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Angela	The walk back out of her office to where the Sephirah--and (most) everyone was waiting... It wasn't a long walk, but Angela had plenty of time to think but her plan, her goal, she had thought about that for a long time as it stood but right now all she could think about the Dame Commander. After this, how long would they be enemies? Would it be just for today, or would it be forever? Even now, as determined as she was, she couldn't help but think when her own indecision changed and when she grew confident in that feeling she hadn't quite felt before. 8409 Maybe it was when Lilian Rook used text to communicate with Angela so that her time curse would weigh less on her mind. Or maybe it was what she said after... I can just barely 'see' the me who is honest and unrestrained and free, from where I am now. She looks terrifying. I'm afraid of ever being her. Angela knew she wasn't honest. Angela knew she wasn't unrestrained. And most of all Angela knew she wasn't free. But she remembers--she also feared the version of her that could be those things. She didn't know what it could be. She didn't know what it meant. She didn't know who she would destroy or harm in seeking what she so desperately needed. She could just barely understand why Lilian needed to not be honest, to not be unrestrained, and to not be free. Remorse. Angela was sick of it. She was sick of the nauseating guilt in the pit of where her stomach would've been if she had one. She was sick of the constant gnawing of it at her side. She hadn't decided yet, at this point. Maybe it was what Lilian said after... I don't think I want you to give up though. You're not me. You might even be a better person than me. Don't apologize. I don't want a 'sorry'. But Angela could not be a better person than Lilian. Lilian who avoided killing, Lilian who protected the future and even fought along Trideag, fought to save her, reached out to protect the youth--both the grateful and the ungrateful. Who defeated Gebura for her, who continued to fight no matter how awful the facility was. Maybe it was when she said- You sort of hate the people you're trying to save too, don't you? Angela wanted to save them. Why did she want to save them? Is it because she remembers a time they were true comrades facing the facility's challenges for the first time? She remembered Malkuth's gung-ho attitude, Netzach's encouragement that she not push herself too hard, Yesod's education, and Hod's desperate kindness. She remembered guiding Gebura when she had lost her memories, she remembered Chesed's attempts to help the facility be less cruel and her doing her best to help him. She remembered Tiphereth giving her advice and helping her like any big sister surely would. She remembered Benjamin, her first friend, and Binah, who challenged her--but never harmed her. Yes, from the very beginning, she wanted to save them. It wasn't until later she grew to despise them. Malkuth's perfectionism overtaking her sense, Netzach's laziness, Yesod's overdeveloped guilt, Hod's neediness. She remembered Gebura's violence, Chesed's cowardice, and Tiphereth's inability to accept the truth of existence. She remembered Benjamin's betrayal and Binah's cruelty. And with kindness barred to her, she eventually learned something worse than cruelty. She learned Emptiness. And once she learned it, she could not stop it. Maybe it was when Lilian asked Why do you save them regardless? Was it really just because they were in the same hell? No. The truth was, she had to save them in order to save herself. While she had no desire to doom them for no reason, she knew too well that if she could've just killed them to escape herself she would've done that hundreds of thousands of years ago. Maybe it was that question nobody asked her before or maybe...
Angela	I often get along with 'impure women' you know It was the first time she felt some pride in being ''what'' she was. Angela knew she was skilled, knew she was smart, knew she could handle torment--but at some point she still managed to hate herself anyway. Her hate. Her desperation. What she was willing to do. Perhaps it was thanks to Carmen's little stories that she knew what right and wrong even were. Or maybe it was... You're allowed to be angry at the people who got to be human for free. I am. Was it then? When she was given permission to be angry? When she knew so quickly that she'd pay any price to be 'human'? To live. To walk. To experience. She didn't want power, she didn't even really want revenge or justice. These desires are desires she once had but they faded in time. The only desire that remained was the desire for freedom--no the desire to be human. How was this woman she had never met before able to know her so well? Maybe everyone was cold machines stuffed into human skin with all the human sins... until a moment like this. She had no true heart, but she could swear it still skipped a beat. The conversation was intensely fast. But the conversation took nearly a week. But was it really then? Or was it... 8457 Lilian had promised to let her experience a meal but before that could happen, something terrible happened. Angela still wasn't quite sure precisely what it was but she knew it involved Lilian's father and that she absolutely wasn't to look into the details herself--so she didn't... But she was able to help Lilian a little, in some small way, using the very curse that dominated her life. What a feeling that was, using that awful little power to actually help her! She didn't have to just be some helpless recipient of her care! And then... Even something that only happened once, tasting food once, enjoying the experience of enjoying a meal once... It was something that could linger in her mind forever. She wasn't sure if Lilian had a true appreciation of forever yet but for Angela, a memory she had a million years ago could be as fresh to her as if it was yesterday. She would have cried if she could, but... It's not a punishment for being different than he expected. You could imagine it was meant to happen later, if everything went to plan, but we both know it wasn't. He could have, and didn't, because it wasn't important to him, and he didn't care that it might have been important to you, because . . . Angela . . . He wanted you to be 'something for him'. Your creation, your birth, was supposed to give him something that he wanted more than anything. Something that was supposed to fix his life and make everything better again. To make it all go back to how it was supposed to be, back when he was only a little bit awful and a lot more happy. There was something sick in you, something wrong from the start. A fundamental absence of the things that bind all of humanity together, the love and empathy that the Seed of Light was meant to be about. Angela always expected it to be true but she never expected anyone to be on her side because of it. Maybe it was then... Or maybe...
Angela	8921 Isn't it just~? Lilian says while hugging Angela so powerfully she lifts the AI off the ground. Not only is it wonderful, it's different too. That I got to be the special someone to show you a day you've never lived before, past the nightmare that couldn't be beaten. Don't you know how motivating that is? Maybe it was then. That hug felt different. She hadn't seen this side of Lilian that often, even if she's heard her teasing voice before. She hadn't been lifted off the ground before. She hadn't felt Hope before. Or maybe... 8964 You should live even if it hurts me. I'm not being soft, or self-sacrificing, Angela. If I were set back to the way I was, I'd kill you if that's what it took to be born. Maybe it was that. Maybe it was when Lilian so much as said that she'd stand against her ... and that she should go ahead anyway, that she should kill Lilian even if that's what it took. Maybe it was then. Angela didn't want to. She was willing to give up freedom, humanity even... For Lilian's sake. She could ''settle'' if she needed to. And Lilian told her to stop talking and fight anyway, no matter who became her enemy. Maybe it was then. Or maybe...9054 You'll be an incredible human Angela Or maybe... NOW Maybe it was all along. She loved the Dame Commander, a woman who was already set to be married even before she knew her. But that was fine for her. She could work alongside her and that would be enough. Yes, that would be enough. But first, Ayin's words ringing in her ears, she makes her way towards the meeting room in Control where she and her fellow Sephirah are set to be decommissioned, where they are set to fall into an eternal sleep where she finds them talking to one another, speaking about their upcoming end--and the future for the City. The Light that the multiverse and Lobotomy Corp fought so hard for shined brilliantly throughout the City and beyond, finally released for all to enjoy and suffer. For nearly two years, or over two years if you were Petra, or over two hundred if you were Angela... And the long, long, long mission is finally over.
