63. Together
"So, ladies, who wants to be a millionaire?" I ask, ensuring my voice is loud enough to be heard past the rushing wind. The magical girls and I are mid-flight, after all. Well, Amaterasu and Castalia are in flight, anyway. The little ones and I are just getting carried along like chumps.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Amaterasu demands.
"It's a serious question!" I answer defensively. "I just hacked the Dark Rebellion's bank account with my brain and stole several million dollars! Want any?"
"What are you… we're about to head into battle!" Amaterasu protests. "And hacking is illegal!"
"Yeah, but so is selling artifacts, and that's how they got all the money," I point out.
"I want some!" Veritas shouts. Always paying attention to the important things, that girl.
"…I doubt my mom would say no," Aurora says, wrinkling her nose. "It feels wrong, though. Plus, won't someone get suspicious if we randomly get a bunch of money?"
"Depends on how you get it," I say. "I don't have to dump it all on you at once. I could pay you in reasonable installments or something."
"Girls! Focus!" Amaterasu snaps. "Luna, quit distracting them!"
"Right, right," I sigh. "Do we really have to super focus with Castalia here, though?"
"I am not planning to do much," Castalia says. "It's important for you and the others to get practice. I will only step in if I think you are in serious danger. Su-san is therefore correct. You should focus."
"Ugh, fine," I complain, trying to do exactly that. My crystals are still blue-aligned, though, so I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to run down memory lane and inflict another self-harm-based power-up. Besides, the energy Castalia gave me should be more than enough for some random monsters.
"You really need to take this seriously," Amaterasu complains.
"I am! Promise!" I insist. "I'm just like this. Luna Clio Babbage, certified yapper, license stamped in-person at the Federal Bureau of Annoying Bitches."
"Language!" Aurora interrupts me.
"Yeah, yeah, sorry," I wave the kid off. "My point is, underneath all the jabbering I'm still a combat robot. I can't really lose focus, and I'm not gonna fight any less hard now that I'm on your side."
"Well, the rest of us can lose focus," Amaterasu growls, "so kindly be quiet and allow us to do so."
"Oh, that's valid. Sorry, I'll shut up."
We enter the liminal space together, my internet access unfortunately cut off in this horrible twilight between worlds. There's no Dark World portal here yet, but the air is heavy with anticipation. The convergence will be soon. In fact, we should be able to spot… ah.
"There it is," I say, pointing toward a faint splotch of black off in the distance that the organics probably can't see from this distance. "The portal will appear there."
"What?" Amaterasu frowns. "Hmm. Go scout it out, then."
What does she mean 'scout it out?'
"Am I looking for anything in particular?" I ask.
"Advantageous terrain. Disadvantageous terrain. …Potential ambushes."
Terrain? It's all buildings, honey. …Wait, I get it. She's just sending me in first because she doesn't trust me. That's fine, honestly. I can work with that.
"Sure thing," I agree. "Toss me, Castalia."
"Okay," Castalia says, and then my mind blares with a high-speed impact alert.
Holy guacamole I did not mean to use me like a goddamn cannon shell! Whatever, it's fine. I shift my weight, deploy my thrusters, and use a hefty boost of thrust to slow myself down, flip around, and land safely on my feet near my destination.
I'm pretty confident that my sensors will be able to find Nanaya or Anath even if they're hiding their magic, and I'm also pretty confident that no amount of searching will let me find Melpomene, so there isn't much point in looking around despite Amaterasu's instructions. I do it anyway, since the real point is to show my willingness to obey those instructions and hopefully earn some brownie points.
The portal is set to appear in a sort of parking-lot-type area, a flat plane of liminal asphalt with more space than usual between the buildings surrounding it. Overall, that's bad; open areas favor the side with the personnel advantage, and even if this isn't a swarm, that's always gonna be the monsters. We're probably going to want to make this into a force chokepoint by holding the portal itself. …Or at least that's my assumption, but I don't have a whole lot of experience here.
"Looks clear, boss!" I call back up to Amaterasu as the others approach, setting down on one of the buildings at the edge of the lot. "Sensors aren't feeling anything out of the ordinary, either."
"Wakatta," Amaterasu calls back, but I anticipated this possibility and downloaded a Japanese dictionary earlier! It means—
"Understood."
Right. That. Darn. Su-San actually feels a little embarrassed for slipping into Japanese for a bit there. She must be kinda stressed out having me around.
"Luna-san. You are a ranged fighter, yes?" Amaterasu asks, shaking off her mistake.
"Uh, what?" I ask. "No. I mean, I have some ranged spells, but I just punch things mostly."
Amaterasu furrows her eyebrows at me.
"…Your incarnate weapons are ranged, cutting beams, yes?" she asks.
