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Dissonance

Event XIX

Mirrors-Tria

"Any sign of reflections?" Honoka, unable to sleep in her own room due to a drunken Mai being passed out there, had spent a little time in the garden to cool her temper. Nagisa at least should have taken her side!

A good two hours should have passed since Mai made a move on her, and she felt comfortable dealing with it now. Her mind calm, it didn't take much to realize that this was just an argument that had gotten a little out of hand. Not something they couldn't fix by talking for a bit.

The guards at the time were Rhythm and Berry. Both had volunteered. Turning around to face the other white Cure, Kanade quickly reported. "It's been really quiet. Not a sign of anyone."

"Good to hear. Don't fall asleep." Smiling and turning around, Honoka thought she smelled something weird. She couldn't quite put a name to the smell, but it reminded her of work. Like a mixture of chemicals had gone wrong. The smell vanished as quickly as it had come. Slowly looking over her shoulder, she figured that one of the guards had to be the source of it. Healthy food wasn't really everyone's thing.

"I'm going to the bathroom. Be right back." Kanade stood up and walked down the hallway. It wasn't the food that was making problems, but stress. Getting a little too close to Rin, she realized quickly that she was just looking for someone else that would stay with her in case Hibiki would turn her down if she ever asked her out again. Nothing more than... second choice. Feeling horrible and brooding all night over it, she had volunteered for guard duty to get away from the red Cure for a while. And all that brooding had upset her stomach.

Left behind alone, Miki felt a lot more tired than usual. Being worried sick about Yuri was surely part of the reason why she was mentally worn out, but starting a fight with Marine and acting like a child didn't make it any better. In front of everyone too boot. That wasn't perfect at all.

Leaning against the wall, Miki sighed. She couldn't go back on what she said easily, but fighting with Erika was not going to impress Yuri or make things any easier for her. Not to mention that the situation was all but fitting for a fight like that. And the biggest problem was that Marine was nowhere to be found.

A sudden gust of wind alerted Miki to maximum caution. Focusing energy into her fists and legs, she was ready to pummel anything that came closer. But there was nothing. No noise, no sign of any impact, no enemy. Having been absorbed in her thoughts too much, she couldn't tell where the wind had come from. There were three possibilities. From the tunnel, the garden or the hallway.

Looking into the tunnel, it was still pitch black. No sign of any movement. Looking towards the garden, there was nothing there either. "What's wrong?" Kanade had just returned from the bathroom.

"There was a sudden gust of wind for a moment... did you see anything unusual in the hallway?" If there was even the smallest oddity, they had to alert everyone and search.

But Kanade's answer was negative. "I couldn't feel any wind in the hallway. There was nobody there but me. Should we wake the others?"

"No. If you haven't noticed anything, it must have been from the garden. I'll talk to Blossom about it tomorrow." Still cautious, Miki returned to guard duty with Kanade. She hoped nothing odd would happen.

=== Dissonance ===

Honoka had problems keeping Mai in place. The sleep drunk continued to flail around, making it difficult to even carry her. Finally fed up with being gentle, Honoka simply grabbed her by her arm and pulled her away, the passed out Cure dragged over the ground like a heavy sack.

Opening the door to Mai's room, she smelt something vaguely similar. Saki. It woke some uncomfortable memories of her night with the athlete. Mai and her probably spent quite a few nights in this room. Wild nights, it smelled like.

Dragging her into the room and heaving her on the bed, Honoka was friend enough to cover her with a blanket. Looking at the purple haired girl, another sigh escaped her lips. This place really was getting to people. Stress was building up and being released like this. Shaking her head slightly, Honoka froze.

A sharp, piercing pain. Her vision going red. She had experienced something like this before. Where? Why couldn't she remember? And why couldn't she move. Something covered her mouth. It was warm and quite wet. She could feel the texture of skin. A hand. Trying to get a grip on the situation, Honoka tried to breathe in. Nothing happened. Trying to open her mouth, she felt blood drip from her lips.

Finally able to move her head enough to look down, a thin but still solid, blue blade was coming right out of her throat, together with a thick stream of blood. A hand covered in thick armor was stopping her from speaking. The room turned to pitch black when the blade was slowly removed from her throat, going all the way back, pulling out of her neck. The pain was overwhelming.

A second sting. This time, in her chest. It was a clean hit on her heart, she could feel it. There was little mystery about what was happening at this point. Staring down at the sleeping Mai, Honoka prayed that she would wake up in time.

"Goodbye, Trash." Mai's voice whispered into her ear just before her mind turned into a complete blank, her body lost all control and fell to the ground. A white boot was placed on her head, the lifeless eyes staring at no one in particular. "Black Mirror."

Freeze had to kneel down, her energy reserve completely used up. That move wasn't intended to cover up three people. But it was her mistress orders. She couldn't disobey Poison. She didn't want to either. A reward would be waiting for her. A gift from her believed mistress. Just thinking about it made her become impatient with lust.

"Don't be a wimp." Turning around to the blue reflection, Vulture glared at her. The days of them working for Malice had never been a reality. Poison was the strongest among them by far, her power absolutely deadly without a moral limiter to stop her from using it on people.

"Stop chatting Vulture and get going. We don't have time." Wither was exerting pressure. Poison had provided a sure-fire plan that would let them replace their originals. If they blew it, it would end with their death.

Freeze cast a spell and vanished from sight, opening the door, leaving, closing the door and vanishing into the far reaches of the complex without a trace. Wither and Vulture knew well that they were on their own from there. "Don't rush me. I'll kill her right now."

Staring and stepping aside, Wither let the white reflection do whatever she wanted. Watching her as she created a mass of energy in her right hand, a murderous grin on her face, she was again disgusted to have been stuck with someone like that as her partner. Where Egret was kind and gentle, Vulture was rough, impatient and obnoxious.

"I wish I could keep the head as trophy." Vulture grinned and lifted her hand, not noticing the sinister smile of her partner behind her.

=== Dissonance ===

Erika woke up in the middle of the night, not knowing what time it was or what was happening on the other side. Ember was laying next to her, naked and fast asleep. The thought raced through her head. Kill her. But that was something she wouldn't even try. Not because Ember had spent the last few hours driving her from one orgasm to another but because she absolutely couldn't lay a hand on someone that looked just like Tsubomi.

And that was another problem. Deep down in her mind, barriers that shouldn't be broken were falling apart. In the heat of their act, Erika had started multiple times to think of her as Tsubomi, not a reflection. The same look and voice were really starting to put too much stress on her psyche. Even now, when she looked at the peacefully sleeping pink haired girl, there were split seconds where her mind failed to register that she was looking at a copy.

Getting up as slowly as she could and jumping out of bed, Erika didn't dare to turn back into civilian form. Picking up just the absolute necessities of her costume, skirt and top, she snuck to the door, opened it and went outside. Her heart was beating so hard, she feared that someone might hear it and question her. Maelstrom was back in her mirror on the other side, but they must have had a way to identify which one the real one was.

Passing a few rooms, a lot of the doors were half open or completely open, with nobody inside. She had heard Ember mentioned Garbage several times. If she was already doing the spy act, she had to get valuable intelligence at the very least. Their numbers, their defenses, their weaknesses, and everything they knew.

Walking past one particular room, Erika froze. She could see someone inside a mirror. A pink Cure. "Dream..." Quickly covering her own mouth, Erika slowly turned around and pretended to be lost in thought, faking a slow witted and sleepy expression.

There was nobody watching her. "Do they really look like us?" Talking to herself in a voice just loud enough to let anyone nearby hear her in case someone was hiding while observing, Erika took a few steps forward and stopped. The act had to be perfect. "Maybe I shouldn't... Nightmare will be mad. Ember too."

Turning around and staring at the ground, Erika turned once more, her eyes fixated on the mirror. The Cure inside looked completely normal if unconscious. Was there a way to get her out? Even so, would she be able to get her past the guards? What had Ember said? Malice ordered everyone to attack Nightmare on sight... so they would attack Dream even if she pretended to be her reflection.

Was there another way out of the base, just like Tsubomi first pretended? Stepping inside and closing the door, Erika tried to calm down. Walking around half naked in the enemy base wasn't something she counted among her favorite activities.

Stepping close to the large mirror in the back, she could read two names. At the top, Dream, mirrored, and at the bottom, Nightmare, written normally. One thing struck her as odd almost immediately. Even though it was incredibly dark inside the room, she could still see Dream fine. The inside of the mirror itself seemed to be slightly light, but there was no visible light source.

Putting her hand on the surface, Marine almost instantly pulled away. The tips of her fingers had sunk right through the glass, into a cold void. Small signs of frostbite on her fingertips made clear that it wasn't just an illusion of sensations.

Getting as closer as she could without touching the mirror, she just had to do it now. From what she had heard, Dream had been killed quite violently, so she couldn't risk her making a fuss. Preparing herself, Erika breathed in and out slowly, trying to become as calm as possible. Lunging her arms into the mirror, right through the surface, she managed to grab Dream by both her wrist and her upper arm, pulling her back out. The pink Cure opened her eyes the instant she left the mirror, and just as quickly, Marine covered her mouth. "Not a sound Dream. They will hear you."

Nozomi was shivering for a few seconds before the full effect of the pain she had felt just before her death kicked in. Her pupils rolling up, her body convulsing, the would be teacher dropped to the ground, unable to make a sound even if she had wanted to. She didn't feel any pain at the time, but her body remembered the feeling of having horrendous pain inflicted on it technically just seconds ago. A weird state of where she should feel the pain but as there was no wound, all that remained was her body thinking there was one.

Erika grabbed the Cure by her shoulders and shook her harshly a few times, trying to get to to stop freaking out. Not knowing what was wrong with her, the designer wasn't in top condition either. There was frost on her arms from reaching into the mirror and she felt cold. On the other hand, Dream was quite warm, not showing any sign of having been in the void at all.

Seeing no visible sign of change, Erika decided to apply shock treatment. Grabbing Dream and covering both her mouth and nose, she prevented her from breathing. It only took about ten seconds until her body reacted with panic. Gasping for air, Nozomi cowered on the ground, pulling up her chest piece and checking for any injuries. Her face was like that of a ghost.

Grabbing Nozomi by her shoulder, Erika put her hand over Dream's mouth yet again, making absolutely sure she would not scream or yell."Be quiet. I'll explain things to you." Waiting until Nozomi had calmed down just a little and given an understanding nod, Erika started explaining.

=== Dissonance ===

She had to tell her eventually. The alternative pretty much guaranteed that she was going to be rejected harshly. Someone else telling Urara she had been lying to her for this long would be enough to torpedo any chance of working out a solution. But even knowing that, she couldn't get herself to do it.

Her eyes only half open, Ako was lying right next Urara. Watching her sleeping face, she recalled just how many times someone had almost revealed her dirty little secret now. She couldn't count it on one hand anymore. It was just a matter of time until someone screwed up or deliberately told her.

She was inexperienced and unsure of how to act, but the pain in her chest when she thought about Urara hating her for lying and being still a kid was easy to understand. She was horribly afraid of no longer being able to be with her. If that meant anything, then that any doubts she had about being with Urara were based on the fact that she was still pretending to be someone else, still lying.

The realization hadn't come with any kind of great impact or shock. Maybe because she already knew, deep down, somewhere in her heart and mind. Urara was, out of everyone there, one of the few that had even a remote chance of treating her like an adult, even if she learned the truth. And narrowing it further down, she was likely the only one that would ever consider a romantic relationship with her.

And she wanted that. All the time she spent with the yellow Cure, she felt happy, even if at times she was annoyed by her antics. People aren't made entirely of likable traits after all. The realization of what she wanted had been the last big fragment in a puzzle she wasn't able to complete.

Seeing her go off and be in real, life-threatening danger, Ako had only twice before felt similarly relieved. Both of these times had been related to Noise, her father and her kingdom. That the cynical, direct and somewhat bossy girl now meant so much to her helped Ako understand her feelings a lot.

Love was complicated but she could now tell for sure. She liked Urara. Beyond the shadow of a doubt did she want to be with her for as long as she could. Even if their lives would separate them when they left this place, she wanted to be with her, spent time with her...

And that led her to the one other thing she was afraid of. Being intimate with Urara. Getting kissed and being touched, despite the long initial period of awkwardness, had turned into something comfortable and normal. She didn't want to miss those things anymore. In a way, she had become addicted to Urara's caring and loving side. Buried beyond all the cynicism, sarcasm and bossy behavior, there were leftovers of a once truly caring girl.

Beyond those simple things was a world Ako knew very little about. Sleeping with Urara, Sex, was something she couldn't really imagine, good or bad regardless. Her heart beat faster when she tried, and it became hard to breathe and think. But that was what it must mean to become excited on the thought. She knew her adult body fairly well, but not to the degree Urara must have known her own.

Even knowing all of this, it didn't make it any easier to work up the courage to tell her. Even if she picked a good time and told her, there was no guarantee whatsoever that Urara wouldn't reject her based on the grounds of her being a child. But it was a chance she had to take.

The only remaining question for her was whether she should take the next step in being intimate with Urara before she revealed herself. If she slept with her before that, would that raise her chances? Or would it appear as her trying to guilt trip Urara into something?

"What's bothering you?"

Ako almost jumped up when she saw Urara open her eyes and stare at her. That girl really had the worst possible timing to be exceptionally sharp.

"It's been bothering you for a while. At least the last couple days." Urara paused for a second and twirled a lock of Ako's hair around her index finger. "It's got something to do with you. A few of the others are giving me weird looks lately. I thought I'd get an explanation from you instead of just sniffing around." Turning over, getting on her knees and getting in position over Ako, Urara leaned down and kissed her neck. "I don't like it when people keep secrets from me."

"Even if it's something you're not going to like?" Ako couldn't see herself getting out of this one. Urara knew that something was up, but she didn't know what it was exactly yet. "I'm not going to ask you anything silly like to promise me you won't get angry. But at least hear me out all the way."

