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Dissonance
Event XVIII
Mirrors-Duo
They couldn't believe what had happened just a few moments ago. A perfect copy of Dream had killed her original. A few of the others had been attacked and defended themselves against more copies. They had seen Mint, Rouge, Peach, Luminous and Passion. In the confusion, Nightmare got away and there was no sign of Nozomi's body, only a large bloody mark on the ground where she had been killed.
"Let's check her room." Urara was among the first to collect herself. Windy and Bright were with her as she entered Dream's room. To their surprise, the only oddity in the room was the large mirror that refused to reflect anything, no matter which of the three stood in front of it.
"It has something written on it. Dream on the upper end, mirrored, and Nightmare on the lower." Michiru backed away from the mirror so suddenly that she almost knocked over her sister. The smell of iron in the air intensified enormously for a few seconds and then vanished completely. The mirror showed no visible changes. "The other rooms."
The next logical step was to check the rooms that shared the iron smelling air before. Rouge's room was first and there too, did they find a large mirror that did not reflect anything. "It's the same. Only the words are different. It says Rouge and Blaze. Neither of them is written mirrored." Kaoru was still kneeling before the mirror and touching the surface. It was almost too smooth to be glass.
"So depending on which one is dead, it writes the name mirrored?" Urara guessed that it worked like that.
"It's too early to say that. We don't even know if Dream is dead or not." Turning around, Michiru tried to reach behind the mirror and move it, but it wouldn't budge even a single centimeter. "I don't know how it's fixated in place, but it's not going to go anywhere. Should we try breaking it?"
"Don't. If Rouge dies because you mess with this thing, I'm sending you right after her, understood?" Urara was not going to stand by and watch the sisters as they potentially screwed with Rin's life.
"She has..." "...a point." Looking at each other, both Bright and Windy slowly backed away from the mirror. "There doesn't seem to be any danger by..." "...just having the mirror in your room."
"Urara, Rin is throwing a fit about going and getting revenge for Nozomi!" Komachi was as pale as a ghost and not looking too well in general. Part of her hair and clothes were slightly scorched from the fire, too. "Karen is keeping her in check but she's completely out of her mind."
Leaving the two sisters behind, Urara found Rin struggling to get free from Black and Bloom's hold. Karen was on the ground and rubbing her cheek, having suffered a punch from Rouge. "Let me go! Let me go I said! I'm not going to just let them ago away with this! Don't you feel anything? Are you just gonna sit around and twiddle thumbs while they laugh at us after they killed-"
Rin was hit in the face so hard that she felt sick. "Get yourself together Rin! What is storming off to look for them gonna do, huh? You don't know where they are, how many of them there are, nor what is really going on! You heard Nightmare, you heard what she said! Two days. Instead of thinking Nozomi is already dead, how about you find some hope that she isn't? Or do you want her dead that much?" Urara's right hand was turning bright red, having hit Rin much too hard. But it wasn't just the red Cure who was angry. Karen, Komachi, Kurumi, they all had to be just as angry as she was.
"Do you really expect me to just sit around and wait?! Nozomi is your friend too! Think about how many times she saved your ass!" Rin was still being held in place by Black and Bloom, who showed no sign of letting her go. Running out there was a suicide mission.
"Yeah, I expect you to do exactly that. Sit tight and wait until we actually have an idea of what is going on. If you want to make yourself useful, stand guard where the gate was! That's one of two ways in here, so if they're coming back, it's either there or the opposite side. You'll get your revenge, but not right now. Not by getting yourself killed in the process." Urara glared at Rin and it was finally making an impact.
Lowering her head, Rin was let go the moment the other two could feel her stop resisting. "They're gonna pay for this."
"Oh yes, they will." Turning about and walking to the back, Urara grabbed a hold of Kurumi and Komachi. "You two, with me. We're gonna collapse all but that one path through the gate into here." Upon seeing Blossom's worried face, she sighed. "The garden is gonna be fine. It's a dead end, so there's no need to block entry to it."
"Urara is doing the right thing. Go. I'll see what else we can find out." Karen gave Komachi a quick nod when the green Cure looked back after being dragged away a few steps. The initial shock had been great but it was nothing they couldn't handle. They all had already faced life threatening situations before, sometimes not knowing if they would make it back alive. This was no different. They just had to believe that Dream was still alive.
"How did this happen... was that the real Nozomi I talked to earlier? If it was, what happened... if she wasn't... Did she cause this?" Rin couldn't think straight and punched the floor multiple times before she went completely silent.
"White, Berry, we need to talk." Kaoru and Michiru showed up again, having visited quite a few rooms in the meantime. Intrusion on privacy didn't really mean anything to them right now.
"There are twenty-four mirrors." "But only three show two names." "Dream and Nightmare." "Rouge and Blaze." "Mint and Poison."
"Slow down. I'm having trouble following you." Miki wasn't exactly in a state of mind where she could handle an abridged explanation like that. She hadn't seen it with her own eyes but she the fact that Dream got likely killed was stuck in her head.
"Everyone has a large mirror in their room. You'll see when you enter yours." "Dream's, Rouge's and Mint's mirror show two names, one on the top, one on the bottom." "Everyone else' mirror is missing the bottom name. For now."
"It would be quite bad if there were twenty-four reflections of us." Honoka didn't find that to be particular desirable situation.
"Reflections." "They really might be." "Our warped selves." Looking at each other, Kaoru and Michiru tried to draw parallels between the real Dream and Nightmare but they didn't know her well enough.
"For now we know of three. But we best assume that there is one for everyone. Was there anything particular about Dream's mirror?" Miki spotted Inori talking to Karen a few meters away. "Bukki, come here for a moment." If they had ever needed a plan, now was the time.
"Dream was written mirrored." "All the other names were written normally." "Nightmare was written normally, too, just like Blaze and Poison." Kaoru rubbed her temple, still feeling lingering effects from the exile and whatever had caused the creation of the mirrors earlier.
"You want to ask me what we're going to do now, right?" Inori had known Miki for so long, it was easy to read her mind just a little bit. And in a situation like this, it was particularly easy. "Lemonade has already started doing the right thing. Limiting the angles of directions we can be attacked from. If there's only one way in and out of here, it can be defended easily. We should put guards in groups of two, at minimum, at that path. It would be great if we could fortify the spot in some way. Lemonade and Mint might be useful for that. I already thought about using the favor system to undo this, but I think there might be one big problem. It first dawned on me when Blossom created the garden. There were no animals, no real living creatures. I think this might be a limitation of the mechanism." Finishing her instructions, Inori took a deep breath and looked at three very perplexed faces. Honoka and the sisters didn't know that Pine was this clever, nor did they expect her to be.
"Beyond that, I don't think it's wise to stress ourselves out unnecessarily. It'll wear us down and give them an opening to attack. I'm sure that Dream is still alive. I asked Karen and she told me what Nightmare had to say. She used an attack called Black Mirror. Asking Karen about it, she didn't remember Dream being able to use any attack like that, which makes me think that this is part of the situation. This is just a theory though, so don't just tell everyone. I think Dream is still alive, somewhere. If all of us are together on this side, then there is likely a similar arrangement for our doubles."
"Reflections." "We believe that is what they are." "Warped images of ourselves." "Our opposite. Like a mirror image with a mirrored personality." Kaoru and Michiru extended on White's comments.
"You might be right. We'll find out eventually. Personally I don't think they'll come back tonight. We should use this to do a few things. Fortify the spot where the gate was, decide on the duration of each guard's shift, a rotation and possibly two scouts that can take a look outside. I'd recommend Egret and myself for this. We both specialize in speed so we should be able to outrun just about anyone together." She had a weird feeling volunteering for a potentially dangerous mission, but what else was there to do? Plans only went so far.
The ground trembled for a few seconds and a slow rising dust cloud approached them slowly. It came from the direction that was left of the garden. That was one of three way's sealed up. Urara was sweating heavily and both Komachi and Kurumi coughed from the dust cloud. A large hallway had connected the area to the labyrinth beyond. There was no way to tell just how far it reached so they made sure that it was closed up. Several metric tons of stone were now in the way between them and the outside. Even if it was Milky Rose and her immensely destructive ability, she'd make a monumental amount of noise and still need several minutes to get through there. It was locked up tight.
The process was simple. Urara anchored her chains deeply into the stone with her ability, Komachi held on to her and Kurumi applied the necessary physical pressure on the shield that Mint used to protect the two. The pull on the chains was strong enough to tear apart the structure, destroy the integrity of the place. "Let's take a short break and get to the other one."
"Mai. Come with me for a bit." Going back to the living room, where a gloomy mood dominated the place, everyone was trying to get past the shock of hearing of Dream's potential demise. They were already talking about potential demise. Pine's theory had spread like wildfire.
Using her Wings of Heaven ability, Mai was faster than anyone else excluding others under the same effect, like Pine or Rouge. "You want me to scout with Pine? I see no problem, but isn't the outside constantly changing? What are we looking for then?"
"We think it might not change anymore." "The reflections reached our area." "And we believe they occupy the area the dark team was at before." "So there has to be a connection." "Where there was none before." Dropping their quirk for a moment, Michiru explained in detail.
"The massive trembling before was likely a forceful change in structure of this place. Judging by how this place has essentially doubled it's number of rooms and the size of the facilities, it makes us believe that can't be all. There has to be some way the reflections managed to get all the way over here."
"If there is a way, we need to know it. It's not a solution to stay defensive. If Nightmare's words mean anything, two days, forty-eight hours, are a time limit to something. We have to find a way to get there and possibly take her out within that period of time."
"Then we shouldn't waste any time. Pine, do you have some way to mark our tracks inconspicuously? Even if we assume that they already know how to get here, we shouldn't mark the way we take." Mai picked up easily on small but important details like that.
"I'm going with you for that." Honoka held out her hand and created a miniature light pillar. "They lay dormant until I activate them and they disintegrate a few minutes later." She wasn't really one of the speedier Cures, but with Mai's ability, she'd be able to keep up with them.
"There is another problem." "A big one." The Kiryuu sisters remembered something that could absolutely not be ignored. It also nailed down who they had to take out first, if their theory about everyone having a doppelganger proved to be right. "Beat."
It took the others a few seconds to realize the meaning of that one word. "If she has a reflection running around, and if that reflection can use the same powers as her... she'll use Purger against us." Another loud crash almost overpowered Honoka's voice. A second dust cloud rose and slowly crept it's way in the living area. A dusty and exhausted looking Lemonade, Mint and Rose showed up, coughing and cursing.
"I'm never doing that again. Never. You hear me?" Kurumi was coughing after every word and her hair color looked like she had dyed part of it gray. Mint and Lemonade weren't off quite that badly but they too, looked pretty dirty.
"Shut your trap. It's not like we did this for shits and giggles. Do you see Komachi complaining?" Urara didn't like that kind of attitude.
"Are the paths closed?" Miki didn't really want to deal with an argument right there so she tried to interrupt them to the best of her ability. "Any complications? How secure are those ends?"
"Not even a mouse is getting through there." Trying to wrestle down a coughing fit, Lemonade shook her head. "If they break through there, you'll hear them five minutes ahead of time and from a kilometer away. Closed, shut, blocked off, impassable."
"What are we going to do about Beat's reflection? We have to assume that there is one, at least for now. In a situation like this, we have to be cautious." Honoka turned to Lemonade. "You're been with Muse for the last few days. Does she know anything about Beat's ability?"
"Don't know. I'll ask her. Wait here." The conversation continued right after Urara had walked off.
"Beyond this, what are we going to do? I say Nightmare, Blaze and Poison sent a pretty clear message about this. They want to kill not only their originals but everyone here." Miki was more than just a little worried about that. Fighting each other was one thing, but killing someone that was essentially a copy of yourself... or for someone else to have to do that... that was on a completely different level.
"Kill them." "All of them." Kaoru and Michiru had no mercy at all for people that were after the lives of Saki and Mai. "They attacked us without second thought." "We can't burden ourselves by thinking they're human." "They're just reflections." "Cheap copies."
"You say that now but how many of us do you expect to just take that at face value and go through with it? I... don't think I could actually kill someone, no matter who it is." Miki didn't like that train of thought at all.
"You killed already." "You, too, had an enemy. What became of him?" "What of his or her underlings?" "Don't delude yourself into thinking you never hurt anyone."
"Kaoru, Michiru, you're out of line now. Everyone has their own circumstances. You can't just generalize this." Mai had to stop them now before they completely fell into their bad habit of using logic alone to decide matters. The sisters looked away and sulked but did not say anything else.
"They're going to attack us if they spot us, so we have to make sure that whoever goes out is actually capable of dealing with the fact that they might have to fight them to the death, in self defense or not." Inori wasn't a fan of that either, but she realized just how dire the situation at hand was.
"Good luck explaining that to everyone. Love is not going to accept that, we both know that. And that means by extension, Setsuna and Ellen won't, either." Miki was still against lethal combat. It just wasn't in her to kill someone that looked like a Cure, no matter how artificial they were.
"It doesn't have to be everyone. If we can just find five or six of us that are capable... then that's that. They will have to carry that burden for those that can't."
"It started." Honoka turned around in a rush and faced the tunnel where the gateway had been. A beautiful and deadly tune was playing from the distance. It hit them like a solid stone wall. The moment the sound reached their ears, reached their bodies, they felt their very being pulled apart, drained away.
"Rrha ki ra harr exec, En yehar~, Rrha ki ra harr exec hymmnos PAJA, En yehar nha near yor!"
"I can't believe they're already doing that! That thing is bound to reach the other side too! Doesn't Beat's reflection care about her comrades?!" Covering her ears out of reflex, Miki shouted at Honoka, who had been the only one beside Sunshine to be subject to the killing hymn at close range.
"Was ki ra selena anw hymmnos PAJA - En ma ki ga chs syec van nel an hymme endia – En ma ki ra ks syec parge tes ar hymme mea – Was ki ra exec hymmnos PAJA – Was ki ra exec syec parge tie, gott yor!"
Komachi was holding her head, half covering her face, before she created a five layered barrier around them. It helped but she couldn't keep that up indefinitely. "We need to do something! I can't protect everyone at once with my barriers!"
At that moment, Urara returned with Ako, both of them visibly in pain, especially Muse. "Good that I expected something like this... though I believed I'd have to use it against the real Ellen, not a knockoff. But this sounds just like the real thing. Everyone, cover your ears, I have no idea what's going to happen!"
Holding out both her arms, Ako released a thick golden mist. Notes were assembling themselves from the minuscule golden particles inside the mist as she moved her hands about. Taking a deep breath, she focused on her own power. Not that of Cure Muse, but that of the princess of Major Land, the future queen. One of the few people who could use the power of hymns.
The sound of the hymn... flickered, just as Ako opened her mouth. Her voice was soft and yet overpowering the brutal speed and words of Purger. Parts of words were still audible, the sound itself was getting fainter but it was still there. There was no sound at all while the notes still formed and Ako almost whispered the beginning of the lyrics.
"In the eternal machination of nature... a single life is insignificant..."
A choir composed of her own voice reached up, started to play around her, holding like a wall against the hymn of Ellen's reflection. It was like a struggle of power, two waves clashing against each other, the thunderous boom of each trying to drown the other.
"Yasra dius manaf~... yasra Dius manaf~...yasra dius Manaf~..." The choir repeated itself seemingly endlessly, each time with a different meaning. The words sunk into the mind of the Song princess's audience, their meaning clear. Each life was important. Each life was precious. Each life deserved dignity. Each life was sacred. Each life would have it's reward and be rewarded with eternal peace.
Ako was sweating, breathing hard and in pain. She wasn't used to doing this. In fact, she had never before used the ancient magic that only few in Major Land could understand, fewer even learn. Taking a step back, her hymn stopped for just a moment, and that was enough for Beat's reflection's hymn to reach through.
"I'll dance dance, I'll dance in this feast unto death. Dance in this evils' night. "I'm a dancing Song Princess - You're my sacrifice – enjoy the show – give yourself to me – Now! Dancing to the countdown of your death, it's your fate!"
To hear that sung with Ellen's voice pained her more than anything else, more than the life draining effect itself. Ellen, Siren, Beat. She was one of her subjects, her friend and an ally. To hear her sing a hymn designed for mass murder was grueling.
Spreading her arms, closing her eyes and looking in the air, Ako stepped forward, the golden mist expanding, filling the space around her, notes assembling in parts of a score, floating around, disassembling when their part was done, but never vanishing.
As opposed to Ellen's wild dancing and whirling, Ako stood completely still, her arms open like she was waiting for someone to embrace her, like she was praying to heaven. She had to skip part of the hymn since she hadn't started together with Purger. And this was her first time using it, too!
The choir got louder and changed it's lyrics together with Ako, but her real voice reached easily beyond that, playing a calming sound that was slow and a little sad, a stark contrast to the fast and powerful purger.
"In the eternal machination of nature... a single life is insignificant... Yet every life is afforded the grace of God. This is not sadness, for we are together now, and forever, as the children of music. Even wounds caused by time are no hindrance, for we steadily continue our march. This is all but sadness, for we are equal with them and all"
Ako was completely nullifying the sound of the other Hymn now and she was just starting the most powerful part. But her voice was starting to give in. She could feel her stamina draining rapidly, her body burning up, her rationality urging her to stop before she would ruin herself. But she couldn't do that. To stop would mean to make everyone subject to Purger. She only had to persevere a little longer and at least Ellen's reflection would never be able to sing this specific hymn again. For that was what Suspend did. It forever halted the hymn it was used on in it's place, frozen in time, disconnected from the world. The choir stopped and a serene, inspiring music increased in volume until it completely encompassed Ako.
"Humanity wanders endlessly in time, settling everywhere and nowhere. A child wandering the dark alleyways, ignoring the lighted roads." At that point her voice multiplied once, each singing a different phrase. "A benevolent demon in the dark." "She plays the strings of time, she sounds the tune of life." "All the worlds sufferings are placed on the shoulder of a single child of man."
The hymn broke abruptly when Ako stumbled and fell over. Urara was quick enough to catch her, finding her unconscious. Silence dominated the hallways. Others came to look what had happened but were kept a fair distance from Muse, who was slowly coming to again. "Rise and shine princess."
"Sarcasm right when I saved your leather. Not like I expected differently." Her eyes only half open, Ako felt drained. Not only because she had held out against Purger, but... to use a hymn like that was much more tiring than she ever believed. She was completely out of magic and stamina. Her cheeks flushed with color despite all that when Urara lifted her up and carried her away just like a princess.
"Make way for the princess!" The sarcasm was written thick on her face and Ako tried to protest by halfheartedly trying to push Urara away. The others laughed and parted ways, a little amused by the scene. But it wasn't just to lighten the mood. They were just outside the hearing range of everyone else when Ellen showed up, looking like a child that had been caught stealing cookies. Guilt was written all over her face. Lemonade could see both Peach and Passion hiding at the corner, watching her.
"Ako... I'm so sorry that-"
"Don't be stupid Ellen. I know more than you about this power. We don't chose what Hymns were are capable of. Nor did you chose to have an evil reflection running around. This isn't your fault so get a grip." Being still a little cold to Ellen, Ako found that a bit of scolding often worked better than carefully trying to mend wounds she didn't understand. "And let me down already Urara! I can walk on my own!"
The yellow Cure plain ignored that demand and walked past Beat, who still looked a bit guilty but not anywhere as much as before. "Don't be silly. Do you really want me to let you down so you can tumble and fall flat on your face? Way to thank me for letting you save face. You can't even walk anymore, right? You fainted from exhaustion already, stop being so stubborn." Urara had a caring side to her that Ako didn't see often. And yet every time she did, it made her heart beat faster, made her feel... warm.
Not saying anything, Ako blushed and kept quiet. Urara was right, but she couldn't admit it. Being carried didn't feel that bad after all.
"This is worse than we thought." Honoka's ears were still ringing a little from hearing that hymn for the third time now. "We can safely assume that there's a copy of everyone here. And they have all of our powers."
"At least we shut her up for now." Miki was having a raging headache. "Beat, can you check on your mirror for the name of your reflection? She made her presence known so maybe that is enough for it to show."
"Nobody else should have a super long range attack like that so we won't have to rely on Muse's ability beyond this point. Or so I hope." Inori was excellent at planning but everything had it's limits. There was no telling what could happen with twenty-four copies out there. With the sole exception of Nightmare, they didn't even know what they were like.
Everyone turned their head in surprise when Windy jumped on Honoka, pushed her on the ground. A split second later, a golden beam of light shot right over both of them, piercing the wall beyond, leaving behind molten stone. "Down!"
"Cardinal of Punishment!" A myriad of no more than fingertip sized golden orbs rained down on the Cures, a voice everyone recognized as Luminous's announcing the attack.
Mai tried to find Bright, crawling on the ground, evading the onslaught of energy attacks. Did they plan this? To attack once Purger was done and kill off any survivors? It wasn't a bad plan but thanks to Muse, it had failed. They were all still there.
The onslaught stopped from one second to the next and nothing else happened for almost a dozen seconds. A pale yellow spark flared up in the distance down the hallway, past the point where the gate had been. It was followed by several yellow sparks and another series of paler ones. Then, there was silence.
An ominous feeling grabbed hold of Egret. That color... there was no mistaking it. Michiru had somehow separated from the others and attacked Luminous copy. Getting up and running down the hallway, she arrived just in time to see a horrifying image. Luminous was lifted up in the air, her feet off the ground and floundering around, her hands trying to get rid of Bright's iron grasp.
Michiru had both her hands tightly wrapped around the neck of the enemy. She had suffered three burns on her right leg but otherwise not sustained any injuries. Mai might not like it but this was a job that someone had to do. Tightening her grasp, Luminous's copy gasped for air, her voice cut off, her arms flailing around futilely. Spotting Egret from the corner of her eyes, she reached out to her, a terrified look in her eyes.
Mai was just close enough to hear bone breaking, Luminous neck snapping under Bright's power. Michiru was completely calm, still exerting pressure on her throat, slowly crushing it completely. She'd make sure that this one would not attack anyone again. "Michiru, stop!" Mai shouted on top of her lungs, terrified by Kaoru's cold blood act.
"Why? She's the enemy Mai. I know you're a kind soul. I know you can't kill. But someone has to do it." Throwing the corpse on the ground, Michiru got ready to completely get rid of it. But she couldn't move any closer to it than she was. Something... weird was restricting her. She was no longer capable of moving her own body.
Extending her hand, Michiru felt her mouth open and close, uttering two words that forced themselves out of her throat. "White Mirror." Released from the restriction, she quickly jumped out of the way. A thick white mist emerged from around Luminous's copy, eight thin skeletal arms reaching out from the ground, wrapping themselves around the body, dragging it into the mist and the solid stone.
There was not a trace left of the corpse when Bright looked for it. The stone was cold, no different from the area around her. "Something... forced me to do that." Clicking her tongue, she got up and faced an angry Mai. The sound of the slap reached all the way back to the others, who wondered what had happened.
"I don't want you to act like that! You're just like Saki and me, you don't have to think you're supposed to do this!"
