Ellie stepped over a pile of Jar Jar Binks figurines and made her way deeper into the dense tangle of miscellaneous objects. Elkay's hoard was indeed quite impressive, filling the majority of a large cave. It was like a shrine to ancient pop culture, a veritable cathedral of nerdism that would put the most avid collectors to shame. The junk was stacked in large towers, some reaching the ceiling. I would be nearly impossible to sort out the mess in less than a week, never mind a day.

"So, why exactly do you have this cave? . . ." Ellie asked, staring up at the colossal pyramids with awe. Elkay's head popped out of a nearby pile, making her jump.

"Well, you tend to pick things up over the course of a trillion years, give or take. The oldest stuff is near the back, I think."

Ellie picked up a receptacle that was shaped like Christian Bale's head.

"Why do you own a Batman bucket?"

Elkay shrugged.

"Because it's gimmicky, I imagine. Who knows what I was thinking when I bought it?"

Ellie tossed it to the side.

"There's some really weird shit here."

"Yeah, but at least I don't collect gross things like toenail clippings or jam jars . . . I think . . ."

Ellie flew over the mess, searching for the missing armor. She landed on a stack of papers and picked up a silver helmet.

"This is armor, but it's plastic."

Elkay hopped over daintily.

"Yeah, that's just a replica of Ragnar Sturlusson's armor from The Golden Compass. I had a son named Ragnar, once . . ."

"I know. What kind of armor are we looking for, exactly?"

Elkay rubbed her chin.

"Well, it's definitely gold. I remember that much. There's a helmet, a neck-thing, the main part, the shoulder pieces, the leg-braces, the wing protectors, and gloves. I don't think it had chain mail, but I could be wrong."

Ellie rolled her eyes and stepped through an open door, which was standing upright in the middle of the room. She saw a blue shape leaping around near the back of the cave.

"Found anything, Zebil?" she called.

"No."

Ellie sighed and made her way around another mountain of trash. She pushed a broken bicycle to the side and picked up an old book. Blowing the dust off the cover, she squinted and read the title out loud.

"The Silliest Land Before Time-"

Elkay snatched the book from her hands.

"SHHHHHHHHH! Don't say it out loud, or I'll have to go through with it."

Ellie rolled her eyes and picked up another book.

"You did one for Blues Brothers?"

Elkay nodded.

"Mhm. Someone stole my first draft."

"What happened to it?"

"The thief made some edits, and it ended up sucking harder than a Hoover."

Ellie's eyes went wide.

"You mean they actually made an adaptation?"

Elkay nodded.

"Yup. Haven't you ever heard of Blues Brothers 2000?"

The sound of two drums and a cymbal echoed across the room. Zebil popped up from behind an old sofa.

"Sorry. I knocked over a drum set."

Ellie dug through the pile some more and gave a deep sigh.

"Nothing. Not even a single piece. Do you have any idea where you left it?"

Elkay shook her head.

"For all I know, it could be scattered. We might have to clone ourselves to find it in time."

"Don't clone us."

"I'm kidding!" Elkay laughed, "There can only be one of each god. We're special."

"Are you badmouthing clones?" Ellie asked jokingly.

"No. I'm just saying it would be freaky to share the same genetic makeup with another person."

"What about twins?"

"We don't have twins."

"My mom is a twin."

Elkay blinked.

"Liar. I just checked, and there are no twin Sattler's."

"She changed her last name. Search for Tiptree."

Elkay blinked again.

"Ah. Okay. Is that Fern?"

"Fern is a different aunt."

"Jesus, Ellie. How many aunts do you have?"

"I could ask you the same thing about your children."

"They only have a few aunts."

"That's not what I- Wait, you have siblings?"

"Yeah, a couple. Why?"

Ellie shrugged.

"I just never knew, that's all."

They dug through the garbage for a little while longer. Ellie picked up a framed flower and rotated it in her hands.

"Would knowing more about you make me feel better, or would I be less sympathetic towards your attitude?"

Elkay took a moment to respond.

"Looking at all of these objects, or even at the things I've done during my lifetime, you could very well draw the conclusion that I am a bad person. This is true. I'm not a good person, but that's not what matters. What matters is why. I am the way I am for many reasons, and although they don't excuse my behavior, I can't ignore the fact that it's not solely my nature that defines me. That's why I have hope for my future. The actions of others are, in part, what made me into a monster, but that means that the kindness of my friends can reverse the effect. I'm not unchangeable. I just needed someone to help me realize that I wanted to change."

