1621/Sunbreaker broke the Sun

Sunbreaker broke the Sun
Date of Scene:	02 June 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Hinoiri Kirara, the Sunset of Sora, finally destroys the sun. Casting the world into darkness until her own sun takes over. However, as lost as she is in the darkness, all of the friends (and rivals) she'd made over the last year refuse to let her end on that path. In a brutal, magical fight, they peel back every layer of her anguish, anger and despair, making sure that she can hear them. Showing her that, no matter what happens, she's not alone. She's seen. They came for her. And, through sparkles, violence and a massive special effects budget, they get their unicorn back... and she actually learns a lesson. The right one, this time.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Bow, Sayaka Miki, Madoka Kaname, Double Trouble, Ami Mizuno, Usagi Tsukino, Amanda Faust, Jadeite, Rashmi Terios, Makoto Kino, Koji Silvia, Michiru Kaiou, Haruka Tenoh, Tsubasa Yuunagi, Takashi Agera, Mamoru Chiba
Tinyplot:	Sunset of Sora

---

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Early morning:

All over the city, magical people had felt it. A strange sensation, like the leylines were being tapped into again. Across the world, in the other two places where the leylines converged, the seeds Hinoiri had planted months ago sprouted. Both Eclipse Zones and those seeds were all tapped and, in that moment, Hinoiri siphoned a tremendous amount of power, with the power she'd already stolen.

Then, it was over. The weirdness was gone, as if it had never started. And ten minutes later, the sun exploded. It got bigger and bigger at a rapid, horrifying pace... before pulling back and imploding.

Then there was darkness.

Hours later:

Hinoiri appeared over the first Eclipse Zone she had placed. Standing in it, she raised her hands... and a new sun appeared. Smaller, made of red and yellow light. While the world was cooling, this sun appeared and filled the world with light once more. Warming it again. One she raised...

She'd done it. She'd destroyed the sun and raised her own. Usurping the role of Sora. Over the heavens, words appeared, strange, magical letters that those of a puella nature would recognize, and some could even read.

Hinoiri Kirara.

Sunset of Sora.

Now:

Hinoiri hovered over the Eclipse Zone, enveloped in its magic. All over the city, people were locked in mirrors, arms crossed over their chests in an imitation of Phantom's Eternal Gauge. From them, youma with the trademark red-glasses of the kindabads had formed, except they were giant bears made of stars, dancing on black stages and shooting out lasers of darkness.

Yes, they were, in fact, evil backup dancing star bears with sunglasses. Some magical girls had tried to stop her, to fight her, but within the Eclipse Zone she was invincible. Heck, outside of it she practically was now. A red carpet sprawled out from the zone, through the city. Inviting all who desired to fight her their chance... Or those who desired to swear fealty to the new ruler of the world to come and bow to her. She hadn't moved from her position, allowing the kindabads, who were all too eager to bow to an overpowering force, to work the Eclipse Zone below. Hinoiri sat on her throne of darkness, her body changed more than ever by the dark magic. One wing of flame, another of blue and rainbows. Body scaled, eyes like cats, a tail like Double Trouble's, a labcoat, the black and red sailor fuku. As she stared out over the city. Let them come... she had already won.

Bow has posed:
There was a plan in place. A crazy plan that Bow had thrown together after realizing some information he had gotten. He had taken a calculated guess that Sunset of Sora would return to the Eclipse Zone at some point. They were, after all, her projects. Her baby. And if she was anything like he was when it came to projects, she would check on it. And when she finally showed a pattern, he knew what he would have to do.

After discussions with Usagi and Madoka, Bow found a proper disguise, because he knew he would have to infiltrate the Zone to get to the control panel.

So. That brings us to now. Where a tall KindaBow was making his way through the Zone, bobbing to the music, going behind mirrors so that Hinoiri would only catch glimpses of him if at all. The tool kit he carries along with him is black as well, all to try to just blend in as he moves to his position. He's not alone in this task, a second Kindabad is with him as the pair make their way along the field of Hinoiri's court, past where some unfortunate magical girls had tried their hand and become part of the mirrored landscape. All the way to the Tower where the transmitter was and the ladder beside it.

Climbing up to where the panel is, KindaBow draws in a breath. He's going to be exposed here. And he realizes it. He's going to probably draw the immediate aggro. He realizes that as well. But. He's the only one that knows the system and has practiced with it.

Setting down the tool bag, he opens it, withdrawing his Tech Pad and a transmitter arrow. Then a nod is given to his companion Kindabad. "We're only going to have a couple of minutes once you unlock it for me to make the changes and then... well, hopefully she'll be more distracted by the attack than to notice us?" he asks Ami hopefully. "But you're up." Once Ami has unlocked the encryption on the Tower's security, Bow turns his attention to connecting directly to the tower, despite the drain on him already wearing him down with fatigue and drained energy.

A remote connection is made, and he starts to move the controls to set up the attack. The energy drain is changed, a turning and reversal of polarities, so that the leyline itself is feeding Hinoiri. He closes his eyes for a moment, a silent prayer to Brightmoon to keep him safe, and then taps the transmitter.

The floodgates are open. Send the purification.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
As worrying as the current situation was, Sayaka was at least glad that this was a day like any others. She had woken up, done her daily ablutions, dressed, and they made a short sprint for the cafeteria, trying to catch something she would like for her breakfast.

Being a Sunday, they didn't have classes, so Sayaka could set aside the time to map out how to help Bow with his henshin. She figured a place that would energise his magic sense would be good for that. That could mean finding a youma for her to face while he watches, but that plan is quickly discarded, too much that could go wrong there.

Plus with Hinoiri going on a magic-sucking rampage, that would just draw out her attention and she is not sure she can afford to be alone then. All these people ending up in the hospital... At least the situation with Mamoru didn't look good, and that other mahou, Rainbow Dash, she needs to check up on her too.

"Ula, want to come with me for a walk?", Sayaka asks the tiny mermaid, who in the mean time had been studying her notes from when she had been working on Bow's crystal. "Eh, sure!", the koi mermaid replies, placing them aside to focus on Sayaka. "Where are we going?" she inquires, floating up from her position to rest on Sayaka's shoulder.

"The Mitakihara Hospital, probably", Sayaka muses, putting her shoes and walking down the stairs and outside the school gate. She doesn't really have any competency as a healer, ironically given her wish, but she can at least be there for them.

She had walked across three streets when it happened. Darkness fell abruptly, making her body shiver with a concerning premonition, before it returns not that long after. A blue flash and she is the paladin of justice, Sharpsong. "Tramonto, come here please", Sayaka mutters in the language of Witches, and the portal to her Labyrinth opens, from which the familiar looking eerily similar to Sunbreaker walks out, her hair like a burning flame.

Sunbreaker... She had to take that name literally, didn't she? With a grimace, Sayaka looks around herself, noticing Youmas beginning to emerge everywhere as the city's lights came on, sparing her from needing Tramonto's help. "I want you to go look for any civilian you can find and help them off the streets, and if any youma tries to invade a building, push them off", she orders her familiar. "Ula, I want you to go home and stay there. Home, not the dorm. Brillio will accompany you." And just as she says that, the second type of Sayaka's familiars walks out, much like the first.

"O-ok. Stay safe", Ula says with a trembling voice, walking in the same direction as the Hinoiri familiar, towards the Mitakihara Ward. "Thank you", Sayaka whispers before rushing towards the nearest rooftop to get a clear view of the city.

That's when she sees her. Hinoiri, as monstrously altered as ever, upon a throne of darkness, looming high above the city, with a writing all too familiar behind her. Witch runes... "Hinoiri Kirara, Sunset of Sora", Sayaka murmurs... Hinoiri has absorbed Witches too, hasn't she? Sayaka grimaces as her mind makes a parallel with the Witch Madoka told her about, the conglomerate Witch harbinger of widespread disaster and able to manifest without a Labyrinth.

It's like she is looking at the same situation she was in back then, two sets of memories playing out in her head. For a few seconds, she is not there, she is not Sharpsong. She is Sayaka Miki and she is Oktavia, both halves of her looking at each other, one oozing despair just like Hinoiri is doing just now, the other powerless, but no less resolute to bring herself back from the brink, despite what Kyubey said.

She didn't give up then, she is not going to give up now. Her friends had achieved a miracle then, and now the same thing has to happen again. She is not powerless now.

She takes a deep breath, controlling herself, and bringing her emotional state under control. Sayaka looks at her friend. And then she shouts.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
"Hinoiri, you idiot!"

"Is this really the ascension you sought?" That looks to her more like she is falling down. "You can't tell me this is the dream you had in mind. Absorbing the power of Witches? Even announcing yourself like you are one. You have to realise this isn't you! What good is proving yourself over Sora if you don't survive after?"

"The Hinoiri I know was actively trying to reduce the damage her actions had on people! She would have never hurt them recklessly." But if she is like a Witch, then she gets it. Witches just lash out at everything without any control or inhibition.

"I am sure you remember it too, Hinoiri. When I was not too dissimilar from you now. Not controlling my words or actions, plunging deeper and deeper into my despair. I was out of control, and despite hurting you, you stuck by my side until the very end. Until I turned into a monster."

Than is when Hinoiri, and possibly others, can start feeling the space around them changing and shuddering, like a shroud is being place upon reality, hiding what it's about to happen from the eyes of the unaccostumed. A concert hall is in its place, just with a small modification: in the middle of it, just short of the orchestra there is a koi pond, not unlike the one Ula was first found in.

"You know, Hinoiri, you prolonged my days of hope as much as you could back then. I really cherish the time we spent together, and you risked to have it all go south quickly when you decided to reveal you were Sunbreaker."

A ripple through the concert hall when Oktavia's figure appears on the window panels. "And then of course, my despair reached a peak, and you ran away. I was paralised too that day, and I had the fact was 'me' my friends were fighting to glue me there."

"Witches spread curses, and I was no exception. That was all I kept doing, and between the three of us, I just couldn't understand myself and the curse only kept getting worse, with you as its major obstacle."

"You are my friend, Hinoiri. I want you come back. Just like I have started to hope again! Because it is thanks to you that I have stopped seeing things so black and white! Had you not had the bravery to come out as Sunbreaker, I wouldn't have learnt that! But that is why I have seen you are better than you think you are, and it is that curse turned hope I am going to use to get my friend back!"

Just as Sayaka finishes saying that, the light of her Soul Gem gets considerably dimmer and the water of the pond multiplies and spreads, erupting and forming a shape that some have seen before, the mistress of this Labyrinth, the mermaid Witch

https://ibb.co/cyVTjKf

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    The Sun is gone, and the Witches are afoot. One very fluffy pink Witch can be felt nearby, exerting her will upon the world in spite of Sunset's now world-spanning power. It's hard to tell just how long she's been there, but when she makes her presence known it's very obvious. At first she's seen in silhouette, backlit by a mysterious light. If one squints and looks closely, they might just barely make out the presence of two tiny little fairies hovering around her.

    Hope Witch is standing atop heptagonal platform, which has a flapping wing at each vertex and a line of open, moving eyes on each side. Along the bottom is, apparently, a set of seven speakers. In the middle of the platform is a vague shape that could only be a microphone stand, from the way Madoka's shadow is standing close and speaking into it. When she does speak, her voice is amplified, complete with the slight tinniness that comes from using a PA system. It also kinda seems like she's facing away from the Eclipse Zone, somehow?

    "Sunny-chan, this is an intervention. We're doing this because we care. We know you've had a rough life, but this is not the answer. I'll give you one last chance to turn this around: If you take one step further..." Pause. "... She's already stepping forward isn't she? She's probably charging us. I'm not even going to look. Okay, here we go. It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining. The birds are--"

"Doka-chi the sun literally went out, and I don't really hear any birds singing."

"But I..." Heavy sigh. "Okay, okay. Scrap that whole angle. We're going for Plan B! 1 2 3 4!"

    At the end of the countdown, two spotlights shine onto the platform from seemingly nowhere and the music immediately starts. One rests upon Brai, who is playing a tiny drumset with a stoic face that only just barely hides her 'oh my god why am I doing this' feels. For all of her loathing, she's actually keeping the rhythm fairly well. Lydian, meanwhile, is shredding her tiny electric guitar with so much enthusiasm that one might (rightly) suspect Plan B was her preference to begin with. Madoka is still in silhouette. Lydian opens with the back-up vocals, but Madoka sings the main parts.

(Hatched from our dreams and hope!)

o/` You fell far, you've burnt up many of our buddies
We'll reverse the fates of our dear mahoumies o/`

    The light from nowhere now shines on Hope Witch as she turns around, doing the V-across eyes thing with the brightest smile. If she feels any reservations about the sudden musical number, one would never be able to tell from her sheer enthusiasm. She's even dancing a little as she holds her eldritch microphone and sings.

(This is not a joke)

o/` Understand I'm different than the Doka you've seen before
I'm a fluffy disaster bearing ra~inbow war! o/`

o/` We will not
Let this stand
We will ruin your evil plans o/`

    Lydian now takes center stage as the song enters an instrumental phase. Hope Witch pulls a necklace from behind her collar, which has both a pearl and a pearlescent locket, the latter being the Humpty Lock. Madoka asks herself mentally, or rather the angry X-Chara inside of her, Are you ready, Gretchen-chan? This might hurt a bit...

    I mean it's a little late to back out now, dummy! You already started the song!

    Right, right. There was never any backing out of this. Not really.

    Madoka makes a heart shape with her hands and shouts, "Negative Heart: Lock on!"

    A beam of heart outlines flies out of Madoka's hands and... seemingly vanishes into nothing? No, there's some weird spacial distortion that Hope Witch just fired into. This is apparently part of the plan?

    "OPEN HEART!"

    From Madoka's hands erupts what could only be described as an apocalypse of rainbows and sparkles. Far too wide to be a beam, far too fast to be a cloud. It roars from her tiny heart-gesturing hands and into the spatial distortion. Moments later, the mysterious light that has been covering her stage is overtaken and replaced by that same purifying rainbow light.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    If Gretchen's Labyrinth had 5% dark energy before, it has 200% purification now. The X-Chara keeps her opinions about this situation to herself. For the moment she's hiding deep within Madoka's heart and using it as a shield to not get completely owned by her Bearer's power, but it's a little hard to actually do that when she's also the Chara being used?! She's having a rough time and that's all there is to really say about that.