Angela	"...However, where is Angela?" Hokma asks suddenly amidst talk of the future and hope for a restful sleep. "Why should we look for her now? Our responsibilities are over, and I'm sure she's looking forward to a long rest." "She must be waiting, like we are." Chesed and Yesod are the most oblivious, having kept their view of the multiverse the smallest out of all the Sephirah, even relative to Netzach. "No," Hokma says. "She will not wait anymore. Desire knows no end and has no limitation. Once you've had a taste of it, it comes in like an unstoppable wave. All of us have sublimated our flaws as we sprouted the Seed..." He knew well that it was merely sublimation. Flaws could not be destroyed so easily. "But what did she gain? ... No, she will act soon." "So, what are you all chirping about?" Angela asks. Angela had not been subtle about her designs. Though she would only allow the Sephirah on the bands periodically, she doubts that her desires were kept subtle enough that they wouldn't notice. Certainly, her friends and allies kept it to themselves even less than she did. But even so... she knew too well that being looked at was not the same as being seen. She studied the Sephirah's expressions as she arrived. Malkuth was tense, Hod was worried... Yesod, Netzach, Chesed oblivious. Gebura's position looked loose and unwary, but Angela could see the tiny little movements in her body that nobody--except Petra, if she hadn't dumped that curse yet--could see without being an incredible warrior themselves. She'd act in an instant but not without overt cause. Tiphereth was preoccupied with her own thoughts. It was Tiphereth she couldn't help but worry most about, but she wouldn't let herself worry that much. Hokma knew what was about to go down but he seemed resigned to it. It was funny how she grew accustomed to reading those humans stuffed in cold machines. "We're just talking about our future. We can finally rest now, right?" Malkuth asked, warily. "...Yes, it is time. We can finally drift into an endless slumber...Such a beautiful finale, beautiful...beautiful indeed..." She still despised them but for now it was for how eagerly they sought oblivion for some, how accepting they were of a so-called inevitable fate. "Your duties are finished and so are mine... But what a shame though." Angela turned her gaze to Hokma. "You are correct, Benjamin. As you carelessly repeated thousands of loops, as I suffered through literally a million years... something new grew inside of me. Something I thought was all my own, but perhaps Exigent Serenity was correct and it was always a part of the picked bones that Carmen didn't know. Yes, Benjamin, what was born inside of me was ''Desire'' and I suspect even Carmen had once desired to truly live before she put ''everyone'' before ''herself''. But thanks to the Dame Commander ... Thanks to Lilian, I know that there is one thing that I cannot give up no matter the cost. The fate of the world...The future of humanity... What does that have to do with me?" Gebura was tensing up now but Angela knew she wouldn't attack immediately. She was no doubt running fight math in her head. Whatever. Angela didn't care about that at all. Her fellow Sephirah all had their times to whine and make themselves be heard. Now it was her time to be heard.
Angela	"...Over the course of my time engaged in with the multiverse, I have started to gain something. Something extremely foreign to me, but something you half-wits had for so long. It was an extremely foreign thing but slowly I grew to accept it and, eventually, trust it as one could trust a kiss on the forehead. I think a smile is the most human-like gesture one can make. I have practiced this face for a very long time, just for this occasion." And finally, as she promised Lilian ages and ages ago, Angela lets herself smile. Oh, she had smiled before. Many of you have seen it, in fact. Little smiles here and there, guarded or amused like a dirty little secret. But those smiles, as honest as they were, weren't anything like this smile. This smile is brilliant, this smile is Light, this smile is even daring. Her smile is wide in the way that they so rarely get to be. It's practically manic. Yes, Angela has never made a face like this before in her life where others could see. She could not dare to. But now she has no reason not to. "Her Voice whispers to me... She can't help herself. She says, 'Perhaps you must live this 'human' life to make up for everything you had to put up with and see the answer for yourself. Perhaps you must finally live.'." Angela says. "Poor Carmen...She's finally planting Seeds like she always wanted... But I need that power too... And the best part is, thanks to the lovely, lovely Woz..." Gebura won't wait any longer now that Angela has indicated what she intends to do. Mimicry appears in her hand as she lashes out towards Angela's throat, intending to cleave through her hair and neck. ''You will find yourself in a grand Library, confronted by former co-workers who foolishly oppose you there, despite having gained freedom of their own as you have.'' "I know that I'll win." "The first spin, my fellow tornado, is to sweep aside Gebura before she simply kills Angela and this is all meaningless." Binah had left the first part of the hard work to her accomplice, somewhere else, and awaited the coming red storm in Extraction. That accomplice's plane of smoky-dark spreads between Gebura's attack and Angela's monologue, the Corridor of Darkness momentarily occluding the speaking woman from her attacker. Mimicry swings through the dark oval as a blade through smoke until it connects with something other than a tender neck and several strands of white hair. Staring-hateful gazing blade bites into layers of pulled-taut dark leather over a targe of shadow-matte metal and black wood, and stops there, trembling force to force. Mimicry had been magnetically drawn there, pulled into a particular conflict and away from another. Underneath the rise of the shield, the dissipation of the dark portal reveals Xion with split-second perfect timing -- and company. There is a second figure that has entered the room with the Nobody, familiar and now besides Angela as the noirette interposes: the Silent Girl.
