is 

happening -

Blue, red and violet light war across her skin as the body's three souls abruptly war for dominance, not understanding that they are not alone -

Sable spreads herself apart, a thousand little slips of her own violet-hued Aura sliding between places where the three souls try to push through and over each other, supporting them, separating them, propping them up, embracing each individually, showing them where they touch, showing them that they can embrace each other. Look, her soul says, we're together, touching like this. Look how the three of you are touching too. Each of you is worthy. Each of you counts. Each of you is loved.

Ohmygod someone sees her. 

She grabs at the contact entirely instinctually, like she's drowning, like she's never breathed air before in her life and now someone's given her a bottle of it. 

She's being helped. By someone who knows what they're doing. 

This is her moment, the chance she's been waiting for, she has to do her best and stay focused -

Her brain crackles with thoughts that aren't hers. 

It wasn't her who kissed Jason. 

It wasn't her who bought those dresses, or went and got estrogen. 

They've been looking out for her, in their own ways. 

How did this girl know? 

Whatever the fuck she wants, she's going to grab on and hold tight. 

Sable is a blur of soulstuff spread like machine oil lubricating the separations between these three souls. She can barely perceive the external world enough to shout "Now!" at the nurses, who activate the machine.

Suddenly everything inside the three girls' mind feels... malleable.

Holding this malleable state is hideously expensive in terms of Aura cost, but as fast as it drains the Morning-Glory girls, Sable is pouring her Aura in to replace it. And it's necessary. In an endless, timeless moment, Sable is pointing out that this remembered experience feels like one girl, while that fantasy feels like another, on and on through their entire mind, never looking at the contents of the things she sorts, just feeling and naming them, all of them at once, each thought or memory drawn to its proper owner as though magnetized, as though compelled by gravity. She holds them upright, building temporary struts and supports throughout their souls and their mind to keep everything separate until the malleability ends, even though she's starting to run a little low on her own Aura after a triple awakening and fueling this, dipping below half her pool for the first time in months.

There's so much less of her than she thought there was. 

She flails for a moment as her mind is partitioned -

Sh. Don't worry, everything is going to be just fine. 

We're here for you. We've always been here for you. 

They can't know that.

But she's going to have to try and believe.

She feels a bit like she's melting, but she thinks the souls are properly separated finally. Forming words takes effort.

"C... Cut it. Start the final treatment."

The malleability cuts out abruptly, the dramatic Aura drain going with it. Their mental space snaps back into solidity, all the space they've made separate from each other now open and free. They can embrace each other or not as they choose, and their borders clear.

Then tub gets hooked up to their IV. A fluid that feels like ice or maybe electricity flows through their veins.

And now the Morning-Glory girls get to feel like they're melting. Or perhaps burning. Their body feels like it's shifting and warping all at once. A cloud of steam wafts off of them.

And the drain starts back up.

If they thought the previous drain was intense, that's nothing compared to this.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT

WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING 

Gosh that's an interesting sensation. 

Their body is coming apart at the seams. 

Something is horribly wrong. What is this girl even trying to do? 

She's trying to help us! 

Violet throws all her weight behind the pain and SHOVES. 

And their body shifts, just a little bit -

This is insane. Using Aura to force a transition instantaneously? And whatever the fuck this burning liquid in their veins is? 

She doesn't give a fuck, she wants it. She wants it more than she's ever wanted anything in her life. 

She throws herself into the change.

This is insane. It's also her only option left. 

She puts aside common sense and throws all the power of her soul behind it. 

And -

- something -

- breaks.