    Near a preplanned attack point, another spatial distortion opens, vomiting rainbow sparkle feelgood magic directly into the leyline. Normally the Open Heart does two things: Traps the target in a beam of heart outlines and then opens the heart of the target, possibly leaving them open to even more purification powers from others. How well this affects Sunset of Sora, well... they're about to find out aren't they?

Double Trouble has posed:
    Double Trouble had been having a hard time. Their girlfriend was too busy destroying the sun to pay attention to them. They missed her. They'd snagged her book and pendant from the dorm room before they left, keeping the book safely hidden and wearing the pendant just to keep her close. Hinoiri had drained all their magic and so they were unable to shift. They'd had to resort to costuming and makeup just to go out in public, so they mostly just didn't.
    They were bored. But when they felt that thrum of magic throughout the city and everything went dark? Well they knew it was their girl. From the moment she'd seen that blank page and cracked, this moment was inevitable. And then? Then she did it with such dramatic flair. They were so proud.
    Now it was time for them to take their rightful place by her side. Which is why they were walking down the red carpet toward her throne dressed just as themselves in their usual mesh bodysuit, with the pendant dangling from her neck. They looked up at Hinoiri on her shadowy throne and shouted, "I like what you've done with the place, but it's missing something, ME!"
    If there were stairs they would climb them. "I belong at your side! I AM YOUR CONSORT!" They scream. After all of that, here they were, still loyal.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami was there. Walking alongside the kindabad that was Bow is another kindabad that was of reasonably short height. Unlike him she had been able to utilize the disguise pen to create the costume she was now in, so if there was an issue of looking realistic, hers was likely more realistic than his. At the very least she was able to carry the Mercury computer along with her in the little subspace pocket that she typically kept it stored in, so there was no obvious outside evidence that she was anything other than what she currently appeared.

"Got got it," Ami assures Bow as she withdraws the Mercury computer to begin typing on it frantically. The encryption she had managed to decipher the last time they had gotten this close was already preloaded which aided in making the takedown of the tower far quicker than it otherwise would. Whether or not the others noticed their odd behavior was something she couldn't keep her eyes peeled for. It was up to him to cover her back. Within only a short amount of time she adds, "I've got it taken care of!"

"Ready to send her an unpleasant surprise whenever you are!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Earlier:

The sun went out. The sun imploded. Usagi hadn't witnessed that part, not directly - she'd been in Mamoru's hospital room, where walls and roofing more than blocked it, but the television in his hospital had swapped to the news, as every channel started broadcasting an emergency array of news -

The government couldn't explain. The news couldn't explain. Scientists, couldn't explain. They could only proclaim that it wasn't possible for the sun to really be gone, that it must be some kind of mass hallucination, even as others begin to panic over some kind of end of the world disaster and Usagi -

Usagi, and the Shitennou, could all feel it. Hinoiri at some grand distance, coming closer. There was time. There was time.

"She blew out the sun," Usagi was muttering in disbelief when she trades places in the hospital with Kunzite, Zoisite, and Nephrite, all three in henshin, all three prepared to defend Mamoru and the hospital. Luna had been brought to the hospital by Naru - she hadn't need to be alerted to the situation, no one needed to be alerted to the situation when the sun went out - and she was going to camp out in Molly Skyline's room, to give the Device Mage an update on the situation and keep her company, because no one was feeling particularly safe when the sun has gone out.

"Makoto-chan, Tamaki-kun, you're with me. Let's meet the others, Bow, Madoka-chan, and Ami-chan will be there too!"

Now.

Saior Moon, Sailor Jupiter, and Jadeite cross the red carpet together, Sailor Moon at the front, flanked by her friends - her guardian and the guardian of her love. The Moon Stick shines in the red-and-yellow light of this new moon, and her expression is one of stubborn defiance.

Sayaka makes an emotional plea. Madoka sings out an intervention.

Sailor Moon? Usagi?

The Silver Crystal glows in it's place in the Moon Stick as she raises it high, and her skirt flows from red to white, her blows twist into gold embroidery, as the human girl becomes a Lunarian Princess, blond hair now trailing silver, long as her skirts, longer.

She raises the Moon Stick.

"Hinoiri, you once told me that you had rules. That you wanted to do things a certain way. But this? This isn't who you are. I refuse to believe that! You need to come back to yourself now, while you still can! You need to look at what you've done and realize that it's not too late to fix it!"

And she sweeps out her hand, as the call to fire is launched, and carves into the air a golden circle.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

The golden circle fills with light, silver beams and mists surge through the - nothing?

No, it's a spatial distortion, just as planned.

Amanda Faust has posed:
THAT MORNING:
    Amy wakes up with a sense of unease, a feeling of wrongness. She's not sure what it means. Is she sick? Is that coming early? She has a snack and tries to distract herself with manga.

    And then people are shouting about the sun, and she looks outside, and--

    Stares up in horror. Oh shit, the Sun is going Red Giant, the world really is going to end because of magic stuff they failed to stop. At least it will probably be quick. And it'll kill her Witch, too.

    She barely has time to think about that before the Sun implodes and everything goes dark and the world does not end in hot, firey doom.

    No, the apocalypse was way weirder.

NOW:
    Amanda had previously read of the plan to take down Sunbreaker, or Sunset (the Boss Titles in the sky won't let her forget, she can at least read __N____ K__A_A / S_NS__ __ S__A and can guess what it says. Actually, clear Witch runes visible for this long give Amy a chance to add to her cipher); they're just going to have to move up the timetable!

    Magical Rocket Girl Red stands atop a building, beyond the edge of the Eclipse Zone. She's got some kind of artillery like a howitzer or something set up, and sighted on the distant target, who did her the favor of putting her throne high in the air.

    The shield should be going down aaaaaaany moment now.

    Aaaaany wait what on Earth?

    Amy's mouth hangs open as she watches the musical, magical attacks unfold in the distance through the scope. And then she can't help but smile. Heck yeah, now this is magical girl stuff!

    She will join them momentarily!

Jadeite has posed:
There are some times that Jadeite was glad his second life started in the American midwest, where there were sometimes the kind of blizzards that got so cold that you could feel your nose hairs when you breathed. The sun going out was DEFINITELY one of those times. He'd left his prince with the other Shittenou to keep him warm and safe and left with Usagi; they had a job to do, a Mamoru to re-empower, and a sky to return light to.

Now a new sun roared blood red and bruise yellow in the sky, and the one who had made it twinkled like a second morning star beside it.

Tamaki had rested and eaten and slept and prepared, hoarding every drop of magic possible for this day.

"Glory of the Snow," he begins casting, preparing shields of ice for Princess Serenity and all those around her; he may not have the firepower (icepower?) to help with the battle, but he'll be damned if he lets someone else suffer the kind of burns that put Mamoru in the hospital!

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Visiting Molly is always rough on the emotions. This was the girl who'd been her first friend, who'd done her best to cheer *Rashmi* up when Sunbreaker laid *her* low. Who'd picked a fight on her friend's behalf, and as a consequence spent more days than most honestly believing she was about to die.

And now here Molly is, once more handed the fuzzy end of the lollipop by Sunbreaker, and Rashmi is trying to keep it together enough to remember the sketch of the plan, and have the heart to follow through on her part in it.

Then the sky darkens, and panic starts to filer in from outside the door, and Rashmi knows, she *knows* it can't be anyone else. Even the *actually* arrogant and all-powerful ones know better.

When Usagi updates her, all she can answer with is a resigned nod, turning back to the girl in the bed. "Looks like it's starting," she says to her first friend. "Think hopeful thoughts, okay? Because if we win you'll be out of here by Tuesday."

Then she henshins, carefully opens the window, then closes it behind her, and flies off, in search of the epicenter of what looks to be the end of the world.

Red carpets, a garish throne, and Sailor Giga Charizard, being supplicated to by an unfamiliar lizard in the middle of an Eclipse Zone.

"...Why would I have expected any different," she mutters to herself... As Sayaka and Hope Witch actually summon their musical Endritch Abominations...

And Princess Serenity brings the purification.

Landing next to the rocket-toting, Puella, the redheaded Devicer glances to one side, and tries to answer Amy's smile with one of her own... But hers is a much more shaky, worried one. "...*Really* hope I stops caring that I actually looked up the plural of 'apocalypse.' Just doesn't feel right that they *get* a plural."

Makoto Kino has posed:
As for Sailor Jupiter? No entreaties, no warnings. No attempt at persuasion. Not even a threat. She's not here for any of that. She strides at her Princess's right flank, tall and steady, eyes sharp with single-minded determination.

Never mind the sun. Never mind the arcane letters in the sky. Whatever shock or unease or fear that might touch Makoto Kino's heart at the sight of the sun going out of the sky, right now, Sailor Jupiter has work to do.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Up on one of the highest towers in Tokyo, the mahou hero Hanzo stands, the scarf of his Barrier Jacket fluttering in a barely perceptible breeze... as if some part of the world was still trying to be normal in the face of the markedly frightening and almost absurd.

The Sun is gone, and in it's place is an impending darkness that has already begun locking everyone away.

For a moment, he hefts the kunai-shaped Device in his hand, and Koji then closes his eyes firmly and just locks it back in place on his forearm, and mutters out, "You burned my best friend... you've locked my father in a mirror and turned him into a dancing teddy bear, and somewhere in there you're gloating. And they're still going to try and save you."

He sighs.

"Hanzo, Kinetic Shield, maximum output. Start charging Disruptor Cannon."

<< Kinetic Shield. DISRUPTOR CANNON - Beginning Sequence. >>

<< ...Good Luck, Master. >>

Hopping down off the building, he flips, lands with one foot on the small barrier, which launches him like a cannonball towards the epicenter of this all...

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora glanced down at Double Trouble and... she half expected her consort to object. To yell at her. Instead, she approved... and slowly, a smile formed on her lips. She snapped her fingers and a black stage would appear under them. Carrying them up to her side. "Indeed you are, my consort," she said in a soothing, affectionate tone. A hand moving to stroke their cheek before letting them go, to sit on the throne's armrest. Her consort. Where they belonged.

She glanced down at the kindabads tampering with one of the control towers, but ignored it. Lions did not worry about sheep. Even if they wanted mess with it, what could such pathetic creatures do?

She glanced to the rooftop, and Sayaka. She smiled, none the less. "Still? You think of me as your friend? Yes. I was... Sunbreaker. I was afraid. I was *pathetic*. I allowed a little thing like rules stop me. I allowed myself to be tamed. But I am Hinoiri Kirara! Sunset of Sora!" She stood on her feet. "There is nothing I cannot do! I will make this world my kingdom, I will create a new Kirakirafantastica and destroy Sora! All will gaze on me and realize that I stand alone, to be revered and loved! I will never be forgotten!" She lifted her hands to the heavens, laughing maniacly.

She then looked to Usagi and just laughed. "There are no more rules! No more restraint, no more holding back! I will be as Sora, and all will know my--"

And it was then that the open heart, fused with the Moon healing escalation, flew through the leylines. Below, the towers surged and locked up, before the entire area began to sparkle and shimmer. Hinoiri screamed, clutching her head as the entire region was covered in light and...

And then the screaming stopped. Her eyes wide... as her consort slipped her necklace around her neck. The cracked and damaged geode healed itself, glowing with brilliant, miraculous light.

New screams tore from Hinoiri's throat as she crumbled to her knees, the throne beneath her beginning to crumble. "Stop it! STOP IT! I don't want to feel, I don't, I don't want to feel this! Stop, please, please! Stop me! Stop me!" And for a moment, the tears flowed down her face and the towers flickered below...

Then she reached up, grabbed the necklace, and tore it from her throat. She growled and her tail lashed out, grabbing Double Trouble. "How DARE you! You will SUFFER FOR THIS BETRAYAL!" she yelled. Then... she laughed. "I always should have known. Even you... couldn't..." And now, she looked torn. Unsure if she could hurt them...

Before her eyes fell to the kindabads. "ENOUGH!" She thrust her arms out. The towers exploded, the purifying light fading. "ETERNAL GAUGE!" she cast, before the KindaBow and KindaAmi were enveloped in flame... and mirrored, two star bears with evil sunglasses appearing. She then threw Double Trouble down to them. "Hold them! I'll deal with them shortly," she snarled, before chucking the geode down to the ground. It bounced on the ground, dim, but not out.

And her gaze turned to Sailor Moon and then Sayaka.

She flew up to the air, the throne disolving below her. Both of her wings spreading out. The tears on her eyes sizzled and evaporated. And brand new music filled the air...

A song a few certain nerds would likely recognize. Ironically, Hinoiri wouldn't. She'd never gone the genocide route. But thanks to the others, there was already more music filling the air, the battle of the mahou bands...

"Well then. I can see that this world will need to be shown the might of its new sun. There will be no more mercy. I am Hinoiri Kirara!"

"I am the Sunset of Sora and all will bow to my radiance!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kbBf71tcvk

Bow has posed:
"It worked! Strike successful! Hit her with everything you got!" Bow cries out into the comms just as Hinoiri is stricken by the multiple attacks. And to his surprise, he sees Double Trouble, but never gets the chance to warn them of the incoming purification strike. As soon as the purification has passed, Bow slams his arrow into the control panel to destroy it to keep it inoperable for the rest of the fight.

And that is the last thing he is going to get the chance to do. Ripping off his hood, he was about to risk a henshin into his armored form when Sayaka opens up and shows him, for the first time, Oktavia. "Wow..." he murmurs.

And that's when he hears the words 'ETERNAL GAUGE!' as if they are the last words he may hear if the others are not successful. He cries out as the electric flames slam into him, binding him and pulling him into the coffin-like mirror to be sealed away as his bear (check out that defined section of ABS, that's how you know it's his), catches the mirror and pulls it away from the tower for safe-keeping.

