Chapter 43 – Misery my Melody

 Becca’s tenure with Tera barely lasted longer than 2 months. Night in and night out, the two would alternate in the tree between investigating in the fortress starseed that Tera had been investigating, searching for more clues, spending hours in the library and finding more Sacred plugs, and spending the rest of their time in the tree hiding from Greytum. When not playing arcade games or baking for Becca sugar filled pastries, becca oft observed her observing the Star seeds and writing on massive blackboards, Purrin’s head peaking out atop of hers at the corner crack of an observatory. Complex formulas were written all across it scrawled wall after wall, and with a telescope three stories tall Tera would observe at the highest points of the canopy.

After finding the last Sacred plug and powering up the Stellar tower, Tera was able to successfully light up the night and observe the stars in the world they’d been visiting. After which, she’d look at the sky with telescopes drawn by the mysterious forces of fate above the same way she would inside the tree’s observatory.

“Look up there Becca. Do you see the stars?” Serendipity asked, as they laid out a picnic of snacks for the two. She stared blankly, not so much as even moving, her mind a blank slate, blinking without much to say.

In their time, the two would share stories about each other, and Tera explained to Becca how she had grown up on a farm, a mysterious man from space having sparked and encouraged her interest in investigating them. Her husband was a proud man, a funnyman and a journalist, and she was searching for him too. As for her kids, she could hardly bring herself to talk about that. If it weren’t for the Soup club telling her, she would worry every night whether they were still okay.

Every night, Tera would remind Becca to lock her door and even buckle herself in. She assumed it was some quirk of an astronaut, and one night it clicked. They laid next to each other, sleeping under the cool breezy wind, but this time Becca didn’t drift into the world of dreams or into sweet lullabies. Instead, a sound of rushing metal came, the pitter patter of footsteps and the creaking of the bedsheets. She got up and went outside the tree to hear the wind rustling with a low, melodic cry that from afar almost sounded like singing.

The sing-song voice, Becca knew unmistakably she’d heard it before. The ground beneath her feet began to fall upwards, and everything in the entire tree not tied down lifted up slowly. Pots and pans, piles of clothes, artifacts and photographs levitated upwards.

Becca looked up, and saw a silhouette floating in the air, a beautiful, shining face in the middle of the sky. Floating aethereal in flux of the storming winds like a wraith, the singing coming from her in the skies. With every note of her lyrical ballad, gravity became undone reminding Becca of her time in the factory. “BECCA, GET BACK-!” Tera shouted, wearing magnetic boots. “UGHHH, that witch is uprooting everything again with her stupid singing!” She tried to reach her arm towards Becca, the high note suddenly sending Becca flying high in the air. Tera shot a grappling hook her way around her leg and attempted to swing her back in

as if reeling a bass. Atop Becca’s head, Purrin popped up and pawed at the thin thread, clawing at it until it snapped and Becca went flying. She launched far into the sky for hundreds of meters, eventually hitting the singer above and tossing them both to the opposite side of the void, eventually crashing them into the forested rooftop of the Ixagon where an entire safari garden, tumbling into house-sized azaleas.

Once they landed, the figure again began to sing, flying up gently, her long straight white hair wavering back and forth with the winding path of her floatation. Becca latched onto her leg and Purrin Becca’s leg, flying around downwards below the sizable forest into an opened gate within the structure below, of which thousands existed alongside tunnels and pathways inside. Becca saw the girl fly low enough to the ground that her feet were dragged while she was carried off like a winding balloon. Soon Becca was slammed into the ceiling with another gravity-inverting highnote, and she got up to look at the figure’s face.

It was the Widow.

She seemed noticably younger, and somewhat less present. Which could’ve well been the effect of her closed eyes and sloped back head. She was asleep.

“Zzz..”

Becca waved her hand in front of the girl’s face, thick eyeliner running down her eyes in black trails, a latex brassier and mini-skirt with fishnets and a spiked choker decorating her. Everytime she snored, she seemed to be singing, and every note sent something flying or unbinding from gravity’s spell. Soon she floated off into a masonry room and disappeared.

The mummy followed not too far behind, appearing behind Becca. “Should you really be here?” She asked, her arms folded. Becca freaked out and fell to the floor. When she rubbed her eyes and got a good look, squinting carefully, a shimmer of recognition returned to her. This weird mummy lady, the one who was watching and chaperoning the Xovus.

She was the same one who appeared in front of Pazak much earlier. “How’d you get in?” Becca asked.

“Magic trick.” The mummy replied. “Again, what are you doing in here?”

“I don’t know! She-“ Becca was interrupted by the mummy.

“If she can go up, she can come down.” The mummy said with a deep breath. “If she drops you to your death, it’s not my fault.”

Becca huffed, folding her arms. Purrin folded her arms too. They marched away from her and didn’t look back.

Inside the Ixagon were hundreds of tunnels and pathways, they all led to a different chamber of the structure. Thousands of doors decorated the building with mosaics and artifacts, all manner of doors. They each opened to a new room, some of them being the same, or even leading back to the start, or upside down in ways that defied not only gravity but euclidean geometry.

Becca looked at the Purrin, her eyes wide with confusion, at one point walking on the ceiling and on upside down stairs while looking for where the sleepy Widow had gone. Her beautiful harmonies and enchanting ballad were sung for a while but had faded since.

