The girls woke up relatively early in the morning thanks to the blast of the USS Potomac’s fog horn. They had all slept rather well, so after checking in with one another, the contestants decided to grab breakfast.

     Much like any other normal hotel, the dining room was an open air affair, with tables sparsely placed so that people wouldn’t have to deal with one another, the occasional piece of foliage added some much needed color to the room. Breakfast was served buffet style, the four girls (Dahlia having separated to Dawn and Julia last night) grabbed what they wanted and found a secluded enough spot to drink their coffee and wake up.

     Shockingly enough, who should decide to enter the dining car at that exact moment then Drake Bordignon, wearing a Hawaiin shirt and swim trunks. He spotted the girls at their table, walking over and smiling, “Ah! Girls! Glad to see you all are getting an early start. Would you mind if I grabbed breakfast with you four?”

     The girls seemed a little confused by Drake’s lack of formality, but Paxton said, “Sure Drake…”

     “Great! Let me just go grab some food,” After a few minutes at the buffet, Drake came back, his plate rather sparse, just a banana, a bagel with cream cheese, and a coffee. “So, did you girls sleep well?”

     More confusion swept around the table at Drake’s odd behavior. Dawn spoke up, “Well, Julia and I were a little confused suddenly waking up in a completely different bedroom. However Dahlia’s diary did an excellent job of catching us up to speed.”

     “Wait,” Kacie asked, “Dahlia keeps a diary?”

     Julia nodded, squeezing Dawns hand as Dawn explained, “Yep. Since we don’t really know what Dahlia gets up to when we’re merged, she tries to make us one every night so that we know what she did during the day. It’s why she chose Julia’s magic camcorder as one of her personal item.”

     “Oh! Speaking of personal items,” Kacie turned towards Paxton, “Paxton, what did you choose? I know I chose my DJ equipment.”

     Paxton blushes, looking away, “It-… It’s pretty stupid.”

     “Oh come on. I bet it’s fine.”

     Paxton continues to blush, “I brought my sketchbook… Even though I haven’t really had time to use it much.”

     Julia smiles, outstretching her hand and placing it on Paxton’s own for a brief moment. The quiet girl stuttered, “T-that sounds l-lovely… I’m sure y-you’re a great artist.”

     Paxton blushes further, sinking into her seat a little bit, “Thanks Julia… although I’m just okay.”

     Drake smiled at the conversation going on, keeping quiet until a lull had been entered, “It seems like you girls are getting along great,” he commented, “Do you girls have anything exciting planned for today?”

     “Julia and I were thinking of going to the Smithsonian Museum of Magical Performance to allow Dahlia the chance to get some inspiration,” Dawn answered, reaching over and giving Julia a kiss on the cheek, causing the tiny redhead to turn nearly as red as her hair. “Of course, if either of you wish to join us, you’re free to do so.”

     “Ooh, that sounds like a good idea,” Paxton said, “I think I’ll come along- If that’s okay anyways.” Dawns nod of approval put Paxton a bit more at ease.

     “I’ve actually got rehearsal with Martin today,” Kacie grinned, “but thanks for the offer, if you’re still there when we finish up, I might try and catch up with you two.”

     “I’m pretty sure that Melody’s actually heading over that way later today,” Drake scratched his chin, “It’s her first time in DC too. I’ll see if she has any interest in joining you girls.”

     The conversation moved along to other topics, Drake seeming to take an unusual interest in how the girls were doing, although none of them addressed it. Eventually though, breakfast was finished, and the girls were about to head their own ways.

     “Um… Kacie,” Drake said, just as the group was about to split up, “would you mind staying here for a bit. I need to tell you something… alone.”

     Now that Kacie was singled out, she suddenly felt apprehensive. The other girls shot her a concerned look, but Kacie waved them away, “I’ll be fine. You girls can go on ahead.” Paxton and Dawn nodded, Julia silently staring at Kacie with a concerned look on her face, still looking back even as Dawn lightly took her hand and led her away.

     “So… I didn’t want to tell you this in front of the other girls,” Drake whispered, clearly apprehensive about what he was about to say, “but… there was a ruling decided among the producers…”

     “Am I being kicked off the show,” Kacie sounded horrified, her mind immediately jumping to the worst possible scenario.

     “No!” Drake responded quickly, even chuckling a little bit, “No! Sorry.” If Drake was a hugger, he probably would have, but unfortunately the best he could do is give her a light pat on the shoulder. “No. It’s nothing that serious. Sorry for making it seem like that. You’ve not done anything wrong.”

     Kacie still seemed shaken, but at least a little less so, “Okay… So what is it then?”

     “The producers voted, and decided that they consider Tetra fulfills enough criteria to be classified as a prop,” Drake said, “You won’t be allowed to perform with her on this week.”

