Their standoff felt like it lasted a lifetime, but it might well have only been a few seconds. The stalemate broke abruptly when the Imago raised his hand towards the ship. Amber opened to say something, a warning perhaps, but there was no time to react regardless. The four passengers screamed as a massive bolt of lightning jumped from the crystal below, smashing into the ship. The magically created vehicle bucked upwards from the jolt and then started to plummet, taking the passengers inside with it.

                “Hold on!” Aron yelled, briefly flailing like the rest as he reached for the controls. His panel appeared to be dead and the interior was dark, but still he tried all the same. Not that Sunyoung could do much. Her feet weren’t even on the ground anymore and she was just as helpless as Wonshik and Jackson. They all sort of hovered in that weird freefall of madness, descending towards the crystal below.

                “Aron!” she yelped, contorting in the air to get a better look at him and trying not to see the danger below.

                “Just a… got it!” he cried in triumph, snagging the control stick and yanking himself back into the seat. There was no initial response, filling Sunyoung and company with dread, but then it hummed to life in a burst of power that echoed through the cockpit, making her ears ring. “Move!” Aron commanded, yanking hard on the control stick.

                “AH!” the remaining trio shouted, the sound turning to pained groans as they crashed into the floor of the ship. They fell silent as pressure grew, smashing them harder against the unforgiving metal, and then slid backwards when the ship tilted.

                “It’s fighting me,” Aron announced, arms trembling as he maintained his death grip on the control stick.

                “Hold on,” Jackson groaned, hauling himself to his feet awkwardly. Wonshik crawled over to help Sunyoung while the other man plodded to Aron. “You got this,” he encouraged, placing his hand atop Aron’s and grabbing his crystal with the other. Power reverberated through the cockpit once more, setting Sunyoung’s hair on end. All of a sudden, the pressure stopped and, as they looked out from the front portal, they could see a shimmering bubble surrounding them. Small trails of lighting flickered over the surface, dancing from the crystal below, but the power was no longer affecting them.

                “Thanks,” Aron gasped, tension leaving him briefly as he relaxed for just a moment.

                “What did you do?” Sunyoung asked, blinking quickly as she held to Wonshik and shuffled to the two up front.

                “Set up a reflective power barrier on the outside to break us free from the crystal’s pull,” Jackson admitted with a wan smile, though his eyes were a bit dazed.

                “You okay?” Sunyoung asked with a worried look.

                “Mostly. Just feel like I’ve been punched by a giant,” he added with a small shake of his head.

                “Look sharp,” Aron called out, drawing their attention back to the front. With the ship now level and rising slowly to come abreast of the platform, they could see the Imago and Amber both. She looked amazed and the man looked… irritated or angry.

                “What’s the plan?” Wonshik asked, glancing around quickly as Jackson flinched when another arc of lightning danced against the reflective barrier.

                “I suggest we do something soon,” Jackson encouraged, complexion pale. “My crystal keeps getting bigger but I’m starting to fade here. Can’t keep it up too much longer,” he explained with a grimace and a look at his fist-sized crystal now.

                “If possible, we should probably split up,” Aron commented, gesturing vaguely at the screen so they could see they were starting to gain an audience.

                “Are they all Royals?” Sunyoung wondered with some trepidation.

                “No idea, but it doesn’t change that we still have to get Amber out of there,” Wonshik shook his head. “Splitting up sounds good. May have to try that hoverboard idea,” he added with a predatory grin. “Wish me luck!” he cheered before narrowing his eyes in a focusing look and promptly disappearing.

                “Wonshik!” Sunyoung yelped, feeling his disappearance keenly as he was there and then gone with no warning.

                “There!” Aron pointed, drawing their attention to the front and above them.

                “Idiot!” Jackson snorted, though his mouth pulled up into a slight grin.

                Just above the ship and using the reflective shield as cover from the lightning below, Wonshik hovered on a board, both hands on either side of him, apparently ready for anything. Taking a page from Jackson, he conjured a protective bubble and then darted forward.

                “Careful!” Sunyoung warned uselessly as lightning jumped up to follow him. It bounced off harmlessly but did knock him off his course, forcing him to change his plan. The Imago beside Amber raised his hand to follow and more lightning trailed after, proving to be a powerful irritant but little more. Yet.

                “See if you can’t do something about that container,” Aron suggested, leaving it open to interpretation as to who he was talking to.

                Considering Jackson was already busy, Sunyoung assumed it was her. Even as Aron jerked the controls, making them another moving target to help take the heat off Wonshik as he tried to get close, Sunyoung focused on Amber’s holding cell. She wasn’t sure what she could or should do, but the magic hands idea had worked pretty well before. “Here goes nothing,” she murmured, moving to anchor herself against Aron’s chair again so she could focus on her task.

