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Chapter Text

One by one the stars went out, snuffed out by a darkness so thick that it seemed so close to smothering even the lights far beneath the starless sky, fires howling as Nozomi could do nothing but watch. The Palmier Kingdom was all aflame, its burning houses a thousand torches in the dark, but even those fires began to dim as the utter blackness of the sky drank all the colors from the world. Then the blazes, too, faded away gradually as the buildings began to collapse, leaving only ruins behind, and a funereal silence.

A sickening smell of ash and smoke went deep into Nozomi's nose when she breathed, until she could feel nothing else. Far away, she still heard the fire crackling, mocking her for her failure. The exhaustion made the fairy on her hands seem so heavy, but she could not leave Coco behind. He was the only fairy she had found in the ruins of the kingdom. Unconscious, hurt, close to death. But, for now, alive.

She looked up again, hoping to see a flimsy sparkle, a star that dared defy the darkness, but the sky was now only a canvas where too much black ink had spilled, and, powerless to do anything but watch it engulf everything in its path, Cure Dream chose to turn the other way, and began to run.

From what, she did not know, but she could hear something chasing after her. Heavy footsteps that boomed behind her followed as she ran across the barren land, through clouds of brown dust. Under her feet was only dry, fissured stone, without the slightest sign that there had ever been a living thing there. But Nozomi knew that just one day ago, this place had been a forest of lush greens, of tall trees and birds that dwelled there, a place of uninterrupted sounds, the buzzing of insects and the rush of water. Just one week before, she and Komachi had been there together, on their way to the Palmier Kingdom. Now no trace remained of the long dirt roads she walked with Komachi. The others could not come; Rin was needed at the Trump Kingdom, Lemonade at Majorland, and Aqua had been given a secret mission from Cure Mirage, one she couldn't even share with her friends. Nozomi wondered where they were now, and hoped they had better luck than Komachi.

Mint had stayed behind so that Dream could escape with the prince of the Palmier Kingdom. Reluctantly, Nozomi left her behind, but now she wished she hadn't. She should have stayed there to fight. But now, she knew, it was too late to turn back. She had to find the other Precure, wherever they were. If there were any of them left. Something had to remain of the Red Rose, something had to, something always had. Only this hope urged her forward, the hope of finding someone who would know what to do.

Nozomi didn't dare to look behind her, to see what horrors pursued her. Nightmare was behind her, she knew, but it wasn't only Nightmare that attacked the Palmier Kingdom this time. Under the night's veil, someone had opened the gates for Nightmare, for Eternal, for the Desert Apostles. Why they were suddenly working together, no one could tell, but it seemed to be like this all over the world. They had gotten messages from Cures Marine, Sword, White and Muse, all of them asking for help, all of them attacked by many enemies all at once. As the hours passed by and Dream and Mint tried to keep the invaders at bay, the news they got from other lands became worse.

The Heart Tree has burned down. Verone Academy has fallen. We lost contact with Cure Tender. The Trump Kingdom lies in ruins. Send help, please. Please…

There was no help coming, even Nozomi could tell, not for her, and not for anyone, no heroic rescue at the last minute. Everywhere they lost, and as they lost, the stars went out as one by one the Starlight Flames were extinguished. One by one the realms fell. One by one the voices were silenced and the reports she received came to frightful halts.

Nozomi ran through the night with no stars to guide her. She did not know where she was going, and only followed the wind, for lack of better guidance. Soon, she could not hear her pursuers anymore, and silence fell over the world. Coco hadn't awakened yet, and the little strength Nozomi had left was beginning to fail her, as she could barely hold on to the small fairy. Still, Nozomi did not give up, and kept him close until the night was done.

The sun rose red, a bleeding wound in the sky, as nightmarish as the starless sky had been. Sunlight brought no comfort nor solace, burning so brightly as to hurt Nozomi's eyes. Hungry and weary, she sat down, for a moment, to rest, gently placing the unconscious fairy on the ground next to her. Hours before, her legs hurt, but now she didn't even feel them anymore. She knew that pain was, if nothing else, a sign of life; numbness the herald of death. Only her belly rumbled and ached, its emptiness almost too uncomfortable to bear. Her mouth was dry and her lips were cracked, painful to the touch. On instinct, she reached for her bag, but she didn't have it.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. In her haste she had forgotten to take it with her. Her waterskin was there, and some food as well. She always forgot things like this, but this time she was not fortunate enough to have someone undo her folly. Usually Rin would call her empty-headed then give her some of her food, but Rin wasn't here. Instead, she would starve. What great fortune, to escape the destruction of the Palmier Kingdom, only to die anyways, a slow death in fear and confusion. Her fist hit the ground in anger at herself and at the world, her knuckles cracking. The pain returned then, her arms quaking, but she didn't find the strength to scream.

Nozomi poked at the fairy's furry belly, to no reaction. She could feel his heart beating quick, but otherwise he showed no sign of life. He too would hunger when he woke up, she realized. Well, if he woke up. That was an increasingly unlikely prospect. Still, if he woke, Nozomi had no idea how she would feed him, when she had no idea how to find any food for herself.

She looked around, and saw little but lifeless rock, cliffs like spears pointing at empty skies. The earth itself had been torn apart, its surface cut to shreds and rearranged randomly. Far away, she saw mountains rising high, then suddenly disappearing into dark abysses. The landscape was cut by the course of empty rivers where nothing flowed, sinkholes that lead to nowhere and did not seem to have an end, everything colored a dull grey.

By far the worst blight in the world, however, was that huge tower looming over everything. It seemed taller than any mountain, high enough to cut through the thin, flimsy clouds. From atop it, Nozomi had no doubt that one could see for countless miles. From where she stood, she could see hundreds of little black dots on the walls, windows to Nightmare's office. This building wasn't there just yesterday. Now it consumed the landscapes of the Palmier Kingdom like a parasite.

She hadn't forgotten her Farspeak Mirror, at least. She gazed upon it, seeing only her own face. Her index ran across the silver surface, drawing magical runes as she attempted to contact any Precure that might answer, but none did. Rouge was the first she reached out to, but all Nozomi got in response was silence. That too was the answer she got from Lemonade, from Aqua. The Precure from Majorland didn't answer either, or the ones from the Phoenix Tower, and the Land of Fountains was silent was well. Had they too been conquered? Nozomi didn't want to think so, but what else could she believe? White light shone upon her, a light revealing emptiness, until it was gone; the very magic that created the Mirror was fading, dying as the stars were consumed. Soon, no matter what Nozomi tried, the Mirror only showed her own face.

She considered throwing it aside in frustration, picturing shards of glass raining over the ground. Instead, sighing, she picked up Coco's limp body again. She could feel his breath when she put him close to her face, but no matter how much she tried to awaken him, he didn't. But she could not abandon him, so she went on her way, not knowing where to go, knowing onl that she couldn't stop moving.

Warm winds blew as the ardent sun scorched her back. Nozomi glimpsed at it for a second, but the light blinded her. Quickly she learned to avoid the red sun, to walk in the shadow. That did little to spare her the infernal heat, but at least she could see what was ahead of her, for what little good that did her.

Dream wondered where she was. She couldn't tell by looking at her surroundings; this land was broken beyond recognition. She was going north, she thought, but had no way to be sure. If she really was headed north, then she was probably at the Montblanc Kingdom's borders now, though they did not look at all like it. No, she thought, it wasn't right. There would be many towns along the way if I really was headed north. Unless they were all gone…

Then again, that would be completely unlike Nightmare. They didn't destroy, they dominated, enslaving those who lived on lands they controlled. This couldn't be the road north, Nozomi decided. South, then, to the Bavarois Kingdom? Did it even matter anymore? Everything was gone, it seemed, with even the stars robbed from them.

She kept walking, even when the pain returned and was almost too much tobear. She had to find someone, she could not give up. So long as she tried to look for survivors, for other Precure, they hadn't lost yet. If she gave in to exhaustion, to despair, and let herself fall and wait for hunger to take her, then the Precure were truly defeated. As far as Nozomi knew, she could very well be the last of the Pretty Cure, the last light still shining, so she had to fight even harder. One last defiance.

Nozomi crossed through narrow paths between the rocks, through pitch black caves that she had no way of knowing would lead her anywhere. The world was buried in mournful silence broken only by the sound of her footsteps on the lifeless earth and, sometimes, when it was very quiet, Coco's pained breathing. His chest rose and lowered slowly, his strained body trying its best to stay alive. He wouldn't last much longer. He was close to her chest now as she gave him all her warmth, and she could feel his wheezing, his effort to breathe, but Nozomi did not know what to do. Inori was the one who always took care of sick fairies, and Karenalso kenw how to nurse them to good health when they fell ill, but Nozomi couldn't even begin to imagine what to do. If this poor fairy died in her arms… Just the thought made her want to cry, but somehow she didn't. She couldn't.

When the sun set, Nozomi almost missed it, blinding as it was. At least during the day she could still see. The last night she had her magic's light to help her know where she walked, but now even that that was too much of a strain on her body. She hardly had the strength to keep moving, so where would she find power to use magic? It was a miracle that she hadn't been found by any enemies, because if she had, she doubted she would be able to fight back. Did they know she was still alive? Even if they did, maybe they decided it was too much effort to hunt her down. She would succumb to thirst soon enough, after all. Why waste your time on the dead?

No, not dead, not yet. That would mean she gave up, and that was just unacceptable. This would not be the first time the Precure found themselves in a dire, hopeless situation, but if they had ever given up the fight all those times, then Nozomi wouldn't even be there. The world would have ended long ago, but time and time again the Precure found hope where it seemed like there wasn't any. Nozomi would just have to do the same, somehow. Somehow…

In the dark, all she had to guide her was the wind blowing against stone, and even that wasn't much help. Nozomi extended her hand to feel the rocks around her, walking slowly and carefully, always making sure that there was solid ground under her before she put her foot down. To fall on a hole she didn't see would be too humiliating, and she didn't think she had the strength to get up if that happened.

Far away, she heard a sound, she thought. Nozomi focused on it, to try and tell what it was, but it was too distant. It might not even be there, actually. Maybe her hearing was beginning to go, maybe she was mad from thirst and hunger… But what choice did she have? She couldn't think of any better options, so she followed the faint noise until she could hear more clearly.

It sounded like water flowing. Am I so certain that it is water? She prayed she was right, and kept going, stone brushing against her face as her path narrowed more and more, until she had to squeeze between the rocks to get past. The sound was louder now, and for once, Nozomi felt some relief. She might just survive after all. The fairy in her arms, though… Well, no use worrying about that just now. First she had to reach the water.

Light, she thought, and a small pink star shone on the tip of her finger. It was not much, but it was enough for her to see what was just in front of her. Tall and thick trunks, leaves that would cover the stars in the sky, if there were any. It felt as if there was still life in this place. Now it was not dry rock that touched her face, but big leaves caressing her as she walked. Nozomi tried to remember what forest this could be, but she was too weak to recall, the world too distant from the blur of her mind.

Nozomi felt as if her last strengths were leaving her, the light in her heart growing dimmer by the second. She could only see what was directly before her, and her body felt as if it was being torn apart from every side. Pain grabbed her legs, her arms, her head, and pulled them all at the same time. Dream knew she had no more life in her but this last desperate struggle, so if she was wrong, if her last hope failed her and she couldn't find any water, that would be the end. But no, it couldn't be the end, the sound was so close now, she could hear it clearly, she could almost smell fresh water in the air. That made her even thirstier, even as she thought her craving couldn't possibly be any greater.

When the lake appeared in front of her, Nozomi fell to her knees, and almost threw herself on its waters. Instead she put Coco atop a pile of soft leaves, and scooped out as much water as her hands could hold, and buried her face in it. Most of the water she didn't even drink, and instead Nozomi just felt it against her dry skin. She had almost forgotten how it felt. Cool and refreshing, a gentle breeze's kiss. On the surface of the lake were leaves that had fallen from the canopy, but Nozomi easily avoided them. She drank until she was satisfied, and then drank even more. She still hungered, but it was easier to survive on an empty stomach than on a dehydrated body. Karen had taught her that, and Nozomi never forgot the things that Karen said. Not when Karen repeated them often enough.

Nozomi splashed some drops of water on Coco's face, hoping that might awaken him, but it was in vain. She opened his tiny mouth and gently gave him some to drink. She feared he might choke, but he didn't. His breathing relaxed, too, and he didn't look like he was at death's door anymore. Nozomi smiled again, finally. At least something didn't go wrong.

She laid down next to him, resting her head on fallen foliage. After everything she had been through, it felt like a greater comfort than any she had ever known. The light that shone on her hand went out, and she closed her eyes. Odd, she thought for a moment before the darkness of sleep took her. It feels so cold.

The night was dark, but Reika's eyes had gotten used to it. Not enough that she could see her path clearly, of course, but at least she wasn't tripping on vines. It had been one day since the stars went out, closer to two days now, yet it felt like a lifetime had passed since they last shone.

She hadn't found anyone yet, though perhaps that was for the best. When she escaped Märchenland's capital, both Nightmare and the Bad End Kingdom gave chase, putting some of their best hunters on her trail. So far Beauty had managed to outrun them, had even found a temporary shelter, but if her pursuers located her, she did not know if she'd be able to fight them off.

Most importantly, though, was finding another living Precure. Reika knew there was no way she'd be the only survivor. No, that made no sense. Moonlight still lived, she was sure of that, and Mirage as well. They always seemed unbeatable, and Reika could just not believe that they'd be caught unaware. They would never let the Precure fall. They were still there, Reika only had to find them.

And find herself as well, of course. She had fled to the west, to the other fairy kingdoms. Most likely, she was in the Doughnut Kingdom now, or, at least, close to it. She had found a village on her way, but when she tried to talk to its inhabitants, she saw their faces hidden by masks, and they simply ignored her. They were fairies, most of them, but some humans lived there as well, but they too were masked, silent. At once Reika recognized it as Nightmare's work, and that was when she understood that it was not just Märchenland that had fallen. It was the whole world. Only that could explain the death of the stars, too; they shone because of the Starlight Flames, sacred relics of an era long gone by. So long as the Starlight Flames were alight, the stars would burn as well.

But now the skies were dark, and the stars were all dead. Darkness had fallen over the world, and Reika could just barely see her surroundings. A forest, large and dense. There were supposed to be all sorts of critters here, she had read about the fauna of the Doughnut Kingdom, but all she saw were spiders. There was no sound of life, no chirping of birds, nothing but water calmly flowing in the distance. Reika's waterskin was almost empty, she remembered. She should fill it.

Oddly, she felt at peace when she sat next to the lake. Tiny leaves were blown against her face, but Reika only brushed them away. The scent of water filled the air, a pleasant smell. She touched the surface of the lake with the tip of her fingers, and suddenly felt cold. Where she touched, the water began to freeze. She took out her fingers, and the ice melted immediately, but the breeze grew colder. She felt a strange presence; someone was nearby.

"Who is it?" She tried not to sound scared, but it was hard to; she was too used to fighting with her companions, and though she did not doubt her own skills, Reika did not want to fight alone.

There was no answer, no sound but the water, the flowing river that fed this lake. Maybe it was just her imagination… No, she knew, there was someone here. Reika looked around, and saw no one. She took careful steps, scanning her surroundings, until she stumbled on something on the ground. Before she looked at it, Reika poked it with the tip of her boot, and heard whining. It was a girl's voice.

"Who are you?" She asked, then approached to take a better look. In the dark, it was hard to tell her face, but it was definitely a girl, sleeping atop leaves. Reika asked again, but she didn't answer. She didn't know who she was, and for some reason she had a fairy with her. Reika tried to wake it up, but the fairy seemed unconscious. Why? Reika knew that Nightmare's employees were interested in fairies, and even before the kingdoms fell, they frequently kidnapped its denizens, so often that she could not help but suspect a person with an unconscious fairy.

But she didn't seem like a threat. She seemed almost like a Precure in the dark. This girl seemed exhausted, and her fairy seemed hurt. They needed help. Reika had little food for herself, and she didn't even know who this girl was, but if she was a Precure, then she definitely had to help her.

Reika picked her up, then the fairy, and carried them home. It was a bit heavy, but in the dark, she walked slowly anyways, so it made no matter. What mattered was that there were more Precure, that their hopes were not yet dead. Yes, that mattered more than anything else. That made all the pain and burdens go away.

Nozomi opened her eyes, and could not recognize where she was. She jumped out of bed, startled, hands closed into fists, certain that someone had kidnapped her, and was going to hurt her and Coco. Instead she saw a blue-haired girl sitting on a chair next to her bed, smiling gently, and she felt so embarrassed, and sat down again.

"Thank goodness," the girl said, her eyes meeting Nozomi's. They were a dark blue, and looked almost cold, but her smile was so warm. She felt trustworthy. "I thought you weren't going to wake up. You must have been really tired, no?"

"Y-Yes," Nozomi said, still confused. She looked around, and saw a small room with a single bed. Suddenly she felt guilty; this girl must not have slept so that she could take care of Nozomi. "Thank you for helping me and my… My friend."

"You're quite welcome," she said, eyes like winter, lips like summer. Not a harsh winter of blizzards and sorrow but a pleasant one, perfect to make oneself cozy under heavy blankets, and have hot chocolate with friends. Even that seemed like such a distant memory to Nozomi now.

There was a small oven on a corner of the room, some wood right next to it. It wasn't just a room, Nozomi understood. This was the entire house. Awfully small… She wondered where she was. A painting hung on the wall, too small for Nozomi to tell what it was.

"I'm sorry if I'm being rude," Nozomi said, "but who are you?"

"I'm Reika Aoki," she said, and didn't seem to take any offense. "Cure Beauty."

Nozomi jumped up again, in shock. Reika was taken aback by that, and moved a little bit away from Nozomi.

"Sorry!" Nozomi said. "Didn't mean to startle you. It's just… You're a Precure! Like me! I didn't know if I'd be able to find any, I was almost thinking I was the last Precure, but… I'm not! You're here!"

"Calm down, please," she said, and Nozomi obeyed with difficulty, restraining her enthusiasm. "So you are a Precure, like I thought… Who are you, though?"

"I'm Nozomi Yumehara, Cure Dream. And you're Cure Beauty! I heard about you! You fought with Moonlight, didn't you?"

"I did, once."

"What a honor… You must be so strong if you fought by her side…"

"You flatter me. Moonlight did most of the fighting, I was there only to provide some support," Reika gestured as if asking to drop the subject. "Anyways, I found you two passed out near the lake, and I brought you here. I found this house abandoned two nights ago, so I thought it'd be alright if I took shelter here. It does not appear that its previous inhabitant might return anytime soon. As for you, though you look a little bit skinny, you're fine, I think. No fever, no profound wounds. It was a great relief. Your fairy, however, hasn't awakened yet."

"Coco…" Nozomi had promised to protect him when she was sent to the Palmier Kingdom for her duty, but clearly she failed. Nuts was gone as well, and knowing what Nightmare did to any fairies it captured, she couldn't imagine a fate that was not horrifying.

"It's odd, though," Reika said. "I put some food in his mouth, and he ate it normally. He drank water, too, and he's breathing normally, but still he won't open his eyes. Whatever ails him is likely something of magical nature. I don't know what is his affliction, nor do I know what to do."

"I don't know either," Nozomi admitted. "But at least he's not in urgent danger, is he? He is alive, and doing all that it takes to remain so..."

"Alive, yes. I suppose we should be grateful we can say that about him. Still, we'll need to take care of him to make sure nothing happens. And I have no idea how to wake him up. Magic binds fairies to the land, to the world, but it is now scarred... I wonder if that might be the cause..."

Reika guided Nozomi to a small wooden table, where Coco rested. It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with him now. He just looked like he was asleep.

"Beauty," Nozomi approached her, whispering, though she did not know why, "what about the other Precure? Is there any word of them?"

"My companions were at Märchenland when it was attacked," she said. "Well, most of them. Happy, Sunny and March were there with me, but Peace's presence was requested at Verone Academy just one week ago. I don't know if she ever reached it, though."

"W-Where are they now?" Nozomi asked, dreading the answer.

"I don't know," Reika said, pained. "I hope they managed to flee as well. Prince Pop helped us escape the palace, but we were separated from one another in the aftermath. Happy had Princess Candy with her, too, and I pray they are safe. But other than that, I do not know."

"And the Cures from other lands?"

"I was hoping to find them," Reika said. "But I didn't have the time to search yet. I found you only by chance."

"I tried to contact the others, but no one answered. The Heart Tree burned down, and Verone Academy was destroyed," upon hearing those words, Reika's eyes began to water, though she immediately tried to conceal her feelings from Nozomi, to no success. "The Trump Kingdom was attacked as well. That's all I know, as I heard nothing after that, and had to flee for my own life, besides."

"So my fears were all true… The entire world was attacked," she said, and sat down next to Nozomi. Her eyes were dull, but she seemed about to break down. "Everywhere... Everywhere the Precure held power, everywhere brought the direst of news. If the Red Rose fell, and the Phoenix Tower with it, then... Then what do we do? Can we even do anything?"

"Of course we can!" Nozomi declared as she grabbed Reika's hands. "We're Precure, aren't we? We can't give up. Not now, nor ever."

"But how-"

"We are still alive, aren't we? We're weak, we're hurt, we're broken, but we're alive, and I'm sure the other Cures are alive as well. Maybe we can't talk to them yet, because their lights have gone out, like the stars in the sky, but I know they're there. They're not gone, they're just not shining right now."

"You're probably right," Reika sighed. "I'm sorry. I did not mean to despair. It's just been hard on me, and I've never fought alone. I'm still not sure about what I should do."

"It's alright," Nozomi smiled. "I don't know either. So we can figure it out together."

Reika nodded, and got up, thoughtful. She opened the door and walked outside, and Nozomi followed her.

"This is still our world, isn't it?" Reika said, looking in the distance. "Broken, but not dead... " Suddenly, she turned to Nozomi, and looked deep into her eyes. "More than any time before, we the Precure will need to stick together. I don't know where the others are, but maybe the two of us can find them. I don't like to ask for help, but I can't do it on my own, so I need you to fight with me."

"There's no shame in that," Nozomi said. "I can't do it on my own either. That's why the Precure all fight together, no?"

"You're right," she giggled.

"Well, then, it's decided!" Nozomi declared. "Let's fight together, and find the other Precure, until we can fix our world. I don't know how, but we'll think of something, right?"

"We will," she said, determined. "Somehow we'll make the stars shine again."

Chapter Text

The day dawned cold, the skies colored the dark grey of heavy clouds. The red sun cut a hundred holes through the clouds, but even so its fearsome light never quite reached the damp and dark surface. Since the world fell, it had been like this. Some days were scorching hot, and the slightest movement would lead Reika to melt in sweat, while others were cloudy, melancholic, their hours stretching to exhaustion. Though the burning days were unbearable in their own way, at least they brought with them some light, even if it was a frightening, bloody color.  The darkness was worse. The light fought to gleam through the clouds, but their darkness devoured it despite its effort. It was crueler than death, silence and stillness. 

Nozomi was still asleep, and Reika felt no joy in awakening her only to see grey skies of sadness. Their small shelter was getting quite cramped now that a week had passed and they had scoured the nearby lands and cities in search of supplies. Taking things from others was against everything the Precure stood for, but they had no choice now. Desparation made vermin of them.

They found Nozomi's bed at what had once been a small furniture store. When they searched the city together, Reika's attention was drawn to the strangeness that blanketed it; how the streets were deserted, but they were still clean, and the buildings all intact, as though they were preserved for some unknown purpose. Far away, the Doughnut Castle still stood proud, its stones untouched, its towers still watching over the city, even as there was nothing to watch. The city was less broken than empty. Frosting, this city had been called once, but nothing about it held the slightest hint of frost; it was always hot, as Nightmare's furnaces never stopped burning. Nightmare was quick to turn this once cheerful place into an industrial complex. The transformation was not yet complete, but the skies were already beginning to be obscured by black smoke coming out of chimneys, and an oppressive orange glow melted into the distant haze.

"Strange," Nozomi had said. "This place has not been put to the torch like Palmier. Conquered, not destroyed."

"Perhaps they meant to make an example of the Palmier Kingdom?" That didn't seem like something that Nightmare would do, though. They rarely destroyed, and instead they enslaved. But no other explanation came to Reika.

From time to time they saw fairies in a hurry, but their faces were all obscured by Nightmare's masks. They were working somewhere nearby, enthralled by Nightmare. Whenever she saw one of Nightmare's victims, Nozomi's expression grew somber, angry. She would not forgive this. 

They returned home before nightfall, knowing full well the terrors that might be lurking in the dark, hunting them. The Precure had underestimated their enemies, once, and because of that they were unprepared when they fell upon them with flame and darkness, with steel and claws. Now Reika learned to see threats in every shadow.

Every morning, before they ate together, Nozomi followed a brief ritual: she'd always wish a good day to Coco, though the fairy was still deep in slumber, resting on another tiny bed they had taken from Frosting, and had no way of answering, or even listening. She still insisted on doing it. Then, she would try to reach out to the other Precure through the Farspeak Mirror a dozen times each morning, and a dozen times she was answered by silence.

Nozomi kept toying around with the Mirror, but Reika knew it would be a waste of time, a waste of hope. Each time Nozomi brought colors to the Mirror's surface to contact someone, stars sparkled in her eyes, but with each silent answer her hopes were dashed to pieces. Already its magic was fraying, and soon even the colors would fade, but Nozomi clang to hope. This was taking a heavy toll on her, Reika noticed. She'd start her task with a smile, and slowly her face would contort into a frown as she sighed with each failure. By the end of it, she was so depleted even eating with Reika sometimes seemed to be beyond her strengths.

It was no feast, quite the contrary: there were days they could eat some actual fresh food, when they found ripe fruits in the old forest, lucky to have survived. This was not one of those days, however. Last night they came home empty-handed, exhausted and soaked by the heavy rain that took them by surprise. All they had to eat this morning was the canned food they had taken from Frosting. Peas and corn and beans were the options before them, though it didn't actually matter as they all had no taste.

"This is disgusting," Nozomi said as her beans slowly slid off the can. Reika's corn didn't look much better, colored a sickly white. "I might just throw up…"

"Could you please not talk about vomit?" Reika asked, trying to convince her brain that her clumps of corn did not look like they'd been freshly retched - the only fresh thing about them. "It's already hard enough to swallow this stuff…"

They each had a single cup of water to wash down that grub, and they certainly needed it. Even now, water running down her throat was a pleasant feeling, one Reika could not afford to feel too often. Their food and water, shoddy as they were, had to last as long as possible, as the chance to find more only appeared very rarely.

When they were done eating, Reika opened the old icebox to check their supplies. This box was there when Reika first arrived, and she wondered how old this place could be. All around were termites, and there were holes on portions of the walls. At night, the cold wind blew through them, and though that didn't trouble Reika too much, Nozomi shivered as she slept. When it was too windy, the ceiling began to tremble, too. This shelter wouldn't last long.

They still had water for two more weeks, and food for just one. They were eating as little as they could, and hunger was a constant companion to Reika, but even so their provisions wouldn't last very long. On their first day together, Nozomi had helped Reika count, but quickly she revealed she had a very bad mind for numbers. And for many things, in fact. Reika was glad to have someone with her, but still, sometimes she caught herself wishing she could have a more dependable ally.

"How much do we have?" Nozomi asked, though clearly what she meant was, "how long do we have to eat this garbage?"

"Enough for us to survive a while longer, to figure out what to do," in truth, it had been a week already, they should have already have an idea of what to do, but whenever Reika tried to think of something, she was lost.

Above her the sky was sometimes too bright, sometimes so dark that it smothered Reika's hopes. All around her was a lifeless wasteland, nothing to see but Frosting, that dead, dreary city. She was beginning to think there was nothing they could do but just survive.

"Alright," she said, resigned, then sighed. Not a sigh of annoyance, but a long, soft sigh of sadness, that hung in the air.

"Is something bothering you?" A daft question, of course. What reason did they even have to not be bothered?

"It's kind of silly, childish, but… Well, whenever I have to eat that… That stuff, I think about how much I miss my mother's cooking. Ah, it was so good. She made these fluffy eggs that tasted like heaven… No, better. I just… I wish I could eat them again. Or anything, doesn't even have to be eggs. Doesn't even have to be food, I just… I just want to see her again."

"N-Nozomi, are you-"

"I'm alright, yeah," she wiped her tears away before they even started falling. It was as if she hadn't even felt any sadness; she had a smile again, and even laughed a little. Reika did not understand how someone could bury their pain so quickly, but somehow Nozomi could.

Reika opened the door, and stepped outside to witness the desolation. It never stopped hurting, she never got used to it. The world was not yet dead, but it was dying, agonizing, a pitiful thing. The wind brushed her skin with its stinging cold. Often the wind felt only like the world's last breath, saying a soft lament that Reika couldn't understand. Sometimes she even thought she heard something, but that was foolish. Gusts don't speak.

"What will we do today?" Nozomi asked, bright eyes looking deep into Reika's. "Searching for food, again?"

"Maybe," Reika wasn't sure. She couldn't think of much else to do. They needed food, but at the same time, just searching the woods for fruits that might not even be there would get them nowhere. "Do you have an idea?"

"Not really," she admitted. "Do you?"

The wind blew again, sending their hairs back, making tangles out of them. Reika looked around, silent, careful. There was plenty to see, but little of any value. Nightmare's tower was a dark dot, miles away. Someday, they would need to do something about it, but not now. There had to be something they could do, somewhere to go, something to show that the Precure were not defeated, that they were still fighting. Her eyes met Frosting, in the distance, smoke rising high into the sky, and then she smiled.

"Actually, I do."

Maria promised to return soon, and just before leaving she told her to wait here, and so Iona waited. She waited from dawn to dusk, day after day. She waited as the sun shone through the shattered windows like a tongue of fire, she waited as her roof seemed certain to collapse from the heavy rains and winds, droplets falling loud as bombs above her head. She waited as day after day her modest pantry became more and more empty, she waited as her water bottles depleted until there was nothing in them but a few drops, little more than watery whispers that did nothing to sate her thirst. She was doomed like this, she knew, but Iona still waited for Maria, as her sister always kept her promises.

And then one morning she woke up, belly hurting from starvation, throat dry, begging for water. She opened the window, looked outside, and saw grey skies that stifled her last hopes. The night was devoid of stars and light, but until then, the mornings were ravaged by a cruel sun that served as no relief. It burned without mercy, its heat everlasting, first making her sweat, then making it seem as if that very sweat was about to boil. Iona quickly learned to not stay outside very long, her reddened skin reminding her of that should she ever forget. Even so, even though it hurt, she still had this one last light to guide her.

But not today. Now even the sun escaped her grasp, avoided her gaze. The last star was hidden behind a curtain of grey, and then Iona knew that waiting was hopeless. Maria would not come back. She was gone. Maria, her dear sister… Cure Tender, her brightest star… But all the stars were gone, and Maria with them. It was time to leave, she knew that now. She opened the door, and left her family's house behind.

Iona travelled light; not by choice, for she had very little left to take with her. Cards to tell the future, seashells to hear whispers from faraway places, black and white and red candles, and matches as well, to see tomorrow in the fires, and in the remains the blazes left behind. She only took them out of habit, however; they were all useless, all of them beyond her understanding.

If she could tell the future within their signs, after all, they would have told her of the coming disaster. They would have told her about her sister's disappearance.

She walked upon the corpse of the Blue Sky Kingdom, though now she saw neither blue skies nor a kingdom. She saw a ruined land, all in disarray, torn in half: a great, deep chasm had opened where there once was the great capital of the realm. It was all gone, now. On one side of the abyss stood the royal castle, still intact, the bright luminous colors of its enormous stained glass windows the last remaining defiance against this world of grey. On the other side was the rest of the land, hamlet and smaller cities.

This had once been Iona's home, she recalled as she walked through ruins and scattered stone, splintered wood. She struggled to recognize it, though. The houses were still there, all sorts of them: from the simple clay huts that the fairies inhabited to apartments where many humans lived, there was still much standing amidst the wreckage. Walls had collapsed, and huge holes had opened where there once had been ceilings, but the layout of the city was not too unfamiliar. It was only an empty husk of what had been there, however; all the people were gone.

Iona had checked every house, every old store, even the broken down places where no one should live, and did not find a single soul there. All she found were black mirrors, prisons to the people of the Blue Sky Kingdom. When she still had hopes, Iona tried to free their prisoners. They seemed asleep, sorrowful, angry, in pain, their bodies enveloped by crimson strands that constricted them. They looked almost like coffins, though Iona tried not to think too hard about it. They are only asleep, I know it. They will wake up soon.

Of course, they never did. Iona waited as her sister had told her, but saw no sign of change on the mirrors. As she passed them by one more time, they were just the same as they had been one day before.

Labyrinth's beasts still roamed the land, but they were easy enough to avoid. They were dumb and slow, and their machinery whirred as they walked, so by the time they approached, Iona was already hidden in shadow, in empty buildings. The ground shook as they walked, but Iona didn't fear them anymore. There were worse things to fear, she had seen them when the Blue Sky Kingdom was attacked, though they were only briefly in her sight, for as soon as the kingdom started burning, Maria told her to hide, and Iona hid, and prayed for an end to the fighting.

Her prayers were answered, just not the way she hoped: the fighting was over, the Precure were crushed, the Blue Sky Kingdom had fallen. The night sky had gone dark.

By the time she was out of the city, all Iona could see was the broken world, wounded and scarred. Mountains rose where before there were none, rivers dried and forests died, or worse. Some still stood, she had seen, but she wished they hadn't; when she looked at them, she felt a haunting presence, as if evil things dwelled there now. Iona made sure to avoid them.

Soon the sky began to weep, the way Iona had wept once, when she thought it still mattered. A week of solitude and hopelessness taught her that tears did her no good, and so she stopped crying. Rain hit her face, soaking her hair, her clothes, but Iona simply kept walking. She had nowhere to go, but also no reason to stay still, to give up. Out of spite, if nothing else, Iona made her way through the empty world, through lands she almost recognized, but not quite. Was it south she was going, or west? She didn't know, and she didn't care. She just needed to find somewhere, anywhere, it didn't matter at all.

The sound of rain falling on the ground was almost relaxing, she found to her surprise. Silence had been her only friend for the past days, always with her, whether or not she wanted it. At first she didn't, but she learned to welcome it, as it was certainly better than the Nakewameke walking around the streets, their footsteps shaking the earth, their engines droning through the night as Iona tried to sleep.

The smell of wet soil rose, and for a moment, the world felt normal, alive. This smell reminded Iona of childhood, of home, of Maria and her family, when they were all together. It had always rained a lot in the Blue Sky Kingdom, though never like this. When Iona looked back and thought of better times, she was always reminded of the soft rains that fell on the Blue Sky Kingdom.

Raindrops fell with murmurs of her mother telling her not to run outside in the drizzle, of Maria's silken-soft voice singing her lullabies, of her home's door opening as her father arrived. They fell on the ground, on the top of her head, all over her body, warmer than she expected. Those were all things Iona didn't want to remember, now that they were all lost, but the rain reminded her of them anyway.

Far away, she could hear the sound of raindrops crashing against the leaves of a forest's tallest trees. These woods had once been full of life, but now when Iona looked to them, she saw nothing but darkness. It was safer to stay away from them.

When at last the skies threatened to clear again, and spots of blue began to appear amidst the greys and whites of clouds, Iona couldn't see her home when she looked back anymore. She saw only emptiness, only a wasteland uninviting to life. She didn't see any of the Precures' enemies: it seemed as if they were content to simply destroy their surroundings, leaving barrens where they trod, scars on the world. There was nothing behind anymore, no choice but to keep moving forward, no choice but to reach a safe place, to find refuge.

But where? The Blue Sky Kingdom was gone, the dead stars showed her no paths to tread, and the silence in the wind mocked whatever hopes Iona had of finding someone. The world was empty now, and her survival was only fate's joke, destiny laughing at her as she struggled to stay alive, to find a Precure, to find other survivors. Iona could not laugh.

Märchenland and the Trump Kingdom were the closest places she could go, Iona recalled, thinking back on her studies of geography. They were both too far away, however, hundreds of miles to the west before she reached Märchenland, and almost as many miles south to reach the Trump Kingdom. And they might be just as ruined as the Blue Sky Kingdom.

There was a place Maria had mentioned once, though. A great fortress of the Precure, their first refuge in times of danger, and their last. Phoenix Tower, it was called, where hope rises from ashes, taking flight to the darkest skies. Maria always spoke of it. Iona might have even thought that her sister might have found shelter there, if she didn't know that Maria would never leave her alone.

"Wait here," Tender had told her a moment before she rushed to battle. "I'll come back for you, I promise."

That was the first promise her sister ever broke. And the last, Iona feared. She had thought back on her sister's final words to her a hundred times and more. Maria's last words weren't a plea for Iona to be strong, they weren't an oath of love, they weren't even advice. They were only a broken promise.

Far away, atop a hill, a great tower rose. That might be it, the Phoenix Tower, Iona thought. But she only thought; she didn't dare hope, as those had already been crushed too many times. She had no use for it anymore.

The tall buildings of Frosting were too close together, as if fighting one another for space. They were not like this before, Nozomi recalled. It was not like the fairies to build towers to touch the skies, to surmount the entire world. Their peaks almost brushed against one another, like blades clashing high above the rest of the world. Spiked, their apexes looked like they were about to poke holes into the clouds, into the heavens. Might be that was exactly Nightmare's intention.

The storm washed the grime away, and a black water rushed through Frosting's streets. Dream and Beauty trudged through it, and though it was not too deep, it felt as if there was something in the water, heavy, thick. Disgusting, mostly: Nozomi could almost feel her breakfast boiling back up, which in turn reminded her of those disgusting beans she ate… The only reason she didn't throw up was because this water was abhorrent enough as is.

If Komachi were here, she'd be able to calm down Nozomi, to tell her she needn't feel sick, that it would be alright. Once, when Nozomi was ill, Komachi had even made her a sweet-smelling tea that made her nausea go away. But Nozomi had failed her, and she wasn't here. Nozomi's revulsion felt like a blow to the stomach, but now it was at herself that she was disgusted. She should not have left Komachi behind. Whatever happened to her, Nozomi should have been there by her side. If she died, then Nozomi should have died with her.

But she wasn't dead, Nozomi knew it. She couldn't be. Not Komachi. No, she couldn't be.

Repeating those words to herself, Nozomi followed Reika as she guided her through flooded streets, through cramped alleys where bags full of garbage followed the course of the water until they got stuck, blocking their way. They were easy enough to get past, though not at all pleasant, and their stench spread on the water, Nozomi almost missed the scent of smoke she felt at the Palmier Kingdom.

On her hands, close to her chest, she carried Coco. His breathing was soft, and his body was warm, a far cry from how he was when Nozomi found him. He should most likely not be here, but Nozomi couldn't bear to leave him alone in their small shelter, asleep. He was still the prince of the Palmier Kingdom, and their enemies would show no mercy if they found him.

Frosting wasn't too well-guarded, Dream understood that quickly. Only a handful of Kowaina patrolled the city's empty streets, and with no one to guide them, they were almost useless, mindless creatures more likely to get themselves destroyed than actually hurting Dream and Beauty. When they came running towards Nozomi, a step to the side was all it took to make them crash against building walls, their masks shattering into a dozen fragments of white.

Doughnut Castle was not too far away now, though the labyrinthine streets of Frosting certainly delayed Nozomi. Nightmare had blocked off entire sections of the city with huge walls of brick and metal all melded together, so they had to take the longer route through neighborhoods covered in dirt, where houses were left behind with their doors still open, broken, and inside all their valuables had been pillaged, nothing left behind but dust.

Nightmare didn't pay much thought to Frosting, as the Doughnut Castle's gates were completely unblocked. The Doughnut Kingdom had always been the smallest and poorest of the fairy countries, smaller than even the Sweets Kingdom and the Dessert Kingdom, which were always under attack, always falling into Nightmare's hands, then Labyrinth's, then the Dark King's, before being freed so that the cycle might begin anew.

She turned behind, and looked up again, and saw that the smog had covered the skies. Nozomi didn't know what Nightmare planned to do with all these factories, but there was no way it could be good. Still, if it meant they could enter the castle unseen, it might not be all bad.

The gardens were dead, its flowers wilted, its shrubs gone from green to grey. The rose bushes were the saddest of all, their flowers so brittle that their petals fell apart when Reika's fingers touched them. The hedges too had lost their color, and huge thorns extended from them like spears. The wet earth was choked by a carpet of spiky roots that made it all too easy to trip and fall. Reika's steps were too careful for that, but Nozomi stumbled time and time again, almost meeting the ground, but Beauty always held her before she could collapse. Dream gave her an embarrassed chuckle as thanks, hoping that Reika wouldn't be too annoyed by her.

It was so shameful: Beauty was so graceful, so careful, so smart, much more than Nozomi. She probably wasn't used to a good-for-nothing like Dream. Reika always spoke highly of her former companions, and Nozomi had no doubt that they were all very renowned Precure, talented and strong, intelligent and hard-working. They probably always took things seriously, and didn't goof around like Nozomi.

She sighed, and kept going, treading upon roots and wet leaves. The sound of thunder echoed, but Nozomi couldn't see lightning in the sky: the soot that poured out of the chimneys obscured it out.

"Careful, now," Reika said as she opened the door with a creak. In her hand, she held a long, thin shard of ice. A cold wind enveloped it, but Reika didn't even seem to notice, or care. It didn't seem like the sturdiest weapon, but Nozomi didn't question it.

Inside was a long corridor, so dark that Nozomi could not see an end to it. On the floor, the darkness gave the bright red carpet the color of dried blood. Empty sconces hung on the walls, but the rest of the corridor was desolate. Everything had been taken from this place. A blue light shone from Reika's blade, dimly, but just bright enough to show them the way.

Nozomi stepped as silently and carefully as she could, but the dust in the air dug deep inside her nostrils, and a sneeze did its best to escape. She locked it inside, but her whole face twitched from the effort.

"Reika," she whispered, "are you sure we can find someone here? If we're trapped, we-"

"I'm not sure," she admitted, "but it's better than staying at the old shack, don't you think? This castle is dusty, ruined, but at least it's not falling apart like that shed."

"True," she put a hand on the wall, feeling the dust that had gathered there. How could so much of it appear so quickly? It had been just a week. This could not be natural. "Still, it looks like everyone in Frosting has been enslaved by Nightmare."

"Could be," she said as she opened another door, leading to another empty room. They were so deserted that Nozomi couldn't even begin to imagine what they were before. "But think about it: if there are other Precure, they must be hidden as well. So of course we can't find them easily. We just have to keep searching."

"That makes sense."

They searched as well as they could, but after a while, all those identical barren rooms began to blend together. Some of them had windows, but only a faint light shone inside. Back at the castle's long corridor, they found no option but to follow it to its end, hidden in the dark.

Their footsteps were the only sounds that broke the silence, muffled slightly by the carpet. With little else to pay attention to, Nozomi focused on their steps. Reika trod lightly, while Nozomi's fell more heavily on the floor, and faster too. And then she noticed the weirdest thing.

More footsteps, neither hers nor Reika's.

"What are you doing here?" A voice cried out from behind them. Nozomi turned back in a heartbeat, and saw a spear pointed right at her face. No, not a spear. A huge paintbrush, held by a short girl,

"C-Calm down," Nozomi said, trying to look as harmless as she could. It didn't take much effort; with Coco on her arms, she wouldn't make much of a fighter.

"A-Are you-" The girl pointing the paintbrush at them almost let her weapon fall as her eyes widened in shock. "Precure?" Reika and Nozomi nodded together. The girl let out a loud sigh of relief that resounded in the empty halls.

"I'm Cure Beauty, and this is Cure Dream. Who would you be?"

"I was called Cure Pinceau, back when there were people to call me that. God, it feels like such a distant memory… Has it truly been only one week?"

"Yeah, it's really weird, isn't it? One week I was helping out the Palmier Kingdom, and now there's no trace of it…" No trace but Coco, that is, but even Nozomi knew she shouldn't mention his identity to whoever she crossed paths with. Rin had taught her not to be too quick to trust others with secrets. They aren't secrets if you tell everyone about it, Rin would say. Sometimes Nozomi still looked to her side on instinct, almost expecting Rouge to be next to her, as she always was, to give her advice, to tell her what she had done wrong. Instead she saw only Reika, and though she was a good, kind girl, it was Rin's warmth she longed for, not that gentle frost.

"Dream, Beauty," Pinceau repeated, as if making herself remember them. She spoke with a light accent that Nozomi couldn't recognize, though it felt as if she should. "I think it is nice to meet you, even though these are very dark times. You have a place to stay?"

"I-In a way," Reika said. She wasn't lying; it was a place, yes, just not a particularly comfortable or stable one.

"Would the two of you consider staying here? The Kowaina around here are roaming freely with no one to control them, so it's mostly safe if you are not a great idiot. And there is food to find here, and people in need of help. Everyone wears those odd masks, I don't know why. It controls them, I think?"

"Yeah, that seems like something Nightmare would do."

"Oh, so you have seen them before?" Her eyes shone with a familiar light. Hope, Nozomi recognized it at once. "Then I have need of your help, please."

She pointed at the darkness, at the end of the hallway. The three of them walked together, suddenly silent again. They stopped in front of a huge wooden door with handles of iron. It occupied almost the entirety of the wall.

"It's behind this door," she put a hand on the handle and began to open.

"What's in there?" Reika asked.

"This was the old throne room, where King Donuts would listen to his people's requests, meet his fellow rulers, from times to time, and discuss the future of the kingdom with other fairies. But that before… Well, you'll see it for yourselves."

The door opened ponderously, Pinceau struggling with its weight. Inside, it was difficult to see, the darkness too thick even for Beauty's light, but Pinceau just waved her brush around and the room slowly began to light up, revealing a throne of stone that looked as if it had been carved into the wall. Around it were many chairs, at least twenty. When Nozomi approached, however, she understood why Pinceau needed help.

On each chair was a fairy, face hidden by a sorrowful mask. Their limp bodies did not respond to Nozomi's touch, to her words, to anything. They just stood there, staring at nothing. And on the throne sat their king, lying there like a discarded doll. From the slits on the mask something red flowed, but when Nozomi looked into his eyes, there was nothing there but the blackness of despair.

Chapter Text

A hundred blinded eyes surrounded Nozomi, and though the masked fairies could not see or think, she could not help but feel that, somehow, their empty eyes were watching her, judging her. They looked like broken dolls, their faces hidden behind porcelain. They did not react to Nozomi's touch, and their bodies were cold; their fur and feathers seemed withered, somehow, as if they could turn to dust on Nozomi's fingers.

"This is…" She could not think of a word. She just stared into their masks. She looked deep into the king's eyes, hoping she'd see a glimmer of life, but it was in vain.

"When I found them they were like this," Pinceau said, her voice making echoes in the empty hall. Beyond the light she had made, there was little Nozomi could see. Pillars dressed in darkness, windows far away, revealing themselves only when they showed lightning's bright claws. "The door was locked from the outside, but it was easy to open, it did not even need a key. Nightmare was not really trying to hide them, to keep them away. I think. I do not understand how people like them think, and I do not want to."

"But you are right," Reika said, "it is very odd. I wonder…" She closed her eyes the way she often did when deep in thought.

"Yes?"

"Maybe it was not just foolish carelessness from them. I wonder, what if they truly thought that no Precure would come to this place?"

"They should have known we'd keep fighting! It's like they don't know us."

"No, that's not what I meant. What I meant was, what if they thought they had a reason to be certain that they'd be unopposed? That our enemies knew that their triumph would be so absolute that not a single Precure would survive, that once they would be victorious, they would have no reason to worry?"

"That's too confident of them," Nozomi folded her arms.

"No doubt. As such, they must have had a reason to believe it, to make them so sure that they would have nothing to fear from the Precure. If only we could know what…"

"Well, it doesn't matter right now, does it?" Nozomi asked. "We can find out later, but now, we have more important things to do," she showed Coco to Pinceau. He was breathing loudly, painfully. "This fairy… He needs help."

"I am not a caretaker, I fear," Pinceau said, putting a hand on Coco's forehead. "Oh, he is burning! What has happened to him?"

"I don't know," Nozomi said. He became like this the moment he entered this room; his body began to shake, and his head was hot as burning coals. Something about all those poor fairies was making him sick, Nozomi had no doubt. "He's been suffering since I found him at…" She supposed there was no harm in saying it. "He's Prince Coco of the Palmier Kingdom. I found him like that, in the ruins of his own castle."

"Poor thing… But a prince, you say?" Nozomi and Reika nodded. "Oh dear, of course he will not wake up. Neither will King Donuts, or any other monarch of the fairy kingdoms. They are linked to their land, to their people. When their realm is healthy, so are they, and they enjoy power, longevity, but as their land falls into ruination, so do the rulers fall into a deep, cursed sleep, as if awaiting for hope's light to shine again over their lands. At least, that is what I have heard."

Pinceau began to walk away, and Dream and Beauty followed. Nozomi was thankful shed did not have to stare at these fairies any longer. Even as she walked away, she thought of their eyes; they were all staring at her, but at the same time, they weren't. They were all empty, and no thoughts raced across their little heads. Nozomi hoped so, at least. She shuddered at the thought that they might still be conscious behind the masks.

"Hope's light, you said?" Reika asked when they stepped into the corridors again. "What would that be? There is no such thing as an actual embodiment of hope, so it has to be something else, right?"

"It's starlight," Nozomi said. It had to be. "That is the sacred pledge of the Precure, isn't it? To protect the stars in the sky, the lights of hope."

It was Komachi who had taught her that. Nozomi wished she could remember the rest of the tale, but all she could recall was that the world was dark, once, but it was the Precure who shared the gift of starlight with all the other people and fairies. Or something of the sort. Nozomi sighed a curse of her own forgetfulness.

"I too heard something of the sort," said Pinceau, guiding her companions to a closed door. Dream and Beauty had found it locked, too strong to break open, and so they ignored it. "When the stars fall into slumber, so will the world. King Donuts himself told me about it, but I must admit that I thought it was nothing but one of the many traditions that the fairies have, not something important. He said that we ought to watch over the Starlight Flame in that old forest."

"There's a Starlight Flame there?" Reika said, her voice suddenly loud. "I didn't even imagine…"

"The woods are very large," Pinceau explained as she took a small key and opened the door, "and very old, too. There is a temple there, where a Starlight Flame lies. King Donuts told me that it was well-guarded, but that even so we must be careful."

"Were it a normal attack, it would have been fine," Reika said plainly, almost as if thinking aloud, "but our enemies must have planned to attack all the Flames at the same time, to extinguish the stars all at once…"

"We already knew that," Nozomi grumbled. "Nothing else would explain all the stars going out."

Behind the door was a small, cramped room with mattresses laid carelessly on the floor. Dirtied blankets and sheets had been hurriedly tossed over them, though they were too small for the mattresses. Some were ripped at parts, and it was all too clear that Pinceau's shelter was just as precarious as their own.

"Here we are," she said. "It's not much, and it smells of dust, but you can stay with me for as long as you'd like."

"Thank you," Nozomi said as she gently put Coco down, and covered him with a blanket. Even asleep, he seemed to agonize.

"You said there was an old temple in the middle of the forest?" Reika suddenly asked. "Are you certain that there is a Starlight Flame there?"

"It is what King Donuts told me, yes. There is a dirt road leading to it, it is not difficult to find. Why do you ask?"

Reika looked at Nozomi with determination, and they nodded together.

"We'll be back soon, then, if all goes well."

"Hm?" Pinceau leaned her head and gave Reika a confused look. "Are you not going to sleep, or eat? There is enough for the three of us. It is not too tasty, but-"

"I'm afraid we have quite urgent business. Right, Nozomi?" Nozomi nodded, and looked at Coco, twisting and turning as he slept. She wondered what he dreamed of, if he even did.

"Please watch over him."

"I will," Pinceau blinked quickly, "but… Why are you leaving? It is dangerous outside, and dark."

"It is dark," Reika was quick to agree. "So we'll have to light a fire."

The path made spirals around the hill, and it went up and down and up again. Iona stepped upon loose rock with caution but time and time again she almost fell. She took utmost care, but the stairs carved on the hill's sides were twisty, narrow, treacherous. Iona looked down, and saw the fall, the pointy rocks that awaited her below should she trip, and she finally understood why the Phoenix Tower was such a safe fortress. At the same time, she wondered how someone was ever able to get there. She looked up, and saw she had a long way to go. She sighed, and followed the trail.

Rough rock scraped against Iona, leaving thin red lines on her pale skin. It didn't even hurt her. It almost tickled, really. Once she got used to the height and to the feel of notched stone scratching her, the journey was almost pleasant. The air felt so pure and clean, and the wind caressed her face gently, like a lover. The breezes kissed her, and for a moment, Iona closed her eyes, and let herself forget how broken the world was. The wind was just the same as it always had been.

Maria had made this ascent once, Iona thought, not as a Precure, but as an ordinary girl, just like herself. She had been chosen to become a Precure, but first she needed to reach the Phoenix Tower, to climb these steps beyond counting. When she thought back on it, Iona could remember it vividly.

A knock on the door. A messenger. A letter with a red rose seal. Maria's smile when she understood what it meant. Her family all gathered together to hear Maria say the words in the letter. Their parents were beaming with pride, but little Iona was the proudest of them all. Greatness suited Maria perfectly.

Iona looked up, and could not see an end to the climb. Years before, it was Maria who was looking up. She had not given up, so Iona couldn't either. Though her legs hurt and her body tired, she kept going. Just another step, and then another one, and another, and soon she'd be there. Maria didn't give up because she was exhausted. She never gave up, just as she never broke her promises. Until then…

A worthless thought. She just had to keep going. It was towards the future she had to look to, not to the past. Look up, not down. Look ahead, not behind. She repeated that to herself whenever those unwanted thoughts whispered in her ear. Iona didn't need that; the only sound she wanted was the wind.

On the narrowest points, she had to grasp firmly on the rock so that she wouldn't fall, and even then it was difficult. With each step, pebbles rolled down until they disappeared far below. It wasn't such a terrible fall, not truly. This hill was no more than a hundred meters high, a far cry from the great mountains in the south, their peaks wreathed by thick clouds.

Still, the fall was more than enough to kill a normal person, so Iona was as careful as she could be. The path was long and dangerous, but soon enough she could almost see the top of the hill, the tall Phoenix Tower revealing itself.

It did not look so large from far away, but as Iona approached it, its size took her breath away. The Phoenix Tower had been constructed many thousands of years ago, and had never been through any major changes, but it still looked distinctly modern, almost oddly so. If not for the great wings of stone at its top, it wouldn't look too out of place in the Blue Sky Kingdom's greatest cities.

The sun was setting, but still the Phoenix Tower cast a long shadow. On sunnier days, it must have been a really great shadow, one that obscured everything on the tower's surroundings.

Tired, Iona took slow steps towards the tower, even though she walked as fast as she could. It was already a great effort to keep standing, in truth. The fact that Iona had managed to make the climb without rest and without falling was already a miracle.

No, not a miracle, she told herself. There were no miracles anymore, not with the stars gone. She could not afford to believe in them, to wait for them. She had waited long enough. Now her fate was in her own hands, not in the omens of the stars.

Iona looked at the tower's door. It was tall and wide, almost overly so. A dozen people could walk in side by side, and her house's height was only a few inches greater than the door's. The door was thick metal, a light grey a few shades away from white. Maria had once told her that when sunlight reached it, it gleamed like a second sun for a brief moment. On the door were metallic roses and vines entwined around stars.

Though it looked so heavy, the door was very light to the touch. Iona gently pushed it, and it slid open effortlessly. Maria said that she had never forgotten what she saw when she first entered the Phoenix Tower: pristine halls where dozens of Precure walked and conversed, always smiling. When she saw it, she understood how powerful the resolve of the Precure really was, how great their order was, how safe the world was with them fighting for it. There was no place in the world half as wonderful as the Phoenix Tower, Maria had said.

Iona opened the door, and saw nothing but dust.

A faint light was reflected on the surface of the waters, but everywhere else it was pitch black. On one hand, Reika held her frozen sword, and on the other her magical light sparkled, shining against the water. The night felt too warm, too damp, but Reika's frost brought her some comfort. She had always enjoyed the feeling of the cold against her skin, though she never quite understood why. It felt relaxing, somehow. On the harshest winter nights, Reika would often walk around the woods near her home, wearing only light clothes. She liked how the snow felt under her feet, on her hands, on her face. Winter's winds always made her calm.

But the chill in the air she felt this night was nothing like that. It ran through the trees, rustling its leaves in an eerie melody. Something else was moving, somewhere, Reika could hear it, but what it was she could not see. When she looked around, the darkness was too thick to see much else but black.

Just as Pinceau had said, they had easily found a dirt path leading deep into the forest, but soon enough it branched into a hundred other paths, veins leading into the heart of the forest, with no way of knowing which were the fastests roads, or even which ones were right. After a while, all the trees began to look the same, and if Reika and Nozomi were walking in circles in the dark, they wouldn't even notice it.

Branches creaked underfoot, and though Reika would have preferred to walk in silence, there was no helping it; their colors blended in with the muddy soil, still wet from the rain. Reika's boots sunk deep into the mud, their white now a hardened brown crust. She didn't mind that; what she did mind, however, was how slow their steps were, how treacherous the soil was.

All around, Reika heard noises, but when she looked, she saw no birds, no animals that inhabit these woods. The only living things she could see other than herself and Nozomi were the trees and their rustling leaves, and spiders. So many spiders. Some skittered along the ground, others waited on their webs, and other were dangling from tree branches by a single thread.

Reika couldn't hear the sound of flowing water the way she could before, so for good or ill, they were at a different part of the forest. She could not know if it was the right one, but still she followed the path ahead of her. She couldn't dare to doubt it: hesitation could be worse than taking the wrong road. She went onward, and Nozomi followed.

It was odd, being followed like that, taking the lead. Reika had gotten so used to following that whenever Nozomi asked her for guidance and instructions, she was taken aback for a moment. Though there had never been any doubt about her competence and skill, Reika had always been a follower, never a leader. She left that role to Miyuki, to Moonlight, to Mirage. They had the charisma needed to lead the Precure, not Reika. But now Nozomi looked to her for advice, and it felt… Reika could not tell how it felt. It wasn't bad, but it was something she had never felt before.

Reika looked up, but she couldn't see the sky; the thick canopy hid it completely, a curtain of dark green. Amidst the leaves and the branches, the sticky white of cobwebs stirred. Reika held her sword tight; something was wrong, she could feel it. When she turned to face Nozomi, she too had worry stamped on her face. This forest was sacred, the hiding place of a Starlight Flame. It should not be this eerie. Reika began to wonder if it was such a good idea to come at night, but then again, in the depths of the forest, it was too dark even by day.

On the corner of her eye, Reika saw something scrabbling on the tree bark, but when she looked, it was gone. And that terrible song still filled the air, now joined by a thousand tiny legs skittering along atop fallen leaves and branches. Reika's hand was shaking. Why? She had faced worse, she thought as she remembered fighting alongside Moonlight. She shook off that memory, too painful. Instead she remembered Miyuki, Akane, Yayoi and Nao, a thought far more comforting. The world felt empty without them; she still wasn't used to their absence, and sometimes Reika looked to her side, almost as if expecting one of her friends to be there, but of course, they never were.

Instead it was Nozomi who was by her side, this girl she barely knew. She was nice enough, and determined, certainly a true Precure, but even so Reika could not help but see her as a stranger. She wondered if Nozomi thought the same; most likely not, as she always had a smile to show Reika. That made her feel a sting of guilt, though she knew she should not: that was just the way she was, and there was nothing wrong with it.

The wind soughed as she was deep in thought, and something snapped far away, falling on the ground. A branch, no doubt, and Reika dismissed it for a moment, but then she heard another, and another, and one more. The wind grew silent, and somehow the darkness seemed thicker. Though silent, a breeze was still blowing, slow, brushing against her skin, a cold like she had never felt before. It was not the cold of winter, nor the cold of a pleasant and calm night, but something else entirely, something terrible. Reika wished that her friends could be with her; she wouldn't be so afraid if they were.

She scanned her surroundings one more time, breathing slowly. All around were eyes gleaming in the dark, watching, and Reika could see the webs stirring, hear the spiders skittering, rushing, weaving. And amidst the trees, something bigger walked, something almost human, but not quite.

"Nozomi," she said between teeth, "there's something- No, someone coming."

 Iona tried to reach out to someone in the Phoenix Tower, but her voice made echoes in the empty hall, echoes unanswered, so for a moment she thought she was alone. She only realized she was wrong when she looked down, and saw footprints on the dusty floor that were not her own. Someone was there as well. Maria, she thought, she hoped, she prayed, though in her heart she knew it could not be her sister.

Though dusty, desolate and dark, the Phoenix Tower was unbroken. Its statues still stood, old marble in the shape of Cures of old. Closer to the entrance, they were smaller, the size of Iona, but as she approached the center of the tower and its halls widened while its ceilings rose, they became taller. Cure Ange was more than twice her size, but even she was dwarfed by the statues of Cures Priestess, Empress and Magician, the three pillars that held the tower up. Around them was a spiral staircase leading up, and Iona ascended.

On the walls were gravures of the oldest legends of the Pretty Cure, and of their greatest deeds. Sometimes it was hard to tell truth and myth apart: the Precure had existed for so long that their earliest history was obscured by time's mists. Time and time again, it was said, the Precure fought, they rose, they fell, they triumphed, and they lost. Each new era brought challenges and disasters, but the Phoenix Tower always stood. Iona remembered Maria telling her that there were many times when the skies were almost devoid of light, the stars devoured by the darkness, but even then the Phoenix Tower had not fallen. Just like now, Iona thought as she rose. The Phoenix Tower hasn't fallen yet.

Iona looked up, and far above, she could see the statues' raised hands touch the ceiling, so high that to Iona it seemed as distant as the sky. On the ceiling's stone was the ornate engraving of a phoenix, its wings a light grey. Odd, Maria had said that the phoenix was painted a bright red, and its flames seemed alive, dancing whenever it was touched by the light that shone through the tower's stained glass windows.

But now the sun was setting, and a starless black smothered the night sky. A light orange still shone through the windows, but with every moment it became darker. Night was coming again, unforgiving as always.

On the sides of the stairs were many closed doors, leading to the countless rooms and offices of the Phoenix Tower, but Iona only followed the footsteps left on the dust. She went up and up and up until she could see Cure Priestess' face in the marble, and her golden crown. Her face was kind, but firm.

At the very top of the tower, when Iona could almost touch the phoenix in the ceiling, the footsteps led to an open door. Iona stepped inside, and found a long corridor with many more doors. Maria had told her that the tower was enormous, but even so Iona was astonished. Somehow, she was hoping again. Hope, that hideous thing that nourished her as she waited for her sister at her broken home. She knew it could not be Maria who left these footprints behind, but even so Iona prayed that it was. She was wrong.

Iona found her at the room past the last door, standing still at the balcony, watching the setting sun and the black curtains falling over the pink, orange and grey skies. In the dark, even the clouds were hard to see, but the girl watched intently.

She was clad in a black vest and a skirt colored white and red, but it was her hair that caught Iona's attention. Its red was so light that it might as well be pink, a color that seemed familiar to Iona, as if she had seen this girl before. Before she could tell who it was, whoever, the girl turned back, eyes huge with shock.

"I-Iona…" She said, though Iona could not yet remember her. "I could not even imagine that I would meet you here."

"You know who I am?"

"I have seen you, once, but have often heard of you. From your sister."

"You knew Maria?!" Iona yelled all of a sudden, and almost ran towards the girl. Embarrassed, she took a step back, but her heart was racing.

"She was my partner," she said. Was, Iona couldn't help but notice, and felt something tighten in her heart. "Maybe she spoke of me before. I'm Cure Mirage."

"S-She has," Iona said, but that didn't matter. What mattered was Maria. "You said-"

"Yes," Mirage said with sadness. "Maria was my partner. Not anymore. I don't know how to tell you, how to mak-"

"Just tell me!" She didn't mean to scream, but she did.

"Well, I wish I could tell you Maria is dead. That would have been a merciful fate compared to what happened to her," every word she spoke was like a dagger piercing through Iona's chest. She clenched her fists with all her strength, her own nails cutting her palms. "Maria was trapped in a mirror when the Blue Sky Kingdom fell. She lives, but trapped in a nightmare without end."

Her bare knees hit the floor hard, and a hundred words were stuck on her throat, choking the life from her. When Iona managed to speak, no words came from her mouth, only a horrid noise, a wailing barely human. She thought of her sister, trapped in the endless darkness, and felt a pain that she had never known before. It made her want to dig a hole in her chest with her own fingers and tear her heart to pieces. She might very well have done it if Mirage had not knelt in front of her and held her close.

"I'm sorry, Iona. I know the pain I felt is nothing compared to yours, but I too loved your sister, and I know that losing her is one of the worst things that could have happened to the Precure. Wherever she went, she brought happiness. The world is a little darker without her to light our way."

What world? There was no world without Maria, no world for Iona anymore. Everything was gone, and everyone. All that was left was this empty, dusty tower, its statues of Cures that died thousands of years before, and its dead, pale phoenix. Iona got up, not on her own strength, but risen by Mirage, who took her by the arms and pulled her up.

"I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you this. It is almost as painful as having to actually witness it… And I also must beg your forgiveness." What for?, Iona almost asked, but still the words were stuck and she only cried. "She saved me. I was the one who was about to be trapped in a mirror by our enemies, but she sacrificed herself to save me. She tossed me against the ground and took a blow that was meant for me. She looked back and smiled, asked me for one last favor, and then she was gone. I'm sorry, Iona. I truly am. I'm sorry that I lived while your sister had to be lost."

Something akin to laughter came from Iona's mouth. It wasn't laughter, not truly, but if it didn't hurt so much, it would have almost been funny. Of course Tender had fallen because she sacrificed herself for someone. She was always like that, always taking the place of others in painful things, so that they wouldn't have to suffer. Iona should have expected her to do it to the end.

"Iona," Mirage said gently, trying to get her attention. She put something on her hand. "This is not a good time, I know, but I promised your sister… I promised her I'd give you this."

She recognized it at once. It was Maria's Pretty Change Mirror. Iona remembered it being colorful, beautiful, but now its colors were dull, and even its mirror seemed dirtied. Iona stared at it, hoping to see Maria, but all she saw was her own reflection, her own face red from crying.

"I do not mean to tell you what you should or what you shouldn't do, but your sister wanted you to have it, she wanted you to become a Precure in her place. She knew that even with her gone, the world would still be in danger, and she always said that you had a strong, beautiful heart. So I'll give it to you, and leave the choice to you. Please consider it, Iona," Mirage gently put a hand on her cheek. "You look so much like her, you know. If you became a Precure like your sister wanted, it would be as if she was still alive, as if she rose from the ashes. That way she would never be forgotten."

She'll never be forgotten anyway, I'll remember her every morning when I wake up and every night when I try to sleep, she wanted to say, but instead she turned to look outside. She could see so much of the world, but it was all obscured by the night that had just fallen, leaving its dark mark in the sky. To become a Precure… Was that the right thing to do, was that her fate? For lack of stars to tell her fortune, she searched for an answer within her heart, but there she found only stone.

Chapter Text

Reika watched as darkness gathered around her and Nozomi, and spiders beyond count skittered along, surrounding them. No ordinary spider should be that big: they almost reached her ankle, and there were so many of them. Something tickled at her shoulder; a web. She looked above, and strands of sticky white were reaching out to them. In the dark, someone was giggling.

"I know that laughter," Nozomi said; her voice made the little critters stir, as if about to strike. Reika kept her blade ready to defend herself.

"Who comes there?" Reika asked, pointing her blade at the dark. There was no point in silence, in hiding, not anymore, no choice but to fight.

"I should be the one asking that," the voice said, distinctly a woman's. "Depending on who you are, I might get a better bonus… It's been a real pain to track you, to set a trap for you flies, so it better be worth it."

"I am Cure Beauty," she said, the tip of her sword aiming at the woman. She could not show fear. She had faced worst. She had faced Dune at Moonlight's side… So why was she so afraid?

"I don't have to introduce myself, Arachnea," Nozomi had no weapons but her own hands, but for most Cures, that was more than enough. "After all the times you lost, you should have learned that you don't stand a chance."

"When you are with your friends," the woman said with a scathing voice, "but not when you are alone."

"I am not alone," she said, but Reika knew that she might as well be. It was not a simple, quick thing, for two Precure to learn to fight together, to understand one another, to join their strengths. Reika had never seen Nozomi fight, but from the way she had seen her act, Reika didn't have much faith in her ally. But still, who else did she have? She gave Nozomi a nod, and they approached their enemy.

A strand lashed against her, a white blur cutting the air like a razor, whipping her face, leaving a thin red line on her cheek. Screaming, Reika lunged against Arachnea, frozen edge pointed at her, but as she passed between the trees, something grasped her ankle, and she fell with her face on the ground, atop the skittering spiders. From there she could see the webs between the trees, traps to bring down rushing enemies. Behind her, she heard Nozomi trip as well, screaming as she fell.

A hundred tiny eyes shone as the spiders closed in on her, fangs about to strike. Beauty jumped up, but they clung to her body. She could feel their countless tiny legs against her bare skin. It was easy enough to toss them away against the ground, but their bites still stang as they pierced her skin. And all around, she heard laughter, but could not tell where it came from.

"Behind!" Nozomi yelled with urgency, still struggling to rise. On instinct, Reika put her sword behind her without looking, and something shattered its ice. Arachnea's hand. No, not her hand, Reika noticed, they looked more like the legs of a spider, but much harder, as tough as steel, coming out of her back.

Reika tossed her broken sword aside, and called forth another one. From her palm sprouted a long shard of ice, misshapen and ugly, but sharp. Quickly she thrust the icicle against Arachnea, but not quickly enough; with one of her legs, she blocked Beauty's strike, cracking her sword.

Taking steps back, Reika jumped from one side to the other to avoid Arachnea's blows, but they were too many, too fast, and they hit harder than rocks, pummeling Reika against thick tree trunks.

Reika could her Nozomi grunting, but could not afford to look at her; her eyes were set on Arachnea, her foot coming down on her face with great force. That proved to be a mistake, however; Reika lifted her hand and grabbed Arachnea's ankle, pulling her down. She fell down awkwardly, spider legs trying to stab Reika as she collapsed, but they missed, and Arachnea just fell on Beauty, her leg pierced by the blade that Reika held. On the wound, droplets of water mixed with the blood. Arachnea shouted in pain, trying to break free, but quickly she was pinned down to the muddy soil as more frozen blades fell on her, piercing through her sleeves.

Behind her, Reika saw Nozomi's body almost completely covered in spiders, biting her with ferocity that no normal spider would ever show. She helped Nozomi pull them from her body, tossing them on the ground. They ran away, disappearing in the dark, amidst their webs.

"That's it?" Reika said, taking a deep breath. They had been lucky; one of the first things a Cure learned was how dangerous it was to fight in such close quarters, caught by surprise by the enemy.

"No," Nozomi pointed up. Reika looked, and saw an elaborate web, patterns connecting the tops of the trees. They were huge, far larger than webs an ordinary spider could weave, but Reika knew it was no ordinary spider that had made this.

She turned to face Arachnea, but a dozen white strands had reached down to embrace her, as if they had a will of their own. Like hands they tore out the blades keeping Arachnea stuck, and they pulled her up. She wasn't laughing anymore, only groaning.

"Keep your eyes open," Nozomi said, as if Reika did not know already. "She'll strike from ab-"

Before she could finish her word, strands fell down to wrap themselves around her neck, like a noose, and her arms too. Reika conjured another sword to try and cut her free, but she was caught as well. The web ropes began to lift her, the noose choking off her screams. Desperately she waved her sword around, trying to strike against the web, but she could barely move her arms. The wind hit her face, and her blade fell from her clumsy hand. All around her, the world was a blur.

When they stopped rising, Reika could see the top of the trees, and their needles scratched at her face. She could not see much more; whether because of the darkness or because her consciousness was fading fast as she hanged, she could not tell. Holding the nooses, Arachnea only smiled cruelly.

Right next to her, Reika could just barely see Nozomi's body jerking, arms flailing as she tried to free herself, in vain. The cold embraced Reika, its frigid fingers caressing her cheeks, but this was not a cold she could enjoy. She was almost out of time, and had to think of something.

Ice enveloped her arms, her neck, and she begged for her plan to work. Though she felt cold, the night was warm and damp just a moment before. Just as it formed, the ice began to melt, water running down her arms, making them just slippery enough to free themselves from her bonds. As soon as she could move them again, she tore apart the web around her neck, and with a quick swing of an ice shard, freed Nozomi as well.

The webs they stood on was uncertain terrain, difficult to balance upon, but Arachnea had no trouble with it; in a moment she was in front of Beauty and Dream, fists hitting the two of them in the face. Dizzy, Beauty stumbled backwards, stepping on nothing, falling, but Nozomi's hand caught her by the wrist, slippery with sweat, but still holding firmly.

Arachnea's onslaught was brutal and relentless, and she moved along her webs with grace and speed, avoiding Reika's strikes, but even so she had trouble fighting the two girls at the same time, and from time to time, one of Dream's blows managed to find an opening. Arachnea was growing tired, though the Precure were exhausted as well. It was only a matter of who would falter first.

The spider's nails raked Nozomi's face, but she got too close, and got a violent punch in the stomach in return, taking the air out of her. Nozomi's next hit took her in the face, causing her to stumble, and then, all it took was a sharp shove from Reika to take her to the ground, far below the webs. It was difficult to say for sure, without any light, but to Reika it seemed like she wasn't moving anymore. It was over now, it had to be.

The webs began to wither and snap, like thin fabric being pulled apart, so Reika hugged the bark of a tree. Nozomi jumped down, but curious, Reika climbed until she was higher than the highest point of the trees. From there, she could see a sea of dark greens bathed in twilight, their colors almost fading into black. But far away, she could see it; a large glade, with a building in its center. Reika could not see much more, but she had no doubt that it was the temple that Pinceau had mentioned. Their path now was clear.

She climbed down as fast as she could, until she reached Nozomi again. She was bloodied and bruised, but kept standing with a fierce determination. In front of her was Arachnea, still trying to get up after her fall.

Laughing despite her pain, the woman took out a black mask, and put it close to her face. Reika did not understand it, but Nozomi's eyes widened and, yelling, she rushed against Arachnea and ripped the mask from her hands, before breaking it in two pieces.

"You treacherous-"

"You can't blame me for fighting until the end," Arachnea said, "even when it seems like I've been defeated. After all, you are doing the same, no? It's over for the Precures, for your people and for the fairies you love so much. Your time has passed, but you are still fighting, still seeking a Starlight Flame. Oh, yes, I know, why else would you be here?"

"Is that why it was unguarded?" Reika asked. "So that you could lure any remaining Precure, who would, no doubt, try to light the Starlight Flames?"

"Like a spider to a fly," she smiled, and licked her lips.

"You thought we would be harmless prey?"

"Never harmless," she said. "You don't go far in Nightmare if you underestimate the Precure. I'd much rather be overseeing the conquered lands, but eliminating the Precure is a job that someone has to do."

"Well, that someone wasn't you," Nozomi said, extending her palm towards Arachnea. Why, Reika asked herself, but then she knew. "Dream Att-"

"No!" Reika said, and grabbed Dream's arm. "What are you doing?"

"Destroying her," Nozomi said. Destroy. An easy word for kill, that almost made you forget what it meant. "She's an enemy. She's a Nightmare."

"This is not what we do," Reika insisted. "All hearts can be saved. When you became a Precure and pledged your life to the Red Rose, you understood that, didn't you? All hearts, not just the ones you care about."

"I… Reika, you can't believe this woman can be redeemed, that there is any good in her heart. We can't just spare her life."

"Yes, you can," Arachnea said before Nozomi glared at her.

"We must. It is our duty as Precure," Reika said. She knew very well that if she had been as hasty at passing judgment as Nozomi was, she would have slain the generals of the Bad End Kingdom, even though they were completely undeserving of such a fate. It was not right to raise the blade but refuse to hear someone's story.

"Fine," she frowned. "It's just… No, I'm not going to argue. I'm not good at arguing. Maybe you're right and I'm just stupid. Will we take her prisoner?"

"I'm not that trusting," Reika said. "If we take her with us, she could stab us in the back easily, and if we take her to the Doughnut Kingdom, then she could spy on it, and we certainly don't need that."

"You can't mean to…" Reika expected it would be Nozomi who would object, but it was Arachnea who rose her voice.

"Just return to Nightmare, and count yourself lucky for the mercy you have been granted."

"It's not mercy," Arachnea said, "only a delayed death. Kawarino, my boss, he has no patience for failure, he will hurt me if I return empty-handed."

"Not our problem," Nozomi shrugged. "When you chose to work with Nightmare, you should have expected this."

"Wait," Reika said as suddenly a thought sprouted in her head. "Take this."

She closed her eyes, and reached inside her heart for magic she had not used in a long time, since… Since Nao and the others weren't with her anymore. She felt a sudden weight on her hands as her Princess Candle appeared.

"Will this suffice as proof for this Kawarino person you mentioned?"

"U-Undeniably," Arachnea said, taking the Princess Candle from Reika and keeping it close to her chest. She was crying, Reika noticed. "He put a large reward on Beauty's head, and once he takes it to Eternal for appraisal, my life will be spared. Thank you," she said in the bitter tones of someone who had never thanked anyone before. "May I ask you one thing, though? Are you… Are you one of ours?"

"What do you mean?"

"A Precure who betrayed your own to join us, like Rosetta, like Sunshine. Is this why you are helping me?"

"No," Reika said. She found it hard to believe that a Cure would ever willingly join Nightmare or any of their enemies. There had to be another reason.

"One of yours…" Nozomi said with disdain. "We would never be on your side, no matter the reason."

"You don't have to be so angry. I was just asking. Besides, many Cures who said they would always follow the path of the stars, when faced with the choice of joining us or dying, chose to follow us. Even ones who were just as defiant as you are now."

"Such as?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she said, wary.

"Tell me anyways."

"Cure Aqua."

"You are right," Nozomi's voice was completely free of doubt, "I don't believe you at all."

"It is the truth," Arachnea was going to say more, but Nozomi took a step towards her, and Reika knew that she would not let this woman keep badmouthing her friend, so she had better do something.

"Run along, now," Reika said, and Arachnea obeyed, limping away from them, followed by her spiders. When she was gone, Nozomi turned to Reika, frowning.

"Why did you do that? It's one thing to not kill her, but to actually help her like that…"

"Oh, it wasn't helping her," Reika said with a tiny smile. "I have no use for my Princess Candle without my companions, and if Arachnea takes it to Nightmare as proof of my death, they will have no reason to doubt it, and will believe that I was indeed killed."

"Oh," Nozomi said, and seemed deep in thought for a second. "Reika, that's brilliant! If they think they won't have to worry about you, they'll keep their guard down."

"Exactly. Now let's hurry. We still have a Starlight Flame to find, and I know where we have to go."

And after that, it was easy enough to find the right path to the old temple. The forest was still too warm, its trees' branches still hit her face, and her feet still sunk deep in the mud, but after what they had just been through, that did not bother Reika at all. Her body still hurt from Arachnea's assault, so even just walking without interruptions was a welcome relief.

From the outside, the temple was not impressive at all; it seemed quite small, and its once-white walls of marble were now green with moss. Even its door was just an ordinary one made of plain wood, and it was stuck, so Nozomi and Reika had to break it open so that they could step inside.

As they entered, the torches lit themselves with white fire that brought no warmth. Where the forest had been unpleasantly hot and cramped, the temple seemed far too cold and empty. There were some altars scattered around, and doors that led to rooms of meditation, but what caught Reika's attention were the engravings on the walls.

Figures had been carved into the marble, and it did not take long for Reika to recognize them. It was Cure Empress lighting a Starlight Flame; on her heart and hand were fires, and on the next engraving, the Starlight Flame was burning, and stars above it where shining. On the wall on the opposite side of the room, it was Cure Priestess that she saw, surrounded by fairies and humans, all of them with crowns upon their heads, but it was Priestess' crown that shone brightest. The Eternal Golden Crown, Reika knew, though not really so eternal as it had been lost long ago.

"This place must be really old," she said to Nozomi, pointing at the inscriptions. "That art style is ancient, dating from millennia ago."

"That would explain why this temple seems so poorly-kept" Nozomi complained. "You'd think the Doughnut Kingdom would take better care of it, though…"

"There's no helping it. It's the fate of all things. The past is always forgotten as we walk towards the future. It's sad, but such is life."

Nozomi regarded Cure Empress with curiosity. Of the three cures who had founded the Order of the Red Rose, she was the only one whose life had not been extensively recorded by historians. Magician led the Cures of Phoenix Tower and defeated their enemies, while Priestess reigned as queen of the old Precure Dominion for her entire life, but, despite her name, Empress never ruled, and instead, when the Starlight Flames were lit, she simply disappeared, never to be seen again.

"Do you think they were afraid?" Nozomi asked all of a sudden.

"I don't know," Reika said. She could not even imagine those legendary Cures being afraid of anything. Even so, they were girls just like Reika and Nozomi, so maybe they too could know fear. "Maybe."

"Yeah," she nodded. "It's alright for a Precure to be afraid, isn't it? We are always taught about bravery, about protecting the weak, but no one ever taught me what to do when the world seems engulfed by sadness, and enemies surround us while our friends are all gone. Was it like this for Empress too, for Priestess, for Magician?"

"More or less," Reika said. "There were other Cures while they lived, but they were scattered, all alone, so it was up to the three of them to bring light to the world. They must have been afraid too, but they braved on."

"Then we must do the same," Nozomi said. "Let's go."

Reika grabbed a torch from the wall. The white fire was cold, unpleasantly so. Still, she knew she did not have to fear it. Starfire could not hurt the Precure, but was unbearably hot to all others. It was an undying fire that began to burn when a Precure approached it, so that if there was ever the need, she could light a Starlight Flame.

The Flame was easy enough to find; there were not many rooms in the temple, and the largest door led directly to a round chamber with a large brazier in its center. There was a great opening in the ceiling, revealing the sky. Once, Reika would have been able to see a thousand stars if she looked up. Now there was nothing.

"It's not very impressive," Nozomi said, and Reika agreed. The brazier seemed to be ordinary metal, almost rusted, in truth. Still, there was no doubt that it was it.

Reika approached her torch to the brazier, and the slightest touch was enough to ignite it. Quickly the fires began to dance around, rising higher and higher as if reaching for the night sky. It burned white, then blue, then orange, its colors ever shifting, a rainbow of fire. Reika sighed in relief, and looked up to the sky, waiting for stars.

Iona looked to the outside world through the window, but a curtain of darkness covered the landscape. Not that there was anything to see, anyways. The world was just as empty as it was when the sun shone above it. Somehow, that didn't bother Iona anymore. She found tranquility in the frozen world, unchanging, forever deprived of stars. It felt like her heart, now that Maria was gone.

She smiled, despite everything, a smile that mocked herself. What a melodramatic thought; if Maria were to know it, she'd say that Iona was being silly, and she would gently wipe her tears away with a warm finger.

But Iona had to wipe her own tears, and her runny nose too. She looked more like a sickly girl than someone in mourning. Her eyes felt heavy, and her body could drop to the floor at any moment, but she refused to go to bed. She felt as if she had to keep thinking about her sister. Maria, Maria, she said the name to herself, voice muffled by her sobs, she whispered it to the wind so that maybe it would take her sister's name to a faraway place, so that maybe someone would hear it, so that Maria could not be forgotten. Iona wanted to scream to the world about Maria, about how wonderful she was, about how she was a star down on earth, she wanted everyone to know what they had lost. Instead she swallowed her words and watched as her tears fell into the darkness, and wondered how long it would take for them to splash against the rocky ground.

Cure Mirage had been kind enough to give Iona one of the best quarters in the Phoenix Tower; a large, spacious room with a big and comfortable bed, a bathroom all her own, a bookshelf filled with well-organized volumes of Precure lore, tales and history. Maybe one day Iona would have found them interesting, but now, all their titles blended together. Iona had no love for the Precure and their history, not anymore: it was because of the Precure that the stars had died. Were it not for that stupid, spoiled Cure Princess, the night sky wouldn't be so dark, and Maria would still be smiling…

In her anger, Iona tossed the books against the floor, breathing heavily. It was not fair. It should not be like this. It was not Maria's fault, but Hime's… That foolish princess had doomed not only herself, or even just the Blue Sky Kingdom, but the entire world, and everyone who lived in it. Her heart burned as she thought of everything that had been lost because of that child's selfishness. If there was any justice in the world, Hime would be dead by now, trapped eternally in the Garden of Thorns that awaited the sinful, traitorous Cures who chose the path of darkness over the light of the stars.

Of course, Iona didn't actually believe that. There was no justice in the world, that much was clear, else Maria would be by her side now. Most likely, Hime still lived blissfully, while her kingdom was in ruins, not even caring, not even aware that everything was her fault.

"Iona," it was Mirage's voice, coming from behind her, distant, in the corridor. She said something that Iona could not understand, and approached her.

"It'll be like this forever, won't it?"

"Hm? The sky, you mean?" Iona nodded. "I can't say for sure. Perhaps if the Starlight Flames were to burn again, the stars would return, but who would light them? They have all been extinguished, and are now in enemy lands. Right now, it would be madness to try to light them."

"Right now? Then, later…"

"Later, maybe," she said, sitting on Iona's bed. "As a leader of the Precure, I know I am meant to embrace hope like a lover, to always believe in a bright future. However…"

"You don't actually believe we can change the future?"

"I don't know what I believe in," she sighed. "We the Precure have been through many hardships, but none quite like this. Our future truly seems bleaker than it ever did, and you, more than anyone else, can understand that changing the future is a difficult endeavor, if possible at all."

Iona looked at her cards, candles and seashells left scattered on a table. She had not yet asked them about what was to come. She did not want to know. Whatever hope they could give was hollow, and if the fortune they told was despair, well, Iona already had enough of it. She found it hard to care.

"The Starlight Flames, the Precures' greatest creation, but at the same time, our greatest tragedy," Mirage said with eyes closed, speaking more to herself than to Iona. "We gave this world a million stars, and we have grown used to their light, and we even use them to guide us, but now that they are gone, we can't even begin to imagine how to walk in the darkness. We never had to learn. The stars were always shining above us, keeping us safe, even in the darkest of nights, and we thought they would always be there."

"What did you mean," Iona asked, suddenly curious, "we gave this world a million stars?" Iona had never heard about this.

"It is a long story," she said, "and I'm afraid I'm in no mood for long stories right now. My head hurts, and I must rest, but I cannot, as refugees are coming to the tower now, and I must greet them, guide them. Cures who survived the Death of the Stars, who knew that the Phoenix Tower was their best hope for sanctuary. I'll tell you the story another time, Iona. Or you could read a book, you know. They are good for more than just being tossed around when you're angry."

The fire that a moment ago was in her heart now rose to her face, not as anger but as a blush of shame. She didn't mean to do that, Iona was always careful with her things, so this was unlike her. She picked up the fallen tomes, and put them back in place, though the shelf did not look nearly as tidy as it had been before.

"Well, I'll go see if there are any other Cures in need of help," Mirage sighed again. It was something she did constantly, as if she somehow was always tired. "It seems that other than me, all the Cures who were leaders and generals of the Red Rose are gone, so I guess it falls on me to lead the remnants to the best of my ability."

The Red Rose… Iona couldn't help but feel frustrated whenever she heard these terms and tales she did not understand well, but somehow was expected to.

"Do you want help?" Iona offered, wanting to be useful. She had already disappointed Mirage by saying no to her request for her to become a Precure, so she felt guilty for staying at the Tower despite not being a Cure, despite not being any help at all.

"I'll accept it," she said. "If you could just keep track of the Cures that are arriving, I'd be very thankful. Even at a time like this, it would be best if we tried to be at least a little bit organized."

Iona agreed, and followed Mirage downstairs. The spiral staircase still seemed too long for Iona, and she would have much preferred a normal one. The first time she ascended and saw the statues of the great Cures, it was certainly impressive, but now, it only made it a chore to go anywhere.

The Phoenix Tower was a wonder of anachronism: its corridors were like those of an ancient castle, lit by torchlight and candelabra, with floor and walls of stone, but Iona's bedroom was very similar to the one she had when she still had a home. Instead of torches or candles, it was a light bulb that kept the darkness away, and she even had a television, though of course there was no use for it, and nothing to watch. Everywhere she looked, it was clear to Iona that the tower had been build ages before, but its inhabitants kept adding to it.

Half a dozen Cures were gathered together at the entrance of the tower. Some were chatting, others looking at the statues, and one girl, anxiety stamped on her face, walked in circles, and looked about to cry.

To make herself useful, Iona began asking their names, where they came from, if they had anything useful to share. They all talked at once, and though Iona tried to control them, it took a stern yell from Mirage for them to speak one at a time.

"I am Cure Nile," said one of them, "I come from the far west, from a city close to the Desert Lands. I have brought news, too; the Desert Apostles are gathering again, ready to fight the remaining Precure."

"How?" Mirage asked. "Dune is dead. Moonlight killed him. Without their leader, they were crushed."

"They have a new leader," Nile said, and when Mirage gave her an inquisitive stare, she began to stutter. "A-Ah, t-that is all I know, sorry. I have only heard whispers about a change of leadership. It was a recent thing. I planned to stay there and find out more, and keep fighting, but… Well, my fellow Cures were all defeated. Alone, I could not face the Apostles, so I thought that the Phoenix Tower was my last hope…"

"You are welcome here," Mirage said, while Iona wrote everything down on parchment. Another relic that proved how old the Tower was, she thought. "Rest now, child. It must have been a long way from the Desert Lands."

Iona asked the others one by one, though mostly they had nothing new to say. Majorland has fallen, the Fountains have been tainted, all they said was already known. Still, Iona wrote down their names and their tales, and sent them to their quarters.

"A-Are there other Cures here?" The last girl asked when it was her time to answer. "We are not the only ones, are we?"

"You are the first Precure to arrive," Iona said, and her words crushed the girl. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm looking for my sister," she said, on the verge of tears. "My name is Orina, Cure Wave. My sister and I were separated, and I thought that maybe I could find her here, she knew it to be a safe place. So I hoped…"

"I see," Iona said, uncomfortable. "I was looking for my sister too, but-"

The girl began to cry, and all that Iona wanted was to be as far away as possible from her. It made her think of Maria again. How could she comfort this girl, when she herself was in need of comfort too?

"Don't lose hope," was all she managed to say. "You'll find her. Even if it is difficult, you need to keep trying, alright? Please don't cry, and don't give up."

"A-Alright," she said, uncertain, and left after Iona gave her the direction for her quarters. She hoped that this girl would receive kinder news of her sister than Iona had to hear. She did not believe it, though. Good news were a rare thing nowadays.

That was all, she thought as she set aside her quill, but two other girls were coming in. Iona faked a smile, as she knew very well that the Phoenix Tower was the last hope of the Precure who arrived, so it was not fitting for them to be greeted by a frown, or a face in despair. It was a false smile, but a smile nonetheless. However, when she saw who it was that entered, her smile became a scowl.

There was no way she could even pretend to smile at Princess.

"What are you doing here?" Iona blurted out. Her tone caught Hime by surprise, and the girl next to her too, the cook. How did Yuko even become a Precure? Iona had no doubt that Hime decided to make her a Precure, that spoiled girl who always got what she wanted.

"Why do you want to know?" Hime asked, defiant. "All Precure are welcomed in the Phoenix Tower, and we are Precure."

"Don't you dare call yourself a Precure," Iona stepped towards her. She put a hand on her pocket, to feel the Pretty Change Mirror that had once belonged to her sister. It was because of this girl that Maria was gone. It was because of this girl that everything was ruined. It took all of Iona's strength to keep her from striking her.

"Why are you so angry?" Hime asked, but Iona noticed a hint of hesitation in her voice. "What happened for you to be like this?"

"You don't even know what you did…"

"W-What I did? Is that why you're so angry at me? Well, everyone is angry at me, I'm used to it. But anger will do you no good, and I have been travelling with Yuko for a long time now, and we are tired. Let us in."

"N-Now, Hime, maybe I should be the one to talk," Yuko said, but Hime shook her head.

"Maria Hikawa. Do you know the name?" Hime didn't answer. "Say that name. Maria Hikawa. Do you know her? Do you know what happened to her?"

"I know her," she said slowly. "I don't know what happened to her, but if she died or something, you can't possibly blame me. I made a mistake, that's all."

"A mistake," Iona didn't know if she should laugh or scream. "Just a mistake. That's all. That's all…"

"I will fix it!" She said, jumping towards Iona. "Look, I'm sorry, I really didn't know what would happen."

"You little idiot," Iona lashed out, "the Precure were winning the war! Dune had just been defeated, and the Trump Kingdom was just a few battles away from being liberated. They were so close… And then you had to take the Dream Collet, didn't you? What were you thinking?"

"I-I wanted to make my dream come true," Hime said. "I wanted to use it to end the war, to make the world safe forever. That's why I took it."

"And lost it immediately!" She approached Hime, who stepped back to hide being Yuko. "It was safe. We didn't need it. We were going to win. We-" Why was she saying we? She was not a Precure. Yet she felt the Pretty Change Mirror grow warm.

"I know I'm wrong," Hime said. "I know it more than anyone else. I didn't think I was being followed. I-"

"Everyone knew you are a spoiled girl, a weak Precure, careless, clumsy and thoughtless, even our enemies. So why did it surprise you that they took the Dream Collet from you?"

She said nothing. She just began to cry. The silence was so absolute that Iona could hear Hime's tears falling on the floor. Iona felt guilty, for a second, but she thought of Maria, and Hime's tears felt like vengeance.

"Please," Yuko said, trying to calm down Hime, "don't be so hard on her. She knows she's wrong, and she paid dearly for it. She lost her parents, her home. Even our friend Megumi. She didn't do it because she's a bad person. She just… She just made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. Hers was just more costly than most."

"I can't forgive her," Iona said, thinking of Maria. Would Maria want her to be so cruel to this girl? Iona knew she wouldn't, but she couldn't help it. When she saw this girl cry, when she remembered all she did, it made her happy. It was because of Hime that she was all alone. It was because of Hime that so many kingdoms had fallen, so many had died, so many millions were enslaved, or trapped in mirrors. "I can't," she repeated. "Get out. Leave. Now."

"Please, you can't tell us to leave. It's not safe outside, it is dark and cold, sometimes too hot, and we are hungry. Please…" Yuko said again, and the way she pleaded made Iona hate herself for being so wroth, but now she could not help it anymore. Her heart burned, and her words were fire.

"Leave, or I will make you leave," she took out her sister's Pretty Change Mirror. No, it was hers now. Her body shone as she transformed, and she felt lighter, but stronger, faster. "I don't want you here, Princess. Don't make me hurt you."

She did not even know if she could actually fight them, and she didn't care. The memory of Maria burned, keeping her ablaze, furious. Still, Hime said nothing, and only nodded.

"Alright," she said, defeated. "Yuko, let's go."

"But Hime…"

"Let's find somewhere else," she said, turning back. "Come on."

Yuko tried to protest one more time, but silenced herself. She turned back as well, and alongside Hime, she left the Phoenix Tower. As they faded away, devoured by the night's veil, the fires in Iona began to die down, and when her heart was cold again, it hurt. She should not have done that. A Precure should not be like that. Maria would have been ashamed of her. That thought hurt the most.

Iona ran outside, to look for Hime and Yuko, but they were already gone. It was too dark to find them, on this starless night.

Not starless, she noticed as she saw a single star twinkling fraily. Iona could not even bring herself to care about it, though she knew it was a miracle. She just stood there, thinking, feeling guilty over her anger, and feeling angry for her guilt. She looked up, hoping that the star would bring her some comfort, but it was a single light against the darkness, too small to do anything.

She stepped back inside, thinking a thousand thoughts at once, all of them tearing her apart. She looked at herself, at her own Precure form, and it felt so wrong. She looked so much like her sister, but her sister would never have been so cruel.

Iona returned to her bedroom, hands shaking, body shivering. She looked at all her fortune-telling objects, and felt compelled to ask them about the future. She took her cards, shuffled and cut them, and then laid them out. She began to choose them, to read them, but they revealed nothing useful, nothing new. Your fortunes will change, they said. That was what they always said.

"Cure Fortune," she said to herself, staring at those cards that showed nothing, laughing despite everything. She needed a name, didn't she? Cure Fortune… A perfect name for one without a future.

Nozomi had always loved parties, but somehow she could not bring herself to enjoy this one. The fairies, freed from their masks, celebrated with music and food and cheering, but that joy did not reach Nozomi's heart. She just stared at Coco, still asleep on a tiny bed, the perfect size for a fairy. She wondered when he would awaken. Soon, she hoped, but there was no way to know. Pinceau told her to wait, and she waited, but she had never been good at it. She walked around, thinking a thousand thoughts that she forgot a moment later. She sighed, and sat down by Coco's side.

She had never been able to have fun when she was all by herself. Nozomi saw fairies dancing together, flowers on their heads, and she thought of Rin. Rin would often put flowers on Nozomi's hair when they were together alone at the gardens of the Cinq Lumières. There was empty space in her heart that Rin had once filled, as well as Urara, Komachi, Karen… More than anything else, she wished they could be with her. If they were, she would feel no fear, no doubt, no worries. No matter how hard things were, when she had her companions, she could overcome them.

Now, she was not so sure. Pinceau was a stranger to her, and did not seem to want to be much more than that, and trying to approach Reika was like braving a blizzard. Whenever Nozomi asked her about her life, her answers were so short, as if she did not even want to answer them. But still Nozomi wanted to know, she wanted to get closer to Reika. They should cling together, now that the world was empty and dark, but Nozomi's best efforts all failed. Nozomi looked outside her window, and saw a lone star shining, a flimsy light, a frail thing that was drowned by the darkness around it. By itself, it made no difference.

"Excuse me," a high-pitched voice called her. It was a fairy, white and with short ears that made it look much alike a mouse. "Miss Dream, King Donuts would like to thank you and Miss Beauty personally for lighting the Starlight Flame, for freeing us."

"Ah," Nozomi said, embarrassed. She hoped she would not be asked to make a speech. "Alright. I'm going."

She followed the fairy through well-lit corridors: the torches on the walls had been lit, and the palace, though still a bit empty, looked almost beautiful. Still, there was much work to be done, Pinceau and King Donuts had said, and on the next day, the citizens of the Doughnut Kingdom would start rebuilding.

Reika, Pinceau, the king and a hundred fairies awaited for her at the throne room. On the corners of the walls, Nozomi could still see cobwebs, and parts of the floor were still thick with dust. Still, she could not deny that the lights made the place look warmer and more inviting, much unlike the cold and dead room they had found when they first came to Frosting.

"Cure Dream," the king said in a fatherly tone. As he began to speak, the music quickly died down as the musicians put down their instruments. "I'm thankful you have joined us."

"It's an honor," Nozomi said, kneeling. She had learned that it was proper to do so when Rin screamed at her for being disrespectful when she met the king and queen of the Blue Sky Kingdom. Since then, Nozomi never forgot her courtesies.

"You and Beauty have done us a great favor, the greatest favor we could have asked for in our hour of need," he began. "You brought back our stars," he said, and Nozomi almost said that it was only a single star, but bit her lip and held back her words, "bringing a little light into this darkest night. So long as the stars shine above us, evil cannot reach us. Such is what is said in the Pledge. The magic of the stars protects us from the dark powers of our enemies, breaking the spell that kept us enslaved by Nightmare's masks, and in return, we protect the Starlight Flames."

The Pledge. Of course Nozomi knew about it, every Precure did. Countless thousands of years ago, when the Precure were still scattered all over the world with no organization or leadership, the Order of the Red Rose was founded by Cures Empress, Priestess, Magician. Before then, the world was dark, plagued by undying evils, but those three Precure worked together to vanquish their foes, and to create the Starlight Flames, bringing the stars to life where once there were none. It was because of them that the night sky was full of stars, and the world was safe. In return for the protection of the Precures, all the countries agreed to support the Red Rose in whatever they needed. Such was the Pledge between the Cures and the rest of the world.

"I have no words to properly thank you," he said, "but as our champions, you may ask me for anything, and if I can give it to you, I will do it. You have my full support as well, and my kingdom's as well."

"Anything…" Nozomi wanted to ask for her friends back, but she knew that was not appropriate. "I just want to rest for a while. I'm exhausted."

"Likewise, said Reika. Her eyes met Nozomi, and she smiled.

"Very well," the king said, almost disappointed. "Well, you have free reign in my castle, so you may do whatever please you. As for me, I must talk to Cure Pinceau, so I need to leave as well."

King Donuts began to whisper something that only Pinceau could hear, though Nozomi did not care enough to try to listen. She turned back, and returned to her quarters. Behind her, Reika followed her and did the same.

"You did well tonight," Reika said. "I would have fallen if not for you. Thank you."

"You saved me as well. Everything I heard about your skill was true. You really are an amazing fighter."

"Thank you," she said, her voice still cold, as if she just repeated something she had said a hundred times before without meaning it. "And… Sorry for arguing with you."

"It's alright," Nozomi knew there was no point in being bitter over the past. What was done was done. "It might have been for the best."

"Do you want to get some air?" Reika asked, pointing at the open door that led to the castle gardens. Nozomi only nodded, and followed her.

The night was still warm, though it seemed a little bit colder close to Reika. The two of them looked up, at the lone star that tried to fight the darkness all by itself.

"Almost like us," Nozomi said without thinking. Reika gave her a puzzled look, and Nozomi hurried to explain. "Ah, I mean… It's just a single star, no? Darkness surrounds it, and though it tries its best, its light is too dim to fight it."

"Are we the star, then? Just the two of us, fighting the night, the darkness?"

"So it seems," Nozomi laughed. "We don't know how many other Cures are there, or where they are. There's Pinceau, yes, but… Ah, I'm sorry, I must sound so stupid."

"You don't," Reika put a hand on Nozomi's shoulder, and stepped closer to her. "I understand what you mean. It does seem kind of hopeless, no?"

"I wouldn't call it that," Nozomi said. Nothing was truly hopeless, she said once to Urara. Some things are so extremely difficult that they might never come true, and even if they do, you must fight so hard that sometimes it might feel like it's not even worth it, but nothing is ever hopeless. "But it is sad sometimes. And lonely, too."

"Hm? You feel lonely, Nozomi?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just… May I be honest?"

"Please be."

"I barely know you, and you are so different from me. You are so smart, so calm and gentle, and thoughtful… I'm kind of dumb, hasty, and sometimes I'm a bit too rough… I just feel like you would be better off with someone else."

"I wondered that too, sometimes," somehow the fact that she admitted it made it less painful. "And I also don't mean any offense, it's just that I miss my friends. I don't know to fight without them. I'm trying my best, but it still feels so wrong, like I'm screwing up at every step."

"You aren't! We aren't screwing up. We've done rather well, actually, you and I, considering how dire our situation is. I think we can work together, if we try."

"Then we must try," Reika smiled.

"I want to get to know you," Nozomi blurted out. "I want to be your friend, Reika. I want to fight by our side, and I want the two of us to not feel lonely anymore. Do you want that too?"

"I do," she said, and for the first time her smile seemed warm. "Tell me," she sat down, and Nozomi did the same, "where did you use to live?"

"I wasn't born there, but since I became a Precure, I had my quarters at the Cinq Lumières, shared with my friend Rin."

"Oh, the Cinq Lumières? I always wanted to go there, I heard it's an excellent academy, and…"

Under the night sky, they shared tales, they shared dreams, and they shared laughter. Reika's laughter was so gentle, and just as elegant as she was. Nozomi almost felt embarrassed when she guffawed loudly, but she was enjoying herself far too much to feel bad. Far away, she could hear music coming from inside the castle, and even farther, the sounds of the city, of Frosting, now alive again. The night was still black and eerie, but as the single star shone high above, Nozomi could not help but notice that the world was indeed just a little bit brighter.

Chapter Text

The wind was always blowing in the Eyrie, bringing fluffy snow and biting breezes with it, yet Mai always kept her windows open. The wind was, after all, the only trace she had of the outside world, and she treasured it greatly. It was always the wind that kissed her good morning, and good night as well. When it touched her skin, it felt as if someone was by her side.

When she turned to look, however, in desperate hope, she found herself alone. Save for her jailer, who was not much company, she found herself all by herself in her prison without gates or bars. There was no need for that in the Eyrie: no prisoner could possibly descend the mountain, not alone, unprepared, not with this cold. Almost no Precures would be capable of such a feat.

And most certainly not a Precure who could not even transform on her own. Once, when she had Saki with her, Mai felt so strong, so safe, and together their magic was remarkable, one of the most powerful that the Precure had ever known. And yet, when they were apart, they were useless. Almost all the other Cures could at the very least transform when they were alone, even if they were not as strong as they could be with their partners, but not Bloom and Egret. That which made them so powerful was also their greatest weakness.

The wind blew cold from the darkness outside. Night had fallen quickly tonight, Mai noticed, or at least she thought so. It was hard to tell, nowadays. She had been trapped in the Eyrie for a week. Or was it two? Mai tried to count the sunrises and sunsets, at first, but then she quickly stopped. What was the point, when all days were exactly the same?

Well, not quite the same. On her first day, she at least had Choppy with her, before her captor took the fairy from her. Mai begged Namakelder to let Choppy stay with her, but he ignored her pleas.

He ignored most things, in truth. He ignored the loud, howling wind, he ignored the avalanches that shook the mountain, he even ignored Mai most of the time when she reached out to him. At most, he gave her an annoyed frown and a sigh as he went back to sleep.

He was lazing around tonight, as always. He was not awake, not truly, only between sleeps. At least that was what he called it when he actually had to eat or, in fact, do anything that wasn't merely sleep.

"Can't sleep?" He actually bothered to acknowledge her existence; it wasn't something he did very often. Mai had not yet decided if it was because he disliked her or because he just could not bother acknowledging anything at all.

"It's still too early."

"It's never too early to sleep, only too late," he grinned. "You're going to be here for a while, so you should sleep as long as you can."

"No," it seemed like such a miserable fate. Life in this cage was not something worth living. "I don't want to sleep."

"Odd," he said, pouring some coffee on his mug. How he could sleep with all that caffeine was still a mystery to Mai. "Well, I'm sorry you're so sad here, but I can't let you leave. Maybe if you'd like I could try and get you some books, in the next few months? Someone will have to come to bring supplies, after all, so I can make a request. To tell the truth, I rather like books. They're a good way to spend a lazy day, when you're not sleeping, so long you don't have to think too hard. Would you like some books, then?"

"That would be nice, but I don't plan on staying here that long," she said. Powerless as she was, it would do her no good to give up on hope.

"Don't you get tired of being so defiant?"

"Never," she said, and he laughed.

Namakelder wasn't the most unpleasant of people, and for that Mai was grateful. If she was held captive by some of those awful soldiers of Dark Fall… She might not even be alive, in truth. She thought of Saki, and prayed that she too had been lucky. Still, she wondered who Namakelder served.

"Can I ask you something?" Namakelder only shrugged. Mai took that as permission. "Are you with Dark Fall? Or do you work for someone else?

"Why are you so curious, girl?"

"I just am," she said. "Is it a bad thing to want to know more?"

"I suppose not," he said, smiling, "but I cannot tell you. It was a real pain finding a job like this, you know, where I don't have to do much, and get paid even though I spend most of my time sleeping. Or chilling out," he laughed bitterly as another cold breeze blew into the prison. "Anyways, my employers might not be happy if I go around revealing information to prisoners."

"But it's just the two of us here, nobody will know!"

"Oh," his smile suddenly died. His face approached Mai's, and he spoke as if sharing a secret, "they will know. They see and know all."

"They?"

"They," he repeated.

"Is it the Dusk Zone?" Mai asked. She had heard from Nagisa and Honoka that the Dark King was always watching over his servants, destroying those who displeased him.

"Dusk Zone?" He laughed again. "Well, I suppose you had no way of knowing it… The Dusk Zone is gone, and so is its liege. The Dark King grew greedy, displeased with the way the world had been divided between all the kingdoms and organizations that destroyed the Precure. You know, Nightmare took over the Palmier Kingdom and its surroundings lands, Labyrinth claimed the prosperous regions of the fallen Sweets Kingdom, full of valuable resources. Well, Dark Fall and the Dusk Zone's territories were really close, and the Dark King wanted a bit more land…"

"So they went to war?"

"More or less. No armies were raised, but the Dark King and Akudaikan fought one another in a duel to the death. Now, these are just stories, I don't believe them all myself, but I've been told that their battle was so fierce that entire cities were destroyed, and the whole region became a terrible ruin. Nasty thing, you know, they had already won, they should be resting and enjoying themselves, not fighting," he said, and, as if remembering he too needed some rest, he stepped away from Mai and jumped back on his comfortable couch.

"So," Mai urged him on, "what happened?"

"Akudaikan killed the Dark King after a long battle," Namakelder said, lowering his hat to cover his eyes, "but Akudaikan himself was wounded, and he died as well. And, somehow, Dark Fall assimilated the Dusk Zone."

"How? If both of their leaders were killed…"

"They have a new leader now," he said, barely holding back laughter. "That Goyan fellow."

"Goyan?" Namakelder had to be mocking her. Goyan, that little green… Thing. "Impossible."

"That's what I thought too," Namakelder said, "but Mucardia promised me it was true, and Hosshiwa confirmed it."

"Mucardia? Hosshiwa?"

"Ah…" He seemed to shrink on the couch. "I should not have said that. Ah, well, it makes no matter, probably. You're not going to leave, anyways."

He began to make a comically fake snoring sound; clearly he wanted this conversation to be over. Mai obliged, and returned to her window, where she pretended she could watch the world. She only pretended: it was too dark to see anything.

The darkened sky hurt her more than anything else, though. At her home, she'd often watch the skies with her father, with her brother, counting the stars, naming them. She never said it, for it was a childish thought, but Mai was thankful that she had those stars to make the night less dark, more inviting. Happier. But now it was all gone: the stars, the observatory in her house, and her family.

She could see it if she tried; her father and brother next to her, pointing at constellations, reciting their names perfectly. Mai didn't know nearly as much as they did, but she tried her best to learn, and she always listened to what they told her. The stars, Kazuya had said once, when Mai was only a child, not only give us light, keeping the nights safe and beautiful, but they also give power to the Precure, who watch over us.

Back then, she did not yet even dream of becoming a Precure, yet the thought always fascinated them, so she was always asking questions, though the answers not always as satisfactory as she might have wanted: as knowledgeable as her family was, even they could not know all about the Pretty Cure. Only when she became Cure Egret did Mai begin to learn about their secrets.

She learned that the stars weren't only light, but the very essence of the magic wielded by the Precure. From the simplest forms of magic, like spells brought to life with a mere thought, to the more complex ones, like reading the Fates, all magic depended on the stars. No wonder they had been so easily crushed when the stars all died. Mai could feel her own wind magic falter, her attacks become little more than worthless breezes.

She sighed, and looked up again. She wondered if Saki was staring at this same sky as she did, and if she still held any hopes. Mai hoped so.

Something caught her attention, something fleeting. When Mai turned to look at it, it was gone. Could it be…? The hope she still had told her yes, but at the same time, it was too unlikely. Mai focused her eyes on the canvas of darkness, until a star was suddenly painted on it. A single star, its light barely noticeable, but there it was, that small spot of white.

In her heart, she felt something she had not felt in a long time. It wasn't hope, for she had never lost that, but something else entirely. She felt the wind touch her face, gently now, a friend's touch, as if saying it was alright now.

"Please," Mai said to the wind. She could feel her magic returning, if only a little. She hoped it would be enough. "Please, listen, and let my words reach someone. My name is Mai Mishou. I'm a Precure. I'm being held captive at the Eyrie with my fairy Choppy, away from my partner Saki Hyuuga, Cure Bloom. Please, if this wind reaches you and you can somehow hear my message, please help me. I can't fight without my partner, so please, I'm depending on you."

The wind idled for a moment, and then it blew away, carrying Mai's hopes with it. If a star was shining again, a Starlight Flame had been lit, so there were still Precure fighting. She would be fighting too, if she had the chance, but for now, all she could do was ask for help, and hope that it would come.

She laid on her bed and closed her eyes, and fell asleep to the melody of the wind.

From her bed Nozomi watched as the sun colored the sky with yellow flame. There she lingered, watching as the blue filled the skies, feeling the breeze that entered through her open window, thinking back on her odd dream. It could not be the truth, yet it felt so real.

Egret, was that the name? Nozomi could not remember ever hearing it, but maybe she had just not paid attention. That wouldn't be too surprising. Still, Reika would like to hear this.

Nozomi closed her window; if Karen knew that she slept with it open, with the wind hitting her face, she would be so upset over her carelessness. It wouldn't be so bad, to tell the truth.

There was a quick knock on her door; Nozomi rushed to answer it, still wearing her pajamas (an ugly grey thing, more rag than clothing, but it kept the cold away, at least). Behind the door was a fairy, floating, as fairies loved to do so that they could talk to humans while being able to look at them in the face.

"Yes?"

"Miss Dream," the fairy said in a polite tone, "Miss Pinceau is calling you. She says that your fairy friend has awakened."

"Coco?" Nozomi asked, and immediately realized what a silly question it was. "Is he alright?"

"Yes, don't worry, he is healthy," the fairy smiled. "Pinceau and King Donuts explained to him what had happened, and so he wanted to talk to the person who had saved his life."

Nozomi nodded, and said that she would meet with him soon. She was not the person who had saved his life, though, at least not the only one. If not for Komachi, they would have never escaped. Komachi… The memory still hurt.

Once properly dressed, Nozomi followed the fairy through the now-tidy corridors of the palace. It looked almost like a proper castle now; the fairies had furnished it as well as they could, though most had been pillaged. Still, emptiness could not deprive the castle of the beauty on its walls, on its elaborately-patterned tiles along the floor.

Coco was surrounded by Reika, Pinceau, King Donuts, and a small pink fairy who kept putting a hand on Coco's forehead, and asking him questions about his well-being, to which he always answered by saying he felt alright.

"Coco," Nozomi said with relief. He seemed much better than he did when they left him with Pinceau.

"Hello," he greeted her awkwardly. He must not have expected her to be so happy to see him, but after all that she had lost, it was a miracle to see that not all was gone. "Nozomi, right?" She nodded. "Thank you for taking care of me while I was… Ah, well I don't actually know what happened to me."

"You are a prince of the Palmier Kingdom," King Donuts didn't seem to care about keeping it a secret, "so your life is connected to your land, and to everything that surrounds it. The Palmier Kingdom is the greatest of the fairy kingdoms, so when the stars above our lands went out, you felt it worse than us."

"Then that means that the same thing happened to Nuts," he said. "Why did I wake up?"

"We lighted a Starlight Flame," Reika explained. "That must be it."

"I don't know," Coco said. "It all seems so odd. This did not happen to the other fairies, did it? Only to the rulers of the fairy kingdoms."

"So it seems," King Donuts said. "When the Starlight Flame was lit, at least, I was freed from Nightmare. But… Well, if I said I understand everything, I would be lying. This is why I'm sending Pinceau to the Phoenix Tower."

"I will begin my journey today," she said. "And maybe at the Tower there will be answers to be found, if there is anyone there. And even if they cannot answer us, it would be good to go there, no? We must reclaim it, if it was taken, and if not, we must meet with the Cures there to keep fighting together."

"Sounds like a plan, then," Nozomi said. "I have one, too."

"Do you, now?" Reika was curious. "Tell us, please."

"I had a dream," she began, and could see as Pinceau raised an eyebrow, "a dream about a Precure. Cure Regret? No, that's not it. Something of the sort."

"Egret?" Pinceau asked.

"I guess so," Nozomi said, and continued. "She talked to me in my dream. I mean, not to me, but to whoever could hear her. She said she's being held at the Eyrie, by our enemies. She asked me for help, in my dream, although it wasn't just a dream, I think. She was talking to the wind, and…"

King Donuts and Pinceau were both looking at her as if she had lost her mind. Even Coco didn't seem certain at all. Reika, at least, seemed to be taking her seriously, and for that, Nozomi was glad.

"It's true, I swear it, no matter how weird it sounds!"

"I believe you."

"I do not," said Pinceau. "No offense, but a dream? You are not a prophet, your dreams cannot tell the future."

"It wasn't a prophetic dream or anything of the sort! It was a warning that Egret sent, hoping it would reach someone. I didn't just dream about her for no reason; she was asking for help with her magic."

"Magic," Pinceau scoffed. "A fancy word to explain that which you cannot actually explain."

"Now, now, Pinceau…"

"I am sorry, but I think you'll be wasting your time if you chase this dream. You should go with me to the Phoenix Tower, at least there we can be certain that we'll find something of use."

"No," Coco suddenly said. "I think we can believe in Nozomi's dream. Dream messages aren't unheard of. My own mother had a couple of those!"

"If you say so, then alright," said Pinceau. "I just do not think it is healthy to believe too much in anything."

"But at the same time, a life lived with no beliefs is a life worth very little," Reika said. "It seems that ever since the Axia Crisis, the Precure have been too hesitant to put their faith into anything. Well, now we must make a leap of faith, and hope for the best, or we will just wither and await our inevitable fate."

"Well said," Coco got up despite his nurse's protests. "You're going, then?"

"Yes, I will go with Nozomi," Reika said, smiling.

"I will give you as much food and water as you may need," King Donuts declared. "I just hope you don't need too much. Our reserves aren't in the best shape."

"Thank you," said Nozomi. "We'll go as soon as we can, then. The faster we rescue Egret, the better."

"I'll go with you, too," Coco said. Donuts ran towards him, to try and change his mind, but Coco didn't want to hear anything. "The Precure need fairy partners, don't they? Well, as prince of the Palmier Kingdom, I think I'd make for a pretty good partner."

"You don't have to go if you don't want to, though," Nozomi said. "It'll be dangerous."

"You don't have to tell me that. I want to go and I want to fight. This world is mine as well, and so are its stars. I want to help."

"Alright, then," Nozomi shook his tiny hand. "We'll be glad to have you with us, Coco."

The moon twisted and turned in a fever dream, her body sprawled on the bed, contorting as she wailed. Rikka watched, not knowing what to do, not knowing how to ease Yuri's pain. It would be funny if it wasn't so painful: Cure Moonlight, one of the most skilled Cures to ever live, defeated by the night, despite her name. While the sun shone, she walked with determination, stoic and watchful, but when it was time to rest, nightmares plagued her.

Rikka took her hand, but Yuri's nails cut her, and she had to let go. She took the small cup from the bed table nearby, and gently poured its contents on Yuri's mouth. Still asleep, she grimaced. No wonder, that liquid was bitter and foul-smelling. Still, it was the only thing that could keep her worst nightmares at bay, so Rikka gave it to Yuri despite her displeasure. Dreamfrond tea was disgusting, but it worked well, ensuring solace from nightmares. And still Yuri suffered; Rikka could only wonder how she would be without her help.

They had found this shack just before sunset, a great relief for them. Sleeping in the woods was not just unpleasant, but dangerous. This broken-down house was only unpleasant; too cold, its wooden walls all devoured by termites. Rikka could see the holes wherever she looked. If it rained, there would be leaks, no doubt, or worse. It did not seem as if this house could withstand a storm.

"Poor girl," said Raquel. The fairy sitting atop the bed table, watching over Yuri with his partner. "And poor you, too, you haven't slept in… How long?"

"Just two days," Rikka said. It was not as if she never slept. Sometimes Yuri wasn't suffering that much, and Rikka could get some rest. "I'm fine, Raquel. Besides, it's not like I can sleep knowing she needs help."

"Right," the fairy nodded. "I wish you wouldn't sacrifice yourself for the sake of others like this, though. You need to take care of yourself too, or you'll end up like…"

Rikka glared at her fairy. She did not like to reminded of that.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude like that. It's just that… Maybe if Mana wasn't so tired, she'd be here with us."

"Enough," Rikka said, but then she was already thinking of Mana.

The situation at the Trump Kingdom was already critical even before the stars stopped shining. The fires of war devoured entire cities, and only when Moonlight arrived with reinforcements did it look like there was a chance for victory. And then the skies darkened.

Rikka closed her eyes, and she saw when the surviving Precure rushed to the docks, to escape the Trump Kingdom. The Jikochuu overwhelmed them, and not just them; there were other monsters as well, ones that Rikka had never seen. One of those masked creatures captured Alice and Lance, taking them away, and though Rikka and Mana meant to follow, they knew they had no chance against such a mighty force.

And then Makoto refused to leave the Trump Kingdom with them. She would not abandon her home, she said, and so she remained there with Davi. The two of them ran into a dark alley, and disappeared as well.

Even aboard their ship, however, they were not safe. Those awful creatures gave chase, and almost brought down their vessel. They fought back the monstrous vultures that served King Jikochuu, but Mana was thrown off the ship by them. She had not slept in days, and Rikka was sure that she wasn't eating as much as she should: she was so busy sharing and helping others that she destroyed herself and weakened her own body so much that in the end, she could not even fight. The last thing that Rikka saw of Mana was the water enveloping her as Sharuru tried to pull her up. The two of them were swallowed by the stream, and then they were gone.

"Sorry," Raquel said again. He could always tell when Rikka was thinking back on what had happened.

"It's okay. I'm sure she survived. I'm sure," she said, as if repeating herself would make it more likely to come true. "We'll need to gather more Dreamfrond tomorrow, by the way. We're almost out of it."

"Oh, alright. I'll make sure to remember."

Yuri whined again, trying to say something. Her words always came out twisted, impossible to understand. But Rikka didn't need words to understand what had happened. She had heard the rumors. Her fairy dead, and her father. And, if the rumors were true, what she did to her father's slayer was something that no Precure should ever do, no matter the circumstances.

It wasn't for her to judge, however. Yuri was her sole companion now, other than Raquel. She was silent, most of the time, and she seemed to be always sad, but Rikka couldn't blame her for that. She had suffered so much, and all that Rikka wanted was to make her pain a little less terrible.

"I wish I knew where we are," Raquel said. "Somewhere to the east of the Trump Kingdom?"

"So it seems. Pass me that other cup," she asked. It was the last one they had, so it had to last until dawn.

Raquel did as he was told. He had become quite adept at helping Rikka tend to the wounded at the Trump Kingdom; there was no magic that could properly heal a person, so it all had to be done by hand, but Rikka didn't mind it. She could not even count how many lives she had save, even though she had, at first, sworn that she would remember all their names and their faces. It was harder than she thought, however, with all the people hurt during the fighting.

Yuri moaned once again, and with a sigh, Rikka made her drink more of the tea. By dawn, Moonlight would be fine again, strong once more, so it hurt to see her like this. Rikka wished she could somehow stop her pain, not just alleviate it. For a moment she turned her head to look outside, and though she could see a star in the sky, the moon was gone. Rikka felt a chill.

It would be a long night, she knew it. They always were.

We are prisoners of fate, Iona thought as she told these girls the sentence she saw in her cards. Through the window, the wind blew cold, as it was wont to do. Iona could not decide if the preferred the scorching hot days or the unpleasantly cold ones, but right now she would kill for some sunshine.

"Iona?" Cure Nile called her attention.

"Oh, right," she returned to her cards. This was a special deck, one that could tell the future more accurately, or at least it was supposed to. "Tell me," she took Nile's hand, "what is it that you wish to be revealed, child?"

"Will I go back home?"

Iona guided the girl's hand to the cards; five piles had been laid on their backs upon the small table, each with over a dozen cards. Nile herself had to shuffle and divide them. She took them one by one, and put them side by side, their contents not yet revealed.

"Ask your heart," Iona said the words she was supposed to say, and nothing else, "are these the cards that really hold your destiny? Do you feel that once you reveal them, your fate will appear before your eyes?"

"I…" She hesitated. "Can I choose other cards?"

"Of course," Iona picked up the cards and put them on the bottom of the piles, and then shuffled again. Then she asked the question again; sometimes this could go on for a very long time, when she tried to tell the fortune of a really indecisive person, whose heart was uncertain.

"Show them," Nile asked, and Iona obeyed. The first card was the Girl, the most common of them all. A standard hundred-card deck had five of those, and some variations, even more. "Is that me?" She asked, but Iona didn't answer. It was not for her to answer, anyways.

Then came the Sorrow, represented by a weeping crone, her face disfigured by her own tears. There were not many ways to interpret that card. After that was the House and its small shack drawn with simple shapes. It could indeed mean home, whatever that was, because home could mean a million things. A childhood village, a lullaby that only your mother sang. Maria.

"Iona?" Nile asked her again. This time Iona hadn't gotten so distracted, but when one sees the Sorrow, they tend to get impatient, desperately curious about their omens.

"The fourth…" It was the Serpent. An ill omen, it was said, but then again, all portents could be ill omens if you tried hard enough to see harm in them. Some thought the Serpent meant betrayal, but for Iona, if you felt betrayed when a snake sank its fangs on you, you are truly a great fool. Others said it meant poison, or even renewal, a serpent shedding its skin. And others even actually thought it warned of the arrival of a dragon, raining fire from the sky. Iona could only laugh at the idea, and it reminded her of how difficult it was to properly read the Fates.

At last came the King. It could symbolize duty to one's superiors, or subjugation. All the cards could mean so much: the actual ritual and the shuffling weren't the hard part of reading the Fates, anyone could do it. To extract meaning from them, however, when there was so much the cards could represent, took real experience. Iona was still young, but she had learned the art of the Fates from her family since she was only a child.

"Girl, House, Sorrow, Serpent, King," Iona repeated them as she tried to piece their meanings together. It would be easy to make sense of them if she had an entire day, but when telling someone's fortune, she had to think quickly. The truth was in front of her, in those cards, she only had to understand it. There once was a time where the Fates were used even by kings and queens to guide their actions, but now this art had lost much of its importance. Iona did not know if she should still have faith in the cards, as they had failed her before, but perhaps she had simply failed to see what they tried to tell her.

"A-A dragon destroyed my city?" Nile asked. People always tried to understand the meaning of their cards, even though it was the fortune teller's job. Iona didn't actually mind it, as it gave her a bit more time to try and see the truth. "And… It made everyone cry? Because all their houses were destroyed?"

"I don't think that's it," Iona said. "Girl… Followed by the House, it might indeed indicate your hometown. If the Serpent represents treachery, then the King means domination. The Fates tell me that the city where you used to live fell, through subterfuge, into the hands of a tyrant."

"But not a dragon?" Unbelievably, she sounded relieved.

"I don't believe so, no."

"Good," she said. "I'm sure the survivors can deal with a mere tyrant. But a dragon… That would be really bad!"

"There have been no dragon sightings in centuries, and when there were, they were never that close to the Desert Lands," Iona reassured her. "Rest easy."

Nile jumped up from her chair, smiling again. Smiles like that made Iona's hard work and years of study worth it. Of course, sometimes the Fates revealed terrible futures, and Iona didn't want to lie, to give false hopes, though at times she thought that perhaps it would be better if she did.

With Nile gone, Iona picked up her cards and shuffled them back together. She stared at her deck for a while, and then looked outside, at the desolation. She began to cut the cards as she asked herself what she should do next. She laid the piles one by one, and hoped that this time her answers would be of some use.

A strong gust blew inside, scattering her cards, undoing her work. Behind her, the door was closed shut. Grumbling, Iona got up to close her damned window, while the strong wind slapped her face.

Her cards were all scattered on the cold floor now, all over the room, a terrible mess. Yet on the table, five of them remained. Iona approached them hesitantly; this could be coincidence, so perhaps she should ignore it, and try again. But what if it meant something else? Somehow, when she looked into her heart, it felt like the answer for her question was truly in front of her.

Knight. Girl. Fairy. Peaks. Dungeon. Those were the cards she saw, and in half a heartbeat Iona knew what it meant. The Girl and the Fairy together could only mean one thing: a Precure, of course, as they always had fairies, or at least were meant to. Iona didn't, and some of the girls who arrived didn't as well. Mirage didn't, either, which Iona always found odd. The Knight most often meant rescue, or simply a warning of someone needing help, and the Peaks and the Dungeon could indicate a location. Where, though? Iona didn't know. She would need to ask Mirage.

Down she went, descending that insufferably long flight of stairs. She did not want to spit on Mirage's generosity, but Iona was seriously considering to make a request for a bedroom in a less inconvenient place.

Cure Mirage was often at the great hall in the center of the tower, awaiting new arrivals. Leadership suited her perfectly; she was an experienced Precure, a skilled fighter, and very wise and knowledgeable, as well. All the Cures of the Phoenix Tower admired her and listened to her commands.

She was not there today, however. The hall was strangely empty, though all the dust had been swept and the place was beginning to look as beautiful as it might have before the Death of the Stars. But they weren't dead anymore; a lone star shone helpless against the dark, desperately trying to ward off the cruel night, in vain.

"Are you looking for someone?" Orina asked as she passed by Iona. "Mirage?"

"Ah, yes. Was it so obvious?"

"A little," Orina chuckled. "You are always looking for Cure Mirage. One would think you're in love."

Iona paid no mind to the quip. She felt no shame in always seeking Mirage, to be taught about the way of the Precure, their history, their values. Mirage and Tender were partners, some of the most esteemed Cures of this generation. Iona would be a fool if she refused to try and learn from someone like her.

"Where is she?"

"Down there," Orina pointed at a door in the corner, almost impossible to see from afar. "The stairs there take to an old vault, or something. Mirage said she was looking for something there."

"Thank you," Iona said, and followed her directions.

The door was right behind the heel of the enormous statue of Cure Magician, and close to the shaft of the Miracle Dragon Glaive she held. It seemed almost as if the door was placed there as an afterthought. Perhaps it had not been there when the Tower was first built.

It led to a narrow stairway, dusty and dark. Far away, and far below, Iona could see a light, and she followed it, until she reached a round room lit by torches of Starfire. The walls were some sort of hard silver metal, and all along them were closed doors. Chests were scattered around, some clearly ancient, made of stone whose colors had faded. Others were not quite so old, made of wood, though their hinges and lock had rusted, and some trunks seemed as if they had been placed there recently.

There she found Mirage, examining a large box, so tall it almost reached her chest. Iona approached her, but before she could greet Mirage, she had already been noticed.

"Hello, Iona," she said without taking her eyes from the box's contents. "Have you come to see the Relic Vault?"

"Not really."

"Such a pity," she said, though she didn't sound like she actually cared much. "There's so much to be learned here. That door, the one behind the statue, it seems so frail but it actually can only be opened by a Precure. It's the only reason the Vault wasn't pillaged while the Cures were gone from the Tower, fighting our enemies all around the world when the stars went out."

"This place is so big," Iona didn't want to say something so obvious, but there wasn't much else that could be said. And, besides, the Vault was amazingly big.

"Yes, indeed. It has to be this large to hold all the treasures the Precure have gathered and made throughout history, after all. Look at this," she slowly lifted something from inside the box. A crown of brittle silver, almost falling apart, surmounted by half a dozen roses that looked like steel. "Don't touch. The colors have faded from the roses, but the silver still clings to the crown, if weakly. This is, I'd say, about eight thousand years old."

"What is it, exactly?"

"The Crown of Roses," she said, bringing it closer to Iona's face. "Once, the Precure were not merely an organization but a true kingdom, its domain extending over most of the world. That kingdom was ruled by Pretty Cures who called themselves Rose Queens and wore this crown, that passed from mother to daughter for a long time, until at last, a queen died childless, and after a very complicated crisis that I don't have the time or the knowledge to explain, the rule of the Precure ended, and their lands fragmented into countless countries."

"I never heard of that," Iona admitted.

"It's because no wanted you to hear of it. The Precure have been very apt at keeping their history a secret from most. When the monarchy ended, all the regalia was brought to the Phoenix Tower, and the Relic Vault was built to hold them."

"And I suppose it holds the Sacred Treasures as well?" Iona asked. Of those she had heard; the artifacts wielded by Magician, Priestess and Empress weren't a secret to anyone.

"No," Mirage said, returning the crown to the chest. "The Red Rose says that they are kept safe here, but that's a lie. We don't actually know where they are. When Empress disappeared, she also took the Crystal Mirror with her. The Glaive was stolen, and the Crown may or may not be in the Blue Sky Kingdom, or it may actually be the Crown of Roses, or it might have been melted down by accident, although I don't actually think it's possible to destroy it," she turned back to the other doors of the Vault. "As far as we know, it might just be lost here. There are so many treasures here that in the end it all looks like a pile of trash, if I may be so honest."

"That's a bit too harsh, isn't it?"

"Probably," she said, "but I think you'll forgive me, as I've here for most of the day already."

"Are you looking for something?"

"Don't worry, I've already found it. Right now I'm just trying to organize things. After all, with all the magical weapons and artifacts we have here, surely there must be something that can help us in the battles to come."

"Battles to come? So you've decided to fight?"

"Of course. Not yet, mind you, there are too few of us, but should we find other Precures, we can try to fight back."

"Oh," Iona said, remembering the reason she was looking for Mirage. "There's something I must ask you."

"What is it?" Mirage asked, and Iona showed her the cards the wind had given her.

"This is a sign," Iona said. "Knight, Girl, Fairy. It means a Precure in need of help, I'm sure of it."

"Can any human truly be sure of what the Fates mean to say, though?" She shrugged.

"I'm sure of it," she repeated. "All I need to know is where she is. Peaks and Dungeon. Those are the remaining cards, and I'm sure they are trying to tell me her location."

"Peaks and Dungeon… A prison on a mountain, then? That would be the Eyrie, unless there is another place I haven't heard of. Will you go there?"

"I must."

"Now, I admire your enthusiasm and drive, but you do understand that the Eyrie is a distant place, and dangerous, too, it was always dangerous, even when the world was a safer place. And you have only your cards to trust."

"What else do I have?" Iona asked. "I can't just stay here and wait when I have the opportunity to do something."

"That much is true, but maybe you should be patient. Wait for more Cures to come, perhaps. We can explore and see if we can find something. We don't need to trust these omens."

"But I do trust them," Iona said. "I've learned to read them, to find the truth in them. And my heart tells me that I will indeed find a Cure held captive in the Eyrie."

"You say so, but tell me, how would the cards know? Is it a divine message? That's folly. We do not depend on the divine anymore," her tone was growing angry. "Divine, gods… Those are just different words for fate, and just as meaningless."

"I don't think fate is meaningless. I chose to listen to it, so I will seek this Precure in the Eyrie."

"Do as you will, then," Mirage said. "But remember that those who cling to signs are locked in fate's cage. The Fates, god, whatever you wish to call it… In the end, fate will make you its plaything, its little trapped bird. I don't want that to happen to you."

"I'll be careful, and I'll return with a Precure with me. Trust me, Mirage, as you've trusted Tender. I swear I'll make you both proud."

"I'll hope fortune favors you, then," Mirage said, putting a hand on Iona's cheek. "You are so alike your sister, did you know? She might not look like it, but she was quite stubborn when she decided to help someone. We have always argued, but I always loved her for that. Go, then, Iona. I will await your safe return."

Iona nodded, suddenly embarrassed. She was not often compared to Maria. It felt odd. Iona left in a hurry, trying not to think of it. As she went up the stairs and prepared to leave, she looked at the three great statues again. She stepped back so that she could see their faces. Magician's face was determined, fierce, while Priestess' was calm, like a perfect wise queen. Empress, however, seemed saddened by something. Iona shook off that thought. It was just a statue. It meant nothing.

She set out with the wind still weeping. The road was long, she knew it, and dangerous. But what wasn't dangerous now? It was Iona's fate, and she had to follow it. If that made her no more than a songbird trapped in a cage, so be it. She would sing the song that fate ordained.

Chapter Text

To Beauty's great sorrow, the second day after they set out towards the Eyrie was one of those accursed hot days that were impossible to bear. Blue locks clung to her forehead, sticky with sweat. Above, the crimson sun bled all over the sky, dying it a light red. When the wind blew, it offered very little comfort, as it brought only warmth with it. They walked through the woods, through pastures, avoiding the paved roads, where the heat would be even less tolerable.

This was only the first day of many until they reached the Eyrie, yet by sunset Reika was already nearing collapse. If it was like this for much longer, she didn't know how she'd carry on, but she had no choice, so carry on she would, despite the pain. This climate never suited her, but the worst thing was never knowing when the day would dawn in hellish heat or pleasant cold, and she had little hope that the next days would be much better.

By her side, Nozomi looked just as pitiful, panting and sweating even though she rolled up her sleeves and tried to cool herself with a shabby but colorful fan that Pinceau had given her. Carrying Coco on her shoulder certainly didn't make things better, though she didn't complain about that. It didn't seem to help much, so Reika knew that soon it would be time to rest. It was getting dark, anyways, so finding shelter would be the wisest choice.

Not too far from where they stood, they could see a small wooden house next to a great plantation. The farmlands were mostly wilted, its crops black, tiny and lifeless, although sometimes Beauty could see a little color amidst the desolation, and there she would find a surprisingly resilient fruit that managed to survive this long. She and Nozomi harvested whatever they could, as they knew they could waste nothing they found, and the food the Doughnut Kingdom had given them would almost certainly not be enough to last them the entire journey. Despite King Donuts' generosity, his country had little to spare, and the two leaving Cures insisted not to take more than what was sensible.

"Once we get there," Reika pointed at the house, "we should take shelter for the night."

"I can go further," Nozomi said. "We don't have to stop now, it's not even nighttime."

"You don't seem so well," Reika said. "I can tell you're exhausted. It's better for us to get some rest."

"We don't have time to rest," Nozomi insisted. "Egret needs us. I don't want to be too late to help her."

"I agree with Reika," Coco spoke out. "What's the point of getting to the Eyrie quickly if your body is too frail to fight?"

"But… I-"

"I know you have the best intentions, but it's wiser for us not to wear ourselves more than we can take. We will rest, and then we'll have plenty of energy so that we can continue our journey tomorrow."

"Alright," Nozomi sighed. "I just wish I didn't get so tired, not when there's someone needing help."

"I understand that," Reika said gently as they set out towards the house. "But to help others, we must first help ourselves, no? We know our limits, which are greater than those of most because we are Precure. But even so we must take care of our bodies."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just eager, that's all. Since we met each other, things have been going really well. When the stars went out, everything seemed so hopeless and grim, but now it looks like we can actually make things better."

"We can, definitely," Reika said. "I'm happy you think that way, even if you do get a little bit too excited."

"Heh," Nozomi grinned. "I guess I do."

"It's not a bad thing, so long as you listen to Beauty sometimes," Coco said with a smile. "Especially when she tells you to rest."

When she reached the house, Reika could see that the windows had been barred with planks from inside. The place seemed old, a farmhouse built long ago. Its front door was locked, though not so firmly that someone wouldn't be able to break inside.

"There's people in there," said Reika. That was a good sign: it meant the world wasn't empty yet.

"What do we do?" Nozomi asked. "We can't just break in."

"No, we cannot," she nodded. Knocking wouldn't do much good either. If the people there were hiding from what was inside, there was no way they'd open the door to Reika and Nozomi. "I suppose we'll have to try somewhere else, if we don't want to cause too much trouble."

"You're right," Coco said, "but it's getting dark. We might not have a choice. Who knows what kind of thing we might find in the night."

Reika knew. She still remembered her desperate rush in the middle of the night, hoping she could outrun the Bad End Kingdom's pursuers. She could hear them behind her, coming closer and closer, but she never looked back. Only when she ran into the deep woods of the Doughnut Kingdom did she manage to lose them. She wondered if they truly gave up or if they were simply awaiting another opportunity.

"Look," Nozomo pointed at a tall building with open wooden doors. "A barn. Maybe it'd be best if we spent the night there instead. That way we shouldn't disturb anyone."

"Right," Reika nodded, and she walked towards it. The grass she trod upon was still fluffy and colored a healthy bright green, and even the farmlands nearby seemed to still hold life. Slowly the world was regaining some of its colors, and Reika could only presume that lighting the Starlight Flame was fighting off the corruption that began to spread when the stars went out.

But that was just a hypothesis, and right now it mattered much less than finding shelter. They ran towards the barn, and closed the door behind them. Inside was a heavy smell of grain and feed, but no animals to be seen. The last rays of sunlight shone through tiny holes in the ceiling, but they wouldn't last long. Nighttime was coming, and with it, the smothering darkness.

Quickly the night fell over them, and Nozomi summoned a pleasant pink light, just bright enough to reveal the barn but not so strong that it was a discomfort to the eyes. Beauty stretched her arms, and laid down on the floor. She undid her transformation, her uniform replaced by a light blue tunic. As she stopped being Cure Beauty to become Reika Aoki again, she felt a weakness take hold of her body; a Precure could withstand a great amount of pain and fatigue, but that didn't mean it did nothing to her body.

"The earlier we sleep, the earlier we can wake up," Reika said, "so let us sleep."

They all wished each other goodnight, and as they laid down and waited for sleep, the world was in a silence so absolute that Reika could perfectly hear her own breathing. Unnerved, she stared up into the darkness, smothering the sound of her breathing with her thoughts.

She thought of Märchenland, and the last time she had seen her friends. Just before the darkness swallowed the stars, Reika remembered, she was laughing with Miyuki, Akane and Nao, and with Princess Candy too. The sounds of their laughter filled the halls of Fabelpfalz, one of the many seats of Märchenland's royalty. Merriment followed them, and even Prince Pop would join them when Miyuki would start weaving her tales for everyone to hear. She not only could tell stories about the past of Märchenland, she created her own, and they were all a joy to hear. Reika had often told her to write those stories down, to collect them in a book, but Miyuki was no great writer; being a storyteller was what she truly loved.

Reika couldn't recall exactly what kind of tale Miyuki was telling, as all she could remember was what came after. Everyone was gathered together, listening with care, when Miyuki's tale was interrupted by a horrid screeching sound. The Precure all rushed outside, but the capital had fallen silent, eerily so. Just as she did now, she could listen to her own breathing, and it made her feel uneasy. Something was wrong, this silence was unnatural; even in Märchenland the sounds of cars and people was always in the great cities, but not now. Reika heard only her own breathing, heavy with anxiety.

And then a great shadow flew across the sky, a winged horror whose size dwarfed Fabelpfalz. The flapping of its wings brought gusts and a loud sound, but what was even worse was when it started screeching once again. Not screeching, no, Akane had noticed then. The thing was singing an almost familiar song, but twisted into something cruel and ugly. Beauty leapt atop the tallest tower of the palace to take a look at the beast just as it flew by, and then she heard a second voice singing. While the beast's song was full of spite and so loud that it reached the entire city, the second voice dripped sadness with each word, and sang so softly, almost to itself.

The beast flew by the tower for a mere moment, not even noticing Beauty, but a moment was enough for Reika to see someone standing on the thing's back, trapped by chains of sparkling gold. From that girl came the sorrowful song, gentle yet painful. Who was that girl? Reika tried to remember, but by then all the images of that day were blending together. Fires rising all around; the Bad End Kingdom's creatures walking the streets, attacking the winged monster, for a reason Reika could not even imagine; and the four Cures splitting up so they could evade their pursuers, promising to meet at their small base just out of town.

Yet Reika found herself all alone there, waiting for her friends until she realized they wouldn't come back. They wouldn't come back. Her mind lingered on that thought until a dreamless sleep took her.

The memory of food kept Yuko going even as her stomach screamed when hunger drove its dagger deeper and deeper, twisting mercilessly. Years had passed since she last felt this pain, but when it returned, it felt so familiar, as if she had never really forgotten it. All around them, hundreds of trees languished as well, its branches thin and frail, its leaves all gone, leaving only brown skeletons of bark behind.

"My belly is crying," Hime whined, hand firmly clutching Yuko's shoulder. "I'm going to cry, too. I'm hungry…"

"I know you are," Yuko didn't know what else to say. Mere words could bring no relief from a pain like this. "I'm hungry too."

"Are you sure we're out of food?" That was the saddest thing, Yuko thought, that she still had hopes that they would still be able to find some food in their bags, if only they searched, if only they tried really hard…

"I am."

Even so, Hime opened her bag one more time, and of course she found nothing. Two hours before, when the dead woods were still a distant spot of brown, Hime had desperately searched for something to eat, and just as she did now, she found nothing. When the sun rose, they ate the last thing they had left: the bread crumbs left behind on the bottom of their bags. A pathetic meal, made even more depressing by Yuko's insistence on giving thanks for it, as she always did. Even now she insisted on appreciating what little she had, even if Hime didn't understand it.

If the forest was still green with life, Yuko would not hesitate to eat even leaves to satisfy her hunger, but even that she could not do. Some days ago, when the Phoenix Tower was still their last hope, Yuko could make the pain go away by not thinking about her empty stomach, but now that didn't help anymore. The pain was always with her.

Their last hope was trampled by that poor girl, mad with anger, and yet Yuko and Hime kept going. Many times, Hime just wanted to give up, but Yuko urged her on, still believing there was hope, a desperate one, but hope nonetheless. In this case, hope was just a meal, and Yuko didn't even care what exactly it was.

"I'm tired," Hime said, sitting down next to the corpse of a tree. Her eyes seemed sunken, and her arm, skinnier. "I can't do it. It's the end."

"Only if you give up," Yuko said, the way she always did when Hime lost all hope. "Get up, Hime."

"No," she said just as she had said many times before. "No, this is a waste of time. There's no food anywhere. We'll die. We should have told that girl to get lost. She was right, but… Ah, what am I saying? Everything that happened… Everything is my fault, and because I'm stupid, the world is… It's lost. I deserve this," this she had never said before, "I deserve this for what I've done."

Yuko's palm hit Hime's cheek with strength she forgot she had. There weren't many ways to make Yuko's temper flare, so even she found herself surprised at her deed.

"Y-Yuko?"

"If you believe you deserve this, then you are truly stupid. No one," Yuko looked into her sunken, sad eyes, "absolutely no one deserves the slow death of hunger. Do you even understand what you're saying?"

"I-I'm sorry, I-"

"No," Yuko's voice was stern, but her eyes watered, "you are not sorry until you understand. Hime, my princess, do you understand what you've done to me?"

"I've made you a Precure," she said, confused.

"Even before that," Yuko urged her on. "You remember, don't you? When you were lost, and found my family's restaurant?"

"Of course I remember. I got lost because I decided to explore the city, and your mother found me and took care of me until my parents came to take me home. She even gave me some of her delicious food. It was so good… I told my parents to hire yours, and that is how we became friends."

"Is that all you remember?" Yuko took her princess' hand. It was so small, so frail. "Do you not remember when my family was brought to the Blue Sky Palace, and me with them? Do you remember how I cried? You do understand why I was crying, right?"

"Ah… It was because you were happy?"

"Yes," Yuko smiled, more at herself than at Hime. She must have looked so foolish back then, a small child crying as she kneeled before her king and queen. "You might not have noticed, but things weren't going well for my family at that time. To say the least."

"Yuko…" Her eyes widened as if she had just understood what Yuko meant.

"Yes, those were not very good times. Our restaurant had been a huge investment, and it took almost all of my family's money to build it. Mother and father quit their jobs to pursue their dreams, but it seems that dedication alone isn't enough to put bread on the table. Heh," she couldn't help but laugh; two talented cooks unable to feed their own family, "yes, it was terrible. With no customers and no money, we had to eat from our own restaurant's pantry, but that meant we couldn't serve what few patrons we had, which lead to even less money, and, well, you can imagine how that went."

"I had no idea," Hime said, ashamed. Clearly the very notion of hunger was, until now, completely alien to her.

"Well, now you know. And now you know why I said no one deserves this. Not you, not me, nor anyone else. So stop saying that. Get up."

Hime did as she was told. Only then Yuko realized that she had just given orders to her princess. This would have been unacceptable just a little while ago.

"I'm sorry I'm such a burden," Hime said, shyly holding on to Yuko's hand as they started walking again. "If not for you, I don't know how I would have survived this long. Actually, I probably wouldn't have. I'm truly thankful for you."

"I'm thankful I have you, as well, as you too have saved my life" Yuko said. "You aren't a burden to me. Sorry I hit you. That… That was very inappropriate of me. I shouldn't let anger guide my hand like that. That's not who I am. Now let's get going."

"To where, though?" Hime asked. Until now, this hadn't been a concern; it didn't matter where they went, as there was nowhere to go, anyways. As long as they could find food, all was good.

"Well," Yuko tried to remember her geography lessons, "if we go south, we might reach the Montblanc Kingdom in… Two weeks? Maybe three?"

"What's the point of getting there, though, if it too has fallen? Besides, two or three weeks is far too long for us to travel without food."

"Good point. The Desert Lands to the west are even further, and they are under the grasp of the Apostles… There's the Sweets Kingdom, but it borders Labyrinth, and has always been an object of contention for many of our enemies, so I doubt we could find shelter there."

"You know what?" Hime let go of Yuko and turned back. "The Phoenix Tower is still not too far. We can turn back and go there."

"That girl-"

"That girl might be right that I'm the one to blame, but you said it,didn't you? No one deserves to suffer hunger? You're right, Yuko. No one does, even me. So we should head back. If that girl tries to stop us, we tell her that a true Precure wouldn't bring suffering to others like that."

"You may be right," Yuko said, "but I think she was perfectly willing to use force against us. You could see the fire in her eyes. I don't want to fight a Precure. If it comes to that, I don't know what I'd do. I don't like to hurt others."

"It won't come to that," Hime said. "We shouldn't have let ourselves be so intimidated by her just because she was angry. I just… I just don't take it well when someone rubs my mistakes on my face like that. It just makes me want to run away and hide. But it won't happen again. Let's go now, Yuko."

"Hime…" Yuko let out a frail giggle. "Have you forgotten why we are here in the first place?"

"Oh, right. Looking for food. I guess we should do that before we head out, huh?"

"Yes," Yuko said. "How about you look around there," she pointed to the eastern portion of the dead forest, "and I look around the rest?"

"Alright," Hime said, happy to help. Whatever flaws she might have, Yuko could never say that Hime wasn't eager to be useful.

They each went their separate ways, and Yuko began her search, careful eyes scanning her lifeless surroundings. Something ought to have survived. It was impossible for a forest to wilt completely in a month, no matter the magic used to kill it.

She found some leaves still clinging to the trees' long and thin arms, but none seemed edible at all. She reached for them, and they were so dry, and crackled when her finger touched them. Others crumbled on her hand, before the wind blew them away. The ones still green didn't seem too inviting, either; Yuko was almost certain that she had read once that they carried a strong poison.

She kept searching, and kept hoping, walking amidst dead trees, watching everything around her, in search of colors. She had been searching for nearly half an hour when she saw a patch of green. A healthy shrubbery. For a moment she wondered if it was true, or if starvation was making her see things, but she approached the bushes all the same.

A berry bush quickly caught her attention: it was impossible to not notice it, with its bright red berries, their color burning bright like fire in the colorless forest. Yuko ran towards it, and grabbed as many berries as she could. They were plump and heavy, and there were so many of them that to Yuko, they seemed as if they were a veritable feast. She looked around, and saw no trace of Hime. She must still be looking for food elsewhere.

Yuko's stomach screamed, and she remembered those nights her mother skipped her own meals so that Yuko would be able to eat, but even so she went to bed on an empty stomach, and at school, the next day, she could barely focus on her lessons, so hungry she was. She didn't even stop to think about her mother's sacrifice, much less to care. The memory still brought her some shame. Hunger could easily make someone desperate, and the desperate can hardly bring themselves to care about others.

Yuko only noticed what she was doing when the berries were exploding in her mouth, reddening her teeth. She looked down at her hand, and saw that she had already eaten half of what she had gathered. She looked around again, and again she didn't find Hime. She could just eat everything now, clean her teeth the best she could and tell Hime she found nothing. It would be the easiest thing in the world. Her stomach was still empty, and what she ate was only enough to keep her going for another day. Hunger was making her desperate. One last time she looked around, finding nothing, before looking at the food on her hands. It was an easy choice to make.

"Hime!" She shouted with a vitality she thought lost. "Come see what I've found!"

Awakening, Reika slowly opened her eyes, and found herself greeted by a shaking man pointing a shotgun at her face. The world was blurry as she left her sleep, and she struggled to rise. The man said something she could not understand.

"I'm sorry," Reika said slowly, still confused, "but what's happening?"

The man gave her a baffled look, almost annoyed. "I ought to be asking you that," he said. Reika noticed that his gun was almost slipping from his sweating hands. "What are the tw-" He stepped back when he saw Coco. "The three of you, then. What are you doing in my barn?"

"Resting," Nozomi said, but her answer only served to annoy him even more.

"We are travelling," said Reika, "but it is dangerous to do so during the night, so we came to your barn to sleep, as we thought we wouldn't bother anyone there. The two of us are Precure, and this," she pointed at Coco, "is my companion's fairy partner."

"P-Precure?" The man's grasp failed and his weapon fell on the floor. Reika found it surprising that he had not yet blown off his own fingers with that thing. "You aren't lying, are you?"

"I am not lying," Reika said. She jumped up; the man let out a yelp and took a step back, then lowered himself, unsure of whether he should run away or reach for his weapon. In the end he did nothing, and only watched as snow flurried around the barn. It brought no cold with it, and it wrapped itself around Reika's clothes, around her hair, her face. And then it was gone, and where Reika stood a moment before, now was Cure Beauty.

"It's true, then," he said once he calmed down. His voice was thick with relief, his words trembling as he sighed. "The Precure still live."

"Of course we do," Nozomi said, standing by Reika's side. "Did you hear otherwise, or did you just think we all had gotten ourselves killed?"

"No, no," he said, embarrassed, unsurprisingly: all the people under the protection of the Precure were taught to have faith in their strength, "I just… Well, it's hard to be hopeful when you watch the stars disappear, and entire cities fall to… To evil, I guess. I don't know exactly what happened, who attacked the Precure, who was responsible for all this. All I know is that one night, everything became dark, and all sorts of awful monsters appeared. I locked myself inside my house, and only got out a few times."

"So you've been locked there for over a month now?"

"Well, I had enough food to keep me and my family nourished for a good time," he explained, "but even then I had to make a few trips to some cities nearby for medicine when my brother fell ill. It was terrifying; everyone there was wearing those creepy masks, and they seemed enslaved. Some unmasked folks watched over everything for intruders, so I had to be really careful."

"Here, too…" Nozomi said.

"It must be like this everywhere," Coco said. "This is terrible."

"The worst thing is all the creatures you can hear at night. Even from inside my house, I can hear their footsteps and every little noise they make. Those evil people who are responsible for this, they even turned my animals into monsters."

So that explains why it was so empty here. Reika looked once again at the man; though he made himself smiled, he was still terrified, and his eyes were begging for some hope, for good news.

"Me and Dream lit one of the Starlight Flames," Reika said, but when she noticed that meant nothing to him, she explained. "You have seen that lone star in the sky, right?" He nodded. "That's our doing. The two of us are fighting together to find more Precure, to restore the stars."

"So it was you!" He yelled. "When my wife pointed at the night sky outside the window, we could hardly believe it. When we saw that star, we felt… Safer, somehow. The day after that, I stepped outside again for the first time in weeks. I thank you for that."

"I'm glad we solved this misunderstanding," Reika said with a gentle smile. "We ought to get going now, though. If you can, head to the west through the main road. Frosting is just a few days away," for Beauty and Dream, it had not been a long journey, but she knew these people would tire faster. "You may find some abandoned cars along the highway, and you can hide and rest there during the night."

"It's dangerous," Nozomi said, "but if you stay here, you'll run out of food eventually, won't you? You should take a chance. King Donuts will welcome you, I have no doubt."

"I will try it, then," he said, unsure. It was still a terrifying prospect for an ordinary human, to walk through the ruins of the broken world. Reika could only hope that he would listen to their advice.

He shared with them what little he had to spare before they sat out, and they accepted it gladly. Reika knew that what they had been given by King Donuts wouldn't last the journey of nearly two weeks to the Eyrie, much less the way back.

In truth, the Eyrie was just the name of the prison atop the mountain, not the mountain itself, King Donuts had explained before they left, but to most people the distinction wasn't important. What mattered to Reika was that the base of the mountain was not too distant now, even though the climb might take a long time as well.

Today the weather was far more tolerable, and Reika kept a steady pace all morning long, stopping to rest only for a moment at noon. She and Dream were making good time, without any distractions to delay them. They ate as little as they needed, and kept their eyes open for whatever food they might have been able to find. By now it wasn't too much, as the farmlands were mostly ruined, and the forests on their way were blighted, their berry bushes gone the color of dead grass, their berries tiny and black and wrinkled.

Far away, mountains rose in disarray, their shapes twisted like no mountain should be. Some of their peaks almost seemed to make curves, and from afar, it seemed to Reika as if some of them had huge holes where rock should be. Hills rose where there once were lakes, chasms had opened where once there were forests, and even the few woodlands still living had been tainted, taken by a terrible evil, like the forest near Frosting.

Coco knew the way to the Eyrie better than the two Precure, so he guided them when they found themselves at a crossroads, when their path took them to unknown lands, to cities with names they didn't know. There wasn't anyone there to tell them.

A new sunset came, another rush for shelter from the dark. Some nights they hid in abandoned houses in the middle of nowhere, and in others they found refuge at darker corners of occupied cities, right under the enemy's nose. Those were sleepless nights, as Beauty and Dream had to be attentive in case they were found, but they still found comfort in those brief respites from their journey.

The silence was still the worst part. At times they could hear activity far away, but most of the nights, all they could do was wait for dawn without saying a word. When she first set out, Reika thought the silence wouldn't be so painful, but now she realized her foolishness. There were days she wouldn't say a single word, though she wanted to. Nozomi was a bit less cautious, speaking from time to time, but not as much as Reika would like. In truth, Nozomi's voice breaking the silence was a welcome sound. It reminded Reika that she was not alone, a fact far too easy to forget when you walk in silence for days.

Sometimes, their conversations didn't even need words. Quickly they began to understand each other more easily, without having to say anything to one another, or at least Reika chose to believe she understood Nozomi. When Reika needed comfort, she would come closer to Dream, just close enough for Nozomi to understand that something bothered her, and Nozomi would always answer with a smile. Somehow that was all Reika needed. Nozomi never asked a question, and if she did, Reika wouldn't have answered, anyways. All she needed was that smile, to calm her down, to remind her that even though her closest companions weren't with her, she still had someone by her side. Right now, that meant the world to Reika.

Each morning the sky would dawn painted a bright blue or hidden by a veil of thick clouds, and Reika could recognize no pattern to determine how the day would be. Thankfully, the rains that fell on them were gentle, and brought them no difficulties. Far away, however, beyond the crooked hills, she could see the downpour hundreds of miles away.

When Coco announced that they were just two days away from the Eyrie, they were already far past the borders of the Doughnut Kingdom, but they still found Nightmare's creatures roaming the countryside. Not only Nightmare's Kowaina, but also Eternal's Hoshina, more concerned with pilfering whatever valuables they could find than with actually opposing the Precure: Beauty, Dream and Coco quickly learned that they could pass by them unimpeded, as long as they distracted the Hoshina with something shiny. The Negatones, however, were extremely vicious, and if they noticed the Precure, they would quickly shriek to call forth all of its kind to pursue them. This too was a lesson Reika and Nozomi had to learn swiftly.

In the morning, Beauty opened their bags, and thankfully they still had more than enough to reach the Eyrie. That wasn't the difficult part, really. Reika knew that they'd only have trouble on the journey back to Frosting. Their meals were already rather meager, but on their way back, they would have to be even more careful. At least Coco didn't have to eat much.

They were now, technically, at the edge of Märchenland's territory, the northernmost part of the kingdom. The mountains where the Eyrie had been built served as borders between Märchenland, the Doughnut Kingdom and the neutral lands held by the Cures of the Phoenix Tower. But this wasn't Märchenland anymore, Reika understood that very well when she escaped.

"So far we didn't have to deal with enemies from the Bad End Kingdom," Reika said when noon came and they gathered beneath a large tree to rest and eat. "But now we might. They know me well, I'm afraid, and unlike Nightmare, I don't think they'll send a single agent to chase after us if we are found."

"So we must just not be found," Nozomi said before she bit down on a large apple she picked from the tree.

"It's not that simple," Coco said, stern, "or Beauty wouldn't have warned us. You need to take things more seriously, Nozomi."

"I do," she said, defensive. "But I know we can deal with it, so I won't worry too much," she grinned at Reika, who faked a smile back at her. Reika wished she could share this girl's optimism.

"All the same, if we are found, we might be in trouble. The climb to the Eyrie is dangerous enough without enemies chasing after us, and don't forget that we have to return to Frosting, with Egret by our side. And Egret, as you said, cannot transform without her partner, so she won't be much help there."

"Ah, yes," Coco said. "Do we have enough food for Egret?"

"We can just cook you," Nozomi laughed, and Coco snapped at her. Reika was not in the mood for jokes, so she ignored them until they calmed down.

"Actually, now that I think of it, there must be food at the Eyrie. So if we manage to reach it, that's one problem solved."

"Thank goodness," said Nozomi, jumping back on her feet. "I think we rested enough, so let's get going," she could barely contain her eagerness. "Cure Egret is waiting for us, and we are so close now."

It was the tenth day since Iona left the Phoenix Tower, and the second since her supplies ran out. For this she cursed her poor luck: she had brought more than enough for the journey, but she didn't expect to be met with such rough weather and constant rains. Rain water seeped into her rucksack, spoiling half of her food, and leaving the rest a drenched, unpleasant mass.

If Iona looked back, she could not see the Phoenix Tower anymore, yet looking ahead, she could not see the Eyrie either. She was lost, horribly so, but she could not return, and there was no guarantee that going forwards would take her to where she needed to go.

But still, turning back would mean certain death. To keep going meant she had a chance, small as it was, so Iona chose to keep going. This is what the Fates ordained, she told herself, they wouldn't send her on a mission she could not complete. They wouldn't. But even so she was afraid.

Even though she already knew the world was empty, walking through a dozen deserted villages still made her feel a chill deep in her bones, and filled her with a dread beyond words. Iona saw scores of mirrors, each one a prison for someone's heart. They were so many that she couldn't even begin to count them. How could so many people disappear all at once?

Each village Iona found rekindled something akin to hope, but not quite the same; hope was a foolish thing to have now. She investigated as well as she could, looking for people or, failing that, food, but she found only more mirrors, and ransacked houses. That didn't even disappoint her anymore.

Iona avoided the roads as well as she could, as she had seen monsters patrolling them, though she could not quite understand why. It did not seem as if there was anyone still capable of opposing them. Even the Phoenix Tower was now just a dusty, almost forgotten place, where less than a dozen Precure were hiding, waiting for the situation to change. Their enemies' triumph was so complete that it seemed as if even all the Precure had given up, content to simply survive in their tower.

All but Iona. Even when she had no hope, even when she knew how bad her chances were, she could not give up. She had to be like Maria, and Maria never gave up. Even Cure Mirage said so. Iona thought of her sister, and that gave her strength even when her starving body failed her.

But just determination wasn't enough to give her the strength she needed, and soon her stomach was hurting again. She would have to find something to eat, or else she'd be too weak to even reach the Eyrie.

What was there to find, though? The forests were all dead, and when Iona found traces of life, of trees that had endured, all their fruits had already been taken by someone. And the rains didn't make her job any easier; the rivers on her path had all flooded, their concrete bridges devoured by the raging waters. Where the ground wasn't dead, the rain brought mud that slowed Iona down, and the constant raindrops falling atop her head, inconstant and unpredictable, not only were a great irritation but they also made her cold, and her wet uniform touching her skin made her feel sick.

Don't go out in the rain, Iona, she heard her mother's voice again. It never rained like this in the Blue Sky Kingdom, when she was a child, when she was not all alone. There, the rain would hum a soft melody as it hit her window at night, a song that would lull her to sleep. Of course I wanted to go out in the rain. The rain in the Blue Sky Kingdom was beautiful.

Maria liked the rain too. Somehow, their mother never bothered scolding Maria for that. Iona had found Maria on their backyard, one day, when the rain was unusually strong. It was the last day of her break from her Precure duties, the last day she could be with her family for a whole year, before she returned to the Phoenix Tower. Her sister was sitting down next to their peach tree, making a weird noise, one that Iona had never heard Maria make before. Iona approached her, but her sister hid her face. Iona thought of hugging her, but she didn't, yet now she wished she had. She stepped back inside and let her sister stay there, hidden by a thin fog that rose as the rain hit the ground.

It took many years for Iona to understand what had happened that day, and even now she wished she had done something. But she didn't, and it was too late to do anything about it. With Maria gone, it didn't even matter anymore. So why did it bother Iona so much?

She let the rain hit her face and kept following the road to the Eyrie. The skies showed no sign of relenting anytime soon, and wherever Iona looked, the world was covered by clouds. Alongside the road, she would sometimes see a house hurriedly abandoned, its doors left opened and its interior broken down. Not too far, Iona would find a black mirror, and the reflection of someone who wasn't there. Hitting them did nothing, other than hurting Fortune's fist, and soon she stopped trying. She had no way to free those people, not yet.

The road twisted and turned around hills, and led her through darkened tunnels where Fortune needed to use her magic to be able to see. Everywhere she went she found ruin and decay, entire towns deserted and broken down, and highways cracked with the footsteps of enormous creatures. All the while, her hunger grew more severe by the hour. Rain water quenched her thirst, but food she could not find anywhere.

Beyond a particularly long tunnel, Iona found a sign of life at last, or at least she hoped so. She heard the sounds of people talking, a sound she had almost forgotten. The road lead her to a town, not unlike the ones she knew at the Blue Sky Kingdom. It was not a great city, but a smaller one, its suburbs tranquil and its buildings small and elegant.

And she saw people locked inside their houses, safe from the rain. They stared at her from their windows, and something seemed odd about the way they looked at her, but Iona couldn't know what it was. She followed the sounds she heard until she found herself near a large, beautiful square, with fountains and benches and tall, healthy trees. In its center, she saw a tall statue in the shape of a woman wearing a vest with a large ribbon on it, and a skirt with frills underneath. She had to be a Precure.

The people of the town must have liked her quite a lot, Iona thought, as dozens of them were gathered around it despite the falling rain. She wondered what was going on.

"S-Stop that!" Someone cried out in a weird voice. Iona approached to see the cause of the commotion, and saw a tiny fairy yelling at a large group of people, who ignored her pleas completely. "Stop!"

