Suddenly, everyone was inside a dark room filled with vials and measuring cups everywhere. Once Dolly figured out where they were, she wore a slightly distressed look on her face. Everyone else seemed unsure of their new surroundings and eyed the room suspiciously.
There was a small TV in the room, where Jack and Domino were able to watch them through a room somewhere inside Asperity.
"Well, we did our part in transporting them to the lab, the rest is up to them." Domino stated as the two of them continued to observe the group.
"You're in our territory now, this is where it all ends!" Bounce claimed with a smirk.
"You're right." Teddy responded in an uncharacteristically calm voice as she took a step forward, holding out the cube that rattled in her hands before she tossed it up into the air.
The cube exploded and unleashed a blinding bright white and gold light that bathed the entire room. The light erased all of the shards and chemicals that were used to create them. When the light disappeared, Bounce and Rubix looked at the room in pure shock of their findings.
Domino and Jack high-fived in their room upon seeing the lab emptied out.
"...This really is where it all ends." Dolly said to them, as she and the rest of the team took a fighting stance.
Bounce eyed the girls suspiciously before she realized there weren't any shards left in the left in the lab. She inspected the tables and all the vials that were scattered on top of it, only to learn the shards were all gone. Bounce was shocked to find their inventory of shards had been wiped clean in a matter of seconds, but Rubix didn't seem as worried. Bounce's eyes met Rubix's and she was irritated to see Rubix keeping her composure despite their situation.
"Our stock of shards is all gone and this is how you react?" Bounce questioned her frantically but Rubix shook her head.
"It's not gone, well...not all of it." Rubix said as she disappeared from the room. Everyone else in the room was on edge, wondering what Rubix had in store.
Just then, the appearance of the room altered and before the girls knew it, they were outside in the human world. Everything looked normal, but something felt off to the team. The girls each noticed a very pale white light getting emitted from each of them, as if they weren't on the same plane of existence.
"What happened?" Fantasy asked as she tried to touch a nearby lamp post, but her hand went through it.
Bounce turned around and saw Rubix floating up high in the air. Unlike the rest of them, she didn't have the faint white light glowing from her.
"What is she planning?" Bounce thought to herself as she kept her gaze on Rubix.
Rubix was about to leave the conference room with Bounce after Lilith told them the plan, but Lilith kept her back.
"I haven't finished explaining your role in this plan." Lilith explained as she reached for Rubix's arm.
Lilith gestured towards the seats and after a few long moments of staring at her superior, Rubix took a seat.
"If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I can't no longer trust everyone in Asperity. Not because I fear they will betray me, it's just that they've yet to do so. We need to have a backup plan, in the case that we lose any of the pieces we worked so hard to obtain." Lilith explained, with Rubix nodding slowly in response, "If that happens, I don't want to feel like I'm at a loss, I need your help to recover from that setback."
Lilith then snapped and floating in the palm of her hand was a dark violet Patchwork heart with light blue, pink and purple patches on it. Rubix looked uncomfortable, staring at the Patchwork heart in Lilith's hand.
"I know you'd sacrifice it all, without a single doubt." Lilith said to her as a warm smile appeared on her face.
Rubix didn't know how to respond to such a claim, and only rigidly nodded.
"I guess this army will be much smaller, but...that's not much to worry about." Rubix said to herself as she looked down at the city below her.
Rubix closed her eyes and then chanted," Culprit of nightmares Nixe, please grant me your strength to do your bidding. There's nothing more I want than your victory."
Rubix's magic felt much more ominous than before, it was enthralling in a sense to feel so much more powerful but at the same time to acquire so much power so quickly was a bit overwhelming for her. She clutched her chest for a moment and squeezed her eyes shut before she pushed away the hair that covered her right eye, revealing it to be a case of split heterochromia being half violet and blue, with her sclera black.
She then laughed to herself quietly for a few moments, a giant grin on her face as she looked up to the sky and shouted," Defectives, get ready for your second coming!"
Just then, the sky turned a dark violet, as if it became night and then suddenly, select people across town were falling unconscious.
Bubbly recognized one of the few who had fallen unconscious around them and pointed out," We saved that kid from turning into a Defective at the library a couple of months ago!"
Dolly looked around and noticed that there were more Defectives popping up around town in the distance, each of them made from a plush toy. Some of them weren't familiar to her but the majority of them were plush toys Defectives that they had fought in the past, and seeing them march through the town gave her an uneasy feeling.
"Just what did she do?" Dolly said under her breath as the Defectives continued to walk around aimlessly.
Rubix then called out to the Defectives in the loudest voice she could manage, saying," You have all been chosen to tear down a nation that's been in need of restoration for years now. You will be crucial to our restoration process, becoming the harbingers of the Laruan Kingdom's demolition.."
Rubix then held her hand out and waved it around, conjuring up a pink vortex.
"She's heading to the kingdom!" Teddy shouted as she pointed to the vortex," Come on, we gotta follow her!"
Dolly then grabbed a hold of her arm to stop her, as she chided," Did you forget? We're not actually here." She probably just made us her audience to rile up us."
The room was restored and the girls were inside the lab again, with all them focused on heading to the kingdom, Bounce included.
"Rubix gets to go to the Kingdom?" Bounce thought to herself before she looked up at the ceiling," It would've been nice to tag along and see what that place actually looked like."
Just then, the ground trembled and the girls looked around the room in alarm as pieces of the ceiling started falling around them, only to reveal darkness beyond them. The only one who wasn't phased was Bounce, who only stood in the corner after a chunk of the ceiling nearly dropped on to her head. Bounce drew out a sigh as she looked up at what was left of the ceiling.
"Without mom here, this place isn't holding up all that well…I expected it to last a bit longer if anything." Bounce said to herself quietly.
Sterling looked out the windows of the room where he and Imogen would hold meetings with the nobles in, seeing a hoard of Defectives led by Rubix flood into the kingdom. Sterling was alone in the room, Imogen was downstairs with the knights, who tried to devise a battle plan while she tried getting a hold of the Pretty Cure. Imogen wasn't having any luck and kep her gaze only on the device in front of her that allowed her to communicate between the worlds. Imogen took a deep breath and bit her lip, knowing she only had one thing left to do before she let the knights leave to protect the kingdom.
