Chapter 11 – The Tenebrescence Inception

 

Thatti and Caleb stood in front of the interdimensional generator, like a roaring furnace ready to consume all into its colorful transferential energy. They'd gone beyond the check-in station, Thatti showing her the Domina's signature Orchid-stamped pass and cutting to the front of the line at this station. Unlike the Xi boy, she didn't flinch at the intensity of the colors, the vibrant hues spinning in front of her like an ethereal engine of swirling intensity. Their requested destination was pinpointed to the exact location as the rotation of the disc's axis stabilized for transport. Thatti didn't look to her to see if Caleb was ready for the sensation of the transfer, the operator gave them the go-ahead and they walked on through. The two began to pace into the disc cultivated within the slick machinery-frame and upon contact, flashed through to the other side.

"Welcome." Thatti made a dramatic bow. "To Orchid." Her friend stood there, looking around, the sound of his heartbeat heavy in the silence, the white light from the portal leaving his eyes, replaced by the murky black of crows and what he could've mistaken for a golden cathedral. She stopped and looked around, Thatti's confusion turned into a frown. "What's the matter?" Caleb asked, and when she didn't respond, he looked back at her, his eyebrow rising.

"This doesn't seem right." She said.

 

"This is Orchid? Always thought it'd be brighter." Caleb asked.

 

She folded her arms. "Saint Prim's academy for Marigold Meritage is supposed to be the brightest, most refined Magus Academy in all of Chrysanthemum, especially on this planet. I mean, 'I' didn't get into it, but I have a friend here I visited that attends. Juniper Waybright." She looked around at the dark, abandoned ancient buildings and twisted vines, the gilded surface a little wanting for gloss and light. "But that's not it." She said, her forehead scrunching up at the odd surroundings. "This place is different."

"Are you sure this is really it?" Caleb asked.

 

"Yeah. We're in the right place." Thatti said. "This is a private school..."

 

"Then why is it so..." He glanced around at the mangled iron rods and broken windows, the buildings falling apart and rotting like ancient ruins, their glistening spires pockmarked with holes and the windows shuttered.

"I have no idea." She shook her head. "I'm not sure what happened, but it's supposed to be more refined and polished, not..." She motioned at the surroundings. "It's usually not like this."

Thatti pulled out a small watch on her wrist, and looked at it, the luminous dials revealing the time of day as the sun hung low in the sky. She looked up at the massive tower above them. "Wanna climb in? There are no greets. Let's welcome ourselves in, shall we?" She lent him a hand, with a steep climb they began to ascend up the top. Once they found a window perch, Thatti slid the glass open and tumbled inside, Caleb heading in with her. The two were greeted by utter and complete silence, an unseen dark force that lingered over the halls of the academy and the school. Thatti felt its presence, something heavy in the air, a dark feeling. "Don't you feel that?" Thatti asked. He could see her look around, something unspoken in her face, but it wasn't fear. "The air is off." Two shadowy silhouettes appeared behind them, revealing a duality of girls with sun-shaded pigtails and bell skirts. "Look Lily, our guests have arrived. Are we allowed to play with them?"

"Let us! Nice to meet you." Lily said. Her fingers were wrapped around Caleb's own, and she walked her hand up his arm. "I am Lily, and this is my sister Lily!"

Thatti looked back to Lily and shook her head. "What's wrong with this place?"

She asked. Lily looked up at the ceiling. "They've got this place shut off. Nobody comes here anymore." She tapped her foot, and Thatti gave her the same confused look. "What do you mean? Isn't this Marigold Meritage?"

"Nobody comes here anymore." Lily repeated. "Not since- Well, before..." "Before what?" Thatti asked.

"Before...Before..." She turned around and looked at Caleb, tapping her lips.

 

"Come on! Let's play." She said, and the two started to run through the halls, Thatti chasing after them with Caleb trailing close behind. "This is the fun part, this is the fun part. It's fun, isn't it fun?" Lily asked, as the pair of siblings went back and forth, dodging and hiding around corners.

Thatti and Caleb peeked around a corner and they saw the two of them vanish, Thatti following a trail of rose petals into an empty classroom. A chalkboard was stained with a strange bluish slime, a golden circle etched into the center. Thatti shook her head. "No, this goo is still warm and that snake in the glass over there seems to have been fed recently. The other student's must be elsewhere."

"Let's find our way out of here." He said. "This place is weird. Let's go home. I thought we'd meet some cute magical girls and Orchid babes but.."

"Shh." She said, grabbing him and holding her ear to the door as footsteps approached. The sound of heels clacking on the other side could be heard. "Hold up."

Caleb could see a long line of Magus students going past the window, a line of frilly and ornamented Marigold Meritage uniforms lined up and marching. At the back of the line, the pair could be seen, but both of them covered their faces as they marched, a shadowed veil over their faces.

The line took a right, and went further down the hall, out of sight.

 

The two looked at each other, then continued to wander, retracing the path of the students while pacing themselves not to be seen. Eventually they went up a further flight of stairs towards the boarding rooms. One was still lit and visible from the hall, Thatti snuck close and knocked on the door, before gently turning the doorknob.