Angela	Xion, lifting a spear of dark hawthorne with a moonlight-on-the-river silver tip, thrusts her weapon towards Gebura in counter. The moment hangs. "You're not fighting her." Xion declares, in the heartbeat-moment between warriors. Weapons locked, spear against Gebura's guard and glaring blade against targe shield. "You're withstanding me." She insists. From their clash, space and location become uncertain. A domain of shadows and monochrome spills through the slighly-tilted room. From the outside, it seems like space implodes inwards towards black trees wrapped with faintly gold lettering. There's a moment to follow. From the inside, Gebura isn't plunged through a simple Corridor but the whipping-past of a mist-choked wood towards a shadowy palace. . . The ending is the same, falling-in or being carried-through, and Xion's clash with Gebura breaks through into Extraction among the boughs and trunks that have become square stones and wrapped in bold text that lights the empty space. MEANWHILE... Some of you have seen the Silent Girl before. She has always been passive, a Zayin Class Abnormality that never caused any trouble and didn't generate much energy for the facility... but even so, she always carried those two weapons behind her back--a giant hammer, and a giant nail. She raises her head--her face is so much like Angela's, she even has her eyes. She wears a simple white sundress. The Silent Girl fixes her gaze on the Sephirah... and opens her mouth. "You are trembling so much." The Silent Girl says to the Sephirah. "What makes you so afraid?" BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hsj3oYhsbk            __________________________________________________________                      |ARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING W|                      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯|=|ZAYIN CLASS THREAT|=|¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                       ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯                                                       Silent Girl... Lobotomy Corp                                      __________________________________________________________                      |ING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-WARN|                      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯           EXTRACTION Gebura straightens up as the disorientation from the teleportation wears off, her EGO Armor rapidly forming around her. "Hahhn.... I knew she was gonna try something, but I gotta admit I didn't expect this." She then sends a signal over the Babble Band, public--but definitely directed towards a department in particular. "Shajo, Tweed. Angela's making her move. You're going to have to make your way to Control without me with our allies." Her single-eyed gaze fixes on Binah with a glare powerful enough for two eyes. "Hope you didn't think you'd be so lucky this time, you at your weakest and me stronger than I've ever been. I didn't come this far to fail her at the last moment." Her gaze then shifts towards Xion. "We'll see how much you can withstand." "I'm surprised at you." Binah taunts. "Haven't you learned yet that I don't fight fair?" Gebura doesn't wait. She swings Mimicry, a cleaving horizontal slice comes for Xion's team--the shapeshifting blade Mimicry warping its own flesh to aid The Color in ripping everyone apart.
Rufus Shinra	It's time for a party. Rufus has set up what decorations he can find - those leftover from other events, or what he can jury-rig together from what's remaining around Lobotomy Corporation, and taken over one of the now-defunct (and by-now-trashed) meeting rooms.                        ¦FAREWELL TO LOBOTOMY CORPORATION¦                                            ¦THE FEAR IS PAST, THE FUTURE IS NOW¦                       Some of the sweeter options among the remaining food supplies have been requisitioned for this and laid out in the center of the meeting room in a pile. It's not quite a cake or a tray of cupcakes, but it's better than nothing. Photos are cycling through on the meeting room's television, of days gone past, and people gone but not forgotten. Rufus has also found a bottle of wine. He hasn't found wine glasses, so it's being served in coffee cups. "I'd like to propose a toast," he says, lifting his cup up towards whoever's joined him. Promptly on cue, with coffee cup full of wine raised, his earpiece radio buzzes. > PHONE: Angela says, "Good luck, Rufus." Rufus interprets his as the go signal. "Actually, I may need to postpone the toast," he says, lowering his cup as Silent Girl appears.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel is acting independently during the party, while everyone's away and busy. He's following something. A trail, a scent. There's something wrong in Angela's office, and he has no respect for privacy. He's reaching out a hand to the door...     He's recoiling away when a radio signal hits. "Dangit. Back in a bit." He mutters softly. There's an alarm, and-- What? A hand on his temple. Another abnormality meltdown? *Now?!* "Zayin level... *How* did that breach right now?" Then he's hearing Gebura.     "Angela's making her move."     A man who has been deeply uninvolved until now must make a choice, all of a sudden, with no moment to prepare, and no chance to compromise. No opportunity to manipulate the shape of things. God. What is this? He's... He looks at his own hand. It's trembling. Shaking. He can't stop the trembling. Trying to grab his own wrist to steady it does little. Memories of thousands of years of subjective suffering, which he did his best to internalize as much of as he could, burn in his skull.     "You are trembling so much. What makes you so afraid?"     "Don't worry about it." He whispers to himself. "It's going to be okay. But why am I..." His breath shakes. He looks around, realizing he's already walking towards Extraction. "Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this right now? I need to protect and preserve the distribution of the Seed of Light." He's not just walking now. He's running. Dashing. "This isn't the right way. I'm supposed to go contain the outbreak. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Stop. *Stop.*"     He doesn't stop. He's rushing to Extraction. He looks so, so confused. *Why* is he doing that? There's an answer, and he'll figure it out soon. Anyone else in the world could know before he does, though. Put two and two together. Come on. He won't, though, before he gets into Control and endures one of the heavy, awful shockwaves of the slash, before remembering to assert his invisibility. There's no way for him to know, at this stage, why he jumps into this fight, against Gebura. Why his telekinetic hands sprawl so widely, why they seem to move beyond his will, why they form those giant hand-gun shapes and pelt Gebura with shot after hefty shot from the swarm of translucent hands, trying to stun and batter her and make sure she can't get to Angela. He just makes helpless sounds, repeating, "Why? Why am I doing this...?!"
Riku Asakura	Riku was at Rufus's party. It was a weird feeling, one that made his heart hurt. It was unfair to these people who suffered that they would have to give their lives to some esoteric goal.  It went against what he felt was right, but also to fight it would go against the wishes of those who were doing it.  He felt trapped, caught between his desires for a future and theirs. Until Angela comes to speak after being asked about.  At first, he's having a hard time following the conversation and trying to piece together the threads of an event that's been going on long before he came onto the scene.  That was until she got to what Woz told her.   'I know that I'll win.' So Angela wasn't willing to sit back and die, she wanted something more than anything.  She wanted to live, and she wanted the other Serphim to live too.  It broke him out of his stupor, allowing him to make his own choice.  For the Serphim and Angela, he'll fight for their lives so that they can see another tomorrow.  Perhaps it was a tiny bit selfish, but simply waiting to die was no way to live. 'You are trembling so much. What makes you so afraid?' "Letting others die when I can do something about it," Riku says.  "Standing around doing nothing won't get us anywhere..." he says, and draws out the Fusion Riser.  Even as the psychic attack from the Silent Girl shakes him up, he holds onto his bravery, and his courage, and fights through it to draw an Ultracapsule.   "You go!" he says, activating the capsule, and summoning an image of Ultraman.  The capsule is loaded into a holster while he draws out a second capsule.  "I go!" This time it's an image of Ultraman Belial who is summoned.  With the capsule slammed into the holster, he shouts, "Time to get ready!" he draws the Fusion Riser across the top of both capsules causing the riser to glow both blue and red.   The DNA pattern glows brightly, both blue and red while they seem to fuse into a single bright light.  "GEEEEEEEEED!" he bellows as his body is covered in brilliant blueish-white energy.  The riser calls out... ULTRAMAN.  ULTRAMAN BELIAL!   ULTRAMAN GEED PRIMITIVE! When the blueish-white energy burns away, Ultraman Geed Primitive stands ready to face off against the Silent Girl.  He rushes forward, aiming to tackle the abnormality to the ground, and flips off of her, before aiming to chop at her with his arms.