The two ran from room to room in what felt like a maze, the floors being built of the same black, smooth bricks of every other room. hey passed by the occasional statue with a face of some kind of goddess holding a harp.

Passed the statue was a massive chamber with an artificial sky and a strange, bricked up well 30m wide as large as a pond in the center, some towered structure peeping out of said well about a 10th of its diameter.

Outside the well were glowing rainbow zoological creatures- dogs, reptiles, elephants and birds, chimeras and rats, each of see-through, multicolored and looking as if they were sparkling with stars. Inside the well, Becca could hear a chorus of croaking from within the water.

“We got this.” Becca sighed, not even paying attention to her furry friend in the slightest as she walked straight through the strange zoo. “Safe as a kitten.”

On and on they trotted, the two, eventually passing a room they seemed to have walked through before, a room with a series of floating pillars holding up what seemed like the maw of the structure. It had a giant indent in the ceiling with a coffin, each of the pillars had white statues of woman atop them with skulls for faces and habits, they looked to Becca as if they were praying. The marble women were in varying states of dismemberment, decapitated, or missing a hand or an eye, or their arms entirely, and some had been vandalized with spray paint. The coffin slowly opened up, revealing the widow on the other side laying inside.

Becca blinked. The macabre widow slowly opened her eyes, feeling disoriented and bewildered. As she looked around, the scene swam in her eyes before her. When she finally focused her dark vision, the room returned from an abysmal daze to her own personal horror show.

The widow slowly crawled out from her coffin, floating gracefully downward. She adjusted her snow-white hair, giving Becca a slightly judgmental, almost amused look. "I don't recall inviting a feline to my little soirée," she stated with a hint of amusement, vanishing from sight.

A hand emerged from behind Becca's head, and the widow, in a swift, almost languid motion, swept her hands to her sides. It was a subtle, almost imperceptible twist of her wrist, one that sent Becca soaring into the air. Becca felt a flashback to a similar sensation—being lifted—inside the factory. Yet, the lyrical melody and magical aura present then, was completely

absent now. The widow's touch felt cold and her words like a metal screech upon her ears, lacking the grace and sophistication her vocal ballad had given before.

"Speak," the widow commanded, her voice echoing slightly. Becca coughed repeatedly, and then coughed some more as the widow stuck her latex-coated fingers into her mouth teasingly, yanking on her cheeks and tongue. "Clear your throat," she added, her tone slightly exasperated.

"You kmmmnow mhhffh," Becca said. She continued fisting Becca's mouth, seemingly amused at the silent thought. "K-know me."

The widow tilted her head. "I'm quite certain that I don't. And I don't like you, I always remember those I don't like." she deadpanned, a playful edge in her voice giving the catty guest a freight. Becca struggled to articulate her thoughts. "You do," she finally managed to whisper.

The widow backed away, her hands floating away freely to wrangle the air, moving around Becca in a spectral dance. Her presence felt eerie, almost nightmarish. Her boots hovered just above the ground, then advanced upwards and crossed, as if she were seated on an unseen chair. "Well, I guess I could always use a familiar. Though, I don't think I need another ugly creature in this place, too many animals as-is.." she sighed, her tone slightly exasperated.

Becca circled the widow, examining her. "What do you do around here?" she asked.

The widow vanished from her spot, reappearing at the opposite end of the room, her hands clasped behind her back holding each other patiently. "I'll show you. I'm Consonance Euphony, but you will address me as Euphoria," she replied. She caught Becca's wrist with a latex-gloved hand, pulling her close.

"E-euphie."

"What's your name, my pet?" she asked the ethereal figure. The ghostly presence seemed to mock any attempts at comprehension. "Me?" Becca asked, looking puzzled. "Yes, Miss Me? Where do you come from? Did Oogie send you?"

"O-oogie?" Becca asked.

Euphoria sneered. "The little rat living in the tree, Who else?"

Before Becca could reply she disappeared, then reappeared swiftly around Becca, their rubbery hands pressing cold against her cheeks with a smooth circular massage. "No idea," Becca replied. Euphoria gave a final glance before rubbing her arms, playfully twirling her fingers in Becca's hair. "Very well, kitten. You may stay, but we're going now. You must do as I say." She told her.

Becca, tugged by an unseen lunar gravity, nodded silently. "Hm.. you need a name. I'll call you Copernicus."

With an odd look Becca glared at her, somewhat distraught, before watching Euphie yawn, retrieving black lipstick and applying it slowly to her lips and puckering as she did. "Come

along, we have much to do, and little time for pleasantries." She floated, gliding through the hallways, like a fleeting apparition. For what felt like hours, but was likely only fifteen minutes, they traveled.

Soon they entered a chamber where hundreds of coffins lined the walls. Behind each, a statue of a woman in prayer. Some statues' eyes glowed, intensely, as if piercing them with their luminous gaze. "What is this?" Becca inquired. "Nobility Phantoms," Euphoria replied.

She approached one, inserting a key—latched to a tiny skull on the key handle—into its intricate design. With a twist, the statue's eyes blazed with light, and the coffin swung open. A horrifying, otherworldly spirit screamed out of the coffin and materialized briefly, only having a few moments to shriek before dissolving into nothingness. It then vanished into Euphoria who gasped, eyes shut in delirious pleasure, her body convulsing and throbbing as she absorbed the power from the spirit. She examined her hands, and intricate, full-finger snowflakes materialized on the tips of them. "Icycles!" she exclaimed, spreading her boots, eyes wide with a wicked grin.

