The following warning played before the episode began: 

The following episode contains content of a slightly heavier nature than normal. Viewer discretion is Advised.

     “Good Morning, Girls!” Howard’s voice blared, waking the girls up from their restless sleep, “For some reason, I feel like today’s going to be a real great day! So greet the morning with high hopes! After all, Saturday’s only two days away!”

~~~

Dining Room

     Once again, the girls met up in the dining room for breakfast. While they couldn’t rightfully say this part of their routine had become something of a tradition, since they were unable to due it the past couple of days, they found some comfort in doing it, and it allowed them to get their minds off of what had transpired last night.

     That’s not to say that there wasn’t a little bit of tension while they ate. The girls mostly talked about small talk, if they talked at all. Breakfast was finished quickly, and the girls soon were on their separate way to doing their own thing.

~~~

Annette’s Rehearsal

     “So Annette! What ideas do you have for our trick this week?” Howard asked, conjuring up a similar chair to the one he had spawned yesterday with Sable.

     “Well… I do have some ideas. Last week, when Rocky was playing in the grass, he came out looking all muddy, but it turns out- Well here. Rocky! Green!” Annette commanded, the little chihuahua sized creature giving a little yip, as he closed his eyes in concentration.

     Before Howard’s eyes, Rocky’s normally black hair slowly seemed to bubble all around him. As it bubbled, the color of the fir gradually began to lighten up in tone, working from his core to his extremities. Soon, Rocky opened his yellow eyes again, his fur now dark green in tone. “Wow!” Howard said, standing up from his seat and squatting to take a closer look at Rocky, “That’s definitely new.”

     Annette bit her lip, “In all the time I’ve known him, Rocky’s never really demonstrated any ability to change his color before.”

     Howard conjured up a dog treat in his hand, which Rocky happily accepted, his now dark green prehensile tongue stretching out of his mouth to let him swallow the treat whole. Howard stood up, scratching his head, “I don’t think I would worry about this just yet. After all, we’ve already established that Rocky being able to perform magic consistently as a Beast is an anomaly of its own. I don’t believe it’s a stretch to imagine that such a beast would be able to become better at magic the more he practiced it.”

     “But what would even prompt him to try such a transformation by himself? I’ve tried multiple times before to get him to change his color, and now he’s able to do it with some struggling?”

     “Well, maybe he’s got more of a reason to try to push himself and learn these new abilities,” Howard grinned, “after all, with how much his master’s progressing, he’s going to need to work extra hard to keep up pace with her.”

     Annette blushed, looking at Rocky and saying, “Do you really think-“ But was interrupted as the tiny chihuahua jumping high in the air and licking Annette’s face, giving her an adorable smile when he landed.

     Annette fully convinced, rubbed the top of Rocky’s face, saying, “Well… I guess that solves that mystery. Alright Howard! If Rocky’s working hard today, then we better give ours to keep up!”

     “Well then we better properly start rehearsal,” Howard grinned.

~~~

Out on the Town

     Sable, not knowing if she could bear having rehearsal with Howard knowing what she was going to be doing later tonight, had opted to use her new free time to go out exploring the town of Henderson. After all, she didn’t really have recollections of the single time she had explored the town due to her altered mental state at the time.

     Of course, Sable disguised herself first, making herself slightly taller and changing her normally black hair bright red while aging up her appearance slightly. She chuckled at herself when she saw her new form in the mirror, commenting, “Man… Minus a couple wrinkles and I’d look like a dead ringer for Scar.”

     Sable started her day simply walking around the city, the various noises of passing cars and of pedestrians talking on their phones or to their friends oddly soothing to her. As she passed by smaller groups, she occasionally hear the odd tidbit of irrelevant gossip. Talks of crazy things done at magic parties, the low quality of food at the office, the big twists of the newest episode of ’The Young and The Magic’.

     At around lunch time, Sable decided to treat herself to a quarter-pounder from McDonald’s with fries. While some would probably find such food a poor choice for the limited time she would get to stay in, she found the familiarity of the meal rather comforting, as her Dad would often pick it up on his way home if he was running late.

    After McDonald’s Sable started walking home, glad that she had used the advice given by Maya and Annette to avoid any awkward conversations with fans of the show. Not that there weren’t a few occasions of hearing people talking about the show. Quite the contrary really, as she walked back to her hotel and more people were returning from lunch to their jobs, it seemed like every other conversation she could catch a glimpse of something related to the show. From predictions to who the winner was going to be, to who the next celebrity cameo was going to be, and what the last midweek challenge was going to be.

     Despite this, there seemed to be one common topic that almost every person talking was wondering, that being what was going to happen when Sable confronted Howard that night. Was she going to get kicked off the show? How is Howard going to react? Will anything really come of it? Reactions seemed from genuinely worried about her, to happy to see the chance of their least favorite contestant be kicked out prematurely. In some ways, the flow of the conversations around her reminded her of the worries that would fly around her own head.

    Eventually, she returned to the hotel, happy to have gone outside and relieve the feeling of being constantly stared at by cameras (even though she clearly still was) and revel in the anonymity that comes with walking in a large crowd. She was also now more determined than ever to talk to Howard and help him see the errors of his ways.