A figured turned around as the two entered her bedroom.

 

She had long blonde hair and looked to be around their age, her hair wrapped into an intricate plaited pattern and wrapped with a dark ribbon that hung over her shoulders and framed her small face. She had green eyes and seemed shocked to see them. Thatti stepped back. "Hello!" She said, startled.

"J-Juniper?" Thatti barely recognized her face berift of the usual gleaming light, her lips painted ivory black and usual braids tied up into a bun. Juniper Waybright, in slick dark gloves, boots, a pencils-skirt and blouse that appeared to be made of black rubber appeared way less.. bright than usual.

"Um.. you know me? I'm- I'm not sure I remember who you are." Juniper was startled by their sudden presence, and Thatti could tell that she wasn't just playing coy.

"Juniper, it's me Thatti! We used to exchange clementine cookies at lunch before you transfered." She stepped forward. "What's with the inky getup?"

She sulked. Her skin a bit dull, her eyes hollowed out like dark marbles.

 

She looked over to the side of the room, at a pair of scissors resting in the dresser. "Can we sit down?"

"Of course." Juniper motioned to a pair of chairs next to the vanity table. "Have a seat. Would you like some Mint-raspberry tea?" She said, walking around to the tea cart.

Thatti nodded, as Caleb took a seat as well. Juniper poured them a cup and poured three cups, leaving the last cup empty. "Is something the matter?"

"It's hard to tell what's normal here." Juniper said. She picked up the empty cup, her lips perched to the tip before she sputtered out some disgustingly smooth dark fluid from her mouth and let it flow into the cup. “Everything has been so topsy turny lately. Time keeps looping some days and going backwards in others! You find your thoughts tracking memories you thought you forgot as if they were today, and then lose track of today to end up doing things week ahead.

Quite confusing really.”

 

Inky tendrils of darkness dripped from the corners of her mouth, staining the pristine white sheets nearby and turning them taut, slick and black until they were completely rubberized. The tendrils began to flow out of the cup, Thatti backing against the wall.

"Juniper?" she whispered, her voice fighting to leave her in a rasp.

 

Her head tilted at an unnatural angle. A smile, too wide and too sharp, stretched across its face. "Thatti," She cooed, the voice a chilling distorted echo of Juniper's usual melodious tones.

As if sensing her fear, the figure glided towards her, the tendrils of darkness swirling around its form. "Don't worry, dearest," it purred, its voice dripping with cloying affection. "Don't worry thattiii. Soon, we'll all be perfect, just like me. Like Lily. Enough with messy, silly dreams.”

Thunder outside struck, leaving hot flashes across the sky for all to witness. The blinding light obscured all in white for a heart-chilling moment, and when it faded Juniper Waybright was completely gone. Standing in her place, wearing her clothes was that Lily girl from earlier, her

twin pigtails bouncing about with a sniveling smile, obscene pink painted lips sneering into a

grin. “Hi I’m Lily.” She said.

 

"N-no!" Thatti started to step back, taking out her wand. "Blast'em Thatt!" Becca demanded. The door swung loud open, and a dozen other students- who all looked identical to Lily, the same innocent porcelain faces standing copied in a horde - each of them wore the same uniforms of students the two had seen from before. They attempted to rush in from the hall, Caleb ran in front of the doorway and they mowed him down in a stampede. "Get back, get away!" Thatti yelled, backed into the room wall. Something slick and smooth slid around the girl's body, coating her and pulling her into the ground. The silhouette of a tall woman appeared behind the mass of Lilys, a single golden sheen scintillating from a glowing broach in her chest.

"C-caleb!" Thatti yelled as she dragged into the inky abyss. "Thatti!" The boy ran to help her, but the goop swirled over her arm and hand, slicking and smoothing it until it dissolved. Her entire body was swallowed into the swirling puddle and room left bereft of Thatti Nezura.

Looking around, Caleb saw a small vase. He toppled slammed it against the wall, then picked up a sharp shard. The Lily that had been Juniper was grabbed, he took her hostage in a desperate bid. "Stay back!" He yelled. A blast of black and circle light flew into the room, knocking out Caleb and leaving the room a destroyed scattered. Within moments, a strange girl with a jetblack bob-cut, croptop that exposed her mid-rift, tall boots and purple cape grabbed Caleb and made a dash through the hall in the wake of the incident. A series of num-chucks held tight in her belt.

When a large series of Lily’s blocked her way, she took out one side and after twisting the grip, a projection of the other side extended as she swung, sweeping them out of the way with colorful kaleidoscopic-Impact.

Thatti woke up in a dark empty space, dripping ink at her feet. Shuffling around her were the same Lily's as before, but these bodies appeared translucent, their attention glazed into a perpetual waltz. Some sat at tables drinking tea, others laid napping with teddybears. "W-what?" She turned around, the brightest figure above her hovering in the air. Another Lily. This one glowing and white-eyed. "Another one. Miserable. So miserable that one is?"

