Episode 12: The Truth – or, Road Trip to Space Greece, or Somewhere?

Carmen sipped on her root beer, smiling as she saw Rory and Narma hurrying over from outside.

Until she saw their faces.

Carmen held her head in her hands. "She was only gone for a second. She said she was going to get some air."

Rory frowned, stomach in knots. That guy was a creep, too. Who knew what might be happening to Mallory? Not to mention the 100% certainty that they wanted her soul. "There's nothing to be gained in blaming ourselves. We've got to figure out what to do."

The party pounded around them, the conversation thankfully concealed by the chaos. Narma tapped her heel aggressively over Kevin Butler's kitchen tile. "How are we supposed to find them?" She flailed her arms out. "That guy opened a portal. He just vanished."

The bass groaned ominously around them. Rory raised her head. "We have to get Celene," she realized. "She knows about these kind of powers. She'll be able to tell us something." Lord, she hoped. Dread squirmed within her.

Celene was napping in the moonlight, waiting for Aurora to return. These times made her anxious, when she didn't know where she was, couldn't watch over her in the lingering possibility of danger. She couldn't help the feeling that she was failing her, not being there.

In her mind, an image flashed, a spear end, piercing the flesh of a dark uniform—squeezing her eyes shut, she willed the image away, shaking her head.

Logically, she knew there was no reason for her to be there, at that party. The girls were having fun. They didn't need her around. She nestled her head further into the deck wood. She would be home soon.

But then the plodding of many feet echoed in the distance. Her ears perked up. They were getting closer and closer. Rising, Celene moved to the edge of the porch. Celene peered out front, feline eyes piercing through the darkness. In the distance, three figures ran down the sidewalk, flashing like shadows under the streetlights. Even before she made out any features, she recognized the tapping of Rory's braids whipping up behind her. Her stomach dropped. Why were the running?

Slipping through the bars of the porch, Celene leapt into the grass, running to the front of the yard.

"Celene!" Aurora called, Celene's suspicions worsening as she saw the distress on the soldier's faces.

"What's happened, soldiers?"

Moving out of the light, Rory gestured her around to the side of the house, where they could speak unseen."Lupido," she panted. "That agent. He showed up—there were no pithos or anything—he took Mallory."

Oh no.

Gamma spoke up. "He went through some kind of portal."

Celene furrowed her furred brow. "A portal?" She turned to Aurora. "Did you see anything? Where the portal might have been leading?"

Rory sat up, looking away. "I don't know. I saw stars, everywhere. There was what could have been a temple? The Grecian kind. Somewhere gray."

Oh, this was bad. Celene bristled, feeling her fur stand on end. "Soldiers. From the conclusions we've reached so far, I can only believe that this man would have taken her to one place:" She took a breath. "Trappist 1."

It was as if a shock had gone through the group. "That's it, then." Epsilon threw her arms up, sounding breathless. "If he took her to space, she's done for. Her hoodie is not going to protect her from no oxygen." Narma dragged her hands down her face. "What am I saying? Even if she could, we have no way to get to her! Unless either of you have secret connections in NASA."

The others stayed damningly silent, although Aurora nodded her head a little.

She always knew this day would come. There was a possibility they could save Delta, but in order to do that she would have to reveal the truth. "That's…" she said slowly, "not necessarily true."

The three stopped, turning to look at her. Rory straightened—Celene's heart clenched at the distinct glimmer of mistrust in her eye. "Celene? What is it?"

She took a shaky breath. She usually felt helpless in this form, but this was a mess of her own doing. "It's true that my memories are muddled. Many of the details are fuzzy, and there are blocks of time that are missing completely. But…"

They stared.

She continued. "You do have the ability to transport yourselves to Trappist 1. Breathing may not be an issue either. If it is, your magic should be able to compensate you for the absence."

Epsilon—that is, Narma, looked over to Aurora with disbelief before turning back to stare her down. "'May not be an issue?' What's that supposed to mean?"

Even Ga—Carmen's expression had become stern. "Celene. If you're keeping something from us, you need to tell us."

Now she was the one being scolded. Stealing herself, she said, "It's possible you would have these abilities for the same reason you 'remember' your attacks. It's why you 'remember' Trappist-1." Her heart was pounding. "Because you once would have lived there."

Silence.

Aurora narrowed her eyes. "I don't understand. Are you implying we're aliens or somethin'?"