Oh, right.
"They are, but… I'm probably not going to use my incarnate form to fight? If that's okay?" I ask hesitantly. "It's very power-intensive."
"Ah. Hrm." Amaterasu considers that for a moment. "I suppose you are capable either way. Very well. You will hold the portal from the front. Veritas and I will act as lures and handle anything that gets past you. Aurora will support the three of us from the back."
Putting me in the most dangerous position by myself, even though we have three frontliners? Is she really that worried about me? I… I mean, I guess I chopped her damn legs off. Even if the new ones are an obvious improvement, I suppose I owe her more than enough grace to cover this.
"Sure, can do," I say. "Most of the monsters will be trying to rush past me to get to you, though. You'll have plenty of work to do."
"Work is what we are here for," Amaterasu answers. "Into position, girls."
They hop down from the building, gathering up behind me as Castalia remains floating overhead, watching impassively down on all of us.
"¡Lᴀs Pʀᴏᴛᴇɢᴇʀᴇ́!" Aurora incants, transforming with a fiery magical flash. "Lᴏᴠɪɴɢ Sᴀᴠɪᴏʀ Pʀᴏᴛᴇᴄᴛᴏʀ Aᴜʀᴏʀᴀ!"
Despite being very slightly taller, Aurora's incarnate form looks pretty much the same as always. She poses, showing off her knuckledusters as the floating orbs they control spin around her with a flourish.
Veritas, meanwhile, closes her eyes and starts taking several deep breaths. But… they aren't like the slow, meditative inhale, two, three, four, exhale, two, three, four type of breaths, oh no. This girl isn't calming down, she's working herself up, sucking in air through gritted teeth with her fists balled and her shoulders rigid. Each inhalation gets stronger, fiercer, louder, all while red magic pools denser and denser around her. Only when it can't possibly get wilder does she cast her transformation spell.
"Bʏ Mʏ Dᴇᴍᴀɴᴅ!"
Ah, yep. That's new. Her transformation isn't that different in appearance from her old one, though. Her outfit features a bit more armor and a bit less frill, but by and large it's very similar to her old uniform, just with red where there was previously blue. It's when the full transformation sequence ends that I realize what the biggest change is, and probably the real reason she's been banned from any more Dark World excursions.
Her right eye has a black sclera. A black pupil, a burning red iris, and then the entire rest of the orb is pitch black as well. Her left eye is normal, barring the red iris of course, but the right is unmistakably similar to the dark eyes of the Dark Rebellion. The fact that such a change has shown up on her incarnate form, but not her normal body, is almost certainly meaningful. What the meaning is, however, I can only guess.
"Iɴᴅɪɢɴᴀɴᴛ Vᴀɴɢᴜᴀʀᴅ Fʀᴇɴᴢɪᴇᴅ Vᴇʀɪᴛᴀs!"
Amaterasu is pushed slightly back from the burst of energy that accompanies a transformation, even though that sort of thing usually has friendly fire disabled.
"Remember, Veritas. Control," she chides.
"I know," Veritas growls, summoning her incarnate weapons. Her lance and shield appear in her hands, the former being largely the same but the latter now sporting a nasty-looking spike to ruin anyone she bashes with it.
Well! That's all slightly concerning, but my sensors are telling me the portal is starting to coalesce, so I turn around and focus on that instead of commenting. Truly, my self-control is unparalleled now that I have ascended the weakness of the flesh.
"T-minus one minute, forty-three seconds to contact, assuming the coalescence retains current progression speed," I report.
"What?" Veritas asks.
"Monsters soon!" I respond. "About a minute and a half."
"I could have told you that," she scowls.
Well okay! Fine then! See if I try to be helpful again! (I'm definitely going to try to be helpful again.)
"Luna, if you have an exact time, give us a countdown when we get to ten seconds," Amaterasu orders. See? There's a woman who knows how to take advantage of what she's got. Thank you.
"Will do, boss!" I confirm out loud, the timer already counting down in the back of my mind.
I have to make a few adjustments to my prediction, unfortunately, as the writhing energy of the Dark World fails to keep a fully consistent pattern. Still, I'm fairly confident in my timing when the ten-second mark rolls around, and I begin my countdown. Black mists swirl outwards from a pinprick breach between realities, spiraling ever larger until the general shape of the portal is completed. And then, finally, the breach is completed in full.
"Two, one, contact!" I declare, and when a monster's head first pokes out of the portal, I grab its face, yank it the rest of the way out, and bring my knee up to pulp its head. One down.
But we already have four more. The portal isn't huge, but it's tall enough that several monsters can jump through at once. I try to smack them into each other, taking advantage of the chokepoint as best I'm able, but they're hardly even interested in me. They just want to run past me and devour the others. Hmph. They're acting as if my shiny metal ass isn't good enough for them! I can't believe they don't want to bite it.
