@The book of bad juju

Whether it was her being paranoid or not, Alice felt she needed to be extremely careful with Violetta. She was risking herself when she had said what she did a moment ago. If Violetta was indeed the Authority's loyal dog, then Alice would be in big trouble once she led the other girl to the lab location. However, Alice made sure to keep calm as she had an alternative plan if something did go wrong. If that plan failed, then she would have to prepare to face Violetta...and maybe a large group of her allies. Alice stopped talking and led Violetta.

Eventually, she had reached the location of the lab she found. She had indeed stumbled on the abandoned lab by accident however she had guessed that it was something important and the Authority would come to investigate. That was the reason why she had drawn a circle which was not too big nor too small around the hole she had fallen into. The circle drawn was hardly visibly since it had been a few days however Alice knew it was enough to activate her cage spell just in case. All she needed was for Violetta to go into the circle.

However, Violetta had no idea that she had already blocked the hole with huge rocks thus a person could not just simply fall into the hole. They need to blast their way through to enter. If the lab was in terrible condition, it would just cave in leading it troublesome to clear the rubble and investigate. Alice was not going to let the Authority get a one-up with Shadow Compact. Same could be said if it were the other way around. Alice walked over into the circle boundary and motioned Violetta to follow her.

"The entrance is here...don't tell me why its underground. I covered it back so nobody else would find it since it looked super important."
It was now or never...

@TrixyTrix

The girl brought her into a neighbourhood where the building didn't reach much higher then ground level. Terraced houses and squarish soulless buildings lined the streets, and both of them skipped past brick chimneys and tiled roofs to get to their final destination. The building itself was... Non-existent. It looked like a billion other buildings in this area, all corrugated iron and and 50's concrete. The only distinguishing feature it had was the hole in the roof, with the boulders this girl had obviously put down.

Violetta landed on the edge of the roof, and brought out her flame machine. The air around her arm went all greasy and slick with magical energy, and then the magical weapon appeared, all around her arm like a metal glove. She gave it an experimental squeeze. The liquid shot out, easily reaching inside the circle and setting lichen on fire. She frowned, and using her free hand, patted around for her soul gem. It was black. Violetta grimaced for a moment, and fished in a pocket for a grief seed, picking it up in the same hand she held the gem in. She felt her soul getting purified, like a large weight around your neck being suddenly lifted, and the fire grow larger and hotter in return. She stepped into the little circle on the ground, barely even registering it, and pointed the nozzle at the rocks and debris in the hole.

She briefly thought about turning her nozzle to the side, and hitting the purple traitor with her fire. It would've been so cleansing, to remove the dirty rotten pieces of driftwood this city needed to become a pure and righteous place again, to take out the trash left behind and carry on with her plan to make this city great. She finally gave in to the temptation, twisting her hand those few degrees to the side and dousing the poor girl in magical napalm. She'd never admit this later, but she laughed.

@Stern Algorithm

"Indeed she has," Maria answered with certainty. "But soon she will pay for her crimes, and we will start an eternal age of prosperity."

She landed back on her wheelchair. "But I can't do it without you, Eponine. Aurora needs us. The world needs us." She held her hand towards her.

"Take my hand, and let's make our dream come true."

Eponine thought about what would happen if she walked this path with Maria. She imagined the lives shattered by the destruction and chaos that would come. She imagined having to fight against magical girls that she had fought alongside in the past. But then she thought of rows of soldiers, marching neatly; magical girls lined up at attention, under one banner. People's lives, regulated to minimize both hope and despair to prevent unwanted contracts; witches dispatched in a precise and surgical way, more like an industrial farm than a hunt. Could all this be possible? But what wasn't possible, if only a magical girl could dream big enough? Since becoming a knight of Aurora, Eponine had stopped dreaming, and suffered the same slow death as the city. But Maria...she never stopped dreaming, she had the will to make it work.

"I will follow you my lady," Eponine said, "and I renew my pledge of loyalty to you, and you only." She took Maria's hand and first touched it to her own forehead, and then brought it to her lips in a medieval gesture.

