Magical Girl Callisto Pink coughed, her lungs filling with smoke and dust as she slowly sat up. Her head spun, and her ears rang with the deafening silehat followed the explosion. She looked around, her eyes adjusting to the darkness as she slowly regained her bearings.

  She was in the ruins of a cession shop, her body covered in soot and rubble. The once-proud structure surrounding them had been reduced to a pile of twisted steel and broken crete, the air thick with the st of ash aru.

  Magical Girl Callisto Pink attempted to stand up, but a sudden nausea overcame her. She doubled over, clutg her side in agony.

  She winced as a thin trail of blood seeped through her fingers, her dress tainted with a deep crimson stain.

  She heard a groan to her left, and her heart leaped with hope.

  "C...calli?" a voice rasped, filled with pain and exhaustion.

  "Joan! Are you okay?" Callisto cried, her voice filled with desperation and worry. In the darkness, she could see a vague outline of a figure, and she crawled toward it, hoping that her teammate was still alive.

  It had been... a long day. Or two.

  Okay. That was the uatement of the tury.

  The four of them had been chasing after Dark Princess Eris, a magical girl who had turned rogue and abandoned her dreams of hope and justice, a thorn in their side for the st two years.

  Eris was typically harmless and more of a publiuisahan a real threat, and today had been no different.

  But as they rushed towards the city ter, portals began to open all around them. Hundreds of monsters as poured out, all that looked like they'd crawled out of their nightmares.

  Callisto aeam had fought valiantly, tearing through the hordes and saving as many civilians as possible. They'd sheltered for the night in ay library, relieved to have avoided the worst of the devastation.

  But then Eris, of all people, had called for help, broadcasting her distress signal over public frequencies. Despite her status as a rogue, Eris had holed up in an old fort repurposed as a museum with hundreds ees. Her pleas for help had reached Callisto's heart, and the four had rushed to her aid.

  However, as they closed in oarget, ahreat emerged. The sky began to darken, a swirling vortex appearing in the sky.

  Then, a gigantister appeared, t over the city. Its body was a writhing mass of tentacles, each tipped with glowing blue eyes and sharp, wicked-lookih. It was a twisted mass of flesh aal, with a leering human-like fad a sharp grin that seemed to split its head in two.

  The Jupiter Belles hadn't stood a ce even as seasoned Magical Knights. They had been thrown around like rag dolls, their bodies battered and bruised as the monster's tentacles and energy bsts rained down on them.

  It had been a futile effort, a hopeless battle. But as they y there, surrounded by rubble a, a ghost came to their aid.A figure draped in a dark cloak had desded from the sky, her mana emanating in waves around her.

  "Nightingale Eclipse," Io Yellow had whispered immediately, reizing the turnagical Knight.

  Arcadia Vox and Nightingale Eclipse had been the greatest magical girls of the previous geion — arguably the most famous in modern history. But with Magical Knights came the age of heroes and vilins. And while Arcadia had remained loyal to the cause, Nightingale had not. Nightingale had gue, turning her ba her friends and teammates. She was a creature of darkness and vengeance, a terrifying specter of terror aru.

  She was the right hand of the worst supervilin the world had ever seen: Mortifera Nox.

  Her story had been a cautionary tale, warning aspiring magical girls to mind their hearts and souls as much as their strength.

  After all — what aspiring knight hadn't heard of the tragic tale of Arcadia Vox and her vowed nemesis?

  She was the sed half of the tale, the shadow to Arcadia's light. It made sehat the embodiment of hope and light would be apanied by the embodiment of despair and darkness. She was a shadow, a ghost who'd been dead for far lohan the four of them had been magical girls.

  But all Callisto Pink and the Jupiter Belles had seen was a woman with the saddest eyes, her face pale and her body weighed down by loss a.

  "Nightingale Eclipse," Callisto repeated softly, still in shock. "It 't be."