     Kacie’s mood seemed to immediately drop at this news, even more so than when she thought she was getting kicked off the show, “B-But… Tetra’s just a head…”

     “A magically charged head,” Drake said, “I personally voted against it. I’m sorry Kacie, but I was overruled on this one. I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with something amazing without her.”

     Kacie was despondent, her mood the worst it had been all season. “O-“ she didn’t even bother to finish her thought. “I-“ She was visibly having difficulty processing this development.

     Drake, fighting against his nature, gave Kacie a hug, the Asian girl completely frozen in place, “I know… I thought you might get this way… Listen. You’ve got a few hours until your rehearsal with Martin. Why don’t you go lie down? See if that helps?”

     Kacie didn’t respond, her face remaining completely downtrodden and frozen as she headed away from the dining car almost mechanically, Drake following behind at a safe distance to make sure that she made it to her room safely.

~~~

Smithsonian Museum of Magical Performance (Early Afternoon)

     The Smithsonian Museum of Magical Performance resembled many of the other more modern museums that fell under the Smithsonian umbrella. Which is to say, it looked completely different from every other museum in the set. From the outside, the building was designed to resemble a zig zag cabinet, being composed of three parts made of black marble, the middle part of this multi-story building somehow extending outwards, seemingly supported by nothing but the edge that lined up with the other parallel parts of the building.

     Shockingly enough, despite the whimsical nature of the outside of the building, the inside was rather bog standard for what you’d expect from a museum (at least on the first floor). The floor space for the first floor was divided up into three pathways with magical artifacts relating to stage magic blocked off from the public thanks to some glass barriers. A ‘red carpet’ painted into the marble winded its way through up through one of these pathways, down the middle, and then back through the third one to lead to a staircase that led upwards. If you followed the carpet from the museum’s entrance, it would take you through the artifacts in chronological order, but the floor space allowed you to cut through at certain intersections.

     A nearby sign explained how the museum worked. The lowest third of the building being dedicated to ‘A Brief History of Magic Performance’. The middle third was probably the most interesting section of the building, seeing as how it advertised the interactive exhibits on offer. Finally, the upper most section of the building seemed to be composed of two floor spaces that had a rotating schedule of exhibits. This month, it seemed that the two exhibits on offer were ‘Harry Houdini and the Art of Escapism’ and ‘ANGA Artifacts’ a little blurb telling people informing people of the start date of season 3 seeming to indicate this exhibit had been up for a couple of months by this point.

     As Dahlia stared intently at an Iron Maiden, Paxton struck up a conversation with Melody. “So, Steve seems like a pretty interesting magician to work for.”

     “Oh yeah,” Melody smiled, watching as Dahlia smooshed her face up closer to the glass, “Steve’s definitely one of the most interesting magicians I’ve ever met."

     “What’s it like being his assistant?” Paxton asked, a grin crossing her face as Dahlia’s head flattens a little as she continues to try and get a closer look.

     “Oh, I’m not Steve’s assistant,” Melody said matter of factly.

     Paxton blushed, “Oh sorry… I just assumed since you two performed yesterday…” Paxton trailed off, as Dahlia slowly peeled her head off from the glass, her head reinflating back to its normal proportions.

     “Don’t worry,” Melody smiled, “I’m actually not an assistant at all, really.”

     “Really?” Paxton said, sounding shocked.

     “Yeah. I did help Steve out a couple of times a few years ago when he needed an assistant for a few stray shows, but otherwise I just don’t really have any interest performing on the stage,” Melody shrugs. “Steve’s much more the ‘asking for volunteers from the audience’ type. I’m pretty sure he only asked me along this time because he was worried it would be weird to show up to a show focusing on assistants without one.”

     Paxton nods, Dahlia having moved onto the next thing that had caught her eye, which seemed to be a set of little magic themed action figures. “So wait… What do you do for a living then? If you don’t mind me asking.”

     Melody smiles, “Oh, it’s no worries. I work for this startup called Black Pine Industries. It’s focused on trying to link magic and technology together to do some pretty cool things. Like here,” Melody grinned, as she gripped around her wrist, pulling the skin up like a shirt sleeve, revealing a complex set of spinning gears and pistons in a metal chassis that move around as she wiggled her fingers.

     “Oh wow!” Paxton said, staring at the robotic arm in wonder as Melody continued to pull her skin upwards.

     “Yeah. That’s pretty cool,” Melody smiled, “but this is what I really wanted to show you,” she bunched up her skin at her elbow, grabbing her robotic arm and rotating it counter clockwise, pulling it off with ease and revealing a black metal ring wrapped around the end of her arm. “Go ahead, touch it,” She grinned, offering her stump to Paxton.

     Paxton hesitantly reached forward, pulling her back almost instantly as her finger seemed to disappear into the ring. “W-what is that?”

     “So, the lab techs say it’s something called a Kryser Band. Basically, you use your magic reserves to feed in a teleport spell, and what it does it it constantly sends the spell through a series of relays that manage to continuously renew the spell with eighty percent efficiency. Effectively creating a portal that costs the user nothing to maintain,” Melody beamed as she shared this information.

     “Wow!" Paxton said in awe.

     “Yeah. We’re still working out a few things right now, like what happens when the spell eventually does fizzle out, but otherwise progress has been going great. And being one of the first to test all this stuff out is pretty exciting,” Melody grins as she reattaches her robot arm in the reverse manner to how she had removed it.

     “I’ll bet,” Paxton said. In the background, Dahlia was having another staring contest with yet another prop box.