"Wicked," she said. "I've unlocked nearly the whole set. A few more are still hidden, but keeping a few mysteries is fun, you know? And I like to think so, anyway." She turned to Becca, creating a snowball in her hand and chucking it at her head, letting it dissolve into cold powder. "Come along."

The two went back out and transversed the halls into a spooky library, numerous glowing rainbow rats, birds and a stegosaurus roaming inside with starlit translucence.

Becca found herself navigating the strange library, sometimes upside down or even walking along the walls without difficulty. A she walked on the walls, Euphie took a silvery tome from a desk and opened it, unleashing an entity of pure electricity with roses and vines across her bright ever-sparking form. "Top of the morning Hershey." Euphoria said.

Hershey floated effortlessly. "Mistress." The elemental bows. "How may I be of service?" She looked to Becca like a floating scarecrow lit up from within, decorated with a rose garden. "Do you need a time rift? A dimensional collapse? Books on a good sermon? Endless possibilities in the Ixagon library offer themselves for research."

"Show me good gate sessions that have high reproductible rates and the vocal pitch of said celestiphages."

The strange Hershey bowed her head. "At your command." She zapped a book shelf, several books flying towards her, which she floated and placed on the shelf. Euphoria flipped through the pages and read for an hour, reminding Becca of her time with Tera inside the fortress library. When she was done, she returned the book and left back into the halls.

The two traveled teaching a peculiar gate in a room, Becca noticing no keyhole nor handle. "How do?" she asked puzzled. Euphoria simply pointed to the chimes above. Taking a deep breath, Euphoria sang a soft, sweet alto, the melody of a familiar tune. The coppery charm resonated, the gate glowing, vibrating, door filling with light.

'Come along!' the glowing gate seemed to demand.

The gate swirled and opened, inviting them through. Euphie walked into it Becca followed. The world beyond on the otherside was a strange and awe-inspiring landscape of lava rivers and fiery islands, but each isle seemed distant.

"Just give me a second." Euphie gently stepped into a pool of lava, which transformed into solid ice beneath her feet. She walked across, creating an icy bridge. With each step, it seemed her will animated the terrain and paved her destiny on command, like an icy ferry of her own making. Becca's heart pounded as they crossed to the next isle, a metallic platform.

On this metal island, and many others, were strange, shadowy figures. Silhouettes of people, but completely shadowed, their faces and features obscured. Becca studied several demonic-looking statues. She touched one or two, and after a thought decided it best not to stand too close to one.

"Crack open a beer, lay down, it'll be easy. Just sit there, I'll be back." Euphie then walked to another island, again creating an icy bridge with her steps. Becca observed Euphoria seeming to direct the shadowy-people, as if commanding a chorus to them like some sort of angelic piper. Several minutes later, Becca felt the rumble of something massive on that isle- a lightening strike above a volcano! From afar, she saw the widow ascend the volcano's base and begin to sing. The volcano quieted.

Euphie stomped her feet, and with surprising speed, the entire structure collapsed. She continued across the islands, compelling the silhouettes to follow her. Before even an hour passed, she returned to the original island. The world, though small with a low horizon, held armies of silhouettes bowing towards the statues. They took pick-axes and hammers and smashed the statues. The widow used her telekinesis to lift and mold lava into a self-portrait. "Quite artistic," she thought, as others gathered, kneeling in worship around the still-cooling statue. The statue's color changed, reflecting the rainbow-like light in the chamber. Soon a wave of life made the entire world freeze and then come to life, lava going from ice, to shale, to soil, and then to luscious jungles and meadows.

They left for the portal back into the labrinth, Euphie reaching a pedestal that hadn't been there before when they entered. A tiny, iridescent frog with starlight in its skin was there on the pillar shelf. They took the frog and returned to the labyrinth's corridors. Euphoria entered the animal chamber and placed the frog in the gigantic well, where other similar frogs had already joined it. Becca wondered if all the animals here were earned the same way, in a similar way to the Starseeds that Tera acquired.

Inside the gigantic watery well that may as well have been a lake, there was a slow- moving, strange turtle statue with various stone animals atop it, swirling around the circular well in a slow rotation. "What are they for?" Becca inquired. Euphoria whirled, producing a tuning fork. "Girl needs music to sing, they're my chorus" she stated.

The Widow raised her tuning fork to the ceiling. A circular gate opened sideways, its opening casting light on a pond, revealing a gigantic, blindfolded woman's face on the other side

etched in elegant marble. Her features magnificent and majestic, Becca felt that concept was quite apparent. At her presence, all the animals went into a frenzy. The widow, holding the tuning fork, commanded the room with her voice, an extraordinary, sublime melody that resonated in the silence. All creatures paused. Good behavior lead into their inciting arrangements into neat rows around the well, each of them outside the well going silent, and every creature inside the watery well singing in pitch with Euphie.

Slowly, something within the statue above the ceiling shot a beam of light directly exited the giant woman's mouth. The stone woman seemed blindfolded, yet possessed two glowing lights in her ear-like locations that her blindfold didn't hide. Everything was silent and peaceful in that moment, each note bringing sublime relaxation to Becca's soul. The light beam met one from some sort of animal statue atop the turtle, and they exploded in a multitude of directions, circling their meeting point as neutrons would in atomic nuclei. The light's joining premise kindly glowed and grew with each lyrical passage. However the frog missed a note and then sang out of pitch, it expanded and exploded, sending ripples of starlight through the chamber as the melody ended. The circling sphere became flyflies divested into fireworks as the grate closed up, the beautiful figure above it fading from view.