"Rᴏᴀʀɪɴɢ Bᴜʀsᴛ!"
My sensors blare danger and I'm forced to abort my next attack, moving out of the way as Veritas fires a red beam of energy out of her lance. It barely misses me, flying toward the portal which detonates on contact with the first monster it hits. My shields absorb the shockwave without too much trouble, but that seriously could have hit me!
"Woah there!" I say, trying to bring a bit of attention to the close call.
"Rᴏᴀʀɪɴɢ Bᴜʀsᴛ!"
Again, that would have hit me if I hadn't dodged. What the hell, girl!? It's killing several monsters per shot, but I can't really do my job if I'm just dodging all the time!
"Watch it!" I snap.
"Veritas!" Amaterasu chides as she cuts through a monster that gets too close.
"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜʀᴜsᴛ!" Veritas shouts, ignoring both of us. And this one, I have to take on my shields.
Even with my reaction speeds, Veritas' spell moves too fast for me to simply step out of the way. I step back as best I can as her lance flashes forward, covering several times the distance it should be physically able to reach in the blink of an eye. The attack scrapes against the outside of my shields; a glancing blow that still inflicts a solid three percent power loss, yet passes by me to also obliterate a nearby monster. Well! That's something, at least.
Still, I'm getting a little annoyed.
"You're not slick, kid," I tell her, angling myself sideways so I can keep an eye on her and the portal at the same time. "Everyone can tell you're doing this on purpose."
"I'm just doing what I'm supposed to," Veritas scowls. "Fighting the bad guys."
"Veritas!" Amaterasu snaps at her.
"What? You're thinking it too!" Veritas snaps back. "She's an evil artifact, and she hurt me and all my friends a bunch of times! Why are we doing any of this!?"
"Because—"
"No, stop," I interrupt Amaterasu. "It's fine. Maybe not the best time or place for it, but I'm not stupid. The suspicion and anger and everything else is not unreasonable. I did awful things to all of you. I didn't want to do them, but I still did them. I'm sorry, Veritas. Genuinely. That goes for all of you."
"Well 'sorry' isn't enough!" Veritas snaps. "Rᴏᴀʀɪɴɢ Bᴜʀsᴛ!"
I assume at first that she's just straight-up attacking me when she starts to cast, but for the first time her spell is actually just aimed at the portal, obliterating a whole group of monsters trying to escape at once.
"…You are casting spells too quickly, Veritas," Amaterasu says gently.
"No I'm not!" Veritas shouts back. "I know how much power I have! I know how much I can use! I'm not stupid! The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is why I'm the only one that's mad at her!"
"You're not the only one," Aurora says gently, her orbs bonking another monster as I take care of one myself. The portal is already starting to sputter out, the tide of monsters I expected ending up as more of a trickle. I guess this happens sometimes, though.
"I'm the only one that's angry enough to care!" Veritas snaps. "She's part of the reason Fulgora and Minerva are gone! They're gone! Why are we making friends with everyone who hurt them? Who hurt us?"
Okay. Fine. New tactic, because Aurora's right: Veritas is definitely not the only one getting angry about this situation.
"She was my friend too!" I remind her, raising my volume a bit. "Maybe she was more than that to you, as a team leader, but I cared about her. A lot. I haven't had any time to process what's happened to her or how little we know about what that actually was. But I'm on your side now, okay? You don't need to shoot me to make sure I pay for what I've done. I promise you, I'll be working as hard as I can to make up for it myself."
Veritas glares at me. I meet her gaze. Amaterasu rubs her temples. Aurora bashes the heads of a few monsters in.
"…This sucks," Veritas eventually says.
"Yeah," I agree. "It's pretty awful."
She grunts in something resembling acknowledgement, and we clean up the last chunk of monsters fairly easily from there. I don't stop getting suspicious glares, but I at least stop getting outright attacked. The battle is trivial with us all working together, and before I know it, we've been waiting around a silent portal for a solid ten minutes.
"…Okay," Amaterasu announces. "I will call Uma'tama. Or… Uma'gabo."
"Please let Gabo be busy somewhere else," Veritas groans.
"You should be polite, Veritas," Aurora chides, breaking formation and walking up to shoulder-bump her teammate. "Uma'tama says Uma'gabo is still learning about how humans work and stuff."
"Well they're bad at it," Veritas groans. "They haven't gotten any better at all!"
"Alright, it's done," Amaterasu says. "They should be here any—"
"Hello, everyone!" a flying, talking cat says, appearing out of nowhere. I immediately turn to stare at the portal, having sensed it react to that appearance. The mists churn more violently just from the presence of a Preserver's avatar.