"Who? And, who are you?" Thatti asked, trying to look for a way for her soul to escape this place. A voice spoke out. "Prim. The wretched child. The lost child of bedlam. She sold her soul at a chance to have womanhood perpetual, but in the process of her debut across these hollowed grounds, picked up a spectacle or two. Ah, no matter, it's an external affair.." The voice sounded familiar.

"M-mom?" She asked, recognizing her own mother's voice anywhere. She walked towards the floating Lily, her hair not twin-tailed up but flowing into a long extension of itself like a crescent cyan wave, its graceful length reaching to the floor.

Above a teaset, an almost holographic series of projection images circulated. A young girl, a pact with a strange suited woman, her acquisition of this academy. At some point she'd go towards a blue funnel of energy, which Thatti recognized from books as Cascade. In these projections, she captured a strange little centipede-like creature within an orb and soon took it back with her. “Hey little guy, where’d you come from?” Thatti asked, poking the glass-like membrane around the orb. As it fluttered inside, a series of bright translucent image tinted in blue appeared around her. The void trembled, each flicker of the hologram revealing a microcosm of silent oppression. A room, stark and bare, held a lone figure, small a boy. She knew him. His youthful features were stiff, etched with a determination that belied the enforced stillness of his body. He sat under a tree in the palace’s garden, hardly ever

"You made me stay here," his voice pierced the stillness, a muted defiance against unseen forces. “Do you think god ever makes people by accident?” He asked the woman, which Thatti recognized as her mother, in her elaborate robes in jeweled headgear over her updo.

The answer was a whiplash of sound, a woman's voice edged with cold authority, "You really like to be king around here, a brat like you. But one of your sex, you’ll never be like me. You and your infantile need to escape reality."

The boy remained silent. The hologram flickered, revealing the rise and fall of his shallow breaths, a prisoner in a penal paradise of a home.

"But I’m different!" The boy yelled, chestnut brown hair sweeping to the sides of his head. The woman's voice pierced the quiet once more. "Improper, as always. You’re very quiet some days, and others you talk too much, it’s infuriating.” The Domina told him. “You’d best to follow the rules and mind your place.”

Anger rippled through the void, a silent counterpoint to her words. This boy, with his silent strength and yearning defiance, weak? “But-“

"Insolence!" Another shift, a subtle one. The hologram pantomimed another scene. The boy was older, a sheen of sweat highlighting the practiced fluidity of his movements. Forbidden movements, a dance of hidden combat.

His thoughts whispered across the void, a fervent wish, he spoke them to a blond woman Thatti recognized as one of her mother’s prideful advisors. “For a day when I am free…”

The imagery went back into the past, this same woman reading to this boy with her hands around him, softly caressing him. "Once upon a time…" The woman's voice softened, touched by an inexplicable sadness. "A warlord tried to conquer the so-called Diamonds and establish Gem rule. But there were no rules to this path. But they forgot, the diamonds had the support of the Domina, bless her golden light. Rose became complacent. They needed order, and thus, we were born."

The boy's eyes widened with a hunger born of restriction. "Tell me the stories of her…”

 

A flicker of hesitation, then the void swirled with images of women like her, unbound, powerful. Warriors. Leaders. Embodiments of a freedom long denied. Rose Quartz.

The boy's gaze seared into the images, a reflection of a fire all but extinguished in the woman, yet burning brightly within him. With the fading images, his voice emerged, ringing clear in the vast emptiness, "I will find my own once upon a time." Time sped up, until that boy grew older, older than Thatti even. The blond advisor was still by his side, even all these years. "You okay, my sweetling?" Astrid asked. "I feel like you're having one of those moments. I understand your obsessions. Even with all my power, I could not unravel the threads your mother has woven." He turned to her, staring down at his shaking hands. “You never had to save me.”

The imagery played out and then faded into the void. Thatti could see now how much of the world was unknown to her.

"So how do I get out of here?!" She yelled, stomping her foot and splashing fluid about. "How do I stop her?" The orb glowed and she heard fragmented voices repeat with the sound of her mother’s voice tracking over.

“There were no rules to this path. ” “There were no rules to this path. ” “Very quiet some days” “Even with all my power.” They said, Thatti listening proper. The orb started levitating up out of her palms and drifting along a dark winding path. With a deep breath, Thatti began to follow the glowing light in the darkness. “Became complacent.”

The Orchid girl continued walking, feeling like this creature was holding her hand through an endless dark chasm. She began seeing holographic flashes of a girl, who she could recognize as Ms. Prim at some moments. A child of Bedlam- she recognizes the city architecture, visits with her Ex reminding her of many of the same venues and outings. A small child-like prim stood sorry eyed and meek, holding some sort of horned teddybear, barely a foot tall in front of suited

figures. “A brat like you.” “A brat like you.” “Your obsessions.” The advisor speaking at the end, before the Domina’s wrapped over.

“Thatti, you will attend Glitterkiss and become a woman of standing.” “A woman of standing.” “A woman of.” “This path.”