Oh. She struggled with herself. "No." Perhaps it would be better just to blurt it out. "Your previous reincarnations lived in that star system."

Narma laughed, loud and sudden.

Rory balked. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"No." She lowered her voice. "You were the princesses of those planets. The sworn Guardians of the Trappist-1 star-system."

She watched Carmen raise her hands to her head. "I have so many questions."

Aurora peered down to her. The girl's lips were pursed. "Why…didn't you tell us?"

Celene curled her tail around herself. "There are many things that happened back then that I don't believe you are ready to hear. And truthfully…" She lowered her head. "There are things, as well, I did not want to remember. I thought these were memories which would only complicate your lives further, here, where you have other paths and other families."

Aurora's gaze avoided her. "That's…a lot to accept, Celene." She straightened. "But you should have told us."

"I know," she admitted.

Carmen placed a finger to her chin. "Is there more that you remember?"

"Yes," she forced out. "But there's no time. If we don't hurry, the Agent Lupido may indeed seize Delta's soul. It's obvious that if this Great Beast consumes the sun, the star system of Trappist-1 will be no more. I fear if the system is destroyed, your powers and your memories will be lost forever." She peered up to the stars. Aurora said she could see it, but to Celene, nothing registered in the image but the cold, dense expanse of space. "Even more, I doubt their plans end with the Trappist-1 system, whatever their motives."

The soldiers looked to each other. Narma was the first to speak. "So. How does this work?"

The soldiers gathered together as Celene finished her explanation. There was much she would be held accountable for, but for now, the primary concern was Delta's safety. "Using all of your powers combined with mine, we should be able to generate enough energy to cast a teleportation spell. In order to do so successfully, we must be able to picture the place in mind. Even one of us should be able to guide us to the location, given the right factors."

Carmen said, "But what if there are multiple places in the universe that look similar?"

They were all stopped by the question. "…if we do not have a location to look upon, coordinates would be the most ideal guide."

Narma put a fist on her hip. "What coordinates? We don't want to end up in the sun, or something. I doubt even our powers would save us from burning to death."

Celene sat back in the grass. "Ideally, the coordinates for wherever the agent's main base is. If we don't have them, we can still try, but we may end up wasting time trying to locate them."

Narma blew out a breath. "How are we supposed to know that? Do you have some kind of sensing ability?"

Celene shook her head. They were likely going to be forced to guess. She just hoped that Delta could hold out that long.

"No." they all turned to Aurora as she spoke up. She held her chin pensively. "No, I might know a way to get those coordinates."

Lisa Nguyen was a girl who believed in a good night's sleep. She worked hard during the day, and sometimes the only thing stopping her from burning out was ASMR and a cool pillow. She shut down the simulation, closing her laptop, face washed and ready for bed. The rest of the house was already quiet. She was usually the last one awake, despite everything.

As she laid down, her gaze drifted over the walls. Several of her posters once featuring other anime had recently been replaced by promotional materials from Japan: a certain Sailor Moon. Admittedly, she'd become a bit obsessive.

Her regular research lately had gained a fantastical slant. Each new body she encountered in space sent her into daydreams: what sort of powers? What would this Sailor look like? She wasn't even sure how it worked, but she wanted to know. She had even entertained the idea of herself possessing those powers, though she knew that would never happen.

She was just drifting off when she noticed a shape at her curtain, a silhouette fluttering in the cream curtain as it fluttered with the air from the vent. In a swift motion, she sat up. As she kept staring, she could make out splotches of color, the glimmer of something reflecting the streetlight. Orange and marigold.

Perhaps the presence of someone at her window should have been alarming, but she recognized the shape in the curtain right away. Oh my gosh.

After a brief moment of examination, there was a soft knock at the pane. She whipped the comforter away, flying to the window, pulling the curtain back. She registered additional shadows just before the image behind was revealed.

Her heart pounded. There stood the girl from her school—the city's Sailor Moon. She was in full uniform, and Lisa was stunned to see two other figures behind her. There's more of them! She'd heard of multiple in the news, but this was her first proof. She clicked the latch, shoving her window open. "You!"

The light-masked figure—that queer, holographic overlay—stepped a foot up to her window seal, black tights rendering her limb almost invisible in the darkness. She spoke, the two behind her staying silent. "I read online that you have an internship with NASA. Is that true?"