~~~

Maya’s Rehearsal

    “So, what do you think? Will I be the main focus enough?” Maya asked after having transformed the practice room into what she wanted the stage to look like on Saturday.

    “Well, it’ll certainly be eye-catching,” Howard smiled, walking around the room to get a look at the set from multiple angles, “and I must say that your set design is rather good. It definitely assists in drawing your eyes correctly.”

    “Thanks,” Maya blushed, “And you don’t think the act around it’s too corny?”

    “My dear, with the acts that I’ve performed for this show thus far, I believe we’re long past labeling tricks as corny,” Howard assured her, “If the trick is interesting and has good effects, then you could be a corn cob and people would enjoy it.”

    Maya made a gesture to make it look like she were genuinely considering the point, saying, “Well… Nah. It wouldn’t work. We’re nowhere near Harvest Season yet.”

    Howard let out a hearty chuckle at Maya’s wisecrack, grinning as he said, “Well, in that case we could always go for popcorn.” Maya felt a wave of heat wash over her head, the pressure increasing until her head popped off her body, transforming into a show of popcorn that littered the floor in seconds.

    Maya focused, a mouth forming where her neck should have been, grinning as it laughed along with Howard.

~~~

Outside of Howard’s Office

    The time was 6:55 pm. Sable had had dinner and was patiently waiting outside of Howard’s office, already planning out exactly what she was going to say to him. Her train of thought was interrupted, as Maya and Annette came out of the Golden Elevator nearby. “W-What are you two doing here?” she asked.

    “Please Sable,” Annette said, “like we were going to just let you go in and talk to Howard without some backup.”

    “Yeah,” Maya said, “We’re your friends! Besides, I have some words I want to say to Howard too.”

    “Okay,” Sable said, checking her watch again, “We’ll give Nora ten more minutes, but if she doesn’t show up, we’re going to go in and explain everything. Okay?”

    “Okay,” Maya and Annette said in unison.

    After ten more grueling minutes, in which the three contestants hardly shared any words, the three girls politely knocked on Howard’s door. Within seconds, Howard opened the door, looking outside and smiling, “Ah! Girls! What brings you here this evening?”

    “Howard,” Sable said, doing her best to contain herself, “We need to talk.”

    Howard, sensing his assistant’s apparent uneasiness opened the door further, allowing them to sit across from him.

    “So, what can I do for-“

    “Howard. It’s about Nora,” Sable interrupted, immediately throwing Howard off as his eyes opened wide.

    “N-Nora? I’m sorry but I don’t-“

    “Howard, you have to let Nora become an assistant,” Sable said dryly, “keeping her cooped up in a cage will only drive her away from you.”

    “I’m sorry girls, but I really don’t know what-“ Howard wasn’t interrupted by Sable, but rather the doors to his office slamming open. Standing in the doorway was Nora, who seemed to have cleaned herself up for the first time since the girls had me her. For starters, her long, messy black hair had been thoroughly washed, tied into a braid that reached almost to the small of her back. Secondly, she didn’t have a white blanket wrapped around herself, instead she was wearing a proper white dress.

    “Dad! We need to talk!” Nora said, walking into the room and through Howard’s desk, disappearing her lower half so that her upper half was essentially resting on the desk.

    “…Why hello there Ms. I’m afraid you must-“

    “Dad! They clearly know everything,” Nora said, sounding annoyed, “So please take this seriously!”

     “…Fine,” Howard said, sounding slightly exasperated, “Now what do you want, Nora? And please restore yourself, you know that I told you to stop practicing magic.”

     “I want you to let move out and become a magician’s assistant!” Nora said, refusing to morph back her lower half, “Just like I’ve been asking you since I turned eighteen!”

    “No,” Howard said plainly.

     “You can’t just say no! I’m a grown adult! You can’t keep treating me like I’m a five year old!” Nora’s tone was steadily increasing in intensity.

    “I can’t, in good consciousness, let you out into the world when I know you’re just going to sign with the first magician you see and potentially sign away your life and your magic.”

     “I can’t believe you!” Nora said, basically yelling in anger by this point, “If you’re so worried about my safety, why don’t you become my magician.”

     “W-well,” Howard said nervously, “It’s because… because… It’s not important. It’s because I said so, and that should be good enough for you.”

     “Ha! Look at this. The Great Howard Weiss scared by such an innocent question. Not even willing to give me a proper answer,” Nora hand walked her way around Howard’s desk. “And to think that Mom used to call you fearless.”

    “Do not bring your mother into this,” Howard said, suddenly turning very serious.

    “Or what?” Nora said, sensing that she had struck a nerve, “I remember what all your friends used to say about Mom! That she was one of the best assistants in the game!”

    “Shut up.”

    “That she used to think the world of you.”

    “I said shut up, Nora.”

    “That it was such a shame about what happened to her,” Drake had turned away, from Nora, “That they couldn’t believe you had to retire! After all, who’d ever be able to work in the industry again after they ki-“

     “Nora…”

    “What Dad are you going to silence me too-“

    “I SAID SHUT UP NORA!” Howard said, slamming his hand against the wall, the stone wall cracking and crumbling from the whole he had just punched. The sound of the impact had startled the girls, finally silencing Nora. Howard was openly crying at this point.

     “You weren’t there,” Howard cried, “Y-You have no idea what you’re talking about. I truly loved Elana! Do you think-“ Howard continued to cry, “Do you really think that I could ever. EVER. Do that to her.” Howard sobbed, “Of course, You weren’t there. None of you were there. Alright then. Here’s what happened!”

