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"In 24 hours they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

"It's worse than we thought…" Batgirl said to Sparkler as she reviewed the intelligence that had been encoded and sent to her. "Lucia's surveillance is the best there is…"

"All that advanced tech, no doubt," Sparkler replied. "But what's the issue? What's he after?"

"If this is right," Batgirl responded. "LeBeau has found the Book of Making, an artifact that when unlocked, has the power to reshape the entire universe in the image of its wielder!"

"I need to tell Trinity!" Sparkler responded, a look of concern etched on her masked face.

"In 18 hours they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

"You are right, Bunny," I replied, in my alter ego as Brit, as Sparkler's secret identity gave me the bad news. "If he unlocks the secret to that book, he will be more than invincible, he will be able to wipe us out with less than a passing thought!"

I pulled open the collar of my blouse, revealing both a tiny gold locket, and a tiny triangular birthmark just above my left breast. One slim finger gently touched the birthmark and I spoke but a single word.

"TRINITY!"

In a flash of emerald, where the civilian Brit had stood, I now appeared, clad in emerald-and-black as the costumed heroine known across Hayao as Trinity! Bunny meanwhile pulled a tiny gold locket from beneath her shirt, and pressing a hidden catch, in a flash, she found her civilian clothes replaced by her star-spangled Sparkler uniform.

"Put out a Voice of Hayao call to arms," I said. "If this is as bad as I think it is, we will need everyone!"

"But a gathering so large," Sparkler questioned. "Won't we be detected?"

"It doesn't matter. If we don't mobilize quickly, in less than one day, we will all be wiped out. The universe itself as we know it will be wiped out. We cannot let that happen!"

Sparkler nodded and headed for one of the Resistance bases.

"What about you?" Sparkler then asked.

"I need to contact some old friends… off-the-grid types that might not get your alert… we're going to need them."

In a flash of light and the rustle of heavy silken fabric, the caretaker of Brit and Bunny's abode, the genie-like magician Minyae appeared.

"You can't go!" the pale beauty in heavy brocade, black lace, and velvet spoke to me, tendrils of fabric swishing behind her like a nervous cat's tail. "It is suicide… you will be killed!"

"I can't sit by and let LeBeau destroy us…" I said as I turned to face her, bringing a hand to her pale cheek. "If what Batgirl said is right, with the increased power level LeBeau has been manifesting, he will be able to break the seals on the Book of Making in less than twenty-four hours. And he recovered the book eight hours ago. This is our last stand, Minyae, if the Resistance cannot hold the line here, we are finished, he will wipe us out with a mere thought."

"I'll stop him, then!" Minyae said recklessly.

"My beloved," I said as I pulled her petite frame closer to me and embraced her. "You know you aren't powerful enough for that anymore… and I'm going to need someone to tend to the wounded and care for Bunny should something happen to me. That's where I need you. Batgirl thinks LeBeau has been using demonic magic to increase his power. There's only one person in the Resistance that specializes in that."

"Trinity…" Minyae said, chin dropping as she buried her face in the bend of my neck. She then looked up at me, tears, stained black, running down her pale cheeks. "But I can't stand the thought of losing you…"

"Shhh…" I said. "Bunny needs you, and I need you to take care of her for me so that I can concentrate on stopping LeBeau once and for all. Can I count on you…?"

"You know you don't even have to ask…" she replied, sniffling gently. With a gesture, her Grimoire appeared at her side and its heavy chains wrapped around her waist. "I'm ready," she said, quietly.

"In 13 hours they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

I looked around in awe. For the first time I could remember, the Resistance looked like a real army.

"Some of these heroines don't even have powers anymore…" I whispered to my companion, a six-foot tall ebon clad feline woman with a shock of red hair, face hidden behind something that looked like a cross between a gas mask and a torture implement. She wore the heavy almost ceremonial-looking blades that had served her so well throughout her former career. She was Ruthless Razor, at one time the Republic's greatest Arena Champion, Resistance sympathizer, and perhaps the toughest warrior the Resistance could bring to bear.

"Yes." She responded curtly. "LeBeau saw to that, didn't he?"

I almost didn't know where to begin. It had been so long since I had coordinated a Resistance mission, and never one so large. The heroines were too numerous to name, but all of Trinity's closest allies were there. Nova, the Lunar Knight, her wondrous staff at the ready, the reptilian powerhouse Dragoness, the fastest woman alive, Nytbyrd, my niece, adopted daughter, and one-time sidekick Sparkler, Kit Vyxen, intelligence expert Lucia's holographic projection, the legendary Batgirl, the street-smart immortal gun-toter Terminal Girl. Even Tempest, Prismatic, and Rowdy Rose had come out of retirement to join! Even more amazing was the presence of the last remaining member of the core Resistance, Red Sky, a white staff with a brilliant gemstone for a headpiece representing the sum remaining power of the sorceress Nimue. My heart grew warm as I caught sight of my long time ally and friend Miss Britain, who, too, had come out of retirement, bringing her crew of Rose Red and the plucky Beestung along for backup!

"I wasn't sure if you'd come…" I said as she embraced Miss Britain warmly. "But I'm glad you did."

"A chance to finally wipe the smirk off that third-rate Fascist once and for all?" Miss Britain said, her sophisticated English accent betraying not a hint of trepidation. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Well that works out…" I quipped, an uneasy grin crossing my face. "Because that's pretty much exactly what's at stake…! Come on."

I then turned to address the veritable army of heroines that had assembled…

"In just eight hours they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

It was dawn. We assembled outside the grounds of Lord LeBeau's palace. But two things gave us pause. Jutting up into the sky from the center of the courtyard was an inky black spire, a tower that seemed to be made of an impenetrable darkness. And arrayed around the palace were the bulk of the Guardian forces. The entire Hayao army stood at the ready to defend the strange projection. I caught sight of members of the Ordo Verum and other factions within the Republic's elite. And nearly every Guardian stood watch, waiting for us. I could specifically make out Avalerion leading a squad consisting entirely of fellow Black Hand members, the portly constable Rendell Carter erupting from the top hatch of a main battle tank like a greasy, disheveled pimple, Mr. Black, Grenadier, Seeker, on a giant robotic scorpion, Hindsight, even Queen Mab herself stood on guard outside the shadowy tower. LeBeau was inside, of this I was certain, and time was almost up.

"They were waiting for us…" Sparkler hissed through a clenched jaw. "Now what do we do?"