The widow frowned. "Normally, I get around 3 animals a day, 5 if I'm motivated to try. But I already got too many of these stupid animals, so let's call it a day. Kay, my familiar?" she said to Becca.

They returned to the corridors, eventually heading into a room that had a coffin bed, dresses, latex skirts, boots, fireworks, board games, and a shrine to a painting of a serene woman with short spiffy blonde hair, a refined toga and a black bow tie- dozens of paint brushes and oil coated palettes laid about near the portrait. Euphoria prayed to it. She whispered a blessing to the one she called 'Vigilante sky', then placed incense and candles before the portrait and, with one last whispered incantation, quickly extinguished them with her gloved fingers.

Copeurrnicus's form blurred and flashed as if injured in some abstract way. "Got to return this phantom. Won't be long, but let me go real quick, pick out a game we can play for when I get back you dweeb." she said and left. Becca picked a board game: "Lover's Dawn: Night of the Solar Strike." A game with rangers, knights, assassins, generals, witches and giant plastic ships that one placed on the board. She picked up the guidebook which had the game's story and intense roleplaying guide, which she couldn't understand or even read for more than a few seconds due to her reduced attention span, and tossed it.

A figure appeared and took her by the neck. "I've got you." "G-greytum!" She shrieked. "Where's the girl?" Becca shrugged.

She flexed her muscles and claws and tossed Greytum to the ground. "Get off me, bitch!" Greytum backed away, tripping. Becca felt a contrast to her earlier encounter with the same person in the earlier situation, this guy feeling like a bad joke.

"I'm back from the catacombs," Euphoria stated, unfazed by his attempts. He stared at her floating up. Euphoria, eyes rolled, ignored his grappling hook that shot out and went right through her. "You bratty witch!"

"Tsk. You still trying to capture me? You loser!" He changed the setting to a tractor beam and shot her, the widow unphased by the beam and floating exactly where she was. "My grappling hook will keep upgrading, I've applied my knowledge and will be able to do it one of these days!" he retorted. "I'd like to see you try." She pinched his cheek and offered a playful invitation, licking his cheek. "Why don't you take me out to dinner sometime instead?" "You're sick," he replied. She pushed him to the ground, and he slowly backed away. With a single 'a-a- aaahhh' of her voice, he was levitated up and she held him with her hand's auditory-psychic clutch. "Next time," she stated, implying the encounter was over. "Get out." With a point of her finger he was tossed out of the room.

He looked up, grumbling and fled away into the halls back to whereever he came from.

Euphoria sat down on her pillow, and turned to her phantom-in-the-coffin, who had been sitting up with her head resting on her knees. She turned to her Tera plushie. "I'm a bad girl," she stated, leaning in to hug the plushie. "Please make it stop." She hugged the doll with all her might, shaking it as if it was real. Becca blinked. "What was that?" Euphie asked, sighing.

"Nothing." she said blankly, and returned to the game. They played, the game a sort of card-and-dice combination where they rolled for damage, with the cards showing what their cards' strength was. Euphie's power and Becca's mind seemed to be a perfect match, Euphoria not only beating her but easily mastering the game and the high-stakes strategy contests it required. Given the spears and shield hanging on the wall, Becca figured this girl was a tad obsessed with warfare, something she found odd for a self-proclaimed witch

She then picked up her silver tome and flipped through it. "How about I cook you something wicked, Copurrnicus?" She said. Becca beamed happily. The morose girl then lead them to the kitchen on a floor below, although to Becca it looked more like a witch's hut without any modern appliances. She opened up the silver tome and shifted the books pages, Becca couldn't see what was inside, but it reminded her of the same book that Tera had.

She looked to the shelves and saw a shelf of ingredients, and many of them were the most exotic ingredients she had ever seen, much less knew how to use. A strange green fruit, with a hard plastic exoskeleton, a glowing sapphire inside, that had greenish-orange glowing skin. A potion of some sort was boiling in a cauldron, steam billowing out of it, releasing an intense and strange fragrance, with a metallic hint to it.

Becca thought about the huge black cauldron and saw images of it floating in her mind. A sort of green and black goop.

After clearing her throat, Euphoria begin to sing another melody, the song sending numerous ingredients floating off the shelves and soon mixing within the cauldron on its own. Her tuning fork, she continually tapped against said cauldron to test the pitch, adjusting her vocals accordingly as if measuring the veracity of a proper witch's spell.

After, a while her magic worked its magic, a delicious feast appeared, like a black bean stew with shrimp and scallops, all black, yet glowing. She offered a bowl to Coppernicus, who ate

with vigor and pleasure. With a drip of some pink concoction into the brew and some flour, the cauldron bubbled and fermented into sour dough bread which she then slathered with a dark molasses-like ichor, and powdered with sweet powdered charcoal from a nearby shelf. The black bread was incredibly spongy and soft, and had a light smoky taste to it.

Breast meat and blackberry and gourd chunks emerged from the cauldron.

Euphie began to sing again. All the ingredients she had pulled suddenly flew back into the shelf and the tuning fork played a new song, the black bread rising and the meat, vegetables and stew bubbling inside the cauldron, and the dark blackberries and gourds emerging as charred. The meal was complete.

