"Hey, Anath."

  "Oh!" Anath jolts, a fragile smile popping up on her face. "Uh! Hey, Luna!"

  "Whatcha doin'?" I ask, leaning nonchalantly against the front doors to the castle.

  "Uh, um, well, you know. Just… taking a nighttime walk!" Anath lies brazenly.

  "Well actually, it's daytime, at least in the only place that gets a daytime," I say. "You wouldn't happen to be thinking of going there, would you?"

  "Why, um. Why would you think that?" Anath fidgets, her tail twitching back and forth behind her.

  "Because Nanaya and Melpomene specifically asked me to stand by the door while they slept to make sure you didn't sneak out," I answer flatly.

  "Whaaaat!? Pshaw," Anath waves me off. "No, I'd never do that, I mean, why would I do that? Why would they think I would do that?"

  I stare at her. One of the nice things about being a robot is that I've gotten very good at staring at people.

  "...Okay but I'm out of snacks, though!" Anath whines. "I just want to pick up some stuff from a convenience store. Nothing dangerous!"

  "Anath, you can barely even navigate the Dark World. Going out on your own is intrinsically dangerous," I point out.

  "I could navigate just fine if not for all the stupid mist! Our fragment is just choking with the stuff for some reason. I hate it."

  She wrinkles her nose, likely out of both indignation and the memory of a foul scent. I don't have any way to know what it's actually like to inhale the black mists; Melpomene certainly doesn't seem to mind, but apparently that's far from a universally held opinion.

  "All the more reason to stay inside, then," I say frankly. "Come on, you know you'll regret this later if you go through with it."

  "Well that's a problem for later me! Current me wants snacks! So I'm going to go get them!"

  "No, you are not," I say.

  "You think you can stop me?" Anath grins, puffing out her chest. "You can't keep up and you know it. I'll be out of here in a flash!"

  Well, she has a point. Which is bad.

  "Okay, but please don't," I say, resorting to begging. "If you go out there, I'll have to chase you down to make sure you don't hurt yourself, you'll try to run away from me and end up super deep in the city, then you'll get the bright idea to try to fight Fulgora again and at the end of it we'll both get beaten up by magical girls until Nanaya wakes up and comes out to yell at us."

  "Well, except for the end there, that all sounds super fun," Anath wiggles. "Now I really wanna do it!"

  "No! No no no, wait! Please, Anath? We're friends, right? You'd feel bad if you were mean to me, right? I wouldn't have any fun with that at all. That would be awful for me."

  "Then don't follow me!"

  "But then I'd feel terrible for letting you get kidnapped and Nanaya would murder me!" I say, all of which is technically true if admittedly not the primary reason I would have to follow her.

  "Uuugh! Well then you go get me snacks!" Anath groans.

  "What? No!"

  "Luna, I'm getting these snacks one way or another," Anath insists. "If you don't want me to have fun on Earth, then I'm gonna need a snack delivery service. Who better to do it than my favorite maid robot?"

  "I'm not your maid!" I protest.

  "Then how come you do so much cleaning? And cooking? And nagging? I swear you've already cleaned the whole castle, but you just keep going!"

  "Anath you have to clean things multiple times, they just get dirty again if you leave them alone."

  "You see what I mean!?"

  "No! That's just how cleaning always works, for everyone!"

  "Well, I guess you'd know, being the maid and all," Anath answers smugly. "Now come on, are you gonna steal me some Cheetos or do I have to do it myself?"

  "Nobody's stealing anything!" I insist. "But fine, if you get me some money, I will buy you some snacks."

  It is, unfortunately, the best way I see to follow the spirit of my orders. Anath's right; I probably can't physically prevent her from leaving the castle, and I'm not sure how much force would be acceptable to use even if I tried. And since Anath is Anath, I know she fully intends to make good on her ultimatum. Either I go and do a snack run for her, or I fail my objective of making sure she stays in the castle and doesn't get into any trouble. Fantastic.

  "I mean, I guess if you wanna be a goody-two-shoes about it," Anath sighs. "I don't see much point in following the law when our very existence is illegal."

  "No it isn't," I say.

