Chapter Text
Leda and the others all stared at Mihaly, taking in the words they just said. This was the student Master Panda had been talking about? The ballerina didn’t want to sound rude, but Mihaly didn’t look like much.
Then again, neither did she, Brezziana, or Sara yet the Danceverses prince had chosen them all for this quest. Plus the newcomer had the power of “Flow” on their side, supposed dance magic that could help combat against Night Swan.
Sara was the first to approach the pink haired individual, a friendly smile plastered on her face. “Hi Mihaly!” she greeted. “I’m Sara, nice to meet you!”
“Prince Wanderlust, at your service,” Wanderlust bows.
“Yo, name’s Brezziana. Welcome to the team!” Brezziana gave a thumbs up.
Leda felt a little more comfortable now that everyone else had introduced themselves to their new party member. The ballerina stepped up and was about to introduce herself when Mihaly gasped at them. Leda frowns, tilting her head slightly. “Is something wrong?” she asked.
Mihaly continued to stare at her for a second before shaking their head. “N-No…I’m fine. It’s just…” They bite their bottom lip in hesitation. “I just…remembered something important I have to discuss with my Master! I’ll be right back!”
With that the shaman left, leaving the four dancers to stand there by themselves. Leda blinked a few times. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked.
“What? No, you heard Mihaly, she just has to talk with Master Panda,” Sara tells her friend.
Leda rolls her eyes. “Oh come on Sara, from the way she was pausing she was obviously making an excuse to avoid me specifically.”
Brezziana placed her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. “Now why would she do that? Have you two met before?” she asked.
The ballerina shook her head. “No, today is the first time I’ve ever really explored the Danceverses. I’ve never met anyone else except for you guys.”
“Really? Same here girl, up top!” Sara raised her hand for a high five. Leda gave her an odd look, but eventually decided to give in and lightly slap the offered hand.
Master Panda stood outside the door to his temple, admiring the sunset. Watching the yellow orb disappear behind the horizon was always the most peaceful part of the day, the second was watching the sun rise. The giant bear lifted up his cup which had herbal tea inside, savoring the taste as he sipped. His drinking was interrupted by the door opening suddenly and his student Mihaly coming out with a frantic look on their face, it was evident why they were distressed. Master Panda lowered his cup. “I assume you met the prince and his allies?” he asked.
The shaman suddenly had a smile on their face. “Oh yes, they were such a lovely bunch,” they said in a sweet tone. “Just one thing. What was it? Ah yes, what was she doing here?!” They dropped the faux smile at that last sentence, the distress returning.
Master Panda let out a sigh before looking his student in the eyes. “I was just as shocked as you were when I saw Leda here as well.”
“But that’s not possible!” Mihaly interrupts. “She’s in Eternyx now getting ready to take over the Danceverses! She’s…” They trailed off, not wanting to finish what they were going to say. “Is this some sort of trap by Night Swan?”
The giant bear stroked his chin. “That’s what I initially thought at first as well, however I don’t think that’s the case.” Mihaly raised an eyebrow, prompting their teacher to continue. “I don’t sense a single ounce of Dark Flow in Leda here, in fact, all I detect is Light Flow.”
“Well it’s possible Night Swan could’ve attained Light Flow to do…whatever this is.”
“True, but I detect no form of malice or deceit within Leda. She genuinely wants to help with our cause and doesn’t know the truth.”
The shaman put their hands on their head, they were getting a headache from all of this. “But what is the truth?”
Master Panda lets out another sigh. “I’m not a hundred percent certain, but I think maybe time travel was involved.”
Mihaly’s eyes widened at this suggestion. “Time travel?”
“I told you before that it’s very much possible to do, but it requires an immense output of Flow to do so. And if Night Swan did somehow learn how to access time travel, why wouldn’t she just travel back in time to fix her mistakes to ensure her plans worked instead of bringing someone from the past to the future? The only other person that would be capable of this without any issue whatsoever would be The Traveler.”
Mihaly clenched their teeth. “Yeah, no, he wouldn’t do that.”
“Then this remains a mystery.”
