Chapter 5: Layla's Mission

The next few months was hard to get used to, but she managed quite well.

Layla trained everyday with her hand-to-hand combat and learned how to take down enemies that were over three times her size. One of her favorites in training was learning how to shoot one of the plasma guns that they had, her becoming a natural sharpshooter. Everyday her muscles ached terribly, but in the end it was worth it.

She looked a lot healthier then she used to, her black hair shining from regular bathing and the special hair products. Her weight was in a much more natural range for her size, she had even grown a couple of inches from the sudden nutrient boost. Her once deathly pale skin finally a slight lush of pink, her cheeks a little rosy. All in all she hadn't felt this good in years, or in fact her entire life.

As a child she knew her life wasn't normal. It wasn't normal for a child to be deprived of social interaction, she read enough psychology and childhood development books to know that was the case with her being so messed up. The year before when she told Rick that she didn't know what normal is, she was right, she didn't know the normal interactions that she was supposed to have.

But that didn't matter at that moment, this was her normal now and she enjoyed it. Layla enjoyed training her body to be the strongest that it could be. With her small stature she was a lot faster than the other members that had joined Magum.

An odd pang hits her chest. She hasn't seen Magum since beginning her training. He had been so nice to her, offering her food, shelter, and a way to better herself. How was she supposed to repay him if she never saw him?

He's probably just busy…

Layla wore a skin tight black shirt and pants with her usual boots as she walked down the pure white hallways to make her way to the training facility. Inside the facility there were mats on the floor to practice fighting while another majority of the room was filled with weight training equipment. Her favorite room of training, the shooting range, was in a completely different part of the warehouse.

"There you are, Layla!" barked a large burly bear-looking creature. His fur was white as snow with frost covered tips and his eyes were black as coals, him being three times larger than a regular bear. He also had a few extra arms as well, but one hand was missing, and he never told how it happened.

"Hello, Colonel," Layla greets him with an emotionless voice. She didn't care too much for this character, thinking because he takes his name "Colonel" too seriously and enjoys bossing people around. She knew that he especially enjoyed watching a human girl like her get beaten up and have limbs broken. "Thinking about how to you want to steal candy from a baby again?" she gives him a mocking grin, which caused him to bare his fangs.

"You better watch it, Human," Colonel growled threateningly.

Layla gives a false pout, her being over dramatic, and she blinked her electric blue eyes multiple times. "Oh, is Colonel upset because he still has stay in the training facility to train others and that Magum doesn't trust him to a mission?" she coos over sweetly.

Suddenly she was thrown backwards, Colonel lashing out on her. She collapsed to the unmated part of the floor with a crash, her head smacking against the hard ground. Her vison was blurred for just a moment before she jumped right back up just in time to be punched in her nose. A sickening crunch followed by a large amount of scarlet came from her now broken nose, the blood falling to the floor with soft pats.

Layla panted, her tasting the iron-laced scarlet in her mouth, it staining her teeth a disgusting brown. Instead of backing down she stood tall proudly, raising her fists up, ready to put up a fight.

"C'mon, Colonel," Layla jeered with large smile with her eyebrows furrowed with determination. "Is that the best you got? A human girl got right back up!" Her voice sounded nasally as her nose broken, a common injury she was used to getting but she didn't care.

The first time she was beaten to a pulp she was in so much pain and was terrified. But she was always escorted to a healer and healed like it never happened as it was ordered by Magum. When she asked why he would do that she was told that she was a "special guest" of his and preferred her to be well in health.

Now she stood her ground with the largest monster in the building, no longer in fear, she knew Magum would take care of her if needed be.

"Listen, Human!" Colonel roared, venom dripping from his words. "Just because you are Magum's little pet doesn't mean you think you're all bad!"

"Come at me you ugly bastard!"

Just as Colonel went to grab toward Layla's throat, he stopped dead in his tracks as he suddenly stood up straight, his facial expression looking terribly frightened. Layla turns around, feeling the blood dripping off her nose, and saw that Magum was in the doorway of the facility.

Magum looked unamused, his white eyes glaring. "Now what the hell is going on here!?" he demands, him taking a few steps forward. He takes one look at Layla and looked instantly worried. "My dear Layla, what in the world happened?"

Layla then points at Colonel. "Colonel just beating me up again," she tells him nonchalantly. Her speech now was a lot less timid, her voice before sounding higher and frightened all the time. But now her voice was lower sounding as she forced herself to sound much more confident with herself.