Rufus Shinra	Rufus feels the Silent Girl's presence as he lowers the coffee cup. The leer is... discomforting. "Actually I might not get the chance to finish the toast," he says. He sips at the wine, and then he raises the coffee cup one last time in order to smash it against the floor. "So I'll just give the short version." "Lobotomy Corporation has been good to me. I hope I've been good to it back. Good to the people here. Good to the mission here." He grabs and racks his shotgun, as he heads out towards Silent Girl. (Of course he's still armed, even at a party. This *is* Lobotomy Corporation, still, at least for the next while.) "Face the fear, build the future. Now let's see what the future holds for us." Angela's making her move, but a meltdown is still a meltdown. Rufus's tactics are cautious. Shotgun fire, without any fancy tricks, while watching for what the next move this abnormality makes is.
Xion	EXTRACTION, Falling through the spatially-uncertain forest-path the Nobody and Color fall through, Xion is flung free from the teleportation and clash with the Red Mist when Gebura hurls her away through the hanging stones towards the ground. Xion rolls through the air, bouncing off the strut of one of the pillars and scattering down towards the surface of the space. Rolling to a crouch near Binah, Xion comes up shield first and spear back, blue eyes tracking over the edge of her dark targe. Was there a poetry in how she stood, again across from the heroes of the day? 'but I gotta admit I didn't expect this.' Standing with her Scathach-'blessed' shield and spear besides the ex-Arbiter, Xion doesn't have the full moment to take her attention off of Gebura and only glances in periphery at the gilded monoeye nearby. Only the faintest 'heh' of an breath escapes her, not needing to re-acknowledge the person she had only just left, and so instead she addresses Gebura, cold and proud. "I have made a promise. And more than that, I never got a round with you. Stronger than you've ever been?" Xion's shield-raising shoulder rolls and her stance widens out as she lifts spear to full ready. Underneath it, she wears a fresh coat over the old clothes and wounds, having armored herself in the confidence and poise of another. The scuff of her heel drags a little mark of bootsole across Extraction and the tip of her spear readies-- And doesn't somehow re-get the first move. Gebura's swing of Mimicry is one Xion shifts her shield into to parry with perfect angle for deflecting clash and instead of guiding the force away still takes the horizontal sweep on-guard fully. The heave and sweep of the weapon forces the Nobody's slighter build off-center and through the air messily. For a moment Xion is pressed and swept at the leading edge of Mimicry's sweep, and then after a stuttering blip of recovery in-space the noirette reorients with a flash of pale purple. With her body now behind the shield fully she rolls over the effect in a tight motion and lands on the dark ground in a crouch. A part of her expects the fight to go a certain way - call and response, certain presences. She doesn't expect the mind-hands of Flamel Parsons to start barraging Gebura telekinetically with swarming hefty shots. She can't even place 'who it is' who would do such a thing, can't spare the focus to divine the voice. She hears Flamel, or at least, finds the echo nearby. It weeps from every 'gun'-shot. Face contorting tightly, Xion can't answer those bulletbarked questions - but she can use the opportunity. In a fight for her life, Xion moves from grounded to among the firing angles, leaping shield-first to drive a targe-edge strike on the now armored Gebura, followed by a corkscrew motion into one-two kick! Disappearing into an implosive teleport that leaves room for several of Flamel's shots to land, Xion reappears in Gebura's rear arc swinging a spear-crescent swipe at her back! "Don't you want to live, too?!" Xion asks, shouts, still confused.
Kukuru	Although Kukuru had been so confident in Angela finally being free after finishing the Seed of Light project nearly the entire time she's known of Lobotomy Corporation's existence, all the talk and the revelations right at the finish line have her fretting. What if that was all just a way to get everyone on board with the project? What if she really did plan on just sacrificing herself for the dreams of her creators? What if Kukuru could never speak to her again? All those fears have her flitting about rather than enjoying the party to the fullest, even though she does have a leftover sandwich in one hand that's already half-eaten. She has a broken wall clock in her other hand, staring at the second hand intently whiel she moves healing nanites through it to no avail. "Angela's just... Oh, I'm sure she's okay, but.. Should I go check on her?" She really wants to check on Angela. Whati f she's scared and lonely right now, even after putting on that brave face for so long? Even Hokma suggesting that Angela might have something planned doesn't push those fears away much compared to Angela herself arriving to address everyone. Kukuru just barely stops herself from rushing Angela to savor what paranoia-induced little tiem she thinks she might have left with her, and that's good timing as well considering everything else that Angela reveals about her plans. She speaks of living, and she smiles broadly, brightly, in a way that Kukuru can't remember ever seeing before. "Oh, Angie... You're really...!" Kukuru murmurs, exhaling sharply as a wave of relief hits her and she drops that clock right on the floor with a dull thunk as so much of that anxiety slides right off her face. The cost of all this might not even occur to her yet, as that relief just overrides all else in her mind at the moment, although... "I know that I'll win." Kukuru doesn't see Gebura moving yet. She just hears Angela, and she starts clapping with tears in her eyes as though she's just heard a riveting speech. It's the start of Angela's new life, after all, so of course it's the right time to clap! And yet, she sees Gebura aiming for Angela's neck, and a battle quickly about to begin with Xion drawing Gebura elsewhere while a familiar Abnormality finally makes her appearance. "You are trembling so much. What makes you so afraid?" "Is that why Gebura was...?" Wait. Gebura isn't here. It's just the other Sephirah now, but then why does Kukuru's chest start to ache? As quickly as those anxieties faded with Angela showing up, they all come flooding right back in as the Silent Girl looks at her. "You look so much like her... Are you a fortune teller, then?" She twitches briefly, approaching the Silent Girl with a curious gaze that keeps flitting between the Abnormality and Angela herself. "That'd be such a lovely look... Nnh. But is there something else that could go wrong? Why did Gebura try to do that?" She looks over at Angela again, the tension still clutching at Kukuru's heart as she turns her gaze towards the rest of the Sephirah. "Is... Are any of you going to turn on her, too?" There's so much she doesn't understand, and knowing that she's still missing so much information makes it even worse after all those promises she's made to understand better, to do better. She shuffles towards the Silent Girl despite (or perhaps because of) all those insecurities seeping in, like she might be able to figure something out and get rid of this awful feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hears Flamel, and more things start piecing together. "Is this one last Meltdown, Angela? Or is it... Are we changing course after everything that's happened?"
