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Dissonance

Event XII

Purger

A feeling of supreme power, happiness and control. The might to wield the fates of people in her hand, in her songs. None can escape her grasp, none can resist it. Her songs, her dance, wage their lives, make them be the fool in her palm, to perish like the insignificant creatures they are.

Begone be the fools that stand against her, begone be the weak that crawl the earth. She was elected to wield a power incomparable to those of others. A power to command more than just life and death. To rip out their souls, to vanquish their very being. The power of her hymns.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it! I don't think like that, I'm not like that! I don't want to use music to rule and hurt people!" Ellen sat on the ground, shaking her head, covering her ears.

"But you're chosen to do so. You are powerful and strong! You can overtake that snooty brat of a princess! You can take the kingdom by force! You can be queen!" Ellen, her golden eyes shining in the dark of the shadows, was looking down on herself, a lordly grin adorning her face.

"Shut up! I could never harm Ako or Queen Aphrodite! What do you know about me!" Looking up, Ellen's will almost broke. The look in her own eyes was that of malice, of rebellion, of evil. A look she had not seen before this clear in any human.

"Everything." Grabbing the face of her self in front of her, the scared Ellen could feel the breath of her monstrous self on her face. "I know your secrets, your deepest desires, parts of you that were hidden away, buried deep, deep below that farce of obedience. You want this power. You wanted power and recognition of your talents! You loathed those that trampled all over your efforts! With this power, you can take it all back!" Her words were thickly coated with poison, slowly infiltrating Ellen's mind.

"Why... why do you do this to me..." Ellen grit her teeth and tried to ignore the other her but it was fruitless.

"Let me show you what true power means." The evil Ellen stepped away from the original one, back on her platform, looking at the distance, the sphere with a score extending from her again, singing the same hymn as before. Purger. A song to make everyone that listens to it perish. A hymn of death and absolute end. Nothing was left, no life, no soul.

"This isn't... what music is for..." Ellen tried to get up but her body refused to listen. She was still sitting on the ground, unable to lift as much as a finger to stop her other self from singing that deathly hymn again.

"Power is there to be wielded. And you have been given power great enough to rule others. Do what has to be done! Accept what you're destined for!" The voice echoed through her mind while the hymn was being sung, the wails of the masses dying again and again reaching her ears easily.

"Power is there to protect others!" Ellen was still resisting temptation.

"And what has that ever done for you? A plain thanks, a flippant friendship! You live as one of them, without realizing your potential! You've tasted power once and deep down you cannot forget what it felt like. The power to change the world!"

"I regret what I did even now! Music exists to bring people together, to make them happy!"

"Then why do you know this hymn? Why can I sing it?"

Ellen couldn't say anything. She didn't know! The power she had shown to only Hibiki, the hymn she had tried to sing, had been different from this. Different from this grotesque hymn of death. But she couldn't sing it anymore. Her voice was refusing to swear her obedience. Her power belonged to her now.

And she would kill anyone that came to save her. It was the end of the line for her. There was no way Hibiki, Kanade or Ako would come for her now. She was just too strong.

"I despise you." Ellen looked up at her other self, the one that was singing Purger. "You're everything I hate about myself. I wanted to be friends with Hibiki and Kanade. I even finally found someone I like. And then you take it all from me. I despise you." Her voiced dropped lower, more than just a hint of hatred in it. Her eyes were glowing every bit as strongly as the ones of the singing self.

"You despise yourself, silly girl. I'm what you are destined to be. I rule who you were destined to rule. I earn the recognition you were fated for."

"You are just a nightmare I buried along with the past. And now you're back to haunt me. I'd rather die than become you. Ruling others, controlling others... abusing music to do things like that, you're no different than Noise. Deep down, I might have felt betrayed for the lack of recognition once... but you aren't who I'm supposed to be. You're just a nightmare that haunts me."

"And yet you do nothing. You sit idle by and watch me do what you wanted to do yourself."

Ellen stared at herself. One looking down at the other, arrogant and evil. The other looking up at the one, hateful and desperate. She couldn't escape.

=== Dissonance ===

"Has Passion come to?" It was already late at night and yet three Cures were still up. White sat at the table in the living room, having asked a question to Peach who just came walking in, slowly nodding her head. Aqua was there as well, looking tired out, not because of her lack of sleep but their trying to find a solution to what they should do next.

"I'll summarize things for you. The voice they heard, the hymn that drained their life energy, was in all likelihood Cure Beat, who is currently in exile. We saw what happened to Setsuna when she was there for just one day. Beat belongs to a group called Suite and they all have abilities based on music."

"The exile area is closed off from the others, so how did she reach the fighters?" White was thinking about it when Love continued her explanation.

"Dream, a Cure from the other team, one we voted out a few fights back, used some kind of ability called Utopia that seemed to cancel out the fighting area as a whole. She said, as soon as Pine got hit by the sphere growing from Dream, she went down in pain from her injuries."

"Karen, what do you think? Dream belongs to your team, right?" Honoka had her own theory already but wanted to hear the take of someone else at the matter.

"Utopia. That's Dream's special ability. It makes whoever is affected by it see whatever they want to see most. It shouldn't interfere with the fight like that. As things are, the only conclusion I can come to is that her ability somehow allowed Beat to reach the fighting area."

"I agree. What makes this worse is that the next exile runners will ultimately be directly exposed to her singing. There won't be a need for Dream to cause a problem with her ability. Others have been dangerous for a little while when they came out of exile, but they all recovered. This is far worse than that. She's a real danger, in fights, for the runners and who knows if we're safe even here." Honoka was assuming a worst case scenario already.

"We need to get her out of there as quickly as possible." Love joined the conversation, sitting down next to Aqua. She felt a little intimidated by White at the time.

"You realize that someone else will be stuck there then. And there won't be any volunteers for this. It's different from fighting each other. This is a one-way trip to hell Honoka." Karen was all but interested in getting stuck in exile.

Love would have gone but she knew that Setsuna would never let her. The whole exile affair was a terrible cycle.

"Lemonade was right when she said this decision will be hard. You, Nagisa and Hikari form a team. So do Mint and I. Kurumi belongs to our team too. Peach here has her whole team assembled. It's an annoying situation where both sides are stuck with relatively filled up teams." Aqua wasn't pleased with the situation at all.

"I have a theory. If it works, I'll be able to get Beat out of exile and avoid turning insane as well. At least for one day. For the future, we need to have at least one fight a day, avoiding that anyone stays in exile longer than that. We should increase the numbers of participants as far as we can too. Of course, all of that is depending on whether this works or not." Honoka had thought of that theory earlier when Passion had come out of exile and they wondered if there was nothing that could be done.

"What are you going to do?" Love was curious. If there was a way to get Beat out of exile without succumbing herself, she would do it. Beat, Ellen, had saved Setsuna, so she felt a strong desire to save her as well.

"Cheat the system with it's own methods. The favor system lets us wish for anything we want and need. In this situation, any of us need protection from Beat and the exile. I will spend the favor I have on that. I will wish to be spared from the exile and it's effects. That will hopefully include Beat's hymn. If it doesn't include her hymn, I'll have to rely on my speed and luck to knock her out before she does me in. It'll injure her but I see no other method." White explained with a serious expression. She wasn't sure it would work.

"What are you gonna do if it doesn't work?" Aqua thought the idea a long shot but possible. It just might work. The setup was not there to torture them but to create a specific mindset and enforce actions. At least that's what they assumed.

