It had been a long, long day for Juniper.
Getting the job application from Sotry & filling it out took a little longer than expected. Juniper guessed Sotry didn’t want to be coworkers with aem either, which was fair.
After that, zae had to go to the store & pick up some food (Juno had a lot of fun in the shopping cart, it seemed). Then, fae went back over to Cherry’s dorm room to introduce everyone to Juno & the plan for tomorrow. The rest of the group just shrugged & agreed.
But now, finally, she was able to relax. As Juno got tucked into the couch, Juniper laid down in zheir bed, got all snuggled up under the covers, & conked out.
It was a restless sleep, though. In eir dreams, Juniper found emself face-to-face with the same shadow creature from before, when ey first got the necklace.
“Hero..” the creature’s voice echoed. “You must tread cautiously. Juno is not as he seems.”
Juniper tried to ask what the shadow meant by that, but nothing came out when zae tried to speak.
“Juno is a danger to us all.” the shadow creature continued. “Any mistake you make with her could lead to death, one way or another. Stay cautious. Don’t listen to a word he says.”
Before he knew it, Juniper was awake again. Phey turned to look at the time. It was only 5:46 in the morning. As voi took a few breaths, 2 questions came to mind.
Did the others have that dream, & is Juno really a threat?
A buzz from their phone answered one of those questions.
Leslie: did anybody else have that weird dream
Nora: i did!
Cherry: i did too.
Juniper: same here.
Kalani: yeah 👍
Cherry: what the hell was that even about.
Cherry: “juno is not as he seems” ???
Nora: the last time we all had a dream like that was when we got the necklaces in the first place
Nora: maybe this prophetic dream has a good point.
Cherry: but what are we supposed to do? all we know is that juno wants back in the castle.
Kalani: i think i might know what’s up ☝️
Kalani: remember what sun & mr. moon told us a couple days ago when we were at mercury ☀️🌒
Leslie: uhh. no :p
Kalani: they said if we met anyone named juno, we have to avoid him at all costs. juno was the person who shot sun. 🔫
Juniper: OH SHIT youre right
Juniper: THATS why the name juno felt so familiar to me
Cherry: ugh so now on top of trying to pay rent in time now we have to deal with the dude who shot sun
Leslie: what could juno want back in the castle for though?
Nora: presumably to shoot sun again
Juniper: well whatever her plan is we should probably stop it.
Cherry: but how do we stop him?
Juniper: i dunno! that’s what i’m asking!
Leslie: if we all meet up at my dorm we could probably brainstorm somethin
Leslie: plus i can make us breakfast :3
Kalani: well i can never say no to a leslie breakfast 🍳
Juniper sighed, getting out of bed. Of course ae would let a villain into aer apartment, knowing aer luck. She slipped on her slippers & made her way to Leslie’s dorm room. Whatever Juno had planned, the group was planning to stop it.
-
The group sat around on Leslie’s couch as it served them all some bacon & eggs. It was a little bit early for breakfast, but it’s better early than late.
“Mmmfh.. these are really good, Leslie!”
“Thanks!”
Leslie sat down with their own plate of bacon & eggs. Somehow, throughout everything the group has been through so far, Leslie always manages to keep a smile on its face.
“So! What’s the plan?” Leslie asked, only to be met with a resounding silence from everyone in the room.
“Yea, uh.. We’ve got nothing.”
“Nothing! We can work with that!”
“No, Les. Not really.”
Kalani tried to think of ideas. Juniper had said the day before that the group was going to get Juno to the Castle the next day, which doesn’t give the group a lot of time to plan anything.. unless?
“I know how to kill two birds with one stone!” Kalani announced.
“We’re killing birds?”
“It’s a metaphor. Anyways, how about we use our jobs as an excuse until we can come up with a better plan?”
“Our jobs that we.. don’t have yet?”
“Ah, yeah. Those jobs.”
“I’m sure we can find some odd-jobs to do around the city until we get hired!”
“Ooh, good thinking! Why didn’t any of us think of that earlier?”
So, the group planned all throughout breakfast. Pretend to have a job while they do chores around town, & (as per Nora’s suggestion) get in contact with one of the Celestials, since they likely know what Juno’s personality is like.
“Alrighty, I’ll have a schedule posted for all of us in the group chat by, uh.. soon.” Cherry said, stretching.
“Sounds good!”
-
Juno tossed & turned in his sleep. He was having that dream again. It was more of a memory, really, but Juno liked to pretend it’s a dream.
Despite this, the “dream” was extremely vivid in her mind. Juno could remember it like it was yesterday.
The fake court-like room that had been set up in the Castle penetrated Juno’s memory. The yellow & blue glowing podiums everyone stood at seemed duller than they had been in person. Juno had stood before Betty, Time, & Fate, & his job was to convince the three of them that he did not, in fact, kill Sun.
It was quite difficult to lie to the Celestial capable of seeing the future, though.
