Chapter Three: Workshop Sleepover

The cold night air nipped at the parts of skin that were open to the elements. Luckily Rita was still wearing her trench coat which blocked out the cold night air. Castle Night Thorn was located on top of a mountain just north of, and much higher than the capital city of Starsera, granting anyone on the walls or in the towers a great view of the city below. The lighting in the courtyard was fairly low with light posts far and few in between, most of the light came from the few windows on the castle.

In the bailey, there were few buildings and the cobblestone road was in disrepair. Rita believed that there was maybe three or four staff total to this little keep. In all honesty, there were no real guards as the threat of being invaded was very low thanks to the location and the owner. The location was well within safe territory from real invaders, and the owner, Lamont Frost Fire was almost never here. Most of the time Castle Night Thorn felt much more like it belonged to Rita and her friends than anything else.

Sure Rita had considered having her own apartment in the city, but the castle was filled with an impressive library, a great workshop, and best of all, almost no people. Her close friends bothering her was something she could deal with so long as it allowed her to avoid the hustle and bustle of the city proper as much as she could.

Rita reached the workshop quickly and opened up the door, stepped inside, and shut it behind her. The first smell to hit her was the scent of the bitter-sick smell of oil and the sticky-sweet scent of opened energy drinks. Inside were shelves full of various components, equipment, and material. The slight tingle of aether energy also permeated the area thanks to the varied selection of aether stones and machines. There were half a dozen large tables, each one holding half-completed contraptions.

A pair of metal boots which were supposed to offer flight, but didn't quite reach that goal. A pair of mechanical wings attached to a jetpack. The orb of ultimate destruction which proved to not only explode instantly after being activated but also destroyed any and all aether stones inside it, requiring a whole ten aether stones before it could even activate. Finally, there was a pair of goggles that were supposed to offer night vision and heat vision, these ones actually worked without issue.

Rita didn’t just make mostly broken devices however, these were just the ones she hadn’t fixed or finished yet, goggles aside. There were plenty of properly working devices, including the flame-charged revolver she held on her person at all times. Speaking of which, she went to the table filled with various weapons and searched for her new revolver, this one which was incomplete was supposed to be based on ice magic, but she’d yet to find a suitable aether stone to power it. She may not have a proper ice crystal, but she did have a sunstone, which would be just perfect for a light charge.

Searching through her stuff Rita found a few round metal containers just small enough for her to wrap her fingers around. They had been meant for something almost entirely different than her new plan for them. Next she turned toward the shelf lined with various crystals and rocks. Although Rita had never held quite the interest in rocks that her big sister had, she did get to know them well enough to know which ones were the best for her line of work. Digging around for a few minutes allowed her to produce four thumb-sized chunks of a white stone that held a light glow.

This was all nice and good but she was missing something. Rita looked back at the table and tried to figure out what it was. She had the containers, she had her unfinished gun, and she had her sunstones. Yet she was missing one crucial element, she needed her toolkit.

Looking around the table produced no results, nor did she find it on the shelves. This was strange, yes Rita kept this place in a perpetual state of organized chaos, but she didn’t lose track of her toolkit. It took a good few minutes before she finally found it underneath one of the tables. Rita had to get down on all fours and stretch her arm out as far as she could to actually manage to grab it.

Lapis’s voice played behind her like a musical instrument. “I came here looking for a friend, but found true love instead.”

Rita jumped up so fast that she slammed her head on the underside of the table. Once she pulled herself out from under the table she glared up at Lapis who, much like everyone else in the world was taller than her. “What do you want?”

The sly smile on Lapis’s lips was all Rita needed to see to know why the pervert was here, but that didn’t stop Lapis from saying, “Oh I was just here to watch the show.”

“I’m going to kick your teeth in,” Rita grunted as she stood up.

Lapis’s smile faded a little. “I’m sorry you hit your head. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“No you just meant to come and check out my butt,” Rita said as she set the toolkit down.

“Oh come on, how could I resist, it’s so tiny and cute.”

“Then go spy on Wonder,” Rita groaned.

“But she’s not as cute as you are! She’s also more of a prude.”

Rita laid her head down on the table. “Oh come on… I could handle you stalking me, and I could handle you being a pervert, but can you at least not move my stuff around?”

Lapis bit her lower lip and rubbed at her arm. “…I guess… but I’m still calling dibs on your undies.”

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“Whatever, I don’t have time for this. I need to make some armaments for us tomorrow.”

Lapis took a seat. “Okay, what can I do to help you?”

Rita glanced over at her. “Take a cold bath in the lake?”

“Oooo, skinny dipping, can do!”

“Not like that.”

“I’ll drag you with me too!” Lapis jumped up and threw her hands into the air. “NAKED RITA IS BEST RITA!”

Rita stood up, put her arms on Lapis's elbows, spun the girl around and then started pushing her toward the door. “No, we’re not doing that. Now go get some rest or something. I need to work and you're more than distracting me.”

Lapis looked back and winked. “I get it. I’m too much eye candy for you.”