"Bon appetit." Euphoria said with a warm smile. It was the first time Becca had seen her happy in this place, only comparable to the last time when the widow had finally broken free from the strange facility.

The Widow continued to take Becca along on her adventures, and soon they were friends. After all, she kept her end of the deal, and soon Becca had a life that she had not even thought possible in her mind. Her mind-set had shifted to a newfound 'yes-man' mentality, and in the time since she'd become Consonance Euphony's minion- her witch familiar. She'd even went out of her way to get a dark, sleek and slick pure-black latex catsuit with a rubbery cowl and cat ears, sliding it onto Becca's body intimately with all the warmth and passion of a lover at the first few sweet and erotic moments of the first time. The suit had a tail-like tip with a small furry strip that hung down to her back and wrapped around the latex at her crotch, with the sleeves also having a pair of big faux oversized latex white paws.

They'd spent most of the afternoon at the widow's hovel, with the only moments she got to be herself being in the halls and occasionally visiting the gated worlds, which Euphoria very quickly and successively cleared, always coming back with more of the ethereal animals to add to the flock. But no matter how many times she sung at the well, it seemed her frog orchestra never succeeded in whatever it was meant to do, though the widow never was very concerned. Once she did mutter to Becca "I'm going to go home someday.. once I get the song down perfect, they said they'd let me go."

"They?" Becca inquired.

"I'm doing it for love." Euphony replied.

The widow sighed and stood up. "Hey... You need to come with me." She stated, with a smile. "I'm going on a short trip, and we're going to need you. This is going to get crazy."

Becca followed Euphoria through one of the gates, singing to the chimes ritualistically to unlock it like she always did. Every gate had a different tune that needed to be sung. She guided Becca to a strange, eerie landscape- a forest, with strange rock-pillars reaching to the sky. The pillars seemed to make noise, and their chimes created a light-filled atmosphere, like the sound of some ancient bells ringing in some ancient tower. The sound seemed like the sound of rain falling in the pitch dark, mixed with some of the most solemn ringing of the sacred bells

of a cathedral. In this realm, Euphony could fly, although she'd required a special Nobility Phantom to do it. She took Becca into the tower which was larger inside than out, and looked more like a medieval prison with sophisticated tech lying around.

She led her to the bottom of a tower. "I have to eat, and so must you."

"Do we eat the people?" Becca asked, a little concerned.

"No, as cool as that'd be." She guided them to where soldiers with armored suits and padded, belt-buckled soldier uniforms were, marches of them carrying guns along their backs at stations. The entire tower seemed to be populated with these individuals with the same red- starred insignia. Once they approached a barricaded gate with two armed guards, she knocked on the front- it was merely a formality, since she could phase through anytime she wanted.

Euphie could be polite when the situation demanded it.

Slowly it opened, and Becca heard the words "Come in."

Inside there was a strange, almost mechanical, air to the place. Two bookshelves, metal flooring and black latex couch, and a wall with a few swords, guns medals and plaques on them. At the back of the room was a large work counter, the kind one would see in a manager's office. Euphie and Becca approached to the sight of three individuals.

"Whose that?" Becca asked, looking at a herculean man.

He stood at nearly 9 feet tall, arms chiseled full of rough muscle and body sculpted with strong definitions and sharp angles defining his stern Olympian form. To Becca he seemed a man with the visage of a darkened god of war, his suit sheeny dark and tight like he was plated with living obsidian, with some black latex wrapped around his body. As he spoke the very same muscles bulged as he moved, a red star on his suit's chest. "Get a grip, and watch the words you use girl. And who are you anyway?"

The other two woman stood in front of her- she wore a bodysuit that glinted like liquid metal, like oil that reflected the light- a sort of polished slush. The woman, as if she were the one with the strongest and most advanced entity in the structure, stood in front, her hair a sort of black-blue and flowing freely as waves, with some silvery flecks in the teal of her hair, a matching red-starred uniform that seemed to gleam and polish in the light. The third girl seemed younger than the other, her outfit was strange, alien suit of pure light. Her gloves and boots had bands of pure luminescence. The girl spoke, her voice an inquisitive 'hmmph', like an odd sounding mix of 'thought' and 'umph', in a sharp voice like wind chimes. Her pure white hair was zaggety and sharp, like a sort of crows nest of lightening bolts, while her bodysuit had a strange black-starlit blue series of stars with some white veins on her bodysuit. All three wore matching red stars on their chests. Becca was speechless, although most of the time speech wasn't her gift nowadays.

"This is Copurrnicus," she answered. "Copurrnicus, these are Racquel, Rondo and Majaurice."

"Hello, Ms. Conard." Racquel said. Euphie shook the hands of the officers and gave a military salute. Machine Mother’s eyes began to glow as all manner of sensors quickly read Euphie’s familiar like an open book with physical sciences she couldn’t possibly comprehend, processing the data in an instant. “You!”

The two recoiled as Majaurice approached. The lithe figure that loomed before them was like a nightmare manifest, something born from the depths of a dark, liquid world. She was the digital nightscape in silicone flesh, sleek and reflective, her form both alluring and alien, dripping, smooth yet draped in a slick, oily surface that seemed to blur the lines between metallic material and organic flesh.

