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She stared at her smoothed body, devoid of any signs of being female, or even alive. She ran her hands over the smooth lumps on her chest that approximated breasts and down to her hips. She sighed and dressed in her work dress, which was the nicest clothing she owned, and looked at herself again. The covering hid the imperfections but she still knew they were there.\n\nShe left the bathroom to find Flash Heart and Tarot Heart waiting at the front door of the apartment. Tarot was bouncing on his feet and grinning, “Mom! Mom! Are you ready to go?”\n\nSoul Heart did her best to smile, “I don’t feel like going, I’d just like some quiet time with Lucas today.”\n\n“OK, see ya later!” Tarot all but ran out the door with Flash right behind him.\n\n“Gotta go, Dizzy’s waiting for us,” Flash left quietly.\n\n“You could have gone, you know,” Lucas looked up from his latest brewing of sustenance at his personal chemistry lab.\n\nSoul Heart sighed and turned her back to Lucas, “It just wouldn’t feel right because I can’t be a mother.” She touched her front about where a womb would be.\n\nLucas checked the process and saw he had to wait for a few minutes then turned back to her, “You are a mother, with everything you’d done for them how can you not be?” he put his arms around her.\n\nSoul Heart tried to smile, “I know and I’m proud of them and everything they’ve become… but seeing all those expectant mothers and parents to be would just remind me…” she sniffed, “how different I am.” She reached up to wipe away imaginary tears, “How I’m not a real Care Bear. I know they accept me, even like me but all I can think is where I came from and who made me, their old enemy.”\n\nLucas hugged her tighter, “Don’t worry, I’m here for you.” He gave her a kiss, “On that note I think it’s almost done.” He headed back to his chemistry set and watched the neon green liquid pour into an ice cube tray and quickly harden into a solid.\n\nSoul Heart smiled and approached Lucas who passed the cube to her, which she gratefully accepted, no longer grimacing at the bitter taste. “Three months without using any of my abilities and I’m close to where I was during that last fight.”\n\n“You’re doing great,” Lucas gave her a kiss, “I’ll keep it up so you can always be here for us.”\n\nSoul Heart kissed him back, “Thank you. I just wish we could have a child like that somehow.” She leaned up against his chest. Lucas said just hugged her.\n\n“You’re worried about what Jose’s planning,” It was a statement, not a question.\n\n“I am, and I just want to make sure I can handle it.” Soul Heart took a deep breath, “At least they didn’t gather in the park today, that would have been too big a target.”\n\nOoOoO\n\nWith a large number of anthros being pregnant they all decided to celebrate and commiserate together today. Rather than going to the park, like the meet and greet five months prior, they decided to head out into the forest to meet at the pandas’ home so they could get away from the city, enjoy the fresh air and not force the inhabitants there to travel from the forest that they preferred over the city. At first it was supposed to be pregnant women only but that didn’t last long and now it was a full-on community gathering for every anthro, even children.\n\n Love Heart landed the cloud car a short distance from the pandas’ home and jumped out to help Confidence out of her seat. Confidence hand was on her pregnant tummy as she let Love Heart help her out.\n\n“Feeling alright?” Love Heart asked as he ran his hands across her large baby belly, which was under a dress Confidence had sewed for herself, as she found pants no longer worth the effort.\n\n“I am,” Confidence rubbed her belly, “But I’m worried about the babies, they never move or kick. Did we do something wrong?”\n\nLove Heart kissed her belly then stood up and gave Confidence a kiss on the lips, “No, maybe they’re just very calm babies. We can ask mom.”\n\nConfidence kissed him back, “Thank you.”\n\nThey were among the first to arrive with only the three resident couples of Exuberant Heart Cheetah and Golden Heart Bear, Rebellious Heart Bear and Rescue Heart Bear, Sophia and Yano with Golden, Rebel and Sophia all sporting 5-month pregnant bellies, though not as big as Confidence’s twins. All of them waved and shouted their greetings.\n\n“Love Heart! Confidence!” Chipper Heart Chipmunk dropped from the tree overhead and bounded over to the couple and jumped into Love Heart’s arms.\n\n“Oof! Nice to see you again too,” Love Heart set the chipmunk down, “Anyone else here?”\n\n“We are,” the voice came from Marine Heart who was approaching accompanied by a peach-pink female bear with a full figure whose belly was just as big as the three local residents. “This is my mate, Flora Bear,” Marine put an arm around her.\n\n“Nice to meet you,” Confidence waved.\n\nFlora smiled and approached the couple, paying special attention to Love Heart, “So you’re the one who restored the forest,” she hooded her eyes seductively, “Too bad you’re not open, I’d love to thank you more personally.”\n\nLove Heart blushed and chuckled nervously, “Uhh thanks, but it seems like you’re already full.”\n\nThe awkward response made everyone briefly burst out laughing.\n\nFlora patted her belly, “I’m not the only one. I did some searching and I do have you to thank for this, in more ways than one. All the magic you poured into restoring the forest seems to have sent out a wave of fertile energy which affected most female anthros in and around the city.”\n\nLove Heart blushed and pointed at himself, “So I’m responsible for this baby boom?”\n\nConfidence put an arm around him and pulled him close, “Hope Love-a-Lot isn’t mad at you butting in on her turf.”\n\n“Yeah well… I’ll just hope she’s not too mad,” Love Heart scratched his cheek and put an arm around Confidence’s back.\n\n“And why would she be?” the voice came from Loyal Heart dog who was walking with a very pregnant Defiant Heart Badger. “She’ll probably congratulate you.”\n\n“So you’re responsible for this?” Defiant Heart rubbed his belly, which was nearly as big as Confidence Heart’s, “Twins with Loyal Heart. I’m just relieved that strength I was given makes this easy to carry.”\n\nMarine chuckled, “So how’s do you feel, Mr. Seahorse.”\n\n“Same as your mate, but with twice the burden,” Defiant smirked the winced, “Oof! They’ve got some kick, might have inherited their motherdad’s strength.”\n\nLoyal gave him kiss on the cheek and just nodded.\n\nMarine turned to the pandas’ house, “You’re not alone. Perfect! Polite! Guests are arriving!”\n\nPolite Panda emerged sporting a baby belly as big as Defiant’s with a bright smile on her face and swollen breasts held in by a top woven from leaves and grass. She turned back to face inside, “Come on, Perfect, and meet our visiting friends. Seeing us will please them to no ends.”\n\nThere was a grumbling from inside before Perfect emerged, with a grumpy look on his face but looking identical to his sister. Twin laden baby belly and swollen breasts as well.\n\nLove Heart, Confidence and Loyal Heart stared, mouths agape, at the pandas as Polite beamed and Perfect grumbled, folding his arms over his baby laden belly.\n\nPerfect Panda sighed, “I know you weren’t expecting this and I’m trying to take it in stride. You see I’m female out here but a man on the inside.”\n\nMarine Heart picked up that thought, “Perfect’s a transgender man and he and Polite are identical twins. Perfect’s just in the earliest transition stage where he lives as his preferred gender, not like he could get the right treatments in this middle-of-nowhere city even if he could afford it. As for the father,” he pointed to himself, “that would be me. After Flora and I checked your forest restoration we decided to stop by and see them.” He gestured to the three couples still by the tree, “Those six were out looking at the new forest growth so the pandas were alone. Your little fertility ‘heat wave’ hit them hard and since they were alone they didn’t have anyone to relieve themselves. Perfect jumped me as soon as he spotted me.”\n\nPerfect covered his eyes, “I couldn’t control myself!” the shock startled him into not rhyming.\n\nPolite patted her brother’s arm, “Don’t be ashamed, brother, I couldn’t help myself either.” She carefully bumped her baby belly into Perfect’s baby belly which disturbed the occupants who started kicking for a minute.\n\nMarine chuckled, “Yeah, Polite was all over me too and as soon as Perfect was satisfied she all but forced me to screw her.” He saw the shocked faces of the onlookers then flexed an arm, “Flora and I could have stopped them if we wanted but I saw how much they needed that. Didn’t think it would make me a father three times over,” he laughed.\n\nFlora snickered the kissed Marine, “He is the best at it.”\n\n“Riiiiight,” Love Heart averted his eyes, not sure what else to say.\n\nDefiant approached the still grumpy looking Perfect, “I know how you feel,” he saw Perfect turn to him before he continued, “I’m a man too, though I’m intersex not trans, and honestly I don’t mind so much since it was with Loyal Heart. You hate it don’t you?”\n\nPerfect shook his head and blushed, “The problem I feel is that I don’t mind that much,” he covered his eyes as if ashamed, “Does this mean I should stay with having a woman’s touch?”\n\nDefiant squinted his eyes at the somewhat forced rhyme then also shook his head and carefully bumped his belly into Perfect’s, “Nothing wrong with enjoying it, even if you’re a guy. The two feelings don’t have to be mutually exclusive. I don’t want to get anything removed, I’ll keep my tits and other female attributes even though I’ve declared myself a man and you can remember how this feels after you get your own affirmation, or whatever it’s called. Does that help?”\n\nPerfect uncovered his eyes, “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying this feeling, even though I’m a man?”\n\n“Not at all, enjoy what you can,” Defiant grimaced slightly at having joined in the rhyme. “At least they’ll get to grow up with their cousins.”\n\n“They’ll be closer to siblings actually,” Flora spoke up, “since Perfect and Polite are identical twins their children would, from a biological standpoint, have the same mother. Since they have the same father all four of them would read as full siblings.”\n\n“Really?” Exuberant had stood up and walked over with Golden Heart, “Never knew that.”\n\nGolden giggled, “So that means you two are having quadruplets together then?”