From up close, Iona could see that ropes had been tied around the statue's waist and limbs. Parts of the statue were chipped, too, and its head was all dented. The townsfolk began to pull the ropes, and the statue began to break free from its base.

"What's going on?" Iona asked the crowd, but no one bothered answering her, or even acknowledging her presence at all. The fairy kept crying, but she too was scorned.

The statue fell so quickly that it startled Fortune. The fairy's scream turned into a yelp, and a small white cloud rose as the marble broke in half a dozen pieces. The head detached from the rest of the body, and so did an arm, and chunks of a leg. The fairy tried to pick up the pieces with its tiny hands, but there was no way they could be mended so easily.

"Hey," Iona tried to get the fairy's attention, as she seemed the only one to care about what was going on. Some eyes in the crowd turned to her, and when they saw her, a dozen mouths gasped at once.

"What are you doing here?" Someone asked, but before Iona could answer, more people began to speak.

"Please leave," a woman with a desperate voice begged. "You'll only bring us trouble. Go away."

"Is this how you treat Precure here?" The fairy raised her voice, and floated to Iona's side. "Do you have no decency?"

"The Precure didn't help us," someone said, "you can look at the skies to see that the Precure aren't any help at all. If they were really our allies, they wouldn't have let this happen."

"W-What are you talking about?" Iona asked. She didn't ask to be caught in the middle of this, and she didn't understand at all what was going on.

"These people," the fairy said, "they have abandoned the Precure and decided to join the Selfish Kingdom. They think they'll be safer, this way."

"We will!" A man said. "They promised us that as long as we swore to cut all our ties with the Red Rose, we would be spared, we would become part of their kingdom and we wouldn't have any trouble with them. They told us to bring down that statue, too, but that's a small price to pay."

"That statue is of the founder of this town! Cure Starlight, or have you already forgotten that?"

"Oh, shut up," the man said, and spat on the fairy. "You're always complaining, but you didn't help us at all when the Jikochuu came. You told us to have faith in the Precure, but they never came, and we had to bow down to the Selfish King just so we could stay alive. Now stop preaching."

"And you," someone pointed their finger at Iona's face, really close to her eyes. Iona stepped back, but there were people behind her, too, surrounding her. "You'd better leave now, too, or the Selfish Kingdom will think we're collaborating with the Precure. Just go away and leave us be."

"But-" Iona didn't particularly care about being kicked out, but she'd like to get some food, first. When she saw all the angry eyes surrounding her, though, it was clear that it would be impossible.

"Let's leave, then," said the fairy, and Iona nodded in agreement. She made her way through the crowd, who bumped against her with more violence than necessary. Soon they began to disperse, leaving Iona alone with the fairy.

Iona had never seen a fairy like this. Her body was rather small, but it carried an unusually large bag, almost twice the size of her body.

"Sorry you had to come at such a terrible time. This wasn't a bad place before. Who are you, though?"

"Iona Hikawa," she said. "Cure Fortune. I come from the Phoenix Tower."

"Wow! I didn't think the Tower would still be standing. You'd expect that to be the first place the bad guys would strike. Oh, right, I should introduce myself too. The name's Glasan. It's nice to meet you," Iona shook her hand with two fingers, and nearly laughed at how ridiculous she must have looked, but the fairy seemed quite serious. "Say, you don't seem to have a fairy with you. Perhaps-"

"You can come with me, yes" Iona said. She would have preferred to do it on her own, but she did need a fairy partner, if she wished to be a true Precure. "And forgive me for asking so bluntly, but… Do you have any food?" A Precure should not beg, so just saying the words was a struggle. "Mine was ruined by the rain."

"Oh, that sucks," the fairy said, floating towards a small bus stop for shelter from the rain. Iona followed her with hurried steps. "If you're travelling, you need a really strong bag, like mine! I've went through a hurricane, two earthquakes, a dozen storms and even a really rough riot, once, and my backpack wasn't damaged at all. It's very-"

"Do you have food?" Iona asked. "I'm sorry, I haven't eaten in days."

"Oh, alright. The other fairies do say I have a tendency to ramble, sometimes," she took her backpack and began to dig inside; Iona could tell that it was quite full. "Here ya go," she handed Iona a weird thing, a small brown strip of… Something. It didn't look bad, but Iona had no idea what it was. "Us fairies really like that! It doesn't look like much but it's really filling."

Iona had already begged; she could not refuse it now. And she was starving. She couldn't afford to be picky. The thing was hard to chew, but didn't taste bad at all. It didn't really taste like anything, but when Iona was done eating, she felt stronger.

"Where's your destination, by the way?"

"The Eyrie," Iona answered. She looked above, and the sky was starting to get lighter. Hopefully the rain wouldn't last much longer. "I'm taking the road around the mountain, so it's going to be a long journey."

"What? That's a terrible path! There's a path that goes across the mountain to a small village right below the Eyrie, called, I think… Ah, I don't remember. It's an odd name, like all the names in Märchenland. Anyways, you'd get there much faster, although the climb is still difficult…"

"A path? Mirage didn't tell me about it."

"There are lots of secret paths only fairies know about! We are better at finding things than humans, and better at keeping secrets, too. Er… Will ya please keep that a secret, too? I probably shouldn't have told anyone…"

"Don't worry," Iona allowed herself a quick laugh. "Besides, I'm a Precure, and your partner now. Surely it's alright for you to share what you know with me."

"I guess so. Well, the path was made for fairies, so you might have to squeeze a little. It's not gonna be comfortable, but it'll be faster, at least."

"I don't need it to be comfortable," Iona said. If she did, she wouldn't have walked for days under the rain. "Let's just get going."

"Right now?"

Iona nodded. She did not know how safe the Cure she was seeking at the Eyrie was, and she did not know how much time she had, but she knew she had none to waste.

The gentle snow tickled Nozomi's face, and she shivered from the cold, but Coco and Beauty didn't seem too concerned. Nozomi envied them for that; they were not even at the Eyrie yet, and the weather was already punishing her. She knew very well that atop the mountain it would be even colder, so she would have to get used to it very quickly.

"That's it," Coco pointed at the great mountain that now stood not too far from them. By the end of the day they would reach it. Its great peak was crowned in white, and below it, the Eyrie wore a cloak of clouds. It was a majestic sight from afar, though Nozomi was certain she would be far less appreciative of it when she began the climb. "There is a small village at the base of the Eyrie, called, I think, Schneeblume. I don't think we'll find anyone there, though."

Nozomi was not so sure. Ever since they reached the outskirts of the Eyrie, the world didn't seem so ruined. She hadn't seen any people yet, but the forests on her way were still healthy, and the landscape seemed normal, unlike the lands of the Doughnut Kingdom, that seemed like a patchwork of mountains and crevasses and empty rivers that started and ended in the middle of nowhere.

Snow was sprinkled on the dirt road they followed to Schneeblume, and on the grassy plains around it, but not enough to cover everything in white. Nozomi wondered if this snow was ordinary, or if it was brought by the same malady that caused the heavy rains elsewhere. Reika seemed at ease, so Nozomi presumed there was nothing unusual about it, but she couldn't help but wonder.

The road led them to a small stone building, that had once been, Beauty presumed, a watchtower, built to keep the region safe. Nozomi agreed, if only because Beauty was almost always right. They walked inside to investigate.

The building seemed to have been built quickly, carelessly: the stone blocks were poorly laid and unaligned, and all along the walls were patches of hardened cement. The place seemed to be hundreds of years old.

And just as carelessly as it had been built, it had been abandoned; a book had been left on the floor, still open, and by its side, stew burned on a black pot. It still smelled good, and the food seemed fresh. Almost oddly so.

A stair led them to the top of the watchtower, where they had a good view of the area. Schneeblume was still a grey dot by the Eyrie, but it wasn't too far now. Snow was gathering atop the tower, making mounds of pure white where it fell. There wasn't much else to see, so the two Cures made their way down. Even Reika could not hide the greed in her eyes when she saw the stew simmering, so Nozomi looked around for plates.

Behind her, someone who wasn't Reika or Coco gasped. Nozomi turned around to see, but by then that person was gone, running madly from them. Whoever that was, it did not look human: their face was long, too long, and it ended on what seemed to be a snout.

"We must go," Reika said, suddenly running too. Nozomi ran as well. If Reika was so worried, it had to be the Bad End Kingdom. She hoped that Reika was wrong, that they would not be chased, but she ran anyways.

Her surroundings were a greenish blur as they dashed across pastures and forests. Schneeblume seemed so close from atop the tower, but now that they approached it as quickly as they could, it seemed incredibly distant.

Nozomi heard sounds behind her, the all too familiar sound of footsteps of someone chasing after her. They were few, at first, but soon they were many. She and Reika ran without looking back, without pausing, all day long. By sunset, they were still being pursued, and Nozomi could barely feel her tired legs, but she kept running.

A frail wooden bridge appeared between them and safety, and thinking quickly, Dream called forth her magic to bring down with a powerful blast, turning the wood into splinters, and sinking them into the river. That halted their pursuiters for a while, but soon she could hear them again, screaming louder, madder.

The two Precure made their way into a deep, crowded forest, where the trees were far too close together. She heard someone hitting a tree hard, and falling, and then all sounds but her and Reika's footsteps and breathing stopped. Whoever was coming for them, they could not get past such narrow paths easily. When they got out of the woods, the sun had already set, the sky had darkened, but, at last, they could see Schneeblume in front of them.

It was a small village indeed, no more than a hundred houses and not a single building taller than two stories. The smoke that rose from the chimneys made it clear that there were people there, people still free from the slavery their enemies meant to inflict upon them.

Wooden houses, telephone poles and modern cars stood there side by side. The night was lit by black lampposts, giving the village a very weird air about it. Some of it seemed centuries old, and some parts seemed like something you'd find at any great metropolis. Everything was covered in snow, and the village's roads were carpets of fluffy white.

Schneeblume was cold, but its people were even colder. They didn't smile when they saw the Precure, nor did they offer them shelter, or food. Wherever they looked, irked faces greeted them with annoyed stares. Most of the people were gathered at a large building. A sign just outside it said "meeting hall", and inside, unsurprisingly, the villagers were meeting, eating together, chatting. This was only interrupted when the Precure stepped inside, as they all gave them the same looks of discontent that Nozomi had gotten used to seeing in this village.

"I hope you're not staying long," said the man dressed in the fanciest clothes in the room. Nozomi presumed he was the mayor, or at least someone of importance. "You Precure always bring danger where you go."

Nozomi tried to disagree, but in truth, there was no denying that, especially when, right behind them came an army of pursuers. Still, she had to say something.

"We just need food for one day, and a place to rest. We'll be gone by dawn tomorrow, we swear."

"We don't want to bring you any trouble," said Reika. That was true; they didn't mean to do it, but it happened anyways.

Just as Nozomi was about to speak, a horrid howl shut her up. Then came another, and another, a dozen at the same time in a fearful symphony.

"That's trouble," the man said. "I trust that you'll take care of it, if you are such strong Precure?"

He spoke in such a smug tone that what Nozomi really wanted to do was to punch him, but she agreed all the same. They had, after all, brought what seemed to be a pack of werewolves to these people's front door. They did have the right to be angry. Nozomi told coco to stay behind, and safe, and left with Reika to do her sworn duty.

They awaited just outside the village, where they had a clear view of the forest where their enemies were gathering. Nozomi heard their howling, loud and shrill. Those creatures would show no mercy to anyone on their path.

Their eyes were glowing in the dark, red eyes full of anger. Reika touched the falling snow, and closed her eyes. The snow gathered around her hands, shaping themselves to Reika's will, and turning into crystals until she had in her hands a bow made of gentle ice. It was an elegant weapon, and Reika wielded it with grace. From the snow she made an arrow of frost, and slowly she took aim.

Nozomi could barely see as the arrow pierced the air, exploding into a hundred small shards as it hit its mark. Reika did so again and again, always with patience so she'd get a good shot, but the beasts were coming, quickly, and Reika's barrage didn't seem to be slowing them down.

"We can't allow them to reach the village," Reika said, readying another arrow. "That huge red monster, Akaoni" she said, and Nozomi easily noticed him. He was truly enormous, arms as thick as the trunks of the trees he brought down as he rushed towards them, "he's leading them. I know him, I fought him many times before. If we drive him away, the others will follow suit."

"I'll face him, then," Nozomi declared. "Stay safe."

"You too," Reika said, "If you can make him stay still for a while, I might be able to hit him."

Werewolves poured out from between the trees, and Nozomi rushed to meet them. The red in their eyes seemed to burn, and they struck Nozomi with ferocity. The first one was easily kicked aside, hitting his back against a tree, but the second one was more cautious, and approached her from the side, slashing at her with long claws, drawing blood. The sight of it only seemed to make the wolves even more frenzied, and they attacked Nozomi all at once.

She kept her distance from them, only hitting them when they lunged against her, but they were too fast, and managed to hurt her many times. She felt claws digging into her flesh, and screamed, retaliating with a vicious punch to the werewolf's snout, knocking him down. She looked around, and saw a dozen whimpering, defeated foes, but more were coming, even though Reika tried to keep them away with her arrows.

And then Akaoni came out from the forest, and the ground trembled as he approached, dragging his club on the grass, leaving only dirt behind. He was smiling, and pointed at Nozomi, challenging her. He was letting her strike the first blow.

Nozomi jumped as high as she could, and threw a punch at his face, but he caught it with his huge hand, and grabbed her by the wrist. Her hand looked like a child's in comparison to his. Nozomi flailed, kicking his chest. Annoyed, he threw her in the ground, and brought his club down. She held it with both hands, but he was amazingly strong, and Nozomi could feel her strength fail her.

"Seems you're outmatched," he said, and laughed, a gesture repeated by his lackeys. Nozomi looked to the side, and saw another dozen of them running towards Reika.

Akaoni rose his club again, to bring it down and finish Nozomi, but she clung to it, and rose with the ogre's weapon as he lifted it. He gave her an annoyed look as he tried to wrestle her free. She bit his hand as he tried to take hold of her, and she saw a white bolt rip through the air, hitting Akaoni's arm. Frost covered his arm, his hand, spreading towards his chest. He tossed Nozomi on the ground again, and his weapon as well, and tried to tear off the ice. Nozomi took the chance to hit him in the legs with his own club, bringing him to his knees.

Howling came from within the forest, and more monsters came to aid their commander. Nozomi stepped away, knowing she'd be overrun if she stayed there. But they weren't coming for her. It was towards Reika that they ran. They were too close to Schneeblume, there was no way Reika would be able to keep them away. Nozomi ran to her aid, but by then she was surrounded. Nozomi only hoped that she could arrive in time to help her.

Reika did her best to keep them away from the village, erecting tall walls of ice to block their path, but with their strong claws they could climb the barriers with little difficulty.

And then a star began to shine right next to Reika, exploding in a shower of light. For a moment Nozomi was blinded, but when she could see again, the wolves had been knocked away, and were now lying on the grass, beaten. Another star exploded not too far from there, hitting more of the invading beasts. Nozomi looked around to see where the light came from, and she saw a girl approaching Reika, starlight shining on her hand. She helped Reika up, and ran to battle the remaining enemies. Her movements were quick, her punches and kicks precise. Nozomi fought by her side, but the girl didn't seem to be in great need of help. She was clearly a Precure, her hair a light purple, though her uniform didn't seem too distinctive.

Soon the enemies stopped coming, and instead they began to flee. Even their commander was screaming orders for them to escape, and they all returned to the dark forest.

"I think that's it," Nozomi said as she watched the last of their enemies run away, disappearing in the distance.

"They'll come back soon, though," said Reika. "We may very well be trapped between them and the mountain when we descend.

"Let's worry about that later, though," Nozomi turned to the Precure clad in purple. "You are quit-"

"I can't believe you were so careless!" She yelled. "There must have been thirty of them chasing you. If not for me, you and this village would have been doomed. Are you two really Precure?"

"W-What?" Nozomi did not expect this reaction at all. She was just about to thank this girl, and now she was yelling at them? "You don't have to be so angry."

"Why do stupid people like you always say that? I don't have to be angry… I can't stay calm when people like you are causing trouble to everyone."

"Now, listen," Nozomi stepped away, "I don't know who you are and I don't know what's wrong with you, but I think we should all calm down and introduce ourselves instead of fighting."

"Agreed," Reika was quick to speak. "We are all Precure here, we should come to an understanding. I am Reika Aoki, known as Cure Beauty, and my companion is Nozomi Yumehara," she always said companion, never friend, Nozomi had noticed that, "or Cure Dream. With us is Prince Coco of the Palmier Kingdom. You know our names, so would you please share yours with us?"

"Iona Hikawa," she said with disdain. That last name sounded familiar to Nozomi. "Cure Fortune. With me is Glasan, my partner."

"Hey there," the fairy waved at Nozomi, who waved back. At least she seemed friendly.

"I have heard of you, Beauty. They say you witnessed Dune's death at the hands of Cure Moonlight."

"That's not what happened," Reika always avoided talking about the time she spent fighting by Moonlight's side. "I did battle Dune alongside Moonlight, but there were other Cures with us as well. At the moment Dune was defeated, I was busy protecting the wounded Cure White, so only Blossom accompanied Moonlight as they met Dune in his throne room."

"Hm," Iona didn't seem too interested. She turned to face Nozomi, staring at her with judging eyes. "I have never heard of you, though. My sister always spoke of the most important Cures, but she never mentioned any Cure Dream."

"I-I guess I'm not too important, then," Nozomi said. Though annoyed at this girl, she did her best to appease her. They could really use her help.

"No, you are not. And you don't seem too bright, either. And where did you learn to fight? You lack finesse, your attacks were too haphazard. Maria always spoke so highly of the Precure and the Red Rose, but you aren't too impressive."

"I-Iona…" Glasan looked as if she was going to try to defend Nozomi, but one look at Iona's scowl shut her up.

Nozomi didn't know what to say. She tried to ignore Iona's cruel words, but it was hard to resist the urge to hit her in the face. Why was she so angry, so mean?

"You mentioned your sister Maria," thankfully, Reika changed the subject. "She wouldn't be Cure Tender, would she?"

"Yes," Fortune bit her lip and looked to her side. Was that weakness she was showing? "What of it?"

"What happened to her? Is she still fighting?"

"She is. In a way."

"What do you mean?"

She showed them a small device with a beautiful mirror on its center, surrounded by gems. Reika seemed to recognize it, but Nozomi had no idea what it was.

"This was my sister's," Iona explained, "before she was trapped in a mirror by some vile foe. It's mine now, and I fight in her stead, not as Cure Tender but as Cure Fortune. She still lives in me, and I keep that memory burning. Just as Tender was one of the best, I must be as good a Precure as I can. Which is why I cannot tolerate incompetence," her eyes pierced Nozomi again.

"I'm sorry," Nozomi said, at the same time an apology for her failure and an expression of her sadness. To lose a sister like that was a pain she couldn't even begin to imagine.

"Why are you here, though?" Coco asked. "Are you looking for something?"

"That's none of your business."

"It might be," Reika intervened. "We are here to rescue a Precure held captive in the Eyrie."

"Her name is Cure Egret," Nozomi said. "I saw her in a dream. She was reaching out to anyone who could come and save her."

"So that explains it…" Nozomi didn't know what it was, but didn't bother asking. "It seems we have the same goal. I'm also looking for a Cure that's a prisoner at the Eyrie."

"This is a very lucky meeting, then," Reika said.

"It's fate!" Said Nozomi.

"I never thought fate would guide me to people like you," Iona scoffed, "but I guess I don't have a choice here. There might be a reason."

"Fate or not," Reika said, "what matters is that we are here together, three Precures gathered for the same task. I think it would be a waste if we did not work together."

"True. I meant to do it on my own, and I'm not too confident on the companions fate has given me, but… I guess I'll go with you."

"This is very good to hear," was it? Nozomi didn't know if she'd be able to stand this girl if she kept criticizing her.

"May I ask you, by the way," Iona said, "where do you come from? I mean, are there more Precure elsewhere?"

"There might be," Nozomi said, "but we don't know where. Most of us ended up scattered around, and haven't heard any news of our friends."

"As far as we know, it's like this everywhere," said Reika. "It doesn't seem like there are any organized Precure anymore, as all our attempts to contact them failed."

"You're wrong," said Iona. "The Phoenix Tower still stands, and the Red Rose is now led by Cure Mirage. The Precure are not dead yet."

"This is really good to hear," said Reika. "If Pinceau reaches the Tower, then the remaining Precure and the Doughnut Kingdom can join forces, and then we can find more of us, and light more Starlight Flames, an-"

"Wait a second. Cure Mirage has no intention of fighting now. We are still too weak, and it would be complete madness to even try to light the Flames. Mirage says we should recover our strength first."

"Really? The two of us lit the Flame at the Doughnut Kingdom with no problem."

"Y-You two?" Iona asked, baffled. "How?"

"We might not impress you," Nozomi said, "but we are still Precure, and it's our duty as Precure to keep the stars alive, to bring light and safety to the world."

"I'm sorry," said Iona. "I guess you have some dedication, at the very least."

"Was that so hard to admit?" Glasan asked. "So it's decided, then?"

"I'd say that the decision wasn't really made by me," Iona sighed. "But yes, we'll go rescue Cure Egret together," she came closer to Dream and Beauty, her eyes dark and serious. "The two of you had better not slow me down. We will begin the climb come sunrise, and you must be up by then."

She then turned her back, and left Dream and Beauty to join the villagers in their hiding place. From there the smell of food was beginning to rise, enticing and irresistible. Nozomi then realized just how hungry she was.

"I swear I'm going to throw her off the Eyrie when I get the chance," Nozomi said when Iona was too far away to hear.

"Don't even joke about it," said Reika. "Let's just be happy that we have another Precure to share our burdens with. Maybe she'll come to trust us."

"I'm not really counting on it," Nozomi said.

"Well, even if she distrusts you by the end of everything," Coco said, "you can't be liked by everyone, right? So it's okay."

"Yeah, I know, but…"

"But?" Reika gave her a curious glance.

"I think I'd like to be friends with her."

You want to be friends with everyone, Rin had told her once. And she wasn't wrong. Nozomi didn't see a problem with that, anyways.

"Well, before you concern yourself with that," Reika said with a smile, "you really should go have dinner. It looks like they're cooking something tasty, and I think you and I could use a decent meal. I'm tired of eating just vegetables every single day."

Nozomi followed Reika into a large building, and as she walked, she looked at the sky, at the star they had brought to life together. Its light shone lonely and sad, and it seemed to long for other stars to twinkle by its side.

That girl too was lonely, Nozomi noticed when she stepped inside the warm meeting hall and saw her eating all by herself, in a table by a corner, right next to a wall of red bricks. Glasan was by her side, but Iona ignored her fairy completely. Even from afar, her eyes showed a deep sadness, but a vicious rage as well. It was a sight that made her heart hurt.

She would talk to her. She would sit by her side, and get to know that girl, and understand her anger. Nozomi decided that, and approached Iona with all the determination she could muster.

Their eyes met, and the anger Nozomi saw filled her with dread and took the words from her. She stood there and watched as Iona hurried away, to choose solitude. Those eyes haunted her all night long.

Chapter Text

Nozomi could feel Iona's hot and impatient breath on her neck as they ascended the Eyrie, and she could swear that she also felt her furious eyes judging her for being so slow. Iona always looked like she was judging something, and most of the time that 'something' seemed to be Nozomi. She tried her best to pretend Iona wasn't there, and followed Reika.

The world had turned to a cruel white, but the oddest thing was that it seemed that only Nozomi had noticed it; Reika and Iona marched onwards as if it was a pleasant sunny day. Coco and Glasan seemed far less comfortable, but they at least remained quiet. Not even once did Nozomi hear them whine about the cold, complain about the furious snows that hit their faces, or ask how much farther they had to walk, a question that Nozomi found herself wanting to ask constantly.

When she looked down, she could see traces of Schneeblume far below them, but most of the village was hidden by a veil of snow. It was a pretty rough fall now, Nozomi thought. A Precure might be able to survive, but even so she would be gravely hurt. Nozomi averted her eyes from the fearful sight of the lands below, and instead focused on the path going upwards.

Nozomi could not yet see the pinnacle of the Eyrie, not could she tell how long the ascent would take, although King Donuts had said that the path was not very long, and very safe. The climb was made easier by elevators built to transport supplies to the Eyrie, back when the prison saw great, constant use. It must not have fallen in disrepair yet, he had told them, but Nozomi noticed that he did not sound very certain of that.

In the end, though, it did not matter. As hard or as easy as it was, they would have to make the climb either way. Nozomi wished she could endure it as well as her companions, but difficult as it was, she kept going.

Along the slopes, the wind whistled a ghostly melody, a constant reminder to Nozomi of how far up they were, a reminder that in no way calmed her nerves. On her shoulder, Coco was shivering and Nozomi could see that he too would often look down and tremble in fear.

"I won't let you fall," Nozomi told him, mostly to break the uncomfortable silence. If she could hear another voice, the wind would not sound so loud, so terrifying, so close to her. If Rin and Urara were there, they would not shut up, Nozomi knew, and even Komachi and Karen would not be so quiet.

No, they were not here, Nozomi told herself. She had to stop thinking about them. It was doing her no good, it only made her miss them even more, and worry even more than she already did. She had the utmost faith in her friends' abilities, but even so, love made her worry about them.

"Thank you, Nozomi," was all that Coco said, and silence returned.

Nozomi stepped on the frozen stone as carefully as she could; slippery and narrow, one misstep would mean a certain fall. The thought made her body even colder.

They walked in circles along the mountain, again and again and again, slowly but surely ascending. The clouds were getting closer now, and the Eyrie was well. And Egret too, Nozomi could not forget. She was the reason they were here, that lonely girl kept imprisoned all by herself. It was not death, but it was one of the worst fates that Nozomi could imagine; unending solitude, waking up to find yourself on your own, each and every day, until you forgot what it was like to not be alone. Nozomi could only hope they were not too late to save Egret from that.

"Look," Reika suddenly pointed at something far away, hidden in the thin mist. It took a moment for Nozomi to see what Reika was trying to show: the elevators that King Donuts had mentioned, though when they approached it and Nozomi actually got to take a close look, it was really just a simple wooden lift, and it did not look to be in such great state.

"Is it safe?" Iona asked. "Doesn't look like it's been used for a long time."

"It ought to be," Reika said, putting a hand on the wooden railings, covered by a frail layer of frost. "After all, if Cure Egret was taken to the Eyrie, her jailers must have needed to use this lift, right? And if it's on this level, then I'd presume that multiple people were responsible for bringing Egret here, but at least one came down from the summit, so they used the elevator to return here."

"That makes sense," said Iona, looking almost impressed. She seemed to like Reika slightly more than she liked Nozomi, which wasn't really saying much, in truth. "So should we go?"

"It's kind of creepy, though," said Glasan. "It's so old! I'll bet it's creaky, too."

"You don't have much reason to complain," said Coco. "You can float."

"Oh, right," she blushed. "Still, it makes me afraid for you folks."

"We'll be fine!" Nozomi said. She trusted Reika, and believed she was right. "Let's get going."

The lift was little more than a small wooden platform with some thin half-frozen railings. Dozens of ropes were scattered around in disarray; Nozomi looked up, and saw that the ropes led to a higher section of the mountain. The ropes probably pulled the elevator up, she thought.

"Alright, there should be a lever somewhere around here, or something," Iona said, looking around, until she found it; a thin, frozen bar. She shivered when she wrapped her fingers around it, but when she pulled the lever, she gasped, as it broke into a handful of pieces. "I… That was not supposed to happen…"

"Told ya this thing was old as heck."

"I'm sorry, that was-"

"It's alright, Iona," Nozomi put a hand on her shoulder, a gesture that the girl did not seem to appreciate very much, given her angry glare. Nozomi took not to not do that again.

"It was probably bound to happen, anyways," said Reika. "Glasan was right, this lift is not very well-preserved. Still, we must do something."

"The ropes are still there," Nozomi remarked, and pointed up. Her companions looked upwards too, but Iona seemed skeptical.

"Are we certain that they won't snap on us, and we'll not plunge to our deaths?"

"No, we aren't," said Nozomi. "But I am certain that if we stay here, we won't get anything done, so we'll have to take the risk."

"I agree," said Reika. "It might be dangerous, but it wouldn't be the first time we risked our lives."

Far from it, Nozomi thought, almost smiling. She had been through so much that this barely seemed like real danger. She was the first to grab a long rope, and the first to climb. The thin rope chafed her palms, leaving them red and sore, but Nozomi was not a stranger to pain, nor was she unable to tolerate it. She rose higher and higher until she reached the wooden ceiling where the lift was supposed to stop, if it still moved.

Glasan was the next to arrive, slowly floating upwards until she reached this higher level of the path. She held Coco's hand; he was terrified, shaking, his eyes tightly shut. It was not a surprise that a fairy that could not fly was so terrified of heights.

Reika and Iona arrived soon afterwards and, like Nozomi, their palms were also bright red, and so uncomfortable that Iona kept clenching her fist, then opening it,

"We didn't fall to our deaths," Nozomi said, but Iona didn't care much for her joke. She just told her fellow Cures to keep moving, as they still had a long way up.

Nozomi, of course, did not have to be told that. She followed Iona and Reika, always keeping an eye on her surroundings, though it was hard to see much further thanks to the mist.

All day long they walked, but thankfully the next lifts they found on their way up worked properly, relieving a little bit of their burden. Soon, night fell upon them, and a star was coming out, its light almost impossible to notice with the snow blowing so harshly.

"We should sleep," said Nozomi. "Or at the very least, find some shelter. I don't feel safe walking here in the dark. If one of us steps on a loose stone, or loses their balance…" She did not want to think about it.

"You're right," Iona agreed with her, for once. "Problem is, I don't know if there's anywhere to sleep. Maybe if we find a cave, but otherwise, it'd be too dangerous for us to lay down on the icy slopes.

"Maybe there?"

Glasan called their attention to a large crevice on the wall, alongside jagged the jagged rocks; Iona's investigation revealed a very small cavern, though large enough to house them for the night. On Iona's finger a bright spark was shining, lighting the dark cave. Nozomi walked inside: though it was very cramped, and she had to crouch so that her head wouldn't bang against the ceiling, it was good enough for a single night.

"Good job, Glasan, Iona," Reika said. Glasan grinned, but Iona ignored her and sat down.

Nozomi sat close to Reika, the two sharing what little warmth their bodies had left. Iona, though, seemed to be as far away from them as possible, her eyes avoided them. Nozomi couldn't stand it.

"Hey, Iona," she said. The girl's eyes shifted to Nozomi, but she remained quiet. "Erm…" Nozomi hadn't actually figured out what she should say to Iona. She just knew she had to say something. "How's the Phoenix Tower?"

"Empty, mostly," said Iona. Nozomi waited for her to say more, but she didn't.

"You said that Cure Mirage is there?" Reika asked, and Iona nodded. "Anyone else?"

"Some other Cures." This was useless. She clearly had no interest in any conversation. Uncomfortable silence filled the cave until it was broken by, of all people, Iona herself. "You said that you managed to light one of the Starlight Flames. How difficult was it?"

"It wasn't effortless, but we managed it with no great trouble," Nozomi said, because admitting that they nearly got killed would not impress Iona in the slightest. "Nightmare had prepared a trap, but we overpowered the agent they sent after us."

"I see. What did you do to that agent?"

"I tricked her," Reika said. "I gave her a weapon of mine so that she could use as proof that she had slain me. Of course, I did it to throw Nightmare off for a little while."

"Impressive," Nozomi did not expect Iona would say that, but it made her smile, even though it was not directed at her. "Look," she lowered her voice as if it was a secret, and approached Reika and Nozomi, "I know that you are trying very hard. And I'm sorry that I doubted you yesterday. I don't mean to be awful or rude. Right now there would be nothing worse than the Precure fighting among themselves. So… I thought I should apologize. It's just that so much is going on, and I don't know how to deal with it very well. I… I was not meant to take my sister's place."

"You are doing your best too, we know," Nozomi said. "And I took no offense."

"Me neither," said Reika.

"You should not be so lonely. When this is done, you would do well to have someone by your side."

"Maybe. But after this, I don't think our paths will be the same. I'll need to consult the Fates and-"

"Oh, come on," Glasan said. "You can't refuse them. What else are you gonna do? You can't stand against the world on your own."

Iona didn't answer for the longest time.

"Right," was all she said. "I'll go sleep now. We'll continue our journey at dawn."

And as she said, she laid down, turned her back on them, and began to sleep. Nozomi should do the same, she knew, and she laid her back on the cold hard rock, and wished the others goodnight. Coco and Glasan wished her a good night's rest as well, but her Precure companions were oddly silent.

By her side, she noticed, Reika struggled to sleep as well. She had not even closed her eyes, and instead she looked upwards, cold eyes staring sadly at nothing.

"Reika?" Beauty turned to her, eyes still saddened by something. "Is there anything troubling you?"

"There is," her words made a warm fog. Nozomi was glad that she was talking about it, though; not long ago she would have avoided the subject. "That ogre we fought yesterday… He did not look regretful in any way, did he?" Nozomi shook her head. "I thought so too. He was loud, and angry, and cruel, but I know that he is not really a cruel man."

"How do you know that?"

"I fought him for a long time by my friends' side, and I came to know him, if only a little, and understand what led him to fight for the Bad End Kingdom. They were persecuted, despised, and then finally recruited into the cause of Pierrot. When I last met him, we had defeated him and two of his fellow generals, and we convinced them that hatred doesn't need to be their guide, that they shouldn't fight for a monster like Pierrot. And Pierrot is a true monster, one whose crimes not even I can possibly forgive," was that anger in her voice? She sounded cold, in a way she rarely did. She sighed, and continued. "They meant to defect from their twisted kingdom, to negotiate with Märchenland, perhaps. To make amends."

"Clearly that didn't work out."

"Yes," she said sadly. "That promise was made shortly before I left to fight by Moonlight's side," Nozomi didn't even bother asking for details this time, "when our hopes were all high. They were all snuffed out alongside the stars, I fear."

"Not all of them," Nozomi said, her hand now touching Reika's. Their hands were so cold, but so close together, Nozomi felt warmer. "You cannot lose hope."

"I know," she said, gently. "I'm thankful I have you remind me of that. Truly."

"I'm glad, then," Nozomi said. "Someday… Someday we'll see all our friends again, and everything will be alright, and the Bad End Kingdom won't have to fight anymore. And hopefully they'll also choose a more friendly name."

"Indeed," Reika covered a laugh with her hand. "That day is still distant, though. For now, let's not aim so high, alright? Let's just focus on rescuing Cure Egret."

"Right. You're right. We'll need to be well rested to do that. I already feel exhausted from all this climbing,and my hands still hurt because of the ropes…"

"Goodnight, then," Reika said, and she turned to her side. Nozomi did the same, and closed her eyes. Sleeping atop bare rock was not even slightly pleasant, but Nozomi was so tired that sleep came quick to her.

And suddenly she could see Rin. She stood alone in the darkness, her back turned on Nozomi. Her body was aglow, bathed in a red light that warded off the darkness. More lights began to shine as Nozomi approached Rin; yellow and green and blue, all lights shining together all at once. Urara, Komachi, Karen. Nozomi ran towards them, called their names, but they did not respond. They did not even turn to look at Nozomi.

"Rin?" There was no answer. "Rin, please. Rin…"

Nozomi grabbed Rin's shoulder, and forced her friend to look at her. And then, in horror, she realized that was not Rin. She was dressed in Rouge's uniform, and Rouge's light shone on her, but when she stared at Nozomi, her face was not Rin's, but someone else entirely, someone Nozomi had never seen before. One by one the other girls turned too, and their faces were unfamiliar as well.

Their eyes met Nozomi's, and they looked at her as if she was nothing but a stranger.

Nozomi opened her eyes, and saw Reika by her side, already asleep. Nozomi turned her eyes to the sky, its lone star obscured by fog, and she saw that dawn was still far. Even when she closed her eyes again, she could not sleep, so she just waited until Iona was telling her to get moving.

"It's morning," Iona said, "time to go. Egret's waiting."

She was right about that; though still tired and disturbed, Nozomi did not want to waste any time in reaching Cure Egret. She jumped back on her feet, hitting her head on the ceiling, drawing laughter from Coco. She pretended not to notice it, and followed Reika, whose drifting eyes betrayed the fact that she too had not slept for long.

Morning came pleasant, and the sun shone a gentle light on them. It made the snow seem so bright that it was about to sparkle. The mist had thinned as well, and the Eyrie was actually pretty, unlike the last day, when it was wild and unforgiving. Today it seemed far calmer, a comforting omen for the rest of their journey upwards, or so Nozomi hoped.

Iona was already far ahead of them when they left the cave, even though Glasan yelled at her to slow down for a moment. But Iona never seemed willing to slow down, or to relent. Nozomi found that the most striking thing about her. Every word that Iona spoke, every action she took, each motion of her body, they all carried a great resolve, a confident determination. She wondered if Cure Tender had been like that.

With Coco on her arms, Nozomi ran to catch up with Iona, who took long strides yet was careful to never set foot on the treachery, slippery stones that paved their path at points. Though beautiful, the Eyrie was still treacherous.

"It's not that cold today," Glasan remarked. Snow was falling upon them, gracefully this time, as the winds had calmed down and the blizzards had subsided. Nozomi could actually see what was in the distance, though admittedly there was not that much to see. The mountain was beautiful, but not particularly interesting.

"Can't make sense of this weather," Nozomi said to Glasan, who nodded. Unlike her partner, the fairy was very agreeable, quick to smile and quick to laugh. "Hopefully it's still like this when we're on our way back."

"I hope so too."

And maybe hoping will make it happen, Nozomi thought. That would be a welcome relief.

Upwards they went, without a moment of rest, and by then Nozomi felt hunger returning. She had not even noticed how hungry she had become, so disturbed she had been by her nightmare. Thinking of it still made her feel uneasy. She tried not to, but how could she forget?

"Wait," Iona whispered all of a sudden just as the path made a sharp curve. "I saw something."

Iona stepped lightly towards whatever it was that she had seen, and Nozomi watched from afar. Iona gestured at the Precure to come closer, and Nozomi obeyed, as well as Reika by her side. As they approached the curve, they began to make out traces of something hidden behind the rock. It was huge, almost five times as large as a person, and though the stone covered some of its body, it had a vaguely humanoid shape. On what should be its face, there were two crimson eyes shaped like crescent moons.

As menacing as it looked, it did not seem to notice the Precure at all. Iona was dangerously close to it, but the thing still didn't react. Wordlessly, Reika pointed at its body; crystals of ice covered its limbs, and an icicle was hanging on its chin.

"It… It's frozen," Iona said, raising her voice. She put her hand on the creature, and shuddered, pulling it back immediately.

"What is it?" Coco asked. "I've never seen anything like that."

"I have no idea," Iona said. "I saw those roaming around the ruins of the Blue Sky Kingdom, but I don't know their names, or if they even have those. I thought they might have been Eternal's soldiers…"

"No," Nozomi said. "Definitely not. Nor Nightmare's monsters, either," she had too much experience fighting Kowaina and Hoshina to not recognize them.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Beauty. "I wonder who's responsible for its creation."

"Whoever it is, it didn't seem to make it very resistant," said Glasan. "Last night was cold, but not bad enough to freeze this guy completely… Right?"

"Well, we were inside the cave for the night," Nozomi admitted. "So who knows?"

"Still…" Iona seemed thoughtful. "It seems very careless of our enemies."

"They were careless when we lighted the Starlight Flame, too," said Beauty. "They left no one to defend its shrine. Nozomi and I presumed that they were so certain of their triumph that they thought us utterly crushed, helpless. They thought we would lower our heads and accept our fate."

"But we didn't!" Said Nozomi. "And we would never even consider doing that."

"Hm…" Iona looked at the monster again. "All the same, we should continue being careful. They'll learn from their mistakes soon."

Nozomi nodded, and kept walking, leaving the frozen monster behind. She could not help but fear that it would attack once they turned their backs on it, but nothing happened. It just stood there, the Eyrie's snows slowly covering it.

The higher they reached, the stronger the snows began to blow, as if the mountain punished them for their defiance, for hoping that their struggles would ease for a moment. The paths narrowed, too, and at points, Nozomi held hands with Reika, so that one could help the other if one of them slipped. Iona refused to be helped, of course, and she almost fell as her foot suddenly slid on the ice, robbing her of her balance. She held on to a small pointy rock, and recovered rather quickly, but after that she grabbed Nozomi's hand as well. "This will just make us all fall to our deaths," she complained, but she held Nozomi's hand anyways.

When the path widened once more and Nozomi looked up again, she noticed that they were so near to the summit now. Even Iona smiled when she saw that. She let go of Nozomi's hand, and looked up, through the thick cover of snowfall. All that was on their way was a tall ledge, barely an obstacle at all.

"Finally," Iona said. "We'll have to keep being careful. Who knows what we'll find there."

"Right," said Reika. "There probably won't be many of them guarding Egret. The Eyrie never needed to be manned by many soldiers. Let's go."

A quick leap and Nozomi had surmounted the ledge. Reika and Iona followed, their bodies enveloped by the snows. Nozomi could not see much far ahead, but there was something not too far, something large. It had to be the Eyrie.

The prison was far less grandiose than what Nozomi had expected; from the outside, it really just looked like a huge box of concrete with a single door, and windows that were just huge misshapen holes, as if someone had brought a sledgehammer to the walls.

The Precure nodded at one another, and Nozomi opened the door, confident that her companions would be there for her if anyone inside attacked her. Nozomi took the first step inside, into a plain, unfurnished room, with no one there. The next door led to a long unlit corridor, with over a dozen prison cells on its sides. Nozomi could feel Coco growing anxious, but she walked forwards without fear.

Coco's anxiety proved unfounded, as they found absolutely nothing in the corridor. The iron bars that served as the cells' doors had long rusted away, and couldn't possibly serve as prison to anyone.

Nozomi led them further in, their footsteps echoing in the empty corridors. And then she heard a sound; it took her a moment to realize, but it was a long, relaxed yawn, not too far from them. They followed the sound, and at the end of the corridor, they found a small but pleasant room, where a hearth was burning and a green-haired man laying atop a couch looked quite surprised at seeing them.

"What are you doing here?" He jumped up and grabbed a long, thin cane, his face half shocked and half furious. As he found himself surrounded by the three Precure, though, his expression quickly shifted to fear. "I…" He let go of his cane. "I surrender."

That was remarkably easy. Too easy. Nozomi did not let her guard down, and approached the man with careful steps. Reika still pointed her blade at him, and Iona was ready to strike should he do anything hasty.

"You can have the girl," he said. "I can't fight you. There's three of you, and you got past the Saiark blocking the way That was the only defense I had. I yield," he sighed when Nozomi and Reika were right next to him. "You really won't trust me, right? Look, this is not a trick. I don't have the energy to fight. That's tiresome, so I'll just surrender."

"Where is she?" Nozomi asked. "Egret."

The man pointed at a room behind him, but he did not have to; a girl was approaching them, taking deliberate steps. Her long purple hair was a mess, and it looked as if she had not brushed it in weeks.

"Egret?"

"Y-yes," she said, walking past her jailor until she reached Nozomi. Egret was just a little bit taller than Nozomi was, but she seemed to be a few years older. "So my message reached you?"

"Yes," Nozomi smiled. "We've come for you."

 The inside of the plane pulsated as if it were a living thing, and Alice could see as a dark goo oozed through thick veins on the walls. Though its floor, ceiling and walls were covered in the Kowaina's entrails, the rest was not unlike every other plane Alice had flown in before; the seating was so comfortable that if she closed her eyes and tried to ignore her surroundings, she would fall asleep… At least she would if Gamao, by her side, didn't snore so loudly, a sound that was almost sickly. It could not be normal for a snore to be so loud.

Not much was normal lately, though, Alice had to admit. She sighed, and looked through the window to see a misshapen world. It was a terrible sight, one that Alice avoided, lest it bring her to despair. That was the one thing she absolutely could not feel.

The Desert Lands were far behind now, and Alice could see Nightmare's great tower now, growing ever closer. The plane landed safely, though Gamao would just not wake up no matter how much Alice tried, so she just left him there.

Nightmare's tower was, if nothing else, very well organized. Its corridors were pristine, each door leading to a clearly-labeled room. Some employees had their own private offices, but most worked in small cubicles. Day and night were the same inside the tower, as there were no windows to show the world outside. Not that there was much world to see now, Alice had to admit, so perhaps it was for the better.

As she made her way to the elevator, workers wearing plain white masks passed her by, almost unaware of her presence. She could just barely make the outline of their eyes beneath the slits. She tried not to look into them for too long.

Half a dozen masked people stood next to her inside the elevator, too close for her liking, but she knew there was no use in asking them for a little bit of personal space, so Alice just waited until she reached the highest floor of the building. On that floor there was a single corridor leading to the meeting room where Nightmare's top executives would often meet to discuss all manners of things. Alice had been called there once, and she wished she would not have to return, but it was not her choice.

The door to the meeting room was open, that room she dreaded so much. Inside it was deathly cold, so awfully dark that it took a moment for her to adjust, and a hundred blank eyes greeted Alice through their white masks. She wondered if they could even see, or think, but when she gazed upon them, their eyes left her unanswered.

"You are late," she heard Kawarino's voice, but could not see where he was. He seemed to enjoy doing that.

"I apologize," Alice said, and looked at her surroundings again, to identify who else was there. She recognized Bunbee, reading a pile of papers with his face full of worry, and Bloody, who returned her stare with calm yet cruel eyes. The others, though, she could not know, as they all wore those terrible masks.

Despariah was not there today, thankfully, so her large chair was empty. When Alice first came to Nightmare's headquarters and was escorted by Kawarino to this office, that terrible woman was waiting for her with a hundred questions and require Alice's loyalty in exchange for her life, and that of her companions captured when the Trump Kingdom fell. The Precure's honor would demand that she refused, but Alice knew very well that life was worth far more than mere honor, and that dead, the Precure could not keep fighting.

Alice sat by Bloody's side, and kept fighting the Precure's battle in her own way. Yotsuba Enterprises and all its resources had been absorbed by Nightmare as part of the deal to save her and her fellow Cures, and Alice had promised to help manage it and assist in Nightmare's expansion. And she did as she was told, as well as she could; she signed whatever Kawarino wanted her to sign, and forfeited all the technology that Nightmare desired, and helped in its implementation. Yotsuba Cleaners swept the building's floors, Yotsuba Ovens fed Nightmare's workforce, Yotsuba Drones scouted the world for surviving Precures, and Yotsuba Security Systems guaranteed that Nightmare's facilities were impossible to breach.

But only for as long as Alice desired. Only until the Precure were strong again.

As she signed the papers Kawarino handed to her (at least as a formality, Nightmare still required her permission to use Yotsuba facilities and equipment), she saw that Bloody's eyes were focused on her, full of bitterness. He did so for a very long time, and as uncomfortable as it was, Alice simply braved it wordlessly.

"Why?" He finally spoke, turning to Kawarino. Alice still read and signed the contracts, but she slightly rose her head so that she could see Kawarino's reaction. "Why is there a Precure here?"

"Oh, you did not receive the memo?" Kawarino said with mockery. "Or perhaps in your old age you are becoming forgetful. Our alliance with Miss Rosetta has been announced a while ago, if you don't recall."

"That's not what I meant," he did not rise to Kawarino's bait, and still spoke calmly. "I ask why we have a Precure in our ranks, why she was hired instead of disposed of."

"We poached her from the Trump Kingdom," Kawarino said, and opened his eyes ever so slightly. Alice lowered hers when she realized that it was at her that he was looking. "She was held prisoner alongside a dozen other Precure of lesser importance, following the ascension of the Selfish. But she Selfish simply don't understand business, you see, so they meant to execute their prisoners."

"It was within their rights."

"True, but it was still a very stupid thing to do, fitting of the moronic people of a country built on idiocy. The Precure can be used, if they are cooperative, if they value their lives more than their honor. I knew that I could not strike a bargain with the generals of the Selfish Kingdom, so I went straight to Cure Rosetta. Heiress of a great business conglomerate… She had to recognize a good deal when she saw one."

"What did you do?" It was Bunbee's voice asking. "How did you even reach her?"

"I have my means," he said. Alice did not want to imagine what those means could be. "I made her and the other Precure an offer; they could join Nightmare, and I would free them, or they could die and pretend that their honor was worth something. Alice," suddenly he was right next to her. He put his hand on her chin, and rose her head, making her stare at his face, his terrible face, a cruel smile on his lips. "Tell me now. What did you answer? Exact words."

"I said… I said please. Please free us. Please save us."

"And I kept my end of the bargain, as you did with yours," his smile widened a little. "Funny, how none of your fellow Cures defied your decision. They all lowered their heads and followed me to freedom. And now they too work for us."

You are truly a fool if you believe that, Alice thought, but she simply nodded, which seemed to satisfy Kawarino. She was done with the papers now, and handed them to him.

"Very good," he said. "Now, I assume that as Miss Rosetta is done with her excruciating work and I won't have to hear my decisions questioned," once again he was smiling at Bloody, who remained serene. Alice wished Kawarino would stop smiling for just a moment, "there is something that we must discuss. Rosetta, I trust that you ran into no difficulties with the Desert Apostles?"

"None," she said. "I did as I was instructed, and everything occurred as it was expected. The Apostles are yours."

"More details," he sat on the table, hitting his fingers on its surface with an odd, uncomfortable rhythm. "The shareholders would like to know more."

Was that a joke, or was he being serious? Once again, Alice could not tell. Nevertheless, she did the safest thing; whatever it was that Kawarino wanted. When Despariah was absent, he spoke with her authority, and defying him had earned many foolish employees a reassignment to the dreaded underground facilities.

Alice recounted the happenings to the littlest details she could recall. That dreadful hybrid of plane and Kowaina landed on one of the largest cities of the Desert Lands, Nafwel, a great metropolis where the banners of the Desert Apostles rose high to touch the skies.

Hadenya and Gamao accompanied her, the two of them complaining about the heat, about being forced to come to this "hole in the middle of nowhere", as Hadenya described it. Alice did not see what exactly bothered them so much, as the city was a beautiful and crowded place, its architecture a mixture of styles old and new. Small shrines of brown bricks stood as testament to the foundation of Nafwel millennia ago, and not very far from them Alice also found grandiose temples that shone gold, its towers reaching high, relics of a time not quite so distant, but even their towers were dwarfed by the tall skyscrapers of sturdy concrete that cast long shadows over the city. All those structures stood together in Nafwel, but they did not seem to clash, and instead struck Alice as quite harmonious. Even under the shadows, the smaller buildings lost none of their beauty.

Her associates, though, didn't seem to appreciate it at all, and they rushed Alice to their destination, on the outskirts of the city. They entered a luxurious taxi that sped across the city with no concern for whatever was on its way; just like the plane that brought her here, it was a Kowaina, and it almost ran over more than a dozen people on its way.

Just before they left Nafwel, they passed right under the great Dragon Arch, an archway built long ago to celebrate the triumph of the Desert Apostles, then led by Baron Salamander, over the Precure of the Desert Lands. Enormous, it stood over eighty meters, and was quite wide too, wide enough for a highway to pass beneath its vault. It was said that on its frieze the entire history of the Desert Apostles had been engraved, from their birth to their ascension as rulers over most of these lands. Shortly after its construction, the Apostles began to fight among themselves, and lost control over much of the Desert Lands, now under the influence of Phoenix Tower, but on the engravings of the Dragon Arch, their glory was eternal. Alice would have loved to take a closer look, but in the moment it took for her to noticed the Dragon Arch, it was already behind them, so fast they were going.

Soon Nafwel was behind them too, and ahead was only a desert without end, with only crooked dunes to break the flat monotony of the sea of sand. Inside the car, the air conditioner kept Alice cool, but one look at the outside and she could tell that the sunlight was harsh and merciless.

Half an hour away from Nafwel, Alice finally saw something rise from the ground, a small tip of stone that would have passed unseen had Hadenya not said that it was their destination.

As soon as she left the car, the blistering heat rushed to greet her, blowing its warm breath on Alice's body. It almost hurt, but mostly it just felt uncomfortable. Not even a minute had passed and already she began to sweat, to tire, to feel her energy flutter away in the desert winds. The Trump Kingdom's weather had always been on the colder side, so this place was completely foreign to her.

They approached the small building, its door so narrow that only one person could pass at once, and even so, with difficulty. A young boy was waiting them inside, next to a long flight of stairs leading down. Their contact. He held a torch on one hand, and a large red gem on the other, and the light dyed his white hair a faint orange.

"You're late," he said, almost defiant. His eyes were full of anger, and they stared at Alice.

"Shut up, brat," said Hadenya, shoving him aside. "Take us to the crypts as you promised."

"Wait," he grabbed the woman's arm; Hadenya tried to keep moving, but the boy was stronger than he seemed. "You will fulfil your end of the bargain, will you not?"

"This is not the time to be making demands, you-"

"Yes," Alice intervened. Hadenya had been a terrible choice to send to the Desert Lands. Then again, all the executives of Nightmare were arrogant and cruel, so it's not like it made much difference. Still, Alice did not want things to go sour, so she spoke in soft, calming tones, smiling at the boy. "You will have a home, Olivier."

"I don't want just a home," he said. "I want a home and a family. You will give us the home, and the family…" He looked down at the gem on his hands, a hint of a smile on his lips. "My family is waiting for me. I've worked so hard. Salamander's heart… Broken, scattered… But now I have it," he showed Alice the gem. As the torch moved, a light seemed to dance on its surface.

"You're sure you found all the pieces?" Hadenya asked.

"I am. He spoke to me. He said he's proud of me, and… And he said we'll be together now. As soon as he's freed."

Alice tried to smile, but couldn't manage to. She knew what was coming. She knew she would break this boy's heart. But she could not defy Nightmare, not yet.

"Please, Olivier," she said. "Take us."

He guided them downstairs, revealing a long passageway, tunnels and corridors that made a twisting maze. Its corridor led to a crypt, some simple slabs of stone and others great memorials, adorned with tall statues whose faces were worn away by time. Alice had not imagined that a place so huge was hiding underneath that small building, but the mausoleum extended almost endlessly, deep beneath the surface.

Dust gathered on cracked, frail walls, and Olivier urged them to be careful. Sections of the pathways had caved in, burying countless tombs and corridors. Some of the corridors were tall and wide, but others were barely taller than Alice, and others were so narrow that only Olivier could walk through them, and the others were forced to find another way.

And there were tombs beyond counting. As Alice passed by them, she felt a chill. She felt that she should not be here. The dead did not want her here. The very air was uninviting. Whenever she passed by a tomb, Alice could not help but remember that there was a corpse in hiding there, some of them so old that there was little left of them but dust.

"What is this place, exactly?" Alice asked.

"The great mausoleum where the Apostles are buried," Olivier explained as he gazed upon the gem. It showed him the way, he said. "Though not anymore, of course. Now it's not used for that anymore. Now it's Salamander's prison."

"How so, exactly?"

"Some hundreds of years ago, you know, the Apostles began to break apart. Dune's cruelty was too great, and he ruled over his followers with little concern for them and their lives. He kept his secrets and goals to himself. Even the most accomplished generals of the Apostles were not privy to his ambitions. And Salamander questioned Dune. He wanted to know the truth. He wanted to know what exactly they were fighting for. When he began fighting for Dune, Salamander was a young man, full of anger and desire to lash out against the Precure that had power over the Desert Lands. But years after he drove them away, he had matured, and he had become a calmer man, more thoughtful. And he began to question Dune."

His torch flickered for a moment, and when Alice looked at the wall, Olivier's shadow seemed larger than it had been a moment ago. His hair seemed different as well, and the boy's shadow seemed wilder, somehow.

"Keep going," Alice said, trying to ignore the shadows.

"Dune did not want to be questioned. He scarred Salamander, and almost killed him, but he managed to escape. Salamander rebelled against his master, who did not care about the freedom of his people, only his crown as king of the Desert Lands. The other generals took arms against him, too, but they hated Salamander too. Like I said, he was calmer now, and not as eager for war, but the other generals wanted their country to expand, but each had their own vision on how to do it. And so they warred for years."

"And then Cure Ange came?"

"Yes," he said. "The Precure defeated the Apostles, too weary from fighting among themselves. The leaders of the Apostles were all slain, save for Dune, who faked his own demise, waiting to strike again, and Salamander, whose power was too great even for Cure Ange. So she struck at his heart. She tore his soul apart, into countless crystalline pieces, as if his heart had turned to stone. And perhaps it really had. His own soldiers betrayed him, led him to a trap, to Ange's ambush."

Olivier pointed at another flight of stairs, one that seemed longer than the others. By then they had already descended over a dozen of those.

"His body is down there. His soul…" He showed Alice the gem. "It took me many years. I found the first piece on a temple on the Bavarois Kingdom. Can you believe it? The Precure made relics of his very being. They used his power…" He grasped the gem with anger. "I found it on a temple I often visited to beg for alms. I had no family, my mother and father had been dead for years, and there was no one to give me shelter. The churches were the only place where I could find some help, but even then I had to keep moving, as they would often want me to join their ranks, and could not spare food for one who would not contribute to their growth."

"I heard of that," Alice said. "It must have been so tough. The few temples we have left grow poorer by the year."

"Yeah," Olivier scoffed. "All thanks to you."

Alice could not disagree. It was indeed the Precure's fault. Ever since the Axia Crisis, when the Precure waged war against the god Blue, few dared to openly follow him, and the shrines scattered around the world were slowly abandoned.

"Anyways, I found the first piece at a temple, and I heard Salamander's voice. He spoke to me, something no one had done since… Since a very long time. People took pity on me, but never did anyone want to get to know me, nor did anyone ever care about me. But Salamander did. He understood me. He understood solitude. And he promised me we could be together if I helped him. We'd be family. He did not want to fight again. He was done with it. He promised…"

"And you believed him?" Hadenya rose her voice, mocking him. As she told everything to Kawarino, Alice made sure to mention each time Hadenya almost ruined everything.

"Of course! He was speaking the truth. And for years, I found the scattered pieces. We talked every day. He… He became my father, and I his son. I cannot put it any other way. We care for each other deeply. And now we'll be together."

"Right, but first, the reason we're here."

"Don't worry," Olivier said. "I haven't forgotten it. Once the Apostles see Salamander has returned, they'll follow him. He won't fight anymore, but he can lead this country. And you'll have the alliance you desire."

"We will," Hadenya said, and Alice almost wanted to yell at her her right now, to tell Olivier that it was a trick. Instead, she followed him silently to the nondescript door that led to Salamander's crypt.

The boy opened the door, and eagerly stepped inside, almost dropping his torch. Salamander's body was laid on a bed of stone, still perfectly preserved, his eyes closed and his lips shut. He only seemed asleep, and perhaps that was all he was, truly.

"Father," Olivier said. "I'm here."

Alice accompanied him as he approached Salamander's face. It seemed remarkably serene, though there was a pretty grotesque scar next to his left eye.

"He wore a mask to hide it, back then," Olivier said. He put the gem on the tip of a cane left next to Salamander's body. It glowed briefly, a gentle red light, brighter than the torch Olivier held. The boy was smiling, waiting eagerly. On a corner of her eye, Alice saw Hadenya come closer too, and Gamao giggled.

"A mask?" Hadenya said. "Good. We have one for him now, to hide that ugly thing."

"Hm?" Olivier still watched the crystal. Poor thing, Alice thought. He has no idea.

Alice felt something touch her hand. When she turned to look, she saw Hadenya handing over a mask to her.

"No," Alice pleaded, almost tearing up. "You do it. You-"

"I do not need to prove my loyalty, fool," she said with a smile so smug that it tested Alice's patience more than anything the woman had ever said or done. "Do it."

Alice looked at the mask she held. It was exactly like those worn by Nightmare's servants, that dreadful thing that robbed them of their will. Once more she saw Olivier's smile, and she saw Salamander's hand move, his eyes slowly open. He began to speak.

"Ol-"

She did it as quickly as possible, so that she would not hesitate. Just as Salamander began to turn to look at Olivier, she put the mask on his face. For a moment he tried to move his arms to his face, to wrench the mask free, but by then his will was not his own anymore.

"What are you doing?" Olivier yelled, crying, and he gave Alice a look she had not yet forgotten. Nor would she ever forget it. He looked confused, broken, betrayed, furious, sad, all at once, all in a single miserable expression. She could not blame him. What she had done was beyond forgiveness.

And yet she said "forgive me" all the same. To Olivier, to Salamander, though he could not hear her. To herself. To whoever could possibly listen. Please forgive me.

Olivier leapt against her, his nails suddenly long claws, but Hadenya held him and threw him against a wall. He called Salamander's name one more time, but he did not even look at him.

And then he rose. Through the mask, Alice could hear him breathing, but he said nothing. He just stood in front of Hadenya, awaiting orders.

And that was it, Alice told Kawarino. Hadenya stayed behind to protect Nightmare's investment, as she said, and then Alice returned to Nightmare with Gamao. Kawarino did not have to be told anything else. He did not have to hear that Alice tried to speak to Olivier once more, but he ran away, screaming, crying.

"Very good," Kawarino said at last. "Everything happened as expected, and you did as you were told. I'm very satisfied, and I'm sure Despariah will be content as well. Good job, Rosetta."

His compliments were a slap on Alice's face, but she thanked him for them. She was glad he did not ask any more questions. She did not want to remember what she had done. She told herself that she had done it for the good of the Precure, but she could not help but think that there was nothing that could justify making a young boy cry, to steal away his only friend in the world. It was not what a Precure should do, and Alice felt disgusted whenever she told herself that it was for the greater good.

"I have new orders for you," Kawarino said. "And this time, you won't need to be supervised. We reward those who do their duty with trust, you see, and as you will soon learn, the trust of Nightmare is a very valuable thing."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Go east," he said. "Back to your homeland, or at least, close to it. North of the Trump Kingdom is the hideout of one of Eternal's allies. Bunbee, you can explain it better than me, I trust."

"Oh, right," Bunbee said. He was the contact between Nightmare and Eternal thanks to his acquaintances there, and he had been responsible for the very lucrative merger between the two. "You see, Eternal is a great museum, a group that works to preserve the great treasures of our world. But it's hard to keep them safe when so many desire them, so there are many precautions they must take. And, besides, some of the treasures they find are fakes, and those are worthless. So Eternal has hired the services of someone who's a specialist in falsification, duplication, and all manner of forgery."

"And that specialist is hiding close to the Trump Kingdom?"

"Yes, in a place so secretive that only those who have the trust of Eternal's Director are allowed to learn its location."

"And you have his trust?" Alice had heard tales of the Director, and knew that he was not quick to trust, to say the least.

"I worked for Eternal during some years, before my career settled here on Nightmare, but I've had close ties to its members even after I left. I still go out for some drinks with some friends there, an-"

"Ahem," Kawarino coughed.

"Right, the relevant part. Anyways, Eternal hired this creepy person named Shadow. His place is terrifying, a huge cave full of mirrors, but his work is superb. There's no one in the world half as good as Shadow is, and he - or she? They? Felt awkward to ask. Anyways, they know it. Shadow has a pretty big ego, I should warn you of that right now."

"And what do you need me to do there?"

"Shadow needs a Precure with certain specific knowledges for his next forgery. And that's where you come. You will help them with whatever they need."

"And what do they need?"

"We haven't been told," Kawarino said. "The Director requested something from Shadow, who in turn requested a Precure, so here we are."

"Alright," Alice said. "I'll do it."

"I knew you would," Kawarino said. "First you'll stop at Eternal for instructions, then your plane will take you to Shadow's hideout. Now, you'd better get ready soon. Your plane leaves tomorrow morning, but you'll be spending a while there, so you should gather all your belongings quickly."

He trusted her, Alice then realized. He mocked her, he looked down on her, but he trusted her. She could smile and laugh at that, if only Kawarino was not right next to her. He trusted her, and he trusted the Precure working under Nightmare.

Alice would make sure that it would be his downfall.

Chapter Text

Darkness still clung lazily to the night sky when Rikka awakened Yuri from her tormented slumber, but they could not wait for the sun. There was someone outside the old house, watching them, she was certain of it. She heard a noise outside, not the rustling of the wind, but footsteps, softened by the grass they trod upon, but still loud enough to hear.

"Do you hear it too?" She asked Raquel. The fairy nodded. "Yuri, please," she shook Moonlight, who slowly opened her eyes. "We can't stay here."

"Rikka?" Evidently confused and tired, she struggled to rise, holding on to Rikka. Her hand was shaking. The lack of Dreamfrond was making her awakenings very difficult, but thankfully she would always get better once they started moving.

"We must go," she said, and helped Yuri get up. She kept opening and closing her eyes, and the light of the candle that Rikka was holding was enough to hurt her eyes.

Though she still stumbled as she walked half-asleep, Yuri found her socks and shoes, filthy after a month of walking. Rikka's clothing wasn't in much better condition; the sole of her right shoe had fallen, and the last time she looked, the sock that had been white a month ago was now brown. Thin branches had made long cuts along the sleeves of her shirt, her hair was full of knots and dirt had darkened the tips of her fingernails. They had found a pond some days ago, but the water was so dark and looked so vile that Rikka dared not put a finger on it.

Though their Precure uniforms were perfectly clean whenever they transformed, they could not be Cures all day: hunger robbed them of their strength to do so, and even as they tired, they had to keep moving. The days where they managed to find a hiding place were few, growing scarcer and scarcer as they lost themselves in the wastelands that had once been the fertile south of the Trump Kingdom.

"Do we transform?" Yuri asked, and Rikka gestured her not to. They hadn't eaten in a while now, and should transform only if they had absolutely no choice.

"We run," Rikka said, opening the door. Outside, the woods that surrounded the abandoned house were dark, and Rikka could barely see what was between the trees. Above them, their branches and leaves hid the moon.

They ran, taking awkward steps and almost tripping on their own feet. Raquel shifted his head from side to side to try and see who pursued them, but Rikka knew it would be impossible to see anything past the darkness and the thick foliage. But Rikka could hear very well, and she heard steps behind them. They weren't as hurried as her own, but deliberate, and soon Rikka could not hear them anymore.

Still she ran, until the sun was shining through the canopy like a thousand spotlights. By then Rikka and Yuri could not keep up such a fast pace, but they were safe from danger, at least.

"We ought to look for food now," said Rikka, and Yuri nodded. "These aren't fruit trees, though," she put a hand on their leaves to try and identify them. "These sort of leaves wouldn't relieve our hunger, either."

"What do we do?" Raquel asked.

"Let's just keep looking," said Yuri. "We'll find something in the end. We always do."

Rikka nodded, but it was difficult to cling to that hope. Still, it made her glad to see that Yuri didn't seem even close to giving up. She followed Moonlight, carefully watching her surroundings.

As she looked upwards, Rikka didn't see any birds flying amidst the trees, and other than her and Yuri's footsteps, muffled by the grassy ground, the forest was eerily silent. There wasn't a living thing here.

There was nothing to be found, that became exceedingly clear very soon. The trees were all alike, and the paths they walked were no different from one another. Rikka had only the slightest notion of where she was, but she couldn't even say she was sure of where she was going. Sometimes she thought she could hear a noise, far away, and she always made sure to walk in its opposite direction. Soon it would stop, and return a while later, before stopping, again and again and again. Still her surroundings semeed always the same. She looked up again, not hoping to see anything, so when she saw a thin smoke rising high past the canopy, she immediately pointed up and called attention to it.

"Look!" She couldn't hide her excitement. "If it's so high, it must be coming out of a chimney. A house, Yuri! We should go towards it!"

"Wait," Yuri gently placed her hand on Rikka's shoulder. She did not sound too happy. "I don't think it's safe."

"Why not?"

"We haven't seen anyone since we left the Trump Kingdom. Everywhere we've been was deserted. Why is this forest different?"

That much was true, Rikka had to admit. The last time they had seen other people was when their ship crashed ashore and the few remnants of its crew had their hearts taken by the Selfish. Rikka and Yuri could not save them, just as they failed to save Mana. Ever since, Rikka had no one but her fairy and Yuri, and the latter, though not poor company, was rather quiet.

"We can avoid it," Rikka said, "and then what? Will we just keep going south? We don't even know if we're going the right way, we only have a single star to guide us. We might be walking in circles."

"I'd rather not risk our lives, though."

"Yuri," Rikka knew it was hard to sound serious when she had to stand on the tip of her toes to reach her friend's height, but she did so, "we are risking our lives every waking moment. I think we should go. If we find someone there, that'd be worth any danger, wouldn't it?"

"I… You're right. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I know," Rikka smiled. "I don't want you to get hurt either. So let's keep each other safe, alright?"

Yuri nodded. She didn't really smile, but the slightest movement of her lips in approval made Rikka happy.

"I-I'm fighting too," Raquel said, approaching Rikka's face. "You need to me to transform!"

"I know, dear," she rubbed his head with a single finger. "When you're with me, I feel a thousand times stronger. So let's go now, we don't have to fear a thing as long as we're together. Even if we find someone dangerous, we'll fight them off."

They walked towards the smoke, fallen leaves rustling underfoot. Rikka could see that the sun shone bright and merciless again, but the shade of the trees brought her relief from the heat.

Soon, Rikka could see the outline of a house between the trees, and a pleasant smell of herbs began to fill the air. Rikka hastened her steps.

As they approached the house and the scent of chamomile and mint grew stronger, a great garden revealed itself just past a short wooden fence with its gate left half-opened. Rikka and Yuri stepped inside, careful of their surroundings.

Rikka could smell the aroma of all sorts of herbs as she walked among the plants of the garden. Tiny white flowers bloomed all along the brushes that grew on the sides of the garden. Rikka could not recognize them. Rikka looked at her companion, and it seemed that being amidst flowers seemed to raise her spirits, if only a little.

"There's some Dreamfrond here," Raquel pointed at a patch where bushes full of the distinctive Dreamfrond leaves were growing. "We should take some."

"Right," Rikka agreed. Though Yuri said nothing, her relief was clear in her brightened eyes. "I don't think anyone will mind. I doubt there's anyone living here now."

"How rude," Rikka jumped back as she heard a voice behind her. It came from a short girl, clad in a light red dress, with brown hair so long that it almost reached her legs. "I am someone, you know, and I'm living here."

"W-Who are you?" Raquel asked, actually yelling. Rikka herself said nothing, but Yuri seemed almost like she was ready to attack the girl. The girl, however, was unfazed by Yuri's stare. "What's this place?"

"My name is Aguri Madoka," she stepped into the garden, closing the gate behind her, "and the place you are currently trespassing is my house."

"O-Oh," Rikka said, approaching the girl, ready to leave if she told them to go away. Rikka hoped from the bottom of her heart (and her starving stomach as well) that she wouldn't, though. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to-"

"You didn't mean to trespass, so that's why you opened the gate and stepped inside?" Her tone wasn't angry, just playful, and the girl was smiling, too, so Rikka thought it would be just appropriate to smile awkwardly as well. "It's alright. I wanted you to come."

"What do you mean?" Raquel's voice was full of suspicion.

"I have to admit that I've been very rude to you as well, and should apologize," she bowed slightly. "I'm sorry. Every night I check that little abandoned house where you were sleeping," she pointed at a direction that was probably where the house was. "And last night I found you. You looked like you were in need of help, so I made some noise and woke you up. You ran away from me, though, even when I tried to approach you, which was, honestly, wise. The world's too dangerous to trust anyone who knocks on your door."

"And yet you expect us to trust you?" Yuri asked.

"Yeah," Raquel crossed his arms. "Why were you following us anyways?"

"Well, you wouldn't approach me, and you avoided me the best you could, so I decided that since you wouldn't come to me, I should guide you to my house. It was a bit dishonest, but it worked, didn't it?"

"And why should we come inside?" Rikka asked, though she found herself inclined to trust the girl.

"Because I have food," she said, and that word was enough to make her less doubtful, "and clothes, and a bath too. Heavens know you need it."

Rikka couldn't argue with that. That was awfully generous, she thought in a corner of her mind, but she had known some people who were awfully generous. Like Mana, always generous, always helpful, even when it took her to the bottom of the sea. She almost cried, but instead she just nodded as hard as she could at the girl's offer. Aguri smiled, and took her hand, guiding her.

The house was very large, with very few walls and many sliding doors. Its thatched roof was huge, so tall that it reached higher than many of the trees around the house. Aguri slid a door open, stepped inside, and Rikka followed her. Inside, the walls were mostly made of paper, as was common in traditional temples in the countryside. While Rikka was busy looking at her surroundings, Aguri disappeared within the house, but soon she returned with small pieces of bread on her hand. She gave one to Rikka, one to Raquel, and one to Yuri. She looked annoyed.

"Well, I wish I had a proper meal to share with you, but it seems that my companion has left while I was gone, and probably for a long time, as she took… Well, most of the food we had."

"Your companion?" Rikka asked, curious. "There's more people who weren't taken by the Selfish?"

"Not many, sadly," Aguri said, "but yes, there are some who are still free. This is a problem, though. I needed my companion. She was growing restless from not having many people to talk to, and she was always really impatient, so it seems she went out on her own to look for… Whatever it is that she's looking for," she sighed. "Well, at least you're here, so I won't be alone. You should go take a bath soon, though. And I mean it."

There was no denying that. A bath was actually quite welcome, and the hot water helped Rikka relax for the first time since the stars were gone. When she was finished, she felt lighter, calmer, almost comfortable. Aguri brought her robes that didn't fit all that well, but Rikka was grateful anyways.

"I'm cooking something for you," Aguri said once the two girls had finished their baths, "but first I'd like it if you could join me for some tea. While we wait for the food to be ready."

Rikka was quick to agree, but Yuri and Raquel still looked pretty doubtful. Though Rikka always approved of a degree of skepticism, it didn't seem proper for them to question a young girl that had only shown them hospitality.

Though the layout of the house seemed rather confusing and the corridors were too numerous, too twisty, Aguri maneuvered with great speed, sliding doors and gently moving the paper walls to make her own way. Some of the rooms Rikka saw struck her as odd; one was covered in the smoke of many burning incenses, and in another, Rikka saw many small beds, almost the perfect size for fairies. Soon, however, they reached a long room, full of small tables with jars full of flowers.

"Take a seat," she pointed at a long table in the middle of the room. Upon it was a vase of huge blue roses, each one almost as large as Rikka's closed fist.

She did as she was told and sat down, with Raquel on her lap. The little fairy moved his head anxiously from one corner of the room to the other, but Rikka herself felt oddly calm. Something about the house was relaxing; perhaps it was the pleasant smell of hyssop and meadowsweet and other plants Rikka could not recognize, that smell that filled the room and made it so welcoming, or perhaps it was Aguri's gentle smile and the deliberate movements of her hands as she swiftly served green tea to her guests.

"Tea is not made to be appreciated in a hurry," she said, "so please forgive me for that," she took her teacup to her mouth and drank it slowly.

"That's quite alright," said Rikka, who following the girl's example, picked up the hot teacup carefully and began to sip, very content to finally drink something that wasn't rainwater. The taste of fine sencha was hard to mistake, and it was always a joy. Rikka looked at Yuri, and saw that she still looked at her own tea suspiciously. If Aguri noticed it, she didn't make it obvious.

"May I ask you, if it's not too rude," Yuri said, "what are you doing here, in the middle of nowhere, all alone?"

"You may," Aguri set down her teacup on a saucer, still smiling, "but only if you too answer a question I have. What are two Precure doing here, roaming the world alone?"

"Y-You know?" Rikka asked, surprised, but when she thought about it, their identity was really pretty obvious. "Ah, well… It's complicated."

"What about you?" Yuri insisted.

"That is complicated as well," she smirked. "There's a terrible lack of simple things lately, don't you think? Then again, the world has always been quite complicated. Ah, well. Suffice to say that I live here, and I'm the caretaker of this shrine."

"Shrine?"

"Yes," Aguri said, eyes shining. "Quite old, too, though it doesn't look like it because of constant renovations. To be quite honest, for the past generations, this shrine has served mostly as a tea house and resting spot for travellers. Not for long, though, not if I have my way. With the two of you, I think there might be enough Precure to properly restore this place to what it once was."

"What do you mean?" Rikka rose suddenly. Could this girl be…? But she was so young.

"You did not think that an ordinary girl that's not even twelve years old would have survived all by herself in the wilderness under our sad starless skies, did you? Although we now do have a lone star to guide our way, a single star cannot light the world all by itself, no matter how bright it shines, how pretty it twinkles. We need more stars."

"What would you have us do?" Yuri asked, and though she remained skeptical, there was a hint of interest in her voice. Aguri no doubt noticed that as well.

"For now, all I ask is that you rest here, eat and drink with me. Your tired faces make it very clear that it's been a while since you've last had a decent roof over your heads, or an actual meal, enjoyed properly, unhurriedly. With my companion gone, it might get a bit lonely here, but that's not a problem. That'll give us plenty of time to talk, and I think we have much to discuss."

Even Iona couldn't help but smile when Mai was reunited with her fairy, their eyes full of tears as Choppy jumped to hug her partner the second Namakelder opened the door. Reika, of course, smiled as well, and suddenly she found herself missing Candy. Still, this was a moment for happiness, so Reika hid her sadness.

"Mai!" The fairy yelled her partner's name, and though she said something after that, Reika could scarcely understand her words, said between sobs.

"I'm so glad you're safe," Mai wasn't quite as loud as Choppy, but tears ran down her face too, and she held the fairy close to her. "Were you well?"

"Y-Yes," she said, stuttering again and again as she tried to say the simplest words. "Namakelder was nice to me. He brought me food twice a day, and he talked to me, too, so I wasn't all alone."

Mai turned to him, and stepped closer. Namakelder looked quite shocked, but Mai's face revealed very little, until she spoke.

"Thank you for that," she said, bowing, "for taking care of Choppy while I couldn't."

Lost for words, he only nodded and smiled awkwardly, without showing his teeth. Iona stared intently at him, as if anticipating treachery, but he kept his word and, indeed, offered no resistance.

"Thank you all," Egret turned to her fellow Cures, still hugging Choppy. "For a while, I was afraid no one had heard my call."

"Sorry we took so long," said Reika, though there was no way they could have gotten there any sooner. Still, trapped here for over a month, Reika could not blame Mai if she had gotten impatient or worried.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "What matters is that you're here now, and that we could resolve this without any bloodshed."

"Besides, I don't have the patience to bleed," Namakelder said, chuckling. When he noticed his jokes were not appreciated, he quickly quieted down. He only spoke when the Cures asked him to.

Their first question was where to find food, and he was quick to guide them to the kitchens; a long room full of large ovens, and cabinets and fridges full of ingredients. At the end of the room, a pantry stored even more food.

"I mostly only ate pre-made foods," he explained, "so I didn't really touch anything else."

The Cures entered the pantry together, Nozomi almost yelling in glee as she saw all the different sorts of food that had been stored. Frozen pasta dishes, huge, bright red apples, and the green ones too, all sorts of cuts of meat inside large freezers, and all the grains and vegetables that one could think of. Though she was not as loud as Nozomi, Reika was also glad to eat again, and, even more importantly, relieved that she would no longer have to worry about the journey back home.

"Hey," Mai said as she began stuffing a bag full of food, "may I ask… How are things outside?"

The three Cures stood silent, Nozomi's eyes full of unease and Iona looking as if she was trying to think of a way to explain. She didn't look like she knew exactly how to explain how dire the situation was.

"Desperate," said Reika, "and yet still hopeful, in a way. The world is, to put it simply, a great mess. The weather is rough, unpredictable, and the very earth has been torn asunder."

"And the Red Rose? Are the Precure still fighting?"

"The Phoenix Tower still stands," said Iona. "I found shelter there, and other Cures too. It seems safe, for now."

"O-Other Cures?" Mai jumped up, and gave Choppy a hopeful look. She approached Iona. "H-Have you found a Cure Bloom, by any chance? She's my age, about my height, she has short chestnut hair, and… Ah, well, she was my partner. She'd have mentioned me."

"Sorry," Iona said, and with that single word all of Mai's hopes came crashing down.

"Ah…" Jarringly, her face changed in an instant from excitement to sadness. "I see… Who's left of the cures that led the Red Rose?"

"Only Mirage, I think."

"Only Mirage?" She sounded terrified. "S-So… Everybody else? Moonlight, Peach, Continental?" Iona just shook her head. "Flower? Even Tender?"

Iona's eyes shone. She clenched her fist took a deep breath.

"Even Tender. She was my sister."

"O-Oh… I'm sorry. I… I didn't mean to bring back any bad me-"

"You haven't. But I don't want to dwell on it."

"What does matter is that we haven't stopped fighting," said Nozomi. "And I'm sure the missing Cures are fighting too."

"R-Right," said Egret. "You are right. I wish I could fight, too, but… Without Bloom by my side, I cannot transform. I'm afraid I won't be of much help for now."

"It's alright," Reika said. "You are safe now, and free. You'll be going to the Phoenix Tower with Iona."

"You won't be going there?"

"No. We need to go back to the Doughnut Kingdom."

"Do we, though?" Nozomi asked.

"King Donuts must expect us to return. If we don't, he might think we have died."

"Lame…"

"Are you sure?" Iona asked. "Mirage would appreciate two more Cures at the Tower. This is where you should be, no? If you intend to fight for the stars, you should be with all the other Cures."

"She's got a point," said Coco. "I'm sure King Donuts will understand, eventually. Maybe we can have Pinceau warn him that we have changed our course and went to the Phoenix Tower?"

"Maybe," Reika said, and thought for a second. The way back would likely be dangerous, as the Bad End Kingdom would likely pursue them, and after their defeat at Schneeblume, Reika had little doubt that they'd be far more dangerous this time. "Nozomi wants to go too, right?"

"Yes!" She said with enthusiasm. "I want to be where all the other Cures are. Even if there aren't many, we'll all be stronger if we're together."

"Alright, then," said Reika. It felt odd, the fact that she got to be the one with the last say in the matter. Nozomi must really trust her judgment.

Once they had gotten all the supplies they needed, they joined with Namakelder to eat. Reika wasn't so insistant on it, but Nozomi kept saying she was starving, so they all sat down together on a small table in the kitchen to eat. Namakelder was shocked when Reika offered him an invitation, but it wasn't only courtesy; she had questions of her own to ask him.

"Why is Mai being kept here?" Reika asked. "Surely there are more convenient prisons?"

"You're assuming that my contractors were interested in a convenient prison in the first place," he said, playing with his food. He ate slowly, as if even that was tiresome to him.

"Who are your contractors, then?" That seemed like a better question to ask to extract answers from him.

"Dark Fall," he said, "or maybe the Desert Apostles. Or the Selfish Kingdom. Though I might also be working for Eternal."

"Y-You're working for Eternal?" Sometimes Nozomi asked questions that Reika just couldn't believe.

"I might be," he smiled. "I also might not be. I don't feel like answering that question. When they come to get me and I tell them that I spilled out all their secrets, well, wouldn't I look silly?"

"Get you?" Reika set down her spoon next to the soup bowl. "No one's coming to get you. If we're going to the Phoenix Tower, you're coming with us."

"W-What?"

"You surrendered to us, did you not? With absolutely no conditions, if I recall, so you cannot defy what we ask of you. We are being gentle, but we are still Precure, and if we need to force you, well, then we will. But for now I am politely telling you that you will come with us to the Phoenix Tower. Is that alright with you?"

He hid his face with his hat, then groaned and nodded.

"How far is it?"

"Very far," he groaned again.

Reika had finished her meal, but Nozomi and Iona lingered on theirs. Iona's face lightened up as she ate up her salad, and Nozomi's plate seemed to never empty.

"You might be eating too much, Nozomi," Reika said. "It might make you sick."

"I hope it does," she said, grinning with her mouth still full of food. "I'm sorry, I just haven't been able to enjoy a meal in a while, without having to be hurried away, or yelled at while I was trying to eat…"

There was no point in arguing or getting annoyed over such a small thing, so Reika just waited until Nozomi was satisfied. After everything they had been through, she did deserve it. Reika just didn't want to waste any time.

When at last they were done, Reika was the first to rise, and the first to grab their bags full of food. The other Cures took some as well, Glasan had some space left in her backpack, and even Namakelder helped them. There was nothing left in the Eyrie for them, so it was time to go.

"What's that?" Just as they were leaving, Coco pointed at a small wooden case left in a corner. Reika picked it up; it was elegantly made, with golden roses and vines engraved along its surface. It looked like a jewelry box, and when Reika opened it, it was indeed jewelry that she saw. Rings and necklaces and brooches, all of them proudly displaying a blue rose.

"Oh, they were already there when I got here with Egret," Namakelder said. "I was told to store it somewhere, but, well, I didn't really see the point of doing it since nobody was supposed to come here anyways. I never bothered to look inside. They seem valuable, though. I wonder why they were left here?"

"They're very pretty," said Nozomi, and Reika had to agree. The roses had the distinct coloration of sapphires, immaculately chiseled. Whoever had crafted these was talented; as Reika felt the jewels with her fingers, she could feel each individual petal, small as they were.

"Should we take it?" Glasan asked, eyes aglow.

"It's not very heavy," Iona said, picking up the box. "The rose has always been the sigil of the Precure, so I think it's only fitting that these are stored in the Phoenix Tower."

"Alright," said Reika, looking upon one of the necklaces once again. The roses were of a deep, dark blue, but the chains had an undistinctive color, a grey very close to white. "Let's get going."

She opened the door, and cold winds greeted her, wild and uncaring. The weather was getting worse, quickly, and Reika would not want to be caught in a blizzard when they were so close to the edges of the cliff. Namakelder looked into the distance, sighing as he confirmed that, indeed, the Phoenix Tower was extremely distant. He had to hold his hat down so that the strong winds wouldn't blow it away.

"It was not so bad earlier today," said Mai. "I like to keep the windows open as much as I can, and truly, the weather was far gentler when I woke. It's like this everywhere, you said?"

"Everywhere we've been," said Reika.

"It must mean only one thing, then," Mai looked at Choppy, her expression suddenly dark and strained.

"Are you sure?" The fairy asked.

"It has to be. I'm afraid Dark Fall might have tainted the Holy Fountains. But I don't understand how they managed to reach them. They are so well-hidden that even Bloom and I had never seen them."

"Can we be sure of that?" Reika asked. "From what I've heard, the Fountains are indeed beyond reach, and if they were really destroyed, the world would not even exist anymore."

"I don't know for sure. It's only a theory. I cannot think of another explanation, though."

"It's alright!" Nozomi turned her smile to Mai. "If the Fountains have been tainted, well, we can just clean them!"

"You are really clueless, aren't you?" Iona snapped. It had been a little while since she last yelled at Nozomi, so Reika was almost getting used to it. "They just said the Fountains cannot be reached, and we don't even know where they are!"

"We'll find them," Nozomi answered Iona's scowl with such a big grin that it almost looked like she was mocking her. Reika knew Nozomi better than that, but it was enough to inflame Iona. "Let's just work hard."

"I didn't think even you were so stupid," she said, and Nozomi's smile was gone. Iona was the first to begin the descent, her fairy muttering something at her ear. Reika had expected an outburst, so this was actually rather tame, but it left Nozomi rather shaken. She only stared at Iona as she made her way down, Mai and Namakelder right behind her, and the fairies too.

Nozomi leaned against Reika just as she was about to follow the others, and sighed. She had no idea how to react, so she only held Nozomi's hand.

"We should go, Nozomi," Reika said.

"Right. Right, I know," she talked like she hadn't even heard Reika. "She's right, isn't she?"

"Hm?"

"Iona. She's right that I'm stupid sometimes. I'm sure she hates me."

"She does not hate you, she's just not very patient," that was perhaps not the best way to put it, Reika realized as she spoke. "I mean… I don't think you're stupid. If Iona does, she's wrong."

"If you say so…" It felt wrong, seeing Nozomi upset like this. Reika wished she could do more, she wished she could help Nozomi, but she did not know what to say, so she kept holding her.

But only for a moment. They had a long way to go, and no time to sulk. Nozomi and Reika knew that better than most.

Eas massaged her pounding head, but no matter what she did, she could not end the pain. Agony robbed her of her sleep, and her last night was spent staring at her white ceiling, hoping that her dreams would bring her relief, but they never came. When it was time to rise and her alarm was shrieking, her head still hurt, but she had no time to dwell on it. She had to get up, for the work of Labyrinth's agents could never stop.

She rose, putting her feet on the cold floor and her hands on top of her head, trying to make the pain go away, in vain. Eas knew very well that the pain would not stop so soon. Klein himself had repurposed her mind, a painful process that left her bereft of all the memories older than a month or so.

Why? What was it that she had known that she had to forget? Eas did not know, and Klein refused to answer her when she asked. And, of course, she knew better than to ask Northa. She sighed, and tried to focus on other thoughts, to keep her mind occupied so that she could ignore the pain.

She looked to the end table next to her bed. Small and grey, the color of the walls, of the ceiling, of the floor, it only had space for her alarm clock and for her clover amulet. Every morning Eas would grab it, look at it, and she would feel… Well, she did not know exactly what she was feeling. Yet when she looked at it, it seemed as if the pain was suddenly distant, if only for a moment.

A moment was all she had, so she let the clover there, and got dressed. She always did so very quickly, as Labyrinth did not allow its citizens to choose; each stratum of society had an uniform assigned to it, and no right to decide what they preferred. Eas was lucky to be high enough in Labyrinth's echelons to have clothes all her own, but even that was a hollow privilege. Though she was an elite agent of Labyrinth, she had as much say in her future as the lowliest menial worked did, and her apartment was only slightly less cramped and uncomfortable than everyone else's.

Whenever these thoughts filled her mind, she felt a hint of shame, as she knew that something was wrong with her. She should not question Labyrinth. Klein himself had removed every trace of her past as a traitor from her mind, and filled her brain with love for Lord Moebius. When the process was done, he explained to her what had happened, how she had collaborated with the Precure for almost an entire year before she finally returned to Labyrinth, her home, begging him to make her completely loyal again.

She looked at the clover again. She had brought it to Klein as evidence that she had abandoned the Precure, and that her life belonged to Lord Moebius. Evidence that she had killed Cure Peach and forsaken the life of a traitor.

Of course, she could not remember what exactly happened, why she left the Precure, why she returned to Labyrinth. She couldn't even remember why she left in the first place. This place was her home, her true home. It was a sad place, but it was the only place she had ever belonged to. Why had she left it for the Precure? Of course, she had never truly joined the Red Rose, she had never become a Precure herself, Klein had made that very clear. That was the only reason Lord Moebius chose to forgive her. She had never been allowed to become a Precure. For all that the Cures spoke of love, redemption, forgiveness, those were all empty words in the end. She was from Labyrinth, and even though she helped the Red Rose, she was always lesser than them.

She squeezed the clover in her hands, almost shattering it. Her anger gave way to worry, and she looked to see if she had broken the amulet. She hadn't. Relieved, she wore the necklace, opened her door, and set out to work.

Her apartment was on one of the highest floors of the building, so the elevator took a good minute to take her to the ground level. Inside the elevator, she saw the same people she saw everyday, and, as always, all were silent. One could not deviate even slightly from the schedule that had been arranged for them. Those who did were quickly educated on their error, and never made that mistake again.

The sun never shone on Labyrinth, thick grey clouds hiding it. They would hide the stars too, if there were any. Those lights were dangerous, Eas had been taught. Lord Moebius, in his generously, had create the clouds that kept his servants safe.

Masses of citizens were walking along the sidewalk, their steps almost in synchrony. The streets of Labyrinth were always crowded, day and night, and only the very privileged were allowed the use of vehicles. Eas was stuck between them; she wasn't a miner, a worker, a builder, so she was afforded certain luxuries, but she was also not a scientist, nor a general, merely an agent. A competent, trusted agent, but nothing more.

Still, it meant she did not have to walk to work, and for that Eas was always thankful. The crowds knew to make way for Labyrinth's agents; one of the privileges granted to Labyrinth's agents was the right to do whatever they desired to those below them. Eas yelled at them when they got on her way, but nothing beyond that, the way some other agents did.

A bus stopped to pick her up at the same time it always did. Eas wished a good day to the driver, but said no more. He was new, and had only been given this job a week ago, and Eas just didn't like the way he looked at her. The old driver was far more cordial, and Eas even had a few conversations with him. He had been replaced, though, after he accidentally missed a stop because he was too distracted telling Eas about his time working the mines.

She hadn't seen him since, nor would she ever again. Lord Moebius had no tolerance for errors; he had so many servants that losing one made no difference, as they could always be replaced. Eas knew that she, too, despite her triumphs, meant very little in the end.

The bus left her in front of one of Labyrinth's tallest towers, one that pierced the clouds. Eas had been to its highest floors once, where she could see the sky. The first time she did, the day after her mind was corrected, it took the breath out of her; she had never seen anything so bright as the blue of the sky.

No, that was not the first time. She had seen it before, when she foolishly abandoned Labyrinth and fought by the Precure's side. But she did not remember anything about that anymore. It was so bizarre, remembering that so many years had been erased from her mind. Even more painful was knowing that she had no choice on it. Sometimes, the faintest trace of a memory would return, if she focused hard enough, but it was only a color, a sound, a word.

"Good morning, Eas," said the guard by the door, a girl barely any taller than Eas herself was. "Northa has ordered me to tell you to go straight to the meeting room."

"What is it?" The girl shrugged. Eas stepped inside the cold building.

Every floor was exactly the same, as were all the rooms. The walls were all a bland grey, and everything was strictly functional; each office had only a chair, a table, and a small computer that did only nothing but what its responsible agent was tasked to. Eas had no idea what most of the agents here did, in truth. There were so many of them, but even so, very little got done in Labyrinth.

She entered the elevator, and pressed the button to take her to the eightieth-third floor. Once again it took a long time to get there, stopping every couple of floors so that someone else could get out, until Eas was left alone.

Eas looked down, at the necklace again. It was the first thing she had seen after her mind had been repurposed and she awoke in a small, white room. The necklace had been left atop a table next to her bed. Confused, she wandered about until she was found and taken to Klein, who explained to her what happened.

"You returned to Labyrinth," he said. That he did not have to explain; she had not forgotten what Labyrinth was, or the Precure, nor did she forget her name. Apparently, some frailer minds did not react well to repurposing, and almost everything about them was erased. "This amulet belonged to Cure Peach, who you've slain before you returned."

"Who even is Cure Peach?"

Eas still didn't know. All that Klein said was that Eas was responsible for her demise. Trying to recall anything about Cure Peach made Eas' head hurt, and kept her from sleeping. But she could not stop thinking about Peach. She must have been pretty important.

The elevator's doors opened, and Eas stopped looking at the clover. From there to the meeting room was only a short walk, one that Eas made as quickly as possible, lest she tried Northa's patience.

"Right in time," Northa was waiting by the door, grinning. Northa's anger was something that all feared, yet even so it was not half as threatening as her smile.

Eas took her seat, next to Westar and Soular. Northa's eyes pierced her, but she feigned disregard. Westar greeted her with one of his childish smiles, to which she responded with a small wave. That seemed to make him very content.

"Now that our sweet belated Eas has arrived, we can finally discuss what matters," she sat down, and stared at her agents, one by one. They all avoided her gaze, out of fear of being chosen for something dangerous. Northa was infamous for frequently sending her subordinates on missions that ended with their deaths. "The Pretty Cure. Like any vermin, it seems that even when you squash them, they still insist in trying to live for a little while longer, even when it is hopeless for them."

"The Precure have survived?" An agent asked. Eas didn't know her, she had only begun working two days before.

"Of course they have, you idiot, you don't need to repeat what I've just said. The Precure still live. Some have been captured, others are missing and almost certainly dead, but some Cures still dare defy their fate. Soular, please."

"Ah, yes," he rose, and faced his fellow agents. "One of our collaborators has sighted the Precures gathering once again at the Phoenix Tower. Many of them."

"A collaborator?" Another agent asked. Eas knew him, but not his name.

"A fancy name for what is just a glorified delivery boy," Soular made an impatient gesture. "But he's seen it, and we have no reason to doubt him."

"So the Cures' death rattles are being loud," Westar scoffed. "So what? They are still no match for us."

"That's exactly the point," said Northa. "They are weak and scattered. But can we say the same will be true in a year? In ten years? Fifty? So long as the Precure are fighting, they are still a threat. One that we would be foolish to ignore. Now, they are weak and easily crushed, but if we allow them to reorganize, to strengthen their ranks… Well, I would hate to be the person who ridiculed their resolve and allowed them to become powerful again."

"But don't we have Infinity now?" Eas asked. "What threat could they pose to us?"

"Infinity is beyond your concern. Regardless, that kind of outlook is a recipe for disaster for us. When you see your enemy weak, dying, hopeless, you don't leave them be, in hopes that they will wither away. You destroy them, decisively, so that they will never become a problem. Your lack of understanding of that fact is the reason you are a mere agent."

"Forgive my ignorance," Eas lowered her head. "What will we do, then?"

"What will you do, rather," Northa rose from her chair and took slow steps towards Eas, placing her cold hand on her shoulder. "I think this would be a fine job for you, don't you agree?"

"Me? Would you entrust me with something of such great importance?"

"Oh, you won't be working alone, don't think that for a moment. All of you," she spoke to all the agents now, "I trust that you'll be able to find a solution for our little problem with the Precure. I don't care how, as long as you get it done. But I should tell you this; you will not be able to brute force your way into the Phoenix Tower. We tried that, the night the stars died, and all the troops we sent did not return. So you'll have to be smarter than that."

With that said, she turned her back on them, and left them on their own to discuss how to proceed.

"Westar must be so disappointed, what with the brute force option being out," someone said, inciting general laughter.

"Hey, I'm pretty smart! I'll come up with something. It'll be really good!"

More laughter followed. Eas had something to say, but had to wait until the room became silent again.

"If it must be done," she began, "I think I know how to do it."

"What is it, Eas?" All eyes were on her. Though Labyrinth's servants loved to argue among themselves in their strife for a better position, Eas was generally admired by her fellows.

"That delivery boy you mentioned… He can deliver something to the Precure, right?"

"He should be able to, yes," said Soular. "What message do you intend on sending them?"

"I don't know yet. I did not have the time to ponder that question. But I must win their trust somehow. If we cannot beat them while they're at their tower, then we must lure them out, and bring them to us."

"Do you think they would fall for such a simple ruse?"

Eas smiled, even though her head kept pounding, screaming, and she showed the clover necklace for everyone to see. That shut them all up.

"I've done it before. The Precure are a bunch of fools, quick to forgive and quicker to trust. I need only find a Precure who is half as gullible as Cure Peach was, and she shall gleefully and unknowingly deliver them all to their end."

Chapter Text

They found the girl trapped inside a mirror amidst a field of dead, withered roses. It was a pitiful sight; thorns had covered most of it, so Yuko had to tear them apart to take a look at the poor girl, staining her hands with blood. The girl didn't look much older than Yuko herself, or Hime. Her eyes were closed tight in silent agony, and though sunlight hit the mirror, her body was darkened by shadows.

"Do you know her?" Yuko asked Hime.

"No."

The girl's blonde hair reached her waist, where it ended in large, fluffy curls. Red bonds wrapped around her body, ropes and nooses strangling her almost lifeless body. Yuko knew the girl was alive, but only barely. She might as well be dead; there didn't seem to be a way to free those trapped within the mirrors.

"How long has she been like this?" Hime's voice was shaking with fear.

Yuko had no answer, but she was afraid as well. If whoever had done this was still nearby, she and Hime were both endangered. For now, however, they were safe; the lands around them were so barren that there was nowhere an enemy could hide, no trees or rocks or buildings that might conceal their presence. And the Phoenix Tower was so close now, its white fire burning in the distance when the night was at its darkest, when even the moon seemed too fearful to reveal itself.

"Let's just not waste any time," said Yuko, and Hime nodded, though even as they moved away, she would often look back, sadly.

After that, they knew better than following the dirt road to the Tower; if someone dangerous was around, that would be the most obvious place they might strike. They avoided the old, beaten path, and took a more roundabout route, one that passed by what had once been great farmlands that supplied the Phoenix Tower with all the food it needed. Now it was dead, its fields empty but for a handful of parched crops, and ashes.

It was not only the fields that had been put to the torch; the ranches and their sheds had burned as well, leaving chunks of charred wood where they stood before. There were villages here, once, but the fire devoured them all, just as it did with the Blue Sky Kingdom. Yuko and Hime had barely escaped with their lives.

Yuko remembered it well, how Hime refused to leave the palace, as her parents were still trapped there. Telling Hime to give up on them was the hardest and cruelest thing Yuko had ever said. Yet it had to be done, if they wanted to live, if they wanted to fight back, somehow. Somehow… With each passing day, that possibility seemed more and more distant. Yuko had seen so much ruin by now that at times it felt as if there was not much left to protect anymore.

She didn't let herself think that for long, of course, but the thought was persistent, and it returned once more as Yuko walked amidst the wreckage of houses. These weren't just farms and sheds, she realized with growing dread. This had been a city, a very small one, barely larger than a village. And now it was empty. Yuko wondered where all the people went, but all the possibilities she imagined were unpleasant at best. Here, unlike in the Blue Sky Kingdom, there were no mirrors left behind: the ruins were all empty, with not a sign that anyone had been there.

It hurt to gaze upon the destruction that their enemies had caused, but Yuko knew she had no right to look away, nor any other Cure. This was the price of their failure, so she would not avert her eyes. Hime knew that as well, Yuko could tell from her sad eyes, she knew it more than any other person. She still blamed herself for what had happened, and would keep blaming herself for the rest of her life. Yuko wished her princess could forgive herself someday, but even if she didn't, she would be by her side to give her strength if she ever needed it.

And she needed it now. Hime's footsteps became quieter and quieter until they stopped, and when Yuko looked back, she was standing still in the middle of the razed fields, tears falling on the ashen dirt.

"Hime…" They had already had this conversation many times, but even so Hime's shame overwhelmed her almost every day.

"I know, I know," she wiped her tears away, a futile effort, as they kept falling, running down her cheeks. "Stop blaming myself. I know I should, you've told me to stop. But… But… It's just so hard to not despise myself when I look at this, at this broken world… How can I not say it's all my fault? I…" She fell on Yuko's arms, holding tight to her. "I ruined everything. You tell me not to let it bring me down, but when I see this dead land, I…"

She began to cry softly on Yuko's shoulder. As she whimpered, she said muffled words that Yuko couldn't understand, until she let go. Yuko looked down, smiled at what she saw, then kneeled and held Hime's hand.

"My princess," she said, "come here. Look," Hime kneeled as well, and stared at the soil beneath her. Though it was tinted a pale grey, a tiny patch of light brown gave it some color. Vines rose from the earth, dead and shriveled. When Yuko put her hand on the ground, she could feel that the dirt was still soft. It had not died yet. "The world isn't dead, Hime," Yuko said, whispering calm words. "We are not doomed. We are alive, are we not?" Hime nodded. "And not only us. This soil… It's damaged, but I'm sure it can be made healthy again."

"D-do you think so?"

"I know so," she winked. That seemed to make Hime smile, if only a little. "I can't imagine how it feels for you, so I can't blame you for whatever you may feel. But I will stand by your side. And if you ever forget these things I said, I will remind you."

"Thank you," Hime took a deep breath, and got up again. "I must be such a burden."

"I carry it gladly," she laughed. "Don't worry. You are no burden. You could never be."

Yuko rose too, and this time, she was the one following Hime, who quickened her pace, walking with sudden determination. She was still shaken by her surroundings, but this time she did not let it get her down. Yuko could tell it was taking all of her effort, and it made her proud.

With the destroyed village now behind them, all that there was left was to follow the road to the Phoenix Tower. They were making terrible time, though Yuko did not complain; much of their time was spent looking for food, not travelling. They were not always successful, but sometimes they found fruit trees that were still healthy, or food left in abandoned houses. Those usually did not taste very good, but they were the difference between life and death.

The road to the Tower might have been reliable, once, and at many points it was paved, and kept pristine by the Precure, but now it was always desolate, dangerous, and much of it had been destroyed by the torn landscape, where mounds of rock and earth rose where there once were none, or where the ground sank into deep chasms.

There was something in the road, in the distance; Yuko could not tell what it was from so far, but it was large, almost unmoving. She and Hime exchanged a glance, and a silent agreement to transform before they approached it, lest they too ended up trapped inside a mirror. After all they've been through, Yuko would never allow it.

Their caution was unneeded, in the end: what they found was only a girl pulling a large cart behind her. She whined loudly, her face strained, her body soaked with sweat. With her eyes fixed on the road ahead of her, she didn't even notice the two girls that were now next to her, until Yuko called her attention.

"Wh-" Slowly the girl rose her head to see Yuko and Hime. When she saw them, she just stared, baffled, as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Are you lost?" Yuko asked.

"No," she was suddenly smiling, her voice amiable, "quite the contrary. I was sent to look for people, any people, and I find two Precure."

"Sent?" Hime asked. "And who are you?"

"Oh, yes, introductions. I am Ekaterina, though I'm also called Cure Katyusha."

"A Precure?" From the Phoenix Tower, for sure.

"Yes, just like you! And I have to say it relieves me to find you two, because, erm… My cart broke. Lost a wheel, this damned road is too bumpy. It's embarrassing, but I must ask you for some help."

"Of course," said Yuko. Hime was right behind her, carefully watching this girl who claimed to be a Precure. "But you said you were looking for people?"

"The Precure at the Phoenix Tower decided that we must try and find people scattered around this region, and to try and reclaim all the nearby farms, so that we won't run out of food. Well, Mirage decided to do it, but everyone else agreed. And that is why I'm pulling this big cart like an idiot."

"The farms?" Yuko asked. "We were just there. Most of them are ruined, but they are not beyond saving."

"You were?" She jumped in joy. "This is so good! I was afraid that the soil would be cursed or something, or just destroyed, but if you say we can use it…"

"It's worth a shot, at the very least" Yuko did not want to make any promises. "About this food you're carrying…"

"Oh, right, it's to share with whoever I happen to find. You two girls look hungry," Yuko almost laughed at this understatement, "too hungry and weak to help me with this cart. Would you like some food then?"

"Please," Hime said meekly, almost embarrassed.

"Of course, of course," Katyusha said with a smile. "Take as much as you want. And then help me. This thing really is too damn heavy."

Though the nights were dark and starless, the light of the Phoenix Tower guided Nozomi's way during the journey back. Atop the Tower, a great white flame burned all night long. Starfire, there was no mistaking it. The Tower was so close now, Nozomi thought as she rose from her makeshift bed of straw before the sun was even close to awakening. Her entire body hurt, and if not for Iona and Coco urging her to get up, she would have fallen right back to sleep. Eager as she was when she set out to find Mai, Nozomi had to admit that now, as her journey was nearing its end, she had never been so exhausted in her life, and all she looked forward to was settling down for a week or so, to recover all the energy she had lost.

She knew she could not afford that, though. Time was the most precious thing the Precure had now, the one treasure they could not waste. Almost two months had passed since they left Frosting; Nozomi could only imagine what had changed since then.

Two months, even though they hurried every step of the way. They barely rested since they set out to the Phoenix Tower; even as the sun set and darkness covered the world, Iona drove them further and further, even as their strength failed them. Though Mai didn't say a single word of complaint, it was clear to Nozomi that she tired even more than the other Cures. By nighttime, Nozomi could hear her panting, and she always lagged behind them.

And yet she kept going. That was the most incredible thing. On her own, she could not transform, as being separated from her partner had robbed her of the strength she had as a Precure, but she never stopped moving. Sometimes Nozomi could hear Choppy ask Mai if she was alright, and would tell her that she should ask Iona to stop, to let them rest. Mai refused to.

Namakelder, on the other hand, did his fair share of whining. It was always a struggle to get him to wake and get up, and he always made sure to make his displeasure known, constantly. And, worst of all, he seemed to enjoy angering Iona with his laziness, so much that Nozomi often asked herself if he really was always tired, or if he did it only to aggravate the Precure.

Still, insufferable as he was, in the end he always did as he was told, and accompanied the Precure. They made excellent time, due mostly to their lack of rest. With each passing night, sleep lasted a little less than it did the last night, and by the time they could see the Phoenix Tower, they could only afford four hours of sleep, at most, until Iona awakened them all. Nozomi couldn't complain, as she did not want to waste time either, but when she was the one being yelled at just as she was having lovely dreams, she couldn't help but find it a bit unfair.

Coco agreed with her this time, and all he talked about was how he wanted to sleep on a warm bed when they reached the Phoenix Tower. Reika never complained, and put on her most disciplined face, but often Nozomi would see her eyes closing while she walked, and then opening a few seconds later, startling Beauty. That always made her giggle.

The Trump Kingdom was behind them now, and it seemed to have been spared from the destruction that had turned the Palmier Kingdom into ruins. On their way were many cities and villages, almost all of them still inhabited, but the Precure were cast out of each one of them, despite their pleas. Some did it more politely, by stopping them at the gates and refusing them entry, while others had their citizens yell and curse at the Precure, calling them oathbreakers for failing to protect the world. Someone in a crowd went so far as to throw a rock at Nozomi when she refused to leave, and though the blow did not hurt, it crushed Nozomi's spirit to feel the outrage of all the people they let down.

Yet even that was preferable to what Nightmare had done to the fairy kingdoms. Nozomi would rather be spat upon than have to see anyone enslaved like that, to see left to survive on their own in a world that gave them no chance to survive.

Travelling for so long gave Nozomi a great deal of time to reflect, and much of what she mulled over were not pleasant thoughts. When she looked into the horizon and saw only desolation and grey skies, it was hard to not let it bring her down. She tried not to make it too obvious, so she smiled to hide her melancholy, but even she who put her faith in hope found it an uncertain support to cling to.

Her sole comfort was talking to her companions whenever she could; silence would bring only sorrow, so they talked among themselves as much as possible. Even Iona opened up a little, though she always became quiet when the subject drifted to family.

Nozomi learned about Reika's friends, her partners. She learned that Reika was not the leader of her team, a great surprise, as Nozomi always saw her as a natural leader. Reika said she didn't care much about leadership, but that was the same thing that Karen said before Nozomi convinced her that she should try and run for a prestigious position in the Red Rose.

She learned that Mai lived across the Crystal Ocean, north of the Blue Sky Kingdom, in a city named Yuunagi, close to the Heart Tree. Her family was heavily involved in academia, and her mother was a professor at Verone Academy for a few years. Though the rest of her family studied the stars and the past, Mai found herself interested in the Heart Tree, and volunteered to be one of its caretakers, alongside Saki Hyuuga, who would become her partner. Mai was invited by Cure White herself to become a Precure, to study at Verone, after Honoka Yukishiro visited the Heart Tree and learned of the dedication of the two young girls who protected it.

Even Namakelder would talk, and though at first Iona told him to shut up, eventually she began to allow him to speak, as even he had interesting things to say. He had worked under so many employers that he had been to almost all corners of the world, from the black islands of Dark Fall to the far north, where the seas froze during the harsh winters, to the singing mountains of Majorland, that filled the world with music when the wind blew through its ravines. Of course, the reason he had seen so much of the world was because, unsurprisingly, most of his employers had no tolerance for his slacking. He seemed to find it all very funny, not caring in the slightest when Iona called him an incompetent slouch.

Those conversations made the days go faster, and Nozomi could almost ignore her dreadful surroundings, though of course it was impossible to ignore the rocks scratching her face as she made her way through the narrow crevices in the mountains on their way, though it was not quite right to call them mountains: they were just gigantic rocks that appeared the night the stars died. Their presence was unnatural, almost unnerving.

Just as unnerving where the forests on their way. Nozomi wanted to avoid them, but some were so large that it would take days for them to make their way around them. Iona had been through them before, so she guided the others, but even so Nozomi could not feel at ease. The woods had been taken by a deep darkness the likes of which she had never seen before; it was not just a lack of light, Nozomi could swear, it was as if a curtain of black had fallen upon the woods. Blinded, Nozomi stumbled on her own feet, hit her face against trees that she could not see even as they were just in front of her. And though she heard no sounds that revealed any nearby presences, the feeling of being watched was constant and overwhelming. When they could see the sun again, it only hurt their eyes.

But despite all that, they reached the Phoenix Tower. Nozomi didn't even care about the long upwards path leading to the top of the hill where the Tower lies, as after over a month of travelling, a couple hours didn't make much of a difference anymore. It wasn't even such a difficult climb, compared to the slippery crags of the Eyrie. It was nighttime when they reached the top, so the hot winds that blew in the afternoon had cooled down, and the breeze was now pleasant and clear. Starfire was burning brightly on the Tower's apex, enveloping the stone wings that were its most striking - though some would say tackiest - feature.

The Tower's door was open, and inside it was bright, warm, and inviting. Just as the Phoenix Tower should be. Nozomi had only been there a couple times, but she still remembered her way inside.

"It still looks beautiful," she remarked. She had expected the Tower to be looking a bit unsightly, but the walls were all unblemished, their white stones devoid of any cracks or dirt.

"I guess the Cures here must have cleaned up the place," Iona said. "It was looking pretty rough when I first arrived."

Glasan's eyes sparkled as she was awestruck by her surroundings. Nozomi didn't make it obvious, but she too was always impressed by the grandeur of the Phoenix Tower. It was so tall that it seemed unending, though of course Nozomi knew that atop it was the legendary engraving of a phoenix, made by Cure Magician herself.

Best of all, Nozomi could hear people talking, many voices speaking all at the same time. Many groups of Precure were gathered in the enormous hall where the statues of the legendary Precure stood tall above all else. Nozomi couldn't recognize anyone there, but suddenly her faith's fire was ignited again. Rin could be here. She might have found her way from the Trump Kingdom to this place. Or Urara. Or Karen. For a moment she thought of Komachi, until she remembered that she was gone.

"Iona," a Precure approached them as they entered the hall. Nozomi had seen her before: though she had never been too close to Cure Mirage, Karen had worked under her for a long time, investigating the intricate web of connections that Eternal had woven. When transformed, Karen said, she looked quite fierce, something you'd never guess from her usual demeanor and her gentle expression. "You have returned."

When Iona stepped forwards to greet her, Mirage suddenly wrapped her arms around her. Iona made the funniest face, but didn't make any effort to stop the embrace. Nozomi almost laughed, but she had been yelled at more than enough by now, so instead she just watched.

"I worried so much," Mirage said, letting go. "I heard that there's a hunter of Precure stalking the roads, and I feared that I could have sent you to your end by allowing you to go… I could barely sleep while you were gone, Iona. I failed your sister, so the thought of failing you as well…"

"I-It's fine," Iona's cheeks were a bright red, but her eyes were saddened at the mere mention of her sister.

"It isn't!" Mirage rose her voice louder than one would expect from someone who looked so delicate. "I promised Maria, when we fought together… I promised her that I would take care of you if she ever couldn't."

"I…" Iona quivered for a second, until she suddenly stopped. "Thank you. Thank you, Mirage. Dearly."

She smiled, satisfied with Iona's response. And then her smile faded, replaced by the serious and concerned face that Karen had mentioned.

"Were all these girls jailed in the Eyrie?"

"No," Mai was quick to answer, "only me. I'm Cure Egret."

"The one with those beautiful paintings of the Heart Tree?"

"Yes, though I'd call them more adequate than beautiful, really…"

"That's too modest. They are beautiful. They are still kept in the gallery at the Priestess Wing, safe from any harm. What of your partner?"

Mai's silence said more than her words possibly could. She had no clue on Saki's whereabouts, or even if she yet lived, though she didn't dare to think of the possibilities.

"What of you two?" Next she approached Nozomi and Reika, looking deep into their eyes. "Cure Beauty, if I recall correctly, and… Cure Hope?"

"Cure Dream," the mistake felt like a slap on her face. A light one, of course, but one that hurt nonetheless. Nozomi never had any pretensions of greatness, but lately it felt as if the universe conspired to make it crystal clear that she was very close to complete irrelevance. "A friend of mine worked with you. Karen Minazuki."

"Ah, Cure Aqua! She was very hard-working, one of the best Precure I ever worked with, though she was three years my junior. No wonder she was likely to replace Cure Continental at the end of her tenure."

"Yeah…" Mirage seemed completely uninterested in Nozomi, not even asking her how she had come to meet with Iona. Luckily, Reika was there to bring it up.

"We found Iona in Schneeblume, a village leading to the Eyrie. Together we fought off an assault by the Bad End Kingdom's soldiers, and since our goals were aligned, we joined forces to make it to the top."

"We're the ones who lighted the Starlight Flame, too" said Nozomi. Mirage rose an eyebrow, doubtful, but Reika confirmed it.

"The one in the Doughnut Kingdom," she explained. "Speaking of which, we met a Cure there who was headed to the Tower. Has she arrived?"

"I don't recall seeing any Cures hailing from the Doughnut Kingdom. What's her name?"

"Pinceau."

"Oh, dear. She has not come here. Did she take the road? I fear it is very dangerous right now, and she might have been attacked."

No, she couldn't have. She was cautious, wasn't she? Nozomi didn't know much about Pinceau, but the thought of something bad happening to her was hurtful.

"About that Starlight Flame, though… It might have been a heroic deed, but I also fear it might attract unwanted attention to us. Our enemies might have thought the Precure were gone for good, but now they'll come looking for us, and no matter how many of us they find, they'll continue to be suspicious. Things might get really dangerous from now on."

"We'll face whoever comes," said Nozomi. Reika smiled in agreement, but Iona only needed to roll her eyes ever so slightly to show that she thought Nozomi was an idiot.

"Well, the die is cast now, so to say. You are right, we will have to deal with the consequences. Let us hope we are up to the task."

Mirage walked past Dream and Beauty, and greeted the three fairies. Nozomi hoped she would not recognize Coco, nor ask any questions; the fewer people knew of his royal blood, the better. Mirage only pat each of their heads.

"Are the fairies healthy?" The Precure all nodded. "Good. Long travels take their toll on the bodies of fairies in a far harsher way than they do with ours. I would know. My fairy lost his life that way. I was young and careless, and didn't know my own limits, or the limits of others."

"I'm sorry," Mirage didn't actually sound saddened, but it felt like the appropriate thing to say.

"So am I. It took me years to stop blaming myself for it, and to accept that it happened. Something that poor Tsukikage girl never managed to do, but I digress," at last, she reached Namakelder. "Who is this?"

"A prisoner," said Iona. "He was Mai's captor."

"He wasn't cruel to me," Mai said with haste. "Please don't do anything bad to him."

"This girl speaks the truth," Namakelder said. "Give me a cell with a comfortable bed and a television and a good bathroom."

"Quiet," said Mirage. "You will not be hurt, but you will have to answer some questions when we're done," she snapped her fingers, and a girl in the middle of a crowd left her friends and ran towards Mirage. "Orina, could you please escort this prisoner to my office?"

"Alright!" She said with a smile, and took Namakelder by the arm. He didn't offer any resistance, but sighed as the girl pulled him away.

"And don't let him fall asleep," said Mirage, before turning back to the Precure. "The three of you, whose paths were crossed by fate's hand… How very unusual."

"Do you not believe in fate?" Nozomi asked, remembering Pinceau.

"I do believe in it, I just don't trust it. Regardless, whether or not it was a coincidence, or a meeting ordained by fate, it was very fortunate to us. You've liberated Mai from the Eyrie, brought us a prisoner who might have valuable information, and two new Precure. Though it brought me fear and sorrow, it was the right thing for you to go, Iona. Good job."

"Thank you," she smiled. "Hopefully, the Eyrie will not be a prison to the Precure anymore."

"By the way, we found something there, too," said Reika. Nozomi handed the jewelry box to Mirage, who opened it, and took a long look at its contents. "They belong to the Precure, don't they?"

"Belonged, long ago," Mirage said, taking a ring from the box and approaching it to her eyes. She then closed her fist around the ring, and when she opened her hand, all that was left were shards of gold and sapphire. "These are cursed. Relics of the evil Blue Rose."

"Blue Rose?" Iona was puzzled.

"Some hundreds of years ago, the Precure were rather scattered, and the Order of the Red Rose was not the only one to exist. No, there were all sorts of organizations fighting for supremacy. The Red Rose had been founded by Magician, Priestess and Empress, and its main tenet was that anyone whose heart's desire is to do good has the right to become a Precure, and that our duty is to protect the helpless."

"And the others?"

"There were many," Mirage closed the box and returned it to Nozomi. "There were the lesser ones, like the Gilded Rose, that accepted into its ranks anyone who was willing to pay a fee, or the White Rose, that focused not on helping the innocent but on punishing evildoers with such brutality that they themselves were very close to evil. But by far the most prominent, as well as the most dangerous, was the Order of the Blue Rose."

"What did they do?" Reika asked. Nozomi had heard the name, once, but did not know anything else about it. It seemed to be a well-kept secret.

"Usually the Precure don't like mentioning it, as they prefer to keep the past buried, but I think you deserve to know," Mirage lowered her voice, speaking in tones of a secret. "The Blue Rose was founded following a single principle: only the chosen can become Precure. It is a privilege granted to few. Most of us become Precure after a long training, where we often bond with a fairy that becomes our partner, though not all go through that. What's important is that anyone can become a Precure if they try hard enough. But the Blue Rose despised that. Its founders felt that, somehow, it made us weaker, which is, of course, nonsense. Most of the greatest Cures in history had to train, to work hard, not just being chosen."

"Chosen?" Nozomi asked.

"Oh, just nonsense that those fools like to say," she made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "Theoretically, there are many ways one can become a Precure. The Starlight Ceremony is the most common one, the one we all go through, but not the only one. Some circumstances can make someone be born with the ability to transform into a Precure, though, admittedly, we don't quite understand what circumstances those are. Regardless, the Blue Rose declared that it made them chosen to be Cures, and therefore, righteous. Some even argued that it had been the will of their god," she said with a hint of disgust. "Blue. They probably named themselves after him. They were deluded, and they stood against all our ideals. We are better off without them."

"They were gone for a very long time, then," Reika said. "I've heard very little of them."

"You're right. They died out after the Axia Crisis, when they were vanquished by the members of the Red Rose. But I'm afraid that's all the extent of my knowledge. Ever since that terrible conflict, the Precure have been united, and the world was mostly safe, and that's what matters, no? We don't need these remains of those arrogant Cures who thought themselves better than all others because of their fortunate birth."

"Yeah," said Nozomi. That seemed really terrible of them, to deny those who weren't simply born Precure. If the Blue Rose had won, Nozomi would almost certainly not be a Precure, nor would she know her precious friends. She already had a bit of a hard time learning some of the lessons required to become a Precure, but she overcame it with her undying dedication. "What should we do with the box, then?"

"Destroy it, if you want," Mirage shrugged. "Store it in the Relic Vault in a place where it'll be forgotten. You were the ones who found it, after all, so it's your choice. I'm not the Red Rose's leader, unlike what some might say, so it's not in my place to give anyone orders. Not unless I'm elected Rosehearted, I suppose."

"Ah, right," there was that matter too. They would need to choose a new Rosehearted, now that the last one had disappeared. Nozomi was too young to have witnessed one of the elections, but she had heard of them. The Rosehearted enjoyed a great deal of power and prestige, but also stress and responsibility, so much that their tenure only lasted a few years, not to prevent a single Cure from holding power for too long, but so the pressure wouldn't destroy them. "When will that be?"

"I don't know," said Mirage. "We all know we'll have to hold the elections, but none of us really want to do it. Not right now. Not only would it be premature, but…" She turned her sad eyes to Iona. "Well, our minds are all too concerned with other matters right now. As are yours, no doubt."

"But it'll have to happen someday, right?" Reika asked. "If we mean to reclaim our world."

"Of course. Yes, you are right. Someday. When our survival is assured, at the very least. Then we can think of that."

Before the Death of the Stars, Nozomi recalled, it was almost time to choose a new Rosehearted. Cure Continental had been the last one, and she had mentored Karen, who was a favorite to win the election, though Muse, Sunshine and Heart were strong contenders.

"But why worry about that now?" Mirage smiled. "You should all rest. Meet your fellow Cures, if you'd like. I wasn't mistaken when I called you Cure Beauty, right?" Reika nodded. "Just a week ago, a girl came here, along with Black and White, asking for her partners. One of the names she mentioned was yours."

"Black and White?" Reika's eyes lightened up. "So it must be…"

"Cure Peace?" Mirage asked, and the words made Reika smile in a way that Nozomi had never seen before. "She was very worried. You should go talk to her as soon as you can. Her room is in the Empress Wing, I'm sure you can find it on your own."

"Thank you," Reika said, almost in tears. She ran off in a rush that was very unusual to her.

"D-Did anyone come here and ask about Cure Dream?" Nozomi knew she shouldn't high hopes, but she couldn't help it.

"I'm sorry, no," Mirage's answer didn't even surprise her, and yet it saddened her anyways.

"Alright, then… I guess I'll be on my way to my quarters then, if that's not a problem."

"Don't you want to meet any of the other Cures here? There's this girl, Cure Lovely, who I think you'd get along with wonderfully. She also arrived few days ago, all alone, as her two teammates have gone to the south. I don't want to sound pushy, but I think she could really use a friend right now. She has lost her fairy partner in the Blue Sky Kingdom. Her fairy, Ribbon, has gone missing, but the ruins of the Blue Sky Kingdom are no safe place for a fairy, so Megumi is not very hopeful. We share the same pain, so she opened up to me, and seeks me when she feels sad, but the thing is that I'm much older than Megumi."

"I… I guess I can go talk to her," Nozomi wasn't really in the mood for that, but she knew too well that moping would only make her sadder. Truth was, she was jealous of both Reika and Peace; Reika for having a close friend with her now, in safety, and Peace, for being friends with Reika to begin with. Nozomi wished that Beauty would call her a friend as well.

"And what of you two?"

"I want to talk to Orina when she's back from your office," said Iona.

"I'll tell Honoka I'm alright," said Mai.

With that, each Cure went on their own way. As Nozomi was leaving, Mirage told her that Lovely's bedroom was also in the Empress Wing, as were most quarters. There was a vacant room next to Megumi's, so Nozomi could use it, she said. Nozomi just nodded and did as she was told.

She ascended the stairs, lethargic, trying her best not to let her worries best her. I am the Pretty Cure of hope, she kept telling herself, whatever that meant, for whatever good it did. It wasn't all that much.

"What's troubling you?" Coco asked, his little legs struggling to keep up with Nozomi. She had nearly forgotten he was there.

"Ah… I just feel alone. That's all, I guess."

"That's all?" She nodded. "Hm. You miss your friends, don't you?"

"Yeah," that much was pretty obvious, she figured. "I have no idea where they are, if they are safe… With the way things are, they might be in danger."

Nozomi knew where Komachi was, though. She was left behind in the Palmier Kingdom so that Nozomi could have a chance to escape with the prince. Sometimes she would wonder what might have happened if she fought by Komachi's side instead of running away. Would that have made things better, or worse?

"I'm sorry, Nozomi."

"Don't be. It's alright. Here," she crouched and put the jewelry box on Coco's arms. "Could you please put this in my bedroom?"

"Mirage said we should destroy it…"

"I think she's being too extreme. They are really beautiful. Just because the people were made it were evil doesn't mean that it is cursed, or anything like that."

"That makes sense," he said.

"Just put it anywhere, then come to Megumi's bedroom."

"So you're going to talk to her?"

"Yeah," she said, getting up. "She needs some cheering up."

And so do I, Nozomi thought as she knocked on the door. If the Precure let themselves be devoured by sadness, they have already lost.

When the door opened, Nozomi was smiling, promising herself that she would never let despair triumph over her.

Eternal was hidden in the heart of a verdant valley, a paradise secluded between hills covered with flowers. Alice and Lance looked outside the window to see the great museum: the gallery itself was colossal, but the gardens surrounding it were the size of a small city.

"Wow… Big…"

"Too big," Alice said, picking up her fairy and placing him on her lap, before petting his small head. "Stay close to me when we're down there."

She put her suitcase on the seat next to her, as Kawarino had instructed her to keep it close to her at all times, until she could hand it over for appraisal. As the plane began to descend upon a large landing strip in the middle of the gardens, Alice opened the case to make sure its contents were intact.

Inside was a long scepter adorned with gold and gems, and a large blue crystal on its tip, shaped like fire. Looking at it made Alice feel ill. It was the proof of a Precure's death, brought by Arachnea the day Alice was meant to depart to Eternal. Her flight was delayed so that Kawarino could hand it to Alice, with orders to deliver it to Anacondy.

Alice closed the suitcase so she wouldn't have to look at it anymore. The plane was landing now, and she had to get ready to leave, so she could not waste any time lamenting.

"Can't land any closer," the pilot said as she opened the door for Alice. Her face was hidden by a mask, but her voice was so youthful. Alice meant to ask the way, but she knew that there would be no answer from Nightmare's masked servants.

Eternal's gardens were a maze in which Alice struggled to find her way. Tall hedges made countless twists and turns, and all that could help her locate herself were the statues, fountains and patches full of exotic flowers, each one with a plaque describing what they were, and where they were found.

Stolen was more like it, Alice knew. Though Eternal often made its acquisitions by paying the original owner a hefty amount, they were not above stealing. Just a few years before there had been a great scandal after the Risoluto Hall in Majorland had been broken into and many of the instruments that had belonged to Cure Symphony centuries ago were stolen, only to later appear in Eternal's collection. The Director did not even bother hiding them: clearly he wanted everyone to see that it had been his doing. Regardless, Eternal was closed off to most visitors following that.

Alice could recognize some of the flowers exhibited in the gardens, but most were completely unknown to her. Some dated from millennia ago, magical flowers that were spoken of only in legends that even children thought were just tales, and yet here they were. Though she knew she had to find the entrance to the museum, she couldn't help but investigate everything she found.

Fleuramour, the label in front of a patch of white flowers said. Rare flower of the Bavarois Kingdom. These are the last known specimens. Each flower has two large white petals, and their coloration changes after each one is plucked by a different person. If the two people are in love, both petals will gain a bright red color. This flower does not grow naturally in the wild, as only the fabled Rose Garden has the adequate conditions for its blooming, but Lady Flora gifted a thousand of them to the Bavarois Kingdom, placing them atop a hill that was a popular point for couples in love to spend their time together admiring the view. Flora intended the couples to keep the Fleuramour petals as proof of their love. By the time Eternal rescued the flowers, only twenty-three remained.

When Alice counted them, she only found twenty-two of them. She paid it no mind, and continued on her way. Lance helped her find paths between the hedges that her eyes missed, and he could float a little higher to try and find the correct way, but that was little help. The gardens of Eternal were already a fabulous museum in their own right,one that would take days to explore fully.

Many Hoshina roamed the gardens, tending to the plants, always avoiding Alice as if they were unaware of her presence. Not only plants, Alice soon noticed, but animals as well, in Eternal's menageries. Each species was provided ample space, and there were countless of them: from ordinary wildlife to creatures that were thought not to exist anymore, like the diamond-horned unicorns that lived a thousand years, before their entire body turned to diamonds as well.

The oddest thing was how many statues of Precure Alice found in the gardens, some etched in marble, some in ice that never melted and others in precious stones. All stolen, Alice had no doubt.

When at last she found the entrance to the museum, atop a long set of stairs, Alice's legs already hurt from all the walking. Eternal's building wasn't very tall, but it was enormous, bigger than the Cloud Citadel in the heart of the Blue Sky Kingdom, where the Blue Sky Palace rose above everything else and touched the heavens. That had been the largest place Alice had ever seen before, but Eternal dwarfed it. And she did hear rumors that Eternal had many floors hidden underground, dozens of them, reaching into the bowels of the earth, filled with relics that would take a lifetime to even begin to count. Alice doubted it, once, but now that she had been through the gardens, she thought it perfectly believable.

The door was much wider than it was tall, and locked. Alice grabbed a large door knocker, in the shape of a bird, and hit it against the door. Then she waited patiently, though Lance quickly grew impatient as no one answered. Alice stood there, unmoving, and only when five minutes had passed did she strike the door again. It began to open shortly after that, but it did so ponderously, as its great weight was slow to move. A woman greeted her without looking at her in the face, her eyes too concerned with the clipboard on her hands.

"Hello," Alice bowed, a gesture imitated by Lance with considerably less grace. "I am-"

"Cure Rosetta, yes, yes, I know," she said, still not bothering to see her visitor. She wrote something down on a paper, then moved to the next one. "You were faster than most. Visitors usually get lost."

I wonder why, Alice thought, but what she said was, "Do they?"

"Hm-hm. We don't really like visitors, so we discourage them with that endless maze. The cautious ones give up when they see it. The brave ones try to find their way, and get lost. If they are lucky, our Hoshina show them the way out, in exchange of a donation for our collection, of course, and if they aren't, well, the Hoshina clean them up and the collection expands either way," if someone had said that in Nightmare, she reckoned, they would have smiled, dripping with sadism, but the woman just mentioned it as if it was perfectly natural. Alice shivered. "The clever ones, however, find their way and bang at our door. Only clever people can work with - or for - us, you know."

I don't work for you, she thought as she nodded, and walked inside.

"My name is Anacondy," she said, "secretary to the Director, main acquisition officer for the museum, as well as curator of the Rose Collection. And some other minor things that you probably don't care about."

"I don't suppose I have to introduce myself."

"You don't," only then did Anacondy look up into Alice's eyes. Alice wished she hadn't. "Shortly before you were relocated to the Trump Kingdom to fight the Selfish you started to study martial arts again, as you did in your childhood. You had the help of two professors of two distinct styles, both close friends of your grandfather. They went to your house every tuesday and friday at around six PM."

"How do you know?" If she wanted to make it clear that she had a lot of information on Alice, she succeeded; Alice had moved out of the Yotsuba Manor to be closer to her friends, a secret to almost everyone, and it was in this new house that her teachers met her.

"Information is a treasure too," she said, "one that must be preserved and catalogued to the best of your capacity. We do not just store treasures, but knowledge as well, so that nothing is ever lost, and a thousand years from now, our documents will still record as much about people of importance as we can. We'll need the names of your professors, by the way, but we can leave that for later. Follow me."

Alice followed. Inside it was pleasantly cold, its walls adorned with paintings and tapestries. Some workers carrying boxes scurried from one side to the other, chatting among themselves. The only unadorned wall in the reception room was completely occupied by a huge sign. On its surface were words too small to read from afar. When Alice passed by it, she could see that it was a list of all the collections in Eternal, and their location. It was not exactly a practical read, and a ladder was required to reach the words closer to the ceiling.

"Shall I show you some of the exhibits?" Anacondy asked. Alice nodded, obedient. She had grown used to questions that were not truly questions, so she just nodded on command. "Good. There's a collection you'll find very interesting."

Behind the door she opened was a small, circular chamber that had a panel with a keypad and a display on its wall. Right next to it was a bright red emergency button. Anacondy pressed a few numbers on the keypad, and the door closed behind them as the elevator began to move, not only downwards but sideways as well. Startled, Lance clung to Alice's arm. When the door opened again, mere seconds later, and Alice stepped outside, she found herself in a long and narrow corridor, almost claustrophobic. On each side were big display cases, so many of them that, overwhelmed, Alice could barely make out what they held.

"This is the section of Eternal that I'm directly responsible for. The Rose Collection. See anything here that you recognize?"

Alice approached one of the showcases, and looked into it. Inside was a featureless bust with a golden tiara resting atop its head. Dozens of red roses were lined along its surface.

"This… This belonged to the Precure?" Since the rose was the symbol of the Pretty Cure, it was considered inappropriate for outsiders to use it.

"Correct," said Anacondy. "The Rose Collection is composed entirely of artifacts created by the Precure."

"You stole them," said Lance.

"I mislike that word. We seized them from those who would not take proper care of it. And yes, sometimes we seized them by force. Lethal force, even. However, the Precure have shown time and time again that they cannot take proper care of their own treasures: the Crystal Mirror has disappeared with its maker, the Eternal Golden Crown isn't even in your possession, and the Miracle Dragon Glaive was stolen because the Precure just gave it to one of their soldiers."

"No," said Alice. "Marie Ange had the Glaive. She found it in one of her journeys, but she never told anyone about it but a trusted few."

A trusted few, of course, meant only Makoto.

"Fascinating. We have enough reason to doubt it, though. We have been doing our own investigation of its whereabouts, and at this point it is almost certain that the weapon that Marie Ange wielded was a fake."

"A-A fake?"

"Does it surprise you? Every few years someone appears claiming they have found the Crystal Mirror, and every time they are proven wrong. Look there," she pointed at another display case. Inside was a mannequin, wearing the clothes of a Precure. Parts of its blue fabric were torn. "Care to guess who that is?"

"No," Alice said, averting her eyes.

"It was taken from Cure Winter, about two hundred years ago. Of course, I wasn't working here back then, else I would not have accepted damaged goods, but by now the fabric is so frail that I fear that the slightest touch would unravel it all. What do you feel about it?"

Sick.

"Nothing. It's the past."

Lance was also avoiding the items in display, breathing heavily in fear. Some might have been acquired legally, and others only stolen, but Anacondy didn't bother hiding the fact that many of them belonged to Precure that were slain. The corridor was unending; Alice followed Anacondy for over half an hour, and they had not yet reached the end. She walked with her eyes down, staring firmly at the carpeted floor, but she caught glances of jewels, of weapons, of armor and belongings taken from Precure of all places, of all times. Some were irrelevant things, just diaries, mirrors, mementos, letters and drawings, small objects taken from the hands of innocent girls, precious treasures to no one but their owners.

"This place is creepy," Lance said as Anacondy guided them.

"It is understandable if you feel that way," she said without looking at him. "It takes some maturity to appreciate the past," in response, Lance pouted and stayed really close to Alice after that.

The more time she spent there, the more it hurt; Alice could almost hear the ghosts around her, shaming her for being there as Eternal's ally, for not doing anything about this. Rosetta cursed herself as well, until she remembered all the girls working for Nightmare, whose fates depended on her cooperation. That knowledged helped her brave through this, and whenever Alice felt like resisting, she told herself the names of the Precure whose lives were on her hands. Anacondy meant to break her will with this display of Eternal's cruelty, but Alice would not allow it. She would endure it, and, eventually, bring justice to this place, and to Nightmare as well, she swore to all the ghosts, to all the people who had been hurt by Eternal and Nightmare.

"Kawarino mentioned you have something for me," Anacondy said when she suddenly stopped. "Something to add to this collection."

"Yes," Alice said, opening the suitcase and giving the Princess Candle to Anacondy, who took it from her hands with no delicacy whatsoever. She looked at it for a long time, checking each little part for imperfections.

"This is wonderful," Anacondy said. "I have wanted this for a long time. There are only five Precure who use a weapon of this kind, so it is very rare indeed. There is an empty case ready to house them for eternity, though of course we'll need to find the other four to complete the set."

"Excuse me if I'm being too hasty," Alice said, if one could be called hasty after waiting for half an hour, "but I'd like to know what you need of me."

"I'll show you in a moment," she said, but Alice knew that moments tended to take a long time when spent with sadists. "First I'll need to catalogue this. Come."

It took another thirty minutes to reach the end of the gallery, leading to a small, sterile room with a desk, a chair, and a simple computer, its walls, floor and ceiling made of the same metal.

"This is one of my offices," she said.

"One of?"

"Well, the Rose Gallery is quite large, so it's divided into several sections, each one with a small office for convenience, should I need to make any changes to the catalogue."

"S-Sections? You mean there's more?" Alice did not want to believe it, but Anacondy didn't seem to be one to bother hiding unpleasant truths.

"Just two more, one of which is mostly empty," she said, sitting down on the chair, pressing a button on the keyboard that lit up the screen.

"And the purpose of my visit…?"

"Patience… Just let me add some new information to the database and I'll show you the way," said Anacondy. With a few quick keystrokes, she was already done. "Beauty's Princess Candle added into the collection… Cure Beauty… Dead. There."

"W-What's that?"

"Just a list we keep of all the Precure we are aware of," she smiled sadly when she saw Alice's desperately curious eyes. "I see you want to take a look. I'll allow it, but I should warn you that it'll bring you no joy."

Alice had not expected any joy to begin with. She took Anacondy's seat, and stared at the computer screen, before taking a long, deep breath, and browsing the database.

Each entry had a surprising amount of information; not just the Precure's names, both their regular one, and the title they were given as Precures, but many pictures of them, detailed analysis of their skills and talents, and, the scariest part, some of the entries had data on their family members. Someone named Nao Midorikawa, in particular, had an entire dossier written about her numerous siblings. Alice didn't know her, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

In fact, Alice did not know many of the Precure listed in the database. There were so many of them, so many of them marked as "dead", "missing", or "presumed dead". When she finally reached Mana's archive, she could hardly breathe with anxiety. And when she saw the words she so greatly dreaded, she had no idea what to do.

Mana Aida, it said, called Cure Heart. Was thrown off the ship leaving the capital. Dead.

Alice stared at that word for a long time, reading it again and again, in hopes that she was wrong, that it was a typo, that maybe it meant something else, but what it said was clear. Alice moved on to the next entry.

Rikka Hishikawa, called Cure Diamond. Ambushed at the shores of the Amethyst Sea alongside Cure Moonlight. Dead.

Her chest felt awkward. Alice could not even begin to describe it, but she had never felt anything quite like that. She felt empty, desperate, broken. She clicked the small button that said "next", thinking it could not hurt her any more, but it did.

Makoto Kenzaki, also known as Makopi to her friends, called Cure Sword. Captured after weeks as a wanted fugitive, her charred body was display for all to see by the gates of Trump. Dead.

Alice felt her breakfast come up into her throat and her vision blur. She got up immediately, dizzy. Lance said something, but Alice didn't hear what it was. She just followed Anacondy through another door, through another gallery, barely aware of her surroundings. She wanted to weep, but even that she could not do. She had to follow, she had to hide her pain as well as she could, but how could she do so when thinking of Mana brought back their afternoons together, when thinking of Rikka made her remember that even as they travelled together to faraway lands, she still bothered them every night, reminding them that even as they journeyed they still had homework to do, and much to study…

And thinking of Makoto brought back all the songs she would sing, not only the songs she would sing for everyone, those songs that came from her heart, from her desire to keep everyone's spirits high even as the Trump Kingdom fell apart, consumed by the fires of war, but also the songs that she would sing in private, just for Alice, songs that she shared with no one but her. It was a selfish thought, Alice knew, but she loved that Makoto did that for her. Alice kept her fears hidden from Mana and Rikka, who already had so much to worry about, but it was Makoto's soothing voice that lulled her to sleep in the most troubling nights.

But now she would never sing again. The world might as well have become silent.

Sorrow was not the only thing she felt, however. Something far darker also took over her heart, something which she had not felt in a very long time, so long that she had almost forgotten it, though she had sworn she would not. She looked at Anacondy, her back turned on Rosetta, without a care. If Alice wanted, she could take hold of this awful, heartless woman, and break her apart. In such close quarters, there was no way she could fight back if Alice took her by surprise. It had been many years since she last wanted to hurt someone like this, and though she had promised herself she would never want that again, for a moment, she forgot.

Continental. Sunset. Gonna and Pantaloni. Alice remembered their names, and she remembered why she was pretending to help Eternal and Nightmare. Her anger faded, giving way to sorrow once more. I'm sorry, Mana, Rikka, Makoto. But they are still alive, and you… You are not.

"Here we are," Anacondy said as she opened another door, a large and ornate one. Alice looked around herself, and saw that all the cases surrounding her were empty. "The most important part of the collection."

The room past the door was shaped like a triangle, with a statue on each corner. Magician, Empress, Priestess. The room was adorned with jewels and drapery, its entire surface so immaculate that it looked as if no one had been there for a long time. It did not take much effort for Alice to guess what was the purpose of this place.

"The Sacred Treasures?"

"Very observant," said Anacondy. "This is where we'll store them once we find them."

"How will you find them, though?" She asked. "The Precure have been looking for so long, too, but it's been a hopeless search…"

"This is where you're wrong. Empress' Mirror may be lost, and we are not yet certain of the Glaive's whereabouts, though we have made some educated guesses… But we know the resting place of the Eternal Golden Crown."

"You do?" At any other time, this might have been a revelation like no other, but now Alice could not find it in her to care.

"Yes, and this is why you're here. We'll need your help to retrieve it."

"Why me?"

"Because, to put it in a simple way, we need a Cure who's very familiar not only with the city of Trump but with its royal palace as well, and most of them are dead. But you aren't, and you are working with Nightmare, which makes our life much easier. It was almost a miracle to find you, you know."

"Is this it?"

"You speak as if it is a minor thing. I should remind you that the Trump Kingdom is completely overrun by the Selfish, and though their generals and soldiers are all very stupid, they are also violent and dangerous, in particular their twisted little princess. Eternal acts through subtle means," a polite way of saying foul play, "so we would rather not face the Selfish in an open battle if it can be avoided. We could call Nightmare for help in that, but why ask them for their army and sour such a glorious alliance with too many requests when we can just recruit a single Precure?"

"Fine," Alice said, just wanting to be done. "I'll do it."

"It wasn't a question, but I'm glad you'll cooperate. There is a helicopter awaiting you outside, and it'll take you to Shadow's fortress. He has some agents there, waiting for you, and they will assist you in the operation to retrieve the Crown. But you will need to train them, to teach them the layout of the streets and the palace."

"Anything else?"

"Shadow has instructed me to warn you that you will need to be patient with your new allies. They are, in his words, newborns," she licked her lips and smiled, as if she expected a reaction from Alice, but she kept her silence.

Anacondy guided her outside the chamber, closing it and locking the door. She then pressed a button next to one of the display cases, and it buried itself beneath the floor, with an elevator descending to take its place. If Alice had any doubts that Anacondy planned this little trip solely to demoralize her, they were gone now. Lance had noticed that too, judging by the way he glared at Anacondy, though when she moved her eyes slightly towards him, he cowered and hid behind Alice.

A moment later they were outside; when the elevator stopped moving, it was now at one of the gazebos in Eternal's gardens. The scent of flowers filled the air again, a welcome aroma after the complete lifelessness of the museum.

"Good luck," Anacondy said as Alice and Lance left. Anacondy pointed them towards the helicopter, her sole courtesy the entire visit. Then the door closed behind Alice, and the elevator was gone.

Alice went in the direction she had been instructed. She didn't even mind being ordered around so much: she was patient enough to not let it bring her down. But when she thought of her friends, of their fates, it took all of her strength for her not to let herself fall to the grass and cry until the pain ceased, if it ever did.

"Are you alright, Alice?" Lance asked her.

"No. No, Lance. I'm not alright."

"You look like you want to cry."

"I do," she admitted.

"Will you?"

Alice stopped walking, and pet Lance's head, then pulled him close to her, holding him against her chest. She could barely feel her own heartbeats. She felt so hollow, and how could she not, when three huge chunks of her heart had been torn off?

But even in pieces, she had to keep going.

"No."

The helicopter, thank goodness, was an ordinary one, not a machine that had been fused with one of Nightmare's or Eternal's awful beasts. Inside Nightmare's planes, she could not help but feel as if she was in a creature's stomach.

A girl was waiting for her in the helicopter. She extended her hand to help Alice get inside, but when she held it, the girl dug her nails into Alice's skin. Her hair was a dark blue that seemed almost black when it was covered in shadows, and on her chest was an emblem in the shape of a butterfly, with a large gem on its center. Alice thought she saw it shine gently, but couldn't tell for sure.

"I'll be taking you to Master Shadow's palace," she spoke curtly, and her eyes never left Rosetta. "I'll also work with you to retrieve the crown."

"You seem…" Familiar was the word Alice wanted to say, but that didn't seem quite right. If Alice had ever seen those dark eyes before, she would certainly remember. "Who are you?"

"I'm Cure Aqua," she smiled, looking deep into her eyes, with a mocking cruelty. "The better one."

Only when she woke and felt herself full of vigor did Iona realize just how much she missed her bed in the Phoenix Tower, and the dozen pillows she slept with. This must be heaven, she thought as she lazed in bed for as long as she desired, so comfortable and calm that it had to be a dream, a wonderful dream, but she never had to wake up from it. As she journeyed to the Eyrie, and back from it, she felt as if she had aged so many years, and finally understood why her parents complained so much about their back pains. For a moment, she thought she would never, ever want to leave this silky paradise.

Until she remembered her duty. She was a Precure, and the Precure did not have the right to laze around, not even when the world was safe, and much less now that there was so much fighting to be done.

She got out of bed, and opened a large wardrobe to look for clothes. They were almost her size, if a bit small, and plain, and smelling as if they had been just forgotten there for a long time. Still, Iona wouldn't complain about that. She knew very well that she was lucky enough to have a place to sleep.

She stepped out of her bedroom, and as she made her way through the corridors and passed by so many other quarters, Iona understood just how many Cures had arrived at the Phoenix Tower while she was gone. Almost all of the bedrooms were now occupied, and some girls had even taken the time to decorate them: Cure Nile had changed the curtains of her windows, and Cure Wave had knitted herself a new blanket. They had to find something to do to keep themselves occupied, Iona thought. Lethargy, after all, was the mother of madness. Iona had the Fates to keep herself busy, and her books as well, though she had not yet been in the mood to read them.

The same could not be said of Cure White; her bedroom, right next to Cure Black's, was always full of books scattered along the floor, with journals full of notes by their side. Iona admired Honoka's dedication, as some of those books were the size of bricks.

Iona paused for a moment when she passed by Black and White's quarters; they would likely be chosen to lead the Order of the Red Rose, wouldn't they? They were some of the most experienced Cures of the current generation, with the exception of some retired Precure who did not fight anymore, but were always offering guidance to the youth. It seemed only natural for one of them to be chosen as the Rosehearted, to lead the Precure in these troubled times.

But Mirage was also a good choice, and even Reika had proven herself competent and clever, and the fact that she had managed to light one of the Starlight Flames might grant her some support. Whatever happened, Iona only hoped that the Precure wouldn't get stuck in petty politicking and would find a simple solution that would please everyone. The last thing they needed was inner conflict.

She made her way down the awfully long stairs, sighing as she counted the steps. They were too many. Iona understood the point of building such a great tower as a symbol of power, but she wished the Precure would just once choose convenient function over pompous form.

She found the main hall and its surrounding rooms empty; the kitchens, the lounges where the Precure could socialize with one another, they were all deserted. And then she remembered, cursing her own stupidity: Mirage, Black, and White had decided to hold a meeting in the Chamber of Voices that morning. Iona was so exhausted that she had forgotten all about it, choosing instead to stay in bed for as long as possible.

She knew where to go, at least, and she hoped she wasn't too late. The Chamber was in the Magician Wing, a hard-to-reach section of the Tower, though that was mostly because the Phoenix Tower's architecture wasn't the most well-planned Iona had ever seen. The Empress Wing was the easiest to access, as the stairs led directly to it, and it was mostly composed of the Precure's quarters and offices. It occupied most of the Tower. The Priestess Wing was, intuitively enough, right behind Priestess' statue. Everything about it looked very distinct from the rest of the fortress: elsewhere the Tower was made of bricks, stone and marble, but in the Priestess Wing the walls were made of something else entirely, that Iona could not recognize. It had a pale milky color, its surface lightly reflecting whatever passed by. It did not look too solid, either, but it was hard to the touch. There, Iona found rooms full of art produced by the Precure, and chambers for meditation and prayer.

The Magician Wing, though, was so hidden that it looked as if its makers didn't actually care if anyone would find it. First Iona had to go up the spiral stairways that circled the three great statues. The door that led to the Magician Wing was just like all the other ones that led to the Cures' quarters, with absolutely nothing to differentiate it. The whole place's organization was, to put it frankly, a mess. When the Phoenix Tower was built by the followers of the three legendary Cures, they each had their own notion of what to do, and it showed.

Long scarlet carpets covered the floors of the corridors of the Magician Wing, though some sections had lost their color, and had been so trod upon that marks had been left there. Still, though finding the entrance was a challenge to the uninformed, once they were inside, all they had to do was walk straight until they reached the Chamber of Voices.

It was a fitting name, Iona reflected when she approached it and could already hear a dozen loud voices warring among themselves for dominance. It seemed as if tempers had risen while Iona was away.

To her relief, no one turned their eyes towards her when she entered the Chamber, so she was able to sneak inside and find a seat in the large amphitheater. The Chamber of Voices was gigantic, a round room with seating for a thousand Precure, and a large dais on its center for whoever wanted to make herself heard. Right now, a dozen girls wanted it, and they all argued. Iona could even see Orina desperately trying to be heard, while Mirage, by her side, just waited patiently.

Iona sat next to Nozomi, who greeted her with a smile. Iona hated it when she did that; it made her feel guilty about all the times she yelled at her, to see her so willing to befriend her like that. Nozomi considered her a friend, Iona was sure of that. And, despite all she had said and done to Nozomi, Iona did not hate her. She just wished she could show it, but she could barely control herself when she felt her anger burn. She wished it did not have to be that way, but she also did not know how to stop it. The fire was in her, and it was always burning.

But this time, Iona smiled as well.

By Nozomi's side was Reika, as well as that blonde who was her close friend. Reika was focused entirely on her friend, barely paying any attention to Nozomi. It was a sad sight, but Iona could not blame Beauty for it, for after months without seeing her friend, without knowing whether she was dead or alive, what would truly be unacceptable would be if she did not spend as much time with her as she could.

"What's going on?" Iona asked Nozomi. It was a poor sign when one had to ask her for information, but Iona wanted to know.

"Ah, well, we're trying to figure out what exactly is going on with the world," Nozomi said. "It's not going too well, everyone has their own ideas and won't listen to anyone else. Mirage said she wanted me and Reika to talk about how we lit the Starlight Flame of the Doughnut Kingdom, but, well… When we tried to speak, we were bombarded with questions, and before we could even answer, our voices were kind of drowned out by all the comments the other Cures were making. So we just kind of let them argue."

"Your new friend is one of the loud ones," said Reika. "Megumi is just really eager to be heard, it seems, which is funny, considering she's basically just repeating whatever Cure Mirage says."

"Well, she just likes Mirage, I guess," said Nozomi. "What bothers me is Nagisa and Honoka thinking that since they're the most experienced of us, they're the only ones whose opinions matter. I mean, of course they don't say it, but that's how I feel."

"Granted, their words do carry a lot of weight," said Reika. "You were with them at Verone, Yayoi, so you'd know that what you've seen there was pretty terrible."

"Y-Yes," the girl spoke softly. "It was awful. We barely escaped with our lives, and I only did so because Nagisa protected me. I saw him… I saw the Dark King. The most dreadful sight I have ever witnessed…"

"It's alright," Reika was clutching Yayoi's hand firmly. "You are safe now, and you are with me."

"N-No, you don't understand," she insisted. "That is not all I saw. I saw hundreds - no, thousands of people in chains, kidnapped and taken as hostages by the Dusk Zone, and by Dark Fall too. And we could do nothing."

Iona meant to say something, but she did not know what would be proper. There was no softening the blow: it was unacceptable of the Precure to just run away like that while their enemies targeted innocents. It was for survival, yes, she understood that, but it still felt bitter.

"So," suddenly a voice was louder than all others. It was Nagisa's, with Honoka and Mai next to her. Mai looked a little flustered at how obnoxiously loud Nagisa was being. "All these arguments are meaningless. We don't need to discuss how we failed, who failed, and pointing fingers is the worst thing we can do."

"You only say that because you failed to protect Verone," a girl with bright pink hair said, drawing a smirk from Mirage.

"Look, the thing is, we all failed," said Nagisa. "Unequivocally, absolutely, pathetically, whatever you want to call it, but we all failed. We failed to protect Verone, but Marine, Bloom and Egret failed to protect the Heart Tree, Moonlight and Heart and the others screwed up at the Trump Kingdom, and who knows that the hell even happened in Majorland. We can spend a long time discussing who's to blame, but that wouldn't help us at all."

There was no need for discussion as far as Iona was concerned: it was Hime's fault. Everything had been lost because of her foolishness. Iona almost said something, but before she could, Honoka began to speak.

"First, what we need to do is understand what exactly happened. We all know a little, so perhaps if we combine all our knowledge, we'll have a better glance at the big picture."

"Let's begin with the stars," said Nagisa. "How can the stars die? Is it even possible?"

"That's the simplest part," Iona rose, and all eyes were on her. It was embarrassing, but she was so angry that she didn't care. "It was Cure Princess' fault. She lost the Dream Collet. Whoever took it used to make the stars go out. We all know that's what happened."

"You are right," said Mirage, her voice so soft that Iona struggled to understand all her words. "There is no other way it could have happened: only the Precure can manipulate Starfire, so our enemies could not extinguish the Starlight Flames with their own hands. So it's the Dream Collet's doing."

"Well, that's good to know… Kinda… At least we understand that. But what's more concerning is the way the world changed. Surely you've noticed it: mountains gone, rivers poisoned, forests cursed, and even our skies are tainted. How?"

"It must be the Fountains," said Mai.

"Impossible," someone scoffed. "The Fountains aren't even physical parts of our world, it makes no sense! It's all symbolic, you see, and-"

"Oh, shut up," said Cure Nile. "The Fountains are real, I've seen the Fountain of Earth."

"Must have seen a pool, and thought it was some great magical lake," another Precure laughed. "I understand, though, where you live it's so dry what a puddle must look like a Fountain."

"What? You idiot, where I live there are lots of rivers and fertile land, my hometown isn't actually in a desert! Where are you from, the Trump Kingdom? The people there are always so ignorant, it's unbelievable…"

"Oh, shut up, the two of you," said Nagisa. "We're discussing the Fountains here, not-"

"Are we?" Now it was Orina who asked. "Who's to say the world's out of whack because of the Fountains? Like Southern Cross said, they might not even exist! Why are you all so quick to trust legends and superstition like that?"

"They aren't legends," Mai spoke quietly, so Nagisa had to repeat what she said so that everyone could hear it. "They exist. They nourish the Heart Tree. I come from the Land of Fountains, and I know that they are real. I know it, I heard it from Princess Filia herself. She said the Fountains have existed since the dawn of time."

"So where are they?" Orina asked.

"Four of them are in the Land of Fountains, the most important ones" said Mai, but this time Nagisa didn't help her, as Cure Black had begun arguing with Southern Cross, "though I don't really know where. The Fountains of Sky, Gold and Sun are all hidden somewhere else, but other than the Fountain of Sun, they aren't quite as essential to life as the others."

"Oh, how convenient, not knowing where they are…"

"Mai is telling the truth!" Nagisa screamed. "Why are you all arguing with each other like fools, instead of doing something productive?"

"Nagisa, you're arguing too," said Honoka, but Nagisa didn't seem to care.

"Look, I understand that we're all stressed and worried, and angry, even, but we're Precure. We can't fight among ourselves. It's always terrible when we do that. We all remember Cure Winter, and the Axia Crisis before that. We don't want anything like that happening again, in a hour as dark as this one."

"Excuse me," when Mirage rose her voice, all stopped talking to hear her. "About that proposition I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting… May I speak about it now, so that we can pretend that this reunion was actually productive?"

"Ah, yeah, sure," Nagisa let out an embarrassed little laugh, and shut up.

"Not too far south there is - or rather, was - a small village, of little more than two hundred inhabitants, most of them farmers. Most of your are familiar with it," Iona wasn't, but everyone else nodded, so Mirage just continued. "I say was because, well, by now it's most likely been destroyed."

"Are its people alright?" Nozomi asked. Iona could hear someone sigh at the question.

"I don't know," said Mirage. "We all hope so, but we have no way of knowing what happened to them. Regardless, this poses us a problem. We depended on that village's farms for our food. We always kept our reserves full, of course, and since there aren't that many Cures here, we won't go through them so quickly, but they will end, someday, sooner than you think. It would be pretty pathetic of us to starve to death after everything, no?"

"What can we do about it, though?" Nagisa asked.

"We rebuild," Mirage said. "We look for people who are lost, who need the protection of the Precure. Ages ago, when Empress, Magician and Priestess stood alone in a darkened, ruined world, just as we do now, the Pledge was first made. The Precure swore to protect all other humans and all other fairies; in exchange, the fairies shared with us their magic, and all the countries of the world supported our existence. Well, though we still remember and honor the Pledge, it has not been given much importance for the past thousands of years."

"One could say the Precure broke the Pledge," said Honoka. "After all, the Precure Dominion did get involved in many wars, and there was the Axia Crisis too, that left quite the mark on the world."

"Yes," said Mirage. "We stopped receiving help and resources after the Axia Crisis, so we had to take matters into our own hands."

"Which was justified," Honoka said. "That was a war between the Precure, but the Red Rose and the Blue Rose brought destruction to countries that had nothing to do with the dispute. It's no wonder that many kingdoms distanced themselves from us."

"Yes, we all know how you feel about the Crisis," said Mirage, impatient. "There's probably an entire section in the library of Verone Academy filled with your dissertations on the subject. We don't need to argue about that now. What matters is that we need to do something about our situation that's not just standing here hoping for a change of fortune. I sent Cure Katyusha south with a wagon full of food, some time ago, to try to establish a new settlement, and reclaim the farms that we'll need if we have any hopes of surviving for more than a few more months. I trust we all do."

"How did it go?" Reika asked. "Are the farms still usable?"

"More or less," said Mirage. "Magic can fix them, but, of course, our magic is rather weak right now. The very earth is ill, and it'll be no easy matter to nurse it back to health. However, Katyusha was more successful than we expected. When young Ekaterina returned, she said that not only had she been successful in finding some healthy soil, she found two Cures roaming the countryside."

Two? Iona thought of Hime and Yuko, but it could not be. They should be far away, now, too far for Katyusha to reach them. Just thinking of them made Iona grit her teeth.

"Which Cures?" Nozomi asked, excited. She must be hoping they might be her friends.

"Princess and Honey," on instinct, Iona clenched her fist, and she almost screamed. Were it anyone but Mirage speaking, she would not have even tried to control herself. When Iona looked around, she saw some frowning faces, but mostly, people didn't seem to care about the fact that Cure Mirage was collaborating with girl who had brought ruin to the world.

"Princess?" Iona didn't yell, but she wanted to. "We should not have anything to do with that fool. All that's happened… It's all thanks to her. She cannot be forgiven."

"It's not a matter of forgiveness," said Mirage. "We need as many Cures as we can find. I mislike Cure Princess as well, but right now, we do not have the luxury to hate, to hold on to grudges, as justified as they might be. Honey and Princess have already found a few families hidden in a makeshift shelter, deep inside a cavern. With time, we will find more, and as the world learns that the Precure are still fighting, people will come to us. Just as it happened with Empress, Priestess, Magician. They united the world in their time of need. It is an opportunity we have now."

"I…" Iona was about to give Mirage a piece of her mind, but the other Cures in the room began talking, all together. Some voices were louder than others, and they made themselves heard.

"Good job!" Iona didn't recognize this voice. It was that pink-haired girl saying it, Lovely or something like that. "You're amazing, Mirage."

"It was a nice initiative," Nagisa said with a shrug. By her side, Honoka did not look so impressed. "And I guess we have no choice. You did not come here to ask us what we thought of your plan, did you?"

"No," Mirage said with a smile. "It is already done. Katyusha has set out to the village again with more supplies, to start raising new houses, to repair what is broken. What I would like to do is to invite you to help them. They will need more hands, and I'm sure most of you aren't too fond of the prospect of spending months in this tower," many nodded when she said that. "And, well… I think we should give the village a name. Katyusha and I came up with something that we thought was very fitting. Last Light."

The Cures all clapped, the way they always did when one of them proposed something obnoxiously bombastic. Maria had mentioned it in a letter, but Iona thought she was only exaggerating. Now, as Iona saw all those impressed faces, all those Cures gathering around Mirage, expressing their admiration, she knew that her sister was speaking the truth.

And after that, there was nothing more to say. Some other Precure asked for attention, but none was given. After Mirage's speech, everyone just wanted to talk about her plan. Even Honoka was ignored by everyone but her partner. Iona didn't know how to feel about Cure White; she had helped defeat Dune, and she was prized by all for her knowledge, but she seemed to not be very fond of Cure Mirage, to say the least. Iona still trusted Mirage, even though she was being foolish about Cure Princess. Mirage had been the one to support her when she lost her sister. Iona had to stand by her. She owed Mirage that much, at least.

But that did not mean she would be anywhere near Hime ever again.

Without saying a word to anyone, Iona got up from her seat, and walked away while the Cures kept congratulating each other, or arguing, or doing whatever it was that they did. Her sister never said that it was this bad. As Iona left the room, Nozomi and Reika said words of protest, but Iona ignored them. She saw their smiles when Mirage discussed her plan. They wanted to go to Last Light. They were willing to live side by side with that foolish girl, despite what she had done. They were willing to forgive the unforgivable.

Iona heard footsteps behind her, but she ignored them. She ran up the countless stairs, ran through the endless corridors, until she reached her bedroom again. She locked herself in there, and laid on her bed again. Even as Dream and Beauty called her name, even as they knocked on the door, even as Glasan and Mirage tried to talk to her, Iona didn't react. She thought of Maria, a thought that kept her fire burning, that kept her anger alive. Somehow she found comfort in that. Eventually, the knocking on her door stopped, and no one called her name again.

Later, when Iona looked through her window, she saw a great gathering of Precures leaving the Tower, ready to go south, to their accursed little village where they could live with their beloved murderer. That's what Hime was; she had Maria's blood on her hands, and the blood of everyone else that had been hurt. Good riddance, Iona thought as she saw them walk away. She could almost make out Nozomi and Reika in the crowd.

And then, they were gone. When Iona opened her door again, she found herself all alone. It was her decision, she kept telling herself. It was what she had chosen, and it was the right thing, she was sure of it, so why did it feel so wrong?

Chapter Text

All over Last Light, flowers had begun to bloom, giving birth to countless colors, slowly making the world a little less desolate with each passing day. Nozomi pulled back the curtains and opened the windows of her bedroom, and looked at the roses that had blossomed in front of her house. That was the best way to start a new day.

Quickly she made her bed, storing her straw pillows beneath it, inside a large, wooden box. She had nowhere else to put her belongings as, for now, wardrobes, cabinets and shelves were too great a luxury.

Her house was little more than a glorified log cabin that would be small for a single person, but Nozomi shared it with Megumi. Their bedroom had nothing but their beds and two crates where they stored whatever they deemed important enough to keep safe. For Nozomi, it was only a few changes of clothes that she had gotten from the Phoenix Tower.