"Hello, Uma'tama," Amaterasu greets them. "We've finished. There weren't many monsters this time."
"That's wonderful news!" Uma'tama says, clapping once. "We'll go ahead and seal the portal, then. How did the fighting go? Is Luna fitting in alright?"
Nobody answers them. Instead, everyone just awkwardly looks at Veritas.
"…It's whatever," Veritas says, crossing her arms and pouting.
"Is that good?" Uma'tama asks. "Hmm. No. That's bad, isn't it?"
"It could have been much worse," Amaterasu says.
"Yeah, I think we've gotten an understanding, at least," I say, still focusing on the portal. Uma'tama floats a little closer, and the mists seem to almost… split. Some parts of it subtly reach out in anger, while other parts recoil in terror or disgust. Hmm.
"I guess," Veritas agrees noncommittally.
"Wonderful news!" Uma'tama says again. "Time to get started. If we could ask you to back away, Luna?"
"Oh, sure," I agree, walking back to where everyone else is standing. I don't really need to be super close for my sensors to work.
"There we are, thank you!" Uma'tama says, and something starts to pull on the mist, sucking it up from both around and within the portal. It flows out from the Dark World and condenses in a small orb above Uma'tama's paw, mixing back together as the parts trying to attack and the parts trying to flee are absorbed with equal force. As more and more mist drains out of the Dark World, the portal gets weaker and weaker, shrinking as the source of the breach is taken away from it.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Eventually, the portal shrinks into a pinpoint and vanishes entirely, the liminal space collapsing around us. Light returns to the world, though the sun is starting to set behind the mountains. Uma'tama brings their paws together, as if crushing the orb of darkness hovering between them, and it, too, disappears. Teleported somewhere? No… close, but not quite.
Well, hey. In for a penny.
"What do you do with all that stuff, anyway?" I ask them.
"Pardon?" Uma'tama says, tilting their head.
"The mist," I say. "You're sending it back to your homeworld, right? What do you do with it?"
"…We cannot confirm or deny that," Uma'tama says.
"I don't need you to confirm or deny whether or not you're sending it back," I say. "You just showed me that you are. It's just, the DR was super convinced you guys were using it as some sort of power source. I know they're probably all crazy, but hearing the truth straight from the source would be nice."
Uma'tama's face, being literally just a cat's, is completely unreadable.
"I'm afraid we can't discuss the specifics," they say pleasantly. "Rest assured, at least, that we are making sure it does not hurt anyone anymore."
Hmm. Don't like that answer. Don't like that answer at all.
"Alright," I say anyway. "That's good."
"We try very hard to be," Uma'tama agrees with a nod, and then they vanish, leaving us alone in an evacuated part of town. People are probably going to start trickling back in pretty fast; the world is used to these sorts of one-hour interruptions at this point.
People really can get used to anything.
"What was that about?" Amaterasu asks me.
"What do you mean?" I respond.
"Your interrogation," she scowls. "Asking about the Dark Rebellion's interests like that."
"I'm just curious," I insist. "I think I've earned the right to look for the truth, after everything that happened to me."
"No," Amaterasu says. "You're an Earth Guardian now. It's not our place."
"Screw that," I say, finally remembering not to say fuck in front of the kiddos. "Take it from a former slave: nobody should be allowed to tell you what 'your place' is other than you."
"You cannot just say 'I was a slave' as your excuse for everything," Amaterasu protests, crossing her arms.
"What? Yes I can!" I insist. "I totally can! Are you crazy? That's like, the alpha and omega of sad wet cat excuses. I am the ultimate poor little meow meow, and you will treat me with the delicateness that I have earned! Especially when the situation is very directly relevant to my experiences!"
"Okay, whatever," Amaterasu says, rolling her eyes and starting to walk away. Which… hey!
"Don't you 'okay whatever' me!" I demand. "Are you for real? How much more teal magic am I gonna have to vent before you believe I was having a bad time?"
"I…!" Amaterasu stammers. Finally, I've caught her off-guard enough to get her to think. "You don't act like someone who almost went teal!"
"Uh, yeah, it's called a coping mechanism? Look it up!" I fire back. "Like seriously, please, look it up. I am officially begging the Earth Guardian community to educate themselves about trauma responses. I'll get down on my knees if you want."
"…I can't handle this," Amaterasu decides. "We're going. Power down, everyone."
Amaterasu herself doesn't leave her incarnate form, but Veritas and Aurora do, grasping onto their leader wrist-to-wrist before lifting off into the sky. Castalia wordlessly descends to collect me with her telekinesis as well, and soon enough we're flying back… though not quite in the direction we came from. I'm immediately suspicious, but I guess I do have Castalia here with me, so it's probably not anything nefarious.
