View source for 2017-12-07 - What Lies Beneath 13

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! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''What Lies Beneath 13'''
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|'''Summary''':<br>
''Having realized that the magical girls are [[2017-10-07 - What Lies Beneath 11|closing in]] on her former headquarters in their search for the stolen World Tree magic, Setsuna decides to accept an invitation to return to Labyrinth, in the hopes of fixing everything herself without putting anyone else at risk -- on either side.  It's a trap.''
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|'''Who''':<br>
[[Northa]], [[Setsuna Higashi]], [[Westar]], [[Soular]], Akarun
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|'''Where:'''<br>
Desolate Mansion, Nishitama Park District, Tama

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|'''OOC - IC Date:'''<br>
12-07-2017 - 03-10-2015
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 <Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Sunset is disappearing on a stormy evening--or set to be stormy in short order, raining intermittently. It's been cold today, colder even for the time of year in March. Winter final exams loom ahead for students, but that seems far away here, deep in the woods of Tama, past Clover Town Street and deeper, deeper still where the path no longer wends. The leaves on the trees are wet. The ground is damp. ...Boots make a little noise as they shift across the ground. No path is necessary for the one wearing them; she would know this place by heart with her eyes closed.

Her purple hair rests past her shoulders now, dark even before the shine of wet from some of the rain reaching her on the way here. She is dressed in dark colors despite the darkness--or maybe because of it--jeans in deep blue, a black long-sleeved top, a deep red jacket. Her red eyes trace familiar trees, familiar woods again. It has been some time since she was last all the way here. ...Definitely some time.

She thinks back to this morning, in her room. ...She thinks back to an elevator, on the way down Infinity Institute. She thinks back before that, to the breakroom in the hospital. Shun... Ami.

The path picks up again as she passes through a fenced wall, the shape of a darkened mansion lit suddenly by a flash of lightning as the storm resumes in earnest.

Setsuna Higashi--girl from Labyrinth, once called Eas--pauses at the doors, expression focused, the same as ever. They loom wooden before her, and she pauses on that threshold, up the low front steps. She takes a breath.

She does not let herself think back too far.

Instead, she reaches for the knob, and turns it, pulling open the door. As ever, the front door of the mansion creaks. It opens, though. It opens easily. ...No one comes to this front door unexpected anymore.

 <Pose Tracker> Northa [None] has posed.

EARLIER

The Momozono household is warm and welcoming, no matter the weather. In some ways it's all the better when surrounded by gloom; there's something inherently, impenetrably sunny about home, something that has more to do with spirit than substance. No storm can disturb this, not even the Christmas blizzard; what hope has mere drizzle?

But something does, and did. Darkness slid in as easily as a knife slides between the ribs.

It slid in through the bedroom mirror.

It made a soft chuffing sound as it hit the wooden floor, that letter, bound into a scroll by a twist of string.

And it wasn't from Westar, much less Soular, much less Northa.

It was from a higher power, one Eas knew only distantly, once upon a time.

It was from Klein.

NOW

The words from the letter resound once more in the ears of Setsuna's heart as she enters the mansion.

EAS,

ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE WANDERED FAR FROM THE ARMS OF OUR PEOPLE, YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. LORD MOEBIUS HAS NOT FORGOTTEN. NOT FORGOTTEN THE DAUGHTER OF SUCH GREAT POTENTIAL, THE FINEST OF HIS YOUNG EXECUTIVES, WITHOUT WHOM THOSE OF THE WEST AND SOUTH ARE LISTLESS, LOST. THE FUKO GAUGE IS FULL, THE TREE WAXES IN ITS SEED, AND TIME GROWS SHORT NOW FOR THIS EARTH WHERE YOU HAVE MADE YOUR CAMP, BUT IT IS NOT TOO LATE FOR YOU TO RETURN TO YOUR TRUE HOME. YOU CAN DO MORE FOR THOSE YOU CARE FOR WITH LABYRINTH THAN WITHOUT IT.

