Ultimately the Artificer leaps which the Knight instinctively dashes backwards in avoidance for, though in a twist she doesn’t jump straight for the Knight but instead to the side before sprinting off, away from the Knight as though she’s all the sudden choosing to retreat despite her bold declaration.

Bewildered by the strange move, the Knight glances over to the direction the Artificer is, to which he immediately gasps in the comprehension that she’s making a charge for the hole in the center as a play to reinforce her ally in the takedown of his.

Watching the opponent run to help in the defeat of his ally, the Knight utters, “Oy oy oy, wait no,” though it’s clear she wouldn’t listen to any pleas, as despite her action seeming contradictory to her words at first, the true meaning becomes clear to which it’s even more clear that she wouldn’t deter from her mission.

Acknowledging this, the Knight huffs as he is being forced to make a decision, but ultimately takes a step forward and dashes onward.

Along the floor the Artificer sprints, not using aerial maneuvering but instead just her own feet to race for the center of the room where the hole is apparent. Her arms swing back and forth as she seems to be fully intent on reaching her destination.

Though on her charge for the hole, an object plummets like a meteor in front of her, between her and the breach, with that object being promptly identified as the Knight whose cape lifts as he aims his right hand and fires his concentrated energy beam.

Swiftly the Artificer lowers her stance and strafes to the side to dodge the beam, continuing to sprint forward regardless, moving straight for the destination able to avoid the ray with simple strafes and evasions.

In seconds she reaches the Knight, who after the declaration of his vow, regardless throws his leg in a roundhouse kick straight into the Artificer’s side, landing a strike which blasts her backwards away from the hole.

Whereas this defiance of the rule seems to have thrown the Artificer off guard, instead her mannerism appears the opposite as her body isn’t at all limp, but instead immediately reactive as she digs her claws into the mattresses of the two beds beside her, prematurely staggering her knockback and promptly reversing it with a boost from her feet forward again for the hole.

Knowing even one strike wasn’t enough, the Knight growls before then springing off the ground in pursuit, leaving behind a trail of blue.

Up in the air within the city of beds, the two combatants charge at each other, though the Artificer shows vastly more aggression as she swings her hand for a slash which the Knight avoids with a strafe to the side, letting the Artificer fly past him only for a tentacle to expel from her back and wrap around his abdomen, suspending and reversing the Artificer’s flight as well as pulling the Knight in towards her and her elbow which slams straight into his face.

Letting the tentacles unravel, the Knight is free to fall backwards from the rebound, though the Artificer is already in pursuit with another dash right in front of him with both clawed hands ready to slash. On instinct, the Knight raises both hands and fires a barrage of his energy projectiles from both fists, forcing the Artificer to block it as tentacles crawl out of the bottom of her wrists with tips that expand panels which activate energy barriers that absorb the projectiles long enough for the Artificer’s foot to grab the Knight’s leg followed by her spinning like a wheel and flinging the Knight straight through towers of beds which he crashes through.

Somehow even then the aggression hasn’t slowed as the Artificer follows the trail, pouncing on the bed he slammed into and lunging onto the next, crawling across the beds on pursuit animalistically, her cybernetic limbs able to propel her at greater speed as she catches up to the Knight in seconds who desperately throws both hands in a cross while expelling beams from both, trying to make a sweeping slash which the Artificer avoids with an upwards jump followed by four tentacles crawling from her back to cling to the upper bed’s frame; those tentacles begin crawling forward to let her move while still oriented on her target who, after reaching the end of that frame, flings herself at with slashes that forces the Knight to project his blue panel shield. While the shield does successfully block the slashes, each of the fingers are supercharged with glowing tips that carry more energy with every slash, rapidly damaging the shield as in a few seconds of consecutive swings she already manages to burn it out as it vanishes involuntarily.

Face to face yet again, the Knight jumps backwards in the air to dash away before making another dash to the side, making a quick retreat between beds only for the Artificer to again begin crawling across them. In only a few seconds, the Knight’s hasty retreat is nullified as he tries passing a tower of beds that the Artificer launches herself out of, grabbing the Knight by the cloak and continuing her trajectory, pulling him straight away as the two fly through more towers.

Colliding through bed after bed, the two get into a grappling match as the Knight tries to wrestle with the Artificer, grabbing her wrists only for her to jerk them both back, forcing the Knight to lean forward so she can headbutt him with her metal face on his exposed skin, staggering him though he immediately recovers with an attempt to right backhand slap the cyborg whose cheek hollows to reveal a short barrel that fires a single dart into the backhand, resulting in a minor explosion on impact that knocks his hand back and lets the Artificer swing her own hand for a slash to the face.

That slash is blocked by the left hand which expels an energy burst which attempts to separate the two, only for them to be brought back together by a tentacle grabbing him from her open hand that had just been blasted back.

In the line the two opponents fly through, beds are tossed out of place at such intensity that they collide into other beds, causing a domino effect that results in many of them falling out the sky, as the carnage being left in the room is far more rampant so quickly. The sophistication of battle has been dropped, pure chaos was being unleashed with debris falling everywhere all at once.

At the head of that chaos, the two combatants leave streaks of blue and gold, their strikes so rapid they’re hardly perceived to each other, the pressure of combat reaching its maxima. Collisions between fists and beds brew clouds of smoke and dust, covering the room as the casing of their carnage.

Similar clouds begin to emit from the Rogue’s body as she takes a step back from the wall, away from the Vanguard whose body starts sparking with electricity. The Rogue’s expression is first pure confusion, though that then morphs into curiosity, but then affirmation in comprehension which solidifies it into apprehension which she tries masking with arrogance as she taunts with a wavering tone, “Eheh hey Kokei, I don’t know if your head was hit bad or something but you don’t have your shield. I love the enthusiasm but one hit and you’re down for good, so maybe just think this through.”

Lightning sparking off her body the same as her eyes as her hair waves from the surge of power, the Vanguard takes a small step forward as she just simply agrees, “Guess I just won’t get hit then.” She then aims her hands forward and fires a swarm of pink arcs, just like she did countless times before.

Again the Rogue gets swarmed with pink arcs which then throw her backwards, though just as always the Rogue negates it with a short cloudburst off her own body, freeing herself prematurely nearly right after as she lands around the middle of the room, skidding a few feet back but once again demonstrating her ability to negate the Vanguard’s one attack.

Gritting her teeth in visible irritation of the defiance, the Rogue shakes her head and mutters, “Look, I still have other work to worry about so I can’t waste time sparring with you.”

