.

Moon ran down the trail, water spirits surging around her, turning from humanoid figures to large splashes of water that ran up and down hills, following their leader. To anyone who didn't know what was going on, it would have looked like a girl was fleeing down a hill with her pet bird, yelling inaudible things while escaping from a vat of water that was seemingly chasing her. To anyone who did know, it was simply Merra taking her water spirits out for a walk, and a brief thought of curiosity as to why she was talking to a bird. 

Moon almost slipped on a patch of mud, but quickly corrected her balance. She turned to the sparrow perched on her shoulder. 

"Keep going. I can't lose her." 

The sparrow nodded and flew off her shoulder again, skimming down a hill and narrowly through two trunks that were entwined with each other. Moon had blisters all over her feet from running. Her boots were cutting into her feet, and her hands were cut and bruised from climbing multiple trees and rocks. 

But still, she ran. This was nothing compared to what it would feel like to be stuck in the barrier for another year. She had to get out. 

Finally, she skidded to a stop near a clearing, where two hooded figures were carrying a large sack. Moon, who paid them no attention, turned around to head back until she heard a chirp from the bird on her shoulder. Then her eyes widened, and she slowly turned around. 

"You there. in the hoods. Turn around for me."

There was no reply. Moon hissed and snapped her fingers. Instantly water rose from the ground into her hand, and then froze into a narrow ice sword. Moon held the sword out at the hooded figures. 

"Turn around." 

Moon finally poked the sword at the hooded figure, using the tip of the blade to nudge the cape off. 

Ae smiled at her, yellow eyes and yellow hair. From behind her, the other figure sighed and pulled back their hood, revealing Phae, who glared silently at her. Moon put the sword down slightly, not resting the frigid ice on Ae's shoulder. The meteoroid didn't even flinch, just blinked topaz-yellow eyes at Moon intelligently. Phae shot her a worried glance and then reached forward to grab Moon's sword. Almost instantly, gasses fizzled seemingly out of the air and wrapped around the sword, which melted into water in Moon's hand. Pluto was filled to the brim with nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane, a pretty bad combination of gasses. Moreover, Phae had the power to ignite the gas at any time. Ae shook him off, but Phae didn't listen and wrapped his arms around her instead. 

"Are you alright, Ae?" Phae asked. Ae nodded and then turned to wink at Moon. "Sorry, darling. It's direct orders from the Sunny Accident. Bye!" Ae said, brightly, still hefting the potato sack, which likely had Terra in it, over one shoulder. 

"Wait-" Moon said, but a dark, stormy substance joined the vortex of dust. Ae's powers - AE12 was a Spectral-type asteroid that only reflected 7% of the light it received. As a result, Ae was quite adept at bending light and shadows. Sensing her time was up, Moon sucked in a deep, methane-clean breath and ran into the dust storm, closing her eyes and trying to grab onto anything. Her hands closed on air and dust pelted her skin like tiny needles.

Then, the wind settled, and they were gone.