"Anybody else up for a threesome?"

Oh.

Oh.

That was the only word that Neptune could process, now that she was finally able to take in the actual sight of Blanc's transformation properly. She could still feel the lingering effects of being violated by Blanc's ascension to this form — or maybe it had just marked her, like a predator marking its prey.

And just like a piece of meat, only able to lie in wait as jaws began to descend onto it, Neptune couldn't help but stop to take in Blanc for all she had to offer.

Just like with Ram, everything was uncomfortably pointed and sharp looking and pushing way too hard on otherwise bare, cruelly beautiful bronze flesh — but that was where the resemblances started to run out. Where Neptune would have expected short blue hair, instead she found a flowing, vibrant red mane going past her hips — fitting for such a self-centered person like this Blanc, she told herself, trying to pull herself away from staring, from being sucked in, with her trademark attitude.

"Hmmm? Could it be you like what you see, 'Neptune'?" Her voice sounded wrong — and worse than that, Neptune's chilled, awestruck expression seemed to feed her ego. Her victory seemingly assured now, surely able to strike them both down in a moment, Blanc seemed to be enjoying herself as she ate and devoured the expression on Neptune's face as she involuntarily continued to take in White Void's form. "That's it. See what a real goddess looks like. I'll let you correct your misunderstanding before I teach you what a goddess feels like. Go on."

Her arms outstretched, White Void floated just a bit closer. Neptune flinched — yet she was also paralyzed. After all, she could see what White Void looked like even more clearly now.

Covering her torso, if it could be called "covering," was a series of metal blades seeming to rip out of Blanc's chest, taking the shape of ribs — the rest was least, Neptune hoped that was all it was — if she had gone so far as to rip her bones out and put them on the outside like that... Truth be told, Neptune wouldn't put it past her at this point. Keeping her important areas safe was even more metallic nightmares, these pieces wrapping around from her backside, where it seemed Blanc had sprouted jagged, skeletal wings and a pointed tail. If she had to guess, Neptune was pretty sure there would be a shiny, spiky, spine decorating Blanc's back to match the ribs just barely covering her front.

Her arms and legs were covered, no, they had actually become jagged, sharpened, and metallic in their entirety, all the way to her shoulders and upper thighs, where they slowly tapered off. No boots or gloves here. Neptune could most definitely say these were straight up claws and talons now.

Somewhere deep down, where the world was still just sunshine and video games, the sarcastic part of Neptune wondered if this was transformation was only so flashy because her favorite dragon was too big to get into fighting games — but even that part of Neptune was quiet now, unable to vocalize a wisecrack that should have left her lips so naturally. If only the real world Neptune found herself in now was still able to be full of such sunshine and wonder, and her biggest problems were only as big as a cat that couldn't find his pet frog.

For lastly... No, not lastly.

She couldn't finish.

It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Neptune couldn't look Blanc in the eye long enough to make the comparison. She could see White Void's lips curving enough to know Blanc was realizing it too.

Neptune bit the inside of her lip. She was so... ashamed of herself.

It was still Blanc for sure, but... It was scary. Neptune wouldn't be able to recognize her if she hadn't already been used to how Blanc looked here. Would Vert and Noire be the same? Even Ram wasn't this...

Blanc continued floating towards them. Slowly. Like a shark, circling its prey. Arfoire was on her guard — was she preparing to do something stupid, like sacrifice herself? Or did she have something else in mind? Whatever it was, Neptune knew she still had some tricks up her sleeve-

Didn't she?

Neptune wasn't sure.

"Soooo... Boy... A threesome? I dunno, hahaha... I'm saving myself for marriage, you know? Gotta keep myself pure for my fans, ehehe... My fan club back home's got all kinds of ideas for how that's gonna go down, so I can't let 'em down, you know...? You should see what they write about me and send to my Basilicom, a...ahaha..." Neptune swallowed nervously between forced laughter. She was trying to distract herself. Joke around and she'd be okay. That was just how she was. Sure, Blanc wasn't radiating any kind of Super Duper Spooky CPU Aura right now, but her knees buckled at the thought of coming into contact with... whatever that had been that had gotten her earlier.