Patience running thin, the Rogue stiffens her stance straight and raises her right hand up, her fingers gesture ready to snap. She glares with bright fiery eyes as she reveals, “So I’m going to stop playing fair, and hopefully you’ll surrender before it’s too late,” before she then snaps her fingers, and abruptly her body blasts a cloud vastly larger than any she emitted before.

In fact, this new cloud spreads so far it envelops the entire shower room, creating an arena that fully consumes the two combatants. The smoke darkens the room too, though there is a degree of sight given the spread thus thinning of the cloud as both of the fighters can still be seen, but the further walls are harder to distinguish and the lights lose their strength.

Sparks of yellow flicker randomly around the cloud’s interior, much of it appearing around the Rogue who slides her right foot back, not having given herself any weapon constructs yet but is waiting for the first move to be made.

Trapped inside the cloud, the Vanguard grits her teeth in apprehension as she understands the status she’d now be held down by, and to confirm it she raises her hand and projects a swarm of pink lightning off her fingertips upwards, though they only crawl about a foot or so before the ends begin eroding, flickering unstably before vanishing altogether, thereby vastly limiting the range to a point that’s practically unusable as it was hardly enough to provide additional reach beyond just her own hands.

Ceasing generation of the arcs, the Vanguard lets the remaining sparks fizzle out and die, the experiment clarifying that indeed her power was being greatly reduced to the point of practical obsoletion, as the Rogue was truly exploiting this weakness to the maximum.

This leaves the Vanguard to sigh, her confidence not as solid as moments ago, though that apprehension seems to fade despite having this gloomy information. She closes her eyes for a moment, thinking, engineering, creating ideas in her mind, seeking a solution to a problem she’s never sought an answer to.

Noticing the closing of the eyes, the Rogue takes the gesture as a sign of early defeat to which she smirks at, raising her right hand as sparks from the clouds begin to direct to the palm of her hand, accumulating to form one long dagger out of electricity which is held like an ice pick. The dagger completes itself as the sparks stop building it, still appearing around her nonetheless as she emits a breath which itself flickers sparks.

Standing straight in the storm with her eyes closed, the Vanguard begins to make slow though strange movements, raising both of her hands square before her shoulders as her hands again begin to spark and fire pink electricity chaotically, which once again only reaches about a foot before fizzling out due to the cloud’s effects. Still she keeps producing them, though she slowly begins to bring both hands closer together, the palms facing each other the same as the loose fingers.

Closer the hands are brought while being rotated for better control which results in more refined direction for the arcs being sparked, specifically towards each other as the electricity begins to flow in a bidirectional network between the hands. Especially as the hands are brought within the foot-long threshold to each other, the sparks no longer fizzle out but instead sustain themselves between the two conduits.

At first there is still a degree of randomness in that not all arcs are immediately binded to this network, but the closer the hands are brought, the greater the concentration becomes, and with the greater concentration there is a greater intensity in the stream until the stream itself begins producing arcs of excess energy struggling to be contained.

Sliding one foot back as though exerting her body’s strength to withstand her own power, she brings her hands nearly to a touch, the network reaching its maxima of intensity so much that the sparks being generated off them are intense enough to resemble the pure lightning that’d come from her skin, her long hairs waving more wildly all until she then closes both hands into fists, snapping the network and forcing the energy in between to instead abandon the link and instead wrap around the nearest hand. Finally pulling both hands away from each other to sever all connections thus forcing every arc to wrap around a hand, the Vanguard reinforces both of her fists with dense gloves of lightning that remain close to her skin, thereby not fizzling out in the storm but instead thriving in hers.

With that, the Vanguard raises her hands forward in the stance of a boxer, finally opening her flaring eyes as her expression finally molds to one of determination.

Staring at the priming act, the Rogue chuckles and sneers, “You can put your hands up, but that doesn’t mean you know how to use them. But okay, I’m done with this show, cry if you surrender,” as she takes one heavy step forward before following it with a quick dash.

Straight for the killshot, the Rogue swings her dagger for the Vanguard’s neck, only for the Vanguard to bob and weave to the side, dodging the dagger which instead plunges into the wall as the Rogue accidentally leans too far; before she can pull out, the Vanguard drives her own right fist straight into the right shoulder which has the tattoo, and upon impact she discharges a direct surge of lightning that wraps around the Rogue’s body, controlling and then propelling her back all the way into the adjacent wall, knocking into the shower panel though timed with a thin cloud layer around her body to pad the hit, albeit there still came a thud and groan as the arcs fizzle out right after the hit, leaving the foot-long range from the fists.

Now being the one in the limp position against the wall, the Rogue coughs before groggily raising her head, shaking it to recalibrate before pushing herself off the surface to stand straight. She wipes her mouth with her hand which lost the dagger before assessing, “You must have some cowardly instincts, but I see what you’re doing, that’s an impressive start. But it’s a bit late to learn,” before she then summons sparks around her which accumulate to another dagger in her hand, and with it she makes another charge.

Again the Rogue makes a slash for the head which the Vanguard weaves from, throwing another punch for the ribs which the Rogue uses her dagger to deflect, doing so successfully though the repulsing nature of the Vanguard’s fists also deters from any damage being done to her hands, resulting in a net zero change. Surprisingly enough this doesn’t result in an explosion either which the Vanguard notes with shock, as she managed to parry the energy with her own yet it didn’t blow up on her like it had in the past. The Vanguard is quick to jump backwards just as the Rogue attempts to make a slashing motion to hit the hips, but the Vanguard has reached the back wall which her feet plants on to just as pink sparks emerge and hastily swarm around her shoe, using the electricity accumulated to then control the air under the sole to propel herself off the surface at quicker speed to then throw a punch into the Rogue’s face which again wraps her in pink arcs held tight to her rather than swarming freely which blasts her backwards.

She flies several feet back but lands on her feet, skidding back again as the Vanguard chases her for a follow up, but the Rogue gains concentration too early and steps back just as the Vanguard throws her punch, leaning her forward which the Rogue uses to try bringing her dagger down into her opponent’s forearm, though lightning sparks all along her forearm to the left which repulses itself, causing her arm to violently be pushed to the left which lets her dodge the stab, functioning similarly to an accelerated dash.