@The book of bad juju

Alice had wondered what was taking Violetta so long to get over where she was. She noticed the other girl readying the contraption and it somehow spewed flames. Alice was on guard despite believing Violetta had taken out that weapon of hers to clear the debris and enter the lab. It was a good thing she was, the next thing she knew Violetta aimed the weapon of hers and fired it at her. Alice managed to block some of the magical flames by using her own magic to shield herself with her arms but she did not escape unscathed. She could feel her arms were burnt but not too badly. Alice looked over at her soul gem and saw it was still pure. She still had a spare grief seed she had kept for emergencies. Alice just had a calm expression on her face when Violetta started laughing.

"Do we really have to fight, Violetta? Here I thought we were getting along."
Despite Violetta's current extreme hostility towards her, Alice stood her ground in trying to solve it peacefully. She needed to be firm with herself and not give in to her battle urges.
"I just want us to talk and get to understand each other. That was why I decided to help you. For you to attack me, you have probably classified me as an enemy of the Authority but am I YOUR enemy? Are you really just some dog of the Authority? Are you fine with following orders blindly? Just what in the world do you believe in?"
After that speech made from her frustration and sense of helplessness, Alice steeled herself for battle but she still did not arm herself with her scythe. She must know what drove Violetta before deciding if she was really an enemy of hers. If she was, she would not hold back...at all. Alice looked straight at Violetta's eyes. She would not turn away.

"Do we really have to-" began the other girl, before she was interrupted. Violetta had closed the gap, her legs hammering repeatedly against the rooftops. She punched up, her fire machine an extension of her arm. She barely had time to squeeze the trigger as she aimed and fired it at point blank at her stomach. If she missed, she'd try to hit her with her spare hand, still holding onto her gem and seed. Either way, Violetta was still being carried by her momentum and largely overshot, her momentum bringing her in a practically straight line to the building opposite the street.

She broke through the wall, but landed against the second wall inside feet first. Her legs, coiling like a spring under her, would've broken if they'd been all entirely normal. She pushed off, coming back again at roughly the same height, and squeezed the trigger again, wrapping herself in a large bright ball of incandescense, which was screaming as it sucked in oxygen out of the air, heading right for the girl.

The seed in her off hand reached it's limit and kept going, practically feasting on her despaor.

Before Alice could even try to talk her way out of fighting Violetta, the other girl had managed to get very close to her. Alice gasped and realized things were getting worst. Violetta squeezed the trigger and Alice this time felt the full force of the attack which sent her flying to the next building. Is there really no other way? Do we really have to fight? Seeing Violetta rushing towards her, Alice knew she had to make a decision fast. The other girl did not seem to be acting rationally. She just keeps rushing ahead like some kind of berserker's rage. If that were the case, Alice knew words could not possibly end this fight.

She heard a crash and realized Violetta was closing in. Alice did several back-flips to get some distance from the other girl and proceeded to channel magic energy at her right hand. There was no other way...she had no choice. Alice noticed a grief seed and soul gem in Violetta's free hand. The grief seed seems to be at its limit.This is bad. If the fight continues...
"Violetta!!! Please calm down! At this rate, you will-"
The other girl did not seem to hear Alice's pleas and seemed ready to fire her weapon and the magical power seemed to be stronger and dangerous. Alice channel even more magical energy, now to both of her hands which made her whole body being engulfed by purple light. The magical energy formed into a ball-like form and Alice quickly placed both hands together. She quickly fired the magical beam attack to repel Violetta's own.

Hopefully...this results in some explosion and I can escape. Pushing her further would not benefit me...nor Violetta.

@TrixyTrix

It didn't.

The blast of pure magical energy broke straight through the mere fire like a knife through butter and struck the girl on her side. She dropped, landing on the hard concrete and staying down. She twisted and writhed, but her leg felt broken. Violetta patted herself down, and felt it before the pain hit. There was a piece of her flesh ripped out of her hip. It went down somewhere awfully pinkish, and Vio turned her head away. She'd have to keep a low profile for a while, say, five or ten minutes for this little wound to heal itself up and she'd be right as rain. Even now, she could hear the weird rustling as the fabric knitted and wove itself back together, it wasn't even a thing.