  Was it a phantom? A remnant of the hero of the past, returo save the city from utter annihition?

  Nightingale Eclipse turned her head, her gaze falling on Callisto aeammates. She gave a slight nod, her lips curling upwards in a small smile as an eerie dark blue glow leaked through her pin silver mask.

  "I may be a bit rusty, but leave this creature to me," she said, her voice soft and filled with mencholy. "You have done more than enough."

  Ganymede Red had been badly injured but not too io protest. "We still fight," she urged, pushing herself up despite the blood soaking through her tunic.

  Nightingale shook her head, her smile never fading. "Save your energy, child," she said gently. You must survive and recuperate. This disaster... it is my burden to bear, as it always was. I have been running far too long."

  Befanymede could retort, Nightingale had disappeared in a fsh of light, reappearing beside the monster in a storm of bck feathers. Ganymede Red grabbed Callisto Pink, and the four fled for Eris's fort.

  It had been a battle fit for an epic of old. The flickering shadows of their savior's fighting aura fshed against the darkened sky in the distance, and the Jupiter Belles had survived enough near-death experieo know when it was time to run.

  So, they ran.

  They ran until their lungs burned and their legs gave out. They ran until they could barely feel their broken bodies, their numb limbs moving by sheer force of will alone.

  And they had arrived at the fort-turned-museum Dark Princess Eris had set up shop in, bringing them to the present.

  Monsters tio pour from the sky, a growing horde of glowing blue eyes that overwhelmed the city's already-ruined ndscape. Nightingale Eclipse annihited them by the hundreds, her dark energy a shadow of its former terrifying glory as it snuffed out the creatures before they could even make a sound.

  Callisto khat a battle was raging in the distance, beyond the clouds and the pandemonium. The building-sized monster loomed over the city, casting a shadow of despair as Nightingale Eclipse's glowing, dark-blue form fshed in the darkening sky. Seeing her with her famed wings made out of pure shadow was an otherworldly sight — a se straight out of a dream.

  As Callisto aeam reached Eris's fort, they watched in awe as the distant figures collided, the air crag with a storm of power as the legendary rogue and the monster cshed over their city. The earth shook, the ground trembling as Nightingale's shadows danced with the monster's eerie light. Monsters Callisto could best describe as kaiju materialized out of thin air, their screams and roars shaking the heavens as they fought and died and poured on and on from the portals.

  Nightingale Eclipse had maimed tless knights who pursued her during her campaign as a supervilin. But today, all Callisto Pink could see was the legendary knight from the stories she'd been enamored with as she grew up. The terpart. The shadow to Arcadia Vox's radiahe moon to Arcadia Vox's sun. The dark to Arcadia Vox's light.

  Dozens of winged creatures swarmed toward Nightingale Eclipse, but she was faster. She soared above them, her mantle flowing behind her like a trail of darkness as she unleashed a barrage of shadowy darts, each striking down a monster with pinpoint precision. The gigantister with the unily human-like face howled in anger, its tentacles writhing with fury as Nightingale dodged and weaved, her mana a dark glow around her like a cloak.

  The earth shook as Nightingale Eclipse nded and smmed her hand onto the ground. A fissure opened in the earth, a chasm that swallowed hundreds of monsters as a wave of inky energy spiderwebbed outward, ing everything in its path.

  She ducked and weaved, her body a flicker of darkness in the sky as she transformed into a dark specter, shadowy whips crag through the air and tearing apart monster after monster.

  The legendary magical girl fshed through the streets in a blur of shadows. As she emerged from the other side, it was noticeable that Nightingale's mask had shattered, and her face was now visible. Her eyes fshed a brilliant, glowing dark blue as her rage and darkness flowed like an unending torrent, ing everything in its path. Monsters tio pour from the portals, but Nightingale's overwhelming power easily obliterated them, her mana radiating out in pulsing waves that seemed to devour everything in its path.

