Leslie Gordon was up suddenly by a text message on his mobile phone. It was urging him to go to his computer at some new development.
The scientist put on his bathroom robe. Honestly, he was just in bed and sleeping... a new issue and it couldn't wait until the next night? Avoiding the coffee for now, he went into his study, hoping it was nothing to get too excited about.
The middle aged man check on his computer- and was amazed at the amount of chatter going on in the scientific circles. He had not seen anything like this since the moon changed orbit and decided to have a solar eclipse above their area. The optimist in him, thought that maybe a cure had been found...
But it was something else.
"All electromagnetic radiation, is no longer detectable." He said with a credulous expression. It was as if something... blocked it?
He opened the window, glancing at the time noting it wouldn't be sunrise 'just' yet... but he couldn't see any stars either.
There was a certain shiver of a feeling inside him. As if suddenly, the entire Earth was underground, burred in some strange pocket away from the Heavens, and it was incredibly distressing to consider. He tried to convince himself that the Earth had not moved, it was just that something up there was... blocking everything.
It looked like he wasn't going to get any sleep today either. He quickly added his expertise to the discussion, obviously with grave concern.
That morning, Lilly woke up and got dressed, thinking it was going to be a typical normal school day. However she realised something was odd today. There was an odd silence outside. "Wha's goin' on?" she asked her mom.
Her mother looked to her, as did her father. "Honey... for some reason, the sky is still as night," She said carefully.
"W'at? How come?!" The girl asked very shocked.
"I don't know," said her father. "There's some kind of... large shadow in the sky." At least, he hoped that was all it is.
Lilly stepped outside the house, part of her excited as well as scared. When strange things happened, it usually meant the magic girls were not far away... and she didn't want to miss it. Stepping outside into what would normally be a warm morning sunny day, was instead a passably normal night. Streetlights were still on, and there were a lot of confused birds singing in the trees... she even saw normal humans looking around, with equal confusion. As the sun wasn't vissible, they were not affected.
The twin tailed squirrel suddenly felt conscious of the fact that a lot of these humans, who probably didn't step once outside in the day in months, rarely saw a change and it was just like that first day, with everyone just... staring.
Lilly climbed her tree, and jumped into her tree house. "The angel said I could visit the moon from here." The squirrel girl had been a little reluctant to try before. What if... what if it didn't work and it all turned out to be just a strange dream? Still this was an emergency... All she had to do... was walk into where the magic door was supposed to be. She tried to walk into it- only to hit her nose onto the wood.
The portal wasn't working...
Magic Girl Four, Jenny, was moving across roof tops quickly. The thing above them was so... massive, and hazy... so indistinct and strange, that she had no idea how to even begin to fight it.
However she wasn't alone. All the magic girls were with her. One... Two... Three... each of them were together, atop the house that Magic girl Three lived in. It was possible to see above them a strange pattern, above them. Was this the 'thickest' part of the dark cloud?
"That is the eye," said Trident pointing up.
"Why...here?" Asked Becca with confusion. Why where she lived? Above Jon's house?
"Dunno. But The Enemy is attracted to powerful magic... I guess they are detecting you," said Trident concerned of her partner.
Becca cringed slightly at that. It was bad enough being a magic girl, but to 'attract' enemies to those who had protected her in the past?
"What do we do?" said Morgan, a little impatient. She was looking at the darkness with... vague annoyance. However she didn't really give in to any feeling of fear, even if.. maybe deep down, she was a little scared.
"We beat it of course!" smiled magic girl one with typical glee.
"How?" asked Jenny. This was going to be bigger then anything they had ever done before. She had no doubt in her mind that this was... it. The last battle, when everything they had learned was to be put to use... and finally, the Enemy will either be defeated for good... or...
"The Enemy has completely entered our reality, and surrounding the area... its making realaity very... 'questionable' at the moment as it collapses around the Earth. the only way to fight it is to get to the other side of their body, first."
"how?" asked Jenny.
At that point, Artemis just suddenly... showed up. Just like that, she was simply there. "May I be of help?" the moon girl asked hopefully.
The animal companions blinked... then nodded. "We... need a reference point, to create a portal to the otherside," said Trident. "can you do that?"
"I always know, where the moon is, even if I can't see it," said Artemis with a smile. She concentrated carefully, and a strange silvery thread, appeared between her hand and moved up to the sky. It glistened as a moon-beam, a simple lazer light that was connected to the moon, no matter how far removed from reality it was.
"We have our road... First of all... Jenny, make a door, to follow that light about half way," said tetra.
Jenny did so, with her four pronged magic cross, creating a door way. However it too had a strange veil... completely black, as if covered by whatever the Enemy was doing to protect itself.
"Magic girl Three, attack it." commanded Tetra.
Becca used her three pronged weapon, and sent a bolt of dazling energy into the portal, and for a moment the strange shadows seemed to... bleed.
"Magic girl Two, do a permanency spell." said princess Vertex, the fairy delighted to see her charge do some magic from her own number.
Morgan quickly launched a magical spell to hold the portal and the charge of magic girl 3, into place. The effect was almost of perpetual fire, as the energy danced around in a massive circle going faster and faster, looping itself but never completing.
"Okay... now magic girl one, you touch it." said Vertex.
