Wish

"What are you?" Wish asked, her eyes narrowing. "Seriously, what the actual hell are you? Again and again, why do you get back up no matter how much I knock you down!"

"That's rich, coming from you," Cinder said flatly.

"I heal! My power literally allows me to return from the dead! But you?" Wish sighed and shook her head. "Whatever." Jagged bone spikes ripped their way out of Wish's body and began to twist. "I guess I'll just shatter your soul the hard way." The monster sneered.

Hope didn't even bother looking at Wish. She instead looked around. They were still having a battle of wills. Neither of their real bodies currently mattered. Instead, they were nothing more than broken souls competing within Wish's dead world. The acid rain still poured down, and her entire body ached. She was covered in hundreds of cracks, forming strange spider-web patterns across her flesh and costume. She was missing an arm, and even part of her face was broken. Wish, on the other hand, was perfectly fine. It was hard to tell if the villain had even been damaged at all.

"You can't beat me!" Wish declared. "Just give up and die!"

Slowly, Hope fixed her gaze on the other girl. "For a moment, I did give up." She admitted. "As ashamed as I am to admit it, part of me wanted to stop. To let it all end. To not have to worry about anything else. I changed my mind, though. Fighting for the sake of fighting isn't something I am good at. I want to just fight to save people. To protect those who are in need. That's why I'm going to save Cora and the Brightest Star. They're both counting on me. Countless others are as well. For a moment, that burden proved to be too much, but I managed to stand back up. I won't fall down again. Not ever. From this point on, I'm going to be the superhero I wanted to be. One that can save everyone."

Wish's sneer grew, and the girl charged forward. "Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night, Cindy! I honestly don't care! As long as you and I fight, I will always come back better than ever! You can't kill me!"

Hope lifted her remaining arm as Wish charged at her. She thought about putting up her guard, but she changed her mind and instead did something else. "I'd like to know it." She said quietly. "The reason you are the way you are. You said Wish wasn't your real name. That this wasn't who you used to be. Well, let's see it then. Who are you?" Hope snapped her fingers.

Wish felt her eyes go wide as the area around the two of them began to shimmer and change. She jumped back, expecting Cinder to launch an attack her way, but it never came. Instead, she found herself suddenly standing in a classroom. Both of them were battling for control over which soul would come out on top. Wish had assumed she was on top, that the landscape was hers alone to control, since she was more experienced at messing with the soul, but she made a mistake. One she realized in that exact moment as she glared back at her enemy. There were two... She wasn't just battling Cinder. Someone else was there. The Brightest Star was giving the dying Lord every last drop they could muster. Her soul was fighting both of theirs.

"What did you do!" Wish demanded. She looked around the classroom. It was a memory, so none of the kids that were seated at the desks could see or hear her. "Where did you take us!"

Hope looked around, taking the sight in. "I guess even if you, yourself, forgot this, it still never stopped being a part of you. I got the idea to do this after you forced me to relive all of my memories."

"Where the hell did you take me!" Wish yelled.

"Everyone better be in a seat." The door to the classroom opened, and a tired-looking teacher entered, followed by a young thirteen-year-old girl. "Okay, I'll make this quick since I'm tired. This here is Mary Roads." The teacher said after some time, and he gestured to the girl that stood next to him.

"Mary?" Wish whispered quietly and stared at the younger girl.

Mary was rather shy-looking. She had short, messy brown hair and various freckles that dotted her skin. Her eyes were wide and rather innocent, hidden behind a pair of round glasses, and the heavy coat she wore hid dozens of the scars and burns that lined her body. Hope looked the girl up and down as well. She hadn't been expecting something like this. The thought that Wish of all people had been normal?

"Who the hell is she?" Wish sneered, her confused look being replaced with annoyance as she glared at Mary.

"You can drop the act, Wish," Hope said quietly.

"She was the top of her class at her old school, and so they thought it would be best to move her over to our wondrous academy." The teacher said sarcastically. "It is my hope that she'll cause you slackers to pick up the pace and work harder."