Sure enough, it turns out we're not heading back to base because we're heading to some random-ass house instead. Amaterasu drops Aurora off on the front porch, and the girl politely thanks her before fishing a key out of her pocket and letting herself inside. I sense several other people in there as well; I guess Aurora's family is alive. That's nice.
We start heading back toward base after that… though we actually pass the wall we came out of and end up at a small apartment complex, Amaterasu dropping Veritas off on the second floor. Unlike with Aurora, Castalia sets me down behind her for some reason. Veritas also uses a key to unlock the door, though when she opens the door she calls out to the people inside.
"I'm back, Mrs. Mckay!" Veritas says, though she doesn't sound particularly happy about it.
"Coming!" a woman's voice calls out from within, and soon after an older lady appears at the doorway.
Light wrinkles make trails around her face, her pursed lips and stern expression making her look like an evil elementary school teacher from a children's cartoon. Her eyes flash over Veritas as soon as she comes into view, though, and I can see her visibly relax a little when she determines that the girl is unharmed. Only after that initial check does she bother to glance at me, and though she's obviously a little confused she returns her attention to Veritas immediately.
"You don't need to wait for me to come to the door every time, dear," she says to Veritas, though the girl doesn't meet her gaze. "You're welcome here at any time, for any reason."
Veritas shrugs, only stepping inside after that acknowledgement. The two of them look absolutely nothing alike; the chance of any blood relation is low. A foster family, maybe? Hmm.
"Thank you for looking after her, Su-san," Mrs. Mckay nods to her. "And… Castalia. I don't see you here often, but you're welcome as well. Who is… this?"
She indicates me, clearly not a hundred percent sure if I even am a 'who,' but I appreciate the decision to use that particular choice of interrogative.
"I'm Luna," I say. "I just joined today."
She's wary of me. Very wary. Why is… oh, right. I forgot I was on the news. I mean, that was my incarnate form, so I would have looked different, but that's still the only humanoid robot most people have seen at all.
"Well, you're more than welcome to join us for dinner, too," Mrs. Mckay says regardless.
"We will pass," Amaterasu declares on behalf of all of us. Kinda rude, but okay. "Thank you for the offer."
"…We just heading back, then?" I ask.
"Yes," Amaterasu confirms, stepping away from the apartment door. She's not even looking at me when she talks to me. She hasn't been doing that much in general, really. Hmm…
"Hey," I say, popping my skinsuit back around my body. "Would it make you more comfortable if I looked like this?"
"Yes," Amaterasu groans. "Yes, it very much would. Thank you."
Oh. Huh. …Why do I regret asking all of a sudden? Well, whatever. I shrug and keep the skinsuit on as Castalia lifts me back up, and the three of us start heading back to the Preserver base.
"What about you?" I ask Castalia.
"What about me?" she says, tilting her head.
"Do you like me better this way?" I ask.
"I like being able to feel your emotions," Castalia answers. "It's odd when you don't feel like you have any."
Ah. Yeah, I guess that makes a lot of sense.
"Well, that's good to know, but I just mean… well, do you like looking at this me more?"
"I don't know," Castalia says simply, which isn't a very reassuring answer.
Skinsuit mode it is, then. Not sure why I expected anything else. Even normal humans were a bit spooked by robo-me, and they never had to fight me. Is it not weirder for me to be wearing a fake human costume when everyone already knows I'm a robot, though? This whole setup was so that I could lie to them. Why would they like it more?
Maybe in Castalia's mind, she was excited to become friends with a normal human. It's definitely the sort of thing she'd get excited about. And that's who she thought I was. Someone normal, at least by her standards. It must have been a huge shock to hear that I was the evil artifact this whole time, but… she still stuck by me. She still saved me. And she was still waiting for me when I woke up.
I might not be who she thought I was, but she still cares about me. I don't deserve her.
"…Do you need more battery charge?" Castalia asks me.
Huh? Oh.
"No, sorry, I'm just a little overwhelmed after today," I dismiss. "It still feels like yesterday to me, you know? The day we fought."
"Oh," Castalia says. "Thank you."
"What? What are you thanking me for?"
"That day," she says. "I wouldn't have figured it out if you hadn't told me."
Oh. Right. She means my spell names. The memories of that day fast-forward through my head, every painful moment recalled in perfect clarity. Save me. Save me. Please, save me. Words I've wanted to say from the very start, but I never could. Not until I used them to try and kill her.
My power reserves have increased to 83%.
It was a desperate loophole, and one I could only take advantage of because I was dissociating so fucking hard that I basically wasn't even a person. Because of course I wasn't, right? That's what my master wanted from me. Nothing but a heartless weapon, optimizing itself for raw lethality and no other purpose. And one thing that makes spells stronger, even if only by a tiny bit, is giving them emotionally resonant names.