"The only thing left to us, Sparkler," I said, my lips forming a grim line of determination across my face. "We fight. This is it, the final battle. The fate of the world rests on what we do here today…"

I cringed away from a sorcerous shockwave as Queen Mab brought the full might of her power against Red Sky, who in turn retaliated with the Staff of Nimue. It was like two thunderstorms clashing.  I saw Miss Britain's trio working their way through a combined unit of LeBeau Bots and militia when a silver and blue streak slammed into Miss Britain from behind, driving her into the smoldering wreckage of a main battle tank. Rose Red and Beestung turned to see the source of the attack and standing before them was what looked like a mirror image of me! Only with chrome skin and a blue costume, otherwise identical to my own! It was TRIAD, the nano-tech doppelganger that had formed when I cast off those nanobots that had been used to heal me so long ago. Like a broken doll, she was an imperfect copy of me, with powers nearly identical to my own, but twisted, and powers I couldn't even imagine, borne of her nano-technological nature. Miss Britain pulled herself from the wreckage as I prepared to move in, but before I could, I was blown off my feet by some sort of blast. Ears ringing, I tried to clear my head as I pulled myself back to my feet.

"Vibra…" I said with a glower as I laid eyes on my attacker and one of the more successful of my enemies over the years. "I suppose you'd prefer Mistress Lei… either way… never miss a chance to shoot me in the back, do you…?"

She simply smiled and dropped into a ready stance, bringing her remarkable polearm over her head in an almost theatrical manner.

Meanwhile, a brilliant bolt of energy ripped into the machine TRIAD, giving the appearance of disintegrating my doppelganger utterly! The source of that beam hovered a few feet above our heads.

"Nenem... Nemeneme... That arena lady!" Beestung stammered in an excited tone, with concern in her voice, pointing at the Omega Latex clad former Ordo Verum member!

"Miss Britain is mine!" Nemesis Girl boomed as she landed near Miss Britain, a shockwave kicking rubble into the air, even as TRIAD pulled herself back together. "And no one shall take her from me!"

As I exchanged blows with Vibra, I was baffled by the sight of Nemesis Girl not attacking Miss Britain and her crew, but rather, tearing into TRIAD again, in defense of Miss Britain! But a near headshot from Vibra's polearm quickly drew my attention back to where it belonged as Vibra pressed her attack on me.

As the battle raged on for hours, so many, in fact, that I had lost track of how many times I had been forced to re-power up, I beheld a striking image in black and silver that commanded my eye and made my blood run cold!

"DSG…" I hissed through my teeth.

There wasn't a single heroine with me that had the raw power to match her… her appearance on the battlefield, however rare, usually meant it was over for the Resistance. But not this time… in a crimson blur, our reluctant savior faced down her greatest enemy… her lover…! Nytbyrd had arrived, late as always!

I narrowed my eyes and I saw, slipped into her utility belt, the one chance we had against DSG- a mystical blade specifically designed to kill DSG. My mind wandered for just a moment to a contentious debate between some of the more… aggressive… members of the Resistance, Nytbyrd, Sparkler, and myself. We argued about the morality of killing in the name of the greater good. I have had to kill to survive before, but never without terrible consequences. I had dedicated my life to finding another way. Now, here I was, faced with arguing that for the greater good of the mission, I was going to have to ask Nytbyrd to kill her lover.

"I'm the only one that can do it…" Nytbyrd said in the haze of memory of the last few hours before the assault began. "Nobody else is as fast as DSG is…" She was right, too. Even with my aura shifted to maximum speed, I could only keep up with her for a few seconds.

"There has got to be another way…" Sparkler, my beloved niece, my adopted daughter, and my former sidekick insisted. Good girl, she retained her teachings well.

"If there is, I can't see it…" was all I could respond. As I did so, it almost felt like it was someone else speaking. But the voice was mine. Ordering the death of an enemy. Worse, it was an enemy that had once been Nytbyrd's greatest love.

As my perception snapped back to the moment, I saw Nytbyrd vanish in a blur and a crimson streak cut a swath through the enemy's shock-troopers, mostly battle robots, and in the blink of an eye, a silver streak pursued the crimson as DSG dashed after her at super-speed! They moved in and out of the fighting lines like two iridescent silk ribbons and as the blurs became more and more intense, I suddenly realized what Nytbyrd was doing! For the first time in her career, she was truly embracing her heritage as arguably one of the most powerful heroines ever to have lived… she pushed her speed to the very limit, in moments the ribbons were not just cutting through the lines, but they were circumscribing the entire globe in a single heartbeat. Nytbyrd had never pushed her speed so far, nor, apparently, had DSG, and they both vanished with a thunderous boom!

"Bless you, Nytbyrd," I whispered under my breath as I realized what she had done. "You found another way…! The Speed Force… where you will remain together with your love forever… brilliant!"

It was at that moment that I knew what I had to do. There was only one way to end this…

"In just one hour they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

The sound was deafening, the brilliance blinding… my beloved Sparkler's fire had never burned hotter, her light never shone brighter as she turned everything she had against LeBeau's last line of defense, a thusfar unbreachable wall of liquid darkness, the likes of which he had never manifested before. They were right, there was more at stake here than just LeBeau and the island…

I was shaken from my reverie as Sparkler, once my humble sidekick, cried out, a brilliant white flame surrounding her, immolating the environment nearby, rising up behind her on both sides like gossamer wings of star fire. Gods, I could feel her heat even through my aura and from this far away! She was in touch with something I couldn't pretend to understand. Her scream, though, reached a pitch that frightened me and as the last vestiges of her power were exhausted with a thunderclap, a small fissure was revealed in the liquid darkness! This was the opening I needed… goddess may I be fast enough to take advantage of it!

I poured everything into my triple-speed and leapt at the rapidly sealing gap, still rimmed with white-hot… whatever it was… and I could feel it scorching my skin as I dove through into the bizarre inner sanctum LeBeau had created! In the middle of the rock formations emblazoned with glowing arcane glyphs sat LeBeau, lotus style, chanting over the Book of Making as it floated above just above the ground. I could actually see the wards on the book falling away as LeBeau spoke in an inhuman polyphonic voice with a dark undertone I've only heard from one other source…

"It's over, LeBeau," I said, trying to sound as brave as I could while simultaneously trying not to think of poor Sparkler outside the barrier, exhausted. The way she taxed her power, I wasn't sure if there was anything left. "Hand over the book. I'm taking you down."