Wish's sneer only grew. "It's not an act. I don't need to remember someone as worthless as her. Just look at her. She's no better than a mouse! Constantly bounced around between orphanages, going through dozens of families, only the bad ones, mind you, because she can't bother to stand up for herself. Someone like her shouldn't exist."

"Isn't she you, though?"

"No!" Wish spat out. "No, no, no! I can't die! I can't be harmed! My body heals from anything and doesn't leave scars! Not like this bitch's body!" Wish grabbed Mary and ripped the jacket off. No one in the memory reacted, not even Mary herself. The only person that took note of the change was Hope herself, who gasped. Beneath the jacket, Mary's stomach was covered with dozens of crisscrossing jagged scars and lines. Various burns, bruises, and cuts all lined her flesh, but the most prominent ones were all around her wrist and just under her collarbone. "She scars and breaks so easily. Don't you dare compare me to her! Just like how you aren't the same little baby that sobbed her heart out when her poor father was hurt!" Wish screamed back at Hope, glaring at her rival.

Despite Wish's rage, the memory carried on, Mary's jacket forcing itself back onto her, as everything happened in the order it was supposed to. "Of course, out of all of you, there is one in particular I'm thinking of." The teacher announced. "I'm, of course, talking about Ms. Laison!" He slammed his hand down onto a desk that had a sleeping girl resting on it. "How many times have I told you not to sleep in my class?"

The girl that fell seemingly caught Mary's attention, a fact that angered Wish even further. "Amy." Wish winced softly as she said the name. Amy was a little older than Mary, wore baggy clothes, and had tangled, messy hair. Even from where she was standing, Hope could see the stress lines covering the girl's face, and she wondered just what sort of city this was.

"Now that sleeping beauty is awake, let's go ahead and start class." The teacher said, moving back to the front of the room. He gestured to the girl, who was still standing awkwardly near the entrance of the room. "Ms. Roads, you can go ahead and take a seat near Laison near the back. Let me know if she disturbs you in any way."

Hope watched as Mary awkwardly took a seat next to Amy and tried to strike up a conversation with the other girl. "Hi?" Mary said a little sheepishly.

"You're talking to me?" Amy asked, surprised.

"I guess?"

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why?" Amy demanded.

"Because she doesn't have any friends and thinks if she acts pathetic enough, it'll get someone to notice her." Wish snorted. "She's too stupid to ask for help, so she assumes if she just exists long enough, someone will come to her rescue. God, I hate her so much." Wish clawed at Mary and split the girl in half, causing Hope to flinch a little, but Mary's body simply repaired itself as the memory forced it to keep going.

"We'll, we're sitting next to each other, so..." Mary trailed off.

The teacher seemed to notice the two girls talking and barked an order out at them to stop, causing Amy to sigh. Despite being told to do so, though, they didn't and kept trying to chat. Hope remained on the sidelines, watching the story unfold, slowly processing what she was seeing, all the while Wish kept attacking Mary, over and over again, every chance she got. Just like with Avalon's memory-based powers, the emotions seemed to flow out of these memories, and Hope could feel it. A bubbling of hope and joy. Mary was happy to be talking to someone. Happy that she wasn't being hurt, at least. Flashes would appear in the memory. Mary's last few foster parents hadn't been very kind...

Again and again, Wish would attack Mary or other people in the scene, though Wish never attacked Amy. It seemed the white-haired girl had almost forgotten about Hope, not even shooting her rival any looks anymore, and instead tried to disrupt the memory, but no matter what she did, it kept going, and soon it became time for school to end.

Amy was just about to leave school and head down the street when Mary called out to her. "Hey, wait up. I wanted to say sorry." Mary said, breathing heavily once she had reached Amy. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble during class."

"Trust me, you didn't. That bastard has it out for me." Amy let out a soft snort.

"Why?"