As Thatti kept walking, the phantom of Ms. Prim grew up from a sore and scared girl to a woman in a sleek hobbledress gown, a Magus of Chrysanthemum. “Follow the rules and mind

your place.” The women instructed others in classrooms with dour cynicism. As Thatti followed the flickering images, the image of another girl stepped up to Miss Prim, the same pigtails from before. She had something embedded in her forehead, a golden jewel shard of some kind. Prim leaned down, plucked two fingers on it and a golden light consumed all. The dark void was illuminated, and from the golden brightness arrived constructs, from dollhouses to bed and dolls, even an entire bright pink bedroom. The golden light dispersed into specks and sparks in the air, flurrying like snow menacingly around Thatti. She felt it begin to stick to her skin and sheen over her in a gold metallic transfiguration, the girl laughing how creepy it was. Her appearance changed, height shortening, face becoming rounded and eyes wide. Two pigtails

grew out and Thatti’s thoughts were lost in a fog of pink, a cutesy maelstrom assaulting her

senses.

 

The pigtails… those damnable pigtails, now sprouting from her own head, were a mocking reminder of the forced change. She tried desperately to claw at them, to fight back against the golden sheen creeping over her skin, but the transformation was relentless. It was as if the specks of light were not merely changing her appearance, but worming their way into her thoughts, her memories, her psyche feeling like it was being crowded by time. Times not her own, temporalities mixed up and melded in ways that were more uncomfortable to her, the timelines of Prim, Lily, and the boy.. her brother flashing through her mind, threatening to be absorbed without calm or halt.

Panic squeezed her chest. Who was she? What was she becoming? The voice of Prim, echoing in her fractured mind, offered little solace: "The strange centipede you carry… it is no mere pet. It is a creature of Cascade, a catalyst for change." Who was Prim talking to? Her of course, but identity became suck a fickle thing, slipping and slapping all around eventually. “It’s called a Cascadasyte, it seems to have been drawn to that shard of yours. Strange, I thought they were only native to Xi..”

“Made me stay here.” “Made me stay here.” “Made me stay here.” “Made me stay here.” “Made me stay here.” “Made me stay here.” “Made me stay here.” Nathan’s voice pierced from the darkness on repeat.

Thatti felt change. But was this the change she wanted? To be reduced to a giggling, pigtailed caricature of a proper girl? This particular girl. Lily.

Tears welled up, blurring her vision. Yet, even though the haze of confusion, a single word sparked within her, a stubborn refusal to succumb completely: "No."

It was soft, barely a whisper, lost amongst the echoes of her mother's commands and the laughter of the transformed girl. But a tiny glimmer of resistance cut against the overwhelming tide.

"No.. no… NO!" The word grew louder, fueled by a sudden surge of desperate clarity. She wasn't Thatti anymore, they were right about that much. But neither was she this golden-eyed, pigtailed parody. This wasn't her. This would never be her.

She yanked on the pigtails and they stretched like rubber, the void trembling, the golden material swishing and squeaking so loud as the void trembled.

Prim, standing alone in the darkness, the boy, now a man, facing his mother... With her standing in the Domina’s place. The timelines were getting stitched and tacked up, tangled in temporal knots.

Collapsing to her knees, Thatti gasped, lungs burning. Her body ached, her head throbbed. But her eyes, no longer wide with childlike innocence, held a grim determination. The forced change had been halted, but it felt fragile, like a thin shell barely holding back the insistent tide of golden light. She gasped, and finally the form of Lily burst from her, returning to golden specks which flew away, taking the bedroom with it.

She gasped for breath, the bed in front of her- not the saccharine pink but her own. The orb and the strange glowy worm inside sat, as if waiting for her. She hopped on next to it, feeling the integrity of her body and mind returned. She was herself.

“Well, I’ll be damned. I guess that’s how you do it-” She said, turning to the orb as she stood, still

wobbly. It glowed again as bright as it could.

 

“Golden light.” “Were born.” “A brat like you.” “My sweetling" “This path.”

 

She blinked. “Uh…. Right?” she said, looking at a crowd of Lily’s approaching around her, surrounding her as if dazed. She slowly went towards them, not understanding personally what any of this was about. She noticed the same golden shard on each of the Lily’s foreheads and plucked one off. The figure of Lily immediate dissipated, leaving Juniper’s image to fall over. “J- juniper!” She said.

Outside the void back in the academy, Juniper fell out of her Lilyness, she looked at her hands and gathered her thoughts. “Huh? I’m back!“ She said, observing the Lilys chasing Caleb and the jetblack haired girl.

Jetti twisted the end of her numchucks, a short razorblade extending out the rounded cap. She pointed it at Miss Prim, and with the slightest point, a projection of the sharp-edge shot out and stopped inches from her neck. Caleb, still in a turquoise dress and a vacant smile stood next to Jetti her hands folded, sighing lovingly. "Now undo it, only w-warning!" Jetti yelled. "Tsk. Spoilt brat." Miss Prim pulled a book from a nearby shelf and the entire bookshelf opened up, revealing an empty space. She ran down the secret hallway, Jetti quickly making pursuit. Soon

she came across a large chamber with some kind of skeletal corpse hung above an orb, a blue centipede-like creature wriggling inside with the energies of time-space itself. She held the orb up. "G-get back! You have no idea what'll happen if I break this!" Prim threatened.

