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Philomena's surveillance had been terminated by an outside force, and she was not a happy camper. Missy looked downright murderous as she plugged her ears from the static of the speakers on the screens as 'Mena clambered in the back of the van to attempt to discern the problem. Txori sat, twiddling her thumbs. "You could help," the kitty woman said wryly. Txori smiled angelically.

"If you say so," she demurred, before opening the trunk of the van to get out.

"Where are you going?" Mena asked, wondering if the petite golden eyed woman was entirely sane.

"To help," she said, blinking. She fished a little necklace out from under her shirt--the silver charm resembled a sort of lantern. "Ilazki Gudari Power, Make Up," came her solemn intonation, and Mena watched cynically as Shimy's perpetual houseguest transformed into yet another magical girl.

"Is there anyone at the Cottage besides me who isn't a magical girl?" Mena demanded.

Missy cocked a single eyebrow. "Moi may like sparkly things, but really, moi also has better taste."

Mena snorted. "Guess we'd better give Shimy a call..." she said, watching Ilazki skip off towards the concert hall with a sigh.



Muse and Miranda followed after the dog woman on Eurus' nodded order, weaving their way through the slumped slumbering bodies and the merchandising tables, catching up to Kamiko just after she grabbed the ear plugs.

"Forlorn Hope Fancy!" Miranda called, her palms raised and facing outward in an attack position. The air itself began to thrum as she took up her flute and played along. The vibrations were quite strong, and the merchandise on the tables began to move as the tables shook, flyers and cds and glowsticks and t-shirts going everywhere.



Eurus beckoned to Eli. "Come now, we wouldn't want our mess to interfere with the slumbering of the innocent. Come to the stage."

"I'd rather not," Eli said, picking his way out of the seats and slumped bodies to one of the aisles, but proceeding no further forward. "Why go to all this effort? Surely there are easier ways."

"Yes, but causing a commotion is more fun, don't you think?" Eurus said cheerfully, throwing out her hands to indicate the scene. "Serving at the Empress' side is an honor, but it gets a bit boring."

"Not enough people to oppress?" Eli countered.

Eurus laughed. "Indoctrinated well! Well, your 'grandmother' was a top candidate, so it's natural she'd have feelings against the prevailing candidate."

"There's also the small matter of your Empress killing a kristi'os and stripping a contractor of their contract on false charges," Eli said, crossing his arms.

"It was treasonous to assist the kristi'os, proved by how much destruction she caused. The Kristi'os, they are not impervious to Chaos' taint."

Eli shrugged. "Neither are Empresses."

Eurus turned a piercing look upon Eli. "You dare compare her to Mayameer--"

"I hadn't realized anyone alive still knew her full name," Eli said, thoughtful. "Maya, the Destroyer, is what all call her now. Were you there? The last time the Empire fell?"

"That was more than a thousand years ago," Eurus replied impatiently.

"Contractors live many lives."

"And even if I was there, I would not remember it," she continued.

"Most of us are not able to remember our past lives, true, but there are those who can..."

"Silence!" Eurus looked furious, and Eli wondered if his wild theory had indeed been correct. "Eurus Gale Lance!" she hissed, lobbing a elemental roiling watery weapon at him.

Miranda shrieked as a shattered cd hit her straight on the side of the shoulder and the vibrations abruptly stopped as she fell slightly back, clutching her now cut, bleeding shoulder with her other hand. She glared daggers at Kamiko and moved as if to engage her physically, but Muse threw up her arm, halting the other in her tracks.

"Alale alala! Muse Ululation!" The CDs, which had fallen to the ground, began to thrum again, but in a very different way--it seemed as if the vocalists' voices were now raising in ululation, and ghostly misty forms seemed to rise from the ground itself, raising their voices along with Muse's own until they fell oddly, eerily silent.

"Now this is hardly fair! An army of iratxoak against a single girl?" Ilazki patted Kamiko's shoulder (though she had to get up on tiptoe to reach to do so), and stepped forward, with a little bow towards the other two contractors. "I am Ilazki, Light to the Dead."