\n\nLove Heart turned from the conversation as he heard more arriving. Crafty Heart Coyote ran ahead of Flamboyant Heart Bear and Hidden Heart Wolf, practically dragging another coyote woman with her, this one bright green. Love Heart wasn’t surprised to see that Crafty was pregnant, and about as far along as Golden, Rebel and Sophia but he was surprised that this new coyote looked just as far along.\n\nCrafty beamed as she and the other coyote stopped in front of him, “Hi, Love Heart! Meet my sister: Analytical Heart Coyote.”\n\nAnalytical Heart nodded, “You must be Love Heart, you can call me Anna or Annie.”\n\nLove Heart looked her up and down, Anna looked to be sleeker than her younger sister, pregnancy aside, with more angled but still kind eyes, “So, how long have you been here?” was the only question he could think of.\n\n“Well, after Crafty ran away, our parents told me to find my ‘brother’ whatever it took. I wasn’t sure how to do so I started searching and even praying to figure things out.” Anna smiled, “I didn’t think it would work but the Great Wishing Star answered and told me everything. I was surprised to see how happy my now sister was down here but everything made so much sense.” She sighed, “I was blinded by my parents’ desires and I wanted so badly to connect with her so when The Star asked if I wanted to join her as a Care Bear, I had to say yes.”\n\nCrafty giggled, “I was walking in the park right after our conversation three months ago and she literally popped into existence in front of me as a coyote. I didn’t recognize her at first and… I admit I was reluctant to accept her after the way things were,” she put an arm around her, “but seeing she was an anthro like me did help because I knew she wasn’t the same puppet I knew before.”\n\nAnalytical beamed, “I cut my strings! Then Crafty introduced me to Flamboyant, Hidden, Rebel and the others, and now,” she rubbed her belly, “Flamboyant Heart’s given me twins!”\n\n“That explains why you’re so big,” Love Heart found himself reaching out to touch Anna’s belly, and she pulled up her shirt to give him access. Confidence just giggled at the display.\n\nFlamboyant Heart and Hidden had approached during the conversation and Flambo spoke up, “Unlike Exuberant, who absolutely was eating up this fertility wave, I exercised self-control before I made this decision with Analytical. She has a degree and she doesn't have a partner so we decided that I'd help her have kids and then Crafty, Hidden and I would help raise them so she can still do amazing things in her professional life.”\n\nCrafty grinned, “That's Flambo's way of trying to say he's classy and responsible, but we all know he can't get enough of women and he knows it.”\n\nFlambo blushed, “Crafty! You make me sound like some sort of womanizer!”\n\nAnalytical nuzzled Flamboyant’s cheek, “Um... He's very gentle and sweet with women and he always makes sure we're ok... Crafty's telling the truth though.”\n\nFlambo buried his face in his hands as his face turned even redder, “Analytical, you too!?”\n\nEveryone around Flamboyant laughed, even Rebellious and Rescue who had come over to hear what he had to say. Rebel patted Flambo’s shoulder, “Aww my little brother’s all grown up with his own canine harem.”\n\nFlambo’s whole body seemed to be glowing bright red, “REBEL! EEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Flamboyant’s voice reached a pitch so high only Confidence Heart could hear it for a brief moment before he suddenly fainted, Rescue Heart caught him before he hit the ground.\n\n“I think we overloaded him,” Rescue helped lay Flamboyant on the ground.\n\nRebel giggled as she rubbed her belly then turned to Crafty, “It was really brave of you to finish your transition. Do you think you’re ready to be a parent.”\n \nCrafty touched her top pair of breasts through the tight shirt then stroked down across the other pairs and down her belly, “Maybe a little nervous.”\n\n“It’d be weird if you weren’t,” Rescue spoke up.\n\nEventually Flamboyant came back around right before more guests arrived. Anger Heart Fox with Guidance Heart Raccoon, Calm Heart Lynx accompanied by an orange wolf Anthro and Flash Heart with Oopsy and Tarot Heart. Guidance and Calm Heart each sported 5-month sized pregnant bellies like Golden, Rebel and Sophia while Oopsy was a bit farther along.\n\nCalm Heart introduced the wolf, “Meet my mate, Time Heart Wolf.”\n\nTime Heart waved, “Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” he had a mild middle-eastern accent and wore a round amulet around his neck with a white crescent in the middle.\n\n“Nice to meet you too,” Love Heart shook the wolf’s hand.\n\nOopsy grinned and walked past Guidance and Calm, carefully bumping her baby belly against theirs as she passed, “Now I know my kid won’t be lonely,” she kissed Flash Heart.\n\nCalm Heart blushed then turned to Guidance and pushed her belly up against her friend’s, “I think our kids should get to know each other.”\n\nOopsy turned back to the pair and pressed her belly into both of theirs. In response all three started kicking, “Seems like they already want to,” Oopsy giggled which set off Calm and Guidance to start laughing too.\n\n“Mama! Look! All like mama!” Merry Heart Fennec’s voice announced the arrival of her and her parents, Passion Heart Wolverine and Vivacious Heart Fennec. Vivacious was HUGE, her belly looked like an overinflated beach ball and Passion was obviously helping her along as she waddled into the clearing.\n\nVivacious smiled, “Yes, lots of little ones on the way but it won’t be for a while.”\n\n“Don’t rush it,” Passion Heart helped her walk into the clearing as she rubbed her drum-tight belly.\n\nA cloud car touched down nearby and the last guests arrived from the Kingdom of Caring: Sage Heart Bear, Life Heart Unicorn, Sweet Heart Pegasus, Bright Heart Raccoon and Birthday Bear.\n\nLove Heart just stared as his mother as Sage Heart helped her out of the car, “Mom, you’re pregnant too?”\n\nIndeed, Life Heart was sporting a baby belly to rival the size of the pandas and she smiled at Love Heart, “I am. You and Sweet Heart are going to have a baby brother and sister soo-”\n\n“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! A REAL UNICORN!” Guidance Heart’s high-pitched squeal made everyone in the clearing wince as the blue raccoon bounded over to the new arrivals, ignoring the weight on her belly, until she practically collided with Life Heart. Life Heart stepped back as Guidance Heart’s eyes shone up at her, “OH MY GOD YOU’RE REAL! A REAL HORN AND YOU’RE HAVING BABIES! UNICORN BABIES ON MY GOD!”\n\n“OK, calm down,” Anger Heart had run after his mate and gently restrained her, “Sorry, she really loves unicorns.”\n\nLife Heart smiled a bit nervously, “Well I’ll be happy to tell you everything about me I know,” she carefully shooed everyone except Sage Heart away.\n\nSweet Heart immediately spotted Chipper Heart and Tarot Heart, as they were the same age as her, and literally flew over to them. Chipper stared in awe as Sweet Heart landed in front of her, “You have wings!” he pointed.\n\nSweet Heart laughed, “Yep, I’m Sweet Heart Pegasus,” she held out a hand.\n\n“Chipper Heart Chipmunk,” he eagerly shook Sweet Heart’s hand back.\n\n“You’ve got such a floofy tail,” Sweet Heart looked past Chipper, who blushed.\n\n“Thank you, Sweet Heart,” Chipper swished his tail back and forth.\n\nTarot Heart approached the two carefully, “I’m Tarot Heart Bear,” he waved.\n\n“Merry! Merry!” Merry Heart had got away from her parents and ran over to the three older children.\n\n“Sorry, hard to keep up with her,” Vivacious finally waddled her way over to the three.\n\nAll three kids stared at Vivacious’ massive baby belly and Chipper was the first to speak, “Wow! You’re huge!”\n\nVivacious laughed and rubbed her taut belly, which was too big for her to cover with her shirt at all, “Well that’s because I’m carrying triplets and I’m almost ready to drop them.”\n\n“Less than a month to go,” Passion gave Vivacious a kiss and stroked her belly gently with his claws which sent shivers of delight up her body.\n\n“Lotsa friends!” Merry beamed.\n\n“Want us to look after her?” Tarot Heart offered.\n\n“Please,” Vivacious nodded as Passion led her to a nearby rock to sit on, “I need a break from keeping up with her.”\n\n“Great!” Sweet Heart spread her wings, it had the desired effect.\n\nMerry stared in awe, “Fly?” she pointed.\n\n“Yes, I can fly,” Sweet Heart nodded.\n\n“And I can climb,” Chipper raced to and up the nearest tree in a flash then hung upside down from a branch and grinned.\n\n“I can do card tricks,” Tarot pulled his tarot cards out, feeling unimpressive next to the other two.\n\n“Wow!” Merry’s eyes shone as she turned to each of them in turn.\n\nBright Heart immediately ran over to Love Heart and Confidence, “Hi, I’m just here to see about setting up the next portal gate. Gonna need to take some magic readings, don’t mind me,” he pulled out his Heartphone with an added antenna item on top before leaving to roam the forest.\n\n“He’s on task I guess,” Confidence Heart noted.\n\nBirthday Bear looked around before settling their gaze on Loyal and Defiant and moving to greet them. “Hello, Loyal Heart and nice to meet you Defiant.” \n\nDefiant gave the yellow bear a quizzical look, “And you are?”\n\nLoyal Heart held Defiant’s hand, “This is Birthday Bear, and Birthday this is Defiant Heart Badger, he’s my mate and,” Loyal Heart lowered his voice to a whisper, “He’s also intersex.”\n\n“I see,” Birthday smiled, “I’m NB but yeah, intersex too. Umm,” Birthday looked nervous, “Have you seen Gift Bear anywhere?”\n\n“Gift Bear?” Loyal Heart’s question was interrupted by a voice from nearby.\n\n“Birthday!” Gift Bear came running over and all but collided with Birthday Bear, smothering them with kisses which she received in response.\n\nBirthday felt something press up against their belly and carefully pulled back to look down at Gift’s swollen belly.\n\nGift Bear beamed, “Yes, I’m pregnant!”\n\nBirthday looked down at her, then up, then lead her away from the others, “But how? I thought you were being Ruby this whole time.”\n\nGift rubbed her belly then whispered back, “I have been, but you got me pregnant before I left and it’s been growing inside me as Ruby, protected by my magic. Don’t worry, it’s growing healthily.”\n\nBirthday held put a hand on their chest, “That’s a relief. I wonder if I can help feed them.”\n\nGift giggled, “Maybe.”\n\nLove Heart watched the pair before a sense went off in the back of his head and he turned to face the edge of the clearing. Confidence turned with him and they both saw Eriol standing there, with no one else acknowledging his presence. Love and Confidence shared a nod then both headed into the trees to speak with him.