Lisa swallowed, trying to keep her composure even though fascination prompted a thousand questions at the sight of her: why that particular uniform? How did their powers work? How many of them were there? "Yes," she forced out finally. "That's true."

The superhero(!) narrowed her gaze. "You're making models for the ARC project?"

"Yes," she nodded. "They're just stationary maps off the radar; it's really more to build my portfolio with the company than anything—"

She blew out a breath. "I need your help."

Lisa said, "What can I do?" No hesitation. There were infinite possibilities about what this might be about, and she didn't care which one it was! She realized they were just standing exposed on her lawn. Stepping back, she gestured them forward. "Come in, come in."

The Sailor Senshi (that was the title the Japanese media had given them, anyways,) stepped carefully through her window, crowding into her rather small bedroom. She appreciated its coziness, but the lack of space was not the best at that moment. The one she knew (her name was Rory West, but somehow, it just didn't feel right to think of her that way just then) gestured to the other two. "I know you know who I am—in uniform, I'm Sailor Beta. These are Sailors Gamma and Epsilon. Kinda' stand-in titles, for now." She re-focused. "If I needed to find the coordinates for a body in space, would you be able to find it for me?"

Lisa thought about it. "How big of a body?" That mattered. The larger the object, the easier it would be to find. "Also, the more parameters I have, the better the chance I have of locating it."

Beta (she wondered where the name came from) peered back to her two companions. "We don't know," she said solemnly. "We at least know it's in Trappist-1, between b and the star."

"We could probably tell you more if we could see it," the one referred to as Epsilon offered.

Lisa nodded, gesturing them over to her computer, where her feed of the radar was brought up after it's streaming load-up. "The radar simulation is real-time, but it doesn't offer a lot of detail. But I can try." Her hands shook with the adrenaline of her current situation. She'd never been this energized working with a computer program before. She cricked her neck, examining the read-out as it came up. Yikes. "I should warn you, that's almost two million miles of open space to cover. What am I looking for?"

Beta shifted uncomfortably. She couldn't blame her; these were not favorable parameters. "Would we be able to see what the star would look like from different distances, seen from B? That would help."

Lisa's fingers paused on the keys, before continuing. "Yes, I think there's a scaling tool. Hold on." The fastest way to hone in on any locations would be fractionally. She set the reading to one million miles from the star. "How about this?" The planet and star were shown beside one another, their size difference more obvious. She resisted the urge to pry-what were they looking for?

Beta examined the black-and white simulation. "Further out," she said. "Closer to b."

She made the adjustment.

Beta shook her head again. "No, still too far. Try closer."

She cut the feed a quarter million closer. When she did, an object registered at the acute detection level. She narrowed her eyes. "That's strange."

The one called Gamma leaned forward. "What is it?"

"There's something here. It looks like an asteroid, but anything this close to the sun should have gotten caught in its orbit and burned up. Or Trappist-b's orbit, I supposed, but it appears stationary. It's moving with the planet's revolution, but it's not orbiting it." She tagged the body, zooming in as the coordinates came up on screen. This behavior is bizarre…

"Can you show the view of Trappist-1 from that object?"

"Yes," she said slowly, making the adjustment.

"That's it." Beta jammed a finger to the screen. "That's what I saw. Lisa, we need the coordinates for that object."

"Got it." On a sticky note nearby, she jotted the location, though her mind was racing to fill in the gaps she didn't have answers to. What she saw? What did that mean?

She handed over the paper. Beta took it, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you. You may have just saved that entire star system."

"You're assuming we're going to win," Epsilon said dryly.

Lisa wanted to scream. What on earth is happening?

"I am assuming that," Beta shot back. "I have no choice but to assume that."

There was a decidedly heavy silence. They started heading for the window again, and Lisa closed the simulation, watching them. She wanted to ask every question, but she got the sense they didn't have much time.

With an out-of-body sensation, she watched them climb back out the window. At the last moment, Beta leaned back in the window, giving her a final smile. "Thanks again Lisa. I hope I see you at school tomorrow." She said the words as if she might never appear in those hallways again.

Lisa wanted to feel success, gratification, maybe awe. But all she could feel, fingers poised helplessly over her keyboard as she watched the curtain's empty flutter, cold and sudden, was fear.