~~~

Kacie’s Rehearsal

     “Kacie?” Martin asked, knocking on Kacie’s door. “Kacie, rehearsal started fifteen minutes ago.” No noise came from the other side of the door, as Martin stared at it intently. “Kacie, Paige already told me you’re in there. Please open up.” The door unlocked, and Martin walked into Kacie’s room.

     Kacie’s cabinet was rather small for a hotel room, but still rather impressive as far as cruise-ship rooms are concerned. Kacie was sitting on her bed, next to her, she had her packed suitcase and DJ equipment. She had her head detached in her lap, and from her puffy eyes, she had clearly been crying.

     “Kacie,” Martin said shocked, rushing over to sit next to her on the bed, bending over so that he could look into her eyes, “What’s wrong, dear?”

     “I’m- I’m sorry Martin,” Kacie sobbed, “I’m q-quitting the show.”

     “Kacie,” Martin’s voice was filled with genuine concern, “is this because you can’t perform with Tetra?” Kacie didn’t bother talking, tears flowing from her eyes once more as she nodded up and down. “Why can’t you perform with Tetra dear? Do you have stage fright?”

     “N-No!” Kacie sobbed. “It’s cause…” Kacie mumbled something incoherent.

     “I’m sorry, why?” Martin asked, “I couldn’t hear you.”

     “Because…” again Kacie mumbled her reasoning.

     “Kacie, I know it’s tough,” Martin gave her a reassuring hug, “but I’m your magician. You can tell me anything. It’ll be okay.”

     “It’s because!” Kacie sounded frustrated, “It’s because I’m a terrible performer. Tetra’s the one with all of the talent!”

     Martin looked bewildered, “W-What?”

     “Back in college,” Kacie sobbed, “I wanted to see… If maybe I could finally take Tetra off. Maybe see what it would have been like to become DJ Kacie..” She sobbed some more, blubbering, “B-B-But… When I got up on stage… It was like I suddenly forgot everything… I- I had practiced the same set for years! And I could barely figure out how to get a track playing… The audience got mad at me- Demanding Tetra come out- And- And- I didn’t know what else to do… I stuck around for two more songs, but the audience just kept booing…. and so one head swap later, and everyone was happy again.”

     “Kacie,” Martin said.

     “Nobody wants to see Kacie!” Kacie sobbed, “She’s just a failure! If I go out there on Saturday… Everyone’s going to hate me! Better to just leave now while I still have my dignity…”

     “Kacie,” Martin said, “You and I both know that Tetra’s still just you. She might look different, but it’s still you at the core.”

     “Then why is she so much better than me!?” Kacie sobbed.

     “Kacie, all of Tetra’s achievements are your own,” Martin consoled her, “You would not have been able to make it this far in the competition if you didn’t have such wonderful ideas.”

     “No. Those were all Tetra’s,” Kacie asserted, still sobbing, “I’m just a loser who borrows her body… I’ve thought about trading my head away… letting Tetra fully take over… Maybe Drake would let her perform instead of me if I did.”

     “Kacie,” Martin was assertive, still hugging the poor girl, “stick with me. Look me in the eyes,” Martin stood up from the bed, plucking Kacie's head from her lap and staring at her intently. “You cannot beat yourself up about this. You’re letting one bad experience consume the years and years of hard work and effort you’ve put in. It could have been for any number of reasons that that day went poorly. Maybe you were nervous, maybe the audience were filled with drunk jerks, I don’t know, and I’m afraid unless we crack time travel, I’ll never know. What I do know, is that I’m your magician, and that you are an incredibly talented assistant, with a wonderfully creative mind and an excellent taste in music. Not Tetra. You Kacie.”

     Kacie sobbed, trying to look anywhere but in Martin’s eyes as he continued, “I didn’t select you to become my assistant because of Tetra. I selected you because you had the spark Kacie. The one that all great assistants have, that shows a profound appreciation for how lucky we are to have magic. And I know that you can share that spark with the world, even without Tetra.”

     “I’ve already failed you once Kacie. Please… Please don’t let me fail you again,” Martin kneeled on the floor, holding Kacie's head in her lap, gently squeezing . “Please don’t quit the show. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you comfortable to perform before Saturday.”