  Callisto and the Jupiter Belles watched iransfixed by the incredible power and skill Nightingale Eclipse dispyed. Nightingale Eclipse. The Phantom of Death, as she was known, had been a legend in her ht; her battles against Arcadia Vox and her famed team of heroes had captured the imaginations of her and the Belles' entire geion.

  But it wasn't until that moment that Callisto Pink and the Jupiter Belles realized that Nightingale Eclipse had been uimated all along. She was not just a dark, ominous avatar of despair and doom — to be the hero's rival in those silly Saturday m serials depig Arcadia Vox's life and career.

  She owerful beyond even her reputation. Beyond what the dotaries and dramatizations gave her credit for.

  And tonight, she was as much a hero and savior to the city as Arcadia Vox had been for the world.

  The cloaked figure darted toward the monster, dodging its tentacles as she released a spiraling torrent of dark energy. The moumbled back, stunned, and Nightingale capitalized, unleashing a storm of glowing inky-blue daggers that pierced through the monster's ethereal flesh. The additional mohat spawned were as good as fodder for her now, her dark energy sending them flying as she swung and ducked, her movements graceful and deadly.

  It ectacur dispy of power and skill. But as Callisto and the Jupiter Belles watched, they realized that Nightingale Eclipse was not just fighting the monster with brawn. She was somehow siphoning strands of blue energy from the portals around the city, her mana appearing to draw on their power as well.

  "Look!" Io Yellow poioward Nightingale Eclipse's hands, whiow glowed with an ominous, ethereal light. "She's eling the portals!"

  It was an incredible sight.

  Inky, uhly tendrils, the likes of which Callisto could not identify, ed around Nightingale Eclipse's hand. She held an odd device, a circur frisbee-like magitech embzoned with glowing symbols.

  "That's genius," Ganymede Red replied, her gaze never leaving Nightingale. "She's using their own painst them."

  "No," Europa Blue replied, her voice thick with emotion. "That's not what's going on here. Look at her eyes. She's doing something else. Something dangerous. It's almost like she's about to..."

  Nightingale smiled wistfully, her body shimmering with a dark blue aura. She smmed the devito the earth with a resounding burst of mana.

  Before she could finish her sentence, a sudden explosion rocked the earth. The air around them seemed to ripple, a shockwave of immense power f them to stumble back.

  A familiar voice suddenly shouted, "Sparkles. Pinky. Get up! If you don't help me here, the whole city's going to blow sky-high!"

  A teenage girl with long, raven-bck hair stood before them, her red glowing eyes fierd determined. She was a dark, sweeping cloak, and her mana radiated like an o wave. Dark Princess Eris.

  "D-Dark Princess Eris?" Callisto stammered, taking a step ba surprise. "What are you-"

  "Shut it Pinky, and help me raise a barrier before everything goes boom-boom!" Eris anded, pointing at the rapidly growing ball of energy between Nightingale's hands.

  The energy ulsing and throbbing, and as it grew, so did the urgency of their as.

  "Now, Sparkles! Now!" Eris yelled, her voice high-pitched and anding as she screamed at Io Yellow. "We're running out of time."

  "On it!" Callisto cried, flexing her arms as the mana in her body surged to life and joined with the rest.

  She was a master of summoning, a prodigy i of taming and bending elemental energies to her will. She didn't uand what Dark Princess Eris nning, but she had to trust in the rogue knight. For tonight, at least.

  Io Yellow joined in, adding her own strength to Callisto's. They could feel their mana blending and iwining, their two powers merging into one as the glowing ball of energy grew and grew, its light emanating like a miniature star. Then Ganymede and Europa joined in, their mana pulsing to life as the four of them biheir energy into Callisto Pink.

  Dark Princess Eris was uncharacteristically quiet, her lips pulled in a tight line as her mana blended with theirs. It was a bizarre and unfortable feeling, but there was no time to question her motives. Not now.