"My dear, certainly you must realize it won't be that easy," he spoke in dulcet tones of malice. His words would be almost seductive were I not aware of what an inhuman creature he could be. That, and the ridiculous turban on his head... But something was different- his eyes burned black flames and as he spoke to me, part of his voice continued the low incantations that were required to disarm the Book's sigils. "I should have killed you the last time I had you in my clutches…"

He then leapt at me like a feral beast, almost in a blur, leaving a shadowy silhouette of black smoke sitting over the book, continuing the arduous task of unlocking what would be LeBeau's final victory over the entire universe… that is, if I couldn't stop him. There was nobody else, no rescue, no backup, and no tricks. Just LeBeau. And me.

I pivoted to the side and lashed out with a powerful spinning kick, smashing him in the side of the face as he narrowly missed me. He seemed faster somehow, more savage, than I had seen him before. His hands twisted into claws as he spat black blood, enraged by my nimble attack. He lashed out with two balls of black fire, the first I spun beneath, the second though caught me solidly in the shoulder. I was barely able to roll with it as it smashed me into one of the stone formations, my aura flashing brilliant green even as his darkness both burned and chilled me to the core. This was as powerful as he's ever been… I began to feel my confidence waver.

"No… this is it…" I said to myself. "Live or die, LeBeau will _not_ open the Book…"

They say a cornered animal fights the most ferociously, that is the only explanation I can come up with for the surge of offense that came from me next. I pulled myself from the rubble as he loosed another volley of black flame, but I vaulted up the side of one of the rock formations and leapt over the attack, somersaulting before planting both feet on LeBeau's chest, shattering his breastplate and knocking him back. Before he could even fall backwards I was on him again, having somersaulted again off of his body and came down with both boots on his chest as he landed on his back, driving a plume of black blood from his mouth. I crouched down, literally standing on his chest.

"Surrender! Give me the book… I don't want to have to kill you!"

"This is my island, my empire… MY DESTINY!" he screeched at me. A shockwave of inky blackness erupted forth from him, casting me back across the chamber. I did the best I could to ride the momentum and twist my body into something of a landing, aided, of course, by my triple-agility. But something else happened in that moment. There was a reason why LeBeau seemed more powerful than before… my aura _felt_ something… another presence… dark, ancient, sinister... something that had previously been very well hidden. Something I missed before.

"They were _right_!" I exclaimed as I returned to a defensible stance. "You aren't just LeBeau…"

He laughed. It was not any sound a human being could make, but it was a laugh. Everything started to fall into place.

"You and I are more alike than you realize, my precious," he sneered. "Have you figured it out now? Deep down you are just like me… deep down you are just a tiny little box holding a very dark secret. Yours is named Thanatos, Lord of Death… a demon, old as time itself, and forever bound to a frail, weak, beautiful vessel. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you truly embraced the demon within? We could rule a universe twisted into whatever shape we choose. Don't you realize, it is your destiny? And mine."

"Bane…" I whispered. The name somehow found its way to my lips. "You are Bane, Lord of Destruction… I _know_ you…"

"Then you realize, you must join me… or you must die!"

I think he knew the answer already, before I even made my move, but I surged at him, hitting ninety miles an hour by my third stride. I'm not sure I even had a plan at this point; I was running on pure emotion. But he was ready for me and a plume of darkness leapt forth from both of his hands, smashing into my body like a freight train and stopping my momentum cold, driving me back through another of the glyph stones. I felt like my whole chest had caved in, even trying to breathe in sent stabbing pain into my body and my vision blurred as I felt blood trickling down my face. Another tendril of blackness jabbed at me, and I narrowly mustered the will to move as it shattered the stone of the floor into so much jagged rubble. Another came as I tried to find my footing and it was all I could do to cover up. It was an explosion of pain as the jackhammer like projection smashed into my improvised guard. All I could feel of my left arm was red-hot pain and it was all my aura could do to keep my arm from breaking right off. Worse, my one-minute countdown beeper sounded from my utility belt. My powers were about to expire, and without them I would be easy prey.

"Sounds like your time is up, little heroine… too bad, you would have made a fine concubine. You know how much I enjoy dressing you up…"

I roared an inhuman cry and leapt from my seat, mustering all I had left for one final attack and my wild haymaker crashed through his block attempt, his left arm making a disgusting crunching sound and the blow rocking his jaw, sending several teeth flying. As the last of my power faded, he threw me aside contemptuously.

"Stupid cow…" he spat at me, expelling another tooth and ample black blood. "As much as I wanted to enjoy this, my time is almost here and I can brook no further interruptions."

He reared back and called up two more shadowy black tendrils and prepared to strike, and I felt something I had never experienced before. Pain seared my left breast and I looked to see a plume of green flame jetting from the birthmark I use to summon my powers. In that moment, I knew what to do…

"You're right…" I coughed, spitting up blood. "Maybe I should embrace my inner demon…" The fire grew until it radiated from my body some ten feet and suddenly with a thunderous roar, something exploded forth from the fissure the flame created. Something dark, something evil, something I had vowed never again to let loose on the world. "There's somebody I'd like you to meet…"

In an instant, the horrifying visage of Lord Thanatos loomed over both of us, inky black wings and spines and tentacles whipping in the still air. And it lunged with a bestial frenzy, but not at LeBeau, no, it leapt at the shadow he had left behind, the thing that had nearly completed the incantations to unlock the Book of Making! The irony was not lost on me that in our darkest hour, I could somehow find salvation on the wings of demons…

"NOOOOOO!" LeBeau screeched as he lashed out at the demon with his tendrils of black, even as Lord Thanatos impaled LeBeau's shadow on an long spear-like tail projection that leapt forth from the almost incomprehensible form of the demon.

All at once, the shadows around LeBeau erupted in another shockwave and a similar looking titanic creature, whose form, like Lord Thanatos, equally defied comprehension. It was Lord Bane, another ancient, nearly omnipotent demon, with eyes that burned red! And it lunged and coiled around mine like two black tornado vortices colliding! All I could do was lay there, broken, as the two demons tried to consume one another.