"Because I'm not the perfect little girl he was expecting." Amy chuckled darkly. "He wanted a daughter that would obey him like a slave."

"You're his daughter! But your last names are different?"

"Stepdaughter." Amy shrugged. "My dad died. I think my mom cut the brakes on his car, and he flew off into a river and drowned. Poor bastard. About a year ago, she remarried that prick we call a teacher since he comes from a filthy rich family."

"That's..."

Hope rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly as she listened to the two girls talking. "I never really considered how many people out there suffer because of things like this. It's not really an issue you can throw a superhero at, but still, someone should have helped. And this city..." The city sucked. That was the only way she could describe it. It was gloomy and dark, and everyone seemed depressed. All the buildings were built in weird ways, and no one seemed happy. Least of all, Amy. Mary was one of the few people that had a smile on her face.

"What about you? I can tell you're not one of the rich brats. Why are you here?" Amy asked Mary.

"He sort of explained it already. I'm a transfer. I live on Widow Street. My grades were really high, so I guess they decided to take me out of Widow Academy and put me up here in this school with all these fancy kids. It's a little overwhelming, to be honest." Mary chuckled.

"Widow? That's like the shitty part of town, isn't it?"

"Yeah?" Mary didn't sound happy to admit it.

"So, I'm guessing your parents aren't coming to pick you up then, are they?" Amy questioned.

"No. I was just kinda planning on walking back, I guess."

"Well, if you don't have to head home instantly, do you want to have some fun?"

"Fun, how?"

Hope watched the two girls walk off, making their way through the depressing-looking city. They both looked pretty happy for the most part. "What's with that smile?" Hope jumped a little and realized Wish was glaring at her again. The villain had finally gotten bored attacking all the memory people.

"Sorry," Hope said sheepishly, and she looked back to the two girls. "This is just strangely familiar in a way. It reminds me of when I met Kyle. That's why I have a feeling I know what's about to happen."

She was right.

"Do you like heroes?" Mary asked Amy as the two of them began to head into an alleyway.

"I guess. Doesn't everyone?"

"I doubt villains do." Mary hummed.

"I don't know. The way some of them focus all their effort on a rival and chase after them. I think that's a form of love in a way." Amy stated. "I think villains love heroes more than anyone else. Without the heroes, they wouldn't exist after all. They'd just be monsters."

"So, have you always gone to that school?" Mary asked, changing the subject.

"Nah. Just recently, like you. Only for about a year, in fact. I'm trying to tough it out until I'm able to join the army."

"You're not very girly, are you, Amy?"

Amy just giggled and shrugged. "I'm too busy trying to survive to focus on things like that. What about you? Is this the first expensive school you've gone to?"

Mary shook her head. "I never knew who my parents were. I was on an adoption list and have sort of moved across the country a few times. I never seem to stay in one city or school for very long. Usually, I get sent back to foster care and am loaned off to some new family that wants to try practicing having a daughter before they realize I'm smart and they try putting me in a fancy school, only to then see how expensive it is and how little it benefits them, so they then send me back to foster care."

"Here it comes." Wish muttered. "The moment where shitty Mary dies."

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" At the end of the alleyway, a man stood. One dressed in gang clothes with the symbol of a skull. He held a switchblade, which he flicked back and forth as he walked forward slowly. "Looks like we got quite the nice-looking catch today, boys." There were several other men who stood behind him.

Hope watched the confrontation between the gang and the two girls; all the while, Wish stood next to her. The white-haired girl folded her arms and frowned. "You don't know how lucky you are." Wish hissed. "Not all of us are saved by a hero. Not all of us get to go on living the same way. You were privileged. Far more than she ever was. She died this day because no hero bothered to show up and save her. Because she was unlucky. Because no one ever helped her."

Hope watched the confrontation as Amy shoved herself into one of the men, who in turn swung his knife. Mary threw herself in front of Amy, about to take the knife stab, but it never came. In a flash, Hope grabbed Mary and dragged the girl out of the way, the swing missing her entirely. Wish raised an eyebrow.