"I know. But still, Kaoru and I are probably two of the few who can get themselves to kill one of them. I don't want for anything to happen to you or Saki. Or any of the others. I can't see them as human, no matter what. So I can't really feel bad for fighting them." Ignoring the burning pain of having Mai slap her, Michiru answered her in a calm voice.
"But-" Mai was interrupted by Saki, who simply laid one hand on her lovers shoulder.
"That's their way of caring for us Mai. I don't like that they're killing either, but it's not like they do it because they think it's fun. It's to protect everyone else. That's okay, don't you think?" Saki could say some surprisingly deep and meaningful things once in a while.
"That sounds all well except the whole killing part." Mai took a step back and shook her head. That wasn't something she could just accept from one moment to another.
"We have a problem." Kaoru had caught up to her friends, but her expression was quite serious. Looking at her sister, she didn't even need to ask. There was a specific feeling of distance between the two, one that she could only explain as Michiru having done something that angered Mai. She didn't want to share that with her sister, who had done nothing yet. "We asked everyone to return to their rooms and Luminous came out running of hers just a few seconds ago. You need to see it for yourself. Sunshine and Melody offered to take the first guarding shift. White and Berry are waiting, come."
"You two should go back to your room, too. We don't know when there will be another attack. They lost someone now, so maybe that will give us a breather."
Hikari was visibly distressed by what she had seen. Hearing about Nightmare and seeing her for a few seconds had been one thing. But to face that was something completely different. Kurumi was with her, calming her down, but she was still worried about having to go and sleep in that room.
"White and Berry are inside." Rose was taking care of Hikari just outside the yellow Cure's room, mostly consisting of patting her head a bit.
Heading inside, they found both the white and the blue Cure facing Luminous's mirror. "I assume one of you did this?" Miki turned around, which let Kaoru and Michiru get a decent view on the glass. Luminous's copy was, sort of, inside. Beyond the glass was the reflection of Hikari, unconscious and unmoving, floating in darkness. She was the only thing visible.
Taking a closer look, Michiru couldn't find any sign of the injuries that she had inflicted. Her neck didn't appear to be broken nor did she seem truly dead. "This is not good."
"Mind explaining this so we understand?" Miki's patience for confusing developments was at it's limit. It was uncomfortable enough to continuously fight other Cures, now having to deal with this was too much for her taste.
"I broke her neck just a few minutes ago. I crushed most of her throat too. She shouldn't be alive, or whatever that kind of state is. The moment I killed her, something forced me to use some kind of ability on her. White Mirror. But this explains a lot of things."
"Nightmare used Black Mirror on her original, isn't that so? That would mean that somewhere out there, likely in Nightmare's room, there is another mirror which is holding Dream right now. Which means she isn't dead yet."
"That remains to be seen." Clenching her fist, Michiru exerted her full force and hit the mirror as hard as she could, much to the confusion and surprise of Honoka and Miki. She didn't even manage to make a dent or scratch. "Harder than tempered steel by far."
"Warn us next time you're going to do something reckless." Honoka wasn't too keen on experiments that could possibly blow up everything around you. She had a few too many of those already.
"It was necessary to determine if its possible to break one of the mirrors on our side." Stepping back from the mirror,Michiru watched the reflection of Luminous. The bottom name was mirrored, but she could read it just fine. Despite her attack, Aurora remained undisturbed.
"Let's summarize what we know so far. Nightmare seemingly killed Dream and used Black Mirror. Bright killed Aurora and used White Mirror. It is not possible for us originals to break our own mirrors. Upon using white mirror, Aurora was transferred to the mirror of Luminous."
"That makes it pretty simple. Dream is going to be inside Nightmare's mirror. You forget her comment. We wouldn't get her before two days were up. This makes me think that there is a time limit to rescue them. It probably also means that they have a time limit to rescue Aurora." Miki was both happy and worried about that kind of development.
"The obvious theory to deduce from this is rather simple. Any original killed will be transferred to the mirror of a reflection. Any reflection killed, vice versa. After forty-eight hours, someone imprisoned into a mirror will permanently die. Only a reflection can break the mirror of an original and vice versa." Kaoru knew that this would become a major hassle. Now, not only did they have to worry about dealing with having to kill the reflections but also keep them isolated from the enemy until the time limit was up.
"We don't know what happens if you break a mirror. Maybe that will kill the inhabitant as well." Miki didn't like that thought. If that was the case, then they had no idea how to save Dream.
"There is one easy way to test that. The reflections knew where our camp was. They also seemed to know about the system with the mirrors. That makes it highly likely that they also know the specifics of rescuing someone from a mirror if it is possible at all. Let one of them slip through our guard, observe what they do and then kill both of them after we got what we wanted." Michiru stared at Aurora, who looked just like Luminous. She could still feel the warmth of her skin on her hands. She had never really killed another human being before, but it was surprisingly easy. She didn't regret it either.
"You're thinking like a villain." Miki's casual remark hit a sore point. Kaoru and Michiru never liked having people think about them like that. They changed sides voluntarily and permanently. They didn't want to be associated with their former employer. A somber glare towards the blue Cure made it pretty clear that they didn't like that kind of comment.
"She has a point regardless. For now, we should wait and see what happens to Aurora." Honoka agreed with Michiru despite the dangers. In situations like this, information was the most precious resource of all. That, and lives.
"What about Hikari? I understand her not wanting to sleep in there with something creepy like a copy of yourself floating in a mirror!" Kurumi had stepped into the room, watching the four analyze the situation, seemingly detached from the problem itself.
"There are plenty of empty rooms. She can sleep in Nagisa's room since she's always with me." Honoka could understand not wanting to sleep in the same room as your reflection. It would weird her out as well. "How much time has passed since you used white mirror, Bright?" They had to keep track of the exact progression of things over time.
"About six minutes." Watching Aurora closely, Bright narrowed her eyes. For just a split second she could have sworn that there was movement under the reflections eyelids. But she could have imagined it.
"We should guard and observe the mirror separately from the entrance. Someone should always be here, regardless of time and circumstances." Kaoru wasn't going to let important information slip through her fingers. "I'll stay here for the time being. I also think we should try not to fall into a state of permanent alertness. It will put too much stress on everyone."
"I agree. But it's not easy to just ignore what is going on. Fighting was one thing, but this is a real, constant danger." Honoka could deal with it, but it was still something you had to get used to. It was like... war.
"That's why they limited ways in here and why we're going to position guards. I believe it would be a good idea to put pressure on the reflections, but we don't know where exactly they're located at right now." Michiru didn't like that at all.
The situation was not any less stressful for others. Rin suffered from seeing her oldest friend getting killed and for now, she still thought that Nozomi was dead. Rage was making way for despair now. Feeling helpless, Rin just wanted to be alone for now.
And despite that, Kanade was still there with her, not knowing what to say. Imagining what it would be like to see Hibiki or Ellen die was scaring her so much that she didn't dare to say anything. With Rin leaned against the wall, her face hidden beneath her arms, her head resting on her knees, the red Cure seemed completely unapproachable.
She had known this before but it was now that Kanade realized she really knew absolutely nothing about Rin. Nothing about her personality, her friends, her life. To ask her to stay together and not know anything about her at all... what must Rin have thought when she asked...? Just sitting there, at the other end of the bed, and watching the red Cure be depressed, Kanade started to feel incredibly bad. To be in a situation like this... what if Hibiki was killed before they made up? What if Hibiki didn't even want to ever make up again? What if... shaking her head, Kanade tried to get those useless thoughts out of her head. Sighing, she rested her head against the wall and looked at the ceiling. What was she doing?
How many times had she warned Nozomi? Why did that girl have to be so stubborn? She even said jokingly that her ideals would one day be the death of her, years ago. And everyone laughed, not a single one suspecting that it would come true so much later.
For Rin, there was little doubt that this whole situation was caused by Nozomi somehow. Even though it looked like she had gotten used to the situation, even participated in a fight out of her own will, why did she have to go and do something like this?
If she was still somehow alive, Nozomi could ready herself for the biggest scolding in the history of mankind when she was rescued. And after that, she'd make sure that there were no more fuck ups with her. Ideals or not, if they get you killed they're worthless.
Swaying between rage and despair, Rin didn't know what to do now. She couldn't just set out on her own and try to look for Nozomi. No matter how strong and fast she was, there were others who were stronger and and some that were faster.
Looking up, Rin noticed only now that Rhythm was still there, seemingly worried about her own problems. She didn't really feel like having company now, but sending her away when she had a look like that on her face... she couldn't do it. No matter how long she had been with Urara, Rin wasn't that cold or egoistic.
"Kanade. Worried about Melody?" She had to take her mind off Nozomi in some way. It didn't help anyone if she lost sleep or stressed herself out by constantly thinking about her and what if's.
"I'm not... I'm not worried about that girl at all!" Kanade looked away and frowned.
"If you want to play pretend, do it somewhere else. I don't care for your stick and carrot attitude. You either talk to me like a reasonable person would or I'll talk to the wall. At least the wall doesn't feed me bullshit." Rin couldn't stand that kind of attitude. She always hated it when she saw it in manga and light novels, too.
Kanade had never, not once in her life, been told off like that for acting the way she always did with Hibiki. There had been snide remarks from Ako but nothing in this league. "Fine! I care, so what?! Is that wrong of me?"
"Now listen. You might want to learn what it means to talk to people in a normal way. Because first acting stubborn and then getting angry is only gonna piss people off. I have enough to deal with right now so either you get your act together or we don't need to have this conversation." Rin had tried to be friendly and strike up a conversation but she could see easily why Melody and Kanade always got into arguments. That girl was a walking mass of stubbornness. The type that absolutely couldn't be honest with themselves.
The room fell silent as Kanade didn't seem to be able to break out of her habit. Looking down, staring at the blanket, she seemed even more depressed than before. No matter who she talked to, every time the topic became Hibiki, she started to act like that. Why couldn't she just be honest with herself?
The silence became heavy when the outside provided nothing but quietness as well. The room next to hers was Urara's and even though she believed that Muse had to be there as well, those two didn't make a sound. And the room left of hers... belonged to Nozomi.
Several minutes passed with Rin and Kanade simply remaining silent, not saying a single word to each other. It wasn't until Rouge sighed in exhaustion, ready to go to sleep and hopefully forget about things in her dreams, that Kanade opened her mouth again.
"...sure I worry... who wouldn't worry about friends you've had since you were little?" Kanade felt humbled when she was finally able to say it. "I don't know why I'm like this... every time I think about Hibiki, it becomes all I think about. I... always say these things and... end up doing stupid stuff. I didn't want things to get this... bad."
"You love her a lot, hm?" Rin didn't know what it felt like to truly love someone. She held Nozomi really dear, for she was her closest and oldest friend, but that was still different. She loved her parents, and even that was different.
"Hm." Nodding her head, Kanade sighed.
"Why did you ask me to stay with you Kanade? Doesn't it hurt you? I'm the one you used to get revenge on Melody." Rin tried to tickle the truth out of her. She wasn't very subtle about it, though.
It took a while for Kanade to answer. During this time, Rin casually watched her expression change several times, from angry to sad, from sad to embarrassed. Her final answer was no more than a whisper. "Because there is nobody else..."
So she really was in the same situation as her. Knowing what it felt like to be all alone would teach the girl a valuable lesson. "Let's go to sleep. If you want to stay, change to civilian form, it's too annoying to sleep in the same bed as someone who still wears a frilly costume."
Having already slept with Rin once, Kanade didn't feel bothered by changing out of Cure form despite being naked otherwise. Getting under the blanket, she still felt grateful to not have to sleep alone in a time like this.
Hikari, on the other side of the hallway, felt the same way. The mood was considerably better here, but still not what one would call happy. "I feel bad, making you let me stay in your room." Kneeling on Kurumi's bed, Hikari was feeling a lot better than before. Seeing her reflection really disturbed her at first but thanks to Kurumi's company, she got over it quickly. Sleeping in that room was quite beyond her for now, though.
"Don't worry about it. I wouldn't want to sleep in a room that has a body floating around in a mirror either. Nobody would want that I think." Stretching, Kurumi yawned. She wasn't that tired, but it had been a long day. Dinner had been sort of canceled. If someone was hungry, they could go and get something for themselves of course.
"I saw Nightmare and all but seeing my own... copy. She really looks exactly like me. Say Kurumi, what do you think they're thinking about us?"
"Who knows. Nightmare seemed like she really enjoyed slaughtering her original. Your copy also attacked without any warning. I'm not sure they really think, like real people. Maybe they're just machinations of the system." Sitting down on the edge of her bed and looking at Hikari, Rose was happy that her friend wasn't freaking out.
"I'd still feel horrible hurting one of them... they look and sound just like us after all." Hikari sighed. Just imagining having to fight herself, or Honoka and Nagisa's copies... it made her feel sorry for them.
"Leave the fighting to us. Well, maybe not to me. I think about this similarly but some of us are going to have to fight. It's unavoidable." Kurumi patted Hikari's head and smiled a little. It was not all bad. At least everyone was back together.
"You're really strong Kurumi... I worry what will happen if your reflection attacks us." Laying down and looking up at the purple Cure, Hikari sighed.
"If it comes to that, I'll stop her. I won't let some cheap copy of myself hurt Karen and the others."
"You're still protective of Karen, even though you're no longer together. I think that's cute." Hikari could tell that her friend still cared deeply about the blue Cure. It wasn't that surprising, they had been a couple for years after all.
"I... know it's not going to make up for being a bad partner for so long. Or give me a chance to get back together with her." It was still something she hadn't quite coped with. Karen dumping her had been a shock. And even though she adapted, she still missed her.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to remember bad things." Hikari felt guilty for reminding Kurumi of her breakup.
"No, it's fine. I see now that I really had it coming to me. It's just... I can't really tell why I acted like that. My world was just Karen and me. Everyone else had disappeared. I... think when the team ceased to be a team, things went south for me."
"You never really told me about what happened to the six of you. Want to talk about it?" Hikari was a good listener, especially when it came to people's worries. Although a lot of it was just Nagisa whining about Honoka's teasing, jokingly.
"I guess it all started when everyone finished middle school. We were split out to four different schools because of our grades. Urara went to the same school as me. Rin went to a school that had her coming home late every day so we didn't see her much at all. Nozomi had to settle for a different school from us all. Komachi and Karen attended yet another high school and they were a year above us, too."
"So you all went to different schools? It's hard to see each other a lot then. I know what you mean. Nagisa and Honoka were always a grade above me, Nagisa studied like crazy to be able to attend the same school as Honoka. It was almost painful to watch how much she struggled."
"I wish we could have managed that. But Rin was, at the time, hoping she could become a jeweler and studied that quite a bit. Urara was having a really hard time with her work as idol and her attendance was pretty much non-existent, so I was on my own. I didn't really make any friends since I was scared they would find out about me being a Cure. It'd just make problems for everyone if they knew."
"Us three always kept that a secret too. Sometimes it really hurt to lie to the people you care about to keep it a secret. After a few months, Akane, who took me in, stopped asking me about it. I believe she figured it out but never said anything." Hikari, to this day, didn't know if Akane, who she treated like an older sister, knew about her real origin or her being a Cure.
"You can probably tell how this went. I was alone and even though I started dating Karen, school kept us apart every day. Komachi separated from Karen because of this. None of us saw Rin or Nozomi much. They were both struggling with school, Rin because she was aiming for something different and Nozomi... well, she was never the brightest."
"So you..."
"I went back to the way I was before I met all of them. By the time I graduated from high school and moved in with Karen, we had all gone our separate ways. Urara had gone through hell and came back burned, Rin found her dream to be unreachable, Komachi was burying herself in work... probably because of me. And Nozomi... her trying to be a busybody and fix everyone's problems left her with more problems of her own than she could deal with. She was held back a year and that finally cut the deal."
"Kurumi..."
"You know, I never talked about this to anyone. Not even Karen. But it feels good to have finally told someone. Now please.. can you stop crying? You're making me feel super embarrassed." Scratching her cheek, Kurumi turned her face away, her face bright red. Hikari had been shedding tears at her sob story even though that hadn't been her intention.
"But... it's such a sad story. And you're trying... to make amends, too!" Hikari was really moved by the story although her crying had more of a comical effect than anything else.
Smiling, Kurumi put her hand on Hikari's head. "You're such a good girl. Don't worry about me. Sometimes, things don't work out but I'm not going to let that affect me."
There was someone else who was saying just that. That she wouldn't let things gone wrong affect her. Not anymore.
"I was worried you'd start sulking. Good to see I was wrong." Setsuna, Love and Ellen had made a short trip to the garden. It was a beautiful place, even at night. Love was resting just at the bottom of the flower mound, her head on Setsuna's lap, eyes closed, she enjoyed the night air despite the turbulent situation and the dangers ahead. Traveling had hardened her composure a lot.
Ellen was leaning against Setsuna, back to back, her right hand's fingers intervened with those of Setsuna's left. She felt secure as long as she was with the other two. "Please stop teasing me Setsuna. I feel a little bad that Ako had to go to such lengths to protect everyone, but she's right. It wasn't my choice to be able to sing Purger."
"Everyone is forgetting an important thing. If they really are our reflections, our polar opposites, then not all of them are going to be aggressive and evil. Rouge is a hothead, so her double should be easy to reason with. Inori and Miki are hard workers, so theirs will be really lazy. It's fun to think about what your opposite is like."
"It's not fun at all. Your opposite is going to be the meanest and most cruel out of everyone, Love." Setsuna poked her partners cheek a few times, knowing that her own reflection was not going to be very nice, too.
"We know that my other self isn't the nice type either. She used Purger so indiscriminately... she probably didn't think anything of hurting those on her own side. It's like she thought of the hymn as a weapon to destroy everything around her. I can't accept that."
"It would be weird if you could. She's the exact opposite of you after all. Have you looked at her name?" Love was a little curious. Setsuna and her both hadn't met or heard of their copies so they still didn't know their names.
"It didn't show up. Honestly... I don't want to know. I just wish someone else would find her and take her out and never tell me. I can't think of them as something other than people, just like us. I'd never be able to actually... kill one of them."
"I could." Setsuna's reply surprised both of her partners. They didn't need to wait for an explanation. "I love both of you. I love what I have with you and I don't want to lose any of it. I don't want to lose Miki or Inori or any of the others. If that means putting aside my pride as a Cure and doing some dirty work, then that's what I need to do. Of course I'm not going to be proud of doing these things, just as I'm not proud of the part of Eas that once worked for Moebius. But in both cases, I protected and will protect what I care about. You two are my life now, just as Labyrinth was my life back then."
"You don't need to be so serious Setsuna. Ellen and I wouldn't have questioned you." Love smiled and got up, laying one hand on Setsuna's cheek, kissing her softly. "But thanks for explaining anyway."
Holding on more tightly to her hand, Ellen smiled, happy to know that someone cared about her to this extent. "I just hope nobody is going to ask me to use Purger against them."
"Silly, nobody is going to ask you that. They all experienced now what it means to be subject to that song. Even if we end up having to kill all our reflections, there are much better ways than slowly torturing them by draining their life." Hugging Setsuna, Love looked over her partner's shoulder, talking to Ellen.
"I would feel bad about letting Setsuna fight all alone for us so..." Turning around and hugging Setsuna from behind, almost crushing her partner as Love was hugging her from the front, Ellen smiled. "I'll at least provide backup. I really don't want to fight them, and I can't stand the idea of killing them, but..." Ellen paused for a second. "I can't let her fight on her own. It's going together through good and bad times, isn't it?"
"Ellen is absolutely right. I'm not going to let you fight all on your own Setsuna. When did I ever leave you to deal with the uncomfortable stuff all alone?" Love realized just a second too late that there had been an instance of that.
"Beside that time in Hong Kong, when you-" Setsuna was quickly shut up by Love, who seemed terribly embarrassed to have that story brought up again. Sometimes, just sometimes, she lost control when she saw something truly interesting. And then she caused a lot of trouble for Setsuna.
"Have you met up with the rest of your team yet Ellen?" Love changed the topic quickly and away from herself. She was so thankful when Ellen didn't pursue the issue of Hong Kong.
"I saw Hibiki and Kanade briefly earlier, but they seemed in a really bad mood... I haven't seen Ako yet." Making a short pause and blushing a little, Ellen started to fidget. "And... I think of you two as my team now. I mean, I still like Hibiki, Kanade and Ako a lot! But being with them and not seeing you two would make me feel really lonely."
"You're so cute when you get all embarrassed over saying things like that. But... Love... Ellen..." Setsuna sighed and tried to push both of them away. "You're heavy!" All three of them laughed as they separated for a bit. Love climbed up the flower mound, while Setsuna got to use Ellen's lap as pillow this time around.
The three of them didn't realize that they were being watched from the distance, by another couple. Tsubomi had been worried about her garden and Erika wouldn't let her go out alone. They only watched in silence, happy to see that the garden helped people forget about the issues around them.
Of course they were worried and scared about what would happen if they were attacked again. But Erika had an innate talent to distract Tsubomi from those things. The pink Cure was leaned against her partners shoulder, slowly plaiting a strand of the long blue hair into a small braid, just feeling well by being among flowers and plants together with Erika.
"Did you see Itsuki?" They had been there for almost half an hour, just relaxing and enjoying the scenery, forgetting all about the problems of being imprisoned and in danger of being attacked. Erika wasn't bored but she worried about her friends.
"Hm..? Itsuki? There was so much going on, I only saw her briefly and didn't get to talk to her." Tsubomi was half in trance, feeling so very much safe that even recalling the earlier turmoil didn't manage to break her out of her immersion in playing with Erika's hair.
"She was together with Melody, you know, from the same team Beat is from, the pink one. They totally have something going on, it was so easy to tell. They were holding hands and she was acting like her protector. It was so cute." Erika knew full well about Tsubomi's failed attempt to ask Itsuki out but she also knew that it wasn't going to do her any good if she kept tip-toeing around the issue.
"I wonder what kind of girl Melody is." Tsubomi couldn't deny that she was curious about it. After all, Itsuki had turned her down and now she was with someone else. It was only natural for her to want to know what kind of girl it took to pique Sunshine's interest.
"Jealous?" Marine would always love teasing Tsubomi a little. Not too much and not too little, it was always funny to see her get flustered or pout.
And just as predicted, Tsubomi started to pout. "Stupid Erika. Why would I be jealous?"
Patting her own chest, Erika looked up and hummed for a few seconds. "Because my breasts are smaller, Itsuki is taller and more sexy than me?"
"You're plenty sexy for me, thank you." The pouting continued and Erika had difficulty not bursting out in laughter. She had been called a lot of things, but that was the first time someone called her plenty sexy. "I'm still friends with Itsuki, so I'm curious."
"I know that of course. But you know, Itsuki's boobs are something else. They just keep on growing and growing and-" Erika burst out in laughter, unable to stop as Tsubomi continued to pout more and more.
After a good minute of wild laughing, Erika gasped for air and finally calmed down again. "I'm not really interested in sizes bigger than D though. So don't you worry." Erika poked Tsubomi's cheek and watched her partner puff them up even more.
