Emily rested above the air, using two of her mechanical arms as pressure plates on the ground, and the other two limbs to chase after Reginald. He ran around the room, dodging the limbs and avoiding their grasp as they hit parts of the wall. Debris scattered across the ground. Emily pulled her bionic arms back to clear out the dust in the air. She then made them zig-zag across the floor to try to sweep him off. Reginald jumped over one and tripped on the other, falling onto the concrete. Emily readied her arms and aimed at the ground. Reginald took notice of this and rolled away before the limbs could slam into the pavement and crush his bones.

Reginald got up, but his body wobbled from side to side. He touched the back of his head and found blood on his fingertips as his grip around the spear tightened. Reginald didn’t react fast enough as Emily grabbed him by the shirt and pinned him against the floor, making him drop his weapon. She had him in a chokehold with one arm and readied an electric charge with the other. Reginald’s heart slammed around his chest as he tried to break free. He looked at the spear next to him and attempted to reach it. Before Emily had time to react, Reginald grabbed the spear and cut two of her robotic arms off.

Emily gasped, then ground her teeth as she rested her legs on the ground, using her remaining two arms to fight him off. She didn’t give him any time to take a breather. Reginald ran to the other side of the area, leading the arms around pillars. Emily’s arm stretched as far as it could go. She looked at Reginald standing there with a smug smile as she struggled to reach him. Emily’s blood boiled as Reginald ran toward the fountain far back. She brought her arms closer to her, crumbling each of the pillars in a fit of rage. The warehouse still stood, but barely.

Reginald glanced over as the limbs chased him again, forcing him to make a detour from the spout. He sprinted to lead them over to a wall, where he jumped from and air-dashed toward Emily. Before she could grab him, he pulled out another smoke bomb and hurled it toward her. Emily tried to shield herself from it, but the smoke got to her as she rubbed her red eyes and coughed, her vision of him growing blurry. She squinted her eyes. A faint silhouette leaped into the air amidst the smoke. Emily grinned as she extended her arms to grab Reginald’s spear before it got to her.

She swerved it, trying to get Reginald to let go, but he still held on as tight as he could. Emily slammed him against the wall. Reginald coughed up blood, his body shaking and trembling, but he refused to let go. Emily’s sadistic smile grew wider as she moved the spear toward his direction and inched its way to his face. Reginald tried to push the spear away from him, but his body slowly gave out, no matter how hard he attempted to fight it back. The surrounding vision grew blurry as his light was giving out.

A loud sound snapped him out of it, bringing him back to reality. He opened his eyes and looked at Emily, as she loosened her grip. They both looked down and noticed a small dent on Emily’s metal arm. Then another dent, as a used bullet, rolled across the floor. Emily and Reginald glanced over as Richard stood there with a gun in hand. Smoke came out of his weapon as his body quivered, but he stood his ground.

“Richard!” Reginald cried.

“Reginald!” Richard exclaimed right back. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Richard turned to Emily with a deadly glare. She seemed taken aback by this, but she bit her lip, aimed her mechanical arm at him, and fired a laser shot. Richard took steps back and ran to avoid each of the plasma beams. Reginald got out of her grip and ran in the opposite direction. The two hid behind debris as each of the rays hit the surrounding walls. When Emily bent down and took a breather, Richard and Reginald peeked from their cover to fire off their arsenal, a bullet, and a shuriken, respectively. Emily raised her head and blocked them both with her bionic arms.

Reginald used this opportunity to run toward the fountain with the weapon. Emily glanced and took notice of this. She extended her arm to grab Reginald’s leg and slam him across the floor.

“No!” Richard got out of his hiding spot and called out to her. “Emily, please don’t kill him!”

Emily stopped attacking Reginald and let him go, leaving him to writhe in pain on the floor.

“How dare you?” She turned to face Richard, fire burning in her eyes. “Trying to kill me?”

“No, no.” Richard shook his head as he walked closer to her. “I just want to stop you from killing Reginald.”

“Seriously? After everything he’s said and done to you in the past?”

“But that was in the past; the future can be different. He’s still my brother, after all.” Richard glanced at him with a frown. “Besides, I’m to blame for what happened between us. I let my grudge and jealousy get between us and ruin our lives.” He walked over, bent down, and extended his hand. “I’m sorry, Reginald. I should’ve been a better brother to you.” Reginald grabbed hold as Richard helped him up and off the ground.

Emily clenched her fists. How could he, of all people, tell her how to behave? After everything she’s done for him? She didn’t raise him to act like that, and deliberately disobeyed her repeatedly. She could’ve left him to die like the rest of… wait. Now that Emily thought about it, why did she take him in again? What did she have to gain from doing that this whole time? Would it have been better if she…?