"Maybe. But I don't really care." Jetti took a step after the other, as if she were performing an execution. "Lay it down." "I said GET BACK!" She yelled.

Someone tapped on the back of her shoulders. She turned around. "WHAT?!"

 

In the void, Thatti had plucked away the odd gold splinters and left every single Lily un-Lilyified, all except for one on the bed- her body appeared almost plush and silky. A doll in Lily’s image, a soft cuddly effigy. Rather than a shard in her forehead, there was only a crack, a stringy creature inside. Thatti reached her fingers in, and with great difficulty pulled as hard as she could, struggling to rip it out, the girl’s body fading into a skeleton when it finally broke free and grew 6 blue halo-line wings behind it with concentric cyan circles. “Oh.” She looked at the orb, then back at what she held in her hand. “I guess this is you?”

The entity swung out of her hand and around the orb, splitting in half one of the layers and creating a portal beneath Thatti. It swallowed her up, sending her from the void back into the academy. Her acceleration sped up and she crashed through a mosaic into a chamber. Thatti fell on Jetti’s head, the sphere rolling away.

“YOU” Prim yelled. “How dare you, get her!” She shouted to the crowd behind her, which had become transmuted from Lilys into the original students entirely untethered from her commands. “W-what, how did you-?”

“Believe me.” Thatti said with a dull annoyed expression. “I don’t know or understand anymore than you do. God’s spark or whatever.” She took out her wand and quickly transformed, becoming the minty cybergirl with a fierce fist to the ceiling.

“YOU BRAT! You forget I’m a magus too!” Miss Prim took out her Perceptcival, a fan which shapeshifted into a long-decorated pike.

Becca scowled, placing two fingers pointed at Prim. "Freeze." The woman’s body stopped completely. She tossed away her pike and ripped off her broach, examining the strange golden jewel at the center. "W-wait a second, this is.. just like that thing Red Diamond gave me? It looks like the one that was on Lily’s head back in that weird place too." It's luminescence radiated with an energy she couldn't comprehend, swirling in golden light within. It had the same gilded glow as the shards she took from the girl’s forehead in the void. "Freeze!" Jetti yelled, her pulsing energy in the shape of a Hexagon phasing through Becca, Becca blocking the hexagon with Headhunter. The mint-skinned girl was completely unaffected. She turned around and pointed the numchucks towards Becca. "Well? Freeze!!" She turned into Headhunter into an electrical whip. "Why isn't my technique working.."

"You again.." Becca glared at the girl.

 

"Becca of Xi! By the orders of Granny Grim, your life ends today! You will bring about the destruction of the realm, I will not allow it!" She waved her hand in the form of a fan, swishing her energy num-chucks around. Becca was not fazed, as the black-haired magical girl was just like any other in her path. “Shutup.” She punched Jetti square in the face sending her flying.

"Freeze." She said pointing to Caleb. She sped over to him and picked him up like a cardboard cutout. The numchucks clinked together in the shape of a circle, said circle shooting numerous energy missiles at Becca. Becca swatted them like a bat until one exploded back in Jetti's face. "Later gator. I gotta head!" She shot out a large wave of energy and the magical girl was blown back in a cloud of smoke. She opened her eyes, and ran down a different corridor. She arrived in a room with an old projector towards the exit, as Jetti poked her head in.

Back in the other room, Prim fell over and time resumed. The dastardly headmistressed panicked. "Missy Primmy!" A voice with a southern-twang said, standing atop a nearby pedestal. Prim turned to the figure in the BDSM zippered gimp-mask. "You lost our lord's little gift. Tsk tsk! So naughty you are." Their eyes nearly melted in excitement, beginning to glow a shift of mulitcolored lights.

"Y-you wouldn't tell the o-overlord, would you?" Miss Prim asked, stretching the tight fabric of her hobbleskirt nervously.

"Moi? Never! Loose lips sink ships afterall sugar. However.." She pointed at the mob of students behind her, lead by Juniper. All of them back to their senses, seemingly as if whatever curse or control she'd afflicted with had become undone. "Without his gift, you may have a teeeeensy tiny itty-bitty lick of trouble controlling your bratsies! Hate to see it!" The glitterkiss girls began to encircle, close in on and swarm on her. The woman screamed. Weaponless and in a bind, Prim began to flee from her own attendees as they attacked her and soon climbed out a window, escaping the academy entirely. She made her way about 20 meters past the courtyard before she accidentally rushed into a strange web blocking her path.

The blue centipede wriggled within the orb, Jetti waking up and looking at it on the ground. She held it up to her eye, then laid back to stare at the heavenly curved mosaic on the ceiling.

Depicted were nine lithe figures, masterful gems diamonds in all their glory against what Becca could make out as a centerpiece of the Domina in the middle of the mosaic’s dome. There where she’d fallen through and left a huge hole, some other figure based on the remaining feet presumably was apart the mosaic, she couldn’t make her out due to the damaged hole she’d made. Jetti made her way around the room, Becca returning and looking up with her, then back at Jetti in a way that spelt menace.