                Once more, she envisioned hands in the air, feeling them like phantom extensions of herself. Honing her will, she directed them to the container and tried to find a hold or a crack to pry at. Pushing against it didn’t do anything as it was like waging war against ice – hard and slippery. There was nothing to actually grab either, because of the same problem. And then she was just reflexively grabbing at anything as the ship she was in moved without warning.

                Aron and Jackson yelped when the vessel careened upwards and to the side, rammed by a concentrated burst of collected lightning from the crystal below. “What was that?!” Sunyoung cried as she struggled to center herself in the present again.

                “I’d say an electrical battering ram,” Jackson muttered under his breath, visibly sagging and white as a sheet.

                “Any luck?” Aron asked, glancing back at Sunyoung as he started to pursue evasive maneuvers. It was hard to avoid lightning when it was directed from someone below though…

                “No,” Sunyoung scowled in frustration. “I can’t find a ho-” she started to say before they were yanked down, picking both her and Jackson off the floor. He lost his concentration and the reflective barrier around them shattered. Electricity hummed immediately after, coursing through the ship with mad abandon. There was no time to react or do anything more than scream as the power from below grabbed and shook them like a rabid dog.

                Sunyoung balled up tight, curled close and clenching the crystal hard in her fist. With her eyes clenched shut, she couldn’t see, but there was no mistaking the sound of anguished metal as the ship was ripped apart around them. She screamed, as Aron and Jackson screamed, and then fell silent, breath stolen by a sentient arm of lightning. A white hot tendril s around her waist, constricting painfully before it threw her away.

                “Sunyoung!” someone cried as something caught her. It was enough to slow her but not stop her momentum altogether as her and her rescuer crashed against a wall, nearly knocking her senseless. For a moment, she just hovered in a state of bare consciousness, body singing with pain, before the air shifted. It grew strangely quiet and she felt unaccountably weak all of a sudden. More so than just from being electrocuted and tossed. “Sunyoung?” she heard again, the voice familiar and worried. Hands grasped her face gently, cradling it. “Look at me,” the other person… no… Amber whispered.

                The realization was enough to make her pry her eyes open and blink rapidly up at the other woman’s face. Fear gave way to relief and her dark eyes relaxed immediately, taking years off the expression. But not enough… “Amber,” Sunyoung whispered, reaching to clasp the hands against her face. “You’re older,” she added, thoughts coming together slowly. On one level, she knew she should be worried about what had just happened, but the most obvious thing in her immediate sight was that Amber had wrinkles and graying hair and she wasn’t supposed to…

                Amber’s lips thinned slightly and her forehead creased in concern, but she went on, “Are you okay?”

                Taking a breath and gathering her senses, Sunyoung nodded slightly. “I think so.”

                “Good. Come on then,” Amber urged, shifting her hands to better help her sit up, even as her gaze shifted to look at something else.

                Sunyoung rested against Amber’s chest and turned to follow her gaze, flinching when she saw the Imago from before. He was watching them with interest, expression mostly unreadable. Behind him were two other figures. Older if she had to guess. One male and one female. They looked absolutely beautiful but unimpressed by everything. “The guys!” she gasped, jerking as her attention shifted to the open air where they had just been. The ship was gone and she didn’t see Aron, Wonshik or Jackson in the immediate vicinity.

                “They’re over there,” Amber pointed quickly, moving her arm to continue shielding Sunyoung as best she could after the fact.

                Following the direction, she noticed several other pillar capsule things that were now transparent. Figures were in them as well, but it was hard to tell from here who they were exactly. She didn’t doubt Amber’s knowledge though. Confused and starting to become panicky, Sunyoung her lip and looked back at the nearest Imago. “Is that…?”

                “V,” Amber answered with a scathing glare at the blonde, almond eyed man. “Spoiled prick,” she muttered, her expression darkening when he smirked at her look. “And his parents… That would be Jessica and Heechul. They got tired of his toying with you guys and ended his game early.”

                “He was toying with us?” Sunyoung murmured in dazed realization. It was definitely possible. He was using the power of the crystal below after all. There was no telling how much he would have been able to draw from it. No wonder they’d felt so exhausted.

                “Why did you come back?” Amber asked, ignoring the question. “I told you to escape,” she laughed once, the sound both amazed and bitter at the same time.

                “I couldn’t just leave you to die,” she admitted quietly, turning enough to look up at the other woman. “You’re one of my best friends.” And maybe something more…

                Amber snorted through her nose, a pleased but sad smile pulling at . “Okay, but how?” she wondered, shaking her head.

                That made Sunyoung sit up. “I found a crystal!” she gasped, uncurling her fingers around the palm sized gem.

                “Eh?” her companion gasped in surprise, blinking at the gem in astonishment.

