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"Hit it like rom-pom-pom-pom, get it hot like Papa John..."
Phéa was letting loose on the karaoke mic, the way she did every week when she popped into her favorite club. Dolled up in her favorite sparkling gray dress, she was moving around the stage as if she were a pop star in her own right.
As the song ended, she put the microphone back and beamed at the applauding crowd, before taking a seat at the bar. It was then when she heard the voice of someone she hadn't heard from in at least five or so years now.
"Phéa Nox? Is that you?"
She quickly spun around in her seat and gave her old friend a shocked smile. "Sara Henault? Oh my God, hi!"
Sara nodded, and the two of them hugged.
"My shy freshman roommate is at a club," Phéa remarked. "Hell must be cold today!"
Sara giggled. "To tell you the truth, I've wanted to try karaoke for a while. It's just hard to find a good place."
"The last time I saw you, your throat closed up presenting a class project. And now you wanna sing for a crowd of people?" Phéa teased her.
"What can I say? I've come a long way since we last spoke," Sara remarked. "But enough about me. How are you? Last I heard, you were engaged!"
But as Sara said, she noticed the lack of a ring on Phéa's finger, and the way that her face faltered. "Oh, I'm sorry...I didn't mean..."
"It's alright. I'm okay talking about it," Phéa replied, before taking a deep breath. "Leda and I got married, yeah, but then she disappeared a few months after the fact. Authorities kept up the search for a while, but soon presumed her dead."
"I'm so sorry, Phé."
"Thanks, Sara." Then, Phéa sighed. "Well, on a brighter note, want a drink? On me, for old times sake."
"Oh, I couldn't ask for that! I can pay for my own..."
But as Sara started going through her purse, her face flushed.
"Something wrong?" Phéa asked, cocking her head.
"No, I just realized I left my wallet at a friend's house," Sara said with an annoyed sigh. "I'll be right back."
With that, she started moving toward the bathrooms.
Wait, she's going to the bathroom...to go to a friend's house? Something's not right.
Phéa got up out of her seat and followed Sara. The next few moments went by in a blur. Sara quickly spun around, said "Spacetime Hotel," and clasped her necklace, before a deep purple light engulfed Phéa. She soon found herself collapsed on the ground in the middle of a gold-and-purple-decked ballroom.
"Phéa!" Sara shouted, clear distress in her voice. She ran over to her friend as the portal closed behind her. "I'm so sorry! I had no idea you following me!"
"You...what did you do?!" Phéa squeaked out as she stood up, shaking slightly. "What is this place, how did you make a portal here, and why are we both wearing different clothes and have chalk skin?!"
Before Sara could reply, they both heard a masculine voice arrive. "Ah, Sara! Don't worry, Wanderlust noticed your wallet was still here, and he gave it to me to return to..."
But his voice trailed off as he moved within view of them and caught wind of the unfamiliar presence in front of him. "My apologies, ma'am, but this is a restricted sector of the Danceverses..."
"She's with me, sir," Sara cut him off, placing herself in between the two of them, defensively. "Traveler, this is Phéa Nox. She's a friend of mine from college. I brought her here completely accidentally. She fell through my portal."
The Traveler bit his lip. Something in his face seemed to flicker when Sara said Phéa's name. But he quickly cleared his throat and steeled up again. "Well, maybe learn to aim them better. Remember, that is a gift from the Queen you are carrying."
What the heck are they talking about?!
Sara sheepishly nodded before continuing: "Phéa, this is the Traveler. He's my best friend's father, and also...a member of the royal family of the pocket dimension we're in..."
Her voice cracked on that last part, as if she knew that there was no way to casually reveal that information.
She was right about that.
"We're in a pocket dimension?!"
"One that used to be highly secure," the Traveler remarked to himself.
Sara pressed her lips together. "He doesn't love the idea of humans coming here. Which makes things very awkward between us." She then turned back to the Traveler. "Lemme grab my wallet, and we'll both be out of your hair."
But as Sara moved forward to take her wallet out of the Traveler's hands, Phéa was suddenly hit with a pang of recognition.
No freaking way...That would actually fry my brain...
"You. I know you," she said in one breath to the Traveler. "My ex-wife, she...she used to play this dancing game on her Wii U, to help her train for her ballet shows. You were the guy on the screen. Her favorite routine...uh...'Move Your Body...'"
The Traveler arched an eyebrow. "'Rock Your Body?'"
"Yes. That's you? You're...you're a real person?!"
The Traveler and Sara both nodded, before the Traveler started looking super uncomfortable again. "Your name is Nox...You have an ex-wife who loved my routine..."
Sara turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong, sir?"
