Scene 32 - December 19th

Interior “Higgins Museum”, Continuous

Quinn Kaufman

“Ah, Molly,” Anima said, quite casually. “Are you going to see reason? You know I only want what’s best for you, dear.”

“I know,” Referee quietly answered.

“Good. Then...” the heroine pointed Excalibur up at the playpen. “Go to your room. You’ll be safe there.”

“No, I... I can’t.”

“Oh?”

Referee reached up and removed her domino mask, revealing blue eyes reddened by held back tears. “Anima... Miriam. Please. You know this is wrong. We have to be able to make choices for ourselves. You know this.” She sounded like she was about to cry - I hadn’t realized it was hitting the young girl so hard, had been too focused on Loki to notice. “Please.”

Anima seemed to be hesitating. “I... Molly, I’ve gone too far. I can’t stop now.”

“You can still stop,” Molly insisted. “Loki was right about that, there’s always time to stop. It’s never too late to start being better, you told me that, remember?”

“I... I do, but...”

“Please, Miriam,” the young heroine begged. “Just put down the sword.”

“I...”

“Will you do it for me, mom? Please?”

The heroine took a deep breath. “Yes, I’ll set it down,” she swore, staring at the blade in her hand. “But first, there’s something I need to set right.”

It was eerily silent as Anima focused and began to change the Higgins Museum back into its original state. The floor moved under us like a snake, marble bars melting back into the walls, sand refusing into limestone tiles.

Within a minute, it was done, and we stood in the familiar lobby of the Higgins Museum.

Anima sighed. “There. Now...” She still hadn’t taken her eyes off of Excalibur. “Now...”

“...mom.”

“Yes. Right.” She released the sword.

Anima instantly swayed, presumably feeling the loss of power, but remained upright even as her aura winked out - Molly and I sagged in much the same way, the sudden loss of Excalibur’s power - or the reflection of it that Molly’s aura of fairness had provided - almost dropping us unconscious.

“Right, we need to keep anyone from touching that thing,” I said, pointing at the blade. “Referee, will you - here, take this.” I stripped off my plaid shirt and passed it to her. “Wrap this around the blade and hold it like that. Don’t touch the hilt, I don’t want to take any chances.”

I pulled my discarded mask back to my hand as I walked over to where Loki lay on the ground, and crouched next to him. I could feel him breathing through my presence, but I still laid a hand on his shoulder as gently as I could. “How are you doing?”

The only answer that came was a remarkably cute snore, and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “Yeah, you’ll be fine. Just...” I yawned. “...drained. Same as the rest of us. Hey, Anima,” I asked as I carefully lifted the dozing illusionist in a bridal carry, “how much juice do you have left?”

“A surprising amount, actually,” she said, sounding more awake than I felt, but confused and uncertain. “I suppose the sword was fueling me right up until the end...”

I nodded towards where Canaveral and Zookeeper had also succumbed to slumber, faint snores coming from where they lay in a pile on Max. “Think you could have some golems carry these lazy asses out of here? Or give them a magical espresso shot, maybe?”