  "What? The Earth Guardians try to capture us on sight," Anath reminds me.

  "Yeah but the Earth Guardians are not technically a legal entity. What they think doesn't matter. In the eyes of the United States government, I think we're in the clear," I answer. "Well, I mean you're not, because of the theft, public disturbance, and property damage, but the rest of us keep our fights in the liminal zone. And as far as I know selling artifacts isn't actually illegal? Maybe it is. I should look that up. But either way I'm pretty sure half of Nanaya's buyers are government officials anyway."

  "Who cares?" Anath says. "Get me snacks!"

  "Get me money!" I counter. "I know you guys have some."

  Anath groans and wanders back into the castle, eventually returning with a backpack and five twenty-dollar bills. I hope she does not expect me to be purchasing a hundred dollars worth of junk food, because I am not going to be doing that. I feel like telling her this would be foolish, though, so I accept the money and put on the backpack.

  "Now promise me you're going to stay here until I get back," I tell her firmly. "We have to try to be nice to future Anath."

  "Do we really, though?" she asks. "I mean, what's she gonna do? She doesn't even exist yet."

  Yeah, that's not reassuring. I think I only have one more thing to try that might convince her to stay. I open up my plating, letting her feel how upset and concerned I am about all this. She flinches.

  "Can you please stay here for me?" I beg again. I don't want to deal with whatever will happen to me if the others find out I left the castle and let Anath do the same. Thea hasn't completed the disguise she promised me and I'm almost certainly not supposed to be on Earth by myself, but I just don't know what else to do at this point. I don't want Anath to go out there and put herself in danger again, and I definitely don't want her to go out and put other people in danger either. Thankfully, her abnormally strong empathy seems to kick in, her tail drooping as she backs down.

  "Okay, okay," she mumbles. "I'll stay. Thanks for going to get me food."

  "You didn't give me much choice," I grumble back at her, pushing open one of our enormous front doors and quickly stepping outside. The howling black mists immediately block my view, but I can still feel their currents and I know exactly where to go. I make my way towards the portal.

  I wish I could say I'm looking forward to this, but I'm not. My mind churns with discomfort, the knowledge that I have failed to chart a truly desirable course for my master eating away at me on the inside. Melpomene's stupid orders will prevent all actions other than completing my task as quickly and efficiently as possible, and I still won't be able to do anything that people could misconstrue as the behavior of a real person. As I make my way to the portal, I practice moving and walking in a manner even stiffer and more robotic than usual, using halting movements that come more easily to metal than the motions I'm used to.

  I head through the portal and make my way carefully through the liminal space, sensors on high alert for Earth Guardian activity. There doesn't seem to be anything to detect, thankfully, as our fragment is probably the only one currently converging with Earth. The Earth Guardians don't really have the numbers to keep tabs on us, so our particular section of liminal space tends to get left alone just because monsters almost never come out of it. Barring us, of course.

  There is one advantage to making it to Earth, at least. The moment I step out of the liminal zone, my radio receiver is bombarded with countless transmissions, an almost overwhelming amount of data flying through the air in every direction around me. My mind gets to work translating, categorizing, sorting, saving. Having learned the tricks behind human encryption practices, I start cracking them one after another, gobbling up data that is almost entirely useless to me. It's the experience that helps, though. Soon enough, I'll be composing some packets of my own to send out on the airways and see if I can get myself connected.

  In the meantime, the sky gets brighter and brighter the further I get from the liminal space, illuminating one of the vast fields outside of town. I guess our fragment is floating a little further away from civilization than usual, which is probably another reason it's going unobserved for now. Since I know I shouldn't be out here for any longer than I have to, I accelerate into a run, spotting a convenience store up ahead of me where I could probably purchase Anath's preferred methods of upsetting her stomach.

  It's the middle of the day, so there are plenty of people around, which is vastly uncomfortable. Should I keep my run at human speeds so I don't attract as much attention? Should I just sprint all out so I can leave as quickly as possible? It's not like my shiny ass isn't going to get people staring at it one way or another. The default assumption for someone looking like me would probably be a cosplay or something, but is making people think I'm a person in a suit cosplaying a robot a violation of Melpomene's will that nobody thinks I'm a person? Or is it a superior way to uphold that will, because it prevents any association to the truth of my nature?

