"Ohhhh smitten!!!!!" Connie called across the rollinf fields outside the cabin

"Contrarian" the dapper voice smiled, taking a few steps to meet connie "what is bringing that bounce to your step my clown-like friend"

"Oh you know, just asking some questions to a very handsome bird!" Contrarian chuckled "anywhoooos yes, question! Can i ask you something? A purely hypothetical question"

"Always" Smitten bowed

"Okay wellll.... if you could bring the narrator back, to just like, hang out with us..."

Smitten stiffened, gaze growing sharper

"Uh... would... would you...?" Contrarian trailed off, her hand comming up to scratch the back of her head "or well-"

"I'm not mad at you dear" smitten hummed, batting his hand "i'll gladly awnser your question"

"no" smitten flatly responded

"Oh...."

"I would not personally wish that villan back to life, just as much as i wouldnt wish cold back to life if he dissappeared. That fiend is just so rude and hateful! How he never listened to us to save my darling princess!"

"Well... there was that one time...?"

"In a sea of millions of other times!" Smitten sighed "listen, con, if your or anyone elses awnser is different i would not hate you for it. But my awnser is firm and true"

"Right, yeah"

"But might i ask, what brought this question on?"

"Knock knock~" Contrarian smiled "good evening Hunted"

"Oh-" Hunted was spooked from his spot currled up on the floor "Hey connie... do you need something?"

"Noooooo~" xe smiled, tapping their claws on the door frame "just thinking. A fun poll hypothetical im asking everyone"

"Okay....? Go ahead i guess"

"If you could, in any kind of way, specifics dont matter here, um anyway-" she fumbled with the words

"Take a breath"

Connie nodded "okay" he paused for a moment, putting his thoughts togeather "if you could bring the narrator back, alive, to just hang out with us again. Would you?"

...

Hunted stared, mulling that over "oh..." he shuddered "that echo of a voice didn't really help up much before..."

"I'm just curious, no wrong awnsers you know? Heh-"

"As long as no one got hurt, and he had much less power than he did in the construct... probably?" Hunted picked at his pin feathers "i would hate for him to just be left somewhere. Who knows what afterlife took him..."

Contrarian nodded "thank you" at least one person agreed with them... more or less "oki doki! Thanks darling!"

She felt as if her body was on fire! She had pushed herself to the limit to escape Wukong! like a violet shooting Star Lilac was practically consumed in her Qi as it rushed out of her and propelled her forward! She finally couldn't hold it any longer and, found herself skipping off the ground as she stumbled and rolled across the earth. Like a stone skipping across a Lake. She dug her feet into the ground and skidded to a stop! her shoes smoking and the smell of the rubber melting on the pavement filled the air.

Lilac could not catch her breath as she sucked in air, and sweat poured down her face. She grit her teeth as every cell in her body protested her movement. She couldn't stop though as she threw her head back and took a deep deep breath to try and get her burning lungs under control. Beads of sweat dropped down her forehead and she leaned her back against a nearby tree. Sliding down it and taking just a moment to let her body recover from such a stupid move. Her shoes were pretty wrecked, and she would have to get a new pair when she reached the city.

She still had many burning questions

Who was that guy?

Was he really Wukong?

What the hell was going on in Shang Tu?

and most of all...

Were her friends ok? that question was the only one that was important right now! She had to keep moving, find Carol and Mill and make sure Neera was ok!