Against her will, Neptune brought her hands up to rub the sides of her arms just from the vague memory she had of what being close to Blanc had done to her. The closer Blanc seemed, the more horrible she started to feel. Her body was crying, from her skin to the insides of her tummy. She had never been so scared. She was certain of it — it wasn't something she could name about Blanc that did it.

It was simply that Blanc was here at all that made her body scream from the inside out.

"Think about it this way," White Void's tone was layered with a venomous honey that threatened to draw Neptune straight in. Was this how people believed in her? Was this how CPUs here got their faith — manually, by ripping it straight out from the source? "This just means you were saving yourself your whole life all for this moment, so you could be with me. You should be happy everything worked out the way it was meant to. Aren't you happy, 'Neptune'?"

Neptune shivered. Why did she have to keep talking? Stop it. Stopppp.

Her body was crying out. Her heart was crying out. Everything was crying out.

Run away. Forget about Arfoire. Find a way home. Give Nepgear a hug. Get a hug. Forever. Hugs forever.

Neptune held her arms even tighter. She knew White Void was watching her every move. She wanted Neptune to feel paralyzed, so she could savor the moment she descended down and began her feast — and she wanted Neptune to try to run away, so she could lash out and clamp down her fangs.

Instead of giving in to either of those things, Neptune pinched the sides of her arms. She couldn't let her last moments be like this, could she...?!

Get it together, girl!

It was a real shame that, as anyone with even one eye could see, Neptune most certainly did not seem to have it together. This was especially clear to Arfoire now, and she didn't like it one bit.

Since she'd seen the goddess arrive, Arfoire had had just about every muscle she knew how to tensed and ready. Blanc hadn't made a move yet. It was probably just that Blanc knew that this was it this time. That was the only reason Arfoire could come up with as to why Blanc wasn't just finishing them off now, and simply floating around them like this. Thankfully, that gave Arfoire some time, and she fully intended to use every second of it.

Unfortunately, as Arfoire kept glancing back to Neptune, she was starting to worry they were out of trump cards. She had known this going in... Damn it, she had known this, but...!

No, it didn't matter now. What mattered now was now. And right now, Neptune was a fucking wreck. Gone was the girl that was cracking jokes in the face of the girl that had been talking about killing her sisters, and gone was the girl who had grinned in the face of what seemed like her own death just a short while ago.

Arfoire wished she could understand. She wished she could help. She deck the kid in the face herself if it would snap her out of it!

What the hell had happened while she had been gone? Arfoire couldn't even imagine... well, maybe she could, but not to the point that whatever had happened had left Neptune without injury — and physically, Neptune looked fine. Some cuts and scrapes, but for crying out loud, the kid had been impaled and had taken that better than she was taking this!

"Kid- Neptune." Accepting the fact that the ball was in her court, Arfoire knew she had to do something before Blanc did. She knew she had thought this plenty of times already today, and perhaps she'd used them all up, but... she knew she would only have one chance at this. "Listen. Snap out of whatever the hell funk you're in, alright? We're not dead yet. We're not dead yet. Alright?"

Had she repeated that for her own sake? Didn't matter, she supposed. Arfoire turned away from the smaller CPU, giving Blanc a wry smile. It had been a long time since she'd seen that ugly mug. She'd really been hoping they would be able to make it out of here without having to, too. Tough luck, huh?

Taking a step forward, then another, and then one more still, Arfoire held up her staff. She'd wake Neptune up one way or another. She was getting this kid home. She'd decided on that much.

"How about we put off the threeway for a bit so you and I can go another round?" Arfoire offered through her own fear and regrets. Taking a stab in the dark, stabbing straight through the darkness that had held her back for so long, she stepped forward. "For old time's sake?"

