Content warning:

“We went to the Recreational Room and had a blast. I’m still feeling anxious, though. Being in charge of so many people and their lives in my hands is frightening. The calm lady, the thirty year old one, who is named Fluffy Ruby, is helping me. She gave me some pointers on how to stay calm, which helped when working with Dragon. He was that man I mentioned, though he wasn’t really an adaption since he was transgender, I think he said? Something about being born female? I didn’t really get it, he seemed like a normal guy to me. Though I had to be careful as he went off the rails a lot so Fluffy’s training on keeping myself serene helped a lot. Also the arcade. He really liked the arcade. The super old lady, though, her name was Lamp Flower and she was a doctor, like a real life doctor. And her magick could heal people. It was so cool. Then there was that little girl, Princess Kittenberry, she had a really weird Trait but was sooo cute I couldn’t be mad at her. Lastly there’s Coarse Amethyst, who really seemed smitten with Kittenberry, talking to her like a big sister to a little sister. I felt a little jealous but apparently there was room for two sisters, Kittenberry said so herself. It was adorable. I was so glad everyone was starting to get along.”

Wait, did Coffin Flower fall asleep? Well, that makes sense. Not even sure how she held on that long. Anyway, back to the story. After I woke up and got a good look at myself in the mirror, I was shocked to see just how much I had changed. I looked far younger, I had blonde hair now and blue eyes. I saw I was still wearing that blueberry-inspired lolita dress I had gained when I transformed. I poked my rabbit ears and they moved like real ears. I tried to find my actual ears but they were gone. After that I was called down to Lamp Flower’s infirmary. I went there and was surprised to see another girl there. She had green hair and green eyes. Not only that but wolf ears and a wolf tail. She wore black mary janes with green bubble engraving on the sides, black tights with green bubbles on the sides to match the mary janes. She had a large ankle length black dress with green bubbles embroidered along on the hem. I realized she was Green Bubbles, and she realized I was Princess Bunberry. We embraced each other and giggled with ecstasy, we were Umbra Girls now. We couldn’t wait to get out into the field. I will say, though, finding out I was going to go through puberty a second time wasn’t my idea of fun. Luckily it’d just be the tail end as I wasn’t a late bloomer when I was still human. You didn’t realize? Cherry, we aren’t human anymore, we’re Umbra Girls. We heal far faster physically and mentally than a human can. We also can eat any food and not get sick or gain weight. I thought it would have been obvious. Continuing on.

Lamp Flower examined us and told us we were perfectly healthy and fit, and that our instructor was going to be Ice Dust. I couldn’t have been more happy. I wanted to learn everything about her, and she obliged to a degree. She was force fed Christianity from near birth, her parents even ensured she only went to private Christian schools. Despite the submissiveness they’d try to force on girls, she fought back and refused to be told to back down or to act like a good girl. Her refusal to be a cog in their machine meant they offered her no protection when other students bullied her. She tried to tell her parents but they only said it was for the best that she continued going to that school.

The only times she really enjoyed herself were when her parents would let her visit relatives in South Korea. She loved it there, and hyper absorbed their culture, their manner of dress, and their beliefs. She cast away Christianity as easily as you would an ill fitting shirt. I imagine even if she’d been taught by good Christians—the kind that actually were like the Jesus they preached about—she’d still have done the same. Her spirit was in Korea, and it died a little every time they brought her back. It got worse in high school when she discovered she was a lesbian. The church her parents forced her to attend was informed of her attraction to other girls and tailored sermons on how evil and horrible gay people were. It only made her gayer, however, which increased the amount of bullying she received.

Things should have gotten better when she finally graduated, but her parents insisted on her going to a Christian college. She felt pressured and listened. When the college was the exact same, she felt more of her spirit wither inside. She was given salvation when she was 19 years old, and the Coming of the Light occurred. Her relatives in Korea warned her about what was going on, but America largely tried to shut it down as rumors for the first few months… until it came to America too.