Rory had done some research on Lisa after she'd found out her true identity, wanted an idea about who she was dealing with. Now, she was glad she did—without her help, they'd be just shooting themselves into space blindly.

Regardless, they were still shooting themselves into space.

They quickly decided on a spot—the closed off road nearby, where no one should have been at this time of night. Her mind was racing. They were about to teleport to Trappist-1, not even knowing if they would survive in that environment. But they apparently had at some point, so…?

They had to try. Mallory, who'd just come into her powers, was trapped there. If there was any chance of bringing her back to Earth, they needed to do it. Not to mention what could happen if the Star System was actually destroyed.

"Alright," Celene told them, their sprint stopping abruptly in the center of the road. "This is as good a place as any. You have the coordinates?"

Rory held them up, glancing to the others. "We all saw the map, right? That's where we're shooting for."

What if she never came back? What if she never saw her Mama or Tyrell again? She wished the circumstances weren't so rushed—she wanted to say goodbye better than the measly text she'd shot them leaving Lisa's.

"Form a circle, Soldiers," Celene instructed, climbing up to Rory's shoulder. "And link hands."

Gamma—agh, Carmen!—gave a shaky breath, taking her hand. "I've got to be honest, guys, I'm freaking out a little."

Narma cocked her head. "You ain't alone there, girl."

She thought about this being her last time her feet touched Seattle. She thought about the city—Sailor Moon had to face down threats all the time; what would happen if they were no longer there to defend it, now that this series of events had been set in motion.

She thought about the voice in her head. It was slowly dawning on her exactly what it was. If she was truly reincarnated from some princess in Trappist-1, wasn't it her duty to defend it? There were so many blanks left to fill.

This was what she needed to do. She took a breath.

From her shoulder, she felt Celene tense. "Do not let go of one another! Concentrate on where you want to go! Then, on three, say 'Sailor Teleport!' One, two, three!"

The spoke it together. "Sailor Teleport—!"

The street was empty.

Elsewhere…

The blackness faded gradually. She groaned—apparently, she'd been out long enough to get a hangover. Or maybe she'd hit her head on something, hard to tell.

Mallory shifted. Something felt different. She couldn't pin-point what it was, except that it wasn't something physical. It was more like the atmosphere had changed. It was hot, a dry heat, too much for her heavy black hoodie. She could tell she was on the floor; inside, outside, hard to distinguish as her vision swum in and out. There was a particularly violent throb behind her eyes, and she spit out, "Fuck, my head."

"Glad to see you survived the transport."

There was someone nearby. She needed to assess her situation, Memories popping back in of her abduction, she changed strategies, opening one eye and squeezing the other closed in an effort to see. It did make things a little clearer.

A pant leg. A rather boring first reveal. She forced her gaze up and saw a guy with a dark ponytail, facing away from her. "I'll admit, I wasn't one-hundred percent certain you were one of them. It would have been difficult to get a good look inside that tower. But the fact that you're still alive proves that I was correct. I have to appreciate a plan which falls so willfully into place."

Damn. His shirt. That's right—he had to be one of those Agent guys. Cover absolutely blown. Swallowing the dry air in her throat, she spoke. "Yep. You got the baby. Great accomplish-ishment." Fuck, the drink was still in her system. Must not have been that long. "I have to wonder, though, why you haven't ripped my soul out of my chest yet. That's your thing, right?"

As she generated more banter to keep him busy, she examined the place around them—she could see gray columns holding up a gray stone building, and around that, the night sky. Not a lot to go off of. Though she couldn't think of anywhere in Seattle to get this good a view of the stars. Too much light pollution.

"Mm." He chuckled, low in his throat. Disturbingly sensual sounding. Yikes. "Don't worry—that pure soul will be harvested in time. It just gives your friends more incentive to come for you if you're still living."

She said, "That's fucked up." Rolling to look around, her existing trains of thought derailed as she saw the night sky continue down, and down, until it met slate-like, rocky terrain. Oh, and there was a giant sun, burning bright red nearby. That should be decimating her corneas, but it didn't. Okay, she took a breath, mind deciding between amazement and horror. I'm not on Earth anymore.

Okay, she had several questions. Why could she breathe? Why wasn't she burning up this close to the sun?

Above, she heard an electronic beep as a what looked like some kind of projected screen appeared in front of him. He kneeled. "Lady Pandorana."

