Welcome to Gaia! ::

Megrez’s meetings with her friends had inspired her to travel to her planet again. There was something she wanted to investigate. Two things, really, and that meant two people. She had seen proof that Elliot and Melantha were lovers on her last visit, and a budding curiosity was leading her to investigate further. It wasn’t like she wanted to walk in on them doing their thing or anything (knowing her luck, that would probably happen anyway, wouldn’t it), but she found herself wanting to know more about their relationship.

Heading to Henshin Alley as was her custom, Luca transformed into Megrez and pulled out her phone, listening for the gentle hum that she knew was that of her world. Sure enough, she felt the familiar sensation of movement, and she was flung across the universe once more.

When Megrez's feet touched ground, there was a large, church-like building in front of her. There was, of course, nothing to tip her off to the function of the structure aside from its general architecture (prominent arches and spires) and the apparent grandness of the building, but it certainly looked important. The door was missing and all the windows were blown out, which was a little worrisome (what had gone through here and wrecked the place like that?), but at least it meant that there'd be no problems getting in. A quick look around to get more details on the setting revealed that, though the "church" had a good deal of space to itself, there were indeed other buildings in the area, some of which looked like smaller versions of the "church" and some of which didn't. She was in a city, to be sure, but which one it was was a good question.

Curious, Megrez wandered into the church-structure. The main room was largely empty, with the exception of a few table-like surfaces scattered about. Right on cue, the room burst into life, filling with people. The "tables" rearranged themselves in a more organized fashion, and judging from the decor, they were not tables but altars. Each altar had a statue of a humanoid figure sitting in an egg cup, and people were leaving offerings of crops on each altar. A man in ornate white and orange ceremonial robes approached Megrez. "It's a good thing you came back in time for the harvest festival. The people have been waiting to see you." After a quick glance past her, he added, "I see you are unattended today. Where is Elliot?"

Megrez heard Melantha's voice come from where she was standing. "He had to return home early for some political business, and then he went to another city for more business." She sounded unimpressed with the sheer amount of business Elliot had to do.

"What a shame. Well, we both know you're here for something more important than simply watching everyone leave their offerings and prayers to the harvest gods and spirits. Come with me."

The priestly man headed towards the back of the room, unlocking a door and gesturing for Melantha (and Megrez) to follow. After he went through the door, the room was dim and quiet once more. Clearly, there was only one thing to do: follow the priest's shadow into the now doorless hallway. As she went down the hallway, she could see a faint afterimage of the priest, and followed it accordingly. Eventually, she wound up in another chamber, smaller than the main chamber but still rather roomy. There was a single large altar towards the back of the room, and aside from what appeared to be storage closets, it was mostly bare. While she waited for any sort of enlightenment as to what was going on in this room, Megrez checked the storage closets, only to find that they were empty. After she had opened the third closet, the voice of the priest from before echoed through her mind. "The communion chamber... you should know this place well by now."

"Indeed I do," Melantha said from Megrez's position. Megrez turned around to face the priest, who set a crystal egg into a golden egg cup on the altar. "Every important non-public ritual is held here. It kind of makes me wonder... why isn't the Linker ritual held in public? It's a performance. You'd think people would want to see it."

"What if something were to go wrong with the ritual? People would know that the past senshi had rejected the present one. It would be a public relations disaster."

"Wouldn't that just happen anyway if something bad happened, regardless of when?"

"You're sharp," said the priest. "But I trust that you've done your homework and you understand your predecessor enough to make an accurate dialogue. Ask her for her blessing, show her the strength of your will to protect and guide this planet, then leave your blessing for the next senshi. Above all, state that you embrace your role as the senshi of Megrez. No, even more than that... connect. Connect with your predecessor, and with your planet."

"These are all things you've told me already," Melantha said.

"It's important to make sure you understand it. We have had senshi botch the ritual and pay for it dearly." The priest paused, then changed the topic. "I hear you intend to make the connection through a song. That's an interesting choice. We've had a few singers over the generations, but it seems that speeches and chants have become more popular recently."

"My power manifests as eggs. Birds come from eggs. Birds sing. So, why not try singing myself? It just makes sense to me, somehow." Megrez noticed a peculiar bluntness or flatness to Melantha's voice. Something had put her in a rotten mood before she had come here, Megrez decided.

Before the priest could continue, another, less-ornately dressed priest barged into the room, looking quite flustered. "High Priest Lorenz, Lady Megrez, there's been an emergency! Lady Megrez, you are needed back at the palace as soon as possible. Chancellor Thornbell has received distressing news."

"Did he tell you anything about what this news was?" Megrez could tell that the sudden intrusion was enough to shake the flat quality out of Melantha's voice.