  Eris shot off into the sky, aiming her hands toward Nightingale Eclipse and the enormous monster.

  "e on.... please be enough!" Eris whispered, her eyes sched shut.

  Her face was a mask of tration, and her shoulders trembled with effort as she willed all of her remaining mana into an inaudible cry.

  Callisto Pink's eyes widened as golden energy burst forth from Eris's body, rapidly f into an enormous dome of... pink energy? That was impossible.

  Eris's magic had always revolved around shadows and lightning. Pink energy symbolized love and benevolen its purest, and Eris was anything but from what she knew.

  But the pink energy around her wasn't a lie. It was Eris's desperate, futile attempt to protect the city.

  "Now!" Callisto anded, and the four poured their mana into the barrier, strengthening Eris's. A rainbow of colors erupted across Pewsterstoy as ht strands fshed ience, wisps of mana sputtering from dozens of people simultaneously.

  It was breathtaking.

  It was an intricate series of shields and wards, and Callisto khat the rest of the magical knights based iy must have seen the otion and responded in kind.

  Eris shouted a spell Callisto couldn't quite make out, and she shuddered as she felt a sudden rush of mana pulsing through her body. It was a sensation, unlike anything she had ever felt before, like the sun's warmth was flowing through her veins, rejuvenating her battered body and leaving her feeling stronger and more alert than she had in years.

  The night sky seemed to fade away for a moment, and she was blinded by a fsh of pure white energy. It was like a beam of sunlight had burst from the heavens, a bea of hope and light that shone over the city like a shield.

  And somehow, Callisto Pink could see Nightingale Eclipse walking in a white void. A resigned smile graced her lips as she stared up at a writhing mass of alieries above her. A rainbow of lights surrounded her in the void.

  It was them, Callisto realized. The ical Knights of Pewterstoy withis in their mind's eye, watg as their power flowed into Nightingale Eclipse.

  She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and raised the device above her head.

  "I know it's too te for me," Nightingale Eclipse whispered, her voice eg in their minds. "And I'm sorry. I didn't pn for things to go this far. But I'll make it right. As much as I . This city, and the world... they will survive. They will thrive."

  Dark Princess Eris walked forward in the void, a glimmering starburst of pink energy f around her as she floated through it. "Please," she said, her voice crag with emotion. Don't do this. Not now. I... I knew you were here. I was so close to finding you."

  Callisto Pink narrowed her eyes, drawing from what she knew of magical theory.

  A bubble shielded Eris's presence from the rest of the city, but her close proximity to the Jupiter Belles allowed them to sense her.

  "I ran away from my foster parents," Eris tinued. "They... they were amazing. They were kind and cared for me and the perfect parents on paper. But I... I was stubborn and foolish. I didn't cherish my time with them until I had to say goodbye food."

  A siear rolled down Nightingale Eclipse's cheek. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she steadied herself.

  "I had everything made for me," Eris tinued, her voice crag with emotion. "Bee a magical girl? A hero? Dream big! Believe in yourself! They had me believing that all off the fairy dust was real. But then..."

  Her voice trailed off as she started to cry, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. "But then," she tinued, "I learhe truth. I was just a on. Aoy in the Guardians' pybook."

  There was silen the void, a stillhat seemed to enpass all of existence. And then, slowly, Dark Princess Eris reached up and undid the csp of her cloak. It fell to the ground in a pool of bck fabric, revealing the body of a young woman.

  She was revealing bck armor, her outfit dripping with spikes and s. Her body was covered in faded scars, and her hands were calloused and rough.

  But her face was still radiant, her long, ebony hair flowing down her back like a river of darkness.

  "My name isn't Eris," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "That's just what the Magical Knights called me after my makeover. It was a fun ride pying the plucky aremesis for Pinky over there for the st two years to pass time while I followed the st leads I could dig up. Looking for you."

  Callisto Pink was dumbfounded.