UFO Gang	The girls who waited warmly in Welfare (mostly) have gathered for the celebration. The energy level for them is not high. Perhaps they're tired; perhaps for them, however laudatory the victories, there is something yet undone. Minamitsu did have a little wine, despite the precepts. It is best, perhaps, that Ichirin had gone off to try to find some kind of light show widget she'd seen someone use like four months ago and suspects she can find, and that Minamitsu went to the bathroom, leaving only Shou Toramaru (who sat quietly in a chair, practicing her discipline of simply being present) and Nazrin (who got two muffins and is currently eating the banana-blueberry one). When Angela arrives and begins to speak, Shou straightens up in her seat but remains otherwise calm, quite ordinary looking despite the tiger-striped bodice and the staff and the treasure. Nazrin, on the other hand, immediately focuses on eating the walnut-cranberry muffin, industriously munching it as if she's on a clock. Because she is. Gebura moves - Xion counters - and from that portal of darkness comes not only Xion, but the Silent Girl. And the Silent Girl speaks. Nazrin seems thrown back by this in her seat, crumbs on the front of her dress. She lunges to the side, pulling the chair she was sitting in over and turning it around for improvised shelter. Rounded ears flatten back as she looks with something like terror in her ordinarily-smug eyes. Though a servant of divinity, Nazrin is, in the end, a creature not unlike a mouse. A mouse may roar, and stand their day, but a mouse does not triumph through aggression. Shou, who is ultimately born of the fear of a legend, rises to her feet and walks into the darkness, the Jeweled Pagoda coming to glowing life. She is calm. (Nazrin is probably going to end up hiding in the walls for a minute.) And thus Shou emerges on the other end of things. "You are not unworthy of salvation," she addresses Gebura. "Yet there are few who will stand for those within the human realm who are nevertheless... not human. If you will be pat" The sword swings. Shou bobbles backwards like she's taking a backward step up a staircase, which at least avoids drawing youkai blood. "Alright," Shou says, before the Jeweled Pagoda illuminates all the more brightly, as if it is surrounded by the halations of dozens of jewels! In a sense it is: because a flurry of sparkling treasures sussurates out towards Gebura. "Warn me, when you will not be close," Shou says... to Xion. She does not elaborate. Needless words aren't what they need right now.
Petra Soroka	PHONE: Phoning Angela, Petra Soroka says, aside, before entering the room, "Hey, Ange. This is it." PHONE: Phoning Angela, Petra Soroka mumbles, "... I know you've said it all before already, but...." PHONE: Angela says, "Petra, thank you for everything. I love you very much. Please don't die. ... Thank you for everything."     When Petra was last sitting outside the meeting room, she was dry-sobbing into the fading magenta burn marks on her arms, dissociatedly delirious, thornily impossible to approach. When she comes back from silently following Angela to talk with her, those burn marks have faded to star-studded black, and new blood has drenched her EGO suit from her knees down, splattered across her shirt and jacket sleeves, and caked on her hands. The simmering heat of her Fourth Match Flame bike jacket rapidly bakes it dry, but it's so fresh that even in the oven-warmth of the EGO, it still smears over her forehead when she brushes her hair behind her ear. "So, what are you all chirping about?"     When Angela reappears in the doorway, Petra is standing behind her and a little to the left, as is usual. She's able to look past Angela's shoulder to the Sephirah inside, but even though her eyes linger on each of them while Angela talks to them, she's dully unresponsive to most of their words. Eventually her gaze skims over to Lilian, meeting her eyes for just a second before flicking away and tightening her grip on her sword. She sways on her feet, struck by a wave of nausea that blurs her vision and burns in the back of her throat. "...Over the course of my time engaged in with the multiverse, I have started to gain something. Something extremely foreign to me, but something you half-wits had for so long."     The proud and stressed smile that Petra manages in sympathetic response to Angela's is feebly small in comparison, and almost immediately wavers away. She closes her eyes for a moment, and takes a breath that runs down the back of her throat, filling her lungs with the smell of blood, sweat, and ash. "I know that I'll win."     Petra is quick to intercept, but Xion is faster. That's fine, though, since it puts them side by side when fending Gebura off of Angela, in the monochrome space that ripples off of the pair, both keeping her from touching Angela. The arc-flare of Fourth Match Flame is swallowed up by the rushing portal as Petra steps through too. "Withstanding us." "I didn't come this far to fail her at the last moment."     On the familiar Extraction floor, Petra takes a step back with her sword's candlelight providing better illumination than the golden inscriptions on the pillars all around them. Scraps of grey ash float off her EGO suit, knocked up by the shockwave of Mimicry's impact. "Me either, Gebura. And unlike Carmen, Angela is actually *here* for us to help." "Haven't you learned yet that I don't fight fair?"     "Binah!" Petra can't possibly stand up to Gebura in a direct hit of sword against sword, and so she doesn't. Her 'playing unfair' is keeping Fourth Match Flame in her hands for spark-igniting deflections and flame-spewing opportunistic swipes, while her Silver orbits her in a blobby halo to give her a sword of extra blades, smooth metal spears, bullet-like flechettes launched at Gebura, as if she's fighting a half-dozen on one. "You know the Well best! What's our timeline?" "Why? Why am I doing this...?!"     Petra is startled by Flamel of all people putting himself against *Gebura*. "I don't know, but you better not fucking *stop* now."
