Now she’d done it. Now she’d ruined everything and had to die. Her staff was destroyed too. She didn’t have a weapon anymore. Didn’t Emery ever think before she made a decision? No wonder she’d been so bad at solving this mystery.

“Emery! Emery, can you hear me!?”

Jada was looking down at her. Emery struggled to swallow and nodded. Her ears wouldn’t stop ringing.

“You’re already healing from the blast. Hold on.”

Emery choked out a throttled scream as she was dragged further away. Her whole body was on fire. She was wet. Why was she wet? It wasn’t raining in here.

She was pulled into a sitting position and leaned against a dented girder. Cynthia was placed right beside her. Everyone else was still fighting.

“I can still feel Night Terror a bit,” Cynthia choked out. She was still in her magical girl outfit, which was torn and covered in blood and burns. “I think I can hold it back a little. Without an open conduit, it’s vulnerable. For now. Until it fully integrates into our world. You’ll have to be quick if you want to stop it.”

Jada nodded, then turned and rejoined the fight.

Amira, Liv, Jada, Coraline, and Keaton stood between Night Terror and Emery. Night Terror’s focal point, the grotesque shadow form, was starting to solidify. Emery tried to climb to her feet, but her entire body screamed in protest. She needed more time to heal. Her arm felt like it was on fire.

They were far too late. Night Terror had already won and they were just wasting their time. This would only lead to their deaths. It would be best just to give up. Throwing themselves from the tower was always an option. They had no hope of actually defeating Night Terror.

“It’s lying.” Cynthia forced herself to her feet, though it looked like it pained her so much to do so. “It’s still weak. You have a chance to defeat it. If it really was at full power, it wouldn’t be wasting its time by trying to psych you out.”

With a deep breath, Emery also climbed to her feet. She kept her one hand clutched close to her chest. Every twitch was a surge of pain. Her ears were no longer ringing. Gritting her teeth, Emery took a few steps forward.

“Emery, you should wait until you’re healed,” Keaton told her, pressing a hand against her shoulder.

“We only have one shot at this,” she mumbled back.

“You don’t even have a weapon.”

Amira, on her other side, summoned up a daffodil and extended the stem until it was a long staff, which she handed to Emery.

“See?” Emery said. “I’m good.”

“You’ve got this, Emery!” came Carina’s voice from outside the battlefield.

“We all ready?” Amira asked. Everyone took a ready stance. “Let’s go, then.”

This was a mistake. The shadows around the battlefield started to withdraw. They were going to get themselves killed. Night Terror looked a little smaller, now. They were delusional if they thought it was just another run of the mill planar invader.

Cynthia stepped forward and knelt down on the ground, saying, “I’m going to restrict its power as much as I can, while I’m still connected to it. Don’t falter, no matter what you do.”

The shadows sprang up, forming a large maw with rows and rows of teeth. Tendrils lashed out from the void at each of the magical defenders. They scattered. Liv and Coraline slashed the tendrils. Emery and Amira blasted through the shadows, giving room for Keaton and Jada to rush forward. Jada summoned forth her electric guitar and started shredding. Lightning arched from the head of the guitar, hitting the focal point and blowing off a chunk.

Flames licked at Emery’s legs, but her inner glow was bright enough that she couldn’t feel them. She slashed and blasted at the shambling forms that reached out to her desperately. They reminded her of the faceless people from Night Terror’s realm. Emery could feel doubt itching at the corners of her mind, but shoved it away.

In the chaos, she caught a glimpse of Cynthia. Shadows swirled around her, but she looked fine. Her outfit was flickering, weakening. Her eyes were closed and her brow was furled in concentration.

“It’s getting weaker!” she declared.

Toothy tendrils circled Coraline, one hitting her shield while the other tried to get behind her. She knew it was there but was struggling to keep them both in front of her. Emery rushed forward, sending a yellow swipe at one of the tendrils, severing it. Coraline took the opportunity to slash the other with her razor sword.

“Thank you!” she cried.

Emery found herself bouncing between girders, trying to keep out of sight of a spiked shadow ball that had targeted her. It would bounce off her barrier when it struck, but gave her precious little time to do anything else.

Liv jumped up, pressing herself against the ceiling, then pushed herself off while summoning a large hammer. She brought it down on the attacking sphere. It crashed into the ground and shattered.

“Thanks, Liv!”

Amira was good at maneuvering targets with her explosives. Shadow after shadow fell into Keaton’s range. He lashed out with punch after punch, causing each shadow to shatter and collapse.

Jada had pulled out her saxophone again. Little musical notes surrounded Emery, protecting her from incoming shadows as she blasted and lanced and slashed them up. Out of the corner of her eye, Emery could see Night Terror continue to shrink behind the flames protecting it.

It was Liv who got through the barrier first. She leapt over and brought down an axe on one of the skeletal wings. The focal point thrashed, making gurgling noises. Liv ducked out of the way as the razor whip wrapped itself around the focal point, binding it tight and sinking into its shadow flesh.

Once the form was surrounded, everyone moved in closer. The flames were dying. Everyone had a weapon pointed at the writhing shape. The fight was over.

It didn’t have to end this way. But it did. No, that wasn’t true. There was another option. Emery didn’t have to listen to this. Hadn’t her parents taught her the value of patience? All she had to do was think this through. Night Terror had a lot to offer, even in this weakened state. Nothing that Emery wanted. That wasn’t true. Emery could still have the kind of life that she saw in her fantasy. The life of a cis girl.