They thought their technology would save them, assuming their high powered weaponry could stop the Luminescent. They were wrong. Their bullets, their bombs, even their nukes did nothing to them. It looked bleak for the world, until Raftilia arrived and created the first Umbra Girls. Ice Dust’s college was one of the first places Raftilia found. She barely escaped purification, and Raftilia recruited her. It was the best thing to happen to her. It was dangerous, yes, but she was free to be herself in a way she only felt in Korea.

Next, she told us about the First Squadron, and what it was like working with the greatest Umbra Girl to ever live, Pink Sparkles. Yes, Cherry, she was a Sparkle like you. She also was the first Umbra Girl. To date there have only been four Sparkles, including you. As you can see, they are incredibly rare, which makes you very special.

After learning about her we were eager to get into training. She gave us the same spiel everyone gets: About the four types of Luminescent, the Diversion Field and how it works, your magick shield, about our Night Crystal and how to communicate with other Umbra Girls, and lastly how to summon our weapon and our magick. Though one thing we didn’t understand was that your first transformation gave you an excess amount of energy, and that energy had to be released or there would be devastating consequences. It’s why you usually get your ass beat, or you just use all your magick at once like you did, Cherry. Either way, Ice Dust wanted us to learn, so she told us to take her two on one. We thought we could win. We were very very wrong. Green Bubbles' weapon was a gigantic green axe that trailed green bubbles as she swung it and my wand was able to shoot bunny-shaped projectiles. We thought we had her beat. Greeny would tank her, and I’d shoot her from a distance. We were quickly shown just how much difference it made to be an Umbra Girl of her calibur. Her weapon was black ice, and she could create it from any liquid. Even the sweat on your body or the condensation in the air. We didn’t stand a chance. She easily defeated us, without even using her Magick.

After our energy was depleted we were put into Lamp Flower’s infirmary to rest. When we woke up we were given quite the news. A new girl had been recruited while we slept. We didn’t know her name but we were to meet her in the training room. We were super excited, as I would have put it then, and rushed to the training room as fast as possible. What we were greeted with was an otherworldly beauty. Her long sparkling silver hair and clear sparkling eyes accentuated her already gorgeous features. An adorable nose, high cheekbones, vanilla ice cream toned skin. She looked like something out of a fantasy novel.

Her dress was an elaborate silver gothic lolita dress with sparkling diamonds sewn along the hem. She had sparkling diamond slippers with sparkly hosiery. Lastly her animal aspect manifested itself as a sparkling silver lizard tail.

I was enamored by this girl but after a quick conversation with her I realized that she wasn’t who she appeared to be. In fact she wasn’t a she at all, it would be the first time I’d ever heard of the term Adaption. She was a guy, and he was pissed. While I later learned some Adaptions loved their new life, this most definitely wasn’t true of Diamond Sparkles.

When it came time for him to get his tutorial, he made a grave error. He referred to Ice Dust in a racist and misogynistic manner. It made us all angry. But Ice Dust—it made her furious. She decided to put him in his place. First she made him pull out his weapon, giving a quick lesson on that. He pulled out a sword made of golden energy, which was kind of frightening given what the Luminescent used, but it wasn’t quite the same color. I’d later learn all Sparkles had golden colored weapons, same as you, Cherry.

Once he was ready she cut off any escape he could have with jagged black ice, but he scoffed at it. He challenged her by saying she couldn’t touch him if she gave him a fair fight. That he, after all, was the best fighter of his human settlement. She obliged, and formed her own sword, promising to not use any more than that. He might have been a good fighter as a human, but as an Umbra, he was barely a novice. She danced around him with an elegance I’d only ever seen in anime. She was fast, far faster than he could handle. She also was strong, there was nothing he could do to stop her. After he had been defeated, she made him use his magick on her. He was all too happy to. It was called Diamond Eradication Beam. He fired off a gigantic beam of white light that split into four other beams, all hell bent on converging on her. She formed black ice around her and created several funnels, and turned his own beams at him. He screamed as his consciousness was ended by his own attack.

After he’d been taken to the infirmary, I asked her how she was given such a strong weapon when mine seemed so weak in comparison, but she revealed that it wasn’t always that powerful. That originally she could only create small icicles. It was the killing of Luminescent that helped her grow more powerful. Given she was an Umbra girl for the past five years, she had killed a lot of Luminescent.

