How long had she been there in that room, in the dark? Hours? Days? She couldn't hope for months or years, maybe if she waited as long as that, then everything would be over. A sound startled her, almost making her fall from the bed. Fortunately it was just the sound of the communicator. Someone wanted to talk to her, she didn't want to talk to anyone and slapped the reject call button. She realized her breathing was heavy. What was she going to do if she was getting so scared by something so mundane? Would she be able to take the Throne in that state? What would happen if she didn't?

She had thought she was prepared for a situation like what happened. In her head, she went through many possible scenarios of being captured by an enemy. She had accepted the possibility of being isolated, being tortured, maybe even raped. She thought she was ready for something like that. She thought she wouldn't break. She was wrong. Maybe facing the Matriarch was beyond anyone, but the fact was that she didn't expect the sense of defeat, the humiliation and the powerlessness of being held down by someone clearly much more powerful than she was. In the past, she had sometimes felt that her actions weren't entirely up to her will, but never before had she felt so much that she had no choice but to comply with another person's wishes.

She had sold her dignity, possibly the dignity of the whole Empire, just for a few more years of human life. She didn't regret it at all. She could still feel the terror. The pressure. The dark tormented her, as she constantly imagined that She was right there, next to her, showing that malevolent smile of hers. At the same time, Lia dared not to turn the light on. What if She actually was there? Lia wouldn't be able to bear it. Of course, such a thought was absurd. At most, that girl Delilah would be there. She wanted to get eaten by the darkness around her, she seriously considered what would be the consequences of her killing herself. After all, death was the only truly effective way of being safe from Her.

“Don't worry, I will have Delilah mess with their memories a bit. Soon they will be brave heroes who managed to wound me in a desperate battle.”

Startled, Lia shrieked as she fell from the bed. Completely ignoring the pain, she scrambled to stand up and frantically searched in the dark for the light switch. She had to know, was She actually there? It wasn't possible. It shouldn't be. She fervently hoped. The lights were now on, and she was alone. Relieved, she collapsed to the ground. Hallucinations, huh. She preferred them, she preferred to imagine Her at every corner, if only she got to be wrong every single time. A bang at her door made her tension return. She distanced herself from it.

“Lia, are you ok? You can't just hole up in your room. You haven't eaten anything... Talk to us...”

Franz! It was Franz's voice, usually it would bring her some kind of relief, some sense of confidence. Not now, not in that moment. She remembered that scene unfolding as she was dragged on the ground by Her. Look! She had said, as Lia was forced to look at the unconscious broken bodies of her companions. Their bodies might heal, their augments repaired, but there was one thing that scene made clear: They were no match for her. What else could Lia expect? She took Alexander's life with a single attack. That terror assailed her again.

“No! Don't come in! Leave me alone! Nobody is to come in! Don't talk to me! Go away!”

Her voice was shrill with fear and anxiety. But it didn't matter. She just wanted everything to stop. She wanted to run away. All pretense of calm was long gone.

“Come on! Let me just open this...”

The door started sliding open. He had used the master password that let him open any door in the Unbreakable. No. She wasn't about to accept it. As soon as the door opened, like a frightened animal, she jumped and pushed away the person standing at the threshold, Franz, who almost fell. Chelsea, who was next to him, prevented his fall. Lia could see the bewilderment in their faces, their confusion, soon it might change to disappointment.

They could see the end of her. The once proud and willful princess, who would defy convention in many ways, was now bent and broken. They didn't know, but perhaps they could feel, she was done. She could no longer follow her own heart, it was not hers anymore, her soul was something that had already been taken away, which she had merely borrowed for some time from the tyrant who took it from her. In her mind they already knew. Everyone knew. How long would it take for an angry mob to form? She sold us! She sold the pride of the Empire for her own safety! Disgraceful! And then she would be thrown out of the Unbreakable to be taken to Her, to be ridiculed them tormented for eternity, since she would have failed her end of the bargain.

“Please... Just leave me to rot here.”

Tears streamed down her face as she pleaded for mercy from reality. Couldn't they just leave her? Let her wallow in her misery? She wasn't good for anything anymore. She was no good. She had failed. No, she had to fail. There was no other way. The confidence that she once had, that Alexander had in her, now seemed a distant laughable memory. She closed the door and fortunately, it did not open again. She hoped it would continue to not open for eternity.

It broke Chelsea's heart to see Lia like that. Seeing the meeting in the Command Car without Lia reminded Chelsea of her terrified expression.

“It seems that the princess is not in any state to fight anyone for the Throne, much less Frederick. That is quite the problem.”