Some other rooms had been erected, but they were still empty. Megumi oft spoke of expanding and furnishing them, if they ever found the time, but more important things always ended up spoiling her plans. It didn't really bother Nozomi: a large communal building had been set up in the center of Last Light, with a kitchen manned by Yuko, makeshift plumbing, and even an ample parlor where the Precure often gathered to talk among themselves.

"Good morning, Megumi," she was still abed, and mumbled something in response that, though muffled, did not sound all that polite. It was still very early in the morning, so Nozomi could not blame her for being grumpy.

When Nozomi had finished dressing herself, Megumi was still fighting somnolence as she struggled to leave the bed. Nozomi, however, had no such difficulties. Today would be a fine day, she was sure of it as soon as she smelled the roses by her window. Though Last Light was still not nearly as comfortable as the Phoenix Tower, Nozomi was proud of the work they had done in the past two months: alongside Katyusha and Princess, she used her magic to nurse the soil back to health, and their first harvests had exceeded their expectations. Beauty and Nile were often away, scouting, and very successfully so, as they had already found nearly a hundred people wandering the region, trying to survive, and brought them to Last Light. Their village was full of life now, and with the flowers finally in bloom, it was full of color too.

Nozomi had not been the first to wake, as that was always Yuko, who rose before all others to go to the kitchen and cook her delicious meals, always a highlight of the mornings. In the first days, when the village was still desolate, Nozomi was always able to ask for seconds if she wanted (and she always did), but now that more people had come to Last Light, they had to manage their resources more wisely.

That did not make Yuko's cooking any less delicious, though, and Nozomi was always the first at the kitchen. Today was not any different.

"Hi, Yuko," Nozomi greeted her as she always did, waving while she sat down next to Honey.

"Good morning," she said, not taking her eyes out of the large oven where a dozen loaves of bread were being baked. Ekaterina had brought it from the Phoenix Tower a few days before, along with many sorts of equipment that quickened Yuko's cooking manyfold. "You seem cheerful today."

"Aren't I always?" She grinned.

"Of course, of course," Yuko laughed. "Still, you look more energetic than you usually are in the mornings."

"Come on, I'm not that grumpy when I wake up," Nozomi said, to which Yuko replied with a very long "hm-hm."

"Not as much as Megumi, at least," she took out a platter full of bread from the oven, and put it on the table. All the loaves were huge, and they looked delicious. Nozomi got butter and a knife on her own, and started eating.

"When's your assistant gonna start working?" Nozomi said between bites. "That Cure Song girl, or something," she hadn't spoken to the girl yet. She had arrived just two days before, in the middle of the night. She had not even noticed Last Light, Nozomi heard: she was going straight to the Phoenix Tower, and it had been Cure Wave who had noticed her in the road.

"Ah, Kanade. I wouldn't really call her my assistant. She was a really renowned pâtissière in Majorland. If I may be quite honest, I was afraid of offending her when I asked her if she could help me out here. I mean, you have to admit that she's too kind of too good for a place like this. But she accepted it gladly! She even asked me for instructions, because she's far more used to baking luxury cakes than cooking normal food! Would you believe that?"

"I would, actually," said Nozomi. Yuko was always humble, but the truth was that her cooking was beyond excellent. "She's kind of late, though…"

"She isn't, actually," Yuko said as she opened her cabinets to look for ingredients. "You just came here really early today. Almost as early as I did, although Mai, Reika and Ayumi were already up when I got out of my house… What's up with that?"

"Oh, we have something really cool planned, and I'm really excited for it," she said, and when Yuko turned to her and rose an eyebrow, she explained. "I'm going to work as a teacher today."

"What do you mean?"

"That girl, Ayumi… She wants to become a Precure, Reika told me. And we're in grave need of new Cures, so Reika plans to train her, but she wants my help too…" Nozomi's face still got all warm when she remembered Reika approaching her, saying she wanted to do it together. Together, that was exactly what she said. It was as if a hundred fears were silenced all at once.

"What exactly are you going to teach?"

"Just Precure lessons."

"That's… Not very specific."

Nozomi shrugged. Reika hadn't been very specific either. All that had been decided is that they would take their new pupil to the Thornwood, and explore it. They didn't expect to find anything there, but they agreed that it was very important for a Precure to be able to brave dangerous locations. It was a skill that, sadly, was becoming increasingly uncommon as once-unknown lands were perfectly mapped and explored, and places that used to be full of monsters were pacified, and their dark magic, tamed. As the world became safer, the Precure grew complacent, so when darkness fell upon the world another time, they could hardly react.

"I'm glad you're taking that initiative, though. Too many of us are just lost, doing whatever we're told, hoping that change will come by itself, when, really, we have to fight for change."

Nozomi nodded, and sighed. It really did seem like all the Precure of the Phoenix Tower were more concerned with arguing among themselves than actually doing something to try and make the situation better. Only a few of them even bothered to help Last Light, while the rest simply stayed locked inside their tower, keeping themselves safe.

As she waited for another batch to finish baking, Yuko sat down next to Nozomi, and began to eat, picking up bread with hands whitened from the dough they folded. Whenever she was eating with others, Nozomi had noticed, Yuko's face would almost shine with delight, and she would often take a short peek at whoever was eating with her, and smile as she noticed that they too were enjoying their meal.

Behind, the door began to slowly creak open, letting a little bit of sunshine in. Before Nozomi could look back, someone started speaking.

"Good morning," it was a voice that Nozomi wasn't familiar with. The new girl's. Cure… Music, was it? Something to that effect.

"Megumi, you are up earlier than usual," said Yuko.

"Wasn't by my own choice, I'll tell you that," she said, holding back a yawn as she tried to speak. "I was having such a nice dream too."

"Sorry about that," Nozomi said with a grin. Behind Megumi, Hime looked as if she was hiding from something, perhaps fearing that a stranger might be in the room, but when she saw it was Nozomi, she greeted everyone as well. Nozomi did not fail to notice that Yuko responded with a wider smile than the ones she shared with anybody else.

Kanade walked towards a small cabinet to grab a plain white apron, while the two other girls sat next to Nozomi, and started to eat. Whereas Hime ate with the grace one would expect of a princess (meals were one the few occasions where Hime actually acted in a princessly fashion), Megumi looked as if she held a grudge against the bread, tearing it to pieces with her hands, leaving the crust aside, and ripping it to shreds with her teeth. Kanade stared at her, but it didn't look like she noticed.

While Yuko and Kanade discussed which meal they should serve for lunch later today (Yuko argued in favor of stew, to which Kanade responded by reminding her that they already had stew two days before), Hime and Megumi finished their meal. Hime wiped her lips with a napkin, while Megumi let out a loud sigh of satisfaction.

"Calm down, Megumi," Hime said. "You're eating like this is the last meal of your life…"

"It could be, and I'd die very happy," she said. Yuko giggled, and Hime let out an obnoxious laughter. She always laughed at Megumi's jokes. Nozomi wondered if she really was so entertained by her, or if she did it so to avoid awkward silences.

"I have some good news for you all," Kanade said, just as Nozomi was done eating. She hoped 'good news' meant more food. "Katyusha has returned to the Phoenix Tower, and she'll be back in a few days, and with her she'll bring the ingredients I requested. We are mostly self-sufficient now, but we still need lots of flour from the Phoenix Tower, though this time I asked her to bring us something special as well," with a raised eyebrow, Nozomi waited her to finish, her head full of hopes. Kanade just smiled. "Chocolate. Lots of it. Enough to make a huge cake for all of us."

"That's wonderful," Nozomi said, and then she realized she had forgotten what chocolate tasted like. She remembered it being really good, though, and even better when shared with friends. Like when they made a large cake for Urara, to celebrate a new job she had gotten. It looked ugly, and was a bit too sweet, but that didn't matter when they ate it all together, when they laughed and smiled and their worries just seemed so small. It didn't matter at all…

Nozomi had not thought about them since she came to Last Light, she realized in that moment. She felt ashamed for that, but now that she remembered them, she worried again, that worry she so despised, that horrid feeling that robbed her of the energy she so valued. She wondered where they all could be, if she would ever see them again. And she remembered Komachi's screams as she ran away from the Palmier Kingdom with Coco. That hurt more than anything else.

"Nozomi?" Hime asked.

"Ah? I'm sorry, what is it?"

"I wanted to know if it's okay with you if it's alright if the cake is a bit plain," Kanade said. "After all you must have heard about me and the Lucky Spoon, I'm sure you must be expecting something great, and I guess I could try and make some whipped cream or something so that the cake at least looks pretty, and maybe look for some fruits somewhere, but-"

"It's fine," Nozomi said. She thought of Urara's face when her friends surprised her with that hideous thing they dared call a cake. It made Nozomi smile again, despite the pain. "A chocolate cake would be great. Yes, I think it would be perfect, actually, as long as we can all eat together…"

"No, no, Ayumi, that will not do," Reika had been sparring with the girl from daybreak to noon, and she had still not managed to hit her a single time. She was panting now, desperate for one of her blows to connect, but desperate strikes were the easiest to parries. Ayumi swung her training sword recklessly, with no finesse at all, and Reika simply caught it with her own blade, sending her student's blunted sword flying until it fell by Mai's feet.

She didn't even notice it, so focused she was on her drawing. Even though she was nearly struck by Ayumi's weapon, Mai didn't move her eyes away from Beauty.

"Go pick it up," said Reika. "We're not eating until you manage to strike me, at least once."

"A-Alright," she said, body drenched with sweat. She ran to get her sword and returned to her practice promptly. If nothing else, Reika thought, the girl had almost unmatched dedication. For her to do this for so long without a single word of complaint, despite being constantly berated, she must really want to become a Precure.

And, to make sure she would, Reika trained her to exhaustion each day, and then kept going. They had been at it for the past five weeks now, ever since Beauty and Nile found her and her family inside an old house by the Roseriver. And for the past two weeks, Ayumi accompanied Reika as she searched for people astray, and they practiced as much as they could, for as long as they had time to spare. Her pupil had made decent progress so far, and though she had not yet managed to touch Reika, she rarely got hit in return, which, in an actual fight, was far more important.

Ayumi hesitated in her blows, Reika noticed. They were often half-hearted swings with little strength put behind them, and it seemed as if they were aimed at her opponent's weapon, not her body.

"You are too reactive, Ayumi," Reika said as they took their positions again. Ayumi lifted her sword with both hands, so high that almost its entirety was above her body. "And fearful, too, it seems."

"I'm not afraid!" She spoke as loud as she could, which wasn't much. She came towards Reika with a surprisingly bold and quick step, one that almost caught her unawares, but when she swung her sword, her arms eased, and the blow was sluggish and effortlessly blocked.

"Ayumi, do you want to hit me?" Reika asked. "Sometimes I feel like you don't."

"I-I do," she said, defensive. "I do want to get better. I'm not doing it on purpose, you're just so good…"

"No, that's not what I meant. I don't mean to doubt your resolve, it's just… The way you hold your sword, the way you whirl it… You are afraid of hurting me, are you not?"

"I'm not. Please, let's just keep going. I'm not afraid."

Reika did as her student wanted. Ayumi struck again, and again she hit Reika's sword. She had no doubt about it now, she was definitely aiming for Reika's sword.

"You are a gentle soul, Ayumi," said Reika, approaching her, "despite your courage, and I love you for that, but I can tell you don't want to hit me. Or anyone else, for that matter. You hesitate."

"I… No, no I don't, I…"

"I'm not scolding you," she said in her calmest voice, "nor am I insinuating I won't allow you to become a Precure, but I want you to be truthful to me, Ayumi. You can trust me. You don't want to hurt me, right?"

"I… No, I don't… I'm sorry, I really am. But I'm afraid that if I hit you, I'll hurt you really bad, and you'll be angry at me. And, well, I don't really like hurting anyone."

"That's actually a good outlook to have, Ayumi. Much better than being too willing to do harm to others, I'd say. But you are a Precure, and as such, your greatest duty is to protect the defenseless, and to do that, yes, you will need to hurt your enemies. Some may be very, very deserving of it, and others are victims, just the same as the people they threaten, but they too need to be stopped. Like it or not, it is something you'll need to get used to."

"I know. How does it feel, though?"

"Hm?"

"To fight to the death like that?"

"Well, I've never had to kill anyone, and I hope I never do. Have you, Mai?" Reika had to ask twice before getting her attention. By then she had nearly finished her drawing.

"Me neither. Nozomi might have, though, but, well… This is not really the kind of thing you ask others, you know? It is something we have to do sometimes, to keep our world safe from those who would harm it, but it brings us no pleasure."

"I see… I guess I'll try to hit you this time, Reika… I'm sorry if it hurts."

"We all can handle some pain, can't we?" She smiled, and so did Ayumi, with her tiny, shy smile Reika could only notice when she looked for it. "Besides, trust me, getting hit with a stick is not a very scary prospect after what I've been through."

"R-Right. Here goes, then!"

She readied her sword, pointing its tip at Reika, who was prepared to block it. She knew it would be difficult for Ayumi to overcome her anxieties so easily, but it made her glad that she tried.

Ayumi lifted the sword, and swung it downwards in Reika's direction. She just rose her weapon and parried the blow, but as the dull blades met, Reika could feel the force behind Ayumi's attack, and she knew that this time she tried her hardest.

"Very nice, Ayumi. Now what if I do this…" She took a quick step back, and lunged against her student, who leapt to her side, dodging the blow. Ayumi's eyes brightened as she thought she had found an opening, and she swung again, a hopeful blow, but Reika just smashed Ayumi's sword with her own, sending it flying, again. She poked Ayumi's chest with the point of the training sword, and smiled. "And now you'd be dead. You were too eager."

"I thought I had to be quick-thinking…"

"You do, but never eager, never greedy. My arm was still unrestrained, as you only dodged my attack, but did not block it. You should have parried, then waited to see if a real opportunity presented itself."

"Ah, alright… I'm sorry," she said, lowering her head.

"Why are you apologizing?" Reika made Ayumi look at her. "You had no way of knowing it, if I may be honest. You have only just started out. With experience you'll be able get a better assessment of the situation while you fight, and you'll know when it's time to press the offense and when you ought to hold back. And it's better to get that experience by sparring with me, instead of someone who would have actually hurt you. Do you understand?"

"I do. Thanks, Reika, truly. I'm learning so much with you."

"I'm glad to hear it," she said, and she meant it. Sometimes Reika feared she might be too harsh, and that some of her lessons might be a bit too theoretical. "I think we should take a break for now. Nozomi should arrive in a few minutes with our lunch. You must be hungry."

"I am," she smiled shyly, putting a hand on her belly. "Quite a lot, actually."

"And you, Mai?"

She didn't answer, so Reika presumed she was almost finished with whatever she was drawing. Her eyes never left her sketchbook, and her hand's movements seemed very precise. Reika approached her, and gently called her attention by tugging at her sleeve.

"Oh, hi. You asked if I'm hungry? I guess I am, a little. Also, look at this."

She set aside her pencil and showed the sketchbook to Reika. Ayumi approached to take a look as well. The drawing was excellent: it depicted both Reika and Ayumi as they sparred, their bodies made of thin, delicate long lines that made their limbs look quite slender. On the paper, the two had locked their blades together, their faces fierce and dedicated, and the most striking thing was how good Mai's style was at capturing their movement: the sketch seemed alive, in its own way.

"This is amazing, Mai!" Ayumi pointed at herself. "This really looks exactly like me."

"I'm glad you liked it," Mai said with a smile. "I've been talking with Yayoi lately, and she gave me some pointers on how to best depict quick movements. She's quite good at it."

That was unsurprising, Reika thought, considering Yayoi's preference for drawing action scenes. Her art was far more stylized than Mai's, who generally preferred more realistic proportions and subdued colors, but Reika could see the merits to both of their crafts. Though, admittedly, she had a bit of a hard time understanding the appeal of all those superheroes and fighters that Yayoi loved, so Mai's art was more pleasant to her eyes. She would never tell her friend that, of course.

"Hey!" Someone was waving from far away, yelling, and Reika knew that it could only be Nozomi. She had arrived earlier than she hoped, actually. That was surprising.

Next to her was a man Reika had never seen before; tall and brown-haired, he seemed to be in his early twenties, if not a bit more. He did not live in Last Light, Reika was sure of that, else she would know him.

"Hello, Nozomi," Reika greeted her as she approached. "And hello to you too," she said to the man. "Have we met?"

Somehow that made Nozomi giggle. She was quick to laugh, Reika had learned, but even so she could not understand what was so funny about what she had just said.

"I'm Coco," the man said. Nozomi was still snickering, but Reika didn't know what was so entertaining about that.

"I see," Reika said. It was strange to see him like that, in truth, but she thought it better not to mention it. "You're coming with us?"

"Yes," he said. "Nozomi told me that you are tutoring Ayumi, and she asked me if I have anything to teach her. As a matter of fact, I do, as I know quite a bit of history. I spent some years studying at Verone, and even worked as an intern there for a few months, before I graduated."

"I didn't know that," said Nozomi. "That's really cool…"

"You wouldn't happen to be Mister Cocoda, would you?" Mai asked him.

"M-Mister… I'm not that old… But yes, that's me."

"Did you ever work with Cure Mirage? She was a teacher there, too, for a little while."

"I did not," he said, putting a hand behind his head, laughing. It was clear why he seemed embarrassed: Mirage was younger than him, and yet she had been a professor at Verone Academy, while he was only an assistant. Not exactly fitting of a prince of the Palmier Kingdom.

"You must have so much to teach, then," Ayumi said. "I'd like to learn as much as you're willing to share with me, please!"

Always eager to learn, this one, Reika thought. She would go far as a Precure, for certain. Coco answered a few questions over his past, from Mai, Nozomi and Ayumi.

"Oh, right," Nozomi handed a few small boxes to the girls around her. A pleasant smell came from within them, the distinctive scent of Yuko's cooking. She even took the time to put the food into pretty lunchboxes, so neatly organized.

Reika was always slow to eat Yuko's cooking, wanting to appreciate it as much as she could, but this time she ate hurriedly, so that they could go on with their plans. She did not want to delay Ayumi's education, after all.

She guided Ayumi and the others to an old forest in the outskirts of Last Light. It was generous to call it a forest, though: it was almost completely dead, and the people of the region called it the Thornwood, an accursed forest haunted by the souls of people who had been hanged there, thousands of years ago. Reika did not know if she could believe in that, but it was undeniable that the Thornwood was an uninviting place. There were no trees to be seen there, only, as its name would indicate, thorns beyond counting, walls of it, like a maze of spines.

"What will we do here?" Ayumi asked, her voice trembling with fear.

"We will just explore," said Reika. "See if we are able to find anything of note there, though I don't really hope so."

"Whoa, that's a nice plan," said Nozomi. Reika had only come up with this idea earlier today, so she could not tell Nozomi, but she was glad that she agreed. "Ayumi, it's really important for a Precure to have a good sense of… Ah, how do you call it? To know how to find your way around, to never get lost?"

"Direction?"

"That's it! Thanks, Reika. Anyways, that's an important skill to have. Especially now that the world is a mess."

Ayumi nodded. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and put on her bravest face. It wasn't that convincing, but Reika was still glad that she tried.

"Are you ready?" Reika asked. Though sweating and quivering, Ayumi nodded. "If you feel you are not prepared, you may turn back."

"Turn back, and give up on being a Precure, after all my hard work?" She walked towards the thorns, averting them as she made her way through, into the forest. Reika and Nozomi smiled at one another, and accompanied her. Coco and Mai were next, and Reika could not help but notice that Nozomi had not yet accustomed herself to seeing Coco in this human form, so she avoided looking at him. Reika found it odd as well, to see a tiny fairy turn into a grown man, but she had known many fairies who could disguise themselves as humans, so she paid it no mind.

The Thornwood was scary and dangerous to the careless, but, contrary to the rumors, it was not cursed, and much less haunted. It was simply a dead forest like many others, so ancient and decrepit that there were no records of it ever being green and healthy. Almost only thorns grew in this forest, pillars of spikes growing tall as hideous mockeries of actual trees.

The few true trees that Reika found there were all hollow, their carcasses filled with thorns that pierced through the bark as they struggled for freedom. Here, even the briars looked dead or dying.

Every now and then the silence was broken by a small yelp of pain from someone who was prickled, as there were points where, no matter how careful they were, there was no avoiding the thorns. Ayumi was attentive to her surroundings, almost as much as Reika was, but her arms were full of scratches and small bleeding spots. She suffered it wordlessly, eyes burning with fierce dedication.

"What are you thinking, Ayumi?" Reika asked her.

"This place is really scary. It's not that bad, because she sun is still shining, but I wouldn't be able to be here on my own."

"Good," said Reika. "That's exactly the outlook you should have. Never be alone."

"Even the scariest places are a cinch when you have someone to watch your back," said Nozomi. "There is nothing as comforting as being with someone you trust."

"Indeed," said Mai, who knew it better than them all. Though she was still often saddened when she mentioned her partner, Cure Bloom, she now could mention her without her voice tightening, without her eyes watering, without her legs trembling. "Do you think you would rather have a single partner that you understand more than anyone else, and who in turn understands you perfectly as well, or would you prefer to be part of a larger team, like Reika and Nozomi?"

"I… I don't know yet. I haven't thought of it," Reika knew she was lying: Ayumi was nothing if not thoughtful, almost to a fault, at times. Nile had talked about forming her own team, and perhaps she had approached Ayumi already. Reika hoped so, as she knew that Ayumi was likely too shy to approach possible companions on her own.

"Well, you'll have to think of it if you want to become a Precure," said Nozomi.

"You'll need a fairy, too," Coco reminded her. "That'd be the easiest part, probably. The Doughnut Kingdom is probably full of fairies that would love to to work by a Cure's side."

"I… I'll think of something," said Ayumi. "For now, though, I think I should focus on the path."

"Right, right," Coco laughed. When he spoke, he could get so distracted that he didn't even notice the briars that scratched his face. Nozomi tried to clean the blood with her hands, but all she managed to do was leave red smears on his cheeks.

Reika felt her foot be caught by briars that made a circle around her ankle. She freed herself easily, but she could not help but find it odd: she was paying attention to the path, she was not being careless at all. If she didn't know better, she would say that the thorns had moved to grasp at her, but she, of course, knew better. At least she thought she did, but as she saw traces of movement in the corners of her eyes, she was not so sure.

"Nozomi," she called her attention, "we should get ready to transform if we need to."

"Agreed."

As they delved deeper into the Thornwood, the twisted trees rose higher and higher, their thorns reaching for the sun with cruel intent. They could not see much farther without light now, and Mai was visibly wary, her eyes wide open and filled with fear. Ayumi was easily finding ways deep into the forest, so that was a lesson she was learning well, but Reika was starting to wonder if, maybe, she was not being too hasty…

And then her doubts were all silenced when they found their way to a large, wide clearing, the floor all covered in huge thorns, some so big that they reached Reika's ankles. And on the other side of the clearing she saw five dead trees, their barks covered entirely in prickles the size of daggers. On their branches were nooses, made not of rope but, like everything around them, briars. Around them, something was stirring.

"Enough," said Reika. "We turn back now."

"But we've gone so far!" Ayumi almost took a step into the clearing, but Nozomi held her by the arm.

"No," she said. "Reika is right. Let's head back. It's dangerous in here. There is… There is definitely something here. This feels like all the tainted forests we've seen while we travelled, doesn't it, Reika?"

"Yes. This is worrisome. We need to leave."

"Can't you fight it, though? You've managed to light a Starlight Flame, after all! Come on, Beauty, Dream…"

"When we lit the Starlight Flame, we did not have anyone we were responsible for, though," Reika said. "It was just me and Nozomi, so we were free to fight with no concerns, without restraint. But with you, with Mai and with Coco with us… No, we cannot risk any of you. We are going back."

"I-"

"This is the last we'll talk of it," she would not listen, so Reika had no choice but be strict. It brought her no pleasure, but it had to be done. "I will not let you risk not only your own life, but Coco's and Mai's as well."

"Come on, Ayumi," Mai took her by the hand, but Ayumi looked almost defiant.

"Fine… I just… A Precure cannot be a coward, so I want to be brave… I wanted to go. It's what a Precure must do…"

"A Precure must be brave, that is true, but that is not the most important thing. Above all else, a Precure must keep those around her safe. And that is exactly what we will do. We are not testing you, we are not tricking you. We just don't want you to be hurt. So please, Ayumi, trust us."

She nodded, at last, to Reika's relief. She had never seen Ayumi be so willful, so it took her by surprise, but at the same time, she understood her feelings. Many times it had been Reika's first instinct to meet an enemy in battle to bring it down as quickly as she could, but she was wise enough to not listen to it. Just as she had been wise not to run back into Märchenland's capital to look for her friends.

They turned back, and though Ayumi lingered behind for a moment, she soon followed them. She might be disappointed, but Reika knew it was the right choice, and so did Nozomi: Reika could tell it from the way she looked at her. It was in these moments, when Reika and Nozomi could tell what was in each other's mind with no need for words, that Reika felt like they understood each other better than they thought. And they shared a pain, too, the pain of learning what it feels to fail to protect the ones they loved. Never again.

It took a fair bit of talking to persuade Ayumi that leaving was the right decision, and Nozomi could almost understand her disappointment. She would get disappointed as well when her friends convinced her not to do something foolish, as, sometimes, the dumbest ideas seem the smartest. Ayumi always listened to them, though, and Nozomi hoped that she would take this lesson to heart.

"We'll spar a bit more," Reika said. "To make up for leaving the Thornwood so soon."

"Alright," Nozomi nodded. She wished Reika would spend more time with her and her friends in Last Light, to have some fun, but she supposed that some people had fun when they worked. Reika did seem like that kind of person.

Mai had promised to meet with Nile and Peace at the makeshift town hall, to finish drawing a map of the region and its changed landscape, so she too parted ways from Nozomi. No doubt she would mention the danger of the Thornwood and mark it on the finished map.

Nozomi should do something about it as well. Maybe she should mention it to Cure Princess. She did not really know who to talk about it, though: Last Light did not have an official leader, and though Hime had a bit of respect due to her status as princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom, there was also the teeny-tiny matter that was the fact that everything was her fault. Few put their feelings to words, but they way they looked at Hime said it all. Nozomi felt sorry for her; what Hime did was in good faith, and good intentions should never be met with such hatred.

It was not for her to decide though, so she tried not to think about that too much. She walked back to Last Light, her body still hurting from all the times she had been prickled. Coco scratched at his wounds, too, at his hurt cheeks.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said. "Don't worry about me."

"Alright. Can I ask you something, though?"

"Depends on the question," he smiled.

"I did not know you could turn into a human. How?"

"I was just born able to do it," he shrugged, as if he was talking about being able to whistle or snap his fingers. "Many fairies are, though, nowadays, not so many, and most of them live in the Trump Kingdom."

"I see… Does it feel weird? When you turn into a man, I mean."

"Not really," he said. "I've been able to do it since I was just two years old, more than two decades ago."

"T-Two decades?" Nozomi put the numbers together. "You're older than I thought," she said, though after what he had said about studying in Verone years ago, she should have realized it.

"Oh, don't tell me you're gonna start calling me 'Mister' too…"

"Only if you annoy me," Nozomi said with a huge grin.

When at last they reached the village, they were greeted by Cure Lovely, transformed, looking rather weary. For a moment Nozomi worried something might be wrong, but Megumi was smiling.

"You're back early," she said. "I'm looking for someone to train with, but everyone is so busy… Hime has to help Yuko check our supplies, Kanade said she's not in the mood to fight, even for practice, and Wave is scouting. This sucks…"

"I could train with you, if you'd like. Later, though, first I need to talk to Hime."

"Oh, alright," Megumi tried to hide her disappointment, but failed. "Oh, by the way, a girl was here a little while ago. She asked me if I was Cure Dream, and she looked kind of angry. I wonder why she thought you might be me."

"Yeah, I don't understand it either."

"Because you both have pink hair when transformed," said Coco.

"Oh! Right! That makes sense."

"Ah, yes. My hair. Anyways, I told her that I'm not Cure Dream, and told her to look for you in your house. But, well, I guess I might have just wasted her time."

"What was she like?"

"She had purple hair."

"Anything else?" That wasn't very helpful. Megumi just shrugged, and Nozomi gave up. "Well, I guess if she's still around here, she'll find me soon."

Nozomi waved Megumi goodbye, though Coco stayed behind to talk with her for a little while. Nozomi wondered what he wanted with Megumi, but it was none of her business. She went her own way, towards the communal building.

She passed by unfinished houses, some of which still had holes on their walls. Thankfully, the nights weren't very cold, but Nozomi still felt very sorry for the people who had to live there. It was hard to make beautiful homes in a hurry. Luckily, Nozomi herself was privileged to live in a house that, though simple, was well-built, always warm, and safe, too, with its heavy doors.

As she passed by her own house, Nozomi saw that the doors were open. Did Megumi leave them open again? The most annoying thing about it was that Nozomi could not even complain, because she also forgot to close the doors from time to time. She approached them to close them, but it looked like there was something in there. No, not something, someone.

When she walked inside, the purple-haired girl was waiting for her in the dark. Her eyes revealed nothing of her intentions, but she was standing perfectly still in the middle of her (as of now, still empty) living room. She wore an elegant outfit, white and violet with a large blue rose on her chest, and looked almost like a Precure. Her hands were clenched into fists.

"H-Hello?"

"Are you Cure Dream?"

Nozomi nodded. The girl's cold fingers wrapped around her neck before she could do anything. It all happened too fast for Nozomi to understand: first she could no longer feel the wooden floor beneath her feet, and then she was flying, crashing against the walls as a great pain took her body.

When she tried to rise, her body sore beyond belief, she was being held by her shirt, lifted into the air again and thrown into the floor. On instinct, she transformed, and though that saved from being broken in half, the pain was overwhelming, and whenever she tried to regain her balance so she could stand still, the girl's fists denied her the opportunity.

"Where is he?" She yelled but did not await a response from Nozomi. She had no idea what was going on, and her assailant did not seem very willing to clarify. She just kept screaming, "where is he?"

"Who?" Nozomi asked fraily when she finally managed to block one of the girl's blows, catching her fist with the palm of her hand. It hurt as if her hand was being torn apart, but it gave her time to talk. "What are you even talking about?"

"Don't play dumb," Nozomi's questions only drove her into a harsher rage, her eyes now full of hatred. "You have him. My prince."

"Your…" Just as Nozomi was starting to understand, she felt a sharp pain on her stomach as her opponent's knee reached her belly, taking the breath out of Nozomi.

Her vision blurred, and all she could see was the world rising above her, the floor rushing to meet her, and a foot crashing down on her face. Dream rolled to the side, dodging it. She held on to the girl's bare legs, to stop her from moving, if only for a moment. She just had to manage to get up, she told herself, and then she'd be able to fight back.

"You kidnapped him," the girl snarled, trying to free herself from Nozomi's grasp, her face obscured by her dark purple hair. "The crown prince of the Palmier Kingdom… Where is he?"

"Wait!" Said a different voice, too distant for Nozomi to recognize. When she looked up, she saw Coco running inside the house, with Beauty at his side, holding a long shard of ice. He put a hand on the girl's shoulder, but she just shoved him away.

"I know he's here," she said, still trying to break free, yet Nozomi refused to let go, even when she got a boot to the face for her efforts. "I have to keep him safe. I have to…"

Reika stepped close to her, but before she could strike, a white smoke enveloped Coco's body, just as it had done when he took his human form. When the smoke began to subside, it revealed Coco in its midst, as a fairy again.

When she saw her prince, the girl immediately let go of Nozomi, and kneeled. Nozomi struggled to get up, but Reika ran to her side to help. She asked if she was alright, a question answered with a single nod. Nozomi was too dizzy to tell what was going on, but she tried to pay attention to the fairy prince and this odd, violent girl as well as she could.

"I looked for you everywhere, my prince," she said. "I could not recognize you in that… That unsightly form. I'm glad I found you, finally, and- Oh, dear. Oh, goodness gracious. Oh, damn it all. I struck you. I struck a prince of the Palmier Kingdom. Oh, I'll lose my hand for this… Not to say the shame… My prince, please forgive me!"

"I…" Coco stared at her in confusion. If her head wasn't pounding and her body wasn't bleeding from at least ten different spots, Dream might have even laughed at the absurdity of this situation, at this girl showing total obedience towards a fairy she towered over. "Who are you?"

"Oh," she seemed saddened, "you don't recognize me? I go by Kurumi Mimino now, but you used to know me as Milk."

"Milk? Is this really you?"

"I would never lie to you, my prince. It's a bit of a long, complicated story, but, to put it simply, I'm a Precure now. And also stuck in this disgusting body," she pointed at herself, displeased. "Did these girls kidnap you? When I was at the Doughnut Kingdom, I heard that these two ran off with you."

"We did not kidnap him," said Reika. Nozomi supported herself on her, their arms entwined. She nodded along, still in too much pain to talk.

"I'm talking to Coco!" She snapped, but a second later she was smiling at the prince again.

"Milk, they are my friends. They did not kidnap me, I am their companion. You got everything wrong."

"E-Everything? So you're not here against your will?"

"No."

"These girls have not hurt you?"

"No."

"They aren't plotting to steal your throne?"

"You worry too much, Milk," he said, "but now you've gone too far. Nozomi and Reika are good friends of mine, and you have no right to hurt them."

"P-Prince Coco?" Kurumi's face was red with embarrassment. Disappointing her prince was clearly not something she could easily accept. She took a few deliberate steps towards Dream and Beauty. When she saw Nozomi's sorry state, she looked as if she did not know what to say. "I… I'm sorry I beat the crap out of you. And, er…" She looked around, cringing at the marks she had left around the house. "I'm sorry I may have ruined your walls… And your floor… And your entire house… Yeah… Really sorry about that…"

"It's… It's alright," was it, though? Nozomi only said that because it felt like the best thing to say.

"I don't really know how to apologize for this, but I really am regretful. I'm just… I'm just worried about Coco. And Nuts. I am their caretaker. Only an apprentice, granted, but I feel like I'm the only one who's left, now."

"Nuts…" Nozomi had not thought about him all that much. She hoped he was safe, but it was out of her hands, so she tried not to worry any more than she had to. "Have you found him?"

"Er… No, not really. I looked for him, and I thought I had some clues on his whereabouts, but, turns out I was completely wrong, and was fooled by Nightmare's agents. So I spent a month walking in circles, following a trail that led nowhere, guided by clues that were complete fabrications."

"Nuts is likely in the same situation I was," Coco said. "With the stars gone, it's possible he's in a deep slumber, like most of the fairies of our kingdoms."

"I see…" She seemed thoughtful. Nozomi let go of Reika, now that she could stand on her own, and approached Kurumi.

"I know this was all very unpleasant," when she said, she suddenly became aware again of how much her body hurt, and grimaced in pain, "and we had a terrible first impression, but I think we have the same goals."

"I guess so."

"Well, then I think there's no reason we can't work together."

"I've never seen anyone as quick to forgive as you," she kneeled again, to get closer to Coco. "Are you sure you trust these girls?"

"With my life," he said. "They were the ones to light the Starlight Flame of the Doughnut Kingdom, too."

"If you say so, I'll trust your judgment," she gave Nozomi one last, lingering look. "You're way tougher than you look. Getting surprised like that, it's not something most would have endured as well as you did," Nozomi understood perfectly that this was just a polite way of saying she was good at taking hits to her face. "You aren't exactly the kind of caretakers I'd choose, but I can't really be picky right now."

"You'll stay with us, then?" Reika asked, her tone suspicious.

"Of course not! Not while Nuts is missing. I still need to find him. And I will find him. But since you have Coco with you, and since he assures me you will keep him safe, I know I won't have to worry too much about his well-being. Hopefully."

"Y-Yeah," Nozomi was still afraid a wrong answer would get her a punch to the face, but the girl seemed to have calmed down.

"You should at least spend the night here," said Coco. "Have you eaten lately? Your arm is really skinny. Are you taking care of yourself?"

"M-My prince, I'm the one who's supposed to take care of you, not the other way around! I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"I can't help but worry, though," he said. "You'll have to tell me what happened to you, though. You're a Precure now?"

"Cure Rose," she said, with a hint of pride. "The champion of the blue rose," she pointed at her own chest.

"Well, first of all, you should probably not talk about that out loud," said Reika. "Blue roses aren't really considered good omens around here… Or anywhere, for that matter."

"Really? That's so stupid. Blue roses are the most beautiful of them all. Fitting of me."

Nozomi didn't have the slightest idea how to react to all this, so she just leaned her head against Reika's shoulder, and tried to ignore the pain. Kurumi had been so furious a while ago, but now she was almost playful… Or at least Nozomi hoped that she was only being playful with this talk of blue roses.

"Kurumi," Coco said after taking a look at Nozomi's face, "I think we should speak in private. You might be making Nozomi uncomfortable."

"Why?" She asked. "Oh, right. Sorry again. Really."

She did not sound all that apologetic, but Nozomi didn't care about it right now. She just wanted to lay down for a moment. Coco escorted her away: she was his problem now, although, Nozomi feared, she would soon be a problem for everyone in Last Light.

Reika took Nozomi to her bed, and, right now, her straw mattress seemed more comfortable than a king's bed. Reika looked at her with tender eyes, and she carefully touched Nozomi's arms and legs in search of broken bones.

"How did you know I was in danger?" Nozomi asked.

"How could I not know?" Reika said with a tiny smile. "Nozomi, half of your house was demolished. I could hear it from afar, and I came running to see what was wrong. There were a dozen Cures around your house, ready to come inside and rescue you, but I didn't want to wait."

"Oh," Nozomi closed her eyes. "You know, I was getting used to life here. Things seemed almost… Normal, you know? I guess I should have known that it could not last. I just wished it wasn't so painful. Ow…"

"Well, you have no broken bones, so that's lucky," she said. Odd, Nozomi didn't feel very lucky right now. "You should rest, though."

"I know," Nozomi said. "Karen always said that when you are sick or in pain, you must rest. I don't remember all the things that Karen told me," some of them were too complicated for Nozomi to understand, "but I remember that."

"She's right," said Reika.

"What Kurumi said, though…"

"Pay no mind to whatever she said. She sounded mad, honestly. As far as we know, she's not even a real Precure."

"She talked about being the champion of the blue rose… Did she mean a flower, or… The actual Blue Rose?"

"The Blue Rose is long gone," Reika assured her. "All that's left of it are the jewels we found in the Eyrie. I'll question Kurumi tonight, you can be sure of it. We'll learn the truth. But, for now, worry only about sleeping until your body stops aching. Sleep, and don't trouble your mind with all this talk of roses."

Chapter Text

Nozomi stared at the crystal-clear waters of the lake, reflecting her face, the tops of the dead trees that surrounded it, and the cloudless skies. It was a peaceful place; too peaceful, in fact, so it usually just bored Nozomi. Not today, though. Today Nozomi found herself drawn towards this peace, so when she was done with her duties for the morning, she came to the withered forest.

It was an ugly place, to tell the truth, though not quite as ugly as the Thornwood to the east: the trees had all lost their leaves, their colors, their lives, and now their branches looked like a crone's frail arm, with bony, twisted fingers. The ground was colored a sick, greying brown, and nothing but weeds grew there, only to die soon afterwards. Yet the waters were still pure, almost sparkling, or so her eyes led her to believe. When she, Reika, and Yayoi first found it, it was a full moon night, and it reflected the pale moon on its surface, so huge and beautiful and pearly white that, as the waters drank its light, they looked as if they were made of crystal.

Today, the sun gilded a portion of the lake, but not nearly as much as the moon had filled it with its silver, that night. It was pleasant all the same, though, even if Nozomi wished that it was night again, so that its darkness would shroud the dying forest.

She did not complain, of course. She watched its beauty in silent calm, only occasionally touching the surface of the lake with the tip of her toes. The water was surprisingly cold, though not unpleasantly so. Nozomi's touch made gentle ripples that spread across the lake, and when they reached the sun, it almost seemed to dance. Quietly she watched until the mirror waters showed someone approaching. Her head was crowned with long purple curls, so Nozomi knew it was Kurumi who had come.

"Hi," she said awkwardly, so Nozomi found it only proper to reply with an even more awkward nod and wave.

Kurumi hesitated to come closer, taking slow, short steps towards Nozomi, her bare feet leaving many prints on the dirt, each close to one another. She did not look at all like the furious, violent girl who attacked Nozomi one day before. Now that she wasn't screaming and trying to break Nozomi in half, Kurumi looked quite pretty. She dressed plainly, except for the blue rose resting atop her head.

"The lake is pretty, don't you think?" Nozomi thought she should say something.

"Yeah," she said, distracted. She looked towards the sun reflected in the lake for a minute, before turning to Nozomi. "Look, I should probably explain myself to you too. I talked to Coco and Beauty last night, but not to you. I'm still really sorry about yesterday."

"It's alright," she said, though her back still ached from time to time.

"I truly regret that. I should not have hurt you. I was just so worried about Coco… As I always am, of course, as his caretaker, his and Nuts'. But I know I went too far. My strength is startling even to myself."

"What do you mean?"

"I was not always like this," she said, looking at her own body. "It's a recent change, actually. Until a couple months ago, I was only a fairy."

"I heard. What happened?"

"I found the blue rose."

That rose again. Mirage had talked of it, but Nozomi didn't quite understand the importance. It had happened centuries ago, that awful war. There was no reason to dwell on it.

"I was away when the Palmier Palace fell. Coco and Nuts told all of us, all of their caretakers and workers of the Palace, they told us to leave and help the populace, when Nightmare and the others attacked. When the night was over, that awful starless night, my princes were missing. I had to look for them, but I didn't know where to go, I was starving, tired… This kind girl saved my life, she fed me, she pointed me towards the other fairy kingdoms, where I might find information about Coco and Nuts, and even offered me a place to stay, with many other fairies. But I had to keep going. I had to find my princes."

She stepped closer towards the lake, and stood right next to Nozomi. She crouched, and ran her fingers along the surface of the lake.

"A few days later, I found a lake just like this one, while I was travelling towards the Doughnut Kingdom. I could feel something unusual about it. Close to the lake, something was shining. It was such a beautiful light, I had to see what it was… And it was a blue rose."

"Blue roses are very rare," even Nozomi knew that. "It was a miracle to have found it, it's really a treasure."

"A miracle…" She smiled sadly. "I touched it, and it crumbled to dust on my hands. I felt ill, and fell down. I could not do anything; I was awake, aware, but I could not move. I felt my body twist apart, I felt my paws be cut into long, thin fingers, I felt my ears turn into a million strands of… Of hair, I suppose. And I felt worse things. I wanted to scream, but the words wouldn't come out. Even my throat had changed. After a minute of pain, though it felt endless, I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, a week had passed, I was told."

"Who told you?"

"The girl who rescue me. No, not the same girl who helped me the other time," she clarified. "A younger girl. She took me to her home, and nursed me back to health. Even so, it was difficult. To be human… I didn't know how to do it. I had to learn how to walk with these strange legs, to talk with this throat… It's still odd to me."

"How so?"

"Ah, how to explain it… I've been a fairy all my life, of course it's awkward to change, to adapt to this body. It's so hard to get used to this ugly thing. Er, no offense," Nozomi shrugged it off. "My voice changed, and it does these weird things. Ah, ah…" She made some noises that, to Nozomi, were completely ordinary. "See? I sound like a stranger to myself. Hands are so bizarre, too, these things with these long sticks you call fingers, and nails are so hard that they feel like stones. When I was a fairy, I was so used to feeling the ground beneath my feet that now, when I can, I avoid wearing shoes, but at the same time, feet are hideous. I feel grotesque."

"You aren't, Kurumi. You're beautiful," it was odd that she could not see that.

"I suppose I might be, for a human, but I am, in the end, still a fairy. I'm not like Coco and Nuts who were born able to shift into this form. To them, it's so natural, but to me… No, I can't get used to it at all. I feel so huge. When I was a fairy I was so tiny and cute, and the world seemed so large, but like this, everything is so tiny, and I just feel like a gigantic freak."

Nozomi had not failed to notice that Kurumi was only a little bit shorter than Nozomi herself was. Still, it was understandable: most fairies stood only a few centimeters shorter than people's knees, and some were smaller than even that.

"Who was the girl who helped you?" Nozomi changed the subject when she noticed Kurumi was on the verge of tears, so uncomfortable she was with herself.

"Oh, just a girl from the Trump Kingdom," she sounded as if she wasn't saying everything, but Nozomi didn't want to bother her with too many unwanted questions. She knew very well that angering Kurumi was a foolish notion, so she just nodded. "I've made up my mind about what I'm going to do."

"Will you stay with us, then?"

She shook her head. "No. I need to find Nuts, wherever he is. I heard from Coco that, until you lit the Starlight Flame, he was in a deep, dreamless sleep, so the same might have befallen Nuts. If it has, then I'll bring the stars back to life with my own hands, if I need to. So I will go, even though I need to leave Coco behind. Coco… I want to keep him safe, but he does not need me. He has you, and Reika, and everyone here, too. Last night, he told me all about you. You're a decent person, and he trusts you, so, for now, I'll trust you too. I hope this trust is not misplaced."

"It isn't. I promise you we won't let any harm come to him."

"You'd better not. I'm not a gullible fairy, and if you ever lose my trust, you shall never have it again. If he is hurt, then I will you hurt you too, for that," her face was threatening again, and Nozomi stepped back, but quickly Kurumi was smiling again, or at least she tried to. "But I'm sure it won't come to that."

"N-No, it won't. You can rest easy."

"No," behind the smile, her words sounded sad. "I can never rest easy."

Kurumi began to walk away, and said no more. Nozomi watched her leave, but Kurumi never looked back. Soon she was gone, and Nozomi found herself on her own again. She looked at the waters of the lake one more time, its surface now made of snow. Nozomi stared in wonder, admiring it, but soon the white turned back to blue, and the sun shone upon the lake again, indifferent, as it shone each and every day.

Iona awoke with her face stained by tears. She must have dreamt about her sister again, she presumed, but in truth she could not remember her dream. She rose from her bed immediately, lest she dwelled on the memory of Maria again. That never did her any good, and she had grown tired of sorrow and weeping. Letting sadness bring her down would be a great disrespect to Maria, to everything she fought for, and to the Precure who took her in with open arms.

Despite her long hours of sleep, Iona felt tired. It was always like this when she had these forgotten dreams, and it was always a huge inconvenience. Even as she was having breakfast, she was almost falling asleep, almost letting her head fall and hit her plate. Curiously, the food this morning tasted differently. It came from Last Light, she would learn later; Mirage's proposal had been such an astounding success that the village was already almost self-sufficient, save for luxuries like chocolate or glass, which was provided by the Phoenix Tower when necessary. In return, they received this delicious food. More than a fair trade, Iona thought.

By this point, it was almost certain that Cure Mirage would be elected Rosehearted. Rosehearted, the Crown of Roses, the Roseriver… Sometimes Iona found herself questioning the creativity of the Pretty Cure. She never mentioned it, of course, as all her fellow Cures seemed so pleased by that, by all those roses, and they never shut up about who they thought should be the new Rosehearted.

It was in the middle of one such debate that Iona found a handful of Cures inside one of the many leisure rooms of the Tower: a small, cozy room with comfortable couches in the Empress Wing. Iona stepped inside, curious, and thinking that she should try to take part in the affairs of the Red Rose.

"I think you're being hasty," Nagisa's voice was the loudest, but the others weren't far behind.

"It's been two months," said Southern Cross, or at least Iona thought this was Southern Cross. They had never really talked, other than a few greetings they hurriedly exchanged a couple of times. "Two months is plenty of time to make up your mind."

"About what, if I may ask?" There was no point in listening to a conversation she did not understand, so she had to know.

"The election, of course," said Nagisa. "They're thinking of holding them a week from now."

"They?"

"Everyone but these two," Southern Cross pointed at Cures Black and White. "They want only to delay it, but it's been delayed for long enough. What do you think, Iona?"

"I…" She was not quite sure. It didn't really matter, since Mirage would almost definitely be victorious anyways. Still, it did seem a bit hasty, considering the Precure had basically spent the past months trying to return to normality, somehow. "I think I agree with Nagisa. Two months might be enough if things were normal, but they aren't."

Southern Cross laughed at her. The Cure next to her giggled as well, but she had the decency to be discreet about it. This was the first time Iona had seen her away from her companions, who called themselves the Bomber Girls. She always thought it was a distasteful name, though the girls themselves were usually pleasant. This one was Cure Frontier, that much was easy to tell from the large hat that she always wore.

"What's so funny?"

"It's been two months. I'm tired of being here, just waiting. We oughta do the right: vote for Mirage and try to get something done. I know Black and White want to delay it so that Honoka has a chance to win, but-"

"That's a lie," said Honoka. "Is it Mirage who's saying that?"

"No, it's everybody else. You gotta face it, Honoka: you're not going to win. Everybody knows you hate Mirage, but you'll just have to accept there's nothing you can do about it."

"I don't have her," Honoka said. "I just don't like how everyone's flocking to her side, when this is the worst possible time to have to pick a side. We should all work together, and not bother with petty politicking."

"You say that because you're the one who's bad at getting people to support her," Frontier's voice was surprisingly gentle for her harsh words. "We should get going now, Harper. I'm tired of this argument."

"Right, right," Southern Cross got up, gave Iona a mocking wave, and left with Frontier by her side. Once they were alone with Iona, Honoka sighed and picked up her teacup from the table, while Nagisa groaned.

Iona sat down on the couch in front of Black and White. They were inseparable, not only because they needed to be together to transform: their relationship was well-known to all.

"Is nobody drinking this?" Iona pointed at a glass of juice that hadn't even been touched. When her fingers touched the cold glass, a small flip phone next to it began to vibrate violently. The device unfolded, revealing the furious head of a fairy within.

"That's mine!" He shouted, so suddenly that Iona sprung back.

"M-Mepple!" Nagisa picked up the phone, and tried to make her fairy shut up, which proved to be an effort in vain.

"My juice is too cold, so I was waiting for it to get a little warmer before I could drink it! It has five ice cubes! Five!"

"Only because you wanted five," said Nagisa.

"S-Shut up! You can't scold me! In fact, I should be the one scolding you! How dare you let those girls talk to you like that?"

"Let them talk," said Honoka, who also picked up her phone, and opened the clamshell to let her own fairy get some air. "They're just empty words."

"They shouldn't talk to you like that, though," Iona had to agree with the loud fairy: Black and White were esteemed Cures, worthy of respect. They had been fighting the denizens of the Dusk Zone for ten years now, or close to it. The Cures who mocked them were only children when Nagisa and Honoka joined the Red Rose. "After everything you've done for the Precure, they should at least hear you out."

"Not everyone thinks like you," Honoka said. "To put it frankly, most Cures see me and Nagisa as just has-beens. Not all, of course, but most."

"Why?"

"Because we settle down," said Nagisa, not even bothering to hide her bitterness. We were fourteen when we became Precure. We helped keep the soldiers of the Dusk Zone at bay for five years, until we turned nineteen and began to work at Verone Academy, the same place where we once had learned most of what we knew. Five years of risking our lives, every single day. We know that a Precure's duty is for life, but tell me, could that even be called a life? Wake up, get an assignment from a higher-up, get out and seek our destination, which could take a long time if it was somewhere distant. Then we'd fight, sometimes we'd almost die, we'd cry, we'd fear, again and again and again and again until it all blurred together and we had forgotten what it meant to have a future."

"I… I'm sorry?" What the hell was Iona supposed to say to that? She barely even knew Nagisa, and here she was, spitting out all her frustrations.

"Don't be. Looking back, it was not that bad. We made friends, lots of them, and we made a difference."

"But it was not what we wanted," Iona saw Honoka's hand seek out Nagisa's, twining together. "We were too diligent, I think. In five years we did what many Cures take a lifetime to accomplish. It burned us out, so, together, we made the decision to start working at Verone Academy. Nagisa instructed all who wanted to learn the many forms of combat, while I taught the sciences to younger students, all the while I conducted all sorts of research. It made us happy, to have our own house, to live together, to not have to wake up with the knowledge that we might not be able to see the other by the time night falls."

"I see," said Iona. It did seem like a hard life, even though they were doing what they loved. After all, all the Precure loved to fight for the good of the world, or, at least, they were supposed to. "Mai told me a little about your work, Honoka."

"Mai was a prodigy," said Honoka, "though she did not really understand what I saw in her, and in her partner. Mai has a wonderful eye for the beauties of the world. Have you seen her art? It's outstanding, but what makes it truly special are the small details. When you look upon her larger paintings, of landscapes and lush scenery, the first thing you notice are the smallest flowers and the way their colors complement each other, or the shapes of pebbles on the ground, almost mosaics. She notices those things that most of us can't, so it's no wonder she was such a talented caretaker of the Heart Tree."

"She must have been," said Iona. She had heard of the Heart Tree, and seen some photographs, but those, of course, couldn't replace the actual sight of them. There was so much that Iona had heard about the world, but she had barely seen any of it. Unlike her sister, who always spoke of the wonders she saw in the letters she sent to Iona. There was no need for letters when there were so many other ways to communicate, but Maria wanted Iona to have something she had actually touched, something that had belonged to her. At least that's what Iona chose to believe.

"Say, Iona," Nagisa looked straight at her, "are you part of a team?"

"No," she said. "I'm not too fond of working with anyone other than Glasan," they had gone out on several scouting trips, but every time Mirage urged her to take a companion with her, Iona refused.

"Pity," said Nagisa.

"It's her choice," Honoka shrugged. "Don't bother her about it. Still, I agree that it's something you should consider."

"I have considered it," was Honoka doubting her decisions? Iona misliked that. She could feel that hateful spark again, and tried to quell it. "I decided not to. I already had to work with Dream and Beauty to rescue Mai, and that was a miserable experience that I'd hate to suffer through another time."

That was a lie, Iona knew it, but maybe if she repeated it enough times, she would end up believing it to be true.

"Is it true, though?" Nagisa asked, ever fond of sudden questions that needed to be clarified. "What everyone is saying? You plan on lighting a Starlight Flame?"

I mentioned it once or twice, how is it that it's apparently common knowledge? Then again, with little else to do, the Cures of the Phoenix Tower loved to gossip.

"Calling it a plan is a bit too much. It's a hope I have, to be able to do it, someday. But I don't have anything really planned."

"I see," Nagisa sounded disappointed. She got up, and Honoka followed. Small wonder so many Cures joked about how Black and White were sewn together. "I had hoped you were being far more serious about it."

"Why?"

"Well, this starless sky of ours is quite ugly, don't you think?" Said Honoka. "Nagisa and I both agreed that someone needs to do something about it."

"Yes, someone."

"Why not you?" Iona snapped at them. She wasn't fond of being told what to do.

"We don't fight that much, anymore," said Nagisa. "The other Cures are right. We failed to protect Verone. Ten years ago, we might have been able to do it, but nowadays, I'm not quite so sure."

"And you'd like me to do this for you, since you are too scared to do it yourselves?"

"T-that's not what I meant," said Nagisa, even though that absolutely was what she meant. "I just meant that-"

"Nagisa just meant that it surely would be nice if someone decided to actually do something about this sad state we're in. Someone younger, someone who can make a difference."

"Like me."

"Like you," she admitted. "Like Dream, like Beauty. Or even like your s-"

"Don't. Don't you dare," Iona's nails dug into her own legs. She had to hold herself in place. "Don't use her name to try and convince me to do something."

Maria had never told her what to do. Maria always supported whatever she had chosen, no matter what it was, always with utmost respect to Iona's decisions. Even when Iona wanted to learn how to read the Fates, that art forgotten by most, Maria had told her she should do it, even as all others told her it was a waste of time. Well, it was because of the Fates that she had found Mai, so Maria was the right one, in the end. Maria was always the right one. So why did she have to be the one to be taken away, and not Iona?

"Get out," Iona said at last, rising, pointing at the open door. She was furious, but she didn't even know at whom. Perhaps it was everyone, and most of all, herself. She let it all out without thinking. "Get out!"

They left, with their phones in hand, but not before Honoka gave Iona a look that was full of pity, which only served to make her angrier. They had no right to even mention Maria's name. No one did, not even Iona. It only brought her pain, so she too wanted to forget, to never think of Maria gain, so that, maybe, it would stop hurting.

But that was a childish hope, and her nightmares always proved her wrong. Maria's was a ghost she could not escape. She sat down again, and began to drink from a cup that had been left by someone else, almost laughing at herself for being so stupid. She was as a bigger fool than even Nozomi was, to think she could forget.

She watched Nagisa and Honoka disappear in the distance as they turned the corner of a corridor. She had watched Yuko and Hime leave, too, as well as Nozomi and Reika. By now it's a habit of mine, she thought mockingly, but didn't laugh. She just sighed and clung to a ghost.

Mai stared at the letter upon her table, laid in the midst of a dozen half-finished scribbles. "It's from Cure Mirage," Katyusha had said when she brought it, along with piles of mail from the Phoenix Tower. "It's about your mother."

She wished that Ekaterina hadn't told her that. It only made her dread reading it, and so she delayed as long as she could, until she couldn't anymore. It had been a week or so since she had gotten it, now. She had tried to draw, to distract herself, to avoid whatever it was that Mirage meant to tell her. But she could not avoid it anymore. The time had come, long ago.

Mai took the letter and cut off its rose seal with a pencil. The letter took only a single page, but Mirage's handwriting was small, so small that Mai had to squint to understand some words. The first few lines were empty formalities, but soon they got to the point.

As promised, I have questioned Namakelder and extracted as much information from him as I could. Not all was of great use, and not all pertains to you, so I will tell you only that which I think would interest you. Should you have any further questions, or want to know more of what I have learned, don't hesitate to write back to me.

First of all, I must ask you not to despair.

Mirage certainly wasn't helping. Mai's chest tightened, and she felt the urge to leave. Instead she read on.

You were not merely kept prisoner; you were a hostage, with the purpose of ensuring your mother's cooperation. Namakelder worked under the orders of Dark Fall, which also holds your family captive, as well as the families of many other Cures, taken as prisoners through subterfuge. Your partner, Cure Bloom, is locked underground, deep within the frozen heart of Dark Fall, in the northernmost region of our world. Your prison was poorly-garrisoned because of that: it does not matter if you're free, as Cure Bloom cannot possibly escape. She will remain there forever, Namakelder told me.

But your mother might not be as safe. Her assistance was the price of your life; you were to be executed, but she promised Dark Fall that, if you were spared, she would work for them.

Her mother. The words she read made Mai want to heave. Professor Kanako was a renowned scholar of ancient magical artifacts, and had even found some in digsites set up by Verone Academy. Whatever it was that Dark Fall wanted with her, it was surely dangerous.

Now that you are freed, your mother may be hurt in retaliation. I am so sorry. Please do not blame yourself, or Nozomi, Reika, Iona. I swear to you that, someday, your mother will be returned to you safely. Once I am elected Rosehearted, I will do all within my power to rescue her.

Mai wondered how she could be so certain of that. Even so, it made no difference. Mai knew that Dark Fall knew nothing of mercy.

She didn't cry at all, that was the oddest thing. After all this anticipation, she had abandoned all hopes of good news. But when she began to wonder where her mother might be right now, what she could be suffering, she trembled. She thought of her father, her brother, her friends.

And Saki.

After all this time, that was what hurt the most. It made Mai feel guilty: it was her family she should miss most of all, her mother's smile, her father's advice, her brother's touch as he messed up her hair the way he always did when he was being playful. He wasn't playful all that often, Mai reflected, so now she wished she had loved it more when she had the chance. It was them that she should miss above anything else.

And yet it was to Saki that her mind always drifted to. For a long time she had wondered what might have happened to Saki, and for a while she even believed that learning her fate would bring her some sort of solace, but now that she did, it only made her feel worse.

It was her fault. Knowing that was hurt most of all. She and Saki were the last protectors of the Heart Tree, alongside Cure Marine. Mai and Saki were still strangers to fighting, only having become Precures some months before the attack, but they did their best as they fought by Erika's side. She still remembered the last time she saw Erika: she said she was going to go back to the outpost that had been set up by the Red Rose near the Heart Tree. She'd ask for help one last time, she said, and told Egret and Bloom to protect the tree.

Erika did not come back. Mai didn't even know if she made it to the outpost, or if it would have even made a difference. Hundreds of Desertrians swarmed around the Heart Tree, too many for just three Cures to protect it. They should have run, Mai knew it now. It was dishonourable, but there was nothing they could have done. They should have run. Instead they fought, and Mai was the one who insisted on it. She was the one who said they should trust Erika, and wait for help.

Help never came, only the Desertrians and their commanders. Among them, Mai saw some familiar faces: generals of Dark Fall that she had seen before, agents of the Dusk Zone that Honoka had told her about, and the dreaded Bloody from Nightmare. They had no chance, but they also had no choice. They fought for longer than they should have been able to, driven further and further through pure determination, but not far enough: Saki was overwhelmed and took a savage blow to the back of her head. She fell unconscious, Flappy begging her to wake up, but the colors began to fade from her clothes as her transformation was undone.

Hers, and Mai's. She was the next one to fall. As her vision grew black, the last thing she heard was the two fairies, Choppy and Flappy, crying for their partners to get up. It was a haunting sound, one that she still heard sometimes in her nightmares. She was crying, now that she remembered that, yet she had not cried when she heard the news about her mother. That only made her feel more ashamed.

She heard a knock on the door. Could it be Ayumi? But it was still so early. She should be practicing with Reika. She had no time to wipe her tears, so Mai just opened the door, hoping her face would go unnoticed and Ayumi limped inside, her right leg black and blue.

"What happened, Ayumi?" Mai asked, worried.

"I was sparring with Reika," Ayumi said before she sat down and began to massage her bruised leg, "but, well, I think you can see that I wasn't fast enough to dodge."

"Does it hurt?"

"Not that much, actually," she shook her head, "but Reika told me to go home and rest. I can't say I disagree with that recommendation. I'm kind of tired from all the practice… Not that I'm complaining! It's very kind of Beauty to help me. I think we went a bit too far today, though, even though I asked for it…"

"Best not to walk too much like this, or-"

"Mai," Ayumi suddenly seemed concerned. She noticed, Mai knew. "Were you crying?"

"I…"

There was no hiding it now. She nodded, and showed Ayumi the letter. Choppy was asleep, and Mai needed to tell someone, she needed some sort of comfort, even if only so she wouldn't break down. Ayumi read it quickly, and she put it down wordlessly. She seemed shaken as well, even though the letter didn't even concern her.

"Mai, I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry too," she said. "I never wanted to put her in danger."

Did I mean my mother, or Saki? Somehow Mai couldn't tell.

"I'm not even a real Cure anymore," putting it to words hurt even more than she thought it would, "not without Saki. So I can't do a thing. I can't do a thing…"

"But I can!" Ayumi said, her arms suddenly jumping up so that she could hold Mai's hands. Her eyes were filled with a determination that Mai had never seen before. "I can. I can, and will! Reika asked me… She asked me why I wanted to become a Precure. I didn't know then, but now I do. I do, Mai. I want to help you. Your mother. Your partner."

"Ayumi, you don't-"

"I want to. Please, Mai, let me do it. I promise I will help you. I promise. This is why I wanted to become a Precure. I wanted to do some good. I want to make a difference, a positive one."

"Ayumi…" Mai smiled, despite everything. Ayumi made it hurt a little less.

"I don't know when I'll be able to bring your mother back to you," she admitted. "I don't even know when I'll become a Precure. But… But now I know what I must do. What I want to do. We all have a reason that made us want to become Precure, that drives us, don't we? Nozomi said so. Let this be my reason, Mai. I'll find your mother, I promise it."

"I… Please," Mai said, squeezing her hand. "Please. Please… Mother…"

And Saki, she thought, but said nothing.

There was a light knock on Reika's door, and even before Nozomi spoke out, Reika already knew it had to be her. Only Nozomi would bang against the door so late at night, when all of Last Light had retreated to their homes, to try to sleep. Not Reika, though, not yet: she sat on her bed with a book in hands, brought from the Phoenix Tower a month ago. Reika was usually a fast reader, but she found herself with little time since she settled down here. She had no complaints about that, as she was glad that there were always things that needed to be done, but she hoped to finish it soon.

"Come in," said Reika. She hadn't locked her door yet.

Nozomi did as she was told. She opened the door as gently as she could, which wasn't much. It creaked loudly, and when it was closed by Nozomi, it did so with a violent thump. Her face was red with embarrassment, but Reika only told her to sit down. There were no chairs in her bedroom, so Nozomi sat next to her, on her bed.

"Yayoi is still awake, I presume," Reika said. Either that, or she had forgotten to close the door of their house, which Reika didn't doubt either.

"Yeah," Nozomi said with a nod. "I guess she's gotten used to me coming here to see you."

Indeed she had, and she always asked what it was that Nozomi so often needed her for. She, of course, didn't tell. She had promised Nozomi she wouldn't.

"Have you remembered to bring your book tonight?"

"I have," Nozomi said, and she showed it to Reika, with a hint of pride on her careless smile. The book had been bound in leather, and it appeared to be quite old, but it had been printed just a couple of years ago. It was a luxury edition of a very popular history textbooks, one that was used in classrooms all around the world, including Coco's classes in Last Light. "Ah, I lost my bookmark! It was here, I'm sure of it!"

"Don't shout. Just tell me what you studied today."

"The last years of the Precure Dominion," she said. Of course, Reika thought; it seemed that the Precure Dominion was all that everyone studied in their history classes. The Dominion was gone, and so were its Rose Queens, but even so the Precure had made sure that it was their history that was studied above all others, and only in the ways they desired. "Do you know of it?"

Reika nodded. It was a rather basic subject. She waited as Nozomi desperately flipped the pages of her book until she found what she was looking for.

"What are you having trouble with?"

"Er… Everything," she admitted. She tried to laugh, but sighed. She did not talk about it often, but Reika knew that her difficulties with studying bothered her more than she let others know. "There's just so much to remember, so much to understand. There are all these queens and princesses and really important people, and they all do so many things that have repercussions a dozen years later, and I just can't… I can't remember it. I can't understand it. Could you please help me?"

"Of course," Reika was glad that Nozomi always came to her for help. Some would be too proud to admit they didn't understand something, that they needed assistance, but pride was the deadliest poison there was. Nozomi's veins, thankfully, were free of that venom. "It really is hard to remember all those names, so I don't blame you for it."

"It's not just that it's hard to remember," she said, "but I also have a lot of other subjects to study. Nile even said that some of us might have to go to the Phoenix Tower to study science with Honoka, and magic with Mr. Momoi… That's too much!"

"I'm sure it won't come to that," Reika said. "And if it does, well, worrying over it in advance won't do you much good, will it?"

"Y-You're right," Nozomi said, then sighed. If she expected Reika to just agree with her, to tell her that it's okay to feel too discouraged to study, then she didn't know Reika at all.

Once Nozomi had found the right page (which took far longer than it should), they began to review what she had studied, together. Just as Nozomi had said, it was the Precure Dominion that she was studying, and how it came to an end. It was not something studied by the general populace, or, in fact, even known by them, as the Red Rose deliberately concealed its past, but every Precure was supposed to learn about this.

Reika answered all of Nozomi's questions patiently, but even so, she seemed to get really nervous whenever she didn't know something, which happened rather frequently. When they first began to study together, Reika thought it was simple frustration on Nozomi's part, but now she knew that it was embarrassment. Reika didn't understand why, but at the same time, she wasn't too sure if she should question Nozomi about it.

It didn't help that Nozomi couldn't stay still. She was always asking questions, and always listening to Reika, but she did so as she walked in circles around the bedroom, and occasionally looked outside, through the window. It could be frustrating, Reika had to admit.

Still, she was learning, even if slowly, and as she read the textbook, Reika herself had to admit that she had forgotten some of the little details that she had once studied. The writing was rather pleasant to read, in truth, unlike some of the dry history books she had read in the past, and Nozomi was actually quite interested in the subject, despite her difficulties.

Together they read about the turmoil of the rule of Cure Dragon, who ascended to the throne after winning a harsh war of succession against her sister, Cure Wyvern. They read about Cure Mountain, who would often lock herself in her chambers for weeks while the Precure Dominion would tear itself apart. There was the tale of Cure Cherry, a distant relative of Cure Mountain who inherited the Crown of Roses despite being only a footnote in the line of succession, as all the other pretenders died, abandoned the Red Rose, disappeared or, outrageously, refused the crown.

It really was a bit too much to study, Reika had to admit. Cherry was far from the last queen, and all who came after her had fascinating stories that took up multiple pages, but the essence of them was that the last dozen or so rulers of the Dominion were either incompetent or utterly dedicated to destroying their own realm, so by the time the last queen died without a heir, the Precure Dominion was already doomed.

"I don't understand, though," Nozomi said when she sat down again, after half an hour had passed. "There's so many of them… I can't even remember their names, or their order"

"But do you remember what they did?" Reika asked. That, after all, was what mattered. "By which I mean, if I say a name, would you remember who it was?"

"Maybe," Nozomi said, pouting. "Try it, then."

"Cherry."

"She, ah… She lowered the taxes so much that the realm had no money to even maintain the Phoenix Tower. Then, a decade later, when she rose them, everyone was furious and there were lots of rebellion. Right?" Reika nodded. "I think that's when the Sweets Kingdom became independent."

"The Dessert Kingdom," she corrected, "but otherwise you're right. Who came after Cherry?"

"I… Have no idea," she threw herself on Reika's bed, and let out a loud sigh. "I can't remember. I'm sorry. I'm just so stupid."

"You aren't stupid, Nozomi."

"Well, everyone says I am, and everyone thinks that. Even Iona said so, and we only knew each other for a day. She… She's not wrong. I really am not very smart," she buried her face on one of Reika's pillows.

"Don't say that. When you dedicate yourself to something, you are quite talented, Nozomi. It might take a little longer, but-"

"It always takes longer for me," she got up. Her eyes were red. Reika didn't know what to do, so she kept her silence. "Everything. Things that everyone does so easily take me a long time. It's always been like this. I've always had to put twice as much effort into things than everybody else, just so I could keep up. And even that is not enough now."

"But you always put the effort into those things," Reika said. She got up, and looked at Nozomi in the face. She was struggling not to cry, but Reika wished that she would just let it out. By now they should trust each other enough for that.

"Yeah. Look where that got me. I've always been surrounded by exceptional people, you know. Rin was a prodigy, everyone always told her that she'd go far, and they were right. Urara was a celebrity at thirteen, and Komachi wrote her first novel while she was still in middle school! And I don't need to tell you about Karen."

"And does that bother you?"

"No, no… Please don't think I envy my friends, or that I'm bitter. They make me proud whenever they succeed. But I know that people think pretty lowly of me, they think that I surround myself with people who are better than me because I can't do anything on my own. Even the other Precure think that."

"Whoever thinks that is an idiot!" Reika didn't mean to shout, but she did. It was such an unusual thing that Yayoi rushed to open the door and ask what was wrong, and Reika had to dismiss her.

Nozomi sat down again, and Reika did the same. At last, Nozomi allowed herself some tears.

"You've never done anything wrong," said Reika, "and you are a good person, so whoever treats you poorly because you're not as academically proficient as others is a great fool."

"There are many great fools, then," she said with an awkward smile that looked a bit too forced. But still, it was a smile, and a small triumph. "The other Cures always tried to approach my teammates, but when they weren't treating me with scorn, they were ignoring me completely. I mean, why shouldn't they?"

"You shouldn't pay them a single thought if they treat you that poorly."

"I shouldn't, but I do. It's hard to ignore people who all but say you're worthless. I try not to let it bring me down, and usually I can do it, because I always keep myself occupied, but sometimes, when I'm all alone with my thoughts, I keep remembering the things that people said, I feel ashamed."

"You have nothing to be ashamed of, Nozomi, I swear it. We all have our weaknesses. You might have trouble with learning and remembering things, but what of it? There are much worse flaws you could have. You could be petty, you could be cruel, you could be vain, selfish, but no. You just need a little help, and there's no shame in that. You're a friend, so you're always worth helping."

"Ah… Thank you. Thank you, truly. You are right. It was stupid of me to think I'm stupid," now her smile was genuine, though her face was still wet with tears. "We should get back to studying, then. It's late, and I don't want to keep you from sleeping."

"Right, right. Well, then… Who came after Cure Cherry, and what challenges did she face?" Nozomi's face made it very clear that she couldn't remember. "Well, if you have so much trouble remembering names, how about trying a mnemonic device?"

"A what now?"

"Just a way to help you remember the names of the last queens, and their order. My friends said it was very useful for them. When they needed to remember many names, they would make a few short sentences that used said names, and that way they'd remember."

"I could try that, then."

"Dragon, Mountain, Cherry, Crimson, Roar, Nebula, Magma and Shield. Those are the names of all the queens of the later period of the Precure Dominion."

"Oh, damn. Okay, let me try. Um… The dragon went to the mountain to eat cherries. They were… Who was after Cherry, anyways?"

"Cure Crimson."

"They were crimson. She roared at a nebula… A nebula made of magma… Then a shield fell on her. Yeah… This is silly."

"It's meant to be silly, Nozomi. That way you'll remember it," Akane was especially good at coming up with these. Reika knew it was a good technique, but she just couldn't think of memorable phrases. "See if you can remember the phrase now."

"The dragon went to the mountain to eat a nebula… No, it was cherries. Yeah. And then… Um… Ah, dang, I forgot their order."

"That's alright, Nozomi. Let's try again," and again, and again, if need be.

"Still can't sleep?" Nagisa asked Honoka even though she already knew the answer. Honoka always spent hours reading when she couldn't sleep, which, nowadays, was pretty much every night.

"Obviously not."

"Mepple and Mipple are already asleep," said Nagisa.

"Good for them."

"Are you upset?"

"You don't have to ask," that was true. Nagisa could easily tell when something bothered Honoka, it's just that she couldn't always know what it was, especially now that she had so many reasons to be upset.

"I ask because I want to know," Nagisa said. It agonized her to see Honoka like this every night: sitting on the floor with piles of books scattered around her, a candle lit by her side and half a dozen notebooks where she wrote down notes frequently. "What are you reading?"

Honoka didn't bother answering. She just tossed a book at Nagisa; gently, of course, as were almost all of Honoka's actions, but she wasn't just upset tonight. She was angry. Once she had the book on her hands, Nagisa wasn't even interested in it anymore. Something about the Garden of Thorns. Nagisa put it on the floor next to their bed.

"Come sleep, love, please. Try to, at least."

"Why try, when I know I won't be able to?"

"Are you upset because of what Iona said? That we're scared?"

"That's one of the reasons, yes. I'm angry because I know she's right. We should be fighting. We should be going out. And yet we aren't. And I admit that I'm afraid of fighting. It was easy to risk my life when I was fourteen and stupid, and life was an adventure, the greatest adventure, but now… Now, it just seems like a terrifying prospect to expect girls so young to be able to fight."

"Someone has to."

"I know. I just meant that now I know what life is worth, more than I could possibly know back when I was fourteen and curious about the world. When I just wanted to investigate everything with no concern for anything else. Now I know what life is worth, and I don't want to risk mine anymore."

"We always knew what it was worth! That's why we fought, Honoka, or have you forgotten?"

Honoka had no answer for that, so she only kept reading, like she always did when she had no idea what to say. It was a rare thing, for Honoka to not know something, but Nagisa had been with her for a decade now, so she had seen it plenty of times. It hurt: Honoka was always so full of answers, of knowledge, so to see her so confused, so unsure of what to do… Nagisa could not stand it.

"I'm a coward," was all that Honoka said. Nagisa didn't disagree. She had no right to. She was afraid, too. She had not fought in so long, and she had never seen enemies as fierce as the ones they had to fight now. The stories they heard about the overrun kingdoms… They too kept Nagisa up at night, almost as much as Honoka. "But there's something else."

"Hm?"

"Hikari."

"Ah."

Nagisa didn't want to talk about it, even though Honoka always tried to. As the fires devoured Verone, Hikari and Mr. Momoi rushed back into the academy to rescue trapped students. Kyosuke Momoi was one of the most accomplished teachers of magic in Verone, and Hikari was his most prized student, so when he asked for her help, she was glad to oblige.

Kyosuke came back from Verone, alongside half a hundred students of all ages, but Hikari didn't. She was looking for more pupils, he told Nagisa and Honoka, who were too busy guiding the masses of students gathered in Verone's docks into the few ships the school had available, while Cure Peace fought to keep the soldiers of the Dusk Zone away from those who could not fight back.

"We left her behind, Nagisa," Honoka said. Now Nagisa was the one who didn't know how to answer.

"We had no choice," Nagisa said, though now she knew they did. But then, when the fires were raging, when hundreds of Zakenna threatened children and teenagers who just wanted to escape with their lives, and she had to choose between waiting for Hikari or letting them all die… It was a simple choice to make, even though it hurt.

"You keep saying that, but you don't believe it. Do you worry about Hikari, Nagisa?"

"I do, but-"

"You don't show it, you know? You never talked about Hikari since we left Verone. Did you even wonder, just once?"

"I always wonder," said Nagisa. "But Hikari is a skilled magician. She might not be a Precure, but her magic is as strong as ours, if not even mightier. She can defend herself. She's not fond of fighting and hurting others, but her magic is amazing. You've seen it. I'm sure she escaped."

"Are you?"

"Yes," said Nagisa. "And so should you be. You should have faith in Hikari."

"I do, but I worry all the same. And I don't understand how you can be so laid-back, or how you expect me to feel like that, too."

"Look, right now, there's nothing we can do, sad as it is to admit. But if you neglect yourself and stop sleeping because of worry, then you'll get sick, depressed, lethargic. I don't want that to happen to you, Honoka," Nagisa reached out to her, but Honoka hesitated to hold her hand. It was what she did when she was truly distressed, and though it was a rare occurrence, Nagisa had seen it before, and it hurt her to see Honoka like this, again.

"I know you don't," she said, "but I can't sleep. When I'm by your side, beneath our warm blanket, I… I feel guilty. Horribly so."

"You shouldn't."

"And yet I do. Around us, the world is a ruin, and here we are, with a comfortable bed and with our lives out of immediate danger. We should be out there, fighting. We should be looking for Hikari, not just hoping and praying she's fine. Prayer is useless, and hope is clearly getting us nowhere."

"But it's all we have," Nagisa insisted. "All else is lost, so we need to cling to hope, even if the only good it does us is helping us sleep. So come, and sleep."

"I want to," she said, closing her book. She got up, and sat next to Nagisa, but she didn't lay down. "I want to…"

"But you still can't?" She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to do. I wish I could make you feel better. I wish I knew the right words to say."

"There aren't words that will just make this better, Nagisa, my love," Honoka put a hand on her cheek, caressing it. "Words, words, words… Mirage talks a lot, and so do I, and you, and everyone else, we keep making plans and wondering what could have happened… Words, all of it, thrown to the wind. Only the girls that went to Last Light are actually doing anything, and even then, not much."

"What of those girls who lit the Starlight Flame? Who've rescued Cure Egret from her prison? Beauty, Fortune, Dream, I think those are their names? You're being unfair by saying that no one is doing anything."

"Three Cures," she showed three fingers with a hand, and laughed. "We'd need a hundred more like them to get something done."

"Now, now, you and me both know very well that just three - or two, even - Precure are enough to make a big difference. We're proof of that."

"That was years ago, when we were free of responsibilities, when all we had to do was go out and fight evil, whatever it was. Did we ever even understand what it was? I don't think so. We were young.

"Oh, that's nonsense," Nagisa got closer to Honoka. Brilliant as she was, Honoka could say the silliest things when she was discouraged like this. "We are still young, and we can still fight really well, even if we're a bit out of practice," and even then, not that much. Nagisa hadn't fought any serious foes in a long time, true, but she was constantly training and tutoring Cures.

"So you're saying-"

"I'm saying you're right. Words are pointless, and so is staying here. You would still put your life on my hands, right?"

"Of course," Honoka said, her eyes alive again as she understood what Nagisa was about to propose. "And you?"

"Me too. Maybe we can't save Hikari right now, but we can go out and fight again, like we used to. No grandiose goals or politicking or anything of the sort, just the two of us looking for people in need of help, and in enemies in need of an ass-kicking," she grinned, and Honoka couldn't help but smile.

"What a sweet plan. Still only a seed, though. We should give it some thought before we can let it grow." Honoka said, sighing. "You're right, though. We have no reason to be here. Mirage will be elected, obviously, so there'll be nothing keeping me here. We'll be free, just like we used to be, no?"

"Yes," Nagisa was glad Honoka was so quick to agree. She had not forgotten what it meant to be a Precure, not truly, she just needed a little help to remember it. "We'll do it, the two of us."

"Two…" Honoka's smile was suddenly sly. Nagisa didn't understand what she was thinking, and that was the way she liked it. She could understand her when she was sad, but an excited Honoka was a mystery she always loved to decipher. "Nozomi and Reika accomplished great things on their own, just as we did, so you're right, two people are enough… But wouldn't it be so much better to have more?"

"Three, then?"

"Or four, even," she said, finally getting up and sitting next to Nagisa. She cupped Nagisa's cheek with a hand. "Or, who knows… Five?"

Chapter Text

Eas tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the delivery boy to arrive. She looked to the skies above, at the thick fog, hoping that she'd see him landing. This was pathetic: with all the computers that Labyrinth had, it should be a matter of pressing a button so that her message could reach the Precure, but letters were the only way to reach the Phoenix Tower, and so Eas had to wait for Syrup while Soular laughed at her restlessness.

"He's late," she said, looking at the clock on the corner of her computer screen. Next to her keyboard was her letter: handwritten, the way the Precure liked, what with their hopelessly archaic way of thinking. If it was obsolete, the Precure loved it, always. Eas' own handwriting was a mess, as she rarely ever needed to use it, but it was readable with some effort.

"He isn't," said Soular, whose fingernails knocking constantly against his desk only made Eas' migraine worse. They made her want to tear off his fingers. "He never is. You're the one who can't wait."

"He is", she insisted, and pointed at the time. Soular leaned to take a look, and then shrugged.

"I guess he really is late, then. How unusual. Maybe security is holding him up."

That would make sense, but it did not ease Eas' restlessness. The time was right, Eas knew, she did not want to wait. She had tried to occupy herself with menial work filling spreadsheets in her computer, but that piece of junk kept crashing.

Eas slammed her hand on her keyboard in frustration as, once again, her computer screen froze and turned blue. She wished she could be back at her office, where she had decent equipment, but her building was locked, off-limits, as were all other important facilities in Labyrinth. In the middle of the night, someone had broken into the data centers of the North Sector of Labyrinth. Some research facilities had almost been breached, too, and there were signs that someone had been in Eas' workplace, so, to be safe, Northa had ordered all the facilities to be locked tight.

"Some must still be there," she had said, "mice infesting our buildings, trying to uncover our secrets. Well, let's see how they like it when they're locked inside until they starve."

If Eas didn't have the good sense that she does, she would have yelled at Northa for locking the workers inside as well, thousands of them, just to get rid of a handful of infiltrators, but, luckily, Eas knew to keep her outrage to herself.

It was odd, though: she was the only one who seemed to feel outraged about it at all. Everyone else had accepted it without even a hint of doubt. It was always like this, Eas had noticed. Everyone accepted the commands of Northa and Moebius without a problem, everyone but her. She could see it in their eyes: they were afraid, they dared not resist. Eas, however, knew that it was not fear that she felt for Northa, for Klein, for Moebius and for Labyrinth.

It was hatred. It was anger, and the desire to tear this cruel place down with her own hands. She never dared speak of this desire to anyone, but she knew what it meant. It meant she was defective: all citizens of Labyrinth were born with their minds altered so that they would feel utmost terror and revulsion at the mere idea of betraying their overlord Moebius. Babies were taken from their mothers and sent to Klein's laboratories, where their brains would be meddled with to make them obey. Sometimes it didn't work, and the failed specimens were disposed of rather quickly. Somehow Eas wasn't. She tried to think of the reason, but when she thought of her own past, her head hurt again.

"When will we go back to our offices?" Westar asked from behind Eas. He wasn't at his desk, but then again, he had never been very good with computers, so it didn't make much of a difference that he wasn't working.

"I don't know," said Eas. She wanted to go back, too. This new "office" was just a dozen desks and computers inside a small apartment meant to be a residence, not a workplace. "Soon, hopefully, once Northa is done with these infiltrators, spies, or whatever they are. It's none of our business to question her."

"Indeed," said Soular. "Which is why I didn't question her when she put you in charge of destroying the Precure. But I haven't seen you do much."

"Are you blind, then?" She asked. "Syrup delivered all my letters to the Phoenix Tower. Things are going well."

"Are they? Doesn't seem like you're making any progress. Are you sure they're trusting you?"

"They aren't, idiot," said Eas. "They're not meant to trust me, even the Precure are not so naive as to put their faith in me after I've slain Cure Peach," she looked at the clover amulet next to her keyboard. "This time, I know it will not be so easy, so I'm taking a different approach."

"Oh, that's smart," said Westar, always impressed by anything more elegant than crushing skulls.

"I don't want them to trust me," said Eas, "what I want is for them to have no choice but to depend on me. I will give them information they need. Whereabouts of Precure our Nakewameke have located, for instance. I will approach them as a double agent, and they will immediately doubt me, as they should. I did kill Peach, after all. They will ignore my first message, and my second, but I will persist, sending more and more. When they finally open my letter, they will immediately know that they are being manipulated."

"How so?"

"I learned of a group of Precure in the Trump Kingdom," said Eas. "Dozens of them, an underground resistance, striking at the Selfish from within their walls. Our drones and agents have learned that Princess Regina is leading a campaign against the Land of Toys and Märchenland, the two closest neighbors of the Trump Kingdom. All the while, the capital of Trump lies undefended, ripe for the taking."

"I don't get it," Westar scratched his head.

"They'll read my message," Eas continued, "and they'll think that it looks too good, doesn't it? I'm offering them the opportunity to rescue many Cures and maybe even light a Starlight Flame or two if they're smart about it. Too good indeed, and very suspicious coming from a traitor. And then they'll remember that the Selfish are our enemies. They go against all the beliefs of Labyrinth. Selfishness instead of unity, hedonism and debauchery over hard work and sacrifice."

"I see," Soular smiled. "They'll think you are just using them as pawns to strike at our enemy… So they will trust your words, but mistrust your intentions. It is very bold, Eas."

"Not all of us are cowards, Soular," she said. "They will know that I am not their friend, but listening to me will help them as well, not only Labyrinth. I will earn an odd sort of trust. And then I will approach them."

"And then…?"

I don't know yet, but I will, soon.

"And then I'll destroy them."

Before Soular could ask anything else, there was a knock on the door. Too loud, too strong, it could only be Syrup's. Another agent opened the door, and the boy walked inside.

"Finally," she said. "You are late."

"I had to go through a million guards and questions to get here," he said. "Give me a break. Hey, Soular," he approached him, and they shook hands. Amazingly, Soular had taken a liking to the boy. He said he was competent and hard-working, and a true survivor. Soular was the one who had enlisted Syrup's services, too.

"Hello," he said. By his side, Westar was waving like an idiot, but Syrup ignored him. "How bad is it out there?"

"Pretty bad," the boy said. His hair was a wild mess, and he was always tidying it up with his hands, but his hair never stood in one place. "Guards everywhere, they let me in, but Mailpo had to stay outside. The fog seems stronger today, too."

That much was true. Eas could see the fog-covered sky through the window next to her, and it was definitely darker than usual. She could barely even see the building next to them.

"I have some things for you, from Nightmare, Eternal, and such," said Syrup. He handed Eas a bunch of letters.

"Why me? Go give them to Northa."

"Have you seen how angry she is? No, I don't wanna mess with Northa, she's unpleasant enough when she's happy."

Eas almost smiled. She was fond of Syrup, too, if only because, unlike the rest of Labyrinth, he didn't speak of Northa and Moebius with great reverence. It was refreshing.

"I hope you're kidding me, though," said Eas. "Paper letters? Can't Nightmare afford computers, or even a phone, some way to reach us that doesn't make me feel like a savage?"

"Have you seen the rest of the world?" Syrup sounded annoyed. "It's a miracle finding places that still have electricity. Nightmare and Eternal still do, but Märchenland looks like it reverted to what it was a thousand years ago. All the communication systems all over the world have been ruined. No phones, no internet, nothing. And with the stars gone, even magic messages have a hard time reaching their destination."

"We really need to assimilate the rest of the world quickly, then," said Soular. "Writing letters… It has to be a joke."

"Regardless," Eas put the letters on her desk, under the clover. She picked up her own letter, hidden beneath her keyboard. It was hard to find paper in Labyrinth, that useless material, so she had to use the back of a letter Northa had received from Dark Fall. That was embarrassing enough, but even worse was Eas' own handwriting. She had no idea how to write with her own hands. Why should she? She was no primitive. She put the letter in Syrup's hand. "Deliver this to the Phoenix Tower."

"Alright, alright," he said, "but they always seem to get angry at these letters. I always get a rough welcome from the Precure there… I don't know what kind of message you're sending them, but I'd love it if you could send them something nicer, like a cake recipe, or something."

"And I'd love it if you could deliver my letters without making all these unwarranted comments," she said. She liked the boy well enough, but he didn't know his place, or how to mind his tongue. Northa would pull it out with her own hands if Syrup talked to her the way he talks to everyone else. A delivery boy doesn't need his tongue, Eas could already hear Northa say that.

"Right, right."

"When will the letter reach the Phoenix Tower?"

"I have to go to Dark Fall first, and-"

"No you don't," said Eas. "You will be rewarded if you give us priority."

"What can you give me?"

"Well, I could say that, if you don't obey me, I could tell the guards to give you a good beating, then take your fairy friend from you as a hostage… But I'm not Northa. If you get this letter to the Phoenix Tower as soon as possible, I promise you I'll help you find your friend, and maybe I'll even have some information about the Rose Garden to share with you… But just maybe, and only if you help us."

"Fine," he sighed. "Sorry for doubting you so much, Eas. For what it's worth, you guys are much nicer than Eternal… The last time I was there, Anacondy threatened to add me to their collection because she didn't like the way I breathed! She said I was too loud, and was interrupting the museum's staff!"

Northa wasn't much better than that, but Syrup didn't need to know.

"Anyways, thanks for helping me. I mean it," he said, and his tone made it clear that he wasn't used to thanking others.

"We do reward hard work," said Soular. What he meant, of course, is that those who work hard are allowed to remain alive, but he was loyal to Labyrinth, he was not broken like Eas, he did not have to pretend to love Moebius, so he saw that as a privilege.

Syrup put the letter in his pocket, and put a hand on his ruffled hair again, that permanent mess, then sighed.

"I guess I'd better get going, then," he said.

"Yes," said Eas. "I hope you can reach the Tower by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" He smiled, that smug smile that always made Eas feel the urge to slap the boy's face. "I can get there by sunset, today."

"Then go," she said, and he went, but not before the guards at the door questioned him again. She had to explain to them that the paper he was carrying was a letter to the Precure, and then she had to explain even further, so that they understood she wasn't a traitor.

She sat down and got back to work, to filling spreadsheets with names and numbers that meant nothing to her, on that computer that crashed every ten minutes. Eas didn't bother reading the letters yet. She would do it later, when she had enough time, and she always had plenty of time when her head screamed a horrid migraine as she tried to sleep.

Nozomi loved it when Katyusha returned from Phoenix Tower, always bearing news and letters and presents and food (this she loved most of all), but this time she came not with gifts but with a command for the Cures of Last Light to cast their votes and decide who would lead them as the new Rosehearted.

It would have helped if she knew who the candidates even were, of course, but nobody ever bothered to let her know. At first, Nozomi thought she had missed something in her carelessness, that she was being empty-headed again, but even Reika had no idea that there were any candidates other than Cure Mirage. Nozomi voted for Mirage, as did nearly everyone else (Mai's vote was for Honoka, but she was alone in that gesture). Last Light had been Mirage's idea, after all, Mirage's and Ekaterina's. Nozomi felt like all the support she was receiving was absolutely well-deserved.

"You're expected to go to the Phoenix Tower for the ceremony for Mir- for the winner of the election," Ekaterina said as she wrote down each person's vote on the small stall she set up in the middle of Last Light. That didn't seem like the most trustworthy method, but if, right now, the Precure could not trust one another, then they were truly doomed.

"Aw, but Kanade was gonna bake a cake today," Nozomi whined. She was looking forward to it: Kanade had promised it many times already.

"I know it sucks, but it's important for everyone to be there. Plus, Mirage said she wanted to see you. You and Reika, actually."

"Why?" She asked, but Katyusha just shrugged.

"I'm Mirage's assistant, not her confidant. You'll have to ask her yourself."

She sounded rather bitter, but Nozomi didn't really understand why. Nor did she bother; she just wanted to know what Mirage could possibly want with her and Reika. Most of all, though, when she got over the shock of having her cake denied, Nozomi was actually looking forward to returning to the Phoenix Tower. It was a lovely place, and full of Cures she was dying to know.

And Iona was there. Nozomi liked Iona, despite everything. Her words had hurt her, but she could tell that Iona wasn't cruel, just… Just screwed-up, she supposed, though that was not a kind thing to say. We are all screwed-up, though, we and our world.

Afterwards, the Precure had gathered to discuss the election inside the communal building. Nozomi didn't know what was there to discuss, though. Mirage would win, that much was clear, and pretty much everyone was happy with it.

She hadn't failed to notice, though, the way the inhabitants of Last Light looked at the Precure while they were voting. In their eyes, Nozomi could see a mixture of curiosity and mistrust. She couldn't blame them: though the decisions of the Precure affected the whole world, even those who were not members of its Orders, only the Precure themselves had any say in what was to be done. It made Nozomi to feel uncomfortable, and not just her: Komachi had expressed her doubts about that system before, and even Reika, loyal as she was to the ideals of the Precure, agreed that perhaps it was not right for the Precure to exclude everyone from its decisions, and yet hold the lives of everyone in their hands.

Nozomi knew what happened when the Precure thought they could do no wrong, that they were infallible. She had learned as much in her history lessons with Reika, and what she saw was not pleasant. For supposed keepers of the peace, the Precure had started a large amount of wars in their history.

But that didn't matter now. That was the past, and it was far behind them. What they needed to do was look to the future, and make sure they never repeated their mistakes.

Noon came too quickly, and the sun shone too bright. It was time to go to the Tower, Katyusha told everyone, and everyone obeyed.

Everyone but Princess and Honey, of course.

"We're staying," Hime declared, defiant. "I'm not going there. You already have my vote, you don't need me there."

"It's expected of you, Hime," Reika said with a polite smile, but it did nothing to convince Hime.

"I don't care what's expected of me. I'm not going there. Iona is there."

"Are you afraid of Iona?" Nozomi asked, and, to be fair, she didn't doubt that Iona could be quite scary if she so desired.

"Afraid? No, no, not afraid…" Hime avoided the eyes of the girls around her. "But I don't want to go. I don't want to see Iona, and she doesn't want to see me."

"Such a pity," said Katyusha. "I'll tell everyone you sent them your regards, then," she said, and went on her way. The other Cures followed, but Nozomi lingered behind for a moment.

She looked at Last Light, at the village they had built with their own hands. It wasn't the prettiest place she had ever seen. In fact, it was quite unsightly, its houses all misshapen, built by inexperienced hands. It was a miracle that they weren't falling apart. They weren't all that comfortable, either, though everyone worked their hardest to make them as pleasant as they could. When Nozomi remembered her old house, her old bedroom, full of plush toys and pillows, her family always close to her, her new home seemed quite miserable, a sad, tiny thing. Last Light was an entire village made of those sad, tiny houses, and by itself it wasn't worth all that much.

But when Nozomi looked back at it, somehow it meant so much to her now. Not just because she had helped build it, because it was hers, hers and her friend's. No, there was something else, she knew. Something more important. Last Light was a pitiful collection of little shacks, true, but it was much more. It was defiance in the face of a broken world that showed no mercy for them, it was a refusal to wither and die, it was the certainty that even now, with the world at its darkest, their actions meant something. It was all of those things, and more. She was proud of it, prouder than she could remember ever being, and even when she was only halfway to the Phoenix Tower, she found herself already missing her new, broken home.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Cure Mirage was the new Rosehearted of the Red Rose. She pretended she did not expect it, as was only proper, and thanked everyone for their support in the hard-won election, but the truth was that the closest thing she had to competition was Cure White, who had received less than half a dozen votes. Iona feigned surprise as well, and congratulated Mirage, wishing her good fortune, even offering to do a reading of the Fates for her.

A mere formality, of course. She knew that Mirage would never accept that. She had made her thoughts about fate very clear.

Minutes after her announcement, Mirage had already retreated to her new office. Her triumph was so certain that she had furnished it in advance, and no one had bothered to question her.

Oddly, Cures Black and White were nowhere to be seen. Iona understood that they might be displeased by the results, but Honoka should at least have been polite enough to congratulate her rival. Mirage had won fairly, after all, and she had done so much to help the Precure, while Honoka and Nagisa watched from afar, and never did anything worthy of note. So much for the esteemed Cures of Verone Academy.

"What does this mean to us?" Iona overheard Nozomi ask Cure Rhythm, by her side.

"Good things, I hope," she answered. "I've heard from Southern Cross that Mirage is planning to talk to each single Cure, to ask them their thoughts on what the Red Rose should do, and what they want."

"What do you want, Kanade?"

Iona felt like she was intruding, but she wanted to know more about her fellow Cures, so she kept listening.

"There is someone dear to me who I have lost. I don't know where she is now, but I'm sure she's alive, and I want to find her."

"Excuse me," Iona approached her as politely as she could. It just happened that she had a soft spot for those whose hearts had a missing half. "Who is this person?"

"My partner," her eyes were filled with longing, "Cure Melody. My best friend, and the closest, too. I miss her dearly, but at the same time I want to rub her stupid face against a wall or something. She stayed behind at Majorland, hoping she could free our people, but of course she couldn't. There is a curse upon our country now, so I cannot return there. All I can do is pray for her safety."

At least you can pray.

"I'll pray as well, then," Iona said. "If you feel it would bring you any comfort, I'm a fortune teller, so I could see your future, if you'd like."

"I'm afraid I don't believe in that kind of thing," she said, but she smiled anyways. "Thank you, though."

"Can you tell me my fortune, though?" Nozomi asked with her characteristic lack of tact.

"I-I didn't offer to do it right now!"

"Aw, but I'm curious."

Iona sighed, but Nozomi just laughed. Did she act like this to be infuriating, or was she just clueless? This was a mystery for the ages.

All over the day, just as Mirage had promised, she summoned the Cures one by one to her new office. Not just the Cures, in fact: the first person she called was that girl Reika and Nozomi brought with them, the one they insisted would become a Precure. Iona wondered who could be fool enough to actually want to become a Pretty Cure at a time like this.

Then it was Rhythm she called, and then Egret, then Peace, followed by Nile and Wave together, each and every Cure was called. Every Cure but Iona, Nozomi and Reika. As she waited to be invited by Mirage, Iona wondered if Honoka would have been as diligent in her place. She didn't think so.

Nozomi and Reika made small talk to pass the time, but Iona kept staring up at the stairs leading to the offices, the stairs that went around those gigantic statues that made Iona feel so small and insignificant. Then again, everyone was insignificant when you compared them to the three girls who, millennia ago, brought the stars back to life.

At last, Southern Cross made her way down the stairs, her face all red and meek, as if she had just been scolded. Iona smiled at that. She never liked her, and even made it a point to never call her by her true name, Harper, even though she knew it. Despite that, she still looked rather pitiful, and Iona felt guilty about her smile.

"Cure Mirage wants to talk to you now," she said, and for once her tone was not full of smug bravado. "The three of you."

Iona nodded. She had expected Mirage to want to talk to the three of them at the same time. She had this odd notion that, since Iona had rescued Cure Egret alongside them, it meant they were all good friends who always walked hand-in-hand and loved one another, or something silly like that.

Mirage's office was located in the tallest point of the Tower, and countless flights of stairs stood between it and Iona. It was tiresome, but there was no helping it, so Iona made her way up with Reika and Nozomi by her side. Even Nozomi's footsteps were loud, she realized. That made her grit her teeth, but she kept her silence.

She had made this ascent once, Iona recalled, on the first time she had been to the Phoenix Tower, back when she had hopes of finding Maria. Back when she was a fool, and a child as well. She looked up above to see the phoenix engraving on the large ceiling, and it was still devoid of color and life. It used to be so beautiful, she had been told, but she could not even imagine that.

Nozomi was the one to open the door to Mirage's office, and when Iona stepped inside, she remembered it perfectly. It was where she had found Mirage, where she heard those words that tore out her heart. It looked much different now, though. Bookshelves lined the walls, an ornate desk had been put in the center of the room, and chairs too. The room was full of light now, as the sun shone through the large balcony windows. Next to them were curtains painted a light pink, and even Nozomi's footsteps were muffled by the large carpets upon the floor.

"Hello," said Mirage. She had been at this all day, and didn't look tired. She extended her hand in invitation for the three girls to sit down.

"This place is so nice," said Nozomi as she took her seat. "I wish we had chairs this nice in Last Light."

"We should just go straight to business," said Iona. "Although… May I ask you why Southern Cross looked so upset? She looked as if you had chided her quite roughly."

"That's because I have," she said. "You know that she was one of my most fervent supporters, right? I'm not really one for campaigning, so I enlisted her help, but she went too far."

"How so?"

"At first she was just telling people how competent I am, how my proposals would bring us all benefit, and so on. But then she got a bit more aggressive. Badmouthing Cure White, and Cure Black too, even though we are only rivals, not enemies. And then she did worse. She began to tell people that they should vote for me because it is what Cure Tender would have done. Tender was my partner, she said, my friend. If she was with us, she would want me as the Rosehearted."

For once Iona did not lash out. She would feel too ashamed if she did it in front of Mirage.

"And what did you tell her?"

"I told her to stop that nonsense. Only Maria herself knows what she would have done, and I will not have anyone use my beloved friend's name for their own gain. So I told her to mind her manners."

"Thank you," said Iona, and truly she was grateful that Mirage had put this to an end. She was even more thankful that she didn't have to endure Southern Cross' foolishness.

"But as you said, we should indeed discuss what is truly important," she opened a drawer, and produced a small letter from within. "Read it. It's from Labyrinth."

Nozomi and Reika exchanged a suspicious glance, but Iona just opened the letter, plucking off the tape that sealed it. She put it on the desk for all to see. The handwriting was terrible,

I trust that this time you will see reason and listen to my words. I am your friend, one of the last friends you have, in a time where friendships are a treasure beyond a price. You would do well to not scoff at my help simply because of who I am.

I am Eas, agent of Labyrinth, a servant of Lord Moebius, though perhaps not a loyal one. I approach you with information that I know is very valuable to you. This is no trick: I am tired of the tyranny of Labyrinth, and I know that only the Precure can put an end to it.

Your Tower has a handful of Precure, but not many. We know this, because we know all. There is nothing you can hide from Labyrinth. You know it too, of course, most of all, and you know that you need more Precure if you mean to bring your Red Rose back to life. Luckily, I also happen to know where you might find them.

Our agents and soldiers have conducted scouting missions all over the world, and have found many surviving Precure. If you trust me and accept this hand of friendship I extend to you, I will tell you where they are.

As a gesture of goodwill, and to prove that my intentions are legitimate, I'll let you know of almost twenty Cures in hiding at the heart of the Trump Kingdom, inside its very capital, Trump. They are fighting as well, but, outnumbered and poorly-equipped, they cannot stand against the Selfish Kingdom alone.

So they don't need to be alone. You can find them. Reaching Trump will be no easy feat, what with its strong defenses, but there is a single hope for you: Princess Regina is leading the most experienced troops of her kingdom in a campaign against the Bad End Kingdom and the Land of Toys. If you can reach the city, somehow, you will have a chance. How, I don't know, I cannot help you with that, but if you mean to survive, you must be resourceful.

Hope lies within the Trump Kingdom. Your hope, your future, your stars. Please consider this. If you stay inside the Phoenix Tower forever, you will be destroyed. Dark Fall is trying to consolidate its grasp in the northern lands, but once they do, I have no doubt that they will look to the south. Nightmare and Eternal have pressing concerns of their own, but once they resolve their issues, they will not hesitate to crush you. So fight, fight while you have time. Go to the Trump Kingdom.

Iona didn't know what to make of it, so she turned to her companions. As it turned out, Reika was a slow reader, so it took another moment before she was finished.

"It was sealed," Reika remarked. "You haven't read it?"

"I don't need to," Mirage responded. "This is the fifth time Eas has sent a letter, and the other four were exactly the same."

"She's persistent, I'll give her that," said Iona. "Do you think she's saying the truth?"

"I don't know. She might be. But she is also the girl who betrayed and killed Cure Peach. I cannot trust her fully."

"She has a point, though," said Nozomi. "We have to do something. If we can really find those Precure in the Trump Kingdom, that would be really good!"

"I think she might be telling the truth," said Reika. "She's not our friend, of course, she's not saying those things to actually help us, but… You do remember that Labyrinth and the Selfish were always enemies, even before the Death of the Stars, right? They worked together to destroy the Precure, but they could never be allies. Their beliefs are all in discord."

"That makes sense," said Mirage. "I should have thought of that. So we're being manipulated… How clever of her to offer us this knowledge, so helpful to us, so that we'll fight the Selfish Kingdom on Labyrinth's behalf."

"Will we do it, though?" Iona asked. "Let her manipulate us, I mean?"

"Good question," said Mirage. "As Rosehearted, it is my decision to make, I suppose, but I wanted to talk to you first. I think that we should do as Eas says. We'll continue to be skeptic of her words, of course, but I think that, this time, her proposal will benefit us as well. Do you agree?"

"More or less," said Reika. "As you've said, Labyrinth and the Selfish have found a common cause before, and who's to say they have not done the same, again? But indeed, we need to do something. And we know that there were many Precure in the Trump Kingdom, fighting King Jikochuu."

"Yes, indeed, the war against the Selfish King brought nearly a hundred Cures to Trump," Mirage seemed deep in thought for a moment. "What do you think, Nozomi?"

"We should go," she said. "We definitely should. Oh, but we should be careful too. I don't trust Eas, but I do think you and Reika are right about her trying to get us to fight the Selfish for them."

"And you, Iona?"

"I… I don't know. I should consult with the Fates, and-"

"I want your opinion. Your opinion, not that of some cards."

"I think Eas' plan might be to convince us to leave the Phoenix Tower undefended while we go adventuring in the Trump Kingdom."

"Which is precisely why my plan was to send only the three of you."

"No," Iona blurted out, without thinking. "No, never. I won't."

"Don't make me command you," Mirage tried to sound playful, but Iona could tell it was not a joke. "You three have done so well, saving Mai, and Dream and Beauty even managed to light a Starlight Flame, so you can't say they lack experience. Why do you not want to go with them?"

"I just… I just prefer to fight alone."

"That's foolish, Iona, and I expected better from you. Solitude is something we suffer, not something we choose. We all work better when there's someone to watch our back, to keep us company when times are difficult. And you know very well that times are extremely difficult, right now. I chose the three of you because you have all proven your competence and dedication. I have high hopes for all of you."

"Fine," Iona said, then sighed. There was no arguing with the Rosehearted. She looked to her side, and saw Nozomi smiling. Was she happy to be with Iona, or was she mocking her? "Do we at least have a plan?"

Mirage pulled something from her drawer again, and laid it on the table, atop the letter. A map of the region, spanning the lands around the Phoenix Tower and the western half of the Trump Kingdom.

"We do."

Iona looked at the map, and saw countless dots, countless cities and villages. When she travelled to the Eyrie, and when she returned, she only saw a few of them. Most were desolate or destroyed by now.

"Excuse me," Reika pointed at a slightly larger dot that had been circled over with a red marker. "This is the capital, right? Trump."

"Yes," said Mirage. "What else do you see?"

"Hm," Reika's finger slid to another dot, further south. It too had been marked. "Is this a city? It seems really remote, so I can't see what could be worth of note there."

"A Starlight Flame," Mirage said.

"Oh, are we going there too?" Nozomi asked, suddenly excited.

"You won't, but the Bomber Girls will. They are another team that has shown their worth. They will give you support, and buy you time. I know your mission will take a while, as you'll need to travel, and find a way inside the capital. If Regina were to return with her army, well, you'd be doomed. So Cures Frontier, Tomahawk and Star will try to reach that Starlight Flame and get as much attention from the Selfish as they can get."

"Then we'll be free to act," said Iona.

"Exactly. They'll slow Regina's march, too, if they see her army returning. That way, you'll only have to deal with the Selfish inside the city of Trump without worrying about their reinforcements."

"Seems solid enough," Iona had to admit. "Any idea on how to actually get to the city?" Trump was built atop an island in the middle of an inland sea, a solid fortress very difficult to breach. Maria had once mentioned that this was the reason it was so difficult to strike back against the Selfish King: he conquered the city from within, so getting back there was a great ordeal.

"Not quite. There's a bridge to the city, but that one is heavily guarded, no doubt. The docks might be an easier way to get there, but it's impossible for me to tell. You'll have to figure it out yourselves, once you see the situation. But I know you are pretty smart, so you'll think of something."

"We will," said Nozomi. "But why just the three of us?"

"Ah, how to put it politely… This is an extremely dangerous mission, as we depend on the word of a traitor and our own wits, and you will invade what is one of the safest places in the world. You caught our enemies unaware when you lit the first Starlight Flame, but by now I'm sure they've learned their lesson, and will take better care. So, I don't want to risk many Precure."

"We're disposable, then, and there's a good chance we'll die, that's what you mean?" Reika asked.

"I prefer the term 'forlorn hope'," she said with a smirk. "I'm sorry, I know it's cold of me. But I have my own plans here, that require Precure too, so I can't commit too many of them to this mission. Besides, you'll have to do a lot of sneaking around, most likely, and three girls are more likely to go unnoticed than a whole squad of them."

"That's true," said Reika. "I think it's worth a shot. More than worth it, in fact, if we succeed."

"We will succeed!" Said Nozomi. "We'll have Iona with us, too, so I'm sure we'll do well. Isn't that right, Iona?"

"Yeah, yeah…"

"It is decided then," said Mirage. "You won't be returning anytime soon, so I recommend you have the nicest meal you can, and say your farewells to your friends. Oh, and by the time you've returned, Ayumi will be a Precure. So you'll have that to look forward to."

"Will she?" Reika beamed with pride. "I'm so happy to hear that, Nozomi and I have worked so hard to teach her."

"You've done really well, she's actually almost ready for the Starlight Ceremony. The girl is clever, dedicated, a fine fighter, from what I've heard, and she has a good heart."

Good for her, Iona thought, but she didn't really care. She looked at the girls next to her, who were once again her companions. They hadn't been that bad the last time, but Iona wasn't sure if she wanted to fight by Nozomi's side. She didn't look forward to her life depending on Dream's attention and reliability. Reika, at least, was smart enough to be dependable.

"You ought to get ready, then," said Mirage. "We are counting on you, but I have full confidence that you will return triumphant. Just remember to be careful and you'll be alright, I'm sure of it," she put the map and the letter back into the drawer, and got up. Iona got up too, knowing Mirage was asking them to leave now. "Oh, and Iona?"

"What is it?"

"You can't even begin to imagine how proud your sister would have been of you."

Iona turned back before anyone could see her face turn pink and her eyes water. Did Mirage even understand how much those words meant to her? No, nobody could understand. Still, for once, Iona's heart felt at peace. For once the memory of Maria didn't bring her sadness. Perhaps someday she would be able to lay that ghost to rest.

Iona arranged to meet with Reika and Nozomi by the entrance of the Tower once they were done getting whatever they needed. Iona didn't need much, so she just took her deck of cards and a change of clothes. Glasan helped her pack, and to fit as much food inside her bag as she could. Glasan's own backpack was surprisingly heavy for such a small thing, too. This time, Iona hoped, she wouldn't have to worry about starving.

She waited for her companions outside the Tower, and they took so damn long that Iona felt the urge to leave them behind and head towards the Trump Kingdom by herself. Thankfully, Glasan was there to keep her doing anything impulsive.

At last Dream and Beauty arrived, with Rhythm by their side. Nozomi not only had a rucksack on her back, she also carried a bag in each hand.

"Took you long enough," said Iona. "Can we get going now?"

"Sure, sure," Nozomi laughed, then dropped one of her bags, almost falling to the ground as she did so. "Too heavy…"

"I told you not to take so many," said Kanade.

"But there's so much delicious food in them…"

"Most of it will spoil, though," said Reika. "Leave it here. You can eat whatever you want when you come back."

"In fact," Kanade smiled, "I promise that when you come back, I'll make a giant chocolate cake for you. For all of you. And we'll eat it together. But you'll have to come back, alright?"

"Oh! We'll definitely be back, then!"

"Coco's not coming?" Glasan asked, looking behind them.

"Ah, no," said Nozomi. "It's dangerous, and I won't be able to take care of him. Plus, there's someone who'll be really furious if Coco gets hurt…"

They said their goodbyes, exchanging hugs and kind words and promises, all the while Iona just wanted to yell at them to hurry up. Not just out of annoyance, but because it would soon be late, and Iona didn't feel like making her way down the hill at night would be any safe. Trump was not quite as distant as the Eyrie, but it was still far, and every minute wasted could compromise their goal.

Luckily, once they actually started moving, Nozomi and Reika were hasty enough. By the end of the night, the Phoenix Tower would be distant, the beacon of white fire atop it just a pale dot against the dark. They made their way down with care, but by now this wasn't a great problem for Iona. Ever since she became a Precure, her sense of balance was outstanding.

And her sense of hearing too, she thought when she realized someone was behind them, taking slow steps, their feet crashing against small pebbles on the ground, knocking them away until they fall from a great height. Iona looked back, ready to fight, but all she saw was Nagisa and Honoka.

"Hey," Nagisa waved, completely unaware of the gravity of the situation.

"What are you doing?" Iona was in no mood for jokes, much less for wasting time.

"We're going with you to the Trump Kingdom, of course," she said.

"How do you even know where we're going?"

"Cure Star is not good at keeping secrets," said Honoka. "She was so proud that Mirage chose her and her partners for this mission that she was talking about it to everyone. And she told us about the part you have to play, and we decided to follow."

Iona almost said they didn't need them, but Reika spoke faster. "We're thankful for the offer, but Mirage told us that only the three of us should go. She seemed pretty determined about it, so I didn't even tell Yayoi to come with us."

"But you should have," said Nagisa. "You don't think the three of you can stand against the might of the Selfish, do you?"

"We can if we're smart about it," said Reika. "We're not going to war. We're going to find the Precures that Eas mentioned."

"You're right that it's not a war, but don't you agree that a team of five is better than three?"

"No," said Iona, but, unbelievably Reika and Nozomi actually said "yes". They were two, and Iona was only one, and in that moment, she despised democracy with all her heart.

"Good," Nagisa said with an obnoxiously wide smile. "I'm sure our experience will be really useful to you, too! I don't mean to brag, but Honoka and I have been through quite a lot, you know. Like that time we…"

And with that, somehow, Nagisa and Honoka joined them in their journey, not caring in the slightest that Mirage would not possibly approve of them disobeying her direct orders. The journey would be long, she knew, long and loud.

Night had come to Labyrinth, or at least Eas' clock said so. With no windows in her apartment, she had no way of seeing it for herself. Even if she could, it made no difference: the fog that covered Labyrinth made it difficult to tell dawn and dusk apart.

Eas put all the letters that Syrup had given her upon her table. Who even wrote letters in this day and age? Eas felt no love for Moebius and Labyrinth, but all those primitives in the rest of the world could surely make good use of Labyrinth's technology. Grumbling, she read them one by one.

Letters with Eternal's seal, proposing the purchase of Labyrinth's treasures. Eas paid them no mind: the Director of Eternal was a fool if he thought Labyrinth had any use for his money.

Others bore the seal of the Bad End Kingdom, written by Joker; Eas didn't even open them. Either he meant to offer alliances that Labyrinth didn't need or he was trying to get Eas killed. Many who received Joker's letters didn't live long, due to the poison he used on the ink. Eas ignore those as well.

There was a letter from some princess of one of those worthless fairy kingdoms, begging for mercy. Eas felt a little sorry for them, but not sorry enough to not discard the letter.

But the last letter was unlike the others. Its paper was filthy, its surface dotted with dark stains, and it had been poorly sealed with a thin piece of tape. Eas checked both sides, but she couldn't find the name of the sender. She should have asked Syrup about this, but he would be gone for a few days now. She opened it, certain that it would be a waste of time.

The handwriting seemed familiar, somehow, but Eas could not tell why. The words themselves, however, were complete gibberish. She recognized the letters, but the words made no sense. A cipher, she could tell with a single look, or a very annoying joke.

Hjrf zyqt bykf evj irk pvfk rkipqfw. Mie covtk izzkfzqvf zv zyk bvrpt ykrk ifp rkakahkr ioo zyk qfnvraizqvf ykrk. Qz't ukre qamvrzifz. Q'a zyk vfk byv hrvxk qfzv zyk Fvrzy Tkczvr pizi ckfzkrt. Q yiuk fvz okirfkp ajcy, hjz Q pqp okirf zyqt: zykrk qt tvakzyqfw hkevfp zyk nvw, tvakzyqfw yqppkf hkyqfp qz. Tvakzyqfw hqw. Q pvf'z xfvb byiz qz qt, ekz, hjz it tvvf it Q okirf, evj bqoo hk zyk nqrtz zv xfvb. Q bqoo cvfzicz evj zyrvjwy Terjm, ifp Q aqwyz fkkp evjr ykom zv okirf zyk zrjzy, zvv. Rkakahkr evjr fiak. Tkztjfi. Tkztjfi. Tkztjfi.

This looked like a simple cipher, made by someone who was either inexperienced in cryptography or who wanted the message to be decoded easily. Someone who actually wanted to conceal their words would have taken the time to add, at the very least, a transposition to the code. This was simply amateurish. Eas knew she should ignore it, there was no way this could be good, but curiosity had the best of her. She took a better look at what was written there.

The key was in the words that were repeated. That "Q" had to be an "I", and the three-letter words that were repeated again and again had to be common words. The, and, you. Deciphering the message was just a matter of trial and error, of having enough time and patience, and time was something that Eas had no lack of, now that her pounding head kept her from sleeping.

Some of her guesses on what a word could mean were wrong, and that required a lot of backtracking, but as she uncovered more and more words, the meaning became clearer. Eas found herself actually enjoying it; she found pleasure in finding out what was hidden, even though she knew she should just forget it. But she couldn't, not now that she was so close.

At last, she looked at the fruits of her work, at the decoded message, with an odd sense of pride, but also that she might be doing something wrong. Still, that pride trumped whatever shame she might have felt.

Burn this when you are done reading. Pay close attention to the words here and remember all the information here. It's very important. I'm the one who broke into the North Sector data centers. I have not learned much, but I did learn this: there is something beyond the fog, something hidden behind it. Something big. I don't know what it is, yet, but as soon as I learn, you will be the first to know. I will contact you through Syrup, and I might need your help to learn the truth, too.

Remember your name. Setsuna. Setsuna. Setsuna.

She crumpled the letter in her hands as she read those last words. That name. It made her head hurt more than ever before. She knew that name. She knew it, she had seen it before, and when she spoke it aloud, the sound was familiar to her, that painful sound that made her want to hit her head against the walls to make the pain go away. Setsuna. Yes, she remembered it.

But this is not my name. My name is Eas.

The rest of the message, though, was clear, and terrifying. Eas knew it was treason to even read it. She should pay it no mind, it was nonsense, she was a loyal servant of Moebius, but she knew that to be a lie. When she thought of Moebius, she felt repulse, not adoration as she was supposed to. Indeed, Klein had failed when he altered her mind: even his best efforts could not turn Eas into an unwitting pawn of Moebius. She was a puppet, but she could at least see the strings. Somehow it didn't make things better. It only made her feel even more certain that something was wrong with her.

She tore the letter to tiny pieces, and threw it into the trash chute that would take it to the fires of Labyrinth's incinerators. Whatever it was, whoever had sent it… That was all irrelevant. Eas just went to bed and tried to sleep again. Her body was tired, her head was in agony, and she was in no mood for mysteries.

Chapter Text

Makoto took one last look at the once beautiful skies of her kingdom before she started to run. She never turned back to look at the flock of Jikochuu pursuing her, but she could hear the flapping of their wings and their shrieks. She felt no fear. She was faster than them, and she knew the city of Trump better than anyone else. Even now, it was still her home.

Swiftly and gracefully she leaped from rooftop to rooftop, and though the world around her became a blur, she never lost her way. Behind, the Jikochuu were squawking, and Sword could tell from the sound that there were dozens of them, but she didn't care. They would never reach her.

She jumped down from the roof to the streets below, and there she disappeared, making her way through dark, narrow alleys where no Jikochuu could follow her, their bodies too large to fit. When the vultures tried to pursuit her, they would crash against the walls, their wings breaking apart. The very city of Trump rejected its occupiers.

It was dark as she skulked beneath the shadows, on paths rarely trodden, but Makoto could make her way through her homeland with her eyes closed. The paths grew narrower and narrower as she reached deeper into the labyrinth of alleys and dirtied streets that were the slums of Trump. There, she could not even see the sun, obscured by tall, twisted houses, built one atop the other, taking up whatever space they could find. An ugly place, one that Makoto had often visited with her princess, who had tried to bring a better life to the people who here lived. Marie Ange's retainers urged her to stay inside the palace, they said it was unsafe to go to such a place, but she always said that, with her knight by her side, she would always be safe.

And Sword had failed her. This guilt weighed heavily upon her shoulders, this burden that never let her rest. But it also gave her the undying determination to save Marie Ange, to avenge her. And so she ran without ever looking back, until the sun was gone, completely enveloped by tall buildings that never seemed to end.

Makoto reached a house that was like all others around it, an ugly, broken thing, its walls frail wood and cracked brick, but she knew it was not like all the others. This was the last hideaway of the Precure of Trump. She opened the door with care, so it wouldn't break, and stepped inside. Once there, Makoto did what she always would do when she arrived: she felt her neck with her hands, and the tiny silver chains around it, and the spade-shaped garnet on the end of the chains, close to her chest. Ange's gift. She had to make sure it was safe, always.

Davi awaited her in the small room they dared call a parlor, that in truth was a cramped chamber with a couple rickety chairs that barely held the weight of whoever sat upon them. Davi always waited for her anxiously, always leaning against the wall, in her human form, biting her nails, that by now were short and notched.

"Makoto," she said, rushing to embrace her partner. As a human, Davi was over a head taller than Makoto, whereas as a fairy she was so short she had to look up at everyone, so of course she loved being a human.

"Davi," Makoto returned her hug, holding tight to her fairy. "I'm sorry if I worried you."

"Aren't you tired of being sorry? You always do this, you always disappear… By the time Sunny told me you were gone, I could not follow you…"

"I had to go," said Makoto. "It was a perfect opportunity. There would be no other like it."

"Tell me about it at first! Take me with you! You can transform on your own, but your power is greater when I'm with you!"

"I didn't need any power," she said, "I just needed to be fast, to avoid the Jikochuu."

"F-Fast? Don't tell me…"

Makoto answered with a smile. She opened another door, and walked deeper inside the hideout, going down a flight of stairs, until she reached the other Cures. Davi followed her, and their footsteps made echoes in the long, empty corridors of their hiding place.

Soon the walls turned from wood to stone as they reached a small underground cavern, where they hid day and night from their pursuers. The air was damp, the floor green with moss, and when the Cures were all here, together, there was barely any room to breathe. Makoto hated it here, and so she left every single day, to catch some air, to feel the wind against her face and her hair, and, when it rained, to feel its soft drops upon her, washing away the dirt on her skin, on her clothes. Her other Cures said that was a great risk, that someday the Jikochuu would get her, but she had done it for months now, many months, and could not live without it now.

The Precure gathered around her, all those faces so familiar to Makoto. She had grown close to each one of her companions, learned so much about them, and yet she could not call them friends.

"Ninety," was Akane's greeting. "This marks ninety times you left and came back unharmed. You've got to be breaking some sort of record."

"Spare me of these jokes," she said. "What I have to say is important."

"Alright," Sword did not blame Akane for trying to lighten the mood all the time, to keep them from despairing, but she could tell that all her jokes were forced, frail attempts of inciting laughter where none could be found. "How was it?"

"A great success," she said, drawing out smiles from her fellow Cures. Good news were rare nowadays, and treasured accordingly.

"What did you do?" Asked young Cure Nasturtium, voice apprehensive, as it always as. "Nothing stupid like attacking the Selfish, I would hope…"

"That was exactly what I did, except I don't find it stupid at all. Let me tell you and you'll all agree," she said, and began to tell her tale.

Ever since the Selfish had occupied Trump, they had turned the proud city into their plaything, a place for them to indulge whatever desire they might have had. The common soldiers were content to fight and drink and yell and break whatever was on their way, but the Selfish Kingdom's generals had more elaborate desires, and Makoto knew it all too well.

"Take Gula, for instance," she explained. "All he wants to do is to eat whatever he can get his hands on, which includes our kingdom's renowned cuisine. The palace's cooks were spared so that they could work for him."

There was also, she said, the despicable general Lust, that unpleasant man who often hosted parties and concerts full of pretty girls that he might admire. A gross, gross man, but predictable. Today he had prepared a concert with Trump's greatest surviving singers, girls whose voices were like a caress.

Makoto sang a few short notes, to show that she, too, was one of those girls.

"You could have just told us," said Cure Radiance, she who always hated music. "Did you go to the concert?"

"Of course," Makoto said, "it was the opportunity I've awaited for a long time. The concert was a competition, and the winner would have the… The privilege of sitting next to our beloved general Lust, and singing for him."

And there were few things that gave Makoto greater joy than being right next to a general of the Selfish Kingdom, unarmed, unguarded.

She could not just walk in there, of course, even the Selfish weren't stupid enough to not recognize her face. They were, however, stupid enough to be fooled by a mask. The mask fascinated Lust, in fact. All around Makoto were dozens of beautiful girls, but it was to her that he looked with his greedy, abhorrent eyes. She wanted to gouge them out whenever she realized they were staring at her.

But that would be too hasty. Instead she sang, a song that she sang for Alice. She might have sung one meant for Marie Ange, but that would be a great disrespect to her. Alice would understand, though, if Alice still lived. Makoto had little hope of that, now. But Ange lived, and for her, Makoto would do anything.

"Did he like you?" Akane asked.

"Men like him, slaves to their own basest needs, they are the easiest things in the world to manipulate. Of course he loved me. He was curious to see what was behind the mask, so he called me to his private chambers. There were no guards there, he liked the privacy when he spoke to girls."

"And then?"

"And then he stopped liking the privacy when I transformed and wrapped my fingers around his throat."

It had not been the first time that Makoto saw General Lust, in truth. He had been at Leva and Gula's side when they put a great part of Trump to the torch, burning away most of the northern districts of the city. They laughed as the city burned, as Makoto ran away with her companions. Lust, of course, wasn't laughing anymore. He was sweating, his words all choked, and he could not break free of Sword's grasp.

"I asked him some questions, then. About Marie Ange's whereabouts. I know she lives. I always knew. And I was right. He told me everything. The princess is being kept in the Swordspire."

She could hear some of the Cures shudder. The Swordspire was a nightmarish prison, one that hadn't been used in centuries, but was kept there so that the Trump Kingdom would never forget its past, no matter how heinous. The Selfish were happy enough to use it to keep their prisoners of war there.

"Will you go, Makoto?" Akane asked. "You know I'll be by your side if you say yes, but still…"

"I don't know yet. I might."

"It's dangerous!" Davi's voice almost sounded the way it did when she was a fairy. "I know you want to save Marie Ange, but that prison is dangerous. We can't just go there."

"I know. I'll think of something. At the very least, I know her exact location there, Lust told me even more than I had asked of him."

"What happened then, by the way?" Cure Umbra asked. She had worked under the Trump Kingdom as a spy, and she had always been one to make sure there were no loose ends.

"When I let go of Lust's throat, he told me everything I asked, and then he begged me to be merciful."

"And were you?"

Makoto had to smile.

"Holy Sword!"

From her hands came a long blade of light, cutting the air with great speed until it reached a large rock, cleaving it in half with ease.

"See what a clean cut it was? Lust felt no pain. I was merciful, just as he asked."

"That wasn't right," said Akane. "A Precure should not do that, no matter how much you hate your enemies."

"The Selfish have harmed my king, my country, my people, my princess, my friends. They have forced us into hiding, as if we were no better than mice. So don't tell me what a Precure should or shouldn't do. I'll kill every Selfish I get my hands on."

No one else questioned her, thankfully. Sunny had a good heart, but she was wrong in this. She was not from here, she just couldn't understand how it felt to see your home in pieces, and to look around and see that everyone you once knew is gone, replaced by strangers, most of which would gladly hurt her.

"Were you pursued?" Umbra asked, always doubting her fellow Cures. Makoto could not decide if that was wise or foolish.

"For a while," she answered. "But they never had a chance. You don't have to worry about that."

"Of course I do," she said. "We always have to worry."

Makoto wasn't in the mood for this argument, so she simply nodded and sat down on one of the few chairs available, which was more of a carved rock than a proper seat. She looked at the princess' gift again, and kept smiling, proud of her success. You will soon be freed, my princess, and I will not leave your side again.

Akane sat next to her, and put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. Sometimes Makoto could go a very long time looking at the jewel, the only thing she had let of Marie Ange. She still remembered the day the princess took her into her service, and gave the necklace to her as a gift. She had sworn to protect Marie Ange, and the Trump Kingdom. She had failed on both accounts, but there was still time to fix her mistakes.

"Makoto," Akane said. "Are you sure you weren't followed?"

"Are you doubting me?"

"No, never, but… Well, I've been outside today, and the streets of the marketplaces in the eastern districts are filled with Jikochuu and soldiers of the Selfish Kingdom. They were scouring every house, every alley, every place they could find where someone could possibly hide."

"The eastern districts? That's far from here, we should be safe."

"It's unlike you to be this careless and unconcerned, Makoto," Davi said from behind her. "Your little trip might have been a triumph, but there are still battles to come, don't you forget that."

"I haven't forgotten!" Why would Davi even think that? "I'm just… Happy, for once. Hopeful. We're making progress, at last."

"I can't argue with that," said Akane. "It's good to finally do something other than rot here and occasionally go outside to confirm that, yep, world's still a mess."

They laughed together, and even Davi giggled for a short moment. Those two were her only true friends here, Makoto knew that very well. She could see it in the eyes of everyone else: they judged her, and why should they not? She was the knight who had sworn to protect Marie Ange, to guard her with her life, and yet Ange was gone, and Makoto was here. She didn't care. Let them judge her: she knew that no matter what they thought of her, there was no way they blamed her more than she blamed herself.

But Akane had been a good and true friend to Makoto since she rescued her from Eternal. When Märchenland fell, Akane explained, and the captured Precure there were put in chains, all their enemies claimed them as spoils of war, and divided them accordingly. Some were taken to Nightmare, others remained there, now prisoners of the Bad End Kingdom, while many were taken to the far north, to Dark Fall. Akane was claimed by Nightmare, now merged with Eternal, and she was being taken to their hideout. and Makoto found her in a caravan with a dozen other Cures.

The caravan had to go through Trump, through its bridges, to make good time, but the Selfish were too lazy and incompetent to help Eternal and Nightmare's soldiers, so even as Makoto attacked them and freed the Cures, the Jikochuu just stood there, watching. Their enemies weren't true friends, she recalled. They fought together for a moment, but when the moment was over, it was among themselves that they began to fight, for the remains of the broken world.

Ever since then, Makoto and Akane had struggled together to reunite the Precure of Trump, and to fight the Selfish, but, sometimes, Sword felt as if that wasn't enough. She should be doing better, she thought whenever she looked up at the night sky and saw the lone star doing its best to bring light to darkness. Out there, they're fighting, but here we're just trying to survive, and nothing more.

"You said you were out today?" Makoto asked, before she was caught up in recollections and forgot what was important.

"Ah, yeah," she said, "me and Cure Sidhe."

"Sidhe is…" Makoto had a hard time remembering her name, or even her face. There were so many Cures here, and so few she could bring herself to care about.

"Her name's Ciara, I think. Starts with C, that's what matters. She's not from around here. Anyways, she told me she had seen a lot of soldiers in the marketplace, so she wanted to investigate, but needed someone with her. I followed her, and, just as she had said, we saw hundreds of soldiers, and Jikochuu too, not the frail ones like those vultures or giant squids, but the really big ones, you know?"

Makoto nodded. She knew damn well how dangerous a Jikochuu could be, if born of a pure heart that had been corrupted. Some of the most terrifying Jikochuu ever seen were the spawn of a fallen Precure's heart, and in the ruins of Trump, there was no lack of fallen Precure. Just one week before, Cures Astra and Matador went out to fight the Selfish, but they didn't return. By now their hearts had likely been taken.

"We took a closer look," Akane continued. "It was kinda hard, because there were just so many soldiers, but they never bothered looking at the rooftops."

"They never do."

"Generals Bel and Goma were leading them. Bel was saying something to Goma, but I couldn't quite hear."

"Bel…" That name meant danger. Ira could be outsmarted, Leva and Gula had gone to war alongside Princess Regina, Goma was a coward, Marmo hadn't been seen in weeks, and Lust's head was detached from his body, not that it had ever done him any good. Bel, though, was a far more worthy opponent. He was known to be a lazy man, but not an incompetent one, far from it. He rarely left the occupied palace, but whenever he did, he struck hard blows against the Precure. "We must be careful."

"I know. Sidhe, though… I told her we should come back, but she said she wanted to learn more. She said she would return soon, and report to us, but…"

"She was probably seen. Idiot."

"Don't be so rough on her," said Davi. "It is Bel we're talking about, after all."

"Right, right," suddenly a thought sprung into her mind, and she almost didn't want to say it, but Davi and Akane should hear. "I… I think we won't be seeing Sidhe again," Akane tilted her head inquisitively in response. "Ah, well… I did kill Lust, after all. Even the Selfish hated Lust, but even so, they might retaliate by hurting Sidhe."

Suddenly she felt guilty. No, this is not my fault, she kept telling herself, if Sidhe dies, it will be by the hands of the Selfish, not mine, so it is not my fault. I only did what I had to do. She didn't believe her words at all.

"I hope you don't plan on blaming yourself for this," Akane put a hand on her back, giving her a pat that she likely meant to be friendly, but Makoto only found it condescending. "It's not your fault."

"It's a consequence of my actions," she said. "It is my fault. That's simply a fact."

"Does that make you feel bad?"

"No," she lied. "This is war, and in wars, people die. I cried my last tears when Alice died, and I will mourn no one else."

"Do you truly have no hopes that she may have lived?" Davi asked softly.

"I saw her being taken away. She is lost. Our enemies have never been known for their mercy."

"Is that what your heart tells you?"

Akane and Davi were smiling at her. How they found the strength to smile at a time like this was something that Makoto could not understand. The only thing that made her smile lately was…

She felt ashamed to admit it to herself. Lust's blood had made her smile, a smile that not even the memory of Marie Ange could bring to life, or the thought of rescuing her from her prison. It had been justice, she knew it, yet she also knew that she should not feel any pleasure. But all the same, the blood made her smile.

"My heart tells me she lives," Makoto admitted, and she thought of the blood again, to make herself smile, which brought ease to Davi's and Akane's faces. "But, once, my heart also told me that we would win the war, that the stars would shine forever for us, and that me and Marie Ange would always be able to look up in the night sky and see them. So I don't trust my heart. I trust my strength, my blade, and I, of course, always trust my friends," she said, looking at the women next to her, who grinned, unaware of the shame behind Makoto's smile.

It was only her blade that she trusted, now that all else was gone, but they didn't need to know that.

Rosetta rushed past thousands of mirrors and found herself surrounded by her own nervous face. She could hear Shadow's furious screams, louder than they had ever been. Lance heard them too, and he cowered on Alice's shoulder. Something was wrong, horribly wrong, and whenever that happened here, Shadow would punish someone for it. Alice could only hope that it would not be her.

She followed the shrieks, each one a hurtful, shrill noise. Alice couldn't hear anything else, not even the wind that always whistled in the mornings, or the waves that constantly hit the cliffs where Shadow's keep had been built.

Alice had grown used to the screams, and to this place. She didn't want to, but she did. The days passed by with astonishing speed, and they all seemed exactly the same. She would go weeks without seeing the sun, and she didn't even care. Most of the time, she felt so numb. Everyone she ever loved was gone, except for her fairy, her home was in ruins, and even her family's legacy had been corrupted by Nightmare. Sometimes Alice would forget why she was even bothering to keep fighting, but then she'd quickly remember.

Continental. Sunset. Gonna and Pantaloni. Not everyone was gone. She still had people to protect, and as a Precure, she would never turn her back on anyone who needed her help.

The castle was pure crystal all around, save for the floors of polished marble. When Alice put her hands on the wall, she could just barely feel the tips of thousand tiny crystal shards, all joined together to make the surface of countless mirrors that were almost flat and smooth, but not quite, so all the reflections came out twisted.

There was an eerie coldness and sadness in Shadow's castle, and emptiness that was too much to bear. All the mirrors and crystals made the corridors seem unending, giant hallways that extended infinitely, with no one to fill the empty spaces but Alice herself and her reflections. In Shadow's castle, a million reflections walked, but among them were only a dozen real people. And even some of those so-called real people were little more than mirror images as well.

The crystals danced in greens and yellows as she passed them by, following Shadow's screams. They were louder now, and Alice knew he was just beyond the doors of black crystal that reflected nothing. That was Shadow's most prized room. It was where he kept his prisoners. The doors chilled her fingers as she opened them and walked inside.

Two girls dressed in blue tried to calm Shadow down, the two Cure Aquas, the true one and her reflection. They stood in front of a huge crystal the color of ruby, now empty. But it wasn't empty just one day before. Just yesterday, Cure Rouge was there, trapped in a prison of cold scarlet. Now, she was gone, and no doubt that was the cause of Shadow's wrath.

The green one still held its prisoner, though. Within it was Cure Mint, still as death, eyes always closed. Whenever Alice passed her by, she was overwhelmed by a feeling of pity, a desire to free her. It wouldn't be so hard. The crystal seemed solid enough, but Alice knew that it felt only like a veil of silk when touched, and all she had to do was to pull Mint out of her prison and run, and they'd be free. It would be so easy…

"Continental," she whispered to herself as she left the green crystal behind. "Sunset. Gonna and Pantaloni."

These were the girls she was fighting for, the lives she meant to protect. Not Mint. Mint was safe. Trapped, but safe. But the lives of the girls at Nightmare were on Alice's hands. The burden was too heavy, sometimes, but Alice never complained or felt sorry for herself. This was her choice.

"Where are Migirin and Hidarin?" Shadow screamed, but the two Aquas only shrugged in response. "I need to kick something."

Migirin and Hidarin were Shadow's assistants, which meant he hurt them to relieve his stress. The reflections did the same: the one they called Dark Lemonade was particularly fond of playing games with the two fairies, games that often ended with them crying and limping, their entire bodies bruised. Alice was the only one who bothered to care for their wounds, while everyone else mocked her for that, but by now she didn't even hear their laughter anyhmore.

"Alice," said the false Aqua. She didn't even have a name of her own. Neither did the other fakes. Their names were all stolen from the girls they tried to imitate. "You are late."

"I'm sorry," Alice answered. She wasn't late, but she had learned not to argue. "May I ask why was I summoned?"

"Look," Shadow pointed at the empty crystal in front of him. Its red seemed a little bit dimmer than it had been while Cure Rouge was in there. "What do you see?"

"An empty crystal."

"An empty cell," said the real Aqua. Rouge had been her partner, but she never seemed to care about her being trapped in there. "Rouge was freed."

"By whom?"

"You should ask Scorp," said Shadow. He was silent for a moment, and then he began to scream again. "Except he doesn't know! Someone hit his head and he passed out! Now Dark Mint is having to take care of him to make sure he doesn't get any sort of brain damage, even though his brain was never that useful to begin with."

"By the time we realized, it was too late," Dark Aqua explained. "We saw a small boat leaving, far in the horizon, too distant to reach."

This castle was a seaside fortress, carved deep in the heart of cliffsides that overlooked the Petal Ocean to the east of the Trump Kingdom. It was supposed to be unbreachable. The waters around it were always full of rage, always lashing out against the rocky walls nearby. Alice wondered who could possibly sail these waters.

"Whoever did it couldn't take Mint, at least," said Karen. She was always looking at the bright green crystal with eyes full of sad longing.

"Small comfort," said Dark Aqua. "The Director will be furious to lose part of the collection. It's already not worth that much without Cure Dream, and Anacondy lent Cure Lemonade to a friend. That was the word she used. What's the point of a collection if you hand it out to others?"

"The Director had a reason," said Karen. "He always has a reason."

"Who gives a damn about his reasons?" Shadow punched the empty crystal, cracking it. "He asks me to forge a duplicate of Cure Lemonade in case she gets damaged, and then he just gives her away? I'm no mere servant to be bossed around like this with no say over what is to be done with my own prisoners."

Yes you are, thought Alice, you are just a spiteful little pawn who thinks he matters. She kept her mouth shut, and listened.

"Is that why you had Dark Lemonade call me, though?" Alice asked. "I can't do anything about Cure Rouge. Even if I could, my mission is entirely different."

"It's because of your mission that I summoned you here. You had months to prepare your little heist, so I hope that by now you are ready to do it."

Alice nodded. Every day she made plans with the four Dark Cures. They each had their role, and by now they had learned the layout of Trump's Palace of Suits, where the Eternal Golden Crown was kept, at least according to Eternal. It was hard to make preparations when she had little knowledge of the situation in the streets of Trump, but she had done her best. All she could hope was that those four terrible girls would do their part, and not, as they were wont to do, ignore her and do what they thought was best.

"Good," said Shadow. "Anacondy was kind enough to arrange a way to guarantee your entry into Trump. You'll enter the city under the guise of envoys of Eternal, wishing to purchase some useless trinkets. The Selfish are excellent suppliers of treasures, you know? They are too stupid to know the value of things, and just love their shiny gold."

"Seems like a good plan," Alice had to admit that she didn't expect so much assistance from Eternal. Her plan had been to just infiltrate the city through the forts that kept watch over the long bridges, but this was much easier. "But if we do it that way, will we be able to get out? They'll be aware of our presence there."

"I already thought of that," he said. "I have arranged a magic mirror for you."

"A-A magic mirror? How?" Those were extremely rare. Only Cure Empress was ever capable of the magic required to create them, so over the years, almost all of them had been lost. Magic mirrors always came in pairs: though to the untrained eye they were ordinary, those who were aware of its secrets knew that they were portals connected to each other.

"The two of us will go, at first," said Dark Aqua. "We'll take a magic mirror with us, and a normal one too. We'll tell the Selfish that in exchange for their treasures, we'll give them a set of magic mirrors. A lie, of course, but it provides us the excuse to bring the mirror with us. And then-"

"Once we're in Trump, the others will come through the mirror," Alice had already understood the plan. It was ingenious enough, and clean. "Then once we have the Crown, we come back through the mirror."

"Right," she said. "We'll have to break the mirror once we come back, of course, or we're gonna be followed. It's a pity to ruin such a valuable treasure, but the Eternal Golden Crown holds all the knowledge in the world, it's said, so maybe when we have it, we'll be able to learn how to make more magic mirrors."

"Or maybe the Director will just store it in some room," Shadow shrugged dismissively. "Sounds like something he'd do. Get the most powerful artifact in the world and keep it where it'll never do any good."

Shadow would take the Crown if he had the chance, Alice realized. Scorp and Shibiretta were loyal to Eternal, and she didn't know who the traitor Karen had pledged allegiance to, but everyone else was on Shadow's side, even the two fairies he loved to torment. She would have to make sure that Shadow wouldn't try anything. If she came back to Eternal with the news that she the Crown had been taken from her, the Cures at Nightmare would be punished.

And, of course, the Crown's power in the hand of Shadow was a fearsome thing, but, in all honesty, Alice didn't particularly care. The world was almost entirely destroyed, already, so what harm could he do? Burn down a few more forests?

"I'll get ready to leave, then," said Alice.

"Go do that," said Shadow. "Aqua," the two girls turned to him, "the false one, I mean. Come here. I must talk to you before you leave."

They walked away together, towards some room that Alice had never been to. She was left all alone with Karen in the empty room, but even so Alice felt herself being watched by a thousand reflections all around.

Karen always looked at her with disdain, that was the worst thing. Her eyes made it more than clear that she judged her a traitor who had sold the Precure's secrets to Eternal and Nightmare. Whenever she saw Aqua, all that Alice wanted to do was to tell her that she was still a Precure, still loyal to their ideals, to the Red Rose, and that she was still fighting. But she had to play her part, just as Karen no doubt had to play hers. Rosetta couldn't know what she was doing here, or why she worked with Shadow, but she wouldn't ask. Alice had her own secrets to keep, and she understood very well the price she had to pay for it.

The temple of the Blue Rose felt almost like home, but for the empty spaces and the silence. Rikka slept under heavy, fluffy sheets, and when it rained, it did not bring her any fear or worry, and instead the sound of raindrops falling on the roof sang her to sleep like a mother's lullaby. Easy sleep came to Yuri as well, who had not had a nightmare in almost two months now. Aguri was pleasant company, full of tales to tell, surprisingly so for a girl so young, and the meals she served were always warm and delicious, and after just a week there Rikka had gained all the weight she had lost as she ran. She felt almost at peace, almost at home.

And yet all around were the empty spaces, and the silence that almost smothered her. Not only because the temple was in the middle of nowhere, and rarely visited. It was a different emptiness, a different silence. Sometimes, early in the morning, Rikka could swear she saw Mana walk the corridors, and followed her shadow, always in vain, and sometimes she heard Makoto's voice, singing a song she could not quite recall, but when Rikka focused on it, it was already gone, and she became overwhelmingly aware of the silence.

This could never be her home without Mana, lost at sea, without Alice, taken away as she kicked and screamed, without Makoto, stupid Makoto, who remained in Trump, certainly confident that she, alone, could stand against the entire might of the Selfish Kingdom. They should be with her, them and everyone she loved, but instead Rikka was surrounded by empty spaces.

She found Yuri in the garden, amidst the flowers she cared for. If she was saddened by her situation, she never showed it. Ever since they got there, she hadn't cried, and she even smiled, most of the time. She had grown fond of Aguri, who in turn was also quick to befriend her. They made a comical sight as they walked together, Yuri towering over the small girl who barely reached her chest. Funnier still was how Aguri always dominated their conversations, and Yuri just listened and nodded.

Moonlight had been very quick to agree with the Blue Rose's doctrines, almost scarily so. Aguri's words were persuasive, Rikka couldn't deny that, but she didn't want to put much trust in them, not so soon.

"Everything that's wrong with the world…" Aguri had told them the past day, when they gathered at the temple's porch, to feel the pleasant night air. The night was dark, with only a star and a crescent moon to ward off the darkness, but the paper lanterns above them gave them a little bit of light. "The Red Rose is to blame for most of it. The Red Rose lost the Sacred Treasures, the Red Rose was responsible for the Axia Crisis, the Red Rose banished the god Blue from our world. It was a Cure of the Red Rose that lost the Dream Collet, too."

"Princess Himelda," said Rikka. "Can we blame the entire Red Rose for the actions of a a single girl?"

"Yes, because the Red Rose made her a Precure, even though she is completely unfit to be one. You two may have had to work hard for it, but that's because you are not nobles, you are not wealthy. But do you know how many princesses and queens and duchesses or what have you were inducted into the Order of the Red Rose simply because of their position?"

Rikka had no answer for that. It was a subject all the Precure wanted to avoid discussing. It was just too uncomfortable. But there was no denying that there were many Precure who were absolutely unworthy of their position.

"It was the Red Rose that made Dark Precure," said Yuri. Rikka had only heard her say that name twice, and both times her voice was terrifying, and she sounded like a completely different person.

"And they made much worse," said Aguri. "Cure Winter. Cure Wyvern. Cure Seraph, Cure Lucent, Cure Cadenza… All of them monsters, all of them made Precure by the Red Rose even though they had no right to have such power. The Red Rose has no standards. The world is at their mercy, and though every Rosehearted would tell you that they are protectors of all innocent people, don't be fooled. Even when the Precure Dominion ended, the Red Rose ruled the world. They spoke softly, they masked their tyranny with a few kind deeds now and then, but all nations, all kingdoms, they all had to bow down to the power of the Precure, in the end."

"And the Blue Rose would be different?" Rikka asked, and Aguri spent a few seconds in thought before she answered. The wind blew gently but firmly, and the paper lanterns began to sway.

"A fair question," Aguri giggled. "I like to think we would. I would, at the very least. Blue has chosen me. Me and Cure Rose. A thousand years have passed since the Axia Crisis, and he has had enough time to regain some of his power. I cannot speak for Cure Rose, but Blue chose me because I am pure," even a day afterwards, Rikka still remembered Aguri saying this vividly. "Born without sin or selfishness. I was born a Precure, you know. For a thousand years, no one had been born a Precure. What could this be but a sign of Blue's return?"

"You seem to have a lot of faith."

"In Blue? No, no. I will not deny his crimes. But I do believe that the Blue Rose is the only righteous order. Only it can save the world and restore our stars, and only it will be able to keep it safe."

"This Cure Rose you mentioned…"

"Ah, the champion of the blue rose. She has found the fabled blue rose, which clearly means she was chosen by Blue himself, too. She is… She is more proactive than I am. My powers have certain limits that hers don't. Once the Blue Rose is restored, she will be our champion, our face to the public."

"But you're the one who's making all these plans," Yuri stopped looking at the moon, and turned her face to Aguri. "Are you not the real leader, then?"

"Unlike the Red Rose and its Rosehearted, the Blue Rose does not have a true leader. Our champion is simply an esteemed Precure who embodies our ideals. Cure Rose is better at that than me, and it's not a title I would want, anyways. I don't even like blue roses, if I may tell you the truth," she smiled, and looked like a child again. "Red is a much more beautiful color. Such a shame that the Cures of the Phoenix Tower had appropriated it for their evil ends."

Rikka found herself thinking back on those words all day. There was much work to be done in the temple, and only three girls to do it, so that gave Rikka plenty of time to think, and plenty of time to reflect. And, above all, plenty of time to be overwhelmed by the emptiness around her. She was glad to have Raquel by her side as she worked, but when she could hear gusts of wind whistling through windows and empty corridors, she still felt overwhelmingly alone.

To her relief, sometimes travellers passed by, though perhaps that was not the best way to call them. Refugees was more like it, families running south to escape the Selfish. The Blue Rose fed them, and Rikka tended to their wounds and illnesses to the best she could. Just three weeks ago she had saved the life of a boy who was almost dying of a terrible fever, and she still felt proud of it. The way his parents smiled when she told them their son would live… Rikka had not felt that sort of satisfaction in such a long time that she wondered if she had ever actually felt it.

But the temple could not shelter them. Its small garden only grew enough food to feed half a dozen people at most, so Aguri always sent them away. Rikka always asked herself what might have happened to them. She hoped that they were fine, but had no way of knowing. She understood Aguri's reasons, but at the same time she was angered by her decisions. She spoke of the righteousness of the Blue Rose, but how could Rikka believe that when she was sending people away to fend for themselves?

She scrubbed her bedroom's floor to keep it pristine. It was already clean, for the most part, other than some strands of long blue hair, but it was a decent way of passing the time when she had little else to do, and gave her the freedom to be alone with her thoughts. Raquel was by her side, and he helped Rikka clean, always in silence. His presence brought Rikka happiness, and sadness at the same time. He was the last remnant of her old life. Her home was gone, Mana was dead, and Alice probably was as well, and, by herself, Makoto would be an easy victim for the Selfish.

Her family was gone too, she remembered. The Red Rose was to blame for that, and for a moment Rikka found herself agreeing with Aguri that it was evil. When Trump fell and Ange disappeared, a year before the Death of the Stars, now a lifetime away, so distant that it felt like a lie, the Precure knew that war had come, a war the likes of which they had not faced in centuries. The Desert Apostles were stirring, Labyrinth's machines were seen crossing the skies in great speed, Eternal grew bolder, robbing great treasures, all the while Majorland faced civil unrest as hundreds of people mysteriously disappeared, and thousands more joined a shady cult that burned down concert houses. Looking back, it was so obvious that something was about to happen. Yet everyone assumed that the Precure would be victorious, as they always were. Rikka herself believed that.

And then the stars died, and even the worst fears of the most careful and worried Precure paled before the horror that unfolded. Rikka still remembered when she got the message that the Heart Tree had burned down. She knew what it meant. It meant that her family was at risk.

Cure Continental was the Rosehearted, then, and her first measure when she received the news that the Trump Kingdom's sovereign had been murdered by he who called himself Selfish King was to protect the families of the Precure. It seemed so wise back then. The Precure were the protectors of the world, strong fighters, wielders of great magic. But their hearts were vulnerable, and the best way to breach their protections was to strike at those they loved. So Continental arranged ships so that the families of the Precure, if they so desired, could go north, to take shelter in the safe temples that surrounded the Heart Tree. So much for that.

Stupid tears fell on the wooden floor that Rikka cleaned. She should not cry now. She should look ahead, not behind. She could not be a sentimental fool like this. She could not…

Raquel was soon with her, saying the kind words that Rikka needed to hear to calm down. She took deep breaths, and returned to her work. There was much to be done, always, even if only to try to keep her mind occupied, and failing again and again and again.

There was a knock on the door. Rikka knew it was Yuri; Aguri instead preferred to call the name of the person she was looking for. Rikka told her to come inside. The door was slowly dragged open, making a soft sound as it scraped the floor.

"Yuri," Rikka had not seen her at breakfast, so this was their first meeting of the day, "how are you?"

"I'm fine," said Yuri. She was almost always fine. She was rarely good, but she hadn't felt depressed since they arrived at the temple. Aguri's garden always had plenty of Dreamfrond. Rikka was thankful for her recovery. She knew her wounds had not closed so easily, and her scars would never heal, but truthfully, Rikka had become tired of her misery and self-pity. When they travelled together, there were times that all she wanted to do was to tell her that she was not the only one who had lost her family, but Rikka feared that maybe, just maybe, if she said those words, they would come true, and if she did not, there was a chance that it hadn't. A childish notion, but one that kept her sane even during the harshest nights.

"Good," said Rikka. "Have you gone out today? Or was that Aguri's duty today? I can never remember."

"Her duty," said Yuri. "She has already come back from her scouting. She says she wants to talk to us."

"She always wants to talk to us," Rikka said, setting aside the heavy brush she used to clean the floor, and putting the wet rags back inside a wooden bucket. "Always has some story to tell us about why we should join the Blue Rose."

"Do you not believe her?"

"I believe what my eyes see, I believe what I can find in a book, and I believe in the words of trust and unbiased parties. I cannot believe in mere stories."

"How can you be so certain they are just stories?" Yuri sounded almost offended. Funny, Rikka thought, when they first arrived, Moonlight was the distrustful one.

"What else can they be? Yuri, the girl is twelve. At most. There is absolutely no way she can know the hidden history of the Blue Rose. Even Cure Mirage knew very little about it, and she was one of Verone's most renowned professors of history!"

"She said she was born a Precure," Yuri insisted. "And I've never seen her in any of the meetings of the Red Rose. Maybe she really was chosen. She said that people lived in this temple for a long time, right? Her grandmother, I think, was one of them. They must have taught her the stories. If they are loyal to the Blue Rose, they would know the stories."

"Maybe," Rikka shrugged. "I still find it all very suspicious. There is something about Aguri that I can't trust, and I feel there are things she's hiding from us."

"Then you should take the opportunity to ask her," said Yuri, "because she wants to talk to us right now. She said it's urgent. It's about the future of the Blue Rose."

Of course it was about that. It was all that Aguri ever talked about. Rikka knew very little about the girl, and whenever she bothered to ask a question, she was always unanswered. And yet she expected them to trust her. Well, it had worked with Yuri, but Rikka still had her doubts, and still wanted answers.

She followed Yuri down the stairs, Raquel floating next to her. The temple seemed even quieter than usual. Aguri's fairy must be sleeping, Rikka presumed. That made her glad: something about Ai made her unpleasant to look upon. She looked too human to be a fairy, and she looked too much like a fairy to be a human baby. Rikka avoided her when she could, but once or twice she had to take care of her.

Even before she reached the dining room, Rikka could hear tea being poured into cups, she could smell its aroma, and she could almost feel the warmth. It was in these moments that the temple felt like a home, that Rikka could almost see Aguri as a friend.

Rikka took her place. By now she did not have to wait for permission to sit down, nor did she have to be shown her seat. Hers was directly in front of Aguri, who smiled a silent greeting. Rikka knew this smile. It was the smug and satisfied smile that Aguri always sported when she knew something that Diamond and Moonlight didn't, which happened quite often.

"What is it, Aguri?" Rikka wasted no time with pleasantries.

"I was out, today," she said as if Rikka didn't already know, "scouting. Making sure the Selfish won't find us. Not because we can't drive them away, we absolutely can, but because that would be a waste of our precious time."

"Precious?" Rikka laughed. "We're not doing anything with it."

"Of course we are," Aguri said after taking another sip of tea. "I am teaching, and you are learning. Right, Moonlight?"

Yuri nodded. She looked down at her own teacup, but didn't touch it. No, she wasn't looking at the teacup, Rikka realized. She was staring at nothing, her thoughts drifting far from here.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you much about me," said Aguri. "I hid much knowledge from you, and avoided your questions. That was not right of me, but I had to get to know you. To know if you were good people, if you were true Precure. If I could trust you."

"Funny how you get to know us but we know hardly anything about you," Rikka said bitterly. Raquel nodded in agreement. "We haven't even seen you transform… Well, tell us your verdict, then."

"You are trustworthy," said Aguri, "and I want you with me, fighting for the Blue Rose, the righteous rose. There aren't many people I can count on, I know it, but I know that I can count on you. You have earned my trust, and now I want to earn yours. You haven't seen me transform, you said. Let's get this over with."

She rose all at once; her lips moved, but Rikka couldn't hear any sound. A small point of red bloomed forth upon her chest, expanding, bursting into light. It enveloped her, her whole body, and the air around her. Aguri was gone, and Rikka could only see the light shifting, changing its form, expanding towards the sides, and upwards too. A Precure's transformation was usually instantaneous, but Aguri's took far longer than that. As the light's shape changed, it seemed to struggle against itself.

And then the light faded away, and a woman stood where Aguri had been a moment ago. But she was not Aguri. She couldn't be. Aguri was a child. This Precure was taller than Yuri, and stood proudly as she looked down on Rikka.

"A-Aguri?"

"I am Aguri," she said slowly, "and I am Cure Ace of the Order of the Blue Rose."

"You don't look like… Like you."

"I know," she said, sitting down once more. "You find it unusual, don't you?"

"It is unusual."

"I don't think so," Ace giggled, then finished her tea. "Well, now you know what kind of Precure I am. Are you capable of trusting me, Rikka?"

"I… I can try." Just not very hard.

"As I was saying, I was out earlier today. I found the most curious thing as I was headed north. A group of Selfish, and a Jikochuu too. They aren't usually this far south."

"Why were they here?" Yuri asked.

"Just like me, they were scouting the area. Or at least they were pretending to. The Selfish aren't known for being very good at obeying orders, after all, not without some serious persuasion from their superiors. They were too busy chatting to notice my approach. So I defeated them, and questioned them. For the sake of their lives, they were quick to answer."

"And?" Rikka stared at her. "What did you find out?"

"The bulk of the army of the Selfish Kingdom has left Trump. The city's defenses are weakened. You can see where I'm going with this."

"We'll go to Trump?"

"Not we," Cure Ace licked her lips. "You."

"Why?"

"How familiar are you with the Sacred Treasures of the Precure?"

"I know what the stories say of them," Rikka shrugged. She didn't put much faith in those stories.

"Ah, but there are so many stories. What you know is likely not the truth. But that doesn't matter. What does matter is this: the Sacred Treasures have been lost by the Red Rose, but that doesn't mean nobody knows where they are. The Miracle Dragon Glaive is lost, stolen ages ago by Cure Lucent, and never found."

"You are wrong," said Rikka. "Marie Ange found it. Makoto told us."

"Did she now?" Rikka had no idea what Aguri found so funny about that. "What if Marie Ange lied? What if I said she never actually found the Glaive, and she only said she did so that brave adventurers would stop throwing their lives away in search of it?"

"I would say you are making a lot of presumptions," Rikka answered. Was this a game? "Ange had no reason to lie."

"A princess always has reasons to lie."

"How would you know?"

"I just do. I know that Ange never found the Dragon Glaive. And I know that the Crystal Mirror has been lost, most likely forever… But the Eternal Golden Crown? Oh, the Eternal Golden Crown lies safely in the royal palace of Trump."

"Right," said Rikka. "Next you'll be telling me that the Rose Garden is real, and you've been there, and that it's right next to the Garden of Thorns, where all the evil Precure of the Red Rose are being tormented forever, because only the Blue Rose is righteous. Oh, and you have the Dream Collet with you, and just two days ago you had tea with Blue and Flora and the ghost of Cure Empress, for all I know."

"I see that I've not earned your trust, yet," Aguri sounded almost disappointed in that. "What if I told you that Marie Ange has a small safe in her quarters with a magical lock that can only be opened by Cure Sword?"

"H-How would you know that?" That caught Rikka off-guard. That was not a thing many people knew. Only those who were close to the princess.

"Because I know things," said Aguri. "I know that before she disappeared, Ange almost lost her life to a terrible, terrible illness, contracted in a distant land, but that was hidden from the people of Trump, so that they would not despair."

Yuri turned her eyes to Rikka, to confirm if Aguri was telling the truth, and Rikka's face frozen in shock was a good enough answer.

"Aguri…"

"I know that the Golden Crown is in the palace," she repeated. "And I know that Trump may be infiltrated now that its defenses have weakened. If the two of you are true to the Blue Rose, your path is clear. The Crown is one of the greatest treasures of the Precure. It is said to hold all knowledge in the world. I doubt it's quite so powerful, but it must be close."

"Do you know where it is, exactly?" Yuri asked.

"There is a secret room full of treasures in the royal palace. The Crown is being kept there."

"The Selfish hold the royal palace," said Rikka. "They have already found the Crown, no doubt."

"No, my dear," Aguri said. "The room is hidden where no Selfish will ever look for it. Behind the throne is a gilded door that shines when the light hits it. Beyond it lie the greatest treasures of the Trump Kingdom… Well, most of them. That room doesn't actually have anything of true value. Just jewels and gold. It is there only to sate the appetites of conquerors. The real treasure chamber lies beyond a false wall in a corner of a tiny closet where the servants of the palace keep their brooms, their mops, their buckets. Who would look there for treasure?"

"That… That's a fine hiding place, I suppose. You might be right. The Crown might be there."

"It is there. I know it. What I need to know now, is whether or not you will go. The Blue Rose needs you two. You might not have been born Precure, or chosen by Blue, but it was fate that brought you to me."

"Fate? What brought us here was hunger."

"Call it what you will. You haven't answered me."

Rikka pondered, drinking what was left of her tea. To return to Trump… She wanted to go back. She loved it there, she always did, and it hurt her to remember its sorry state. Most of all, though, she was curious. She wanted to know who Aguri was, how she knew so much. She could turn her back on the Blue Rose, but then she would never learn the answers…

"I'll go."

"So will I," said Yuri. "We'll bring back the Crown."

"Marvellous. I knew I could count on you. You should get ready, then. Trump is not very close."

"Are you not going with us?" Rikka asked. "Surely you don't plan on staying here, safe and warm, while we risk our lives."

"I'm no coward," she said, setting her teacup aside. Her eyes were suddenly serious. "One of the Selfish I questioned mentioned that Princess Regina has marched south, to attack the Bad End Kingdom and the Land of Toys. I don't give a damn about those awful monsters of the Bad End Kingdom, but the Land of Toys is a place that must not be destroyed. It is one of the few places in the world where anyone still cares about the gods. There, the name of Flora is still spoken with reverence."

"Flora…" Yuri closed her fist. "Flora is a coward."

This was not an uncommon view, Rikka knew. It was hard to find someone devout to Flora; even Blue still had some supporters in distant shrines in small villages, and, now, in the revived Blue Rose. But Flora had abandoned the people of the world in their hour of need by closing the doors of the Rose Garden when the stars went out for the first time, thousands of years ago. Or so it was said. Rikka doubted it; there was no way to trust stories about what happened ten thousand years ago.

"Why do you care about Flora, Aguri? Do you truly believe that the Rose Garden exists, when we have no evidence but stories from millennia ago? The Rose Garden is a myth, just like the Garden of Thorns, stories told to make us feel bad about our own humanity," the Garden of Thorns was said the be the punishment in the afterlife that awaited the Cures who committed great sins, but there were Precure who were eager to call anything a sin.

"I'm no devout," said Aguri, "but if they love Flora, then they can find it in their hearts to love Blue too, and, what really matters, our Rose. And we'll need love and support if we are to reclaim what is ours. And there's another thing, too…"

"What is it?" Raquel asked. Aguri hesitated to answer, but Rikka saw her face change, contorting into anger.

"Regina will be there. The wicked princess of the Selfish Kingdom. She is a beast that must be put down, and I have the perfect opportunity to do so when she's in the battlefield."

Rikka meant to ask what it was that Regina meant to do by starting a war, but before she could say the words, Aguri's body was embraced by red light again, brighter this time. When the light subseded, Aguri was a child again, but she kept her confident posture. It was an odd sight. Aguri and Cure Ace did not look at all like the same person.

"Aguri…" Rikka had to ask. By now it was clear that Aguri was no ordinary child. "How do you know so much about the Trump Kingdom, about the Sacred Treasures, about the past? You're so-"

"Young? I guess I am," she giggled. "But youth does not mean ignorance, just as old age is no guarantee of wisdom. I just happen to know a lot."

"No, I can't believe you just happen to know such well-hidden knowledge and secrets. Who are you, exactly?"

She stepped closer to Rikka, an odd smile forming on her lips. When she stopped right in front of Rikka, despite being so short, somehow she seemed imposing, regal.

"All in its time. Come back alive," she said, "and I will give you all the answers you want, I promise. All the answers to all your questions, every single one, you will have them all. But come back with the Crown," she whispered, "and you'll see them with your own eyes."