\n\nOoOoO\n\nFrostbite was strapped to an operating slab with long surgical tubes attached to his arms and legs and electrode receptors stuck to his forehead. He watched as Jose mixed more ingredients into the machine attached to his slab and finally asked, “Duh, what do I do?”\n\nJose examined the mixture, “When I finish, you go on a rampage. Kill CB6 and anyone else you find!” He looked at the blue and orange spiraled concoction he had been working on.\n\n“You’ve been working on that for months,” Su Yung floated irritably nearby. Not being able to sleep made things take an eternity for her only sustained on her hatred, “Is it finally ready?”\n\nJose grinned, “Almost, I just need that last card you have,” he held a hand out to Su Yung expectantly.\n\nSu Yung produced on more called with “THE BIG” written across the bottom, “I sacrificed all my other cards to keep this one alive.” She passed the card to Jose who snatched it from the air.\n\n“The last ingredient,” Jose plunged the card into the solution, where it dissolved screaming all the while. White and black bubbles appeared in the concoction, “Perfect,” he covered the mixture and turned the machine on. Electricity coursed from the machine into Frostbite who began making strange babbling noise as the concoction started draining through the machine and into Frostbite. As soon as it reached his body, Frostbite’s body started to grow, piling on muscles and height as his babbling ceased and his eyes changed from a vacuous expression to complete dead-eyed.\n\nJose watched Frosbite growing in the small room and grinned, “Now CB6 will die and I’ll rule the city!” He looked around for Su Yung only to find the ghost had departed then turned and ran as Frostbite was rapidly outgrowing the room.\n\nOoOoO\n\nEriol was dressed in casual clothing and he smiled welcomingly as Love Heart and Confidence approached. “Love Heart, Confidence, how nice to see you here.”\n\nConfidence folded her arms over her belly, “You can drop the act, Eriol, we know you’re following us.”\n\nEriol’s smiled vanished, replaced by a look of serenity, “Very well, I supposed we’re nearly done now.” His voice dropped to a lower octave which made him sound 20 years older. He fished a small golden key with a sun motif out of his pocket and held it up, flat on his palm.\n\n“Key that hides the powers of darkness\nReveal your true nature to me I command you by my power\nRelease!”\n\nThe key grew into a massive staff, taller than its wielder, topped by a large sun whose rays extended longer on one side into an ovular shape. Eriol spun the staff around him and a moment later he was wearing elaborate black robes decorated with a sun motif and an oversized hat the hung down his left side.\n\nLove Heart pulled out the heart key, feeling it only right to respond in kind.\n\n\"Key of the Heart\nWith Powers Burning Bright\nReveal the Staff\nAnd Shine Your Light\nRelease!\"\n\nLove Heart grabbed the staff from the air and spun it around as he recited another incantation.\n\n“Bonds of Love and Life\nHelp me now to end this strife!”\n\nIn a flash he was wearing his battle costume as he faced Eriol, “Now that we’re dressed for the occasion let’s talk.”\n\nEriol nodded, “I take it you’ve guessed why I’m here and why I was in Readington.”\n\nLove Heart nodded, “You’re testing me and giving me opportunities to transform the Clow Cards.”\n\n“Impressive. I thought I was keeping things fairly secret but I underestimated the magic of the Care Bear Family,” Eriol looked to Confidence Heart, “I thought we’d be able to keep ourselves secret from everyone else.” He looked past the couple into the clearing, “I see Yue’s vessel Loyal Heart but where is Keroberos?”\n\nConfidence answered, “We left him back in Meridiana with my Heartphone to keep an eye on things.”\n\nAs if on cue Love Heart’s phone rang and he pulled it out, “Kero, what’s happening.”\n\n“Love Heart there’s a huge monster in the city! It just exploded out of that place where we fought Jose’s monsters and it feels like magic!” Kero’s voice came through fast and frantic.\n\n“I’ll be there, just hold on!” Love Heart hung up and pulled out a card, “Jump!” with a single word the spirit attached to his feet and he looked back at Eriol, “Giant monster in Meridiana I gotta go!”\n\nConfidence gave him a kiss, “I’m coming too, don’t argue I’ll stay back but I’m not going to miss this. It could be the last time.”\n\nLove Heart nodded, “OK, but I’m going ahead, follow behind.” Without another word he ran back to the gathering and shouted, “Giant monster in town! Loyal I need your help!”\n\nLoyal Heart turned from the conversation he was having with Perfect and Defiant. “Alright!” he opened the locket on his chest, “Yue, are you ready?”\n\n“I am,” came Yue’s terse reply.\n\nLoyal Heart closed the locket and turned to give Defiant a kiss, “I’ll be back.”\n\n“I know,” Defiant kissed back, “I’ll be waiting.”\n\nLoyal Heart stepped back and his wings appeared then he took off with Love Heart leaping along beside him.\n\nConfidence conjured a cloud car and carefully lowered herself in when she found herself surrounded by all the participants at the baby shower. “Something’s come up back in the city, just stay here and you’ll be safe.”\n\nFlash Heart and Oopsy shared a look then a kiss, “Stay safe, I’ll be back.” Without warning Flash Heart transformed into his werewolf form and took of to the surprise of half those assembled.\n\nFlamboyant Heart was the first to shout, “Flash Heart’s one of the nightwolves?!”\n\nWith no point trying to hide it anymore, Oopsy shifted into her werewolf form to the surprise of the onlookers, “Yes we are, and it’s a long story.”\n\nThankfully Oopsy’s story distracted everyone as Confidence finally got the car started, except for one. Tarot Heart jumped into the passenger’s seat, “I need to go too, please.” He begged quietly.\n\nConfidence sighed then touched her still unmoving baby belly, “OK, just stay back with me.”\n\nOnce they were in the air Tarot Heart spoke while he stared at his lap, “Mom’s in danger, I need to be there.”\n\nOoOoO\n\nSoul Heart stared out the window horrified at the sight in the city, a giant purplish monster with tentacles for a mouth and fingers at the end of its fat arms. Lucas stood behind her, hands on her shoulders gripping protectively.\n\n“I have to go,” Soul Heart was dead set as she turned around, “I can’t leave this unfinished.”\n\nLucas looked distraught, “Soul Heart, you can leave it to the others, please.”\n\nSoul Heart shook her head, “I couldn’t live with myself if I was able to help but didn’t,” they kissed and Soul Heart brushed past Lucas, shedding her dress as she did so. She grabbed the half-sized sustenance cube that had formed in Lucas’ machine and popped it in her mouth then turned back to Lucas. “Thank you,” she smiled then transformed into CB6. He hastily grabbed his trench coat and glasses from the coat closet, not bothering with the rest of his clothing, he gave Lucas one more kiss before he jumped out the window towards the giant monster. Lucas watched for a moment before he charged out the door to follow.\n\nKero left Confidence’s Heartphone on the roof as his wings spread to engulf him as he changed to his true form. He didn’t need to think twice about attacking the giant monster and he shot a beam of fire from his mouth at the creature. It let out a warbling yell then turned and swatted at Keroberos, one of the finger tentacles extending to try and catch him but missing.\n\nJose watched from nearby, an evil grin plastered on his face, “Yes! Destroy that monster! No one has monsters here but me!”\n\n“Jose!” the angry shout from overhead drew Jose’s attention to CB6 standing on the roof and glaring down at him, “What is that monstrosity!?” CB6 jabbed an outstretched finger towards the monster.\n\nJose laughed, “Look at you, didn’t have time to get dressed?” he taunted as had noticed that CB6 was only wearing his open trench coat and glasses, “You must be desperate for sustenance after I poisoned all my minions! You still have a chance to come work for me if you want to live!”\n\nCB6 bared his teeth at Jose and clenched a fist as ice began to form in the hand, “I’ve lived more than enough in a year than you have in your entire miserable life! I have friends, a lover and two sons I wouldn’t trade for anything, even a longer life!” An icy spear finished forming in his hand.\n\nJose saw the dangerous look in CB6’s eyes. Not even noticing the secrets he was hearing as he was feeling fear for the first time for someone other than Von Reichter. “N-no! You can’t! Without me you’ll die!”\n\nCB6 raised the spear over his head and glared down at Jose, “Then that will end Von Reichter’s legacy!” He flung the ice spear as Jose turned to run only for him to get pierced through his chest. Jose gasped and grabbed at the spear, trying to pull it free as green liquid began to leak from around the wound he gasped for breath.\n\nCB6 landed next to Jose, “I thought so, you’re just another one of his creations. I’ll need that to clean up the last of your mess,” he gestured down and sucked the sustenance up from the ground and from Jose into his mouth until there was nothing left of Jose but his clothes and glasses. CB6 stepped on the orange glasses in contempt as he picked up the still intact spear and swallowed, “Just enough for one last fight.” He jumped up to the roof and towards the giant monster.\n\nKeroberos was snared by a tentacle finger for a moment before an ice spear pierced through it, freezing it on contact and causing it to shatter when he pulled away. He spotted CB6 land on a building nearby and called, “Good timing!”\n\nCB6 nodded then jumped away from the monster as is smashed the roof he’d been on, “Anyone else coming?!”\n\nKeroberos was forced to fly back to avoid a strike from the monster, “Love Heart and Loyal Heart will be here soon!”\n\n\"Summer, heed my call! Lightning Bolt!\"\n\nA blue bolt of lightning lanced down and struck the monster in the back, leaving a small scorch mark. This was followed by several blue arrows striking it. Love Heart landed next to CB6 as Loyal Heart and Keroberos stayed in the air and continued to bombard the monster with arrows and fire breath.\n\n“Jose?” Love Heart asked.\n\n“Dead and this is his last monster,” CB6 let out a deep breath, “We need to destroy it.”\n\nLove Heart pulled out The Sword Card, “Yes, I feel some magic mixed up in it. Sword!” the Sword grew into its physical form, “Let’s go!” Love Heart jumped towards the monster, kicking off the air a few times then slicing at one of its face tentacles.