"Vanth!" Miranda hissed, taking a step back.

"Oh, I'm not here on official business," Ilazki said cheerily. "However, Kamiko-chan is under my protection since she's my Contractor's grandson's focus, so I'm afraid that, although Kamiko-chan is doing quite well on her own, I really need to interfere."

The ghosty misty people began to step forward.

Eli dodged the weapon with a spin, slowly moving backwards. His aim was to draw Eurus out as Kamiko had drawn the others out, after all, and it seemed he'd been successful enough in provoking her that she advanced. Her stance was angry, and she fair stalked forward.

“Eurus. The East Wind. It brings evil, doesn't it? Disaster. Ill tidings,” Eli said, launching words like weapons in the air. He wasn't quite sure what had set her off just a moment ago, so he was fighting blind here. Hopefully something would make an impression. “I remember now. Zephyr was one of the last Empress of the Old Empire's Praetorate, wasn't she? Notus and Boreas were her children. They rebelled against their uncle, and left the Empire.”

“Old history!” Eurus said impatiently.

“What does that make you then?” Eli asked, and he meant it. “The other member of the last old Praetorate was male. Zephyr's mother was Aeolus. There must have been a Eurus in that generation...why is she forgotten?”

“Maybe it's better that way.”

“Nevre has a double-contract. With Elus, the captured moon...and with Olwyn,” Eli said, continuing to think aloud. “Your contract is with Olwyn as well. Do you not worry? A taint so great...”

“There is no taint!” Eurus cried, rushing forward.

Eli only backstepped further. They were almost into the lobby now...

“Or because you survived Mayameer, you think yourself impervious?”

“Again with Mayameer. Dreamers should be left to slumber!” the woman hissed, raising a hand. The flowers on the side of her tiara began to sparkle as energy seemed to collect in them.

“'For the soul is dead that slumbers',” Eli quoted softly, sparing a quick glance for the door. Just a little bit further...

“'And things are not what they seem,'” Eurus whispered, before closing her eyes and holding her hands in front of her. “Eurus Khamsin Barrage!”

Eli ducked and rolled to the side of the aisle, behind the last aisle of seats. Still, he felt the searing heat pass him by, and when he glanced back, he was very grateful he hadn't been caught directly in the whirlwind of sand.

**
In a rush, the ghost people (or perhaps iratxoak was the proper term) advanced, almost as if they were a wave. They split in two, half merging to engage Kamiko, the other half towards Ilazki.

“Hil'erasi!” Ilazki commanded, summoning and holding up an ancient-looking lantern. The wave coming towards her retreated, before being pulled in as if by a powerful magnetizing force, straight into the lantern, which flickered petulantly before becoming strong again. “Care to use my element against me once again?” the short woman asked Muse, smiling pleasantly.

The wave of ghosts coming towards Kamiko hesitated in the gleam of the light sticks, though it seemed less the physical contact and more the light that drew them in...

The light seemed to shred the ghostly beings to tatters, which floated towards the ground softly before dissipating. The ones who were not immediately torn apart by Kamiko's nunchaku-like use of her own glowsticks were drawn, hovering, to the lights Kamiko had scattered into their midst, making little defense against further assault.

“Very good, Kamiko-chan,” Ilazki said, applauding sincerely before turning her gaze back to the two Imperial senshi, who were looking distinctly uncomfortable. Luckily, Eli took away the awkwardness when he came tearing out of the area like a bat out of hell, high-jumping over and around the Imperials and ending up half skidding to a stop in front of Ilazki and Kamiko.

“Txori! Ilazki! Whatever!” Eli said breathlessly. “When did you get here?”

“I've been around,” Ilazki demurred.

Eurus came not far behind the kuppy, still stalking forward, and still incredibly angry. This didn't seem to bother Ilazki one whit, as she beamed at the enemy senshi. “Aki-chan! It feels like it's been centuries!” The Vanth's cheerful tone did seem to stop Eurus in her tracks.

