Scene #8894: The Courage to Protect

Owner	Pose
Angela	A certain manipulator of probability is engaged in some trickery. Certainly, in one world, Gebura was stuck at the Elevator for the full Meltdown... But in this one she is only delayed for short time before she loses her patience. She still blames Chesed for the Elevator being delayed, she's still informed that he isn't the one who isn't making the Elevators work. Sukuna's mischief gives everyone some time to get their grounding before Gebura rushes in to make the situation work. But eventually... "Fuck pacing myself, we'll make this quick." Gebura shifts EGO Weapons--they vanish into ether as she summons Gold Rush. She rears back with her fist and punches the elevators. Explosive force detonates up the elevator shafts, rapidly transforming them into pits of twisted metal and sharp debris. "Hupp...!" Gebura swings out her fist once more, opening a portal that she dashes through-- --and reappears in Control, where the Rabbit Team have been gunning down Schadenfreude. Myo turns her head, raising up her knife but the other members of Rabbit Team are distracted in the moment and Gebura punches her fist through the first R-Corp Agent with enough strength their body breaks in the first strike and liquifies in the second. Spinning around, she finishes off a second by high kicking their chin hard enough they get flung through the ceiling. As she rears in on the third, Myo dives in, stabbing repeatedly and furiously with her knives. Each blow she throws at Gebura is masterfully crafted, consistently aiming for what ought to be weak points in the Red Mist's defense based on how she's fighting, focusing on striking at seams in the armor just shallowly enough to be able to pull back but deep enough to cause serious injury. At first it seems like the armor is just refracting the blows in spite of that but a keen eye would note that Gebura is subtly adjusting her posture so that the knife primarily strikes at the hardest parts of her armor instead. Gebura knees Myo in the stomach, lashing out with her hand to grab Myo's wrist. CRRRRNCH Myo grits her teeth but doesn't scream even as she drops the blade. Gebura slams her back into the wall and asks, "Did you think I'd just take all your shit forever?" Myo tilts her head up stubbornly, staring into her the Red Mist's singular eye. "You wouldn't believe how shocked I was to find you..." Myo spits out some blood against Gebura's frame. "Never expected to see a legendary hero in a drab basement like this. The hero I remember wasn't afraid of shedding blood to protect others with all her might. Please don't taint my fond memories of you." Gebura slams Myo against the wall once more before letting her body drop. She turns, her singular eye looking for the Dame Commander--and in this moment, none else.
Tamamo	If Tamamo could just have Gebura run endlessly in circles, that might be ideal if it worked, but she'd eventually get frustrated and swing about randomly. The paper talismans creating the hypnotic effect are, themselves, fragile. Like an illusion, it's something easily dispelled if you know where to turn. It's only by preventing someone from thinking where to look that she can keep them safe. The same applies to Tamamo, herself, though she's a fair bit more cautious about her own body. Kukuru's suggestion of hiding her in the ceiling... may not really work, but having her be 'on another floor' is much easier. Knowing that Gebura is like to enter Control, first, Tamamo's situated herself on the floor below, in Information. Knowing exactly where she'll appear is a bit more difficult, but given the seriousness of the occasion, Tamamo's exerted herself just a bit, in arranging more traps than one person could fall for, so she'll at least have some of them hit. She doesn't particularly owe anything to Myo, nor to the Rabbit team -- Tamamo's impression of them is that they're somewhat overly dangerous, if anything -- but she's still twisting another strip of paper up in her fingers while she observes, through an unassuming mirror she'd left propped up in Control, what happens. She relaxes a little when it seems that Gebura is stopping short of finishing off the team. It's fine. She can heal the ones who lived. The others... well, Kukuru's here. She's not sure what Kukuru's limits are, but they haven't been a problem before. It's not something they can worry about right now. Getting through this without anyone being badly hurt was never an option. Tracing her hands over the detailed edges of the ink circle drawn entirely around where she's sitting, touching the dusty powder spread over it, Tamamo waits. A moment. Another. Just a little longer, when 'something' will distract Gebura. In the same moment, that's when she'll activate the paired lightning traps, the Red Mist in their conducting path. It'll take longer for her to realize it's not really a one-on-one if the timing is just right.
