Too Much

Aster doesn't belong.

She knew it as soon as she went through her door and found herself in the middle of nowhere, not the world she was familiar with. Not the world with Chrys and Akai and Mizuho. No, she didn't recognize this place.

There was only one meaning to this.

She wasn't the original.

She knew of dimensional counterparts. She knew that there was more than one Aster in existence. She knew they lived in their own dimensions. Because she had the memories of the original Aster, she had assumed she was the original. It hadn't hit her that she might be another dimensional counterpart.

Now she knew.

She knew her place now. She was inside a void now. The Author's Space. If she had gone through a door telling her it was going back to the original universe, and it had instead taken her to the Author's Space, it meant she had no world.

She had no place.

She was expendable.

Aster could not stand for this.

"お姉ちゃん!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. She was in the Author's Space – there was only one person she needed to see.

And sure enough, a figure was behind her.

"Hello, Aster," said the author.

"I… I don't have a world?" said Aster, shrinking into herself.

"Straight to the point, eh? Thought you'd ask. Firstly, you're not expendable. I write for you much more often than I do even for Original!Aster. That novel is still sitting on my computer waiting to be published…"

"…she still hasn't finished her story yet…"

"Secondly, you do have a world. You have been there so often it's not even funny. You don't have a past like the Original!Aster, despite your memories. You were created, not born. And where do you think you were created?"

Aster blinked.

"I… don't know…"

"Dumb as ever." The author laughed while Aster scowled and made a huff sound. "Well, think about it. You spend the most time there. You never leave there if you have a chance. Where do you think?"

Aster nodded. "The Society."

"Exactly. You've been given so many chances to switch over to the other side. So many chances to join the more powerful side, which I know you prefer. You belong to the Society. You belong there, you work there. You couldn't go through a door taking you to your original world, because you were in your original world. I refer to you as Society!Aster for a reason."

Aster nodded.

The communicator on her side beeped, and she turned it on to see Tash. She was smiling, but it was obviously forced.

"You can come back now."

"Right." Aster turned off the communicator and sighed. She saw the door she had come through and was about to go, when – "

"Aster."

Aster turned again to face her author.

"I have some surprises and inconvenient things out for you. But don't worry. Your soul is somewhere, in a very illogical place as you have some past, but it exists. It will take effort to find it."

Aster nodded. She turned and went through the door.

-

Aster didn't believe it.

She didn't believe a single word of Tash's news that Adrian was dead. Adrian was not dead. Adrian always had a plan. He always had a way out of it. He had some way to resurrect himself or miraculously come back or he hadn't been the one killed, he'd sent in some copy. The Adrianくん she knew always had a plan.

Right?

She never cried, she swallowed it and moved on. But the Society knew. They thought she was in denial, and they saw. And it wasn't a depressive denial, either. She never mentioned his name, but Tash saw Aster going after one of Adrian's traps in such a stealthy way one would think Adrian would go after her, even though Tash knew Adrian wouldn't be there to find out. She even was caught going into his office and walking out saying, "Drat, he's not in."

And one night, she sat in her bed, thinking, What plan did you have? What are you doing? How are you going to manage it? What are you going to do?

-

Aster is not pleased.

The new changes in the Society are gripping. Tighter security everywhere. At least the manga section is one of the ones with loose security. As if a Sue would ever use those for spellcasting.

There were almost no Sues left over in the basement but now there have to be fifteen guards per shift and Aster is downstairs much of the time now. They like to scream at her. It's not fun down there.

She still goes on missions but now it's getting annoying. She has a voice in her head now. Her Author told her there would be more problems for her now, so she probably chose to give her a voice in your head. It doesn't talk to her much, maybe once or twice per day, but still. Why must her Author have fun in these ways?

"I'm going to decapitate you," says Aster in her usual threatening-more-than-she's-even-capable-of-pulling-off way, "and put your head on a stick for preventing them from realizing their romantic feelings…"

Silly girl, says the voice, don't go charging right in, she's got all your moves calculated.

Aster charges in anyway, gets defeated, and runs off before the Sue can decapitate her.

You were always so dense, you never listen…

"Oh shut up," says Aster to the voice.

-

Aster is in her tsundere-mode.

"Aramayis, huh?" says Aster, with her signature hmph. The light-hearted kyaa is gone.

"All I ask for is for you to fly up and get that book up there," he says, more amused than annoyed, "and now you're accusing the male race of being lazy and not willing to use ladders…"

"There is a ladder right there," says Aster, but she obliges, gets the book, and shoves it into Aramayis's hands. "There."

"Thank you," he says patiently and is about to leave when Aster yells at him.

"You really are lazy, you know!"

He was only asking for a little favor…

"Shut up," says Aster to the voice, which is the only thing she's ever said to the voice.

You always say that…

Insert Tragic Loss of Martyr Here

The shadow of a door opened, revealing a tiny ray of light that fell upon the face of the girl in the corner. A feminine figure walked into the door with a fire-lizard at her back.

Valerie slowly descended into the basement. It wasn't a fun place to be. All of the Sues wallowing in pits of despair and anger, demanding to be released and set free, some being horrifically driven over the edge. All of the negative emotions hanging around the air created a very bad environment.

But Valerie had an objective to accomplish.

She eventually arrived at her destination - the largest cell in the far end of the room. A black-haired girl was slumped on the floor. Her face was still bleeding slightly, but all in all nothing seemed to be broken physically.

"Cassie?" said Valerie tenderly.

Cassie did not respond through her tears.

Valerie approached Cassie slowly. She could sense a thickness - the layer of negativity continually increasing as she got slower - it was building up - she was surrounded by her own wave of horror -

And Valerie slowly and softly touched Cassie, and shivered - for she was now able to see exactly what Cassie was suffering from. She was wallowing so far into her memories it was so clear, even to Valerie -

-

A world in which adults didn't exist. Where everyone was immortal (unless they were harmed and injured beyond the capable area of surviving). Where magical beings and humans lived together in a semi-harmony.

A house where fourteen children resided, seven boys, seven girls. One girl, the leader.

A fifteen-year-old girl.

She'd saved her corrupted sister, and was formerly the last of the water fae (until she'd resurrected the rest of the race). And how interesting that process was. How vast her power, how great her justice.

A girl who was now sitting at a chair in the kitchen staring at the stove with a girl in a braid next to her.

"How on earth do you heat something up to make ice cream?" said the braided girl.

"Shush, Puyo," said Cassie. "The soda is weird like that."

"How you manage to put soda in ice cream beats me..."

"Well, that ice cream company did steal my recipe once."

"But you kicked the ice cream company's ass."

"I did," she said proudly. "This recipe is copyright."

