating from the collapsing tower, hit Passion and forced her to take a step back. Someone was clearly losing his marbles.

It wasn't a wise idea to go try and go straight through the middle. Taking a left turn and trying to pass by the other most towers, Setsuna was actually scared of the continuous destruction that was happening further in the center.

Her attention was grabbed when the purple light was joined by a red one and a massive fire pillar rocketed into the sky from the top of one of the towers. Another explosion followed and the purple light was coming her way.

Passion barely trusted her eyes when she saw the crazed Milky Rose approach her with an insane look on her face. Her eyes wide and red, heavy black bags below them, her clothes torn in many places, her hair dirty and wild and most of all, dried blood on her face, signs of nails scratching too deeply.

"No more, no more!" Milky Rose was screaming and aiming for Passion. The red Cure jumped out of the way just in time. The purple Cure literally obliterated the top of the tower. She was no longer a person one could reason with.

"Tremor of Clubs!" Spawning a dozen crimson colored glowing club symbols around herself, Passion stomped on the ground, swinging her arm and pointing at Milky Rose.

The club symbols all hit the ground simultaneously, each cutting deeply into the ground. Milky Rose took the attack head on, even rushing into it, suffering deep cuts both on her arms and legs. Passion wasn't quick enough to get away and Milky Rose was right up to her. What scared Setsuna the most was not the pain she could inflict on her or her power. The crazed look in her eyes that told a tale of witnessed madness scared her enough to leave her unable to move.

A powerful punch to her stomach, Passion bend over and gasped for air. That Cure was really powerful. Milky Rose grabbed Setsuna's face, covering her mouth with her hand. "I will get out of here. And you won't stop me. Nobody will stop me. You can rot here for all I care."

Passion's vision became red with pain and fear when Milky Rose slammed her into the ground so hard that her body left an impact in the solid stone.

Setsuna saw no way to fight her than to seriously aim for her vitals. Biting into Milky Rose's hand hard enough to rupture her skin, she rammed her fist against Milky Rose stomach. "Spear of Clubs!"

The purple Cure was thrown high into the air by a pillar of red energy. Passion got up and set up her next attack while Milky Rose was up in the air. She had to knock her out now before she did whatever had caused that explosion earlier. "Queen of Clubs!"

"Abbadon!" Milky Rose countered the second she heard Passion use another attack. A storm of metal shards clashed with a majestic crimson insignia, Passion's suit the Club. Kurumi was slowly overpowering Setsuna, despite her injuries and lack of rationality.

Putting every ounce of power she had left into her attack, Milky Rose broke through Setsuna's attack all at once, a multitude of fragments cutting her. Passion's screams echoed through the air.

Rouge could barely walk. "I always knew she was strong but this is ridiculous... she's totally crazy." Rin was cursing, losing blood from a deep cut into her shoulder. She had taken the blunt force of Kurumi's special but managed to get away because of it. Thankfully, Kurumi had thought her knocked out when she fell down from the tower.

"What happened to her in here?" Rouge reached the last platform and the circle of exit. She was safe. But she worried for the other Cure that had run into Milky Rose.

But there was no sign of further battle. That had not been a battle. That was an one-sided outbreak of rage. Rin waited for a few more minutes until the circle below her started to glow and she felt the area around her change rapidly.

When the room stopped spinning, the gateway door was behind her. Two Cures, both of which she recognized, were waiting for her. Moonlight and Windy.

"I didn't expect to see you again so soon." Windy seemed rather surprised to find Rouge as the exile runner. "Came over from the other team or escaped from being the exile?"

"I'm from the other team." Rin stood up. The pain was still vivid in her memory. She could almost still feel it. Whoever the poor scapegoat from the side she was now on had been, Rin pitied her. "I'm Cure Rouge. Natsuki Rin."

"You belong to Cure Dream if I'm not mistaken. This is good, you can talk some sense into her." Moonlight wasn't pleased with Dream's attitude at all.

"Hold your horses. Can I get to my room first? I had a little run-in with the exile and I'm pretty exhausted." Rin was not exaggerating. If she hadn't been careful, she might have ended up being killed or at least severely wounded by the crazed Milky Rose.

"These exile runs are dangerous. It seems the two that escape have their injuries healed, but I am not so sure about the one that becomes the exile." Rin wasn't sure how she would deal with being the exile. But seeing Kurumi like that really scared her.

