To continue writing as much as I have until now, I ask for your support. Even tweeting about it helps.

Become my Patron on Pa treon dot com/Kuugenthefox

There are perks and you might even get me to continue writing a discontinued fic!

Disclaimer: You donate for me to have time, not directly for fanfics but I use my time for fanfics.

Dissonance

Event XX

Mirrors-Quattuor

"Do you know what you have to do?" Poison wanted her pawn to reaffirm one more time that she had understood her orders. "You know what the price for failure is. If you think it necessary, take my dog with you."

Ember didn't enjoy serving under Poison, but she didn't have much of a choice. The green reflection was a devious bastard and had no doubt a backup plan for just about anything up her sleeve. "Give the sign, relay orders, retreat."

"Good. Now get out, you've been in my face long enough." Sitting in a large throne, carved out of a large stone block, Poison looked down. Those idiots. Did they really think that it would be that easy? Information was might, and the best way to use that might was deception and betrayal.

"The weak cling to every little hope of salvation, of happiness. The promise of putting an end to the aggression, of peace. Those that want to believe, will, as soon as they're fed even the tiniest scrap of hope. A peaceful solution... what do you think, you worthless piece of trash?" The sole of her boot was pushing against Freeze's head, forcing her to lie down on the flower hill, the grass and plants tickling her. Putting a little more force behind it, Freeze's face was tasting the slightly wet earth.

"Oh how exceedingly silly of me. I forgot that dogs don't talk. Now be a good pet and go get me something to eat." Using her other foot to kick Freeze and make her roll over, Poison watched her with a pleasured smile on her face.

Aqua's reflection had left to scurry around and look for something edible when a shadow appeared behind one of the trees close to the hill. Poison didn't bother to look but instead waved her hand, giving a sign that one of her slaves may approach her. "So?"

"They have completely focused on the solution. Dusk and Dawn believe that they have figured out how it works. The group has made a deal with the originals, a non-aggression pact to avoid further suffering. Hymn and Misery were given to them as hostages."

"That trash wasn't useful anyway. Continue."

"Rose has joined the group and they intent to replace Azalea with her. I believe they are aiming for her to assassinate you, our great mistress."

"Laughable. But I like their enthusiasm. Let them continue, I want to see how good an actor the original Rose is. She'll be easier to manipulate than that princess of a reflection. How is that other thing proceeding?"

"The first of the five is nearly done. You shall see the fruit of your genius plan soon, mistress."

"Return at a later time. Don't let anyone see you. Continue to observe." Poison waved her hand again, a sign for her subordinate to leave. She had chosen well. Even before Nightmare had returned, she had already made arrangements with others. They knew that it would be easy for her to kill them all with ease. To be feared was truly enjoyable.

Down in the labyrinth, Dusk and Dawn were going over their own plot. "Do you really think it was wise to tell everyone that there is a peaceful solution?" Dusk was a little worried.

"It was the only way to stabilize things for now. What do you think would have happened if they met the originals on their way here and didn't know about it?"

"A bloodbath."

"On both sides. What worries me is that Flare said the originals had a large amount of unconscious among them. They are supposed to wake up right after they're pulled from the mirror. I hope we're not in more trouble than we think."

"You think Poison or Nightmare have done something to them?"

"Not to them but the system. I don't know how they would go about changing it, but I wouldn't rule it out. When I asked Aurum about Nightmare earlier, she had some very worrying things to say."

"Why would she put them in a coma and not just have them killed outright if she can manipulate the system?"

"I don't know. The list of things we don't know about Poison, Nightmare and their motives is too long. First of all, where is Nightmare? According to the others, she wasn't in Dream's mirror, so she wasn't at the base when the originals launched their attack."

"Speaking of unknown whereabouts, have you seen Flare? She should have been here a while ago."

"I got lost. This place is a maze after all." Stepping up to the black and white reflection, Flare seemed out of breath and slightly stressed. "I even ran into Blaze on my way. She's acting a little suspicious if you ask me. She was talking to herself and she only reacted to my presence when I said something."

"That's not surprising. She's been working hard to change her personality and she's probably trying her best to find a way to get rid of Poison. She made the deal with the originals, so it makes sense that she feels responsible." Dawn had little choice but to trust all of those that joined her side at least a little. The chance was high that one of those that returned were a spy. She trusted Blaze, Flare and of course Dusk at least.

"What do we do now?" Flare brought them back on topic. The yellow reflection was showing signs of impatience, a remnant of her initial personality.

"I talked to Rose and she's on standby right now. When we get a chance, we'll take out Azalea, replace her and then have Rose play her role for a while. If she gets a chance, she'll take out Poison. No matter how powerful she is in a fight, a lethal attack from behind, unexpectedly, is going to kill her." Dawn didn't like cowardly tactics like that, but they didn't exactly have a wide range of choices available to them.

"What if that backfires? Poison is much smarter than we thought. I had no idea Mint was that intelligent. Aqua, yes, but her partner?" Dusk felt that something wasn't quite right.

"Does it matter? Poison is a diabolical genius. She's proven that much by what happened so far. What if everything was her plan? What if we're doing exactly what she wants us to do?" Flare stared at Dawn for a while.

"Attacking her won't work. If the assassination fails, I will go to the originals base and request that Muse undoes whatever she did to Hymn. If it comes to that, we'll try to kill her with Purger." To take out Poison was important enough to ignore the moral issues coming with that request, Dawn thought.

"When I asked Blaze about Mint's power, she has Rouge's memory after all, she told me that she was usually only there for defense and support. There was one case where she snapped and literally destroyed part of the landscape. You can assume that if she had no moral limits about using her power, she could do the exact same thing that Poison is doing." Flare could see how someone like that was a massive threat once their personality was reversed. And worse of all, Poison didn't just seem like Mint's opposite but rather even worse than that.

"Other than Poison, Nightmare is still a considerable threat. We don't know where she is and what she is up to. She went up against Malice, Agony and Rage all on her own, nearly wrecked one of them, injured another and I'm pretty sure she's still alive." Dawn looked up just as she had finished talking. Someone else was joining them.

"Blaze. Did you want something?"

"Even if we take out Poison, if Nightmare decides that she'd rather kill everyone, reflection and originals alike, than go down or participate in a peaceful solution, I fear that she might be able to do it. I overheard you talking about her. We've seen the power that Dream has, but that is not all. There is something else." Sitting down on a large stone block, Blaze made a grim expression.

"What do you mean? Does she have some kind of special ability that lets her cause enormous damage?" Dusk wasn't pleased with what she was hearing.

"Her ability is called Utopia. Or more specifically, Dream's ability is called that. It makes you see the happiest place you can think of, robbing you of all will to fight. I don't know if she had enough time to reverse the effect or not, but that isn't what I'm worried about."

"Explain this in detail. If she has some way to oppose all of us at once, we need to plan for that." Dawn hadn't heard about this before.

"To explain this, I have to go back to when Dream and her team first fought their enemies, Nightmare and Eternal. At the time, they protected a place called the Rose Garden. It's similar to the fairy worlds but it's also a major source of energy. I'll cut out all the things that happened during their fight. In the end, it came down to them summoning the guardian of the Rose Garden, a... creature of sorts that was unbelievably powerful. But the energy necessary to summon that thing was so much that the caretaker of the Rose Garden, Flora, turned into a seed. Dream took over as caretaker."

"I don't see where this is going. So, what, did Dream get some sort of power from that place? Surely she can't access that here." Dawn didn't like long winded explanations.

"Rouge heard this from Dream, so I'm not sure how reliable it is as information. Dream said that even though Flora eventually returned and took back the job of caretaker, they struck a deal. Dream was to be the guardian of the Rose Garden. In time of need, she would be able to utilize the full power of the entire Rose Garden by herself. Think of it like giving her, even by Cure standards, superhuman powers. There is no memory in Rouge's head about her ever using this, but if it's anywhere as strong as the original guardian, she would tear even through a hundred of us with relative ease."

"We're in a dimension that is cut off from the rest of the universe. She can't access that ability here then." Dawn blurted that out without even thinking about it. Looking confused, the other two seemed to feel similarly confused. They knew she was right, but they couldn't explain why.

"That is what worries me. The Rose Garden's energy is the life energy of the caretaker and the garden itself. What if she can substitute that kind of energy through some other way?"

"You mean..." Flare didn't like that thought at all.

"What else is around, alive and very powerful?" Blaze said it like it was only barely a question.

The brief silence made it pretty clear that they all knew the answer.

"That's right. Us."

=== Dissonance ===

"So, is it really Dream?"

"Unless Nightmare somehow learned to transform into Nozomi and become a total ditz, that's Nozomi in there." Rin tried as hard as she could to get the image of the naked Nozomi trying to out of bed and promptly falling flat on her face out of her head.

"She is still acting oddly." Inori started to walk towards the garden. Dinner had gone over and everyone had gone to bed, all without any attacks happening or the previously killed waking up. "According to Hymn, the others shouldn't be asleep."

"You talked to her?"

"Bright and Windy did. Based on how much they were told, I don't think this is a trap. Who is standing guard by the way?"

"Melody and Blossom. They should be able to handle any attackers for a while. I worry about Nozomi. She seemed back to normal now, but when we attacked the reflections... I could barely recognize her."

"She isn't always like that on a mission or during a fight?"

"Not that brutal and calculating. It's almost like she swapped out her entire personality for a while. You don't think it's possible that Nightmare is controlling her somehow, do you?"

"My ability is called Domination and I can bend someone's will to mine, but only for a short while and only when I'm right next to them. Unless Dream has a similar ability, I can't imagine Nightmare doing anything to her."

"That's not her style. Karen I could imagine having an ability like that, but not Nozomi. The question becomes, what do we do now? Just sit around and wait for the reflections to get rid of Poison and implement that peaceful solution?"

"Attacking them won't make a lot of sense. Worse, it could ruin whatever plan they have on the other side. On top of that, we don't even know where they are right now. Staying put seems like the most logical choice. Talking about staying put, I'm going to sleep. You should go back too, I'm sure Rhythm is waiting for you already."

Rin just stood there, looking confused at Pine. "Rhythm?"

"Night. See you tomorrow." Slightly lifting her arm in the air, Inori vanished into her room, just wanting to sleep. She was too sleepy to play games of denial with Rouge.

She had just entered her room when someone felt out of place. Rouge? Yes, she had been talking to Rouge... but wasn't it Lemonade who had offered to check on Dream? And didn't Rouge get killed in the attack? Had she... woken up? No, that wasn't likely. So what was going on?

Leaving her room, there was no sign of the red Cure. Running over to her room, she found Rhythm fast asleep, the unconscious Rouge right next to her. The noise of the door being suddenly flung open woke the white Cure, who looked at the perplexed face of Pine and found herself confused. "What's wrong?"

"She was... here the whole time, right? Rouge hasn't woken up?" Was she losing her mind? Was someone playing tricks on her?

"What are you saying? Of course she hasn't woken up. She never will. But why are you naked?"

Looking down on herself, Inori noticed that she wasn't just in civilian form but also wearing no clothes at all. Turning into Pine didn't change the latter problem. "Has Rin woken up?"

Whirling around and looking right in Rhythm's face, the white Cure seemed perfectly calm. "How did you...?" Turning around again, there was nobody in bed next to Rouge.

Once again facing Rhythm, Inori almost fell over. Her whole body and especially her face was covered in festering wounds, her eyes blood red. "Are you alright?"

Closing her eyes and trying to collect her thoughts, Inori needed to get away. At least there didn't seem to be any physical sensations. "It's nothing. Just... stress." Walking past Rhythm and trying to keep her eyes closed as much as possible, Inori almost ran back to her room.

Throwing herself on the bed, Inori tried hard to remain composed. If she was hallucinating, someone or something was doing it to her. But what? Was it the same thing that could have affected Nozomi? What about those that were sleeping?

Slowly calming down, her breathing normalized and she looked down on herself. She was still Cure Pine, still wearing a costume and not horribly wounded. It definitely wasn't just stress. That didn't make you see very lifelike hallucinations. Something very unsettling slowly crawled it's way into her thought process. She was going insane. That alone was already plenty frightening. But what really scared her was what she deduced from there.

Getting up, unable to stand still, slowly swaying from side to side just a little, Inori looked at the mirror. Agony was in there, seemingly peacefully asleep. But there was something... something. What was it? What was different? Shivers ran down her back as she took a step forward, almost mesmerized by the image of the unconscious reflections.

Another step and she noticed the first slight differences. Agony was clearly breathing, her mouth was drawn to a grin, her fingers twitched. Inori felt cold, as if something was sucking all the warmth directly from her body. A third step, and she could hear her. Quiet whispers that seeped into her mind, indistinguishable from gibberish at first, the words became closer with the fourth step.

"...they rely on you... no thanks ever given... take you for granted... ungrateful pack... friends? no... leeches... fake care..." Inori slowly repeated the words resonating in her head, repeating themselves over and over.

There was no next step. Falling down on her knees in front of the mirror, she reached out to the glass, as if she was forced to do so. Each centimeter passed increased the feeling of dread. She wanted to stop, she begged herself to stop and yet her body didn't obey her. Touching the glass, a myriad of images started flowing into her mind. Images she recognized as herself killing, fighting, torturing, a smile of pure sadism on her face.

Shaking her head as hard as she could, everything vanished. The dread, the cold feeling, the images, the voices. Her room was back to normal. Her hand on the mirror still, Inori's face looked like that of a ghost, her skin a pale white, her pupils enlarged, cold sweat on her forehead. "What is happening to me?"

"Not me. You." Looking up, Inori didn't have time to be shocked or scream for help. Half of Agony's body was already out of the mirror, her hands soaring for Inori's throat, a tight grip that didn't let her breathe.

Struggling to breathe, Inori feared for her life. She had been in many dangerous situations before, but never something like this. Her arms and hands didn't obey her, nor did the rest of her body. Just sitting there and letting Agony slowly kill her, the feeling of dread was consuming her now. Rational thought, plans, they were all making way for the pure desire to survive. But without control over her own body, she couldn't do anything.

