Midnight. Plural nervously watched him park his old, red station wagon park in front of the hospital—happy that he came for her, but dreading the confrontation. With every person she faced, she had to retell her story and endure their reaction. She felt ashamed of what happened to her, of being the center of attention tonight, and of how she treated Tatters—who had gone missing.
Standing outside by the hospital entrance in a fleece blanket, she was accompanied by Circus and some other police officers, who'd brought her to the hospital to get checked out. Miraculously, the witch didn't give her any serious injuries, just a beating, so the hospital visit was quick. Circus looked guilty the entire time and hardly spoke.
On being asked who they could call to pick her up, she named Saturn—incidentally, the one who was running at her now that he'd parked his car. When he reached her, he took her in for a hug, and Plural got emotional again for the tenth time tonight. Surprisingly to her, so did he, and she could tell he was trying to hold back tears as he held her tightly. On the side, Circus was visibly awkward, raising her hands as if she was considering joining the hug.
"I didn't really prepare a speech, uhm… I'm glad you're alive," he said.
In response, she tightened her arms around him.
When he let go of her, he took Plural by the shoulders and looked at the ground, then at the wounds on her body. Circus awkwardly backed off and looked frustrated.
"That made it sound like I don't even care," he chuckled. "You're my best friend, so I do care… a lot," he said with an intense, straight face, like he was forcing the muscles in his face to stay in place.
Plural moved her hand towards her own shoulder and placed it on top of Saturn's hand. She had to take a couple more breaths before she could properly speak again. Maybe he did, too, and there was a moment of silence.
"You look okay, what happened?" he asked.
Plural looked away again. Circus was anxiously eyeing the two but never spoke up.
"The witch attacked me on my way back home. I woke up in the abandoned skate park down south."
"The witch? I thought she was dead."
"She is now," Plural replied. "Tats killed her… permanently."
"Good," Saturn said with a grudge.
"She, uh…" Plural spoke, then shuddered. "I t-think something's wrong with her. Tats, she… ripped the witch's body into pieces… with her bare hands… Then there were these strange, blue flames…"
She had trouble conveying her experiences.
"She yelled at the walls… The, uh… there were people there, too. She killed them, too."
"Good," Saturn said with anger in his eyes.
Plural gave him a heartbroken look.
"How could you say that? Did you hear what I just said?" she said as her voice cracked.
"Someone did this to you, I'd have done the same!" he said as he tightened his grip on her arm.
"You wouldn't say that if you saw what I saw!" Plural pulled herself away. "Forget it!" she said as she crossed her arms and looked away.
Saturn was still holding out his hand. He looked guilty now, like he was regretting his words. He looked at the three unknown police officers who stood there watching and focused his rage on them instead.
"Bye! Thank you for your service!" he angrily told them as he sarcastically waved them off.
The officers walked away. One rolled his eyes, and another seemed to think it was funny. Circus, looking depressed and with one fist on her chest, thought that cue was for her, too, and went with them. Saturn grabbed her shoulder and made her stop.
"Not you, sorry."
"O-Oh…" Circus said and turned back around, still looking uncomfortable.
Plural looked back at the two and felt bad.
"Thanks for coming for me," she said to lighten the mood. "Both of you…" she said, in Circus' direction. "My head's been spinning, but I'm still me…"
The other two looked more spirited.
"So, where is Tee anyway?" Saturn asked, looking around.
Plural's mood dropped again. Here came the next difficult topic.
"I fucked up…" Plural muttered.
"What?" Saturn asked.
"I think I hurt her…"
Saturn looked dumbfounded.
"How did YOU hurt HER? Look at you!"
"It's what I was trying to tell you. There's something wrong with her. It's all kind of a blur, but I think… she needed my help," Plural explained while clutching her arm at her side.
Saturn didn't interrupt her anymore. He looked at her empathetically with his arms crossed.
"Instead, I ran away like a coward. From her, like she was the monster," Plural continued as tears came out again.
She looked at Circus this time.
"Like when Dark Jenny showed up in my house and I just froze up. I left you to fend for yourself, and that's why it took you instead…"
Circus looked stunned as always and still didn't say anything.
"I threw Tats under the bus to save my own ass when she needed me, and now she's gone," Plural spoke while crying.
Saturn stepped towards her again and put his hand on Plural's head.
"Hey, hey…"
Plural, still crying, rested her forehead on his chest.
"I wanna see her again…"
"She's out there somewhere, and we'll find her," Saturn said.
The irony wasn't entirely lost on her that earlier today, the two had a similar talk, and she was on the other end of it.
Saturn chuckled.
"What?" she asked him curiously as she raised her head.
"Remember what you said before we ran up to that rooftop to get to Jenny's body? With all the zombies?"
Plural opted to just wait for him to remind her and looked at him in confusion.
"Something about feeling alive, and being lucky to experience this," he said, clearly teasing her.
Plural dropped her forehead on his chest again.
"Fuck you," she said.
♦
"Coming?" he asked her.
