For once, Brittany didn’t go to the school cafeteria during lunch. Usually, she’d be all for tagging along with her friends and keeping up appearances with the other girls—The Greene girl couldn’t care less about the air-headed cheerleaders who got through school by jerking the smart kids around while jerking off their jock boyfriends.

Sometimes Brittany found herself wondering if they were in high school, or a diminutive university.

But today… Today she just went to the school rooftop to get some air. She really tried to ignore her friends’ concerns, but one could only tune Beth out for so long. Brittany was more durable than most when it came to dealing with her BFF, but even she had limits, and after what happened on Friday, and the weekend she spent stewing in her own misery, she was severely weakened.

“I…” She choked out, twitching as if speaking physically hurt her. “Saw Beatrice...”

“Oh, is she…” Beth almost asked, trailing off in horror once she noticed her best friend’s teary eyes. “No way…”

Brittany let out a shuddering breath. Thankfully, she didn’t have to say any more than that; her friends were empathetic enough to guess… Or rather, the Greene girl couldn’t say anything else, as she’d broken down crying as soon as her classmate’s name went past her lips.

And so, Brittany found herself wrapped in a hug, Bethany and Cassandra on her left and right respectively.

They remained like that for the entirety of lunch, all three of them forgetting to eat—Not that they could stomach anything at the moment, especially Brittany; the thoughts tormenting her mind far too nauseating for her to really keep anything down.

She even noticed some of her classmates side-eyeing her before whispering to their friends, pity in their eyes. Brittany couldn’t muster the anger to tell them to mind their own business, so she merely sunk into her seat, uncharacteristically pulling out her phone in the hopes of distracting herself during class.

She immediately wished she hadn’t.

“Attack on San Diego International Airport.” Brittany read aloud, and the entire room immediately went silent. Their school wasn’t very far from the airport—there was never an attack on their school… so far.

“Okay, everyone,” their teacher spoke in a very calm tone of voice. “I’m sure everything will be fine—”

Brittany immediately tuned the old woman out, almost groaning at the direct challenge to Murphy. On the seat in front of hers, she heard her BFF’s whisper of ‘like, dumb bitch’. But for what felt like an eternity, nothing happened, and some students allowed themselves to relax.

“Oh my God!” One of the girls that sat by the window suddenly screeched, pointing outside—

Brittany was immediately yanked from her seat and tackled to the ground by Bethany, and before the Greene heiress could ask about it, the school shook as if an earthquake was happening.

Panic immediately set in, and Brittany found herself glad that she sat way at the back with her friends, friends who were currently huddled together with her, watching in fright as their classmates began to rush out of the room in a blind stampede.

It wasn’t long into the panic that something crashed through the wall, which sent the few remaining people scrambling away;almost climbing one another in an attempt to get away. That left Brittany huddled in the corner of the room with Cassandra and Bethany, the trio watching in horror as an ant-like creature uncurled itself with a clicking groan.

The creature spoke, voicing something in an alien tongue that sounded distinctively exhausted. It idly looked at the door most of the students had run through before directing its gaze to the trio in the corner.

It spoke again, shaking its head as it took a step forward, a purple glow coalescing in its hands—

There was a flash of green, and before she realized it, Brittany found herself standing off against the ant-like being, their hands interlocked as they attempted to push the other back.

“Fascinating…” The creature suddenly spoke in clear English, surprising Brittany enough to make her falter. “So this is what she did.” He—if the voice was anything to go by—hummed in interest, forcefully bending the girl’s arms downwards as the swirling energies around the pair intensified.

With a snarl, Brittany leaned back to launch a kick at the creature’s stomach, only for another pair of arms to form and grab the offending limb. But before he could do anything else, the alien was forced to throw the green clad girl away just so he could evade a glowing yellow arrow.

“Girl, I’m so glad it’s you!” A voice that Brittany recognized as Starlight Yellow’s caught her attention; turning to look awarded her with the sight of the girl in question, and behind her, a wide-eyed Cassandra.

“Beth?” Brittany asked, eyes suddenly focusing on Starlight Yellow’s appearance. How she hadn’t noticed before, she had no clue—some type of perception filter, if she were to guess.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Yeah, I—look out!”

The green-clad magical girl lifted her arms in a block as soon as her best friend had screamed; with a shimmering ripple, the six blades she’d used the other day appeared to block the ant-being’s attack, letting out a loud, metallic clang as his fist met the magic blades.

“The identity of two of the warriors protecting this world…” He tilted his head, idly lifting an arm to grab an arrow from the air, keeping it from hitting him. “How careless.”

The implications were clear, and the threat to her friends and her family sent Brittany over the edge; with an enraged snarl, she pushed forward, the green energy swirling around her body growing more intense as her strength increased. The alien she was facing barely had time to express his surprise before he got thrown through several walls.