"We need to close off all the gates to the other dimensions." Imogen declared, her tone stern and determined, though the knights didn't appear to be on board with her.
"But the Pretty Cure aren't here yet! We can't fight without them." Head knight River reminded her.
"I know, but I don't want these Defectives travelling to other realms and wreaking havoc in places they have no business in! I don't know just what Lilith is planning, but I don't want her to cause any extra damage." Imogen explained in a near frantic voice," I'll give them five minutes. If they don't arrive, then I'm sealing up the kingdom."
"But, shouldn't we at least keep one gate to at least the human world open for them?" River pointed out," If we fail here, who knows what will happen to the civilians and yourself, I can't let you put so much trust in me that we're without room for error."
"River, this is my way of telling you to leave room for error. This is the biggest fight you'll ever have to face. We haven't been met with a fight like this since Cure Cheer's passing, this could either end in victory, or an early retirement. I know we seldom see battles like this in the kingdom."
Imogen then leaned closer, her voice lowered to a whisper as she said," And I know you, River. I know there's a part of you exhilarated to fight with everything you have. Please, I can't protect this kingdom by myself. I'm not letting Lilith have her way and extinguish my kingdom."
Imogen then stood in front of the knights and raised her voice, saying," You've all been hand-selected, the finest team of knights the Laruan Kingdom has ever seen and I need you to have faith in yourselves. Right now, it looks like the Pretty Cure are facing some difficulties on Earth, so all we can do is fight as a unit. We need to become a wall so tough that Lilith can't get through. There's only one of her. If she's gone, the fight is over. Please everyone, give it everything you got!"
Sterling continued to look out to the window and pressed his fingertips against the glass as a sharp chill filled the air. A pained look appeared onto his face and for a very brief second, it was accompanied with a smile.
"It's truly been awhile, hasn't it?" Sterling said, not even turning around to face the other person in the room. Lilith stood there, holding a black and violet rose in her hands, gripping it tightly once Sterling spun around.
"I have an offer to make." Lilith stated tonelessly as she held onto the rose," We need to talk in private."
"I'll only talk with you if you make your Defectives desist." Sterling responded plainly. Lilith took a deep breath, and did as told.
The Defectives on the battlefield stopped moving and stood like statues on the field, confusing everyone greatly.
Lilith's gaze no longer met Sterling's as she handed Sterling the rose, who took it cautiously. Lilith then conjured up a portal for herself and Sterling to enter through.
Rubix looked at her Defective army in question, shaking her head as she tried figuring out what could've happened. She tried everything to get her army to revive, but nothing worked. She sighed, finally accepting the idea of what must've happened.
"Lilith made them stop, likely because she was forced to." Rubix said to herself, her head hung," I'm below in strength, I can't hope to control them when they're under her command."
A voice then appeared in Rubix's head, but it wasn't the one that appeared in her subconscious, this voice was new.
"Oh Rubix, don't be so hard on yourself. You're much stronger than you think." The voice said to her," I think you just need a little helping hand is all."
Rubix's hand lifted up against her will and she waved it over in front of the Defectives. The Defectives were brought back to life in a mere matter of seconds, surprising Rubix greatly.
"I really did that...but how…?" Rubix said as she looked towards the group of Defectives, raring to go. She thought it best not to focus on the matter at hand and led the Defectives towards the castle.
"Do your worst." Rubix demanded, though her tone was a lot quieter than intended. It appeared she had to recover from the surprising, yet mysterious surge of power from moments before.
The Pretty Cure and Bounce escaped the room, but Bounce separated from the group and the girls were too busy trying to decide their best move to even notice Bounce's absence.
"We gotta head to the kingdom and help them out!" Bubbly insisted, with Dolly nodding in response.
"As of right now, it would appear the real fight is taking place in the kingdom. We don't really have any business here if that's where Lilith and all the action is." Dolly affirmed as she looked over to Rani and Nova," Can you make one of those door things around here to let us head to the kingdom?"
Rani nodded and just before the two of them got started, they heard a pair of screams pierce through the halls of Asperity. The Cures all recognized those voices, each of them with an anxious feeling settling into them as they exchanged glances.
"That sorta sounded like...Jack and Domino." Teddy pointed out, with the Cures nodding in agreement.
"We should try to find them and see if they're ok, I mean it's the least we could do." Fantasy pointed out.
"Then let's get going." Dolly declared as the Cures ran out of the room and into the long, wide hallway.
Despite the fact that it was fairly dark throughout Asperity, the Cures didn't have it that hard maneuvering through the organization. Soon enough, they reached a large room, with a screen in the center and claws reaching out around the room. There was a control panel in the center and the lights in the room kept flashing a different colour every few moments.
"What the hell is going on?" Dolly asked as she pressed her eyes shut for a moment, feeling as if she was about to get a headache. Shortly after, the sounds of alarms were blaring through the room, but between the sound of each alarm, the sound of someone shouting "Help!" could be heard.
Dolly then looked at the screen again and found what looked identical to the domino piece that would rest under the glass dome where Domino's head was supposed to be. Only, the domino piece spun around without end in a panic onscreen. The Cures looked at the screen apprehensively and figured that somehow, this room had to have been linked to Domino.
Dolly took a deep breath and finally said," We gotta save him."
Bubbly then replied nervously with, "But...what about the-?"
"We'll need to split up in a situation like this." Fantasy decided as her eyes met Dolly's," You and Teddy help them out. We'll go to the kingdom and face the army."
"You guy will be ok?" Dolly asked hesitantly, with Fantasy placing a hand on her shoulder, nodding in response.
"You can count on us." Fantasy reaffirmed before she turned her attention to Rani and Nova," We'll go somewhere quieter for you to make the door."
