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Mads was in fact home, but she was upstairs with her headphones in, and Mason was downstairs trying to assemble something that resembled ‘lunch’ for the pair of them. He was finding little success, and when there came a knock from the door, he wondered if Mads had taken pity on him and ordered something for delivery to save him from whatever dietary monstrosity he was about to produce.

He peeked through the peephole - safety first! - and raised his eyebrows, then opened the door.

“Tiff?” Mason said, blinking in surprise at his younger cousin, standing there on their doorstep like she belonged there. He hadn’t seen her in - man, how long had it been, actually? - but the McCarthy looks were strong in her, and they always recognized their own. “Are you okay? Oh my god, did you run away from home?” Mason’s eyes went wide. He’d heard about this sort of thing happening, but he thought that only happened on TV! “Come in, come in–” he turned his head away to bellow up the stairs: whatever crisis was occurring (and surely it was a crisis, because what other reason would Tiffany have to just roll up like this?) would absolutely be better handled by his sister. “MADS. MADS CAN YOU COME DOWN HERE. MADS!”

There was yelling. That was never a good sign. Her own name filtered into her ears over her music - could she not get one break?? - and Madeline sighed, slipped her headphones out of her ears, rolled them neatly up and slid the clasp around the cords to keep them in place, then made her way downstairs. She heard other voices now too - sounded like a girl, but not Halia, which meant…

…

…

Who else did they even know, or at least well enough to bring into the house? She’d have to give Mason a refresher course on stranger-danger–

And then she rounded the corner and saw something much, much worse than a stranger.

She saw a Senshi. In her living room.

“Whatareyoudoing!!!” Madeline screeched, at a pitch that made the neighbor’s dog perk up its ears. “Change back, change back!”

“Mads–” Mason tried, but Madeline was already yelling, and he winced. He’d been too gobsmacked to say anything before she got here, his brain simply refusing to process the scene that lay before him. There was no way that Tiff–that his baby cousin was magical. There was just no way. So whatever it was that was happening here was…clearly something else. But his brain couldn’t come up with any other even remotely plausible explanations, so it just shut down, at least until Mads started screaming.

“Mads!” Mason shouted over the din. “It’s Tiffany!” He barely remembered to keep his voice down - any youma or Nega-creeps that were approaching didn’t need to know her civilian name. Oh God, she had a civilian name now, oh God, they were so monumentally f–

“Language!” Madeline managed, in spite of the fact that Mason hadn’t said anything remotely objectionable out loud. She hadn’t needed the telepathy earring the two of them wore to know what Mason was thinking - but it did help on the specifics. “Did you just say–that this is–”

Madeline turned her attention back to the Senshi, mouth dropping open in surprise again. “Titi?” Madeline said, no less shocked but about a hundred times more aghast. “Oh my God.” Madeline blinked and then shook her head abruptly - someone had to be the grownup here, and as per usual, it would have to be her.

“Okay! Okay! Okay. Okay. This is–this is awesome. I can’t believe this. I–we’re–can you change back real quick for me? It’s–it’s dangerous to stay like that. Bad guys can, like, sense it and I would really rather not have bad guys break through my windows right now.” That would be all she needed. A Youma invasion that was trying to eat her little cousin. Just fantastic.

“We–Mason and I–believe it or not, we’re part of–of this–” she gestured to the get-up Tiffany wore, “--but a sort of different part. We can explain everything to you–” Mason raised his eyebrows at this, and she ignored him, “--but first I really need you to change back, please?” Madeline tried very hard to keep her voice pleasant, not freaking out, and a smile on her face, but–

But it was a lot.

“How did this–how did this happen?” Madeline looked to Mason, who held his hands up in defense - what, like it was his fault?

“Talking cat,” Mason said, and Madeline nodded distractedly. “Mauvian gave her a pen and now she’s magic and she moved fifteen minutes away from us last weekend.” Was this what the medical condition shock felt like? It must be. He could not stop staring at his little baby cousin, who was decked out like it was Christmas Eve. The last time he’d seen her she barely came up to his elbow. Literally what was happening.

“I’m–I’m gonna get some water. For all of us. I’ll just–I’m gonna–yeah.” And then Mason walked into the kitchen, leaving the girls on their own. He couldn’t stay there forever, as much as he wished he could, because honestly - he knew more about this than Mads did, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if something happened to Tiffany because she didn’t know any better.

