My blood went cold as Cherry stood before her Onion, fists clenched, stem stiff, wings twitching with rage. "How could you?!" she roared. "How could you just abandon me like that?!"

"Ch-Cherry!" I stammered, reaching after her. "D-don't! Please don't—!"

She spun around and shot me a paralyzing glare. My whole body turned to ice, and she promptly turned back to the Onion. "You KNEW the Purple Leader was a monster! You KNEW I wasn't safe with it! But you left me behind with it anyway! I never even got to SEE you!"

She glanced down at her pink form and groaned. "I don't look like it now, but I'm the last white! The one YOU made after all the others died! The one YOU abandoned!" She flapped her wings, slowly rising off the ground. "But I came back! Came back to saveYOU! Because I wanted YOU to know what a FAILURE you are!"

Against my better judgement, I looked back at the harlemin. I was met with a sea of ghastly faces, all transfixed with shock and disbelief.

"You could've left the FIRST time it happened! You could've left BEFORE you made me! You could've left AFTER I was plucked! But NO! You never even gave me a chance!" She was matching the Onion's height now. "I was your ONLY white! YOUR creation! But I STILL didn't matter to you! Did ANY white EVER matter to you?! Or were we just a means to an end?!" She shifted her seething gaze to the Orange and Black Onions. "And what about you two?! Have YOU ever cared about YOUR pikmin?! How could you have just allowed them to—"

"ENOUGH!"

Wind rushed past me as I shot into the air, my body acting of its own accord. I slammed into Cherry like a stone, and the world blurred as we hurtled to the ground. Pain crackled through my shoulder as I landed, and once my vision cleared, I pushed myself onto my knees. My heart pounded in my chest, and the words pounded in my head: What did I just do?!

Quivering, I looked aside at Cherry. She was lying face-up, breathing heavily and staring wide-eyed into nothing. "The blue," she murmured.

My face tensed. "What?"

"The blue," she said a bit louder. "He was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right about one thing. Onions don't care about pikmin."

I frowned. "Cherry... That's not..."

"Onions make us because they need us," she continued. "But they don't care about us as individuals. To them, we're just a group. A unit. A system to be maintained. That's why my Onion abandoned me. Because it knew I could be replaced." She rolled her eyes toward the white sprout, its stem waving eagerly. "And replace me it did."

A cold silence hung over the valley. With a hollow expression, she got up and trudged away, her head and stem slumping like a wilted flower. I didn't think to follow her. In fact, I didn't think at all. All I could do was dread, dread what was about to come.

And then it came.

It began as a few choked murmurs, then exploded into an uproar. The clamor was so thick that I couldn't even make out words, let alone sentences, but I didn't have to. Their tone told me everything.

The harlemin were in turmoil.

I couldn't bring myself to look back, but again, I didn't have to. Their cries battered me, pierced me, enveloped me—a maelstrom of shock and horror. The very shock and horror that I had suffered all those seasons ago. The very shock and horror that I had tried to protect them from.

The very shock and horror that Cherry was still carrying.

The ground sank beneath me. I was rising, but my wings weren't flapping. Rolling my eyes up, I saw Honeyglow lifting me by the stem. I was too dismayed to ask or even wonder what she was doing; the pandemonium below raked at my core even as it sank further and further away. Eventually, she slowed to a hover and spoke. "Spicebloom?"

No words came.

"Spicebloom!"

Still nothing.

"Spice! Snap out of it!"

I felt her give me a shake, but no words tumbled out. Suddenly my stomach dipped as gravity took over, dragging me toward the earth. Flailing my limbs, I strained my wings to break my fall, then shot up to Honeyglow's height. "What's your problem?!" I snapped.

"I had to wake you up somehow!" she replied urgently. "And for your information, there is a problem!"

"Yeah, I kinda already noticed!"

"A different problem!" she barked. "The Onions unfused!"

My brows furrowed. "So what?"

"The whole reason they fused in the first place was so they could stay put without causing another war! But now that they've gotten what they came for, they've unfused, which means..."

"...They're going their separate ways..." I breathed. "That... That can't happen! Not at a time like this!"

"Exactly! But what are we gonna do?!"

"I'll take care of it."

We turned and saw Peppergrass hovering before us. His stem was limp and his eyes were dark, as if he were half-drained of life. "How?" we asked in unison.

"I'll tell the Onions upfront that this isn't a good time. The harlemin are upset, and splitting them up will only exacerbate that. They'll understand."

I raised my brow. "You sure about that? I'm not convinced they have their priorities straight."