Something jumped in her hand. The one not holding the flamethrower which she'd been pointing up trying to stop the other girl from getting too close. She looked down. It was right next to her amber gem, and it was sucking out a hundred little specks of black misery out and, for want of a better word, gorging on the grief. And it was pulsing, and twisting the air around it, and struggling against her grip. She dropped her gem, picked up the seed in two fingers and threw it, in the general direction of the troublemaker, but it was far too late, the seed was already going to hatch as it flew through the air and distorted all of space and time around i-

Violetta woke up, and saw a million snowflakes dancing past her eyes. She was wrapped around something, a giant tree trunk made of glass and crystal. It would've been quite pretty, if it weren't all upside down. The ceiling stayed steady as a rock while the floor stretched away to infinity, and the only thing stopping her from finding out what lay down, except by falling in and finding out. Must be a witch's labyrinth, Violetta thought. Eventually,a familiar will show up. Maybe even the witch itself. Or the girl would beat her, rip the labyrinth apart, and she'd be able to backstab her as she came out of the labyrinth. With that in mind, there was no better thing to do but stay here and out of her way. Revenge for Germany could wait. She snuggled down under her layers of clothing and glared at the light bouncing every which way.

Maria smiled, and nodded in response to Eponine's gesture. She was glad to know Eponine was behind her cause, since she was one of her most important agents. However, there was something she wanted confirmed while she was making preparations.

"Good. Now, your first task is heading to the industrial sector and assisting Violetta with her investigation on a magi lab, and bringing the culprits to justice. It's been a while since she has responded back to me, and I'm worried something has happened there. I'm not going to have the risk of the city blown up in some crazy experiment ignored and ruining our plans."

Yume watched the Incubator leave, still thinking over what it had said to her. She was so distracted that when Chloe spoke, her skin jumped. Whipping around quickly, she saw the older girl standing there. "I'm not so worried about witches." she replied, slowly taking her hands out of her pockets and letting them hang at her sides. Trying to keep her tone light and casual, she said "Is there a problem? I'm not looking for a fight, you know." Normally she wouldn't be so cautious, but something about this girl seemed...off. "You have sharp senses." she noted. "Most people can't tell that I'm a magi."

Shoving her hands in her pockets, Chloe gazed up at the sky innocently. "Didn't say nothing like that, ma'am, though thanks for reaffirming my belief." She let her eyes return to the girl in front of her. "I'm not exactly in the mood for a throwdown myself, but there's just certain things you can't be too careful of, you know. In my case, I've gotta watch my own back. You with the city? Or are you one of those rogues I've heard so much about these days?"

Chloe kept her face totally blank of expression for the time being. She wasn't really sure why she was egging this girl on before she even knew the girl's name. Perhaps she was just more stressed out than she was willing to admit. Either way, something in her brain, her programming, was compelling her to keep speaking instead of just moving on like she would any other day.

Yume frowned. How could she have made an assumption like that? Things like this always seemed to happen when she was trying to stay out of trouble. "I don't know how to respond to your question. Just being careful, as you said." She spoke mostly without emotion, but a hint of humor seemed to creep its way in nevertheless. "Do you have a name, or is that classified?" As much as this other girl seemed untrustworthy, Yume still was a bit curious about her.

@The book of bad juju@TrixyTrix

The Grief Seed, so recently harvested, drew in the despair that it was being fed like a sponge, the jewel growing progressively blacker as it accumulated. Such a tactic was extremely reckless and dangerous, since the outcome of a Grief Seed was something every Magical Girl was familiar with. And with how it was being fed by the flow of despair from Violetta, who knew how powerful it might end up?

Though Violetta tried to divorce herself of the object before it could go further, it was too late. The Grief Seed twinkled, it's flight arrested in midair as the air itself rippled and flexed, before a wave of darkness rushed out, engulfing both magical girls and the immediate area, twisting and shaping reality.

When it faded, they would find themselves in a winter wonderland. In the distance chimney stacks jutted into the sky, puffing out clouds that turned into falling snow. Closer to home, trees of glass and ice made a forest, cut by interspersed paths that disoriented and made maneuvering difficult with the inversion of 'up' and 'down. As it stood now, the fight had been put on hold in favor of locating each other, if either magical girl was willing to do that. No familiars appeared yet, the Witch still apparently in the process of generating them, but it would not be long. And if they stayed transformed, it would not be long until the familiars tracked them down.