Mana was four days starving, two days thirsting, and her back hurt from sleeping on the ground, but somehow she found the strength in her to smile. Her lips were dry and cracked, but they tried to smile anyways. She lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun, and when she found a dead tree on her way, she sat down and rested her back against it. From there, she could almost see a small village in the distance, past a river that had gone dry. She wondered if there were still people living there. She closed her tired eyes, and sighed.

"Mana," Sharuru asked, laying a tiny hand on her shoulder. It tickled. "Are you alright?"

"I am," she said. Her voice was hoarse, and her throat hurted. "Just resting for a little moment. Soon we'll keep going."

"Keep going where?" Sharuru was distressed. She always was, lately.

"Wherever we are needed."

"You can't spend the rest of your life just walking around aimlessly hoping you can find people who need help. You're a Precure. You can do more than that. You can and you should."

"What would you have me do?" Sharuru never understood Mana's intentions. The fairy had a good heart, but sometimes Sharuru could not see what was right in front of her. "There's people in need of help, so I'll help them."

"You should go look for the Precure."

"And leave the people of the Trump Kingdom at the mercy of the Selfish?" She shook her head. "We're the only thing standing between them and the Jikochuu."

"Then at least take care of yourself! You are killing yourself by doing this, Mana. When was the last time you ate?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Of course it does! Whenever we find food, you just give it to other people and leave almost nothing for yourself!"

They needed it more than Mana did, but if Sharuru couldn't understand that, there was no way to explain it. She was a Precure, and her duty came before her own well-being.

"Let's get going," she said to avoid more conflict.

Her body ached with each step she took, but thankfully Mana travelled light. Sharuru would not call that fortunate, of course. She would say that it meant they were almost out of food, their bags completely empty. And she'd be right. Mana had given out the last loaf of bread she had to a family she met on the roadside. She had given them her canteen, too, though it only had the ghosts of a last few drops, so it wasn't doing anyone much good. Sharuru yelled at Mana as she parted with her food and water, but Mana was content to drink rain water, to eat whatever she could find on her way. Berries, little dead birds, even grass, at her most desperate. It didn't matter, not as long as she was helping others. That was the most important thing.

She only wished she had anything to share with the people of the village they were approaching. Whenever she found a small settlement, or even a hideout where a family or two gathered to stay safe for the night, they greeted her with hopeful eyes when they realized she was a Precure. The most painful thing was when she let them down, when Mana hadn't found anything of use during her travels. It happened before, many times. There was little to be found in the wastelands of the dying world.

"Mana," Sharuru spoke out again, as they approached the dried river. "You need to eat."

"Everyone needs to eat," Mana pretended she didn't understand what Sharuru wanted to say.

"You need to eat now. You'll die if you don't."

"I won't die," she said. "I'm not so easy to kill. I'm not…"

Her stomach rumbled a horrid scream. It hurt. It hurt so much. I'm fine. It's everyone else who needs help. I'm fine.

"Please," Sharuru said again. They were standing in front of a long and now-pointless bridge. Along the bottom of the river, grey weeds were sprouting from the rocky ground. "Promise me you'll eat something. People will be happy to share with you. If there's any food in that village, anything, they'll let you eat. You know they will."

"They'll give me food, and then they'll starve," said Mana. As she began to cross the bridge, her body was hurting more and more. Each word she spoke burned through her throat. "I'm a Precure. I must help others, not take things from them."

"You can't help anyone if you're dead!"

Mana smiled. She was going to say something, but couldn't blurt out the words. She did not have the strength to. She limped across the bridge in silenced, and almost fell down to the ground as she reached the other shore. But she kept going. She had to. She had to…

It doesn't matter anymore, is what she would have said if she could. It was all over, now. Even she who never gave up on hope had lost it. When she fell from the ship, she still had hopes. When she swam to the shore and coughed out water for hours, she still had hopes. When she watched Sharuru drown and then brought her back to life, she still had hopes. For the longest time, she hoped.

She would find someone, was her first hope. Someone who could help her. Instead she found people running from Jikochuu, trying to save their own lives. She helped them escape, and drove back the monsters that threatened them and their homes. She still had food, then, lots of it, she was careful enough when she packed it into her bag that the water didn't spoil anything. Then, she could share to whoever needed it. It made no matter. She would find someone, soon. She would find other Precure. She would understand what happened.

A week passed and that hope still burned within her heart. It kept her warm in the coldest nights, and helped her keep going. She should go west, to the Phoenix Tower, right? It's where she headed out to, at first. But then she saw the suffering all around her, all the people who lost their homes, all the people dying of hunger, of thirst, of cold, even of sorrow, sometimes, if that was even possible. By then she knew she wouldn't find anyone else in the Trump Kingdom. By then she knew she was on her own, and she also knew that she could not abandon the people who needed her.

Then she had to find her own food. It wasn't that hard. Sharuru had good eyes for finding anything that seemed edible, and Mana remembered studying alongside Rikka, so she knew what was safe to eat, and what was not. A single star began to shine in the skies, back then, and it only made her hope burn brighter. The Precure were still out there, they were still fighting. They will bring back our stars. They will free our homes. They will come here, they will find me, they will save the people of the Trump Kingdom.

She was certain of that for a month. The next month, she hoped. On the next, she would sometimes dream of Rikka finding her, of Alice and her butler Sebastian greeting her from their car with lots of food to share with everyone who needed it, she dreamt of Makoto with the confident smile of success, having liberated the city of Trump.

Her sleep was dreamless now. Months had passed, and the star still shone lonely. It hurt to see it, now. Mana once thought it was a ray of hope, but now she knew it was only one last act of foolish defiance, the death rattle of the Precure. This thought brought her shame. She had to dream. She had to hope. She had to. That was who she was. She had always been the girl who would never give up, who would always help whoever needed. And so she kept going, even as it hurt, and it hurt so, so much.

"Mana," Sharuru insisted, but by now Mana could barely hear her. She was barely aware of her surroundings. She put one foot in front of the other, only vaguely understanding what she was doing. What was she doing? Going to the village, of course, how could she forget? Maybe someone there needed her help. "Mana, listen to me. I'll get you food. Water, too. Anything."

She didn't answer. The village's farms were dead, all of them. They would have nothing to share. Quite the contrary, they would need help. And Mana wanted to help. She wanted to give them whatever it was that she had, but by now she had nothing. Her only gift to them would be disappointment. Tears ran cold against her skin. They hurt. All that Mana could think of was that they were water. Water…

But no one could live on tears, she remembered sadly. If they could, she would give it to them gladly. Mana would give anything, everything, for whoever needed. Even her life. It was the only thing she had left.

"Sharuru," she called out, not knowing where she drew the strength to do it. Sharuru didn't answer. Maybe Mana hadn't said anything at all. Maybe she was imagining things now, maybe she was dying and her mind had stopped working. Was that what happened to those who were dying?

She couldn't see Sharuru anywhere around her. She saw people staring at her, and maybe they were villagers, but they could just as well be delusions. The houses were large blurs, and Mana could only tell their shape. Her steps were faltering. She began to feel hollow. She began to wish she hadn't handed out that last piece of bread. She couldn't even remember the taste of it now. She liked it, once, didn't she? Back when she was still alive, when she still hoped, when she wasn't yet a corpse giving out pieces of itself to whoever was in need.

Mana heard something that sounded almost like her name. But it couldn't be it. Who would call her now? She was all alone. Even Sharuru had left her. Mana didn't blame her. She shouldn't have made Sharuru suffer by her side. That was very selfish of her.

She heard that sound again. She looked around, but couldn't tell where it was from. Mana took a long breath, a very painful breath, and she felt her legs tremble. Weak, she fell to the ground. She struggled to get up, but when she fell back down, she couldn't get up again. Someone called her name again. It sounded like Sharuru's voice, she thought. Mana looked towards it, and she could just barely see the figures that approached her.

One was dressed in blue. It was Rikka. It had to be Rikka. She picked Mana up, and her lips moved, but Mana didn't know what she said. She couldn't see Rikka's face, but she knew it was her. Only Rikka's touch felt so tender. She put her hand on Mana's face. Don't let go, Mana thought. She blinked, and when she looked again, Makoto was by Rikka's side, clad in purple. Her colors seemed different, they seemed fainter, but it had to be Cure Sword. She was the one who wore purple.

Rikka made her open her mouth, and put something inside. Mana couldn't feel the taste, and she almost wanted to refuse, to say she didn't need anything, but she was already chewing, already swallowing, and she did not feel all that hollow, for a moment.

When the third girl crouched next to her, Mana expected it to be Alice, but no, the girl wore pink, she could not be Alice. Two other women were there, too, taller than those around them. Somehow their voices seemed familiar. She felt hands on her back, lifting her high. Sharuru was there, too, floating next to the girl dressed in pink, saying she found help. Mana almost asked her how she found Rikka and Makoto, but by then she knew.

She closed her eyes as they carried her away, and pretended, only for a moment, that it had been Rikka and Makoto who had found her. The thought lulled her into the dreamless sleep she had grown so used to.

Chapter Text

No matter how much the fairy insisted that the girl was Cure Heart, Nozomi could not believe it. She had seen Cure Heart, once, and this was most definitely not her. A villager had been kind enough to let them lay Mana upon her bed, and the poor woman thought that Nozomi and Reika were holding a corpse. She wasn't far from the truth: Mana did, indeed, look almost dead.

Her hair had turned into a long, tangled mess, robbed of the vibrant pink that Nozomi remembered Mana having. The sun had burned her face, and left her skin dry. When Nozomi picked her up, she was terrified the girl would fall apart: she was just skin and bones, and, truth be told, those bones didn't seem all that sturdy.

Still, she seemed almost peaceful as she slept, her chest moving up and down to the rhythm of her breathing. Weak as she was, she clung to life as hard as she could. Nozomi watched over her, and felt sorry. Mana Aida had never been a great beauty the way some Precure were, but Nozomi had found her cute, but now she could barely recognize her. It looked as if she had aged too quickly, all at once.

"Will she be alright?" Sharuru kept asking.

"She will," Reika always answered patiently. "She'll just need to eat when she wakes."

"Good luck getting her to do that," the fairy scoffed. "I couldn't."

Next to Mana was a bed table where Reika had put a glass of water, a bowl of soup, a plate full of vegetables and some chocolate they had brought from the Phoenix Tower. The soup had gotten cold as they waited for Mana to wake up. Honoka, Nagisa and Iona had gone out to gather information with the villagers, but Reika and Nozomi never left her side.

"She was so stupid…" Sharuru floated in circles, always anxious. "She said that she had to give up her own happiness and health so that others could have it. Those were her exact words when I asked her why she was giving away all our food."

"Don't call her stupid," said Nozomi. "It was just… It was poorly-thought of her part, that's all. I know she meant well."

"Of course she did! That's the problem! She just preoccupied herself so much with everyone else's well-being that she forgot about her own…"

"I didn't forget," Mana's voice was so soft and frail that Nozomi almost didn't notice it. "It just didn't seem to matter, in those moments."

"Don't speak," said Reika, putting a hand on her forehead, then cupping her cheek. "You need to eat."

"I…" She opened her eyes, and slowly moved her head to look at her surroundings. "I guess you're right. I haven't eaten in… In…"

"You don't remember, right?" Nozomi asked, and Mana shook her head. "Why have you done this to yourself?"

"Someone had to," she said, avoiding Nozomi's gaze. "Someone has to put others before themselves, no matter how much it hurts. That's what the Precure must do. That's what we swore to do."

She closed her eyes again, and sighed.

"You must think I'm a fool for this. I know even my own fairy thinks I am one."

"It's not that I think you're a fool, it's just that I worry about you so much. When I saw you like that, walking for miles and miles without resting, without eating, so dehydrated that you couldn't even sweat… I couldn't help but think that you had stopped caring about yourself. That you had given up. That you didn't care if you lived or died. Was I right in thinking that?"

Mana didn't answer. Silence hung in the air, impenetrable, painful, broken only by Sharuru's sobs, coming from deep within her throat, painful and unpleasant, like venom she vomited. Mana, however, cried her tears in silence.

"I wanted to do good," she said at last. "I failed the Trump Kingdom, I failed my friends, and I failed the whole world… When I saw the stars go out, I knew we had lost. We had failed. I thought it was the end," she sounded like she was in pain. "I thought I was the last Precure. Even when I saw that lone star in the sky, the hope it gave me was short-lived. I'm sorry. I just… I just wanted to make amends, somehow. To all the people we failed to protect, everyone who lost their homes. It's not their fault, none of this. I wanted to help them, even if it cost my health, my life… I thought I was doing what was right."

Nozomi didn't know how to answer. She turned to Reika, but she too was lost for words. Sharuru leapt onto her partner's chest, and Mana fraily lifted a hand to pet her. The girl looked to the bed table, and smiled, a shy smile that didn't want to be seen.

"I'll have the soup, if that's alright."

Reika helped Mana lift herself up, resting her back on the headboard. She drank her soup so quickly that it seemed to just vanish from the plate. When Mana was finished, her face was all stained.

A knock on the door announced Iona's return, with Nagisa and Honoka following her. Honoka smiled when she saw that Mana had finally eaten, but Iona and Nagisa's faces revealed only concern.

"So she's awakened," said Honoka. "I'm so glad. Most people would die from less than what you went through, you know."

That's exactly the kind of thought that made her do this in the first place! Honoka was the smartest person that Nozomi had ever known, but even that didn't save her from saying some clueless things now and then. Nozomi appreciated that, to be honest. She had always heard of Cure White, the brilliant girl who knew everything there was to know, and she seemed like the sort of person she wouldn't even be able to approach, but as soon as she heard Honoka try to make some terrible jokes, Nozomi knew that she was just another girl like them.

"You seem troubled," Reika remarked to Iona. "Did you find out anything?"

"Seems the Selfish Kingdom is aware of our presence," said Iona. "All the other villages that gave us shelter must have alerted the Selfish. And there kind of is a generous reward on our heads. Very generous. Generous enough to make good people consider turning us in, if you understand what I mean."

Nozomi wasn't quite certain of what Iona was implying, but it seemed serious. Did she mean that even the villagers here could betray them, deliver them to the Selfish? So it seemed, but Nozomi kept her silence, so that Iona wouldn't yell at her again.

"We saw this ourselves a while ago," said Glasan. "Remember, Iona? When all those people were tearing down the statue of Cure Starlight."

"Right," she said. "There doesn't seem to be much love for the Precure around here."

"There never has been," said Honoka. "Mostly because of the poli-"

"What matters is that we don't know who we can trust," Nagisa could always be trusted to contain Honoka's undying enthusiasm for sharing her knowledge. "So we ought to get moving as soon as we can."

"We can't leave Mana here!" Nozomi protested. "She's not in any condition to follow us, but we can't abandon her."

"I'll go," said Mana. Even as she spoke, feigning determination, she still sounded exhausted.

"Absolutely not," Reika was quick to answer. "You're too weak to go, to fight. We're going to Trump. It's too dangerous for you."

"I'm not that easy to kill, you know," said Mana. "What's your name?"

"It's Reika," she answered, confused.

"Alright, Reika. Would you stay behind, in my place? You just said you'll go to Trump… I've spent half of my life there. It is my home. Would you abandon your home, if you had the chance to save it?"

Nozomi's eyes were drawn towards Reika, who had turned to look at her as well. We didn't have the chance, they agreed with their eyes. Besides, the Palmier Kingdom wasn't truly her home.

"Right, then," said Reika. "We can't stop you from coming with us anyways, can we?"

"Absolutely not."

"Then there's no point arguing," Nagisa shrugged. "Welcome aboard, I guess."

There sure was a crowd gathering around them, Nozomi reflected. For so long, it had been just her and Reika. Even now, Nozomi had expected Beauty and Fortune to be her only companions. She was glad they wouldn't have to fight the Selfish with only three Precure, but she had to wonder if six was not too many…

Nagisa sat down by Mana's side, and sighed as she began to fan herself with her own hand. The heat had left many wet spots of sweat all over her clothing. When the sun shone through the window, its light seemed almost red, and the air felt heavy with moisture. Nozomi was not looking forward to leaving this house, its roof and walls the only refuge from the heat that increased with each passing day. In the mornings, sunrise felt like a dagger runnings it blade across her skin. And summer had not even begun yet.

They had to go as quickly as possible, then. Nozomi offered her hand to Mana, and helped her up. When her foot touched the floor and she began to rise, Mana made a pained face that no one could ignore. Nozomi and Reika looked at one another again, full of concern, and Sharuru seemed about to scream at her, so Dream was quick to say:

"Let's get going, then."

"Actually, we should think how we're going to get into Trump, and how we'll proceed once we're actually there," said Honoka.

"Oh, right," Nozomi laughed. "That."

"Once we're in Trump, I can guide you," said Mana. "Though I don't know how the situation is inside the city, right now, what with all the Selfish. It's them that we have to be aware of."

"What do we know about the Selfish?" Nozomi asked. If anyone would have deep knowledge of them, it would be Honoka.

"Well… They are an ancient cult, so to say. No, no, that is not the right way to describe it, they have no religious affiliation to any faith… An ancient conspiracy? That's not right either… They are an ancient group. Yes, I think that's a simple way of saying it, even though it's quite vague and there are those who think that such a term does not properly describe the intricacies of their organization. In fact, Cure St-"

"Honoka," Nagisa intervened. Her partner blushed, and coughed.

"Right. An ancient group, then. Their core philosophy is based around extreme hedonism and fulfilling one's desires to the detriment of absolutely everything else. It should be clear why the Selfish have never really accomplished anything of note until now."

"Yeah," Iona nodded. "How did they even last so long?"

"The Selfish might be perfectly willing to betray one another to get what they want, and there is very little love between them, but they do agree in one thing. For thousands and thousands of years, they have awaited for the rise of their promised sovereign, the one they call Selfish King, or King Jikochuu, or Lord of Debauchery, or First Selfish, and so on. The books I've read aren't all clear. After all, only the Selfish would know, and they don't usually have an interest in writing down history."

"The Selfish King…" Mana said. She was the only one of them who had seen him, and the memory made her shiver. "He just appeared, one day, just outside the royal palace. I remember it. It was such a beautiful day. We were going to visit the princess, me and… Me and some friends of mine. Marie Ange was ill, very ill, but the last time we visited the palace, her father, the king, he said that soon she would be well."

"And what happened then?" Nozomi asked.

"I don't know. I didn't see. I was headed towards the palace when… When…"

"When the Selfish King revealed himself," Sharuru said the words that Mana couldn't. "Suddenly, the beautiful day was gone. He was an enormous beast with the shape of a man, but clearly not a man. His body was covered in darkness, and darkness spread from him, covering the city of Trump with shadows."

"I saw Marie Ange," Mana explained, "for the last time. When we saw the Selfish King, we ran to the Palace. We knew everyone there would be in grave danger, not only Ange, who was ill, but also Hime, who was a guest there. When we saw Marie Ange, she held the Miracle Dragon Glaive, and she battled the Selfish King. We wanted to help, but dozens of Selfish soldiers and Jikochuu were attacking the city, and we had to save the populace. We had to abandon Marie Ange… Back then, it seemed like the obvious choice. She could defend herself. She was an accomplished warrior, a sorceress of great talent, and a talented tactician, too. She was… She was perfect, we thought. Someone as perfect as her wouldn't possibly need help. The very thought of Marie Ange failing… It was impossible to conceive. So we left her there."

"And then she lost," said Iona.

"And then she lost. We never saw her again. We never learned if she lived, if she had been captured, or if she had died. What we do know is that she managed to hinder the Selfish King. His body was turned to stone, a massive statue that casts a shadow over half of Trump. But Marie Ange was never seen again. Not once, not for the entire year Trump spent under constant attack by the Selfish. Of that you are already aware."

Nozomi nodded. Trump turned into a battlefield; half of the city under control of the Selfish, and the other half, held by the Red Rose and its Precure. Rin had been sent there to fight, she remembered. Would she find her in the ruins of Trump? Something told her yes, a quiet whisper of hope. Rin was strong. Rin would be able to survive there. Yes, she would find Rin. She would.

Mana groaned as she tried to take a few steps towards the door. Honoka held her gently so she wouldn't fall.

"You're still weak, Mana," she said. "Are you sure you aren't willing to change your mind? I really think you should rest."

"I can't rest," Mana let go of Honoka, and took some more steps. Her legs were trembling. They looked like sticks now, long frail sticks. Nozomi took a step back. She felt that if she stood too close to Cure Heart, she would break to pieces. "I can't rest now that I have the chance to save Trump. Please, just don't worry about me. I swear I'll be fine. I'm stronger than I look. And, besides, you admitted that you need me. I know the city better than any of you. You won't be able to get inside without me."

"How are you so sure of that?" Nagisa asked. "We can manage, I'm sure."

"Mana does have a point," said Reika. "If we had enough time, we might be able to find our way around Trump. I hear it's quite the complicated city to navigate. But we don't have enough time. We must find the Precure there before Regina returns. We don't know when that is, so we have to assume it'll be soon, and hurry."

It was unusual to see Reika advising haste, but Nozomi agreed that it was the best way to proceed, now. They couldn't wait for Mana to be healthy again. They needed her guidance, and they needed it now.

"I'm not as weakened as I look," said Mana. "I can still fight. I don't want you to worry about me. I'll be fine, I promise. I'll take good care of myself. I'll eat, and I'll sleep, and I'll fight."

"Right…" Iona seemed doubtful, and so did Nagisa and Honoka by her side. Cure White looked like a concerned mother, Nozomi thought. She wasn't actually that old, but she seemed so much more mature than even most adults.

"You know what's best for you, I guess," Nagisa shrugged again. "Just don't do anything stupid."

"Of course I won't," Mana smiled. She didn't show her teeth when she smiled, Nozomi noticed, and barely moved her lips. She smiled with her eyes. Soon she understood why: spending months in the wilderness was not very kind to one's teeth. Nozomi felt sorry for the girl. She had been through too much, with only her fairy by her side.

"It seems you've forgotten something," said Iona with a slight hint of annoyance (Nozomi was starting to think that she wasn't actually annoyed all that often, and that was just the way she sounded). "How do we even get to Trump?"

"Ah, right," said Nozomi. "Trump is beyond the Sapphire Sea, isn't it?"

"The Amethyst Sea," Reika corrected. It wasn't such a bad mistake this time, Nozomi thought. "I don't believe the bridge would possibly be undefended."

"Even if it was," said Honoka, "the only bridge to Trump is to the east of the Amethyst Sea. It'll take a while for us to get there. It would be an unnecessarily long detour. I also wouldn't like to take my chances at the bridge. It would be a terrible place to be attacked. If the slightest thing went wrong, we'd die, for sure."

"What do we do, then?" Asked Nagisa. "A ship is out of the question, I'd guess."

"Yeah," Nozomi agreed. "We're lucky to be able to find cities with any people in them. If there's a reward on our heads, I don't think anyone will be willing to help us. Even if they don't think about betraying us and taking us to the Selfish, they're still probably too concerned with their own safety. So we'll have to find our own ship, and sail it, I su-"

"Actually," Mana smiled. With teeth, this time, "I think I can find someone who'll do it for us, someone we can trust. I may have neglected myself so that I could help others," she looked at Sharuru, who answered with strict eyes, "but that does mean I know a few people who are very, very thankful to me. See, Sharuru? I told you that I was doing right. I told you…"

Every night, the people of Last Light would gather together at the parlor of its great communal building to talk among themselves and share stories, and Yuko was always fond of those moments. There was very little to be happy about nowadays, very little to actually share, which made those occasions all the more precious. And when nobody had anything happy to say, they looked into their past for better times, kinder days, before the world fell apart.

The memories grew more distant by the day, so Yuko had to fight her hardest not to forget them, nor would she let anyone else forget. A soft morning breeze, the smell of food being cooked as you get home, a friend's laughter, the color of healthy grass, like fields of emerald beneath a sapphire sky.

Those were the things Yuko fought for, and she chose smiles as her weapon, smiles and laughter, her cooking and her kindness. Nozomi, Reika and Iona were headed to Trump to fight the Selfish, and the Bomber Girls had gone to battle too, but Yuko knew she had her own war to wage here. She would lose it when all the smiles died.

So she was the first to laugh at Hime's attempts at jokes, and everyone else laughed as well. The parlor was cramped, and not everyone could find a seat, but that didn't matter. Wherever Yuko looked, she saw smiles. Nile was smiling, and of course Hime was too, and that boy who arrived with his family just a few days ago. Kanade was smiling, too, when she brought a batch of cupcakes to everyone. She did not have any molds to work with, or pastry brushes and forms, but she didn't complain, and did her best instead. The cupcakes weren't particularly pretty, but they were delicious. Yuko wished hers could be this good.

"Your turn, Kanade," Hime turned to Rhythm, who blurted out a curse.

"Ah, okay, a story… Goodness, I can't remember any…"

"Oh, come on, there must be lots of stories about Majorland," Hime insisted. "It's the oldest country in the world, isn't it? At least that's what Mephisto said when he visited the Blue Sky Kingdom," Hime got up on her chair, puffed out her chest and imitated his voice. "Majorland was a proud kingdom when all other countries were still figuring out how to wipe their arses! There's more history in the latrines of Pizzicato Palace than in all the museums of the Blue Sky Kingdom!"

"He didn't say that!" Kanade was incredulous, but everyone else was laughing. "Even Mephisto can't be so clueless!"

"He said that to my mother," Hime said, eyes wet with tears from laughing. "You had to see Queen Aphrodite's face, and Princess Ako's too… They looked like they just wanted to disappear!"

"Ako is a sweetie," said Kanade. "I'm sure she wanted to tell her father he was being rude and crass, but she just can't bring herself to challenge him."

"I wouldn't either, Mephisto is terrifying," said Yuko. She remembered the visit from Majorland's royal family. A whole band marched through town, making their way through the main streets that led to the palace. Yuko had never seen so many people, never heard such a lovely melody. It had been such a wonderful day, filled with joy. It was one of her happiest memories from her days of poverty. Aphrodite, the very portrait of elegance, and Ako, so small, holding her mother's hand… And next to them, Mephisto, that huge, loud man.

"He truly isn't," said Kanade. "He's the last person I'd call terrifying, honestly. He idolizes his daughter, you have no idea how hard he makes her blush. They were such a lovely family, I felt privileged to be a friend of theirs."

"Whatever happened to them?" Asked Cure Nile, worried. Yuko too had noticed that Kanade said they were a happy family.

"Ah, well," Kanade didn't seem to want to talk about it. "I don't actually know. We weren't with them when the stars went out. Me and Hibiki were at Kanon, our hometown. It was her mother's birthday, and it was such a rare thing for her to be able to celebrate. Kanon wasn't even attacked, you know? There were no monsters or anything, there was just… There was a weird sound that seemed to fill the world, a sound full of sadness and then there was silence. Everyone stopped talking, stopped moving, everyone but Hibiki and I."

No one was smiling anymore. This was a disaster, Yuko thought. Just a moment ago, the room was full of laughter, but now, Kanade was about to cry, and everyone else didn't look much better. This was too fine a night for everyone to go to bed with miserable thoughts. And if Kanade thought that it was her fault that everyone was sad, she would feel even worse. Yuko got up.

"Kanade," she said. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. It's okay. If it hurts you, you don't have to say it."

"Yuko, I-"

"Come here," she opened her arms wide open, and hoped that Kanade would accept her embrace. She did; Kanade's body was warm, but some tears had stained her face. Yuko took her hand, and guided Kanade to the kitchen, closing the door behind.

They sat down close to the oven, where another batch of cupcakes was almost ready. Kanade was doing her hardest not to cry, but she was having trouble breathing, and her hands were shaking. Yuko held them, and gave Kanade her most comforting smile.

"I'm sorry you had to be reminded of that. Nile shouldn't have asked."

"It's fine, I'm the one who shouldn't have been so upset. I didn't want to ruin anyone's night."

"No, there's no way you could have not feel upset. I… I know our situations weren't the same, but we went through similar things. Losing our homes… I know how it feels, and everyone here does, too. That's why it's upsetting. But you've done nothing wrong."

"I guess," she shrugged. "I haven't talked about it to anyone before, either."

"Would you like to talk to me?" Yuko offered. It hurt to keep things deep inside, so she was thankful to have Hime to confide to, but it didn't seem that Kanade was particularly close to anyone in Last Light. Yuko felt she should try and fix it.

"I don't want to bother you, and-" Yuko dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. "Alright. Hibiki and I left Kanon, but we… Well, we argued. We were really stressed out from seeing our families go catatonic like that. As we got farther from Kanon, we saw monsters, everywhere, monsters with all kinds of allegiances. The Selfish Kingdom, Nightmare, Dark Fall… We didn't know what to do. We didn't even know what happened. Our kingdom fell so easily, so effortlessly. I thought we had to go to the Phoenix Tower, to meet with the rest of the Precure, and Hibiki wanted to go look for Ako, and for our friend Ellen. We disagreed, and we argued. Then the argument got really bad, and I told Hibiki that if she wanted to die, she was free to do it, and walked off."

The oven made a beeping sound to warn that the cupcakes had finished baking. Kanade was silent for a moment, but then she got up, crouched to open the oven's door, and began talking again.

"I regretted it immediately, but I had began to walk away, and I was too proud to turn back and run towards Hibiki and ask her to forgive me. So I went north, alone, while she went south with our fairy Hummy. By the time I finally gathered the courage to return, it was too late. You won't believe me if I tell you this, or you'll think I'm stupid, and-"

"I'd never think that," said Hime, helping Kanade set the cupcakes on a more elegant tray.

"When I tried to go back, I heard a song. I swear it, I heard a song, I couldn't tell where it came from, but I heard it. A sad song. No, not just sad. It was painful to hear. It grew louder as I approached Majorland, and I got too afraid to keep going, so I turned my back on my country again. My proud country… A dozen thousand years of history, and it was all gone in a single day. I shouldn't have left. I should have fallen with it. Do you… Do you ever feel guilty about leaving?"

Yuko remembered the ruined capital of the Blue Sky Kingdom, thousands and thousands of mirrors scattered around, each one holding a prisoner. Hime's parents had their own mirrors. Yuko's family did, too. Their eyes were closed, their bodies laid still. It's funny, it wasn't too difficult to leave them at first. When she ran away from the Blue Sky Kingdom, Yuko was certain that in a few weeks from then, she would be back with a dozen Precure by her side, and they'd save everyone.

"Of course I do," she said. "But we had no choice, did we?"

"Hm-hm. You're right. If we stayed, who knows what would have happened to us. I know it was the wise choice, but even so, I miss Hibiki dearly. I miss everyone else, but there was no helping them. But Hibiki… I should have stayed by her side. I should have."

"But you didn't," Yuko held her hand, "and if you let regret turn your beautiful smile into a frown, you'll never be happy again. There's so little to be happy about nowadays, so why look for reasons to be sad? You just have to look around and be sad. But to be happy when you have so many reasons to cry, that's what we the Precure must do. If not for our sake, then for everybody else's. I can't stand to see everyone else sad, so that's why I smile so much."

"But are you happy?"

Yuko smiled. That was always the best answer, when you had no others.

"I'm happy when I'm with everyone else, eating your cupcakes, sharing stories and laughter. I'm happy when I'm with Hime. Very happy. And when I'm with you, too. I love cooking with you. It reminds me of home. Of helping my family prepare a meal for our customers, me by my mother's side. I owe it to you."

"I'm glad I could help you at least a little bit," Kanade smiled back at her, hesitantly.

"More than a little bit," said Yuko, getting up. The smell of the cupcakes was rising, making the air warm and sweet. "They'll get cold soon, and everyone's waiting for them. Shall we go?"

"Yes," Kanade said, getting up, holding one side of the tray with a hand, while Yuko held the other.

They opened the door together, and found their companions smiling, laughing, just the way it should be. Yayoi was making some awkward poses, and everyone tried to guess which character she was imitating. Ayumi might have known, but she was with Mai at the Phoenix Tower. Still, it didn't matter that people didn't know. The fun was in Yayoi getting all excited.

When they saw the cupcakes, they all beamed. The battle was won tonight, Yuko knew. Kanade knew that too, Yuko was sure of it, even if she didn't actually know she was fighting, too. In moments like this, the thought of the Blue Sky Kingdom could never even linger in her mind, or thoughts of the cruel sky all devoid of stars, of Iona lashing out at them, of all the hurting words anyone ever said about her and Hime. Everyone was smiling. Nothing else mattered.

They followed Mana north, to the Amethyst Sea, though perhaps it would be proper to say that Mana was the one following them, as she always lagged half a dozen meters behind Iona. Reika and Nozomi kept up with her, but Iona, Nagisa and Honoka couldn't slow down for anyone.

On Honoka's insistence, they avoided the roads, though Iona didn't know why. They were six, that was more than enough to face whatever might stand in their way.

Crimson sunlight bathed the horizon, painting the skies a light shade of pink. It was so hot that Iona could feel her clothes stick to her skin, her sweat had made her fingers and toes soggy and slippery. Drops of sweat ran across her back with a shivering cold, and her hair clung to the back of her neck. She felt disgusting, unclean, and it seemed that the days would only get hotter and hotter.

"Was it always hot like this around here?"

"Not like this, I think," said Honoka. "But it's always been a hot country. From what I've read, Trump has fountains scattered all around, and portions of the city are cut by rivers. They help make summer days a little bit more comfortable."

"They're supposed to," Mana had somehow heard them, and quickened her pace to reach them. "But really, they don't. It's really hot in Trump. When people think of Trump, everyone is reminded of our knights in their ceremonial armor, but those are only rarely worn, actually. Makoto had to wear one, once, and she sweat so much that she lost a good amount of weight. Took her a week to gain it all back."

"Seems awful," said Iona. The Blue Sky Kingdom had never been too hot, nor too cold. It had always been just warm enough to be pleasant, just chilly enough to be cozy.

"I wouldn't call it awful," said Mana. "Hard to get used to, but, well, it's not the most unusual thing about Trump, honestly. It took me a week to get used to the heat, but a whole month until I could figure out how to get to the markets."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Trump is ancient. When it was founded, nobody really paid any mind to what its layout would be five thousand years later. Everything was built so haphazardly, every building is fighting for space, trying to breathe. The streets of Trump are really narrow, because the houses just kept taking up more and more space, which is why you can't drive any cars inside the city. There's some roads where you can ride a carriage, but that's it. It's really difficult to get around."

"But the rest of the Trump Kingdom seems so modern," said Honoka. "Even the smaller villages have paved roads and automobiles, and when you visit larger cities, you can even find skyscrapers."

"Trump and the rest of the kingdom are not very similar," said Mana. "Really different, in fact. Trump seems like it's frozen in time. At least if you look at it from the outside. Its buildings are all old, most of them made of wood and stone, and its architecture is the same as it was a thousand years ago. Oh, of course we have electricity, and most luxuries everyone else is used to, but otherwise, Trump is… Antiquated, I guess that's a polite way of putting it."

Primitive was the word Iona had in mind. It slid across her tongue until it reached the tip, and Iona almost opened her mouth to say it, but she controlled herself, and nodded in agreement.

"But it is a nice place," she said, almost like an afterthought, "and it was even nicer to be there with friends. I loved it there. I miss it so much."

They kept walking as the sky changed from pink to red to pink again. Far away, Iona could see heavy clouds gathering. It would rain soon, most likely during the night. She could only hope that by then they would have found shelter.

Away from the roads, they travelled unimpeded through withered farms. They avoided the forests, though the ones they passed by didn't seem dangerous, or tainted. Iona heard the sounds of wildlife come from within them. It was odd to hear them: she had grown used to the world being mostly silent, even the animals, so to see that somewhere things had not changed was strange.

A small river appeared in front of them, deep but narrow. Its waters ran ferocious, roaring with rage. They would not let them cross. If they tried, the waters would lash out at them, smother them with its dark embrace.

"Looks like we'll need to follow the road after all," said Nagisa, very unpleased with the situation. "I'm not fording that river."

For once everyone agreed without any arguments. They walked by the side of the river, and the sound of the rushing waters enveloped any raised voices. Iona wondered if the river had always been this wild and dangerous, or if it, like most other things, had changed after the Death of the Stars. Mana seemed unfazed, but she had plenty of time to get used to it.

By the time they reached a bridge and the road, it was almost night. Thankfully, the road was deserted. Iona was sure that they could fight, but now that she thought of it, she didn't actually want to. She had grown more tired than she wanted to admit.

10 kilometers north to Hangman's Rest, said the wooden sign on the other side of the bridge. The name was familiar to Iona. Hangman's Rest was one of the cities where the study of the Fates had its origins. The people of the Trump Kingdom were the first to learn the art of divination through cards. That was before the country was even called Trump Kingdom. Its first king had been a diviner of some skill, who believed the cards said it was his fate to rule these lands.

"We can rest there," said Nozomi. "We'll just say we're travelers and not Precure."

"Sounds like a well-thought plan," said Iona. "I'm sure they won't even notice our fairies."

"They won't notice us for sure!" Mepple yelled from within Nagisa's pocket. "Now, I don't know about Glasan…"

"I'll be very discreet," she said. "It's not like humans never travel with fairies by their side."

There was no arguing with people so tired they were almost collapsing, so Iona marched on with them without complaining. Night fell on them all at once, spilling its darkness upon the pink in the sky. The lone star twinkled brighter tonight. It shone in the north, as if showing them the way, guiding them with its gentle light. It wasn't particularly bright, and it was meek if compared to the larger stars that Iona had known, but it was always shining, always urging them to go forwards.

They only noticed the city when they had already reached it: the night was so dark that Iona hadn't even noticed its buildings, concealed by dusk.

The city was drowned by an eerie silence. Even the wind made no sound. There were no lights shining, no lampposts. The houses they passed by had their doors left half-opened, and some windows were broken, but not all. Cars had been abandoned along the sidewalks, in the middle of the streets, inside garages. A pink light shone from Nozomi's hands, but it was too little to ward off the smothering dark. Iona looked around, and everything she saw was behind veils of black. Behind them could be anything. Anyone. She had no way of knowing. Inside her little bubble of light, despite the five Cures next to her, Iona felt unsafe. All the emptiness and gloom made her feel lonely, so very lonely.

"It's just dark, Iona," she remembered Maria's voice that night when the power went out during a night of heavy storm, when the rains banged against her window, punching it with anger. Iona was only six that night, and she had never seen the world so dark, she had never heard any noises so scary, she had never been so, so alone. Her bedroom was next to her sister's, but in that moment, it felt too distant for Iona to ever reach it. "It's just dark," Maria had said as she entered her little sister's bedroom holding a candle. She was only three years than Iona, but she had always been mature.

But Iona was not a child anymore. Ever since she turned ten she insisted shed was no longer a child, the way every child does, but it was when she had to leave her home behind and then take her sister's place that she stopped being a child. Now she missed it. Childhood was Maria's soft touch and gentle voice, it was her mother's laughter, her father's food, her grandfather's lessons.

She was the first to brave the darkness, to breach the veil. The others followed behind her, but Iona never turned back to look.

"There's no one here," she said. "This city is deserted. Completely deserted."

"I guess no one will complain if we sleep in their house then, eh?" Nagisa asked. Iona didn't want to trespass, but there was nobody to complain, anyways, and surely they would understand.

They reached a wealthy neighborhood, and walked inside its largest house. Inside, its carpets lay in disarray, the walls had marks of where paintings had been removed, but everywhere else was covered with a thin layer of dust. Spiders had claimed the corners of the ceilings, but they seemed content with their spot, so the Precure left them there.

Nagisa found bedrooms on the upper floor; a spacious one with a bed large enough for a couple to sleep on. She and Honoka would sleep there, it was obvious. In that room, the wardrobes had been pillaged, and the bed table had been left with its drawers open. Inside were all sorts of medicine, and a jewelry box that had been robbed of its contents.

There was a smaller bedroom next to it, and a third one, smaller still, that Iona presumed was to house the guests. Reika proposed that two girls could share the smaller bedroom, another could sleep in the guests' one, and someone would stay at the living room, watching over the entrance, to make sure they were safe.

Iona was fast to volunteer, though Mana tried to as well. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep now that she had thought of Maria. She bid goodnight to her companions, then left them to their sleep. She sat by herself on the dusty couch, with only a small candle and shadows for company. They stood still, except when Iona moved her hands to shape the shadows into figures, the way Maria had taught her. They did it by candlelight, to calm Iona down, but it wasn't very helpful. Iona was still scared of the dark, of the rain, but she pretended she wasn't, so that Maria wouldn't have to worry about her. Her parents were worried too, for certain. Iona didn't want anyone to worry. So that everyone could sleep easy, she pretended to be brave.

Tonight, she pretended again. The slightest movement of the shadows made her antsy, and Iona knew very well that all sorts of horrors could be lurking outside, in the dark. But ever since Maria was gone, she had pretended to be brave and strong, so she lied to herself and said she felt no fear.

The city smelled of the sea, of fishes being cooked and bread being baked, of brine and petrichor. Its dirt roads had turned into muddy traps, and the ones made of pavement had been flooded with a reddened water, thick like blood. Reika looked above, and saw only crimson clouds overhead. The worst thing is that it was not even the most disturbing sight. That would be the Amethyst Sea, now turned ruby red. Even before they stepped into the city, they could see the seas of red from afar, extending on and on like a field of fire that never ended.

Nobody seemed to pay it any thought, she noticed, so she had to assume that things had been like this for quite a while now. It seemed horrifying that one could grow used to the red rain, but Reika had to admit that she had grown used to many things she once never thought possible.

The townsfolk greeted them with few words and many staring eyes. Reika scanned her surroundings for anyone who looked suspicious, but mostly everyone just watched the Precure from afar and ignored them as they drew closer.

Filth bubbled from overflowing sewer holes, mixing the brown water with the red, and the closer Reika got to the center of the city, the worse the smell became. Some of the sidewalks were completely crowded with people avoiding the flooded streets. They made way for the Precure, and whispered among themselves when they were gone.

"The docks are nearby," said Mana. "Mind the mud. It's not the most prosperous of places, and most of it isn't paved."

"After we've come this far, I don't care about a bit of mud anymore," said Iona. "It's not the water that worries me, or the stench. Are we sure we can trust the people here?"

"No," she said. "But the same can be said for pretty much anyone, no? There are few people we truly trust, and for everyone else, we just take leaps of faith."

"Well, I'd rather not have to leap unless it's absolutely necessary. Who are we looking for?"

"A man named Kengo Hoshino," said Mana. "He owns a fishing boat, and he supplies the other fishermen with equipment. The fishing business is very strong in the Amethyst Sea."

"Are you sure he'll help us?" Asked Reika.

"If I ask enough times," Mana giggled. "Some weeks ago I saved this city from some Selfish agents and a Jikochuu. Kengo's son was almost drowned by the Jikochuu, but I jumped into the Amethyst Sea to rescue him. He said that if I ever was here and needed anything, I should ask him. Now, I know he meant he'd give me fishes if I ever needed to, but he should be true to his word."

"And if he isn't?" Nagisa asked.

"Well, then I hope we can get a boat, somehow, and sail it ourselves. Even a rowing boat is enough if we can't get any better."

"Let's hope everything works out, then," said Honoka, and Nozomi nodded.

Mana wasn't kidding when she said the docks weren't prosperous. The ground was all a treacherous reddened mud that went deeper than it appeared at first. When Reika took her first step, her foot sunk deep in the earth, and the mud almost reached her ankle. Dogs ran after cats in the streets, and chickens roamed freely amidst small wooden houses. Here, the smell of fish was almost unbearable, and it didn't take long for Reika to find a child tanning a bucket full of fishes with her father.

People smiled at them here, however. Reika couldn't remember the last time anyone they met was happy to see the Precure, so it caught her off-guard. It wasn't surprising, though, considering what Mana had said. Of course they'd be more friendly towards the Precure after Mana had saved one of them.

"It's here," she pointed at a smaller building with a worn-out sign hanging on the wall. Some words were written there, but they were impossible to read.

Inside, an obnoxiously loud fan relieved a man from the heat as he wrote something on his notebook. He was sitting behind a counter, and didn't even notice the presence of the Precure until Mana was greeting him.

"Cure Heart?" He asked, and she nodded. "My, you look different. Skinnier, maybe? I do believe you'll need something to eat. Shrimps? Crabs? I got some salmon a couple days ago but I wouldn't recommend you eat it."

"I'm good," she said. "Don't you worry about me."

"If you say so. You've brought a lot of friends this time. Last time it was just you and your fairy."

They introduced themselves one by one. Iona and Reika said only what was strictly necessary, but Nozomi was about to begin telling the man her life story before Nagisa and Honoka interrupted her with their own introductions.

"Oh, I've seen you before. Yes, I remember you."

"Do you now?" Nagisa asked.

"You went to Yuunagi, once," he said, and the two women nodded and smiled.

"For Mai and Saki, right?"

"Yep! That was a while ago, though. Back when I still lived there. Feels like a lifetime ago, really…"

"Why did you move? Yuunagi was a nice city, and this… Well, this is nowhere near as developed as Yuunagi, I should say."

"Ah, well, I always sailed the Crystal Ocean, it was always rich in all sorts of fishes. There were places where you could find thousands of them all together, fishes of all colors in the middle of the reefs, and it was an amazing sight. I could make a living from the Crystal Ocean, many people could, but that never endangered the seas. We were always careful not to overfish. But around two years ago, things got hard. All the fishes just disappeared. It was at about the time Dark Fall was causing trouble again."

"I've heard of that," said Reika. Cure Continental, certain that foul magic was at play, sent a dozen Precure to investigate, but they never managed to learn the truth. "All the wildlife in the region seemed vanish with no explanation."

"Yeah, that's exactly what happened. Well, we couldn't stay there, you understand. There were no opportunities for me and my wife anymore. Well, no opportunities we would possibly accept. Some other sailors took to whaling, even piracy, but in the end I decided that I'd rather make a tough, unpleasant decision than do something I'd end up regretting. We have family in the Trump Kingdom, so we moved here. We sold the old ship, too, so we could buy a house on the other side of town. We're actually doing quite well here, all things considered. But it's not home."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Nozomi.

"It's fine. Everyone struggles. I'm not complaining. We miss Yuunagi, but life here is good too. It's mostly our son who's struggling, but Kenta's a good kid, so he's making some friends. He's almost as funny and charming as his father, but not nearly as pretty. Anyways, I assume you came here for a reason."

"Yes," said Mana. "We need you to take us to Trump."

For the longest time, he stood there silent. The Precure looked awkwardly at one another until Mana repeated herself.

"We need you to take us to Trump."

"Okay, what's the punchline? Because this has to be a joke."

"Not a joke. We have to go to Trump," said Iona, barely restraining her anger. "Soon. Now."

"You're crazy. I won't take you to your grave. Right now Trump is the most dangerous place in the world."

"We're Precure," said Nozomi. "We can handle ourselves there. We're not going to our grave."

"Well, I am. The Selfish won't have any mercy if they catch me helping you."

"They won't catch you," said Mana. "We just need you to sail us to Trump, you don't have to wait for us there. We'll find our way back. Please, Kengo. You owe me one."

"That's true, but I've got a family here. If something goes wrong-"

"Nothing's gonna go wrong," said Nagisa. "We promise it. We have a plan."

"Which plan?" Nozomi asked, and Reika hit her lightly with her elbow. "Right, that plan! We just have so many of them that I end up getting confused. We're very good planners. Proficient, too."

"No," Kengo said, putting his hands on top of the counter. "I will not hear anymore about this. I'm not taking you to Trump, and-"

"What's going on, dad?" A boy came from a door behind the counter. He had thick black hair that looked as if its owner had tried to brush it for a few seconds before giving up.

"Kenta, go back inside. This is important stuff."

"I'm old enough to take part of important stuff here," the boy protested. "Are these girls Precure?"

"We are," said Reika. The boy's eyes widened and filled with light. "Why do you ask?"

"Whoa! You wouldn't happen to know Saki and Mai, would you? Saki Hyuuga and Mai… Something. I think they're called-"

"Cure Bloom and Cure Egret?" Reika asked, and he nodded, full of energy.

"Do you know them? They were my friends. I haven't seen them since we left Yuunagi, but I know they're Precure. I always sent Saki letters, but now… Well, not I have no way of knowing how she is. Is she okay?"

"She still lives," said Reika. "As a prisoner of Dark Fall."

Mai had mentioned it once, with saddened eyes that were nearly bursting into tears. She never saw Mai cry, though. Despite everything that she went through, Mai didn't let it bring her down. Or at least she pretended she didn't.

"Oh…" His hopes faded away in a moment. "W-What about Mai?"

"She was a prisoner too, but we've rescued her, and she's with us at Last Light," the boy gave her a confused look, so she explained. "Last Light is a village close to the Phoenix Tower. Most of the Precure are either there or at the Tower. And other people too, people we've found scattered around, trying to survive."

"Saki… She must be so lonely without Mai…"

"We'll rescue her," said Nagisa. "Someday we will. She has not been forgotten."

"W-What are you doing here?" He said, clearly changing the subject. "Dad seemed upset."

"I'm not upset! I'm just being careful! These girls were sailing into a death trap!"

"What do you mean?"

"We have to go to Trump," said Mana. "There are dozens of Precure trapped there. If we want to fight back and bring back the stars, we'll need them."

"We can't just wait for things to get better," said Reika. "We need to rescue those girls."

"Why are you saying no, dad? You wouldn't have said no if it were Saki and Mai, would you?"

"I would if they wanted to go to Trump! I know what happened there. No one can get out. It's too dangerous."

"We've done plenty of dangerous things," said Reika. She didn't like using this argument, but she had to. "Nagisa and Honoka have fought the Desert Apostles by Cure Moonlight's side. I saw it, I was with them. Mana here has gone days without rest just so she could help the victims of the Selfish. Iona travelled across the country all by herself to reach the Eyrie, where Mai was held captive. And me and Nozomi… Surely you've seen the lone star in the sky."

"Of course," Kengo said. "I still remember the night it appeared."

"It was me and Nozomi who brought that star back to the sky."

"Y-You two? Just you?" Reika nodded. "How?"

"It wasn't easy. It was dangerous. And we had to do it. Just like now. We have to go to Trump, Kengo. In the Phoenix Tower, there aren't enough Precure to fight all our enemies. There are too few of us. We need the Precure of Trump, we really do, and we need to light the Starlight Flame in there. The future of the world depends on it. Please, Kengo, reconsider."

He sat down, furrowing his brow, and sighed. His son urged him to make the right choice, but Kengo remained silent, until at last he got up again.

"Are you sure you can do it?"

"We'll try our best," said Nozomi.

"We will succeed," said Iona. "This is not a choice. We are betting our lives on this. We know the danger. We're not fools."

"Alright, then," he said, and Kenta cheered. "I'll take you to Trump. But I'll not bring you back. I can't wait for you. Trump is big, and I don't know how long you'll take."

"That's fine," said Honoka. "When you return, you should take your family to Last Light. It's the safest place in the world right now."

It wasn't too safe, to tell the truth, but Honoka was right. It didn't get much safer than Last Light, not in this moment.

"My cousin lives here too. I'll tell him to take his family to Last Light as well. It's not safe here, but I didn't think I had anywhere to go, so I stayed. If you say Last Light is safe, if that's where the Precure are… Kenta."

"Yes, dad?"

"Go get your mom. She was doing some repairs on the ship. Tell her to leave them to me. Take all our money, then go with her to buy supplies for our journey."

"Yes, dad! Anything else?"

"When you're back, we'll get the ship ready. We set sail tonight. The rain will stop soon. It'll be the best moment to go."

Kenta rushed outside, and Reika felt a huge burden be taken off of her back. For a moment, she was afraid they wouldn't even be able to get into Trump. And this was the easiest part, she knew.

"There are two cabins in my ship. You'll have to share a bed, I'm afraid."

"It's fine," said Nozomi, but Iona didn't look as if she was finding this fine in the slightest. At least she had managed to be civil all day.

"Well, we'd all best get ready," said Kengo. "The Amethyst Sea isn't as safe as it used to be. It's not even blue anymore. It seems everything has gone to hell. I really hope you know what you're doing."

Reika hoped so as well.

Trump was unusually quiet today, and Makoto could never feel at ease when Trump was silent. Even before it fell into the filthy hands of the Selfish, Trump had always been a noisy city. From the royal palace, you could hear the people on the marketplaces, miles away, vendors selling their wares by screaming their qualities to whoever passed by, customers yelling and haggling when they thought the prices were unfair. Even now the markets were busy; life went on, even under Selfish rule. Not today, though. Today there was no sign of it, no sounds coming from the markets, no smells of spices and foods. As she roamed the streets of Trump in the morning when she had patrol duty, Makoto saw no one, heard no one.

It was an ominous sign during an already ominous-day: the sun had awakened clad in red, bleeding all over the skies and clouds. Some drops of rain collapsed on Trump in the morning, but when they fell, they stained the ground with red. Wherever Makoto went, she saw the red like blood, as if a battle had occurred in the streets of Trump. Maybe it was a sign of a coming battle, Makoto thought before convincing herself that was foolishness. The red rain meant nothing. It was just yet another consequence of their enemies' actions. Which enemies? It didn't matter. What mattered was that it wasn't a sign. Why should it be? The sky, the sun, the stars… Why should they care about the world enough to give them signs? There was no such thing as signs. Even if the stars knew something (and Makoto doubted it), why would they share?

No, there was no reason to trust the stars, the sky, anything or anyone but herself. Cure Radiance had offered to help her with her scouting, but Makoto declined. The only one she needed by her side was Davi.

She returned to the Precure's hideout, where all her companions gathered underground, their faces full of worry. Akane argued with Nasturtium, who looked mad with fear. She looked all around, eyes jittery. Radiance walked in circles in the middle of the room, around a broken table that the Cures once used for dining before its legs gave in and crumbled.

"What's the matter?" Makoto asked as she approached Akane.

"You took so long, Makoto, we were starting to fear you wouldn't come back," she said.

"I always come back," she said. It wasn't a boast, only the truth. All the risks she ever took were calculated, and she always had a plan.

"I wasn't doubting your skill, but… Ah, how do I put it…"

"The Selfish captured Cure Sidhe," said Nasturtium. "When I was out scouting, I saw her in the middle of a whole squad of Selfish soldiers and Jikochuu, in chains. I hope she doesn't guide them here. This is a good hiding place, very safe, but doesn't really have a convenient escape route, if you understand what I mean. There's the tunnels, but I don't really know the way…"

"I can't believe you mean to run away," said Makoto. In truth, she could believe it, of course. She even expected it. "We are Precure. We do not run."

"Then why did you run when the princess needed your help?"

Akane seemed about to say something, but she just froze. Nasturtium did the same as she realized just how foolish her words had been. Makoto stepped close to her, so close that she could feel Nasturtium's breath.

"I did not run away. I did not abandon Marie Ange. The next time you talk about something you don't understand, you'll rue it."

She just nodded, apprehensive, then ran away, disappearing behind the door that led to the stairs to the ground level. Makoto sighed, and covered her face with her hands. Nasturtium was right, that was what was so painful. She had abandoned Marie Ange when her princess needed her. The shame was too great to bear, so she hid it behind her anger, and though it fooled everyone else, she could never fool herself. She was no true guardian, no true knight. She failed her princess, her country, her people. She never could protect anyone when it mattered.

"Are you alright, Makoto?" Akane asked. For a moment, Makoto considered telling her the truth. She could almost trust Akane. Almost.

"I am fine. I didn't want to hurt Nasturtium by saying anything too cruel."

"Well, she deserved it," said Akane. Makoto was close to laughter. What would Sunny say if she knew the truth? Makoto didn't want to know. Just the thought brought her great shame. "Did you see anything when you were out there?"

Makoto shook her head.

"Nothing," said Davi. "The streets are all empty."

"What do we make of this?" Akane asked. "Maybe the Selfish are throwing a party at the other side of Trump? We can only hope, right?"

"I highly doubt it," she said, and Akane giggled. "Maybe everyone is just hiding, avoiding the streets. The Selfish have been quite busy lately. It's just a matter of time until they find us."

"You're right. I don't want to leave this place, though. There's actual space here! You can walk around, move your legs. Remember the old hideout? You couldn't take a step without bumping into someone. I don't miss that, not at all."

"Did anything happen while I was gone? Everyone seems so tense today."

"Ah, well, Cure Umbra hasn't returned. We don't know what happened to her. She might have been captured. She might have been killed. She might have abandoned us. Or…" Akane didn't seem like she wanted to say it. "Or she might have betrayed us to save her skin."

"She can't betray us," said Davi. "Why would she do it? The Selfish won't care if she helped them."

"It's just a possibility! Which I really hope isn't true. And it probably isn't. But it's still possible, which is why everyone is worried."

"Are you worried?" Makoto asked.

"Of course I am. Nasturtium has the right of it, you know. If she Selfish come, we can't win. This is no place to fight. No space to move around, no good spot to fight off invaders… We'll have to run, you know that."

"I know," said Makoto. "I just don't like it."

"I don't like it either. I want to take the fight to them. Oh, how I want a good brawl… But we're outnumbered. Severely outnumbered, really. How many of us are there? Thirty, or something like that?"

"Closer to twenty."

"And there must be thousands of Selfish in the city. We really need the element of surprise if we mean to win."

"I already know that," Makoto blurted out. "I'm just as worried as you are. I just try not to show it."

That was a lie, but it seemed to satisfy Akane and Davi. Why would Makoto worry? She had nothing to lose now. If she went down fighting the Selfish, she would die with a smile on her face.

She heard a scream come from above the ground. Nasturtium's voice, that shrill, annoying sound. She descended the stairs in a hurry, running towards her fellow Cures, and tripped on her own foot. She looked up slowly, as if her head was too heavy, holding back sobs deep in her throat, and only got up with Sunny's help.

"S-S-Selfish… Selfish coming… So many… Too many!"

"Calm down," said Davi. "Take a deep breath," she did as she was told, but when she was done breathing, she shrieked.

"How many?" Asked Akane.

"All of them! We're gonna die, we're all gonna die…"

"How many?" She repeated.

"Ah, I saw… Too many Selfish to count, the regular foot soldiers, and at least a dozen Jikochuu. Maybe more. Definitely more."

Everyone in the room looked at Makoto. The Cures liked to pretend their resistance was a democracy that always discussed their decisions, but when things were tough, they always turned to Cure Sword. Makoto didn't even know why, but of course she never complained about being given command.

"We fight?" Asked a girl whose name Makoto never bothered to learn.

"You run," she answered. Makoto could hear a few gasps of relief. "Go to the tunnels. Take the first turn to the left, and when it forks again, go to the right. Then keep going straight ahead. That'll take you to an old armory close to the docks. Then scatter around. Find a new hideout."

No one asked any further questions. They all seemed glad not to have to fight. Cowards, Makoto thought, but then she asked herself if she could really blame them for wanting to live. Most likely not.

She could hear footsteps far away, muffled as they were by the distance. They were above them. Soon they would make their way down. Makoto looked to her side, and saw that Akane lingered behind. She had not run away with the others. Makoto felt warm by her side. She almost wanted Akane to stay with her.

"What are we waiting for?"

"I'm waiting for the Selfish. You, however, aren't. Go now, Akane. Those girls will be lost without you."

"You can't mean to fight," she said, incredulous. "God, you do mean to fight…"

"Of course I do. If we just run, we'll be caught from behind. You don't know how fast a Jikochuu can be. I have to stay here and buy you time so you can run."

"If you'll stay, I'll stay! I'll fight with you!"

"No, you have to go. And quickly."

"I won't go, not while you fight! I owe you my life, Makoto!"

"I didn't save your life so that you would owe it to me. Go, Akane. I'll be fine. I won't let them kill me."

"You'd better promise that, then!"

"I promise," Makoto said. Akane hesitated for a short moment, but then she began to run. On Makoto's shoulders, Davi was shaking, afraid, but Makoto knew she would never abandon her. That certainty always gave her strength.

The footsteps grew louder, and the yelling too. Makoto recognized the voice. It was Bel's voice, telling his soldiers to hurry, to burn everything down. Makoto whispered Holy Sword, and felt the sudden weight of the blade on her hand. Somehow her hand felt incomplete without that weight. She pointed it at her coming enemies, but for once Makoto didn't mean to kill any of the Selfish, to put up a real fight. She hadn't lied to Akane. She wouldn't let the Selfish kill her.

She would let them capture her. She was a close confidant of Marie Ange and the Trump Kingdom's royal family. If she surrendered, they wouldn't kill her. They would take her to the Swordspire for questioning, and there she would find her princess.

When the Selfish reached her, Cure Sword was smiling.

Chapter Text

The golden sun had always been a friend to Itsuki; its light had never hurt her eyes, and its warmth had always felt like a kind embrace to her. But now that sun was gone, replaced by that blot of red that burned with cruelty. The Desert Lands were always hot, but this was just too much.

She pushed her way through the sea of people gathered around the pools of the water gardens of Miwar. It was unbearable to be amidst so many people in this terrible heat; water vapours filled the air with a stench of sweat. Itsuki herself wasn't faring much better; her hair stuck to her wet back. God, it had grown so long, so quickly. How much time had passed since she started letting it grow? Six months? Something around that. It was hard to tell when most days were exactly the same.

Not today. Today she was going to see Miki, and, at last, things would change.

The streets of Miwar were always crowded, a combination of narrow paths and great population. The marketplaces and water gardens were the worst, but the rest of the city was not much better, and certainly not any more silent. All roads were packed with cars and their loud, impatient drivers were so noisy that sometimes the world seemed to rumble. Itsuki wondered if all cities were like this. Maybe they were, and she was just too used to the quiet of Kibougahana. Maybe she was in the wrong.

Once the water gardens were past Itsuki, it had become even hotter. She didn't think it was possible, but somehow it was. The air was arid, lifeless, and each step that Itsuki took made tiny clouds of dust rise, until the entire world seemed caught behind a shroud of brown. No matter what, Itsuki could not get used to it, nor did she want to.

Getting used to it was admitting defeat, admitting that there was nothing that can be done, that the sun would bleed forever, that the stars would never shine again. Itsuki would never get used to it. She would not give up.

She reached into her pocket for a piece of paper where she had scribbled an address. The letters were barely recognizable, as the paper had spent too long in contact with her skin, and it had gotten completely wet, almost falling apart on Itsuki's hands. Miki had given her the directions to the Grand Atelier, but now Itsuki feared that she would be late.

"Past the Usurer's Avenue," the directions read, though maybe they said Usurper instead. It was hard to tell now that the ink on the paper had become a bunch of misshapen blots.

Itsuki asked a passerby, a youth holding hands with a larger man who bore on his arm a tattoo of a serpent coiled around a rose, symbol of allegiance to one of the many factions that comprised the Desert Apostles. He did not laugh at Itsuki, so perhaps she was not mistaken after all. He pointed her past the corner, and told her to keep going. He was smiling, but the Apostle stared at her with suspicion. Itsuki pretended not to notice, bowed, and thanked.

If she got offended each time suspicious eyes stared at her, she would spend her entire life at Miwar being angry. She was a Precure in the midst of the Desert Apostles. Of course they were just waiting for her to reveal her treasonous nature. She had pledged fealty to Baron Salamander so that her life would be spared, just like Cure Berry had done, and Cure Matador afterwards. The three of them worked diligently for the Apostles; admittedly, they were never asked to do anything that went against their values as Precure. Even so, they worked hard, as thanks for the mercy they had been shown, but even that was not enough, as Itsuki was always regarded with distrust. It had gotten tiresome after all these months.

The worst part was that soon their fears would prove true. It was nearly time, Itsuki knew. She hated the word conspiracy, but there was no other way to call it. The opportunity to bring down Salamander and his Apostles had just presented itself, and the Precure would take it without a second thought.

But first, Itsuki had to find her way to the Grand Atelier. Many of the truly ancient cities of the world were now labyrinthine nightmares, victims of their own endless growth and lack of planning, cities like Trump, Sauerklee in Märchenland, Piacevole in Majorland and Almdyta, called the City of Mirages, to the west, deeper within the desert. Miwar was not quite so great, but to Itsuki, so used to finding her way through smaller cities where all stores and houses were easy to reach, it was an easy place to get lost.

"Once you reach Nightmare's building, cross the street and take the shortcut through the first alleyway you find," Itsuki consulted her directions again. She looked up, and stared at the black tower of Nightmare. It was not as great as Nightmare's headquarters, but it had over thirty stories, and it seemed to just appear in one day, unannounced, like magic. And it had to be magic. Despariah's powers were well-known throughout the lands, she who had subjugated the witches of despair that inhabited the ruins of ancient cities in the north, and forced them to teach her their art, before surpassing them. Nightmare had ceased to be a mere company; since the Death of the Stars, it had become an empire founded on blood and misery.

Nightmare was making Miwar bleed, too. The factories on the outskirts of the city had all been appropriated by Nightmare, and their chimneys vomited thick black smoke every day and every night. No one knew what Nightmare's purpose was, but there was no doubt that they had almost as much control of Miwar as the Apostles themselves did. Even the mines outside the city were now under the hand of Nightmare, though Itsuki could only wonder what it was that they wanted from them.

She crossed the street, then went through the alleyway. When she came out, she found a lane almost free of the dirt that plagued the rest of the city. Here, the sidewalks were clean, and the air was pure. The building façades were all pristine, most of them large clothing stores, their windows showcasing gorgeous summer dresses designed by renowned brands. Itsuki would have loved to take a better look and try out some, but she had to hurry, so she dashed past them, headed towards the Grand Atelier, the largest building all around. On her way, she almost bumped on a small machine that swept what little dust and dirt that gathered on the sidewalks; on its metal plate she saw engraved both the mask of Nightmare and the clover of Yotsuba Enterprises.

The Grand Atelier was an enormous building, a marvel of sleek marble and glass supported by metal frames. It was not in the style of the usual architecture of the Desert Lands; Itsuki presumed it had either been built by the Precure when they still occupied this region, or at least influenced by trends from the lands under the protection of the Red Rose.

There were almost no walls inside the Atelier, save for the dressing rooms in the back; it was essentially an enormously wide room with a tall runway on its center. The sun shone through the glass ceilings, granting the Atelier a light red tone. Mannequins and fabrics were scattered around haphazardly, and designers sat on the floor while they worked their craft, as there were no chairs, no tables, nothing. Sometimes they would get up to borrow a fabric from one another, or to ask for opinions, or to use a fellow artist as a model. Itsuki found it hard to understand how art could arise from such chaos, but for decades the Grand Atelier had been one of the most important centers of fashion, and the streets around it housed stores and creators that dictated trends all over the world. It had been Erika's dream to show her craft here, Itsuki remembered. She could imagine her on the runway, with scissor in hands, fixing a flaw on one of her dresses that she only noticed on the last minute. The thought brought a sad smile to her lips.

Miki was waiting for her behind the runway, close to the dressing rooms, the one place where it was possible to have some privacy here. Miki was talking to an excited-looking younger girl when Itsuki came, and didn't notice her arrival.

"Yeah, a touch of green would probably be good," Miki was saying, "but you'd have to make some changes on the based design because it might not match that well, and- Itsuki?"

"Hi, Miki," she said, before they exchanged a hug as a greeting. "I hope I didn't take too long. The instructions were… Confusing."

"Were they? I thought I explained well enough," she said, smiling. "Maybe not. Hey," Miki turned to her friend. "Could you do me a big favor?" The girl nodded. "I lost a ribbon of mine somewhere in the Atelier. I don't know if someone picked it up, but I need it. Could you be so kind as to look for it for me?"

"Of course!" She was grinning. "What does it look like?"

"It's cerise. More or less the size of my hand," she showed her open palm.

"Gotcha. I'll go find it, then!" She said, and ran off.

Once she was far away, Miki reached into her purse and showed Itsuki a cerise-colored ribbon.

"She won't come back soon," she said. "Were you followed?"

Itsuki shook her head.

"I don't think they follow me anymore," she explained. They used to, during the first months. Kumojacky told her that they still had orders to watch her every move, but they had gotten lazy, in the end, and what harm could she do? "And even if they did, they can't follow us into the dressing room, right? That would be just rude."

"It would," Miki giggled, took some clothes from a pile next to her, and walked inside the dressing room. Itsuki followed, and closed the door behind her.

It had just barely enough space for two people, and even so there wasn't much room to actually move. Her face was so close to Miki's that their noses were almost touching. She asked Itsuki to turn around, so that she could change. It was so embarrassing that Itsuki felt the urge to blush, but to Miki it seemed like the most natural thing. Of course it's natural to her, she's a model! She must have done this hundreds of time already, so of course she's not embarrassed. Itsuki envied that, a little bit. She had learned much with Erika and Tsubomi, and had gotten over her shame of dressing the way she wanted, but even so it still made her feel a bit flustered.

"So," Miki began, "what's the situation?"

"There has been a very fortunate development," said Itsuki. "Elena will be allowed to compete in the duels during the festival."

"Elena? Ah, yes, Cure Matador. I don't talk to her much. You sure she's trustworthy?"

"She seems reliable enough," said Itsuki. "And we have no choice but to trust her. She seems eager to help, and she's the key to this whole… Thing," she didn't want to use the word plot, or conspiracy, or anything of the sort. She was a Myoudouin, youngest of a long line of proud martial artists who always fought fairly and honorably. She should not be talking of this.

"If you trust her, I will too," said Miki. "The festival is in two weeks… It's so close now. When we started planning this it seemed like such a distant thing."

Itsuki nodded. One day every two years, the gates of the Palace of Bronze were open to the public for a great celebration in honor of the goddess of the desert whose name had been forgotten long ago. Few people still believed in her, especially after the Precure brought their faith when they took control of the Desert Lands, but the tradition was so ingrained that the occasion was still celebrated, even when many had forgotten what it was about. It was a day where people exchanged gifts, and even the Palace of Bronze took part of that: visitors were expected to bring a present for their ruler, who gave gifts in return as well. Sometimes, when the Apostles were at their weakest, there was no leader in the Palace of Bronze, but the merchant lords of Miwar filled the Palace with trinkets to be handed out anyway.

"Now it's close, and we have to make sure everything goes smoothly," said Itsuki. "If we fail… I don't imagine the Apostles would think of a kind, merciful fate for us."

"Don't even say that," said Miki, who shivered, her body lightly brushing against Itsuki, who recoiled away as far back as she could. "We can't fail. What we are doing is wrong. It goes against everything the Precure believe. Of course, time and time again the Precure have done horrible things, but…"

Itsuki understood. She knew very well what it meant. If they failed, they would compromise everything they stood for, and all for naught. But if they succeeded, the Desert Lands would be brought into the fold of the Red Rose. If the Red Rose still even existed…

"How do the two of us get into the Palace, though?" Itsuki asked. "Have you found a way?"

"I have," her voice was happy, so Itsuki presumed she was smiling. "I told Cobraja that the Palace should host a fashion show during the festival. He said it's not traditional, but I managed to convince him that Miwar is moving forwards towards the future, and that fashion has been extremely important in its culture, so it's only appropriate."

"Oh, that's good! Is that your way in, then?"

"Our way in. You're coming with me. I'm allowed to bring a person with me, to help me with, you know, makeup, motivation, and zipping up my goddamned dress. After all this time, it seems that no one can make zippers that don't get stuck."

"Well, that's a good excuse… They can't deny me, then. I think we have everything we need, then. Matador will be allowed inside for the duels, and we'll be there for the fashion show. Elena will be allowed to choose between a selection of swords for her duel, and-"

"Wait, is it a duel to the death?" Asked Miki, her voice full of disgust.

"No, only to first blood. They abolished duels to the death and trials by combat a long time ago. All the same, Elena will have many swords available. So we'll have the weapons we need," no one was allowed inside the Palace of Bronze with weapons, and though Itsuki would much rather use her own fists, she wasn't too keen on the idea of strangling Salamander or breaking his neck.

"Oh!" Miki said, as if recalling something. "The fashion show and the duels will share the same preparation room, Cobraja told me! The fashion show comes first, of course, so that the models won't have to get dressed in a place that stinks of blood, and where the floor is filled with sticky drops of red. The weapons will be within arm's reach for us."

"Right," that did make things much easier. "Elena will almost certainly win her duel, unless she ends up going against, I don't know, someone like Kumojacky, but I told her to make it as exciting as possible so that the audience and even the guards will focus on her duel. And if they're paying attention to her-"

"They won't pay attention to us. Very good. We will take the weapons, and while they're watching, we will sneak into the galleries, and then we strike."

And then we strike. The deed was without honor, and putting it in other words did not make it any cleaner.

"We kill Salamander," Itsuki whispered, even though there was no one close enough to hear. Miki nodded.

And then they'd take control of the Palace of Bronze in the confusion. Elena would stand at the gates, stopping anyone from leaving, while Itsuki and Miki would capture all the people of importance watching the spectacle from the galleries and the boxes: anyone that was anything in Miwar would be there. If Sunshine and Berry could ensure their obedience, they would have full control over Miwar. Afterwards, they would contact the Phoenix Tower, and then…

And then we hope that we aren't alone.

"The other cities will attack us," said Miki. She must have thought of the same thing as Itsuki. "Sasorina is not in Miwar. She will lead the rest of the Apostles and attack us."

"We will hold," said Itsuki.

"How? Even if we control the city, we'll have no friends here. The soldiers would just open the gate to our enemies."

"I know," said Itsuki. "We will use the Kowaina. There are rumors that Nightmare has brought caches with thousands upon thousands of their masks."

"There are rumors that if you walk a thousand miles west from the City of Mirages, you'll find a river made of molten gold. Rumors mean nothing."

"Members of Nightmare always bring their masks with them, wherever they go. Especially a powerful executive like Hadenya."

"For our lives, I hope that's true. If we fail…"

"We must not fail. We won't. We are risking too much to fail."

"Yeah," said Miki. "No turning back now, right?"

"No. If we succeed, it will all be worth it. The Precure must not give up. We don't know if the Red Rose is still fighting, but we can't just wait and pray that they come to liberate us."

"You are right. Yes, of course you are. We will not fail. We will free the Desert Lands from the Apostles, and find the other Precure. And then we'll fix everything that went wrong. We'll heal the bleeding sun, we'll make the stars shine again."

Itsuki nodded. Her only hope that they weren't alone was the star that always shone in the night sky. When Itsuki couldn't sleep, hostage of dread, she would look outside the window of the small house that she had been given, and she'd see the star, always shining, always urging her to keep going.

"Hey," Miki said at last, with a hint of bashfulness. "Could you… Zip up this dress for me? It wasn't just an excuse. These zippers truly are a nightmare."

Itsuki turned back again, smiling, almost laughing, but soon she felt uneasy again. This was not a time for tradition, Itsuki told herself when she began to doubt herself again. It's not a time to do what the Precure always did. It was a time for harsh measures and for sacrifices. Itsuki had never killed anyone. A Myoudouin had never betrayed anyone like this. She had never whispered treason and conspiracy in the dark, nor had she ever fought without honor.

And the sun had never bled before.

The pull of the waves rocked the ship left and right and made Iona regret eating so much before she came aboard as her stomach seemed to furl up inside.

She had consulted the Fates just before they boarded; they guaranteed good winds, and so far they had kept their promise, as the scorching hot gusts could attest to. Embarrassingly, she had told Kengo and the others about it with a smile, confident that the winds would ensure them good speed, but the response was just laughter as Kengo told her that his ship had a motor and turbines, not sails. Only a few small vessels still had sails, at least outside of Trump, he said.

Afterwards, she just stayed silent, and wordlessly watched the waves. The water was red and thick, and sometimes it bubbled, bursting with a low, lingering sound that made Iona feel even sicker. There was something horrible about that water, not just its fearsome color, its slow, malicious movement, but something else. Something about the redness of the waves filled Iona's heart with dread. She wondered what would happen if she fell on that water.

Occasionally she could take a look at the ship's hull, now painted crimson. It made her wonder if it was truly water that they sailed upon. She shuddered. Was it like this elsewhere? Iona looked at the red sun, and wondered if it shone this horror all over the world, or if it was some magic in the Trump Kingdom that played tricks with her eyes.

The wind blew its warm breath on her face, so hot that for a moment Iona felt as if she was standing next to a fire. Things were getting worse with each passing day. Reika and Nozomi might have lit a Starlight Flame, but that didn't seem to do much good; a lone star could not fight off the darkness, nor could it free all the lands conquered by the Precure's enemies. It couldn't save Maria, either. Not all the stars could do it.

She kept staring into the horizon, into the endless red. Trump was still far away; they'd sail for two or three more days before reaching the city, according to Kengo. He had done the journey many times before, and always did business with the Selfish, so they would grant him safe passage. Or so he said. If they saw that he was smuggling six Precure into Trump, they would most likely just sink the ship, and its passengers with it. Nothing could go wrong. If something went amiss, everything and everyone would be at risk.

As the red waves crashed against the ship with all their might, Iona heard a sound louder still just behind her: Nozomi approaching, calling out her name. There would be no way to avoid a pointless conversation this time, Iona knew. When they were all travelling together, Iona was always close to Nagisa and Honoka, and as the two of them took a quick liking to Iona, they always included her in their conversations, always asked her for her opinion. Nozomi mostly only talked to Reika, Mana and Glasan, and when she approached Black and White, Iona could always think of some excuse to not have to talk for so long about things she didn't care about.

Now, unless she jumped off the ship and swam to Trump, she had no way out from Nozomi's small talk.

"Hi, Iona," she said. Iona said hi without even looking back. "Long trip, isn't it?"

"I guess."

"Have you ever been on a ship before?"

"No."

"I can tell that from your face," Nozomi grinned and put a finger on her cheek. Iona groaned, but Nozomi didn't care. "Are you sick?"

"Obviously."

"That sucks. I got sick the first time I boarded a ship, too. And the second time, too. The first time was when I went to the Cinq Lumières. It's on an island, you know?"

"I know," Iona said. Everyone knew that.

"The island used to be a colony of the Bavarois Kingdom. Oh, and the place where I used to live was a colony of the Palmier Kingdom until... I don't remember the date. Did you know that?"

"No," said Iona. She also didn't care.

"That's cool, isn't it? This feels almost like when I came to the mainland to become a Precure. Me and my friends together on a really big boat, sailing east, to the shores of the Crepe Kingdom…"

When will she stop talking? Iona had no interest whatsoever in this conversation. She just wanted some silence so that she could be all alone with her thoughts. She was just thinking about her sister when Nozomi interrupted her, and she was not in the mood to indulge her desire for endless conversations.

"Hey, Nozomi," Iona said, suddenly thinking of a way out. "I think Nagisa was looking for you. Earlier today she said she wanted to talk to you."

"Oh, I just talked to her, actually!" So much for that. "She said that since there are only two cabins and we'll have to share our beds, we should decide who gets to sleep together. Mana decided to stay with Nagisa and Honoka, so you're staying with Reika and me, Iona!"

"Joy."

"I know! I'm so glad! We haven't been able to spend a lot of time together-"

"Such a pity."

"Yeah! We'll have lots of time to talk now. And to get to know each other! You never told me a lot about yourself, Iona, you know. I want to know more about the Blue Sky Kingdom."

"It's nice. Was nice, I guess," she shrugged. She tried not to think too much about it. It only brought her sadness. At least most of her family had managed to leave the Blue Sky Kingdom before it fell, departing to the north, to the safety of the temples of the Heart Tree. But now those were gone too.

"Was it hot there?" Iona shook her head. "Cold?" She shook her head again. "Ah, must have been pleasant, then? So is the Palmier Kingdom! It's so nice, isn't it? The Desert Lands are too hot, just like this region of the Trump Kingdom, but then you have places that are too cold, like Märchenland. Reika told me that the capital of Märchenland, Morgenluft, is buried by snow during the winters, and-"

"Snow is a bother," said Iona. "The cold is pleasant but when it snows it's just annoying."

"Oh, totally. Sometimes it snowed where I lived, and I had to shovel our sidewalk, and it was soooo annoying. Wow, Iona, we agree on a lot of things!"

No, we certainly don't.

"Mh-hm."

"Look," Nozomi stood right next to Iona, supporting herself on the ship's railing as she watched the waves. "I don't want to be too blunt, but I was meaning to ask you if you wouldn't like to come to Last Light when this is over."

"Why?" Cure Princess is there. I'd rather live in a mud-filled hole than to breathe the same air that Cure Princess does.

"We're turning it into a really cool place! There aren't that many people in the Phoenix Tower, so you must be bored," No, I'm not, "but in Last Light there's always something that needs to be done. And, oh, Iona, you have no idea about the difference we're making! We're helping so many people!"

She didn't want to admit it, but Iona could see the appeal of that. The Cures in the Phoenix Tower were mostly concerned with gaining favor with Cure Mirage, even before she was elected Rosehearted. They'd bicker and argue until they completely forgot what their duty as Precure was.

"Seems nice," she said, not wanting to agree with Nozomi.

"Yeah!" Goodness, she just keeps going on and on! "I feel really accomplished there. I… I feel like I'm doing something important. Something incredible. I feel like I found something I'm actually good at, you know?"

"Did you, now?" That didn't seem very likely. The thought of Nozomi moving from blunder to blunder and making a mess out of her little village almost made Iona guffaw.

"Yeah," Nozomi was smiling tenderly. She put a hand on her chest. "It feels really wonderful. Last Light grows more beautiful with each day. We have saved so many people, too. And everyone is working together," she sounded so proud, as if it had been her own idea. "And we all have our places. Even I have found my place there."

"Really?" Iona couldn't resist. "As what, the village idiot?"

The second those words came out of her mouth, Iona was already regretting them. She had never seen a smile die so quickly. She extended her hand to Nozomi, but she was already shying away from Iona, and the moment was gone.

"Nozomi… I didn't-"

"Right. It's fine. I'll… Yeah."

She walked away, and when Iona tried to ask her to stay, she choked on her own words. She just watched Nozomi leave, walking towards her cabin, opening the door, and hiding inside. Iona stood in place, silent, thinking she was the greatest fool to ever live.

She probably was. She should not have said that. By now she should have learned not to let anger get the best of her. She didn't even hate Nozomi… That made the guilt hurt even more. Iona stayed in place for a while, cursing herself as she watched the waves. She wanted to shout at them, to tell them to shut up, to stop mocking her. She slammed her fist on the railing, and let out a grunt in pain.

When Iona turned back, Reika was looking at her. Her eyes hurt almost as much as Nozomi's did. They weren't sad like Nozomi's, but disappointed, almost angry. They almost made Iona angry as well. What right do you have to judge me? It wasn't you I hurt.

Why am I angry? Why am I always angry? Reika hadn't said anything, and Iona was already feeling her heart blaze. She didn't want it at all. She just couldn't help it.

"Reika…"

"Iona."

"You heard?"

"I saw Nozomi's face," she said. Did she cry? Somehow Iona couldn't imagine Nozomi crying.

"I'm sorry," said Iona.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Iona had never heard Reika sound so cold before. "It's not to me you should apologize to at all, if you even want to apologize. I can't know what's in your mind."

"I… You're right. I do want to apologize. Can you… Can you help me with that?"

"No," the word felt like a slap to her face. "I'm not your mother, to fix every mess you make. Or Nozomi's, for that matter. You can apologize yourself."

"I want to," Iona said. She tried to avoid Reika's eyes, but that felt cowardly, so she stared at her, quivering. "I truly do."

"Will you?" Iona nodded. "Nozomi likes you. This is not the first time you hurt her, and even so, she still likes you."

"That's very kind of her," was all Iona managed to say. She had never even considered that.

"Kind. Yes, she is kind. Look, I'll admit it: she isn't the wisest person to ever exist, and she has difficulties, sometimes. Like everyone. But she is kind, and gentle. If you treat her with scorn because of her hardship, then you are the true idiot here."

She was right. Of course she was right. Iona meant to thank Reika, but she had already left, headed towards the other side of the deck, to join Mana and Honoka in whatever they were talking about. She probably wouldn't even appreciate the gratitude.

Just the thought of apologizing to Nozomi made Iona's face pink with embarrassment. She wished she could just take it all back, or that she could just wait a few days until Nozomi forgot her words… If she ever forgot them.

Iona stepped towards the door to their cabin; her sweaty hand hesitated on the door handle. Why was she even worried? Nozomi would forgive her. She didn't look like the sort of person who would hold a grudge. Why was Iona scared, then? Maria would have apologized without any fear.

No. Maria wouldn't have said something like that in the first place.

Maybe that was why it hurt so much. She would have disappointed her own sister with the way she's been acting. Maria didn't lash out at people who didn't deserve it. She was always patient and always had kind words to share with everyone. Iona would never be Maria, that much was clear, but she could at the very least be decent.

She pulled down the handle and slowly opened the door. The cabin was small and very plain: it had a large bed on its center, a chest underneath it, and a tiny wardrobe nearby, already cramped with old, dusty books and magazines. The walls were dull grey, giving the room a depressing atmosphere. The single window was too small to show much of what was outside.

Most depressing of all was the way Nozomi laid down on the bed with her head buried on pillows. She didn't sound like she was crying; she just sighed loudly from time to time. Iona didn't know how to start, so she sat down next to Nozomi, and tried to force the words out.

"No-Nozomi," she blurted out. Nozomi rose slowly, agonizingly slowly, and for a moment Iona feared she would be angry, but her face betrayed no feelings whatsoever. She hadn't even cried, yet seeing Nozomi like this, her face an expressionless mask, was even worse than seeing eyes red from weeping.

"Hi."

"I…" This was even harder than she thought. Iona wasn't used to apologies. Usually when she hurt people, she would just move on, and hope they would, too. She was determined to change that, but now that she was facing Nozomi, she had to wonder if it wouldn't be best to just go away and pretend nothing happened. No, she would not run away. "I'm sorry."

"Are you?" Nozomi didn't seem convinced. Iona herself couldn't convince herself of that. She didn't want to hurt Nozomi in the first place, but now… Now an apology just felt like protocol, somehow, like the thing she was expected to do. It wouldn't make Nozomi hurt any less, would it?

"Yeah," she continued, trying her best. "I didn't mean to say that."

"If you didn't mean it, then why did you say it?" Her voice was full of hurt. Nozomi sounded like she actually wanted an answer, but Iona didn't have one for her.

"I just… I said it without thinking, the way I always do. I… Sometimes I don't think of people's feelings. When I'm angry or upset. And I've been angry and upset for a long time."

"Right," Nozomi said. I'm so stupid! I shouldn't be justifying myself! Stupid!

"I… No. No, that's just an excuse. I'm sorry," Iona met Nozomi's eyes. She did not avert them for a moment. "I truly am. I should not have hurt you. That was not right of me. And I won't do it again. I promise."

"Can you promise that?"

"I can. I… I don't dislike you. I hope I didn't make you think that."

"But you don't like me either."

"I… I'm not quick to trust. To grow close to others. Not anymore. But it's not your fault. It's mine. Only mine. I want to like you, and I want to be your friend. You are…" What was it that Reika had said?" "You are kind and gentle. And hard-working. So forgive me for what I said."

"Alright, she said, and dared to show a little smile. The two girls looked at one another in silence, as if waiting for the other to say something. Just when it was about to get too awkward, Iona remembered something.

"Nozomi, would you like me to consult the Fates with you?"

"You brought the cards with you?"

"I always do," Iona got out of the bed, then crouched and reached out for the chest beneath the bed. It was stuffed with clothes, but she could find her deck with ease. It seemed lighter. She feared she might have lost some of the cards, but they were just scattered all over the box.

"How do we play?" Nozomi sounded very interested. Iona was glad for that.

"We don't play it," she corrected. "It's not a game. There are many ways to do it. It depends on what you want the Fates to tell you."

"Can they tell me if I'll see my friends again?"

"I'm afraid the Fates can't really answer a question with a yes or a no. They are rather vague, to tell the truth. Which is why it takes skill to interpret what they say."

"Oh, alright then," said Nozomi, biting her lip. "Just ask about my future, then."

Iona shuffled her cards, then put the deck on Nozomi's hand. She told her to shuffle them again, then to throw them on top of the bed. The deck bounced very slightly on the soft surface of the sheets, scattering some of the cards around.

This was just spectacle, Iona knew. This too was an important part of consulting the Fates: treating it as something greater than what it was, like a ceremony. When she studied fortune-telling, Iona learned that it was of utmost importance that the person learning of their future believed that every gesture had a meaning, every word carried great significance. It did not work without that belief. Sometimes Iona found herself doubting that, but she never paid much attention to her misgivings. It brought her relief to believe that she could take a glimpse into tomorrow, and maybe, just maybe, change it.

Iona went through the motions. Pick five cards. Yes, any five cards. First came the Star. It could mean hope. It could mean daybreak. Some said it represented magic. Iona prayed it was a sign of hope, but after all this time, she didn't have much faith in that. Afterwards came the Girl.

"Is it me?" Nozomi asked, eyes shining.

"It's not for me to tell that," Iona said. Those were the words she was expected to say when she didn't know how to interpret something, because it was too vague, or too senseless. "A big part of this is what you think. Do you feel like this card refers to you?"

"I…" She put a finger on her mouth, and strained as she thought as hard as she could. "I don't know. How can I tell?"

"Maybe it's not you," Iona shrugged. "Maybe it is and you just don't know yet. Maybe you have something to do with a star."

"Oh, is it because of the Starlight Flame me and Reika lit? Wait, no, that was a while ago, I'm asking the future…"

"Let's just keep going."

The next card was the Girl, again. There were five of them on the deck, so it was to be expected that sometimes, two of them would be drawn. It was a small possibility, but Iona had told so many fortunes that it didn't really surprise her anymore.

What did surprise her was when Nozomi picked up another card, and it was the Girl another time.

"Is there something wrong with this deck?"

"No," said Iona. "It was just extremely unlikely. Take another card. Now I'm curious as well."

Finally, she picked the Rainbow. Most variations of the decks used to consult the fates didn't have this card, only the ones used in the Blue Sky Kingdom. It was considered either redundant or too vague by scholars of the Fates, so most had agreed to remove it from their decks.

"What does it mean?"

"Let us think together," said Iona. That was just a polite way of asking her client to help her do her job. "Three Girls, a Star, a Rainbow. The rainbow can mean end of rain, so maybe the end of a struggle?"

"A rainbow is a lot of colors together, does that mean anything?"

"We could take it to mean diversity, yes, and sharing, even, if that's not a stretch…"

"Three girls sharing a star? That can't be it," said Nozomi, before closing her eyes to think again. Nozomi looked quite funny when she was thinking hard, funny and cute, Iona noticed then. She had never noticed it before: she had been too busy being annoyed at her. Iona wondered how many things she had failed to notice because she wasn't willing to see.

"If I may," Iona had thought of something. "The Girl card does not represent a single girl," that didn't sound as redundant in her mind. "I mean, it doesn't mean the Fates are trying to tell us something about a girl, if you get what I mean."

"Oh, maybe it represents girls in general? Or multiple girls at once?"

"That's one way to put it," Iona could tell Nozomi was trying her hardest to say something right. "I think the three cards represent the Precure in general. The Red Rose is, after all, a rather large group of girls."

"Yeah," Nozomi nodded. "Maybe we're all different colors, and when we're together, we're like a rainbow? Does that make sense? We're all different and come from all sorts of places places, and we don't always agree, but we're working together now, to… To make the stars shine again. That's the way I see it… It means we have to learn to get past our differences and fight next to one another, no matter how hard it is for us. Because if we don't, the nights will be dark forever."

"I…" That was considerably more elaborate than what Iona had thought, but she did like the way Nozomi put it. "That's exactly what I had thought, actually. I guess you were right all along, huh? We do agree on some things, after all."

Nozomi smiled again, her true smile, the one she never shied away from. So goofy, so exaggerated. Iona smiled too. Maybe she could become friends with Nozomi, someday. She hoped so. She just had to control herself from being awful, which, admittedly, she had failed miserably at time and time again.

"Hey, Iona," said Nozomi. "Do you know any card games? I'm bored."

"The Fates are not meant to be used for playing mere games!" Said Iona. When she realized she was raising her voice, she sighed. "But I'm bored too. When I was learning how to read the cards, sometimes my classmates would relax with some games. Now, I never played with them, so I don't know the rules all too well, but… Well, we can improvise."

The door opened again just as Iona was stacking the cards into a perfect pile, and trying to remember how the damn game was actually played in the first place. She looked up and saw Reika walking inside. She seemed pleased when she saw Iona and Nozomi together.

"Have you made amends?" She asked, and Iona nodded.

"She read my future in the cards," said Nozomi. "It was cool. Things are looking up for me."

"Then I'll ask Iona to tell me my future as well, sometime," said Reika. "You will play a game? May I join you?"

"Do you know how to play?" Asked Iona. She hoped that Reika did; in the end, Iona couldn't remember a thing about the game.

"No," Reika said before she removed her shoes and sat next to Nozomi, making herself comfortable. "Surely you can teach me too?"

Iona nodded, defeated. She shuffled the deck, divided them in three piles, and gave one to Reika and one to Nozomi. She had no idea what she was doing, but she must have seemed confident enough, because she wasn't questioned. She came up with some rules on the spot, completely arbitrary and mostly senseless, but they were enough to convince her companions.

Somehow, the game she invented actually managed to be a fair bit of fun, though that was more because Nozomi was more than willing to play along and make every little move seem incredible. Reika was not quite as enthusiastic, but whenever Iona turned towards her, she could see Reika disguising a girlish giggle with her hand. The game was a foolish thing, really; each player took turns one after another, chose another player, and challenged them one with of their cards. The one who played the strongest card was the victor, but, at times, what defined the "strongest card" was a point of contention. Is the Dragon stronger than the Rainbow? The Blizzard stronger than the Forest? Most of the game was spent debating questions of that sort.

And Iona found herself having a blast. When she caught herself laughing, smiling, swearing to Reika that, yes, a House was absolutely more powerful than the Dungeons, Iona realized that she was having fun. She hadn't laughed so hard in such a long time that she had almost forgotten how it felt to let out a chortle of true joy, not of mockery or bitterness, but because she was enjoying herself. She couldn't remember when she last felt like this. Even before the Death of the Stars she hadn't been so cheerful. She had spent her last days alone, taking care of her family's house when they departed to the north, to be safe. Iona wasn't afraid. Maria was still with her, just the two of them in their home. And then she left, and Iona had forgotten what it meant to feel happiness.

Now she remembered. Nozomi's laughter filled the room, but Reika chuckled just as often, only a bit more quietly. Iona felt herself about to cry embarrassing tears, foolish tears. No, not now, I don't want to ruin everything. I don't want to ruin this. Instead she laughed even more loudly than Nozomi did.

She heard the sound of thunder, then, and she shut up. It was not a sound she was fond of, not at all. The cabin became silent, and Iona could hear that it had started to rain. She looked through the window, and saw that the skies had turned black. Iona could just barely see the moon, a great pearl clad in ebon. She was thankful that it had not turned red like the sun.

"How do you even remember the rules to this game?" Nozomi asked. "It's so complicated. It must take a good mind to memorize everything!"

"Y-Yeah," said Iona. "It really does."

Soon it would be time to sleep, Iona thought. She did not want to sleep, though. She was actually enjoying this. She barely knew these girls, despite all the time spent together; she had closed her eyes to them, and now that she finally opened them, she didn't want the moment to be over. She feared that she would be angry again the next day, that she would forget everything.

Odd, she thought. There was a strange sound outside, and it wasn't rain, nor footsteps. A bird, maybe? No, there was no way that was possible. She tried to pretend she didn't hear it, because it likely didn't matter anyway.

Soon the sound became impossible to ignore. It was an an awfully loud noise that sounded like a sneeze, coming from the deck, muffled by the sound of rain. She opened the door to check, and she found Mana sitting outside of her cabin's door, the rain hitting her in the face, leaving tiny stains of red on her cheeks, and her clothes drenched. She sneezed again, and didn't even notice Iona's presence.

"What the hell are you doing there?" She yelled, getting her attention. Mana turned to her slowly, and coughed.

"I ask the same of you," her voice sounded so weak. "It's late. You should be sleeping."

"You're crazy, aren't you?" Iona ran towards her, and made her get up. Mana's body was so cold. She almost called Mana a moron, but she remembered Nozomi, and held her tongue.

"I just-" She was wheezing now. Iona guided her to her own cabin, where Reika and Nozomi stared at her in horror.

"Mana…" Nozomi touched her as well, and flinched back when she realized how cold she was. "Are you alright?"

"Ye-"

"Of course she isn't!" Iona shouted again. "Get her some clothes, quick!"

Nozomi did as she was bid; she had kept a few changes of clothes in a chest underneath their bed, and she got a pink shirt with long sleeves and some ugly wool pants that belonged to Reika, probably. Iona didn't mean to look when Mana was changing, but she caught a glimpse of her back, and she could see the outline of her bones very clearly. What had Mana done to herself? Iona tossed the wet clothes on the corner, and wrapped a blanket around Mana.

"Now," she said. "You should explain what you were doing out there."

"I… Don't tell Sharuru, please. I don't want to worry her."

"Of course we'll tell her," said Reika. "You could get sick if you stay in the rain like that. Did you even have a reason?"

"Well, it's really late," said Mana. Iona had no idea what time it was, exactly, but many, many hours had passed since they began playing their silly game and sharing stories. "Sharuru was already asleep, she and Glasan improvised a tiny crate as their bed. Honoka and Nagisa were about to sleep, and, well, they're a couple, aren't they? They should sleep together, it's only normal. They wouldn't want to share a bed with someone else. It's uncomfortable. I know I wouldn't want that if I were with-" She realized she was about to say too much, and stopped.

"So…" Even Reika was baffled, and she was always patient. "You thought it was a good idea to stay out in the rain so that Nagisa and Honoka could be comfortable? Did they complain about it in the first place?"

"No," Mana coughed. "They are too nice for that. I did it on my own. I'm used to sleeping in the rain. Ask Sharuru. We couldn't find shelter every night. I don't care anymore. I just wanted to let Nagisa and Honoka be happy and cozy and-"

"Mana, you think you're being considerate of others," Nozomi began, "but you're just hurting yourself. Why are you doing this to yourself? You have to know that you don't have to."

"I know I don't have to. I just want to. If I can make life just a little bit better for anyone, if I can give them the tiniest bit of joy… I don't care about what it costs from me."

"You-"

"No, listen! I mean it," Mana said. Weak as her body was, her mind was still willful. "I just want to help everyone I can. In any way I can. No matter how small. I don't… I don't care about my well-being. I can't."

"Your happiness matters just as much as everyone else's!" Nozomi yelled, a bit too loudly for Iona's liking.

"It doesn't," she said, smiling. That was the most disturbing thing. Mana was smiling as she hurt herself for the sake of others. She was a girl who would set herself on fire to keep her friends warm during winter, Iona realized. "It truly doesn't. I'm a Precure. My duty is to everyone else. Not to me. I swore I'd lay down my life for the good of others, and I meant it."

"Mana…" Reika's eyes were so sad, but Mana just put a hand on her cheek and smiled even wider, showing part of her crooked teeth.

"Please," said Mana. "Please don't be sad. This is my choice. It might not make sense for you, but for me, there's nothing more natural. We all say we're willing to go through hell for the ones we care about, to die for those we love, but most of us don't mean it. I do. And I'm happy with it. I truly am. I'm not sad, so don't be sad for me."

"Right," said Iona. She was mad. That was the only explanation. She had to have a martyr complex, or something of the sort. Iona couldn't think of anything else. Yet when she saw the way Mana smiled, not just her lips but her entire gaunt face, somehow she seemed perfectly sane. "At least stay here for the night. You'll catch a cold if you stay outside. Or worse."

"I don't-"

"It would make me happy," said Reika, "and it wouldn't be a sacrifice at all, would it?" Mana shook her head.

"I'm skinny, too," said Nozomi, poking at her belly, grinning, "so don't worry about taking up space, alright?"

Reluctantly, Mana nodded. She was the first to go to sleep: despite everything she said, she was still weak and exhausted, and in need of some rest. When Iona turned off the lights and wished a good night to Reika and Nozomi, then laid down next to Mana, she could hear her strained breathing. Iona wondered what could possibly lead someone to sacrifice so much for the sake of others.

Maria sacrificed herself for Mirage. What went through her sister's head when she did that? Did she do it on instinct? Maria was always sacrificing herself for others; whenever a fellow Precure was wounded, Maria was glad to pick up her duties. She was always giving her time to whoever needed it. She had never gone to such extremes as Mana, but before the stars went out, the world had never been a place of such extremes. But she did give her life for Mirage. She was Cure Tender: she surely could have survived if she had let Mirage be trapped inside the mirror instead. No matter how hard she tried, Iona simply could not conceive what would lead someone to do that. Maybe this was why she was so disturbed by Mana. Maybe Mana was what Maria would be today, if she had lived.

Chapter Text

The journey north to Trump had been long, boring, and, more than anything, quiet, all too quiet. Yuri rarely said a word, and even her footsteps were silent. At first, Raquel tried to talk from time to time, but it seemed that even he had been taken by the silence. Rikka didn't like it one bit, but Yuri and Raquel weren't doing anything wrong, so she never complained.

Aguri had given them plenty of food for the trip, so that was not a worry that kept Rikka awake at night. She didn't know just how much she could trust in Aguri, but Yuri seemed free of such doubts. Yuri was clever, Rikka would never deny that, but all that Aguri had to do to gain her faith was to blame the Red Rose for the birth of Dark Precure. That simple fact was enough to turn Yuri against the Red Rose; Rikka had no idea what had happened between Cure Moonlight and Dark Precure, and she had no courage to ask. Just hearing the name made Yuri grit her teeth. As for Rikka, she had nowhere else to go, so she stayed with Yuri.

At least that's what she had told Yuri. The truth was much simpler: she was curious. Aguri had said the most outrageous things about the Order of the Red Rose: conspiracies and crimes that Rikka had never even dared imagine. They could be lies. That was very possible, Rikka admitted. But if they were true… If they were true, then that changed everything. If half of Aguri's accusations turned out to be fact, then the Red Rose had shaped the history of the world in the worst possible way. How could Rikka continue to serve such an evil force?

If Aguri told the truth. She had her own reasons to lie, of course. Maybe the Blue Rose she loved so much was rotten too. Maybe that was why they were wiped out so long ago, in a war that even Rikka knew almost nothing about.

Stop thinking about the past, she told herself, and start thinking about how you're going to enter get into Trump.

It was no easy task, Rikka had no doubt about that. Trump was not too distant now, and whenever Rikka and Yuri found themselves atop a rocky hill, they could see the Amethyst Sea in the horizon. Yuri had suggested sailing across the sea, but the thought of boarding a ship brought back the memory of watching Mana be taken away from her, swallowed by the waves, with nothing Rikka could do to help her. No ships, she had told Yuri, and Moonlight just nodded. Rikka was glad that she understood.

They walked alongside the road to Trump, always staying a fair distance away from the main path. This was an older road, one made for horses and carriages, not cars. On the abandoned highways, Rikka and Yuri would find carcasses of vehicles, useless now that the stars were gone and magic was weakened, almost gone. The magic of the Precure had been a crutch almost all of the world used to support many of its comforts, and now all that was gone.

Sometimes, Rikka could see travellers making their way to the safer cities in the Trump Kingdom, now occupied by the Selfish. Sometimes she'd see caravans carrying all sorts of goods from one place to the other, and she'd be reminded that, even now, life went on, people were trying to rebuild their world, even with the Precure seemingly gone, and the sky devoid of stars. Rikka found that admirable.

Even though the landscape had changed, twisted by some evil force she could not comprehend, Rikka could recognize some of the lands she visited. She hadn't been outside of Trump all that often, but she had travelled this road before, the oldest road in the world, at least according to the people of the Trump Kingdom. Rikka knew that there were roads in the Desert Lands that were much older, and Majorland boasted about its Path of Melodies, the road that cut the country and which every aspiring minstrel had to take if they wished to play in the greatest halls of Majorland. However, there was no doubt that the roads of the Trump Kingdom were much bigger and more well-conserved: thousands of years after they were built, they were still being kept in a decent state, and they were actually used rather often.

Once there were vast woodlands alongside the road. Rikka remembered that there were many points where the skies were hidden by thick canopies, and the stone roads were often covered in the greenery of fallen leaves. Autumn painted the path in yellow and red, but it also made travel a touch more difficult before the road was cleaned. It was said that, during autumn, if enough carriages were travelling the road, the sound of crumpling leaves was so intense that it was impossible to have a conversation. If you focused on the sound hard enough, you'd hear the leaves sing a song.

All romantic babble, Rikka knew. People couldn't simply be content with the road looking very beautiful; they just had to make up these wondrous tales, as if the truth wasn't appealing enough already.

All those trees were gone now, though. They had all withered and died, and though their husks still reached high into the sky, their branches were all naked, and the shadows they cast were too thin to cover the road, so they had no respite from the blistering heat of the red sun.

Suddenly, Yuri rose her hand, commanding Rikka to halt. She obeyed: she was not one to question Yuri when she seemed to notice something. Moonlight pointed to a large rock on the side of the road, and the two hid behind it, Raquel staying close to Rikka's chest. Soon Rikka could hear a sound, the same sound that Yuri must have heard: wheels rolling upon rocks.

A covered wagon was approaching; large and lumbering, it was clear that its load was heavy, too heavy for the single Jikochuu that pulled it. The beast looked like an oversized horse, its eyes covered in blinders. On the middle of its head was a long, twisted horn. It was groaning, tired, but the waggoner just whipped the creature so it would keep going. This was not proper form at all, the whip should not be used to hurt the animal, but Rikka presumed that the Selfish just didn't care. The woman driving the wagon was one of them, Rikka only had to look at her for a moment to tell: her hair was a light blue that was almost white, and she wore a headband adorned with bat wings. She almost looked Marmo, from afar, but Marmo was too important to be driving a wagon.

"Stupid animal," she whipped the Jikochuu again. It simply stopped, and whined. "Goddamn it, you moronic beast! Move, you cretin! Move!" The Jikochuu just whined again, crying as it was whipped. "I wanna get to Trump…"

Trump. Rikka jumped out of hiding before even telling Yuri what her plan was. When the woman saw her, she looked at Rikka with scorn.

"Hello," Rikka put on her friendliest voice. "Having trouble?"

"What does it look like?" She snapped. "You bumpkins are all the same, always asking these dumb questions. How hard is it to find someone useful in this worthless kingdom?"

"Your horse won't move."

"Look," the woman got down from her wagon, still holding the whip. Just as Rikka wanted. "I can tell you're not very smart. But maybe you can help me. A country bumpkin like you has to know how to deal with animals. This is a Jikochuu, so not your ordinary beast, but it's all the same to you, isn't it?"

"What's a Jikochuu?" Rikka asked, in the most stupid way she could. "Is that a foreign word for horse?"

The woman was fuming. The Selfish were not known for restraint, which made them dangerous foes in battle, but it also made them very, very foolhardy. Rikka knew how to deal with people like that. The woman approached Rikka.

"Ji-ko-chuu," her voice was so condescending that it actually almost annoyed Rikka. "Not a horse. A Jikochuu. Are you sure you're right in the-"

Rikka grabbed her by the arm before she could finish, and tossed her on the ground. Before she could get up, Rikka was transforming, enveloping her body with cold light. It made her feel faster, stronger. The whip lashed at her legs, leaving a red mark on her calf. Rikka jumped back and let the woman get up. Yuri was approaching, too, but Diamond could handle her foe on her own.

The whip cracked again, making the Jikochuu whine, and it turned its face away from the battle. The whip sang as it smacked Rikka gain, but this time she held on to it with two hands. She pulled the woman towards her, causing her to stumble and trip. When she was falling, Rikka hit the Selfish's face with her knee. The blow was followed by the sound of something cracking, and a high-pitched scream. The woman let go of the whip, and coughed up some blood.

"Yuri, help me here," Rikka asked. They tied the Selfish's hands and feet with her own whip, and left her by the roadside.

The woman was cursing them without pause, teaching Rikka half a dozen swear words. Rikka ignored them, and, with Yuri, she examined the contents on the back of the wagon. There was still a little bit of space there, though most of it was filled with boxes full of gauze, plaster casts, bag valve masks, and medicine of all sorts.

"Why is a medical wagon headed to Trump?" Rikka asked.

"It's none of your business, moron. Why does it matter to you what the Selfish are doing?"

"Now, you should probably be a little bit more polite, or instead of leaving you by the road, we'll leave you there, behind that rock," Rikka pointed at its direction, "and gag you too, so no one will find you."

"You wouldn't, you have the stupid honor of a Precure, you will not do that."

"I would," Rikka lied. She couldn't see herself going that far. "Now, you should answer my question."

"Fine," said the Selfish. "I'm going back home. I was at the Land of Toys, fighting the princess' war. Well, I didn't fight. I just tried to get that stupid animal to listen to me," she grunted, and the Jikochuu made a sound akin to laughter. "But they said they didn't need me anymore. The war was won. They started to send the soldiers back to Trump. I was in a hurry, so I went first, but you'll probably find some other wagons a couple miles behind."

"Is Regina coming back too?"

"How do I know? The princess does what she wants. We just obey. She's probably coming back soon, once she's done having her fun at the Land of Toys. The war against the Bad End Kingdom is at a stalemate right now, but we'll finish the job soon, after we've rested."

Aguri had gone to the Land of Toys to stop Regina. Rikka wondered if she would make it in time, or if she would find that Regina was already headed towards Trump. Still, these were terrible news. If they were caught between the Selfish in Trump and Regina's army, there's no way they'd be able to escape.

"If Regina is coming, then we must hurry," said Yuri.

"Are you sure we should go?" Asked Raquel. "It's too dangerous there…"

"Tell me," said Yuri, "if you know of a place that's still not dangerous. If you do, then we should all go there. Otherwise, we move forward."

Raquel nodded, and said no more. Rikka put a hand on the Jikochuu's head, and the creature regarded her with curiosity. It seemed friendly enough, in truth. Maybe it was thankful that Rikka had saved it from its cruel driver. The Selfish were never particularly loyal, so why would their beasts be?

"I won't whip you," said Rikka, and the Jikochuu neighed gleefully. "Please keep going to Trump."

"I'll stay in the back," said Yuri. "Do you think the Selfish will let us in?"

"I don't think the guards at the bridge would ever disobey one of Regina's orders. It should be easy enough to get inside."

Yuri hid inside, amidst the boxes, and Rikka took the driver's seat, with Raquel on her lap. The seat was soft, though its cushioning was a bit too thin. She asked the Jikochuu to start moving, and it obeyed. Its hooves beat against the cobblestone road, and the wheels squeaked, but the most annoying sound was the screaming of the Selfish left behind. Raquel let out a quick giggle, but Rikka couldn't find any joy right now. She was too worried for that.

It had been easy enough to find their way into Trump. But with Regina marching back, Rikka had no way of knowing if she'd be able to get out.

Trump's harbors loomed larger and mightier as the boat approached the city. The first signs of the docks were the large sails in the horizon; their white made Reika think they were clouds at first, but soon she saw them for what they were. As they neared Trump, the waters calmed themselves, but their red was a shade deeper here. Nozomi and Nagisa had gone to the small larder below the deck to get some supplies they needed, while Iona and Mana were at the captain's cabin with Kengo. Reika stood by the rails, with Honoka by her side, watching Trump grow closer.

"So here we are," said Honoka.

"Here we are indeed," Reika nodded. "Sailing right into the jaws of the serpent."

"Are you afraid?"

"I am."

"You didn't seem very scared when we were fighting Dune's forces," Honoka said with a small smirk.

"That was foolish of me. I should have been scared then. Cure Blossom was the only one with any sense," Reika said. Honoka giggled, but Reika didn't mean it as a joke.

"Fear can make you wiser," said Honoka, "but it can also make you too hesitant. Are you hesitating, Reika?"

"No," the answer came at once. She had chosen to come to Trump, and would not let fear paralyze her.

"I'm glad. It's odd, though, isn't it?"

"What is odd?"

"Dune was threatening to obliterate all life in the world, to turn all greenery into the barren brown of the desert. And I wasn't afraid when I followed Yuri into battle. But I'm afraid now."

"Well, we don't have Moonlight with us," said Reika. "Would she make you less afraid?"

"Honestly? No. No, she would not. It's not a matter of my companions. I've heard great things of you and Nozomi, and Iona shows a lot of promise. Mana, well… She's eager to help, at least. I trust you all. I'm happy to fight by your side. But… I'm still scared."

"I understand," said Reika. When they fought Dune, the stars were still shining. Things may have been grim, the world might have been threatened, but the world was still safe, beautiful. So Reika did not feel in danger. But now darkness had fallen across the lands, and with it came the dreadful cold or the hellish heat, and the crushing feeling of loneliness whenever she thought of just how empty the world had become. "Truly, I do."

That seemed to please Honoka, who gave a quick nod. She always enjoyed talking, regardless of the subject, and sharing her thoughts and knowledge with her companions. And she did have abundant amounts of those: on one hand, Reika appreciated having the opportunity to talk one of the most experienced and knowledgeable Precure, but on the other hand, sometimes it just seemed that Honoka wanted to show off just how much she knew. Or maybe Reika was just being unfair when she thought that. Maybe Honoka just really liked sharing her ideas.

A white sail was approaching, Reika noticed, and a horn was sounding a monstrous scream. It didn't surprise her. She didn't expect the Selfish not to notice them on open sea. Kengo had assured them that as he had done business with the Selfish of Trump before, he'd manage to get them past the guards, and Reika had no choice but to trust him and hope he could make good on his promise.

"Did the Selfish take over Trump's navy?" Honoka asked. "The Ocean Aces were always formidable sailors…"

"They probably took over everything," said Reika. "All we can hope for is that those formidable sailors weren't turned into Jikochuu."

"Their vessels are very outdated," Honoka pointed at the sail. "I think we can outmaneuver them."

"Maybe," said Reika. "It's still too risky. Let's not give the Selfish any chance to sink our ship. For Kengo's sake, at least, as he cannot fight the Selfish. We ought to warn him of what we've seen."

Honoka nodded, and followed her into the captain's cabin. It was a small but cozy room, kept cool by an air conditioner. A pleasant melody was coming from a small speaker, and the walls were covered in photos of Kengo with his family and people who Reika presumed were his friends. The captain himself was seated on a rather comfortable chair, beneath a wooly blanket. He must sleep here during longer travels, Reika realized.

"Reika?" Mana was the first to notice their presence. "You seem concerned."

"Did you hear that sound?" She asked.

"Yeah," Kengo answered. "There's some noisy beasts around here. They didn't use to be here before. They don't usually pay me any mind, though."

"No," said Honoka. "It's different. It's a Selfish vessel approaching us."

"Already?" Kengo put a hand on the steering wheel, then got himself up, and stared through his window. "Usually they only question me at the ports. Maybe they're tightening their security."

"Maybe," said Reika. "Can you still get us past them?"

"I have wares below deck, in the larder, that I intend to sell. Squids, mostly. The Selfish love them. They'll want to take a look, probably. Once they see that, they'll let us reach Trump."

"Unless they see us," said Reika. "How thorough is their inspection?"

"Not very," the captain said, scratching his stubbly chin. "They never check the passenger cabins, only the larder and the storage cabin."

"What if they do?" Reika didn't want to trust chance. "We hide under the bed?"

"Look," Kengo stared at her right in the eyes, "I told you this was very risky. There's no real place to hide here, because I'm not a smuggler. My trade was always honest, and honest men don't need hiding places. If they find you, you can defend yourselves, can't you?"

They could, of course. It wasn't that reason that made Reika want to avoid a fight. She and her companions could fight back (though she had her doubts about Mana), but Kengo couldn't.

"I just don't want you to be caught up in our fight," she said. "You need to get back to your family soon. If word gets out that you've helped us, and trust me, word will get out, they'll be in danger, just like you. We want you to get back home safely, then take your wife and son to Last Light."

"I will," he said, not sounding all too pleased by the prospect. "Ah, but is Last Light safe for us?"

"There are dozens of Precure there."

"And that's exactly what makes it unsafe. All your enemies-"

"Let us worry about our enemies," Reika rose her voice in a commanding tone. "We will keep you safe. The Red Rose has not forgotten the Pledge made between the Precure and the rest of the world. The Red Rose protects all those who are friends to the Precure. We will protect you and your family, and we won't let any harm come to you. Now keep sailing, and let us all hope that we don't have to fight."

Reika herself didn't have much faith that they would be able to avoid a battle, though. They had been very fortunate so far, always managing to avoid areas where Jikochuu might roam, and could always stay away from the Selfish's patrols, but there was no way to avoid them in their own city.

She was the first to leave, headed to her own cabin. The white sails were closer now, and the ship's pointy bow was visible now as well. Soon Iona and Nozomi reached the cabin as well, and closed the door. Reika had no intention of hiding under the bed if someone came; she summoned her frozen sword, feeling its weight. She had not used it in a while, but she always sparred with Ayumi, and even as she travelled, she would practice for a few moments before getting ready to sleep. She was ready to fight if the need came.

The ship stopped, Reika noticed. The light sound of it gliding across the waves was a constant companion, day and night, but now all she heard was the waves crashing against the hull. And soon she heard new sounds; footsteps and voices, far away. She couldn't tell what they were saying, but she knew the Selfish had boarded the ship. How many? There was no way to tell. Five, perhaps, she thought after trying to count the footsteps, but there might be more on their ship, and even so, there was no way to guarantee her counting was precise. She looked at Iona and Nozomi, the two of them battle-ready. That brought her some relief.

The footsteps were closer now. She could make out Kengo's voice amidst the words of the Selfish, but not his words. He sounded nervous. This was not going well. Reika was almost tempted to open the door and meet her enemies on the deck, but that would put Kengo in danger. She kept still, listening carefully. She heard a different sound, odder, louder. A Jikochuu?

"... as always, I'm telling you," she could understand what Kengo was saying, now. He was so close.

"I'll have to inspect everything," a woman replied. "Surely you understand… It's just my job. Bel is really strict, and he's in charge here now."

"Yeah, but…"

"Sorry, Kengo," she sounded genuinely apologetic.

"Bel drives me crazy too," it was a man who spoke now. His voice was gruff, and tired. "Things were much easier with Lust and Ira, but Lust is dead, and Bel just took over Trump with Goma. You know how those two are…"

"Tell me about it," said the woman. She was just behind the door. "Leva is strict too, but at least he rewards those who do well! Ah, I used to work under Marmo, you know? I miss that… I'm just ranting now. Let's get this over with," her hand was at the door handle. Slowly the door began to open. "I'm sure you have nothing to hide, Kengo, af-"

Just as she began to look inside, Reika punched her in the face, sending her straight to the wooden floor. She pointed her sword at the Selfish's companion, who rose his hands. Reika slowly stepped outside, always keeping the man close to the blade's edge. She gestured at Kengo, telling him to go inside, and he was quick to obey.

"Ugh…" The woman struggled to get up. She had the visage of someone in their thirties, but she was shorter than Reika. "What the hell…"

"Stay still," Reika commanded. Nozomi and Iona put themselves next to her. "Don't do anything stupid."

"You're the one being stupid," called a voice from the other side of the deck. When Reika looked, he saw a younger man pointing a crossbow at her. Next to him was a huge Jikochuu, a giant squid, with Nagisa and Honoka in its grasp. There was no sign of Mana anywhere, even though she should be with them, and no sign of the fairies either.

"Drop your weapon," the man with raised hands said. "That'd make things easier for everyone."

Reika opened her hand and let the sword fall on the floor, shattering into a thousand crystals of ice. The crossbow was still pointed at her, but it was for Honoka and Nagisa that she feared. They hadn't even had the time to transform, it seemed. The Jikochuu made a horrible sound, the same sound that Reika had heard when the ship approached.

"Now," the man with the crossbow said, "we can solve this like civilized people," Reika seriously doubted it.

She scanned her surroundings. The woman had managed to get up, her face all bloody. She had a dagger sheathed on her belt, long and thin. The man right in front of her didn't seem to be carrying any weapons. The one with the crossbow was the most dangerous, as he could easily hit a vital spot from there. Maybe if she was quick enough she could freeze the bolt in place, but she doubted it. A wave crashed against the ship, spilling red water on the deck, close to the railing. She looked at the Jikochuu again, and knew that it could easily kill Nagisa and Honoka if they weren't transformed. A wave crashed again, more violent than the last. The water almost hit Reika in the face. Another wave was coming, mightier still, and then Reika knew what to do.

She waited for the next wave, and when it was hitting the side of the ship, almost raining over the deck, Reika turned her hand to it, and froze the waters as they fell, turning them into hundreds of little crimson spikes, small but very pointy. As they fell on the man and woman in front of them, the two rose their arms to defend themselves, and Iona and Nozomi threw themselves against them, bringing them down to the floor.

The quarry was whanging as it cut the air, giving Reika just enough warning to leap sideways and avoid it. Nozomi and Iona wrestled their foes on the floor, and all that was left was getting to Nagisa and Honoka before they were hurt. Reika began to run, almost slipping on the ice that now covered the floor.

"Kill them," the man ordered the Jikochuu, but before the monster could carry out its orders, and arrow pierced its enormous eye. The beast screamed in agony, convulsing its pale long arms, giving Nagisa and Honoka just enough space to break free. Another arrow struck the monster now, at the top of its head, and it fell on its commander, trapping the man underneath its weight.

More Selfish were coming from their ship, half a dozen of them. Black and White, now transformed, took care of half of them, but Beauty knew she could not handle the other three, not if they were competent at all. She conjured a new blade, and blocked the first parry meant for her, but she never had the chance to take the offensive, as a spear kept poking at her, forcing her to keep her distance. These Selfish didn't seem have much finesse, but Reika knew not to underestimate an enemy that outnumbered her, and that did so in such a small space.

She kept leaping backwards to avoid the lance, but she almost bumped on Cure Black, and knew she didn't have much room to maneuver. Another arrow was flying from the other side of the ship, close to the other passenger's cabin. Reika had no idea that Mana was a proficient archer, but she was very, very thankful for that. Her arrow struck one of her enemies on the leg, and burst into light. The spearman took a desperate lunge at Reika, half-blinded by the light, but it was a half-hearted attack, easy to avoid. Beauty lifted her foot and stomped the lance's shaft, breaking it in two. The sole Selfish left tried a stab with her knife, but she moved slowly, and Reika blocked the attack with such force that the knife flew across the deck, and landed on the water.

One by one the Selfish announced their surrender. They didn't hesitate in doing so, nor did they sound scared. The Precure's foes were always eager to surrender to them when the situation seemed lost, as the Red Rose's reputation for mercy was known to all. It was not an entirely earned reputation, as Reika knew many of her fellow Cures were killers, even Nozomi, despite her kind eyes. It was a great surprise to Reika to learn that, but she couldn't blame her friend when she learned of the circumstances.

Mana stepped towards the others with a small pink crossbow in hand, Sharuru and Glasan floating next to her. She ignored everyone and approached the Jikochuu. She pointed her weapon at it.

"Heart Shoot!"

She didn't fire an arrow at the monster, but a huge, translucent pink heart. The attack filled the Jikochuu with color, and it made a noise that was almost like contentment. Its body turned into a huge black shroud that the wind dispersed into ashes, and soon they were all gone. All that was left behind was a small heart, pink and winged. Reika had never seen a Psyche outside of books. The Psyche flew away, disappearing in the horizon.

"Is everyone restrained?" Reika asked, looking around. Nozomi and Iona had their foes sitting down, hands on their backs, and all the others had surrendered. She approached one of the Selfish at random. "Are there any other Selfish on the way to the docks?"

"Yeah," he answered. "Seven ships watching for anyone suspicious. When we see a ship approaching, we send one of ours to inspect it, and to escort it back to Trump if we allow it to come. It's Bel's new system. A vessel can only make port if it's accompanied by a ship of the Selfish Kingdom."

"I see," said Reika. "We'll be taking your ship, then. You'll be sailing us to Trump."

"And if we don't?"

"Then we'll toss you on the Amethyst Sea," said Nagisa, who did an excellent job at sounding threatening when she wanted to. "How well can you swim?"

Reluctantly, they began to nod. They didn't even require that much persuasion, thankfully. Sometimes, the enemies of the Precure would get too comfortable with their mercy, and think they were untouchable. The Selfish knew better; no wonder, considering they spent an entire year in a constant battle against the Precure in Trump. Reika seriously doubted that all the Cures let their enemies go.

Reika warned Kengo of the change in their plans, that they would go with the Selfish during the rest of the trip. He warned them not to be too trusting of the Selfish Kingdom, but Reika had no such intentions. She wished Kengo a safe travel home, and to Last Light, and they parted ways.

The ship of the Selfish was very old, and already falling into disrepair. The planks on the deck were cracking, and some of the sails were full of holes. The craft stank, too, and though Reika did her best to ignore it, the smell made her sick.

The rest of the journey was calm, despite the unpleasant stares Reika got from the Selfish. They were just planning to betray her, she knew. As soon as they reached the docks, they would call the other soldiers. Reika expected nothing else. They had treason in their eyes, and the only reason they didn't stab Reika in the back was because she had commanded them to surrender their weapons to the Amethyst Sea.

They moved slowly, with sails instead of turbines, but that was no cause for complaint. The sun had not even set when they reached the docks and they disembarked at last, still seasick. Reika didn't even have the time to set foot on land before she heard the Selfish on the ship scream for help.

Reika began to run; the docks were narrow, most of their space filled with abandoned empty crates and netting. She kept bumping on them as she made her way out, with Nozomi right next to her. The others lagged behind slightly, but their footsteps were never too far. When she looked back, she saw that even Mana was keeping up. She couldn't see any Selfish soldiers, so perhaps the warning wasn't given much attention, but she kept running until she reached the streets of Trump, exactly like Mana had described them, only dirtier, uglier. They only stopped running when they reached a small, narrow alleyway, well-hidden between completely non-descript houses. Reddish mud gathered in lumps on the ground, a sign that it had rained quite recently here as well.

"Whew," Nozomi said, pausing to catch her breath. "Do you think they're looking for us?"

"Probably," said Iona. "This wasn't very discreet on our part…"

"I don't think there was a better way," said Reika. Honoka nodded; if she had come up with something smarter than Beauty, she surely would have said it, so Reika guessed that her idea had been clever enough.

"Once we're deeper into the city, we'll be really hard to find," said Mana. "Of course, the Precure we're looking for will be hard to find too… It might take a while."

"We don't know how long we have," said Honoka. "We're really depending on the Bomber Girls to hinder Regina."

"Well, they've always been a reliable team," said Nagisa. "We should have a fair amount of time."

"Safer to assume we don't," Reika cautioned them. "I think we ought to try and cover as much ground as possible by splitting up. We'll meet up here once two hours have passed. Now, as to how we split up… Three groups of two? Does that sound good?"

"Two groups of three is probably better," said Honoka. "That way, if one is caught by surprise by, say, a Jikochuu, there will be more than a single person to react."

"That'll slow us down, though…"

"Better to slow down than to compromise everything," said Honoka. Reika had to agree, though it did not please her at all. "Nagisa and Mana, with me?"

The two nodded, and soon the trio was leaving. Nozomi was smiling, as she always did, and even Iona wasn't frowning this time. Progress.

"Guess it's the three of us again," said Nozomi before Glasan made a grumpy face and a throaty sound. "Sorry. The three of us who are Precure, and our beloved fairy."

"Much better," said Glasan.

"Let's get going," Iona sighed.

None of the three was too happy with this tedious job, but Iona expressed her annoyance constantly. She was always sighing, groaning, and it was a wonder that no one heard them.

The layout of Trump was confusing, with streets that made circles and led nowhere, paths covered in grime that took them to stone walls blocking their way. All buildings were too close together, built in disarray, and many of them leaned slightly forwards, almost touching the houses on the other side of the street. This was evidently the poorer area of Trump; whenever Reika examined a house she passed by, she could see that each different floor had been built with a different material. Bricks, then cracked stone, then wood.

Occasionally they saw people in the streets, but they never paid the Precure any mind. They were citizens of Trump, trying to survive, robbing the few stores still open, or fighting among themselves for valuables. They weren't too many, as thankfully, most of them kept to their own homes. When Reika looked up to the windows, she could see eyes staring down on her. Could she trust those eyes? They could very well alert the Selfish to their presence.

Then again, the Selfish Kingdom had obviously not been kind to them. The city was falling apart, and though the Selfish might have pillaged the riches of Trump, everyone else was left with the scraps. The people of Trump were known to be proud and loyal. If things stayed like this, if the Selfish kept ignoring the growing poverty and famine, Reika didn't doubt that a rebellion could explode.

"There?" Nozomi pointed at a house where she thought she had seen something interesting, but when Reika looked through the window, she saw only emptiness. This happened again and again, and it always made Iona sigh, defying Reika's patience.

This was not going well at all. Trump was too big: this was just a single neighborhood of the city, but it was like a labyrinth, where each path branched into two more passages, and each of those led to two new roads. Reika decided to turn back before she got lost; she was paying attention to her surroundings and her route, but she was starting to get confused. Nozomi and Iona had already forgotten the way back, so it was up to Reika to find it.

With a bit of difficulty (and five dead ends), they found their way back to the cramped alley where they had begun. Heart, Black and White had not yet returned. Reika didn't know if she should be worried. Mana knew the layout of Trump, so she probably wouldn't get lost, but if they stumbled upon Selfish scouting the streets… As renowned as Black and White were, Honoka was known mostly for her academic achievements, and Nagisa for training many Cures who went on to achieve greatness. They were not as good fighters as they might have been years ago: when they accompanied Moonlight during the battle against Dune, they hadn't actually been all that helpful. Of course, their advice and tactics were valuable, but all that Honoka had achieved was getting wounded by Dark Precure.

Reika looked down, at the mud they walked upon. There were more footsteps than when they left. Were they being tracked, or had someone just chanced to pass by this alley, meaning no harm?

"There might be someone following us," she warned her two companions. The only response was laughter, coming from above. The rooftops.

"Very perceptive," a distant voice spoke out. Afterwards, a girl jumped off from the top of the roof, landing perfectly on the tip of her toes. Two others followed. Their hairs were bright pink, orange and blue, distinctly marking them as Precure, but Reika had never seen them before.

"Are you-"

"Obviously," said the orange-haired one. "We are Precure, and who are you?"

"We are Precure too," said Nozomi. The three girls laughed.

"We are Precure too," the one dressed in blue mocked. "Do you believe them, Nasturtium?"

"Nope," she said, pulling away the orange hair that veiled half of her face. "I've never seen you. Never heard of you. You sure do look like Precure, but…"

"If you were from here, we'd be able to tell," the third one said. "But we don't recognize you, so if you are Precure, you are outsiders. Alas, no outsiders can enter Trump, so I'm afraid we can't trust you."

"You can!" Reika insisted. "We've come from the Phoenix Tower. We are here to rescue you, to take you to the Red Rose."

"Ha, right," Nasturtium laughed again. Reika found herself quickly getting annoyed by her. "Do you have a ship?"

"No," the plan was to take control of one on their way out, once they had enough Precure to overpower the Selfish guarding the docks, and enough to actually sail a ship, "but-"

"I'm thinking you're not trying to take us to the Phoenix Tower," she continued. "I'm thinking you're one of Marmo's spies. What do you think, Amethyst?"

"Marmo's spies always pretend to be Precure," the girl in blue answered. "We were tricked, once," she showed a huge scar on her arm, "and we paid a harsh price for it. I was lucky to survive," suddenly she jumped close to Reika, shaking with anger. "I really don't like Marmo's spies. I will not trust you again."

They will kill us, Reika realized. How terrible were things in this city to make the Precure so paranoid? Reika's eyes met Amethyst's, defiant. The girl was pretty big, almost a full head taller than Reika. She was probably just as strong as she was imposing. Reika got ready to call forth her weapon, turning her face sideways to see her companions, who just waited for her signal to attack.

"Wait!" Reika forgot everything that was going on when she heard that voice. That voice… She knew this voice nearly as well as her own. Akane. Akane was here!

"What is it, Sunny?" Nasturtium asked, but Reika just shoved her away before Akane could even answer.

She ran to her friend, her eyes full of disbelief. Mana, Nagisa and Honoka stood by her side, but all that Reika cared about was Akane herself. The two of them gave each other a long, tight hug, so tight that it almost hurt Reika.

"Of all the places…" Akane said. She refused to cry, but Reika could see the tears begin to pour down. "I wouldn't even imagine to find you here."

"Akane, dear… I can't even conceive how you found your way into Trump, but I'm so thankful that we have managed to find each other. I was… I feared…"

"I know," said Akane. "I wasn't afraid, not for a single moment. Well, not for you."

"I guess you're stronger than I was, then," said Reika. She did trust her companions, but she feared for their safety out of love. "What do you mean, though, you were not afraid for me?"

"Ah, it's a complicated story," Akane saida. It probably wasn't very complicated, but Akane did have the tendency to trip on her own words when she was too excited. "And the others?"

"Yayoi is safe," it brought Reika immense joy to see Akane's smile when she heard that. "Nao, I do not know… And Miyuki, I-"

"Er… Actually, it's Miyuki that makes me afraid," Akane said. "She… Well, like I said, it's complicated. Will take some time to tell the story."

"And I'm sure you'll have the time once you tell your eager companions that were are Precure, and not spies."

Akane glared at the three Cures who had ambushed them. They didn't look at all apologetic.

"Don't blame them too much," Akane said. Things are hard around here. Our hideouts keep being found by the Selfish, so we're always on the move. Actually, it's a huge relief to see you, not just because you're alive… We really need help here."

"What do you mean?" Reika asked.

"We should go somewhere safer," said Akane. "Somewhere where we can talk in peace. I'll take you to the new hideout."

"Akane, is it safe?" Nasturtium asked.

"Yes," she said. "These girls are trustworthy. I'll vouch for them. If you don't like it, you can go-"

"Okay, okay! I really hope they'll turn out to be useful, though. We are really in need of help. There used to be thirty Cures on the southern half of the city. Now there aren't even twenty. And for each Cure we lose, the Selfish gain a Jikochuu."

The White Bridge of Trump went on forever, longer than Rikka could recall it ever being. Her hands were shaking as she held the reins of the Jikochuu pulling the wagon. The bridge hadn't gotten any longer, she told herself, it is only fear tricking me. Only fear…

She tried to keep the fear at bay, but it was impossible when she looked around and saw Selfish everywhere; dozens of them making their way across the bridge, and even more guards making sure no one suspicious got inside the city. Rikka knew she probably made for a very suspicious figure, what with her fidgety hands and sweaty brow.

Worse still was the fact that she carried Cure Moonlight on the back of the wagon. Most Cures were able to keep their identity relatively unknown to the general public, but Yuri, of course, couldn't, not only because of her great deeds, but also because it was her own father who led the Desert Apostles and who made the arrangements for the return of Dune. Anonymity was a privilege Yuri had been robbed of. As well as many others.

Soon Rikka was approaching the checkpoint in the middle of the road; a fancy word for a a line of soldiers and palisades blocking the way into Trump. Rikka guided the wagon towards it, anxiously. She wondered what kind of question they might ask her so that they might identify her. She hoped that the Selfish would get lazy and just let her get past them, but that didn't seem a likely prospect. Only the very worst Selfish would ever be so incompetent.

A man showed his palm to Rikka, commanding her to stop. She held the Jikochuu back, though the rebellious beast almost crashed into the guards at the checkpoint. A man lazily stepped up towards her, adjusting the beret on top of his hat.

"What business do you have here?" He asked in a tone that Rikka did not approve of. He did not want to be here. Maybe that was a good sign. Maybe that meant he would just let her inside with no trouble.

Or maybe it would make him bitter and eager to screw her over. Rikka knew she had to be mindful of her words.

"I'm back from the Land of Toys," said Rikka.

"Oh, the war is over? Where's everyone else?"

"I…" What was the right thing to say here? She had to make a guess. "I'm gonna be honest and say that I was the first to leave. The princess insisted on getting all the soldiers and making a speech, you know? And it takes a long time to gather such a big army, but man, she really wanted to make that speech! And I just snuck out of camp and came back home."

"Can't blame you for that," he answered, and Rikka knew she had chosen right. "Trump is kind of a mess right now, what with all the Precure inside running wild, but I spend most of my time in the White Bridge, and it's an effortless job to defend this place, just the way I like it," he let out an exaggerated yawn.

Rikka's heart was beating fast. Precure inside Trump? How many? Which ones? Was Makoto there? Was Alice? She almost asked the man right there, but controlled herself. She had a mission, too, and it wasn't finding other Precure. If she wasted too much time, she might end up trapped inside Trump. But if her friends were there…

"Ha, I envy you," Rikka said. "This bridge is much nicer indeed. Doesn't even look like it's thousands of years old."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, uninterested. "Listen, I'm gonna have to check your wagon. What have you got in there?"

"J-Just medical supplies, but wait-"

He didn't wait. He walked towards the back of the wagon, and Rikka followed with hastened steps. He would see Yuri, he would recognize her as Cure Moonlight, and he would alert everyone…

"Wait," she insisted, "there's some dangerous stuff in there, let me-"

By then he was already looking inside. He stared blankly at the contents of the wagon, and when Rikka finally reached him, she saw him only investigating the crates of medicine inside. He paid no attention to the short-haired girl next to them.

"You're her assistant?" He asked Yuri without even looking at her. He was too busy reading the label of a small purple vial.

"Actually she's mine," Yuri answered. Her hair ended just halfway down her neck, and her distinctively asymmetrical bangs were now almost perfectly proportional. If Rikka was not so familiar with Yuri's face, she would not have recognized her at first. "She drove me around, wherever I wanted. So I guess I'm the boss!"

The Selfish began to laugh. Yuri only winked at Rikka, whose chest felt lighten up, and could breathe again. Once the Selfish was content and walked away, Rikka let out a loud sigh. Yuri lifted a hand, and showed a scissor. No wonder she was so esteemed by the Red Rose: she wasn't only a superb fighter, she was quick-thinking. Rikka was thankful for her companion.

She took her seat again, and grabbed the reins. It took a few moments for the Jikochuu to move, but soon they were past the checkpoint's barricades, and headed to the arch of Trump.

In better days, even the White Bridge was a center of commerce, with countless stalls set up outside the arch, past the checkpoint. Merchants sold trinkets as souvenirs, as well as travelling supplies for those who forgot them, and only noticed it far too late, when they were already leaving the city. The White Bridge was one of the most famous of the many tourist attractions of Trump.

The bridge was white as bone, tainted only by trails of dirt left by wagons. Clearly the Selfish saw no point in wasting time cleaning it, so the White Bridge was not as beautiful as it had been once. Rikka shuddered when she thought of the other bridges inside the city. Those were probably even worse.

The White Bridge was the greatest and most known of the Seven Bridges of Trump, but the six inside the city were quite grandiose too. Each one connected two districts of the city together, and each was guarded by two fortresses, one on each side. By now they had probably fallen into disrepair.

Rikka tried to not let it bother her too much. It was too be expected from the Selfish. She kept riding, until she could see the arch of Trump, marking the entrance into the city. The royal banners that used to hang there were replaced by the black Psyche of the Selfish. It made Rikka's blood boil. Trump had its flaws, but it was a proud and great city, as well as her home for many years. To see it in the hands of the Selfish made even Rikka lose her calm.

She guided the Jikochuu through the city streets she knew so well. They seemed more cramped now, and dirtier, too. Empty crates were scattered all over, as well as trash. In the middle of the road, Rikka saw what she presumed was vomit, stale and stinking. The city would not last long while the Selfish held it.

Rikka looked up to try and see if she could catch a glance of the Selfish Kingdom, but he was still too distant, in the royal district of trump, to the north, where all the noble families kept their manors, and where, of course, the royal palace stood tall, above everything. Everything but the Selfish King himself, and the dreadfully long shadow he cast.

She stopped the cart by an old bakery that she often visited. It had been ransacked long ago, and she could see that the inside was covered in dust. The bakery was very far from her home, but she had to move from one side of Trump to the other for her lessons, so she would always stop by and buy those delicious croissants filled with creamy cheese… Yes, she could still remember that. She remembered when she convinced Makoto to try them out, even though she was hesitant, and she remembered how Makoto smiled as she discovered that the taste was indeed incredible.

The Selfish could not take away her memories, but they could destroy everything and everyone that had made those memories wonderful in the first place, so what was the point? She found herself wishing that Aguri was telling the truth about everything. Aguri hated the Selfish too. If Aguri was willing to lead her Blue Rose against the Selfish, Rikka had half a mind to follow her. With the Blue Rose, she could reclaim her home, and drive the Selfish away. Maybe if Aguri killed Regina (and Rikka found herself truly hoping that she would), maybe she could be the right person to take back Trump. Then again, Regina was coming back, that Selfish lady had said… Rikka did not know what to think. She could not decide if she should hope again. She could not bear to have her hopes crushed again.

She got out of the wagon, and met with Yuri again. Now that they were inside Trump and had a better grasp of the situation in the city, she figured it was a better time to discuss their plan.

Rikka climbed up the wagon, but could find no place to sit upon comfortably. She could see Yuri's hair lying on the floor, next to a scissor.

"The royal palace is still distant," said Rikka. "But we should be able to get there easily. If any Selfish ask, I'll tell them we're the princess' new medics."

"Will they believe it?"

"We just have to sound convincing enough," and hope that they didn't stumble upon any of the smarter Selfish. If Bel or Goma had been in charge of the White Bridge, the guards would have been extremely strict. "The quickest way to the palace is through the Bridge of Hearts," that was the most important of the city's bridges, as it allowed passage through the river that cut the city in two. "We'll pass by the Swordspire then, and there's a shortcut we can take that'll lead us to the Bridge of Diamonds, and then to the royal district."

"I presume that once we're inside the palace things will get more difficult."

"Yeah," she nodded. That much was obvious. "We won't be allowed to just go wherever we want to, so we'll probably have to sneak around."

Aguri had at least told them where the treasure chamber was hidden. Behind a broom closet. Rikka wondered how many were there in such a large palace. Aguri had given her some directions, but those weren't actually all that helpful. Still, it was all they had.

"And fight our way out, if we are found," said Yuri. "And we'll probably be found."

"There is a distinct possibility," said Rikka. She didn't want to say it was certain. Maybe they'd be able to avoid any Selfish. Maybe… "Oh, dear…"

"What is it?"

"I just realized. The palace is right next to the Selfish King. We'll be so close to him…"

"Are you scared?"

"Of course I am!" Rikka hoped Yuri wasn't mocking her. Moonlight was known for her fearlessness, but Diamond had no such reputation to maintain. "He might be mostly petrified, thanks to Ange, but still…"

"He's so big, and terrifying!" Raquel said what Rikka was merely thinking.

"Let's be quick, then," said Yuri. Rikka nodded again, and laughed. Yes, that was a good plan. Be quick.

"Hey!" Said a voice that didn't belong to any of the three. Another Selfish soldier approaching. Raquel hid himself behind Yuri. The man held a war banner with the sigil of the Selfish, and his face was full of contempt. "What do you think you're doing there?"

"W-We're going to the palace, obviously!" Rikka said, and probably did not sound as convincing this time. "The princess has-"

"The princess is not here," the man said. "Bel is in charge of things now. Why the hell are you going to the palace? You're medics, right?"

"Evidently."

"Well, you're needed elsewhere. You're coming south with us."

"What the hell is there in the south?" Rikka asked. Perhaps she hadn't actually quite understood the situation in Trump.

"The Precure and their sympathizers are infesting the docks and market districts. We just found out their location, though, so we're gonna draw them out of their hole, and be done with this whole mess."

"The Precure…" So she was right. They were still fighting. She felt so proud, even though it had nothing to do with her. Of course they were still defending Trump, of course they were still fighting. That was the the Precure did.

But that was not her mission. She was there to get the Crown. Nothing more.

"Are you sure you need me?"

"Stop trying to run away, coward," he sure seemed proud of his twisted little kingdom. It was rare to see loyalty among the Selfish. "We don't have enough medics, and General Ira is leading the attack alongside Bel. Ira is… Hasty. There will be many wounded. So we'll need you."

"Fine," there was no arguing now. She just had to make sure they didn't waste much time. This battle had to come to an end quickly, so that she would be able to leave with no great difficulty, before Regina arrived.

"Hey, girl," the man said, smiling. Rikka did not like that smile at all; it was cruel, full of scorn. "Have you ever seen a Precure's Psyche leave her body, before becoming a Jikochuu? It's quite the spectacle, you know? I mean, assuming we don't just kill them. I think we will. Maybe I'll get to cut off a Precure's head and bring it home, huh?"

Rikka grinned in silent defiance.

"Maybe," she said, but she thought: "It's your empty head that they'll cut off, little fool."

And soon she set out, following the rest of the soldiers and the Jikochuu that filled the streets. They sang war songs without any notion of tune, melody, or even saying the right words. They were so many. The sight of all these familiar streets filled with Selfish robbed her of the little confidence she had regained when she heard that there were still Precure in Trump.

She could not turn back now, though. She had to see this to the end. A quick end, hopefully. She looked around, at the façades of countless shops she remembered, houses she always passed by. They were all dirty now, and breaking down. Rikka tried to imagine them clean again, she tried to imagine the city the way it was, but she knew that was just a dream. Too much had been lost, and too many had died. The royal family was gone, too. Trump would never go back to what it had been, once, no matter how hard Rikka tried. Even Mana was gone too, entombed by the waves. But even so, despite all that was lost, Trump was still worth saving. It was still home, broken as it was.

Chapter Text

As Akane guided the others to the Precures' hideout, she warned them that the place was rather humble, to say the least, but when she opened the door to the house they were using, it was even worse than Reika feared. The place was large enough, spacious and with many rooms, but the paint on the walls was peeling off, and the floor seemed to scream with each step she took. When Reika rested her hand for a second on a door handle, the entire door promptly collapsed on her.

"Humble is a very generous word to use for this place," Reika said. She touched the wall, and when she looked at her palm, it was grey with dust. "I'd have imagined you would at least clean up your hideout."

"Can't," said Akane. "No time to clean when we can only spend a few days on each place before leaving. This house is actually not that bad, you know? Plenty of space so we don't have to keep bumping on each other. The owner inherited this house from her parents, but she could not maintain such a big property with her funds, so she just abandoned it. And now she offered it to us."

"That's so… Kind?"

"It's not impressive, yeah," said Akane. "But I'm glad that the people of Trump are helping us in any way they can, you know? It's a huge relief not to have to care about shelter or food. And of course the townsfolk always watch out for Selfish in the streets, and word always reaches us eventually, so we're usually safe if we're cautious enough."

"Are you being cautious enough?" Reika asked. Those other Cures had mentioned that many of them had been lost already.

"We try," she sounded sad. "There was this girl, Makoto Kenzaki… She was-"

"Makoto?" Mana interrupted her, dashing towards Akane. When she reached her, she was already panting. Reika wondered if it was safe for her to stay in such a dusty place. "Makoto Kenzaki, Cure Sword?" Akane nodded, and tried to answer, but Mana kept talking. "Is she alive? Is she well? Do you know her?"

"She…" Akane had an awkward look on her face. She had no good news to offer on this matter. "She's probably… The Selfish attacked us a while ago, and we only managed to escape unscathed because Cure Sword stood behind so we could have enough time to run. By now she has either been killed, or, if she's unfortunate enough, taken to the Swordspire."

"Oh," that name made Mana shiver. "I don't want her to be dead, but… I don't want the Selfish to torture her either. Makoto…"

"For what it's worth," Akane said, trying to sound cheerful, and failing miserably at it, "Makoto discovered that Marie Ange is still alive. She's being held captive in the Swordspire, and-"

"Oh, Makopi…" Mana's sadness shifted into worry almost instantly. "She let herself be captured. I know it. For her princess, she would do it."

"That's madness," said Reika. "To let yourself be captured so that you can break someone free of their prison is far too great a risk. When you have so few Precure, you can't take a risk like that."

"She never cared about the risks when it came to defending Marie Ange," Mana explained. "She always felt guilty for not being with the princess when she fought the Selfish King. If she had the smallest chance of saving Ange, Makoto would definitely take it, and not care about the cost."

Reika wondered if all of Mana's friends were just as extreme in their actions as she was. Reika understood duty, devotion and bravery, but to not care about the cost at all, about your own life, and the lives of others? That struck her as more foolish than praiseworthy, just as Mana's sick sacrificial impulses.

"Reika," whenever Akane spoke with seriousness, Reika knew that she meant it. "We really need to talk. Do you trust the girls that have come with you?"

"I do," maybe not with my life, but I trust them.

"Good," she said. "Then I need to talk to you all. We have lots of things we need to say, and not much time."

Reika agreed, though perhaps they had different reasons for their haste. Reika because of the threat of Regina's return, Akane because of the Selfish seeking them out. There was no doubt, however, that they needed to get out of here fast.

The seven Cures gathered behind closed doors, in what had once been a bedroom. The mattress was torn to pieces now, and the furniture left behind had become a feast for the termites. A table was left behind covered in dusty, torn cashmere. Reika found it more dangerous that the foundations of the house might crumble, bringing the roof down on their heads than the Selfish burning it down. A puddle of red water made it evident that the ceiling leaked constantly.

"Well," Akane said, "as much as I'm glad to see you here, I gotta know… Why? What are you all doing here?"

"We heard of you," said Nozomi, "from a…"

"From an informant of sorts," it would take too long to explain the situation with Eas. "We heard that there were dozens of Precure trapped inside Trump, and we decided our next course of action was to bring you back to safety."

"There has never been such an ambitious rescue since Cure Strawberry saved all the Precure initiates held hostage at the Red Abyss," Honoka said. Reika wondered if she had any insight to share or if she just found the fact interesting.

"You said safety," Akane ignored White. "What's that? Is the Phoenix Tower still standing?"

"Of course it is!" Said Nozomi, almost as if Akane had doubted her own virtue. "The Phoenix Tower would not fall so easily!"

"Well, I was afraid it had," said Akane, glad to hear the news. "Morgenluft is in ruins. You were the only one who managed to escape."

"Has the Bad End Kingdom managed to restore Pierrot's life?" Reika asked. That was her greatest worry.

"Thankfully, no. At least they hadn't while I was still there. So I'm not sure, honestly. Oh, right, how I got here…" She said, anticipating Reika's next question. "Well, it wasn't just the Bad End Kingdom that attacked the capital. It was a joint attack, and a really well-coordinated one. It's not the way the Bad End Kingdom usually operates."

"But Nightmare does," said Nagisa. Nozomi nodded at that. "Verone was attacked mostly by the Dusk Zone, Dark Fall and Nightmare's troops, and it was Nightmare that really caused trouble. The Dusk Zone and Dark Fall actually started fighting each other! We would have driven them back if not for Nightmare."

"All the same," Akane continued, annoyed at being interrupted, "when me, Miyuki and Nao were captured, we were taken to the courtyard of Fabelpfalz to be distributed. That's the word they used. They had… Uses for us, they said. I've heard stories, you know? That it has always been the dream of Eternal's Director to own a Precure, for his collection. And I was given to Eternal. I was rescued by Makoto, but that was luck, and I don't know if Nao and Miyuki were afforded such luck."

"Do you know where they are?" Reika asked.

"Miyuki… Joker himself said he had a purpose for her, that she would be very useful to him. She kicked and screamed, and he said that he only needed her alive, not unhurt. And that he had a friend of Miyuki. He didn't say the name, and Miyuki had many friends, so I don't know much past that. And about Nao… I have no idea. Eternal took me before our enemies could decide what to do with her."

"Ah…" Nao…

"I'm sorry," said Akane. "I wish I had something happy to say, I really do. All I know is that Nao is strong, and brave! I'm sure she's doing her best right now to fight back!"

That's exactly what Reika feared. Nao would not take orders from the enemies of the Precure, never… Not unless her family was involved. If so, Reika had no idea what Nao could do. And if her captors knew that, then Reika had no doubt that they would hurt Nao's family. Her siblings had already been at a great risk at the hands of the Bad End Kingdom, almost killed by Majorina, and Nao hadn't recovered from it the last time Reika had seen her. She still blamed herself. This made Reika worry even more than before.

"Ah, well," Reika changed the subject. "We'll… We'll fix things. Yes. We must. At least Yayoi is safe, and we now know where Miyuki is. And we'll save her. We'll save our homeland, too. And soon we'll all be together again."

"Those are my hopes as well," said Akane.

"We'll make them come true. We just have to take you to the Phoenix Tower, you and all the Cures here. And light a Starlight Flame while we're here."

"That's… A bit too ambitious, isn't it?" Akane asked.

"Well," said Mana, "I know where the Starlight Flame is, at least, and Reika has lit one before!"

"Me and Nozomi," she corrected. It made Nozomi smile.

"It's not impossible," said Akane. "The Starlight Flame is atop the royal palace, in the northern side of Trump, past the Bridge of Hearts. Which is where I wanted to get at."

"What's the matter now?" Iona asked.

"The Cures of Trump are rather divided. Not because we wanted to. Half of us got stuck in the north of Trump. The other half is here, in the south, still fighting, but the rest… Well, from what we've last heard, they've been pushed back into an old neighborhood that's been surrounded by Selfish soldiers. The Cures have no way out, but the Selfish won't just finish them off. No, that would just get hundreds of soldiers killed for no reason, and they can't afford losing that many of their agents. So, instead, they are letting the Precure there starve."

"That's awful!" Said Mana. She didn't find it awful when she was the one starving, Reika thought. "Something this cruel has to be the work of Bel, or Goma."

"Both, actually," said Akane. "They're in control of Trump now that Regina is gone. Goma controls the north, Bel the south. Goma was recently sighted helping Bel search for the Precure here, but she has returned to the north after Cure Sword was captured, and relinquished command to Ira. Once they've dealt with the Precure threat, I bet Goma and Bel will just start fighting each other, and the winner will probably even stand against their princess… It's just treachery here."

"Trump has bled enough already," said Mana. "I can barely recognize the city now. If the Selfish are at each other's throats…"

"I know," said Akane. "That's why… That's why I don't want to leave Trump before we've dealt with that. If all the Precure just leave, then the people of the city will be helpless."

"You're right," said Reika, but she didn't like this at all. She couldn't just let Trump be devastated in a civil war, but staying here long enough to deal with the Selfish was suicide. Regina was coming, and with her, a great army. "So our plan is to find a way to connect the southern Cures with the ones trapped in the north."

"Right," said Akane. "My idea was to liberate the Bridge of Hearts, but…"

"But?"

"I have no clue how to do it. The Bridge of Hearts is the link between us and the rest of the Cures, and once we are there to reinforce them and bring them supplies, the Selfish won't be able to contain them anymore. But the Bridge of Hearts is very well-guarded."

"We'll think of something," said Honoka. Her wits would really come in handy right now, so Reika was glad to have her with them. "And we have about twenty Cures here, right? By Precure standards, that's an army!"

"That's…" Akane was sweating. It sounded like things were about to get even worse. "We do have twenty Cures, but that does not mean there are twenty Cures I would rely on. I wouldn't trust them with my life, and- Ah, honestly, I wouldn't trust them to take care of a fish. Look, I know it's not a light thing to accuse someone of this, but I'm almost one hundred percent sure that there's a traitor in our midst."

"A traitor?" Nozomi almost yelled. "Who?"

"If I knew who, then I would have taken care of things already," she answered. "I have no clue. Umbra was a spy, so she was my first guess, but she disappeared a while ago."

"Maybe she disappeared to join the Selfish with all the information she's gotten?" Iona asked.

"Nope," said Akane. "She disappeared a while ago, so the intel she has is outdated now, but the Selfish still know our every move. It is definitely behind there right now," she pointed at the closed door.

"We'll need to identify this traitor before we do anything," said Nagisa. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Once we join with the Cures past the Bridge of Hearts, we'll be strong enough to take on every Selfish in this city, but before that… Before that we'll be at risk."

"How do we identify them, though?" Nozomi asked. "They won't admit it, I'm sure."

"I know how," said Reika thinking of something. It wasn't a very elegant solution, but it was passable, and the best thing she could think of in such a short time. "Do they need to know the truth?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm saying, if we know there's a traitor among us, why are we still telling the truth? There's only a single truth, but a dozen little lies."

"I did think of that, but the thing is, this trap will take a while to be sprung, won't it? By the time we figure out the identity of the traitor, the Selfish will be here!"

"No, Akane, we don't need to identify this traitor," that was the beauty of her plan, "we don't even need to deal with her. Tell me, what guarantee do we have that there's a single traitor? You've seen the situation of Trump better than any of us here. You know it's grim out there. And, judging from the girls that ambushed us earlier, you don't seem to have the best companions."

"More than one traitor!" Said Honoka. "It does seem obvious now that you mention it. Why would a single Cure have the idea to sell you out? So if we give each of the other Cures here a lie, the traitors will feed it to the Selfish, but they'll be contradicting each other. And once the Selfish realize it, they'll stop trusting the traitors. Why, they might even get rid of them. And we don't even have to get our hands dirty. Oh, and then we can, perhaps, give the Selfish the truth, too, via a false informant? But by then the Selfish won't be trusting traitors anymore, so they'll think the truth is a lie, and-"

"Honoka," Nagisa put a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. Honoka was almost shouting. "You are getting a little too excited over this."

"Am I? I'm sorry, it's just that this actually solves so many of our problems all at once, if we can figure out good enough lies. That was very clever, Reika!"

"T-Thank you," Reika hadn't actually considered that the Selfish might kill the traitors as punishment. She wasn't actually happy about that prospect.

"However," Honoka put a finger on her chin, eyes staring thoughtfully at nothing, "I think there is a possibility you've ignored."

"What is it?"

"Tell me, Akane… Do the citizens of Trump have a way to communicate with each other, to send messages far away?"

"Er, they do… In fact, they are always helping us with that, warning us of Selfish movement we might have missed. You've seen how cramped the city is. It's easy to just open a window and give your neighbor a message, or a note. But surely you can't be insinuating-"

"That's exactly what I'm insinuating," said Honoka. "Like Reika said, things are grim out there. The Precure are doing rather well, but that's because we can actually defend ourselves. As for the rest of Trump… They're starving and dehydrated. Trump's famous fountains have all dried out. Even its rivers are stagnant, little more than streams of foul water and human waste. They have plenty of reason to help the Selfish, especially if there is, perhaps, a reward involved."

"So the traitor might not even be one of us?" Asked Mana.

"Exactly. If they can relay their knowledge so quickly, and if they can see your every movement from their windows… Then there is a chance that they are the one selling you to the Selfish."

"I… Really hadn't considered that," said Reika. If Honoka were right, then spreading lies among the Precure would only lead to distrust and confusion. "Now I don't know what the right move is. H-Honoka?" Reika did not want to be the one to choose. She and her old teammates had agreed that Miyuki's decisions were final, and Reika had always been content to have her position as an advisor, but now all eyes were on her, asking her to choose, to lead, and she did not want it. Nagisa and Honoka were the most experienced here. They should be the ones to decide.

"Your idea is good," she said, "if it works out. If it does not pay off, if the trap is in vain… You've seen the way those three Cures were almost attacking you. They don't trust you, or any of us. And they will learn that we have lied to them. Once they begin talking among themselves, they will know of our misdirection. If your trap does us no good, they could turn against us. You are aware of that, aren't you?"

"I am," said Reika, and that was what terrified her. The lie would not stand for long; Reika didn't even know if it could stand long enough. When the idea popped in her mind, it seemed so brilliant, but quickly she was learning that it was still flawed. But she had no time to think of anything else. "Nagisa? What do you think?"

"I don't quite agree with Honoka, actually," now this is new. "I think the lie might hold. Do these girls trust each other?" She turned to Akane. "Do you think they would share their knowledge with one another?"

"I… I can't say for sure. Cure Radiance has a loose tongue, but the others keep to themselves, mostly… Many of the Cures that went out to scout have just disappeared, no doubt captured by the Selfish, so there's some serious paranoia here… But I might be wrong. Maybe I'm the one they distrust, and they're playing me for a fool. I have no way of being sure."

"It is a frail lie," Reika admitted, "so even though these girls don't share much with each other, everything can fall apart easily. Nozomi? Mana? Iona?"

"You and Honoka are smarter than I am," said Iona. "I think it's risky, and the plot could easily blow up on our faces… Actually, I'm almost certain it will do exactly that. But can we just do nothing while there might be traitors here? Maybe it's better to lose the support of our fellow Cures than end up ambushed by a hundred Jikochuu."

"Can we get past the Bridge of Hearts without them?" Mana asked. "It's not impossible, but it's almost definitely not doable without most of us dying. And even if we do get past the Bridge all alive, then what? Can we free the rest of the Cures all by ourselves? Rescue Makoto from the Sworspire?" That hadn't been part of the plan, Reika thought. She almost said it, but decided against it. "Get to the palace? There might be little love between us and the Cures of Trump, but we need them. So I don't think this is a smart idea."

"We'll never decide like this," said Nozomi. "We have to do something, and even if it turns out to be a wrong move, we'll have to live with it. Reika, I trust you. We all trust you, I would hope. This was your idea, and none of us have thought of anything better. I say we go for it. We're in a city held by thousands of our bitter enemies, and no one here has any reason to trust us or help us. Everything can go wrong. It'd be surprising if nothing did! We can't let that stop us. If we hesitate whenever there's a chance of us screwing up, then we'll never do anything, because in case you haven't noticed, the deck is stacked against us," she took Reika's hands, and grinned a smile full of trust. They had been through so much already, Reika realized. "Whatever you choose, we'll do it. Where you lead, Reika, I'll follow. Because I trust you!"

"Nozomi… Thank you," the path was clear now, even if Reika did not like it. "Let's do it, then. And let's hope we're as smart as we think we are, and aren't walking straight into our deaths."

Once, Alice reflected as she looked outside the helicopter's window, the Amethyst Sea had been like a great mirror, but now its red devoured all colors but black, making shadows out of what would have been reflections.

Rosetta kept looking back, always checking if the mirrors were properly restrained and unbroken. If something happened to them, Alice knew they would be stuck in Trump without a viable way out, and she doubted the Selfish would be willing to forgive her and Dark Aqua once they caught them with an ancestral treasure of the Precure in hands.

"I see Trump now," Alice pointed at the growing dot in the horizon. With her other hand she was petting the sleeping Lance.

"Right," the false Aqua said. Of all of Shadow's creations, Alice thought her the most dangerous. The falses Rouge and Lemonade were violent and snappy, but careless and impulsive, and Dark Mint spent much of her time inside the green mirror, with the real Komachi, and her fellow reflections were worried she might end up learning something as preposterous as kindness. But Dark Aqua was cold, and everything had led Alice to believe that she had gotten similar intelligence to the girl she imitated. "Shall we review the plan?"

"I know the plan," Dark Aqua treated everyone but herself as an idiot. Even her master, sometimes, but at least when she spoke to Shadow she had the decency to be subtle. "Pretend to give them two magic mirrors, but one of them is ordinary. We keep the one magic mirror where we can reach it easily, the other girls come through it, we get the Crown, and we come back. I know it."

"Good. It'll be quick, in theory, but we'll still need the others' assistance to overpower the guards in the royal palace. We don't know exactly how many we'll face. But once we land in Trump, we'll be escorted right to the royal palace to do business with Lust."

"Lust?" Alice had heard of him, and what she heard wasn't good. "I would have expected someone else."

"Lust considers himself a connoisseur of the arts and all things beautiful," she said as if she was explaining it to a child. "Our pretense is to exchange the pair of mirrors for paintings and tapestries. So he'll be the one we'll deal with."

"Can we trust him not to just cut open our throats and take the mirrors?"

"Don't be stupid. The Selfish are too moronic to be trusted. They are primitive and irrational. Even their city must be falling apart by now. Of course he'll try to cut open our throats. But he's incompetent, and a terrible fighter, and he surrounds himself not with soldiers, but with sycophants. By the time it takes for him to reach us, we can butcher his guard and show him that it would not be wise to cross us."

"Right," Alice said, and turned away to her side. She was dangerous. "I don't think murder is the best way for us to be allowed in, but I won't question you."

"Of course you won't. I'm only speaking in hypotheticals. If Lust has any sort of sense, he'll try to poison us instead. Don't eat anything he offers. Don't let him touch you in any way. And be prepared. The Selfish will certainly try to kill us. We are not among friends. I said our job would be quick and simple, not easy."

Alice nodded, still avoiding Aqua's dark eyes. Something about them filled her with concern, and with fear.

When Trump revealed itself, unendingly vast, Alice felt her chest hurt. Once, she had loved this city, and called it home. And now, everything that made her love it was gone. Mana was dead, and Rikka, and the entire royal family had been extinguished. And Makoto… Her death had been hideous, but that was not the most painful thing. What hurt was knowing that she could have lived, just as Alice did. If she had been captured, Kawarino could have saved her. She didn't have to die.

Even from afar, the city stank. Smoke was rising high, not from chimneys but from countless fires spread all over Trump. Some of the larger buildings had collapsed, though Alice could not identify them. The royal palace was likely in a similarly sorry state. Alice couldn't even muster the energy to be angered at that. She just didn't care anymore; she did this only for the girls held hostage by Nightmare. Continental. Sunset. Gonna and Pantaloni. There were others, too, but she never learned their names. They had promised to fight back, at first. But now Alice didn't really know what there even was left to fight for.

And then they passed under the shadow of the Selfish King. He was still too distant to be seen, but the sun threw his shadow across countless miles, leaving almost half of Trump in the dark. As the red sun swam across the sky, the shadow of the Selfish King shifted with it, spreading its darkness.

Even now, however, Alice recognized Trump, even in its state of decay. She had seen it from above before, though then the sun was still shining without hatred. Everything that had made it a beautiful sight was gone, now.

They landed a fair distance away from the palace. A small helipad had been set up not too far from the Bridge of Hearts, one of the sole exceptions to Trump's prohibition of modern vehicles. In theory, it existed so that the royal family could be able to escape Trump with any reasonable speed, but even so it was too far from the palace to be useful in a hurry. It was expected that if an attacker tried to destroy Trump, they would come from the outside, but the Selfish were already inside Trump, so there was no way to escape. Not that Marie Ange ever really considered the possibility of running away.

Dark Aqua helped Alice get down from the helicopter, in what was either a rare display of kindness or, more likely, an attempt to guarantee that Alice would not trip and fall, causing them both embarrassment. Aqua handed her one of the mirrors, and Alice held it with great care.

The helipad was in the middle of a dozen tall, non-descript buildings. There was not much free space in Trump, so they had to make do with what little they had.

A dozen of soldiers awaited them, all of them wearing the same uniforms, all of their outfits exactly the same save for different stains on the fabric. Their faces were all unmemorable, and they looked as if they did not want to be there. They were all cramped together, as there was not much space to move around in Trump's narrow paths.

