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Chapter 4

The Shadow Magi weren't exactly enthusiastic when they saw the Kingdom of Caring. Having grown up in natural environments the explosion of wild colors was a veritable assault on their eyes and most of them, other than Passion Heart, were still blinking and rubbing their eyes even as they landed.

"Welcome to your new home, for however long you want to stay," Kind Heart said.

"Assuming we can leave," Flora tested the clouds for a moment before she deigned to step out of the cloud car.

"As soon as this crisis is over we'll show you how to create your own cloud cars so you can leave whenever you want," Valiant Heart said, "For now we should introduce you and try to smooth over anything from before. Not that anyone will be in much of a mood to start anything." He sighed sadly then motioned for the Shadow Magi to follow him, Mira and Kind Heart to the Hall of Hearts.

Confidence Heart shot up when she saw Marine Heart enter the Hall of Hearts behind her daughter, only to sink back down into her seat. "So you did it?"

Shimmers smiled, "Yeah, mom, we did."

Mira stood aside, "Mom, they saved me from Broken Heart."

"Well, thank you," Confidence managed to smile slightly.

"You're welcome," Marine Heart just stared at Confidence Heart then looked around the room at Tenderheart, Noble Heart and True Heart then back to Confidence Heart. He had a hard time believing he had fought against her not so long ago when she now seemed barely able to stay awake. "So what should we do now?"

"Umm..." Tenderheart had his head down on the table but he forced himself to sit up and face Marine Heart, "I think there's some houses around here... or you can stay in the dormitories in the Hall of Hearts."

"Or you can stay in the Forest of Feelings, if you don't want to sleep indoors," Kind Heart added. "There's lots of open space there."

"That's sounds a lot better," Flora Bear stretched a bit, "Not much for introduction right now."

"Alright then, sis, show them around," Valiant Heart said.

"I'll show you too!" Shimmers was about to leave when Miracle Heart grabbed her brother's arm.

"Nope, you and I have some talking to do. Spend time with your girlfriend later."

"Aww..." Shimmers pouted but didn't resist as Kind Heart lead the Shadow Magi out of the Hall.

"Kind of anti-climactic," Mira released her hold on ShimmeringStar's arm.

"Better that way, we need to focus on our current problem," Valiant Heart sat down in the nearest chair. With so few of them there he didn't feel the need to sit up at the head of the table with his parents. "So what exactly are you two going to talk about, Captain?" his usual semi-snarky tone with her rank had suddenly become serious.

"We need to talk to these ghosts hanging out in our heads," Mira tapped her temple, her six tails twisting together then untwisting, "Get some advice or a boost or something. Broken Heart's not done yet and she almost killed me," her hand drifted to her throat, it still hurt...

"What?" Shimmers looked up at his big sister. "Are you alright?"

"No... but I'm not going to let that stop me, or you." Mira turned to face her brother, fist clenched, "When she shows up again, we'll finish Broken Heart once and for all. Are you with me?"

It only took Shimmers a moment to decide, "Yes, all the way!"

"Right, then let's get started," Mira took his hand and pulled him towards the Magi's secret training gym.

"I'll hold down the fort, I just hope I can do this." Valiant folded his arms and sighed then was spun around by True Heart, who had managed to force herself to walk around to where her son sat.

"Don't worry, Valiant, I know you can do this. All of you." She gave her son a kiss on the forehead.

Valiant smiled, "Thanks, mom." He stood up and gave her a hug, "I'll make sure we get through this."

OoOoO

"This place still looks like a rainbow exploded," Flora knelt down to look at one of the pastel colored heart-shaped flowers.

"It's not that bad," Serious Heart Monkey climbed a tree and latched onto a branch with her tail, "I wonder if I can meet Playful Heart."

"He's been hit pretty hard by this," Kind Heart stopped in the middle of the path. "I can show you his tree house if you want."

Serious Heart let go of the branch and did a summersault in mid-ait before landing on all fours, "I'd like that."

"Don't mind us, we'll just look around." Marine Heart felt slightly invigorated by being in the Kingdom of Caring, enough to overcome the apathy at least for now.

Passion Heart smirked, "Then I'm gonna go see Redemption. Where did she go?"