Circus raised her head and looked up to see the redhead offering his hand.
A minute ago, the other two walked off to his car. Circus, shy of words tonight, stayed behind and sulked on the steps with her arms around her knees, expecting the pair of best friends to leave without her like her colleagues did before.
"You… want me?" she asked with a weak voice, uttering her first words to him since the incident.
"Of course," he wasted no time quelling her doubts, "it's down to just the three of us, now."
"Three of us…" Circus, touched by his words, muttered with hearts in her eyes.
Saturn waved his fingers back and forth, and Circus accepted the gesture, grabbing his hand and pulling herself upright.
"Come on," Saturn turned around and guided her to his car.
They walked in silence until they reached the vehicle, where Plural was already occupying one of the rear seats. Saturn opened the driver's side door, then paused when he saw Circus hadn't touched the door handle of the passenger's side door yet.
"D-Do you think…" Circus asked hesitantly, "we'd still be the Sparkle Squad… without them?"
Saturn, with his hand on the open door, stared at the ground and looked like he didn't have an easy time coming up with an answer.
"They're not dead."
A moody Circus grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. She laid her eyes on Plural in the back, under her fleece blanket, staring blankly out the window.
"Sure feels like it right now."
♦
It was way past midnight, and Saturn stared at the ceiling of Plural's living room. He was on her couch and couldn't fall asleep.
He and Circus were spending the night here to keep Plural safe. Although they couldn't really do much if the guy with the puppets showed up, so it was more like keeping her company.
He'd been scrolling on his phone, reading back the messages of the group chat. The Sparkle Squad was effectively two members short as of tonight. Would've been three, if things ended differently with Plural. The whole thing essentially revolved around Jenny, and to an extent, Tatters. Not so sparkly anymore without them.
"[Roadkill]
"[Roadkill]What do y'all think"
"[Jenny]Shopping???"
"[You]Get a load of princess TIME OFF"
"[Roadkill]@You
"[Roadkill]@Jenny wanna go with us next time?"
Saturn smiled as he scrolled past a photo Plural took of Tatters in a new outfit. Tatters looked embarrassed having her picture taken, and he wondered if she was even okay with Plural posting the photo. The second attachment was a photo of her middle finger.
"[Jenny]I do!"
"[Jenny]@Evanescence and I made out tonight!"
"[Jenny]*UP 😨"
"[Evanescence]…"
"[You]LOL"
"[Roadkill]😭"
At the time, Saturn's heart sank to his stomach when he read Jenny's typo, like they were up to all sorts of things he wasn't aware of. Maybe that's how Jenny felt when she heard the story about the hot springs.
"[Sherlock]@Evanescence and I made out tonight!"
"[Jenny]😒"
"[Evanescence]Stop"
"[Sherlock] OK. Sorry 😓"
"[Sherlock]Anyway, I'm her superhero sidekick now!"
"[Roadkill]HUH @Evanescence true???"
"[Evanescence]…"
"[Evanescence]Yes"
"[Evanescence]In regards to the sidekick thing"
"[Evanescence]But don't say it like that"
"[You]@Sherlock think of a costume yet?"
"[You]@Roadkill you should join them, or are you the butler?"
"[Jenny]😏👉 @You you be mine"
"[Roadkill]SPARKLE BOY"
That was the last message Jenny ever sent, the night before the hearing. At the time, it flustered him, and he regretted not responding to it.
Saturn dropped his phone next to him on the couch. He sat up straight and looked at the makeshift fix for the broken glass door. Circus came up with the idea of taking one of the other interior doors off its hinges and placing it in front of the broken entrance to block it off. After the other two went to bed, he cleaned up the shards of glass by himself.
That was two hours ago, and he was still wide awake. He wondered if the others were, too, but he wasn't about to knock on their doors to check.
Instead, he put on his shoes and moved the impromptu door slightly to the side so he could slip past it. Plural lived in a safe neighborhood, so he felt perfectly comfortable walking around alone at this hour. To be on the safe side, Circus gave them each a police tracker. In return, Saturn gave his tracker to her so all three of them could be followed if they were taken. He wasn't very worried, though, it was unlikely the same thing would happen again.
He wandered around the city until he stopped at the hill where he and Plural invited Jenny to go camping. He lay down and looked at the starry sky. Jenny mentioned she'd started dreaming slightly before they lost her. Was that an early sign something was wrong with her? Saturn wondered if Jenny was dreaming right now and hoped she wasn't having a nightmare.
On his way back, he decided to pass by Jenny's house just to check on her, taking a small detour through the upmarket neighborhood she and Plural lived in. Upmarket compared to where he lived, anyway.
Up ahead, a boy was leaning against a wall, arms crossed, not on his phone or anything else—a little suspicious in the early morning hours. It was hard to tell his age. He was the kind of case where you'd ask for ID if you were a store clerk and he was buying alcohol.