Forget about her Great Race. Matarazzo wasn't kidding when he said that she was broken. How could such a thing happen? Guilt started to take over Chelsea's heart. How did she let such a thing happen? Why did she send Lia ahead? If they could fight the Matriarch as equals, then why did they ask her to run away? Couldn't they have protected her? Matarazzo was right, they made a huge mistake.

“Well, something has to be done. As far as I know, Frederick doesn't have much in the way of mercy. We can't very well simply surrender, especially since it might make him angry. It would ruin any kind of climactic showdown.”

Chelsea now understood Matarazzo's anger. How could Rommel and Jonah talk calmly like that. It was like they had no regard for the Lia's mental health. No, they might just be putting on a calm front. It would do nobody any good to be taken over by emotions.

“Well, aren't we all just fine? Lia is just terrified of even her own shadow right now, and here we are talking as if surrender might actually be a choice. Things are really looking up.”

Really, what's with Franz? He never used to have that kind of attitude. Usually it would be her saying these kinds of things, but now she didn't feel like saying anything. She felt more subdued somehow. What was going on? There was something in the back of her mind.

“What then? You think we can put someone in that state on the Throne? Say, even if, by some miracle, we actually managed to do it, do you think that would be for the good of the Empire?”

Jonah looked smug, as if he had just won, but he was just deluding himself, there was only one response that could come from Franz.

“Since when are we doing what we are doing for the Empire?”

It had always been for her. Everyone in there was helped by Lia in some way. They all had a debt to repay.

“Fair enough, but does she even desire the Throne right now? Also, how long can we hide it from the common soldiers? The civilians? For now, we can hide it by announcing that the princess is currently sick and recovering. But things won't last forever. If they find out that her spirit is broken we have absolutely no chance of being victorious. Not everyone has the kind of devotion towards her that you do. Even if they don't find out, an extended absence due to sickness might also deteriorate morale. Face it! We have two choices: Restore her spirit or look for the best way to lose.”

“Well, I can't say I disagree on having to restore her spirit... The question is, how?”

Captain Lewis raised his hand.

“I might have an idea, though the Egregius might not like it very much. We do have someone aboard who is very familiar with how encounters with the Infected might break people.”

“And that's how I got recruited to be your therapist, or something like that. You know, I was getting worried about what might happen to me if wasn't able to show I'm good for something. Good thing this opportunity came through, well not that I think you being like that is good or anything, but, you know. You get my meaning right?”

It was her. She was here. How was she here? How could they think this was in any way a good idea? Lia was shocked beyond words. Was this some kind of joke? Was this their idea of tormenting her? How could they put right next to her the person she feared the most? No. That girl, that poor girl wasn't the one she feared the most, but the one behind the poor girl. Lia tried her best. She could get her breathing relatively under control. She couldn't just be quiet.

“Why are you here?”

A simple question, but it was the best Lia could do.

“Why? I'm pretty sure I have told you already. Everyone is worried about you.” They are? “Apparently they feel that without you leading them, there's no way to win this war. But you look so broken, defeated.” That's because she was. How could she deny the truth? “You look like you had a nasty run in with the psycho bitch.” That didn't make much sense... The events in everyone's minds should have been... “But you see, when she extends the game like that, she doesn't like to see her playthings refusing to play like that. Believe me, it's better if you do struggle, or else, she might just change her mind about letting you have a shot at the Throne, you know.” What? How? This wasn't what they had talked about! Delilah was supposed to have been temporarily set free, only there as an insurance to make sure once she left the Throne, Lia would pay the price. Was she actually being controlled directly? “What was I saying again? Oh, right, it's not like we knew everything every Infected saw or heard all the time. So, you can definitely beat them back with proper preparation.”

Lia looked at the girl in front of her. She kept talking about different weaknesses of the Infected. Some Lia already knew, others were new information. She looked so oblivious. It was no way to comfort someone, but in a weird way, it started to calm Lia down for the first time in days. Was it simply the act of listening to someone else? No. She realized that she pitied the girl in front of her. Truly a poor girl. She thought she was free, but she was far from that in very cruel way. Every now and then, a few words, a few phrases, all of them so full of venom, would be weaved into her explanations and Delilah never realized it. But how could she? She was completely under control. And yet, she acted, she tried to say something, do something. Lia felt like she couldn't pity herself with someone like that next to her. She hugged Delilah.

“I'm sorry.”

The girl didn't understand. She didn't have to. Lia was far from recovered, but she felt like she could at least step out of that room and try to face her destiny with some amount of dignity. She had to. Meeting again with her companions, she was greeted with smiles and relief. It made her happy to the bottom of her heart. How could she have ever thought they might think to throw her out or give her to Frederick in exchange for mercy? The human mind, when at its lowest was a scary and self-destructive thing indeed.