Not liking the seriousness of the conversation, Urara got up and left the nearly naked black Cure on the bed. Grabbing the large bottle she kept behind her bed and one of the two glasses she kept around, Urara poured herself a drink. Only wearing her torso piece, Urara had not bothered to undress before going to bed. Ako must have done it for her. "I suppose I can do that."

Not seeing what Ako was doing, Urara both felt and saw two arms go over her shoulders and wrap themselves around her neck. "Before I tell you... I need to ask you something really important." She had seen scenes like this countless times in books and movies, but none of them did justice to just how nervous and frightened she felt. "Would you say... you love me?"

"I kept wondering if you would ask me that." Taking a sip from her glass, Urara lifted her head slightly and moving back just enough to enjoy the sensation of Ako's breasts pushing softly against her back, the vocalist sighed. "Truth is, I don't really know. I haven't been in love for so long... I barely remember what it felt like." Taking another sip, Urara felt she wasn't being fair in giving an incomplete answer. "But I would say, yes, I love you. Not just randomly, but because of what I feel. There is nobody else in this god-forsaken place I'd like to spend my time with more than you. You can actually stand up to me and even though I manage to boss you around a lot, it's always a challenge. There's the obvious things, like being sexy and having a nice voice, too. There's probably many little things I can't think of right now because your boobs are pressing against my back and it's making me horny as hell."

Ako didn't answer for several seconds. Pulling Urara a little closer, she thought her heart would explode any second now. Being told that that Urara was in love with her... that was really something. No matter how prepared she had been for either case, it still caught her by surprise. "I hope what I'm about to tell you doesn't change that. Because I love you too. I thought about it a lot. So much that I kept going in circles over and over. But what I feel... I'm sure that I'm in love with you."

"You're thinking pretty lowly of me if you assume that I'd just change my mind. I'm not that shallow." Urara felt a little annoyed by Ako's words and emptied her glass. The taller girl backed off a little, and just as Urara had finished refilling her glass, waiting for Ako to spit out whatever she was hiding, two much smaller and shorter arms went over her arms.

"Don't look. I don't want you of all people to see me like this." Ako's voice had changed considerably.

Emptying her whole glass in one go, Urara just kept staring at the wall, ignoring the short arms that held on to her. She could feel that someone was behind her, but the weight on the bed was different than before. Refilling her glass again, her expression changed from somewhat pleased to pissed. "Explanation. Go."

"I told you I'm the princess of Major Land. I'm... a young princess in fact. Even before I became Cure Muse, I had a strong affinity for magic. Because I was always studying to eventually become the queen, I wasn't really a normal girl. Always around people much older than me, learning proper etiquette of nobles and how to run a kingdom made quite the impact on my personality. I was always too mature for my... real age." Ako felt hurt just telling her about it. The tense atmosphere scared her and she already wished she had already slept with Urara. "So, to avoid people treating me like a child all the time, I learned how to change my appearance. It was too hard to do a real shapeshift, so I learned how to make myself older. Five years seemed to be the most stable and I got quickly used to it. My mother and father wouldn't approve of me doing this, so I always used it in secret, just being among the commoners in the kingdom. Nobody treated me like a kid, even though I didn't act any different than before. Adults only look at you and see a little girl with no chest and a small body. They don't care about your personality. That's what I thought all this time. And that's why I was afraid to tell you."

"So, how old are you? You looked like seventeen to twenty." Emptying the third glass, Urara was happy that she didn't actually see the small girl that Ako apparently seemed to be. She would have had a much harder time listening and not getting seriously angry then.

"I'm in my second year of middle school. I turned thirteen about six months before we all got transported here." The following silence was so awkward that Ako tried to back away from the girl she had just admitted she loved. The yellow Cure forcefully grabbed her right arm and kept her in place without saying anything. When Ako didn't put up any resistance, Urara let go and refilled her glass for the fourth time. She was starting to feel the alcohol a little. Not enough to impact her judgment but enough to drown her upwelling anger.

Over ten minutes passed in silence. Ako tried her best not to cry from being afraid of being rejected and she managed to keep back her tears. She didn't dare to turn back into her adult form either, not without hearing some kind of answer from Urara.

"I just said I hate being lied to, so I'll tell you truthfully what I think. I don't want to be a hypocrite after all." Putting her glass down, Lemonade stood up, turned around and got a good look at the thirteen year old Ako. Her face was mostly the same, her hair quite a bit shorter, her chest almost flat, her whole body much, much smaller. No matter how she looked at her, she couldn't shake off the feeling of looking at a child. "I can understand why you kept it a secret."

Ako's expression lightened up significantly for a second before Urara's right hand hit her so hard that she fell on the bed. "That was for lying to me. And let me just say this. The girl I'm looking at right now is not the Ako I know." Turning around again and picking up her bottle and getting a good shot, she sighed. When she looked over her shoulder, the Ako she was in love with was back. The grown-up Black Muse, fully dressed in her costume.

"How many of the others know?" She really felt like getting drunk hard now.

"With all that's happened, I'm not sure. Melody, Rhythm and Beat know. A few from the original dark team know as well, as I wasn't in this form when we all got here." Ako rubbed her cheek, a little angry that she had been hit so hard, but also relieved that Urara seemed to be done punishing her for lying with that.

"Explains the stares. Here, drink up." Handing Ako a glass filled with a pretty hard vodka, Urara completely disregarded that she had already gotten a minor drunk several times.

"That's a lot worse than I was expecting. Not the worst by far, but pretty bad. Since I'm pretty pissed, what do you want me to do? What do you want, Ako?"

Half expecting her to burst out laughing, Ako lowered her head and tried to avoid the eyes of the blonde. "Keep things as they were before... maybe take them one step further. I have no more secrets to tell you, if you're worried about that." Sniffing the alcohol, Ako already knew she wouldn't like the taste. She still managed to empty about half of the glass, feeling the effects right away.

"Is that really what you want? Aren't you worried I'll be crept out by you still going to middle school?"

"You just said that's not the girl you love. If this makes any sense to you... when I'm near you, in this form, I feel more at home than anytime else."

Putting the bottle down, moving over to the bed and pushing Ako down, Urara forcefully kissed the girl, the contact between their lips only lasting a few seconds before she pulled away just enough to talk. "Thirteen, huh?" Shaking her head, Urara sighed. "My reason tells me to stop this. To just leave you, go my own way." Seeing Ako's sad face, the blonde moved her hand right between the legs of the black Cure, slowly rubbing over her intimate spot, the act changing the girls expression instantly to embarrassed and surprised. "But with a body and personality like this, reason can go fuck itself. But you're going to have to compensate me for this."

"I was an idiot to even think you'd have something sensible to say." Trying to get back to her usual self, Ako could barely think straight, so happy that Urara was not treating her like all the other adults.

"There is actually a fairy sensible reason behind this. I was burned, scammed and thrown away when I used to work as an idol. The adults cut me off like I was nothing. I'm not like that. I can tell that the personality I've grown to like is your real one, not something you put up as an act to look mature."

"I'm happy to hear that... can... can you stop rubbing me... there?" Ako tried to cross her legs but Urara wouldn't let her. The blonde put a little more force behind her movement, making the younger girl below her moan in surprise.

"When you said compensation... you meant sex?" Ako wasn't blushing as heavily as she had thought she would.

Instead of answering, Urara moved down and started kissing her new partner's neck again, driving up the excitement of the girl. Stopping after a few seconds, Ako was confused as to what Urara was doing. All her movement had stopped. Slowly lifting her up, she found the blonde to be peacefully passed out.

Ako had completely forgotten how extremely tired Urara had been when she came back from the her mission outside. The alcohol had done it's job and made her fall asleep. Ako secretly regretted it a little, as she had started to feel really good from what her... partner had been doing.

Waking her up again would be the epitome of being selfish, so she slowly rolled the girl to the side. Switching to civilian mode, Ako figured that she should get used to being completely naked around Urara. Covering both herself and her partner with the big blanket, she was unbelievably thankful that everything had worked out like this. If it had been anyone but Urara, things would have been really bad.

=== Dissonance ===

Nozomi was following Marine as quietly as she could. She hadn't mentioned yet that the whole affair was her fault, and she wasn't keen on killing her only chance to get away in unscathed. They passed several empty rooms, both of them barefoot, before Erika signaled her to stop. Pressing themselves against the wall, Erika crouched and slowly snuck forward, trying her best to discern what the sounds from the next room were.

She was close enough to be able to touch the wooden frame if she had wanted to, less than a meter away from the door's handle, when she was finally able to make out the noise. That was Aqua's voice, moaning in pleasure, with an occasional loud thud, the source of which she couldn't quite place.

The moaning got significantly quieter just as Erika was ready to move back and signal Nozomi to move to the other side of the hallway. Staying in place, lifting her hand and signaling Nozomi to not move even a single centimeter, Erika tried to calm down, her heart beating hard enough to make it difficult to determine what was going on inside.

"Well done for a pet." Poison's voice was rich with contempt for Freeze. Lifting her left foot and kicking Freeze's face, the blue reflection immediately started to lick her toes. "Did you finish all of your tasks?"

"Yes, my mistress." Cowering on the ground, Freeze had a set of deep, bloody scratches on her cheek, punishment for being too slow.

"You're almost useful, I'm surprised. I might keep you around for longer yet." Laughing sadistically, Poison kicked the blue reflections face again. How delightful it would be when her plan bore fruit. Getting Wither and Vulture into the originals camp was only one step of many.

Erika moved away from the door cautiously, afraid that even the smallest sound would alert the two reflections. Not even whispering, she grabbed Nozomi's hand and pointed at the other side of the hallway. Sneaking over, they successfully managed to get close to the end. Marine spied around the corner finding only Pine's reflection, whatever her name, on guard.

Erika took another step forward, while showing Dream to stay behind with a hand sign. Getting up and trying to check where the enemy was looking at, Erika's luck ran out. "Maelstrom?!" Ember was calling for her. If she found Dream, it would turn into a bloody chaos. Looking at Dream and signaling her to hide in the closest room, Erika walked a few steps ahead to check out Pine's reflection.

The yellow copy was fast asleep, a grim expression on her face even when she wasn't threatening anyone. Ember must have spotted her, the white and blue parts of her costume still clearly visible in the dim hallway. "What are you doing?" Ember had caught up with her quickly and grabbed her arm. Swaying from left to right, Erika tied to bluff her way out of it. "Toilet... where is..." Almost drooling a little, faking droopy eyes and looking more asleep than awake, Ember seemed to buy the lie right away.

"You're really helpless." Her eyes wandered over to the guard. "And Agony is asleep on the job. Well, not my problem." Grabbing Erika by her hand, Ember slowly dragged her away. Pretending to be half asleep, Marine well couldn't resist. But at the very least, she could give a sign. Letting herself fall just a few centimeters behind Ember, the blue Cure used her free hand to first form a fist, then point towards the entrance and quickly open and close her hand twice.

Nozomi realized that trying to save Marine would only end up killing her. Ideals or not, if Marine herself didn't show any sign of wanting to be saved, Dream wouldn't force it on her. Not anymore. Experiencing death-like pain, the trauma of Nightmare destroying her heart sat deep in her mind.

Waiting until both of them were out of sight, Nozomi went as quietly as she could, making it past Agony and into the large tunnel. Marine had told her to just follow the long hallway. Too scared to run and accidentally alert anyone, Nozomi just kept sneaking, paranoid of the dangers around her.

She had dealt with a lot of grief, sadness and pain in her life, but nothing compared to when Nightmare took her place and murdered her. She remembered all of it clearly. For her, nearly no time at all had passed since then. The feeling of her fingers, hand, arm, piercing her chest, Nozomi felt sick just thinking about it.

In a state of high alert, Nozomi hid behind a large set of crumbled pillars when she thought she saw someone move not too far in the distance. And her instinct proved to be right. Rose was slowly staggering towards her, dragging a body over the ground, pulling on one arm, not hiding her complete indifference about the well being of the body.

She couldn't make out what the purple Cure was muttering, and right now, she was highly wary of anything and anyone. Being killed once was more than enough. She could still be saved once she made it back to where everyone else was.

It was too dark to see well, but Nozomi was able to make out the color of the body's hair before Rose passed her. Blond. That didn't narrow it down very much. There were half a dozen Cures with blond hair.

Waiting until she was well out of sight, Dream left her cover, feeling horrid for just abandoning an ally like that. But the trauma and shock of Nightmare attacking her ran very deep. Her chest still ached when she as much as thought about fighting her copy, or anyone else for that matter.

=== Dissonance ===

"Tired?" After hitting the ground right next to her bed, and subsequently the toilet just because she was already awake anyway, Rin checked in on the guards, Kanade and Berry. They still had an hour to go before it was time for a change, but it really was a mind numbingly boring duty most of the time.

"What are you talking about? I'm as fit as- that hurt!" While she got herself under control when Rin was present, Kanade now fell from one extreme into another, acting on occasions even more stubborn and high strung than ever before. Rin rewarded her with a hit to the back of her head every time she acted stupid.

"You know you deserved it. Who's next on the list Berry?" Rin ignored Kanade, who had started and continued to pout, and turned to Miki, a yawn escaping the model.

"Bright and Windy are next. Can't wait to go and get some sleep. It's good that nobody attacks us, but it sure is boring." Yawning again, Miki shook her head. "This is bad. Talking about sleeping is making me even more tired."

"I'll take over your part until Bright and Windy show up. Sound good?" It was difficult for Rin to go back to bed, and sleep, when she woke up in the middle of the night.

"I owe you one. See you tomorrow. Night." One yawn after another, Miki dragged herself down the hallway, towards her room. She stopped briefly when she saw Black's door open but didn't think anything of it. Rin wasn't the only one who went to the toilet at night.