Ellie was about to give an insightful reply, but she picked up a green keychain and frowned in confusion.

"I heart my collie?"

Elkay examined the keychain with interest.

"Hm. It's possible that, at one point in my life, I owned a collie."

"Found it!" Zebil called from across the cave.

"The armor?" Ellie asked.

"No, the collie."

Elkay cringed.

"How decomposed is it? . . ."

A lively little dog bounded over a pile of trash and pounced on Ellie, licking her face merrily. Elkay lifted the dog's identification tag and read the engraved name.

"Pretzel? Geez, no wonder I forgot about you!"

Suddenly, Zebil tore across the cave. Elkay pricked her ears.

"Did you find my-"

"Bernie crashed the plane."

Ellie's eyes went wide.

"Oh god. Are they-"

"They're safe, and so is the pilot, who landed a few miles away. I'd suggest we go looking for your characters, but that's exactly what Spurr wants. Her plan is to flush you out."

Ellie frowned, utterly perplexed.

"She's Asterparan. She could just search for me. And what's her motive?"

"No idea," Zebil mumbled, "But you could find out . . ."

Ellie felt The Star pulsing in her chest. She let it drift out of her body.

"I don't know if that would be wise," she said, holding the relic in her hands, "What if I drain my energy? I might need all of my magic to fight, if it comes to that."

Elkay lowered her head.

"Ellie, I think you put too many limitations on yourself. Is there a way to reverse your power-siphoning?"

Ellie's expression became serious.

"Yes, but I'm not telling you how."

"Why not?"

"Because you'll go through with the reversal. I shouldn't have my powers back. I'm still at risk for corruption."

Elkay sighed.

"I know you aren't going to give in. What do you propose we do?"

Ellie put The Star back in her chest.

"We'll just continue the story as planned. We can rescue Claire-"

"Excuse me, but why the hell can't you have power?" Zebil interrupted, "You never told me why you put these stupid limitations on yourself."

Ellie and Elkay shared an awkward glance.

"Trust me, Zebil. I know what I'm doing," Ellie said quietly.

The tiger snuffed in frustration and padded away. Elkay dipped her head down and nudged Ellie's shoulder with her beak.

"You're doing the right thing. You're being responsible. That's a step up from when I was Queen, I'll tell you that much . . ."

Ellie sat down and hugged her knees.

"This isn't going to get any easier, is it? Whenever I explain my actions, someone always ends up getting mad at me."

Elkay wrapped her tail around Ellie's waist and rocked her back and forth.

"Don't worry about that. No matter what you do, whether you're a god or a normal human being, your choices will never make everyone happy."

Ellie closed her eyes.

"I know. I have to make sacrifices. I'm just glad I spend the same amount of time with my family. That's the one thing I can take pride in. But it's only because I have a lot of free time, now that Robin doesn't hang out with me-"

Elkay dropped Ellie suddenly. She landed in a pile of stuffed cats.

"Robin hasn't forgiven you?!" Elkay spat.

"She's still mad about Orange," Ellie muttered, plucking a kitten from her wing.

The dragon paced back and forth in agitation and distress. This news was apparently mind-boggling to her. Ellie couldn't imagine why.

"She always bounces back from these kinds of things!" Elkay declared, reading Ellie's mind (figuratively).

"Not this time. She's still upset," Ellie said sadly.

Elkay tapped her claws against the cave floor rapidly, her ears moving around like broken satellite dishes.

"Shit, shit, shit. Now you don't have a best friend."

Ellie shrugged.

"I have plenty of other friends. Besides, if Robin won't handle this maturely, I don't really want to be bothered by her bitterness and jealousy."

"Jealousy?" Elkay echoed.

"Yeah. She's thinks she's been replaced by a bigger, yellower reptile."

Elkay frowned.

"I'm not a reptile. Neither is she. Anyway, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin your friendship."

Ellie shook her head.

"You didn't do anything wrong. After I refused to revive Orange, she started looking for excuses to hate me. I don't like being made the villain."

Zebil poked his head through an ornate picture frame.

"Yes. That would be really terrible. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be viewed as a villain," he said robotically.

"Did you find my armor?" Elkay asked, sidestepping his not-so-subtle remark.

"No. But we should probably feed the dog."

He pointed to the collie, who was chewing on a discarded copy of Felidae. It looked up at them with big, brown eyes and cocked its head. Ellie rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she stared at the lonely puppy.

"I think I have an idea . . ."