"Welcome," said one of them after a long pause, after realizing that no one else was willing to greet the two. Alice awaited for him to say something else, but he remained quiet, so she stepped closer, Dark Aqua by her side.

"What kind of reception is this?" Dark Aqua complained. "Where's Lust? It was agreed that he would meet with us and take us to the palace for business."

The guards looked at one another awkwardly.

"General Lust is dead," one of them said at last. "General Bel took over his responsibilities."

"What?" Alice let out. She knew she should have let Dark Aqua speak, but she wanted to know who had killed Lust. She felt the frailest spark of hope knowing that it might have been the Precure. "What happened to Lust?"

"He was m-"

"It doesn't matter!" Dark Aqua interrupted. "You said Bel is in charge now. So be it. Where is he?"

"Away. Leading the mission to eliminate the remaining Precure in the southern side of Trump. We've managed to contain the resistance in the districts north of the Bridge of Hearts, but the south is unruly right now."

"What manner of insolence is this?" Dark Aqua lashed out. The guards gingerly stepped away from her. "Are we to do business with rabble such as yourself?"

By now Alice was beginning to suspect that the Selfish communicated among themselves via uncomfortable looks. They most definitely did not want to be there.

"Er, well…" One of them began, but did not finish.

"We've been told to escort you to somewhere safe, where you may wait for Bel to finish dealing with the Precure. You'll be comfortable there, we just ask for patience."

"Fine," Dark Aqua said. Though hidden by her feigned annoyance, Alice presumed she must be actually pleased by this turn of events. "Take us to the palace, then."

"I'm sorry, miss. Bel told us not to allow anyone into the palace. It's not that we don't trust you, but…" But that's exactly what you mean.

"This…" She was lost for words. "Not… Not the palace? But… Where, then?"

"There is a castle just past the Bridge of Hearts that's suitable," the Selfish continued, almost shaking, knowing all too well that these were not news Eternal would be happy about. "It's very safe, and it used to be held by a very prominent family, you'll-"

"It's fine," said Dark Aqua, almost sighing. "If there is no other way."

"There isn't. Bel's orders. While the princess is gone, we must listen to our commanders."

They followed the Selfish soldiers, watching their every movement. Dark Aqua said they were in danger here, even though the Selfish called themselves their friends, and Alice didn't doubt her. The guards were always watching them, too, their hands holding firmly on to their weapons. They didn't stand a chance against Rosetta and Dark Aqua, not these clearly inexperienced soldiers, but Alice did not want to have to hurt them. Too much blood had been spilled in this city already.

It was so dark, beneath the Selfish King's shadow. One could think it was night, if they didn't know better. As she looked around, Alice still saw people, but everyone she saw was so weak, so frail, and she wondered just how bad starvation was here. If the Selfish controlled the Trump Kingdom's countryside, they could easily bring food from the outside to the capital, but from the looks of it, they kept most of their resources to themselves, sharing very little with the populace.

Trump had always known poverty, that much was true, but it had never been a miserable city. Many people struggled, yes, but famine was non-existent, thanks to Marie Ange's work, and disease was uncommon, and yet now wherever Alice looked she saw people limping, coughing, their skins sickly pale. She wondered what they thought of their Selfish overlords, who dwelled in castles that they almost certainly didn't even bother taking care of. There were still Precure out there, fighting, but Alice had to wonder if, even if they won, there would still be anything left of Trump?

I should not think of this. There were more important concerns now. It was the Crown she had to worry about now, and how her task had suddenly gotten a great obstacle thrown on its way. When she heard that the Precure were still fighting the Selfish, that Lust had been killed by one, she had almost managed to care about Trump again, and she even thought that maybe she should help the Precure here, but now that she looked around, she knew that there was no way to save this city anymore. The Selfish had killed it. Alice knew there was no point in fighting for a dead thing. Continental. Sunset. Gonna and Pantaloni. They were alive. She wondered what Makoto would have thought about her if she knew these were her thoughts.

She would hate me. Mana and Rikka, too, even if not so much. All the Precure would hate me for what I'm doing. Those thoughts robbed her of the certainty that she was doing the right thing. She repeated the names of the Precure held by Nightmare, but could not convince herself. She wondered which of her choices was right, but she knew there was no right choice. She had to choose, though, and she had to choose soon. She had followed orders blindly since she heard of her friends' death, not caring about anything, but she wanted to care again. Yet both her choices were hurtful. She could leave those girls at Nightmare to die, by fighting for this empty shell of a city, or she could betray everything that the Precure stood for by giving the Eternal Golden Crown to those who would use it for vile purposes. It was said to hold knowledge of all things, whatever that meant. The tales about it were all contradictory, but they all agreed that it was too great a power to be given to someone who would harm others. So much power, she thought, in just a small crown, such a little thing, such a frail thing.

Such a frail thing…

One by one the Cures stepped into the improvised meeting room, and few were happy about it. Nagisa could see it in their eyes: they did not want to take Beauty's orders, but Akane had managed to convince them to listen to her, that she and Honoka had concocted a plan to unite the Cures of the southern Trump with the ones in the northern half.

A dozen candles had been lit all around, as the light from the outside was gone, swallowed by the shadow of the Selfish King. He was so distant, yet his shadow extended almost endlessly, as if trying to consume all of Trump. That was quite possibly the truth, Nagisa thought.

"Hello," a Cure said as she stepped inside. This one was named Nasturtium, Nagisa recalled. It was the name of a flower, Honoka had told her. Nasturtium was anything but. She was a girl of easy frowns and tears who was either terrified or suspicious. "Are you the new boss?"

There was mockery in her voice, Nagisa noticed. She wondered how Reika would react to that. Time and time again, during her years as a Precure, Nagisa had seen Cures disrespected by their subordinates doing nothing in return, and the message they sent was clear: they would tolerate disobedience and insolence. Reika was not really a leader, but this was her plan, so she was, in a way, in charge.

"Not your boss," Reika said, harshly. "But you will do as I say if you want to free Trump."

Nagisa smiled. She liked that answer.

"Now, I think we should begin," with an open hand, Reika invited Nasturtium to sit upon the chair in front of her, a floppy fauteuil with one leg shorter than the others. Rikka's desk wasn't much better, but at least her seat wasn't about to tumble over. The girl obeyed.

"W-What is it?" She asked. She sounded scared again, as she always did. Her moment of defiance was only that: a moment. "You've been summoning the Cures one by one for a… A meeting. I asked Amethyst about what you had said, but she refused to say it, so I thought-"

"I told her not to say it," Reika replied firmly. "She has her own part to play, but no one else must know. The Selfish must know absolutely nothing of this plan."

"Are you accusing us of having a traitor in our midst?"

"Well, that's undeniable," said Nagisa. "How else would the Selfish be able to find each hole you bury yourselves in?"

"N-Now, listen-"

"Calm down," said Reika. "We have a mission for you. Very important, too, so you must tell no one. Do you understand?"

"I… Alright," she said, resigned. "I just hope this is the best for us."

"I do believe it is. Now, we are going to the Bridge of Clubs," Honoka was the one who had thought of this lie. She was the one who made sure they had a different tale for each Precure, and that they all made sense, and were believable enough.

"Why?" Nasturtium asked, suspicious. "There's nothing of value there."

"It's a strong defensive position in a hard-to-reach area of Trump," said Reika. "Our long-term goal is to liberate the Bridge of Hearts and reach the northern Cures, but, as I just said, it is for the long term. Right now we need to consolidate our position in Trump. We will take the Bridge of Clubs and the forts defending it. We will make it our headquarters, shelter for the Precure and the people of Trump. We'll need their support to fight this war."

"Can we even hold it, if the Selfish come?"

"There are twenty of us," said Nozomi, who had been watching the skies until now. "If we can't hold it, then we don't deserve to win."

"I don't know," Honoka had predicted. "Which route will we take?"

"We'll pass by the Street of Hierophants," said Reika. "It is a slower path, but safer, as it's distant from the larger streets. The Selfish won't expect we'll move that way."

"And if they do?" Nasturtium asked. "What if we can't reach the Bridge of Clubs? Do we give up?"

"Then we will change our plan," said Reika, but nothing more. They didn't really plan to come even close to the Bridge of Clubs, but once they set out, it would be the easiest thing in the world to think of an excuse to go to the Bridge of Hearts instead. Even if they couldn't, there was always the option of revealing the deception, of telling the Cures that they meant only to find the traitor among them. They would not like being lied to, but surely even the most foolish of them would prefer that to being killed because their position was betrayed to the enemy.

"Is… Is this it?" Nasturtium asked. "Have you planned nothing more? Anything I should know?"

"No," said Reika. This one was unusually curious, Nagisa thought. She couldn't tell if her interest was genuine or malicious.

"May I go out to do some scouting, then? Just to make sure there aren't any selfish around, you see."

"Of course," said Reika, but Nagisa knew what she meant. She meant, "you aren't even seeing the trap."

Soon she had left. Nagisa had hoped that she would be the last, but there were three others after her, and an old woman had come as well, saying she represented the citizens of Trump, or at least some of them. She wondered what she might want. Reika told Akane to let her come in five minutes. First she wanted to rest.

"Is it really so tiresome to sit down all afternoon?" Nagisa asked, laughing.

"This is not a comfortable chair," said Reika. "Not at all. And I have to pay utmost care to my words."

"You've been doing wonderfully," said Honoka. "You are a really good liar, Reika."

"Yeah," she sighed. "I don't really see that as a compliment. I don't enjoy lying, not to people who are supposed to be my allies."

"You don't have to enjoy it to do it," said Honoka. "The last Rosehearted before Continental… Do you remember her, Nagisa?"

"Hm? Yeah, Cure Peanut. How the hell did she get elected with that name?"

"A question for the ages, truly. Anyway, she was known for always being honest," said Honoka, "which is a laudable thing, as long as you have no problem with saying hard truths. It's easy to be honest when you're telling people what they want to hear. But Peanut… She was honest and kind, so you can guess how that went."

"Not really," Reika admitted. "That was before my time."

"Oh, right," said Honoka. Did she call us old? "Well, she always tried to please everyone. Honesty means you have to tell people they'll do awful, thankless jobs, jobs that require them to abandon their family for an entire year so they can go on a diplomatic mission to a distant place. That kind of thing hurts people's feelings, you know? Being told you won't see the people you love for an entire year, or that you'll have to go to a dangerous place where there's a very real chance you'll die, or watch your partners die."

"To give an order like that to someone… Could you do that?" Nagisa looked at Reika, but she directed to the question to everyone as well.

"I would do it myself, if it's so dangerous," said Mana, an answer that surprised absolutely no one. "Lead by example."

"Now that's honorable," said Nagisa, "but you can you be everywhere at once? Can you fight both the Selfish and Labyrinth?" Her silence said more than her words could.

"Most of us can't," said Honoka. "Peanut couldn't. She let everyone do whatever they wanted, and neglected important duties of the Precure, because she could not concile her honesty with her kindness. And that really weakened the Precure. She took the easy way out, the coward's way. When her tenure ended, she was beloved, looked upon fondly by everyone… And much of the territory we were supposed to protect was lost, taken by Dark Fall. Eternal even managed to steal a cache full of starsteel and branches of the Heart Tree, treasures beyond price that we cannot acquire again, because the knowledge of making starsteel and cutting the Heart Tree were lost. And we did nothing! Eternal suffered no retaliation, because Peanut didn't want to send anyone to their deaths."

Reika listened carefully to their words. They weren't pleasant, Nagisa knew, but they had to be said. They had witnessed all this, and they knew how hard it was to lead the Precure. It was because of this that Honoka was so opposed to Mirage's election; she had not proved herself a leader, only a warrior and a scholar. She was good at adopting the ideas of others, Honoka said, but that's it.

"I understand," said Reika, and she meant it. Nagisa was glad that she took their words seriously. Most of the Cures had chosen to ignore their experience, thinking they could keep pretending that the life was simply and beautiful, and that all they had to do was follow their hearts. "I'm afraid this is wasted on one such as me, though. I'm not a leader. I'm not like Miyuki, or Mirage, or you."

"Oh? But we're not leaders either," said Nagisa.

"Though I would have been a great Rosehearted," Honoka grumbled. Nagisa loved it when she dropped her mask of perfection and sweetness and let herself show these lower emotions.

"It was not meant to be, love," said Nagisa. "Maybe we're just meant to advise. We're good at that, at least."

"Very good!" Said Nozomi. "I love hearing you two! You just know so much!"

"Yes we do," there was no point in false modesty. "And it takes wisdom to listen, you know? So you're pretty good yourself."

Nozomi blushed at that, smiling a lovely smile, one that caught Nagisa off-guard. She hadn't expected her words to mean so much to Nozomi. She was probably not used to being called wise. Nagisa understood that feeling all too well.

There was a knock upon the door. Reika sat down again, and Nagisa yawned, planting her back firmly on the dusty wall.

"Back to work, then," said Reika.

Afterwards Iona opened the door. It was the old woman that Akane had mentioned. She didn't look that old, in truth, but Trump's occupation hadn't been kind to her: her arms were skinny, and her face just looked like skin poorly stretched over her bones, with no meat or muscle underneath.

She stepped slowly to the chair that Reika indicated, and Nozomi asked her if she needed any help to walk, but the woman refused. Clearly she did need help, but Nagisa had learned that even when all else was gone, sometimes pride would still remain. Not the arrogant sort of pride, but the defiant. It was the same with the Precure; Last Light had not been founded only to provide the Phoenix Tower with resources, but to be a monument of the Precure's undying pride and hope, a message that they refused to hide in their Tower and die.

"Well," the woman said after she sat down on the uncomfortable chair, "thank you for receiving me. It makes me happy to see that the Precure have not abandoned us."

"And it makes me happy that you still have faith in us," said Reika. "We cannot do it on our own. We need the help of the people under our protection, and the fairies too. The Pledge has not been broken, I can assure you of that."

"Good," she said. "You know, I don't even remember what exactly the Pledge is supposed to represent. I know it exists, but… We don't hear much of its details. As far as we know, it just means the Precure will help us."

"That's the gist of it," said Honoka with a giggle. "There's more words than that, but in the end that's what it means. It means we have promised to help each other."

"And you seem to need help," said Reika, going straight to the point. "Or at least I assume that's why you've come."

"Yes," she said, glad to skip the small talk and pleasantries. "You are here to free us from the Selfish King, aren't you?"

"We hope to do so, yes," said Reika. "We know it won't be easy, though. It will be a difficult fight for all of us. But I believe we can do it."

"We are on your side, always," the woman said. Nagisa regarded her with curiosity. She could be telling the truth, but she could be a spy, too. Almost everyone here could be a spy, honestly. Nagisa only felt safe when she was by Honoka's side. "We are tired of the Selfish. No, not just tired. We are furious. They have mistreated us, hurt us. So many have starved already, or made to take part in their twisted little games."

"Games?"

"We are their playthings," the woman said, her voice so frail when she spoke those words. It was a cruel word that she had chosen, too. Playthings. That made Nagisa shiver. "Their princess is the worst of all. We are only toys to her, and when she grows tired of playing with us…"

"Regina is gone, now," said Iona. "She will not trouble you for a while."

"She will come back," she said. "Do you know why she invaded our neighbors? She had gotten bored of her toys, so what better place to go than the Land of Toys? And the Bad End Kingdom must have plenty of fairy tale creatures for her to bring to her palace, to play with. Regina is a spoiled child, but, usually, spoiled children can only throw tantrums and yell. Regina… Regina can do whatever she wants with us."

"We will not let her do what she wants," Nagisa promised. "When she returns, we'll have control of the city again, and we'll deal with her."

"I'll pray to god that your confidence is justified," god, she said, a dangerous word to utter in the company of the Precure. Did she mean to provoke them, perhaps? There was no way to know if they could trust even this old lady. "Because we have suffered enough."

"You won't suffer when we're done," said Reika. "You'll be well-fed again, and Trump will be a city to love again. We can't bring back what you've lost, much less the people who died, as we cannot change the past, but you have my word that we'll change the future."

"Thank you," the woman said. "We'll need some help, but once we are free to live our lives again, we'll rebuild. But… Forgive my intrusion, young lady, but do you have a plan?"

Don't fall for it. Anyone here can be an enemy.

"We'll liberate the Bridge of Clubs," she said, to Nagisa's relief. "It'll be a safe haven for all those who fight against the Selfish."

"Seems like a fine plan," the woman said. She either didn't suspect Reika's lie, or she hid it very well. "Thank you for hearing me out. I just wanted to make sure you didn't forget the people of Trump. We can't fight as well as the Precure, not can we perform your magic, but there are countless of us, and you need us on your side."

"We know," said Reika, "and I'm happy to be able to count on you. We are all fighting this war together, and we will keep you safe."

Satisfied, the woman got up, and this time she accepted Nozomi's help. Dream showed her the way out, and then Akane guided her outside, closing the door when she left.

"I hope no one does anything stupid," said Honoka.

"Like what?" Nozomi asked.

"Like thinking they can actually fight the Selfish and their Jikochuu," said Iona. "We can't tell them what to do, you know. They are not our subjects. The Precure have no power over the free kingdoms and their people. They are free to do whatever stupid thing they want."

"Do you think I misspoke, then?" Reika asked. "Should I have said we don't need their help?"

"No," said Nagisa, "I don't think so. We do need their help, we absolutely do. It's just… If they fight with us, you know how dangerous it'll be for them. The Selfish will retaliate. I don't think we'll be able to keep all of them safe."

"I know that," said Reika. "But… Is this what you meant with hard truths? If so, I understand now. How could I look into her eyes and say that they stood no chance against the Selfish, that many of them would die? I could not say it."

"But you know of the danger," Honoka said, and Reika acquiesced with a quick gesture.

"I know the price we'll pay if we fail," said Reika. "We'll die. All of us. Or worse, the Selfish will turn us into Jikochuu so that we can cause even more pain. The people of Trump will suffer even more than they already have, and Regina will go on tormenting them. If we fail, if we die, then Trump dies with us. We have bet everything on this. Even the Red Rose may wither if we fail. And our success depends entirely on my plan going smoothly, even though there are hundreds of ways it could all fall apart."

"How does it feel?"

"Exhausting," Reika said. She tried to make herself smile, but instead she sighed. "I can't be exhausted, not when we set out tonight, under the cover of darkness. I have to be strong. We all have to be strong."

"We are strong," Nagisa said. "And we will make this work. Because if we fail-"

"We will not fail," it was Nozomi who spoke now.

"That's the right attitude, at least," said Iona. "It won't be easy, but…"

"When were things ever easy?" Mana asked, smiling. It was her home she fought for, Nagisa remembered. Despite the frailty of her body, she seemed so very strong right now.

"Let us work hard, then," said Reika, "and fight to the bitter end if we must. Let the last of the Precure in. Then we'll need to be well-rested before we set out. We must not lose. We can't afford to."

"We won't," said Nagisa. Reika had come such a long way from that girl who just followed Moonlight's orders in their fight against Dune. Nozomi and Iona too, despite their conflicts, were filled with resolve. She held on to Honoka's hands, feeling her fingers against her own. They needed no words to make their feelings clear to each other.

The repulsive smell of blood mixed with the scent of waste left behind on the streets of Trump, making Rikka feel sick to her stomach. The battle left her plenty of work to do: wounds to suture, fevers to treat, and one of the soldiers of the Selfish had gotten his leg pretty badly cut during the fighting, and it had to be cut off. Rikka was fortunate that a fellow medic had to do it, but she still had to watch, and hear the screaming.

The Selfish were losing control of Trump, that much had become clear as they marched south to find the Precure. Nothing in their way was spared: each house they passed by was put to the torch, just in case a Precure was hiding there, each store that still dared to keep its doors open was ransacked, and everyone unlucky enough to be in the streets was beaten bloody. General Ira was not a patient commander, and his preferred tactic was to burn down everything on his way.

Small wonder, then, that the people of Trump had risen against the Selfish. Numerous as the Selfish were, and even though they had countless Jikochuu under their command, they were still greatly outnumbered by the inhabitants of Trump, who were, at the time of the latest (admittedly unreliable) census, nearly three million. They must have realized their strength, as they went to the streets to meet their occupiers with improvised weapons on their hands, and anger from a year of mistreatment in their hearts. They fell at the hands of the Selfish, but they had taken their toll of blood, and Rikka knew that more would take arms against the Selfish, soon, as there was no longer any way to avoid open war in the confines of the city.

This, of course, started out slowly, as tragedies often do. When the Selfish began their march and their search, they were not yet being violent. The soldiers obeyed all the orders they received, and the Jikochuu were docile, following their invokers. The Selfish sang war songs in dissonant tones and filled the streets with their odious laughter, but, at first, all they made was noise.

And then the noise got louder, and the songs turned into cries of anger, of boasting; "I will kill a dozen Precure," said a soldier next to Rikka's wagon. "No," said another, younger voice, "They'll kill you first, weakling!". The taunt drove them into a frenzy, each soldier eager to prove themselves, but they found no Precure, no enemies, yet their lust for battle was rising, burning, and Rikka knew what that entailed. Soon they would not care if it was Precure that they found, as long as they could hurt someone, destroy something, and Trump was full of people to hurt.

When the violence began, it did not surprise Rikka at all. The Selfish had no discipline, and General Ira was not like Bel, Riva, Gula or even Goma, who were all respected or feared by their subordinates. Ira's soldiers just did whatever they felt like doing.

The citizens of Trump scurried alongside the roads, avoiding the Selfish, but there were too many of them, both citizens and soldiers, so whenever they bumped into each other, the Selfish retributed with a punch to the stomach, sending the poor fool straight to the ground, and of course the advancing army didn't care what it trod upon, or what was on its way.

Soon they began pillaging: soldiers walked into stores and houses and robbed them of what little they still had. They did it under the guise of looking for Precure, but the truth was clear to all. They walked inside with only weapons in hand, but came out with trinkets and jewelry and food and coin. Weeping came from the houses they robbed, but no one cared. When she looked around, sometimes Rikka saw soldiers counting copper hearts and clubs, eyes shining as if they had claimed a treasure, even though those were the least valuable currency in Trump, worth less than a pittance, and that was being generous.

Next came the fires, and the houses burning, then crumbling. Soldiers stepped outside of poor houses, grumbling, saying there was nothing of value there, before putting them to the torch, forcing its inhabitants to run in despair, trying to save themselves, running away empty-handed, as they had no objects worth saving other than, perhaps, a bite of food to try to survive the coming night. Rikka felt the impulse to help, but she knew she couldn't. She couldn't turn back either; she had to hope that this would end quickly, so that she could fulfil her promise to Aguri.

The streets were narrow, but occasionally they found old squares and parks with withered trees and dead shrubbery, fountains dried or mossy, even torn apart, sometimes, their water leaking onto the stone floor around them. And, all around, people ran, cried, begged, while the Selfish either laughed or ignored them, shoving them to the sides, against building façades, against benches, or even the ground.

Rikka head maniac laughter coming from her right; she turned to look, and saw a Selfish mocking some of the people of Trump who could not escape; she tossed copper hearts on the grass, one by one, and cackled hideously as she watched people fight each other, struggling to get a little bit of money. They still had to pay for their food even now, Rikka realized, because of course this was not a good time for generosity. In a city under siege, or quarantined, the generous were the first to die.

"It's like feeding chickens!" The Selfish said as she tossed the last of her coins, before giving another throaty laugh.

The people in front of her, however, were not nearly as entertained. Their eyes darkened with the realization of what mockery had been inflicted on them, of how vile their humiliation had been. The woman didn't even notice; she just reached into her pocket and threw pieces of lint at them, calling it an improvement on their diet. Rikka knew this would not end well, and she asked her Jikochuu to hasten. As if aware of the danger to come, the beast obeyed promptly.

Rikka never looked back, but she could hear when the woman's laughter stopped, replaced by shrieks of pain, soon silenced. Then she knew that this would not end until the streets of Trump were red not with the cursed rain but with blood.

When she found herself in narrow streets again, she looked up to see angry faces staring from their windows at the passing soldiers. The Selfish, of course, never realized. They looked only ahead, unaware of those they considered beneath them.

A window opened; fat hands let go of a heavy pot. It fell straight on the head of a passing soldier, followed by the sound of cracking. When the Selfish realized what was happening, more windows had opened, and plates were being thrown at them, and pots, and furniture, torches, drawers full of cutlery, anything the citizens of Trump could find.

The Selfish struck back with all their ferocity, commanding their Jikochuu to bring down all the buildings on their way, and they did so, but that quickly proved to be a mistake as the debris blocked their progress, keeping the Selfish stuck in the roads with little room to move.

The people of Trump met them with weapons in hands, though it was rather kind to call those weapons: they were sticks with shards of glass attached to the end, or butcher knives, oil and torches tossed to set the Selfish troops alight. Those who couldn't even find those weapons fought with rocks, for what good it did them. They were able to take down some of the Selfish, but the Jikochuu were too fierce foes for mere civilians to take down. They fought bravely, but in the end their blood spilled all over the streets of Trump.

And now Rikka tended to the wounded Selfish, though she so greatly despised them. She was not a Precure now, only a medic, and as such she had no right to judge or deny treatment. Her knowledge was rather shallow, in truth, when the Selfish King first appeared, she had only just begun studying medicine from books her mother had sent her. She was still young, but wanted a head start. She had not managed to learn all that much, but here all she had to do was to close and cauterize wounds, so the work was easy enough.

Yuri helped her as well, handing over whatever she needed. The Selfish trusted her completely, Rikka noticed. She could poison them right now if she wanted, she could tell them they need a combination of remedies that would open a hole in their stomach, and no one would even realize until they all dropped dead.

Too risky, she told herself, but the truth was that she did not really want to do that. That was not how the Precure fought, right? It would be wrong to do that. Even though they had taken away her home… She looked at the Selfish she was treating: his arm had been sliced open by shards of glass, and he was almost crying from the pain. She had seen him robbing a house on their way. He left behind a child crying just as he cried now. Rikka told herself this was a good enough vengeance. Killing him would not make Trump any less miserable.

"You're done now," she said, once she had sutured the cut. The scar left behind looked hideous, red and thick, but it was the best she could do. "Next one, please."

When the next Selfish sat down in front of her, only a boy, Rikka froze. He didn't recognized her face, but she remembered his: he was Ira, his face stained red with blood, though Rikka could not see a single cut upon it. His neck, however, had been sliced upon, not enough to threaten his life but enough to make him lose quite a lot of blood. Other wounds bled all over his body, too, though not as badly.

"You look like you've never seen anyone chopped up," he said. "You've been closing holes in my soldiers for an hour now. Are mine so scary?"

"N-No," she said. He didn't recognize her now that she was Rikka, not Diamond. He looked at Yuri with suspicion for a moment, but just shrugged and pointed at his neck. "Oh, right. You shouldn't talk so much."

"Why?" He asked, and more blood gushed out, bubbling.

"Because of that. That's a very dangerous spot to be wounded. You're lucky the wound isn't deep, but it'll keep bleeding. How did it even happen?" Ira almost answered, but Rikka brought a finger to her lips, asking for silence, and instead she looked at the soldier who accompanied Ira.

"General Ira was trying to turn a woman into a Jikochuu," the Selfish said, "but he got too close, and she slashed at him with glass."

"Oh, nasty," she said, reaching out for her needle and thread. "Well, he'll live now that he's here, so don't worry."

"That's a relief," the Selfish said. "Look, a messenger just arrived from Bel. Something important, it seems. I'm gonna go see what it is, and then I'll come back, okay?"

Ira nodded. The Selfish left, leaving Ira alone with Rikka and Yuri. There were other medics nearby, but none were too close to Rikka, and she had set up her wagon behind all others, so no one could see her. She had not poisoned the footsoldiers of the Selfish, but Ira was a general… It was not as tempting as if it were Bel, but he was a general anyway. She began to stitch his neck; by her feet was a scissor she used to cut off the threat.

"You're not a Selfish, are you?" Ira asked.

"Don't talk," Rikka said. He didn't seem to care.

"But you aren't, right? You're from Trump, right?"

"Yeah," she said after some silence. "If you'd like to be treated by someone else-"

"You're fine," the boy said. If he felt threatened, he wasn't scared in the slightest. "Your fingers are shaking, though. You're thinking if you can stab me with your needle, or if you'll need the scissor's blades. Right?"

"No," she lied, and controlled her hands, gripping the needle firmly. "I did not consider it. I am… I have a duty to tend to all wounded."

"Even ones who have taken your home away from you?" She nodded. "That's admirable. Probably a lie, though. I don't like liars. You can tell me the truth."

"The truth…" Did he know? No, there was no way he did. "Yes. I always lived in Trump. I joined your army so that I could keep my family safe and fed."

"Ha! No way you're a Selfish. The Selfish don't care about family. Don't let anyone know that, though," he said, "unless you have a needle pointed at their necks."

"You… You won't tell, right?"

"Nah," he said. "I don't really give a crap as long as you do your job. Really, it's good to see someone from Trump working for us instead of trying to kill us."

He closed his fist, and some of his veins bulged slightly. Rikka worked as carefully as she could, as she had heard tales of Ira's anger, and did not want to attract his wrath.

The Selfish soon came back, and stared anxiously at Rikka. He probably wanted her to leave so that he could tell Ira something important, so Rikka slowed down as much as she could so that she would not finish the stitches any time soon.

"Sorry," she said. "This part is really delicate. I have to be very careful."

"I'll wait, then," he said, but Ira's eyes burned at him.

"Just say what you have to say," said Ira. "She's a medic. What could she do with our secrets? She's more trustworthy than you, really, as she could have killed me right now, and didn't. So speak up if you don't want to be replaced."

"A-Alright!" Maybe Rikka was wrong. Maybe Ira could make himself feared, if he tried. "Our spies have approached Bel."

"Which spies?"

"The Precure who are selling each other out to us," he said, and the two of them laughed. "They still think that'll spare them. Anyway, there's a problem. All their reports are full of contradictions. They all agreed that the Precure will be marching north, to the Bridge of Clubs."

"The Bridge of Clubs? Why?" Ira asked.

"In his message, Bel has said that he thinks the Precure have become desperate, and feel that they have to make a move. He has sent a detachment to protect the Bridge of Clubs, but… Well, the spies' reports on the route they plan on taking have all been wrong so far. One has said they'll pass through the Street of Hierophants first, by the churches. Another has said they're going straight through Trump's main road. They plan to meet the Selfish and fight them straight on."

"Idiots."

"And the third one has said that they'll split up and move on the rooftops, where they're hard to detect. We could put sentries there, but-"

"But we don't know if that's true. Right, I get that. What were Bel's orders?"

"To intercept the Precure."

"How, if we don't even know which path they'll take? They're fooling us, those pricks."

And you'll fall right into their trap, Rikka thought, holding back a smile. She was done with the stitches now, but she wanted to hear a little bit more.

"What then?" The Selfish asked. "We need to do something. Our brigade has three hundred agents and half that many Jikochuu. Do we split up?"

"That seems wiser," said Ira. It was not wiser at all, Rikka knew, and that made it even more delicious. "One of the traitors has to be telling the truth, right? So far, everything they said was the truth. So let's split in three: one third goes to the Street of Hierophants, another to the main road, and the other keeps watch on the rooftops."

The Selfish bowed, and left, shouting Ira's commands. Rikka then got up, and Ira did the same. He moved his head from one side to the other, grimacing at the pain. But he would live.

"Thanks," he said, to Rikka's surprise. "You're going to follow the group at the main road, by the way. Can you fight?"

"Not very well," she said. Yuri nodded in agreement.

"Well, just try not to get killed. The last time a medic closed my wounds, I told him that once we were done dealing with the Precure, I would get him a job at the palace. Poor idiot got himself killed on the same day! Saw a Precure and thought he could take her own."

"That's not very smart of him," she said. Rikka wanted to ask something, but did not know if it would be too bold of her. "General… I think you should stay away from the battlefield for a while. If the stitches come undone, it could get messy."

"I know!" He said, suddenly almost angry. "I'm not stupid. I'll go meet with Bel at the Bridge of Clubs. I hate missing a battle, but…"

Rikka just nodded yet again. She was glad for that; General Ira, even wounded, could prove himself a formidable foe for the Precure. With him gone, their task, whatever it was, should be easier. She wondered what their plan was, or what they meant to do at the Bridge of Clubs and its abandoned forts. Maybe that too was part of their ruse.

Soon the Selfish were moving again, and Rikka followed them. Yuri returned to the back of the wagon, where Raquel hid as well. Rikka had actually grown fond of the Jikochuu that pulled her wagon. The beast was friendly enough, and loyal too, clearly appreciating a rider that did not whip it every five minutes.

The shadow was upon them now, so lanterns were lit. It was no ordinary shadow, that much was clear: no shadow was so great and black. It devoured all light to feed its darkness, mercilessly. Rikka kept moving on, even in the dark. Soon the shadow would pass. Of that she was sure. The Precure would vanquish the Selfish, catch them in their trap, and destroy them all.

They'll think I'm a Selfish too, she realized. They won't recognize Yuri without her hair, either, and if they transform in the midst of the Selfish, they'll turn into easy targets. None of the Cures in Trump knew her all that well. They had fought the Selfish together, before the Death of the Stars, but they were never friends. She was a field medic, yes, and those were protected under the laws of every civilized country, but Rikka wasn't sure the Precure would care about laws right now. After all that they had been through, Rikka could scarcely blame them for wanting to spill Selfish blood, but she prayed that they would listen to reason, that they wouldn't see her as a foe as well. For now, all that she could do was hope that the hearts of the Precure here were not as broken as Trump had become.

Chapter Text

When the shadow was gone, the light of the red sun blinded Rikka, and for a moment she could not tell where she was going. It doesn't matter where I'm going. I'm just following the Selfish. Wasting precious time.

They stumbled upon no resistance on their way now, to Rikka's relief. Instead she saw deserted streets and abandoned houses. She had not often come so far south, so she wasn't familiar with these paths, not that there was much to recognize, anyway. The Selfish left nothing standing, nothing unbroken, if it was on their way.

Their movement slowed down, though, noticeably so. The Selfish were a bit more careful now, closely investigating every blind alley they passed by, each broken down building, each darkened corner. Soon the sky was a darker shade of red, growing darker still by the moment until it had become nearly black. A raven bleeding, Rikka thought, for now she could not forget the image of ravens picking corpses apart with their beaks. Even now she could hear them, and see them if she looked up; she could see them perched upon the rooftops, looking down at her with greedy eyes. They were only waiting, as if they knew death was lurching closer.

Despite being surrounded by a hundred Selfish, and despite knowing that Yuri and Raquel were both just behind her, inside the wagon, Rikka felt so alone. All around she saw emptiness, even as the army moved. All around she saw a rotting carcass, vermin crawling all over it.

She saw windows fissured and broken, doors shattered into splinters, cracked roads of stone that had become uneven, with pieces of it protruding upwards, causing the wagon to bump violently. She saw rats scurrying back into their sewer holes, houses reduced to bricks and wooden planks, pieces of fruit left to rot on the ground. When the road narrowed, Rikka found her path impeded by a long-abandoned barouche, one of its wheels missing, its seats torn apart, their stuffing stolen as well. As the Selfish moved it out of the way, they all looked inside in vain hopes of finding something left behind. There was nothing left behind, of course. Other Selfish had been here first, and they never left anything behind.

Rikka was glad not to hear any singing or screaming this time. The Selfish did not want to admit it, but the attack they suffered had shocked them. They had not expected any resistance, so they must not have suffered any until now. They were so unprepared that mere civilians were able to thin their numbers quite significantly. The truth was that even though the Selfish held Trump, the city was slipping away from their grasp while Regina was gone with most of their troops. If the princess didn't return soon, Rikka imagined she would find the gates of Trump closed to her.

And how the hell do I get out if that happens? For now, she could avoid raising suspicion, but once she got into the palace, the Selfish would start asking questions. Soon things would become quite difficult.

No, not soon. Now. A Selfish scout was yelling from afar, and though Rikka couldn't understand his words, they were most certainly not good news, judging from the tone of his voice. The Selfish yelled all together in hideous cacophony, their words all mixed up, almost senseless, but Rikka could make out a few words.

Precure. Coming.

All around, the Selfish readied their weapons and shouted commands to the Jikochuu. Before, they had been eager for battle, but not Rikka could see fear in their faces. If mere civilians could make them bleed, then what would the Precure do? Rikka wondered if Ira was feeling stupid for dividing his troops now. She hoped so.

If the troops had any sort of formation planned, the Selfish didn't seem to care: each one went their own way, hiding in the abundant alleys and abandoned buildings in vain hopes of ambushing the Precure, for all the good it would do them. Rikka looked around, to see if she could perhaps find the Selfish who had bragged about taking the head of a Precure. Would he still brag now, or would he shiver?

Rikka pulled back her wagon, under the guise of staying away from battle, for a mere medic like her should always stay in the back, but in truth her intention was to block the way of any Selfish trying to run away. She turned the wagon sideways, and watched and waited.

"Yuri," Rikka called her, "get ready. The Precure are coming, and we'll help them."

This was risky, she knew, but if they could catch the Selfish from behind, allowing them no chance to retreat, they'd be quickly overwhelmed.

"Right," said Yuri. "Give me the sign and I'll transform."

Moonlight should be the one to give the sign, Rikka thought. She was the most experienced fighter, one of the most competent Cures alive. She should be the one leading, but, somehow, now she just seemed content to follow: Rikka now, and Aguri earlier. Discreetly, Raquel floated up to his partner's lap, to join her in waiting.

A raven cawed, then another, another, fighting among themselves to be the loudest, and their wheezing filled the world with dread; the Selfish grew pale, wary, and the ravens fed their fear with their song, their demand for carrion.

The Precure came all at once; from the streets, mostly, but some were up on the rooftops, scaring away the ravens as they ran and jumped down on the Selfish, surprising them. Rikka recognized two of them, Cures White and Black, known veterans of a thousand missions, but the ones by her side were not so familiar. A girl clad in blue fought the Selfish one by one, meeting each in single combat, holding a blade of frost in her hand, cold vapors rising from it, and where she walked, the cold followed, covering the ground with a thin layer of ice where she maneuvered gracefully. Another girl would ward off the darkness of the night with stars that came to life on the palm of her hands, blinding lights that dazzled and paralyzed the Selfish.

Once these seconds of confusion had passed, the Selfish began shouting orders at their servants, the Jikochuu, who promptly obeyed. Vultures took flight to rake the Cures with their talons, quickly swooping down to strike before rising again, just out of reach. Fingers of flame soared into the sky, burning the Jikochuu's dark wings away, then their bodies, leaving nothing behind but freed Psyches.

The fighting was so one-sided that Rikka almost decided not to join the Precure from her precarious position, endangering herself, Yuri and Raquel, but quickly the Selfish understood that, outstanding fighters as the Precure were, they were still severely outnumbered. A single Selfish was no match for a Cure, but if a dozen of them overwhelmed one, all at once, throwing themselves against her, stabbing her a dozen times, it wouldn't matter how strong she was. A flock of Jikochuu descended on the Cure with the frozen sword, dark wings blending with the darkness, almost invisible. The only light in the street were the fires started by one of the Precure.

"Raquel, Yuri," Rikka said, knowing she had to do something. "Let's go."

Moonlight had already transformed by the time Rikka called her, and she dashed to battle before Raquel had even joined his strength with Diamond's. The fairy shared his power with Rikka as she became Cure Diamond, and she basked in the strength of the Precure for a short moment before she too joined the fight.

She stepped lightly and quickly, swiftly avoiding the flames. She sunk her fist in the body of an ape-like Jikochuu that didn't even notice her coming. The beast was thrown across the floor, knocking down a bunch of Selfish on its way.

Once the Selfish were alerted to her, though, fighting them off was not quite so easy. Three of them battled her at once, and though these would not be quite so terrible odds to an exceptional fighter, Rikka was most definitely not one. She lept away from swings of swords and clubs but could never get an opportunity to strike back, instead only avoiding an onslaught of blows.

"Silver Forte Wave!"

The blast shone bright as if the moon itself was rising in front of Diamond, but it had only been Moonlight's attack. It brought down Rikka's enemies, putting them in complete stasis as a milky light enveloped their bodies. Rikka looked ahead, and saw that Moonlight was fighting an entirely different foe. She wasn't even aiming at these guys!

This was what it meant to be an exceptional fighter, Rikka thought. The Jikochuu and the Selfish could never lay a finger on her if Moonlight did not allow it, and when she did, it was only to grab them by the arm and throw them against a wall violently. Her attacks were brutal, but Yuri's face was a blank mask, unfazed by the bloodshed.

Now that Moonlight had joined the fighting, the Selfish were outmatched on the ground, but the vultures above were too quick, too difficult to see, and when they sweeped down together to ravage a lone Cure, they caused great damage. One of the Cures had large lines of red upon her face, gushing blood endlessly. She could barely walk, and the Jikochuu were coming down to finish the job, to leave her for the ravens. Rikka would not allow it.

"Twinkle Diamond!"

Winter sprung from Diamond's fingers, kissing her hands with cold, wreathing her wrist with blizzard, breathing frost and snow where she pointed. It fell heavy upon the vulture Jikochuu, flurry covering their wings in snow, robbing them of their balance as they became too heavy to fly. As they fell, their bodies hardened, enclosed by ice, halting their movement and ceasing their cawing, and when they hit the ground, they shattered into thousands of pieces. Their Psyches then flew away, freed.

Without the birds to worry about, the Cures were free to continue battling with no greater worries. The Selfish had tired from hours of forced march and earlier fight, so they quickly realized they stood no chance, and surrendered, one by one, throwing down their weapons. The Precure accepted their surrender, to Rikka's relief. She knew that they could have easily become bloodthirsty and full of wrath after all this time trapped inside Trump, and Rikka was all too aware that hard times could make good people become monsters.

Most of the victorious Cures gravitated towards Moonlight, of course, not that Rikka minded. She didn't want the attention anyway, nor had she contributed as much as Yuri. Moonlight herself seemed rather annoyed, but she suffered through the questions and praise without complaining. So many Cures stood right next to Yuri that Rikka couldn't even see anything behind them.

The only Cures that seemed to notice Rikka were three girls, dressed in blue, pink and purple. She had not seen the pink one, and the purple only from a distance, but the blue-haired Cure was the one who deftly fought with the frozen sword. Rarely did Precure wield the powers of ice and winter, so it made Rikka glad to see someone else who did. The heart of summer is warm and kind, the heart of spring blooms with joy, and the heart of autumn is wise, ready to face hardships, but the heart of winter is cold, lonely and cruel. Or so the saying goes. Rikka put no faith in sayings and rumors and old legends.

"Hello," the girl in blue introduced herself. "Thank you for your help," she said in formal tones, before introducing herself and the two girls with her. Beauty, Dream, Fortune. Rikka gave them her name as well. "We had not expected to find any other Cures here… Much less Moonlight."

"If you are willing to hear a long story, then I will tell you why we are here," but I will not tell you the truth.

"I will hear it," said Reika. "I also have much to tell you, I think."

"Oh!" Nozomi said in an awkward yelp. "We have good news too. The Phoenix Tower still stands. The Red Rose is still strong."

After all the terrible tales that Aguri had shared, Rikka could not see that as good news. It did not surprise her, however, that even as the world became a ruin, the Red Rose still made sure it held some power.

"Do we have a new Rosehearted, or does Continental live? She was leading the recapture of Trump, and I don't see her with you."

"Continental…" From Reika's tone, it was clear they had no idea what had happened to her. "She hasn't returned to the Phoenix Tower, so we had to elect someone in her place, for now."

"Who was it?"

"Cure Mirage," said Iona.

Mirage… Rikka didn't know what to make of it. Mirage was loyal to the Red Rose, incredibly so, to the point where she and Cure White had waged a fierce war of words due to White daring to theorize that, perhaps, the Blue Rose had not been completely evil, that the Axia Crisis and its ensuing war were not wholly justified. And Mirage had risen high in the hierarchy of the Red Rose even before the Death of the Stars; she was so highly esteemed in matters of knowledge of history that she was the only Cure allowed to visit the hidden library of the Phoenix Tower, known to all but seen by none.

And there were the accusations that she had taken valuable tomes from Verone and the Palmier Kingdom to her library in the Tower. Those were just rumors, but Mirage was definitely a Red Rose loyalist, and gossiping tongues said that she had once mentioned during a lecture that she believed that there were secrets and knowledges that belonged only with the Precure, that they had to be kept safe, away from the hands of independent kingdoms.

"I see," said Rikka, after a pause. No use worrying about this, now that she had chosen the Blue Rose, for the time being. Until she learned the truth, and knew who she could trust. "And do you know of…"

She wanted to ask another name now, but had no hopes for them. Two names, in fact; Alice and Makoto. She would ask for Mana as well, but Rikka had seen her drown. She was dead. She feared that if she asked about Alice and Makoto, the answer would be the same. They were dead, and Rikka was alone.

"Of whom?" Reika asked, but Diamond didn't answer. "Rikka?" Is something wrong?"

She could not answer, not when she had just seen a ghost. Mana stepped out from behind the crowd, a sight so clearly absurd that Rikka refused to let herself believe it until Heart was waving at her, and even from afar she could see her smile.

Rikka stood there, frozen. Mana was alive. I watched her drown. I saw it and I did nothing. I saw her die. Yet she was not dead; she was running towards Rikka, a frail gait, almost a limp. As she drew closer, it was clear that this was not the same Mana that had fought by her side. She looked years older, her hair had lost its shine just as her skin lost its smoothness, her arms were little more than sticks that almost snapped when they embraced Rikka. Rikka returned the hug slowly, fearfully, as if squeezing her embrace was a little flimsy, it still made Rikka feel warm. Everything about her was so different, except for her smile, despite her crooked, dirty teeth. Her smile was the same.

After their triumph over the Selfish, the Precure cheered with such enthusiasm that Reika found it hard to believe that less than an hour ago they were furious at her for her deception, for the change of plans and direction, and called her liar, traitor, and even, somehow, tyrant. Now, however, they sang her praises and acted as if they had just liberated Trump. Reika had to remind them all that they had only barely started their fight. They still needed to reach the Bridge of Hearts, and take control of it, and that would be the greatest struggle. Mana's description of the Bridge was not all that detailed, but it did sound like a dangerous battlefield: though the forts were unlikely to be great obstacles, the bridge itself was long and had no possible cover. They would be immensely vulnerable during their assault.

Two Cures had joined them on their march now: Diamond and Moonlight, and Reika was very thankful for their presence. Mostly for Moonlight's, to tell the truth, but Rikka had certain skills in medicine and treatments, and helped mend most of the wounds the Precure had suffered during battle. Mostly, however, she spent her time with Mana, always by her side.

The Cures moved north, toward the Bridge of Hearts, following the main road, almost entirely abandoned. Here and there they saw signs of life, and even lone Selfish that invariably ran away from them, sometimes, but Reika was awestruck by the desolation of Trump. The city was barren, an ugly grey thing with splashes of crimson all around, where all other colors had died. Wherever Reika walked, she saw emptiness and abandonment. Trump was going to waste, and now Reika wondered if the same could be said of Märchenland under the rule of the Bad End Kingdom. Had its beautiful cities fallen into ruin as well? If Reika ever returned there, would she even recognize her kingdom?

She turned to look at Rikka and Mana, who, despite being reunited, were not smiling. How could they smile when their home looked like this? Reika felt depressed just looking at all the broken down houses that now gathered dust and mold, and she had never seen Trump during its better days. For Heart and Diamond, it must have been a crushing sight.

"So far, so good," said Nagisa from behind. Her voice surprised Reika, who was deep in thought, trying to imagine how Trump must have looked before the Selfish turned it into this hideous shell. "A fine job by everyone."

"Yes," Reika agreed. A poor answer, but she was too focused on the building façades she looked upon, and wondered if they had been popular stores once, if behind the broken glass there were all sorts of wares, crafted with great care and love, if those large apartments that were now about to crumble had housed dozens of families. Reika found it all hard to believe; looking at Trump the way it was, it was impossible to conceive that it had ever been a pleasant place, a home.

"Think we can get to the Bridge tonight?"

"We can," Reika said, "but I don't think that's smart. This darkness is perfect to cover our movements and hide us from the sentries of the Selfish, but I wouldn't want to actually fight in this darkness. It's fine to sneak around underneath it, but when you can barely see five feet ahead of you, well, it's not too safe to swing a blade or loose an arrow."

"That's true," said Nagisa. "A friend of mine once hit me with a spell when we were fighting in a pitch-black room. It was nothing too bad, but I know it could have easily been messy. In the morning, then?"

"Right," she nodded. "We'll see if this Rikka girl knows anything about the Bridge of Hearts, compare our known information, and plan our offensive properly. We don't want to lose anyone."

"We might, though," Nagisa said as if Reika had never thought of it. Of course she had. She worried about it so much that she knew she would not be getting any sleep tonight. "You have thought of that, right?"

"I have given it some thought. But what does it matter? We all know the risks. It's not a surprise to anyone."

"I'm asking you if you'll blame yourself for whatever happens there. If the people and the Cures of Trump are right, there'll be many Selfish and Jikochuu there. If someone gets hurt, or worse, then-"

"Of course I'll blame myself. This is my responsibility, isn't it? I planned this, and, somehow, I was elected to lead us, though I have no idea why you'd want me to lead the attack. I will do it, though, since it is my burden."

"You are not on your own, though, you know. We all share the blame for whatever happens, because we all worked together to plan this, to free Trump. You don't have to carry this burden on your own."

"I do," said Reika. I'm almost sounding like Mana. "I'll take all responsibility for whatever happens at the Bridge. Someone has to, right? Unless…" In a corner of her eye, she could see Moonlight passing by. "Unless someone else leads us. Who better than the girl who defeated Dune?"

Nagisa shrugged, then turned sideways and returned to her lover's side. For a moment, she looked almost disappointed. Why? Why does she care so much about this?

It rather annoyed Reika to see how eager everyone had been to have her lead them. Lead. An odd word, she thought. Why was she even leading? All she had done was plan a way to find the traitor among them and trick the Selfish, and suddenly they were expecting her to decide how to proceed with their attack on the Bridge of Hearts, how to converge with the Cures in the north of Trump. Soon they'd be asking her to go fight Regina.

She let out an awfully loud sigh, and felt ashamed of the sound. She should not voice her complaints like this. She should just do as was expected of her.

A group of Precure passed her by; Nasturtium, Radiance, Ember and Twirl. They were all smiling now, and laughing, but when Reika had told everyone of the plans that she made, of the lie she told to try and catch a deception, they were not quite so happy. Nasturtium looked scared out of her wits, and Reika wondered if she had betrayed them. She didn't voice her suspicions, though; for now, the Cures had to work together, and if they started accusing one another, who knows what kind of chaos might ensue. Better to wait until it was safer.

"Reika!" Nozomi's voice pulled her away from her musings. Dream ran next to her, her face all sweaty and red. She was panting, and Reika allowed her a moment to catch her breath. "I was looking for you."

"I was always here."

"I know, but I was with Rikka and Mana, and Mana had a… A little problem, and she tripped, and had a really hard time getting up! We tried to get her to stay behind, but she's refusing to. I was wondering if you could possibly help us convince her.

"I'm sorry," said Reika, "but I can't worry about her now. There's already so much to worry about, and Mana can make her own decisions, even if they're unwise."

"Oh, alright," Nozomi didn't sound disappointed like Reika expected, only worried. "Are you… Ah, I'm sorry. I don't wanna annoy you if you don't want to talk about… Ah! I shouldn't mention it! I'm so stupid."

"Calm down, Nozomi," Reika said, giving her time to compose herself. "What is it that you were going to ask?"

"You seem troubled by something, Reika," said Nozomi. Of course she noticed. She's always been good at noticing these things. "And I didn't want to intrude, and thought that maybe you'd rather talk to Akane, but-"

"I don't want to talk to Akane about it," said Reika. "I haven't seen her in so long, and it feels like a dream to just be able to talk to her, and I… I really don't want to burden her with my concerns. It feels unfair."

"Can you burden me?" Nozomi asked. The question made Reika feel lighter; she had no idea, but this was exactly what she needed to hear. "If you trust me, even though I probably won't be much help."

"You know I trust you, Nozomi," was Nozomi afraid she didn't? Though she hid it with her cheerful demeanor, Nozomi always looked afraid of not being trusted, liked, of being looked down upon in any way. "And… And you are a great help. I… Can you come here, please?" Nozomi followed Reika as she moved away from the rest of the Precure, into darker corners of Trump's streets, where no one would hear them. "I'm really stressed, Nozomi. This… This is so much responsibility. I'm afraid. I'm afraid I won't be able to deal with it."

"Ah, Reika… I can't think of anyone who'd be better than you. I trust you; there's no way I could possibly not trust you after everything. You are smart and capable."

"That's what everyone thinks," she said, "and I know they aren't wrong. I am clever enough, I suppose. But it feels like so many responsibilities are being thrown on my lap, and everyone is just telling me to deal with everything on my own. Nagisa and Honoka give me some advice, and I appreciate it, but they've forgotten how hard it is. They have experience I can only dream of having, so of course they can just advise me. But… I feel alone. I feel like I'm being made to solve everyone's problems with almost no help, like I'm being asked to save this city even though I don't even know it."

"Reika…" She was tearing up. She looked sadder than Reika herself did. "Ah, if I knew you felt like this, I wouldn't have told you to lead us, that you were the one who had this brilliant idea, and-"

"No, no! I'm not blaming anyone, not really. I could have said no. I just don't want to do this on my own. I don't want to fight alone. And yet I feel like I must."

Nozomi wrapped her arms around her in a tight, warm hug. Reika wanted to retribute, but she couldn't move. She just stared at Nozomi.

"You remind me of a dear friend of mine, you know," said Nozomi. "A little bit. Karen. She had been groomed to become Cure Continental's successor as Rosehearted, and it made her feel alone. A Rosehearted's duty is a lonely one, she always said, and she also said that she could count on no one but herself. It made me so sad to see her do that to herself. She almost drifted away from us, for good, and it made her so miserable. I don't want that to happen to you, Reika. I… I wasn't a good enough friend to Karen. I was too stupid to realize what was going on with her, too naive to understand why she was isolating herself. I won't let that happen to you, okay? I refuse to!"

"N-Nozomi, I-"

"D-Don't think I want to be overbearing or anything, but… Reika, I won't let you be alone, alright? I'm sorry if I didn't consider your feelings earlier, but I do now. Even if only a little bit, if that's all an idiot like me can understand."

"Didn't I tell you not to call yourself that?" Reika said. She smiled. She was still worried, but just having someone to share her worries with was a great relief. "I appreciate it, though. I appreciate you. I want you with me. I want you to fight by my side."

"You know I will. I promise."

Reika sighed again, but a relaxed gasp now. She wasn't sure if Nozomi fully understood what it was that made her so sad and worried, but she didn't care. Nozomi tried to understand, and she did her best, as always, even if it was difficult. She appreciated that so much.

The lone star twinkled all by itself as it swam across the night sky and its clouds. Reika had gotten so used to it that she could scarcely remember what it was like to see the sky dressed all in darkness, without even that single light. The world had Nozomi and her to thank for that. It made her feel confident to think that they were capable of that, all by themselves.

They made their way through the darkened city until Iona noticed a large house wherein they could hide for the night, getting well-rested in preparation for their assault on the Bridge of Hearts.

The manor was, like Trump itself, desolate and ruined. Nothing new here, then, Reika thought. Some beds had been left in place, but not enough for all, so half would have to stand watch while the others slept until the middle of the night, then switch. As Reika was the one to suggest that, she offered to be part of the group that would stay awake during the first half of the night. Nozomi and Iona did the same, but Rikka forced Mana to get some sleep soon, though Mana had even said she was willing to stay up all night, as she did not feel tired at all. Black and White said they'd prefer to have the second watch.

Not all Cures went to sleep at first, though. Their spirits were still high from their victory, their blood boiling and their wounds stinging. Rikka took Mana to a bedroom, but the others gathered all over the abandoned house. Some had vain hopes of finding something to eat in the kitchen larder, but all they found was moldy cheese and meat that had gone so bad that it was now green, its smell so terrible that they had to purge it with Akane's fire, and afterwards no one could enter the kitchen again.

Most of them chose to stay in the huge living room; seats had been left behind by the selfish, though their stuffing was so poor that it might as well not exist. It hurt to even sit down, so Beauty didn't. Large lamps had been placed on the room's corners, but with no power, they couldn't shine, so the Precure improvised with magic lights, a spell so simple that it didn't take any effort to conjure.

The mood had lightened up considerably, in comparison to the tense atmosphere when Reika had arrived. Now there was laughter and all around she heard friendly words, and even though some Cures had gotten hurt in the fighting, Rikka had helped them all. Nagisa and Honoka were, of course, together, talking with their customary smiles, hand in hand. Mana and Rikka didn't seem quite as happy, Diamond insisting on taking a better look at Mana's body. Mana tried to deflect that with a joke, asking if that was Rikka's idea of flirting, if Black and White had inspired her, but Rikka could not be any more serious, and her frown soured the mood between them. Reika did not know what it was that troubled them, and it wasn't her business anyway. By the door, Nozomi and Iona were talking, the greatest surprise of all. Beauty was thankful for that; the two of them were good people, though Reika didn't know Iona as well as she might like, and she wanted them to get along.

The only person who was alone, aside from Reika herself, was Moonlight. She didn't seem too concerned by that, and was content to just sit on a corner, on the floor, and stare at nothing. Reika approached her, and sat next to Yuri. She wanted to talk to her. She hadn't asked Yuri why it was that she looked so troubled after she defeated Dune, why her eyes were all red, why it was that she and Tsubomi did not look at each other in the face, and now she wished she did. She always said it wasn't her concern, but when she saw Yuri's eyes, emotionless as they had never been, she knew something was wrong.

"Hello," she said, and Yuri replied with a nod. "It's so loud in here, isn't it?"

"You aren't helping it," she said, and Reika didn't know if she meant it as a joke. It seemed too cruel to be a joke, but she knew that some people enjoyed tasteless jokes, so maybe Moonlight was one of those. Reika faked a laugh.

"Right. Listen, Yuri… You were at Trump when the stars went out, didn't you?" She nodded again. "So you don't know about anyone else?"

"Like who?"

"Your partners, for starters. I was wondering if you might have any idea about where they might be."

"Erika was north," she shrugged, "Itsuki at the Desert Lands, or close. Tsubomi doesn't matter."

"What do you mean?"

"It means it doesn't matter."

"Did you argue?" Yuri moved her eyes away from her, and they stopped being quite so emotionless. They were almost angry now.

"What does it matter to you?"

"I'm sorry if I'm intruding," there had been rumors of what had happened there, but Reika knew she couldn't believe rumors from people who hadn't seen it. "I just thought you needed help."

"I can help myself. Don't need anyone else's help. Thank you, though," she said, with poison where there should have been gratitude.

"Is it true?" Reika insisted. She was pushing it, but maybe Yuri would open up. They had fought together, after all, side by side. They had defeated a hundred Snackies together, and saved each other's lives. Yuri had to trust her at least a little bit. "You killed Dune, didn't you?" Blossom was fiercely opposed to killing, it was said. She was called a coward for it, but Beauty felt the same way. She wondered if she too was called craven.

"I did," Yuri said after long silence. Reika waited for her to say more, but she kept quiet.

"Tsubomi told you not to, didn't she?" Reika asked. "And you did it. Did you argue?"

"Stop talking about things you don't understand."

"I do understand a little bit, Yuri. I'm a bit like Tsubomi in that matter, but I know that you would have listened to her normally, so…"

"You really don't understand, do you?"

"Your father was killed by Dune, wasn't he? That's why you killed him for revenge. Ravaged him, if the rumors are true, though I don't believe them."

"Why does it matter to you how many pieces I tore Dune into? Will you say you understand it, that I was frustrated, vengeful, didn't listen to my senses?"

"It is understandable. No one should blame you. If Tsubomi blam-"

"Goddamn it," Yuri slammed her fist against a wall, breaking open a hole into it, making a crack that went up to the ceiling, dropping the tiniest pieces of concrete on their heads. Reika knew it was time to shut up. Yuri was angrier than she had thought. "Why the hell are you talking about things you don't understand at all? I don't want your opinion, your judgment," she got up. Everyone was looking at Moonlight and Beauty. "If you want to know so much, no, my father didn't die."

"Ah… I-"

"Didn't know? Of course you didn't. No one knows what happened, because I never told anyone, because no one needs to know. But everyone thinks they can judge that which is not their concern. It has never been, and it never will be, so stop talking about what you don't understand."

Beauty meant to apologize, but she knew there was nothing she could say that would make things better. Yuri was right; this was none of her business. Moonlight rose and walked outside, and all Cures swiftly moved out of her way, all too aware of her outburst. Moonlight walked off into the streets in front of the house, and in the darkness she disappeared.

Reika knew then that she had misjudged Yuri. There was no connection between them at all, even though they had fought together, and Reika was a fool for believing there might have ever been. It was clear now that whatever had happened to Yuri, it had made her distance herself from everything, everyone, her heart imprisoned somewhere it could not be reached.

Rikka's voice was like a song from a long-gone childhood, a melody that drowned out all the other noises in Trump's streets, a memory thought forgotten, and Mana wanted nothing but to listen to it all day, to ask her a thousand questions, to learn where she had been, how she was doing, to pretend that things were normal again, but Rikka's eyes made it clear that they weren't. Rikka was trying not to look at her, Mana noticed. Whenever she did so, she just looked so sad, so worried.

"Have you been healthy?" Mana asked. "Have you been taking care of yourself?"

"I have, but…" Rikka showed her sad eyes again, and they hurt like nothing else. "I should ask the same of you! Mana, you-"

"I'm fine," said Mana. She didn't want Rikka to worry about her. She wanted Rikka to be happy to see her again, her closest, oldest friend… It was Rikka's smile she wanted to see, not sad eyes full of concern. "I'm not easy to kill."

"I guess so, but-" Mana shut her up by covering her mouth with a bony finger. Usually she did so whenever Rikka worried about a test (even though she was the last person who should worry about that!), and Rikka always smiled afterwards, as Mana's presence always helped her calm down. Now, however, she frowned. "Are you telling me to shut up, Mana? I'm just worried about you."

"You don't have to worry about me," Rikka's tone hurt Mana. She had never spoken like this with her. "I'm fine, really."

Rikka seemed doubtful. Mana looked back, avoiding her as well: Sharuru and Raquel were chatting far more cheerfully than their partners did. Sharuru must have told Rikka about the way Mana had starved herself. Of course Rikka wouldn't understand the reason: she could be just too logical sometimes, when she was in a bad mood, and at times like these, bad moods were the norm.

"Hey, Rikka," Mana didn't want that awkward silence. She didn't want that quiet sadness and discomfort, the heavy, crushing weight of things left unsaid. "I… I want us all to be together again. Me, you, Makopi and Alice."

"Ah," Rikka said, her voice barely more than a sigh. "I want that too, but…" She looked as if she was questioning if she should finish that. "There's something I need to tell you, but I don't know how to, and I'm afraid you won't understand, or you won't agree. I'm afraid you'll think I'm doing a bad thing."

"Don't be afraid! Just speak what's on your mind. Just say it, it's easy."

"Goddamn it, Mana! It's not easy for people who aren't you! Not all of us can just say whatever is on our mind without feeling any shame, without fearing they're wrong… Not all of us can act with the same certainty that you do. Most people are full of doubts."

"I know that," Mana said sadly. She did know that, but she could not do anything about the way she was. She had lived her whole life free of doubts, knowing that she should always strive to do what was right. That was the simplest thing to her. She knew that, but she could not understand how it was like to feel otherwise, to doubt oneself. That was the one thing about Rikka that she could never understand, the one missing bond between their hearts. "I know…"

"I'm…" Rikka seemed about to apologize, but changed her mind. She let the silence cover them again, and afterwards Mana said nothing as well. She wanted to know what it was that troubled Rikka, what it was that filled her with doubts, but she didn't want to intrude too much. If Rikka was afraid to say it, Mana wouldn't press the issue, though she wanted to desperately.

The Bridge of Hearts was not too far now, Mana could see the pointy roofs of the towers of its fortresses rising high in the distance, their windows adorned with banners of pink hearts, though the standards were full of holes now, and the Selfish had scribbled their symbols all over them. She could see the Jikochuu protecting the fort, too, dozens of them, and those were only the ones atop the towers, by the parapets.

Her sight blurred ever so slightly, and Mana closed her eyes tightly, and when she opened them again, the world was gently moving, as if she was being cradled. She had barely gotten any sleep the last night, and once Rikka had fallen into slumber, Mana sneaked out of bed to join the watch earlier than she was supposed to, relieving Radiance of her duty, for which she was immensely thankful. Mana had slept for a few minutes from time to time, when she rested upon the couch, but soon she'd rise again, and by sunrise, she had a terrible headache and dizziness. She wasn't worried, though: she would not be fighting in the front lines, as Reika's plan required support from capable archers, of which there were none other than herself, Mana and Rikka.

"To me," Reika gathered the Precure around her. "You all know your place, or do you need to review the plan?" No one asked for help, so Reika just continued. "The forts themselves will not pose such a great obstacle. They weren't made to withstand the strength of over a dozen Pretty Cures. However, reaching the first fortress, on this side of the bridge, will be a problem… We will have to move quickly so that we can reach the gate in as little time as possible. From atop the walls, the Selfish have the advantage, and can bombard us from above with impunity."

"Can we leap over the walls?" Asked Amethyst. "They aren't that thick…"

"I'd rather not bypass it," said Beauty. "If we try to be clever and jump over it, that means there'll be Selfish on the Bridge, stopping our progress, while the soldiers atop the walls will be free to rain death on us. It'll only take a few moments to capture the fort, so why not err on the side of caution?"

"That's fair enough," said Amethyst.

"Since we've had no way of reaching the second fort, even for scouting, we have no idea how strong it is," said Akane.

"We can presume that the Selfish would have gathered their strength on the south side of Trump, where they know most of the Precure resistance is, right?"

"True," Akane agreed. "As far as we know, they have full control of the northern half of the city, so that would make sense… The Bridge, though…"

"Right," said Beauty. "That's my main concern. The Bridge of Hearts might be wide enough for a carriage, but it's less than half as big as the White Bridge, at least. There is very little room to move there, with water on both our sides. I could, perhaps, try to freeze the surface of the waters so that we may walk upon it, but I feel that's risky. I've never done it on a real river, only on ponds, at best. If the icy terrain can't hold our weight, then we might end up drowning."

"Let's not even consider that," said Rikka. "The Selfish have Jikochuu on the water, giant squids that are surprisingly fast and strong."

"We've seen them," said Nagisa, bitterly. "Only one, though."

"The Jikochuu are stronger when in numbers," said Akane, "we've tasted that when we ambushed them. You can try to fight off a single squid, they aren't very resilient, but from what I've heard, they are very fond of ganging up on a single foe, each one wrapping tightly around a limb, then pulling all at once. It's not a pretty thing to imagine."

"I think we can overcome them if we are cautious, and offer support to each other," said Reika. "If one of us ends up in their grasp, everyone nearby tries to free them, alright? No questions asked," everyone seemed in agreement. "Most importantly, we must avoid a stalemate at all costs. If the Selfish guarding the bridge manage to keep us stuck in a spot, if they manage to form a defensive line, then we'll be easy targets for the monsters on the water. If they do that when we're close to the northern fort, then we'll have marksmen to deal with, too."

"So we gotta keep moving at all times!" Nozomi said. "If we stop, we're toast."

That's one way to put it. Everyone laughed, and though at first Nozomi looked as if she had no idea what everyone found funny, she was laughing in the end, even if only to fit in.

"I'll be with Heart and Diamond, at the back," said Beauty. "Our duty will be to attack the Jikochuu from a distance, before they're upon you, freeing a path for you. If necessary, we'll join you in the closer range, but we'll try to remain behind so we won't get in your way. Mana, Rikka, is that understood?" The two nodded, but Reika directed a concerned stare at Mana. She still doubts me, even though I told her this suffering is one I chose for myself. I'm not weak. I'm not. I'm still strong, and perfectly reasonable. "Can you do it?"

"Of course," said Mana. "Make pincushions out of the Jikochuu. I can do that. Sure."

She didn't want to admit it, but she was a bit more tired than she would have liked. She was glad to be away from the front lines, then; behind everyone, there was no way she could possibly be a bother, even though she was a bit dizzy. Only a bit, though! I'm fine… They need me now, and I can't abandon them, no matter how much it hurts.

"Let's go, then," said Reika. "Remember: move with all your haste. It's a long way to the gate, I know, but we have to make it in a single dash."

Yuri was, of course, the first to run, and the ones that followed couldn't match her speed. Dream and Fortune were quite agile, but they did not have Moonlight's form. Mana did her best to keep up, but it was clear that she was lagging behind. She felt her arm clasped by someone else's. Nagisa and Honoka were helping her run, keeping her up and helping her gain speed until she could let go and accompany the others.

By then the arrows were flying, and rocks too, and blasts of energy spat by the Jikochuu on the battlements. They pierced the air with unmatched speed, but Mana was lucky enough to not be on their way; they always exploded a few meters away from her, almost taking away her balance, but despite a few missteps, Mana kept going. When she finally saw the gate, she couldn't even feel her legs anymore, but at last they had reached their initial destination. Now the struggle really began.

The first fortress was the easiest to breach; walls of stone and steel gates meant little to the strength of the Precure. Nozomi was the first to throw her body against the walls, then Nagisa, then Cures whose name Mana didn't know, and the stone crumbled down. Jikochuu met them at the breach. Most of them took the form of large apes, the most common sort of Jikochuu, but not the most threatening. Most of the Cures fought them in close range, but Heart stood next to Diamond and Beauty, supporting the rest with her arrows.

When the path was clear, Mana followed, hiding her exhaustion from the others. She could not worry Rikka, not in the middle of battle. She ran even though her legs hurt so much she just wanted to fall to the floor, she kept shooting even though her fingers were sore, her hands red, almost bleeding from the strain.

Mana moved straight to the Bridge, while Nasturtium and another of the Cures took the stairs to the battlements, to wrest control of the stronghold from the Selfish that still held it. The garrison was not too numerous, and their only strength was their strengthened position.

The Bridge of Hearts itself extended far into the distance, filled with Selfish agents and Jikochuu: not only the ordinary apes and the squids, but a larger, more threatening one, a slender humanoid with swords for hands. It seemed to lead the others, being the first to strike against the Precure.

Moonlight zipped past the lines of the Jikochuu to meet their commanders, who had no idea how to react against her might; they screamed as Yuri effortlessly grabbed whoever was next to her and tossed them out of the bridge, into the river.

Not all Cures were Moonlight, though, so the Jikochuu gave them plenty of trouble. Nozomi and Nagisa found themselves unable to move as the squids held them by the legs, trying to pull them down while the apes pummeled them into the stone. Reika let go of her bow to help them, choosing instead her sword; she cut the tentacles that constricted Dream and Black, who fought back the Jikochuu with heavy punches. While Beauty fought, she shouted commands and directions to the rest of the Precure.

Mana was fighting too: she let loose arrow after arrow, and in this at least she was not disappointing anyone, as her weakness was no problem at all when pulling the trigger of a crossbow. Cure Radiance stood right in front of her, just as Beauty had commanded, keeping her safe from approaching foes. Though Heart and Diamond could fight well from a distance, if they were caught while they were reloading their weapons with magic quarrel, they would have no way of retaliating.

And then the largest Jikochuu leapt high above the Cures, throwing itself against Heart, pointing its long bladed arms at her and Diamond. The two of them jumped backwards to avoid the attack, but Radiance was not so quick, and the creature fell right on top of her, piercing her chest. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, only a disgusting gurgle.

Mana let loose a bolt at the Jikochuu, but her hands were shaking violently, so she almost hit Honoka instead, the quarrel missing her arm by inches.

"H-Heart Sh-"

The Jikochuu swung at her before she could finish her attack. She skipped to the side, but was too slow, and she felt a terrible warmth on her knees. When she looked down, blood was running down her trembling legs, and she fell to her knees, scraping them on the cobblestone bridge. It hurts so much. She could not find the strength to get up. She thought the Jikochuu was about to finish her off, but the monster shared the cruelty of its makers, and instead it meant to cut down Rikka, whose bolt bounced off its scythe-like arms harmlessly.

Not her, kill me instead, please, Mana thought, forcing herself to rise, to throw herself against the Jikochuu and Rikka. She was ready. She had always been ready to let herself be hurt in the place of others. If she could save Rikka this way, she would do it smiling.

Before she could, Fortune leapt against the beast's torso, coming from its side. The monster fell against the bridge's stone railings, screaming as it hit its oversized head. A frost-tipped bolt pierced the creature's face, exploding into countless shards of ice that tore open a hundred holes in the Jikochuu's body, and when there was nothing left, its Psyche revealed itself. It was larger than most, and the rose light that enveloped it made it obvious that it had belonged to a Precure.

Mana tried to get Radiance up, hoping she still lived, but she was already gone. Those dead eyes stared at her. She died for me, Mana realized. Her stomach boiled, and what little she had eaten came up, spat upon the Bridge. She died for me. No one should suffer in her place, never… She was the one always giving herself to others, whatever she had. This was wrong. This was a failure.

"She died for me," Mana said out loud.

"She was going to die anyways," said Iona. Something was off about her tone. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and be glad I was here to save you."

"Ah, right… Thanks, Iona," Mana said when she managed to get up. Her leg was still bleeding, but now that the shock had passed, it had gotten numb again. Mana tried to smile, though it was a miserable display of gratitude, but Iona was seething. "If not for you, I too would-"

"Is this a joke?" She asked, stepping uncomfortably close to Heart. "You're just playing with us, aren't you?"

"W-What do you mean?"

"You can't fight, can you? You've driven yourself halfway to death, haven't you?"

"No! No, I-"

"Did you even sleep last night?"

"No, because someone else needed the bed more, and-"

"You little idiot…" Her words were so aggressive that Mana was certain that she was about to be assaulted, and even Rikka put a hand on Iona's arm, pulling it away. "You think you're really selfless, don't you? You think you're a real martyr, getting yourself killed and mutilated for no reason."

"No, I-"

"Do you understand just how damn selfish you're being?"

There had been plenty of people who disliked Mana, and many of them had even been Precure, but of all the things she had been called, selfish was most definitely never one of them.

"W-What?"

"All you're doing is giving everyone else trouble," said Iona, "making everyone take care of you, fix your messes. That's all we've been doing since we found you! We have to make you eat, sleep, make sure you don't kill yourself for no reason! All because of your misguided notion of selflessness. My sister was selfless. Truly selfless. She didn't starve herself for anyone, you know. She knew that there was nothing charitable about giving away everything you had while you died. Can you believe that, for a moment, I thought you two were alike? I thought you acted with sort of reason, at least, even if misguided, but… I don't know what's wrong with you."

"Y-Your sister?" Iona rarely spoke of Cure Tender. Mana had seen how sad it made her. Even now she looked a few words away from tears. That filled Heart with shame. "I'm sorry… I… I only wanted to do what was right."

"Yeah," Iona scoffed. "Of course you did. People don't usually go around meaning to screw up. Look, I've already wasted enough time on you now. If you're just gonna keep getting in our way and thinking you're saint for hurting yourself for others, you can get lost."

She joined the rest of the Precure in battle, never looking back. Mana couldn't move. She had never felt so stupid. She could not fully agree with what Fortune had said, but Iona had a point. Cure Tender had been selfless. Mana had only heard tales of Maria Hikawa and her end, but there was no doubt that she had the right idea of how to help others.

"Mana?" Rikka poked at her arm, but Mana was too deep in thought to answer. She realized the truth now.

How silly of her to ever think otherwise. A true Precure gives everything she has to her fellows, but, until now, Mana had hesitated to part with her most precious treasures. Maria had no such fear. Mana had given away her health, her time, her tranquility, but she still had more to give. Not much, as she had gotten rid of almost all else, but she still had her mind, her love, her heart. And her life. Perhaps that was the most important of all.

"Let's go, Rikka," said Mana. "Iona was right. I was being selfish. But I know better now. I won't make the same mistake again," she walked past Radiance. A time would come to mourn, perhaps, but not now.

"Mana…" Rikka was still doubtful. Mana comforted her with a warm, gentle hand. "Mana, are you sure… Are you sure you should keep going?"

"Don't worry," she said. "Iona opened my eyes. Now let's join the others. There's still a lot of fighting ahead, so let's give it our all."

A hot breeze was blowing just outside the Phoenix Tower, and though usually the winds were too hot, today they were pleasant like the touch of a friend's warm hand on a winter night. Mai laughed at those words she thought. There was a reason she called herself a painter, not a writer. A breeze cannot feel like a friend's hand, nor could it even remind her of that feeling. She put her own hand on her cheek, and sighed. Did Saki's touch feel like this? She couldn't remember anymore. Even Saki's voice was turning into a distant memory. Mai could just barely recall the way Saki's words sounded when they said good morning to one another as they began their work with the Heart Tree. But Saki's screams, her shrieks as she watched the tree burn, and her homeland with it… That she remembered perfectly.

Suddenly she was in no mood for drawing, anymore. In truth, she wasn't always in the mood for that, but Mai did her best to draw something every single day, to try and pretend that something in her life was still normal, still right. Everything else of her old life was gone. Without Saki, Mai couldn't transform anymore. She couldn't go home either, nor could she look at the skies above and see the stars that her father so loved. All she had left was her art, and even that did not always bring her pleasure, now.

Few things did, in fact, and one of them was her friendship with Ayumi. She had been accepted by the Red Rose and taken to the Phoenix Tower for tutelage, where she learned magic from Mr. Momoi, martial arts with Southern Cross, stewardship with Katyusha, and, sometimes, history with Cure Mirage, though she didn't have much time to spare for a student.

Mai had moved to the Phoenix Tower with her, though her plan was to return to Last Light as soon as Ayumi became a Precure. She just didn't want to leave Ayumi alone in a place with no friends, no one she knew.

"Mai," she heard Ayumi's familiar voice approach her. She opened her eyes and saw Ayumi amidst the trees in front of the Tower. By her side were Mr. Momoi, with the same lazy, condescending smile he always had, and Cure Mirage, who, Mai only just noticed, was actually very slightly shorter than Ayumi.

"Are you done for the day?" Mai asked. Today Ayumi had magic lessons, she recalled, so it was no wonder Momoi was with her. "How was it?"

"It was fantastic," Ayumi was beaming. Mai had seen Ayumi's great smile when Mirage told her she would become a Precure, but this was different. Somehow, she seemed even happier. "I… I did magic today, Mai! Real magic this time, not just theory."

"You did learn the theory from the best," Momoi said, flipping his long hair. He always did that, and Mai wondered if he meant it as a joke. "Of course, you made excellent progress yourself, too."

"I remember the first time I managed to perform some magic," Mirage said. "I looked just like you do right now, with your goofy smile, almost as big as your face."

"G-Goofy? Oh, my…"

"It's not a bad thing," Mirage said. "I don't blame you for it. Do you remember the first time you used magic, Mai?"

She nodded. She learned with Saki, and though she had been slow to grasp the fundamentals of the arcane, when it was time to actually try and cast a spell, Saki had been just as competent as Mai. Mai had learned how to control the wind, though only breezes, and Saki had made a small bud grow into a beautiful flower.

Or had Saki saved a dying flower? Mai wasn't sure now. When she looked back, she could only remember how she made the breeze change its direction twice, but couldn't remember Saki. She didn't remember anything that happened that day. How could she? She had just commanded the wind! In that moment, nothing else seemed to matter, so when she looked back, everything around her was a blur.

"Mai?" Mirage insisted.

"I remember," she said. "I wasn't that good."

"Me neither, to be honest. It took me so long to get good at it. But Ayumi here…"

"Ayumi is a prodigy," her teacher said, making the girl blush. Mai gave her a grin of support, to show her pride. "Her tutor is a prodigy too, so I expect greatness from her."

"You know, Momoi, I would reprimand you if I didn't know you are not being arrogant in the slightest," said Cure Mirage. She had been a professor at Verone, just like him.

"Do you think you can show us what you did?"

"I…" She looked uncertain. "I think you're overstating my skills, I wasn't particularly impressive."

"Well, of course not," Mirage said. "It was your first time, and the stars are gone, so all magic is weaker. There's only so much you can do as a novice. And you did well, all things considered. Extremely well. Can you show us?"

Ayumi closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. For concentration, Mai knew. With experience, a Precure could use magic with a single thought, but Ayumi wasn't a Precure yet, and she most certainly wasn't experienced. With eyes still shut, she pointed a finger at a spot next to Mai. Her other hand was closed into a tight fist, twitching as she focused utterly on her magic.

There was no sound, no light to indicate that magic was occurring, but when Mai looked to her side, there was no denying that it was magic: Ayumi was standing right next to her, and, at the same time, in front of her.

"An illusion?" Mai asked, and Ayumi nodded. The poor girl looked exhausted, almost falling. They should not have asked her to show it. She was not even a Precure yet, and did not have the strength and experience required to use magic so frequently. Mai held her by the hand so that she would not stumble.

"Isn't that impressive for first-timer?" Mirage asked.

Mai had to agree. This was not simple magic. She grinned. Ayumi would go far, she knew. Mai was glad she was there to see it.

"Only one other Precure has impressed me like this," said Mirage. "Cure Fortune. I think her progress was so exceptional because she's using her sister's Pretty Change Mirror."

"Cure Fortune? Oh, right, she's Maria Hikawa's sister."

"Hm-hm. Sad thing, what happened to those sisters. Maria was my dear friend, and I promise to protect Iona, but… I let Iona go to Trump. Despite the promise I made, I decided to allow Iona to do what her heart told her. Was this a good deed, or a bad one?"

"I… It is not for me to say," Mai answered.

"Right," said Mirage. She looked back to her Tower. She didn't go out much, Mai thought, that was clear from how pale she was, how her eyes avoided the sun. "I must go back inside now," she said, just as Mai imagined she would. "This red sun troubles me. I have to do some studying."

"On what?"

"On the Fountains," said Mirage. Many liked to imagine they didn't exist, but Mai knew better than that, and was glad to see that Mirage thought the same. "I have found an old report that mentioned a red, bleeding sun that painted the skies red with its tears. It has happened before. I'm almost certain the cause involves the Fountain of Sun, somehow, but I don't know much more than that. So I'll go back to my books. Good day to you all," she said with a quick, stiff bow. "Good work today, Ayumi."

Afterwards she left, with Momoi by her side. Ayumi let out a sigh, and fell on Mai's arms.

"So exhausting… Magic is really hard, Mai."

"It is," she knew it all too well. "Don't worry about that, though. It's normal. You'll get over it soon, once you become a Precure. When will that be, by the way?"

"Well," she said as Mai helped her sit down on the grassy ground without falling, "I'm not sure yet. I need to complete the basics of my education first. It's going well, though, and since there aren't any other students, I have all the attention of my teachers."

"That's very good," Mai knew how much that helped with learning. She valued every time she had been allowed to study with Honoka, who always gave her invaluable insight. That explained why Ayumi was doing so well.

"I'm having trouble with fighting, though. Reika was much more patient with me than Southern Cross, but I suppose I can't complain. Mirage told me that if I keep being so dedicated, she may actually make me a Precure by the end of the week, now that I have performed magic!"

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Mai said, grasping her friend's hands, and smiling. "And have you decided on a name? That's quite important, you know! You don't wanna be stuck with a silly name your whole life. Like Hime. I understand why she named herself Cure Princess, but someday she'll be queen," she was technically already queen, now that her parents were gone. Hime refused to accept that, though, and insisted they were still alive, so she was still a mere princess. Mai wondered how long she would be able to keep fooling herself like that.

"Ah, right… I haven't yet, no… I asked Mirage for advice, but she wasn't too helpful. She told me that I could do what she did: abandon my name and instead be known for the rest of my life by my Precure name. Many Precure used to do it, she said, as a sign of their loyalty to the Red Rose."

"Will you do that?"

"N-no way! I can't… I can't stop being Ayumi. I've been Ayumi my whole life, and I don't want to let go of my own name… Because I don't want to forget myself. Even if I become a Precure, I'll still be the same person, with the same friends, the same family. The same dreams. I understood very well what Mirage meant when she told me to abandon my name. I know what it means to do that. And I don't want it."

"Then don't do it," said Mai. That seemed like a very sad thing to do, actually. She wondered why Mirage chose that. "Just do whatever you think is best for you, Ayumi. That's my advice. That, and choose a name that sounds cool."

"Maybe something in a foreign language?" Ayumi asked, thoughtful. "Would that make me sound cultured?"

"I don't think so," they laughed together. Gentle, controlled laughter. When Mai noticed that, she realized just how much she missed Saki's laughter. Saki would often laugh a bit too loudly, then be embarrassed by her own voice. She found it humiliating, but Mai thought it was adorable.

Ayumi was often quiet, in a way that Saki never was. Saki wasn't a bumbling fool, of course, but she would never stand next to Mai for so long, just watching her draw, and never ask a question. It was not out of disrespect, of course: it was just that Saki was always curious about what her partner was working on. Mai was deeply thankful for that… But now it was too late to say thanks for that, or to say all the things that she had thought now. She was forgetting Saki, and her fading memories were replaced with regrets and words left unsaid.

When she was done drawing, Mai was left unsatisfied. This was poor work. She just wanted to get it done so that she could go on pretending that she wasn't bothered by her own troubles. She already spent most of her day and most of her thoughts worrying about Saki, about her mother, her father, her brother, all the friends she had… She would not burden Ayumi with her worries. Mai was trapped in a cage of the past, while Ayumi took flight into the future. It would be unfair to worry her.

Night came after a blood sunset, black spilling on crimson. Mai went to bed right after dinner, sooner than usual; she apologized to Ayumi, saying she was too tired. She wasn't lying: she did in fact feel unusually exhausted. The weight of her memories had made her weary, and now she longed for her bed, her pillows, her blanket. When she laid there, her vision darkening, and she left her thoughts drift away to emptiness, it almost felt like she was home. If she just thought of nothing…

But this time she thought of Saki just before she fell asleep.

Soon after she opened her eyes, but she was not in her bedroom. She didn't know where she was, and she didn't care: Saki was right in front of her. She sat on a small, plain bed, covered in frost. Though it was only a dream, Mai could feel the cold that came from the walls of ice. She walked towards Saki, who did not react to her at all.

"Saki," there were a thousand things Mai had thought of saying to Saki, but now all she could say was her name.

Saki looked at her in confusion. Do you not see me, Saki? Her eyes moved all around, her face baffled. Can she hear me, at least?

"Saki," she repeated, louder now, the word making echoes in the frozen chamber, Saki, Saki, Saki…

"M-Mai?" Saki said fraily. She got up, and Mai ran towards her, to hug her, but when she touched Saki, her arms turned into air, and she could not even feel her. She put her hand on Saki's cheek, and it too became nothing but wind. Saki must have felt it, too, as she jumped back, and touched her own face. "Just a breeze…"

I'm not a breeze, Mai choked on her own words as she cried, covering her face with her hand, her tears turning into crystals that fell all over her palm. Cold. Saki was almost crying too, she was making that sad face she always made when she held back tears. Please don't cry, please, I can't bear to see you cry, but she was already crying.

And then Mai awoke, and instead of Saki, all she saw was her own ceiling, and the darkness of her bedroom. Of course it was only a dream, she thought for a second, until she felt something cold on her hand. She brought it closer to her face, and took a good look.

Cold water seeped through her fingers as the crystals melted on her hand.

Chapter Text

The man shrieked in fear as he was dragged to the execution grounds of Labyrinth, where the Deletion Holes were being prepared. Eas watched as the guards pulled him savagely, struggling to free himself. His eyes were taken with despair, and Eas could not help but pity him, even though she knew she should not: he had chosen this fate when he chose to rebel against Moebius. He had confessed to being part of the group that breached the data centers of Labyrinth, but, under duress, it became clear that he was only a peon, hardly aware of the group's plan. When he saw that it was Northa who awaited him, to open the Deletion Hole, he began to cry.

They restrained him with strong chains in front of the Deletion Hole; it was still closed, a circular door on a large metal plate atop a great platform where all would be able to see his end. Every citizen of Labyrinth was required to witness at least one execution every year, as a reminder of what was the fate of defying Moebius. Thousands had attended today, all of them smiling. All but Eas. She was the wrong one, the one with the messed up brain, the one who could not love Moebius. Even thinking of it brought her great discomfort. It reminded her of how defective she was. Her past was gone now, beyond her mind's reach, and she knew she had no future in Labyrinth.

"All glory to Lord Moebius!" Said Northa, her voice filling the world. Every citizen of Labyrinth said the same, and so did Eas, but she did it a second after all others. She wondered if anyone had noticed. "Labyrinth's power is not to be defied. Lord Moebius is the future. Witness now what happens to fools who deny him, what happens to those who conspire against our mighty country."

The man was begging for mercy, but he would get none. His eyes were mad with horror, and he flounced so desperately that the chains scraped banged against the metal behind him, but the sound was drowned out by the ecstatic crowd that praised their ruler.

The Deletion Hole was opened, and the man was gone. Eas almost didn't have the time to even comprehend what had happened. For a split second his body undid itself in a million parts, and afterwards there was nothing left of him, nor of the chains that held him. The Hole then closed, and the public was sufficiently awed and terrified. The agents around the Hole, however, were not nearly as jubilant. They knew how likely it was that this fate was awaiting them; few agents ever retired, after all.

The Deletion Holes had been Klein's creation, of course. Moebius had decreed that a nation as advanced as Labyrinth should not execute its people as the primitive kingdoms did. No trace was to be left of detractors, and so Klein begun his research on how to utterly end a person, not only their lives, but their entire bodies and, it was said, their soul. Eas didn't know if she believed that rumor, or if there even were such things as souls, but if Klein ever managed to discover their existence, she did not doubt that his next step would be to erase them.

Eas stepped down from the platform, but she could not free herself from Northa. The woman followed her closely, and though Eas tried not to acknowledge her, Northa put a hand on her shoulder, gripping so tightly that Eas had to hold back a grunt of pain.

"Eas," she said, "walk with me."

Though worded politely, by Northa's standards, it was obvious that it was an order, and Eas had no choice but to obey. The crowd was dispersing, but there were still too many people blocking their way, and, surprisingly, Northa decided to wait.

"Look," she pointed at the distance, to the rest of the execution grounds. Eas looked, though she did not want to: they were unending, and wherever she looked, she saw more platforms outfitted with a Deletion Hole, over a hundred of them in total. "Impressive, isn't it? Doesn't it just make you wonder why someone who knows of this power would ever possibly try to stand against our might?"

"Yeah," she said. "I don't know what they're thinking."

"And neither do I, although I do have some theories," she said, almost smiling. "They've seen that time and time again we have suppressed revolts and invasions from great powers, but maybe, just maybe, this time they'll succeed. Yes, maybe they're the ones. Perhaps they have what it takes. All over our history, thousands and thousands had those foolish notions. They all died, but none have learned."

"For how long has Labyrinth existed?" Eas asked, pointing at her head. "I cannot remember. So much is gone."

"Ah, I see. Perhaps Klein got rid of more than he should have… Well, no matter. Labyrinth has always existed, my dear Eas. There is no past without Labyrinth, just as there is no future. Does that answer your question?"

"It does," Eas said, not believing any of it. Eas could not conceive a country existing for so long. Many claimed they did, but that was clearly impossible. "And if I may ask another…"

"That's pushing it, Eas, but go ahead."

"Why is it that you requested my presence? You are not a woman who wastes her time with small talk, so I assumed there was something you wanted.

"You assume right," said Northa. "There is a… Problem. A problem we're having."

Everything was a problem to Northa. This was perhaps the root of her success in the ranks of Labyrinth: she was never, ever content, and always demanded more productivity, better results. She, just like Klein, had no mercy for the weak, just like their liege, Moebius. Eas looked up; those towers that reached the fog-covered sky were not built on weakness.

"And what is the nature of this problem?"

"Infinity. Though we have secured it, it has not lived up to our expectations. From it we are extracting only a fraction of the energy we used to, long ago. Every day Klein would send me a report, and every day it said the same. Operating at 0,7% of usual power. Do you have any idea how low that is?"

"Very."

"Very low. We have made great breakthroughs in the last years, technologies your mind can't even dream of. And yet we don't have the power required to use them."

"Do you know why?"

"It just so happens that I do," said Northa. "There was a single oscillation in the level of energy output in the past months, and it corresponds to the date where that star appeared in the sky."

It wasn't hard to understand what it meant. Though a thick fog veiled the night sky, Eas had seen the star, once, alongside Soular and Westar. She had lost the memory of stars, so when she saw it again, she was enthralled by its light. It was all alone in the darkness, but somehow that made it look like it shone brighter. Eas found it a beautiful, precious thing, but Soular told her that the stars were linked to the magic of the Precure and the fairies. He didn't explain any further; he said it didn't matter, but Eas was certain that the truth was that he didn't know.

"So Infinity grows in power with the stars?"

"Yes, evidently," she said. "Legend has it that the stars went out, once, thousands of years ago, and the world was devoured by the darkness. It's hard to know what is true and what is myth, and I know that much of it is exaggerated, but here is the tale most often told: powerful as the Precure were, even then, they were not friends to regular humans and fairies. Their magic was weaker, then, too, but most importantly, the Precure were scattered. They all fought to protect their own lands, with no organization or leadership. Their enemies attacked all at once, and this took them by surprise."

"Was that what inspired you to attack the Precure like you did?" Eas asked. She had heard of how so many unlikely factions joined forces to kill the stars and bring down the Precure.

"You know I can't tell you those things," said Northa. She licked her lips. This was a threat, Eas realized, and decided not to ask about matters that were above her. "So," she continued, "the world was all in darkness for a very long time. Somehow they managed to even make the sun go out, then. We have not been able to reproduce that, which is why the world is not in complete chaos. When the sun and the stars went out, then, everything crumbled. All the greenery was gone from the world, turned brown and grey. Farmlands went to ruin, leaving entire nations without any food. Kingdoms fought among themselves for a little bit of meat, for a single river that had not yet dried."

"Did it do them any good?"

"Of course not. The victors lasted a few more years, but in the end they starved too. It is said that the queen of Majorland died when she tried to devour her own crown, but not before she choked her children on her scepter."

"That sounds like a detail to make a story more interesting."

"Of course," said Northa. "Much of what the tales say is probably baseless. To make the story of the legendary Cures more interesting. The Red Rose was quite competent at convincing the world of their tales, of how they rose from the ashes of humanity after billions had died and civilizations as advanced as the ones that exist today turned to dust, of how the darkness lasted so long that the world forgot what was the sun. It did not last nearly that long. It can't have. It makes no sense. What is true, however, is that the Precure and the fairies joined forces to restore their lost stars. Until then, their magic depended on no external forces, but they sacrificed that to imbue the stars with their magic, Precure and fairies alike."

"So now their power depends on the stars as well," Eas concluded. Northa nodded. "And without stars, Infinity is worthless."

"That is the problem, yes. And we will need you."

"M-Me? Why?" she was not a Precure. Only a Precure could light the Starlight Flames.

"Because the Precure trust you," she handed Eas a folder. Inside she found photographs taken by Labyrinth's drones. Pictures of the Phoenix Tower, and of a group of Precure leaving it. Photos of those same Precure in the road to the Trump Kingdom. "They took the bait. Your plan worked."

"They don't trust me," she said. "They just think we need each other."

"I don't know you managed to convince them of something like that, but keep it up. We'll need their cooperation. Only they can do it."

"You can't mean it-"

"I do. We need at least a few more stars so that we can use Infinity. Not all of them, of course, just enough for us to destroy our foes. If we manage to get Infinity to produce 15% of its maximum capacity, then we can end all who oppose us. If we can have that much power from Infinity, Klein has the capacity to open a Delete Hole from a distance. Anywhere in the world, with the proper preparations."

"That's-"

"Amazing. That is what it is. Dark Fall is about to declare war on us, did you know? They have almost gotten complete control of the lands beyond the Crystal Ocean, save for the Garden of Light. They will, soon, and then they'll sail the Crystal Ocean and try to conquer everything here as well. But with Infinity, we'll destroy them so quickly they will not even understand what happened."

"I see," said Eas. Northa was asking for much, for her to keep her masquerade and get the Precure to do her bidding. Even they could not be such fools. "I will do it, then."

"Good," said Northa. "When you return to your office, there will be a confidential file awaiting you. It details the location of every known Starlight Flame. Guide the Precure to them."

Eas nodded again, and went on her way. She could feel Northa's eyes on her. She always could, so she walked as quickly as possible toward her new office. Sometimes she thought her leaders took great pleasure in forcing their agents to keep moving.

She wouldn't complain, of course: this new office was by far the most pleasant. Its halls were perfumed and each agent had their own spacious room. Eas' was larger than her quarters, in fact. When she closed the door, she felt alone, but she knew she was not. There was a camera in every office. She wondered if the workers in charge of watching her were being watched over, as well. She wondered how deep that went.

On the ground floor was the room full of telephone chambers; she had to work there, one day, and she did not miss it. Her duty was to relay information to distant sectors of Labyrinth, and messages too. It was hard, stressful work, with no rest. She had hated it so much that filling spreadsheets was exciting in comparison.

Past it was the elevator. A lady asked her which floor she was headed to; it was the nineteenth, said Eas. There was not actually great movement in this building, certainly not to require an attendant, but everyone in Labyrinth had to work, and sometimes the jobs they were given were not strictly necessary.

The door opened, and Eas was headed to her office. It was just past Westar's (he waved at her) and Soular's (he pretended to ignore her). The room felt stuffy, as the door and windows had been left closed. She opened the windows, and this time she didn't bother closing the door. Westar and Soular were not necessarily the best company, but after Northa, she was longing to speak to someone who did not have the power to have her killed for saying a wrong word.

On the desktop she found a text file, appropriately labeled StarFlames. Therein were all the locations of Starlight Flames. One in each of the fairy kingdoms, save for the Palmier Kingdom, where there were four of them. One atop the royal palace of Trump, though in truth they were seven Starlight Flames all close together. More were scattered all over the Trump Kingdom. There were others in sacred temples of Märchenland, surprisingly few in Majorland, but they were linked to great stars. There were Starlight Flames everywhere, even in Labyrinth and its captured lands. There was a comment on the Flames of Labyrinth:

No Starfire here to light them. Klein is making attempts to synthesize it, but it is still unknown if the stars will accept artificial Starfire. If not, it must be acquired from another location.

Artificial Starfire. No one even knew how natural Starfire was made in the first place, so Eas did not have great hopes for that project.

A tiny warning popped up on the right corner of the screen. Something about a connection issue; Eas not understand the words, they were too technical for her. She hoped that she had not done anything wrong; she knew her computer was always being monitored.

Connection lost. Attempting to establish connection.

Yes, this was most definitely wrong. Those words she understood, at least. She had lost contact with Labyrinth's inside network, which meant she would not receive her instructions, or information, nor would she be able to send her reports until it was fixed. And she would not be watched.

Connection established, it said at last, but it was not a connection with Labyrinth's network this time. It was another, she realized when she checked the name. It did not have Labyrinth anywhere, just a random string of letters and numbers. Warnings said more technical words, and then it said, downloading file.

An image file. It was a map of the ground floor of this building. Who had gotten it, and how? It had to be the people who infiltrated the data centers. An obnoxiously red arrow pointed to the phone chambers; a red circle had been drawn around one of the chambers. Next to it was a message: answer five minutes from now (delete this).

She deleted it, and when she looked again, this new connection had been lost as well, and normalcy had been restored. She understood the message, of course. The phone would ring five minutes from then. Someone wanted to reach her.

She questioned if she should go. It could be a trick. No, it almost certainly was one. Things were never simple. Was it Northa trying to root out treason? Was it a test, then? Five minutes… One had passed already, and the elevator was not that fast. She had to know. If the responsible for this was the person who sent her the letter, then she just had to know. A true soldier of Labyrinth, a true servant of Moebius wouldn't even consider it. But Eas knew she was not a true servant. These feelings of loyalty never reached her. She got up, and walked outside.

"Eas?" Westar asked her when she passed by. "Where you going?"

"Technical department," she said, thinking of a quick lie. "There seems to be something wrong with my computer. I keep losing connection."

"Odd," said Soular, now out of his office. For as much as he tried to maintain his air of calm superiority and thoughtfulness, everyone knew that he was quite fond of gossip. "Want me to take a look at it?"

"I'd rather give the tech guys something to do, you know?" She said. "It must get really boring for them."

"And for you, right?" He said. "You just want to take a walk, right?"

"You got me," she said, smiling. "My legs hurt when I sit still for too long. I want to stretch them a little."

"I get that," said Soular. "These new offices are fancy, but in the old one there was this man who always served us tea and coffee, right next to our rooms. Now I have to go to the second floor," he sighed.

"I want coffee now," said Westar. Please don't come with me. Don't ruin everything. You're wasting my time. "Ah, maybe later."

"Good plan," said Eas. "Do it later, yes. I'm gonna go now. See you guys later. I don't presume you're going anywhere, after all."

The two of them laughed, Soular discreetly and Westar shamelessly. Eas walked as fast as she could until she reached the elevator. Thankfully it was just a few floors above her, so she did not have to wait long.

Once on the ground floor, she went straight to the communication room. The chambers were all soundproof, so Eas did not have to fear being overheard. She passed them by until she reached the one the file indicated. It was one of the few open ones.

After a few seconds, the phone began to scream its high-pitched beep, and Eas stepped inside and closed the door. She remembered just why she hated doing this so much: there was almost no room to move in here. She would stay still for hours, and by the end her whole body would be numb. She picked up the phone, fingers trembling slightly.

"Hello," said Eas. She wondered who it was that would answer.

"Eas," it was a man's voice. "You did listen to the instructions after all."

"Only to learn who you are. I am still… I am still loyal to Labyrinth."

"You don't need to lie here," he said. "We directed you to this specific phone at this exact time because it is currently broken, and Labyrinth cannot spy on our conversation. All that we say here will stay with us."

"Right," Eas had no way of knowing if he was telling the truth, or if this was a trick, somehow, so she had to be careful.

"First I want to know how much you remember. Do you remember your life one year ago?"

"I remember nothing of my past life. Klein returned me the loyalty I had lost. I am a devoted soldier of Lord Moebius again," she had said the lie so many times that it sounded perfectly natural now.

"I see. Do you remember me? My voice?"

"No. Have we talked before?"

"Ah…" He sounded disappointed. "We had hoped that maybe a voice would make your remember…"

"Look, what the hell am I supposed to be remembering? Are you playing tricks on me? Are you Klein's man, trying to make certain my brain is fine, that my mind is still perfect? Well, it is. Is that all?"

"Another thing. Do you remember…" He hesitated. "I'll say a name. You tell me what it makes you feel. If it makes you remember something."

"I won't."

"May I say it anyway?"

"Go ahead," she already knew what it would be. It wouldn't hurt this time. She would be strong.

"Setsuna."

It hurt even more than it did when she first read the name on the letter. She almost let go of the phone. Instead she tore a tuft of white hair from her head, pulling it off until it bled, in hopes that this pain would envelop the other, the pain inside her head, caused by that name. It did her no good.

"Don't say that," she said, meekly. "That name… It hurts…"

"I'm sorry," he said, but there was happiness in his voice. "I did not mean to cause you pain. But if the name causes a reaction… That means you are still in there. You aren't lost."

"What… What are you talking about?"

"If the mere mention of your name caused you such pain, I think we should take things slowly. We were left instructions on how to help you remember, and-"

My name? But I'm Eas… It's all I've ever been. Whatever name I might have adopted so that I could betray the Precure is not my true name. I'm Eas.

"Instructions… Who left them? You… You're only making it worse…" Right now banging the phone on her head until it opened up a hole in her forehead seemed a very enticing prospect.

"We'll take things slowly. And we'll need your help, too. You are in a prime position to help us learn the truth."

"Why the hell should I help you in any way? I'm… I'm loyal. Loyal to Moebius, to Northa, to Labyrinth. Stop troubling my mind with these things."

"Alright, Eas," he said. "We'll keep in touch. Please let us know when you are ready. I believe that, together, we can figure out what it is that lies beyond the fog. I think that's Labyrinth's great secret. Everything seems to point toward that. So let us know when we can start working together."

"Let you know… How am I supposed to even reach you?"

"We have our ways to contact you. Don't worry. Just make sure to stay in Labyrinth, alright? We cannot reach you if you are outside."

Eas hanged up the phone, and stared at the blood and hair on her hands. How did that man know her? She, of course, couldn't remember. There was a hole in her head where her memories should be, right next to the hole where should be her loyalty. It made her want to cry. Something had been done to her head, but she didn't know what, nor did she know the extent of it, and it made her feel broken, a freak, a thing that should not be.

He will help me, he said. He told her to stay in Labyrinth. Was that a joke? No one leaves Labyrinth. There is no exit from this prison but death.

After she had been captured by the Selfish, Alice had been put inside a cage with all the other Precure, before being taken to Nightmare's cage, then Eternal's, Shadow's, cages beautiful and hideous and twisted, but cages all the same, just like the room the Selfish had given her and Dark Aqua as they awaited to be acknowledged at last, and could conduct their business. Until then, they were stuck in their cage of jewels and pillows and tacky portraits hanging lopsided on the walls.

"Idiots, all of them," said Dark Aqua. She walked in circles around the room, occasionally stopping to try to open the locked door, always in vain. Even if she could, there would be a guard outside, and many more all around the fortress. "The Selfish are idiots, and so is Anacondy for not predicting this. She should have come with us, or at least sent some representatives of Eternal."

"What do we do now?" Alice asked. Dark Aqua might be willing to waste her time fuming and crawling up the walls, but Alice knew that, for her, failure was not an option. Whenever she dared feel sorry for herself and her misfortune, she remembered the girls in Nightmare, counting on her, and she stopped. "We can't stay holed up inside until the Selfish deal with the Precure. Who knows when they'll do that…"

"I know that! I'm thinking of something!" Are you? "If worse comes to worst, and the Selfish keep us locked in here while they take the mirrors from us, we fight them. Then we go to the palace."

"We can't just fight our way through Trump like this, not while it's swarming with Selfish! If we beat the guards and run off, there'll be more to follow us."

"Oh," an eyebrow rose patronizingly, "so you have an idea? Well, why don't you share it, then? I'll be pleased to hear it, I'm sure it must be something brilliant, coming from someone as smart and communicative as you are. I'm holding my breath."

"S-Stop being mean to her," said Lance. Dark Aqua ignored him.

"It's fine," said Alice. "I don't have an idea, not yet," she glanced to the side, to the mirrors, kept safely next to a bed. "Maybe…"

"Hm?"

"Can we call the others now?" Alice asked. Maybe she did have an idea after all.

"I suppose we could, but… I rather doubt their competence," said Aqua. She doubted everyone but herself. "I'd rather not have to count on them. But what did you have in mind?"

"We call one of them, for now. The rest may wait until we need them. One comes here through the mirror, and gets the attention of the guards. She'll pretend to be a thief, here to take the treasures of the Selfish. They'll look for her, and then we might be able to sneak out."

"Too risky," Aqua dismissed it immediately. "The deception will be obvious. They'll know it was our fault."

"Of course," said Alice. "We're not trying to trick them into believing it's something completely ordinary. We just need a little bit of time to get out of here without the guards being alerted at once. If they don't see our escape, they'll need to look for us, and I've lived in Trump for years. I know how to disappear in lesser-known roads if I need to."

"Fine," she said. Even that was more than Alice had expected, in truth. "I'll allow it on one condition. You will not tell anyone you came up with this. As far as Shadow is concerned, it was my plan. Even if it goes wrong. Understood?"

"Yes, of course. You can keep the credit," Alice said, and Aqua aggressively lunged at her and grabbed her by the shirt.

"It's not simply about credit," she said. "I'm already Shadow's confidant, his closest soldier. I can't rise any higher. It's…" She hesitated. Alice had never seen her proud demeanor changed like this. "I'd rather die than admit I depended on someone's help, that I couldn't solve a problem by myself. It's too much shame."

"Aqua…"

"Don't give me this patronizing look. I don't care what you feel about that as long as you do as I tell you. I'm a fake. I know that. A fake of one of the finest Cures alive, the real Aqua. She could always do everything on her own. If I cannot, then I'm not merely a fake; I'm a knockoff, a worthless imitation. And if I ever become worthless… Shadow will break my mirror and make another me, and I will be gone, forgotten."

"You won't be forgotten," said Alice. The oddest thing was that Dark Aqua didn't even seem saddened by her fate, by not even having been given a name. There was no sadness in her, only defiance. "Dark Mint, Rouge, Lemonade… They'll remember you, won't they?"

"Until they're gone," she said. "There is nothing as frail as a reflection. We are not like you. You are real, your own person. You do not depend on someone else. You simply… Exist. I only exist for as long as my mirror is unbroken, and as long as I have something to reflect. Once those are gone, I'll be as well."

"That's… That's so sad."

"You're the only one who thinks so. You are very odd, Cure Rosetta. Will you remember me? Me, and the others? Will you find it sad that we're gone?"

"I will," she might not like Dark Aqua much, but there was no denying that it was a miserable and lonely fate awaiting her.

"Liar," she said. She wasn't angry anymore. She didn't look like she was feeling anything. "No one spares a thought for shadows and reflections. Who would admire someone else's reflection when you can gaze upon the person? No. You won't remember us. No one will. But I refuse to fade soon. I will not be just a frail reflection, do you understand? I will not be weak, a pale imitation of Karen. So you keep your mouth shut and don't get myself killed, if you want to pretend you give a crap about me."

Rosetta nodded. Dark Aqua seemed to find that entertaining. She removed the dust cover from the mirrors, and set them in place. Dark Aqua stepped into the mirror like one dives into a pool of water. The glass rippled and Alice could almost see crystals beyond it, the mark of Shadow's castle. She wondered how it felt to walk through a mirror like this, to pass through something that was solid and yet, at the same time, was not.

Instead she awaited Dark Aqua's return. She patiently looked upon the looking glass, waiting for change. Eventually it began to oscillate, and darkened silhouettes revealed themselves beyond the glass, two of them, walking side by side.

The falses Aqua and Rouge stepped out of the mirror, the latter not even bothering to hide her annoyance. Back at Shadow's castle, she would always wear her discontent with pride. As they entered the quarter, Alice heard Dark Aqua describing their scheme and the role Rouge had to play in it.

"Damn you two for getting into this," she said. "And for getting me into it as well. Can you do nothing right?"

"If you don't like it," said Aqua, "you can go back and tell Shadow you're giving up. He can replace you in an instant."

"And you too," she said, but she didn't go back. "I don't like this. This is a risky plot."

"We don't like this either," said Alice, softly, so as not to anger her further, "but Dark Aqua could think of no other solution," Aqua's eyes were drawn to Alice in a curious expression.

"Fine," she said, "it's just that there's a good chance this will get me killed, while I attract the guards' attention. I have no guarantee for my safety, you see, so it makes me suspicious. Am I being sacrificed here?"

It was not Alice's intention, but if she thought the plan came from Dark Aqua, it was only natural that she would feel that way. Her words dripped with scorn, but Dark Rouge could not hide that she was terrified of being cast aside. It was probably all too clear to all of Shadow's fakes just how ephemeral they were. How could they be anything but hateful and bitter, then?

"No," Alice said when it was clear that Aqua's reply was complete silence. "You are not a sacrifice. You're quick-thinking and agile. You can outsmart and outrun the guards, can't you?"

"O-Of course," she said. "I was not doubting my own skills!"

"Then you don't need to fear, right? You'll be fine. Once we've made our way out, we'll be waiting for you, and we'll go to the royal palace. All together. Alright? No one will be left behind or sacrificed."

"How kind," she scoffed. "Thank you. I suppose I should get going now, then?"

The two others nodded. With a sigh, Dark Rouge walked up to the open window and jumped off. She landed in the middle of the courtyard, atop a patch of daisies. Unlike the rest of Trump, the manor was still beautiful, its gardens were still a palette of bright colors. Its grounds were still being maintained by maids and gardeners. It looked much like a gem in the middle of garbage.

"This had better work," said Aqua, "else we're all doomed. Even if we escape, Shadow won't accept failure. I'm sure your contractors won't, either."

Perhaps she would be forgiven by the Director and Despariah if she explained the situation, Alice thought, so she didn't have as much reason to fear as Aqua did. Even if they were angered, what did she have to lose? Everything she loved was gone, and everyone as well. And yet...

Continental. Sunset. Gonna and Pantaloni. That's what she could lose. If she did her duty to Nightmare and Eternal, if she earned their trust, she could not only ensure that the Precure would be kept safe, she might even be able to strike at them from the inside. Even though everything that mattered to her had been lost, the world still remained. Even if it never brought her any joy, she had to keep going. She was still a Precure. The world was more important than she was.

"Do you hear it?" Alice said, focusing on some distant sounds. They were quickly growing louder. Sounds of commotion. "Could it be that Rouge has already caused a distraction?"

"So it would seem," said Dark Aqua, but she seemed uncertain. "Take the mirror. You carry it and I'll make sure no enemies get in our way. Understood?"

"Yes," said Alice. Now she was the one who was uncertain; the noises she heard were too loud. Even from a distance, she could tell that they were not just yells of someone who chased a thief. What could they be, then? She grabbed Lance and put him on her shoulder, and asked him to be quiet and behave.

Dark Aqua approached the door, an azure blade now in hands. It was not ordinary steel, as blue light emanated from its edge, and the blade itself appeared to glow. It was long and broad, and had to be carried with both hands. She shoved the blade through the wood, but there was no guard behind. She tore the door to splinters and kicked the pieces free, opening a crude hole for the two to pass. Alice made sure not to knock the magic mirror against anything.

The corridors were all empty. Their walls were unblemished white that flaunted tapestries and portraits, the floors adorned with red rugs with ornate patterns of gold. Heart-shaped patterns, Alice soon realized. She followed Dark Aqua closely as she guided her through the pathways until they reached a spiral staircase. With little room to maneuver, Alice had to take careful steps so as not to bump against the railing or the steps.

Downstairs, on the ground floor, guards were running around in disorder. Some were headed to the gardens, others to the parlor, behind the big wooden door with handles of ivory that was the main entrance to the manor. No one seemed to care that their guests had escaped their cage. A thief would not warrant such panic. What would, then?

Oh, she thought when she understood.

"We need to find Dark Rouge," said Alice. "Our timing was terrible… Yet fortunate, at the same time, in a way."

"What do you mean?" She asked. "Is this a tri-"

"When we were brought here, the soldiers escorting us mentioned that there was still a resistance led by Precure. They're here. They're here, and-"

A loud boom interrupted her. Bright light blinded her, and when Alice could see again, she saw, in the distance, past a long corridor and an open door, the parlor blazing in vivid orange, its door now burned away to ashes. More blasts came, opening holes in the walls.

Dark Aqua then understood exactly what was going on. She smiled.

"We go the opposite way," she said. "When we were being escorted, I caught a glance of a door in the kitchens that led outside. Let's get going now."

"Not without Rouge," said Alice. This was madness. To take such a risk for Dark Rouge… It went against everything her mind said, but, somehow, in her heart it was absolutely right. She was a Precure. She had a duty to everyone in need of help. Everyone. She could think of few people who needed more help than these girls with no future, no past, and a frail present.

"Are you so stupid?" Dark Aqua lashed out. "We won't. Follow me."

Alice touched the mirror with a closed fist.

"I'll break it. If you try to abandon her, I swear I'll break it."

"Then you'll die here," she said. She tried to keep her calm, but she was sweating.

"You too. We won't leave her behind. I wouldn't leave you behind, either."

"You are really very curious, Rosetta. Very foolish too. Are you truly so willing to risk your life for ones such as us?"

"Yes," she did not hesitate for one moment. "Your lives are worth as much as anyone else's."

"Ha! I can't believe I'm hearing this. Fine, then. Let's go find that worthless Dark Rouge. Also," she said. Her smile shocked Alice. "You said you'd save me too. I don't need that. I don't need anyone's help. I'm the most competent of all us fakes, after all."

"Of course," Alice said. She gave her a smile in return, and she was even more shocked than Rosetta herself had been. No one has ever smiled at her.

They rushed to the courtyard, in the heart of the manor. Its walls were low, reaching Alice's waist, and from there they had a good view of much of the house. The smell of smoke was getting stronger, and the distant fires crackled. Alice looked around, but couldn't find Rouge anywhere.

The two moved to look elsewhere, then, but Rosetta couldn't move as fast as she wished, as the mirror was unwieldy and the corridors were narrow. Maybe Rouge had noticed the commotion, and she had been smart. Maybe she found her way out through the door in the kitchen. Alice suggested they should continue their search there, but as they were finally drawing closer, someone behind them interrupted.

"Halt," said a voice in commanding tones. The captain of the guard of the fortress, Alice realized when she turned back to look, and a couple of other soldiers with him. He held Dark Rouge by the arm, his face blackened by soot. "I don't know what it is that you are doing, but I know that you should not be here. This girl, this thief… She's one of yours, isn't she? And that mirror…"

"That's the mirror we were told to take from them after we poisoned their food," said the man by his side. "Bel wants that mirror, boss."

"You can't-" Dark Aqua said, but the man drew a dagger and took it to Dark Rouge's throat.

"One word of defiance from you and she won't be speaking again. Or doing much of anything, for that matter."

Aqua took a fighting stance, ready to pounce, but Alice knew that even before she could strike, Rouge would be dead. This would solve nothing. But maybe…

"Alright," she said. "You give her to us, and we'll give you the mirror."

"Rosetta!" Cried Dark Aqua. "You treacherous little-"

"He's got us here," said Alice. She prayed that the false Aqua would grasp her intentions. "We have to give it to him. But first we need to make sure the mirror is open, right? Or they can't use it."

"...Right," that sounded like understanding. She put a hand on the glass, and, again, its surface rippled. The gate was open.

The commander ordered one of his men to get it, while he still pointed his dagger at Rouge's throat. Rosetta thought fast.

"You're not holding it right," she said when the man tried to seize the mirror by its frame. "It's frail. If you're not delicate, it'll break."

"Do I have to do everything here by myself?" The captain grumbled. He fell for it, and violently shoved Dark Rouge away, and approached Alice. "Stupid thugs, can't do anything right. How am I supposed to hold this thing?"

"First, stand directly in front of it," she said, and he obeyed.

Alice took a step ahead; the man was swallowed by the mirror, and disappeared. Before his subordinates could react, Dark Rouge shoved them inside as well, and with a quick hand, Aqua closed the portal, making glass out of the water again.

"I bet Shadow will be happy when he sees he has company," said Dark Aqua. Rouge said nothing. She was panting.

"Did you not run?" She asked. "When the fire started? Are you idiots? The Precure are here. The Selfish will try to hold them, but not for long. You should have gone away."

"We should," agreed Aqua, "so let's get moving, you moron."

"We stayed to look for you," said Alice when they began to walk. Rouge turned her face away from her and her smile. She grumbled as they approached the kitchen.

Just as they were about to find their destination, Aqua and Rouge suddenly stopped, as if they had seen something unusual. They were looking at something in a corridor to their right, the one that connected the kitchen to an ornate dining room. Their eyes were fixed upon a girl dressed in pink who stood paralyzed by the dining table. She was staring at them, too.

"I know her," said Dark Rouge. "I feel as if I've seen her so many times before. She feels…"

"Familiar," Dark Aqua completed. "I feel the same."

"Who is she?" Alice asked. In the distance, the girl lifted an arm and said something, calling for them, but a Selfish came from behind and almost struck her down. Soon she was locked in battle with him.

"I don't know," said Aqua. "Doesn't matter. Let's go."

The door at the kitchen led them to an ugly alleyway where trash had been dumped with no concern. High above, smoke was starting to rise towards the bleeding skies. There was no time to look upon it, however, and so they began their journey to the palace of Trump. In complete silence, now. The two girls that accompanied her seemed troubled, and Alice was beginning to wonder, too. If they could feel familiarity, somehow, if they could have all those sorts of feelings, gratitude and pride and scorn and surprise, then how could it be impossible that they could feel happiness? That it had been denied to them seemed like a most heinous crime.

Lance leaned against her cheek, rubbing his furry head on her skin. He always did so when Alice was truly deeply bothered by something. She kept her head high and moved on bravely, so that she would not have to worry him.

"Cure Rouge," Nozomi called out to anyone who would listen, to anyone around the conquered manor, "have you seen her? Cure Rouge? She was here, I saw her! Please, did you see her? She has short red hair, like embers, there's no way you'll mistake her!"

Everyone shook their heads when questioned, Selfish and Precure alike, as well as the servants of the manor. All denied having seen Rin, even though Nozomi knew she was there. She saw her. She would not mistake her for anyone else.

With Reika's help, Nozomi looked in the gardens, inside the halls of the manor, even the bedrooms, where she found a mirror abandoned atop a bed. She gave up her search when they reached the courtyard, and found nothing there but ceilings of glass and potted plants. They still lived, unlike the rest of Trump.

"I don't think this will work, Nozomi," said Reika. She looked weary from the battle, but she refused to rest before she was certain all their enemies had been driven away.

"I guess…" She sighed, and sat down on the cold stone floor. They would have to get moving soon, but she could afford a moment of respite. "But I saw her, Reika," she insisted. "You believe me, right?" Everyone just stared at her as if she had lost her wits to see a Precure amidst the Selfish, but surely Reika would have to trust her.

"Right, of course," she said. She sounded honest, to Nozomi's relief. If even Beauty doubted her, she wouldn't know what to do. "Where did you see her, though? Did she not notice you?"

"Ah, that's the thing…" She knew how unconvincing she sounded. "She was running away. I saw her in the distance, and I think she realized I was there. She gave me a weird stare. There were two other girls with her, but they were farther, so I couldn't take a good look at them," that was a lie. One resembled Karen, though not perfectly, so she could not say for sure, and the third one she did not know. But Rin… It had to be Rin. "She looked a bit different, you know? That's what's so weird. She was dressed in black."

"Could it be that you've mistaken someone else for your friend?"

"It could be," she said, then she shook her head. "No. No, I felt it. I felt that it was Rin."

"You felt it?"

"I've known Rin since we were children. I… Ah, I sound stupid, don't I? But it's true… I can feel her, in a way."

"I know how that feels," said Reika. "I have a friend I've known for a long time, too."

Nozomi was glad Reika didn't think she was being absurd. She wondered if Reika truly knew the feeling she was talking about, or if she only said she did so that Dream would feel better. Either way, she was thankful.

"Did she not realize it was me, I wonder? Did she think I was someone else? Or…"

Rin was supposed to be here, wasn't she? She was in Trump when the stars went out. She had hoped to find her, to have her by her side, but now it seemed that those were foolish desires. If that girl was Rin, then she was avoiding Nozomi, for some reason. Why? Nozomi looked at Reika again, to see her smile, and for a second she felt envy. Immediately, then, she felt guilt for that terrible feeling, but she could not help it.

She had hoped to go into Trump and, with some luck, find her friend. She had truly hoped that, she had even imagined their meeting, before she learned how dire the situation here was. She had dreamed of finding Rin, but instead it was Reika who was reunited with her friend, and Mana too.

She did not want to complain, to let it make her bitter, but it took all her strength. Sometimes it seemed that it was always other people who had good fortune, never her. It was always everyone else who was exceptional, everyone else who was lucky.

Shut up. Stop thinking those thoughts. She should not be having them, especially now. It was not right for a Precure to feel like this.

"Nozomi?"

"I guess it wasn't Rin, then," Nozomi conceded. She was still unsure, but she knew, at the very least, that Rin would never avoid her, never run from her. So it could not be Rin.

"I'm sorry," said Reika. "She was here in Trump, right? Maybe she's part of the northern resistance?"

"That could be it," Nozomi said. She had forgotten, of course. She had thought only of her current situation. That brought her relief. "Do you think she might be there?"

"It's possible," said Reika. "I don't know if it's probable. If she is, then we should get there as soon as we can."

"Yes," said Nozomi. She knew she would have to wait a few moments for the Precure to catch their breath, for Rikka to tend to their wounds. Mostly the Precure had gathered in the manor's gardens, one of the few remnants of beauty in Trump.

Reika sat down next to her, sighing. She let out an exhausted groan, too, unusually loud for the elegant Cure Beauty. She smiled when she noticed Nozomi's bafflement.

"There's no one here but us," she said, "so I can show just how tired I really am. We've been fighting all day, and I really appreciate having a moment to rest. I don't want the others to know just how exhausted I am, they need to think I'm still unfatigued. A leader has to be vigorous, don't you think?"

"I don't know," said Nozomi. She had never really thought about it. "Do you think so?"

"Miyuki was full of energy," said Reika, "and I always followed her, so she's an example to me."

This Miyuki person must be pretty impressive, thought Nozomi. For her to be an example to Cure Beauty… She had to be brilliant, no doubt, and a formidable fighter.

Nozomi closed her eyes and rested. She felt so relaxed next to Reika, so she was able to clear her mind from all that troubled her. She just focused on the sounds around her; on her breathing, and Reika's, the wind gently rustling the trees surrounding the manor. Footsteps.

"Beauty, Dream," Iona called them out. "We were looking for you," she said, and she stepped into the courtyard, followed closely by Sunny, Black and White, and, a bit behind them, Heart and Diamond. No one was smiling, so Nozomi knew not to expect good news.

She got up, and so did Reika. She saw Nagisa whisper something to Honoka, who answered with a contained giggle as she looked at Reika and Nozomi.

"What is it?" Reika asked. "Is Moonlight not with you?

"She's doing some scouting work," said Rikka. "Not really necessary, but she said that, right now, she doesn't feel good not doing anything, just waiting."

"I see," said Reika. "But you have something to discuss, I take?"

"Yes," said Rikka. "Can I ask what our next move is? I'm not doubting you, I just… I just want to know, that's all."

"We need to free the trapped Cures," said Beauty. That was the most important thing, Nozomi agreed. "Now that the north and the south of Trump are connected and we have the Bridge of Hearts, we can liberate them."

"And we need to free Makoto!" Said Heart. "I mean, all the prisoners in the Swordspire. Including Makoto."

"I know that," Reika said with patience. Mana was always insisting on this. "Just as we need to light the Starlight Flame in the palace. However, we don't have many Cures, so we'll need to do those things one at a time so we are not overwhelmed."

"We don't have the time for that," said Rikka. "Regina is coming. You know that, right? I only managed to get inside because her campaign is over and there are soldiers returning already. We can't afford to do things one at a time."

"What do you propose, then?" Asked Reika. "Divide ourselves? Isn't that too risky?"

"Frankly," Diamond said, with a hint of defiance, "I think that just being here is already a great risk. What do we have to lose? If we stick together and fail, Regina kills us all. If we split up and fail, she still kills us all, it just might take a little longer to round us up."

"Do you volunteer, then?" Reika asked. "I will not force anyone to risk their lives even more than they have to."

"I'll go to the Swordspire," said Mana. "Mako- There might be important prisoners there. And Makoto."

"Goma holds the Swordspire, I've been told," said Akane. "She had been looking for Cure Sword for a while, actually. Sword killed Lust, who was close friends with Goma. They were the only friends each other had, actually. Lust was creepy, and Goma is beyond arrogant, but she used to enjoy being admired by him. The Swordspire will be strongly guarded, I'm sure of it. Goma will not part ways with her toy."

"This is a fancy way of saying it'll be very dangerous," Iona said to Mana. "Considering the way you fought earlier… Are you seriously going to get yourself killed there?"

"We'll go with her," said Black and White. Mana beamed upon hearing that. "Afterwards, I suppose, we all meet each other in the palace?"

"Seems good," said Reika. "Akane, you'll be coming with me, right?"

"Of course," said Sunny. She gave Reika an exaggerated thumbs-up. "We'll free everyone."

"I'm going with you too," said Iona. "It's the most important mission. You'll need as many Cures as you can have."

"Agreed," said Reika. "Nozomi?"

"Of course I'll help you, Reika," at this point, it wasn't even a question.

"That leaves the palace as a problem, though. That is the most dangerous destination, I think."

"I-I'll do it!" Rikka said at once.

"Rikka? Won't you come save Makoto?" Mana's face was almost pathetic, a combination of disappointment and obvious exhaustion.

"I want to," said Rikka. She did not sound like she did. She sounded very eager to go to the palace, somehow. "But someone has to light the Flame. I'll go with Yuri. Don't worry," she held Mana's hand. It looked so small. "I'll be safe. Moonlight is with me! We'll be quick about it."

"Alright," said Mana. "You promise that, right? Promise me. Promise you'll be fine, that we'll see each other again. We'll all see each other soon, okay? Once I bring Makoto back to us, we'll all look for Alice together, alright? That's part of the promise too."

Rikka faltered only for a moment, but Nozomi definitely noticed it. There were things she was not telling, words stuck in her throat. When she spat them out, they sounded dishonest.

"I promise," she said. "I'll be waiting for you. We won't have to be apart again."

The Swordspire was a hideous thing, a blight upon the face of Trump, a monstrosity of twisted steel and spikes. Whenever Mana looked upon it, she felt dread, and now it was no different. She should feel hopeful, now that Makoto was close, yet just the thought of what might have been done to Cure Sword was enough to crush all joy.

She looked up at the enormous tower; it had always been one of the tallest structures of Trump, but it simply did not fit with the rest of the city. Such an ugly thing did not belong here. Long blades protruded all along the tower, cold and bitter steel. It made the spire look like it was made from the swords it got its name from. And as tall as it was, Mana knew that there were dungeons underground as well. She had heard the tales about those, all of them awful. She hoped that Makoto wasn't taken there.

"Black, White," she called their attention. They were awestruck by the prison's enormity, their eyes trying to grasp the size, full of dreadful wonder. "Are you two prepared?"

"Of course," said Nagisa. "Do you know the way in there?" Mana shook her head. "Well, that's disheartening."

"All I know is that it's very large," said Mana. "Not manned by too many soldiers, usually, but I don't know if it's the same with the Selfish. Trump had stopped using this prison, so it only had a token garrison, but there's no way of being certain if the Selfish are doing the same."

"I guess it'd be too hopeful of us to expect not to find any resistance?" Asked Nagisa.

"We haven't been too lucky in this regard," said Honoka. Her voice carried hope, even so. "Maybe this time we'll be. Maybe not. All the same, let's hurry. We can't let the others go to the palace all by themselves."

"Right," said Mana. She opened the door, and entered.

Inside, the Swordspire was just as hideous as it was on the outside. Swords poked out of the walls of its narrow corridors, so Mana walked in care not to be skewered by them. Some of the blades had rusted, but many still shone with sharpness, and their tips were painted red with blood. The Selfish themselves must get hurt by them.

The three Cures couldn't walk side by side, for lack of space. If they stood next to each other, the blades would be almost at their arms. To the sides, almost obscured by the spires, were many doors. Mana did not know where they led to, but she doubted that they were cells: it would make no sense to keep those so close to the prison entrance. Makoto would be kept in the upper floors, if they were lucky. Else, she'd be underground. If she lived.

Mana rejected that thought. Makoto was alive. She was sure of it. She would never let herself be killed by the Selfish. Not while the fate of Marie Ange was still uncertain.

Every door they stumbled upon looked much alike the spiky walls that surrounded them, traps to be handled carefully. Mana wondered how often the Selfish cut themselves on their surroundings.

The prison was almost completely deserted of guards, save for the ones they saw in the distance, in unassuming rooms to the sides of the corridors where they played cards and ate together. Curious, thought Mana, but not exactly surprising. The thing about the Swordspire was that it did not require a great deal of manpower. It defends itself, it was said. She remembered a tale that Rikka had told her once.

Some hundreds of years ago, a princess of Trump had been slain, poisoned at the others of discontent nobles who did not desire for her to inherit the throne, as her promises of social reform threatened their position. Furious, the king punished them not with death but by sending them to the Swordspire. They had already planned for that, however, and acquired the services of a Selfish renowned for being the greatest escape artist the world had ever known. She had gotten herself arrested to learn the weaknesses of the Swordspire, but to the great terror of the conspirators, she declared that there was no escape. How, they asked, when there are hardly any guards? So they defied her judgment and opened the doors of their cells. They had not even been locked. They ran towards freedom, but never saw the sun.

Their bodies had been found, all of them impaled by the spires on the walls. When Mana looked to her sides, she did not doubt that this tale was true.

But this is not a breakout, she told herself to silence the fears. We are only rescuing Makoto. Only one person. Even so she was afraid.

There were no cells on this floor. They reached long stairs at the end of the long corridor. Its steps were twisted steel, and its railings were thin razors. Of course they need no guards when everything here is a trap. Out of curiosity, Mana tore out a single strand of hair and gently brushed it against the railing. It was cut in two with no effort at all, with a single movement. She shuddered to think what would have happened to a careless hand that held it.

She made her way downwards, making sure not to touch anything. On the next floor, the walls were not covered in blades, to her relief. She even saw a guard, lazily resting his back against a door, with a Jikochuu on his side. The Jikochuu had a long serpentine body, but it was not too large, compared to most. It was the first to notice their presence, and hissed.

"P-Precure?" The guard asked. Nagisa nodded. He pointed a laughably small dagger at them, his hand shaking. "J-Just what I needed… Get away! Jikochuu, get them!"

The creature slithered across the floor with great speed; when it opened its hand, it revealed four large fangs and a forked tongue that drooled a thick blue goo. Mana jumped out of its way, and Black held it by its mouth, keeping its fangs away from her face. When it spat the blue goo on her face, she screamed. White helped restrain the beast, but Mana knew she should first subdue its controller. He did not look very strong. Even now she should be able to deal with him easily.

He attempted a slow stab, but Mana just moved out of his way and grabbed his hand, trying to pull off his dagger from his grasp. It was not as easy as she had hoped; he had a firm hold on the weapon, and shoved her away before trying another slash. She avoided that one as well, but the two fighters exchanged a glance of surprise at how easily Heart had been fought off. Then he smiled, confident.

Heart hit him with her whole body before he could even move his hand again, knocking him to the floor. The knife fell on the ground, and when the man tried to reach it, Mana kicked it away. It hit the wall with a clang. She then tried to suppress him and keep him down, holding him to the ground by his arms, but immediately he retaliated by kneeing her right in the belly, and she let go, not even able to scream as she found herself unable to breathe. She felt a hand on her own arm now, and before she realized what had happened, the floor was getting close to her face.

She hit the ground violently, dizzy. Trying to make sense of the spinning world, Mana fought to regain her balance and stand on her feet. The Selfish had left her to try and get his knife again instead of finishing her off. A foolish mistake, if Mana had been in proper fighting condition, but she wasn't, so when she tried to close the distance and hit her enemy, she missed her blow. To her luck, the Selfish missed his stab as well, only lightly grazing the fabric of her uniform.

I should not have fought him so close, she realized now, but it was too late. She avoided his attacks as she tried to find an opening. His attempts to hit her were pathetic, and this knife wasn't really even proper to cut bread, so why did it look so sharp, and why did she Selfish look so fast? One year ago, Mana would have won a duel like this in a second.

She heard furious hissing behind her, and then the sound of a Jikochuu being purified. She heard the flapping of a Psyche's wings, and breathed deeply in relief. In a second, Nagisa was right next to her, and punched the Selfish so hard that Mana was almost certain she had cracked his skull. He fell to the floor, and whined. Nagisa's face had been lightly singed, but it did not look all that bad.

"Thank you," said Mana. She had told herself that she was very willing to die fighting for the Precure, for Makoto and her friends, but now that she felt death's cold breath right in front of her, she decided she'd rather die in a less pathetic way. It was one thing to give her life to allow her friends to escape a dangerous situation; it was completely different to die because some thug slashed her throat because she was too weak to fight back. "I… I keep being troublesome, don't I?"

"It's fine," said Honoka. Her tone made it clear that it wasn't fine, but they had gone too far to turn back now. The way she looked at Heart made her feel pathetic and weak. She did not want to be remembered as that stupid girl who was always a problem to everyone, that girl who couldn't even fight. She had to make it up for all the trouble she had caused.

"Now," Nagisa crouched to take a better look at the defeated Selfish. He crawled away from her with a shudder. When he looked up, his nose was bleeding badly, but his face looked alright. "We have a question for you."

"P-Please," he begged, his voice breaking. "Please, I don't wanna die. Don't kill me."

"Tell us," Mana reached down to stare at him straight in the face. He had not been hurt that badly. She was too weak to even really hurt him, in truth, and yet the man wept like he had been dismembered. "Where do you keep Cure Sword? Tell us if you want to live."

"On the second floor underground," he was astonishingly quick to betray their secrets. Even now the cowardice of the Selfish was astounding. "Behind the second door on the left. Will you kill me?"

"Marie Ange," Mana said, hopeful, but not expecting a real answer.

"She's on the deepest floor here," he said. "There's only a single cell in that floor, but it's the safest one. Will you kill me?"

"Get up," Black commanded. He jumped on his feet, shaking. "Now get out if you know what's good for you."

He ran away, gingerly making his way up the treacherous stairs. Mana wondered if he would tell his friends how easily he had managed to keep up with a Precure. Of course, they would never believe him. A small relief.

Afterwards they could proceed with no further obstacles. No sentries protected the corridors or the cells. There was no need to, of course, as they were all empty. The stairs to the lower floor were even more dangerous than the last; blades rose from the steps, so Mana had to tiptoe so as not to step on one of them. She almost lost her balance and tripped, which would have certainly killed her, but Honoka held her arm. They must think I'm a worthless child.

The next floor was smaller than the last, but it was more dangerous. There were no spikes on the walls, but there were countless of them hanging from the ceiling. Nagisa, tallest of the three, had to walk with knees bent so that her head wouldn't touch the blades. The trio moved slowly, carefully, and even Sharuru, inside the safety of the Lovely Commune, would shake in fear.

When she reached the door indicated by the Selfish, Mana called their attention to a small cage hanging on the wall. A purple fairy was sleeping inside. At least Mana hoped she was only asleep. It was Davi, she soon recognized, and called her name.

"Eh? Who…" She woke up, and jumped back when she saw who it was. "Mana! What are you doing here?"

"Saving you and Makoto, of course," she winked. Davi had not failed to notice how weak she looked, of course. Her eyes were full of pity that Mana never asked for. "She's inside, right?"

"She should be," she said. Nagisa crushed the cage's lock with her hand, and opened the little door so that Davi could get out. "I have not since her since we were brought here, however. They've kept me in this small cage to make sure I would not take my human form and try something stupid… Not that I had any intention to. Makoto is here for a reason. She was just waiting the right time, though I don't know when that is. I don't think even she knows."

"Right time?" Asked Mana. "Ah, well. I guess now's a good time since we'll go free her, right?"

"I guess…" Davi did not sound very certain. Mana tried to ignore that. She was finally going to see her friend again, and nothing could spoil that.

Behind the door they found a spacious circular chamber. Makopi, in its center, immediately caught Mana's eye. Mana called out for her; Makoto asked who it was, but she did not move, or react in any way. As she approached Cure Sword's cage, Mana understood why.

Her cage was made of metal bars with long thin spikes pointing at her, hundreds of those, each one as long as a person's arm. It was a menacing sight even from outside, so to be trapped inside that cruel monstrosity must have been a great terror. Makoto showed absolutely no reaction; she stood perfectly still, because if she moved even slightly, the spikes would pierce right through her. They were so many, so close, that it seemed that even forcing a smile would have gotten her sliced. Most terrifying were the two lances pointed right at her eyes. When Makoto blinked, they were almost touching her eyelids. Mana shivered, while Davi just looked at her partner, full of sadness.

"Makopi…"

"Mana," she said again. Mana stared at her, aghast. How had she even survived this? "Please. I know you're glad to see me, but I'd seriously appreciate it if you could free me from this thing."

"Ah!" Of course. Mana examined the cage for a door, and found a handle amidst the metal rods. Makoto stepped outside immediately, and began to shake her whole body.

"Well, I haven't forgotten how to move," said Makoto. "That's a relief. Do I look atrophied?" She showed her bare arm to Mana. It was a bit skinny, but Mana was the last person who could judge that.

"You seem fine, mostly," said Mana.

"Considering your captivity, you're doing wonderfully," said Honoka. Makoto laughed.

"Wonderfully. Right. I guess I am doing well for someone who took half an hour to eat a bite of bread so I don't end up getting perforated, or someone who needed help with the privy, and- Ah, I should not go into such details. I have things I must do."

"W-What?" Mana asked. "What do you mean? You don't even seem surprised to see me, Makoto! Have you not missed me? I missed you."

"It does not matter if I missed you," she said. Her words felt like being slapped. "As I said, I still have business I must take care of, and it's more important than any of us," she approached a table where some of her belongings were being kept. "The Selfish took most of my things, but they forgot some, that they considered useless trinkets," she showed a small amulet in the shape of a spade to the others. "This was Ange's gift to me. It opens the safe in her room. There is no other way to get inside it, not even magic, and no way to destroy it, as it's revested in starsteel."

"You'll go open it?"

"Of course not," she said. She was so tranquil, so driven: she did not sound at all like someone who had been kept prisoner in such terrible conditions for who knows how long. This is just like the Makoto I knew, Mana thought, yet somehow something was disturbing about how single-minded she was being. "You'll open it. There must be something important in there, else Ange would not have given it to me with instructions to… To open the safe if there ever came a time she was beyond our reach. Well, even though you'll open the safe, the truth is that she's not beyond our reach. I'll go rescue Marie Ange."

"She's alive?" Mana almost screamed. "Goodness…" She was so certain that the Selfish had lied, had only told them what they wanted to hear.

"Of course she is," Makoto sounded offended. "Have you no hope in our princess?"

"T-That's not what I meant!" She said, but Makoto didn't seem to care. "Do you know where to look for her?"

"No," said Makoto, "but I don't mind searching. If I have to look into every cell here and kill every Selfish in my way, I will do it with a smile."

"Makopi…" She had never been merciful to the Selfish who had blighted her homeland, but she had never been this callous. Her eyes were fierce as always, but there was no trace of the kindness and love there once were in them. "We know where she is," she said at last. Makoto had decided her path, then; she had this right, at least.

"Tell me!"

"M-Makoto, don't scream," said Davi, who was ignored.

"The deepest floor of the Swordspire," said Mana. "Or at least that's what the Selfish we questioned told us. Makopi, do you think we can trust that?"

"I don't care. I don't care. If she might be there, then that's where I'll look," she put the amulet into Mana's hand. "Go. To the palace. I need to look for my princess."

"You can do it later, Makoto! Once Trump is ours again! We need you at the palace, fighting by our side. You are a Precure, Sword, you have a duty."

"You dare to speak of my duty? I am a knight of the Trump Kingdom before I am a Precure, and I am the guardian of Marie Ange before anything else I might be. This is my duty, Heart. Go, now. I will reach you once I am done here, and then we can put this all behind us."

"There are Selfish everywhere, this place is controlled by Goma, she might be planning something, and-"

"Good," she said. Makoto produced a thin blade of light on her hand, then took a few swings against the air, smiling at her sword. "Let her plan. Let them come, let them find me. They Selfish should have learned their lesson after I slew Lust. But it's better this way. I'll have my vengeance, and do my duty."

She turned her back on Heart, even on Davi, though the fairy followed her, but not before looking back at the others, sadly. Sword got out of the door, and began her descent.

"So," asked Nagisa. "Will we let her get herself killed like an idiot?"

"This does seem a bit too convenient, doesn't it? The princess is in the deepest section of the dungeon," Honoka reflected. "Is that not a perfect place for an ambush? If we are right, and Goma is indeed planning a trap… Then I do think our friend Sword is doing something very foolish."

"But Marie Ange is very important," said Sharuru. "And one of the greatest fighters the Trump Kingdom has ever seen. Maybe they would keep her in the deepest cells."

"Maybe. If she lives," said Honoka. Then, Black and White turned to Mana. "You knew Ange, and you know Makoto," not as well as I thought, she realized it now. "Will you do as she told you? Go to the palace?"

"I… I don't know…" She looked into her heart for an answer, but all she heard was a quickened beat. "But… I doubt that Ange is alive," she admitted, though she hated to. She knew what it meant to say that Ange was gone: it meant the Selfish had succeeded in killing even the future of the Trump Kingdom. But now, her heart could not deny it. "Makoto is walking right into a trap. If we don't help her, she'll die."

"Then we help her," said Nagisa. "I mean, we already came all this way, didn't we?"

"Right," said Mana. "Thank you. If I were to lose Makoto…"

"You won't," Honoka said, sealing the promise with a smile.

They returned to the corridors of the Swordspire, and Makoto was already long gone. They followed her trail carefully, as quickly as they could, but always with caution, for fear of the blades' kisses.

Chapter Text

Makoto walked among the blades with no fear in her heart, holding her own Holy Sword in her hand. Even when she erred and the spires touched her skin, she ignored the pain. It was just pain, it was just blood. There were more important things now. Marie Ange was nearby. Makoto was sure of it now. What else could she care about?

Deep underground, Makoto found herself surrounded by absolute silence, disturbed only by her hurried footsteps and, occasionally, Davi. Makoto didn't even hear what her fairy said, so focused she was on the thought of Marie Ange.

The Swordspire pierced deep into the bowels of the earth, and Makoto went down stairs after stairs, at least a dozen of them, and with each floor she descended, the scenery grew more dangerous. By the time she was reaching the end, the corridors were twisted labyrinths of spikes and razors. It did not trouble Cure Sword at all; she had grown used to the cage, so she knew she had to maneuver cautiously. At last she reached not stairs but a large stone door, heavy and grey, worn by time. Runes had been engraved upon it, but they weren't readable anymore. Makoto put a hand on the door, trying to find out how to open it, but her finger burned though it brushed upon the stone very gently, and the runes glowed subtly and briefly. The door parted in two, and retreated into the walls, leaving open the way to the deepest chamber of the Swordspire.

The way to Marie Ange.

She saw a great blue crystal in the middle of the room past the door. Here the walls were round and plain, with no trace of blades, or traps. Makoto wondered if it was safe, but when she looked closer at the crystal, she stopped wondering. She let go of her magic blade; when it fell upon the floor, it simply vanished, leaving wisps of pure white.

Encased in crystal was her princess, completely still, eyes closed and lips sealed. She tried to take hold of her hand, but the crystal stood between her and Ange. She did not look alive, but she did not seem dead, either. She was in perfect stasis, her face an empty mask.

"Ange…" Makoto spoke out loud. As she opened her mouth, she felt the salt of tears on her tongue. "Does it hurt in there?"

The princess did not answer. Sword put both hands on the crystal, trying to tear off a chunk of it, but Ange's prison was too strong for that. Makoto scratched at it until her fingers bleed, until her nails shattered and broke, but did not leave the slightest dent upon the crystal. She began to breathe heavily, her heart began to beat madly. Her fists began to pound on the crystal, but its surface remained unchanged even though Sword's knuckles became red and raw. Though the cage looked almost like ice, no cold came from it, and no warmth either.

"Ange! Ange…" She was right in front of Makoto now, yet there was nothing she could do. She was screaming for her princess now, with no response. "Holy Sword!"

She slowly approached the edge of the blade upon the crystal, careful not to harm Ange inside her enclosure, but the weapon only shattered into strands of light the color of snow.

"Makoto…" Davi tried to calm her down as she screamed, but there was nothing that could bring Makoto any relief. Not now. Not until she could free Marie Ange.

"Holy Sword!" She tried again, but this time she slashed against the crystal. Again the sword broke. "Holy Sword!"

She kept on trying again and again until her throat hurt and her words grew hoarse as her fingers burned in agony. Nothing she could do was working. She could not even move the crystal, for it was too heavy for that. She had come this far and yet there was nothing she could do to save Marie Ange.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sorry. I failed again. I… I always fail. Ange…" The princess remained in complete stillness. Makoto kept weeping. "I'm sorry! I'm a failure as a guardian, I've always been. I could not protect you. Anyone. Anything. I can never protect what's dear to me. All I'm good for…" She looked at the blade on her hand. "All I can do is hurt others."

What good have I ever done, anyway? Nothing, she knew that was the answer. Even when she came into the world she took the life of her own mother. I've never protected anyone despite all the promises I made.

She stood there, crying, until her eyes hurt too much for that. Davi tried to comfort her with her warmth, with her kind words, but nothing mattered in this moment. Kind words would not make Cure Sword any less of a failure.

At last she got up, her face red and her hands bleeding, and looked at Marie Ange one more time. Is she even there? If she is, she must be so ashamed of me. She was safe here, at least, that was Makoto's only relief. One last time, she tried to touch her princess' hand, to feel her soft skin against her own rough hand. She knew no better feeling than that. When her red fingers touched the crystal again, it began to shatter. Slowly, first, and only a little, just enough to give Makoto hope. A large crack began to expand upon the azure surface of the princess' cage.

Then it broke all at once, a million pieces exploding in unison, Ange breaking with it. When the shards touched the floor, they disappeared immediately, and in less than a second, the crystal was gone, and so was its prisoner.

Makoto had no time to understand what had happened, as someone was entering the chamber. A tall woman with long curly white hair that made a spiral around her own body. Her smile was infuriating and full of a certainty of her own superiority. It was Goma, Makoto knew at once.

"What-" She began, but the Selfish just laughed.

"You should see your face!" She said, almost shouting. Laughter echoed behind her. She had soldiers with her. "You pathetic piece of filth… How did you manage to live this long being so gullible and foolish?"

"G-Gullible?"

"This is why you Precure are all fated to die," she said, and waved a hand at a subordinate. A Selfish revealed himself behind her, and he held Mana by the arms. "You all have the collective intelligence of a worm! A few rumors of Marie Ange being in the Swordspire and you all walk right into the most obvious trap ever conceived! Do you imbeciles have a hard time breathing?"

Why were Mana and the others here? Were they caught when they were about to leave the Swordspire, or did they actually try to come help her? Makoto supposed it didn't matter now.

"What do you mean?" Makoto did not like that word. Rumors. "You spread the lie about Marie Ange being here?"

"Yes, obviously," she said with disdain. "I have a brilliant understanding of scum like you, I knew that the Precure would come here once they heard so, to try and free the beloved princess of this little realm," so it was true what they said about Goma. She was so taken by her own pride that she would never shut up about anything she ever did. "Only three, though, and this one's a little thin," she pinched Mana's cheek, before slapping her.

Sword felt the urge to strike Goma, but if she did so now, Heart would be killed, and Black and White as well. She stood still, waiting for weakness.

"If only you had brought more. And I know there are more. They've taken the Bridge of Hearts. I don't know where they are now, or where they are headed to, but it doesn't matter. You might have been resilient, Sword, but these girls lack your fortitude," she turned to stare at Honoka. "Ha! This one is an old hag compared to you infants. I bet she'll squeal once we start opening her up. She'll tell us everything about your Precure just so she can die painlessly."

"You will not hurt them," said Makoto. She summoned a blade of light and pointed it at Goma. The woman just gave her an unimpressed stare.

"Yes I will," she said. "Does that bother you? You can watch them die, then. I hear that it's quite uncomfortable to close your eyes in your little cage. You'll be going back there, you can be sure of that."

"You'll have to take me," said Sword. Davi hid inside the Lovely Commune, granting her power. Makoto knew she would need it.

"Take her," she commanded her soldiers, nonchalantly. Makoto did not let them carry on the order, and continued speaking.

"So the great General Goma needs her soldiers to capture a Cure that's been locked away for days? That's pathetic."

"I won't fall for that."

"Your soldiers will," said Makoto. She just had to press the right buttons. "They look at you as they look upon a coward. Don't the Selfish respect strength and cunning above all? Well, you have a certain cunning, but strength…"

"Fine," said Goma. "I was just going to take you back to your prison in one piece, but if you'd like to lose a few limbs, be my guest."

"You're the one who'll be cut here," said Makoto. She could see Goma start to get annoyed. This was good; annoyed people make for terrible fighters. "And you'll be answering questions from me too, if you don't want to die. That crystal… It was an illusion, wasn't it?"

"Of course. It is one of the many forms of magic I mastered."

"Once you're the ground and begging for your life, you'll tell me where Marie Ange really is. No tricks this time. No lies."

"Oh?" She smiled now. "I can tell you that right now, if you wish. Ange is dead. She's been dead for ages. She died with her father when we took your palace. Everything you've been fighting for has been in vain. She begged for her life, you know? She said she'd let us take her entire kingdom if only we let her live. She cried at my feet, and I killed her myself. She squealed when she died. Like a pig," Makoto's hand began to shake in fury. She saw nothing but Goma, and every vital spot she had. "She had a hundred cuts and scars on her back. Your princess was a coward."

Deep down, Makoto had feared that would be the answer. It was not the knowledge that made her angry, it was the way Goma spoke of Ange.

"Come," Makoto said simply. If she tried to say anything else, she would have snarled, and she was not in the mood to hear more laughter.

"A sword," she extended her hand dismissively to her soldiers. One of them handed her a long, thin blade. She examined it. "Is it sharp?"

"Very, I had it sharpened just yes-" Goma shoved the sword into his chest, then pulled it off, her face full of satisfaction.

"Indeed," she said. She wiped the blood on Heart's uniform, and slowly stepped towards Sword.

The two circled each other, waiting for the first strike. Sword had always been a mostly reactive fencer, preferring to wait for an opponent to show a weakness than lunging at them, but Goma seemed to be the same. The Selfish shifted her sword from one hand to the other, feeling its weight. Makoto watched her surroundings, but there was nothing here she could use; the room was deserted, save for the fighters and the onlookers.

Sword struck first, to test the waters. Swiftly she lifted her foot and took a short step ahead, and thrust her blade at Goma's side; as expected, she parried it in an instant and struck back in an immediate riposte. Makoto took a short leap backwards to avoid it. She's fast, Sword thought. Is she strong?

Goma would not reveal that, as she continued to wait for Makoto to act. Each step that Makoto took towards her was answered with a step backwards from the Selfish. She has the advantage in reach, and she knows it. Makoto lunged again, pushing her body forward with her left leg, trying to pierce her stomach, but again Goma sweeped her sword against Makoto's, knocking it to the side and almost out of her hands. Then she swung at Cure Sword, first downwards and then, immediately after the parry, upwards, almost slicing Makoto from waist to chin. Fast and strong.

She took her position again, away from Goma. Her face was the most insufferable thing of all. She just looked so confident, filled with arrogance. It just made Makoto want to throw herself against her and try to hack her to pieces, but she knew that would never work. She had to keep calm. She had to wait. She had to let Goma's arrogance reveal weakness. I need to understand her rhythm.

She watched both Goma's sword and her footwork. She always moved her left foot first when she moved, lifting her toes before the rest of her foot. She mirrored Sword's movements precisely.

"Hm, hm," Makoto began to hum. Goma gave her a sneering look, and kept moving at the same time that Makoto did. All the while, Sword kept humming, a hum with each step that Goma took.

She lunged; her advance was parried, a sweeping slash tried to knock the sword away with the force of the blow, and then again Goma struck down and up. Makoto's tone changed as Goma's moves did, and soon they were a constant rhythm. When she lunged again, Goma avoided the blow my moving to the side, then thrusting at Makoto's side. Sword caught the blow, but then came another, and this one sliced the tips of the ribbon at her hip. Makoto countered with a simple piercing blow, aimed at Goma's heart. She parried, as expected, and Makoto hummed as her Holy Sword clang against Goma's blade, that tried to press her opponent's weapon away. She failed, but her next attack came immediately, more dangerous than the last; she swung the sword from right to left with all her considerable strength, and the humming turned into a yelp as Makoto's head was almost chopped off. Goma laughed, and Makoto retreated with two quick steps back. I lost my calm. That was foolish.

"Want this song to be played at your funeral?" Goma mocked her. Makoto said nothing. She would not let herself be provoked. "When we tossed your princess' body on the sea, our music was laughter."

It was hard not to strike right then, but Makoto restrained herself. Now she understood Goma's rhythm. She made a soft chant out of it, hard to hear. She takes a step to my step, then when I thrust she moves her blade to intercept mine, pressing it with the strength of her swing. Then one, two. One, two; one, a quick strike to force a parry from one direction, then a decisive attack from the opposite side.

Everyone has a rhythm. Few can appreciate the songs that resonate in a clash of swords, few could even see the music in it. But Makoto had learned to sing long before she first practiced in arms with her princess, in the perfumed gardens and flowered grounds of Trump's palace. All her life she had sparred against Ange; she had lost nearly a hundred duels, but once she understood the princess' rhythm, she never lost again. She made a song out of it, and, fitting of Ange, it was beautiful.

Now hear my song for you.

She thrust, waiting to see if Goma would react predictably. She did; she seemed to insist upon the idea of besting her foe in a swift counter strike. One, Makoto hummed. Goma swung from the right. Makoto blocked it. Two. She swung from the left, quickly, where Sword would not be able to block.

"Holy Sword!"

A blade appeared on her free hand, blocking the jab that would skewer her. She swung with the other, and Goma strained to block it; now Makoto took the offensive, striking again and again, whirling around her foe. Movements like this would have brought shame upon her in a honorable duel, but this was not, in fact, a honorable duel, so Makoto felt no guilt. Once Sword was behind her, before Goma could turn back, she let go of one of the blades and put her left hand on Goma's hair, pulling it so violently that she almost tore it off from the scalp. With her right hand she pressed her sword against Goma's neck. The Selfish all pointed their weapons at her, but took no further action.

"Now," Makoto said, breathing right on the back of Goma's head, "it would make me very, very happy to kill you right now, just for the words you said about Ange. I know you were lying, trying to infuriate me. You succeeded. Do you regret that now?"

"I-I-I…" She could not finish her sentence.

"I will not kill you," said Sword. "Not now, at least. I'll have a chance again later, I'm sure. If I kill you here and now, your soldiers will just kill my friends, won't they?"

"Y-Yes!" Her voice was so hopeful. Poor fool. "And it wasn't even me who killed Marie Ange, to tell the truth. I just said it was me so that I'd be admired by everyone. You won't avenge her if you hurt me."

"Who did it, then?" Makoto asked. Goma hesitated until Makoto moved the sword again.

"Bel! It was Bel! Kill him instead!"

"First I need to get out of here," she didn't trust Goma's word at all. It might very well have been Bel, but it might be another lie. "Tell your soldiers to let us go."

"Do it!" She cried to her subordinates. They stood still. "Now, you worms!" She began to break into tears when she shouted that command. Makoto had not seen many sights more pathetic than this.

"We can't just let them go," said the one holding Mana. Killing her own soldier surely hadn't inspired much loyalty. This was why the Selfish were doomed; those who rule through fear and hatred might strike a few victories against those who were beloved by those below them, but soon would come a day where the ones who remained loyal would strike back. The Selfish Kingdom chose fear; Marie Ange was loved by all. She was gone, but those who loved her remain.

"Idiots!" She was shaking. She would cut herself on the Holy Sword if she kept trembling like this. "You'll all be executed once our princess learns that you let your own commander die. Regina is not merciful. She will toy with you before she kills you."

The Selfish exchanged worried looks among themselves. At last, they nodded, and began to move away.

"You'll let them go," said Makoto. Goma agreed immediately. "If you make the slightest movement that's not walking forward where I guide you, you die. Don't try anything, you understand that?"

"Yes," she said in a pathetic tone.

Makoto meant her words; she knew just how dangerous it was to pass by the blades of the Swordspire's corridors when so close to a foe. Goma could try a desperate move, she could try to shove her to the side, to be impaled. Makoto would not die such a stupid death.

Goma, at least, was obedient. She marched, humiliated, as Makoto commanded. Sword would laugh at her if things were not so tense right now. Goma, the proudest of them all, begging for her life, mere moments after bragging.

Makoto kept watch on the other Precure as well, of course, to ensure that the Selfish would not try to harm them either. The one that held Mana was pushing his nails into her arm. Heart was wincing from the pain.

She remembered Ange's song as she went up a flight of stairs, and kept her tears in her eyes. Don't cry. Keep calm. You can cry later. Her thoughts did her no good, as she felt foolish tears lazily fall down her cheeks. She had no way of knowing who had slain Ange, and that didn't even matter now, as what mattered was that Marie Ange was gone.

Marie Ange was gone. That had been the last strand of hope that Makoto could cling to. Her homeland was so broken that it could not possibly be restored during her lifetime. She would never see Trump as it was, again, the beauty it once had. With Marie Ange's lineage gone, too, the palace would never again be occupied by the Trump Kingdom's royalty. Maybe they could find a distant cousin that had some drops of royal blood in their veins, but what was the point?

Marie Ange was gone. Makoto could not stop thinking of that. Had they buried her? Did they really throw her on the sea? The idea angered her. She should have died sixty years from now, of old age, surrounded by children and grandchildren, and that Jonathan. She should be smiling at him, happy with whatever it was that she had seen in him.

Or smiling at me. She had often had this shameful thought, but of course she had never uttered it. Now she wondered if she would have been any happier if she had. It didn't matter in the end, anyway. Marie Ange was gone.

This was her one chance for redemption, and it was, from the beginning, doomed to fail. She never stood a chance of saving Ange, or Trump. Now, even if they took the city back (and they would take the city back, eventually), Makoto doubted there would be anything left. She could not protect anything that was precious to her. All she had now was vengeance. She had tasted it once, and had to admit it had been quite delectable. She licked her lips. This was all she had left. It might never bring her happiness, but it might bring some pleasure.

Sunlight hurt her eyes as they neared the exit of the Swordspire, into Trump. Somehow the city had managed to become even uglier. There were red stains upon the walls of nearby buildings, and others on the floor.

"Do your part," Sword commanded. Goma gave the soldiers a nod; they let go, and parted as they moved away, to grant them passage.

She watched them as they left, headed toward the palace, no doubt. A dozen Selfish pointed spears at her, and Jikochuu were poised to strike. They were all standing between her and Trump.

"Tell your soldiers to allow me to get through, now," she said.

"You ask too much," said Goma. "You know I can't let all of you escape."

She pressed her blade against Goma's neck, and the sword's kiss grazed the skin, almost drawing blood. Goma was terrified, but now she tried to hold on to her pride, and refused to cry.

"Yes, you can."

"I… Fine," she said, then rose her voice. "Once she releases me, you can let her go."

"No," said Sword. "If I let you go, they'll be free to kill me. You're coming with me until I get past them."

With the blade on her throat, Goma could not refuse that, though she made her displeasure very clear. Makoto held tight to her hair, pushing her forward, passing by her soldiers, who made way as Goma shouted for them to let them through. Soon Makoto was past the guards, and the Swordspire was in front of her, with the rest of Trump right behind.

"I did as you asked," said Goma. She was barely containing herself from shaking. "Now let me go."

"Right," said Makoto. "Thank you, Goma," she said, letting go of her hair, but not of the sword; she pressed the edge against her neck until it sank into her throat. After a quick slash, she painted the stone pavement with drops of red. They mixed with the puddles of scarlet water, deeper and darker.

She turned away and began to run before the Selfish could reach her. They had no chance of that; she leapt across rooftops into the alleyways of a city she knew as well as the palm of her own hand. Just like her own hand, Trump was crimson with blood.

Dark Mint had never seen fresh grass, much less felt its scent in a summer day of pleasant warmth where the wind blew on her face with comforting whispers, but she liked to imagine, and, even more so, she loved to hear Komachi tell her about the world. She always used the most beautiful words, the most wonderful metaphors (Dark Mint learned what that word meant just three days before, and it made her proud), and so she filled her reflection's head with a sense of wonder and desire.

Inside the crystal was an ocean of green where the two Mints stood together; an endless void in a single color, with absolutely no features at all, other than the girl kept prisoner inside.

"You never told me about your hometown," Dark Mint, interrupting the story Komachi was telling. She never let her finish her tales, always thinking of something else she wanted to talk about. "It's by the sea, right?"

"Yes," she said. Shadow's palace was by the sea, too, but it was an ugly and stormy sea, while the ones in Komachi's stories were beautiful. Dark Mint could not even imagine how the sea could be seen as a beautiful thing. It was vast, dark and treacherous, uninviting to any person. "Vert-sur-Mer. Really small place, actually, and I moved out when I was young, but I still remember it fondly."

"I remember that name," said Dark Mint. "Somehow. I feel like… I've heard it before. If you describe it to me, then perhaps I'll remember."

"Well, you and I are almost the same, aren't we?" She said with a smile. Komachi never called Dark Mint a fake, a copy, a pathetic imitation with no memories that was guided only by vague senses of familiarity.

"I'm not like you," Dark Mint said. "I'm not weak. I know your powers. All you can do is protect others. Why? What's the point of that?"

"It's not weakness," she was always calm when she spoke to her reflection. It made Dark Mint angry. It was easy for her to be calm. She was not the one who was expendable. "I feel privileged that I can use my power to keep my friends safe. And the one I love. I know she is keeping me safe now, as well."

"Pointless…" She had to be speaking about that moronic Aqua. The real one. Such talent and intellect wasted on something as foolish as teenage love.

"Well, I don't think so," said Mint. "Maybe someday you'll feel the same?"

"No."

If she did, Shadow would kill her. Kindness and love were not feelings she could afford to have: none of the Cures born from mirrors could. Dark Mint should not even be asking these questions to Komachi, in fact. As a pretense for her visits, she always said she wanted to learn more about the Precure, so that she could serve Shadow more competently, but really her sole desire was to hear about the world she was not allowed to see. It made her happy. It was the only thing to make her happy, in fact. She knew she was a tool, a mere reflection, so happiness was not something she was entitled too, but now that she had felt it, she wanted it. And only Komachi's words were good enough.

"What's it like to have friends?" Dark Mint asked. It was such an odd concept, to care about others. A reflection could not afford to care about anyone but themselves. They had to, because no one else would spare them a single thought.

"It feels…" Komachi closed her eyes, as she would sometimes do when thinking of the right words. "It feels safe. When I was with my friends, I felt like time stood still. When we went out together, it felt like the nights would never end. It felt like I would be happy forever. That nothing would ever tear us apart. When you are with the people you love, nothing else seems to matter. Your problems shrink into nothing. That's how it feels."

"So if I had friends…" She should not be saying this. It was impossible. "If I could have… Fun… If I could have fun with friends, then I would forget my fears?"

"Yes," said Komachi. "If only for a moment. It's always only a moment. But that moment seems endless when you're immersed in it. Do you have fears?"

"Of course not. I'm not a coward. I'm not like you. I don't have to fear anything."

Komachi still smiled. She knew it was a lie.

"I wonder if you could be friends with your companions," she said, "just like I was friends with mine."