Double Trouble has posed:
    It was inevitable, that betrayal, just like Hinoiri's had been before. Double Trouble was proud of her, but this wasn't Hinoiri. Not really. This was her trauma come to life through the power of her magic. That unicorn was too damn smart for her own good. And so they put that necklace over her head at that opportune moment and they had absolutely no regrets.
    "It's for your own good, darling," they said, even though the knew that would just make her more mad. It was the truth. "I love you too much to let you do this to yourself. There has to be a better way."
    But her unicorn is not ready to have that conversation. She's not ready to have any conversations. She flings Double Trouble down toward the ground, and as they sail through the air they just sigh with pleasure. So dramatic.
    And so they wait until she is ready to have that conversation, because it's not like they can really do anything else with those bears holding their arms and their magic all gone.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka's winged platform Familiar soaks up her purifying light. It's brassy body and feathery wings are covered and enhanced in a rainbow aura. A trail of sparkles follows it as it slowly floats through the air, towards Sunset of Sora. Hope Witch, herself, is also affected. Her dream isn't quite strong enough for her purification to be complete, but the sheer amount of friendship and hope she's pouring out right now is turning the tips of her black dress white, and her eyes shine with a golden light.

    When her Labyrinth portals open, the usual opalescent black fog mixes with soft pastel rainbow colors, and as Hope Witch's familiars emerge they also radiate a bit of that purifying power.

    Somewhere, elsewhere, Madoka's family is locked into mirrors. It hurts to think about, but... Madoka knew that a day like this would come. It always does. Half the time they end in a timeline reset, but she can't let the futility of the situation stop her. She has to keep trying, keep giving it her all, in the hopes that one time, in one universe, they get lucky enough to survive. Madoka has been given plenty of time to make peace with that reality.

    Moments like this are scary, but she has no choice but to press on, to play her role and do her part, and hope that the others will do theirs.

    When Sunset responds with a song of her own, Hope Witch just narrows her eyes. "Okay, so we are actually just doing Undertale now, huh? Except the roles are reversed because... actually nevermind. Get dunked on!"

    Lydian, rather than fighting the Megalovania music, actually just starts harmonizing with it. She knows the song well. Gretchen literally wouldn't stop singing it after the X-Chara finished the Genocide route.

    When Lydian gets a chance, she transitions back into Madoka's song so that her Bearer can sing the second half, turning it into a sort of medley.

(Hatched from our dreams and hope!)

o/` I don't know what Sora said
But it just wasn't true
When we count our friends, we count you to~o o/`

(This is not a joke)

o/` Even though it kinda seems

you have lost your marbles

All of just want to see you sparkle o/`

    At this point Madoka is feeling a bit lost, but she keeps moving forward shamelessly even as her eyes shift back and forth. It's a good thing one of her Chara is literally a music reference, otherwise this nonsense would never work.

o/` We will not
Let this stand
We will ruin your evil plans o/`

o/` We're here to
Save our crew
And we will even rescue you! o/`

    Then, in order to complete the Undertale reference, Madoka raises one hand into the air and snaps her fingers. A pair of translucent white wings spring out from her back, and all of her rainbow-charged Familiars raise their weapons, firing an insane barrage of multi-colored purification at Sunset. More spacial distortions open, from all sorts of angles around Hinoiri: above, below, to the sides and behind; each one firing ridiculous amounts of sparkly light.

    Hope Witch announces over her eldritch PA system, "And that is what I call friendly fire!"

    With Hope's song basically over, Lydian goes back to harmonize with the other music that's happening, because she's not really a part of the fight so much as she is part of the performance. Poor Brai is sweating bullets and feeling awkward but she hasn't lost time on those drums.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
And the Eclipse Zone is gone, and Rashmi is staring down her first of what will also hope to be her last Eldritch Abomination... Who almost immediately takes everyone in the Zone's radius out of the fight.

Gulp.

But the necklace revealed something very, very important about their enemy, and it's that something *in* their enemy wants them stopped too. The part of her that people managed to like despite themselves. The part of her that gave a rando volunteer waitress a Christmas present.

Almost as if in a dream, Rashmi plucks an improbably glittery crystal broach in the shape of a scroll, and attaches it to the lapel of her Barrier Jacket, drawing in a deep breath.

"Amy-chan," she says quietly. "Treat flying like jumping, only you don't stop moving until you make yourself land."

And with that cryptic explanation, a spell-circle spreads out underneath her, as the first of her spells is cast in support of the small army arrayed against Hinoiri.

    << *BONG!* >> << FLIER FIN >>

A pair of golden, dragonfly-like wings of pure holographic light unfurl from Amy's ankles... And gravity merely becomes an option.

Pushing off the building on a curving path toward Usagi and Co, she turns toward Hinoiri, hoping her broach might catch the light, and her attention. "You *know* you don't need to do this, Customer-san! Don't you remember what I told you on the Moon? You could have *everything you ever really wanted* here! You *still can!* And if we have to beat you into the ground before you stop and listen, well... Sometimes friends have to do that too!"    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR SHIELD -- GLACE SHIFT >>

Look Rashmi is not *stupid,* an ice shield is a *very* good thing when you're trying to gain the feral fire villain's attention.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Hinoiri laughs. Of course she does. What supervillain decides to actually listen when they're asked to back down? Especially when their partner joins them in their trouble-making? It's not even a surprise.

Usagi Tsukino who is Princess Serenity stares up at the girl who was once her friend, eyes of endless blue locked on black pits, as the darkness of the Eclipse Zone shone bright.

Light breaks over Hinoiri Kirara, over the Sunset of Sora, and the screams that ring out fill her with no satisfaction, only grim sorrow and burning hope -

And then Double Trouble slams something around Hinoiri's neck, and the screams turn up a notch, and Hinoiri begins to sob, and there's almost a chance, as Hinoiri begs to be stopped, and she steps forward, raising the Moon Stick high -

And then the moment is gone, and the two KindaBads that Usagi knows are actually Bow and Ami are enveloped in flame, and entombed in mirrors.

Mirrors like the ones imprisoning the trapped girl in the Shed. The girl who has been there for weeks now, unmoving, unwaking, trapped, imprisoned, Ami-chan is imprisoned -

"MERCURY!"

It's a scream of worry, of terror, of love, and Princess Serenity breaks formation for a moment, darting past Jadeite's lovingly provided ice shields as she rushes several steps to the mirror, and that's when the pair of dancing bears in sunglasses appears.

As fast-paced, long memed music begins to resound heavily through the area, Princess Serenity's henshin bursts. The white and gold dress explods into scraps of fabric and shards of brilliant light as the peace-loving, diplomatic princess is replaced by Sailor Moon, golden tiara glinting at her forehead, red jewel shining with light, and her gloved hands reach for the tiara as she calls out,

"Hinoiri Kirara! You, who have betrayed your friends and yourself, are an enemy of love and justice! You've always feared that you were nothing and no one, but you have been our friend! Destroying that bond is your choice, and you can still turn back!"

Still. You can still turn back, she says, even as she grasps that tiara in one hand, pulling it free even as she lifts the Moon Stick with the other. With one hand, a golden circle is carved. With the other, a golden tiara becomes cosmic energy, drawn back for a throw.

At the apex of both attacks, they're launched - silver light blazing forth and boosting the flight of a shining, shimmering rainbow of light that is the Moon Tiara.

"Moon's Tiara Healing Action Escalation!"

In the words of a certain, famous skeleton - you should always use your best attacks first. That goes for a self combo.

Koji Silvia has posed:
"Genkai Nante Nai"

The words are muttered almost under Hanzo's breath as he brake-lands with another Kinetic Shield on the top of a building below and in front of Sunset of Sora. Looking up at her, his scarf and long hair now ruffling furiously in a breeze created just by the mere presence of the girl, the changes in temperature, and just general plot appropriatness.

"I NEED SOME DEFENSE HERE!"

He yells it out in a very uncharacteristic fashion as he raises both hands towards the former Sunbreaker-turned-Sunset, and a glowing and slowly spinning magical circle appears around Koji's feet, causing energy to pour up around him, motes of light swirling slowly as he closes his eyes, and the 'breeze' makes his hair begin to float upwards, channelling more power than he ever has in his life.

<< DISRUPTOR CANNON - 50% charged. >>

Around his hands appear a smaller magical 'ring', that then becomes three and extends forwards from him, pointing towards Hinoiri.

Specifically to Rashmi, though, he sends <<Rashmi... I need you to let me know when everyone else's attacks are done. If I fire this wrong, I could stop them from hitting... I can't do this alone.>>

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka freezes when she sees someone calling herself Hinoiri's consort gets her attention and is elevated to her side, not so much because she has found someone else, she would be happy about this in ordinary circumstances, but the fact it is someone that is enforcing just Hinoiri's current state and making her convinced in its situation. It's the ruin of everything she has tried to work towards.

And then there is that Kindabad Hinoiri talks to, one that unveils his mask once his job is done, a face that she recognises all to well, a face that soon is completely frozen behind a mirror. And so is her face a look of anguish showing up on the Puella's face. It is little relief that Double Trouble reveals themselves to be just trying to get close to Hinoiri, that they too want Hinoiri back to normal. A part of her is a little relieved that all these purifications from Serenity - is that really what she looks like? She has never seen someone so ethereal - Madoka, Double Trouble and others.

In another side of Sayaka's Labyrinth, Attesa is there, awaiting orders from her mistress when she notices a curious change in her essence, after Bow got frozen in that mirror. Madoka might or might not hear this, but she says in the language of Witches, "Oktavia now smells like the salt and steel of her greater form."

Sayaka talks to the one calling herself Sunset of Sora in her plea, all the stronger after Bow's fall. "Hinoiri, you can still get things back to normal! You can still get things back to normal! This isn't you! Please, get back to yourself." At the same, 3 giant train wheels show up in the air, Sayaka sending them through Oktavia to hit and potentially restrain Hinoiri somehow, just anything that might change things.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Mercury!" Sailor Jupiter cries out, nearly as one with Serenity. She doesn't break her position, but there's a heartbeat or two where it's not a sure thing - before Serenity gives way to Sailor Moon, princess to pretty soldier, and Jupiter remembers exactly why she's here.

Her eyes are sharp and dangerous as she rises into the air, buoyed by the wind that whirls around her, and sets her sights on the enemy. Energy crackles down her arms, wreathing her hands, before she unleashes it in ten bright slim lances of electricity that rush out to weave themselves around Sailor Moon's silver-trailing tiara.

Jadeite has posed:
He's too far away to do anything for Sailor Mercury and Bow right now. Tamaki knows it even as horror turns his bones cold as the attack hits them both.

What he's got to do is keep everyone alive until they CAN free them, and make their torment short. Time to go. More shields, spreading further, ice flowers blossoming near the Puellas and the Cures so that they can grab one if they need to block - more land in front of Sailor Jupiter so she can grab some when she runs into battle, and more still surround Sailor Moon so that she can spam her attacks safely. (After all, the Justice Soul just needs to aim, shoot, fire...)

When Koji yells for defense, Jadeite sends several more ice shields to circle around him and use as need be.

"Melt THIS," he growls.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    She did it. She broke the sun. Then she rolled out the carpet and invited everyone to come fight. Who were Sailors Neptune and Uranus to argue with such an invitation? They're the two crazy senshi who charged right at Beryl, that's who. Of course they showed up for the fight. They've been itching for this one for a long time.

    They arrive just as the Eclipse Zone collapses. Just in time to hear her declaration and see the fighting erupt. Neptune looks aside at Uranus for just a moment and then turns to begin gathering energy and sea water between her hands, raising it up over her head. "You need to cool off!" She says, and then she says, "Deep Submerge!" Sending the orb hurtling toward Hinoiri.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy does give a brief chuckle at Rashmi's comment. "...So, what is it? 'Apocalypsi' or 'Apocalypses'?"

    And then things go even more crazy. "Ah, damn it, she moved--"

    Fly. She can fly! Amy stares at Rashmi with mouth agape and looks down at her feet hovering off the ground, and SMILES. "Thanks! Oh, that's so cool..."

    The red Puella Magi dismisses her artillery piece and summons... a great big rocket. It's big enough for her to ride, and almost cartoonish, white with a red nose and fins like something out of a raygun gothic story. And awaaaaay she goes!

    (Mid-flight, she dips her hand into the belt pouch with the grief seed in it to top off. She'd better go in fully charged!)

                                   NERF THIS!                                  

    The Rocket Puella rockets onto the battlefield, simply letting go of the rocket as it careens the rest of the way towards Sunset to detonate in a massive explosion!

    Amy opens her mouth to say something... and then freezes as she recognizes the song in the air.

    "VRISKA SERKET?! You think you're VRISKA SERKET?!"

    "...I mean, on point, picking someone whose idolization of toxic ideals and LARPing being a bad guy even when things became a matter of life and death had disastrous consequences for her friends..."

    And then Amy slumps a bit in the air. "...But you just picked her because you thought she was cool, huh? Ugh, are you really this bad at literary comprehension?"

    And then she straightens up again. "Wait. Shit. Or do you think you're Jack Noir?! That... actually..." Amy looks over Sunset. Her wings, and being a mishmash of several different aesthetics, each one a teenager thought was cool, smashed together.

    She looks aghast, and also a little bit terrified. "The mishmash of powers... unending rage... oh gods, you really do unironically think you're like him. If you're right, we're really in trouble..."

    She takes a fighting stance in the air. "I hope for all our sakes and yours you're not. But you know, if you are, the moment we figure out how to neutralize the source of all your power it's over, right?" She flashes the cocky smile a hero is supposed to have in this situation.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailor Uranus is here with Neptune, arriving standing back-to-back with the Senshi of Seas. "I don't want every race to be a night race, so I'm going to have to ask you to put the sun back where it goes - and you supplanting it just really isn't an option I'll allow."

    World SHAKING! Calls the other outer senshi to arrive on the scene, collecting a ball of turbulent wind energy into a forceful sphere, which she slams into the ground as it roars forward in a barely contained sphere, aiming to release its full fury on impact (with hopefully, Sunburn.)

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
Cure Wing has been out over the bay and enjoying the warmth of the sun and how the rays danced over the water when the solar radiation suddenly stopped and was replaced by something far more sinsiter. It had caught him off guard, but he had launched into the skies, looking to see if he could spot anything from higher up. As he saw the world from almost 10,000 feet, he saw the flashin lights and strikes at the Eclipse Zone as it collapses. Turning his body towards it, his attention is focused as the young Cure starts to fly that way.

As he gets closer and starts to making out more and more of the details - the thing that catches his attention is the... thing that was Hinoiri Kirara. The thing that has one rainbow colored wing. The wing of a girl he was too late to protect, that was cute, and he didn't even get to catch the name of, instead just taking her to the hospital so that she could be saved.