"I don't care anymore!" Standing up and walking to the next set of flowers, Tsubomi sulked a little. She knew that Erika was just making fun of her a little. It wasn't any different from the way they usually were. And in a way, she was thankful for that. She liked the way things had been with Erika and even though she could do a few things with her she wasn't able to do before, it was nice that they could still tease each other like this.
The third member of the Heartcatch team was a lot less relaxed at the time. Standing guard was an extremely important and stressful activity right now. With Rose, Lemonade and Mint's help, they had collapsed part of the tunnel to create only a small opening in the center. Hiding behind the rubble to the right and the left, two Cure's could easily monitor anything that moved in their direction from the tunnel.
"Why is something so boring so tiring?" Hibiki was sitting on a large boulder, staring down the hallway through a hole in the rubble in front of her. Sure, it was important, but that didn't change how boring it was. After three attacks, they probably won't come again that night.
"Don't complain Hibiki. We're only going to be here for about another hour and a half. I'll treat you to ice cream after that." Itsuki was being tired out by standing guard as well, although it was considerably worse for Hibiki. Her attention span for boring activities wasn't exactly what she'd call big.
"Don't treat me like a kid! I'm taking this seriously!" Hibiki started to pout, still in a bad mood because of what happened that morning.
"So you don't want any ice cream. That's okay. More for me." Itsuki grinned, knowing what kind of reaction a comment like that would produce.
Pouting more and thinking about sulking a little, Hibiki quickly gave up. "...I'll have some."
"I couldn't hear that Hibiki. Did you say something?" Pretending to not have heard Hibiki's comment, Itsuki covered her mouth, hiding her smile. Hibiki was so easy to tease.
"I said I'll have some! Geez, you're terrible Itsuki! Stupid, Meany!" Turning around and hiding her face from the yellow Cure on the other side of the lookout, Hibiki felt two very soft, round and squishy things press against her back. "Just what did you eat to make them this big..."
Kissing Hibiki's neck, Itsuki suddenly froze. "Did you get some of my hai-" Hibiki felt how Itsuki's hand suddenly covered her mouth and she instinctively stopped talking.
They could feel each others heart beat faster with every second, a booming sound from the inside. Hibiki felt Itsuki's breath on her neck, Sunshine felt Melody's on her hand. They didn't dare to move even a centimeter for almost a minute, listening intently for any odd noise.
Breathing out with a gasp of relief, Itsuki kept holding on to Hibiki but removed her hand from her partners mouth. "I thought I heard footsteps down the hallway. Must be my imagination."
"It's a bit early to hallucinate the enemy, Itsuki. You really scared me there!" The pink Cure might have volunteered for guard duty, but she didn't know if she could truly handle fighting a reflection to the death. Her instincts were telling her no.
"Sorry. I'm just not mentally prepared for this yet. I'm worried mad about encountering a reflection and you getting hurt. I don't know what I'd do if that happened." Itsuki never had a problem to say what she felt out loud. And it always made Hibiki embarrassed.
"You care about me that much?" Hibiki felt her heart beating faster again, just like a minute ago when they had listened for an approaching enemy.
"This might sound cruel to my teammates, but I care about you more than them. I love you, so of course I don't want you to get hurt."
"Geez... when you say things like that I don't know how to respond..." Hibiki's face was flushed red. She was all but used to having people say things like that out loud. Kanade for sure would never come out like that and just tell her what she felt.
"You don't need to. I don't pretend to know what you're thinking or feel, but I like to think that you feel about me in a similar way as I feel about you." Itsuki finally let go of Hibiki and returned to her post.
The pink Cure was silent for a while, not really knowing what she should say. It was a little unfair. Itsuki was clearly much better than her at saying her feelings out loud. "I don't want you to get hurt either. Because... I love you too." Her face was tinted in a fierce crimson color as she said those words.
Itsuki was about to tease her partner a little but gave Hibiki a short breather. She must have really pulled her courage together if she reacted like that. Letting a minute pass, Itsuki smiled. "You're still only getting a normal sized ice."
"Why you...!" Hibiki jumped up and even though she tried hard to look angry and stare at Itsuki, the ridiculous face the yellow Cure was pulling made her laugh right away. "Stop it, stop it, I can't breathe!" Hibiki leaned against the wall and almost fell over from laughing too hard.
Their laughter could be heard all the way down to the bathroom where Karen and Komachi were getting ready for bed. Brushing their teeth, standing next to each other, they no longer felt that weird being in this place.
"We've gotten really used to living here..." Komachi didn't long for her real home at all. She lived alone and when they got back, Karen had some issues with Kurumi to sort out. This place was both a prison and her safe haven.
"What choice did we have? It wouldn't help anyone if we rejected the place and deprived ourselves of any comfort out of stubbornness." Karen stopped brushing for a moment to say that and then faced the mirror again, brushing. Getting a toothache in this place would be hazardous to say the least.
Komachi just nodded, finishing up early. Looking over her shoulder, she spotted Urara and Muse, both of them entering the living room. Everyone was back together and still split up. She hadn't talked to anyone from her team beside Karen since they were reunited, and it really difficult to break the ice now.
"Do you think..." Putting her worries in words was a lot harder than she remembered it to be. With the threat of clones attacking them at any time right in front of them, she wanted to be close to Karen at all times. From what she could tell, she was the only one that specialized in defense. She would protect Karen.
"I try not to think about it. Copies of ourselves, looking like us, having our powers but a warped personality... that's a nightmare if I ever had one. This is a lot worse than what happened with Shadow, years ago."
"Dark Mint and Dark Aqua... I suppose this is similar." The novelist looked at her long time love from the side. "Are you going to fight them?"
"I killed Dark Aqua back then. If I come across her, I'll kill whatever my reflection calls herself. Or any other copy. They may look and think like they're alive, but they're just fabrications of this place."
Komachi knew that Karen wasn't really that cold blooded. It was something she told herself to justify fighting and killing those reflections. As for herself... she had tried to save Dark Mint... and failed. Was there any way to save her reflection? Or those of others? Would she gamble with her own life on it, now that she had finally gotten together with Karen?
"People are going to rely on you Komachi. Even if it's hard, you need to be ready to fight. I know that a lot of us think they can just sit back and let a few of the others do the fighting, but people get tired, wounded or simply can't go on at some point. I don't like this any more than you but... we all need each other. I need you."
Blushing a little, Komachi nodded. If Karen was that serious about it, she would fight too. Even if it meant facing an enemy that was just as alive as they were, just as desperate to survive. It was in her nature to hurt others. She was... just protecting those close to her.
"Do you want to go to the garden for a bit before we go to bed?" A little bit of relaxing would be good.
"Sure."
=== Dissonance ===
"Out of my way, Malice." Nightmare was staring down another reflection, having just arrived back in the former dark quarters. Now it was home to the reflections.
"Not so fast. Who tells me you're not Dream? It would be easy for her to impersonate you, sneak in here and then slowly kill us one by one while we sleep." A smug and devilish grin was playing around Malice's lips.
"Check my goddamn mirror to see the real Dream is in there, you impudent worm." Nightmare didn't flinch when Torment moved up to her in an instant, two golden glowing hand blades only centimeters from her throat. "Get off my ass Agony, before I beat you back into the mirror."
"Now, now, shouldn't we at least pretend we get along? They're going to help each other out over there, so let's postpone any bickering until later. Or maybe you all have a death wish? Is that it? Should I just ease your pain and send you oblivion right now? Just say the word." Leaned against the corner wall, Poison interrupted the heated conversation. Tiny, translucent walls of energy slowly grew around the other reflections, a clear and easy to understand threat.
"Rage, check her mirror." Malice nodded to the red reflection that had kept guard behind her back. Even now, they still were together. A bond that not even warped personalities could server.
"We should stop fighting... this isn't really what-" Another red reflection tried to pacify the mirrored Cures.
Blaze was hit in the face so hard that she flipped over and smashed into the wall. Nightmare had moved away from Agony so fast that the yellow reflection hadn't time to react. "Weird, I don't remember asking for your opinion. So why the hell are you talking? And what was that with you acting all high and mighty when we were over there, huh?" Blaze's blood was trickling from her fist.
"She's the real Nightmare." Rage had returned and reported to Malice, who wasn't pleased to hear that. She would have liked to get rid of that obstacle right now. But there would be more chances to do so. Many more. A sinister smile dominated her face as she turned away and left, both Rage and Agony following her.
Rage was bound to her by their unbreakable bond. She loved and hated Malice. She wanted to kill her and she wanted to sleep with her. Wanted to choke her and kiss her. Both emotions kept each other perfectly in check. Agony just followed whoever was the most likely to let her hurt others.
"Are you garbage now or did you just play around with them Poison?" Nightmare walked over to where Blaze had crashed into the wall. The red reflection was laying on the ground, whimpering and covering her face with her hands. "Shut the hell up, garbage!" Kicking Blaze repeatedly in the sides, Nightmare's face was distorted in anger. Only Dream! She had managed to kill only one of those useless idiots! Wasting their powers for bullshit like fighting to keep up order and good! Power was to be used, for yourself!
"Did I miss the memo that you became my boss now? I don't remember having to justify anything, especially not to a crazed maniac." Creating a barrier around herself, the green reflection showed a sadistic smile. She loved pushing people's buttons to see them break out in rage and anger.
"Think before you say something you'll regret. I'm not Dream. I don't put up with selfish bullshit." Finally leaving Blaze in peace, Nightmare walked away, pissed with the incompetence of everyone around her. She was the strongest, they should just follow her orders.
"Not the best relationship they have, do they?" Someone else had witnessed the full scene. She felt absolutely nothing for any of them. Not rage, not anger but also no pity. Her mind was like a machine, coldly manipulating the outcome of every scenario she could think of.
"Dawn... shouldn't we help Blaze? She looks like she's in pain." Dusk on the other hand was as simple as they came. Seeing Blaze in pain, she wanted to help her. She didn't question what would happen if she showed sympathy in front of the others. Her thoughts simply didn't reach that far.
"Don't be ridiculous. We have nothing to gain from helping her. There are too many risks of Poison or Nightmare witnessing it and becoming aggressive against us. How many are in the garden now?"
"I saw Hymn, Aurum, Umbra, Breeze, Freeze and Misery earlier. I feel so bad for them... they didn't want to hurt anyone but Malice rounded them up like animals, leaving Vulture and Wither to kill everyone that tries to leave."
"Think of it as natural selection. We only have use for the strong, those that can fight, so we can become the originals. Of course we can't look after the weak in a situation like this." Dawn looked around and only saw Poison remain there, seemingly blissfully enjoying Blaze's suffering. The look on her face was almost ecstatic. A complete sadist.
The first hour of the dark camp, the reflection camp, could be called the beginning of formations. Everyone split up into three large groups. Malice somehow ended up manipulating a lot of them into joining under her command. Wither, Vulture, Ember, Maelstrom and Hymn joined hands with her. Those Dusk just named were garbage. Reflections too friendly, carefree or just weak to be of any use in a fight. The last group wasn't as much a group as it was a lack thereof. They refused to answer to Malice but they were also not garbage. Either strong individuals or reflections smart enough to stay out of the way of the really dangerous ones. Herself and Dusk both belonged to the third group.
But Malice was not the only one making alliances. They might be called garbage, but not all of them were completely useless. Flare was had already joined up with Dawn and Dusk, and now she was monitoring Blaze. She could be a useful ally to spy on Nightmare, but there was the danger of her ending up as garbage.
"Dawn.. are we going to get something to eat? I'm really hungry." Dusk was, in more than one way, truly a simple girl.
On the other end of the hallway, Malice had just reached the garden, lifting Hymn up by her throat, staring her down. "Another chance? You blew it when you failed to do something so stupidly simple that even an ape can do it. Maybe we should change your name from Hymn to Offkey. How about it, Offkey? Feel like doing some singing for me?"
"You.. just because... I can't sing purger... don't be so... arroga-" Hymn couldn't finish her line as Malice dropped her and rammed her knee in Hymn's face, causing her to start a nosebleed.
"Oh did you say something, Offkey? I thought you said something stupid. Good thing I just imagined it. I would have to hurt you if you said something stupid." Stomping on Hymn's right hand with her left boot, Malice looked at her like she wasn't even worth being alive.
"Vulture, have any of them showed any sign of trying to get out? They're just going to put pressure on our side if they get caught and killed so keep them here." Malice looked at a white reflection who seemed very amused by watching Malice hurt Hymn.
"Sadly, none of them tried anything. Wither had some fun with Aurum, making her squeal but that's about it. I didn't join your side to keep playing guard dog Malice. When are we going to go out and take some heads?" Vulture was an unpleasant thing. A materialist to the core, she wanted her own original to be gone as soon as possible. Once it was guaranteed that she was the only one remaining, she didn't have to worry about anything else.
"Do as you're told and you'll get what you want. Switch with Wither occasionally to get some sleep. Agony, you stay here too. Just don't kill any of them." Walking away and leaving the yellow reflection with Vulture, Malice was already making plans for the next day. Right now, the confusion amongst the other team had to be at it's peak. Waiting till morning so they would let down their guard was just the first, simple, step of her operation.
And again, Dawn and Dusk were just around the corner, spying on Malice. They might all belong to the same team, but they didn't agree with each others methods in the slightest. Flare had just met up with the black and white duo. "Silence is in her room, relaxing without a care in the world. She's too strong to be garbage but she doesn't even seem interested in becoming a successor." The term that was spreading among the reflections for the one that remained after either the original or the reflection had been killed. "Fury was in the middle of raping Apathy when I found her. She looks like her mind is on a one way track. I couldn't find Azalea anywhere." They all knew each others names instinctively, they didn't have to check the mirrors for that. It was one of the advantages they had over the originals team.
"We should wait and see what Malice does. With any luck, she'll kill our originals in her ploys. We can always dispose of her after she becomes a successor." While she was a careful planner, Dawn didn't pretend to not want to become a successor. One side had to die, and she was kind of attached to living. Although she wouldn't mind exchanging Dusk for her original. She preferred someone intelligent as partner. Flare was fickle, easy to anger and a liar, but that was tolerable. She was only using her. For now.
Not too far away, down the hallway, Ember and Maelstrom took up guard duty. For now, Malice was running the show and while Ember was a cruel and efficient girl, she felt attached to the hopelessly clumsy Maelstrom. She just had a thing for klutzy girls.
"I didn't expect them to be able to counter Purger... I'm shocked." The blue reflection wasn't exactly the brightest either. Not incredibly simple like Dusk or Agony, but sufficiently so to classify her as garbage if on her own. Her abilities made her useful enough to save her from the garbage bin, the garden.
How ironic it was that the place her original created, someone who loved flowers and cared deeply for her friends, would end up as the prison for those reflections that were useless in a life or death battle. "Silence knew. And yet she didn't do anything. Hymn went straight to the garbage class as soon as Malice found out she won't be able to use her for Purger." Ember preferred to stay on the safe side of things. Joining Malice's group and doing as told would guarantee that she'd be able to monitor how things developed from a safe distance.
"I wonder if Silence doesn't like Hymn..." Maelstrom scratched her cheek and stared in the dark of the tunnel. Somewhere at the end of that path was the area the originals lived in. Even though she didn't have any competitive sense, she still had a drive in here that told her to want to survive. To kill the girl that looked just like her, on the other side.
"We're all opposites of our originals. Almost all the originals go along well with each other. It's not surprising we don't. But that's not going to stop me from living through this and becoming a successor." Ember leaned back and checked the area for people eavesdropping. She couldn't detect anyone at first glance.
"A successor?"
"One original, one reflection. The one that kills the other one is she who succeeds the right to be the survivor. The successor of whoever died. I don't know who of us came up with this, but it makes sense. It's easy to say, too." Ember didn't mind explaining things to Maelstrom.
Both of them were alarmed by footsteps that came closer quickly. Looking back, it was the first time they had seen her. Azalea. "Where are you going?" Ember only cared about intruders but she thought it beneficial to know where she was going.
"None of your business." The purple reflection's tone made clear that she wasn't going to answer any kind of question. Arrogance was virtually leaking out of her voice and glare. Prancing past the two on guard duty, she quickly vanished into the dark. She had her own plans.
"Arrogant bitch. Well, not surprising. The real one turned her personality around just a while ago. No wonder she's acting all high and mighty now. Maelstrom, don't mention to anyone we saw her." Monopolizing specific information could be very useful.
=== Dissonance ===
"I can't forget the way Michiru looked when she killed Aurora." Mai was laying flat on her stomach, arms crossed over her pillow, her head resting on her arms.
"Nothing good is going to come out of beating yourself up over this. They're doing what they think is right. And... in a way, I envy them. Imagining killing one of them, even though I know they're not really people... it's a horrible thing. Michiru and Kaoru don't seem to feel that way."
"That's a horrible thing to say. Their lack of empathy towards the reflections isn't something you should want. What if everyone thought that way?"
"Then nobody would be worried about the situation. We would kill them all and hopefully the system returns to normal. I'm not saying that's how it should be but... there is so much we worry about Mai. There's so much we suffered through in our lives when we think back on it. I could really do without feeling remorse for living on."
Mai didn't say anything because she knew that Saki had a point. Everyone had likely had their fill of suffering already. Feeling horrible and possibly worse because the situation forced them to kill to live on... nobody needed that now.
In a way, Kaoru and Michiru really were to be envied. In any other situation, envy might very well have been pity. And the sisters were fully aware of that.
Sleeping back to back, Michiru couldn't stop staring at her own hands. She didn't regret killing Aurora, but she couldn't shake off the feeling that she was supposed to feel something. But there was nothing. No pity, no regret, nothing at all. It was like destroying the life of someone else was a natural action for her. "Are we monsters?" Michiru's voice was calm and composed.
"There is no real answer to that. To someone, somewhere, we're monsters. To others, we might be saints. To others again, we might not matter either way." Kaoru's answer was as theoretical as the question had been. "Saki and Mai would never see us as monsters. They've known us for so long, they understand we're doing this to protect everyone."
"Shouldn't we still feel at least sorry for those we kill? Isn't a lack of pity a sign that we're lacking humanity?" Michiru turned her head slightly, looking up.
"The whole point of us being able to fight the reflections more easily and without restraint is that we don't feel pity for them. They're the enemy. We dispatch the enemy. If we are monsters, then so is every soldier in the world."
"An all-out war between originals and reflections... that might just be what this really is. No matter which side wins, they'll still be trapped in this space. There is no real winner. Only the illusion of being one. The reflections used Purger without warning. That's equal to a surprise nuclear strike, isn't it?"
"You're stretching the analogy too far now. But I suppose it does justify any kind of revenge strike against them. Come to think of it, why did you kill Aurora that quickly? We could have tortured her for information."
"Everyone was confused and under a lot of stress. They would've never been able to rationalize torture for information in a situation like that. If I hadn't killed her, this would have turned into a much more severe situation. I suppose I was actually worried that Mai and Saki would not let us kill her at all."
"They still understand the situation. They might hate it, loathe it, despise it. But they know that they're not going to get around it, one way or another. Most of the others know, too. I'm worried about who will be able to fight, though." Kaoru closed her eyes and went through an imaginary list of names.
"Rouge will have motivation to avenge Dream. Lemonade seems like the type to not have any problem killing. Black and White will manage. I don't know enough about the others."
"We'll see eventually. In the worst case scenario, we can separate them, I knock them out with Stormflair and you break their neck or otherwise kill them. Subsequently, you'll carry me and escape. If we keep that up, we'll decimate them one by one. But... let's not discuss this anymore tonight. I don't want to fall asleep and dream about assassinating reflections." Kaoru, even though she didn't feel pity for Aurora, did not enjoy the act of killing. No matter what kind of life form the reflections were. They were alive.
"You're right. I can do without a dream like that too." Making a long pause, Michiru sighed. "I wonder if this is what people feel like when they want to get drunk to have a deep, dreamless sleep."
"You have favor, wish for it. I don't mind either way but I'd rather have a clear head tomorrow."
Turning around and wrapping her arms around her sister, Michiru simply closed her eyes. She didn't need to say anything else. The next day would be long and stressful.
=== Dissonance ===
"Was that song your ability? Does everyone from your team know one of these?" Urara was helping herself to some sandwiches she had made, while Ako was still finishing up her own.
"No, that's different from our Cure powers. Beat and I are originally from a fairy world called Major Land. You can guess, it's ruled and governed by music. Beat used to be one of our most powerful song fairies back then when she was still called Siren. I didn't know that she was able to use Hymnos until I heard her sing Purger."
"So it's that, some kind of fairy power? I'm surprised you didn't use it earlier than this, like in a battle. It seems ridiculously powerful." Finding her sandwich to be a bit lacking, she grabbed the mayonnaise and put some between bread and cabbage.
"They're not really designed to be used in battle. I know three Hymnos right now and only one of them has an offensive effect. Or at least that's what I think. I haven't used any of them except Suspend. I can't even use that one properly."
"You're the princess of this Major Land thing, right? I remember catching something about that. I'd have expected you to do this with ease."
Ako grit her teeth. She didn't want to tell Urara the reason she failed to use the full Hymnos. Ellen could sing Purger in it's full form and of course, her mother was capable of wielding the Hymnos as ruler of Major Land. It was a power that grew together with a person, over time. If she really was eighteen, she would have been able to sing all of Suspend. "It's not that easy."
"Hmm... can everyone in Major Land use this stuff? Sounds like a very handy power." Finishing her sandwich, Urara leaned against a shelf filled with pots and pans. "I'd like to have some kind of inherent power too."
"I know of six people that can use Hymnos, but one of them is probably not even aware of what it is. Beat and I are two of them. The other four are either very powerful song fairies or royal family." The Melody of Sorrow was in fact a Hymnos created by Mephisto and Siren, the Melody of Happiness in its current form the work of Aphrodite and Hummy. It took enormous power to create a functional Hymnos.
"So what do the other two do? I'm not sure what this Suspend did, but it stopped Beat's reflection." Urara was losing interest and tried to shift the topic to something more useful. Practical application of Muse's power.
"I never tried to use them or seen anyone use them. My mother taught me both of them."
"Wow, that's really boring. Anyway, let's go. We're up for the next shift and I don't want to have to listen to Sunshine's or Melody's bitching when we're late."
"Boring...? You're really..." Shaking her head, Ako sighed deeply and ignored that part of Urara's comment. She had gotten used to her to the point where things like this no longer made her angry. Grabbing her sandwich and leaving the kitchen, Ako followed the yellow Cure. Looking at her back, she was wondering just how much longer this weird status quo was going to last.
Should she reject or accept Lemonade? Both choices were confusing her to some degree and both ways had parts to them she really feared. Being with Urara was fun, so if she rejected her, that would end. With Ellen, Hibiki and Kanade busy with their own business, it would be pretty lonely. Accepting her would inevitably lead to revealing that she was just a middle school girl.
Seeing Melody jump up and down in anger from the distance and hearing Sunshine's laughter made it pretty obvious that there was some teasing going on. Ako didn't have any patience left for Hibiki and her relationships. The situation calmed down instantly when Sunshine seemed to say something. Seeing Hibiki switch from angry to docile was something new to Ako.