     Kacie’s crying had calmed down a bit, allowing her to reflect on Martin’s plea. She remained quiet, the two of them silently staying there in her bedroom. Eventually, she mustered up a shaky breath.

     “Okay…”

~~~

Smithsonian Museum of Magical Performance (Late Afternoon)

     The girl’s time on the second floor of the museum was shockingly uninteresting. Yes, there was quite a bit of magic that was done. The second floor was packed with a large variety of classic performance cabinets. However, there were also a lot of tourists interested in getting the chance to experience the thrill that assistants felt up on stage, so each item practically had a line of three to fifteen people waiting for their turn depending on the popularity of the cabinet.

     And that would have been fine for the girls, if there were any unique cabinets, but unfortunately, it seemed like the museum was content with providing the bare bones version of the tricks with no fancy variation or twists. They had guillotines, boxes to cut assistants in half, mismades, disembodied princess, zig zags, twisters, etc, but nothing the girls hadn’t seen before.

     So, the girls had only stuck around on that floor for a bit, watching as strangers had their friends shove the cardboard blades into each other (which was another downside to the girls. While it made sense from a safety standard, cardboard left a rather strange feeling cutting through the body as opposed to metal), the girls had made their way up to the third floor, and were checking out the ANGA exhibit.

     The exhibit split its showroom space into two sections, one devoted to the first season, while the other was to the second. They featured such artifacts as the performance outfits used by both David Angel and Howard Weiss, timelines showing off significant events prior to, and a little after ANGA for the participants of the season, and little biographies for each contestant.

     “You know… I bet Natalie really would have gotten a kick out of this section,” Paxton told Dahlia, as they watched a TV that was streaming the ‘Long Lost Audition Tapes from Season 1’. Melody was reading about the history of magic on Channel 17 prior to ANGA.

     Dahlia nodded, “She also would be terrified by not being able to use props.” The video swapped over from Holil’s audition tape to Ophelia’s, the goth girl mixing some sort of potion inside of a cauldron.

     “I’m sure she would have done fine,” Paxton said, watching intently, before asking nervously “Do you think people are going to remember us as fondly?”

     Dahlia shrugged, “We don’t know… There’s not really much a reason to worry about that though… What’s important is doing the best we can and hoping that others can appreciate it,” she smiled at Paxton.

     Paxton seemed touched, but still said, “I’ve just been thinking… it’s really only now setting in my mind that I have a shot of maybe winning… And I’m nervous… because I know that it’s not like the earlier episodes just disappear,” she waved around at the exhibit, “Thousands of people are going to go back and pick this season with a fine tooth comb… and I’ve got to wonder what sort of story does my time on ANGA tell?”

     Dahlia nodded, “We know what you mean. And you’re right. It is scary. But don’t worry, it’s not a journey you have to make alone,” Dahlia hugs Paxton, “We’re all in this together, telling one story, along one road, to one ending. And when we look back on the road to get there, we’ll wonder what we were so worried about.”

     The episode ends as Paxton returns Dahlia’s hug, surrounded by ANGA’s legacy.

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

& Question Corner &

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

To the Girls: “Thank you girls, you warm my heart, and even though I got hospitalized, I didn't tell, because I knew how it would affect your performances and give Drake for sure an heart attack. Especially when you mentioned to him to come back to Germany to rather spend time with me. I really appreciate that, but you have a much more exciting career awaiting you.

So it's better that way and guess what, I will be fit and well enough to meet up with you at the grande finale and the aftershow party. Maybe you girls can do a trick or two with me as your Assistant. If Drake isn't again the party crasher by that point.

Wish you a wonderful time in DC and hope to see much more amazing development. By the way, Rachel, Olive and Natalie texted me, telling me to tell you that you better keep your act up. I won't reply what was said exactly, since you know we are still a Family Friendly show.

Anyway, long story short, I'm proud of you girls. And that's a special thing.” -Andrea (@@Jeaune)

 Dahlia: “We certainly will have a great time when we meet again Andrea, It would be our pleasure to perform some magic with you. As for the former contestants, We will continue to be ourselves, which is all that we’ve been thus far.”

 Paxton: Paxton smiles, “Well of course we would worry about you, Andrea! You care so much about us, after all. Our friendship’s really important to me, and I’d rather maintain that than lose out on it because I’m too busy focusing on something like a job opportunity. I’d totally be down to do some magic with you, although I think it probably would be best if you were the one doing some magic on me,” Paxton blushes, “Tell the girls I say hi, and that I definitely will be bringing my A game!”

 Kacie: Kacie seems rather tire, managing a light smile as she says, “Thanks for the kind words Andrea… I definitely hope we’ll be able to meet again someday.”