Oh! This is like, my first bar fight ever! What’s the etiquette here? Do you throw the first punch or do I?


    -Samurai GroundWire after chasing a mugger into a bar and spilling a skinheads drink, 2056


    Within the halls of a small little private bar on the outskirts of Neo Orleans, a tall waitress placed another pair of drinks onto the simple metal table of their wrap-around booth. Swinging just a foot above the table, a hanging light warmed the chrome surface ever so slightly to the touch, a nice change of pace in the strangely chilly weather of the megacity’s night. The soft melody of an acoustic guitar rang through the room with a sensual soprano in accompaniment, creating a beautiful sound that reminded Shadowtag of a long lost soul. All-too familiar tides of grief rose in her chest, only to be washed away by the bittersweet tang of her Pinot Noir.


    She was wearing her typical outfit for the field; a long rich blue cloak, with black trim and various glimmering silver arcane symbols woven into the fabric. Underneath it, she wore a black combat uniform that like the cloak over top of it was tailor made to go with her when she became one with the shadows. Her featureless mirrored silver mask laid on the table next to her hand. Ready to cover her face, the burned canvas on which the memories of that day persist, incase she should need to leave.


    Her face that also betrayed just how tired and overworked she truly was. Storm gray eyes sunken, with bags underneath them, a condition that her companion and many others had tried to help her with over the years.


    A condition either being worsened, or improved depending on how you viewed such things, by the heavy flush that had painted her pallid face with the rosy blush of alcohol reaching all the way to the tips of her elven ears.


    The woman who sat across from her that night is one of her old friends, a kindred soul and first generation Vanguard she rarely got an opportunity to spend time with. Her pearlescent silvery gray hair is in a pixie cut as normal, her toned shoulders shifting as she lifts her glass to clink against her companion’s. Her ears and tail wiggled a bit as she took a sip, unrestrained joy apparent in her rosé eyes.


    “So you’re just about done in the gulf,” Foxfire asked, stirring her cocktail casually, whilst leaning on the table, “What happens now?”


    Shadowtag took another sip from her glass, “Well, once I’m done, I’ll head back to Indy and figure out what all I missed besides that one big thing.”


    Foxfire’s ears twitched up at that and she leaned forward. “Oh? And just what kind of tea are you hiding?”


    She scoffed, “You sound like Cryo, and it’s some of the best news the girls have gotten in months.” A rare smile crossed her face. “A new Sam initialized a few days ago and agreed to join the magical girl team.”


    “A new Samurai is basically always cause for celebration,” The vixen, in her usual over the top energetic fashion, raised her glass to gesture at her drinking partner, “And you’re taking a break after you’re done training her, or I’ll make you take a forced vacation!”


    The glass is lowered back down equally quickly and somehow without spilling a single drop.


    Shadowtag squinted at the fox-woman, “Luna, do you know how hard it was to get Starfall to exempt me from the Family break time requirements? I refuse to risk that!”


    “Looks like we’ll go see whatever is left of Salzburg then.” She had somehow procured a notebook to write something down in it, and her eyes peeking over its edge had a mischievous glint within them. “I haven’t dragged you to Salzburg yet, have I?”


    “You wouldn’t dare.”


    Luna doesn’t respond. Her grin says enough.


    Then after a pause, she adds, “But seriously. You need to take a break at some point. Taking any urgent job as soon as one pops up is just asking for you to collapse; This isn’t sustainable.”


    Shadowtag hesitates, “I-”


    “Oh-ho?” Both women’s heads shoot to the side, where someone they didn’t expect to see today approached with her mouth hidden behind her sleeve. “Is this not a joyous coincidence?”


    The fox rolled her eyes. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”


    “That tracks,” Shadowtag said while slurring slightly, “Neeeeerd.”


    Giggling, Morgan ‘Sanctum’ Brandt’s little black lynx ears wiggle upon her head, the tufts of white fur on their ends bouncing up and down. Her grey eyes are filled with joy above the purple sleeve of her long sweater dress, the red dyed inside of her ebony bob standing in stark contrast to its shade. She finally lowers her arm after a moment, revealing a gleaming set of white fangs curved up in a wide grin.


    “Shall I do a reading for you two in celebration of this auspicious occasion?”


    “Fucking damnit not another one,” Luna did a double take and gave a defeated sigh, “Well at least you’re not as boring as Liam...”


    “Go ahead Morgan,” Shadowtag murmurs before taking another sip.


    The hispanic woman pulls a tarot deck out of nowhere, shuffling it flamboyantly in the air above the table. “Considering I do not have much time to spare, how about we do one card for each of you?”


    “It’s fine, you can skip mine. I prefer to extrapolate future possibilities based on measurements rather than randomly shuffled cards.”