The chamber began to rumble, something was coming through the hole, peaking in. “We have to go.” Becca grabbed Caleb, using Code 9 to grow butterfly-like wings and fly out with him in her arms. Jetti looked up and swore under her breath. When Becca climbed outside the academy, she saw some odd web coating the sky, seemingly blocking an escape even higher in the air. “When did this freakin get here?” She yelled. “Great, this place has bug problems.” She put Caleb back downstairs, then flew atop the mosaic on the tower rooftop and watched a short girl approach her. She had dark toasty skin and black corkscrews for hair, a purse in her gloved arms. Around her waist was a belle skirt with a corset, green and purple frills and accents filled out her frilly lolita getup. The girl looked like she couldn’t have been older than 10 or 12, a dozed expression on her face. “I’m Bliss. Mr. Hyde said I’m supposed to take that.” She pointed to Headhunter. “I followed you here, but I didn’t think it was worth the trouble once all those creepy identical girls appeared inside, so I took it upon myself to put a little giftwrap around the entire school.” The girl plucked some of the thick webbing over everything as if it were a harp, the silk forming a dome over the entire building. “Was just gonna catnap really. But then.. You woke my sleep, yo.” She yawned so loud that the webs above rippled, and took off a glove, revealing a grey gem embedded in the back of her hand.

“Blossoming mode: Lilac lassitude.” At once, the girl began to grow, her legs sprouting more legs which doubled in length, her torso losing breast-like forms and gaining muscular mass in a masculine, blocky fashion. Each of her arms doubled until she had 4, beefing up, her elegant corkscrews becoming a full-on elongated mane of dreads that went as far as the thorax her hips had become. More and more mass stretched out her form, until she was almost a 10 feet woman and had a brick for thick pecs. With 4 legs and 4 arms, the gem of sloth roared, her skull and facial features aging rapidly into an amazoness of a woman with wide angular cheek bones, the button nose becoming a sharp vertical drawbridge of a nasal passage, like a spear pointed downwards, bubbly wide innocent eyes turning slanted and angled. Bliss Hemmings hopped from the top of the building to the tall web above and glared downwards, crawling along the silk.

“Thatti of Orchid.” She said. “I was hoping to have a less hostile first meeting, but you seem to be a stick in the mud.” Her lips formed into a wicked grin, a fanged, razor-teeth mouth splitting the lip with a pinkish purple tongue licking its lips in hunger. “I guess this is the only way to do it, then.” A shadow fell over Becca’s vision. She saw Bliss form tattoos of glowing lattice over her face and arms. “Let’s dance then.” Becca made a fist and punched the web, and began slashing it apart with a whipping fist of energy. She ran along the walls until she navigated the sides of the academy’s tower, which had now been completely covered by the webbing. She turned Thatti into a katana and dragged her along the network, leaping up and eventually slicing it across

Bliss’s thorax, the sharp end brushing her carapace-like latexy layers. Sparks went flying, the loud metallic noises shrill against Bliss’s ears. But after the strike not a single mark was made.

“It’s useless!” Bliss pulled out a thin silver rotating ring of silk from her wrist, which each shot out 6 cork-like spikes made of web, which began to cut into Thatti’s body like razorwire, drawing blood and stinging. “Bah!” Becca swung a punch, then a kick, and then another punch to cut off the spikes. She gritted her teeth and swung around the net, breaking through the web’s

crumpled and damaged frame and jabbing the katana towards Bliss’s neck, again making no purchase in her flesh. She slashed again and again, unable to penetrate, until she was making soft sounds like a weegee board as she rubbed it over her. “She’s too thick!” Thatti panicked. “She’s a meatball in a skirt, c’mon! Code 17: Light Breaker!” The katana began to glow and hum, vibrations along the edges as she swung to explosive effect directly into Bliss’s face. Yet despite the detonative force at the blade’s end, Bliss blinked unharmed, the smoke clearing. “Are you done yet?” The spidergirl crawled upside down and shot a web at Becca “My skin’s made of reinforced steel! Nothing can break this toughness.” With a sling of web from her fingertips, she wrapped up Becca’s wrists and pulled her close like a puppet. "Code 28: Meteroa Megaload!" Becca shouted, fiery meteors of lava dropping with heavy payload upon Bliss, but merely exploding and then sliding off like soggy pudding. The gem of sloth seemed amused but unaffected, entirely unphased even.

“You’re not fun, you know that!” She whined, crawling over. “Let’s do something you’ll enjoy. I know!” She began to lick Becca’s face. “Bliss likes to lick girls. I know you do too.” She

grabbed Becca’s face with her legs and tongued it. “Get off me!” Becca yelled, before she was thrown to the upwards web, the saliva feeling toxic over Becca’s skin. Her body began to feel sluggish and numb, she was completely powerless and felt paralysis beginning to affect her. “I’ll have fun in other ways.” Bliss hopped towards the girl, rapidly wrapped her in layer after of layer of thick silk from the neck down, then began tossing her around like a yoyo. “Uh… Wait! T-time out!” Bliss rolled her head around and shrugged, she’d heard it before, though she couldn’t recall how, this feeling wasn’t one of sadness, but euphoria, the kind of elation and high she felt when she got into the heat of battle. Her eyes went to the back of her head, tongue rolling out.

