Without any choice but to go further into the cavern, Aurora bravely followed Redline.  She couldn’t stand idly while Redline’s life was at risk.

 

Aurora moved towards the ship.  It wasn’t long before she saw Redline Racer, just ahead. She was leaning like she was running at full speed but she was barely moving at this point.  Aurora saw her communicator was still out and she was looking down at it.  Aurora hadn’t heard her say another thing in a while because in the timeframe she was trapped in, she was moving as quickly as she could.

 

Aurora swept forward to grab her up and yank her out of the range of whatever had her.  As she moved closer, she seemed to slow down, just a little, but it wasn’t long before she wasn’t approaching Redline very quickly.  In fact, it seemed like she was starting to be outdistanced by her, which would normally happen, but given her rate, that made little sense.

 

Suddenly, an iridescent red ribbon slipped around Aurora and tugged her backwards. There was a dizzying sense of motion and then she was face-to-face with the villain trio from the Tenebrous Concordat: Gothschilde, Big Evil, and Crimson Coil, no longer imprisoned!

 

Big Evil cracked his knuckles, but Gothschilde put her arm in front of him. “Wait. Why bother if we don’t need her? Idiot.”

 

The demon groaned and lowered his arms.

 

“Your friend has arrived and is currently fighting with Onslaught up top,” Gothschilde said. “We can’t leave that way and my powers are being affected by the shard. Call your friend out there and tell her to lead that clockwork idiot away.”

 

Aurora blinked and flipped out her card and dialed Bombshell. She didn’t answer, however. “Unfortunately, I don’t think she’s able to answer right now with her hands full.” 

 

Oh jeez… I have a huge fight on my hands.  I should have known better than to think I could do something when Redline was trapped.

 

Aurora wondered how much time had elapsed since she tried to pull Redline Racer free.  “If this cavern is impassable on both sides, what then?” Aurora remained on guard.

 

“My powers can shield us from the worst of it on this side,” Gothschilde said. “We can continue this way, get your friend on the way, assuming you can keep her from trying to beat on us.” She pointed at Redline still running as hard as she could. She’d barely progressed.  “What I suggest is that we form a truce.  I want the shard.  I make no secret about that.  I thought I’d find something else here, but this is almost as good.” The loli shook her head.

 

“That maniac cyborg, however, is another story. If he beats your friend outside, we’ll be in a huge pinch.  He’ll destroy everything.”

 

Aurora considered Gothschilde’s proposition and nodded. “I suppose.” 

 

She didn’t have time to come up with a better plan.  All she could do was gamble that things would go her way later.

 

“All right, then,” Gothschile said. “Crimson, use your powers to snag that running woman as we pass.” They started walking and Aurora followed.  Gothschilde’s darkness powers surrounded them again, but this time it wasn’t doing more than nibbling at her aura instead of trying to swallow her whole.  

 

After some consideration of her situation, Aurora realized that her incandescence had faded to something closer to normalcy, explaining why the three could look at her.  Black Angel said that time and rest would fix it.  She even felt somewhat rested.

 

They walked past where Aurora was and Redline came vaguely into view. Without Gothschilde’s cloud of doom obscuring things, Aurora had brought daylight into this cavern and Redline was clearly visible before, but Gothschilde had brought back the night. 

 

The red filament unwound from around Aurora’s waist to snake through the area of distorted space and wrapped around Redline’s.  Crimson grunted and planted her feet as she hauled on her red string. “She’s… pulling hard!”

 

Gothschilde sighed, frustrated. “Well, if you’re pulled in, I won’t rescue you. You’re only useful to us here.”

 

Big Evil chuckled. “I still say we should let that metal geek into this area and see how tough he is.”

 

Aurora considered his flippant suggestion and responded, thoughtful, “The way Onslaught’s powers work is that he builds up kinetic energy.  It’s like the opposite of Redline’s powers, or maybe the same in a way even though he moves like a tortoise.”

 

“Good point, but I don’t care about him,” Gothschilde said. “In a pinch, using this… stuff going on here might help with bringing him down, but nothing must delay us.  He might surprise us. The man tends to do that.” She gave another frustrated sigh. “Glow girl, you need to lower your glowing a bit.  You seem like you’re gathering your energy, but if you put out too much light, you could break my darkness again and you’d regret for an eternity having done it.  Don’t do that flashbulb thing again, got me?”

 

“This is kinda as low as I can push it right now.” Aurora frowned. She felt normal and since they could look at her without wincing all was well and that she was back to normal, but perhaps she wasn’t quite there yet. 

 

Aurora formed a construction of a fishing pole to try to help snag Redline out of the grip of the singularity, wondering if it would work.

 

When she acted, Gothschilde hissed and grabbed Aurora’s wrist, her nails digging in a little. “What are you doing? Your powers obey the normal rules of physics. Crimson’s powers draw on energies beyond the laws of physics. If your powers enter that zone and you allow it to flow back to you, I WILL LEAVE YOU BEHIND!”