Student and teacher stood there in silence until the latter placed a paw on the shaman’s shoulder. “You have every right to be afraid considering your past, but for now Leda means no harm and you should trust in her. However, refrain from telling her or the others about this yet as we don’t know for certain what’s going on.”
Mihaly still looked uncertain, however their teacher had never led them astray. “Alright Master, I’ll give Leda the benefit of a doubt.” They then got serious. “But if she betrays us I’m going to kill her, no mercy.” Master Panda just nods, not giving his opinion. Mihaly turns around towards the door, taking a breath before going in. They make their way back to where the Just Dancers were, all of them in the midst of conversation.
Sara leaned to the side and saw them, waving over at them. “Hey, Mihaly’s back!” she announced.
This prompted everyone to turn back and see the shaman, the last to do so being Leda. The ballerina and shaman were both uneasy, however they didn’t show it on their faces as they walked up to each other. “Sorry about running off like that,” Mihaly apologized. “I just remembered at that moment that there was an important move my master forgot to teach me prior to this mission, I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t mess it up should the time come and I need to use it.”
Leda nods in understanding. “Wanting to make sure it was perfect? I understand,” the ballerina replies, failing to notice Mihaly go rigid for a second. “Though someone recently told me that perfection isn’t everything.”
Mihaly relaxed at this, a reassuring surprise. “Well this person is right, perfection isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be.”
“I’m glad we were able to get off on the right foot.” Leda turns towards Wanderlust. “I hope you don’t feel weird about being around four women.”
Mihaly’s lips pulled into a firm line. “Actually, I’m non-binary,” the shaman explained. “I don’t identify as a girl or boy.”
Leda’s eyes widened a bit upon hearing this. She had heard about gender identities but never gave it much thought as she never met anyone else who didn’t identify as male or female. She didn’t really get it, however she still decided to respect this decision.
“Okay, thank you for letting me know about that,” Leda nods.
Wanderlust claps his hands together, getting everyone’s attention. “Alright, now that we’re all together, it’s time to plan our next move against Night Swan.” The prince then produced a chalkboard with chalk drawings of the group. “First up, we portal into Eternyx right into Swan Tower where we’ll sneak around until we find the people Night Swan corrupted in Swan Minions.”
The blue man then drew Night Swan, with big angry eyebrows to emphasize her evil. “We’ll use the power of dance to turn them back to normal, but should the big bad herself show up, we’ll need to work together to take her down.”
Leda raised a hand. “And we do this by dancing, right?” she asked.
Wanderlust nodded. “Exactly, the more people that dance together, the stronger the power of the Flow it produces. It can go toe-to-toe with Night Swan’s magic despite how powerful she is.”
“They say teamwork makes the dream work, and this just proves that saying,” Sara giggles with her hand close to her mouth.
Mihaly nods. “The power of the Flow shall guide us to victory,” they said with a small smile.
Brezziana puts her hands together, cracking her knuckles. “Now I’m getting pumped up,” she admits. “When are we leaving?”
“In half an hour, we need to prepare ourselves for the endeavor ahead.”
Jack Rose sat alone in his bedroom, something he did often throughout his life. He recalled the numerous times his mother would tell him that she was ever closer to ruling the Danceverses, however the son never really believed she would do this.
But he had been wrong about this, not that that wasn’t anything new.
Jack sighs as he looks over at a framed photo resting on his nightstand. It was a picture of him and his mother hugging while smiling towards the camera. He had been a kid at the time of the photo while his mom was younger. The one who had taken the picture had been none other than his father, whom Jack hadn’t seen since the night he and his mother left for Eternyx.
The redhead frowns. He wondered how his dad was doing now? Mother told him it was best not to think about the older man, but Jack never understood why. From what Jack remembered of his dad, he had been a man who loved him dearly, showing him the wonders of the Danceverses through a grand window in his Space Hotel. Jack would often copy his father’s moves whenever the older man would open up a portal. It was fun.
But then mother told them that they would be leaving without father.