\n\nThe monster roared and lashed out at Love Heart, grabbing his leg with one of his mouth-tentacles. Love Heart winced but sliced it off and pulled back before he could get grabbed again and an ice spear struck it in the eye which made it bellow in pain.\n\nOoOoO\n\nConfidence Heart landed the cloud car on a nearby roof before she carefully pulled herself out of the seat. Tarot Heart jumped out of the car and ran to the edge, where he spotted CB6 among those that battled the giant monster.\n\n“Mom…” Tarot whispered then winced as he felt something shoot through his head.\n\nConfidence was grateful she had managed to find the one roof where Kero had left her Heartphone, though crouching down to retrieve it was a bit of an ordeal. She turned to see Tarot Heart drying his eyes in between watching the battle.\n\nConfidence walked up to Tarot and put a comforting hand on his shoulder while resting another on her belly, “They’ll be alright, I know they will.”\n\nTarot dried his eyes and shook his head, “No…”\n\nConfidence gaped then turned to the battle, wishing she could join in and rubbing her still unmoving belly. She squinted at the monster’s head then conjured a star-o-scope from her tummy symbol and peering through it at the monster’s head. She squinted a moment until she saw a tiny red and blue toque in the middle of its head. “Frostbite?” Confidence was horrified as she lowered the star-0-scope, “Jose turned him into that monster?!” She growled and gripped the edge of the roof as she watched the fight play out.\n\nOoOoO\n\nLoyal Heart and Keroberos continued to fly around, pelting the Frostibite monster with fire and arrows until it swung out it’s tentacled hands and grabbed them both. Keroberos and Loyal Heart struggled to break free and CB6 was forced to jump back as the Frostbite chased after him.\n\nLove Heart had dodged out of the way, panting as he tried to figure some way to distract the monster, his hand going to the Heart Book, “I need to try something, bit of a longshot.” He held up The Illusion card, “I hope this works,” he threw the card up in the air and spun his staff around.\n\n\"Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall\nAncient forces heed my call!\nIllusion Card, discard your former might\nAnd draw new power from my light\nHeart Card!\"\n\nThe heart in the staff spun as The Illusion changed and the kaleidoscope pattern emerged. Love Heart quickly pointed at the Frostbite monster, “Illusion, create a giant illusion of me to distract that monster, sound and visual!”\n\nThe Illusion flowed upwards and began to take on a new shape. The Frostbite monster kept up its chase of CB6 with Keroberos and Loyal Heart still in its hand tentacles when it heard a booming voice from behind it.\n\n“LET MY FRIENDS GO!”\n\nFrostbite turned to see Love Heart, as giant as he was and wielding an equally large Sword Card. Frostbite bellowed then turned to attack the giant Love Heart, missing when it dodged back.\n\n“LET MY FRIENDS GO!”\n\nThe giant Love Heart swung at Frostbite slowly, deliberately missing. Frostbite struck back and the giant Love Heart appeared to teleport back a meter to avoid the hit.\n\nLoyal and Keroberos still struggle to get free but shouted across to each other.\n\n“How’d Love Heart get so huge!” Loyal pulled a tentacle away from his mouth.\n\n“It must be The Illusion!” Keroberos bit down but barely made a scratch on the tentacle wrapped around him.\n\n“It is!” Love Heart, the real smaller Love Heart, jumped up and sliced off the tentacles holding Keroberos before jumping over and doing the same to free Loyal Heart, “The Illusion Card can make sound now too, we just need to keep this thing distracted until we figure out how to kill it!”\n\nLoyal Heart flew up and fired another arrow at Frostbite’s back, leaving only a tiny wound that swiftly closed, “No good! It heals too fast!”\n\nKero flew over to where Love Heart was jumping off the air, “Any ideas?”\n\nLove Heart looked down to see CB6 preparing to unleash something and a yellow blur as Flash Heart finally arrived which made CB6 pause, “Getting one. Loyal! Down here!” he kicked down until he landed next to CB6, “Don’t do anything yet, I have an idea.” He waited for Loyal Heart Dog to land and his wings folded.\n\nFrostbite wasn’t able to figure out his giant opponent was fake until it was too late. Keroberos flew around Frostbite and breathed fire on him, dividing his attention which gave time for Loyal Heart to pour a much power as he could into two arrows that put out the monster’s eyes. Frostbite bellowed and clasped its eyes as CB6 spread ice across the ground underneath it and Flash Heart charged right at Frostbite’s feet, his wolf paws easily gripping the ice. Frostbite was unable to balance and with that little push he toppled over with a massive shuddering crash!\n\nLove Heart recalled The Illusion and pulled out the four element cards, “Here goes nothing!” He threw the four cards up and held his staff between them. “Earthy! Firey! Watery! Windy! Combine your powers with The Sword!” he held The Sword forwards as the four elemental spirits emerged and flew into the sword blade, creating a yellow, red, blue and green spiral of elemental energy swirling on the blade.\n\n“Amazing, using all four elements at once!” Keroberos commented\n\n“Even he has to be feeling that strain,” Yue spoke from Loyal Heart’s open amulet.\n\nLove Heart did feel the strain but forced himself to ignore it as he jumped on Frostbite’s back and plunged the multi-element sword into it. A massive cry of pain let out as elemental energy exploded throughout Frostbite’s body, being torn apart into a massive pile of viscera in moments before Love Heart jumped off and recalled all the cards. He panted as he watched the body, satisfied it was down.\n\nThen the flesh started to twitch and began to converge.\n\n“No!” CB6 ran forwards, “Von Reichter’s legacy ends now!” He grabbed the closest piece of Frostbite he could and forcefully pushed his cryokinesis through it. He spasmed as the ice spread across and through the entire mass, which stopped moving as it froze right down to its cells but CB6 didn’t stop even as he felt his life ebbing away. He kept going until all that was left was a pile of frozen unmoving viscera.\n\nFlash Heart charged in, the only one still with enough energy to shatter every piece until, after only a couple minutes, all that was left were some tiny cubs of ice that he swept away into the storm drains where it would be left to die at sea.\n\n“Mom are you sure… mom!” Flash Heart saw CB6 fall to the ground.\n\n“MOM!” the voice came from overhead as Tarot Heart ran and jumped down a fire escape, not noticing the pain as he hit the ground and ran over to where CB6 had fallen. Confidence following in the cloud car.\n\n“Soul Heart!” Lucas voice took them by surprise as he ran up, no one questioned how he knew where this was, the giant monster couldn’t have been missed.\n\nCB6 grunted and used the last of his energy to change back into Soul Heart. She felt the glasses slip off her face as she smiled up at Flash, Tarot and Lucas, “It’s done… the last of Von Reichter’s creations… will be gone soon.”\n\nTarot Heart fell to his knees and cried loudly. “NO! I knew it, I knew you were going to die!” He rubbed his eyes and sobbed, “Please don’t go! I need you!”\n\nSoul Heart tried to raise her hand up to stroke his cheek, but her strength failed and her arm fell back to the street, “Sorry, but there’s nothing left to keep me going. Don’t know how long I’ll hang on but,” she turned to Flash Heart, who had changed back to his bear form, and Lucas both of whom were crying but not as loudly as Tarot Heart, “thank you, all of you. You gave my life meaning, purpose beyond survival and a reason to want to hang on even if it was selfish to keep Jose around so long.” She smiled, “Please, don’t forget me.”\n\n“We won’t, mom,” Flash Heat rubbed his eyes.\n\n“We never could,” Lucas put an arm around Tarot Heart’s shoulders, “I promise, Tarot Heart will be safe, I know Flash can look after himself.”\n\nFlash forced a smile, “Thanks, dad,” then lost it completely and broke down, “I’d be dead without you, mom! I don’t want you to go! Please don’t die!”\n\nLove Heart and Confidence Heart stood by, arms around each other’s backs, with Loyal Heart and Keroberos. Their hearts went out to the family before them but none wanted to interfere in the moment.\n\nUnfortunately, not everyone shared that kindness.\n\n“Looks like Jose failed, not that I’m surprised!” the harsh feminine voice drew their attention to the ghostly figure that hovered over the empty space where Frostbite’s giant body had been moments ago.\n\nLove Heart stepped forwards and bared his teeth, pointing the staff up at her, “Su Yung! I knew you were part of this! Did you just use Jose for your own plans?!”\n\nSu Yung regarded them with a look of contempt, “We used each other, Jose just lost his usefulness to me before I did to him. But enough talk, time for me to have my revenge.” Without explanation she raised a hand overhead and shot a black beam straight up into the sky. Once it struck a point overheard a black stain began to spread across the sky, “Now the whole world will sleep in eternal darkness!”\n\nBefore Love Heart could question her, he heard Confidence let out a small cry of pain and turned, hurriedly catching her as she fell down and fell asleep.\n\n“Dad! Flash!” Tarot’s cry came as Lucas and Flash Heart also fell to the ground and immediately fell asleep.\n\n“What? Why’s it so dark?” Soul Heart wished she had enough strength to look around.\n\n“Those without magic will sleep forever now and the world Clow Reed loved so will pass into unending darkness,” Su Yung declared.\n\nOoOoO\n\nAs the darkness reached across Merdiana, the baby shower in the forest felt the effects too as almost everyone fell over and fell asleep. Only Life Heart Unicorn, Sage Heart Bear and Sweet Heart Pegasus remained awake.\n\nSweet Heart felt fear rattle through her as she turned to her parents, “I have to help Love Heart. Keep everyone else here safe!” Sweet Heart spread her wings and took off towards the center of the darkness.\n\n“Stay safe!” Life Heart called after her.\n\n“She will be,” Sage Heart assured his wife, “Now let’s make sure no one hit their heads.”\n\n“I know,” Life Heart rubbed her pregnant tummy, “but I’m worried about both of them.”\n\nNo one noticed that Gift was still awake as she stepped away from where Birthday slept and changed back into Ruby. She spread her butterfly wings, “I’ll be back, but Eriol needs me now,” she took off and flew towards the city. Sweet Heart didn’t notice as Ruby passed her flying faster than the Pegasus Care Bear Cousin could.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Chapter 34: Growing Towards the End