"She's probably at the hospital, we passed it on the way in," Kind Heart pointed back up the path the way they had come from, but Passion Heart had already taken off.

OoOoO

Playful Heart barely registered the knock on his front door and only turned his head from where he lay on his couch when the light streamed into his face.

"Playful Heart?" Kind Heart Bear stepped inside and motioned for Serious Heart to follow her.

Seeing her made Playful suddenly sit up, "What?"

Serious Heart stepped forwards, "Hi, Playful Heart. I'm your clone, Serious Heart." She offered a hand to help him up.

"What, clone? Who cloned me?" Playful Heart managed to stay wobbly on his feet as he started back at what, gender aside, could have been his mirror image.

"No-Heart. It's a long story." Serious Heart folded her arms, looking him up and down, "I'm the only one who survived an attempt to make a bunch of 'reversed clones' of the Care Bear Family. It's not something I like to remember..." she rubbed her arm.

Playful put a sympathetic arm around her should, "Don't worry about it. Do you want to stay with us? I don't think we'll be much fun though..."

"Sure," Serious stopped, "wait, us?"

"Playful, what's going on down there?" Funshine Bear wandered down the stairs, yawning and rubbing her eyes."

"Yeah," Playful stepped forward and planted a kiss on Funshine's lips, "Funshine, I have a clone. Serious this is my wife, Funshine Bear."

"Clone?" Funshine was instantly awake.

"Guess I have a lot I can learn," Serious rolled her eyes.

OoOoO

ShimmeringStar and Mira stood in the Magi's secret training room each facing their past selves' ghosts.

"Are you ready for this?" Flash Heart asked.

"Ready as we can be," Mira punched her hands together, "When Broken Heart shows up again, we'll finish her!"

"Yeah, we will!" Shimmers pumped his arms in anticipation.

Soul Heart smiled, "Alright then, let's get started."

OoOoO

"I warned you about getting injured," Cold Heart grumbled as he worked to fix Broken Heart's damaged body, using his machines to direct nanites to knit the damaged pieces of her body back together, "We just need to wait until my virus kills them now and all will be well. At this rate you won't last the month even if I keep patching you up."

"You know those Care Bears!" Broken Heart grit her teeth against the phantom pain, "they always find a way out of everything we throw at them! I need to make sure they die this time!"

Cold Heart felt the constant pain in his chest surge suddenly and he sat still until it calmed down to the constant dull ache he felt. "That is a fair point, but for now we need to wait it out and make sure you can handle your next battle. The loss of those 'Shadow Magi' as pawns is a severe blow, but hopefully now it's too late for them to put things right. If my estimations are correct then it will be a little over a week before they are all incapacitated, then you can go in and mop up anything that's left of them."

"I look forwards to it."

OoOoO

One week later...

Take Care sat back in the passenger's seat of the cloud car, hand resting on her pregnant tummy; she wore an oversized t-shirt from a country music concert she and Indy had visited only a couple days ago. Indy had set the car on autopilot and he smiled when he saw the content look on her face.

"Admit it, you had fun."

"Yeah, I admit it," Take Care nudged him gently, "But it's getting harder to lug this baby belly around. I'll be happy when our cub's out of me and I can get back to work."

"We both will, just don't expect to jump right back in," Indy gave her a kiss then turned back to face where they were going. "I just hope they don't ask us too much about what we did."

"Oh they will," Take Care rolled her eyes, "Hopefully I can just get them to drop the subject though."

"As long as we aren't mobbed at the landing pad." Indy chuckled.

Even as they approached the Kingdom of Caring the could tell something was wrong. They landed without incident and no one was there to greet them.

"I know I wanted a peaceful return but..." Take Care couldn't help but shudder as she stepped out and Indy levitated their luggage out of the trunk.

"I know... wait!" he pointed towards their hospital home where Valiant Heart Horse and just emerged and was bolting towards them.

"Take Care! Indy!" Valiant wasn't even panting, "You're home! Good. We need you right now!"

Both were instantly alert as Valiant rattled off everything that had happened while they were away, concluding by grabbing the doctor's hand. "Get Well just collapsed while she was working on the cure, you have to hurry before someone dies!"