Lilian Rook	'Fuck pacing myself, we'll make this quick.' "That's what I was hoping to hear." Lilian's voice comes through the local intercomm first. During the moments Gebura crashes into Myo, and overwhelms her. Though it's only an echo from the system, it carries the unmistakable sound of something Gebura has never quite had the opportunity to hear. Not properly. Not in person. The stakes of this situation are terrifying. The hopes that Angela-- and everyone else in the facility-- have pinned on her are suffocatingly immense. The monolithic scale of the ordeal to come has occupied all of Lilian's spare thoughts for weeks, circling in an ever-tightening spiral of dreadful anticipation. But now that there's no more chance to prepare, to change or fix or worry about anything after the fact, and everything here on out can only unfold as it goes . . . Lilian has sublimated every last reservation, pretense, and forbearance before the elevator even breaks. Even the comm system carries that much. "I prefer swift and decisive battles. If you decided to drag this out, I might have been in trouble." 'Did you think I'd just take all your shit forever?' "But now that you're in the heat of the moment, finally, finally lashing out, it feels too good to slow down, doesn't it?" That one came from the same room. A double scan across Control's main hub sights nothing; then a double back catches on Lilian stepping over the body of an R-Corp agent as if she'd been there the entire time. Bringing her into focus, her armour is, coincidentally, not all that different from Gebura's; rather, it always has been. The black is polished to confusing mirror shine, rather than brutalist matte, and furious red veins are instead glimpses of gold seams, but even the source of power remains over the heart; where it had been 'unlocked' a year ago. Lilian stands apart for hers having something nebulously closer to a crown than a mask. Night Mist already occupies one hand, tip barely hovering above the floor. Winter Crow is fixed to her opposite thigh by unclear means. Crossed belts laden with slim hard-cases rest heavily on her hips. All signs of her battle with Nihil have buffed out. Whatever psychological symptoms remain, the heady disinhibition of this doomed moment defrays them. "Come on. Let's fight about it." Lilian says, pacing around a control console, eyes locked on Gebura. "I know we made it sound like something terribly noble, back then, but now that it's come to this, you know what it's really like, right? You have every right to destroy this place, and I'm going cruelly going to stop you, just because your outburst is inconvenient. The first time you're true to yourself, and I have to trample it down with force." Lilian laughs for all of three syllables. "That's what I'd like to say, but I'd have to be confident in my overwhelming superiority to mean it. For once, I'm not. So, from one woman who's taken too much shit to another who's still taking it, how about this?" she says. "Let's scream and shout and fight about what the fuck is the point of relying on no one so you can protect them if you're just going to hurt them in the end anyways, you fucking amateur."
Lilian Rook	Lilian closes the gap in one half-step; Gebura doesn't see the start, only the end of one, far too close for comfort. She catches a sharp exhale, a streamer of fogged breath, and "Tormáil in Aghaidh na Haille" as Night Mist rises through a blinding spray of sparks from the floor, reverses and flickers back down without in an instant, and rends the ceiling through to the floor and the back wall behind her in one soundless flash; followed by the thundering clap only after. "--ar Luas Lasrach Roinnte" There's no gap. No analytical pause and shift of strategy. Lilian pushes her forward momentum and surges into the space made by her sword. The downstroke becomes a glinting arc to her side, then a cross-stroke back. She accelerates to untrackable speed for the blink of an eye, and the light-smear of her sword-- the staggered trail of afterimages-- crashes into Gebura in rapid sequential aggregate. Lilian scrapes the floor molten as she slows, turning sidelong and drawing Winter Crow into a pounding barrage of magical gunfire to cover herself-- then she cuts a perfect right angle and jarringly diverts herself into the hall leading away from Control.
Angela	Gebura raises a hand against the cut on her cheek, running her hand across it. It's like it was carved into metal. No blood pours out. Despite her humanoid appearance, she's still a brain in a metallic shell. She focuses more on the lack of blood than the injury. "Even if I break, a body like this... I can just replace the parts. It's a suitable body for fighting the monsters forever." She doesn't have to say that a lot is pinned on Lilian being able to defeat her here. They both know it. What good would looping back even do if the Lilian can't overcome this challenge? Who else would be suitable? Even if there was, wouldn't spirits be so crushed that they might not even bother. In a sense, this is the last chance. There will be a lot of last chances to come. ''If you decided to drag this out, I might have been in trouble. But now that you're in the heat of the moment, finally, finally lashing out, it feels too good to slow down, doesn't it?'' "...It's a release. Like unclenching a muscle outside your body." She turns to look--and doesn't see Lilian--then when she appears she exhales sharply. It's a sign of the respect she has for the Commander that she doesn't immediately move in on her. WHether it's simply because that respect extends to recognizing her as a peer in battle or because their talks have reached her in some way is something she just doesn't talk about. "Reminds me of someone, that trick." ''So from one woman who's taken too much shit to another who's still taking it, how about this?...'' Gebura's eye stares at Lilian and she starst to say, "I've never protected anyone in my life--" She wants to say more but Lilian's already moving before she can finish the sentence. Yeah, Gebura, thinks, like her. Always popping up where you don't expect her. How'd you handle it again? It's been too long. Night Mist rises up slicing up to top. The Red Mist's body attempts to mitigate the damage by shifting it so that the Night Mist strikes the stronger points of the armor first--but Night Mist is a stronger weapon than a dagger. A scar rips open in the armor--the second strike strikes more firmly in an x-scar across the Red Mist's chest. She draws Winter Crow and Gebura throws a punching shockwave towards Lilian Rook--conveniently, perhaps, in an effort to push Lilian away towards the destination where she intends to go. She fans her hand out after, using Gold Rush as a kind of shield against the pounding gunfire. Lilian gets some space as she heads down the hall one way or another. She chases and those lightning traps activate! A surge of electricity courses through Gebura and she snarls in frustration but she doesn't slow down. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJOrisGgzc0 Between her running out of the main Control hub and entering the hallway, she has swapped EGO Gears again, this time using Smile (a massive hammer with faces and teeth) and Justitia (a long zweihander that she's wielding with one hand--covered in white cloth wrappings). GEbura is fast. She closes in on Lilian, swinging the hammer towards her side. There is no time manipulation, no space manipulation--she's just that fast--faster than she ever showed herself to be. The wind kicks up around the hammer--even before it makes an impact the displacement of wind inflicts cracks across the whole hallway--its epiccenter at the point behind Lilian. In a smooth motion she throws a kick for the side or back of Lilian's knee, depending what's easier to get at once she catches up. "Never protected anyone in my life," She says. "How were you able to? Don't tell me some bullshit like relying on friends. I know it ain't that. Because I killed and you didn't? I know how they see you, if they ain't talking shit..." The red eye gleams. "Then they're falling over themselves trying to be the one you can rely on, failing to see with their eyes at all."
