Only until they find Reaper

Dove is starting to realize that calling Suzu a "friend" at this point is a bit of a stretch (ooh, yoga pun!). She enjoys talking to the oni woman, but Suzu only seems to tolerate her and Cadence out of necessity for now. Despite that, Suzu seems a little more interested in Dove's naked body than most people...or at least, most women that Dove has come across recently. She feels flattered by this, but also a little unsettled, given how volatile Suzu tends to be.

Of course, given that Cadence and Suzu are both spending most of their time patrolling and fighting rifts lately, Dove is more than happy to leave them to it and keep teaching her yoga classes, still nude of course. Over the next couple of days, her students seem to be warming up to the idea of exercising not requiring clothing; a couple of students in Dove's morning class are already naked before class starts, and another undresses during a break. In her afternoon class, one student exercises without any clothes on while another asks for permission to strip down to their underwear, which Dove allows wholeheartedly.

Late one evening, Dove is relaxing at home and watching a sitcom when she gets another text message.

Dove grabs her bag and runs out of her apartment, almost running into another tenant as she rushes down to the street and finds her way toward Cadence's location. She was starting to get sleepy, but the urgency of the situation has fully woken her up. Fortunately, Cadence and Suzu don't happen to be too far from Dove's apartment, though she is still out of breath when she arrives.

Dove runs right up to Cadence and Suzu, who don't seem to be fighting much at the moment, while she leans her arm against a wall to catch her breath. "Is everyone okay? What happened?"

"Well, Suzu started summoning rifts because apparently it's my fault Reaper ran off again, even though all I did was offer to help..." Cadence shoots a harsh glance at Suzu.

"Yeah, sorry about that..." Suzu, as usual, finds her eyes more drawn to Dove's body than anyone's faces, though this time it looks as if it's partially out of guilt. "But I tried you stupid breathing trick and I came back from the brink. I don't think it'll work a second time though, so I need to tell you everything before it's too late."

Dove gasps excitedly at the thought that her techniques worked well enough on Suzu that she can remember everything now. "You got your memories back? That's great! What can you tell us?"

The oni woman takes a breath before continuing. "Well, for starters...all of this is my fault."

Dove doesn't bat an eye at Suzu's confession; she, Heph, and even Cadence all thought they caused the rifts too, after all. "I don't believe that, Suzu. What do you mean?"

"I didn't mean for it to end up like this, but...Cadence, after your grandmother destroyed the Golden Lute, I painstakingly repaired it. It took me years of research and effort, but I managed to do it."

Cadence is visibly upset at this revelation, and Dove has some questions herself, but they both stay quiet and let Suzu continue.

"The Lute brought me and Reaper to the Crypt, so I figured it could get us home. But when I tried to open a portal the way I saw the NecroDancer do it...I accidentally ended up reviving all the monsters in the Crypt, including the NecroDancer himself."

Dove moves to stand closer to Cadence, whose anger seems to be less directed at Suzu now.

"He took the Lute from me and toyed with us for years, while he studied the Lute's powers. And now, I think he's found a new way to use it. Instead of summoning monsters to the Crypt, now he can bring them out of the Crypt into other worlds!"

"So the NecroDancer is behind all of this..." Cadence growls and glares at Dove. "I knew it! Dove...!"

Dove takes a step back and clasps her hands together remorsefully; she was the one who insisted on Cadence working with the NecroDancer, after all. "Oopsie..."

Suzu nods. "Yeah, it's him. But we should probably--"

"I'm going to settle the score with him right now, once and for all!" Cadence grabs her guitar and takes off running toward the nearest rift hotspot.

Dove can only call out after the adventurer while she's running. "I'm sorry, Cadence! But I believe in you!" She turns to Suzu with a concerned expression. "We're all stuck here without a way home, but it sounds like you and Reaper have been lost for much longer than any of us. I promise that Cadence and I will do everything we can to help."

"Yeah, great, but...if breathing is all you've got for me, I don't think it's going to help. I can feel the NecroDancer's control eating its way into my mind as we speak." Suzu faces the wall, visibly wrestling with her own impulses.

"Oh? Well, I'm sure we can find another way to help you!" Dove pauses to think of something.