There, see? Wishes never come true. Even if you're brave enough to ask for something, chances are you're not going to get what you asked for.

...Though, maybe? It's still a good thing to ask.

Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits wipes her eyes on her ruined sleeve. Then she wipes her nose on the other one. Then she goes back to the first sleeve because she's started crying again. She can hardly believe her eyes, for reasons that have nothing to do with watery distortions. What did, what did, what did, what did, what did she just see?

She can't, she! She!

Kat is on her feet before she understands what's happening. It's not that Actia's five tail transformation doesn't register, it's just that there are much more important things about her going on right now. Like that she's here. Like the way she's holding up her phone and the way that number is going down, down, down and the way her blue-painted lips are smiling! Smiling! Her, Actia! Smiling! Not the mischief of a colon followed by a three, but the passion and the love of... of a... a colon! Followed by a three! I-it's just different!

Two Servants (one of them a dragon) are powerless to stop her from launching. A monk is no obstacle at all in the face of her sheer determination. She takes off, not like a missile but a twin-tailed floofy hittle and tackles Actia so hard it takes all five of her magnificent tails to keep from being bowled over. The hug is crushing, but it's soft. The nuzzle against her cheek would be pathetic if it weren't so sincere. 

"Y-you came! You made it! You, you, you... thank you! Thank you thank you thank you! I knew it! I [i]knew[/i] you were a good girl, I just knew it!"

"HEY?!" squeaks Cyanis, "ExCUSE? Where's [i]my[/i] good girl, huh? How many wallets does it take for you to remember your BEST FRIEND??"

"Oh! Cy, I! Well y'know, you've got like... yeah! No of course thank you too! You're here and that's what matters!"

And then she drags the pair of them into a big fluffy snuggle pile so she can laugh and cry at the same time. Berserker watches with an intense glare in her eye and the strange smile to go with it that together tell the tale of a person who is entirely too familiar with alliances that fall apart to petty bickering or ambition, and how special it is when a pack of sillyheads are too soft and too sweet to backstab each other properly. You could call it pride. Pride in her Master, pride in her own taste. Pride so powerful it can conquer the storm inside of her. No England, no Wales, no arguments about who she needs to be or isn't allowed to, only the understanding that what's happening before her is a miracle. A gathering of heroes, of a sort, and that by her own sweat and blood and long labor were the foundations laid to bring it about.

Elizabeth Bathory, meanwhile, chokes down several choice but deeply not-safe-for-idols words. She is furious. Fuming! She's hopping mad about how [i]not[/i] mad she is about this whole affair. That stupid mirror was right after all: this little fox is (at least in this moment) cuter than she is. Though her hair is a mess in a way that [i]she[/i] would never let it be. And those ridiculous floofy triangles on her head were no substitute for perfectly spiraled horns. And the way she can't do disheveled or distressed half so well as a certain main vocalist she could name (Elly! Elly! Elly! Say her name and scream! Elly!!!) But even despite all those handicaps... ah, jeez! Look, never mind who's cuter than whomst! Once this fox is the president of her fanclub none of that is going to matter!

As for Kat? She is managing the trick of laughing and crying at the exact same time. She's never been so hopeful in her entire life, not even that time Yue left a tray of cookies really close to the edge of the counter and forgot about them for an hour while she went off to take a bath. 

It doesn't matter that she doesn't have a plan, or know anybody who does for that matter, for what to do once she's in space. Or any idea of how to follow said plan (that she does not have) once she's there. It doesn't matter that the number for the space elevator is still so big she can't even tell how close they are to beating it. She only knows she's not alone. And the idea that [i]every[/i] fox in the whole world could band together and still somehow fail? 

That's so silly it doesn't even bear thinking about.

*

"What are we stopping for now, Demon Swordswoman? How much more time do you think we have to spare?"

Oh! She used my title! Well goshies I wanna blush about that so bad right now but unfortunately, she's right. I save the moment inside my head so I can twirl my hair and 'ehehehehehe' about it later, but right this second all I can do is look at Miss Saber-Avenger and point up.

"You can't feel that?"

"Feel... what?" she cocks her head at me and glares in that intense way of hers that says she'd really like to kill something if she could figure out any little way that might benefit her.

Lucky thing for me she can't, huh?

"The air, right? There's a lotta birds fallin' outta the sky right now. Someone did somethin'. I'm just..."

"No, wait a moment. How can you possibly know what's happening to the birds? My eyes are far better than yours and I--"

"Well now who's wasting time, huh?"

I shouldn't be so smug about this, but I can't help it! She's so fun to tease! Ever since she let me braid that wonderful flaxen hair of hers I've felt like we could be besties. Followin' along behind this story the whole time I'm not three thousand percent sure what it takes to be a Master but if I had to pick a Servant it'd be her for sure. But I shake my head before she can admonish me, or worse, drag me away by the collar before I can take care of anything.

"There's just an energy in the air. I dunno how else to explain it. When they pass through a place, if they're happy especially, you can feel it in the currents for hours. But right now they're... I think we might be out've time."

"What will you do, then?"

"I'm... I'm gonna pray. I think. Something's tellin' me that's what my little Kat needs."

"There are no gods to pray to anymore, little sword dancer."

"Hmm. Maybe not, but even stiiiilllLL~~!"

I yelp when I feel her lift me off the ground and set me on her shoulder. Goshies, that strength! It's like I don't weigh more than a sack of potatoes to her. And me, a fully grown woman in dress-armor! Sheesh, what a little adventure this has turned out to be.

"You pray then. I will walk. [i]My[/i] oaths demand I reach the girl before the end. But neither will I abandon you to this place. If birds are truly being knocked from the sky than this is no fit place for anyone to be alone, to say nothing of unfocused."

"I see. Well thank you very much, Miss Saber."

"...I would still prefer to be called Avenger."

"As you wish~"

I let the conversation drop with just a smile. I'm good at findin' time to waste but there's limits, y'know? Miss S- sorry, Avenger's stride is so long and steady I almost feel like I'm just flyin'. So I can just close my eyes and focus on my precious Fluffybiscuits. 

I dunno what I'm hoping to accomplish. I dunno what good it does to close my eyes and clasp my hands together. I just... I know a lot about a certain kind've miracle. The kind that only works if everyone involved all believes in it together. And I feel it. In my heart, y'know? That I can be the difference for her. I can be what lets her win.

And if that's how it is, I'm happy. I'll give her everything she needs. Because this is her story <3