The lower-ranked priest nodded. "We've learned something about Elliot's whereabouts, and they're not what you'd expect at all."

"Something happened to Elliot?!" That name was enough to get Melantha walking out of Megrez's standing space towards the door. "I'm sorry, I understand that rehearsal and going over my notes is important, but so is this!"

The high priest reached out to stop Melantha, and then the vision blinked away, leaving Megrez with a bit to think about. On one hand, she had finally learned what the Linker ritual entailed: communion and connection with the previous senshi and the planet. She did it through a song, huh? I've got just the thing, she noted to herself, ideas already bubbling at the edge of her mind. On the other hand, something serious had happened, and now Megrez had to figure out how to get to the palace from wherever she was. She didn't even know if she was in the capital city right now.

Well, if she was already in the capital city, one thing she could do was look for that main street that led to the marketplace that she had ended up on on her first visit to the capital city. She went up the street that the church was located on, and following a brief flash of Melantha doing so, turned right after a while. Following that street eventually took her to a wider street that appeared to be more residential than the area she had been in; another flash of Melantha gave Megrez a target to follow. Sure enough, the ruined houses began to look familiar, and after a while, she was in the marketplace area once again. From there, it was only a few minutes’ walk forward until she reached the palace and darted in.

As though she were walking in on a meeting in progress, Melantha and Chancellor Thornbell were already there inside the palace, engaged in a heated discussion. “We found the whereabouts of that missing trade ship, and with it, where Elliot really went when he returned home early.”

The consternation on Melantha’s face was clear. “And that means…?”

The chancellor hesitated, apparently aware of the ramifications the news was going to have. “If you recall our negotiations with a certain aggressor planet not long ago… well, the trade ship went there.”

“There? Why there, of all places? Was the ship captured?”

“We have no evidence that the ship was captured or compromised at all. If anything, it seems to have gone directly there. Do you know what this means, Lady Megrez?”

Even from Megrez’s angle, she could see Melantha go pale. “He’s got some connection there, doesn’t he.”

Nodding, Chancellor Thornbell said, “Most likely, and it is most likely not an auspicious one at that. If he intended to do anything good with those people, he would have at least told you, wouldn’t he?”

“You’re not saying… you don’t think he’s a spy, do you?” The chancellor’s grave nod was all Melantha needed, and her voice went serious. “I will wait for him to come back, and when he does, I will have a word with him.”

“No, you will not. We don’t know what he’s going to bring back with him. Above all, you must remain safe. I’ll arrange for someone to guard you till we can ascertain his intentions.”

“No, you will not! I want to be there when he comes back, and I want to hear what he has to say myself! Besides, my powers aren’t just for show! I can defend myself.”

“If you say so.” For a moment, Chancellor Thornbell appeared to be studying Melantha intently. “You’ve come a long way from that confused farm girl we brought into the palace three years ago.”

“Thanks, I guess.” With that, the vision ended abruptly, only for Megrez to feel like she was being watched from behind. When she turned around, Melantha was standing there, watching the door intently. In her right hand, kept behind her back, was a knife. Somehow, this vision was different from the others; Megrez could feel a bizarre, needling anxiety flowing into her from somewhere. She had a sense that Melantha had been waiting there for a while.

The door creaked open, and sure enough, Elliot stepped through, looking around suspiciously. Melantha’s voice echoed through the empty foyer: “You’re late.”

Before Elliot could respond in any way beyond the surprise registered on his face, Melantha charged forward with a roar that Megrez had no idea she had in her, and when the motion blur ceased, Melantha’s knife was embedded in Elliot’s stomach. “You won’t take my planet,” she said softly, then again, louder: “You won’t take my planet!”

With a gasp, Megrez reached forward, as though she could stop her past self from what she had just done. She had expected her to be angry with her apparently traitorous lover, but angry enough to try and kill him? That was not something Megrez had thought Melantha could do at all. The trepidation from before was growing stronger, yet Megrez could attribute no real source to it (aside from the shock of seeing Melantha, that sweet, domestic girl, stab someone). Guards seemed to flow in from every direction, and they pulled the two apart, but not before Melantha called up a large, super-level egg, just like what Megrez used. The guard yanking her from behind caused her to lose her grip on it, and it fell forward and splattered in a mess on the ground.

At the moment of the egg’s contact with the floor, a wave of foreign sensations flowed into Megrez, so many that they were nearly impossible to parse at first. After a moment, she was able to recognize them as emotions, and a moment after that, she could pick out what those emotions were. Much to her surprise, anger was not the strongest emotion. Pain and sadness were instead, and they were so powerful that they made Megrez physically stagger as tears came to her eyes. It reminded of her of how she felt waking up from those visions of the future where she had lost everything.

