Dusk passed over the desert skies, and with the darkening clouds came a descending spacecraft falling slowly to the sands. Bright orange lights swirled around as it moved closer to the surface. The four and the two Ununquadius adults were spread out, hiding behind dunes of sand and buildings. Hazel stayed close to Anatoly since she couldn't defend herself at close range without risking her own death. As the ship landed and a ramp fell from its side, a loud hiss projected itself and clouds of steam billowed from the interior.

To everyone's surprise, only two emerged from the ship, neither of them armed other than with their Halos. The man, with four eyes, a similar tail to Rephana's, more muscle mass than what could be considered normal, and demonic leathery wings on his back and ankles, linked arms with what must have been his wife, who was built in the same way. Hazel understood why they would be good candidates for a transfer of power. There wouldn't need to be much energy used to transform their bodies.

"Hazel Von Brandt," the man said powerfully, extending his wings in a display of grandeur, "show yourself, don't be the coward you were the last time we met!"

Hazel shuddered, pressing herself closer to Anatoly, needing a source of comfort. Hazel recognized the voice as Dymo's. She knew that she would be screwed if their plan didn't work out well. His wife extended her wings, becoming a matching silhouette.

"You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide," she continued, "and you are much too simple to have anything worth hiding!"

Anatoly hugged Hazel close, not letting her be seen. He stroked her hair softly, making her feel safer and less panicked. Though her breath shook more than a chihuahua on cocaine, she still felt an emotion like serenity and calmness. In his arms, Hazel felt safe. That and the fact that they both had weapons.

Out of nowhere, Rephana took off from behind the house, catching the air below her wings and hovering with regal magnificence. She sent her Halo flying around herself, making her bluish skin almost appear to glow.

"There had better not be any others in that SuperNova of yours," she said, moving over to their ship with a raised eyebrow.

Dymo and his wife gulped nervously, denying any of Rephana's accusations. She had put together a golden ring that she wore like a crown, making her look even more majestic. Even with all of their denial, Rephana still took the shotgun and shot a massive ray of glowing purple plasma, that and its golden "stripes" lighting up the ground and the buildings around it as if it were a violet-hued day.

A few angry and pained shouts came from the interior of the ship, the ray of plasma still beaming down and crushing the ship. Rephana did not break eye contact with the two Ex-Nafs once.

"Would you really lie to your empress?" she asked, dropping the now empty gun in front of them.

Green blood dripped out of the cracks in the ship. There must have been a hundred others in it, packed together like cargo and treated like nothing more. When the ship was crushed by the superheated blasts of heavy plasma, they too were crushed, their lives being taken from them in the most cruel way possible. The thing that made Hazel even more afraid was that Rephana did not budge. She did not show any outward signs of remorse. In that moment, she had to become the female version of Aphos, which she did very well.

"No, of course not, your highness," Dymo and his wife said simultaneously.

"If that is true, then why have you been untruthful to me? I have proven that you did indeed lie, which is an offence punishable by death of you and your families. You have disrespected a holy figure," Rephana said, her speech becoming more and more precise. She really was making an attempt to imitate Aphos.

"Please spare us, your grace, we are only biologists!"

"So is my friend here, Nredoza."

With that, Nredoza emerged from behind a dune of sand, proudly holding her shotgun, pointing it at Dymo. As he recognized the woman he had tried to marry many years before and seeing where she was then, he realized just how much he had screwed up.

"Oza? Is that you?" he asked disbelievingly.

"I would pay my wings to be able to shoot you right about now," she muttered, taking the shotgun off safety, "but I can't."

"Why ca-"

From behind, Daniel Ununquadius jabbed Dymo and his wife in the backs of their necks with the emergency sedative that Nredoza had kept in her pocket, knocking them out instantly. Nredoza hoisted them both over her shoulders and marched them to the house, slamming the door behind her. Cautiously, Hazel and Anatoly came out from behind their dune, following Nredoza's lead.

Once she threw them into Hazel's room, which was already lined with some of the reactive material, Nredoza opened the window to get Rephana to tell her how to put the restraining cuffs on them.

"All you need to do is slide them on. They'll stretch slightly because of the way I designed them. Once Hazel puts her hand on them, which will activate the Halo's fluid, they will clamp onto them and grab onto their skin. If I had this my way, I'd have each of them in chains to prevent further movement, but since they'll be sedated, I don't know if it is needed."

Nredoza followed all of Rephana's instructions, ending with grabbing Hazel's hand and placing it on each of the cuffs. At her touch, they swirled until settling as a glowing aquamarine as the Halos did. Even if the sedative did wear off, the electric shock would sedate them again if they came close to any of the walls.

Shrinking herself and running into the house to join them, Rephana appeared next to them with a cloud of energy already building. She knelt down, putting one hand on both of the sedated Exans solemnly. What looked like glowing gold threads snaked their way down Rephana's arms from her heart, glittering and shining the whole way. As it connected to their hearts, Rephana began to twinge with pain. Her eyes were covering themselves as some different parts of her brain began to shut down. The wings on her neck shrunk into nothingness, and her second tail, both pairs of horns, and pair of arms disintegrated into lines of black dust. Meanwhile, six more eyes and another set of arms began to emerge from their faces, causing black blood to stream down their faces. Apparently, Ex-Nafs still bled even with their Exan abilities. With a horrible cracking and stretching noise, each of them gained a second pair of arms, small wings springing up on their wrists and necks. At that point, the ground had a solid coat of black blood over it, soaking into the floorboards and the carpet.

As the final golden thread sunk into their chests, Rephana collapsed onto the ground, exhausted. She had transformed herself into an Ex-Naf with the transfer of DNA. Luckily for everyone, neither of them experienced any change in height, but after a failed attempt to grow slightly, Rephana realized that she was finally able to belong somewhere. She spun around, looking at herself and in love with the thought of being just an Exan. Though "simple" was the worst word one could use when describing any Exan, it was the best that Rephana could come up with. In comparison to how she was before, she was extremely simple. She had lost a lot of bodily complexity, and she couldn't wait to have the opportunity to blend in with a crowd that was oblivious to her royal past.

With that change came a realization in Rephana's mind. She was not like Aphos at all, she never had been. If she really were genuinely in love with him, she would not have allowed herself to make that change. Aphos would not have allowed it and would have killed her because of it. She knew that she was finally free from his tyrannical clutches.

Rephana made a promise to herself that one day, she would find someone that she could genuinely love and receive it in return. Someone that wouldn't touch her with an angry hand. She may not have had much time left, only a few months left at most, but she knew that she was going to use those months to be proud of the face that she was an Exan Nafen and finally live her dream of living out in the multiverse, free to come and go as she pleased. She had the whole multiverse to explore instead of a mere few square meters of room. Rephana was more relieved than she had ever been before. She was free at last.