I could only ask for help because it made me more likely to kill the person I needed help from. And the terrifying thing is, it almost worked. I did not expect my incarnate form to be that powerful. Maybe I should have. I'm a war robot, after all. That's something that isn't just true physically; it has infected my very soul. The Cage of Returning Pain isn't a prison. I am the Cage of Returning Pain. The bars of the cage are themselves part of my soul. Of course Thea couldn't free me. If someone were to pull the restrictions out of my soul, they wouldn't leave anything behind but holes.
Without a master, I would bleed out and die.
Considering that my current master doesn't want anyone to know that, manifesting my incarnate form would be a dangerous hint toward the truth that I can't afford to give anyone. But that's fine by me! I don't ever want to be that monster again, thank you very much. I am just fine sticking with regular old robo-Luna. I like regular old robo-Luna. Regular old robo-Luna gets to pull her punches and sass people and have friends and stuff. Incarnate form Luna means that someone has drawn Muramasa from its scabbard, and the legends of the Muramasa blades make it quite clear that once you draw one, you cannot put it away until it has tasted blood.
…Maybe I'm just being dramatic. But I'd rather be dramatic than get anyone killed, and I think that's a marked improvement from Melpomene's philosophy of preferring to get someone killed over not being dramatic.
"Please don't thank me for anything that happened that day," is the only thing I say to Castalia in response.
She nods, though a slight frown brushes her face.
One fake wall and teleportation spell later, we're back in the local Earth Guardian base. I'm finally released from Castalia's mental clutches, my feet touching the ground as my scanners do their best to figure out more about this place. Pretty much everything is made out of some super-advanced polymer, and best I can tell it was all created very recently… which of course makes perfect sense, given that Melpomene smashed the base up a while back. What's really interesting, however, is what's on the outside of the base: solid bedrock.
"We're not in a pocket dimension or anything, we're just deep underground," I comment idly, mostly to see the reactions of everyone else.
"That makes sense," Castalia nods, taking my total non-sequitur in stride.
"Okay?" Amaterasu frowns. "Does that matter?"
"Not really," I answer. "I just think it's neat."
She grunts and starts walking out of the room. Castalia and I follow because like, why would we randomly stand around in the teleporter room? The underground thing is actually interesting, though. We get phone signal in here, right? That's rhetorical, I already know we do. But interestingly, we don't get all kinds of phone signals. There's some unique Preserver router handling all the incoming and outgoing wireless traffic, since we're deep enough underground that radio waves wouldn't reach us normally. I can't access GPS or the internet, just phone calls and texting and stuff. I should probably also assume any communication I do involving this router is being monitored. Which isn't really a big problem, of course, since I'm allowed to just leave, but it is… interesting. I wonder what the purpose of it all is.
Oh, well. I don't have any outstanding duties, currently, so I should really quit futzing about and check in with my master.
Which… I mean, you know, I'd of course want to do that anyway because Thea is my friend, so it's not really that big of a deal that my programming is gently forcing me to do it. It's totally different from Melpomene. Thea wants me to be happy and safe. Checking in with her is just a good way to reassure her that both of those things are true. Oh, I should probably realign my crystals to north at my first opportunity. I'm sure that would help reassure her, too.
…Not currently happy enough for that right now, though. I'll work on it.
"I'm going to head to bed," Castalia announces.
"Still struggling with that?" I ask.
"Even if I have more than enough power to maintain my incarnate form, my human body still requires large amounts of rest," Castalia explains.
"Yeah, that makes sense," I nod. "Do you need any help?"
"I will be fine," Castalia assures me, which immediately makes me worry that she doesn't trust me anymore. Which… I mean duh, of course she doesn't? She shouldn't trust me.
It still hurts, though.
Regardless, with Castalia and Amaterasu having both wandered off, there's nothing stopping me from visiting my master alone, and so that's exactly what I do. I wander into her room, carefully opening the door in case she's asleep… and sure enough, I find her curled up in her little blanket nest, completely unconscious. With her knees tucked up to her chest and her tail curling around her, she almost looks like a little green egg. I'll have to make sure nobody has any ham nearby. That could be disastrous.
I enter the room, closing the door quietly behind me and unzipping my skinsuit, stepping out of it the old-fashioned way since I figure Thea will probably want to take a look at it fairly soon. For now, though, I should let her rest. I manage to get one of the wadded-up blankets draped overtop of her before squatting down nearby and just… letting time pass until she wakes.
Nine hours and forty-one minutes later, my master stirs and my consciousness returns. I quietly cast a privacy spell on her room, staying still and silent. It takes another nine minutes and sixteen seconds for her to fully wake up, opening her eyes and yawning as she looks around… then freezing stiff the moment she spots me.