Magum then glares at Colonel. "Now, now, I thought we talked about this…?" he lowly questions, his voice hard. "I can't you beating up a valuable person for our cause."

"Valuable!?" Colonel roars, foam in the corners of his mouth as his fangs were bared. "How is she valuable!? She's just a lowlife human with no real skills! Why do you keep her around?!"

"Bartek," was Magum's only response, which caused a veil of silence to cover the room in a hush.

"As in… Dr. Bartholomew Bartek…?" Colonel slowly asked, each word dragged out like he was testing out a new language. He then glares at Layla, his black eyes seemingly filled with recognition as well as a fire of rage and hatred. "That's why you look so familiar!" He takes a rushed step forward but was held back with one of Magum's telekinetic blasts. "You're that bitch that was in the alleyway in Gravity Falls!"

Layla flinches, a memory fluttering into her mind as she remembered being in an alleyway to shield herself from the wind. An echo of a voice asked her what she was doing there. Then it fluttered back to a scream of agony as a disembodied hand fell to the floor and a pool of blood slowly crawled towards her face…

Colonel then raised the arm that had the missing hand. "You're bastard father did this to me! He sent me here because of you!" he screams as her, his fury rising as frost glittered the floor, it spider-webbing towards Layla.

"Y-you… were… in the basement…" Layla barely whispers, her taking a step back, the blood dripping to the floor from her nose. Once frost touched it the blood became frozen solid, red and shining like glass.

"I'LL KILL YOU! HOW ABOUT I RIP YOUR LIMBS OFF LIKE YOUR FATHER DID TO SO MANY OF US!?"

"ENOUGH!" Magum's powerful voice interrupts, everything silent once more. He then used his hand to make a pushing motion causing Colonel to be thrown back and smack against the weights. "The girl is as much as a victim here as you all are, one more act against her and I will personally see to it that you are no longer existing."

Colonel gets up from his position, panting heavily from the telekinetic blast. He still glared at Layla hard and with such a fury that Layla had to glance away. The burly beast stalks away, him growling under his breath.

"My dear, Layla," Magum's voice interrupts Layla's thoughts. She glances at him, feeling her eyes open wide, afraid she was going to get yelled at. "You must go to the healer immediately, I have a mission for you to go on and you must be in shape," he simply says.

The tightness in her chest lightens as she gives a sigh of relief. "Yes, of course, Magum, she replies, her sounding a little breathless.

"And… get some pain medication too," Magum suggests. "I will send word ahead so that everything is all set for you, my dear."

"Thank you very much," Layla tells him with appreciation.

"After you meet with the healer I will meet you in your quarters to give you your instructions," he informs her as he walks past her.

Layla gives a nod. She follows out of the room behind him, he turned down the hallway that led to her room as she walked the opposite way to go towards the healer. The healer's office was a stark white, all in it was a table that was covered with a white sheet. Layla sits on the bed and waits patiently for the healer to come in.

"Hello, Layla," the healer says, her purple eyes widening with recognition. "Master Magum has informed me of your little accident. Another fight with Colonel correct?"

"Yeah… he apparently knew my father…" Layla explains, her voice softening. "And I… I had met him before… He never knew my last name until today."

"All I know is that Colonel is one of the only few sane survivors of Dr. Bartek's experiments."

Layla scoffs under her breath, "Sane? Yeah right…"

The healer then grabs a small canister of some blue liquid and took out a needle and syringe and filled it with the blue liquid. The healer approaches Layla and grabs her chin to lift the young woman's head up so she could have a better look.

"He practically broke your nose off of your skull… not really, I'm exaggerating but the nose is shattered…" the healer commented, her purple eyes glancing over Layla's nose. "How you're still conscious I'll never know." She then injects the hypodermic needle by Layla's broken nose.

Layla feels a sharp pain as her nose then gets snapped back into place by the healer. A burning sensation fills Layla's face as she felt her nose being mended, her gritting her teeth at the small, sharp pains. After about five minutes the blood was wiped off her face and she was good as new.

Or, as new as she could get anyway.

"You need to be more careful," the healer instructed. "Just because we have these medicines it doesn't mean that they will work all of the time. Eventually you will build a tolerance to them."

"Oh, okay…" Layla replies, her giving a nod in understanding.

