Chapter 65 - Sisterhood

"Why? What's wrong? Do you not like the Queen? I think she's very cool." Gem said innocently yet again which harbored the same reactions from Fily and Petunia.

"Oh Gem, if you only knew of the horrible things that she has done while you were away," Fily said, trying hard not to spill anything too serious from her mouth in the courtesy of poor little Gem and in respect to Venedette's wish.

Petunia squinted her eyes at Fily for this leading remark but Fily just shrugged her off.

In Fily's mind, she couldn't help but think so deeply about the Queen's purpose of making her awake longer than her supposed awake time, even sacrificing her progress rate at this point. Surely, she didn't do it just for the sake of not watching Fily sleep, right?

Maybe this was another one of her plans all along! Keeping Fily awake so she wouldn't always tell the truth to Gem when she asks about something, especially during her asleep and half-asleep modes also known as her open encyclopedia mode.

"What horrible things?" asked Gem.

"Nothing. Don't mind that, we just have our own personal grudges to the Queen, that's all.. You should be careful around her too. We wouldn't want you having a personal grudge against her too, do we now?" Petunia said convincingly, trying to cover up for what Fily said which seemed to work just fine thanks to Gem's very light mood today.

Gem, Petunia, and Fily's chemistry class was postponed because of the ceremony and Von's issue, which was why Petunia decided to take over this class in hopes of untangling herself from the Queen's hold for at least an hour while still doing something actually productive with her time.

Series of questions were exchanged throughout their walk along the corridors but the most important ones were; "So what happened to you inside that Solitude?" "How did I even manage to go into Solitude in the first place?" and "What do you plan to do now?" to which were all directed to Gem and to her disappearance to Solitude yesterday.

"I'm actually still very nervous about my decision. I still haven't the slightest idea about how I was able to go there in the first place. And I'm guessing you still don't know about what happened to me too, right?"

"Uhuh."

"I was just sleeping, and then suddenly, Mr. Gemini woke me up saying 'Welcome to Solitude.' And it wasn't even my first time going there. Fily might not remember this but I actually brought her to Solitude before."

"Really?"

"Yes. But Solitude was an anti-superpowers place so your knowledge was blocked."

"What?!" Fily said, suddenly freaking out by the thought of losing her superpowers.

"That's rad." Petunia remarked which made Fily pout at her.

'She's probably imagining me being brainless right now!' she thought, assuming Petunia's changed impression of her now after hearing about the possibility of a dumb Fily.

"That's so disgusting!" Fily complained again which made Gem smile a little.

"That's why I didn't try bringing you back there again, even Petunia. I didn't want you guys to lose your powers because of me," said Gem.

"Oh, Gem." 

"But since I don't know anything about how to go back there or if this task would even work, I guess we'll just see what will happen next." Gem said in a forcibly positive note.

"I hope it works." Fily and Petunia said sincerely, pertaining to Gem's plan so they wouldn't be too guilty of keeping a very important piece of information from her via Venedette's wish. 

"Too bad the unlocking of chapters would be delayed because of Halma." Gem said while smiling weakly at Fily.

Somehow, they could both understand how each other felt about the delay of their progress being made simply because of Halma's involvement.

"That's not a big deal, she'll only stay here for two weeks anyway. Go and enjoy your childhood first, celebrate this new milestone you had just achieved today, and don't go out stressing over life every day just like what I used to do when I was young. I don't want to end up seeing you guys go through the same regrets I'm having right now especially when I learned about how my life is going to end sooner than everybody else. You have a lifetime ahead of you, kids. Do spend it wisely. Listen to the words of this wise cat attentively."

"Petunia! Don't say such things! We're going to save you okay? You just wait. You're going to live a full life without regrets soon. Just trust us, okay?" Fily said sensibly which made Gem pout and almost cry because of Petunia's sudden life lessons.

"I just told you, don't stress about it. I'm not expecting anything from anyone anymore, especially from you guys. I don't trust you." Petunia said jokingly but Gem was not able to catch up. 

Her fragile heart bursted out in flames of hugs and more hugs to furry Petunia and Fily's thick body, stifling her sobs while her face was buried in them in hopes of making herself feel better about all these situations altogether.

"Whoa, I was just joking, special lady." Petunia tried to get away from Gem's embrace but she was too strong for her.

Suddenly, the seemingly awkward tension in the air of the empty classroom where the three of them were currently inside was magically replaced with a whimsical feeling of comfort and warmth, especially after hearing Fily's giggle across the four corners of the room while Gem was busy keeping her embrace.

Was this the thing they called sisterhood? Teamwork? Something along the lines, somehow Petunia was able to feel the sincerity of Gem and Fily's intentions upon saving her. Lowkey sparkling a little hope in her heart that she may, just may, be able to live a fuller life with them no matter the amount of time she has left, as long as she had them by her side…

"Okay, that's enough Gem, you're squeezing me." Fily squeaked while tapping Gem's head lightly.

And when Gem let go of them, she immediately turned around to still hide her tears from them.

"I almost died right there." Petunia said, scratching Gem's blond hair away from her damp face after jumping on Gem's right shoulder while Fily's face popped out from the left side.

"Come on, we still have a class to do," Fily said with a cheerful smile which was inevitably very contagious to Gem, spreading from her smile to her actions that soon enough became cheerful again.

"That's it, Crystal Gemma, life is supposed to be this way!"

And they ended up fooling around instead.

Enjoying life as much as they could for it was the most special gift in the world, something they wouldn't be able to return to anymore, especially when the time finally comes where all that was left for them to do was to court death to the foolest while wishing on a star for a once in a lifetime miracle.