A blurry blink of tears, and the scene was gone. The flow of emotions was beginning to settle in Megrez’s mind, and as it did, she felt something new: understanding, an understanding she had lacked for so long.

She loved him. We loved him. I loved him.

She-we-I killed him.

I killed him.

And even if we-I didn’t kill him… I wanted to.

The tears did not stop. Her past self was not pure, like she had thought. They had both experienced that despair, a pain of loss, and even if Elliot somehow survived being stabbed like that and Melantha hadn’t successfully killed him, she had wanted to for endangering her planet and her people. They were not so different. Those brief flickers of resentment of her past self were unwarranted.

Is this how Penthe felt when I saw her on her planet that one time?

It all made so much sense now.

Megrez didn’t want to be here anymore, at least not for now. She wanted to go home, go straight to her room, and think everything over. The rush of emotions was so sudden and so strong that it drained her.

She would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious to see the fallout of this happening, but she would be willing to wait the two weeks. After all, she had a song to write.

[Megrez went to her planet on November 8th. She will not be able to return till November 22nd.]
[Word count: 2285. x2 solo bonus!]

Megrez recognized this room. It was the same stone chamber where she had torn that horde of senshi to ribbons, and the one she had turned into a monster upon leaving. Like before, it was empty at first. After a full minute, nothing appeared in the room, no dead Negaverse agents or other senshi or anything. Clearly, that meant she had to explore on her own.

When she took one step forward, she heard a bizarre, inhuman noise from behind her that sent a shudder through her body. Whipping around, the sight in front of her was both familiar and one she hoped she would never see again. The creature had Megrez’s ginger orange hair and her face structure, but its eyes were a sickly yellow with black-slit pupils. Its mouth was a torn slash across its face, revealing a great many sharp-looking teeth. Its arms elongated into blackened, wickedly sharp claws. The feet ended in equally dangerous talons. On its back were black, blood-stained wings. Megrez knew this creature; it was the monster she had turned into when she had left the room in her first dream.

Megrez backed away at first, unsure of the creature’s intent. It did not take long for that intent to come clear as the beast lunged toward her, swinging towards Megrez’s throat with one claw. Feeling the desperation to be rid of the creature as soon as possible, Megrez went right to her super-level ostrich eggs, throwing one right at its head. It flew disproportionately far back and crumbled into dust like a youma. Megrez heard guttural growling noised behind her, and turned around again to find two more of the creatures lumbering towards her. She was going to have to melee combat these two, somehow. She had dealt with clawed creatures before, and with more than one at once. She could handle it.

It was difficult, dodging their claws, yet somehow she was able to do it perfectly. After some precisely-landed blows, the two crumbled into dust. Megrez had no opportunity to rest, however; several more shrieks echoed from elsewhere in the room, and now a group of five was converging on her. She was able to slow down two with basic eggs, but the other three were gaining on her. She began to back up, further and further, till she hit the wall that she swore wasn’t behind her a few minutes ago. The monsters were coming closer, and Megrez wasn’t sure if she could get past them all unscathed, even with senshi speed.

Before she could move, something hit three of them, confusing the whole group. Boot steps resounded through the chamber as someone came closer. The new arrival broke an ostrich egg over the middle monster’s head, and it crumbled to dust, revealing Melantha behind it. “Get ready,” she said. “There’s going to be a lot of these.”

The two quickly mopped up the remaining three monsters, only to be met with more cacophonous shrieking ahead. The floor in the distance had turned into a bottomless pit, and creatures were flying out of it en masse. The words nearly flew out of Megrez’s mouth: “There’s so many of them!” The two of them were going to be torn to shreds. There was no way they could fight off an entire horde of the beasts.

Melantha showed no fear. “Don’t worry. Just follow my lead. We’ll have them dealt with in no time.”

Before Megrez could ask her past self what trick she had up her sleeve, one monster flung itself at Melantha. The Silver Millennium senshi stuck her hand out and tore through the monster, causing it to crumble to dust all over her.

A familiar voice rang inside Megrez’s head: You can do it. Sure enough, when Megrez stuck her hand out to stop a monster coming towards her, her hand plunged through it and it crumbled to dust. Newly aware of her mysterious dream talent, she knew what she had to do.

The two senshi weaved around each other in a destructive dance, tearing monsters to bits with every step. After a few minutes, the flow slowed and then stopped, leaving only the two girls and the pit in a dust-blackened room. Megrez opened her mouth to speak, only for Melantha to hold up one had to stop her. “There’s one more left.”

