"So, feels like Indarius is nudging me, which is weird, but I guess he's confirming that he hasn't been part of the set up. Still, we did all the steps that were confirmed by you. And I added the cellular clone. So if that's all you need, then you should be able to ripcord right now," Horizon confirms to Conflux.
He also left a set of sweats with the Halprep logo next to the doll and vial for her to put on swiftly after getting back, assuming that her bod wouldn't exactly come with clothes. But he would let her find that out when she got there.
"Femtite. Can you make it out on your own?" Horizon asks her.
”Just…” …get the f$&~ off my planet.
”…go.”
Connie's ripcord has almost no observable effect. The weak Pixite body simply looks like it's drifting off to sleep.
Indarius similarly ends the spell, causing the projections of Horizon, Wolf and Devil Diva to fade out like they were being beamed off an alien planet.
On Earth, the ripcord is very noticeable. The receptacles catch Connie's essence in a near explosion! The objects swirl around in a miniature vortex. It's hard to see through the spinning debris, but a human body is beginning to take shape!
Despite literally being a girl who is magical, Connie's glowing reformation is a lot less sublime, and a lot more... goopy. By the time all five-feet-and-a-bit of her stops growing, she's covered in a thick coating of pink ooze, unbroken until her eyes snap open, taking in the room with fierce intensity.
Then with a sigh, she closes them again.
"The sweats were a good idea, but does anyone have a towel?"
Horizon looks with concern and guilt worn on his face for Femtite. He opens his mouth to try and speak again, but fades away as Indarius' spell ends for everyone, leaving the pixtite alone in her mother's garage.
Horizon becomes aware of his own body again, and reflexively opens up his eyes, taking in what looks to be a gloopy pink humanoid. He tenses up briefly, then relaxes when Connie's voice comes through. "I'll get the bots to fetch some towels. Though we do have showers down here too if you want to get properly cleaned up," He tells her. He's visibly relieved that it looks like the process went without a hitch.
With the spell ended, Indarius lets the energies surrounding him fade. The achy feeling returns with a vengeance, along with the fatigue. What he just pulled off would have been draining when he was at his best; with this cold he was suffering, he has almost no strength left.
Feverishly, Percy moves toward his bed, thinking nothing more than curling up in his blankets and riding out the last of this cold with sleep and rest.
Suddenly, a tall, dark figure appears in front of him. "I think you've finally reached your limit. I was almost beginning to think you didn't have one. Let's go on a trip, shall we?"
Connie glops her way over to the shower, grateful to get the goo off of her and give herself a quick once over.
Well... shit. Could be a lot worse, but... well, shit.
***
A short while later she returns to gather the sweats; her hair hangs limp, wet, and a dark undyed brown. Above and below the towel, her tattoos still show, but for the observant, there are fewer of them than before.
"Any side effects from Percy's whole shtick? Everyone feeling fine."
As soon as Max returns to her real body, she reaches behind her to feel for her tail. She sighs with relief to see that it is still where it is supposed to be.
"I feel okay. It must have been hard on Indarius, though," Max says. She tries to reach the wizard on the communicator. "Indarius? Are you there? Everything okay?"
While Conflux is off taking a shower, Horizon takes a moment to speak with Caio in private, away from the group.
He sets up the privacy buffer for them both before speaking. "Okay, so I know I said I wanted to put you up first to lead. But what happened down on Nanometeor has me doubting that decision, Caio. Can you walk me through your thought process on your choices, because I feel like you skipped some steps."
Max gets no response from Percy. Though, he had been under the weather and the spell he pulled off required serious effort. He might have just gone to bed.
Max frowns. ”Indarius isn’t responding. You guys good here? I’m going to go check on him.”
Assuming nobody protests, Max’s head for Percy’s dorm room.
"Sure." He answers Shin as he thinks about his decisions. There were two, the first being he putting himself in front of Connie to protect her, and the second was telling they'd return home.