She was excited for the hunt, and then another girl came across her web, she was still so innocent and fresh, she’d barely gotten any of her limbs off yet, her form lithe and spry.

“You again..” Becca yelled to Jetti. The girl took out her two numbchucks and held them forward, one glowing bright yellow, the other bright blue, energy crackling between both. She held it from the chain. “Code 18: Ethereal Shorefall!” From the two a glyph emerged, a waterfall of icy water bursting out and flooding over Bliss and her web until she was dripping wet.

“You’re drying to drown me? We’re up in air honey.” Jetti swung the ends of her weapon until they flailed around the web. “Code 3: Electro-Ragnarok.” She swung her chucks around in all different directions, creating a violet orb of electricity that swirled along the web until it drifted towards the wet Bliss, an ear-piercing BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ frying her until she was smoky and charred.

The gem fell down to the ground, Becca falling and dangling from the web above the tower. Jetti jumped and severed the rope above becca, The two began diving, falling from the web, but Jetti shot down first, falling at a much faster pace than Becca, who felt as if she were in a parachute, a breeze and downward pull from the silk slowing her descent until she crashed

gently. The two slowly got up and slid around the silky material over the tower roof until they hopped down and reached the ground to face one another, beams of light casting over them both.

Jetti posed in a fierce stance. “Now, to take care of you.”

 

Becca furrowed her brow. “I remember you. Are you working for Hyde?” She asked.

 

“Who? I’m only fighting for me.” She said. “By Granny Grim’s justice, I take responsibility for your destructive existence, and sentence your untimely end!” Jetti leaped forward, Becca preparing to punch her. The two were interrupted when a figure got up from the ground and grabbed them both, throwing them into the air. Bliss roared, gripping them ever so tightly.

She slammed her fist into the wall holding them in it and dug down through the concrete, keeping the rhythm by smashing them through numerous pedestals. “Y-you’ve gotta be kidding me.” Jetti said, as she was dragged through brick walls mercilessly.

“Ok forget out fight. We should just work together!” Jetti yelled. “Work together! Good idea.” Becca yelled. “Code 11: Aerial Avalanche!” Dozens of rocky spikes went pelting scattershot at Bliss. “Code 6: Snow-Shark Shockwave! Jetti shot an icy shark made of arctic liquid smashed on the gem concurrently and then exploded into a blast of electricity, causing Bliss to be knocked down with a thunderous shock and explosion of snow, The spidergirl got up with ease, an aura of light emanating from her body, 4 angelic wings beginning to manifest along her backside, two pointing upwards and two down. “Not bad. That’s real cute! Now let’s see how you do against my second blossoming form! This isn’t even a fraction of my power!”

“S-SECOND FORM?” Becca almost choked.

Jetti and Becca looked at each other and were terrified. Pure light was fully released from her eyes and mouth, the lattice tattoos beginning to glow and overtake her. Her hair was glittering with pink light and a halo forming an aura of flaming energy within the ring manifest overhead,

her body fully glowing in the heat. Her steely skin and body began to swell and crack from the pressure. The two could feel the ground shake, the air blow like a hurricane, the whole earth waving and rocking with Bliss’s sluggishness. “She really has a second state? Oh c’mon! This isn’t fair!” Jetti said, holding onto Becca’s shoulder. “We’re getting creamed.” Becca prepared for the worst. Bliss roared, flailing her 4 arms, ready to complete her ultimate transformation and trounce both girls after they’d failed the first time.

And then she fell back. The two were let go from her grip, her 6 additional limbs sucking back into her body, muscles and height shrinking back, returning to her normal size, the glow around the little girl dying down. She then laid still on the ground. Even her Lolita outfit was regenerated as part of her body unblemished. One looking at her would not have the slightest hint of evidence she was in a violent fight where she rampaged moments ago.

“Huh?” Becca looked over her, waving her hand nervously in front of her sleeping face.

 

“Zzz..” The gem girl began snoring, eyes closed comfortably.

 

“Hey.” Jetti whispered. “Did we just win?"

 

The two crouched over the body of Bliss, poking her sleeping form. Becca had tears in her eyes. “U-um..” She fell back off. “What’s with that? You're not supposed to just fall asleep and pass out.” She couldn't hold back her laughter, laying next to the gem of sloth and feeling her warm flesh. “She’s just so cute."

Jetti sat there, eyes looking forward, staring at the horizon. "So, should we finish our d-" "Nah, I'm good." Becca threw her arms behind her back. "No more take-twos. I'm tired."

The other girl bit her lip. "You don't think I'm going to spare you just because of that do you?!" Becca kept laughing. "Do I? Spare me a monologue."