"And let you cut ahead in line? Are you that eager to have a taste of me, Arfoire? Soaked as soon as you see my naked body like this again?" White Void laughed. It wasn't at all a good feeling, watching that, hearing that. What a creature, this White Void. "You're a regular bar whore, aren't you? I like that... I really do..." Her voice becoming almost gentle, White Void trailed off. You could almost think her a goddess then. For just a moment, as she looked into White Void's eyes, Arfoire wondered if this was what Neptune had been feeling all this time. "... but I don't like you thinking you can order me around."

Then Blanc pulled her newly bloodied claws out of Arfoire's stomach and watched in delight as the farmer crumpled to the ground.

...

...

...

...

Neptune shook violently. Unable to fall to her knees, nor run to Arfoire's aid, she could only rock back and forth, frozen in place.

That was supposed to be when the scene broke. When it turned out someone was just imagining how this could go. When it turned out everyone was still okay. When it turned out there was still a chance. When something dramatic and amazing happened to fix everything!

Why wasn't that happening?

Where was her amazing, friendship-powered power up she got at the last minute, granted from out of nowhere so that she could save everyone?

She wasn't really going to find out that she'd wake up in Arfoire's bed again if she got killed right now, was she...?

Why wasn't anything going right...?!

"Wh... What did you..." Neptune couldn't breathe. Watching it happen to her was one thing, but-

Arfy?

"What?" The "goddess" before Neptune didn't seem phased. She was licking the blood off of her claws like she had just finished some candy, and a little had melted onto her fingers — not like that was something from inside of Arfoire's body she was licking off of herself. "I told her, didn't I? No cutting. It's only right I show her what she did wrong."

White Void cast a look down at Arfoire. That kind of wound wouldn't kill her. No, it couldn't — Blanc didn't want it to. She wanted to make sure Arfoire was able to watch what she would do to her precious little "Neptune" as she slowly let her juices out all over from the bedside that was this little slice of heaven in the road.

This was better. This was how things were supposed to go for her.

It didn't matter that she couldn't get close to "Neptune" without feeling unpleasant all over. It was no longer an issue that she had had to keep her distance from this problem ever since she had finally tracked it down again. One look at the terrified face, one wonderful, sensual drink of this scene before her told her everything she needed to know — that this was over. White Void could take care of her from a distance and be done with it — she could even bear the feelings "Neptune" brought up long enough to enjoy herself if she wanted.

For "Neptune" was just standing there, watching Arfoire slowly, slowly, ever so slowly bleed to death.

Closing her eyes, it was White Void's body that shook momentarily. The sight of Neptune like that, real or no... No, the sight of this girl specifically, this girl whose name no longer mattered to anyone in the world... After how much they'd played together... It just about made her eyes roll back into her head, knowing what she was about to do. Their game of cat and mouse had been a delight, but it could only last so long. The ending had been determined from the very beginning, as it were.

Even now, all the poor little thing could do was watch — watch and tremble. Was she in shock?

Blanc smiled a brilliant smile. A smile she was sure could make the sun come out on even the rainiest day — and then make the clouds cover it once again, for the sun, her property though it may have been, would feel ashamed to dare show itself in the presence of such a smile.

She approached. She had held back from pouncing at first, but with her audience on a timer, she could hold back no longer. The irritating, blinding feeling the girl now radiated towards her was an annoyance, increasing more and more as she got closer, but-

"Gh...! Nngh!"

White Void licked her lips. Her sharp tail thrashed, perhaps in excitement, smacking the ground violently.

She had her prey by the neck. Even now, her claws were slowly sinking into the tender flesh of this false goddess' neck. Whatever spell had been placed on her, it seemed she — the goddess — could withstand this much of it. Conquering it as she conquered this girl would make her conquest all the sweeter.

Squeezing just a little tighter, White Void found all the more pleasure in the noises she was drawing out of the creature in her grasp. How delightful. Only she could appreciate the world's beauties like this. She'd be quieting the girl down with her tail in just a moment, but first... A change of scenery was in order. She wanted to do this right.

