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The Ring. The Arena. The Crowd. The Opponent.
It wasn't Ma's gym. It wasn't the convention center. It was somewhere else. Somewhere that defied reason.
The crowd? And infinite, faces inchoate mass of vaguely human shapes and colors. As faceless as they were she knew they were staring at her.
The opponent. A monster. A beast of nightmares. A purple beast in the vague shape of a human.
She made her way to ringside, the crowd cheering her on in waves of wordless droning.
She stepped into the ring. She was fearless. This monster was no more a match for her than any other she ever faced. Besides, this was a rematch.
But then, the ring dissipated into nothingness. She stood in a white void watching the blob of humanity shuffle and move towards some exit beyond the horizon. As the seating grew empty they too went away. Eventually there was nothing but white.
And then the white faded away and with it, sleep.
Maria Alvarez looked at her alarm clock. Exactly 6AM. Despite barely having 3 hours of sleep she found herself wide awake.
She didn't know, but she knew. A quick look in the mirror confirmed it.
Auburn hair, the same color as her sisters.
It was gone. It was over. She thought she was ready. Maybe she was. But there are some things you can never truly be ready for. Losing magical powers, powers that define you a person during your journey to adulthood, was one of those.
Maria could only sigh, stare at the mirror for long seconds, then sit back down on the bed.
A week. Only one week after her 18th birthday. Quicker than most.
She had to talk to somebody.
"Hello?" A sleepy male voice answered her on the phone after several rings. Maria always forgot that Alexis' dad always beat her to the phone. It wasn't a mystery why.
"Oh sorry Mr. Bailey. Did I wake you up?"
"Uh yeah..."
"Sorry. Um...is Alexis there?"
"She's asleep."
"Can you wake her up? It's important."
"Can it wait?"
"I'd really prefer if it didn't."
"Alright. Don't blame me if she's cranky."
Maria knew full well Alexis would be cranky.
A short time later Alexis's half-asleep voice was on the other end of the line.
"Maria what couldn't wait until later?"
"I'm...sorry Alexis."
"That's not an answer."
"I'm...not going to be able to help you with the rest of the dry runs."
A moment's pause.
"SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Another brief pause, the sound of Alexis's father in the background, followed by Alexis saying 'Maria's lost her powers dad' away from the receiver. "Damnit. Fuck. Seriously! Couldn't wait another week?"
"You don't choose Alexis."
"I know...I know...just...fuck! This is a disaster. We're starting finals and now this is jammed up our asses. I don't even know what we're gonna do now!" Alexis was now fully awake and extremely agitated.
"You and Lily will be fine. You haven't even needed me." Maria knew Alexis would respond like this. She wished she wouldn't. She felt bad enough about the situation already.
"Ugh...shit. Sorry, I can't even process right now. You ok on your end?"
"I think I'll be ok. I think. I should have brought this up later. You need your sleep."
"You need yours. It's still like 5 hours until finals time and none of us have slept much."
"Don't think I'm gonna be sleeping. Worst case scenario I can probably convince my teachers to move my finals since nobody's gonna get on my case for not being up to taking tests the day I lose my powers."
"But then you'll just have to take more finals on other days."
"That's why it's a worst case scenario."
"Yeah..." This day was already feeling catastrophic. "Did you wake up Lily?"
"Not yet. I called you first because if I called Lily first she'd jump off the phone and call you and I'd hit a busy signal."
"Figure that out by now?"
"Yeah." Maria realized that while she had Alexis on the line there was something else she wanted to ask. "Are you and Lily cool? You know after what happened?"
"Why wouldn't we be?"
"You seemed really creeped out about the whole 'thinking Lily has a crush on you' thing."
"I mean...she's ace. or aro. Both? She doesn't care about falling in love or whatever. She just wants to lock me up so I don't abandon her for some guy."
"You're not...I mean you're going to abandon her are you?"
"Having to split my time will suck, hopefully I'll find a guy where I don't have to cleanly separate friend time from boyfriend time. But what Lily and I have gone through is something no boy can ever match."
"That's good to hear."
"Buuuuuuut. And don't tell Lily this obviously but while we're on the topic. I'm feeling a lot of pressure from her. She doesn't have a ton of family. Just her dad, mostly. We're her only real friends. She never hangs out with anybody from HQ outside of HQ. Maybe that'll change in the future but for right now that's what it is. And even then what you and her have is different than what her and me have. I think what I'm saying here is I really hope whomever we wind up choosing to replace you can help me fill that void. And none of the people we've worked with so far have that."
"I mean that's not the most important thing."
"Oh no. But it is still important. Without you around she's gonna lean on me more than ever and that might be a bit...much."
"I don't think I can help with that Alexis."
"I know. I shouldn't even been talking about that right now it's just...if Lily's ideal life is just me and her forever..."
"I know Alexis. Just...be there for each other. Especially now. Ok."
"Ok. You sure you gonna be all right?"
"I don't think I'm gonna need like, therapy or anything. I am going to dye my hair though. The yellow hair is part of the whole 'Fenix Rojo' thing."
"Why not dye it red if rojo means 'red'?"
"The Fenix symbol itself is red, and yellow complements red. I'll probably dye the tips red though. Might need to get that professionally done."
"Cool."
"Anyway, I think it's probably time to call Lily."
"Maria. If you need somebody to talk to, you can keep talking to me. Just let her sleep."
"Alexis...you need sleep. I shouldn't have called so early."
"Worst case scenario, I fail a few tests. Oh no, my wonderful future that is completely dependent on my grades?" Alexis's sarcastic told Maria the stuff she talked about a week ago still weighed heavily on her mind.
"I know you don't mean that Alexis. Get some sleep. I'll see you later. I'll leave Lily alone and find somebody else to talk to."
"I think I will. And Maria."
"What?"
"Thank you. For everything."
"You two will always be my sisters. I will love you forever."
"I know. You too. G'night."
"Night."
Suddenly Maria didn't feeling like talking to anybody else. Not yet. She felt the sudden need to reflect. Even though Alexis couldn't bring herself to use the word 'love' it's obvious what she meant. It filled her with a great and glorious warmth. Even in this moment. Even in the first minutes of the rest of her life as a powerless civilian, she couldn't help but feel an absolute explosion of joy within her. Being a magical girl gave her so, so much. So much fame, so much power, and so, so much love. Best friends, sisters. The privilege of watching somebody's life change for the better in front of her eyes and knowing how important she was in that change. And being able to be a magical girl and a wrestler at the same time, in front of the largest crowd her family's wrestling company had ever performed in front of. It was sad that it ended but so, so much more wonderful that it happened. In that moment she didn't think her heart could hold it all.