Cassie was putting the finishing touches on the ice cream when there was an explosion outside. Cassie perked up.

"Code A everyone!"

People started to flood into the room. Cassie did a quick headcount.

"...thirteen, fourteen. Good."

All of the kids stared up at Cassie, awaiting orders.

"What's it this time?" said the one annoying butt-monkey with the semi-unpronounceable oddly capitalized name.

Cassie opened the shades three centimeters and stared.

"Giant teddy bear."

The other kids groaned.

"Again?" said Puyo. "We've killed it 74920392183674893009284654 times!"

"And you've killed him," said Cassie, pointing to the one annoying butt-monkey with the semi-unpronounceable oddly capitalized name, "9822739263829473630928361978 times, but he comes back to life every day. For the purposes of crack, the Author can't kill him - he's got to be here for the next story."

Puyo sighed.

"Well... fine."

"Let's kill it," said the boy on the right of Cassie. That boy was Cassie's boyfriend - based extremely heavily on the boy Cassie's author had rather a crush on (whether feelings were requited in Real Life or not is still rather ambiguous, as they were still good friends nevertheless and he was aware she liked him... and if he ever happens to be reading this, which the Author highly doubts anyway, she apologizes for any grievances this may cause him and the current writing referenced did not cause any grievance back then [because it might have] and does not mean this to negatively portray him at all, simply because she now knows he had a blatant out-of-character and romantic portrayal).

"Come on!" yelled Cassie and the kids ran out, Cassie shifting into a sort of fae form as she flew up, holding a staff with a circular blue orb on it, about to save the day...


-


"You can't mean that."

Cassie, leaning against a tree, talking to her Author. The Author was not the same girl who had appeared to cryptically guide them in the Ga-Rei fandom, leaving nothing but negativity. She seemed veering on the edge of non-fangirlism, about to be thrown into extremity with one push. And she seemed nervous about what she was about to do.

"I'm sorry. I do mean that... I have no choice..."

"You don't mean that!" Cassie was protesting. "You're just going to... throw us away? Kill us? Like you did with that butterfly fairy?"

"Of course I won't kill you..." The Author shook her head. "Ari died in her own story. She was slated to die from the start. I won't kill you. I just... I can't write for you anymore. And I can't let you roam around in other dimensions anymore..."

"So you're going to stop us. Leave us in suspension. Forever."

"Of course not..." The Author held up a very large, battered laptop. "I have a new computer now, and I've decided that since I'm not going to touch this old one anyway, I'm going to seal you in this computer. It's huge - nineteen gigabytes (A/N: at the time this was a huge amount of memory) - and your world will be the same as it is now. Same friends. Same everything. You just can't go between dimensions..."

"I will not live like a caged animal!" And suddenly Cassie started to run, run, and outside of the Author's protests opened a portal and vanished into it...


-


"I shouldn't have left my friends there..."

Cassie, shaking her head, walked upon what seemed to be a void bridge.

"It's too late. I need to gather power and get them out. But how am I going to do that...That was stupid of me..."

"Oh?" A girl's voice rang throughout the void. Cassie turned around and saw the girl.

She's not much older than my Author, Cassie thought, as she appraised her. But the Author looked very different. At least, Aster could tell this girl was an Author.

"A lone Sue."

"A Sue?" Cassie blinked. "A Sue... what's a..."

"Nothing to be ashamed of," said the mysterious Author. "Come with me. You seem to be lost."

As the new Author discussed things with Cassie, the new Author explained some things to Cassie. According to her, everyone had the freedom to write what they wanted. Anyone who dissented and accused other characters of being "Sues" were traitors and thus "flamers". Characters made under "flamers" to be "non-Sueish" were "minions" without individuality.

"So your Author abandoned you," said the new Author. She had a broad smile on her face.

"As a Sue, you have powers you don't know you have. Fandom manipulation. Universe twisting. And I'll make you a deal. I can get you power. I can get you what you need. You just need to help me in my goal."

She held out her hand.

Cassie stared at it nervously.

She shook it.

And the regime began. With the help of an Author's power, she was easily able to garner more and more power. And with all that help, she overturned the Sue system.

Every day, with the propaganda and trickery, she rose higher. Her power grew. Every day Cassie woke up reassured she had power - and not just that she had power, that she could do something with it.

And one day, she made it to the top.

Crowned the Lieutenant Mary Sue, she now had power stretching over universes. All she had to do was fulfill her part of the bargain.

Under her rule, no Sue was allowed to enter any fandom without her permission. This was because all characters had to work for the new Author's "greater good"...

...promoting the freedom to write and express oneself.


-


And as Cassie entered the sealed fandom, she opened the portal and found the fandom was destroyed, and her friends gone.

She traveled to visit her Author and her stupid dreams, and yelled at her in a rage, for destroying her home and hiding away her friends and –


-


Valerie came back to earth.

She couldn't help but to continue staring at the poor Sue writhing on the ground. In essence she was a nice girl. To see the difference was astounding. It had almost been as if she had gone insane.

"I know what you're thinking."

Valerie turned around to see the Author. The one who had changed. The one who had reluctantly left Cassie behind.

"You're thinking that it was cruel what I did to her earlier. Beating her up. Well, I'll tell you this. I did not beat up Cassie."

Valerie blinked.

"I did not beat up Cassie Anora, my character. I beat up Cassie Anora, the character of that Author. Yes, Cassie was physically connected to me. But she sold her soul to that other girl. I am lenient with my characters. I am not lenient with other authors sending in their characters in an attack against me."

She looked at Cassie.

"You believed that pruning Emily in the right environment would get rid of her genetic factor. You believed Sueish philosophies came with puberty. They do not. They come with Sue powers. They come with the belief… well, when a Sue's been abandoned by his or her author, and they know they have the power to do something about it…"

Valerie nodded. She'd had suspicions this was true.

"Emily was abandoned by Harriet, but she was readopted and readjusted. And you've seen stray Sues roaming around in fandoms. Their only purpose is to create better lives for themselves. When you pursue them, they run, and when you capture them, they come quietly. They are not affiliated with the Lieutenant in any way. But the ones under Cassie…they wanted revenge, they had power – they attacked you when you found them."

She stared at Cassie.

"You will see more of the Sue system. You will see more of the others. As to who that other Author was, I have my suspicions. But mark my words. Cassie won't bother you again."

Valerie nodded. Nervous, she and Ari slowly exited the basement.

Cassie's author turned back to Cassie.

"Cassie," she said calmly.

Cassie looked up. The Author was using her calmer voice.

"Cassie, I am going to let you do what you want. Of course you will only do what I tell you to do, because you are my character and you are bound to me. I have given you the closest thing to free will any Author could give. I could always have made you do something. In a sense I caused you to betray me. Are you still bitter?"