  I suppose I couldn't uphold the cosplay disguise under scrutiny; I still can't talk to people or do anything suspiciously humanoid because there's always a chance rumors of it will spread. So fuck it, let's get out of here. I pick up the pace, taking the road rather than the sidewalk as I accelerate well beyond a human run speed. People stare, but what can I do about it? I mean, I've already been seen on Earth fighting with Anath, so I guess there's a good chance the general public is already vaguely aware of me? Oh god, I didn't even think of that. I really need to get internet access. I'm completely out of touch with the world.

  The door to the convenience store dings as I open it, the teenager behind the counter not even looking up from his phone as I head in and make my way directly towards the snack rack. I collect several cheese snacks and sports drinks before dropping them all on the counter, the clerk finally looking up and doing a startled double-take as I stare at him, waiting for him to ring me up.

  "Woah," he says. "That's a sick costume."

  I do absolutely nothing. His smile gets a little strained, and he moves to check out the items without saying anything else. When he finishes ringing me up, I simply deposit all five twenty-dollar bills on the counter in front of him. He asks me if I want a receipt. I stare at him until he just gives it to me along with the change. I don't take anything he hands me. He awkwardly shoves it all in one of the bags, and only at that point do I put everything in my backpack and depart.

  It is only as I exit the convenience store that I spot Veritas, in human form, staring at me open-mouthed from the other side of the street. She looks to be a bit of a mess, honestly. Oversized, mismatched socks spill over the sides of her shoes, small tears opening up in her jean shorts as her curly hair spills into the hood of a jacket that I would have assumed it's far too hot out for anyone to need. She looks just as flabbergasted to see me as I am to see her, but of course I process all of my shock and confusion in a fraction of a second and continue walking as if she isn't even there. As I exit the convenience store lot, she quickly rushes across the street behind me, heading into the store I just left and probably interrogating the clerk. I, not wanting any part of this, quickly start running as fast as I can towards the liminal zone.

  "B? M? R?s????!"

  Oh, here we go.

  "H??????? V??????? D??????? V?????s!"

  A flash of blue signifies the transformation a ways behind me, and Veritas lights up on my magical energy sensors. Glancing back out of the corner of my eye, though, I find her not recklessly rushing towards me with weapons drawn, but instead chasing after me with a cellphone in hand.

  Hmm.

  I start chewing through the nearby phone traffic, and quickly find some audio data that's a near match for Veritas's voice.

  "Yeah, a gas station!" she shouts into the phone. "I don't know why! The guy at the counter says it got food!"

  "Well, I guess if I had a robot servant I might send it to buy me food," Aurora hums. "Is it hurting anyone?"

  "No, it's just running off. But it's alone! This is our chance to capture it!"

  "I think you're going to need Minerva or Su-san for that," Aurora says. "I doubt Minerva's close enough to respond, and I don't really want to bother Su-san. She's still recovering."

  "I hate this!" Veritas growls. "We're supposed to be the heroes, but it feels like all we ever do is lose!"

  "We win against the monsters, and that's what matters more than anything," Aurora reminds her. "We've been doing great in all of the convergences lately. I'm frustrated that we lost to the witches too, but I don't think that's any reason to stop them from buying food. Everybody needs food! You said the robot even paid, right?"

  "Ugh, never mind!"

  "Veritas, wai—!"

  The call drops, and Veritas puts away her phone and summons her weapons. God damn it, she's gaining on me, isn't she? That girl can definitely run. Based on her current speed, though, she won't overtake me before we reach the liminal zone, which means I can hopefully lose her between buildings. I do just that, veering off to the left the moment I pass through the boundaries and hiding to let Veritas overtake me. She hops around the rooftops, furiously searching for where I went, but she has no idea where to look and I quickly slip away, making my way back to the Dark World. I swear, I must be the unluckiest girl in the world. How do these insane coincidences keep happening to me?

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I return to the castle, half expecting Anath to pounce on me the moment I open the doors, but perhaps just as predictably she has gotten bored and retreated to the media room to play games on a twenty-year-old console. She perks up the moment I enter, though, and then I get my requisite tackling.