A deeper, prolonged scream came from the pit, and one clawed hand slammed on the edge, followed by another. A giant creature composed of black slime with the exception of its head, claws, and wings pulled itself halfway out of the hole. It seemed to be too big to get out. The first thing it did was open its vile mouth and spit out a foul black slime in front of Megrez and Melantha. Megrez took a step forward, but Melantha pulled her back. “We can’t go through that stuff. It’s like acid. It’ll burn us.” She took both of Megrez’s hands and held them tight. “This might sound silly, but right now, we need to think of people we care about very much. When we’re done with that… you’ll know what to do.”

The request threw Megrez off guard. How could she think of people she cared about when there was something big enough to eat her not too far away? Melantha’s instructions had guided her well so far, though, so surely there would be a point to this exercise. Her past self’s hands tightened around hers, and she tightened her grip back, focusing on Penthesilea and Megiddo, the ones she felt love most strongly for, the ones she had vowed never to lose again. Her focus then shifted to thoughts of her family, then to her daily life. She knew she loved all these things; people and the world had become very precious to her ever since she had seen the visions of that Negaverse-doomed future.

The voice rang in her head once more: Extend one hand. The outpouring of your love will be more than enough to overpower the beast.

Megrez held one hand out towards the beast, and Melantha did the same. A beam of light shot out from between them, blasting the beast to dust right then and there. When the light dimmed and the dust settled, the creature was gone, and so was the pit. Megrez looked to Melantha and realized that she was smeared with black dust, making her look singed. She figured that she was probably in a similar blackened state. “Did we do it?”

Melantha nodded, rubbing some dust off her face with her free hand. “Yes. That should be it for now.”

“Thank you,” Megrez said. “Thank you so much for helping me. I would have been way dead by now if not for you.”

You don’t need to thank her for helping you. You need to thank yourself for fighting off your demons, because that is what happened. You forgave yourself. The voice seemed warmer than usual when it spoke this time.

“That’s right,” Megrez thought aloud. “You are me, and I am you. I’m so happy that we… that I could do this. I’ll keep loving this world, and I’ll defend it to the end.”

Melantha reached forward and embraced Megrez in a hug, and as she dissolved into light, Megrez’s vision faded to darkness.

Luca blinked and she was staring at her bedroom ceiling. The dream had not faded from her mind just yet, though it occurred to her she was under warm covers and not in the stone chamber. She was filled with a sense of puzzlement, and left with some questions that lacked answers. Had she really forgiven herself and fought off her demons with her new philosophy?

She was still tired, even after a dream like that. Perhaps the answers to her questions remained to be seen or would be found soon. Luca closed her eyes, and the rest of her sleep was dreamless.

[Word Count: 1326]

All things considered, Megrez was feeling pretty good these days. Perhaps it was because she had been getting more sleep (her parents had asked where she had gotten her songstone, but they didn’t seem to mind it, since she slept better when it was playing), or because nothing too terrible had happened in at least a week, or her enjoying getting to mentor younger senshi like Sadachbia, but somehow she just felt good. Everything seemed to have settled into a decent rhythm, one that she could live with. She hoped that this rhythm would last for a while and give her time to enjoy it before the next great scheme entered the picture.

Over the past few days, she had been feeling a bit antsy, though she was initially unsure of the reason. She wanted Spring Break to hurry up and arrive, but blaming it on that alone made her feel like she was missing something obvious. She examined her routine carefully, and the answer finally came to her. It had been a while since she had visited her planet. She could do so twice a week and was not taking advantage of that boon. From the memories of that twisted future, she could remember very vague whispers of something called “transcendence sickness,” and while she wasn’t quite sure what it was, she became concerned that the unsettled feeling was one of its first symptoms.

In any case, it was a problem with an easy remedy, so out she went to Henshin Alley. When she tapped the world transfer app, the “song” of her world seemed clearer than ever. She got the sense that it was a gentle, harplike sound, like that of her songstone. When the world settled around her after the lurch of worldhopping, she was in front of her old palace, in the courtyard. Something about it seemed different from the last time she had been there, a subtle healthiness to the plants there that she hadn’t seen before. The grass and the shrubs looked a bit greener, if still in need of a trim (perhaps she could try smuggling some garden shears up there). She was about to walk into the palace when a loud, clear voice called to her from behind.

“Lady Megrez!”

An auburn-haired woman with an updo wearing a layered orange and blue dress was standing at the other end of the courtyard when Megrez turned around. Her eyes were a similar deep blue to her own. “Or, since I’m addressing you in official capacity right now, it would be Sailor Megrez, wouldn’t it?”