But not all hope was lost. Just as she was starting to lose sight of Agony's sadistic expression, she heard the door open and someone run into the room. She couldn't see who it was or hear their voice. The grasp on her throat was lifted for just a brief moment. "Help!" was all she could get out before she completely lost sight of what was going on.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself tied to her bed, golden chains keeping her arms and legs restrained. Looking up, she saw both Lemonade and Windy. "Why am I restrained?" She had a bad feeling about hearing the answer, but that didn't change the fact that she simply had to know.

"You were choking yourself in front of the mirror. You even fought back against Windy helping you." Urara didn't know what to make of it. She seemed back to normal now, but there was definitely something bad going on. "You said your ability is called Domination, right? Do you think it's possible that Agony is using it on you through the mirror?"

"I... don't know. I have to be relatively close to the target and have a clear view of them. Can you remove the chains? They hurt a bit." Inori wasn't a fan of being tied up.

"Windy, can you get Hymn? I'm sure she'll know if this is possible." Watching the blue Cure leave, Urara sat down on the ground, right next to Inori's bed. "If I hadn't locked you up, you would be dead now. With everything that's happening, I think the reflections are somehow messing with our minds. It would explain Nozomi's odd behavior."

"But how are they doing it? And why would I be one to be affected? Agony hasn't been in the mirror for that long."

"We'll find out soon." Urara stood up and cast a few additional chains, removing any chance Inori might have had to get off the bed. Looking at the door, as if she had known they would arrive momentarily, the vocalist watched Windy return together with Hymn.

"So what do you think is happening?"

The reflection walked over to Inori, touched her hand, her forehead, examining her for a good minute. "It seems Agony implanted something in her. A part of her own body. If we let her keep it, she'll eventually turn into Agony herself." Hymn looked at Windy, completely ignoring Inori now.

"That's crazy! I would have noticed something like that, don't you think? Hey, I'm talking to you-" A chain suddenly covered her mouth, stopping her from saying another word. Something was wrong. She could feel it. Their faces, their expressions, they seemed unusually thrilled and amused. She needed to get out of there.

"Cut it out of her then." Urara looked over her shoulder just once, the keys parting a little just below Inori's breasts. "She's a cute, she can handle a bit of pain."

Windy nodded once, raised her arm and created a small blade completely made of wind energy. "Hold still."

The pain of the cut almost made her faint. It was a hundred times worse than any injury she had. Screaming through the chains, starting to choke on her own spit, Inori could feel blood run down her stomach. That was the last thing before she fainted.

Coming to, the shock and pain were still vivid in her mind. Pulling up her costume, she could feel the wound, closed by some kind of thread. Just touching it caused her excruciating pain, making her bend over in agony. "I need to... get out of here..."

Trying to get up, she couldn't even stand, falling over abruptly and hitting her face on the ground. Pushing herself up, getting on her knees, holding on to the bed and somehow managing to get on her feet, Inori pushed open the door. And she saw face to face with Urara, who seemed surprised over something.

The surprise did not last for long. Using all the strength she could muster and punching Urara in the stomach before she could do anything, the short haired Cure ran for her life. The pain almost made her stumble and fall over again but she knew that it would be all over if they caught her again. She had to escape. They would kill her. They were all being controlled.

Rushing past the guards, they started to follow her. But neither Melody nor Blossom were fast enough to keep up. The wound had already opened again, but the adrenaline pumping through her somehow kept her going, ignoring everything else, just running for her life.

=== Dissonance ===

"So, care to tell me what exactly happened?" Urara had a headache; getting punched by Pine wasn't funny. Thank god it hadn't been someone like Black or Bloom.

"I don't know any more about this than you. You said she just came out of her room, punched you out of the blue and ran away, looking disturbed?" Hymn had been called to explain what exactly was making Pine go crazy. Being a hostage, it was just obvious to confront her about it.

"That wasn't the face of someone who was just disturbed. She looked at me like I was some sort of monster. That was clear fear in her eyes. I... know what that looks like. Something is messing with her mind. We checked Agony, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her." Urara looked to Windy, who didn't have any great theories either.

"There is nothing in the system that does this to an original." Hymn couldn't think of any ability that would drive someone literally crazy either.

"You said you were created with all the knowledge of the system, right?" Michiru joined the discussion with a new idea. "What if the system has been changed in the meantime? Would you automatically know about that, as a reflection?"

"No, I wouldn't. But I can't think of anyone that has enough power or knowledge to change how the system works." The blue reflection remained silent for a good minute, trying to think of anyone strong enough.

"What about Nightmare and Poison? Could they have done this?" Michiru had a really bad feeling about the whole situation.

"I don't think so. How would they even access the system?"

"What about one of the others? We know that our reflections can use all of our abilities. What if one of them changed an ability to make way for this?" Kaoru continued on.

"It's possible. But who, and with what?"

"You're the reflection, you tell us." Urara noticed someone approaching from the back and saw that it was Nozomi. It was late at night, so she must have woken up by the noise they were making. "Can't sleep?"

Nozomi didn't answer or even look at her old friend until she stood right in front of Hymn. It was just for a brief moment, but the three Cures could have sworn that Dream had looked at the prisoner with a hateful glare. "What are you four doing out here in the middle of the hallway this late? Some of us are trying to sleep."

"You've been acting weird." Urara felt every single hair on her body stand up when Nozomi gave her the same hateful glare she had shown Hymn. And again, it only lasted a brief second. "What the hell is wrong with you Nozomi?" She knew it was the real one since she had transformed back earlier. But what in the world was happening with her?

"I'm acting weird because this whole situation is messed up. Go to sleep, it's late." Not even bothering to wait for an answer of her earlier question, Nozomi walked off, leaving the others behind.

"I think that proves that someone is messing with the system. And that, one way or another, the reflections are affecting the personalities of us originals." Assuming the worst and preparing for that was the most sensible thing to do, thought Kaoru.

"Whatever is messing with the system, we have to get rid of it fast. There's no use trying to look for Pine, she's way too fast. And if someone doesn't want to be found out there, they won't be found." Urara wasn't looking forward to facing whatever had drove Pine to escape.

Hymn had a bad vibe about the whole ordeal but it was too vague to put into words. Who had the power to influence something like the very system that governed the mirrors? She had a hunch but needed to talk to Muse before she could be sure. "Do any of those still awake have a dispelling ability?"

"You mean stuff like removing lingering magic effects and the like?" The vocalist was little suspicious of Hymn suddenly asking for that.

"I think something or someone might be keeping the others in that suspended like state. They're not moving, even though few people remain absolutely motionless when asleep."

"I don't know of anyone here who can do that. Bright, Windy, either of you know something?"

Michiru simply shook her head while her sister was oddly focused on her right hand, deep in thought. A few seconds later, she slowly explained what she had been thinking about. "I might be able to do something about it. You know that my ability, Stormflair, overloads the targets brain together with my own. If they're being held by some kind of mental effect, using Stormflair on them would be like a hard reset of their mental state. I don't know if this will have any side effects though. But who would have the means to keep them asleep like that?"

"Muse was capable of shutting down my ability to use Hymnos. I think Silence might have been able to use a Hymnos to put them into a comatose state like this." Hymn was worried that it was something that Silence did that altered the mirror system. To know for sure, she had to ask Muse what kinds of other Hymnos she was capable of.

"But why aren't we affected then?" Urara had heard the explanation before and especially because of that, it didn't make sense that only a few were affected.

"Before you attacked the mostly abandoned base, she could have used it there, just on those inside the mirrors. The mirrors all connect to the same void. Nobody is able to move in there, but sound could travel."

"You're saying she voluntarily went into the mirror? Is that even possible?" Urara wasn't pleased with where the discussion was going.

"I don't know. It wasn't when the system was made. I think we should try to wake Muse with Windy's ability."

"Not gonna happen. She said she doesn't know if there are side effects. You two know Muse isn't just some friend to me. I'm not going to let you do this with her as guinea pig."

"We should try it on someone. My Stormflair has no lasting effect and the worst I've seen people complain about was a headache for a few hours after."

"If you're so sure, try it on Bloom." It didn't escape the yellow Cure that the two sisters were very loyal and caring when it came to Bloom and Egret.

"I trust my sister, so I won't object. If Saki wakes up without any problems, we will wake Muse with it. If she and Hymn are able to put some kind of explanation together, it'll be worth it."

"Fine with me. I want to know what the hell is going on as badly as you two." But she wasn't willing to put Ako in any kind of danger.

The group of four walked quickly to Bloom's room. Just as they expected, the girl was still laying there, unmoving, as if she was frozen in time. Taking position next to the girl that had saved her life once, Kaoru herself didn't know what the effects of Stormflair would be if used on a sleeping target. In theory, it should work fine. In theory...

"Michiru, catch me when I go down." That wasn't so much a request but an order. Her sister obliged regardless.

There was nothing difficult about using her ability. No excessive focus was needed, no ridiculous targeting or prep time. Three reasons why her ability was so dangerous in a fight. It could take out basically anyone at any time. The price was high though.

Her sisters body went limp after a few seconds, but Michiru skillfully caught her and let her down slowly. "It usually takes a while for the target to wake up. I'm going to take Kaoru to our room. If you could stay here until I come back, I'd appreciate it."

"Not like we have anything else to do. While you're out, notify the guard that Rhythm and I will be relieving them in a little bit." Sitting down on the ground, leaned against the wall, Urara sighed heavily. The whole situation was a mess. If they could wake everyone like that, it would be fine, but take quite a while.

"Why would Silence put all of them into a state like this? Isn't she one of those that want the solution?" Talking to Hymn was the only thing to do until Bright returned.

"You just said that Muse isn't just anyone to you. You should know what Silence is like if you know what Ako is-" Hymn shut up the instant Urara glared at her.

"First, don't use her name. You're still the enemy, not to mention, I don't want people like you acting like they know her. Secondly, you said yourself that you are free to change your personality. Isn't that so? So what would stop Silence from doing the same?"

"I haven't seen Silence for a long time. She wasn't lumped in with the other garbage, and I didn't hear Poison or Malice mention anything about her. After Muse shutting me down when I used Purger, they must have realized she has the potential to be very dangerous."

"Ako said she has never used the other two Hymnos before. I also think she said she doesn't even know what they do."

"I'm not going to be much help there. Ellen discovered Hymnos on her own, without knowing anything about it. I don't even know the specifics of how they work. I just... know how to use them."

"At least we know how to wake them up now. I guess I should cut you some slack."

"Can I ask how you and Muse... well..."

"Got together? I pursued her, she resisted, I didn't give up and eventually things worked out. I'm not the type to turn things into great stories. Disappointed?"

"No, that actually fits the image Beat had of you."

The door opened at the same time Hymn showed a smile and Bright returned. "Kaoru is going to be out of it for at least an hour. If Saki is fine, we'll wake Muse next. I hope it won't turn into having to wake every single person with Stormflair. Her ability causes quite a bit of stress on her own mind, so repeatedly using it would be very straining."

"Ako is in my room. I'm escorting Hymn to her room before I go and get Rhythm. Get me when you have news."

"I'm going to wait here and look after Saki." Michiru was a little worried about her friend. Kaoru wouldn't have agreed to do it if she really believed there could be hazardous side effects, but it didn't hurt to be careful.

As the other two left in silence, Bright sat down on the bed, looking a little like a guardian of sorts, protecting the sleeping girl.

"What are the odds of there being traitors in the group that say they want the solution? If Poison is as wicked as you say, she's bound to have backup plans." Urara walked slowly towards Peach's room, Hymn right next to her. She didn't walk fast enough to put the reflection behind her.

"I can't really say. Since I only saw them briefly when we formed a group and left, I have no idea how many of them have changed, for better or worse."

"So we're in the dark. There's your room, get some sleep. I'll come and get you when Muse wakes up." Watching the blue reflection until she had vanished into what had been Love's room, Misery was in there as well, Urara still didn't completely trust her.

She came up with the idea of Silence being responsible too fast. And to ask for a dispelling ability... It did sound suspiciously like she had planned it all along. Well, for now, she could only wait.

Walking over to Rin's room, she was in a way surprised to find the white Cure actually there. By now, she had thought, they would've separated. Did they really develop a thing for each other? If that was the case, good, Rin was still her friend and she preferred her being happy.

"Hey, sleepyhead." Pulling up the sheet, the sleeping Kanade almost fell out of bed, scared half to death. "Time to pull guard duty."

=== Dissonance ===

"Have you found her yet?" Poison was hidden well between the trees and bushes. The dark of the night made her almost indistinguishable from the plant life. And there was someone with her.

"It's proving to be much harder than I thought. I can move unseen and without them noticing as long as I keep up the act. They're so simple. A little bit of acting weak, and they think you're harmless or on their side."

Poison did not even lift her arms and still, half a dozen dreadful barriers appeared all around the girl in front of her. "Your freedom comes at a price. Do what I told you to. Remember who you answer to." Lowering the barriers, Poison cracked a diabolical smile. "And don't even think about betraying me. You know that I only keep those worms alive because they might still be useful. Not because I cannot kill them."

A single click with her fingers and one of the larger trees a few meters away virtually vanished on the spot. The awful sound of wood being smashed to pieces echoed thorough the room for a few seconds. "Understood?"

The girl fell her knees, her voice slightly shaking. There was no doubt that the display of power had left an impression, one of fear. "Yes, Mistress."

"Leave."

Poison remained on the spot, even once the girl was long gone. A second click of her fingers, and a large spherical barrier slowly ascended from a bush a few meters behind her. "Did you really think I didn't notice you, Maelstrom?"

Erika had taken the chance and tried to spy on Poison, who was the ringleader of everything on this side of things. And now she had gotten herself caught. By the worst possible person imaginable. "I... fell asleep and when I woke up... I didn't want to disturb you." She had to save her hide somehow. Ember was fast asleep in her room.

"What an uncreative excuse. I don't care whether you have been there by accident or on purpose. What counts is that you will forget about it all." Forming her right hand like she held a sphere, the cruel reflection held her left above the right. Erika was turning as pale as a ghost when several smaller barriers started to surround her body. Four on her legs, two on each. One just above her ankles, one a bit above her knee. Four on her arms, one each around her hands, one each around her elbows. Three more spread over the rest of her body, one around her chest, one at her stomach and one around her throat. "Now, where should I start... If I remember correctly, your original worked a lot with her hands. Maybe I should start there."