Madeline glared after her brother - coward! she thought at him, but he just waved a hand at her in acknowledgement. She sighed and looked back at Tiffany, and put her own hands on her hips as she took her in. She wanted to still be mad, but -

But it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Madeline said with a sigh. “And it is cool. Your outfit is…” she wanted to say ‘mildly inappropriate for a girl your age’, but she bit it back and instead put a smile on her face. “Gorgeous. Way better than mine,” she admitted with a chuckle. “Come here, sit with me.”

Mads plopped down on the couch and patted the seat next to her. “I’m sorry for yelling. I didn’t recognize you, because…well, because of the magic. It protects you from people recognizing your civilian self when you’re powered up, even your family. If you were to meet me on the street while I was powered up, you wouldn’t recognize me unless I told you who I was. But you shouldn’t do that,” she added quickly, “basically ever, unless you literally trust that person with your life. ‘Cause, Tiff, it is really cool and you can do some cool stuff–” probably, Madeline added mentally, unsure of what her powers actually were, “--but it’s really dangerous. It’s not just a fun dress-up game. People–there are bad guys out there that want to hurt innocent people, and it’s your job, and mine and Mason’s, to make sure those innocent people stay safe. That means those bad guys also want to hurt us.”

Madeline ran a hand through her hair and sighed again, sending one more annoyed look toward the kitchen, where Mason was clanking around with glasses, pretending to be getting water so he could hide.

“Mason and I aren’t Senshi,” she said, when it became clear that he would not be returning for at least this portion of the conversation. “We’re something called Knights. Mason is a Knight of Earth, and I’m a Knight of Cybele, which is an asteroid up there in space, that has a Senshi. A Princess, actually,” she added, a little note of pride coloring her voice; she personally thought she got the better deal, between her and Mason. She had a Princess! Sometimes she still couldn’t believe it.

“We’re all good guys,” Madeline continued, “but Mase and me work a little differently. We didn’t get a cat, and we don’t have a pen,” she said, nodding to the tool in Tiffany’s hand. “I’m Edam, when I’m powered up, and Mason’s called Blarney. We have some different abilities, but we’re all basically on the same side.” Madeline hesitated slightly. “I know it’s a lot to take in, and I honestly–I know it’s really cool, but I really think you should avoid powering up for as long as you can. You should get to do regular teenager stuff, and you have to still do your homework and everything, because there’s no way to be like ‘sorry, I was fighting a demon last night and didn’t get a chance to finish my essay’.” Madeline smiled wryly. “This is part of your life now, but it’s just part. The bad guys can’t sense you when you’re not powered up, and you can’t sense them, so it’s safer to stay in your civilian form as much as you can. The reason I got so mad is because if bad guys sense you, they’ll come here, and we need to keep our home safe, so we can be safe inside it. The bad guys should never know where you live in your real life, so you shouldn’t power up at home, or anywhere you go often as a civilian. Does that make sense?”

“Winters,” Madeline repeated, a smile on her face. “That’s pretty cool. And so is this, Miss Thing,” she said, reaching up to tug playfully on the shock of red in Tiffany’s hair. “How did your parents let you do that?” From her understanding, at least, most parents had to give permission for their children to do things like that - for the twins, that person had always been Madeline, and she just knew she was going to hear about it from her brother.

Sensing that things had calmed down, at least a little bit, Mason returned with three glasses of water and a plate full of cookies. “They’re not very good,” Mason warned as he set them down, “‘cause Mads says we’re not allowed to have so much sugar, so they’re like, some weird cardboard–”

“They’re healthy--”

“--kinda thing,” Mason said with a shrug. “But they are technically cookies.” Mason paused, also catching sight of the red dye, and grinned widely. “That looks awesome. Mads, we gotta do our hair too! We can be matchies!”

“Mason--”

“Did Mads tell you about us?” Mason asked. “We can all go out together if you want. We can show you how to patrol!” Madeline glared at him and he rolled his eyes. “Okay, I can show you how to patrol if Mads is gonna be like that about it.”

“I just got through telling her that she should avoid powering up as much as possible, Mason,” Madeline said, narrowing her eyes slightly. “That she should focus on school and normal teenage things–”

Mason stuck his tongue out and went PBBBT. “She’s a Senshi now, Mads. She has a responsibility to this now, and if she never uses it, she’ll never learn. Isn’t it better that she go with us than she go on her own? At least I have actual magic now–”

“I’m going to have actual magic too, just you wait--”

“You haven’t even found your ring yet–”

Madeline and Mason shared a knowing glance - oh, her dad approved. That made sense. No way would a McCarthy approve of such foolishness. Mason still wanted to do it, of course, but currently the McCarthy in charge, his sister, was sticking to the family line on that one.