He grunted and shook his head. "Yes, Spicebloom, I know you have your doubts. And believe it or not, I do too. But there's no harm in trying. In the meantime, you might want to talk to Cherry. She needs you—perhaps more than ever now."

He flew towards the Onions without waiting for a response. I turned to Honeyglow, and she merely said, "I'll try to calm the harlemin down."

She descended, leaving me alone in the sky. Rotating, I gazed across the valley until I spotted Cherry. She was walking sullenly, seemingly going nowhere in particular. Sighing, I floated forward, allowing my altitude to gradually decrease. By the time I met the ground, I was within a few paces of her, but she either didn't notice or didn't care. "Hey," I said meekly.

She kept walking.

"Cherry, listen. I'm sorry. About everything. I'm sorry this all happened to you, and I'm sorry that I–"

"Don't waste your breath," she muttered. "I don't need apologies."

I frowned. "Then what do you need?"

She came to a stop. "What I need is an answer. Can you get me that?"

I rubbed my arm. "I don't know. But for what it's worth, I want an answer from my Onions, too."

She looked over her shoulder. "Because of the war?"

"Yeah."

She turned around. "Has that been bothering you this whole time?"

"I had forgotten about it for a long time," I admitted, "but then I was reminded of it. And it makes me angry. I kinda wanna... wanna..."

"Do what I just did?"

I looked away. "Yeah."

She stepped closer. "Then why don't you?"

"I was planning on it. I'm still planning on it. I just need the harlemin to not be around when it happens."

She gazed thoughtfully for a while, then walked right up to me. "Spice, you need to stop burdening yourself with these secrets."

My face tensed. "But..."

"I know you want to protect them. But I also know that you hate hiding the truth."

"You're right," I mumbled, remembering that fateful conversation we had all those seasons ago. "But you should know that the truth can be painful."

Her face tensed. "I won't deny that. But it'll be easier for them than it was for me. And besides, being left in the dark can hurt more. I know Moonflower's feeling that pain, and if she's getting wise to you, other pikmin will too."

My stem drooped. "You're right. It's only a matter of time, I suppose."

Cherry glanced down. "Look, I... I'm sorry I did that. I knew you wouldn't like it, but I was so angry and hurt and—"

"It's my fault," I blurted. "If I had been more honest with them, this would've gone differently. They would've already known your history. They would've seen where you were coming from." I sighed. "It's time I told them the truth. The whole truth. Even if it is terrifying."

"It will be terrifying," she replied. "But terrifying situations are where you shine best."

I could almost feel my eyes brighten at her words. I had come out here to console her, and yet here she was consoling me. "Cherry, I..."

She squeezed my hand. "We're gonna fix this, and we're gonna do it together. Alright?"

I nodded, hope crackling in my chest. "Alright."

We flew back to the crowd. They weren't making as much noise, but I could sense their unease even from far away. As we landed, frightened eyes fell upon us, and murmurs rippled about. Honeyglow promptly ran up to us, and I asked the obvious question: "What did you tell them?"

I made no effort to conceal this question; it was plain for all to hear. "Nothing specific," she replied. "Just that you two would be back and that we'd talk things out. They want to know what happened with Cherry, but I thought it'd be better if they heard it from her."

"Good call. And yes, we are gonna talk things out. Won't be an easy conversation, though," I mumbled.

"It absolutely will not be. There is some good news, though."

She pointed, and Cherry and I turned to face the Onions. At first nothing seemed out of the ordinary—just the familiar Harlequin Onion accompanied by the White Onion—but then it dawned to me.

The Harlequin Onion.

"They fused again!" I exclaimed. "But why?"

"Because I asked them to."

I looked aside and saw Peppergrass walking up to me. "I did exactly what I said I was going to, and they combined again. Doesn't necessarily mean they're staying here, but it does mean no one's getting split up."

I blinked. "Was it really that simple?"

He nodded. "You can thank me later. For now, let's deal with our next problem."

He motioned towards the harlemin. I glanced and saw that they were still staring at Cherry, their gazes probing and wary. A sigh escaped my mouth, but then I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Spicebloom," said Cherry. "Let me do the talking."

I raised my brow. "Are you sure?"

"It's my story. I should be the one to tell it."

"But I thought we were doing this together?"

"We are, and you'll get your turn. But this part is about me."

My stem drooped slightly. "Alright. I'll leave it to you."

She stepped away from me and stood before the crowd. They all lowered their stems as she began to speak. "Alright everyone, listen up. I'm going to tell you my story. It won't be easy to hear, but you deserve the truth."