Tamamo	As far as Tamamo's concerned, a drawn-out battle is better, but that's mostly for when she hasn't had time to make preparations. For her, this battle started hours ago. Most of her traps won't have a chance to activate, but it's within her calculations. Really, what matters is whether Gebura's calculations are something she can upset, in how quickly she chooses to spend herself. If it's just tipped over... Up ahead of Lilian are the disguised supply caches, all ready for her to grab and use. The energy-draining bindings are what she'd really like to use, but those work best when placed directly onto an opponent, which isn't possible from where Tamamo's still keeping herself hidden. The most she can do, from here, is arrange for more indirect contact traps to trigger. Paralyzing lightning curses, blasting, chaotic winds that lose one's footing, bursts of ice so cold they burn like the hells she names in their summoning -- they're as much to disrupt as to hurt, to slow and hinder and waste energy, to provide openings she knows Lilian will be much better able to capitalize upon, particularly for having seen Lilian use all of them before. Tamamo keys into the facility speakers for the fight's present department. "Forgive my eavesdropping, Ms. Gebura." She triggers a roiling flame trap in the same moment she speaks, hoping for a momentary distraction, but doesn't pause for it. Listening to her, it's as if she was unaware of her own actions. "But I could not help it, while my Lilian spends time with you. As she says, I have no doubt, you would be justified in destroying this place, and it is a cruelty to stop you. And yet, this is our path forward. It is not to us to yet promise a happy ending, but only that we will reach something that is not 'this.' On the rightness of this path," she silently triggers a slamming wind while Gebura's mid-step, "I have no concerns, for I do not plan to cease walking until a happier end is achieved." A pause, with nothing to punctuate it. 'How were you able to?' "Who was it you failed to protect?"
Lilian Rook	'...It's a release. Like unclenching a muscle outside your body.' "You're not used to that, are you?" Lilian says, in the instants before the storm breaks. -- Lilian flicks molten metal from Night Mist as she turns, grinding the Control deck to bleed off her momentum. A ribbon of glowing steel spatters the structural supports. She sights down the length of her arm, in the style of a duelist-- and then pupils dilate, her skin crawls, and she kicks off the floor between heartbeats. The gunfire comes as she side flips through the air, upside-down and rightside-up through the roll that just barely takes her out of the shockwave's range. The shriek of the continuous report drowns out the wake; the near miss whips her hair in the direction of the debris. Her fire is less accurate for evading, spraying the area surrounding Gebura as much as her, turning the wall into a hive of smouldering holes. The bullets spalling from her EGO weapon are appropriately solid gold. "Even on the backstreets, right? Even with all that freedom, it still demands your restraint. Your vigilance. Never to slip up or fuck up or lash out or do one thing wrong." Lilian's retreat down the hallway easily disguises the way she weaves around the trap in the smoke. She doesn't sprint at her full pace, and certainly doesn't turn her back on Gebura; she maneuvers around intersections and hairpin corridor elbows as if barely within the reach of gravity, using walls and floors along a near-weightless backward glide. It lets her fire on Gebura as she catches up; bursts of snap-shots instants before she fades around another obstruction. "That body, what it represents, is something I wished for, once. Not long enough, too. Back when I was so, so, so unbelievably tired, from cracking and breaking apart and pulling the pieces back together." Prolonging Gebura reaching her is a matter of tactical purpose, but it also provides time to respond to her in kind. "Always less and less each time. Little pieces of me left behind; dwindling self. Structural integrity forever compromised; less whole than before." Temporary at best. Lilian knew that before she came here. The recording gave her an idea of how fast Gebura is. She rounds the corner just as Lilian is venting Winter Crow. The horizontal break action spews searing aether like breath in the cold. "You know Persephone, right? How happy she makes Angela." Lilian says, slamming fresh alloy into the feed in the same motion as ejecting the binding rod; ping-clatter off the floor, at the end of a road of gold casings. "I hated her on sight. Just like Tamamo scared me out of my mind from the moment I met her. I was so deep in the dark that someone like her was blinding to me, and I couldn't see where I was going. I was so full of cracks that someone as whole as Persephone made me want to destroy her too." "I told Tamamo, over and over, I wasn't something worth loving. I slapped away Persephone's hand, and told her I was only an old crippled stray, unfit to bring into the fold."