Itsuki stood up and faced Lemonade before they had arrived at the makeshift guard post. By sheer coincidence, she happened to be just as tall as Muse. Even Hibiki was slightly taller than Lemonade, which seemed to piss off the chain user. "Time for us to settle down and grow roots. I'm so excited, yay." Urara was saying it with such thick sarcasm that nobody bothered to respond. They didn't want to instigate a fight. "Anything odd during your shift?"
"I thought I heard steps down the tunnel once but I could have imagined it." Itsuki knew just how vital even the tiniest bit of info could be, so she reported even things like this faithfully.
"Anything else?" Urara didn't like the job but if she had to do it, she'd do it right.
In the meantime, Hibiki approached Ako. "You were kinda cool back then when you stopped Ellen's reflection, Ako. Just as expected from the princess of Major Land. But I was surprised you didn't reve-" Hibiki shut up when Ako suddenly glared at her like she had said something really bad.
"Sorry, just tired." The damage was likely done now but she didn't want to make it worse, just in case. If she had to make up a lie to even out Hibiki's loose mouth, then she should at least keep the information leak to a minimum.
"Hibiki, are you coming?" Itsuki had walked a few steps ahead and was now calling for the pink Cure. Without another word, the girl left both her friend and Lemonade behind.
"Is Melody always this hyper? It's grating on my nerves. Reminds me uncomfortably of Rin back in the day." Sitting down on a large stone, Urara was already bored with herself. She should have brought something to drink. But then again, getting drunk on guard duty would make the others pretty damn mad. Most likely.
"Funny that you should say that. Given what happened with her and Kanade, I'm surprised to not see her sulking like crazy. I guess this time is different from their usual little fights."
"Well, Rhythm probably went and fucked Rin. And with the kind of attitude she had, she probably also went and rubbed it right in Melody's face."
"I didn't know about that. When did that happen?"
"I'm saying probably. Got no idea if she really did. I happened to be there when Rhythm got herself kicked out of Sunshine's room, cursing and boiling in her own anger."
"And you just happened to say something to make it all worse, didn't you?" Ako knew Urara well enough to guess that much.
"Maybe. But girls like that only learn things only the hard way. I'm not going to feel guilty just because she doesn't have a grip on her priorities."
"Not everyone sees the world as cynical as you do. Kanade is a pretty sweet and trusting girl. She was always kind of infatuated with Hibiki, so no surprise she'd react crazy if something happened."
"Infatuated? They looked like they couldn't decide if they hated or loved each other. It really pissed me off. That bitch almost blew my head off once during one of their damn fights, you know?"
"Too infatuated. She cares about her so much, she's got problems with seeing the big picture. Or anything around Hibiki."
"Your team sucks."
"I don't want to hear that from you of all people."
"Touche."
The conversation died down instantly after that. Urara started to play with a few small rocks and after a few minutes stood up to completely seal off the tunnel entrance with dozens of golden chains. "Saves us the trouble of checking for Aqua's reflection."
"You think my team is going to end up like yours?" Ako was depressed by the possibility of that.
"I think you're asking the wrong person. If you look at it, out of the six that were on our team, I'm by far the worst when it comes to making an effort to get the team back together. Honestly, I just don't think I can go back to how things were when we were younger. No matter how much Rin or Nozomi want that." Urara stretched out her hand, plunged a chain into a nearby wall and started placing stones on it.
"Maybe they don't want that either. It's been years, right? They all must have changed. You should at least give them a chance."
"Who knows. Nozomi's dead. I wouldn't be surprised if Rin is going to change for the worse after this. Sure, Kurumi got a grip, apparently, but that's still a long way. And for what? I got my own life now. There's really nothing- what the fuck was that for?" Lemonade rubbed her head after Ako had punched her just hard enough to make it hurt.
"Listen to yourself! That's excuses piled on excuses. In your words, it's total bullshit." Ako wasn't really shouting but her voice was definitely raised a pitch or two.
Urara grit her teeth. Yeah, those were all excuses. "So what about it? I can't make excuses? I'm a saint now or something?"
"No, you can't make excuses. Because I like the part of you that's honest with yourself." She couldn't say it without blushing just a little. Using the word like was still a bit weird for her.
"Of all the things I got you just had to pick that. That's so ridiculously cliché. And goddamn unfair. Fine, fine, I won't make excuses then. I'm scared, okay? There, I said it! Happy now? Did that shatter your image of who I am? The independent and strong Urara's scared she'll be rejected by her friends, oh wow. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"Yes, that's what I wanted to hear. Because you're just human, like the rest of us. Everyone has something they're afraid of."
"So what are you afraid of the most, huh? I should get to know since you know my dirty little secret now."
"That is..."
=== Dissonance ===
"Nightmare and Malice moved just like I predicted... what simple girls. Aw, that's a good girl. Come here." Poison sat in the garden on a bench, the grass below her feet rotting away, the air around her smelling foul. Freeze was cowering at her feet, a large trickle of blood running from her temple and her calves. Her breathing was weak, her eyes unfocused, her expression a painful distortion of her original carefree and simple look
"Agony did a good job... your pained expression is delightful. Ah... it's making me feel hot." Raising her foot and stomped on Freeze's back, the green reflection moaned in delight. Grabbing her right breast, she started to grope herself.
Freeze eyes were filled with fear, knowing that Poison hated her but loved to torture her. And yet she loved to be near her, loved to see that delighted expression when she expressed her pain and fear. A completely warped relationship of hate, torment and one-sided love.
"Anyone pointed out to you yet that you're a sick fuck?" Hymn's voice was a shadow of it's former self, the lingering effect of Suspend still hurting her. That Malice had nearly crushed her throat when she disappointed her hadn't helped either.
"Is that you wanting some love too, Offkey?" The belittling name for Hymn had spread among all the more aggressive orientated reflections. And Poison was one of the biggest sadists among them, only surpassed by Nightmare and Malice, who both had their own favorite type of suffering.
"Don't call me that!" Hymn was about to jump at the green reflection when a thin water beam pierced her upper arm. The bloodied Freeze looked up at the blue reflection that had been declared garbage by Malice.
"How dare you try and touch my Poison." Freeze's face was immediately buried in the slightly wet ground, smearing it with mud. The boot placed on her head was keeping her down.
"I must have misheard something. Did this worm just call me her Poison? All this garden stuff must be getting to me, I'm hallucinating. I think what you were saying..." Lifting her boot and pulling on Freeze's long hair, the blue reflection gasped for air, each breath painful and yet her face was filled with happiness over being touched by her love. "Beloved Mistress Poison... isn't that right, garbage?" Not once would she address Freeze by her name.
"Yes... mistress Poison." And right back into the mud. Poison's face was showing an ice cold grin. Talking through the mud as Poison continued to put pressure on her head, Freeze corrected herself. "Be..loved... Miss...Mistress...Poison..."
"Now that's better." Letting up and looking at Hymn, the former member of Malice's group averted her face in disgust. She didn't care for friendship or camaraderie but this was making her puke. Even someone like Malice wasn't as corrupt as this. She just liked to see people suffer but Poison took it to a whole new level with Freeze.
Walking away, Hymn looked at the others that were here, in the green prison. Agony had gone to sleep after beating up Freeze badly and both Wither and Vulture were busy making out at the entrance. Trying to escape wasn't going to be of any use. Where would she go? The others were all working alone, and Malice had no more use for her. The originals would kill her on sight, too.
Or would they? She didn't care for any of the other reflections but she did want to survive herself. Maybe there was some kind of deal she could make with the originals. Selling out the position, personalities, numbers, details of the system... yes... that should work. They would let her live. She could always find a more... permanent solution by herself.
But now was not the time. She had just attacked the originals with Purger and they retaliated with Suspend. Hearing Freeze cry out in pain from behind, followed by an outburst of moaning from Poison, she didn't even want to look back.
Finding Misery crying in a corner, Hymn couldn't help but feel a little pity. She was there when Malice had kicked her out for being useless. Tearing her costume to shreds, leaving her cold and naked on the cold stone ground, Rage and Agony pulled her up by her long Lavender colored hair, laughing at her, mocking her, hurting her by cutting and punching her. Malice just watched, a few steps away, her expression almost complete indifference. And just as Agony and Rage were done, she smiled. "How about this..." Taking Agony's hand and brutally pushing her fingers apart, Malice grabbed the yellow blade. Pulling up the crying and pleading Misery by her hair, Malice proceeded to completely tear up said hair. Each cut worse than the one before, Misery more closely resembled an abandoned puppet whose hairpiece had been destroyed by a fire and an angry puppy than a human.
Still not satisfied, Malice carved deep cuts in her face, legs and back, completely scarring her head to feet. About to pass out from blood loss, they stopped, not willing to free her from the burden and shame of living on, disfigured like a monster.
The girl was still sobbing even though she couldn't shed any more tears. Since they were not really human and had no civilian form, she couldn't even turn back and transform again to at least have something to cover herself. Her name was really befitting now... Misery.
Despite her nature, she wanted to help the girl just a little. But she couldn't let anyone see it. If Malice found out, she'd definitely target her next, maybe even kill her. She couldn't risk that, not with her current plan of saving herself.
"Sorry..." She didn't know she could even feel that way. The system had created them as polar opposites of what their originals were, but even so... seeing the girl treated like that was too much to bear.
But the situation was really the worst. Looking to her right, Breeze and Umbra were sleeping on large branches like they didn't have a care in the world. They were... chaos. Every emotion one could think of, they took to the absolute extreme. A real bother. Not even Agony dared to mess with them, seeing as anger was a perfectly valid emotion for them. And they did have some very troublesome powers.
Apathy was nowhere to be seen. Fury was probably either still raping her or doing otherwise horrible things. She couldn't understand why Fury's attraction to Apathy remained intact. If their personalities were warped, they should hate each other.
Aurum, much like Umbra and Breeze, didn't seem to have a care in the world. She was too naive to get legitimately angry, which made her a prime target for Agony. The yellow reflection was laying unconscious in a puddle of her own blood that had already dyed the grass red. She seemed still alive, but it was only a matter of time before Agony took it too far and killed her. Even with all the sadistic behavior, Aurum didn't seem to be able to get mad or even distrust Agony.
She was feeling dizzy and tired. Sitting down in a well hidden corner, in tall grass behind a few bushes, Hymn closed her eyes, trying to get some rest. But she couldn't. Not even a minute passed before she got up again, checked carefully that nobody saw her and dragged Misery away.
Patting her head didn't seem enough to calm her down. They'd find them if she kept weeping. Tearing out parts of her own costume, mostly from her skirt, she started bandaging the cuts, covering up Misery as good as she could. She didn't manage to cover more than underwear would, but it was enough to make Misery stop crying. "Thanks... you're so nice..." Her voice was still whiny and weak, and not even a full ten seconds passed before she fell asleep, leaned against the wall.
"I'm not nice at all..." Hymn covered half of her face with her right hand. She wasn't nice at all. She really only cared about her own survival. But she couldn't ignore someone that was so obviously being harassed and hurt. Aurum was a different case as her personality basically caused her to be Agony's target and there was nothing she could do about it. But Misery was just meek and without self-esteem.
"What am I doing? Shit..." She didn't regret it, but she would have to find a way to get away without someone noticing her torn costume. She could maybe fault Nightmare or Poison for it if it came to that... "Forget killing originals... I got worse enemies right here." Hymn sat down next to Misery, the two of them well hidden behind the greenery. Another loud moan from Poison echoed through the room, followed by another outcry from Freeze. "This place is the worst..."
=== Dissonance ===
"Erika, you know Lemonade... don't you think those two were fighting?" Tsubomi and her partner had relieved the yellow and the black Cure from guard duty after their time was up. Erika was in a sour mood, as she had just started to make out with Tsubomi when Muse had called out to them from the entrance of the garden, telling them they were almost half an hour late.
"Who knows... I don't really know her that well. Or well at all. But she did look pretty pissed off." Bored with herself, Erika used a small stone to play tic tac toe with herself, drawing white lines on the wall and erasing them with a bit of water afterwards.
"I wonder what happened. Maybe they don't like each other?"
"Tsubomi, can we not talk about this? I don't really care what Lemonade is doing." Not only did it remind her uncomfortably of that one night stand, making her horny on top of being annoyed, but it also kept reminding her that stuff just kept getting in the way of her sleeping with Tsubomi.
Ignoring Erika's feisty attitude, Tsubomi focused on their actual job, guard duty. The silence, only disturbed by the scratching of stones, got awkward quick but Erika didn't feel like talking anyway. It had been a long day and even she got tired at some point. The adrenaline and excitement from making out with Tsubomi had worn off by now and there was no way she could continue that here.
"Tsubomi... remember when we fought our inner selves? Do you think you'll be able to handle fighting something that looks just like you or me?" Erika stopped playing around, looking at the ground. As much as she wanted to forget about the situation at hand, she couldn't. There was no way to run away from it.
"...I don't... I don't know. I can fight the others in battles just fine but... this isn't just a match. This is real... isn't it?" She had avoided thinking about it because there wasn't an answer to that question.
"Fighting myself was easy... at least when I think about it now. As soon as I figured out what it was all about, it was a cinch. But this is different, yeah... I... want to think of them as nothing more than puppets, but it's not really working."
"You saw Nightmare up close, right? What was it like?" Tsubomi looked over to her partner, who seemed to worry surprisingly much about the issue. She had expected Erika to have come up with some kind of plan by now.
"I'd by lying out my teeth if I just called her a monster. We saw Dune... Sabaaku... Dark Precure. They all had some level of evil to them, but this... I know there are some really despicable people out there in this world. Nightmare has to be among the worst you can imagine. You know what kind of expression she was showing when she had impaled Dream with her hand?" Erika shivered when she recalled the scene. Feeling the flames on her skin, the heat, she still felt cold as ice seeing the scene. "Imagine a young child that had just gotten a toy it wanted for a long time. And it's a present from the parents it loves so very much. That type of expression. Pure, undiluted joy. I feel sick just thinking about it."
"I can't believe something... like that spawned off Dream. From what I heard, she was quite the idealist..." Tsubomi didn't want to imagine what kind of monster her reflection was.
"That's just it. An idealist, someone who loves people and wants everyone to get along... the opposite of that is a complete and utter monster. Someone with no compassion and complete disregard for life. Nightmare really suits her... because she's a living one." Erika shivered again, feeling really sick now.
"Erika, you're pale..." Getting up and walking over to her partner, Tsubomi could see with the naked eye that her love was having goosebumps. "Was it really that...?"
"It's... not something you can just explain with words. Her presence, her expression... the way she looked... I'm never going to forget that. Not for as long as I live. But I'm happy that you didn't see it. If I were to face her, I'm not sure I could fight. Honestly... I'm afraid. If there are more monsters out there like her, I want to run away."
Tsubomi sat down and embraced her partner, shocked by how disturbed Erika was. She had seen Yuri react to death with anger and rage. But to see the usually confident and proud Marine scared of something... that was frightening on it's own. "You don't have to fight alone. I'm always by your side."
"That sounds really corny Tsubomi." Erika wrestled with herself to show a meek smile before she just closed her eyes, seeking refuge in the embrace of her partner. Nightmare's expression and laughter were burned into her mind. It was a lot worse than facing Dune. "But... I'm happy you say that. I don't want to be alone with those things running around outside."
"It feels odd to be the one reassuring you... usually it's the other way around."
"I'll be back to my old self in no time. Just let me soak up a bit more Tsubomi energy."
"Geez, even now you say silly stuff..."
=== Dissonance ===
Morning came eventually. Tsubomi and Erika traded places with Bright and Windy. The dining hall, previous the living room, had been expanded and was now able to fit everyone inside. Hikari, Kurumi, Saki were joined by Kanade after a while. Nobody said anything about her fight with Hibiki or her general behavior. They did well to forget about things like that when there were much bigger problems at hand.
"Karen, you seen Rin?" Urara was, much to the surprise of a few others, alone and not with Muse. People were already whispering and spreading rumors if something had happened between them.
"Not this morning. Did you talk to her yet? She's taking the whole affair with Nozomi pretty badly..." By now, the news of reflections and, likely, originals being imprisoned in the mirrors and not being completely dead yet had spread to everyone.
"If there's an explosion in a few minutes, that's just me slapping her out of bed. This isn't the time to seclude yourself in a room and sulk. We got to try and take Nozomi back." Walking off without waiting for an answer or even acknowledgment of her words, Urara left behind a rather worried couple.
"Looks like she won't have any problems fighting the reflections..." Komachi hadn't slept very well, mostly because she kept worrying.
"That's a good thing. Morning Inori." Aqua greeted the yawning and somewhat tired looking yellow Cure. Just lifting her hand and walking over to where the rest of her team plus Beat was, Inori kept yawning twice more before she sat down on a chair and immediately leaned back, closing her eyes.
"Were you up the whole night fantasizing about something?" Miki's jab hit the mark and Inori glared at her for a second before she returned to tired mode. "Wow, scary."
"You three really have no care in the world, don't you? I wish I could have a happy-go-lucky attitude like that." Turning to Love and Setsuna, the blue Cure sighed. She was really worried about Moonlight, who seemed to be stuck in exile.
"If you're so worried about Moonlight, why don't you go and look for her?" Inori sent a jab right back. Eye for an eye.
"What's this about Yuri?" Erika had only heard Pine say Moonlight and nothing else. Tsubomi was missing from the table, having gone to the garden to check on things before she ate breakfast.
"Lovebird here is worried about her crush being stuck in exile." Inori was in a really bad mood and realized too late that she was blabbering too much.
"You have a crush on Yuri? Wow, tough luck. I'm sorry to tell you that she's already going out with someone." Marine shook her head twice and laid her hand on Berry's shoulder. "You should give up before you're let down by her. Yuri's a real snow woman."
"You're Marine, from Moonlight's team. And yet you don't even know that she's going to end her relationship with that other girl? Some close teammates you are." Love could smell a storm brewing but Miki could be pretty stubborn. If she tried to stop them from arguing, she'd only make it worse.
"Yuri's going to dump my sister? You must be hallucinating. They work and live together. You must have misunderstood something there." Erika couldn't believe nonsense like that. Who did Berry think she was to say that?
"Go ask her yourself when she comes back. She's been dealing with a lot of stress because her partner isn't a Cure. Not only do we have the same job but Yuri told me that I even look like her girlfriend."
"It was funny for a bit but you're going over the line now. Yuri's not the kind that would just dump my sister. So you better take that back."
"Maybe you don't know your precious sister or teammate as good as you think you do? I've got no reason to take back the truth, so if you can't handle that, you should get out of my sight."
Both girls stared at each other. Erika was a lot smaller than Berry, so even with Berry sitting and her standing, there wasn't much of a difference. The tension in the air was quickly raising and Inori could feel the pressure of guilt now. Her loose mouth caused this to happen.
"Okay, that's enough. How about both of you wait until Moonlight actually shows up so you can ask her. Might all just be some kind of misunderstanding." Stopping the fighting by putting her arms between the two and slowly separating them, Love couldn't believe that both of them were arguing like little girls.
"Stay out of this Love. This doesn't concern you." Miki was stubborn about not backing off from the argument.
"Yeah, this has nothing to do with you." Erika shared the notion of not leaving that argument unresolved. "Why would Yuri chose you over my sister? She doesn't even know you! To begin with, when did you even ask her?"
"So many easy questions. I talked to her during negotiations and told her I wanted her. And I kept doing that. As for why she'd chose me, isn't that obvious? I'm perfect."
"Perfectly arrogant, sure. My sister works as a well known model. She even lives with Yuri. You got no chance." Erika sneered and shrugged. If that was all Berry had going for her claims, then this was already over.
"What's her name? If she's so famous, I should know of her. Since I'm a model too."
"Momoka Kurumi."
Miki burst out in laughter, covering her mouth quickly and shaking her head. "You're comparing her with me? You really don't know anything, do you? If she's well known, I'm famous."
Both of them started to stare at each other around the same time, looking like they were ready to literally start a fight in the dining hall. The angry glares from the Cures around them stopped them short. They had enough problems with the reflections, they didn't need in-fighting.
"This isn't over. Yuri is mine." Miki leered at Erika and turned away, before she did actually hit the small girl.
"Over my dead body." Stomping away and sitting back down next to Tsubomi, both of the blue Cures did not talk to anyone during breakfast, too pissed off.
=== Dissonance ===
Not even bothering to knock, Urara marched straight into Rin's room. The bed was a total chaos of blanket, limbs and golden hair sticking out at random, Rouge and Rhythm sleeping back to back. Urara was surprised to find the room not reeking of sex considering how long Rin had been on her own.
Taking a few steps forward and pulling the blanket as hard as she could, Urara didn't expect the two of them to be this tangled up in it. Rin was a messy sleeper alright but that she dragged Rhythm in it was unexpected. Both girls hit the ground, Kanade cushioned by Rin, the former in Cure form, the latter naked and in civilian form. "You bitch... don't you know any other way than this to wake me up?" Rin's mood was at an all-time low right off the bat.
"Urara, what are you doin-" Ako had tracked down the yellow Cure after finally getting out of bed herself. Seeing Rin naked was too much. Turning around and waiting outside the room, Ako tried to hide her flushed face. To see Kanade with Rouge was unexpected, too. "Here I was wondering why I saw you in Rouge's room but why did I expect anything other than you being up to no good?"
"Get your ass in gear Rin. We're going to track down that idiot clone of Nozomi and give her a royal beating like the world hasn't seen before. Alternatively, I'll snap her neck and you burn what's left of her." Urara was more pissed than she was shocked at Nozomi's supposed death. The more she asked around and thought about it, the less likely it seemed that she really was dead. From a psychological perspective, leaving a corpse that would rot and for which there was no way to get rid of would have been much more effective. And a sadistic bastard like Nightmare wouldn't have passed up a chance like that.
"I should burn you for kicking me out of bed like this for the umpteenth time. Kanade, how long are you going to be shocked and act like a iron weight on me? Get... off." Shoving the girl away, the confused Rhythm hit the ground and got up, not quite sure what kind of reaction she should deal with first. Thank god she had decided to sleep as Cure, even though she had taken off quite a bit of her costume.
Urara, satisfied with the reaction, turned around and walked out of the room. "That's not the first time you see a woman naked, get a grip Ako." Teasing the girl while she stepped past the black Cure, Urara laughed as she started pouting.
"Don't say stuff that Kanade is going to misunderstand! It's not my fault when you switch to civilian form right in front of me!"
"I didn't say who you had seen naked. You stepped in that pile all by yourself." Grinning, Urara kept walking toward the dining hall, Ako right behind her. By the time they arrived, everyone was already eating and chattering. It didn't look one bit like they were facing a dangerous enemy that knew everything about them.
Beside Rouge and Rhythm, only Bloom and Egret were missing, having the current guard shift. Black and White would switch with them as soon as breakfast was done. Sitting down to the right of Blossom, an angry Marine leering at nobody in particular next to the pink Cure, Ako took the spot left of Urara.