    Morgan snickers, then fans her cards out in front of her. “Pick a card, madame.”


    “As you wish mademoiselle Brandt.” Shadowtag responded while pulling a card without looking and put it on the table face-up.


    At first, the card does not seem to have a face, yet before the women’s eyes an vibrant image sprang to life, one all three were intimately familiar with. A battlefield, where a figure clad in the facsimile of a bird casts tendrils of blue electric doom down upon hordes of xeno scum. A deep blue overtakes Morgan''s eyes, and as she speaks strangely impactful words, the name of the card burns itself into view.


    “Your card is: Judgement, Faceup.”


    The woman chuckles, stealing a glance into Shadowtag’s eyes, which sends a shiver down her spine. “How fortunate Winter. This card represents transformation, the dawn of a new beginning for you, presumably very soon. As the final puzzle piece slots into place, long festering wounds of the past will be healed.”


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Shadowtag had gone deathly pale and completely still.


    Those wings…


    “Draw upon your past to guide you and your allies, but do not ignore your intuition.” The lynx’s smile falls a bit. “I do not believe you will have a lack of decisions to make, but I would not worry too hard. The situation you’ve been left in has been difficult, and you may have faltered on the path here, but the lonely journey you were forced upon will soon reach its end. Do not regret, for you have done all you can.”


    “I-” Shadowtag faltered, before she barely managed to sob out, “I think I need a hug.”


    Luna doesn’t say anything but instead spreads out her arms, offering said hug to her friend.


    Not waiting for an answer from her oracle, Shadowtag quickly wrapped the two of them up in a hug and began sobbing.


    “I miss them both, s-so much!”


    “It’s okay, let it all out.” Luna gently pats her back.


    Despite being visibly uncomfortable, Morgan allows for the hug to continue until the woman calms down, where the lynx wiggles out of the hug and clears her throat.


    “You can um, keep the card if you wish. I have more than enough.” She sighs, then glances at the other woman. “By the way, Foxfire, thank you for guiding the Starchaser crew a bit for us.”


    “Oh it’s no problem. It’s really a shame North America doesn’t have some sort of network for new Samurai where they can get help, mentoring and resources, but hey I get it, budget is tight, might need some of that nazi-cash. How ARE your shareholders doing by the way?”


    “Look, for what it’s worth, I didn’t vote for this. I think the fools got what was coming to them.” Shaking her head, Morgan puts a hand on her hip. “The Montero Conglomerate is starting to get on my nerves, between the fool forming a new PMC and the Montero-Wisteria labs causing havoc everywhere they show up. I’m glad that your girls in Indy were able to solve that issue before it got out of hand, Winter.”


    “Wait, what do you mean my girls?” Shadowtag asked quizzically, “I’ve been out of the loop while dealing with the aftermath of Gabrielle’s bullshit.”


    “The new one’s home was attacked by a large antithesis raid force that came from a network of artificially seeded stealth hives in the Wastes.” She clicks her tongue. “The entire general area had to be condemned, they took the survivors of her family minus one who decided to attack her for being a Samurai, into the Sanctum there. Glad I set it up to be so big, despite the lack of personnel there.”


    Shadowtag squinted at the lynx-woman, “Wait… is that…”


    Brows furrowed, she pulled up her emergency alert log, only to freeze as she read the list in front of her. Going deathly pale, Shadowtag drops her wine glass, which shatters across the tiles of the bar as all the lights in the room dim.


    “SHIT!”


    The drunk Samurai stood up instantly, “Spectyr sober me. NOW!” She gave a confused Luna a quick hug, and a taken aback Morgan received a light head pat as Winter’s body visibly burnt off the effects of the alcohol. “Also call Gabrielle and tell her I’m heading home a bit early!”


    Luna put a hand on Winter’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about the job. If you have Spectyr send Lyona the details of what still needs to be done, I’ll finish things up here. Also if you want, my car is faster than your bike.”


    “Thanks!” Shadowtag called back as she sent a massive tip to the entire staff of the bar for keeping it reserved only for her while keeping her identity private.


    ***


    Shadowtag had barely reached the Sanctum’s medbay when a voice came from the darkness near the humming machine in the back.


    “Shadowtag! The new Sam I think-“


    A held up hand brought xem to a stop.


    “I already know, it’s why I’m home early.” She fixed Inque with a stern look, “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”


    “I could say the same for you!” xey replied with a huff, “She’ll be done in like six hours, go get some rest!”


    Shadowtag stifled a yawn, “Since when are you so parental about these things?”


    “Since we brought a ten-year-old who is sassier than Alannah home, and the person who knows how to wrangle her best is currently getting a transition by turning herself into girlgurt.”