I then caught movement out of the corner of my eye. LeBeau had picked himself up from the ground and was limping towards the book. It seemed almost inconceivable that after coming this far and fighting so hard, LeBeau was still going to triumph. No. Not this time. There was only one move left to me…

"Anne…" I choked under my breath. "… The world needs you… I need you…"

Deep in the recesses of my mind, where I had been keeping her from doing any further harm, was the spirit of my long-dead older sister, Anne… once a villainess called Toxic… and the third part of the Trinity, having sacrificed herself to help stop Lord Thanatos the only other time I had ever released him. In the past, she had been able to slip out, while I was still unawares, and live again through my body when I slept or was otherwise rendered insensate, and she did some tremendous evil. Once I learned of what she was doing, I put a stop to it, keeping under the proverbial psychic lock and key. But now I had nothing left, I didn't have the strength to even stand, let alone somehow stop LeBeau. But maybe she did… she always had a toughness that went beyond her humble powers that I never understood… and a killer instinct I could never condone.

"You didn't leave me much to work with…" came her voice in my mind as she struggled to make my broken body move again. I felt her use my right arm to painfully snap my left arm into some degree of service, and then another painful snap as she manipulated a bone in my back, then pressed skillfully on several nerve clusters, across my body, deadening the pain and giving her back some use of my limbs. "I don't think we're gonna' make it, sis. But let's see if we can go out with a bang." I just hoped she wasn't too late.

We limped towards LeBeau, who was intently trying to speak the final incantations to activate the Book of Making even as the shadowy maelstrom of a demonic struggle to the death went on above our heads near the peak of the shadow chamber. I felt a stab of pain as a narrow, spiky outcropping of rock left a crimson crease in my right thigh, one of the razor-sharp spines of rock cutting into us as we clumsily pushed through. My heart leapt into my throat as I heard LeBeau cast the final incantation and the ornate metal lock on the book finally clicked open. But it was then that he noticed me!

"Aren't you dead yet…?" he croaked, blood running down his face. His voice was no longer a sinister mix of seduction and corruption- it seemed merely human. Like my grandmother had remembered from the early days of the Guardians before LeBeau had ascended to supreme power. "Fine… sometimes the old ways are the best… I have the rest of eternity to reshape the universe."

He withdrew a long, curved dagger from the tattered remains of his armor and robe. Toxic could barely muster any kind of defensive posture, and without her trademark claws and poisons, all that remained was her undeniable martial arts skill. But as battered as my body was, I wasn't sure even she could produce much at this point. LeBeau lunged at us, dagger-first, and somehow Toxic was able to move us out of the way, pivoting to the side and striking LeBeau in his broken left arm, eliciting a snarl of rage! His attack quickly became less skillful and more… feral… as he slashed wildly, once, twice, slashing our right forearm and sending a plume of crimson regret into the air, then a third time, but this time Toxic caught his attack, spun him and tossed him across our hip, using his savage attack's momentum against him. He flipped over our body and with a nauseating squish, was impaled upon the rock formation, through which we had just struggled, his eyes a mask of confusion and disbelief as the dagger fell from his lifeless hand! We collapsed to the ground, exhausted, while the battle raged on above us.

"That's all I got, sis…" Toxic, Anne, spoke with my voice. "Finish this. I've got an afterlife I'm late for."

I knew what she meant. The demons could not be allowed to escape, no matter what, and they eventually would, as LeBeau's sorcery began to break down. With my one good arm, I dragged myself to the now-unlocked Book of Making. Only it could set this right, and as I felt the last vestiges of life draining from my body, I clumsily grabbed the book and flipped open the cover.

"You've done it…" came a familiar voice seemingly from inside my head. It was my grandmother, Bettie, the original Trinity, the voice that had guided me through all those difficult early years as a heroine. "Your time is up, and while now you can rest,  truly, legends never die…"

Epilogue

As the first rays of dawn fell across the island, the shadow tower LeBeau had constructed with Lord Bane's sorcery evaporated, the last of LeBeau's troops routed. For the first time in far too long the survivors breathed a breath that was free. Free of evil, free of tyranny, free of injustice. The Republic of Hayao was finally free.

"Is she okay?" Miss Britain asked as she approached Ruthless Razor, who was carrying the exhausted Sparkler. Nemesis Girl walked beside her, tattered Omega Latex slowly knitting itself back together.

"Yeah…" the powerhouse Hyperkitten said as she gently cradled the young girl. "But I think her powers are gone…"

"Is this true?" Nemesis Girl asked with a surprising amount of genuine concern in her voice.

"I… I think so…" Sparkler spoke, voice weak and trembling. "I can't even "feel" my powers anymore… it's like I'm… numb… where my powers used to be…"

"It doesn't matter," Miss Britain declared as her allies Rose Red and Beestung assembled behind her, battered but more or less intact. "You aunt, Trinity, saved us all. LeBeau is gone. Hayao has changed. Finally and forever."

"And what about you…?" Dragoness said as she approached, battered and bruised, pointing a broken claw at Nemesis Girl. "Last time I checked, you were a bad guy…"

"It seems I have some explaining to do…" the faintest hint of a blush appeared on Nemesis Girl's face. A little stronger blush appeared on the face of her beloved Albion, Miss Britain. "Suffice it to say, I've seen good reason to turn over a new leaf… I will cause you no trouble. In fact, I might even be able to help Sparkler gain powers again…"

"Something tells me," Sparkler responded, absently scratching through a tear in her costume top, just above her left breast, as Ruthless Razor gently lowered her to her feet. "That I'm not really going to have to worry about that."

As she dropped her tired hand back to her side, just barely visible through the rip in her top was a tiny red splotch, almost like a birthmark, very nearly in the shape of a little triangle.

(Many thanks to all of my friends and "enemies" throughout the years in the Republic of Hayao, especially to Remy Tyne for letting us all use his little sandbox to live out our fantasies, to Damsel, to Phee, to Ruth, to Arina, to Devious, to Mich, to Knox, to Loagn, to Lucia, and to all of my other friends that have come and gone,  too numerous to name. And special thanks to Jem for the inspiration for this story, the fabulous song "24".)

[Disclaimer: I tried to contact as many of my old friends and playmates from Hayao as I could, I apologize if I couldn't get to you to ask  permission. All the characters I included were meant to honor their original creators, I am in no way responsible for creating them nor do I retain any rights to them. If you do not want your character used or you want your character name changed and you are reading this, please send me a private message, I will immediately correct the situation. Also, I totally apologize if I've left out anybody who wants to be in this! Thank you for all the great memories!]