Before she could get a single word out, the Celestials standing before her stopped her from speaking, telling Juno that there was no use in defending herself. Everyone already knew Juno was the culprit.
Juno had no clue why Fate ever allowed him to live in the Castle in the first place, if she was able to predict Sun’s death, but what he did know is that he’d never forget the punishment provided to him.
“You have been sentenced to life on Earth for the rest of eternity.”
Those words.. Juno would never forget them. Especially not after she had gotten her revenge. He giggled to himself, knowing that these so-called heroes Fate had specifically appointed would be its downfall.
-
It was quite later in the day now, as the plan had been put into action. While everyone else was off doing gigs around Cincinnati, Kalani was going through the book to see if Juno was mentioned in it at all. She read & read, but to her disappointment, there wasn’t any information. Kalani suspected the book may have been on Earth long before Juno had shot Sun.
As he sighed & shut the book, Kalani heard a knocking on his door. Kalani got up to answer it.
“Hello! Delivery for Patience!”
Despite this person wearing a post officer uniform & holding an envelope, Kalani could tell this was not a post officer. It was two creatures trying to pull off the trenchcoat trick, but instead of a trenchcoat, it was a post officer uniform. Not to mention, this “delivery” seemed to not be for Kalani.
“Uh.. there’s nobody named ‘Patience’ living here.”
She could hear mumbling from the creature underneath, presumably talking to the creature on top.
“Evil, you dunce! The heroes don’t know about that yet!”
“Oops, my bad!”
The mention of heroes made Kalani think these were Celestials. Nobody else knew about the hero thing (except for Natalie & Sorrel).
“Um.. you guys can just come in if that’s easier.”
“Oh, thank Fate!” Evil sighed, “walking” inside of Kalani’s apartment. “I did not want to do that trick for another second.”
“It was your idea, Evil!”
“Oh, whatever, Good.”
As they came inside, the post officer uniform came off, revealing the two creatures in their entirety. One was pure black, with white eyes, & the other was the opposite. They looked to be around the same size in terms of height.
“Hi! I’m Good-”
“-& I’m Evil!”
Good appeared to be the pure black one, whilst Evil was the pure white one. They both offered a handshake to Kalani.
“The name’s Kalani. Nice meeting both of you.” she nodded, shaking both of their hands. “I assume you both are Celestials.”
“That would be correct!- Evil, what are you doing?!”
“Oh, just inspecting the long throne.”
The “long throne”, as Evil had called it, was Kalani’s couch.
“That’s.. not a throne.”
“It is now!” Evil proclaimed, sitting on the couch like royalty.
“Anyways,” Good continued, showing clear disdain for Evil’s actions. “We come bearing news from Fate herself!”
“Oh- Yes, yes! Very important news!”
“I.. assume that’s what the envelope is about.”
“Yup!”
Evil hands the envelope over to Kalani. It was a metallic yellow & gold gradient, & kind of felt like a sheet of metal.
She opened up the envelope & pulled out the letter inside. The paper had a nice texture to it, & the handwriting was quite elegant. Kalani began to read the letter.
“Dear Patience,
We all at the Castle of Celestials would like to inform you of the threat you’re about to assist. Juno is a known chaos-causer around the multiverse; she is not a Celestial. He was banished to Earth for eternity after the murder of Sun.
Juno plans on destroying the Sands of Time once she returns to the Castle. This poses an immense danger to everybody, including Juno himself. You & the other heroes must prevent this from happening.
Unfortunately, fending off Juno with your weapons will not suffice this time. A creature such as her must be permanently stopped. Frozen, if you will.
I’m sure you'll figure out what to do from here. Best of luck.
Sincerely, Fate.”
“We have letters for the others as well. You were just our first stop!”
“I see..” Kalani hummed, folding the letter up & setting it aside. “So why does this letter refer to me as Patience?”
“Oh, uhh..” Good & Evil glanced at each other, unsure of how to respond. “That’s just how Fate has always referred to you.”
“Fate.. refers to me as Patience?”
“Yea, it’s like this whole thing. Something about values, I think? Fate’s never told us why.”
“The other heroes also have names like that as well!”
“That’s intriguing.”
Good stretched a little bit, grabbing the hat of the post officer outfit & tossing it over to Evil.
“Well, we best get going now!” Good announced, picking up more of the post officer outfit from the ground. “Got a lotta mail to get through today!”
“Y’know, I could just deliver the letters myself.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah.” Kalani shrugged. “Just seems more convenient for everyone involved.”
“Well!” Evil grinned, hopping off of Kalani’s couch. “That’s quite kind of you!”
“Yes, indeed! We shall go inform Fate of the good news posthaste! Good day to you, Pati- eh, Kalani!”
As Good & Evil scampered out of the dorm room, Kalani sat down on his couch, sighing & thinking back on the letter. It had mentioned that Juno can only be defeated by being frozen. Kalani knew of only one place that could freeze people.
The Auction House.