"They are just imitations of your friends," said Dark Mint, "with nothing to love about them. Like me, there is nothing beautiful about them. They have no hearts. I can't be friends with them."

"Did you ever try?" She shook her head. "I never thought I'd befriend Nozomi, Rin, and Urara. They are much unlike me. And yet… And yet they are precious to me."

"What were they like?"

"What they are like… Nozomi was very hard-working. Even when she did not enjoy that work and had to be dragged to do it, she saw it done. Always. She was brave, and the common link between us all. She was quick to make friends."

"Nozomi…" Dark Mint could not remember who that was.

"Oh, it's Cure Dream," said Komachi. "You have not found her yet?"

"That's not your business. Keep going."

"Right, right. Rin was loyal and protective. Sometimes Karen clashed with her, but Rin was the second to jump to her aid. I say second because I was the first," she laughed. Dark Mint didn't see what was funny about that. "Karen… Ah. I'd rather not talk about her. You know her, anyway."

"Fine. What of Lemonade? She was just a child, no?"

"She was not that young! Maybe compared to Karen and I… I loved Urara so much. She was my closest friend, other than, of course, Karen. Her nature is so different from mine, and yet we had so much in common, and shared so much. We were working on a play together, before…"

Dark Mint understood what she meant. She didn't quite know what a play was, but Komachi had mentioned it a couple of times before. It had something to do with writing.

"She sang, too," said Mint. "She had a sweet voice, though she preferred upbeat songs. Can your Lemonade sing, too?"

Our Lemonade… She was nothing to Dark Mint. Dark Lemonade was a spiteful child who loved to lash out at her betters.

"I don't know. I wouldn't be able to tell, anyway. I never heard a song."

"Really?" Komachi was shocked. Were songs such a common thing? "That's a pity… Music is lovely. I wonder if it would make you happy to hear it."

"Can you sing for me?"

"Goodness, no!" Her cheeks turned pink. "My voice is… Everyone laughs at it… I'm sorry. If I sing for you, I'll make you hate music."

"I'll ask Dark Lemonade, then," she said. "I should get going. Dark Rouge was called. Soon will come my time."

"Y-Your time? What do you mean?"

"I have a duty. I don't know what, yet, but I'll receive orders that I must obey. I exist to fulfil Shadow's goals."

"Alright," said Komachi. "But you'll come back, right?"

"Of course," she said. "Are you doubting me? I told you. I'm not weak. I may not waste my time defending others, but I can take care of myself."

"Come back, then," she said. Something in her voice made Dark Mint want to scream.

"You sound so… Kind. Why? Why are you kind to me?"

"Because I like you, of course. You always come here to talk to me. Every single day. I would be all alone if not for you."

"I only come to learn how to destroy your fellow Precure," she lied. The true Mint saw right through it.

"No, you don't."

Dark Mint waved a hand to open a door so that she could leave. A circular hole appeared in front of her, and when she stepped through it, she was back at Shadow's fortress, in the room filled with crystals. In front of her was Komachi's emerald prison. Though she could be freed if someone broke it, only Dark Mint herself could enter it freely.

Next to that crystal were the others that awaited the return of their prisoners. Sapphire for Cure Aqua, the coward who betrayed her fellow Precure just so she could delay her imprisonment until the collection could be completed; Ruby for Rouge's new cage, crafted only recently, for when Rouge was found at last; Citrine for Lemonade, another empty shell, for she had been sent away. At last there was the cage of rhodonite, the one that had never been filled, as the one it was meant to hold had never been found.

Eternal's collection. The Director desired to have the entire team before he would add them to his museum. An incomplete collection is worthless, Dark Aqua had explained. Shadow had been hired to copy the already-acquired pieces of the set, to replicate their power so that it could be used without endangering the originals.

A fancy way of saying Dark Mint and the others could be thrown away without anything of value being lost. You have no hearts, Shadow had said, even though Dark Mint could hear hers beating. You are puppets with no souls.

Dark Mint turned away from the crystals and from Cure Mint's crystal prison. Despite the happiness that she felt when she heard Komachi talk, her presence filled her with envy and hatred. Komachi had a heart, a soul. Whatever that meant. She had some worth, her life had value that Dark Mint's never would. She has friends to miss her, to mourn her. She has people to make her forget her fears.

If only I could forget mine as well. She had one, of course, a fear so overwhelming that it kept her from peaceful sleep; death. It was a threat that Shadow would often make to anyone who displeased him. The darkness that never ends, that, yet, you cannot see; the cold that smothers eternally, that you never feel. Dark Mint's life had no worth, almost no joy, nothing to make it something she should love, and yet she knew nothing else, and she had nothing other than her own life. The thought of letting go made her weep with what she learned to be sadness. The false Lemonade had laughed at her when she saw her cry; Dark Mint was actually the youngest of them all, and until then she didn't know that tears were a shameful weakness.

Now she did, so she only cried when she was alone. It made her fear hurt a little less, though she couldn't understand why, and she had no one to ask. Komachi would not tell anyone, she knew, but Dark Mint still did not want to admit weakness even to her.

She closed the door behind her, and tried not to think of the girl in the green crystal. She knew she should not, but thinking of Komachi all alone in an empty room made her feel… What was the name again? Pity?

Her own reflections followed her as she walked past countless mirrors on the long corridors. Reflections of a reflection, she thought. She ignored them and, instead, looked for Dark Lemonade. Komachi had made her curious about those songs.

She found her in the same place as always; the small sector of the castle that Shadow had granted his reflections, with a plain lounge and their quarters. It was where the falses Mint, Rouge and Lemonade would often spend time together; spending time meant, of course, arguing. It seemed it wouldn't be any different this time; as soon as Mint opened the door, Lemonade let out an obnoxiously noisy sigh to welcome her.

"The idiot's back," she said. She was lazily sprawled atop a couch; she spent most of her day there, lying down and doing nothing. Dark Mint could not understand how, given that the couches were too uncomfortable to even sit upon.

She ignored the insult and walked towards her companion. She had made a mess out of the lounge again; the bookshelves had been emptied, its tomes left all along the floor, and Lemonade had even left her own boots and socks scattered in disarray all over the room. She was reading a book with a plain-looking cover. Dark Mint could not make out the words.

"Rouge is gone," she said. She wondered if Dark Lemonade even noticed that.

"I know, she was freed a while ago," she said. "Have you only realized that now?"

"I mean Dark Rouge."

"Oh," she shrugged, focused on her book. "Is she with Dark Aqua, then? With their stupid little mission?" Mint nodded. "Good. I hope they die."

"Why?"

"Why?" She imitated her, and laughed. "Just because, I suppose. I don't like them. I don't like you, either, so I don't know what's so shocking."

"Do you want me to die?"

"I wouldn't care if you did," she said. "You're just dumb, so I don't hate you as much as Aqua and Rouge, but I don't give a crap about you."

"I know," she hadn't expected any other answer. She wouldn't care if anything happened to the others, either. "But the two of us will have to help them out in the end, so if they die, we die too."

"Not me," she said, still feigning indifference, but failing miserably, as she set her book aside, and her eyes filled with worry. Worry was something that Dark Mint had learned to recognize well, after staring at herself in the mirror for so long. "I won't die. No one would kill someone as beautiful and talented as I am."

"Talented?" Perhaps this was her chance to ask what she wanted. "In what?"

"In not being a dumbass, for starters," she said. "And singing."

"Do you sing, then?"

"I just said that," she said, baffled. "Goodness, I wonder if Shadow didn't make you wrong or something… Are you supposed to be like this? Yes, I sing. Very well, too."

"Can you sing for me?"

"You're creeping me out," she said. "Are you in love with me?"

"No. I just want to hear you sing."

"I don't sing for idiots like you. You don't have that right."

"How do I earn that right?"

"First…" She spent a moment thinking. "First you should stop being annoying. Can you do that? I don't think you can. You need a functioning brain for that, probably."

Sighing, Dark Mint sat next to Dark Lemonade, close to her head. She really was very curious about this. She didn't know who else she could ask; who in the world would ever spare her some time to sing for her?

"Why are you like this to everyone?" The others were far from good, of course, and Dark Mint herself knew she was a failed reflection without a trace of Komachi's kindness, but this girl really went out of her way to be terrible to everyone.

"Why shouldn't I be?" Her eyes shifted to Dark Mint. "You want me to be kind to you? What have you ever done to deserve that, anyway? You're not kind to me."

"Do you want me to be?"

"You are really weird," she said. "You've been talking too much with the real Mint, too often. Should I let Shadow know?"

"You did not answer my question."

"You can do whatever," she shrugged again. Her shoulders must ache from the strain of doing that all the damn time.

It then dawned on Mint that she didn't have the slightest idea how to be kind and decent to anyone. Komachi was the only example she had about that, but she could not reflect that so easily.

"Hey," she began, trying to remember things that Komachi had once told her, "have you ever seen a flower?"

"Yeah," she pointed at the book she discarded. "It's a volume of an encyclopedia. Do you even know what that means?"

"Of course I know what that means!"

"Well, that volume had many pages about roses. They're so ugly. I don't understand why the Precure love them so much."

"Most people don't find them ugly," she said. She had asked Komachi about flowers once. "Roses are universally appreciated, actually. They aren't anything out of the ordinary, but it's hard to find someone who will outright hate them. They are…" What words had she used? Dark Mint forgot them completely. "Generic? Yeah, a really generic flower that everyone likes. It's a symbol that everyone can understand and appreciate."

"Why the hell are you telling me this?"

"I'm making small talk," she said, offended. "I'm being kind. It's what normal people do."

"We're not normal people, idiot," she said, full of mocking, but there was sadness in her voice, too, if only a little bit, concealed. "We're not even real people. We are… We're nothing."

"We are more than nothing," said Dark Mint. "We don't have to be nothing. Shadow tells us we're nothing, and we keep telling that to ourselves, but… Do you believe it?"

Lemonade took a long pause before she answered. The only sound in the room was her breathing, and Mint's.

"We are nothing. You're nothing. Rouge is nothing, Aqua is nothing. I'm nothing too… Not to myself, but to everyone else, at least. You don't care about me. You're not making small talk because I matter to you, you're doing it because you're trying to convince yourself that you're human and can do human things. Why do you do that to yourself? In the end it'll only bring you pain. You aren't human. You are a doll made of glass."

"Right," she said. She couldn't argue with that, in the end. "Is that why you don't care about anything?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "You're always arguing with me because of the messes I make, but who cares? We won't last long, anyway. Just as you'll die soon, and Rouge, and Aqua. I know it. You're expendable. Why should I bother caring about you, then, when you won't last?"

"Ah…" Pity again, that accursed feeling. She still couldn't understand why someone else's pain made her chest hurt as well. "You… You're right. I really am an idiot."

"Yes, you are," she said. The two were silent again, for the longest time, until Dark Mint decided to say something stupid.

"How was your day?"

"You're still gonna try this small talk thing?"

"Komachi always asks me about my day when I visit her. It makes me feel good," this was the first time she admitted it. "How does it make you feel?"

She kept her lips shut, despite Mint's insistent eyes.

"I studied a lot today," she said at last. "Read about the Precure, about flowers, and about music. It was interesting. There are places where people gather together to hear someone sing."

"Really? Like, if me, Rouge and Aqua listened to you sing?"

"More people," she said, annoyed. "There have apparently been concerts where thousands of people have attended."

Thousands of people… Even imagining that made her head hurt. All that Dark Mint knew were the people in Shadow's castle, though, sometimes, Komachi's words made her remember a past she never head, people she had never known. Memories shared between the two of them, for, twisted as she was, Dark Mint was still a copy of the real one.

"Wow," she couldn't manage to say anything else. This sure wouldn't help her sound any less stupid.

"I read about this country," Dark Lemonade continued, her voice jovial, "where everyone loves music. Majorland, I think. It was a nation founded by troubadours who grew tired of roaming the world and decided to settle down in what they considered the most beautiful and inspiring land in the world. Their poets had to invent hundreds of new words to describe what they had found. Once, when a king or queen died, the people would gather a hundred candidates to succeed them, and the one who composed the song that was loved by the people would take the throne."

"That's… That's stupid!" That was no proper way to rule a country! Though Dark Mint did not know much about the world, she knew that was absolutely not a standard with which to judge a ruler. Dark Lemonade, after all, could sing, and she wasn't fit to lead anything.

"Yeah," surprisingly, she agreed. "Majorland is full of idiots. But they are right in their love of music, at least. If you could hear it, you'd love it too."

"Can you-"

"No."

No one can say I didn't try, at least.

Soon it dawned on Dark Mint that she and Dark Lemonade had never exchanged so many words without jumping at each other's throat. It felt odd; she couldn't quite say she enjoyed it, but it was better than the usual screaming. She could grow used to this.

The door opened without warning, and Karen walked inside. She wore a stern expression that Dark Mint had grown used to, but that annoyed her regardless. She always looked down upon the reflections, and though of course the fake Mint knew better than to offend her, no one could stop her from hating Cure Aqua. We may be imitations, she thought, but we know what loyalty is. Dark Aqua had always been fiercely loyal to Shadow; she would never betray him in the way that the real Aqua betrayed her fellow Precure.

"Get up," she said, as if she accused the two of just lazing around pointlessly. That was exactly what they were doing, of course, but the way Aqua judged them for that was irritating. They were only waiting for orders.

"The others need us?" Lemonade leapt atop the couch, and even though she stood on it, she was still surprisingly short.

"They've reached Trump's palace," she answered. "But the three of them won't be enough to infiltrate it. They'll need your support."

"Of course they will," she said. "I'm the only one here who has any real talent, you know? Rouge might be strong, and Aqua has some wits, but-"

"Yes, yes," Karen had no patience for the reflections, and, as she was far more important to Shadow than the fakes were, no one could dare defy her openly. "Dark Mint?" She spoke the name with disdain. Her words were nothing out of the ordinary, but her voice said, "You are less than human, so you don't even have a name of your own."

"What is it?"

"I just found it odd that you didn't respond. I feared you might have fallen asleep."

Mint pretended not to notice her contempt. Karen had never hid the antipathy she felt for them; they were imitations of her closest friends, inhuman perversions of all that made them what they were. Dark Mint was a living reminder of Komachi's imprisonment and precarious situation, and, to aggravate Karen even further, she was the only person with any contact with the real Mint. That knowledge almost helped her disregard Karen's scorn, but whenever she was reminded of her subhuman status, he words stang.

"I heard you," she answered, and got up.

She didn't wait for Dark Lemonade, who was always the slowest to ready herself for anything. She passed by Karen, ignoring her, and walked the mirrored corridors that were mazes to the unprepared, until she found her way into the secluded chamber where Shadow's sole magic mirror was stored away. The floor was unblemished white, and the walls and ceilings were gigantic looking glasses that reflected each other into infinity. It made her head hurt.

She stared at herself, the reflection looking back in silent regard. She had never left Shadow's castle before. She had heard that Trump was a hideous, dying city, nothing like the beautiful landscapes that Komachi had described to her. And yet, she found her heart beating fast in anticipation. It didn't matter if Trump was dead, or dying. It didn't matter if what she saw beyond the looking glass was not true beauty; a fake like her, worth less than nothing, was more than used to being denied her every desire.

Before Rikka could even see the royal palace of Trump, the Selfish King revealed himself in the horizon. She froze when she saw him; she knew he was close to the palace, but she had no idea he was right next to it. Soon his shadow would cover her again with impenetrable darkness. Rikka did not fear that shadow, though, not anymore. Though at first the king of the Selfish had been a dreadful sight, once Rikka composed herself, she knew it was not him she should fear, but his daughter. His body was enveloped in a thick stone cover, thanks to Marie Ange, but Regina had no such restraints.

Moonlight was still her silent self, so Rikka didn't expect anything from her. She had argued with Beauty, she heard; she wondered what might have been the reason, but preferred not to ask. This, she knew, was a time for her to restrain her curiosity.

The streets were deserted, muddy, and, though Trump was not silent, Rikka couldn't quite recognize the sounds she heard. Unfamiliar smells filled the air; not all were unpleasant, but, again, Rikka couldn't tell what they were.

Before they made a run for the palace, Raquel reminded them to take a moment to rest, and eat. They hadn't done so in a while, he said, and they had to take care of themselves. He hadn't failed to notice Mana's state, Rikka presumed, that must be why he was so worried for them.

Rikka had grown accustomed to the abundance of abandoned buildings in Trump, so she just walked inside one of them, certain that no one would be inside to complain. She was right about that; the house was falling apart, with holes on the ceiling and dust on the floor. An unpleasant place to eat, but it wasn't like they would be able to find anything better in short notice, so Raquel unpacked their bags with Rikka's help, and served their food, a light meal of vegetables and bread. Not the most filling thing Rikka had ever eaten, but she knew it could very well be more than what Mana had eaten in the past week.

"So," Rikka broke the silence. "We're almost there. Almost getting the Crown," her words were stilted, but mostly she wanted to draw a reaction from Yuri. Silence was usual from her, but now it went beyond that, and it worried her.

"Do you know why Aguri might want the Eternal Golden Crown?" Raquel asked, while Yuri remained silent.

"Well, pretty much everyone in the world would want it," said Rikka. "It is a powerful artifact."

"It holds all the knowledge in the world," said Yuri, almost with reverence. Rikka rolled her eyes.

"You don't really believe that, do you?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that this infinite knowledge thing is almost certainly an invention from thousands of year of myths and legends about the legendary Cures. Infinite knowledge, as a concept, just makes no sense."

"So you think it's a lie?"

"It has to be," said Rikka. She had written a short essay on this subject, actually; a thesis on how untrustworthy the tales about the legendary Cures were. "If it truly has infinite knowledge, that includes knowledge of the future, right? That clearly isn't the case, because if the owners of the Crown had knowledge of what was to come, we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. So no knowledge of the future."

"Just the present and the past, then?" Raquel asked.

"I doubt that too," Rikka continued. "Knowledge of the present would mean that the holder of the Crown would know of the plots to darken the stars. Even if we are less literal about the infinite knowledge part, we know that, though Trump possesses the Eternal Golden Crown, its technological level is… Low," that was the only polite way of saying it. "I'm certain that the Crown is much less powerful than what the stories say."

"You may be right," said Yuri, "but…"

There was always a but.

"But?"

"I still trust Aguri. If she needs the Crown, I'm sure she has a good reason," she looked deep into Rikka's eyes. "You think I'm being foolish?"

"I think you are being trusting… I'm helping Aguri because I want to know the truth, I want to know if she is worth trusting, she and her Blue Rose. But you already trust her. Why?"

"Because of things she told me," said Yuri. She spoke with complete certainty. "If she didn't share them with you, then there's no way you'd understand."

"Help me understand, then," Rikka said. She didn't like this; Aguri had promised her the truth, but it seemed she hid some of it from her. "I know you are no fool. For you to trust Ace and the Blue Rose… You have a good reason, I'm sure. What is it?"

She looked up, at the red sky. Her expression revealed none of her intentions. She looked so tired, Rikka only realized that now. She has dark circles under her eyes, but Rikka attributed those to her constant nightmares. But now her face seemed almost defeated, somehow.

"What do you know about the monster they call Dark Precure?"

"I know she served Dune," Rikka knew that Yuri's father was a servant to Dune as well, but didn't know how she would react if she said that, so she didn't mention that. "I know she is a fearsome fighter, that she is dangerous, and-"

"Was," Yuri corrected. She sounded so bitter that Rikka feared she would lash out at her soon. "You are right. You had no way of knowing more, because no one ever told you… The Red Rose made her."

"I know," said Rikka. "Aguri said so, didn't she?" That had to be what they were always talking about together.

"What? No. No, I already knew that," said Yuri. "Long ago. I guess it must be hard for you to know the full story when all you hear are rumors and whispers not meant to you. Dark Precure was a creation of the Red Rose; an artificial Precure. Inhuman, created only as a weapon."

"W-What?" Rikka didn't want to believe it.

"It was my father who was responsible for the project, but he was under orders from the Red Rose, and Cure Continental. No one expected him to turn traitor, of course, Dark Precure was meant to obey only the Red Rose. She was meant to be the first of many, in fact, but the project died when my father abandoned the Red Rose's service and disposed of all of the data from his research. Continental's intentions were to have an army of hollow-hearted Precure that had no fear of throwing their lives away in battle. For all the Red Rose spoke of protecting the world's future, it was all too willing to create these puppets with no soul, no future."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" This could not have been just hidden. This was big.

"I tried to," she said, with a sour, cynical smile. She looked crushed, forlorn. Even when she had nightmares, she never looked quite like this. "Why do you think I was sent to Trump despite the wounds I had suffered in battle? I didn't have a single day of rest after… After saving the world. After beating Dune."

"Were you sent away to die here?" She asked, and Yuri nodded.

"I think so. Or at least to give Continental and her cronies the time they needed to blemish my reputation and convince everyone that whatever I might say was a lie, that I have no evidence, that I'm mad. Those were the thanks I received. Sometimes I wish I had let Dune win. I won the battle, but lost everything. My father left me, to try and do some good, in his words, and the Red Rose betrayed me. And Blossom…"

"Yuri, what-"

"Ah, I don't mean it," she said. "Of course I wouldn't let Dune destroy our world. It's the Red Rose I hate, not the world. Our world is still worth protecting. It always will be. So now you know," she said after silence. Rikka was still trying to understand everything that Yuri had said.

Her heart grew heavy; was this what she had spent the past years serving? If the Red Rose was willing to create someone like Dark Precure, that soulless creature driven only by hatred, and it meant to make an army out of them, then the Red Rose was just as depraved as its enemies. That betrayal hurt; Rikka felt the strangest urge to cry, for having dedicated herself so much to something so twisted, for all the time and love she wasted on the Red Rose, but instead she laughed. Yuri and Raquel stared her as if she had lost her wits.

The Red Rose was just as evil as Aguri had said, or, perhaps, even worse, and the world's last hope was its azure twin, the Blue Rose that once worshipped an evil god that had been banished from the world due to his horrible crimes. For a second, Rikka wondered if there really was anything worth fighting for, the worst thought a Precure could possibly have.

Ashamed, she looked at her surroundings, and she understood. She heard sounds of people in the distance, and saw footsteps on the mud, recent ones. High above, white smoke was rising, followed by the smell of cooked meat. Trump was broken, blighted, but it lived. The world still lived, despite everything. Despite all the evil that plagued it, even from its so-called protectors, the world kept on breathing, diseased, and there was an odd sort of beauty in its defiance, its refusal to die. It was not for a rose that they fought, whether it was clad in red or blue.

Rikka walked back into the living dead streets of Trump, and continued her journey, Raquel and Yuri following close behind. The sounds of Trump enveloped them; they were subtle, distant, but they were not hiding, only waiting for Rikka to notice them. Now that she did, she knew what she was fighting for.

Without a certain Cure to slow them down, all the others could move swiftly and without interruptions, and, soon enough, they had reached the far north of Trump, where, supposedly, half of its Precure were being held in an old neighborhood that was half ruin and half squalor. Iona could smell it even from afar. It stank of disease, of human waste; it stank of death.

They would not be getting there easily, Fortune recognized immediately during her scouting trip. The whole district had been surrounded by a heavy blockade of Selfish and Jikochuu. Watchtowers had been set, forcing Iona to walk in shadows, accompanied by Sunny, who at least had some familiarity with the desolation that was Trump.

Somehow this area was even more hideous than the Trump south of the Bridge of Hearts. Here the streets overflowed with trash and grimy water, and the air was filled with an overwhelming stench of rotting meat.

When Fortune and Sunny returned from the scouting, and reached the rest of the Precure that awaited them in what had once been a restaurant, their eyes were anxious for good news, but Iona simply shook her head to make her point clear.

"The blockade is really well guarded," she said. Akane agreed with a quick nod.

"They've set up palisades and outposts protected by Jikochuu. Many of them, too many."

"Have you seen the state of the district?" Reika asked.

"We tried," said Iona, "but could only catch some glimpses without risking being found. The district is a slum, basically. Its houses are made of frail wood, and are full of holes. They are all built on top of each other, so it was hard to see how it was past the blockade."

Iona took a deep breath, and regretted it immediately. This place, like everywhere else, stank. Whenever Iona looked at a corner, she saw a rat nibbling at some meat of suspicious origin. All the other Cures preferred to stay outside the restaurant, so grievous was the smell inside.

"The northern Cures must have been holed up there for a while now," said Beauty. "How are they managing to survive? Do they have a way to get food inside?"

"Is someone smuggling things past the barriers?" Nozomi asked. That seemed pretty obvious to Iona.

"There must be," she answered. "For them to survive this long…"

She remembered what Akane had said the day they arrived in Trump. The Selfish were trying to starve the Precure in the north of Trump, to avoid an actual conflict with them. For them to be so afraid of fighting, the slums must be a good defensive position for the Precure.

"Have you seen anything else?" Asked Reika.

"The perimeter doesn't seem to have any real weak spots," said Akane. "There are Selfish stationed everywhere. The biggest group was in front of that old gate, though," she said, looking for Iona to confirm her words.

"Yeah," she said. "It's an old, traditional neighborhood, apparently. It has its own gate," she said with disdain. This was what Trump's tradition had earned to the city. A town stuck in an era long gone.

"No chance of just ramming it down?" Dream asked, and Iona was quick to tell her it was impossible. She seemed disappointed.

"Every possible point of entry really is very well-guarded," said Akane. "Really looks like the Selfish were focusing their attentions on this side of Trump…"

"I wonder why," said Reika. "Perhaps they fear them because of how close they are to the palace?"

"It doesn't matter," said Iona. The Selfish's reasons were utterly irrelevant right now. Right now, what mattered was what action they would take. "We need to figure out something quickly. Find a way to get inside."

"If our assumptions are correct," said Reika, "and the people of Trump are smuggling supplies to the entrapped Cures, then our course is clear. They must have a way in, and we need to find it."

"All of us?" Asked Iona. That did not seem clever. "Almost twenty Precure sneaking inside a place we don't even know…"

"That's not too smart, yes," Reika agreed, thankfully. "If we just ended up trapped there as well, then we'd be doomed. However, I'm not too sure what is the best way to proceed… Do we split up the forces we have?"

"You mentioned a gate…" Nozomi said, turning to Akane. "What if, perhaps, a few of us joined with the trapped Precure, and we worked with them from the inside? We could try to open the gates to free them, and at the same time, the ones on the outside would help us fight the Selfish at the gates."

"That's…" Iona hadn't expected Nozomi to come up with something that was almost intelligent. "That's crafty."

"Hehe, thanks," she said with a tiny, flustered smile. Iona hadn't expected her praise to mean that much to her.

"I like that," said Reika, her words making Nozomi's smile grow even larger. "It'll require some coordination, though, and I don't really trust most of the Precure we have… After all, we still don't know exactly which ones are loyal and which ones betrayed us. I have ideas, but…"

"I'll stay with them," said Sunny, "to make sure everything goes right. Okay?"

"Ah," Reika's eyes lost a bit of their color, stolen by a hint of sadness. "I'll put my life in your hands, then, mine and everyone else's. Promise me you'll be safe, though," she said, grabbing her hands. "You must promise me that. I could not bear to lose you once again."

"D-Damn, what's with that," her face was all red. "I'll do my best, and you'll do your best too, so we'll all be fine. I promise you I'll be safe, and when you open the gates, I'll be there to save you from all the Selfish kicking your ass."

"Thank you," she said. The two Cures stared at each other awkwardly, until Akane enveloped her friend with her arms in a tight, lingering hug.

When it was over, the two smiled at each other. The sadness was gone from Reika's eyes in an instant. Iona then understood just how much trust they had in each other. She wished she could trust someone like that.

I did, once, she realized. She said nothing, so as not to spoil their happiness; even Nozomi was basking in it, with an easy smile. They all said their goodbyes and pretended not to be scared at all, even though Fortune, Dream and Beauty were about to walk into the most dangerous place in all of Trump. Reika and Nozomi seemed confident, even, and if Glasan had any fear, she hid it excellently. They walked into the trash-filled streets of Trump, soon to be covered once again by the shadow of the Selfish King, and they smiled. The promises they shared seemed to fill them with certainty, yet Iona could not share it. She was all too familiar with broken promises.

Chapter Text

The Palace of Bronze was so densely packed that its walls and floor were wet with the sweat of thousands who had come to see the festival. Itsuki was lucky to have found herself a spot on the backstage, helping Miki, but even when she stepped into the stage during the brief intermissions and took a glance at the grandstands, the sheer amount of people in there was unbelievable. There was no room for moving, and heads were often bumping against each other. Still, there was no real commotion amidst the crowds, and, despite the inconvenience, the onlookers seemed content with the spectacle.

First of all was a performance by a renowned group of magicians who lit a great fire in the middle of the stage; as the embers rose to the sky and the air was filled with smoke, dozens of doves flew from it, upward, before they too burst into flame, then disappearing in the wind.

Next came popular bands that performed traditional songs with admirable skill. Itsuki found herself tapping her foot to the rhythm of their melodies, and afterwards, she regretted the fact that she didn't know the names of any of the songs. She would like to hear them again, if she had the chance.

Each new spectacle was heralded by Baron Salamander, from high up in the galleries, who rose his hands high, causing the onlookers to cheer. He never said anything, oddly. The rumor was that he wore the mask because his face was so horribly deformed that he could not even communicate properly, anymore.

After that was the fashion show. She helped Miki with her outfit, a violet dress with a skirt that was rather short from the front, but had a curiously long train that dragged along the floor. Itsuki wondered if this was current fashion; unlike Erika, she had never been too good at keeping up with trends.

Miki's presence filled the runway, and all eyes were drawn to her. She was so confident, so natural, she captured the hearts of all those who watched, including Itsuki. She wished she could have this sort of confidence; she had taken part in a similar fashion show, once, and she had done well enough, but it took a great deal of effort to conceal her embarrassment, to ward off a blush upon her visage. Still, when she saw the way people looked at her, she did not feel ashamed as she feared she might.

With that finished (and congratulations shared between all models that took part), Miki stood by Itsuki's side, after she had changed into something less ornate, and they awaited for Elena to do her part. Soon the backstage was empty, save for the two of them. Silently they gazed upon the stage, now prepared for some obscure ball-throwing sport. Itsuki almost found herself wishing that the Apostles would have held a martial arts competition, but martial arts had no place in today's festival, it was said, as it was a form of art wish such honorable history that it deserved a day dedicated only to it.

"You're shaking," said Miki. Her long fingers gently held up Itsuki's quivering hand. Her palm felt sticky.

"I guess so," she said. She didn't want to admit that she was scared, but of course there was no hiding it. "It's our lives we're risking."

"We always risk our lives. That's what it means to be a Precure."

"That's true, but we always have an out, so to say," Itsuki argued. "We always have people watching our backs, providing us support. Just the two of us, though… Sure, Elena will help, but she will be pretty distant. It really is dangerous."

"We can't give up on hope, no matter how difficult it may be, though."

"I know that. I didn't mean I was giving up. I'll see this to the end. Whatever end that may be. But…"

"You can't help being afraid, right?" Miki smiled. It was a beautiful smile, full of calm and, it seemed to Itsuki, of wisdom too. Of all the people she could be stuck with in such a distant place, Miki was probably one of the best, Itsuki thought.

She held on to Miki's hand; her warm touch made her feel calmer, though her heart still hammered, hurried by fear. Fear was a shameful thing, for the Precure were meant to face danger with bravery, free of hesitation, and yet, somehow, it felt freeing to express it so openly, to not have to conceal it. As Itsuki felt her hand, she realized that Miki feared, too.

Potpourri feared, too. The poor fairy was almost crying, and whenever she saw the spectacle move closer and closer to the duels, she grew even more anxious.

Wheels pierced through their silence as a pair of Apostles dragged a trolley into the room. From it emerged a bramble of blades of all lengths and thicknesses, poniards and claymores, rapiers and bastard swords. Some were more exotic, fit for more obscure styles, such as the forked swords of the Bad End Kingdom, and the chainswords of the Garden of Light.

Swordmasters poured into the room: some were from distant lands, refugees from countries that fell with the Death of the Stars, while others were simply adventurers, travelers in search of a challenge, and the Desert Lands were one of the few regions where civilization had not yet crumbled. Many participants, of course, were Desert Apostles, such as Kumojacky. Elena was the last to step into the backstage, the youngest of the challengers, and the smallest. Next to some of the others, she was only a child. The participants took their blades, most choosing weapons with great reach, and one even chose a scythe that Itsuki was certain was not a practical weapon at all. Elena picked a rapier, examining its weight by balancing it on her hand. Content, she approached Itsuki and Miki.

"Sunshine," she said, giving a cordial nod that Itsuki returned, then did the same to the girl by her side. "Berry."

"Please be careful, Matador," said Miki. Elena replied with a proud smile.

"I am the very soul of caution," she said. "My entire life, I have never allowed an enemy to strike me, not even once."

That was true; she was a renowned tournament fighter. What was also true is that whenever she felt like defeat was certain and she would be unable to parry or dodge, she would yield while her opponent was in the middle of their blow. Ergo, she had never been struck.

"Even so," Miki insisted, "stay safe. You'll be right in the middle of a dozen Apostles when we…"

She didn't put it to words. Though Miki had done much to plan the deed, she was not at all fond of their treachery. If it worked, Itsuki wondered what the Precure would think of them. If there were any Precure left. It was a disquieting thought.

It doesn't matter what anyone thinks of us, Itsuki thought, suddenly. There was no one to judge them, no one they had to impress, no standards they were being held up to. When she thought that, Itsuki felt free of a burden. She needed only care about what she felt was right, to follow the course her heart revealed to her. All her life, she reflected, she had been expected to be things she was not, but no longer.

"We'll take Miwar," she said, knowing that there were no Apostles nearby to hear them: they had gone into the arena now. "We'll keep fighting, no matter what stands in our way."

The other two nodded; Elena left them once an Apostle came and warned her that the games would soon begin. The duels were only to first blood, but Itsuki remembered the huge swords she had seen, and she had to wonder exactly how much blood that involved.

Sunshine and Berry were left all alone as the assistants left in a hurry so that they could find seats for themselves, if there were still any. Their hurry was such that they left the trolley unprotected, which made Itsuki and Miki's job all the easier. The two let go of each other's hand, and each took a sword. Itsuki chose the simplest she could find, a cutlass with clouds on its hilt. Before anyone could possibly return to the backstage and catch them, they began to run.

"Come, Potpourri," Itsuki called her fairy, who took the form of a silken cape, thin and light.

Then, Itsuki felt herself filled with the warmth of the sun as golden light enveloped her and her summer dress faded away, replaced by the pleasantly cold fabric of her uniform. Her shoddy ponytail came undone as her hair lengthened and divided into two long twintails that almost touched the floor, and her sandals turned into tall white boots.

Being Sunshine made her feel light, full of joy. She felt like a completely different person, that whatever Sunshine did had no relation at all to what Itsuki Myoudouin could do. No, it was more than that… When she was Cure Sunshine, she could do the things that Itsuki never could, be what she was too afraid of being.

The walls were sandstone all around, and the halls and corridors were all empty; even the palace guards had foregone their duties so that they could enjoy the festival. Itsuki could hear them, though; they were cheering, encouraging their favorites.

When she passed by windows and arrow slits, Itsuki could catch glances of what was going on in the battlegrounds; Elena had been the first to fight, and she dueled Kumojacky. It made Sunshine's heart beat faster, fearful, as Kumojacky was one of the best fighters among the Apostles.

Matador danced around him, making the best out of her superior speed, but whenever Itsuki looked again, he was growing closer and closer to her, and when he swung his blade at her, Itsuki thought it was the end for her, as an attack that ferocious would surely kill her, but she leapt to the side and poked at him. Afterwards she rose her rapier, showing its crimson tip. The crowd gasped, and then they applauded her. Kumojacky was their favorite, but the way Elena had turned the tables had earned her their admiration.

Didn't earn us enough time, though. There will be more games, of course, but Itsuki knew that there was always the chance that a guard who was particularly fond of Kumojacky would stop watching, frustrated, and would see them.

And then what would they do? Yes, that was right. It didn't matter if they were found out. They would not give up just because they were sighted by guards. No, she had said it: they would see it to the end.

Staircases appeared in front of them, and Itsuki knew they were closer to the galleries now. The cheering grew louder as they neared the crowds, and when Sunshine and Berry finally reached the glass door that led to the balcony wherein Salamander watched the competition, they didn't hesitate: they kicked it open, sending shards flying all around.

There, they did not find Salamander, defenseless; half a dozen soldiers shared the balcony with him, and they pointed spears at Itsuki and Miki. They were waiting for us. Itsuki took a step back, and felt something; more Apostles just behind them, now surrounding them. Leading them was Cobraja, a card between his fingers (or, knowing him, his own photograph), and, behind the guards, Hadenya, the executive from Nightmare.

"It was a brave attempt," Cobraja said, "I'll give you that. Well, either brave or stupid. Either way, lay down your weapons."

They did as they were bid: the only other choice was dying. There was no way they'd even be able to reach Salamander. When Itsuki looked at the arena, she caught a glimpse of Elena being escorted away by guards, though she struggled as they dragged her off the battlegrounds.

"How did you know?" Itsuki said, trying to look defiant, but all she managed was a defeated glare. "We were careful…"

"Not as careful as you should have been. Or rather, as you would have been if you had any experience at all with subterfuge. Did you really think you had fooled us? That we just took your words and plans at face value? Do you think so lowly of us?" Itsuki couldn't tell if he was mocking them or if he was really offended.

"We thought-"

"Of course I understood what you had planned. Three Precure gathering with weapons nearby? Of course it was clear to me what you might have planned. Salamander isn't even here. We decided not to take any risks, in case you really were trying what we suspected."

The man who she thought was Salamander stepped up, and walked closer to Itsuki. He removed his mask, and beneath it was a face she had never seen. He was grinning, full of smugness. Itsuki would have been annoyed by him if she didn't feel so damn stupid for thinking it would be easy.

"Will you just talk or will you arrest them?" Asked Hadenya. "The games need to go on. You people need to see blood, it's all you can understand."

"Of course," he said, and gave his guards a signal with his hand. He didn't seem to pay any mind to Hadenya's offense, so Itsuki presumed it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Unlike Matador, Sunshine and Berry didn't have to be dragged away; they knew very well there was no resisting this. They had misjudged their skill, and taken a great risk. They failed, and the risk did not pay off. Itsuki could only hope that the rest of the Precure would be luckier.

"Girl," Hadenya said, suddenly. Miki looked back, but Hadenya dismissed her. "Not you. The other. Your name is Cure Sunshine, right?" Itsuki nodded. Hadenya's lips made a cruel smile. "Look," she put her hand on Itsuki's face, and forced her to stare at the sky, through an open window. The sun was, of course, a red blot, an ugly thing. "You may want to take a good, long look at this, girl. At your precious sun. You will never see it again."

Putrid water ran downstream into a wide and deep pool that stank of garbage left to rot. Iona presumed that, indeed, this pitiful lagoon was used by the Selfish to dispose of trash and waste. Its waters seemed thicker at points, almost bubbling. Filth had turned it into an ugly mixture of green and brown. On its muddy shores, darkened by slurry and leachate, rats nibbled at something Iona couldn't quite recognize. She didn't want to, either.

As she followed Dream and Beauty further east, along the stream, Iona had the impression that she had heard the distinct sound of shifting waters. But it could not be, the water here was almost completely stagnant, moving ever so slowly. Still, she followed the sound, her sole guiding hope right now.

Shacks had been built all along the brown waters, their colors blending to the stream thanks to the poor wood of their foundations. As the island of Trump had run out of usable forests long ago, the populace that could not afford to buy what they needed from sawmills beyond the Amethyst Sea were forced to use parts of houses older still. The shacks leaned to their sides, almost collapsing upon the rush. That did not seem like an unusual occurrence: often, Iona had seen long and pointy splinters drifting along the current. As she passed by those miserable houses, Iona could almost feel herself being stared at from above, but she did not know where she should look, as all around her were windows beyond count. She did not care enough to seek out the watchers, anyway. Most likely, they were curious inhabitants of this area, not the Selfish.

In the distance, she could see the ring of palisades that circled the district, just past the water. Fording the stream would be in vain, it quickly became clear as Iona took a better look. The Selfish had accounted for that, and guarded palisades and watchtowers had been set all over the perimeter. There had to be a way in, yet Fortune could not find it, nor Dream or Beauty.

They moved further into the slum, deeper into its cramped trails. Something - or rather, someone - caught Iona's eyes: a woman, kneeling by the water, legs darkened by grime. She was putting her hands on the water, and with them she held something that Iona could not recognize from so far away. It was more than a little suspicious, so she called Reika and Nozomi to get their attention and the three approached the woman.

"Good afternoon to you," said Iona to the woman, raising her hand in a wave.

"H-Hello," she said as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn't. Perhaps she was; Iona pressed the issue.

"Washing clothes on this dirty stream?"

"Just throwing some trash away," a lie, Iona knew from her tone.

"What kind of trash?"

"Garbage."

"Right," she said, stepping close to the woman, who shied away. She had something on her arms, something she was holding close to her chest. A bucket, it looked like, but Iona could not see what was inside. "I think not. I think-"

"Iona!" Reika said, strict. "You will scare the lady. We can tell her the truth. Perhaps she can help us."

"Will you trust someone you don't even know?" Reika was no fool, but she was too trusting of people. She always expected them to do the right thing, if you did good to them as well.

"We need to trust someone. Here," she showed her hands to the woman, as a sign that she carried no weapons. Iona knew it meant nothing, as she could invoke her swords at any moment, but it seemed to tranquilize the startled woman. "We are Precure. We are looking for a way in."

"What for?" She didn't deny that there was a way to enter.

"To open the gates from the inside," said Reika.

"We have more Precure waiting outside," Nozomi explained, "but they can't beat the Selfish on their own. We need more, so we're going to free the Cures trapped there."

"Hm," the woman paused, thoughtful. "Right. There is a way, yes… But you must not tell the Cures inside that it was I who told you, alright? They…" Again she paused, as if trying to decide which words to use. "They are not too trusting, what with everything that happened. They would never forgive me if they learned that I revealed an entrance to the district…"

She approached the bucket towards Iona's face; inside it was dried food. It did not smell bad at all, but it was most certainly not a meal. It was barely enough for them to survive.

"They try the best to live with what they have inside," she said, "and there are little areas there where you can grow some vegetables, but it's not nearly enough. So every day I send them some food."

"How?" Iona asked. "It's one thing to smuggle food, but people-"

"Well, that neighborhood was always so poor that it never had proper sewage, so the populace had to improvise their own system. By which I mean they dumped everything down a hole they cover with a grate, until it reaches the river," she pointed at the brown water. "The stream is always drifting, so I just place the bucket on the waters, and wait. Sometimes I poke it with a stick to make sure it floats in the right direction."

"So that is our way in?" Asked Reika. Nozomi didn't look forward it to it, either, her face losing its color in nausea. The woman nodded, and handed them the bucket. Iona took it; it was surprisingly heavy.

"I should not be trusting you," the woman said. "And yet… I've spent months looking over my shoulder, months watching my mouth so I wouldn't say anything I shouldn't… It gets painful, after a while. I want to trust again."

"You can," said Nozomi. Brave words for someone who looks like she's about to throw up, thought Iona. Not that she was looking much better herself.

She was the first to put her foot on the murky stream; it was deeper than she had expected, as the cold thick water reached past her shins, almost stopping at her knees. The feeling made her want to retch. The river was syrupy, and chunks of things Iona couldn't recognize bumped against her legs. Whatever they were, they felt meaty.

She walked slowly, trudging through the filth, with Beauty and Dream following close. Whenever Fortune lifted her foot to take another step, she saw that her leg was brown, too covered in the sticky grime.

If Iona looked down, she couldn't even see her submerged legs, as the water was too dark for that, its surface a layer of trash and sewage. There was no way this stream wasn't tainted by a dozen horrible diseases. It wasn't only disgusting, but dangerous.

As the woman had promised, though, a way in revealed itself; an opening on a high crag, the only area of the district where no Selfish kept watch. Iona understood why: crossing the waters to reach the bluff was challenging enough, but ascending it was even harder. Or at least it would be, if not for the hole that had been carved on the rock.

The passage was short and narrow, so Iona had to crouch and wedge herself through it. Even so, she could feel the rough rock rubbing against her arms, scratching them. Sounds of life came from above, beyond the rocky ceiling; they were directly underneath the district wherein the Precure were trapped. At the end of the path, sunlight shone through a grate on the ceiling.

Iona lifted the grate with no trouble, and squeezed herself through the hole, followed by Reika, then Nozomi. Fortune looked at her surroundings, and realize that this was the ugliest place she had seen, and not simply because of the cockroaches running along, scuttling everywhere, or because of the houses falling apart, each made of a dozen different types of wood, hastily and poorly put together. No, the most terrible things were all the people around them: people who were barely alive, their faces blemished and marked by famine and disease. Among them were children and elders, somehow in a sorrier state than the rest. All of them banded around the three girls who had just arrived, sunken eyes filled with dark curiosity. Iona felt herself surrounded by a hundred Manas, except that, for these people, starvation had not been a choice. Their eyes all met Iona, and something about them filled her with dread.

Then she saw the Precure amidst the populace. Iona had not noticed them at first, as they too looked like spectres, their clothing stained with filth, and full of holes. They did not smile when they saw their arrival. They stared at Fortune, Dream and Beauty as if the Selfish themselves had come into their hideout.

Even now, the palace of Trump was the city's most treasured jewel, and not even the Selfish King's shadow could dim its grandeur. It looked just like Mana remembered, to her relief. Its gardens were still sweetened by the scent of flowers from all over the world, and its stained windows still depicted millennia of Trump's history. Something in the city had not changed, at least, and it made her happy.

No, she realized as she examined it more closely. It did change. It was not the smell of flowers that she felt, nor were born from petals the colors that she had seen; on the brown soil, only fruits grew. The smell was pleasant, but it was not as it had been before. She walked past a bush of strawberries. It did not seem that different from roses, to tell the truth. But roses were poor sustenance when compared to these fruits, so it was no wonder that they were gone. Trump had to do what it could to survive.

The Selfish King stood next to the palace, at least twice as tall as it was, but, thankfully, he was completely still. Mana felt fear's grip choke her when she looked up at the master of the Selfish, so she avoided him, even though he knew he was actually the least of threats here.

The gates of the palace were well-guarded: past the drawbridge, two Selfish, aided by Jikochuu, made sure no one could enter. The only other entrance was a door to the side, close to the kitchens, whereby servants walked inside, and supplies were brought. It was not considered proper for a cook to use the same gate that a princess might, though Marie Ange never quite cared about that kind of proper.

"So," Honoka said from behind a bush, as Mana was returning. "Any way to get through that door?"

"It's pure metal," said Mana. Three inches thick, she remembered Rikka mentioning it once. It would be much easier to try to enter the palace by breaking through the walls than that door. "We could try the walls, but-"

"I'd rather not alert everyone that we're there," said Nagisa, and Mana agreed. By now she could not deny it any longer: she was not fit to fight. Black and White were weary, too, and had not rested in a while.

"I think I-"

Footsteps from behind interrupted her, and announced Makoto's arrival. Odd, how she had already arrived, and yet Mana could not see Rikka anywhere. She was glad to see Makoto, at first, but when she took a better look, her heart tightened. Blood had splattered on her clothes, and it was clearly not hers. Her face seemed utterly defeated. Mana stepped towards her, and saw that her eyes were red.

"Mako-"

"I'm fine," she said, then feigned the frailest smile that Mana had ever seen. "You were going to ask that, right? How I'm doing. I'm fine."

"Liar," Mana remembered when, long ago, she had not yet earned Makoto's trust, when she would never say what bothered her. She felt a needle on her heart to think that Makoto didn't even trust her, anymore. "You can lay your troubles on me."

"Can I, truly?" She had meant it as defiance, but Mana only nodded. That seemed to catch her off-guard. "I… I failed. Again. I always fail. Everything I've ever done and ever was…"

"Don't say things like that," said Mana. "You are no failure, if you are still fighting, then-"

"You know," her words were acid, "at a certain point, we have to admit that fighting stops meaning anything. Trump is gone, and its people, and the princess with them. I've broken all my oaths. And my hands…" She looked at them with mild disgust. "I've killed so many Selfish. Sometimes it's all that keeps me going. "Death, not life… I failed as a Precure, too, the way I failed as a knight, as a protector of Trump. You tell me to keep fighting, but all that will do is hurt even more people."

"Shut up, Makopi," Mana's arms enveloped her. "You are not a failure, much less a bad person. The world may be wrong, and full of injustice… But you are a good person. A good friend. And in such an unjust world, you are a treasure."

Makoto pushed Mana away, not without gentleness, but she did it all the same. Mana just stared at her, eyes welling up.

"I… I'm sorry," she said at last. "You think too highly of me. You have too much faith in things, Mana. All it ever does is hurt you. You say the world is full of injustice, but you don't seem to realize that. You still seem to think that gentle words will solve everything, that your good deeds make a difference. They don't. Things will only get worse. The world will hurt you if you let it, and you… You almost seem to welcome that. Mana, are you-"

She held Makoto's hands before she could finish her words. Mana took a deep breath; her lungs were hurting now, and she wheezed.

"You are talking nonsense," she said. "It's like you've forgotten everything you've learned. Come on, now," she pulled Makoto away, while Nagisa and Honoka stared at them in confusion. "I'll help you remember."

Mana brought her closer to the palace; they crossed the small wooden bridge together, the waters of the moat almost completely still. The guards walked into place and blocked their way.

"H-Halt!" Said the one on the left. His eyes were drifting, and his face bore clear marks of sleepiness. "You're not supposed to get through this gate, it's off limits."

"I know that," Mana said casually, "but someone was clumsy enough to lock the servants' door! Now I can't get to work!"

"You work here?"

"No, silly, I work at the fishery, I'm just taking a shortcut through the royal palace," she said, drawing laughter from the Selfish who was more than half-awake. "Yes, I work here. Me and my friend. It's her first day."

"Right," said the one on the right, doubtful. Behind him, a Jikochuu was stirring. Mana knew she'd have to say something convincing. "What's your work?"

"We're librarians," said Mana. "I need to teach her the proper organization of the Relic Atheneum," the man was shocked at those words, as Mana knew he would be. That library was known only to those who had access to Trump's palace and its secrets. Just knowing that it existed had been, once, a symbol that you had earned the trust of Trump. Of course, now the Selfish could just scour the palace and find it, but even they had to know its importance.

That's what Mana counted on, at least. The fact that she was not being attacked was, she assumed, proof that she was right. Her suspicions were confirmed when the two men looked at each other, bedazzled. They clearly had no idea of what they should do.

"I've never seen you," said the sleepy one, pointing at Mana.

"You don't look like you see much of anything," Mana struck back, putting her finger on his almost shut eyes. His companion laughed again.

"She's got you there!" He said, then cackled, though perhaps it was a bit generous to call that sound laughter. For a second he sounded as if someone had cut his throat. "Look, we haven't been given any instructions about what to do when you arrive, but I don't want to get in trouble…"

"Thank you, kindly," said Mana, smiling. Makoto reacted only with a curt nod, but the Selfish paid it no mind.

The palace was still as Mana remembered, even its smells, and she ran her fingers over the walls, and they still felt the same. The floors were stone, elaborately patterned, and the walls were emblazoned with crests and coats of arms, with tapestries and oil paintings of the landscapes of the Trump Kingdom. Everything was just as Mana remembered, save for the portrait of Marie Ange that was supposed to be next to the door that led to the ample throne room; it was gone, replaced by a painting of Regina. Mana had never seen her, but she had heard enough, and the portrait confirmed all the tales. A petulant child, her visage a threatening fusion of the smug, juvenile smile of a spoiled teen and the wicked, fearful grin of a tyrant who did nothing but hurt others.

"Right, the kitchens," Mana pointed out their destination to Makoto. She was still pouting, and seeing that Ange's portrait was gone did little to ease her sorrow. Mana didn't know what to say. She didn't think there was anything she could say that might alleviate Makoto's pain. All she could do was not let her isolate herself, like she wanted.

The two knew the way perfectly, and they walked past by the soldiers unquestioned, barely noticed. The Selfish were fierce in battle, but they were not fit to stand watch. It was boring, and the Selfish quite despised everything boring. Most of the guards here, then, were more focused on counting their own fingers than actually guarding over anything. This, of course, would change when the Precure actually reached the Starlight Flame: there would be a fight then, and most Selfish lived for that.

The kitchens smelled of flour and sweets of all sorts. It was not an unpleasant smell, though it hung heavy in the air, intoxicating. A man and a woman worked together on a tower of candy, carving it with knives into a shape that was not yet very clear. Mana recognized them, though she didn't know their names. They used to work here during better times. Mana let out a sigh of relief. These were friends of Ange, of Trump's rightful royals.

"Oh?" They noticed them immediately. "Makoto, is that you?" She nodded. She lived in the palace, so she was much more familiar with its other denizens than Mana could ever be. "Who's this girl?"

Of course they don't recognize me. I wouldn't recognize me.

She gave them her name, and they, like everyone who met Mana, expressed their shock at her appearance, asked if she was eating well, and asked all sorts of questions that Mana had tired of answering. She was always being questioned as if she had committed a great crime.

"I heard you were being quite a thorn on Lust's side," said the woman. "Bel's too, for that matter.

"I certainly hope I can cause Bel the same problems I have caused Lust."

"So tell me, what about those poor Precure trapped inside that miserable little neighborhood? You're north now, past the Bridge of Hearts, so have you freed them?"

"No," said Mana. Makoto had no idea at all of that. "Not yet, I mean. There's over a dozen Precure working to free them, now. Once we have them on our side, and all the Precure of Trump are united again, we can beat the Selfish."

"Thank god," the man said, then covered his mouth. One should not speak of god when near the Precure, everyone knew that. "Things have been really hard with Regina here. We got lucky, you know. We were spared because Regina likes the same kinds of meals that Marie Ange does," does, he said. Makoto noticed that too, and grimaced. "Well, that and candy. Outrageous amounts of candy. She told us to start making candy for her, so that once she returns from the southern war, she can have a lot of it to eat."

"Well, let us hope she won't return so soon," said Mana.

"That is a hope I have every day," the woman said. "Regina… Well, you see, she has this obsession… She's consumed by the desire of having a friend."

"Friend is what Regina calls her toys," the man explained. Mana had almost felt sorry for her, for a moment.

"That's a good way of putting it. She is not very careful with her playthings. She has some fun with them for a while, but in the end, she always makes Jikochuu out of them. Worse than death. If you die, at least it's over. As a Jikochuu, not only is your suffering eternal, you also bring pain to others. I'd rather die."

"We got an assistant, a while ago, shortly before Regina marched out to war. He was not very competent, but he was a nice boy, always reliable. However, one day, he had the misfortune of tripping in front of Regina, and having a really bad fall on top of a poor old servant woman, who couldn't even get up after she fell. Regina found that all very outrageous, and decided she wanted to befriend the boy. Have you seen the Jikochuu at the main gate?" Mana nodded, though she hadn't paid much attention to them, truthfully. "The boy is one of them. Don't know which, exactly. Doesn't matter."

The stories about Regina were true, then. Mana had always wondered just how much she could trust in the words that were spoken about her, cursing her name. They, after all, could have been fabrications, as the Selfish had no lack of enemies. Mana had almost hoped so. Whenever she could, she would rather believe that people were not all terrible.

"She's terrible," she said.

"A monster," Makoto was even harsher. "There is one rightful princess of Trump, and it is not Regina."

"Actually," said the woman, "talk is that Regina isn't even a real princess… Er, I mean, she's not the daughter of the Selfish King. He's clearly not human, and until the day that Trump fell, no one had ever seen him… Or Regina."

"That is true," said Makoto. "Jonathan had investigated the Selfish and their covens, and had a fairly decent understanding of their leadership and structure. They always spoke about their Selfish King and his many names, but I don't recall Jonathan ever mentioning a princess."

"What does that mean, then?" Mana asked.

"Hard to say," the man shrugged. "Maybe Regina is just some urchin the Selfish found and crowned princess so that they could pretend their vile king is a true monarch. Maybe she's nothing at all."

"Maybe it doesn't matter," said Mana. "I'd love to learn the truth about her," that was no lie, "but right now we have other business."

While Makoto conversed with the cooks (they were beyond relieved to see her, and Sword herself sounded almost happy, thankfully), Mana looked for the door, so that Nagisa and Honoka could join them. She knew they would need the help of Black and White. Makoto tried to hide it, but she was not in a very good state, physically. Captivity had robbed her of much of the strength she used to have, but, thankfully, not of her wits.

A lever rose the heavy doors upwards, until they were concealed in the ceiling. It did not feel very safe to Mana; if the mechanism malfunctioned (and that was quite likely, given that the door was pulled up by mere chains), there was a very real risk that the steel would collapse while someone was entering. She did not want to imagine it, but, thankfully, Nagisa and Honoka entered the palace unimpeded. When Mana pulled the lever again, the door descended slowly, soundlessly.

The Cures gathered at the kitchen, bringing an end to Makoto's conversation. The fairies left their Communes, floating meekly. They too were getting tired, as they shared their power with their partners. Fighting was very demanding of both Precure and fairy, but having someone to grant you their magic made it a fair trade.

"The Starlight Flame now?" Nagisa asked. Mana nodded.

"Everyone is else is doing their best," she said, "so we can't lag behind. Things will be hard for them, but once they look up and see a star shining…"

"That will give them the will they need to keep fighting," Honoka smiled. "And to us, too, I would hope. We are not done. Not yet."

"Everyone?" Asked Makoto. "So the rest of the Precure are still out there?"

"Your former companions are now fighting with Beauty, Dream and Fortune," said Honoka. "They are fighting to free the Cures trapped in those slums, past the river."

"Finally," said Makoto. "I wanted to do that long ago, but… Well, we never had a good enough plan."

"You have Beauty to thank for that!" Said Sharuru. "Oh, and Honoka too," she said, flustered, but Honoka was still smiling, not caring about receiving credit or not. "Everyone, actually."

"Mostly Beauty, though," Nagisa admitted.

"What do we do, then?" Asked Davi. Makoto's eyes were fixed upon Mana.

"You have the amulet I gave you?" Mana showed it to Makoto. "Good. We will reclaim whatever it is that Ange kept in her safe. She… She knew she would die, did she not? When she ran to fight the Selfish King. She told us to leave her. I should not have listened. I should have fought with her. I would have protected her."

"You would have died," Mana said gently.

"A knight should die with her liege, should she fall."

"That is very honorable," said Mana, "but your death would have done nothing. You would just be a corpse. But now you are alive, and you can make a difference. Will you? Or would you rather let revenge and sorrow poison your mind and spend the rest of your life either thirsting for blood or the love you can never have?"

"I…" She looked shaken. Mana had not meant to be so harsh. It was unlike her. "You cannot make me give up on my vengeance," she said, eyes full of sadness. "But… You are right. I have to move on. I… I just don't know how."

"That's alright," said Mana. "Someday you'll learn. Even if takes a long time."

Honoka coughed, almost discreetly, and the two turned to her at once.

"Will you two get Ange's safe, then?" She asked.

"We will," said Sword. "You get the Starlight Flame?"

"We'll try," said Nagisa. "But you two try to reach it, too. We might be late."

Mana took Makoto's arm, and began to run. The fairies returned to their Communes, and for a second, Mana felt strong again. Finding her way around the palace was easy enough, and the two of them could easily dispatch the few Selfish sentries on their way. Odd, thought Mana, I expected many more. Maybe they are elsewhere.

Sometimes, when Mana passed by a window and looked outside, she saw complete darkness, the bleakest night she had ever seen, but soon she realized that it was at the Selfish King that she was staring. After that, she avoided windows.

Countless flights of stairs were between them and Ange's bedroom, and Mana nearly slipped on the red carpets on the way. Some of the corridors were darker than others, where the lamps were broken and the torches had gone out, but even in the brightest paths the two cast long shadows that obscured the distance.

Ange's bedroom, contrary to what Mana had expected, was not marked by an ornate door or anything that revealed the nobility of the one who dwelled within. It looked like any other door, plain dark wood, smooth to the touch. Makoto, however, assured that it was the place, and stepped inside.

Mana had never seen Marie Ange's quarters, but she doubted that they used to be quite so barren. The tiles had been mostly torn, and the walls were full of holes, but the oddest thing was how there was no furniture left save for a few chairs on the corner, poor chairs of frail wood, one of which couldn't eved hold up anymore. And, stuck to the wall, was a safe, just as Makoto had described. On the floor, under it, were hammers and drills and even blood, but the safe had no discernible marks on it surface.

Makoto extended her hand, and Mana gave her the key. A spade-shaped hole was filled perfectly by the amulet, and once it was placed, the safe's metal door became a soft blue fabric. Makoto reached inside, and found only a small journal.

"Is that the princess' diary?" Mana asked.

"Might be," said Makoto, "or just something she felt I should read," she opened, and skimmed a few pages, but then closed the book. "It can't be so urgent that we need to read it right now," she said. "Let's keep going."

"Right," said Mana.

They went down another set of stairs, afterwards, back on the path to the easternmost tower of the palace, the one that would lead them to the rooftops, to the Starlight Flame. Makoto showed the way, and Mana followed. She used all the strength she had not to fall behind.

The palace was immense, a humongous building of countless paths and corridors, and it took a denizen of the castle, like Makopi, to make sense of it. From what she had heard, Heaven's Hand Castle in the heart of the Blue Sky Kingdom was even worse, and songs from Majorland eternalized the tale of Queen Dione, who was lost inside her own castle, and, unable to find her way out from the maze, starved to death. Stories like this made Mana wonder if royal blood gave you a taste for the labyrinthine.

As they delved deeper into the palace, Mana's ears grew attuned to distant sounds: footsteps far away, and rushed. They were becoming closer as she and Sword hurried their pace, until, at last, they were so close that Mana knew they were right next to them.

A girl cut the corner in mad haste, and at once Mana smiled, and nearly bumped on her, falling breathless on her arms. When she recovered, she looked up, focused on the girl's face.

"Rikka?" Mana was glad to see her here, but also confused. She seemed to be in quite the rush. Soon Yuri appeared right behind her, running as well.

"I didn't think you'd get here so quickly," she said. "How did you get in?"

"Through the gate," she said, laughing, but Rikka was not entertained at all. "So did you two also find a way to sneak inside without the Selfish noticing?"

As she said that, Mana looked at Moonlight again, and saw that, behind her, a mob of Selfish screamed and bumped against each other, shoving one another to the side as they tried to reach her.

"Evidently not."

Light flowed from Yuri's Moon Tact, blasting her pursuers away, and Sword leapt to her side, to help her keep the Jikochuu at bay. While the two fought them at close range, Mana and Rikka assisted from afar. In the end, the corridors were in complete disarray, its walls almost falling apart, and pieces of the ceiling had fallen, trapping the Selfish underneath rubble.

Makoto went to Rikka, to embrace her, but Diamond seemed a bit slow to retribute the gesture. Mana had expected Rikka to be happy to see them again, but now she seemed troubled.

"I've been wondering what had happened to you all," said Makoto. "No word of Alice?" Rikka shook her head.

"The Selfish took her," said Mana, "and that was the last we've seen of her. That was a long time ago, though…"

"She might be a Jikochuu, by now," said Rikka. It was what Mana was thinking, but she did not want to put it to words. "No, she almost certainly is one, at this point. At least I hope so. If she's a Jikochuu, then she can be saved. If not…"

"Don't say it," Makoto snarled. "Don't."

"Makoto, wh-"

"Look," Mana said, before tempers began to flare, "I think we have a lot we need to talk about, but we're all a bit busy in the moment, aren't we? We need to go light the Starlight Flame now. It's probably heavily guarded, so we'll need to-"

"No," said Rikka. "I…" She looked behind, to Moonlight. Yuri made a short gesture with her head, but Mana could not tell if it was permission or denial. "I have something else I must do here."

"I don't understand."

"I… May not have told you the truth at all times, Mana," said Rikka. Her eyes avoided Heart. "I'm not here to light a Starlight Flame, or anything. I… I came for a different purpose."

"What for?" Asked Makoto, voice full of suspicion.

Rikka inhaled for the longest time, then sighed.

"I'm here to get the crown."

"W-What crown?" Mana still didn't get what she meant.

"The crown. The Eternal Golden Crown. It's here. I need to get it."

"Here?" Asked Makoto. "I've never heard of such a thing. Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," said Rikka. "I… I learned it from someone I think I can trust. To a degree."

"Who?" Mana was curious.

"I can't tell you," she said. "You don't want to hear it, either. You would hate me if you know the truth."

"I wouldn't," had Rikka forgotten everything about Mana, already? She could never hate Rikka. "I swear I wouldn't. I trust you must have a good reason not to tell me, right? I trust you more than anything else, Rikka," she said, taking her hand, but Rikka still seemed distressed. Mana wished she knew how to help.

"I hope you mean it," said Rikka. "I truly do. But I'm afraid anyway."

"It's fine," said Mana. "I'm afraid too. So, is this the reason you came to Trump?"

"Yes."

"Alright. I'll help you look for it, then."

"M-Mana…"

"Don't say you don't need help. Help is always good. And I want to give it to you. Makopi will help us too, right?"

"I can't possibly leave the Crown where the Selfish can find it so easily," she said. "It is a great treasure of the Precure, after all. It was Ange's, but… Yeah."

"Then let's waste no time," said Mana. "You know the way to the Crown, right, Rikka?"

"I do," she said with certainty. "We are looking for a broom closet that hides the Crown's secret room behind a false wall. I've already examined the ones on the floors above the one we currently are. There can't be that many left."

"Then let's get moving," declared Mana. Saving Trump, lighting a Starlight Flame, finding the legendary Golden Crown… Mana had never even dreamed to be in the middle of such great events.

It was now Rikka's time to guide them, though she argued the directions with Makoto ever so often. Yuri and Mana walked right behind them, carefully watching the proximity, always listening to the sound of enemies coming, though, admittedly, just Moonlight was probably enough for that task. If she failed to notice something, Mana doubted that she herself would.

The servants' quarters and closets were always easy to find, but none held the secret they sought, only brooms, squeegees, rags and bright liquids in clear bottles and flasks. Every time they walked away, empty-handed, Makoto would question if Rikka was truly certain of what they were looking for, and Rikka would, invariably, say that she was. And then she'd promptly fail again as the next room they investigated proved itself a dead end, as all the others.

Diamond herself showed absolutely no doubt, though, even if she was only pretending. She had not explained how she had learned of the Crown's location, so it was no wonder that Sword was doubtful, and even though Mana would always believe her word, she would like to know who or what had given Rikka and Yuri such assurance.

A new room appeared before them as they kept going, strangely uninterrupted by the Selfish. They had now reached a less frequented wing of the palace, wherein its libraries had been built, and that included the Relic Atheneum. So our lie to the guards at the door was not all that bad, she thought, almost smiling. She did not like to lie, even if she had to.

It was not the libraries they were looking or, however, but a simple closed of frail wood that had lost its colors long ago, and was now a pale yellow that crept close to a sickly white. From its rough surface, countless splinters jutted out of the unpolished wood.

"This has to be the one," said Rikka. "It has to," she repeated.

"I hear someone coming," said Yuri. Mana had heard nothing. "I can probably handle them on my own while you investigate."

"Watch the area," asked Diamond, "we're going to take a look here," Moonlight consented with a nod, and Rikka opened the door.

Mana followed her inside. There, the smell of dust was close to unbearable. Cobwebs wrapped around the brooms and tools left behind, ignored by the Selfish. It did not surprise her that they would be averse to the menial work of sweeping, but Mana did find herself rather shocked since, as the palace was still pristine, the Selfish must have used magic to keep it that way. That struck her as amazingly lazy, using such powerful forces for such a banal purpose.

Rikka's hands felt the walls, in look of a sign that this was where they looked. As she watched her tap the stone, Mana could hear the sounds Yuri had mentioned. Someone was coming. Rikka realized that too, and, between pants, said she only needed to find the right spot. A yell made its way to her throat when she found it, but Rikka restrained herself. What appeared to be hard stone withdrew deep into the wall as she pushed it, without even using much strength. Mana and Makoto helped her move the false wall until it receded completely and fell, revealing it had been only a small surface outwardly adorned with some stones. Beyond them now was a short corridor, a straight line of stone bricks on its floor, ceiling, and walls. At the end was a plain, spacious chamber, almost empty, except for the small plinth on its very center. A tiara rested atop it, shining in bright gold.

Before they could even think of investigating, however, Yuri let out a scream of pain. Jikochuu had surrounded her, three of them, huge, vicious-looking ones. Born of Precure Psyches. Yuri had managed to block the assault of the two creatures that came from her sides, but the one in front of her was pummelling her violently to the floor.

Diamond and Sword's eyes hesitated, glued to the Crown, but Heart was quick to run to Moonlight's aid. She knew there wasn't much she could do, not like this… But she could do something.

She picked up tools and trinkets left behind on the closet and threw them at what she presumed were the Jikochuu's eyes. It had to bring its hands to its face so that it would not be blinded, and that gave Mana the time she needed to ready her Love Heart Arrow, and aim a bolt into the beast's chest. Freed from that threat, Yuri struck its two foes again, shields of silver glass shattering and blasting light on the Jikochuu.

Sword then came, eager to fight the Selfish, just as Mana expected, and feared. She threw herself on the Jikochuu with no concern to her own well-being, ramming her own body against theirs, letting herself be cut by their claws and blades if that meant she could get close enough to get a hit in on them. Arrows made their way through the air, finding the huge bodies of the Jikochuu, but these weren't Mana's; Rikka was fighting, too.

The Selfish's monsters were fierce, though, and showed no sign of stopping. The combined efforts of Moonlight's Silver Forte Wave and Makoto's Holy Sword were enough to subjugate a Jikochuu that had collapsed to the floor, but just as they were giving each other a gesture of respect, the largest of the Jikochuu, a creature with four wide arms that could barely fit in the wide corridors, took Yuri by the arm, from her back, and tossed her far away, through a distant window. She was sent so far that Mana couldn't even see it when she crashed, she only heard the sound of breaking glass. The lumbering beast then started to run, bringing down everything on its path, causing the entire palace to shake, leaving Heart, Diamond and Sword alone with the last of the Jikochuu.

It was far smaller than the others, almost the size of Mana herself, save for its hands; though their size matched those of a human's hands, its fingers were great shining claws, ten long scythes. As if to strike terror in their hearts, the Jikochuu scraped the floor with its blades, leaving long lines where it cut the ground. The rest of its body was slender, almost girly, but the comically large eyes of the Jikochuu, near its nose and lips that were almost like a girl's, made its face look eerily inhuman.

The Jikochuu that had once been a Precure struck at Mana too fast for her to react, and its claws drank the red of her blood. They had only scratched her stomach, but the wound hurt as if she had been torn open. When the Jikochuu lunged again, crimson droplets were flying all around, splattering on Mana's face, but this time she managed to evade it. Sword could match its speed, but never managed to land a stab on its body. The monster danced all around, whirling its weapons as it did so, preventing Makopi's approach. Only Diamond's bolts had any success in hurting the creature, and, even so, only occasionally, as the Jikochuu was so agile that it had managed to cleave her quarrel in twain as it was still midair.

Heart joined Diamond, attacking from a distance while Sword ensured they could fire freely. Makoto was so graceful that even now Mana could not help but admire the way she moved, the way her clothing flowed behind her almost rhythmically. The Jikochuu let out a horrid shriek, its face now unrecognizable, the entirety of it pierced by crossbow bolts. Makoto sunk her blade into its body, and, for a moment, it stopped moving.

Just as Mana was thinking of purifying it, though, it got up, suddenly, dashing madly towards her. It was almost gone, and it knew it, but this Jikochuu seemed driven by spite. It could not keep fighting, but it could at least kill one of them, and it chose Mana. In the instant it took for it to reach her, Makoto or Rikka hadn't even managed to sketch a reaction.

The beast's claws were upon her, longer than her arms, ready to shred her, but as they neared her body, orange glass surged between the two, and when the monster struck it, its talons shattered into little pieces, yet the barrier stood, sturdier than any shield. Mana's heart skipped a beat. She recognized it at once.

When she looked behind, it did not surprise her to see Alice. Rikka let loose one last bolt on the Jikochuu, freeing its Psyche, and turned back as well. It was hard to tell who was the most shocked person there.

"Alice…" Only Makoto found the words to break the silence.

"Y-You…" Alice's legs trembled. "I thought you were… No… No, I've gone mad, it can't be… You are dead. That's what I was told…"

"Well," Mana limped closer to her friend. She did not understand what was going on, but now it did not seem the time for questions. "You were lied to. We're here. And now you're here too."

"Why are you here?" Alice asked; her tone seemed wrong, almost pained, but Mana couldn't say for sure.

"We are looking for a few things," said Mana. "Marie Ange's safe, which we have already found. A Starlight Flame, atop the palace. The Eternal Golden Crown."

"The Crown?" Alice's face contorted into something ugly. Mana tried to get even closer, but now Alice stepped away from her. "Why?" She was not speaking to anyone in particular, Mana realized. "Why them? Of all people…"

"What are you talking about?" Asked Rikka.

"Why do you have to be in the way? You, who I thought dead… I had given up all hopes of ever meeting you again, and yet… And yet I meet you, but like this. I…" She couldn't finish her phrase.

"You're here for the Crown too, aren't you?" Rikka asked, and Alice simply nodded. "And you are getting it for someone else?" She nodded again. "For whom?"

"Eternal," she said. The word felt like a punch to the stomach. Why would Alice work with their enemies? She was no traitor, Mana was sure of it, so she must have her reasons, and yet that only made it even more painful.

"We won't let you get it," said Makoto. She pointed her Holy Sword at Alice, but it seemed to hurt her most of all. "It does not belong to Eternal. We will be taking it to the Red Rose."

"We will not!" Rikka let out. "I will not. Something as vile as the Red Rose has no right to the Crown."

"Who, then?" Makoto lashed out, and Rikka realized she had said too much. She sighed.

"This is why I did not want to talk," said Rikka. "I'm so sorry, Mana. I already told you that you would hate me for this, but… I'm taking the Crown to the Blue Rose. Either that or I'm destroying it. I honestly have no idea what to do," admitting that drove her nearly to tears, "and I don't know what's right anymore, because everything seems wrong. I won't be letting you take the Crown," she said, lifting her Love Heart Arrow, pointing it straight at Makoto's heart.

They were all ready to fight, all but Mana. Their faces were devastated, their hands shaking, and yet they all seemed utterly certain of their path. Figures appeared behind Alice, but she told them to stand aside. She was crying, but her fists were ready to strike. Mana felt her legs give in, but she stood up, clinging to the walls. Only she could end it, she knew. But she didn't know how. Other people were coming, right behind Alice, but Mana couldn't even find it in her to care. She only stared as her friends pointed weapons at one another, their expressions an agonizing cross of sadness, despair, hate, anger.

For so long she had hoped that Alice might have survived, that Makoto would still be safe, that Rikka would find a place where she would not be hurt… For so long she dreamt that they could meet again, but now she wished she hadn't. It would not have hurt so much. She rose her own Love Heart Arrow, but did not know who, if anyone, was her enemy.

They were found by the trapped Precure while they still stank of things Nozomi didn't want to name. She had hoped that, perhaps, they would greet them with gratitude, they would appreciate that they came to free them from the Selfish, and would offer to fight by their side.

Instead they pointed weapons at them, and dragged them across streets so narrow Nozomi had to turn to her side so that she could fit. No matter how much Dream, Beauty and Fortune protested, the Cures here doubted that they were their allies. Nozomi tried to give them the bucket full of food they had brought, but the Cures looked at its contents with suspicion.

"Question them," said the one who was clearly their leader. Nozomi had seen her, once, at the Phoenix Tower. She was Cure Satellite, one half of the Wonderful Net duo, but Nozomi didn't remember her being this rough.

All around, people were staring at them. Their judging eyes cut Nozomi, full of spite, believing the accusations at once. What accusations exactly, Nozomi could not tell. The Precure here called them Selfish, but Nozomi could not think of any reason they might have for that.

"Where do we take them?" Asked Bolt to her partner Satellite.

"The keep," she said. "We'll have privacy there."

The other nodded, and continued pulling Nozomi by the arm. Reika simply accepted it, and walked, obedient, but Iona was more resistant, and three Cures were needed to restrain her. In the end, though, she too followed.

Nozomi caught glimpses of the measures the people here had gone to survive: every patch of dirt she saw, even the smallest, had all been appropriated to cultivate meek, tiny fruits. Only with the help of magic could they grow in such poor, tainted soil, and Nozomi could tell from the faces of the Precure that even such relatively simple magic strained their famishing bodies. Nozomi found herself thinking back to Last Light, and it looked positively idyllic in comparison.

It was almost night, but the streets were bright enough, lit up by a few stray torches and, in far greater number, Orbs of Lux, spheres of mirrored glass where a single point of light was reflected endlessly, countless thousands of times, until light was all around it. They were one of the most ingenious creations of the Precure.

Soon enough they reached their destination, the largest building in the area, as well as the ugliest. Half of its walls had collapsed, and no one had bothered to pick up the pieces, and a huge chunk of the roofs had been torn away to make room for the most mediocre terrace to ever disgrace the lands. It, at least, would provide the Precure with a good view of the surrounding areas, so she could understand its purpose, but she doubted that it had ever done them any good.

The keep was a cramped building, half meeting hall and half warehouse. The Precure here had little food, but ample stocks of other goods. Nozomi couldn't understand the usefulness of most: upon the tables were piles of bars of metal and tools, fabrics, and bottles of medicine. On the ground were shards of glass. A man was inspecting the medicine, and hurried outside when the Precure declared they had things to discuss.

Nozomi was seated forcibly atop a barrel. Its hard surface filled her legs with pain, and her behind too. She would have preferred to stand up, but given the way the Precure were staring at her, she thought it was wiser not to make any sudden movements.

"Who sent you?" Cure Bolt asked roughly, at the three girls, and didn't wait for an answer. "Marmo, I'm sure of it. Is she still insisting on this? We will not fall for it."

"We are not Selfish," said Reika as she had been saying since they were found. Bolt and Satellite did not seem any more inclined to believe her.

"Oh?" Satellite put her face right next to Reika, her lips in a dark smile. "I understand. You think we will kill you if you admit you are a Selfish. Have no fear of that, we are not savages."

"You are at risk of death, however, if you don't admit it," said Bolt. Her eyes had sunken into her emaciated face. It did not even look like a face at this point; it was more like a thin mask of skin trying to fit on a head too large for it. She made Mana look healthy. "Just admit it, say what you know, and you don't get hurt. You must have information from Marmo, right? That information could very well buy your lives."

"Do we have to say it again?" Iona blurted out. "We're not Selfish. We're trying to help you."

"The last girls who promised to help us also said they weren't Selfish," said Bolt. Nozomi couldn't tell if her tone of voice was sad or angry. "We believed it, then. They brought us food we so sorely needed, just like you do now… For a week they lived with us, they went through the same hardships we did, so we trusted them."

"Their gifts were poisoned," said Satellite. "Quite literally, I mean. The food they gave us… It nourished us, but it made us feel weaker. I ate it all, as I had not tasted real food for so long, but every morning I would struggle to find the strength to rise. And when they decided we would not be able to stop them, they tried to open the gates."

"Did they manage to?" Nozomi asked.

"They were close. So close," said Bolt. "But even weakened, we are still Precure. We are at our strongest when we are at our lowest, when the night is darkest we shine our brightest, and when despair's hands wrap around our throats, we can make miracles. So we stopped them."

"Those words…" Did Reika recognize them? That did not surprise Nozomi. "Empress' writings, aren't they?"

"A cultured Selfish?" Asked Satellite. "Yes, you are correct. Few care about Empress' writings, outside of the Precure. Now you, my friend," she put a bony finger on Reika's nose, almost playfully, but her face was too full of anger to not be threatening, "you are a cut above the rest of the Selfish. Yes, Empress wrote those words on the Starstone Tablets. There's an interesting story behind that. Do you know?" She turned to Nozomi, suddenly. She shook her head. "Do you, Bolt?"

"I love that story. I've been thinking of it a lot, given our current situation. So," she said, condescending, "there was this Precure known as Cure Empress. You might have heard of her. She was many things, but mainly she was wise. While Priestess and Magician were out doing trivial things like uniting the entire known world under the Precure Dominion, Empress starved herself nearly to death and wrote her thoughts into some tablets of fancy stone. She said that she felt pure while she was fasting. Now, we've been starving for a while now. Do you feel pure and wise, Satellite?"

She slammed her fist on the desk next to Nozomi, shattering it into pieces.

"Not at all, no. This has been, in fact, the worst thing I ever lived through. All thanks to you Selfish scum."

"Is there a point to this?" Asked Iona. She'll get us killed someday.

"The point is," Satellite started, "we are very, very thankful for what you have done to us, ruining our lives and destroying our stars, and who knows what else you've destroyed elsewhere. You keep saying you are not Selfish. If you are… Well, I think we should thank you for all you've done."

"What… What have you done to those Selfish agents that have come before?" Nozomi asked, but she thought she didn't want to know.

"You should perhaps stop worrying about their fates, and concern yourselves more with yours," said Bolt. "We're done with the niceties. It is more than you ever deserved."

"So many of our friends were lost, thanks to you," Satellite's voice dripped with disgust. "If you ever leave, be sure to tell Marmo that if the Selfish want to get rid of us, we'd much prefer it if they just smashed through the gates and killed us all, rather than tempting us with false hopes, like you."

"But we-"

"That's enough. If you want to get out, you'll answer us. How many Selfish are there outside?"

"Many, but-"

"That's not an answer," Bolt's face was right in front of Nozomi's, suddenly. "How many?"

"We really don't know!" Nozomi shouted. "We're not what you think we are! Look, I know you've been betrayed before, by girls who claimed to be Precure, and I know you've been suffering, but please, listen to us!"

They said nothing. They were listening. Nozomi could only pray that they were taking her seriously.

"We really are friends. We've come from the Phoenix Tower, or rather, from a village close to it. We call it Last Light, and it's our little attempt to… To live. To have some normalcy. To not give up to all this madness around us. We want you to go there! Please, believe me. We've found the Cures in the southern part of Trump, we led them through the Bridge of Hearts, and now they're all outside, just waiting for us to give them the signal to attack the Selfish at the gates, keeping you trapped here."

She paused to catch her breath, and, fortunately, the two were still listening.

"Me and Reika," she grabbed Beauty's hand, "we've been fighting together for a long time now. Even if you've never seen me, are you certain you don't recognize her? Please, please, try to remember… Reika Aoki, Cure Beauty, you might have seen her with Akane, with Yayoi…" She tried to remember the other names that Reika had told her. "With Nao and Miyubi."

"Miyuki."

"Miyuki! I know it's been a while, but if you can remember her… Then you'll know we're speaking the truth, right?"

"I don't remember her," said Bolt. Satellite shook her head too, but their voices were different now. They want to trust me. They want to believe my words.

"What of the other one?"

"I'm Iona Hikawa," she said. "Sister to Maria Hikawa, Cure Tender. You must know her."

"Yes," said Satellite. "I… Well, I won't say she was my friend, or even my mentor, but when Bolt and I first came to the Phoenix Tower, she gave us some advice, and, more importantly, a smile. We were surrounded by unfamiliar people from all over the world, so we felt so alone, but Tender helped us…"

Iona closer her eyes, and after a burst of light, her Precure uniform had faded away, and her hair had fallen down her shoulders, heavy and dark.

"You… You do look remarkably like her," Bolt admitted. "It's almost uncanny. What happened to Tender?"

Iona bit her lip. She awaited for so long in silence before responding that Nozomi could almost hear whispering outside the keep.

"She's gone."

"Gone. What do you mean?"

"Gone."

"I'm… I'm sorry, then. If you really are her sister," said Bolt. Her eyes seemed uncertain. "But other than looking like her, what proof do you have of that?"

Iona mentioned having Maria's Pretty Change Mirror, but Nozomi knew that was not sufficient proof. There was nothing upon it that marked it as belonging to Cure Tender. Iona tried, anyway, and, of course, the two girls did not believe it.

"I… No. I don't believe you. I can't," said Bolt, almost apologetic. "If you are lying…"

"I want to believe you. I truly do. And yet… I can't. Marmo's agents were just as convincing as you are. Ah, Bolt…" She stepped back, and her partner put an arm around her. "I believe them. It's happening again. I'm such a fool… Marmo truly has the most convincing agents."

"But we are not-"

"You don't understand," said Satellite. "We cannot trust you. No matter how much you want to, as long as the possibility exists that you are our enemy, we cannot believe in your words. We almost doomed everyone when we were deceived. The people trapped in here with us… They are our responsibility. At this point, our lives are worth very little. But the people we must protect…"

"They're still worth fighting for. It would be selfish of us to put their lives at risk because we were fools enough to fall for Marmo's trick again."

"Please," Nozomi insisted. She had gotten so close to convincing them… "It's not a trick. We really are-"

As she was speaking, her words were muted by the call of a horn, a loud, lingering sound. The noise hurt Nozomi's ears, even as she covered them with her hands, gesture imitated by those around her. There seemed to be no end to the sound, droning on and on and on. It was not a war horn, Nozomi knew, she had heard the call of the ceremonial horns of the Palmier Kingdom, and ordinary horns could not make a sound like that, nor could human lungs maintain it for so long. Bolt and Satellite climbed the ladder to the rooftop, and Nozomi followed. From there, she could see a hundred Jikochuu bellowing beyond the walls. The Selfish were knocking their weapons on the ground, and, in front of them, Nozomi could see colorful dots moving to the gates: the Precure.

"You did not lie?" Bolt asked, incredulous. "They really are here."

"Too soon," Reika's voice trembled with worry, "We did not give the signal, not yet. Akane should know better."

"Maybe the others have gotten too eager?" Asked Nozomi.

"So you were telling the truth, but it doesn't seem to be worth much, given the lack of discipline of the Precure down there," Satellite scoffed. "Not waiting for you, just rushing headlong against the Selfish… Even the way they run show us their unreliability…"

"The way they run?" While Reika spoke, the Jikochuu ceased their cacophony, and Beauty was yelling. She lowered her voice, and continued. "What do you mean?"

"No formation, no organization at all! It's like they are running from something, in terror, not to the gates!"

"That's because they are," Iona pointed behind the Precure: a great legion of Jikochuu pursued them, and the Cures were caught between their chasers and the Selfish guarding the gate.

"No," Reika yelped, "no! She can't be here already, she shouldn't be!"

She. It was Regina that she meant, even Nozomi knew that. Among the Jikochuu were many Selfish, humans among monsters born of stolen hearts, and, in front of that army, was Princess Regina. There was no mistaking her, even from so afar. She carried a long spear, and its sight filled Dream with fear.

All they could do was watch as the Precure outside the walls tried to find a way out, some trying to disperse, others making a desperate attempt at reaching the gates, but all failed. The sea of Selfish and Jikochuu swallowed them, leaving them no escape as they were flanked and surrounded from all directions. Reika kept screaming, pleading, eyes scanning the horizon in search of Akane, but there was no stopping it now.

Screams filled the world before being abruptly interrupted as, one by one, the Cures were defeated. They're all dead, Nozomi thought, but soon she realized she was wrong. The Selfish were not so merciful.

The bodies of the Precure were all perfectly still, save for their violently pounding chests. The Selfish approached them and, though they were too distant for Nozomi to see the process, they were using their dark magics to extract the Psyches from the fallen, and, then, to corrupt them. Jikochuus born from the Psyches of Precure… It made Nozomi shiver.

The Psyches rose high, wings fluttering, and then burst into black smoke that spread and took different forms, and from nearly twenty defeated Precure, nearly twenty Jikochuu came to life. Some were great beasts, fierce and gigantic, while others were slender and delicate, with long wings sprouting from their backs, but one look made it clear that they were more dangerous than the ordinary Jikochuu. They sounded their call again, joining their voices to the rest of the monsters in repugnant discord. Then they grew silent, and it was the end.

Nozomi looked at Reika, whose eyes were seeking her. She fell on Nozomi's arms, but didn't even cry. When it was over, she was making no sound at all.

But it's not over, Nozomi realized to her great terror. The Selfish were still marching, inexorable, and now towards them.

Mai thought of Saki as she returned to her bed, hoping to dream of her again, praying she could understand what it was that had happened between them, what that connection had been. Saki, Saki, she kept telling herself after she closed her eyes, but it only made her restless, and the anticipation kept her from sleeping. This was the third time she tried to fall asleep, and she had even gone to bed earlier tonight, yet again, so that, perhaps, she would have more time to be with Saki. She failed, and when she opened her eyes again, she did not feel tired in the slightest.

Choppy was already asleep, and Mai envied her for that. She wondered if her fairy was connected to Flappy as well, in the way she was connected to Saki. The fairies had never mentioned it, but, then again, Mai and Saki certainly didn't know it either.

Frustrated, she got out of bed again, and returned to her books. Earlier, Mai had gone to Mirage to ask her for guidance, to tell her of what had happened, how she had reached Saki in a dream. She had feared that Mirage would not believe her, as she, admittedly, had absolutely no evidence of what had happened, or at least no undeniable evidence.

"I see," was what Mirage had said before she retreated into her thoughts. She didn't seem to really understand what had happened, but Mai was glad that she was being taken seriously. "This must have some relation with the fact that you need Bloom to transform."

"Yeah," that seemed clear enough. And yet, she had never heard Honoka or Nagisa mention something of the sort. "It's not common, right?"

"Not at all," said Mirage, getting up. She walked towards a long but low bookshelf (tall shelves always frustrated the quite short Mirage), and examined some of the volumes there. "I have heard of something like that before," she said, running her fingers across the books. "It's not a well-studied phenomenon, as it is, as I've said, very uncommon, and probably deeply magical in nature."

"But it has been studied?"

"Strictly speaking, no," she said, "at least not in the sense that any scholars have done any research on the matter. After all, it is such a rare occurrence that it is comparable to studying dragons. It is something that only happens once in centuries. But yes, it has happened. And has been described, to an extent… Ah, here," she took a book from the shelf, and then, in a second thought, the three tomes next to it. She began placing them atop her cluttered desk. "This one," she said of the first, "is a memoir written by Cure Summer, who was partner to Cure Winter."

Cure Winter had been the Cure who tried to incite a schism two hundred years before, in her attempt to bring the Blue Rose back to life. She had failed, but many had followed her, and it was said that even the Trump Kingdom meant to back her up when she started a war, but her rebellion was vanquished and she was slain by Summer, her own partner, who, in doing so, lost all her powers as a Precure. Mai knew that it would not be a pleasant book to read.

"There she mentions the connection between their hearts," said Mirage. "She is rather vague about it, as the book is primarily about her later days, and her life after renouncing her powers. But maybe it'll be of interest to you. This," she put another book on the table, "is a study on Precure partnerships, the ones like yours and Black and White's, among others, the sort of partnership that requires the two to be together so that they can transform. There have been cases of partners who have been able to transform despite being miles away."

Miles away… Mai and Saki were considerably further apart than that, but if the possibility existed…

"The other two are rather esoteric dissertations on the nature of hearts," Mirage continued, "and not particularly well-written ones. The Precure have, historically, been very unclear about the meaning of a heart. It is sometimes synonymous to soul, sometimes it is something else entirely. They might still interest you, given that they touch upon the subject of a heart connection, as they call it."

"I will look into it," said Mai.

She took the books from the desk, careful not to disrupt Mirage's layout: there was a great deal of objects atop the polished wood, not only books but also crystals, a candle that shone a strange fire that darkened its surroundings, and an ornate hand mirror, its handles made from the wood of balsa trees, with spiral engravings, mark of the traditional woodworking technique of the long-gone Harmonia. Mirage used the mirror to try and make sense of a tome written entirely with reversed words. By its side was another book, the one that Mirage had been reading most intently when Mai entered the office; Examination of Enantiomorphs. Mai had no idea what that meant, and presumed that it required Mirage's full attention, so she thanked her, and left.

The books, in the end, had been of no help at all. She had only skimmed, of course, but even so none of what she saw was of use to her. It was guidance that she needed, right now, not theories and academic blabber. If Honoka was here, she might have helped her make some sense of it, but she was far away, at Trump. Eventually she gave up on understanding, too frustrated to go on. She just wanted to see Saki again, now that she knew she could reach her. But how? No one said how. No one knew what a so-called heart connection even meant, how it worked, how to reproduce it, and, worse, Mai's situation seemed entirely different from the experience of others. As she got into bed and pulled the sheets over her face, praying for sleep, and for Saki, she felt more lonely than she ever thought it was possible to feel. Not just because of the absence of Saki, but because absolutely no one understood what exactly had happened to her.

Sleep never came. I will not get up again. I will sleep. Yet she didn't. The more she told herself to sleep, the more awake she became. She focused on everything around her, on all the sounds beyond the door, the walls. The halls of the Tower were still alive, she could hear it. If she fixated really hard on the world above, Mai could even hear the whispers of the Starfire that burned atop the Phoenix Tower, day and night, undying.

The moon shone through her window. She hadn't even bothered closing it. She had the foolish hope that, perhaps, an open window would make it easier for her to reach Saki again. It did not. Nothing was helping. Her desperation grew as the night lingered on, and by the time the moon had covered itself in a shroud of thin clouds, and the winds grew colder, Mai began to wonder if what she had seen had not been, indeed, merely a dream.

Maybe her life before the Death of the Stars had been a dream, too. Everything she loved from back then was gone, now, far beyond her reach, even her memories were being enveloped by a haze, so who was to say that those things had ever even happened?

She got up, despite telling herself she would not. Sleep was, clearly, not a possibility right now. It was not that late yet, she told herself as she opened the door and stepped outside. Ayumi might still be awake.

There was no response when Mai knocked on her door, so she had to be elsewhere. Even now, it made her smile. Ayumi, at least, was not alone. She had other friends. She was happier than most.

She went downstairs, then. Mai had grown used to the long spiral stairs of the Phoenix Tower, constructed around the statues of its founders, so she didn't even tire anymore, when making the descent, though of course making her way up was still exhausting.

She saw no one on her way; all corridors were empty, and no one shared the stairs with her. Indeed, as she neared the Tower's ground level, she heard the sounds of dozens of voices struggling to be heard in the midst of the others.

The Cures of the Tower were gathering around the entrance, discussing something. Not only the Cures, in truth; Namakelder was among them as well. Mirage had chosen to free him from his prison, in exchange of his service and information, and he had been quick to agree with the arrangement.

Ayumi was with Orina, discussing something. The two held brooms, so Mai presumed that this night they were the ones responsible for cleaning the main hall. There wasn't much to clean, truly, but sometimes dust would get inside through the open doors and windows. Mai came closer to the two, and asked what it was that was troubling everyone. Orina just pointed to the doors, and quickly Mai understood the cause of the commotion.

Cure Lovely had returned, and not in a good state. She was a complete mess, her clothes in tatters and her face painted dark red with dried blood. She had went to the east with the Bomber Girls, to help them with their mission, but Mai couldn't see them anywhere. Megumi was fraily clinging to the heavy stone door so she wouldn't fall, and her legs were shaking.

"She says she needs to see Cure Mirage," said Orina. "I say she needs to see a medic. Look at her arms," she said, and Mai looked. One was blue with bruises, the other red with open wounds.

"Is no one going to help her?"

"We tried," said Ayumi. "She won't let anyone near her. The poor girl is pretty seriously shaking…"

A commanding voice surged from behind, ordering the Cures to make way. It was Mirage's voice, though her appearance didn't quite match her tone. She was still wearing her oversized nightgown, and Mai hadn't been the only one surprised by her tired image.

She rushed to meet Megumi, and to put a tender arm around her. They whispered muffled words, and when they were done, Megumi rose her head to stare at the other Precure.

"Mirage said I should tell you what happened," said Lovely. "I… I was supposed to help the Bomber Girls reach their destination. I had to scout ahead to know they could proceed safely. They were carrying a lot of supplies, so it was hard for them to move as quickly as they could."

Mai was already fearing the worst. They had been told of the Red Rose's ambitious plan to free the Cures in the city of Trump, and how the Bomber Girls would hinder the progress of Regina's army, so that they could not return. If they failed, if Regina had defeated them and was now on her way to the capital… That would be the end for the others, too. Dream and Beauty, Black and White, and Cure Fortune too…

"Was it Regina?" She had to ask. Megumi shook her head.

"Worse. I had moved ahead of the three to take a better look at the surroundings, and when I returned to them, to report what I had seen…" Mirage urged her to keep going. "They were gone. They were trapped inside mirrors. And then the Precure hunter attacked me," she pointed at all her wounds. "I thought it would be my end."

"Did you defeat him?" Asked Harper.

"No," she shook her head again. "All I could do was run. I was lucky to escape, to outrun him. He lost my track as I entered deep within a forest, but I almost died there, too. There were… Things in the forest," she said. Mai felt a chill, and she heard shudders all around. "Dark things."

"You need to be taken care of," said Cure Mirage, guiding her with a friendly hand, accompanying her slow, painful steps. The crowd opened to grant them passage, and when Megumi stepped next to Mai, the extent of her wounds became extremely clear. It truly had been luck that she had managed to escape.

Mai couldn't decide what was the worst part of it all. All the news that Megumi brought were hideous; a hunter of Precure on the loose, unpunished, and he had managed to defeat three of them, and almost a fourth… That was nearly as grievous as what Lovely had said. Dark things lurking under the cover of dark leaves of tall trees… The Thornwood was bad enough, it and whatever curse had befallen it, but to hear her fears confirmed, that no matter where they went, there was no escape from atrocity, from pain…

That is not the worst, she realized only when the Precure dispersed. Only Ayumi and Orina were with her, calling out for her, but she didn't hear them. If the Bomber Girls had not even reached their destination, that could only mean something: Dream, Beauty, the others… They would all be stuck inside Trump, caught between the occupiers and Regina's army. They were dead. She knew it then. They were dead, and the last hopes of the Precure, too. Saki would have told me not to give in to despair, not to let it devour me, but…

But Saki wasn't there, and Mai despaired. They were gone; everyone and everything was gone. Her mentor Honoka, her friends, her brother, her mother and father… All gone, and so distant now that they might as well never have existed at all.

Akane.

Nozomi and Iona dragged Reika back to the keep, then through its corridors, to the doors that led outside, and, all the while, Reika remained almost perfectly still. She barely looked at her surroundings: wide-eyed, she stared at nothing, and the images of the Precure being surrounded appeared before her again and again.

Akane…

"Reika!" It was Nozomi's voice calling out to her. She almost couldn't heard it, just as she could hardly feel Iona's hands on her arms, guiding her. Her legs were moving without her mind giving the other.

When she looked again, she was in the middle of a dirty street, now filled with people who anxiously looked in the direction of the gate. Above, the skies were paved in ebony, and all around torches were burning, Lux Orbs were glowing, moths gathering around them. The lights dazzled Beauty.

"What should we do?" A young man approached Bolt for guidance. "Do we run?"

"It would not be safe to run," said Bolt. "The only way out is through the sewers, and the path is too narrow, so it would be dangerous if many people tried to leave."

"You can't expect everyone to stay, not with the Selfish coming!" Said Iona. "Did you not say you must protect these people?"

"The Selfish are not coming for them," said Satellite. "They come for us. It is the Precure they want, we who have troubled them for so long now. It is us they want, so if we surrender…"

"Don't be naive," said Iona. "Do you think the Selfish will bargain with you? You cannot be serious. You would not be sacrificing yourselves. That would be suicide."

"What other option do we have, then?" Satellite yelled. "Tell me, since you are clearly so much smarter than we are! There's no way out. If we fight, then the Selfish will be angered, they will raze this place to the ground, and its people with it. But if we give ourselves to the Selfish, then there may be a way out for them. Not for us, but for them."

"Don't do it," Nozomi pleaded. "Reika, please. Tell them they're making a mistake. Tell them what you think."

"Ah? I…" She was hearing them, but couldn't pay much thought to their words. It was Akane that she saw, it was Akane whom she thought about. "I don't know what I think. I…"

Nozomi and Iona gave them a look of surprise and dismay, and Reika realized just how much they had come to trust her judgment. They need me. Just as I need them. Without Akane, and with everyone else so distant, those two were all she had.

"We can't stay," Reika said, gathering her thoughts, "but we can't abandon the people here, either."

"Yeah," it had been Nozomi's desire, too. "You're with us too, aren't you, Iona?"

"Of course I am," she said, headstrong. "We'll find a way out for everyone."

"Are you deaf or daft?" Asked Bolt. "I told you there is no way out but the sewers."

"We will make a way out, then," said Nozomi, full of a defiance that made Reika's heart beat with resolute urgency.

"You will only risk the wrath of the Selfish," said Satellite, spiteful.

"Open your eyes," said Nozomi. "Do you think the Selfish will do what? Negotiate with you, accept your terms, tip their hats in courtesy as they turn back and leave? You'll throw your lives away if you open the gates."

"You are still Precure, you and the rest of the Cures trapped in here," Reika rose her voice, making herself heard by all the Precure. "The Red Rose needs you, now more than ever. We don't have many Cures at the Phoenix Tower. We have come here to save all the Precure of Trump, to bring them back, so that we could keep fighting. We need you, all of you."

"They need us too," said Bolt, opening her arms, gesturing at all the people under their protection. "We have promised to keep them safe, to not let the Selfish harm them. We must not fail. We will wager our lives on this. Do you think the Red Rose or the Phoenix Tower matter to anyone but we the Precure? Do you think that there is where we can do the greatest good? It's here! Here, in Trump! Trump and its people need us, and if they need us to give our lives for them… Then we shall do so."

"They will make Jikochuu out of you, you know," said Reika. "Once you fall, you will become the monsters that have ravaged Trump."

"That may be right," said Satellite, "but we are left no choice. We-"

"You do have a choice," said Iona. "Always. You can stay with us. I have not told you how I lost my sister. She gave her life for a friend. It was very brave of her to do so. I know it is a gesture of love to suffer in the place of someone you care about, and yet… Her sacrifice could not save the Blue Sky Kingdom. All over the world, Precure have sacrificed themselves," she said, looking at Nozomi. Reika didn't know that Dream had told Fortune about Cure Mint. She did not think they trusted each other enough for that, but it made her happy to know they did. "And we still lost. If you open the gates, you won't make a difference. You'll be just a few more martyrs, and there's no lack of those. If you fight, though… If you fight, we can find a way out."

"Do the right thing, please," said Nozomi. "You'll be taking a chance either way, no matter what you do. But if you fight, then at least your fate will remain in your hands. And if we lose, we lose. But to fall without even fighting… Surely you are better than that."

"We will lose," said Bolt. "And yet… Yes, there is a certain appeal in going down spitting on the face of Princess Regina."

"If you will fight," said Satellite, "then we will, too. You are right, the three of you, though it pains me to admit it."

"What's our plan, then?" Asked another Precure, from behind, her voice full of energy despite her weakened body. Others voiced their thoughts, too, all enthusiastic, eager to fight.

"The sewers are too risky," said Bolt, "it would take too long for everyone to get past, and we'd surely be caught. But there," she pointed to the north, where the destitute shacks extended on and on, "we can bring down some of the walls surrounding us to clear a path."

"That way everyone can escape," continued Satellite. "The problem, though, is that the Selfish will be right behind us, and it'll do us no good to get out if we just get caught a moment after."

"We'll keep them busy while everyone evacuates," said Reika.

"Good luck with that," said a Precure with a hoarse, tired voice. "All that's standing between us are the gate and those walls, and trust me when I say that the Selfish could have brought them down a long time ago, they just preferred to starve us out rather than go through the trouble of stamping out our resistance."

"Their hope was to make us suffer so much that thoughts of betrayal would become rather tempting," explained Bolt.

"All the same," Reika said, "if the gate is all that's protecting us, then we must make the most out of it. I… I think I know how."

She stepped up closer to it, and readied herself. It would take a great deal of strength, she knew, but it was their best hope.

Beauty thought of winter, filling her heart with blizzards and then, eyes closed, focused on the gate, the walls, on the image she had of them, and overflowed her thoughts with cold. Frigid winds blew all around, biting her skin, but while she heard shivers from those who surrounded her, Reika herself felt warm, as she always felt on cold days. It was a pleasant, familiar warmth. When she opened her eyes, tiny crystals of ice were melting all along the ground, and the walls and gate had been covered by a thick layer of frost.

"This should give us some relief, and some time," she said. The rest of the Precure had nodded, but amidst them she saw disturbed eyes. Winter's heart and all that. She knew that many saw the cold as an ill omen, given the ill repute of so many Cures who had wielded such powers in the past.

The Cures then began their work, guiding the populace to the north, where the walls were at their thinnest, according to Satellite. Reika stayed at the wall to maintain its icy shell, while Nozomi helped lead the evacuation and Iona led the Cures who would bring down the northern walls and fight off the Selfish that there kept watch. The streets were packed with people, all running away in desperate fear, almost trampling one another, but Dream's efforts ensured that no one was hurt and that the citizens moved around safely.

Booming sounds came from beyond the gate, and chunks of ice were torn away with the impact. Reika remade them as well as she could, but she was all too aware that it would not last long. It only needed to last long enough. She put her hands on the wall, to strengthen the bond between her and the target of her magic. This time she felt the cold, and her palms hurt. Segments of the ice were longer than others, and they dug into her hands, but Reika held on to the wall of ice, healing the wounds upon its ice, even when it hurt, even when it strained her body. She held so tight that her palms had started bleeding, and she could feel vibrations shake her barrier, causing to tremble, but she kept holding on, praying that what little time she could buy was enough to save everyone.

The footsteps behind her quickly became deafening as a hundred people fought for space, and screams rose every time the Selfish propelled something over the wall; the Jikochuu threw large boulders, and Selfish mages bombarded them with their vicious magic, but the Precure down below countered them with their own powers, blasting them apart before they reached the ground.

And yet, the Selfish did not throw all their strength against them, Reika knew that. If they really wanted to, they could cause great destruction, but they seemed to restrain themselves. They want to turn us into Jikochuu, too.

Often, people would fall down as they ran, but Nozomi was always there to help them up, to urge them to keep going, to tell them they could do it, even when they protested that they were scared. She was trying her very hardest, and Iona too, no doubt, so Reika stood her ground even as the vibrations threatened to bring her down with their violence. Even for her, the cold was becoming unbearable; her hands had gotten purple, and she could see the perfect contour of her veins. Her teeth chattered so wildly that she had trouble answering Bolt and Satellite when they spoke to her, when they said that Iona had made a way out, that the people had begun to run away. They sounded almost triumphant, but when Reika looked behind again, there were still hundreds of people nearby, confused, scared, far from the exit. And cracks had begun to appear on the ice.

The banging on the wall stopped, for a moment. It brought Reika no relief; she knew the Selfish would not give up so easily. Fear swelled up within her.

"T-T-Try to hurry," she managed to say, shivering. "I fear that-"

Something hit the wall again, now with a shockwave so mighty that it almost tore it in two, and sent Reika flying away, collapsing on a bunch of people, knocking everyone down. She struggled to get up, legs trembling, and watched as something stirred within the ice, something powerful trying to pierce through it. Bolt and Satellite stared at it with fearful curiosity.

"Get away!" Reika yelled to anyone who would hear. "Get away, get away, don't stay near the wall, it-"

Bolt and Satellite were the next to be sent across the street as the wall of ice exploded with a great impact, sending shards of ice everywhere. Reika blocked the ones that were about to hurt the populace, and though most of them crashed into insignificant icicles when they hit her, one dug deep into her arm. She screamed as she saw it, but was soon silenced when she saw the Selfish entering through the demolished gate. Bolt and Satellite were also rising in awe-struck silence.

In front of the Selfish and Jikochuu was no ordinary commander, no general of their forces. Princess Regina herself led them, her face bright with smug satisfaction. Her face was fearsome enough, with the way she looked at the people in front of her as if they were less than bugs, and the white bandages that obscured half of her aspect, but what was truly terrifying was the weapon she carried.

Black smoke rose from the tip of her spear. Looking at it filled Reika with fear, though she could not tell where exactly it came from. It's just a spear. Even so, her heart was beating fast to the rhythm of dread, and it took all her strength not to run away.

"Is that…" Bolt seemed just as terrified.

"Yes," said Satellite, her legs shaking. "God preserve us. That's the Glaive."

The Glaive? It wasn't possible. And yet, according to Mana, Ange had been its last wielder… If Ange had been defeated, then the Selfish would surely be happy to claim one of the Sacred Treasures. Reika had no idea of Regina's abilities, but she knew that no one wielding the Miracle Dragon Glaive could be beaten in single combat.

"What… What do we do?" Bolt said, helpless. She avoided Regina's gaze. Or rather, she avoided the Glaive, that dread presence that filled the surroundings.

The princess took a few steps into the ruined district, stepping upon the muddy puddles without a care. The citizens closer to Nozomi were still running away, but the ones directly in front of Regina, on the street that led to the gate, stood paralyzed. She giggled.

"I'm back," she said. "The mice have been very troublesome while the cat was away, haven't they?" There was something very odd about the way she spoke. Reika could not tell if her playful tone was sadism or childishness. That only accentuated the fear, that and the spear, darkness pulsating from its blade, ceaselessly. "Such terrible subjects you are. You should have been at the gates of the White Bridge to greet your princess. Haven't you learned any respect? It was a long, difficult war, and I was looking forward to your cheering."

No one said a thing. Reika tried to look all around for a way out, but the roads were all cramped. She saw Nozomi on the rooftops, where she would shout directions to the people below, but now her gaze fixed upon Regina.

"You know," the princess said casually, greedy eyes focused on the scared populace, "this war has really drained our forces. I brought ten thousand Jikochuu south, and only a hundred remain now. I was told to be careful, not to use up all our resources, but it seems I failed. We have been severely weakened, and my royal father would be furious to hear his army is gone. Luckily," she said, smiling, "today we're having conscriptions."

She pointed her spear at the frozen citizens; the dark light enveloping its blade grew darker, and the lights coming from the Orbs of Lux were all devoured by it. A thick beam burst from it, and Reika leapt away immediately, jumping towards the rooftops, where she landed by Nozomi's side, while Bolt and Satellite jumped away from the darkness.

The others, though, were not so lucky. The black enveloped her bodies, and when it died down and the lights were shining again, all the people on the street had blank look on their face, and their chests grew hollow; from within them came out Psyches, hundreds of them, their wings making a painful cacophony as they flickered. Regina said some words and, all at once, the Psyches were filled with darkness, and dark smoke came from them. When it receded, the streets were filled with Jikochuu of all sorts. Vultures took flight, squawking, flying in arcs overhead, ready to strike, simply awaiting the order of the Selfish.

"Finish this quickly," said Regina to the man next to her. He wore the uniform of the Selfish, but his demeanor indicated that he had risen high among their ranks. "I want to go home soon."

He nodded, and gave the order for the Jikochuu to strike.

Someone screamed out "run!", but that of course was entirely unnecessary. As soon as the Jikochuu began moving, madness reigned and kindness was soon forgotten as the people overflowing the streets fought one another in search of space, trying to stay away from the invading Selfish. Nozomi and Reika tried to bring back some order, but it was too late. Even the Precure had abandoned their duty and joined the despairing masses. Bolt and Satellite, still staggering, tried to maintain some peace, but they too were not very successful.

Iona stepped up to them, leaping from a distant building in a long jump. She was clutching at her chest, out of breath. She was about to ask what had happened, but she only needed a glance to understand.

"We are screwed, aren't we?"

"Oh, yes," said Reika. "Most certainly. How are things at the northern walls?"

"The people are starting to get out," she said, "but this place is packed, and it's hard to get everyone to cooperate."

"You two," Reika shouted to Bolt and Satellite, below them. "Can you take care of the evacuation?"

"Yes, but-"

"Good," she said. The two Wonderful Net Cures made their voices be heard by all, showing everyone the best path to reach the exit, and making sure no one got hurt. They were hurt, but still full of strength. Reika knew she could count on them.

And she knew she could count on the two girls next to her. Iona's eyes widened with shock as she saw the wound on Beauty's arm, but Reika tried to shrug it off. She had greater worries now.

"Come on," she said. "A few minutes. That's all we need. Then we get out of here, too."

"No problem," said Nozomi, confident. Reika had no idea where such certainty came from, but it was intoxicating. She only felt this way when she was with all her friends, all together, and yet… Somehow the feeling was more intense, now. "I hope you can keep up, Iona."

"Keep up?" She smiled. This was not the Iona that had once hated them as they made their way to Cure Egret. No, it wasn't even the Iona of few days ago, before they even reached Trump. "I'm the one who should be saying that."

They jumped off the rooftops, falling on the dirty cobble of the streets, making dust rise and spread all over. I am not the same person I was, either, she realized, for good or ill. Frost covered her heart, but now it made her stronger. Ice kissed her palms, gently now, as she invoked her frozen sword. She thought of Akane. I will save you. I will save everyone. Not now, but I will come back for you. I will, I will, I will!

She lunged and slashed at the first Jikochuu to come close, chopping the beast in half; a vulture swooped down to peck at her, but as it neared Beauty's eyes, Fortune was already airborne, her leg hitting the bird on its gaunt chest, propelling it towards the other Jikochuu. As she fell towards the muddy path, an ape-like beast was striking at her with a huge fist, but Dream caught her on her arms before she hit the ground, and protected her from the Jikochuu's fierce blows. Then, Iona was on the move again, whirling around too quickly to be hit by any of their foes, always with Nozomi by her side, watching her back and driving away anyone who approached her.

From above came heavy gusts, brought by the incessant flapping of the vultures' wings. They were seeking the escapees, Reika realized. She let go of her sword, laying it down on the ground, and chose her bow instead, though as she had neither time nor focus to strengthen her magic, its limbs were thin, and melting. But it was enough for her purposes.

She retreated behind Nozomi and Iona, and let loose ice-tipped arrows. Even with their bodies pierced, the Jikochuu did not relent, insisting on giving chase, but the frost spreading through their bodies brought them down with their weight. Whenever they crashed to the ground, their wings twisting apart, startled yelps came from the running populace, but they kept running away, following Bolt and Satellite. Just a few minutes. Just a few more…

The moments dragged on, though in no way at all it felt slow: the Jikochuu were all in great rush, faster than one would expect for creatures of their size, and Reika could not afford to miss a single shot, yet she could also not afford to take the time to aim. Her fingers ached from the repetitive motion of nocking her arrows against the bow's thin and frail string. She had to do it quickly yet carefully: she was quite well practiced in conjuring her weapons with her magic, but she had never needed to do it so hurriedly, such a poor job. She could feel the bow melting away on her hand, cold water seeping through her fingers. Beauty could no longer see Bolt and Satellite, and the people they escorted, but she could still hear them, and knew they were not too distant yet. How much longer do we need to last?

Dream and Fortune, too, struggled. A great mass of Jikochuu tried to make their way past the two, but were all held back. Nozomi and Iona now fought together at a perfect choke point, the entrance to a street that was little more than a sloppy alley, with Reika right behind them, but it was only a matter of time until other Selfish found an alternate route. And if they were caught from behind…

We won't stay here long enough for that to happen, she told herself, hopeful. She rarely looked back at Fortune, at Dream, as she knew she could trust them to do their job as she did her own, but ever so often she would take a peek at them, out of concern, and each time she did so, they were bleeding from a different spot. Reika had to fight back the urge to make a stand by their side, as she had to stop the winged Jikochuu from threatening the evacuation. Her heart pounded as if being hammered, and hurt just as much, not just from the stress but from the strain of fighting all day, of relying so much on her magic: it was one thing to conjure enough ice to make a sword, but to create a hundred arrows was much more demanding. Magic had been far stronger and effortless when the stars still shone, but now all that Reika had was a lone light, and her own strength. They are not enough.

The string was torn apart as she let loose one last arrow at the last Jikochuu. It snapped on her face, hitting her right underneath the eye, cutting open the skin. The arrow missed its mark, by far, and the rest of the bow melted away. The vulture was so close to the populace now, swooping down. I will not fail. She took the sword next to her feet, and chucked it in the general direction of the Jikochuu but, of course, it missed. A surge of lightning illuminated the distance, and a long forked bolt streamed upwards, striking it. Yes, that's right. Bolt and Satellite are fighting too. The Jikochuu burst into black tatters, and its Psyche sought out its body, but Reika knew that was no comfort. Regina would just corrupt them again.

Reika let out a long sigh, though she knew she could not allow herself even that, not now. She turned to her two companions, still fighting together. The Selfish gave them a moment of respite, calling away their Jikochuu. Only a moment, of course, but to them, that was more than they ever expected.

The princess walked out from amidst the Selfish, with two men by her side; one, a scrawny-looking man in a cheap, ugly suit, and a top hat that awkwardly hung over his head and seemed about to fall. The other, a portly man who always kept his mouth open, though he said nothing, revealing teeth filed into fangs. It was his strong arms that scared Reika, though, those long, heavy things.

"Now you three," she said in the tone one would use to a friend, "you are strong! Wow! You're making my soldiers look like complete losers! Then again, I guess that's what I get when I use the Psyches of starving bums… Maybe you'd be more adequate Jikochuu, hm?" She waited for an answer that never came. When she realized that, she pointed the Glaive at them, and Reika felt her knees shake. "Stop ignoring me!" Her anger was that of a child who couldn't get what she wanted. She scratched the bandages on her face. "Fine. Leva, Gula. You two have been dead weight for a while. Deal with them or you're the ones who'll taste the Glaive."

Their faces betrayed no hint that they felt threatened, but they did as they were told, anyway. Fortune and Dream took on fighting stances, again, but Reika just grabbed them by the collars and dragged them away. Look at you! It's madness to keep fighting! They seemed to realize her thoughts, and continued to run.

They were not fast enough, however; their bodies had grown tired, weakened, while the Selfish on their trail were still eager, agile. They were right behind. Reika knew there was no outrunning them.

"Hold on to me," said Nozomi, her voice panicky. "Now! Just do it!"

Reika put her arm around Nozomi, and Iona held her with both hands in a tight embrace that reached Beauty. They stood still as the Selfish drew nearer, but, oddly, Reika felt no fear at all. She felt at ease, being so close to Nozomi. Reika trusted her; she knew what she was doing, so how could she be afraid?

"Shooting Star!"

The world disappeared, and the wind devoured Trump, the Selfish, everything. So many colors mixed together, whirling in long lines tinted a soft pink. A moment later, Reika could see again, the broken down buildings near the walls, now shattered into splinters. Everything was spinning. When she looked at her friends, they too looked dizzy, Nozomi most of all. She could not see the Selfish anymore when they looked behind, only a line of razed houses where they had passed.

"Good job," Reika meant to say to Nozomi, but her words came out a confused murmur. She walked out through the fallen walls, where hundreds of people gathered.

Satellite rushed out to meet them, while Bolt was giving out directions to the populace. She was smiling. It made Reika feel almost safe, though she knew there was no safety in this damned city.

"You made it. We got everyone out, thanks to you."

"What are you going to do now?" Asked Nozomi. She had to repeat herself before she was understood.

"Disperse," she said. "You'll tell us to come with us, but… Well, with Regina back, the people of Trump will need us more than ever."

"I understand," said Reika. Her head hurt too much for her to argue. "We all need to hurry, then. Our fighting is far from over."

"Right," she nodded enthusiastically. "We're telling the people to just scatter around Trump, where they won't be targeted," Reika took another look, and saw the group had begun to divide, pouring into Trump. "So that's it. We'll be going too, so… Goodbye to you all. I hope we can meet again, but, well, that does not seem all that likely."

Reika agreed silently, trying to compose herself. She had wounds all over her body. It hurt so much, now that the fighting was done, if only for a moment. As soon as Satellite was gone, blending into the night's darkness, Beauty fell to her knees, closed her eyes, and let out a long, agonized cry. She was not one to do so, and no doubt Iona and Nozomi would be surprised, but she had to do it. She had to let out all her frustrations, her fears, her anger and her pain, all out in a scream. Akane had told her that it was cleansing. Reika couldn't remember when it was that Sunny had said that, but she was wrong. It did not make her feel better at all. The feeling of loss and failure refused to let go of her.

Failure. Yes, this was all just a failure. Everyone was counting on me, and I failed everyone. The shame of returning to the Phoenix Tower empty-handed, with news that things were worse than when they set out nibbled at her heart, in short but painful stings of pain. All the confidence that had gotten her through the fighting was gone, now. I failed Akane, too.

At last, Reika got up. She could barely stand, yet she had to. The Selfish would get there, soon, even if they searched the slums for them, first. She was not done, not yet, she had not been defeated.

"Let's get out of here," she said. "Black and White must be at the palace, with Heart and Sword, if they managed to free Mana's friend. Rikka and Yuri will be there, too. If we are lucky and set out now, we can, perhaps, get there before the Selfish do."

And if we don't, we're doomed, we and all the others, and the last hopes of the Precure, were the words she left unspoken, but all too clear.

"Then what?" Asked Iona. Reika didn't have a confident answer to that, only guesses.

"Then we find a way out," she said, simply. "The palace is right by the Amethyst Sea. With luck, we'll find boats so we all can leave."

"With luck," Iona scoffed. "The palace is also right by the Selfish King himself, you know."

"Are you saying we should just abandon everyone?" Nozomi asked.

"Of course not!" Iona was defensive. "Look, we have almost no time. Things have gotten quite out of hand for us, and we have no way of knowing that the others are doing much better. If Heart is lingering at the Swordspire, if one of them isn't there, and we have no way to wait for them… What do we do? Do we leave without them, then?"

"Well, Reika said as she started walking, "I suppose that's what Nagisa meant when she spoke of hard choices we must make."

Chapter Text

As she unveiled the newest of Labyrinth's facilities, Northa's eyes scanned the crowd to make sure that no one dared to hold their applause. Eas was not one to defy her, so she clapped her hands with enthusiasm. Westar, by her side, cheered, even though he probably had no idea of the purpose of this place, as Northa had described it using words with more than five letters.

This was no common crowd, the one listening to Northa. These were agents and scientists of Labyrinth. A lowly citizen would have never been allowed into a Starfire synthesizing center. Northa pushed a button that lowered the door, and Eas followed the mass into the inside. A massive lift, then, took them deep into the bowels of the earth.

The place smelled oddly of sulphur and rusted iron, though its walls were the light grey of shiny, new metal. Even for Labyrinth's standards, the factory was bland: walls and floor that went on and on, and all that broke the monotony were simple lamps hanging from the ceiling. They shone a warm, reddish light, and it made Eas feel uneasy.

"This way," said Northa, guiding them at an intersection. The paths all looked exactly the same, all lifeless and depressing.

Eas wondered if she was the only one that was made so uncomfortable by her surroundings, as everyone else looked quite content, curious. Of course they aren't bothered. I'm the one who's wrong. She thought of that name again. Setsuna. It made her head hurt, but the pain was bearable now. It is not my name. She almost managed to convince herself of that. That name is only a mask I wore, long ago, and only for a fleeting moment.

The night before, she had dreamed. Dreams were not an usual thing in Labyrinth, so Eas did not mention it to anyone, but she dreamed. She awoke fallen on the floor, her body twisting in agonizing throes. In that dream, she heard that name, Setsuna, but it was not her own voice saying it, nor the man from that other day, but a different voice entirely. It was not the first time she had heard it: she could not remember when, but she knew that she had heard it. A far-flung memory, she thought, trying to dismiss it, yet it felt familiar and close.

And real. More real than anything else she knew.

This is real, she told herself, taking a good look at the endless steel of Labyrinth, at all the faces she did not know, and never would. She could see a light, far away, a light that did not come from a lamp. And she could hear the crackling of fire.

Northa took them to the greatest room of the factory; a large chamber that had most of its area occupied by strange, menacing machines. Eas had never seen their like, but they were immense, touching the distant ceiling. In truth, she could not even see the ceiling; a fog covered it, obscuring the top of the machines. Were they furnaces, and that was the smoke they released? No, this was not ordinary smoke. Eas took a good look, and realized that all sorts of colors came alive in the smog. They looked like veins of purple and red, pink and green.

The workers that operated the machines didn't concern themselves with the visitors, and continued their work. They would open hatches along the furnaces, and, inside, an ominous fire burned, more scarlet than orange, and hammers pounded on metal surfaces, but Eas could not see what exactly they were hammering.

"Ah, Northa," said Klein. He stood atop a large platform next to a wall, and even when he spoke, he did not take his eyes from his computer. "Came for a demonstration?"

"I want to see it with my own eyes," she said. Klein was the only person she did not lash out at, just as she was the only one Klein showed some sign of humanity to. "If this works, we can work on restoring Infinity's power."

"If?" He said. "It does work. You," he pointed at a young girl working the furnaces, "take some Starfire from there."

She pushed a button, and a moment later, the bright red flames receded, but she still waited a moment, as the doors were still glowing with heat. Northa gave her an impatient cough, but when Klein ordered her to hurry, she looked around, unsure of what to do. She put her hand on the hatch's scorching handles, and screamed in pain as she tried to open it, but only got her hand burned. Eas was the only one not to laugh at her. She felt sorry for the girl. She was not supposed to feel this, she knew. The weak were disposable. She should have laughed too. She was above people like that girl, mere menial workers, drones for Labyrinth.

"Are you stupid, girl?" Asked Northa. "You were told to open the hatch."

"B-But…" She mumbled in a pathetic tone that only drew more laughter. Eas shifted her eyes to see if Soular and Westar were laughing too, and to her disappointment, they were. "It's too heavy…" And too hot, she almost said, but Northa's cruel eyes stopped her from continuing.

"You," Klein pointed at another worker. A girl, too, but slightly older. "Help her if you don't want to become fuel for the furnace."

Eas bit her lip. This was not right. She knew she had to tolerate this, else Northa and Klein would find out she was broken, she was not loyal, and yet… She felt her foot shift as she was ready to jump in the girls' defense, instinctively. Why? Why did I…?

Amidst mocking chuckles, the two workers put their hands on the orange hatch, letting out screams of pain as they did so. The door was heavy, too heavy for the two of them, but they worked together, and got it open. They blew onto their hands, and shook them in a vain attempt to make the pain go away. Eas knew very well that those hands might never heal again, but to Labyrinth, that was beneath notice. Everyone is disposable, Northa had said, even you. Even you…

And everyone else, of course, but Eas seemed to be the only one who gave a damn about it. Everyone else seemed content to be pawns to be sacrificed by Moebius as soon as was convenient. It was their conditioning, of course, and that only made things worse. Eas wondered if, perhaps, they would not be different people, good people, if Klein had not robbed them of their will and minds.

A pointless thought. Labyrinth has no future but Moebius, as he and his subordinates were always reminding everyone.

"Now," Klein was addressing Northa and those that came with her, "inside those furnaces we are synthesizing the Starfire that the Precure are so proud of," he did not bother explaining why it was that Labyrinth considered that necessary. Eas thought herself lucky that Northa saw her as an entertaining plaything. "It was a difficult process, but I worked day and night to replicate their secret. Now, the usual form of Starfire is a fine white powder that combusts remarkably easily. It burns all those who are not Precure, but they can touch it safely, and are unharmed by its heat. It does not spread on metal, so this facility is perfectly safe, but it burns through stone as if it were wood."

"Is it really replicated now?" Northa asked. "We have no Precure to test it on, so we can't be certain that it's working, can we?"

"We can never be certain of anything, really," he said, and, after a brief pause, continued, hastily, "save that Lord Moebius is the future."

He awaited for everyone to repeat those words. They all did it in synchrony, except for Eas, who was a second late. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice.

"All the same, I am close to certain that the substance is an exact copy of the Precure's Starfire. It burns just like it, too, that white fire that seems to take on a multitude of colors the longer you look at it. You two," he said to the workers by the furnace, "demonstrate."

They did not hesitate, this time, and no laughter accompanied their moves. The crowd seemed genuinely interested in Klein's promises. The girls reached deep into the furnace, and when they faced the onlookers again, their cupped hands held a white powder. They put it on a small steel pedestal on the side of the furnace, pouring it atop it. It smelled strongly of soot, and Eas presumed that was where they would ignite the Starfire powder for experiments.

Her thoughts were confirmed when one of the girls touched a button, lightly so as to not hurt her finger, and a spark burned bright for a second, before the white fire rose. All were awed by its changing colors, all eyes drawn to it.

"It is beautiful," said Soular, and Eas had to agree with him, for once. She had never seen most of those colors before. Labyrinth was a land of grey, so it did not surprise her that she found herself enthralled by the colors.

"So hot, though…"

So hot? But Eas did not feel anything… She still felt cold. When she looked around, she saw that all others were sweating, their faces red, but hers was dry. Her hands began to shake, and her migraine returned, drilling holes into her skull. This means nothing. This means absolutely nothing at all.

"Eas, y-"

Soular had tried to say something, and Eas feared that maybe had noticed, maybe he would make a quick judgment, but as he spoke, someone screamed. Eas could not make out what it meant, but when one of the furnaces burst aflame, its hatch melting away as Starfire roared, she understood enough.

"Idiots!" Screamed Klein at all the other workers. "What did you do?"

They did not answer, as they were too busy yelling, running away from the flames that reached out for them. Suddenly their colors lost their luster and became instead an alien thing of dread and horror, an unnatural pale fire that would devour anyone but the Precure.

Klein was half-mad, yelling about what a great pain it would be to fix whatever it was that his subordinates had screwed up, that they were not paying attention to their work, that they should know damn well that Starfire was a volatile material, but all other ears were deaf, as workers and Labyrinth agents alike madly ran away from the flames. Starfire would not spread on metal, but it seemed to come out of the furnaces like long fingers of fire, swiping at everyone around, and though, just as Klein said, it did not spread, it burned on the steel surfaces just fine.

Her fellow agents pushed her aside as they made their way out, and even most of the laborers ran past her, but the two girls were trapped by a circle of fire that rose high. Everyone else had managed to escape the disaster, but the two were not fast enough.

Eas froze in place as the others ran away. She did not feel the heat. She was not burned by the wind's scorching lick. She did not even feel it. No, no, no… It means nothing, it means nothing, she thought, but she knew what it meant, though her mind tried to deny it. Was this why they made me forget everything? Did they try to make me stop being a…

She could not finish the thought. Her head pounded as she heard a thousand half-remembered words and names, all at once, all mixed with the screaming of the people trying to escape, of the two girls still encircled by the fire. If she saved them, if the fire really didn't burn her, then there would be no denying what it meant, and everyone else would know. And who knows what they'd do to her, what horrors Klein would inflict upon her when he learned that she was broken. She knew she had to run too.

But she could not. Her heart did not allow her to. She ran, and stepped through the fire. She walked past it with a single step, barely even feeling it; it felt like a curtain of thin fabric, nothing more. The two girls, crouched, crying, looked up at her in blissful confusion, and she extended her hands to them. She helped them up, and found herself surrounded by that hideous fire, and yet she felt at peace.

Calmly she began walking again, matching her pace with that of the two girls, limping, afraid. Their eyes quivered as they faced the fire, but Eas gave the two of them a gentle look, and their fears seemed to die down. Eas did not know she could make a face like that, that she could… Smile? That was what she had done, right? It felt so natural, and, at the same time, not, as smiles were something you showed to people when you mocked them for their failure, weren't they?

Eas took another step, and the flames made way for her, as they would have done for any Precure. She let go of the girls, who ran away from the blazes, and stood there, letting the fire touch her, unthreatening. All eyes were on her, the awe-struck and the hateful, the curious and the frightened, but, in that moment, that did not matter at all to her. She clutched at her own chest, her heart beating an unfamiliar pattern. She could not even begin to understand what it was that she did, what it was that she felt, but she knew that it felt right.

Alice trembled as she watched her friends point weapons at her and at each other. This did not feel real. Was it a nightmare? It had to be, it had to, but the fear was real, and so was the pain that crushed her heart. Shadow's reflections stepped close to her, right behind, but their footsteps sounded so distant. Aqua, Lemonade and Rouge stood next to her: Dark Mint was away, fighting off the Selfish they had alerted when they broke into the palace, keeping them in place so that the others could get to the Crown quickly.

Now Alice wished they had not been so fast. She would have lost the Crown, and she knew she would be punished, but at least she would not have to see this, to know that her friends were all still alive, and that she had to betray them all.

"Why?" She asked again. Makoto looked as if she had been crying, and Rikka was full of anger, but Mana was the only one who still looked upon her as a friend.

"We should ask that of you," said Rikka with scorn. It hurt to hear her talk like that. "What the hell are you doing with Eternal?"

"I-" She began, but Dark Lemonade interrupted with her squeaky voice.

"Why are you answering them?" She asked with genuine curiosity. "Are you an idiot, too? Let's just get the Crown."

"I owe them an answer, at least, for all our years of friendship and love," she said, but that was only part of the answer.

Even if they hate me, even if they can never understand why I'm doing this… I want to at least hear their voices. I want to look at their faces. Mana looked so different, so hurt, yet her eyes were the same, and they had always made Alice feel welcome. Rikka, though, had lost all that had made her gentle. She seemed so troubled, so torn. And Makoto… Makoto was the worst. Her face was contorted in anger, reddened by blood.

"I have to do this," said Alice. "I don't have a choice."

"We don't, either," said Sword. "The Crown belongs to the Precure. To the Red Rose."

"You would not say that if you knew what the Red Rose has done," Rikka lashed out. "I need the Crown so I can find out the truth. About everything. I love you all dearly, but…"

"Shut your mouth," Makoto said, full of spite. "Ange didn't die so that you would have the chance to betray everything the Precure stand for. I will not let you do this. I don't care about your reasons."

"Would you strike me down, then?"

"Yes," said Makoto, but Alice knew at once it was a lie. Her voice always had a certain sound to it when she lied. Mana and Rikka didn't know that; they were not quite as close to Sword as Rosetta had been. Mana was crying, but Rikka tried to hold her tears.

"Will you stop this?" Heart cried out. "We're all together, again. We don't have to do this! Just, please, stop fighting."

"I have to," said Alice. Continental. Sunset. Gonna and Pantaloni. She thought of them whenever the thought of abandoning Eternal got too tempting to bear, and, right now, she could not think of a greater temptation… To throw herself on Makoto's arms, to apologize to them all, to be with them again…

No. It was not just for the girls at Nightmare that Alice fought for, she understood that now. She took a glance at the reflections at her side. She would be betraying them, too, they who had never had any kindness shown to them. It hurt to think that, almost as much as it hurt to have to face her own friends. In this moment, Alice couldn't really think of things that did not hurt.

Now done talking, the four girls stared at each other. None were willing to strike the first blow, to be the first to hurt their own friend. The very notion repulsed Alice.

"Screw you," said Dark Lemonade, who started walking towards the door, "I'm getting the Crown."

Makoto and Rikka had no qualms about hurting her, at least; Sword's blade came crashing down on her, and Rosetta called a barrier to hold the blow, and the arrow that Rikka let loose at her.

Rouge and Aqua stepped forward to defend their companion; Rikka's ice was no match for the blazes, and though Dark Aqua did not reach Sword in speed and skill, her strength more than made up for that deficiency, with each heavy swing forcing Makoto to leap out of the way.

When Dark Lemonade returned, breaking through the yellow barrier, Crown in hands, all eyes turned to her, and all attentions. Mana put herself in front of her, but Lemonade just shoved her away almost effortlessly, to Alice's shock. Mana did look sick and frail, but she had not expected her to be so weak.

"Do something, Rosetta," Lemonade shouted at her as she ducked to avoid an attack from Makoto, a sweeping slash that almost chopped off her head.

"Rosetta Reflection," she whispered, and her hands were covered by two small shields. She rushed past Sword and Lemonade and smacked Rikka in the chest with both hands, knocking her back, far away. She had tried not to be too violent, but Rikka's screams were a testament to her failure, and the sound made Alice hate herself.

Mana was right in front of her, now, dishing out blows that seemed to hurt her more than Rosetta. She dodged, not wanting to hurt Mana, but she knew she would have to… She just blocked all her strikes, and tried to pretend that her shouting did not disturb her. It was an anguished wail, coming from a deeply sore throat, a sound fit for a dying beast, not for Mana, her dear Mana, her old, close friend. She stared at Mana's sunken eyes, and, to her relief, they were not filled with hate, as Alice so feared. She knew she deserved to be hated, though, and that is why she was so filled with dread.

With one barrier she shoved Mana away with great force, and, with the other, she shielded her fall. It was the best she could do, now, as she was not willing to hurt her, but she knew she was her enemy even so. Her companions would not be so merciful, though, and she could tell that Heart, Diamond and Sword were all exhausted, while Aqua, Lemonade and Rouge were not so drained.

She looked back when she heard a high-pitched scream come from Dark Lemonade; Sword had knocked her against a wall, leaving her stuck in the debris, the Crown fallen on the floor, right next to Dark Aqua's foot. The false Aqua faltered for a moment, in fear of damaging it, and that gave Sword the opening to attempt a lunge against her; it was blocked, but Aqua's azure sword shattered to bits, and she had to step away from her foe.

Makoto knelt to reach the Crown, triumph in her eyes, but Rosetta extended her hand on its direction, closed her eyes, and silently called another Reflection, a small one this time, just the size of the Crown, covering the Sacred Treasure entirely, so that Makoto could not even touch it. Makoto gave her a look of surprise and even some slight admiration, just like she did when they all fought together and one of them pulled out something clever. Alice remembered that face very well, just as she remembered all of Makoto's expressions.

The Reflection burst into orange shreds, exploding all over Sword, blasting her into Mana, who had only just managed to get up. Everything grew silent, then, as Alice approached the Eternal Golden Crown and picked it up. She put two hands on it, and made a twisting gesture to indicate that if anyone approached her, she would break it. Right now, she had half a mind to actually do it. That would be a delightful way of spitting in the face of Shadow, the Director and Despariah, all at once.

It would also be a certain way to get Nightmare's hostages killed, and the false Precure destroyed by Shadow, too. Her fingers began to shake.

A drop of sweat fell across her face, slow and cold. The Crown felt so heavy on her hand, all twisted gold and gleaming gems. Behind her, Dark Aqua urged her to dispose of her friends, who, right in front of her, stared at her with longing eyes. Makoto still clutched her sword, but Alice knew she would never use it on her… Or at least she hoped not.

All she had to do was step up to them, she understood. If she walked forward, she would be among them again, in the middle of her beloved friends, just as it should be, just as she had hoped would happen again, before her hopes were twice strangled.

"Rosetta," Dark Aqua put a hand on her shoulder, with surprising gentleness. She knows I'll do something stupid. "Give me the Crown."

Alice did as she was bid, without hesitation. She knew that if she hesitated for a single moment, her will might break, after all this time, all this effort. She had plans, yes, she had not forgotten them. She would bring Nightmare down from within. Even if they hate me… That's a fair price to pay for saving everyone from Nightmare. And, even if they hate me, at least they'll be alive to do so. Somehow that was not a great relief.

Dark Aqua said something, but her words were cut short by a loud crack. Alice took a look at the Crown, again, and saw that one of its gems, the great white one, was beginning to shatter. Odd, she thought, how there seem to be so many colors amidst the white.

Oh.

"Let go of that!" She screamed and tried to wrestle the Crown away from Dark Aqua, but she would not allow her, not until the white gem crackled and let loose a rush of white fire all over her hands. Starfire.

Swearing, Dark Aqua let go of the Crown, and as soon as it touched the floor, it shattered into tiny shards of gold, so small that they were almost impossible to see. Aqua shook and waved her hand to get rid of the flames, spreading them around until they inflamed the very walls.

"You knew this," Aqua growled, burned fingers circling Alice's necks, closing tight. "You knew it, didn't you?"

"No! No, I didn't, I-"

She screamed in pain, let Alice go, and stared at her reddened hand. Though harmless to the Precure, Starfire had always been dangerous to all others, a cruel fire that was very difficult to extinguish on purpose, only dying out when its magic grew too weak to sustain the blazes.

"It was…" Rikka kept blinking in disbelief. "It was a fake?"

"A fake?" Mana didn't understand.

"The true Crown is said to be impossible to destroy. I doubt that's true, but I'm sure it wouldn't break as soon as it was touched…"

"Well, that one broke," said Makoto. "What now?"

What now, indeed. All around her, the fire was spreading, but Alice found it hard to let that trouble her; she couldn't even feel the warmth, and the only sign that the palace was being devoured by hell was the way the false Precure groaned and avoided the fire.

"Did Eternal lie to us?" Lemonade asked, and Aqua nearly slapped her.

"No, idiot, Eternal just had a wrong informant… Anacondy never does things without having a snitch, and hers must have lied… Damn it!"

Without the Crown to fight over, Diamond, Heart and Sword were quick to stand by each other, pointing their weapons at the Dark Cures.

"The Crown is what you came for, isn't it?" Mana asked. "You can come with us now, right? Now we don't have that to fight over anymore."

"You don't belong with Eternal," said Makoto. "They are not your friends, you saw that."

Alice knew the words implicit there. Come with us. Fight them. Finish them off. They are servants of Eternal. They are false Precure. See, they burn when the Starfire tries to kiss them. Of course they didn't put those thoughts into words, but when Alice saw the way they looked at the false Precure, she knew that they, too, saw them as something wrong. Dark Aqua was right. There was no one in the world who'd ever show them any sympathy, not even the Precure. It made Alice feel sick.

"I…" Alice stood still. She did not want to choose a side. Goodness, why was everyone so willing to pick sides now, in a time the world needed to be united so that it could not wither? Even so she understood that there was no way that could be. That made her stomach turn, that feeling of inevitability. "I don't know what to do…"

"How come?" Makoto's eyes were no longer wroth, but inviting. Alice remembered those eyes. When they were together, just the two of them, and Makoto would offer her a song, these were the eyes that would look at Alice.

"Just go," said Dark Aqua. "We failed, anyways. Shadow will be angry. If you go with them, then you can avoid his wrath."

Was that… No, it could not be. Aqua had told her that she'd never concern herself with someone else's well-being. It had to be bitterness, it had to be…

"What about you?"

"It doesn't matter."

It does. It does, she thought, insisting on that idea. Shadow would show them no mercy, even if they managed to escape, which Alice wasn't too sure Makoto would allow. She had seen her furious eyes, and they were not the eyes of someone who would spare an enemy's life. Is this what the fall of Trump did to her?

Choose, now, her friends' eyes all asked her. She was tempted to do it, until she remembered just how many people were counting on her deception. She began to mumble their names, and she made her choice.

"Continental. Sunset. Gonna and Pantaloni."

"What did you say?" Mana asked.

"Rosetta Reflection!"

A great barrier appeared atop the three, and Alice brought it crashing on them with a downward motion of the hands. It broke through the floors, taking Alice's friends with it. They shouted, and she tried to block out the sounds.

She failed. Their screams echoed until they were interrupted with a thud as they reached the ground level. My choice, she thought bitterly. Dark Aqua, behind her, looked even more astonished.

"You… You're not abandoning us?" Alice shook her head. They don't even know how to react to someone not treating them as disposable!

"Why?" Asked Dark Rouge.

Alice didn't answer. She wasn't sure she had done the right thing. It had to be the right thing. She would protect these girls from Shadow, from anyone who would hurt them, because no one else would. It was what a Precure had to do, right? She tried to convince herself of that.

"We must leave," she said, simply, and all her companions agreed with her. Their faces were red from the heat, and they were shifting around uncomfortably. They still had a way out, before the Starfire blocked it, so they had to hurry.

Descending all those steps would take too long, so they looked for a window, instead. It had gotten so late and dark outside, but the light of flames let them see into the distance. There were Selfish around the castle. She could not see who, or what they were doing, but she doubted they would be too pleased by the fire.

The Starfire… Why was the Crown a trap? She had no time to wonder it when it started to burn, and right now she had many other more pressing doubts, but the doubt remained on a corner of her mind. She would have to find out, though she couldn't imagine how.

Dark Rouge gestured at something outside. The garden, almost right underneath them. There was a small shack there, on a remote patch of dirt, only a small shed where tools had been stored, and also where they had hidden their magic mirror. The Selfish never use their tools, Dark Aqua had said.

Lemonade offered to blast the window with energy, bringing down the wall as well, but Aqua reminded her that if the Selfish noticed them (and they would notice an explosion of light), they would come after them, and they all agreed that they had been through enough trouble already. If they simply jumped away, their escape would be shrouded by the darkness of the night.

Alice landed uncomfortably, having misjudged the timing of her jump, but it was not such bad pain. Rouge and Lemonade fell with perfect balance, but Dark Aqua stumbled and tripped when she took her first step. She tried to stop her fall by putting her hand on the floor, but it only brought her more pain, and though her grunt was brief and quiet, Alice knew the burns had been quite bad. She would offer to try to heal it, but she knew Dark Aqua would be too proud to accept help.

The fire had not reached the garden yet, but Alice knew it would, soon. It was odd, how she could hear the fire but she could not feel it or smell its cinders. It was there, she knew, and yet, to her, it might as well not be.

Far away, she could see the Selfish around the castle, some of them rushing through the gate, into the fire. Too rash, the Starfire would eat them all. She wondered how many of the Selfish were just like Shadow's fakes, just people with no place to do and no real choice in their lives. It made her feel sorry for them, for everyone. For herself.

I had a choice. I made it.

They reached the tool shed where they had placed the mirror. It would have been a terrible hiding place if the Selfish ever bothered taking decent care of the garden instead of just letting anything grow. The mirror was inside, waiting.

It had been left untouched, thank goodness. The shed was empty, though, with no trace of Mint having been there. She was still in the palace, Alice realized.

"You first," said Dark Rouge, extending her hand to the mirror. "We'll wait here."

"Wait?"

"For Mint," said Lemonade.

"If she's clever, when she sees the fire, she'll know to come here," Dark Rouge said, but she sounded uncertain.

"She's never been a clever one, that false Mint…"

"So, if she's not too fast…" Alice didn't know why she asked when she already knew the answer. Mercy was not an easy thing to offer when it was something that had never been shown to you in your entire life.

"We leave her behind," said Aqua, "and say that she distracted the Selfish while we ran away. That's not even a lie."

Alice almost said she wanted to wait with them, so that she could ensure Dark Mint's return, but she also knew that if she idled there, she would look back at the palace and remember Makoto, Rikka and Mana, and she didn't know if she was strong enough to resist the urge to run back to them. If she did, everything she sacrificed herself for would be lost. For the sake of these girls, and of others, she sacrificed her honor, her dignity, her heart, and perhaps even the love of her friends. It was no small price. There was no way out for her, now. She could only hope that the pain would be worth it, in the end.

She stepped through the mirror before she dared to look back.

Rikka lingered on the cracked marble floor, looking up at the crumbled ceiling and at the white fire burning above. Wisps of yellow and orange were still floating, falling. Someone was yelling; it was Mana's voice, her hand touching Rikka's, trying to help her up. Rikka forced herself to rise, her body all sore, and found herself surrounded not only by Heart and Sword, but Black and White, a wounded Moonlight by their side, the fires dancing up and down and all around her. Further away, Beauty, Dream and Fortune stood close together, their bare legs black, blue, and red.

"What…" She tried to grasp the situation. "What is happening?"

"Calm down," said Makoto. "We thought you had died, or was dying. You were out cold for nearly five minutes…"

"And Alice?" She asked, and Mana only shook her head.

"Ran away, I guess. She is working with Eternal, she said, but she never told us why."

"Does it matter now?" Rikka took a step, and almost fell down. She stumbled on Moonlight's direction. "The Crown was a fake. Aguri was wrong. Eternal was wrong, too."

"It was filled with Starfire," said Makoto. "It wasn't a trap to catch any Precure at least, so I wonder… Maybe Ange's journal-"

"You can figure that out later," said Iona. "There are Selfish all around the palace, and I doubt Regina will be too happy to see that her home was burned down."

Regina. Well, that's a way to make a terrible situation even worse. Rikka tried to clear her mind, to figure out what she needed to do. She knew the Starfire would not destroy all of the palace; it would stop burning after an hour, at the most, as Starfire never lasted all that long if it just burned on an unprepared surface and not on a magical vessel, such as the Starlight Flames. Besides, the fire was the least of their worries.

"How do we get out of Trump now?" Asked Black.

"If we're lucky - and we clearly are not - we can find some boats anchored at the docks," said Sword. "Close to the Selfish King," that made everyone shiver. "Really small boats, mind you, not ships, but they should provide us with a way out."

"If they're still there," said Beauty. "Otherwise…"

No one had any other ideas.

"That's it, then?" Asked Fortune. "Let's just hope we're lucky."

Something was bothering Moonlight, Rikka noticed. She seemed torn. Diamond turned an inquisitive face towards her, and hoped that Yuri trusted her enough to tell what was on her mind.

"I'm going back to Aguri," said Yuri.

"She was wrong," said Rikka. "Do you still want to go back to the Blue Rose, anyways?" When she said those words, she saw that some of the other Cures seemed shocked by the mention of the Blue Rose, but Moonlight spoke first.

"Yes. She promised us she'd give us the answers we wanted for so long. I want to know why she knew of the Crown's location, but didn't know that it was a fake. I want to-"

"What is this about the Blue Rose?" Asked Fortune.

"I'm talking to Diamond," Moonlight rose her voice, and Rikka felt herself begin to sweat again. Please, no more fighting. I'm tired. Yuri turned to her again. "I want you to come with me, Rikka. I want us both to find out the truth together. We both know by now that the Red Rose is evil."

"What are you even talking about?" Iona insisted, angry now. "Don't tell me the Blue Rose is still out there. Worse, the way you talk about it… You can't mean…"

"I do mean it," she said. "If you knew the things I know, you'd follow the Blue Rose too. Any Rose, really, just not the Red. Ask your Cure Mirage about it. Ask her about all the crimes the Red Rose has committed."

"Traitor," was all that Iona said, spiteful. Yuri took a deep, pained breath.

"You know nothing of betrayal," said Moonlight. "The Red Rose has betrayed all the Precure, and the world as well. For thousands of years it has strived to control the world, to subjugate everyone instead of protecting them. There have been good Precure, like your sister, but if you defend the Red Rose, then you are spitting in her face."

If Iona were not already so wounded, Rikka had no doubt that she would be at Moonlight's throat in one second. Not that she stood a very good chance, of course. Rikka knew too well that Moonlight was being entirely unreasonable, and she must have known it herself, too. Iona had no way of knowing what it was that the Red Rose had done to Yuri, and she of course wouldn't tell it to someone she couldn't trust. Iona probably wouldn't even believe it.

"Stop this!" Nozomi cried out. "You're not going to fight here, are you? If we stay, the Selfish will get us all. Will you at least leave Trump with us?"

"I'll find another way," she said, bitter.

"Let's just part ways, then", said Nozomi, "without fighting," Yuri nodded, and stared at Rikka, as if asking her if she would come.

By now she could hear the footsteps of the Selfish, slow, as they were likely avoiding the Starfire. It would delay them, but not stop them.

"I'll go with you," she told Yuri, "if Mana comes too. Mana," Rikka looked for her, as she had been too quiet, but she only found her wandering around the ruined hall, looking for something. "Mana, what is it?"

"Hm? Ah, I'm looking for something," she said, nonchalant, picking up pieces from a broken table, but she found only splinters.

"What… What are you doing?" Rikka was baffled. "This is serious! Damn it, Mana, I was asking you a question. You've always said I'm your closest friend, and I say the same to you. We've always trusted each other, so will you trust me now, when I tell you that the Blue Rose is our best hope? Will you come with me?"

"No."

Rikka bit her lip, and tried to pretend she wasn't hurt. She failed horribly, but she found herself too weak to even weep.

"No?" She said, agonized. "So you'll go back to the Red Rose, then, with everyone else?"

"No."

At once, Rikka understood what that meant, even if no one else did.

"Please… Please, Mana, don't. I won't let you do it."

"I've made up my mind," she said, and smiled when she found a long chunk of wood. She put it close to the raging Starfire until its tip ignited. "The Selfish are coming, right? They'll catch you for sure. Maybe you can outrun them here, but once you reach the docks, it'll take you some time to get the boats ready, and if the Selfish reach you then…"

"Stop this nonsense," said Rikka. "Just come with us. Let's hurry."

"There's a Starlight Flame atop the palace," Mana ignored her. "Unlit, of course, but…" She showed her improvised torch. "That should get their attention, and get you time. And a star, if I do it right."

"Even so, you-"

"I won't be able to escape, I know. I don't care. It's a small price to pay, for all we'll gain. It could have been better, I suppose, but if I light the Flame, then it won't be a complete loss. Whatever the Selfish do to me… I don't care. I don't care if they kill me, if they make me a Jikochuu."

"No," said Rikka, snarling. "You won't let her do this, right?" She looked at all the other Precure, all shamefully silent. They will let her do it. The thought made her mad with fury. "Even you, Yuri?" She at least had the decency to nod.

"Mana is right," said Reika. She sounded sad, but Rikka just knew that she was surely relieved she got a way out. "We need to go."

"Mana," Rikka asked her one last time, looking at her. She was smiling. That was the worst thing of all. She just seemed so calm. "Come with me, Mana. Please. That's the way it should be. We can work things out together, we always have, haven't we? So please… Don't do this."

"I'm sorry. I only want to help. I've always wanted to help."

Rikka thought she saw a crack in her serenity, but before she could be certain, Mana turned back and started running, and the white fire covered her. Rikka shrieked something, and she ran, too, but before she could even take a step, Yuri's arms were around her, holding her. On the corner of her eye, she could see all the other Cures, all those cowards, escaping.

"Let go of me," Rikka screamed, but Yuri kept holding on.

She couldn't see Mana anymore. She wailed, screaming for the Selfish to come, telling them all that she was here, in desperate hope that perhaps they would ignore Mana, but Moonlight covered her hand with her mouth. Rikka sunk her teeth into Yuri's fingers, biting down with what little strength remained in her. Her pale fingers were painted red, and Yuri mumbled an apology before smacking Rikka in the head, making everything spin.

She stopped struggling, then. She felt her body limp, and saw the world blacken as her eyes closed. Only then did the tears start to come out, and as everything faded, almost peacefully, she felt the taste of blood and tears, and shut her eyes.

Night kept her hidden as she ran, hurried steps crushing all flowers and colors on her path, the green that Dark Mint so long wished to see. It was the grass that she always dreamt of, all the thoughts that Komachi had filled her head with, all of them come true in Trump's gardens, and yet she could not care, and kept running.

Behind the greens laughed the wicked white, the fires that took the stone like they were dried branches, and the false Mint could feel its scorching screams on her back. She could hear the Selfish, too, all around the palace, but they were not nearly as frightening as the fires.

The shed's doors had been left open, and Mint felt a touch of hope. The mirror would be there, and her way out. She did her duty just as she was asked to, she had distracted the Selfish guarding the palace so that her fellow reflections could do their duty in return. It made her feel something odd that she could not quite put to words. Satisfaction, perhaps, and some enjoyment in being useful, in having someone trust her. She wondered if this was a normal feeling, or if she was just a fool. She would have to ask Komachi; anyone else would laugh at her.

She walked inside the shed, dark and dirty. When she first walked out of the mirror and saw a blackened room that spiders had claimed as home, she wondered why exactly Dark Aqua would choose this as a place to keep their magic mirror, but when she walked outside and saw that the gardens were empty, abandoned, distant from any Selfish, she had to agree that it was the safest place. And now she had returned, and, though Rosetta and the others likely had already returned to Shadow's keep, the mirror was there, waiting for her, and-

Cracks made webs on the glass like the work of a twisted spider. Broken. Mint placed her hand on the surface, cutting her fingers, trying to make sense of what had happened. Broken, was all she could think. And not from this side. She had learned how a magic mirror works. If one is broken, the linked mirror becomes cracked, too, shattered with the pattern of an elaborate web.

Her heart twisted. It was not broken from this side by a Selfish… The others had broken it from the other side, at Shadow's keep. They… They abandoned me. She rammed her hand through the mirror, slicing her knuckles open. She didn't even feel herself bleed, as all she was aware of was the other pain, the pain she could not name. She had no one to explain to her now, either. I'm alone. They left me alone.

She had always known she was disposable, a thing to be thrown away. And yet it hurt. Her face was wet; tears, she knew, Komachi had told her about them, but she always felt they were something only idiots could shed.

Lemonade always said I'm an idiot, though.

She looked around, wiping her tears on her bleeding hand. Everything she saw was blurry, and she was taken by the wish to fall down to the floor. Why? What good would it do? She looked at her hand, stained by blood and tears, and wondered if she cried out of fear or sadness. She had only a vaguest notion what those were, but she concluded that she felt both.

They left me here to die, she thought, staring at the mirror again. Why? Did they think she was lost, caught by the Selfish? Were they forced to do it so that they would not be captured, so that no one would reach Shadow's keep? Or… Or did they do it because her life wasn't worth anything, anyways, and it would be funny to just let her die like that? Were the others all laughing together about it, with Shadow? Would they wait for her to die, or would they just break her mirror?

Most importantly… What do I do? She had never had to make any decision on her own, before. None that actually mattered, at least. She had always waited Shadow's orders, and, sometimes, Dark Aqua. Even Komachi, in a way, though she never gave orders, only advice and suggestions. But now she was alone, and with no one to tell her what to do. She couldn't even think of what she should do now.

She walked outside and stared at the burning palace, the flames threatening to destroy the gardens, too. She knew there were Selfish all around, and they would show her no sympathy. She remembered that, inside the palace, she had seen some Precure. Real ones, not fakes like she and her companions. They did not see her, of course, because why would a true Precure spare a single thought for a thing as lowly as a copy that couldn't even name her own feelings?

Would they help me? That was her first thought, but she did not know why she even thought of it. She did not deserve help, she had been told that a million times by everyone who was not the real Mint. She did not deserve anything, was what they told her.

They weren't here to tell her that now, though. As she stared into the flames and its colors, she could not let go of that thought. The Precure help people. The Precure are good. She did not know if she could believe that, or count on it, but the more she looked at the fire, the clearer it became that she had to choose now, by herself, and that she had two choices.

To live, or to die. To stay here, to keep crying as she waited for the fire to take her, or to wipe her tears and run through the flames to try and claim her only hope with her own hands.

She chose to live and ran back into the palace through a crumbled wall.

Inside, she could barely recognize the place. Its tapestries were gone, its walls were peeling off, and the ceiling was giving in. And, everywhere, white fire burned. It greeted her with ferocity, trying to burn her to a cinder, but Dark Mint kept running, never letting the fire eat her, but when it touched her for a mere moment, it hurt horribly. She did not let that stop her. She had to find the Precure, and their only hope of leaving Trump was at the palace harbor, and its collection of small boats. She had seen it when she was distracting the guards, and knew it was the only way out, so she presumed that the Precure knew that too.

She could not see the exit, and all around she heard the blazes crackle, structures crumble. When the Starfire whispered on her face, she felt it burn, unbearable, and she screamed. It felt good, in an odd way, so she kept shouting as she crossed the endless white that clawed at her, searing her body, bent on killing her. This was foolish, she knew, and she also knew that all the odds were against her, that she could very well die here, without reaching the Precure, her only hope.

But if my life is worth so little, I don't need to be afraid. I'm not losing much, so I'll wager it a thousand times over.

Chapter Text

The star shone high above them, hanging high like a mark of shame. Paid for with Mana's life, it shone dimly at the side of its sister, the star once lonely, brighter and prouder, but next to the Selfish King, their light seemed insignificant. His shadow covered Nozomi as she ran away from the palace, towards the docks, now their last hope of making this endeavor be anything but absolute failure.

All around, she saw defeat, an undeniable mark on everyone's faces. Reika's visage was the most pitiful of all, lost and vague, but Sword's was not much better. Beauty was not crying, now, but her eyes burned with arid melancholy.

"There," pointed Sword. Nozomi could not see what she was trying to show, for lack of light, but as she kept running, she saw small wooden poles with boats tied to them by thin ropes. A pier extended over the water, but there was no ship next to it. "The Selfish took the main ship," she explained, "but I suppose they couldn't be bothered with the boats."

"So the docks here were built to provide the royal family with a way out?" Reika's voice was hoarse.

"Right," said Makoto. "Ange didn't even consider running away, though. She could have escaped easily, if she wanted, but there were things she wanted to protect, so she stayed behind, and…"

Nozomi understood very well what she meant. On instinct, she looked at Iona, whose eyes had suddenly gotten sad and bitter. She found herself thinking of Komachi, who could have escaped, too, thought it would not have done her any good. It was a painful memory that she tried to forget, but sometimes she awoke remembering her voice, how she ordered Nozomi to run away. When she screamed, Nozomi could not defy her. She ran, taking Coco with her.

The boats left behind were very small, with space for three people, four at most, and even so, very uncomfortably. Most were not fit for sailing, but they only needed two. Honoka quickly found one she judged safe, and she boarded it with Nagisa and Makoto. Iona and Reika looked together, but all the vessels they found were leaky, breaking down, and it was Nozomi who managed to encounter one that did not seem likely to sink. It creaked as they stepped into it, but nothing broke, and it did not submerge, so that was a good sign.

Dream and Fortune picked up the oars and prepared to row. Reika insisted on getting one of the oars, too, but she was the weariest of them all, her eyes struggling to stay open, her arm resting limply on her legs.

Far away, she saw a black upon the white fire, an approaching silhouette, running towards them. A Selfish, Iona said, but Nozomi was not so sure. It was a single person, and by now she knew the Selfish were not brave enough to be lone heroes.

It was a girl, that much she could tell, but not much else. She was waving her arm madly, desperately, a clear cry for help. With a gesture, Nozomi told Iona to wait and see who it was.

She stopped by the boat, hands on her knees as she bent over and tried to catch her breath. She looks so much like… Like Komachi… She was not quite the same, however, so it could not be Komachi. It could not. She was gone. Gone… No, that's a kind way of putting it. She is dead.

Dead, she stood there, looking at Nozomi. She said nothing. Nozomi kept telling herself it could not be. And, truly, it could not. Why was she here? There was no way she could have gotten here, no way she could have found Nozomi now. It made no sense. And yet… Did it matter? Did it have to make sense, if it was truly Komachi? But it isn't. It can't be. Miracles don't happen anymore.

"Ah…" She dared not say it. The word was stuck on her throat, and it hurt to spit it out. She tried to, anyway. "Ko… Komachi?"

"Yes," she said, looking just as dazed as Nozomi. Suddenly, she smiled. "Yes! Yes! Yes, that's me, I'm Komachi… I'm Cure Mint!"

Am I awake, or has everything been just a dream? She could not understand. There was no reason for her to be here. She looked different, too, but did that even mean anything? Mana had changed, too, so who could say that Komachi wouldn't?

"How?"

"It is, uh, very complicated. A long story. Like all of my stories. I- They are long stories, no? You remember me, don't you? I'm your friend, aren't I? Can I come with you?"

There was something wrong here, but Nozomi could not know why. She could not know anything at all; in fact, she was starting to fear that she had more than a few screws loose. Behind her, Iona said something, but Nozomi couldn't even hear. She only stared at Komachi, and tried to understand, failing miserably.

"Y-Yes," she said at last. "Come here. Come with us."

She jumped on the boat carelessly, almost knocking it over in her rashness. She put herself right next to Nozomi, and gave her a weird smile. Nozomi answered with a grin. Confused as she was, she was happy to see Komachi again. More than happy. She felt… The way people feel when they witness a miracle. Nozomi had no idea how that felt, until now, and it was a strange sort of joy. It was a fearful happiness; she did not allow herself to be too blissful, as she knew all too well that this made no sense, so maybe it wasn't true, maybe she was mad, maybe if she thought too much about it, reality would triumph and Komachi would disappear again.

Their eyes met again. Komachi's seemed darker, but that was probably the blackness of the night, as if cursed by the star paid in blood. It refused to shine, spiteful, saying a girl died for this star. Komachi blinked too much, and kept looking around. Nozomi heard the sound of flowing water as Iona began to row. Then she let out a loud sigh and put her arms around Komachi, squeezing her as hard as she could, feeling her, the reality of her, the undeniable proof that she was here, with her, she who was thought to be lost. Mint did not hug her back, but Nozomi couldn't blame her. She was probably still trying to understand it, just as Dream.

"Nozomi!" Iona cried out. "Could you please help me here?"

She let go of Komachi, and picked up the oars again. Her arms strained with the repetitive movement, but it was easy enough to forget the pain now that she had something to be happy about, now that she stood next to a miracle. Yes, a miracle, it had to be. I was wrong, they still happen. I'm witness to it.

Mint smiled when Iona said Nozomi's name. Is she happy, just like me, to have this confirmation that I'm real? Was she afraid, too?

"No… Nozomi…" It was Reika's voice, frail, weakening further still when she spoke. She could barely stay up now. "Who is… Who is she?"

"Komachi," she said. "Komachi," she repeated, in love with the reality of her miracle. "Cure Mint. I thought… I thought she had stayed behind at the Palmier Kingdom."

"I escaped," she said at once, as if she defended herself from an accusation. "They, uh, I was captured, they tried to send me to Eternal, but I was freed."

"By whom?" Asked Iona. Nozomi did not like her tone.

"I, er… By Cure Aqua."

"So Karen is alright too?" Nozomi asked. Then she remembered what Arachnea had said, long ago, in the dark forest. "I heard that she turned traitor. I doubted it. It's not true, right? Where is she? Shouldn't she be with you?"

"C-Calm down," she said. "Don't ask so many questions at once, Nozomi."

"Alright, alright," Nozomi tried to laugh, but coughed instead. Her throat hurt too much for laughter. She kept rowing, and when she looked behind again, Trump was becoming distant, at last.

"Aqua is not a traitor," she said, "though some will think she is. She… She is working for Eternal. But she did it to keep me safe."

"Eternal?" Asked Iona. "That Alice girl that Makoto mentioned… She was with Eternal too, wasn't she? These are terrible news, if Eternal has Precure working for them."

"Please don't hate Karen for what she's doing," said Mint, though she didn't need to say it at all. Nozomi could never hate Karen, her dear friend. "She really did it for me. It was the price for my safety."

"This…" Reika strained to speak. "This could… Could not be that terrible. If Aqua is still… Our ally. If she's lying to Eternal. It means we have one of ours inside them."

"Y-Yeah!" Said Komachi. "I bet she's doing that. She's always been… Crafty."

"Heh, crafty is not a word I'd ever thought I'd hear you using for Karen."

"O-Oh. I-I see… I did not mean to…"

"No, no, it's fine! Really! Just… Well, it's kind of funny. Things are always funny when we're together, aren't they?"