"You know that isn't how the memory went, right?" Wish finally let out another giggle. "Nice try, but that doesn't work. You didn't save her. You didn't do shit. No one did. Mary died, all because she was alone."

"I know." Hope kept her arm tightly wrapped around Mary, and she stared down at the brown-haired girl sadly. "I know that this isn't enough. Of course, it wouldn't be. Still, I had to try, right? I saw someone in danger, so I reacted."

"Well, sorry, but you might be the kind of person that could have saved Mary, but no one else is." Wish sneered, and the image of Mary faded away. Wish forced her will back on the world, and for a moment, flashes of Mary's life filled the area around them. All the abuse and torment she had undergone. "I don't know what you were trying to pull, but it doesn't matter."

"I just wanted to know," Hope said, a little bummed by the whole ordeal. Her own will took over, and flashes of her life replaced the ones of Mary. Her living happily with her mom and dad was followed by Mary being sent to her fourth family. Her playing video games at Armin's house was met with Mary being admitted to the hospital after receiving third-degree burns from foster care. Her playing catch with Mr. Larison was met with Mary sitting in her bed, forced to listen to the screaming match between two foster parents in the other world. "I just ask guys like Red Ape and Green Wolf why they decided to be evil. I stopped asking that when I ran into Polaron. He was a Monster. Someone born to be a weapon, whom the world turned their back on. Even if he did decide to try and be a hero like Wyvern or the others, they don't get the care they need that can help with how out of control their powers are. His lashing out at the world was wrong and evil, but I can kind of understand it. I think if something like that kept happening to me over and over again, I'd be mad at everyone as well. In a way, I did lash out at the Hero Branch all because I was mad. I was lucky to have a lot of friends and people who cared for me. Yeah, there were plenty of bad moments in my life, but that doesn't mean I suffered as much as others. Still though, I think you got something wrong."

Wish raised an eyebrow as the world around them began to crack and fade away, leaving them standing in her dead world once more. "Oh? And what's this? Your last dying speech before you truly fade away? Well, come out with it then."

"Mary didn't have to die."

"What?" Wish's smirk vanished and was replaced with anger once more.

Hope looked back at her. "I get that you went through a lot of horrible stuff. So much that you wanted to lash out at everything. I get that no hero was there to help you either. It must have seemed impossible at the time to actually do anything good, yet it still did exist. Guys like Polaron didn't have to pick the side of evil. Mary might have suffered a lot, but she didn't have to fade away and become someone else. You could have opened up a new chapter and tried to make a difference."

Wish spat and clenched her hand into a fist so tight her nails dug into her palm. "Oh, that's so easy for you to say! You were born special! Given loving parents who raised you and taught you what was right and wrong! You didn't live in a shithole your entire life! I killed Mary and became something more! Something better! I won't listen to you preach to me just because you got to live the life that I never got! Yeah, I killed people, a lot of people! Because it was fun! Because it was the only thing I enjoyed doing after going through the motion of a worthless life like that! This is who I am! Don't try to bring Mary back because that won't work, Cindy! I am Wish! I am the one who will kill you and claim your powers as my own!"

Hope shook her head. "I'm not trying to bring Mary back, and I wasn't trying to preach to you. Sorry if it came off that way. I just wanted to get that off my chest since I doubt I'll ever be able to say something like that again. You were a kid back then, scared of the world that had hurt you. You've grown up now, though, and you've hurt so many people. Some of which I even know. I can't forgive you, but I'm still glad I saw that because it made me truly consider how many more cases like this happen and how little heroes can help with everything."

"Wait." Wish took a step back as it suddenly dawned on her. "Oh, you absolute bitch. You're feeling pity for me, aren't you!"

"I'm feeling pity for what happened to Mary; I thought you said that you two aren't the same person."