He pours on the speed, arms tucked into his sides as his legs lock together and he becomes a dart, his twin tail and hair fluttering behind him as a barrier of flame surrounds his body as he gets closer and closer to the ground. He should probably warn those on the ground as he gets close of what he's doing - but he's not done a very good job of making friends and all that. It's on Tsubasa's 'To-Do' list!

Instead, he screams over ground, the ice shields shaken as orange flame streaks towards Hinoiri, the sound of a bird-like, 'SKREEEEEE!' as feathers fly from the dissipating flames, and Cure Wing makes his grand entrance, attempting to slam headfirst into her before bouncing back skyward and circling back to join the Sailor Moon group. "I'm Cure Wing! What can I do to help?!"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon was watching all of this go down, at a distance, using hardly any magical energy - trying to stay cloaked and hidden. Not just from Sunset of Sora, but from the magical girls as well, and also from anyone from Obsidian watching. His plan had originally been to watch the battle as it unfolded, and provide information to anyone who made a second try - or join in when it looked like there wouldn't be a second try. But what he realizes, as he watches Double Trouble's act on top of the hacking of the Eclipse Zone... is that there's not going to be another chance that's better, there's not going to be useful data from this fight that he can provide to a second attempt. He'll either have to join in now or not at all - either throw his weight behind the sparklesquad or risk losing it all. IF he is going to do it. IF he is going to risk his own butt for the sake of everyone else.

    He takes a look up at the sun - where the sun should be and where it isn't. He hesitates. Because this could get him killed. If Sunset of Sora is unstoppable it's pointless. It's a risk, to himself - he could survive in Sunset of Sora's world, or escape to another linked world, or just live in the Dusk Zone. There's really no reason to throw his own life away.

    The Mahou Shoujo who aren't involved in this fight directly have been trying to contain the chaos erupting throughout Tokyo - and a lot of that chaos are Eternal Gauge-spawned star bears smashing things up. And it looks like a group of them has either overwhelmed their opposition or simply broken out - a dozen or more of the half-goofy half-terrifying red-sunglasses wearing star bears suddenly start barreling down a street, the youma intent on changing the course of this battle for their new ruler. The direction they're coming from means they'll be mostly hidden until they round a nearby building, at which point they'll be terribly close quite quickly.

    A large purple black, triangular Belkan Ritual Circle opens up, along with several smaller Midchildan ritual circles. Dark Energy floods into the area - as Riventon appears, facing away from the Mahou forces arrayed against Sunbreaker, roughly at the time the Star Bears round that corner. On the Midchildan circles, several shadow constructs appear - upright bipedal creatures with short arms and long stabilizing tails, reptillian, with glowing red eyes. They make odd squaking sounds before charging in

    The charge of the Star Bear reinforcements thus finds itself suddenly cut off and disrupted by Riventon and what seems to be a pack of shadow raptors, the creatures colliding in against the bears and trying to take them down with pack tactics but most importantly preventing them from disrupting those arrayed to fight against Sunbreaker in turn. Riventon, for once, (and for now) keeps his mouth shut as he blasts Terribears.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
And so the battle began. The Hope Witch began to sing and, surprisingly? Hinoiri blinked. "Wait, this is from Undertale? Meh. Magic. I don't remember this song."

However, those lyrics seemed all wrong... But she didn't realize as she began to sing along with it. "Even though it kinda seems you have lost your marbles..."

Unfortunately, that was Yellow Pearl Voice's magic she was copying and black stages began to appear around her, shielding her from the purification beams before getting launched BACK at the familiars.

"Just want to see you sparkle..." As if she could sparkle. Someone like her. Who wasn't even... Her choices were burn or disappear. She wasn't a gem. She was charcoal.

"There is no choice! Not for me! THERE NEVER WAS!" she yelled, before holding out her hands towards the shields of ice. "JACKET JACKET JACKET BEAM!" she yelled.

... What.

Except, a moment later, twin beams of magic, similiar to those wielded by Tuxedo mask, erupted from her hands and rained down against the shields. Worse, they weren't just the normal beams. They were on fire, tearing great, sizzling holes into the ice, ripping out chunks.

The moon tiara was coming at her and she lifted her arm. "Black hole."

Void formed around the end of her palm and she caught the tiara. For a moment, there was a sizzling, devouring sound as the void devoured the magic.... Then electricity was added to the mix. Magic battled magic, until finally... it all vanished. Hinoiri chuckled, turning her gaze to them. "Did you really believe you could--"

It was, however, a great distraction. The wheels crashed down on her, one damaging the flaming wing and sending her crashing to the ground. Her head rose...

And deep submerge struck her, sizzling as the flaming wing went out entirely. Just in time for her to get explodinated by a massive rocket and magical ball of earth magic. She lets out a scream...

And then, when it clears? She's on the ground, sizzling...

And then she's *everywhere*. The blue wing on her back was glowing, but it was almost as if she was moving too fast, or being everywhere at once. Seeming to appear in front of all of them, and unleashing blasts of fire in all of their faces. The last one to get blasted would, ironically, be Koji...

Only for a scream to make her look up just in time to see fire aimed at *her*. She was struck, sent flying back across the battlefield, the glow of her blue wing going out as her body burned and sizzled. She laid there for a moment... confused... and, unfortunately, leaving herself open for Koji's blast.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"What the hell--?!" Jupiter's mouth tightens in an indignant scowl as Sailor Moon's twice-boosted tiara simply disappears into that dark void. "Someone's gotten way too full of herself..."

She gets perhaps a second, maybe a couple of them, to feel some sense of satisfaction at seeing Hinoiri brought to the ground, but it doesn't last long before there's fire everywhere and no more time for thought. Jadeite's shields of ice are being bombarded from all directions.

Still hovering suspended in the air a few feet off the ground, Sailor Jupiter spreads her arms to either side of her. Flowers bloom in her open palms and scatter into the wind as it picks up speed, a vortex of whirling air and tumbling petals that surrounds the ice shields around herself, Sailor Moon, and Jadite, pushing back against the flames and forming an extra buffer of protection.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    It all happens so fast. Their attacks all hit and then Hinoiri is in their face with fireballs. All Neptune can do is dodge. But the attacks are coming from all directions, and Neptune can dodge away from the one headed toward her and knock Uranus out of the way of hers. Maybe this time she can protect her. Just a little. As a treat.
    She rolls out of the way of the attack, coiling down into a squat and then springing up toward Uranus to knock her out of the way of that incoming fire, calling out, "Look out, my prince!"

Jadeite has posed:
The fire bombards them all. As his shields around himself and Moon and Jupiter melt, Jadeite summons new ones one by one, the ice coruscating into sparkling crystals and mist that neutralizes the heat and flame as soon as they hit.

"Thanks, Jupiter!" he calls out as the fire blasts end, summoning another garden of ice shields around the three of them - and the shards of his previous shields become cacti and thorns between them all, ready to keep any bears who appear from getting too close. He throws up more shields for the others, too; droplets of cold sweat run down his face and freeze despite the firestorm. "Everyone who needs a shield, call out! No others shall fall to the sun's flames!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< On it, >> Rashmi says in answer to Koji... then pauses for a moment, thinking as her eyes scrape over the battlefield. An idea forms, and Nicomachea asked to do some calculations while Rashmi polls the owners.

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

Madoka and Sayaka, both, now hear Rashmi's voice in their heads. << Sayaka-chan, that was Bow?! ...Then we need to beat her *extra* quick, I saw the mirrors and we can get him back. So. Both of you... D'you mind if Hanzo borrows your portals? >>

Pulling up short in midair as Jadeite blooms flowers of ice shield all over the map, and raising her eyebrows in appreciation... When a bunch of things happen in rapid succession.

Usagi and Makoto loose a titanic, electrified blast.

The Outers show up, and further surprise-blast their enemy.

Nicomachea finishes mapping the portals, and gives her a *ping!* to notify.

Before the noise even fades, The Jacket la Fast Fashion attack slams into her shield, deeply cracking it--

Followed up by a personal delivery of fire that *splinters the shield, throwing a singed Rashmi away from the momentary instance of Sunset.

But the calculations still apply. Adjust for movement, predict

<< HANZO-KUN! >> she cries to Sayaka, Madoka, *and* Hanzo, and summons a mote of golden light in one area, and a red light near the edge of the Labyrinth, at a markedly different angle. << OPEN THE PORTALS! YELLOW IN, RED OUT! >>

Followed by a screaming, supersonic phoenix headbutt.

Sometimes even in the worst of moments, magic is awesome. This is one of those times.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
With the cascade of attacks heading towards the two of them, as usual, Haruka is less worried about herself than she is Michiru. That applies when they are Uranus and Neptune, as well. The other girls do so, so much for her - Neptune and Pluto combined shore up a lot of weaknesses Haruka has. But more than that they give her purpose and focus. So it's no surprise that when it comes to things she can do for them, she does the immediately and with gusto.

    Too many attacks to interpose herself in the way of safely and maintain position, and Uranus just turns to instantly shove Neptune out of the way - and then her plan is to guard from them with her arms crossed.

    But her plan goes awray because she's putting all of -her- force into shoving and not expecting to be shoved back. Which she very much is. The end result of this - oddly - is that the two outer senshi end up shoving each other, pretty hard, pretty far, and while they do land somewhat undignifiedly on their respective behinds, the attacks themselves are successfully 'dodged'. If in the most unelegant way possible.

    "Neptune, I think we need to start trusting each other to dodge." she calls from her place on the floor as she tries to get back to a standing position and draw her Space Sword from its dimensional sheathe.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Witch senses the change in Sayaka that Atessa mentions, and turns a concerned glance towards her childhood friend. One of the Bearer's Familiars has wandered off into Sayaka's Labyrinth, a floating eye with brassy wings, overhears the Familiar's words and responds in the same language. "Is Oktavia alright? This must be difficult for her. Kriemhild is worried."

    Kriemhild in this case of course being Madoka, distinct from Gretchen.

    Madoka's rainbow-coated familiars send their full fury into the dark stages, only for that power to be sent back into them. Many of them are taken out in an instant, crumpling under the first hit. Only a few of them are lucky enough to get out of the way, but Hope Witch expected this. Against such overwhelming power, there is no chance of a common Familiar tanking the hit. Glass cannons are a better use of her magic.

    "Well, there goes phase one. Time for part two." resolves the Chara Bearer. Her two fairies are still playing along as she leaps off of the platform, and the stage Familiar starts to float away. It's not really a combat creation, and it keeps the mascots safe while Madoka (and Gretchen) super jump into combat.

    Rashmi suddenly tags her to ask for permission to use her portals, and Madoka responds, <<Okay! I'm not using them for this moment. Gretchen-chan knows the math side.>>

    What Gretchen sends over the telepathic link is pure Witch Runes, but it looks so much like Calculus and Algebra that a magic machine could probably figure out what she's trying to say. There are helpful diagrams that map out the exact ways that each distortion fits each other distortion, and the ways that these portals can 'turn' and 'spin' in order to aim. It's a little weird and the information tastes funny but there's nothing there that a Device can't figure out.

    It's a good thing that Gretchen is the one focusing on the magic side, because it's Madoka who now has to deal with the super-speed Sunset dumping shotgun fire directly into her face. Hope Witch has no shields up, no defense aside from her henshin armor, but Jadeite's ice flower was already blooming nearby. With twitch reflexes, Madoka reaches forward to enhance the flower, covering it in a mix of pearlescent light and opalescent darkness as she uses it to block the fire. Just as it starts to melt under the pressure, she dumps more power into it, and Jadeite reinforces it.

    "Thanks!" she calls out to the Shitennou, because she would've been the next in the burn ward without him.

    Seeing its master occupied, one Rainbow-infused Familiar charges out of a ripple in space. The Clock Knight, clockface shield in one hand, spear in the other, rushing towards the temporarily fallen Sunset in an attempt to pin her down. Unlike the other Familiars in this fight, this one is a bit tougher, but it's probably also racing towards destruction and it knows it. That's fine. As long as it carries out its master's will, nothing else matters.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
There is really nothing she can do follow in everyone's else cue, Sayaka realises with a dismayed cue. She doesn't really like any of it, but that's what she willl have to do to get everyone back. Then there is that Mach 1 scream from Cure Wing amidst all the explosions, leaving Sayaka to cover her ears, and even then they still ring in pain for a fair few minutes until her healing catches up and merges her eardrums again.

And then there are those blasts of fire from Hinoiri. She could dodge some of it, but the fire is too much. Luckily for her, she has other means of defense this time and Oktavia's sword lightly crashes in front of her, the furious fire hitting the sword instead, making it scalding hot. Said giant sword is then thrown at the Sunset of Sora with the strength of the mermaid Witch behind it.

At the same time Sayaka receives Rashmi's message. <<...Yes, that was Bow. We will act quickly and get him back. And you can count on me for the portals.>> And Sayaka follows Rashmi's indication exactly as indicated, the portals appearing at the assigned position.

Back to Attesa, the bluenette familiar tells Madoka's flying eye. "She will get back up fine. Just a tough blow to her emotions. But she is made of sterner stuff now. That won't turn her back to a curse."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"There's always a choice!" It's a shout, a scream, but not a plea, simply a rebuttal. When Hinoiri launches her attack attack, though, the Triple Jacket Beam that cracks shields and sends fire to rupture ice, righteous fury fills Sailor Moon.

"Just like you're choosing to be nothing but a cheap copycat! Where's the girl who valued her creativity! Her genius, huh?! Now you're just a faker!"

Her tiara is devoured, the light going out, and Sailor Moon grimaces, only to fall back as Hinoiri springs into action.

The wind screams - first, with the force of a flower filled hurricane, as Jupiter summons the Flower Hurricane to keep the Senshi aligned trio safe, and then with a terrific screech as a burning phoenix blazes across as a boy cracks his head against Sunset of Sora's.

Sunset falls back, and Sailor Moon grabs one of the frozen flower shields, energy flowing down her hands to make the shield an enormous cosmic flower-disc.

""Moon Flowering Ice Action!"