                “I can get us out of here,” she grinned, turning to look at V with a triumphant smile. It worried her that he saw the crystal and laughed, but she pushed it away to focus. Immediately though, something felt wrong. In her hands, the gem felt dead. Like there was no power at all in it. Trying harder, she grimaced when nothing she did or envisioned made anything happen.

                “What’s wrong?” Amber asked, both hands resting on Sunyoung’s back encouragingly.

                “It’s not working,” she admitted, glancing at V, who was obviously talking but mute, and then at Amber again.

                “-are soundproof unless you change the properties,” a woman’s voice intruded, drawing their attention with a wave of her hand. Jessica looked at V with a nonplussed expression on her flawless face and he wilted just a touch under her dark eyed glare.

                “Mother,” he grumbled, shoulders hunched. It would have been amusing under other circumstances.

                “Honestly. Your obsession with Amber has been a little beneath you, son,” Heechul spoke this time, running slender fingers through his bright red hair.

                “But she-”

                “Tried to kill you?” Jessica laughed once, flicking her wavy brunette hair with a careless hand. “You and your pride,” she exhaled, shaking her head. “Then you went and let her little friends in just so you could have more fun,” she added, further disappointed. When V actually winced just a touch and had the presence to look guilty, she blinked in surprise.

                “They broke in on their own power then,” Heechul snorted, shaking his head like he could hardly believe it. “They are interesting humans indeed. Ah,” he exclaimed, nodding to himself with a look at the crystal in Sunyoung’s hands. “That would be why. Someone got lucky before they came this way,” he mused, crossing his arms over his chest. But then his expression turned thoughtful before pity took its place. “Oh dear. Looks like you’re already starting to feel the effects though.”

                Both Amber and Sunyoung jerked in surprise at his words and looked to each other. Amber hadn’t changed all that much since they’d both been trapped in the same space together, but her face told Sunyoung that maybe she had… “What?” she asked, biting her bottom lip uncertainly.

                “You’re aging,” Amber answered quietly, bringing her fingertips up to trace Sunyoung’s face as if she was following new lines.

                “What?” Sunyoung asked in scared surprise. She looked down at her hands and inhaled softly when they did look different. Paler. Thinner. Weaker. She reached to grab a strand of hair and noticed it too had gray strands starting to appear.

                “You must have used quite a bit of magic,” Jessica commented with a focused look.

                “I don’t understand,” Sunyoung blinked, staring at the crystal. Why would it suddenly affect her now?

                “I guess it only makes sense that Amber wouldn’t know,” V started, trying to regain some face. “Only true Royals are kept in the loop.” Both Amber and Sunyoung looked confused. “While Imagos are magical beings by nature, humans have no inherent magic. The magic you’ve been tapping into has come from your world. As long as you have some connection to your world, the effects are not exactly permanent. Your body feels the strain, but the premature aging process does not occur. However, should your connection be severed…” he explained, gesturing at the container they were in.

                Sunyoung felt only panic but then she heard Amber laugh and it caught her attention enough to focus on her instead. “I get it,” she chuckled, shaking her head and her lips as she glared at V again. “Royals are nothing more than the descendants of human and Imago pairings. Aren’t they?” she scoffed, turning her attention to Jessica and Heechul immediately after.

                They gestured as one, conceding the point. “How else would we have managed to create such grand structures without dying immediately?” Heechul asked rhetorically.

                “And now you’re using the crystal’s power and magic instead of your own to maintain your longevity,” she grumbled in disgust.

                “And whatever power we do use we replenish by using those who have stepped out of line,” Jessica explained with a shrug. “You and your companions are merely unfortunate casualties of our son’s… ire.”

                A crushing sense of dread and defeat washed over Sunyoung. She had been so very foolish. Her heart was in the right place, but she had looked before she leaped and now her and her friends were going to pay the price for it. They were going to die. And it really was her fault… “Amber,” she gasped, not knowing how much time she had left. She still felt weak and she wasn’t sure when that would translate to her starting to die. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her chest and throat feeling tight.

                “Shh. It’s alright,” Amber promised bravely, her expression so much stronger than it should have been.

                “No. I wanted to save you. I really did. I mean, you’re my friend, but I really like you and I just want you to know that before-” she started to ramble before Amber’s fingers on her lips cut her off.

                “I really like you too,” she reassured her with a warm smile. “But I’ve gotta stop you there so I can save us both now,” she winked, grabbing Sunyoung’s hand – the one with the crystal in it – and kissing her forehead firmly.

                “You’re just as trapped as she is,” V laughed once, a perfect eyebrow raised to convey his disbelief in her ability.

                “Yes, but unlike Sunyoung, I am still mostly an Imago,” Amber stated firmly, standing up with the crystal in her hand. “And you will not keep us in here,” she promised, lowering her head to glare at the container’s see-through wall.