"Follow me." Moonlight was not in the mood for many words.

Windy returned together with the silver and the red Cures, branching off and walking towards the living room when Moonlight led Rouge to what had been Passion's room just an hour earlier. The rooms itself seemed to be magical. If someone changed teams, the room itself changed too. Rouge found her bed just the way she left it on the other side, indicating that it was indeed her room.

"If you intent to join the fight scheduled later, talk to either Windy, Egret, Muse or me." Moonlight left, leaving Rin to rest in her room.

"I hope Kurumi won't do anything crazy over there when she finds out Karen and Komachi are together now." Rouge couldn't have known how close she was with that guess.

=== Dissonance ===

"Lemonade restrained her and she seems to have calmed down. But I want to know what caused this in the first place." White looked to Lemonade, who had been the one to greet the exile runner.

"She seemed really tired, confused and tense when she came out of the portal. She asked me where Karen was and wanted to see her so I took her to the living room. Komachi and Karen were sitting next to each other and chatting. Then all hell broke lose. I barely restrained her in time to stop her attack. She was yelling about something like us all being illusions and a nightmare and god knows what. She seemed pretty nuts." Lemonade put together what happened and summarized it pretty quickly.

"So the sight of Karen with Komachi caused her to go berserk. Has she said anything since then?" White was making a further inquiry.

"She calmed down after I kept her locked up for about half an hour. I had to reinforce the chains a few times because of how much she was fighting it. Apparently, she spent two nights as the exile and it was pretty tough on her. She believes she's still in exile and we're just part of another tormenting illusion." Lemonade had talked to her a little, making sure to ignore all questions regarding Karen and Komachi.

"That's what being the exile does to you?" Komachi looked on the ground, trembling slightly. If two nights was enough to turn someone into that much of a nervous wreck, she didn't want to become the exile, ever.

"That's horrible..." Berry hadn't seen Milky Rose rampage but just hearing about it worried her.

"I think she's gonna get a grip on it eventually but I'll keep her locked up for now. Karen, you might want to hold off telling her you're with Komachi now." Lemonade was slowly becoming one of the leaders of the team, proving to be much smarter than everyone gave her credit for.

"I didn't think the exile would be put through such an ordeal." White wasn't pleased with the situation. That they had to fight was already an annoyance, but the whole exile system really pushed the limit of what she wanted to put up with. If it was designed to motivate people to be a valuable team member so they didn't get voted out and had to run the exile area, it worked flawlessly.

"I can't imagine what she was put through. She didn't have any visible injuries. What was really hurt seems to be her mind." Lemonade liked it when things got interested, but not like this. Liking Kurumi or not, she felt incredibly bad for her. "Karen, a moment please." Lemonade nodded to the left and walked away from the group, Aqua following her.

"I didn't want to say this in front of everyone. I know the way you think Karen but you're wrong this time. This was not your fault and it doesn't matter if Kurumi is suffering right now. You made your decision to be with Komachi, didn't you? Going back on that just because you see Kurumi being miserable would be the worst thing you could do. That's all I wanted to say." Urara tried returning to the group but stopped briefly when she heard Karen whisper a thank you.

"This certainly doesn't make me comfortable running exile after the next battle. I told Rin I would follow her after I wrapped things up on this side. I suppose there is no real way around this though," Lemonade said as soon as she joined back into the circle of Cures.

"Nobody is going to get around running exile permanently. But I hope nobody else will end up like Milky Rose." Berry wasn't thrilled of running into a crazed Moonlight. Or becoming like that herself.

"Speaking of exiles, we should decide who is going to fight. Four will get to sit out, one of them obviously being Milky Rose. There is no way she will recover from that trial in time. I can't fight this time, which means we have to decide two more who aren't going to fight." Berry was a little uneasy.

"Black and I will fight and so will Luminous. She's a huge asset for us two. I also want Marine and Blossom to fight. Since Berry is sitting out, I'd like Peach and Pine to pause as well. They can all fight together in the next battle that way." Honoka always went about such things calmly and analytically.

"Sounds reasonable. I am sure Love isn't going to mind and Inori is likely more comfortable fighting with us at her side too," Berry commented.