“I don't suppose Zephyr is with you?” Ilazki continued. “I wanted to see her again for ages, too. It just hasn't been the same since Reeni--”

“Reeni's gone, and you sided with Sabra,” Eurus said harshly. “This isn't the time to reminiscence, Ilazki.”

“I suppose not,” Ilazki said mournfully, stepping in front of the Hytes and placing herself between them and the Imperial senshi. “I'm afraid this needs to end here. Go tell Nevre of the Camellia, if you are so inclined. But it isn't time for the battle yet, and even you all can feel it.”

“I don't see any reason to leave things unfinished,” Eurus said darkly.

“On the contrary, I see every reason to, Rose Eurus.” Eli couldn't help but whirl around at that voice—Shimy; Sabra Sabina, former candidate for Empress. Of course Shimy would know the ones chosen for Nevre's Praetorate—she might even have called a few of them 'friends', before they'd cast her out and tried to strip her of her contracts.

“I'm not afraid of a stripped prodoti'os.” Eurus' words were not kind, and even Muse and Miranda flinched at the use of the clearly derogatory foreign word.

“You perhaps should be,” Shimy said, entwining her fingers. “Little lamb, the phoenix led to the pyre—have you seen your death yet?”

The words were utterly nonsensical to Eli and, as he looked about, they seemed just as cryptic to all the others, but they seemed to have great effect on Eurus; she blanched, staring hard at Shimy as if she'd just now realized something.

“I could save you from it yet, I think, but that would be up to you. There is always a choice, after all.” That sounded a little more familiar. The mantra of every Contractor Eli'd ever met—the mantra of every Ti'ama.

"You can't change what's coming." No matter how definite the statement was, Eurus' voice still shook as she made it.

“To be young again,” Muse muttered; it seemed Kamiko's speech had struck some kind of nostalgic memory. Even Eli had to admit that Kamiko was a lot better at the 'power of justice' speech than he was.

“You know not of what you speak, child,” Eurus said, turning around nonetheless. “We'll be back, Sabra.”

“We'll be expecting you,” Shimy replied pleasantly, waving at the Imperial senshi as Miranda and Muse turned to follow their leader. “Soon enough, you may even glimpse an old friend.”

Eurus stopped, looking over her shoulder only long enough to say, “If you're foolish enough to embroil the encircling fates in this, you really will have deserved all of this.”

“Tell that to the woman who killed them,” Shimy said, her smile not reaching her eyes.

Eurus waved a hand dismissively, and then the three turned a corner—and they were gone. Eli could no longer feel the overwhelming presence of the three Rose-level Contractors' power, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Should I ask where you came from?” he asked Shimy, and she shrugged.

“Your mother called,” was her reply, and then she went off to pat Ilazki on the head. Eli shook his head, and turned to Kamiko, head hanging apologetically.

“Well..I'm sorry magical girl assassins crashed our first date?” the kuppy said, scratching an ear as he seemed clearly embarrassed by the whole affair. He brightened a bit as he added, "But you were wonderful!"

Eli blushed himself as Kamiko took his hand, absurdly pleased that amongst the weirdness of his life, he'd somehow managed to find a girl who not only tolerated it, but thought it was really cool. That even despite the people trying to kill (or at least horribly maim) them, she was totally gung ho about risking it again. "I'd be happy to have you train with us," Eli said, beaming.

"No need to risk a second date quite yet," Shimy said, holding her index finger up to her chin as she tilted her head to one side. "I believe Philomena ordered pizza."

"What, you can magically tell?" Eli asked. He wouldn't be surprised, honestly...

"No, your mother is standing behind you holding several boxes of pizza," Shimy said helpfully, pointing. Eli glanced over his shoulder to his mother's familiar smirk.

"I say we hightail it outta here before the relevant authorities wake up and try and pin the collateral damage on us," the cat woman suggested, thumbing towards the parking lot.

Eli just hoped that most of his future dates wouldn't involve half his family.

[FIN]