 

Big Evil huffed, disappointed and crossed his arms. “I’m going to say something here, Childe.” He eyed Gothschilde. “You might be in charge here, but I’m gonna tell you this: if you want her to go along with you, you’d better be willing to stick it out there for her.”

 

Gothschilde gasped. “How dare you!”

 

Big Evil grinned, showing rows of pointy teeth. “You summoned me to be your servant and protector. I don’t like being your nursemaid more than you, but this is my geass. I have to advise you and keep you as healthy and well-off as possible.  That means warning you in full attention of the woman you’re intending to turn against that if you do it too early, you’re going to ruin your plans.”

 

Gothschilde huffed and crossed her arms. “Fine.  Just stay close. Everyone, once we retrieve the speedster, I’ll explain things again.”

 

Crimson Coil pulled Redline out slowly, almost timidly. She lifted the speedster slightly so when she emerged from the area of ruined space, her legs started pumping fast enough to create wind in the vacuole of  darkness that Gothchilde maintained.  

 

It took her a moment for Redline to take stock of her situation and calm down. “Aurora? What’s going on? How’d they get free?”

 

Gothschilde giggled. “You’re both working for me now. Until we can get out of this place, that is.  As you can probably tell this area is cursed.”

 

“Cursed?” Redline asked.

 

“The power source of this ship is related to a mystic phenomenon in deep space, AKA, the powers of ancient darkness.” She smiled. “To make a long story short, The Titans, Old Gods, whatever you want to call them, have a beachhead out in space in our universe. There’s a concentrated shard of that powering this ship, which utilizes its natural ability to warp space and time of this reality to travel across great distances. I intend to destroy the shard and absorb its power with my own darkness, netting a huge boost in my power!” She beamed. “You and your bright friend are going to help me because if we just try leaving here, we’ll get creamed by that idiot cyborg outside and your superfriend.”

 

Redline Racer blinked and looked at Aurora with a confused expression and turned back to Gothschilde. ”Why don’t we all band together to defeat Onslaught?”

 

Big Evil started laughing uproariously.

 

“Shut it!” Gothschilde said to Big Evil, swatting him. “Because defeating that idiot cyborg has no benefit to me.”

 

“I’d have a blast,” Big Evil said.

 

“Shut it!” Gothschilde yelled, “Stay focused! I want the power of that shard. That’s why we’re here! I want that power!”

 

“Well,” Redline Racer said, crossing her arms, “If we agree to help you, what do you expect us to do? Warped space is pretty much a weakness of mine, so it seems… and I don’t think Aurora can do anything about it, either.”

 

“Simple.” Gothschilde said, “I’ve a plan. We’re going to use my darkness to get close to the shard. Sparkles here will glow it up with her light powers and I’m going to enjoy devouring the shards of darkness.  You’re necessary because I need you as a bargaining chip.”

 

Redline smiled. “Well, you know, maybe I don’t wanna be a hostage?”

 

“And what are you going to do if you end up back in the middle of the room, alone?” Gothschilde smirked in reply.

 

Redline looked at Aurora with an exaggerated expression. “But...?”

 

Aurora looked to Gothschilde. “I want to speak with Redline about this, if that’s alright with you,” she softly said.

 

Gothschilde looked at Big Evil and he shrugged.

 

“Coil, let Redline go.  They’re not getting out of here without my help,” Gothschilde said.

 

Big Evil watched Aurora with interest as Redline and she moved to the edge of the twisted space.  Redline leaned close. “What’s up?” Redline asked Aurora.

 

“We have very few options available at this point.  I don't have the ability to do what Gothschilde wants… but I can unleash Black Angel... slightly. That would put us both at risk. If we work with these three, there are risks.  My power is still bleeding out. It was how Black Angel explained my condition when I couldn’t turn down my shining so people could actually look at me.  Who knows, I might lose my powers in a couple of hours if we don’t take action and that means an attempt to escape that won’t work.  We might be able to deal with this shard on our own, but then what? Black Angel has magic at her disposal and might be able to even the playing field… but I don't want to compromise my self-control if I can help it. There’s also the likelihood that Bombshell can’t handle Onslaught in the long term.” Aurora sighed.

 

“Honestly, I’m surprised Bombie’s arrived ahead of schedule.” Redline said, blinking. “We can always hit the general alert for the Society and call everyone in, but if you think you can handle this situation, you’ve earned the benefit of the doubt by once having captured them.”

 

Gothschilde cleared her throat loudly from a distance apart from the two heroes. “Are you two done, yet? Let’s go. I don’t want to delay and risk losing a piece of my planet.  Especially since its happening might take me with it.”

 

Aurora blinked and nodded. “Let’s do it.” She looked at Redline. “She did save us from this warp field.” She didn’t want to give Gothschilde the power upgrade she craved, but the shard had to be gotten rid of.  

 

A shard of the Oubliette Nebula… the darkest matter from it.