Silent tears of fright were running down Erika's cheeks. There was no way she could fight Poison all on her own, worse yet, even if she could have, how would she have gotten out? The barriers could literally squash her like a fly, and even if she destroyed a few, the backlash would hurt her badly enough to incapacitate her.

Connecting her ring finger with her thumb, the barrier around Erika's right hand compressed very slowly but adamantly. Skin was pressed against muscle, muscle on bone, continuously increasing the level of pain. What had been just a few tears before were now dozens, the blue Cure wildly screaming out, but the voice only barely penetrating the sphere she was imprisoned in. The barrier finally released it's torturing grasp, her hand looking like someone had stepped on them with steel boots. But she had only been lured into a false sense of relief. Poison put strength behind her two fingers and the barrier started to crush Erika's right hand.

Her head wildly flinging left and right, her throat barely producing a voice, the pain so overwhelming that she couldn't even scream. Her pupils shaking in her wide open eyes, Erika could no longer see, hear or think.

Again, the relief set it but not without lingering pain. All five fingers of her right hand were broken badly, bent in unnatural directions. The sphere extended a little bit and Erika fell flat on her back, her whole body shaking after so much adrenaline had been pumped into it. And then it started all anew.

Poison was standing right in front of the sphere, seemingly intending to hear every single of Erika's wails. Connecting thumb with her index finger, the barrier around Erika's still healthy left hand begun closing in.

"Please... stop... I... can't take any more of this..." Erika had endured a lot of pain in her life, emotionally and physically, but nothing came close to the helplessness she felt now combined with the pain of slowly having your extremities crushed to unusable goo.

"But we've only just started. You will be playing with me until you have all forgotten about what you heard." Poison's smile was like a sign of impeding doom for the Cure.

Throwing up right in front of her as the pain set it again, there was but one thought in her mind. This had to be what dying felt like. If only she could have passed out. But as a Cure, it wasn't that easy. They were fine in a fight, but passing out just like that... what if she transformed back? It didn't matter if Poison was convinced she had forgotten all about it then. She really would die for sure.

The fake relief swept over her once again, slowly driving her mad. How long would it take until she broke? How long until she would just ask her to die. The barrier closed again, starting to break her remaining fingers. Screaming until she spit blood, her throat not capable of keeping up with her outbursts, Erika was a pile of pain and fear, cowering on the ground of the sphere, unable to even sit upright.

She had jokingly thought about being able to endure torture before, while she had talked with Ember, but now she knew. She wasn't able to take it. Not the kind that Poison administered on her victims.

"Mistress." Erika could only just barely make out the voice. It was Ember. "We caught Silence sneaking around. Azalea is already there and will most likely kill her. Will you allow it?"

"This is not your doing, is it, Ember? You know that if this is a trick to get me to stop punishing Maelstrom, you will suffer tenfold in her place. Of course, after that, I will resume whatever punishment still awaits her."

"I did not realize that Maelstrom had gotten herself into trouble. If my Mistress believes punishment to be in order, then that is what should happen." Ember had barely finished her sentence when she could feel the sole of Poison's boot hit her face.

"I loathe filthy peasants like you. Your ass kissing attitude disgusts me. Take that piece of garbage and get out. Don't dare to show your face in my presence before I call for you. I need to put a hold to that stupid wannabe princess." Walking off, Poison completely smashed a tree that stood in her way, not even leaving the roots of it intact.

Ember, her nose bleeding from taking the kick, hurried over to Erika, who she still believed to be Maelstrom. "What were you thinking?!" Picking up her injured partner, Ember was a cautious as she could be, trying to not inflict any more pain than already done. "You were really lucky that Azalea was right there, ready to be setup to catch Silence. If I hadn't managed to somehow tip her off without revealing it's me, Poison would have killed you... and me."

"I'm... sorry..." Erika's vision was blurred red, her thoughts a total mess. She had been saved... That was the last thing the blue Cure thought before she slipped into unconsciousness.

Poison on the other hand was about to explode. Why did that stupid purple cunt have to go and make things more difficult than they had to be? "Azalea!" The green reflection was shouting from the distance, reaching out with her arm and creating five layered barrier that spanned the full width of the hallway, separating Silence from Azalea.

"What are you doing Poison? She is my prey! I earned the right to-" Azalea stopped when she saw the furious look in what might very well have been the devil herself. But she had stopped too late. The barrier warped itself around, a nearly solid ring of green energy around her throat, slowly lifting her up in the air. Her legs kicked air and she smashed the first barrier with a punch, the skin on her hand rupturing from the backlash. "Let me go! I'm telling you to let me go!"

"I'm so sick of babysitting you. Your goddamn original would be more use than you insolent waste of a slave." Clenching her fist, Poison watched with extreme satisfaction as Azalea smashed another barrier before her arms started to wildly flail around, the barrier depriving her of any and all air. The gagging and choking sounds were like music in Poison's ears. "You arrogant idiot, it's time you realized who is the one holding the real power here." Clenching her fist even more, Azalea could feel her throat being crushed. Blood was running out of her mouth, nose and eyes, her eyes rolled back into her head.

Opening her fist completely and lowering her arm, Poison let the purple reflection down. "One last chance. Kneel, lick my boots and swear absolute loyalty and obedience to me, and I'll let you live."

Azalea was on her knees, coughing and gagging, desperately trying to breathe before Poison would continue her torture. A few seconds passed since the green reflection had made her demand and while she was preparing to follow them, Rose's copy was suddenly kicked violently in the face. Half laying on the ground, Azalea felt her right hand being crushed under Poison's boot. "You're slow."

Ignoring all the pain and humiliation she was suffering, Azalea lowered her head down to Poison's boot. Her own blood was smeared over the tip and incredible disgust at the act almost overwhelmed her. But the fear of being killed on the spot if she didn't do it was enough to force her through it. Kissing and licking the tip of Poison's boot, Azalea's face was distorted in rage and abhorrent hatred for her oppressor.

"Now get out of my face Aza... you don't even deserve to be called that. You'll be... yes, you'll be Rhododendron from now on. I don't want to see your ugly visage for a while." Kicking her again, hard enough to make the humiliated girl fall flat on the ground, Poison finally left her alone. It was efficient to rule people with fear. And Azalea had tasted a fear that would not leave her for a long time.

"Maelstrom..." She hadn't forgotten about her. Well, for now, both she and Ember were kept in check by the prospect of getting killed. Despite the fact that none of them died permanently right away, getting killed always came with the risk of permanent death after two days. And of course the pain.

The sadistic woman didn't even bother to look when she passed Ember's room. The pink reflection had carried her partner in there and laid her down, getting ready to heal her. Blossom rarely used her ability and that with good reason. It was a huge strain on her own body. But she couldn't possibly leave Mael with both of her hands broken. Just the sight of the blue haired girl in pain was enough to make her hate Poison's guts.

But could she ever act against her? To do so would spell instant death for just about anyone. Someone who was able to virtually pulverize whole trees without doing more than moving their hand around a little wasn't also someone you went up against. Maybe.. and just maybe, the real Mint would stand a chance against her, but even that was unlikely.

Putting her hands together like she was ready to pray, Ember stood next to her bed, looking down on the pain distorted face of her partner. The air around her got heavier as she focused more and more energy on a single point. Healing was still painful if the ability had to correct broken bones and such. She hoped Mael wouldn't feel too much of it.

The room shone in a pink, warm and calming light when Ember finally released the focus, activating her ability. "Restoration!" Like a pillar of energy, the light enveloped her partner, her fingers being corrected one at a time, the sound of cracking bone making Ember feel sick. Even though she didn't want anything more than to heal the girl she loved, it was quite painful to exhaust that much energy.

With a final sizzling sound, the energy vanished, leaving Erika peacefully passed out, her hands healed, her body fully restored. Feeling more than just a little dizzy, Ember sat down next to the blue haired girl, caressing the face that was no longer showing signs of pain. All of Embers motions stopped when Erika opened her mouth and said something.

"Tsubomi..."

=== Dissonance ===

The middle of the night seemed colder than usual. Urara was still worried about what happened with Pine. Was she being affected by Agony? But why act all afraid then? From what she could tell, the reflection hadn't hesitated to defend herself with everything she had.

"Lemonade. Isn't that... Pine?" Urara returned from being deep in thought and looked through one of the many openings of the chain wall. The yellow Cure was indeed standing just about a dozen meters outside the base. What now? Had she come to her senses?

"I'm going out. If something happens, alarm everyone." Creating an opening between the chains, Urara stepped out. Pine wasn't looking good. Even in the dark, she could see how pale she was. Not only that, but she was slightly swaying from side to side, as if she was drunk.

"Pine." Calling out to her once, Urara didn't even get a reaction. It was slightly disquieting for her to be like that. "Pine!" Getting a lot louder, she finally made the other Cure realize her presence. "What's wrong with you?"

"I... don't know. Where am I? How did I get here? It's freezing cold."

Cautiously, Urara took a few steps forward, only to get a sudden and powerful reaction. Screaming out, flailing with her arms and taking a few steps back, Pine was suddenly in a panic. "Stay away from me! You're not going to kill me! I know what you are!"

Not hesitating, Urara launched several chains from her arms to tie up Pine, robbing her of any chance she might have had to run away. Instead of getting closer, she pulled the veterinarian slowly in. Screaming on top of her lungs, Pine seemed to lose her mind more the closer she got to Lemonade.

Finally in range, Urara hit Pine's face as hard as she could with her flat hand, trying to knock some sense into her. "What was that for?"

"Stopping you being hysteric. What is wrong with you? Acting like I'm out to cut you to pieces or something."

"I... don't know. I'm feeling kind of tired like after a bad hangover. Can you undo the chains? They're making it hard to breathe." Urara didn't know what to think. For now, she would just take the girl back to the base. Hopefully, she didn't have to lock her up.

But the night seemed full of people having hangovers and headaches.

"My head is killing me... I feel like I haven't eaten in days, too..." Saki had finally come to, roughly an hour after Kaoru used Stormflair. "What happened? I don't remember a thing." Michiru was still there with her. Getting Lemonade and Hymn could wait until she finished explaining things to Saki.

"We're kind of in trouble, so I'll give you a summary. You were killed by a reflection, most likely your own, and Mai has been missing for a while. There was an attack on our base and several others were killed. We acted in turn and raided their base, killing Malice, Agony and Rage. Fury and Apathy were there as well but already on the verge of death. When we rescued everyone from the mirrors, they were in some kind of comatose state. Kaoru used her ability to break whatever effect was keeping you asleep."

"Slow down Michiru. So... Mai isn't here?" That was Saki's first and foremost concern.

"We don't know where she is. Her reflection is inside her mirror still. That is something I forgot to mention. A lot of the reflections we killed have been freed. They are looking for some kind of peaceful solution now."

"You'll stop me if I try to go and look for Mai, right?"

"It's too dangerous. I'm as worried about her as you are, but we think Nightmare is still out there. Poison has proven to be a very difficult enemy to deal with, as well. I need to go and get Lemonade now. Hymn, one of the reflections that joined up with us as a deal, thinks that Silence, Muse's reflection, has done something to put all of those that were in the mirrors at the time into the state we got you out of just now."

"I'll go and find me something to eat. I'm starving."

Michiru was about to leave the room when she turned back at her friend. "Don't even think about going off on your own to look for Mai. We'll find her."

"I'm not a little girl anymore. I trust you."

Checking on her sister, Michiru found the blue haired girl sitting on their bed, rubbing her temples. "Headache..." It was the only side effect of using Stormflair. "Go get Lemonade. I'll wake Muse." Slowly getting up, Kaoru groaned quietly a few times before she got a hold of herself.

Michiru found both Lemonade and Rhythm at the guard post, the exit barricaded with countless chains, making it impossible for anyone to get in or out. The incident with Pine hadn't caused any more trouble. The yellow Cure had gone to sleep and not made a sound since then.

"Saki woke up and she's fine. There are no side effects beside a possible headache."

"Ako claims that I'm a walking headache for her, so she'll live. She should be in my room. Rhythm, I'm going to oversee Windy waking Muse, then I'll come back. Bright, you stay here with Rhythm for the time being."

"What are you afraid of? That one of us would do something to Muse?" Michiru was used to people not fully trusting her, but it seemed odd for Lemonade to be that careful.

"Who knows whats going on in your heads." The tone of her voice made clear that she knew something, but Michiru couldn't tell what exactly.

Staying behind with Rhythm, Michiru was soon approached by Kanade. "If Bloom woke up, we'll be able to get everyone back soon, right?"

"Worried about Rouge?" Michiru was a little curious about just what kind of relationship those two had.

"About everyone. I want this to end... I'm starting to get paranoid of who is really themselves and who isn't." Kanade didn't deal too well with this type of stress. Constantly on guard, no certainty of who was really your ally, and then the whole thing about ending up in some kind of nirvana when someone killed you.

"It's always interesting when you see scenarios like this in a movie. A group of people, fighting for survival, put there by an unknown power. A classic science fiction staple. But you're right, I too could do without being in this myself."

"Was Bloom okay? She must be worried about Egret, right?" Kanade didn't really know what to say to Michiru. She felt a little unapproachable, much more so than even Lemonade.

"Saki is fine. I really can't imagine anything that could keep her down permanently. And my sister and I are just as worried about Mai as Saki is, but going out there and randomly searching is not going to get us anywhere."

There was nothing else to say. Kanade was quite tired, so she appreciated a little silence, almost dozing off due to it. A couple minutes later, Lemonade returned, carrying the unconscious Windy. "I hope Ako knows what is going on. Let your sister get some rest, she looks like she needs it." Handing the unconscious Cure over, Urara switched with Michiru, giving Kanade a slap on the back of her head. "Wake up sleepyhead."

"I'm awake already, stop being so rough..." Complaining halfheartedly, Kanade sat up a little and sighed. If Muse didn't have a way to wake everyone up, it would be quite a while until it was Rin's turn to be treated. If one could even call it that.

"When we get out of here, I'm not going to look into a mirror for a month." Urara was quite annoyed with the situation. After all was said and done, they couldn't just put an end to it with brute force or underhanded tactics. She didn't mind using a little bit of the latter when the situation called for it, but there was only so much she could do without the support of the others.

For now, she could only wait for Ako to wake up.