"If I had any favor, I'd go... but I know Setsuna would be really mad. Isn't there a way to get rid of the exile permanently?" Love was trying to find a permanent solution. The way things were now, each runner for exile had to spend their favor on protection. That was, if White's plan even worked.

"I doubt it'll be easy. If we find a way to get protection from exile, even if only temporary, that would be a huge step forward. There is also the matter of the exile. One team will end up with one extra Cure if there is no exile at all. I don't know what kind of effect breaking the system like that would bring about." White wanted the exile gone as much as everyone else, but she was afraid of the consequences of doing so. If they broke the system and the powers saw them as rebelling, things might get a lot worse for all of them.

"In any case, the exile run won't be before tomorrow. Are you sure you want to go Honoka? Won't Black be really mad if you leave her behind?" Karen couldn't imagine what Komachi would do if she went to exile like White was going to do. Or in fact, she could imagine it very well, she just really didn't want to.

"Nagisa and I have been through even worse situations than this. She won't be happy but I trust you and Miki, when she comes to, to lead this group. Of course we'll be enemies when I get to the other side, or maybe I'm lucky and get back here when someone replaces me. Sadly, there is no way to confirm if my plan works or not until I show up on either side. And if I come out on the other team, they'll know but you likely won't. It's up to everyone themselves to decide if they want to bet their favor on this." Honoka looked grim. It was true that she had been through worse things, but just in case her plan failed, she would suffer the same torture and nightmares the other Cures did. She wasn't looking forward to that. In fact, if she didn't have excellent self control, she'd be shaking.

"Not everyone has favor either. I wonder if it'll be possible to take that into account. I... think they made this a very effective motivation. I first thought the exile existed simply because of the rule that in case of no majority vote being possible, the one with the lowest combat participation has to leave. I thought that rule would enforce people volunteering to fight. But this is much harsher. If you don't have favor, given your plan works, you can't protect yourself from the horrors of the exile." Karen went a little pale as she realized that they were doing exactly what they were expected to do.

"You don't think they planned all of this out, do you?" Love looked at the blue Cure next to her, not looking too healthy either.

All three of them were thankful when the tense air was instantly discharged when a droopy and sleepy looking Cure Black scuffled into the room. "Honoka.. it's late. Come to bed please? Damn it's cold..." Nagisa shivered and crossed her arms.

"It's a good call. We all have partners waiting for us I guess." Karen looked down, eyes closed, and smiled. Their anxiety had vanished for the most part. There was nothing, except trying it out, they could do about the current situation.

The other two nodded their heads in approval and the three of them stood up, almost synchronized. Honoka was quickly taken into escort by Nagisa, the two of them walking towards Nagisa's room. They more or less changed in whose room they slept every other day since the beds weren't that comfortable to begin with. It led to rather amusing events in the morning or at night at times.

Saying good night at the door to Passion's room, Aqua left Peach behind and went to her own room. Mint was already sound asleep and Karen didn't want to wake her by making a huge blue flash when she returned to her civil form. Taking off the butterfly in her hair that kept her ponytail, she let her long hair down. Sliding off the gloves and dropping them on the ground, she leaned against the wall and took off first one, then the other boot. It was too much of a hassle to take off the chest piece, but she could take off the skirt at least. Karen carefully slid into bed, as not to wake the green Cure. She didn't look under the blanket but she didn't need to. Komachi was, as probably almost all the others were too, sleeping naked.

Not even ten seconds passed before two arms wrapped themselves around Karen's waist. "You're so cute when you're acting considerate." Komachi giggled and moved closer to the blue haired woman. Not as close that her chest was touching Karen's back but close enough to feel her warmth. Karen pouted for a bit but then adjusted her sleeping position to make it more comfortable for Komachi. She wasn't going to bother her with all the details of their conversation before morning.

=== Dissonance ===

"What happened to them?" Egret, Windy as well as Muse, were in the living room. The question just asked had been directed at Lemonade from Muse. Still in her adult form, she was getting used to it. While she was living her normal life, she rarely if ever needed to be black Muse, but she actually enjoyed how seriously people took her around here.

"I can't tell for sure, but there's essentially two possibilities. One, they had their life energy somehow drained from them. Second, they're under some kind of ability effect or curse. Considering the abilities I've seen, it should be the first. But alas, I can't be sure. They're all sound asleep and weak. They won't be walking anytime before tomorrow noon, give or take an hour or two for Moonlight." Urara wore an unusually serious expression. Her eyes were narrowed down and her brows were twitching at a few specific points.

"It's bad that not even one of them is conscious. We've all been in fights, and usually, wounds are healed. That they're still this weak means something happened, and considering the situation, nothing good. I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened right after Dream joins a fight for the first time. Both Rouge and Moonlight fought before." Mai was the first to say what everyone was thinking.

Ako was thinking the exact same thing but didn't openly accuse Dream. They had no concrete proof, and the general mood was not exactly welcoming her either. She knew all too well what it was like to be all on her own. She didn't want to further alienate someone who was already alone.

"Dream and I aren't exactly best friends but if you're accusing her, you'll need to prove it. I'm not going to just let you say this without any bais. And in case you're aiming to tell me it's her special ability that causes this, sorry to disappoint you. Her ability is called Utopia. It makes people see and feel their ideal world, the place they wish to see most. If anything, it would have the opposite effect of whatever happened to them." Urara was defending Dream, almost to her own surprise. They were still friends, but what Egret was saying did have some truth to it.

"This situation speaks for itself. I won't say she's guilty, but you can't say this is a coincidence. Kaoru, what do you think?"

"It's highly likely that Dream had to do something with this. However, with an ability like that, she won't be the cause of the damage. There is a higher chance that there was a chain reaction to her usage of her ability. The battles heighten our emotional state of wanting to fight. Obviously, it'd cause a problem if she tried to use it while they're in a state of wanting to fight. I still don't think it's what caused their current condition though." Everyone watched the blue haired Cure with a surprising expression. Due to their antics when together, most people didn't expect Kaoru to be exceptionally smart.

"We'll know whose fault it is when they wake up tomorrow. In the meantime, what do we do about the exile? I know you four make a team." Muse looked at Mai as she spoke. "Melody, Rhythm and I make a team as well. We're missing Beat, but we still make three out of four. Moonlight and Sunshine make part of a team as well. The others cannot leave."

"I don't think votes will get us anywhere at this point." Lemonade knew that the situation on the other side must be exactly the same. "They will pick someone from an existing team and take it apart on the other side. Then, after the next fight, the team will slowly migrate to this side. At least that's what I think is going to happen."

"Rhythm won't be able to leave for another two fights, but eventually, we'll have to migrate to the other team. I'm worried about Beat so I will go. Melody and Rhythm can follow when they want, Before I go, I want to discuss what we can do to stop the threat coming from the exile. Anyone got an idea?" Muse was sincerely worried about Ellen but there was something else that bothered her. Something Hibiki let slip out earlier that day. She was asking her about Hymns and if there were any legends about them in Major Land. While it only looked like curiosity to Ako, if a little weird because of the timing, what stirred her suspicions was that she refused to tell her how she got that idea to begin with.

"Given the way this is setup, only one person at a time can go through the gate. If two of us tried, one would likely be thrown back. Once inside the actual exile, only two of the three can leave. Those are the rules. I don't know what we can do to change them." Mai wasn't looking forward to entering the exile herself, but she couldn't come up with anything on the spot.