~~~

“Twenty Years Ago…”

    “When I was first starting out as a magician. I’ll fully admit that I was a rotten egg. I’d go around the strip, looking for girls who might have had too much to drink, were magic junkies, maybe even steal the occasional assistant from a greenhorn who had dreams of working with a large troupe, and I’d sign them on without any regards for their feelings.

    But Elana?

    She was different. I first met her busking with some no-name magician out on the street, the two managing to draw a massive crowd despite their clear inexperience. I could tell when I first met her that she was who I needed to elevate my act to the next level. So I tried my usual tactics and was thoroughly rejected. It turns out that to somebody as honest and kind as her, such schemes were powerless before her wake. When the tactics had ran out, I eventually resorted to begging for her to join me. And did you know what she said, ‘Release all your contracts and allow me to write the deal and I’ll consider.’

    It wasn’t even the next day when I had informed her of what I’d done.

     Elana… She… She made me a better person. Anytime that I started acting too cruel to my assistants, she was there, telling me to tone it down. I’d refuse to leave her in some prop or transformed state against her will, and she would remind me to give the same kindness to the rest of my new troupe. As part of her contract, she was responsible for handling any contracts I wanted to set up in the future. As such, I had unwillingly became one of the first advocates of proper assistant-magician contract negotiations.

     We would tour the country several times a year, always going to the same stops so that she could say hello to the friends she had made there. Eventually we expanded upon our routine, and within a decade I was officially recognized as a world-class magician. All the while, with Elana’s help we started designing tricks that would push the very boundary of performance magic.

     On the day of one of our most famous shows, where we performed our entire set without the assistance of any obscuration, I proposed. She turned me down. On the day of our twentieth anniversary tour, I proposed and was reject. It wasn’t until we had been touring for nearly forty-four years and had basically developed into a proper married couple that she finally accepted my proposal after we had performed at the opening of my first hotel.

     Of all my performances, that one was is still my favorite.

     …

     I still remember that day, as clearly as when it happened. It wasn’t at some big show. It was just a regular, routine tour stop. It wasn’t even the finale. We were demonstrating how, despite the props we used looking dangerous, everything was completely safe. We had one of my girls get eaten by piranhas, her skeleton magically restoring moments later. Another one we nailed to a post, and ripped her arms off, her smiling the whole time. And then…

     Elana’s part was always the showstopper. We'd set up a large pendulum saw, and slowly lowered it towards her neck.

      …

     I stopped it the very first second I saw blood.

     …

     We rushed her to a hospital.