Description
"In 24 hours they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

"It's worse than we thought…" Batgirl said to Sparkler as she reviewed the intelligence that had been encoded and sent to her. "Lucia's surveillance is the best there is…"

"All that advanced tech, no doubt," Sparkler replied. "But what's the issue? What's he after?"

"If this is right," Batgirl responded. "LeBeau has found the Book of Making, an artifact that when unlocked, has the power to reshape the entire universe in the image of its wielder!"

"I need to tell Trinity!" Sparkler responded, a look of concern etched on her masked face.

"In 18 hours they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

"You are right, Bunny," I replied, in my alter ego as Brit, as Sparkler's secret identity gave me the bad news. "If he unlocks the secret to that book, he will be more than invincible, he will be able to wipe us out with less than a passing thought!"

I pulled open the collar of my blouse, revealing both a tiny gold locket, and a tiny triangular birthmark just above my left breast. One slim finger gently touched the birthmark and I spoke but a single word.

"TRINITY!"

In a flash of emerald, where the civilian Brit had stood, I now appeared, clad in emerald-and-black as the costumed heroine known across Hayao as Trinity! Bunny meanwhile pulled a tiny gold locket from beneath her shirt, and pressing a hidden catch, in a flash, she found her civilian clothes replaced by her star-spangled Sparkler uniform.

"Put out a Voice of Hayao call to arms," I said. "If this is as bad as I think it is, we will need everyone!"

"But a gathering so large," Sparkler questioned. "Won't we be detected?"

"It doesn't matter. If we don't mobilize quickly, in less than one day, we will all be wiped out. The universe itself as we know it will be wiped out. We cannot let that happen!"

Sparkler nodded and headed for one of the Resistance bases.

"What about you?" Sparkler then asked.

"I need to contact some old friends… off-the-grid types that might not get your alert… we're going to need them."

In a flash of light and the rustle of heavy silken fabric, the caretaker of Brit and Bunny's abode, the genie-like magician Minyae appeared.

"You can't go!" the pale beauty in heavy brocade, black lace, and velvet spoke to me, tendrils of fabric swishing behind her like a nervous cat's tail. "It is suicide… you will be killed!"

"I can't sit by and let LeBeau destroy us…" I said as I turned to face her, bringing a hand to her pale cheek. "If what Batgirl said is right, with the increased power level LeBeau has been manifesting, he will be able to break the seals on the Book of Making in less than twenty-four hours. And he recovered the book eight hours ago. This is our last stand, Minyae, if the Resistance cannot hold the line here, we are finished, he will wipe us out with a mere thought."

"I'll stop him, then!" Minyae said recklessly.

"My beloved," I said as I pulled her petite frame closer to me and embraced her. "You know you aren't powerful enough for that anymore… and I'm going to need someone to tend to the wounded and care for Bunny should something happen to me. That's where I need you. Batgirl thinks LeBeau has been using demonic magic to increase his power. There's only one person in the Resistance that specializes in that."

"Trinity…" Minyae said, chin dropping as she buried her face in the bend of my neck. She then looked up at me, tears, stained black, running down her pale cheeks. "But I can't stand the thought of losing you…"

"Shhh…" I said. "Bunny needs you, and I need you to take care of her for me so that I can concentrate on stopping LeBeau once and for all. Can I count on you…?"

"You know you don't even have to ask…" she replied, sniffling gently. With a gesture, her Grimoire appeared at her side and its heavy chains wrapped around her waist. "I'm ready," she said, quietly.

"In 13 hours they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

I looked around in awe. For the first time I could remember, the Resistance looked like a real army.

"Some of these heroines don't even have powers anymore…" I whispered to my companion, a six-foot tall ebon clad feline woman with a shock of red hair, face hidden behind something that looked like a cross between a gas mask and a torture implement. She wore the heavy almost ceremonial-looking blades that had served her so well throughout her former career. She was Ruthless Razor, at one time the Republic's greatest Arena Champion, Resistance sympathizer, and perhaps the toughest warrior the Resistance could bring to bear.

"Yes." She responded curtly. "LeBeau saw to that, didn't he?"

I almost didn't know where to begin. It had been so long since I had coordinated a Resistance mission, and never one so large. The heroines were too numerous to name, but all of Trinity's closest allies were there. Nova, the Lunar Knight, her wondrous staff at the ready, the reptilian powerhouse Dragoness, the fastest woman alive, Nytbyrd, my niece, adopted daughter, and one-time sidekick Sparkler, Kit Vyxen, intelligence expert Lucia's holographic projection, the legendary Batgirl, the street-smart immortal gun-toter Terminal Girl. Even Tempest, Prismatic, and Rowdy Rose had come out of retirement to join! Even more amazing was the presence of the last remaining member of the core Resistance, Red Sky, a white staff with a brilliant gemstone for a headpiece representing the sum remaining power of the sorceress Nimue. My heart grew warm as I caught sight of my long time ally and friend Miss Britain, who, too, had come out of retirement, bringing her crew of Rose Red and the plucky Beestung along for backup!

"I wasn't sure if you'd come…" I said as she embraced Miss Britain warmly. "But I'm glad you did."

"A chance to finally wipe the smirk off that third-rate Fascist once and for all?" Miss Britain said, her sophisticated English accent betraying not a hint of trepidation. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Well that works out…" I quipped, an uneasy grin crossing my face. "Because that's pretty much exactly what's at stake…! Come on."

I then turned to address the veritable army of heroines that had assembled…

"In just eight hours they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

It was dawn. We assembled outside the grounds of Lord LeBeau's palace. But two things gave us pause. Jutting up into the sky from the center of the courtyard was an inky black spire, a tower that seemed to be made of an impenetrable darkness. And arrayed around the palace were the bulk of the Guardian forces. The entire Hayao army stood at the ready to defend the strange projection. I caught sight of members of the Ordo Verum and other factions within the Republic's elite. And nearly every Guardian stood watch, waiting for us. I could specifically make out Avalerion leading a squad consisting entirely of fellow Black Hand members, the portly constable Rendell Carter erupting from the top hatch of a main battle tank like a greasy, disheveled pimple, Mr. Black, Grenadier, Seeker, on a giant robotic scorpion, Hindsight, even Queen Mab herself stood on guard outside the shadowy tower. LeBeau was inside, of this I was certain, and time was almost up.

"They were waiting for us…" Sparkler hissed through a clenched jaw. "Now what do we do?"