Get Well had indeed collapsed on the lab floor, she twiddled her fingers in a pattern without even noticing when her mother came in. Take Care waddled over to her, wanting to kneel down to check on her but unable to. "Cold Heart did this." She stated, "Did she leave any notes?"

"Right here." Kind Heart was in the lab too and she guided Take Care to the computer and a pile of papers, "She said you might be able to finish this but I can't figure any of it out."

Take Care sat down and immediately began pouring over the notes as Indy entered and picked Get Well up, "I'll take her somewhere to lie down. What did she figure out?"

"She was using that synthetic horseshoe crab blood to try and synthesize a cure, but it looks like the nanites and the virus die too quickly once it's removed from our system so she wasn't able to find a working medicine, unless." Take Care picked up the top page of notes as Indy left the room. "Wait I think I got it." Take Care's expression hardened as she forced herself to stand, "I'm not letting him take my family from me again." She waddled over to the blood testing station, "I'll need your help, babe!" she called.

"Don't worry, nurse Indy is here." Despite the seriousness of the situation, Indy couldn't help but joke.

"Good, nurse, now help me draw some of my blood." Take Care already had a blood extraction needle and tube in hand.

"If you're good here, we have something we need to take care of." Valiant Heart said, "just promise you won't come out until you're done. No one's even able to get up anymore."

"Don't worry, just leave this to us." Indy tied the rubber band around Take Care's arm and helped her draw some of her blood.

OoOoO

Mira was on alert, hovering over the Kingdom of Caring. "Come on, I know you're coming soon. Right?" She looked over her shoulder at the silhouette of Soul Heart. She didn't notice that the purple bear's feet had dissolved away.

"She'll come, I could feel in our last fight that Broken Heart is falling apart. She needs to act soon if she's going to try and stop us." Soul Heart sighed and shuddered.

As if on cue, there was a loud shout. "Care Bears! I'm here to finish you!" Mira spotted almost two late the monstrous form of Broken Heart Bear flying right at her.

Mira formed her metal gloves over her hands, "Now we finish this!" She looked like she was about to charge as Broken Heart reached out to stab at her with a blade of light, only for Mira to vanish into thin air.

"What? Get back here fox!" Broken Heart shouted, slicing where Mira had been moments ago with her light blade.

The only response was a sudden sonic boom from below. Broken Heart looked down to see ShimmeringStar before his sonic blast knocked her for a loop.

"HIIIYA!" Mira appeared right above Broken Heart and slammed her elbow down on her, plowing Broken Heart down into the clouds.

Nearby, Valiant Heart and Kind Heart watched the fight break out then nodded to each other. They snuck away to a parked Cloud Car parked behind the hospital, changed into winter gear, and took off.

Once they were out of hearing range, Valiant turned to his twin sister, "You're sure Cold Heart's underneath where his castle used to be?"

"Positive," Kind Heart kept her grip on the wheel as she faced forwards, "that's the only way Broken Heart could have found them so quickly there and why she even bothered to attack them. If Cold Heart's not there..."

"He is, if you're sure then so am I," Valiant faced forwards. "Take Care and Indy will beat his disease, Mira and Shimmers will beat Broken Heart so we need to make sure Cold Heart never does anything like this again and help stop his virus too."

Kinda Heart nodded, "We will."

OoOoO

Indy floated more vials over to Take Care and steadied her as a shockwave from outside made the room shake. "You alright?"

"As much as I can be. We're already infected but I just need one test to confirm this." She looked back at Indy, "Do you want to go outside."

"Yes, but this is more important. They can handle it." Indy watched as Take Care took a small syringe of the synthetic blue horseshoe crab blood, "how does that stuff help."

"Horseshoe crab blood processes and reacts to viruses and vaccines much faster than human blood or ours, about 45 minutes instead of two days, so it's used to test vaccines in a fraction of the time." She tapped the syringe to get the air bubble out, "the problem with Get Well's tests is that this virus is targeted at our unique caring gland organ so it dies off when removed from our blood so testing it in this blood doesn't help. But if I'm right," Take Care injected the small amount blue blood into the small vial of her own blood and stuck it under the microscope.

Indy held his breath as Take Care peered into the lens. She was silent for a moment the all but shouted, "Yes! I was right!" She stepped away, "Indy, look."

