NAOKI AND ILLIAS RAN INTO THE MALL, high on alert. Their hands twined together as they peered around the corner, hearts thumping.

"Safe," Illias whispered, moving forward into the sprawling hallway.

Naoki scampered after him, led by his hand wrapped securely around hers.

"Why did you find me?" Naoki murmured as Illias slid to a stop, glancing around another corner cautiously. "You should have let me die."

Illias gripped her hand with white knuckles. "Don't say things like that."

She squeezed back. "I'm glad you came."

"You're the lynchpin, Noki," he softened his voice. "I love you. You're important to me. But even if you weren't, I would still have come for you."

For some reason, that was reassuring. To know that she was important to him.

But for some reason, her hands felt like they were burning, the one interlocked with Illias' heating rapidly. Smoke billowed from their fingers, black and thick.

Naoki flinched back, hand flying to her mouth.

Illias jerked towards her. "Noki! What's wrong?"

She blinked. Nothing. Naoki trembled.

"Nothing, nothing it's fine," Naoki gave him her best grin. "Just thought I saw something. I'm sorry, I'm a little jumpy."

"It's fine. I've got you," he reached for her. She stopped his hand gently.

"Just a little space," she gave him an apologetic smile. "I feel like sprinting. And you holding my hand was a little claustrophobic."

His face fell, sharp features dulling. Illias opened his mouth.

Before he could say a word, black smoke poured along the glowing gold hallways of the mall like a tidal wave.

Naoki gasped again, staggering away. "Illias, do you-- Illias do you see that?"

He did. His face was pale, his body tense. "Naoki, you need to run. Right now you need to get out of--"

Too late.

The black shadows exploded, erupting like geysers before them, suspended in the air for a brief moment of terrifying beauty, until the splayed droplets solidified into fingers.

Two shadow hands stabbed out. One grabbed Naoki, the other squeezed around Illias.

The Queen of Shadows' head pushed through the smoke churning on the floor, as large as her hands, and glanced at the two struggling captives in her fists.

"My, my," the Queen purred. "Tricky ones we've got here. Illias, pleasure to see you in the flesh."

"You don't have a right. You can't do this yo--"

Shadows swarmed over his face, gagging his mouth.

"Shh, shshsh," the Queen hushed, looking extremely tired. "I can do what I please. Now. Naoki, lovely. We had a chat about this didn't we. The consequences."

Naoki's stomach felt as if it were falling down, fifty feet below, and splattering onto the marble floor. Dead man. Deadly woman.

"Please," Naoki begged, her voice hoarse and strained. "I'm sorry. I'll do whatever you want, just let him go."

"Gladly," the Queen of Shadows smiled. She turned, her massive chest and shoulders sending ripples through the shadow-water. Behind her, a glass-encrusted Cartier store sparkled.

The Queen shoved Illias inside, sealing the door shut with a mass of black shadow.

Naoki strained to look at him, to make sure he was okay. Inside the Cartier, from this high up, he looked like a bug in a cage. Angrily, he slammed against the windowpane.

"Reinforced glass, sweetheart," the Queen cooed. "Meant to protect diamonds and gold. Surely enough to contain a little shit like yourself."

"What do you want from me?" Naoki demanded, her voice as tremulous as the glass that Illias pounded on.

The Queen of Shadows gave her a sly, oil-black grin, looming over her, her teeth a shining white asteroid threatening to collide into Naoki's wobbly spinning earth. "Just a little duel. Me and you. Nothing else."

Naoki could hear Illias screaming from behind his cage. Her legs dangled in the air as she twisted to look at him, to meet his honey brown eyes with her own shadow-black ones. He was shaking his head, his face a furious, terrified red, the veins in his neck throbbing like a bleeding wound.

Don't do it Noki, DON'T DO IT. RUN. NAOKI, RUN.

But she couldn't run. Not from this. She'd spend her whole life proving that she was a fighter. She would not run now, not when her whole world was at stake. Not when her Illias was at stake.

She glared up into the face of the Queen.

"You have a deal."

The Queen of Shadows smiled, red lips stretching hungrily over fang-white teeth.

"Good girl."

THEO, XANDRA, PARIS, AND DEXTER HUDDLED TOGETHER BEHIND HANNA. Theo's fists were up, Dexter clutched at the baseball bat, and Paris hoisted his chair like Babe Ruth at the plate. The door was rattling like a hurricane, Damia clawing at the shuttered window with a desperate, predatory fury.

Xandra tugged Hanna's arm. "We can't fight them. This is madness."

Hanna gave her a sad smile. "We're all mad here, Xandra."

She shook her head. "No. We're not. I'm not doing this."

The Damia raged against the door, howling and baying, splintering sounds erupting from the other side as if the world was caving in on itself. Dexter and Theo flinched simultaneously.