From her position, she couldn't actually see the person he was talking to. Now would be the perfect time to be disruptive and cause some trouble for him, there was more to be gained out of listening. The more information she could gather, the better chance she had of getting out of here.

"Lupido!" A high-pitched voice called out from the communication. "After your silence the past week, I was starting to think you had abandoned our cause!" The voice was just a little too cheery.

He remained low. "On the contrary, my Lady. I have brought for our great beast an offering—the star soul of a Sailor Soldier."

"Really?" The voice cooed.

"Not only that," he said, "but the other three will soon be on their way to retrieve their comrade. They stand no chance against our power, and soon, the Great Beast will be primed and ready to complete its task."

That's right; the others thought that it was going to eat the sun. Turning back over, she looked towards the star, and gained an additional level of alarm when she realized there was something moving inside it. Holy cow. How could there possibly be a living creature so big? How did they ever think they were going to beat that?

There was enthusiastic clapping. "Excellent work, Lupido! I'll admit you had my doubts when you vanished on us, but this seems cause for a reevaluation. How soon can you be to the Temple?"

Mallory could practically hear the smug grin on this guy's smug face. "A matter of hours, my Lady."

She heard the voice say, "My pet will eagerly await you, then," before a parallel bloop turned the transmission off.

Mallory re-adjusted her position. She could tell, now, her hands were the only things tied, but the binding made her feel exceedingly unbalanced.

"Hate to break it to you, buddy," she grunted, pulling herself up. Her core muscles really needed some work, ouch, "but if you're expecting the others to come here to get me, you're out of luck. They have no way to get here."

He didn't look down at her—apparently, she wasn't worth his time or something, which was a little insulting, honestly. "Oh, I believe you are mistaken about that."

Turning towards her, she yelped as whatever was binding her hands (and she shuddered as she realized it had to be the shadowy material clinging to his arms) pulled backward, her arms sticking to the column behind her. Oh, come on.

He wiped his hands as if he were brushing off dust. "You may as well get comfortable," he grinned. "These are the final moments of your life, after all."

What a dramatist. "I'll try not to get too wild." She limply lifted her arms, which didn't go much of anywhere.

He turned to leave. Wait, was he actually just going to leave her there? This guy was cocky.

But it was hot, and she would rather not be stuck here metaphorically and almost literally a hundred feet from the sun. Before he left though, he turned back. "I'm off to make sure your friends head in the right direction. I will be back."

I'm SO afraid. She rolled her eyes.

The sound of his boots pattered away, Mallory focusing on the distance in the echo. When it was at its faintest, she sprang into action. Or, as well as one could tied to a Grecian column. Alright, there's got to be some way out of this.

She was trained (self-trained, of course,) in escaping a number of survival situations. This was a bit different than the other scenarios she'd practiced, seeing as she was in space. She was still wearing her hoodie, and the scepter was in her pocket. Maybe if she could get to it, there was a better chance she could get out of this mess.

She didn't know if magic had any relationship to science. But their uniform seemed to materialize from nowhere. If there was some sort of disassembly and reassembly happening at the atomic level, transforming might give her enough permeability to pass through the already immaterial bonds.

Using her feet, she scooched back to the column. That didn't exactly work (her arms were in the way,) but getting her arms closer to her was sort of the point anyway. Sweat dripped down her temple. Damn, it was hot.

With the increased slack in the shadowy bonds (she was glad it had worked—she'd been concerned that ropes made of shadowy magic would just adjust automatically, but apparently not) she twisted her arms to the side, trying to reach down with the tips of her fingers. Clenching her jaw, she arched her back, eliminating more of the space between her pocket and her hands. Should have taken that yoga class, Mallory. Finally, the stretch in her fingers beginning to cramp, she reached inside—

It was empty.

Her pulse jumped. Did he find it when she was out? She'd been so sure he'd overlooked it. Maybe she was about to be stuck in this temple for the next few hours, at least until her soul was eaten—

Her eyes caught on a navy shape on the other side of the central column. Ugh, it had just fallen out. She let herself breathe, scooting away again from the pillar. After only a foot away, the binding went taut again. She cursed under her breath. She eyed her outstretched legs—would that even work? She didn't know how close to the device you had to get to activate it. Pushing her body out, she carefully slid across the stone, the tip of her sneaker getting farther and father. Come on…one wrong move and I might kick this thing.