    “I must be hallucinating, because everything you said made no sense.” Shadowtag sighed, “I… I’ll stay here, Inque You can go to bed.”


    “But Shadowta-”


    “No. I’m not going to leave her. Not again.”


    Inque looked at her mentor for a moment, hesitation obvious on her face, before clicking her tongue and walking away. Shadowtag watched xem until xey could no longer be seen, before she trudged over and slid to the ground with her back against the large machine.


    It was deathly silent, beyond the deep white noise produced by the grand machine, and as she sat there, Shadowtag could not help but anxiously reminisce on the past, the moments she had hidden away deep inside for so long, of love, pain, sorrow, loneliness. Soon though, the memories and exhaustion combined together to lull the woman into the dark depths of dreamless sleep.


    ***


    “Um excuse me, Mrs. Shadowtag?”


    With a groan, Shadowtag blinked the exhaustion from her eyes, just to find a pair of girls standing next to the couch she had been moved to.


    “Yeah?” She asked while yawning.


    “I was uhm wondering,” the girl to the left started while bunching the front of her shirt into her hands, “Could I maybe have your autograph?”


    Shadowtag blinked, “Mine?”


    “Yes ma’am.”


    Pulling herself up into a sitting position, and letting loose another yawn. Shadowtag gave the girl a nod and gestured to the dining table.


    “I’ll sign it over there.”


    With that said she stood up, and followed the pair over to where the magical girls were all eating, and an older girl was scolding them for waking her up.


    After sitting down with a grunt, she flicked her wrist and a marker and a photograph of her floating menacingly over a swarm of antithesis was on the table, and signed soon after.


    “Here you go, miss, uh?”


    “Autumn Fletcher, ma’am,” she clarified as she took the photograph. She pointed to the other girl, “that''s my twin Summer, and our cousin Evie.” She then pointed at the kitchen, “The boy with Mr. Dubois is Benny.”


    “Ah Madame Shadowtag!” Luc greeted, “Inque told me you came home early last night, but ah you seem to not have your mask on.”


    “Eh, no point in doing the song and dance if they’re all staying here.” She raised an eyebrow at Evie. “Y’all are staying here right?”


    She responded with a hasty nod yes.


    “Then there’s no reason to hide.”


    Autumn was staring down at the photograph with stars in her eyes. “Winter Graham… Huh, like Spark?”


    Feigning ignorance, ignoring the looks Evie and the magical girls were all giving her she responded, “Hm? Spark?”


    “Our other cousin,” Autumn explained, “although she''s more like an older sister. She became a samurai yesterday and is getting a tail today!”


    A voice, dear and familiar, spoke up from a phone on the table, [Hello Winter. It’s truly been a while.]


    Shadowtag nearly sobbed as the memories came flooding back once more.


    Meeting this radiant girl with a chip in her head, demanding to help fix what was wrong with Winter’s body.


    Getting a chip of her own after leaping from a dark corner to smash a Seven-zombie upside the head with a baseball bat to protect a busted shelter entrance.


    The romance the two of them shared.


    Getting married, having a child.


    …Tragedy.


    Winter had to blink the tears from her eyes.


    “Hello Pyridae,” she managed to choke out, underlying emotion filling every word, ”it has indeed been a long, long time. Do you know when she will be done ‘getting a tail’?”


    [She actually finished about four seconds ago, and is currently playing with her new ears.]


    Ignoring the looks everyone was giving her, Winter jerked around, her eyes shooting to the top of the machine.


    Leaping from shadow to shadow, she made it to the foot of the machine’s entry ramp in a few short seconds, almost huffing a laugh at the sounds of pure delight coming from inside the capsule in the center.


    The others all soon ran in after her, worry evident on all their faces.


    Finally the door opened with a hiss, and Winter couldn’t keep the tears back.


    She was a bit short, with a wiry frame that was well toned. A bob of icy blue wavy hair fell down to just above her shoulders and framed a round face with a pair of round white rimmed glasses in front of two storm cloud gray eyes. More striking was the pair of swiveling fox ears on top of her head, that same icy blue on the outside and cloud white fluff sprouting from the interior. The mass of fur wagging behind her following the same scheme, blue body with a white tip.


    The spitting image of her momma, except for the eyes, which looked as if she had copied them straight from Winter.


    “Uh excuse me miss?” Spark asked while walking up to her, “Are you okay?”


    “I-“ Winter hesitated, “I should be asking you that, my little firefly.”


    Spark hesitated, her face twisting in confusion almost exactly the same as it did fifteen long years prior. Her ears drooped slightly, and her tail slowly drifted down between her legs.


    Then, after a tense moment, true recognition gleamed behind her eyes.


    “Mom?”