"Right, my first decision was to put myself in front of Connie." He starts. "In defense of it, I considered that I'd be completely protected to any counter-attack because of the lack of silver down there, and my goal was to give her as much time as possible for her to do her thing... though I had not realized that she was never in danger to begin with." He says, before thinking about it. "While it did not matter in the end, it was a mistake of my part, as I should have assessed better the situation and proposed a course of action to everyone... trusting the others will know what to do is risky, since some times our hearts are in different places." He then frowns, remembering something. "However, to be fair, until that moment I though you were still leading us, since you've said you were thinking on me being the leader on the next mission."
"Now, my second decision was to choose for us to go back and not retrieve Love Bug, Two." He begins again, remembering his thought process. "Before we were sent there, Connie shared with us her plan, which required the preparations we've made and the connection that Percy provided. That was the plan: go there to provide the connection so Connie could do her thing."
"Fems then proposed another course of action, a deviation to the plan that had the potential to be risky. We lacked information, like there could be guards coming towards our location, or the bug could be heavily guarded, or if we've openly opposed Fems's mother it could be seen as a threat of war, and so on." He says to Shin. "Aside from that, Connie was with Fems and they both knew about the second bug and yet she did not include it in her plan... and she doesn't miss things."
"Considering that retrieving the bug was not part of Connie's plan and it had many things to end up in disaster, when you asked what was the plan I decided to stick with the original plan." He then sighs, remembering Connie's reaction. "I understand why Connie was mad at me there and I'll apologize with her. At that moment I did not see me making the call for her, but instead I tried to back her plan up."
"What would you have done differently?" He asks, clearly frustrated, but not in a way to provoke Horizon.
"Leadership is about making choices. Sometimes you've got time to think about those choices. Other times you go with your instincts because it has to be made instantly," Shin tells Caio. "I asked you what the plan was to give you an opportunity to go with your instinct. Coming back home immediately was probably the safe choice for Connie. If that had all you done, that would have been fine."
He leans in close to Caio's face. "But instead, you spent too much time trying to console Femtite's feelings in the moment. That was wrong for you to do. It makes her seem weak to the rest of the team. And at the same time, you also angered Connie talking about her like she wasn't there. You have to commit to your choices, and save the explanations for later. Treating your teammates like children who don't understand is the best way to insult them all."
"And on that note," Shin adds, "It's not your responsibility to try and fix everything about the team. If a teammate comes to you for relationship advice, that's one thing. But don't start pushing people to open up to you. Leave an open door for them to come to you for advice, and trust them to figure it out for themselves."
Shin rubs his own shoulder, stepping back. "Anyways, I hope you'll take this advice to heart. I'll be here if you need any additional advice, okay?"
Caio considers what Shin is saying before he replies. "Hum... I get what you are saying and I do agree with some of it, but not all."
"I tried to console Fems as her friend, not her leader. She was sad, desperate and lost, seeing a portion of her life melting in front of her, yet I do not agree that showing sympathy towards her makes her look weak... I believe feelings are what make us stronger."
"I did angered Connie, though, and my choice of words were not great... about that I could not agree more with you."
He then sighs. "Can't I be both their leader and their friend?" He asks, unsure. "Look, Horizon, we had our fair share of disagreement, mostly because we have different views about the responsibilities of a leader... I'm not you, but I'll respect your experience, so I'll truly think about what you've said."
"You can't be their leader and their friend in the same moment. Sometimes you've got to make choices that will get them upset, or angry, or any number of emotions. You've got to trust they'll understand in the long run and in the short term, trust they'll hold onto their complaints until a more appropriate time," Shin explains.
"You say that feelings make us stronger. Were you really thinking of Femtite's feelings, or were you just trying to solve a problem that wasn't yours to solve?" Shin finishes. "Reflect on that, Caio. We'll see how you do next time."
With that, he removes the privacy bubble, just in time for Connie to return - and for Shin to notice both the lack of purple hair, and the missing tattoos. Though that she still had any tattoos was more of a surprise to him.
"So, uh, nothing missing? Not coughing up blood, numbness, or extra fingers or toes?" Shin asks her. "And...okay, the tattoos are obviously magical. I'm surprised your hair wasn't magically colored though." He shrugs.