                Sunyoung flinched as power immediately started coalescing within. It was powerful and almost suffocating with the way it filled the container. Seeking reassurance and trying to give what she could, she leaned against Amber’s leg, looping her arms around it loosely. When she focused hard enough, she could almost see what Amber was trying to do. There was some kind of thing or device spinning immediately in front of her. Outside, the three Royals looked on in hesitant amusement that turned to alarm when the wall started to crack.

                “No!” V scowled, reaching his hand to the crystal below as he directed lightning to shock the container again.

                Sunyoung screamed and clung tighter to Amber’s leg, closing her eyes against the pain. Amber growled and her fury turned to power, accompanied by the sound of crunching, crumbling glass. More lightning joined the first strike and Sunyoung’s vision faded.

                Feeling bad about subjecting Sunyoung to such a punishment, Amber used her anger and her guilt to finish punching a hole in their enclosure. At once, she reached and the power from beyond was hers to command as well. Crystal in hand, she dragged the lightning from the air, removing its force from Sunyoung, and used the power to disintegrate the container completely. Aged but more powerful than she’d ever been before, she banished the lightning and stood, facing down the trio before her. Oh, there were others in the vicinity, she knew. More Royals and their relative servants. But it didn’t matter. None of it did.

                “I won’t let you do this,” she promised with steely determination and a minute gesture towards the unresponsive Sunyoung.

                “We can’t let you stop us,” Jessica answered just as steadfastly.

                “Not like you could do much of anything by yourself,” V added, looking down his nose at her, even as he held himself ready to attack.

                Amber smirked at the comment. “True. I am not a one Imago army. But neither am I alone,” she added, eyes darting to Sunyoung and the company around them in the containers. What was more, there were others beyond the barrier too. She knew. They waited. They yearned to enter this side. No longer would they be denied.

                “You will fall,” Heechul stated simply, grabbing power from the heart crystal and directing it at her. It was joined quickly by commands from Jessica and V as well.

                Hiding behind a reflective shield, Amber crouched, one hand holding the crystal up, bolstering her defenses, the other pressing flat against the metallic ground. “For Sunyoung,” she whispered, closing her eyes as she envisioned what she wanted. Through the very structure, power streamed from her fingertips, crawling over the metropolis like an expanding spider web. Fingers of power reached the other containers and destroyed them from the ground up. “One more thing,” she gasped, falling to her knees as the attacks wore on her, as the power she commanded took more from her. The spider web moved in the other direction this time. Towards the power barrier surrounding the heart of the city. “Break,” she commanded, running into sections around the perimeter and driving at them with pin point precision and power. Her own shields were starting to fail as her concentration wavered, but not yet… “Break!” she commanded again, pressing hard against those tiny fractures in the wall. It was barely enough to create a pinprick through to the other side. “Break…” she gasped one more time as her own shield failed. Power washed over her and she let it, using the pain to drive one final wedge in the wall.

                “Get them,” Amber heard Jessica command as she slumped to the ground, she and the crystal in her hand completely spent.

                “Mother…” V whined recalcitrantly.

                “Dear…” Heechul cautioned, his voice mildly concerned.

                “What?” she asked, the sound changing as she turned away. “Oh,” she gasped, making Amber just curious enough to pry her burning eyes open.

                All around them, the power barrier had a growing latticework of cracks rising up. Little by little, they reached towards the top, pulsing against the immediate restraints the Royals tried to put on them. “Break,” Amber smiled weakly, watching as the power barrier shattered, collapsing like so much glass before fading away. She laughed as a low roar started to rise. “It’s time for a change,” she whispered, glancing at the trio of powerful Royals who had the most delicious surprised looks on their faces.

                “No!” V denied automatically, turning to his parents as if they could do something. They looked at each other with uncertain expressions and shrugged in tandem. When V reached for the power of the heart crystal, they stopped him this time.

                “No,” they stated simply, laying him out on the ground and pinning him there with a show of their own combined power.

                For Amber, keeping her eyes on them long enough for that was worth it. Then she turned to wriggle closer to Sunyoung, reaching out and grabbing the nearest hand in hers. “Foolish woman,” she gasped once, taking in the almost peaceful, if aged, features. “You did save me though,” she added, filled with warmth by the sentiment that had brought Sunyoung back to her. Now… if only there was… ah. There he was. Turning her head to peer through the buildings and then the growing throng of Imagos making their way into the now unprotected heart of Metropolis 1, Ren was helping to lead the way. “Idiot,” she laughed once, content to let things fall where they would now. She had done her part, much like Sunyoung had, and she had nothing left to give. Hopefully, it would be enough.

                With that final thought, she closed her eyes and gave herself up to the ravenous exhaustion that was clinging to her.