"We won't be able to bend the rules. This isn't playing trump or rock-paper-scissors. To defeat the exile, we have to do it inside the system. There might not even be a way, since the exile seems to be designed to keep us fighting. Then whoever fights the least will be chosen as exile runner if there is no majority vote." Kaoru took back the lead on the conversation. "If there is any way to get around the torment, it'll be by either special ability or the favor system. I don't know if any of you have an ability that protects from things that influence your mind, but even if you do, it'll be a hard time keeping it up. The only other possibility would be to use the favor system to protect yourself."

"Use favor to dodge the effects of the exile. I see, that could work. Muse, are you going to try that?" Urara, tired of standing around aimlessly, had walked up to the table and sat down at the lower end, facing the others, resting her right arm on the table.

"I have exactly a hundred favor. I don't know if that will suffice. I don't have anything in particular that I want. I'll be right back." Muse stood up and left for her room, walking straight past Lemonade, who turned her head to get a good view of Muse's butt.

Muse was barely out of hearing range when Lemonade turned to Egret and Windy. "I didn't want to bring this up while she was here. I met the last exile when I came here. That place is not just tormenting you. It warps you, drives you mad, makes you do things you could never imagine. I doubt it'll be as easy as just wishing for protecting from this."

"You're too pessimistic. I hope it works. I, for one, am not looking forward to running exile myself. Nor is anyone else here, I'm sure. I was surprised when she volunteered." Mai had a stern look in her eyes, fixating her gaze on Urara.

"That might be so, but life isn't that easy. We'll find out soon enough." Lemonade heard the sound of heels hitting the stone ground and shut up. She had enough tact as to not make it even worse for Muse than it already was. She didn't know her but that didn't matter.

Carrying a bowl in her hands, Muse sat back down at the table. "There's a very easy way to test if it works or not." Ako closed her eyes and focused on the small bowl in front of her, or more specifically on the contents of said bowl. The small golden coins which had no imprint whatsoever, the favor awarded to them as token for battle participation.

There was one strong, dominant thought in her mind. Protect me from the effects of exile. A sharp pain cut through her thought, making her pull away from the table and knock her chair over, open her eyes wide and stare at the bowl. "It felt like I was cut by a sharp knife. It was just for a moment, but..." Muse looked at her hands, which were shaking. That pain would be enough to drive her insane if it kept going.

"There are two possibilities as to what the reason is. One, you simply cannot wish for protection. Second, you don't have enough. Try wishing for something else you're sure you can't get with hundred favor. That will make clear which of the two it is. Make sure that it is something that actually exists." Kaoru looked at Muse, her curiosity piqued.

"Like a thousand bars of solid gold," Lemonade threw in.

Muse picked up her chair and sat down again, this time wishing for what Lemonade had just suggested. A mountain of gold. And it happened again. The same sharp pain cut through her mind, almost as if it was trying to sever her conscience from her body. Less startled this time, Muse simply started breathing erratically. "It's the second. I don't have enough favor. That means it is possible to be protected from the exile by this."

"But this also means, you won't have protection from exile when you leave tomorrow." Lemonade was struggling inside. She wondered if it was possible to give others favor of her own. Should she make the offer?

"What about borrowing favor from others?" Egret was the first to bring the topic up. "We donated our favor to the team after the first fight, so we should be able to give it to you as well."

"It won't work. Michiru and I tried this before. The pot will just reject any coin that you haven't earned yourself. The team pot is different since it would be empty if we kept losing. I think they foresaw this happening and that's why the pot refuses any but your own coin. Even if you take yours out, hand them to someone else and they try to put it into their own pot, it's still rejected." So much for their plan to pool favor for protection.

"They want us to fight more. The more we fight, the more favor we get. If we get enough favor, we can protect ourselves from the exile when we're up. There are six fights before we can be voted out, so that makes it possible to fight three times. I have no idea how much favor we'll need to protect ourselves from the exile, but doesn't it seem likely that it would be around three hundred? I'm just guessing on this though." Urara looked over at the older Kiryuu sister, trying to asses just how smart she really was. That girl knew more than she let on. "Nobody will have that much favor at this point. But it makes sense that it's setup this way. Unless we fight, we won't be getting out of here anytime soon. And on top of that, who knows what will happen to Earth. They probably want us motivated to fight. Well, I sure am now." Finishing her talk, the yellow Cure stood up and walked over to Muse, patting her on the shoulder. "Good luck."

Turning around and leaving, the three Cures left behind just silently looked at each other. Mai and Kaoru wanted to help Muse but they couldn't. Mai had no reason to doubt Kaoru's words and Ako had no reason to think of either as egoistical. It was entirely likely that the powers from above set things up like that.

"I'll go to sleep. Thanks for offering to help me." Ako walked away in a hurry, not wanting either of them to see her worried and distraught. Having heard what the exile was like, she was quite worried now. Making the decision had been surprisingly easy, but now that she could feel the countdown ticking, she was getting very, very nervous.

=== Dissonance ===

It was the middle of the night when Saki was just about to return to Mai's side from the bathroom and continue a good night's rest when she saw someone sitting in the living room. Still sleep drunk and not seeing clearly, Saki got a little closer.

Sunshine was reading a book, a thick novel. Saki couldn't quite make out what she was reading but the cover was bright red and had a pretty long title written on it. "Can't sleep?" She was actually more curious why she would read out here. It wasn't exactly warm outside the rooms, especially when what they called night came around.

"Just unable to stand my own room." Itsuki didn't even look up. She recognized the voice as Cure Bloom, Egret's partner. She was reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a book about ancient Chinese wars and battles. She wasn't the type to find war pretty, but she was fascinated by tales of it.

"Unable to... what?" Saki couldn't quite make sense of what Sunshine said. Was there someone in her room? She couldn't think of anyone at that point.

"My bed still smells like her and as you can imagine, that's not exactly what I want to be reminded of." Itsuki had a little pity on Saki, knowing that it would be hard to conclude that much from one cryptic answer to whether she was able to sleep or not. "So, no. I can't sleep."

Saki, the sleepiness slowly wearing off little by little, didn't need any more clarification than that. One way or another, word had gotten out that Melody and Sunshine had been an item for just a little while. And then, Rhythm intruded into that relationship.

"I would offer you my bed, but that probably smells like Mai and me." Not quite sure what else to say, Saki tried another approach. "Want to talk about it? It helps if you can just tell someone what you feel like."

Sunshine stopped for a few seconds, putting a finger on the line she was on, thinking about it. Bloom wasn't having any deeper motives, she was too honest and simple a person. It was easy to tell that much from the way she acted around others and her partner.

"It sucks. It really does. I liked her.. or well, like her, quite a bit and it feels really unfair that Rhythm just shows up and suddenly comes out that she's been in love with her all this time. I went and acted all mature but I really wanted to just smack her and take Hibiki for myself."

"I think you did the right thing. If you really like her, then you want her to be happy. Isn't that right?" Saki sat down next to Sunshine, who was staring absentmindedly at her book, not reading or even caring she had forgotten which line she was on.

"Sure I want her to be happy, but that's not going to make it any less painful to give her up and watch someone else have fun with her. Hibiki's a great girl, I doubt I'll get as lucky as that a second time."

"Who knows. I was lucky with Mai, but we had our own fights and moments where I thought it wouldn't work out."