  "You're back!" Anath cheers, squeezing me tight enough to activate my shielding before groping for the backpack. "Did you get them? Did you get them? I was really good! I never went outside at all!"

  I almost, almost complain that she's being ridiculously childish, but I decide to charge my batteries thinking about why exactly that might be instead.

  "Yes, I got everything for you," I promise her, pushing her lightly away so I can take off the backpack. "Here you go. Please try not to make this a habit."

  There's very little I can do about it if you do. I suppose I can try to talk to Melpomene and get a clarification on where my orders stand in situations like this, but frankly that doesn't seem likely to be an improvement.

  "Y-yeah, sorry about that," Anath chuckles awkwardly. "But, um, hey! I won't tell anybody about this if you won't!"

  "That sounds like a much better deal for you than it does for me," I answer flatly. "I actually know how to walk around on Earth without getting into a fight."

  But of course, it is at that very moment that I detect Veritas's magical signature entering our fragment. Why would anything less happen to me? I should really stop opening my stupid, metaphorical mouth.

  "Hehe… um, well, do you wanna play games with me?" she asks hesitantly before biting the top of the first snack bag and tearing it open with her teeth. If I still had eyelids, one would twitch at the sight of crumbs flying across the floor.

  "I thought you didn't like playing with me because I'm 'too good,'" I answer.

  Veritas being in the Dark World probably isn't a huge deal, right? It's not like she can see anything in the mist, so there's no way she can find the castle. In fact, she can't find anything. She would probably get lost the moment she took two steps away from the portal, so obviously the only logical thing to do would be to turn back and leave. There's no benefit to doing anything else, especially for a person with no experience handling the dangers of the Dark World.

  Oh, who am I kidding.

  "We could still play if you want to!" Anath insists, pleading a little. I think this might be her attempt at an apology, but unfortunately I'm going to need to clean up my own mess before I come back to clean up hers. Veritas is traveling deeper into the fragment, because of course she fucking is.

  "Maybe some other time," I answer, heading back towards the entrance to the castle. "I have to go do maid things."

  Anath visibly deflates, but I'm already leaving, walking briskly out of the room and sprinting the moment I'm out of sight to return outside. Stupid, stupid kid. Her own teammate was screaming about how dangerous it was for her to be in the Dark World the last time she tried this, and our fragment is extra-super-concentrated. Who knows what the atmosphere here could be doing to her?

  This place isn't devoid of monsters, either. It's pretty close, with how long this place spends connected to Earth. Everything here has either already left or isn't planning on it. But that distinctive feel of an Earth Guardian's might draws them like badgers to honey, and from the flashes of wings I sometimes see through the mist, I know some of the remaining monsters are pretty big ones.

  A shout of frustration rings out in front of me, quickly followed by a coughing fit. The screech of beasts answers back, rushing towards their detected prey. God damn it, she's just a kid! I need to help her! I rush close enough for my sensors to actually make out her body in the mist, and then I immediately stop.

  I can't show her I'm anything more than a robot.

  I can't help her, I can't save her, because that's not what an artifact controlled by villains would do. Maybe, maybe I can get myself to believe that Melpomene wouldn't want this kid to be hurt, but is that really a bigger priority for her than keeping her secrets? Than maintaining the fine line we walk where she's horrible enough to hate herself but not so much that anyone she cares about actually notices? If the Earth Guardians find out I'm a person, they'll almost certainly become a lot more desperate to capture me, and whether that is actually a good thing for me or not it's always going to be a bad thing for Melpomene.

  Veritas feels the first bird-like beast descend towards her, swinging wildly in its direction, but the bird is a lot more used to this environment than she is and swerves around the blow, clawing at her face. I remain frozen, transfixed, as a swarm descends upon her, their strikes, while weak, quickly adding up as the girl struggles to fight back. What do I do? She'll notice me if I try to help her.

  "Darn it! You stupid… get off of me!" Veritas shouts at them, waving her lance like she's trying to get a moth off the ceiling with a broom. "Ow! Cut it out!"