Barely able to grasp the situation, Neptune was doing her best merely gasping for breath. Taking in whatever she could. As much as she could. Blanc clearly had experience in this kind of cruelty — she must have known that if she squeezed too hard, Neptune wouldn't have a head to hold onto in the first place. Was that how she would meet her end?

She trembled at the thought, and could only find thanks in the fact that Nepgear would never see such a thing — that, and guilt for what she was forcing Arfy to have to watch down on the ground.

... Down on the...

The goddess was shaking more than ever as she realized Blanc had slowly lifted them into the air. Her arms held up to her sides. This was the end. Neptune knew it to be so, and that knowledge made her shake all the more. It was like the whole world was shaking now. It was like

BOOM

White Void faltered. She opened her hands, those horrible claws, and let Neptune fall. She snapped her head around to look for the source of the explosion, and as she did, Neptune fell down and down and down to the ground, leaving her to choke and gasp and try to catch her breath.

Blanc didn't even seem to care her prey had gotten away now. Was Neptune's death already so assured to her? Or was the source of the explosion so distracting...?

"What is she..." White Void's voice came in the form of a growl — a growl even Neptune could here. Her gaze was firmly set to the sky now, and it truly did seem like, for at least the moment, she was distracted.

Feeling numb, desperate for her body to respond, all Neptune could do was look in the same direction as she tried to breathe and slowly crawl towards Arfoire with one arm as she held her other hand over cuts in her neck. But even in this situation, Neptune couldn't believe what she saw there in the sky.

Flying high up above them was an airship — just like one of the ones that had flown through Lowee the night before. Just like one of the ones that had been broadcasting Noire's message to the world.

Neptune decided to thank this world's Noire, for just the moment at least, because she had caught Blanc off guard with whatever was happening. As White Void looked up into the sky, thinking or cursing who knew what all the while, Neptune finished making her way over to Arfoire.

It was going to be okay now. Neptune didn't know what would happen to her, but she could see Arfoire was still alive.

Blinking through happy, relieved tears, Neptune managed to pull one of the healing items Arfoire had gotten for her out of her inventory. Blanc's lunacy had saved the day. She'd prioritized keeping Arfoire down over keeping her dead. It really wasn't a horrible wound.

"You... You really scared me there, Arfy..." Through her coughs, Neptune opened up the item and rolled Arfoire over. All she had to do was apply it, and then everything would be okay! "I don't know what's going on, but-"

The next thing Neptune knew, something thick and way too tentacle-like had wrapped itself around her torso, then her neck, and forcefully yanked her away before she could apply the item.

When was this kind of thing going to just stop?! When she died?! After another dozen chapters?! It was getting old!

Hovering just behind where she had been a moment ago, Neptune found herself being lifted into the air by White Void once again — this time, however, by her tail.

"Oh, you saucy little... Did you really think I was going to let you do that?" White Void held up her arms, managing the classic "can't be helped" posture even with her horrible, horrible form. Her expression was filled with delight and amusement. It was as if she had dropped Neptune in the first place simply because she was hoping from the start for this outcome. Perhaps she really had. Even now as she spoke, the end of her tail, wrapped clean around Neptune's throat, was tracing its tender way around Neptune's mouth, like it was playing with her lips. "What am I going to do with you now?"

Neptune was too scared — in too many ways — to open her mouth to even attempt an answer.

If someone was going to come to her rescue, she was pretty sure they had about two seconds to do it.

As it just so happened, the hurried footsteps that followed the passing of just the next second might just have been what the Nep-Nep ordered.

"Bla- Lady White Void!" Quickly correcting herself when she realized what form her goddess had taken since she had last seen her, Mina Nishizawa stumbled over seemingly nothing as she took in the situation. In stark contrast to her slovenly appearance, the woman sounded fairly panicked — perhaps it had something to do with the injuries she was sporting on her face and arms? "We- Shit, don't have time to- Look, just- Can you go take out that ship? Like, right the fuck now? You can still catch up if you blast off right this second. We can't have them hitting Lastation's territory with what they've got."