"The only thing left to us, Sparkler," I said, my lips forming a grim line of determination across my face. "We fight. This is it, the final battle. The fate of the world rests on what we do here today…"

I cringed away from a sorcerous shockwave as Queen Mab brought the full might of her power against Red Sky, who in turn retaliated with the Staff of Nimue. It was like two thunderstorms clashing.  I saw Miss Britain's trio working their way through a combined unit of LeBeau Bots and militia when a silver and blue streak slammed into Miss Britain from behind, driving her into the smoldering wreckage of a main battle tank. Rose Red and Beestung turned to see the source of the attack and standing before them was what looked like a mirror image of me! Only with chrome skin and a blue costume, otherwise identical to my own! It was TRIAD, the nano-tech doppelganger that had formed when I cast off those nanobots that had been used to heal me so long ago. Like a broken doll, she was an imperfect copy of me, with powers nearly identical to my own, but twisted, and powers I couldn't even imagine, borne of her nano-technological nature. Miss Britain pulled herself from the wreckage as I prepared to move in, but before I could, I was blown off my feet by some sort of blast. Ears ringing, I tried to clear my head as I pulled myself back to my feet.

"Vibra…" I said with a glower as I laid eyes on my attacker and one of the more successful of my enemies over the years. "I suppose you'd prefer Mistress Lei… either way… never miss a chance to shoot me in the back, do you…?"

She simply smiled and dropped into a ready stance, bringing her remarkable polearm over her head in an almost theatrical manner.

Meanwhile, a brilliant bolt of energy ripped into the machine TRIAD, giving the appearance of disintegrating my doppelganger utterly! The source of that beam hovered a few feet above our heads.

"Nenem... Nemeneme... That arena lady!" Beestung stammered in an excited tone, with concern in her voice, pointing at the Omega Latex clad former Ordo Verum member!

"Miss Britain is mine!" Nemesis Girl boomed as she landed near Miss Britain, a shockwave kicking rubble into the air, even as TRIAD pulled herself back together. "And no one shall take her from me!"

As I exchanged blows with Vibra, I was baffled by the sight of Nemesis Girl not attacking Miss Britain and her crew, but rather, tearing into TRIAD again, in defense of Miss Britain! But a near headshot from Vibra's polearm quickly drew my attention back to where it belonged as Vibra pressed her attack on me.

As the battle raged on for hours, so many, in fact, that I had lost track of how many times I had been forced to re-power up, I beheld a striking image in black and silver that commanded my eye and made my blood run cold!

"DSG…" I hissed through my teeth.

There wasn't a single heroine with me that had the raw power to match her… her appearance on the battlefield, however rare, usually meant it was over for the Resistance. But not this time… in a crimson blur, our reluctant savior faced down her greatest enemy… her lover…! Nytbyrd had arrived, late as always!

I narrowed my eyes and I saw, slipped into her utility belt, the one chance we had against DSG- a mystical blade specifically designed to kill DSG. My mind wandered for just a moment to a contentious debate between some of the more… aggressive… members of the Resistance, Nytbyrd, Sparkler, and myself. We argued about the morality of killing in the name of the greater good. I have had to kill to survive before, but never without terrible consequences. I had dedicated my life to finding another way. Now, here I was, faced with arguing that for the greater good of the mission, I was going to have to ask Nytbyrd to kill her lover.

"I'm the only one that can do it…" Nytbyrd said in the haze of memory of the last few hours before the assault began. "Nobody else is as fast as DSG is…" She was right, too. Even with my aura shifted to maximum speed, I could only keep up with her for a few seconds.

"There has got to be another way…" Sparkler, my beloved niece, my adopted daughter, and my former sidekick insisted. Good girl, she retained her teachings well.

"If there is, I can't see it…" was all I could respond. As I did so, it almost felt like it was someone else speaking. But the voice was mine. Ordering the death of an enemy. Worse, it was an enemy that had once been Nytbyrd's greatest love.

As my perception snapped back to the moment, I saw Nytbyrd vanish in a blur and a crimson streak cut a swath through the enemy's shock-troopers, mostly battle robots, and in the blink of an eye, a silver streak pursued the crimson as DSG dashed after her at super-speed! They moved in and out of the fighting lines like two iridescent silk ribbons and as the blurs became more and more intense, I suddenly realized what Nytbyrd was doing! For the first time in her career, she was truly embracing her heritage as arguably one of the most powerful heroines ever to have lived… she pushed her speed to the very limit, in moments the ribbons were not just cutting through the lines, but they were circumscribing the entire globe in a single heartbeat. Nytbyrd had never pushed her speed so far, nor, apparently, had DSG, and they both vanished with a thunderous boom!

"Bless you, Nytbyrd," I whispered under my breath as I realized what she had done. "You found another way…! The Speed Force… where you will remain together with your love forever… brilliant!"

It was at that moment that I knew what I had to do. There was only one way to end this…

"In just one hour they'll be laying flowers on my life, it's over tonight… I'm not messing, no I need your blessing and your promise to live free… please do it for me…"

The sound was deafening, the brilliance blinding… my beloved Sparkler's fire had never burned hotter, her light never shone brighter as she turned everything she had against LeBeau's last line of defense, a thusfar unbreachable wall of liquid darkness, the likes of which he had never manifested before. They were right, there was more at stake here than just LeBeau and the island…

I was shaken from my reverie as Sparkler, once my humble sidekick, cried out, a brilliant white flame surrounding her, immolating the environment nearby, rising up behind her on both sides like gossamer wings of star fire. Gods, I could feel her heat even through my aura and from this far away! She was in touch with something I couldn't pretend to understand. Her scream, though, reached a pitch that frightened me and as the last vestiges of her power were exhausted with a thunderclap, a small fissure was revealed in the liquid darkness! This was the opening I needed… goddess may I be fast enough to take advantage of it!

I poured everything into my triple-speed and leapt at the rapidly sealing gap, still rimmed with white-hot… whatever it was… and I could feel it scorching my skin as I dove through into the bizarre inner sanctum LeBeau had created! In the middle of the rock formations emblazoned with glowing arcane glyphs sat LeBeau, lotus style, chanting over the Book of Making as it floated above just above the ground. I could actually see the wards on the book falling away as LeBeau spoke in an inhuman polyphonic voice with a dark undertone I've only heard from one other source…

"It's over, LeBeau," I said, trying to sound as brave as I could while simultaneously trying not to think of poor Sparkler outside the barrier, exhausted. The way she taxed her power, I wasn't sure if there was anything left. "Hand over the book. I'm taking you down."