Her skin was inky black, a rubbery composition gleaming with a wet sheen that dripped in slow, viscous trails, pooling at her feet and merging with the shadows of the room. She fingered her cheeks, drips of sloshing liquid merging and exchanging on contact as she did. Her deep almond-shaped eyes, devoid of pupils, held a pale, mechanical glow, every so often flickering with an unsettling intelligence as if reading data from an unseen source.

"This girl is really Becca? That's quite an odd circumstance for us," she said, her voice smooth and oddly melodic, yet chillingly layered with an edge that hinted at the depths of her knowledge. Her gaze rested on Becca with a faint familiarity, like an ancient machine recalling data long forgotten but never erased.

That's quite a circumstance. The last time we heard, the entire galaxy was looking for you." The slick greyed out woman said. "And now you're trapped here with us, peculiar."

"She is a familiar of mine, I have been looking out for her these past few weeks." Euphie explained.

Rondo gave a growl, an angry look in his eyes. "Maja, you're right! Are you sure we can trust that girl?" Racquel asked.

"Hey, I'm the master of the place, remember? I'm the one who gives the orders, not you." Euphie said, as she flexed her shoulders. "And I thought I told you to call me General Thorn when I'm in here."

"We never agreed to that demand." Rondo replied with a stiff 'hmpff', puffing his chest out in a bold fashion. "You're a witch. A witch is, by definition, a creature not to be trusted."

"I'm a Widow." she said calmly.

"I don't care what you're calling yourself." Rondo replied. "That girl was a terrorist back where we're from, we cannot just let you bring her to negotiations. We won't take action, but send her out."

Euphie hissed.

"Shut the hell up 'bout this. I don't care what you say, you're not sending her anywhere.

She's my familiar so she stays. Got it?"

The three looked at each other, before Maja resumed. "Alright, Euphoria. You're the master of this facility. We accept it. This girl has been causing problems for our mistress back home, but it's been a minute since we've seen here and obviously these are extraordinary circumstances. For now, we'll overlook her." She sighed. "You've changed so much since we last saw you, Euphie."

"I'm not the same person I was." Euphie said. "Look, let's all get this over with.

Copurrnicus, here's the deal. First off, I want a few more ingredients. 122 tons of flour, sugar, creme, eggs, the usual. I've been getting back into the habit." She raised her tuning fork.

"We barely have enough food from our recyclable bio-systems to sustain herself down here. They're at full capacity." Rondo responded. Maya tugged on his shoulders. "And? What else."

She tossed the 3 the positronic rifle that Graytum had been using earlier. "My, 'pursuer' I told you about had this on him. I know for a fact Tera didn't make it for him. I want you to run a full investigation where he's getting this tech." She folded her arms. "That gun, those guns, those explosives... I want to know what's going on. He's getting the resources for these weapons, and I've heard through my contacts that some other groups are getting them as well."

Becca looked at the gun carefully and squinted, a memory resurfacing. She suddenly remembered where she'd seen it.

It was the same one in the drone facility that some of the guards had- she knew because she held one just like it at one point. When she tried to paw at the weapon, Euphie slapped her hand away.

Racquel looked to Maya and then Rondo for their response. "We'll look into it." The former replied, her goopy sticky hand picking up the rifle.

"You will do it?"

"Of course I will." Maja said. "We'll handle it. Provided you uphold your end of the deal."

Euphoria rolled her eyes, taking out of her sleeve a shimmering rat, its technicolor stars illuminating galaxies on its surface, twinkling in the light.

"Good enough." Maya told the witch, picking up the illustrious rodent. "Our research into dimensional travel has progressed by leaps and bounds these past few years. We're getting close to the point we might be able to break the axiomatic quantum barrier and send ourselves back."

"Look aloft. Don't leave without your wishes sung back." Euphie said. She then waved a hand to Copurrnicus. "Copurrnicus, we're leaving, come on." The catgirl slowly followed Euphoria out leaving the three imposing figures in their office, going through dozens of marching soldiers on every hall through several halls before they reached the top of the ancient tower. As she floated above it and held Becca on her back, she looked carefully down. "Y'know, I bet she built this to emulate 'the' Tower. The entire world below her seemed a vast,

illuminated and bright world of light below, the dark tower breaking up the sea of white, which seemed to imprison the ancient tower's inhabitants in a blank void in every direction. "Why.. a rat?" Becca asked.

Euphoria smirked. "Useful for them. A universe's worth of mass in a tiny rodent." She smirked. "Plus, easier to carry than an elephant. And frogs? Well do you want them thinking I ride brooms too?" She smiled.

"Why do they live there?" Becca squinted.

"Got trapped. I'm trapped, Tera's trapped, those soldier and military guys are all trapped. Everyone's trapped in something, that's just life kittycat. What matters is how we adapt and break free. You haven't truly lost yourself until your heart stops seeking freedom, that's what my mother told me."

Euphie smiled and continued to float them up until the ancient tower appeared so small on the surface void it may as well have been a toy. She led them out the gate and to the main room, where she attempted to sing to her frogs again, every last one of them billowing with noise as the stars swirled within them. Her attempt went awry again, the frog exploded, the gate with the statuesque woman overhead closed up. She just sighed. "Next time. Why don't I bake us dinner?"

An hour later, she offered Becca a plate underneath the hovel on their bed as a place to rest their mind. "It's been nice to have you, Copurrnicus. I'll send you a postcard when I break free."

"Free.. when?" Becca asked.