I ENCOURAGE YOU TO TRY.

YOU ARE MISSED, EAS.

--FIRST EXECUTIVE KLEIN

He isn't here, of course. He never comes to Earth; never leaves their home, or Lord Moebius' side. Northa is, though; she stands at the base of the grand staircase, no need to be up a few steps to loom. Not with her height, ''and'' her heels. Either would be enough alone. In combination she positively towers. Her arms spread wide, long, voluminous sleeves billowing around her almost as much as her soft blue hair.

"''Wel''come," she all but purrs, a mama to her kitten.

But whatever warmth lies in her eyes is the barest fraction of what lives in Ayumi Momozono. In Kaoruko Hanasaki.

"Yes," she repeats happily. "You are ''most'' welcome here... Eas."

Her arms draw inward, her palms drape over her heart. "You always were."

 <Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

It's hard to forget that warmth, even in the chill and gloom of this drafty old mansion. ...Maybe moreso because of it. But it's not the first time that Labyrinth's blades have slipped past warmth to find her. ...She doesn't forget that cold, either. There's a cold she knew for years and years, and it remains now, familiar even as the rain delivers it as well as anything. Old habits, easily recalled.

Being called Lord Moebius's daughter is not an old habit. Being called that, marked that way, has pressed something else into her heart, something that seems even now to be just on the cusp of stealing away her next breath. It's an old, old ache, something she never voiced wanting. It taps into that older feeling, that ''need'' that drove her for so long.

So she remembers that too, as she walks inside, as she practically ''hears'' the words of the letter that she read, in a voice she has heard before. ...She remembers, after all, the last time she met with Klein, and never felt any closer to him for being close enough to hear him out loud. Back in Labyrinth, while the magical girls of Earth were banished to all realms. ...Home, it's called.

IN THE MOMENT

Setsuna looks up--always up--at Northa as she enters, closes the door behind her without having to look. She can't hide the spike of nerves--the learned fear--that nevertheless is duller than it could be in how it shows. ...But it ''is'' Northa; Northa was intimidating even before Eas left Labyrinth. She lets out a breath, makes herself keep looking.

Putting on the mantle is easier than she expected; a shift of her posture, a looseness under control, a dull demeanor with everything brought close, away from the surface. Setsuna does not see the same warmth in Northa's eyes of her family on Earth, or even of those helping.

Eas sees a more familiar cold. She is welcomed, and the purple-haired girl from Labyrinth keeps watching for a moment, almost expressionless. Eventually--in seconds that are much shorter than they feel--she speaks up.

"...It's where I should be," she answers. "Northa." Another breath exhaled. She glances, finally able somehow to take her eyes off of Northa for two moments, to the left and to the right, to anything changed in the mansion. ...To the places she knows in it.

"I know it's almost over with anyway."

 <Pose Tracker> Northa [None] has posed.

The desolate mansion is lashed by rain and by lightning, but it takes the right eyes to see. A daughter of this darkness, Setsuna can; and in the realm of dreams, others could as well. But normally, only very peculiar paths wend to the mansion. Primrose, to the last.

Northa smiles more widely at her response, and it's difficult to know if she's enjoying the apparent return of her subordinate, or simply the acknowledgement of her own success. Which has, it must be said, been substantial.

"It is," she confirms, gesturing with an arm up the stairs even as she pivots a step to the side, allowing -- forcing -- Setsuna to lead the way inwards to darkness, with Northa following only in the most weak and technical sense of the word.

The looming is worse from behind. At least there's no breath to tickle the back of Setsuna's neck; Northa isn't much for breathing.

Even if she is much for speaking.

"Executive Soular's efforts to recenter one of this planet's World Tree's nexuses of power here at our headquarters have been massively successful in accelerating the rise of the Fuko Gauge."

That isn't even the popular reason for wanting access to the World Tree.