"That settles that. Before we go to battle, I'd like to go over a few details. There is also the issue of the battlefield. It has changed considerably. Negotiations took place in a different place than usual, so I assume that the whole area is undergoing shifts as days pass. We should call the others. I don't want to explain this twice and thrice over." Karen wanted to be as prepared as possible.

=== Dissonance ===

"She wasn't just stressed or angry. She seemed completely nuts. I don't know what happened to her, but I am damn sure she's been the exile. Who joined here before me?" Rin was setting on the table with Moonlight, Egret, Windy and Muse.

"Dream. She seemed fairly normal if stressed. She hasn't talked to anyone, but she certainly doesn't seem crazed or exhibit dangerous behavior." Muse was the first one to answer.

"Going by what you just told us, it does look like she spent more than two days as exile. But still.. I don't know what happens to the exile that they act like that. It seems pretty dangerous." Egret put the pieces of Rin's info together.

"I am sure as hell glad that I didn't get stuck out there. There's really nothing. Damn nothing at all. It's just towers and empty space. I'd go crazy too if I was stuck there for two days straight." Rouge shook her head. "I'll go and catch some shut-eye if that's good. I'll sit out on the battle later. Don't even bother trying to get Dream to fight. It's more likely we'll get out of here today." Rin's serious face and tone made clear that she wasn't joking around. She really meant what she said.

"I assume the other team has either confronted Milky Rose or heard about her from Passion. I assumed the exile was going to just be a solitary confinement thing, but it's quite horrible that they are put through something so atrocious that they turn out like that. A crazed berserker that indiscriminately attacks everyone. I wouldn't believe it if we weren't stuck in a place like this." Egret was pretty depressed, hearing about it.

"There is nothing we can do Mai." Windy sat next to her friend but she too, looked distressed.

"Nothing good is going to come out of brooding over this." Muse was the one to pull the conversation in a different direction. "While we're all here, we should decide who is going to fight in the next battle."

"Rouge and Dream won't fight, which leaves two more that will get to pause. One of them will be Moonlight, as she fought the previous battle." Windy quickly summarized the facts. "I suggest Sunshine sits out as well. She belongs to Moonlight's team. It might not make a huge difference if we go after one versus ones, but in the case of a huge brawl, fighting with your team mates will prove to be an advantage."

"I'm opposed to that." Muse spoke up. She had a quick run-in with Ellen prior to Rouge showing up and she could tell quite clearly that her mind was too occupied to be of any use in battle. "I don't know the reason and it's none of my business anyway, but Beat is depressed and would only be a dead weight in battle. I say we let her take a break."

"I didn't know about that. Are you sure about that? You're a team of four, so if you exclude one member-" Egret looked at Muse who just shook her head.

"Fighting with your team mates it an advantage, not something critically important. If she is going to be a dead weight in battle, I'd rather have Sunshine backing us up." Ako was viewing things with a clear head.

"I'll take your word for it then. Yuri, Kaoru, you two okay with this?" Egret didn't want to make that decision alone.

"I see no problem." Moonlight had been quiet for quite some time. She was quite happy that she didn't have to fight. With her current mental state, she would be as much of a dead weight as Beat.

"I am fine with this," Kaoru answered and was the first one to stand up. "There are still things we need to talk about so we should call everyone that will be fighting."

"I will call Melody and Rhythm. Yuri, if you see Sunshine, can you tell her to join us?" Ako looked at who she considered to be the person who was the most on her wavelength.

"If I see her, yes. I don't know where she is, though," Yuri replied.

The group dissolved quickly. By sheer coincidence, Yuri found Melody and Sunshine just on their way to the living room. Saki and Michiru had been waiting for their partners anyway, and Muse found Kanade in her room.

The eight fighters assembled, Windy started to explain how the battlefield had changed. "The hall is gone entirely. It has been replaced by what seems to be an several hundred meters deep chasm with about twenty-four towers of different height, each with a platform on it's top. The platforms are at maximum width only about five meters. No matter what, unless you can outright fly or don't mind falling down, you will be fighting in close combat the entire time."

"How are the platforms placed? Any pattern?" Muse inquired.

"I couldn't tell any pattern, both height and placement seems random. The height difference between the lowest and the highest platform might well have been over a hundred meters. If you drop down, your only chance is to make use of the walls and the towers themselves to get back up."

"What about beyond the chasm?" Egret asked.