After Michiru put Kaoru back into bed, she went to look for Saki, who was already gone from her room. Knowing that sneaking out was impossible as long as Lemonade was on guard, her steps quickly lead her to the kitchen, where she found Saki hungrily ravishing just bread with nothing else to it. "That hungry, huh?"

Trying to speak with her mouth full, Saki choked a little on the food and hit her chest a few times, trying to swallow it, Saki coughed a few times before she gulped down a cup of water. "You have no idea."

"What was it like?" Sitting down next to her friend, Michiru watched with slight amazement how fast Saki could eat and still talk in-between bites.

"Dying or being inside the mirror?" Saki didn't care about beating around the bush, especially not with Michiru.

"Both." Refilling Saki's cup from a can, Michiru shoved it to her, foreseeing another choking point.

"I don't remember dying. The last thing I remember is having a little fight with Mai and sleeping at Nagisa's place. Well, her room."

"Wither kills Vulture, Honoka, Nagisa and you and has now vanished, together with Mai... Hymn said that the reflections got opposite and warped versions of our personalities. What happened right before the reflections were created?"

"Nagisa and I tried to pull one over Honoka and Mai for always teasing us. We pretended to just shuffle partners a bit."

"So you acted as if you didn't care if Mai went and dated someone else?"

"It sounds really bad when you say it like that." Scratching her cheek, Saki sighed. "But I guess that's about right."

"Given what Wither has done... she's probably obsessed with possessing Mai and having her all for herself. Because that's the opposite of what you were doing."

"Like a stalker?"

"Worse."

Both of them turned around when they heard the faint echoes of boots hitting the stone. Someone was walking into their direction. Black cloth and long orange hair clarified that it was Muse, who looked like she had just endured torture. She was looking down so much that she didn't even notice the other two until she was almost past them.

"What's wrong?" Michiru was surprised to see her up that quickly. Saki had taken quite a while to come to.

"My neck is killing me. It's never been so tense."

"Umbra and Breeze probably killed you by breaking your neck. You're feeling the aftermath of that."

"Mind explaining what happened? The last thing I remember is looking at Berry, ready to tell us all about the reflections."

"We were attacked just before that. Umbra and Breeze, my sister's and my reflection, killed several of us, including you. We retaliated by attacking their base in full force, Dream surprisingly leading the attack after she killed both of the attackers in our base."

"So, it's all over? We killed them all?" Ako felt very uncomfortable just saying that. She didn't like them, but wishing them death wasn't really her style.

"The opposite. We rescued everyone from our side, but it was all planned. The reflections were saved as well, at least those Dusk and Dawn deemed peaceful. They're Black and White's reflections. They're leading a movement of-"

Putting her hand up in the air and signaling Bright to stop, Ako held her forehead. "Okay, okay. My head hurts too much for all this talk.. I'll just get it later from Urara."

As if she was summoned by her name, Ako felt two arms wrap around her waist, a pair of very familiar feeling breasts pushing against her back and an even more familiar smell from behind her. "Do you have a sixth sense?"

"Little chain at the door so I knew when you'd woken up. And what kind of thank you for saving your ass is that?"

Trying to get away from the yellow Cure, Ako had no such luck or strength left. "Fine, fine." Taking a deep breath, Ako started talking in a very monotone voice, a blank expression on her face. "Oh thank you so much for saving me."

"Since you feel so thankful, you surely won't mind what I have in mind for later."

"Pervert."

"Whose fault do you think that is?"

"What, mine?"

"Who else do you think is constantly tempting me?"

"You're the worst!"

"That's also your fault."

Saki couldn't hold it any longer, bursting out in wild laughter at the sight of the usually cool and composed Muse having her buttons pushed like that. That only added to Ako's mood, who now feverishly tried to escape from Urara's clutches. Without any success.

"Shall I carry your royal highness to the kitchen?" Picking up her girlfriend, Lemonade grinned wide at the embarrassed face of the black Cure.

"I'm so going to get you for this later, Urara." Ako's voice was a mere whisper now, her face showing shades of faint red.

"As your royal highness commands." Saki started to laugh even harder, simultaneously holding her head in pain. Michiru was smiling wide as well.

They were just out of earshot when Urara turned more serious. "Hymn figures that your reflection has something to do with the state everyone is in. Do you have some kind of idea?" Despite the seriousness, she was still carrying Ako, who didn't seem as displeased as usual to not have to walk herself.

"I don't even know what state you mean. Bright gave me some explanation but I'll need to hear the rest from you later. And could you not touch my butt while we talk about this?"

"What do you expect? I was too tired to do anything last night and then you temporarily died."

"My neck is killing me and I really don't feel like doing anything of the sort now."

"Already with the excuses. We're not married yet."

"My mother and father would kill me if I brought you back and told them that I'll marry you. What kingdom is ruled by a female king?"

"You know, there is this novel about a female King Arthur that is summoned and-"

"Don't even get me started."

"I'm happy you're okay. Well, apart from your neck killing you." Smiling and kissing her partner, Ako blushed a lot more from that than she usually would have. It wasn't the first time Urara had kissed her without any warning whatsoever, but it was their first kiss right after she had told her who she really was.

"How long was I out?"

"Hard to say. Close to half a day I guess?" Letting her partner down so she could open the kitchen door, Urara grabbed her butt again and immediately regretted it when Ako flung her right boot back and hit her partners shin, making her curse under her breath. "Why you..."

=== Dissonance ===

"So you think my reflection, Silence, used hymnos to put all of those in the mirrors into a comatose state?" Ako was laying flat on her stomach, on her bed, Urara kneeling over her, trying to fix her neck with a bit of a massage.

Hymn stood opposite to the bed leaned against a wall. "I can't imagine anything else having such a widespread and permanent effect. When I used Purger and you shut down my ability to use hymnos, the effect was permanent as well."

"Suspend is the only Hymn I can use. I know two others, but I don't think I could handle even the first part of them. Mother told me that it's used to stop others from using this ability. You think she found a way to divert it from the intended use?"

"It would make sense. Instead of suspending their ability to use hymnos, she suspended their consciousness indefinitely."

"Even if that's right, what do you expect me to do about it? I don't even know how to lift the effect on you. Not that I would to begin with. Letting you go about your way is one thing but giving you the ability back to sing purger? I don't think so."

"I was given the opposite of Ellen's personality. If Silence's Suspend works differently from yours, wouldn't that mean that Ellen's Purger works differently from mine?"

"What are you getting at?" Urara didn't keep quiet on such an important topic.

"Let Ellen try to use her hymnos to purge the malicious effects of Silence's Suspend on everyone."

"Are you crazy? You have her memories, so you should know what happened the last time." Urara knew all about the incident.

"It's because I have her memories that I know it will be different. She used it while in exile and out there, the place forces you to go through the worst you can imagine. She never even tried to see if the effect remained the same when she was out."

"Obviously. Who would want to test if one of their abilities sucked away the life of their friends?"

"Urara, she has a point."

"Don't tell me you believe her Ako. This sounds like a trap. It reeks."

"If I'm going to say that you should bring her and me far out so she can test it on just me, you're going to say it's just a trap so I can kill her or knock her out and then pretend to be her, right?"

Urara didn't answer the question and instead looked at Ako.

"We can't have Windy wake up everyone with Stormflair. It takes too long."

"Ellen is in control. She can stop any time. And even if something happens, I can stop her with Suspend. I think I know how to use it better now." If it was her reflection that caused this mess, she had to put things right.

"Whatever you say. Don't tell me I didn't warn you."

=== Dissonance ==

"They've woken Bloom, as a test, and Muse, because Hymn wanted to talk to her about the situation or something." Kanade explained to Inori, the two just having met up by coincidence at the table around the same time. Nobody bothered to get together and have breakfast for now. The situation was too tense.

Her appetite was quite limited as well. "They probably have a plan now though. I saw Windy talk to Luminous earlier." Biting listlessly into her toast, Kanade just couldn't work up the interest to eat much. With so many of the reflections loose and Rin still unconscious... not to mention that despite the situation, Hibiki still wasn't talking to her, or even showing the slightest bit of worrying.

"I saw Muse talk to Love and Setsuna earlier. They're definitely doing something, but I don't know what."

"They're trying to wake up Ellen and have her use Purger." Love sat down next to Inori, looking tired out and a bit pale. The discussion with Muse had cost her some nerves and she eventually had to leave it to her more levelheaded side, Setsuna. "Muse said that since Ellen was using it under extreme circumstances, it's not what the ability is really supposed to do."

"So it's not a killing song? But we could all feel the effect of it when Hymn herself was using it." Inori had limited herself to just coffee this morning, not feeling like she wanted to bother with anything more.

"According to Muse, Hymn's purger works that way because of who she is. Created as the polar opposite of Ellen, her Purger also works differently. I eventually gave up rejecting the idea when Setsuna asked me to step out for a bit."

"You have to consider the situation we're in Love. If there is the possibility that Ellen can wake everyone, don't you think that would also help her accept that she can use a power like that?" It was always easier to look at problems if they weren't your own.

"Well, that's true but... it just doesn't sit right with me. She was so afraid of it when she first came out of exile, she even lost her voice."

"Setsuna and you helped her get over it, right?"

"So why is Ako trying to make Ellen use Purger?" Kanade wondered if she had the ability to use those songs herself as well. Or was it just those two, since they came from Major Land?

"From what she explained, it looks like her reflection used a song of hers to put everyone to sleep while they were still in the mirror. Ellen is supposed to use Purger to eliminate the lingering effects."

All three of them turned around and watched the entrance when they felt an empowering aura. For Kanade, it was a familiar feeling. "Luminous ability. I wonder why she activated it."

"Windy's ability knocks her out when she uses it, right?" Inori only assumed as much. She didn't know that much about the sisters or their abilities. "If she's under the effect of Luminous aura, maybe she manages to stay conscious."

Further down the hall, Kaoru indeed managed to overcome the effect of losing her own conscious for an extended period of time. Falling over and feeling sick, dizzy and disorientated wasn't staying out though. "Thanks Hikari."

The empowering aura vanished and Kaoru needed her sisters help to stand. The two, Bright and Luminous, had just watched Kaoru wake up Ellen, who had still been unconscious after the night. "They're just buying time with this. They knew we would figure it out somehow and they just stalled. But what for? What is Poison planning?" Setsuna turned to Michiru, who was letting her sister use one of her shoulders to lean onto.

"Nothing good." Hymn was waiting outside, Lemonade guarding her closely, still able to hear the conversation but otherwise out of reach for anything else. Setsuna's demand. "Poison and Nightmare are the only real threats to us. I hope the others are doing okay with taking out Poison."

"Ellen should come to relatively soon. I'll talk to her about this, but I might need some time to convince her. I know Love isn't going to back me up on this. But sometimes, it's hard to make the right decision." Directing her words at Luminous and the Kiryuu sisters, Setsuna stepped out. "You heard, right?"

"Yeah I did. Thanks for agreeing to do this. You see what it does to Windy to just wake someone like that." Slapping Hymn's arm, Urara nudged her in direction of the garden. "Do something else for a while. You'll hear if we get Ellen to agree or not."

Watching Hymn walk off, a slightly sulky expression on her face, Setsuna felt a bit of guilt. "You don't need to treat her that rough. She is helping us and while I don't want her near Ellen, she's still a person."

"You think so? They have their own will, but that's about it. Their memories, their powers, everything about them except their will is just a copy of us. I personally don't believe in this peaceful solution they're trying to achieve. I hope it's true but if it isn't, I'm willing to put an end to them."

"I can't think about them like that. At least not the peaceful ones." Setsuna understood what Urara was saying but she didn't agree with it.

"Hymn wasn't so peaceful when she sang Purger and tried to kill us all. I don't know about Misery, but I'm sure they all have some kind of drive to fight."

"Maybe you should spend some time with one of them and ask."

"I've got better things to do."

"I'm taking Kaoru back to our room." Michiru didn't wait for a reply but trusted that the two had understood her the first time.

"We shouldn't fight amongst ourselves." Luminous was trying to restore the peace between Lemonade and Passion.

"This isn't fighting. We just disagree on something philosophical." Setsuna would fight too, if it really came down to it. But she preferred that not to happen.

"It's not philosophical, never been either. We're in the middle of a war between us and the reflections. It's a very practical thing Passion. But I digress. I'm going to check on Melody and Bloom, they're on guard duty. I hope Bloom hasn't run off to look for her partner."

Walking away from the discussion Urara was left with the sour feeling of actually having lost an argument she didn't have. Was she really too harsh on Hymn? Passion was right in that she was helping and not showing any signs of making plans to attack Beat and replace her. She didn't press the issue of getting her ability released by Ako either.

=== Dissonance ===

Rose flew through the room, catapulting herself off the wall, reaching her reflection in the fraction of a second. Azalea didn't have time to react before the fist of her original met with her nose. Flipping over vertically twice, the purple reflection lay flat on the ground for a few seconds before she managed to get up. Getting out of the base to look for Nightmare and allow her to team up with herself had her walk right into a trap.

Rose was already above her, heel dropping her back into the ground. Not letting up, a second, third, fourth, fifth kick completely destroyed the floor and gravely wounded the reflection. "Adamant Crush!" Focusing enough energy in her hand to destroy a car instantly, Rose slammed her fist against the reflections back.

Azalea had just barely avoided the hit and still suffered damage from the stone fragments that whirled around, some so small that they were barely visible with the naked eye. Holding out her arms and creating a thing layer of metal all around them, Azalea stated her counterattack. A right punch, a left punch, both blocked by Rose who simply crossed her arms in front of her face.. Lowering herself, using her right hand to stabilize, Azalea used a sweeping kick.

"Adamant Press." was the last thing Azalea heard before the sound of breaking bone echoed briefly thorough the large room. Her ankle was split in half, bone and flesh sticking out, the pain so overwhelming that she rolled to the side and screamed out in pain.

Rose's right leg was swollen at the ankle as well, but her left leg was clad in thick metallic layers of a heavy fairy metal. "Allies of Poison will die." Rose knew all about the situation and how many of the reflections had suffered badly under Malice and Poison's treatment. She had no pity for them and felt no guilt by killing them.

Stepping over Azalea and pulling her up by up by her right arm, she didn't even bother to block the regular punch that connected straight with her mouth. Blood ran down from the corners and she could taste the iron in it. Azalea was not someone that was made for fighting. She had the memories but no determination.