Cassie shook her head.

"Now," said the Author, "if you had your freedom, what would you do?"

She put a hand on the bars.

-

Emily came up to Tash, panting.

"That girl escaped."

"What?" Adrian jumped up. "A Sue escaped?"

Emily nodded. "The black-haired one with a bloody nose. I saw her running around…"

Tash and Adrian called for the other Agents and they bolted. "Where did you find her, Emily?"

"The West Wing…"

The Library did not have a west per se, but it was named like that for convenience. The Agents sprinted towards the west side to see, indeed, Cassie running.

"Get her!"

But Cassie still had her Prohibitor on and she made no attempts to escape them. The only thing on her mind was the location she had to go. She had to get there now.

"Where is she going?" yelled Lauren.

Suddenly Tash held up a hand and everyone stopped.

"She's going into the kitchen…"

Cassie ran into the kitchen and turned around to stare at them. She panted hard.

Then she turned around, opened a nearby drawer, ad picked out a knife.

"Step back," said Adrian. "She could throw that at anyone – "

But Cassie only looked at them coldly…

…and plunged the knife into her own chest.

There was no way to stop her. The knife was already in. It was beyond the hope of healing or help.

The Agents rushed forward to see her. She was shaking her head, and as she stabbed she let out a cry and fell to the ground. She was still shaking her head vigorously.

"Not… her…"

She was shaking. Tash was in shock.

"She… you have to save… she's going to… she's not you think she… you have… save her… Foxblade…"

"Me?" Emily said.

"The other one… oldest…"

"Willowe's been prohibited."

"You don't understand…" She was becoming more incoherent. She shivered.

"Aster…"

Aster came forward to see her rival. The one she had been taught to hate. The one Cassie had wanted to kill for years.

"Don't… me…"

Her eyes darkened.

Chaos erupted in the Society.

-

Cassie awoke in white.

A man clad in a cloak greeted her.

"Welcome to the Character Void."

"Afterlife?" said Cassie.

"No. The place where Characters die." He pointed around. "You can stay here. But only if you have a will to live. And I don't see much to live for. Most snap and die."

"And where do they die?"

"Nowhere," said the man. "Into space. To inspire new stories. They dissipate."

Cassie looked around. It didn't seem to be a very inviting...

"Cassie!"

Cassie turned around to see the people she needed most.

"Puyo! And..."

Her best friend, Puyo, had appeared. She was alongside Cassie's lover.

Cassie began to cry.

"Everyone else snapped," said Puyo, "but we waited here for you."

Cassie ran up to them and held them close.

"I waited for you."

And having achieved everything they wanted, together they fell. And none of the three were ever seen again.
-

"That damn bitch!"

The young Author little girl slammed her fist on the table.

"That Author had to interfere! And now the girl's martyred herself. If she had just escaped and run off I could have tracked her down and gotten her out. But no, she had to kill herself… and now I have nobody to spread my ideology…"

"You could just convince the new leader to help you…" said the young Author's companion.

"Runoa doesn't give a damn about Sues." The young Author sighed. "She lets Sues go run off and go to the fandoms they feel like."

She fretted.

"If I ever meet that Cassie's Author in Real Life, I'm gonna kill her."

The Author sighed.

"I only have you two now. You know your job. Nina, I know you still are bitter against your Author. Fight for our cause. And you…" She pointed to the other companion. "Well, didn't you always want to be the Leader of Sues?"

The second companion giggled.

"Of course."

"Good," said the young Author. "Let's get that pesky ex-Librarian out of the way."

Insert Incompletely Explained Spiritual Pursuits Here

It had been completely unexpected.

"I don't understand why his signal suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It just started up. Just now."

Harriet leaned in, curious.

"What fandom?"

Kate turned around. "That's the strange part. There is no fandom. His signal turns up in the same location, in all of the fandoms."

"Which means he's in the middle of nowhere."

The members turned around to see a familiar face.

"Hey," said Tash, wagging her finger. "It's you again - "

" - yes, Aster's author, that's me."

A few members gasped a bit. The author approached the computer.

"おねえちゃん - " said Aster tenatively, but the author raised her hand to silence her.

"Not now."

The author touched the spot on the computer. "If I continually switch fandoms I will find this same spot to have Kyle's signal. However, if I go to any fandom, to that spot, I will not find him. He is everywhere and nowhere. Make sense?"

She stopped straight in her speech and giggled. "Well, I might be hitting the wrong tone. He's not dead. Or God."

No one laughed.

"As for the reason I'm here," said the author, "I'm interfering in my story. I'm breaking the First Law of Writing."

"First Law of Writing?" said Drake.

"No author shall interfere in the course of the written story he or she has written. The characters are to play out the story on their own," quoted Adrian.

Aster's author nodded.

"I'm writing this story. But even though I'm writing it, you'll never make it without my help. Which is why I'm interfering in this story. I have details about what's happening elsewhere and what's happening in the future that no one else does."

The other members noted that the fourth wall was not breaking.

"My objective here is to help you rescue Kyle. You may not know it, but I've had a few chats with him a while ago. I have sufficient information to help you. The unfortunate fact is that I'm inserting myself as an author, not as a self-insert, so while I can take you there I am going to have to disappear when things get dangerous or I'll be killed and banned from the Fictional World forever. I don't have magical and/or superhuman powers like the rest of you."

Aster raised her hand like a timid schoolgirl. "おねえちゃん, I'm confused."

The author laughed.

"You're always confused," she said, and patted Aster's head (which Aster didn't like), leaving the other Agents shocked and confused at this Author's sudden appearance, and the fact that an Author emitting such a dark aura was patting the head of one of the most naïve girls in existence.

-

"Kyle's not dead."

The author said this matter-of-factly to a frowning Harriet.

"He's not dead. And now that Runoa's leader - "

A score of chattering came up among the Agents. Runoa's leader? What happened? What's going on?

Tash glared at the others and they all fell silent.

" - she's set a very obvious trap to lead us in. But here's the catch. She knows it's an obvious trap. And she knows we have no choice but to walk into the obvious trap."

"So what do we do?" said Harriet.

"I'll bet my money Runoa has a little Sue waiting for us near the appointed spot. But that signal is definitely Kyle's signal."

She took her finger off the computer and pulled out a casket.

"I blackmailed this out of a certain character from Aster's fandom. If you ask her, she won't like to talk about it, but she'll know. It contains life energy. We can get Kyle back up and running - it's not something Runoa expects us to have. But the problem is finding where to start with Kyle."

"You said he's in any fandom."