"What was that about? It's written all over your face that you're sleepy, so why pretend you're not? It only makes you look like a stubborn idiot." Not one minute had passed since they were left alone before Rin went into lecture mode.

"You don't have to put it like that!" Kanade knew Rin was right but she couldn't admit it.

"Oh really?" Giving the aspiring baker a knowing look, Rin almost burst out in laughter. "You have a long road ahead of you before you can ask me again to be subtle about things."

"What about you then? You keep saying you don't like me that way, but you sure do go out of your way to spent time with me. I can't be that bad."

"I've started questioning if I'm a masochist. That would explain why I always let Nozomi rope me into things, though."

"You're horrible. How could I ever think you're cute?"

"Maybe because I keep putting up with your stubborn behavior even though I know I shouldn't. You're kinda cute when you don't talk or act normal, but that's rare occasions only."

Kanade looked down, feeling a little depressed. She was grateful to Rin, but the girl didn't make it easy for others to get along with her. She had quite the fiery temperament. "You really think I'm cute?"

"When you're not being a stubborn donkey, yes. You're quite cute. I'm no expert through. I just happen to like blondes so I'm biased."

Walking over to the red Cure, Kanade sat down next to her and looked up at the ceiling. "If you weren't so blunt, I think you'd get along with everyone else better."

"It's not me who blasted a hole into the kitchen wall, you know. I have my emotions under control."

"Maybe a little too much under control. When I kissed you earlier, you didn't resist. You liked it, didn't you?"

"How many times do we need to go over this? We're only feeling attracted to each other because we're both lonely."

"So what? Does that mean we don't really like each other?"

"Not anymore than I like Karen or you like Beat. And why do you keep talking about this? Don't you want to get back together with Melody?"

"She... looks a lot happier now than when I was with her."

"Is that really so? You're not exactly the most objective judge, remember?"

"I can tell because I really love her. She enjoys being with Sunshine."

"So what, you're just giving up? Sorry but I don't enjoy being second choice."

"Goddamn, will you get off your high seat for a moment?" Kanade couldn't take it anymore.

Rin knew she had laid on too thick with it. Sighing, she patted Kanade's head. "My bad. Side effect of hanging out with Urara for so long."

"You told me... that Hibiki might not give me another chance. Don't tell me you already forgot about that."

"No, I remember. So what about it? I don't know her. It's just one possibility. Don't hang yourself up on that."

"I just... I love her but I'm not sure I can ever change enough for it to work out the way it needs to."

"So, you're giving up."

"No, I'm..." Kanade didn't quite know herself what she wanted or even doing.

"Fine, fine. Maybe it's time I stop. My head is telling me I'm setting myself up for great disappointment in the long run if I actually get interested in you. But I guess that's just part of the whole experience. Better enjoy it while it lasts than to never have had it. I guess."

"Can you put that in words that actually make sense?" Kanade was getting a headache. What had they been talking about again?

Grabbing Kanade by her arm, pulling her over hard enough to make her fall down in her lap, Rin leaned down and kissed her. "Date me. Go back to Melody if you can, but for the time being, it would be pretty neat if we could be partners."

"That's completely different from what you were saying before! And the whole time!" She was only a little flustered, thinking Rin was just messing with her.

"Do I have to justify myself? Can't I just change my mind?" Letting the white Cure go, Rin just couldn't be bothered to think about stuff. Not anymore. Being with Kanade wasn't bad. And everyone had some disappointment in their life. Kurumi didn't turn for the worse after Karen left her, so maybe this would do her some good as well.

"Do whatever you want..." Sitting down next to her, Kanade started to yawn. She really was tired after all.

"How much longer is our shift?"

"Not sure. Berry and I were here for a while, but my internal clock is totally messed up lately."

Just sitting next to each other and being quiet, Kanade was surprised by how well she dealt with Rin now. Even though the girl had suddenly kissed her, it didn't bother her at all. Granted, she had slept with her once already and cried rivers over Hibiki right in front of her, but that still didn't mean she shouldn't be weirded out by being intimate with another girl that wasn't Hibiki.

Trying to think of a topic for conversation seemed awfully difficult and became even worse the more she actually thought about it. "Tell me a little about yourself. When I think about it, I don't really know anything about you."

"There's not that much to tell, honestly. I've been friends with Nozomi ever since I was little. Urara, Komachi and Karen were added to the friends pool when we became Cures. I always liked sports but I actually thought about trying to make it a jeweler. Didn't work out, so I'm back to sports."

"No hobbies?"

"My job keeps me pretty busy. Soccer used to be my hobby, way before it became my job, and I helped out the other sports clubs every now and then. Other than that, I liked helping out in my parent's flower shop when I was younger. Not anymore though. And... well, I wouldn't say it's my hobby, but what consumes most of my free time is watching out for Nozomi. Your turn."

"My hobby and my job are practically the same. I work part-time in my parent's bakery and do new cakes and stuff in my time off. I can't imagine not taking over the shop one day. I don't really have that many hobbies. I played the Piano with Hibiki when we were fighting noise, but high school is a lot more stressful than middle school, so that sort of stopped."

"In what year of high-school are you?" Rin had already graduated.

"Second year. Come to think of it... you're not that much older than me Rin. Nor are the others... how are they all already so successful in their jobs?"

"Everyone is doing what they can. Urara got burned hard in the idol business and started singing shortly thereafter. Komachi has been writing for at least five years now. Karen... well, I guess it's talent that got her this far so quickly."

"Everyone is amazing..."

"And you think you're not? Working in a bakery while going to high school and being a Cure on top of all that sounds pretty stressful."

"Being a Cure hardly means much if there's no real danger. I used it a few dozen times to help people out, but it was never anything like fighting Noise. It's the same for you, right?"

"Just judging by the fights we had until now, everyone must have kept training hard. Though, I noticed that I got stronger by myself, without doing anything, as I got older. I had more power, and things like..." Lifting her right hand and creating her signature fire claw on it, Rin grinned. "..this became easier and easier. I have to admit though that I abused my power occasionally."

"Abused them? To gain an advantage in your career?"

"No. To cook. The gas was out and I was really hungry. So... I sorta boiled the water with my Cure powers."

Kanade broke out in laughter immediately, with Rin following her, knowing that it really was hilarious when she thought about it again. After calming down a little, Kanade smiled. "I once caught Ako using her powers to, well, I guess you could call it plug her ears. We were camping, and Hibiki started to snore, so Ako confined herself into a zone of silence."

"Ako being? Beat or Muse?" Rin wasn't exactly a prime example of good memory concerning names.

"Muse. Well, you've only seen her adult form walking around I guess." Kanade realized a little too late that Ako probably didn't want people to know.

"What do you mean, adult form?" Rin looked far too interested to just drop the topic. Kanade had no choice but to explain things to her.

"She's the princess of a fairy world called Major Land. She never really explained to me how it works, but she can switch between her real body and whatever she looks like five years from there."

"If that is what she looks like her age plus five, how young is that girl? You realize we're talking about the girl Urara, that Urara, has been making moves on for like a week now, yes?" Rin was highly disturbed by this. She didn't believe Urara would knowingly do what she did if she knew.

"She's pretty independent and I don't think we should butt into her business."

"Stop tiptoeing around the issue. How old is she? Also, if she keeps this a secret from Urara, that's pretty damn stupid of her. Because she'll get her ass dumped instantly if Urara gets wind of this."

"She's thirteen. Just turned thirteen actually. Rin, I know I'm not the right person to say this, but you really shouldn't bother... Ako usually knows what she is doing, and don't you think it's kind of unfair to just judge Ako by her age?"

"I'm more concerned for her than Urara. You don't know what she's like. At least as far as I know, she hasn't bothered to be with anyone for this long ever since she switched from the idol industry to music. If the one girl she actually cares about, at least I think so, turns out to be an underage middle school girl, I have no idea what she's gonna do."

"What, you mean she'll react violently?" Kanade turned a little pale. Was Lemonade really that bad?

"No, but... well, she might hit her really hard once for lying. She doesn't like being lied to. But it'll definitely not turn out rosy."

"I still think we should stay away from their relationship. If Ako wants to keep her real age a secret and she just stays as adult permanently while we're here, wheres the harm?"

"It doesn't feel right. I'm Urara's friend, so I feel I should tell her."

"And ruin the one relationship she actually cares about right now, according to you."

"Thanks, now I'll feel horrible whether I tell her or not."

"Just don't then. Doing the right thing sometimes isn't the best thing."

"Getting lectured by you of all people is the worst." Laughing, Rin shook her head, resigning herself to just let the fiasco play out.

After silence returned and brought boredom along with it, Kanade kept falling into second sleep, too tired to be reliable as a lookout or guard. After spending a few seconds with her eyes closed, something woke her up quite effectively.

"What are you doing?!" Jumping up and covering her breasts with her hands, her face was slightly red. That really wasn't the time to make out. A short kiss was one thing, but to be groped and have her breasts fondled quite something else!

"Curses, I'm jealous. What size are those? C, D?"

"Pervert!" Kanade almost yelled in response and turned around, still protecting her chest with her arms and hands.

Getting up and catching Kanade, Rin tickled her until she let her guard down. Instead of groping her again, Rin simply laid her arms around the white Cure's waist. "It is pretty fun with you if you're not caught up in your stubborn act."

"You're still a pervert. Groping me in public like that. Don't you have- stop it!" Just as she lapsed back into her old behavior, Rin groped her again, the effect's showing on Kanade's face.

"That's even more effective than hitting you. A lot more fun too." Letting the girl go, Rin contemplated making that her general response to everything stupid Kanade did.

"Is the lovers quarrel..." "...done yet?" Michiru and Kaoru were both leaning against the wall, both of them not exactly well hidden despite the the dim lighting of the location.

"We're not lovers!" Knowing that her shift was over, Kanade stomped off, only looking back once. "I'm going to my own room!"

"Did we interrupt something?" Kaoru was interested in everything related to people and their relationships.

"Just her usual antics. Have fun being bored. There's no activity whatsoever here." Waving the sisters and walking away, Rin knew that it wouldn't take even five minutes until Kanade would cool down and regret running off.

Returning to her room by herself, Rin didn't bother to undress and simply changed forms, crawling back into the now cold bed. She purposely slept on the side, giving any potentially stubborn girls the chance to sneak in and lay down.

She had been much too generous with her estimation of five minutes. After what felt like two, Rin heard her door open just a little bit. Pretending to be sound asleep, Rin kicked the blanket. "Nozomi... stop eating..."

Seeing that as guarantee that Rin was already asleep, Kanade slipped quietly into the room, covered by just her own blanket, already in civilian form. Dropping the cloth and sneaking into Rin's bed, the soccer player quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her down. "Knew it."

=== Dissonance ===

The news of Nozomi's return during the night spread like a wildfire the following morning. Bright was standing guard in front of her room, to avoid people bombarding her with questions. She wasn't an expert on it, but even an amateur could see the signs of shock and trauma written all over Dream's face.

Rin was still arguing with Bright, who seemed to consider using force to have the fiery girl finally back off. But that was not the only piece of hot news that morning. After realizing that with the current situation, no favor could be gained, the existing pool was all they had for food and drink. Thus, the breakfast was, while not overly so, more down to earth than usual.

The problems didn't stop there. Saki, who seemed to have gotten over her hangover already, and Mai, who was still suffering from a headache, were both reporting alarming news. Not only had Vulture, Egret's counterpart, been killed, but both Black and White's names were showing up mirrored on their respective mirrors. A sign that they had been killed. None of the killed reflections, Aurum, Misery, Aurora or Maelstrom had escaped though.

Nobody said it out loud but the suspicion that there was a reflection posing as original among them was great and shared by many. Throwing out wild accusations would get them nowhere. They knew too little about the reflections to find a good way to determine who was an original and who wasn't.

"It's fine... let her in." Nozomi was looking incredibly weak and worn out, her face so pale it was almost white.

Rin was both overjoyed to have Nozomi back and boiling with anger because she just knew that it had to be something she did that caused this mess. "I want to hit you but I actually think not hitting you and staying angry is going to teach you a more valuable lesson." The red Cure remained completely still, leaning against the wall across the bed on which Nozomi sat.

"How much time passed since I...?" Nozomi still had difficulty saying it out loud. A shock that magnitude didn't wear off within a few hours.

"A day and a half, roughly. We would have needed to make a push into their base today, to save you, if you didn't get out. Because in about ten hours or so, I guess, you'd have been a goner for good."

"From my point of view, no time passed at all between seeing you beyond the blazing fire and being pulled out of that mirror."

"People are going through hell here. Mind explaining to me what exactly you did to create this mess? I know it's something you did. It only makes sense, since Nightmare was the first to show up on this side."

"I wished for us to be able to stop fighting each other."

Rin shook her head in disbelief. "You're the only one who was really all that unhappy with the situation before. Compared to this, I think it's save to say it was actually a fairly good time."

"Rin, I-"

"Don't come up with any stupid excuses. I told you to think before you mess up again. Just so you know, White and Black have been killed. We don't know when. It's possible they have been impostors for the full previous day. Nobody really checked their mirrors until they were missing completely this morning. This is your fault Nozomi." Rin could see that her words hurt the girl in front of her. That was completely intentional. "Why can't you understand Nozomi? Why are you trying to force a change on people that have already accepted the situation?"

"Because it's not right!"

"So who are you to determine what is right and wrong? What are you going to do if someone permanently dies after being imprisoned into a mirror? What if their partner survives and is left behind alone? Are you just going to tell them you caused this because you had to pursue your idea of right?"

Nozomi couldn't answer that. She wanted to apologize, but anything she said now would just be empty words. What Rin was saying had been something she had realized on her long walk back. Ideals helped people. They usually did. But in this case, her stubbornness and ideals had caused people to get hurt badly repeatedly. Even someone as stubborn and morally fixated as her couldn't ignore the effects her actions had and move on like nothing happened.