And hurls it, thanking all those training sessions for helping her add muscle to heft and hurl the enormous cosmic disc - which will explode on contact, in addition to being a cosmic battering ram of force.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji claps his hands together as the power surges around him, and then he drops back into an overly dramatic and telegraphic punch stance. His left hand, where Hanzo rests under it now suddenly glows with a blue so bright it burns black with small motes coming off of it, while his other hand, palm out, points through the triple-circles.

    "This hand of mine... it glows with an awesome power! The loud roar of our souls tell me to defeat you! So take this! My love! My anger! And all of our sorrow!"

    "Erupting..."

    << Maximum output - READY. >>

    "BURNING..."

And he throws his punch right into the circle, the power radiating so much that it dissolves his face-mask for a moment so that his soundless scream can be seen, and as his fist passes through the first circle a blue-haloed vantablack energy beam lances out through them, the second ring going twice as large, and the third twice as large as the second to create a body-sized blast of power.

<< DISRUPTOR CANNON >>
    "DISRUPTOR CANNON!"

Is simultaneously intoned by both Koji and Hanzo, and for a few moments he vanishes in the backwash glow of the power.

    (Cue the MUSIC! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2A11lsemA4 )

The blast sweeps into the noted portals, Yellow In, Red Out.

Yellow In.

Red Out.

Yellow in a third time, and then Red Out right above Sunset, and comes down on her like a hammer!

When it washes over Hinoiri, it is like a focused waterfall of chaotic energy that washes at all those powers contained within her, at all the bonds that hold them in, at all the bonds that draw from all the mirrors and Kindabads. Any smaller magics caught inside the blast will be just... stopped... some frozen, some just disappearing, some glitching furiously.

Hanzo's gem makes a small tinkling noise as it cracks, looking almost like a yin-yang symbol, and the fracture spreads up the Device's blade. Lines of pain appear on Koji's face as the amount channeled, while nowhere close to the level of Nanoha or Fate, or even the hyper-focus of Chrono... it's every bit of emotion he had, poured out over Hinoiri in a single shot.

...and for a moment, inside the beam... are visions of being a smart but lonely young man. A dad who always was a bigger kid than he was, a mother who was always working. Lost in a world where everyone wanted him to be something he wasn't. Finding solace in making and fixing things, trying to use them to make or fix the imperfect things in his life.

But nothing ever seems to work. Every time life seems to become like he thinks it should be, something else always happens. And it always leaves him back where he was before. Alone. Leaving him with an armor around his heart.

Chasing that is crystallized and perfect moment. Opening the door to a dorm room, and laying on his bed, casually reading a book and acting for all to see like the coolest person in the world is the person they'd all come to know as Mamoru Chiba. But for right now he's just Darien. And there's a passing look that happens between the two of them. Like seeing something of yourself inside of the person before you. Someone who gets it. Someone who understands without even needing to...

As the book is closed and 'Darien' is standing up and about to speak, the beam's effects peter out and the air is once more there.

    "...because that's how... he'd want it..."

...and Koji collapses, Barrier Jacket occasionally flickering... wispy white smoke coming off of him.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Over the course of Amy's ranting, she takes in the... everything. Princess Sailor Moon is pleading for Hinoiri to come back to them. Madoka's gone all Asriel Dreemur's Overpowered First OC (so wholesome that the most powerful thing that kid could think of was RAINBOW BLASTS). Mahou attacks are coming in from all over!

    Aaaand. Sunset just. Absorbs most of them. And also she didn't even pick the song.

    And then is suddenly teleporting in front of everyone to attack them. Amy covers her face and dives out of the attack with only moderate burns, nothing bad enough to blacken the skin at least. "Solid Jack Noir move right there..."

    Sunset gets knocked down for a moment. Amy conjures her launcher and fires rockets, but starts flying towards her.

    "You know," she shouts over the sound of battle, "This is a song about people choosing to be monsters! Once in a story, and twice in games! And in the games, even when it looks like it's the only way for the story to move forward, the player can stop! Stop playing that game and do something different! Maybe even start over and play the game differently! That was the POINT."

    "That even when it looks like there's no other choice, you always have a choice! You can stop this!" Amy pleads, as she floats in the air above.

    APPARENTLY PHOENIX RIDING IS HAPPENING. Also epic beam attacks!

    From atop the back of a literal actual phactual PHOENIX, Amy shouts, "Hinoiri! I know it must be hard to go back on everything you've worked up to! But if you do, we won't let it go to waste! We'll give you a happier future! If we weren't still your friends even now, we wouldn't keep begging you to change!"

    She does NOT shout 'get dunked on' as the Phoenix attack completes. It doesn't really fit with the mood of the speech, here.

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
As Cure Wing arrives back to where the senshi are all together and making their attacks, the young Cure blinks a few times and then points at Sailor Moon. "You... you're Sailor V!" he exclaims. "I've read all about you back when I was in Sorashido City! You're a legend! Sooo cool." Okay okay, calm down Wing. We're in the middle of a battle! A clearing of his throat and a quick blush on his cheeks as he gets over it and returns back to the moment quickly enough.

With all of the attacks growing more and more powerful, clearly Cure Wing is not about to fly in there to throw punches - especially when he sees the massive power of Koji's attack on Hinoiri. Eyes widening for a moment, the young teen considers before he catches sight of the red Puella under attack. "I got her!" he yells, flying up to catch Amy before she falls - but she seems mostly okay. "Hold tightly, I will protect you." the boy instructs the Puella.

Flames of purification erupt around the colorful Pretty Cure as he rises into the sky. And he starts to fly. Fast. Faster even. As the flames grow, Amy will find herself protected from the windshear by being on his back...

Yes, his back. Because the boy is gone. As he streaks upwards, his magic combines with Amy's, and he transforms. A powerful red flaming phoenix comes to life, Amy settled on the middle of his back as he loops over gracefully and starts to dive. As he does, from beneath his wings, feather-like missiles streak out, all of them swirling and spiraling in maddening powers as they fly towards Hinoiri to slam against her skin. "Soaring Itano Circus!"

The Phoenix streaks by, over Hinoiri's head - clearly it's not done and unleashed a heavier attack. "Next pass will be rough!" he warns Amy.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
There was so... much... so incredibly much. Portals opened around, and over her, and then... the feelings. Her magic was fritzed. Everything was wrong. Why was she doing this?

Everything always left her alone. Always back where she was. Nothing ever worked. No matter how hard she tried. No matter how much effort she put in. No matter how much she burned herself, no matter how much she cried, or fought, how angry she got, it never worked. She sobbed, her hands moving over her eyes as the tears fell. "It'll never get better! It'll never be okay! I can't do this! I never could! I was a failure from the start!"

The clocknight and hurtled sword descended on her... and then was snatched from the air by her tail. And in an instant, it was gone. And Madoka *felt* it. As her power was *stolen* from her. Ripped out, using the clocknight as a connection to take it.

And then, she rose up, the tears burning away, Oktavia's sword held in her tail... before dropping it to the ground, causing the Flower-disc to slam into it and explode. Not taking from it. Not using that connection to drain Sayaka.

'Could anyone use a shield?' Oh, she could. "E-enough..." she growled. And then she disappeared, in flames. "I WILL BE ALL!" And her palm was against the shield of ice... And she *tore* it all out. The ice began to crumble as Jadeite felt the flames searing over him, and his magic was ripped, stolen from his body. However, before she could complete it, suddenly BAM! More fire, more explosions... more destruction... Feathers and rockets raining down on her. The draining was stopped before she could fully hollow out Jadeite.

Hinoiri didn't fall this time. She was sent skidding along the ground, lifting her head. Her eyes sizzling as the fire burned away tears before they could fall. "It's... no choice... I never had a choice. My destiny was decided long before I came here! If you want to stop me... you'll have to destroy me. This is my destiny. THIS IS ALL I'VE EVER BEEN--"

And then her eyes went wide as the music *changed*.

This one, at least, she recognized. She'd done the pacifist route. ""OH JUST BUCK YOU!" she yelled, glaring at her geode, laying on the ground, once again glimmering with a rainbow light.

"I am not your friend! I am not anyone's student, I am not a pawn! I am Hinoiri Kirara! I am the Sunset of Sora! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY SOMETHING AS PATHETIC AS LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP!"

And then she began to sing. "Blown by the wind of seven colors, I was aiming for a distant cape..."

That wasn't her song, though. Purifying light washed out from her music and she screamed, as for a moment, Yellow Pearl Voice's magic washed over her, staging her. Though the stage disappeared a moment later, shattering in magic as Hinoiri stumbled back. "I-I am... I am all powerful. I am the sun. I am radiance! I broke the sun and... and replaced it with my own! I WILL NOT BE BEATEN!" Fire, her fire, erupted out in all directions, raining down on them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcLk8lEYOOM

Jadeite has posed:
His shields buckle; his ice crumbles. Everyone is kept safe, at least, but Jadeite feels the telltale weakness of being drained; it's only by slamming his epee into the ground and leaning on it that he stays on his feet. His exposed face goes pink, then red; his blond hair frizzes and crisps; the sleeve of the arm he throws up over his face to protect it bursts into flame and ash, revealing crackling skin underneath.

It's just like in his first life. Just like that final fight with Sailor Mars and the rest, before he died -

Something snaps in him. His face cracks into that of the madman who had raided the Golden Kingdom millinia ago.

"GET OVER YOURSELF!" he roars, and he snaps one burning finger in her direction. "BOO HOO, I'M SO LONELY! I'M SO SAD! NOBODY LOVES ME! EVERYONE FEELS LIKE THAT! *I* FEEL LIKE THAT! And I pulled all the stupid stunts you're doing, ruining the lives of the people I loved to try and make myself feel better! You were there in the past, you saw what happened! Do you want to end up like me, spending a second lifetime fixing my mistakes? Get your HEAD out of your BUTT! You're not my friend or my student or my pawn, you're ME, so I'm helping deliver the clue by four I wish I had gotten back then!"

Ice coalesces over his burnt hand and arm as she drops his power,returning it to htim. "If you can't GET IT TOGETHER for YOURSELF, then do it for your CONSORT so so no one's crying over your BODY in the HOSPITAL after I show you the kind of self loathing a real villain can accomplish!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Spots swim in front of Rashmi's eyes, as more power than she can fully comprehend is brought to bear at one single point...

And still their enemy struggles.

Combatants' power is stolen from, explosive tantrums are thrown, and what could *possibly* get her to sto--?!

The little, glowing stone on the ground. The one the lizard tried to give her. Why does it look familiar?

The fact that it retains magic, retains *form,* through this cataclysm of feelings and forces, *must* mean it means something.

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

And her voice touches the minds of every combatant, powered or no, wounded or no, just a quiet, gentle moment of... not quite resignation? << ...Guys? I have an idea. But it's probably gonna hurt. Get ready though... Maybe it'll help knock her down for real. >>

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR SHIELD -- GLACE SHIFT >>

And she streaks groundwards, honing in on that forgotten glimmer of light. Sunbreaker's fire pounds at her, strips away shielding that gets resummoned moments later... but there's time between enough, that the fire lashes at her Barrier Jacket, over and over again.

But she reaches ground in more or less one piece, and snatches up the geode pendant, ducking behind cover to keep her shields healthy. Then, with a deep breath, she does the Incredibly Irresponsible Thing.

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

<< ...Hinoiri-san? What if you didn't have to take and take, just to have? Because I have something of yours. And I'd like to *give* it to you, because you deserve it. >>

There's pain in that mental voice, because burning hurts. There's fear... but there's no deceit. Rashmi has always had a *terrible* poker face.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"You're an IDIOT!" Sailor Jupiter roars, landing hard and solidly on her feet as she drops from the hair next to Jadeite. "Blaming it all on 'destiny' like you didn't choose to do all this yourself? Quit being such a coward!"

Fire rains down again - no ice to shield them this time, and her gossamer screen of wind and petals isn't enough on its own. Without a pause for thought, Jupiter darts forward to plant herself between Sailor Moon and Hinoiri, tall frame bending over the smaller senshi if that's what it takes to cover her. A pained sound rips from her throat as the flames char black streaks over her fuku and sears red welts on her skin - still, Sailor Jupiter never wavers.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    "Hah yes, we should," Neptune agreed as she scrambled back up to her feet after that ungraceful dodge, drawing out the Deep Aqua Mirror as she looked around. It was disorienting falling down like that, she needed to survey the field. Everything was happening so fast, and before she could really do anything fire was raining down from above.
    Again, the only thing she could do was dodge, and so she did, weaving in between individual flames to the nearest cover, an awning. She pressed herself back up against the shop window beneath it as the flames fell down just inches in front of her. She looked out to see where Uranus ended up. This time she'd just looked after herself.

    Meanwhile, as they're held by the dancing bears that were once Bow and Mercury, Double Trouble lets out a loud whistle of approval. "YEAH WHAT HE SAID," they shout, their tail pointing toward Jadeite. "Could you stop being so punchable?! You already almost died in my arms once!!" Oh the drama.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka frowns at Hinoiri saying she won't be defeated by friendship. How stubborn could she possibly be? Just as stubborn as her in their respective despair. "Hinoiri, there is a limit to needing to be competitive when you are literally despairing. You are crumbling on yourself! Yes, we are your friends and we want to help you, but you need anybody to be here for you!"

"We know the real you, and we am going to pull yourself out of this swamp of despair, by force if necessary, no matter how much the weight of your own twisted ascension is dragging you down!" Sayaka yells out at her.

"Grab me!" Sayaka shouts to the titanic mermaid Witch, to which her other self immediately complies and also follows the other, tacit, other, bringing the the Puella up, up and up. Sayaka looks at her Soul Gem, halfway through its energy reserve. She can do this, but she will need to use a Grief Soul immediately after.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka lets out a sharp breath as her Familiar is stolen from her. Not merely the actual magic used to create the thing, but the... concept of it? H-how?!

    Madoka takes a moment to see if her other powers are intact. She can still summon other Familiars, probably, but just not that one? Weird. Unsettling even. The pinkette decides to keep her Familiars back and orders the few survivors back through their portals. They were always going to fall quickly in this fight, but they did their jobs well. No point in wasting the magic. Not when Sunset can do that.

    Suddenly it is raining fire all around them, and Hope Witch raises one hand into the air to create her branch bow, and then another, and then about twenty others, bending and weaving together to make a wooden dome. Wood against Fire is, in general, a bad choice, but just as one barrier is burnt through it's discarded and another one forms in its place.