"And none at all. But there is usually one fandom where the concept allows a bridge to the Middle of Nowhere. The Endless Abyss of the Night Sky - Kyle had his own entrance, but we have to take the old-fashioned way."

"So how do we find the fandom?"

Aster's author put on a rueful face.

"Oh, I know how to find out."

-

The author had required all of the Agents (bar Emily) to follow her to the basement. Aster was up front next to her author, but she was unable to engage in any small talk with her "onee-chan" at the moment.

The author eventually led the others to the cell at the faraway end of the room, and it was clear where she was leading them.

"Sues always happen to know for some strange reason what their bosses are doing. They have some telepathic communication or secret messaging system. You just have to pick the right one to blackmail. And I happen to have a lot of blackmailing power over this one here."

Cassie looked truly pathetic; it was hard to believe she once had the glory and power of thousands of Sues. She was languishing in a dark corner of the cell all the way at the end, ignoring the begging and pleading of the Sues nearby, reaching out for her help.

The author walked up to the cell...

...and opened the door.

She pulled out a nearby chair and tossed it into the cell. Aster waved her hand and ropes made of ice bound themselves around Cassie. Cassie twirled her hands around as if they would cause the ropes to shatter, but they did not.

"You're not a fae anymore, Cassie," said the author coldly.

It was with such a deep and dark tone that several Agents jumped.

Cassie snarled.

"At least I haven't succumbed to emotion like you have."

"Emotion is overrated," said the author, "but it's necessary. And you honestly shouldn't be talking about 'succumbing to emotion'. I never created you to get lost in your own arrogance."

Cassie growled.

"You're still feral," said the author. "But never mind that. You have information I require."

Cassie scoffed. "How ironic."

"The Endless Abyss of the Night Sky was cut off from the Library thanks to your servant Kaylee. There are still ways to access it. Certain fandoms still have the connection. Name one."

Cassie smirked. "You know I won't help you without incentive."

"Of course I do."

"Name it."

"Fine, then, I will - wait, gimme a second..." For some strange reason, the author sprang randomly after a beetle on the wall. After imprisoning it in a jar, she went back to yelling at Cassie.

"Sorry... money-making opportunity...long story..."

She laughed.

"Anyway. Cassie. You used to be a protagonist. Whatever happened to the goodness of your heart?"

"It went away," said Cassie, "when you decided not to make me a protagonist anymore. I have no reason to help you, given what you did to me... but I'll make you an offer."

Cassie gave a mischevious grin.

"You remove this Prohibitor."

"Can't do that."

"I thought as much."

"No," said the author. "I literally can't do that. Use of a Society device with an Author's Blessing is basically a vow taken by the Author to disassociate him/herself from the character. It can't be revoked. If that Prohibitor is removed, you'll have no authoral attachments, and you'll be gone." She opened her hands in demonstration. "Poof. Dead."

Cassie turned a few shades paler. The author was winning.

"And besides." The author raised an eyebrow. "What about your friends in your world? You abandoned them to escape me."

"They're not your characters. I will join them again someday."

"You would think. But they were partially not mine. I cut my ties from your friends. They were forced to return to the authors they came from. Your best friend Puyo," she continued, "was retired and replaced by a new character."

Cassie's eyes were getting bigger...

"...No..."

"Yes." The author was on a roll. "Most of my friends whom your friends were based on were not writers, and equally retired the characters... including of course..." The author paused.

"Not him. Not him. Not him."

"He's dead. As is your sister, who was still mine."

"You didn't."

"I did."

"You are lying!" Cassie shrieked, incensed. "I can see it in your face, you're lying, you can't get past my intellectual barriers, you're just a pathetic coward who can't stand up to me, you..."

The author appraised Cassie. Her face was blank.

And she slapped Cassie in the face.

"How dare you."

Cassie held her fingers to her face. Her author had never, ever slapped any of her characters. Except now.
"Your arrogance really has gotten the better of you. I am disappointed."

"You're just trying to... act... superior..."

Aster's author brought up her foot and slammed it into Cassie's face. Several Society agents gasped. Cassie emerged with blood on her face.

"It will not do, Cassie, to be a whiny bratty fifteen-year-old who thinks herself superior to all. I can't believe you are accusing me of lying about all that pain you made me go through. I swear on the very instruments on writing that I use that I am not lying. And all that pain you'll be going through about the death of your little friends - remember, it's your fault."

Aster released the ice bounds. Cassie fell to the floor. She did not move.

There was a sniffling, and the Society Agents watched the pathetic form of the former, great, last Lieutenant Mary Sue crying.

"Ga-Rei." The Sue's voice was in a slow mutter. "Ga-Rei."

"That's sufficient." The author turned to the others. "We'll leave her."

And the Agents (still stunned) left.

Cassie looked up. A small voice left her throat.

"Help."

The author looked back.

"You put yourself beyond it."

And as they left, the fallen Sue lay there. Water leaked from her eyes, intermingling with the blood and accentuating the pain. But what was worse was the sinking feeling of what she had done to herself.

-

"I want Tash, Harriet, Adrian, and Aster."

The author pointed at the four.

"Ga-Rei fandom."

She pointed to the list of fandoms infected by Sues.

"And ironically, the fandom's on this list. She knew we'd go. And the pseudo-Tash is waiting for us."

The author smiled.

"I already knew these facts. But I have to make it believeable - I can't just feed you information. But I will tell you. I am the author of this story. By the end of it, Kyle will be rescued by any way necessary, and I will even stoop as low as to make you OOC to do it. However, I wish to make a coherent story and it will be difficult."

-

As the Agents and Author walked through the lonely Ga-Rei fandom to find a certain subway station, Adrian turned to the author.

"You were too cruel to Cassie back there."

The author sighed.

"You may think it's inhumane, but... Cassie haunted me after I became the Lieutenant. She visited my friends and caused them to tease me about her creation. And other things too, things I can't tell you." She sighed. "Cassie deserved everything she got there, no doubt, and I'm actually being benevolent...If she ever decides to reform, I'll re-seal her into a pocket fandom, but...

"I've made failures before. My first creation, Arinaia, died in her fic to begin with, so I couldn't do anything. Then there was Cassie. I realized she was a Sue, however, and offered to seal her...that is, place her eternally in her own world where she could live happily. Most authors take this path.

"But Cassie resisted. She would not have anything to do with that. She wanted to be free. And I told her she'd have to go into the Vault of Abandoned Ideas then. But she resisted again, and escaped...

"My third creation, Ness Trunor, was different. She allowed herself and her siblings and friends to be sealed. She now lives happily in her own world.

"And now there's Aster."

The author let out a melancholy sigh.

"I also had to show Aster what not to be. I have faith in her."