"It's only natural, of course... combining the power of Lord Moebius with the power of botany is my ''peculiar'' specialty. ''Whatever'' happens when this Tree erupts, Lord Moebius will have gotten what he needs, and should have no further need for this place."

They walk down the creepy upstairs hallway and go through a door, and then another. It isn't well-lit here, but both women know every step by heart.

"Labyrinth," she continues, "Has really improved in your absence. And I think it can improve further with your help. You must have so many ''lessons'' to teach our people, from your experiences here. Wouldn't you say?"

 <Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Even now, Setsuna takes that quality for granted, that she has those eyes, that she comes from ''this'' darkness and that that will not change.

...But daughter to that darkness also means daughter to a world where learning to read what smiles mean is difficult. Northa's show of cruelty is unsettling in that way, too. The younger Executive--or she was, at least--doesn't really know. ...So she does what she used to do with unknowable emotional cues, and goes along regardless of them.

Having to walk ahead definitely feels forced, and is uncomfortable in its own way; with no breath on her neck, Setsuna can't help but feel stiff even if she doesn't show it, a little piece of her in a memory of a hot jungle day in Okinawa at the same time that the drafty chill of the mansion sneaks about her collar. That makes it a little stranger still to listen to what Northa has to say. Explaining Soular's eforts; explaining the inevitability of Moebius's triumph here.

"..." She doesn't interrupt. She wouldn't dare interrupt Northa regardless, even if part of her does feel a little more comfortable to be in familiar environs, taking steps she could take in her sleep. The younger of the two women keeps onward, and manages to keep her pace easily through most of the walk. Stepping with someone else, without having to look, after all, is an old old habit even when she doesn't know the place.

But Northa's words build surprise on surprise. What she didn't say about Soular's actions she says in her eyes as she briefly pauses, step stuttering as she starts to look back at Northa and makes herself stop halfway there. "...It has?" she asks, and can't really hide the surprise. Something else wars with it, swirling about her heart--uncertainty.

Setsuna--Eas?--forces herself to keep walking forward after all, resuming her steps. Her shoes click against the old wood, as always, as she adds, "...I didn't think Mobius-sama would be interested in what I'd learned here. You..." Still she has the distance she once had, the demeanor, but it isn't as harsh as it was. She isn't sure of something. She focuses on the steps forward for a moment, to shake her head. She could help, Northa suggests.

"Everything for Mobius-sama," Setsuna intones instead, old words that used to steady her and still, in a way, do. Still, she looks out for changes--but she knows what she's looking for in here. Still though... She's not sure. It's not hard to see that she's a off-balance. The question--the hangup--is obvious anyway. Labyrinth? ''Change''? What does it mean to say that?

 <Pose Tracker> Northa [None] has posed.

Northa can't see Setsuna's eyes, but Setsuna can feel Northa's, burning into the back of her skull from above. It isn't a glare. It's just... how she looks at things. Anything. Anyone. Unsafe at any speed travels Northa and the full weight of her attention.

"Everything for Mobius-sama," she agrees, her smirk all too audible even as her own words resonate with a certain passionate vibrato that she reserves for nothing else.

They're on a catwalk now, above an endless chasm that couldn't possibly exist inside a building of any kind. But then, this isn't a building. It never was, not really. Like Northa herself, the abyss doesn't breathe, but it does whisper. The distance of the echoes of her heels, Setsuna's flats -- it shouts of size, of magnitude.

"But really, Eas? You don't think he'd be interested in your long-term study in betrayal?"

She speaks lightly, so lightly.

"A double-double agent... ''admirable''."

It sounds like she means it.

"Ah, here they are."

The catwalk is so long, and this place so dark, that what lies at its end -- at the chasm's center -- cannot yet be seen.

But two other figures can be. The white cloaks help. Northa is taller, but both of them are more massive than she.

Well, one is, anyway.

"Soular, Westar -- look who's accepted our Lord's invitation to return to the fold, at long last! Come, greet your once and current teammate. This reunion is... long overdue."