"That's not the same Bloom. There wasn't someone else from her past who tried to take her away after you started sleeping with each other." Itsuki was fairly bitter about the whole thing, more so than she had realized herself until now. It wasn't her style to be that hung-up on things, but she found it hard to let bygones by bygones.

"You really liked her." There was a bit of astonishment in Saki's voice, the type one finds when there's a heavy revelation being made and people sigh, having trouble taking it all in.

"I suppose she is my first love. I'll get over it eventually, but as long as I'm on this side, right next to her, that's not gonna happen. I never thought I'd be this hung up on this. I thought I was more mature than that." Itsuki shook her head, disappointed with herself.

"What are you talking about? You're taking this better than I would. You respect her decision, you're not doing anything spiteful to pay her back for leaving you, and you don't soak in self-pity. Of course it hurts to lose someone you like. I can only imagine what kind of stupid shit I'd do if Mai left me." Saki got a little too excited, raising her voice too far, getting a silencing look from Sunshine. "Sorry. I just think you're being too hard on yourself. If you don't want to be around her, you should volunteer to switch to the other team."

"Maybe that's what I'll do. I wonder if they decided the exile runner for tomorrow yet." Itsuki hadn't participated in any meetings and she didn't even know how the last fight ended. All she knew was that it had been over really quickly.

"I need to go back to bed. Try to get some sleep Sunshine." Saki stood up and gave Itsuki a long, understand look. She had experienced herself what it was like to be suddenly separated from Mai. A couple of their fights had been so bad that they didn't talk to each other for days.

"Night." Itsuki sighed heavily and finally closed her book. She did feel better after whining about her broken relationship for a bit. It didn't change anything or help her get over it, but she felt better. Now that she thought of it, while she was close friends with the rest of her team, none of them were really the type to whom you could go to do what Bloom had just done for her.

=== Dissonance ===

The night came and went for the light team, few of them sleeping soundly, others anxious of what the morning would bring, and two sleeping so deep that there were not even dreams for them to see. Love was the first to wake up, still a bit sore from the day before.

Laying quietly in her bed, she looked over her shoulder at her partner, the dark purple haired Setsuna. Eyes closed, the mouth slightly open, both her arms were wrapped around Love's waist, holding on tightly to her. The blond girl could feel Setsuna's breath on her back, getting her to smile. They almost always slept in the same bed, yet there was something oddly satisfying about seeing her right next to her in this place.

The two of them slept naked, not even embarrassed in the slightest. They traveled, ate and worked, slept and showered together. They had almost no secrets from each other. Love decided to tease Setsuna just a little. Turning over slowly, lifting her partners arms from her waist, Love laid down flat on her stomach and watched the face of the sleeping girl next to her with a bright smile.

After just a few minutes, Love held back her hair with one hand, put some support between herself and the bed with her other hand and leaned down, gently kissing her lover awake. "Time to wake up." At first, Setsuna refused, making a few groaning and moaning noises, turning over, now her back facing Love.

But that didn't discourage her. Taking a deep breath, Love moved the over shoulder length hair out of the way and slowly exhaled hot air on Setsuna's bare neck. That was enough to make the girl wake up. "You tease... let me sleep a bit more." Setsuna complained with a muffled voice, still feeling weak.

"Still feeling weak?" Love moved closer to Setsuna, the positions now reversed, slowly moving her arms around the girls waist, keeping her so close that Setsuna could hear even her whisper.

Not even saying anything but making a confirming moan, Setsuna grabbed Love's right hand. It was one of her signs. Love was so close to Setsuna that the latter could feel her lovers breasts pressing against her back. Instead of backing away, Love tightened her grip on Setsuna, her hot breath constantly tickling the purple haired girls neck.

Setsuna knew well that she wouldn't get any sleep like this. And truth be told, she was every bit as horny as Love was. Ignoring her sleepiness, ignoring her aching muscles, Setsuna rose up so quickly that Love was thrown on her back. By the time the blanket was covering them again, Setsuna was kneeling over the blond girl, a fiercely red blush on her face.

Neither of them was the type to clearly dominate in bed, so they switched every now and then. Today, it was Setsuna's turn to play the leading role. Two long strands of long purple hair was falling over her shoulders, tickling Love's neck and throat.

Leaning in even further, Setsuna was practically laying half on Love, her right hand on her partners neck, her left fondling her left breast. Love responded in turn, poking Setsuna's lips with her tongue, starting an intimate deep kiss. She was the type to keep her eyes open while Setsuna always closed hers. Their sex was simple if playful.

Setsuna loved the taste of Love's lips. It was cliche to call them such, but they really did taste like peaches. Sweet peaches at that. Love greedily seized Setsuna's mouth, her tongue dancing wildly with her partners.

Her left hand caressing Love's breasts, Setsuna could feel how horny they both were. Love would not let up with her kiss until she had no choice but to gasp for air, so Setsuna forced her to. Putting Love's left nipple between her thumb and index finger, she pinched it just a bit, making the blond girl moan out in pleasure.

Taking the chance to get away, Setsuna moved slowly down on the girl, her tongue drawing a line of hot saliva down her chest. Stopping when she had reached Love's breasts, she continued to fondle the left with her hand, the other she caressed with her tongue.

Love's moans were always surprisingly quiet, considering what she was normally like. Faint gasps for air, an occasional outburst of her voice, that was all Setsuna would hear when she took the lead. "Setsuna... you're cruel.. don't only do my boobs."

With a grin on her face, Setsuna stopped and sat up, kneeling on the bed, licking her lips. She always pretended to be a little mean when in bed, it gave Love a bit of a kick she had found out. But she was every bit as horny as the girl in front of her. Laying down again, Setsuna was happy that they were about the same height. Pushing her breasts against Love's, sliding her left hand between her thighs, kissing her love passionately.

Wrapping both her arms around Setsuna's neck, Love delighted in the sensation of their bodies touching, in the kiss, in the thrill of Setsuna's finger between her legs.

The two of them almost fell out of bed when someone knocked on the door quite violently. Their first thought was that someone had heard them. But how? The next room was empty, since it was Love's, and the previous one was Miki, who surely wouldn't interrupt them. Not to mention, Love was really, really quiet during sex.

Trying to get the blush out of her face, Setsuna quickly switched to Cure form while Love stayed behind in bed, disappointed that they had to suspend their make out session. Opening the door, Setsuna starred right at a clearly aggravated White. "We have a problem. A big one. Get out here." Not giving any explanation beside that, White stormed off, knocking on the next door. Setsuna looked out the door and found that not only White but also Aqua and Mint were rallying up people. What the hell was going on?

"Love, get up. Something is wrong." Now that the door was open and she was fully awake and alarmed, she could feel it. There was something in the air that was disturbing. Something dangerous.

And then she realized what it was. "That song... we're in trouble. Big trouble." Without a seconds worth of hesitation, Passion changed to Eas, only waiting for Love to shift to Cure form and follow her out the room. They were among the last to assemble in the living room, everyone else visibly anxious and on guard. Berry and Pine were there too, but they didn't seem to recognize the song that was echoing through the halls.

"I know what this is." Passion didn't like speaking up in front of everyone, but personal feelings had to stand back for now. "This song drains your life energy. It's really faint right now, but if we're exposed to it long enough, it will kill us. During the last fight, the song started playing after I knocked out Dream. It was a lot clearer than it is now but I finally recognize what this is. This is Ellen's, Cure Beat's, singing. She's the exile right now. I guess it can stop you from escaping, but it can't stop sound from traveling all the way out here."