"Fuck you!" Wish balled her hand into a fist, and muscles as well as bones began to spill out. "Screw this. I got all lovey-dovey around you and let you have your way since this is the last time we'll get to see each other, but I'm done! I wanted our final moments to be sweet and romantic, but you just had to ruin it! Screw you! Just die already!" Wish stomped her foot down and summoned her spikes. Or at least she tried to, but they never came out. She gritted her teeth and tried again, but nothing happened. The world wasn't obeying her.

It wasn't obeying Hope either, though.

'You and I are engaged in a sort of tug-of-war with her.' Hope could hear the voice of the Brightest Star whispering in her ear. 'Because it's both of us trying, we're able to match her at least for now, but it won't be forever. You need to end this and do it fast. Think you can handle that?'

"I'll do my best."

'That's the spirit, partner. Take her down!'

"Whatever!" Wish charged forward. "I'll do it the old-fashioned way! You're injured after all-"

Cinder took a single thundering step forward and rammed her fist straight through Wish's right arm, blowing it clean off. Wish felt a wave of pain course through her, and she hissed out, kicking at Cinder and jumping away. Wish got some distance and glanced down at her missing arm in shock. From the shoulder past, it was totally gone, and it wasn't coming back. No blood flowed out of her, but a strange mist-looking substance did hiss out. Small cracks formed where the wound started and began to slowly expand out.

Cinder clenched her remaining hand into a tight fist and held it up. "I told you. I'm still not going to forgive you for all the horrible things you did. You had a shitty life, and it does suck, but you still did bad. You're a villain. I'm sorry a hero wasn't there to save you. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there. I can help the others, though. Every person that you could hurt. I can save them all here and now by beating you. I'm motivated now. I work better when there's a clear goal before me."

"Bitch!" Wish grumbled and dug her fingers into her missing limb. She didn't have access to the fire powers she did out in the real world. In here, it was just her and her powers. The same went for Cinder, though. They were at the end of the road. Only their powers could decide this outcome now.

Not all powers are equal. Some are godlike, like the Four Lords, and some are so weak you might as well not even have them. That said, I have found four main things that determine how strong you are. Body, Mind, Spirit, and Luck. The more fit you are, the more your head is in the game, the more you put your soul into it, and the luckier you are, the stronger you'll be.

At this moment, while she might have lacked the body and luck, she more than made up for it in her mind and spirit. Myth had come up with the four ideas on what determines how strong someone could be. Hope had made up her mind. She was going to win. For everyone else's sake.

Wish readied her other arm, and it split open, forming into a long tendril, which began to whip back and forth. Hope wasn't the only one that was determined. She was just as eager to win this fight. Everything and more that she could ever want all required that she come out on top. There could only be one winner. A single driving force that would leave one of them devoured and the other whole.

"Wish!"

"Cinder!"

Cinder charged forward, using everything she had to launch a powerful punch directly to Wish's skull. Her strike came out fast, and as she unleashed her blow, Wish struck her back, the bladed tendril launching out. Hope felt a wave of pain as it easily tore through her legs, ripping them both off, and she began to tumble, but her fist was going to strike true and tear off Wish's head-

At the last second, Wish literally split her head open, opening it up, causing the fist to go straight through it. Wish curved her body, reformed her head, and grabbed Cinder's wrist, her arm twisting back to normal. Cinder was forced on the ground face-first, missing both her legs, one of her arms, and the other limb was held tightly in Wish's grasp. Wish forced a large grin onto her face and lifted her foot up, slamming it down onto Cinder's face. "I win!"

"Not yet!" Cinder gritted her teeth and struggled, her arm attempting to shove its way through Wish's hold. "I'm not done yet!" She wasn't alone in this fight. Unlike every other fight she had gotten into ever since she regained her body, she had been alone, but with how close her soul was to being destroyed, she was able to make the reach and touch the Brightest Star once more. That meant she was able to ask for help. "Just a bit! Help me, partner!" Red hot flames gushed out of the tip of her fingernails, running down her arm and reaching her elbow. Her arm was rocketed forward, lifting her entire body up and catching Wish off guard. "It's over! You're through!" Cinder declared as loudly as she could.