Lilian Rook	Smile comes around from Lilian's side. A green glint paints where a saccade has acquired and memorized it, then returned to Gebura's center mass, tracking it by the motion of her arm and preparing for the second weapon. She drops Winter Crow-- and it attaches to her thigh as it falls. Her left palm impacts Night Mist's pommel, and the sword twists up over her head, hanging pendulum over her side. The wind parts over it. Lilian turns Smile's bulk up over the angle of her guard; shallower than she's ever held it, against force she knows she can't absorb. She's drilled herself on this a hundred times from the video. The hammer swings clear over her head-- and the blast from behind her launches her off her feet. The air is driven from her lungs. Lilian collides with the floor-- but pulls in her shoulder. The floor sparks from heavy contact with Lady in Black, and she tumbles to her feet. It's far from improvised. Breaking a fall is a foundational aspect of martial arts. She rises as Gebura throws the kick, and meets it with an instantaneous stop kick to the ankle; Lilian uses knee kicks all the time, so it's a lucky break. Already knowing she can't do more than interrupt the flow of Gebura's immense strength, Lilian springs off her shin and away from a followup; exploiting their massive weight disparity, and Night Miss crosses horizontal at Gebura's neck; a parting blow in retreat. 'How were you able to? Don't tell me some bullshit like relying on friends. I know it ain't that. Because I killed and you didn't?' "Killing has nothing to do with it." Lilian says. "It's not even principle. You can kill people because that's just life in the City. I don't, because I think I'm not a person who could stop at just once. That's it." Between motions, and impacts; words only in the gaps between thunder. Lilian touches down and reappears behind Gebura before she can swing Justitia. Night Mist flares at the hacking motion to the back of whichever arm Gebura leads with as she turns. Liian strikes with force intent on wedging the blade in; she lets her feet leave the ground to briefly shadow the turn, unholstering and firing Winter Crow into Gebura's chest at point blank for the instant it takes to be countered again. "I didn't even want to fucking protect anyone in the first place. The only reason I protected them was because I wanted to kill them." Someone like the Legendary Red Mist can glean plenty from the exchange already. Lilian can't beat her physical speed, so she burns power to intercept. The motions she can't see must be similar to something like jeet kune do or wing chun. She's relying on her sword to deal damage, and her firearm for support; she anticipates Gebura can deal with her gunfire easily, but can't afford to ignore it. She's studied everything that LobCorp has on file, so she knows the reach and speed of various EGO weapons by heart, and is only adjusting for Gebura's insane parameters in Meltdown. 'I know how they see you, if they ain't talking shit... Then they're falling over themselves trying to be the one you can rely on, failing to see with their eyes at all.' "The people I'm protecting fucking hate me back, or they would if they knew what I am. I don't think the result is any different from you and your charges caring for each other; the intensity is what demands your all, until you break."
Lilian Rook	She has no plans on getting stuck in, face to face; at least not yet. She'll run out of energy if all she does is run from Gebura around the facility, which means she has some sort of plan. The first few of Tamamo's obfuscated traps seem to be part of it, though only in hindsight, after several of them actually go off. Lilian knowing where they are already doesn't give Gebura any kind of hint as to where they are; she doesn't have to show her path if she doesn't want to. "Nothing I ever fixed stayed that way. Nothing I protected stayed safe for long. People I taught everything I knew went and ignored it. People I bled for went and forgot all about it. A thousand little humiliations, capitulating to everyone, begging fate, stretching myself so thin I felt like I didn't exist. Protecting people because you're the only one who can is hell, and it's hell because most people would die before they admit how badly they need you. They'll delude themselves to death rather than trust you." Lilian reaches the supply point-- and just before Gebura does, she tosses away a detonator, button already depressed. The floor and ceiling both explode inwards at the same time, catching Gebura between both blast waves and along the flattening shrapnel plane. A sacrifice made in advance; destroy some of the facility to save the rest. It gives her enough cover to retrieve half a dozen magazines, recharge some of her energy from Tamamo's ley-point, and fill the detonator slot with talismans on her harness. "You're 'the Strongest'. The funny thing about strength is that people only listen strong people because they're afraid. And it's basically trueism that rule by fear can only last for a little while; you have to scare them over and over to remind them, and it works a little less each time. I can't tell you everything, but I can sure as fuck tell you that the first time I really protected anyone was after knowing they loved me."