"Are you saying that the current exile has an ability to sing a killing hymn?" Honoka had noticed the song right away when she woke up. She had excellent hearing, so even with the door closed, she noticed it. As soon as she stepped out in the floor, she could feel how it affected her. They were seemingly safe inside their own rooms, but outside that, they were subject to it's effects.

"I don't know. I never fought with or against her, and she didn't tell me anything about being able to use an ability like that." Setsuna looked down, remembering quite vividly how she started attacking everyone as Eas. "It might be the same as me. She has the potential to do this but she would never do it normally. It must be the effects of the exile."

"It doesn't matter if she is doing it on purpose or not. We can't ignore something like that. The other team must have noticed as well since I can feel the next exile run is going to be in just a few minutes. It was supposed to be hours from now. But who knows just how much worse this is going to get."

"What? You didn't tell me anything about leaving Honoka!" Nagisa was obviously upset about that sudden turn of events. "How can you make a decision like that without even telling me?"

"I was going to tell you this morning. I decided this just last night after hearing from Peach what Passion saw and went through in the fight. But this isn't the time to argue this Nagisa. I'll stop Beat from singing and get her through the portal I come in. That way, I can still leave. I feel bad for whoever gets trapped, but there is no other choice." She wasn't in the mood to argue with Nagisa. In front of ten other people, she grabbed Nagisa's hand, walked up to her and kissed her on the lips. "I'll see you soon." She knew that Nagisa would follow her anywhere.

"I'm going to leave now. I advise everyone to stay inside their rooms so you're not exposed to the song. I can already feel it's effect, I'm getting a bad headache." That was not much of a danger at the time, but who knew what would follow if they left it alone.

Everyone else nodded, except Nagisa, who followed Honoka all the way to the gate. "Don't get stuck. If you do, count on me getting you out of there tomorrow." Despite everything, Nagisa was actually understanding of the fact that Honoka took responsibility as the oldest and most experienced Cure on the team. "I love you Honoka."

"Nothing is gonna happen to me silly. I love you too." Giving her partner a final kiss, Honoka stepped through the gate. A deadly race for time had begun.

=== Dissonance ===

Things on the other side were a lot worse than White assumed. Everyone was woken by loud shouting in the hallways. The owner of the louder voice was Rouge, the person arguing with her, Moonlight. "Let me through. I'm going to teach her a lesson so she won't do nonsense like this ever again." There was a fierce anger burning in Yuri's eyes, ready to beat into Dream that running away from reality was no longer a choice. It was all her fault. That the fight had come to a sudden standstill, that the horrifying song almost killed them.

"I'll do that. You don't know her, you'll only make it worse. I'm just as angry as you are, and believe me, I'll make sure she gets a grip after this, but I won't let you hit her. I'm still her friend." Rin blocked the entrance to Nozomi's room, of whom was no sight to be seen.

Yuri's eyes were threatening, drilling right through the redhead. Rouge was gritting her teeth and standing her ground, but she could feel that Moonlight was just about to beat her up along with Dream. She had never seen that woman so pissed off, not even after she beat her up in that first fight

"I'm gonna say this one last time. Let, me, through." Moonlight was taller than Rouge and looked down on her, making her stare all the more terrifying. Rouge was lucky that several other Cures showed up and questioning the situation.

"Dream used her ability and disrupted the fight. We all suffered heavily from our injuries. But that's not all. Because of her meddling, some kind of song came through from god knows where and almost killed us. I'm going to make sure this never happens again." The scary part about Moonlight's anger was that she wasn't shouting or making baseless threats. Everyone could feel the anger leak out of her voice, that she really was going to beat Dream until she understood what it meant to be here.

"Calm down Yuri, this isn't like you." Itsuki was the first to step up to the angry Cure. But even she didn't dare to touch the angry Moonlight. She had never seen Yuri that angry. Blossom had once told her of what happened with Moonlight when they were trying to stop Dune. Moonlight was a composed, mature woman but when she got angry, she really lost control.

"Be quiet Itsuki. You weren't there. You didn't see how that bitch screwed us over. I almost died because she's being a child and refuses to accept that there is no backdoor out of this. I'm not going to let this go." Moonlight continued to stare at Rouge.

"You beating her will accomplish nothing Moonlight." "All it will do is trigger rebellion against you." The Kiryuu sisters, Windy and Bright, walked up to Moonlight, both of them intensively staring at her. They were emitting as much threat together as Yuri did alone. But it was enough to force the silver Cure to take her eyes off Rouge.

"Don't confuse educational punishment with self-righteous punishment." "She doesn't know you, nor do you know her. You will only make things worse." They saw right away that cold, dry logic was the only thing that could go through to her at this point.

"Am I supposed to just forgive her and keep quiet about this?" Yuri couldn't stand the thought of Dream messing up others as bad as she did that time.

"Rouge will punish her. Lemonade could too." "Don't assume she will go easy on her. Take a look at her." Bright and Windy pointed at Rouge, who was looking openly hostile at Moonlight.

A few seconds of silence passed and finally, Yuri took a deep breath. Her final glare was sending shivers down Rouge's back. "If she messes up again, don't expect me to back down." With that Moonlight left, still furious.

"I seriously thought she was gonna go through with her threat. Thank you, you two." Rin turned to the two Kiryuu's, who didn't seem as pleased as she expected them to be.

"Do your part of the deal." "Punish her good." They knew that if someone like Moonlight was angry to that extent, there had to be good and valid reason for that to happen. Dream had to have fucked up badly and when someone messed up, they had to be punished or make reparations. That was something the two would always enforce.

Rin did a quick look in the round before she turned about, opened the door and closed it behind her. The Cures outside had the courtesy to walk away, not eager to hear what Rouge had to say or would do.

Nozomi wasn't stupid. She knew that the two of them would be furious and she heard most of their conversation. Standing in the middle of the room, she was awaiting her metaphorical execution by Rin.

Just seeing Nozomi's face made Rouge angry again. Made her relive the pain of the wounds Pine had caused. Her body was even now still feeling numb for some reason. She didn't even know where to begin.

"Do you... have any idea how hard it was to stop Moonlight from coming in here and literally putting you through the hoops? Why, Nozomi? After everything I said, others said, you saw. And I know that wasn't just your normal Utopia. I'm not that stupid." Rin's hands were shaking from anger and she couldn't face her oldest friend as she was talking. This time, her idealism had gotten way too far.

"I did what I thought was right." Nozomi had barely finished her line when her right cheek flared up with pain, an impact sending her down on the floor. Rin had slapped her so hard that the sound of hand and cheek colliding was like a gunshot.

"Then maybe you need to fucking think more! I know you think everything in life can be solved with banding together and believing, but that's not how it works!" Rin was shouting at the top of her lungs, staring down on Nozomi, her eyes lit with wrath. "Especially here! Everyone is doing their best to cope! It's only you who absolutely can't accept things as they are! I like you, I'm your oldest friend, but no way in hell I can support you with a ridiculous stance like that! Either you accept that this is real, that this is something you will have to be a part of, or our friendship is done!" The redhead was panting heavily, trying to restrain herself from hitting Nozomi again.

The pink haired woman had never seen Rin that angry with her. Or it wasn't just anger. Part of Rin was obviously disappointed in her. Sitting on the ground and covering her blazing red cheek, Nozomi started to cry. Both out of pain and how ashamed she was that this had gotten Rin angry to the point where she forced an ultimatum on her or they were no longer friends.