"Do your best!" Bubbly called out to the girls before the four took their leave, taking a hold of both Dolly and Teddy's hands for a moment, " We need to reunite again, alright?"
Dolly and Teddy looked at her in surprise, with the latter saying," Of course. See you soon, ok?"
"Come back soon." Dolly said to Fantasy before the team broke into two.
Fantasy, Bubbly and the fairies then ran out of the room, and Fantasy led them back to the hallway near the crumbling lab they exited.
"This will have to do." Fantasy stated as she pointed to the wall closest to them," We need to hurry."
"But...should we really be leaving them behind? What if that's exactly what Lilith wants?" Bubbly pointed out warily.
Fantasy looked at her for a few long moments, her lips pursed before she said," Right now, my home is in danger. I can't face my parents if I allow Lilith to do as she pleases. She probably doesn't even realize we're here. We don't have any other choice."
Bubbly then nodded slowly and Fantasy instructed the fairies to create the door to the Kingdom.
Dolly and Teddy were standing backs against each other in the room, still close to the door as the lights continued to flash in the room. The alarms were as loud as ever and gave Teddy no choice but to press her ears shut as Dolly tried devising a plan.
Dolly then said," Jack's probably going through the same thing, I need you to find him and help him on your own. Do you think you can manage that?"
Teddy then smirked and responded with," Without a doubt."
Teddy then tried to bolt out of the room but the second she attempted to do so, the door slammed shut on her. Teddy jumped back a few feet and only glared at the door, now locked, in front of her.
"Well, I guess this will have to be a two against one type of battle. Teddy remarked as she and Dolly stared at the main screen with the giant domino on it,"Jack might have to wait."
"If we're lucky, we might be able to shut this room down like a regular computer if that master keyboard has the control, alt and delete keys." Dolly stated, though Teddy wasn't really following, since whenever her own computer would freeze, she'd shut it down by force," I'm going to see if it has those keys!"
Dolly darted towards the master board, narrowing dodging all of the claws coming her way but she landed on a tile that seemed to sink under her weight. Suddenly, the tile disappeared and Dolly was exiting the room through a slide beneath the tile. Dolly screamed and Teddy tried following after her, but the entrance into the slide closed up as the tile reappeared.
"Damn it, how am I supposed to fight this one without that nerd?" Teddy said under her breath as she watched the claws in the room try to reach her," What did she say again? Press the...control, malt, and delete keys?"
The slide spat Dolly out to the lower level of Asperity, where she saw nobody else around in the empty halls. Dolly shook her head in frustration, already feeling worried of what would become of her teammate without her.
Dolly stood up, taking a deep breath as she tried to refocus on the issue at hand. She peered around the hall hoping to find a stairwell but didn't expect to find a way out of here so easily. She had a hard enough time seeing what was ahead of her in the dimly lit hallway, she didn't stand a chance to return to the room where Teddy was fighting Domino.
As Dolly walked quietly along the hall, she heard a faint growling sound that got gradually louder as she stepped closer. Dolly took one final step to see exactly what awaited her within the shadows.
A figure about eight feet tall could be seen and finally, they came out of the shadows, revealing themselves to be a giant tiger with piercing red eyes and black sclerae wearing black shorts. Dolly jumped back a few feet as the tiger growled in her face, her breathing getting quick as she locked eyes with the tiger.
The tiger looked irate and restless, but Dolly could've sworn there was a somewhat pained look in its eye as it approached Dolly. After taking a closer look at the tiger, Dolly came to a conclusion: This tiger was probably Jack.
"Exactly how am I supposed to fight a tiger?" Dolly questioned with a groan as the tiger held out its hand and slammed it onto the ground, causing the ground to tremble greatly. Dolly was knocked off her feet and watched as Jack hit his paw against the wall, leaving a small crater in it. Dolly narrowed her eyes at Jack as she stood up and dusted off her dress.
Bubbly, Fantasy and the fairies were standing in a field in the Laruan Kingdom, in complete shock of their surroundings that no longer resembled the kingdom they knew. What was once a pastel paradise filled with life and magic had been diminished into a bleak, grey terrain without any magic. It was a sore sight for the group, especially Rani and Nova as their whole mission had been to prevent all of this.
"How did this happen?" Bubbly questioned as she held Nova tighter in her hands as if to comfort her," What's been going on around here?"
Fantasy kept quiet for a few extra moments and took note of the dejected look on Rani's face, though it appeared she wasn't as surprised as the two Cures. This was probably why they had been avoiding returning to the kingdom. Fantasy held Rani and only looked at the horizon beyond her, almost feeling overwhelmed by such an abject scene.
"This was because the well disappeared from the kingdom for so long, right?" Fantasy asked, with Rani nodding in response," Alright, well, we know where the well is...once we stop the little bunch of Defectives, then we'll be closer to retrieving it. We can't get discouraged so easily, we're here anyways right? We have no other choice but to try."
Bubbly and the fairies nodded, just before they all heard the sounds of a herd of Defectives nearby. The girls spun around and found the army of Defectives in the distance and ran to the scene.
When the four of them arrived, they were all surprised to find what awaited them near the kingdom's castle. The kingdom's knights were doing their best to fight against the Defectives, but despite all their efforts, they still seemed to be outmatched and were meeting their defeat one by one. When a knight no longer had the will to fight, Rubix would harvest their Patchwork Heart and corrupt it so she could add to her army of Defectives.
Bubbly held her hands to her mouth as she watched a knight drop to the ground unconscious, while Fantasy only balled her fists, a look filled with rage in her eyes.
"Rubix, you heartless monster! When will you be satisfied? Why do the members of the kingdom need to fall victim to you?" Fantasy shouted to Rubix, who only rolled her eyes at her.
Fantasy then hung her head but continued to speak.
"You know, you always struck me as a very confused person. Someone without direction and was very unsure of their own purpose. And you know what? You still feel like that kind of person."
Rubix drew out a sigh and said," Haven't I made it obvious to you? Who I once was, whatever I used to be no longer concerns me. I am nothing but a loyal follower to Nixe and Lilith. My allegiance is to Asperity and only Asperity."