Her arm broke through Wish's guard and rammed its way directly into Wish's stomach. Wish gasped, and her eyes went wide, but it was too late. Large cracks began to appear all along Wish's skin, which started to open, fire pouring out of them as Wish's body ignited. The fire kept coming, coating Cinder's entire body and forming a pair of legs for her to stand on, which she used to dig her heels into the ground and get more leverage as she shoved her arm even further through Wish, letting out a loud yell. Wish yelled back, and then in a bright flash, the fire exploded, and it was all over...

The fight had come to an end.

Hope blinked as the scene around her twisted and changed. She was in a stone room—the one from before. The throne stood behind her, and seated in it was the Brightest Star. The little girl still clutched her Full Monarch doll and had a grim look on her face. Hope took note of the Lord before her attention went fully to Wish. Wish was in the middle of the room, hanging above the ground. Wish's form had changed. The girl was still missing an arm, and she now had a large hole right through her chest. Hundreds of cracks danced along her form, all opening. The most notable thing about Wish, though, was that her hair was no longer white. It had changed to a messy brown. Freckles covered the girl's face, and her red eyes were replaced with tired-looking brown ones.

"Don't let your guard down." The Brightest Star said softly. "Just because she's like this doesn't mean she won't pull anything."

"No." Hope shook her head and stepped forward on her new pair of fiery legs. "It's over."

The Brightest Star's look shifted, and the little girl nodded. "Okay, then? Well, remember what I said. You have to-"

"Yeah. Yeah... I know." Hope moved until she stood directly in front of Wish. Wish cranked her head up weakly and stared at her, the girl's brown hair falling down her face. "Hey..."

"Hey..." Wish gasped out as more cracks split their way through her. "Well? What the hell are you waiting for? Don't tell me you're getting cold feet, you big baby. Isn't this what you wanted? Get it over with."

"I'm sorry."

"Seriously, fuck you!"

Hope shook her head. "I'm not going to forgive you. I'm not going to act like you can be redeemed or that you deserve a second chance. I hate you, even after everything. I utterly despise and resent you, and I wish that we never met because you hurt so many people that I cared about. I actively know that my life would be better without you." She took a deep breath. "Despite that, though, you suffered. More than most people should. So many of you guys all suffered. The world hurt you, so you hurt it back. I'm sorry that you couldn't live a good life. And... I'm sorry I'm about to kill you."

"How dare you pity me." Wish glared at her.

"You were once an innocent person. I don't think anyone starts off evil. I still feel sorry for Mary, and that means I can feel sorry for you." Hope reached out and placed her hand on the girl's skin. "You said you didn't know what happens to a soul when it dies?"

"Of course not. It's the greatest mystery." Wish sneered. "No one, not even the Emperor or the Lord of Life, knows."

"Maybe there's an afterlife. I hope at the very least you won't simply cease to exist." Hope nodded. "When it comes to you, I think I'd like to make a wish. I think for bad people like you, ones who suffered so much and in turn took their anger out on the world, it would be good if you could be reborn. Maybe in another life you could live happier. Maybe you'd even be a Super who doesn't have to use her powers for the side of evil."

"Again with the preaching."

Hope gave a sad smile. "Yeah. Sorry. Still, if somehow that does happen. If by some weird miracle you are reborn as a good person, why don't you come look for me? I'll save you again and again as many times as I can, now that I know." She wrapped an arm around Wish's waist. "Later, Wish."

Wish closed her eyes. "Yeah, whatever. I love you too, Cindy. See ya."

There was a loud crack, and in an instant, Wish, or Mary, or whatever you wanted to call her, shattered to dust. Hope felt a weird tingle go through her body, and in a flash, all her damage healed, her limb came back, and her cracks refilled. The stone room lit up, and fire spread out, returning to the way it should be. 