Indy looked through the microscope and saw the small blue blood clinging to the virus and nanites, which dissolved into nothing within moments before moving to the next and quickly repeating the process. "How is it working?" Indy stepped back.

"It's another property of horseshoe crab blood," Take Care deposited the used syringe into the sterile disposal container before retrieving a fresh syringe. "Their blood quickly clots around infections to protect the crab. This virus is very volatile, which is how it spreads, infects and affects us all so quickly but that's its weakness. A small amount of disturbance introduced causes the virus and nanites to fall apart so if I give us all an injection of synthetic horseshoe crab blood." She drew a larger amount of the blood into her fresh syringe, "Get Well was too tired and in too deep to see the solution but her observations were close so I was able to figure this out just by coming at it from an outside perspective. It won't completely cure the disease but it will help slow its growth and allow us to reverse the damage and if it doesn't we will have more time to find a cure. Help me, Indy," she took a deep breath as Indy held her then injected her arm. "Alright, you're turn," she threw out the syringe and filled another, "I'll need you to deliver these to every else, I can't get around fast enough right now."

Indy winced slightly as Take Care gave him his shot, "And you're not going out in the middle of fight like that." The house shook for a moment as if to emphasize his point."

"Right. Here, give this to Get Well while I get more doses ready," Take Care drew another fresh syringe and handed it to Indy then began preparing portable doses.

Get Well lay on the couch just staring at the ceiling when Indy entered the living room. "Get Well, I'm going to give you a shot. Just stay still," he took her arm and carefully gave her an injection, "Don't worry, you'll be alright. I have to go give everyone else their shot."

As he left the room, Get Well turned to face him. "Be...careful...dad..."

OoOoO

Broken Heart was slammed into the ground, somehow making the clouds shake but she was up on her feet again and jumped back before Mira was able to slam her fist down on her face.

"You won't beat me!" Broken Heart reached out to psionically grab at Mira's throat, only to be thrown off when ShimmeringStar sliced into her arm with an acid-coated blade of his double-bladed sword which threw off her aim. "Why you!" She turned to slice at Shimmers with a blade of light but he dodged back and a bolt of lightning struck her in the back.

"Hey! Over here!" Mira stood at the ready then suddenly faded from view.

"What!?" Broken Heart whipped her head left and right, trying to find her enemy. "Where are you?!"

"I'm here." The voice came from right behind Broken Heart and she spun around, only to strike a floating purple flame. She stared then heard puffs of flame as dozens of floating purple flames sprung into being around her, all slowly spinning.

"No I'm here."

"No here!" That voice was from ShimmeringStar.

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

The voices became a discordant choir until Broken Heart couldn't even tell which of the two siblings was speaking at the time. "SHUT UP!" Broken Heart swung a long blade of light out, destroying a large number of purple flames, only for them to reappear almost instantly and the voices to start laughing at her, "STOP PLAYING GAMES!"

SHRRRRRNNNNNNK!

Broken Heart saw something blow past her and a sudden lack of even the barest of feeling on her right arm. She turned to see Shimmers standing with his back to her, his sword coated with acid on one blade and sound pulses on the other, and her purple arm from the elbow down now lying on the ground.

"You want to stop playing?" Shimmers stabbed the severed arm with the acid coated blade, the green liquid growing thicker and flowing down over the severed limb, dissolving to nothing. "Too bad you can't feel anything or I'd love to tickle you."

"Save it, little brother." Mira suddenly faded into existence next to Broken Heart, "she's never felt anything except hatred."

"You... you! RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!" Broken Heart shouted out and tried to grab out with her severed right arm, failing as the two jumped back with Mira disappearing again even as Broken Heart tried to slash out at them with a blade of light.

OoOoO

Cold Heart coughed as he sat in the darkness of his lab as he heard a banging noise near the entrance. He turned in time to see the trap door, disguised by the ice, lift open and light streaming in as Valiant Heart Horse and Kind Heart Bear, both clothed in thick artic gear, strode down into his hidden lab.

"I'm not surprised some of you have come for me. Come to beg for the lives of your family?" Cold Heart held his hands together as he glared at the siblings.

"We're not going to beg," Valiant Heart stepped forwards, "We're here to save our family."