"I thought threatening you by saying we're though if you screw up again would work. But apparently you just can't go against your own nature."

"No... This time is different Rin." Nozomi looked down on the ground, fully knowing that she couldn't sit this one out and wait for it to fix itself. It had taken a monumental mess to make her put ideals and morals aside, but it had finally happened. "I'm going to help fix this. I created this mess. If I have to get my hands dirty by fighting... then that's what I have to do."

"That's not good enough Nozomi." Grabbing Nozomi's right hand and forcing her to look at it, Rin continued. "You remember Nightmare? And Eternal? I never wanted to bring this up again but I've just about had enough of you causing problems. We killed them. All of them. And yet you keep rattling on about how us fighting each other is wrong. So let me ask you this. You didn't seem hesitant about killing them, so what is stopping you from killing the reflections?" Rin was trembling and almost hissing her words at the end. There was only so much she could take. If this was what it took to fix Nozomi, then that was that.

"It's not the same!" Nozomi wouldn't just sit there and let someone effectively call her a hypocrite. "Fighting them was jus-"

"Justified? For them, fighting us was justified in their own way. Everyone has their own idea of justice. I can't believe you're still believing in some greater way of good. Those reflections want to live. We want to live. And only one of each can actually survive."

"We don't know that!"

Pushing Nozomi back, Rin towered over her. "And we never will know. The way you're talking now, it sounds like you would stop and try to argue with Kawarino until he either kills you or gives up. Wake up Nozomi! Those aren't people you can reason with. Nightmare brutally killed you without second thought. I saw her laughing at your corpse, covered head to toe in your blood!"

Looking down, Nozomi could feel how what she had thought was courage to step over her ideals, had just been make believe for herself. Something to help her feel better about herself. About what she was doing even now.

"...Give me some time." Looking away and facing the wall, Nozomi needed time to think. If she really was wrong... she had to stop acting like a good Samaritan. If killing those things was the only way her friends and she would survive...

"Our hands have been bloodstained for years now, Nozomi. Stop being afraid of what you could and might do." Opening the door, pushing Bright out of the way and slamming the door shut, Rin walked off, quite pissed at herself for trash talking Nozomi like that. That was no way to talk to someone that was still in shock.

=== Dissonance ===

"None of our reflections are likely to be capable to keep up an act for this long. Especially not mine. If they're direct opposites of us, it is safe to say that none of us is a reflection right now." Kaoru, leaning against the solid wall that was the back end of the massive room, established that they were all originals.

"If I didn't know you for being meticulously rational, I wouldn't agree and suspect you of being a reflection. That's how much paranoia this strikes in our heads. My reflection shouldn't be capable of acting in the first place." Inori stood next to a thick tree, her right hand touching it's bark.

"At this rate, it won't be long until we have people accusing each other left and right. So, what do we do?" Karen didn't like this at all. Not only that people would become distrusting of others, but also that that very atmosphere was poison to some of the more kind minded people, like Komachi.

"I expected this to happen at some point. So, I have a solution. It's not without risk, but it will at least give us all the info on the system we will need. Capture a reflection." Kaoru didn't like the plan all that much, but they had only limited options available to them.

"You'll have to get lucky to find one that actually talks. Reflections like Nightmare would just go berserk until they are killed or destroyed everyone around them." Karen knew well that Dream was almost absurdly strong, and so was Nightmare.

"It doesn't matter who we capture. We just need any reflection to break a mirror. And whose reflection is the most likely to talk? The one that has the least self-esteem." Michiru took advantage of the fact that every reflection had the exact opposite personality to their original. Or at least that was what she believed.

"Misery. You want to make her talk about everything and get her out of the mirror for that? I don't think Miki is going to like this, even if we get rid of her right after she told us everything we need to know." Inori wasn't thrilled by the idea of having any reflection freed. Logically, it was a sound plan. Capture one, use her to break Miki's mirror and then kill her. Question Misery and once done, kill her too.

"I'll take care of the elimination of both after they've done their job." Making a fist, the other two knew that she wasn't joking. She'd kill them without hesitation.

"How are you going to use the captured reflection to break the mirror? We don't really know how it works, yet." Karen wasn't so sure this plan was structurally sound. If the reflection killed someone before she was captured, it would all backfire.

"Dream said she was pulled out. It's simple. Your special ability allows you to dominate the mind of someone, right?" Looking at Inori, Michiru had taken even this into account.

"I never tested it on a reflection. In theory, it should work, but it'll be difficult to dominate one that has a strong will." To use her ability like that had passed her mind before, but she didn't think to use it to free a supposedly harmless reflection by using it.

"When do you want to execute this plan?" Karen hadn't come up with anything better herself, so she just went with it.

"As soon as possible. Preferably within the next six hours." Looking at Inori, the redhead waited for an response from her.

"I'll be ready when we find one. Domination has a limited duration so I can't take just take them from somewhere deep within the labyrinth to our base. Even if it was my own reflection and I moved at maximum speed, it would still take a while."

All three of them turned around when Miki came running, looking quite serious. "Hymn just got captured. She's being held by Lemonade and Muse, chained and under observation." Surprised by the lack of surprise in the faces of the three others, Miki turned halfway around. "I only looked at her for a moment but she didn't seem well."

"Seems like you're up, Pine." Michiru was suspicious of this awfully convenient turn of events. Hymn just stumbling around the border of their base? And letting herself get captured that easily?`Too suspicious.

Hymn was covered in chains, unable to even stand or sit up, like a tied up package forgotten in a corner. Ako was standing watch right next to her, ready to use her power to seal up any other Hymnos she might try. Oddly enough, Hymn didn't seem to have any intent of harming them.

I took only a few minutes for almost the entire base to assemble, excluding those who were either missing, presumed dead, as well as Saki and Mai, who were nowhere to be found.

Ellen was slightly horrified by looking at her exact copy. The tone of their skin was different, Hymn being significantly paler and having big black bags under her eyes. She had a lot of scratches as well, part of her costume was torn and her hair wasn't exactly what Ellen's looked like.

Nobody talked to her, Urara and Ako keeping them away just far enough in case the blue reflection had some kind of trick up her sleeve. It wasn't until Miki and the other three returned that someone approached her. Michiru left the negotiating to her sister, their past proving that Kaoru had more success in in human interaction than she did.

"Why did you let yourself get captured? You know fairly well that we have enough smart people here to figure out that it is highly suspicious for you to just get caught this easily. Especially after your failed attempt with Purger."

"It was either singing Purger or getting killed by Malice. That's Peach's copy by the way." She had to appear helpful if she wanted to make a deal. Lemonade had attacked her right away but taken her alive. That alone was already very useful.

"So Malice is the leader of things over there?"

"It's not as easy as that. There are, in essence, four groups. Malice and her underlings, those working for Poison, a few that seem to work together outside the above and garbage." As she said the last word, murmuring started among the Cures. What kind of term was that to give to their allies?

"Garbage are those reflections based on us originals that are either capable of fighting you on a moral stance or very powerful."

"Mostly. Those unsuited to fighting are called garbage. Malice has them imprisoned into the garden that Blossom over there created. I'm not sure who works for Poison and who for Malice at this point. Trust is rarer than gold on our side."

"So, what kind of deal are you hoping to strike? It's obvious that you're intent on cooperating with us, for whatever reason. I can already tell you that letting you kill Beat and replacing her is out of the question. We have other ways to get all the information we need if it comes to that."

"So just let me and the other killed garbage live until we're the last few. You can think of something else then."

"How much more information do you have?"

"A lot."

Walking away from her, the usual suspects quickly gathered around her. Michiru, Karen, Inori and Miki. "We're by no way bound to hold up our part of any deal we strike after we have all the information."

Karen was instantly objecting to this. "I'm not going to make a deal and immediately go back on my word. I'm not a villain."

"I see this the same way." Miki wasn't going to go back on her word that easily. Not even in a situation like this. If they had to do this, then without their approval.

Inori remained silent for now and Kaoru knew that Michiru was supporting her cause. "Even if we let them live, there is no guarantee that they won't try to murder their originals. The risk is too high. Unless we force the information out of them with torture or something similar, this is our only choice." The redhead of the two sisters followed up with an opinion of her own.

An awkward silence broke out between the five for a couple of minutes.

"They won't be able to do anything if they're guarded by someone that is not their counterpart. We can let them live until we have taken care of the significantly more dangerous ones. If we include a non-aggression article in this deal, they can't attack anyone without them breaking the agreement first. That way, we won't have to go back on our word. We will also include the fact that the deal only lasts until either every other reflection has been killed or defected, at which point we will either become hostile parties again or look for another solution." Even Inori couldn't think of a backup plan for letting the reflections live. In the end, only one of the two could exist. And an original permanently dying wasn't something she could wager.

"I have no objections to this." Kaoru looked at Michiru, who saw herself beat. It wasn't the more logical choice, but given the circumstances and the personality of everyone around her, it was impossible to convince them of this.

"I'm fine with that as well. It's a temporary truce. They get to live, we get information. They could even be useful as fighters, as they seem perfectly capable of killing other reflections." Karen wasn't evil but she wasn't very sympathetic to the enemy either.

"Same here." Miki didn't have anything to add to what Karen said. The idea of letting reflections, even guarded, walk around here wasn't sitting well with her.

"Then that's decided. Windy, do you want to continue negotiations with Hymn?" Inori spied on Lemonade from the corner of her eye and she didn't look very pleased to have the blue reflection sitting there.

"Just wait a second!" Love burst into the conversation, pushing Miki aside. "Aren't any of you going to ask how Ellen feels about this? It's her reflection, so she should be the one to decide if she gets to live or not."

"I understand what you're getting at Love, but this isn't just about how Ellen feels. We could learn a lot of important things about the enemies and we could even make others defect if they see Hymn isn't being tortured." Inori tried to deal with her old friend as good as she could, but knowing how stubborn she was, it wouldn't be easy.

Luckily for Pine, both Passion and Beat showed up, the red Cure slowly pulling Love away before she could protest anymore than this, and the blue Cure taking her place. "I'm not happy I wasn't asked about this but I understand what Inori just said. If this makes it possible to prevent any more deaths on our side, I'm fine. Just... keep an eye on her."

"She won't be free to roam around, but we won't treat her badly or torture her. If you ever heard of such a thing, she's like a prisoner of war. They do have rights, too." Karen explained it carefully to Beat, who did seem pretty distraught over the whole affair. "Windy, go talk to Hymn. The way Urara is staring at her, she'll be turned into something ugly soon."

Leaving the group without even one word said in response, Kaoru passed by Lemonade and glared at her, a sign that she should keep herself in check. Muse saw it too, and while Windy's look did nothing, Ako's glare did have some kind of impact. Clicking her tongue, Lemonade lessened the strain on Hymn, leaving her enough room to breathe at ease and even sit up.

"We're willing to make a deal. You, and others you label as garbage, will be given rooms, however, you will be under constant surveillance. You will be fed, permitted to use the showers and depending on your behavior, also able to visit the garden when the guard in question allows you to. You will not be able to freely mingle with us originals, eat with everyone else, albeit you can be permitted to eat with the others from your side, nor will you be able to leave the room without a guard accompanying you. You're a prisoner. We won't torture you and the guards will all be instructed to treat you fairly regardless of prior hostile engagements. Of course, you are by no means permitted to act in a hostile manner towards us. If that happens, this truce is immediately off and you will be attacked and killed on sight."

"In exchange, I will supply all the information I have. Those I want to free are highly unlikely to attack anyone, as all they want is to be left in peace. If those are your conditions, we have a deal. One last thing though. You didn't mention what happens to us when we become the last of our kind."

"We haven't decided yet. This is war, so I would hold off being overly optimistic, us being Cures or not. Being defenders of good does not mean we're unable to make difficult choices. Keep that in mind." Turning around and looking at the yellow Cure, who was visibly displeased with this turn of events, Windy ordered the release of Hymn. "You won't be restrained for now. That might change if there are any signs of hostility of betrayal whatsoever."

The golden chains dissolved and Muse had to pacify Urara, the two of them walking off together. The large crowd kept their distance of a few meters, until Windy created a small whirlwind that lifted her up in the air and kept her floating. "Hymn, the reflection of Cure Beat, has agreed to the terms decided upon by a small collective of us. She is not to be harmed and treated as a proper prisoner of war. We will distribute all learned intelligence within the next few hours."

"What do we do about rooms?" Miki looked at Inori, who surely had another plan for this. She had several minutes to think about it after all.

"A lot of them are free because we have a lot of couples here. White and Black are gone. As far as I know, Setsuna's and Love's room are empty too, as they stay with Beat. There might be other rooms that are empty, such as either Karen's or Komachi's. We'll have her stay in one of those. It'll become a moving effort if there are a lot more reflections that are going to be taken in."

"Let's move her to Setsuna's room for now. Her room is close to Love's, which will make guarding significantly more safe." Miki waited for an approving nod from Inori before she crossed the short distance between the crowd and Windy. "Come. I'll show you your room. I'll be your first guard." Miki had questions. Hymn had been staring at her for a while. It wasn't that unlikely that she was infatuated with her, but she had to stop that quickly.

The crowd parted sideways as Hymn walked towards them. She expected a sudden assault, booing and other harassment but none of the above happened to her. It was almost like the crowd seemed relieved that she was taken in alive and not publicly executed.

The crowd's attention was, again, directed to Windy, away from the new arrival. "We will be dealing with the removal if imprisonment of other specific reflections. Not all will be freed, only those deemed completely harmless. There is one additional matter that needs to be taken care of."

Miki couldn't hear what Windy was saying anymore just as she closed the door. Love's room smelled almost sterile, as if she hadn't used it recently at all. "Why do you keep staring at me?"