Max frowns. ”Indarius isn’t responding. You guys good here? I’m going to go check on him.”
Assuming nobody protests, Max’s head for Percy’s dorm room.
Max discovers that Percy's room is locked, though not dead-bolted.
"See that's your problem, Shin," Connie explained as she wriggled into the sweats beneath her towel. "You think the world exists in binaries. Magical: Transfers; Not-magical: Doesn't transfer. Did anything about what just happened seem that simple to you?!"
I've gotta get out of here before I have a complete meltdown.
"Okay kids, it's been real, but I've gotta get back to the dorms. Maybe eat a protein bar or something 'cause I am starving." She turned around before finishing her sentence, already heading out the door.
***
An empty can, string twined around prepared copper wire, a carefully accessorized doll with an amethyst ring, and she was ready to go.
Max knocks on the door. "Percy? It's Max. I've been trying to raise you on the comms to check on you. Is everything okay in there?"
Something doesn't feel right here. If there's no answer, Max will use her tail to pick the lock, or failing that, break the lock with her strength. She can always have somebody fix it later. Percy's safety is more important.
There’s a light tremble in her voice as says, ”I need a break from Earth.”
Caio doesn't have to think about Horizon's question to answer him. "Her feelings, for sure. I'm not a masochist."
Seeing how fast Connie wants to get out of the base, Caio decides not to apologize to her now, since he doesn't want it to feel rushed or half-hearted.
**Click**
Percy's room is generally messy -- the kind of mess of a high school student with a lot of interests and no real urge to organize. There is a large amount of shelf and desk space taken up by MTG cards, and the rest is occupied by magical journals of varying authenticity.
Max also sees the chalk outline of Indarius's side of the projection ritual.
What Max doesn't see is Percy himself. The room is unoccupied.
”Percy, where are you?” Max mutters, looking around the room. There’s a pit in her stomach as she fears something bad has befallen her friend.
The demoness closes her eyes. When she opens them, they are blazing red as she calls on her powers to see what transpired here...
Feverishly, Percy moves toward his bed, thinking nothing more than curling up in his blankets and riding out the last of this cold with sleep and rest.
Suddenly, a tall, dark figure appears in front of him. "I think you've finally reached your limit. I was almost beginning to think you didn't have one. Let's go on a trip, shall we?"
Groggily Percy begins to question who the figure was, how they got into his room, and wven thought to key his communicator. Though in his current state he wasn't sure of any of those answers nor if he was quick enough to activate it, besides it'd be a few moments before the others regained their senses.
"Get the feeling I don't really get a choice in the matter?"
The figure pauses, considering the question. "You could choose to oppose, if you think you're up to it. But your wards are garbage, you've succumbed to a spellplague, and you've exhausted yourself with whatever you were just doing. Trying to resist wouldn't be pleasant. For you."
Percy looked like he was about to argue against that to put up some kind of strong face when he felt that damned itch in his throat, he raised his hand to put something between him and the individual and sneezed to the side. Nothing like his previous ones where he accidentally shot fire or an icicle errupted from him. But just a regular sneeze that hurt, blurred his vision for a split second even. Even that was enough to seal his fate however.
"Yeah I... suppose you're right. But really spellplague? Not that I'm denying it, plenty of magical stuff even I don't know just ya know..." He rolled his hand attempting to prompt his brain to catch up with the rest of him.
"Exactly. Just as youth is wasted on the young, sometimes power is granted to those who have no idea what to do with it." The figure leans forward, and Percy is able to finally get a good look at the figure. Recognition fills his eyes as the intruder weaves a spell.
"Wai-" but the words never escape as the already Exhausted Percival Dorn finds himself listing to the side hitting the floor hard.
The man leaves Percy there for a moment as he goes to the window and opens it. A pair of short, misshapen creatures climb inside. They're squat, long-armed and short-legged with mouths far larger than their heads should be able to hold. The man then goes to Percy, uncorking a pouch and sprinkling some sort of dust over his unconscious form which becomes hazy and indistinct.
