"I feel like it's in the DNA of the universe to solve one problem but create another." -Daron Nefcy

"Aaaaah." Hekapoo let out a satisfied breath as she flopped back onto the couch. Her fiery drink raised to her lips, gulping the rest of it down in one fell swoop. Best pomegranate juice in the multiverse. Made great cocktails. Who, she pondered, was the brilliant mind that started serving drinks in coconuts? Just a touch of fire to the alcohol and she could enjoy a toasted snack after her drink.

Her legs crossed as she slumped into her seat. "Hey bartender!" she shouted across the tavern, pointing at her empty coconut. "Keep these coming, don't stop 'til I disappear." She took a crunchy bite out of the rim, then haphazardly tossed it onto the candlelit table in front of her. Finally, the last stage of her relaxation, crossing her hands behind her head. Her bright orange eyes briefly scanned the room.

Pool table was empty. Maybe if she was still here in five minutes she'd claim that cue and play a game. Plenty of other patrons, too. There was a definite mixture of relieved and indifferent expressions on everyone's faces after the queens had left. Good. They were really killing the atmosphere of this place. No Glossaryck to be seen, either. Not surprising.

Hekapoo shimmied her shoulders into the cushions and let her gaze rise to the ceiling. So, this was it. The end of H-poo. Plenty of worse ways to go, and in worse places. Alone, fully chilled out, listening to smooth parlor jazz with a gently murmuring crowd…

"Your beverage, miss." And a good drink. She said nothing, just slid a hand out for the waiter to place it in her open palm. Lazily her arm craned over, depositing the straw in her mouth to get in a few sips. Damn that juice was good.

Another relieved sigh left her lungs as she lowered the cup. She began to feel it right when her elbow hit the arm of the couch. Not the drink, it took way more than one to get her going. There was a slight tingling feeling spreading over her. Like the millions of tiny hands all scrawling evaporating letters onto her skin, carrying away flakes of her body as the ink dried.

Those queens sure worked fast. Although in all honesty, it was probably Marco who was doing all the heavy lifting. That kid could really fight. Not seeing him use the wand would probably end up being her only regret in life. Well, maybe a few others, but at least she made up for those. That said, she couldn't help but wonder what kinds of spells he'd be slinging out of that thing. Something like, super sparkle abs blast. No, that sounded dumb. Whatever. Not like he'd be using them again anyways.

She set her drink down to examine herself. Her fingers fanned out in front of her face, turning every which way so she could paint as clear a picture as possible. Yep, she was definitely disappearing. Her skin and hair were already starting to dissolve into bright red embers that easily dispersed into the air.

It occurred to her that she'd never see the world without magic. That was fine. All she really needed to go out happy was this one last sip of pomegranate. Well that sip quickly turned into a chug, and soon there was another discarded coconut rolling around on the table.

"Shall I close your tab, miss?" The waiter had taken notice of the ever thickening cloud of magic sparks floating around her. It was getting harder and harder to see through.

"Put it on the Butterfly account. They owe me." She gave him a pair of finger guns and clicked her tongue. The last thing she'd ever do. Finally her eyes closed, a content smile on her face.

The bright light of her dissolving body was enough to filter through her eyelids for a short while. She could actually feel it all slowly shimmering away, taking her worldly sensations along too. It never really occurred to her just how much she felt until her body was taken from her.

Her legs and their slight relief at being propped up, gone. Her dress hugging her figure, slightly rubbing on her skin with each small movement, gone. Even her interlocked fingers propping her head up, pressed against her hair and throbbing with each delicate heartbeat, gone.

Maybe her mind would be next. She never really contemplated how much she thought, either, just that she was a being who could. As Hekapoo's awareness turned deeper and deeper inward towards her soul, she realized that was all she had left. There was nothing else. Just darkness. An all consuming darkness that ran so deep it seemed to reach all the way into her fading mind, hazing the fringes of her consciousness. Her thoughts really would be the last to go.

Not completely, not yet. For now she was still left with a number of her emotions. Wasn't exactly what she expected from the afterlife, not that she was complaining. All of her worries were so incredibly far away now, as far away as possible. If she really had been erased from the universe, why bother with it? She knew it was still there, somewhere, but she had no reason to spare it a thought. Now it was just her and nothing. So much blissful nothing. Maybe an eternity of this wouldn't be so bad. It was already so incredibly, perfectly relaxing.

At least until it wasn't. That cold, safe grip of darkness all came crashing down in an instant like a hammer to an egg. Her egg. Her wonderful isolated bubble outside of the universe, her safe shell protecting her thoughts from the world.