The healer nods back. "Now, I understand Master Magum would like to speak with you," she says as she grabs a small bottle of pain relieving medication. "Here is the pain medicine, you may go now. You do not want to keep him waiting."

Layla grabs the bottle with a firm nod and jumps off the table. She says her thanks as she leaves, making her way toward her room, seeing her purple door that her mind customized just for her. Her hand reached out and opened the door immediately, the seventeen-year-old girl's heart fluttering in her chest as her face slightly blushed as she knew who was on the other side.

She opens the door and she saw that Magum was standing there waiting for her. He looked a little grim, his white eyes looking like he had seen some misfortune.

"Hello," Layla greets, her giving a slight wave.

"Hello, my dear Layla," Magum greets back. "Did you grab the pain the pain medicine?"

"Yeah I did…" Layla responds as she shows him the pills. "But why do I need them if the injections heal me?"

Magum gives an awkward shrug. "Well… you are getting your nutrition so that means you should be getting your menstrual cycle again, so you might be in pain." He looked extremely uncomfortable talking about it. "One of the other females in the facility has brought this information up to me."

Layla gives a confused look. "I've never had that," she tells him, her still being confused. She had read the books on women's health that her father had in his medical textbooks. She had understood that she was technically a late bloomer due to her stress and her malnutrition, but she figured because it was late into her puberty that she would just "skip" it; that is not the case in the slightest she realizes now, and she was not looking forward to it.

"Just keep the pills just in case," Magum orders gently.

Layla sets them on the dresser and she sits on her bed, waiting for Magum to speak of a mission that she must do. "So, what am I doing?" she asks him happily, a smile on her face. Ever since arriving there she had been in a much happier mood.

Magum stands in front of her and looks down, him towering over her. "My mission for you is the steal plans from Bill Cipher himself," he instructs.

Layla's eyes widened as she bolts up. "Wait, what!?" she screams. "I'm not ready for that! I can't do it… I… I…!" She starts to panic as she starts pacing from one end of the room to the other.

"Layla," Magum firmly says, causing her to stop in her tracks. "Please calm down and listen to the rest." She sits back down on the bed to calm her frantic heartbeat. Magum then continues, "Bill recognizes most of my people, he however does not know you truly. All you must do, with one or two others, is go in, steal an energy-looking orb that contains his plans and bring it back here."

"An energy orb…?" Layla echoes.

"An energy orb is how higher beings like demons store high amounts of information that can be easily shared amongst followers." Magum explains.

Layla then nods in understanding. "Alright, I'll do it!" she confirms, taking on the task.

Layla was outside of the warehouse facility in an all-black body suit covering her from her neck to all the way to her toes, her wearing knee-high boots that were flat and a solid black.

Her jet black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, the hair feathering behind her. She wore elbow length gloves that went over the material of the body suit, a rubber-like grip on the fingers and palms to be able to climb. The only things that stood out on her was her white skin, which almost gave her a ghostly appearance, and her electric blue eyes.

She waited for a few minutes, waiting for another person to help her with this mission. Layla still didn't understand why she was being sent on the mission, she knew she wasn't trained enough, she barely had enough strength to stand up after being hit by Colonel. However, she would not let her uneasiness show, she wanted to impress Magum since he was so kind to her.

Soon two others walked through the main door of the warehouse, them wearing similar attire to Layla. They both seemed to be females, one with long pink hair tied into a tight bun and the other having blonde hair braided down the middle of her back. They stopped in front of Layla, the one with pink hair smiling in greeting while the blonde did not. They both had neon green eyes, their eyes seemingly to be glowing, and had pointed ears similar to an elf's. The girl with pink hair had light purple colored skin while the blonde hair had light pink colored skin. Besides the hair and skin being different, they looked oddly identical with their facial features.

"Hello, you must be Layla, yes?" the girl with pink hair asked, her voice sounding high.

"Of course she is, she is the only human," the girl with blonde hair retorts, her voice just as high sounding, but her tone was much more snobby.

Layla extends a hand, her right so they wouldn't freak out about her birth defect. They looked at her extended hand oddly, but the girl with pink hair shook Layla's hand gently. "I am Layla, nice to meet you," Layla greets. "What are your names?"

The girl with pink hair replies excitedly, "I'm Mari!"

Layla stops shaking Mari's hand and turns to the blonde. "And you are?" she asks.

The blonde did not return the gesture. "Kari," she curtly says.