With a hard shove, Rita threw Lapis out the door. “Whatever gets you gone faster.”

Lapis looked back at the doorway, her smile had all but disappeared by now and she was just staring at Rita. “Do you really want me gone?”

“Yes!” Rita gripped the door handle tight. “No! I mean, just… UGH, just let me work in privacy for a little bit!”

Lapis lowered her head. “Sorry.”

Rita shook her head. “Just… go to bed. Get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow and I’ll need you at your very best.”

Head hung low and arms dragging at her sides Lapis sulked off. “Okay…”

Rita shut the door and locked it before resting her weight against it. “Sometimes that girl is too much.”

Still… she felt bad about pushing Lapis away like that. After losing Heath… Rita briefly considered going to cheer Lapis up, but the last time she went into Lapis’s room, the two of them didn’t leave until the next day. It was… actually kind of nice, but it only served to avoid the real problem in her heart.

Rita shook her head. No, it wasn’t time to think about sad things. Dusk was gone, Mini was gone, Eternity was gone… and Heath was… too much pain to think about at the moment. She had peace and quiet, she could focus on something else for the moment. She had to.

It was time to get to work on those inventions. They’d prove to be very useful for tomorrow’s mission.

***

A young girl stood on the edge of a pond looking over it with a hand full of smooth flat stones. The young girl had a pair of bright green eyes and hair that looked much more like a twilight sky starting from purple at the end and growing into a dark blue at the roots. She smiled and threw one of the rocks at the water, it hit the water and sunk in without bouncing at all. Her smile turned into a frown and she stomped her foot in anger.

“Lunaria, silly, that’s not how you do it,” an older voice said in a gentle tone.

The girl looked behind her and met the eyes of a woman with long hair the shades of red, yellow, orange, and even purple creating the illusion of her hair being on fire. The older girl looked to be in her teens, she put a hand on the young girl’s shoulder and in her other hand she had a rock of her own. She threw it into the water and it skipped over the lake’s surface a good ten times before dropping below the water.

“See you need to throw it so it skips on its side,” the woman said.

The girl beamed and threw another rock. It sunk as soon as it hit the water.

The older woman laughed. “Oh my little Lula, that’s so cute.”

Lunaria stomped her foot. “I’m not cute! I’m a big strong grown-up now!”

The woman only smiled. “Oh really now.”

“Mom's gone now, everyone is gone now, so I can’t be a kid anymore,” Lunaria said, her frown deepening.

A hurt look crossed into the woman’s eyes as she bit her lower lip. The woman knelt down and wrapped Lunaria into her arms. “Yeah… they're gone. And it is important for us to be strong for them. That doesn’t mean you can’t be a kid still, it’s not like we’re going to do anything really big. We take care of the farm, live normal lives, and try to just survive. In the meantime, let’s enjoy what we have left of our childhood.”

Lunaria buried her head into the older girls’ shoulder. “Sis… are you going to leave too?”

The big sister's face crumpled as she held her sister. “You won’t lose me. You’ll never, ever lose me. No matter what comes between us, you will always be my little sister, forever and ever. I'll always be there to keep you safe. I promise.”

***

Rita shot straight up. Half of her face was covered in freezing cold drool. Her back hurt from being slouched over the metal table like that, but she was awake. Looking around she realized she was still in the workshop, sitting on the metal bench. A red blanket was wrapped around her shoulders, but she didn’t remember even going to sleep let alone grabbing a blanket. Lying down next to her on the bench was the sleeping form of Lapis, her hair draped off the side of the bench as a blue blanket lay over her body.

Rita let out a sigh. “Well it’s no wonder I had such a weird dream, your sleeping next to me.” That had been an awfully strange dream though, those two women seemed somewhat familiar though she didn’t know exactly where she knew them from.

Either way Rita looked at the table once again. She had managed to finish everything before crashing. So at least that was all done. Now Rita took a look at the clock on the wall, it was three AM. So she’d been asleep for only a few hours at most now. It was a hassle but she managed to rouse Lapis from her slumber.

“Come on,” Rita said as she helped Lapis up from her uncomfortable position. “I got a bed in the corner, we can crash there.”

Lapis mumbled sleepily. “I want to cuddle.”

Rita rolled her eyes. Her eyelids were heavy and just the extra effort it took to get to the little side room of the workshop took a lot out of her. By the time the two reached the bed they found it already occupied by Wonder who had taken a purple blanket with her.

“W-what?” Rita asked.

Lapis yawned as she dropped her full weight onto the bed. “Lulu wanted to make sure you were warm, so we brought blankies. But she didn’t want to cuddle you. I did.”

Rita would have shrugged it off, but the effort was too much. Instead, she accepted her fate of having a couple of caring, but weird friends and took the empty spot next to Lapis. Even with the taller girl wrapping her arms around her, Rita managed to fall asleep content with knowing she was doing her best to keep her friends safe. She'd keep them safe and close, there was no way she'd ever allow anything bad to happen to them. She would never lose again.