Too lazy to ask, Urara extended a smaller version of her chains down the table and got a hold of a bread basket, taking out two bread rolls, then holding the basket, with the chain, up to Ako, who also took two rolls.
Ako noticed only now that Hibiki was sitting two spots to the left, Sunshine between them. "Morning Hibiki." In a way it was fascinating how every single Cure on their team ended up hanging out with someone from another team. "Slept well?"
"Like a rock. Was just as heavy, too. You're going on a diet, Hibiki." Answering for Hibiki, Itsuki laughed at the flushed face of her partner, who immediately started complaining.
"It's not my fault that-" Ako finished that sentence for her with a smug grin.
"That you can't keep still even when asleep? Oh that's totally your fault Hibiki. You two sleep in the same room?" Ako didn't have any bad intentions by asking, but it did seem to annoy Hibiki a little.
"Keeping my beloved close to me. Although she keeps kicking and hitting me, even after we have se-" Itsuki flinched under the elbow jab from her Hibiki, who was all but keen to tell a thirteen year old girl about her sex life. Especially not if said girl had a sharp tongue.
"Ako has a really light sleep, wakes up every time I as much as grope her." Saying it completely nonchalantly, Urara bit in a dumpling topped with some cheese, not even bothering to look at the other three. Ako was grateful for that since if she had looked, Hibiki's extremely awkward face would have been a dead giveaway that something was up.
"Itsuki, switch places with Ako for a bit." The look in Hibiki's eyes made pretty clear that this was important to her. Getting up, looking at Muse and nodding in direction of her teammate, Itsuki sat down next to Urara, who completely ignored the development, absorbed into creating a monstrosity of bread and cheese.
"I've been wondering about this for a while now... but what's going on with you and Lemonade?" Hibiki had lowered her voice, sensible enough to not let everyone hear about this.
"You're asking the wrong person. I wish I knew what I was doing. It's fun to be with her and I like her but I'm not sure I'm ready to be romantically interested."
"She's at least five years older than you! Don't you think it's... a bit sick for an adult to be interested in a middle school girl?" Hibiki hesitated a bit before she said sick as that was a pretty strong accusation.
"If you tell her I'm only thirteen and this isn't what I actually look like, we're through, completely and permanently. I'm not saying anything about you hooking up with Sunshine, heck, I'm even thinking it might be good for you since you and Kanade have been really fighting too much. I expect the same level of tolerance from you." Ako's glare sent a shiver down Hibiki's spine. She wasn't joking.
"But... isn't it weird for you? True, Itsuki is older than me, but not by that much... You're younger than I was when I first got to be a Cure and Lemonade is-" Hibiki stopped her sentence midway when she saw Ako's annoyed look.
"The only thing that's weird right now is that you, who kept fighting with Kanade, was too dense to ever notice her feelings for you, and is generally an air head, is trying to explain to me that my relationship with Urara is weird. I like it. And I got more control over this than you have over your disputes with Kanade. I appreciate you being worried but this is my life. I'm going to deal with it. By myself." Getting up and tipping Itsuki on the shoulder, the yellow Cure switched back to her old seat, finding a worried and somewhat beaten Hibiki.
"I heard everything, sorry." Itsuki had really good hearing. "She's... got a bit of a point though. I understand if you're worried about your friend, but you can't make a decision for her. And you probably shouldn't try to talk others out of relationships. That's kind of shooting yourself in the foot." Kissing Hibiki on the cheek, Itsuki turned around when she heard a loud thud. Rouge had walked past Urara's back and hit her head with the back of her hand. Kanade walked past Hibiki with a sore look on her face, Hibiki turning away, not even looking at her former partner.
Sitting down next to Peach, who had first Passion and then Beat to her right, Rin didn't bother to wait for Kanade to sit down to her left before she started eating. She had courtesy enough to hand the white Cure the bread basket, but she didn't talk to her. Their relationship, if it could even be called that, was built on thin ice.
Eating in silence until Peach got up and left for the bathroom, Karen used the chance to take her seat for a little while. Setsuna and Ellen were talking amongst themselves so they didn't mind. "Are you okay Rin?" It was a little awkward to talk to her. In the past, they had never gotten along well and when the team had broken up, they had maybe exchanged a dozen words ever since.
"As okay as any of us can be after seeing Nozomi get killed by her reflection. I'm not going to be a child and act all stubborn because we haven't talked in years, if that is what you're worried about. We're past the age of doing stuff like that."
"You changed a lot. I'm happy to see you're not secluding yourself in your room or in shock over what happened to Nozomi."
"Being in shock and playing shut-in is not going to improve our chances of getting Nozomi back. Going by the way Urara is acting, beside the usual high and mighty, she thinks it's possible." Biting in her bread, Rin noticed that Kanade was very intently watching her conversation with Karen.
"Honoka, Miki and a few others think so too. There are too many weird things going on to assume that she's really dead. Most of all, I don't want to believe it."
"I doubt any of us do. Sure, she can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, but Nozomi is Nozomi. We know and love her even with all of her faults."
"I'm not sure if you're praising or harassing her now." Cracking a embarrassed smile, Karen saw Rin smile for a little bit.
"Neither am I. But that's how things are. We're still a team, even if we're not the way we were back then."
"Rin... to be honest, I'm happy we can talk like this. I actually expected you to just argue with me, like we did in old times."
"It's not just you who grew up Karen. I'm turning twenty in about half a year and I'm trying to make the regulars on the national team. I can't afford to act like a teenager forever. Even Nozomi, imagine this, even Nozomi grew up and acted more like an adult... before we came here. As soon as she turns into Dream, it's all ideals this, ideals that."
"Well, that's who she is. And we can't say it's not thanks to her that we're still alive today. She saved us quite a few times. I'll see you later Rin. Thanks for talking."
"Sure." Rin was surprised at herself for how mature she had handled that. Karen and her had always been at each others throats, but maybe hanging out with Urara so much, and of course, getting older gave her a new perspective on things.
Looking to the side and seeing the depressed Kanade, it was quite obvious that she realized that this was how grown-ups were supposed to deal with issues, not act like a mass of jealousy and a little girl. Her behavior was not any better than when she had been fourteen.
"Stop pulling that sullen face. You messed up, but this isn't something you can't fix. For now... well.. I guess I do kind of want you to stay with me." Rin watched Kanade's look change to surprised and finally embarrassed. "Jeez, I'd never think you're really.. what, sixteen, seventeen? Getting embarrassed over that."
Her usual behavior didn't fly with Rin, so Kanade had to think through what she said before she actually opened her mouth. It was a completely new experience for her. Just saying whatever and fighting with Hibiki was something she had done for so long, it was difficult to break free from it. Which resulted in her being very, very quiet.
"I guess it's a little ironic that I'm the one lecturing you about the constant fighting with Melody. Aqua and I used to be at each others throats for every little thing. We weren't interested in each other the way you and Melody are, though."
"That just now didn't give me that impression at all..." Kanade could see her point but it was still hard to swallow. Getting stubborn and angry now would only take away her last connection to the group. Rin was, right now, the only one who talked to her.
"Of course not. I'm talking about when we were around fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, that range. Basically, for as long as we were very active as Cures. When we got older, we mellowed out. I guess I did, mostly."
"So you think it's my fault?"
"Most of it, probably. This is just me taking a wild guess, but you're really horrid at dealing with jealousy, right?"
Kanade didn't say anything and just let her head hang. By now, she had long realized that she had trouble dealing with stuff like that. She didn't need Rin to tell her that.
"Nailed it. Well, then there is your problem. Or at least one of them."
"So what am I supposed to do? It's not like I can just suddenly pretend I don't care!" And there she was, jumping back into old habits.
"Nobody said anything about not caring or pretending. Stop jumping to conclusions and extremes. I can't give you any advice on dealing with that little problem of yours." Even though she didn't specify why, it was pretty obvious that Rin didn't exactly have tons of experience with relationships herself.
Just to the right of them was the prime example of no jealousy whatsoever. Much to Ellen's embarrassment, Setsuna had somehow convinced her to be fed by her and Love. Having cut down cheese into cubes and picking them up with a long toothpick, Setsuna held it in front of Ellen's face. "Say ahh~" The red Cure was smiling so wide, it only served as additional source of shame.
Eyes closed and half her face as red as Passion's costume, Ellen leaned forward, parted her lips and waited for Setsuna to actually feed her. Tasting the cheese on her tongue, she closed her mouth, opened her eyes and watched Setsuna smile at her in bliss.
Love came back just in time to see the flustered Ellen react with shyness to Setsuna's bliss. It wasn't very hard to guess what had happened, especially not with a fork still in the hand of the red Cure. "Don't tease her too much."
"I'm not teasing her. You should have seen how adorable she was." Losing her grip a little, Setsuna put her fork away and hugged Ellen, unable to contain herself any longer. Rubbing her cheek on Ellen's, she kept repeating the same words. "So cute."
Leaning down and whispering to the blue Cure, Love's words significantly relieved her. "She'll calm down in a minute. She's always like that when she gets to feed me, too."
"Setsuna, I talked to White on the way. We're going to switch with Black and White for guard shift after Bloom and Egret. Black managed to eat something she didn't take well to." Turning to Ellen, Love had a grin on her face. "I heard from Setsuna that you play the guitar. That's a nice chance to show us."
"Sure, I don't mind." Being used to playing and singing for an audience didn't free her from being a little nervous about it. Then playing for strangers was completely different than playing for her partners. Thinking of just Setsuna as her partner and Love as an addition was no longer happening to her at any time. The pink Cure was really nice but had an incredible way to sneak herself into a position where one couldn't help but fall for her.
"You three have not a care in the world." Inori's attention was directed to the trio due to Setsuna still clinging to Ellen. It wasn't just her either. Quite a few heads were turned at the public display of affection, and now that the blue Cure noticed, her face's color returned to the earlier red flash.
"Nothing good is going to come out of being overly worried. We always worked something out."
"You'd be hopeless without Setsuna, Miki and me around, though." Inori was joking about it and Love knew that well. "If I had thousand Yen for every time you just went off to do your own thing, I wouldn't have to work."
"Exaggerator. I'm not that bad. Right Setsuna?" Turning around to look at her partner, Love was ambushed.
"Taking me with you to travel without even speaking English? Check. Leaving most of the organization to me? Check. Always coming on to me in bed after a hard day of work? Check. Going off on your-" Ellen put a stop to Setsuna's list by starting to laugh at Love's exaggerated annoyed face.
"Why you! You promised not to tell anyone!" Getting out of the way, Ellen watched Love grab Setsuna, the pink Cure pinching the cheek of her partner.
"Did you know Setsuna used to be extremely quiet? There were days where she barely got out a word." Inori didn't see any harm in getting friendly with Ellen. If she was a part of Love's relationship, then she was automatically a friend as well.
"I knew. Love told me a bit about their travels and how Setsuna adapted to it. I can only imagine what it's like to go overseas." She wasn't exactly the most skilled talker either, but being with the two older girls helped her out quite a bit. Just having a topic to talk about was useful.
"Going to a foreign country without knowing anything, just relying on herself and Setsuna... I couldn't do that." Watching Love jokingly punish Setsuna with tickling, most of the others no longer bothered to look, quite used to their antics.
"How long have you known Love? I feel like there are so many things I don't know about her that I'll never catch up."
"You don't need to catch up. I'm sure those two see it like that, too. As for how long I've known Love... I honestly can't remember not knowing her. My mother told me we were already friendly as toddlers, so I guess I've known her all my life." Inori paused briefly, her expression changing to an impressed look. "And boy did she get me into a lot of trouble sometimes."
"You used to be so formal, what happened to that Bukki?" Love, finally leaving poor Setsuna in peace, was hugging Ellen from behind, looking over her shoulder. The blue Cure didn't seem to mind at all. She was already used to Love being really affectionate, even in public.
"Don't act like this isn't your fault. You happened, Love. By the time you went traveling with Setsuna, I was already talking like this. Dealing with patients every day helped ease up on the formalities, too."
"Ellen, did I tell you that one of the fairies that helped us fight Labyrinth looked like a ferret? And that Bukki-" Love was rudely interrupted by a blushing Pine covering the mouth of the pink Cure.
"She doesn't need to know about that!"
"You don't have any problems with other animals now, right? I imagine caring for animals and treating them professionally is quite different."
"Hedgehogs are annoying to deal with. Some cats just don't like me, too. But there's nothing like the thing with Tarte." Letting Love go and warning her with a look, Inori was sure that she would tell Ellen at some later point anyway.
"Speaking of Cats... Ellen, is it okay for us to tell her?" Love was changing the topic and even though the vocalist blushed a little, she nervously nodded. "Ellen used to be a song fairy, a black cat. She even used to be able to shapeshift into other people."
"That isn't that unusual. Setsuna came from Labyrinth. And I heard that there are non-humans both in Dream's and White's team as well. By my guess, it's Luminous and Rose. You're just too into aliens, Love."
"Don't call them aliens, geez." Patting Ellen's head, who by herself didn't seem to mind the little joke, Love stared Inori down for a few seconds before they both started to laugh.
"Don't let White know. She's a scientist, so she'll be all over you, trying to make a study out of it." Not actually knowing Honoka that well, Inori's grin made it clear that she was still joking.
"Guard Shift!" Shouting through the dinner hall, Saki and Mai entered, the former stretching and yawning, still tired from having to get up early, the latter quiet and smiling at her partners attitude. She was hungry too, not quite as ravished as Saki, but still. "Honoka, Nagisa, it's.. where are they?" Not spotting the two, Saki tried to see above the others.
"We're switching in for them." Love showed up quickly, while Setsuna and Ellen tried to finish the rest of their breakfast in a hurry, having talked and fooled around too much. "White asked me to since Black's... preoccupied in the bathroom."
"Why am I not surprised?" Shrugging and looking to her partner, Saki was met with a scolding glare. "I know... don't say anything." Hanging her head, she didn't want Mai to tell everyone that she was as much of a glutton as Nagisa.
"Setsuna, Ellen!" Standing near the gate, Love called for her partners, who were talking to Pine, who graciously offered to take their dishes to the kitchen so they could run and leave. The three of them leaving the room, the mood changed not a bit. The others were still chatting and with a few exceptions, having fun. All of that despite the threat outside.
It wasn't the first time they had been in grave danger after all. The first shock wore off quickly after being through various ordeals in their past. They were older and more composed now, too. "I'm surprised how well everyone is coping." Talking with her mouth full, Saki ignored the second scolding look from Mai. She was too hungry to care.
"If it's just forgetting the threat and moving on with their regular... well, as regular as it gets here, lives, I'd assume that most of us can do that. Fighting the reflections is going to be a completely different thing." Mai sat to the left of Luminous, who wasn't looking all that awake yet. For her, sleeping in Kurumi's room had been more of a challenge than she expected.
"Do you feel any different Hikari?" They knew each other well enough to use their first names but only just barely. Nagisa and Honoka brought the girl along to their meet-ups whenever they could.
Yawning slightly before answering and covering her mouth with her hand, Hikari looked a bit tired. "I'm tired, but other than that, I feel just the same. Are you asking because of Aurora?"
"Well, we're not sure how long it has been but we should be approaching the twelve hour mark soon. I'm curious if there is any real effect on an original when the reflection disappears in the mirror."
"I'm not going to let you use Hikari as guinea pig, Egret." Kurumi was sitting to Hikari's left and overheard the short conversation.
"Nobody said anything about that. Aurora is in the mirror and we should at least monitor if anything is happening to Hikari." Mai wasn't going to lose her cool about something like that. "I'm just as worried as you are about her."
"Sorry for accusing you." Picking up her toast and taking a bite, Kurumi did feel the effect of stress on her mind. "The last few days were a bit... too intense for me."
"Everyone feels that way. Nobody is faulting you for being a bit riled up. Saki, can you stop stuffing yourself? It's embarrassing." Watching Saki fit a whole slice of toast in her mouth in one go, Mai turned away, not wanting to see a barbarian way of eating like that.
"It's not my fault we came late to breakfast and even had to get up early. I'm starving."
"Don't lie to me. You're just using that as an excuse to stuff yourself. You got up fine plenty of times when you trained and you went much longer then without eating."
"Just eat with Honoka if it annoys you so much. I'll eat with Nagisa then. You already said that's fine, right?" Their plan was still going. Nagisa being missing from the table was part of it as well. They'd show their partners once and for all that they wouldn't get away with their teasing indefinitely. It maybe wasn't the best situation, but if they kept delaying it, it was the same as giving up.
"You're an adult, you don't need my permission." And Mai was still going to turn the tables on them. It wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, the first time Saki had tried to get her back for teasing, but she had never involved other people before.
"Are those two fighting?" Kurumi couldn't help but be curious about it. The air was a little tense around them.
"It's just like with Honoka and Nagisa. They tease each other but it's usually Nagisa who's at the receiving end." Giggling, Hikari watched the couple banter back and forth for a bit longer, finally resulting in Saki finishing her breakfast and leaning back, playing a little with Mai's long pony tail. Their argument was seemingly forgotten, both of them smiling at each other occasionally. "See?"
=== Dissonance ===
"I said get up!" Brutally kicking the injured Aurum on the ground, Rage grabbed the girl by her hair and pulled her up. She was alive but who knew for how much longer? She was breathing but not reacting to outside stimuli, as if she was in a coma. Dropping the yellow reflection and turning around, Rage hit Agony so hard that the bloodthirsty reflection lost her balance and fell to the ground. "You stupid animal, don't you comprehend what 'don't kill her' means? Your original is pretty damn smart, so how come you're so fucking stupid?"
"Get off your high horse before I turn you into ground meat..." Creating her diamond blades, Agony was about to lash out on Rage, eager to take off her head and use it as soccer ball. She didn't take kindly to being hit.
"Take your squabble somewhere else. It's too early for your stupid fights." Poison was in a foul mood, being woken up by those idiots. Maybe sleeping in the garden hadn't been the smartest choice.
Freeze had been used as a pillow for the whole night, forced to remain completely still, knowing that her beloved mistress was going to put her through hell if she woke her. "Or... that has to be it. You two came here to amuse me, is that right? You thought you'd let yourself be tormented and tortured a little to lift my mood. How nice of you." Poison's voice took a drastic change as she slowly got up, a murderous glare in her eyes. "Let's not let your enthusiasm get to waste then. Since you're both so eager and I'm oh so bad at picking only one, I'll take care of both of you at the same time."
Both Agony and Rage backed off, knowing full well that Poison wasn't someone they wanted to fight. Survival instinct overrode both pride and blood thirst of the other two. If Malice enjoyed the suffering of others, Poison very much relished in seeing their pain and presumably, death. Nightmare was completely focused on killing, for that matter.
"Agony. Rage. Where has that useless pile of garbage gone?" Malice had just stepped past Ember, who kept guard at the entrance to the garden, the green prison. Turning around and creating a small heart shaped orb in her hand, she faced the slightly smaller reflection. "You didn't let anyone escape. Is that right, Ember?" The tone made clear that anything but the only thing that wouldn't cause Malice to punish her was a quick and definitive answer, as well as what she wanted to hear.
"Nobody left. Not even Poison."
"If she's still in here, it doesn't matter. Agony, Rage, find that useless bitch and bring her to me. We might find another use for her yet."
A single step outside and Malice was hit by an enormous energy blast, shattering most of the ground right in front of the garden. Puking blood like numerous arrows had buried themselves into her chest, the reflection bounced off the stone and was grabbed in mid air by her ankle. Glancing at her attackers face, Malice felt like going back to bed. Nightmare was having a bad morning. Wonderful.
Spitting more blood right in Nightmare's face, which did not even disturb the girl, Malice was hammered against the wall, another blast incoming in just a second. "Malice Impact!" Destroyed the wall behind her, Malice slipped away from the murderous reflection and hid in the dust cloud. Turning around, searching for the escapee, Nightmare was hit from below. Sweeping her off her feet, Malice grabbed both arms of Dream's reflection, rammed one foot in her back and started to pull, fully intending to rip her arms not only out of their sockets but completely tearing apart her shoulders.
Screams of rage and pain echoing through the halls as Nightmare felt her consciousness weaken. Nobody could take pain like that without going crazy. But she wasn't about to give in. "Nightmare Rose Explosion!"
The entire hallway was filled with pink energy when Rage and Agony reached it, coughing fits coming from two directions. Nightmare was further away, her right wrist badly broken to the point where parts of bone poked out of her skin. Her face was a grotesque mix of pain and rage.
Malice was not off any better, deep wounds in her shoulders and one at her right side. Bleeding heavily, she directed both her arms at the other reflection. "Pillar of Malice!" A dozen of heart shaped pink energy orbs spawned right above Nightmare, who jumped out of the way but not quick enough. Her left leg was hit, several large stone shards burying itself into her tissue. The attack completely destroyed the floor below where Nightmare had been.
She had enough. "Nightmare-" And was also out of time. Rage had rushed past Malice to attack Nightmare.
"Four Point Rage Impact!" Seemingly multiplying for a brief second, Nightmare was hit from all four cardinal directions by a powerful impact attack, the energy rupturing her skin and her interior organs badly enough to make her vomit a large amount of blood. Agony was up next but Nightmare was a lot tougher than anyone expected her to be. Grabbing Rage by her throat and throwing her at Agony, the yellow reflection wasn't strong enough to catch her ally and keep standing.
Even she wouldn't be able to take out three of them at once. She hated the thought, but for now, a tactical retreat was in order. Crossing her arms in front of her chest and focusing her energy into one large orb right in front of her arms, she readied one of her ultimate attacks. Screaming out anger, the name of her attack echoed in slow motion thorough the hallway before it took effect."Nightmare Resolution!"
The quake of the impact could be felt even at the furthest back of the garden, where Hymn and Misery were hiding. Someone was fighting and from the looks of it, it wasn't an attack by the originals. It was too early for them to have found their base regardless. But this might be her chance. Getting out of the garden and to the other side...
Looking to her side, Misery was still sound asleep, her head resting on Hymn's shoulder. Just looking at the poor girl, she felt sorry for her. What would happen to her from now on? If Agony and Rage found her, or even worse, Malice, she would end up even worse than before. But staying hidden forever was not an option either. At some point she had to go to the bathroom, eat and drink.
Of all people, why did she have to develop a conscience? It didn't matter shit to her what happened to Misery. Berry was not going to tolerate her copy to be around. Even for herself, she had to rely on Peach and Passion to actually make a deal with her. And all that was after she somehow convinced them that she had been forced to use Purger under the threat of being killed.
That was a lie of course, but who cares about the truth? If she had known that helping Misery would end up giving her a guilt trip, she would have just left her. Her eyes narrowing, Hymn got up and turned to the barely covered, disfigured blue reflection. Her throat felt sore as she readied herself to do the one thing that would really help her. Misery's eyes sprang wide open the second Hymn's hands tightened around her throat.
"Sorry... you're better off somewhere where they can't hurt you." Hymn could barely use her own voice, not because of any magical effect but because she didn't really want to kill Misery. Tightening her grasp, Misery gasped for air, her arms and legs wildly flailing around while Hymn continued to deprive her of air.
