Apex

by chillbook1

Predator

Adagio was asleep when it happened, but it was shocking enough to shake her from her short, fruitless slumber.

She couldn’t believe what she was feeling. It was a buzzing, a sort of vibration, beneath her skin, intense enough to wake her from her nap. It was a feeling that had no equivalent, no imitator. It could only be her pendant. The magical artifact had a very distinct energy, and there could be no confusing it for another. The sudden buzzing in her core caused her to shudder, let out a small, breathless gasp. Adagio tried to maintain a calm facade, scanning her fellow Siren for any reaction.

Sonata was sitting beside her on their old, dingy couch, the wrong way up and kicking her feet idly as she flipped through her cell phone, no doubt talking to one of those damned Rainbooms. Adagio loathed Sonata’s ability, her willingness, to forgive those girls for what they did. If she had even a modicum of her original power, she would be doing anything she could to get revenge on the girls who had taken everything from her.

“Where’s Aria?” asked Adagio, her voice slightly shaky. Sonata didn’t look up, and she certainly didn’t have the expression of someone who had just been run through with lost, powerful magic.

“Bathroom,” said Sonata, tweeting or Snapchatting or some other idiotic thing Adagio had neither the time nor patience for. “What’s for dinner?”

Adagio ignored her companion, instead rising from the couch and slipping out of their living room. The Dazzling’s apartment was small, just barely enough to accommodate the three. Their kitchen and living room occupied much of the same space, there was but one bathroom among the three, and Aria and Sonata had to share a bed (much to Aria’s annoyance). Despite the small size of the abode, Adagio found herself feeling as if the bathroom was on Mars as opposed to just down the hall. She could feel that energy, once familiar and now totally foreign, weighing her down. She could hardly walk. Her hand trembled as she knocked on the bathroom door, hor ordinarily firm and authoritative raps now weak and shaky.

“Can you give me, like, two minutes without breathing down my neck?!” Aria’s sharp replay came brashly, harshly, and mostly out of nowhere, as per usual. Adagio hardly spoke to Aria today. She hardly ever spoke to her cohorts if she could get away with it. It wasn’t necessarily because Adagio didn’t like them, though she wasn’t exactly fond of Aria all of the time. No, Adagio avoided chatting with her comrades because they served as a reminder to her mistakes. Every sentence they shared served as a monument to her failure. It was maddening.

“Hurry up,” said Adagio, as calmly as she could. “I need to go. Now.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Adagio only had to wait a minute or so before Aria opened the door, looking irate but otherwise indifferent.

“What?” said Aria flatly.

“Are you feeling okay?” asked Adagio. Aria snorted and rolled her eyes. As if Adagio cared about her enough to ask.

“I was only in there for, like, two minutes,” scoffed Aria. “And what do you care?”

“Just… You’re not feeling anything strange?” asked Adagio. She ordinarily would have remarked about how rude and snippy Aria was, but she currently had bigger fish to fry. “Nothing different?”

“Ugh. What are you even talking about?” asked Aria. “Different how? Like Shark Week? Cause I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“Just… Ugh, nevermind. Let me through.” Aria rolled her eyes, but did as she was told, stepping past the Siren that once led them on the path to glory. Adagio knew that Aria must have despised her for how spectacularly she had failed. If she had any recourse, any sort of contingency whatsoever, she’d take Sonata and leave Adagio to starve on their own. But, for now, she was stuck with Adagio, a fact that the Siren leader was acutely aware of.

Adagio gave this little thought as she pushed into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it behind her. She stared into the mirror, her formerly luxurious, voluptuous yellow-orange hair now a flat, tangled mess. The dark circles under her eyes were only growing more pronounced with time, another product of the Rainboom’s meddling. Her Siren biology didn’t allow her the luxury of proper sleep, nothing more than twenty or so minutes at a time, but the loss of their magic left her feeling lethargic, drowsy. Deprived of the one thing her mind craved more than anything. She hated what she saw in the mirror. The Adagio that looked back at her wasn’t the brilliant tactician, the seductress performer. The Adagio that looked back at her was a failure. A disappointment. An incompetent has-been who couldn’t achieve the simplest of goals to provide for the two Sirens under her leadership.