Out of danger, the Vanguard charges again and this time throws a flurry of punches, making sure not to lean too hard on any one of them but trying to overwhelm the Rogue who relinquishes her dagger in favor for a longer staff that can be held in both hands and uses it to begin blocking the punches as the Vanguard uses a variety of strikes from attempts at jabs to the face, uppercuts to the stomach, and hooks to the ribs, forcing the Rogue to need to exercise more movement to cover every attempt at a punch. Those punches begin to get faster as the arms start to expel their own electricity backwards, repulsing the arms the other direction supernaturally to grant additional speed, making her strikes faster and faster as she employs her lightning’s own nature to move objects in a way that moves herself or anything she touches.

While none of the strikes land on the body, the momentum she carries begins moving the fight towards the exit of the shower room, further from the enclosed room. Realizing this, the Rogue’s face becomes more irritated and she leaps backwards, seemingly at first in further retreat though she relinquishes the staff and instead begins making throwing motions, with every motion casting a throwing blade of lightning.

Each of those bolts soar as part of a barrage straight for the Vanguard who slides one foot back and grits her teeth as her entire body again begins sparking, all in different directions like a porcupine’s spikes, generating at an insanely rapid rate as her entire body nearly becomes pink though all of the sparks travel only about half a foot, resulting in all of them requiring minimal energy output to produce. They all manage to suspend the lightning throwing knives which all stop just inches away from target, close for comfort but still maintaining safety as in that moment it’s as though she’s deployed a bubble of her own.

She relinquishes the bubble, to which all the knives simply fall to the floor before manually dissipating as commanded by the Rogue who charges in for a followup, her right hand clutching three lightning blades between her fingers which she aims to make a sweeping slash with to which the Vanguard expels her own body to the side with a surge of bolts off her front, letting her dodge that first attack and now able to use her feet to pivot and continue dodging the next flurry of slashes as the Rogue equips the same three blades in her other hand to double the slashing effort, requiring the Vanguard to duck and weave more speedily, using more repulsions of her own lightning to help her with swift movements.

Soon the two reach the wall where the Rogue leaps with a stabbing motion, forcing the Vanguard to strafe to the side to avoid the blades with plunge into the wall, though with the other set in the next hand the Rogue plunges her other hand into the wall just as the Vanguard strafes again, and she keeps making quick strafes as the Rogue pulls one set of blades to stab with, then the other, and repeats several times until the Vanguard exploits this tunnel vision with a punch to the side, for her fist was still encased with electricity.

That one punch throws the flashing Rogue further down towards the wall the Vanguard was originally punched into, giving her the window to turn around and begin sprinting for the exit, panting heavily as she makes a break for escape. Behind her, the Rogue reaches for the wall to pad her impact, groaning in pain as a thud is made from the collision, giving the Vanguard the confidence to keep running.

However the Rogue faces the Vanguard and aims her hand at her, not to throw anything but instead command her cloud as all the sudden yellow sparks begin to zap at the Vanguard, stopping her run as she staggers from side to side as sparks appear in all directions, jabbing her everywhere again like needles. Instinctively the Vanguard covers her head, though she begins emitting more sparks of her own, however instead of trying to summon a great wall of them off her she instead summons a far lower count that instead begins to swarm around her own body. Thus while her body isn’t covered in lightning to the point of her figure becoming pink, there are enough small arcs racing around, remaining only a few inches off her clothing and skin, that it generates a similar freezing shield that suspends the yellow sparks, freezing them before they can make contact.

She then notices the Rogue stand back to her feet and begin charging at her again, moving with such great speed on heels that the Vanguard isn’t able to think about continuing to run but instead is forced to focus on defense, bringing her fists up as the Rogue loses her knife set and exchanges it for one dagger yet again held in reverse, though this time the Rogue takes on a lower stance, trying to engage the Vanguard lower down to remedy the difference in height that’s been letting her stay so nimble.

Making slow steps back but keeping focus ahead, knowing that she can’t just simply rely on the bubble to defend her from the Rogue’s personal attacks as she could very likely overwhelm given what she did to the shield that had held its own so well prior, the Vanguard instead focuses on quick parries as she raises and lowers one hand, using the back of her hand to block each of the slashes from the Rogue’s advances. She operates again on defense, though this time it isn’t due to being overwhelmed, but instead it’s in knowing that she doesn’t need to maintain an offensive charge for a few more seconds. She instead fixates on the pattern of every slash, watching the positioning and direction and how they relate to the former, and after blocking several strikes she reaches further in anticipation to knock the dagger prematurely to create an opening as the Rogue’s arm is pushed backwards which lets her throw her other hand straight into the exposed abdomen, again repelling her back just enough for the Vanguard to turn around and sprint.

The Rogue noticeably gets better accustomed to each punch, as while they do knock her back, they do little in terms of true external damage. In fact, the Vanguard’s punches aren’t truly punches, they aren’t intending to form bruises or other internal damage, instead she uses her fist as a vehicle for her energy, carrying her swarm to her opponent for it to take control of them and their movement to thereby push them back with instantaneous movements. Thus in truth she is still using her original moveset of controlling and moving, just in a different implementation that lets her function even with the vastly reduced range.

While this means the Rogue hasn’t truly sustained damage to her own body either, the Vanguard proves that not to be the immediate objective at least in this very moment, as the Rogue is desperate to resume charging at the Vanguard who charges for the exit of the shower room, and ultimately they both reach the end.

Clouds of smoke and dust are blown away from the force of the blue energy beam fired out of the silver fist which the Artificer evades with a jump back, slipping past the bed she was on but instead swiftly crawling below that same bed to the other side and mantling back up, reaching behind the Knight where she then makes a slash which the Knight turns around to block with that same arm, firing the beam off above up to help his metal gauntlet clash against the golden claws, successfully stopping the surprise attack with sparks though the continued use of the beam causes the bed above them to split in half and drop straight for them to which they both leap in opposite directions to avoid.

Even more beds above that first one have been split and collapse, as that beam had surprising range that results in more carnage, and while the Knight glances back to watch the collapse, the Artificer makes the bold move to simply lunge straight through it.

That move pays off though as she miraculously passes through the hail, reaching the Knight on the other side who, in an effort to ward her off, throws another roundhouse kick straight for her which does successfully land, slamming the Artificer into the neighboring tower. Though by summoning a flurry of tentacles that all latch onto the beds around her, she suspends her knockback and furthermore uses the tentacles to throw herself back in the action, but beyond that as she throws her punch straight for the Knight she coils him around those tentacles to bind them together as the two fall through several more stories of beds, the barracks quickly turning to ruins from the utter lack of collateral concern.