Melantha’s voice came from Megrez’s current position. “That’s right, High Priestess Audriana,” Melantha said, playfully over-enunciating the priestess’s full title. “It’s nice to see you’ve finally made it here. It’s warm in the south this time of year, isn’t it?”

“Not too warm yet, thankfully; everything is still adequately watered and will most likely stay that way,” Audriana replied. “Let’s go inside for all that official business, shall we? After that, we can go in back and drink all the tea we want. I’ve brought a special blend that tastes amazing even when cold.”

Audriana disappeared as quickly as she appeared, and Megrez was left with a choice: go into the palace for official business or head to the backyard for the after-business chat. She went with going straight to the backyard; matters of state and diplomacy didn’t particularly appeal to her at this point. She had a feeling that she would have plenty more opportunities to learn about those. When she got there, she walked in on Melantha and Audriana sitting at a table, drinking what appeared to be iced tea. “You’re right, Audrey, this is good!” Melantha said, and Megrez tasted something sweet and refreshing. I didn’t know you could taste things in these visions. That’s neat.

“Isn’t it? It took a while to get it just right, but it was worth all of the trial and error! Isn’t that right, Buulinda?” It took Megrez a moment to figure out who Audriana was addressing, but when she saw “her,” she felt silly for not having noticed sooner. There was a puffy round creature on the table in a frilly orange dress, lapping at a dish of tea. “I didn’t know that the puura leaf could be used to make tea, but I guess it really is more than just puffski food.”

Well, that answers that question, Megrez thought as she watched the newly-named puffski drink the tea. Now she could put a name to the weird creatures that kept popping up in the visions. Melantha reached over and gave the drinking puff a pat, and she gave a cheery “puu buu, Mepuu!” in thanks. She then said, “I don’t think it’s too surprising. Humans can eat puura, too. Here we use it to sweeten medicine all the time.”

“Ah, really? I never thought about that,” Audriana said before taking another sip of her tea. “Anyway, now that we’re out of that stuffy room, I’d like to congratulate you again on completing the Linker ritual and officially becoming the head priestess of Megrez! Congratulations on the new outfit, too.”

That was right; Melantha was indeed sporting an Eternal senshi’s buttwings. “Thank you! It means my work has only just begun. My word on spiritual matters is effectively law now. I commune with the planet through my link to it as a senshi. Having that much power is going to take some getting used to.”

“It’s serious business now. You’re going to have to pay attention to every little thing because it might be an omen, but you knew that already, didn’t you?” Audriana said.

“Of course, but if anyone will be able to make the most accurate divinations, it will be me,” Melantha said.

“Ordinarily, I’d chastise you for being a bit too sure about that, but you are the senshi, so you’re probably right,” Audriana said, gesturing with her glass.

After that, the two women and their tea table vanished, leaving Megrez in the empty courtyard to tabulate all the new information. The Linker ritual was apparently the key to ascending to the rank of the head of all the high priests and priestesses, and as the senshi, Melantha was considered an authority on omens and divination. Audriana seemed to be an important high priestess as well, and Megrez came to the conclusion that she might have been a representative from her region. Megrez began to wonder why there was such a focus on omens, but then she considered how largely rural the planet seemed to be. Any sign that might dictate feast or famine was going to be considered important.

As Megrez thought, she became aware of a sound of some sort nearby, along with the feeling of something bumping into her right leg. At first, she passed it off as a breeze and an illusion, but it soon became clear that something was there. Alarmed at the prospect of a mysterious someone somehow tagging along to her planet, she looked around frantically, then turned around. There was nothing at eye level, but the bumping at her ankle was as insistent as ever. Now that she had been jarred out of her reverie, she realized that the sound sounded a lot like a small child saying “Puu? Buu?” over and over again, which prompted her to look down.

At her feet was a puffski just like the ones in her visions; same round body, same nubby head, same tan fur, same big black eyes. At first, she did nothing, waiting for a first-person view of Melantha to guide her. The vision never came, and the puffski seemed to grow more impatient, now bouncing up and down on the toe of her boot. That was what finally got her to realize: “You’re real!”

“Puu-uu!” the puffski said, as if to say, “It’s about time you figured it out!”

Megrez put her left hand under the puffski’s bottom and picked it up carefully. “Hey, little guy,” she said, using a little dexterity to pinch her right glove off so she could feel the fuzz for herself. “How did you get here?”

“Puu buu, Mepuu!” The puffski did a happy little hop in her hand. “Mepuu! Mepuu!”

“Yes, that’s right! I’m Mepuu,” Megrez said, stroking the puffski’s soft fur and watching it lean into her hand. “I guess you can’t tell me how you got here, huh? That’s okay. Do you want to come home with me? I can’t just leave you here where there’s no food.”