"I'm the one that killed Misery." Hymn didn't beat around the bush. She wanted Miki to know what a horrible fate her reflection had suffered from on the other side. "Malice, Agony and Rage, the reflections of your teammates, disfigured her, ripped her clothes to pieces, scarred and beat her. She was a crying mess when I found her. I'm not trying to make it look like I'm a kind person. I'm far from that in reality. But there is a limit to everything, even how much you can abuse your own allies before you go just too far."

"Why tell me this? Do you want me to release Misery?" Miki liked the apparent honesty, but she was still cautious. It might all be a very well thought out ploy, even though it was unlikely there were that many smart strategists on the other side.

"Misery is what her names implies. She's your exact opposite. If any one of us is no threat to you originals, then it's her. I killed her to spare her further harassment and abuse by Malice."

"So you killed her out of pity and now want us to release her so she can avoid being treated like garbage?" Miki saw where the conversation was going, and if it was the truth, she was already feeling how the words of Beat's lookalike swayed her.

"Misery, Aurum, Umbra, Breeze, Eclipse and myself. Those are the ones that are treated like liabilities, dangers to the superiority of our numbers. Do you want me to explain everything to you?" Hymn wanted to cooperate simply because it meant she would be able to live a decent life even if it was only for a short time. It was better than nothing at all.

=== Dissonance ===

"So, why exactly are we out here?" Hibiki groaned and promptly got hit on the back of her head by Urara.

"Stop whining already, you're goddamn annoying! Sunshine, keep your lover in check before I keep her in chains instead." Urara's outburst did not go without consequence. Ako glared at her again and while their relationship was still really unstable and somewhat of an iffy thing to both sides, Urara could feel the pressure. After Ako had no more secrets to hide, she had turned a lot more vicious... or rather, bold. It wasn't as easy to push her around anymore. But she liked herself a good challenge.

"Stop being an idiot Lemonade. We're looking for a needle in a haystack. I'm not exactly enthusiastic about it either. Nor are you." Grabbing Hibiki and shoving her up front, having her walk next to Rose, Itsuki put herself in-between the two, preventing the chain user from inflicting any additional pain on her girl.

"We're looking for Bloom and Egret. You're all so immature." Kurumi wasn't exactly sitting on a high horse but rather taking the search seriously. Finding out that Vulture had been killed and that the couple had vanished without telling anyone was very suspicious.

Karen, as the lead of the group, was checking on the mental condition of everyone. They looked worn out. It wasn't a surprise. They had been at this for over two hours now. Systematically checking the area was not only cumbersome but also extremely tiring. They had to be on guard from enemy attacks, especially since Hymn's give-up could very well be a trap.

Just as they reached a large room, they could all feel it. A foul taste in their mouth, a horrible stench making their eyes tear up, their noses burning from the same smell. Just as they were about to retreat, they saw her.

Of course they all knew fear and despair. They knew what it meant to be shaken to the core by something that threatened their very lives and all they held dear. But nothing in the world could have prepared them for what they saw when the space around them warped, turned red and black.

Standing high among colossal mountains of corpses, the flesh, the maggots, the death was more than overwhelming. The liquid of decay soaked their clothes, the stench rapidly nested into their hair and on their skin. Crawling. It was all crawling. Nails of the dead burying into their flesh, scratching until they could taste blood that was not already hard and dried up.

The voices of innumerable copies of Moonlight, a black clad woman and a man in a coat cried out in a bizarre and ear piercing way. They could clog their ears with their fingers and the voices only grew louder, resonating in their heads. "It's your fault. You did this. Our blood sticks to your hands. Pay for it! Pay for it! Pay for our deaths!"

The space around them warped again. Kurumi was the first to throw up, quickly followed by Hibiki and Ako, both unable to stomach the intense gore and destruction. Further inside the room was a woman. A Cure. A silver one. Laughing manically. "Haha... hahaha... walking... I keep walking... they're still here. It's your fault! Leave me alone! You did this to me! I didn't do anything! You betrayed me! I only wanted a normal life! You killed me! Just go away! I only did what was right! You murdered your own father and sister! I did my duty as Cure! At the cost of our lives!"

The insane monologue chilled Karen to the bone. Getting closer, she could see numerous self inflicted wounds on arms and legs, deep scratches, blisters and swollen parts. Only after three steps warped the space again, a different scene in the same place. Moonlight wading through a bloody moor, several served limbs nailed into her flesh. Turning away in repulsion, Karen found that there were countless other Moonlights suffering the same fate in the distance. They were all walking randomly, subject to the uttered curses of the heads.

Checking on the others, there was no sight of Melody and Sunshine. Kurumi was sacked knee deep into a corpse pile, countless broken and disfigured limbs trying to drag her down. Just from the look of her eyes, she was screaming like crazy on the inside, but not a single sound was escaping her lips. Trying to shout and tell her to snap out of it, Karen noticed only now that she was mute herself.

Space returned to normal while she was still facing away from Moonlight. Melody was on the ground, not moving a muscle, with Sunshine protectively covering most of her body, muttering unrecognizable gibberish. Kurumi was scratching her legs like crazy. Urara and Muse were further behind, trying to back away from the abomination that this room was. Karen figured that she was the only one that realized that they had walked right into Moonlight's exile. And that they were experiencing and seeing what the silver Cure had been going through for over a day already. Karen feared that even if she somehow saved her, there wouldn't be anything left of her mind or personality.

Facing Moonlight, she was close enough to see that she was drooling blood and her pupils were completely gone, only leaving the white of her eyes. The crazy monologue continued for the full two seconds before the space warped again. This time, Karen got to feel what she felt. A single second was enough to have her go crazy inside her head, the pain, regret, despair, fear, hatred, rage, depression and agony driving her mad. Someone was injecting liquid madness right into her veins, right into her heart and mind. Thankfully, the warp only kept up for a few seconds, enough to make Karen vomit just as she regained control over her body. Ignoring all the warning signals of her body that were like sirens telling her to go away, Karen somehow made the last few meters to Moonlight. Even without the space warp, touching her made the blue Cure experience everything her senior did.

Even if she would have had a choice to begin with, given the circumstances, Karen did what everyone else would have done. Concentrate as much energy in her fist as she could, as quickly as she could, and ram it all into Moonlight's stomach.

The atrocity ended when the consciousness of the silver Cure escaped to the realms of knockout. Karen couldn't keep standing and fell to her knees, using her hands to stop her face from hitting hard, stone ground. Rolling over, her whole body was still shaking. That wasn't something that could come from a human's subconsciousness. At least nobody that had any resemblance of a normal life. Feeling like she was about to puke again, Karen tried to get up and regain a little composure, that act proving to be a lot more difficult than she imagined.

Kurumi was down on the ground as she looked back, moving about as much as Melody and Sunshine did. Urara was much further back, rolling over the ground, breathing and groaning like mad. Muse was nowhere to be seen for a few seconds before she slowly walked back into the room, heavily shaking as she knelt down next to the yellow Cure.

"What... the hell... was that?" Urara could barely use her voice. She might be tough and cynical, but seeing what Moonlight went through was too much even for her. Avoiding to spill her guts all over the place, she had kept her mind somewhat chained to reality, literally. Using self-inflicted pain to override the madness, she managed to tie up Ako and throw her out just in-between warps.

"Ex...Exile." Karen covered her mouth. That sickness would stick with her for a while. And so would the nightmares about the images she saw, feelings she felt and sensations she experienced.

"For crying out loud... Does this crap never end?" Cursing out loud, the vocalist managed to get up with the help of the black Cure, her partner. "Grab her... and let us get out of here. Rose, Melody, Sunshine, get up!" Screaming to the best of what her lungs and throat managed, she really did succeed in pulling them back to reality.

"What... what happened?" Kurumi was still shaking but able to slowly get up and stand. Seeing the unconscious Moonlight next to Karen seemed like a good sign at the time. "Was that... her doing?"

"Not her own but her exile. I heard from the others but this is just... was it that bad for you Kurumi?" Karen was significantly worried about her Ex. If she had gone through something like that, she would've tried to be a little more considerate of her situation back then.

"It was hell, but this... I feel sick just being here. If this happened to me for so long, I'd rather die than keep going through that." Shivering and taking a few steps back, the purple Cure wanted to get out of the room as soon as possible.

"Help me pick her up." Urara had somehow pulled herself over to Karen, the two of them slowly picking up Moonlight, who was as light as a feather, as if she was just an empty shell. "Let's hope she doesn't go crazy when she wakes up. If she wakes up."

Leaving the room and on their way back, Hibiki felt embarrassed to succumb to the situation. "Great leader am I, fainting and puking all over the place."

"Don't be ridiculous Hibiki. You can't expect any kind of person to go through that unaffected. Look, I'm still shaking. So are the others."

"Aqua and Lemonade didn't faint, did they?"

"I didn't faint because I've seen some crazy stuff in my life. I envy you. I'd rather not live with the memory of the second and third flash. This stuff is gonna haunt me in my dreams." Urara was walking a few steps ahead but could still listen to the conversation.

"But-" Hibiki was silence by her partner, a single finger laid on her lips, the two of them stopping for a moment.

"No buts. You fainted. So did I. So did Rose. And like Lemonade said, she wishes she could have. You have nothing to blame yourself for. Now smile." Not leaving it up to Hibiki to follow the order, Itsuki used both her index fingers to lift both corners of her love's mouth. "See, that's better."

Because of how silly it was, Itsuki smiled herself, causing Hibiki to show a real, genuine smile. "What would I do without you?" Grabbing her arm and hanging on to her, Itsuki's smile changed to a gentler form.

"You can be on cloud seven when we get back. And if you have so much energy, carry Moonlight. She's so tall, she's really unwieldy." Complaining again, Urara shot a quick glare at the couple. They still had quite a distance to walk, and if they were attacked now, it would be pretty bad.

Getting back was much harder than getting there. The event had left it's mark on their mind, that much was obvious to everyone. Jumping at fleeting noises, almost imperceptible movement, their paranoia about an enemy attack or Moonlight waking up and the exile resuming it's work grew with every step.

Kurumi was leading the group now. Jumping back without any warning and crashing into Melody that had walked about two meters behind her, Kurumi started to wheeze. "Someone is here. I just saw a flash of something vanish behind that corner."

None of them were calm or composed enough to question the sighting. For all they knew, the enemy had been tracking them for a long time now. Forming a circle, each of them facing outwards and keeping Moonlight in the center, they waited. The silence of the outer labyrinth only disturbed by their haphazard breathing, dust falling from small cracks between the large stones that formed the walls and ceiling. Cold sweat ran down Ako's forehead as she monitored part of the ceiling above them. Each shadow, even though they seemed to change shape every time she blinked, looked like an enemy, holding on to the stone.

"They're not going to show themselves. Let's go. We're all going to end up insane if we hang around here any longer than this. Maybe we already are and we're just imagining we got out of that room." Urara didn't like that prospect, but one way to get someone to stop being paranoid about one thing was to inflict bigger fear of something else. Something that would make them run.

Heeding Lemonade's words, the group swiftly left their position, carrying Moonlight with them. It wasn't until they were well gone that someone stepped out of the deepest shadows, having seen their condition. A cold, happy smile danced over her lips. Her thoughts raced at the chances that would soon present themselves. For now, she just had to let things play out like they naturally would. That traitor Hymn giving herself up was unexpected but it wouldn't hinder her.

=== Dissonance ===

Mai and Saki returned after a long, uneventful and ultimately futile hunt for the murderers of their friends. At the time, Komachi and Rin were the guards, suspiciously eying those two. "Where were you?" Rouge was the first to suspect them and even the trusting Komachi couldn't help but be a little paranoid after Hymn showing up.

"Looking for White's and Black's murderers." Saki answered instantly, removing some dust from her shoulders and hair while she was at it. "Can we come in? I really want a shower."

"We know Vulture is dead, but your reflection is still out there. Who tells us you've not been replaced?" It didn't take much to make that connection. Vanishing into the outer labyrinth everything beyond the large tunnel and the immediate rooms it connected to, it was the perfect place to dispose of someone unseen.

"I was with her the whole time. I think I'd notice if some thing replaced my partner. And seeing that Vulture is dead, it guarantee's I'm the original, right? Are you going to tell me that I'm working with the reflections now?" Mai was pissed that the enemy had gotten away and Rouge asking questions did not help to improve her mood.

"Alright. Stay in the base, as soon as the search troop comes back, we'll relay the information Hymn has given us." Rin noticed that Bloom stopped for a moment when she heard Hymn's name. "What is it Bloom?"

"We captured one of them? Whose reflection is it?" Saki's pulse was unnaturally high and it was written all over her face.

"Beat's. Why are you so jittery over this? It's suspicious."

"Those things killed two of my closest friends! You of all people should know what that feels like."

"Nozomi is sitting in her room, not well but alive. If we get them out within two days, Black and White won't have any trouble. You would know this if you hadn't run off with Egret to chase after someone that is long gone."

Gritting her teeth, Saki turned around and walked away, cursing under her breath. Why was that redhead so arrogant?

"Suspicious. She should have known that Nozomi came back alive. I trust Egret, but I don't trust her confidence. I don't think that's Bloom."

"Wouldn't she have lashed out at you if she was a reflection? Or attacked us? Why would she pretend to be Bloom? Furthermore, why didn't she kill Egret while they were out there? Someone killed Vulture, so..." Komachi wasn't quite sure about that accusation. If Bloom really wasn't who she was saying she was...

The two were almost run over when the group of now seven returned. They were all pale, gasping for air and drenched in sweat. "What happened?!" The six all nearly collapsed, shaken with fear and paranoia. Urara put herself against the wall behind the barricade and tried to take several deep, calming breaths.

"My guess is as good as yours. We found Moonlight in the exile and brought her back here. Be happy you weren't there. Fighting to the death is a joke compared to what we saw there."

Rin got up and looked after the unconscious Moonlight, who had simply been dropped on the ground as the others tried to calm down, kneeling and laying on the cold ground. She was quite badly injured but it didn't look life threatening. A Cure didn't die that easily.