"You don't have to," Hanna reassured her, eyes soft. "None of you have to do this. Take Mrs. Wine, hop out that window. I'll cover for you until you can get to safety. I would never ask my children to fight in a war that they did not wish to be part of."

Xandra shook her head, an inexplicable wave of heat rushing over her. "No! That's not an option, either! We're not fighting, we're not staying. Damn Mrs. Wine and damn the school. We can still be safe!"

Paris put a soft hand on Xandra's shoulder, letting the chair fall to his side. "We can't just let her die. If we're leaving, we're taking Mrs. Wine with us."

Xandra shook him off, teeth gnashing. "So you'd tell us to drag a body of a woman that we loathe instead of taking a better chance to save a woman that we l— that knows us?"

Hanna smiled tearily. "I'll be fine."

The door screeched once again, crying out as nails ripped down its front, as Damia toiled to break its bones.

"No! You can't be serious!" Xandra whirled on them. "Theo? Dexter? Really, you want us to abandon Naoki's mom? For this bitch?"

She gestured to the unconscious woman, her lipstick smeared, her head lolling as drool trickled from her sallow mouth.

"Is that a toupee?" Paris whispered, peering closer at the teacher's head. Dexter smacked him.

Hanna, vibrant, glowing with luminous hope. And a single moon-tear welling up in her deep, dark eyes. Naoki had her mother's eyes.

The door gave a final scream, its chest rupturing into wooden slivers.

"Go, my children. I'll be fine. Find Naoki for me, and tell her that I'll make her favourite soup when she gets home," Hanna smiled. Her hand brushed Xandra's cheek, light, soft, and warm. That single touch carried so much. Xandra felt her heart crack. "Mrs. Wine was somebody like me once. Let her be somebody I could be."

A black, shrivelled claw burst through the doorway, black oil dripping from wooden splinters embedded deep into its skin. The Damia yowled with obvious glee.

Xandra couldn't think of anything. Her brain, which moved so fast, all the time. Her restless legs, that demanded dances and drugs and dares to keep her muscles from atrophying. Everything had come to a shuddering stand-still. Her greatest asset, her speed, had finally failed her.

"I—"

"Go," Hanna urged, pulling Xandra in for a hug.

That hug felt like the world coming together and falling apart at once. It was a woollen blanket on a cold, crisp day. It was dry clothes after being soaked in the rain. It was sobbing into pillow sheets and laughing into blankets. Xandra had read about true love, she'd seen the movies where the world stops and spins all at once when the characters' lips meet. She knew that she was supposed to find someone who would make her heart cry, someone who would light the match that burnt the phoenix to ash so it could start again.

But this was love.

This was true love.

And Xandra didn't know how she could ever find something she needed so much after she herself let it go.

"I love you, Xandra," Hanna whispered into her hair, arms soft and firm around her. "Don't blame yourself. It was my decision to make. And gladly, I'd make this one a thousand times again for you."

Then Theo was pulling her through the window, her body floating. Time had slowed, but she wasn't running. She was fighting to stop time completely, to let it slow so she could stay in that moment. Never before had she wanted to be so still.

The last thing Xandra saw was the door exploding open, and Hanna screaming into the faces of demons. Xandra shut her eyes. She did not want to see what would come next. She did not want to remember Hanna falling, or the way her body crumbled, or how she looked so small on the floor and covered in red.

She wanted to remember Hanna as Hanna. Funny. Game-loving, endlessly playful. Spunky, earnest, and horrible at understanding sarcasm. She wanted to remember the feel of her hand, warm and lovely, against her cheek. The tough callouses and the worn nails. That was how Xandra wanted to remember Hanna:

Forever a mother protecting her children.

NAOKI AND THE QUEEN CIRCLED EACH OTHER.

"The terms are simple. You kill me, and you win," the Queen smiled, swan limbs flexing with catlike grace. Shadows coiled off her body, unraveling like a smoke train. She was human-sized again, just a few inches taller than Naoki. Her lips moved with effortless grace. "I subdue you, and I get to kill the boy. And you do whatever I say."

Naoki grit her teeth, strands of greasy pink hair dangling down her face. "Define subdue."

The Queen smiled, as if Naoki had passed some test. "Very well. I pin you down, to the floor, and Illias over there begs for your life."

"You won't kill me," Naoki scorned.

"No," the Queen agreed, "But he thinks otherwise."

Naoki turned to glance at Illias.

In the reflection of his glass wall, she could see herself and the Queen. Except they were no reflections. They were smoke, blurry at the edges, speaking when Naoki's lips remained sealed. The mirage of the Queen drew a knife across her throat in a threatening gesture, and Naoki's mirage blanched.

Illias slammed forward into the glass.