Adagio slipped her hand into her pocket, her thin, dainty fingers wrapping around a cool, smooth fragment. She pulled it from the depths of her pocket, holding it in front of her face. Ever since the Battle of the Bands, no fewer than six months ago, the little shard of Adagio’s gem was a dull, dusty red, a far cry from the stone’s original scarlet glow. It had grown cold, devoid of the bubbling warmth that it used to contain. The gem had lost all of its luster, its majesty. All of its power.

When Adagio brought the small shard to her face, it began to glow. The gem adopted a deeper red, giving off light and heat in equal measure. It wasn’t as bright as it had once been, nor was it as warm, but it was definitely an improvement on what it had been when it originally shattered. Adagio couldn’t believe what she was looking at. It was impossible, yet, there it was.

Her gem was alive.

A rare grin developed on her features. She grabbed a brush and her blow-dryer, as well as some hair spray, then got about taming the beast that was her unkempt mane. As she worked, she could barely contain herself. This was her chance at redemption. Her opportunity to rise from the gutters of defeat. For the first time in over six months, she would be performing, feeding, hunting.

And she vowed to look her absolute best while she did so.

---

Adagio trembled as she smelled the familiar, long-missed aroma of negative energy. She breathed it in, trying to get every scrap of it that she could. It sent shivers down her spine, knowing that it was back. She was back. Or, at the very least, she was on her way.

She still couldn’t sing, but manufacturing some negativity was simple enough without a musical number. The cafe she had chosen to hunt at was fairly crowded, and Adagio’s predatory instincts were second to none. She found her marks almost as soon as she stepped into the cafe; a couple sitting near the rear of the bustling establishment. The man was unexceptional, just some boring twenty-something hipster. It was his date that caught Adagio’s attention. Her designer clothes, purse, and shoes screamed overcompensation for her decidedly average face and figure. Adagio couldn’t quite make out what the woman was saying from across the cafe, but she could tell that she wasn’t happy. Her body language, the disinterest and lack of focus on the man’s face, the way she snapped to get the his attention, it all made it very clear what was going on.

Adagio waited until the girl rose from her seat, no doubt to make a trip to the restroom. Here, Adagio saw her opportunity and took it. She crossed the room, scribbling on her palm with a pen as she did. She hid the pen, and the writing, as she approached the man. Adagio waited a moment for him to carelessly move his cup and hurried past. Just to plan, she bumped his arm, spilling coffee all over her tights.

“Jesus!” Adagio recoiled as if she hadn’t expected it, doing a good job of playing the clumsy ditz. She knew her sessions spent analyzing Sonata would pay off. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!”

“What? No, don’t be, you’re the one who got all messy.” And, just like that, he had fallen into Adagio’s trap. “Here, let me get that for you…”

Adagio let the man attempt to dry the spilled drink with a napkin. This would be even easier than she thought.

“Thanks. I’m Adagio, by the way,” she said, offering her hand to shake. The man accepted the handshake, smiling at her.

“Dustin. Nice meeting you.”

With that, Adagio began her attack. She slid into the seat across from him and turned up her charm, masking the cold, unfeeling hunger she felt with cute charm and idle, irrelevant smalltalk. When she had Dustin locked in the flow of conversation, she transitioned from smalltalk to overt flirting. It took a few tries, but she managed to hook him with this as well. He bragged about his band, which Adagio mentioned she’d love to see one day. She took note of his tattoos, innocently asking if the ones on his neck had hurt and pretending to be impressed when he assured her that they didn’t. She inquired as to if he had more, and if she could see them. Adagio wasn’t interested in this man in the slightest. She didn’t care about his band. She didn’t care about his tattoos. She saw Dustin as little more than a snack. Little more than prey.

Adagio was leaned over the table, gripping Dustin’s bicep in faux-adoration when his girlfriend arrived, and the reaction was just what she had expected.

“What the hell?!” Adagio turned coyly, pretending to be shocked to see the girl standing there. “What the hell is this?!”

“Oh, damn, Ivy, it’s not what it looks like,” sighed Dustin. If Adagio were to guess, this sort of thing happened often.

“Um, what is that supposed to mean?” asked Adagio, excellently imitating annoyance. “And who is this?”

“This is his girlfriend,” snarled Ivy. “Or at least, I was when we walked in. That might be changing any minute now.”

“Girlfriend? You never said anything about a girlfriend!” Adagio looked aghast, but actually had to fight to keep the grin back. “I’ll have you know, I’m not some hussy side-piece!”