“Emery, are you alright?” Keaton asked. “You’re a little pale.”

She shouldn’t say anything.

“It’s in my head,” she told him. “Trying to distract me.”

“Me too,” Coraline said.

Amira told them, “Don’t listen to it. Nobody listen to it.”

“That’s kind of hard,” Jada retorted, “when it’s hard to tell your thoughts from its voice.”

“Is this what you were living with for weeks?” Keaton asked Emery, who nodded.

All Emery had to do to get her dream life was let Night Terror go. In this form, it couldn’t hurt anyone. It wasn’t a threat to them.

“It’s a trap,” Cynthia warned, stepping forward. Her magical girl outfit was black and smoldering. “It wouldn’t offer anybody anything that it couldn’t use to its advantage later.”

If Emery were cis, she would have never gotten to be a magical defender. So what? Her life would have still been good. Even if Night Terror could make good on an offer like that in its weakened state, it would just mean she could no longer be a threat to it. Didn’t she deserve a normal life?

“Maybe I should say it out loud, where you can’t interrupt me,” Emery said softly. “Pride comes from accepting who you are in the face of adversity. That’s the opportunity that being a magical defender gives us. And I… I need to accept that my identity as a trans girl, as part of a marginalized community, has value on its own. My life wouldn’t be better if I were cis, because I wouldn’t be the same person.”

She felt a shiver run up her body.

“Emery, your hand!” Jada squeaked.

Emery looked down, and her burnt hand was starting to heal a little. She could move her fingers again. Her breathing came a little easier, too. Actually, Emery felt pretty rejuvenated for how long the battle had been going on for.

The focal point collapsed, melting into an inky blob and slipping out of the razor whip. There was a flurry of movement, but Emery was the fastest. As the focal point leapt away, she launched a bright red lance from the end of her flower staff. It took a chunk out of the focal point, which collapsed into a heap and stopped moving.

Her staff was glowing a swirl of rainbow colors. It felt warm in Emery’s hands. When the light dissipated, she was holding her own staff again, though the rainbow ring on top had become a pair of concentric rainbow rings, the inner ring rotating slowly.

“You have to finish it off quickly,” Cynthia said, stepping into the circle with the rest of the magical defenders. “It’s close to fully integrating into our world, even in this state. I can’t hold it back forever. Once it’s bled into our reality, we’ll have no idea how to get rid of it or how powerful it might get.”

“Then let’s put this nightmare behind us,” Amira said, tossing up a dahlia bulb.

The small bomb hit the focal point, which squealed as part of it was blasted away. Coraline and Keaton both fired a beam of light from their shields, hitting it from either side. Jada pulled out her drumsticks and an invisible force slammed into the shape from above, nearly flattening it. Liv summoned a hammer and smacked the focal point toward Emery, where it landed at her feet. She held her staff out, pointed down at the quivering mess, and fired one last orange blast, easily twice as strong as the first she’d ever fired.

There was a loud squelch and a sudden rush of wind as the shadows returned to their rightful places around the building. There was no sign of Night Terror anywhere.

“Is it gone?” Emery asked, turning to face Cynthia.

Cynthia’s magical girl outfit had disappeared. She was back in her normal clothes. Her expression fell at the realization and she sighed, folding her arms. She nodded.

“It’s gone.”

Something small smacked Emery’s head and she stumbled a bit.

“Carina!” she cried.

“You did it!” Carina cried as the other fairies swooped in. “You actually did it! I knew you had it in you!”

“Everyone else helped,” Emery mumbled.

“It’s not just Night Terror.” Carina kicked off of Emery’s shoulder to float in the air. “You figured out how to unlock your full power!”

Emery blushed a little and nodded.

Coraline asked Birch, “See? It’s a good thing we teamed up, isn’t it?”

Birch just sighed and nodded.

“This isn’t becoming a permanent thing,” he insisted.

Linette, translating for Liv, asked, “How do we know if Night Terror is really gone? Doesn’t it make more sense that only the part that got through to our universe was destroyed? The rest of it could still be out there.”

Everyone turned to Cynthia, who shrugged.

“I don’t know. When you pulled me from that machine, it closed the conduit. But I don’t know if all of Night Terror’s consciousness got through or if each part is its own separate entity or what.”

Keaton suggested, “We should let the bureau know everything that we’ve learned in case Night Terror does ever surface in our world again.”

Jada nodded, but said, “I doubt we’ll have to worry about that any time soon, after how badly we kicked its butt.”

“Sharing how it got you to work with it could be useful in preventing others from falling for its tricks in the future,” Amira told Cynthia.

“Regardless,” Emery said, “we won tonight. This calls for a bit of celebration, right? Oof!”

Jada had grabbed her in a hug. After another moment, Coraline did as well, followed by Keaton and Carina. Amira and Liv backed away a little. Cynthia watched despondently before starting to turn away. Emery reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into the group. It was a good minute before Emery was able to pull herself free.

Glancing out at the night sky, Emery said, “Why don’t we all find a late night diner and get something to eat? On me.”

There was a round of agreement and everyone started heading for the elevator. Emery followed, but stopped after a moment. Cynthia wasn’t coming.

“Come on,” Emery said, grabbing her by the sleeve and dragging her toward the others.

“What? No! Come on! I—”

She continued to sputter for a few moments, but gave up and followed silently. It was a tight squeeze to get everyone in the elevator. Emery got a few questioning looks, but nobody objected to Cynthia’s presence.