"My dear, certainly you must realize it won't be that easy," he spoke in dulcet tones of malice. His words would be almost seductive were I not aware of what an inhuman creature he could be. That, and the ridiculous turban on his head... But something was different- his eyes burned black flames and as he spoke to me, part of his voice continued the low incantations that were required to disarm the Book's sigils. "I should have killed you the last time I had you in my clutches…"

He then leapt at me like a feral beast, almost in a blur, leaving a shadowy silhouette of black smoke sitting over the book, continuing the arduous task of unlocking what would be LeBeau's final victory over the entire universe… that is, if I couldn't stop him. There was nobody else, no rescue, no backup, and no tricks. Just LeBeau. And me.

I pivoted to the side and lashed out with a powerful spinning kick, smashing him in the side of the face as he narrowly missed me. He seemed faster somehow, more savage, than I had seen him before. His hands twisted into claws as he spat black blood, enraged by my nimble attack. He lashed out with two balls of black fire, the first I spun beneath, the second though caught me solidly in the shoulder. I was barely able to roll with it as it smashed me into one of the stone formations, my aura flashing brilliant green even as his darkness both burned and chilled me to the core. This was as powerful as he's ever been… I began to feel my confidence waver.

"No… this is it…" I said to myself. "Live or die, LeBeau will _not_ open the Book…"

They say a cornered animal fights the most ferociously, that is the only explanation I can come up with for the surge of offense that came from me next. I pulled myself from the rubble as he loosed another volley of black flame, but I vaulted up the side of one of the rock formations and leapt over the attack, somersaulting before planting both feet on LeBeau's chest, shattering his breastplate and knocking him back. Before he could even fall backwards I was on him again, having somersaulted again off of his body and came down with both boots on his chest as he landed on his back, driving a plume of black blood from his mouth. I crouched down, literally standing on his chest.

"Surrender! Give me the book… I don't want to have to kill you!"

"This is my island, my empire… MY DESTINY!" he screeched at me. A shockwave of inky blackness erupted forth from him, casting me back across the chamber. I did the best I could to ride the momentum and twist my body into something of a landing, aided, of course, by my triple-agility. But something else happened in that moment. There was a reason why LeBeau seemed more powerful than before… my aura _felt_ something… another presence… dark, ancient, sinister... something that had previously been very well hidden. Something I missed before.

"They were _right_!" I exclaimed as I returned to a defensible stance. "You aren't just LeBeau…"

He laughed. It was not any sound a human being could make, but it was a laugh. Everything started to fall into place.

"You and I are more alike than you realize, my precious," he sneered. "Have you figured it out now? Deep down you are just like me… deep down you are just a tiny little box holding a very dark secret. Yours is named Thanatos, Lord of Death… a demon, old as time itself, and forever bound to a frail, weak, beautiful vessel. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you truly embraced the demon within? We could rule a universe twisted into whatever shape we choose. Don't you realize, it is your destiny? And mine."

"Bane…" I whispered. The name somehow found its way to my lips. "You are Bane, Lord of Destruction… I _know_ you…"

"Then you realize, you must join me… or you must die!"

I think he knew the answer already, before I even made my move, but I surged at him, hitting ninety miles an hour by my third stride. I'm not sure I even had a plan at this point; I was running on pure emotion. But he was ready for me and a plume of darkness leapt forth from both of his hands, smashing into my body like a freight train and stopping my momentum cold, driving me back through another of the glyph stones. I felt like my whole chest had caved in, even trying to breathe in sent stabbing pain into my body and my vision blurred as I felt blood trickling down my face. Another tendril of blackness jabbed at me, and I narrowly mustered the will to move as it shattered the stone of the floor into so much jagged rubble. Another came as I tried to find my footing and it was all I could do to cover up. It was an explosion of pain as the jackhammer like projection smashed into my improvised guard. All I could feel of my left arm was red-hot pain and it was all my aura could do to keep my arm from breaking right off. Worse, my one-minute countdown beeper sounded from my utility belt. My powers were about to expire, and without them I would be easy prey.

"Sounds like your time is up, little heroine… too bad, you would have made a fine concubine. You know how much I enjoy dressing you up…"

I roared an inhuman cry and leapt from my seat, mustering all I had left for one final attack and my wild haymaker crashed through his block attempt, his left arm making a disgusting crunching sound and the blow rocking his jaw, sending several teeth flying. As the last of my power faded, he threw me aside contemptuously.

"Stupid cow…" he spat at me, expelling another tooth and ample black blood. "As much as I wanted to enjoy this, my time is almost here and I can brook no further interruptions."

He reared back and called up two more shadowy black tendrils and prepared to strike, and I felt something I had never experienced before. Pain seared my left breast and I looked to see a plume of green flame jetting from the birthmark I use to summon my powers. In that moment, I knew what to do…

"You're right…" I coughed, spitting up blood. "Maybe I should embrace my inner demon…" The fire grew until it radiated from my body some ten feet and suddenly with a thunderous roar, something exploded forth from the fissure the flame created. Something dark, something evil, something I had vowed never again to let loose on the world. "There's somebody I'd like you to meet…"

In an instant, the horrifying visage of Lord Thanatos loomed over both of us, inky black wings and spines and tentacles whipping in the still air. And it lunged with a bestial frenzy, but not at LeBeau, no, it leapt at the shadow he had left behind, the thing that had nearly completed the incantations to unlock the Book of Making! The irony was not lost on me that in our darkest hour, I could somehow find salvation on the wings of demons…

"NOOOOOO!" LeBeau screeched as he lashed out at the demon with his tendrils of black, even as Lord Thanatos impaled LeBeau's shadow on an long spear-like tail projection that leapt forth from the almost incomprehensible form of the demon.

All at once, the shadows around LeBeau erupted in another shockwave and a similar looking titanic creature, whose form, like Lord Thanatos, equally defied comprehension. It was Lord Bane, another ancient, nearly omnipotent demon, with eyes that burned red! And it lunged and coiled around mine like two black tornado vortices colliding! All I could do was lay there, broken, as the two demons tried to consume one another.