"Y-Yes! Haha! Yes, of course. You're right, Nozomi. I… I just forgot things. Life has been hard the past few months. So much has changed. I changed, too," she sounded very serious when she said this, "so I hope you don't find it weird or anything."

"Don't worry," said Nozomi. "I changed too. Not much, but a little. I think. Did I change?" She spoke to Reika and Iona. Iona shrugged, and Reika said something with a voice too soft to understand. "Thanks. Anyways, yeah, I can tell you've changed. Your hair is different, too! I kinda like it better the way it is now."

"T-Thank you," she said, blushing. Odd, Nozomi thought. I thought she'd just laugh at that. Ah, well, I guess my jokes have never really been that funny.

The other boat was ahead of them now, and it was hard to see the girls aboard it, vague silhouettes behind a subtle fog. At night, the red water was nearly black, like a terrifying abyss past the shores of Trump. Nozomi's arms were aching now, and Komachi had offered to help, but Dream wanted to do it herself. It was not even that much pain, and there was some calm in the rhythmic movements, hers in almost perfectly synchrony with Iona's. The oars made ripples on the water. Nozomi watched them, for lack of much else to do, now that Komachi had grown silent, thoughtful. Nozomi wanted to talk, but also did not want to be a bother.

She saw an odd rippling on the water; larger than the one her rowing made. She shifted her tired eyes to the side, and saw something on the sea, not too far from them. It was huge, too big to be another boat like theirs, or even a Jikochuu. She tried to identify it, but it was Mint's cry that declared what it was.

"A ship!" She said, voice full of fear. "Why now? It's faster than us, isn't it? I didn't come this far to die like this…"

"C-Calm down, Komachi," said Nozomi. She wasn't helping at all. "We need to do something about it."

"What, though?" Asked Iona. "We can't sink it. Even if we would be able to, normally, I think we're far too weak for that right now."

"We just…" Reika struggled to make her words understandable. "We just need to stop it from reaching us."

"Komachi," Nozomi turned to her, smiling. Though never a skilled warrior, one could not say that Mint wasn't very proficient at keeping her enemies at a distance. Whenever the odds were against them, Mint would protect the team with her shields while they thought of their next move.

"W-What?"

"Are you too weak to use your magic, Mint?" She asked, suddenly guilty. She hadn't considered what Komachi might have been through.

"I… Yes, that's what happened. I had to shield myself to get through the f- Through the Selfish. And I've been fighting all day."

The ship was closer now, that great lumbering beast; when it screamed, it was made clear to all that it was a Jikochuu. Nozomi looked up, and could almost see the crew all over the deck. Too many. Close to the ship came ordinary Jikochuu, too, the pale krakens. In the dark, they looked absolutely terrifying.

Reika got up, almost falling. Nozomi let go of her oars and put her hands on Beauty's back, keeping her up. Komachi took the oars, and watched, while Iona kept rowing, faster now, desperately. Beauty extended her hand in the direction of the ship, and her body grew so cold that Dream almost let go of her, but she knew that if she did, she would fall on the water, so she endured the coldness.

The ship suddenly stopped moving, followed by the sound of something cracking. The water around it was freezing into a bright red, and the cold spread, turning the sea around the Selfish into ice. It enclosed the arms of the squids, keeping them stuck, and even stopped the ship. Everything behind their small boats was frigid, a prison of winter, and the Selfish had to watch, incapable of moving, as the Precure escaped their grasp.

Nozomi let out a sigh of relief, but felt a great burden on her arms. Reika fell upon her, barely conscious. Nozomi put her hand on her chest, and could almost not feel a heartbeat. She asked Komachi to take her place, to keep rowing, while she gently placed Reika's head on her lap, and kept her close to her body, giving her all the warmth she had. Reika closed her eyes, and sought Nozomi's hands for heat. Hers were deathly cold, and just touching them made Nozomi feel a sudden numbness. Still she held on, feeling her every heartbeat, feeling her summer wash over her as she slept, praying that they would not lose her as well. The ship rocked from one side to the other, hostage to the waves, but when Nozomi looked back, she could not see Trump anymore, and it brought her a bitter relief.

Rikka looked up at Mana's star, and couldn't muster the strength to fake a smile. Fake, of course, because there was no way she could possibly be truly happy to gaze at that distant, unreachable star. She would welcome the darkness if that meant she could keep Mana, Mana and all her friends and family, everyone who was now gone, all the people she had given her love to, so easily and abundantly, as if it were a never-ending thing. It seemed never-ending, then, but now the hollow of her heart taught her that it had been the foolish notion of a child who was a stranger to suffering.

She kept staring at the night sky, and could not find in her the strings to make herself a puppet who said this was worth it, any sacrifice is worth it for our stars as she was expected to say, as she would have said before she knew the pain of longing and the very ideas of sacrifice and selflessness were like the stars; distant, vague, beautiful. Now that she knew better, they had all become stardust, or even less than that, ashes of faraway fires she couldn't even feel.

No, it didn't feel at all like triumph. That star was failure. Mana's failure, everyone's failure, her failure. The girl that once felt pride at how the Precure were ready to give their lives for the greater good was gone, now, somewhere Rikka could not reach. Now that she had seen all it entailed, now that she watched Mana wither and choose a path of pain, it did not feel like bravery anymore, or dedication, or anything but failure.

It was cold; Yuri carried Rikka in her arms that had no warmth, but surprisingly great care. Rikka could fall asleep, held by the moon that outshone all the stars. Mana had never carried her. Rikka didn't understand why, but she was suddenly thinking of that. She didn't know - couldn't know - the feeling of being held by Mana. She had never wanted it until now, just as she had never given any thought to the way Mana smiled so confidently when she was determined to do something stupid. She'd smile only with one side of the mouth, giving her lips a curious and subtle curve. All that didn't seem to matter until now.

She freed herself from the hold of Moonlight, and walked with her own feeble legs. They were far from the palace now, and Rikka didn't recognize her surroundings, by night and shadow shrouded. Above, the clouds were shifting to reveal the moon and obscure the stars. Rikka felt an odd safety as she roamed the streets of Trump, a ghost, looking for her way out, but she couldn't know if the tranquility she felt came from Yuri's protection and guidance, and the hope of open gates to leave this cursed city, or if she was unable to care or feel or fear anymore, her heart too wounded. She wondered if it would heal, but that was stupid. Of course it would, someday, even if she didn't want to, and right now the idea of moving on was abominable, and filled her with the dread of forgetting. She moved her lips to silently utter Mana's name. She kissed the wind with the name she loved.

The Selfish took hurried steps all around them, pouring over the city. Rikka and Yuri clung to the dark, and the occupiers never noticed them, their eyes too careless to find one such as Diamond, who understood the city in a way they never would.

A question lingered on Yuri's eyes, asked in silence whenever she glanced at Rikka. Her eyes dripped regret and guilt; they asked Rikka for forgiveness for saving her life. She hated Moonlight when she opened her eyes and saw the twin stars, but soon she learned she was wrong to blame her. Moonlight did only what Diamond did not have the power to do: to stop a person she loved from getting herself killed in a sacrifice with no purpose. Yes, Rikka understood, the love of Moonlight for her was different from the one shared between herself and Heart, but it was love, for certain. For months, they had no one but each other as company. Rikka had Raquel, yes, but as a partner fairy he felt like part of herself, one she understood so well they might as well be the same being, sometimes. Even their minds were connected (this she realized alongside Raquel) but Yuri was distant, and Rikka had to fight to reach her.

It had been worth it, despite the hardships. In the empty world, Moonlight and Diamond watched out for each other, and so, despite the desolation, they had never been truly lonely. Rikka helped Yuri sleep at ease, and during the day, it was Yuri who was always quick to find food and shelter. At the Blue Rose's temple, they always ate and dined together, and eventually they were joined by Aguri. There were days where she'd forget the world was all in ruins. Even Aguri would not speak of troubles and of roses but of books and food, flowers and friends, warmth and love.

Those days almost felt like home. A broken home and a broken family, but even that was better than nothing, and it fit perfectly with a broken world. She had been sad, then, at all her losses, but now what she felt was anger. Anger at the cowardice of Beauty, Dream, Fortune, even Sword… She did not want to feel this anger. She wanted to be happy with those she loved, but they were all pulled away from her. Even Aguri was gone; she had to be, if Regina had returned to Trump.

She took Yuri's arm, and put it around her own. She walked alongside her, matching her pace, her head resting on her shoulders. Yuri didn't protest; she continued to take gentle steps. Rikka stopped looking at their path, and let herself be guided by Yuri. She stared with longing at the new star, during the few moments the clouds revealed it, a gesture of either pity or mockery.

Rikka imagined Mana by her side, holding her other arm, but it was the old Mana she imagined; the Mana full of health, of joy. She could see Mana walking the streets by her side, perhaps stopping occasionally to help someone on their way, to guide a small animal away from the streets, to safety, before offering Rikka an apologetic smile for delaying her so much. Of course, Rikka never minded. The old Mana didn't starve herself, and when faced with danger, she would have surely thought of something other than running into danger so that the others could run away. She would have understood that was not what any of them would have wanted. She would have, once, but not now. Rikka wondered what had changed.

When she looked around again, that became clear. Everything had changed. She shook her head and tried not to think too much about it. A good thing about the night is that it hid the ugliness of Trump, if she did not wish to see it.

They were only retracing their steps now, returning to the main gate of Trump; Rikka and Yuri walked the same paths they had walked before, but where before they'd look at the sky and their surroundings, now it was the well-trodden ground that caught Rikka's eyes, her head brought down by the weight of failure.

Dawn had broken when they reached the great arch of Trump, the sun rising above it with no great hurry, fingers of light peer coming into view as they crested the stone. Selfish gathered around it, but now they blocked the way through. They did not seem willing to let anyone through, and Rikka could see how crowded the White Bridge was, now full of Selfish troops that made it their camp. Diamond didn't blame them for staying outside: closer to the sea, the temperature was far more pleasant, and Trump itself was in such disrepair that it fell beneath even Selfish standards.

"Excuse us," Rikka approached one of the men guarding the way out. He pointed Rikka towards a woman writing something down in a journal, and she in turn told Rikka to speak with the commander of the gate watch, but when she did so, they received instructions to talk to someone else.

This is not my business, they all said. They didn't even bother hearing her out. As soon as she began asking them for help, for permission to cross the arch, she was told to shut up and seek someone else. Half an hour had passed when she finally understood this would get her nowhere; she was told to talk to the first soldier she had sought. Her feet were now sore from walking circles in vain.

"What do we do, now?" She whispered to Yuri. There was no need for secrecy, the Selfish did not seem to mind any business but their own, but in truth her throat was hurt, too, so whispers came out softly, painlessly. "Not fight, I hope. I don't think I can fight."

"We won't fight, then," she said. She was being kind to say that, Rikka understood. She could probably still fight, still escape. Maybe not, but for her there was a chance, at least, but she would need to leave Diamond behind. The bitterness returned. She should have shown this kindness to Mana, too. "Let us try again."

Rikka had no hope that would work, but they also had no other real options. This time they won through insistence: they got an actual answer, this time, from the woman they called the commander of the gate watch.

"No one gets out for now," she said. "Not without permission."

"Permission from whom?" Asked Rikka.

"From the princess, or someone granted authority from her," the woman answered before going back to the game of dice she played with her subordinates.

Dismayed, Rikka looked around; she didn't know what she looked for, but she had to find something. There was no way out but for the arch, though, and she knew it all too well. Still, she looked, because what else could she do?

She heard boyish laughter behind her, childish and mocking. The sound was not unfamiliar; she turned back to see Ira, his face an insufferably smug grin. Had he been watching her pathetic ordeal? From the way he smiled, yes.

"Having trouble?" He asked.

"Nothing you should concern yourself with," she said, then took a good look at his neck. The stitches still seemed sturdy. She pointed at it. "How's it feeling?"

"Just fine," he said. "I can blabber as much as I want to and it doesn't bother me at all. That was some really nice work. You should really consider doing formal work for us. Regina might want to go to war again, soon, and hopefully I'll be going too, this time."

"I'm not one of the Selfish," she said, carefully standing in the line between respect and disdain. Ira seemed to take that as a challenge.

"It's never too late to start," he said. "It's simple, you know. All you gotta do is, well, be selfish."

"I'm not selfish."

"Everyone is selfish," he said, smiling and showing his teeth. "It's not a bad thing. It's normal."

Everyone is selfish. Not Mana, thought Rikka, but then she understood at last that it was wrong. It had been selfish of her to leave Rikka all alone, to throw her life away for pride, honor, or whatever it was that Mana called it. Yes, that was why she did it; there was something of selfishness in Mana's desire to be seen as selfless. Rikka almost laughed: she only didn't because it was Mana. Were it anyone else, she would guffaw at the absurdity of it all. But it was Mana, so all it did was make her want to lie down and cry until her eyes hurt, until she died. But that would be selfish as well, wouldn't it? She was still a Precure, still had a duty, she kept reminding herself of that, to make herself keep moving, to stop her from crumbling.

"Is it normal?"

"Of course. Even you can't be completely selfless, can you?"

Rikka wondered what he meant by even you, but questioning him would only make the suspicions obvious, so she swallowed her words.

"I have a selfish request to make, then," she said. "I saved your life. I'd like to say I did it out of the goodness of my heart, because I'll help anyone who needs me, but… No, I'll ask you for something. A price for your life."

"Oh?" He seemed interested. "Yes, that is very selfish, devilishly so, helping people so that you get something in return… That's admirable! You sure you won't join us? We happen to have some vacant spots among our generals. Heh."

"Lead us through the arch," she said. "Command them to let us leave Trump. Unharmed."

"Hm?" He stretched his arms, seemingly bored. "That's it? Well, I get why you wouldn't want to stay in Trump, but I'd have expected you to ask me for something cooler. Maybe you're not that good at being selfish, after all."

"Maybe," said Rikka. "Now will you do as I asked?"

"Well, I do owe your my life, not that you can enforce that debt in any way," he smiled, and Rikka had no answer. He was right, after all. It had tremendously bold of her to even ask. "But alright," he said to her relief. Even Yuri's body eased up at the words. "Can I ask why you're leaving, though? I thought you had family here."

"You can ask, though I won't answer."

"Hey, hey," he said, his tone changing. Rikka couldn't tell if it was playful mock anger or the real thing. Just to be safe, she decided to just make up polite lies.

"If you're willing to let my entire family leave, that's fine," she said, "but I should warn you that I have a very large family."

"Heh, fine," he said. "Leaving them behind like this, though… That is selfish. Man, I don't know what to think about you! I can't tell if you're a nice girl or a prick!"

"Funny. I think the same of you."

"Hey! I'm not a girl!" Rikka lifted her eyebrows. "I'll give the guards the order to let you get through. But you won't be able to get back, alright? I only owe you one favor. Maybe if you save my ass again I'll help you out another time, heh."

"Thank you," said Rikka. She clutched Yuri's arm and waited for Ira to yell out orders at the gatekeepers. They were hesitant, at first, but when he threatened to do terrible things with their organs, they were quick to comply. Ira smiled at Rikka another time, though the look he gave Yuri was quite colder, almost like he was trying to remember something, someone.

"Hey," he said when they began walking away, "don't think I don't know. But I won't tell. I don't give a crap, anyway. Now get lost."

Rikka rushed to the arch by Yuri's side, never looking back. She let out an awfully loud sigh and let herself frown again, as she wanted to. Every now and then, Yuri seemed as if she was about to say something, but she always stopped herself from doing it, so Rikka could never know what she wanted to say. She didn't care, either. Trump was behind her, now, and behind her was her last, foolish hope. She didn't know what else she had left, so she just let Yuri guide her. The red sun was rising higher, shining redder, burning brighter, so Rikka shielded her eyes with her hand, with it covering the sun and sky, and always looked down.

The mirrors reflected Alice a hundred times, and she could not avert her eyes from them. She looked the same as she always did, though exhausted, yet no matter how long she looked, something felt wrong about her visage. She did not feel like herself, but the mirror never gave her proof of her fear.

Three girls walked behind her; Dark Mint had been left behind. Rouge and Lemonade had fear in their eyes, but not guilt. Dark Aqua, however, hid even her dread. Hid, alice suspected, because by now she knew her enough to understand that she wanted to live, loved to live. She said her life was worthless, but she had to give it some value, at least, even if no one else would, and fear for it.

The corridors seemed longer thanks to the reflections, extending in a madness of colors and shapes, and the shameful walk was unending. Whenever she remembered the choice she had made, how she rejected her friends, her feet stumbled, incapable of finding the suddenly-absend firm ground, and she would nearly fall, pathetic.

She never fell, though. After enough walking, she could see an end to the corridor, the door to the great hall directly before Shadow's throne room and his quarters. The door itself was hardened crystal, rough against Rosetta's hand. She opened it, and saw that Shadow awaited them, at the foot of the stairs that led to the throne. He walked in circles, seemingly anxious. Alice didn't presume that Despariah and the Director would be too pleased to hear of his failure. She shivered when she thought that he would lash out at the false Precure he had made.

"So?" He asked when they arrived, running towards them. His eyes were wild, almost angry, as they often were. He always seemed to find flaws in everything.

Dark Aqua was the only one brave enough to answer. She shook her head. Alice looked away from Shadow in instinctive discomfort, but she could not stop herself from hearing his screaming. His voice drowned out the apologies of his servants. When he stopped shouting, and Alice looked at him again, his brow was so furrowed that the ridges made him look like an old man.

"You lost it," he said when he managed to control his voice. He was not calm, his anger seeping through the cracks, but he was not shrieking now. "You lost the Crown."

"It wasn't there to begin with," said Aqua. "Our information was wrong. It-"

"Shut your mouth. Damn it. Damn you all, and damn Anacondy. If she was wrong, then this is all her fault, and yet I know I'll be the one getting reprimanded. Damn it. Damn it!"

He covered his face with a hand, and made some awkward gestures with the other. The air behind him condensed and took bright colors, sparkling in green and blue, yellow and red, and four large mirrors pieced themselves from minuscule shard, floating in stillness. They did not reflect what was in front of them; instead, they showed images of the falses Aqua, Lemonade, Rouge and Mint. Alice presumed it meant that Dark Mint still lived, though she wasn't sure that was any relief at all, given Shadow's wrath.

"Maybe you were wrong. Maybe you didn't search well enough. Maybe you are idiots."

"We found the Crown," said Lemonade, with a tone that made Shadow grimace, "but it was a fake. It was filled with Starfire; the whole palace caught on fire. It was a trap!"

"Don't be stupid," Shadow snapped. "Anacondy assured me that she got her information from an inside source, one of the Selfish."

"Who?" Asked Alice. He could dismiss the questions of his soldiers, but Alice was there as a representative of Eternal and Nightmare.

"Hm? One of the Selfish Kingdom's generals. Pell, I think? Hell? Something like it?"

"Bel?"

"I don't care," he said with a shrug. He put his hand on Dark Aqua's mirror. The reflection imitated her scowl. "Anacondy said she paid him handsomely for the information, but if he lied… Oh, I know she'll blame me. She won't want to love favor with the Director. She'll convince him that it was all my fault. Or rather, the fault of you incompetent girls!"

"They already told you it wasn't their fault!" Alice couldn't just stand there and watch as he slapped them with cruel words.

"Easy, girl," he said, "this is my domain. You will mind your words and your tone while you are here. As to you," he looked at his three remaining soldiers, who now looked so meek, much unlike the constantly-sneering girls that accompanied Alice at Trump. "There is a price for failure, even if it's not your fault. I know that too well, and you will too."

"You're just punishing them for no reason!"

"I do have a reason," he said. "Helps to vent my frustration, you know. Now, which of you wants to go first?"

No one spoke. The three girls all looked at one another, then at their own feet. Dark Rouge had opened her mouth for a second, once or twice, but her courage died when the words started to come out. Is it courage to accept death, though, Alice wondered.

"You," Shadow pointed a finger at Dark Lemonade, and turned to her mirror.

"No," Dark Aqua protested. Annoyed, Shadow stepped towards her, face tainted with wrath, but she did not flinch. "You cannot replace her. The real Lemonade is not here. Neither is the true Rouge. You cannot make new copies of them, not without the originals."

"True," he said, bitterly. "Heh. Why are you defending them? What do you have to gain with it? Don't tell me you've grown fond of them."

She said nothing. Alice doubted it was fondness; she had no reason to care about those girls, and they almost certainly didn't care about her either. Was it mercy, then? Kindness? Her dull eyes would not reveal what was on her mind.

"Hmph," he quickly grew tired of her silence. "You seem surprisingly calm."

"If I trembled or screamed, it would bring you satisfaction, wouldn't it?" He nodded with a sadistic smile. "I have served you well and faithfully, have I not? And yet you would still punish me like this?"

"The next one will serve well and faithfully too," he said, and took his claws to the mirror, scratching at it. Dark Aqua screamed, a sound that Alice had never imagined possible. She clutched at her head as she shrieked, and the muffled inhuman noises were worse than anything Alice had ever heard.

She grabbed Shadow by the arm, and moved him away from the mirror. Dark Aqua stopped screaming, and instead grabbed her own chest, stumbling, being held by Rouge and Lemonade.

"What are you-"

"Don't do it," she told Shadow. "Don't do it. They…" She had to think of something. She could not allow him to hurt them like this. Someone had to care about them. "They are still useful! You can still use them. You- They are a team of five, right? But you only have four. You need to find the last one, Dream, right? If you don't, the collection is worthless. The Director would want the whole collection, wouldn't he?"

"Are you telling me to use them? How?"

"They can seek Cure Dream, and fool her," Alice had no idea just how likely that actually was, but if she sounded confident enough, perhaps she could save them. "Bring her here. Cure Rouge can be found, too, if we try hard enough," she didn't know why she said we. She was not one of them, she was not part of Eternal. "If you get rid of them, you'll lose great assets. You can make new ones, but they won't be as learned as the ones you already have. They've gone through a lot already. That experience is worth a lot."

"So you say, but-"

"You would not want me to tell Anacondy that you are wasting resources, would you?" He frowned at the implication. "I thought not."

"Fine," he said, making a new gesture that made the mirrors disappear, enveloped in mist. "I will allow it if you tell Anacondy I had nothing to do with this failure. If I have to hear one word from her about it… I still have the mirrors," he said this looking at the reflections' faces. "Don't think you can run away from me."

He turned his back on them, stomping away towards his throne. Sitting upon it always made him feel important. Alice stood next to the girls she had saved, and they, silently, avoided her gaze.

"Why?" Asked Rouge to Aqua. "Why did you try to save us?"

"Why do you care?" She said in tones of aggression. "You're making me regret it already. I did it because you are weak and have no one to help you. Pity."

"Right," said Rouge. She didn't believe her. "Thank you."

"You'd better be thankful," she said. "That's the second time we save you. You're a liability."

"I know, I know. I owe you, then. If you ever need my help-"

"If I ever need help from you then I'm in a very desperate place."

Alice sighed. She wished that they could get along, but that was perhaps too hopeful of her. They had never learned how to react to kindness after being treated only with disdain and scorned. She hoped that they would learn. She didn't care in the slightest about Cure Dream; she only wanted these girls close to her, where she could teach them to embrace their humanity, because now Alice could not possibly deny that they were human, even if they would. This made her feel better, despite everything she had lost. It reassured her that she was still doing good. For a second she felt the fear that it was selfish of her, but she realized she didn't care.

"What now?" Asked Lemonade.

"Anacondy will want a report," Alice answered, "a really long one."

"It might go faster if we give you some help," said Dark Aqua.

"It would. We should set out soon. You should all get your things, and-"

"We don't really have things," said Rouge. She didn't sound sad about it, which Alice found even more hurtful.

"I'll get the plane ready for us," said Dark Aqua. "Nightmare gave it to us, that dreadful thing… When Shadow accepted working for Nightmare and Eternal, he received several perks to further his own ambitions."

"Of course, Desparaiah and the Director never saw him as a threat," said Dark Rouge. "They knew he was treacherous, that he's greedy and cruel, but at the end of the day, he's irrelevant. Compared to Nightmare and Eternal, his operation is really small, and he knows it, so he likes to lord over his few servants to convince himself that he's not insignificant."

"He is, of course," said Lemonade, "but we're more insignificant, so we always have to pay for his frustration. At least we don't get kicked like Migirin and Hidarin. Now I feel bad for the things I did to them. That's guilt, right? Feels weird. Stupid, too. Why do we feel these stupid things?"

"I don't know," said Alice. "We just do. And don't call yourselves insignificant, okay? You do matter a lot, regardless of what you say, of what anyone else says."

"What a generous heart you have," Lemonade mocked her. "You really are a saint, huh? Tch. You're no fun. I read some books with people like you, you know? People who are always nice and always make the right choices, always perfect, never doubting themselves. You're boring."

"I'm fine with boring," she said. And you are wrong, but this she did not say. Once they were out in the world, with her, they would have much to worry about, so Alice saw no reason to burden them with her own troubles. It was not a burden they cared for, anyway.

Alice followed them as they made their way out, and heard Lance whisper in her head, his tiny voice echoing gently. He asked her if she wanted to talk. Alice shook her head. She felt fine, oddly. She had found hopes for the future again, something to fight for, something solid now, not just a distant goal of striking back, whatever that meant. Once it was all over, if it was ever over, it would all be worth it. Her friends would understand. It was why they were her friends. All around her, on the crystal walls, her reflections wore brave, determined faces.

Iona had rowed for so long that the movement had become natural to her, so even when the boat reached the shores and she disembarked, she had to fight the urge to continue the effort. Reika pulled Iona's sleeves to take a look at her arms, but their blacks and blues were most likely thanks to the fighting at Trump, not the exertion at sea.

Reika helped her walk, now, her legs weakened by nearly two days of stillness. She never accepted Mint's offers to take her place at the rows; she did not say it aloud, so as to not hurt Nozomi, but she did not trust the girl who called herself Komachi. It was just too convenient, and she was too suspicious, even Nozomi seemed to think so, but she let herself be fooled by the miracle. Iona couldn't even blame her for that. She wondered if she too would be tricked by one claiming to be Maria, so desperate she was to see her again.

They had left Trump at night, and night was nearing when they found the shore. Makoto was the first to get out of the other boat, and she explained she knew this place. It was not too far from her hometown. She seemed sad when she spoke of it.

Once Iona felt her strength return, she walked unassisted, despite the soreness of her body. They were all hurt, even Mint, her skin full of red spots. When Iona stared at them, Komachi averted her eyes and focused on the blood-like seas.

Heavy clouds bearing thunderous storms forced the Precure to make haste, even now denying them a single moment of rest and peace. They were lucky to find a small village by the sea, and luckier still to find it deserted: Iona had not forgotten that even though they had been fortunate with Kengo's, most would deny them help, even alert the Selfish, hoping for a reward that would ease their suffering in these times of trial. Iona doubted they would put the Precure above their own starving families.

They found a collection of pleasant stone and timber homes. It was no fishing village, and the loftiness of its houses seemed to indicate that this place was well-off. A summer retreat, perhaps, given its proximity to a prominent beach.

They stepped into the largest house around, and a hideous stench gave them its greetings. Iona explored the kitchen alongside Makoto, and quickly found heaps of rotten food being gnawed at by rats. Even after they disposed of it, the smell persisted. Reika and Honoka checked other homes and they, too, were in such disrepair. Iona wondered why the Selfish had not come here, as evidenced by the lack of damage to the houses. Not that it mattered: the place was abandoned, and time's toll was just as harsh as the Selfish's.

"Guess we're staying here," said Nagisa.

"Even our shelter is getting worse," complained Iona.

"Now, now," Honoka sounded as if she was going to try and paint the situation in a positive light, but she gave up before doing so.

"I think we are all so tired that anything is fine," said Nozomi, and Iona had to agree. She had to constantly tell herself to stay awake, and was almost certain that if she laid down, she could sleep for a whole week. At least she wanted to; she knew she could not afford that.

A living room with large windows was the one place where the stench was bearable, so the Cures chose to gather there. They kept the windows open even as the rain started, as the wind was still pleasant. It would not remain that way for long.

Sword let herself fall on a couch; she made a jovial noise when she buried herself in its stuffing, almost swallowed by her seat. Iona sat by her side. The Cures put their bags on the floor all at once, with little regard for what was inside (which included Nagisa's fairy, who made sure to voice his complaints very loudly).

"You know," Reika began, looking at Cures Black and White. "I think I understand your warnings now."

"It's difficult, isn't it?" Honoka's face was full of gentleness. "We all wish life could be kinder, that we could always avoid difficult choices, but sometimes you just can't avoid being hurt. Sometimes there's no hard choice."

"Most of the time," remarked Nagisa. "There are very few things that are simply right or wrong, after all. Life is more complicated than that. Forgive me for saying this, but… Things are not quite so black and white," no one laughed. Iona still appreciated that Nagisa was trying to make the mood slightly less unbearable, but both Reika and Makoto had recently lost people who were dear to them, so no one felt like being happy. On the other hand, Nozomi had walked out of Trump having recovered one of her friends. That felt so unfair, how Reika had to watch Nozomi and Komachi's reunion when she lost a friend of hers. Of course, it wasn't Nozomi's fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. Iona knew she had to stop trying to blame someone for everything. It was hard to, though.

"We have a new star, though," said Komachi. "That's good, isn't it?"

"That's very good," Reika agreed, "but we paid a high price for it."

"Sacrifices always have to be made," said White.

"That doesn't mean they are justified, much less that I have to be happy about it. That… That was brave of Mana, wasn't it? That's what I'm supposed to say, is it not?"

"She was brave," said Nagisa.

"Do you think so? Alright. I can't see it as bravery though. I'm not saying she's a coward, of course," she said this to Makoto in particular.

"No, I understand," said Sword. "It's complicated. I wish she hadn't done that. I wish we had another way. And there had to be another way, we just didn't know it. I loved her, you know? She was one of my closest friends. I…" She looked away from the others, but she was still close enough to Iona for her to see that she was crying. "She saved me from my prison. I was so happy to see her, but I was so determined to do my duty to Marie Ange that I forgot to tell Mana how thankful I was, how happy it made me to know she was alive, even if she was hurt. And I knew she was hurt. That was easy to see. She didn't allow me to worry, though. No, she went beyond that, she was the one worried over me, the one giving me the advice I wanted to hear. I never thanked her for it. I don't even remember the last thing I said to her. It was probably awful. We…"

She didn't finish saying that. Her pride didn't let her cry, but Iona wished she could do something about it. It was just uncomfortable to stand by her side like that.

"I wish she had come with us, even if we could have all been caught, even if we could have all died. It doesn't feel like victory without her. It feels empty."

Everyone nodded. Iona had said awful things to Mana, too, the last time they had a real conversation. It was one of the few times, too. It made her wish she had done otherwise. A terrible thought came to her head. What if I put this notion on her head? Oh, god… I did tell her that Maria had been selfless. She suddenly felt the urge to throw up. She would have if she had eaten anything in days. She did not want to be there anymore. She wanted to run into the rain, and she didn't even know why. Instead, she stood there, silent, like a coward, and listened to Makoto vent.

Beauty listened intently, too. Right now she seemed remarkably calm, but Fortune knew that her calmness was only her mask. She prayed that Reika wouldn't blame herself for anything that happened, but Iona had a feeling and a fear that she might.

"Rikka is gone, too," said Makoto. "And Alice," Iona did not know exactly who she was, but Makoto's voice filled with tenderness when she spoke that name. "Ange is lost. There's nothing even left of her, except… Except for her journal."

"Journal?" Honoka was suddenly interested. "Did you manage to find it?" Makoto nodded. "Well, that is fascinating. I'm sure that the princess of Trump must have some really interesting information to share. Maybe even some answers as to… Well, everything. All we have right now is questions, I suppose."

"I could read it for you if you'd like," she said, almost fearful.

"I think we would all be very thankful if you did," said Honoka, calmly, but beneath the surface she was clearly itching with the urge to know, to ask more.

Makoto reached for something left on the floor. Ange's journal, bound in leather, small but thick. She placed her hand on its cover, and hesitated to open.

"If it's too painful for you-"

"It's alright, Nozomi," she said. "Avoiding it won't make it any better," she began to read the first few pages, but quickly she skipped to the end. "The first entries were from a long time ago," she explained. "Ange was much younger. Maybe the more recent ones will explain. I don't know where to start, though."

"Hm," Reika said, thoughtful, "did you ever notice anything different about Marie Ange's behavior?"

"It's hard for me to say," she was blushing, "as I'm not, admittedly, the best judge of the princess' thoughts. I thought she changed when she became engaged to Jonathan, but maybe that was just my selfish heart. However…"

"What is it?" Asked Nagisa.

"Some months before Trump fell, Ange was gone for a couple of weeks. Not disappeared, I mean, she just travelled south, but she never told me why," Makoto began perusing until she reached the page she wanted. "Here… No, here she only says she made the arrangements for the journey, and-"

She didn't finish speaking, but her mouth was wide open, her eyes large, quivering. Komachi seemed baffled, and asked what was going on, but it was clear that Makoto had just found something important.

"I think I found something huge," she said. "Is this why Ange had to make sure I found her journal?"

"What is it, Makoto?"

"I'll recite it for you all," she said, and began reading.

I found it, at last. The whereabouts of the Miracle Dragon Glaive. I am sure of it, this time. There is no doubt: the evidence is undeniable. The Red Rose's records show that the last wielder of the Glaive was Cure Marionette, last direct descendant of Cure Magician, and obsessed with that heritage; I inquired Märchenland's oracles and learned from them that Cure Magician had died in the ruins of Harmonia. Marionette visited Märchenland, too, and there she lost the Miracle Dragon Glaive, taken from her by a band of witches. A lie, I'm sure of it now. She went to the ruins of Harmonia, I'm sure of it. They are on Märchenland territory now, so she had the opportunity.

I can only speculate on what exactly happened there. My theory is that she was angry that Magician's treasure had become a mere heirloom to the Precure, given out to anyone. What I believe is that she went to Harmonia, Magician's resting place, to return the Glaive to her ancestor. To make it a proper burial place for her, just like Cure Priestess is enshrined in a grand mausoleum of her own.

"The next relevant entry is two weeks later," said Makoto.

The preparations have been finished, and found a group of eager adventurers to accompany me. Few dare brave the cursed ruins of Harmonia, but the promise of treasure and great rewards have led some to my side. I don't trust them, especially not Odoren and Utaen, who call themselves master thieves. But I need them. Them and all the others. An artifact as powerful as the Miracle Dragon Glaive cannot be abandoned there, where anyone can find it. I pray we are not too late to reclaim it, that I am not the first to figure out its location.

"She talks about her journey in the next entries," Makoto continued. "She did not tell Jonathan, not even her father. She did not want anyone to try to stop her. She knew it was dangerous, and did not want anyone to be hurt. She was reluctant enough to request any help at all. Three weeks later she arrived at the ruins of Harmonia."

The cities of Harmonia have been eaten by nature. Its magnificent palaces are completely overgrown, and many of its enormous towers have crumbled to dust. I must walk with care once I enter the Dragon's Temple, where Magician died. The structure is fragile, and it could easily crumble on us, and kill us all.

Inside, the air is heavy and damp, but the deeper we delve, the more arid it becomes. I have heard the stories about the Dragon's Temple, so I know this place is filled with evil. After the dragon god of Harmonia died, slain by Cure Magician when he threatened the Red Rose, the people grew desperate, fearful, and they sought a new deity. Bottom, they called him, god of the abyssal depths. They came to him in their hour of need, but before the year was done, Harmonia knew disaster and all who there lived disappeared, and their kingdom grew silent. When Magician returned to Harmonia to find out the truth, she never returned. I have to be right about my hypothesis. If I'm right, and Marionette was able to return safely, it means I, too, will see Trump again, and triumphant. If I'm wrong…

"She was right," said Reika. "She did return, didn't she?" Makoto nodded. "And with the Miracle Dragon Glaive?"

"Yeah," said Sword. "It's odd, though. The day she came back, she didn't have the Glaive with her. She only revealed it to Trump a few days later."

"Read on," said Honoka. "This is fascinating."

Makoto nodded, and continued.

I think it's nighttime, now. I can't say for sure. I think we've been here for almost two days now. This temple reaches into the bowels of the earth. I can feel the magic used here to carve tunnels into the rock. Thousands of years later, there are still wisps of the arcane all around. Some of my companions are shivering. One is a fairy from the Blue Sky Kingdom, named Vanilla, a specialist in magic detection, and she says the magic here is simply overwhelming. I must carry her, so great is her exhaustion.

"Look," Makoto pointed at the next paragraph. The handwriting there was messy, hurried, much unlike the perfectly round letters that Ange used elsewhere. "This was written on the same day, I think, but…"

She's lost. Vanilla is dead. At least I hope she is, because if she still lives, encased in stone… She stared at a statue on the wall, and when her eyes met those of the statue, her skin hardened and became cold as stone. She was so heavy that I dropped her, and her body shattered. The others want to go back, but there are noises behind us. Now we avoid the statues, but this place is a death trap. I wonder if it's Marionette's doing, to protect the tomb of Magician, or if it's older magic, cast by the people of Harmonia.

We need to keep going. Forgive me. Forgive me.

"She… Ange…" Makoto's eyes were struck with horror. "Why did she… No, she can't have…"

She did not want to keep reading, but with everyone staring at her, she had no choice.

Odoren and Utaen have tried to escape, but as they ran away, they stepped on a mark left on the floor, covered with dust and dirt, almost impossible to see. It shone, and let out a flash of red light. When our eyes were not blinded anymore, we saw the two of them, now statues as well, still in the same position they were when they took their wrong step. My last companions, two women from Majorland, foolishly touched the two petrified thieves, and they too were cursed. I turned my eyes away from them. I am alone, now. I'm such a fool… I'll die too, so it doesn't even matter what I write here. I wish I had told Makoto, at least. I know she'll suffer if she doesn't know, almost as much as my father. If she were by my side, maybe things would be different. Maybe the two of us…

Makoto was crying, now. She let go of her journal, and her hands clutched at her own legs, her nails scratching with violence.

"I should have been with her. She was afraid, and I wasn't there with her. I couldn't protect her, then, make the fears go away."

"If you had gone with her," Iona said calmly, "you would not be here now. You heard from her just how dangerous it was there. Now that it's in the past, it's easy for you to say you should have been there. I think that too, about my sister. But I know I wouldn't have made a difference. It's a delusion we have when we mourn. That we could have changed it, that it's our fault, when in truth we are powerless."

"Y-Your sister?" Right. She doesn't know yet.

"Cure Tender," said Iona. Makoto's shifting eyes revealed that she knew her, and knew of her reputation.

"I did not think that even she would… Ah, I'm sorry. You probably don't want to talk about her…"

"I do," said Iona. "Of course I do. Even if it hurts, I want her to be remembered. I want her name to be spoken. I know that people loved her, and it makes it a bit less painful. Just a little bit, but I'll take anything at this point."

"I see…" Makoto seemed to pause to reflect. She was thinking of Ange, of course. She too had been well-loved. She picked up the journal, and continued to read it aloud. Iona took a peek at the diary, and saw that now the handwriting was neat again. When she wrote this entry, she must have been already back at Trump.

It was gone. As I had predicted, Marionette had indeed built a tomb for Cure Magician, and in its very center was a statue dedicated to her. The Glaive should have been there, but it wasn't. The hand that should have carried it was empty. For a moment I feared I was mistaken, that the Miracle Dragon Glaive had not been kept there at all, but the truth was even worse. When I investigated the statue, there was something at its hand, where I should have found the Glaive. It held, instead, a playing card. When I picked it up to investigate it, it was the Joker, its face frozen into a wicked smile. Someone had arrived before I did, and left their mark here. I don't know who, and I don't care anymore. Everyone who came here with me died for nothing. I failed them. I can't even tell anyone the truth.

The truth… When I left the temple, I stumbled upon another of Marionette's traps. I thought I had managed to avoid the red light before I turned to stone, but when I returned home, I found it hard to walk, and I began to limp. My right foot felt numb; I removed my boot, and saw that it had been petrified. It's spreading, I know it. I will die, I know. I know… Is this punishment for my foolishness?

"So this is why she fell ill," said Makoto. "I thought it was some freak disease, but… Was she turning to stone from the inside out? Is this why I was not allowed to see her?"

"Did she not want you to see her like that?" Asked Nozomi. "Was she the kind of person who would do that?"

Sword nodded. Iona looked into her eyes, but saw nothing. They seemed hollow.

"There… There is more…"

I have made the arrangements before I die. No one may know the truth, so with my own hands I made a replica of the Miracle Dragon Glaive. It is far from perfect, but it doesn't matter. The people will believe me if I say it is the Glaive. No one must know it was stolen. That card… It is a symbol of the Bad End Kingdom. I know it. If anyone else hears of it, they will want war. Märchenland is home to the rogues of the Bad End Kingdom, and there are many who would blame them for not striking down Pierrot's servants. Too many people have died for my mistakes. I will not have a war on account of my foolishness. If I die, so be it. I would rather suffer than have anyone else die for my sake.

There were some hastily-scribbled notes on the end of the page, Iona noticed, and read them aloud herself, before Makoto did.

The false Glaive is truly convincing. Make one of the Crown too. Selfish might realize that once I die it might be a good time to strike. Get the Crown somewhere safe.

"There is only one more entry," said Makoto. "It is incomplete. There, she says that her father has visited her, and that he promised her he would find a way of curing her disease. No matter the cost. It ends mid-sentence. I fear he might. That's what it says, before it ends."

"Any idea what it might mean?" Asked Nozomi. Honoka shrugged, and Iona could not even begin to imagine what it could be.

"I don't think it matters now, does it?" Asked Makoto. The diary fell from her hands, and this time no one picked it up. "When I last saw her, she was ready to fight. She was healed. She was well again. I'm sure of it. I… I don't understand. There is still more being hidden from us, and yet… Yet it all seems so unimportant."

Regina had the Miracle Dragon Glaive, Iona remembered, and hers seemed to be the real thing. She had marched south against the Bad End Kingdom, so perhaps she had managed to reclaim it. Yet, just as Cure Sword said, that didn't seem to matter anymore. They had learned the truth, now, and they remained powerless.

"Is that it, then?" Asked Honoka. "We have no real answers to our questions? We don't get even that?"

"Nope," Nagisa said with bitterness. "Can't wait to go back to the Phoenix Tower and tell everyone that we screwed up. Ah, crap, we didn't even have permission to go…"

"Reika," Honoka put her hand on Beauty's own, "please… Allow us to take responsibility for this, alright?"

"W-Why?"

"Well, we did mess up really hard," said Nagisa, "and we wouldn't want Mirage to get angry at you. She's already angry at Honoka and I, always, so-"

"Do you think I give a- Damn?" Iona couldn't remember ever hearing Reika raise her voice like this. Even though she restrained herself, her voice carried heavy emotion. "I don't care if I get reprimanded or anything. That literally doesn't matter in the slightest to me. One of my best friends is either dead or a monster, we led dozens of Precure to their ends, and all we have to show for it is a tiny, ugly star. I don't care if I disappoint Mirage. I'm not a child to fear being scolded. And I'm not a child to run away from my own struggles."

"I-I meant no offense," said Honoka, shocked.

"I know you didn't," said Reika. "Sorry I yelled. I'm frustrated. We all are, I think. But I would have expected you to know better after what we've been through. You should have learned from Mana. It's not kindness to sacrifice yourself for someone you love, because if they do love you, then your pain will hurt them anyways. And I don't want you to be punished or mocked or scorned. Just as we didn't want Mana to… Do what she did."

She still couldn't put it to words, Iona noticed. They all referred to Mana's decision with vague terms. Iona did the same to her sister, she realized. She presumed that it was just natural.

"Let us rest now, then," said Reika, and Iona agreed at once. "We have been through a lot. Too much," her words came out painful and her legs shook, only slightly but enough to make Nozomi rise and catch her by the arm, until Reika told her she was alright. "Let's all try to sleep. We rise early tomorrow. It's a long way home."

Mai held Ayumi's quivering hand as the two of them descended the steps carved upon the Phoenix Hill together, and followed the procession to the Roseriver. They followed right behind Mirage, who held a torch of white fire, she and half a dozen Precure, all around, holding on their hands the only lights that could show the way in this night of smothering darkness. It was not, however, a sad darkness, like during all other nights.

She looked above, at the twin stars, once every couple of minutes. Her eyes were enthralled by the new star, blooming in the night like a rose of gold drowning in tar, unblemished. This star, this nascent hope, had made her smile again. That star was light, triumph, defiant joy. It meant that the mission at Trump had succeeded; despite all hardships, their will had reached the stars, they had lit the darkness with their conviction, even if only a little. Even now, Mai smiled. That star was the herald of her friends' safe return.

Almost all residents of the Phoenix Tower had come, save for Namakelder and some girls who had fallen ill. Everyone that Mai knew, however, had come. Yayoi was here, too, not too far, and when she arrived at the Tower she gave Mai a big hug, and shared with her the relief of seeing the star, of knowing that it likely meant that everyone was well.

The people of Last Light were coming for the Starlight Ceremony, as they too had been taken by the aura of joy and relief that filled the Phoenix Tower. The people might not understand exactly what was happening at Trump, but they understood the stars. They came to bask in their light alongside the Precure, all showing easy smiles to the girls passing by. They awaited at the foot of the Phoenix Hill, by the sides of the roads, carrying their own lights, fires dyed orange that lengthened all shadows around them, and lanterns like long lances of sunshine, their light never ending, always pointing at something far away.

Ayumi's fingers were always coiling around Mai's, holding tight to them. Sweat crawled down her brow, and she bit her lips so hard that it almost worried Mai. She herself was not in a much better state when it had been her making the journey to become a Precure. She feared that she would not be able to become a Precure, and no doubt it was the same fear that took the voice of Ayumi, that made her tremble and turned her eyes wild and unrestful. It had been her brother that guided her, Mai remembered, and Saki behind her was accompanied by her little sister. Mai looked to the side, and saw Ayumi's family, faces full of evident pride, waving at her like Mai's own family did, once. It made her feel sad, for a second, but then she chose to feel happy for Ayumi, instead.

The road was mere dirt, a twisty patch of brown leading to a thin stream that widened the further it ran, cutting open its course across the barren land. Even now, the river ran as it always did, its course unchanged, indifferent to the broken world around it.

It was too dark to see now, so late at night, but Mai remembered how at dawn the river blushed as the sun flaunted its light; at the bottom of the waters were hundreds of rose petals, thousands, never-wilting and never-fading, tributes given to the river by each girl made a Precure during the Starlight Ceremony, as was customary. With their magic they sustained the life of the roses even as their own came to an end. The Red Rose is undying, said the everlasting petals. Mai found that beautiful, if a little bit morbid. Even when the strings of their lives are torn, the ideals of the Precure endure, and their dreams, their hopes, their duty. They all are always renewed by the dawn, when they show their colors again.

She had given the Roseriver a petal of her own. Saki, too; they did it at the same time, and their offerings fell upon the water in synchronicity. Hands held, they reached inside their hearts for a drop of magic, their gift for the river, and together they watched as the roses lit up like lanterns over the clear water, their own, and those of the girls who had become Precure with them. Then, the roses sank, each one dispersing into a handful of petals.

The river took them to a round lake; perfectly round, in fact, a flawless circle, artificial in its sphericity. That's because it was artificial, Mai knew. A lake made by the Precure for the most important of their ceremonies. Their magic had even changed the course of the waters, as in complete contradiction to any ordinary logic, instead of being fed by the Roseriver, the waters flowed from the lake to the river.

At night, the lake was a pit of pitch black with two small eyes of light on its midst. Before the Death of the Stars, its black would be dotted by countless points of white, but now only two remained. Only two, but that was already more than there were just one day ago.

Mirage stopped, and so did the Precure following her. Further behind were the people of Last Light, relatives of the girls becoming Precure, or just curious folks. The Starlight Ceremony was not open to all when it had been Mai's turn to become a Precure, but now Mirage said it was dangerous to enforce a divide between the Precure and those they protect. Right now, unity was the most important thing.

Megumi held Mirage's hand, and, like her, carried a torch of Starfire. Her face was bandaged, and she still limped, clearly in pain. She still blamed herself for everything. It hurt Mai's heart to see that even with the new star, even with the signs showing that Nozomi and the others had succeeded, Megumi was still brooding, melancholy. She was always sad, always seeking comfort from Cure Mirage.

Mai could hear Ayumi's anxious breathing, the sound almost drowned by the Starfire crackling. She was not the only girl who would become a Cure today, and the others were just as nervous. Mai knew most of them only in passing; Mika Masuko and Kanae Tada, who organized a weekly report containing news from the world that they distributed to Last Light and the Phoenix Tower. Hime guided Mika, Yuko held Kanae's hand. The two of them were hard-working, but news were hard to come by, so their reports were often rather shallow. They would be partners, for sure, and Mirage already had plans of using them to gather intelligence. Behind them came Seika, a girl who had come from Majorland shortly after Kanade's return. Kanade only learned that when she arrived at the Phoenix Tower, earlier today, to prepare for the Starlight Ceremony. Seika had asked for shelter at the Phoenix Tower, and had never gone to Last Light, as she was immediately allowed to start her training as a Precure. Now, she stood by Kanade's side, the two of them struggling to keep their silence, as they had so much to say.

There were some others, but not many. Mai did not know them very well, but perhaps she would, soon. She was just glad that the Red Rose was seeking more Cures now, as that meant that soon they would be able to actually do something about the state they're in. Not me, she thought, almost bitterly, not without Saki. But the others will.

"Here we are," said Mirage with her most pompous voice. Transformed, she almost looked imposing. "For centuries beyond counting, this is where Precure were made," she pointed at the lake, that perfect mirror. By the water was a pedestal surrounded by torch holders. "And this is where those with cruel hearts have been taught that the Red Rose has no place for them."

Mai shivered. She knew what Mirage meant. Ayumi only had a vague notion, but she tightened her grip on Mai's hand. Mai gave her a gentle smile that urged her to be strong, that said that she had complete faith in Ayumi.

Mirage and Megumi approached the pedestal, and with their torches they lit the small beacons. The other Precure holding Starfire followed and did the same, until the pedestal was ringed by white lights. Occasionally they flashed into different colors, and their brightness hurt Ayumi's eyes, but she never flinched away.

"You who wish to become Precure," said Mirage, "you have toiled long, and I have seen your dedication and the strength of your convictions. You had many chances to give up, should the effort prove too hard, and many times it did," some girls nodded, "and you did not. You know the risks, you know that your lives will be all endangered, now more than ever, without the stars to watch over us. When you become Precure, you will no longer fight for your own sakes, but for everyone else's. For the safety of others, you will endanger yourselves. For the well-being of others, you will suffer through pain. For the peace of others, you will know countless nights without sleep. And all the while, your hearts will be burning with the fire of the stars, shining with their lights, because to you, this hard work is not sacrifice. You will fight with a smile, not for love of fighting but for love of the world you fight for."

Ayumi breathed in, and shivered, and yet she was smiling. This truly was what she wanted. Mai knew she had no reason to fear.

"Let us begin, now," she said, and pointed at the pedestal. She gestured at Southern Cross, who brought her a black staff, its tip adorned by a metal rose enveloped by a crescent. "Ayumi Sakagami."

Wordlessly, Ayumi let go of Mai's hand and stepped up to Cure Mirage. Mai watched, heart heavy with pride, as she stopped right in front of Mirage, perfectly still, surpassing her fears and worries. Mai had been in her place, and she remembered how, despite her anxiety, when the time had come for her to recite her oath, she felt full of confidence, and spoke perfectly without faltering for a mere moment.

"Who comes before me, delegate and Rosehearted of the true Rose?"

"Ayumi Sakagami, she who was accepted by the Precure."

"And do you, Ayumi Sakagami, swear that your heart is loyal to the Red Rose and to all its ideals?"

"I am true to all that the Red Rose holds dear: justice, love, friendship, kindness and wisdom."

"Do you promise to uphold the Pledge?"

"I promise to maintain the sacred alliance of Precure and the rest of the world. I swear to protect their kingdoms, be they fairies or humans. I vow to fight for them, for the stars that belong not to us, nor to them, but are the birthright of all who share the world with us."

After those words, Mirage placed her staff on Ayumi's chest. Its rose gleamed scarlet for a brief second, and then it was black again.

"I accept you," Mirage continued, "not as servant or soldier but as friend, as sister, as partner. I will fight for your sake."

"As I fight for yours," said Ayumi. Her voice was filled with confidence, so Egret could not help but smile.

"Now stand there," with the staff, she pointed at the pedestal. Ayumi obeyed, and stepped up to it. From where Mai stood, it was hard to see her, her body obscured by the beacons. She wondered if Ayumi was afraid, or if she was comfortable now, and eager. There was no real danger to this part of the ceremony, but still, to stand next to Starfire, after learning all her life that it is extremely dangerous to most… It was understandable to show fear, then, especially considering what came after.

Mirage stood in front of Ayumi, the staff pointed at her. Other than the fire, there was no sound to be heard; this was the most crucial moment, the most emotional, so all voices grew silent now. Even the river seemed to stop running.

"I have accepted you," said Mirage. "Now we ask the stars for their blessing."

The staff shone again, and Mirage made a sweeping motion; the beacons burst all together and all at once, enveloping Ayumi with their fire. Starfire wreathed her body, the flames now so loud that if Ayumi were screaming, devoured by them, no one would be able to hear. But Mai knew she wasn't, without even needing to look.

The fire then calmed down, resting on the beacons again, their fizzing less violent, as if the flames were at ease, somehow. In their midst was Ayumi, unharmed, standing proud. She got down, and stopped in front of Mirage again, who handed her a rose. Ayumi clutched it and held it close to her chest. Her smile was almost radiant.

"Who are you now?"

"I am Ayumi Sakagami," she said, "and I am Cure Echo."

Chapter Text

The colors bright upon the field announced the time of harvest, and Yuko was the first to rise to witness it, and the first to work the fields. When Nile and Peace came, Yuko was already toiling hard, filling her baskets with cabbages and oranges, tomatoes and wheat, corn and rice. The crops were not too big, and some even showed light signs of withering, but Yuko was still proud of it. This was her work, hers and Last Light's, and this harvest was better than the last, which had been hastened by magic, a difficult process that could only bear very limited fruits. Now they worked their magic on the soil itself, every day, to try to nurse it back to health, but all around were hard patches of grey where nothing could grow. She knew it would take years until it was green and could bear life again, if ever.

If ever. Those were words that always filled Yuko with a silent dread. She shivered, and returned to work, keeping her thoughts away from the fear of tomorrow when today dawned with promise.

She pulled the crops from the ground, soiling her hands with dirt. Her fingertips were tinged with the earth's colors, and beneath her nails was only brown and black. It felt good; it reminded her of the days she would spend helping out at her grandparents' farm, a lifetime ago. For a moment she missed those days, and the understanding of their ever-growing distance saddened her, but again she turned to her toil, leaving her little time for reminiscence.

Even Hime offered her help when she arrived, though she was slow, and damaged some of the vegetables she harvested, tearing off little pieces. She shook with guild and stuttered apologies, but Yuko patiently taught her the best way to work, which tools to use, and took Hime's soft hands, her rough fingers guiding those of the princess. She felt a stinging doubt as she did so: Hime was royalty, she should not be doing this kind of work, but still, she smiled. It was a new thing to her, an exciting experience, a chance to help. It was better that she saw it that way, Yuko presumed.

A bright light reminded her of the world around; by the farms stood Mika (though now she signed her newspaper as Cure Gazette, which Yuko imagined made her feel more important) and her partner Kanae, Cure Flash. Kanae took a picture of the people working the fields, while Mika scribbled something on a notebook.

"Ah, sorry for interrupting!" Kanae said with a bow. She must be in an unusually good mood, because usually she never seemed to consider that a sudden flash of light might be considered disturbing. "I just had a really good photo there. So I took it."

"Well, that is very resourceful of you," said Yuko.

"Need any extra hands?" Mika asked. "It must seem so inconsiderate of us to just watch you work while we take pictures and write about how everyone else is working…"

"It's fine," said Hime. Yuko knew she meant it. "We're almost done anyways."

"Maybe you should get your papers ready and send them to the Phoenix Tower," suggested Yuko. "I'm sure they'll appreciate the good news."

"I'm sure, too," said Mika. "Lots of good news lately. I hope things stay that way."

"They will if we all work hard," said Kaede. Yuko crouched to gently pick up some potatoes that fell from her basket, but listened carefully. "You know, we're not only taking pictures," she said, and Yuko thought she sounded a bit defensive. "Sometimes we follow Nile, Peace and Wave when they're out scouting, and write reports on what we see so everyone knows which areas are safer and which ones aren't."

"I haven't seen those reports yet," admitted Yuko.

"They're not finished yet, actually," said Mika. "Our work will need to be quite thorough so we're doing a lot of fact-checking. When it's done, we'll hopefully have enough information about the region to be able to go out and expand, or look out for more people, more efficiently."

"Oh, that would be wonderful," said Hime. "Man, I'm tired of staying here. I'd love to go out and scout, too, and even fight. I'd love to be useful like that."

"You are quite useful here," Yuko said gently. "We can't leave Last Light undefended, can we?"

"No, but-"

"And your presence cheers people up. Well, not just your presence but your helpful nature."

"That makes it look like I'm the village mascot!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Yuko said, holding back laughter (Kaede didn't even bother, and guffawed exaggeratedly). "Maybe when Nozomi and Reika return with the Cures from Trump we'll have more people to keep Last Light safe. Maybe then we can go out with everyone else?"

"Yeah," she said, eyes bright with longing.

Yuko wanted to do the same, to tell the truth. Last Light was doing fine, growing stronger by the day, and its people were safe and, now that they had seen the new star in the sky, they were happy as well, and hopeful. That was what mattered the most. If they gave up hope, they would lose, and in the broken world, they had many reasons to stop hoping.

When her work was done, she had filled over a dozen heavy baskets, so packed that if she wasn't careful when carrying them, some crops would fall to the ground. Only then did Yuko realize that she was quite hungry; she had skipped breakfast in her desire to work as hard as she could. She hadn't even noticed her hunger while she was under the sun. She smiled when she remembered that she'd have new foods to eat this time.

She found Kanade and Seika already at the ovens, in the kitchen of the communal house. The surroundings looked a little bit less desolate now that they had found the time to decorate it a little bit. Either that, or Yuko had grown used to the simplicity of Last Light. It was not the most comfortable life, and she knew that others still struggled to live in such humble houses, Yuko had seen worse when she was a child, when her family struggled to feed themselves. Here, everyone could always eat full meals, each and every day, thanks to everyone's hard work, and for that, Yuko was always grateful.

"Good afternoon," she said, offering a smile. Seika smiled back, but Kanade didn't look back. She seemed occupied with something.

"We're almost done here," said Seika. Yuko was glad: she loved to cook, but this time she was tired and hungry after working for so long. She stepped up to Kanade and saw that she was chopping meat into many bits.

"For the dogs?" She asked, and Kanade only nodded. Stray dogs had started to appear in the outskirts of Last Light, and the people felt bad leaving them there, so they started to take care of the animals. Their presence seemed to help cheer up everyone, Megumi most of all: she spent much of her time playing with them.

"Where's Peace, by the way?" Asked Seika. "I owe her some cupcakes for a favor she did me."

"Ah, she was at the farms, too, last I saw her, but by now she might be with Orina and some of the townsfolk, working at the walls."

Seika whispered a soft mh-hm and continued to remove large trays from the ovens, all full of bread. Yuko thought of the walls: she doubted some hasty palisades would protect them against anyone who was serious about attacking Last Light, but she supposed that if it made everyone feel safe, it couldn't be that bad. It also kept people occupied, which she felt was the most important thing.

"I'm done here," said Kanade at last, "so do you want some help to put the food in the larder?"

"I'd like it, yeah," she said. Kanade was always very tidy, and thanks to her, it was always easy to find what they needed in the deposits.

They worked together, wordlessly but harmoniously. The larder was bigger than it seemed at first glance, and with each harvest, it became a bit fuller, and new colors blossomed.

Their duty was finished quickly, as was usual when Yuko and Kanade were joined in the same task. Honey let out a shiver in the cold of the larder, and left with Kanade, closing the heavy door behind her.

"Thanks," said Yuko. She always appreciated the help, and the opportunity to be with Kanade, even when they exchanged only a few words. Her silence always said a lot.

"Nothing like looking at stockpiles of food to give you an appetite before lunch, huh?" She remarked, then giggled. "Well, I suppose we should go and- Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Yuko asked, then tried to listen. She heard some commotion outside, not just the sound of voices blending in a crowd but also the sound of not too distant footsteps, and heavy loads being dragged. "Now that you mention it…"

With a look they agreed to walk outside and see what it was. On the outskirts of Last Light, by the half-built walls, much of the populace gathered to watch an arrival; of whom, Yuko couldn't see from where she stood, but she hoped that it would be Nozomi and Reika. She stepped into the crowd, that opened a way for her and Rhythm to pass. Lovely, Peace, Nile and Echo stood in front of the villagers, and with careful eyes they inspected a large group approaching Last Light.

They were not humans, that was clear to see, but they did not seem too different; they were dozens of humanoid forms, their legs and arms slender but not unusually long, their bodies clad in something dark, akin to latex, covering even their mouths and eyes. Yuko wondered if they even had those. They were almost indistinguishable from one another, and they all wore the same sort of sunglasses, pointy and dark red, giving them a permanent scowl. They looked like sunglasses, at least. Honey wasn't sure of this either.

"Are they… Fairies?" Echo asked, confused. Peace shook her head.

"I don't think so…"

They walked in a long line, well-disciplined, carrying large chests and carts that were, even from afar, evidently heavy. As they drew closer, Yuko heard them panting, even whining, but a woman shouted orders at them, telling them to shut up. The voice came from the very first person in the line, a girl carrying an umbrella with great elegance. Her steps were delicate, refined, full of pride. She rose a hand, and her odd entourage stopped its march at once. Then, she approached the Precure.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Asked Megumi with unusual aggression.

"I had expect a kinder greeting from you," she said, "given all I heard of the Red Rose and its beautiful village of Last Light. I've heard that you offer shelter to any who need it. Have I been misled?"

"No," Yuko was quick to defuse the situation. "Everyone is welcome, of course, but…" She then realized that if she started to name conditions, then maybe it wasn't everyone who was welcomed. "You could at least introduce yourself."

"Oh, right! Where are my manners? I just haven't talked to people in a while," she said, punctuating her words with obnoxious laughter. "My name is Hosshiwa. Should I list my hobbies, my dreams and fears, or is that enough?"

Yuko did not like that attitude, but in the interest of remaining polite, she just nodded.

"What exactly are your… Companions, though?" Asked Ayumi. As she said that, Yuko noticed a flash of light behind her. Mika and Kaede again, no doubt.

"Oh, the Choiarks? Lovely little guys. And girls. They're here for my protection, mostly, and that of my possessions. Fierce warriors, all of them, and proud too, very intelligent, good speakers with very sharp wit. Ever heard of the great mercenary Oresky? He's has thousands of Choiarks working under him, and if you have enough money, you can contract his services. I happen to have an outrageous amount of money, and I decided that since the world's gone straight to hell, I should keep myself safe."

"Well, you do seem safe," Yuko couldn't think of anything else to say. The girl seemed to love to talk, primarily of herself.

"I am, but it was a dangerous journey," she said, blowing herself with a fan in a way that seemed almost calculated to make herself look as snobbish as a person could appear. "I'm tired of being in danger. I heard of the efforts of the Red Rose and of Last Light, and I thought it would be wiser to settle down in a place where I'm not likely to get attacked by monsters. It's no use having money and possessions beyond count if you're just hauling them over the world, no?"

She pointed at the line of Choiarks behind her. That explained what it was that they carried so diligently. The girl seemed arrogant, but not a bad person, and Yuko presumed that it wasn't her place to pass any judgment anyway.

"You're welcome to stay here, then," she said, and the other people nodded, but mostly they stared at the ridiculous amount of Choiarks carrying valuables.

"This calls for a celebration, then!" Hosshiwa said, and started to wave at the Choiarks. "I've brought a lot of stuff with me, you know. I couldn't bear to leave anything behind. Now since we're all friends here at Last Light, I'm sure I could share some things with you all. You've built the village with your own hands, haven't you?"

"Yeah," said Nile. She sounded proud of it.

"Well, you've done admirably, but, understandably, the place must be missing a few, shall we say… Comforts? Oh, don't get me wrong, you should be rightfully proud of your hard work, but your hard work can't make, say, an air conditioner, and these days are being really unbearably hot, aren't they?"

Yuko didn't particularly care, but the crowd behind her seemed very interested in what Hosshiwa had to say. They almost looked a little greedy, but Yuko couldn't blame them for wanting to make their lives more pleasant. She didn't really blame people at all, in truth. Everyone had their own story, their own reasons, and who was she to judge them for that?

"I think that, together, we can make Last Light even better," said Hosshiwa. Is it already we? "Yes, we definitely can. Things will get better if we help each other, and I want to help you. I have a lot of stuff, so don't be shy! The Choiarks will be bringing all the crates and chests and cards and carriages and whatever very soon, and they're filled with goodies I think you'll absolutely love. Oh, and candy too. Can you even imagine going through the end of the world without candy? Now that just will not do."

Yuko looked at Kanade, who shared a worried glance with her. This all seemed very wrong, something was definitely rotten, but Honey could not quite put her finger on it. The girl had not done anything wrong, she seemed eager to help, but even so…

"Lady," asked a man amidst the crowd, his voice carrying excitement. "Is it really alright? For us to just get all this stuff?"

"Oh, don't worry," Hosshiwa grinned. The Choiark were drawing closer now, their pace slowed by the weight of their burdens. There were so many of them. "It's no good if I just keep all my things stored away where they're not useful to anyone, right?" Her lips smiled, but her eyes were twitching. "I love to share."

When at last she saw the fires of the Phoenix Tower, Iona's heart found ease again, and she felt light despite the soreness of her body. Her feet hurt most of all, after treading upon rough ground for so long and with such little rest. At last, though, she was back, and here, at least, things seemed fine. The Starfire still burned, the Tower still stood, the Precure still endured. I'm home, she thought for a moment, until she realized that was not quite right.

The ascent up the steps of the hill never got any easier. If not for the steepness of the path, the returning Precure might have taken a moment to rest, but here, to stop walking was just as dangerous as moving on, with the exception that standing still would lead them nowhere, so they continued onwards.

Metal doors awaited them, closed but still inviting. Now free of the dust that had covered them when Iona first arrived, they revealed all their beauty and intricate designs engraved upon them. The metal imitated the fable starsteel almost perfectly with its light grey color that reacted to the sun's light by shining its own colors, but Honoka remarked that it was, indeed, only a fake: she could tell from the way some of its adornings were slightly rusted. True starsteel never rusted: instead it burned the same fire that could not harm the Precure. Komachi seemed fascinated by it, though, and with her hands she felt it and its glass-like surface; it felt weak to the touch, but when they opened the door, its heaviness made itself very evident.

They were expected inside, in the great hall of the Phoenix Tower, overlooked by the Legendary Precure. Many faces stared at them with joy, and among them were some that Iona did not recognize. She heard Katyusha's voice, and Southern Cross' too. Not only Cures awaited them, either: Iona noticed Coco among the people receiving them, carrying on his arms an absurdly tall stack of books that hid half of his face. Everyone there was smiling, somehow. Then Iona remembered the star that Mana brought back to life. They think we've won. Slowly the smiles became more discreet, until they disappeared entirely.

"Shouldn't there, uh…" Only Ekaterina saw fit to break the silence. "Shouldn't there be more people with you?"

"There should," said Reika.

"Where is everyone, then?" Harper's voice was a mix of hopeful curiosity and growing dread. Iona couldn't tell which was stronger.

"It's hard to explain," said Nozomi, but Iona disagreed. It was quite simple: everything that could have possibly gone wrong went, to their dismay, overwhelmingly wrong.

From the way people started talking to one another, it was clear that they understood that their mission had been failure. Their voices started getting louder, nearly aggressive, but Ekaterina contained them.

"Quiet!" Always an efficient way to restore the calm. "I think you should explain things to Mirage."

That was not, of course, a polite suggestion, and soon they were making their way up around the statues. When Iona looked down, she could see the denizens of the tower staring up at them, curious. They owed them the truth, Iona knew, but she did not know how to say it, and imagined that none of her companions knew, either. Coco trailed behind them, talking to Nozomi, refusing her help with his books even though they seemed about to collapse into the distant ground far beneath the stairs.

Mirage was not inside her office this time; instead, she awaited by its door, arms crossed, feet tapping against the floor. Her eyes seemed to count the returning Precure, and they looked almost disappointed.

"So few of you… Were the words of Eas only lies?"

"No," said Reika. "There were many Precure in Trump, just as she said."

"There were?"

"Regina arrived just when we were gaining momentum and tried to free the city," Honoka explained.

"Ah, so it's just as I feared…" Mirage said, and sighed. She walked inside, and the others followed. Her desk was cramped, and though the walls were lined with bookshelves, many tomes were scattered on the floor, for lack of space. "I'd tell you to sit down, but…" She pointed at the chairs, they too occupied by books. Iona gestured that it was fine.

"What made you fear that?" Asked Reika.

"Megumi is not here, else she might tell you the full story, but… Well, the Bomber Girls were defeated. No, perhaps defeated does not properly explain the gravity of what happened. They are trapped inside mirrors. It was the work of the one most call the Precure hunter. His real name is Phantom, though."

"They are…" Nozomi began, but did not finish.

"They could not delay Regina's march because they never even reached Regina," Mirage continued. "I knew that the roads were dangerous because of this man that was hunting down Precure, but I didn't know it would be Phantom."

"Do you know him?" Iona asked.

"Oh, I do," she said. There was hesitation in her voice. "He's the one who trapped your sister in a mirror."

Iona said anything, and no one else did, either. They all just stared at her, waiting for her to do something. Waiting for me to explode, to yell, no doubt.

"I see," was all she said. "You did not tell me before."

"I don't suppose it matters who did it," she said. "Maria is more important than the one who defeated her. To both of us, she means much more than the one who trapped her in her nightmare. I thought that we should remember her, not Phantom. I feared that if you knew it was him, you might be drawn to do something foolish."

"I wouldn't," she lied, and Mirage knew she was lying, too. "I won't."

"About Trump, though…" Reika changed the subject.

"Oh, right," Mirage walked up to Makoto. "I do not know you. Are you from Trump?" She nodded, and Mirage turned to Komachi. "I don't know you, either, though you seem rather familiar."

"My name is Komachi," she blurted out. "I'm a friend of Nozomi. And a friend of Karen."

"Oh, I do know Karen. Any word of her?"

"She's working with Eternal now," she said, "or at least she seems to be."

"I don't believe it," said Mirage. "It's probably a ploy. She's clever enough to know that betraying the Red Rose won't do her any good. She's still one of ours, I'm sure of it. Are these two girls the only ones you've rescued?"

"Unfortunately," said Beauty. Their failure still stung her, though sometimes Iona wondered if they could even call it failure. They had saved many people from becoming Jikochuu. That had to be worth something. "We had another among us, but… Ah…"

Mirage took Reika's hand with gentleness, and gave it a soft caress, almost motherly, even though Beauty was noticeably taller than her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Sorry that you girls needed to experience loss like this. You've all lost so much since the Death of the Stars, I know, but… This person you are talking about… Did she die?"

"We don't know," said Iona. "We didn't see."

"She was my friend," Makoto's words came out full of pain. "She saved us. She remained behind so that we could escape."

"Ah," said Mirage. She looked away from Iona, who did not fail to notice it. "If the Selfish took her, then she might be one of their monsters by now. Perhaps then she can be saved, but…"

"But?" Makoto insisted.

"You must know it better than I do," said Mirage, "but our enemies are fond of corrupting good hearts and filling them with evil, rotting them. Nightmare does that, with their black masks, and the Desert Apostles use Heart Flowers to feed their Desertrians. Even when we can save the people enthralled by them, they never forget the pain that they caused while they were monsters. Though they are humans again, they cannot rest easy, they cannot ever find peace knowing what they've done, knowing they've contributed to the cycle of suffering. This is what makes the Selfish so terrible, so despicable. Defeating them doesn't end the pain. The pain remains, scarring the heart."

Makoto kept her silence. She knew that all, already, of course, but even so she didn't want to believe it, she wanted to be told that she was wrong. Instead her fears were all confirmed.

"I would like to know everything that happened at Trump," said Mirage, "but you look like you need to rest. All of you."

"We can give you a report," said Honoka. "Let the others return to their homes."

"Honoka, I-" Reika started, but was interrupted.

"It's alright," she said, smiling. "I've already done this hundreds of times in my life. I was always meticulous with my reports."

"Too meticulous," said Nagisa. "When you wrote them down on paper, they'd make stacks heavy enough to be used as doorstops."

"Right," Mirage didn't seem to find that funny at all. "Then will you be returning to Last Light?"

Iona nodded, and so did Nozomi and Honoka. Mint said she would, too, hastily, anxiously.

"We don't have any students right now," said Coco, "so I'll be going back too, if that's alright with you."

"That's quite alright," said Mirage. "Thank you for your help, Coco. I really appreciated your effort. The libraries would still be a huge mess without you…"

"Ha, what can I say, I've always been good at sorting books, or finding them. Nuts was always reading, but he was terrible at searching. So, eventually he decided to just ask me to find whatever he wanted to read."

"E-Excuse me," said Reika, hesitating to interrupt, "but you said there are no students here… Does this mean-"

"Oh!" Coco said, his voice suddenly changing to the high-pitched squeaking he made as a fairy. "Right, you had no way of knowing. Yeah, Ayumi is a Precure now. A really good one, too."

"Very dedicated," said Mirage. "No wonder, she admires the Precure so much. She reminds me a little bit of myself, you know, when I was younger," she said, even though she still looked really small for her age. "Enthusiasm is always laudable. Anyway," she continued, "there's still some space in Last Light, and I think the two of you," she pointed at Komachi and Makoto, "would probably like to stay there. There's always a lot to be done, there. The farm is very productive, now, though it still needs to be enhanced magically so it'll bear fruits quickly enough. The Precure there have a lot of projects, too, and plan to explore the region, make things safer for everyone. Right now their priorities are cleansing the Thornwood, and finding Phantom."

That last part caught Iona's interest. She did not know if it was wise to seek a dangerous warrior like the Precure hunter, and she had no idea what she would even do it she found him, but still…

"Sounds good," said Sword, still a bit shaken, but relieved at the prospect of having the opportunity to keep fighting.

"I wanna stay with Nozomi," said Komachi. "She is my good friend, and I have missed her dearly."

Nozomi chuckled at that, and put an arm around her, and squeezed. The gesture made Komachi's eyes widen and her body shift slightly to the side.

"So it's decided," said Nozomi. "I'm sure you'll enjoy it there, Komachi. It's hard work, but it's fun to be with so many nice people."

"There's nice people here too!" Said Nagisa, feigning offense. "Like me! Or Honoka! Don't you like us?"

"Well, I do, but-"

"But they'll stay in the Phoenix Tower for a while," said Mirage, "as they have a lot of questions they must answer, the first of which being why they ignored my orders that only Dream, Beauty and Fortune should set out to Trump."

The face that Nagisa made showed that she had hoped that Mirage had forgotten that.

"Ah, yeah… That… I suppose we do have to answer. Maybe we'll go to Last Light later, though. Once we're done. Who knows when that will be…"

Suddenly, Iona felt the urge to say something she was almost certain she would end up regretting. Her fidgety hands played with a pen on Mirage's desk as she reflected on whether or not she would say it. Before she could decide, though, she was already speaking.

"I'm going to Last Light too."

Just as she expected, Nozomi was the first to smile at that, beaming in a way that could make one think that all things were right in the world. She did not expect, though, that Reika would begin to tear up, and take her hand. She froze. She had expected this kind of reaction from Dream, not from Beauty. Only then did it struck her that she did not know Reika as well as she thought she did, or even Nozomi, else she would not have had the words stolen from her by her surprise. It made her a little sad, but at the same time a little happy; sad for realizing that in a way, those girls were still strangers to her, yet happy for knowing that they could be friends, if she made an effort… She knew it would take effort, of course, she knew how her heart burned and she lashed out at others, but for the first time since the stars stopped shining, she was longing to make that effort.

"I'm glad you're coming with us," Reika would have said if words had come out of her mouth, but instead she said that with her smile and her tears.

Those tears were the strangest thing to Iona. Before Akane was gone, Iona couldn't even conceive of Reika being capable of crying, of being anything but wise and mature, an adult despite her few years of life. She had seemed too clever to be hurt, to be emotional, to let herself be vulnerable like she was being now.

But she was wrong. She had been wrong about all sorts of things, but now - though she could not quite explain the feeling - she was actually glad to be mistaken, and looked forward to err, to have her assumptions be proved wrong. She wondered if this feeling would last, and hoped it would. It meant she was changing, and she knew she had to change.

"I'm going to Last Light," she repeated, more to herself than to anyone else, and she loved the strangeness of those words, words that just some months ago she would not say even if it meant her death. Maybe there she would find the home she couldn't find in the emptiness of the Phoenix Tower.

She walked through endlessly repeating rooms, lethargic, vaguely aware that she had sunk deep into a dream, but that realization did not help Setsuna wake up from this madness. Madness, yes, because in this dream she was not Eas, but an imposter, an imitation of a human being, a girl who had stolen a name that did not belong to her. Worst of all, the name didn't even hurt her anymore. She accepted it, knowing that she shouldn't.

Her fingers coiled around the cold metal of a doorknob, twisting to open it, but she already knew what she would find beyond the door, as she had already stepped inside a dozen times in a single night.

Setsuna found herself in a small bedroom, barely larger than her quarters at Labyrinth, but somehow it felt so big, so spacious, so warm. Atop a bed were red sheets and pink pillows, a stuffed animal amidst them. To the side of the bed was a small wooden table and a lamp that shone a comforting light. The windows were obscured by curtains, but Setsuna didn't bother pulling them back, as she had already done so, when she first entered the room, and she knew that beyond the glass was white, endless white. Next to the window were shelves on the walls, and upon them were some books which had only the name Setsuna written inside thousands of times, calendars with no dates, picture frames with photographs of her. The photos all seemed empty, somehow, like something had been removed from them.

She kept walking, opening all doors on her way, closing the ones behind. She found stairs leading up, and took them. The scenery reminded her of what she had read about the houses wherein the people outside Labyrinth lived. She explored everything, unable to stand still. When Setsuna craned her head to the sides, she saw pictures of landscapes on the walls. Like everything else, they felt familiar.

At the end of a corridor was the last closed door. All dream long, Setsuna had not stepped inside. Whenever she tried to, she was compelled to turn back, to continue roaming this half-remembered house of mist and shadow, full of empty spaces in the darkness. She forced herself to open the door this time: closing her eyes, she imagined herself elsewhere, so that she would not remember where she was, so that she would forget the fear of looking inside. When she opened her eyes, she couldn't remember what she had thought of, and saw in front of her an empty room, colorless, deprived even of windows, of anything. Setsuna couldn't even breathe in there.

But the room wasn't empty. In the heart of its desolation rested a small amulet in the shape of a clover. Setsuna grasped at her chest, and realized why she felt empty, lacking: she did not wear the necklace, did not feel the weight of its thin chains around her neck, the noose ever reminding her of her crime. She stepped up to the clover and knelt to pick it up, but it shattered to pieces at the softest touch of her fingers, breaking with the sound of shattering glass. The sound echoed, enveloped her, never-ending, repeating itself again and again, louder each time, faster, more frequent, coming from all directions, coming from inside her head until it filled the world and there was nothing left but it.

When she woke up, she was Eas. That false name hurt her, when she thought of it. She looked sideways and saw the clover upon her end table. She took it brusquely. It did not feel like glass, but something else, cheap and frail. She tossed it back on the table, and moaned. The migraine had returned, that familiar pain.

She looked at the clock next to the bed, and it announced that the night would still live long. The absolute silence of Labyrinth made her all too aware of her heartbeat, and of its frailty. That heartbeat was all her life was, she thought.

She heard new beats then, new signs of life behind her door, at the corridor. They were footsteps, and they were nearing her. She had been waiting to hear these footsteps. After what she had done at the Starfire production plant, she would be a fool not to expect this. She could only wonder if Labyrinth would simply kill her or if they would twist her mind even further to make her Moebius' soulless pawn. They had failed that once; this time, she knew, they would make sure that there would be nothing left of her mind that could be called Eas or Setsuna.

Defiance filled her with adrenaline, even though she knew fighting would be an effort in vain. She jumped out of bed at once; the floor beneath her feet was freezing, but her body was full of warmth. She could find no weapons near her, so she closed her fists and awaited for an enemy to enter.

When the door opened, very slowly, Eas almost rushed at the intruders, but their faces were at once familiar, and she stood still. Westar and Soular stepped inside, and their faces seemed at once very calm, and yet brimming with fear. She lowered her hands.

"Wha-"

"We gotta get you out of here, Eas," said Westar. "Come on. We have little time."

She stuttered a confused reply as she looked for her shoes, each one thrown to one side of the bedroom as she jumped on bed and tossed them away. Westar took her hand, and Eas took a step back.

"I don't understand."

"You're marked for therapy," said Soular. "Northa was not too pleased with what happened earlier, you know, though Klein was fascinated by the possibilities."

"Possibilities? Do they intend to-"

"Let me talk. They had thought that when they messed with your mind when you came back, after killing Cure Peach, they had gotten rid of whatever it was that made you a Precure," she felt the urge to deny it, even though she already knew it was true. "Apparently not! So Klein intends to perform some experiments on you."

"The nasty sort of experiments," explained Westar, as if Eas had not understood it already.

"Nasty?" Soular laughed. "Klein is going to pick you apart. I can't even begin to fathom what he is going to do to your mind."

Eas wasn't sure if Soular really couldn't imagine, or if he just didn't want to. She knew she didn't; she had heard that Klein's experiments always screamed during the first days, so loud that the entire laboratory building had to be cleared of personnel, else they would be unable to work, but eventually they would stop screaming, and that was when Klein truly began his work on the mind. Eas shuddered at the notion.

"How do you know that?" She asked. Westar didn't seem to want to answer.

"Because we're the ones supposed to capture you," Soular said at last. "But we won't. If you come with us right now, we'll get you out of here."

He extended his hand to the open door while Westar placed something small on Eas' table. They then began to walk away. Without thinking, Eas grabbed the clover necklace, placed its chains around her neck, and followed the two at once, and only when she was past the door did she realize how stupid she had been, walking straight into the hands of her captors, but she could not help it. She had trusted Soular and Westar at once. They were… She could not think of the word that described how she felt about them. Yet, to her, they were absolutely trustworthy, and she followed them as they guided her through the corridors of her apartment building.

"Will no one hear us?" She asked.

"We drugged the guards' water," said Soular. "They'll be asleep for a while now. That little thing that Westar put on your table… That's the drug. A small packet with a blue powder."

"Huh," she said. She understood why they did that: they would be able to deny having helped her. It would appear as if she had been the one to make the guards fall asleep, and then escaped. That way no one would get punished. Eas found it surprising how Soular and Westar had been careful enough to ensure that even the guards would have an excuse. It made her feel relieved, somehow.

Westar signaled for them to wait as they neared a door. Eas had never been there, so she did not know what was behind. Some seconds later, Westar and Soular nodded at each other, and opened the door. They reached, then, a spacious chamber, its walls covered by huge screens. Around were chairs, and in each one, an unconscious guard. Above, a camera. Eas stared at the screens, and saw that they changed every couple of seconds, revealing images of distant reaches of Labyrinth. This was a control room, yet it too was under strict surveillance, judging from the camera installed there. They were watched by someone far away, who was in turn watched, as well, and scrutinized.

"Don't worry," Soular said at once, before she even had the time to worry at all. He urged them to hurry, closing the door behind, and pointed at the camera when they were almost out of the chamber. "Right now the camera is turned off. It's backing up the content it captured over the night. That takes twenty seconds, which is enough time for us to get past it."

"I don't know how you get to be so clever, Soular," said Westar with clear honesty. He was always honest, Eas remembered. She always told him she found it insufferable, but she never really minded it. She just felt she had to say it, or someone might realize she was broken.

"Well, it's not just that I'm clever. You're astonishingly stupid, so any average intellect is enough to awe you."

"Very funny," he said, and probably meant it.

Soon they were all covered in darkness, and Eas had to feel her way around. The walls here didn't feel so cold, but there was a roughness to them that she could not quite recognize.

"Where will this lead?"

"Outside," said Soular.

"You can do better than that," she insisted.

"Well, this apartment building is pretty high-class," he said. Eas almost laughed at the suggestion, but she knew that he was right. Her room was small, but the average worker at Labyrinth had no space to even stretch their legs. "It is not considered proper for an agent of Moebius' will to mingle with a watchman, or with a cleaner. They have an alternate entrance, so that they can enter unseen."

"Really?" Eas asked. "The system must be working well, then, because I've never seen them. How do you know?"

"I worked with cooking, for a while," said Soular, "at a building like this. Eventually I was reassigned, but I did my share of hard work."

She had never expected that of Soular. Then again, she had also never expected Westar to be capable of subterfuge or of anything that required the slightest finesse, and yet there he was, unlocking a door with a security card and not his fists. That was, perhaps, the biggest surprise of them all.

"There we go," he said when the door opened.

It looked as if it was darker outside than it had been in the poorly-lit corridors, and it might as well be true. The lights went out in Labyrinth at night, as no one had permission to be outside of their homes past curfew. There wasn't anything to do, anyway. Above, the mist was thick.

"We'll go with you until we're past the mist," said Westar. "That way you'll be safe."

She didn't really believe it, but she appreciated the gesture. They walked together, silently. Eas heard her heartbeat again. It was surprisingly gentle, just as she was surprisingly free of fear. Westar and Soular didn't seem scared, either.

"Are you certain you won't be caught?"

"Yeah," said Westar. "Soular arranged everything. There's a reason we came at such an awkward hour, you know? Soular timed everything so that the dangerous cameras would all be turned off while you escape."

"That's good," she said, "but don't you think-"

"It's all arranged," said Soular. "Here, we even got you this," he said, giving her a plastic bag. Inside was some food, cans filled with a nutritional paste that Labyrinth gave its agents when they were out performing missions where they might not be able to acquire proper food. "Sorry I couldn't find anything better. Or, you know, something that tastes like food."

"Thank you," she said. "Truly. I'm still worried, though. I don't want you to be hurt. Why are you even doing this?"

Soular paused, and stood still. He put his hand on his chin, and seemed thoughtful for a moment.

"Doesn't matter."

"Right. But-"

"Eas, I took care of everything. You really should be more concerned about your own well-being, not ours. We'll be fine, my plan is perfect."

"And how can you be so sure of that?"

"Because I'm smarter than you."

"I suppose I can't argue with that, not after outing myself as a Precure like that…" She paused for a second and took a deep breath of the cold air of the night. Here the mists were thinner, but closer to the ground, and they made her feel chilly. "But I don't regret it. Soular, Westar… I don't regret what I did that day."

"Why?"

"Why, you ask?" Eas could ask the same. "I don't really know. In the moment, I felt like I had no choice. It was natural."

"I suppose we're alike," said Soular. "I don't know why I'm helping you either, knowing all that I'm putting at risk, and yet… Yet I feel like this decision has already been made for me. The very thought of letting you die is repulsive to me. Right, Westar?"

"No," said Westar, showing his oddly proud smile. Eas never understood that smile; she had always thought it was full of a smug ignorance, but now it seemed like something else entirely. "I do know very well why I'm doing this. It's because Eas is my friend."

"Friend… Yes," she said, "we are friends. That's what we are, isn't it? The idea of you being hurt is painful to me, too, even though I know I will not feel that pain… That is friendship, isn't it? To feel the pain of your…" The word came out easily, but it still sounded alien. "Your friend."

"It's not just pain," said Westar. "Happiness, too. I don't know what happiness is, though. I've only heard of it, and that the people outside of Labyrinth are always seeking it, as if it were a drug."

"It is a drug," Soular scoffed. "You are a sentimental fool, Westar. You'd better not say those things. It's dangerous."

"I'm saying these things to my friends, though," he said, still with that smile.

Eas smiled back. It was an unnatural gesture, still, but she felt as if she had done it so many times before. It made her wonder what her life had been before she returned to Labyrinth, why she could have smiled so much. Suddenly her heart filled with longing for something she could not even remember, and she felt like the saddest little fool there ever was.

Labyrinth was far behind now, far enough for Eas to feel safe. The mists were gone, too, and she could see the road ahead, though she had no idea where it would lead. She would have to find her own way now.

"Please be safe," she told them, turning back. The words seemed to confuse Soular, though soon he was showing a tiny smile, almost arrogant, as was usual of him. There was something about it that Eas liked, though. It seemed friendly, despite everything.

"You too," said Westar, his voice full of emotion whereas' Soular's was composed as he said the same words. Westar gave Eas a hug, and Soular shook her hand.

She gave them a quick nod, and walked away. She heard their footsteps behind her, and they too were hasty, full of urgency. Eas wondered if they knew in just how much danger they were. She wondered if they cared, in the first place. They were defying Moebius, defying the will of Labyrinth, and for what? For a girl who was always in pain, a girl who was haunted by half-forgotten memories.

"Setsuna," she said to herself, to see if it still hurt. It did not.

And so she ran into the night, letting the darkness cover her and her tracks. Knowing there was nothing there for her to see, Eas never looked back, only above, at the stars, and as she watched them, she remembered how they shone when the mist didn't smother them.

The guards dragged Itsuki by the arms, not without gentleness, but the light of the world outside her cell hurt her darkness-attuned to such an extent that she couldn't help but struggle, kicking the air in front of her. Even with her eyes almost completely shut, the faintest traces of light blinded her. The soldiers holding her never drove her forward violently, but they pushed her with impatience all the same. The red fires of the sun drilled through her eyelids, and even as she slowly grew used to them, the world still moved too much, far too fast.

When finally she could think again instead of merely trying to avoid the light, she thought why, and then where am I being taken to? She knew the likely answer, but did not want to believe it. What could it be, though, but an execution for her shameful attempt on Salamander's life? She wondered if they would be punished all at once, Miki, Elena, and herself. That seemed likely, but the Apostles had proven themselves cautious, so perhaps they'd prefer not to have three Cures together, where they might join forces. Itsuki had no forces to speak of, though, not even to see, not even to recognize her surroundings.

She could see shapes, but that was all. Everything was tinged with red. Sometimes it was lighter, and she could begin to understand what she was looking at. A pillar here, looks like, she thought as she passed by, and that has to be a fountain. The moving shapes nearby had to be people. She wondered if they were staring at her. She could hear it just fine when they whispered among themselves, but was too distant to understand the words.

They took a turn, then another. Afterwards they went up a flight of stairs, and once they were inside the Palace of Bronze, the sunlight was not so fierce, and Itsuki could see where she was. She recognized the walls of sandstone, of course, the distinctive mark of Miwar's architecture. Guards roamed the corridors, and whenever they walked past Itsuki, she could almost feel the weight of their stares. Still, even that was better than the Kowaina.

The Palace of Bronze had changed since Hadenya arrived to advise Baron Salamander. The walls had eyes, and that was no mere figure of speech. Itsuki could catch a glimpse of them, sometimes, those eerily blank eyes of the Kowaina. Hadenya had placed Nightmare's masks on the very structure of The Palace. The walls shifted, sometimes, as the Kowaina inside them moved.

They went down a flight of stairs, again, and then another, into the underground section of the Palace of Bronze. There, it was colder, but at least there she could not see any Kowaina. The tunnels were a natural rocky formation, though mined so that they were wider. The Kowaina could not fuse with soil, or their bodies would end up spread too thin. As such, they prefered man-made structures.

Where the tunnels ended, Itsuki saw a door on the rock, wood that had been worn through the years and had lost its color. She presumed it would be her last destination.

"Here," the man said, his hand on the door, opening it. Itsuki walked inside, but to her surprise, it was not an execution chamber which she saw, but a spacious lounge room. Its walls were the same rocks where the tunnels had been carved, but the furnishing was positively high-class. There, the air was pleasantly cool, and couches were spread along the walls and around a coffee table, but most surprising of all were the people sitting upon them.

"Hi," Miki said while she waved her hand at Itsuki. Cobraja was by her side, gesturing at a book on the table, while Kumojacky was showing his sword to Elena, her eyes glittering. Sasorina leaned against a pillar, impatient.

"Itsuki!" Potpourri leapt from Miki's lap, and greeted Itsuki with all her love. Her body was warm, and usually it would be a pleasant warmth, but the palace was so hot that even Potpourri's fur was repulsive. Itsuki put a hand on the fairy's head, and pet it gently.

"What-"

"Want some tea?" Asked Cobraja, extending his hand to her, holding a small cup on his fingers. Itsuki refused.

"This… This is-"

"Not what you expected?" Kumojacky asked, then sheathed the sword. "Come on, Sunshine. By now you should understand that we are very capable of surprises."

"Precure are slow to learn, though," said Sasorina with a shrug.

"When did you come back?" Itsuki asked.

"A while ago," she said. "I was hidden, though, seeking a place where Hadenya's eyes and hands cannot reach her. And taking the necessary precautions to make it a little bit comfortable, of course. I've been here for a while, waiting for the most opportune moment."

"Eyes and hands? You mean the Kowaina?" Sasorina nodded. "But why-"

"That's what I asked too," said Miki, looking at Itsuki and Elena. "I was told to wait for you two, though."

"Hopefully we'll be getting some answers now," said Elena. "I trust that you're not doing this to fill us with false hopes before you chop off our heads, right?"

"Of course not," said Kumojacky. "There is no honor in killing someone outside of battle," his words rang sharp. "Besides, we have a purpose for you."

Now this is interesting, thought Itsuki, pulling Potpourri close to her chest before sitting down.

"So, by now you must have noticed that Salamander is oddly reclusive," said Cobraja. Itsuki had not given it much thought, given that she had far more pressing concerns to worry about. She nodded anyways.

"I don't think he was seen before the festival," said Elena. "Can't vouch for what he did afterwards, though."

"But I can," Cobraja continued. "He's now surrounded by guards, and Hadenya is always at his side, whispering. Whispering what, you might ask? Well, she would say that it's good advice from a friend. That's a lie, though."

"She's giving him orders," Sasorina's voice brimmed with rage. "Salamander, our leader! He's the ruler we've always wished for, you know. Dune was rather… Extreme in his methods. But Salamander's first rule was a time of great progress. And yet he's being bossed around by that stuck-up arrogant piece of human filth."

"How so?" Itsuki asked, but she had an idea. She hoped that it was wrong.

"The mask," said Cobraja, covering his face with a hand. "Hadenya swears that it's keeping him alive. We, however, are almost certain that it keeps him under the control of Nightmare."

"That's terrible," said Miki.

"Terrible?" Asked Elena. "It's an atrocity, that's what it is. To steal someone's freedom is the greatest crime that can be committed."

"We cannot easily break the mask, of course," said Kumojacky. "We could try, but I doubt it would come off without harming Salamander. Nightmare's trinkets are dangerous, to say the least…"

"Ever since he returned, wearing the mask, he's been silent," said Cobraja. "He became a puppet. We have tried to help him regain his free will, you know. I once showed him his old sword, the one he used to long ago. It was a beautiful weapon, its hilt made of dragonbone, and its sheath of dragon leather. For a moment, I could see something change in his eyes. He remembered. His hands moved slightly, trying to reach out to it, but then he stopped, and continued to obey the commands of Nightmare."

"He remembered? Is that your hope, then?" Asked Itsuki. "Do you think that will work?"

"That seems to be the way to free him of Hadenya's grasp," said Sasorina. "There is one problem, though. Few of Salamander's possessions remain. There was the sword, but that was not enough. He has his scepter, the one with the huge gem on its tip. It used to be broken, but it was restored. Isn't that odd?"

"Is it?" Miki asked. Itsuki didn't understand Sasorina's point either.

"While I was away, I did some investigation on that gem," she said, "and learned that there was a boy who spent years desperately looking for its fragments. He went to churches, to burial grounds, to museums, all to find the pieces of the gem. A priest told me that the boy insisted that he was looking for his father, that was why he was searching for the pieces."

"Is… Is he Salamander's son?" Elena asked.

"That's impossible," she said at once. "Must be a child's delusion."

"You're being too harsh," said Cobraja. "Anyway, the details of his relationship to Salamander aren't too important. What is important, though, is the very existence of said relationship. Did Salamander know him? He had to, if the boy went to such lengths to restore his gem, his soul. There must be a great connection between them. A connection that might help free Salamander from the mask."

"That is interesting," said Itsuki. "Where is this boy? I presume you haven't located him?"

"That's why we need you," said Kumojacky. "We cannot leave Miwar and it surrounding lands, thanks to our duties, but you have no such restraints."

"Won't Hadenya notice if we just walk out of the gates, waving goodbye at her and saying we're going on an adventure?" Elena asked.

"Your sentence has been changed," Cobraja picked up some papers from the table, and showed them. They were three letters, sealed. "You are not to be executed, but will instead work at the mines west of the River Hayah. The boy was last sighted going west, so that's the direction you should go. Once you reach the mines, you will discover that your chains are miraculously brittle, and will be able to free ourselves."

"What do we gain with that, though?" Elena rose an eyebrow. "We are enemies, the Red Rose and the Apostles."

"Well, first of all, you get to keep your head if you help," Cobraja said, a point so good that it was enough to convince Itsuki to help. "And perhaps we might not be enemies once you help us. We have never been opposed to striking a deal with the Red Rose, but all your Rosehearteds have never been that cooperative."

"Hm," Miki took a sip of her tea. "We don't know if the Red Rose even exists."

"Another reason for you to help us, then," said Sasorina, "as we may be your last refuge in these dark times."

"Still, you have to admit that even if we may return to war in the future, right now, friends are more valuable than ever," said Kumojacky.

"Alright, then," said Itsuki, determined. She was happy to have something to do, a task to complete, a way to help that did not involve killing a man during a speech. She was happy to have the chance to be a Precure again. "I'm all for it. You?" She looked at Berry and Matador.

"Is that even a question?" Said Miki. Elena shared her sentiments, and showed them with an exaggerated nod.

"Good," said Cobraja. "You understand, though, that your mission will be very difficult. You will have little food, and the boy already has a headstart on you. Here," he gave Sunshine a paper. "Keep it hidden. It has all the information we have."

There she read a physical description of the boy. White, messy hair, wild eyes that never go unnoticed, feral demeanor. Underneath, a report of what Sasorina presumed was his possible trajectory, but there was no way to be sure. Even if she was right, the desert to the west was enormous, some said never-ending, and, most worrisome, some of it was uncharted to this day.

"I would tell you to get your things ready, but, well, I don't suppose you have any," said Kumojacky. "In that case, you'd better get going. It's a long way west, and our time is always short."

Pleasant smells filled the air, growing stronger as Last Light drew nearer, brought closer by each step Nozomi took. They were many scents, all at once, noticeable even from a fair distance, and there was a strange familiarity to them, for though they were so deeply mixed together that Nozomi could not tell them apart, each breath filled her with the sensation that she had felt them all before, long ago. That drew a smile out of her, almost accidentally.

Nozomi was drawn to Komachi, then, and in her face she saw awe, eyes almost welling up in silent confusion and wonder. Those eyes shifted around, scanning everything with care and curiosity. There was a sort of beauty to them.

The village had grown since they left, too, and it had become louder. Gone were the sad silences of uneventful evenings, those mists that swallowed Last Light and obscured all hopes for the future. Now it was full of life, and that life sang.

Nozomi took a deep breath as she approached the place she now called home. Home, she moved her lips. She was proud of that word now. She walked towards Last Light, and passed by a group of youths playing with a shuttlecock; a man making a great effort to carry a back, sweat glistening on his forebrow when the sun hit him; a tall girl picking flowers that now bloomed in colors that weren't there when Nozomi left. A girl took pictures of the ground next to a tree, and Dream wondered what it was that caught her attention, but she never knew, as she kept walking, overwhelmed by all the life around her.

She saw clothes drying under the sun, hanging at the windows of each house. Their distinctive smell was familiar to Nozomi, and she remembered her mother asking her to pick up the clothes and sheets when they were done drying. She could almost hear her mother's voice, the way she'd almost yell when she was so busy, doing so many things at the same time, while Nozomi was slacking off. Nozomi regretted being so lazy, then, and not rushing to do what her mother asked. She would kill to hear her mother scold her now. She never thought she would miss that, but now she did, so much…

"Things look good," Reika's voice pulled Nozomi away from her reminiscence. She pointed at the recently-harvested farms. "Yes, everything looks fine."

"It does," said Nozomi. After Trump, it was a great relief to be here, to be free to walk the streets without fear, to know that everyone here was safe.

"I have to admit that I'm impressed," said Iona. Nozomi giggled. Makoto, by Iona's side, said nothing, but her eyes revealed her thoughts. She and Iona had agreed to share a house, in the end, as Komachi preferred to sleep in a place all her own, by herself. Nozomi wished they could stay together, but she already had a commitment with Megumi, and didn't want to ditch her.

Peace and Egret walked out of the communal building to greet them. Yayoi's leg had a few ink stains on them, and Mai wiped her hand with a tissue. Right behind them was Kanade, who adjusted the apron she wore, too small for her. Yayoi ran towards Reika, full of haste, almost tripping on her way. Reika opened her arms and Yayoi jumped on them, and soon she was crying.

"I was so afraid," she said, "so afraid when you left and I couldn't go with you."

"I'm sorry," she said, tightening the embrace. "I truly am. So sorry…"

"Promise me, Reika," Yayoi let go of the hug and took Beauty by the hands. Reika slowly grew uncomfortable, trying to open her mouth to speak, but she never did so. "Promise we won't be apart again. We were a team, so we need to be together. We'll find the others together, okay? Nao, Miyuki, Akane…"

Reika let go of Yayoi. She stood motionless, silent, her eyes avoiding all those around her. She mumbled something, so softly that it was as if she did not want to be heard. She rose her head, and her voice as well, and stared into Yayoi's eyes.

"We need to talk."

She said no more. She shambled to the house she shared with Yayoi, practically dragging Peace behind her. Once they were inside, the door was shut with a loud thud, and in the streets of Last Light, the remaining Precure looked at each other awkwardly, waiting for someone to say something.

"I, er," it was Coco who found it in him to speak, "I should go store my things. Yeah."

He went off in a rush, almost brought down by the weight of the bags he carried, each one full of books he deemed interesting. Mai followed him, offering to carry some of the burden, but Coco always refused any help that was offered to him.

Nozomi had no possessions to speak of, but she went to her home as well. Kanade accompanied Iona and Makoto, saying she would show them where the vacant house would be. Nozomi was glad that it was Kanade who was there to greet them, and not Honey and Princess. She had heard from Yuko the things that Iona had said to them, and she didn't know if Iona would be able to keep her calm.

She was also glad that Iona would share her house with Makoto. Nozomi had not said it aloud, of course, as she did not want to bring old sorrows to the surface, but the two girls seemed to have much in common. Nozomi did not know Makoto well enough to be certain of her disposition, but she did not know that both of them had lost someone very important to them.

And so did Reika. She looked back to the house shared by Beauty and Peace, and she knew that by now Yayoi was probably crying. Dream tried not to think too much about it: it was too painful to have to imagine that to her friends.

Komachi's eyes devoured everything around them, greedy to see more. Nozomi hadn't expected her to be so impressed, but she looked as if she had never seen a place like this. It made her wonder what she went through before they were reunited at Trump.

Nozomi opened the door to her house, but as she did so, there was a hand at her shoulder. Nozomi recognized the voice as soon as the girl began to speak: it was Mika Masuko, who had once been a fellow student at the Cinq Lumières. Nozomi had not expected to find her here, of all places, but she was glad that some trace of familiarity remained.

"Fancy meeting you two here," she said. On her hands, a pencil and a small book, its pages blank.

"Mika," Nozomi greeted her with a nod. They had never been too close, so she couldn't go beyond a nod. Komachi seemed confused for a second, but then she gave Mika a curt handshake. "Are you doing well?"

"Excellently, really," she said. "I'm a Precure now. And my partner, Kaede," when she realized Nozomi did not know who Kaede was, she clarified. "Kaede is the girl that's always taking pictures."

"Ah," Nozomi recalled seeing her. "So you're working together?"

"Yep. Speaking of work… You've returned from Trump, right? Would you mind giving me an interview? I think everyone is very curious about what happened there."

"Maybe later," said Nozomi.

"Oh, of course! You must all be so tired, right? Man, I can't wait to hear all you have to say! It's not just for the newspaper, you know, I'm actually curious. You gotta tell me everything too, Komachi."

She answered with a shy "sure" that was almost impossible to hear. She took too long to say it, too, but she was probably just too surprised at seeing Mika. She had already met Nozomi, after all, so it must feel more than a bit unreal to see that so many people from her past were still fine, still close to her.

Nozomi found her house just as she left it. Even the clothes she had left on the floor were still in place. Megumi had clearly been negligent with housekeeping, but Nozomi hadn't expected any better, nor could she judge, because she was a bit of a slob herself, too.

Lovely was abed, resting, her windows closed. She whined when Nozomi opened the door, hurtful light shining on her face. By the side of her bed were crutches, and her arms were bandaged.

"Does it still hurt?"

"Not really," she said. "If I wanted to, I bet I could move around as much as I wish. But Yuko is worried about me, you know. She told me to rest until my wounds close. She brings me food three times a day, and keeps me company. She's a good friend."

"She is," said Nozomi, though of course she couldn't know Honey as well as her partners did. "Was it the Precure hunter who did that to you?"

"Yeah," she said. "I nearly got him, Nozomi. I was so close. But he's the best warrior I've ever met."

"We're lucky we didn't meet him on the road, then," said Nozomi. Mint was staring at Megumi's wounds with curiosity, perhaps too much of it. "I'll leave you to rest, then."

"Do come back, though," said Megumi. "It gets lonely here."

Nozomi promised to do so, and left with Komachi at her side. She presumed that it was now time to take Mint to her house. It was right in front of Nozomi's, actually, and next to Reika's. It was the most imposing house around, but that was mostly thanks to its tall roof. Inside, it looked like all others.

Komachi ran her fingers over the walls, until Nozomi told her to be careful of splinters and loose nails. The rooms were a bit empty, as this house had never been occupied, but that was easily fixed. She showed everything to Komachi, and when they reached the bedroom, she felt a great weight on her body, and she saw that Komachi was leaning on her, almost falling. Nozomi meant to smile, but Komachi surprised her with her weeping.

"Is… Is this mine?" She said when she managed to control her tears. "Is this my house?" Nozomi nodded. "All mine?"

"Y-Yes," Nozomi said. "It's yours. Why-"

"I'm so happy," said Komachi. She put a hand on her chest. "Yes, that's what I'm feeling… Happiness. This is mine. Mine."

"Yes. What are you talking about, though? Why are you so emotional?"

"I… I'm sorry," she seemed to be thinking of what to say. "Things have been hard. Really hard, and… Well, I can't remember the last time people did something nice for me. It feels so… Ah… I'm sorry. I must sound so stupid."

"No," said Nozomi. "You aren't stupid. You are right. Things really have been hard. I can't even begin to imagine what you went through. Even at my lowest points, I always had Reika with me, but you were alone… Well, not anymore. Now we're together, okay? Everyone here is good, so you don't have to worry about being hurt, and I'm by your side. Always."

"You're right," she said, hugging Nozomi. She did so weakly, as if she were afraid to hurt Nozomi with her embrace. "You are my good friend. Yes, we have always been good friends."

Chapter Text

After months in the desolation of Trump, Makoto's eyes shone when she saw the feast in front of her, a plate of mulberries, roasted apple, rice balls made by Yuko, lettuce, plums and walnuts. Iona did not look nearly as excited, but she ate gladly, too, though unlike Makoto she had taken many sorts of bread and meat for herself. That was far more than their fair share, Makoto knew, but the rest of Last Light thought they should be allowed to over-indulge this one time, after everything they had been through. Sword was certain to make the most of it. Whenever she found herself almost questioning if she should be eating so much, she remembered Mana, her body withered and small, and all her guilt was gone at once.

Komachi had a similarly rich meal, but the way she ate was far slower and more deliberate than everyone else. She examined every morsel before eating, and though Iona would roll her eyes at that, Makoto couldn't really blame Mint. Komachi had been at the hands of the enemies of the Precure, so it was no wonder she had become paranoid. In times like this, Makoto reflected, everyone changed, and not always for the better.

Around the mess hall, the Precure seemed to be grouped up, all of them close to their friends. Reika was by Yayoi's side, both their eyes red, and though Komachi was a bit far from them, by Nozomi's side, Beauty and Peace would often ask questions to her, to try to get to know her. Makoto felt a sting of jealousy, wishing that she could have her own friends by her side, but she tried to ignore that thought, lest it make her bitter. Soon, she knew, she would make her own friends here. When she was younger, immature, she would have probably refused to, but now she knew she could not be alone. Solitude, too, would make her bitter, and she had to save her hurtful feelings for the Selfish, let her hatred brew so that when she returned to Trump, she could find the strength to taste her vengeance. She licked her lips, thinking of it.

"Did you like the rice balls, too?" Iona asked her, suddenly. "They are the best."

"Oh. Right, yes. They are," she looked at her plate again. "I haven't had a meal like this in ages. I almost feel a little guilty, because it makes me think of all the people in Trump who are starving."

"Guilt won't feed them," Iona was quick to remark.

"I know that," Makoto found the remark almost patronizing. She didn't know if Iona meant to sound like that, so Sword didn't press the issue. "But knowing a feeling is stupid doesn't stop me from having it. Only makes me feel worse, really."

"Right," said Iona. "I also feel bad when I think of the Blue Sky Kingdom. Or, rather, when I think of the way it is now. When I think of the past, before things went wrong…"

"Makes you smile, doesn't it?" Makoto felt the same about Trump, back when it was beautiful, when Ange and her friends still graced the city. She knew she shouldn't think of it so much, knowing that Trump would never be like that again, and she was only clinging to a ghost, but those memories were all that kept her going on. Memories and revenge.

"Yeah," she didn't sound entirely convinced, but was clearly trying to make herself smile. She went back to her food, then, and Makoto chose to do the same.

Makoto finished her meal rather quickly, and was pleasantly full at the end. Iona had picked more than she could eat, but Nozomi was glad to clean her plate of the few scraps left. Afterwards, Dream invited them to sit closer to her and her friends. Makoto didn't have a great interest in doing so, but for the sake of politeness, she agreed, being soon followed by Iona, but, to her surprise, she was soon smiling, laughing at the stories they shared. Nozomi spoke of her time studying at the Cinq Lumières; Komachi tried to do the same, but had to apologize halfway through her tale as she forgot the rest of it. Yayoi and Mai showed the first few pages of a comic they were on, together, and asked Mint for some help with the writing, which she agreed to, blushing. The way the art styles worked together impressed Makoto, but Yayoi was quick to insist that it was mostly Mai's work.

Everyone exchanged plans, too, their ideas for the future. Makoto then understood that she had no idea what to do, now that she was out of Trump. She listened to everyone's plans: Reika's intentions of travelling south to rescue her friend Miyuki and to free Märchenland; Nile's wish to establish a new team with Ayumi and Orina, who planned to delve into the Thornwood and investigate the nature of its curse; Mika and Kaede worked alongside Yayoi and Mai to create a map of the region that properly depicted the changed landscape; Megumi was in talks with Hosshiwa to expand Last Light and to bring some well-needed developments to improve everyone's life.

Everyone had their own goals, and Makoto felt herself adrift, regretting her own lack of direction. She promised Reika that if they journeyed south to the lands held by the Bad End Kingdom, she would accompany them. Iona was quick to remind them that they would need Mirage's permission for an expedition of that sort, and after their failure at Trump, they were unlikely to be allowed, but Nozomi suggested that didn't need Mirage's leave to get moving. Makoto herself didn't particularly care about Mirage. It was clear to her that she had ascended to power because of the lack of anyone better. She had always been scholar who stayed away from the politics and bickering of the Red Rose's inner circles, preferring to study the past and to learn about the religions of isolated lands. She had never shown herself to be either ambitious or imaginative, so Makoto didn't pay much mind to the Rosehearted.

"It's all long term, anyways," said Reika, punctuating her words with a shrug.

"Doesn't have to be," said Nozomi, always bold. "And I know you want to act soon, don't you?"

"Right," Reika admitted. "Yes. I fear - No, I know that Miyuki is in danger. It may very well be too late at this point, but… There's always the chance that it's not."

"When I heard about Akane, I-" Yayoi said with a weepy voice,and suddenly shrank closer to Reika when she noticed that all eyes were on her. "I was devastated. And now that I hear this about Miyuki… If I could, I would go right now. I would get up and take the road to Morgenluft while it's still hot and snow hasn't started falling."

"I don't think snow will fall," said Kanade, "not with the way these past days have been so hot."

"We never expected the red sun and its rain either," Reika replied. "The snows of Märchenland were sudden even in normal days. Even after the mildest autumns, the first days of winter always brought strong blizzards. Always, without fail. It's an old curse on the land."

"It's superstition," Kanade insisted.

"If you lived in Märchenland, you would do well to believe in superstition," said Reika.

"Soon it'll be winter," said Peace. "It's just a few months away, but months go by quickly if we don't expect it, and Märchenland is far from here. I want to go soon. If we linger…"

"We'll go," said Nozomi, who then looked at the rest of the people nearby. "Right?"

"Okay, okay," said Iona. "If you go, I'll go with you. I think Mirage will understand…"

"Nagisa and Honoka would probably want to go, too," said Nozomi. "I'll write them a letter and ask Ekaterina to deliver it to them. We'd do well to use their help. Anyone else?"

"Sorry," said Nile, "we will be staying here," she said, and was followed by nods from Orina and Ayumi. "Echo needs some experience, and so do we, really. Takes a while to get used to new teammates."

Tell me about it, though Makoto. She remembered how awkward Mana had been when she approached her, and felt the urge to laugh. It took them all so long to start fighting together, Makoto and Mana, Alice and Rikka. There were times Sword wanted to give up, and Diamond too, but Heart and Rosetta were always insistent.

"That's fine," said Nozomi. Then she turned at the two girls who had been silent all along, so quiet that Makoto had hardly noticed their presence: Hime and Yuko, side by side, on the opposite side of Iona, at whom Hime's eyes seemed to shift to pretty constantly. "What about you two?"

"Ah!" Hime began, but her voice was too soft for anyone to hear, so Yuko spoke up instead.

"We'll stay here to protect Last Light and help its people," she said, "as we've been doing for a while now. It would not be safe for so many of us to go and leave the village undefended."

"That's fair," said Nozomi, who then turned to Makoto, who said yes before even hearing the question.

"Of course I'll go with you. I can't bear to allow our enemies to hold yet another country hostage. I've seen all too well what can happen when they're allowed to run wild. I wouldn't wish for anyone else to have to suffer as I've suffered at Trump."

"Oh, right," said Nile. "You came from the Trump Kingdom. I had almost forgotten. And I don't mean to sound like I'm questioning you guys, but… I think we'd all like to know what happened there."

Everyone had that right, Makoto presumed. She began with her part of the story, telling of the first attack on Trump and the appearance of the Selfish King, the loss of her princess, the resistance inside Trump, fighting for almost an entire year before the Death of the Stars. She spoke of her time there with Akane and the other Precure, of the blows she struck against the Selfish. After that, Reika recounted their journey across the Trump Kingdom, the crossing of the Amethyst Sea, how they met with Akane and the few Precure still remaining, their struggle to cross the Bridge of Hearts and how they reached another group of Cures in the poorest districts of Trump, but were overwhelmed by Regina. Nozomi and Iona contributed as well, filling in the details that Reika missed. The listeners would offer shocked reactions and further questions, and Makoto and Reika did their best to answer.

"You said Akane was lost there?" Orina asked. "I knew her, if not too well. It saddens me to hear this."

"Too many Precure were lost at Trump," Reika said with sadness. And all in vain, thought Makoto. That had to be what hurt the most.

"I lost my friends there, too," said Makoto. She could feel the pity well up in everyone's eyes. She hated that pity, but didn't let it make her angry, as she knew there was no malice behind it. "I was looking for something with them," that was not, strictly speaking, entirely truthful, but she had already explained what had happened to Nozomi and the others, and did not feel like telling this part of the story in detail, "and we got in a fight over it."

"What were you looking for?" Hime suddenly made herself heard.

They all seemed to hesitate to answer, but eventually Reika spoke up.

"The Eternal Golden Crown," she said. "A companion of ours, Cure Diamond, was seeking it, and thought she had located it. In the end, it turned out to be a fake, a trap, a replica filled with Starfire that razed much of the palace."

"Oh," Hime seemed to know something. Her lips trembled, anxious. "How do I say this… Yeah, the Crown isn't there. I, er, I was visiting Trump when the Selfish attacked, when Marie Ange rushed off to fight the enemy legions," yes, Makoto recalled hearing that a foreign princess had come to visit the royal family.

"And you ran away," Iona said between teeth, softly enough that only Makoto could hear it.

"Er, um, well… Ah… Then, I… Well…" By then she was tripping on her own words, but, gently, Reika urged her to keep going. "Ange. Marie Ange, she came to me, and she gave me the Crown. She said it was dangerous for it to remain there, that it had done a great deal of harm, and I didn't really understand what she meant, but she sounded serious, and Trump was filled with those terrible Selfish, and, ah, well, I did as she told me. I took the Crown, boarded a ship, and got the hell out of there," she saw that everyone was still paying attention, so she continued. Makoto look to Iona at her side, and saw that she was scratching the table with force, scraping off thin strips of wood until her fingers bled. "I hid the true Crown in the Blue Sky Palace."

Everyone was silently nodding, Reika looking like she tried to see where this piece could fit in the puzzle, but her grimace showed her frustration in failing to do so. Nozomi let out a wow that Komachi was quick to imitate, though with less enthusiasm, and when Makoto looked again to her side, Iona was gone. She had jumped up her seat and ran towards Hime, stopping ominously right in front of her, fingertips red, her eyes dark. Hime looked like she'd rather be somewhere else, anywhere. Her wary eyes seemed to ask for help, and Iona seemed so angry that Makoto feared she actually would be capable of hurting Princess.

"So what you are saying," she said, caustic, "is that you decided to keep this crucial piece of information hidden? Just like how you tried to hide what you did with the Dream Collet? Are you trying to hide something else, Your Highness?"

"I-I-I…" She shied away from Iona, but Fortune's face neared hers. Hime could barely speak, her teeth chattering violently. Her hands were shaking, and so were her shoulders.

"Do you know how much trouble could have been avoided if you opened your mouth to say something useful, for once? We almost died at Trump, you know? And-"

"Iona!" Nozomi shouted, and walked towards her. "We weren't even there to look for the Crown, in the first place! Have you forgotten that? Are you really that eager to blame Hime even when she hasn't done anything wrong?"

"N-no, it's not that," Iona said, her tone suddenly changing. She stepped back, avoiding all the eyes that now stared at her. "I didn't… No, I didn't do anything, I was just…"

"Iona," Nozomi approached her, gentler now, and tried to make Fortune look at her in the eye, but she avoided her, and before Nozomi could say anything else, bolted off, wordlessly, but as she passed by, Makoto saw that her face was not just anger but guilt, the two feelings entwined, feeding off the other.

No one seemed to know what to say, so no words were spoken. Hime's face was red, and she had to stay close to Yuko for comfort. Nozomi sat by Reika's side with a sigh, and they whispered at each other, but Makoto could not hear. She wondered if this was a frequent occurrence. Still, Iona's expression did not seem like common guilt. It seemed far more pained than that.

"I'll go talk to her," said Makoto, knowing all too well that she was one of the least qualified people there, but also knowing that she was the only who had the courage to do so. Nozomi and Reika nodded at her in silent blessing.

Still unused to Last Light, Makoto tried her hardest to retrace her steps back home, a task that took her longer than she hoped thanks to the similarity of all the houses, all using the same type of wood, the only one available in the dead, withering forests nearby. As such, they were all of dark, bland shades, and were all alike.

Eventually she found the only house with its front door left open, and she recognized its interior, and stepped inside. There, she found Iona, sat on a corner, playing with a deck of cards, grunting as she looked at them.

"Iona," Makoto spoke, calling her attention.

"Oh, it's you," said Iona. "I heard your footsteps. Thought that it would be Nozomi or Reika to scold me."

"I'm not here to scold you," she said. "I just wanted to ask if you're alright."

"Of course I'm not alright," she said. "I made an ass out of myself in front of everyone. Again," she sighed. "I let my anger cloud my thoughts, and let it force the words out of my mouth."

"Why were you so angry? Do you dislike Hime, or something of the sort?"

"Dislike?" She let out a harsh chuckle. "You could say that. I can't bear to look at her," she blurted out.

"How so?"

"The sight of her fills me with anger," she said, "like you saw. Because it's all her fault. Everything that happened… It's all thanks to her. You know what she did, don't you?" Makoto shook her head. "Oh, right, you were at Trump when it happened. Shortly before the Death of the Stars, news got out that Hime lost the Dream Collet. She let it be stolen from her by the enemies of the Precure. They used it to… You know."

"I do," said Makoto. "But-"

"I lost my sister that day," she said. "The most precious person in the world to me. All because of Hime's foolishness. I cannot ever forgive her for what she took from me in her stupidity, thinking she could set all wrongs right so easily. I always knew she was a spoiled little princess, I never liked what little I knew of her, but I didn't expect her to be so stupid, so incapable of understanding that her actions might have consequences that she does not wish to face. I can't forgive her for imposing her desires on the whole world. Did she not realize how much she was risking? She had to, but she did it anyway, because she is a child who thinks she can do anything. She robbed me of my sister."

"Iona…"

"Yes, yes, I know," she said before even listening to Makoto. "I know everyone lost someone they love with the Death of the Stars. You did, too. It's probably self-absorbed of me to feel the way I feel, isn't it? Blaming Hime for what happened to my sister when she lost her family too, when so many people lost people who are dear to them. I know my feelings are wrong, but I can't stop myself from feeling them, can't stop myself from justifying them in my head."

"I know," Makoto said, disturbed by Iona's words, because they could very well be her own. She hadn't been the only person hurt by the Selfish, yet most citizens of Trump weren't going around beheading them. But they should. She put her arm around Iona, fearful that she might lash out, but Iona allowed it, and let out a sigh.

"How do you cope?" She asked. "With all these bad feelings, if you have them. I'm not the only one, right?"

"No," she admitted.

"How do you deal with it, then? How do you not fall apart?"

I don't really deal with it, she thought, but left those words unsaid.

"Vengeance," she said. Each time she said the word, she found that she liked the sound a little bit more, and could almost feel its taste when she felt the word on the tip of her tongue. "Ange is dead, and Trump is probably beyond saving. It won't ever be the same again. Even if we free it, we'll have to live on with the burden of sorrow, of mourning, and even if we pretend that life could be normal, Trump will always feel empty. That brings me no joy, but…" She should not admit these things, but in this, at least, Iona seemed trustworthy enough. "Whenever I killed the Selfish who had ruined my home, who had taken away everyone I love… That brought me joy. When I cut down a Selfish soldier exploiting the people of Trump, of course I felt good for doing justice, but I felt even better to rid the world of a monster. It's not what Ange would have wanted, I know. Yet… I cannot bring her back, but I can punish all those who have taken her away."

"Ah," said Iona. Her eyes asked for more, and Makoto obliged.

"I killed one of the Selfish generals, an unpleasant man named Lust. I got some information out of it, but that was not even the most important thing. He had stolen ancestral treasures of Trump, our very culture, and twisted it. So I chopped off his head. Some time later, I fought another of the generals of the Selfish in single combat. Goma, she was called. She too was a terrible woman, a coward who couldn't even face the consequences of defiling my home. Before she died, I learned from her the true killer of Ange. Bel. I know him. I've seen him before. If I close my eyes, I can remember his face perfectly, nearly as well as Ange's."

"Did you…?"

"Hm? No. We had to leave Trump before I could find him," said Makoto.

"But if you return?"

"Yes," she said. "I will avenge my princess. I could not protect her, I failed at that, I always fail at protecting the things that are dear to me. All I'm good for is hurting others. That is why I am Cure Sword. Swords have a single purpose, and that is inflicting pain and death. I've always been like this, you know. I killed my own mother to come into this world," Iona's eyes shifted, not with pity but with something closer to understanding. "The same thing happened to Ange. She too has never known her mother. Of course, mine was the wife of a fisherman, nobody of importance, whereas the queen had been loved by all, so of course Ange knew much about her. But that's not my point. My point is that we bonded over this when I was a child at the palace, under her care. It made her feel closer to me. It's almost funny, how she and I bonded over pain, the way we're doing now. Heh. I guess it really is all I know in life."

"You know that isn't true," said Iona. "You've spoken of your friends, and how much you love them."

"You might be right," she said, "but you were also right when you said that even when your feelings are wrong, it's hard to abandon them. The worst feelings are the ones we cling to the most, sometimes."

"Yeah," said Iona, thoughtful. Makoto wondered what was going on in her head. "I had never thought much about vengeance," she said, in the tone of a confession. "Really, I hadn't. The thought crossed my mind, but even after I learned from Mirage that it was Phantom who… Who defeated my sister, I didn't think about him. I blamed Hime instead. That was stupid of me, wasn't it?"

"It's not stupid to be wrong," said Makoto. "From your perspective-"

"I'll never like Hime, you know," she said, her voice full of a surprising softness that Makoto had never heard. "I don't think I'll ever be capable of truly forgiving her. But… I think you have the right idea," she picked up one of the cards scattered around the floor, and smiled at it. Makoto could not see which one it was. "We Precure are said to fight for love, told not to use hatred as our strength, and yet… And yet we hate, don't we?" Makoto nodded slowly. "So I should hate the right person," she began to close her hand into a fist, "focus it all on the person who was actually responsible for my loss. Phantom is not too far way from here, according to Mirage and Megumi. I will not hide from him. I will find him. And then…"

And then what, Makoto thought, but she didn't need to ask as she saw Iona open her hand and revealed a card, its form crumpled and ruined, barely recognizable, crushed in anger.

The fence's gate swung open with a loud whine, slowly making way so that Rikka and Yuri could pass and set foot on the now-withered garden of the Blue Rose's shrine. The flowers had shrunk and had become so dry that they crumbled when Rikka touched them. They had been rainbows when she left, but now that she returned, they all had the same color, an ugly, lifeless brown.

Rikka walked gingerly across the dead garden, eerie in its silence now that butterflies, bees and hummingbirds no longer came, their wings fluttering, to kiss the flowers.

She slid the front door open, letting sunlight in, tinging the empty rooms with red light. All windows were closed, and Rikka feared that Aguri had, indeed, been slain by Regina, but as she explored further inside, she heard the sound of boiling, bubbling water, and she noticed the soft scent of white tea coming from the kitchen.

Aguri awaited by the backyard porch, comfortably seated on a gently rocking chair, eyes closed as she slept with her hands on her fairy Ai's head, she too asleep. Aguri's face was a mess of still-red scars and white bandages that left little of her skin visible. Her chest rose and fell constantly, with urgency, but her visage was peaceful. Rikka stepped lightly so as not to disturb her, and didn't alert Aguri of her arrival. Yuri returned to the kitchen, to bring them some tea, while Rikka took off her shoes and sat down on the floor, close to Aguri, putting Raquel on her lap. She pet her fairy, and looked at the sky as she tried to relax, slowly growing more aware of the exhaustion that had taken her body.

A moment later, Yuri was back, her hands full as she did her best to balance three cups of tea, steam rising from their tops, atop plates carrying some pieces of hard bread, butter, old cheese and tiny grapes. She set a plate by Aguri's feet, too, for when she woke. Raquel nibbled on the cheese as Rikka took the cup to her lips, taking a sip that almost burned her tongue.

She set the cup down, and looked at Yuri, her eyes closed as she drank her tea. When she opened them, they met Rikka's, curious.

"Hm?"

"It's nothing," said Rikka, a bit embarrassed that Yuri noticed her stare. "I'm just… I thought that I'm almost glad to be here."

"Only almost?"

"I'd rather be with… You know," Yuri nodded. "Not because I don't love you, because I do, but… I miss them so much, my friends. And yet I know that this is the best possible place to be, all things considered. You and Aguri," she hesitated. "You'll find this stupid if I say it."

"No."

"Alright. We are all alone save for one another. We have all lost everything. After all the time we spent together, here, talking, eating together, even having fun, despite the state of the world… There were times where I'd find myself thinking of you two as…" It really was embarrassing. "As sisters, almost," she said, then remembered Dark Precure, and regretted her words at once. Yuri winced, too, and Rikka began to mumble an apology.

"It's fine," she said. "Really, it is. It just brings me bad memories, that word."

There didn't seem to be a great deal of things that brought her any good memories, a fact that always filled Rikka with sorrow. It didn't look like it would get better any time soon.

"If you dislike it, then I-"

"No. I like it if it's you," she said. "I'm happy to have you by my side. I'm lucky," her smile was gentle, subtle. "You and Aguri. I haven't told you why Aguri and I had such a strong understanding."

"You did tell me that-"

"No," she interrupted. "There is… Another reason," she lifted her head to look at Aguri, her eyes still shut. The chair was too big for her, and she looked so fragile, with all those bandages and wounds, her skin like brittle porcelain, already breaking. "I want to tell you. And why Blossom and I distanced ourselves from one another."

"Alright," said Rikka, surprised at how forward Yuri was being. It was unlike her, so Rikka took that as undeniable proof of the trust and the bond between them.

"When we were fighting Dune, and Dark Precure stood on our way, she nearly killed me. My father was freed from Dune's grasp, then, and he explained what he had done," Yuri's voice began to break. "He said that Dark Precure was a copy of me. And he called her my little sister. Why did he have to say that? Did he expect us to love each other? I think he was desperate to justify his actions, to try and make something good of it. Perhaps he felt so sorry for that girl that he meant to make her part of our family, so that he could convince himself that there might be a happy ending to it-"

"Yuri…"

"But there couldn't be. The possibility never existed. Dark Precure wanted me dead, but I defeated her. She died in battle, and as she stared at me, unblinking, I couldn't stop hearing those words. She's your little sister. Did he understand just how guilty he made me feel, when the guilt should lie with him, and Dune, and the Red Rose? Was that his intention? Dark Precure was not my sister. She could never love me, nor could I love her. Her sole driving force was her desire to kill me. I feel sorry for her. Truly, I do. The life that was imposed on her by the Red Rose was a crime, and so were Dune's cruel intentions to use her as his soldier. She was a child nourished by venom and bile, weaned on hatred, a puppet of the Red Rose, and later of Dune. I don't blame her for becoming a monster. But I cannot love her, cannot see her as my sister."

"And Tsubomi?" Rikka almost didn't want to ask. Yuri had never looked so hurt, even when nightmares plagued her, when she cried, unable to wake up but forced to relive her terrors.

"She has a kind heart," she said, "too kind. Kindness has made her frail. She believe in my father's words without question. She herself had a little sister, you know. Futaba, only a few days old. Surely you can imagine the burden she carried, and the stress it caused her," Rikka gave a curt nod. "She wasn't just fighting for the sake of the world, but for her newborn sister. She was emotional and, like I said, frail, easily-hurt. And she broke when I killed Dark Precure."

Yuri stopped talking, as if waiting for Diamond to say something, but Rikka just listened. Raquel's ears had lifted up, as he paid careful attention,. Then, Yuri continued.

"She was horrified by what I had done. Her heart always beat full of sympathy, even for our enemies, but she had never broken like that. It scared me, the things she said then, the way she looked at me. Her eyes… They made me feel alone. Overwhelmingly alone. She told me I had no right to take the life of someone who had suffered for so long, my own sister. She wouldn't listen to me. She had always been so understanding, always was the one person I could depend on when I was at my lowest. She abandoned me. Even as we fought Dune, even as we performed our Floral Power Fortissimo, I felt a great distance to her. At the end, she walked away, not saying a word, and I haven't seen her since. No one had."

"What of your father?"

"He lived, despite the rumors," said Yuri. "But he had to run, of course. He knew the secrets of the Red Rose and their plan to create artificial Cures, like Dark Precure had been. He said he wanted to atone. Then he left, too, taking Dark Precure with him, to bury her, and I was all alone."

There were few sights as painful as Moonlight's tears. Rikka cringed, wanted to look away, but she knew that far too many people had looked away from Moonlight, so she looked at her, even when it hurt the most, seeing such a proud and strong person weep like that. Yuri put her head on Rikka's shoulder. She stroke her head, while Raquel took her hand. When Yuri let go of Rikka, she insisted on putting Raquel on her lap, to pet him, for comfort. Rikka remembered that she lost her fairy, too, another blow to her heart. With the way she cried, Yuri looked like the most lonely person Rikka had ever seen.

Diamond sat closer to her, refusing to let her ever be lonely. Yuri seemed to appreciate it. She winked insistently until her tears were gone, and looked into Rikka's eyes.

"Thank you," she said. "Though I think there's still one more thing I must tell you. Regarding Aguri."

"Yeah," said Rikka.

"We both have had, how do I put it…? Similar experiences regarding people we were expected to see as sisters."

"Shouldn't we wait for her to be awake?" Rikka asked, suddenly thinking that perhaps it wasn't too polite to speak about a person who was asleep right in front of them.

"I am," she said, slowly opening her eyes. She stretched her arms, and Ai woke, too. "I just didn't want to interrupt."

"Moonlight has told you this before?"

"Mh-hm. I hope this does not offend you. It doesn't mean that she trusts me more than she trusts you. It's just that we know similar pains."

"No offense taken," said Rikka. Of course she wouldn't be bothered by that. Everyone had the right to keep their secrets, though Aguri had too many of those. She had, however, promised the truth, so Rikka was suddenly anxious to hear it.

"I had a sister, too," she said, "and I told Yuri about it. I heard her talk about a sister when she was having a nightmare, so I approached her. I told her of my sister. A terrible girl, whom I so greatly despised. She wasn't even my sister, really. We weren't bonded by blood, but by something more painful, that hurt me when we were close. We were raised together, for a while, but she always caused everyone pain, yet she was spoiled, while I was full of virtue that was always chastised. I was forced to call her sister even though I was certain that she always wanted to kill me. I wanted to kill her, at least."

"Ah," said Rikka. It was harsh of her to say that, but she appreciated the honesty. After saying those words, Aguri reached down to get her tea, and drank from the cup. When she was done, she directed an apologetic stare to Yuri.

"I'm afraid, however, that I have omitted a detail from the story I told you. I am deeply sorry, but I could not trust you with the truth, then, only with my task. You don't have the Crown, do you?" They shook their heads. "I figured so. If I had the Crown, you would be able to see my story. As it is, you'll have to hear my words."

"Can we trust you?" Asked Yuri. "You have hid so much from us, and now you say there was more you hid even from me, when I opened up to you…"

"Like I said, I'm sorry. My past has made me paranoid. I will give you all the truth, if you are willing to hear, and I will confirm that you can trust me by telling you the secret I've kept from you. I had a girl I had to call sister, like I told you. That part was no lie. I hid only her name: Regina."

"R-Regina? The Regina?" Aguri nodded.

"You cannot believe it, can you?" She said with a sad smile.

"No, I believe you," said Rikka. "It's just… I had not expected this. And I don't understand…"

"But I will explain," she said. "I'm sorry for everything I hid from you, but you'll understand I had my reasons. Now make yourselves comfortable. It's a long story, and I must tell you all of it."

Mana had said nothing when the Selfish found her lighting the Starlight Flame atop the royal palace of Trump, and she maintained that silence even as she was dragged in chains to the dungeons, even as Bel asked her a thousand questions. She did not say a word when the Selfish laughed at her in her captivity, and she was determined not to say anything now that they dragged her away, even though she did not know where she was being taken to. It didn't matter, anyway. The Selfish kept moving her to a different cell each day just to torment her, to make sure she could never get used to this, but they failed miserably, as she had gotten used to pain a long time ago, all thanks to them and to what they had done to her home and her friends. She didn't care about what they did to her, now that she had given her life, her freedom and her well-being to save the ones she loved. Her eyes got used to the darkness, her arms to the shackles, and her lips to stillness.

They took her up a long flight of stairs, sighing all the while at the lowly task they had been given. There was no prestige in watching over the prisoners, no glories to be earned, and it actually took effort, a combination that left the Selfish discontent. Mana knew she could take advantage of that, somehow, and she also knew that she would have done that, once, but now she could not see the point. If she managed to escape the dungeons, where would she go, what would she do? She just did as she was told, and followed the Selfish as they guided her through the damp corridors of the basements of the palace, now turned into a prison. Mold gathered on the corners, and broken pipes appeared here and there, drops of water dripping non-stop, on the floor, on her hair.

She was stopped in front of a door, and made to walk inside. There, the room did not stink, and light shone through a small window. It captivated her eyes, but she could only admire it for a few short moments before she was made to sit down on a small, uncomfortable chair. A Selfish took scissors to her messy, tangled hair, and though Mana couldn't see the work being done, she felt significantly lighter. They rubbed something on her hair, then violently combed it into something presentable, soaking it in rosewater when they were done. She was told to open her mouth, and sweet-smelling fennel was shoved inside for her to chew. It wasn't a true bath, but she felt clean enough, better than she had been for months.

Once finished, Mana was made to get up again, and to follow the Selfish. She already understood what the purpose of this had been, of course. They were taking her to someone who was important enough that it would be unacceptable for Mana to speak to them in such a sorry state. Regina, she presumed, and feared. She had heard of the deeds of the one they called the Selfish Princess, of her love for battle and her subjugation of all the resistance in Trump. Mana could only wonder what a girl like that could possibly want with her.

She passed by one of the palace's courtyards, the one next to the glasshouse built by a queen long dead, ages ago, a woman who loved exotic flowers and great monuments. She looked above, and saw the sun, and felt its warmth. When she had gotten used to the cold of her prison cell, it was easy for her to stop caring about her life, her fate, but now that she felt the sun's shine again, she began to fear what Regina might want with her.

The path she was guided through was long, twisty, thanks to all the burned down rooms and corridors that were now inaccessible, that looked as if they would take years to be rebuild, and even so would never look as beautiful as they once were. Where she passed, Mana saw that the walls were peeling off, and the stench of ruin was unbearable. Defiant, she smiled, in spite of all else. Trump's palace was as ugly as the rest of the city, now. She wondered how Regina felt about that. She hoped it left a bitter taste on her tongue, to know that she was a princess of ashes and dust.

Then she remembered that those ashes were her home, that dust had been her dreams. After that, it was hard to stay smiling, so she only looked down and did whatever she was told to. Soon she was ascending one flight of stairs after another, and she knew that she was nearing her destination. She looked at a massive door that led to the royal chambers of old, wherein countless kings and queens of Trump had spent their nights. The current king, lord of the Selfish, was quite oversized, so it did not surprise Mana to see that the chambers had been taken by his daughter.

"Wait here," said a Selfish guiding her. The others let out relieved sighs and cheers, and began walking away. The last one knocked on the door, waited for a few seconds, and then ran off to join his friends, leaving Mana all alone.

To her own surprise, she stood there. She could not will herself to run away, as she remembered that it would do her no good. Some moments passed before the door opened, but when Mana tried to see who it was that greeted her, she saw no one until she looked down. There, opening the door with great difficulty, was a small stuffed bunny dressed in pink, her red eyes far too tiny for her massive head, larger than the rest of her body. Its weight made her walk awkwardly as Mana followed her inside.

The room smell of cotton candy and strawberries; all along the walls were huge pillows and cushions. Over the floor, board games were scattered, and amidst them were knives, maps, books and letters, thrown with seemingly no order.

"The princess will see you soon," said the bunny. Mana nodded as politely as she could.

When Mana gazed upon the Selfish Princess, she was, admittedly, more than a little disappointed. She was jumping on her huge bed, all the while a boy talked to her. Mana recognized him as General Ira, trying to make himself heard by Regina, but to no avail, as she was too caught up in her little game, jumping as high as she could, falling as hard as possible. She stopped only when her heels poked holes on her mattress, and at once she gestured at Ira to make him shut up.

"Have Marmo deal with it. Bring me a new mattress. This one is ruined."

"I… Marmo isn't in Trump!" Mana almost laughed at the distressed Ira, even though it would probably have endangered her life right now. "That's exactly what I was saying to you! I've been trying to contact her, but I can't! I don't know what she's doing, and-"

"Then you deal with it," her voice stopped being simply playful, and made Ira take a few steps back immediately, "and go get me a new mattress or you'll be enjoying your new rank as target practice for my Glaive."

He obeyed without question, walking with haste. Regina jumped back on her bed, letting all her weight fall on it at once, sinking into its mattress. She then regarded Mana with curiosity.

"Oh, right," she said, "you must be the Precure. I had almost forgotten. Usapyon!"

The bunny came running awkwardly, waddling on her short legs. She gave Regina a quick but polite bow.

"Yes, my princess?"

"The Precure is here!" Said Regina, with excitement that Mana could not identify as being honest or mockery. "We ought to greet her, right? Did you introduce yourself to her?" The bunny shook her head. Regina's eyes were unamused. "Then go do it."

"I, um," the bunny extended her arm in an invitation to shake hands, and Mana promptly accepted, careful not to use too much strength. "My name is Usapyon."

"Go on," said Regina. "I'm sure she'd love to hear about your past. Tell her where you came from."

"I used to live in the Land of Toys," she said, and put a hand on her chest. Mana saw that inside, a heart was beating. Mana had heard the tale of how Flora had bloomed an unique flower into existence, a red flower that pulsated strongly. When those flowers were placed inside toys, they began to move on their own, began to think, to live, and for that gift they worshipped her to this day, even after she locked herself away in her Rose Garden. "And then…" She looked at Regina, whose face had now changed, her lips curved, entertained. "Regina brought me here."

That alone said everything that Mana needed to hear.

"I wanted toys, you see," Regina explained, "and not the boring ones we have here in Trump. I had to look elsewhere," she made a grand gesture as she pointed at her open window, "to the Land of Toys, where I brought back a great haul of the most incredible playthings I've ever seen. They are so lifelike, you know? They cry when they are sad, they scream in pain when they are hurt. Could you imagine a regular toy doing that?"

"They are alive," said Mana. She put herself between Usapyon and Regina, and the bunny began to hysterically say that there was nothing wrong, that Regina wasn't hurting her, but Mana doubted it. Still, she let go, and kept staring at Regina.

"Whatever! I got another toy when I attacked the Bad End Kingdom, too," she said, "a much better toy. The Miracle Dragon Glaive."

"You're lying."

"I'm not. I already knew where it was. That terrible man, Joker, he had stolen it from me. But that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you're here, so I have a new plaything!"

"I'm not your plaything."

"Bzzt!" She yelled, childlike, her hand reaching out for her spear. "Wrong answer! You get no points, and only one chance left," she pointed the darkened tip of the weapon at Mana, who tried to pretend it did not terrify her. Regina's look made it evident that she was failing. "I'm just joking with you! I wouldn't hurt my new toy so soon. Especially when it's one as entertaining as you."

"I don't follow."

"Look," Regina crossed her legs and put the Glaive on her lap, "I'll give you the short of it. All my past toys have been terribly boring. I wanted friends, you see, so I sought people from Trump, but they were always disappointing. They always did everything I said, the way I commanded."

"I'd expect you'd love that."

"I already have everything I want. A loving and all-powerful father, an entire kingdom to play with. I've led armies to victory and controlled all rebellions in Trump. As you may have noticed by now, I have won. There are no challenges anymore, no fun games. No one to defy my will, no one who can surprise me."

"And you want me to do that?"

"But of course! There is one thing I have not accomplished yet. I have not yet corrupted a Precure. I have turned many into Jikochuu, but I have never had one by my side, a true Selfish. And that's what I want. When I heard we had captured a Precure, I was so excited! Some excitement, finally! So that's why I brought you here. What do you think?"

"I think you are the most childish person I have ever seen. You take pleasure in horrible, cruel things. Why do abuse your power this way, when you know it makes you a monster?"

"Don't you Precure have a saying about it? A crown in the Garden of Thorns is more precious than all the flowers of the Rose Garden. Yes, I may be a bad person. But I'm full of happiness, and I do things the way I want, not the way I'm told."

She failed to mention that the saying was spoken by the cruel Cure Winter, a Precure who had been a perfect example of what a person should not be.

"I will not do what you want."

"That's the spirit," she said. "Your name is Mana, right? Mana, Mana, Mana! A fun name to yell. Oh, we'll have so much fun together! You'll be my friend, won't you? You have to be. I want a real friend, not a servant. You'll do it, right?"

Mana said nothing. This was too much, it was madness. Regina was far more erratic than she had feared. She was a child acting exclusively on her whims.

"Oh, and by the way, if you say no, I'll turn you into a Jikochuu."

"Fine," said Mana. Yes, she remembered, I'm already doomed anyways. I knew it all too well when I stayed behind to save everyone. If this is to be the price I pay, I will suffer it.

"Good! More than good, it's great! No, more than great, it's… Usapyon, tell me something that's more than great."

"It's excellent," said the bunny.

"I do love that word," she said. "What an excellent friendship we'll have. You won't disappoint me like the others, I know it. You will be a real challenge, but by the end, you'll be as rotten as I am."

"I doubt it," said Mana. She wondered if she could perhaps make Regina a bit better, but she seriously doubted it.

"We'll see. Well, we'll need to make arrangements for your quarters, right? Can't have my friend sleeping in a stinky prison cell. You can have my old bedroom."

"Thanks," Mana said with no enthusiasm. "Where would that be?"

"Oh, it's the old bedroom, empty now, except for my old safe, the one I can't get rid of for some reason."

"Your… Your safe?" This was a joke, or a mistake. Regina was just playing a game with her.

"Oh, right! You don't know! Since you're my friend, I think I can tell you."

She jumped on her feet, standing tall on her bed, Glaive in hand. She paused, thinking of her words.

"I'm Marie Ange," she said, finally. Mana didn't say a thing; she just stared. "Or rather, I'm the good half of her."

"The… The… No… What are you even talking about?"

"When Trump fell," said Regina, "did you ever wonder what happened to your dear princess?"

"She died, Makoto told me."

"Makoto can't tell her head from her ass! She's a child. No, someone like Ange would not simply die. What happened was way cooler than that! Do you know who the Selfish King really is?"

"A monster."

"Watch your words," she said in a sinister tone. "While Ange was ill, dying of a terrible curse, Papa despaired," Mana began to wonder if perhaps she was saying the truth. She did not want to accept it. "He had lost his wife when Ange was born, and he could not let go of his sole treasure. I don't remember very well what happened, my memory's kinda spotty, but he made a pact with the First Selfish, giving his soul in exchange of a cure for his daughter. Blah, blah, blah, he became the Selfish King, Trump fell, don't need to tell you how that happened. But I do need to tell you that Ange had a chance to kill the Selfish King."

"You're lying," said Mana. "He's alive."

"Is it so hard for you to understand that she might have hesitated to kill her father? He gave his soul in exchange for her life. That's kind of a big sacrifice, don't you think? She couldn't do it. She was torn between the duty to betray the person who loved her the most, and the feelings she still had for her father, who had risked everything for the sake of her life. So Ange did not finish him off, and instead she simply cursed him, turning him to stone, in hopes that she might one day be able to save him."

"The king… He would not do that, would he?"

"Love is selfishness," said Regina, "which is why selfishness is the most beautiful thing in the world. For the love you feel for one, you would doom many others. As Papa did. As Ange did, by sparing his life. But she never had the chance to find a cure for him. She was approached by Bel. You know him, don't you?"

"Yeah," said Mana. She knew he was dangerous, perhaps the most dangerous of the Selfish generals. She didn't think much of it, still trying to make sense of Regina's words.

"He did kill Marie Ange, as you may have heard. Well, kind of. He found her lying in the streets, weeping, her heart divided. Her Psyche had began to corrupt itself with the darkness of the Selfish. Yes, I remember it. It's one of my most vivid memories of being Ange. She took her own Psyche, and broke it in half. Do you even begin to understand what that means?"

"N-Not really."

"It is dangerous magic. Theoretically impossible. Ange did it because she was a coward. She was afraid of the selfishness in her Psyche. She was ashamed of the love she felt for her father. She hoped that by tearing her Psyche, she could get rid of the darkness. Instead, she made a miracle with her own hands. Each half became its own Psyche," she pointed at her heart, "and became a person. Myself, born of love, of loyalty, of the desire for happiness, safety, friends and all the joys in life, and my sister Aguri, her heart cold, uninviting, more concerned about what she called duty than her own family."

"H-How?"

"Beats me," said Regina. "I'm not a scholar, and I don't care to learn why we were born. Aguri said it was because a Psyche cannot exist without a host. Whatever. We lived as sisters for a few months, here in the palace. We quickly learned that we had been the same being, that Ange's memories had been split between us, imperfectly. There are holes in my mind, you see, things I could not remember, and yet Aguri could."

"Do the Selfish know about, er, the circumstances of your birth?"

"Nah," she said. "Well, Papa does. And Bel too, of course. Papa… Was not too happy. Marie Ange was the daughter he loved, he told us, not these two children, imitations of the girl he sacrificed himself for. Aguri didn't care, of course. She just stared at him, defiant, and I knew at once she wanted to destroy him. I, however… I knew what he had given away to save me, when I was still Marie Ange. I promised him I would be a good daughter, that I would make him love me, I would make him proud, just as he had been proud of Marie Ange."

"Ah," said Mana. She shouldn't feel sorry for Regina, and yet… "And Bel?"

"He's the one who defeated Ange, who saw her split her Psyche. He wanted to kill us, you know, Aguri and I. He spent nearly a week looking for the two halves of Ange's Psyche, to make sure there were no loose ends."

"Clearly it didn't work."

"Right. The two Psyches spawned Aguri and I, in a dirty street of the baker's street. We were the way we are now," she pointed at herself, "and our minds were clear. We understood what we were. She despised me from the start."

"While you were full of love," Mana knew those were risky words, but she had nothing to lose, so she spat them out.

"I did not hate her," said Regina, "not until she did this," she pointed the bandages on her face. "I wanted Papa to be happy, so I never hurt Aguri. I thought that maybe he'd be happy with us. We're each half of Ange, after all, so I hoped… I hoped that he'd be happy to see us," her unbandaged eye betrayed sadness even as she turned her face away from Mana. "He was disappointed, like I said. He didn't love me. Aguri, however, he hated. Once he understood what she was, he knew she was danger. But his heart is still full of love, so he decided to raise the two of us, together. Do you understand? He gave us a chance to be the daughter he always loved."

Somehow Mana could not see the king loving Regina the way he loved Marie Ange. Suddenly Mana felt a chill. She had no idea who this Aguri person was, and she hadn't seen her yet.

"This Aguri, did she…"

"She ran away," said Regina, "she refused our father's love. More for me, really, so I don't mind, but I really did try to make her love me. I wanted her to love me. I wanted her to call me sister. I want a family all my own, a family that will stay with me and give me gifts and all of their love. All of it, unconditionally."

"How did she escape?"

"Oh, some servant took one of the boats and sailed across the Amethyst sea," said Regina. "I never liked the woman, she gave Aguri more attention than she gave to me. Anyways, for the longest time, I thought they had died, but I guess I underestimated Aguri. She gave me these wounds," she pointed at them again, "but don't think I just took it without resisting. No, I gave her a mark so that she would remember me."

Mana took a deep breath, and tried to comprehend all she heard. It was a lot to take. Too much. She glanced at Regina's eye, large and striking, full of life even as she stood still. From what she heard about Regina, Mana knew she should not show her any sympathy, but she found the girl pitiful, pathetic.

"So," said Regina, "your job starts now. You will keep me company so I won't have to be alone with my useless generals. Any questions?" Heart shook her head, not for lack of questions, but because she did not know where to even start.

"I…" Mana put a hand on her forehead, still half-wondering if this was a fever dream, but her brow was cold. "I think I need to sit down."

"Well, do it on the floor," Regina said casually, spinning the Glaive. "My mattress is messed up enough already."

"I am Marie Ange," said Aguri, and Rikka could not even decide if that was the most astonishing thing she had heard this night. "Well, not quite. I am the unblemished half of Ange's Psyche, one of two remnants of the heart she split when she realized she was lost."

"So the other half would be-"

"Regina, yes," Aguri spoke with haste, "which is why I was expected to call her my sister, to love her. I never could. She is an aberration born from the weakness in Ange's heart that drove her to betray her country and forsake her duty."

Rikka didn't say anything. She wanted to doubt it, but when she asked for proof, Cure Ace was quick to tell her things that only Marie Ange should have known.

"I don't really feel like Marie Ange, to tell the truth," Aguri continued, and as she told her tale, she leaned closer and closer to Yuri and Rikka. "Though I was born of her heart, though I have some of her memories and some of her powers, she feels like a different person entirely. An abhorrent person," she said, spiteful, "for what she did."

"You can't blame her for hesitating to kill her father," said Yuri. "It is a hard thing to ask of anyone."

"Being hard doesn't make it any less right," she said, "and the easy way, the one more comfortable for your spirit, may very well be rotten. She chose love over duty, family over country, one over many, and in doing so she allowed the Selfish King to consolidate his power. She did it with a heavy heart, yes, but she did it anyways."

"So," Yuri said, "Regina was born of that love?" Aguri replied with a nod. "Does that mean there is good in her?"

"No," Rikka noticed that Aguri clenched her fist. "There is nothing good about the love she has in her. When we were raised together, she wanted to be loved, she craved it, its absence made her ill. But she wished only to take love, never give it, save for the monstrous father Ange gave her life for. She is half a person, with half a heart."

"Aren't you the same?"

"Yes," her eyes seemed a bit sad, but she carried on, "the two of us, the way we are now, are incomplete beings. We've inherited half of Ange's essence. Her memories, her thoughts, her loves and ideals, all spilled randomly into two girls. But only half for each. I can feel the emptiness, you know. At night I'm kept awake by bitter longings and nostalgia for that which I cannot even remember experiencing. I knew that I had once been Marie Ange, and I knew that I was born from half of her Psyche, and therefore I am only half a person, and the rest of me is emptiness. Yes, I know it. Regina knew, too, but never cared. She was happy the way she was. Because she wanted love, and that she could find easily. I, however… I remember the duty I have, a duty I can only fulfil when I am whole again."

"So you need Regina's half?" Rikka had trouble understanding.

"Of course not," she said, "her Psyche is rotten. She is a being that is purely selfish, incapable of good. And Marie Ange, in the end, knew that she had done a great evil in letting her father live. It is why she tore her heart in half, rather than just let herself be killed. So that her selfless half, reborn within me, could undo all the harm she had caused. Fate conspired to allow my birth, do you understand? I was born a Precure, fit to lead the Blue Rose. When Ange failed to finish off the Selfish King, she did so because he knew her father had done that sacrifice for her. Her selfishness convinced her that his good intentions could redeem his soul, somehow, so she gave him a chance. But I was born free of that taint, and I know that evil done with good intentions is still evil. Mari knew it. She was the one who helped me escape from Trump, the one who brought me here. I called her grandmother even though we had no ties of blood. When Regina tormented me, she was the only who would defend me. She was a good woman. The most painful thing I have ever done was to tell her to leave, as I knew it would not be safe to be by my side once I revived the Blue Rose. And she understood I had to."

"I wouldn't say the Blue Rose is really revived…" Rikka had read about the glory days of the Blue Rose, when it was the fiercest enemy of the Red Rose, and had hundreds of Precure in its ranks, almost all of them chosen by the god Blue.

"Not yet, of course," said Aguri, "and it may take a little longer now, thanks to recent troubles we've both had. But it will happen once I fill the emptiness in me, the missing half of my Psyche. You understand why I was mistaken about the Crown, right? I remembered that I had put a crown in the room I had mentioned to you, but had forgotten that it was a fake, a trap. This is my curse, of not knowing which of my thoughts are real, which ones are missing pieces, which of my memories I can trust. I felt I could trust this one. It was more vivid than others. I apologize for my mistake."

"I-It's fine," said Rikka, lying, wanting only to avoid further talks about that subject. It still hurt to remember, and her only way to cope was to forget.

"I must regain Ange's memories and knowledges," said Aguri, "and then I will become what I was always meant to be."

"How exactly is that possible?" Yuri's tone was doubtful.

Aguri only smiled, the smile she always showed when she knew something no one else did, which, Rikka reflected, must be quite common, given her past. She set Ai on the floor, and got up, stretching her arms as she looked above, eyes focused on something that Diamond could not see.

"What do you know about the Eternal Golden Crown, exactly?"

"It holds infinite knowledge within it," Rikka was quick to answer, "but I have my doubts about that."

"Your doubts are appropriate. Yes, that is what the world is told about the Crown, but the truth is a bit different. I don't know how familiar you are with the Sacred Treasures of the Precure," as a matter of fact, Rikka considered herself rather familiar, but didn't want to interrupt, "and how they came to being, but I feel like you need to know.

When Empress, Priestess and Magician lit the stars, so many thousands of years ago, and the Pledge was made, they felt the need to organize the Precure, so as to better protect the world. The Phoenix Tower began to be built, then, and the Precure Dominion was established, with its seat at what is today the Blue Sky Kingdom. Priestess ruled from the Blue Sky Palace, while Magician organized the Cures of the Phoenix Tower, and assigned them to where they were needed. Empress, it is said, first offered counsel, mostly, but eventually she set out on her own journey.

Magician, as commander of the Precure in case of war, made herself a weapon, the Miracle Dragon Glaive. She and her closest companions spent over a year working on it, forging it from starsteel, revesting its blade with dragon's tooth, taken from the dead dragon god of Harmonia, who threatened to attack the Dominion and was slain by Magician herself. The Glaive is a fearful weapon that makes its wielder essentially unbeatable in battle. Regina, somehow, has gained possession of it.

Empress, who had been close to the god Blue, was fascinated by prophecy and fate, and as such she created her Crystal Mirror. When you gaze upon it, it shows images. Any kind of image, with no way to control. It may be an image of the past, a prediction of the future, a scene still in the present, but distant. Thanks to Empress' disappearance, it was lost, and we know little of it and its prophecies.

And Priestess, first queen of the Dominion, knew that for the Precure rule to last, they would need a great power. Magician had her weapon and her soldiers, but those are found anywhere. Priestess, then, created the Eternal Golden Crown. She had her mind set on establishing a dynasty that would last forever, so the Crown was not made for her, but for her successors. When she wore the Crown, she imprinted upon it all her memories and knowledges, and when she died, her heir, upon wearing it, gained access to all the wisdom that Priestess had stored there, and added her own. And so it went, on and on and on for thousands of years. The Crown does not have infinite knowledge, but instead the knowledge of all those who have worn it."

"And how would that help you?"

"Ange wore it," said Aguri. "When the Dominion crumbled, after the Axia Crisis, the treasures of the Precure were divided, taken to faraway lands, and that included the Crown, which ended up in Trump. It was rarely worn, however, and instead was kept safe and secret. It was worn for the first time in a hundred years by Ange's father, when she fell ill. He hoped he would find a way to save her life, and he did. He learned from the Crown that the Selfish knew powerful magic that could keep Ange from death. So he sought them, and paid the price asked of him."

"And Ange wore it afterwards?" Rikka imagined that was where the story was going.

"Yes, when she was saved, and her father was possessed by the First Selfish. From the Crown she learned the truth, and much more. You see, the Crown has been worn by countless Precure, and of course they have stored within it all their knowledge and notions of what it means to be a Precure. Just wearing it is enough to grant someone the power of the Pretty Cure."

"So Ange was…"

"Only for a few brief moments," said Aguri, "but yes, she was a Precure, shortly before death. It is why I was born a Precure. Like I said, fate conspired to grant me this chance. However, I have not inherited everything she knew. My powers are, sadly, limited. I can only remain Cure Ace for five minutes at most. It is incredible power, but not very useful, given how short-lived it is. With the Crown, I would regain it all, not only the powers but the knowledge and secrets of the Precure, of the Red Rose. And I would share them with you, with everyone. The Blue Rose had always been opposed to the secrecy of its Red sister. Though the Blue Rose was rather selective about who they would chose, it showed much greater care to the ordinary people than the Red Rose did. The Blue Rose maintained orphanages, temples, and always exerted great efforts to help the world whenever catastrophes happened. It is why Blue and his Rose were so well-loved, and for so long."

"So… We have nothing?" Asked Yuri. "We don't have the Crown, and the Blue Rose seems to be just the three of us."

"I have told you that there is another," said Aguri, "champion of the Blue Rose. I don't try to control her actions, but I know she is still fighting for us. I hope I can reach her, someday. Regardless, I feel like once the world hears of our Rose, we will find those willing to fight with us. I remember this girl, a close friend of Ange. Makoto Kenzaki, Cure Sword."

"She was my friend," said Rikka, surprising Aguri. So she really is missing half of what Ange knew. There was little doubt about it now. "She was at Trump, but she escaped with the Red Rose," she remembered the way they ran, cowardly. Yes, the Red Rose and its soldiers did seem very keen on running away.

"She will come to me," said Aguri, "once she learns that I am the princess she was so loyal too. I will seek her, soon. Her and others."

"Others?"

"But of course. I have the utmost conviction that more Cures will fight for us once we open their eyes. In a time like this, surely the Blue Rose can make an exception and allow even those who were not chosen to be Precure. In fact, if they do come to us, then is it not fate that has guided them to fight for the right side? In the absence of Blue, fate is good enough. Maybe it is why you were brought here. You could have gone anywhere else, but instead you stumbled upon these woods, and I have found you."

"I don't believe in fate," said Rikka.

"But do you believe in me?" Asked Aguri. Yuri was looking at her, too, her eyes begging for an answer.

"I do," said Rikka, after a pause. "After everything I've heard and everything I've seen… The Red Rose is not worth fighting for."

"I'm happy to hear that," she said, smiling. Rikka just stared, and realized that it was the same smile that Ange would give them when they came to the palace to pick up Makoto. The same smile, but not the same eyes. She wondered if Regina had gained those. "Happier still to have the two of you by my side. It was very lonely, here, before you came," Ai pouted at those words, but Aguri only giggled, and even Yuri had to laugh at the fairy's angry face. "Now let us rest for today. Tomorrow is uncertain, and we may not know what fate has in store for us, but I do know that today I have tea and a great amount of food, and there's nobody in the world I'd rather share it with than the two of you."

Chapter Text

When she opened her eyes and saw through the half-shut window that the world outside was still ill-lit, in the first moments of daybreak, Nagisa thought that she had been the first to wake, but was quickly disabused of that notion when she rolled over to the side and saw Honoka's eyes, already wide open and full of life, looking straight at her, and, beneath them, her lips in gentle smile, the best greeting Nagisa knew, the finest way to start a morning.

"Did you sleep well?" Honoka asked her, and Nagisa nodded. Only a few seconds later did she think of asking the same thing to Honoka, but the words came out a sleepy mumble. Honoka responded with a giggle, and a kiss. Nagisa then presumed that she was well, too.

Nagisa got out of bed, wanting to at least be the first to get up. She found her clothes quickly, thanks to Honoka's neatness in organizing their belongings. Atop the drawer was Reika's letter. Nagisa looked at it briefly, remembering its contents, wondering if she and Honoka would heed Reika's call to accompany her south. Nagisa hoped so. She felt uneasy, trapped inside the Phoenix Tower, Mirage's punishment for their disobedience in leaving to Trump, but Black was certain that the Rosehearted would soon reconsider. She smiled at the idea of disobeying her once again, going south in a mission that didn't have her blessing, her consent, or even her awareness. Most importantly, she rejoiced at the fact that even Cure Beauty was willing to go out on this mission without asking for Mirage's permission, which would be certainly denied. She is learning, Nagisa had told Honoka when they first read the letter, delivered to them by Ekaterina the day before, and White had agreed with a gentle nod.

When both were dressed, they picked up Mepple and Mipple, made the bed on Honoka's insistence and, once done, left, closing the door behind them. Nagisa knew what was the first thing they had to do this morning, and she sighed as she remembered the countless flights of stairs leading up to Mirage's office. It made her wonder if the first of the Rosehearted purposely chose to settle in the place of the Tower that kept them most separate from the commons.

"I don't see why you complain so much," said Mepple. The way he grinned always made Nagisa expect some terribly smug teasing, and he never failed to disappoint. "It's not such a bad ascent, ya know? You just gotta have someone carrying you, heh."

"Now listen here-"

"I don't suppose anyone would want to carry you, though," Mepple continued, but before he said more, Nagisa threatened to let go of him and toss him on the floor. That shut him up fast enough.

"How about you carry your own ass, for once?" She said.

"Now, now," said Honoka, "let's not wake up everyone with your bickering, alright?"

Nagisa felt ashamed when she realized how loud she was being. Then, she nearly laughed, remembering that there once had been a time when Honoka and Mipple would try to stop them from fighting, but now they were content to just make sure they weren't too troublesome to others. Nagisa agreed that it was for the best; most people would not understand the relationship between her and her fairy, and would say they were continuously terrible to each other, but in truth they got along pretty well, despite the harsh words they exchanged. The fact, Nagisa had to admit, is that the two of them were prickly, but understood one another pretty well.

Soon they reached the highest floor of the Phoenix Tower, and Mirage's office, its door closed. Nagisa presumed that, as she and Honoka woke rather early, they would have to wait a little bit, so she wasn't surprised. What did surprise her, though, was seeing Mr. Momoi and Namakelder by the door, chatting with one another. The two seemed pretty close, Nagisa thought, although Mr. Momoi was usually at work, tutoring the Precure in magic, and Namakelder was… Well, doing whatever it was that he did, which didn't seem like much. Mirage kept him around for information, but Nagisa never thought he was of much use.

Momoi bid them good morning and gave them an affable wave, which Nagisa was quick to return. At Verone he had been almost a celebrity, not just for his skills but for his good looks and charisma. Nagisa found it all laughable, the way all his students idolized him, but never paid it much mind. He seemed nice enough, and helpful, and that's what Nagisa valued.

"Business with Mirage?" Momoi asked, running his fingers over his own hair, as he would do almost like a compulsion, while Namakelder stared at the tip of his cane, almost unaware of Black and White.

"Yes," said Nagisa. "You too, huh?"

