The photo depicted a blue-haired little girl wearing tactical body armor; she was smiling while hanging by the arm of Elizabeth's Father on his [American Crusader] form.
Behind them stood both [The Beast Master] and [The Warlock].
Nowhere else in that picture was the current Jenna, and if Elizabeth was being honest, the little girl did have the same appearance that Elizabeth remembered of Jenna.
A mischievous little girl who seemed quite happy with her life.
Elizabeth looked at the picture and then back to Jenna, "So you had a hidden daughter?" And couldn't help but say that.
"OF COURSE NOT!" Jenna screamed back, "I'm sorry, but no. I am a virgin."
Elizabeth did not want to know about the sex life of her childhood friend.
"Not relevant, Elizabeth's first will be with us." Rossie helpfully said...or not.
"So then what? You grew the equivalent of 15 years in one?" Rossie asked back.
"Not quite," Jenna answered for some reason that weird question, "It's more like I unfroze my time, my power lets me do many things...some would say it helps me do wondrous things... others would say it lets me do terrible things..."
Well that sounded ominous as heck.
"Wasn't your skill what allowed you to summon Echoes and use them?" Elizabeth said pointing behind Jenna, it merely took some focus into her Dragon's Eyes and Elizabeth could see the armada of people behind Jenna once more.
"Yes, it lets me do that. But as you saw with Lily...I can do many other things, from injecting the personality of an Echo into someone from this plane...to other less...normal stuff." Jenna said with a sigh, "I... am not proud of what I did, but you need to understand that I... am not... sane."
"And you think that makes you special?" Rossie said with a laugh, "Girl, there is no sane people in this world...hell I doubt there is anyone that can qualify as sane in the whole multiverse."
That was... quite the extreme way to see the world, even if Elizabeth did not have a way to counter argument that statement.
"...whatever, the point is...I have lived most of my life frozen in time. Using my Power I called upon a frozen-in-time version of myself and ingrained my mind into it." Jenna said raising her hand and making a projection of the body of the little girl that Elizabeth had seen before.
Why was it always little girls?
Was Elizabeth cursed into running into Little Girls? She wasn't even into little girls, cute girls? Sure, who didn't love a cute girl.
But little girls...
Yeah, she didn't want to deal with them. That was part of the reason why she had been that awkward dealing with Beatrice before and after, and the same with the Valkyrie order.
And here was Jenna saying that she had been using the body of a...wait a second, "What about your mind?" Elizabeth asked.
"What about it? The mind is run by the body, if your body us that of a little girl your mind is stagnant, no hormonal development means no higher grade thinking or emotional intelligence," Rossie answered, "Chances are that she stagnated her development and as such, it's a wonder she even managed to grow out of it."
"...Well yeah, having your Father figure leaving and asking you to take care of his teenage daughter does wonders to your development," Jenna sighed, "Your Father descended to ask me to help you while I was crying, he said that he only ascended because he knew I would take care of you. What other option did I have?"
Well, damn...That ought to do it then.
"So that means your next dossier is mine," Jenna said bringing out the dossier that had her information, "Jenna Lewis, The Juggernaut."
There it was, the Idea. The sign of a Name.
"Age Unkown, Nationality Unkown." Jenna said with a smirk, "My power allows me to call upon the might of probability and turn it into certainty."
...That was not what they had just said was her Power.
"I can call upon Echoes and wield their Power, if I need magic. I can call mages, witches, sorcerers, or even Magical Girls from theoretical universes. Be it Echoes of myself or anyone else." Jenna said as a pulse of mana was shot from her backwards, behind her the phantom of the Echo Armada was visible barely for a second, "Most on this plane know me as the identity I wield."
"[The Juggernaut]," Rena said, nodding her head, "The mighty berserker, the unstoppable giant. People know you as a force of nature that can't be stopped or reasoned with, a monster of strength and no intelligence. The one we call when you need to move a mountain out of the way."
That was quite the descriptor, yes.
"Exactly...And after [My Hero] asked me to grow up since he was leaving, what other option did I have left?" Jenna sighed, "I made a tantrum in the base, we ended up in a fight..."
"....fight.... awful....lost....my....room..." Lily said from the side nodding, "....fighting....bad....had to....leave....my....core...."
"Her what now?" Elizabeth said turning to Jenna, "She...doesn't have a Core?"
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"My tantrum made it so everyone had to fight against me to protect the base of [The Twelve]. It got so bad that most of the teleportation circles got destroyed; in the end, we had to evacuate back to Zaanam, but someone had to remain there to secure the demi-plane." Jenna sighed in defeat at this part, "So Amelia remained behind and I ended up leaving the [Twelve]."