“What? No! No, no, we were just talking,” said Dustin. “Ivy, I swear, that’s all this was. I spilled my coffee, I apologized, and we starting talking. I was just being polite!”

“Yeah, right. So polite that you just had to give me your number and beg me to call you?”asked Adagio. Though she had her back to Ivy, she could feel her fuming. “I should’ve known this was the case. All men are the same!”

“I did not give you my number!”

“So now I’m a liar?” Adagio turned and flashed her palm to Ivy, who was so angry that she probably wouldn’t have noticed that the phone number on Adagio’s hand was wrong even if she had a good look at it. “Sorry, sister, but I think you’re in need of a new man.”

“You said I had nothing to worry about! But I knew it, you’ve always been checking out other girls! Am I not enough for you?”

And, with that, Adagio had captured her prey. She gave one last unheard apology to Ivy, moving away from the drama as she inhaled deeply, drawing in that precious, intoxicating negative energy. She felt the familiar heat flood her veins, her blood begin to simmer. This was what she had been missing these past six months. Fire. Power. Though the meal was meager by Siren standards, it was also the first morsel she had been able to consume in over six months. To Adagio Dazzle, this was Thanksgiving Dinner.

As Adagio went for the door, overjoyed to know that, somehow, her powers were returning, she heard a voice that made her breath catch in her chest.

“Adagio Dazzle. I’ve been wondering when we’d run into you again.”

Adagio turned, doing nothing to hide her contempt from the girl who had ruined everything for her. She stared Sunset Shimmer down, wishing that she could get her hands on the Equestrian reject. The hate that Adagio felt for the other girl knew no bounds, could hardly be summed up in a single sentence. It was without end, evergrowing in scope and intensity. Adagio didn’t just want to beat Sunset anymore. She wanted to do to Sunset what Sunset had done to her. Adagio wanted to take everything from her.

Then, out of nowhere, her spiteful scowl melted into a grin.

“I’ve been wondering much the same, Sunset Shimmer. Been keeping out of trouble?” asked Adagio, looking Sunset up and down. She worked at the cafe, as evidenced by her green hat and apron, but she seemed to be on break. Five minutes was all Adagio would need.

“I try. And yourself?” Sunset’s tone was suspicious, yet yielding. Adagio realized that Sunset was trying to go easy on her, and that made sense. She’d be a massive hypocrite not to give a former villain a second chance. Adagio made note of this weakness and strategized on how best to exploit it.

“Oh, you know, I’ve been busy. Starving to death is something of a full-time job, so I’m afraid I don’t have much time for bids to take over the world,” said Adagio casually. Still, Sunset winced. She showed pity. She was weak.

“What are you even doing here?” asked Sunset. “Can you… Can you still eat and drink and stuff?”

“We don’t need to, but we can. If we have the taste for it. Otherwise, there’s not much point. The only way for our kind to truly sustain ourselves is with our pendants. So thanks for smashing them.” Adagio rolled her eyes. “I was attempting to get a coffee, but this line…”

“What do you drink?” asked Sunset. Adagio raised a questioning eyebrow. “I’m just getting off my shift, but I can run back in and make you one. What do you drink?”

“Cappuccino, half-caf, nonfat soy.” Adagio gave a superior smirk. “Think you can handle that?”

“Think you can sit tight without trying to brainwash a barista?”

“Depends on how good the coffee is.”

Sunset smirked, which was a beautiful sight to Adagio. It was time to begin the “long hunt”, so to speak. And, just like with Dustin and Ivy, Adagio was supremely confident that she would capture her prey.

---

“The hell are you going?” asked Aria, stopping Adagio at the door.

“While it’s none of your business, I’m going out. Sunset is having me over for movie night, if you absolutely must know,” said Adagio as she slipped on the jacket she had borrowed from Sunset. It wasn’t particularly cold, save for the occasional November breeze, but Adagio knew that Sunset liked to see her wear it. She had learned a lot about Sunset Shimmer in the five months since the two had started “dating”. One such thing was that Sunset had a bit of a macho side, and she enjoyed being on the traditionally male end of their relationship. In attempt to appeal to that, Adagio found herself doing things she wouldn’t ordinarily do, such as ask to borrow the hoodie she was currently wearing.

“Ugh. I thought you, of all people, would be holding a grudge,” grumbled Aria. “She’s the reason we’re stuck in this dump.

