Existence and interruptions.

(Caulina)

Looking at Diego and the people around us, the two of us both flinched at the strange occurrence.

"Wait, what did I just say?" Diego and I both asked simultaneously. "Okay, that was weird." We both said. "Okay, stop that." We continued. "No, seriously, stop it." We said.

"What is going on?" One of the captains, the older one with a horn, asked.

"I don't know, she's/he's copying me." We both said.

"Okay, both of you need to stop." The woman with sun-yellow skin ordered before facing me. "You, shut up." She ordered. I felt offended at being silenced. She then turned back to Diego. "What the heck was all that?" She asked him.

"I don't know. We just- hold on, Voltron's saying something." Diego said, pointing at his head. He stayed silent for a second. "Okay, this is weird. According to Voltron, my brain acted on itself when Caulina and I said our names. He has no idea why it happened." Diego explained.

"That's one useless AI." I commented. Diego rounded on me.

"Hey! Voltron is awesome and I don't like my friends being disrespected." Diego stepped up to me, pointing a finger at me.

"Hey, I'm just saying, I haven't seen him do anything useful yet." I said bluntly. Diego suddenly looked out the colourful window of the room.

"Well, he's about to. Voltron just detected a swarm of monsters appearing near the edge of the city, coming from a portal that matches Grogar's signature." Diego said, walking up to the window. Everyone moved to look, seeing a rippling yellow circle of light spewing out various ugly monsters.

"Grogar's attacking again? Why? He knows that he can't win with you here and a lot of people saw you fly out of the castle before, so they know that you are awake again." Celestia said as she looked out of the window.

"Voltron says that he doesn't recognise the monsters coming out of the portal and he thinks that Grogar is just throwing something new at us." Diego said as he stepped back from the windows.

"Then he may be watching from afar, to see how his creations fare. Diego, head out and stop the monsters from getting to the city, the defences are still new." Kolivan ordered. Diego nodded as a stream of light travelled up his arm from his leg, merging with his wings and upgrading them.

"While you do that, be on the lookout for whatever Grogar could be using to observe the attack." Kolivan continued. Diego nodded again before vanishing in a flash of white light.

"Captains, while Diego is battling the army, they should focus on him but deploy the guard to make sure any stragglers don't get through and attack the citizens." Celestia ordered, the captains all nodding.

"Spell, help me send us all to the guard tower." The younger horned captain said, making them all join hands. In a multicolour flash, all of them disappeared as well. Only the princesses, Kolivan and I remained in the throne room.

"Alright. Caulina, you come with me. We'll take you to the evacuation shelter with the nobles." Celestia said, holding her hand out.

"No way, I'm helping the others." I argued.

"Caulina, you can't fight." Celestia argued back. I responded by vanishing across the room, appearing by the door. Celestia looked around in confusion before spotting me. I vanished again, appearing by her throne. I then walked up to her, phasing Kolivan as I passed.

"I'll be fine." I argued. Celestia looked at me for a moment before Luna stepped forward.

"I shall protect her. You and Kolivan go take care of directing our forces." Luna said.

"Alright. Stay safe, sister." Celestia said, taking hold of Kolivan's arm.

"You as well." Luna replied as the two of them vanished. "Shall we?" She asked as she held her hand out to me.

"Yeah but I think I prefer not teleporting." I said hesitantly as I grabbed her hand.

"Very well. There is a balcony exit just down the hall." Luna said, pulling me along as we left the throne room.

Tightly holding on to Luna as we flew across the city, I looked up to see Diego tearing through the monsters with a large boxy gun that was shooting lasers like a minigun. He was moving so quickly, I almost couldn't keep up as he ducked and weaved through the air, turning the creatures into Swiss cheese. Luna began descending, heading for a large fountain near the edge of the city.

"Alright, that was terrifying." I said as I stood on solid ground.

"If that was enough to scare you, you shouldn't be on the battlefield." Luna said as she began emitting black opaque smoke.

"Hey, don't count me out yet." I argued as I looked around. A handful of monsters broke off from the flock, flying straight towards us.

"They've sensed me. Here." Luna reached into her shoe, pulling out a small hilt. She pushed a button on the side, making a thin energy blade extend out from the top. "Use this. It should help you defend yourself." She said. Taking the magic dagger, I grasped it tightly as the monsters fell in a circle around us.
Let's do this. I'm going to have to get behind them then I should be able to stab each one in the head before they have a chance to counter. I thought before a familiar pulsing feeling came from my left eye.

Tick.

I blinked and all the monsters around us cried out in pain. Luna looked around in confusion.

"What did you do?" She asked as the monsters lifted themselves back up. One monster jumped at me. Luna swung her arm, a thick ribbon of black smoke coming out of her arm and sailing through the air at the creature.
I don't want it to hit me. I thought, feeling my right eye pulse as I looked at the monster.

Thrum.