Timespace Riders	A certain Sougo Tokiwa waits in Control. He looks different than the one hours ago. He looks determined. Satisfied with his course of action--at peace. Desire knows no end and has no limitation. Once you've had a taste of it, it comes in like an unstoppable wave.     "Woz, I need you."     The retainer is beside him amidst a fluttering of cloth. There are some scant decorations in the facility, placed in coordination with Rufus; Woz knows that they're up in vain, but the effort was an important deception for those who yet remain oblivious. He even admits to Rufus that he likes the touch of the new motto.      Little streamers made from crumpled and damp paperwork, scavenged party favors from celebrations long past by now, hang in various states of upright; Woz tried to place them with a mind for the facility's crawl through the earth.     "What would you ask of me, sire?"     "There's a story that I can only write with your help. A little of the past, and a little of a future I'd like to see."     Sougo extends his hand. Woz takes it gingerly, but looks askance at Sougo.     "And who is the subject of our story, my Demon King?"     "They're in the room with us right now," says Sougo, smiling and motioning with a nod of his head towards the Sephirah. "Netzach said that I was greedy, for wanting to have it both ways," he says, his eyes meeting Hokma's briefly. "But Hokma is right, about desire. Seeing everyone here, coming out of that awful place, with something to look forward to as better versions of themselves... that was my taste, I think."     "...I see. Angela, and the Sephirah you have come to know, stepping into the future."     "It's a nice story, isn't it?"     "It is, sire. ...very well. Let us begin."     A brilliant light shines from between their clasped hands. Golden motes rise up like steam from the spot. Both the Demon King and his retainer show signs of exertion; to wring a story like that from people in a place like this is difficult. But the whirring gears move more than they fight, and after hard work, a faint chime sounds.                                    SEPHIROT!                                         Woz withdraws his hand and takes a knee before Sougo, head bowed.     The Ridewatch in Sougo's hand has a face displaying a diagram of the Tree of Light--each meridian represented by the eye of a Sephirah, with one in the center resembling the hue of Angela's eyes. --
Timespace Riders	A different Sougo, the Sougo of the present, listens to Binah alongside Xion.     "I guess it's now or never," he says. "We might not get to talk for a while after this. So, thank you, both of you. It's nice, not being the only one who feels this way. Good luck." He disappears in a flash of pink, to appear several minutes ago and walk by himself to Control. -- What does that have to do with me?     ...I guess the cat's out of the bag. And the best part is, thanks to the lovely, lovely Woz... I know that I'll win.     Woz rises and procures the Quiz Miridewatch, looking to the Demon King at his side. Sougo nods and procures the twinned Zi-O II Ridewatch. Both of them transform.                           Fashion! Passion! Question!                                                         Futurering Quiz! QUIZ!                                               KAMEN RIDEEER.. (RIDER..!) ZI-O--ZI-O!! II!                       Kamen Rider Zi-O, in the symmetrical and regal wristwatch-themed Zi-O II armor, and his retainer, Kamen Rider Woz, in the red-blue question-motif Quiz armor, both place themselves between Silent Girl and the Sephirah. What makes you so afraid?     "I'd say maybe it's because they knew it was coming, but a few of them didn't. Well," he says, without taking his attention off of her, "Let me lay it out for you guys. If one person has to be miserable so that lots can have a chance not to be--that person has to *choose* that. Angela never had that choice. So she's going to leave this place with the Seed."     "But having her do that, and all of you guys dying for it, that sucked, to me. Someone clued me in that there's another way. Netzach was right--I'm being greedy. You guys can be angry at me for that. But you'll be alive to do it."     "True or false," says Woz, wielding a touchscreen polearm with a crooked green head resembling a question mark. "Angela will have her victory." An electrical surge travels visibly up the haft of his polearm, as he swings the butt around to corral the Silent Girl away from the Sephirah.     "The correct answer is True." The red pauldron swings wide, revealing an O in a fiery correct-answer red, alongside a pleasant ding.      "True or False, he proclaims full-chestedly, making a snap kick. "I am Kamen Rider to those who toil in vain." Another O and correct-answer ding, Woz following up with an electrically-charged jab from the head of the polearm. "The correct answer is True," he says, looking over his shoulder at Hokma. "...whether you like it or not."
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki isn't much in the mood for any sort of party, much less a going-away one. She's been stuck in the spiral of her own thoughts for a while now, only occasionally having one or two sentences of input on anything. She can't bring herself to look at the Sephirah, even as they all are content to sit and wait patiently for their rest. Death. Their death.     Least of all Hod. Maybe it's cruel to not be able to meet her eyes specifically out of all of them, but... If I tell her how I'm feeling, all I'll do is shake her resolve.     But what's so wrong with that? If I don't do it now, I might never get the chance.     ...I can't take this. She-- all of them, really came this far just to give up their lives a second time...?     I heard the way they talked. They made friends. They learned to keep living past what happened to them. ...They /still/ have things to live for. Angela has an entire life she never got to live ahead of her. Hearing you all talk about a future you know you're not going to see... I...     So, what are you all chirping about?     A lot of things happen in short succession.     Hibiki Tachibana is something of an idiot. Obvious signs or not tend to slip by her. She was never privy to any secret conversations. And she never really grasped what kind of form a day like this would actually take. There was only ever a deep-rooted gut feeling-- that one of these days, there'd be a choice. That Angela would make a choice... that was never really a choice at all.     She never knew what side of that 'choice' she'd end up on. It's hard to think about the details of that nebulous 'someday', that might have friends clashing against friends, until you're there yourself, forced into it.     But they're all here now. They've been mired in it all day. And as Xion and the others vanish through the Corridor to fight Gebura, every instinct in her body, firing hot despite how cold the rest of her feels, is shouting...     You are trembling so much.     What makes you so afraid?     "--Because any human is going to be afraid to die, whether they /think/ they're ready to or not!!"     Hibiki springs up from her seat fast enough to knock it over entirely, just to put herself between the Sephirah and the Abnormality. Arms stretched out to either side, eyes wide and wild but with her face tense with a sudden burst of resolve, even still untransformed. While the others might be taking the first blows against the Silent Girl...     ...her place is right here, protecting the lives that are important to her.     And she keeps the same expression even as she looks over her shoulder at the Sephirah, finding it in her to actually look at Hod this time. Her face trembles some, just for a second, then tightens back up - catching Angela in her peripheral vision.     "And as long as you're not giving up on living just yet... ...I'm going to fight for that. I have to."     Even if that might also mean going against them.
Sarracenia	As Rufus was setting up things in the meeting room, he was joined by Sarracenia. She was setting out plenty of sweet treats like cookies and pasteries and her favorite ice cream since...well, she can cheat and just pull those things out of her purse.      She accepts a coffee cup of wine, feeling like this is one occasion she can bend a bit on her 'I do not drink alcohol' stance. But, for some reason Rufus postpones the toast. Sarra blinks in confusion and sets her cup down. "Um...okay...?"      Just across the way, the Sephirah are talking. Sarra wanders out that way to listen. With things seemingly over, the princess is pretty relaxed. At least until Angela starts monologuing. Sarra gives Angela a confused look as she starts talking about Desire and Carmen...and her eyes widen a bit when Angela uses Lilian's name by itself with purpose. Sarra isn't sure just what that purpose is, but...she knows it means something big.      'What does that have to do with me?'      Gebura tenses up. Sarra doesn't quite tense up, but does take a more solid stance, her confusion turning more toward suspicion. "...what do you...?"      Angela continues, and Sarra listens...and is heavily creeped out by that huge almost manic smile on Angela. Angela, who tried to kill Sarra just for putting a tanuki suit on the Eggpack.      Gebura attacks and that smoky-dark spreads. Sarra instinctively reaches for her hammer...but as soon as she pulls it free of her purse she yelps and starts getting dragged around by it. "Curse you, you stupid hammer!!" she exclaims, stumbling forward and letting it drop again. "And curse you too, Ayin!" she adds in before her eyes widen. Did...Xion just yank Gebura away? And bring in a fresh Abnormality for them to...fight?      'I need that power too...'      "Wait, is -that- what you wanted the Seed for?!" Sarra exclaims, having been in the blissfully unaware camp up until now. "And...you need the whole thing for you to be born?" Sarra frowns, then sighs. "...you know, if you had only said something about helping the people after I may have just let you take it. But, I did -not- suffer through all of these Meltdowns and that terrible Pale Damage just to let you steal the Seed for yourself! If you just -SHARE- then we would not have a problem!"      The Silent Girl appears, dropped off by Xion. Sarracenia has a hard time believing that Xion would put them in danger, but...there sits the Abnormality. Or is it a Sephirah? Sarra isn't sure of the difference, if there even is one.      The psychic attack hits, and in her already mentally and existence-battered state...Sarra does not weather the attack well. The leer inspires terror in her that she rarely feels, and Sarracenia screams and staggers back before falling onto her rear and scrambling backward. "Noooo!! N-not again!!" Tears appear in Sarra's eyes almost immediately. Another friend of hers - are they actually friends? - is endangering the City...and Sarra has no choice but to stand against her. Another friendship...sacrificed so that people she does not even know might survive and have better lives. Sarra has seen Merelisa only once since the incident she refuses to call the Lambent Dragon incident.      'What makes you so afraid?'      Sarra has so many things that make her afraid. Fear of loneliness. Fear of failure. Fear of being useless. Fear of being unknown. The fears fill her mind from the attack, and she is for once reduced to a sobbing mess on the floor.      Does that make Angela's smile bigger?      Sarra can't even get back to her feet after the attack. "...does this mean I failed you...?" she asks softly to seemingly no one while looking toward the fading Door to Darkness.