"L-luna!?" she squeaks.
"Hello," I greet her.
"Were you watching me sleep!?"
"Not really," I answer, mostly to make her feel better. "I've been in the room for a while, but it's not like I've been staring at you. I guess… guarding you would be more accurate?"
"Oh," Thea says. "You don't have to do that."
Well I did have to do that, actually. It's not all that big of a deal, since it's mainly because I didn't have anything else to do, but it was either this or doing some other task for her. Now, I have a lot of freedom when it comes to determining 'tasks for Thea,' since Thea has made sure to give me that freedom, but again: I had nothing else to do. It's the end of the day. All the organics were going to sleep. Amaterasu certainly didn't want me around. I'm still getting my bearings. I'd rather just wait and have another much-needed conversation.
…But when I go to explain all of this to her, I realize that doing so would undoubtedly make her miserable. So I don't.
"I realized I needed to ask you about some more stuff," is what I say instead. "I just went into sleep mode until you woke up."
"Oh, okay," Thea says. "…Is it gonna be heavy stuff?"
"I mean, yeah? Of course it is," I say honestly.
"…Right. Is it okay if I pee and get something to eat first?" she sighs, pushing some of her hair out of her face.
"Oh! Of course, yeah," I confirm. "Here, let me make you some breakfast. You have a kitchen here somewhere, right?"
"You don't have to do that," Thea says again.
"I want to do it," I insist. "I do actually like cooking, you know."
"…Okay," Thea says. "Thanks."
I stand up and hold out a hand, helping her to her feet. She passed out with all her clothes on, so I suggest that she take a quick shower as well while I prepare a hot breakfast. She begrudgingly accepts, and I leave to go find the kitchen.
It's not too hard to map out the interior of the base, given that I have a perfect memory. The place isn't that big, so it only takes me about five minutes to get the lay of the land and tear apart the kitchen for ingredients. The pickings are… slim. Very slim. But miraculously, there are some eggs in the fridge that haven't gone bad as well as altogether far too many blocks of cheese, so I can at least make something passably edible. They even have salt! They're truly splurging on the girls who live here, it's heartening to see. Whatever, I'll go on a shopping trip to help fix everyone's diets later.
Thea eventually finishes her shower, wobbling into the kitchen still soggy as I finish up the first round of eggs. The smell seems to rouse the other members of the base, Castalia and Amaterasu joining us soon after. I have no problem making them some food as well, though the moment they enter the kitchen I regret taking off my human disguise. Hopefully it's not too upsetting for them.
"Okay, all done eating?" I ask Thea. She nods. "Brush your teeth, then."
"Alright, alright," she grumbles, tail flicking behind her as she gets up and pads back to the bathroom.
Amaterasu raises an eyebrow at me as Thea departs.
"She forgets to take care of herself," I explain. "Eliza had that problem too, come to think of it. Is that common among magical girls?"
She scowls, considering the question.
"…I suppose many of us do not brush our teeth," Amaterasu admits. "But it's harder for harmful microorganisms to get a foothold in our bodies."
"What about like, eating and showering and stuff?" I ask.
"What about it?"
"How often do you all do it?" I clarify.
Amaterasu shrugs.
"I eat when I am hungry. I shower when I am dirty."
Okay, so not often enough. Awesome.
"You're still eating three meals a day without me, right?" I ask, turning to Castalia. She squirms slightly.
"…I'm not always awake long enough to get hungry more than twice a day," she admits.
"You usually were when we were living together," I point out. "Is everything okay?"
"Things have not been okay for a long time," Castalia says, "but you are back, so I think they will start to get better now."
Ack. My heart. My poor, fragile, crystalline heart. I have no idea how to express how those words make me feel, and then I remember I don't really have to and just open up some of my plating. Both Castalia and Amaterasu react immediately, first with a bit of shock and then by noticeably relaxing.
"I'm gonna hug you now," I say.
"Okay," Castalia agrees, so I run up and give her an enthusiastic squeeze. I'm going to make this girl so fucking happy. I know she's already pretty good at that, but damn it she deserves every last good thing in the world she's saved.
Still, I close up my plating after breaking free of the hug. I'm more comfortable without my internals exposed for no reason, and it's also optimal to get everyone used to not feeling anything from me so it isn't suspicious if I have to hide things from them again. Hmm. Is that why I felt so bad about the whole skinsuit thing? Sure. I can convince myself that's why. Let's go with that.
"Welp, I should go check up on Thea before she buries her nose in some project or another," I say. "Then I have some shopping to do, which either of you are welcome to join me for if you want. In fact, if you have any foods you really like, please let me know?"
