Rose Colored

[Elly]

It was a minor hostage situation, no challenge, so Elly had gratefully taken the job for the service hours it would provide and hadn't bothered to ask for any help before she left. Half the damn school knew by now that her powers turned her into a blindingly-pink Japanimation reject, but that didn't mean she felt like reminding them regularly.

Last room. Two hostages were already freed from the Circle rituals and sent on their way, confused but thankful to the fashion-blind heroine who'd saved them, and Elly could hear the third one pleading for her life behind the door. She started muttering to herself. "Stay calm. It's just the same weak cultists you've been fighting for the past half-hour. No challenge. No risk. Just wind up and..."

She knocked the door off its hinges, then unloaded a quick series of jolts at the closer of the two robes. He dropped like a rock, leaving the other one looking enraged while she shook the circulation back into her arms.

"You've interrupted the ritual!"

"Good, you just keep talking." She punched him into the wall. "Makes it easier when you don't take the time to fight back."

Two zig-zappers later, the room contained just herself and a slightly disoriented girl in a Paragon University t-shirt, whom she helped off the floor. "Hey, you still alive?"

She got a hearty, grateful, and (for Elly) rather awkward hug in return. "Yes, thank you, Audrey!"

"Umm, yeah, not a..." Huh? "Wait, who's Audrey?"

The college student smiled back. "Right, right. 'Aurora.' It's good to see you again either way; it's been over a year, hasn't it? I was getting so worried about you!" She gave Elly another squeeze.

"No, not Aurora either. I... oh! You mean the last Spark Princess!"

Elly's mouth always tended to move slightly ahead of her brain. Not that pretending to be the prior Princess would have worked for long, but she probably could have broken the news a bit easier.

"....'last'? You're not...? Then Audrey... oh god."

Elly briefly panicked as the rescued student went white and then started to tear up in her arms. At least no one else was around to see them. "Err... yeah, sorry... she... I didn't know her, but she... it was during the second invasion. I'm sure she went out being heroic?" she added as a last-minute attempt to salvage her screwup.

The student managed to smile sadly through her tears. "...I'm sure she did."

[Elly]

"So, you and Aurora were friends?"

The student nodded quietly.

Elly took a careful seat next to her. This situation felt far too delicate to be her normal blunt self over. "Is it okay, uh... what's your name?"

"Tammy."

"Tammy, is it okay to talk about her? I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe it'd help if I knew how she dealt with it."

"...yeah, I'd like that. I've never really been able to tell anyone about her before."

"Okay then..." Elly tried to think of a good starting question. "...How'd she get, you know, drafted?"

"We, umm, we were actually both there when her predecessor died. Some drugged-up Freakshow started running through the halls of our high school one day freshman year, attacking people at random. Spark Princess showed up... she found Audrey and me hiding in the janitor's closet, told us it was okay and to head for the exit, but then a Freak came up behind her and caught her by surprise. We screamed or something, and she turned just in time to... well, this was before the medporter system; she hit the ground, and the Freak, uh, finished the job..." She paused uncomfortably at the memory. Elly winced. "...and then the bracers fell right off. And suddenly Spark Princess wasn't there anymore. It was just another student, I think a junior, that I'd seen randomly on campus before then. I never did learn her name.

"And then... well, the Freak gave us this Hannibal Lecter grin, and Audrey panicked and reached for the bracers. I think you can guess the rest. Most people never figured out a Spark Princess died that day, and when Audrey admitted she wasn't the original to the MAGI officials, they suggested she keep it from becoming public for appearances' sake. I guess... I guess they suggested the same when Aurora fell."

"Pretty much..." A brief moment of a very disturbing dream was rising in Elly's mind. She shoved it back down rather than dwell on it. "That and I don't think MAGI even knew who the hell the next of kin were for... is it Audrey or Aurora?"

That brought on a fond smile. "Born Audrey Forrester. Raised Audrey Forrester. Then about two weeks after the school crisis, she told me she was the Spark Princess Aurora now. Even started signing her assignments 'Aurora Forrester'. I think she had her name legally changed when she hit eighteen. Silly, but she was my friend and I decided not to argue about her little identity crisis, even if I forgot and still called her Audrey a lot. She loved superheroes, she loved magical girls even more, and I wasn't going to take either from you." Tammy caught herself. "Her. Sorry, this is weird, seeing you and knowing it's not her."

"I'll change back." Elly started to get up, glad for an excuse to get rid of the pink.

"No!" Tammy grabbed her arm; Elly looked at her in surprise. "I... I know it's irrational, but it's good to see her one last time, and... if you don't change back, it's like she's not really..."

This had to be an all-new level of weird in her already weird life, but Elly sat back down anyway. "...Okay... just don't start calling me Aurora."

"I won't... Umm, what else did you want to know?"

"I don't suppose you know how these work."

Tammy shrugged sadly. "It always came naturally to Aurora; that's all I know. She just said the bracers would tell her how to do things and she'd do it."

"Tell her?" She looked at her bracers. They remained silent.

"Yeah. They don't talk to you?"