Soul Heart stood in front of the bathroom mirror, completely naked. She stared at her smoothed body, devoid of any signs of being female, or even alive. She ran her hands over the smooth lumps on her chest that approximated breasts and down to her hips. She sighed and dressed in her work dress, which was the nicest clothing she owned, and looked at herself again. The covering hid the imperfections but she still knew they were there.

She left the bathroom to find Flash Heart and Tarot Heart waiting at the front door of the apartment. Tarot was bouncing on his feet and grinning, “Mom! Mom! Are you ready to go?”

Soul Heart did her best to smile, “I don’t feel like going, I’d just like some quiet time with Lucas today.”

“OK, see ya later!” Tarot all but ran out the door with Flash right behind him.

“Gotta go, Dizzy’s waiting for us,” Flash left quietly.

“You could have gone, you know,” Lucas looked up from his latest brewing of sustenance at his personal chemistry lab.

Soul Heart sighed and turned her back to Lucas, “It just wouldn’t feel right because I can’t be a mother.” She touched her front about where a womb would be.

Lucas checked the process and saw he had to wait for a few minutes then turned back to her, “You are a mother, with everything you’d done for them how can you not be?” he put his arms around her.

Soul Heart tried to smile, “I know and I’m proud of them and everything they’ve become… but seeing all those expectant mothers and parents to be would just remind me…” she sniffed, “how different I am.” She reached up to wipe away imaginary tears, “How I’m not a real Care Bear. I know they accept me, even like me but all I can think is where I came from and who made me, their old enemy.”

Lucas hugged her tighter, “Don’t worry, I’m here for you.” He gave her a kiss, “On that note I think it’s almost done.” He headed back to his chemistry set and watched the neon green liquid pour into an ice cube tray and quickly harden into a solid.

Soul Heart smiled and approached Lucas who passed the cube to her, which she gratefully accepted, no longer grimacing at the bitter taste. “Three months without using any of my abilities and I’m close to where I was during that last fight.”

“You’re doing great,” Lucas gave her a kiss, “I’ll keep it up so you can always be here for us.”

Soul Heart kissed him back, “Thank you. I just wish we could have a child like that somehow.” She leaned up against his chest. Lucas said just hugged her.

“You’re worried about what Jose’s planning,” It was a statement, not a question.

“I am, and I just want to make sure I can handle it.” Soul Heart took a deep breath, “At least they didn’t gather in the park today, that would have been too big a target.”

OoOoO

With a large number of anthros being pregnant they all decided to celebrate and commiserate together today. Rather than going to the park, like the meet and greet five months prior, they decided to head out into the forest to meet at the pandas’ home so they could get away from the city, enjoy the fresh air and not force the inhabitants there to travel from the forest that they preferred over the city. At first it was supposed to be pregnant women only but that didn’t last long and now it was a full-on community gathering for every anthro, even children.

 Love Heart landed the cloud car a short distance from the pandas’ home and jumped out to help Confidence out of her seat. Confidence hand was on her pregnant tummy as she let Love Heart help her out.

“Feeling alright?” Love Heart asked as he ran his hands across her large baby belly, which was under a dress Confidence had sewed for herself, as she found pants no longer worth the effort.

“I am,” Confidence rubbed her belly, “But I’m worried about the babies, they never move or kick. Did we do something wrong?”

Love Heart kissed her belly then stood up and gave Confidence a kiss on the lips, “No, maybe they’re just very calm babies. We can ask mom.”

Confidence kissed him back, “Thank you.”

They were among the first to arrive with only the three resident couples of Exuberant Heart Cheetah and Golden Heart Bear, Rebellious Heart Bear and Rescue Heart Bear, Sophia and Yano with Golden, Rebel and Sophia all sporting 5-month pregnant bellies, though not as big as Confidence’s twins. All of them waved and shouted their greetings.

“Love Heart! Confidence!” Chipper Heart Chipmunk dropped from the tree overhead and bounded over to the couple and jumped into Love Heart’s arms.

“Oof! Nice to see you again too,” Love Heart set the chipmunk down, “Anyone else here?”

“We are,” the voice came from Marine Heart who was approaching accompanied by a peach-pink female bear with a full figure whose belly was just as big as the three local residents. “This is my mate, Flora Bear,” Marine put an arm around her.

“Nice to meet you,” Confidence waved.

Flora smiled and approached the couple, paying special attention to Love Heart, “So you’re the one who restored the forest,” she hooded her eyes seductively, “Too bad you’re not open, I’d love to thank you more personally.”

Love Heart blushed and chuckled nervously, “Uhh thanks, but it seems like you’re already full.”

The awkward response made everyone briefly burst out laughing.

Flora patted her belly, “I’m not the only one. I did some searching and I do have you to thank for this, in more ways than one. All the magic you poured into restoring the forest seems to have sent out a wave of fertile energy which affected most female anthros in and around the city.”

Love Heart blushed and pointed at himself, “So I’m responsible for this baby boom?”

Confidence put an arm around him and pulled him close, “Hope Love-a-Lot isn’t mad at you butting in on her turf.”

“Yeah well… I’ll just hope she’s not too mad,” Love Heart scratched his cheek and put an arm around Confidence’s back.

“And why would she be?” the voice came from Loyal Heart dog who was walking with a very pregnant Defiant Heart Badger. “She’ll probably congratulate you.”

“So you’re responsible for this?” Defiant Heart rubbed his belly, which was nearly as big as Confidence Heart’s, “Twins with Loyal Heart. I’m just relieved that strength I was given makes this easy to carry.”

Marine chuckled, “So how’s do you feel, Mr. Seahorse.”

“Same as your mate, but with twice the burden,” Defiant smirked the winced, “Oof! They’ve got some kick, might have inherited their motherdad’s strength.”

Loyal gave him kiss on the cheek and just nodded.

Marine turned to the pandas’ house, “You’re not alone. Perfect! Polite! Guests are arriving!”

Polite Panda emerged sporting a baby belly as big as Defiant’s with a bright smile on her face and swollen breasts held in by a top woven from leaves and grass. She turned back to face inside, “Come on, Perfect, and meet our visiting friends. Seeing us will please them to no ends.”

There was a grumbling from inside before Perfect emerged, with a grumpy look on his face but looking identical to his sister. Twin laden baby belly and swollen breasts as well.

Love Heart, Confidence and Loyal Heart stared, mouths agape, at the pandas as Polite beamed and Perfect grumbled, folding his arms over his baby laden belly.

Perfect Panda sighed, “I know you weren’t expecting this and I’m trying to take it in stride. You see I’m female out here but a man on the inside.”

Marine Heart picked up that thought, “Perfect’s a transgender man and he and Polite are identical twins. Perfect’s just in the earliest transition stage where he lives as his preferred gender, not like he could get the right treatments in this middle-of-nowhere city even if he could afford it. As for the father,” he pointed to himself, “that would be me. After Flora and I checked your forest restoration we decided to stop by and see them.” He gestured to the three couples still by the tree, “Those six were out looking at the new forest growth so the pandas were alone. Your little fertility ‘heat wave’ hit them hard and since they were alone they didn’t have anyone to relieve themselves. Perfect jumped me as soon as he spotted me.”

Perfect covered his eyes, “I couldn’t control myself!” the shock startled him into not rhyming.

Polite patted her brother’s arm, “Don’t be ashamed, brother, I couldn’t help myself either.” She carefully bumped her baby belly into Perfect’s baby belly which disturbed the occupants who started kicking for a minute.

Marine chuckled, “Yeah, Polite was all over me too and as soon as Perfect was satisfied she all but forced me to screw her.” He saw the shocked faces of the onlookers then flexed an arm, “Flora and I could have stopped them if we wanted but I saw how much they needed that. Didn’t think it would make me a father three times over,” he laughed.

Flora snickered the kissed Marine, “He is the best at it.”

“Riiiiight,” Love Heart averted his eyes, not sure what else to say.

Defiant approached the still grumpy looking Perfect, “I know how you feel,” he saw Perfect turn to him before he continued, “I’m a man too, though I’m intersex not trans, and honestly I don’t mind so much since it was with Loyal Heart. You hate it don’t you?”

Perfect shook his head and blushed, “The problem I feel is that I don’t mind that much,” he covered his eyes as if ashamed, “Does this mean I should stay with having a woman’s touch?”

Defiant squinted his eyes at the somewhat forced rhyme then also shook his head and carefully bumped his belly into Perfect’s, “Nothing wrong with enjoying it, even if you’re a guy. The two feelings don’t have to be mutually exclusive. I don’t want to get anything removed, I’ll keep my tits and other female attributes even though I’ve declared myself a man and you can remember how this feels after you get your own affirmation, or whatever it’s called. Does that help?”

Perfect uncovered his eyes, “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying this feeling, even though I’m a man?”

“Not at all, enjoy what you can,” Defiant grimaced slightly at having joined in the rhyme. “At least they’ll get to grow up with their cousins.”

“They’ll be closer to siblings actually,” Flora spoke up, “since Perfect and Polite are identical twins their children would, from a biological standpoint, have the same mother. Since they have the same father all four of them would read as full siblings.”