But given the situation, that might be a risk worth taking. One could never say for sure, in the uncertainty of a Witches Labrynth

Chloe frowned. "Rude to respond to a question with a question, girl. That's just bad play." She had to think about how to respond to this turn of events, or whether she wanted to respond at all. "...No, not classified. It just doesn't mean anything. Name's Chloe, if you must know." This girl seemed reticent, though given Chloe's all-too-sudden approach from the darkness, she supposed it was probably natural.

"If you're not with Aurora, it's dangerous to be out at night because it's easier to start a fight. The agents here'll kill ya. But if you are, well, I suppose I'm the one who's potentially getting killed tonight, aren't I? That's dangerous for me. So you and me meeing, see, that's either a super bad omen, or else," Chloe leaned a little closer, though she was standing pretty far away in the first place, "maybe it's 'destiny.'" Chloe grinned, all teeth like a hungry shark. Something about the way this person had responded had set off her mischief sensor, and what had potentially been an average nightly encounter had turned into an opportunity for play. And like a puppy, even when she was exhausted, Chloe could always make time to play with toys.

Maria smiled, and nodded in response to Eponine's gesture. She was glad to know Eponine was behind her cause, since she was one of her most important agents. However, there was something she wanted confirmed while she was making preparations.

"Good. Now, your first task is heading to the industrial sector and assisting Violetta with her investigation on a magi lab, and bringing the culprits to justice. It's been a while since she has responded back to me, and I'm worried something has happened there. I'm not going to have the risk of the city blown up in some crazy experiment ignored and ruining our plans."

"Understood, Lady Maria," Eponine said. Though her emotionless expression had returned, conviction could be seen in her eyes. She saluted Maria and left the hall.

Fantine, meanwhile had struggled at trying to stand at attention, while watching Eponine lose her temper and composure. Fantine had wanted to run over and comfort her sister, but she didn't know if anything she could have done would have helped. Since Eponine became a magical girl, she had grown extremely distant. Fantine knew Eponine still cared for her, but Eponine bore all the burden, while Fantine felt powerless. Fantine couldn't care less whether Eponine served Aurora or Maria, Fantine merely wished to support her sister whatever her choice was, but she found no way to support her except smiling and pretending everything was fine, pretend she didn't see what being a magical girl had done to Eponine. Fantine steeled herself and made sure she wasn't crying, but took a few quick glances at Maria, wondering if their lady actually cared about them as she professed or if she was just playing her game of thrones.

---

A while later, Eponine arrived at the industrial sector where Violetta was supposed to be. As she neared, she sensed the presence of a witch's barrier. She took out her soul gem and followed its directions leading her past an abandoned lab with a giant boulder and fresh scorch marks; signs of Violetta's presence. As she wandered around, the space around her began to warp, meaning that she was either getting closer, the barrier was expanding, or both. Soon she was struck by what could only be described a snow-blindness as she entered the barrier. While her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, she didn't blink, which would have been the normal reflex action to have were it not for the fact that Eponine's sense of pain was severely dulled. Eponine figured Violetta was probably in the barrier as well, which would explain her lack of updates. Eponine transformed, and pulled out a hammer. Eponine wondered how she was going to find Violetta in this muffled, snowy mess.

Maria took a deep breath and started to laugh. She wanted to release the tension she had from the negotiation she had done with both new and old allies, and how she has irrevocably chosen her destiny, for good and bad. For a moment she felt like she was elevated to a point above human consciousness, and could see the many futures that awaited. She quickly stopped, and turned towards Fantine.

"Fantine, you may not have realized this, but I am in quite an enjoyable mood today. Would you like to try and guess why that is?"

She enjoyed hearing others share the deeds she has done, and the feats she may accomplish, such was her hubris at moments like this.

Fantine was a bit taken aback by Maria's question. Recruiting (sort of) Chloe was something Maria probably could be proud of, but Fantine didn't see that keeping Eponine's loyalty was something Maria should gloat about. If anything, Maria should be showing relief at having kept Eponine's loyalty, and maybe even a little shaken that she had risked losing it in the first place, but the way Maria asked this question implied that she felt neither.

Of course, Fantine chose to indulge Maria's question, "If I were to guess, I think you're happy because you managed to make that other magical girl join you." Fantine chose to leave Eponine out of her response. She hadn't seen her sister so emotional for a long time, and didn't like how it seemed that Maria was taking such a powerful and shaking moment for Eponine and chalking it up as another 'achievement'. Though perhaps Fantine was misreading Maria's demeanor; Maria's response may reveal something else.