Hekapoo's eyes shot open. It was still dark, but nothing like the rapturous void she travelled through to get here. Wherever here was. She had no way of knowing.

Somehow she had gotten her body back. She could feel it - she could feel everything down to the tips of her toes. It felt so weird. Alien, almost. Like she was never meant to have a physical form and now had been forced back into one that didn't quite fit. How did she manage to live inside one of these for so long? Everything took such an enormous effort, and there was so much of it to do. She couldn't remember how to move, whereas before she just… did. Almost as if she had forgotten how to be human.

The first thing she noticed was her heartbeat. Thankfully it knew what to do all by itself. Her first breath was hoarse and ended in a horrible cough as she choked on her own need to breathe again. Okay, lungs working. Sort of. She tried rolling onto her side only to find that her arms weren't quite working yet.

Focus, Hekapoo. She knew her limbs were there, she just had to find them. And she did. A single twitch of her fingers reset her instincts and all at once she suddenly remembered how her muscles worked. By then she had the whole breathing thing mostly down as well, so, bonus.

"Hekapoo?"

That voice. That damned voice. It lit up every part of her reconnected brain and kickstarted her new body with adrenaline. Hekapoo jolted upright on the cold hard floor, turning her head. And there he was. Floating nonchalantly over a boiling cauldron located smack in the center of an enormous expanse of nothing.

"Glossaryck?" Hekapoo stood the rest of the way up. She was barely aware that her voice had risen to a shout. "Are you kidding me!?"

"Well that's no way to greet your father." He grabbed a wooden spoon that was leaning against the kettle. "Hungry?"

She rubbed her eyes with her palms, helping in clamping her eyes shut. Maybe if she tried hard enough she could go back. If she could just-

"You're not hungry." Her hands tightened into fists. And then she screamed. She ran forward, heels clinking on the floor. A foot came up, and she kicked the hell out of that damn cauldron.

Clang!

"Ffffffff-" Hekapoo fell back to a sitting position, clutching her foot. It didn't even budge. And there he was, looming over her, staring like she was a crazy person. She stared daggers right back at him.

Could she kill him? Was it possible? Had anyone even tried before? It would be so easy, just wrap her hands around that little neck and-

"Hekapoo, we're going to be here a while. It'll feel like much longer if you keep that up." Glossaryck dipped the spoon into the broth and began stirring.

Wait, duh. She was on the High Commission, creator of the scissors, enforcer of dimensional travel. Getting out of here would be a snap. Literally. "No, I don't think I'll be staying. But you- you do whatever."

Did her scissor blades make the journey with her? Yes, yes they did. She pulled them out, one in each hand, and twirled them around her fingers. "Later." From her spot on the ground Hekapoo held both close together and stabbed the empty air.

Nothing.

She could feel her expression change. One more time, and again, nothing. Maybe she left the portals closed. She let one of the blades hang off her thumb so that she could deliver a resounding snap. No luck. No rush of flame from her fingertips, no nothing.

"Hekapoo, magic is gone."

"No it isn't!" She was yelling again. "If magic was gone, I'd be dead. And I was dead. So why am I here?"

Glossaryck looked over at her as he lifted the spoon. "Maybe the universe isn't done with us."

Hekapoo loudly groaned, flopping over onto her back. Her limbs splayed out for a moment, dropping her blades before her hands rose to cover her face again. "I hate you so much." He didn't respond. "Is that why you helped Toffee? Some grand master plan you concocted for the good of the universe? Or was it some kind of ridiculous training for Star?"

He slurped up a bit of stew from the spoon, smacking his lips. Sure took his sweet time doing it, too. "Star, hm? Let me tell you about Star. She appeared in the exact same spot you did after getting trapped in the realm of magic. Then she marched right over here and dipped her bare hands in this very cauldron." The spoon swished through the air to be pointed accusingly at her. "And she still didn't complain as much as you."

Her hands lowered, face twisted in anger and disgust. "So you almost killed Star," she said flatly. It wasn't a question. "Was that part of your plan?"

"No, of course not. Star said the whispering spell and came here of her own volition." He dipped the spoon back in. He really reached into the pot, dredging all the way down at the bottom. "I very specifically didn't want Star to die. Who do you think saved the last drop of magic and put it into the soup for her?" Back out the spoon came, Glossaryck holding it over the simmering broth.

Hekapoo's eyes went wide. She had never gotten up so fast in her life, stumbling towards the fire and staring at the spoon. Liquid and chunks slowly fell away from it, revealing Glossaryck's find hidden underneath.

It was a unicorn horn. A few inches of one anyways. It was broken off at both ends, and stained a dark inky purple.