Cold Heart pushed a button that closed the door behind them, "I'm surprised you two have the motivation to even stand upright."

Kind Heart removed her goggles and scarf, as her brother did likewise, "We'll do whatever it takes to save them, that's why we can do this."

Cold Heart snorted, then cringed as he felt a painful spasm through his heart, this time the pain didn't subside. "It doesn't matter now. Anything you do here won't be enough to save them from their own apathy."

"We'll decide that," Valiant Heart pushed Cold Heart away, he rolled away on his chair's wheels, still clutching his chest. Valiant was thankful that Cold Heart's computer was still online.

Kind Heart watched the professor still clutching his chest. "Cold Heart, what's wrong?"

Cold Heart glared up at her, "I'm dying, you stupid fuzzy! The accident that turned me into this blue skinned man before you had a delayed effect on my heart. I tried to fix it for so long but there's no fix. If it wasn't for the nanites I would have died over a year ago, and it seems they can't keep up with the degradation any more." He coughed, blood coming from his mouth, "My last act is to end your fuzzy family, after you took everything from me."

Kind Heart just stared at Cold Heart. "We never took anything from you that wasn't yours. Mom and Dad and everyone has told me what you used to do. Those servants of yours, kidnapped children you were using as slaves, and after that you kept coming to us and hurting people to satisfy your desire to make everyone as miserable as you. And if you blame this on your condition then you're just fooling yourself, you were a monster even before you turned cold."

"What could you know about what I've been through?! You weren't even born when I clashed with the Care Bear Family!" Despite the pain in his chest, Cold Heart forced himself to stand.

"I don't need to have been alive," Kind Heart didn't raise her voice but didn't step back either, "I believe what my friends and family can tell me because I trust them and they respect me enough not to hide things from me. Even with your genius you've done nothing but hurt other creatures all your life and if you're dying from an accident you caused then that's your just desserts. You spent the last year of your life on revenge and enabling Shrieky to do the same, it makes me relieved to know that all of your pettiness came before I had a chance to experience it. You decided to spent the last of your time on Earth to try and kill my entire family and the one accomplishment you've helped create, these nanites, you've only ever used to hurt and kill people. If there's any legacy to your efforts, then it will be how others use it to help people and forget that you had anything to do with it."

"I found it!" Valiant Heart's voice cut across as he pulled out his Heartphone, "Take Care, I think I can shut off the nanite's reproduction protocols. It won't destroy them but it will at least keep it from spreading more. Will that help?"

"Yes, that's perfect," Take Care's voice came through the speakerphone, "I've managed to get a treatment that would slow things down and together that would cure it. Do it!"

"Right," Valiant struck a few keys, "done!"

"Wh-what?!" Cold Heart fell back into his seat.

"Cold Heart? Valiant can you turn me to face him?" Take Care's face appeared on the screen and Valiant obliged her.

Cold Heart found himself facing Take Care's stern expression of cold fury. "Professor Coldwell. I know you don't remember me but when I was a cub, you took my parents from me. You turned them into experiments and killed them, scarring me for life. Now, I've stopped you from harming my family, you'll never take anything from us again!" She abruptly hung up.

Cold Heart just stared at the blank screen. "Coldwell... Bear?" He had a short flash back to one of his old labs. "She was that cub?" Cold Heart slumped into his chair.

He didn't get back up.

Silence hung in the air for a moment before Valiant started the computer's shutdown sequence and pulled his gloves and goggles back on. "Let's go, sis. There's nothing left here."

Kind Heart stared at the body in front of her and shuddered before she wrapped her scarf back around her face, "Right. Let's go home."

OoOoO

"Stop hiding and fight me!" Broken Heart was doing her best to keep up her façade of bravado, then she saw Indy exit the Hospital. Neither knowing nor caring what he was she let out a scream of rage and shot a beam of light right at him. Only for Indy to vanish from view.

"What?" A whoosh of wind blew past Broken Heart and Indy's voice came from right behind her ear.

"I don't have time for this, little girl."

Broken Heart turned in time to see Indy hovering towards the Forest of Feelings, not wanting to jostle the bag of medicine Take Care had prepared for him.

"Get back here!" Broken Heart shot out a blade of light that pierced where Indy had been a fraction of a second ago.