"Woman, does your brain even work?!" Bubbly then shouted out vehemently, startling both Fantasy and the fairies," You've been habitually doing the wrong thing and you can't even justify your actions! All you do is go off about how loyal and devoted you are to Asperity but nobody cares! You're nothing but a...a, a brainwashed jerk!"
Rubix felt her blood begin to boil, but she was oddly calm. She said nothing in response to Bubbly and only held her hand out in front of herself. A dark violet beam then shot out of her palm and headed straight towards the Cures, but then Head Knight River blocked it with his sword. The attack was deflected and River held his shield in front of himself.
"You girls have to be more careful! Something isn't quite right with that woman." River said to them, with Bubbly nodding in response.
"Believe me, we've known that for awhile." Bubbly replied before she set eyes on Rubix again. The look in Rubix's eyes was a lot different than usual now that Bubbly got a better look at her. The typical indifferent and irritated look in her eye was replaced with a more serene yet remorseless look to them. Not only that, her magic, or aura, or whatever it was felt off. She felt more powerful, as if she had a darker magic flowing from her. It would've been tough to recognize her on solely sensing her magic because it didn't even feel like hers.
"Knight River, let these girls fight alongside you!" Rani pleaded," They came all the way from Earth specifically to help you take this army of Defectives down!"
River nodded and responded with," It would be an honour to fight as your ally. But...these Defectives are much more aggressive than we expected. I think they're drawing their power out from the same source as that woman."
Fantasy nodded and then the two cures took on a fighting stance as a group of Defectives ran towards them.
The Defectives and the Cures began to fight against each other, with the knights at their aid and fending off the army from the castle. As the Cures fought against the Defectives from the army, the Cures realized River's theory was right, as these Defectives fought much differently from what they were used to. Bubbly wanted to try talking to them to see if their voices could reach the brainwashed plushmates, but Fantasy was against it, claiming that whatever was controlling was much more powerful than before.
"Right now, there's no getting through to these Defectives." Fantasy said as she dodged a punch from a Defective," Talking to them would be like talking to a brick wall, or Rubix."
So the Cures continued to fight, with no idea of how much longer it'd take for the army's numbers to drop.
Bounce ambled through the halls of Asperity, trying to figure out where everyone else went. This part of Asperity wasn't collapsing on itself like the lab, just a little bit of crumbling of the walls here and there. Ideally, she would've been fighting against the Pretty Cure right now but she had yet to cross paths with them again, making her wonder if she was ever going to find them after so long.
"Pretty Cures? Elephant thingy? Unicorn toy?" Bounce called out flatly, though she was doubtful she'd hear back from any of them," Good grief, now what I am supposed to do in the meanwhile?"
Just then, she heard the sound of a kind of knock, not the one you'd hear on wood, but rather the one from knocking against a glass door. Though the knock sounded far from gentle, it was impatient, forceful and very obnoxious. The knocking on the glass wouldn't stop and so Bounce took it upon herself to see who was knocking on what. Bounce walked up the hallway and found a huge encasement of Everlight that touched the ceiling of the room with a boy knocking against it. His hair was a bright pink with blue and purple streaks and he wouldn't stop, not even for a second to break the encasement.
"Ah, so that's where Rubix kept you." Bounce remarked as she took a seat in front of him, crossing her legs," Knock all you want, but you won't get far. The Everlight is feeding off of your magic."
He narrowed his eyes at her, shaking his head as he replied with," Need I remind I have more magic that you could fathom?"
Bounce scoffed and held back on a laugh, commenting," Yeah, more magic than you know what to do with. You may have the blood of a mage but you've been raised as an earthling. You don't know what you're doing when it comes to this magic stuff. It's quite tragic, since you have such good genes and yet...you're powerless. We lucked out big time with you having zero knowledge on how your powers work. Instead of honing them, you pretended they didn't exist, didn't you? "
He opened his mouth to answer, but he couldn't respond, knowing his answer wouldn't have been adequate. It wasn't by choice, he was forced to act like he was normal, like he didn't have an abundance of magic...all to be safe and kept a secret from the likes of Lilith.
"Really sucks to be you right now." Bounce stated as she stood up, offering him a pitied look though there was a smile on her face. Her hands drummed the surface of the Everlight encasement as she started to study Hayase. Hayase glared at her as he pressed his fists against the encasement.
"Gosh, you look so much like your sister." Bounce remarked with a cringe before she did a quick inspection of the wall of Everlight that kept her away from Hayase," This encasement will be making better use of your powers than you ever could. You'll be helping our restoration plan by reassigning the roles in the kingdom."
"You mean make sure Lilith gets power over everyone and enslaves the kingdom?" Hayase questioned flatly as he took a seat for a moment.
"Maybe~!" Bounce answered with a wink.
Teddy stood in the domino room, panting and heaving in as many breaths as she could before the claws came for her again. They were relentless and chased her around the room, but the claws couldn't reach her when she got close to the locked doors of the room, which became her only safe zone. It was hard enough to even think with the room still flashing bright colours every few seconds and the loud alarms pulsating through. Teddy wanted to clasp her ears shut, to yell at the room to shut up, though she knew it wouldn't do her any good.
A claw lunged for her while she was standing in her little safe zone, but the best she could do was simply kick it away while she tried to think of a plan .
From the other side of the screen, Domino was fixed onto a chair where his dome for a head was connected to a bunch of wires and the control panel on his sleeve was broken. It had short-circuited earlier, moments after the girls destroyed the lab and Domino surmised that if it wasn't Lilith who was responsible for what happened to him and Jack, it had to be Nixe. He had no control over what was happening in the room but his control panel looked identical to the room's master keyboard.
"Nixe is using my powers for their own bidding." Domino thought to himself as he tried to break free from the chair," We should've escaped as soon as the cures destroyed the lab."