It's inverted claws passed straight through me before it got sent flying by Luna's black ribbon.

"Told you." I looked at Luna with a smirk. She smiled back at me as the smoke around her blocked another monster from attacking.

"Keep that up then." She grinned. I turned back to the ugly creatures around me.
If I could do what I did before again, it would be a big help. But not just stab them all, cut them all over their bodies. Their joints, eyes, limbs, everything. I thought as I jumped at another monster with my weapon.

Tick.

I landed on the other side of the fountain, my arms, legs and hips feeling tired as I blinked. The monsters around Luna all cried out as their bodies became covered in small slashes, opening them up for Luna to blast them back with a black shockwave. The monsters all went flying down streets and into walls, falling to the ground.

"I'm assuming that was you, how did you do that?" Luna asked me as I stood from my crouch.

"I'm not sure. I think I… teleported but as I was teleporting, anything I thought of doing happened. Like my body was doing it all for me or… something like that. I'm not entirely sure." I responded slowly, stretching my limbs.

"Well, it is most certainly useful…" Luna trailed off as she saw the monsters rustling. Slowly, they began standing back up, their wounds and bruises quickly healing.

"Seriously? That's cheating." I remarked as I raised my dagger again.

"Most definitely. However, there is something I recently learned that might help. I've been intermittently studying it since the day I met Diego." Luna said as her horn glowed blue with black sparks before she spun in place, firing blasts at each monster. The monsters all fell to the ground with holes through their bodies.

"Okay, that was very cool but what good is it going to do?" I asked as I looked at the twitching monsters. "They're just going to get back up…" I stared as the monsters all twitched before stopping, fading away into dust moments later. "What was that?" I asked her.

"Permanent wound spells, alongside an overdone puncturing spell." Luna responded. "The more they try to regenerate, the more they damage themselves." Luna finished. A bright flash suddenly filled the sky. Looking up, both of us saw a great big chain of fire, burning away and incinerating all the monsters as it traveled through the air.

"Whoa…" I marveled as the flames continued.

"It seems Diego found his own way to do it." Luna commented. Diego then emerged out of the flames, looking around. He suddenly spun around, pointing something in his hand in a random direction. It seemed to fire a small laser. A loud shattering sound was heard as the laser struck something invisible, sending shards of yellow light flying. "That must have been Grogar's spy. Good work Diego!" Luna called up to him. Diego curved through the air, flying towards us before he landed.

"Thanks Luna. Finally found that thing. Now, Voltron says there are still a few monsters- seven monsters left." He said. "They seem to be fighting a group of Magicians in that direction." Diego said, pointing into the city.

"Then let's go stop them." Luna said. Diego crouched down, turning to face his back to us.

"Climb on, I'll take you there." He said. Luna climbed on, grabbing the tips of his wings.

"I think I'll take my own way." I said.

Tick.

I appeared on the street heading towards where Diego pointed.

"Come on slowpokes!" I called out to them as I ran. Hearing them take off, I hurried after them.

Tick.

Tick.

Appearing on a street corner, I heard fighting to my right, on the other side of a building. I saw Diego and Luna both fly down and land on the side the fighting was coming from. Running towards the peach coloured building wall-

Thrum.

-I ran through the dark blue wall, emerging in a living room full of people. A woman screamed on sight of me before getting shushed by everyone else.

"Sorry." I said, making my way past them. Running out the door, I saw Diego and Luna standing in front of a group of relieved guards and people who all had horns, a bunch of burning monsters in front of the two of them.

"Seems I missed all the fun." I commented, making everyone turn to me.

"You sure did." Diego said, holstering a pistol in his hand with a flash from his leg.

"So, is that all of them?" I asked as I walked down from the front door steps.

"Yeah, Voltron isn't picking up any more and the portal they came through is long gone." Diego said.

"Thank goodness. Oh, right." Walking up to princess Luna, I turned off the magic dagger and held it out for her. "Thanks for letting me borrow this." I said. She closed my hand around the small hilt.

"Keep it. You never know when you might need it." She replied. I smiled at her. Diego looked up at the castle at the center of the city.

"Come on, the others are already back at the castle." He started moving towards the castle. Luna jumped up on his back again.

"It's fun to ride on your back, could you carry me?" She asked cutely. Diego looked at her for a second before shrugging.

"Okay. But if you want to be carried…" Diego said, reaching for the woman on his back. Grabbing her leg, he tipped forward, letting her fall into his waiting arms. "Then I think this is the proper way to do it." Diego said in a smug tone. The people behind all had their jaws on the floor at the casual way Diego handled Luna.

"No, wait, I changed my MIIIIND! AH HA HA HA!" Luna exclaimed as Diego blasted off, carrying Luna in his arms. I just chuckled, which blew out into laughter as I saw the gobsmacked looks behind me.

"Hehehe. Show off." I thought before I focused on the castle.

Tick.