"This looks like a good private spot for a chat," Violet said as we pulled off the country road and into a small unpaved parking lot.

  We'd travelled south about a half dozen kilometres, and now we were at some nature preserve in the middle of nowhere. Apart from room to park a couple cars there was nothing else around, not even a visitor centre. There was just a sign, identifying the pce and listing all the stuff you weren't allowed to do there.

  Honestly I was surprised we hadn't been stopped, or even chased by police. Considering we were a pair of petite teenage girls riding that big bike without helmets, I was positive it looked like we'd stolen the thing and were taking it for a joyride.

  Meanwhile Violet put down the kickstand and killed the engine, then waited until I got off before dismounting it herself.

  I moved a couple paces away before asking uneasily, "Are we going to fight again? Or can we talk first?"

  "Talk first," the other magical girl replied. "So Rosie, tell me what you know about the ring? Where'd you get it, how long have you had it?"

  I hesitated, on the one hand I wasn't sure how much I should trust her since she was trying to murder me only a few minutes earlier. But on the other hand I was hoping we could be allies, maybe even friends. And if I wanted her to trust me, I knew it'd help a lot if I showed her some trust first.

  "My name's not Rosie," I reminded her. Then I continued, "I only found the ring four days ago. It was Friday afternoon, when I got home from school..."

  I didn't go into all the details, but I gave her a shortened expnation of how I found it in our mailbox then accidentally triggered it. I told her how my friends and I did some experimenting with it Saturday night, then told my mom about it on Sunday. I didn't mention anything about being trans or how it changed my non-magical body, and skipped the whole thing with Ellie and Harper timing my changes and working on theories about the ring.

  After a few minutes I got to the end, "Then st night at work two guys jumped me and tried to steal the ring, but my friends turned up and saved me. And today mom decided we should all skip school, she took us out to do some shopping and stuff instead."

  Violet nodded slowly as she listened. Then after I finished she had one more question, "Sorry if this is awkward, but my information told me that your mom had a boy and a girl? But you mentioned your mom and a sister. Do you have a brother as well? Or...?"

  My cheeks coloured as I realized I wasn't going to be able to hide that stuff after all. I sighed and shook my head, "That was kind of true, but not anymore. I just came out the other day."

  "Ah," the other magical girl responded. Then she said to herself, "Just like the original Rosa. I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

  I was definitely surprised to hear that. I asked, "Did you know her? The first pink magical girl, I mean? Do you know the others too?"

  "Just how old do you think I am?" she ughed. Her expression quickly became serious again as she shook her head, "The original Rosa died forty-five years ago, when your family murdered her for her ring. All I know about her is from stories. And yeah, I know there's others. We all have code-names based on our colours. Lily's the white ring, Azura's blue, and Peri's green. I'm Violet, and you're Rosa."

  Before I could ask more about that she was back on the other subject again, "So I take it the ring did more than just give you the pink outfit? I saw what you looked like before you used it, that's not the look of a trans girl who only just came out the other day."

  My cheeks stayed as pink as my bustier as I nodded, "Yeah. It's uh, there's more to it than that? But that's why my mom took us shopping, I kind of needed a new wardrobe."

  Violet smiled, "Nice. It's too bad we can't find that kind of magic to help more trans girls."

  "Yeah," I nodded slowly. "So um, are you new to this stuff too? Or how'd you learn how to use your ring? And do they have other powers, like more than the magical weapons and stuff?"

  Her expression became serious again, and it looked like she was trying to decide whether or not she trusted me enough to answer those questions. It took her a couple seconds before she replied, "I've had a few years to get used to it. Got my ring from my ma, and she taught me a bit about it. Not everything mind you, she wanted me to figure out a lot of it for myself."

  The two of us ended up having a few more rounds of questions back and forth, like she asked what I knew about my family so I told her some of what mom told us in the car earlier. Then I asked her if she knew where the rings came from, which she didn't. She only knew the first five magical girls turned up in the fifties to save the world, which I knew was going to make Ellie flip when she found out her conspiracy theory was actually true.

  "You said you think your grandmother's up to something, any idea what it is?" Violet asked next.

  I shook my head, "No, like I said I don't know what my mom's family are doing. All I know is my grandmother is going away for the summer, allegedly on a research project for the university where she teaches. She'll be away from phones and internet for a month or more."

  The magical girl looked thoughtful as she considered that. Then she finally sighed, "Ok this is way more than I can deal with on my own. All I was here for was to get that ring out of your family's clutches, but obviously that's not an issue after all."

  "And no I can't tell you who sent me or where I got my information or anything along those lines," she continued. "Not yet anyways. That may well change though, considering you're obviously one of us."

  She grimaced as she added, "Sorry for the whole trying to kill you thing. I was sent to recover the ring at any cost, and knowing how your family got their hands on it in the first pce I wasn't feeling all that merciful. I hope you understand."

  "I guess," I nodded slowly. "I'm just gd you've stopped."

  After another pause she decided, "We may as well shift back to our civilian forms. Oh and by the way, it's never a good idea to transform where your enemies can see you. Now those guys know both your civilian identity and that you're also Rosa. Nothing we can do about it now, but you're going to need to keep watching your back."

  My gut lurched, "They might try and get me through my family, or my friends. What do I do?"

  She shrugged, "Sounds like they already know who your family and friends are. For that matter it's your own family that's behind all this in the first pce? But just keep it in mind for the future."

  "Right," I sighed.

  The purple magical girl nodded once more, then she gave her ring a twist. There was another fsh of purple light, and I found myself blinking at the complete stranger suddenly standing in front of me.

