Minnie would’ve been surprised when Sadie led her into an alley near her apartment if she hadn’t been coming to sketchy places like this over the last few months when she’d had to power up to do her energy draining and stuff. It didn’t prepare her for when Sadie actually started to transform, though. She’d met people from Order, but she’d never seen something like this before. With the Negaverse, their clothes just went dark for a second and then they were wearing something else, usually a suit.

Sadie’s hand began to glow blue, at a ring that she was wearing, and then that light rippled over her, like she was underwater on a sunny day, and when it was over she was wearing a jaw-dropping mermaid themed evening gown that Minnie couldn’t help but think must have cost thousands of dollars if it wasn’t magical. There were also marks on her that were literally glowing.

“What the ********?” she whispered. Should she have seen this coming? Yeah, probably. The hints had been there, even years ago. Had she picked up on them? Not at all.

Sadie, or the knight version of Sadie, smiled in her soft way, and nodded, and put a finger to her lips. “Just one more second,” she said. “I’m going to take us somewhere safe.” She didn’t let go of Minnie’s hand.

Minnie powered up too, just because it felt right to do it. Sadie glanced at her out of the corner of her good eye, but she was mostly looking towards the small strip of the sky, her lips moving in a whisper.

Then, instead of just Sadie transforming, everything around them changed. There was no more dingy alleyway. There was more of that underwater lighting, and looking up, it looked like they were in one of those underwater dome things, like at an aquarium. It was bigger than any aquarium, though. There were fancy stone pillars, and plants, and the sound of waterfalls in the distance.

“Even more what the ********,” squeaked Minnie.

“I know,” said her sibling, apologetic, “I’m Pendour Knight, and this is Pendour, my Wonder. My,” she tilted her head, “Domain? You’ll have a place like this, too, once you purify. Nobody will be able to hear us here. That’s the reason I took you up.”

Pendour was looking her over, the worry clearer in her eyes now that Minyulite was fully there, in all her Negaverse getup, right in front of her.

“Okay, I guess,” said Minnie, trying to get out of what the ********> mode and into the mode where she was listening to what her sibling had to say now that they were finally being honest with each other, after years. She still couldn’t help one final “Bruh,” though.

She’d accepted the Negaverse’s Disney villain castle. She could accept that there were nice magical places, too. She just needed a second. “Okay,” she breathed, once she was focused on Sadie, or Pendour, again.

“This was from a half-youma General, back when I was still a Page,” she said, brushing her hand over the scars on her face. “The wolf. I never learned his name.” Then, she turned so that Minnie could see the healed mark of the large gash across her back. “This was from Jet, who’s one of your General-Kings, now.” She held up her hands, showed the odd star-shaped pockmarks on her forearms. “This wasn’t technically the Negaverse. One of my friends had a damaged starseed, I was trying to help him. It was,” she sighed, “Complicated. It’s all from the war, though, yes. All of the things that you’ve been worrying about for so long.”

Minnie blinked. She clenched her teeth. “Oh,” she said, because she knew who Pendour was as a person. She knew she couldn’t just say I’m gonna kill them, without getting one of those disapproving headshakes. Pendour already looked worried enough just because of the whole Negaverse thing. Minnie was gonna kill them, though. Pendour wouldn’t have to know. Who would dare put a hand on someone as kind as-

Minnie bit her lip, holding that thought for later. Later, when she was free from being associated with messed up people like that. Ugh. She hadn’t liked being in the Negaverse before, but now the thought of it made her want to throw up.

“Thanks for telling me,” she said. “I’ll do what I can to keep you safe, yeah? If I’m a knight.”

Pendour laughed softly. “Hopefully I’ll be okay,” she said, although there was a sad look in her eyes as she said it. “I’m stronger than I was back then. You’re the one being brave right now, anyway.” She walked over, wrapped Minnie up in a hug. “Chaos, it does what it can to keep you stuck with it. You’re the one who told me what had happened, asked for help. That takes a lot.”

Minnie smiled awkwardly, clapping her sibling on the back a few times and then stepping away. “I guess,” she said.

A moment passed. “So, can you help me?” she asked. “Mostly with, like, the aftermath stuff? I already have a dude looking for a Princess for me.” She glanced at Pendour’s mermaid getup. “He looked like you, kinda. Had a whole ocean bro thing going on. Played me the saxophone. He was nice.”

Pendour’s face softened. “The only Neptune knight I know with a saxophone is Abzu. He’s one of my best friends. I trust him completely, and I can check in with him, too.” She looked farther away in the distance, and smiled, and Minnie could see why they might have been friends. They had the same vibes.

“I gotta figure out how to tell the rest of the family, though,” she said. “I’m gonna have to change my name, but I don’t want them to think I’m dead or something.”

They’d panicked enough about Sadie’s scars. She didn’t want to make them deal with her just vanishing on them. That was why she’d started making the rounds with Sadie. “And I know I might lose my memories, too,” she said. She went quiet at that. It bothered her, more than she wanted to let on.

“Calvin’s a senshi,” said Pendour, and that got a “What?” out of Minnie. Pendour nodded. “He’s not as involved as I am, but we should be able to explain it to him. The others,” she trailed off. “Well, you know I’ve not really talked to them about any of this. We’ll figure something out, though. A way to let them know.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “If you want support in the aftermath, I can introduce you to some of my friends,” she said. “They’ve got a whole system set up for this. Places to stay, Mauvians that can help with your new identity, connections to other purified people who can, um, sympathize. New friends, in general, for when you start out again.”

Within half a second, Minnie was nodding. “Yeah, okay,” she said. It didn’t take something as dramatic as this to convince her to want to hang out with new people. She was curious about Sadie’s friends anyway, and if they could help with some of the logistics, that was even better.

Minnie hated logistics.

“Can you show me more of your place first, though? This is cool,” she said, because she had to admit that once the shock factor wore off, it was beautiful.

“Of course,” said Pendour. “I can give you the little tour, and then maybe we can sit by the water for a little while? Talk about something else. Then, I’ll text my friends.”

Minnie nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Let’s do that.”

She smiled.