"As far as I could tell, it's plain wall. There doesn't seem to be any way in or out of the chasm and it's platforms without literally trying to blast your way through the walls. And we have no idea how thick they are."

"That idea is out then. I guess it really comes down to aerial battles and close combat." Mai concluded. "I am fairly sure that Luminous made it to the other team based on what Rouge had to say. Which means, this time she will be our enemy. I am pretty sure that Black and White will be fighting too. Those three have an insanely powerful combination attack. We have to stop them from gathering on one platform. Kaoru, if it comes down to it, take Luminous or Black out."

"Got it." Kaoru was still one of their aces, being able to instantly and guaranteed knock someone out on the price of retiring herself as well.

"I will try to take care of Marine. I know her fighting capabilities and in an area like this, she could be a real nuisance and danger. She's just as dangerous as Luminous in a team battle." Sunshine interjected.

"I would love to tell you to leave Black and White to Saki and me, but I fear that we might be in a little over our head. Especially Black is going to be hard to beat like this. Saki will try to keep her in check. If any of you see an opportunity to take her out, do it, even if it might knock out Saki too. Black is that dangerous of a foe."

"You could have said that a lot nicer Mai..." Saki looked crestfallen.

"I'll comfort you later." Mai smiled briefly and got back to the discussion. "I am not entirely sure who else is going to fight. Black, White, Marine and Luminous are pretty much guaranteed though."

"If they let Marine fight, the chances are high that Blossom will be there as well," Sunshine spoke up. "It doesn't feel right to reveal what kind of ability she has, so I'm sorry I can't tell you."

"Nobody expects you to be a snitch Itsuki," Hibiki said and smiled to the woman.

"Melody is right. Regardless, if you think she will be a combatant, that leaves three Cures we can't be sure about. Basically, the most dangerous elements this time around are White, Black and Luminous as a trio, Black by herself and potentially Marine." Windy summarized what they knew.

"This is going to be difficult," Egret said and looked to Kaoru and Michiru. They too knew just how strong Black and White were, especially if buffed by Luminous. "Really difficult."

=== Dissonance ===

"Urara, can't you use your special to create bridges of chains between the towers?" Mint looked at the woman that had a few hours ago declared herself to be still their friend.

"I'm a Cure, not a construction worker. Iron Maiden is a restriction attack. Anyone stepping on the chains would trigger the effect and get wrapped up nice and tidy like a Christmas present." Urara was still pretty snappy. "No, I'm sorry Mint but that idea is a no go."

"Mint, I'd like you and Luminous to stick together. Lemonade, I'd like you to join those two. If we put you three together, there is no danger of Luminous being knocked out and we'll all be boosted."

"I'll see what I can do. No promises. Battle's aren't a TV schedule," Lemonade replied but still smiled.

"Making any plans beyond this is not going to have much of an impact. We have too little experience fighting with and against each other to properly project what they are going to do. Marine, you were hit by some kind of instantaneous knockout in the first battle, right?" Honoka still remembered how Marine suddenly dropped. "We need to watch out for that. If they drop Black, we'll be short one of our aces."

"It's only once but I can let some recover from knockout." Tsubomi spoke up. People immediately stared at her.

"I knew that Mint could heal wounds but to be able to bring someone back from unconsciousness? That's a really powerful ability." Karen seemed very surprised.

"This is going to sound hard and unfair but please save your ability for either Luminous, Black, Marine or Lemonade. Given the area and who our enemies are, these four are going to be our aces." White wasn't sure just how far her leadership qualities were going to get her.

"Ah, you're flattering me." Erika was waving to Honoka, causing half the group to burst out in laughter at the silly act.

With a smile, White got them back on track. "I will try my best to back everyone up with my ranged blasts. I am fairly sure that Bloom, Egret, Bright and Windy will be fighting together. We only need to take out one of them to disrupt their combination and prevent them from using their combination attack. This should be our highest priority. Anyone suggestions or questions?" Honoka made quite the impression. There was nobody in the room that would have dared claim she wasn't cut out to be a leader. Similarly, there were no questions either.

"Then that's all. We will meet in four hours at the gate to go over eventual final details and suggestions." Honoka grinned. "Dismissed!"

"You always wanted to say that, didn't you?" Nagisa grinned.

=== End of Event VII ===