Really? As if this would stop White Void from finally enjoying her meal.

"Why should I?" Shaking her head, the goddess turned back to her playmate. Her tail began to wriggle its way between the purple haired girl's defiant lips. Cloudy eyes misted over with emotions all only for herself, White Void — in her own little world — lifted up a claw to run a hand through that purple head of hair. Maybe she'd get the girl stuffed and keep her in her bedroom. "I've told you not to interrupt me, and this has been interrupted more than-"

"They've got both of the brats on there right now."

It was obvious that the goddess must not have been expecting that. How could she? After all, one of those brats wasn't even supposed to be in the country right now. Her clawed hands fell slack at her sides, and her tail's grip on Neptune lessened considerably — enough so that Neptune slipped right through it and tell to the ground once again.

All the while, White Void could only give Mina a blank look. She clearly had no idea how to process this.

Her arms still lowered to her sides, White Void started floating towards her Oracle. Slowly — calmly. It seemed like she was going to take Mina's words to heart. About time this CPU started acting like one. Maybe she was more sensible in this form? Whatever the case was... It made Neptune feel so much better. Really, a lot better. Just being away from White Void was such a relief. She had been worried the last thing she would ever taste would be Blanc!

From her position off here to the side, Neptune felt like she could breathe again. White Void wasn't looking at her anymore, and she was moving further away. Her focus was off Neptune, she was away from Neptune- Nothing was on Neptune anymore, and her body felt thrilled with that information, no matter how little sense it made. But it was true. The further Blanc moved away, even though she was still in sight, the more Neptune felt herself begin to be filled with warmth — warmth with was quickly replaced with frosty worry. It was as though every inch closer to Mina White Void moved, the skill for Maybe I Should Be Screaming And Running To Arfoire's Side was rapidly leveling up.

... or at least it was, right up until White Void grabbed her Oracle by the collar, nearly tearing her filthy clothes off with her steely claws in the process.

"So? You do see that I'm busy, don't you?"

Frosty worry got traded out for hot anger almost instantly.

"L-Listen, Lady White Void, um..."

An icy hand gripped Neptune's heart. A cold reminder of how utterly helpless she was — of how gripped by fear she had been up to now.

It was a hand hosed down with the cold truth of reality.

Because really... What could she do? What did it matter that White Void had moved away, that she was starting to feel better, that she was angry?

It had been proven how helpless she was.

It had been proven again and again and again that they were in completely different worlds.

Neptune knew was severely handicapped on top of that. And so she realized if she wanted to survive this — and if she wanted the twins to survive this — she had to stifle her anger. Her rekindled anger towards White Void for not caring about her sisters. Her renewed anger towards this world, right back where it should have been-

And most of all- Her anger towards herself, for letting all of this happen in the first place. For letting White Void do this to her.

You know what? She might not have had any amazing transformations up her sleeve. She might not have had some super special moves left. She might not have gotten a friendship power up.

But darn it all, did she or did she not still have the mouthiest mouth that ever did mouth?

Was that not why she was such a beloved main character or what?!

If that wasn't a worthwhile final weapon, she was better off biting it here and now!

"Not that it matters to me..." she began to drawl from behind, her confident, hoarse voice catching the attention of both Oracle and goddess alike. "But if I were a citizen here, I'd sure be questioning my priorities right now, ya know? My goddess just tore the whole place up, and now she's more concerned with playing with some helpless dummy that obviously never stood a chance in the first place than she is bringing back important resources? After how smoothly Lastation pulled this off, they'd be looking preeeetty appealing right now... Well they would if I were a citizen here, anyway."

The pair did not seem to know how to take it at first. Mina hadn't even seemed to have recognized Neptune as a person until just this moment.