"When my song is finally heard." She laid back, floating just a few feet above the bed where Becca was. "I know they'll let me go if I can sing well enough, and I think I have the ability to. I was kind of born into tragedy, but no one is going to rescue me in my sleep or set me free." She gripped her fist and squeezed, the longing in her heart building into a well of lament bubbling deep in her gut. "I wonder what my husbands up to.."

Several nights passed. The two were coming back from another Gate, colorful starry snakes in Euphie's hands and a salamander in Becca's. Suddenly, a noise disturbed them. The sound of a loud, mechanical bang. They heard the sound of several footsteps in their sleep, and the two stood up quickly. Euphoria floated out to the bedroom door, holding the rifle tight in her hands. There was a figure in the shadows, this time holding a metallic suit. Euphoria flicked her fingers, black fire coming out. She floated into the catacombs where all her nobility phantoms were held, soon seeing her familiar foe hiding behind a statue. "Graytum." She snarked.

Graytum walked into the light and the witch looked at him, a sly smile to her lips. His bodysuit held a powercore, which Becca recognized as a starseed in his chest and glowing lines through his metallic body. ""I could always sense when you were going to come here, and I was waiting for it." He said. "You said you were in danger. Did I find you in time for walpurgisnacht?" He looked at her, holding a laserblade and aiming it at her.

"You're going to find out what a real witch can do today." Euphoria waved her arms, keys falling out of her pocket and shooting into every single coffin that opened up at once. The surrounding statues all lit and from the chamber, Becca could see phantoms flowing into Euphoria's eyes and mouth rapidly.

An evil scowl formed on Graytum's face, he stepped back. His newly upgraded armor was certain to do the trick, but seconds later he regretted that thought when she charged at him like a thunderbolt, her arms turning into sharp blades of light that countered his laserblade quite sharply. With every strike she pushed him back the armor bending and buckling until it cracked under her blow. She held it all back, her hands and shoulders flexing and twisting, forcing Graytum back, all the power in his suit channeled into her arms. Then she flicked her wrist, and sent him flying into the ceiling, squeezed her wrists until he screamed as if he'd been crushed like a grape and let go. Getting back up, he charged right back at her again.

Becca tuned out their encounter and started strolling the opened coffins, curiosity daring to kill the cat. Her head peaked into one, deeper and deeper until she saw some sort of twin set of mermaid's skeletons. They turned their skulls and screamed, ghostly wails sending a grey miasma into Becca rapidly. She shook and shuddered while the two nobility phantoms infused into her.

Graytum ran at her again, the force of his blow slamming into her full force, but her stance resisting. She clawed down his chest with an icy touch, his armor freezing and ripping in half, with a flick of her hand she had him thrown through the room in a heap of armor pieces. Before he could get up she flew close and ripped out the starseed from his chest and grabbed him by the chin. "Done so soon? If you wanted foreplay, be more feisty and last longer than that."

Graytum squirmed around. "Let me go."

"At ease. I'll get to it when I want to." Euphoria smiled. "I'm not going to be nice to you today, you little weasel. You just come here start shit. I want to know who's giving you that stuff." She yelled.

"Fuck y-you!"

The witch smiled, before she held Graytum by his throat with her eyes, with each gaze her hands holding him firm. "Fine. No armistice then. Say your prayers." Her grip slowly began to tighten, when the torch and candle lights across the entire structure turned red, in every hall and room. She turned around and scowled, her heart sinking in her chest. Not her, she thought.

Graytum tried to break free, legs kicking as he laughed. "You're going down."

"Not today." Euphoria yelled, breaking his arms with a telekinetic grip and throwing him across the room bloody like a ragdoll into the wall. "Come Copurrnicus." She then felt her body grow queasy and light-headed, blackened and dizzy. Shitshit, not now. I cannot face -her- playing it safe.

She leaned onto her knees and puked, afterwards half of the spirits within her left her mouth like smoke and returned to their coffins, she watched with horror as the statue lights powered down. She felt her body turning into a liquid, a new kind of sick she'd never known. Becca was taking note of her distress, the new acquisitions of her own giving her a slight dull headache but little more. She looked down at her paw and metal arm, black curving spiraling lines forming along them like fancy cursive.

Soon Euphoria dragged her through the halls, levitating and flying through as fast as possible. This must be just like the time with Tera and those other combatants Becca thought, the realization slowly coming to her mind. They arrived in a very deep set of spiraling stairs that spun around a center hole, Euphie flying straight down ignoring the stairs, until she found an underground Colosseum. If vaguely reminded Becca of the one she saw Lyras and.. another woman fight in, although her mind was fuzzy on the details, like pawing at a blurred dream. She picked up a stone on the ground curiously, and it twisted like a tootsie roll, before untwirling and rocketing off. "Huh?"

Atop a carriage with some sort of black horse which had goat-like horns and paws instead of hooves, was a figure with a slick black suit and metal guitar designs on their wings- they looked much like the Soupies Becca saw, but there was only one of them. Far from their chirpy greeting, this figure folded her arms and flipped Euphoria the bird.

"That woman, I hate that fucking girl. Her name is-" She started but hesitated, as if uttering her name would unleash a terrible curse.

Out of the mist, the same golden arch appeared at the other end of the Colosseum. It seemed to have an almost magical appearance, appearing at the end of a long, black spiraling staircase. Inside the arch appeared an ancient woman covered in bandages, the same mummy from prior. She introduced the combatant that Euphoria would be fighting.