Mallory flopped to the side, grimacing as her already sore shoulder smacked down onto the stone. She lifted her leg, worried the vibration would cause her foot to smack the wand.

But refocusing on the position of her foot, she could at least see that it was still in place. Whew. Just a little bit further. Her spine popping, she stretched out the tip of her toes, the edge of the sneaker finally touching the wand. Got it!

Nothing left to do but test her theory, she called out, "Crystal power Delta, Make-up!"

The way it had before, light enveloped her body, exchanging her ratty hoodie for her frilled uniform.

She sat up as the light faded. Looking behind her, she saw the shadow binds writhing, no longing having a hold on anything. She stood, quickly getting some distance from it. Fuck yeah, science!

She retrieved her scepter. It was odd—she could immediately feel a difference in the way the heat affected her, and the ache in her head was gone. Instant hangover cure. Good to know.

She peered out into the landscape. It was stony and covered in dust, craters dotting the surface. No sign of that guy. She'd better head out—she needed to either find the others, if what the Agent was saying was true, or find a way out of there.

They touched down, wind flying away from under their feet. It had been an odd feeling, more like the world had moved than they had.

And they had moved.

Narma opened her eyes. She hadn't realized she'd closed them, though it had been bright. She had expected to be more disoriented than she was. Even so, they stood in their circle for several seconds simply staring at one another, trying to come to terms with what had just happened. Slowly, their hands came apart and Narma found equilibrium enough to look around.

The air disappeared from her lungs at the sight around them. Cratered stone on all sides, fields of dust…

And the sun.

Not their sun, apparently. The sun of Trappist-1. Rather than feeling relieved that they had made the trip, Narma's stomach turned. They were in a totally alien star system. They were lightyears away from their homes, and, let's face it—they had no idea what they were doing. The gravity of their situation was staggering.

Though, from what Celene had said, they actually had been there before.

Narma had always been curious about her previous reincarnations. Knowing that her last had been a princess from another planet was more than a little outside her imaginings.

Rory, as Beta, was the first to speak. "I think it's safe to say we're here."

Celene hopped down from her shoulder. Really, the cat was the most reckless of all of them, only her claws to hold on when they'd traveled. Daredevil cat.

"Oh my god," Carmen blurted out. Girl wasn't even checking the view, just peering down at the space around them. Me too, girl.

Narma's eyes, still struggling to take everything in, fell on a shape in the distance. "Hey guys." She pointed it's position out on the horizon, the others following her finger. "That looks pretty spot on to me."

Rory's eyes lit up when they found the temple she'd seen. It really was Grecian looking, a sloping roof held up by thick stone pillars. "Yes! That could be what I saw in the portal."

Celene shook the dust out of her fur. What about this landscape even caused the dust? Weird. "Then we better get going, Soldiers! Delta may not have much time!"

She wished they could have come in a little closer. Walking wasn't one of the things she'd counting on while coming to the rescue.

They headed towards the structure. The more she thought about it, the more Narma starting to think that they should have thought this through more thoroughly. Not that she wanted to just leave Mallory to rot, but they had kind of put themselves in a bad position. This was presumably where all those agent guys had come from, right? They had no idea what they were walking into here! Not to mention that if they did end up in trouble, they had no safe place to go. She wasn't stupid—there was only one reason she could think of that Lupido would have taken the Mallory alive, instead of just ripping her soul out and dipping out: the girl was bait.

Seemed she wasn't the only one feeling unnerved. Beside her, Carmen's gaze kept flicking from one side of the wasteland to the other. "I really don't like how exposed we are out here."

She shot the girl a raised brow. "What, you don't like having a target on your back?"

From the ground, Celene twitched her whiskers. The poor little cat had to squint against the dusty atmosphere near their feet. "I know this isn't ideal, soldiers, but we're going to have to do our best given the circumstances. But we should precede with caution."

Suddenly, Rory threw her arms out, stopping all of them short. "It might be too late for that, guys. Look!" She pointed above them, and Narma tensed at the sight of three figures hovering above. Now that's just unfair. She braced herself, ready for a fight. "Hey! You guys! What you want?"

The stocky figure with bristly hair laughed. "What do we want? Why, girlie, you're on our territory."

The man with curly, dark hair and eyes like stoplights narrowed his eyes of them. "We don't take kindly to your ilk dragging your corruption into our home."

