Amaranthine

“Hey, what the fuck!?” Cait asked, still immensely confused as to why she’d been inside her girlfriend a second ago, but was now in a weird grey space with her other girlfriend. There was an eerie, musical chuckle, and she amended the thought. Her other girlfriend, and Willow.

Her head shot up, finding the witch, amused as always, giving her much the same once over Kennedy just had.

Huh. Maybe I’ve found my style. Or maybe everything looks good on me.

She shook herself out of the sin of pride.

“Hey, no, wait, I was fucking busy—”

“Yeah you were!” Whooped Kennedy, enjoying it entirely too much.

“Yeah, I was,” Cait growled as an upsetting thought entered her mind. “Now put me back before Lira suffocates under 800 lbs of superhero!”

Willow’s eyes went wide, and she did something arcane with her hands.

Cait fell back into herself, Lira freaking right the fuck out underneath her.

“Cait,” she wheezed, “Oh god, big girl, c’mon, you gotta be alright, Cait!”

The girl in question scrambled off of her, letting her breathe.

“Holy shit Lira, I’m so sorry, Willow and Kennedy must’ve been doing some weird magic shit because I wasn’t here anymore, and—”

Lira shot up and wrapped her arms around Cait’s waist.

“Jesus Christ Cait,” she squeaked, voice high and tight. “I thought we’d found out you weren’t immune to brain aneurysms or something holy fuck!”

Cait stroked her hair as she felt Lira give a few soft sobs into her stomach.

“I’m sorry,” Lira stammered, “I just, you’re so invincible, that… that really scared me.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Cait growled, thinking of the grin on Kennedy’s face when she’d dropped into that other place. “I think we’re about to have our first real Throuple fight.”

Her comm buzzed, a very apologetic goth letting her know she was in the Director’s ritual room just below her penthouse, and to come as soon as she was finished.

Well, not much to finish now, she thought. Fuck, and that was a hell of a date too.

She was mad enough it took her a second to realize Lira was moving against her, sobbing breaths having turned into more familiar heavy ones as her lips brushed against Cait’s abs

“Uh, you sure?” Cait asked, hand still stroking lovingly at Lira’s hair.

“Mm-hmm,” Lira hummed, vibrations tickling Cait’s stomach. “No point wasting the adrenaline rush. Plus, I got that message too. She can wait.”

An hour and a note to clean the car themselves later, the pair left the motor pool in a significantly improved mood. They made their way hand in hand to the Flatiron building, and took the elevator up to the floor marked ‘R’.

The door opened with a ‘ding!’ and they walked into a dark room, lit only by candles and the soft glow of runes etched into seemly any available surface.

“Huh,” Cait said, tapping one of the structural pillars, the only things above floor-level in the room, and absolutely covered in those runes. “Didn’t think this place would be quite so stereotypical!”

“Yep!” Lira said, bouncing in, brush with death apparently forgotten. “Beth has me up here to do some identification sometimes. Ol’ brain wikipedia is 50/50 on real magic shit, but its better than guessing.”

Willow sat meditatively cross-legged in the middle of a central pentagram, silver white eyes tracking the pair as they entered. For her part, Kennedy was sprawled out on her back across from her, legs splayed, cheeks flushed, and breathing heavy. She propped herself up on her elbows, glaring at the pair.

“So, when I asked you to come here,” she growled, “I didn’t mean after fucking for an hour.”

“You’re welcome!” Lira said, sitting down next to her and patting her cheek lovingly. “Honestly, babe, you’re lucky you got a dozen second hand orgasms instead of getting chewed the fuck out. I almost died. I thought Cait died!”

Kennedy’s face went paler than usual, and her petulance vanished.

“What!?” she gasped, “Oh, shit, so Cait wasn’t kidding? I’m so sorry!”

“The fault is mine,” Willow said, still unmoving from her yogi position. “I did not anticipate Cait would be pulled into the soulscape alongside Kennedy again, but in retrospect, perhaps I should have. The signs were there.”

Cait wanted there to be more yelling than there had been, but Lira seemed to be in forgive and forget mode, and was the truly wronged party here. Didn’t feel appropriate to start a fight she wasn’t picking.