  The rosy-cheeked, mischievous trickster who had shot through her city like a bolt of lightning, causing mischief and mayhem wherever she went, had been a ruse?

  "You know who I am, don't you Nightingale?" Dark Princess Eris shifted unfortably, fidgeting with her hair.

  Nightingale Eclipse smiled softly. "I know. I could reize your mother's imprint in you from a mile away, but I hid myself well." She paused, her eyes watering as she faced the rainbow of energies. "I've been a coward. I'm sorry."

  She stepped forward, g Eris's hands in her own as they both wept, their tears mingling as the universe seemed to hold its breath.

  "But I'll protect this city," Nightingale tinued, her voice firm with resolve. "It may be too te for me, but I'll use all the power they've giveo make this right."

  "No," Eris said, her voice a whisper. "No, don't do this. We ... we fix it together. Not now. We'll figure something out."

  Nightingale simply shook her head, a soft smile on her face. She brushed a strand of raven-bck hair from Eris's forehead.

  "I should have been there for you. But I ran and hid instead. And done a lot more for my daughter than drink my woes away as I tried tet," Nightingale Eclipse said quietly, her voice filled with regret.

  "Your... daughter?" Eris repeated, her eyes widening in shock. "You... you have a daughter?"

  Nightingale nodded, her expression wistful as she pced a hand over her stomach. "She should be right around ye," she said. "In fact, her birthday is in about three months. Her father was... Padis, but she'll never know. Because her mother was a fool and the world was a cruel pce. I just sent her off to Kaleidoscope High, you know?"

  Eris's eyes glistened with tears as she nodded. "Kaleidoscope... I pnned on deferring for a year, but I guess I'm definitely going to circle ba that pn."

  Nightingale Eclipse smiled, a distant look in her eyes. "I'm gd," she whispered, squeezing Eris's hand tightly.

  "Nightingale," Callisto Pink stepped through the void. "I don't know what's going on here, nor is it my business. But if you 't be talked out of whatever you are about to do, you at least leave us a message? Something that we bring back to the city and offer fort. I'm sure there will be questions about your presence."

  Nightingale gnced up at her, and for a moment, Callisto Pink was taken aback by the fiertelligend resolve in her eyes. Nightingale was much more than a vilin, much more than a shadow lurking ireets.

  She was a leader and a hero, just like Arcadia Vox had been.

  "My story is not important. I make no excuse for my as serving under Mortifera Nox, though she may have saved me when I was at my lowest." She sighed, taking a deep breath as the energy around her seemed to pulse with every word. "But I also bear the responsibility of standing by and watg as she waged war on this world and broke tless lives. My penance is to fix what I ow. Her mistake for drawing its attention when I could have stopped her."

  "What do you mean by that?" Ganymede Red spoke up, her voice sharp and suspicious.

  Nightingale smiled tiredly, gesturing to the vortex of energy above her. "Close your eyes and trate," she whispered. " you feel it? The energy, the light, the magic? Existeself?"

  They all stared at her, fused.

  "Nightingale, if this is a joke-"

  "Listen," she snapped, interrupting Ganymede. "There are no tricks, no jokes. Just close your eyes and trate. Look for the energy through this space that ects our world with the greater whole. It's just as real as the mana ossess."

  Callisto bit her lip, hesitantly reag out to feel the energy in the void. It was overwhelming, a torrent of light and warmth flooding her body as she allowed herself to fully ect to the rainbow.

  And she could see it.

  The world did not end with theirs.

  She sensed a multitude of alien and intangible forms stretg out for miles in front of her, spiraling out and twisting into a ic pattern beyond her prehension.

  And in the ter of it all, a bright light.

  It was beautiful. It shoh the power of a million stars, and Callisto could see hundreds of glowing strands of energy trailing out from it, eg the worlds like a web of strings.

  And she could feel it. The energy, the magic, the power, the strength. It was all there, radiating from the ter of the universe, flowing through her like a wave of infinite possibility.