Angela	''Forgive my eavesdropping, Ms. Gebura. ... I do not plan to cease walking until a happier end is achieved.'' "Good for you," Gebura says softly. Gebura's foot is about to hit the floor-- --flame and wind come out at her. She leaps back to buy herself a moment of time before swinging Justitia. The path of the wind shifts and crashes down upon the wind, smothering the flames in a moment. Gebura crouches down. If she just lets herself get hit by every Tamamo trap, she'll be making it way too easy. She came into this expecting a duel, but Lilian is getting support from at least Tamamo, maybe more. Bullets crash around Gebura, barely perceptible flashes from Justitia writhing around her like a vorex. She can't deflect away bullets forever, certainly. Keeping Gebura moving is a good way to push on more and more pressure on her enemy. ''Who was it you failed to protect?'' "Everyone." Gebura answers, because she can in just one word. ''Even on the backstreets, right? Even with all that freedom...'' "You should know that strength demands chains." Gebura says as she chases. She certainly has a ton of stamina but every little bit wasted chasing Lilian is a little bit she's not going to have to deal with later. Gebura isn't fool enough to miss that, but her goal demands she simply get through it anyway. She doesn't immediately answer Lilian's words, since she feels like she's leading into something and interrupting it might mean that she doesn't get the answer she's looking for. ''I told Tamamo, over and over, I wasn't something worth loving. I slapped away Persephone's hand...'' "And that has changed? You ever strike at the world and catch Tamamo in the backswing?" Gebura asks around the time she swings Smile-- --and when Lilian catches her leg with foot, Gebura presses against it like she wants to push it through-- --Lilian springs before she can catch her. 'Angela was right. She is better at avoiding blows than me,' Gebura thinks. 'You didn't lose against Iori either, but that was a long time ago. How did you manage it? That's the key here.' She twists Justitia. Night Mist clashes against it and the force of the blow whirls past Gebura's hair, sending it blowing out behind her. ''I'm not a person who could stop at just once,'' "Guess I wasn't eithe--" Reappearing behind her, just like her. Night Mist digs into her left arm. It doesn't break, but Gebura grunts from the impact. THe EGO Gear does its best to resist an opposing idea from punching through-- Gebura swings Smile around behind her and Lilian is able to weave under the strike and catch her with another shot to the chest from Winter Crow, pushing Gebura so that she drops down into another crouch. 'She's not faster. Burning a candle at both ends. That's what she meant about a fast fight being better for her.'
Angela	So alternatives. Smile is just going to be too slow. It's excess power--but this requires precision. There's no difference if you smash someone to powder or if you smash them into mist. The Commander has studied her more than she was able to study the Commander. ''Nothing I ever fixed stayed that way.'' "...Yeah, the fight is forever." Gebura says. "And since the fight is forever ... you're only stopping because it's inconvenient, huh? You're ideal for a City like this, aren'tcha? That why you're helping Angela? Because she admits she needs you?" Smile vanishes and is replaced by Da Capo. Gebura throws the musical note-like scythe PAST Lilian as she reaches the supply point. Gebura reaches-- --The floor and ceiling explode inward against Gebura, covering her in fire, smoke, and debris. It's unclear if she fell through to the lower floor or not. She must be down in Training right now unless she leapt up to cling to what remains of the ceiling. Did she? She didn't. So she must have gone down. A line flashes across falling rock and out towards Da Capo. When the bar line rushes past Gebura as she flash steps towards the scythe she just threw, catching up to it in a literal instant, when Gebura swings that scythe back towards Lilian's side--the scythe strike is less painful than the sudden sledgehammer strike to the psyche that accompanies the blow. Lilian is trained for that, certainly, but the sudden shift from physical to mental assault might jar be jarring as she follows through with an armbar towards Lilian's neck, trying to keep up the pressure and force Lilian to expend more of her resources with every passing moment.
Angela	''The funny thing about strength is that people only listen to strong people because they are afraid ... The first time I really protected anyone was after knowing they loved me.'' This is the most vicious blow unleashed by Lilian yet. Gebura's discipline shakes as she's told this fundamental truth. ''I have never known that...'' This is a good opportunity for Lilian to do something as Gebura's movements slow just a little, the force behind her blows softens just a touch as something small but important pulls at her mind and heart. "Love..." She breathes out a pained laugh. "It always comes down to that. The ones I thought loved me stabbed me in the back, the ones I thought I loved threw themselves away." "...Who is it that loves me here? The ones I loved all had bigger aspirations."
