The sky is dark, and all Mimi can feel is pain. As her eyes adjust to the dim room, she realizes two things. The jet mirror in front of her is cracked in two, barely hanging from the greenhouse wall. Secondly, Mimi had been thrown through the greenhouse wall. Entangled in some sort of rhododendron, lying outside the building in the garden. She did not recognize this place.
A splintery voice appears, "I thought you were never coming back."
Mimi takes a large stone and hurls it near the sound of the voice. The stone is diverted, and the sound of a car alarm goes off.
A coughing laugh emerges, and a very familiar form elegantly maneuvers down the side of the building on a line of silk.
"I had thought you would be happy to see a familiar face."
The air let out of Mimi in a whoosh. She stares at the jorogumo in disbelief. "Daiyu?"
"Who else, love?"
"Daiyu!"
Mimi runs into the spider woman's arms without a second thought, "I did not think I would see a friendly face. When I returned."
"Take it, easy child. I was old back then, and I am even older now."
Taking a better look at the jorogumo, Mimi realizes the jorogumo appears more delicate, and her limbs move more slowly.
"Where is Qiaolian?" Mimi can't help asking, not able to quite imagine the two of them apart.
"Senile and demented," Daiyu says quietly. Mimi stares at her uncomprehending before another voice sounds in the night.
"Would you stop telling people I'm a loon?" Qiaolian's voice barks sharply from inside the house, "you have had your fun! Now let me see her!"
Rolling her eyes, Daiyu ambles toward the front of the house, gratefully taking Mimi's offered arm.
Barely getting into the house, she is immediately set upon by her sister, who has a large scar across her face, leaving her half-blind.
"Qiaolian! What happened?"
Apart from the scar, Qiaolian does not look any different. Her youth perfectly preserved in the way she had always looked.
"Old battle, never you mind. We have our own war here. Hundreds of years in the making."
Tossing a set of car keys up in the air and catching Mimi could swear she heard Daiyu mutter, "Microwave."
Qiaolian pauses for a moment just staring at Mimi, her working eye slightly glazed over, "You look so much the same as you did when the clan leader breathed his last."
Monstrous grief gnaws at her heart, "The funeral wreaths were still fresh when I broke the binding, as you recall."
"I apologize," Qiaolian says quietly, her tails quivering behind her, "To us….you have been gone for far longer. So many years."
Qiaolian brushes her hand against Mimi's cheek and pulls her into a hug, "How we have missed you. Now, let us get you dressed."
Mimi stares at her once pristinely white mourning robes. The intricate garments were not aging well, rotting off her body. Mimi quickly reaches for the band on her forehead and comes away with ashes.
A sob writhes out of her throat. Her last tie to Lan Xichen. Gone.
"Do you still remember how a shower works?" Qiaolian asks, pulling her up the stairs.
Mimi gawks at her, her mind feeling like it is slowly unraveling.
A sympathetic smile rose on Qiaolian's twisted face, "It will take time. Allow me to assist you."
Feeling like a cold puppet, Mimi allows Qiaolian to drag her into a bathroom suite. Mouth hanging open as she gazes at the size of the bathtub.
Qiaolian lowers her into the bathtub and carefully rinses her off. Mimi doesn't realize she is crying until Qiaolian is holding her against her chest, rocking her back and forth as if she was a child.
"Hold on, love," Qiaolian was saying, "your mind is just trying to process everything. Just breathe."
When Mimi could not cry anymore, Qiaolian nudges her hand, "What is that in your hand?"
Mimi looks down and realizes her hand is still clamped tightly around the peacock brooch. Her body refusing to let it go. She laughs a little hysterically.
She opens her hand, and Qiaolian's one eye boggles as she remembers.
"It's what we have been looking for!" Mimi half laughs half cries.
"Holy motherfucker," the elderly fox spirit breathes, and it shocks Mimi out of her daze long enough for her to react when Qiaolian begins throwing jeans and a t-shirt at her.
"Hurry! We need to get going! These should fit!"
Mimi slides into the jeans. Amused that there is already a hole for her tails, and throws the t-shirt over her head. She is dimly aware of Qiaolian putting shoes on her before she is half carried down the stairs.
"Come," the old fox spirit says," Daiyu must have the car waiting by now."
"Daiyu drives?!" Mimi can't wrap her head around the idea of the jorogumo behind the wheel.
"Of course. I am nearly blind. I can't drive anymore," the fox spirit says as if Mimi should not be surprised.
A sprightly image of Mr. Toad behind the wheel of a motorcar leapt unbidden into Mimi's mind as the two hurried to the . . . blue Volkswagen beetle on the curb. Daiyu is impatiently sitting behind the wheel.
"Is that?" Mimi is about to question the presence of the vehicle before she is gently pushed into the backseat.