"Ah, much better." A new voice let out a satisfied sigh, and Hope turned around and took a step back at what she saw. The Brightest Star had grown up and now looked almost like an older version of her. Instead of a child, a twenty-something-year-old woman casually sat on the throne, long blonde hair flowing down her back and piercing red eyes that stared at her host. She still held a Full Monarch doll, holding it to her chest.

"Damn, is that what I'm going to look like in a couple of years?" Hope asked, taking note of the bumps on the Brightest Stars' chest. "Aw, nice, those gotta be at least a C, right? Hell yeah, they will grow in!"

"Please stop fawning over yourself." The Brightest Star said flatly.

"Sorry, it's just wow, I am hot."

The Brightest Star sighed. "And I'm waking you up."

Hope gasped as her eyes shot open. She was no longer in the stone room covered in fire. Instantly, she knew she was back in the real world because she could hear Cora screaming for help. Wish was gone, the giant dragon having seemingly vanished, but she knew the truth. The soul determines the body, and Wish no longer had a soul, so there was nothing... Wish was gone, likely for good. It was finally over.

Hope sat up and looked down at herself. She was still in the costume Mr. Larison had made her, and all the damage she took was gone. Just like when she got blown up with the Beast, her soul reforging had healed her, only this time, there was enough to salvage that she wasn't reduced to a childlike form. She felt stronger, and faster, and pretty much better in every way possible.

"You in there?" She tapped on her skull.

'Yeah.' The Brightest Star's voice echoed through her mind. 'I'm here. Good news, we're back.'

"Fully?"

'Sort of. After consuming Wish, her soul was large enough to fully plug in the Lord of the Sun's half that I am. That said, the Lord of the Cosmos's half is still missing.'

"Damn, so I'm still half a Lord?"

'Don't be too sad; the half of an Ego within you is still far stronger than my siblings.' The Brightest Star almost sounded smug. 'I don't mean to brag, but out of all my brothers and sisters, I alone stood at the top as the strongest, and even now, I doubt anything has changed.'

Hope nodded, but she only half listened. She lifted a finger up and hesitated for a moment before forcing her power to swell up. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when an orange flicker appeared at the tip of her finger and a ball of fire blazed into existence. It crackled and hissed in the air and grew or shrunk as much as she wanted.

"Finally." She smiled, and a surge of power exploded through her, her hair turning golden and her eyes igniting with a fiery red. "I'm back." She flexed her muscles, feeling her power swell within her, and the flames danced across her new costume, centering around the cape and lighting it up.

'After your supposed death, when our Egos merged together, you grew a lot physically stronger. In a way, you were almost as strong as your old battlemode. Now that I've managed to piece my broken Ego together and fully return our power to what it should be, your current level of strength should be a bit weaker than the fire form you entered when you took on the Beast.'

"I'm almost as strong as that version of myself." She said, a little stunned. "I was a total badass like that, able to harm the Beast. What will happen when I try to reenter that form? The one beyond battlemode?"

'Sorry, but that won't be possible.' The Brightest Star snorted. 'We're back, but we're still only one Ego inside of a body. Perhaps if we can fix the other side, the Cosmos side, but the Sun side and your human Ego, have totally become one. That form you entered during the Beast, the one that goes beyond the power of a Lord's typical form, requires the Lord' Ego taking charge, or giving you all of their power, but currently there is only one Ego inside of us, and we're basically the same person, so I can't swap or give you anything, since you already have it all.'

She clicked her tongue, a little disappointed, but nodded. "Yeah, I guess it wouldn't be that simple. Oh, well." Her flames danced across her fingertips, and she quietly watched them for several moments, simply smiling.

'Are you okay? You're crying?'

It was faint, but a few tears streaked down her cheek. She quickly wiped them away and balled her hand over the fire, putting it out. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just a little emotional. I guess, despite everything that happened, I'm still me." She shook her head and forced a smile back onto her face. "I've been meaning to ask, by the way. Since I did absorb Wish..."