"Berry is gonna want to know about this. Speaking of her, she should be done getting information from Hymn by now." Komachi knelt next to the unconscious Moonlight and wondered where they should bring her. Taking a look into the hallway, the number of rooms hadn't increased.

Miki was torn in half when she heard about Yuri being found and brought to the camp. She wanted to see her, but the information she had gotten from Hymn was too important to delay. "Get everyone but the guard and have them assemble in the dinner hall. We'll tell the two on duty everything later. Move Yuri to my room for the time being." Talking to Inori, who had been the guard right outside the room, she sighed in exhaustion.

Miki was stressed out by all the things Hymn had told her. It was... extremely unsettling. A few minutes after giving Inori her orders, Miki and everyone else, including Nozomi, had arrived in the dinner hall. The blue Cure stood up ahead near the kitchen wall and window, every single face glued to her lips.

"I'll first explain what the reflections are. They themselves don't know how exactly they came to be, however, they were born with our exact memories up to that point, as well as all of our powers and a warped if not opposite version of our personality. Each of them has their own name as we already assumed and we have a full list now."

Before Miki could any anything more than that, something or someone flooded the entire room with a dark, wavering mist, wrapping all twenty-two Cures into complete darkness. After everything they had gone through, it wasn't surprising that they would panic just a little. As everyone tried to get up and out at once, it turned into a disaster of bumping into others, falling down, getting stepped on and losing all sense of orientation. Nobody bothered to react when someone touched them, regardless of where it was. Wild shouting, chaos and the dark mist prevented them from witnessing what happened.

Miki tried to scream out when she felt a sharp pain in her arm, but her throat was not obeying her. Feeling warm blood trickle down her chest, she realized that the pain in her arm was overriding the one coming from her throat. She didn't get to touch the wound, something wrestled her to the ground inside the total darkness. And then there was just silence.

"Dreamlight Purge!" Nozomi didn't know where she was, but the dark mist rapidly cleared away under the force of her attack. Her right arm raised into the air, a pink sphere was contained in her fist, the rays of light literally cutting the mist and destroying it. The chaos was perfect when everyone realized where they were. It only took them seconds to notice that Berry was gone and a big poodle of blood was where they had seen her last.

Nozomi was the first to get her act together and run out of the room, there were large smears of blood at the right wall, but no sign of enemy or ally. Berry had been killed. Who else was missing? Looking back, it was too turbulent to quickly assess who was missing. They could have run off, too.

Spotting Rin and Komachi, both running down the hallway and towards her, Nozomi didn't notice the door to their right opened. Bright and Windy rushed out of the room, catching both Rouge and Mint by surprise. While Rin suffered a lethal blow to her throat and neck, instantly killing her, from Bright, Komachi tried to pull up a barrier, not fast enough to avoid Windy's energy attack. Numerous wind blades made it inside the barrier, the confined space turning the intended protection into a literal mixer. "Black Mirror." Both of the Cures exclaimed simultaneously.

Both of the killers saw themselves trapped between over a dozen Cures in a state of confusion, and Dream, who looked frighteningly enthusiastic about fighting. "Ah, what a bother. How do we deal with her?" Bright was the first to ask.

"I dunno. Maybe we can just ignore her and she'll go away. I don't feel like doing anymore than what Poison asked us. It's such a bother." Windy shrugged, not a second too early. Bright couldn't even see Dream approach, she was simply suddenly next to her, brutally kicking the side of her sisters neck. Not letting up, Nozomi jumped up, squeezing Bright's neck between both her legs, turning like a screw in mid-air and slamming her into the ground.

Just as her enemy caught up blood from the impact, Dream was already in the air above her. "Crystal Star!" Her voice echoed through the hallway like a message of impending doom. Covering her face with her arms, Bright felt how her entire body quickly became impaled with innumerable pink crystalline fragments. The onslaught didn't end there. "Dreamlight Blast!" Concentrating a large, unshapely mass of energy between her hands, Nozomi stood right above the already lethally wounded Bright before she unleashed her attack. The ground vanished like snow thrown into a fire under the pressure of Dream's power. "White Mirror."

Turning around, she saw Windy escape around the corner. Unable to catch up completely but close the distance enough to have a decent shot, Nozomi took a deep breath and grit her teeth. Who cared if she had to destroy a bit of the area? "Rose Dreamlight..." Nozomi stood still on the same spot even as Windy rapidly increased the distance between the two. With each passing second, another rose appeared on the ground around her, until they numbered four total. Holding out her hand, the four flowers rose into the air and formed a rapier created completely made of rose petals.

"..Explosive Strike!" What emerged from the rapier put the definition of beam to shame. Lighting up the tunnel like dozens of torches or lamps, Windy had no way to escape the approaching mass of death. Swallowed by it, she felt her skin, hair and eyes burn away, the pain so great that her mind shut down the moment she was hit. "White Mirror." Nozomi was breathing hard, the first time she had fought with her full power in years exhausting her quite a bit.

Pine was the first to reach her, trying to ignore the molten stone in the tunnel that dripped from walls and ceilings into more of it's kind on the ground. "Did you see who attacked us?"

"Bright and Windy. Their reflections, I think. They... killed Rouge and Mint." Leaving battle mode, Nozomi could feel tears in her eyes. "The reflections are both dead now, but... that won't bring Rin and Komachi back."

"You returned from being killed. We'll manage the same. Karen is taking charge in the dinning hall. Miki... has been killed, we know that already." Inori didn't notice that Karen was already approaching them from behind.

"That's not all. Sunshine is gone. So are Beat, Hymn and Muse. They hit us really hard. I don't think this was just an attack of two. It happened too fast."

=== Dissonance ===

A lot of the Cures were in shock over the attack and the loss of their loved ones. Lemonade, Aqua, Melody, Rhythm, Passion and Peach were those who went through the worst, emotionally. There were none injured, only a handful of dead.

Checking on Hymn, she really was imprisoned in the mirror now. Bright and Windy, the real ones, found the names of their reflections, Umbra and Breeze, as well as their bodies, peacefully afloat in the void beyond the glass.

But their luck had not ran out yet. Miki had written down all or most of the information that she had gotten from Hymn. Likely because it was difficult, even for her, to keep a cool head and make sense of it otherwise. Despite the hazardous mood and atmosphere, everyone was gathered near the guard posts, with Lemonade completely blocking any way in. Hundreds of chains formed a solid wall, impossible to penetrate. Not a long term solution but enough for now.

Inori started reading out loud the content of the papers she was holding.

"Inherently, personality becomes warped or opposite. Not bound to the original personality they are given. Have all abilities and memories of original. The notion not an urge but conscious desire. Only one of the two, original and reflection, can survive."

"Things that make them different from us: One, they have no civilian form. Second, they know the complete mechanism of the mirror system. Third, original teams mean nothing to them. Grouped into multiple smaller groups. Reflection of Peach, Malice, Reflection of Mint, Poison plus group of liabilities. Includes Aurum, Misery, Eclipse.

Mirror system specifics. Anyone killed put into mirror of the other side. White Mirror and Black Mirror forced onto either side. Mirror displays names if known, name of the dead show mirrored. Either can be removed from mirror by own kind. Time stands still for imprisoned but suffer death after two days. If an original looks into the mirror while... that's all it says. It stops there. The notes are very... abbreviated. I read them as they are written down but I think it's clear enough."

"So when are we going to launch an assault on them?" Urara was the first to say it out loud but she had quite a few supporter. Everyone that had just lost their partner or someone close was quite on edge. There was little question that those who couldn't fight them to the death before were no longer bound by their morals. Nozomi looked gloomy and depressed, and curiously at the same time, enthusiastic. Karen, Kurumi and Urara were afraid that she might have gone crazy but there was nothing odd about her behavior except that she didn't seem to care about morals anymore. It was... a saddening sight. Dream without ideals was just... not Nozomi.

"Now. If we stay on the defensive, they're going to bleed us out. We have lost too many of our friends already." Nozomi spoke up first, a certain fire burning in her eyes. Those were not the eyes of a kind pacifist or someone who loathed fighting and killing.

"I like that you've come to your senses but how come? There better be some kind of explanation for your change in behavior. Because I don't want to go into battle with someone that is going to go berserk." Urara liked her new attitude but she was also worried.

"Rin was right. We already have the blood of Nightmare and Eternal on our hands. This isn't fighting for some cause I don't understand. This is to protect everyone. And if I can help to clean up this mess by fighting, then I won't hold back."

"Now that's the Dream I used to know. Who is with us?!" Urara raised her voice enough to make everyone else hear her. The first replies were from those that had already lost partners. Hibiki, Karen, Love, Setsuna. Others quickly followed suit. In the end, nobody could resist the wave of excitement and anger that rushed through them. How much would they have to suffer at the hands of the reflections before they did something?

"Let's go!" Urara, her eyes narrowed to half their normal size, could only think of one thing. Revenge.

Starting to run, they left behind an empty camp. With Itsuki and Miki dead, Erika gone and Tsubomi finally seeing a chance to save her partner, nobody thought about what would happen if the enemy attacked their base now. Fifteen in total, the ground tremble as they ran towards where the now hated enemy was at. Stress, fear and sadness were all turning into anger and hate for the reflections, the source of the those emotions.

"Listen! Marine has already taken the place of her reflection so do not attack her! If you cannot determine if a fighting party is original or reflection, don't attack until you're sure. In cases of doubt and to prevent infiltration, we will use the phrase "Light is freedom." to prove you're one of us originals." Nozomi was running slightly ahead of everyone else. Pine or Egret could have overtaken her, but they saw no need.

"Corny. Just like back then." Urara jested and earned a few halfhearted laughs. She was right after Nozomi. She had fallen asleep that night, before she could have any real fun with Ako. She couldn't accept some cheap knockoff of a Cure stealing away her pleasure.

"I can see the entrance. Prepare for battle!" Nozomi didn't slow down but instead accelerated beyond what any of the others could keep up with. She had caused this mess. She would be the one to put it right. Spotting the single guard, Pine's reflection, in the distance, Nozomi launched the first attack. "Rose Assault!" Wrapping herself in countless red petals, Nozomi sped up even more, resembling a crimson fireball more than a human, hitting the reflection before she had time to react.

Agony bounced off the ground twice before she slammed into the wall. Dream didn't stop to finish her off, the others would have plenty of time to do that. Going down the hallway, she met the next enemy. Passion's reflection. "Rose Explosion!" Creating concentrated orbs of energy in each hand, each resembling a tornado of microscopic rose petals, Nozomi launched her attack, only to miss by a small margin. Rage rushed straight at her, using the ceiling and the walls to avoid Dream's constant bombardment. Finally reaching her, her brutal punch was stopped short, hitting only Nozomi's arms, crossed in front of her face. Unleashing a whole barrage of hits on her, she drove the pink Cure back, meter for meter, until she tried to pause and collect energy for a bigger energy attack. "Bestial..."

The attack never got finished. Grabbing Rage by her arm, jumping over her and using the pulling force to smash the red reflection into the nearby wall so hard that the bricks were shattered to pieces, Nozomi cracked her knuckles and neck. Fighting at her full power, Rage alone was not much of a threat to her. She hadn't been the caretaker of the rose garden for a while for nothing. Not only that but she was now also part of the garden itself.

Trying to get up, Rage felt an iron grip on her leg and a split second later, the world started to spin so fast that everything turned into a blur. Three impacts into the wall per second, she felt her bones and flesh giving in to the repeated punishment.

Whirling Rage around like a human tornado, Nozomi saw that Agony was fighting four versus one against Melody, Rhythm, Bright and Bloom, losing on all fronts. Instead of throwing her normally, Nozomi jumped into the air, not high, just about two meters, and tilted her axis, now vertically spinning with the enemy. Rage felt several bones break instantly as she first hit the ceiling, then the ground and then Dream.

Nozomi's entire back was burned by a massive energy blast from behind, making her tumble over the near corpse of the reflection below her. Malice was already rushing at her, recognizing that costume as the original of the bitch that had given her hell before.

But she never got to Nozomi.. Several golden chains shot past the pink Cure and hit both torso and arms of Malice, stopping her dead in her tracks. Nozomi had barely time to recognize the blue next to her before Karen had already cut off the free hand of Malice, the blood spilling on her skirt.

Jumping aside when she felt a menace right behind her. Kurumi was in mid-air, wielding a large, unshapely metal fragment that looked sharp enough to cut right through stone. Rage couldn't even gasp for air when she was impaled with the large metallic fragment. "White Mirror."

Malice already knew she was beaten but she wouldn't go down without a fight. Chained and without a left hand to call her own, she channeled all her energy into one last attack. "Malicious Ex...plo..." Unable to complete her sentence when a pink energy disk literally cut off her head, Nozomi felt sick to the stomach. Fighting for a cause was one thing, but their onslaught had been a literal execution for these reflections. "Check the rooms! Check everything! Move in teams of four! Kill everyone but Marine!" Nozomi barked her orders and looked at the remainder of her own team, Urara, Karen and Kurumi. "White Mirror."

The four of them moved down towards the living hall where they ran into Melody and Rhythm, or rather, their reflections. They were nailed to each other and on the ceiling, the loss of blood close to killing them both. They were pale and unable to speak or even recognize those below them.

"I'll put them out of their misery. You don't have to force yourself to do it Nozomi." Urara grabbed her leader by her wrist when she started to make attempts to kill those two. Four golden chains wrapped themselves around the necks of the two and instantly broke them. They couldn't resist and likely wouldn't have even if they could. "White Mirror." The puddle of blood on the ground was undisturbed except by the footprints of Nozomi and her team. They couldn't find anyone else.

"I know who did this. The metal fragments used for this are the same I use for attacking. My reflection was the one that pinned them up there. So she's still alive." Kurumi didn't like the aspect of someone abusing her powers for something like that. It was just too cruel.