Tamamo	'Just like Tamamo scared me out of my mind from the moment I met her.' "But oh, how well you hid it! Or is it only that you could not help but be attracted to danger, my Lilian?" Tamamo neglects to trigger a trap. Oops. Well, there are plenty more. 'Everyone.' "You would be the first to ever become as you are for the sake of 'everyone,' perhaps." The spikes of ice that fly from hidden points coincide with the sounds of Lilian's gunfire. "Did you promise to protect an 'everyone,' Ms. Gebura? I thought you a bit more... sharp, than that." Papers flutter off the ground, seemingly of their own accord, in the same space as sword and hammer strikes. A riskier gamble, but any that attach to Gebura will begin draining her will to move, and feel as painful to remove as if they were covered in needles -- despite not contacting flesh, and having no such thing. "Sharp, like a honed edge. One can become like so, for a single person, or for two or three, just as each knife in my collection is sharpened only for its particular purpose." Keeping clean sight is difficult at the speeds they're moving. Tamamo switches from one scrying device to another. "Perhaps you are different. Or, perhaps, you merely do not wish to tell me." There they are. "Perhaps I should have asked this on an earlier meeting." '...Who is it that loves me here?' "'Respect' is not enough, on its own, I know." Tamamo's voice is filled with sympathy, even through filter of the facility speakers. 'The ones I loved all had bigger aspirations.' "Bigger than the plans of this terrible place? I would hear of these, too, if you would tell." Tamamo's fingers hover over the part of her geometric design controlling a curse of pure, deathly misfortune, ink-black for the shroud of poisonous magic that it emits. She can wait for after an answer, and maneuver it to strike Gebura's back when next she turns to deal with Lilian's mobile fighting, only to there fall. It would be lethal, normally. It's made to be so. She hasn't been holding back. There's no particular contradiction in that she expects Gebura to survive it.
Lilian Rook	'You should know that strength demands chains.' "What do you think a 'code' is? Really. Defining what's right and wrong is something you do to curtain your freedom." 'And that has changed? You ever strike at the world and catch Tamamo in the backswing?' Hesitating at that question certainly contributes to being caught by the blast; in the gap between parry and wave. 'You're ideal for a City like this, aren'tcha?' "I said that when I first came here." says Lilian. "That seeing the world look as putrid as it feels, for once, wasn't that bad." Lilian merely leans out of the way of Da Capo, but she watches it pass closely. She won't waste her energy on attacks that won't hit, but she thinks too highly of Gebura to believe that she'd miss by accident; so it seems. 'That why you're helping Angela? Because she admits she needs you?' "Because Angela is like us. You. Me. Tamamo. People who are never given a chance; who have to stagger through life carrying everyone else's evil; taken advantage of, used up, lied to, never getting the only thing they want, because they shine too brightly and fit too poorly. And just like us, once she can't take anymore, she'll become the evil in the eyes of everyone who heaped it onto her, and be fucking burned in effigy to satisfy them." Lilian can't natively detect which way Gebura went. She's out of range of where she could quickly pin down her psychic profile, and her precognition doesn't tell her little details she wants to know like that. She's just starting to ping Control for the facility cameras, when Gebura appears beside her. Lilian turns at the limit of her reflexes, too slow, eyes wide, and catches Da Capo by the inside haft on the flat of Night Mist by her side. Gebura wouldn't space even something as unwieldy as a scythe wrong. She clearly stepped closer to parry the part that isn't so tricky. But the recordings don't show her anything invisible. They couldn't reveal little details like whether Da Capo needs to hit with the edge or simply make contact to have the documented effect. 'White damage' seems to unable to harm Lilian, but feeling the psychic blow contact her-- not 'defenses'; what is that?-- distracts her like any other surprise attack would. The armbar slams into her neck with the metal-on-metal sound of a hammer and anvil, caught first on the armoured collar. Black-gold burst from the impact. Lilian crashes into the floor hard, a strangled gasp muted by the crumpling of the deck plating underneath her. The force bounces off a half-foot back up, where she disappears from plain sight. Nothing touching any surface to propel off of, and no wake of magic. Just black metal shards in the floor dent. Another thing gained in the exchange. She's cautious enough not to allow Gebura a single followup; or possibly just frightened by the idea. She didn't fight like this against the Queen. Right now, she's acting as if she doesn't have to go all-in just yet. Stopping Gebura doesn't have to happen right here and now. But she's clearly trying to preserve her fighting condition, which means that she doesn't expect to decisively wear Gebura down with the weight of preparation either. A cough from the other side of the intersection. "Part of staying yourself is being selfish about who you protect. I'm fighting you to save Angela from you, but I'm fighting you like this to save you from bleeding out. I see that open wound that no one else does."