  She finally manages to nail one in the face with her shield, but this only seems to anger the rest of the flock, their attacks getting faster and more vicious. I watch, wait, and charge my battery. I hate this. I hate myself for this, and it's making me stronger.

  God, I'm turning into Melpomene.

  "I said get off me!" Veritas roars, and an eruption of magic lashes out in every direction, a brilliant blue sphere of power crashing through the monsters, pushing away the mist, and clawing at my shields. It's not even a spell, not really, just a raw outpouring of power directly from her soul. Half the flock of monsters is killed on the spot, the rest knocked away and left scrabbling to retreat back into the sky. Veritas coughs some more, and then, through the break in the mist that she created, she notices me.

  "You!" she growls, and then the mist rushes back into the opening she created, blackening the space between us once more and forcing its way into her lungs as she gasps for air. She inhales it in full, letting it out with a sudden scream before descending into an even greater coughing fit. She doubles over, shield and lance dissolving in the air as she struggles for breath.

  I don't know what to do. I don't know what I can do, so I just stand there uselessly as she curls up on the ground, trying to catch her breath. She seems to be succeeding, at least. The coughs come further and further apart, her breathing getting slower and less desperate. Soon, she's taking deep, full breaths, enough to get plenty of oxygen even in messed-up air like ours.

  "Shut up," she hisses. "Shut up, already."

  What? I certainly didn't say anything. That seems bad. I watch her carefully but she doesn't move, she doesn't get up, she doesn't do anything but continue to slowly breathe, and I realize after a minute or so that she has fallen unconscious.

  Well. That's very bad, but at least it finally fucking means I can help. I rush over to her, getting a better view of her vitals the closer I get. Breathing normal, heartbeat steady, no visible wounds. She's still producing magic, though, enough to remain in her incarnate form. She's dreaming, I realize. She's having a very sad dream.

  I hesitate to call that lucky, but I think it might be. I don't want to know what would happen to her if she fell out of incarnate form in a place like this. Oh shit, that could still happen at any moment, couldn't it? I quickly scoop her up into my arms and make my way towards the portal, rushing back into the liminal zone. She shudders as we pass through, her body relaxing considerably when we make it out of the mists and almost immediately reverting to human form. That was too close. Now what do I…

  Time slows to a crawl, my entire combat suite snapping online and forcibly overclocking my processor as it interprets a sudden flare from my long-range scanners. An enormous amount of magic, heading right towards me at impossible speeds. Fear, love, and a little bit of rage. Her teammate that used both west and east? No. Impossible. Minerva wasn't anywhere near this strong. I've never felt anything like this, not even when Melpomene blocked a strike that scoured the liminal zone white.

  Even with how fast I can think, I don't have much time. Obviously, the most important thing here is to protect Veritas. After all the failures I've already stacked up, I refuse to allow any other outcome. Knowledge of my own shielding system pours into my mind, the adjustments necessary to cover the girl in my arms and reroute power to sustain it already underway. Should I take cover? Would it even help?

  Too late either way.

  The source of the alert stops overhead, the sheer magnitude of power radiating off of it nearly blinding me to anything else as my body devotes the vast majority of what I am to trying to figure out a way to survive. A crack and a rumble of wind pass over me as the sonic boom catches up with us. It is only afterwards, my legs crouched and ready to leap into any direction, that I realize I'm not under immediate attack. I adjust my processing priorities, and finally comprehend what is floating above me.

  Castalia. She's here. How… why… oh, of course. I'm sure Veritas's friend knows her far better than I do. When Veritas hung up on her, Aurora probably got worried that the dumb kid would do exactly this. And… I guess that somehow got passed along to Castalia. I… I thought she retired.

  Her face stares down at me, as blank and expressionless as always. She wears a simple tank top and athletic shorts, jarringly mundane compared to the fancy dresses of other Earth Guardians. As usual, her scars are on full display, her blind right eye staring at me with equal intensity as the left. I've always been fascinated by her, and this meeting is no different. She looks and acts so emotionless, but it could not be more clear to me now that she is anything but.

  If I so much as scratch the girl in my arms, I will cease to exist.