"It's really early, though, isn't it?" Asked Honoka.

"Namakelder and I were up all night," said Momoi, and Namakelder lifted his head slightly, to look at the girls, "and realized we had to ask a few things to Mirage, and decided that hey, since we're already up anyways, why not just hop there?"

"That explains it," said Nagisa. "I had never taken you to be someone to wake up early."

"You're right about that," he said with a lazy smirk, "and I'll be going straight to bed as soon as I'm done here."

"Mirage hasn't answered yet, though," said Momoi. "I don't even know if she's in there, but it'd be quite rude to just barge in and see if she's in bed, wouldn't it?"

"Terribly rude," said Namakelder. "Terribly, terribly. No decent person would disturb someone who's asleep."

"Ah," said Nagisa. "What if it's urgent?"

Namakelder shrugged. Momoi pointed at the door handle.

"There's no one stopping you," he said. "We were thinking of checking up on her to see if she's fine."

"A distant possibility," Namakelder said with a shrug.

"What do you mean?" Asked Nagisa. Honoka didn't seem to particularly care, so she whispered something to Mipple instead.

"Mirage doesn't get much sleep, we fear," said Momoi. "She's dedicated to her work, perhaps to a fault… It's not healthy."

"I see," said Nagisa. She decided to enter, then.

Nagisa knocked on the door, hearing a soft whimper as response. She put her finger on the doorknob, and by the time Honoka protested and said that maybe it would be better to wait, that it wasn't all that urgent anyways, Nagisa's hand was already turning, the door creaking a soft, droning whine. She grimaced, trying to look apologetic, and walked inside.

There she saw Mirage, asleep on her chair, head resting awkwardly atop her arm, dishevelled black hair cascading upon countless sheets of paper and open books. Her soft breathing made a curious rhythm. Nagisa covered her own mouth with a hand, and coughed to get Mirage's attention. She lifted her head, slowly opening her eyes, blinking intensely. As she rose, the light shining through the window behind caught her, shrouding her beneath the hazy orange of morning.

"I hope we didn't disturb," said Nagisa, knowing very well that she had, but not actually minding all that much.

"By…" She rubbed her forehead with the tips of her fingers. "No, by no means, you… I mean, sit down."

They sat as commanded, Nagisa making certain that Mepple was not on her back pocket (an embarrassingly frequent accident), and let her weight collapse on the cushioned seat. It didn't surprise her that Mirage could fall asleep on it.

"Are you alright?" Honoka asked softly. "At Verone I'd fall asleep on my desk, atop research materials and exams I had to grade, theses I'd review."

"Oh, you ought not to worry about me. I have always been capable of handling my duties, and was never late on my obligations with my students."

"Admirable," said Honoka, mouth wide with surprise. "I suppose it is easier to be so timely when you take a liberal approach to research and value opinions above facts. Besides, having few students depending on you is also convenient for that purpose."

"Cure White," said Mirage with a kindly voice, "have you come here to nurse old wounds and keep them alive and well, or do you have a purpose?"

"I do, actually," she said, looking rather content with herself. Nagisa always found that look very striking. She wondered why she was so proud, though. "I have finished organizing your files. I have taken the liberty of sorting them by time period, and further by author. I have also put each category into its own folder."

"And have you brought them with you?"

"I have left the folders with Ekaterina. All nineteen of them."

"Thank you," she said in a tone that Nagisa suspected was actually annoyed. "I'm happy to have friends I can count on. Not only the two of you, but my dear Katyusha, Lovely, Fortune, Nile, Echo, Waved, Southern Cross… Yes, it's good to have so many people I can count on. I hope you too can enjoy this comfort."

"I've always had a mind that quality triumphs over mere quantity, personally," said Honoka. Nagisa started to think that White and Mirage were speaking on a level that she did not quite understand. "Regardless, you have promised to consider a request of mine."

"Ah, yes," she said, setting her books aside. Nagisa caught a glimpse of her neat and diminutive handwriting. "I presume you mean-"

"Access to the libraries, yes," Honoka said at once. "To everyone, not just myself. The libraries of the Tower have been locked away for too long, and now is no time to keep secrets. So on behalf of everyone else, I ask you to open them."

"No."

The word lingered in the air, and Honoka kept her mouth hanging open, awkward, shreds of unsaid words festering on her tongue, coming out only as mumbled, slurred vowels. Nagisa felt uneasy.

"If you have not yet understood," Mirage said after the silence had begun to hurt, "I will put it plainly. You do not speak on behalf of anyone. This should have been clear after no one supported your candidature and I was chosen as Rosehearted, instead. Your interests are misaligned with those of others. While you two went out on an adventure - as intruders, I must note -, the Cures at the Tower and at Last Light instead focused on ensuring the survival of our Order, expansion of our safe lands, exploration and the rescue of innocents in danger, and not on trying to relive our better days," Nagisa felt the urge to get up and smack Mirage in the face, but there was something in her voice that made the notion terrifying, so Nagisa sat and listened, humiliated. "What do you expect to find in the libraries? There are no great secrets there. I've been there, I know it," she pushed a book close to Honoka with certain roughness, "take this if you want, or this one, or this, you'll learn nothing, I am hiding nothing from you. But I will not have you come here to distill your vile poison and old grudges before asking for a favor I have no obligation to grant you, when there are so many other matters I must attend to, even at loss of sleep. No, I will not let you into the libraries. Is that all?"

"Yes," Honoka said meekly, with a trace of attempted but crushed defiance. When she started to get up, Mirage commanded her attention, handing her a letter, carefully sealed with a rose in scarlet wax.

"You'll be going to Last Light, I presume," said Mirage, and Nagisa nodded when Honoka didn't. "Please deliver this to Cure Princess."

"May I ask what this is , at least?" Nagisa said, expecting a refusal, but Mirage didn't deny her.

"You were with Fortune, Beauty and Dream," said Mirage. "In your report, you said you heard about," her words seemed heavy with displeasure, but not directed at them, "the Blue Rose," indeed, Mirage had not taken it well when she heard Honoka speak of it. Nagisa suspected that their role as bearers of ill news had done much to increase Mirage's animosity. "I will take measures to ensure that we will not have to be troubled by the Blue Rose in the future. I will grant it no chance to bloom. It shall be trampled while it is still a bud."

"And you need Princess for that?"

"Yes," said Mirage. "In truth, she is likely queen of the Blue Sky Kingdom at this point. I doubt her parents yet live. She, of course, does not want to accept the possibility. All the same, to have one of blood as noble as hers by our side grants immense credibility to the Red Rose in a time where credibility is beyond price. To have Princess working actively to bring down the Blue Rose will send the world the message that the Red Rose still preserves the traditions and values that have always been held dear by the Precure, that we still have our allies, that we will not change in spite of the ruin around us."

"So…" Honoka began, stretching the word. "You're using Princess as a puppet for your purposes?"

"I am making certain that we have some degree of stability as we fight to restore the power of the Red Rose. The princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom will be a powerful symbol for that, yes. You call her a puppet to make me look bad, but I call her a friend and ally, so perhaps you are the one with ill intents and a dark mind. Perhaps that is why you are so quick to assume the worst from others. Hime knows she has a part to play, and she does not run from it, just as I do not, even though my part involves hearing snappy retorts from empty-headed women who still have the minds of children who think they know all."

"I did not mean to-"

"You did, and I don't care. You cannot offend me. I suspect I cannot really offend you, either," she said, scratching an eye, "so I think we'll both be glad once you're headed south to the Bad End Kingdom."

"Y-You… What?" Asked Nagisa. "How did you-"

"Reika's letter was not sealed," said Mirage, "and I suspected she would, influenced by Cure Dream and Cure Fortune, try something reckless such as liberating Märchenland, so I asked Ekaterina to make sure to inform me of any letters. Reika has grown bold, despite the failure at Trump. She wants your assistance and advice. They admire you. You do understand that, don't you? They look up to you two, and listen to you. Please be mindful of that. As Rosehearted, I appear too distant from most Cures, so they would not come to me for guidance, and instead they'll need your help."

"We will help."

"I know you will," said Mirage, "and I ask you to lead them on a wise path. If they have their way, they will take all of Last Light to the south, leaving the village undefended."

"Reika's not a fool," said Nagisa.

"It's not a matter of her being a fool," said Mirage, "but the matter is that it's friend she's trying to save. She will need your guidance. Steer them well. They are brave and skilled, but they are still young girls whose hearts are in turmoil. Be good to them. I can't even begin to imagine how they are able to cope, how they can be so strong."

"Alright," said Honoka. She handled the letter with care, and walked away. Nagisa did the same, and looked back only once, and when she did so, she saw that Mirage was skimming a large book, without paying attention to them as they left.

Momoi and Namakelder entered, then, but Nagisa and Honoka hurried to the stairs, and began to make their way down. Nagisa's stomach made a funny sound, and Honoka clutched tighter to her hand.

"So this was a failure, huh?"

"A complete failure," Mepple added, though no one had asked his opinion.

"Not quite," said Honoka. "I can't stand Mirage, but she had a point. We can really help the girls at Last Light, can't we?"

"Yeah," said Nagisa. "If they still want to listen to the words of two have-beens."

"Now, that's a bit too harsh, isn't it?" Honoka said with the smile that Nagisa loved the most. "Let us not look down on ourselves, alright? The days of fighting will go on for long, and it will do us no good to let ourselves be defeated before doing anything."

Reika knocked insistently on Yayoi's door, but no answer came. It had been like this every morning since Reika returned with the news that Akane was lost, and Yayoi showed little sign of getting better. Her mood would always improve as the day passed and she was surrounded by friends, but until then, while she was still abed, shut in her bedroom, she would let silence and sorrow smother her.

"Yayoi?" Reika called her name, gently. "Are you alright?" There was no answer. "I'm coming in, okay?"

Yayoi gave no sign if she was alright with it or not. Reika opened the door, and stepped into the dark bedroom, windows locked shut. She nearly tripped on something she could not see. She walked up to the windows, opening them, but even that drew no reaction from Yayoi. She hid beneath her blankets, silent.

Reika took a look around. Yayoi's bedroom was plain, furnished only by her bed, a chair and a table she used to draw. She had not accepted any of Hosshiwa's gifts, as most of Last Light had. Even Reika had not refused, taking a small snow globe that enclosed a minuscule castle. It reminded her of Fabelpfalz, though of course without its grandeur. Before sleeping and turning off the lights, she would stare at it with nostalgia, and, sometimes, with sadness. Somehow, she felt herself longing for that sadness.

Yayoi's table was covered by papers and pens, pencils and ink blots. It filled Reika with warmth to know that even now Yayoi had not given up on what she loved. Reika hoped it brought her any comfort, no matter how small. She took a glance at the drawings, and at once she had to look away. She felt a sudden pain when she saw that Yayoi had drawn herself by Miyuki's side, with Akane, with Nao, with Reika and Candy, even Pop. The most painful was the drawing of all of them together in a nondescript scenery of greens and whites. Reika did not look upon it long enough to say for sure, but some of the faces were stained by what she had no doubt were teardrops. Nao's face was a smudge, and Candy's was not much better.

"You're looking at it, right?" Yayoi said without rising from bed.

"Yes," said Reika. "When did you draw these?"

"The bigger one was two nights ago," she said, her words hard to comprehend, under the blanket, but Reika made an effort. "The others I drew over the week. Akane was the first."

"Ah."

"It's pathetic, isn't it?" She said, her voice clearer now. Reika looked back and could see Yayoi's face. She didn't look like she had been crying; her face was clean, composed.

"Of course it isn't," said Reika.

"I think it is," said Yayoi. "I tried to draw other things, happier things, but nothing would come out. I had to draw this, even though it made me cry," so they were teardrops after all. "It made me cry so much. I would draw when I knew you were asleep, so you would not hear me."

"Right," Reika lied. She had heard, but knew that it was better to allow Yayoi some space, and time alone. Some tears, she knew, could cleanse the heart. She had cried those, too, until she grew used to the sorrow and stopped weeping. "Did it make you feel better? To cry, I mean?"

For a second, Yayoi was silent. Slowly she lifted herself up, putting her feet on the floor, looking for her slippers, letting out a sigh.

"It didn't make me feel much at all," said Yayoi. "When I look at those drawings, I'm filled with the same sadness that drove me to painting all my friends in the first place. I don't think it'll stop hurting."

"No, never," said Reika, "but life moves on regardless of our hurt. We can't ever stop."

"I know," said Yayoi. "I want to stop, though. Akane is gone, we have no idea of where Nao may be, and Miyuki is… She's with them. We'll lose her too, if we don't act fast, and then… And then…"

Her eyes reddened. Tears fell on the wooden floor, on her own knees, on her feet. Reika let her cry, and did not interrupt.

"I don't want to go on. I don't want to get up. I get up every day, but it feels like I'm living a liar's life, pretending I'm strong, pretending I can cope. I don't wanna get out of here, Reika. Not ever. I don't want to do anything."

"Please don't say something that silly," Reika finally acted, wrapping her arms around Yayoi, touching her face on hers, feeling Yayoi's cold tears drip down her own cheek, slow, uncomfortable. "I don't want to lose you either. It's hard for all of us. I won't ask you to smile, but I must ask you to keep being strong, to keep fighting, yes, because sometimes even finding the will to keep going is a fight."

"I know," said Yayoi, her arms squeezing Reika as tight as they could. "When I lost my dad," at those words, Reika held tighter to her, too, "I was too young to even understand it, to know what I had lost. I grew up with that hole, and accepted it as part of me, because I knew nothing else. But now that I can understand… I'm so afraid. I feel so small, so hopeless."

"So do I," said Reika, though her first instinct was to tell her that there might still be a way to save Akane. She knew, however, that she could not be sure of that. To give Yayoi a hope that she herself was uncertain of, a hope so easily crushed, would be a great crime. It was one thing to cling to hope, but another to fill someone's heart with half-truths so that they would feel happy. "Will you come with me?"

"Outside?" Asked Yayoi. Reika nodded. "I always do in the end, don't I?"

"That's because you are so strong," Reika said just as Yayoi's face was beginning to redden. Yayoi took her hand, and Reika pulled her up. "Thank you, Yayoi."

"Miyuki," Yayoi spoke with sudden determination, walking up to her drawings. "We'll find her, won't we?" Reika nodded. "We can still save her, if we set out soon. We still have a chance, don't we?" Reika nodded again, and looked as Yayoi picked up the drawing of Cure Happy and took a look at it. "I want her to see this. I want her to see my feelings for her. When we meet her, I want her to know that she has not been forgotten."

"I want the same," said Reika. There were so many things she wished she had told Akane, when she was still in Trump, that she did not. And now she was gone. With Miyuki, this time, Reika swore the end would be different.

The construction of Hosshiwa's house was proceeding with astounding speed, though Yuko felt that to call it a house was an understatement so great that it was almost comical, and thought it had to be a joke, but Hosshiwa was apparently completely serious, and so after the Choiark laid down the foundations for her immense mansion that was nearly half the size of Last Light, she insisted on calling it my humble home.

The sudden appearance of the manor was so fast and unbelievable that no one dared to question it, at first thinking their eyes were simply mistaken, until everyone decided that since no one spoke a word of protest, there was probably nothing unusual about it, and so Hosshiwa's unfinished manor quickly became an ordinary part of Last Light. The Choiarks worked on it endlessly, day and night, and, oddly enough, they never made a sound, never disturbed anyone's sleep, bringing further incentive for no one to question the necessity of such a large house, almost a palace. Yuko thought it was all madness, and madder still were the people who didn't even seem to care, but sometimes she wondered if she wasn't the one who was mad.

The people of the village had been quick enough to accept Hosshiwa as one of their own, though her generous gifts were, of course, very helpful. Yuko was still skeptical of her intentions, but could not deny that the new fridges were quite useful.

She reached the manor after a few minutes of walking. Yuko always enjoyed to walk around Last Light, and did so almost all mornings, and so she was able to watch as the village changed, grew. She could see each new face, each accomplishment the Precure and the villagers had achieved. Though, granted, she had never seen a change as sudden as the appearance of Hosshiwa's manor. Usually they were slow, allowing her to ease into them.

The Choiarks greeted her with small nods as they went back to world, sawing planks and hammering nails on them, carefully, making only a muffled thud. They always stayed out of Yuko's way; in fact, they always seemed to avoid the people of Last Light, and were always apologetic when they crossed paths. It struck Yuko as a rather sad behavior, and she wished to tell them that they weren't being a bother, but she never got a chance, as they all scurried out of her way when she approached, save for the ones busy at work, whom she did not wish to interrupt.

"Oh, a visitor!" Yuko heard Hosshiwa's voice, and found her supervising a group of Choiarks, pointing at blueprints laid upon a crude wooden table. It was a bubbly voice, but it sounded forced. "I believe we've met before, when I arrived."

"We met, yes, but were not properly introduced," Yuko said. "My name is Yuko Omori."

"Well, I'm Hosshiwa. Just Hosshiwa," she said in a tone that Yuko understood as a desire for privacy. She obliged, of course. She didn't want to intrude. "It is good to meet you. Such a pity my humble home does not yet have a roof, or any furnishing, in fact, so I fear I have nothing to offer you."

"No, it's fine," said Yuko. "I only passed by to say hi, you know?"

The contents of Hosshiwa's innumerable crates smelled of an attractive newness. Yuko thought she could see a fine set of dinnerware on one of them, a crate marked Hope Kingdom. It came from far away, then, and Yuko couldn't even put a price on such a valuable thing.

"Things seem to be going well here," said Yuko, for lack of much else to say. "Big place, too."

"I was raised in houses like this, so I cannot bear to live in any other sort of place. In truth, this will be my smallest home, once it's complete," she said in a sorrowful tone, but Yuko couldn't feel much pity. "No pool, no tennis court…"

"I'm sure that's very bothersome," she said, polite. Hosshiwa sounded more than a little bit whiny. Hime had grown used to all manner of luxuries, given her status as princess of the Blue Sky Kingdom, but she had never complained about her considerable deprivations.

"You can't even imagine," she answered, and smiled. Yuko smiled back, vaguely annoyed. Then she breathed in for a long time, as she always did when she felt herself plagued by ill, unwanted thoughts. The annoyance went away.

"Will the Choiarks stay with you, once they're done building?"

"Only some," she said. "Most will return to General Oresky when their contract is fulfilled."

"Who is this General Oresky?"

"Oh, he's not a real general," Hosshiwa laughed, "he only finds it fancy to call himself that. He was forced to leave the military of the Blue Sky Kingdom a long time ago, for endangering his troops to try and finish his missions quickly, to gain all the credit. He found the Choiarks, god knows where, and has been a mercenary ever since."

"Hm," Yuko nodded. "Odd, how I never heard of that, even though I lived in the Blue Sky Kingdom."

"It was very discreet," she said, not missing a beat.

"Alright," she said. She did not approve of Oresky's methods, and much less of employing the services of someone like that. She kept her silence, so that she would not say anything too judgmental. It was hard not to. "Well, I had better get going. I just wanted to introduce myself, get to know you a little bit. I like to know everyone in Last Light."

"That is nice of you," said Hosshiwa, and for a second Yuko thought she was being condescending. "Feel free to visit me anytime. Once my house is finished, I'll be sure to host a proper reception."

"I'll look forward to it."

"Oh, you had better," she winked.

"See you, then. Perhaps you'll join us for lunch today?"

"Perhaps, perhaps," she said. "I will certainly consider the offer. I hope you too consider coming to me if you ever need anything. Or if anyone else does, for that matter."

Yuko waved goodbye and walked away, with no intention of accepting Hosshiwa's offer. She knew that most would, though. She could only hope that everyone would continue to work hard, and not simply depend on Hosshiwa. That was her greatest fear. Yuko knew that Last Light's joy and stability was flimsy, volatile.

Hosshiwa did not join them for lunch, as she never did, always preferring to eat by herself, away from everybody else. It's her loss, Yuko thought, but at the same time it saddened her to see someone standing on the outskirts, apart from everyone else. In a village where until then everyone knew each other and all were in frequent association, Hosshiwa's isolation was a wound in Last Light's status quo, perhaps a sign that the village was growing too much, that it was overreaching its boundaries and original goals. Perhaps it is only natural, she thought as she ate in unusual silence, even as everyone around her shared pleasant conversation. Perhaps I'm the one who's got the wrong outlook.

Thinking that did her no good at all, so she finished her meal quickly, without waiting for Hime and Megumi to eat theirs, and left, saying a hurried goodbye. She felt like she should take a walk.

She drifted to the edges of Last Light, near the Thornwood. Yuko did not pay much attention to where her path took her. She simply walked, trying to keep her mind at ease, to not worry. It was increasingly difficult: to her dismay, she realized that she had let months of small frustrations and anxieties swell up within her, so now even the most insignificant of concerns had been enough to leave her bereft of tranquility.

Soon she reached the road that led to the Phoenix Tower. In the distance she could just barely see the hill, but no trace of the Tower itself. She hadn't been there since…

Since the time Iona forced Hime and I to leave, and left us to die.

She hadn't felt anger in a long time, but it came back now. At once she remembered why she avoided it so much. It was poison, she could almost feel it killing her. Iona was with them, now, one of theirs. She was a troubled girl, she had her reasons. Yuko kept telling herself that, until she believed it.

She heard signs of life coming from the road, people approaching, obscured by the branches of dead trees. Yuko stepped closer to observe, and saw Ayumi and Orina, with Nile just behind them. Good news from a scouting, Yuko hoped.

"Nothing good, sadly," said Nile when Yuko approached them with questions. "We went some ways north, and found some of the monsters from Labyrinth."

"What are they doing so far from their lands?" Asked Yuko. All possible answers were things she'd rather not imagine.

"I don't know," said Nile. "But if they are close, that means we must keep careful watch in the region. Mirage has spoken about trying to set up a system of beacons for warning, and that would really come in handy, if it's feasible.

"If it's feasible," said Orina. "There are too few of us to form any sort of meaningful watch. If Labyrinth comes…"

"If worse comes to worst, we always have the Phoenix Tower," said Ayumi. "It can be our last safe haven if we need it.

"Hopefully we won't," said Yuko. "Will you be going to the Phoenix Tower, though, to warn of Labyrinth's activity?"

"We stumbled upon Ekaterina on our way, so she'll give Mirage the bad news," said Nile. "Better this way, really. We got things to do."

"The Thornwood," said Ayumi. "We'll try to cleanse it soon. Mai will help us, I hope. She used to be a caretaker of the Heart Tree, so she knows a little about purifying nature."

"Mai cannot transform, though," said Yuko. "Are you sure it'll be a wise idea to take her with you?"

"No, I'm not sure of it," said Ayumi, "but I'm usually not sure of things, anyway. She told us she'd like to go with us. The three of us can keep her safe, too, and we'll need someone with experience by our side and, well, she's the only Cure around here who's not too busy to help us."

Yuko felt a sting of guilt for knowing that she too had been too busy to scout, to help the Red Rose in a more concrete way. Still, she knew she had to stay at Last Light. Not many could cook, and even fewer could make meals for so many people. She couldn't afford to go out and fight. No, I'm fighting here, too. I can't ever forget that.

She accompanied them back to Last Light, carefully listening to their descriptions of the world, words that only served to further dishearten Yuko. Past the Phoenix Tower, the forests were still deads, the rivers still ran dry, ridges formed on the ground where there once were plains, and cities were swallowed by abysses. Desolation had covered the earth, and all the efforts of the Precure seemed to have done nothing to hinder it.

Back in the village, Yuko felt her chest gripped by unease again. She said her goodbyes to Nile, Ayumi and Orina, who would likely join the others, but Yuko wished to be alone. Tonight, she remembered, it would be Kanade and Seika's time to cook. Yuko had already done so much work, and the two girls from Majorland wanted to relieve her a little bit. In truth, Yuko loved her duty, but now she felt grateful for their offer. Now she wanted only to weep, but one like her could never weep, she who was always happy, always eager, always there for whoever needed her. She was always the one who helped others, never the one who asked for help, for someone else's time, never the one to worry others. She tried to cry, there in the middle of the streets, and found out that she had forgotten how to do it, not when there were people nearby.

So she only needed a place to be alone.

Dark Mint distanced herself from the conversation that dominated the parlor, thinking of a way to ask what winter even felt like. She didn't think there was one, but she wanted to know. Komachi had never talked about it, and she knew frost and snow only in theory, and for her, those could never replace the feeling of it. There was so much she didn't know, and that ignorance prevented her from talking to all the other Cures. She studied everyone's faces as they spoke their minds, and when a question was directed at her, she was quick to think up of an answer that was similar to Nozomi's, but that wasn't quite the same. No one seemed to doubt her anymore, now that she was starting to get used to being seen as an actual person.

That made her feel warm inside. It was a pleasant feeling, so pleasant she wanted to cling to it forever, before it was taken away from her, as all things were. When people met her, early in the morning, instead of calling her a moron, they wished her a good day, asked her how she was. She didn't know how a good way to answer it, as she was always feeling so much, all at the same time, so she said she was fine. They seemed happy to hear that, and that only intensified the turmoil within her, the idea that others might feel joy at her own well-being. She didn't understand how that was possible. She didn't feel that way about anyone else. When other people said they were happy, she felt nothing. Still, she pretended that she did, so that she could fit in.

She presumed she was being a good enough liar, as the Precure were quick to accept her, even to seek her, to pass time with her. She wondered if they truly cared about her, or if they only gave her attention in the expectation of receiving some in return as well, like she did. Whatever the case was, Dark Mint found herself invited to the large building that served as a sort of meeting place at Last Light, to play something that Nozomi called a game of questions, whatever that meant. The name made her feel uneasy, at first; she remembered Shadow's questions, how he demanded his servants to justify everything they did, to submit every thought of theirs to his approval. It was with those questions that Dark Mint learned how to lie. Dream, however, insisted that it was just a fun way for the Precure to get to know each other better, so with some skepticism, Dark Mint followed.

She was seated on a corner where she could see everyone. Nozomi was by her side, of course, and Kanade by the other. Makoto was close to Iona and Reika, while Yayoi and Ayumi were sitting by the doors. Nile stood up, leaning against a wall, and Megumi and Mika were sitting on the floor. Mint took careful notice of every detail surrounding her, even though she had been told to relax. In truth she didn't know how to relax, so used she was to being careful with everything she did, so as to not anger her superiors.

"I'll start," Yayoi declared. It had apparently been her idea to do this. "I'll ask Komachi," she said, and then everyone turned to stare at her. It was uncomfortable, and she'd rather be elsewhere, but apparently this was normal, so she said nothing. "Let me see… Which is the most beautiful place you've ever seen?"

"Ah," she said, nothing springing into her mind. Dark Mint had a difficult time recognizing beauty, depending solely on the real Mint's words to guide her. Everyone thought flowers were pretty. She tried to think of a place with flowers. The gardens of the palace of Trump were covered in darkness when she saw them, and they weren't even that pretty, anyways. Suddenly she thought of something. "This will probably sound silly," she said, almost certain that she was right, "but I'll say Last Light. It's not a great palace or anything, and its flowers are scattered around, not laid properly, but still…" She saw Nozomi and Reika smile at her words, and thought that she was doing something right. She continued. "It's a simply beauty, I guess. Humble. But still beautiful because of what it represents. Yes, it's like…" She closed her eyes, thinking of a proper and convincing reference. "The flowers of a garden are beautiful, but not special, because there are so many of them. They are all the same, like… Like reflections of each other. One flower is like the others. But a flower blooming in a place where nothing grows, well, I find that more beautiful. Like a flower in a desert. That's Last Light."

"Wow," said Nozomi. "You are right. Totally right, Komachi! You haven't lost your way with words, haha," Dark Mint hadn't expected to sound so convincing. She almost believed her own words. They were not so absurd, after all. For someone like her, who had never seen anything but the mirrors of Shadow's castle, Last Light was indeed the most beautiful sight she had ever seen laid in front of her.

"Indeed," said Beauty. "Last Light is made more beautiful by the desolation it blooms on, by its defiance. Our defiance.

She felt the warmth again, and couldn't help but smile. Her lips moved without her consent, and whenever they did so, that gravely disturbed her. She had not been made to smile, she had to remember that. She had once been struck by the desire to know what happiness was, after Komachi had mentioned it, but when she asked Shadow if she could be happy, he yelled at her, saying that creatures like her were not made to be happy, only to serve. But it was happiness that she felt now, and she recognized it, even though no one ever taught her.

"Ok, your turn," said Nozomi. My turn to do what? "Who are you going to ask?"

"A-Ask? Oh, alright…" Her first instinct was to choose Nozomi, to keep up appearances, but as the name reached her tongue, she realized that she could choose. She was expected to, even. Her hands began to shake. The warmth became colder, then turned to ice. "Choose… How… How can I…" It was too much for her. She wanted to get up and leave, but knew it would only do her harm. She had never chosen anything for herself, other than when she was left behind at Trump, and decided to live. That had not been a real choice, though, as she never had the intention to die. She froze, staring at everyone. "I… I don't know, actually. I'll… I'll think of something."

"Aw, alright," said Nozomi, so casually that Dark Mint felt stupid for being so anxious. She could not deal with all this freedom; worst of all, she could not share her fears with anyone, because she knew that even the most troublesome deeds to her were utterly insignificant to most. She felt jealousy, then anger. Everyone else was incomplete, everyone else was so used to being treated as a person that they would never even be able to comprehend why she felt so uneasy. No one would harm her here, she knew, but even so she could not let go of the fear of being yelled at, of being called an idiot, of being hit, of being reminded that she was less than human.

"No!" Said Yayoi, suddenly serious. "Not alright! We have to abide by the rules, or there's no point in playing! Komachi, why don't you think of a question, and while you do that, we let someone else ask a question?"

"That… That would be alright, yes," she said. Yayoi seemed satisfied. Nile raised her hand.

"May I?" She asked, and no one protested. "Alright, good. Iona," as she turned to Fortune, everyone else did, too. Dark Mint did so as well, understanding that it was the expected reaction. "When you were a child, did you have a dream job?"

"A dream job?" Iona asked. "Like, something I wanted to do when I became an adult, you mean?"

"Yeah," said Nile. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a bus driver, you know? All those switches and buttons seemed so cool to me. I even saw a bus being repaired, once, but actually got kind of scared when I saw that the engine was magical. I was afraid of the magic running out while I was driving it."

"Heh," said Iona, and Nile blushed, very slightly. Dark Mint was glad she had not been asked this question. She had no idea how she would be able to lie her way out of it. "Well, I wanted to be a fortune teller. Even did it for a while during school festivals, actually. I still enjoy it, but I wouldn't make it my career. Not that I'll have the chance, anyways, I guess," she said, and sighed. "A lot of people think that reading the Fates is just an easy way to cheat suckers out of their money, but it's pretty complicated, actually, you know? It's a science and an art at the same time. Takes serious study."

"The… The Fates?" Dark Mint had no idea what Iona meant with that. It sounded like a grandiose thing; Komachi had said the word fate a few times, and it always seemed to carry a certain weight.

"Yeah. Should I perform a reading for you?" Asked Iona, and though Mint still did not understand what exactly that entailed, the eyes around her made her feel as though she was expected to accept. She nodded.

"Iona is very skilled at this," said Makoto. "She did a reading for me some days ago. The Trump Kingdom is- Or rather, was home to great fortune tellers, but Iona would not be out of place among them.

"Well, alright," said the false Mint, still wary. She knew she had a terrible future ahead of her, the only possible future for her and the rest of Shadow's servants. She did not look forward to it.

Iona guided her patiently. Dark Mint had not often seen her showing such gentleness, but she realized she was actually fond of Iona when she was like this. She enjoyed being with her, with Reika and Nozomi, with Makoto and Nile, Yuko and Hime, everyone. At first she was repulsed by this feeling, knowing it to be wrong and foolish, but the longer she spent close to these girls, the more she learned to appreciate their presence, and the more she began to crave their attention, attention that she had never received before, so new to her that Mint didn't even know how to react to it, despite her desire for it.

"Choose, now," Iona said, handing Dark Mint a handful of cards. She repeated the act four more times, always setting aside the cards which had been chosen. Then she gave them to Dark Mint, and gave her the command to put them on the floor, her eyes closed, the cards face up for all to see. Afterwards, she could open her eyes.

Iona studied the cards, then shut her eyes in what Mint presumed was reflection, and when she opened them looked up at her, she began to speak.

"Night, Girl, Mirror, Girl, Star," said Iona. "In that order. An interesting arrangement, with the Mirror at its center, with two Girls next to it, as if reflected."

"What does it mean?" Dark Mint was eager to know.

"It is an uncommon pattern, but I think the Mirror is of significance. It is reflecting something, but on one side, there is Night next to the Girl, and on the other, the Star. Perhaps it is indicative that you are influenced by someone you admire, but that imitating them is in vain, as you are fundamentally different," she pointed at Night and Star again, as if to make a point. Dark Mint understood all too well what that meant, even if Iona had no way of knowing. It meant she was a fake. "Do you agree?"

"Maybe," she grumbled. She could not admit her lie, could give no sign of it. "This means I should be my own person?"

"I mean, you already are," said Iona, nearly drawing bitter laughter from Mint. "It's more like it's telling you that you cannot perfectly imitate another person's actions, cannot perfectly follow their lead, their examples, so you ought to trust yourself more, and be independent."

"Right," she said. "I will reflect on it."

"That's wise," said Iona. "There's some people who will just follow the will of the Fates, even though they are usually quite vague. Perhaps the meaning is something else entirely. It is up to you to find out."

With that concluded, Dark Mint noticed that, all around the room, eyes were fixed upon her. Nozomi coughed. Oh, right. She had to ask a question now, and had no way of avoiding it. She faced Makoto.

"Er," she began, not actually having a question in mind. "What was it like to grow up in the Trump Kingdom?"

Just as Makoto opened her mouth, she was interrupted by knocking on the door. It opened with no hurry at all, and slowly Hime's head peered in. She froze when she saw that Iona was there, but braved on anyways.

"Um," she began, "have any of you seen Yuko?"

"I haven't," Iona was the first to speak, and, surprisingly, she was gentle about it. Hime was just as shocked, and seemed a bit relaxed after hearing it.

"I've checked the kitchen already," said Hime, "but couldn't find her. Does nobody here know?" Everyone shook their heads. "Well, thanks anyways. If she passes by, tell her I'm looking for her, okay?"

"Sure thing," said Nozomi. With that, Hime closed the door, and Dark Mint was left wondering what that was all about.

There was a short pause, and some Cures exchanged comments, but soon Makoto rose her voice.

"As I was about to say," she began, and Nozomi giggled. Dark Mint could not see what was so funny about it. "That's a bit of a long story."

"We're not in a hurry," said Nile.

"Well, I suppose I should start with my birth. My mother died shortly after I was born," she said, oddly, without a hint of sadness. Death was something that should only make people sad, Dark Mint thought. Did Makoto not care about her mother? No, that seemed awfully cold. She couldn't understand how Sword could even speak of it without being sad. She listened carefully. "It was up to my father to raise me, then. We moved to Trump when I was still a baby. My oldest memories are of him by my side, showing me the Amethyst Sea. Yes, I can see it vividly, now," she closed her eyes, staring upwards. "He's pointing at the waters. He is showing me a ship. He tells me that one day he'll own a ship like that, and sail across the Amethyst Sea with me, and will show me the world. Yes, he promised that he would be able to do it. He'd buy a ship, a small one, as soon as business improved. It never did. Even then, I never believed he would ever be able to buy a ship. But I liked to imagine it, so I always smiled."

"He sounds like a very kind man," said Reika.

"He was, yes. Without my mother and without any family in Trump, it could get lonely, sometimes, but I loved him. Idolized him, really, even though I always knew of his… His issues. I knew he drank. A lot. I never thought much of it, until I was old enough to understand that his habits were less than perfect. He was always good to me, though. He was a sailor, so he would often leave on long trips, for business, and he would always make a great effort finding a responsible and reliable person to take care of me while he was gone. He worried so much about me."

"Worried, you say…" Dark Mint spoke up. She wondered if she was being insensitive, but she had to know. "Not worries?"

"Yeah," said Makoto. This time she sounded a bit sad. "He died, too. No one ever bothered to tell me why. Bad storm? Sickness? No one told me. He just never came back. I waited by the front door for two whole days. I didn't even think of getting out of the house to ask around, you know? I was… I was just so used to him always coming back that I couldn't see it any other way. I only learned when some government people came and gave me the news. I didn't cry when I heard it, actually. It didn't feel real enough for me to cry. They took me to Trump's orphanage, then. I only cried the next morning, when I woke up, when I knew that it was real, that there was absolutely nothing in the world I could possibly do to change what had happened."

Dark Mint wondered what it was that made people mourn. She had always thought that it was because they missed the attention they would never again receive from the person who had died, but now she wondered if it might be something else. She thought about her fellow reflections dying, as Shadow's punishment, and it filled her with unease, even fear.

"Makoto," said Nozomi, "if you ever want to stop talking about this, then-"

"Why?" She asked. "Should I be ashamed that my father died? Should I hide it? It happened. It's sad, yes, but there's no way it won't be sad, and pretending it never happened or avoiding it won't do me any good."

"My father died too," Yayoi said. "I didn't get to spend much time with him either. I… I feel strangely calm when I talk about it. It's almost like it's keeping him alive, in a way. In my heart, as cheesy as it sounds."

"It's true," said Makoto. "It's, uh, it's difficult, yes, but talking about it doesn't make me sad. What makes me sad is when I'm suddenly struck by the overwhelming feeling of absence and helplessness. But I can talk about it just fine. So," she continued, after an exaggerated cough. "The orphanage was very good, built near the palace of Trump, and the children there were always taken good care of, but I was problematic at first, so to speak… By which I mean I spent my first week there lashing out at everyone who got close to me. Almost bit off a caretaker's pinky, too," she sounded seriously embarrassed. "They took me to the office of the orphanage's founder," her eyes lit up as she spoke. "Marie Ange."

"Oh, so that's how you met," said Nozomi. Makoto nodded.

"Y-yeah," she said, her cheeks all red. "She was very proactive, Marie Ange. Always trying to make things better for everyone. She was, I think, just thirteen or fourteen back then. Basically our ages now, and she had already done so much," she laughed.

"Hey!" Nozomi said. "I'm fifteen, okay! Almost sixteen."

"Nozomi, that only makes you sound worse," said Ayumi. Most people in the room laughed, and Dark Mint imitated the gesture.

"Anyways," Makoto said, "Marie Ange said she had heard of my behavior. I felt so embarrassed about it, when I heard her speak, and she wasn't even scolding me! She was so understanding. So kind," Dark Mint noticed that whenever Makoto spoke of her princess, her eyes always seemed to drift away elsewhere. "She told me I should pursue more positive ways to express my feelings. So I began to sing," this caught Dark Mint's attention, "and it turned out I was pretty good at it. So good that Ange always wanted to hear me sing… Yes, we grew close at that time. I was invited to live in the palace with her, and, eventually, even became a Precure. But you already know that."

"Were you and the princess close?" Asked Nile.

"Yes," said Makoto, eyes shimmering again, "though I think that in the end, I believed we were a bit closer than we really were. Heh," she made a sound that was like laughter, but that was too sad to be it. "I guess that she saw herself as someone who was responsible for me. Maybe she saw herself as a mother figure, maybe a big sister… I always wished she had seen me as something else, though."

Dark Mint had no idea what she meant by that, but when she spoke of this Marie Ange, she sounded much like Komachi during the rare occasions she actually talked about Cure Aqua. This was love, Dark Mint understood. An idiotic notion; there was something she was far more interested in.

"You talked about singing…"

"Oh, right," said Makoto. "I joined a choir in the orphanage, but soon enough I was singing on my own. They were both fun, though, singing with others, and by myself. I don't think I ever performed a serious duet, though. A real pity."

"I hope I'm not too forward," Dark Mint said, drawing closer to Makoto, "but… Er… Can you sing for me?"

"For you?"

"Oh! I mean… Not for me in particular!" She didn't want Makoto getting the wrong idea. Sometimes it was hard for Dark Mint to judge the weight of her words. "But with me as your audience! If that makes sense."

"No, no," she said with a tiny smile, "I get what you mean. But, ah… I don't feel like singing. I always sang for Marie Ange, and for…" Her voice became softer as the words came out, until they were hardly understandable. "For Alice. They are gone, though, and now I don't want to sing anymore. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Dark Mint hid her disappointment. She realized, then, that she was just a few inches away from Makoto's face, and that everyone was staring at her.

"So, uh…" Makoto scratched her head. "You sound like you really like songs."

Crap. She couldn't say she hadn't ever heard one, not after this, and a short yes would be a terrible answer, the answer of a liar who was pretending to be someone else. Komachi had a way with words. Dark Mint had to make something up, something convincing.

"I… Yes, of course," she said. And then she knew what to say. "They are poetry, in a way, aren't they? Poetry with an unique sound. That's how Urara and I described it, after discussion," she thought about Dark Lemonade. Revoltingly, she found herself longing for her. The false Lemonade had never been good to her, but she wasn't always terrible. "She always sang for me. We were working on, er…" What was the word? "A song play… I mean, a musical. Yes, we were working on a musical together."

"I didn't know that!" Nozomi said, almost yelling. "I thought it was just a normal play!"

"Well, it wasn't a very serious project," Dark Mint spun the lie, "just something for the long term. Anyways, yes, Lemonade taught me the beauty of songs. How wonderful they are, and, er… The way they allow you to relate to a feeling you didn't even know you had. A feeling that is not even yours, in a sense. I miss her," said Dark Mint. Nozomi closed her fists at that. "I miss her so much. I can hear her singing, if I try to. Singing for m- For us. Do you remember, Nozomi?" She asked, but Nozomi looked away, hiding her face. "When we were all together. I remember that so well. The good times we had together, the songs Urara sang, and, ah, how Rouge would-"

Nozomi got up, wordlessly, and walked away. Reika tried to grasp her arm, but Nozomi just moved past her, and stepped out of the building, leaving the door open. Everyone looked at each other awkwardly.

"As I was saying," Dark Mint continued, now that the interruption was gone. "Rouge would-"

"Komachi," Reika said, gentle but firm, "do you think Nozomi is alright?"

"Oh? Yeah, sure. She's always fine," she said, impatient. Dark Mint knew very little about Nozomi, much less than she knew about Rouge, Lemonade, Aqua, and, of course, Mint herself. All she knew was what Komachi had told her, and she wouldn't often speak about her. Shadow had never gotten his hands on Dream, either, so there was no Dark Dream to speak of, so the liar Mint had no way of knowing much about her. "No need to worry about her. She never wants anyone to worry about her," the real Mint had said that, "so please don't worry. She's strong. If you worry, you'll just make her sad."

"Alright," said Reika, but she did not sound all too convinced. She kept looking at the open door, trying to catch a glimpse of something. Outside, the skies were grey, the clouds were heavy.

Dark Mint pouted. She didn't want this to be about Nozomi. She had so much she wanted to know, so much she wanted to ask, and she wanted to be heard. The question game progressed, then, and her voice rarely was heard in the building, as she, instead, was content to listen, for now.

But she kept thinking of Nozomi, even as night came, even as it began to rain and the doors were closed. Nozomi was sad, that much was clear. But Dark Mind had a hard time understanding why. It hurt not to know; not simply because she wanted to, but because she knew that the reason she could not understand was because she was a frail imitation of a human, a broken mirror of misshapen reflections. She could not understand, and she could not feel.

Or so she told herself until she thought of Nozomi leaving, again, the way she hid her face, she way she did not let anyone see her saddened face. Dark Mint felt, then, for the first time, sorrow, not for her suffering, but for that of someone else. She looked around, sweating, to see a room full of people who were not even capable of understanding what it was that she had just discovered. She couldn't name it, but she knew she felt it, she felt Nozomi's pain, and it hurt almost as much as if it were her own.

Eas ran under the darkened sky drowned in clouds, the clover amulet swinging forward in her haste, then falling back on her chest with a soft thump, its chains tinkling, sounds muffled by her quickened breathing and by the bellows of thunder.

Wisps of dead grass were torn from the ground she stepped upon, kicking up faint clouds of greenish dust around her. Cold droplets fell on her skin. She had felt them before, she remembered, though in Labyrinth the rains were warm, rancid, thick. These ones were clear, like crystal.

She had been walking away ever since she left Labyrinth, never looking back, but though she knew she had already covered a great distance, it did not feel as if she was very far. The world had been painted with the greys of Labyrinth, covered by its dull sadness, a far cry from the memories that peered through the fog that covered her memory. Still she ran.

The clouds gathered in thick clusters of grey, quickly turning black as the sky darkened. The rain would not be over quickly, Eas knew. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, desperately looking for shelter from the storm, but all around her was barren desolation. She moved forward, yet feared it made no difference which way she went. She never stopped running: something inside her forbid her from giving up.

She reached long, twisting chasms on the ground. A stone bridge offered her passage, and as she crossed it, she understood that she was gazing at what had once been a river. She looked at its course again, extending all the way to the horizon, all of it dead and dry. On the bottom, she saw thorns growing from the lifeless, rocky soil, and decayed carcasses of fishes gathered all over, pierced and scattered over the briars. Only their spines remained, but here and there Eas saw the pale glint of colors of scales that remained. But even those were greying, dying colors in a world that refused all colors but ruin's.

Soon the rain was falling hard, and Eas had no relief in sight. The thunder had gotten louder, the lighting harder and more insistent. As Eas ran, lightning struck close to her, shaking the world, threatening to bring her to the ground. When she looked up, the sky was a web, roaring, and from the clouds came neverending rain. When it fell on Eas' skin, it did so heavily, mercilessly, incessantly, hurting her. They were cold, and so were the winds that tried to knock her down. When she saw a house, veiled by the rain, she ran towards it at once, even faster than she was, while the heavens bombarded the world. Eas reached her safe haven, jumped inside and slammed the door shut. She realized, then, as she tried to breathe, that she was crying.

At once she felt ashamed. Fear should not bring her to tears. She was stronger than that, she always had to be. Her heart pounded, dissonant, her arms and legs trembled. She fell to the floor, and despite the shame, she kept crying. She wept loudly, with no restraints, and her voice filled the rooms, but next to the raging storm, it was frail and pathetic, and it drowned.

She heard no other sounds, and took that as a sign that she was alone. She sighed, and got up. Her stomach hurt in its emptiness. Rainwater could comfort her dry throat, but Eas didn't feel like it would be wise to drink that water. She knew that much of the world was blighted by a corruption that she had no doubt had reached even the sky. It had painted the sun red with its touch, so Eas had few doubts that the rain was poison. Everything was poison in this dying world.

When fear had passed and her body felt lighter again, and nimble, she took to investigating the house. She had no way of knowing it was safe, and knew it was wiser to assume that it was not. She was in a living room, she noticed, a clock hanging on the wall, but its hands were still. Couches were covered by a layer of dust, and spiders wove their webs on the legs of the chairs and the table on the other side of the room.

She found papers scattered over the floor. They were large, their texture grainy, the letters typed upon it small. They tore easily, and Eas found them unwieldy, wondering what purpose they served. Their content was not too different from the news bulletins she'd receive at Labyrinth, but she couldn't imagine why someone would go so far as to print out news on actual paper. She found a date at the very top of each paper; some of them differed, but they were all of the same week, it seemed.

She read the headlines with great interest, wondering what the people here would find of importance, fascinated by even the simplest news. The inauguration of a new well-equipped clinic at a certain neighborhood, to provide for the people far from the city centers. The opening of a new restaurant that served typical meals from Majorland; a rough picture with faded colors showed a man in front of a building, smiling, a large sign atop the façade. The passage of a comet and the best places to watch it go by. The news became less important as she read onward, until they ceased, replaced by commentary, short stories, offers. A litter of kittens, all up for adoption, one with a bad leg. An experienced gardener offering tutoring for aspiring workers. Discount ballet lessons for children, for those who brought a coupon; underneath those words something had been cut away, leaving jagged lines behind. Some phone numbers circled by a black pen. Obituaries.

Eas set the papers aside, and continued to examine the house, rainfall in chorus all around, bellowing in bass. She could not hear her own footsteps as the raindrops rapped on the windows, on the roof. Darkness enclosed her, its black deepening as night came, and the last rays of sunshine of the afternoon were covered by clouds. Eas walked in the dark, hearing only the sounds from the outside. In the tempest she felt small, insignificant, her steps muffled things that could not make themselves be heard. It did not feel altogether bad; Eas was not quite sure how it made her feel. The darkness was eerie, but as she grew used to the downpour and its sounds, she felt an odd sense of tranquility, almost safety.

The kitchen smelled of mold, but not of rot, so Eas was not surprised when she opened the fridge and saw that it was empty. The same she saw in each cabinet she investigated. On the counter were red stains that looked like blood from afar, but close inspection showed that its color was too clear for that, and even now it had a distinctive smell, heavy and unpleasant, but not blood.

Once she grew used to lightning and thunder, Eas started to welcome its shine, as it illuminated her way in quick flashes, even in the darkest parts of the house, revealing surroundings that she could just barely make out. Lightning struck; she saw a bed, its mattress gone. Then came darkness, and Eas waited for light again. When it returned, it showed her a wardrobe left open, and clothes scattered on the floor. Eas held them as she couldn't see them, and they felt rough, and she found holes in some of them. Each strike of lightning showed her something new. A stack of papers on the floor, a different sort from the one she found before, its surface smoother. A portrait on a table by the bed, though covered in dust, impossible to recognize. Darkness lingered shortly, and the sound of rain grew fainted for a few moments, but when the light shone through the window again, Eas saw a large black mirror, and the man held inside it, his eyes closed, his face strangely sad. Thunder roared, and Eas stepped closer, but when a bolt blazed bright again, she saw a smaller mirror behind the large one, as if protected by it. She did not look closer, and instead turned back, and ran, slamming the door shut.

She understood all too well what had happened here. Then she felt an odd sense of guilt over being in this house. This was not a place where she was welcome, not a place of shelter and rest. She could not get the sight of those people trapped in mirrors from her head, no matter how hard she tried. The realization that the whole world was like this felt like a crushing weight on her, smashing her. This happened because the Precure were defeated, because the stars were gone. And some of the blame lay on her own hands, too, even if she tried to deny it, and not only because she was of Labyrinth. She looked at the clover amulet and tried to remember Cure Peach, but could not. She had no memory of her, yet she had the the feeling that she had caused that girl great pain. As she tried to grasp at any recollection of Cure Peach, all she remembered was the sound of crying.

And she remembered she had been a Precure. That was the most painful of all. She couldn't remember who she was, and for so long at Labyrinth she had tried to hide all evidence of it, even from herself, trying to convince herself that she was not different, wrong broken. Now she could not run from it, from the fact that she had been a Precure. She ran from it once, when she abandoned the Precure and returned to Labyrinth. She had only been one person, had only been one Precure of hundreds, but now as she found herself in the darkness, prisoner of rains, she could only wonder if, perhaps, had she not been a coward, had she remained a Precure, she could have eased a little bit of the pain of the world. She wondered if it was too late now.

She sat on the uncomfortable couch, leaned back, her body sore, and kept still, letting herself rest as her eyes followed the raindrops that wept down the windows, trying not to think, focusing on the storm.

The sky wept all over Nozomi, uncaring, as it wept over the world around her. She felt a strong smell of wet earth, and her feet sank slightly on the muddy soil. Droplets fell in tinkles around her, resounding on roofs, like drums being banged with no harmony.

People around scurried for shelter. She saw Ayumi's mother passing by, covering her head with a plate, Kenta and his mother under an umbrella, then saw Kaede photographing the clouds, seemingly without caring about the rain. She waved at Nozomi, who retributed hastily, and passed by.

"Have you ever thought about how the rain could be a song?"

Urara had asked that, long ago, and Nozomi couldn't help but think of it. She didn't want to think of Urara, so far away now, if she still lived, but now that she had remembered her, she could not get her off her mind.

"No, I never really thought about it."

That had been Nozomi's answer, but now she could not even remember when it was that they had exchanged those words. It was a memory behind haze now, yet it tormented Nozomi so.

She hadn't thought about Urara in so long. Even when she remembered Rin, at Trump, when her hopes were ignited again, Nozomi had not really thought about her. She chased that ghost, but she did so almost mindlessly. Now, however, under the rain, she drowned in her own thoughts, her own recollections. It hurt so much to know that they were so distant now, so lost in the past that she could barely remember them, had no way of reaching them. That happiness was in the past, and now it was gone, dead, and there was nothing Nozomi could do but think back and make the heartache sting harder.

And the rain fell harder. Nozomi knew she ought to find shelter, then. She was almost glad to be alone; only almost, because solitude like this could never be true happiness, but at least she could cry on her own, if the tears came. Then, no one would see how weak and lost she was.

When her hair touched her skin, it clung to it, wet and cold, and Nozomi shivered. She ran to the nearest building she could find, a small shack by the farms of Last Light, where grains and seeds were stored. Nozomi jumped inside, and closed the door. It was dark, and she bumped into something, making a loud thud. Then she heard a gasp, not hers, coming from the darkness.

"Who… Who's there?" She asked, and the darkness answered with a stifled whimper. A little light still shone through the window, but only a sliver, so all she could see were the vague outlines of boxes and sacks around the room. The rain fell on the corrugated iron roof like pebbles.

Nozomi lit the room with magical light, tingeing it in dark pink, and could see a girl scurry away into a corner. It was Yuko, Nozomi noticed when she drew closer. Her eyes were read, her knuckles wet with tears they wiped.

"Are you okay?" Nozomi had never seen Yuko cry. She, in fact always seemed like the sort of person who was never brought down by sorrow.

"Yes," she lied, almost convincingly. "I'm fine."

"Were you-"

"I wasn't crying. I wasn't sad. Don't… Don't worry about me, Nozomi," she smiled, but there was sadness in her lips.

"You don't need to tell me if you don't want to," said Nozomi, "but you do seem like you were crying. Am I intruding, or-"

"Kinda," she said, but not with any spite. "You're right. I was sad. I didn't want anyone to see it, so I came here, because nobody comes to this shack unless it's raining outside and they need shelter."

"Well, I guess you were right about that," Nozomi said, but Yuko didn't laugh. "Is something troubling you?"

"Something? No, nothing in particular, actually," Nozomi couldn't tell if that was truthful. "Lots of little things, though. I… Ah, forget it. It's stupid."

"It's not. Don't say that. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here. You can trust me, if you don't want anyone to know you were crying."

"I do trust you," said Yuko. It made Nozomi a bit happier to hear that. "I'm just stressed. And worried. So, so worried."

"About what?"

"About the future. And the past, too, I guess. And the present. I'm worried about everything, that's the truth. I'm scared, but there's no one who can comfort me, because, well, I'm too scared to ask for comfort in the first place!"

"How so?" Nozomi asked, drawing closer. She found it almost uncanny how Yuko's feelings were similar to her own.

"I… Well, the world isn't doing that well. You know that better than most," Nozomi nodded. "We're happy here at Last Light, but it's a frail happiness. We all have things we try to forget, thoughts that can only make us sad, memories we can't leave behind. And there's nothing wrong with that. But… It does mean that almost everybody here is just a word or two away from breaking down. And I don't want that to happen. I don't want anyone to be sad. I know how easy it is to just give up when things are bad, to think that there's no way out, and when you see that everyone around you is also resigned to sorrow, well, then what reason do you have to be happy?"

"Yuko…"

"So I don't want to cry. And if I do, I don't want anyone to see it. I have to be the happy one. I have to. I have to smile when nobody else does. If everyone sees me as that girl who's never sad, who's always hard-working, always willing to help, then maybe that'll help people be happy. Maybe that'll inspire them. Maybe they'll feel like there's something in our future other than sadness."

Nozomi had to hug her after hearing that. She didn't even care that her arms were dripping wet, her clothes were heavy with water. She embraced Yuko gently, and the way she smiled made Nozomi think that it was what she needed.

"That's probably really dumb of me," said Yuko when Nozomi let go of her. "To think I'm important like that, that anyone gives a damn about me being happy, that-"

"You're not dumb," Nozomi repeated. "I… I do understand your feelings. I feel the same. Well, not exactly the same, but… You're not dumb, trust me. I do feel like you do, thinking I cannot cry, that I cannot show weakness. Everyone sees me as a person who's too dumb to be sad, don't they?"

"No one thinks you're dumb, Nozomi."

"Well, they don't say it, at least," she said. She was still afraid of it, constantly. "I don't cry, though. I try not to let most people know I'm sad. Reika's the exception, because I trust her so much, with all of my feelings, but… I can't even be honest with Komachi. I feel like it would be unfair to burden her with my sadness after we've been separated for so long. We should be happy, and I don't want to ruin that. We all should be happy. That's why I was outside."

"Hm?"

"I was sad," Nozomi almost had to laugh. "Didn't want anyone to see it."

"Ah," Yuko didn't have much to say, but Nozomi found her eyes comforting enough. What is it that made you sad, though?"

"I remembered her," she said, and could hear her voice. "Urara. She was my friend. I remembered her, and then…" She didn't want to say it. She was regretting everything now, feeling she should not have told Yuko anything. Nozomi didn't want her to worry either. "I started thinking about my friends," Nozomi let out despite her reluctance, "about my family, and how I might never see them again," this was the hardest thing to say, and she had to hold back from crying as she spoke. "I hadn't thought about them for so long. I had to avoid thinking of them. I… I can't deal with it. I legitimately have no idea how to stand it. If I think of them I just feel so hopeless, and they are all so distant, and I…"

She didn't know what else she could say. Yuko seemed to understand well enough, though, and sat by Nozomi's side. Her body was warm, while Nozomi's was still cold.

"We're kinda silly, aren't we?" Asked Yuko. "Worrying so much about others knowing we're sad, feeling it's our responsibility to be happy…"

"Yeah," said Nozomi. She began to feel warmer inside. "I guess that's just how we are. But sometimes it just gets too painful to keep everything inside."

"Tell me about it… I want to be reliable, that's all. I don't want anyone to worry about me. If Hime found out I'm sad, I have no idea how she'd react. It pains me to hide things from her, but she has enough in her mind already."

"I understand," said Nozomi. "Truly, I do. Maybe we got lucky tonight, then, being all alone here, where no one can see us be miserable?"

"That's one way to put it," said Yuko, covering her mouth with her hand. "Doesn't look like the rain will be stopping any time soon."

"Let us cry, then," said Nozomi, suddenly feeling like that was a brave thing to do. Yuko smiled, and Nozomi had to do the same. "Hey, it's just the two of us here. No one will know."

"I know," Yuko said, and stopped smiling. "Yes, I know. You are right, and yet… I feel like sadness is defeat."

"It isn't," said Nozomi, "and I want to be happy, too, but… We can leave happiness for tomorrow, for once. It'll be fine. Let's be weak. For a little while. We deserve it. We all do. It's difficult to be so strong all the time."

Chapter Text

The Thornwood's greetings were reticent and spiteful, a cold wind filling the spaces between the skeletal trees whose dead and dying branches rose high, twisted in spirals as they towered above everything and everyone. As she craned her head to look above, Mai saw the bony arms reaching for the pale moon and its distantly disquieting light, fingers of thorns lunging in an attempt to touch the only light shining in the clouded night sky.

Branches cracked beneath the Precure's feet, a sound that seemed to bring the forest to life. Briars stirred as if alarmed by the sudden noises, far away, roots scurrying along the floor. When Mai first came to the Thornwood with Nozomi, Reika, Coco and Ayumi, she thought her eyes were deceived by the darkness, but now she knew there was something full of vitality in the woods, something evil, cursed. A haunting, said the people of Last Light, but Mai knew very well that there was no such thing as ghosts.

Curses, however, always abounded, even before the Death of the Stars, distorting the roots, reaching deep into the bowels of the earth, spreading its torment as it grew. Near Yuunagi, the Ash Forest had nearly been consumed by evil, once, almost severed forever from the life of the Heart Tree and the blessings of the Fountain of Trees. She and Saki had purged the curse, before they even became Precure.

"Hey," said Nile. As she walked beneath the branches of the tall trees, thin strips of moonlight ran over her face. "You sure you wanna keep going?"

"Yeah," said Mai. "I've done this before. It was already dangerous back then, so this is nothing new. Besides, I trust you."

"Alright," she said, looking ahead again.

She had been alone with Saki when they saved the Ash Forest, and yet she felt safer back then than she did now, with three Precure at her side. She crouched to avoid a branch, and when she turned back, it had moved close to her. Afterwards she quickened her pace, and always stood very close to Ayumi.

"So what exactly do you do when we reach the heart of the corruption?" Asked Ayumi.

"I've brought the things we'll need," Mai gestured at the cloth bag hanging at her waist. "It'll be easy to tell when we've reached the source of the blight. In fact, I think that we were very close to it when we explored the Thornwood some months ago. As you draw nearer, the forest itself may lash out at you, fueled by the hatred and power of the hexer. It is, uh… It is pretty noticeable. I don't think you'll need me to tell you when we reach it. All the same, when we do reach it," she pointed at the bag again, "everything I need is here. Leaves of the Heart Tree, a small vial with water of the Fountain of Trees, and clippers with blades of iron forged in starfire."

"Will those help?" Orina asked, taking a good look at the bag, almost tripping on roots.

I sure hope so, Mai thought. With the Heart Tree gone, there was no guarantee that there was still any power in its leaves. Though she did not know about the state of the Fountain of Trees, she hoped that it too was not damaged.

"Yeah," said Mai. "Even if they aren't enough, a Precure's powers can fight off the taint."

"Ah, so we're golden," said Nile, grinning. "There's three of us here, and-"

"Four," Ayumi corrected. "Mai is still a Precure, Nile."

"Right, right," she said, apologetic. "Four of us. Those are pretty good odds, I guess."

"I guess…" Said Orina, not altogether convinced. "Let's not get too confident, alright? We all know what happened the last time we did."

Everyone grew silent after that. Even now, it still hurt to look back and to think on all the mistakes the Precure had made, and to remember all that was lost. Mai shivered when a chilly breeze brushed past her just as she was thinking back about the letter she had received from Mirage. She thought of her family, first, and then…

Saki.

She kept walking forward, not allowing herself to be disturbed by her own thoughts. She already had enough to worry about.

The paths narrowed as the trees began to lean closer to each other. Mai thought she heard them whisper among themselves, but when she turned to look, they grew silent again. She knew she was not just hearing things, though. By now she had learned not to doubt anything, anymore, no matter how vile a notion it might be.

"This way to the clearing," Mai pointed at the path she remembered walking by Reika and Nozomi's side. Ayumi nodded, recalling it as well.

"Are we close?" Orina asked.

"I hope so," said Mai. "It'll only get worse from here on. Be careful."

"You know, we should be the ones telling you that," said Nile.

"I'll stay with you," said Echo. Mai smiled at her. She was so glad to see that Ayumi had grown so confident, when she had once been a girl so aghast at the idea of failing a simple history exam.

Just like the first time, the clearing awaited them with its gallows trees, nooses of briars dangling from their branches, swaying to the wintry gusts. This time Mai buried her fears deep inside, and did not flee. As she passed by the graves of rosebushes, now shrunken shrubs of brittle grey, she felt a presence not at all unfamiliar. The forest whispered again, and this time she could almost recognize the voice.

The Thornwood went on forever, and above the trees, the moon shifted, its light angling, then dimming, then disappearing beneath the dark canopy. Orina lit a Lux Orb, and the branches cowered and flinched away, creaking loudly. Nile swallowed loudly, and Mai could see that her hands began to tremble.

Soon they began to fear that they were walking in circles, and Nile began to mark trees they passed by, inscribing a small circle of red light on their bark. They never stumble upon the marks, and yet they never found the source of the corruption. All the while, the whispers persisted, all around.

They paused at a crossroads. The floor was dried mud, covered in shreds of leaves. Roots scattered around, rising upwards to ensnare anyone who passed by unaware, or to trip them. Two paths were in front of them now; to the left, a straight line, and to the right, a track that twisted frequently, obstructed by fallen trees. Nile insisted it was safer to take the left one, while Wave argued that the right one was more likely to take them to the corruption. As they discussed, Mai jumped back when a vine rose from the ground and wrapped itself around the tip of her boot. She freed herself from it rather quickly, but she knew they had to stay moving.

"Hold on," said Ayumi, who then asked for silence, and began to focus. When Mai looked at the paths again, she saw the image of Cure Echo in each one of those, in addition to the Ayumi by her side.

Each illusion followed a trail. Mai awaited anxiously for a reaction from Ayumi, but she was entirely fixated on the magic and didn't even seem aware of Mai. She looked into Ayumi's eyes, and in each one she could see a different image. Her brow was sweating, veins bulged uncomfortably. This is too much for her, Mai knew it, but she also knew that to pull her away from the spell could shatter her mind. She had no choice but to wait, then, and to pray.

When the whispering began to grow louder, Ayumi blinked intensely, and began to move, again. She was panting, and fell into Nile's arms.

"Are you alright, Ayumi?" Orina asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah," she said, fraily lifting her hand to point at the left path. "We're lucky. It's a straight path to… To whatever it is that I've found."

"What… What have you found?" Mai asked. She did not like the tone of voice Ayumi used when she mentioned it.

"A huge tree," said Ayumi. "Its branches were still healthy, and leaves still grew on them, but… It was so scary. It was not a normal tree, Mai. It wasn't."

"Calm down," she said, taking her hand. She was shaking too, now. This was quickly getting out of control. "Let's get going, carefully. Pay attention to your surroundings. And look above, too."

And so they went, and Mai made sure to always follow her own advice. The highest branches seemed to be lowering now, and she couldn't tell if it was a natural thing or if it was the curse bringing them to life. She assume it was the latter, and urged her companions to move on faster. To drive herself forward, she tried to think of something that would make her brave again. She thought of Saki, and could feel the warmth of her hand on the tip of her fingers. She wondered if it was a heart connection, or just wishful thinking.

The sound of leaves rustling grew louder, and the tree that Ayumi had talked about drew nearer. As she listened to the sound with greater care, Mai realized that as the leaves crackled, whispers resounded, echoed, followed by the slightest hint of bells, almost impossible to hear, so faint that Mai couldn't be sure that was the sound she heard. But she felt that fearful aura again, and its familiarity dawned on her as she gazed upon the immense tree, red sap gushing from its surface, its leaves careening opposite to the pull of the wind. A face emerged from the thick trunk, eyes sharp and pale, full of malice. A face that Mai knew.

"Karehan," she said, hiding her fears.

"You are back into my forest again," he said. "A very foolish thing to do, for one who is not a Precure anymore."

"I am a Precure," she said. "Even without Saki, I still am a Precure, and will always be one."

As he laughed, so did the forest crackle all around. Vines and briars began to entwine along the soil, creeping towards the Precure.

"Not much use, though, if you cannot transform," he said, his form appearing from the body of the tree, as the wood detached from the enormity of the trunk. Leaves began to fall all over him, masking his face.

"So were you here all along?"

"You understand that Dark Fall is very interested in the activity of the remnants of the Pretty Cure. What better place to spy upon you than from a forest you are too scared to set foot upon?"

Cure Nile drew a whip from the surface of her Pretty Change Mirror, now soft like water, and Echo and Wave made fists, but they faltered, legs quivering. Karehan seemed to find that very amusing. Lazily he made a sweeping motion with his hand, and the Thornwood awoke, roaring a far-flung shriek.

"Pity you had to come and ruin my little operation," said Karehan, showing sharp teeth as he smiled. "But I knew this day would come. I have gotten all the information I needed. Dark Fall shall come, soon, for all of you. Well," his smirk was terrible to behold, now that Mai did not have Saki by her side, "not you in particular. You won't be leaving this forest. And don't worry, Cure Egret. I'll be telling Cure Bloom all about your sad, sad end."

Echo put herself between Karehan and Mai while Nile and Wave approached him, hurried steps crushing twigs underneath with a sound of broken bones. Mai looked above, and screamed for caution when she saw that the branches above began to snap and fell upon the girls below. Orina reached Karehan in a single bound, but heavy branches fell just in front of him, their impact sending her to the ground.

Nile's whip cracked as it missed Karehan's leg; instead it wrapped itself around a thick tree trunk. Karehan put his foot on top of it, preventing Nile from pulling it back to her. Then it was his time to lash at her, his fingers extending into long green strands covered in dead leaves. They struck at Nile's face, clinging to her, strangling. As he began to drag her towards him, Wave tugged at the vines, knocking him off his feet, but roots rose from the ground to catch him as he fell.

"Mai," Ayumi said with urgency, "run."

"I can't just let you-"

"You can't help us!" She shouted, pleading, her face almost pitiful. Mai nodded, and turned away. Then she began to run.

Behind her she heard screaming, the thunder-like shrieks of the whip echoing, harsh even as they grew fainter, and she heard the soft brushing of grass as it was trod upon. Mai still did not look back. Light still shone from behind, but soon the Thornwood was in dark: Orina let out a yelp, followed by the sound of breaking glass, and then the light was gone.

"You are not leaving," Karehan said, and, immersed in the dark, his voice seemed to come from everywhere all at once.

Mai stopped running when roots grabbed her by the ankle, forcing her to stay still. They stang, pulled her to the ground, even as she clawed at them to free herself. She tore them apart, yet they still crawled on her hand, dry and cold. The ground shook when she ran again, and, this time, massive vines, each thicker than her own arms, grasped her by the legs, lifted her high into the air. She could see as Nile and Wave were repelled by Karehan, as Ayumi looked up at her, screaming, and though Mai meant to cry out her name, the breath was taken out of her as the vines let go of her, violently throwing her upwards, above the canopy. From so high, Mai thought, the moon almost seemed a little bit bigger, but she had no time to reflect on it, as she was soon falling, and it was only the ground that came to meet her.

She closed her eyes. The wind howled, though Mai tried not to pay it any mind. Below her now was death, she knew; even if Ayumi caught her, the impact would break her open. Her heart beat calmly. She thought of Saki, tried to remember her as she looked in her dream, so small in her frozen cage. She could see her. She extended her hand, reaching towards Saki. Saki stood motionless, but when Mai's fingers reached her own, her breath quickened and she looked at nothing in shock. Mai could see nothing after that, but she could feel it again, that feeling she shared with Saki when they opened their heart to each other as they became Precure.

And then, for a second, she flew.

The wind brushed against Egret's face, and she felt at one with it. She opened her eyes, and she was falling, but slowly, like a leaf. As her hands moved, so did the gusts, and the forest was in cacophony as branches scraping one another in all directions.

She fell on Ayumi's arms, almost weightless. Echo stared at her in wonder, mouth open as she attempted to say words that she never finished. Mai gently put her feet on the ground, and the leaves around her were gently blown to the distance by the winds that sprung from her. Nile and Wave smiled, their faces full of joy despite their wounds and the redness of their blood, while Karehan was tense, the fear on his eyes evident even from afar.

Egret extended her hand towards him; the wind blew where she commanded it, ferocious, yet loyal to her, only to her. She slashed at the air with her fingers, and Karehan fell to the ground in a fierce impact, blasted off his feet by gales. Leaves soared as he fell, whirling in a relentless tourbillon. Karehan did not rise, but the Thornwood's wrath grew. Nile and Wave stepped back, closer to Mai.

"Egret," said Ayumi, now confident once more. Mai gave her a nod, and realized that she and the others were eager, too, ready to fight.

Karehan was getting up, suspended by vines, and Egret leapt towards him. She barely had to strain her legs for impulse, and let the winds take her soaring above the ground, graceful, and when she was face to face with her foe, she waved her hand so that the gusts would pummel him from side to side, affording him no reprieve, so that he could not even attempt to fight back.

It took all of her focus to keep him in place, however, so Mai depended on the others to bring him down. Roots snapped from the ground in loud crackles, ripping apart mounds of earth as they lashed at the Precure. A blade of light shone on Echo's hand, cutting down the twisted nature on the way of Nile and Wave, who ran towards Karehan. Mai's hands began to ache, overwhelmed by the magic that had become unfamiliar to them, but she held on, throwing Karehan from one side to the other.

Then, as Wave neared him, he stopped moving to the pull of the wind. Egret shouted, to no avail, and when she looked down, she saw strong roots pinning Karehan to the ground, immovable. His arms took on a thicker form, too, like the trunk of a tree, and they blocked Wave's punch easily. Orina screamed in pain, and his heavy fist knocked her to the ground. He smiled at Egret, and showed his other hand, his fingers now hardened bark, long and sharp like blades. He clawed out at Egret, but Echo's blade sliced his hand off.

It only seemed to inconvenience him. New daggers sprung in place of fingers, even longer now. They did not shatter when deflected by Echo, and seemed sharp enough to slice a person in half.

Echo and Karehan lunged at each other, and though Mai was in prime position to throw her weight against him or to bring the winds down on him, she knew very well that might endanger Ayumi; a duel like theirs required a great deal of concentration, of attunement to an opponent's movements, and if Mai were to interfere, she might break that concentration. If she ruined Ayumi's parry by ramming Karehan to one side, leading Echo to be caught by surprise, she knew the end would be devastating.

Instead she turned to the Thornwood. Its trees loomed with a dark and ominous presence. Twigs extended to rake at Ayumi as she fought off Karehan, but they splintered, repelled by Egret's gusts. She could feel the wind and its courses, and with a gentle command, unspoken, barely even thought, she could bend it to her desire, feeling it circle round her fingers as she did so. As she grew used to the sensation again, after being deprived of it for so long, it felt more natural than ever. She could almost feel the cold of Saki's fingers, not mere wishful thinking now. It filled her with strength.

The storm of the Thornwood's wrath crashed wildly against her serene but determined squalls, and so they never reached Ayumi. Monstrous trees with trunks for legs and leafy branches for arms rushed out of the darkness, shaking the earth with each step, their heads bearing the mark of the Uzaina. Wave and Nile stood in front of them; Wave endured the onslaught as they slammed their fists at her, while Nile's whip split itself into many braided lashes, and though their blows did nothing to the thick armor of the Uzaina, they entangled the beasts, snaring them where they stood, giving Wave the chance to finish them off one by one. Their slow movements made them predictable, and Mai knew the two would not need their help, so she continued to ensure that Ayumi could fight unimpeded.

Withered leaves whistled, cutting the air, too sharp to be natural. There was malice in the storm as it whirled around in search of an opening, its shades of black and grey blending together in madness. All the while, Ayumi fought on bravely. Mai looked at the way she moved, at how her feet were quick to move from one side to the other, responding to Karehan's movements. Her bladework was not without flaw, but she parried all of Karehan's advances, proof that Beauty's training had truly paid off. And yet… And yet Mai saw something odd about the way she swung her sword. She always slashed at Karehan's blades, or at the air, to make him step back, but she never attempted anything else. Many times Karehan left his chest unprotected, an easy target, but Echo never struck at it.

Egret understood at once what was happening. She hesitated to actually kill Karehan, despite having the chance to do so. It was as Reika had feared. Even if she had no desire to finish him off, she could at least subdue him, but even that Echo did not do. Karehan seemed to realize that soon enough, too, as he grew bolder in his moves, reckless, even. Mai's fingers trembled. They began to bleed, the stress of magic turning into pain, into wounds. She would not hold on for long, and yet Karehan's assault never subdued, and the Thornwood remained in turmoil.

"Egret! Echo!" Nile shouted. Mai looked at her whip, encircled around a tree just behind Karehan and Ayumi. "Move back!"

The whip erupted in a red light, not fire, Mai could tell, but still unbearably hot. The falling leaves and branches turned to ash when they were near it. She took Ayumi by the hand, and stepped away. When Nile pulled back her weapon, the tree it had wrapped had begun to collapse, smoking, and brought down with it the other trees around, all atop Karehan.

He could not turn back, else he would be crushed, leaving to him only the choice of running towards the Precure. Mai would have called it brilliant if she had any breath left. Karehan, however, made a different choice: snarling, he pulled off the foliage that masked his face, but instead of revealing his visage, his whole body turned into leaves, too, and scattered into the wind.

The trees fell thunderously, shaking the earth, and, in the end, in vain. Nile mumbled an apology, but Ayumi and Orina were quick to say her thinking had been quick, and that she had done well. She smiled at the compliment, and her face was red, though Mai presumed it was likely because of the thrill of battle.

"Is he gone?" Ayumi asked. Mai nodded. She had seen him run away many times, and Karehan had never been one to persist. Not that he had to. He had gathered enough information on Last Light, had he not? Mai shuddered at the thought of Dark Fall knowing about the village.

"I guess we won't be needing this," Mai pointed at her bag, now stained and scrunched. The vial had broken, spilling the water all over the contents of the bag, and the clippers had snapped in half, too. "We can make do without them, but it hurts to lose something so valuable."

"Are we gonna purify the Thornwood already?" Asked Nile. Mai nodded. "Even though that guy is gone?"

"It's best to be careful," she replied. When dealing with blighted areas like this, caution was the one thing keeping one's limbs all attached to one's body. "There's no way to know if the taints will leave just with Karehan's absence."

"That's fine," said Nile, "but can't we rest first? For a moment? We nearly died there!"

"Right, right," said Mai. Perhaps she was being hasty. They were not in great danger anymore, she had to agree. She leaned back against a tree, and let out a long sigh that seemed to carry all the weight of her body.

"Heh," Orina chuckled softly. "You know what's the funniest thing? I was more harmonious fighting with you than when I was with my sister."

"That's not actually very funny," said Ayumi.

"It is, a little bit," said Orina, though she had difficulty finding someone who agreed. Still, she almost never spoke of her sister. Mai wonder if it meant something that she mentioned her now.

Once Mai's body no longer felt so sore, and she could take steps without cringing from the pain, she declared it was time to finish their job. Without Mai's tools at their disposal, they had only their magic at their disposal, weakened as it was. The glint of the stars above was fading fast. Egret put her hands on the exposed, ravaged roots of the largest tree she could find. She presumed it was the oldest of the Thornwood, and perhaps had lived before anyone had even called this place Thornwood. It was leaning backwards, almost falling, and its bark was ridden with holes, rotting on the inside. There was no way to save all of the Thornwood, Mai understood that very well. She hoped only that she could save some of it.

She closed her eyes. Her power was leaving her and Saki was but a faint silhouette shrouded in fog. She imbued all the magic she had left on the tree, and asked her companions to do the same. Her fingers became cold, but warmth flowed into the forest. she thought back on the Heart Tree, and saw its flaming ruin, grey and dying, but not dead, never dead. The Heart Tree could never wilt. Not as long as a single living soul remained.

Or so she had always been told. Mai prayed that it was true. Eyes still closed, she could feel the Heart Tree on one hand, and the heart of the Thornwood on the other. All she had to do was join them.

The night was almost over when they were finished, and Mai only understood how much time had passed when she looked up and saw that the sky began to gain colors; a pure blue bordered by the gold of the rising sun, and the black of the enduring night. Gold… Mai craned her head to look further above, into the distance, and she could just barely see, amidst the distant trees, traces of the sun, no longer a blood red but yellow again, as it should be. Mai's fingertips were numb, and her Precure clothes turned into wisps of light, replaced by the mere cotton she wore day by day. She could no longer feel Saki, and so she was no longer Egret. But still she found her heart beating fast, confident, and her body was light. The Thornwood would not recover at once, that much was obvious, but already buds were appearing along the branches, and beneath the brown wither along the ground, dots of green were sprinkled all around. The forest, as the skies above, were finally regaining their colors.

From time to time, Kaoru found herself remembering the words of her sister, she who had such a strong affinity with those: Dark Fall is a web, sister, spun with lies, and bickering and schemes. But we do not scheme, Kaoru had said, though Michiru had - as always - an answer for that, too. We aren't spiders, but we have learned to maneuver around the web. This is why we have survived it for so long, even though we never touched the strings.

In times like these, when all of Dark Fall's commanders gathered together, Kaoru could almost see the web, and the strands being woven. She sat on a small chair on the most discreet and uninteresting corner of a damp, crowded room, a perfect place to remain unseen. The generals of Dark Fall and of what had once been the Dusk Zone all fought each other to make sure they got the last word, and to that end they employed all tricks short of physical violence. Everyone tried to make themselves be heard, all the time and all together, so in the end no one could be heard at all. All but Goyan, Kaoru noticed. He, too, seemed to understand the value of distancing himself from the web and its mess. Unlike Kaoru and Michiru, however, he would tug at it, sometimes, in ways that the Kiryuu sisters could not really understand. For now, however, he stared at the finest scum and cutthroats of Dark Fall and the Dusk Zone, his eyes curiously amused, full of something that Kaoru could almost mistake for knowing.

"Kill her!" It was Juna who was winning, for now, his voice louder than all others. "Kill the girl."

"Why kill the girl," began Poisony, who, though soft-spoken, always seemed to have a way of making sure everyone paid attention to her words, "when she can be yet of use, if only you are bold enough to use her?"

"She cannot be used," said Kintolesky. He was not the noisiest, nor the most assertive, but his arguments always carried a sort of certainty and finality that made them impossible to ignore.

Pissard rose a hand, eager, but was ignored. Kaoru heard a soft voice say: Pissard? More like piss off, but couldn't quite tell who it was.

"Of course she can," Poisony insisted. "She needs only the right persuasion…" Kaoru did not like the way she smiled. It was not joy that made her smile, but malice.

"Which would be…?" Goyan finally spoke, squinting.

"She has a rather large family, doesn't she? So many siblings, as well as her beloved mommy and daddy… And we have them, do we not?"

"What you speak of is dishonorable!" Said Kintolesky, slamming his fist on the long table. He loved to do so. Michiru once had said that he was the reason carpenters were still in business. Kaoru wished she could be as witty as her sister.

"So? You know what happened when we did things the honorable way," said Poisony, staring bitterly at Pissard. "Someone couldn't keep her in her cage, and instead of warning us, decided to chase Cure March to try and hide his shame. Have you looked into the sky, hm? Have you seen the sun? It is no longer tainted. Tell him, Regine. Tell Kintolesky just how difficult it was to corrupt the Fountain of Sun."

Though Poisony tried her best to present herself as independent, aloof and a ruthless plotter, Kaoru noticed that she always seemed to look for Regine's approval. She was, after all, one of the most influential generals of Dark Fall.

"Finding the Fountain was easy," she said, "it's the entire Crystal Ocean. The power required to taint it, though, was tremendous…"

"Tremendous," repeated Poisony. "It took us weeks to do it. When we were finished, the sky was a blot of blood, a mark showing the end of hope for the Precure. Even their sun had been taken from them. But tell me now, Kintolesky, what is its color now?"

"Gold," he said.

"You might like the color, but so do the Precure. And it's all thanks to Cure March. Our friend Pissy here not only failed to capture her, he also couldn't stop her from taking the Fairy Carafe. And we all know what happened then."

Kintolesky had no answer for that. Cure March had single-handedly foiled the efforts of Dark Fall, and was only captured when Dorodoron and Gekidrago managed to ambush her at Winterflow Crossing.

"That's what your honorable ways would get us," she concluded. So this is what I say we do: get one of her siblings. Doesn't matter which one, really. Then we hurt them. Just a little. Enough to persuade Cure March that she would do well to follow our commands, if she's not keen on becoming an only child."

"I don't think we should do that," said Kiriya. His voice was not too loud, so he had to repeat himself.

"Don't be so soft," said Poisony. "This will do us much good. We can use Cure March to get rid of the remaining Precure. Send her across the sea, to the remnants of the Red Rose," she was speaking to Goyan, now. His eyes were focused entirely on her. "Command her to kill their Rosehearted, whoever it is. She'll be in the perfect position to destroy the Precure, and-"

"No," said Goyan. "No, no, no. That is a little bit crafty, I'll admit it, and almost clever, but… No, not quite. Send her across the sea, you say? Where we will have no eyes on her?"

"Ah, well," her calm mask began to crack, "I suppose one of us could accompany her, and fool the Precure into thinking March captured one of us, and-"

"And who will volunteer?" No one said a word. "See? Cure March will never obey us. If you had ever bothered to talk to her, you would know. She is loyal. Ask Kaoru if you doubt me. She and her sister interrogated our dear Miss Midorikawa. We have hostages, yes, our prisons are filled with the loved ones of the Pretty Cure, but if you think that will make them stop fighting, then you don't understand them at all. It will only make them double their efforts of bringing us down."

"So? We do nothing?" Poisony rose. Even though she was far taller than Goyan and he had to look up at her, she seemed small, somehow. "This is not the end of the matter, you know. Come, Kiriya. Let's leave."

Poisony dragged him by the collar and stormed out of the meeting room. If she had hoped for a dramatic exit, she failed, as the room was so crowded that she bumped on Juna, Pissard and Dorodoron on her way out, nearly tripping and falling as she tried to squeeze past them. All the while, Goyan chuckled, his mouth unmoving. Kaoru always found his laughter very unnerving.

"Well," he said, "she didn't even have to make such a big deal about it, as I think we are done here."

"What is to be done about the Midorikawa girl?" Asked Kintolesky. "I am happy that you did not listen to Poisony, but something must still be done."

"Something will be done," said Goyan. "Of that you can rest assured."

But Kintolesky did not look at all convinced, while Juna was nearly defiant. He stared down at Goyan, angry, but was met only with indifference. Then, he left, and all the others followed.

"Juna won't be happy if we don't kill all Precure we get our hands on," said Goyan, looking aside to Kaoru. She always listened to his words with great attention. "He's always been opposed to even capturing the Precure. He will only accept their deaths."

"And what do you think?" Kaoru asked.

"I think that-"

The commotion at the door cut short Goyan's words. Someone was waiting, trying to walk inside. Goyan gestured to let them in. The guards then made way for Karehan and Michiru. Kaoru smiled when she saw her sister, who retributed the grin and went further, waving at her, but Karehan looked ragged, weary, angry.

"Ah," Goyan spoke in a playful tone that took Karehan to the bring of snapping, "so Lord Karehan returns at last. You never write to me anymore. I was starting to think you had abandoned Dark Fall, that perhaps you thought you were too good for us."

"Quit the jokes," said Karehan. Goyan seemed to have no intention of stopping.

"My lord," Michiru intervened. "It is quite serious. Karehan."

"The Precure."

"What about them?"

"I have been spying on them for the past few months. They have reclaimed their Phoenix Tower and have established a small village by the foot of the Phoenix Hill."

"And they named it Phoenix Village, I'm assuming?"

"It doesn't matter what it's named. The fact is that there are dozens of Precure now. They are being led by Cure Mirage, their new Rosehearted, from what I've been able to gather."

"And how were you able to gather it? Did they let you walk among them?"

"I took control of a forest nearby," he said. "The cold night winds would blow leaves to the village, and I could use those leaves as my eyes and ears."

"Right. Do you have any idea what their next course of action might be?"

"I hear they are planning to strike against the Bad End Kingdom."

"Then that makes things much easier for us. They will just get themselves killed by Pierrot. Thank you, Karehan. I will rest easier now."

"But-"

"You seem tired. Hurt. Perhaps you ought to rest."

"As you say," said Karehan, who understood it was an order. He left, then, as quickly as he had come.

Michiru took a seat by Kaoru's side. Kaoru found herself calmer when she had her sister with her. Sometimes, when people spoke to Kaoru and she was by herself, she would not know how to answer, but she could always depend on Michiru to help her. It made her feel safe, in a way.

"Girls," Goyan turned to them. He waved his hand at the door, and it slammed shut at once, so fast and unexpected that it drew an almost imperceptible yelp from Michiru. "Do you have anything you must tell me?"

"I do," said Michiru. She pulled a small journal from her pocket, and read the words she wrote down on it in letters so small that she had to squint. "So… From what I gather, Juna and Regine may attempt a coup soon."

"As expected," Goyan shrugged it off. "I would be astonished if they didn't try to bring me down."

As far as Kaoru understood, this was simply the way politics were conducted in Dark Fall: with daggers, and during nighttime. Those who did not plot against their superiors were seen as weak, and Dark Fall had no tolerance for the weak.

"Any other conspiracies I should be aware of?"

"It seems that Miss Shitataare and Kintolesky have grown closer lately. I saw them creating a great number of Uzaina, with the help of Moerumba. They certainly seem to be planning something."

"A power play? Do you think they might try to act against me, too?"

"I doubt it," said Michiru. "That is not Kintolesky's way. He is likely still on your side. However, he is not very fond of the Dusk Zone denizens, to say the least. He and Shitataare may try to get rid of Juna and Regine."

"That is good, isn't it?" Asked Kaoru. "If those two are scheming against Lord Goyan, then perhaps-"

"I don't fear Juna and Regine, child," said Goyan. "But I do fear that if Kintolesky and Shitataare alienate those who hail form the Dusk Zone, we will not win an outright war against them. Even if we do, we will be in no state to destroy the remaining Precure."

"What do we do, then?"

"I will speak to Kintolesky," said Goyan. "Now," he stepped closer to Michiru and Kaoru, lowering his voice. "I need the Dusk Zone on our side. Belzei is raising an army, I hear, and he says he found a great weapon. Until I know what it is, I will not risk a schism in Dark Fall. We already have enough problems, what with the situation with the Garden of Light… Any word on that, by the way?"

"Baldez says he has the situation under control," said Michiru.

"He's been saying that for a long time, now, and still the Garden is not under our control."

"You can read it yourself," Michiru said, pulling out a small letter from the same pocket from where she took her journal. She handed it over to Goyan, whose eyes drifted from left to right. He smiled when he was done reading.

"This is good," said Goyan. "If this succeeds, then we'll finally have control over the Garden of Light, and we will rid ourselves of their little queen and her Precure. And then…"

He didn't complete his sentence. Instead he waited for Michiru or Kaoru to ask. It was up to the latter to do so, and Goyan seemed satisfied. Kaoru knew that one of the reason he had taken them under his wing after the death of their creator Akudaikan was so that he could have someone loyal to hear him, to discuss plans with, and to do his bidding. At all those, the Kiryuu sisters had been remarkable.

"Once we have full control of the continent and don't need to fight the Precure remnants of the Garden of Light, we'll be free to cross the Crystal Ocean. To go south. We'll step over the carcass of the Blue Sky Kingdom, and wash over the lands on our way. We'll have to deal with Labyrinth first of all, of course… But then we'll destroy all that is left of the Precure."

"We?" Kaoru asked. She never thought she would be sent to the battlefield.

"Oh, my, it's just a figure of speech. No, you'll remain here. Someone needs to watch over the prisoners, after all. Can't rely on that good-for-nothing Pissard."

"Is this our new function?" Kaoru asked, obedient.

"Yes, and you start now," said Goyan. "I will need you there, and soon, do you hear me? I'm quite certain that Poisony may attempt to free Cure March and try to make use of her, the poor fool. You must not allow her to do so."

"Understood," said Michiru. "Anything else?"

"Not presently," said Goyan, scratching his uncomfortably large chin. "When I decide what is to be done with Miss Midorikawa, then you will carry the sentence, as usual. You are used to it by now, aren't you?"

"We are," said Kaoru.

"Then you may go now," said Goyan. "Food will be brought to you, don't you worry. And you will have to distribute meals to the prisoners, too. But that's easy work, hm? Boring, almost. Would you like a book, perhaps?"

"We are fine," said Michiru, getting up. Her sister was quick to follow. As she left the meeting room, Kaoru could almost feel Goyan's eyes staring at her and at Michiru.

They closed the door behind them, though Goyan had not asked for it. Stepping back into the corridors of Dark Fall, they were met by an unpleasant cold. Crystalline droplets seeped from the walls, almost frozen. Though it was nearly summer in the northern lands, Dark Fall was never warm.

Kaoru looked out of the windows carved upon the jagged walls of Dark Fall; far below, she could see the great lake wherein the castle had been built, sculpted into a massive, bent rock. The waters were not fully frozen now, but chunks of ice still floated along its surface.

The way to Dark Fall's prisons was one that Kaoru and Michiru knew very well. Though until now they had never had to spent much time there, they had often been responsible with their punishment; it was always, inevitably, to toss them on the cold water and let them drown.

"Do you think Goyan will want us to get rid of March, too?" Michiru asked when they were going down a flight of stairs and there was no one there to hear them.

"Yeah," said Kaoru. "I think he'll give the order, eventually."

"Then we'd better make the preparations," said Michiru. "There's still time. Maybe we can…"

"Quiet," Kaoru put her hand on her sister's mouth. "You always talk too much, sister."

"I know, I know," she said, stopping. "But we can't just let…" She hesitated. There was no one nearby, but Dark Fall had taught them paranoia. "You know what I want to say."

"I do," said Kaoru. Yes, they could save Cure March, as they had saved all the girls before her. At least a dozen now, she thought. Just once would be enough to have them killed as traitors, so Kaoru did not like to imagine what would be done to them for betraying Dark Fall time and time again. "You'll write the letter, right?"

"Of course," said Michiru.

"Then it's decided," Kaoru declared, and continued to walk, her sister following right behind her, her footsteps just a little bit louder, echoing in the empty corridors of Dark Fall.

The prison had been carved into another, smaller (but still immense, almost a mountain) rock, connected to its larger twin by a bridge of dark metal, colored a deep black. The bridge itself was wide and spacious enough to have several rooms within it, the most notable of which was its execution chamber: nothing too messy, Goyan liked to say, it was just a small cell with a trapdoor for its floor. All it took was one pull of a lever outside, and the problem was dealt with. Kaoru passed by it, and her gaze avoided its door. She and her sister had saved as many prisoners as they could, but even so they could not always be available, and Dark Fall had existed for a long time, anyways. That thought always made Kaoru feel like throwing up.

Once past the bridge, they reached Dark Fall's prison, a place so cramped that it made the rest of the castle look like a wide open field. It was almost impossible to even run in such narrow paths, so it must have taken a great deal of dedication for Cure March to do so. And a great deal of incompetent from Pissard as well, of course.

The jail cells themselves were deep into the rock, below the lake's surface. Imagining the prisoners trapped in what were little more than holes made Kaoru shiver. Such a tightly enclosed space… Kaoru could see red stains on the rocky walls, no doubt blood shed by Cure March when she escaped, scraping her skin against the jagged surface.

With nothing else to do but wait, the two sisters stared at nothing, silently. It was not awkward at all, the way other members of Dark Fall said it was. They just had nothing to say, so they said nothing, and that was fine. Kaoru felt comfortable enough just being by her sister's side.

Once some hours had passed (how many exactly, they had no idea. With no windows on the prison, Kaoru could not even count on the sun's movement to tell the time), a few Zakenna arrived carrying food: two plates for the Kiryuus, and countless plastic bags for the prisoners. It was generous to call it food; it was an irksome brown goo that might have been meat, but it also might have been anything, really. It did not smell good, even closed.

They ate hurriedly; Kaoru herself found it hard to feel hungry when she saw what Dark Fall's prisoners had to make do with. She left some of her food uneaten, too, before opening one of the bags and spilling its contents on her plate.

"For Saki," Kaoru explained. "We have no way of feeding everyone something decent, but Saki, at least, we can."

"That's thoughtful," said Michiru. "Just gimme a moment."

She reached out into her pocket again, and another time she produced the her journal. Most of its pages were filled with not even her thoughts, but information she scribbled down in order to inform Goyan. She ripped out the corner of one of the pages, took a pen from her back pocket, and wrote something down. Kaoru could not see; both paper and handwriting were tiny, and were covered by Michiru's hand. When she was done, Michiru smiled, and said it was time to see Saki. Kaoru did not smile.

The corridors leading down were long, dark, and cold. The further they descended, the more frigid the air became, and eventually the walls turned to ice. There was seemingly no end to their descent, and soon it was clear that they were deep underground, beneath even the bottom of the lake. It made Kaoru feel extremely constrained. The walls wept cold water, and from time to time droplets would fall from the ceilings, too. There was almost no light anymore, either, all torches long extinguished. Kaoru's candle didn't look like it would be lasting very long, either.

Saki's cell felt as if it was hidden in the bowels of the earth. The sound of running water was long gone; all sounds had disappeared, replaced by crushing silence. The entrance to Bloom's confinement was barred by a thick metal door. Runes glew along its surface; defenses against the powers of the Precure.

They opened the door, and saw Saki sitting on a corner, her hands resting on her knees. Her knuckles were bleeding heavily, red drops falling in a tiny puddle close to her. When she was who it was who had come, her face became sad. It hurt to look at it, to know that Saki thought that they were with Dark Fall all along, that their friendship had been a lie. It hurt even more to not be able to say anything.

"We brought your food," said Michiru. She put the plate on the floor. There was no response from Saki.

There were marks on the wall, Kaoru noticed. Holes, almost, openings on the heavy rock that trapped Saki here. Too strong even for a Precure to destroy it, Goyan had said, but Saki couldn't even become a Precure anymore… And yet Kaoru knew that only as Cure Bloom would she be able to damage the walls like that. She must have been beyond desperate to try and break her walls even though there was nothing beyond but more stone. There was no escape from this side, but she tried anyways.

"Saki," said Kaoru. Something filled Bloom's eyes when Kaoru said her name out loud. But then it was gone, lasting only a moment. "Did you…"

"Did you transform?" Michiru whispered. There was no one there to hear them, but even whispering that word felt dangerous. Saki nodded ever so slightly.

"Please," she said. "Please don't tell. Please. I don't know how it happened, and it stopped, so please-"

"Eat," said Michiru. She put her finger on the note she wrote, pointing it out to Bloom, and then slid the plate to her. Then she turned back, and Kaoru followed, closing the door. She did not want to look at Saki's face as they left.

She walked behind her sister, and could hear Michiru's breathing, strained and pathetic. She was about to cry. Kaoru held her hand, and had hers squeezed in return.

"Don't be so sad, sister," said Kaoru. "Here we can keep Saki safe. Here we can keep everyone safe, or at least try."

"I know," said Michiru. "I want Saki to understand, though… Understand how we feel about her. The note I put on her plate was a message, you see."

"A message?" Kaoru asked. "What did it say?"

"It said exactly what Saki needed to hear," her sister replied. "It said only a single truth that is enough to let her know that we are still on her side."

"And that truth is…?"

"That we remember," said Michiru. "We do not forget. Do we, sister?"

"No," said Kaoru, eyes drifting into the darkness. "Not ever."

A gust blew through the open window, bringing with it chills all over Reika's body. Nozomi did not seem at all disturbed; she continued to stare at all the clothes laid upon her bed, and at her ragged bag, with holes all over it. Reika stepped towards the window, cautiously, to look outside, but the sky was just the same as it always was. The red sun no longer shone, all thanks to Egret, to Echo, to Nile and to Wave, but everything else was the same.

The days were getting colder now. Day and night, chilly winds took over Last Light, and though they were still pleasant, their coldness still mild, even welcome, after the red sun's swelter, Reika knew that Märchenland's winter would not be nearly as agreeable.

"Do you think this will be warm enough?" Nozomi asked, holding up an ugly, bulky sweater that was probably supposed to be pink, but instead was a dull earthy red. Reika wondered who it was who had knit it and had done such a shoddy job.

"Probably not," said Reika. Sighing, Nozomi threw the sweater on her bed, wrinkling it and, somehow, making it even more hideous.

"Maybe that one?" Coco pointed at a brown jacket, but Nozomi remarked that she had already discarded it. "Was worth a try, I suppose."

"Is Märchenland really that cold?" Nozomi asked.

"Not to me," said Reika. "You might find it less than pleasant, though. Most people do. Some years bring harsher winters than others, but they are all, with no exception, severe to the unprepared. So prepare."

"I am trying," said Nozomi, "I just don't have any real winter clothing."

"If all goes well," Reika said, even though she knew by now that it was rare for things to go well, "we'll be back in the first days of winter."

"And if things don't go well…?"

Then we'll be trapped by the snows, and who knows what will happen to us there.

"We will succeed this time. We were unlucky at Trump, and failed to account for Regina's untimely return. Now, however, we know what we are facing," or so I hope.

Though Reika herself was not entirely certain, Nozomi seemed to trust her without question. Just as I would trust her, she reflected. She stood next to Nozomi, and helped her choose proper clothing.

"How cold is it there, anyways?" Nozomi asked, somewhat doubtful. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

"How do I put it… Have you ever seen snow?"

"Not in the Palmier Kingdom," said Nozomi, "but yes, I have."

"Have you ever seen a whole village disappear underneath the snow and be uninhabitable for years?"

"N-No," Nozomi said.

"Can you imagine it?" Nozomi shivered. Reika took that as a yes. "Well, it is not common, admittedly. But it has happened before. What is common, though, is seeing the kingdom's roads be blocked by blizzards. The snow itself won't kill you, of course, but it will slow you down, and that's deadly when the temperature is low enough to threaten frostbite."

Nozomi kept her silence, but her eyes were disturbed. Coco, too, seemed shaken after hearing it.

"You know," Nozomi said to him, "you don't need to come. You stayed behind when we went to Trump, and no one blamed you. No one will blame you now, either."

"I do want to go," he said. "Märchenland and its people have always been good friends of the Palmier Kingdom and its neighbors, too. Some decades back, when the eastern provinces of the Palmier Kingdom were devastated by earthquakes, Märchenland's queen arrived with relief even before the Precure of the Red Rose could come. We don't forget that, you know. They never asked anything in return, but I would still like to give something back. I think everyone in the Palmier Kingdom would want to do that, too, if they could. If they were still… You know. Not that I speak for everyone, of course."

"But you're the prince, aren't you?" Nozomi asked. "Don't you speak for your people, kinda?"

"Not really," he laughed. "I'm called prince, but that's mostly a courtesy. Prince consort would be more appropriate. Nuts is the one who's the heir."

"I see…" Nozomi said, and the sadness in her voice made it clear to Reika that she too had noticed that Coco's eyes began to tear up as he spoke of Nuts. "Please, Coco. Don't worry too much. I know that Kurumi will find Nuts."

"I hope you are right," he said. "It's hard to stay hopeful, sometimes, and I miss Nuts dearly. A feeling which, I'm sure, neither of you are strangers to, so I would rather say no more."

Nozomi nodded with enthusiasm, as if glad to be able to change the subject. Reika, however, could not let her mind drift away so easily, and so, her eyes stared at nothing as she remembered all the people that, like Coco missed Nuts, she too could not live without. Their absence made her hollow. Now that she had thought of them, the memory would not fade away, and she found herself trying to remember Nao's face, Miyuki's as well, but, to her horror, she could not even piece them together now. She could see eyes shining green, she could see an aquiline nose, she could even see a smile, but they were all apart, and all the faces she imagine were but pale shadows of the true ones.

"Are you alright, Reika?" She couldn't tell if it was Coco or Nozomi who had said that, so tight was the snare of sadness which kept her entranced to feelings that she knew would only harm her.

"Yes. Yes, of course. Coco," Reika turned to him, then. "Would you please be kind enough to go to my house and look for the chest underneath my bed? I believe I do have some clothes there that might be just what Nozomi needs."

"Oh," he said, appearing only slightly surprised, "alright. The door is open, I assume?" Reika nodded, and Coco complied with her request.

He left Nozomi and Reika, and closed the door as he went away. Reika wondered if he understood that she asked for his help so that she could be alone with Nozomi, although Dream herself didn't seem to grasp Reika's intentions at all.

"You know, you did ask the prince of the Palmier Kingdom to bring you your stuff," Nozomi said, barely holding back laughter.

"I suppose I did," said Reika. She tried to smile, but couldn't. Instead all her weight fell down on the bed as she sat next to Nozomi. "I'm worried, Nozomi."

"About Miyuki?" Reika nodded. "We'll save her, Reika. I promise you that."

"I know you promise it," Reika spoke softly, "and I know I can trust you, but I'm afraid anyways. So afraid. I want to see Miyuki again, to see her smile, but… Whenever I imagine what it will feel like to meet her again, I remember Akane. And I fear."

"Have you told Yayoi about it?" Nozomi asked. Reika shook her head.

"She is my dear friend, yes, and I treasure her more than all precious things, but… Well, that's precisely why I don't want to worry her. She's so depressed already that I feel like I have to be strong for her. I have to be."

"Reika…"

"And I trust you. I can be sad when I'm around you and not feel like I'm disappointing anyone. I can be weak when I'm with you and still feel strong."

"Is that how you feel? How you always felt?" Reika nodded again. In a moment, so suddenly that it nearly caught Reika unawares, Nozomi's arm was wrapped around her back, gripping tight. Reika's hand sought Nozomi's and its warmth.

This was, Reika understood then, an upside to having a wintry heart: all others felt all the warmer in comparison, and when they reached her own, they brought amenity and fervor.

"I understand how it hurts. You may not believe it, but-"

"I do believe it, Nozomi," Reika was quick to say. "If you say it, then I believe it. And I wish you didn't have to feel this way. It's not just that it's hurtful, though it is. It isolates you, and makes you shove everyone away if you let it. And I let it."

"But you don't have to. I'm here for you, and if I ever cannot be, then Yayoi will be. If you love her as much as you say you do, then I'm sure she loves you just as much, and you can share your fears with her."

"Do you share yours with Komachi?" Nozomi was silent. Her fingers curled softly, and she let go of Reika's hand.

"No," she said, finally. "Guess I can't follow my own advice, huh?"

"That doesn't make you any less right," Reika said, then sighed in relief. "You have the right idea. Yayoi is quite open with me. It is only fair for me to be honest with her, in return," she doubted she would be able to do it anytime soon, however.

"Yeah," said Nozomi. "Even if you can't, though, you can count on me, you know. Iona too, I'd wager. After what we went through in Trump, well, I feel like we can trust her. No, we should trust her, even."

"If you say so," Reika herself was not as certain as Nozomi. She liked Iona well enough, but fondness was quite distant from trust. "She has not hurt you lately, has she?" Reika still worried about it.

"No, not at all," said Nozomi. "She seems to be minding her words as of late. Even with Hime, or so Yuko told me. They're still cold, of course, but considering the state of their relationship before, that's improvement!"

Nozomi giggled at that, but Reika found herself agreeing in silence. Yes, there were worse things than coldness. There were kinds of warmth besides the one that someone like Nozomi would show; the fire of anger and hatred. The cold was much safer, Reika had long understood.

Iona watched Nagisa and Honoka arrive at Last Light, and shortly afterwards the two women were already surrounded by Nozomi, Reika, Yayoi and Komachi, with Makoto already approaching, with Coco following her. Iona kept her distance somewhat, but could still see Nagisa's exaggerated disappointment at hearing that they were to head to Märchenland immediately, even though Cure Black wished to rest. Though Iona remained silent, Glasan chuckled.

"Nagisa doesn't really seem like she's older than all of you here, huh?" The fairy asked.

"Do you think so?" Iona was perplexed. "She always seemed rather mature to me."

"Well, she's always joking around, and seems to get annoyed really easily, and-"

"I don't think it makes her any less mature," said Iona. "I get annoyed often, too. Am I immature?" Glasan opened her mouth, but Iona interrupted. "Don't actually answer that."

"Heh, alright," said Glasan. "I'm glad we're going with them, you know. I've always wanted to see Märchenland."

"Is that why you're glad?" Iona hid a smile. "Not because you'll get the chance to do something great, to accompany the Precure in their brave effort to vanquish evil and free the people of Märchenland from the clutches of the wicked Bad End Kingdom?"

"That too," said Glasan, who didn't laugh. Iona wondered if the fairy took her seriously.

Nagisa and Honoka drew closer, then, waving shortly at her. Their fairies followed behind, trying their best to keep up with their partners, despite their short legs; they were hopping more than walking. Glasan seemed to find that extremely funny, as she moved away deeper into Last Light, wherein she chuckled with enthusiasm, distant enough to not be heard. Glasan was too used to floating around everywhere, after all, so it was no wonder she found it very funny to see fairies walk with their own legs.

"Hello, Fortune," Honoka greeted her.

"White," Iona felt it only appropriate to call her by her Precure name as well, given the coldness of her greeting. "Black."

"Yep," Nagisa was considerably more jovial, "long time no see. Because we were, you know, paying our dues at the Phoenix Tower."

"Oh, right," Iona had forgotten. "Thank you for that."

"I'm joking, I'm joking," said Nagisa, "I'm not really annoyed. I mean, well, it is a bit of a pain to have to deal with Mirage, and-"

"Cure Mirage has done much for me," Iona was quick to remark, "so if you could not badmouth her, I would be really happy."

"Oh," Nagisa didn't seem to expecting that sort of response, "I'm sorry," she did seem to be honest in her apology, so Iona said it was no matter. "You ought to go join the others. They might be discussing something important."

"I doubt it," Iona said. "I mean, what is there to say? We have to move fast? I already know that."

"That's true," Nagisa said, then sighed. "They might appreciate having you with them, though. You're coming with us, aren't you? You shouldn't stray from the others like you do."

"I know, I know… I just don't wanna waste any time talking. I just want us to get going."

"It's not really a waste when you're with people you like," Nagisa shrugged, "though whether or not you like them is none of my business, so I'll leave you to do whatever you prefer. By the way, do you know where Cure Princess is?"

"Probably with Cure Honey," said Iona.

"I see," she paused, awkward. "Do you know where Cure Honey is?"

"I'm not sure," said Iona. She didn't usually trouble herself with keeping up with the whereabouts of Hime and Yuko, as if she were a babysitter. As that would have been a rude answer, however, she instead said, "perhaps they are cooking together, or eating, or are at the kennels."

"You have kennels?" Nagisa spoke as if Iona had said something outrageous. "Seems like you are doing pretty well here."

"Well, kennels is just a fancy way of calling a little corner near the farms. However, calling it the dog corner doesn't seem exactly dignified, you know?" And here at Last Light we're all about pretending life is the same as it always was.

"That's fair," Nagisa said, and laughed. "Well, then I'll be looking for Princess. I have a letter to give to her, from Mirage," Iona wanted to ask what it was, but when Black showed her, its envelope was sealed with a red rose, unbroken. She presumed, then, that Nagisa herself didn't know the letter's contents. Iona wondered why such secrecy might be needed, but decided to trust Mirage's judgment. "I guess I'll look for them at the dog corner- Sorry, the kennels."

Iona nodded, not laughing, though Glasan seemed to find Nagisa very entertaining. The woman drifted away, then, and Iona decided to heed her advice, and headed towards the rest of the Precure, Glasan following right behind.

"Oh, Iona," Beauty's gentle voice called out her name. "I was just telling Honoka that you were to accompany us once again."

"I'm happy to hear that," Cure White punctuated her words with a smile. "So, we'll be the same team as we were when we went to Trump, but with a few additions."

"Makoto is so strong!" Nozomi said with her usual enthusiasm, but Sword did not react to the praise. "Beauty and I have been sparring with her on our free time, and she's so good with her sword! Which I guess is why you're named Cure Sword, eh, Makoto?" She nodded. "Anyways, Reika and I still haven't able to beat her. Right?"

"Yes, we haven't" said Reika, but her voice seemed to falter as she spoke. Was her pride wounded at admitting her defeat? "But we have improved so much. Nozomi, you are wielding your Fleuret with deftness as of late," Nozomi smiled with great sweetness. "But, moving on… Cure Mint will come with us, as well."

"Y-Yes!" She said, eager to please. "I… I have seen the Palmier Kingdom fall. It is not a fate I wish upon anyone else. Even if we can't save the Palmier Kingdom now, we can help Märchenland. Right?"

"We can," said Yayoi.

"We will," Reika added. "Trump was… Trump was a fluke. A disaster. A mistake that I- That we will not repeat. We'll have a happy ending this time, I promise you," she was looking at Yayoi now, "like the way Miyuki's stories always ended well."

"Well, it's wonderful to see you haven't lost your heart," said Honoka. "Nagisa and I haven't lost our will either, so no worries on account of us."

"There's no reason to give up entirely because of one failure," Coco remarked.

"Hey, Iona," Komachi approached her with sudden curiosity, "have you, perhaps… Or, rather, can you predict the way this journey will go? Fortune-tellers can see signs, right?"

"Ah," Iona hadn't really thought about that. "I suppose I could, if you want."

"For luck," Nozomi said. Komachi seemed unusually interested in learning about fate and the future, but Nozomi's warm interest was something Iona had grown used to.

"We don't have the time to do a reading of the Fates," Iona said, knowing too well they were on a hurry, "but, in some regions of Majorland, it's customary to listen to the birdsongs resounding in the morning of your travel, to try and predict if you will be safe in your journey. Doesn't seem like they're interested in singing right now. We could watch the skies, too, as we go south. Hope Kingdom superstitions hold it that waxwings overhead are a sign of a blessed adventure, whereas red-backed starlings are an omen of death."

"Those are species from the Hope Kingdom, though," Honoka said.

"Which I guess is just another way of saying we have no way of knowing what's gonna happen," said Makoto. Iona chuckled.

"Probably," she said. "Although…" The wind blew her hair to the sides, violent, and Honoka's strands hit her right in the face. White mumbled an apology, but Iona said it was fine. "Reika and Yayoi are probably already aware," she said, and could see something change in Reika's expression, "but in Märchenland it's said that cold winds are an ill sign. It's winter's kiss, a graven greeting. Spring and summer are times for travel, but to march straight towards winter's jaws is-"

"That's a foolish superstition," said Reika, harshly. "Yes, Märchenland's winters are harsh, but it's still only autumn, so we have nothing to fear. Besides, cold and ice are not signs of evil or tragedy, despite what everyone believes. I'm proof of that."

"I didn't say I believed those signs," said Iona. "Mint and Dream only asked me to offer my opinion."

"I was only curious," said Komachi, almost defensive. "This isn't important, anyways, I suppose."

"It really isn't," said Makoto. "Going south is what's important. Do we wait for Nagisa to come back, or-"

"She'll find us," said Honoka. "We're not exactly easy to miss, all eight of us."

"So, shall we get going?" Reika asked, now composed once more, and her voice had this sort of calm grandeur that filled Iona with determination. All at once, Iona comprehended the importance of what they were doing, and she was glad to be part of it.

"Yes," she said, "we shall."

She was the first to leave the village, with Glasan right behind her. She could hear the footsteps behind her, of all the Cures that followed, but soon the sounds seemed to hasten, to grow louder, closer, and when she looked again, Nozomi was right next to her, with Beauty by her side. Dream smiled at Fortune, a smile that Iona didn't quite understand, but felt compelled to return it all the same.

Nozomi's arm coiled around Iona's, so sudden that she could not resist, and she was glad she didn't get the chance; her impulse, she knew, would have been to push Nozomi away, but when she found herself right next to her, and to Reika, whose arm was linked to Nozomi as well, she felt warmth even when the wind breathed on her face. It was almost embarrassing to find herself walking side by side with Dream and Beauty, like a child, but only almost. It was not embarrassment she felt, but instead it was the feeling of being complete, the way she had not felt since…

She didn't finish that train of thought. And neither did she look behind, this time. For now, the only path to take was the road ahead, and though it was uncertain, with no sign of how it would end, by Nozomi and Reika's side, Iona felt, somehow, safe.

Chapter Text

Harsh rains pummeled against the windows and walls of Nightmare's black tower, and as they hit the glass, the sound reverberated forcefully, angrily filling the world with all its loudness, but even that noise seemed a meek thing to Alice as she stood in front of Despariah again, and her voice thundered with a composed yet fearful firmness:

"What are those things doing here?" Despariah asked, and Alice didn't need any more words to understand what she was talking about. When she stepped into Despariah's office to report the fiasco at Trump, she left Shadow's Precure behind, waiting by the door. Alice had saved them from their maker, but Despariah would not be so easy to persuade.

"They came with me, at my request," Alice quickly shifted the blame to herself, knowing she would not be punished as harshly. "Their mission at Trump was a failure, but it was no fault of their own. As such, I presumed that they would still be of use to Eternal and to Nightmare."

"No," Despariah saw through her. "You wanted to save their lives, and hoped that they would find mercy here."

Alice swallowed. Lying would not take her far, she understood, but she also didn't know if truth would sway Despariah's will. Lance was shivering on her arms, and she pressed him against her chest.

"My lady," she shielded herself with courtesy, "those girls truly do not deserve to die. I know you don't care about my feelings, but you should care about their competence. As copies of true Precure, they have a wide array of skills that you would be ill-advised to turn aside. It won't even cost you much. Nothing at all, really, so there is nothing to lose. Those girls… They don't have anything but their own lives. They won't ask for much. I can share my office with them, my quarters, too, if you are not willing to give them their own. I won't mind."

"It's not a matter of resources," said Despariah, "as, trust me, we have no lack of those. Shadow overplayed his authority by letting you bring them here. The Director wants the girls punished. They are defective copies, which he simply will not accept, and when Nightmare and Eternal merged, the main terms of the agreement was that neither I or the Director would overrule the other's decision. And the Director seems to be very unpleased with whatever it was that happened at Trump."

"Have you been told what he wanted at Trump?" Alice asked. Despariah shook her head curtly. "He meant to take the Eternal Golden Crown from the palace."

"He…" It was hard to tell how Despariah felt, thanks to her mask and the darkness that drowned the office, but her voice carried annoyance, even anger. "The Crown? He knew where it was?"

"No," said Alice, "he only thought he did. Eternal acted on misguided information."

"Something as important as the Crown should have been informed to me," Despariah said. She got up, then, and declared, "so he would act behind my back despite the fact that it's Nightmare's resources that make our alliance so fearful. Very well," she paused, then sat down again, and looked down upon Rosetta. "Your girls may stay here. It is hardly retribution, but perhaps Kawarino may find an use for them. Report to him."

Alice nodded politely and turned back, but those last few words robbed her of whatever triumph she felt she had achieved. Kawarino would find an use for them, yes, but it would not be a pleasant one. Alice had heard whispers of Nightmare's troubles: the princess of the Crepe Kingdom had been freed from her captivity by unknown liberators, most likely remnants of the Precure; a Precure wielding the power of blue roses had been sighted nearby, too, and she had been causing headaches by single-handedly destroying numerous Nightmare facilities. Rosetta had shivered when she heard that last tale from Bunbee; she understood all too well what those roses represented. When she heard Rikka speak of that accursed Rose, Alice hadn't paid it much mind, but if their influence reached even the fairy kingdoms of the west, then perhaps they were a threat, again, and Alice knew that when the Blue Rose held power, tyranny always followed.

The girls awaited her with anxious eyes, but it was Kawarino who first approached her, taking long steps towards Alice, his mouth open to ask something. Though Alice knew she wouldn't have time to recount everything that had occurred in Despariah's office, she made sure to smile at Aqua, at Rouge and at Lemonade, to make clear to them that they had no reason to worry anymore. They seemed to understand that well enough, and Dark Rouge loudly exhaled, relieved, as she relaxed her posture, letting her back lean slightly.

"So," Kawarino began, "you seem happy. Am I to understand that I should add these girls to the payroll?"

"Pay… Roll?" Lemonade stared at him as if he were speaking in another language (and, for her, he might as well have been), while Dark Aqua's tightly shut lips seemed to hold back a reprimand. "What the hell is that?"

"You should probably ask dear Alice to explain it to you," he said, impatient, "as she appears to be very willing to help you, hm?"

"I'll explain it all to you later," Alice turned to the three quickly, to reassure them. "It basically means that you are part of Nightmare now."

"Oh, cool," said Lemonade. "So now we're Shadow's, Eternal's and Nightmare's? I had no idea so many people wanted us.

"Lemonade," Alice said. "Be quiet for a second, please. Is there anything you need from me, Kawarino?"

"Always," he said. "Your new friends can help too, of course, if they want to be worth their wages. Here," Kawarino reached into a pocket and produced small cards, and gave one to each, "why don't you go buy a snack from the vending machines on one of the lower floors, hm?"

"Buy a what from a what now?" Rouge asked.

"You'll figure it out."

"Come on," Dark Aqua grabbed Dark Lemonade and Dark Rouge by their sleeves and pulled them away. "Kawarino wants to talk to Alice alone."

"Why couldn't he just say that in the first place?" Lemonade whined.

"We'll wait for you at your office," Dark Aqua said. Alice meant to ask if they even knew where her office was, but Aqua predicted that. "We'll ask around."

With that, they were gone, Dark Aqua dragging her two companions outside, slamming the door so carelessly that the sound of it made Alice flinch.

"You trust them?" He said, an eye half-open. It almost looked like a reptile's eye, Alice thought. She despised having to look at it and its cruelty.

"I do," she said.

"For your sake, I'll hope you have not misled Despariah. Our situation is quickly becoming precarious, what with the Precure who refuse to die and the ambitions of Dark Fall and Labyrinth, but I'll remind you that you ought not to find any joy in our problems, much less work against the interests of Nightmare. You do remember, after all, the hostages?"

Now he calls them hostages, Alice thought. They were guests just some months ago, when Kawarino believed that Nightmare's triumph was complete.

"I remember," Alice said between teeth, to keep the bitterness trapped inside. "I have not forgotten," and how could she?

"Good," said Kawarino. "We still have need of you. Perhaps your friends will be of use, too. They will have to be, if they have any hope of remaining welcome here."

"You don't have to worry about them," said Alice. She tried to walk away, but Kawarino insistently blocked her way.

"Then I won't worry," he said, "for now. I will contact you when Nightmare needs you. And Nightmare will need you soon enough, what with the Precure giving us difficulties."

"That's fine," said Alice. "May I go now?"

"Of course," he said, moving out of her way, now closing his eyes, but still smiling. "And one more thing: Cure Continental wishes to see you."

Alice froze. This is a trap, she knew it. Why would they allow the trapped Precure to even talk to her? Was this another attempt of his to break her? But I will not break. Never.

"What for?"

"I did not intrude," he said, biting his tongue. "What do you take me for? I always respect the privacy of Nightmare's employees. And their well-being," he took short steps away, headed towards Despariah's office. "You know where to find them, I trust?"

She nodded, and watched him slither away into the darkness of Despariah's chambers. The shadows enveloped him, and therein he disappeared. Alice, for her part, was glad to be rid of him. Even his kindest words were dripping with spite and veiled threats.

Alice left the room, and found herself back in the corridors of Nightmare, amply lit, bathed by the sallow glint of large shining pillars aglow. Technology from the Yotsuba Enterprises, stolen from Alice, part of the price she paid for her life and that of the Precure she saved. She considered a bargain, given that she was able to keep dozens of Precure alive, if not exactly safe.

A small cleaning robot whirred past her, scurrying by her feet. The floor behind it seemed to shine as it passed. This too had been created by the Yotsuba Enterprises, long ago, though never widely commercialized. Truly, Despariah seemed to have a fondness not for destroying, but for taking everything she could get her hands into. Alice wasn't sure if it made her better or worse than the rest of the Precure's foes.

She took the stairs, not the elevator: she always avoided being too close to Nightmare's members. She tried not to care, but their hateful stares still made her uneasy, almost ill.

For minutes she descended, and every floor she reached was exactly like the last, save for those who roamed it. Some she didn't know, some were masked fairies made to serve Nightmare, and some were familiar faces: Bunbee, Bloody, Arachnea, all of them too busy to pay her any mind. In Nightmare, Alice felt like a ghost, at times, when Nightmare's halls were crowded with commotion, and she could roam freely, as if unseen. She was thankful for that.

The stairs went on and on, reaching beneath the surface. The basements of Nightmare were deserted, barren rooms with no features connected by long corridors to other spacious rooms, and like that it went on and on. These would be occupied eventually, Bunbee had told her, if Nightmare ever ran out of space above ground. Considering the enormity of the dark tower, Alice doubted that day would come soon.

She stopped at the sixth floor underground. There were more below, dark and silent, but Alice had never been there, and had no intention of ever visiting them. She knew, however, that the Precure were being kept on the sixth floor, so she rushed to her destination, never gazing upon the grey dullness of the blank rooms around her, until she reached the iron door keeping the Precure locked away. The door itself was nothing impressive: it didn't have any special protections against the Precure held prisoner behind it. It could only be opened from the outside, true, but it wasn't actually that thick: Alice didn't doubt that good punches from half a dozen Cures could tear it to pieces.

Escaping from there was not the hard part, that had been clear from the beginning. The complications would arise when all of Nightmare was alerted of their escape, and from that, Alice had no hope of running away, nor the desire, as all she and the rest of the Precure would accept was the complete destruction of Nightmare. Running away would simply rob them of their perfect chance to strike from within. All that they needed was patience, and Alice was nothing if not patient. She stared at the door, held Lance close, and pressed the button to open it.

The iron doors lifted open haltingly, blaring as they scraped against the stone around them. The noise made Alice cringe, but it was the gloom inside her that alarmed her the most. Only a few lights shone on the walls: Lux Orbs, made by the Precure for Nightmare to use. The walls were rough rock, as if the room had been carved into stone, but colorless remains of bricks remained scattered along the floor.

The room had no smell at all, and little sound, save for the steps of the Precure shuffling towards Alice. She feared to find them defeated, broken, but to her relief, Alice saw faces still full of life, still determined, still proud. Sunset's large eyes were bright, and they were wordlessly anxious for news. The sisters Gonna and Pantaloni were together, as always, but unlike the last time Alice had come, they were not isolated from the rest of the Cures.

And, behind them all, she caught a glimpse of Continental. Her hair had turned from gold to dirt, and she struggled to keep her eyes wide open, but, stepping closer to Alice, the Precure making way for her, she still carried herself proudly.

"Alice," she said, unsmiling, but with a voice full of relief, "I feared you might not return, after being away from so long. What happened?"

"Nightmare sent me on a mission," she said. The way the Precure looked at her made clear that they demanded more, and Alice recounted all that she remembered, as briefly as she could. When it came the time to tell them that she had abandoned her friends, she nearly choked, and couldn't keep going. Instead, she said only that her quest had been a disaster, and that she ran away with the Dark Precure in bitter disgrace. "What about you?" She asked when she was done talking, at last, if only so that she wouldn't have to be the only one speaking.

"You can look around and see that this is no wonderland," said Continental, "but we are making do. We have no lack of food, or any basic provisions. When Cure Tourmaline was ill, some weeks back," she pointed at a small, frail-looking girl who was difficult to see in the crowd, "Nightmare allowed her to leave so that she could receive treatment. We have recently gotten more comfortable beds, too, and the right to read books. This, in addition to the chessboard sets we acquired, ensures that even if we don't have a great variety of things to do, we do have a way to distract ourselves."

"I see," said Alice. That sounded odd, so she inquired further. "What do you mean by acquired?"

"Nightmare is kind enough to let us work for them," Sunset said, scathing. "Some of us help with bookkeeping, others organize files. Little stuff like that, that no one wants to be bothered with, you know?"

"It's not fair, mind you," said Continental, "but it is more than we would receive as prisoners of anyone else, so I am not entirely ungrateful."

"That seems strangely reasonable of them," Alice admitted. And, truly, despite Kawarino's callousness, she had not been overly mistreated. Still, she refused to love her captors, and understood very well that they would have no qualms with hurting her if she disobeyed them. "Watch out for Nightmare's gifts, though."

"Don't worry," Continental said. "We are careful. And may I have a word with you, Alice?"

She nodded. All the Precure around respectfully stepped away, and gathered together in the corners of the prison, leaving Rosetta and Continental plenty of space. Cure Continental, after all, had been the last Rosehearted before the stars went out, and still commanded great respect.

Alice took a better look at Continental, now that they were so close to each other. The girl sat down, and Alice did the same, though the floor was not at all comfortable. Continental's clothes were full of holes, and her boots no longer had a sole. Her hair, which had once been so pretty, was now a mess of knots. It reminded Alice of Mana, and filled her with the compulsion to run away. But she didn't. It was too late for her to run, now.

"You look terrible, Alice," Continental said, and those were the last words Alice expected.

"You say that?" She tried to laugh it off, but Continental did not react. "Do I, really?"

"There is a heaviness in the way you blink," said Continental, "a hesitation. And you don't look at me in the eyes," when she said that, Alice realized she was instead looking at her hands. She rose her head. "You look like you are avoiding something."

"I'm not avoiding anything," she said, resolute. "Quite the opposite. I never ran away, even when it was hard, even when I had to do things that I-"

"I did not mean it that way," she said. "I know you are no coward, I did not accuse you of that. All those things you had to do for Nightmare and for Eternal… It seems there is something else troubling you, something you did not tell me. Nor will I pry. If you are hiding it, you have your reasons. But you feel uncomfortable with what you did. That is why you avoid any eyes you fear might judge you. Do you fear I will do that?" Alice nodded meekly.

"I'm working with our enemies," said Alice, "and there's no denying it now. There were Precure at Trump who have seen me with them. Doing Eternal's dirty work. And I know why I am doing it. I know that my reasons are good. But… I also know that no one else will understand. Even…" She looked back on the way Makoto stared at her in the palace of Trump, and it took all her resilience to not break down right there. "Even people I love may hate me, in the end."

"That is folly, Alice," she said. "You need not hate yourself, at the very least. Even if others hate you… You have full confidence that what you are doing is right, isn't it?"

"Of course! You know my intentions. Someday we will be free, and so will the world."

"Let me tell you something, Alice," she said, somber. "When I became a Precure, I abandoned my old name. I abandoned my family, the life I once had. I assure you that it was no small loss. But I felt the need to do what I thought was right. To steer the Red Rose in a righteous direction. I was loyal to the Precure, as you are. And, like you, I did things that many would call unsavory. I became Rosehearted in a time of war. Not any war, mind you, but one that I knew would be harsher than any our precious Rose had faced in ages. And I prepared. What I did to prepare…" Now she was the one looking away from Alice. "I will not tell you. I will not burden the crimes of the Red Rose on your shoulders. Yes, crimes, Alice. I am ashamed. I did things that would make people hate me. Yes, some already do hate me. I endured. Do you know why?" Alice nodded. "Just like you, I knew that it was right. Sometimes, you must be willing to hurt yourself like that. Many can sacrifices their lives, their well-being, but to sacrifice our peace of mind? To accept that there are those who will never understand our actions, and why they were necessary? It hurts, Alice, I know. I wish you did not have to suffer that. But you do."

"And…" Alice hesitated. She wanted to leave. She wanted to be on her own, even though she understood the truth of Continental's words. "And how do you live with it?"

She stared at nothing, unblinking, uncomfortably still. Then, she moved her head just slightly, her eyes piercing Alice.

"I had to be strong," she said. "I learned to accept that no one may ever know that what I did was good, justified. My good deeds may be forgotten entirely, and I may go down in history as a terrible Rosehearted. So be it. I don't need the world to know that I did the right thing. And, if you want to endure, you will learn that as well. Be strong, Alice," she said. Her voice was like a ghost's, frail, shivering, cold. "Don't look back, if you can. Save those girls. It is likely that no one will love you for it. The Precure certainly won't, as those Dark Precure you speak of will be seen by them as fakes. Not even the Dark Precure themselves might love you, but even so, life is something you must protect without wishing for thanks. Can you live with that, Alice?"

"Yes," she said, finally. She wished only to do good. It did not matter if someone didn't understand it. She thought of Makoto again. Even if Sword hates me… If she can never love me as I love her… "Yes," she repeated. "I will do Nightmare's bidding until the time comes to strike."

"Then be strong," Continental said one more time. "And I know you are. Those of us here will never forget what you have done."

With that, Alice got up, and said her goodbyes hurriedly. As she closed the door behind her, her heart heavy, she hugged Lance, and kissed the top of his head.

And then she returned to Nightmare, and there never said a word in protest.

Reika walked until her feet were sore, and afterwards she continued forward until they were numb. Only when Yayoi fell to the ground, exhausted, did Reika decide it was time to set up camp and rest for the night. Thanks to Honoka's precautions, they did not need to scramble for shelter, praying that they might stumble upon somewhere that was abandoned; Black and White had brought large tents and poles from the Phoenix Tower, and in a few minutes they were up, three of them.

To Reika's relief, it was warm inside, and spacious, too. Her tent she shared with Nozomi and Yayoi; Nagisa and Honoka were accompanied by Makoto, while Iona and Komachi were with the fairies in the third tent.

Nagisa tended to a small fire, feeding its bright orange flames with small dry branches snapped from the dead, wilted trees nearby. Fraily the blaze tried to rise, but never fought the strength to do so. Honoka, meanwhile, reached into her bag for food, and began to cook it shortly afterwards. Nozomi offered to help, but Honoka only smiled and said that it as not a lot of work, anyways.

A pleasant smell rose alongside the thin steam, and though Reika had not complained until then, she was actually quite hungry. Nozomi made no secret that she was, in her own words, literally starving. Honoka was quick to reassure her that their dinner would soon be ready, and, true to her word, a few minutes later she called everyone to gather around the fire and enjoy their food. Nozomi was the first to arrive, full of enthusiasm, and Reika soon followed.

Though their meal was not what anyone would call plentiful, as they needed to ensure that their food would last all the way to Märchenland, Honoka was creative enough with her seasoning that Reika nearly forgot that this was the third night in a row in which they ate rice with baked potatoes and wildberries. It was not much, to tell the truth, but Reika was, even so, thankful.

Next to her were Iona and Komachi. Iona ate with the haste of someone who had hungered all day, and Reika did not blame her: Fortune offered herself to scout ahead whenever possible, so as to make certain that their path was clear, and it was a duty that led her to run ahead of the others all day. Sometimes Reika would even see a purple spot far in the distance, perched at the peak of a tree, and she knew that it was Iona looking for a position where she could see all the surrounding area. She was not always alone, since Nozomi, as of late, had begun to accompany her, for which Reika was very glad, but even now she still wanted to be alone, sometimes. Thankfully, dinner was not one of those times.

"How close are we to Märchenland?" Iona asked, setting her plate aside for a moment.

"We are already in Märchenland lands, actually," said Reika, "though at the very north of it, in the countryside. There's almost nothing here, the larger cities are all concentrated further to the south. This whole region is really pretty, but not well occupied. The only big city in the northern lands is Fridumond, near the Felsensee, which is a really beautiful lake you ought to see, someday."

"A lake?" Komachi seemed thoughtful, her eyes closed, brow furrowed as if in effort of thinking or remembering something. When she opened her eyes again, she was smiling. "To live near a lake is a blessing, you know. When they reflect the blue above, it's the closest you can get to the sky."

"That's a really pretty image," said Reika, "but I'm afraid the Felsensee's waters aren't clear enough for that. Its waters are muddy, actually, thanks to all the sedimentation, and-" She stopped, presuming nobody actually cared about that. "It is still pretty, though, but mostly because of all the life around it. It's the one region of Märchenland where the winters aren't harsh, and the woods are full of life, always."

"Oh, alright," said Komachi. She sounded a little bit disappointed with something that Reika could not quite tell. She didn't mind, though, as Nozomi had often told her of how Komachi was prone to poetic flourishes, and Beauty found that quite endearing.

"Do you know everything about Märchenland, Reika?" Iona asked, but the question was genuine, not at all mocking.

"Not everything, no," she said, smiling, "but it is my homeland. I have to learn as much about it as I can, don't I? Of course, with the way things are now, all that knowledge doesn't seem too useful anymore."

"You may be right," said Iona, thoughtful. "When I left the Blue Sky Kingdom, headed towards the Phoenix Tower, I couldn't recognize the lands around me anymore. Rivers had become chasms, forests had lost their life and color and were only husks, even hills seemed jagged, unnatural, unwelcoming. Back then, I was too busy being worried about my sister to pay it much thought, but now… Now I realize just how damn sad that is. Will it ever get better, or will the world stay broken forever?"

"I don't know," said Reika, "though I fear the same. To think that even if we win, all the people that live after us, years from now, will have only this ruin as their legacy."

"Does it matter, then?" Komachi suddenly rose her voice in a curious tone. "What you're doing, I mean? Or rather, what we're doing. If the best we can do is so little, if the world bears this scar forever, then will any of this even matter to anyone? Even if we win, will people even see it as victory, fifty years from now, or a hundred years, a thousand? There's the stars, I guess, but even they are so distant, such little comfort…"

"But they are comfort," Iona said, with certainty.

"Be that as it may," Komachi insisted, "when people look back on these days, will they see that our efforts - no, not only our efforts, but those of everyone - were of any importance, or will they think this was all in vain?"

"I don't know," Reika said with all honesty. "It's not really something that's often on my mind. The distant future, that is. The past brings me enough sadness already, so I try to think only of the road directly ahead of us. I have to. Maybe all this toil will amount to nothing, in the end. Even if it does, maybe no one will ever even know. Right now, that doesn't matter. Right now, all that I want is to see my home free again. Just as you want to see yours, I'm sure."

"Yes, of course," Komachi added with haste. "I didn't mean to imply that what we're doing is not worth it. I just worry. I can't help it."

"It's fine," said Reika. "Though I hope your fears are misguided," Iona nodded as Reika said that. "I am loath to even imagine that Märchenland may never again be as it was…" She pointed at the withered woods nearby. "I remember how that forest used to look, you know. Those trees were once so tall, and the tallest ones were also the greenest, the oldest. Much of the forest had been chopped, centuries ago, but the oldest of its trees remained, and in the past decades, there has been a great effort to recover the woods that had been lost."

She sighed, then, and again hoped that Mint was mistaken. It was too painful to think of all that was lost; not just the landscape that had made Märchenland beautiful, but also its people and their deeds.

Reika got up when she was done eating, and excused herself. She returned her plate to Honoka, now being helped by Nozomi, who would wash the dishes with their water; Reika's powers over ice ensured that they would never lack for water, and every morning Beauty would fill some bottles with frost, so that it would melt over the day. Sometimes Reika found the banality of that very entertaining.

It had gotten late, then, with the moon shining bright, flanked by the two stars. All around the landscape darkened, but the silhouettes of the nearby woods were still visible. Shrouded in night, they were almost sinister, but, to Reika, they were mostly only painful. Before she could think too much, though, she made herself walk into her tent, so that she could sleep soon, and rise with the dawn.

Inside she found Yayoi, already abed and beneath a blanket. She made no sound but that of her breathing, and her body was almost perfectly still, save for her chest rising and falling. Reika laid close to her, but as the cold didn't trouble her, she didn't bother with covers. Quietly she wished Yayoi a good night, expecting her to say nothing in response, already asleep, but she spoke.

"We'll see the Lights, won't we?" Yayoi said in a meek voice. "The Fairy Lights. They have to still be there, don't they?"

"They have to be," Reika agreed. On their way to the capital Morgenluft stood a great, ancient forest that was, long ago, inhabited only by fairies. Though after the Pledge was made the fairies joined their forces with humanity, their magic was still alive in that forest, and their lights still danced in the night, guiding travelers through safe paths. "They will show us the way to Morgenluft, as they always did."

"Good," Reika's certainty seemed to reassure Yayoi. "I want something to be the way it always was. I can't even recognize these roads anymore, Reika, and I am a northerner. Everything has changed, and not for the better."

"We haven't changed," Reika spoke softly. "We still want the same things we always wanted, don't we? To keep the ones we love safe. That hasn't changed. We are still the same."

"No," she said, "no, Reika. We really aren't."

She said nothing after that, and closed her eyes. Reika did the same, but knew that sleep would not come easy, if it even did. She tried to think of home, endlessly brought back into her head images of Morgenluft, of Miyuki, Akane, of Nao and Yayoi, remembering all of them by her side after they had just become Precure and were so full of conviction and the desire to protect Märchenland. She tried to fill her head with those thoughts to keep the nightmares away, praying for a sweet dream at last, yet when morning shone after long sleepless hours, it shone upon eyes still open, hurting from the lack of slumber but unable to even sleep.

Even so, Reika was the first to rise and the first to set out, leading the others onward, holding herself together with all her strength, to that she did not fall apart.

The nights in the Desert Lands were deathly cold, but to Itsuki the most terrifying thing about them was the way the darkness fell over the sands, turning their colors into vast blue and black, extending on and on like a ghastly ocean. And, like the sea, the great desert would devour the meek, enveloping them forever in waves of sand and stone, snuffing out the screams of those who fell on its dunes, covering them so completely that it was as if they simply disappeared.

And it was into the heart of the desert that Itsuki, Miki and Elena were headed. Everything about it screamed terrible, terrible idea, but then again, it was better than the alternative. At least here death was not completely certain, only mostly.

The cart bumped up and down along the rocky path along the River Hayah, and though Itsuki couldn't see its waters, she could hear its constant flow. It was a peaceful sound, almost, but the noise of the cart's wheels hitting the rocks interrupted that calm. Itsuki's shackled legs did little to improve her mood, too.

"We're nearly there," said Cobraja, by her side. He had a bored air about him, unimpressed by his surroundings. "Those horrid, old mines."

Itsuki only nodded. She had little to say, and during her entire journey she had mostly been quiet, but Cobraja seemed to adore the sound of his own voice, so from time to time he would comment on something, usually his surroundings, an act which quickly grew tiresome, as there was little around but rock and sand.

Miki, who sat with Sasorina on the cart ahead of Itsuki's, on the other hand, seemed far more open to conversation. Itsuki couldn't understand her words, but she could hear her voice, and Sasorina's in response. Behind, Itsuki saw Elena with Kumojacky, their arms flailing around as they gestured fencing techniques. Elena's hands moved delicately, while Kumojacky's arms would come down with great force.

The men and women riding the camels that pulled the carts were silent, their faces covered in white cowls. Itsuki wondered if they were in on the Apostles' plan, or if they truly did think that the Precure would be sent to work on the mines. She suspected that they knew: three generals escorting three prisoners was a clear sign that something unusual was going on.

It didn't seem to make a difference, but right now Itsuki had no lack of time to think of things that didn't matter. It was all that could keep her from sleeping, exhausted, other than, of course, the bumpy ride.

Potpourri, on the other hand, had no difficulty sleeping. As she napped peacefully, Itsuki gently ran her fingers across her head, petting her. Potpourri always loved it when Itsuki did that: even asleep, it made her smile.

The sea of sand took on a paler hue when the heavy clouds above receded, letting the moon shine through, but it was still a faint light, pallid. Cobraja looked up, in what Itsuki presumed was admiration of the moon. She was a beautiful thing, the moon, and in old mythos of the desert, sun and moon were both held as sovereigns of the skies, queens of iron and silver. Not anymore, of course, but that did not make them any less beautiful to gaze upon, which Cobraja doubtlessly agreed with.

When at last the carts stopped and Cobraja signaled for Itsuki to move, they were right by the entrance to the mines. She had expected them to be more than merely a dozen huge holes carved upon the ground. It didn't look like anyone had been there in a long time, either.

It was difficult to move around with the shackles around her legs, but the Apostles were patient enough. Cobraja took Itsuki's hand and helped her get out of the cart, her feet landing on soft sand. Potpourri awoke, then, a bit startled at her surroundings, but her partner's smile helped her calm down.

The night breeze's cold had become tolerable, but Itsuki knew that with daybreak, the desert would become extremely hot. Sasorina had made sure to bring with her a bag full of proper cotton clothing, to make the heat bearable, but Itsuki did not feel entirely confident.

She was not entirely confident about this whole mission, to tell the truth. They had only vague clues of Olivier's whereabouts, and though the boy was, admittedly, hard to miss, and they would surely be able to extract information from the people in the western villages and cities, it still meant that they would have to scour a sea of sand for a single child. Itsuki could not even be certain if he still lived, and when she spoke of her fears to Cobraja, he seemed uncertain as well.

Soon the three Precure stood side by side, with the Apostles standing in front of them. Something small was glinting on Sasorina's hand, and shortly after Itsuki noticed it, it fell on the sand.

"Oops," Sasorina said in a flat tone, "dropped my key."

"You don't have to pretend it's an accident," said Miki. "There's no one here to be suspicious. The riders are perfectly aware of your plan, aren't they?"

Itsuki tried to catch a glance of them, but their faces were still hidden beneath their cowls, and even their eyes were impossible to see in the dark.

"They might be," Kumojacky smiled, then reached for something in one of his pockets. When he opened his hand, a signet rested upon his palm, colored a deep red. Kumojacky placed it on Itsuki's hand, and when she drew it closer to her eyes to take a better look, she could just barely recognize a dragon engraved in gold in the center of the signet.

"What's this?" Elena asked, uncomfortably close to Itsuki.

"It is the ancient sigil of the Desert Apostles," Cobraja explained. "Salamander had taken the dragon as his own personal seal, when he first lived, ages ago. He claimed that he had dragon's blood in his veins, which I'd dismiss entirely if I had not seen even stranger things. Take good care of this token. It is a symbol that you are a close friend of the Apostles, and will open many doors. If you need supplies, present the signet at any store in any city on your way and the proprietor will be honorbound to help you."

"And you will need help," said Sasorina. "Luckily, you will find that as you go farther towards the west, people will be more accepting of the Precure and of your magic. They are far from the disputed lands and the heavy hand of the Red Rose, so they have little reason to treat you poorly."

"Should we get going, then?" Itsuki asked, impatient. She put the signet on the pocket of her pants. "The sooner we find Olivier, the sooner we can free the Desert Lands from Nightmare, right?"

"That is our hope," said Kumojacky.

"Alright," she reached down and searched the sand at her feet for the key that Sasorina had dropped. Soon her legs were free, and she passed the key to Miki, then to Elena.

"We're counting on you," said Sasorina, "though it pains me to depend on Precure."

"You're just old-fashioned, Sasorina," said Kumojacky. "So am I, I suppose. Things have to change. It's what Salamander himself would have said. Things always have to change, for stillness is death, and tempests are holy. An old saying."

"Farewell, then, Precure," said Cobraja. "I wish you luck, and will await your return anxiously."

The three nodded, and watched as the three generals stepped up into their carts, which then turned around, and soon enough disappeared beneath the night's darkness. When she couldn't see them anymore, Itsuki sighed.

"We could just take the opposite way, you know," Miki remarked. "We are just three girls. We could sneak out of the Desert Lands easily, then head to the Phoenix Tower."

"We could," Itsuki agreed. "We won't. If Nightmare is controlling their own allies like this, enslaving Salamander, we can't allow them to continue doing that. The Desert Apostles don't have to be our enemies."

"Sunshine is right," said Matador. "The Apostles have treated us much better than anyone else would. Dark Fall would have killed us, the Bad End Kingdom might have tried to twist our hearts, and I don't even want to imagine what would happen if Labyrinth got their way."

Itsuki nodded. It was west they were headed to, there was no question about that. Each of the three carried a bag with food, clothing, waterskins, knives, and Miki had even gotten a map from Sasorina. There was no telling just how useful it would be, but Itsuki was grateful for it.

"Heh," Miki chuckled, just as they were about to start walking. Itsuki tilted her head, quizzingly. "I just imagined what the Cures of the Red Rose would say if they heard that we're working for the Desert Apostles."

"They would say something pretentious, probably," Itsuki shrugged. "I'm sure that Continental would scold us. I can't imagine someone like her, so loyal to the Red Rose, tolerating one of the Precure working with the enemy, no matter the reasons. Not that I care about Continental's opinions right now."

"Me neither," said Elena. The wind began to blow again, ruffling Elena's usually prim and short brown hair, and when it did so, it almost reminded Itsuki of the way she herself used to look. Annoyed, Matador tried to tidy up her stray strands, drawing a smile out of Itsuki.

She took the first steps westward, then, knowing all too well that they would merely be the first of many, but though she dreaded the heat of the desert, whenever Itsuki reminded herself that her precious golden sun was shining again, and that it would always accompany her, she felt safe, so safe.

They stared at the water below, so distant that in the night it looked more like an abyss than a lake. Michiru tossed a small pebble into the hole, and could hear only a faint splash a few seconds later.

"Do they survive the fall?" Kaoru asked, still looking into the nothingness. "Do they not break apart when they hit the surface of the lake?"

"Don't worry, sister," said Michiru, but Kaoru continued to fear.

"How are you so sure?" She did not like to question her sister, but she doubted she was telling the truth. "You seem so convinced that this plan is flawless, that it is working, but you never even tell me who it is that saves the prisoners we throw into the water."

"If you wanted to know," Michiru spoke with calm, "you needed only to ask. I have never told you because it is not something that is safely mentioned in Dark Fall's heart. The Precure from the Garden of Light are the ones rescuing the prisoners. You remember, some months back, when we were separated as I helped escort Baldez and his cronies to the Garden?" Kaoru nodded. "Well, I was approached by a hooded girl when it was late at night, when everyone but me was asleep."

"You still have a hard time sleeping?" Kaoru asked, concerned. "You told me that it was easier for you now, and-"

"That doesn't matter right now," Michiru deflected the subject. "As I was saying, the girl came to me, unnoticed, and I only realized her presence when she was right next to me. Despite her hood, her bright blue eyes left me no doubt that she was a Precure. I thought she was going to kill me. When she began to speak, though, I remembered her voice. I knew her, just as she knew me."

"Mai?" Kaoru said with excitement, before she remembered that it could not be true. "No… Who was it?"

"Cure Marine," her sister answered. "You remember how she was a guardian of the Heart Tree, right?" Kaoru nodded. "She was a friend of Bloom and Egret. We were friends of those two as well, so Marine knows who we are, even if she was never too close to us."

"And what did she say to you?"

"She said she did not know why it was that we were working with Dark Fall, but that she would not question us. She only asked me if we had ever truly been Mai and Saki's friends. I said yes, of course, and then she asked me if I had any interest in proving that."

"You said yes to that too, I presume."

"Of course," Michiru said, looking behind on instinct, and then down at her own feet. "She explained to me that she was at the Garden of Light, that she worked to free the prisoners of the enemies of the Precure."

"I see," she said. "That is very risky."

"She seems to be doing well, so far," said Michiru. "Anyways, she told me to simply send her a magical message when there's a prisoner in need of rescuing."

"I didn't know you could use magic like that."

"Mai taught me," she said, smiling.

"If Goyan knew-"

"But Goyan doesn't know," she interrupted. "He thinks we've done what we've been made to do. Learn about the Heart Tree and the Precure, then betray them. We might not have really done anything, but the Precure are gone, and he has no cause to doubt us."

"If you say so," Kaoru was still doubtful. "We didn't have anything to do with the burning of the Heart Tree, did we? We did give Goyan information, and-"

"Don't blame yourself about that!" Michiru quickly grew defensive. "It's not our fault. Dark Fall didn't attack Yuunagi because of anything we did, they attacked because for once the enemies of the Precure decided to actually cooperate, if only for a while. If Goyan hadn't called us back to Dark Fall on the day of the attack, on the Death of the Stars, then we would have been at Yuunagi, and we would have fought with the Precure."

"Would we?" Kaoru didn't believe that. "Even knowing that we'd surely be killed? Unlike the Precure, there would be no point in keeping us alive. We have no families to blackmail, like Dark Fall does with Mai's mother. We are not Precure, so we don't even have any special power that might be useful, perhaps stolen. Would we have fought, knowing that?"

"We would have," Michiru insisted. "At least I like to believe that we would. We are not cowards, are we?"

"It's not a matter of cowardice," Kaoru shrugged. "You can't possibly say it's cowardly to want to live. And yes, we want to do what we think is right, but we want to live, too. We would not have fought, sister. Just admit it. That's not who we are."

"Maybe you're right," said Michiru. "If so, then surely this plan is perfect for us, no? Marine is the one who's saving people. Other than Erika herself, no one will know that we are helping as well."

"You're right. It is perfect. Have you sent the message, then?"

"Yeah. Erika is on her way by now, for sure."

Kaoru nodded. She had no way of knowing, of course, as it was far too dark down below to see her approaching, so she had to trust Cure Marine.

"May I ask something else?" Her sister nodded. "Did Erika tell you anything else?"

"Hm? Like what?"

"About the world outside," she said with a hint of longing she could not avoid.

"Hm…" Michiru paused, thoughtful. "She did say a couple of things. The Garden of Light has a new queen, she told me. She only sailed across the Crystal Ocean once or twice, so she had almost no news from there. Eternal and Nightmare have many Cures in their possession right now, and-"

"Don't word it like that," said Kaoru. She did not like the word possession being used to refer to people.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," she said, and then softly sighed. "A lot of Cures are being held by Eternal and by Nightmare, Erika told me. Eternal seems to be doing some really screwed-up things with the Precure, too…"

"Screwed-up?"

"Something about replicating them?" Michiru didn't sound very certain. Perhaps she had misheard. "Creating false Precure with no souls, I guess. I don't know how someone might not have a soul, but I guess it's not my concern. Also," she said quickly, as if she had just remembered, "Erika told me that she saw the ruins of the Blue Sky Kingdom. Or, rather, the ruins of the Cloud Citadel. There were still monsters there, she said, but she had never seen their like before."

"This doesn't really tell us much," said Kaoru.

"That's all I remember, though, and I'm sorry if I'm not remembering everything right. I've never had a perfect memory," Michiru said with a liar's smile. Kaoru, however, could not tell what the lie there was. "It would be easier if you had come with me."

"I know," said Kaoru. She knew what her sister meant with those words, though. While Michiru was often out doing Goyan's bidding, Kaoru spent almost her entire time within the confines of Dark Fall. "There's no helping it."

It was easy to hide her jealousy with those words, but Michiru seemed to know that something was wrong. Kaoru wasn't the best liar, anyways, and after spending so long inside Dark Fall that her skin lost the little color it had, forced to watch the landscapes outside shift from one season to another, she presumed she was entitled to bitterness.

"I'll go get Cure March, then," Michiru said, eager to deflect the subject and the awkwardness that came with it.

Kaoru, for her part, didn't answer. She heard her sister's footsteps distance themselves until she couldn't hear them anymore.

From time to time, Kaoru's eyes drifted to the prison door, safely locked. She could hear movement outside, too, and whispers. She thought she recognized Poisony's voice, but she didn't make a move to take March away from Goyan so that she could use her for her own purposes. A simple locked door would probably not be enough to inhibit her ambitions, so Kaoru wondered if she should still be wary, or if someone had talked sense into her.

After a moment, the sound of footsteps returned, but this time they were not only Michiru's. She was holding Cure March by the arm, not too forcefully. The girl had seen better days, and it showed: her eyes were only half-opened, and beneath them the skin had gotten dark. Her hair was brittle and dry, and her nails had grown unpleasantly long. Kaoru felt sorry for her, but as March did not seem like the kind of person who would react well to being pitied, she avoided her eyes.

"Sister," Michiru tugged at her arm, and Kaoru moved away. Michiru dragged Cure March closer to the abyss. Had she resigned to her fate? No, Kaoru understood, looking at her tightly shut fists.

"You aren't afraid, are you?" Kaoru asked without thinking. "You don't fear the fall, or the water," Nao tried to hide it, but soon enough she couldn't deny it, and shook her head. Michiru grinned at her sister, but March did not catch the smile. She was too focused on the water below.

"Well," Michiru said at last, "that's a relief. Cure March," she drew closer to her, and put her mouth close to the girl's ear. "Swim. And keep your eyes open."

Nao opened her mouth to say something, and for an instant her eyes grew wide, her face marked with shock, but before she could ask anything, Michiru gave her a gentle shove, enough to make her fall. She gasped, but did not scream.

And that was it. Kaoru couldn't hear the sound of their prisoner falling on the water, but since her sister had promised her that the fall itself was safe, and that Erika would come before Nao drowned, Kaoru didn't feel anxious at all.

"Let's go, now," Michiru said to her sister, who still peered into the dark. "We must tell Goyan that we have disposed of Cure March."

"Yes, let us go," Kaoru agreed. "I hate this place more than anywhere else."

Morning came dressed in white, with spots of pale snow scattered over the green grass around the tent. Nozomi stepped outside to see, and at once she felt thankful that Reika insisted that she bring the warmest clothing she could. In the cold air, her breath turned to frost, so she turned back inside to get properly dressed. There, she found Reika, her eyes curiously fearful.

"Is there something wrong, Reika?" Of course there was, Nozomi could tell, but still she felt it was better to ask.

"It should not be snowing yet," said Reika. "It is too early for that. Autumn snows are not unheard of, obviously, but they are still unusual. It's not too bad yet, so maybe I shouldn't worry too much, but if the weather becomes harsher than this, then it might be difficult to reach Morgenluft."

"We will get there anyway," said Nozomi. Next to Reika, Yayoi was nodding. "No matter how difficult it is."

That did not need to be said, however. They had no choice now that they had set out, and turning back, leaving Märchenland to its fate, was simply unacceptable.

Everyone ate their breakfast hurriedly, and returned to the road, now partially buried beneath the snows. That was no trouble at all, however, as Reika and Yayoi knew the path well enough, and they promised that they were about only a week away from the capital. Nozomi certainly hoped so: they had been travelling for a while now, and only now that snow had fallen did the landscape appear to change at all. Sometimes it appeared to Nozomi that no matter how much they walked, they never made any real progress.

Morning passed by quickly, and the Precure made good time, at least according to Reika. Nozomi tried to keep count of any interesting landmarks they passed by, and she took note of three farms, great and small; an inn that had fallen apart, the colors on its sign long faded out; a chapel and a graveyard by a crossroads; half a dozen villages that held no sign of life, no trace of what had befallen them. They were all depressing sights of loss and decay, and they seemed to be everywhere. The desolation of Märchenland's countryside was heavy with melancholy, and whenever Nozomi looked back at Reika, she could see that it was taking its toll on her.

Her eyes were only half-opened, and her legs didn't move in sync anymore. She didn't even sleep most nights. Nozomi knew because she herself couldn't always sleep, but whenever she asked Reika if something was wrong, her response was either silence or deflection. Dream knew that Beauty usually trusted her, so she understood that the sight of Märchenland crumbling was weighing her down.

They never stopped, though, so Reika's will was not yet broken. It would never break, either, Nozomi had no doubt about that.

It was a surprise to hear Honoka announce that it was noon, as despite the brilliant sunlight, the world was so cold that it was hard to tell that the sun was supposed to be at its zenith. Nozomi sat down on the cold ground, and took a moment to look around and catch her breath.

White was starting to prepare their lunch, and Mint offered to help. When they set out on their journey, Komachi was often jumpy, shaking whenever someone directed words to her, but now she seemed to have grown comfortable around everyone else, Honoka and Nagisa most of all. She was always so interested in the tales they had to share, in all that they had experienced during their many years as Precure. Nozomi wondered if that was why she was always helping Honoka: so that she could hear even more of her tales. In despite of everything, the thought made her smile. Someone seemed to be dealing well with their issues, at least.

Makoto and Coco set out on their own, towards the nearby woods, no doubt to collect some wood. Although perhaps it was more correct to say that it was Makoto who actually cut down the branches, while Coco only helped them bring to camp. Now that winter seemed to be approaching with haste, it would be best to make sure that they always had a fire burning nearby when they slept and rested. Not everyone was as comfortable under the frost as Reika was, after all.

"Hey, Nozomi," she heard Iona's voice while she was watching everybody else. "I'm gonna go check out that hill over there," she pointed at a mound in the distance, its earthen browns sprinkled with bright white all over. "There might be a good view from the top, so I'm going to take a look. Wanna come?"

"Yeah," Nozomi said. Iona took her hand and helped her up, and at once they set out towards the hill, Nozomi right behind Fortune.

The slopes were not too steep, so it was thankfully simple to climb the hill. All around, tiny flowers popped up from the narrow layer of snow covering the ground. They were dainty and so small that it was difficult to even see them from a distance, but up close, their petals were of a blue so vivid and bright that they were almost like minuscule crystals. It was not an impressive sight, but it was a beautiful one, and, most importantly, it was another sign that not all hope was lost, if these flowers could still bloom, small as they were.

Iona reached the top of the mound shortly before Nozomi, who lagged behind, her stride shortened as she paid careful attention to her surroundings. Soon, though, she was by Fortune's side, and the view from up there was just as splendid as Iona had predicted: she could see the spots of pale snow reaching towards the horizon, almost web-like. The grassy plains were still green, even if dull, but much of Märchenland was scarred grey, as bereft of color as it was of life.

"There," Iona pointed at something far away. Another hill, Nozomi could just barely tell. "We should aim to reach it by the end of the day, then rest there. It's a fine vantage point, too."

"Do you think we can get there?" Nozomi asked. It was pretty distant, after all, and even the Precure were not tireless.

"For sure," she said with confidence. "You're not doubting yourself, are you?"

"No, not at all."

"But you're doubting Reika, right?" Iona asked, incisive. "I'm sorry, that's not the best word. But you've noticed that she's suffering, haven't you?"

"So you're worried about her too?" Iona nodded. "She's so tired and afraid. We swore to each other that we'd always be there for one another, but she doesn't seem willing to ask for help."

"You're closer to her than I am," said Iona, her voice dripping with worry. "If she is not telling you, then she really must be trying to keep her fear in her heart. I know that Reika is strong, very strong, but she's only human. I saw my kingdom in ruins, too, but I was running away from it, seeking the Precure. For Beauty and Peace it must be so much harder, returning to their homeland only to see it torn asunder."

Iona sighed, then, a loud, lingering sigh.

"She suffered more than us at Trump, too," she added. "I feel a bit guilty, Nozomi. No matter what Reika might say, she can't possibly shoulder all the burdens she's having to carry. I wish I had noticed that before. That way I wouldn't have gone and told her what a great leader she was, how dependable she is, and all that. I mean, those things are all true," Nozomi nodded in agreement, "but to think that it might only be making her even more anxious and pressured…"

"You can't blame yourself," said Nozomi. "You can't possibly think that Reika will be hurt by knowing that you trust her, right?"

"I suppose not, but-"

"I do get what you mean, though. For the longest time there was this distance between Reika and I. She was always dependable, always ready to help me, but she seemed to be so well-adjusted that it felt like there was never I could do for her, no way she'd need me. Which is stupid, of course. I guess my point is that if you care about Beauty, then all you have to do is be there for her when she needs you, just as she'll be there for us. That's friendship, right? And if she needs space, then that's fine too."

"Yeah," said Iona. "You're right, I guess. It's just really crappy seeing her like this."

Nozomi could not disagree with that. She found herself smiling as she and Iona climbed down the hill: it always made her happy to find something the two agreed with, even if it was something as unpleasant as this. Soon the two were back at the Precure's camp, eating lunch with everyone else, and announcing what they had seen. Reika agreed with Iona's plan to reach the distant hill, as it was on their way to Morgenluft.

With that decided, everyone set out again, revitalized, for the most part. Reika's sleeplessness was still evident, but she seemed a bit more vigorous, and would even talk and laugh with those around her. It made Nozomi feel relieved.

With their destination for the day defined, it as easy to move forward. Nozomi felt a pleasant chill when the wind blew against her, now that she was properly clothed, and she could almost understand how Reika could be so fond of the cold.

Nozomi and Iona often split from the main group so as to study their surroundings and make sure that they would not risk stumbling upon soldiers of the Bad End Kingdom. Save for one of their huge monsters guarding an old temple, though, the path to the capital was entirely safe. Iona said that, like the Selfish with the Trump Kingdom, their enemies here would gather in the largest city of Märchenland, and leave the rest abandoned, decaying.

Not entirely abandoned, Nozomi learned when she and Iona stumbled upon a broken down village: though its houses had crumbled into loose shattered logs, planks and splinters, there were still people in the middle of the ruins. When Iona and Nozomi approached them, though, they did not respond to their presence at all. Their eyes were ever open, and though Nozomi stared at them for long, they did not even blink. They reminded her of Nightmare's victims in Frosting, but these ones didn't even wear masks to hide the pain in their faces. They suffered silently, unmoving, barely alive, but, thankfully, not dead. So long as they lived, there had to be a way to save these people.

Dream and Fortune were quick to leave the village behind, and soothed to not have to be there any longer. The two girls looked at each other, and wordlessly they agreed that it would be best if they did not mention what they had seen to the others.

Soon enough the hill was no longer distant, but massive, looming all around, and quickly coming closer. The sun was hidden behind its enormity, and soon it would set.

It was not as easy to ascend this hill as the other one had been, not only because it was steeper and its surface was more rock than grass and snow, but because a whole day of walking had cost Nozomi quite a lot of her strength. Progress, therefore, had to be slow and cautious, and though there were narrow paths leading upwards, sometimes the Precure had to climb the rocky walls. It left Nozomi's hands full of scratches that itched more than they hurt, but were irksome all the same.

Nozomi was the first to reach the apex, followed by Makoto, then Iona, who then knelt down to grab Reika's hand and help her up. The hilltop was mostly flat, with some small trees scattered around, and it was spacious, too, which brought Nozomi ample relief, as making her way up brought back memories of the dangerous ascent up to the Eyrie. All that was left now was to set up camp again, and that wasn't Nozomi's job, so she was free to relax now.

When night fell again upon the world, it was blacker, colder, following the setting of a sun that rushed to hide itself. The days were getting shorter. It was not simply Reika's paranoia. Above, the moon behind thin clouds took the color of ice, and it glinted, a scythe, in the endless dark.

Nozomi looked ahead, and saw her path coated in silver light, remarkably well-lit. Further away, she thought she saw a glint in the distant forest. Just when she was about to shrug them off as her imagination, Reika came by her side, and pointed.

"We are close now," she said. Her voice was tired, but she seemed determined enough. "To Morgenluft, I mean. see that forest?" She pointed at the woods where Nozomi had seen a glimmer. "In its heart shine the Fairy Lights. They are, as you can presume, magical lights made by the fairies. They used it to show them the paths that were safe at night, for before the Pledge, before the fairies and humans joined forces, dangerous things roamed Märchenland."

"Dangerous things?" Iona's voice sounded out from behind them. Komachi was by her side, too, and she waved at Nozomi. The two stepped closer, then, Iona next to Reika, and Komachi close to Nozomi. "Monsters, you mean, like the ones in the fairytales?"

"Exactly," said Reika. "Though I would prefer it if you did not call them monsters. It is a word that has justified their persecution for far too long. But yes, Märchenland was once in the hands of such creatures."

"I never understood how it is that fairytales come true in Märchenland," Komachi said. It didn't surprise Nozomi that it would make Mint so curious.

"It's… Complicated," Reika spoke with surprising frankness. Usually she was quite good at making complicated notions appear simple. "Messy, too. There are people in Märchenland who are born with the power to make their fantasies come true. Great storytellers whose reveries manifest in our own world, sometimes. You can understand how that's not the easiest thing to deal with. To know that you owe your entire existence to the imagination of someone else, to know that you may have been conceived to be evil, a villain, to be despised. That is the source of many of the woes of Märchenland. That, and being the heart of winter…"

"I know that name," said Nozomi, "but what is it?"

"It is the curse of our people," Reika said, somber. "It's hard for outsiders to understand some of our culture. You might think this is only myth, superstition, like Cure Rhythm did. I don't blame anyone for that. Nowhere in the world does legend mix so thoroughly with reality as in Märchenland. The rest of the world took Blue and Flora for their gods, but they were not too different from most people, despite their powers. Märchenland has never had any gods, though. Since fantasies would often come true in this kingdom, people had different mindsets. So you might think it's foolish of us to put so much faith in stories from so long ago, from even before the first Death of the Stars. But I assure you that they are all true.