Elly shook her head. "In random tripped-out dreams, maybe, but nothing I can remember clearly the next morning. I didn't even think they could be talked to; I tried a couple times for the hell of it, but no results. I finally figured whatever they are, they either can't or don't want to be friendly."

"She always made it sound like they conversed in some way, but that it was also something that she couldn't really explain." She put on an encouraging smile. "Hopefully it'll come to you. And you figured out how to use them anyway, right?"

"Yeah, but it's mostly, I don't know, just pointing my fist and really forcing the bracers to zap what I'm aiming at. Every attack makes me feel like I'm trying to shit a lightning bolt through my arm." She continued over Tammy's brief shock at her cussing. "But MAGI gave me some tapes of Aurora in action, and it seemed like she was far more... guess, 'fluid' would be what to call it? She just gestured and 'blam'. And she was totally fearless every moment of it."

"She was awesome, wasn't she?" Tammy took a moment to look reminiscent. "But... well, sorry, I can't help you there. Just, maybe try listening to the bracers a bit more?"

Elly raised her hands resignedly. "Alright, hell, I'll try anything at this point. But how long did Aurora take to really get the hang of these?"

"Ten or fifteen days, maybe?"

"Days? I've been trying to get this right for ten $^%#ing months!"

"You'll get it," Tammy encouraged gently, ignoring the language this time. "You're a Spark Princess. You were chosen for a reason." She got up before Elly could start expressing what she thought of mystic destinies. "I'm late for class, but thanks for talking... and for the rescue... can... can you put me in touch with MAGI and let them know...?"

"...Yeah, I'll tell them someone wants to pay her respects."

"I appreciate it, Aur-- ...um..."

"Elly."

"Elly. Thanks. For everything."

[Elly]

They were most of the way to the tram -- an odd sight to be seen walking together, the pink winged heroine and the spectacled college student -- before Elly spoke up again. "Aurora really enjoyed the role, didn't she?"

"Yeah. Don't you?"

"Not really. I spend a lot of time scared out of my mind, even with the medporters. Aurora had those too, and all it took was one lucky shot. How old was she?"

"15 and a couple months."

"No, I meant when she died."

"Oh, uh, if she died at the start of the invasion, she would have been... 20, nearly 21."

"Christ... a third of her life."

"A third of her life spent doing something she loved: being a hero to people. And it looks like you're continuing the legacy okay."

Elly scowled. "Yeah, because MAGI makes me."

"What, can they do that? Aurora never had to be told to be the Princess."

"Doesn't sound like she needed to be. I did. But I was already..." She hesitated, then lowered her voice. "I, uh, had issues with my foster parents. One day I left 'for school' with my backpack full of pantry contents instead of books and spent the next year sleeping in whatever abandoned buildings in King's Row I could find. Begged, borrowed, or stole what I needed to live. Then the bracers found me, and MAGI followed, and between charges of theft and the fact that I didn't have anyone else, they managed to become my legal guardians somehow. So now they're telling me this builds character."

"...sorry to hear that."

"I learned to live with it. Like every other damn thing. I'd probably go insane otherwise."

Tammy considered. "...you know, Aurora didn't have any issues with MAGI."

"Good for her." The "did you have a point beyond rubbing it in my face?" was unvoiced but still audible.

"I just mean, this wasn't a concern for her, but maybe it would help you if you remembered the bracers and MAGI aren't the same thing."

"How's that going to help?"

"Well, so you know you don't have to resist both."

Elly remained skeptical.

"Just a thought." Realizing that a change of topic was needed, she added, "Oh, and if you need a friend, you can swing by the university any time."

"...Look, I know it's hard to tell right now, but I'm actually only 16 myself. I'm not going to fit in at college parties, Spark Princess form or not."

"Oh, right." Tammy puzzled the matter for a bit. "A big sister, then?"

"...I'll think about it."

They had reached the terminal. Tammy ran her tram card. "Take care, Lovely Spark Princess Elly."

She got a pained eyeroll in response. "Just 'Spark Princess' if you have to use the name. Did she really enjoy being called that?"

"Too many years of watching magical girl shows. Everything about this was a dream come true to her." She entered the nearest tram and waved goodbye.

"Well, in my humble opinion, she was nuts, but..." Elly glanced down at herself. "She must have adored the costume a hell of a lot more than I do."

"Oh, that's because it was her idea. The previous Princess was actually kinda gothy." The tram door closed.

"...wait, what?"

[Elly]

...she was among the clouds and her bracers were leading the way and she tried to go the other direction at first but finally just let them this time and she flew and although the skies rumbled with thunder she and the bracers were at home and she was dreaming wasn't she so maybe she should try that listening thing and the bracers were speaking to her but she wasn't quite sure if she understood but maybe if she THUMP.

$^#%. She'd transformed in her sleep again, and the wings had shoved her right off the bed when they sprouted. She needed to learn to stop sleeping on her back.

Elly picked herself up off the floor and made sure she hadn't woken anyone, then started to mutter the revert phrase... and stopped. That was just the low lighting, right?

She checked her roommates again (still blissfully unconscious) then quietly dug the emergency flashlight out of the closet and directed it at her skirt.

It was red. A deep, rich red.