  …Probably. My combat programs don't consider the situation completely hopeless. Her raw power might be overwhelming, but I have options. A fully directional shield fed by the entirety of my magic reserves could hopefully block an assault for one-sixth of a second, enough time to retreat back into the Dark World, break line of effect, and engage in stealthy hit-and-run tactics that she would be unable to safely overwhelm while I still hold her ally in my arms. Purposefully injuring Veritas is also likely to severely weaken Castalia, as her magical focus specializes in north-facing magic. Enraging her, or especially saddening her, would dramatically reduce the efficiency of her output.

  Thankfully, I am not completely insane, so I do not do any of those things. Like Jesus Christ, combat assessment software. There is a much easier solution to this. Very slowly, and very carefully, I lift Veritas up towards Castalia, pulling back my shielding so the girl can easily be taken by Castalia's own magic.

  Castalia descends slowly down to my level, Veritas gently getting lifted out of my palms as she reaches the ground. The most powerful magical girl mutters a spell, quickly glancing over her ally and finding her safely asleep.

  "What happened?" Castalia demands.

  I say nothing, because there is nothing I can say. The air pressure rises around me, so in response I bend my knees, preparing to move. Ever so slightly, I tilt my head to look at Veritas. The pressure around me vanishes, and I return to a relaxed posture. Hopefully, the message I want to send is clear.

  I don't plan to fight if you don't plan to, but if we fight, I won't be fair. I am, after all, just an unfeeling machine. Castalia frowns slightly, but the oppressive magical weight in the air slowly lightens.

  "Do not expect to keep your toy artifact if we meet again in other circumstances," Castalia threatens. "Next time, I will take it or scrap it."

  Well. Uh. That's terrifying. But of course, I can't do anything but stare at her. Castalia and Veritas' sleeping body float up into the sky, Castalia turning to depart as she prepares to fly back to Earth.

  "…And if she's not already listening, please inform Melpomene I wish to speak with her," Castalia says before rocketing away, leaving me alone with the many, many feelings I am currently burning to nothing.

  God, I am still so incredibly attracted to that woman. Sucks that she intends to kill me, but I guess any kind of relationship was hopeless either way. Maybe if I get my disguise…? No, that would be stupid. She's like, the most likely person to somehow figure me out, and if she doesn't then I'd be trying to date her under false pretenses, which would be messed up. It's probably best for both of us if I stay far away from her.

  I turn around and return to the Dark World, heading back into the castle and making my way towards Anath. I suppose I should probably hang out with her and try to make her feel better. I mean, she deserves to feel a little bad for making me go out there, but it's not like she knows I didn't have a choice.

  "Anath, where did you get those?" I can hear Nanaya saying in the other room. I guess she woke up.

  "Um. Uh. Secret snack storage," Anath lies poorly.

  "You do not have a secret snack storage," Nanaya insists. "You barely even understand the concept of saving things for later."

  "Hey! I resemble that remark!"

  "Well, she is a squirrel, so maybe she hides food in little burrows entirely on unthinking instinct," I comment as I step into the room.

  "What!?" Anath protests indignantly before thinking better of it. "Uh, I mean, yeah! Man, I barely even know what I'm doing sometimes."

  "Well that I can believe, but I still don't think these were in the castle before tonight," Nanaya says.

  "Why not!?" Anath whines. "You never trust me about any of this stuff! Can't you just believe I didn't do anything wrong for once? You can't prove anything!"

  Nanaya stares at her for a moment, then calmly walks over to the pile of snacks, digs up the bag that the clerk loaded them all in, and retrieves the receipt.

  "Oh look," she deadpans. "Today's date."

  "To be fair," I say, "a receipt just proves that she isn't the one who did it. It was me. She said either I got her the snacks, or she'd get them herself."

  "You shouldn't indulge her like that," Nanaya admonishes. "It's just going to encourage her."

  "I'm well aware of that," I say. "Melpomene told me not to let Anath out of the house, though. It was the only way I had to do that."

  Nanaya frowns, but she nods.

  "I see."

  "Who is seeing what? I heard my name," Melpomene mumbles as she steps into the room, bedhead twisting her long hair in several different directions.