“Puu… puu-uu,” the puffski said, as though considering the offer.

At this point, Megrez remembered something she had not done in a while. She called her phone to her free hand. “I hope you’re not camera shy. People aren’t going to believe me when I say I found a living creature on my planet unless I show them proof.”

“Puu!” The puffski tilted over on its side and bobbed its head a bit to its left, as if posing. Megrez put the puffski up close by her face and held the camera steady for a grade-A space selfie with the puffski. The puffski tilted back upright after the click of the phone’s camera.

“Yes, you took a very good picture! Now you’ve gotta come home with me. I’ve gotta show everyone!” Megrez tapped the world transfer app on her phone, and the puffski let out a confused “Puu?” that elongated in surprise when the world around them began to shift.

Back in Henshin Alley, Megrez began tapping out a text to certain people, puffski still in tow. “My friends will love you! They’re going to want to know everything about you. I guess you can’t really tell them, though, can you?”

It was at that point that the puffski said “Buu buu, Mepuu,” in a cadence mimicking a “bye bye.”

“Buu buu?” Megrez said back, but she was unable to do anything further before the puffski vanished in a flash of green light. “Huh? Hey, hey! Where are you? You can’t just… warp away on me… like… that.”

There was no sign of the puffski anywhere in Henshin Alley, but at least Megrez had a possible answer as to how it got on her planet. When a continued search proved fruitless, Megrez concluded that the creature went back to her home world. She did have one more visit left in her, so she could have gone back up to retrieve it, but she decided not to. It was getting late, and there was still one day left before she could consider her “other” (school) obligations done.

[Megrez went to her home planet on March 19th and can visit one more time in the 7-day period. Her counter resets on March 26th.]

On April 15th, 2015, Luca Krantz turned 18 years old.

When Luca awoke that morning, she spent some time thinking about how much had happened to her in the space of a year. Last year at this time, she was eagerly preparing for the first Order Boot Camp, fresh as they came and oblivious to what fate had in store for her. She had just met Megiddo, and she remembered not being very clear on what the Negaverse was trying to ultimately do. She was fresh and excited and totally unaware of how her future would shape her.

Only a month after that first Order Boot Camp, Sailor Megrez would commit her first murder, the one that permanently shattered her. From there, she would be pulled deeper and deeper into the war, swearing that “because of my wishing to live, and to not lose my place, I shall fall into madness.” She would go on to brutally murder a captain, her heightened state even alarming Penthesilea. Mired in Castor’s dogma, she would descend further till the darkness touched her dreams, producing those dreams in the strange chamber and culminating in the vision of that blasted dim future.

She had learned so much from that vision, not just of what the world could turn into, but what she could turn into. She had slain many a Negaverse officer with no regrets in that vision, and she knew that not everyone approved. A conversation with Mintaka rang through her mind, a talk of being told that her way was not the best way or the only way. Even today, she remembered feeling so empty that she embraced her end when it came.

Megrez would set foot on her homeworld and be baptized in the scenes from ages past. One such series of scenes would be the driving force behind her picking up the shattered pieces of her self. She would witness Melantha’s forgiveness and love and become inspired to treat others similarly. From there, she would seek redemption. She had apologized to Hvergelmir, which was as good a start as any, given the offense she had dealt.

Redemption. The idea gave her a new focus. Ever since she had transcended as Megrez, Luca felt that her shattered pieces were slowly coming together. They would never be able to make up the same whole that they did before, but they could come together and make something entirely new. It would not be fair to compare her new self to her old one; the two were too different. All Luca could do was put her new self together and march forward.

She could start by enjoying her day. School first, then out to birthday dinner with her family. Perhaps she could go one day without powering up or thinking of doing so and just take it easy. A brief respite would be welcome.

Luca thought that it was going to be a perfectly normal day: go to school, come home, take a short break, go patrol.

The “go to school” part went fine enough, though the principal gave her a devious look in the hallway. She wasn’t going to forget the Infection so quickly, apparently. At any rate, as Luca walked home, she thought she heard a peculiar noise, like many small children chattering at once. She ignored it at first; it was a nice day out, so why wouldn’t children be out to play? Then she realized that there didn’t seem to be any children around.

As she walked under a tree, something soft fell out of it and bounced off her head with a “buu.”

When she looked down, lo and behold, there was a familiar ball of tan fuzz with beady black eyes staring up at her. “Puu buu,” it said before scooting over to the tree and scooting up it. It was a bizarre sight indeed, seeing something with no arms or legs scoot up a tree like it wasn’t a big deal. When Luca looked a little further up, there was something even stranger: there were a bunch of puffskis on the tree’s branches, just puuing and buuing among themselves.