The last of the trio, a slender girl with big eyes and red hair, looked almost excited. "It works out better for us, though. We can have all of your star souls for ourselves!" The other two shot her a look. She raised her hands. "For the Great Beast, of course! In order to create a new pure galaxy! Stars." She said the word like a swear, but Narma was more focused on what she just said.

'To create a new galaxy?' Is that what they're after? Everything suddenly made a little more sense. In order to build something new, you have to clear the lot first, I guess. "So that's your thing, then?" She voiced her thoughts as the other two turned to look at her. "Wipe out this 'impure' galaxy, and replace it with your own?"

The girl grinned. "That's right!" Her grin widened, and Narma balled her fists as she saw a familiar dark smoke bubble into being around her hands, and along her spine. This is bad. The girl said, "And you get to be a part of it!"

The others following the example, the three of them crashed to the ground before Narma, more of the viscous smoke collecting over their bodies.

"Be careful, soldiers!" Celene screeched from behind them, voice strained.

No reason to give them a head start. She thrust her arms out. "Typhoon Strikedown!" They'd been arrogant to get so close—the torrent crashed down on all three of their heads, the Agents flinching away from it. But that didn't last long. Narma barely had a chance to move as the girl, shadows now resolved into paws and a tail, came running at full speed. Narma dropped, rolling out of the way as she heard Rory fire a Dire Gust, and Carmen fumbling through a Harmonious Bellicoso. She stood again as fast as she could, eyes searching for the fox-like girl as chaos erupted around her.

There. Even without her legs having any sort of shadowy enhancement, she ran at her inhumanly fast. As she got close, Narma prepared to dodge, but then the girl opened her mouth and screamed.

The noise wracked through her, sending a shock down through her toes. She was stunned, and when the fox-girl reached her, she was too rattled to prevent her from knocking her to the ground.

The cacophony around her was reduced to a ringing noise. Hand-to-hand, she battled the agent whose hand was going for the glowing spot in her chest. She was determined, moving faster and more precisely than Narma could in her disorientation.

The girl's hand grasped at the center of her chest, where a growing light was intensifying. Narma gasped, trying to get air in under the assault, but she couldn't think straight—

"Harmonious Bellicoso!"

The musical notes rang out as they closed around the agent, the girl writhing long enough from Narma to wriggle back and out of her grasp. Nearby, she heard heavy footsteps and the sound of an impact, only to catch Rory flying past her, landing to curl defensively on the ground. The big guy chuckled (now donning some angular fists and two huge tusks) stomping towards here. "Heh."

"Thanks," Narma panted as the fox girl shook it off, standing back up.

Carmen was grasping her side, where Narma could already see blood leaking from a wound. Wincing still, she said, "Don't mention it."

Nearby, Rory managed to get back up, but her Dire Stellar gusts didn't seem to be doing anything against the big guy's massive bulk.

"Switch," Narma shouted, gesturing Rory towards the weakened fox girl. Maybe a water attack would do that one guy better.

But then something seared past her arm, burning the skin and getting gradually worse. She yelled, turning to see the red-eyed guy having gained a snout, shooting balls of black shadow with the consistently of fire in all directions. Fuck!

Rory had already taken the cue, though, Carmen dodging fireballs in the background as she fired off a gust that made the fox-girl even madder.

Turning her hand, she felt enough energy returned to her from earlier to fire again. Carmen turned to look at her, and they both saw their opportunity. They took the positions. They shouted, "Punishing Cascade!"

The fountains caught the boar and the dragon guy in their rounds of fire, the boar seemingly brushing it off but the dragon's fire momentarily quenched. "Yeah!" Rory cried, the gust she'd summoned and had been using like blades finally dissipating. She hadn't seen the attack before, but in the way she grinned she idea about them winning just got a bit more optimistic.

But then the big guy straightened. In his rumble of a voice, he said, "You get these two. I've got the weakling."

Narma's heart jumped in alarm as the massive agent charged right for Carmen. The girl yelped as he slammed into her—

—and they disappeared.

"Carmen!" Rory yelped as Narma blinked at the spot they'd just been in.

She grit her teeth. "No time," she yelled, backing out of the way as the dragon guy's nostrils leaked smoke. "We've got to take these guys out."

She just hoped that Carmen was going to be able to handle that guy by herself.

Wherever they were.