"Cry all you want Nozomi. But if you screw up again, I'm not going to be there to protect you. This was the last straw. Holing yourself up in your room, alienating yourself from everyone, messing up a fight and god knows what else you've caused. Next time, you're on your own. Get a grip and handle this like an adult or face the consequences. I don't want to lose you, but if the threat of that is what it takes, then so be it." Rin knelt down, next to Nozomi and just for a moment, the anger was gone and she was back to the old Rin that cared so much for her. "Don't be stubborn. Please."

Without another word, Rin stood up, left without looking back and slammed the door shut. A few seconds passed before the whole room shook a little. She could hear Rouge scream out in the hallway. "Goddammit!"

Rouge had hit the wall hard enough to make her hand bleed and make a small hole. The pain was overriding her anger at Nozomi but things only got worse from there on. There was some kind of singsong in the air, something she felt she should recognize but she didn't.

Rouge saw Moonlight run out of the living room and right up to her. "We've got trouble. Call everyone except her." Yuri didn't lose a moment and ran back to the living room. It took the two less than a minute to round up the other nine. Nozomi was confined to her room, they didn't have any use for her.

"What's this noise in the air? Where is it coming from?" Itsuki didn't like the sound at all. To both Rouge's and Moonlight's surprise, it was Muse who actually stepped out and explained.

"It's a killing hymn called Purger. I recognize the language used. I didn't know anyone outside the royal family of Major Land could use these. It takes a considerable amount of skill to execute these properly."

"Cure Beat is the exile." Lemonade announced but kept her eyes on Muse to see her reaction. "Are you saying this hymn is designed to kill people? What kind of land has hymns like that?"

"It used to purge evil from people's hearts. Nobody knows when it became a hymn to purge people from the world. This has nothing to do with Major Land!" Ako would not let her talk like that about her kingdom.

"It doesn't matter. Stop arguing you two. I felt this song in the last battle. It's just as Muse said, a song to kill people. I could barely move after about a minute. We have to stop her right away or we'll all be like that soon enough. The effect seems diminished this far away, but who knows what is going to happen next." Looking to Egret, Moonlight asked. "Have we decided who the exile is?"

Muse was about to say something when Itsuki raised her hand. "I'll go. I have my reasons. I want to see Tsubomi and Erika again too. I'm quick and can beat most in a close combat fight. I can also knock someone out with a single hit if necessary. I should go." Itsuki really just wanted to get away from Hibiki until she was no longer hung up on being dumped.

Ako didn't know what to say. She had wanted to go, but knowing how dangerous the hymns were, she just couldn't bring herself to step up and tell Sunshine that she had volunteered as exile runner the night before. And that short moment of hesitation made her lose the feeling for the countdown to the run.

"This will sound harsh, but do whatever you can to stop Beat. If you need to knock her out, do it. Even if injuries from the exile carry over, we don't have another choice." Yuri wasn't happy that she had to order violence against other Cures, but after the fiasco with Dream, she wasn't in the mood for any more gambles.

"Ako... can I talk to you for a minute?" Melody had walked up to her teammate, followed by Rhythm. Hibiki was not exactly a snitch but she felt that it would probably be best if she spilled the beans. "Ellen sung one of these hymns for me. It was completely different from this, though. She didn't seem to be able to control it."

"These hymns are passed down through the Major Land royal family. They are also books in the locked part of the library about them. I can't imagine Ellen getting them from either source." Ako was clearly confused and worried why Ellen was able to tap into the power for these songs. Could it have something to do with her powers as Cure? They were all based on musical elements after all.

"I hope Ellen is okay.. are these hymns dangerous for it's user Ako?" Kanade was quite worried about the, now, black haired girl. She was their previous friend and teammate after all.

"I don't know for sure. Mama told me that they consume a great deal of energy and that she never properly learned to string them together. There was one thing she warned me about though. If you sing them for too long, it starts eating your life energy. If you still continue, you die." Muse was making a solemn face. "I just hope Ellen is strong enough..."

"She's probably not doing this on her own." Urara had walked up to Muse and the other two Suite members. "The exile is a terrifying place. I've seen what it can do to a girl I knew pretty well for a while. It wouldn't surprise me if it can force you to sing until you die if that's what she is afraid of."

"Don't say things like that!" Hibiki was upset that Lemonade would talk about the death of her friend so casually. "How would you feel if it was one of your friends that was in danger of dying?!"

"The same way I do now. Worried. Anxious. Depressed. But there's no use in getting all flustered about it. Sunshine is a strong fighter. If she knocks her out, that will solve the problem. Isn't that so, Muse?" Urara looked at the black Cure, who gave an confirming nod. "But I seriously don't want to be in Sunshine's shoes right now. We can hear the song out here. Imagine what it's like to be right there near the source."

Nothing they imagined came even close.

=== Dissonance ===

Honoka had barely stepped foot through the gateway when the music, the hymn hit her with full force. She hadn't thought it would be that bad. There was no way she could get close or even anywhere like that. Sometimes, a single mistake could be fatal. Was this one like that?

She couldn't go down there, not after everything she went through in her life. It would damage her, but she didn't really have any kind of choice, the hymn was much too powerful. Covering her entire body with the energy she usually used to execute Whitelight Illumination, she isolated herself from the magic effect of the hymn. It was slowly burning her skin and it was quite painful, but she was able to move. Beat would find her soon, since she was literally a white flashlight running around. One clean hit. If she could get just one clean hit in, then it was over for Beat.

Each platform was filled with corpses of constructs, faceless humanoid objects that served no purpose other than to torment the exile. They were piled up to the hundreds. Just how long had she been singing? The song was ringing in her ears and although the magic effect didn't reach her for now, it was quite a horrible song to listen to.

It didn't take long to find the origin of the hymn. As expected, it was the central tower in the battlefield. And the closer she got, the more she started to feel the hymn's effects again, despite destructive white energy covering her entire body. There was no way she could get any closer than the closest platform. But thankfully, she wasn't alone. The other team had pushed up the time for the run, so they too, must have heard the song.

Of all people, it was Sunshine. Honoka could see a golden ball of energy approach her rapidly. It must be extremely easy to spot her, now that she was glowing strongly with white energy, like a signal flare.

"This is a lot worse than I thought." Itsuki had covered herself to every direction with a double layered aegis but that only kept out the worst of the hymn. Her life was still being slowly sapped away. And there was not a snowballs chance in hell she could get to the top and the center of that tower in front of them.

"I can't get closer. What about you?" There were burns all over White's arms and legs but she didn't say anything or let Sunshine notice in how much pain she was.

"Impossible. Just staying here for a few more minutes is going to be... yeah." They had survived the onslaught of the deadly hymn only to be locked out short of their goal. "Can you hit her from a distance?"

"I could blow up the entire surface of the tower if necessary. I have to see where I'm aiming though." Honoka didn't know what to say when Itsuki knelt down and put her hands together, acting like she was going to help Honoka spy over a wall. "Good thinking."

Without a second of hesitation, she put her right foot on Itsuki's hand and waited for her to catapult her upwards. "We'll only have one try. Just blast the whole thing. With the hymn gone, I can catch you both with shields." Itsuki at least hoped she was able to do it.