She remains behind Setsuna -- behind Eas -- equal parts staunch ally and staunch wall.

There is no going back.

 <Pose Tracker> Westar [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

The broader of the two figures is looking into that dark chasm, white cape proudly displayed upon the back of the green-haired young man. At the tapping of heels on a catwalk, he stiffens - there is no room for relaxation, no room for any casualness in his stance. The Executive of the West turns, muscular arms folded across his chest, to face the approaching woman with as professional a demeanour as he can manage.

This lasts about two seconds.

"Northa? What are you talking..." He trails off, jaw slowly falling slack as he recognizes the girl standing before Northa. Silently, his arms unfold almost of their own volition, right hand coming up to shakingly point at her.

Westar turns to Soular, incredulity plain on his face. Turns back to Eas, likely looking as ridiculous as ever. And then-

Then, there is joy. Agape shock turns to a beaming smile, eyes widening even further at the realization. "Eas! You came back to us!" He grins to Soular, grins to Eas, and almost manages to forget that Northa is even here. "You really came back, after all this time!"

Westar flings out an arm, cape billowing behind him as the sheer glee seems ready to burst out - there is no suspicion, no doubt in those eyes. Just...satisfaction. "I always knew you'd see sense sooner or later - this is great! We've all been really busy, I know you've seen some of what we were doing - "

(Opposed what they were doing, more like.)

" - but you really have to see how much progress we've made! Soular and I had to work really hard to make up for things, you know - but with you back, we'll have the Gauge filled up in no time!" He's beaming. He's grinning. And he flings his arm out again, both to make his cloak billow and to try to be welcoming. "It's gonna be great!"

 <Pose Tracker> Soular [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

	It's only been a day or two since Soular last saw Eas--or rather, since Shun last saw Setsuna. He hadn't known that she would come back to the mansion, and certainly not like this, but somewhere deep down he's not surprised by it.
	
	What he *is*, is mistrustful. As Northa said, Eas has been a long study of betrayal, and Soular has seen into Eas's heart--seen how she truly feels, thanks to the power of his Nakewameke. He accepted a long time ago that she was never really going to come back. Not as 'Eas.' Not really.
	
	Though then again, if anything or anyone could change her mind, change it back to what it once was, it would be Mobius-sama's most trusted, valued executives, wouldn't it? So like Setsuna, Soular is of two minds: one where he doubts in Setsuna, and one where he believes in Mobius-sama.
	
	All of this flashes through his mind in a mere second or three as a pair of footsteps approach at his and Westar's backs. The taller, broader man's presence is... reassuring, in its own way, but hearing the others approach, he turns around already on his guard. Green eyes widen slightly to see Setsuna and Northa together, and Soular shares a Look with Westar.
	
	And then of course Westar exclaims in unexamined joy. For his part, Soular turns, gloved hands folded behind is back, to first give Northa a polite, courteous nod--nearly a bow--and then look upon Setsuna with dispassionate poker eyes as he waits for Westar to finish gushing.
	
	And then, despite the fact that they met by chance only the other day, Soular murmurs, "It's been a long time, Eas."

 <Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

If gravity weren't holding Setsuna's feet down to the walkway, then Northa's stare would be more than enough to handle the matter. Maybe it ''is'' what's doing the trick, for all the younger of the two knows. Regardless, the intonation brings with it another, solemn with all the weight of a world and its leader behind it.

The chasm is not strange to Setsuna. She has been here before. But there are many strange things that are not strange to someone from Labyrinth, and the way it speaks of immensity is not lost on her. ...Strangely, something she notices most--is wondering how it would sound in the heels she'd wear here, once.

Northa speaks lightly, and Setsuna is glad of her eyes not being visible for an instant, staring forward. ...There's nothing to see in them anyway; though they have the shine they've never managed to lose since the day they gained it, her expression is hollow. In that instant she is too far withdrawn in on herself to show much of anything, except for an almost slovenly stillness, the essence of the teenager in this dark role.

"..."