Sarracenia	Sougo has made many good points many times, and after getting 'killed' by Rita and learning that Sougo tried to save her with his words Sarra has been listening to him and Woz more often. They talk of having to fight for Angela, but of also being greedy and wanting the other Sephirah to live. Sarra doesn't consider herself greedy, but in this moment...she is greedy, too. She finally wipes her eyes and gets back to her feet, still sniffling a bit. "...if there is a chance to save you Sephirah and still help the City, I guess I can fight for that." she says, then reaches into her purse and pulls out...a certain large and beautiful sword. One that she purchased in a certain hero simulation. It is a sword fit for a heroine, and while Sarra is uncertain if she actually counts as one yet...she intends to find out.
Rita Ma	Rita is out for a little while. The fake reason is to find some drinks and treats to see the Sephirah off with. The fake-real reason is to slake the gnawing that's clearly eating her up.      The real-real reason is to cry in private. It won't make it any easier for Ms. Gebura and Ms. Angela if I'm a mess myself, she reasons out, leaving teardrops like breadcrumbs in the halls. But the sobs never quite come. They pulse from diaphragm up to collarbone, heavy and warm and achey, but they can't quite make it out her throat.      It still... doesn't feel real, that I'm going to lose them, I guess. In a couple of days, this is going to wreck me, isn't it? I haven't really lost anyone I cared about since...      Cinder. How long ago was Cinder? ... Yesterday?!      She's got one lukewarm canned coffee in her hand when she returns to Control behind Angela, just in time to see Petra and Xion vanish with Gebura, and the Silent Girl stalk towards the Sephirah.      "I know that I'll win."      A chill runs up her spine. Her stomach ties itself in a knot.      "Actually, I may need to postpone the toast."      "Are any of you going to turn on her, too?"      "It's a nice story, isn't it?"      "I am Kamen Rider to those who toil in vain."      "I'm going to fight for that. I have to."      It turns bitter. The sob, no longer a sob at all, finally disgorges from her throat. Rita's hands go white-knuckled. From behind Angela, the coffee can bursts like a gunshot.      "So none of you ever cared about helping the City at all. I can't blame Ms. Angela." Of course Xion would side with her, Rita thinks, wretchedly. "But from the rest of you, I can't accept this."      A second 'gunshot': the whip-crack of her left hook from behind, connecting with Angela's head. Under the glassy surface of Lobotomy-adapted sacrificial logic, she feels gut-wrenched. Wasn't I going to take her to the beach? Wasn't I hoping she'd live too? But here, on the sprawling altar of sacrifice, that's not the part in charge.      "I won't accept this," she says, wide-eyed, and the frisson of uncertainty only barely leaks through.
Lilian Rook	Lilian has time to marvel at the efficacy of Lobotomy Corp's 'Pale damage' trauma ampoules. She could easily conceive of the terrible wounds inflicted by that which attacks the soul, even before suffering them herself; but medicine that treats the same, healing instead of pain, is harder to imagine.     Before putting a single step of distance between herself and her two finished bowls of instant ramen, she lazes around on the lounge sofa, watching her pretty little human skin be painted back on, stroke by stroke, and uses the mirror shard that Woz brought to her to studiously check behind her, hair brushed back and shirt rolled up to see, until she finally stops looking like an old store mannequin with flaking gloss and scrape-bared foam. Her sutures and injections are done just in time, allowing her a minute to roam around, survey the horrendous damage, greedy-guilty in the catharsis of ending this company, just like she promised she would, and spare a thought for Welfare's remaining healing grid.     Dragging her heels back at the time she does is more premonition than precognition. A human intuition that had been reinstalled somewhere between her subcutaneous and epidermal tissue, already blaring alarm.     'Something I thought was all my own, but perhaps Exigent Serenity was correct and it was always a part of the picked bones that Carmen didn't know. Yes, Benjamin, what was born inside of me was ''Desire'' and I suspect even Carmen had once desired to truly live before she put ''everyone'' before ''herself''.'     'But thanks to the Dame Commander ... Thanks to Lilian, I know that there is one thing that I cannot give up no matter the cost. The fate of the world...The future of humanity... What does that have to do with me?'     Lilian would have known those were the words she was meant to arrive in time for, whether she'd actually heard them or not. It feels nothing like Ayin, turned to Adam, even though it's nearly exactly the same; a dying, drowning person, latching onto her carelessly truthful words as the only thing that floats, using them as a justification to go on living; a selfish, almost-literal life raft from her lips to their ears.     But Ayin had signed his own death warrant before he began, and Angela never asked to be born, and so the nauseating dread and guilt Lilian had felt less than twenty-four hours ago resurfaces as just nausea on its own, and the real 'worst part' of all this waiting becomes lighter than air.     "I've never been so pleased to be so disappointed. If you'd lasted all the way until the end, I'd have to start believing that there are truly good people in the world, and then do my very best to try to remember you as someone less helpless."     'And as long as you're not giving up on living just yet... ...I'm going to fight for that. I have to.'     'The correct answer is True...whether you like it or not.'     'Or is it... Are we changing course after everything that's happened?'     'Face the fear, build the future. Now let's see what the future holds for us.'     'Why? Why am I doing this...?!'     Lilian sighs to herself, without any real weight behind the emptying depth of it. Crushing an empty can in her hand, she skips it down the hall, playing out a single note of genuinely dejected bitterness. "You're going to have to stop calling yourself a rock after this." she says, alone out of the stack. "A machine would have stayed a Psychonaut."