Saturn walked past the boy, who still just stood there leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and arms crossed. Some steps later, he realized what he saw and looked back. The boy—or young man—was staring at him with an expressionless, unfriendly face, and Saturn met his stare in fear.
This marked the second time he stood face to face with a dangerous villain all on his own, and unlike last time, he opted to just turn around and walk away. He could've sworn he saw a red armband around the guy's upper arm, featuring the Adventurer's Guild insignia. That would make him the one who controlled the puppet, the one that was still at large.
"You're a lucky man, you know," he heard the young man say.
Saturn stopped and froze. He heard footsteps approaching from behind.
"Some people would kill for the Sparkle Princess to look at them the way she looks at you," the young man said.
Saturn's heart raced as he stood there, unmoving.
"Or, Jenny, I should say," the young man said as he walked into view.
He circled around Saturn and examined him like someone would examine a car for damage. Saturn could clearly see the armband now, displaying the number six on top of the insignia. Why would he wear this over his otherwise casual outfit, if not to give himself away on purpose?
"It baffles me... the people she decides to keep," the young man said as he finished a lap around Saturn and stopped in front of him. "You can speak. I'm not gonna hurt you."
Saturn took a few seconds to calm down.
"H-How do you know Jenny?"
The young man didn't answer the question and stared into Saturn's eyes. Saturn stared back, but the young man's eyes were like that of a dead man, showing no signs of life, even though he seemed otherwise normal.
The stranger clearly wasn't eager to share any sensitive information here, so Saturn decided to try a different path.
"Whatever it is you want with her, she's already gone, so—"
"She's not gone, you idiot," the young man replied.
This surprised Saturn. Did he know something about Jenny's situation?
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"Don't compare her to some kitchen appliance. She doesn't just blow a fuse and die," he said while twirling his finger around next to his head.
A fuse? Was this guy listening on his lunch break with Plural today?
"She's the perfect lifeform. Even your little brain ought to see that," he said, walking closer to Saturn. "Do you really think the perfect lifeform runs on basic electronics?"
The young man looked at Saturn from up close with judgmental eyes. Saturn looked at him fearfully, exactly like the idiot he was being made out to be. Did this guy know things about Jenny? Or was all of this just common sense?
"Why are you telling me this?" Saturn asked.
The young man's eyes went up and down Saturn's body without answering. It seemed he'd reached the limits of what the stranger was willing to share, again.
"What's your name?" the stranger asked instead.
"S—"
Saturn hesitated but couldn't see the harm in giving his name. Staying on this guy's good side was for his own good.
"Saturn…"
"Hmph, Saturn," the young man grunted.
Again, he eyed Saturn up and down.
"It's dangerous, being her friend," the young man said as he slowly turned around, let go of Saturn's shoulder and started walking away. "You should reconsider that."
Saturn stared at him in defeat—and relief, for coming away with his life—as the young villain walked on.
"Oh, and," he stopped and looked back over his shoulder, "you don't have to worry about the witch anymore." Then, he turned back around and gave a little wave as he walked off. "Sorry about your friend."
♦
The young man crouched underneath the police tape to trespass a crime scene. It wasn't hard to avoid the lookout and enter without being seen, now that police presence had dwindled in the twilight hours. He still wore the same casual clothes from the day before, and he walked with his hands in his pockets towards the object of his interest. Satchel, whose body was divided into six pieces on a concrete floor. He couldn't imagine her getting back up on her own after this.
Lock stopped by her side and took a moment to admire the scarred battlefield. She'd upped the ante for the second round, almost giving the ludicrous idea that she'd learned from her previous mistakes.
Satchel's powers were mysterious and impressive, and to this day, Lock never managed to uncover their secrets. The blonde, however, possessed the perfect tools to overcome them. Lock was clever, and he understood this the second she escaped the clutches of those vines. Satchel wasn't stupid, but she was too confident and driven by passion, and she could never understand something she wasn't even looking at.
But despite all that, he still expected her to at least win round two, given all the trouble she went through to prepare her ultimate trap.
Lock looked down at Satchel's loose members and crouched by her head. It was a lucky twist that she'd become obsessed with the blonde and completely forget about Jenny. The only reason he even joined her on this operation was to protect the robot from this crazy witch. All things considered, this was an acceptable conclusion.
He stood up and raised his hand in the air, revealing a black glove with small, metal bits all over it. When he moved his fingers in a strange pattern, a large, round puppet emerged from the shadows behind him. It looked like a walking recycle bin that was twice his height, and the reverberations of its footsteps revealed that the inside of its steel shell was completely hollow.
Lock moved his fingers again, and the puppet opened its large mouth. From it came six small, mechanical tentacles that each retrieved a piece of the witch and stored it inside the puppet's metal shell, leaving nothing but dried-up blood behind.
With the pieces reclaimed, the puppet closed its mouth, then started twitching strangely. Lock looked at his gloved hand and found that he himself was shivering, as if he knew for sure that this time, she wouldn't wake up again.
He closed his eyes, made his hand into a fist and took a deep breath.
"No turning back, now…"