Actually, the weirdness didn’t stop there. Looking down the sidewalk, she could see that every tree on the side had puffskis on or around it. “What the hell…?” Luca couldn’t help herself. The first puffski she had met brought friends; did those friends tell all their friends who also told their friends, so on and so forth?

Feeling quite sure that there was a situation afoot, Luca tapped out a quick text message to tell her mother she would be home a bit late and then charged to Henshin Alley. A whole cluster of puffskis was waiting for her there, and she considered henshining somewhere else; but really, why would she have to protect her civilian identity from puffballs? So she transformed in front of them, and when she emerged from the henshin-egg as Megrez, all the puffskis turned to her. A chorus of “Mepuu!” rang out, and they all scurried to her feet.

The leader puffski jumped onto Megrez’s shoulder and gave the side of her neck a nudge. “Puu buu, Mepuu!”

“What did you do?” Megrez asked, taking the puffski off her shoulder and giving it a Very Serious Look.

“Very puu, much buu,” the puffski said, as though that explained everything. “Is puffy, is buu, is puffy, is you.”

“Uhhh… okay.” Megrez stared at the fluffy crowd in front of her. She couldn’t just tell them all to go home, could she? “I don’t even. I don’t even have any words for this.”

The puffski in her hand did something like a laugh. “Pupupupupu.”

“You’re laughing now, but this place is going to go nuts.” Megrez sighed and rubbed her face with one hand. “I guess you guys can stay around for a bit, but if people start capturing you or making trouble, you’re going to have to go. Okay?”

“Is puu,” the puffski said.

“I’m going home for a bit, but I’ll be back to see you guys a little later.” Megrez powered back down into Luca, confusing some of the puffskis (“puu?”), then left the alley for home.

When she walked in, her mother was watching the news. “Luca, take a look! Have you seen all these fluffy little things?”

Oh god, they’re on the NEWS. Luca swallowed nervously and said, “Uh-huh. I found a bunch of them on my way home from school.”

Luca’s mother said, “I found one and its baby while I was sitting in the backyard. I gave them some of my pudding, and I think they liked it.”

“That’s nice,” Luca said. “I’ll be heading out a bit later. I’ll try and get some interesting pictures for you.” She went upstairs, threw her face into a pillow, and let out a protracted grunt of frustration. There was going to be some serious damage control that needed to be done soon...

On planet Megrez, everything seemed so distant.

Megrez sat in the ruins of the palace courtyard, watching Puffy the Puffski scoot around and pick at the grass. It had been a while since she had been up on her planet, and she had started to feel the fidgets really badly. Figuring that she needed some kind of impetus to make herself power up again, she took the unsettled feeling as a sign that something needed to be done. So, she powered up, pulled out her senshi phone for what felt like the first time in forever, and launched herself to her planet.

Sitting alone (well, with no other humans) on her planet relaxed her, but also made her think, which put a sullen twist on the relaxation. She knew that she had been doing a lousy job of being a senshi recently. The girl who used to think of excuses to power up was now constantly making excuses not to power up. Summer job this, family obligations that. Sadachbia had shaken her out of it for a while, but she had fallen back into that peculiar laziness all over again. Why was this?

Megrez's world seemed to be unraveling in a subtle, insidious way. On the surface, everything was fine and normal. However, Megrez realized that she was in the midst of great changes in her life. She was 19, and a college sophomore. That fact alone somehow stunned her. The 16-year-old she had been at the beginning of her senshi journey felt like she was a lifetime away, almost as distant as Melantha's life, if not more.

Did people grow out of being powered? No, that was ridiculous. Megrez had said herself that she couldn't turn back from the senshi life. And yet it felt like she was doing just that. Everything felt so distant and unreal.

This was wrong. Treating her younger self's actions and experiences like they were done endlessly long ago or like someone else had gone through them was the wrong way to think. People had literally died to get her to where she was. To just let everything go would truly make their deaths meaningless.

Her heart skipped a beat. She had killed people in her early senshi days. How could she just act like none of that had ever happened? Why did it feel like the girl who stabbed a lieutenant in a burning warehouse and screamed at those who were repulsed by meaningless slaughter was someone else?

Distant, diffused, delayed. It was as if she was watching her past self float away. When she thought about the situation like that, a deep sadness welled up inside her. Watching herself shift and change with life's new demands was stressful. Change was important, she knew that very well, but that didn't make growing up any less painful.

Acceptance was painful too. Megrez had accepted Melantha's once foreign life as her own; she had to accept her younger self as a part of her, too. No matter how traumatic the memory or absent the source, she had to accept herself in order to continue growing as a person. Perhaps that would break her cycle of stagnation.