“Really?” Exuberant had stood up and walked over with Golden Heart, “Never knew that.”

Golden giggled, “So that means you two are having quadruplets together then?”

Love Heart turned from the conversation as he heard more arriving. Crafty Heart Coyote ran ahead of Flamboyant Heart Bear and Hidden Heart Wolf, practically dragging another coyote woman with her, this one bright green. Love Heart wasn’t surprised to see that Crafty was pregnant, and about as far along as Golden, Rebel and Sophia but he was surprised that this new coyote looked just as far along.

Crafty beamed as she and the other coyote stopped in front of him, “Hi, Love Heart! Meet my sister: Analytical Heart Coyote.”

Analytical Heart nodded, “You must be Love Heart, you can call me Anna or Annie.”

Love Heart looked her up and down, Anna looked to be sleeker than her younger sister, pregnancy aside, with more angled but still kind eyes, “So, how long have you been here?” was the only question he could think of.

“Well, after Crafty ran away, our parents told me to find my ‘brother’ whatever it took. I wasn’t sure how to do so I started searching and even praying to figure things out.” Anna smiled, “I didn’t think it would work but the Great Wishing Star answered and told me everything. I was surprised to see how happy my now sister was down here but everything made so much sense.” She sighed, “I was blinded by my parents’ desires and I wanted so badly to connect with her so when The Star asked if I wanted to join her as a Care Bear, I had to say yes.”

Crafty giggled, “I was walking in the park right after our conversation three months ago and she literally popped into existence in front of me as a coyote. I didn’t recognize her at first and… I admit I was reluctant to accept her after the way things were,” she put an arm around her, “but seeing she was an anthro like me did help because I knew she wasn’t the same puppet I knew before.”

Analytical beamed, “I cut my strings! Then Crafty introduced me to Flamboyant, Hidden, Rebel and the others, and now,” she rubbed her belly, “Flamboyant Heart’s given me twins!”

“That explains why you’re so big,” Love Heart found himself reaching out to touch Anna’s belly, and she pulled up her shirt to give him access. Confidence just giggled at the display.

Flamboyant Heart and Hidden had approached during the conversation and Flambo spoke up, “Unlike Exuberant, who absolutely was eating up this fertility wave, I exercised self-control before I made this decision with Analytical. She has a degree and she doesn't have a partner so we decided that I'd help her have kids and then Crafty, Hidden and I would help raise them so she can still do amazing things in her professional life.”

Crafty grinned, “That's Flambo's way of trying to say he's classy and responsible, but we all know he can't get enough of women and he knows it.”

Flambo blushed, “Crafty! You make me sound like some sort of womanizer!”

Analytical nuzzled Flamboyant’s cheek, “Um... He's very gentle and sweet with women and he always makes sure we're ok... Crafty's telling the truth though.”

Flambo buried his face in his hands as his face turned even redder, “Analytical, you too!?”

Everyone around Flamboyant laughed, even Rebellious and Rescue who had come over to hear what he had to say. Rebel patted Flambo’s shoulder, “Aww my little brother’s all grown up with his own canine harem.”

Flambo’s whole body seemed to be glowing bright red, “REBEL! EEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Flamboyant’s voice reached a pitch so high only Confidence Heart could hear it for a brief moment before he suddenly fainted, Rescue Heart caught him before he hit the ground.

“I think we overloaded him,” Rescue helped lay Flamboyant on the ground.

Rebel giggled as she rubbed her belly then turned to Crafty, “It was really brave of you to finish your transition. Do you think you’re ready to be a parent.”
 
Crafty touched her top pair of breasts through the tight shirt then stroked down across the other pairs and down her belly, “Maybe a little nervous.”

“It’d be weird if you weren’t,” Rescue spoke up.

Eventually Flamboyant came back around right before more guests arrived. Anger Heart Fox with Guidance Heart Raccoon, Calm Heart Lynx accompanied by an orange wolf Anthro and Flash Heart with Oopsy and Tarot Heart. Guidance and Calm Heart each sported 5-month sized pregnant bellies like Golden, Rebel and Sophia while Oopsy was a bit farther along.

Calm Heart introduced the wolf, “Meet my mate, Time Heart Wolf.”

Time Heart waved, “Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” he had a mild middle-eastern accent and wore a round amulet around his neck with a white crescent in the middle.

“Nice to meet you too,” Love Heart shook the wolf’s hand.

Oopsy grinned and walked past Guidance and Calm, carefully bumping her baby belly against theirs as she passed, “Now I know my kid won’t be lonely,” she kissed Flash Heart.

Calm Heart blushed then turned to Guidance and pushed her belly up against her friend’s, “I think our kids should get to know each other.”

Oopsy turned back to the pair and pressed her belly into both of theirs. In response all three started kicking, “Seems like they already want to,” Oopsy giggled which set off Calm and Guidance to start laughing too.

“Mama! Look! All like mama!” Merry Heart Fennec’s voice announced the arrival of her and her parents, Passion Heart Wolverine and Vivacious Heart Fennec. Vivacious was HUGE, her belly looked like an overinflated beach ball and Passion was obviously helping her along as she waddled into the clearing.

Vivacious smiled, “Yes, lots of little ones on the way but it won’t be for a while.”

“Don’t rush it,” Passion Heart helped her walk into the clearing as she rubbed her drum-tight belly.

A cloud car touched down nearby and the last guests arrived from the Kingdom of Caring: Sage Heart Bear, Life Heart Unicorn, Sweet Heart Pegasus, Bright Heart Raccoon and Birthday Bear.

Love Heart just stared as his mother as Sage Heart helped her out of the car, “Mom, you’re pregnant too?”

Indeed, Life Heart was sporting a baby belly to rival the size of the pandas and she smiled at Love Heart, “I am. You and Sweet Heart are going to have a baby brother and sister soo-”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! A REAL UNICORN!” Guidance Heart’s high-pitched squeal made everyone in the clearing wince as the blue raccoon bounded over to the new arrivals, ignoring the weight on her belly, until she practically collided with Life Heart. Life Heart stepped back as Guidance Heart’s eyes shone up at her, “OH MY GOD YOU’RE REAL! A REAL HORN AND YOU’RE HAVING BABIES! UNICORN BABIES ON MY GOD!”

“OK, calm down,” Anger Heart had run after his mate and gently restrained her, “Sorry, she really loves unicorns.”

Life Heart smiled a bit nervously, “Well I’ll be happy to tell you everything about me I know,” she carefully shooed everyone except Sage Heart away.

Sweet Heart immediately spotted Chipper Heart and Tarot Heart, as they were the same age as her, and literally flew over to them. Chipper stared in awe as Sweet Heart landed in front of her, “You have wings!” he pointed.

Sweet Heart laughed, “Yep, I’m Sweet Heart Pegasus,” she held out a hand.

“Chipper Heart Chipmunk,” he eagerly shook Sweet Heart’s hand back.

“You’ve got such a floofy tail,” Sweet Heart looked past Chipper, who blushed.

“Thank you, Sweet Heart,” Chipper swished his tail back and forth.

Tarot Heart approached the two carefully, “I’m Tarot Heart Bear,” he waved.

“Merry! Merry!” Merry Heart had got away from her parents and ran over to the three older children.

“Sorry, hard to keep up with her,” Vivacious finally waddled her way over to the three.

All three kids stared at Vivacious’ massive baby belly and Chipper was the first to speak, “Wow! You’re huge!”

Vivacious laughed and rubbed her taut belly, which was too big for her to cover with her shirt at all, “Well that’s because I’m carrying triplets and I’m almost ready to drop them.”

“Less than a month to go,” Passion gave Vivacious a kiss and stroked her belly gently with his claws which sent shivers of delight up her body.

“Lotsa friends!” Merry beamed.

“Want us to look after her?” Tarot Heart offered.

“Please,” Vivacious nodded as Passion led her to a nearby rock to sit on, “I need a break from keeping up with her.”

“Great!” Sweet Heart spread her wings, it had the desired effect.

Merry stared in awe, “Fly?” she pointed.

“Yes, I can fly,” Sweet Heart nodded.

“And I can climb,” Chipper raced to and up the nearest tree in a flash then hung upside down from a branch and grinned.

“I can do card tricks,” Tarot pulled his tarot cards out, feeling unimpressive next to the other two.

“Wow!” Merry’s eyes shone as she turned to each of them in turn.

Bright Heart immediately ran over to Love Heart and Confidence, “Hi, I’m just here to see about setting up the next portal gate. Gonna need to take some magic readings, don’t mind me,” he pulled out his Heartphone with an added antenna item on top before leaving to roam the forest.

“He’s on task I guess,” Confidence Heart noted.

Birthday Bear looked around before settling their gaze on Loyal and Defiant and moving to greet them. “Hello, Loyal Heart and nice to meet you Defiant.”

Defiant gave the yellow bear a quizzical look, “And you are?”

Loyal Heart held Defiant’s hand, “This is Birthday Bear, and Birthday this is Defiant Heart Badger, he’s my mate and,” Loyal Heart lowered his voice to a whisper, “He’s also intersex.”

“I see,” Birthday smiled, “I’m NB but yeah, intersex too. Umm,” Birthday looked nervous, “Have you seen Gift Bear anywhere?”

“Gift Bear?” Loyal Heart’s question was interrupted by a voice from nearby.

“Birthday!” Gift Bear came running over and all but collided with Birthday Bear, smothering them with kisses which she received in response.

Birthday felt something press up against their belly and carefully pulled back to look down at Gift’s swollen belly.

Gift Bear beamed, “Yes, I’m pregnant!”

Birthday looked down at her, then up, then lead her away from the others, “But how? I thought you were being Ruby this whole time.”

Gift rubbed her belly then whispered back, “I have been, but you got me pregnant before I left and it’s been growing inside me as Ruby, protected by my magic. Don’t worry, it’s growing healthily.”