Domino then looked at the screen again and watched Teddy struggle against the claws as she tried to run towards the masterboard. She had tried to press the control alt delete keys like Dolly suggested but it was to no avail and nothing happened upon keying in the sequence. Domino could swear he felt his heart sink when he saw the look of disappointment on her face, after coming so far. But, she wasn't quite ready to give up, that much he could tell, and she continued to run towards the masterboard. Domino was curious to see what she had planned and only hoped that she'd get there unscathed.
Teddy ducked from a claw trying to grab her, only to get grabbed by another one and get thrown across the room. She shrieked as she crashed into a wall before standing herself up again moments later. She sighed and slapped her face without a second thought, rushing back towards the masterboard while trying to dodge the claws again. She narrowly dodged yet another claw and leaned back, falling into the grasp of a claw right behind her. The claw lifted her up high and she kicked around in a desperate attempt to break free. Teddy groaned in frustration as she hung her head, clearly she wasn't going to get anywhere at this rate. She felt her heart sink for a moment, wishing that she was doing anything else in this final battle except this. Fighting against an army of Defectives had to be nothing compared to this. Teddy then slammed her elbow into the claw that held onto her and was dropped. Her small victory didn't satisfy her though and all she could focus on was heading to the masterboard.
Domino watched her intently as she fought her way to the masterboard, running on top of claws that were trying to grab her and throw her back. She was faster than before, the adrenaline coursed through her veins as she inched closer to the masterboard.
Once she reached the masterboard again, she stood still for a moment and studied the board carefully. And then, she gracelessly placed both her hands on the board and pressed all the buttons in one sweep, though it didn't do what she was hoping.
"Just what is she doing?" Domino thought to himself as he reluctantly continued to watch Teddy toy with the keyboard.
"Why...aren't...you...shutting...off?!" Teddy questioned impatiently as she continued to press down on all the keys on the board, only to hear a new type of sound accompanied by the alarm, one that sounded like an 'error' notification," Good grief, I'm never going to figure this out!"
The alarms of the room stopped blaring for a moment, and the lights shut off, leaving Teddy in the darkness, but the claws were still active.
"It appears that's the best you can do." A voice remarked in the room," Are you sure you're fit to go on like this?"
Dolly reached a point on her battle where she began questioning literally everything she could. She felt a bit unlucky, since she likely would've had an easier time fighting in the domino room. Dolly sighed and shook her head and continued on in her fight against Jack. She barely managed to dodge another of those tremors he kept making and kept her distance from him. It was evident that Jack would've been strongest in close combat so the farther she kept from him, the better. Dolly then looked at the floor and took note of the distance between her and Jack. On random spots on the floor, tiny violet tornados could be seen.
Jack ran towards her and stepped on a tornado without realizing it, getting blown back a couple of feet and crashing into the wall a few feet behind him.
"I used a similar tactic during one of our first battles, it's a good thing I remembered it." Dolly said to herself as she watched Jack get back up," If I can continue using this against him, I won't have to use up my strengths in a battle like this. I'd be better off saving my energy for Lilith anyways."
But then Jack slammed his foot onto the floor again and all the tornadoes were activated at once, leaving Dolly wide open.
Dolly cringed at the sight of all the tornadoes flying up in the air just to dissipate seconds later. She shrugged and simply ran towards Jack, reluctant to draw closer but not having any other option. She jumped up but the moment she did, Jack grabbed a hold of her and flung her into the wall.
Dolly tried to stand back up, but she desperately needed a moment to catch her breath. She looked at Jack for a few moments and compared him to the past Defectives her team had faced. He was much bigger than a regular Defective, and come to think of it, he was a lot stronger too. Not to mention, she didn't have the rest of her team with her.
"It shouldn't be so hard to outsmart him while he's in this form, and yet...I'm facing a lot of trouble." Dolly thought to herself as she surveyed Jack for a few long moments. Jack then started dashing towards her, and impulsively, Dolly shouted out,
"Pretty Cure, wishing tempest!"
The attack hit Jack dead on, but once he recovered from the attack moments later, he didn't appear as aggravated as Dolly expected. If anything, he seemed more frustrated with himself. He looked down at his paw and gripped it tightly, shaking his head in disapproval.
Dolly let her guard down for only a second, a sense of hope creeping up into her and she said softly," Jack?"
All of a sudden, Jack held his head tightly as if he was getting a migraine and squeezed his eyes shut. Dolly wanted to approach him, but she decided against it and only watched him carefully to determine his next move.
There was a voice in his mind that kept dictating orders and while he would've much prefered to tune that voice out, it seems the voice had more power over him than he realized.
"Don't worry, I won't let that Pretty Cure hurt you. In fact, I'm going to do everything in my power to make you unstoppable. You'd like that, right? Surely, you'd rather be someone who towers over his enemies and reigns victorious. I'll make sure you do just that." The voice reassured him in a gentle, yet devious tone.
Jack took a deep breath for a moment, just to try achieving some calm amidst the unrelenting chaos. He was aware this wasn't Lilith's doing, it had to be Nixe taking over Asperity in Lilith's absence. It wasn't fair for him and Domino to get caught in this, but Jack knew they had it coming. If Lilith hadn't suspected a thing with Jack's return, then Nixe had to have noticed. Whatever Nixe was, it was certain they were a cruel being, deciding to punish Jack and Domino in the most severe way possible, but waiting until the very last minute to do so.
"Nixe really isn't a force to be messed with." Jack and Domino thought.
Jack grew bigger, he was at least ten feet tall now and his eyes were pure red. He had razor sharp claws and teeth, and he could no longer tune out the voice that kept drilling through his brain. He completely fell victim to the voice and he was no longer in control of his own movements. He growled again, his voice piercing through the room before he darted towards Dolly at breakneck speed. Dolly ran as quick as she could, as if her life depended on it, but she didn't have anywhere to escape in the narrow hallway. But she had no other choice and continued to run, before the two of them entered a room at the end of the hallway. The room was medium-sized and emptied out, though it was rather dim inside. Dolly struggled to outrun him and found herself cornered soon enough. Her breathing quickened as she watched Jack
inch closer.