Upon landing, another storm of dust is raised as the two roll across the floor, but since the tentacles recoil back into the cyborg’s back the two are able to separate as the man rolls further an additional few feet more. The man bounces off the ground and rolls a few times before finally coming to a stop, his body remaining limp for a few seconds before he starts moving again, still conscious but that one strike clearly exhausted him. He does slowly push himself off the floor though, ever so resilient as his cape unfolds down to his knees.

As he raises his head up, the lens covering his left eye is visibly cracked, and the blue streaks flicker in dysfunction. Noticing the issue, the man releases a disappointed sigh and grabs the lens, plucking it off his face and tossing it aside as it’d only cause further hindrance. Without it, his left eye is left naked, first shut but it opens to reveal his iris being gray blue, wide with discontent.

Also having collapsed ironically as the one to cause the crash, the cyborg grabs the floor and pushes herself up, stabilizing herself on her feet with light sways before standing straight. Already she begins strolling forward, ready right off the floor.

Bringing his arm back to his side after the lens was thrown, the man begins to start strolling forward, his cape waving behind him the same as his blonde bangs.

On the approach, the Artificer’s pace starts to rise as her stroll shifts into a jog, her hands swaying from side to side, open but at the ready.

Already jogging, the Knight’s pace heightens more to a full blown charge, swaying his arms side by side as his fists shut, glowing bright same as the rods connecting the pistons at the elbows, readying himself.

Surrounded by the towers of beds, some standing and others collapsed over the floor, the two combatants charge at each other in full sprints, and just before collision they each throw their fists forward.

More aggression is apparent from the Knight who moves fully offensive, throwing punch after punch in quick jabs as the Artificer deflects them with slashing motions, both of them trying to make their own strikes but blocking each other’s as a result. The Knight’s fists glow bright as the Artificer’s fingertips leave light trails in their swipes, their strikes becoming faster and yet with no difference in the wager, the two of them standing still as their arms move back and forth to reload and fire another hit.

Up close, the blue knuckles collide with the gold fingertips at a rate ever so increasing, each catching the other as their speeds are matched, neither of them able to move fast enough to strike the other as their windups leave insufficient room for the other to make a landing. Though that is the case, one of the many collisions between hands has the Knight activate the piston in his gauntlet, causing the fist to emit a secondary strike after his own kinetic motion, finally ceasing the stalemate as the Knight immediately dashes forward for an uppercut to the jaw which he successfully lands.

The pride in landing the strike however blinds him to the fact the Artificer’s hands were still moving, and she closes her fist to drive a punch straight into the side of his face, the two colliding nearly simultaneously in the end.

The pistons activate in the Knight’s gauntlet, propelling the Artificer up off her feet as the Knight staggers to the side from the hit he endured which he instinctively tries massaging with his hand, only for his forearm to be wrapped in golden coils which pulls him back up in the air to much of his dismay given his yell.

Back off the ground, the Artificer lets the tentacle pull the Knight up so she can then kick him in the stomach, sending the two flying in opposite directions with the Artificer flipping timed such that her feet grip onto the edge of one of the beds which she springs off of, chasing the Knight who, while still flying back, manages to plunge his fist straight into the metal frame of one of the beds and throws it straight at the Artificer as a projectile.

Perceiving the bed to be thrown at the angle such that the frame would hit her head, the Artificer raises both hands in front of her face, first functioning as protection as her claws cut straight through the frame from one end to the other therefore leaving her unarmed, but second as weapons as she grabs both of those halves, and with strength beyond human she makes one additional dash forward and claps both hands together with the Knight right in front of her, causing the two halves to slam into him like a sandwich.

At the very least the Knight had raised both hands up to have his gauntlets parallel with his shoulder, letting it shoulder the weight of the beds enough that he can then push the two halves outwards, however by doing so he completely opens himself up for the true attack as the Artificer, who also has her arms stretched out, flies with her feet first for a kick.

That doesn’t guarantee a hit though as the Knight is quick to deflect that kick with one of his own, to which the Artificer tries to rebound with another kick which he also counters, and so begins a flurry of kicks from both fighters similar to the punches where the speed of both doesn’t allow for any one of them to land.

Again a stalemate was occurring, one that couldn’t last too long knowing how it ended just before, and so this time amongst the two barrages of kicks where leg struck leg, the golden feet open and grab onto the silver boot, a maneuver only possible given the articulation the cyborg had. This maneuver sets up the main move, that being rapid aerial spinning that puts the Knight in a fast orbit, forcing him to slam into many of the surrounding beds as the Artificer has been using the environment more as a weapon, with this as no exception. After slamming him into several beds, she finally lets go and throws him forwards with the hopes of crashing him into more.

Indeed the Knight slams into one of the beds, but he stops himself from falling any further with an oppositional dash to pause his momentum, growling in rage from the manner he’s been brutally beaten in this fight. Also of note, while he had been using the environment a few times as well, it’s clear he’s done far less comparatively, for it was becoming more of a detriment to him if anything.

Taking this into account, the Knight unleashes a battle cry as he fires concentrated beams from both fists, and begins spinning around while raising and lowering his arms sporadically, to which the Artificer raises both hands as six tentacles crawl from her back and deploy shields in front of her, fully covering her body and absorbing the beam slashes as they are all equipped with energy barriers.

Nothing else is though as the dancing beams haphazardly cut through many of the surrounding beds, slashing them not only in half but many times, destroying their electronics and causing them to begin descending.

Like a city being leveled, many of the bed towers begin to come down as a result of all the erratic beams, this time not even as an unintentional consequence of wild fighting but instead a deliberate motion to wipe the arena clean. The beams are luckily limited in range, thus they don’t pierce the floor or the ceiling, but they still manage to reach rather far in terms of clearing out the wide section of the barracks, destroying countless beds meant to house the army he was one of the main members of. Beds cut so many times they’re unrecognizable from rubble of foam and metal chunks that all pile up as they fall, plummeting to the ground with heavy explosions of dust and smoke.

Emerging from the cloud and smoke, the Vanguard sprints down the bathroom, out of the restraining clouds as she makes chase back towards the breach that brought her down here. She races in the direction of the row of toilet stalls, trying to retrace her steps though it’s hard to tell as the only true indicator would be a hole in one of them but due to the boxing of the stalls that’d only be noticeable when facing head on.

Regardless she races on, though she hears thunder behind her which catches her attention, noticing that from the cloudy doorway emerges the Rogue in fast pursuit, clinging to two daggers, one in each hand, her face telling of fury.