Becca suddenly realized who it was. She knew her at once. And she knew why Consonance Euphony was terrified of her. And so was she. She looked at Euphony, the same way a child might look at their death.

Wearing a golden hoodie, a mini musical-com with headphones and skinny jeans, her hair in a ponytail and stance lanky and lean was Astrid.

The girl was much younger for sure, around the other Xovus's age. But even as a teen this was no doubt the Astronomica that Becca knew- or maybe one she didn't know, some version of her. Becca couldn’t be sure of anything these days. She walked towards Euphie, her footsteps making a clicking sound, an odd electronic footstep which Becca realized were coming from her light-up sneakers.

This Astrid had a much more casual look about her, in the manner of the casual outfits that Becca had seen her in before- her hoodie sleeves were rolled up and her eyes were tired. Her socks, sneakers, hoodie and pink watch were nothing from Orchid that Becca had ever seen.

Euphie slowly levitated, the light in her eyes flickering at the first sight of Astrid. "A- Astrid?" Becca whispered.

"Stay back Copurrnicus." Euphoria said, floating a little further. "Bite me girl." Shed said.

Euphie slowly levitated closer, her eyes flaring at the sound of Astrid's heartbeats. "Not today." The teen Astrid replied.

As the Widow flung herself fast at Astrid, the girl grabbed a yoyo from her pocket and swung it in the air as if it were a lasso- suddenly a wave of gravity spiraled out from it and smashed Euphoria to the ground in a bloody rocking heist. Euphoria tried to get up, but only hit the ground again as another wave of gravitational force pushed her back to the ground like a rock, smashing her face back down into the ground at her own pace.

Astrid whistled, rolling her yoyo up and down playfully as she circled Euphie, observing the crater marks her initial attack did.

"You bitch! You're still-" She was cut off by Astrid smashing her on the ground again, her face cracking and bleeding from the force. Astrid picked her up by the hair and whispered. "What's that? Got some dirt in your mouth." She picked up the dust and splattered it onto the Widow's face.

Slowly she tried to get up. "You should stay in your place. The ground."

"Fuck. You." The Widow took a huge breath of air, then wailed like a banshee, the sonic waves sending towards Astrid in circular rings. As she flew into the air, Astrid flew to one side of the Colosseum and waved her hand, and a huge explosion blew the roof off. The area around the arena exploded into a fiery blast and the walls cracked. The Widow continued to scream, Astrid's body blinking with light, the power of her Pulse speeding her ahead even sound.

Euphie got up slowly turned around, her body still floating, her arms moving like sloths from their injuries. Astrid appeared as a series of rapidly blinking after images, the Widow tried screaming with head up omnidirectional. Suddenly she found the yo-yo strung around her neck and Astrid yelled "Catch."

Euphoria's face contorted in pain as Astrid smashed her into the ground with another hammer of pure gravity manifesting above her, she then yanked on the yoyo and choked her slowly. Her face was a contorted look of pain, it was always like this when the Arch appeared. Whereas the Xovus had sent many challengers at Tera and she'd beaten them all one by one, on this side the doorway needed only one. And Euphoria had never beaten her, not even once. "How many times? How many times do I have to remind you? You have no friends here." She hissed, pulling her up and dropping her into the ground, her arms snapping in the air like whips. "And even if you did, I'd kick their ass like I do all the time with you."

Becca, in a flight or fight mode of panic jumped into the colosseum.

The winged figure tried to grab her. "W-wait, you cannot interfere-!" Suddenly she tackled Astrid from behind.

"I'm not dying. I'm not dying!" Euphoria screeched, the girl standing up and her power flaring again, screaming like a banshee. Her eyes started to glow light-blue, and the air around them rippled as she blasted at Astrid, the sound hitting her face in a rare instance for her. She got back up and flew at her, a huge roar of black magic flashing as her arms opened and the air around them lit up. Suddenly, Euphoria froze up, as the power in the air slowly rippled, a low moan and a wave of black magic washed over the Colosseum.

"Pssh, Nobility phantom tricks? Pathetic." Astrid put her hand out as if to counter, but Becca still on her back grabbed both her arms and interfered, causing her to trip up. The flaming black waves crashed and rolled in like an ocean over Astrid, blasting her all the way into the Archway. Blood trickled down her cheek, she slowly attempted to get up only for Euphoria to quickly take the initiative, breathing as deeply as she could, then screaming and sending her soundwave funneling at Astrid, her and Becca caught in it and unable to pull their arms away. Euphie's voice suddenly took on a new tenor as the soundwave reached its peak, blowing them far into a hallway beyond the Archway's portal like a hellfire hurricane.

For the first time ever in her battles with the teenage Xovus- Consonance Euphony had finally secured a single pyrrhic victory.

Euphie was panting and coughing, her bruised arms shaking from the stress. Astrid looked at her, a look of regret on her face. The widow collapsed on the ground from exhaustion, Astrid watching at her collapse with disgust. She got up, wiped her shoulders and slowly walked to the other end of the Arch until she disappeared from sight.

Becca attempted to follow, Astrid dunking her hand with a wave until gravity smashed her down. Slowly the visage of both entrances vanished into solid walls within the Archway's corridor, Astrid nowhere to be seen on one side, the widow nowhere on the other.

In the dusk of the hallway, Becca was stranded and alone.