After that I went to Raftilia and asked her if she could make my sister an Adaption. I would have loved for her to become an Umbra Girl too, I even fantasized of all the things we could do together. She went there and gave me the bad news. My sister was unworthy, which meant she couldn’t become an Umbra Girl. It was impossible to tell what made someone unworthy—Raftilia never shares what criteria she uses to measure the potential of an Umbra Girl—but even if I couldn’t help her, I resolved to become the best Umbra Girl I could be so I could protect her.

The next day, our final member of our squad was given the Ceremony, her name was Sunny Dust. She was an Adaption, just like Diamond Sparkles, though she was the opposite of him. He hated being an Adaption and she felt like her wish from when she was a child had come true. While he moped around she was a little ray of sunshine. She saw the best in everyone and always had a smile. No matter what happened to her, she’d always try to find a silver lining. I don’t think I’ll ever forget her smile.

Her transformation aspect was a pair of monkey ears and a monkey tail. She was very energetic, and always moving around while her tail bounced behind her. It was cute, just like she was. Princess Kittenberry might have had competition with her if… nevermind. Her outfit, though, was so stereotypically anime that I loved her even more. She had white platform shoes with suns crumbling into dust motifs on the sides. White thigh highs with little dust suns on them adorned her legs. She had a yellow three tiered mini skirt, with a white top with a large dust sun on it. She had white gloves with dust suns on the ends. Lastly her hair was tied in twin tails with little dust sun clips. Despite how adorable and sweet she was, her weapon was a double barreled shotgun. Which is kinda interesting considering Kittenberry’s weapons are also firearms.

After our team had been fully put together, Raftilia told me I was best suited to be the leader. Diamond seemed a bit hurt by that, but supported me regardless. I wasn’t sure at first if I could do it but I felt with the power of love, friendship, and justice, I could do anything. That was a theme for me, I felt as if this world was just like the anime I loved. That everything could be solved with those three things.

Our first mission was a little sloppy but we still were able to get through it with no issues or purification scars. That increased my optimism. I attributed it to my mantra and we continued to get missions. I became a better leader, and in what felt like no time at all, we fought our first Royal. He was a bastard named Brighton Allbright, and we luckily stopped him before he fully purified the poor woman, but honestly…we should have let him finish. The lower half of her jaw was purified. She couldn’t talk as her body no longer registered that she had the capacity to do so. Not only that she had no way to eat food, and would slowly starve to death. It was a horrifying existence but, mercifully, a Luminescent General took her out. It was one of the first times I saw the real horror that purification could accomplish. The next worst we saw was someone who could speak but was missing the upper half of their head. Watching someone calling out for the daughter they couldn’t see, while their mouth continued to voice the words of an absent brain was utterly unsettling.

After we wore him down and cornered him, he told us he was going to transform. Or he would have had Diamond not used his ‘Diamond Eradication Beam’ to blow his head off. It shocked me a little but I realized it was a logical course of action. Why would you ever let your enemy power up or transform? Only an idiot or a fool would do that.

Raftilia was overjoyed, but she was quick to remind us that Pink Sparkles was far more powerful than we could ever dream, and if we wanted to reach her level, we’d have to work even harder. That only fired up Diamond even more. He wanted to surpass her, to become the strongest Umbra. Our goals being similar led us to talking one time. He told me about his home and what he had been through. He’d been living in what could only be described as a cult. It was why he had his horrible beliefs, but over time he had learned that he was wrong. The more time he spent with me, Sunny Dust and Ice Dust. He really grew as a person. He formally apologized to Ice Dust and to Sunny Dust for any racist remarks he made. He especially apologized to me, which I found odd, but he explained that he had horrible racist thoughts towards me. I didn’t really believe in thought crimes but thanked him for realizing that wasn’t good. Then called his father a fool saying Latin women were ugly because I was the most beautiful girl he’d ever met. It was strange hearing him say that, given our new ages, but maybe some of the Ceremony had adjusted our brains to be more like the teenagers we now were. Or maybe it was hormones, but either way… I fell for him. I told him about my hopes and dreams, about my family back on the settlement, and how I was worried about them. He didn’t seem to understand about my sister, it was something he really struggled with but he was respectful around me. I guess having his own body changed didn’t help, as it gave him immense mental anguish.