Adagio hadn’t told her fellows about her returning powers. It was something that simply didn’t concern them. Adagio thought that, almost as much as them underestimating their opponents, it was dissention and lack of focus in the Dazzling ranks that contributed to their downfall. As such, Adagio decided that she was the only one smart enough to achieve the goals she had set, so she was the only one who was deserving of the power. Once all of the pieces were in place, when there was no opposing them, Adagio would share her power. But, until then, there was no use in bringing it to their attention.

“We can’t be bitter for the rest of our lives,” said Adagio, knowing full and well that what she said was untrue. “There may come a time when you need a friend like Sunset Shimmer. Besides, she’s cute. I may have a weakness for tough girls like her. I’ll probably be spending the night, so don’t wait up.”

“Blech. Whatever.”

Aria’s disinterest was nothing new, and Adagio was far too busy with her own plans to worry about what Aria had to say. She simply grabbed her keys and proceeded out of the apartment.

It was a short cab ride from Adagio’s apartment to Sunset’s, and Adagio was scheming the whole way there. Her seduction of Sunset Shimmer was going off mostly without consequence, though there was one particular hurdle Adagio was having difficulty overcoming. Sunset made a promise to herself that she would not touch Adagio for any extended period, which was problematic. Adagio was all for the slow, methodical approach to hunting, but there came a point where “slow and methodical” became “stagnant and stalled”. She had put in so much effort, and it seemed to be amounting to nothing. She had played nice, pretended to fall for Sunset, even got herself a human job to maintain a facade of normalcy, and yet, she still hadn’t tasted her revenge. If Adagio wanted to conquer Sunset, she'd need to move their relationship along.

Sunset had explained, time and time again, why she was so distant on a physical level, and, if Adagio put herself in the position of someone as empathetic, irrational, and weak as Sunset, she could understand why. Sunset was concerned about her new empathic powers and her inability to consistently control them. She was deathly afraid of accidentally reading her girlfriend’s mind and breaching her privacy, a fact that Adagio saw as both an advantage and an obstacle. On one hand, the chances of Sunset discovering Adagio’s true intentions were decidedly low without Sunset’s mind-reading abilities. On the other, Adagio needed to connect with Sunset on a physical level. That would be when Sunset would be at her most vulnerable. If Adagio wanted Sunset, she'd need to get the girl to lower her guard.

She kept this in mind as she knocked on the door to Sunset’s apartment. The door opened, and they went about their usual ritual; They hugged, careful not to touch their bare skin for too long. Sunset even pecked Adagio on the cheek; these brief moments of contact were typically safe, especially when Sunset was as calm as she was now. The more in-check Sunset’s emotions were, the easier it was for her to control her powers.

“Heya, babe,” said Sunset. She stepped out of the way to let Adagio into the apartment. “Sorry I couldn’t come get you. My bike just wouldn’t start.”

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t want you over at my place, anyway. The less you have to interact with those leeches I call my friends, the better,” snorted Adagio. “Sonata would embarrass me just by virtue of her being a brainless idiot, and I’m pretty sure Aria is actively attempting to sabotage my love life.” Sunset snickered, and Adagio responded appropriately with a small smile. Truthfully, she felt no joy. She could mimic it well enough, put on that sheepskin to lull her target into a false sense of security, but it didn’t change the fact that Adagio was a wolf. A hunter. She had no room in her mind for such trivia as a girlfriend. She was far too hungry.

“Please, you should see how Rainbow and AJ act when they notice I’m on the phone with you. They’d be so happy with themselves if they managed to break us up.” Sunset journeyed deeper into the apartment, with Adagio on her heels. They fell into their usual flow; Adagio laid herself on Sunset’s bed, waiting for her “girlfriend” to approach. From there, Adagio would do what she did best: flirt and seduce.

“Still don’t trust me? Makes sense,” hummed Adagio. “I did attempt to brainwash you all and take over the world. A bit of… trepidation would make a lot of sense.”

“Nah. They’re just jealous that they’re not the resident lesbos anymore.” Sunset stooped down next to the bed, digging through her DVD collection. “Plus, they’re overprotective. They’d act this way no matter who I was dating. Don’t worry about them. They’ll come around eventually. What are we watching?”