Propelling Honoka high into the air, the White Cure had now a good view of the top of the tower. And what a view it was. She would not forget that sight for the rest of her life. Among a crowd of constantly dying and resurrecting constructs was Beat, dancing wildly inside a sphere of music, surrounded by multiple layers of a score, notes bending to her will. Her motions were almost unearthly beautiful but also grotesque in a way. Her hands strumming the scores, never leaving the central point of the sphere, her legs made her dance, jump, whirl around like a puppet.

But all of that paled in comparison to her face. Where tears would fall, there was blood. It was running from her eyes, her mouth. For just one second, she met her gaze, could see into her eyes from the distance. And they spelled absolute horror and helplessness. If she and Sunshine were suffering under the hymn, then so was Beat. There was no outcry for help, no plead to save her. She was completely lost in the illusion of the exile.

White was sorry and for the first time since many years, she thought a quick prayer, that she would not end up killing Beat. But she could feel the hymn already getting to her. She had a few seconds, at best. Nothing could survive the immediate area around Beat right now.

No specially developed attack, no complicated aiming. White simply unleashed all the energy she had build up, coated herself with, onto the top of the tower. The resulting explosion was so bright that the darkness in the sky was temporarily overtaken, the whole area dipped into the flash of her energy.

And the music stopped abruptly, the constructs vanishing. The tower yet stood, and White managed just to land herself on top of it, slowly crouching over to the edge, signalizing to Sunshine that she was okay, only to see that the yellow Cure was out cold on the ground. She wasn't surprised, considering everything. She could barely walk herself.

"Now what do I do?" Honoka wasn't sure what she was supposed to do, but she had to get Beat out of this place. No matter what, she couldn't leave the girl behind. Not only because she was a danger to herself and everyone else but also because she couldn't forget the horror in her eyes. She had felt fear many times before and some of these times, it had been really bad. But never had she seen someone so desperate to be saved.

Slowly getting up and walking even slower over to where Beat was on the ground, unconscious, her body littered with burns. Her skin was pale, as if she spent years coped up in a dark room. No more blood was running from her eyes and mouth, but the red stains were still there. She was breathing weakly but regularly. White didn't see any reason to fear for her life.

"Sorry Sunshine. But I'm not eager to stay in here. Don't hold a grudge." Honoka was talking to herself, knowing that neither of the other two could hear her. Sitting down next to the unconscious Beat, she tried to recover a bit. She wouldn't be able to carry Beat anywhere in her condition.

"I wonder if the others are worried. I hope Nagisa doesn't do anything foolish." Looking down on Beat, she couldn't imagine what kind of nightmare she had been shown. From the little she knew of the team that identified as Suite, she did know that they all loved music. How must someone feel that watched herself kill people over and over with the thing they loved.

Thankfully she had found out the night before that it was possible to protect herself from the exile if only she lacked the funds to do it then. Nagisa should have told everyone about it by now. Hopefully that would reduce the danger and terror the exile struck into their hearts.

But it really was a vicious setup. Effective but completely devoid of emotion. "I guess I should have expected as much. This isn't setup by humans after all." Honoka sighed and tried to get up, still feeling a bit wonky on her feet but well enough to try and carry Beat to the gate she had come trough.

That was the only choice she had. She couldn't go back through it and unless it was her who stayed behind, she had no choice but to make Beat take the gate she couldn't. The girl was surprisingly light. Carrying her like a princess, Beat's head resting against Honoka's shoulder, the white Cure jumped down towards the next tower. Landing was still difficult. Losing her balance for a bit and almost falling, she stabilized after a bit, the next jump a little easier than the old one. The constructs gone, the area felt as empty as it had when they fought. It was a terrible place to be.

It took her almost ten minutes to get to her starting point and she was sweating and out of breath when she finally got there. Putting the still sleeping Beat into the circle, she just had to get to the opposite side of the field now. It looked much farther than before, a journey almost.

Honoka was surprised by herself that she didn't blame the girl for what she had done. For singing a hymn of death, almost killing her and the others. After seeing Milky Rose and Eas, she knew just too well that the exile did things beyond one's comprehension to people.

Sitting down just for a moment, she gave Beat another look. She was a lot younger than her. Somewhere between fifteen and seventeen, Honoka guessed. How time flew. She remembered the day well she and Nagisa became Cures for the first time. The emissaries of Light, Cure Black and Cure White. Had it really been six years since then? Had she been with Nagisa for that long? It seemed like such a short time, but when she thought about it, so many things had happened.

But now was not the time to reminiscence. Getting up, checking on Beat one last time to make sure she wasn't actually wounded badly, Honoka slowly made her way to the opposite side of the field. Finding Sunshine, still unconscious, near the central tower as she passed by, she looked after the woman. Beside the drain of life energy, she seemed to be fine. Moving Sunshine around so she could sleep on her back, it was the least she could do before leaving her behind, Honoka felt guilty. That was another thing that exile runners had to deal with.

The guilt of leaving behind one of their own to suffer in that monstrous place. She couldn't ignore it as it gnawed at her conscience. But she had little choice. If she sacrificed herself to stay in exile, Sunshine would feel the guilt. That wouldn't get her anywhere. Sometimes, one had to make hard decisions.

After what seemed to be an eternity, Honoka finally reached the other side of the field, taking a deep breath. If she stepped into the portal, she let Sunshine behind. If she didn't, she would have to go back and carry Beat all the way over to this point and let Sunshine escape or carry her as well. She no longer had the stamina left to do that.

Taking the step, a circle on the ground lit up, and the area around herself was becoming distorted. "Sorry Sunshine. I'll make it up to you somehow."

=== Dissonance ===

"She did it." All eleven Cures were waiting near the gate, waiting for the exile runners to finally show up. The music had stopped a short time after Honoka had left and entered the gate. Nagisa assembled everyone and told them about the possibility of using favor to protect oneself from the effects of the exile even if the cost was not known yet. They had then moved to the hallway with the door, waiting for whoever would come true.

Appearing on the ground, unconscious and weak, Ellen was carried by Nagisa to her room. Passion was the only one who knew her at all, so she and Peach were the only ones to stay with her in her room. Everyone else went about their own matters, happy that the situation was somewhat resolved and even happier that finally a way to avoid the torment in exile had been found.

"It feels like I caused this. If she didn't come to like me, she wouldn't have followed me." Setsuna and Love had each brought a chair into Ellen's room, patiently waiting for her to wake up. The red Cure was sitting on her chair, looking at the sleeping Beat.

"If she hadn't followed you then, at some point, she would have switches sides. And even if she didn't get stuck then, it was highly likely she'd be there eventually. All this would still have happened. I don't want you to blame yourself Setsuna." Peach put her hand on her partners shoulder and leaned down, kissing her cheek the side. "Try to greet her with a smile when she wakes up."

Over an hour passed and Love had fallen asleep on her chair, leaning on the purple-haired girl's shoulder. Passion didn't want to fall asleep or leave Beat out of her eyes even for a moment. But what was she going to say to her when she woke up? It didn't take a genius to realize that Ellen was in love with her. And she liked her too, now even knowing that Love wouldn't ostracize her for it.

But was that really something she wanted? Be with her and Love? Would Ellen even accept that? She didn't want to lose a friend, but If she simply dumped her, it was even more likely to turn out that way. It would take every bit of her courage to explain, ask and wait.

Love was the kind of person who would be fine with almost anything she imposed on her. Sharing her attention with Ellen... would that really be good? What if Love didn't get along with her? It was hard to imagine that someone like Love wouldn't be able to make friends with Ellen, but...