Admirable, she calls it. Setsuna feels more distant from that still, from the guilt she ought to be feeling at the reminder of what she's done. ...Not just to Earth, but to Labyrinth. Maybe it will filter in. For now, 'they' are here, and the feeling starts to slip back inside but before she can process it she is looking over at figures on the long catwalk. Capes. ...Heights.

For an instant, she ''does'' think to turn back. She can't; she doesn't have to ''move'' to know Northa's presence.

Eas looks forward again at Westar and Soular turning, still in civilian Earth clothes but staring the silent look Westar knows, just a very little bit older. She doesn't smile; she looks dully between the two, and doesn't consciously recognize it as wariness. She isn't thinking of her own feelings at all.

"..." She doesn't immediately answer the welcoming, beaming Westar. She listens to the quiet, mistrustful Soular instead. Soular, who she called Shun jsut a moment ago, sharing that look with Soular.

Her poker face is not so dispassionate as Soular's; it is emptier, quieter, at least at first. "...It has," Eas agrees. "Soular."

A flick of her red eyes back to Westar, and Eas rolls them in turn. "You always act too excited," she says sourly, putting on the words as easily as ever. She feels it more than she used to though. "Yeah, I saw it. Northa was telling me more, too. Looks like you've been busy."

A pause. "...I guess you learned after all, Westar." A flick of her eyes to Soular again. She does not look back to Northa. She stands, for the moment, where she is, and draws herself up a little. "...Whatever. It's not like I was ever one of them anyway, really."

Her breath still threatens to catch; her heart, slowly, starts to beat more to life. She scowls, and it ''is'' familiar, the way she scowls at herself more than anything around her, to tamp down that control again.

Her eyes move ahead, to where she can't see again. That, she can't help.

 <Pose Tracker> Northa [None] has posed.

Northa gives Westar and Soular a long look apiece, then jerks her chin behind her, towards the main house. Toward the innocent world beyond its front gate. "We will, indeed, have it filled up in... no time at all," she agrees, echoing Westar for what might be the first time ever. She blinks, and in that moment everyone present knows that it will also be the last time ever.

"Gentlemen, if you would please see to it. Everything for Mobius-sama."

Without further ado, she starts moving forward, which means Setsuna has to as well. They pass the men. They leave them behind.

Click, click, click.

High heels on metal grates. Precarious. Never is there even a ''hint'' of lost balance. The clicks are as final as the thump of an executioner's axe.

"You're right, you know," she adds, once they are far enough away to be private once again, her own voice lowered a bit, as though deferential to the sensitivity of the moment. "You weren't ever one of them. How could you be?"

Click, click, click.

"It isn't your fault. The power of Pretty Cure... it is a marvel in its way, surely. But it cannot truly belong to someone who worked as hard and as long as you did, in the service of Mobius-sama. Who did what you had to, in the service of our world. Of our people."

She lifts her chin, which further lengthens her shadow -- a shadow that has entirely encompassed Setsuna, and Setsuna's.

"There is no ''shame'' in being what you really are, Eas. I am proud of you... that you were strong enough to embrace it. Brave enough to return."

 <Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

The moment--the very, very strange moment--after Northa says what she does, when she blinks... Well, it's harsh on the youngest Executive's nerves, jagged there for some reason as what could almost be levity just... very much isn't.

On contrarian autopilot, Eas looks back at Soular in particular again as they begin to leave. Maybe it's easier than looking to Westar's enthusiasm. Northa's going though--and Setsuna moves too. Even if it weren't instinct, there's a deeper impulse that comes of a need to ''not'' be there when Northa steps into her space.

Setsuna prefers not to imagine Northa anywhere near the imagery of an executioner, but she is not the sort of person who always gets what she wants. She hears every final step. ...The fact that her balance doesn't falter either is hardly even relevant.

Still Setsuna feels the cold of this place--maybe more than she should. She's long been a bit sensitive to the chill, and her jacket doesn't do much about a feeling that slips in at the cuffs, shifts about her fingers. ...She curls them, and the tension feels a little better.

