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Cantata left X's little hide away, and appeared in one of her own. It was a small place on a floating asteroid, but she didn't care to make it extravagant. As the Creator, she usually outdid herself for work related tasks. This was just meant to be someplace quiet and utterly out of the way. Just for herself.

Cantata appeared in one of the rooms of the small building, still wearing a large smile. That little visit with Xiao was the best one yet. She couldn't wait for this whole thing to be over with so that she could go back and see him again. After that performance, she had no doubt that X had more than enough power to take care of himself now. And since Terragon rarely thought to look here for her, she could easily claim to have been here the entire time. Unless the Spectre came for her or something, nothing could go wrong right now.


"And just where have you been?" Terragon's voice growled from behind her.

Cantata's smile fell instantly. s**t...
Slowly, she turned around to find Terragon standing in the doorway of the next room. His arms crossed, and a scowl on his black and white face. "Oh, come on...you never look here."

"It was the first place I came to." he replied. "And I was here long enough to know that you JUST got back. Where were you?"

This was getting frustrating. And she was getting tired of it. "Where do you think I was? Out screwing around with X."

Terragon's scowl grew. "I told you-"

"Oh, I know...the big, bad, scary Spectre is out there and could turn me into a pile of ash. Kind of like what he did to you, right?"

"This is serious." Terragon growled.

"Relax. Nothing happened. Nothing's going to happen. You know, sometimes I think Zira's right. You can be way too-"

Terragon moved towards her and stopped right in front of her. "Well someone's got to be the level headed one." he snapped.

Cantata glared up at him, crossing her arms. "Riiiiight. And you are just all over the level headed thing."

"You can't just run off like that. That being is after X. If you're there when-"

"I'm not a child anymore! I can take care of myself!" she snapped. "Nothing. I repeat. NOTHING. Is going....to...."

The anger in both of their faces fell as they noticed a warm orange light spread across the bottom of each others face. They looked down and found a tiny glowing orange marble. Terragon stared at it with wide eyes, and Cantata froze completely.

They both knew exactly what the marble was. And that they had a single second to react.

Terragon latched onto Cantata's shoulders and shoved her back, her body denigrating as he did so.





A second later, Cantata rematerialized in space, a good couple of yards away from the asteroid, and still moving backwards from Terragon's shove.

At nearly the exact same time, the asteroid was engulfed in an orange light, and exploded. A huge, concussive explosion that sent a shockwave in all directions. Cantata was blown farther backwards from the blast, and landed hard on a much smaller asteroid that had been floating along with her little home.

Cantata shook her had clear and looked towards where the explosion had been. The area was still burning bright with orange energy, eating up anything it could before it finally died out. She stared at it with wide, horrified eyes. She couldn't feel her body to move it. Not because of the impact, but....just out of shock.

"....t...Terrry....?" she whispered quietly.

Cantata just kept staring at the blaze. "....I....I....I don't...." she began, trying to find her voice. "...that...that was one of Khorne's special weapons. Eh....explodes....destroys...destroys everyth...." then she shook her head sharply and looked up at Zira. "If...Terragon was able to put a forcefield around himself then he might...I....I don't understand. Khorne's DEAD. How did one of his..."

"I...I'm fine." Cantata replied, moving to try and sit herself up. "Might have a concussion, but.......Terragon pushed me out of there in time to miss most of the blast." she said, looking back at the blaze. She was quiet for a long moment, just staring at what used to be her little hide away. It was...impossible to see if Terragon was still there somewhere, or.....

".....what should we do...?" she asked quietly. She could try to make something to combat the blaze. She...she could usually create something that rivaled Abolisher's little works of art. But....she usually just re-created whatever was destroyed.

A very fair distance from where the two had been standing, was probably the only patch of ground that wasn't engulfed in fire. Terry was lying lifeless on the ground, a circle of his clear force field struggling to stay intact around him. With it's host being....out....it was loosing to the orange blaze. Letting it creep closer and closer to the unmoving figure.

As the flames began to die down, and Terragon's form could at least be seen, Cantata relaxed. She wasn't sure if Terragon was alive or not, but he wasn't a pile of dust. That was a relief. Something could at least be done.

"I'm glad he had the sense to push you out of the way..." a voice purred from behind her.

Cantata's eyes widened, and she froze. A bad move on her part, but it wouldn't have mattered. A hand was clamped around her mouth and waist before she would have had a chance to move. Khorne leaned in close, whispering into her ear with a nasty little grin. "I wouldn't have been able to have much fun with you if I'd evaporated you. I'll finally be able to have all the fun I want with you where we're going. No grown ups for you to run to little girl..."

Cantata tried to fight, tried to rip herself free from his grasp, tried to scream.....but she could feel her body begin to evaporate as Khorne began the process of teleporting them.

Khorne screamed as Zira began ripping him apart piece by tiny little piece.

Cantata screamed as well as she was tossed away. As she hit the ground, she scrambled to put some distance between herself and me screaming mass of rotting flesh and hot metal.

Once she was at a safe enough distance, she stopped and carefully put a hand on her abdomen where she had been burned. She looked up at the carnage that was erupting, and stared with wide, horrified eyes.
It was...difficult to see what Khorne had actually looked like. There was only about half of him still intact. But Zira.....oh, Zira.....she had never seen the woman in such a state before. That feral. That...scary. She'd NEVER seen Zira even clost to being like this before, and she'd known the woman since they were both children.

Cantata was very still for a few long moments after Zira had vanished. She stared at the spot the two had been, afraid to move...afraid to speak. It took her a while for her brain to catch up with what had just happened.

Khorne...Khorne wasn't going to be moving again after that. After what Zira did, it wasn't possible for him to come back and come after her again.

And Zira! What....what was that? She'd never seen her do that before. And...did she threaten Khorne if he came after them again?

Then Cantata's eyes widened, and she forced herself back onto her feet. She stumbled, caught herself, then rushed over to what was left of her house. She kept going until she found Terragon, then stopped beside him and knelt down. She stared at him with wide eye's, forced herself not to freak out at the fact that it didn't look as though he was breathing, then tried to check for a pulse or...something. Anything to let her know he wasn't...

...she felt his chest move..

....dead. Oh, good. Good. Good good good......he was alive. For now at least. She had to get him back home and get him help thought before he DID die. Abolisher's weapons had a habit of making sure they got the job done.

Very carefully, she bent down and picked up Terry's upper half and cradled his head in her arm. The next moment, the two were gone.



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