  Instead of the petite teenaged girl in the purple mini-skirt and bustier I was looking up at a tall woman in her mid-twenties. Or at least she seemed tall compared to me. She was probably about a hundred and seventy centimetres, which was at the upper end of average.

  Her vender purple hair was now a dark fiery red, and her dark blue eyes had become bright emerald green. Instead of the magical outfit she was wearing tight bck pants, knee-high bck riding boots, a white silk blouse, and a leather riding jacket hung open ontop of all that. And she was now holding a bck open-faced helmet in her left hand.

  About the only thing that was vaguely familiar about her was her hair style, which was still kind of short and messy. I also recognized the ring she wore on her right hand, like mine it had shifted to 'bck gold' now that she wasn't in her magical-girl form.

  The young woman smiled at me as she introduced herself, "The name's Fiona Jones, from Lndudno."

  I blinked at her, "Fiona, from cn what? Are you Scottish?"

  "Oh please," she scoffed as she rolled her eyes. "Welsh, not Scots. Lndudno is a little seaside town in north Wales."

  "Oh," I grimaced. "Sorry."

  Then I twisted my own ring, and after the fsh of light I was back to being my normal non-magical girl self. I was still wearing my leggings and oversized hoodie, with my new purse over my shoulder and everything. And unlike Fiona I was still a petite eighteen-year-old.

  "I'm Bke Palmer," I added, "From a little vilge in the middle of nowhere, Ontario."

  Fiona smiled, "Nice to meet you kid."

  "So um, how come you look so different in this form? I'm basically the same person either way, apart from my hair and eyes," I asked.

  She ughed as she shook her head, and I couldn't help noticing she had a very pretty ugh.

  "Believe me Bke you look very different as a magical girl," she expined. "You might not notice it as much yourself, but I'll bet your friends and family do."

  I was about to argue that when I realized they had made a few comments about how different I looked. And for that matter I'd noticed some things in the mirror myself, like how my non-magical girl face had a family resembnce to my original form.

  "Huh," I said to myself. Then I focused on Fiona again and asked, "So are all the magical girls originally from Engnd?"

  She made a face, "Wales isn't Engnd. And no, we don't all come from there. We come from all over."

  "Sorry," I grimaced again.

  We were both quiet for a few seconds after that, and the silence stretched out just long enough to make it feel awkward.

  I finally asked, "So um, I guess this means the fighting's over? We're not enemies anymore, right? Does that mean we're friends?"

  Fiona smiled, "Jury's still out on friends, but you're right that we aren't enemies. Maybe allies? I don't know yet."

  "Ok," I nodded slowly. "So what next?"

  The redhead seemed to consider that for a moment. Then she sat down on her bike and made a welcoming gesture, "I suppose I should give you a lift somepce, instead of leaving you out here in the middle of nowhere? I can take you home if you like, assuming you trust me enough to tell me where you live."

  I gave her a quizzical look as I asked, "Don't you already know that? I figured you'd have been spying on my family or something. How'd you find us anyways?"

  "Hardly!" she ughed. "I only just arrived in Canada yesterday. I knew roughly where to look and who to look for, but that's it. I only picked up your trail when you passed through Markdale."

  That surprised me, and left me with a bunch more questions. Like who sent her, or how she knew where to look, or why she came here now. She must have noticed the curious expression on my face because she spoke up again before I could ask.

  "Sorry Bke," she apologized. "Like I said before, I'm not at liberty to tell you how I knew where to be or what to look for. Not right now anyways."

  I sighed but nodded slowly. That still left me with one other question though, "If you've only been here for a day, where'd you get the bike? Or can you rent bikes, same as cars?"

  She shrugged, "I dunno, there's probably pces you can rent them? I didn't have time to mess around though so I just stole it."

  "I know it would have been easier and less conspicuous to rent a car," she added, "But I much prefer to ride. And speaking of riding, if you don't want me to take you home then how about I give you a lift back into that town we just left? Then you can make arrangements to meet up with your friends or family."

  It took me a couple seconds to get my head around her casually admitting to stealing the bike. That and how willing she seemed to fight me and those men and even my mom left me wondering if all magical girls were so brazen, or if it was just her. Then again, being a magical girl meant she was kind of invincible, and she'd had a few years to get used to the idea.

  A moment ter my thoughts shifted back to mom and Amelia and my friends, and I suddenly grimaced as I dug my phone out. "They're probably all freaking out right now worrying about me. I have to let them know I'm ok."

  Unfortunately the nature reserve was isoted enough that there wasn't any signal, so I couldn't text or call anyone to let them know I was ok. Or make sure they were ok too.

  "I'm definitely going to need a lift," I sighed. "No bars here, I can't contact anyone."

  "So where do you want me to take you? Home? Or back to town?" Fiona asked.

  I gave her a hopeful look, "Can we get to a main road or somepce there's a signal, then I can find out where they are and figure out where we can meet?"

  Fiona smiled and nodded, "Sure kid, hop on. We'll head back towards the town, that's probably the closest pce we can be sure there's service."

  "Thanks," I smiled back as I moved to get on the bike behind her. Then I hesitated, "What about a helmet? I guess you only have the one?"

  She was just about to put it on herself, but she offered it to me instead, "Yeah I didn't pn for passengers. You can use it if you're worried. Or I suppose you can go pink again, if you'd feel safer that way."

  It took me a second or two to decide, then I slipped my purse off and put it on the ground next to me before activating my ring. Fiona just nodded and put on her helmet, while I picked up my purse and slung it across from my right shoulder to my left hip.

  She started the motor as I climbed onto the back of the bike, then once I had my arms around her waist we pulled out of the little parking area.

  PurpleCatGirl