Stopping in place rather ballsily, the Vanguard pivots towards her and raises both hands, but they’re not aimed perfectly aligned as they’re instead facing outward. Her entire body begins to charge up sparks again which feed into her arms which then fire swarms of electricity, though rather than in a specific direction, she simply blindly fires it anywhere in front of her.

This results in practically the entire half of the room she’s facing becoming swarmed with pink arcs crawling and dancing, immediately freezing the Rogue as always, but also repetitively she creates a small cloud to fizzle out the arcs around her before running forward, back out of the cloud. However immediately she’s caught again by more arcs, as the field is so vast that she can’t merely escape one small space, and the cloud she made doesn’t seem to move with her.

This observation is made by the Vanguard, whose eyes expand upon finally catching onto the limitations of her opponent.

Still caught in the storm of electricity, the Rogue grunts before then bursting another huge cloud in all directions off her body, this one expanding to be larger than the electric field, and properly dissipating all of the arcs thereby freeing the Rogue and letting her keep running.

Back in chase, the Vanguard turns away and begins racing along the stalls again, though she is forced to look back as three lightning knives fly right at her to which she raises one arm up as her whole body discharges a short burst of pink arcs, just enough to suspend the knives in place so she can continue her escape, though that moment of pause is enough for the Rogue to catch up with her, but instead of slashing her, she instead equips her long staff and begins swinging both ends rapidly as the Vanguard is forced to backtrack towards the stalls while weaving and parrying each swing with her fists again wrapped in arcs.

The Rogue’s rage is noticeably growing though as she releases a yell before then putting all her strength into another swing to the stomach, this one landing which blasts the Vanguard back, slamming her inside the stall, and it becomes clear she’s trying to trap her in a smaller space given how she’s been adapting to larger areas. After slamming into the wall, but not hard enough to break through, the Vanguard coughs in pain given this was now her being slammed around without protection, but she has to focus up to then throw herself to the side to evade the lightning-fast dash of the Rogue who enters that same stall with a dagger stabbed straight through the wall.

Stuck inside the enclosed stall without an easy way out, no easier with the toilet bowl making maneuvering more difficult, the Vanguard’s body begins producing sparks but at that exact moment the Rogue emits another cloud inside the stall, causing those sparks to lose range, letting the Rogue turn, pull her dagger out of the wall– which has left a burnt hole– and drive it towards the Vanguard who raises both arms over herself as they both are wrapped around with pink electricity. Upon collision, the repulsive power blows the Vanguard backwards hard enough that the stall’s wall behind her breaks, sending her flying into the next stall over with a pained grunt, though again she’s given little recovery time as the Rogue chases her inside, swinging her dagger as she emits another cloud with a dagger accumulated in the other hand.

The Vanguard hastily wraps herself in racing arcs to form a protective bubble while she reinforces both arms with denser lightning, not only her fists but her forearms as well like gauntlets. She uses her forearms to block one of the dagger swings, creating an opening to punch the Rogue in the abdomen although a smartly timed lightning bolt sparks right in front of the fist made from the cloud, blocking that punch with both fists used, letting the Rogue swing her other dagger just as the Vanguard desperately kicks the Rogue back with her zapping sole, successfully repelling the opponent back though the length of the dagger meant it did successfully graze the Vanguard’s cheek, cutting a red slit across her face.

Instinctively the Vanguard grabs her own cheek and brings that hand in front of her gaze, noticing her fingers to be red which widens her eyes in petrification, as even with the defensive bubble deployed it’s insufficient when used against the Rogue’s weapons. She then watches the Rogue grunt and stand back up, to which the Vanguard’s instincts take over and she drops herself to the floor just as the Rogue makes another swing for the throat.

Down on the ground, the Vanguard crawls under the wall into the stall her back was up against, trying to make distance and hope to make her escape just as the wall she crawled underneath is cut up six times in the span of a quarter second, enough that a hole breaks open which lets the Rogue jump inside who the Vanguard again tries to shoot arcs at, only again for a cloud to be deployed, making it impossible to get a solid control. While the Vanguard has developed countermeasures for the cloud, the constraint she has to employ on herself limits the strength of her repulsion due to the lack of torque in the throw, making it difficult to blast the Rogue far back enough to get any decent time off the pressure. In a sense, whereas a longer ranged repulsion would be similar to picking up and fully throwing her target, using considerably more strength, this shorter strike is akin to a grab and push back, still resulting in an effect but one drastically weaker. So even though the Vanguard here can just wrap her arms in lightning just like before, all she could do was hold out longer without making any significant action. She again blocks a sequence of slashes, moving her arms fast enough to block every hit, but simply relying on defense is again putting her in the same conundrum. In one of the blocks she makes an effort to throw her own fist forward, driving more repulsive intent which slides the Rogue just subtly back.

It’s enough though for the Vanguard to jump up, grab the top of the wall behind her and cling as both hands emit electricity which freezes their position onto the wall thereby functioning as an adhesive agent, all to let the Vanguard swing her whole body and throw her feet straight into the Rogue’s face for a kick that makes a greater impact in repelling her backwards enough that she slams into the toilet bowl.

While that kick does push the Rogue back, the swing’s great strength was in service to throw the Vanguard’s entire body around the wall, letting her fling herself into the next stall. Not even a full second later, the wall she just climbed over is again sliced up this time far more aggressively, letting the Rogue get inside the stall, huffing and heaving in rage as another cloud emits from her to consume this next box.

That rage shifts to an irritated perplexion though as she finds the Vanguard not inside the stall, or anywhere in sight. She glances from side to side, grunting before then exclaiming angrily, “So all that talk before about beating me, was that just a lie and your real intention is to run away?? I want to be pissed about how shitty of a move that is, but I’d be a hypocrite since I pull it all the time, actually no I am still pissed!”

She glances from side to side, unsure of what to do as it seems at this point her opponent might’ve already fled the scene, leaving little point for agency. Though that’s when, above the wall behind the bowl, a hand grips the rim which then hoists the Vanguard over, her right fist already reinforced with pink lightning, arched back and all.

Immediately the Rogue’s eyes slide over to her side upon noticing the blur, and she starts to turn her whole head as that irritation fully shifts to intrigue just as that lightning fist slams into her cheek, releasing an explosion of energy that propels her off her feet, making her fall to the ground.

Down on the floor, the Rogue grits her teeth and turns her head, only able to see the Vanguard crawl over the wall once again, already vanishing from this stall.