Jenna brought a new picture, this one was of her current form standing alone in a wasteland.
"Lily was the only one that still talked to me after that, and that is mostly because she knows me the best after Amelia and your parents." Jenna said, smiling sadly to Elizabeth, "And of course, Giovanni, but after that fiasco, it was hard for him to speak with me without Lucia noticing."
...So [The Warlock] was a good guy? Jenna was attempting to sell that to Elizabeth?
"Either way, we need to speak with him before we can confirm if he is an ally or not," Elizabeth said sighing, "I'll decide what to do after that."
"...All I ask is that you give him a chance, and for you to not judge from what you see and hear, but judge him for what he actually does." Jenna said tiredly, "Now that only leaves us with three remaining members of the [Nine Stars]."
Elizabeth turned to look at the remaining dossiers and the names on them, Echidna, Lily and...[The Tinkerer].
Elizabeth had an idea of what she would get if she ever asked about Lily or Amelia, so really. The only remaining option was, "Might as well, let's see what can you say about Echidna."
Elizabeth didn't have that much of a need for information on Echidna, she had been one of the members of [Hydra's Fangs], she had seen the presentation that Echidna did to the new recruits, even if she hadn't participated in any villainous activities, she was still, after all. One of their members.
She...didn't have that shift anymore, or well, she had half of it. Alice was now gone, but she still had her appearance and figure to play with.
Even if that felt kind of weird to do, it was like wearing her sister's clothes and pretending to be her, no one would notice, but knowing said sister was watching made it feel awkward.
Like trying to hook up with her sister's boyfriend or something awkward.
"Eleanore Windsor, Echidna... The Mother of Shadows and or Monsters depending on who you ask," Jenna said opening the dossier clad in pictures of monsters.
"Yeah, she has a whole thing with shadows, my original plan was doing the same I did with [Shadow Pact]," Elizabeth said raising her finger and using some of the Lightning that she had used against Shadow Pact.
She had proven that even while being buffed up by thousands upon thousands of souls, Elizabeth had still managed to defeat him.
"She is particularly hard to deal with, for reasons that you should know already," Jenna brought photos of Echidna clad in shadows, some had spears made of shadows with ominous red light coursing through them, a few pictures had images of Echidna with shadow bolts and there was one where she was even sitting in a throne made out of shadows.
"Ego much?" Elizabeth said as she saw the picture of the shadow throne, not even she had one of those and she was The Prideful Dragon too, actually couldn't she keep that one instead of the Debauchery one?
At least she wasn't something as ominous sounding as Alexanders being The Calamity Dragon.
"But this is one aspect that not many speak about, since they think it is the same but are using a different application," Jenna said, bringing some new photos.
These had creatures of myths clad in a shadowy aura, "The Minotaur, The Hydra, The Kerberus..." Jenna said bringing the first of many, "Then of course a little more exotic, dragons, harpies, goblins, zombies, ghouls, werewolves, vampires...clowns... any monster that ever someone feared is her to command."
"...any monster? or any Nightmare?" Elizabeth asked for clarification.
"We aren't sure; there were times that the people got scared and screamed as soon as she arrived, while in other times, she straight up walked to the people who were hiding." Jenna answered by bringing out articles with headlines about how [The Mother Of Shadows] captured villains without a fight.
"....she....is....good....at....finding....people...." Lily nodded from the side, "...she....is....sneaky...too..."
Sneaky?
Well, if she had access to some type of teleporting skill like Elizabeth had with her [Shadow Step], then that was understandable. And if her monsters from nightmares worked something similar to her Shadow Dragons...
Then yeah, with her degree of Power ror what she seemed to project, chances where that she had total coverage of anything that had a shadow within the city she stood.
Something that Elizabeth had never attempted to do, mostly because she was a law-abiding citizen, not because she had forgotten that was an option...
Or because she didn't want to overwork her shadow minions...Actually, scratch that, it was because she didn't want to abuse her minion, yes. If someone asked, that was going to be how she answered that question, not because she didn't thought of doing that, but because she didn't want to overwork her minions.
What? Elizabeth send minions in 24/7 missions before?
What do you mean? She never sent a minion to monitor Rossie's baby sister, nor did she send a shadow dragon to stay with Alcie before, actually, that one spent quite the amount of time sleeping.
Also Reginald doesn't count, that one went to his first mission on his own.
And besides, that ended up helping! Somewhat...
Let's not speak about that.