"I shouldn't be panicking in a situation like this!" Dolly thought to herself desperately," I need to calm down and come up with some kind of strategy!"
Jack growled again and startled Dolly, resulting in her retreating closer to the wall behind her, almost clinging to it at this point with her heart in her throat.
"What am I thinking? No matter what kind of strategy or plan I come up with, I can't execute anything good enough without my teammates! I'm outclassed here, nothing I do will work if I'm not able to compete with him physically." Dolly thought to herself anxiously as she stood with her back in the corner," But...I'm not in any place to give up, not after coming this far!"
"Plus...I can't let my team down when they're trying their best! What kind of leader would I be if I didn't do the same thing?" Dolly thought to herself.
Jack took another step closer and lunged towards Dolly, who instinctively ducked and evaded his attack, holding her hands in front of herself in a defensive manner as she shouted,
"Pretty Cure, Wishing Tempest!"
Dolly scurried out of the way while Jack was carried up into the air by a violent gale as a handful of Polaroid photos out from his pockets. Dolly looked up at the photos flying around her with a puzzled look on her face as one of them fell into her grasp.
"Maybe I can make use of this…" Dolly said to herself as she closely examined the photo.
Bubbly and Fantasy were barely able to keep up with the number of Defectives against them.
The army wasn't dropping in numbers while the knights had been losing members at a rapid rate, only for them to get turned into Defectives by Rubix. Only a couple of knights remained, their stamina near depleted just like the Cures as they continued their fight against the Defectives.
Rubix had disappeared since and entrusted the remaining Defectives with the task of extracting each Patchwork Heart from a defeated knight.
Bubbly ran towards a whole group of Defectives and held her hands out shouting," Pretty Cure, Bubbling Impact!"
The Defectives were each trapped in gigantic bubbles and floated up into the air, but the Defectives broke free from the bubbles and crashed back down on the battlegrounds. The Defectives just continued to fight as if nothing happened.
Bubbly frowned at the sight, hoping that getting thrown onto the ground from such a high altitude would've dealt some damage.
"These Defectives aren't tiring out! We won't have long until it's just the two of us and the Defectives." Bubbly pointed out as she dodged a punch from a Defective made from one of the knights. Another one tried to attack her from behind, but River covered up her blind spot.
"The ones made from my team of knights will be stronger than the original members of this army. Since they had stronger Patchwork Hearts from the kingdom's magic." River explained as he swung his sword at the Defective that tried attacking Bubbly.
"Great, so not only are we outnumbered, but we're overpowered too." Fantasy commented as she dodged an attack from a Defective," At this rate, we won't be able to regroup with Dolly and Teddy."
After all of this fighting, the Defective army didn't even appear to be the slightest bit affected. The idea of not being able to fend off this army and joining them inevitably made knots form in Fantasy's stomach. But, the only thing that made her feel worse about their current situation was the fact that if they did lose, many people would've lost their home, including her own mother.
Bubbly looked over her shoulder, noticing the look of guilt on Fantasy's face as the Cure clad in white looked down for a moment. Bubbly let River take over for fighting on their behalf to have a moment with Fantasy.
She put her hands on Fantasy's shoulders and looked her in the eyes, feeling her heart skip for a moment. Even after all this time, Fantasy's dark blue eyes that were kind, yet sometimes hard to read still sent shivers down Bubbly's spine. Fantasy's hauntingly pretty eyes only held a look of question in them as Bubbly attempted to collect her thoughts.
"I can see you're feeling annoyed with the outcome of this battle, but I think you need to be reminded, it's not over yet! And there's nobody else who we can rely on but ourselves." Bubbly pointed out," And...I know you're scared to lose the home you never got the chance to explore, you have every right to be...but, as cheesy as it sounds, this is our only chance. I'm not sure if you've realized it, but you've probably become the most in tune with your magic out of the entire team. You've really come a long way, I don't think there's any other Cure I would want to fight alongside right now and I'm not just saying that because you're the Cure I feel closest to on the team."
Fantasy stared at her blankly for a few moments and then offered her a warm smile as she thought to herself," I genuinely thought I wouldn't be able to become a Pretty Cure for a number of reasons. Then when I got the chance to become one, I had to understand that this wasn't some kind of dream...that I was going to hurt in some way or another for the sake of others. I had been hesitant, all I wanted was to be like my hero but now...I don't want that anymore. I want to be everyone's hero and most importantly…" "
Fantasy looked up and saw a group of Defectives charging towards her and Bubbly, while River was in the clutch of a Defective.
Fantasy then stepped forward and shouted out," Pretty Cure, Playground of Pretenders!"
"...I'd rather be my own hero." Fantasy said quietly as a white haze with rainbows dots appeared around the Defectives. The Defectives started falling asleep, one by one once they came in contact with the haze. Bubbly looked at the Defectives dropping around her, a confused look on her face as she turned to Fantasy.
"Now's our chance!" Fantasy yelled to Bubbly, who quickly nodded in response. The two of them conjured up their scepters.
"Pretty Cure, Brilliant Bubbling Carnival!" Bubbly shouted.
"Pretty Cure, Fantastic Daydream Jubilee!" Fantasy shouted.
The Defectives were each purified and restored to their original forms. All that was left was a hoard of plush toys and a group of unconscious knights around them.
"How did you do that? You know, making all those Defectives fall asleep?" Bubbly questioned curiously.
"I...I just wanted them to be at peace." Fantasy explained awkwardly as she stared at the plushes around her," I wished to calm their spirits, and only put them at ease."
Bubbly's eyes widened before she took one last spin around to look at all the Defectives that had been put to rest.
"You just wanted to see them at peace and then you...you manifested it within seconds!" Bubbly remarked as she gestured to the group of sleeping Defectives to further punctuate her sentence," Fantasy, you don't really give yourself enough credit."
"Neither do you." Fantasy pointed out with a giggle as she took hold of Bubbly's hands," There have been so many times where your energy has kept this team sane. If it wasn't for you just now, I probably wouldn't have calmed down in order to perform that attack. Actually, I think we had been feeling down about others because we were comparing ourselves to our powerhouse teammates. But, we didn't need to do that, we've always been just as strong as them!"