Sunny Dust though was the one who came up with the name I now called him, Diam. It sounded more masculine since Diamond felt too girly to him, and he was satisfied to be called it. Especially by me. I never told him she came up with it though, I wish I had. He gave me his own name too, Little Bunny Froo Froo. I wasn’t sure what that meant but he said it was a song he remembered from his childhood. He couldn’t quite remember how it ended though.

The months felt like a blur, we’d fought so many Luminescent without a single scratch. Our squad seemed unbeatable, Raftilia had such high hopes for us. Not only that, but my relationship with Diam deepened. We made it official, and the girls were super happy for us and gave their blessing. The only issue I really had was that he constantly fretted over his female body. I couldn’t blame him, though, and I always reassured him that I was only into men, which is true, and that his body didn’t matter. To me he was incredibly manly. That wasn’t a lie, either. I really felt attracted to his masculinity, even if his body wouldn’t normally be described as such.

We kept getting victory after victory, our squad had more victories than even Sunshine Sparkle’s group. The only ones we were second to was Pink Sparkles, but that was a given. She was legendary. That didn’t stop him or me, we knew we were going to be the best we could possibly be. Which… unfortunately led to the one time I made my greatest mistake.

Given my status as a berry I was allowed to go out whenever I pleased, Diam was given the same permissions but he rarely went out alone. I was hungry for power and continued to throw myself into mission after mission, reasoning that I couldn’t succeed in my endeavors without more power. Unfortunately refusing to rest was an error in judgment that would cost me everything I ever loved.

I got sick, or the closest thing an Umbra Girl can get to being sick. Over exhaustion from too many outings. My poor Night Crystal was overworked and I had to rest. The day I rested, Diam and Green went out for a mission at Raftilia’s behest. A mission that ended my belief in those three words. Sunny Dust was away, Raftilia had her assisting another squad. And I was in bed. I could have been there with them but I wasn’t and… they were left alone. The alarms blared in the base, a new Royal had been born. This one, though… wasn’t like the others. It didn’t seek to just purify, sometimes it would torture its victims too. When I saw what was left of Green Bubbles… I hated myself, if I had been there then maybe they wouldn’t have lost the fight. To make matters worse, there was no sign of Diam. He’d likely been purified.

I was beyond upset. I wanted to avenge them, I wanted to bring the one named Lucid Allbright down. I brought Sunny Dust along to a mission and my prayers were answered. It was supposed to be a simple mission but somehow he was there. After we destroyed the last of the Luminescent he stepped into the light and said how happy he was to see us. Especially me… he called me Little Bunny Froo Froo. I knew then that he had purified Diam and absorbed his memories. Just like all the other Royals had done to other poor souls.

Sunny and I charged at him, and I thought I could avenge Diam. I started to believe in the power of love, friendship, and justice again. We were overpowering him, Sunny Dust with her intense firepower, and me with my staff. We thought we’d won. We were wrong. He was just toying with us. To prove his point he slammed me into the wall, breaking my magick shield and ending any hope I had of stopping him… by breaking my legs. My Trait will let me fight on, even if I’m purified, but it doesn’t work for physical injuries. Then he grabbed Sunny Dust and he threw her down. I begged him to stop. He decided to make her suffer, he applied the pressure slowly, cracking at her magick shield until it shattered. Then… he didn’t stop, he didn’t even try to purify her, he just continued applying pressure. She kept saying it was okay, someone would save us, everything was going to be okay. After thirty seconds of this she started begging him to stop, as he applied more pressure. The pain must have been excruciating for her as she cried in agony. Then he stopped as a portal opened up, and I thought maybe she was right, maybe there was hope. But he stomped down on her head, popping it like a hammer smashing a watermelon. I’ll never forget that horrifying visage, her eyeballs falling out of their socket, the explosion of brain matter, flesh, and bone. And the blood… so much blood. I knew then that love, friendship, and justice were all bullshit. We just got lucky. There was always a bigger fish and we learned that the hard way. Lamp Flower healed my legs, but for Sunny Dust Raftilia could only hold a Last Rites. Lamp Flower could fix many things, but what had been done to Sunny Dust was not one of the things she was capable of curing.