As the gremlin-like creatures start to drag Percy outside, the man mutters to himself, "And now for his friends..." He starts tracing additional chalk markings into the floor, setting wards and fetishes, cleverly disguising them in the mess of Percy's room!
The vision becomes almost real time as the man applies a pinch of the dust to himself as there's a knock on the door and Max's muffled voice can be heard!
"Nice to finally meet you, Violet."
The voice comes from behind Max just as the vision finally ends. Before she can act, runes flare to life around her!
The man sighs. "You are a demon trapped in a runic circle. I get to ask the questions. Except I don't need to."
He is an older gentleman, but still strong and handsome in that fortunate way that befalls some men. Max might be reminded of Sean Connery in his years after James Bond, though his hair is thick and well-groomed.
He ignores Max as he flips through a number of charms and magical devices on a key ring. "Let's see... This should work." He holds up a crystal made of some black material -- maybe onyx or obsidian. He waves it around in a pattern in front of Max briefly, and the stone glows purple first, then red, then blue. He frowns. "Binding it is, then."
She studies the man and his actions, trying to glean more of his intentions.
The man doesn't bat an eye at Max's bluster or threats. He goes about his work with calm, deliberate actions. It's actually similar to how Connie works some of her magic, though without the running commentary and subtle jibes.
He finishes his preparations and then finally looks at Max with an appraising eye. He smiles dangerously when an idea comes to him. He steps over to some of the Magic cards and flips through them until he finds one with an image of a demon on it. He pulls it out of its protective sleeve and sets it in the middle of the ritual circle next to the ward containing Max.
He mutters some complex and garbled words as the runes again flare! The card burns in a flash, and the smoke swirls about the trapped demoness! He finishes his incantation and flicks the protective sleeve at the circle, and Max feels her world grow strangely two-dimensional! She sees the world through a clear plastic film -- she remains trapped but now there is a strange but definitely familiar border surrounding her!
The man continues to ignore Max while he collects her prison and leaves Percy's room.
She sees nothing but darkness for a while, but she can hear him. "You haven't been a demon long, then," he finally responds. She gets the sense that they're moving rapidly, but is otherwise unsure where.
"I can give you more than freedom. I can give you answers. And you can give me more in return than you know. This binding trick would have unlocked more of your demonic potential. You'll be able to tempt mortals with more than sex and violence, now."
Leaving the base, Caio heads towards the dorms, intending to spend the rest of the night with Skyler...
The man's chuckle is deep and resonant. "Is that your price? All right. With the power I'm about to collect, I can make it happen. Your humanity restored. For the price of the standard term of demonic servitude."
Skyler is at her dorm. Her room smells strongly of leftover curry rice from her Indian takeout earlier. "Hey."
"The standard term is six hundred and sixty-six days. Servitude is just that: you obey me. Serve me in whatever ways I need. Loyalty and adherence to the spirit and intent of my orders as well -- none of that nasty circumvention or twisting my words."
The travel stops and Max can suddenly see again. It's a posh, high-rise apartment overlooking Halcyon City. "A short time, all things considered, to get your humanity back, wouldn't you say?"
The man's face appears large through the window into Max's two-dimensional world. "Then what is your humanity worth? Think on that for a while. I've work to do."
The window goes dark as he sets the card face down on the mantle.
"Hey! How was your day?" He asks as he enters, pulling Skyler towards himself for a kiss. It has been a couple days since their first experience together and since then they have been in a roller-coaster of events, so perhaps this night they could restart from where they had left.
Skyler returns the kiss and invites Caio to sit with her on her bed. "You missed it! Ne'veah got 'transferred' to another school in the upstate. Turns out her Panther Pride movement got AEGIS a little more annoyed than expected. Grace is probably next."
She looks him over. "How are you? Good mission?"
Caio is certainly surprised that AEGIS was so fast in dealing with the rogue catgirl. "They were fast! I just hope it will be enough to keep everyone out of trouble. About Grace... damn, I hope you are wrong about this, because Max would be really sad."