Birthday held put a hand on their chest, “That’s a relief. I wonder if I can help feed them.”

Gift giggled, “Maybe.”

Love Heart watched the pair before a sense went off in the back of his head and he turned to face the edge of the clearing. Confidence turned with him and they both saw Eriol standing there, with no one else acknowledging his presence. Love and Confidence shared a nod then both headed into the trees to speak with him.

OoOoO

Frostbite was strapped to an operating slab with long surgical tubes attached to his arms and legs and electrode receptors stuck to his forehead. He watched as Jose mixed more ingredients into the machine attached to his slab and finally asked, “Duh, what do I do?”

Jose examined the mixture, “When I finish, you go on a rampage. Kill CB6 and anyone else you find!” He looked at the blue and orange spiraled concoction he had been working on.

“You’ve been working on that for months,” Su Yung floated irritably nearby. Not being able to sleep made things take an eternity for her only sustained on her hatred, “Is it finally ready?”

Jose grinned, “Almost, I just need that last card you have,” he held a hand out to Su Yung expectantly.

Su Yung produced on more called with “THE BIG” written across the bottom, “I sacrificed all my other cards to keep this one alive.” She passed the card to Jose who snatched it from the air.

“The last ingredient,” Jose plunged the card into the solution, where it dissolved screaming all the while. White and black bubbles appeared in the concoction, “Perfect,” he covered the mixture and turned the machine on. Electricity coursed from the machine into Frostbite who began making strange babbling noise as the concoction started draining through the machine and into Frostbite. As soon as it reached his body, Frostbite’s body started to grow, piling on muscles and height as his babbling ceased and his eyes changed from a vacuous expression to complete dead-eyed.

Jose watched Frosbite growing in the small room and grinned, “Now CB6 will die and I’ll rule the city!” He looked around for Su Yung only to find the ghost had departed then turned and ran as Frostbite was rapidly outgrowing the room.

OoOoO

Eriol was dressed in casual clothing and he smiled welcomingly as Love Heart and Confidence approached. “Love Heart, Confidence, how nice to see you here.”

Confidence folded her arms over her belly, “You can drop the act, Eriol, we know you’re following us.”

Eriol’s smiled vanished, replaced by a look of serenity, “Very well, I supposed we’re nearly done now.” His voice dropped to a lower octave which made him sound 20 years older. He fished a small golden key with a sun motif out of his pocket and held it up, flat on his palm.

“Key that hides the powers of darkness
Reveal your true nature to me I command you by my power
Release!”

The key grew into a massive staff, taller than its wielder, topped by a large sun whose rays extended longer on one side into an ovular shape. Eriol spun the staff around him and a moment later he was wearing elaborate black robes decorated with a sun motif and an oversized hat the hung down his left side.

Love Heart pulled out the heart key, feeling it only right to respond in kind.

"Key of the Heart
With Powers Burning Bright
Reveal the Staff
And Shine Your Light
Release!"

Love Heart grabbed the staff from the air and spun it around as he recited another incantation.

“Bonds of Love and Life
Help me now to end this strife!”

In a flash he was wearing his battle costume as he faced Eriol, “Now that we’re dressed for the occasion let’s talk.”

Eriol nodded, “I take it you’ve guessed why I’m here and why I was in Readington.”

Love Heart nodded, “You’re testing me and giving me opportunities to transform the Clow Cards.”

“Impressive. I thought I was keeping things fairly secret but I underestimated the magic of the Care Bear Family,” Eriol looked to Confidence Heart, “I thought we’d be able to keep ourselves secret from everyone else.” He looked past the couple into the clearing, “I see Yue’s vessel Loyal Heart but where is Keroberos?”

Confidence answered, “We left him back in Meridiana with my Heartphone to keep an eye on things.”

As if on cue Love Heart’s phone rang and he pulled it out, “Kero, what’s happening.”

“Love Heart there’s a huge monster in the city! It just exploded out of that place where we fought Jose’s monsters and it feels like magic!” Kero’s voice came through fast and frantic.

“I’ll be there, just hold on!” Love Heart hung up and pulled out a card, “Jump!” with a single word the spirit attached to his feet and he looked back at Eriol, “Giant monster in Meridiana I gotta go!”

Confidence gave him a kiss, “I’m coming too, don’t argue I’ll stay back but I’m not going to miss this. It could be the last time.”

Love Heart nodded, “OK, but I’m going ahead, follow behind.” Without another word he ran back to the gathering and shouted, “Giant monster in town! Loyal I need your help!”

Loyal Heart turned from the conversation he was having with Perfect and Defiant. “Alright!” he opened the locket on his chest, “Yue, are you ready?”

“I am,” came Yue’s terse reply.

Loyal Heart closed the locket and turned to give Defiant a kiss, “I’ll be back.”

“I know,” Defiant kissed back, “I’ll be waiting.”

Loyal Heart stepped back and his wings appeared then he took off with Love Heart leaping along beside him.

Confidence conjured a cloud car and carefully lowered herself in when she found herself surrounded by all the participants at the baby shower. “Something’s come up back in the city, just stay here and you’ll be safe.”

Flash Heart and Oopsy shared a look then a kiss, “Stay safe, I’ll be back.” Without warning Flash Heart transformed into his werewolf form and took of to the surprise of half those assembled.

Flamboyant Heart was the first to shout, “Flash Heart’s one of the nightwolves?!”

With no point trying to hide it anymore, Oopsy shifted into her werewolf form to the surprise of the onlookers, “Yes we are, and it’s a long story.”

Thankfully Oopsy’s story distracted everyone as Confidence finally got the car started, except for one. Tarot Heart jumped into the passenger’s seat, “I need to go too, please.” He begged quietly.

Confidence sighed then touched her still unmoving baby belly, “OK, just stay back with me.”

Once they were in the air Tarot Heart spoke while he stared at his lap, “Mom’s in danger, I need to be there.”

OoOoO

Soul Heart stared out the window horrified at the sight in the city, a giant purplish monster with tentacles for a mouth and fingers at the end of its fat arms. Lucas stood behind her, hands on her shoulders gripping protectively.

“I have to go,” Soul Heart was dead set as she turned around, “I can’t leave this unfinished.”

Lucas looked distraught, “Soul Heart, you can leave it to the others, please.”

Soul Heart shook her head, “I couldn’t live with myself if I was able to help but didn’t,” they kissed and Soul Heart brushed past Lucas, shedding her dress as she did so. She grabbed the half-sized sustenance cube that had formed in Lucas’ machine and popped it in her mouth then turned back to Lucas. “Thank you,” she smiled then transformed into CB6. He hastily grabbed his trench coat and glasses from the coat closet, not bothering with the rest of his clothing, he gave Lucas one more kiss before he jumped out the window towards the giant monster. Lucas watched for a moment before he charged out the door to follow.

Kero left Confidence’s Heartphone on the roof as his wings spread to engulf him as he changed to his true form. He didn’t need to think twice about attacking the giant monster and he shot a beam of fire from his mouth at the creature. It let out a warbling yell then turned and swatted at Keroberos, one of the finger tentacles extending to try and catch him but missing.

Jose watched from nearby, an evil grin plastered on his face, “Yes! Destroy that monster! No one has monsters here but me!”

“Jose!” the angry shout from overhead drew Jose’s attention to CB6 standing on the roof and glaring down at him, “What is that monstrosity!?” CB6 jabbed an outstretched finger towards the monster.

Jose laughed, “Look at you, didn’t have time to get dressed?” he taunted as had noticed that CB6 was only wearing his open trench coat and glasses, “You must be desperate for sustenance after I poisoned all my minions! You still have a chance to come work for me if you want to live!”

CB6 bared his teeth at Jose and clenched a fist as ice began to form in the hand, “I’ve lived more than enough in a year than you have in your entire miserable life! I have friends, a lover and two sons I wouldn’t trade for anything, even a longer life!” An icy spear finished forming in his hand.

Jose saw the dangerous look in CB6’s eyes. Not even noticing the secrets he was hearing as he was feeling fear for the first time for someone other than Von Reichter. “N-no! You can’t! Without me you’ll die!”

CB6 raised the spear over his head and glared down at Jose, “Then that will end Von Reichter’s legacy!” He flung the ice spear as Jose turned to run only for him to get pierced through his chest. Jose gasped and grabbed at the spear, trying to pull it free as green liquid began to leak from around the wound he gasped for breath.

CB6 landed next to Jose, “I thought so, you’re just another one of his creations. I’ll need that to clean up the last of your mess,” he gestured down and sucked the sustenance up from the ground and from Jose into his mouth until there was nothing left of Jose but his clothes and glasses. CB6 stepped on the orange glasses in contempt as he picked up the still intact spear and swallowed, “Just enough for one last fight.” He jumped up to the roof and towards the giant monster.

Keroberos was snared by a tentacle finger for a moment before an ice spear pierced through it, freezing it on contact and causing it to shatter when he pulled away. He spotted CB6 land on a building nearby and called, “Good timing!”

CB6 nodded then jumped away from the monster as is smashed the roof he’d been on, “Anyone else coming?!”

Keroberos was forced to fly back to avoid a strike from the monster, “Love Heart and Loyal Heart will be here soon!”

"Summer, heed my call! Lightning Bolt!"

A blue bolt of lightning lanced down and struck the monster in the back, leaving a small scorch mark. This was followed by several blue arrows striking it. Love Heart landed next to CB6 as Loyal Heart and Keroberos stayed in the air and continued to bombard the monster with arrows and fire breath.

“Jose?” Love Heart asked.

“Dead and this is his last monster,” CB6 let out a deep breath, “We need to destroy it.”

Love Heart pulled out The Sword Card, “Yes, I feel some magic mixed up in it. Sword!” the Sword grew into its physical form, “Let’s go!” Love Heart jumped towards the monster, kicking off the air a few times then slicing at one of its face tentacles.