After I watched the Last Rites and saw Sunny’s Night Crystal and body disintegrate, I didn’t want to be an Umbra Girl anymore. I’d rather have exploded than ever go on another mission. Raftilia took note of this and gave me mercy. She told me she could freeze my Night Crystal, which meant that it wouldn’t explode because I wouldn’t have access to my powers. Though she told me if I ever needed them it would unfreeze, but she could never freeze it again. I agreed to her terms and she dropped me off at my parents. Luckily the settlement that I had started at still stood. My sister was now thirteen years old. It took a bit to explain who I was to my parents, but my sister, she knew right away. I don’t know how, but she did, she really was special even if she wasn’t worthy.

For a few months, everything was fine. I had gotten back into a routine of being just a normal girl. I reconnected with my sister and my parents and started to heal a little from the horrific experience I had gone through. Things seemed to be going good, it’d been a month or two since the tragedy had occurred. I thought I’d finally gotten away, but I was wrong. So very wrong.

The Luminescent came but acted erratically. They marched past all the houses, not even harming anyone in their way. They had one goal in mind, my home. As their master had commanded them. Once they were in view, I tried to hide with my sister and parents, but there wasn’t time. The door exploded and Lucid Allbright walked in. He said he’d been dying to see me, that he missed me and wondered where I’d been? When I asked how he knew where I was, he said a little lizard told him. I realized he had learned of my location through Diam’s memories. Diam really was gone. He didn’t purify me. I thought he would but instead he did something worse. He tied me to a chair, going on about how I was being held back from my true potential. Then he made me watch… as he purified both of my parents. I screamed and begged him to take me instead, but he ignored me. Then he grabbed my sister, and I closed my eyes, afraid of what he might do. He reached over to me, and held my eye open with his thumb and forefinger. Then with his other hand he slowly purified my sister in front of me. Starting with her feet all the way up to her head. I screamed, and he let me go. He was disappointed in me, he said, that I should be grateful. With a sigh he left in a golden portal, but not before ordering his two generals to get rid of the evidence. As they approached, I was terrified, I’d lost everything, my friends, my lover, my family, and now I was going to lose my life.

As the final claw came for my head something awoke in me. I wasn’t going to go down just yet, it wasn’t my time. I felt my power return and I was covered in the cocoon once more. I felt my wand in my hand again, though it had changed a little. It looked almost more like a mace. I gripped it tightly and smashed the head in of the General in front of me, then with a swift upward smack I knocked the other one on the ground. I walked over to them, rage in my heart and soul, and smashed both of them until they vanished in a flash of light. That day I learned a secret, killing Luminescent wasn’t the only method to gain Night Energy, making them suffer worked too.

I called for a portal. I had nothing left here. From then on, my weapon began to change. It turned from the wand I was accustomed to to the sword you’ve seen me with. My outfit also changed, armored plates decorated my dress, further alienating me from the other Umbra Girls. There is a price for using the third method of torturing them too much, but I relished it. I spent the next few months learning how to use my new weapon, and becoming more in tune with my Night Crystal. I slammed myself into more and more Luminescent, but this time alone. I felt nothing like before, I felt no love, no friendship, no justice, only pure unfettered rage. I didn’t see myself as an Umbra Girl anymore, I was something more vicious, more cruel. So I called myself the Umbra Knight and the Luminescent began to fear that name.

Raftilia was grateful for my growth but she was worried about the direction I was heading, so she assigned Ice Dust to work with me. It was nice to see my old mentor. If it had been anyone else it wouldn’t have worked, but she was able to convince me to go with her. I went on a few missions with her, and I almost felt my heart softening a little. She was a very kind woman, and she pushed me to be more sociable.