"What project?" Amaterasu asks. "Thea is not authorized to work on any Antipathy technology other than you."
Oh. Oh dear.
"Uh, well then I definitely need to go check up on her because I don't know if she has literally any other hobbies at all!" I say with false cheer. "Ta-ta!"
I quickly excuse myself and speed-walk back to Thea's room, where I find her sitting on the floor, already engrossed in examining my skinsuit for any potential repairs. Again, I close the door behind us and activate a privacy spell.
"Thea?" I ask. "Hey. How are you doing? We can speak plainly."
"I'm sorry," Thea says.
"What? Hey, you don't need to apologize for—"
"I fucked everything up!" she insists, her voice hoarse. "I couldn't figure out what you were in time. And then I couldn't fix you right! I don't know what to do, Luna, I don't know where to go from here. E-even if I had some better idea on how to free you, how are we even going to justify all the extra time I'd need to spend working on you?"
She's crying, I realize. She's getting more and more worked up.
"I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what to do. I've only ever been good at one thing, and now that you're awake again I don't know if I'll get to do it anymore? And that's scary and it's awful for you but it's all I can think about. I'm worried about the others. What if the stuff I built breaks? I don't want them to get stranded in the Dark World forever. I don't want them to die."
Oh. Well. There's that confirmation. Damn.
"Melpomene moved the anchor, though, I-I-I couldn't find it the one time I tried to see if it needed fixing," she continues to blubber. "The mist repeller shouldn't need that much maintenance, but what if it does? I keep thinking about that all the time, keep thinking of reasons that I should go back, but I can't go back. I can't ever go back. Not after what they did to you. I have to help you. I have to, or what good am I?"
Ooookay, I think it's time to interrupt this particular spiral.
"Thea, hey," I say gently, kneeling down next to her. "It's gonna be okay."
"You're always so nice to me," Thea sobs. "Is it because you have to be?"
"Wh—no! Thea, of course I'm nice to you, you're wonderful!" I insist. "You're kind and smart and adorable and you gave me my voice. I wouldn't be able to be myself without everything you've done for me. My gratitude is real, my appreciation is real, and my care for you is real. Please don't ever doubt that."
Thea just responds with a painful keening noise, turning to wrap her arms around me in place of any words. Ugly sobs choke down her face. I hug her back and hold her there, offering as much comfort as I can because I know I'm all she has. I am the only person here who loves her, and because of what I am, she can't even be certain about that love.
I have to make her certain. I have to make sure she knows.
It's… it's also just the right thing to do. A dozen different ways I might demonstrate it flash through my mind, most of them impractical or inappropriate. One of them sticks, though. What I really need to do isn't necessarily some grand gesture, it's just… something that'll snap her out of her depressive funk. And there's one thing Thea was always wishing she could do more often.
"Hey," I say once her tears have mostly quieted down. "Wanna go shopping with me?"
"Huh?" she manages.
"You know, like, on Earth," I say. "I need more than one outfit to wear for my human disguise, and I gotta pick up food for everyone… all that sorta stuff. You could probably use some cute new clothes too, come to think of it. It'll be fun!"
"Is that… allowed…?" Thea squeaks.
"Pfft, nobody's gonna stop us," I say.
Because I will fucking destroy them if they try. 'Is that allowed?' Is going outside allowed? Yes. It will be. One way or another.
"…But if you're worried, I doubt anyone will complain if Castalia is with us," I say. "I'm getting the impression that she's pret-ty trusted around here," I say, snapping the word 'pretty.' "She'd be the ultimate chaperone for two dastardly dark deserters."
"Can… can you actually convince her to come with us, though?" Thea whimpers. "I don't think she likes me…"
"Pfft, of course I can!" I assure her. "Did you see how she tackle-hugged me when you brought me back online? That girl loves me, I can get her to do whatever. In like a 'we are very good friends and she enjoys hanging out with me' way, not a creepy manipulative way."
"…Ah. Right," Thea says. "Well… sure, I guess. I'd like to go outside."
"Let's do it, then," I say, helping her stand up and doing my utmost to ignore that flash of jealousy that came out of her when she said that.
Except, you know, I can't really ignore stuff about my master like that. Surely she was just jealous of people who could go outside on their own, right? That's all? She's not jealous of Castalia and me, right? We're not dating or anything. I'm sure our friendship can't end up hurting her somehow, surely? Does she even like me in that way?
I… do still have something of a crush on Thea, she's undeniably attractive, but trying to date her given our current situation would be really obviously a horrible, terrible, awful idea, right? For both me and her? Definitely not a thing that should ever happen. Definitely.
I can make sure she's happy a better way. She deserves it just as much as Castalia does. I really do love them both.
…Oh boy. It's probably wise if I do what I do best and not think about that particular subject at all.