Now being toyed with, the Rogue wipes her mouth and gets back up to her feet, racing to that wall and slashing it down, though again there’s nobody there. Understanding the objective truly hasn’t changed, the Rogue makes an urgent effort to begin moving through the various stalls, focusing on searching as she slashes down the walls in front of her, and after finding nothing she slashes down the wall behind the bowl and scoots around, though still with nothing.

She continues to move hastily, not making time to produce clouds, instead focusing on cutting through the walls with her bright bolts.

Similarly bright beams also slash through structures, these being the beds surrounding the Knight who finally stops his destruction. He glances around, making it a mission to remain out in the open, though he’s quick to find no sight of the Artificer. He turns around, searching, though nowhere can he see her.

A faint flash of light emits from the corner of his eyes, turning his gaze to one edge of the circle he’s created, or specifically to the sight of two whole beds flying straight at him seemingly from nowhere, though there’s only a single culprit.

He raises both hands and unleashes beams on both, cutting them up several times over until they’re just small chunks of rubble, though to his surprise there’s nobody amongst that rubble, nobody having been hiding with the bed.

As it isn’t that they were with the bed, but rather following behind as all the sudden the Artificer launches herself from the edge from the same direction the beds came from, immediately prompting the Knight’s attention as he centers his aim for her next, however upon doing so his eye expands in the realization that he can’t get a perfect aim, as there’s now a field of rocks in front of him blocking the shot. That expanded eye sharpens to a glare as nonetheless he instead chooses to unload a barrage of projectiles, hoping to get some lucky shots that’d get through the field properly, though the Artificer instead just dashes down, not using the field of rubble regardless and dropping down to the floor where she’s out in the open.

Seizing this opportunity, the Knight directs his aim down and prepares to fire, though following his line of sight he watches as many tentacles emerge from the cyborg, clinging onto different rubble from the destroyed beds, and at once all the tentacles throw the rubble up in the air like reversed rain.

On instinct, the Knight dashes backwards to avoid the flying rocks, his eyes wide in confusion.

His focus fixated on the flying debris, the Knight just stares in silence as he can faintly see the golden figure of his opponent behind it all, or that is for a moment before it vanishes, and soon after the rocks are pulled back down by the artificial gravity of the train, leaving the Knight ever more stunned.

Racing between bathroom stalls, the Rogue desperately cuts walls down in hopes of finding where her opponent is hiding, only for that opponent to emerge from the wall of the stall behind her, getting up behind her and firing a burst of lightning which reaches for the Rogue who promptly expands a cloud around her, causing the arcs to fizzle out before even grabbing hold, her reaction speed getting ever greater to the point where any stretched lightning couldn’t reach her in time.

She swaps her daggers for a staff that, with its greater range, is swung at the Vanguard who swiftly weaves away, her face showing disappointment, affirming the fact even if she could use the full extent of her control, it wouldn’t suffice for this opponent. As she slips under the wall she appeared from as the Rogue makes chase, she continues to brainstorm, having exhausted her plan of exploiting the cloud’s immobility as she was so quick at emission that she was even able to time bursts with collisions against surfaces earlier.

Running along the stalls, diving below walls before hopping up and mantling over others in an effort to make distance, the Vanguard runs through her options. Despite being out of the cloud, the opponent can still nullify extended lightning, making it impossible to achieve a throwing strength great enough to cause adequate damage. Even at the start of the fight she was deploying thin clouds which was enough to pad the collisions, making her invulnerable to damage by collision, which unfortunately is the Vanguard’s only truly reliable method of incapacitation.

Though extended lightning was ineffective and using it as reinforcements was insufficient for control, there is one method that doesn’t rely on distance between her and the target, one that theoretically should defeat any opponent if a hit is made, as it only ever failed once and that was against an opponent who had anomalies this one likely wouldn’t. There were a few issues with this though, the most notable being that in every instance of using it, it’d drain her of consciousness and leave her decommissioned from combat, a weakness she couldn’t afford when it’s likely there’d be many more fights beyond this. She also has only used this power with extended spread, something that wouldn’t work in this situation.

As the Vanguard notices slashes being made to one of the walls in the stall she’s in and quickly slips into the adjacent wall to stay distant, she considers the fact that when using the lightning as reinforcements for her body, it’s vastly less tiring. It’s far less output, and while that change in expense isn’t too significant for throwing given the low initial expense, there’s a chance that a localized strike with the intent to subdue could have a cheapened cost that’d allow her to keep moving. Of course, this was a rather dangerous experiment as failure would result in her absence from the remainder of the mission, but it’s clear this battle wouldn’t end any other way. She had made use of her pulling ability with repulsion, but it wasn’t sufficient, she needed a move that could bring about a decisive conclusion.

Running around the stalls, she gazes at her hands, watching them spark with lightning that wraps around before then flickering away, debating her next move, wincing at the challenge of handling her powers she’d held on for so long and yet had hardly mastered.

More pressure is built though as she hears heavy booms coming from right above her, with dust particles falling from the ceiling and down to her, serving as a reminder that there’s still an ongoing fight her friend is partaking in. She couldn’t keep wasting time thinking, she had to make a move, and quickly.

Those dust particles that come from the ceiling are caused from the action above the floor, as debris are grabbed by golden tentacles before being thrown into the air at greater numbers with the golden cyborg in the center, glaring up towards the man in the black suit hovering in the air.

Off the ground the cyborg jumps, and with her comes all the rubble being flung into the air, one metal chunk approaching the man whose eyes widen as he dashes backwards to dodge, immediately being surrounded by a hail of rubble all around him.

Among that rubble is the golden figure who he immediately begins firing his concentrated beams at, cutting through the smaller rocks though she dashes away from it. Or rather the cyborg moves among the rocks, her feet grabbing onto them to throw her forward, her hands gripping them to lunge ahead, as the destruction of the space only resulted in more for her to take advantage of. She glances to the side as the Knight keeps a steady aim of his beam at her, as while the tactic is providing her cover nearly anywhere, it’s still clear that getting close will be a challenge. This is further noted as the rubble comes to a stop and begins to fall again, meaning her time is coming to a close thus she’s forced to move towards the edge of the hailstorm to try again.

Grabbing onto the top rim of the stall and throwing herself up, the Vanguard glances back at the stalls around her, one of which the Rogue runs into just as she catches that glance, locking eye contact and immediately makes a throwing motion while casting.

The Vanguard’s expression falls to terror as she instantly pulls herself down in narrow avoidance of a lightning knife that would’ve struck her head otherwise. She slips under the stall and continues running, taking in a deep breath, knowing she needed to iron her resolve and make her decision as the row isn’t infinite and eventually she’d be caught.