"It was a 2359th wedding anniversary present," Qiaolian beams at her wife besotted from the passenger seat, "A bug for my little bug."
"Oww," Qiaolian yelps as her wife pinches her in the side.
"Senile mongrel."
But Mimi sees how Daiyu puts a free spidery appendage over her wife's hand.
Daiyu is a cautious driver, much to Mimi's relief, before panic sets in, "Why aren't you disguised?!"
Snorting, Daiyu glances at her in the rearview mirror and says one word that Mimi never dreamed she would say, "Cosplay."
"You would not believe these humans!" Qiaolian practically bounces in her seat, "they dress like us!"
"I get compliments on how 'real' my legs look," Daiyu scoffs, merging into another lane.
"They want to take pictures with us!" Qiaolian laughs delightedly.
"I have been away from Kansas too long," Mimi mutters, watching the other cars race past in a mixture of horror and recognition.
"You can imagine Qiaolian's delight when we saw that movie in the theater and finally understood your references," Daiyu comments, adjusting the radio until Ava's "Sweet But She's Psycho" turns on and begins singing along.
"ET phone home!" Qiaolian quotes deviously holding an iPhone to her ear, and Mimi feels like she has tripped, fallen, and hit her head somewhere in the Twilight Zone.
"Yes, cub, we found her!" Qiaolian babbles into the phone, "we are on our way!"
There was a pause on the line, and Mimi catches Qiaolian looking at her, the fox's eyes shrewdly concerned.
"She is fine. Confused and a little . . . stuck in time," Qiaolian pauses, "Of course it's a good idea to come."
Unable to follow the conversation with memories of the past and memories of the present colliding. Mimi catches her reflection in the window for the first time. Her hair is white as alabaster and hung down past her hips. The eyes looking back at her were bloodshot and sore looking.
"You hanging in there?"
Daiyu is watching her in the rearview mirror, looking apprehensive.
"Where are we going?" Mimi asks instead.
"We are going to see your wife," Qiaolian says comfortingly, "Get this taken care of."
They enter a house. Daiyu gently pushes open a bedroom door, and Mimi stares at the figure on the bed.
It was Xichen, but not. Mimi cautiously moves closer until she is directly in front of the woman. The beeping machines grate on her nerves, and she wants nothing more than to destroy them.
Carefully brushing the hair back from the woman's face, Mimi lets out a dry sob.
"I did not forget you," Mimi says, tenderly grazing the woman's forehead with her own.
Mimi undoes the cap on the brooch with shaky hands and pours every drop it contained on her wife's wounds.
"I've lost you too many times already to forget," Mimi clips the brooch on to her shirt, which she now realizes is from a Nickleback concert.
Sensing another person entering the room, Mimi slowly turns about and sees a very tall woman with red hair. She is watching the developments anxiously, wrapping her arm around a shorter Qiaolian. Mimi approaches the woman slowly, scenting the air before throwing her arms around the doctor.
"You didn't forget me?" Dumplin's eyes are teary as Mimi has to reach up to wipe the tears away.
"Oh cub," Mimi has to stand on her tiptoes to nuzzle her nose against Dumplins, "I barely know who I am anymore. I do not remember how to operate a shower or drive a car, but I would never, ever, ever forget my children."
Dumplin sobs and yanks Mimi into a hug, and they stay like that for several minutes before Mimi realizes something.
"Why are you so tall, Dumplin?" Mimi cries into the doctor's lab coat.
"Well," Dumplin holds her tightly, "I am wearing heels."
"She's taller than me," Qiaolian says, leaning against Daiyu.
"I am your older sister after all," Dumplin says smugly, "and I have a doctorate. Which reminds me."
Carefully extricating herself from Mimi, Dumplin strolls across the room and checks Sara over. Mimi nearly two steps behind.
"Remarkable. Sara's wounds are healing exceedingly fast. I believe the worst is over. Now to wait and see if she will wake,"
Rubbing her head at the oncoming headache, Mimi appraises the group for a moment, "Wasn't she originally in a hospital provided by my family?"
Qiaolian and Daiyu look at each other and said, "Plan B," before high fiving.
Mimi paces about the room restlessly fingering the peacock brooch. Every time she thinks to smash the brooch upon the floor, she cannot quite bring herself to do it. It is such a simple-looking device. But the horrors it caused were innumerable. She clips the brooch to her shirt and stares down at the figure in her bed. It almost didn't seem real.
"The nightmares were worse," Mimi says, her voice cold, staring down at the figure.
"I will slowly wean her off the magic currently sustaining her in the coma. It is up to her now. I would try talking to her. Let her hear your voice," Dumplin says quietly, her fingers glowing with healing foxfire.
"I may need to leave for a while," Mimi says, eyes hard.