Was his dad actually a bad person? As a celebrity, Jack knew that people in the industry could be two-faced about their true nature, sometimes being able to hide it throughout their career. Even though Jack didn’t have any evidence to say otherwise, he didn’t think his dad was actually a bad person. When the redhead got older, he attempted to reach out to his father but had no such luck in doing so. For a bit, Jack did actually believe his father didn’t care about him until he learned that people in Swan City had no outside contact access to those outside the city.
Jack had asked her mother about this and she had explained that people outside of her city were untrustworthy, the citizens in her city were all trustworthy. Jack didn’t know about that, but he dared not challenge his mother about it.
The celebrity set the photo down only to see the other one beside it. This one also featured him as a kid only there was another kid smiling next to him. It was a girl with long pink hair with a red shirt and a blue jacket over it.
Jack felt a pang in his heart when viewing the photo. God, he missed Mihaly, he wished things had ended better between them, maybe then they wouldn’t have walked out on Jack and things would’ve been different.
The man took a deep breath to calm himself. He left his room and traveled down to the basement of Swan Tower. Along the way he saw Night Swan practicing some spell in her throne room, Jack paid her no mind and continued.
The basement of Swan tower seemed empty upon first impressions, a vast void of blackness that seemed to go on forever. The only sound present were the footsteps of Jack as he walked in before stopping. Fishing out his phone, the man contacted his manager.
“I’m ready.”
“Cool, wait a minute then show yourself.”
Jack did so before speaking, “Send me up.”
Light glowed underneath him, showing that he was standing on a golden platform that began to rise up. The ceiling above him parted and when the platform got to the top, Jack was standing outside of Swan Tower and was surrounded by large crowds of fans.
“Oh my Selios, it’s Jack Rose!”
“Jack Rose!”
“I love you Jack Rose!”
“Have my babies!”
Jack Rose smiled, a real, genuine smile as he looked at his adoring fans. “Hello people of Swan City!” he began, summoning his golden microphone from out of nowhere. “Are you ready to make some noise!?”
His response was a noise of cheer that was like a packed stadium. “Sorry that I only have time to perform one song tonight, but I’ll make it worth your while!”
The music started up and the crowd went crazy when they realized Locked Out of Heaven was about to play. Jack was mainly known for covering songs-favorites being Bruno Mars songs-but his fans didn’t mind as his voice was incredible.
Jack gave his all at his concerts, this one no different despite only one song being performed. His fans were one of the best parts of his life, even if he didn’t know them on a personal level, their love and support really helped him get through the days.
The performer was nearing the end of the song, really getting into it as he thrusted his shoulder to the beat, pumping up his fist a few times before gripping his mic stand once more. For the ending of the song he did his signature move, he was so good at it that he could do it with his eyes closed, which was precisely what he did. Jack ended his routine feeling satisfied.
The man opened his eyes only to see the stage and audience completely gone, replaced with a familiar black void. There was a pink strip of light coming from behind, Jack looking behind him.
Standing in the doorway was Night Swan and she didn’t look happy. She didn’t appear mad like she usually was whenever she caught her son dancing or doing a concert, but her expression read clear disappointment.
“Jack, you know how I feel about you performing your concerts,” the woman began. “Especially since you refuse to let me use your audience as Swan Minions.”
Jack looked away with an annoyed look on his face. While he obeyed his mother’s wishes, he had put his foot down the moment he suggested that idea for the first time. He was surprised his mother hadn’t lashed out at this defiance, maybe she was impressed by it.
Night Swan smiled. “Normally I would be more bothered by it, however, I’m in a good mood because of what’s about to happen. Prepare yourself.”
Jack looked back at the door in time to see his mom warp away. He arched an eyebrow. Get ready for what?
Suddenly a portal opened up behind Jack and he turned around to see there were visitors to Swan Tower. He recognized most of them, first was the Danceverses prince, Wanderlust. Beside him was the internet influencer, Brezziana, maybe he could get her autograph. Then there was…Mihaly… Man, they still looked cute even after all these years. Besides the shaman was a new face, a young woman with blue hair and a fuzzy yellow jacket. And finally next to the newcomer was-
Jack did a double take before his jaw dropped when he saw the last woman. “Mom…?” he quietly said to himself.