"We're twins!" the two said together at the same time, Mari being excited and Kari being monotone.

"Or we are now, we were once triplets," Mari shrugs.

Layla takes a step back, her surprised. "What… what happened…?"

"The reason why we are here," Kari bluntly said. "Bill Cipher. He took our sister and with the help of a monster you called a father turned her into one his head henchmen."

The raven-haired girl flinches at the mention of her father. "I'm… I'm so sorry…" she apologizes. "I… I didn't realize..."

Mari puts her hands on Layla's shoulders. "Don't apologize, it is not your fault. You are as much of a victim to your father as the subjects," the pink haired girl insisted. Kari rolled her eyes at that statement, muttering under her breath.

Kari then curtly shouts, "Come on you two! We have a mission to do!" She was tapping a booted foot impatiently.

Mari and Layla then proceed to follow Kari down the road as she turns down an alleyway. Once Kari stops she pulls out a map. On the map there was certain spots circled in red ink.

"What are those for?" Layla asks as she peered over the map.

"Natural portal openings," Kari replies, giving Layla a hard side glare as if the raven-haired girl was incompetent.

Mari then chips in, although in a much more positive tone, "Yes, they open due to some energy surge and they help you travel through different dimensional holes."

"They proceed to take you through sub-dimensions, or smaller dimensions within one larger dimension. We happened to be in a large dimension." Kari explains as she peers over the map.

"In order to go from one larger dimension to another, you need a large portal that takes up a lot of energy that is positioned in an area that has a weak dimensional wall." Mari then finishes.

Layla remembers the portal that was in her father's lab in the basement. It was extremely large and she remembered seeing the electric pulsations from the machine. That had to be a portal to go from one large dimension to the other… but why did her father make it for him to travel through?

Or was it to let someone in?

Kari leads both her sister and Layla to an alleyway where it was abandoned, only small creatures skittering about. Mari skips toward a wall, giving it a tap. The pink-haired girl gives a satisfied hum.

"Okay, Kari, how long do we wait?" Mari asked, her continuing to hum.

Kari peers over the map, her pointed ears perking up at a whirring sound. "About now," she replies. "Human girl-"

"My name is Layla."

"Whatever, step away."

Layla did as she was told, taking a step closer to Mari. She liked Mari a lot more as the pink-haired girl seemed to be a lot nicer. Kari on the other hand was being rude and snotty, it honestly irked Layla to no end.

The wall distorted as a small blue light appeared, it growing a bit more with each second. Within a minute it was a large circular opening that inside swirled with a platinum energy. The light casted on the three women, their skin becoming a flushed white from the intense light.

Layla's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. It looked similar to the portal that she was forced through a year ago… She takes a few steps back, but Mari grabbed her left hand.

"Layla, come on, we must go," the pink-haired girl insisted softly.

"I don't know… this seems dangerous…" Layla comments, her stomach feeling in knots.

Kari then pushes her in, Layla screaming in surprise. Once again she felt like her body was being torn in multiple directions, her feeling as if she were being torn apart. Just as fast as she had entered she flew out of the portal, her body hitting against the hard ground violently. With a groan she stands up, holing her right arm as it took most of the fall.

Her electric blue eyes widened as she looked around her surroundings. A small gasp escapes her as she sees nothing but black for hundreds of miles, the sky only being decorated with gashes of red as if the black was torn skin. In the distance was a single golden pyramid, it floating over the dark void below.

"H-how are we supposed to get there?" Layla asks nervously, her voice wavering. She looks at Mari and Kari and they too had eyes that were wide as saucers.

Kari then looks at her sister. "Mari, have you perfected the levitation spell yet?" the blonde inquired.

Mari nods enthusiastically. "Oh, yes, I've practiced a lot in the training room!" she replied to her sister.

In the back of her mind Layla recalled that someone was using levitation powers at one point in the training room. She probably wasn't around to see it though, she was most likely on her way to the healer after being beaten by Colonel.

Kari was levitating a few inches off the only solid ground they were standing on, a small stone platform in the middle of a lake of darkness. The blonde gives an impressed grunt and a nod as Mari lowers her to the platform.

"What can humans do?" Mari then asked Layla excitedly. "Do you guys have anything special?"

Layla glances around nervously. "Um… not really…" she stammered softly.

Kari rolls her eyes. "Okay, Mari, get us up there unseen!" the blonde orders.