He turned to face her, his voice hard as he casually shattered the light beam with a slow offhand strike, stunning Broken Heart into silence. "If I wanted to I could defeat you right here and now, if any part of Mental Heart is in there he should know that I've learned a lot since our last fight. But I have a more important job to do so I'll leave you to my niece and nephew." Indy had been floating backwards towards the forest the whole time he spoke.

Broken Heart shook her head and tried to force some bravado, "I won't let you stop us!"

"Good!" Mira appeared mid jump-kick and plowed into Broken Heart, knocking her down before doing a mid-air summersault then landing and rounding on her. "Because that's our job."

Broken Heart stood up, furious despite her missing right arm, "I'm getting revenge for what you've done to me!"

"NO!" Shimmer's shout caused a sonic blast that sent Broken Heart reeling.

Broken Heart tried to get up only to be sent sprawling by a kick from Miracle Heart. "Revenge for what? What did we ever do to you?" Mira growled, "Mom told me the first time you showed up, you tried to break up a wedding and you only beat her because you screamed so loud it hurt her ears. Look at you now: you can't even do that, Shrieky."

Broken Heart tried to raise her remaining hand only for Shimmers to dash by and slice it off with his acid coated blade, destroying it much like he had the first one. For once the bravado and bluster dropped away and Broken Heart was left with a look of fear on her face, "You.. You're the reason I'm here!" She stammered out.

"No we're not," Shimmers said, "We never forced you to come here."

"What are you even getting revenge for?!" Mira threw up her hands, "All we've ever done to you is stop you from ruining children's lives, killing us or trying to destroy our home. If anything we have more of a right to get revenge on you for almost killing our dad."

"And using Uncle Flash's body to do it!" Shimmers chipped in, egged on by Flash in the back of his mind. "Mom said she wished she could do this after what happened."

"Then you're just as bad as me," Broken Heart was trying to stand up, desperate to find some way of turning this around.

"No, we're doing our jobs, protecting everyone from you and Cold Heart's 'revenge'." Mira pointed accusingly at Broken Heart as she barely managed to stand up, "What have you done with your life? Followed your father or your uncle's orders and when they disappeared you just played as this 'empress of unfeeling' or whatever you called yourself and paraded around his castle ordering his servant around and doing *nothing* with your life! And now you just wasted what was left to get revenge on us for things we never did to you! At least in your old body you could have screamed loud enough to make me pass out, but now you can't even manage a whimper." Mira sighed, emotionally exhausted from her tirade, "Honestly, I pity you, Shrieky. I don't what you might have done with your life but it can't be any more pathetic that what you've done now, even your little servant Beastly abandoned you and he's been a bigger threat to us than you ever were."

Broken Heart finally managed to stand and stare at her stumps, then back to the siblings, "How... how did you get so strong so fast."

Shimmers brightened up, "We had help from our past selves."

Broken Heart just stared, dumbfounded, "What?!"

"You wouldn't understand," Mira sighed, but managed to smile at her brother's statement.

"I... I'll get you for this I-" Mira cut her off.

"No, I know you won't change," lightning sparked in her hand, glowing blue and condensing into a golf-ball sized glob of purple energy, "So I'm going to end this now."

Broken Heart had no chance to avoid as Mira hurled the ball of plasma at her, which struck her in the chest.

"AAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Broken Heart fell to her knees and screamed, somehow feeling the pain as the plasma bolts coursed through her. Her whole body shook as she forced herself t stand, "What did you do to me?" Her voice quavered.

Mira stood, panting and sweating from shooting her first plasma ball, "I was trying to destroy you, but if you're working with Cold Heart then I hopefully fried all the nanites in your body. I think you're already starting to fall apart."

Broken Heart felt like her borrowed skin was about to fall off and she started to panic, "No, no it can't end like this!" She took off towards the Forest of Feelings as Mira slumped to the ground.

"Get back here!" Shimmers was about to take off when he saw how tired his sister was. "Mira, are you ok?"

"Just tired," Mira managed a weak smile, "Dad always said plasma burns you out. Go after her, Shimmers, I'll be fine."

"OK!" Shimmers took off at a run after Broken Heart.