"That may not work as you think," Jenna said, pointing at Elizabeth's Lightning, "You aren't the first with anti-shadow properties to ever show up and will probably not be the last; you certainly aren't the first to think that is enough to defeat her."
And with that statement Jenna brought more photos, this time of..."Clerics? Priests? Magical girls even?" People dressed in white robes, a couple magical girls with pink and golden colors.
"People with skills and magic designed to counteract demon-like powers," Jenna answered, "You know the type, people with the power to purify and/or counteract darker type of powers."
Powers like...
"Like my Divine Lightning?" Elizabeth said aloud, "So you say..."
"You are not special, Elizabeth," Jenna said, "That Power is not particularly new; if anything, it is quite common. The only difference it could make is if it left the owner of the shadow being purified intact, but if you are thinking of using it offensively..."
Yeah...Elizabeth could probably tweak it to do so, but why would she go out of her way to protect someone who she wanted to hurt.
Not because Echidna had hurt Elizabeth, or because she was an enemy, but because she had hurt Chloe.
"Many people tried it before, and she was never defeated, she didn't manage a city of shadow users because people wanted them to go there," Jenna said bringing up an aerial picture of the city in which Elizabeth was put into a coma, the place where the Advent happened, "But she managed the city because no one could take it away from her, and since your Father didn't allow us to intervene, no one could defeat her."
So the members of [The Twelve] could?
"And before you start thinking funny things, pre advent only your parents and myself could have defeated her." Jenna said placing forward the dossiers of [The Prophet], [Monk] and [Elementalist] forward, "After Advent these may have some degree of opportunity to defeat pre advent Echidna. After Advent she leaned heavier in a style similar to what Lily did."
"...did...not....tell....her.....about....it...." Lily said from the side, "....she....found....out....alone....not....a.....sorceress.....though...."
"Yeah, she complimented her weakness and shored up on those, increasing her powers and is currently the most powerful member of the [Nine Stars]." Jenna said sighing, "She embraced it all the way and is probably one step away of the maximum power achievable within the System."
She is a what?
"So...she embraced the system and used it to shore up her weakness, then started to climb more and more in power till she was the powerhouse?" Elizabeth asked for clarification, to which Jenna nodded her head, "Can you defeat her though?"
"...What?" Jenna asked almost offended," Of course I can, there was only one person on this plane that I would never be able to defeat, and he is no longer around."
Well that was...
"There are people I would rather not fight, not because I can't defeat, but because the planet would not be able to withstand it, and your Father asked me to make sure you were okay." Jenna added after the fact. "There is a reason why your parents fought most of their enemies in other planes or planets."
They did what?
"What? Did you think that if they fought on Zaanam, we would have a planet?" Jenna asked.
And to be honest, Elizabeth had never thought about that.
She had seen the videos of them fighting...plenty of times actually, and...oh...
"All the videos of them fighting are always against weaker opponents, and the fights end quite fast..." Elizabeth said when realizing the issue.
"Your Mother could get away with it since she could get away with using mostly H-Tier spells." Jenna said with a shrug.
Wait, H-Tier?
"I thought the lowest tier was F." Elizabeth said raising her hand and summoning one such spell, [Wind Breeze]. An useless spell that only send a breeze of wind, not stroungh enough to be usefull of anything besides confirming one could cast wind attuned spells.
"It's called downcast," Jenna said pointing to Lily, "She can do it too, but no one bothers learning it, your Mother downcasted everything till H-Tier when she wanted to reduce the damage, and even then most of her spells would leave great destruction behind her, part of the reason the council of magical girls didn't want her to be more than a pretty face."
But Mother complained about them all the time?
"They didn't or couldn't stop her, and since most was recruited by her they couldn't or wouldn't antagonize her, even though she made their life harder." Jenna added, "And so they dealt with all her problems and pointed her in the direction of cute little girls of your Mother type so she could spend her time helping out new magical girls."
...they fed her Mother cute girls, and her Mother, in exchange, didn't cause problems?
That was...
"So that is all, well we still have [The Monk] I guess, but do you want to hear about him too? Or do we move forward?" Jenna asked turning to Elizabeth.
"We can move forward, you said he was the only one that truly deserved to be a Hero right?" Elizabeth said sighing, "I'll trust in your judgement."
"Okay then, so you want to go now?" Jenna said standing, "Or do you need to do something else here?"
"We will speak with the student council," Elizabeth said turning to Rena and Rossie, "You can go ahead for now, if I need something I'll call you."
"...What?" Rossie said turning to Elizabeth, her mana slipped and Rossie's eyes turned pink with a heart flaring.
That was a nostalgic sight.