Pressing her advantage, Brittany launched herself forward, teeth gritted as she pointed her floating blades at her foe…

And then, the alien moved, summoning some manner of war hammer in his arms and subsequently nailing the green-colored magical warrior in the stomach, sending her flying upwards.

After crashing through the roof, Brittany came to a stop midair, upside down and with the main part of her armor falling from her body in pieces. Righting herself, the teenager let out a pained growl as she gingerly touched her stomach, grimacing at the tender sensation.

Her self-inspection was short lived, as several quick flashes of yellow reminded Brittany of the situation at hand. With a grunt, she flew back towards the fight, spotting her bff in the middle of a dangerous game of keep-away with the ant-like alien; dodging and twisting around his attacks while firing arrows whenever she could.

Brittany rushed downward, intent on running the alien through from above, but as soon as she got within range, the ant-like being quickly twisted around Starlight Yellow, summoning a spear as he did so, which he used to bat away the tentatively named Starlight Green’s magical blades, sending them flying off to the sides before rushing in on the underprepared pair.

The alien ducked under a wide kick from Brittany, quickly twirling his spear around to block an arrow from Bethany, and then faster than the girls could react, launched himself forward with one leg extended for a kick.

Starlight Yellow barely had time to use her bow to block before she was struck and subsequently launched through the school walls.

Not done, the alien whirled around for an attempted sweeping attack at Starlight Green, only for the girl to reach him first and latch her hands onto the spear’s handle, teeth bared in anger as she tried to overpower the ant-like being.

“You should not have to deal with this,” the alien muttered, sounding truly upset over the current events. “It’s not fair…” He groused, briefly freeing two of his four arms to strike Brittany in the stomach, thus forcing her to let go of his weapon.

With a snarl Brittany pulled on the sensation that tied her to her floating swords; with all of the blades behind the alien and his attention on the girl in front of him, there was no way he could see the blades before it was too late.

But then, a thought interrupted Brittany’s attack; the idea that this creature was someone like Beatrice made the Greene girl falter, and her blades slowed down before simply staying motionless right behind the ant-like being.

“I see…” He mused, momentarily glancing behind himself before fixing Starlight Green with a visibly pained look. “You do not have a warrior’s heart, child. Hesitation is fatal… I must beg you to give up, stop fighting, go home. This war that that accursed witch is waging on all of reality is horrendous, but it pains me much more to see children fight battles not their own…”

The mention of a witch shocked Brittany, but before she could do anything about it, the alien was suddenly in front of her, flat end of his spear halfway through a strike. “Please, do not get up.”

Brittany blacked out for a brief second; coming to awareness on her hands and knees, she quickly stood up and whirled around to see…

“This place again?” The girl gulped, looking around at the starlit expanse of space she’d first seen before she transformed for the first time; the same galaxy-like floor, the same stars all around, and the same green mist quickly coalescing into a vague shape.

“My lady…” The mist hissed, voice incredibly tired.

“Ver…donia, right?” Brittany called, brows furrowed as she recalled the being’s name. “What happened?”

“You received a heavy blow…” the mist breathed out. “My lady, you hesitated.”

“I… I just couldn’t, okay?” The teenager grimaced, self-consciously rubbing one arm. “W-what if he’s like Bea? What if… what if it’s someone else I know?”

Verdonia’s eyes briefly flashed red, “...I can not say,” the mist grunted in annoyance, “I am… forbidden—But you cannot falter, or things will be worse,” the unknown creatures rushed to add. “Your powers… you felt it, the anger.”

It wasn’t a question. “What of it?” Brittany grumbled.

“Let your hatred flow,” Verdonia rasped, red bleeding into the corners of its yellow eyes. “Y-you m-must… let it… flow…!” Suddenly, the mist’s eyes became entirely red, and it became completely still.

“Verdonia?” Brittany hesitated.

“My lady…” The unknown being spoke, sounding even more tired than before; its red eyes returned to yellow, though it began to quickly dissipate. “Fight…”

The teenager came back to awareness to the sound of explosions—no… not explosions, metal clashing against metal very loudly. Once the blurriness left her vision, Brittany was able to see the cause; Starlight Red facing off against the ant-like alien, the outworldly warrior ramming the girl’s shield with several different weapons in quick succession.

And behind the red-clad magical girl… laid Starlight Yellow, conscious but very clearly injured; blood seeping out her left side, though she had a hand covering the wound itself.

Brittany felt as if the world stopped for a moment. There was her best friend on the floor. Beth and her had known each other since they were 4, they knew almost everything about each other, they were all but sisters…

And someone had injured Bethany.

The ice cold dread that had been roiling in Brittany’s gut, the terror; fear at the situation, flash-melted under the unrelenting force of her outrage. The fire in her gut reached new heights, nearly driving her mad with rage. But instead of holding it in and letting it consume her…

Brittany let her hatred flow.