Chapter Text
"Master Joker?"
"I'm busy, Naru."
"Awh, c'mon."
"It's not polite to interrupt."
"Oof, bad move, you should've pitched that one."
Ahem. "Thank you for the advice, Naru, but really—"
"Oh, take that! That'll help!"
"Naru, dear, I—"
"Gin." Ritz interrupted the banter between Joker and the manic blonde pixie of a girl that hovered over his shoulders, fanning her hand out in front of her to prove her victory. "Sorry, Joker, seems this game is mine."
Joker growled in exasperation, laying his hand down on the table. "It's impossible to play properly with this canary chirping in my ear." He didn't even care that he'd lost the game—it was rare for him to take a full game off Ritz in gin rummy—but Naru's spastic presence made focusing impossible.
"Sounds like a skill issue, Master Joker~" Naru tossed out a trademark peace sign, lightning sparking like a Jacob's ladder between her fingers.
"T'es chiant." Joker massaged his temples; he felt a monster of a headache coming on the longer Naru stayed around. "Well, you have my attention now. What do you want?"
"Now, now, Joker, there's no need to be terse." Ritz picked up her teacup and took a sip. "Perhaps she's just bored."
"Exactly! You got it, boss lady—I'm super bored!" Naru pulled out the empty third chair and plopped herself down, cheeks puffed out in a comical pout. "Mally went to some place called Kanon Town, Sho's always hanging out with that sourpuss Storm, and Yoshi and Hikage won't stop fighting!"
Ritz quirked an eyebrow. "They're arguing?"
Naru slumped over the table, her forehead going thunk against the hard ebony. "No, they're just beating each other up for fun. I don't get it, but apparently they like it."
Thanks to a few sips of tea and far more sugar than usual, Joker's headache had begun to subside. "So, what, you want something to do?" True, the Bad End Precure—rather, the Terminus Five now—had more or less recovered from their rebirth from the Dreaming Pool. Perhaps it was only to be expected that they'd start getting bored and looking for action. "Madame Ritz, what do you think? Is our dear Naru ready for the field?"
Ritz's too-white teeth bit into an almond biscotti, snapping it off cleanly before she answered. "I believe so. She's been quite rambunctious recently, hasn't she? It could do her good to work off some energy. Let her have a crack at one of the worlds we've left untouched."
Naru perked up immediately. "Really?! Oh, thanks, Big Boss! You're the best!" She hopped to her feet and clapped with glee, even giving a squeal of delight. "Well, where am I goin', Boss? Say the word and I'll get going!"
"Joker, take her to the Panopticon. Let her choose."
"As you wish, madame." Joker rose from his seat and bowed deeply. "Naru, come." He whistled to her and beckoned as he walked away, and Naru followed at his heels like an obedient puppy.
As they left earshot, Ritz leaned forward and picked up one of the cards Joker had left on the table. "Hmph, you should have listened to her, Joker." A smile crept onto her lips.
The Panopticon sat atop an impossibly tall tower, accessed by a staircase that Naru couldn't see. From her point of view, they'd simply gone in one door and out another, but that didn't explain the burning in her thighs and calves. She didn't bother to ask, instead marveling at the inside of the Panopticon. From the outside, it seemed like a simple lighthouse tower, but from the inside it was much different: a single platform, almost too small for even Naru's small feet to stand on, surrounded by a seemingly infinite spread of stars around her.
"Wow... this place is crazy. What do I do next, Ma—" Naru turned to address Joker, but he was surprisingly absent. It was just her and her thoughts, alone in this silent, starry space. As she looked around in wonder, a blip of light caught the corner of her eye. When she snapped her gaze to it, she was awed by the sight of a supernova blooming bright somewhere in the Andromeda galaxy. As she reached out towards it, the Panopticon spun around her at dizzying speed, the field of view rushing inward until it was swallowed by the sight of the dying star.
For once in her short second life, Naru was rendered speechless. It's beautiful. A star's final exhalation was a sight to behold, and thought the light was fading, the brilliant swirls of colors still dyed the inky blackness of space, and would for ages to come—long after Naru herself inevitably died again, she thought.
Star. Star. Star.
Hey, isn't there a Cure Star?
As if in response to her thoughts, the field of view whirled again, away from the supernova in the Andromeda. The Panopticon's unseen eye cast itself across untouched stretches of space towards the Milky Way. To Naru's surprise, however, it looked not to Earth, but to a planet located quite far away from the Sun and Earth she knew. It looked strange, like an oversized jelly candy floating in a pastel space. Odd, space doesn't look like that. She tried to zoom the view in closer, but the Panopticon seemed to be straining as it was and didn't budge. No matter. Guess I'll have to check it out myself. "Hey, Panopticon. Can you send me there?" She wondered aloud. It seemed to respond to her thoughts and gestures, so why not her voice?
She received no answer, but nevertheless a light began to suffuse her body, and she felt a sensation like she was being pushed... or thrown.
Ah, here we go.
Lala was startled awake by the urgent, staccato beeping of her communicator. Groaning and shifting semi-upright, she reached over and tapped the button to patch it through. "Lala here. What's the situation-lun?" As an inspector for the Starry Sky Alliance, Lala was no stranger to calls out of the blue, but it always irked her when they woke her up. She turned to look over her shoulder at the other side of the bed, noting that Hikaru wasn't present. Must be having trouble sleeping again...
A familiar voice, belonging to her coworker Jacky, came through. "Lala, 'm sorry to wake ya up, but the Alliance HQ's detected somethin' weird comin' in hot on Saman."
That got her out of bed quick. "What is it-lun? An asteroid, comet, something else?"
"We can't get a readin'. The EM sig's so off the charts that it damn near fried our sensors."
Lala chewed her lip, a human habit she'd picked up from Madoka fifteen years ago. "I'll head to Saman IO and see what I can gather from it-lun."
"Good luck, yer gonna need it. Jacky out."
The communicator clicked off, leaving Lala to mull over the information. After a moment, she turned the communicator to a channel she kept reserved, one only a scant few people knew of. "Hikaru, are you there-lun?"
A few seconds of static, then a response from the other end. "All ears, Lala. What's up?"
"I need you to meet me at Saman IO as soon as you can. Apparently there's some kind of anomaly coming in hot-lun."
"I know."
"Eh?"
"I'm watchin' it right now."
Lala's heart skipped a beat. "What do you see-lun?"
"Like a bolt of violet lightnin' streakin' across the sky. Splittin' clouds and headin' straight for the sea off Oboro Beach."
Lala chewed her lip again. "...Copy that-lun. New plan, you head for Oboro Beach and tell me what you find there. But don't do anything stupid, got it?"
Hikaru laughed. "Oh, don' worry, I remember what happened last time I got hurt goin' to check somethin' out. I'll be careful, miss Inspector."
Lala puffed out her cheeks. "Hikaru, I'm serious—"
"I know, I know. Lala, don't worry, if I make a promise to you of all people I'm gonna keep it."
Hikaru's words reassured Lala, but she couldn't ignore the knot forming in her stomach. "...I know-lun. I love you, Hikaru."
"Love you too, Lala. Over and out."
Lala exhaled a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, then threw on her coat and hurried out the door of her apartment. Please just be nothing. Please just be some weird quirk of the cosmos. Please don't be something that'll cause problems.