The only word Misery could get out before the world in front of her faded to black almost drove tears to Hymn's eyes. "Sorry..." The taller reflection was laying completely lifeless on the ground, no longer drawing breath, no longer suffering from fear and harassment.
"White Mirror." Hymn had not seen the effect before, but she knew well that Misery would now be imprisoned in the mirror of her original. Even that was much better than what she had gone through here. Looking at her hands, she couldn't forget the eyes of Misery in her last moment. She knew that Hymn was ending her life to prevent her from going through any more hardship. Even for a selfish act like that... Misery seemed thankful to her.
She could have tried to bring Misery with her. Get her food by stealing from either camp. Slip her into the showers. Get her... "When did I become such a good person? This is how it should be. She'll vanish into nothingness and won't have to suffer anymore. There was no way for her to take Berry's place anyway." Shaking her head, Hymn still felt guilt and sad over what she had done. Why couldn't she have total control over her feelings?
Waiting a bit and spying for anything to happen after the quake, Hymn slipped out of the bushes but stayed well hidden, always carefully making sure that nobody could see her. Poison seemed to have gone back to sleep and Freeze still served as her slave. At least she wasn't being tortured at this time. If Misery had been someone she pitied, the same held true for Freeze. Her unnatural obsession with Poison, stemming from her original, was going to be the death of her.
The entrance was nearby and there was no guard. Blood and destruction were all over the place, none of the construction even resembling what it had been the day before. A high level fight must have taken place there.
A sudden scream from inside one of the rooms startled her. Someone was very obviously in pain. Two trails of blood led away from the hallway, one towards the tunnel, one towards Malice room. Seeing as Poison was still in the garden, it narrowed down the number of potential attackers to just Nightmare and possibly Blaze. The likelihood of the borderline crazy Nightmare attacking Malice was very high.
Slipping out of the garden and rushing towards the exit at full speed, Hymn managed to get away without anyone spotting her. In a situation like that, it wasn't surprising that nobody cared about possible escapees.
But now what? It was a high risk to surrender and go to the camp of the originals. Staying with Malice would only get her killed anyway at some point. If the originals refused any kind of deal, she could at least ask for an easy way to go... like Misery.
"Those are some shitty choices I have... And it's all the fault of that monster, Malice." Running straight down the hallway, Hymn didn't notice that there were occasionally bloody trails, in form of a hand or a foot.
=== Dissonance ===
"This is all your fault." "It was your lack of judgment that allowed this to happen." "If you hadn't been so arrogant." "You killed your father." "I only wanted to live and you..." "If only you had been a better daughter." "You... killed... me." "Cologne died for you." "He died for nothing." "Everyone died for nothing." "Why did you survive if we had to die?" "What gives you the right to enjoy your life after what you did to us?" "Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me!"
The echo of Yuri's laughter resonated inside her own head. Looking down, she stood amidst a mountain of corpses. No matter how many she killed, she never felt satisfied, never was her hunger for blood stilled, never did her fists rest. Thousands of them. Tens of thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands of them. How many had she killed? Not enough. How many more would she kill? More.
Her white teeth glimmered in the light of another energy orb she created in her right hand. Her fingers were numb, coated in a thick layer of dark, hardened blood. Below her feet, atop the mountain of corpses, of flesh and blood, of death, was yet another pleading Dark Cure. "Stop... stop it Yuri! I'm your sister! We're one fami-" The words stopped when the energy orb splattered the contents of the girls head all over the place. The body continued to spasms for a few seconds while Yuri kicked it to the side, turning around, looking at the next copy of her father.
"You... can't do this Yuri. I did it all for you! I wanted to protect you! I'm not evil! Please, you can't-" Sabaaku's wail reached even the bottom of the several hundred meter high corpse pile. Having grabbed his right arm, Yuri pulled it out of it's socket like it was no more than an act of playing around. Looking at the severed limb in her hand with utmost fascination, she first kicked the man over and then stepped on his throat. "Wail, wail, wail... why don't you two shut up. I don't need family. I don't need anyone. I'm the strongest Cure. I can beat anyone. I don't need any dumb fairy, father, mother, sister, ally or friends. Look around you! Hundreds of thousands of you could not beat me! Your words are empty lies before my power."
"That's not... you... Yuri. You're..." Again, she did not let the creature finish. They were no more than lambs, ready to be slaughtered, in her eyes. Less than pigs. Less than garbage. Less than any other living creature. What right did they have to even dare to talk to her?
If one of them had bothered to look into the eyes of Moonlight, they would have found them to be a prison. A prison for Tsukikage Yuri. A dark sphere, reeking of decay and death, a swamp of blood and bones, Yuri was chained to a pile of corpses. Her father, sister, mother, Momoka, cologne, Tsubomi, Erika, Itsuki and many more. They were all part of the enormous pillar of flesh she was chained to. Their hands were pulling on her hair, on her naked body, their voices penetrating the most inner part of her mind.
"You did this to us..." "You sacrificed us..." "Your pride..." "Your thirst for revenge..." "Your fear consumed you..." "This is your work..." "You killed us..." "You stand on our corpses..."
She had no voice to raise objections. No eyes to look away. No feeling to turn her body. All she could do was watch and listen. All she could do was endure.
Moonlight turned around to look for the next soon-to-be corpse when something grabbed her leg. Looking down, she was horrified to find an already slain and dismembered body hold on to her ankle. The right arm of a corpse of Dark was trying to pull on her. Kicking the arm with her other foot, she felt two more hands latch on to her from behind. Turning around, she faced two unidentifiable messes, their legs no more than bloody stumps, blood and organs gushing from enormous flesh wounds.
Trying to back off, several more arms grabbed her legs, stopping her dead. A wink of panic grabbing her heart, she only noticed now that the mountain itself was heating up, the smell increasing steadily, the whole thing coming to life. Seconds stretched to minutes as adrenaline and fear rushed through her veins. How could something like this happen? She was the strongest Cure! Nothing could beat her!
And then she saw it. Saw herself. Flying high above her, a large white wing on her back, closely resembling Dark's. "Time to pay the price for your power."
The corpses pulled her deeper and deeper into the ground, slowly submerging her into the warm swamp of blood, limbs, organs and death. Hundreds of hands were latched on to her, completely holding her in place. And her other self was slowly descending, until she stood on top of the pile. The second her boots connected to the mountain, every single corpse started moaning, their voices forming a chant of incomprehensible measures, shaking the air.
"Feel what those felt that stood in your way." Eyes that were no more than black spheres, a mouth that seemed to not move and yet speak directly into her mind. And she felt her body rot while she was still alive. Her flesh softened up. Maggots crawling over her skin, under her skin, into wounds. Blood was gushing up her throat, slowly choking her. But she was not allowed to die. Not until she had tasted the pain of all she had killed.
Yuri was drowning in her own mind. Forced to witness hundreds of thousands of murders, each was a single drop. A million drops formed an ocean. But that much wasn't needed to completely drown her in horrors. The corpses were clawing at her, tearing at her, their voices growing louder and louder.
Moonlight was rotting away, the pain and disgust causing her mind to be a swirl of chaos. She wouldn't have been able to move even if nothing was holding her. She couldn't puke anything but her own blood. Her tears were as dark as the night, sticking to her rotting skin.
The other Moonlight, standing atop the mountain, was rotting away too. Sharing the fate of her other self, she was slowly falling to piece. First she lost an arm... second she lost a leg... muscles turned to a red mud, falling to the ground like ground meat.
A few meters away from the two rotting Moonlight's, a blue glove erupted from among the corpses. Clawing itself into the ground, a shoulder followed, and finally, a head emerged, covered in blood. Coughing and shaking, yet another Moonlight appeared, slowly making her way out of the corpse mountain. Just as she finally freed herself of her prison, the other two completely rotted away, falling to pieces.
And she was back inside the dark room, chained to the corpse pillar. Escape was impossible. Enduring was impossible. Her mind screamed out in terror as the process repeated itself. As she looked down on her hands, her left hand was holding on to green hair. Her right hand was holding on to white hair. Two severed heads, one in each hand.
Walking through a bloody swamp, far away from the mountain of the slain, she carried both the heads with her. Another head was strapped to her back. Momoka's head. Their eyes were all focused on her. "It is your fault I was killed." "You struck me down." "I only wanted to be a better father." "I should have never met you." "You are the reason I had to live an existence of misery." "You killed your own father." The heads kept talking to her endlessly and she absorbed it all. Wading through the swamp towards an unknown goal, Moonlight just kept walking, carrying the severed heads with her.
=== Dissonance ===
"We asked around but..." "...nobody left our camp." Bright and Windy stood in front of Berry's mirror, together with the blue Cure herself, as well as White, Egret and Aqua.
"Why would they kill someone on their own side?" Honoka couldn't see any logical reason for in-fighting to happen on the other side. Even if it did, it made no sense to outright kill one of their own.
"It makes a lot of sense if you assume that every reflection has the polar opposite personality to their original. Everyone else from my team, Peach, Pine, Passion, they're all very friendly and especially caring people. The easiest way to say this would be that their reflections are complete monsters." Miki wasn't pleased that the name of her reflection was Misery of all things. It made sense if using her own explanation but she still didn't like it.
"Blaze showed up to save Nightmare. And so did Komachi's reflection. Based on their personalities, they shouldn't get along at all." Karen couldn't understand the reason either.
"I don't even know when she showed up. She was just floating in the mirror when I came back." Miki shook her head. ""She wasn't there when I woke up this morning, so it had to happen sometime shortly before breakfast and around thirty minutes ago." Deep down, she was relieved. Misery looked exactly like her, and having to fight an exact double wasn't pretty. Worse yet, if Love or the others had to fight her, it would have ended badly.
"That's most of the forenoon. At least three hours and some. That's quite a wide time frame to narrow down when she was killed. Then again, even if we know when, it's not going to help us figure out how she died."
"Doesn't it look like she is crying?" Mai had been staring at the imprisoned reflection for a while now.
Karen was the first to step closer and take another look. "It really looks that way. There are a lot of tiny drops in the.. I guess air around her. I can't see her face clearly, but it looks like she's crying."
"Does that really matter? I'd appreciate if you didn't look. She still looks like me and I prefer to not look like a crybaby." Miki didn't like others seeing her crying. It made her feel weak.
"Aurora reached out to me just before she died." Mai looked over at Michiru, who had broken the neck of the yellow reflection.
"They might be reflections of us but they want to live all the same. At least most of them do I think. But if it's at the expense of one of us dying, that's not going to happen." Michiru firmly stood by her decision to ruthlessly kill Aurora with her full power.
"I don't like saying it but if they keep killing each other, it will help us a lot. The less of them we have to fight, the better for us." Kaoru opened her palm and created a small energy orb. "We should break the mirror and see what happens." If a conscious mind shut down when she used Stormflair, she should be able to break any non-indestructible object with a similar attack.
"You can break your own mirror if you feel like it. But you're staying away from mine." There was no way she could agree to something as risky as that. For all they knew, breaking the mirror could kill them or have otherwise horrible consequences.
"Fine. I'll do that." Dispersing the energy slowly, Kaoru closed her hand. "Regardless, if you intent to rescue Dream, time is running out. None of us can be sure, but at least twelve hours have passed since Nightmare killed her. And we still don't know anything about the location of their base, numbers and capabilities."
"By now, I think it is safe to say that there are as many of them as there are of us." Honoka looked at the mirror one more time and then turned to Miki. "We're asking Hikari about her mental condition every couple hours. We'll do the same for you, just in case. We don't know if there is any effect on us originals if a reflection is in the mirror."
"Talking about her, where is Hikari?" Mai was a little worried about her stress level since people kept bringing up Aurora.
Before anyone could answer, Lemonade knocked on the door. Leaning against the door itself and hitting it with the back of her hand, her expression told them she didn't bring good news. "My reflection has shown up too. For now, she's quietly rotating inside the mirror. Not sure why but she's called Aurum. That makes three dead reflections. Are they having a contest over there on who can kill the most of their own allies?" Urara had been in her room, together with Ako, when Aurum materialized.
"Did you see her show up?" Honoka was especially curious about the process as both Hikari and Miki had not been able to witness their respective reflection show up.
"It's pretty simple. A white mist fills the mirror and by the time it dissipates, the reflection is there. Chances are good it's the same way likewise for the reflections and us originals showing up. Just a black mist. Because, you know, Black Mirror, White Mirror." Turning away from the small collective, Urara looked over her shoulder. "I'm looking for volunteers for a sweep party to get our idiot leader back. Any of you feel up for it? Given what we're up against, the more, the better."
"We're going." The two sisters spoke in unison and quickly stepped out of the room before Mai could raise any objections. They still didn't like going against her will, but if lives were at stake, that mattered little.
Nobody else spoke up. "Fair enough." Urara left the room and walked away, Bright and Windy following her. Ako was waiting just outside her own room at the lower end of the hallway. "Want me to go with you?" She was making the offer but didn't know if she could actually handle fighting others to the death.
"I want you to be here when I come back and want to cuddle." Joking about it, she still made Ako blush. The black Cure still followed Urara, knowing that there was the risk that she wouldn't come back. She already liked her enough to want to spent just a little more time with her before she left. Shoving open the door to Rin's room, Urara watched Rhythm comb Rin's shoulder length hair.
"Rin, get ready. I'm putting together a sweep party. Time to go and get that idiot of a leader back."
"Lovely description of Nozomi. When are we leaving?" Jumping up and looking at the slightly frightened Kanade, Rin sighed. "You stay here Kanade. You're not in any condition to be useful in a real fight."
About to raise an objection just for the sake of doing so, Rin picked up her pillow and threw it at Kanade's face, without saying anything. Grabbing and hugging the pillow, Kanade watched the red Cure walk off together with Lemonade.
There were several others in the dining hall. "Hey. Any volunteers ready to come with us to pay the reflections a visit and get Dream back?" Urara shouted once and immediately got the attention of everyone. Almost half a minute of silence passed and the vocalist was ready to turn around when Blossom got up, much to, judging by the designer's shocked expression, Marine's surprise. "I'm going. I've seen one of us lose family before. If I have a chance to stop that, I'll go."
Looking around, confused and not sure what to do, Erika jumped up too. "If Tsubomi goes, I'll go too." Seeing that her partner would still go even if it was Lemonade who asked, Erika could tell how serious she was about what she said.
"That should be enough. We got six people, plenty to handle a few cheap copies. We'll get going right away then." Having Marine around would help a lot. No matter who they encountered, she could copy their special move. "Marine. Get Egret and maybe White to let you copy their special moves before we go."
"Unless we run into the enemy within ten minutes, that's not going to help. I can't keep the abilities indefinitely." Marine's shrug was met by Urara clicking her tongue.
"Fine. Let's go then." The small group arrived at the guard post, manned by Peach, Passion and Beat, who were having a good time just chatting, and went right past it.
"It wasn't changed. This area looks exactly the same as when I killed Aurora." Michiru stopped for a second and looked around. The tunnel, or hallway, was about twenty meters wide and easily just as high. There was no end in sight, no matter how much she squinted her eyes.
"For now, let's just follow this path. If we're lucky, it'll lead us straight to the enemy camp." Urara and her squad set out to save Nozomi.
=== Dissonance ===
Kanade couldn't believe how much it hurt to be left behind. Even if what Rin said was true, just having to wait while not knowing if someone was coming back... was hard. Her mess up with Hibiki still sat heavy on her heart.
The conversation about it she had with Rin didn't exactly manage to get up her hopes.
"Hearing about it like that, I understand well why she picked up. You love her more than anyone. You care about her. But you do both of these things too much. Too obsessively. Anyone would feel caged in if they're treated like that."
"So what am I supposed to do then!"
"That's what you should have asked Melody, not me. You don't get it at all Kanade. You can berate her all you want, it won't worsen your relationship if she actually knows you're doing it because you care. But the way you handled things would make anyone think you're expecting them to just see you as their whole world."
"If you know so much about relationships, then why don't you have-" Rin slapped her right across the face, hard enough to make her cheek turn bright red.
"I'm going to hit you every time you act like that. I know what not to do in a relationship. That doesn't mean I know what you should do. And just so you know... I learned all of it by watching Urara."
"Rin... sorry... so, you never actually were in a relationship?"
"Who'd bother? I'm rude, a tomboy, don't have Komachi's or Karen's figure. List goes on. Urara at least has her looks and an aggressive personality going for her. I'm not the type to get by with that."
Kanade kept quiet for almost a minute before she looked up at Rin. "I don't think that's true."
"What isn't? Most of these things describe perfectly who I am. If you're just trying to be nice for the sake of being-"
Shaking her head slowly, Kanade took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. "I... realize I have my own problems. But I think you're creating one for yourself where there is none. Why would you need to look like Mint or Aqua? Or anyone else? I... think you're plenty attractive."
"I can see what Melody likes about you. You have a way to make a girls heart beat faster. Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not going to start any real relationship with you. That would never end well."
"Do.. you think Hibiki will ever forgive me?"
"The you as you're right now?" Closing her eyes, Rin shook her head. "Not a chance. I know what happened so I can tell you that something like that isn't undone or solved by being sorry. The only way you're ever going to prove to her you are really sorry for what happened is by changing. Stop being this obsessed girl that fails to see the world around herself the second her crush is involved."
"That's easier said than done... I miss Hibiki..."
"Then maybe you should have worked out something before you royally screwed it.. oh dammit, stop crying." Looking away, Rin felt horrible now. She couldn't help but think that it was her fault that Kanade was crying now.
"But... but... what if it takes me weeks.. or months or even longer... to change? What if Hibiki doesn't care about me anymore then? What if she's completely Sunshine's partner?"
"You'll have to accept that possibility. This is your own fault. We carry the consequences of our actions. All of us." The awkward mood only worsened when Kanade started to cry harder. It wasn't until Rin moved over to her and hugged her. "I'm not good at this... but please stop crying. You messed up because you love her too much. It hurts to see you in pain over that."
Holding on to Rin, Kanade cried her heart out for almost an hour until she fell asleep from exhaustion.
It had helped her to let it all out. But people didn't change overnight. It was a really tedious process and she needed Rin to make it work. Nobody else would bother.
Realizing that she needed Rin, Kanade felt another source of fear. If Rin died on her trip to save her friend, not only would she lose Rin, but her last chance to make up with Hibiki would go up in smoke.
Hugging the pillow and falling on her sides, Kanade closed her eyes, trying to imagine the few intimate moments she had spent with her love. It hadn't lasted long, but she would never lose those memories of hers. They were among the most precious she had.
And she was thankful to Rin. For all that mattered, they were complete strangers. Rin really had no reason to help her, especially not after she used Rin to get back at Hibiki. She didn't want to remember that part. Sleeping with Rin had been entirely pointless. It was just a big childish reaction. But it weighed heavy on her psyche. Looking at Rin, talking to her and... being hugged. All of that felt like she was exploiting Rin even more.
=== Dissonance ===
"Are you okay with not going?" Komachi stopped working for a second. Leaned over a large pile of paper, a ballpoint pen in her right hand, a large can of tea to her right and Karen on the bed behind her, she really was worried about her partner.
"Just imagining how much you'd worry stopped me. I'm a decent fighter but not knowing you're safe would make me a liability. I couldn't focus at all." Getting up and leaving the novel she was reading on Komachi's bed, Karen hugged her love from behind. "Most of all, I didn't want to run into the risk of having to fight your reflection. I could never hurt you, even if it's just someone that looks like you."
"You're making me blush..." Not even attempting to hide her face, Komachi turned around slightly and kissed Karen on the cheek. They still were a little slow when it came to intimacy, but sleeping together, kissing and making out a little was already part of their daily life.
"Karen.. do you think I should have gone? I'm the strongest when it comes to defense after all." Looking at her script, her head leaned slightly to the side, she enjoyed how close her lover was.
"You're not the type that is able to kill people or even help doing that. I think Urara realized that, so she didn't even ask you. I wouldn't have let you go anyway. I'd be so worried I wouldn't have one quiet second. Being there with you wouldn't change that."
"When did you become so overprotective Karen?" A tiny tease, Komachi looked for the violinists gentle hand, intervening her own fingers with those of her partner.
"Maybe since you came back into my life?" Smiling and leaning her head against Komachi's, the blue Cure sighed. "Even though I was with Kurumi... I always missed you. Not quite romantically but... you had been part of my life for so long, it was sad to not have you by my side. I understand why you kept your distance... and I'm s-"
"Don't tell me you're sorry. I'd feel bad for Kurumi. You must have liked her back then and even for a long time after that. I'm with you now, but that doesn't mean I hate Kurumi. I... might have felt jealous and wanted her to be gone at times, but I never really hated her."
"I won't let you go again." Making a short but meaningful pause, Karen leaned slightly over her partners shoulder, and just as Komachi turned her head to look her in the eyes, Karen whispered to her. "Because I love you." Even before she responded, Komachi kissed Karen, unlike all the times they had before.
Even though it was a slow, soft and gentle kiss, with the two of them barely moving, they could feel a passion in it that was different from a normal kiss. A love that reached back almost a decade gave their kiss a special something.
Karen could feel just how deeply in love Komachi had been with her all this time, quietly holding in it, hoping that she would one day notice her feelings and Komachi felt just how earnestly Karen was returning those feelings now. She didn't want anything as much as to be with her.
They needed each other to be truly happy. Both Karen and Komachi understood that now. "And you still get embarrassed, kissing me." She had spent enough time with Kurumi to have plenty of experience in that area, but Komachi, not so much.
"You wait several years for your oldest friend to become your girlfriend and then kiss her without getting embarrassed about it." Turning away and pouting a little, Komachi still smiled a little.
"There must have been a lot of guys and even girls that wanted to date you. You're super nice, have a great figure and you're even a bit famous." Letting go of Komachi, laying down on the bed and burying her face in her partner's pillow, Karen waited for an answer.
"I didn't deal with people much. I focused so much on my work that I barely went out. Even if someone asked me out, I wouldn't accept."
"That's so sweet of you." Lifting her head a little and letting the quiet atmosphere do it's work, Karen liked to watch Komachi work. "Tell me about the story again..."
"Only if you promise not to fall asleep again." Not even turning around, Komachi wrote another line.
"I told you that was only because I was tired! It was right after a shower too! You know they make me sleepy!" Getting flustered over something as silly as that, Karen still never noticed when Komachi was just teasing her.
"Yes, yes. What is the last point you remember?" Giggling and feeling quite happy that Karen showed interest in her work, Komachi picked up her script and started looking through the pages.
=== Dissonance ===
Her wounds were pretty bad. She didn't expect Malice to actually be that strong. Underestimating her enemy was such a rookie error. Turning around, a trail of blood led straight back to the reflection base. There was nothing she could do about it now. As Dream's reflection she shared her strong healing capabilities so she wouldn't die, but that only applied if nobody else attacked her. Fixing her wrist had consumed a lot more energy than she expected. And she was still losing blood.
She couldn't see anything in the distance, but she could hear the sound of something crumbling, like a cave in. It was quite far away and the sound was weak, but that made pretty clear that the originals were on their way to launch an attack. Unbelievable that they had the gall to do that.