Megrez became aware of something warm and wet on her cheek, which dragged her back to reality. Somehow, Puffy had scurried up to her shoulder. At some point, she had started crying, and he was licking her tears. Arching an eyebrow, she gave the fuzzy round creature a poke. "That's creepy, Puffy, don't do that."

"Puu!" Puffy hopped off her shoulder and began to scoot away, getting some distance ahead before turning around and puu-buuing at her.

"Do you want me to follow you?" Megrez asked. Puffy seemed to puu in the affirmative, so she followed the puff for some ways. They left the courtyard and the palace, and eventually the city. After about half an hour's worth of walking, Megrez saw a majestic sight. A large tree stood on a hill, its branches probing the sky like reaching hands. She could see the beginning of new leaves sprouting on the branches; the tree seemed as though it was waking up from a long slumber. The scene made Megrez want to cry all over again, this time from joy. It was a small thing, but it felt like her planet was trying to send her a message.

As if on cue, a vision from the past appeared. Melantha stood before the tree, which was in full bloom with small white flowers, with some white and yellow fruit hanging off of it. An old man spoke: "This tree is important to the priests and priestesses of Megrez. While anyone can eat the seeds of the white fruit, it takes a certain preparation to eat the seeds of the yellow fruit. Those seeds bestow powerful visions on those who eat them, and those who are not mentally ready may find the visions overwhelming. I recommend eating no more than three at a time, and that's only if there is a dire matter that requires a thorough communing with the spirits of this world."

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you," Melantha said. "There are no limits on the white fruit's seeds, right?"

The vision faded as the old man shook his head, leaving Megrez standing before a significantly barer tree. At this point, she noticed something new: a small yellow fruit hung from a branch near her. It didn't seem to be as big as the ones in the vision, so it must have just started growing. Cautiously, she placed one hand on it, noting the smooth surface.

The tree's reawakening was definitely a sign. If the long dormant world of Planet Megrez could bear fruit once again, so could its senshi. Steadying her breath, Megrez released the fruit and faced the trunk, uttering a firm vow:

"I promise, for your sake and the sake of the world, I will keep fighting and growing. I will not allow myself to stagnate again."

As she watched Puffy scoot up the trunk as if gravity was a meaningless concept, Megrez put her hands on her hips. She would be back in action soon, and no excuses would get in her way this time.

Luca had taken a mostly investigative outlook on the Charity Benefit that came with the Star Festival. She was there for a good time, sure, but her main motive was curiosity. She wanted to see people all dressed up in pretty outfits and she wanted to see what was up for auction. Would she buy anything? Probably not, but she’d probably text Kayla or someone about how high the bidding went. Kayla would probably be disgusted about that kind of reckless spending, but she’d be interested all the same.

She was met with about as much glitz and glory as she could expect. Well, mostly glitz, not so much glory, as this was a charity benefit, after all. People tried to be humble even with all their makeup. Even as they prepared to spend gobs of money on this knickknack or that.

Luca decided she wanted to see just what the knickknacks were right about now, even if she probably wouldn’t buy. There was a curious assortment on this one table: an old clock, a letter opener (tarnished and dull, putting concerns to rest), a flask of some sort. On the very end, however, was a small crystal statue shaped like a bird. It was clear, but the wings and eyes were red crystal, making them stand out.

Her natural sympathy with birds drove Luca to inspect the crystal bird more closely, to the point that she bent down and almost got on eye level with it. At that moment, with no real cause, she felt a blast of emotions from deep inside her. There were a lot of components to the mass of feelings that made the overall perception hard to label. It almost felt pulling, like yearning but with happy tears, and yet there wasn’t a complete positive valence to it. In fact, after a moment, she almost felt like she was grieving for something precious that had been lost. She was getting misty eyed over this bird, and she didn’t know why, though maybe she could make a small diatribe about how a red-winged bird suited her symbolically. She joked to herself that she could have made a song magic with the strength of her feelings, but that was a much nerdier diatribe for a different time.

Trying not to cry for no apparent reason, her eyes drifted over to the starting bid for the bird, and the surge of emotions abruptly shut off. What the heck was this bird made of, diamond?! Though Luca had a bit of disposable income saved up from her job at the bar, she wasn’t plunking that much on a crystal bird. She needed a new game or a new shirt or something more. Anything would be more justifiable than a crystal bird. Even a plush bird, maybe.

Shaking her head to clear the dust from her mind, Luca backed away from the table and went to go find refreshments. Whoever got that bird had better take good care of it. Not that she could enforce it, but it better at least make a good paperweight.