    One thing that Madoka knows: this fight will not be won with brute force alone. Another thing she knows is that Hinoiri is still in there, wanting all of this to stop. So, power of friendship it is!

    "Sunny-chan, I know you don't want this! I heard you pleading to make this stop! You're like a Witch right now, you even have your name in the sky. Well, no Witch really wants to do what they're doing!"

    Then, it hits her. It occurs to her. It was possible to pull Sayaka out of being a Witch. So then, even if it's difficult, even if it should be impossible, could they produce a miracle to save Hinoiri from that fate too? Madoka considers the Humpty Lock. It has purification power, sure, but that alone might not be enough.

    A memory of Gretchen's words hangs in her ears, a declaration that the X-Chara made when they first met. The moment you see that all of your loved ones are going to die you'll wish you had all the power in the world. In that moment, maybe you'll finally appreciate me.

    It hurt, actually, because it was true. Madoka had been ignoring her dream because parts of it made her feel uncomfortable. Uneasy. Yet because of that discomfort she was letting Gretchen suffer. Not only that, but everyone else, too...

    Hope Witch, still full of purifying energy, with eyes glowing golden and translucent wings behind her, allows herself to believe. One more bow appears in her hands, sparkling to life with pink magic. Her black ribbon dress turns completely white. She stands with certainty. "You're right. You're not being defeated by friendship. You're being freed by it."

    Madoka nocks back an arrow and lets it charge, as the top tip of her bow ignites with pink flame. She unleashes her arrow into the air where it forms a ceiling of strange geometric symbols, which in turn rains down a torrent of rainbow-aura pink arrows. If there's a dawn beyond this, they'll find it for sure!

Koji Silvia has posed:
    << ..ster. Master. Wake up. MASTER! EVADE! >>

Koji barely wakes up in time to see the rain of fire coming down on him, and pushes himself into a roll under a piece of exterior venting on the roof he's on. He still gets struck in the side and along the back, and another time on one calf, but makes it to where most of the rest of the incidental bombardment doesn't hit him.

Leaning back and against an industrial air conditioner, he pants and turns his wrist to look at Hanzo. Damaged but usable.

    "How're we looking."

    << Suboptimal, Master. >>

Koji groans out, "Yeah... I figured. Okay... one last spell."

    << This course of action is not recommended. >>

    "You can chew me out after we're dead, partner."

Standing back up, limping more really, 'Hanzo' leans on the big aircon unit and moves forwards towards the others now, speaking up where he can be heard in the chaos, "If... meeting Sailor Moon, and everyone else here... has taught me anything... it's that friendship isn't easy. It's not for when everyone's smiling and laughing, and the skies are clear. It's about the cloudy days and the tears, and SWALLOWING everything you're going through so that you can be there. Not because you know someone will do the same... but because you know it's what you'd want too. Today's... ngh... not one of those easy days."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a rapid swing of emotion as Hinoiri starts to sob and Usagi hopes, for a wild moment, that maybe they're getting through to her, that she'll finally just go down and let them handle this, that it will be alright -

And then she's utterly disappointed, as Hinoiri goes right into a rain of excuses, disappointments, laments, and -

Then she's right there. Next to them, and her hands are on Jadeite, and he's burning and she's screaming -

"Jadeite! Let him go! Let him go!!!"

But she can't get between them, she can't help, because there is Sailor Jupiter between them, there is Makoto taking fiery punishment, snarling her own admonishments as Tamaki embodies the man he was in full, snarling his rage and disdain, screaming out a challenge for Hinoiri.

Flesh sizzled. Hair burned. Fabric ignited. And through it all, Sailor Moon was protected, by her guardian, by her friend, by her sister -

And even as the other attacks strike home and send Hinoiri spinning away, inside her she's boiling with protective rage, with sorrow for the injuries her friends are suffering, with indignation, with -

And she ducks under Sailor Jupiter, pulling her guardian's arm over her shoulders to help her stand now that the attack is over, looking down at Jadeite's burns and his terrible injuries and knowing the only thing that will fix them is taking Hinoiri down, and giving Mamoru back his power. Letting him do what he does best -

Be the Earth beneath their feet, the steady golden glow of home, the rush of blood in the body as it heals and strengthens -

She is the Moon, ethereal and beautiful, but she is a human now, solid and real, and she is a soldier now, experienced in fighting, in protecting, in saving her friends and defeating her enemies, and more than all of that -

Usagi Tsukino is a girl who knows more than a little bit about being a failure.

She raises her free hand to the sky, and light begins to shine and shimmer, sparkling as she concentrates her power, as she pours her love, her conviction, her stubbornness and her anger into her fingertips. The Moon's Sigil shines on her forehead.

"You once said that no one would come back for you," she calls across the battlefield, "And yet here we are! Here are so many people, who came for you, as much as this world! Here is love and support offered to you on a silver platter, and won't take it, because it's not from the person you want! Well guess what?!"

And she pitches her voice up and loud, bellows from her chest,

"SORA ISN'T HERE! AND FROM ONE FAILURE TO ANOTHER, HINOIRI - YOU'RE NOT WORTHLESS! YOU'RE JUST UNTEACHABLE!"

And in her outstretched hand, the glittering energy resolves into the golden, shining shape of her tiara, resurrected from the void.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    There's fire raining from everywhere and for just a moment, Uranus considers trying to swipe it all away with her sword. But that is both just a little ridiculous and it's not the time for her blade to do its work yet. Sunset's a little far away to stab, and she wants to make sure that the Blaster hits its mark and then some. She rolls under an awning with Neptune, and as she looks out at Jupiter shielding Moon, and Moon directing all of her love and righteous justice at Sunset, she can't help but comment. "Those girls are tougher than I gave them credit for." she tells her compatriot. "That seems like a different Sailor Moon than the one I met the first time." she says, honest appreciation in her voice. "Or maybe she hasn't changed at all, but I didn't see it." she remarks, thinking about the time Sailor Moon covered Sunbreaker, even though it lead to this in the long run.

    Some part of her wants to yell out to Sailor Moon and ask if she regrets that. But she doesn't. Not after Sailor Moon - no, after Usagi delivers her words with such force. Because sometimes you don't need to ask a question to know the answer. She just grips her sword a little tighter. Soon it'll be time.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Did someone just catch her?! Amy blushes and tries to explain, a bit flustered by the sheer oddity of this occurance, "I can fl--" but it's hard to hear over the noise of battle and friendship speeches, and the boy confidently continues: 'Hold tightly, I will protect you.'

    It's a sentiment expressed many times by now. She knows allies will protect her, but people don't generally hold her while telling her that!

    It's... nice?!

    Even though it's a boy???

    Like it's not quite the same as Hannah, and also 'saving' her when Rashmi had put a flight spell on her was kind of silly, but the boy seems earnest in trying to help, it's not like he's telling her she doesn't belong on the battlefield or anything.

    It's nice.

    And then he turns into a phoenix and she delivers her own friendship speech before he... fires a feather missile attack that references mecha?! Amy can't help smiling as she watches the feather missiles flying. "Did you just combine my magic with yours somehow?! Damn! [Gattai] is a man's romance, huh?!" She may be misremembering an anime quote.

    Next pass will be rough! "Rodger!" she nods and adjusts her grip.

    And then

    The music changes.

    Hey, <Name!> It's me, your best friend.

    "Alright, let's do this! [CHAAAANGE! SUPAAA KYUUAA WING!]" Hopefully what ever he's doing to combine our magic, and magic itself, makes this work...

    And um. The giant phoenix she's riding? Totally gets super parts. Attached to the wings and legs, containing rocket thrusters and what look like missile racks, pushing his speed even higher!

    "Hinoiri!" She calls out. "I don't know what this other future holds! Where you're not a villain! But you, and everyone who cares about you... We'll all find out together!

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
As Cure Wing soars gracefully through the raining fire, he's taking a few hits, but is at least making sure that Amy remains safe in the process as the bird twists and turns, the phoenix giving a sharp caw of frustration as he considers. "I think you will want to depart soon. You may not want to be on me for the next attack." he warns. But for the moment, she's safe where she is.

And as Amy feeds Cure Wing her magic, he transforms with it, the phoenix gaining armor and more missile pods that form over him.

He has no speeches, he has no words that have no already been offered to the poor girl. So, instead, he continues to provide the covering fire for the others. Missiles leap off pods as he sharply turns, wings turned in for a moment to gain speed as he empties the packs onto Hinoiri, trailing smoke from the multiple strikes on him, because he doesn't have the sense to get out of the fire.

Once he streaks by, he slows long enough for Amy to hop off. "It was nice to meet you." he offers politely, before he turns to fly skywards, and start to build up speed.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
"S-stop it... stop... trying... to save me... stop a-acting like you care... stop... stop... stop making it hurt... stop making my heart hurt!" she screamed at them, the tears sizzling away as she could make them. "None of you could understand. Noone could ever understand what it's like! How it hurts, how it feels to be worthless!" But, thanks to what she stole? She could feel it. She still could. "I DON'T WANT IT ANY MORE!" she screamed. Holding both her hands up...

And then it left her. Darkness spilled out from her. The void tore itself from her body, erupting from her as the light of creation did as well, the two covering her in yet more burns. The earth freed, Jadeite's ice returning to him. The song of a mermaid. The speed of Loyalty. The shifting of her consort. So many powers, so many chaotic, violent powers stolen... now all returned, as she crashed to the ground. Panting, gasping... and overhead... the sun returned.

Hinoiri looked up at it... then around at them... The power was leaving her, she wasn't strong enough... "I... I can't... I just... I can't... I'm not worth it... I was never... I can feel it..."

In Rashmi's hand, the geode amulet was glowing. The bears holding Double Trouble faded, freeing Bow and Ami (likely to collapse with exhaustion). And Double Trouble, for that matter.

Hinoiri held her hand up. "Just... let... me go... Forget about me... like I deserve... Why are you all still trying? Why are you coming for me? I don't... all I've done... all I've ever done... is hurt you..."

All over the city, the mirrors collapsed as the sun above, that she had created? Descended on Hinoiri. Enveloped in it, when it parted? It wasn't the Sunbreaker they'd known. Or the Sunset of Sora.

It was a demon. A laughing, despair filled demon. All of her self hatred, her loathing, her suffering made manifest. Or perhaps, in that moment, that was how she truly saw herself. Not an amalgamation of everyone who cared about her, and she cared about... But a monster. Alone. Unwanted. Unknown. Wreathed in darkness. Burning away from the pain.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka sighs, then takes a deep breath. She has never been this close to fracturing her Soul Gem again ever since she merged back together. It is enough to make her shake a bit. What if she gets it wrong and is forcefully returned to her existence of curse and despair? What would that tell to Hinoiri? Would her friends try a way to reenact that miracle? Would Madoka forgive her? Would Bow? Would Ula? Crud, her parents... They would just never know what happened to her.

And her idealism, her hopes of finding a way to turn other despairing Puellae back, it would all just backfire and unleash all of those curses at once. Can she really afford to do this? The irony if all her hopes led to a huge mass of despair in response That's just like something Kyubey would say, she is sure.

Which is all the more reason to ignore her thoughts. That is her friend down there and screw everything else, she will do this, get it right, help Hinoiri, and then go back to school the morning after with a severe headache!

"Hinoiri", Sayaka smiles down, talking as loudly as she can. "Let's go back to school, ok? We have homework tomorrow. I can give you mine if you haven't done it. And... right after school, let's go eat out. With everyone." The reserves of her energy plummet to a measly 1/5, and then Attesa, Brillio and Tramonto walk out of a portal, stopping next to her on Oktavia's open hand.

"I trust you three", she tells the Familiars in Witch-language. "See you." The group nods and then jumps down right in Hinoiri's direction. The representation of Klarissa (You are forgiven whole-heartedly). The representation of Hinoiri's human self (You have it in you to love yourself). The representation of her normal magical self (dark energy does not define you). All entrusted by Sayaka to deliver a single thing with that divebomb: a triple hug.

Jadeite has posed:
"Death is too much of a mercy for you," Jadeite sneers as cool water drips down his face, down his arms, cooling the grevious burns on his body. He knows the others around him will be dealing with the monster in the morning star, so he addresses the girl crumpled on the ground.

"Your punishment is life! You get to live. You get to apologize. You get to start anew. Live knowing the mistakes you made! Live knowing you could have ruined everything! Live and - "

His knees buckle under him; he holds himself up with his epee, creating more ice flowers as shields - or ammunition.

"Take your punishment and suffer the embarassment of being a villain - and LOSING! And if you hurt my boyfriend again, I'm going to make what Sailor Moon's about to do look like a gentle kiss on the nose!"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    There have been several conditions for the full realization of Gretchen's true form. One, Madoka will have to learn to believe in herself fully, and if she survives the day then she might actually gain that, but it's hard to have that faith when her KDA is still negative. Two, all seven of Madoka's Chara eggs will have to appear, and she's been stuck on five for a while. Three, Gretchen will have to be purified.

    She is so close on several fronts, but still not quite there. Perhaps that's why, even though she's different, even though she can feel herself changing from the inside out, Hope Witch can only skirt the edge of ascension. Yet, even with that as-yet-uncrossable barrier between who she is now and who she is destined to become, in Madoka's mind's eye she can see another self, reaching out for her, and she herself is reaching back.

    For once, in this critical moment, Madoka's heart forgets all of its doubts and insecurities. She's not a normal girl who doesn't stand out. She's not a powerless child in the face of absurd destruction. She's just a friend, among other friends, trying to reach another friend who is going down a dark path. In this moment, even if things aren't perfect, Madoka's heart begins to shine.

    Sunset is losing her powers. Even the Familiar that was stolen from her, Madoka feels it returning. Yet that doesn't mean it's over. No, all it means is that they are now getting to the core of the problem.

    Hitting Hinoiri with another Open Heart wont be enough on its own. That's not how it works. Madoka has to address her feelings first, and so she does.

    "I know this isn't what you wanted, Hinoiri-chan, but there's no point in chasing after a love you can't have. Whether or not Sora accepts you, whether she cares about you, has nothing to do with who you are. All of that is a reflection of who she is. You have your own intrinsic value. You'd still be worthy and valid even if no one else saw it!"

