Sekhmet: I actually wrote a huge chunk of this chapter, including a couple of Rose's lines, which I was not confident at all doing. Susano-o treasures Rose, so I wasn't at all confident taking the reins, but I think I did ok. Nothing super exciting happens here, it's mostly setup.

Susano-o: You did good.

Sekhmet: I dunno about that. But anyway.

Susano-o: Let's get jiggy with it.

Chapter 56: Desert Termina

(Terra Firma: 11,100-2500/2000)

As the blinding light cleared, the island wasn't an island anymore. The sky was a sickly gray-green, and the coast of the landmass was no longer surrounded by water, but gray sand. Three suns clustered in the sky, and hot dry wind seared the landscape.

"...What the fuck?" Rose deadpanned.

"So, we're on another planet I guess." Yuko grimaced, shading her eyes from the three suns.

"Well glad we can still breath," Chazz said looking around. "It looks like the entire island came with us."

"The entire island? At least that means everyone here is ok, right?" Syrus asked.

"Probably. But we should go find everyone, regroup before things get chaotic and people start panicking." Alexis said.

"Great idea. If anything, we don't need unsupervised panicking, someone could get hurt." Yuko said, and started to head off to find the rest of the students.

The PA system suddenly sprung to life. "Attention students, please report to the gym ASAP, and would Ms. Warren and her group please be so kind as to meet me in my fucking office right now!" Crowler yelled.

"I take it that's our cue." Jesse said. The rest of them nodded and left.

….

"Umm hello Dr. Crowler," Rose said waving sheepishly.

"Hello Ms. Warren," Crowler said calmly sitting behind his desk.

"Umm, you aren't mad?" Rose asked nervously.

"No no no," Crowler said calmly. "Why would I be angry, you know besides the fact the island has been transported outside of the fucking ocean!" He roared slamming his hands down on his desk. "What happened!?"

"Well we presume Viper's dead but we don't know for sure, the lab had an orange goo sack in it, it had enough energy at that point to cause a Resonance Cascade, and it seems to have stuck the island on a planet with three suns." Yuko said, listing the points off on her fingers.

Crowler sighed and rubbed his head. "And I can't get in contact with anyone landside," He mumbled. "Ok, first things first, we need to get everyone together and gather supplies."

"Black Knights return!" Syrus said happily.

"What?!" Rose said nervously. "I-I don't know about that…"

"What?" Syrus said, confused. "Why not? They'll fall in line again."

"Yeah Sarge," Hassleberry said, patting her back. "You've got this."

Rose gulped. "N-No," She stuttered. "No I can't do it."

"Ms. Warren?" Crowler said standing up. "We need your help, I can't control the students as well as you and I'm needed here trying to get in contact with someone who can help us and coordinating the staff, you're the only one who can corral the students."

Rose looked away, her face blank. Syrus suddenly puffed up and walked over to her. "Rose," Rose looked up just in time to see Syrus punch her in the face, knocking her on her ass. "Woman the fuck up!" He shouted.

"Private!" Hassleberry yelled in shock.

"You're not gonna piss around like this when we need you!" Syrus continued. "You wouldn't let me do that with our double duel and I sure as hell won't let you do that when we're in actual fucking trouble!" He finished panting.

Rose rubbed her cheek in shock, looking around at her friends, Rose let out a deep sigh. "You're right, I'm sorry," She said standing up. "Ok, let's go get the band back together," She said smiling.

"One more thing. You owe us all an apology." Yuko said.

"For what?" Rose asked.

"For how you've acted this year." Yuko said.

Rose sighed. "I'm sorry." It didn't sound sincere though.

"A REAL apology." Yuko said.

"That was a real apology!" Rose argued.

"I could hear you trying to cheese it. A real apology is all I want." Yuko insisted.

"Well I'm sorry for being a PTSD ridden mess that abandoned you!" Rose screamed. "Is that what you want?!"

"Probably not," The voice answered.

"And I'm sorry for being a bitch." Yuko said.

"Great!" Syrus said happily. "Now we don't need to fight anymore!"

"What?" Chazz said holding up his blunderbusses. "-But I just got these cleaned!"

….

Rose slammed the flag of the Black Knights into the gymnasium balcony. She looked over the crowd and had to smile at the multiple people who had already put on their Black Knight's jacket before coming in. "Alright everyone!" Rose shouted. "We have a crisis situation here! We're in the middle of bum fuck no where and we have absolutely no way to get in contact with anyone!" She explained. "So until Crowler and Bonaparte can establish contact with someone in the outside world we're on our own!"

Chatter filled the room. "On our own?" "No way!""We're gonna die out here!"