     It… It turned out. That she was seven months pregnant, and from all the excess magic she had been experiencing, her body had what’s called a ‘magically induced pregnancy’. When that happens, the body rejects all magic to focus solely on giving birth… Meaning that when the pendulum had swung around…

     I had absolutely no idea that she was pregnant. She had been using magic to make herself appear thinner, and had not told anyone…

     It was truly a miracle of modern science and magic that they were even able to be save you Nora… Unfortunately by the time we arrived there…

     Of course, the press had a field day. And why wouldn’t they? To the rest of the world, it had appeared as though Howard Weiss had just killed his primary assistant and wife on stage. Despite many in the magic community understanding it was a freak accident, I was still arrested due to the high publicity of the case, although the charges didn’t end up sticking…

     I was never asked to retire… but I- I couldn’t perform again. I destroyed all of my props the night I was finally let go, and swore off all magic, that I would raise you without magic so as to prevent you from experiencing the same pain as I felt.”

~~~

Back in the Present

     “So… It’s true?” Nora asked, with tears in her eyes, “M-Mom…”

     “I still don’t know why she never told me,” Howard said, solemnly, “But everyday… all I can think about is what happened that day-“

     “Shut up!” Nora shouted, tears streaming down her face, “So you’ve kept me cooped up in this eternal prison as some sort of sick penance for your mistakes?”

     “Nora, I-“

     “Nora nothing!” Nora said furiously, maneuvering her body to hand walk off the desk, her legs instantly reappearing “I’m packing up! And then I’m moving out tomorrow! If you try and stop me, I’ll file a police report for unlawful kidnapping. Do NOT get in my way!” And in a moment, she was gone.

     Howard just slumped over at his desk. Too emotional to move, the three girls uncertain of how to respond to all of this new information. Eventually, Sable managed to ask, “H-Howard?”

     “Hm?”

     “If you swore off all magic… Why did you choose to host ANGA?”

     “Because,” Howard said, lying his head down on his desk, closing his eyes and getting the slightest hint of a smile back on his face, “When I saw David performing… I suddenly felt like… Maybe there was another way to ask for my wife’s forgiveness…”

     “The truth is… I know why Elana never told me she was pregnant…” the girls gave Howard a look of surprise as he continued, “But I could never tell Nora… Or she would leave even faster…” Howard sighed, before explaining, “It’s because… she loved to perform. She couldn’t stand the idea of wasting time on things other than performing, or practicing for a performance. If she had told me she was pregnant, she would have had to wait a whole seven months to perform again…” Howard's slight smile was waning, as tears were beginning to return to his eyes, “In truth… It hurts me beyond measurement to tell Nora she can’t perform… I look at her, and all I see is Elana’s face, begging for the opportunity to get back to work and hit the road again… But how can I, in good consciousness, after everything that’s happened-“ Howard sobs turned to weeping again.

     Sable got up, telling Howard, “Howard… Don’t beat yourself up… Let me try talking to Nora.” And like that she was gone. Annette and Maya, not really sure what else to do, went back to their bedrooms, leaving Howard to cry alone in his office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

& Question Corner &

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Producer’s Note: Due to the expectations that emotions would be high following the talk with Howard, the following questions were asked to contestants prior to that interaction.

     To Howard: "I swear! There was no bias and it meant to be something that I assume basic magician assistants are trained to do. I really thought they were capable, especially the type of stuff I had to do back in the day were more extreme. I'm very sorry if my standards were too high!” -Rei

     Don’t worry Rei. I did not mean to imply that you consciously rigged the competition. The challenge you set was fine for the expectations that I had of the contestants at this time. It was purely an unfortunate misunderstanding of your explanation that lead to Sable being highly advantaged in the competition. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

     To Sable: “No problem girl! Though it was kind of hard to convince Saffron to do this with me with her schedule and all.” -Rei

     Oh I imagine. After the challenge Ron was telling me about how Greg and her are almost constantly rehearsing for their next show so that they can get more experience. In many ways, I wish that I could have as much stamina as she seems to have.

     To Maya: “We do have a selection and a third party special programs of non-human heads. Just only an section. I tried, I really tried to find some new non-human heads. Especially for a trend that you may or may not have started. It started off with one person wanted a Monoeye head and now more people wanted one. Problem is that finding Monoeye heads are rare since not all of them are willing to lose their heads. Other magical creatures are a stretch as they are the ones often decapitating humans or their heads often go to a head shop in a fantasy world over mine! Those damn racist Goblins! Thinking that a human can't own a head shop! No offense to all goblins but those specific ones.” -Rei