“I’m serious! You will face justice, I’ve sworn to that!” Jetti declared.

 

She held both arms out and exposed her chest. "Okay? Don't kill me with boredom, just do it. Before I'm flatlining through your speeches."

Jetti narrowed her eyes, then shook her head. With a heavy sigh, she pulled her numchucks and put them to her side. She knew she wasn't the type to kill someone in cold blood that wouldn't even fight back. This would be a way to repay her for her help. "You're the worst. Ugh, fine. I'm exhausted too, so I'll let you go, this time." Becca placed headhunter to her forehead. "You're a real piece of work too, ya know. See'ya next time." Jetti sighed and rushed off, while Becca cleared her throat. "Mega heal! Angelic Lazarus." The goddess-like manifestation flowed out of the wand, her soft hands kneading Becca's injuries away as if they weren't even there. The pain, the injuries, it all faded away. The crowd of schoolgirls approached in the aftermath of the battle, significant architecture of the tower crushed. Thatti "Juni!" yelled, reuniting with her Orchid colleague. Caleb and Juniper ran to the back of the tower, and saw Bliss lying on the ground.

Caleb looked at her. "Is she-" "Out like a baby." Thatti laughed. "We couldn't beat her. Not even close. If she hadn't passed out from fatigue.." she looked at Bliss. "Sleepyhead over here would've destroyed us both."

Juniper looked at the two. "We're all safe?"

 

"Where'd the headmistress go?" Thatti asked, not seeing Prim anywhere. "Fled in the chaos, guess she's gone. Thank goodness." Caleb laughed. "Then, you're all safe." Thatti said kindly.

The roof collapsed behind them, tremors fading from the debris and the girls stood by each other whispering.

"Things should be fine now. Chrysanthemum will return soon and clean things up." Her eyes searched around the ruins, pulling off pieces of shattered glass and brick, then throwing them away. Eventually she pulled up a sphere, the same one that'd fallen prior and observed the wriggling entity within. "This little guy was causing trouble, but I don't think they meant to. Miss Prim was definitely up to some crazy scheme." She held onto the orb, something else catching the corner of her eye. "Hm?" Thatti dug further, a small skeletal hand underneath the rubble.

She pulled the mess away to reveal a corpse, a skeleton in a glitterkiss uniform. There was a tag along its neck. "What is it?" Juniper asked. Thatti's heart shook and took a leap. "It's.. It's not possible!" She said in disbelief. "Angelic Lazarus!" The golden color of the goddess poured out and bathed the dead corpse of the student. "You can heal-" Caleb gasped.

"Only temporarily. I cannot bring back other people indefinitely tho. Once the magic runs out.. she'll die and return to that state. But I can resurrect them for a little while, a day or two." She read the tag, her eyes going wide. "Lily.." The girl's bones began to regather flesh, her entire structure submitting to the magic to fill with life once more. Her skull recovered its eyes, muscles, skin, even her clothes magically restoring into itself once again, any trace of death appearing gone from her.

Her lips shook as Angelic Lazarus came loose. "Lily, it's me." Thatti whispered. The girl began waking up, her eyes beginning to stir and open, revealing a pink glow within them. Lily pointed up to the Cascadasyte within the sphere. "The Lunatic Gift! I... I..." She poked the glass. “It was so lonely. I tried to help it but, it ended up making my life really weird, it said it was chasing this golden spark somewhere. It went into my head, then Miss prim found it and, well I don’t remember much after that. She tied me up, I cried a lot and- then I forgot what happened next.”

Thatti ran over to her. "Shshs. It’s okay! you're all better! Are you alright!?" Lily cried in joy and

 

rushed to hug her. Thatti began to tear up and cry. The girl sighed. "Juniper, let's head to Xi and

take her out for icecream. We can buy her some dolls too, show her the best day of her life." Thatti smiled. "But you said she would die-"

Thatti flashed her wand and switched with Becca. She put her hand on Lily's head. "Forget." Everything about Miss Prim’s abuse, the incidents she endured, her torture, the warping of the school, Caleb’s statement just now faded like a passing cloud, the facts trivial and unimportant in the positivity of the present. Thatti switched back. "So how about it Lily? Wanna go on a rollercoaster?"

Lily smiled and wiped the tears off her face. "Yeah! Let's get some cotton candy!" "C'mon Cal." She put the orb in her purse and headed out with Lily and Juniper to celebrate, three glitterkiss lasses from Orchid’s finest academy. "It's our responsibility to send her off in smiles." The group made their way off campus, Thatti carrying Lily along the path, a smile on her face, tears already drying. Silence stretched into eternity, thick and sweet like the air. Thatti felt her obligations fulfilled, bound by a shared history she couldn't erase or neglect. She remembered one of her teacher’s fondest sayings.

Flowers of Chrysanthemum bloom together,

 

Hearts given to the sunlight weary soul, spring to fall. Let us put our hearts joint, shine and shimmer

The holy garden of Flora come hither, Gaia unite us all.

 

She embraced Lily. "C’mere, we’re going to make some memories tonight. I promise."