There were several openings in the tunnel all around her, leading into the intricate and complex maze that surrounded the tunnel. Even knowing all the details of the mirror system, she didn't know any more than Dream did about the shifting area to the outside of the bases.
If everything went all, whoever was traversing the tunnel would go right past her, attack the reflections and take out Malice. She could handle Rage and Agony, or possibly even control them. It was only know-it-all types like that bitch Malice that she couldn't stand. Letting someone else tear off her head and break her spine in half wasn't something she liked to even think about.
Smashing a block and crushing it in her hand to fine dust, she repeated that process to thoroughly hide the red trail she was leaving. Going deep into one of the rooms that connected to the large tunnel, she hid behind a crumbled wall, certain that they would not find her. Hiding from a bunch of maggots, that truly was the ultimate shame. She would get Malice back for it. Rage and Agony as well. And all those pesky originals.
Sitting there and listening, she could hear voices after roughly ten or fifteen minutes. It was incredibly hard to keep track of time when both wounded and under stress. The first voice she could identify was Aurum's original. That wasn't good. Knowing her personality, she'd kill her on the spot without hesitation.
The other voices belonged to Bright, Windy and Rouge. "A troop of killers... I have the worst luck." And it only got worse yet.
Listening intently, Nightmare heard their steps stop echo through the tunnel. "Lemonade, I can smell something metallic. It's really strong here. I can't see anything though." Looking around, the place wasn't well lit enough by Bright's energy sphere that they could see very far. If not for the sphere, they would be in near darkness, the stone itself only glowing very faint.
"Blood." Kaoru was the first to draw the connection. If there was a metallic smell in the air and no easily detectable source, there was blood somewhere.
Nightmare tensed up as she heard them talk. But then they got completely silent. What the reflection couldn't see was that Lemonade signaled everyone to gather together in a small circle. Lowering their voices so much that even someone who stood just five meters away couldn't have heard them, she issued new orders.
"If there is blood, there is something wounded around here. It's impossible to be one of us, which means a reflection or multiple reflections are hiding around here. The possibility that they have planned for us to notice it and look for the source exists. We would be walking right into an ambush. Even if it's just one, it could be potentially fatal if she gets to attack someone unnoticed. We're ignoring this and following the tunnel. Blossom, Marine, you two are in charge of covering our back. Windy, Bright, you two cover our flanks. Rouge and I will take care of the front."
Everyone nodded and they proceeded in a state of high alertness, aware that an attack could come from any direction at any moment. Nightmare listened for their steps to become more and more distance as the minutes passed until they could no longer be heard.
The tension leaving her body, Nightmare felt her consciousness take a break, the already very dim world in front of her turning to complete darkness, her metabolism not able to go on without taking a rest. "I'll get you.. for this..." Humiliated and angry, Nightmare lost consciousness, her body putting all it's energy toward stopping the bleeding and healing her wounds.
"This blood trail is fresh." Taking off her glove and dipping her index finger into the red liquid, Michiru made sure of just how fresh it was. "It's no longer warm. So some time has passed. There is a trail though."
"We're following it. Stay on alert, we don't know just how close we are to the enemy base." Urara imagined that this was what it must feel like to be in the army. It wasn't that far-fetched an analogy. They were two opposing parties, two bases, each side had to kill the other. The only major difference was the nature of said enemy.
The trail got thicker down the road. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed. To Tsubomi it felt like half an hour, to Rin barely like ten minutes. Stress, tension and the adrenaline flooding into their blood was destroying any sense of time they had before. They all hurried behind a large stone fragment, easily ten meters long and several meters high, when they heard a voice further down the tunnel. Tsubomi instantly recognized the voice as Erika's.
"My reflection right off the bat. I'm really cursed aren't I?" Whispering to herself, Tsubomi glared at her, as it was no time for making jokes.
"That has to be the reflection base. Blossom, any ideas to get her to come over here without noticing us? We have Windy on our side, so we can knock her out and kill her possibly without anyone noticing." Urara was completely serious about killing Marine's reflection.
"I have an idea. You're not going to like it though."
Whispering her plan to the others, Erika was absolutely against it. "Do you have a better plan then, Marine?"
"No, but this is crazy! Tsubomi shouldn't put herself in danger like that." Erika couldn't agree to a plan where Tsubomi would put herself in danger.
Bright grabbed Marine by her shoulder and pulled her closer, their eyes on the same level. "Would you prefer we rush the entrance and possibly alarm everyone inside? And afterwards, die because we're outnumbered? Her plan is our best bet simply because it separates your reflection from the others. We're doing this. If you're so against it, come up with a better plan next time." Michiru didn't like it when people rejected a sound plan solely based on emotions.
"If this goes wrong, I'm drowning your ass."
"Enough arguing. Take position. We'll move when you are ready Blossom." Urara hoped that this would go off without a hitch. One less reflection to worry about. Most of all, Marine had that bothersome ability and so did her reflection.
Windy and Bright had taken cover in the darkest spot behind the large stone fragment, Marine and Rouge on the other side. Urara had taken an advantageous position atop a nearby pillar, monitoring everything from above. Without Bright's ability, there was no way for anyone to spot them unless they made some sudden moves.
Taking a deep breath, she could feel her heart beat faster than ever before. It was a risky plan alright, but she had volunteered to come here. She didn't plan to get cold feet now. Backing off further into the distance, Tsubomi started running towards the enemy base as hard as she could, a grim look on her face.
Seeing Erika's reflection come in sight, the blue girl didn't attack on sight, a success. There was nobody else in sight. Everything was good to go.
"Ember?! When... how did you?" Just as she assumed, Marine's reflection wasn't quick to catch on. Intelligence didn't automatically equal to being good at figuring out ploys after all. There was more to it. Trying to imagine what her reflection was like was a difficult thing but if she got it vaguely right, she could play off any inconsistencies as being influenced of stress.
"We have a problem. Someone created a passage that leads right into the back of our base. I already alerted the others." Trying to act tough and cold, which is what she imagined her reflection was like, Tsubomi couldn't help but be extremely nervous.
"The originals?" Maelstrom was in a state of complete confusion. Ember had been called by Malice a while ago and hadn't returned. Was this what she had been up to?
"I'll show you. Come." Tsubomi turned around and left, not bothering to even check of Maelstrom was following her.
The plan worked completely as intended. Reaching the large stone fragment, passing it, Tsubomi stopped right in front of a nearby junction, waiting for Erika's copy to catch up. "This is it."
"Did Malice order you to check this?" Taking a look into the dark room, Maelstrom had no chance to ever notice Bright. The plan had worked so flawlessly, they switched from using Stormflair to disable her to simply killing her outright.
Slowly moving away, Tsubomi was just out of range when Michiru jumped on the blue reflection. The eyes of Erika's copy were filled with terror when Bright closed her grasp on her throat. Marine didn't have much in the way of defense, just like Aurora. Urara chained the reflection to the ground, locking her arms, legs and even her head in place.
Unable to move, all she could see were the emotionless eyes of Bright, who tightened her grasp with full force, trying to be as quick as possible. Looking to who she thought was Ember, Blossom just stood there, her head half turned away. A single tear ran out of Maelstrom's eyes before the sound of breaking bone signalized that she was dead. "White Mirror."
"Maelstrom?!" The real Ember had come back and was looking for her partner. "Where did she go?"
"Let's retreat for now. If she finds out her partner is simply gone, they're going to alert everyone else." Urara looked around. One of them was missing. "Where the heck is Marine?"
Tsubomi whirled around, barely in time to see Erika leave her cover, walking up to the reflection. "Sorry. Thought I heard something."
"Didn't I tell you to not leave the post? If Malice catches wind of this, she'll throw you in with the other garbage."
"I forgot. Sorry." Acting apologetic, Erika figured that as long as they didn't notice any change, they could continue their assault. If Tsubomi could fool Maelstrom, then she could surely fool Ember.
"It's time to switch." Erika turned around and faced both White's and Black's reflections. That wasn't going according to plan.
"Does Malice know?"
"She won't care as long as someone keeps guard. You know this." Unexpectedly, or more accurately, just as expected, Black was the one that seemed to be the composed and logical one on this side. But what should she do now? Running away would instantly blow her cover. Taking three of them on at once was impossible, even for her. The only real choice left to her... was to keep on acting.
"Fine with me. Maelstrom, let's go." Dusk and Dawn taking the guard post, the rest of the team Erika had come with watched as the blue Cure walked away with the pink reflection. That would end badly.
"We have to save her!" Tsubomi could barely sit still, much less focus on being rational.
"Are you crazy? There are at least three of them right now, and they'll make enough noise to alarm everyone else inside. There have to be over a dozen more of them inside. There is no way we can fight them outnumbered three to one." Urara didn't like this any more than Blossom, but what could they do? If only Marine hadn't gone off on her own.
"But-" Tsubomi's consciousness took a sudden dive when Bright knocked her out with a hit to her neck.
"What are you doing?" Urara was about to burst a fuse, everyone doing what they wanted.
"She was going to run off eventually. We can't risk that. We should retreat for a bit and work on a new strategy."
"That idiot just had to go and piss Malice off. She's ordered all of us to attack Nightmare on sight and kill her, regardless of how inconvenient it might be on the grand scale." Ember had not yet even a hunch that she was talking to the real Marine, not Maelstrom.
"How is Malice?" Erika tried to observe the area as much as possible without actively appearing to do so. From the looks, it was completely identical to their own base. The hallway, the twenty four doors. If there was a dining hall around the corner and a garden somewhere, it was an exact copy.
"What do you think? Pissed off to hell. We're going to stay out of sight." As Ember grabbed Marine's hand, Erika instinctively twitched, full knowing that the girl in front of her may look and sound like Tsubomi but was the complete opposite of her, an enemy that would kill her if she found out. Or at the very least, very different. "Stop being afraid of her. I didn't spent all this time keeping you from getting thrown in with the other garbage to let you mess up now."
Erika took a deep breath, trying to relax. She could attribute it to making it look like she was taking Ember's advice... it was more like an order, in reality. Following the pink reflection past the rooms, they headed towards the bathroom. Erika worried that every reflection might have a mark of some kind, to identify them from the originals. They should have checked Aurora or Maelstrom!
"What's wrong? You said you looked forward to sex in the shower earlier." Carefully taking off her costume, Ember knew that she couldn't get a new one, unlike the originals. They were creations based off their Cure form. "Don't tell me you're still worried about Malice throwing you in with the garbage."
"I... left my post even though you said I shouldn't."
"Yeah, and Malice doesn't need to know that. Forget about it. You're such a worrywart." Completely naked, Ember laid her arm around Erika's neck and forcefully kissed her. The blue Cure's mind just barely managed to stop her body from reacting in reflex and shoving her away. For now... she had no choice but to play along. No matter what happened. She could apologize to Tsubomi later. And hope she would understand.
Feeling Ember's tongue enter her mouth, Erika started to play along, moving her right hand over Ember's sides, up to her breasts. They felt exactly like Tsubomi's. That she hadn't managed to sleep with her real partner yet was only further increasing the psychological burden on her.
Thankfully, Ember broke away, showing a wide smile and suggestively licking her lips, and went into the shower cabin. "Strip already or do you want me to do it?"
Not eager to be touched by the fake any more than necessary, Erika carefully took off her outfit, wondering why Ember went through the trouble of doing it. Just turning into civilian form would have been much easier. But there had to be a reason for that. Acting unusual was an absolute taboo now.
Leaving her costume behind, Marine stepped into the shower. Turning on hot water, Tsubomi, no, Ember, grabbed Erika by her arms and pushed her against the wall. It was to be expected. If she, Marine, was the aggressive one with the real Tsubomi, the reflection would be the one to dominate Maelstrom.
Starting to lick and kiss Erika's neck, Ember grinned when she heard her partner start moaning under the pleasure. She loved Maelstrom, but in a different way from her original. For her, it was about dominating a weaker mind, taking advantage of her nice body and her devotion. Nevertheless, she liked to pleasure Maelstrom.
Even though her body responded to every touch, likely because the girl was a perfect biological copy of Tsubomi, Erika's mind was resisting. The danger of exposing the lie and getting killed kept her in check, but she still felt like she was betraying her partner's love.
Forcing the blue Cure on her knees with a firm push, Ember turned up the water and took a step forward, not leaving Erika any room to escape. Even an idiot could have realized instantly what was being expected of her. Trying to make herself believe as hard as she could, that it was Tsubomi and not Ember she was facing, Erika moved her arms up the girls legs, stuck out her tongue and started to pleasure to pink reflection in her most intimate spot.
Putting her right hand on the wet wall, Ember put her left on the back of the blue girls head, pushing her face even closer to her slick spot. "Do it quicker... this is even better than doing it in bed." Her voice was starting to become more high pitched as she got more and more excited. Erika couldn't stop herself even if she had wanted to. She longed to do this with Tsubomi so much, and now it wasn't really her, and she still couldn't resist. Her mind knew the difference. A body doesn't.
Erika could feel when Ember came, the reflection leaning over and slowly stepping away, pulling Erika up, laying her arms around the designers neck, kissing her, immediately sticking her tongue into Marine's mouth.
Erika's bodily sensations were all genuine. She was excited by having sex with the enemy. Mentally, she didn't want to admit it, but being led around by someone who looked and sounded just like Tsubomi was incredibly exciting.
Getting pushed against the wall, Erika felt one of Embers hands move down her sides, right between her legs. Even without the shower, she was dripping wet. Ember coming as hard as she did a minute ago from getting licked had multiplied Erika's lust tenfold.
Continuously kissing, Erika dared to make a move on her own and started to grope and massage Ember's breasts. Judging by the pressed out moaning, she enjoyed it quite a bit. Finally breaking out of the constant kissing because she desperately needed to breathe more than just through her nose, Erika was shocked by how much she was moaning herself.
Just as she was about to recover a little of her composure, Ember sunk two of her fingers even deeper between Marine's legs, and that was enough to make the blue haired girl come. Laying her arms around the pink reflections neck, Erika could barely feel her legs. Moaning and breathing hard into Embers ear, she already knew that this stunt would make her experience some extraordinary guilt later on.
"We'll continue in bed..." Her voice was much sweeter than before. Turning the shower to maximum, Ember lifted Erika's chin with her fingers, kissing her one last time.
=== Dissonance ===
"It's been an hour. Blossom should come to soon. What are we gonna do?" Rin sat in a small circle that, other than herself, consisted of Urara, the unconscious Blossom and Bright. Windy had gone to check on the entrance to the enemy base.
"It will take too long to go back and get Black and White and try that maneuver again." Michiru shook her head. "Unless Blossom's reflection comes back together with Marine, we won't be able to get in there anytime soon."
"Blossom is not going to like that." Urara was worried about Marine, but no more than she would have worried about literally anyone else. She had no lingering feelings for her.
"That doesn't matter. A frontal assault is crazy. Other than the two guards, Rose's reflection as well as those of Mint, Rhythm and Melody have shown up near the entrance frequently." Michiru rejected that notion.
"So what, are you going to say we should leave her there for the night? She'll get herself killed." Rin didn't want to have to go back and tell Kanade she left Marine behind.
"There was no disturbance yet. If she managed to keep the act up this long, she should be fine. It's not ideal, but this does have it's advantages." Michiru turned her head, seeing Windy come through a wide crack in a otherwise solid wall. They were well hidden from any reflections that would pass by for whatever reason.
"They changed the guard. Bloom's and Egret's reflection are keeping guard now. That is the worst that could have happened." Kaoru sat down and looked at the still peacefully sleeping Blossom.
"What is so bad about them? I don't remember Egret being that strong." Rin hadn't fought her yet, but she didn't get that impression from the girl.
"Her special ability is called Wings of Heaven. None of us could outrun even Bloom or even Bright's reflection while she uses that. It's a speed buff." Moving over to where Blossom was and shaking her, Kaoru needed more info. Breaking in by force would be suicide and any other method would be very time consuming.
Getting to and being confused for a few seconds, Tsubomi quickly realized what must have happened. She didn't approve of it but she could understand why they had done it. "Blossom." Kaoru clicked with her fingers twice to make sure the pink Cure had completely come to her senses. "How well does Marine act? Is she capable of pretending to be her own reflection for an extended period of time?"
"I... I believe so. Erika is really good at a lot of things. If it's really important, she'll be able to keep it up. But... I still don't want to leave her there!" As her lover and friend, Tsubomi couldn't do that.
"We might not have a choice. Bloom and Egret, their reflections, are standing guard now. Unless we find another way than the front, we can't get in." Kaoru looked back at Urara, who wasn't able to come up with a plan of her own.
"It was our luck that the earlier plan worked. If Marine's reflection had not trusted you, we would have had to retreat. And to make matters worse, it would have alarmed them all that we know the location of their base now."
"There are no animals or any other living creatures other than us Cures and the reflections. Trying to lure them away with a distraction is not going to work because of that. They'll know right away that they're under attack. In the worst case scenario, a few of us could end up ambushed and killed." Urara had gone through over a dozen plans and none seemed reliable.
"Our best course of action is to wait for Marine and your reflection to come on guard duty again. If nobody notices, she'll be able to get us a lot of information, both on their numbers, prowess as well as the interior structure." Michiru looked at Tsubomi, who still seemed completely against the idea
"Like a spy." Rin thought that to be quite a fitting analogy.
Lowering her head and not saying anything, Tsubomi finally gave up and agreed. Even if she kept being against it, they had no plan. A frontal assault was impossible and even if they were twice as many Cures, it would still cost lives.
"One of us should stay and keep track of their guard rotation." Urara looked at the two Kiryuu's, who seemed the most likely to fit the job.
"I'll do it. Erika is my partner."
"We will switch the lookout every four hours. We should avoid the large tunnel and find a way through the nearby rooms. There are so many, they should connect at least to an earlier point." Urara decided things and created a very small and thin chain. It didn't glow golden and one would need to touch it to realize it was there. "I'll mark our way with this. Whoever switches with the current lookout, use the route we'll use to go back now."
The other four nodded their head once in agreement. Kaoru quickly explained to Blossom where she would have to go to monitor the entrance without being seen. "There is a crack in the wall in the room above this one. There is a collapsed staircase in the back of this room that connects the two. Use that. I'll see you in four hours."
Catching up with the other three, Kaoru left Tsubomi behind. The pink Cure made her way to the spot Kaoru described. It was quite hard to make out details, like when they were talking, or other small movements, but she was able to recognize who kept guard.
"Wait for me... Erika."
=== Dissonance ===
"Ellen!" Setsuna jumped in front of the blue Cure, hit the ground as hard as she could and lifted up a massive stone fragment in an attempt to act as shield.
"Abbadon!" The next attack tore against the shield, rapidly destroying it. Love had taken a blow to the head. She wasn't in danger, but she was unconscious. "Is that all you originals are capable of? How boring. This is hardly worth my time. Guillotine Cut!"
Grabbing Setsuna and pulled her out of the way, both Cures landed on the hard stone ground while a massive metal blade cut their shield apart like butter. The blade cut deep into the ceiling behind them.
The three of them had suffered a surprise attack a minute ago and Love had been hit hard. But they no longer had to wait for backup. A purple flash rushed past them, just as the blade vanished. The sound of a hammer hitting metal, loud enough to make the smaller stones on the ground vibrate, echoed through the tunnel. Rose had reinforced her fist with a coat of metal, while her reflection had protected herself by using the same technique to coat her arm.
"My own original, huh? You should kneel before me, you inferior creature! Ten Blade Des-"
Not letting her reflection finish, Kurumi grabbed her copy's arm, jumped up and landed right on her shoulder, smashing the fake into the ground."Shut the hell up!" Kurumi was pissed. Even though everyone knew it was just her reflection, how dare that reflection attack people while she wore her face and used her voice!
"Spike Dome!" Jumping away not quite fast enough, several of the erupting metal spikes scratching by her legs, severely gimping her ability to move for the moment. "Now, see how infer-"
Blood and saliva finished that line, Kurumi ignoring the pain and warnings her body was sending her, jumping forward, hitting her reflection's face as hard as she could. The sound of bone breaking, she could fee at least one tooth sticking in her fingers.
"You impudent...!" Covering her face, Rose's reflection tried to stop the bleeding with little success.
"Rose, move!" Ellen wasn't going to just let the fight happen right in front of her. Kurumi simply threw herself flat on the ground and that had to be good enough. She lacked the ability to make any big jumps. "Wild Rock..." The purple reflection tried to back off from the rapidly spawning notes by jumping backwards, but Beat was too good at energy manipulation to let something like that stop her. "Rampage!" The notes all started flying forward, exploding at the smallest impact. "Setsuna!"
She didn't have to be told. Rushing to where Kurumi was on the ground, Setsuna chose to save her ally, not chase after the enemy. The dust cloud created by Ellen's attack provided excellent cover. While the red Cure was pulling back with Rose, Ellen had recovered Love, getting her out of harms way.
Others were arriving now, the first to show being Berry and Pine, who didn't even stop to ask what was going on. "Spade..." "Diamond..." Both of them took a fighting stance, creating a large energy symbol in form of their suit right in front of them. "Rain!"
Dozens of fingertip sized projectiles flew out from their symbols, both of them randomly shooting into the dust cloud. Their assault was complimented by White, who was accompanied by Black, who took position next to Berry and Pine, ready to fight whoever emerged from the tunnel. "Sixty Pillar Purge!" Focusing as much energy as she could muster into both her hands, Honoka hit the ground. Both Berry and Pine stopped their attacks when numerous light beams frizzled from from random directly thorough the tunnel.
Mint was the last to aid the defense in creating a massive five layered barrier that covered the complete entrance. The dust cloud persisted for another minute. After that, nobody was to be seen or heard. "She escaped." Honoka turned around and checked who was injured. Kurumi was slowly limping towards the back, cursing, but not seriously injured. Love was still out cold, but she couldn't find any problems. "If she feels sick or dizzy when she wakes up, and it stays, call me. She might have a concussion." She wasn't a doctor, but good friends with one due to her work.
"Has Lemonade and her team come back yet?" Honoka was taking the lead in organizing things. "Mint, Aqua, can you keep guard for now? With your barriers, there won't be any surprise attacks."
"I can handle that." As long as she didn't have to actually fight them, she was fine with just helping out by standing guard. Karen gave her a quick nod. The others exchanged a few meaningful glances and left as well, none too enthusiastic about yet another attack happening.
To her surprise, it was Muse who reported back about Urara and her team. "They haven't come back yet. I'd have heard from Urara by now."
"If they had been ambushed, the attack on this camp would have been a lot bigger and more fierce. Muse, can you check in with the others if any more reflections have shown up? I'll cover this side."
Starting to check the rooms, none of them really expected to find anything. They were a very capable group, but even so, it was unlikely they'd just start a fight out of the blue, without knowing anything about the enemy. Having checked over half of the rooms, they stopped just the group returned.