White Void dropped Mina on the ground — or to be more accurate, she stopped caring about Mina so instantly that she ripped through Mina's clothes as she turned away, which led to her falling to the ground — and moved back to Neptune to grab her by her collar.

"You know what?"

White Void pulled Neptune closer. Their faces were only centimeters apart.

"You're right. You're absolutely right."

White Void began to smile. Neptune could feel White Void's breath on her skin. Neptune could feel those disgusting feelings begin to return, but she fought — she fought with all she had left — not to give in and cower in the face of them again.

"I think I'll let you live, Neptune. Maybe I'll keep you around and break you on the inside instead of the outside. I never thought myself to be the pet keeping type like Noire, but you might have convinced me."

Neptune swallowed.

She decided it would be for the best not to think about any of the things Blanc had just said to her and instead just focus on not giving in to all the horrible feelings that Blanc's proximity brought on in her. So Neptune closed her eyes and, teeth clenched tight to keep the bile back, smiled defiantly right in Blanc's stupid face.

"Yes, just like that. Keep it up. And as for you..." The demon of a goddess turned to her Oracle, her elation growing by the minute. "You better hope you can get your act together soon, Mina." Laughing happily, White Void began to float up into the air. "Else you can be my next decoration and I let her take your job instead...!"

With her laughter echoing behind her, just like that, White Void was gone — but the destruction she had left behind was most certainly not. For a moment, Neptune could only stare off in the direction that Blanc had gone in. As though she was waiting for her to come back. It had happened so many times now, it didn't seem real. Did they really have a genuine chance to go this time...? And was Blanc... Blanc actually going to take care of things and bring the twins back home where they belonged...?

Would they even be okay then?

"That was some good thinking, half-pint. Way to appeal to her ego there." Mina's voice brought Neptune back to reality. Now that Neptune got a good look at her, the CPU realized that this person was... probably not someone she wanted to tell anyone back home about. "Whew... I think I just about pissed myself. Hard to tell right now..."

Definitely not someone she wanted to tell anyone back home about indeed.

"Yeah, well, you're pissing me off, I can tell you that..." Sitting up, Arfoire let out a pained groan and began rubbing at her stomach. Pointedly glaring in Mina's direction, the former farmer continued. "I'm guessing we don't have time for small talk, but you better find a way to fill me in on just how this happened while we were out here getting our-Whoa! Calm down, would you?! I'm not dead! Calm down, I said! You're the one that dropped the item on me in the first place, you know!"

Faced with a choice between the city she'd need to deal with fixing over the next few weeks and a sparkling girl on girl hug, Mina sighed and turned away from the cavity-inducing sight before her. All's well that ends well, yadda yadda, can they hurry it up? They didn't exactly have all the time in the world on this one.

"Okay, listen, hate to break up your love fest over here, but you two?" Mina pointed at Arfoire with one hand and did the same with her other hand to Arfoire's miniature companion whose current position would undoubtedly have anyone who saw offering Arfoire a seat or two. "You two need to get the hell out of here."

"Huh?" Detaching herself from Arfoire, Neptune blinked up at the bespectacled slob that had somehow, against all the odds, managed to save her and Arfoire from this land's goddess. As much as she really wanted to take up that offer, in her heart, she knew that there was still things she had to do here — and with Blanc completely out of sight and Arfoire no longer a worry, Neptune was feeling like herself more and more with each passing moment. "But there's still Ram, and Rom, so I-"

Holding up her hands to silence what was almost her goddess' side dish, Mina shook her head.

"You didn't hear this from me, but see, she doesn't know this yet, but she won't be able to catch up with that ship." Mina crossed her arms and spat onto the ground. Friggin Lastation. Seriously. What had she done to deserve this? ... What had she done recently to deserve this? ... Besides getting a farm full of- Ugh, she needed a drink before she started thinking about this crap. "They've got a lot of backup. Even if she manages to rip through all of it, the ship with them on it will be able to get away in time. She's dumb, but she's not so braindead that she'd go into Lastation's turf over them. Turns out a whole bunch of Black Void's people were already here in Lowee."