"Uh..." The Traveler forced a chuckle. "This is gonna sound like a weird question, but does the name Leda mean anything to you?"
Both girls' eyes shot open wide.
"How did you know that?!" Sara shouted.
"Please, please tell me that you just read her username while she was playing your song," said Phéa.
"I wish that were the case. It would make things much simpler." The Traveler sighed and wiped his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Phéa. But I fear there's something you need to know."
"Leda's a coach?!"
At this point, the main thing that was helping Phéa feel sane was the fact that even Sara -- who had seemed to be totally chill with the whole "pocket dimension" thing -- was starting to freak out, too.
"Yes. She probably even led a couple routines in your video game."
"I always thought I was the only one!"
"Well, you were the only one that tried the whole 'human-coach duality' thing. Leda never went back."
"Couldn't you have sent her home if you wanted to?!" Phéa asked, venom in her voice.
"I offered. Multiple times," the Traveler insisted. "But I couldn't force her."
"I thought she was dead for years!"
"She could very well be!" the Traveler shouted, before clearing his throat and speaking more softly. "I came back from work one day to find a note from her. Apparently, she left to pursue 'greater magic' that she 'knew I'd stop her from,' and she took Pyotr with her, so I wouldn't 'corrupt' him."
Phéa blinked. "And Pyotr is...?"
"...Our son..."
"You had a kid with her?!"
"Does Wander know?!" Sara cut in, eyes just as wide as Phéa's.
"He can't know," the Traveler said sharply. "How do you think he'd feel if he knew he had a brother he could never meet? Leda erased all records of a Pyotr Nox from the Danceverses, wherever she could. Guarantee she used her magic to do it. So I was never able to find him, no matter how hard I tried."
"Oh, dear Selios! That's horrible!" Sara remarked.
Phéa avoided the Traveler's gaze as tears swelled up in her eyes. She could no longer deny that he was telling the truth.
They'd made an agreement long ago that they would name their future child after one of their favorite musicians. If they had a daughter, they'd name her Chappell, after Phéa's favorite singer. And if they had a son, they'd name him after Leda's favorite composer: Pyotr.
"She abandoned me..." she choked out.
"She's very good at abandoning people she claimed to love," the Traveler softly remarked.
Sara put her arm on Phéa's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"No!" Phéa yelled, jerking herself backwards. "This whole time I thought something horrible happened to her! I gave the eulogy at her funeral! And now I learn that she was living it up in Narnia while not giving two iotas about me!"
She instantly regretted snapping at Sara, who seemed genuinely sympathetic. But she couldn't help it. She'd considered Leda her soulmate, and she'd never been satisfied with her.
The room fell silent for a moment, before Sara suddenly glanced up at the Traveler, as if she'd just gotten an idea. "What if I took her to High Winds Village?"
The Traveler gave her a soft smile. "That definitely helped me way back when. It might help her, too."
"What's High Winds Village?" Phéa asked.
"It's essentially a Danceverse rage room," Sara explained. "It's lined with emotion magic. When you dance there, it will feel your emotions and express them visually around you. It's actually really cathartic!"
Phéa smirked, despite herself. "Alright, let's try it."
With that, Sara made a portal to the Village using her necklace, and led Phéa to an unused section that overlooked a nearby stone tower. Phéa told her what song she wanted her to play -- it was a fairly obvious choice the more she thought about it -- and then Sara backed up to give Phéa the space she needed to dance.
"It's fine, it's cool, you can say that we are nothing, but you know the truth..."
Phéa let all of her emotions out into the routine. The rage. The betrayal. The heartbreak. Knowing she wasn't enough to satisfy her own wife.
And as she did so, she felt a peculiar energy pulse through her body, as if there was something inside of her screaming the way she wanted to.
Is this what Sara was talking about?
"You can kiss a hundred boys in bars, shoot another shot, try to stop the feeling."
As she continued, she spotted a bright red bird floating in the sky above her.
It's weird, but...I feel kinda connected to that bird somehow...
Wait. Oh my gosh. Did my angry dancing do that?!
This dimension is freaking wild!
"And when you think about me all of those years ago, you're standing face to face with 'I told you so.'"
As the song reached its climax, Phéa decided to let out a primal scream. As if responding to this, she suddenly found that her entire outfit had changed. She was now wearing a bright red dress with flames coming out of it and a gray tiara. Even Sara, watching on from the side, looked like she was in awe.
This. Feels. Awesome!
Screw you, Leda! I'm a freaking fire princess!
You know what? I'm gonna bring this energy back to Earth with me.
I'm done crying over girls who want nothing to do with me.
She wants to run away? Fine. I have a life outside of her back home, and I'm gonna go live it.
And Leda? Good luck here.