"He sees what I want him to. Only when you defeat me will the truth be revealed. If you don't, then we all remained trapped in this deadly little game," the Queen murmured.

Naoki tore her eyes away. No use in trying to save him, not right now. She needed to kill the Queen first. "Give me a knife."

"Very well."

The Queen tossed her a knife. Not an illusion, but solid, heavy in her grip, and cold to the touch. The Queen drew her own knife from a sheathe on her thigh.

"I hate to fight with my daughter," the Queen laughed, and she began to pace. Naoki followed her, dancing slowly around the centrepoint, watching her with foxish clarity.

"I loathe to kill my mother. Matricide isn't pretty," Naoki countered.

"Then don't kill me," the Queen whispered, mouth falling open slightly. Then she lunged.

Naoki leapt back, her own knife darting out. The blade caught the edge of the Queen's sleeve, slicing off the shadow. It fluttered to the ground, moulting and shuddering. Something about it changed.

But she had no time to look. The Queen attacked again, her knife swinging. Naoki felt the cold kiss of blade against her neck, then a light feeling at the base of her scalp. She glanced back. Pink hair coated the floor like snow.

This time, Naoki lunged. Her knife fluttered, always moving opposite of her arm, so if her blade didn't find the Queen, her fists would. The ripping of cloth sounded through the empty mall, and the hem of the Queen's robe sheared off. Again, it shivered, and blanched to white. Naoki narrowed her eyes.

"Trust me, child," the Queen leered. "You couldn't kill me if you tried. Your father raised no killer."

Naoki scoffed. "I have no father."

The Queen gave her a sly, white-fanged grin. "Don't be so sure."

Naoki darted forward. Her knife slashed, clashing into the base of the Queen's, slamming her backwards. "I need no father. He could be real. He could be my teacher, my neighbour, even my pastor. But I have never needed him. And I never will."

"Isn't it lonely, not having a father?" the Queen simpered. "Aren't you missing something?"

"No."

The Queen smiled pleasantly, as if her arms did not buckle under Naoki's strength. "So sure? I've heard your cries into your pillow at night. You're missing something."

With every word, Naoki pressed closer. Her knife sang with savage delight. "I have my mothers."

The Queen grimaced, her eyes flaring, straining against Naoki's strength. "Yes, your Mima and your Mum."

"My mothers," she repeated, forcing her arm down. The knife point wavered dangerously close to the Queen's white breast. "And my brothers. My friends."

"And your boyfriend?" the Queen asked quietly.

Naoki did not dare to look at him. She knew a trap when she saw one. Her eyes never left the Queen's.

"I have lived without a boyfriend. I will continue to do so, should we separate," Naoki growled, shoving against the Queen's arms. "We choose who we fall in love with. But family requires no falling. They are the ones who catch us."

"And yet you've spent your whole life fighting to prove that you deserve to fall in love," the Queen whispered. "I've seen your past. You led Illias into Mirage. You showed him something spectacular, and you kissed him there. How could he resist? How could he not fall in love with this powerful, magical girl? And you did it on purpose. You set the trap for him to fall."

"And where did that get me?" Naoki asked. "The hall has fallen silent. Illias has stopped banging on glass. I may have set the trap, but he saw it. He did not need to trigger it."

"And you still could not keep his love, even though he chose your snare," the Queen pouted, her arms pushing back. Her own knifepoint touched Naoki's chest.

Naoki grit her teeth. "I do not need his love. I have a family. I don't have to chase him anymore."

The Queen gasped with effort. "Oh? And when did you realize such a thing? Just now, I suppose?"

"When you tortured him before me," Naoki was sweating, her clothes sticking to her back, her hair damp. "When I looked in his eyes, those phantom eyes you gave him, and I saw love. You showed me what I wanted. But he was an illusion. He's always been an illusion."

"Two years' relationship down the drain?" the Queen struggled. "To throw it away, just like that?"

Naoki panted. "It's been a long time coming. Once I save him, I'll be done with him. Once I kill you, I'll be free."

"Are you certain?" the Queen's breathing was ragged, sweat dripping down her brow. "Are you sure?"

Naoki gave her the barest grin. "Always."

"Very well," the Queen said. Her arms softened.

And Naoki's blade sunk into the chest of the Queen of Shadows.

The Queen threw her head back, her long white swan neck extending, laughing. Her black hair spilled down her back, sliding over the blade protruding from between her shoulders.

"Good job, angelfish," the Queen sighed, patting Naoki's cheek. "You're finally free."

Then everything dissolved into smoke.

author's note!

heyyyy we're back! hope you enjoyed. i know the ending here is kinda rushed, but honestly i just want to get this applyfic finished so (maybe) i can edit it to be better.

i'm sorry for unaliving hanna. but don't go away— i promise it'll get better!