"You got it!"

Layla then feels herself floating upwards. She felt as if though she were going to be sick, her insides moving about. With a startled yelp she flipped over backwards, her black ponytail whipping around and smacking her face. Kari and Mari were perfectly fine, them able to control how they moved in the air.

"Stop squirming!" Kari hissed. "You'll make it worse!"

"I feel like I'm gonna be sick…!" Layla complained, her holding her abdomen. Her pale face looked a little flushed of green.

"Just imagine yourself in water!" Mari then suggested. "Like… in a large body of water and how you would manipulate on floating on it!"

Layla closes her eyes, which made the nausea worse. But then she imagined being in water, which was a little difficult as she has never been in a large body of water. So she imagined being in the bathtub, as that was the largest body of water she had ever been in, and focused on being on her back and the outside world becoming distorted.

Once she imagined that she imagined herself standing upright, her body gently adjusting itself into position. After a few moments she blinked open her eyes and saw that she was facing Kari and Mari upright, her floating.

"This... this is weird…" Layla comments, her trying to calm her nausea still.

Kari rolls her eyes. "Let's just get this over with…" she muttered as she started floating toward the pyramid. Mari grabs Layla's hand and helps her float along as well, Layla occasionally flipping backwards from her lack of focus.

The trio finally makes it to the pyramid, it having a small platform at the entrance to stand on. They dropped down, Mari and Kari landing on their feet as Layla fell on her back with a yelp. Layla groaned in pain Mari helped her up, giving her an affectionate pat the rave-haired girl's back.

"So… how do we get in?" Layla asked as she looked over the pyramid.

The pyramid was much larger in person than from a distance. The golden color was practically illuminating, Layla's eyes burning. Layla had to crane her neck and bend over backwards to see the top.

"Kari, you perfected your intangibility spell, right?" Mari asked her sister, her tapping the wall and saw that it was solid.

Kari snaps, "Of course I did!" She closes her eyes and touches both Mari and Layla. Layla felt an odd tingling sensation and she gasped in surprise. "Now, only thing we need to do is hold our breath as we pass through."

"Why?" Layla questioned.

"Just because we're interdimensional creatures doesn't mean that we have the special ability to breathe in solid matter." Kari scoffed as she phases through the wall after taking a huge breath.

Mari grabs Layla's hand. "Take a deep breath," she said as she started to phase through the wall.

Layla takes a deep breath and starts walking through the wall. Her eyes bugged out as she felt like her body was being crushed but not at the same time. It was odd as she saw solid matter pass through her hand. As she left the wall on the other side she gasps for air, her lungs feeling like they were being liberated from the feeling of being crushed.

The inside of the pyramid was a negative version of the outside. Inside the floors were a black marble, Layla's boots echoing on the floor. The walls were also black and made with obsidian, decorated with tapestries depicting Bill with his blue flames surrounded by a crumbling society.

"Well… this demon is a little narcissistic…" Layla muttered as she walked down the massive hall.

"So is Master Magum…" Mari replies. She gasps aloud and slaps a hand over her mouth, her neon green eyes darting around frantically.

"Are you trying to get us killed?!" Kari hissed angrily.

Layla nods as she says, "She's right, Bill or something else might hear us."

"Not Bill!" Kari yelped as she covered her own mouth as her voice echoed. She then whispered, "Magum."

Layla's heart pounded in her chest. "What… what do you mean…?" she asked cautiously.

Kari then taps her head. "He is a telepathic demon," she explains. "He can read minds. Despite us having metal plates in our heads to keep Bill out, Magum still has full access."

"D-demon…? I thought that's what Bill was…" Layla stammered. "And metal plates…?" She put a hand to her head, knowing what was under the skin.

Mari widened her eyes. "You… you didn't know…?" the pink-haired girl gasped. "Magum is one of the most powerful demons in the multiverse next to Bill."

Layla took a few steps away from the two. "What… what are you talking about…? He was so nice…" she said, her breaths coming in gasps.

"That's a mask, you delusional human!" Kari shouted. "He does that to get followers, but to be honest he is just as bad or worse…"

"If he is so bad, then why do you work for him then!?" Layla spats. "What is making you stay there?"

"Torture," they replied in unison.