"Shut up!" Rose yelled. "Black Knight's alpha team you go dam up the pond so we can have water! Black Knight's gold team go tear apart the red and blue dorms for wood to make a defensive wall! The rest of you start getting shit together to turn this place into a livable habitat! Any questions!?"

"...Gold team rules!" Was the only response.

"Good now get moving!" Rose yelled.

…

Within the hour, the red dorm was already partially disassembled. All the furniture was in one pile and stacks of beams were starting to pile up. Unfortunately, progress was about to be interrupted.

A "Harpie Lady" circled overhead, surveying this new area that had suddenly appeared in the wasteland. Below, she saw humans scurrying around like ants, trying to disassemble a structure. Easy pickings, if she said so herself.

One of the smaller ones broke off from the pack, and she took her chance. Talons outstretched, she swooped down and snagged the child by his shoulders. She wasn't able to fly far though, as his screaming attracted another child who grabbed his leg, rendering her unable to escape with her prey.

"Let him go big bird!" Rose shouted, hitting her in the back with a tire iron. The impact caused her to let go and rocket far above the site. Sufficiently pissed off, when she regained her senses, she activated two of her abilities. The air around her reflected like a kaleidoscope, summoning her two sisters to the field. The second equipped all of them with golden armor.

"Fuck," Rose growled then an idea hit her. "I wonder," she mumbled, grabbing a Bio-Band from her shadow and putting it on. "'Masked HERO Koga', shred these birds with 'Shining Calibur!'" (2500/1800)

Koga emerged and jumped towards the harpies, slicing all three in half with a single slice. A shower of blood and guts coated the area below as they fell to the ground. Though they were still alive and in agony, 'Koga' put an end to it with three quick stabs to their heads.

"I hate this idea, but it might be the only way to defend ourselves." Rose thought. "Alright, listen up! Apparently the only way to summon your monsters is to wear the stupid bands. So everyone take a band, put it on, and we'll forget this ever happened!" She ordered, pulling more than enough bands out of her shadow for everyone. "And try not to summon your boss monsters all the time? As far as we know, these things are still stealing our energy."

…

With everyone equipped with the bands, work on the dam was going faster. A few people had even summoned their monsters to help. A restriction on boss monsters meant most of these were low level vanilla monsters, but there were a few heavy lifters around. A couple people had summoned a whole squad of "Nimble Beavers" after getting the unused cards from their room to reinforce the dam.

"As smoothly as this is going, I wish it was better." Yuko said, carrying a stack of bedding material from the dorms.

"What is not to like? You and that weakling made up. It was starting to bug us, that stupid tree withering in your soul. It was really disappointing too, I would have thought she would have more strength." Dreadroot sighed.

"People are fragile things. It's not a surprise at all she's cracked, but that was only an explanation, not an excuse." Yuko thought. She passed off the bedding to another student and went back for more.

"Hehehe! Cracked or not, her bones will make lovely soup. Just like any monster that crosses our path!" Eraser cackled.

"We're not putting her out of her misery. Are you insane?" Yuko thought.

"Yes! I thought that would've been evident by now!" Eraser laughed.

Yuko sighed and sat down for a second in a room and rubbed her face. "Who am I kidding? She'll never forgive me. She can't even forgive herself."

"User Yuko, a foreign object has been discovered in your soul room. Chance of you being pleased by the discovery: 90%." Avatar said. "Prepare to enter your soul room."

"Alright." Yuko said, and laid down on the floor. Within seconds of closing her eyes, she was transported into her soul room. The third tree had grown tremendously since she was in here last, it almost overshadowed the first one. The second tree, however, looked like it had been burned down but somehow still survived. At its foot was a black glassy orb about the size of Yuko's fist. She picked it up. "What's this?"

"Object seems to be a small fragment of the dark power given to us last year. Previous scans did not pick it up because it was so small." Avatar said. "It is too small to open a portal or do anything of grand scale, but it may still help in the future."

"A kernel of darkness… got it. Can't let Rose know about this." Yuko said.

As she left her soul room, the burnt tree shuddered.

...

The goo slithered through the cracks and crevices of the school, looking for its next host. "There must be someone here worthy of being my host. Someone cold and alone, who wants to change their fate, some foolish thought I can play off of." It thought. Peeking its approximate head out of a crack in the hallway wall, it laid its eyes on a lone, small Ra Yellow boy. "Yes, he will do."

The goo slithered over to the boy and sunk into his leg, infecting his very thoughts. The boy dropped what he was holding and clutched his head, trying futility to fight it off.

As the infection was completed, Blair walker around the corner and saw him struggling. "Hey Marcel, are you ok?" She asked, rushing over to try and help him.

Marcel stopped struggling. "I'm fine. But you won't be."

Blair screamed.