-

Before the Agents could reach the subway station, however, they were stopped by a huge battle mid-town. A strange monster was attacking things. And finally, there were three figures...named Tsuchimiya Kagura, Nimura Kensuke, and Isayama Yomi.

Wait, not three.

Four.

The fourth was Natasha Marquand, AKA the pseudo-Tash.

Natasha had done quite a few things. She was an exorcist from America, descended from a line of prestigious exorcists, and had a Ga-Rei of her own. She'd moved to Japan to help out with the Naraku issues. She managed, with her power, to separate Isoyama Izumi and Isayama Yomi from their bodies, and helped Izumi go back to her school life. She also removed all traces of the former-corrupting sesshouseki from Yomi and made her an exorcist, as well as restoring her old Ga-Rei, Ranguren, into her body. (Kagura still had full control of her Ga-Rei, Byaukei.)

She revealed that Kagura and Yomi were not the White and Black Priestesses, but she herself was a balanced yin/yang priestess and she could save the world. Which she did.

In the process, she also caused Kagura and Kensuke to realize their true feelings for each other and brought Noriyuki Izuna and Yomi together (they were once again engaged).

And now, their only job left was to fight the occasional rogue spirit lying around.

Kagura surveyed the area and looked at Kensuke. "It's a toughie, eh, Kenちゃん?"

Kensuke only grunted in response.

Kagura put her fingers together. "Ga-Rei, release - Byaukei!"

The white spirit dragon emerged from Kagura's back, and rose up.

Yomi and Natasha similarly released their Ga-Rei, and Kensuke pulled out the Michael Revolution, his pneumatic exorcist sword.

The Society Agents present had all taken Oneshots to acquire the ability to see spirits (and none of them thankfully had gone through the painful process of acquiring Ga-Rei). They all lunged onto the huge spirit to get its attention.

It was difficult to avoid the lunges of Byaukei and Ranguren, as they were thrashing around like crazy, and Natasha's Ga-Rei wasn't helping either. But the Society plus the Countermeasures Department quieted the beast, and the Society was left to face the Sue.

"You," said Natasha menacingly.

"Natashaちん?" said Yomi (which she would never, EVER say had she not been under the influence of a Sue). "Are they enemies of yours?"

"Yes."

The Society would not have it and ran past her.

"No!" And the pseudo-Tash sent her Ga-Rei after them.

Aster summoned a huge wall of lunar energy mixed with a small amount of datic nuances to prevent the spiritual beast from going through, but the Ga-Rei simply went around. The author was nowhere to be seen and was probably hiding to prevent herself from getting killed.

Tash used Juari-Ken, but the flames bounced off.

Adrian's Boot to the Head left scarcely an imprint.

Finally Harriet became fed up and jumped far into the air...

...and cracked her cricket bat on the Ga-Rei's head.

The Ga-Rei shrieked and receded into a puppy, now harmless. Harriet grinned.

"Always trust the cricket bat."

Kagura and Yomi sent their Ga-Rei as well, but Harriet regressed Byaukei into Shiro and Ranguren into Nue.

"That's it, Hati!" called Tash.

Kensuke lunged at the members with his sword, but a sword was a sword and Tash melted the Michael Revolution into a puddle of molten metal.

"Michael's gonna be pissed..." said Kensuke. (Michael at that moment was working on Michael the 14th, so it didn't matter.)

The pseudo-Tash looked up and noticed the Agents were gone. They'd made it to the subway station.

"The bridge between worlds is very unstable here," said Aster's author, who had reappeared. "If you open a plothole here, you should be able to access the Abyss."

Harriet obliged, and the hole opened to a black emptiness.

-

"Go in," said the author, and the Agents slowly stepped in.

It wasn't long before they found Kyle. Aster had flown around the pit aimlessly until Harriet had picked up a signal (they were falling in the middle of nowhere).

"Kyle!" yelled Tash, running over.

Kyle was awake. He was staring at them. He didn't seem unnerved by the fact he was stuck inside an enormous abyss. Apparently he'd gotten over the initial shock and was waiting patiently.

"How long was I gone?" said Kyle mildly.

"Over two months."

"I see," he said. "Well, I'd better be going back, right?"

"Of course," said Aster. "We did come for you."

For the first time in a long, long while, Kyle smiled.

-

The pseudo-Tash delivered her report to the most powerful Sue.

"I... I failed..." stuttered the pseudo-Tash.

Runoa made a face as if she were flicking off an annoying fly. "It doesn't matter. I expected that."

"You did?"

"Yes. Especially since I sent the likes of you to guard it." She smiled. "I don't care if they get back that Agent or not. But while everyone was distracted on the Ga-Rei fandom, I used the small amount of power I acquired from Cassie Anora to destroy the Society parameter checks on the Twilight fandom. They can no longer detect activity in there."

"You don't mean to bail out Foxblade, do you?"

"I do."

"Then are we leaving now?"

"Of course not. He who runs quickly trips and falls. We have time. Lots of time."

Runoa smirked. There was no need to hurry.

And the pseudo-Tash had her own private victory, too. Kyle Griswold, you may think you have the upper hand. But I have a certain something you may want...

I can see when you're destined to die...-

The worst part was that the author knew all this - the trap, the Shinigami Eyes - and couldn't tell anyone.

-

Kyle had told the Agents that Kaylee had once had the Heaven and Earth, Worldly Secret Art, and thus would possibly have had given information to the Sues on certain Agents' past and secrets, but Adrian had told him they'd worry about it later.

Kyle was walking around the Library, taking in the sight again. It had been a while.

He'd just gotten acquainted with the Agents who had joined the Society in his absence when he remembered something.

The rations... I forgot about them...

Kyle duly went over to check the rations... and paled.

What happened to my rations? There were several tons when I left!

Insert Underwater Sea Power Battle here

Aster was back to normal very soon, and after a few healing sessions with Valerie was up and out of bed in only a few days. Having nothing else to do and certainly not willing to recklessly go after another Sue, Aster started helping Emily with some projects, which included some of the secretarial work (Emily had issues spelling certain words).

One day, however… things started to take a very unexpected turn…

-

"Kyaa~, I'm tired, I think I'm gonna turn in…"

Aster stretched her arms out and pouted, before going into her room. Adrian and Tash looked at her.

"You going to bed too?" said Adrian, to Tash.

"Sure, I'm tired," said Tash, rubbing Adrian's ears briefly and kissing him before going off to bed.

Finally, all of the Society members bar Adrian were sleeping in their beds while Adrian was just sitting on a couch in the Library's main room. Feeling rather stuffy, he took a fiction novel off the shelf and started to read.

He was 95 pages into the book when he saw her.