Bubbly nodded and grinned but then she remembered their job here wasn't done quite yet.
"We have to go find Rubix again!" Bubbly reminded her as she urged Fantasy to start searching beyond the castle grounds.
River then held his hand up in protest and looked around the field thoughtfully as he said," The air has been feeling less...tense. I don't think that woman is still here."
"You mean like, not in the kingdom?" Bubbly asked with River nodding in response," So if she's not in the kingdom anymore…"
"...She probably went back to Asperity." Fantasy concluded her tone grim as she turned to River," We gotta regroup with the others. Uncle, uh I mean Knight River, it'd be greatly appreciated if you'd be able to join us. Not only do we have to get through Rubix and Lilith, but we have to rescue Princess Arabella and the current owners of the King and Mage's Patchwork Heart. We can't hope to get all of that done with just the four of us."
"Of course, I'll do everything I can to help." River responded with a nod as he gestured to the girls to follow him," The only entrance that's still open to the other worlds is in the castle."
Teddy was in the grasp of four of the claws, writhing in their grip as they pulled her in opposite directions. The alarms had gotten even louder as the coloured lights glowed much brighter, it would've been easier to just lay there without any objections while the madness ensued. There was a near hopeless look in Teddy's eyes but she wasn't ready to give up just yet. Instead, she slowly tried to break free from the claws by keeping a pair of flaming spheres inside her hands. She wasn't sure how long she'd be able to keep them there but, at this point it no longer mattered to her what happened if she kept them in hand for too long. She was starting to sweat a bit but she wasn't paying much attention to her own physical condition but rather how the claws were holding up against her flame holding hands. The claws were heating up with her, but not as quickly as she had been hoping. Teddy looked frustrated, but she didn't act out of impatience. Instead, she tried to kick things up a notch by increasing the size of the flames in her hands, making it so big that it was no longer easy to hold comfortably. She hung her head upside down for a moment and stared at the masterboard for a while, examining it carefully. As she waited for the claws to heat up more with her, she started to look at the screen and noticed something off. She squinted at it before she felt a searing pain emerge from out of her palms after holding onto the flames for so long. It was now or never.
Teddy let go of the flames in her hands and the arms of the claws caught fire and let her go. Once the claws that held onto her arms let go, she swung and grabbed onto the claws that held her legs, hoping that her hands would be enough to burn them up without the flames.
They didn't catch fire like the other claws but the heat that came from her palms was enough to deactivate them for just a moment to let her go. Once she was let go of completely she ran as fast as she possibly could to the masterboard again. Her lungs were burning and she wasn't even halfway there yet. But she had to reach it once more and she had to deactivate it this time.
Teddy took a moment to stop running and turned around to see all of the claws in the room zooming towards her.
She hadn't been planning on using up her strengths in a place like this, but at this point, she didn't have much of a choice.
"Pretty Cure, flame of hope!" Teddy shouted as she held her hand out in front of the claws before her. A whole set of flames emerged out from her hands, more than she had been used to. She thought nothing of it and watched as all the claws got caught up in her flames. Most of them were functioning, much to her dismay, but she didn't let it bother her too much and only ran towards the masterboard again.
Once she reached the masterboard again, she heaved in her breaths and got back to work. Her brows furrowed as she looked at the screen before she set her gaze on the board in front of her.
"The domino was spinning around the other way when I was in the claws' hold. And some of the buttons are pushed down...there's some correlation here, but I can't seem to get it." Teddy said to herself quietly," Agh, no! I don't have the time to be thinking like this, I gotta think like Cure Dolly if I wanna solve this."
So Teddy looked down at the masterboard again and cautiously pressed a button to see if anything would happen. She turned around to see if anything changed but found pressing the button had no effect on the battle.
"Well, that was useless." Teddy surmised, before she shook her head," No...maybe I'm missing something. At a time like this, I shouldn't really be so quick to judge. I need to look closer."
Teddy pressed the button again and something caught her eye on the masterboard. When she pushed the button down, the opposite of it in the row it raised up ever so slightly. Teddy's eyes widened at the discovery and pressed it again just to confirm what happened. The button opposite to it raised up again. It may have been a deficiency found only in that button so just to make sure, Teddy pushed another button with the button's row opposite raising up too. Only now, Teddy just noticed there had already been some buttons on the board that were pushed down. Her breathing quickened and then she looked at the screen again. The domino was spinning around the other way. She turned to see how close to claws were to her and she saw them only inches away from here with their claws ready to grip her.
"I guess when the domino is spinning the other way, that means they're ready to grab or already grabbing something." Teddy evaluated before she turned back to the masterboard and pressed all the buttons that were slightly raised. Once all the buttons were pressed, the claws powered down and the room fell quiet. The alarms shut off and the lights stopped flashing, with only a deep blue light in its place. Teddy looked around the room cautiously and walked over to the back of the master board, where she found a broad cord that connected the screen and the board to the wall.
Teddy decided to burn up the cord, just so the masterboard and screen couldn't power on again. Teddy had to brace herself against the masterboard momentarily, exhausted from the fight and just looked to the screen worriedly.
"I hope he's ok…" Teddy said to herself as she looked at the screen that turned black once she pressed all the keys.
Domino was freed from his bindings, but the fight had also exhausted him too. His head was killing him and he couldn't even move an inch, but he was still able to see Teddy on the other side of the screen, despite the fact that she destroyed the cord that connected the two rooms. Now, he couldn't do anything but see what was happening inside the room Teddy vacated.
Teddy turned around and saw the door had yet to be unlocked and only sighed at the sight of it. Assuming she'd have to burn this down too, Teddy walked over towards the door but then suddenly, Teddy was held up by a dark violet miasma that circled around her body and clutched her tight.
"Wow, I would've never thought anyone except your leader would've been able to deactivate Domino. I guess that either makes you smarter than I thought or Domino more useless than I expected. You truly are a force to be reckoned with." A genderless voice, cloying but ultimately quite sinister said to Teddy.