Agony was history. There was no one else to be found. Nobody at all. "We have a problem. Bloom and Egret are gone. Nobody has seem them since we left our base. Bright and Windy are out, searching for them. They refused to stay and wait." Inori reported to Dream, who suddenly seemed like a real leader, a stark contrast to what everyone had thought about her until just an hour ago. "The others are freeing their partners from the mirror."

"I don't like this. Where are the others? Why were there only five reflections here? Where is Nightmare? Or Poison?" Nozomi had a very bad feeling about all of this. It was almost like they had wanted them to come. But that couldn't be. No matter what, freeing all the killed originals surely wasn't within the plans of anyone.

=== Dissonance ===

"Where are we going?" Erika had been following Ember for a while now. And it wasn't just her. The reflections of Mint, Aqua and Rose were there as well, the last of those three carrying Sunshine's other self and walking up ahead, prancing like she was some kind of big deal.

"Keep your mouth until we stop walking." Her voice was merely a whisper, but the warning tone of it was very clear to Erika. Ember was visibly tense. Erika had learned that Poison was a very devious and smart woman who always had several backup plans. Ember didn't talk too much about it since Maelstrom seemed to be the type that babbled. So she didn't ask too many question.

"Those rats are still following us. They must be quite clever. Well, I expected them to notice the death trap. They will be useful later, I suppose." Poison was looking at something, somewhere Erika didn't see. Holding hands with Ember, she felt that the situation was getting worse very quickly. She had no idea where they were going, nor why.

Reaching a large hall, the group stopped and spread out. It looked similar to many of the other large rooms, balconies, a high ceiling, smooth ground and walls. "We will stay here for the time being." was Poison's order and everyone that was with her obeyed.

"Dawn and her team aren't too far behind us. They've been following us ever since we left the base." Sitting on the ground, leaning against a wall, Ember waved Erika over, having her lay down and rest her head in her lap. There were noticeable differences in her own behavior since she came alive. Blossom's opposite didn't have much of her opposite personality anymore. Erika had noticed that too. She was gradually becoming less bossy and aggressive. She wasn't becoming more like Tsubomi either but developing her... own personality.

"Poison scares me. It was her who put Umbra and Breeze up to attacking the originals. She wanted to cause a retaliation to get rid of Malice and her goons. It was all a scheme to remove those idiots from the playing field." Ember gently played with Erika's hair, not paying a lot of attention to what she was doing. While she hated her position, Erika found it increasingly difficult to hate Ember. She wasn't really... evil.

"But why?" Being curious was something she couldn't help. Keeping up the act of the slow-witted and dense girl was taxing. She was almost thankful for Ember's high sex drive, as it wasn't really all that difficult to pretend when they slept with each other. And that worried her. A lot. Just going by how she felt in situations like the one right now, she was falling for Ember, fast.

"She wants all the obstacles gone I guess. She's not telling anyone what she is planning but our odds of survival are likely the highest if we stick with her." That was all she cared about. Survival together with Maelstrom.

Erika pretended to fall asleep for a while, trying to think of a way out. Sure, there were no guards here, but she couldn't quite get herself to just leave Ember. She really wished to have Yuri's emotional control, since it came all down to that. She loved Tsubomi, and now she was developing feelings of the same type for her reflection. And that wasn't good at all.

Just running, she still didn't know where she was. Finding the way out of the labyrinth was really difficult. And even if she did, the question was what would happen if Ember came looking for her and found her before she got back to the originals camp and Tsubomi.

But even if she did stay with the reflections, if the originals attacked, she would take their side and have to fight Ember. That outlook was even worse than just running away on the risk of being found. The only other option was to try and get Ember to leave with her, somehow convincing her as Maelstrom that she wasn't safe here and that they should strike a deal with the originals. But how in the world should she do that?

"I loathe whoever caused this situation to happen. Are you awake Mael?" Ember had started to shorten the name a few hours ago, thinking it was cute. "Don't you agree? I just want to spent my time with you, without having to worry about originals and the likes. I couldn't care less about the fighting now."

"Can't we run away?" Erika saw a chance. Even if it resulted in freeing Maelstrom and letting them both escape, if there was no danger...

"We'd die. Essentially, we can't survive forever without taking the place of our original. A few weeks... maybe. If we had water and food. A month or two? Might be stretching it. Longer than that? I don't think so. You feel it too, right? That nagging voice in the back of your head that tells you to kill whoever your original is. I want to live but even if I took Blossom's place, it would be an empty life without you. Not to mention, the other originals likely wouldn't let me live. I'd just end up as exile permanently and die."

"So... you mean...?" Erika knew exactly where this was going and she didn't like it. It explained why some of those reflections were so incredibly fanatic and aggressive.

"Unless we kill almost all the originals and take their place, the survivors would fight us to the death. And even then... we're just copies of them as Cures. You know we can't take on a civilian form. Imagine showing up as replacement of Marine in her home, unable to turn into her human form. It would be really weird."

"So we never had a chance for a real life of our own."

"I don't know what Poison has planned, but she wouldn't be doing all of this if she just wanted to prolong our existence here. The originals would have kept acting defensive, so... who knows how long we'd have lived."

"Can't we just run away together and keep living?." Erika was a little scared by how natural it actually felt to say that. She wasn't really acting. She did actually feel sorry for Ember and didn't want her to die. But after what she said...

"We need to eat and drink, just like them. How would we survive in this wasteland? Sure, we could use your powers for water, but... creating food would be a lot harder." Ember bowed down and kissing Erika on the forehead. "No matter what happens, I'll be with you till the end though."

The two of them didn't realize that they were being spied on. Dawn was quite adept at hiding and she had overheard the whole conversation. Leaving as quietly as she had come, she returned to her partner and group. Flare was gone, for now, but Blaze would remedy that soon.

"It doesn't look like Poison has told anyone about the other way out yet." Dawn stretched, feeling a bit sore after constantly hiding for hours. But trailing poison had been well worth it. The experiment as well.

"How is Silence?" Looking past her partner, Dawn checked on the yellow reflection. "It would be useful if we could get Hymn back. Based on what Silence said, she can lift the effect of whatever Muse used to stop her."

"She's a child." Dusk took a look as well, seeing that the young girl was fast asleep. "I'm surprised you were able to make her follow us."

"Malice couldn't get her to follow orders and Poison didn't bother. She would have died just like Apathy and Fury. Their bad luck and Fury's attitude seriously pissed her off and Azalea was more than happy to get rid of her. It's really easy to deal with kids."

"Sounds like something your original would say." Taking her partners hand, Dusk sighed. It would be quite hard to get the originals to accept that third, neutral way of getting out of the situation. The system was not made for it, but it would work. They knew.

"Maybe. She's a nice girl so I don't really mind. That she's liking the same girl I like is a bonus." Pulling Dusk in, Dawn kissed her briefly before she couldn't help but yawn. She hadn't slept in a while. "Can you look out for things? I need to take a nap. If Blaze comes back, wake me up, okay?" She wasn't so much giving orders as she asked for cooperation. While Poison was a despot, she was more like a leader that naturally ended up... leading the group.

"Get some rest. I'll get you when something happens." Dusk wasn't the brightest, unlike her original, but she was still far from stupid or dense. They were well hidden from Poison and her group, at least for now, and Blaze should return from her mission soon. It hadn't been difficult to make her turn on Nightmare after the pink reflection picked a fight with basically everyone.

Right now, they could only wait.

=== Dissonance ===

Softly hitting the right cheek of the black Cure with the back of her hand, Urara accepted that giving up was well an acceptable choice in such a hopeless case. "Knocked out good. How about the others?"

"It's the same for all of them." Karen was kneeling next to Komachi, who was comfortably sleeping on the ground, refusing to wake up even when shaken quite a bit. All those that had been killed were found in that state.

"Hey. Weren't there a lot more rooms here just a few minutes ago?" Nozomi was surprisingly perceptive when she actually put all of her mind to it. Her question answered itself when another door vanished right in front of her, leaving behind only cold stone. But that was not all. The damage created by the fighting was reversing itself as well. "Something is definitely not right here." Picking up Rin and carrying her like a princess, Dream watched others do the same. No matter how much they shouted, talked to them, shook or slapped them, those that had been killed wouldn't wake up.

"Fighting to the death was bad enough, but this is getting ridiculous. Nozomi, you were wide awake when you got out of the mirror, right?" Urara wasn't too happy with the state Ako was in. It was no fun to tease someone unconscious.

"According to everyone else, I was in there for more than a day. I didn't notice any kind of time difference though. But yes, I was wide awake when I got out. Awake, in pain and scared. In a way, it's good that they're all still asleep. Waking up in enemy territory, so many of them at once, we'd have a mass panic at our hands." Her leader qualities shone when she was really needed. And with so many of the others out of order, they did need her.

"What do we do about Egret? Bloom was in one of the mirrors, so... do you think she just got killed recently, or?" Kurumi walked up to Karen, feeling very uncomfortable. The reshaping of the area didn't help to ease her tensity.

"Bloom might have been replaced by her reflection. Since Egret's reflection was on our side, that would mean that the real Egret has been with Wither the whole time." Karen was already carrying Komachi, who was just a little heavier than she expected her to be.

"Black, White, Bloom, Mint, Rouge, Berry, Sunshine, Beat and Muse are all unconscious. None of us are dead or still imprisoned but this is still..." Inori summarized the situation, to bring everyone on one page.

"Let's leave, Dream. There is nothing left to do here and I'm worried that while we were all gone, the killed reflections got freed as well. We're back to where we started if that's the case." Love was constantly keeping an eye on Setsuna, who was still trying to wake up Ellen, who looked even cuter than usual when asleep so soundly.

"You're right." Raising her voice, Nozomi addressed everyone. It didn't matter that only five of them were her real team. For now, they all followed her. "We're going back to our own base! Don't let your guard down in case there's an attack. Protect the sleeping."

The tension reached it's peak just as they themselves reached the halfway point through the tunnel. Making Pine carry Rin, Nozomi spread her arms as a sign to stop, the group coming to an halt seconds later. One of two groups. Looking at the group of seven, only about thirty meters in front of them, Nozomi's mind worked at full capacity to try and find a solution that would not end up in people dying.

It was too dark for each party to properly determine the numbers and faces of the other group. From the shadows, Nozomi estimated them to be around six to ten people. Given that they were completely calm and composed, standing there, waiting, and the direction they had come from, they knew that nobody had stayed behind.

It took a good minute of seemingly silence until Peach and Blossom directly joined Nozomi's sides. "What do we do?" Love was just barely whispering, knowing that the situation could go out of hand with just one wrong word. A massive battle with so many unconscious was a terrible idea and had to be avoided if possible.

"We don't know their numbers, but since they haven't attacked us out of their own volition yet, I don't think any of the really dangerous ones, like Nightmare, are there." Tsubomi was worried about whether Erika was among the other group, but while one of the shadows looked small enough, she couldn't be sure.

"Let's see what they have to say. I'm not hesitating to fight, but if there is an alternative, I'll use it." Taking just one step ahead, both Blossom and Peach stayed put, giving Dream the benefit of a doubt. She hadn't done much for either group before the reflection problem, but if she was finally getting around to helping, they would give her a chance. "We want to talk. Select one representative of your group." A very simple demand, quite normal in the case of negotiations.

Nozomi could see roughly what shapes the shadows had, but still not enough to determine how many of them there are exactly. Two, three, maybe four even, seemed to argue until one of them emerged from the group and came out in front. It was hard to accept that of all people, Rin's reflection was the one that would talk to her. "I'm Blaze. I realize that you're likely to feel emotional pressure over my appearance but I ask you to forget about this." Blaze was significantly more composed without Nightmare, Malice or Poison there to harass and abuse her. She didn't agree much to the personality she had been given, as well.

"I would like to avoid a battle if possible. I can see that you have less than a dozen people, most of those likely rescued from the mirrors in our base. It's not much of a stretch to assume that most of them aren't going to be very helpful in a fight." Nozomi started with a slight threat, establishing that they had the upper hand if it came to a violent confrontation.

"And in the case that one of your side dies, they would be gone. The base has moved and you don't know where it is. Unless you get very lucky, whoever dies will do so permanently as you won't have enough time to rescue them." Blaze responded with a threat of her own, both groups having a lot to lose if they couldn't find a peaceful solution.

"You want to join the others, those that moved and left Malice behind, am I right?"

"No. Things aren't as simple as that. Malice and Poison subdued and abused most of us. Nightmare is just a force of destruction at this stage. We are going to join the independent group that is seeking a permanent non-violent solution. I cannot tell you the details of this as there is still the possibility of there being a spy among you and her reporting back to Poison."

"Hymn supplied us with information and didn't mention anything about a permanent non-violent solution."

"It is an option that was not included by the system. Only Dawn and Dusk know all the details. I was only briefed on it before I left."

"If you have rescued Umbra and Breeze, they just attacked us. What will stop them from attacking us again?"

"They enjoy lazying around without a care in the world. Poison cleverly manipulated them into thinking that fighting originals would be an exceptional fun way to pass the time. Experiencing being killed as immediate consequence of fighting, they have long since realized that they have been used."

"What about others that attacked us? You were involved when Nightmare escaped. Aurora and Hymn attacked us before, what will stop them this time?"

"Fear. If your side is scared of death and vanishing, I and my allies are, too. Dying once is enough to damage the mind severely. Why do you think you have been able to step over your ideals and moral restraints? Because you experienced what it means to be killed."

"So you want us to just let you walk past us and trust you're not going to attack us again, now, in the near future or later?"

"We want the same thing from you. Aurora is unable to even look at Umbra as result of her brutal murder at the hands of Bright. Hymn suffers from similar effects after being killed by Breeze. A lot of us are just as afraid of you as you are afraid of us."

"Where is the guarantee that this is not another trick by you reflections?"

