Adagio sat in the passenger's seat of Sunset's car; the window down about a third. She looked out with a distracted gaze. This was an uncomfortable situation all the way around. She was essentially a slave to Chrysalis; sent to do her bidding. She also felt like a small girl dependent on her mother with Sunset. Everything had gone so wrong, so fast. Even in her darkest hours before losing her magic, she still felt like she was in somewhat control. She was "The Mighty Adagio". Now she was nothing. The thought of her own death upon completing Chrysalis' task almost seemed like a relief. She would die a slave, but her bondage would be short at least.

"Adagio, you ok?" Sunset asked from beside her. She had taken to looking over at her while driving and saw the look of a defeated melancholy on Adagio's face and was worried.

"No. If I was, I wouldn't be here now." Adagio kept looking out the window as she spoke. Her voice was tired and flat.

"So how come you never saved up anything? Money that is? You had all this time to build a fortune. Why didn't you at least prepare for the possibility of losing your power? Just curious." Sunset was trying to draw Adagio into a conversation.

"Lots of reasons. Currency has changed so many times over the centuries. Plus just the hassle of keeping track of and maintaining multiple bank accounts in multiple countries, for hundreds of years, it wasn't worth it." Adagio's voice still had that distracted, defeated tone to it. "Besides, who needs pieces of stamped metal or little sheets of paper when you can just control people's minds? It was a far easier solution.

"And as for the other; how could I possibly foresee you lot coming along and destroying our pendants? The idea of us losing our power was a silly one."

Sunset still wanted to get Adagio into a conversation; something to take her mind off of her current situation. "So," she asked trying to think of something, "what did you do all those years? I mean, all those centuries; how did you keep yourselves occupied?"

"Surviving," Adagio said and then gave a rueful chuckle. "What else is there? Uh. Well, at first we had to just get accustomed to where we were. That took some time. Then when we learned we still had some of our powers, we used that to protect ourselves. Being imprisoned in the bodies of teenage girls is not the safest thing. Not now, certainly not back then.

"Mostly it was just moving around. Trying not to be noticed as the immortals we were. Trying not to be burned at the stake or drowned or crushed or any of the many other things these humans did to kill off suspected demonic creatures. I lived through multiple which hunts and one werewolf hunt. I was about to experience the same fate. I mean we could sing and control them; but it's kind of hard to sing with a giant fork stuck through your lower jaw into your upper.

"I was also looking for a way back home. I think we tracked down every witch, wizard, sorcerer, necromancer, magi, conjurer there was. All of them were frauds. This realm doesn't have magic. Never did. Well, us, and eventually you, but that magic was brought here; it has no indigenous magic. I think I gave up hope around the sixteenth century of ever going home again.

"'All those years', you said. They all bleed together. Yesterday feels a million years ago but I can remember events from eleven seventy-three like they were yesterday." Adagio's drifted from defeated to distant to almost wistful as she recounted her story. Sunset didn't know if Adagio even still knew she was talking to her or if she was giving a deposition to some invisible judge.

"We did cause a lot of pain and suffering. Even killed I suppose. But even when you add up all the years we lived here, we're still not the worst offenders. This is a world of rage and lust and hate. Brutal." Adagio then just stopped speaking.

"Is that how you justify your actions?" Sunset asked, curious.

"Justifying is what people who care do. I don't. All those lives we wrecked; I feel nothing for. I'm only stating fact." Adagio turned and looked at Sunset with dead, empty eyes.

"I'm not going to say you should. If you did; the guilt could crush you. Then I would have to teach you to let go of your guilt. So, no sense in installing guilt in you only to take it away."

"Logical," Adagio simply replied.

"But I also don't want you to feel bad about what has happened to you either. The past is gone. You can not make amends to those you wronged so long ago, but it was also your actions which has brought you to this place. So from now on no guilt or self pity. We simply move on. And from what you've told me, you're good at doing that."

"I was," Adagio said quietly.

Sunset pulled into the mall parking lot and parked. She looked over at Adagio again who now simply looked down at her lap.Sunset was overcome by pity for her. She reached out, patted her knee, and then took a hold of her chin and gently moved Adagio's face until she was looking directly at Sunset's.

"We'll get through this, together. I'm here to help. I am."

"Why?" Adagio asked, legitimately confused.

"Because, we all deserve a second chance."