"Mena…" Janus said, shielding the young witch from her view. "Don't come near me. I don't want you to die like Tal did."

"Oh," Mena asked. "So, are you sorry?! Well sorry won't bring him back!"

Ashlan stifled a grab at Mena's sleeve, but Mena walked past the lioness. Revenge was the only thing on her mind. Janus recoiled from the sheer veracity of Mena's words alone.

"I can't be around you anymore," Janus said, turning aside. "I can't be around any of you anymore."

"What do you plan to do, Janus?" May asked Janus very earnestly. "I'm going to miss you if you leave us…"

"Even though I murdered Tal…?" Janus said, gazing with regret at Mena and her friends alongside their moonlight shadows. "I don't deserve to have you as my friends anymore."

"Well…" May said, looking very uneasy as she dripped barbecue sauce. "...what will you do if you won't come back to us?"

Janus turned around to face the temple. "I don't know where I'll go, or what I'll do. Perhaps I'll bury myself and lie in a grave for all eternity..."

"Good…" Mena said, and she crossed her arms. "Don't let the shovel hit you on the way down. Go reap yourself!"

Suddenly, Janus' neck clicked over Mena's sharp barb. Her head turned sideways and her left eye seered at Mena with such intensity, even the young witch recoiled. Mena shivered and nearly fell backwards. Even she had to admit that she was mostly all talk. "Mena…" Janus growled. "You should never talk to a reaper like that...I have a death wish and I can't die….but…"

Janus' shoulders hunched over menacingly. "I can make others die!"

Mena screamed in terror as Janus' neck extended seven feet high on a pillar of bones. She drew her neon pink scythe which glowed more ominously than a rosy moon at midnight. Mena started whimpering, waiting to be the next soul Janus reaped, but before the pixie reaper could lunge forward and murder her, a voice casually said, "Don't waste time on her darling."

Janus' boney neck retracted and she turned aside to see a face that was far more terrifying. Hostile black snake eyes gazed out from a numbed, frostbitten face. Purple locks curled like snakes on a gorgon's head and Anguish tossed them casually. Bubbel, Toila and Karen all accompanied her along with Dark Mena. "My boring daughter is a waste of time in the grand theme of things," Anguish said with a shrug of her ridged shoulders. "Killing her won't do anything to improve your miserable existence."

Anguish placed her hand on Janus' boney shoulder. "It seems like you are unhappy with your role, young one."

Janus was silent, but there were black tears in her eyes. She looked at Anguish's face with fear and anxiety. "Like most fiends in the Nightmare Void," Anguish said, "We were all dealt vile roles by the Goddess of Dreams."

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The trio of green witches and Dark Mena all nodded with smiles on their faces. Even Mena knew they weren't lying about their forced wickedness.

Anguish ran her finger along Janus' pointed chin. "I was a lot like you were, young reaper. I tried to be good, but in the end, people who I thought were my friends sent me in the direction you are now. They pushed me over the blade's edge."

Anguish spread her arms apart and gleefully exclaimed to the heavens. "And I am so much better off now. I don't need to flirt with the darkness. I AM the darkness."

Janus was silent, but she rubbed her pale, smooth chin in deep thought. Anguish spun around Janus and it was unclear if she was bursting with laughter or tears. "When you're with us, you'll never have to worry about who you hurt or do wrong because it doesn't matter. We will bring an end to the Goddess's dream--and with it our own personal nightmare where we are enslaved to the ways of the wicked!"

Mena's friends and foes attempted to protest or persuade Janus respectively.

Bubbel, Toila and Karen all giggled. "Come on, dearie," Bubbel cried. "Your bones will make excellent spoons to stir our cauldrons!

"Come on, Janus," May cried, pumping her large arms in the air. "I always gave you my extra peas and carrots in the dinner hall, even if they all fell out of your rib cage!"

Janus' head looked back and forth so confused Mena was sure her head was going to fall off and bounce away. To make matters worse, a daffy voice echoed through the air. "Well, what'll it be kid? Heroes or Villains?"

Both sides widened there eyes when a dapper man in a floating dream cloud appeared before them. His hair was curled and permed elegantly over his chocolate brown face. He wore a neon purple tuxedo that made him look like a show host. Mena exclaimed loudly, "Gemini!"

Gemini gave her a friendly salute and a gallant grin. "Broadcasting live from the Nightmare Void, it's I, Gemini, the Clown Prince of Dreams, the host of this episode of What's My Alliegance! The fabulous game show where we decide an important person's allegiance!"

"Why are you doing this, Gemini?" Mena asked with questions in her eyes.

"Eh…" he said, breaking character, "I got bored sitting trapped in the Nightmare Void all day and night."

"So," Gemini said, before I was rudely interrupted. "Will it be our group of heroes, the Mena Teama who have fought alongside you since the very start, but your powers are alienating you from them or….the All-Girls-League-of-Anguish who welcome your post mortem chaos with open arms?"

Janus was silent, she observed both groups with wide, undead eyes.

There was a look of hunger on Anguish's face as she rubbed her hands together. Janus began to walk towards her, but at last, Mena exclaimed, "Janus stop!"

Everyone gasped and everyone's turned their heads to face Mena. Her allies were the most surprised. After the young witch had nothing but bad words for the pixie-reaper, she was the last one to protest Janus' defection.

Mena was uncertainly looked from side to side. She was furious at Janus, but having the daughter of Death on Anguish's side was even more dangerous. "Janus…" Mena said, and she stifled a grasp, but the words didn't come out.

Janus gazed forlornly at Mena. There was a melancholy in her large and gentle eyes. "Mena...I appreciate you reaching out to me...literally in this case."

There was hope in Mena's eyes, but Janus quickly dashed it. "I'm endlessly sorry from my maggot infested heart that Tal had to die at my hand. But this is my fate. I am Death and the only way I won't be able to hurt you...is if I'm not with you."

Janus walked from the silver moonlight over to the shadow of the temple. "Welcome…" Anguish said with a smirk. "To the dark side."