Of course, Fantine chose to indulge Maria's question, "If I were to guess, I think you're happy because you managed to make that other magical girl join you."

"Yes, that is correct. Truth be told, I was worried there for a minute, since there were factors into the rogue even I could not foresee. But that is in the past, and I'd rather look forwards to the future." She paused for a bit, and then leaned on the arms of her wheelchair with her elbows, her fingers clasped under her chin. Her eyes looked misty.

"I'm also happy your sister understood me, despite having kept this from her. She is one of the few people I would never want to turn against me; what remains of my heart would be broken even further."

@Stern Algorithm

The Witches Barrier stretched out before her, a snowy wonderland with glittering, icy trees that lined the sides of snow covered paths. Behind the winter wonderland one could see the hint of industry, the smokestacks on the horizon pumping out snow, and the bricks that popped up occasionally. A Barrier was the mix of a Witches nature, as well as the location it was in, and that was easy to determine now. But at this point it probably didn't matter to Eponine.

At this point there were no Familiars, though doubtlessly she would find them further inside. They were naturally less prevalent towards the edges, especially if it was a newly formed Witch. She would have more of a problem with the environment itself, patches of ice beneath the snow, the light hiding steep drops and dead ends. Even her sense of direction would be affected, the land itself shifting around her, a winter wonderland thrown into mind boggling maze that she would have to traverse to the center of the barrier, or to wherever Violetta might be. And it wasn't as if the other girl was helping in that regard.

She'd just have to do the best she could before things got worse in here.

Because Maria showed weakness by saying that her heart would break if Eponine turned against her, Fantine reassessed how she viewed Maria. "I'm sure that in the beginning, Eponine served you only so she could protect me. I think I can say with confidence that that is no longer the case. Despite the walls she puts up around her, Eponine cares for you too. The two of us will never leave your side."

---

If Violetta was in here as Eponine surmised, then the best way to find her was to head for the center. Eponine looked down as a slight jab of terror flashed through her. She had no idea what would happen if she lost her footing and fell into the sky, but just thinking about it made it difficult just to keep balance. Heights were not Eponine's strong point; her preferred method of fighting was being completely grounded and using her stability to her advantage. She was also not so good when it came to mobility, jumping from upside-down tree branch to upside-down tree branch would be a difficult chore requiring more magic than most other magical girls needed to use for such a feat. Eponine started dashing forward, taking careful jumps, trying not to be too wasteful of her magic, though she slipped a few times and used a bit of magic to give herself the little boost she needed to make it to the next branch. Eponine hoped she could make it to the buildings where she could at least stand on the ceiling before being assaulted by familiars.

"I'm sure that in the beginning, Eponine served you only so she could protect me. I think I can say with confidence that that is no longer the case. Despite the walls she puts up around her, Eponine cares for you too. The two of us will never leave your side."

Maria levitated a cup to her hand. "Thank you. It has been a long time since I've heard those words. They remind me of him..."

Maria lapsed into a memory. It was a time when she was wandering the streets with Klaus. Despite having turned into one of the magi, the hated empresses of this world, he was still there, by her side. He wanted to protect her from all the violence and death that would inevitably follow the life of one touched by the Incubators.

But I was wrong. I was the one who should have been protecting him.

She remembered the day she found him, mangled and broken, his limbs twisted and blood flowing from his mouth like a stream. The horrors she faced at the orphanage were nothing compared to the suffering she felt at that exact moment, the moment where she realized there was no innocence left in the world, no hope for any happiness as long as people were free to do evil. She decided she would be above it all, above the pain, above the grief.

Before she realized it, Maria crushed the cup in her hand, causing bloody shards to drop down on the floor. She now looked at her crimson palm pierced by ceramic barbs, her eyes quivering, not out of physical pain, but the pain her memories brought her. The hand was slowly regenerating due to her magical curse, but the shards stayed stuck to her hand, like they were naturally jutting out in a gross fashion out of her flesh.

"Fantine, do you see what this is?" She showed her bloody hand to her. She wanted her to see what it was like to be cursed with magic, to understand that it was not pure magic, but corruption that flowed through their veins.