Mira sighed and turned to look at Soul Heart's spirit floating next to her. "Thanks for all the help."

"You're welcome," Soul Heart looked down as her legs had dissolved up to the waist and were continuity to fall apart, "But it's time to say goodbye."

"What?! No I mean I didn't want this to happen!" Mira tried to grab at the rapidly dissolving image of Soul Heart, as her torso fell apart, the dissolved particles flowing into Miracle Heart. "You don't deserve to fade away like this!"

Soul Heart smiled, "Hold on to your life and dreams and tell the Shadow Magi that I'm proud of them, and you." She reached out with her ghostly arm to touch her right before it dissolved, "I wish I could have been like you, then I wouldn't have wasted my life on revenge. Goodbye," Soul Heart finally faded away as Mira tried to hug her. She felt a warmth inside and her exhaustion faded as he slumped her head in to her hands, crying over the loss. Not even noticing the pain in one of her tails.

OoOoO

Broken Heart Kept running, tireless as she was she could feel her life ebbing. "I just need to get away, then I'll be back to destroy them all and get my revenge."

"Revenge? For what?" Broken Heart stopped and stared. In her mad dash away she had run almost literally into Beastly, who was just staring at her.

Her bravado returned as she glared at her former servant. "What are you doing here, Beastly? Is this where you ran off to when you abandoned me?"

Beastly blinked, "Shrieky?"

"Yes it's me, fur ball!" Broken Heart stamped her foot, "Now help me get away from this place so we can destroy the Care Bears!"

Beastly stared at Broken Heart, arms mere stumps and her body slowly falling apart, then smirked. "No!"

"No! what do you mean no! You're my servant, Beastly! Do what I say!" Broken Heart's voice became as shrill as she could manage.

"No, I like it here. I just have to sweep up messes, I get to eat all the garbage I want and I never have to go on caring missions. And I can just wander around and sleep wherever and whenever I want. And look at you, you're a worse Care Bear than me, Shakakakakakakakaka!" Beastly snickered at his former master's state.

"Why you... you...!" Shrieky spluttered.

The delay was long enough for Shimmers to catch up, "Broken Heart!" He spun his sword, sound and acid wreathing together into a destructive disk, "You won't get away!"

Broken Heart was barely able to dodge, jumping around and running in circles as Shimmers chased her, slashing at her repeatedly but just barely missing. Beastly watched with amusement for some time, until he spotted a thin area of clouds and got an idea.

"This is my best idea ever," Beastly chuckled to himself as he retrieved a saw from some hidden stash behind a tree and began cutting a hole into the clouds.

Shimmers kept up his pursuit while Flash Heart hovered behind him. The ghost turned to see what Beastly was doing and nodded, "Alright. Hey Shimmers, chase that body stealing bitch towards Beastly."

"Right!" Shimmers made a skidding dash around Broken Heart's side, forcing her to dodge sideways right towards Beastly as pulled the clouds up like a trap door, revealing the open sky below.

Broken Heart teetered on the edge of the hole and took her eyes off Shimmers for a moment, then he struck. With a shout, Shimmer sliced at Broken Heart's leg, severing it at the knee with the acidic edge. Broken Heart looked at him for a moment, then fell backwards through the hole, screaming all the way down.

Beastly cackled as he kicked the remaining leg after her then watched as it and her body dissolved on the way down. "Oh that felt good." He closed the flap of clouds once the screaming stopped.

Shimmers dissipated his double bladed sword and used his tummy symbol to seal the hole properly with more clouds then turned to Flash Heart, "So... it's over?"

"Yeah," Flash Heart put his arms behind his ghostly head, "I'm done riding here so it's time for us to reunite," he smiled at Shimmers then gave him a thumb's up. "Tell your parents they're doing a great job raising you. Oh and that you saved them all. Now go see your girlfriend, she's probably on her way home right now." With a sudden flash, his spirit flew into Shimmers.

ShimmeringStar patted his chest, feeling like something he never knew he had lost had just been found. He turned and made his way back to Care-a-Lot.

OoOoO

"So is everyone cured?" Valiant Heart asked as he waited for Take Care to give him his shot.

"You're the last one," Indy stood to the side as he watched the horse take his injection of synthetic horseshoe crab blood in the arm, "But it's not going to be an instant fix.