  "Anyway, to make a long story short, Veritas followed me home, stepped into the Dark World, nearly died, and I had to carry her out. Then I met Castalia. She wants to talk to you, Mel."

  Everyone in the room stops what they're doing to stare at me.

  "You what?" Nanaya scowls.

  "You what!?" Melpomene nearly shrieks.

  "I wasn't going to leave a ten-year-old to die in the Dark World," I protest.

  "No one is objecting to that part, but how did you run into her in the first place?" Nanaya asks.

  "Complete dumb luck," I shrug. "I just found her staring at me in shock when I left the store. She was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her."

  "And she just followed you? Alone?"

  "She isn't very smart," I answer simply.

  "Castalia said she wants to talk to me?" Melpomene repeats to herself. "Now? Of all times? You saw her? She talked to you?"

  "That is an accurate summation of events, yes. I'm glad you were listening."

  Melpomene practically hisses at me, a harsh rush of air exiting between her teeth as she starts pacing around the room.

  "What the hell is she planning?" she mutters to herself. "I haven't heard from her in years, and now this? Just random chance? No…"

  "Personally, I'm just surprised you made it out alive," Nanaya hums. "I hear Castalia was rather infamous for accidentally destroying artifacts that the Preservers wanted her to retrieve. The girl is rather overwhelmingly destructive as a general rule."

  "Well, she did threaten to 'take or scrap' me the next time we met, which was pretty hot," I say for some fucking reason. What the hell am I thinking!?

  "Yeah, death lasers tend to be," Anath chimes in. "Come on, what's the big deal? Your old teammate wants to talk to you, big whoop. Talk to her or don't. It's not like she didn't know where we lived this entire time."

  "It's not that simple," Melpomene insists, refusing to explain why because it is actually that simple and she's just kind of being a little bitch about it.

  "It seemed like a reasonable enough request," I say. "I feel like the sensible and emotionally healthy thing to do would be to have the conversation, since she's clearly someone important to you. So, you know. Obviously you aren't going to do that and we can stop worrying about it."

  "Luna…" Melpomene growls, so I play my best approximation of a stock whistling sound effect and look away from her.

  "Whether you talk to her or not, the fact that she was the one to retrieve Veritas is concerning," Nanaya frowns. "It seems like she's been getting more active than usual lately. If she comes out of retirement, we could be in trouble. I'll need to figure out some way of keeping tabs on her."

  I kind of want to volunteer, but I know better than to let my crush dictate my actions. Being anywhere around that girl is absurdly dangerous as I am right now. She's the one Earth Guardian in town that I have basically no hope of escaping from on my own, or possibly even with help. Even if I was fully disguised, being around her would be crazy stressful.

  "We shouldn't talk about this before breakfast," Melpomene eventually groans. "Like what Nanaya always says. We table it for now."

  "Mmm. Never make important decisions until full. Luna, would you help me in the kitchen?" Nanaya asks.

  "Of course," I nod. I'm starting to kind of enjoy cooking, despite the fact that I never actually get to taste any of the food. "What are we making to—"

  "I did it!!!" Thea suddenly shrieks, bursting into the room with a wild grin on her face. "I did it! It's functional! The first prototype is done! Come on, come on, come on!"

  Thea rushes over, grabs me by the wrist, and attempts to yank me out of the room, which I respond to by grabbing her wrist and forcing her to stay instead.

  "Thea! Perfect timing!" I say cheerily, ignoring her flailing as I drag her towards a chair. "We are about to make breakfast! You can stay here while we do that and try to remember how much sleep you've gotten lately."

  "What!? Tyranny! Fascism! Halting the progress of science is the truest indicator of evil!"

  "Well I hope you enjoy your villainous breakfast," I tell her, "which you will be eating in its entirety before we do any more testing. But after breakfast, I look forward to it."

  Thea pouts adorably, but I hold firm. I mean, it's not like I'm not excited. I'm very excited. Impossibly excited. Because this might be it. This might be what gets me out of the Dark World and back to Earth. As much as I've gotten used to living here, I miss having other people to talk to.

  But best of all, I'm finally going to have an opportunity to press Melpomene into lightening my restrictions, and I plan to squeeze that for everything I can get.

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