  But for a moment, she could se.

  A horrible presence, a being that seemed to fill every spad time at once, yet was immeasurable and indescribable.

  It was the presence of a primordial being that desired plete annihition. It was a dark void of nothing, yet it existed aehroughout the universe and beyond. It was a monster. And it was waiting. It was the End.

  She could feel her body fill with dread, a visceral fear overing her as she was briefly subsumed by its power.

  And then she was back.

  Nightingale began to smile, and the void around them began to glow. A beam of purest light shot out of her, shattering the void around them as a radiant aura of white energy burst from her body.

  It was a brilliant light, like the sun's rays warming her skin on a summer day, and she felt her fear dissipate as the dark presence was blotted out.

  "Well done," Nightingale Eclipse smirked. "Looks like we've reached the end. There's nothing to hold me baow."

  "Wait!" Eris cried out, rushing towards Nightingale.

  "Don't worry, sweet child. This isn't the end for me," Nightingale whispered, her lips curving in a sad smile. "I am just doing what I to buy time."

  She sighed, looking Eris straight in the eyes. "But be a good girl and don't give my daughter too much grief. She may be a grouchy teen with attitude, but you two will get along. I know it."

  With that, Nightingale Eclipse spun the devi her hand, ay faded away as Callisto and the Jupiter Belles found themselves ba the present.

  Eris cried out helplessly as Nightingale Eclipse held her hand triumphantly in the air. She gave a sad smile, her lips curled in a faint grimace ret as her form became transparent and translut.

  A final burst of rainbow energy erupted from Nightingale's chest, spiraling outwards and sh the city with its brilliance.

  The monsters disied on tact, dissolving into dust and smoke.

  The gigantister recoiled and shuddered, its body torted in pain as it uttered an otherworldly scream.

  Then, with a fsh of light and a r explosion that crashed against the barrier raised by their bined efforts, it was gone.

  And so was Nightingale Eclipse.

  Silence fell, a hush so plete that it seemed like the city was holding its breath.

  And then, slowly, a shimmering rainbow of energy shot down from the sky.

  'Dark Princess Eris' nded softly in front of Callisto and the Jupiter Belles, quiet and unassuming. She raised her head, tears streaming down her cheeks as she screamed.

  "Screw this," she said, her lips trembling as she burst into tears as she colpsed on the ground. "What the fuck have I been doing here, wasting my time on childish antid pranks?!"

  The Jupiter Belles shared a look of fusion and bewilderment. It was the first time Callisto Pink had heard Dark Princess Eris speak like this.

  "Hey..." Europa Blue said slowly, approag Eris as she sat on the ground.

  "You've been a pain in our butts," Ganymede Red nodded, folding her arms. "But you've helped today, and that's what ts. Dark Princess Eris, or whatever your real name is. We owe you a debt of gratitude."

  "For what it's worth, the wild goose chases have kept us in shape. I 't deny it's been fun..." Io Yellow added.

  Callisto nodded and offered the young girl a hand. "So, who are you, really?"

  Eris wiped the tears from her eyes, her face shining with hope and resolve. She tilted her up, and her eyes glinted with a familiar mischievousness.

  "Nyehehehehehe! I'm just a teenage girl with bad lud a deadbeat dad," she said, striking her signature smug pose. "But I like the name, so let's stick with that."

  She turo where Nightingale had st been standing aated momentarily.

  "Do me a favor," she whispered. "Ahe secret of all this to yourselves. No one ever know. Not yet. Not while there's still a ce that Mortifera Nox could be out there, plotting against humanity."

  "Mortifera Nox? She's long dead. She's-" Europa started.

  "She's more than likely alive," Eris whispered, her eyes flitting to Callisto's. "You think Nightingale was hiding out here in bumfuck Pewterstoy for her health? They never found Mortifera Nox's body, nor Padis's, though Arcadia Vox supposedly struck a mutual kill with Nox. God knows that must've fred up all kinds of PTSD and ay knowing they never found the body."