"Exactly," Take Care finished, sterilized the injection site and put a small bandage over it, "With the nanites being killed off the virus will be out of energy soon and our immune systems should handle the rest. That doesn't mean we can just sit around, I need to do some more tests to make sure there's no side effects and work on a fix for them."

"No, mom," Get Well had forced herself upright. The return of her parents invigorating her to get back on her feet. "I'll look after that, you need to take care of yourself, you're a week away from your due date."

Take Care glared at her daughter, then sighed and accepted Indy helping her to her feet, "Alright, if you insist. Just make sure everyone's up and doing something. Indy and I didn't take the full hit so we'll be fine but everyone else needs to work things out of their systems."

"Why did we need shots?" Kind Heart rubbed her arm where she had gotten her injection.

"Just to be safe, we don't want this coming back or lingering any more than necessary." Get Well said as Take Care almost tried to cut in and answer herself. "For now just go and help get everyone up on their feet."

"Right!" Kind Heart beamed then took off, followed shortly by Valiant Heart.

Take Care all but slumped onto the couch, the weight of her baby belly pulling her down. "I was worried I'd go into labor partway through working on that."

"Relax, our lives make much more sense than that," Indy smiled as he sat down next to her, giving Take Care a kiss on the cheek.

Take Care laughed, "Yeah, about as much sense as they can. Thank you, Indy. I love you."

"I love you too, Take Care," They kissed, each resting a hand on Take Care's baby bump.

OoOoO

"Any trouble from the water zoo scandal?" Brave Heart asked, still half asleep as he and Tenderheart conferenced to catch up.

"Not as bad as we thought, turns out the place was under investigation for breaking several animal rights laws." Tenderheart closed the article he had been reading on his heartphone, "Since no one was seriously hurt or killed it just gave the right excuse to investigate their other locations for more violations."

"Good, last thing we need is more drama," Brave Heart yawned, stood up and stretched, "I'm gonna go home, make sure Feral's all right."

"You do that, I just need to finish things up here," Tenderheart waved him off.

OoOoO

It didn't take long for some of the Family to be back on their feet, but caring missions were still delayed until they were certain everyone was alright. Love Heart had insisted on getting back to work as did Confidence, both praised their children for their efforts and it was only four days after Cold Heart and Broken Heart's defeat that they stood with them and the Shadow Magi in the Hall of Hearts.

Love Heart looked proudly at his children, "Miracle Heart Kitsune, ShimmeringStar Bear, I'm very proud of both of you for helping us through this," he glanced at Miracle's seven tails, one extra having split since her victory against Broken Heart, "It is with great pride that I promote you to the rank of Major." He reached for Mira's ID card, which she handed over allowing Love Heart to magically change the insignia from two bars to a little seven-leafed symbol of a major. "As for you, ShimmeringStar. Do you want to take on more responsibilities as a Captain?"

Shimmers had to think about it for a moment, then shook his had, "No thanks, dad."

Love Heart chuckled then tickled his son under the neck, "That's fine, but I'll still think of a reward to give you. Now as for you, Shadow Magi," Love Heart looked at the assembled group before him, "I think as her first assignment as Major, I'm going to let Miracle Heart decide what we should do with you. Mira?"

Miracle Heart nodded, Soul Heart's words still echoing in the back of her mind as she spoke, "I just wanted to start by saying, Soul Heart was proud of all of you," she touched her chest, "She's gone now but I know that she wanted you to be safe and happy. Since you're not ranked Magi I want to ask, is there anything you want to do to help the Earth, not humans necessarily, we do have some family members who took alternate job paths."

Marine Heart stepped forwards to speak, "We talked about it and we think we want to help with the environment, education and preservation."

"And stomping anyone who breaks those laws!" Passion Heart declared.

Mira smiled, "I think that's good, alright let's figure out how we can do that.

Love Heart stood back with Confidence and Shimmers as Mira and the Shadow Magi talked things over.

"She's grown up so much," Confidence said, "Hard to remember when she was just our little girl."

Love Heart put his arm around Confidence and tussled ShimmeringStar's hair. "Yeah. But at least we know that even if things go wrong, we'll be in good hands for the future."

THE END