One month after we had started working together we were called for a mission. It was a pretty simple task, two batches of Luminescent, about ten each. I took the ten on the left which was out in a forest and she took the ten on the right which was in what looked to be a cave. I finished mine quite easily and tried to contact Ice Dust but she didn’t respond. Fearing the worst I rushed into the cave. Fresh lamps lit the cave signaling some humans had recently been here. They must have thought there would be materials in the cave, likely to help rebuild their settlement or one of the few surviving machines. They were rare but some were still workable with a little bit of work. Given the glowing craters on the ground they only found purification. The cavern had some beautiful crystals but nothing that looked too valuable. I wondered why they had risked their lives for something like this. As I went further in I began to hear arguing, then fighting. I rushed towards the source to see Ice Dust fighting with a bizarre-looking Royal. She wore a fluffy knee length pink dress with no socks or shoes. She had translucent butterfly-like wings, pink hair, and pink eyes. It was like she wasn’t even trying to hide that she was a Luminescent. The thing that concerned me the most was the terrifying scythe she held. It was made entirely of flashing pink and gold energy. Not only that but Ice Dust had gone level 2. Her jeogori was sprinkled with ice dust just like her chima. Her twin tails now had two teal ice dusted ribbons, and her hair itself was dusted with ice.

From what I could see they were having a conversation while fighting, but I couldn’t quite make it out. The only thing I could make out was that it looked like Ice Dust was an even match for her. I thought maybe my help could turn the tide.

I contacted her through my Night Crystal, asking her if she needed help. She turned to me horrified and told me internally to leave. Unfortunately the Royal noticed where she was looking and spotted me. Without so much as a warning she was just gone, and then appeared right in front of me. Like she could just walk through spacetime as she pleased. She looked me in the eyes and then looked at Ice Dust and said. “Is this the one holding you back from understanding our plans?”

Ice Dust quickly created a Black Ice slide out of her weapon, and made her way towards me at incredible speeds. She landed in front of me and brandished twin ice daggers. “Get away from her!”

The Royal brandished her scythe and looked at her and then at me. “Why can’t you understand? What we are doing is helping this world.”

“There is nothing good about what you are doing to humanity. Die, Luminescent scum!” She attacked with a flurry of ice daggers, but most of them seemed to just go through the Royal instead of making direct contact. It was like she could phase herself in and out of this physical plane. Her powers were terrifying, but I knew I had to help, or at least I thought I did. I had no idea just how out of my league I was. I charged, and she struck me. It only took a single hit and my magick shield was shattered. Not only that, but my transformation dropped. Somehow she’d just nullified all my defenses and undid my transformation. I was completely helpless.

“I guess there’s only one way to get you to listen.” She vanished, then reappeared high above the ceiling, then snapped her fingers. Countless Luminescent emerged from deeper in the caves, roaring in fury. There must have been thousands of them, maybe even tens of thousands. “Do you understand now how futile this is?”

“There is no futility in love, justice, and friendship!” Ice Dust spat at her, putting extra emphasis on friendship. It reminded me of my own beliefs. Had Ice Dust felt the same way? Did she suffer a similar tragedy and yet kept true to her ideals? Then she spoke to me inwardly: “I called for Blue Bubbles, a portal will be here soon, stay strong. I’ll protect you.”

“Foolish. Purify them, starting with the weak one. I’m leaving,” she ordered then disappeared in a flash of golden light. The Luminescent looked in my direction, then charged. I backed myself into a corner, hoping to get away, praying for Blue Bubbles to give us that exit portal.