  Eris shivered, shaking her head. "It's a long story. Don't ask me how I know all this. But I stumbled onto a lot of shit I wasn't meant to see as a middle schooler. For what it's worth, I had fun with our wild goose chases and tricks. It made the world a little brighter and a little more iing. That was nice. But I do better. I do more."

  The Jupiter Belles looked at her, shocked by her ge of demeanor.

  Ganymede Red gred at Eris, but Callisto held up a hand to silence her.

  "We're not going to stop you," Callisto Pink said. "If you need any help, you reach out. But please, tell us the truth about the circumstahat brought you to this city."

  Eris sighed, "Hey... how do you feel about bubble tea? There's a pce I've been meaning to check out he docks. Run by some gs or something. Good reputation, but I've never had the ce to check it out on my own. Heard the hand-ed pork and shrimp chive dumplings there are to die for too."

  Callisto caught a strange look in Eris's eyes as she spoke, but she didn't press the issue. Instead, she smiled and nodded. "Sounds like a great idea. If the pce is even still intact that is."

  Eris grinned with her trademark coess, sending a wave of uainty through Callisto's heart. Something had ged. Something signifit.

  "Nyehehehe! Don't worry Pinky. Just your pal, your friendly neighborhood Dark Princess Eris, ready t the world to its knees with a smile and a dastardly song!"

  A fsh of pain flickered across Eris's face, but she hid it well, defiantly turning her head up and tilting her forward. "And as much of a big girl I may be, I'm sure a hot shower and a nap sound pretty ght now, too. What do you say?"

  The Jupiter Belles nodded, feeling exhausted and relieved as they slowly picked themselves up from the rubble.

  "Hey... this might be a bit awkward, but do you want to see our base?" Io Yellow blurted out. It's nothing special, but we have some spare clothes and maybe a hot meal if you want."

  "Yeah. You're wele to join us," Europa Blue chimed in. "After everything you did tonight, the least we do is feed you."

  "That's right!" Callisto agreed.

  After all, there were no enemies anymore. Just the people of Pewsterstoy, each struggling to find their way in a world turned upside down.

  "Uh," Eris stammered, "But that would viote the terms of my vilinous persona. Didn't you hear what they call me? Evil, wicked, ruthless-"

  The Jupiter Belles shook their heads, and Eris faltered, stepping ba surprise. She hesitated, a flicker of emotion in her eyes that Callisto couldn't quite pce.

  And for a moment, she saw her.

  A scared, desperate girl their age, trapped in a web of lies a.

  She had lost her way but was desperately trying to find it again.

  But there was no time for pity, no time for se. So Callisto smiled and reached out, pg her hand on Eris's shoulder.

  "We won't hold it against you. Just think of it as a sign of goodwill between enemies."

  Eris's eyes grew wide, and she hesitated, searg their faces. Finally, she sighed and slumped her shoulders i. "Alright. Fihanks."

  The Jupiter Belles couldn't help but exge a smile of relief as they turned away.

  "Look at that. We actually did it," Europa whispered to Io and Calli as they followed Eris. "Our little 'aremesis' turned maybe-friend after all this time. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes."

  "All it took was a magical explosion and a near-apocalypse," Io remarked, ughing softly. "I wonder if we get her to joieam now."

  "We'll figure it out," Callisto said gently. "For now, we're safe. And maybe we've even earned a little pead quiet."

  Eris stood up, her raised defiantly as she smirked, and her voice dropped to a spiratorial whisper. "No way in hell am I joining your pop idol girl group. Just you wait, Pinky. You'll never catch me. I'll always stay oep ahead!"

  Eris frowned, her brow furrowing in and what looked like grief as she spun on her heels.

  Then, she quietly looked up at the clear night sky with her hands behind her head as they walked.

  "A daughter, huh? Wonder what she's like."