    Madoka makes the heart gesture with her hands, and the Humpty Lock shines. She gathers all of her power, everything that she has left, into her hands. "Negative Heart: Lock On!"

    Thrusting her hands forward, she unleashes a stream of heart-shapes at the Demon that is Hinoiri.

    "OPEN HEART!" she shouts, releasing another rainbow torrent. There's no tricks to her attack, no portals to go through or Familiars to carry her power for her. It's just her own radiant power. Her translucent wings spread wide, her golden eyes glow, and she smiles brightly.

    "We wont leave you alone, Hinoiri-chan! Not like this!"

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    "Once a girl risked her life to save yours." Sailor Uranus says, looking at the demon version of Hinoiri, as she steps out from behind the rod holding up the awning... "Even if you don't think you have worth, other people do." she says, holding her sword in both hands. "To them you're not a monster, you're a person. And now what we have to do, clearly, is beat the monster until it lets go of the person inside. So that you can begin the hard part, like Jadeite said."

    She looks at Neptune, for just a moment; for confirmation, for assistance, for more. "At least I'm pretty sure that's how it works. It's time for you to become the eprson that she believed you could be. And stop throwing a damn tantrum about it."

    SPACE SWORD BLASTER! she calls, swinging the sword with both hands as bladed curves of brilliant wind energy slice through the air, headed for Sunbreaker's demon form, aiming to break any defenses she has to let the purifying attacks get through.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rising from her cover, Rashmi closes her hand around the glowing geode. "A few months ago," she says, as the sun descends and the demon of self-hatred is made manifest. "You gave a Christmas present to someone you barely knew. It didn't matter that you barely understood Christmas, or that the thing you gave her was only a little special to you. If you hadn't done that, nobody would have thought any less of you. Not even the waitress."

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRAGE >>

"But you *did,* Hinoiri, and you were *kind* and *thoughtful* and you *weren't getting IN YOUR OWN DAMN WAY!*"

    << *BONG!* >> << GLACE SHIFT >>

Her foot stomps into the ground, Barrets spinning around her body and *cracking* into pellets of golden ice. "THAT'S WHO WE WANT TO SAVE, HINOIRI-SAN! BUT WE CAN'T DO IT UNTIL WE *GET RID OF ALL OF THIS!*"

<< SHOOT >>

Binding ice pellets aren't exactly an awe-inspiring, all-powerful attack... But they stick, and they're heavy and confining and they build up on each other and the more she summons and fires into the pile the harder it is to move and dodge the *real* finishers...

Koji Silvia has posed:
Pushing off and standing firm, Koji doesn't have much left in the tank... he threw his best in the beginning and helped get things where they are now.

But like everyone else here, he dig back down into the places you don't often go to find the thing you need in a time like this.

*CLAP*

His hands come together hard and he closes his eyes, calling another Midchildian circle around his feet, and once more his hair and scarf begin to float upwards as gravity distorts in the local space.

    "Time to clear the road. HANZO!"

    << Master. >>

    "Disruptor Blade Barrage!"Koji intones this and then points two fingers like a gun at the swirling darkness before them, and his thumb drops like a musket's hammer.

    << DISRUPTOR BLADE. BARRAGE FORM. >>

Circles of magic no bigger than a tea plate appear in the air around Hinoiri's new form, and small, blade-shaped projections appear and shoot out, going through the demonic form, slicing at the bonds of powers inside, like a swarm of angry little hummingbirds as circles vanish and new ones form.

Sweat begins to pour off of him as he holds his hand out, the gem on Hanzo glowing fiercely but flickering erratically. But he'll hold it as long as he can, trying to cut a hole someplace where Rashmi isn't locking her down for someone else's strike to do it's work.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    Neptune nods to Uranus giving that confirmation. Uranus blasts Hinoiri with her space sword and then Neptune steps forward, holding the Deep Aqua Mirror up, the reflective surface pointed right toward Hinoiri. "Look at yourself! You are are so much more than this despair. Accept our love," she says.
    And then, well, she showers Hinoiri with that love. "Submarine Reflection!" Sea water shoots from the mirror like a firehose, spraying towards Hinoiri to try and wash that despair off of her.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Sailor Jupiter is burned, smoldering, faint wisps of smoke still curling up off her from making a wall of herself against the rain of fire. Still, she's on her feet. After a long moment to steel herself, she even steps away from the support Sailor Moon is giving her, bracing her feet apart to make sure she stays upright. "I'm okay," she says, breathless. "Let's just... deal with this."

Overhead, clouds gather, rumbling with thunder.

Squaring her shoulders, Sailor Jupiter grasps the power of her guardian planet. The charge builds around her, snapping in the suddenly-dry air - it flows up from the ground, down from the sky, the invisible bridge between heaven and earth.

Sparks crackle across her tiara.

"Supreme... THUNDER...!"

Kra-THOOM! The sky opens. A column of raw electricity, blinding-bright, courses down onto the demon with a wall-shaking boom of thunder.

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
As soon as Amy is off his back and Cure Wing is airborne, his thoughts turn to the girl that Hinoiri had harmed so roughly. The girl that was the wing on her back now. Tears came to the flaming phoenix's eyes as he picks speed. Faster and faster he goes. And as he does, he focuses on the colors of the girl's hair... and then...

All Colors as One!

Soaring Rainbow!

Red!
Yellow!
Blue!
White!

Mixed Color Charge!

The bright colors swirl and engulf the phoenix, changing him from shades of red to shades of rainbow as he reaches his crest and as Cure Wing makes his final turn, the rainbow phoenix turns and as he comes closer and closer to the others, he calls out the new attack name.

"PRECURE LOYALTY RAINBOW PEGASUS! ATTACK!"

And with that, he transforms from a Phoenix to a Titanic Sized rainbow-colored Pegasus and he drops down, purifying hooves first, onto the demon.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon is very glad he's not on the reciving end of that barrage that Sunbreaker - no, Demon Hinoiri - is now getting. He's really glad he won't be in such a position ever.

    With the removal of the Star Bears Riventon's freed up - the barret-raptors having long since been cleared out. Should he... do something? Say something? He doesn't figure the girl needs any more Dark Energy at this point in time. Nah, this isn't his spot. Let the sparklesquad do their thing.

    Then he pauses. And picks up a fist sized chunk off the ground. And he throws it, hard, aiming for her midsection with his Dark Energy enhanced strength. But the rock itself isn't Dark Energy. There. He's helping.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
On the other side of the city, in Mitakihara General Hospital, power floods back -- back to the mahous who Hinoiri drained and burned -- and the sense of the Earth itself floods back to its Prince.

Its Prince who instantly shifts as Serenity does, right there in his hospital bed, and vanishes from the sight of the three poor Shitennou who have to put up with his bull, because he follows the golden thread that's snapped back into place, gold threaded with silver, always finding each other always, through millennia and traffic and tests and battles and sorrow and fear and joy. He's

there

at Serenity's side, as tall and solid in his armor and wearing the ancient mantle of Earth's power like he wears his cape, confident and adept and strong. Nevermind his hand, twisted and scarred, that closes over Serenity's on the Crescent Wand; nevermind his other arm, around her waist instead of lifted up to her shoulder-- he's there, and warm solid fierce golden strength floods from his hand, from his heart, from his soul where it should be, into Usagi's attack.

Silver and gold threaded together. Serenity with the love of Endymion at her side, not just in her heart.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"We do care," Sailor Moon says, and her face is hard as the Moon, her eyes paradoxically gentle, "Unfortunately for you, half of us here care about you. And the other half still don't want to see you die, even if you've been an idiot and a jerk. This is what friendship is."

The golden tiara in her hand is returned to her forehead, and she watches as Hinoiri's power breaks free of her - as golden lightning explodes from her, racing into the sky and sizzling and erupting in a devastating dance as inky black emptiness pours out alongside the lightning, the two entwining and destroying and creating each other anew as they finally burst apart and streak across the sky.

The light of creation and the darkness of destruction returning to their bearers.

There's a sense of rightness in Usagi's mind, in her skull, as golden light moves, not in the real world but in her mind, as she stops sensing Hinoiri and starts to sense Mamoru once more.

The relief makes her nears shake. Makes tears spring to her eyes. And she leans in, bracing Makoto as she brings the force of the heavens down on the demon's head.

"It's almost over," she promises, and raises her eyes to the sky, her Crescent Wand to the sky, as the Silver Crystal shines, and Princess Serenity transforms once more, the pale glow of her skin, the softness of her eyes, the ephemeral trail of her skirts as she is quite suddenly -

Bracketed between them - her guardian, her sister, and her prince, her love.

If she is the most ethereal of sights, he is the steadiest vision, the solid Earth.

Of course they've found each other, they'll always find each other, through tragedy and despair, transforming loss in love, into hope anew.

She leans against him. She smiles at him.

And then she opens the flood gates of her power, just as he does, his hand on the Crescent Wand, hers on the Crescent Wand -

They cry out the name of the attack together.

"Moon Tuxedo La Healing Smoking Escalation Bomb!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy hopes off her ride with a nod and a quick two-finger salute. She turns to Hinoiri. "Friendship and love aren't pathetic! I dunno about ponies, but working together is how humans conquered the planet! And it's the only way to stop everything that threatens the world! One person amassing ultimate power? You did that, Hinoiri! Endless night and people trapped in mirrors? That's not saving the world!"

    And. Without her powers. Hinoiri looks so sad and pathetic. She's giving up. Why should anyone save her?

    "Why should anyone save you?!" Amy asks, then holds her hand to her chest. "Why should anyone save me?!"

    "I had more chances than most and I blew it. Either my unhappiness is my own fault and I deserve nothing, or the... or the world just SUCKS that much but it's hurt others far more! They deserve it more than me! I should just be protecting you all until I die, and I'm so glad for any life like this I get until then!"

    She takes a breath and steps towards the demon, throwing her hands out to the side. "But you know what? Those people who 'deserve it more'? They're not here. And none of us can, like, shoot world hunger or the like in the face with missiles or purification beams."

    She holds her hand to her chest again. "I'm here." She points at the demon. "You're here. We're the people in front of them. They can help us. We can help you."

    She looks away. "It won't help the others who 'deserve' it... We can't help them. But maybe... if everyone helped the people in front of them... No one would hurt so much anymore. So I guess it starts with us."

    Now, if she can just make herself believe it when she's feeling like she doesn't deserve it. But that's a problem for another day. Start with what's in front of you! And that is...

    Amy takes another step forward and points at the demon. "Now. To all the bad feelings that are making up this monster, I have a few words:"

    The Super Parts haven't disappeared. She hasn't conjured any new weapons. Amy just points.

    "[KURAE! AKASHIKU BUSTAAAAA!]"

    She's doing her best with what she's got! She can't actually supercharge Cure Wing's flames directly, but she can reload the packs with shaped charges that don't even need to launch but go off in dozens of lances of piercing light right before (Super!) Cure Wi-- SUPER CURE LOYALTY RAINBOW PEGASUS himself impacts!

    Amy continues pointing and shouting as he drops down. "[IKEEEEEEEEEEEE!]"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
The demon never stood a chance. She never even got to launch a counter attack. Wind magic slashed her, as the water doused her, as lightning enveloped her, as golden ice pellets hit her, as barrages of disrupting magic struck her, as Ami's launched explosions struck her...

As a rock whizzed by, missing entirely. Making those few blocks of distance, only to miss at the last few feet.

She held her arms up, shielding herself before she was hit by three FULLY AMPED UP PURIFYING ASSAULTS!The purifying phoenix/pegasus of rainbows, the moon and earth combining to cast out the darkness and Madoka's lock opening the darkness of her heart.

When it was all over, the dust cleared... a crater stood. With Hinoiri, burnt, hurt, charred, the tips of her hair on fire.

Unsure, confused, trembling. "I..."

And then... the finisher. As she was hugged. As three familiars descended on her... and hugged her. And she realized, without the darkness in her heart. Without the pain, without the escalation... as much as she hurt? Here, at least, she wasn't alone. Finally, just this once, a lesson got through. And she, for the first time in so long, learned the correct thing.

And in that moment, she said the only thing she could say. The only thing she could do. She hugged the familiar in front of her, and in a sobbing, raspy voice, she said the only words she could. Ones that would never be enough, couldn't make up for what she'd done, for all those she'd hurt. But words she meant and, while they weren't enough, maybe they could be the start. The beginning.

"I'm... I'm sorry... I'm so... so... s-sorry... for everything..." she said, before she began to just cry, hugging the familiar. "To all of you... to everyone... I didn't... I didn't mean to... I just thought I could handle it and I... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

And she cried, letting out all of her pain in the, hopefully, healthy way... At least the fire in her hair went out after a minute.

Tsubasa Yuunagi has posed:
Cure Wing is exhausted. Transforming back into his Cure form, he knows he should leave because he doesn't have much energy left. Satisfied that everyone is okay, the teen rises into the air, and offers a polite bow, his skin singed and bruised in places. He's going to need a couple of days to recover. "I'm glad everything worked out and was restored!" he offers warmly.

There's a tip of his fingers to his brow as he prepares to take off and head who knows where to recover.

Double Trouble has posed:
    The instant they felt their powers come back to them Double Trouble melted into a puddle of inky blackness on the ground to escape the grasp of the bears that were holding them. Except the bears were transformed back into Bow and Ami. Good for them. Their friends would surely help them. Double Trouble had some one more important to attend to.
    They watched as all of the attacks landed on Hinoiri one after another defeating her inner demons made manifest, and then then saw it. The moment they'd tried to make happen for months. Ever since they'd fallen in love. They saw her actually learn the right lesson.
    And then she was apologizing and crying, and they couldn't wait any longer. They rushed in to wrap her up in a hug, their arms and tail wrapping around her. "It's okay, darling. You're with friends now."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Witch... actually just stands there for a few moments, holding her 'heart shape hands' pose long after the magic faded. She was... expecting something else. On some level, she was expecting failure, for something to come up behind her and wreck her at the last second, or... something. When the sparkly rainbow dust settles, the battle is over, and Hinoiri is... apologizing?

    Not the half-hearted 'sorry I slapped you' apology but an actual sincere one?

    Madoka is stunned. She honestly doesn't even blink at the Familiar hug party. That part doesn't weird her out. No, the surprising thing is that she actually did end up on the other side of this without... something even more terrible happening.