With the rest of the fallen rubble which leaves a sea of dust stands the Artificer, though upon being exposed she immediately is aimed at with both silver fists which fire a rapid barrage of energy projectiles, prompting her to begin running frantically as her opponent’s getting faster at tracking her down.

What’s more is the barrage’s spread is increasing, making it more difficult for the Artificer to keep evading the shots out in the open. While running, a single tentacle crawls out of her and aims up, firing a barrage of golden shots of its own to try retaliating. Those shots however miss as the Knight simply dashes to the side, still mobile with his quick zips and still able to maintain heavy fire.

It’s unnecessary to even raise her head to know her shots missed as the Artificer’s body begins surfacing more tentacles, though these ones grab more rubble as it’s clear this is her best tactic with the deformed arena.

Running forward just to burn time, the Vanguard clenches her teeth, knowing every second she moves in one direction, the more her potential victory is escaping.

As a result, she finally turns her body around and begins racing the other direction, throwing herself over the stall wall she just slid past.

From the cyborg’s perspective, the sea of rubble is vast which she runs along as more of her tentacles grab onto chunks, and at last she bends her knees and leaps up, raising her gaze up to the Knight up in the air as the rain of rubble flies past her, this one with the greatest numbers as it even begins to cover sight of the Knight.

From the superhuman’s perspective, the rows of stalls are long which she races through, whether its sliding underneath the crevice the wall has from the floor, or eventually turning to the right and jumping to grab onto the rim of the stall which then lets her mantle over, making one additional right turn and continuing to run in the same direction as sparks of pink lightning flicker off her body, first just randomly but they begin to spark more rapidly as their directions bend from just spiking off her to instead moving around her, specifically up her shoulders and arms like a flood of water. The lightning condenses just to her fists, though with a far more intense density than earlier, so much that even the arcs surging around her fists release sparks of their own, each one thicker.

From the cyborg’s perspective, the rubble continues to rise as she grabs onto the rocks with one hand to pull herself forward, moving off the chunks rapidly while avoiding smashing into any of them, requiring her movements to be perfectly calculated. While she makes strafes and doesn’t move in a straight line, the black figure can be seen vaguely in front of her, as her destination is still kept in mind. The figure moves and aims its silver hand, firing its blue beam in her direction which calls for her to begin climbing up, pulling her on the chunks above her and pushing it down to keep moving until eventually the beam stops, and she then continues crawling forward as the rocks begin to slow down. But as they start to slow down, the cyborg finally stops moving in a general upward direction and instead faces down, as now only about ten feet away hovers the Knight who just hastily turns around with no clue what direction to look as the rubble starts falling too.

From the superhuman’s perspective, sparks flare off her electric hands as she slides under one stall and mantles over another, and finally she comes across a stall whose wall has already had a hole cut through it, which she runs through at greater speed as the next stall has the same hole, her path finally found which she runs along. The path has a sharp right turn which she follows, and then up ahead is another left turn; at that left turn there’s visible bits of the wall falling to the floor with yellow sparks by the fresh hole, and upon seeing that the path is remade to have an immediate left turn under the stall before then continuing below forward before finally mantling onto one more wall, and finally past that wall walks the Rogue.

Off pure instinct, the Knight’s gray blue eye widens, and he turns his head towards the golden figure above him whose arm is arched back.

Off pure instinct, the Rogue’s orange eyes widen, and she turns towards the white figure above her whose sparking arm is arched back with her cloud already expanding out over the stall.

Simultaneously, the Artificer throws a punch straight into the Knight’s face surrounded by the falling rubble as the Vanguard throws a punch straight into the Rogue’s face which releases a huge storm of thick pink lightning completely surrounding the stall, so much that the yellow sparks are hardly visible. The lightning in the fist crawls onto the Rogue’s body before swarming her completely, and on top of that additional thick sparks are produced off her as her entire body begins spazzing.

Simultaneously, the Knight’s body falls into a relaxed pose after that punch, being grabbed by the Artificer in their descent among the rubble as the Rogue’s face becomes relaxed, her eyes drawing to a close. And as her eyes shut and her body grows weak, the Artificer slams the Knight’s body into the floor in the center of the heavy shower of rocks made from the products of rest.

Swaying from side to side, the Rogue’s body finally gives out, falling to its knees as its face plants on the rim of the toilet bowl, the eyes shut as the sparks of yellow lightning in the cloud stop generating and fizzle out. Above her, the pink lightning around the Vanguard’s fist also dissipates, fizzling out slowly as the arcs that spread across the stall thin out and vanish. She begins to stumble from side to side as the cloud starts to fade, to which she grabs onto her forehead in the acknowledgement that she’s quickly feeling weak.

Under her breath she mutters “No no no,” feeling the growing fatigue that’s bringing her towards unconsciousness, making her stumble back into the wall.

Through her eyes, the clouds do indeed disperse, but her own perception of the world becomes fogged, hazy, and thus darker. She turns to the open door of the stall and stumbles to it, grabbing on the edge with one hand for support, clinging onto it and glancing down the row of sinks below the long mirror, where on that mirror is a reflection of herself staring back, holding onto the edge, her legs wobbling feebly. However, what she also notices in that reflection is that the stall to the right of her has its wall broken too, though not in the way that it’s been cut down, as there aren’t distinct clean lines for where the cuts were made. Instead, the breach appears to have been made from brute force, an object slammed through it, or rather a person: the person staring at that breach.

That breach had to be the one made when she was thrown through the wall earlier in the fight, and if she followed through, it’d be likely that the hole to the upper level would be nearby. And through that hole would be one person, the name of whom she utters weakly, “...Dana….”

All the sudden with that reminder, the grain in her eyes starts to clear up, the fog passing and the room growing brighter. The shaking calms down, and the reflection of herself shows her legs stabilizing, no longer shaking, and her posture isn’t as unstable either.

Her hand gripping the stall, Kokei blinks twice, gazing down at her own legs which no longer shake, and she glances over to her hand on the edge. She then cautiously relinquishes her tenacity on it, drawing her arm back to her side and yet she’s still standing perfectly upright without shaking.

She takes a step forward, a heavy one as she puts unnecessary weight, but then she takes a second step, this one more natural, moving in one single line without wavering. She stops and lowers her head to gaze at her right hand, the conduit of the power that she never managed to wield without collapse. She then turns her head back to the stall she left, focusing on the body of her opponent slumped on the toilet, left limp on the ground.