Northa's voice reaches her quickly--even lowered. Northa sounds almost conversational to Setsuna, makes this moment sound ''normal'', even as she confirms something Setsuna said and takes a little wound made from saying it and... widens it. Still, Setsuna looks to the casual observer little different from usual; a little harsher, as befits putting on the mantle of Eas. ...But to the uncasual observer... She is still for an instant too long, in the face, not at the confirmation but at the way Northa goes on, the way she explains it.

Setsuna looks forward, red eyes blank, as she thinks of how hard she worked. How long she worked. ...The things she did.

Setsuna does not notice the way her shadow is overcome by Northa's. The room, such as it it, stretches out all around her, massive, but she is not entirely a part of it. One word slinks about her heart and starts to squeeze.

"...Proud," she repeats. No shame? "...It's not as if I ever forgot Labyrinth," she says, but that's too easy, too simple, and she quiets as she walks, looking forward without really seeing.

"I..." She trails off She can't find the right words. How frustrating it always was, when she couldn't. How frustrating it ''is'', to be there again, fumbling around for something she can't explain, when she shouldn't be saying anything anyway.

"...Not just magical girls," Eas says instead, and some of that frustration leaches into her voice. "Of course I came back. I knew I couldn't erase what I was." The little wound opens a little further. ...True things may be more convincing, but that doesn't make them less true. True things get wrapped up in the rest of it she's not as sure of. It...

Setsuna keeps walking, and slouches a little more without realizing it, almost the same as the sullen strides she once made past down here.

 <Pose Tracker> Northa [None] has posed.

Northa's hand closes on Setsuna's slouching shoulder.

"Ah, Eas--"

It burns like fire, where her nails touch the jacket. It chills like ice, where her palm presses down.

"--you and I, we were ''always'' magical girls."

All of a sudden it's there, before them, the pillar at the center of this immensely massive, hollow tower. Northa gently but firmly -- no, gentle is not in her vocabulary, she is both ''light'' and firm in touch, the dichotomy of someone very strong being very mindful -- pushes the teenager towards it, and that's when her hand releases.

Setsuna stands alone in front of the Fuko Gauge -- the ultimate collection of human misery. It emanates despair. The very air around it is heavy with feeling, and not just any feeling. Specific feelings, real ones, felt by real people, as they were tormented and tortured, over and over again, by scheme after scheme after scheme. There's a single drop of Westar from a catastrophically failed mission.

There's a ''tide'' from the millions in Tokyo.

It is not as she left it, when she left them all. Yes, it was always round, and glass, and long, but not ''this'' long. Not this tall. And the needle on the dial is pointing allllllll the way to the right.

Well -- almost all. At the right angle, there's a sliver of space between the needle and the furthest maximum.

But that isn't the only part that's different.

Rising around it like snakes entwining the Caduceus are gigantic, ''monstrous'' vines. They are the unmistakable dark green of a Sorewatase, Northa's preferred poison, her favorite project.

"Grow strong with sorrow..."

But there aren't just vines.

There are also roots... roots that bring an earthly smell to this sterile place, roots that all but vibrate with vivacity, that burst with life itself.

Roots like the roots under Library Island. Like the roots under Jindai Botanical Garden.

"...''blossom'' with despair."

Northa looks upon what she has wrought, and smiles her first real smile of the night, instantly outting all the others as lies, pale imitations of what it is for her to feel joy.

"You are part of this, Eas. You were there when it began. It is only fitting for you to be here when it ends. Really, we can't think of doing it without you."

 <Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

'You and I.' Northa, so on high as the Executive she is, never seemed to Eas to be as ''close'' as she feels in that instant, that instant while she is touching her and speaks those words. They freeze her for an instant as surely as that hand, at the same time that she is almost dizzy with heat for a moment. She retains her step; her body does not require her intervention to stay still, trained by years in Labyrinth failing to register any kind of feeling.