"Hey, I don't know if you realized this but Domino didn't want any part in your dumb schemes! Did you not notice him helping us try to take you down? " Teddy pointed out irritatedly as she struggled to break free from the clutch of the miasma," He may have been doing bad things but ultimately...he wasn't a bad person, not if he at least tried to fix his mistakes. Of course, he wouldn't have had to fix those mistakes in the first place if you didn't use him!"
Domino watched Teddy fight in the hands of the miasma and looked down at the smaller version of the masterboard before him. He shook his head, knowing that connection to the two rooms had been broken but he hadn't lost hope just yet. He looked at the broad cord in the other room and found Teddy hadn't fully burned it, so there was a slight chance there was still a connection between the rooms, albeit not a strong one.
"She saved me, it's only fair I do the same." Domino said to himself as he pressed three buttons on the left side of the keyboard and one button in the far right.
The sprinklers in the room suddenly came on and the miasma had a hard time keeping hold of Teddy. Next, the tiles on the floor opened up again and tried to suck up the miasma. It was strong enough to catch the miasma, but not Teddy, so once the miasma was separated from her, she simply fell on the ground. The miasma fought to grab a hold of Teddy again, but it failed to do so and once the miasma was fully caught by the tile opening, the tile closed up and Teddy was once again alone in the lifeless room.
Moments later, the door to the room was unlocked.
Teddy looked towards the screen, it was still black but she didn't seem to care as she said with a thumbs-up," Thanks man!"
"Pretty Cure, pretend mode!" Dolly called out, the polaroid photo still in her hand. She closed her eyes and had her mind cleared, with nothing but the image of the girl in the photo in it.
Standing between Dolly and Jack was Takara, looking distressed at Jack's new form. The Takara illusion walked closer to Jack and further inspected him, still in sheer disbelief of the being before her that bore a slight resemblance to her partner.
"Jack, what happened?" 'Takara' asked quietly as she shook her head and held his paw up to her face, heedless of the danger that could've come her way," I know you said you needed to return to your broken home for a bit, but...please, this isn't really you. I want my Jack back."
Jack knelt next to Takara with a guilty look on his face, but then the voice from earlier appeared in his head again.
"Idiot, this isn't the girl you ran off to. She couldn't reach this place and besides, even if she could, there's no way she'd be chasing after someone like you." The voice reminded him, only enraging Jack who drew his hand back from the Takara illusion and returned to his battle with Dolly.
"Damn it!" Dolly yell-whispered, her pupils shrinking as Jack darted towards her with his claws out.
But the Takara illusion wasn't done with Jack just yet.
"Jack please! I don't want to see you hurt anybody, that girl hasn't done anything wrong!" The Takara illusioned claimed as she ran after him. Jack spun around and hesitated again, but the voice wouldn't let Takara's words reach him. The voice knew Takara's words would overpower them if they weren't careful, so they finally snapped and took full control of Jack's body.
Jack lunged towards Takara slashed the illusion from her torso, causing it to fully disappear. Dolly couldn't believe her eyes, overwhelmed by a feeling of shock and anger as she looked at the empty spot where the Takara illusion once stood.
She balled her fists and her heartbeat got quicker as she chided herself for thinking of such an inadequate plan. She had no other choice left but to fight, but instead of fighting, she stood petrified in the corner, her gaze fixed on Jack as she tried to get herself to move.
It wasn't going to happen, she couldn't bring herself to run away, it was as if her nervous system had completely shut down on her. Instead, she shrunk down in the corner, frightfully holding her hands above her head as she pressed her eyes shut.
She choked out, "Please don't do this, Jack!"
Just when Jack was going to strike her, he froze up. When he looked at Dolly, he only saw Takara in her place and started shaking uncontrollably. He fell silent, and only watched her with regret filled in his eyes. Jack dropped to his knees and sat down, holding his head in disbelief of his actions.
Dolly, on the other hand, was feeling regret in her own actions and slowly stood up. She took deep breaths to calm herself down and briskly walked over to Jack.
"I shouldn't have been so afraid. I knew this person wasn't my enemy." Dolly said to herself quietly as she walked over to him,"Jack, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I displayed an image you probably didn't want to see, I only wanted to reach you under all of that brainwashing from Lilith or Nixe or...whoever's running this place. You're aware you've been manipulated into this form and forced to work under Asperity once again. I can change you back, but I'm gonna need your trust. You trust me, right?"
Jack nodded and stared at the ground, a shameful look on his face.
Dolly conjured up her scepter as she called out,
"Pretty Cure, Dressing Dolly Parade!" She yelled out as the atmosphere around her turned pink, violet and white. The bright lights obscured Dolly's vision for a few moments but once they disappeared, Jack could be found in his regular form. He was still staring at the ground, uncharacteristically quiet as he tried to collect his thoughts while he hugged his knees. He couldn't bear to face Dolly, not after what he had done. Jack hung his head and stayed quiet while Dolly came closer.
"Nixe took advantage of me by making use of the insecurities in my relationship." Jack said to himself," I was so stupid to fall victim to them yet again."
"It's fine!" Dolly reassured him as she knelt down in front of him," What matters was that even if you let Nixe get to you, you still didn't let them take control. You're much stronger than you think for staying true to yourself."
Jack nodded, though he seemed weary and nervously tried standing up but he was far too drained to so.
"Just stay put for now." Dolly advised him," When you feel better, come find us and we'll figure out how you can help. Alright?"
"Sure but...first, I gotta make sure Domino's ok." Jack pointed out to her.
"Of course! In the meantime, I'm going to go find the rest of the team, ok?" Dolly said as she stood up," I'll see you soon!"
Dolly then ran out of the room and back into the hallway. Once she was out of earshot, Jack had a grim look on his face as he looked down at his palms, where the center of it was a very dark colour that resembled a bruise but it hurt much worse.
"No...I won't let Nixe take control of me like that again." Jack said to himself as he squeezed his hand into a fist," And I won't let them destroy this family."