Whirling her around once, Rose smashed the copy into a solid wall, leaving a deep imprint of the girl, only letting go when the purple reflection connected with the stone. Stepping closer and ignoring the hammering pain in her ankle and mouth, she used her weakened leg and pressed it against Azalea's stomach. She would make sure that this particular reflection was not coming back to haunt her. Using her right arm to fix Azalea's left hand in place, Rose focused for just long enough to let Azalea spit at her. Ignoring the sticky liquid that slowly ran down her forehead, she executed her next attack. "Orihalcum Hammer!" Three consecutive punches spread out over the full length of the arm and the bone inside was thoroughly shattered. Rose specialized in heavy and extremely damaging attacks.

Reduced to a sniveling mess with not a piece of dignity, Azalea cowered on the ground, her destroyed ankle and arm leaving her unable to even think straight. Jumping backwards onto a pillar, Kurumi took a deep breath. Fighting someone that looked human she had done before, in the battles before, but this would be the first time she killed someone.

"Abbadon!" Her expression spelled pure rage when she remembered the atrocities the other reflections had gone through and she refused to help. The purple clad creation was literally shredded to pieces by the powerful attack, executed without even the slightest amount of pity. Those that oppressed others and believed themselves to be better had no chance of redemption. "Say hello to Fury and Apathy. White Mirror."

Standing there and watching as the spread out leftovers of flesh, bone and organs vanished into the ground, Kurumi suddenly felt sick. The pain in her ankle was suddenly increasing and she realized just how much she had acted like a cold blooded killer.

"I didn't realize you were this violent. Remind me to never cross you." Blaze stepped into the room after everything had settled down. "That wasn't a fight. That was an execution."

"Nobody forced her to keep up the spoiled princess act. It was her own decision. And now she reaped what she had sown." Kurumi covered her face with her hands for a moment, trying to come to terms that she had indeed just killed someone, no matter how evil or ruthless they might have been.

"So what do we do now?" Kurumi didn't feel comfortable, but she was confident that she could pull off killing Poison if she got a chance.

"We will wait, Azalea. Get used to everyone calling you that." Blaze looked upwards, towards Kurumi who sat on the pillar. There was a huge hole in the ground between them. The extent of her power put some well earned respect into her mind. She had been strong back then, but this was very different. Her offensive power was well on par with the other heavy hitters, such as Black.

"Wait for what?" It was weird talking to Rin even though she really wasn't Rin. She was far too calculating and somber for that.

"For Poison. She humiliated Azalea last night. It would be weird for you to act friendly with her. You will vanish for a bit and then come back, trying to put on a tough act after you seemingly failed to find other allies. There is no doubt that there will be some harassment and abuse by Poison but she won't kill you. Then you wait for your chance."

"You and Rin are really different. She's not the type to make plans that elaborate."

"The others won't like if you compare them to their originals too much. To begin with, we've stopped calling them originals. We call you the origins now. We don't like the term originals as it refers to us as copies while we're our own individual existence now."

"Aren't we still linked by the system? Only one of you can exist. If you try to co-exist permanently, both of you die?" In a way, it relieved Kurumi that Azalea was out of the way. At least that prospect of the system wasn't applying to her for now.

"That's why we're looking for a solution. If we manage to become independent of the system, we'll have to see what we do. Most of us will likely try to leave Japan."

"You planned that far ahead already?"

"People are just wishing for this to end and be free. It's the same on your side, isn't it?"

"We're on the same side right now. But yes, us origins think the same way. At least I believe so."

"Let's go back then. We have a makeshift base not too far from the real one."

"Say, what did you do for food? I get that you can get water from the bathroom but surely you haven't been eating nothing all this time?"

"Most of us have been fasting. I know that Poison stole some favor from the origin team pool when she was there and she has been using that ever since. I don't think that her pet, Freeze has been eating though."

"That's..."

"We took some favor from the pool again when we went there to free Aurum and the others. I have no idea how much is left but it should be enough for a while longer."

"Is there no way to generate favor right now?"

"Not that we know of. That's why we're trying to resolve the situation before famine becomes a real problem and fighting starts out over it. You can imagine that all our plans will be for nothing if that happens."

Jumping down the pillar and making her way around the hole, Rose limped a little, her leg still hurting. "I wondered a few times what it'd be like to get hit by one of my attacks. Now I know. It really hurts."

"You broke her ankle in half. Of course those attacks hurt. We're protected by magic, but we're not made of steel." Blaze wasn't eager to get on Rose's bad side. She was dangerous both in close and long range. Surprisingly not very sturdy but very heavy hitting.

"I don't pity her. She did absolutely nothing to better the situation for others, like Aurum and Misery."

"Nor did Ember and Maelstrom or any of the others. Speaking of Ember, she saved Maelstrom from getting killed by Poison. Excuse me, I mean Marine. It makes me wonder if Poison has realized she's an imposter and just keeps her as a hostage." She walked a few steps in front of Rose, a little weirded out by having what had been the enemy not even a day ago so close to her. But she didn't seem to ave any bad intentions.

"How is Marine doing?"

"I can't comment on that. Ember and her haven't been seen out of their room. She was hurt pretty badly by Poison last evening, so we're not sure she's even alive."

Kurumi stopped dead in her tracks when she heard that. About to burst out a response, Blaze turned around, looking every bit the hardhearted commander she wanted to be. "Going in there and running into one of Poison's goons or Poison herself would mean death. If she's actually dead, our best bet is to stick to our current plan and have you save her. Ember is an unknown variable right now. If we play our cards right, we might be able to offer her freeing Maelstrom and reuniting them." Kurumi stared in amazement. She didn't know Blossom that well, but from what she had seen, if Ember had even a fraction of her personality, she would take the offer.

But Ember had too much of Tsubomi's personality to take it. The cat was out of the bag already. Erika was alive and well, and she had accidentally blown her cover. If Ember had been of malicious nature, she could have exploited it badly. Instead, she decided to keep the leak a secret and just continue on.

The last chance Maelstrom could have been replaced was already days past. The girl she had slept with, showered with, kissed and caressed, had been Maelstrom's origin all along, not really her. Laying naked in bed next to Erika, Ember wondered how long she could keep the pretense up. Eventually, Erika would want to go back. And then that was it. Even if the peaceful solution was found, she would have to let go. Killing Tsubomi wasn't an option.

And having her memories, she knew that trying to get her to share Erika wasn't going to be any more of a solution than killing her. All that was left was to see if the solution offered a new way. Playing around with Erika's long blue hair, Ember twirled it around her index finger.

"Wake up, stupid. How long are you gonna sleep?" Poking the blue Cure's cheek, Ember saw it as a perfect excuse to get a little morning make out going. While Blossom didn't exactly have much of a sex drive, Ember had kept that part of the opposite personality she had been given.

"Ember, Maelstrom, Poison is calling you two." Freeze's voice reached the two girls and as if the name of the green reflection woke bad memories, Erika was wide awake in an instant. They could hear Freeze cursing loudly, unable to locate Azalea.

Still over Erika, Ember quickly leaned forward, kissed the blue Cure and got up, picking up her clothes. Erika had gotten very used to seeing Tsubomi's copy naked, much more than she would have liked to admit in front of her partner.

Looking at her hand, Erika wondered for a moment if it had been Ember who healed her. "Did you...?"

"You can thank me later. Preferably with... your tongue I like the way you use it." Half dressed, Ember grabbed Erika's hand and pulled the sheets off her. She liked watching the blue Cure do anything, especially when she was naked. Despite being rather tiny, Erika had great style and a nice figure. Ember was really jealous of Blossom.

They had barely stepped out of the room when someone very unexpected walked past them. Aurora, the first reflection to actually die. "Move it." The yellow reflection had a grim expression on her face. There was a lot of activity in the base for some reason. Ember didn't remember so many being part of Poison's group.

In the distance, she saw Wither, carrying a white Cure or reflection over her shoulder. Something was definitely about to happen. The entrance was sealed tight by multiple layers of green barriers, effectively locking them in. There was only one place Poison would collect them all.

Getting to the garden, Ember saw over half a dozen others waiting, Poison towering over them all, standing on a large sphere of green energy that floated right over the pond, an unpleasant expression on her face. Standing a little in the way, Ember was rudely shoved by Umbra, who walked straight past her, talking happily with Breeze, the two of them giggling. They smelled of blood.

Taking position a bit to the right of the pond, Ember and Marine waited for their leader to speak up. There was little doubt that Poison was the indisputable ruler of the reflections at this point. Her lack of humanity, her calculated schemes and her powers made her a foe that nobody but the craziest wanted to deal with.

Her only enemies, Malice and Nightmare, were both gone without a trace, one of them most assuredly dead.

It was seemingly time to no longer bother with the secrecy and just come out in the open with her plans. Ember noticed that she wasn't the only one that was both impressed and a little terrified how many others there were under the venomous banner.

=== Dissonance ===

Love and Setsuna watched their partner speechlessly. It was completely different from what they had seen when she had used Harmonious. This was her own ability, solely and unique. A vibrant violent aura, stained with a deep blue, wavered through the air, almost seeming to replace the air in the garden.

The garden was serving as her stage, and she herself was songstress, orchestra and conductor of the hymn that passed through Love and Setsuna without even touching them. Dancing, jumping, whirling from the grass to the trees, vanishing in the shadows and emerging from them again, she left a trail of notes and lingering melody, no longer lethal but still overpowering, robbing them of their ability to talk or think of anything but keep their eyes focused on Ellen.

"Was ki ra exec syec parge tie, gott yor!" "I dance, I dance, The feast of Heaven, Down the road of Salvation, I dance for you, I dance for me, my prayer; your sacrifice."

A full stop, her legs slightly spread to balance herself, Ellen slammed the ground with her right fist, her long hair swirling through the air, her eyes glittering with power and desire, a wild beast on the hunt. A single hair sparkling in the artificial light, another pitch black, their color changing the more power she exerted. Executing a back-flip from her stance, Ellen flew over the ground, the grass making way for her, evading her step.

"The time of my birth – My fate in my hands – You shall not consume any – My resent for you – Purging the Darkness from the Mind." A burst of energy accompanied her words, her hymn sphere extending far beyond her own reach, encompassing both Love and Setsuna, reaching through the hallways, penetrating doors and walls as if they didn't exist, touching and wrapping itself around all that were there.

"I offer the prayer – A prayer – of purification to you – My gift – to cleanse you of the dark – A purge – to cleanse you of all." Repeating her earlier pose, Ellen jumped into the air, both her arms fully extended, her whole body rotating like a corkscrew, her landing leaving the ground undisturbed. The water of the pond threw ripples as if a myriad of stones had hit the surface and sunk, the leaves of the trees rustled as if a storm was shaking them, Love and Setsuna's hair was thrown back as if they were hit by a gust of wind.

Her hands strumming the large score that appeared in pieces all around her, arranging notes and vibrating the notes. "Purification of the Heavens, purification of the land, purification of the inside and the outside, of the six senses. Be destroyed, perverse things, defiled, sins, I control your execution, I exorcise you."

It was now that Melody, Rhythm and Muse all came to see Ellen perform. Drawn to this mystical performance, to this ancient art of magic, a song that was beyond a song, a hymn exerting the power of ones self. Only Muse truly understood the grandness of Ellen's performance, for only she knew how tiring and brutal it was to keep singing hymnos.

"I sing and dance for the gods, in this vestige of a world, be gone and die, evil spirit, dream a dream eternal. I dance as a priestess, dance to my Beat, so hear me. Evil, sin, defilement, you shall be purged by my will."

A last powerful stance, both her arms reaching out to the artificial sky, standing on her toes, her eyes only mostly closed, she let the melody slowly fade out, her last words still lingering in the area, echoing through the mind of everyone.

Only a handful of seconds passed between the halt of the hymn and Beat's collapse. Muse was the only one with the composure to move quickly enough to catch her. "Didn't you overdo it?"

Love and Setsuna reached the blue Cure a few seconds after Muse caught her. "Ellen, are you alright?" As Ako moved away and let Passion hold her teammate, the princess of Major Land found herself quite impressed. Nobody had ever taught Ellen anything about the hymns so it was quite amazing that she could use them this well. Was it Peach's and Passion's influence?

"I'm fine. But I'm starving. I don't think I'll be fighting anyone or anything today. Or holding anymore concerts." Ellen was more than just satisfied with herself. She had her doubts when Setsuna talked her into trying to sing Purger again, but it had changed a lot from when she was forced to use it in exile. She had no more reason to be afraid of the hymn now.

"Hey! Looks like everyone is waking up! Good job Beat!" Bloom was shouting from the entrance, promptly vanishing again, going around to check on those who had been still unconscious.

"That was amazing. A bit overwhelming but really amazing." Taking Ellen's hand, both of the songstress partners helped her stand, Love grinning really wide. "Not quite as nice as Harmonious."

"I'll go and check on Hymn." Taking a cue, Ako left and pulled both Hibiki and Kanade with her, the two of them still standing where they had first arrived, dumbfounded. "You two have... partners to check on, right? Go."

Hibiki was quick to come back to reality and turned around but stopped. No matter how much she wanted to see Itsuki, there was something she needed to ask Ako first. "That song... it's something special, right? Is it part of her powers as a Cure? If so, then-"

"Ellen is not even supposed to be able to sing these, Hibiki. These songs, Hymnos, are an ancient heritage of the royal family of Major Land. I can use them too, and so do my mother and father. You two are strong Cures but you're not from Major Land. So there is no chance that you'll ever be able to sing them." Ako didn't beat around the bush. Getting their hopes up was not going to do anyone any good. Kanade seemed to have the same question and looked equally disappointed when Ako finished her explanation.

Their depression only lasted a few seconds before they both ran off to check if their partners had come to. Finding Urara waiting near the entrance, Ako smiled at her, only waiting for some kind of condescending comment. "You'd think they're your juniors, not the other way around."

"Well, I was a Cure before them so... And I've been living in Major Land ever since I was born. So I am technically their senior."

"That's one way to put it." Waiting a few seconds, the two of them walking together towards the dining hall, Urara tried to word her next question without really offending Ako. "Are you worried about not being able to use your own hymns like that?"