In truth the opponent’s posture isn’t exactly the nicest, her cheek resting on the rim of the seat with her eyes shut and hands resting on the floor, her long orange hair spread everywhere with some even fallen into the bowl, though after taking a step forward and peering keenly, Kokei can observe a breath being taken as the body raises and lowers, confirming that the woman is alive and simply unconscious.

A sigh of relief washes over Kokei, for she was slightly unsure of herself after striking someone with that power at such concentration, as she typically would’ve spread that out. Confirming the status of her opponent, she nods to herself and walks into the next stall.

While in one stall Mary sleeps on the toilet, in the other Kokei walks over the hole into the next where she continues out to the exit of the opposite stall in the other aisle where she then glances from side to side, the room now perfectly silent.

After turning her head though, Kokei notices further down the hall sprinkles of dust particles falling in a great abundance more than before, as though it’s falling through a gaping hole.

Locking onto the dust, Kokei’s eyes widen, but instead of it being in shock or fear, it’s instead in delight as she begins running towards it, not in retreat or pursuit of an enemy but discovery of her friend. She huffs softly, her hair bouncing in her small strides, making her way over to the dust cloud which slowly disperses.

Upon reaching the cloud just as it vanishes, Kokei raises her head to find the outline etched into the ceiling, and in it is the window to the floor above, the next ceiling far up, the path to where her friend is.

Staring up at the hole, Kokei cups her hands by her mouth to simulate a megaphone before she shouts, “Da- I mean, uh, ally friend, are you there?!?”

Waiting patiently by the hole, Kokei just holds her gaze in anticipation, curious and hopeful.

Slowly though Kokei lowers her hands as her hopeful expression begins to morph into pensive uncertainty, a lack of response gives a sense of worry that in the time she spent away from her friend, something terrible might’ve happened to her.

In silence, Kokei waits under the hole, staring at it and the static sight of the ceiling further above, a sight made dynamic with the emergence of the golden cyborg who peers through the hole, one without a face with a voice far from human yet still carries a tone of emotional relish, “Kokei! Do you need help?!”

Before an answer can be given, the cyborg already follows up with a strong tone of concern: “Oh no, are you hurt?? You have a cut!”

Shaking her head in assurance, Kokei answers with a smile on her face: “Don’t worry, it’s nothing, just a little scratch. And no, she’s asleep and sound, what about you?”

Through the hole Dana stares down for a few moments to release a soft relieved sigh before then raising her head and glancing to the side, pausing for a couple more seconds before returning her gaze back to Kokei and assuring, “He’ll be out for a bit,” before then extending her arm inside.

No matter how far Dana can try fitting her arm down the hole, it’s far from long enough to reach the ground, and so instead from the palm of her hand emerges a tentacle that crawls down the bathroom ceiling with a tip that has five small arms functioning as fingers which open upon approaching the human hand already reaching out which grabs onto the tip as it closes its hold too. After securing the hold, the tentacle begins to rise again, but this time with the hand that has pink fingertips held on, moving back up the way it came to the ceiling the hole is in.

Hanging off the tentacle, Kokei’s feet dangle as she’s hoisted up the bathroom up to its top, her head raised with a gentle smile. Past the floor her head surfaces into the next level where kneels Dana, one hand holding the tentacle, but the other hand reaching out naturally.

Kokei grabs onto the other hand with her other, and Dana stands up with her arm recoiling back, hoisting Kokei out of the hole until she can stumble on the floor and stand upright to which she lets go with both hands, letting the tentacle recoil back into Dana’s palm and vanish.

After gaining her footing, Kokei glances around with a stunned face upon noticing the rubble right beside her.

In fact, everywhere she looks she sees destruction, a huge crater left in the barracks as where once were a grid of beds is now instead a sea of metal and cushion debris, broken and torn, and even further ahead where there are standing bed towers there’s clearly more wreckages as told by the piles seen between the aisles.

Turning around and taking in the full sight, Kokei just quietly mutters in pure astonishment, “What…did I miss…?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” retorts Dana who walks along the rubble, approaching the man in the black suit which calls Kokei’s attention.

Hurrying in a little jog, Kokei reaches Dana’s side and follows her gaze to the man who now lays on the rubble, his eyes shut and his body limp, and yet despite the complete annihilation of the room the man still breathes in and out slowly, not having been killed.

Staring down at the body, Kokei sighs in the confirmation that neither of the two opponents died in battle, and she wonders in a soft voice, “When they wake up…won’t they just…you know…regroup and recover? Doesn’t he know that?”

First Dana turns her head to Kokei, though she just stares for a few seconds, noticing Kokei’s somewhat dazed gaze. After studying for a few moments, she returns her gaze back to the body before sighing softly and explaining, “The hope is that they do regroup, and when they do they take a different path that doesn’t put people in harm. It’s always been his intention, even if it’s a little...optimistic. To be honest, I’m not sure that works for these people, so letting them live might just lead to more harm. Either way he can only keep track of what he sees, so there’s a good chance he won’t know what happens to the people we alone encounter.”

She then turns around, patting Kokei’s shoulder and concluding, “Do with that what you will,” and begins strolling off in the direction of the exit, the direction they were walking in when they first entered this room. She just walks over the wreckages of the barracks, leaving Kokei to just stare at the vulnerable body of the man who had a high rank among this pirate army, one of the many who were responsible for the horrible living conditions of ten whole planets.

Ten Earths of people, all constantly living in suffering and toil because of people like the man on the floor, the man in front of Kokei, her being still awake, staring down at him as her friend walks to the exit, not looking her way, not observing her actions. Actions that likely won’t be observed by any of her allies or anyone she’ll continue to interact with after this mission, and thus in a way, these actions won’t have an affect on her. In this moment she was truly free to make any decision she wanted, take any choice, because when she wasn’t being scrutinized by anyone who’d matter, that was when she was completely free, absolved.

She just stands in place, locked, staring down at the body that would likely reawaken soon, perhaps in a few hours, at the very least not far into the future. The body wasn’t comatose or anything, just simply asleep, meaning in the grand scheme of its life this is no setback. It hasn’t yet to receive a truly lasting punishment that would prevent it from continuing its rampant atrocities. Nothing was stopping it from waking up and continuing the same cycle of violence, because as long as it could wake up, it could always repeat the same acts.

And so, she turns around and walks the other way, jogging to catch up with her golden friend further up ahead, and after reaching her she slows her pace down to the same calm stroll, the two making their way out of the room at long last.