Lilian Rook	Lilian lowers her stance. A floor plate crumples up and slams the back wall, and Lilian is on Gebura from the other side. She swings a high feint at Gebura's neck, then active repositions grip to hilt-extremes and turns the blade aside to catch the crook of Da Capo in defense, twisting and pulling the scythe out of Gebura's hands-- Except Lilian knows she's too fast, and far, far too strong, and what she feels for is the instant Gebura throws her strength into resisting her; overpowering her, and she strikes the back of the scythe head instead, combining with Gebura's strength to throw her off-balance. A sharp metallic scrape, and impact to Gebura's chest. Not nearly strong enough to deal damage, but Lilian turning into the maneuver and kicking off to slam Gebura with her bodyweight is enough to lift her off the ground, and take the both of them down into Training. 'It always comes down to that. The ones I thought loved me stabbed me in the back, the ones I thought I loved threw themselves away.' "Yeah. People who could have done nothing and still had your endless adoration. Who have nothing to fear from you and no reason to hurt you. They're the best at breaking you." "Cleasanna Lilí Dubha ~ Lann Réalta Reathata!" The mutual fall terminates with a downward column of light and thunderous force that shakes most of the Training level from its epicenter. The dazzling radiance and sheer earth-shaking impact briefly register as the facility having breached from above; a meteor shot from orbit, deep into the bowels of the Branch. That slight, momentary lull in Gebura's aggression was all it took for Lilian to unhesitatingly capitalize with a technique from her highest circle. Fire and ash billow away from the crater where she lands. Night Mist glows with a steady bleed of stellar heat. A sharp combat exhale glitters with ignited particulate. Lilian looks up from the floor through the smoke, and the glint of her eyes somehow penetrates the smog and shadow with eerie clarity. Gebura wouldn't be defeated by just one decisive strike at Lilian's peak exertion. She has to look out for her counterattack the moment after. '...Who is it that loves me here? The ones I loved all had bigger aspirations.' And yet, Lilian's voice cracks, for a moment in saying "I don't know." Her breath in is shaky. "And Tamamo is right. The more you swing yourself around, the more you'll blunt. Isn't that obvious? That's how an edge fundamentally is. If you can't spare anything to sharpen when you wear down, someone else has to care enough to do it." Lilian's guard slackens. She paces out of the wreckage in a loose, wary, reactive kind of posture. "Believe me, please. You can't fight for everyone or forever if no one will take care of you. You can love yourself enough to fight for only a few, or you can fucking break spending all of yourself for nothing. Ask Xion, or Rita, or Tachibana; even Petra."
Lilian Rook	'But oh, how well you hid it! Or is it only that you could not help but be attracted to danger, my Lilian?' Given a moment's pause, Lilian lets the words finally sink in, and finds the energy for a grim, worried laugh; more visible in her shoulders than it is audible. "When you can't live with the way things are any longer, and you can't find your own way out, sometimes scary and uncertain things become intoxicating." "If it's obviously too good for you, even better. Either you fuck it up horribly and you finally know for certain, or you somehow manage to keep it and your reality finally budges." One single syllable of laughter. A sharp, self-effacing 'ha'. "Though perhaps my brain is a little bit melted. When you're strong enough to make things feel fake, perhaps only dangerous things feel real?"
Angela	It's pretty charming that Tamamo neglects to activate a trap because of cute romance but it's likely only Angela, once she reviews the footage, will make the connection. The Manager has his hands full trying to stop Chesed from filling the corridors with gas that is augmenting every threat in the facility--everyone else too, but what usually matters more in a Meltdown is endurance more than power. Despite technically helping everyone, there's a decided slant in how CHesed is helping that benefits Gebura and the monsters more than the others. ''Did you promise to protect an 'everyone', Ms. Gebura?'' "Promised to protect the people fighting for Carmen's dream. Why else would she reach out to me in the first place." Gebura says, sounding annoyed that she has to clarify. "The ones we call Sephirah now--they're the ones I failed to protect. I couldn't protect the Disciplinary Team because I couldn't leave this place. One by one I saw my people fall for another world. We beat the odds and we still lost half our team. I don't expect anybody to remember their names but me. I could've sent those R Corp fools in but we figured they'd shoot at Rita if we couldn't keep a firm grip on 'em. Y'know, for a time I forgot who I was." ''Respect is not enough, on its own, I know.'' It's the sympathy in Tamamo's words that reach Gebura more than the words themselves. "You had an easy time finding respect, but love was harder to find. That's why you hold on tight...Is that it?" Gebura asks. "...Yeah, makes sense." ''I would hear of these, too, if you would tell.'' "...Aside from Carmen... T'be honest, it should have been impossible for me to reach this armor. The seed's not been planted yet. You saw the footage. Mimicry... had it before this facility. How's that possible... if Angela ran the tests that created Nothing There...? ... It must be because she was simply repeating the experiment to me every loop so I would never forget."