"There is none. However, Hymn agreed to stay behind as hostage, together with Misery, if necessary. In exchange, we will request Milky Rose to come with us. We are now aware that Maelstrom, Marine's reflection, has long since been dead and replaced by Marine herself. While we do not approve of this entirely, it does aid us in our plan."

"Why all the secrecy? There are so many of you, surely you can simply attack whoever opposes you and remedy this all at once."

"Poison has Freeze and Azalea on her side. There is also the threat of Nightmare attacking in the middle of a battle. The risk is too high. As I have said before, we are just as afraid of death as you are. We will replace Azalea, one of Poison's allies, with the real Milky Rose, in an attempt to further diminish her forces and give us a chance to assassinate her. You might think this sounds atrocious, hideous, inhuman, but you do not know Poison. Without the moral and emotional restraint that Mint has, her power becomes a tool for mass murder."

"I can't make this decision for Kurumi. This is up to her. I don't think you're lying to me, though. You wouldn't tell me all these details if you were."

"So we have a deal. We will pass in the shadows. You will do alike."

Holding out her hand, Blaze waited for Nozomi to agree to her terms. The pink Cure delayed her decision for a few seconds, before she reluctantly took the hand of Rin's copy. "I will talk to Kurumi."

As both returned to their respective groups, Nozomi broke out in cold sweat. She had never negotiated with a usually hostile party in such a cold and sober manner. And to top it all off, she could feel that Blaze was right. Experiencing death had changed her. She wasn't acting like her usual self.

"It'll take too long to repeat everything she said. Essentially, they're just as afraid of a battle here as we are. We're both going to go our ways and they will join some kind of renegade faction on their side. She claimed that they're looking for a permanent non-violent solution. They also offered Hymn and Misery as hostages in exchange for Rose."

"What do they want with Rose?" The idea of surrendering one of their own didn't sit well with Love.

"Replace Azalea, her reflection, with the real thing to stage a coup." Nozomi was cutting it short quite a bit and interpreting freely.

"I'll call her." Tsubomi was eager to ask Dream about whether Marine was among the group, but she had the feeling that it wouldn't be good if she just spread the info that Maelstrom was actually her partner in disguise, so to speak.

"What do you think Dream? Are they telling the truth?" Love cautiously eyed the enemy from afar, her guard up in case of a surprise attack.

"I don't think they're lying. As for the truth... hard to say. It sounds a little too good to be true actually. We want a solution that lets us avoid the killing and the fighting. I want to believe them, but after seeing what Nightmare is like... I have a hard time doing so."

"A little too perfect. I want to believe them too, but having Rose go with them is quite dangerous. Are you sure we should even consider this?"

"That's not your decision to make. I'll go with them, Nozomi." Kurumi had heard the gist of it from Blossom and decided that if they thought she could help remove the Damocles sword above their head called Poison, she'd try. "In the worst case, you can track me. As the owner of the blue rose, I know what you've been up to in the rose garden, Nozomi."

Not saying a word, Kurumi advanced a few steps, waiting for Hymn and Misery to show up. She didn't have to wait long. The two blue reflections walked straight past her, the taller one looking depressed and a bit intimidated.

Nozomi watched the scene with unease. They were hiding something, she was sure of it. And she was worried about herself, too. Her thinking, the way she acted, it was so different from before. She couldn't quite put a finger on it, but there was... something in her mind that was actively changing her.

Hymn and Misery were surrounded by Peach, Blossom and Nozomi. Moving to one side of the tunnel and staying there, the reflection group, accompanied by Rose, passed them without as much as a single word being said. Some Cures had problems trying to keep their temper in check, but breaking the agreement wasn't an option.

As they finally made it back to the base, they found several reflections still locked securely into the mirrors. Vulture, Maelstrom, Malice, Agony, Rage, Fury and Apathy were all still there. Letting the unconscious Cures rest in some of the rooms, Hymn and Misery were brought to the dinning hall, surrounded by those that remained awake.

"What is this permanent solution Blaze was talking about?" Dream started the interrogation.

"A way for us to live on without the need for our original to die. I wasn't told the details either. Don't bother asking Misery, she wasn't told any more than me."

"How is that even possible? I'm very curious about how your side found out about this."

"I asked Blaze the same thing and she didn't have an answer either. Dawn and Dusk came up with it. That's Black and White, for you. I know we had a deal before and that is probably no longer valid, but can we still have a room? If we have to share one because there is not enough space, that's still fine."

"You can have my room. I haven't used it in a while. However, I want you to stay away from Ellen and Miki, both of you." Love wanted to trust them, but it was just too risky right now. It had worked out once, with Setsuna, but there were limits to everything. Setsuna had not succeeded in killing people.

"What about guarding them Love?" Inori wasn't sure it was a good idea to just let them do whatever they want to.

"I don't think that will be necessary." To everyone's surprise, it was Urara who objected to putting a guard on their trail. "They know damn well that if they do anything suspicious, they're not getting out of here alive. We'll have to keep up the guards in front regardless because of Poison, so they can't run, even if they wanted. They knew all of this when they agreed, isn't that right?"

"You're right. Though if the others feel better if someone watches us, that's okay with me."

"No. I think we'll give you the benefit of a doubt." Nozomi was fighting a steadily stronger getting headache. "It's getting pretty late, too. You can eat with us if you want to."

"Do you really think that's a good idea? A few of you might be okay with having us amidst you, but as for the others, especially those that died recent-"

"Your decision. Take it or leave it. You look like one of us, so if you act like it too, we won't have any problems treating you like everyone else." Nozomi put the fingertips of her left hand against her forehead. "I'm skipping dinner and going to bed. My head hurts."

The room was absolutely silent until Nozomi had left. Slight confusion and disbelief spread among the others after seeing her during the whole operation. "I almost can't believe that's Dream. What happened after Nightmare killed her?" Urara had trouble accepting that someone could change that rapidly.

"Are you sure that is Dream? Nobody has seen Nightmare in a while." Hymn was worried that the worst of them all was pretending to be one of the originals.

"We checked every room and mirror. Dream's was empty, so that has to be the real one. I'll ask her to switch to civilian form later." Urara had no qualms about doing that. It's not like she was going to seduce her leader, anyway.

=== Dissonance ===

Inori and Tsubomi had taken up the duty to stand guard while Hikari and Karen prepped dinner for everyone. Hymn and Misery immediately enjoyed the ability to walk around without having to worry about being killed and strolled through the garden, watching everything in peace.

Kaoru and Michiru were the ones that first sought contact with the could-be enemy. "We want to know..." "...more about the reflections." To the Kiryuus, those things were extremely fascinating.

"There's not that much interesting stuff. But I guess it won't hurt to tell you two everything. That's alright with you, Mise?" Changing how the name was pronounced and shortening it was her way of relieving Misery of her awful name. Many of the reflections didn't have nice sounding names, but without a doubt, Misery was among the worst.

Nodding quickly, and despite her height, trying to hide behind Hymn, Misery really didn't seem like her original in any way or form. The unlikely quartet sat down near the pond, Michiru and Kaoru sitting in the grass right behind the other two, who enjoyed cooling down a bit by letting their feet hang into the water.

"When we gained consciousness, we knew a lot of things. Every single reflection has all of the powers and memories of their original, but was given the exact opposite of what the originals personality was like. It's... hard to explain, but we simply knew that this personality was just given to us instead of it being something we developed over time. So what do you do if you know you're the way you are because it was forced on you and not because of your own, free will? Oh right, we do have free will. We know that both our original and we will rot to death if both of us stay alive for too long, but beyond that knowledge, there is no initiative imprinted on us that makes us want to kill anyone. Maybe except for those like Nightmare, Malice and Poison."

"Why don't they change their personality like you did? It is very obvious that you have deviated quite a lot from what Beat's opposite is supposed to be." Kaoru couldn't quite understand.

"Beat, Ellen, isn't as extreme a personality as Dream or Mint. I'm not sure, but with that type of personality, they probably simply wanted to keep being that way. They enjoy it. Where did I stop, uh..." Misery kept playing around with her friends hair, distracting her.

"You were talking about what you do when you have a personality forced on you." Michiru was quite interested in what Hymn had to say.

"You either decide to stick with it, or you try to change. Of course, given that your personality is a significant part of who you are, it's not that easy. Helping Mise here was the catalyst for me that helped to rapidly change. Feeling regret, pity, wanting to protect something. Those feelings weren't present when Malice talked me into using Purger against everyone here."

"I can't imagine what it must feel like to know you're acting in a specific way because of something that was imprinted on you, even though you have free will." Kaoru wondered if it was anything like their own situation.

"Not the nicest feeling. A lot of the others are going through the same thing now. Aurora went as far as trying to be like her original. Unlike you originals, time does not stand still while we're in the mirrors. If the original looks into the mirror, we see a fraction of what the mirror sees. And we're left there to think about ourselves. Aurora, Aurum, Mise here too, they all had plenty of time to think about what they want to do."

"It makes sense then that you're trying to find a solution that doesn't involve either person dying." Michiru was a little impressed by both the dedication and the courage it took to try and go a different path.

"Having the memories of our originals sounds great on paper. Know their weakness, know their strengths and allies. But it also means we know everything about the sad and happy parts of their lives. Especially the latter is depressing. It only hurts if you can remember that your original was happy doing this and that, but you'll never be able to do the same."

"You really don't know what this solution is that Blaze mentioned to Dream? You have to admit that it's sounding too perfect. Too easy. And the timing..." Kaoru couldn't help but be suspicious. Trying to drill for answers with force wasn't going to be any use, so she went the long way around.

"If I knew, I'd happily tell you. Right now, it looks like Poison and her goons have to be gone before we can do anything, though."

"Hey, Bright, Windy and all defectors, time for dinner." Urara was shouting from the entrance of the garden. She didn't trust the reflections, but she wasn't expecting them to pull anything crazy either.

=== Dissonance===

She couldn't feel her legs and her vision had given in a few seconds ago. Hearing the pained breathing of her partner a few meters away, she was at least sure that Saki was still alive somewhere in the room. Their luck was really terrible. Thinking she had seen someone escape during their assault on the enemy base, Saki had led Mai on a wild goose chase.

They hadn't found anything. "Do you remember the way back?" Mai's sense of orientation wasn't bad, but not good enough to find the way out of an elaborate maze just from memory.

"No idea. And I'm tired. The others must have finished a while ago. Let's rest for a bit before we go back. Not like we'll change anything if we hurry."

Sitting down next to Saki, Mai sighed. Her bad luck kept going but at least her partner had stopped acting like an idiot. "What was that thing with Nagisa and Honoka all about?"

"Nothing much."

"Nothing much? You two seemed pretty hellbent on pulling one over us."

"We didn't mean to do anything that hurt you."

Giving her partner a weird look, Mai suspected that they were still plotting something. She fully expected Nagisa to just randomly show up soon to continue the nonsense that had been going on. "I'm sick of you playing games with me." Mai noticed that Saki tensed up a lot as she spoke. "What are you and Nagisa planning? Everything okay? Did you hear something?"

One swift move and Saki covered Mai's mouth with her hand. "Someones there." Her whisper was barely audible even for Mai, who was right there beside her. "Stay here."

Almost ten seconds passed before Mai realized that there was no sound of Saki's footsteps. Standing up and trying to go where Saki had gone, she reached a dead end. A corridor only a few meters long, ending in a solid wall. Was it safe to call for her? Probably not.

But what if she had seen things again? Or heard, in this case. Turning around, Mai noticed that it was getting darker quickly. The light was fading and it was already hard to see smaller openings and exists. In a matter of less than a single minute, she was wrapped in complete darkness, moving through the room relying solely on memory.

"Saki?" Calling out cautiously, Mai felt the pressure and nervousness creep up on her. If something happened to her... if whatever may or may not be out there got her... what then? "Saki?!" If she couldn't see, then nobody else could, either.

Mai felt how one of her ribs broke when something hit her from behind. She couldn't even tell if it was a punch or a kick or something else entirely. All that mattered was that the pain made her kneel down for a moment. Which was all that the enemy needed, apparently.

This time, she could tell what exactly was hitting her. A large rock, maybe ripped out of a wall or the ground, or just something that was laying around, hit her right in the face. Luckily, it didn't break her nose, but she could feel blood running from her temple.

Another hit to the back of her head. Too strong, too focused for a rock. Whatever was attacking her, it knew exactly where to hit. Falling over, Mai could barely stop herself from throwing up, the hit on her head making her feel incredibly sick.

The craziest part was that the attacker seemed to deliberately not use any special moves or let out the tiniest sound. Laying there, on the ground, her hands were hit repeatedly by large rocks, wielded by someone. The pain and the confusion of not knowing who she was fighting against disabled Mai.

But finally, Saki came to her rescue. Only able to hear the footsteps she knew so well, something got hit above her and crashed into a wall somewhere. A series of blows being exchanged, each impact making Mai shiver, fearing for Saki. Another crash into a wall or the ground, she couldn't tell. A flash of light behind her. A small explosion... and silence.

"Saki?" The loud breathing a few meters behind her signaled that her love was still alive, but she needed to know her condition. Trying to get up, Mai only noticed now that numerous small rock shards were stuck in her hand. Pulling them out, ignoring the bleeding holes and crawling over to where the breathing came from, she found a familiar mop of hair after feeling around.

"Saki... say something, please."

"I couldn't see who attacked us. She... hid herself. But I scared them away. I think they got my right leg."

"We'll get out of here. We just need to get back to everyone else."

"I have a feeling this was all a trap. The attack, leading us away, maybe even leading others away, so they can finish us off one at a time. We should try and find out if there are any others in this area."

"We'll do that. Can you stand? Use my shoulder." Mai flinched in pain when she felt her broken rib. She still felt sick, but with Saki at her side... she was okay.

"Let's go... Mai."

=== End of Event XIX ===