Tearing at her hair, Passion discarded all those complicated thoughts. If she had learned one thing in all these years she'd been with Love, then it was that it was easier to just ask people and wait for their answer instead of trying to think of every single possibility of what could happen.

Another hour passed and Passion was starting to become really tired, physically. Love had woken up once and then fallen back asleep, no longer resting on Setsuna's shoulder. How much longer would she sleep?

=== Dissonance ===

"Feeling better?" Mai handed a cup to Honoka, who sat at the large table in the living room of the eastern team. She had arrived a while ago but had been so tired that she passed out just as she felt herself safe. Mai and Saki had carried her to her room and waited for her to wake up.

"I'm sure you heard the hymn here as well. You can't imagine what it was like Mai. Not just to face that power when it was draining away my very life. But the look in her eyes. I've seen quite a few sad and horrible things in my life, fighting as a Cure. But this is the one thing I'll never be able to forget. The look on her face screamed out in terror, desperate for help. I feel so sorry for her." White took a sip from the cup. It was hot, black tea, something Mai knew she really liked.

"It scares me that the song could be heard all the way out here. This place is gigantic after all, and there is a physical barrier between the arena and our grounds." Saki hadn't seen Honoka in a while and was happy to see she was okay. At the same time, she knew that Sunshine had to be the one that was stuck now, and that didn't feel good at all.

"I'm sure that if she had continued to sing, she would have died herself. Still, I'm thankful we went there and stopped her. It don't want any of us dying. Mai, I've got something to tell everyone later. I found out that it's possible to protect yourself against the effects of the exile."

"We know." Saki blurted out quickly, looking at Honoka's surprised face. "Muse found out together with Windy, Mai and Lemonade. They told everyone. But it's good that the other team knows too. You told them before you left, right?"

"I didn't have time, really. I left Nagisa in charge of it. It's important so I know I can trust her with this." Honoka was relieved that both sides knew about the protection now.

"Wasn't Nagisa really mad that you left her behind?" Mai sat down next to Honoka. While they resembled each other a bit as civilians, they really looked nothing alike as Cures.

"She acted like she understood, but I know she's mad. But even so, eventually, one of us would have had to switch. I'm pretty sure that once everyone else had been through a run, we'd have gotten a lot of votes. Regardless of how strong and experienced we are." Letting out a huge sigh, Honoka looked up, at the ceiling. "She'll probably try to come over next. I wonder if she'll get stuck. I really don't want her to be the exile."

"I can understand how you feel. I'd be really worried too if I changed and Saki was to follow me." Giving her partner a gentle look, Mai continued. "They're both a little too nice for their own sake, and they're easily tricked. They're both easy victims." She was just teasing Saki and the girl with orange hair understood that well.

"I won't be able to change for at least another six fights, so I want others to have the chance to collect favor. Aqua, Berry and I acted as leaders on the other side." It wasn't much of a break of rules to tell them who was on the other team. At this stage, pretty much everyone knew who the exile was and who was on which side. "Are you leading this group Mai?"

"Moonlight, Windy and me. Moonlight is the oldest among us, but I think we three have more experience than her. Despite that, she's really strong and mature. There was an incident in the last battle with Dream, which riled her up a lot, but I think she has calmed down by now."

"I heard about the incident." White shook her head. "She was on the other side, together with me, when this started. She was full of childish ideals even then. What is that girl thinking? I can't understand her." Emptying half of her cup, Honoka felt quite a bit better now. Still weak, but no longer tired to the point where she thought she'd have trouble running.

"Rouge supposedly taught her a lesson. Michiru and Kaoru were quite mad as well. There's a hole in the wall across Dream's room. Rouge wasn't too happy when she came out of there. Nobody would admit they saw it, but she was crying while she hammered her fist against the wall."

"Well of course she was. Imagine if you were her and I was Dream. I heard from Lemonade they've known each other for way over a decade and they've been friends ever since" Saki pointed out, but regretted it immediately as Mai gave her a curious glare.

"When exactly did she tell you that?" Mai was almost always together with Saki, and there hadn't been a lot of opportunities since the thing with Rouge happened.

Saki never got to answer. Honoka had her eyes glued on the entrance to the room, where a pink and a white Cure were a little fidgety, apparently unsure how to talk to Honoka. Discovered, Melody stepped up to Honoka and got her question out.

"How is Ellen? I mean Cure Beat." After having come through the exile, they assumed she would know what happened to her.

"She was hurt pretty badly, but she's alive. She'll be fine in no time, physically at least." Honoka wasn't going to sugarcoat what had happened to her and what condition Beat was likely in. "Let me just ask you this. She loved singing and music, right?" It was just a not-quite so wild guess based on what team she belonged to.

"Ellen loved singing more than any of us. But why-" Kanade was cut off by Honoka's icy glare.

"She was forced to sing a hymn of killing for a mass of faceless constructs which likely appeared as people to her. If she loved singing as much as you say, we should all worry about her emotional wounds. Imagine if you were forced to do what you love most and it would actually kill people, over and over." Honoka realized too late that she was being too harsh. "I'm sorry. It's just... I can't forget her face. I've seen Milky Rose and Passion return from exile, driven to the edge and overcome by it's terrors. But this was different. I... can't really put it into words. I hope she's okay. I really hope she's okay and she realizes that she was forced into this." White stared at her cup, more than just a trace of sadness in her own eyes.

Melody and Rhythm were both at a loss for words, seeing a veteran Cure like White make a face like that.

=== Dissonance ===

Passion sighed in relief when Ellen finally opened her eyes. But the purple haired Cure didn't say anything, only looked at Setsuna and Love with a curious expression, as if she didn't quite grasp where she was.

"You're in your room, on the western side. You left exile after someone stopped you. I'm so relieved you're okay. You are okay, aren't you?" Setsuna, waking up Love by shaking her a little, got up and sat on the edge of the bed, completely forgetting how awkward the situation between her and Ellen had been when she left.

Trying to get up slowly, Ellen found that she could barely move her arms and legs. She had no energy in her. Her throat was dry and her eyes hurt. She could still hear traces of the music, of the horrid hymn, in her ears, still feeling the terror it struck into the hearts of everyone else.

"Relax." Love had gotten up and was looking at Ellen over Setsuna's shoulder. It only took a few seconds for Beat to realize who this was and why she clung to Setsuna like that. Despite her lack of energy, she actually tensed up, suddenly nervous that the pink Cure might lash out at her for trying to steal her partner. "I said relax, silly. I can pretty much guess what you're thinking. Something along the lines of: Oh no, is this Setsuna's partner? Does she know about Setsuna and me?" Love smiled at Ellen's shocked face. "I guess that's about right then."

"This might be a little much for you to understand right now, but if it makes Setsuna happy to be with you, then I'm happy too. Of course that doesn't mean that Setsuna doesn't want to be with me either." Love was making it a little too complicated.

"What Peach means is that you can be part... of our relationship. I think. Is that it, Love?" Setsuna didn't want to bury Ellen under a sudden attack of information and revelation, but her quite eager partner hadn't really left her a chance.

Ellen opened her mouth, trying to say something, but she couldn't. It wasn't just that her throat was too dry or that she couldn't find the right words. Her voice was just gone. The shock didn't take long to take hold of her. What would she do now? Without her voice... she was nothing.

=== End of Event XII ===