The monster roared and lashed out at Love Heart, grabbing his leg with one of his mouth-tentacles. Love Heart winced but sliced it off and pulled back before he could get grabbed again and an ice spear struck it in the eye which made it bellow in pain.

OoOoO

Confidence Heart landed the cloud car on a nearby roof before she carefully pulled herself out of the seat. Tarot Heart jumped out of the car and ran to the edge, where he spotted CB6 among those that battled the giant monster.

“Mom…” Tarot whispered then winced as he felt something shoot through his head.

Confidence was grateful she had managed to find the one roof where Kero had left her Heartphone, though crouching down to retrieve it was a bit of an ordeal. She turned to see Tarot Heart drying his eyes in between watching the battle.

Confidence walked up to Tarot and put a comforting hand on his shoulder while resting another on her belly, “They’ll be alright, I know they will.”

Tarot dried his eyes and shook his head, “No…”

Confidence gaped then turned to the battle, wishing she could join in and rubbing her still unmoving belly. She squinted at the monster’s head then conjured a star-o-scope from her tummy symbol and peering through it at the monster’s head. She squinted a moment until she saw a tiny red and blue toque in the middle of its head. “Frostbite?” Confidence was horrified as she lowered the star-0-scope, “Jose turned him into that monster?!” She growled and gripped the edge of the roof as she watched the fight play out.

OoOoO

Loyal Heart and Keroberos continued to fly around, pelting the Frostibite monster with fire and arrows until it swung out it’s tentacled hands and grabbed them both. Keroberos and Loyal Heart struggled to break free and CB6 was forced to jump back as the Frostbite chased after him.

Love Heart had dodged out of the way, panting as he tried to figure some way to distract the monster, his hand going to the Heart Book, “I need to try something, bit of a longshot.” He held up The Illusion card, “I hope this works,” he threw the card up in the air and spun his staff around.

"Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall
Ancient forces heed my call!
Illusion Card, discard your former might
And draw new power from my light
Heart Card!"

The heart in the staff spun as The Illusion changed and the kaleidoscope pattern emerged. Love Heart quickly pointed at the Frostbite monster, “Illusion, create a giant illusion of me to distract that monster, sound and visual!”

The Illusion flowed upwards and began to take on a new shape. The Frostbite monster kept up its chase of CB6 with Keroberos and Loyal Heart still in its hand tentacles when it heard a booming voice from behind it.

“LET MY FRIENDS GO!”

Frostbite turned to see Love Heart, as giant as he was and wielding an equally large Sword Card. Frostbite bellowed then turned to attack the giant Love Heart, missing when it dodged back.

“LET MY FRIENDS GO!”

The giant Love Heart swung at Frostbite slowly, deliberately missing. Frostbite struck back and the giant Love Heart appeared to teleport back a meter to avoid the hit.

Loyal and Keroberos still struggle to get free but shouted across to each other.

“How’d Love Heart get so huge!” Loyal pulled a tentacle away from his mouth.

“It must be The Illusion!” Keroberos bit down but barely made a scratch on the tentacle wrapped around him.

“It is!” Love Heart, the real smaller Love Heart, jumped up and sliced off the tentacles holding Keroberos before jumping over and doing the same to free Loyal Heart, “The Illusion Card can make sound now too, we just need to keep this thing distracted until we figure out how to kill it!”

Loyal Heart flew up and fired another arrow at Frostbite’s back, leaving only a tiny wound that swiftly closed, “No good! It heals too fast!”

Kero flew over to where Love Heart was jumping off the air, “Any ideas?”

Love Heart looked down to see CB6 preparing to unleash something and a yellow blur as Flash Heart finally arrived which made CB6 pause, “Getting one. Loyal! Down here!” he kicked down until he landed next to CB6, “Don’t do anything yet, I have an idea.” He waited for Loyal Heart Dog to land and his wings folded.

Frostbite wasn’t able to figure out his giant opponent was fake until it was too late. Keroberos flew around Frostbite and breathed fire on him, dividing his attention which gave time for Loyal Heart to pour a much power as he could into two arrows that put out the monster’s eyes. Frostbite bellowed and clasped its eyes as CB6 spread ice across the ground underneath it and Flash Heart charged right at Frostbite’s feet, his wolf paws easily gripping the ice. Frostbite was unable to balance and with that little push he toppled over with a massive shuddering crash!

Love Heart recalled The Illusion and pulled out the four element cards, “Here goes nothing!” He threw the four cards up and held his staff between them. “Earthy! Firey! Watery! Windy! Combine your powers with The Sword!” he held The Sword forwards as the four elemental spirits emerged and flew into the sword blade, creating a yellow, red, blue and green spiral of elemental energy swirling on the blade.

“Amazing, using all four elements at once!” Keroberos commented

“Even he has to be feeling that strain,” Yue spoke from Loyal Heart’s open amulet.

Love Heart did feel the strain but forced himself to ignore it as he jumped on Frostbite’s back and plunged the multi-element sword into it. A massive cry of pain let out as elemental energy exploded throughout Frostbite’s body, being torn apart into a massive pile of viscera in moments before Love Heart jumped off and recalled all the cards. He panted as he watched the body, satisfied it was down.

Then the flesh started to twitch and began to converge.

“No!” CB6 ran forwards, “Von Reichter’s legacy ends now!” He grabbed the closest piece of Frostbite he could and forcefully pushed his cryokinesis through it. He spasmed as the ice spread across and through the entire mass, which stopped moving as it froze right down to its cells but CB6 didn’t stop even as he felt his life ebbing away. He kept going until all that was left was a pile of frozen unmoving viscera.

Flash Heart charged in, the only one still with enough energy to shatter every piece until, after only a couple minutes, all that was left were some tiny cubs of ice that he swept away into the storm drains where it would be left to die at sea.

“Mom are you sure… mom!” Flash Heart saw CB6 fall to the ground.

“MOM!” the voice came from overhead as Tarot Heart ran and jumped down a fire escape, not noticing the pain as he hit the ground and ran over to where CB6 had fallen. Confidence following in the cloud car.

“Soul Heart!” Lucas voice took them by surprise as he ran up, no one questioned how he knew where this was, the giant monster couldn’t have been missed.

CB6 grunted and used the last of his energy to change back into Soul Heart. She felt the glasses slip off her face as she smiled up at Flash, Tarot and Lucas, “It’s done… the last of Von Reichter’s creations… will be gone soon.”

Tarot Heart fell to his knees and cried loudly. “NO! I knew it, I knew you were going to die!” He rubbed his eyes and sobbed, “Please don’t go! I need you!”

Soul Heart tried to raise her hand up to stroke his cheek, but her strength failed and her arm fell back to the street, “Sorry, but there’s nothing left to keep me going. Don’t know how long I’ll hang on but,” she turned to Flash Heart, who had changed back to his bear form, and Lucas both of whom were crying but not as loudly as Tarot Heart, “thank you, all of you. You gave my life meaning, purpose beyond survival and a reason to want to hang on even if it was selfish to keep Jose around so long.” She smiled, “Please, don’t forget me.”

“We won’t, mom,” Flash Heat rubbed his eyes.

“We never could,” Lucas put an arm around Tarot Heart’s shoulders, “I promise, Tarot Heart will be safe, I know Flash can look after himself.”

Flash forced a smile, “Thanks, dad,” then lost it completely and broke down, “I’d be dead without you, mom! I don’t want you to go! Please don’t die!”

Love Heart and Confidence Heart stood by, arms around each other’s backs, with Loyal Heart and Keroberos. Their hearts went out to the family before them but none wanted to interfere in the moment.

Unfortunately, not everyone shared that kindness.

“Looks like Jose failed, not that I’m surprised!” the harsh feminine voice drew their attention to the ghostly figure that hovered over the empty space where Frostbite’s giant body had been moments ago.

Love Heart stepped forwards and bared his teeth, pointing the staff up at her, “Su Yung! I knew you were part of this! Did you just use Jose for your own plans?!”

Su Yung regarded them with a look of contempt, “We used each other, Jose just lost his usefulness to me before I did to him. But enough talk, time for me to have my revenge.” Without explanation she raised a hand overhead and shot a black beam straight up into the sky. Once it struck a point overheard a black stain began to spread across the sky, “Now the whole world will sleep in eternal darkness!”

Before Love Heart could question her, he heard Confidence let out a small cry of pain and turned, hurriedly catching her as she fell down and fell asleep.

“Dad! Flash!” Tarot’s cry came as Lucas and Flash Heart also fell to the ground and immediately fell asleep.

“What? Why’s it so dark?” Soul Heart wished she had enough strength to look around.

“Those without magic will sleep forever now and the world Clow Reed loved so will pass into unending darkness,” Su Yung declared.

OoOoO

As the darkness reached across Merdiana, the baby shower in the forest felt the effects too as almost everyone fell over and fell asleep. Only Life Heart Unicorn, Sage Heart Bear and Sweet Heart Pegasus remained awake.

Sweet Heart felt fear rattle through her as she turned to her parents, “I have to help Love Heart. Keep everyone else here safe!” Sweet Heart spread her wings and took off towards the center of the darkness.

“Stay safe!” Life Heart called after her.

“She will be,” Sage Heart assured his wife, “Now let’s make sure no one hit their heads.”

“I know,” Life Heart rubbed her pregnant tummy, “but I’m worried about both of them.”

No one noticed that Gift was still awake as she stepped away from where Birthday slept and changed back into Ruby. She spread her butterfly wings, “I’ll be back, but Eriol needs me now,” she took off and flew towards the city. Sweet Heart didn’t notice as Ruby passed her flying faster than the Pegasus Care Bear Cousin could.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Cardcaptor Love Heart Chapter 34", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "image/gif", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "2", "name": "Nudity", "description": "Nonsexual nudity exposing breasts or genitals (must not show arousal)", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "5", "name": "Strong Violence", "description": "Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "f", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "36" }