     Oh wow! I never thought that my competing on ANGA would increase the demand for non-human heads! I guess in hindsight, with how I’ve seen others react to me being on the show, that makes some sense, but I think I’ll never get used to it.

     It’s great to hear that you’re ethical regarding your head collecting. I’ve heard horror stories of people getting their head abducted and never being able to get them back.

     To Annette: “Oh trust me, I already did. I let them watch every episode every day.” -Rei

     That’s great to hear! I hope they’re enjoying the show!

     To Maya and Annette specifically: “I do read my share of NBMonthly and now I'm excited for the next issue. You girls look great and hell, better than when I visited to model once. All to promote my shop and beauty. You got to admit that I am pretty. Though most of the modeling was heads only due to the theme of the month.” -Rei

     Annette: Oh Rei, I’m sure that if you were there, you would have absolutely stolen the show!

     Maya: You modeled Rei? I guess that makes sense since you’d be able to bring a ton of heads with you.

     To Bernice: “If you get this message, hey girl! How you hanging?! Heads here love your work as always. Some like to join, even the new faces.” -Rei

     I’m been hanging pretty well. The contracts aren’t as close together as they seemed to be when I first became a reporter, so I always enjoy the opportunity to do a photoshoot like this. If you’ve got some heads who have some experience modeling, one of NBMonthly’s advertisers is looking for some heads to model their make-up, and I’d be sure to submit a good word on your behalf.

     To Sable: “Feel free to call me Izzy. It's more familiar than Lyn and I used to be called that as a child. I do await the day that your family takes me in. Though today, you seemed troubled. Please speak your mind to me to my apprentice.” -Isilynor

     Alright Izzy! I’m mostly troubled because I really see what happened to my family happening to Howard’s and I don’t want him to become like my Dad. When Mom died… my Dad changed. And not for the better… Sorry, I don’t want to go into it here. I’ll tell you more when you’re properly introduced to the family.

     To Annette and Maya: “To be compared to a wolf disgust me. Especially since I used to often hunt them. I assume that it's just human customs. Where I'm from, we use the mythical beasts tigers instead. Though tigers seem mundane in this world. I do wish for the best for you two regardless and that you will make me proud.” -Isilynor

     Annette: Thanks!

     Maya: Interesting to hear that tigers were seen as mythical creatures back then. I’m sure there are a ton of interesting pre-humanity stories that you could tell.

     To Annette, Maya, Natasha: “Wow, that photoshoot was a blast to the past. I remember submitting to that myself when NBMonthly was still an up and coming magazine. I might still have the pics somewhere, though I didn't manage to do all of them, because life as an assistant is ever-busy, and you may be called away at any time to do some ISAG business.

     Were there any particular highlights from your shoot? Any photos you think turned out particularly well, themes that caught your attention, or just anything novel that happened during the day? Did you manage to see the old pics that were sent in?” -@@WanderTones

     Natasha: I mean, who really managed to do them all Penny? I remember a ton of people from back then who only got out a couple of photos. It was just unreasonable to expect people to take that many pictures in a month.

     Annette: Well, I definitely had the most fun doing the ‘Animals Interacting with Heads’ photo. Mainly because I got to have a bunch of adorable puppies running around me the entire time!

     Maya: Speak for yourself. They thought it would be a good idea to put birds in my shot, and they kept trying to peck at my eye. It’s a lot harder to stop that when the target is so much bigger!

     Annette: There was another interesting new category that didn’t make it into the final episode, which was ‘Head Powered Robots’. I was basically attached to a terminator styled body.

     Maya: Oh yeah! That was a fun one! My robot was sort of like mechanical legs that actually worked!

     Natasha: And mine was more like a rock’em sock’em robot, complete with extending neck.

     Maya: Oh! And Bernice did show us some photos to get some inspiration for some of the pictures.

     Annette: Yeah! It was so cool to see the pictures that you and Jessica submitted! You both looked so young!

     Maya: Not to mention, it was pretty shocking when we found out that you actually took a couple of photos with Bernice!

     Annette: She said that she still keeps a copy of one of them in her wallet!

     To Annette and Maya: The Photo shoot reminded me of back home, my best friend’s mom and my mom, taking part in a similar contest. I was a bad girl during one of the challenges and got as spanking. lol but I learned my lesson well.

     Anyway I'd like to invite all of you to my movie premiere, including ANGA's first season contestants, You'll be sitting in the same row as me, and the after party should be quite the event too. But you'll have to RSVP for that. Invitations in the mail.” -Genie Schutter.

     Maya: I’m assuming that the rest of the cast from our season are invited too? Right?

     Annette: Of course she would invite them too, I’m certain it just slipped her mind to mention.

     Maya: In that case, I’d absolutely love to come! I’ve never been to a movie premiere before!

     Annette: Count me in as well!