Ice Dust put herself in front of me, as swirling ice dust gathered around her and into her hands. “ICE KINDNESS LASER!” she screamed. From out of her hands erupted a massive cold laser. The Luminescent in front of her were blasted away but more kept coming. Her energy increased in intensity as I realized she was not stopping. Hundreds of Luminescent were falling to her beam but they continued charging, and she continued her assault. Her magick never faltered, it stayed strong and continuously fired, killing any Luminescent that approached. She kept up the beam as they started to try to crawl around it. For some reason they couldn’t just dig and take us, I never understood why. It might have been that particular cavern, perhaps it was made of a material that the Luminescent feared. Normally they could dig through the ground as if they were swimming through the water. I never got to learn why, however, because Ice Dust didn’t stop using her spell. I could see the strain on her body and I begged her to stop but she continued. When finally we were given a portal, she looked at me with sad eyes… as dark electricity encompassed her being. She told me: “I’m glad I was able to save you...” Her body began to glow with dark energy, I realized she was about to explode. I begged her to stop, but it was too late, she had used up all her magick, and more Luminescent were pouring in. She stopped her spell, then pushed me in a portal as she said one last thing: “Bunberry… I’m sorry… please forgive me.”

I knew then it was my fault. She exploded and destroyed the entire cavern and everywhere around it within a two mile radius. If we hadn't gone there together, she'd have won the fight with that Royal. Me being there is what made her lose. After that I decided I’m a lone wolf from here on out. That’s the story of how I became the Umbra Knight… not as pretty as you were expecting, I imagine, but reality rarely is as fun as fantasy.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bunberry looked to the floor in sadness as she finished her tale. And Cherry came up and hugged her. She was shocked. Her story was completely fucked up, and she’d gotten one of the most powerful Umbra girls to ever live killed. Why would Cherry be kind to her?

“You went through a lot, Bunberry. I’m sorry I idolized you without understanding what you really went through. I promise to be a better partner to you in the future and… a better friend.” Cherry’s words broke her and she hugged onto her tightly.

“Thank you, Cherry. I’m sorry the ‘super cool’ Umbra Knight isn’t as awesome as you hoped.”

“I wouldn’t say that. If anything, I’d say you’re even cooler. I mean you fought through all those horrible things and still saved me? You’re amazing!” Cherry’s positivity brought a smile to Bunberry’s face. A rare sight that even caught Dragon off guard. “Anyway, I need to go, I’m kinda hungry. Do you think Mr. J.J. will give me something nice?”

“He’ll give you whatever you want. That’s how it works.” Bunberry smirked.

“Well I’m gonna challenge that, then! I got some ideas. Bye, Bunberry!” She waved, and walked out of the infirmary.

“Why didn’t you tell her the whole truth?” Dragon asked. “Is it really wise of us to hold that back from them? I know Raftilia said to not talk about the First Ones, but I worry the day they might return.”

“Yeah, I know, but we haven’t seen anything from the Faerie Queen, so I doubt we need to worry about her right now. I’m a lot stronger than that time though, we both are. The next time she shows up, we’ll be ready for her.”

“Yeah… I hope you’re right.” Dragon said, then walked out of the infirmary.

Bunberry sighed, then looked over the sleeping Coffin Flower as Lamp Flower came to check up on her. Bunberry looked at Lamp Flower, since no one was here she had something to tell her. “Lamp, I want to see her.”

Lamp Flower looked shocked. “Are you sure?  She’s not doing well, it might be best to just—”

“Lamp, I said I want to see her.” Bunberry demanded, cutting her off. Lamp Flower sighed, then walked to the back of the infirmary, where her office was. She led Bunberry inside of it. It was a small office, with a cabinet full of patient files, and a messy desk. She walked over to the desk, and pulled out a drawer, inside was a keypad. She pushed certain numbers, and behind her desk the wall opened, revealing a staircase. Lamp led Bunberry down the staircase. The purple flames revealed a second infirmary, without any patients except for one. A containment unit with a girl, a girl with green hair and green eyes. Bunberry hadn’t been entirely honest. Not even Dragon knew about this, but Green Bubbles had survived. Though “survived” might have been overselling it. She had so many wires and cords in her, it was difficult to tell if she’d ever wake up again. More than 70% of her body had been purified, only with Raftilia’s help was Lamp Flower able to attach the machines to the right areas of her body to at the very least, keep her alive.

Bunberry put her hand on the cylindrical pod, as a tear fell down her cheek. “Greeny… what did you see? What happened out there? Please, wake up and tell us. No… tell me.”