Layla narrows her eyes angrily. "I don't believe you," she huffed, her tone short. "He's been nothing but nice to me. He took me off the streets of an unknown dimension of God knows what, gave me a room, food, a way to help my nutrition, and help me get stronger…! So, until I see it, I won't believe you." She turns her back to the sisters and starts walking down the hallway, trying to get away from the conversation. Layla heard behind her, "She's going to go through hell." In a way she felt guilty as Mari was nice to her, and Kari may be rude she still probably didn't deserve the dark-haired girl to snap.

The trio got to the end of the hallway as Kari looked over a second part of the map, her looking to see where Bill's plans were. Mari looked over at Layla sadly, her neon green eyes seemingly to lose their glow. Kari found the next part of the mission so that they could steal Bill's plans.

As they walked through the hallways they stayed close to the shadows, occasionally seeing one of Bill's henchmen passing by. Soon they get to the chambers that held multiple orbs of various colors. Layla didn't even know some of the names of these colors, thinking that maybe that there weren't even names for some of them yet.

"So… which one holds the plans we need?" Mari asked as she walked to the orbs, touching a couple and watching a small scene play out.

"It should be a pure gold one…" Kari said as she started looking around.

As Layla looked around she stumbled upon the golden orb. It was a solid gold, and it showed no little scene like the other ones. For a moment she thought it was fake. Until she touched it.

Flashes of scenes rampaged through her mind, most of were that familiar cackle of Bill Cipher's. But then others went into her head… familiar scenes of her home in Gravity Falls…

The flashes stopped just as fast as they had happened, Layla gasping for air with a hand to her head. She grabs the orb and heads back to Mari and Kari, them still looking around for the orb that she had in her hand.

"I got it, let's go," Layla was saying but as she looked up from the orb she saw that both the sisters were in a tight grasp of a large monster that looked similar to a goblin except it had eight-balls for eyes. The orb falls from her hands and rolls underneath a nearby table that held more orbs.

The monster glares at Layla, both the sisters struggling in its tight grasp. It opens its mouth and lets out a roar as it rushed at Layla, the girl gasping as she turned tail and ran the opposite direction. She knocked down other tables that held orbs, trying to slow down the eight-balled eyed monster as much as she could.

She ended up tripping over a stray ball that she had knocked down that rolled by her foot. She yelped loudly as her body crashed into the floor, her head smacking against the hard surface, her feeling her hot blood pulse out of a new wound. Another scream erupts from her as she felt her leg being grasped by a large hand. Her body was hoisted up, the blood rushing to her head.

"A new one of Magum's pets?" the beast rumbled deeply. "Cipher will be pleased to know I caught three of your rats."

Kari began mumbling under breath. Suddenly she and Mari phased through the grip of the monster, them tumbling to the floor. Kari ran to where Layla had dropped the golden orb and tried to grab Mari's hand, but Mari ripped it away from her sister's grasp.

"We need to help Layla!" Mari hissed.

"Are you nuts!?" Kari demanded, her pink complexion darkening to a red. "She's a delusional human, leave her to rot!"

"No." Mari firmly told her sister as she rushed toward the monster. She mumbled like her sister did and the eight-balled eyed monster began levitating. It was so surprised that it dropped Layla, her wounded head once again smacking against the ground. "Get her!" Mari ordered her sister, her voice in such a harsh tone.

Kari's eyes widened, as if she never had heard her talk like that before, and rushed toward Layla. "You better be worth this," the blonde huffed as she helped Layla up.

"Trust me, I'm not," Layla replied, her words slurred from the blood loss.

Kari assists Layla out of the room, grabbing the orb and putting it in a side pouch on the way out, Mari running right behind them just as a large crash echoed in the hallway as they exited. Blood was pouring out of Layla's head wound, but she was beginning to get an adrenaline rush and the pain began to subside. The trio ran in the hallway, the tapestries that depicted Bill Cipher suddenly moving, and the eyes of the pictures following them with great interest.

An insane laughter echoed through the hallway, a chill running up Layla's spine. She knew that laugh…

"We need to move faster!" Layla cried out, her running toward one of the tapestries. She ripped one down and started carrying it with her.

"What is that for!?" Kari demanded, her neon green eyes narrowed.

"It'll come in handy!" Layla insisted as she ran past the sisters.