"I don't know all that much about them, at least not compared to my mother, but I know that they're not all equal. Some take considerable magical energy, some less. You can probably optimize them a bit by practicing, but it's not something you could really do more than once a day. Even so it would take a long time."

"Why did I even ask?" Slapping Ako's butt, Urara put her arms behind her head and walked a bit faster. "All we need to do now is to put an end to the reflections. I hope we can go back to normalcy soon."

Not quick enough to dodge, Urara flinched when Ako pinched her cheek. "You're horrible. Can't you walk next to me without gro-" Ako almost shrieked, and let go of Urara, when her partner pinched her butt. "That hurts!"

"So does you deforming my face! You knew full well I wasn't going to pretend to be all modest and hyper sensible when you asked me out. You get what you signed up for."

"I wonder what hit me to ever agree to this." Sighing, the two of them were almost ran over by a yellow and pink flash, the voices belonging to the flash clearly indicating that Sunshine and Melody were a little too happy and excited to be reunited.

"Not what hit you but who hit on you." Met with a cringe from her partner, they ignored Melody and Sunshine dancing through the corridor, quite aware that making an issue out of it was not going to help or stop them.

A few others were already in the dining hall. Urara spotted Karen comforting Komachi, who still seemed to be a little agitated. There was no sight of Berry but that wasn't too surprising. Bloom was in a corner, together with Black and White, the latter two looking rather pale and worn out. Everyone was back on their feet.

Everyone? Throwing a chain and hitting the hyper acting Sunshine, Urara pulled her in like a fish. "Has Moonlight come to?"

Despite Hibiki's annoyed expression, Urara didn't pay her any heed. "She didn't wake up after her exile, but this should have gotten rid of any lingering effects. Have you seen her?" It wasn't that she was too worried about her personally, but after seeing what she had been subject to...

"No. And you know, there are better ways to ask than this!" Itsuki pulled off the chain from her arm and glared at Lemonade. She might have gotten a little too carried away due to Hibiki's enthusiasm, but that was no reason to treat her like this.

"Nobody else is acting like a rubber ball."

The mood changed suddenly and heavily when Pine, one of the guards at the time, came running in, out of breath and slightly pale. "Get to the entrance. There's been an attack. We're in really big trouble now." Shouting loud enough to get everyone's attention, the urgency in her voice made clear that this wasn't just some small problem.

Coughing up and spitting out a gush of her own blood, Dusk desperately tried to get the wound on her side closed and under pressure. Having carried Dawn all the way there, she was at her absolute limits. Blossom was kneeling over Dusk, trying to get enough energy and concentration together to heal her, but she had never even tried to heal someone in a such a bad condition. Having lost a lot of blood, there were too many wounds to even begin to count. Deep cuts, bruises and swollen patches of skin, there were surely some broken bones in there.

Komachi was quick to try and assist Blossom together with Luminous, who immediately used her ability to give both of the others a boost. "Restoration!" Creating a large pink sphere right above Dusk, White's reflection, the copy screamed in pain and tried to get away, flailing wildly and in panic as wounds were forcefully closed and broken bones corrected. "Gag her! She'll bite her tongue! Someone hold her down!" Komachi gave some firm orders while she kept barriers up to prevent the still open wounds from bleeding her dry. It was a delicate and painful process.

Nobody even thought about refusing to help them. The way they looked, they hadn't just been in a regular fight or disagreement. They looked like they had escaped the middle of a war zone. Hibiki, Itsuki and Saki jumped in to hold the injured Dusk in place, Urara gagging her with a thick chain, preventing her from biting her tongue.

The healing was ongoing and it was quite evident that Blossom was feeling the exhaustion from using up so much energy. Sweat was running from her forehead, her concentration so immense that her own expression looked painful. Almost a full minute passed while Blossom used her ability to save Dusk.

Just as she finished, Bright, the one standing closest to the unconscious Dawn, was forced to use the imprisonment ability on her. "Hymn." She had spotted the blue reflection watching from behind Pine. "Go and get her out of the mirror. Kaoru, you should go and check if there are any others newly imprisoned. Don't free anyone else for now."

Responding with a quick nod, Hymn ran off, Kaoru following her, for safety measures. They still didn't rule out it all being part of a plan. Chatter broke out when Blossom finally got up, dizzy and unstable on her own legs, having to hold on to Itsuki to not fall over.

They were all waiting for Hymn to return with Dawn, and they didn't have to wait long. Not even two minutes after being ordered to, Hymn returned with the black reflection. "I would lament the way I got here, but there are more pressing issues. Anyone here leading the group as a whole? Preferably someone who has been alive the entire time."

A few Cures stepped up front. Urara, Passion, Bright and Windy. "Poison has realized that we've found the solution and decided to wipe us and all of you off the map because of that. There... were traitors, among all the groups. Those who weren't inherently with Poison and undercover mostly decided to join with the alternative fighting to the death against huge numbers and Poison herself."

"Out of the group that supposedly wanted the solution, only Aurum, Dusk and myself stood to it. That doesn't include Hymn and Misery. Blaze switched sides as soon as the fighting started, and the rest... well, we didn't have much of a chance."

Blossom fought her way through the crowd to ask the reflection some questions. "What about Marine? She is undercover as Maelstrom. What is happening to her?"

"From what I could tell, she was knocked out as collateral damage during one of Aurora's attacks. I don't think they know about her identity yet. Maelstrom is about to vanish forever, so at least then they'll notice."

Blossom hadn't even realized that Maelstrom had been replaced almost two days ago. She had completely forgotten about the time period for the imprisoned to vanish.

"But it won't take that long. They're reorganizing themselves and about to attack this place." As if her words were the trigger for it, a huge explosion covered them all in a thick dust cloud. Komachi and Urara were immediately on it, sealing off the entrance with layers of barriers and chains

Several more attacks crashed into the barriers and chains, more dust flooding the hallway. Those not directly involved into the defense retreated a bit. Mint, Lemonade, Luminous as well as Windy stood their ground, protecting the one and only way in and out.

Dream, showing up without any noticing, immediately took the lead. "Organize in small groups of four. Specialists in long range attacking take position in the hallway to the garden! Close range fighters with me! Specialists, take position behind the defense squad that's protecting the entrance!" Her voice held a certain charisma, giving the feeling she knew exactly what was going on.

Berry finally showed up as a well, alarmed by the noise of the attacks. Heavy impacts on the barriers and the shields sounded like bomb shells impacting only a few dozen meters away. The walls were too thick to be penetrated, so the enemy focused on that spot.

"Berry, grab Dusk and Hymn and have them brief you on the enemy numbers and the solution they discovered. If we can find a way to cut off those not fully convinced of Poison's way, we might have a chance to significantly weaken their fighting force!" Shouting, to make sure she was heard, Nozomi issued more and more orders like a general. And everyone obeyed. "Blossom, stay with the long range squad. Luminous, as soon as I give the sign, you will retreat to the long range squad. You and Blossom will act as our medical facility."

It wasn't just any old attack. Poison had schemed for so long, there had to be a plan. "Melody and Rhythm, you will support all groups from the specialist cover point. Muse, you will be on standby with the long range squad and assist. If the enemy attempts to use Silence, you will counter her. Beat, you're with the long range squad!"

"Black, Bloom, Rouge and Pine, you are directly with me. You move in teams of two. Peach and Passion, you will act as my backup and protect our rear. Windy! If someone breaks through, let them advance far enough for you to get into Luminous boost radius and take them out! Aqua, you will be the vanguard of the defense team! Mint and Lemonade, keep up the blockade!"

"Bright, you're the backup of the two attack teams. Get whoever attacks their rear!"

Without questions and doubt, everyone immediately took their spot and prepapred for combat. They all had known to some degree that this could and likely would eventually happen so it wasn't much of a shock. "On my count, lower the barrier! Long range squad, fire on the same count! The attack team will go out after! Specialists, you can start already!"

Dream waited a few seconds, listening for the rhythm of the impacts. The air was so tense that nobody dared to say a word. "Go!"

Hibiki and Kanade both activated their abilities, powerful songs boosting the abilities of those around them. Standing in place and focusing, they would be easy targets, but was exactly why everyone approaching them had to go through two teams and survive a volley of long ranged attacks.

The barrier fell and the first distanced barrage of attacks started. White beams of energy ravaged the ground, destroying anything they hit. Dense areas of blue notes, exploding with vicious blasts at the slightest stimulation, innumerable counts of piano keys flying from the hallway over the heads of the cures, a minigun like rate of fire securing a safety area.

Nozomi rushed out first, meeting a surprised Umbra. Grabbing her right arm, a sweeping kick at her feet and Dream forced the reflection to the ground. Holding her right arm behind her back, she was making sure that the first attack was a successful one. "Rose Damnation!" A short range, powerful energy blast completely cut apart Umbra's right arm, not even leaving bone. Throwing the cut off arm away, Nozomi grabbed Umbra's neck, trying to break it.

Leaving it and jumping out of harms way, Blaze attacked her with her flaming claws, her special ability activated as well. It was so hot, Nozomi felt the hairs on her arms burn away. Sweat immediately started to run down her face.

Avoiding a wide reaching horizontal hit from the red reflection, Nozomi jumped back into the dust cloud near the entrance, trying to ambush her enemy. But she didn't need worry about that. Pine and Rouge rushed straight past her, each of them grabbed one of Blaze's arms and locking them in place, the two of them running so fast that it was hard to follow them with the naked eye. The only way to tell where they were was to follow the path of destruction they left. Pulling Blaze through numerous objects with complete disregard for the enemies life, they instantly gained the advantage.

Noticing a shadow and jumping out of the dust cloud, Nozomi met face to face with Wither. And walked right into a trap. Taking a blow from one of the physically strongest reflections right to the face, Dream felt but one of her teeth get knocked out and her nose break. The impact about to sent her flying, she buried her nails and fingers into Wither's arm, holding on to her.

Peach and Passion caught up to them and hit Wither from both sides, the two of them in complete synchronization, a volley of punches and kicks pummeling the pink and yellow reflection, slowly forcing her back. Not letting go of Dream, Wither retaliated to her attackers by using the pink Cure as a weapon, hitting the other two and forcing them back.

Umbra, losing immense amounts of blood but still standing, joined Wither and attempted to hit Peach with her full power. Her own original, Bright jumped in at the right time, blocking the attack with a punch of her own, the colliding forces making even the air vibrate. A second hit and this time Bright had to go on the defensive.

Dream finally got a solid hold of Wither's wrist and fired short bursts of energy right at it, point blank range. Blasting apart flesh and muscle, Nozomi was finally let go and flew high into the air, right into the line of sight of the enemies long range squad.

A volley of six energy beams hit her full force. The skin of her arms, crossed in front of her face and chest, burned away from the impact, revealing glistering muscle and blood. Ignoring the pain and the injury best she could, she took a shot. Wither was right there below her. "Rose..."

Freeze was suddenly right next to Nozomi, appearing out of thin air, about to stab the pink Cure with her rapier. "Blacklight Devastation!" No such thing was being permitted as long as Black had anything to say about it. Finally getting a hang of the battle, she hit and completely destroyed Freeze's left arm, the bone shattering so badly that fragments burst out through her skin.

Peach and Passion jumped away from Wither, who had not enough time to avoid Nozomi's attack. "...Spiral Passion!" Creating four large roses behind her, each as big as herself, a pink energy beam emerged from each, heading straight for Wither.

The only thing she hit and destroyed was a five layered barrier, completely obliterating them. Bracing for the return of the attack, nothing happening. Deciding to try again without hesitation, Dream took aim again. If long range didn't work, she wasn't afraid to go in close. Rushing towards Wither, the reflection grabbed Nozomi's arm, whirled her around once and smashed her into the ground, sure that her attack had dealt significant damage.

Dream couldn't get up but that didn't mean she couldn't fight. "Rose Refulgence!" Hitting the ground next to her with each hand and shooting numerous energy orbs into it, the whole area around herself and Wither went up in a massive explosion.

Nozomi just barely noticed Black and Bloom jumping through the explosion and seeking cover. A second later, a barrage of golden projectiles hailed down, a few of them nailing Nozomi to the ground. Peach showed up in the next moment, carrying Bright, who had taken severe damage and wasn't moving, Passion stopped at the crater in the ground and grabbed Nozomi, retreating towards the back.

The barrier went down for a brief instant and another volley of long range attacks flew straight into the corridor, seemingly at random. "Illumination Glint!" All of the Cures were retreating with the back towards the barrier, moving with jumps only, never showing their back to the enemy. A white flash that seemed to penetrate even solid stone blinded all incoming foes for a moment, allowing a safe retreat. Pine and Rouge arrived with everyone else, both of them having their arms and legs dyed red in blood, few of it their own.

"They're crazy! And I can't seem to locate either Rose or Marine!" Rin was taking a breather while Nozomi was getting healed, in worse condition than the others and by far the strongest that had went out there.

"I have no idea how many of them there are. Poison keeps butting in so we often can't land a finishing blow. They must be pushing Ember to her limit." Inori felt disgusted by the sticky liquid on her body and tried to get it off as good as possible. Blaze was dead, she had used the imprisonment spell herself. The reflection had been left without arms and legs after she and Rouge almost quartered her.

"Do you think they're using Marine to copy Ember's skill?" Kaoru was looking better than the close range team, but that didn't mean much. She had been hit by a few stray fragments of stone that managed to penetrate whenever the barrier went down.

"Possible." Saki wasn't hurt as badly as Dream but she was breathing very heavily. Fighting like that certainly hadn't been in her training.

"We need to take out Ember and Poison, otherwise this won't end. Aqua, check regularly on the corridor to see if they're trying to break through there. The last thing we need is a pincer attack."

They entire battle seemed to freeze, the impacts on the barrier ceasing, an eerie silence dawning on the Cures. "Muse! Beat!" Nozomi's instinct was correct. Not even five seconds after the pink Cure bellowed her orders, they heard an unfamiliar song. An echoing choir of voices humming, there was no doubt that the enemy was using Muse's reflection to launch an attack.

"I... she shouldn't be able to use this! That's an attack hymn for large scale wars! It requires more than just one singer!" Ako was confused and frightened by the event. How could Silence be able to use it?