I then caught movement out of the corner of my eye. LeBeau had picked himself up from the ground and was limping towards the book. It seemed almost inconceivable that after coming this far and fighting so hard, LeBeau was still going to triumph. No. Not this time. There was only one move left to me…

"Anne…" I choked under my breath. "… The world needs you… I need you…"

Deep in the recesses of my mind, where I had been keeping her from doing any further harm, was the spirit of my long-dead older sister, Anne… once a villainess called Toxic… and the third part of the Trinity, having sacrificed herself to help stop Lord Thanatos the only other time I had ever released him. In the past, she had been able to slip out, while I was still unawares, and live again through my body when I slept or was otherwise rendered insensate, and she did some tremendous evil. Once I learned of what she was doing, I put a stop to it, keeping under the proverbial psychic lock and key. But now I had nothing left, I didn't have the strength to even stand, let alone somehow stop LeBeau. But maybe she did… she always had a toughness that went beyond her humble powers that I never understood… and a killer instinct I could never condone.

"You didn't leave me much to work with…" came her voice in my mind as she struggled to make my broken body move again. I felt her use my right arm to painfully snap my left arm into some degree of service, and then another painful snap as she manipulated a bone in my back, then pressed skillfully on several nerve clusters, across my body, deadening the pain and giving her back some use of my limbs. "I don't think we're gonna' make it, sis. But let's see if we can go out with a bang." I just hoped she wasn't too late.

We limped towards LeBeau, who was intently trying to speak the final incantations to activate the Book of Making even as the shadowy maelstrom of a demonic struggle to the death went on above our heads near the peak of the shadow chamber. I felt a stab of pain as a narrow, spiky outcropping of rock left a crimson crease in my right thigh, one of the razor-sharp spines of rock cutting into us as we clumsily pushed through. My heart leapt into my throat as I heard LeBeau cast the final incantation and the ornate metal lock on the book finally clicked open. But it was then that he noticed me!

"Aren't you dead yet…?" he croaked, blood running down his face. His voice was no longer a sinister mix of seduction and corruption- it seemed merely human. Like my grandmother had remembered from the early days of the Guardians before LeBeau had ascended to supreme power. "Fine… sometimes the old ways are the best… I have the rest of eternity to reshape the universe."

He withdrew a long, curved dagger from the tattered remains of his armor and robe. Toxic could barely muster any kind of defensive posture, and without her trademark claws and poisons, all that remained was her undeniable martial arts skill. But as battered as my body was, I wasn't sure even she could produce much at this point. LeBeau lunged at us, dagger-first, and somehow Toxic was able to move us out of the way, pivoting to the side and striking LeBeau in his broken left arm, eliciting a snarl of rage! His attack quickly became less skillful and more… feral… as he slashed wildly, once, twice, slashing our right forearm and sending a plume of crimson regret into the air, then a third time, but this time Toxic caught his attack, spun him and tossed him across our hip, using his savage attack's momentum against him. He flipped over our body and with a nauseating squish, was impaled upon the rock formation, through which we had just struggled, his eyes a mask of confusion and disbelief as the dagger fell from his lifeless hand! We collapsed to the ground, exhausted, while the battle raged on above us.

"That's all I got, sis…" Toxic, Anne, spoke with my voice. "Finish this. I've got an afterlife I'm late for."

I knew what she meant. The demons could not be allowed to escape, no matter what, and they eventually would, as LeBeau's sorcery began to break down. With my one good arm, I dragged myself to the now-unlocked Book of Making. Only it could set this right, and as I felt the last vestiges of life draining from my body, I clumsily grabbed the book and flipped open the cover.

"You've done it…" came a familiar voice seemingly from inside my head. It was my grandmother, Bettie, the original Trinity, the voice that had guided me through all those difficult early years as a heroine. "Your time is up, and while now you can rest,  truly, legends never die…"

Epilogue

As the first rays of dawn fell across the island, the shadow tower LeBeau had constructed with Lord Bane's sorcery evaporated, the last of LeBeau's troops routed. For the first time in far too long the survivors breathed a breath that was free. Free of evil, free of tyranny, free of injustice. The Republic of Hayao was finally free.

"Is she okay?" Miss Britain asked as she approached Ruthless Razor, who was carrying the exhausted Sparkler. Nemesis Girl walked beside her, tattered Omega Latex slowly knitting itself back together.

"Yeah…" the powerhouse Hyperkitten said as she gently cradled the young girl. "But I think her powers are gone…"

"Is this true?" Nemesis Girl asked with a surprising amount of genuine concern in her voice.

"I… I think so…" Sparkler spoke, voice weak and trembling. "I can't even "feel" my powers anymore… it's like I'm… numb… where my powers used to be…"

"It doesn't matter," Miss Britain declared as her allies Rose Red and Beestung assembled behind her, battered but more or less intact. "You aunt, Trinity, saved us all. LeBeau is gone. Hayao has changed. Finally and forever."

"And what about you…?" Dragoness said as she approached, battered and bruised, pointing a broken claw at Nemesis Girl. "Last time I checked, you were a bad guy…"

"It seems I have some explaining to do…" the faintest hint of a blush appeared on Nemesis Girl's face. A little stronger blush appeared on the face of her beloved Albion, Miss Britain. "Suffice it to say, I've seen good reason to turn over a new leaf… I will cause you no trouble. In fact, I might even be able to help Sparkler gain powers again…"

"Something tells me," Sparkler responded, absently scratching through a tear in her costume top, just above her left breast, as Ruthless Razor gently lowered her to her feet. "That I'm not really going to have to worry about that."

As she dropped her tired hand back to her side, just barely visible through the rip in her top was a tiny red splotch, almost like a birthmark, very nearly in the shape of a little triangle.

(Many thanks to all of my friends and "enemies" throughout the years in the Republic of Hayao, especially to Remy Tyne for letting us all use his little sandbox to live out our fantasies, to Damsel, to Phee, to Ruth, to Arina, to Devious, to Mich, to Knox, to Loagn, to Lucia, and to all of my other friends that have come and gone,  too numerous to name. And special thanks to Jem for the inspiration for this story, the fabulous song "24".)

[Disclaimer: I tried to contact as many of my old friends and playmates from Hayao as I could, I apologize if I couldn't get to you to ask  permission. All the characters I included were meant to honor their original creators, I am in no way responsible for creating them nor do I retain any rights to them. If you do not want your character used or you want your character name changed and you are reading this, please send me a private message, I will immediately correct the situation. Also, I totally apologize if I've left out anybody who wants to be in this! Thank you for all the great memories!]