“Something trashy, romantic, and cheesy, if you’ve got it,” said Adagio. Sunset chuckled, but found a movie that fit Adagio’s description and slipped it into the DVD player. She flopped down onto the bed, resting her head on Adagio’s stomach, and started the movie. They watched in near-silence for about an hour, save for a few quips and shared chuckles, when Sunset turned her attention from the screen to the woman she was laying on.

“You know, you could probably get them to come around a bit sooner,” said Sunset. “I’m sure if you sat down with them and just hung out for a bit…”

“Sunny… I just don’t know if I’m ready. I can’t face them yet.” Adagio had been expecting this little suggestion from Sunset and had a retort prepared. By this point, she knew Sunset like the back of her hand, knew how to mold her like putty. She knew exactly how to get the appropriate reaction. “I’m so… It’s just… What if they don't see me the way you do? What if they don’t forgive me? What I did was awful, and I don’t know if even deserve their forgiveness.”

“Don’t be silly. Of course they’ll forgive you. They forgave me, didn’t they?” said Sunset. Adagio noted Sunset’s solid reasoning, recognizing it as a potential threat for future plans. Luckily for her, she was playing the role of the insecure girlfriend, and that role allowed her to ignore solid reason and logic such as Sunset’s.

“It’s not the same… You’re a human,” said Adagio. She caught a glimpse of Sunset’s bemused expression and quickly corrected herself. “Or you’re close enough. You’re something they understand. But me? They won’t understand me, because I’m not like them. I’m… I’m a monster.” Adagio let out a wistful sigh, wholly manufactured and extremely convincing. “I just… I don’t want you to have to choose between me and them, especially since I know who you’d pick.”

Sunset turned suddenly, placing her hand on Adagio’s shoulder. The two locked eyes, with Sunset staring forward with powerful intensity. If Adagio had any genuine feelings for Sunset, she might have even felt moved by the affection, the love in her gaze.

“Stop it. You are not a monster. And my friends would never make me pick them over you. If they did… Well, those aren’t people I need as friends, anyway.”

Adagio couldn’t believe it. She knew her influence was hard to shake, but Sunset was actually talking about renouncing her friends for this relationship. Sunset had really fallen for her, hard, and it amused Adagio to no end. The heart was a strange thing, somehow making a person incredibly strong and exceedingly weak at the same time. Adagio currently only saw the latter in Sunset, her blind, senseless, stupid infatuation nothing but a disadvantage. It was almost a shame, what Adagio intended to do. Sunset would have made a good servant, a perfect little brainwashed puppet.

But Adagio had learned from her mistakes, and she would be leaving no room for error this time around.

“You… You don’t mean that,” said Adagio, looking away. “I couldn’t ask you to risk that. They’re your friends, they helped make you what you are. I don’t deserve to—”

“Shut up!” Adagio pretended to be shocked that Sunset raised her voice, but that was her plan all along. At a certain point, emotions tended to blend into one another, until it was impossible to distinguish anger from love. “I won’t let you do this to yourself! I did the same thing you did, and I beat myself up over it for ages! For months, I hated myself for what I did! I won’t let you do that, not when you’re trying so hard to be better than before. You deserve better than that! I don’t care if I can’t hang out with my friends for a year, nothing is worth losing you!” Sunset wiped a tear from Adagio’s cheek (an extra touch of authenticity on behalf of the Siren). “You’re not a monster. You’re just like me.”

It got quiet for a spell, during which Adagio’s mouth stood slightly agape. She trembled her lip, forced herself to tear up, and formed her lips to tell a lie. The one lie she never told, the one lie she was saving for just the right moment to tip Sunset over the edge.

“Oh my God…” breathed Adagio. “I am… So in love with you…”

And, just like that, Sunset’s reservations vanished. She leapt onto Adagio, pinned her to the bed, and latched her lips onto her’s. Adagio was genuinely shocked at first by Sunset’s forwardness, but soon allowed herself to melt into the kiss. This was it. She could feel her gem whispering, calling out to her. She could smell Sunset’s energy, even taste a lick of it every time she brushed Sunset’s tongue with her own.

There was a flash of white, freezing Adagio in place. She felt claws at her brain, yanking out noise and color in a torrent of stimulus. Emotions bubbled to the surface, feelings Adagio had been masking. Loathing. Aggression. Irreverence. Hunger. When the light died out, Adagio suddenly found herself on top of Sunset, her hand loosely wrapped around her throat.