"Poison will have her use it even if it consumes her own life. If she's not supposed to be able to use it, this is a trap. Everyone, take shelter in the dining room! They want us to rush out in a panic and try to stop her!" Getting up, not fully healed yet, Dream led the way. "Lemonade, barricade the entrance as good as you can! We're taking a stance down the hallway!"

The first set of lyrics reached the Cure base just as Urara started to plant more and more chains into the walls, creating an impenetrable wall that would last at least a few minutes. The chains were indestructible, but the walls the chains were anchored in, definitely weren't.

"She sings the song of a crazed heart – of agonizing pain! Her singing covers those pained – in darkness! Frightened and grievous in malicious pain – She becomes the darkness that frightens and grieves eternally!"

"Ako, what is that hymn doing exactly?" Ellen was running next to the black Cure, a bad and ominous feeling cursing through her mind, one she couldn't shake off.

"That's Major Lands main offensive weapon, Replekia. It takes the power of all the music and the people to boost this hymns attack and unleashes an enormous energy wave that destroyed everything the user sees as enemy." Ako, as future ruler, knew the hymn as her birth right, together with two others, but she never thought she would see anyone use it. Her mother had been too afraid of the destructive power to have used it in the fight against Noise, three years ago.

"Why isn't it in the hymn language?" Ellen, as one of the two people that could actually use the power, showed a genuine interest in it.

"Like Dream said, if she's being forced to sing it, it could be powered by her life force itself. Hymns are not made to work like that." They arrived at the dining hall, Mint and Lemonade setting up layers of defense, Dream and a few others standing in front to welcome any enemies that penetrated the entrance.

"She continues to sing till destruction! – Her singing a reflection of her mad mind – an ugly and evil reflection! Giving birth to terror, giving birth to fear! Her life shrouded in darkness – she continues her song of extreme terror – as she knows nothing but a dark future."

The lyrics abruptly ended and time slowed to a crawl as everyone held their breath. Nobody quite expected the effect to be as devastating as they then saw. The entrance was devoured by a massive energy beam, the likes of it even outclassing White and Dream's abilities. At the same time, a pain filled wail, like a banshee from a fairytale, rung in their ears.

Ako and Ellen were hit the worst, for they heard more than just the wail. They heard the pain, torment and abuse Silence had suffered at the hands of someone else. All of her negative feelings were poured into that hymn, together with the very essence of her life.

"Silence is no doubt dead now..." Ako had trouble standing, the wail still ringing in her ears.

And the battle resumed. Wither and Flare led the enemy forces and everyone was ready to counter attack. Enemy and ally alike were speechless when a pink flash rushed through the middle of the reflections and Wither fell over, not moving. Looking at where Dream was, her left arm was covered in blood and Bloom's reflection no longer had a head. "Annihilate them all! Show no mercy!" Dream's battle cry was the sign for the battle's tide to change.

Changing from defense to offensive, almost everyone rushed forward. Nozomi was so far ahead of everyone and yet the reflections didn't dare to directly approach her, her blood stained figure like a warning to them. Clenching her fist, Dream pushed forward, past the last forces of the enemy, rushing past a purple reflection with complete disregard, heading straight for Poison, who stood at the end of the hallway, certain of victory.

"Rose..." Both of her arms crossed in front of her face, Nozomi was ready to, if necessary, sacrifice her live to destroy Poison. If she died, the morale of the reflections would quickly approach zero. Before she could finish her attack, she was surrounded by barriers, shrinking as fast as she was running. "...Shooting Star!"

Breaking through all the barriers at once, Poison didn't bother to get out of the way in time. Instead, she forced Freeze into the way by creating a barrier around her and moving the barrier. Sploshes of blood hit Poison's face a fraction of a second later. Dream's arm went right through the blue reflections chest, destroying her heart. Pulling out, the corpse dropped to the ground, no longer of value to the leader of the reflections.

The sadistic smile on Poison's face went wide when she created several barriers between her and Dream. Completely ignoring the consequences, Nozomi destroyed all five of them with a single energy loaded kick, finally getting close enough to Poison to execute her pain.

Both of Dream's hands grabbed Poison's throat. Nozomi's pupils were wide from the adrenaline and pain, her determination to clean up her own mess far more powerful than any weapon the enemy could throw at her. "Only an idealistic maniac like you would have pushed on. The backlash will kill you."

Just as Poison said, Dream could feel several rips break the instant the first backlash hit. Not only that but blood burst from her skin at various spots. But her hold on Poison's throat only increased.

Not taking any chances, the green reflection created another barrier around Nozomi's head, trying to crush her brain as quickly as possible. But she didn't count on how prepared her enemy was. "Be gone. Emergence of the Starlight Rose!" She barely finished activating her attack before her conscious was lost due to Poison's barriers crushing her head.

If the impact of Replekia had been stunning, Dream's final attack was no less so. Poison got what she wanted and crushed Nozomi's head and most of her torso, but the attack was already underway. The ground below her burst open and long thorny roots erupted from it, locking Poison in place. Stone vanished beyond an ocean of rose petals that kept appearing from thin air. "My victory." Poison's outcry could be heard everywhere just before the tens of thousands of rose petals started igniting in a furious energy blast. Like a signal beacon that reached the upper levels of the sky, a rising energy beam erupted in place, completely obliterating what was left of Nozomi as well as destroying Poison's body completely.

The blast was so powerful that the ground shook like during a major earthquake, parts of the ceiling came falling down. Unsure what to do now that they leader had been obliterated, the Cures continued their offensive relentlessly.

Flare was locked down by Black and Bloom, the yellow reflection unwilling to surrender. Both of the close combat fighters jumping away, Flare was killed by White's special attack. Not leaving anyone alive that resisted, Umbra was beaten by a series of hits from Peach and Passion.

Nobody paid any attention to who was forced to use the imprisonment spells. The last big attack of the reflections had ended in their demise. They finally found Rose, who had pretended to be on their side, trying to back up and attack Poison. She wasn't hurt badly but had taken some damage during the battle.

There was no sign of Silence. Aurora and Breeze tried to escape but Pine and Rouge far outclassed them in terms of speed. Unwilling to surrender, Breeze used her ability on Pine, both of them hitting the ground like bags. Rin latched onto Aurora, burning away her clothes and hair, over a hundred degree Celsius at point blank range too much for anyone. Luminous reflection was burned to death seconds later. Bright managed to catch up with Rouge and found both Pine and Breeze knocked out. For nobody to see, genuine anger and hatred for the copy that looked just like her sister showed on Michiru's face. A single punch was all it took for the reflection to die, no longer having a head.

Further behind were Ember and Marine. Erika thought that it was finally time to try and appeal to Embers good side. "Ember... we should give up. They won't hesitate to kill us if we don't."

"They won't kill you Marine. What's with the surprised look? You blew your cover last night, after Poison tortured you. I don't really mind, you know? I enjoyed being with you, even if I know now that it was all part of you acting. Despite that, I like to think you liked our time together as much as I did."

"If you knew, why didn't you say something! We could have run away and escaped Poison together!"

"Poison knew, without a doubt. Why do you think she had us assigned right within her grasp the whole time? If we had tried to get away... she would have killed us. They're here for me."

Looking up front, Erika saw several others approach them. Tsubomi, Itsuki and Melody were the quickest and would be first to reach them. Turning to the side, she couldn't see Ember anymore. Feverishly trying to locate her, Erika noticed too late what she was doing. "Stop! Don't kill Ember!" Marine's shout wasn't going through to the others.

The blue Cure watched from the distance, everything seemingly happening in slow motion. Ember rushed towards Blossom, her origin, and halfheartedly attacked her, only to suffer an almost lethal kick to the chest. Flipping over and hitting the ground hard, she didn't resist at all when her original jumped up into the air and unleashed a strong energy blast, killing the girl Erika had come to genuinely like.

Tsubomi, overjoyed to be reunited with Erika, ran towards her with open arms, wanting to embrace her. But the embrace was one sided. Her partner just stood there, a depressed expression on her face.

=== Dissonance ===

"Have we found the enemy base yet?" Honoka and Kaoru were taking charge of the situation. Dream had perished in the battle, and while she had been the only one to die, the whereabouts of Egret were still unknown. Kaoru was talking to Peach, who helped organize everyone.

"Rouge reported that she found the entrance to it, but the base is devastated by fighting. It'll take time to clear the debris. Bloom, Bright and Black will go up there as soon as Blossom finishes treating them."

"Is Blossom okay? She looked oddly distressed after she came back with Marine." Honoka joined the conversation, having just finished talking to Lemonade and Mint about restoring their own base.

"You're asking the wrong person." Love didn't know Blossom that well and right now, she was more concerned with Ellen and especially Setsuna.

"That's... it, isn't it? The reflections are all dead." Honoka turned to Kaoru, trying to figure out what to do after recovering Dream and Egret from the enemy base.

"Nightmare isn't. And that's worrying me. You've seen how ridiculously strong Dream is when she's fighting seriously. She blasted Poison to death. I'm not sure any of us could take Nightmare, even two on one, if she attacked like that."

"No matter how strong she is, she won't be able to beat all of us. And the survivors can just go and get the others from the mirrors."

"I hope it'll be that easy. I have a bad feeling about this. There has to be a reason she is hiding."

The two noticed that the door to Miki's room was opening and she carried out Moonlight. "Has she come to?" Kaoru was a little curious about Moonlight. They could have used her prowess in that last battle. It was interesting that her reflection had not shown up in it.

"Yes and no. This is really, really bad." Distress was clearly visible on Miki's face when she looked at the other two for just a brief moment. Carrying the silver Cure towards the dining hall, she met with Sunshine and Melody halfway there. It only took one look for Sunshine to lose her good mood and follow the blue Cure.

"Something is off." Kaoru didn't even need to look at Honoka to know she was thinking the same. Following the small group into the dining room, they found Moonlights team as well as a few others surrounding her while she sat lifeless on a chair.

"Beat, you used your ability to remove the bad effect of whatever was keeping those rescued from the mirrors asleep, right?" Miki looked at Ellen, hoping for a way to get Yuri back to normal, not for someone to blame.

"It worked like that yes. I purged bad magic and effects from everyone. It shouldn't have affected their mind or personality at all."

"Do you think that is all that was left of her mind after spending so much time in exile? Bad thoughts and exile magic? I... saw what she went through. I wouldn't be surprised." Urara commented on it and it made a lot of sense in the eyes of those who looked at her.

Yuri was like an empty shell, a puppet. Her pupils showed no sign of movement, blank like those of a doll. "If... if that was the case, it could really be my fault that she's like this. If the exile completely overwrote her personality... Purger would completely remove that."

"This is better than a crazed berserker or god knows what else she might have woken up to be!" Peach defended Ellen, knowing what both she and Setsuna had went through after returning from exile.

"So what do we do? We can't leave her like this!" Miki saw her dream of being with Yuri shattered to pieces right in front of her. After waiting for so long, going through a battle with the reflections and having Yuri finally wake up... her personality was gone.

"Is this even Yuri?" Urara brought up a valid point. "If she has no personality, of course she won't be able to transform. Hey, Dawn. Hymn, is there any way to confirm if she's a reflection?"

The white reflection, standing a few meters away and talking to Hymn and Misery about their next course of action, stopped and came closer to the crowd. "Technically, if she's a reflection, she should be able to reach into the mirrors here. If she isn't, well."

"Would it still work if someone leads her hand?" Miki was ready to try just about anything.

"It... should? I'm not sure. Just try it."

"Get Ember out then." Marine didn't even look at Tsubomi, knowing that she was going to be angry regardless.

"Erika, what are you saying?" Tsubomi's reaction was exactly as expected.

"I'll explain it to you, but first I need to whack that stubborn mule and bring her to her senses. Actually, come with me for a moment. Hymn, can you help me out for a moment?" Erika wasn't going to just sit there and leave things with Ember unresolved.

Leaving Miki behind to try and figure out if that was the real Moonlight, Erika her partner and Hymn entered Tsubomi's room. Ember was quietly rotating inside the mirror, unmoving, seemingly asleep. "Get her out. Tsubomi, please take a step back, I'll need some space." Marine clenched her fist and even though Hymn reluctantly followed her orders, she pulled out Ember fine, who didn't even bother to look at Erika.

"Why bother and release me?"

The sound of Erika's hand hitting Ember's cheek made Tsubomi flinch. "Why I bother? You... stubborn... you're just as stubborn as Tsubomi! Every bit!"

Taking a deep breath and turning around, her back towards the pink reflection that was holding her swollen cheek, Erika started her explanation. Hymn had quietly slipped out of the room. "You know I've pretended to be her partner, Maelstrom. You realize what I had to do to keep up my cover, right?"

Tsubomi didn't want to admit it to herself, but of course she knew. It hurt to think about it, especially since the one Erika was with was her own reflection. Not saying anything and slightly averting her eyes, Tsubomi thought her silence was enough.

"I should have known better than to jump in, but it was only through me that Dream got out. I think... I did the right thing. Sleeping with Ember isn't one of the things I'm proud of, but I'm not going to lie to either of you. It wasn't all unpleasant. She looks like you, she sounds and smells like you, and honestly, you're more similar than you might expect."

"Why are you telling me this Erika? Do you have any idea what it feels like to have the girl you love talk about cheating like that?"

"Because I want you to understand that I wasn't with Ember to hurt you. That I didn't grow to accept her because I like her better than you. Ember is your reflection, the other side of your personality. She was forceful, a bit egoistic and selfish. I didn't sleep with her because it was my own choice. But I didn't resist her either."

Turning around to Ember, Erika grabbed Tsubomi's hand, preventing her from just leaving when she wasn't looking. "I love Tsubomi, and you knew that. You love me, not Maelstrom and that is why you went and got yourself killed. You thought that being alive and seeing me with her and not yourself would only hurt you. Isn't that right?"

"So what about it? You're hurting her and now you're rubbing this into my face of how you love her and not me. What is the point of doing this Erika?"

"I'm not really sure of that myself. But I couldn't have gone on without telling you and Tsubomi this."

"That's it? That's your answer? Making her cry and making me angry was your goal? Listen to yourself!" Getting up and pointing at Erika, Ember's swollen cheek didn't manage to degrade her dignity one bit. "I knew full well that you were going to be with Tsubomi. I was okay with that, but don't you ever think it was easy for me to decide that! When I found out you weren't Maelstrom, I didn't feel angry. I only felt sad, because I knew that no matter which side would win, I couldn't be with you anymore."