"But-" Neptune couldn't believe it. So Blanc really might just give up her sisters to Lastation anyway? What was wrong with people here...?!

With the sensation of a tail brushing against her lips still fresh enough that she could almost still imagine it still being there, she supposed she had an answer, more or less.

"Is that where those injuries came from?" Sensing the potential for another argument, or at least a conversation far too long for their current time limit, Arfoire made a point to interrupt before it could begin. Looking Mina over, she definitely did look worse compared to when Arfoire had left her earlier. She almost felt guilty. Not to mention that if she had stayed, then maybe, somehow... "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well..." The Oracle scratched the back of her head. She wasn't able to meet Arfoire's eyes. She knew damn well what Arfoire was going to find once she got home, and she knew whose fault it was too. "Just lay low for a while. Don't go back to your happy time farm, send someone you trust to tell whoever's there to ditch the place and go somewhere else. She may have sounded all happy now, but once she comes back after not getting the twerps, she'll want something to take her mind off it, if you catch my drift."

Surprised, Arfoire found herself unable to respond. Either Mina was just that scared of what Blanc was going to do — maybe that threat she had overheard of Mina being replaced with Neptune carried more weight than Arfoire thought? — or maybe she had a heart in there after all.

For her part, Neptune, better as she was feeling, could only shudder at the implications Mina had let hang in the air. No thank you!

"Anyway, the point is she'll be distracted for a little while. Dunno what's gonna happen to the little shits, but if you want to do something about it, being here when she gets back ain't gonna help your cause any." The Oracle paused for a moment, recalling how happy Blanc seemed at the idea of keeping this "Neptune" around for herself. She had never considered what would happen if Blanc ever wanted someone else around in her life, considering how self-centered the goddess was... "Mine neither, for that matter."

Arfoire smiled wryly. So that was all it was. Well, that was Mina for you.

"She's right. Let's go, Neptune." Nodding in the general direction of the docks, Arfoire rose, dragging Neptune up with her. She hoped this kind of affection wasn't going to become a regular occurrence — after a hopefully one-time life-or-death situation, fine, she would allow it, but the brat better not push her luck. Feeling ready to go, Arfoire cast a look towards her old "friend" one more time. She did owe her, sort of, after all. Neptune must be rolling in her grave. "Mina, don't get yourself killed, alright?" After what seemed like a grunt from Mina in response, Arfoire looked down at her companion. "Can you walk? Are you ready?"

"I... guess..." Neptune didn't feel right about this. This wasn't how she left things. Could she really hold her head with pride if she left Lowee like this? Did she even have the right to do so? There was so much she still felt like she had to do, and more importantly, so much she felt like she had lost after this encounter with Blanc. Was this... okay? "But-!"

The blue haired woman sighed. Mina didn't like where this was going.

"Look, half-pint, do you not get it? The only 'but' here is what my good lady's gonna do with yours if-"

"Hey! Hey! This is a classy story, lady! Classy!" Feeling surprisingly indignant, considering her recent tail-filled adventures, Neptune was quick to interrupt this mad world's version of her old friend's Oracle. "That kind of humor's low, even for us!"

Mina simply quirked an eyebrow, as if to ask "Seriously?" to the girl.

Shaking her head at this pair's idiocy, Arfoire grabbed Neptune by the arm and began dragging her away. Did this girl never learn? Alas, she was not quick enough to stop Neptune from sticking out her tongue out from over her shoulder as they went along.

As the pair walked off, their pace brisk but comfortable in the company of the other, nursing their injuries bit by bit as they went, Mina finally stopped to take in what had just happened.

The hair and clothes were different, and the attitude was completely different, worlds apart even, but while her goddess may have been such an egomaniac that she'd buy into her own cooked up story about clones or impostors, as for Mina?

"Shit... So was that a zombie or what?"

There wasn't enough alcohol in the world for the Oracle to be able to wrap her head around that one.