"I'm ok, I guess... did not make much progress with the sword still, but also needed not to call the wolf." He says, sitting besides her and offering her the opportunity to snuggle with him.
"We went to Fems's place to rescue Connie from her Queen mother and it was bad..." He then proceeds to tell her about the rescue and the struggle Fems and Connie were having, as well as the talk between him and Horizon about their views on friendship and leadership. "... I don't know, but I have a feeling that I'm more important to the others as a friend than a leader. Thoughts?"
Skyler gestures to his shoes, making sure he takes them off before allowing him all the way on his bed for snuggling.
"Well, I don't think it matters enough for a lot of overthinking. Why do you have to be one or the other?"
She looks off toward her window. "Sad about Femtite and Connie, I guess."
"Well, sometimes it could be necessary for me to choose a course of action that is needed for the team even if it will hurt one of them... I don't know, I believe I should try to be both." He says as he takes of his shoes.
"Fems hasn't returned from her home yet and Connie needs some time with herself I guess, but then I'll try to talk to them..." He says, but then Horizon's words return to his mind. "Do you think I try to solve problems that do not concern to me?"
"Isn't that a hero's job?" Skyler asks with a wry grin. "You know what I mean?"
She traces a finger around Caio's chest. "You have a big heart. It'd be a shame if you stopped using it."
At some ungodly hour of the night, a spark soars from the direction of the museum.
It grows into Femtite’s humanish form. She is dressed in a long puse gown, bare-shouldered with a side slit. She looks up at the girls dorm and slowly walks her way to Connie’s dorm.
She knocks, discovers Connie isn’t home, and busies herself.
She has her Halcyon Prep uniforms, hardly ever worn, and her bag of fairy dust. She folds her clothes neatly, places the bag of fairy dust on top, then sits on the floor and meditates.
• • • • •
Anyone outside the dorms can see a pulsating golden glow emanating through the windows of Connie’s room.
Connie walks in with tension visible in her jaw, a spasm of annoyance passing across her face as she sees that Femtite has gotten all dressed up for this.
"I wasn't trying to avoid you. I just thought you wouldn't want me hovering while you packed up."
Femtite stands up. ”I’m just glad we both agree that our romance is best ended, Connie.
“I do need a break from Earth, but after you called I thought it unfair to you to postpone this. I just wish I got to you before you met with Shin.”
She’s a little formal in her posture. Emotionally, there’s no sign of a breakdown being bottled. She seems to have a lot of mild emotions, but one stands out among the mix:
Relief.
"I kind of do." He says back to her. There is difference between helping people that want help and those that do not.
As she traces her finger across his chest, Caio slides his hand towards her waist and then, a couple seconds later, a little bit down, just to taste the waters. He was still a bit worried about their relationship regarding their aura link, but perhaps if they keep things lightly, they would be ok.
Connie's mouth works wordlessly for a moment as she tries to come to grips with what Femtite is saying. Finally she shakes her head.
"Yeah no. Sorry.
"You don't get to play 'stiffly offended' with me after all this. Oh, and let's not pretend this is mutual - 'cause I hadn't decided shit yet. I still had questions about what the f@&@ your family did to me, and I didn't want to make choices I couldn't take back without getting those answers. And I knew that I shouldn't try to get those until I stopped wanting to claw people apart with my f$#%ing fingernails, until I could stop thinking up so many ways to Hurt the people who f!$!ing did that to me, until I could stop-"
Connie runs out of breath, wheezing for a second, eyes still blazing. "Sorry, not everything's fully autonomic yet since I had to build a body for myself for some reason. Again. But you know what, even if I had gotten my f%%%ing answers even if I had gotten to a point where I was ready to decide to end things, it would still not be f*%#ing mutual because you made that choice all by yourself when you chose your shitty mom over me, Femms. When you made it abundantly clear how much more you valued her. And the way you're- " She turns her head and shouts, as if venting steam from a reactor.
"And the way you're here right now answers almost every question I was still too f!~~ing angry and afraid to ask."