"I guess we're both hopeless for falling in love with her." Tsubomi found just a little sympathy for her reflection in that they both liked the same girl.

"You're the lucky one Blossom. In the end, it's all her fault. If she hadn't gone and pretended to be Maelstrom, we wouldn't have this conversation."

"Do you regret liking me?" Erika's tone made clear that she wanted a serious answer.

Ember sighed slightly and looked at the ground. "No, I don't. What I regret is not being her."

"So you would want to be with me if you could?"

"I can't, so why bother answering." Averting her face, she felt Erika grab her right wrist. "... Of course I would want that. But I have her memories. I know neither of us would be okay with a relationship like the one Peach has with Passion and Beat."

"You don't need to. Tsubomi, would you still feel betrayed if you and Ember became one person?"

There was confusion written all over the faces of the two pink haired girls. Ember was a little quicker to regain her composure and she wanted an explanation. "How about you get to the real point now? I should have known better than to believe you when you said you don't know what the point of this is. You have some sort of plan, don't you?"

"Want to hear?" A smug grin on her face, Erika was gently hit on the shoulder by Tsubomi, who was looking more than just slightly annoyed. "Okay, okay."

"I asked Hymn about the solution earlier. Dawn explained it to her and Miki, so I got it basically straight from the source. Essentially, the one problem with this situation is that only one of two can live on. If you try to coexist, both will die. But there is a way around that. What the system doesn't like is the physical existence of the reflections."

"So one of them still has to die. There is no way to exist as just a mind."

"Not as mind but as part of a mind. The solution is for the reflections to return to where they came from originally. If a reflection pulls another from a mirror, they regain their physical shape. The same is true of any original. But if the reflection pulls the original inside the mirror, they can return to being part of them."

"That sounds like bad science fiction." Ember didn't buy it. If that was the solution... "How is that any different from dying for us?"

"It's a little hard to explain. The original won't notice you, but you are there, inside their mind. You experience what they experience, but you have no influence on their thoughts or actions. You're like a silent observer. It's not much of a solution for those who worked with Poison out of their own free will, but... for you..."

"I see where you're going with this. You want me to become part of Blossom, like a ghost that resides in the back of her mind."

"A lot better than dying I'd say. According to Dawn, the way you perceive things isn't any different from the way the original does."

"And now you can explain to me why any of you originals would bother to do that. Because as I see it, there is nothing in it for them. Not only that, but what becomes of our memories? Do they just vanish?"

Erika scratched her cheek and wasn't quite so sure of her plan anymore. "They... become the originals memories. I can see why some really wouldn't want that."

"Not much of a solution, is it then. Dawn wasted her time."

"It beats having to live with the knowledge that you let someone that really wanted to live simply die. Someone ready to abandon any chance of ever making their own decisions and just watch. It probably isn't really all that much of a life, but it sure is better than dying and vanishing."

"If Maelstrom had lived longer and would ask you for this, would you agree to it?"

"Yes. If she wasn't a bad person, I would prefer that to just letting her die."

"How about you Blossom? Aren't you repulsed by the idea of letting me become part of you?"

"No. If Erika likes you enough to make me face this... I can't imagine you really being a bad person. You've been honest so far, so tell me... do you want to? Do you want to live on even if it's like that?"

Erika was surprised by how firm Tsubomi was. She had planned to persuade her, thinking she wouldn't agree to it otherwise.

Ember said nothing and let her head hang. Wrestling off Erika's grasp, she leaned against the mirror and sighed. "I... don't know. I thought I was content with dying if I had the happy memories of my time with Erika. But now I'm not so sure anymore..."

"I want you to live on. I don't think of the time I spent with you as a lie. I don't love you like I love Tsubomi, but you're definitely someone I want to survive."

"Because you don't want me on your conscience, or-" Ember grit her teeth and covered her other cheek with her hand. Tsubomi had slapped her hard enough to turn her head slightly.

"You know that she isn't like that! Why even ask that? You just want someone to come out and tell you to die, don't you? You just want to pity yourself!"

"Is that so wrong?! Look at me! I fell in love with a girl that loves my origin! The irony is laughing at me! I feel so stupid!"

"Yes it's wrong and you're not stupid! Don't pity yourself. Instead, be thankful that Erika gave you this chance. She holds you dear enough that she would go as far as hurt me only to give you a chance."

"Tsubomi..." Erika was impressed by how much her partner had figured her out.

"If she hadn't done this, I would have let you die, never knowing you're not really a horrible person. Even if it hurt to hear about this, I still think it was the right thing to do."

Turning to Erika, Ember lowered her head. "You're really... you really can talk people into anything, can't you? After hearing you talk about all of this and seeing you again all my resolve to die has gone to hell."

"I take that as a 'I want to live', you know."

"You're paraphrasing but I guess you're right."

"Tsubomi, are you okay with this?"

As if to make absolutely clear that Erika was her partner and only hers, Tsubomi hugged Erika from behind and patted her head. "As long as you're in love with me and not her."

"Was there ever any doubt of that?" Erika tried for a smug grin but the immediate and synchronous response from the two girls made her lose it.

"Damn right there was!" "Of course there was!"

A few rooms down the hall, the mood wasn't quite that good.

"So she's the real Yuri... I don't like even thinking of this, but do you think her mind could be fixed if... she was killed and pulled from a mirror?" Miki turned to Dawn, who seemed the most knowledgeable of the reflections they had running around.

"I don't think so. It restores the physical condition from... like a snapshot of when we were created and split from our origin. It doesn't touch our mental state."

"So what are we supposed to do then?!" Jumping up and grabbed Dawn by her shoulders, Miki shook her a few times before Dusk stopped her. "We can't leave her like this!" Punching the mirror, Miki didn't know what to do. Despair and anger mixed together and stopped her from thinking rationally. Kneeling down next to her bed and looking at Yuri's lifeless face, she could feel a knot in her throat. She didn't want Yuri to suffer anymore but this... this wasn't how it was supposed to be!

"There... should be one way." Dawn wasn't sure how much that would change but it would at least solve the problem of Moonlight being an empty shell. "The solution reunites us with our origin. If we find Eclipse, her reflection and reunite them, she should at least regain her memories. As you know, we have all the memories of our origin."

"What about her personality?" Miki didn't even look up, reluctant to even grasp at any hope, knowing that it would be even more devastating if she failed.

"Some people think that personality is shaped by past experiences. It's worth a shot."

At least a little luck was on her side. Opening the door without knocking, Sunshine came inside and closed the door behind herself. "They found Egret and Eclipse. They're not in good condition, but they're alive. How is Yuri?"

"Unchanged. We plan to use Eclipse as sort of a memory backup for her. Hopefully that will restore her to who she used to be." Dawn felt sorry for Moonlight's team. They had won the war but likely lost Moonlight in the process.

"Bloom is already on her way to get Egret. Rouge is bringing Moonlight back, Pine just returned and told everyone." Sending out two of the quickest if not the quickest Cures to scout the area had been a smart move.

"Dawn. This solution, is there any risk of the reflection influencing the originals personality?"

"In all but Moonlight's case, I'm gonna say no. A few extra memories you will feel as your own but know they really aren't won't change who you are. We will be like ghosts in your mind, unable to do anything but watch. So you don't need to be worried about that."

"A few of us have been acting a little strange. Most of all Dream. Is there any chance that she might have been influenced by Nightmare's personality?" Itsuki really hoped for the answer to that to be no.

"That I don't know. Theoretically it shouldn't be possible, but just as Silence manipulated the state of the origins inside the mirrors, Poison shifted the whole base away. It could be happening but even so, how would you prove it?" Dawn wasn't sure what Sunshine was getting at but it didn't sound good.

"Kill the reflection and see if it keeps happening." Miki sighed and sat down on the bed, caressing Yuri's cheek and keeping a few strands of hair out of her face.

"What if it is the reflection being inside the mirror that is influencing the origin?" Itsuki wasn't as smart as White or Windy, but she noticed some things more quickly than others.

"Why do you ask that?" Dawn was getting seriously worried now.

"When Poison died due to Dream's attack, she said 'My victory'. Don't you think that's really odd?"

"Did anyone else hear her say that? It's easy to misunderstand things when a battle is going on."

"Black and Bloom heard it as well. Do you think... all of this, dying and being put into the mirror, all of them, is part of her plan? She did launch a frontal attack without any great tactics. Considering all the schemes she was up to before that, isn't that odd?"

"Indeed. That is odd. But what could she possibly accomplish by... oh god. Quick, tell everyone to stay away from their mirrors if there's a hostile reflection insi-"

The sound of the explosion nearly burst their ear drums, the ground shaking so violently that they were unable to keep their balance, falling to the ground. Immediately, the stench of battle and fire hit their noses. Dusk was the first to run out the door, finding herself in literally hell.

An inferno of fire was ravaging the corridor, familiar to when the first attack with Nightmare had happened. Stone was turning into molten rock, burning everything it touched. The scene was straight out of a horror movie. In the distance, she saw Mint, walking through the fire as if it was not even there, an insane smirk on her face. Her clothes were more red than green, and her right arm was covered completely in blood. At the end of that arm was a massive amount of blue hair, slowly dragging something heavy behind her.

Without even being able to say a single thing, Dusk felt her mouth and nose fill with blood. Looking down, she only had time to notice the large gaping hole where her chest had been before she collapsed. "Dusk!" Running out of the room herself, Dawn ran right into a trap.

Countless azure colored wind blades hit her, cutting apart skin, muscle and bone, cutting off her arms. She didn't even have time to feel the pain.

Miki couldn't believe what was happening. From what Sunshine and Dawn had said, it didn't take much to make the jump to the next best conclusion. The solution worked two ways. The reflection could become the ghost in the mind of the origin. Or it could be reversed.

And that was exactly what Poison's plan had been. It was impossible to determine who enemy and ally in the chaos that unfolded before her. Where were the others?!

Down in the living hall, Black was fighting for her and Honoka's live against Bloom, who had evidently turned insane. "Stop it Saki!"

"Oh shut up and fight you worthless excuse for a fighter." Jumping back, using the distance to gain momentum, Bloom hit Black with her full power. Despite blocking the attack with her arm plating, Nagisa could feel her bone get damaged by the force. She didn't have a choice.

"Blacklight Devastation!" Hitting Saki's right shoulder, Nagisa watched with regret as the Cure was thrown through the hall and slammed into a wall, the force of the attack significantly greater than any normal punch.

"Honoka!"

"I'll go and find out what's happening. You keep Saki from killing anyone." But she didn't get very far. Just trying to step out of the dining hall, several golden energy bursts blocked her path. "Hikari, you too?!"

The hellish flames parted briefly to let Luminous through, a victorious smile playing along her lips. "Don't call me that, you incompetent mud. Twelve stars!"

The situation was completely out of control all over the base. Rin found total chaos when she finally returned with Eclipse. Leaving her outside the base, she went inside, trying to make sense of what was happening. There were skirmishes all over the place, but something wasn't quite right. How did the reflections escape? Had there been a traitor?

About to jump into the on going battle, Rin was stopped by someone unexpected. "Kurumi, what's going on?" The purple Cure was on the ground, badly injured and bleeding, but still able to speak.

"They have... taken over their original. The reflections. Get... Dream. Poison's back." Spitting out blood, Kurumi held Rin's wrist as tight as she could. "Get. Dream." Spitting out more, Kurumi forced herself up, an inane glare in her eyes. "As long as we can take Poison out again..."

Rin was about to oppose the idea when every single hair on her body stood up at the same time. Her instincts were telling her that mortal danger, something unlike any she had ever faced before, was approaching. Looking into the corridor, she felt... something.

It only took a few seconds before she knew what. Massive thorn roots, not unlike those Dream had summoned to hold Poison in line, were rushing towards them, destroying massive pillars and collapsed walls with ease. Creating her fire claws, Rin was ready to protect Kurumi. After that, she had to go and look for Kanade.

To her surprise, the roots didn't target her or Kurumi. They went straight past her, each root easily as thick as an arm, spiked with innumerable thorns, each as thick as a finger. The ominous feeling got even stronger when Rin saw that the first to be targeted was a seemingly crazy Rhythm. The white Cure was wildly jumping through the hallway, screaming, her face completely distorted in her craze. "Apathy?! Where is Apathy?! Where is my precious? Give her to me! She is mine, mine, mine!"

The roots not only hit but went right through her. Impaling the blonde, Rin screamed out as if it was her own pain. "That's... Fury..." Kurumi was holding on to Rin, trying to explain what was happening. She didn't need to know what Dawn and Sunshine knew. Their behavior and fighting style were more than enough to make clear that the reflections were loose.

The thorny roots rushed over the walls and the ground, broke through walls and doors with ease, hunting down all the reflections. Despite knowing that only one Cure had a power like this, Rin knew that this wasn't Nozomi's doing. It was too brutal, too relentless, too cruel.

Both Cures witnessed Fury lose both shape and substance, becoming part of the root, that now grew even thicker, even more thorns. "She's... absorbing them?"

An incredibly horrible scenario quickly played through Rin's mind. If that was what she thought it was, then they were in horrid danger. She could only watch in terror as the roots hunted down the other reflections, merciless squeezing them to death or impaling them. It took Kurumi hitting her face to finally make her come to again. "Get Dream. Now."

"I don't know where the base is!" They hadn't found it yet.

"Then find it. You have to find her. It's... up to her to stop this." Kurumi let go of the red Cure and took a step forward. "Abbadon!" Blood squirted from many of her wounds but she executed the attack successfully. The hail of metal fragments cut apart the thorns temporarily, stopping them dead in their tracks. But as fast as she cut them, they regenerated.

"I need to find Kanade! She's somewhere in there!" Rin was still reluctant to abandon everyone.

"If you don't go... there will be nobody anywhere..." Partially collapsing and sinking to her knees, Kurumi was at her limit. She couldn't see very well anymore. "Go! Save your friend!" Losing consciousness right after finishing her sentence, Kurumi would surely die soon and return to the mirror.

Rin grit her teeth and finally started to run. It was all up to Dream. Only she could stop the perpetrator of this attack: Nightmare.

=== End of Event XX ===