Just as the trio made it to the wall that they had phased in before, another girl that looked nearly identical to Kari and Mari stood there, blocking their way. The girl, like Kari and Mari, had neon green eyes, but unlike the other two this girl's eyes were narrowed dangerously and burned with a cold fire. She had pale blue hair that went down to her chin, her skin a pale yellow. She wore a golden dress that flowed down to her knees, ruffling at the bottom with black lace and a solid black petticoat. The girl wore black high heels and long black gloves that reached her elbows. All in all the girl looked elegant but dangerous.

"Sari!?" Mari gasped, her hands to her mouth to hold back a sob.

"Hello, my dear sisters," Sari greeted, her voice sounding identical to Mari's and Kari's voices, but it was hallowed out with a bitter coldness. "Have you two finally decided to join the lesser of two evils?"

"No!" Kari shouted, taking a step toward her lost triplet. "How can you do this to us, Sari!? Bill killed off most of our dimension…! Our parents… our little brother…! And you go and join him!?" Her breaths came in shallow gasps. She takes a deep breath and stands firmly on the ground. "You are no sister of mine after what you've done…! Now stand aside!"

A wicked smile spread across Sari's lips. "I'm afraid not, Kari," she lowly said. "Master Cipher hasn't distributed the plans quite yet, so it is still needed."

"Well, I don't give a damn!" Layla then shouted, taking a step toward the girl. "I need to get these plans to Magum, and I don't care if you're their sister or not, you are not interfering with my mission!"

Sari cocked her head to the side. "Oh? Another one of Magum's delusional pets? I almost feel sorry for you…" she sadly stated. "I'll put you out of your misery soon, young child."

"I'M SEVENTEEN!"

Sari paid no attention to Layla's statement as she raised up a hand and a bolt of blue lightning shot from her palm. Mari knocked Layla down so she wouldn't get hit, and Kari used her phasing spell to have the lightning go through her. More and more bolts shot from Sari's hand, the bolts hitting the floor and leaving scorch marks. Mari and Layla dodged some bolts with the levitation spell, and Kari phased as much she could.

"Foolish sisters," Sari chided. "Your potential is weak! You still use incantations!?" Another bolt of lightning that got dangerously close to Layla's head. "Kari, at this point you should be able to phase the entire room out of this building! And Mari, sweet little Mari, you should be able to levitate whole structures instead of bodies! I can see you're struggling just keeping you and the human girl up in the air!"

Layla still gripped the tapestry, her forming a plan in her head. "Mari… get me a little closer to Sari," she whispered to the pink-haired girl.

"WHAT!?" Mari hissed. "That could get us killed!"

"I'm gonna throw this over her head, and Kari can phase us out of here…" Layla explained. "Sari will be distracted and we won't hurt her… despite everything she is still your sister."

Mari bit her lip and gives a frim nod. "Oaky…" she agreed as she focused on getting closer to Sari.

Sari's focused on Kari, her lightning bolts getting faster and faster, Kari barley having enough time to phase. Kari's brow was soaked with sweat, her breaths coming in gasps. She was getting too tired… she couldn't keep up.

"HEY SARI!" Layla shouted right above the girls head. Sari whipped around, her dress flowing. "Lights out for you!" Layla throws the tapestry over Sari's head, it super long and getting tangled around her legs. Mari lowered herself closer to Kari and grabbed her arm. "Kari, can you phase one more time to get us out of here?" Layla asked the blonde.

"Yes…" Karis replied, a small smile on her face. "Thank you…"

"You helped me."

Kari managed to phase one more time to get the three through the solid matter. They made it through the other side just as the spot in the wall next them blasted apart. Sari stood in the hole, lightning crackling around her as the tapestry and the bottom of her dress torn to rags, her eyes wickedly dangerous.

"I was being nice to you!" Sari screeched, her voice exasperated. "I'm trying to convince you to join me! To join all this power!"

"We made our own stupid decision by joining Magum…" Mari admitted, her eyes filling with tears. "We did it so we could find you again so the three of us could go home together!"

"HOME!? WE DON'T HAVE A HOME ANYMORE, MARI!" Sari screamed at her sister. "Soon no one will have a home! The multiverse… no, the universe will either be under either Bill's or Magum's control… no matter what we must choose a side or die… why can't we be on the same side...? Please, sisters… stay with me with the orb and toss that human to the side."

"She is our friend, Sari," Kari then stated, something Layla thought she would never hear. "You betrayed our dimension and caused Bill to destroy it… I tried to forgive you for it, for your decision, but I can't…" The blonde slowly walked toward her sister. "You may be our 'big sister', but you are no longer our sister after everything you have done…"

Sari scoffed, "You can't be serious."