'No, you won't have any of her powers.' The Brightest Star finished for her. 'She was a Super as well as the Lord of the Land and Life. You were just a human and a Lord, so your Ego is different from hers. She had managed to mostly fix her Super Ego, but her human one was beyond shattered and destroyed. She was planning on shoving the embers of the Lord of the Sun into there and forcing herself to become the new Lord. You, on the other hand, consumed everything that she was. I used the human parts to fix you up as best I could, and her Super parts went to me. We didn't just super glue her on, when I have them in my clutches I break them down to their rawest form, getting rid of any shape or form they might have once had, so you shouldn't have any influences or new powers, since by that point it stopped being her Ego, and instead became the primordial mud the Almighty used to shape all of us.'

She nodded faintly. "I don't fully get it, but it sounds good to me. It would have been cool to have some of her healing or something, but I guess it's best that Wish is truly gone." Her smile faded for a moment. "She did a lot of bad, but it only happened because of everything that happened to her."

'That's not your fault, though.'

"Yeah. I know. Still." She steeled her nerves. "I'd like to stop someone like Wish from ever being created again. I don't want people to become evil because the world failed them. I want to be there for them and help them. I know that they can do a lot of bad things, and they still deserve punishment for those bad things, but... I don't know, I just wish they never ended up in that situation to begin."

'All you can do is try. Keep trying and saving as many as you can. Not even Full Monarch could save everyone. Not even he was a perfect God that could bring peace. No matter how much some insist he is. Everyone fails. Even me and my siblings. You've failed more than anyone, yet you've gotten back up, time and time again. So keep trying. Any time someone is in front of you that needs help...'

"I'll save them." She promised. If anyone was in danger and she knew about it, she'd simply stop at nothing to save them.

Speaking of someone being in danger...

"M- Ms. Cinder, if you're done talking to yourself, can you help me out?" A sheepish voice requested.

"Oh my God, Cora!" Hope jumped into the air and fired out a wave of her flames, boosting herself onto the large bowl that Cora was in. "I'm here. Sorry, a bunch of stuff just happened and- Well, look! I got fire powers again!"

"Like Queen Cinder?"

"No! Mine are way cooler than hers!" She formed a massive fire hand and stabbed it into the jello-like substance and casually pulled Cora out, the fire not burning the girl. "There we go. Good as new."

Cora let out a sigh of relief and shook herself, trying to get the sticky substance off of her. "Finally. Gods, that sucked!"

"Yeah. Sorry." Hope said sheepishly. "I really didn't mean to forget you."

"It's fine. I think? That other girl? Queen Cinder, or Wish, or whatever her name is? Is she dead?" Cora asked.

Cinder's look changed, and she nodded her head. "Yeah. I'm sure this time. Never again. She won't ever hurt anyone ever again."

Cora also nodded. "Okay. Can we leave this place? I'm kind of having a panic attack, I think."

Hope smiled and took the other girl's hand. "Yeah. Let's go-"

She was cut off instantly when the cave began to rumble and shake. A crack echoed through the chamber, and the bowl began to break, the liquid flowing out of the holes that began to appear across it. "The sacrifice was incomplete." A booming voice resounded. "How dare you. I will take it all as compensation. Your world will come to an end. Ash and Ruin is all that will remain."

A hand, one forged of solid gold, stabbed its way out of the ground. Hope wrapped her arms around Cora and jumped back just in time as the hand slammed down where she had been standing. She let out a soft curse. Of course, it wouldn't be over so easily- I wish I had never played a game to win; the girl always played to make sure other people lost. She had saved Cora; in other words, whatever weird ritual 'Queen Cinder' had been on about had just been broken.

'Not good.' The Brightest Star hissed out.

"What is it?" Hope asked, glaring at the large hand.

'A Ruler. Possibly the strongest Ruler.'