She was sitting somewhat far away, which was why he hadn't spotted her earlier. She was busying herself with some random book. She had black hair that only went slightly beyond her shoulders, so it couldn't exactly be described as short or long. She did have a couple pimples on her face, but it didn't completely detract from her entire appearance; it only made her a bit more normal.

The weird part was that Adrian didn't recognize her. He knew who the new recruits were, so how on earth would this girl get in?

"Um…" Adrian didn't know how to phrase this. Hey, weird girl, you're not supposed to be able to get in here without authorization, so who are you and what the hell are you doing?

The girl looked up and smiled, revealing a set of braces (which made her look a little bit more young and immature). Immediately a shiver went through Adrian. Whatever was about this girl was somewhat dark.

"Hi, Adrian," she said.

Adrian was at a loss for words.

Something about this girl's voice is familiar, but I can't put my finger on it.

The girl tossed her hair, which was a much less impressive feat than something Willowe would do. It was more of a casual toss.

"Well, then, to business."

She breathed once, and grinned.

"I'm Aster's author."

-

The author was clearly nothing like Aster.

Except for her voice, which was slightly leaning towards her character's (although that was to be expected), her face was completely different, she lacked Aster's minor Japanese accent, and to top it all off, instead of the lighthearted air that Aster gave off, this author had a strange, dark aura around her.

"You'll have to forgive me for making Aster such an idiot," said the author. "Well, I could have made her a little more normal, but I did have to take drastic measures."

"Drastic measures?"

The author giggled a little, which didn't help the dark feeling.

"I've had several characters connect me with the fictional world. I never had any desire to go there myself, except now, although right now's a big exception. Let's see, Aster is my…" She counted on her fingers. "Aster is my fourth attempt."

Adrian gaped. "Fourth?"

The author nodded. "All of them were fae, so I suppose that was something not to avoid. Each of them was also the most powerful fae in some region. But Aster was the first to have a personality to precisely balance out whatever power she had…"

She pulled her hair back behind her ears.

"Now," said the author, "I have some things to tell you. It's about the Lieutenant."

-

After Aster's author finished off her talk, she nodded to Adrian and walked away. Then she stopped and said, "Please don't mention this to anyone… except Natasha Marquand, because I have a feeling you're gonna tell her anyway."

The way she said Natasha Marquand darkened the name itself.

"Well," she said, "please put the information I gave you to use."

As she continued walking, Adrian said, "Wait."

She stopped.

"I was wondering," said Adrian, "but what's your real name?"

The author turned around, grinning.

"Classified information."

-

The next day, Aster walked up to Adrian, looking hyper.

"Adrianくん, has the next chapter of Bleach been released yet?"

Adrian gestured towards the manga shelf, and Aster ran over.

"Hey," said Tash, stroking Adrian's ears.

Adrian looked around nervously, then pulled Tash into her office. "Make sure nobody's listening. We have something to talk about."

-

"The Lieutenant," said the author, "is not a name but a position. The original Lieutenant Mary Sue died years ago at the hands of her own author. A tragic, honorable death that was actually used to prevent her from getting worse. But Sues name themselves after her, and the most powerful Sue - their leader - is given the title of 'Lieutenant'."

She took a deep breath and talked again.

"When the Lieutenant passes on her power and title to the next Sue, the power is added onto the next one. So you would imagine there to be a huge accumulation in power...It's gotten so bad that the Lieutenant's power exceeds any bindings put on her by the Society..."

Suddenly things didn't look so good to Adrian.

"Please understand, this is an important matter. Since Willowe's incarceration - well, Willowe was the most powerful Sue around. She was next in line to be the next Lieutenant, but you somewhat intervened in that." The author smiled. "I thank you for that, but you've only delayed the problem. The Lieutenant can't pass her power on to Willowe, but she can pass it on to the next most powerful Sue."

She leaned closer. "And I'm sure you know who the next most powerful Sue is."

Adrian shook his head in confusion...

Then he got it.

This isn't good... he thought.

Aster's author nodded.

"Think about it. Years and years of Sue power accumulated... added to the amount of power owned by *her*..."

And the author pulled out two small pendants. They weren't much; they just consisted of a gold flat disk on a string.

"The Lieutenant is incredibly powerful. She can invade your head and erase all your memories of who you are or what you're doing. Yes, even with your Librarian abilities. These things won't take her ability to manipulate space and time, but at least she can't do anything to you psychologically. Which, of course, is an improvement."

"Wait," said Adrian. "You want us to go defeat her?"

The author ran her fingers through her hair.

"It's not a requirement. You don't have to do it. But just in case...I would go myself, but she's blocked me out of her presence and I can't even go within a ten-mile radius of her."

"Like a Sue restraining order..." said Adrian. Then he realized something. "Wait, why you specifically?"

The author looked at Adrian. Her face looked melancholy. "Do you really want to know?"


-


Tash fingered the gold disk. "Is this safe?"

"She's clearly an author, so I can't see why she'd try to kill us. And she gave us explicit and honest reasons as to why she wants us to help her. And for goodness's sake I wouldn't want *her* becoming the Lieutenant."
Tash and Adrian both slipped on the disks. Nothing visible happened.

"Well," said Tash, "which fandom is it?"

-

Aster's author was clearly avoiding the question as to why the Lieutenant was blocking specifically her out.

"The Lieutenant has to complete a long, elaborate, excruciatingly painful, and overly dramatic ceremony in order to transfer her power, which can come to our advantage. She has to prime her power in order to make it clearly visible so as to make the transfer easier. Her power is most visible in a place where all the characters are extremely powerful. Right now, she's in the Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch fandom. Probably posing as some extra mermaid about to join the team and eventually get crowned Aqua Regina or something. I've told the authors there are only seven seas, but do they ever listen?"

"I... see..." was all Adrian could say.


-


She was this beautiful mermaid that had somehow appeared with no explanation (although nobody really cared about that). She was the princess of some obscure sea that wasn't exactly well known and somehow wasn't part of the seven, but was a sea nevertheless...she was also the master of the Cerulean Pearl Voice (completely ignoring the fact that it would be quite difficult for a Japanese little girl to decipher what a shade of blue that didn't really fall into the category of "basic colors" existed).

Underwater, she had deep cerulean eyes and cerulean hair that extended far beyond even her own tail (yes, even longer than Hanon's) and when she turned into the Cerulean Pearl Voice her hair went past her legs (and yet somehow she managed not to step on it). When she sang, this melodious chorus that invoked the depths of the deep ocean's purity arose out of her mouth.