Layla takes a step forward. "It's not too late to change, Sari. You can your sisters can still be together," she says as she stood next to Kari.

Sari looked as if though she was doing some deep thought. A wicked smile then spreads across her face. "No." she stated as she raised her hands to do a double lightning bolt attack. However before she did Layla pushed Sari towards the wall as Kari helped, saying the incantation for the phasing spell.

"Wait… no!" Sari screams as her body was forced into the wall. Only her on hand stuck out, it frantically trying to grab the air, a muffling was heard in the wall.

"Even with all the power you had gained, you still can't breathe in solid matter, dear sister." Kari told the wall sadly as she watched as the hand went limp.

Mari choked back a sob, turning her head as her shoulders shook.

Kari takes out the orb from her pouch and hands it to Layla. "There… you have done your mission," she said in monotone.

"But at the cost of your sister…" Layla whispers. "That's not right…"

"She was going to be killed by Cipher anyway from not catching us… she was going either way," Kari muttered sadly. "It was better if it was by my hand…"

"It still doesn't make it right…" Layla told Kari.

Kari shrugs. "It's… it's fine…" her voice wavered as she walked over to a sobbing Mari. "It was like she was dead the entire time anyway… that wasn't Sari…"

The trio had made it back to their original sub-pocket dimension that held Magum's warehouse headquarters.

Layla held the orb tightly to her chest as they entered the warehouse, a scanner scanning their bodies to identify them. Mari and Kari had walked a little ways away from her as they made their way back to the warehouse, the two holding each other's hands.

Magum greeted them in the main lobby of the headquarters. "Greetings, ladies," he addressed. "It seems your mission was a success." He gestured at the orb that was in Layla's hands. He then gives a hard glare to Mari and Kari. "Don't think because you two were successful in this means you wouldn't be punished for insubordination."

Both the girls paled, almost looking white despite them having light purple and pink skin.

"NO!" Layla shouted in their defense. "Please, they are very nice! They helped with the mission…! They just lost their triplet, you can't punish them!" She had tears in her eyes, her gripping the orb so tight to her chest that it was beginning to hurt her.

Magum still looked at Mari and Kari with a hard look. He then glances at Layla and sees how sad she looked. He then gives a sigh. "Fine… there won't be punishment for insubordination." A sigh of relief came from both Mari and Kari as they collapsed to the floor, giving each other a hug. Magum then gently takes the orb from Layla, smiling in satisfaction. "Now, my dear Layla Amelia, how about you come with me?"

Normally Layla would've been excited with her heart fluttering in chest a million miles an hour, but since Mari and Kari's statement about him and his talking about them having a punishment, she was a little uneasy. But nonetheless, she followed Magum. He led her to a room, and once she was inside she recognized that it was the room that she had slept in the first night.

His private quarters.

"You look exhausted," Magum stated as he set the orb on a special stand on a tall bookcase that was filled with journals and atlases.

"Uh… yeah… it was pretty difficult," she admitted.

He goes to her and saw the wound on her head. "Hmm, I should've taken you to the healer first, but I have a few things here…" he mumbled to himself as he went to another drawer and took out a syringe. He injects it in her arm and the serum goes through her body and she feels her head heal. "There, not as professional as a healer, but you should be fine nonetheless."

"Is it true?" Layla suddenly blurted out.

"About what?" Magum questioned, him curious.

"That you are a demon."

Magum gives a shrug, "A demon. A god. Whatever works."

Layla then sits on the bed, putting a hand to her head. Everything that was said about him was true. And now that she saw how he was ready to punish Mari and Kari just for thinking poorly of him, her heart had fallen to the pit of her stomach.

He sits down next to her, putting an arm on her shoulder. "I can't tell what you're thinking…" he comments, him confused. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I don't know anymore…"

He then suddenly puts a hand on her waist and gives her a kiss, which surprised her as she had never had that done to her before. He parts the kiss, her heart thumping in her chest and her face was blushing a deep crimson.

"Remember when you said that you want to make up to me for my kindness?" Magum whispered to her. All she could do was nod, just barely as she was stone stiff. "How about you start making it up to me?"

"Yes."

A/N: Finally I got this done! Hopefully you guys enjoy a longer chapter!

Thanks for reading as always!

~Skye Hendersen~