Magic girl One approached the energy field, and allowed 'oneness' to flow into the portal, so that the indistinct dimensions became clear. All the echoes of reality that the portal seemed to be bouncing around from, suddenly solidified stabilising the portal, creating the perfect tunnel through the turbulent shifting dimensions.
"Okay... it's all done. Good luck," said Tetra.
"Wait.. you arnt' coming with us?" Asked Becca concerned.
The animal companions looked at each other a little sadly. Trident looked very sorry. "There are... certain things we have to do, while you do this battle with the Enemy. I'm sorry Becca... but we have a mission too."
"Arn't you going to see us after we beat it?" asked Jenny also worried. Tetra was always so nice to have around.
Tetra licked her paws. "I'm... not sure, Jenny," she said softly. "But if not... I... we all are, very proud of you. of all of you. Now please, hurry. The spell on the portal won't last long."
Lilly knew something was wrong. She had used Sakura, to move swiftly as she always had. She used her blue stick to guide her as before... but it was getting a lot of 'interference'. It was as if, the Enemy now had the strange power that 'magic' was... and given that the Enemy was above them, Lilly couldn't quite get a lock on where her friends were.
She had to use her head instead. She went first to the school, but didn't find anyone there. everyone was told to not go to school today, until there was more information on the situation.
Without much else to go on, she decided she had to find Jon...
Sakura took her quickly to her teacher's house, and was surprised to see the strange glow of all the magic girls on the roof, and it looked like they were going into a... portal? Her sense of elation was quickly brought down as she had to move faster towards them.
"Faster Sakura we need to go faster! We need to get into their portal!"
Sakura ran as fast as she could, blinking in and out of reality, with her contractor behind her.
Artemis was first through the portal, to help guild them through the strange world and keep them grounded into the normal earthly reality... at least as earthly as it can be, with the Enemy surrounding them. Her role was as the lantern in the dark... and the pathfinder to their final battle.
Then the magic girls went into the portal, in order of their numbers. One.. two.. Three... Jenny, as magic girl Four, the last of them turned just briefly, to see Lilly moving quickly towards them, blinking in and out as she had done in many of their battles before...
... Jenny knew by her face, that Lilly wanted to help, one more time... but this was different. This was the last battle. This was for keeps... and she was fighting for her friends, as much as she was fighting for the world. "I... I'm sorry, Lilly," she said softly before going into the portal.
Lilly was at the roof and lunged for the magic door... just as the portal vanished. "Noooo!" She screamed. She then saw the animal companions. "Open it! open it! I'm going to help them!"
The magic girls companion looked at Lilly and Sakura very sternly.
Trident shook her head. "It isn't your story... for either of you," said Trident, aware of the power of the Time Devourer... but even that creature had to obey 'certain' rules. "Go home..."
With that, the magic girl animals just... disappeared, leaving the two.
Lilly stood there, alone at the top of her mentor's house for a long time. She cried tears, as she thought about all that had happened... all that she did... and in the end, she was told to just... go home? Was she really that much of a burden?
Sakura nuzzled her cheek, meowing to offer some comfort.
The twin tailed squirrel girl stood up, staring at the vacant place, where the portal once stood... her friend, so far away despite being merely moments ago, a hair's breath away from her.
"What is my story, Sakura?" she asked, as the wind softly picked up bristling her fur. "What is...our... story?" she changed, realising that the magic girl companions had also said that to Sakura.
Lilly stared, closing her eyes, holding the strange wand that was now only about the size of her hand... her little... little hand. "My name is Lilly Gordon," she said into the wind.
"When the sun changed, I became an animal... a squirrel with two tails... an' a girl," she continued. "I was very sad... until I met Jenny. She's a magic girl... an'... I like her, a lot- but I dunno if she likes me." she continued, quietly wiping away a tear as she felt a cold shiver deep inside. She sat down on the rooftip, balancing herself carefully. "I don't have real magic, But... I found a magic stick, an' helped her send monsters back to the monster worlds, using it" she said with a sigh. "An'... even if I ain't a magic girl... or special like Artemis... I want... to... help."
Sakura meowed softly, it looked a little.. concerned of something, then stretched itself, moving towards the area where the portal used to stand..
"S-sakura? What are you doin'?" the squirrel girl asked alarmed.
Sakura started to flicker...in and out of reality. Lilly watched as her animal companion blinked faster, and faster... and by the expression of her cat, Lilly could tell Sakura was doing something so very dangerous... it looked like it was killing her. Sakura hissed and growled in so much pain, as if she was burned by fire. Embers of dark energy was literally burning her...
"Sakura no! Stop!" Lilly shouted, trying to get to her but forced back by some strange energy.
the cat did not stop even when commanded by her contractor.. her body was getting larger... and larger... Lilly was watching as strange time echoes, presented itself around them. She was seeing herself sitting down, she was seeing herself telling her story, she was seeing herself arrive... Sakura was taking them back in time... back in time... as far back as she could.
Sakura continued to 'consume' the past, but this was hurting her. Each second she took them back, seemed to add years to her body, stressing her to her core.
Lilly was almost crying as she saw how her companion... her friend... seemed to be destroying herself, to do this. She was begging it to stop... crying... then she heard a voice in her head.
My... story... mistress. Go... please... go...
The portal appeared once more, and Lilly knew she had to move now. She gazed one last time at Sakura- who at this point, was not moving at all now...
She ran into the portal, and followed the strange light...