“So, that… what, mind teleport?” she guessed, moving past her anger, refocusing on the question at hand, “that was unintentional?”

“Your prescience, yes,” explained Willow. “I took Kennedy, specifically into my soulscape to show her the ropes of such things, as her own powers should allow her to create and reinforce her own. Something, I should say, that would help combat the things that are going on with your friend Breastman. However, just like outside the Pantheon, when she fell in, you did too. I had assumed that to be a function of proximity, or a mistake on my part. Clearly, it was not.”

“So, is it just because she was linked to me? Why wasn’t Lira with me then? I know this pervert was riding along with both of us.”

Kennedy blushed, but given the state of her, there wasn’t much point in denying it.

“Yes, clearly not just that,” Willow agreed, eyes seeming to unfocus until Cait realized she was scanning the spaces between herself and Kennedy, then Lira and Kennedy in turn. “I hope I’m not hurting any feelings saying this, but the link between Kennedy and Lira is just as strong as your own, if not stronger. No, I’m forced to conclude it must be something in the nature of your bond, but I’m at a loss as to what.”

She sighed, suddenly looking much, much older.

“The animantic construct between the two of you is more intricate than anything I’ve ever seen, heard of, or read about. Even powered by the Waves, constructing it… well, I wouldn’t have believed such a thing were possible without seeing it.”

Lira scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“Jesus, leave it to these two to be special fucking snowflakes even among Guardians,” she said, eyes twinkling with mischief even as they tightened in concern. Kennedy smacked her in the belly.

“Lira,” Willow said, the indomitable redhead actually quailing a little under the witch’s full attention, “I understand you have an ability that should shed light on this. I can’t imagine Elizabeth didn’t ask you about this first?”

“Yeah, of course, she basically always asks me first. Its why she seems like such a know-it-all, all the time,” Lira said, looking uncomfortable, “But…. With powers, really anything Wave related, its pretty wonky. I could tell you what Kennedy had for breakfast, and not just because it was my ass—”

“Hey!”

“Quiet you, but as far as how her powers actually work? Generalities. Just like Cait, I can tell you she’s literally the toughest extant thing, but I’ve got no idea why.”

Willow accepted that with characteristic grace, and went back to examining the space between the women. She snapped her fingers in inspiration.

“Your abilities work on vision, correct?” she asked, getting a nod from Lira. “If I were to show you the construct, might you be able to get some more information?”

“Definite maybe! Not a lot of rules on what works and what doesn’t,” Lira answered.

Willow nodded, put on a look of concentration, and waved her hand. The air between Cait and Kennedy shook as a dizzyingly intricate, three dimensional sigil seemed to burn straight through reality into existence. Lira’s eyes flashed blue as she gazed at it, and she collapsed.

She was back up, shaking her head before Cait could even run to her.

“Phew!” she yelled, “That was a fucking LOT. Happens sometimes with overloads.”

“And?” Willow asked excitedly, only for Lira to shake her head in disappointment.

“You know when you try to open up a file with the wrong program, and basically just get a page of random wingdings? It looks like that.”

Willow nodded sagely, taking that unhelpful declaration in stride. She gestured, and a shimmering vertical plane of light appeared in front of Lira.

“Do you think you could draw some of them?” she asked, swiping her finger over the plane to demonstrate that it changed color where it was touched. “Even that much might be helpful.”

Lira grimaced, but nodded begrudgingly. “Yeah, could manage something,” she said, approaching the magic whiteboard and beginning to form dizzying shapes with her finger. Her breath came harder and raspier the longer she drew, and not In the way it had for Cait earlier. “God, some of these shapes, its… its like the edges are sharp on my mind. Like a kidney stone in my nerves….”

Cait grabbed her hand.

“Alright, you almost died once tonight,” she declared, “that’s going to have to be enough. Willow, can you make anything of this?”

The witch excitedly approached the glowing plane, eyes scanning the shapes Lira had drawn out. As they watched, her face went from hopeful, to confused, finally darkening to dismayed. Cait could barely make out her muttering; “Cross sections… slices, of a 4, maybe 5 dimensional…”

Stepping back, defeated, Willow cursed.

“Blyat,” she whispered, “it can never be easy.”