But she is ''pushed'', and that almost causes her to lose her balance, knowing that could have happened if Northa had chosen to apply that strength of hers again. ...Any thoughts about that are pushed completely aside, however, as they are ''there''. ...No, not they. She is there. Setsuna is alone in front of it, in front of this Thing that was her mission for so long. She would know this feeling in the air if she were apart from it a lifetime. ...Longer, because she's already known it longer than one lifetime, thanks to Northa. Scheme after scheme, cry and wail and tear after another, it was filled here. So far beyond even what she did, so far beyond her ''own'' misery filling it when her eyes closed in front of Love that day.

She does not notice that she stops breathing for long moments. She sees nothing but the Gauge, and her eyes do not widen because they are filled as they are. She would know those vines, too, no matter what. The Gauge is ''different''. The Gauge is held. Those words--is Northa speaking them now? Is it memory? If she could ever apply 'loving' to Northa that might be what she thinks of those tones, but she cannot.

The lost daughter of Labyrinth stares at the roots, stares at the Fuko Gauge. She does not see Northa's awful smile, but she could swear that she felt it, if asked. She was part of this. ...Words that could easily mean pride take root in ''her''. She remembers, being there when it began. She knows the truth of it. She knows...

She knows that she is where she has to be. Dizzy with the weight of it, she nevertheless makes a tiny, tiny movement--it could be of her hand to her heart. ...It is, in a way. A jacket pocket. Her hand closes about something red.

"Pretty Cure," she breathes. "Change." The light begins there.

She knows what will happen, if she does this. She sees it ahead of her. But the revulsion she feels at being anything part of this, at being 'we' at this horrible, horrible feeling--

"BEAT UP!" The light flares the rest of the way to light, and that lost daughter of Labyrinth disappears within it flaring off of her, her dark, wet clothes transforming in an instant. Even before she finishes, she's lunging forward. She can feel the waters crash down over her again, the same waters she felt when Akarun first brought her back, that day after Northa's words were the last in her ears.

She is still glowing when she is Cure Passion, standing in the midst of Labyrinth's base, fist reared back and slamming outward with all her might--more than all of her might, all of her fractured heart towards exposed glass.

...And fractured it is, fragile and enwrapped by something like these vines as surely as the Gauge, her feelings crashing around her, demanding her attention as she tries to shove them out through her fist.

"HAAAAH--!"

She knows that this is where she has to be. With her, here. At the beginning.

 COMBAT: Setsuna Higashi transforms into Cure Passion!

 <Pose Tracker> Northa [None] has posed.

Clap!

You don't need two hands to clap if you have someone else's.

Cure Passion's fist lands squarely in Northa's waiting palm.

And she ''grasps'' -- and she ''twists'' -- and then... that's it. It's over. The punch is spent.

"Weak," Northa remarks, clinically. "But then, that is the nature of Pretty Cure. And why you could never truly be one. For their strength is in numbers, and you do not allow yourself to be anything but alone."

The Fuko Gauge is intact. And Pretty Cure is not.

In a second burst of red light, Setsuna Higashi is once again merely herself, with purple hair and insufficient jacket.

Merely human.

And not Pretty Cure at all.

"No indeed," Northa continues as though uninterrupted by such a childish outburst, even as vines from the Gauge reach out to wrap around Setsuna's arms and torso and one, ever so delicately, around her neck. "Your despair will finish this ''quite'' nicely."

Drip.

The needle on the dial trembles as Setsuna's back is slammed up against it.

Drip.

This time it isn't from ''physical'' impact.

Drip.

"Everything for Mobius-sama," Northa reminds her subordinate, as her heels start click-click-clicking away, back down the catwalk.

Drip.

"Every -- last -- drop."

[[2017-12-08 - What Lies Beneath 14|TO BE CONTINUED...]]

 COMBAT: Cure Passion transforms into Setsuna Higashi!

[[Category:Logs]]