There was a stalemate in the warehouse. Itzhak’s corpse grew cold as they stood stock still, facing a Foreigner that Foxtail used to know. She wasn’t sure what to do. Clearly he was different and held the same power she did, but how much more powerful could he be?

She didn’t want to find out while in the middle of a fight if it came to it.

“I can see that your gears are turning already, Foxtail. It’s that precociousness and resilience that made you an interesting companion to watch.” Foreigner gave her a smile, a gesture they(he?) seemed to be having trouble forming with the way he squinted his eyes too tightly and bared his fangs at her.

“Enough of the girl, Arenas,” Drusillia made herself known to him again, taking measured steps towards his marble throne, “Are you referring to your business partner when you talk of our unfinished business?”

Foreigner glowered at Drusillia, “An unpleasant memory just swam through my mind. A reminder that you really have no one but yourself to depend on when it comes to achieving greatness. Do not speak to me unless spoken to or I will be forced to punish you for the transgression.”

Drusillia made a huff and crossed her arms but did not speak any further. She tapped her foot on the ground as she waited for Foreigner to pay attention to her again.

Foreigner shifted back his attention to Foxtail and stared at her for a moment before nodding in some affirmation. “You’re clearly unsettled that our former guard was put down in brutal fashion. My apologies, I need to understand that these things matter to others. Let me clean this mess and leave you at ease.” Foreigner swung his arm out and a gate appeared like a cape. Even from a distance, the chill coming off of the gate was apparent and it swirled with hues of blue and white. The gate dragged Itzhak’s corpse of the ground like a vacuum, loose debris also caught in the gates path. The moment his corpse disappeared beyond the gate, Foreigner flicked his arm and the gate vanished. “There, the whelp has been removed from sight. Although he will be assimilated, I am disgusted to have a lesser being like it occupy space within us.”

Foxtail was in abject horror, unable to comprehend the sentences that Foreigner was forming nor the power she had witnessed.

“Speak, girl. I would prefer my time not be wasted coddling some rat.” Drusillia spat, shaking Foxtail from her paralysis. She took a deep breath and centered herself.

This was not Foreigner. This was Arenas.

This was not her friend. This was a stranger and an enemy. Treat them as such.

The clarity and adrenaline that came from dipping into her courage coursed through her and she faced Arenas with a level headed certainty.

“You care about me because of the power I currently possess, right?” Foxtail asked. She wanted to confirm what worth her life held to this man, what level of slack she had in dealing with him.

“I care about you insofar as you telling me your story and what you feel when empowered the way that you are at the moment. How do you feel presently and how do you feel when tapping into your potential? Can you access your potential by feeling one emotion or multiple and if multiple, do you access facets of the same power or different ones entirely?” Arenas looked lost in thought for a moment before his eyes refocused. “It would be more beneficial for the both of us if you cooperated when I tell you to rather than force me to extract this knowledge from you. It would be a shame to snuff a nascent power like you so young.” He sighed, tapping his fingers on the armrest of the throne before turning his attention back to Drusillia.

“I guess this confrontation between us was unavoidable.” He said.

“Well you should have expected that considering who your business partner was and what you were looking to do under the Seven Associations noses. Bold of you to try and attain power while in the midst of professional informants and saboteurs.” Drusillia spoke in a conversational manner but her defensive position did not yield, her weapon readied in case Arenas decided to get rid of her on a whim.

“I did consider that Milton would betray me. It felt complete that he would be the one to kick me out of our project the same way he threatened me all those years ago to pull me in. How is he, by the way?”

“Oh, Milton is doing well. He’s currently heading an initiative to infiltrate a number of Lobotomy Corporation bases. There have been reports that they were the progenitors of this Distortion phenomenon and thus infiltrating their bases might yield fruit for the Thought Tool initiative. He seems very gung-ho about sending mercenaries out there to profit off of this mess.”

Arenas made the same unnatural smile and laughed, “He was always a social climber. I’ll have to get in contact with him and return a favor once he’s one rung short from achieving his own goal.” His face became neutral and he lifted himself from his throne. “I imagined that this conversation would stimulate me more but maybe I’m asking the wrong questions. Or you’re avoiding making the right ones.”

Foxtail saw Drusillia tense up and she couldn’t help do the same. The ambient pressure around them felt like it was suffocating them now, an intolerable miasma of indifference radiating from him.

You’ve bitten off more than you can chew, Mina… I look forward to seeing all of your courage bite back and haunt you… The wraith’s voice was loud and malevolent. Whatever the pressure was that affected the both of them, Foxtail could feel it was affecting her focus on her empowered form. She shook her head and pushed the wraith’s voice far from her mind.

Without this courage, she would have never saved Peepers. She was not going to give up just yet.

“What question do you want me to ask!” Drusillia yelled through gritted teeth. “We both know your family is unimportant to you this far into your transition. We all saw it in the lab when you split yourself up for the third time. The Association and your colleagues saw this blatant abuse of power as dangerous to their self interests and put you down the only way Milton knew how. If I had known what kind of job they wanted me to perform while pretending to be your assistant, I would have rather given the task to one of my sisters.” Her voice was hoarse by the end of her tirade. The pressure they both felt subsided and the two of them sighed in relief.

Arenas stood still, eyes once again lost in thought and staring into the distance. The two women looked at one another and-

“Then they were fools to assume that I couldn’t split myself up into fractals. Milton, the Seven Association, and even the power of the J Corp were unable to stop me from ascending. And now neither will any of you.” For the first time in their conversation, Arenas was animated while conducting his speech. Although he stared at the both of them, his eyes were transfixed on something neither of them would comprehend.

In his unfocused moment, Foxtail noticed a figure from the corner of her eye.