“Tradition sounds interesting,” Madeline said, after another moment of silent communication with Mason - a back and forth about how to approach this. Tiffany, being magical.

Unbelievable.

“Do you know what your ability might be?” Madeline asked. “People have different - you know, it can be something more defensive, or something offensive. Senshi get access to their magic a little earlier than Knights do.” Madeline brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She wasn’t at all jealous that Tiffany of all people already had magic, and Mason had accessed his, while she did not. Not at all.

“I make a big wall,” Mason said proudly, a grin on his face. “A really big wall. It stops bad guys when they try to attack me or other people.” Mason paused, his grin growing slightly, turning mischievous.

“You wanna know the coolest part, though? At least for me?” Mason leaned forward and stage-whispered to Tiffany, “I have my own castle.”

Mason pouted. “I actually cleaned the whole thing up,” he said, a little hurt. It had taken forever. But when her attention moved to Madeline, his pout vanished into an impish smile again. “Yeah Mads, do you have a castle?”

Madeline glared at Mason. He knew she’d been procrastinating on actually visiting her Wonder, out of some combination of fear (that it wouldn’t be as cool as Mason’s castle) and resentment over the fact she’d gotten exactly what she’d asked for, before she even knew what it was she’d wanted.

“I don’t have a castle,” she said, eyes lingering on Mason for a moment before she sighed and shook her head. “I haven’t…had time to go to my…they’re called Wonders, for Knights. I haven’t been to mine yet. But I’m going to!” Mads said, not a little bit defensively, in Mason’s direction, who raised his eyebrows in a dubious sort of way.

“But really,” she said, “whatever we have is small potatoes compared to what you as a Senshi have. You have an entire planet.”

“Or a meteor, or a moon,” Mason added. “Turns out all that stuff they teach you about how all the other stuff in our solar system and galaxy are uninhabitable are just, like. Straight wrong. NASA would, like, die to know half of what we know,” Mason said, nodding matter of factly. “Yours is called Winters. There used to be people on it, like, waaaaaaay thousands of years ago, but they’re all gone now, so whenever you get up there, it’ll be super abandoned. Just so you know.”

“Oh no you don’t–” Madeline started, but Mason interrupted her by clearing his throat. Pointedly.

“I mean,” Madeline corrected, after a breath to collect herself. “I mean, a couple things. One, you can’t really tell anybody, like I said.” Why was she getting the feeling that Tiff wasn’t listening to her? “Especially not–regular people. Not only will they not believe you, but they’ll think you’re crazy. I thought Mason was crazy and he’s my twin. Plus, anyone you tell could totally be a bad guy. Like, a magical bad guy. They can’t get to you on your planet, unless you take them there. So don’t take anyone there unless you know for absolutely certain that they are either a regular civilian or a good guy, and that either way you trust them completely not to hurt you.”

Madeline shared a worried glance with Mason, who nodded faintly.

“Plus,” Mason took over, “you can’t really take people with you. At least not yet. Y’know how it takes like a kagillion dollars and a bunch of rockets to like, just go to the moon? Like in real life, for normal people? How they spend yeeears and years and yeeeeeeears training for it? It’s kinda like that, going to your planet, except all on the inside. It takes a lot of energy. You basically can only take yourself, maybe one other person, but I wouldn’t–” Mason paused.

“Well, okay, I can’t say I wouldn’t push it until you’re stronger, because I absolutely pushed it and brought Mads with me the first time I went to Blarney,” he admitted with a faint chuckle. “And then I threw up. Not an awesome first impression,” he said with a shake of his head.

“The exception is if someone’s planet is…” oh, how to phrase this? How to explain Chaos? “...if someone’s planet is in danger, and they’re really strong already but need help to–to make their planet really safe again, sometimes the magic…” Mason wiggled his fingers, “sometimes the magic helps bring more people along, if the person’s who’s planet it is asks for help. I…would hold off on going to anybody’s planets to help out with that though, ‘til you know what you can really do.”

Mason paused again. “Buuuut…I can take you to my castle. Pretty much any time you want. And the other awesome thing? It even has a ghost.”