"Speak of the devil." Ako pointed towards the entrance, where a very tired looking Lemonade just walked past Aqua. Honoka noticed right away that Marine and Blossom were missing from the lineup. "You took your sweet time Urara. Did you-" Unable to talk with the yellow Cure's lips sealing her own, Ako blushed ferociously from being kissed in public, right under the noses of half a dozen others. Breaking away from the kiss, Ako tried to start complaining but the only thing she managed to get out was unintelligible stuttering.
Grabbing the black Cure's hand, Urara pulled her away, slightly swaying while walking. As Ako gave her a closer look she noticed that she was unnaturally pale and had a lot of scratches all over, even her costume torn in places. "Sleep..."
"What happened to her?" Honoka was slightly impressed but also weirded out by Lemonade.
"She created a few miles of permanent chain. We marked an alternative path to the enemy camp to avoid getting ambushed or seen. Right now, they don't know we're aware of their position. What happened here, by the way? The area just outside is completely destroyed." Rin looked around but couldn't spot Kanade. It surprised her that she cared enough to look for her when she just got back.
"Rose's reflection attacked. We drove her off, but Peach was knocked out, without any real damage, and Rose got her legs cut a bit. What about you? That you found the enemy camp can't be all. Where are Marine and Blossom?"
"Blossom is doing the first shift as lookout. That's why we marked the alternative route. Marine... well, that's a longer story." Looking to Michiru, who still seemed to be perfectly fine and not in a hurry to go anywhere, Rin nodded to her. "Bright and Windy are gonna explain it. I'm going to my room."
Rin witnessed Urara pull Muse into her room. But even given that kiss, there was no way Urara could get together the energy to seduce anyone, much less actually have sex. Opening her own door, Rin found Kanade sound asleep on the bed, hugging her pillow like it was a treasure.
"Hey. Wake up. Give back my pillow." Talking to Kanade didn't do anything so Rin proceeded to shake her. But that didn't bore any more fruit than talking. Trying to scare her a little, the soccer player leaned down, poking her cheek. The girl was still fast asleep. On a closer look, she was kinda cute when she kept her mouth shut.
Not like she was going to fall for her. There were over two years between them, and more issues than either of them could count. Not to mention, she had already slept with her once. It hadn't been great and while she wouldn't mind doing it again, she feared the strings that came attached with that. Getting friendly with Kanade and then sleeping with her again would inevitably make the girl think that she was in love.
Letting her sleep, Rin went out of her room and knocked on Urara's door, getting no answer. Muse had to be still awake. Eavesdropping, she couldn't hear anything. So at least they weren't having sex. Opening the door and taking a look, Rin found her old friend fast asleep in her bed, while Muse sat next to her, reading a novel. "Did you need something from Urara?" She didn't look disturbed in the least that Urara's naked legs and shoulder were shoving from under the blanket.
"No. Just wanted to tell her good job, despite everything that went wrong." Backing off, Rin shook her head. Just how used was that woman to Urara's antics? Stretching just outside Urara's room, she did feel a little jealous. Going to sleep with a beautiful girl watching over you had to be pretty nice.
Walking over to the bathroom, Rin sighed. Maybe she should just go with the flow and stop thinking so much about whether this or that was going to have consequences. "Kanade is pretty cute... not Muse's level, though. Dammit, she's hoarding up the pretty girls."
=== Dissonance ===
Even though the earlier attack by Azalea, so the name of Rose's reflection it turned out, had disturbed the atmosphere and mood of the team, everyone had mostly recovered. The garden had become a crowded place, likely due to the calming effect it had. It was easy to forget about all worries in there.
"I heard Michiru and Kaoru saw our reflections. They didn't interact with them, though." Mai was sitting on one of the many wooden benches, lined along the length of the right path. Holding a block with paper in her hand, resting it on her legs, she was drawing part of the scenery. It was particularly tranquil in the garden around this time.
The brightness from the emulated sky gave them a good idea of what time it was. It had to be near dusk now, as the light became more reddish and orange. Saki was keeping her partner company, doing a bit of training on her own. Sit-ups, push-ups and the likes. She had trained very long and hard for her athletic body and figure, so she didn't want to lose it.
"I heard Marine and Blossom went with them but didn't come back. They're telling everyone that those two are fine and I believe them, but what could stop them from coming back?" Taking a short break, Saki grabbed a small metal can she had taken from the kitchen and filled with water before going to the garden.
"They could be monitoring the reflections and their activities for one. The way others talk about them, I believe they're a couple, so it's not that unusual for both of them to stay behind." It had been a while since she worked with just a pencil.
"I still think it's odd... hm, maybe I should run a bit. I think I'm not getting enough exercise for my legs." Saki was, by all accounts, much more athletic than even Nagisa or Itsuki, who both regularly did martial arts training. She could have substituted for someone that participated in the Olympics.
"Not training with Nagisa today?" Mai asked completely casually not intending to rekindle their earlier teasing battle.
"We agreed to train later tonight." The answer came so quickly and without thought that Mai broke the tip of her pencil on the paper.
"Ah, Is that so?" Looking back to her lover, Mai tried to get that wild image of Nagisa and Saki kissing out of her head. That was exactly what they were aiming for. She had to keep her cool now. If Saki wanted to play games, so could she! "I was worried about leaving you all alone tonight. Honoka asked me if I could draw a portrait of her. I hope you don't mind."
"Why should I... are you going to draw her nude?" Saki realized quickly that Mai was teasing her again. She wasn't quite as gullible as Nagisa after all.
"Is that a problem? You know what she looks like nude anyway, so there's no harm in that, right?" Mai was lying out her teeth and not quite sure how exactly things ended up like that. She couldn't just say the whole thing was canceled after this. Her dignity was on the line!
"No, I don't mind. At least I won't have to worry about you going without company tonight then." Saki couldn't believe what she was saying.
"I see. Well, enjoy your training." Getting up and turning around, Mai had something that could only be described as ferocious smile on her face. Walking off, the uppermost page of her drawing block had several large and uncouth black lines going from one end to another.
Leaving Saki behind, Mai stomped right past Nagisa, who had separated from Honoka to do some running of her own. Finding a sweating, and that definitely not from exercise, Saki near the bench and judging by the deadly glare Mai had thrown her, even Nagisa could put together what had happened.
After getting the full story, Nagisa felt a little worried. "Could you not make up stuff like that without asking me beforehand? Honoka is gonna be really angry..."
"Say... don't you think they'd look kind of hot together?" Saki was just letting her fantasy run a bit wild.
"Saki!" Nagisa shouted, not knowing what else to do.
Nagisa could be heard all the way over to the other side of the garden, were Itsuki and Hibiki were having a friendly sparing. And for the fifth time in a row, Hibiki lost. Landing face up in the lush grass, the shadows of the trees providing the perfect place to get a little hot and sweaty, Hibiki couldn't even get a single word out, both out of frustration and due to lack of breath.
Sitting down next to her new lover, Itsuki looked at her face and smiled. "You're always rushing ahead too much. And you almost had me this time, too. But you're too easy to read Hibiki."
Punching Itsuki's arm really gently, Hibiki rolled over and groaned, her entire body a world of hurt. Not the really bad kind but she would definitely be sore all over the place tomorrow. Her hair, soaked with sweat, stuck to her back. Even though they were both in cure form, she still couldn't beat Itsuki. She had more raw power, too! It was really annoying.
Feeling some fresh air suddenly hit her back, Hibiki almost rolled over again, but was stopped by Itsuki, putting her free hand against Hibiki's shoulder. Lifting her long pink hair up and moving it away from her back, Hibiki blushed a little. It was little things like this that made Itsuki such a great partner.
"I'm never gonna beat you." Hibiki groaned again and exhaled deeply. She was pretty beat. Itsuki had started to use a small branch with some leaves on it as a miniature fan and help her cool down. She was sweating pretty hard.
"You have the strength but you lack technique. And a bit of a longer temper." Itsuki leaned over the heavy breathing girl and kissed her cheek, pulling a face. "You need to shower. You should probably save your legs, too. I'm sure I felt something prick my legs last night."
"Didn't ask you to kiss me when I'm sweating rivers... and hey! You're not any better! And it's not just the legs for you!" Hibiki tried to get up, but the yellow Cure quickly pushed her back down.
"What, did you think I would let you shower alone?" A seductive smile played across her lips and she leaned down for a second kiss. Meeting Hibiki's lips, both of them pulled a grimace this time. "Shower first... making out second."
"Sex third?" Trying to look all innocent, it failed spectacularly.
"We'll see if you can manage that much, miss I'm so beat I will just lie here." That was enough to finally get Hibiki to get up and even push Itsuki away. "Oh, it's a miracle! She moves yet!"
"Shut up." Starting to laugh at how silly Itsuki was acting, Hibiki stood up and pulled Itsuki up as well. "Uh... I smell. I think I don't have any shampoo left. Shoot. I don't want to go back to my room like this."
"I'll share mine with you." Taking the lead, both of them walked rather slowly. "I think I'm gonna be sore tomorrow too..."
"Serves you right." Continuing their little banter all the way to the entrance, the two of them were happily laughing when they left.
=== Dissonance ===
With Kurumi still out of commission, Urara impossible to wake, Erika missing and Kaoru on lookout, the dinner party was quite the show this time. Inori, Miki, Hikari and Setsuna had come together to make some healthy and refreshing food, according to Berry that was, for everyone.
A lot of grilled fish, cabbage, tomato and potato salad, some oils for dressing and fresh bread made quite the exceptional dinner. Everyone seemed quite pleased, except a few well known gluttons.
Love had recovered in time and much to the relief of Setsuna and Ellen, she didn't have any issues. She did almost choke both of the aforementioned to death by hugging them too much, but that was hardly unnatural for her.
The only event worthy of notice was that Honoka and Mai sat, together, at one table while Saki and Nagisa sat together at the other, both parties not even looking at each other.
Similarly, they left the room in that exact combination as well. Michiru asked both of her friends about it, but neither would give her an answer. The logical conclusion was that they were fighting over some nonsense. They rarely argued but it wasn't like they never got into fights. Most of the time it was about food or Saki's lack of presence at their shared home. It didn't worry her too much. They loved each other so much, nothing in the world could truly separate them.
The garden was quite lively after dinner. Instead of retreating to their rooms, almost everyone sought some peace among the plants. Due to the sheer numbers, peace was still an option whereas quiet was quite impossible. Ellen was playing some music on her guitar near the flower hill, Karen and Komachi were brainstorming ideas for Komachi's novel together with Inori and Miki. Rin successfully managed to drag Kanade out of her room and had her listen to some of Ellen's music. Sitting in the grass near the hill, a little offside from the others, Rin was leaned against a large and thick tree, with Kanade leaned against her side.
"Feel better? You looked pretty depressed all the way through dinner."
"It's nice to hear Ellen play. I always liked her music, even though her first impression was horrible back then." Kanade looked up and into the tree, letting out a heavy sigh. While she was fine when with Rin, as soon as she talked to someone else, her faults came through right away. Arguing and nagging just for the sake of doing so, in a way, she was even worse than before.
"You should have woken me up when you came back. I was really worried." Kanade pouted a little, expecting Rin to have enough common sense to realize that she wasn't a stranger to her.
"I tried everything short of kissing you, throwing you off the bed or right up molesting. Next time I won't be so nice then."
"I... guess I can do without the throwing off and the molesting."
It didn't escape Rin that Kanade didn't rule out all three. "What, you're fine with kissing me? Now, look, I think I need to make this clear before you get the wrong idea. I'm not a replacement for Melody. No matter how lonely or depressed you are, I'm not going to be just some rebound so you feel better."
"I can't be okay with it just because you're nice to me?"
"Sheesh, you're really making this hard for me. I want to say yes, but I have the feeling it's going to come back and haunt me. And most of all, you shouldn't let someone kiss you just because they're nice to you when you're feeling vulnerable."
"You say a lot of how you don't want me to be interested in you... but you don't mind sleeping next to me or having me lean against you like this."
"Because I know it's doing you some good. You're lonely, I'm lonely. I don't like telling people that, so you better keep that to yourself. We're just using each other. That's all."
"I don't believe you. If I kissed you now, it wouldn't be as cold as it was when I slept with you to get back at Hibiki."
"No comment. You can try if you want. I'm not responsible if you disappoint yourself with unnatural expectations."
Getting up, kneeling next to the red Cure and kissing her swiftly, Rin tried her best to not react in any way. A few seconds later, despite her best efforts, she couldn't hide that her cheeks had gained some slight color. Putting on a tough face, Rin smiled. "See? Same as before."
"Yes, I see." Kanade was smiling herself, sat back down and leaned against the older girl. She was right.
=== Dissonance ===
As it got darker, more and more Cures went back to their room. In the end, it was only Tsubomi who remained in the garden, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to sleep without Erika being by her side.
Other couples had similar issues. Honoka was laying on her bed and reading a novel. Or more accurately, pretending to read a novel. She wasn't making any progress. Not for the full last hour. Maybe it was due to the fact that for some reason or another, Mai had actually ended up spending the night in her room. "Don't you think we've taken this far enough? I know Nagisa is the type to have a little fun with this, but they'd never actually do anything. They know we're the same."
"I wish I knew why I got so fired up and said all that stuff. Maybe it's being in this place. It's making me a little crazy." Mai buried her face in the pillow she had brought over. She was still in cure form, although she had taken off boots and gloves.
Honoka though, was in civilian form and subsequently naked, no longer remembering where exactly she had left her clothes. They were likely so smelly and dirty that she wouldn't have worn them anyway, but she wasn't that comfortable being naked with Mai so close to her. They had agreed that she would keep her eyes focused somewhere else.
"I had a few fights and arguments with Nagisa before, but this is kind of ridiculous. All four of us know that we're all taking this a little too far."
"That's just it. I don't want to give in and admit I can't yet one-up her." Sighing, Mai couldn't help herself but ask. "If you had the chance, and there would be no repercussions from me or Nagisa, would you sleep with Saki again?"
Honoka hesitated a few seconds, a few unpleasant memories showing up because of what Mai said, before she answered. "No. I love Nagisa. No matter how similar they may look or act, it's not the same, not by a long stretch."
"What about me?"
"Why do you keep-" Honoka quickly covered herself with a blanket when Mai suddenly looked at her. "Mai!"
"I blame Saki for this but ever since they pretended to be okay with us making out, I can't help but be curious what it would be like."
"You're not expecting me to just say yes, of course, let's try, do you?"
"Of course not. Your face is quite flushed though." Mai turned back into her civilian form, just before she got up and grabbed Honoka by her right arm. Just as she moved in closer, the door opened and Saki stepped in.
Trying to keep her composure at the obviously extremely explosive situation, Saki, walked over to the small night table Honoka had and slammed down Mai's drawing block. "You forgot this." The girl was obviously pissed off.
Walking away and slamming the door shut behind her, Saki couldn't believe that Mai would go that far to put one over her.
"Mai, look what you did! Go after her and-" Instead of reacting properly, Mai moved in the last few centimeters and kissed the blue haired girl. Honoka's reaction was delayed by only a second, shoving the girl away. "I could taste the alcohol from just that! How much did you drink?!"
Jumping on Honoka, Mai tried to continue where she had left off. Turning into White and overwhelming Mai easily, Honoka jumped up and left her room, first checking Nagisa's room, which was empty, and then Saki's, where she found both of them. To her surprise, they were not in any kind of compromising situation but doing exactly what Saki had said they would be doing. Training.
"Honoka. Are you okay? You look pale." Getting up, walking over to her partner and feeling her forehead, Nagisa was promptly ignored.
"Mai's drunk. I don't know when or how much she drank, but she's definitely drunk. And I want all four of us to stop acting like stubborn teenagers, this instant. Fun's over.
But Honoka underestimated just how stubborn those two could be. They were so close to finally getting their partners back for all the teasing until now, they couldn't back off. Even if it did get a little weird. "I don't mind. If it were anyone else, I'd drag her right out of the room, but I guess as long as it's just you, I know Mai is just doing it for fun, not because she's no longer interested in me." Saki felt a little sick saying those things.
"Nagisa, are you gonna continue acting like a teenager as well?" Honoka's glare could have pierced steel. Backing away a step, looking to Saki and meeting her glare as well, she decided to not say anything. No matter what, answering would trigger a landmine. "Fine."
Shaking her head and walking off, Honoka returned to her room to find Mai sound asleep in her bed. Shoving her to the side, turning back into civilian form, Honoka went straight to bed, unwilling to deal with this circus. She'd get them to drop the stupid act tomorrow. She was too tired and annoyed to deal with it now.
"Saki... I think this went a little too far. Honoka was really angry. I don't want to have a real fight with her just because we want to get back at them a bit."
"They... looked kinda sexy together."
"Saki! Don't tell me..." Kneeling down and sniffing the girls breath, Nagisa sighed hard. "Great. Both of them are drunk."
=== Dissonance ===
Hymn was thirsty and hungry, not having eaten ever since she emerged from her mirror. She wanted a shower, sleep in a bed and eat a decent meal. Things that were natural to have over in the originals camp. Watching the current guard, she had witnessed the fight between Azalea and the originals a while ago.
Berry and Pine stood guard and they were highly unlikely to even give her a chance to talk. If only that stupid bitch Azalea hadn't shown up! She should have approached the trio right away, even if her own original was there. In the worst case... she could have asked for a quick demise.
But once one had escaped death, it was a lot harder to give up again. Her stomach growling again, she really wished she could just go back to her own side and try to steal some food from the kitchen. But the guards on that side would attack her as well. In a way, she was a complete outsider, not belonging to either faction now.
Leaning against a wall and closing her eyes, she tried to ignore her hunger and thirst, hoping that Peach and Passion would take guard duty again soon. Hopefully before she died of thirst. That was a very real horror for her now. Before that happened, she would surrender herself and just let herself be killed by one of them. Being imprisoned in the mirror and vanishing couldn't be any worse than slowly starving to death.
And she wasn't the only one. Deep in the labyrinth, walking around in total darkness, stumbling and cursing, Nightmare had mostly recovered but couldn't risk being found. Malice and likely most of the other reflections were going to kill her. The originals, all of them, would attack and kill her on sight. She had to single them out, lure one of them away at a time... yes.. that's what she had to do. It was only about one more day until Dream was finally gone and she didn't have to worry about that crappy mirror system anymore.
The situation back in the reflection camp wasn't exactly rosy either. Finding out that both Misery and Hymn were gone was enough to send Malice into a fit of rage. The garden was mostly devastated and still served as prison for the few that were labeled as liability and garbage.
Rage was laying next to her in bed, naked and worn out, Malice being quite demanding. Biting her nails, she wouldn't let Nightmare or any of the others get away with making a fool out of her. That was not how she had planned things to go. And she wouldn't let things end like that.
Agony was unconsciously laying in the garden, picking on the wrong people. Trying to have a little fun with Umbra and Breeze, they had almost killed her. While they were very carefree usually, provoked, they could be rage incarnate.
Poison had retreated to her room and spent the evening tormenting Freeze. The blue reflection had several small wounds all over the place but was peacefully asleep on the cold ground, right below her mistress's bed. "Now, how do I get Malice and Nightmare to take each other out? Oh I know... yes, that would be fun. Truly exceptional fun."
There was no sign of Dusk, Dawn, Blaze or Flare whatsoever. They had retreated deep into the labyrinth behind the base, beyond the reaches of Malice and Poison. Wither and Vulture were back in their room, both trying to dominate the other one in bed.
Erika's stamina had run out long before Ember's. The blue Cure was sound asleep next to the pink reflection, unable to leave her new prison. Even now, Ember still didn't realize that it was Marine and not Maelstrom she had spent the last few hours with.
Maybe it was due to her exhaustion or plain luck, but that night, Erika didn't speak a single word in her sleep.
=== Dissonance ===
A large, white wooden door right in front of her. The door to the house she had lived in since she had been a little girl. She was finally home. Grabbing the handle and opening the door, she went inside. The first sight was disturbing. Furniture was buried under a layer of dust, other pieces slowly rotting away from age. The house had been deserted for ages.
Looking around, she could find no sign of anyone living there. Going up to her room, her breathing stopped. The walls were smeared with blood, big red letters all over the place. Father. Mother. Cologne. Momoka. The same words over and over. The bed was cut with a knife, the ground was covered in a crust of blood.
Looking up, right on the ceiling, there was only one actual, real sentence. "I'll see you soon."
Running outside, she needed to get away from there. Tripping over something, she fell, hearing the voices of several women all around her.
"Did you hear? They want to tear the old Tsukikage house down now."
"I've heard a rumor about why nobody ever wants to buy it. Can you keep it to yourself? I don't want the rumor to spread."
"Of course. Do tell, do tell."
"Apparently, twenty or so years ago, a small family lived here. A couple, a small girl. The man just vanished one day, leaving behind his wife and daughter. Now, there are rumors the girl wasn't quite right in the head. Kept babbling about saving her father and something about deserts. And this is where it gets scary. When the daughter was seventeen, one day, she came back home with a large white bag in her hand, an empty and dull expression on her face. Their former neighbors said they saw what was in the bag,"
"Don't tell me..."
"Yes. The head of a man with gray hair! They say the girl walked into the kitchen, put the bag on the table and she said..."
"I've found dad." Yuri's own voice whispered in her ear. "I found dad and I brought him back."
Trying to get up, Yuri was stuck in sand. Desperately clawing into the sand, she only sunk deeper and deeper until the sand started to ran into her mouth and nose. And she could still see. Below the sand. Everything as clear as the sky.
She was looking right at the skeleton of another girl, a large skeletal wing attached to her back. "You stole my life." The voice boomed in her head. "You stole my father." "You stole my mother." "You took everything away."
She kept falling, the wind so sharp that it cut into her face. Looking below her, there was the house. The house she wanted to escape from. The house in which she had killed her family, her lover and finally herself, unable to bear the pain. Around it was sand. Only sand. For thousands and tens of thousands of meters, only sand.
She could see herself kneel in her room, crying and laughing, her hands shaking and somehow still managing to hold a large kitchen knife. A lot of blue hair was sticking to the knife, along with blood. Stepping closer, she couldn't run. No matter what she wanted, she took another step. Yuri saw herself kneeling over Momoka, who she had just killed. "You'll be safe... you'll be safe. I'll see you soon."
Standing up and walking downstairs, she slid her hand over the wall, leaving a thick, red trail. Her face completely distorted in insanity, Yuri stepped into the kitchen. Her mother was pinned to the wall with several large knives, an expression of surprise and disappointment on her face.
"Mom... I saved Momoka... now it's only me. Only I need to be saved now... I'll save myself now." Giggling while she continued to shed tears, Yuri pulled the largest knife right out of her mother's stomach. A small stream of blood started running from the hole, the body not bled out completely yet.
Putting the knife to her temple, Yuri's whole body was shaking. "Momoka... dad... mom... cologne... ha... ha ha... you didn't win Dune. I was stronger. I saved them all. I'm still the strongest Cure." Ramming the knife deep into her temple, her legs gave in and she fell to the ground, her arms and legs twitching wildly.
Blood running from her mouth, nose and eyes, Yuri spit out one last message before everything went dark."I'll see you soon."
=== End of Event XVIII ===