However, her human form was far different from her mermaid form, which was why it had taken a long time for the others to find her. Her appearance contrasted starkly, more so than Lucia's mermaid and human forms, as her hair was still long but was curly in huge ringlets, but was somewhere of a mixture of brown and black. Her eyes were a creamy milk chocolate that shouted all that was good and full of justice at you.

How could this image of perfection have something wrong with her?

Ah, yes...

She was short.

More than a full head shorter than Lucia.

Of course, nobody took this at face value and decided that she was small and packed a big punch, sort of like a feistier version of Seira.

The new mermaid had miraculously managed to save Gakuto and Sara from the abyss of the deep (and Gakuto didn't have to possess Kaito anymore). Gakuto quickly found out that he didn't love Sara, he loved this new mermaid, thus allowing Sara to be with Taro Mitsuki. The new mermaid was also the new Aqua Regina (while it was evident someone up there was avoiding the fact that Lucia was suppsed to be the next Aqua Regina). The new mermaid also helped further Hanon's relationship with Nagisa and Rina's relationship with Masahiro. She even brought Yuri back from the ocean and permanently turned her into a girl so she could be with Hippo forever.

So, yes, the Sue of total perfection and wonderfulness (is that even a word?), the Lieutenant Mary-Sue herself had intervened...

Her name, which was totally not Japanese at all (but then, "Lucia"'s not very Japanese either), was...

-

"You still haven't explained why she specifically targets you."

The author looked pained.

"The current Lieutenant is my own creation. My second attempt at a connection with the physical world. A total self-insert. Out of control, with far too much power as a fae... Cassie Anora."


-


Nanami Lucia and the other mermaids were talking gleefully at Pearl Baths.

"Oh, it's no problem, Lucia-chan," said Cassie. "I'm sure Kaito will love the present I gave you for him."

"Maybe after you're gone!"

The eight mermaids wheeled around to see an angry Tash and Adrian.

"Well," said Tash, "that's the Lieutenant? I thought she'd be taller."

"Don't complain," said Adrian. "At least she doesn't have the Barbie figure."

Cassie stood up and pointed a finger at the two.

"Those are suiyo! They're here to kill us!"

Hearing Cassie's flawless logic, the other mermaids gasped and transformed into their Pearl Voice forms...

...which was an excruciatingly long and painful-to-watch magical girl transformation, by the end of which Tash and Adrian had already pinned Cassie down.

"There's the birthmark," said Tash, pointing to a small dot on the left tip of Cassie's forehead, which had previously been covered by hair. "This is the Lieutenant herself all right. I was expecting more formal attire."

The Lieutenant growled and suddenly there was a large explosion. When Tash and Adrian regained their senses, they were alone in a strange hall with the Lieutenant.

The Lieutenant was wearing black robes. She had a strange circlet on her head (much like Aster's, except it had a strange flower shape instead of a moon. All four wings had expanded, although they were rounder and more kid-drawn than Aster's. Also, she clearly wasn't drawn for anime, as she looked shockingly beautiful but didn't have those goggly eyes.

"So," said the Lieutenant.

Tash decided to say something real smart like, "Where are we?"

The Lieutenant giggled (in her very melodious way).

"A Panthalassa castle. Sara and Gakuto were supposed to have sealed it, but I can do more than just normal mermaid things, you know." She giggled again.

And the Lieutenant raised her arms.

Immediately ice started to crawl onto Tash and Adrian's legs, binding them to the ground. Tash, however, was faster, and pulled out her staff. The ice glowed and melted upon sensing the staff's presence.

The Lieutenant frowned.

"Looks like my author's smarter than I thought. Fire - my weakness. I'll have to subvert that."

-

"You?" said Adrian, shocked. "You created the Lieutenant?"

"Oh, not the position. There have been thousands of Lieutenants before Cassie, each more powerful than the last. I meant to lock Cassie up in the Vault of Abandoned Ideas, but she escaped. I can't even edit my story like Harriet Marlow did with Willowe - like the idiot I was, I sent my stories to all my friends..."

Then the author stared straight into Adrian, sending shivers down his spine.

"This is extremely important. If we can stop the transfer of power from happening, *she* won't have to get all the accumulated power. We don't have much time. Cassie is on the hunt for my head - and more importantly, Aster's..."

"Librarian Art 5: A Through Z!"

Twenty-six encyclopedias pummeled the Lieutenant. At least, attempted to pummel the Lieutenant - she just flew up and dodged them. Which, of course, was supposed to be impossible.

"Juari-Ken - Tairenso!"

Tash spun forward in a tornado of flames, but the Lieutenant swooped downwards and guided up her arms. Water flooded anywhere possible, eventually leaving a wet and spluttering Tash.

"I have skills of my own, too," said the Lieutenant, and raised her arm. "Even at twelve years old!"

"You're fifteen?"

The Lieutenant rolled her eyes. "Please. Let's not go there. Yes, I am fifteen, but it's been three years since my creation so technically I'm eighteen, but being the Lieutenant requires eternal fifteen-year-old-ness."

Aster's younger, thought Adrian. Younger in years, at least. More naïve. More realistic.

The Lieutenant raised a finger to the sky.

"Reset!"

And for Tash and Adrian, everything went black.

-

Adrian couldn't comprehend anything.

Who am I? What am I doing?

Then slowly it jarred and things slowly came back to him. I'm Adrian. I'm a Counter Guardian. I'm the Librarian. I have to save people. I'm a Society Agent, and I have to get rid of this girl. And I can't let Tash get hurt.

Adrian realized the blackness was because his eyes were closed. He opened them. They were in the same positions as before - it must have been only a few seconds.

"Well, then," said the Lieutenant. "Since I've wiped your memories, how about you come with me? Self-Inserts make great Sues."

Adrian looked at Tash. Tash was looking very vacant.

"Yes, Lieutenant," she said.

The Lieutenant smirked, and Adrian panicked. Then Tash looked at Adrian and winked.

Of course, thought Adrian. Tash is stalling. It must have been those gold pendants that saved us. But it would probably be best if we pretended the Reset worked.

"Yes, Lieutenant," followed Adrian.

"Good," said the Lieutenant. "Follow me. We'll start with Lucia and the others."

As the Lieutenant started to leave, Tash raised her staff, looked at Adrian, and -

"Juari-Ken - Shinanori!"

"Librarian Secret Art: BOOT TO THE HEAD!"

The Lieutenant turned around, but it was too late. The flames had reached her face, along with Adrian's foot.
But when everything resurfaced, the Lieutenant was unscathed and boot-print-less.

-

"Think about it," said the Lieutenant, advancing slowly on a petrified Tash and Adrian. "Sues may not bring fandoms to the best sort of state, but they have to do it. It's in their nature. They're forced to by their author, or they face total and utter destruction by the author's own hands. In a sense, they have no choice. And yet you come and whisk them off and stuff them in a lonely dungeon. You people just have the incapacity to think logically. Must you always go the violent route?"