While her wife heals, Mimi and Qiaolian go off to find Chen.
"Just like old times!" Qiaolian holds up her hand for a high five, and Mimi, still feeling like she is in the Twilight Zone, smacks it.
"So, how are you feeling?" Qiaolian asks as Mimi breaks open the lock with her claws.
"Should we really be discussing this as we cat burgle?" Mimi says indignantly, looking at the empty house, barely disguising her worry.
"If not now, then when?" Qiaolian opens wide the door, and they sneak in.
The scent is godawful, and both fox spirits stagger away, covering their mouths. It is like sage and decay.
"Maybe Chen left something on the stove again," Qiaolian complains as Mimi is shaking her head.
Taking the lead, Mimi runs into the flat with Qiaolian flanking her.
"Chen!" Mimi screeches, pulling back the beaded curtains. There is no one there.
"I think we should be more careful," Qiaolian says, her hair stood on end as she looks around.
Yanking doors open right and left, Mimi frantically follows the scent of decay.
"Her bedroom is down here!" Qiaolian calls from down the hall.
Pounding down the hallway, Mimi enters the room behind Qiaolian. Glowing with white foxfire, Qiaolian yanks open the door of a closet. The foxfire immediately goes out as Mimi sees the reclining figure dressed in red.
"Chen?" Mimi whimpers, reaching her hands out for the figure.
Her memories slowly returning to her, Mimi realizes this is Lillian. Chen had given her the name Lillian in this time.
She smacks Qiaolian's hands away as she pulls Chen out of the closet, "She's only sleeping."
Tears were drizzling down her face as she gently closes Chen's glassy eyes. Flies were buzzing around the open wound at her side.
Mimi holds the corpse in her arms, tucking her against her chest, "She's only sleeping."
A cry of anguish is pulled from Qiaolian as she watches the duo on the floor.
"You said you would protect me," a dull voice arose from the lifeless Chen.
Mimi drops the corpse and stumbles away, tugging on Qiaolian.
"I command you to show yourself," Qiaolian growls, brandishing a golden bow.
"What will you do, sister? Slay me?!" the chilling laugh echoes around the room as Chen awkwardly sat up, head lulling to the side.
"How fucking dare you occupy my daughter's body!" Mimi growls, baring her teeth.
This sets the puppeteer off, "Daughter! Why did you leave me behind?"
The corpse freezes as if in rigor mortis, "Stop it!"
Qiaolian and Mimi share a glance before Mimi hits the creature with a broken table leg, pinning the creature to the wardrobe through the chest. Using her bow Qiaolian fires several burning arrows into the creature's flesh, impaling the arms and legs securely to the closet.
Rounding on the creature, Mimi and Qiaolian flank each other.
"Who are you?" Qiaolian demands, already primed to slice through the corpse to find out for herself.
"Of course! Who am I? Just the one who was left behind!"
"Left behind?" Mimi growls, wielding another table leg.
The puppeteer seized as if fighting something from the inside.
"Chen is fighting it off," Qiaolian watches, in slight awe.
"Chen is gone," Mimi growls, placing her claws on the creature's forehead, pushing through past the tissue and pulling downwards, her heart exploding in her chest.
The man behind her daughter's face blinks back at her, and Mimi staggers back, "Shun?!"
"Shun?!" Qiaolian growls questioningly.
"Yes, sisters. Shun, the forgotten one, the dismissed one," Shun growls, pulling against the thick table leg impaled in his chest.
Qiaolian growls, leveling her bow at Shun, "We assumed you were dead. Why show yourself now? Why the violence?"
Shun grins delightedly, chewing at the cheek of the corpse, "Because I wanted what I was promised!"
"What are you talking about?" Qiaolian cries, firing another arrow into his torso.
Blood spurts from Shun's mouth. He points a finger at Mimi, "This bitch! Abandoned me in that house! Took Chen and Dandan as her own daughters! But what about me?!"
"Shen, we didn't know you were alive! We checked the whole house! Why didn't you come to find either of us?" Qiaolian yells.
"You destroyed our father! The tasks broke his mind! Don't you know that power was coming from somewhere! He took my power! He left me! Everyone has left me!"
"Just because you are one of us and immortal doesn't mean you can't die like a dog," Mimi slashes her claws across his throat, severing the head from the body.
Sinking to the floor, Mimi felt herself go numb. Her daughter is still gone.
"We could have questioned him some more," Qiaolian complains but stops when she notes Mimi is in a fetal position, trying to put Chen back together.
"Fuck. Minori, what are you doing?"
"She was right," Mimi whispers, staring at Chen's remains.
"Who was right?" Qiaolian asks quietly,
"Chen was right," Mimi croaks, "If you stay too long in the past, the present will destroy you. If you linger too long, it will drive you mad."