“B-babe?” said Sunset shakily. “W-what was that?” Panic was the dominant expression on her face. But Adagio knew there was more. She could taste it. Sunset was afraid, confused, but still, on some level, oblivious to Adagio’s betrayal. It was pathetic. “That was… You’re so angry. But why?”

Adagio said nothing at first as she squeezed Sunset’s throat, clenching her airway with a power that wasn’t entirely hers. Sunset, shocked from the sudden glimpse into Adagio’s mind, couldn’t respond until it was too late. Adagio’s grip was secure and, as she squeezed, Sunset felt herself getting weaker. She could struggle less and less in her lover’s hold, unaware as to what exactly was happening. Her magic was hemorrhaging from her body, flooding into Adagio at a startling pace. Soon enough, Sunset would be but a husk of her former self, while Adagio would have enjoyed the best meal she’d had in years.

“Ada…! What are you…” Sunset grabbed at Adagio’s hands, fruitlessly attempting to pry them from her neck. “S-stop!”

“You let your guard down, Sunny,” said Adagio mockingly. “You let me into your heart. That is your downfall, Sunset Shimmer. Your heart is too big and your brain too small. That’s why I’m here, sapping the life from your worthless, pathetic body.”

“A-ada…” gasped Sunset. “But… your gem is…”

“Shattered, thanks to you. I kept but a sliver of it.” Adagio pulled the gem shard from her pocket so Sunset could see it; it shined almost as bright as it did before, giving off a faint glow. Her eyes began to glow much in a similar way to the gem in her hands, the energy in her core building and mounting. “But it started back up. I imagine it had something to do with those geodes that you found at your camp. Something about activating them brought more Equestrian magic into this world. Not a lot, mind you, not enough for you to notice. Just enough for my precious little gem to fire itself up.”

“You… I can’t breathe…”

Adagio released her grip of Sunset’s neck, feeling the new magic slither through her veins. She could taste Sunset’s power, and it was just as incredible as she could have hoped. It bubbled in her veins, filling her core with fire. Adagio grabbed Sunset by the shirt, pulling her close until they were almost touching noses.

“Do you know why I lost to you last time, Shimmer?” asked Adagio rhetorically. “It wasn’t because of your unbreakable bond with your friends. It wasn’t because of my arrogance, not entirely. It wasn’t even because of that hail-mary save you managed at the Battle of the Bands. No, my sweet, darling Shimmy, you won because I held back.” Adagio traced her Sunset’s face with her finger, lovingly caressing a woman who she saw as nothing more than a meal. “I showed you mercy. I wanted you brainless, doing my bidding, breathing. But now… Now, I won’t allow you the mercy of being my slave. Now, you are going to feed me your magic and, when that runs out entirely, your life.”

“But… I… I thought…” Sunset struggled to speak, both because of the overwhelming emotion and because of the energy she had lost at the hands of the woman she loved. “I thought you…”

“You thought I what? Loved you? Don’t make me laugh!” Adagio slapped Sunset playfully across the face, lapping at her remaining magic as she did. “Sirens are incapable of something as foolish as love. It serves us no purpose. Mimicry and seduction, however, work wonders for capturing prey. Like you, Sunny, baby. My lovely little Shimmy.” Adagio spoke the words Sunset had heard over and over these past five months, but they were loaded with venom. She released Sunset, letting her fall down onto her back. “I tricked you. I got you at your most vulnerable. When you were at your weakest. Then, I struck.”

“No… I trusted you,” breathed Sunset. She tried to push herself upright, immediately collapsing under her own weight. “It can’t be true…”

“You were wrong, Sunny. I am a monster. But that’s a good thing. I’m a predator, a hunter, while you are prey.” Adagio pecked Sunset on the cheek, tasting some of her remaining magic. It was so satisfying, burning hot. Heavy. Almost viscous, like molasses, and just as sweet. “I said I won’t allow you the mercy of servitude, that I would suck you dry, and that still holds true. But I thought of something. You took everything I had, so it’s only fair that I do the same to you. So, I think I will allow you to serve me for a bit. At least until you’ve seen everything you know and love crumble into dust.”

“W-what…?”

“I think I’ve changed my mind, Sunny, baby,” said Adagio. She grinned a savage, starving grin. “I think I am ready to meet your friends now.”