Neither Agent could respond. The Lieutenant was pretty damn smart.

"You see? Being a self-insert made to capture Sues... it's against the laws of nature. You're torturing Sues just for doing what they have to..."

Finally Tash found the courage to fight.

"Juari-Ken..."

The Lieutenant did not expect this attack against her flawless logic.

"Shinanori!"

The flame hit the Lieutenant straight in the face. Tash noticed there was a black mark on her face now. She hadn't had the time to defend herself.

The Lieutenant rubbed the black mark. "Damn it..."

Adrian did not miss this chance.

"Librarian Art 5: A Through Z!"

The encyclopedias raced at the Lieutenant again, who collapsed.

"Things don't always work on logic," said Adrian. "Life doesn't always make sense. And besides, we do offer parole..."

He walked up to the Lieutenant.

"And there are people like Emily."

Adrian pointed his sword, Hoshikuzu, at the Lieutenant.

"What are you going to do?" she said, still smiling. "Kill me?"

"No," said Adrian. He reached into his trenchcoat and pulled out a Prohibitor.

The Lieutenant gave a mirthless laugh.

"My power exceeds Society bounds. You should know that."

"You would think," said Adrian, "but your plan has backfired."

-

"So what do you want to do with her?" said Adrian. "Kill her?"

"Heavens no," said the author. "That's cruel. I instead want you to use this."

Aster's author gave Adrian a Prohibitor.

"It has an Author's Blessing on it," said the author. "Even after becoming the Lieutenant, Cassie still has bounds to her author. Anything with an Author's Blessing on it will affect without fail that particular author's character."


-


Adrian clamped the Blessed Prohibitor on the Lieutenant's wrist.

Cassie screamed (since when did Sues scream?) and suddenly there was a huge flash of light, along with a huge earthquake that caused Adrian and Tash to duck.

"Sorry about that," said a voice when everything subsided. "Thousands of years of power accumulation suddenly dissipating into nothing - that can't exactly be something small."

The three of them turned to see Aster's - and Cassie's - author.

"You," growled Cassie.

"Me," said the author. "Long time no see. That restraining order was tough. But I'm taller than you now, which is a plus."

Cassie growled again.

"Short hair," she said, "and braces. How could you?"

"Oh, that's recent," said the author. "It'll go away soon."

She then turned to Tash and Adrian. "I can't thank you enough. She's been plaguing me for years."

"Now that they've lost their leader," said Adrian, "will the Sue system crumble?"

"Oh, no," said Aster's author. "They'll probably reinstate a new leader. Who knows, they might even make a new form of government - Parliament or something. Hopefully they'll get rid of that stupid 'Lieutenant' title. But at least you stopped the transfer and accumulation."

Not that it made Adrian feel better.

"I can't thank you enough," said the author. "It's been a hard way through all this. And I do hope Aster fares well. I think even her experiences with you have made her less Sue-ish. And ever since I renounced fangirlism and self-insertation six months ago - "

Adrian suddenly realized why the author gave out such a dark aura: she had renounced making others happy because of her, and it had gone too far. But it was better than her being a Sue.

" - and I do hope Aster comes to be my last attempt. But who knows. I used to think I'd have Cassie forever..."

Cassie growled again.

"Stop growling," said the author. "It makes you feral. Anyway, I'd like to tell you something important about Aster."

"What?" said Tash.

"She may seem like an idiot, but there is always compensation. Aster doesn't know this herself, but she subconsciously registers certain people as the ones she will follow. Chrys - her best friend since childhood. Akai - she owes a life debt to her. And... you two."

"Us?"

"Yes, you," said the author.

"But Hati's the leader - "

"It doesn't matter. In Aster's mind, you two are her leaders. She won't listen to you when you try to pull her off manga or prevent her from breaking the fourth wall. But in anything that's not a laughing matter, even if she has to cast away her morals, she will listen to any order you give her without fail."

"I remember when the fake Tash lured Aster into the Death Note fandom, Aster took that order to heart," said Adrian.

"Exactly. It doesn't matter what she wants...Even if it means killing another Society member, or her friend, or getting between a Society Agent and a Sue, as long as one of you has given the order, she will act on it. However, this is dangerous. If the order is given, she will use any means to get it done, and the only person who can revoke that order is the person who has given it."

The author nodded at the two.

"Thank you for helping me, again, and good luck. I wish you well. If you ever see me again, it'll be for something this serious."

"Wait!" said Cassie as the author walked away. "Please... please help me..."

The author looked at Cassie. She wasn't happy.

"I gave you so many chances," she said.

-

After Cassie had been locked in the basement, the Prohibitor now glued to her skin, Adrian and Tash walked upstairs.

Soon, they heard a large BOOM. Adrian at first thought it was Aster breaking the fourth wall again, but there was another large BOOM, and more, as it repeated in succession.

Adrian eventually found the source: Aster and Emily were in the game room, and Aster was chopping what seemed to be a large piece of wood. There were panels around the two, apparently DDR panels.

"What's going on?"

"Ah," said Aster. "We want to install a DDR here, but it's so big it might fall over. So Emilyちゃん is helping me cut the wood to stabilize it."

"I see..."

Emily held the wood down, and Aster pulled out her moon staff (which Adrian had just realized Aster was holding without being in her fae form) and slammed it downwards. An arc of white energy expended from it, slicing the wood more neatly than any chainsaw would and shaking the room with a BOOM.

Aster wiped her forehad. "I think that's good, kyaa~"

Emily nodded and set up the DDR around the wood. Aster turned to Adrian. "Ah well. It would have been nicer if we could have done this in my room, but I had no space. But then, it would've been nicer if Ichigo got together with Orihime and if Nelliel was allowed to stay in her adult form. But you can't have everything in life, しょで?"

Aster helped Emily set up the DDR, and Adrian walked away, thinking, How true.

Then, Kate burst in.

"Aster! Emily! Adrian! You have to see this!"

Kate led the three downstairs to the computer, where the other Agents were standing.

"It's been over a week since we searched, and we found nothing...I don't know what happened! All of a sudden - Kyle's signal is back!"

---

"So we have a new leader?"

"Yeah. The old one's incarcerated."

"Hm."

"The new one seems smarter. More intelligent. The old one was more powerful, but the new one certainly knows what she's doing. She's not planning to do an all out attack. She's using a strategy involving a missing Agent and hopes to bring the other Agents in. Particularly one she's quite keen on killing for some reason."

"Interesting. How long do you think she'll stay leader?"

"Probably longer than the old one."

"I hope so."