    Hope Witch glances around, wondering if there's anything they missed. Suddenly, her henshin flashes off and Gretchen's egg leaves her. The X-Chara is clutching her stomach and coughing up rainbow dust.

    "Don't ever..." cough cough "... ask me to do that again!"

    Madoka winces, and then reaches out to cup Gretchen in her hands. "There there. It's over now. You're a lot tougher than you thought you were."

    "That doesn't mean it didn't hurt!" The tiny fairy pouts at Madoka. Lydian and Brai soon join her side, and Madoka hugs the three of them. She carries her fairies over to Hinoiri.

    "Hinoiri-chan... it's okay. Things will get better," promises the pinkette. Hopefully reality won't make a liar out of her.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji could hardly count himself in the 'friend' category at the moment, despite the mahou-moment that accidentally got shared with his big blast early on... and that last attack was enough that his Barrier Jacket just *poofs* and Hanzo shifts forms back into a phone that now has a y-shaped screen crack. His weekend clothes hide the new burns on that are going to take a minute to get better, but he can limp...

...and all the chaos and damage did him the one favor of blasting the roof access door open for the building he on.

Ducking out and away before he can ne seriously noticed by anyone, except maybe Rashmi, Usagi, and Mamoru (who are aware of his bad and alarming habit of ducking out on this kind of positive moment...), he makes his way slowly down the stairs and towards the street exit, pulling his hood up and tucking his hair away, he mutters out, "Now I know why adults drink... Ow... Ow... stupid legburn..."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    The sun is shining, birds are chirping, mundane people's brains are twisting into knots trying to explain the sun going out without magic, Hinoiri is... Hinoiri, again. And crying. And people are rushing to hug her. Double Trouble is there, and as far as he can tell, nobody is charging up further attacks.

    This is good, it means the outcome he feared isn't happening. Hinoiri lost, sure, and she drew a lot of magical girls to her and they worked together and she was brought down. But Hinoiri will survive, the sun will survive, nobody died. He's not going to have to extract her or make a speech about escalation of conflict, or start a fight-after-the-fight. It's just... over. The amount of stress he lets out with a sigh is massive, as he slumps back against a building and relaxes. Maybe things can go back to normal, soon.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Hinoiri," Princess Serenity says, slow, careful, picking her words, as she squeezes Endymion's hand - the hand that is burned, scarred, that will always be scarred, that will be an everlasting reminder of what happened because Hinoiri Kirara could not, as her fellow youths would put it, handle her shit...

There's no -chan. No affectionate diminutive, though there's also no cruelty, no anger, just a calm, neutral statement of her name.

"I believe that you're sorry. So you need to do better, now. You need to be better, now. You have friends who want to help you, and people who care, and we came for you, so now you need to do better, from here on out. No more lashing out because you're bitter and angry, no more striking out because other people have what you want."

Her voice is hard.

"You've seen where that gets you. You've got a second chance, and you didn't even have to die for it. Make the most of it, alright?"

And then she turns her attention to her friends, for just a moment - "Mercury collapsed, over there. I'm going to get her, okay? Endychan, you take care of Jadeite and Jupiter, I'll be right back!"

And then she's rushing across the space to where Bow and Mercury collapsed from their mirrors, skirts flowing around her ankles. Long familiarity keeps her from tripping over them, as she reaches Mercury's side and kneels beside her, reaching out.

"Mercury-chan, are you okay?"

And then - Sailor Mercury is princess carried. By a princess. Her princess.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
It was one thing to burn through energy when fighting. Another entirely being trapped and having your power siphoned off to create a monster--But Mercury was free now. Free and still out of it as she'd fallen from the mirror to the ground wher she had remained limp but breathing.

At least until Princess Serenity scoops her up to carry her over with the others. It's then that she stirs a bit, eyes fluttering open to gaze up at the ethereal sight of Serenity from an angle she'd never seen before. Usually she was the taller one if only by a bit.

With a wistful smile she remarks, "The Moon is beautiful today." Right before tucking her cheek in against Serenity's shoulder in a little cuddle. Just for a moment.

Once they rejoin the others however she'll do what she has to, and regain her feet so that she can stand with her friends.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Prince Endymion lifts his communicator up -- with some effort, he's going to need to do a fair amount of PT with that arm -- and says quietly into it, "Luna, can you tell everyone it's over, we'll be back soon?"

His twisted hand doesn't let go of Princess Serenity's, and the contact is as it should be, sharing his feelings and his sense of where everything is, where they are, the solidity of the ground beneath their feet and the warmth of sunshine in spring instead of the heat of fire to the face--

And then they let go, because there's work to do.

Hinoiri gets That Speech from Serenity and the corner of Endymion's mouth twitches a little bit, but he has nothing to say to the unicorn. Not yet. Probably not for a while.

Serenity gives him an order of operations, which is great because he was in the hospital in a bed less than five minutes ago, and his other hand lifts as far as he can make that arm work, and he holds it out to Jadeite, to Jupiter.

The charred uniforms won't be saved, but they're only henshins; the burns Jupiter sustained after her fuku gave way will end up healing completely, and Endymion speeds them on their way. The burns Jadeite received will leave a little more of a mark, but they can both move without pain tearing at them with every motion, for now--

--and Endymion takes a breath. "Is there anyone," he says, "that needs to be able to walk it off who currently can't? If not, I am going back to get some people released from the hospital's burn ward..." he says that last while looking at Hinoiri again.

Looking. At. Her.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Sorry... sorry... sorry... Amy tries not to think about how awful Hinoiri must feel. After everything, she's kind of tired... but she's heartened by the sight of the familiars and DT embracing the poor girl!

    While waiting for her own turn to hug, she briefly pulls the grief seed from her pouch and cleanses her more-than-1/4-corrupted soul gem back to its pure and healthy red.

    She smiles at the others, not just Hinoiri but happy to see everyone happy to see Hinoiri cured, and Usagi and Mamoru back together again!

    When she can get a chance, she'll hug Hinoiri. "I missed you. While you were out there going, uh, crazy, I missed the villain who actually talked, and spoke with us earnestly, and listened sometimes. I look forward to getting to know you without being on opposing sides of the battlefield."

    She glances over at Usagi and Ami and feels... like she misses Hannah. She should go see her own princess soon.

    Amy (with a y) glances back to Hinoiri. "And despite what she said... If you wanna retire or something and try to go have a normal life, rather than becoming one of us or something... that's fine too. Just... as long as you be you, instead of trying to be..." She glances at the remains of the throne. "Something else."

    No, she won't apply this same logic to herself from now on. Baby steps! For both of them!

Rashmi Terios has posed:
And the glittering smoke clears... And...

It's over.

Loosing a long, low sigh of relief, Rashmi very nearly falls to her knees. But... THe battle's done, and now the war needs to be put completely to bed.

But given that she just *came* to this battle from the *Hospital,* there is a lot of a tangled mess of feelings to unpack, so... perhaps now isn't the time for more teachable moments, and anyway Usagi probably did the single most Upset Mom speech she's ever heard.

Weaving her exhaustion-drunk way toward the growing knot of Hinoiri's enemies-turned-supporters, Rashmi reaches out her empty hand, to just rest it on the other redhead's shoulder. "It's gonna be a lot of hard work, y'know... But the hardest thing of all's gonna be relying on other people. It's okay, Hinoiri-san. We'll have your back, if you let us."

A glance is given Usagi's way, and she nods; it won't be easy for her either, at first, but... Rashmi's willing to be a friend and help out... and maybe save a space for when Usagi feels okay about sitting at this table again.

Glancing at the lizard person, Rashmi simply smiles, and holds out the geode. "...I think she's gonna be ready to take this back soon. Let me know what happens when she does?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
In the wake of the battle, Sailor Jupiter bends, bracing her hands against her legs and just... breathing. It's with gratitude that she watches Serenity hurry to Sailor Mercury, and a definite twinge of shame - it shouldn't be on the Princess to do that, not while Jupiter is right here, but...

Well. Usagi and Ami both deserve it, right now. The pang passes quickly.

And the pain doesn't last much longer once Prince Endymion turns his healing attentions her way. Drawing in a deep breath, she straightens and brushes off her very scorched fuku, inclining her head to the Prince.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Uranus blinks as Hinoiri becomes... Hinoiri. "I know that girl." she says, to Neptune. "Now it all makes sense. You know the hypercompetitive girl, the one that nearly killed herself trying to race with me? The one I won't race anymore... that's her." She says.

    "I don't think I'm ready for her to know who I am. I think we should... head out." she tells her partner in stopcrime.

Jadeite has posed:
He takes Mamoru's hand. Healing energy flows through him like fresh water after a drought. His injuries paled in comparison to Mamoru's, the way he'd been hospitalized with agonizing recovery - but there's still a few marks that remain after he is healed.

(Selfishly, he's glad. Now they match. And now he has one more reminder to never return to the path that had killed him the first time around.)

He kisses Mamoru's hand once the healing is done, his chapped lips delicate on the knuckles. "If you need anyone to get carried, I can help with that," he tells Endymion earnestly. "And I can order an Uber once we're done here, because I think if I have to walk more than a block, I'm going to commit homicide."

..that's mostly a joke.

(He leaves Sunbreaker in peace. He doesn't remember many of his interactions with her Before; he'd rather not pile on his own complicated feelings as another villain who self destructed, not when she's already in an ocean of her own. Her friends should comfort her. He will leave her in peace.)

Sayaka Miki has posed:
The familiars make a space for Double Trouble when the chameleon comes in and hugs Hinoiri too. A command from Sayaka, who is being brought to the ground by Oktavia still. When the palm lies flat with the terrain, Sayaka gets down, stumbling a bit in the process. Bringing a Grief Soul to her navel, she watches the impurities leaving it right away, restoring it to its perfect electric blue.

The first thought Sayaka has is picking Bow up from were he is holding him up in a princess carry after checking with relief that he is indeed breathing. She is much less tense now that she he ascertained this, even as further checkups will be required, possibly even by Madoka herself, if she isn't crash-into-the-bed levels of tired. Sayaka knows she is.

She walks to where Madoka and Hinoiri stand, waving at them. "Oy, things are over!", she smiles with a knowing grin, as if that was something they didn't . "Hinoiri, I think this will be a difficult time for you, and that's why you should come to us if you can, but the future will have things to look forward to, I am sure." She tries to tell her something positive. "How are you, Hope? Everything alright?" she checks in on the pinkette.

Bow has posed:
There's a low groan from Bow as he's lifted by Sayaka and cradled against her. Dark eyes blink a few times and he looks over the bluenette's shoulder. "We did it? Everyone good? Greeat." he mutters. He's in no hurry to get to his feet and move around. Everything is just tired. But.

"I'm craving honey for some reason."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara let the familiar go and then hugged Double Trouble, nodding. "I... I am with friends... aren't I?" she asked softly. "I... I'm sorry... I hurt you... of all people..." Yet, despite this, despite how much she had bucked up...

Despite everything? Even Madoka of all people was telling her it would be okay. Things would get better. How many times had she hurt these people, lashed out at them? And yet, when push came to shove, when everything went wrong...

When it went wrong, her mentor, the one who raised her. Called her greedy, selfish. Banished her. Told her she didn't deserve to be in her home.

When it went wrong here, though? They came for her. They didn't abandon her. While Usagi's... disappointment tore and cut so much deeper than it was likely meant to, even that was delicate. They'd come for her. Even as she'd pushed all of them away, they'd taken her hand and pulled her from her grief. Given her another chance. And she would be better this time.

However, Endymion's comment on the burn ward? Oh, that made her cringe. She'd likely need to get these burns checked out herself. But... she... might just go to Obsidian for that. The idea of running into the people she'd hurt right now, that... That cared her, for a new reason.

And even Amy hugged her. She smiled at the other girl. "Thanks. I... I don't know. I don't know what I... want to do... now. I just need to think..."

Rashmi brought her geode. And, perhaps in a stunning twist? Hinoiri took it. "No. I think... I need this now." And she'd slide it around her throat.

She was sorry. And the first step of being sorry... for her... meant never turning to dark energy again. She'd hurt them. She'd caused so much pain and she... she wouldn't. Not again. Never again.

And she then smiled, giving a nod to Sayaka. "T-thanks. And... thanks... for not giving up on me, despite everything. I like your uhhhh, new boyfriend. He's... cool."

Then she closed her eyes and leaned into Double Trouble. "Let's... go home... please. I think... I think I'm ready to go home... oh Sora I don't want to have to explain this to my roommate..." That was code for 'I just don't want to think about how stupid I've been and I'm so tired so just hold me and let me feel like the world's biggest flank but not alone, please? But don't worry, I'm not going to out your secret.'

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Once they're all together again, Serenity leans against Endymion, smiling as he heals Jadeite and Jupiter - frowning as she sees the aftermath, that Jadeite still has scars - but they're together again, and she's pleased about that, at least.

As soon as Jupiter is released, she's squished into a hug (yes, with Mercury still being carried), the three of them (and then the five of them) squished altogether.

Yes, she cries.

Yes, there are kisses pressed to cheeks, and lips, and then -

"If we really push, I bet we could get the whole hospital," Serenity says, against Endymion's cheek, and looks down at everyone.

"But... I think an uber to get back is a good idea."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka looks over when Sayaka approaches, and she smiles brightly. "Hi, Sharpsong. That was... honestly a bit rough."

    The pink girl releases her fairies, and the three of them float off for a bit. Lydian and Brai are carrying Gretchen away, and the three of them vanish into a Labyrinth. A moment later there's an ugly noise and some rainbow sparkles get ejected from the portal.

    Madoka winces at the sight. Poor Gretchen...

    Madoka looks down at Bow, and then up at Sayaka. "We should... eheh... get out of here maybe."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Don't know what you want to do? "Ain't that a mood." Amy quips, somewhere between dryly and good-naturedly. "Fortunately, you have time."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
While Hinoiri taking the geode is something of a huge surprise, Rashmi merely smiles. "Yeah... Get your rest, Hinoiri-san. It's been a long... while." And with that, she turns, and flits back toward the hospital.

And, once Molly's feeling better... To Chrono.

Because if nothing else happened today, an impending apocalypse had come and passed. One *less* thing for her boyfriend to fret himself to pieces over.