Angela	The poison should kill anyone. This eroding toxic magic feels like an old ungentle lover. In order to fight properly, Gebura still has to feel the pain. She can feel pain that humans should never feel in this form, pain that should usually kill them without breaking. The only thing organic left of her is that brain inside that head of hers--and it is as Tamamo expects, Gebura only feels the agony. She does not fall, of course. The one thing the tapes showed of Gebura more than anything else was the tenacity. Lilian reconfirms once again that strength demands a code, that she is well suited for The City. That the Red Mist's own words can still find some purchase on her opponent even though she is happier and has that love feels perversely good and Gebura feels a little sick for having said it--but she isn't in a position to hold off her words. Did they promise they wouldn't hold off on their words? Maybe not, but they more or less did as far as Gebura was concerned. The battle isn't just between their weapons--not to say that they are communicating with their fists, of course, it's more that their communication is part of the arsenal that they are wielding. Their fists aren't words, rather their words are fists. It's easy to mistake the two. ''Because Angela is like us.'' "I see a bit of every Sephirah in her. I suppose we basically raised that kid even if we were half mad at best." full mad at worst. Gebura witnessed Lilian's resistance to mental assault. There is absolutely no way that she expect the mental assault to have an appreciable effect--that armbar is what she was aiming for. "The mind will protect itself before the body." Gebura murmurs, like a reminder to herself as much as a statement to Lilian herself. Before she can followup, Lilian vanishes. Yeah. It's just like that snake. Different power, same effect in how it's fucking with her. No wonder she immediately got the vibe that she was strong, that she was dangerous, that she was someone she could talk to.
Angela	Gebura isn't the Queen. She does not control legions nor has she entered this battle certain of her victory. She probably reads more like Kana or, if you want to be uncharitable, Miller than that alien. Once, someone tricked her into being human again. And then they became a Bucket. Her mind drifts towards Rita for a moment, knowing she is fighting elsewhere in the facility. She didn't/did want her to see her like this and she wasn't really sure why. Maybe so she could understand that there's something of a monster in her too. She remembers a world that saw her as meat and she fought to eat instead and impossibly she didn't die even though she should have a thousand times over. Maybe she... ''Part of staying yourself is being selfish about who you protect.'' "If the ones you are selfish about die, you get to the point where you're willing to take anyone." Gebura admits quietly. She realizes she was distracted from giving Tamamo her answer--or maybe it's just a real tough story to start. "I'm sure you see a lot that nobody will ever see. ... It's not Night Mist or magic that makes you strong, it's that eye of yours that can ''see''. Your power just lets you use your eye to its upmost." ''They're the best at breaking you.'' There's nothing for Gebura to admit but a quiet, tired, "Yeah," of agreement. She's thrown off balance--maybe by this admission as much as Lilian's physicality. Through one of many accumulating holes in the facility, the two of them tumble down into Training. Mikey, who is fighting a large rooster turns his head to look at the two of them. Then he (and the Abnormality) are thrown off their feet by the SHOCKWAVE of Lilian's attack. Mikey hits the back wall hard. The Abnormality, already weakened from fighting Mikey, is killed and turned to its Egg Form but Mikey remains. He is pummeled by flying dirt and pebbles, his hair is blown back like he got struck by lightning. His EGO Suit gets ripped in numerous places and he's just kind of working his mouth silently, unable to speak. Gebura, her armor cracked in numerous places, the black armor hot from the impact of such energy that she'd be cooking in her shell if she still had flesh. As it is, Gebura feels like her brain is overheating, that the rotting flesh is burning in her somewhere. She hacks and coughs even through her helmet. Lilian is not wrong to expect a counterattack. Nothing There swings out, expanding and slicing out further than any sword could as she goes for a horizontal slash towards Lilian's midsection right as her guard slackens. The slice digs a furrow into the Training Department's walls before it even can think about hitting Lilian. The eye of the blade wiggles around and turns to look at Lilian. There's Nothing There but it'd like her to think otherwise. Gebura's hair is burning a red energy, not even really hair anymore. Flakes of EGO Armor fall off of her as she slowly pulls herself into a stand--that massive strike was not nothing.
Angela	"I believe you," Gebura says. "I'll break if I keep fighting like this." She slides a leg under herself and turns to look at Mikey. "Uw...Uwa....Wahhh....!!" Mikey screams in terror, though and just BOLTS for the Safety Department. "I'm sorry, good luck Dame Commanddeeeeerr!" Not every Agent can be a badass or have grim resolve. Mikey holds onto survival until is nails snap off, but that's all he's really capable of. "Didn't get a chance to answer your question, Tamamo." "...Once there was a man named Christopher. He had a wife, named Isabelle. And a child. I won't burden you with the name." Gebura exhales plumes of red. "Christopher, he was happy to be chosen. He knew what would happen to him--he wasn't an ideal subject so there wasn't any way it'd be a happy ending for him. When we performed extraction on him... That creature that Kukuru is so damn in love with, Nothing There, was all that remained. They wanted to see if he could still remember his loved ones. So they sent in his wife. They sent in his child. All that was left of that kid was her blanket." "Christopher entrusted me with Mimicry. Before he went under, he asked me to wield this. ...For some reason or another, this is the weapon I'm best with." Gebura admits. "He asked me to serve the project to this end. And why did I care?" She exhales slowly. "Because he didn't speak to me like I was a hero, he spoke to me like I was a human. We had real...real conversations." "...You wanted to know, didn't you, why Mimicry? That's why." Gebura twists that blade back, readying another strike. "And that's why...Even as I'm breaking... I won't drop this sword, even as I turn to dust."