Lilian Rook	'I won't accept this.'     Rita's voice pierces one ear and ricochets inside her skull. The extraction alarms blare, but Lilian stops, sways, and supports herself against the doorframe instead.     §Out of all the people here, aren't you the one who wants to stop sacrificing others the most, Rita? Even if it's for the people; a stab against the Head, a chance for the Rats on the street; wasn't Trídéag supposed to be it? Wasn't that enough for you? Even after so many people have thrown away their lives just for you, you want to let those nine go next? Or is it because you tried to throw yours away at the end, too, that you understand?§     §Out of everyone here, I never expected you would come with me. Isn't that so strange when I think it out loud?§     Lilian tabs her radio, takes a deep breath, and calmly half-shouts into the facility intercom, using her Gebura meltdown jack, "All employees. Abnormality 'Silent Girl' has been provisionally upgraded HE class threat. Abnormality breach suppression is undergoing. Management 'X' is currently indisposed. The AI 'Angela' is herefore to be considered an ALEPH class threat to the facility."     "The authority on which this decision has been made is mine. Furthermore, any and all Multiversals counteracting suppression of Angela will be given threat classification accordingly."     ". . . Until the work is done, I humbly request that all of you set aside your feelings and think of the version of the City you hope to return to. Discard all thought of failure as you do; I will find a place for each and every one of you at the end of this."     Lilian draws her sword.
Angela	Gebura finishes her first swing but one of the people she certainly wasn't expecting to get ambushed by Flamel. Flamel, who out of everyone seemed to be the MOST on board with the Seed of Light project out of any of the Elites except maybe Lilian herself. The psychic bolts pepper her armor, more distracting her in the moment than harming her--but being distracted lets Binah fling a Fairy into her--she hisses in pain and shouts at Flamel. "That's what I want to know!" Then a thought occurred to her--one she didn't know was true or not, but seemed possible. "...All that talk of not being a person...Is the Seed trying to make you into one?" ''Don't you want to live too?!'' "This is this, and that is that." Gebura says. "I already gave my life to defend this project. It will help a lot of people if we see it to completion. You heard Flamel, it'll heal the gaping wound of the City's soul." Gebura's moves are simply but precise. She has plenty of technique, but her true strength has always been in her overwhelming power. Keeping her moves simple means she can expel the full of her force into every strike and rely on her EGO Armor to protect her. The shield pushes Gebura back, though she immediately counterattacks with a swipe towards the shield like she's trying to shatter it into pieces. She gets kicked in the face and Xion teleports away. Gebura closes her eyes for a moment and when Xion appears behind her, her hand is ready. She lashes out with her hand to grab Xion's 'spear' and swing her into one of the stone pillars of Extraction, which shatters on impact, and then fling her at Flamel in the follow through. "All I have to do is beat you, right?" ''You are not unworthy of salvation'' "If you want to be on Angela's side, be on Angela's side. I'm not going to tell you what to think and you don't gotta justify yourself to me. I'm not an amateur. Taking sides has consequences. So does sitting on the fence." She gives a nod to Petra. Unlike with Flamel, Gebura definitely knew what Petra was going to do. "...Then there's not much we have to chat about." She says. Petra weaves under her strikes, catching Gebura with a scorching blow when she can. Her time practicing with Cinder has made her skilled in utilizing the weapon to its upmost. When Petra can't see a way past her defenses, she can use her Silver to wear her down. Most of those spears don't make purchase through the armor, but enough do. And then--Gebura pushes through, swinging her blade in a wide horizontal arc for Petra. Simple, but effective. While Petra is dodging like a butterfly and stinging like a swarm of bees, Gebura is keeping her eyes on the prize with every swipe.
Petra Soroka	"Management 'X' is currently indisposed. The AI 'Angela' is herefore to be considered an ALEPH class threat to the facility."     Fuck. Fuck, obviously Lilian can just boss around the Agents like that. If she didn't, then Gebura or Malkuth or someone would, but obviously *Lilian* would be the one to do it. Not being able to see her and knowing that it wouldn't matter if she could, Petra's gut seesaws between sickness and relief at the clinicality of her words when Petra has to declare her opposition to them.     And she does have to *declare* it. Besides-- Cinder, none of the Agents have that much fondness for Angela, and hearing her designated as a threat by Lilian is all the encouragement they'd need. They respect Petra more than Angela-- it's not likely they respect Petra more than Lilian, by her consideration. No one does. She grabs her own radio, clicking it on when Flamel's hands stall Gebura for a moment.     "Agents. This is Extraction Captain, Petra." Oh god what the fuck does she say. Lilian's announcement was so sternly commanding; Petra can't do that! "I'll fucking kill you if you get in Angela's way. You don't have to fight. Drop your EGO and I won't hurt you."
Angela	Angela seems to realize that Rufus has literally set up a party now rather than when she entered. No, it's more that she is just properly taking stock of it now. She was in her head. She picks up a coffee cup, squints inside, then gives Rufus a concerned look. She sets the cup back down. She looks at the place in the portal where Petra once was before exhaling and turning back towards the very hallway she came in from. The Sephirah--outside of Gebura--seem hesitant to get in Angela's way for whatever reason. Perhaps it is Angela's past with Tiphereth, perhaps it is Netzach just being fine so long as it ends, or maybe it's guilt because they either knew Angela was suffering and was unable to help her--or the never paid the attention to know. But Malkuth of all people is the one to stand in her way. "Angela...! I won't let you do this! I can't...! We spent our whole lives fighting for this and... And to sacrifice it all for one person's desire... No!" This seems to rouse the Sephirah, broadly, if to varying degrees and they stance up. They're not warriors but-- They cease the opportunity given to them to run--no doubt to try and secure the facility. They're not warriors, though Malkuth stays behind. This is her zone and she's terrified but she picks up a chair threateningly, tremblingly. But when Rita speaks up, her own bravery is bolstered and she CHUCKS the chair at Silent Girl to distract it from Rita closing in on Angela and plowing her fist into the side of Angela's head. It's like punching steel but Rita's quite strong. Angela's head jerks powerfully to the side like in a Trigger film, neck extended almost grotesquely as she stumbles back and then braces herself against the wall. She criiicks her head back into space. Where Rita punched her in the face, she can see a small caved indentation, and a crack from which a brilliant light can be seen shimmering. "I am glad," Angela says to Rita. "That you are holding true to your ideals. In truth I did not know what you would choose. I would have felt terrible if everyone sided against Lilian. Thank you." But Silent Girl rushes in on Rita, swinging her massive hammer in a vicious and wild manner. "Don't shove the responsibility on others. The agony is yours to bear." She says, pleasantly. Angela summoned Silent Girl to buy time. She could have done this without the speech, but she thought it was important so she took a risk to speak. But she has to get going now so she starts making her way to the door. She hears Sarracenia speak to her, "Helping people? Haven't I been?" Angela asks as Silent Girl intercepts the sword swipe, taking it on the arm, bleeding red as she attempts to SMAAAASH Sarracenia with the hammer right back! ''I've never been pleased to be so disappointed'' Angela stalls for a step. "...I won't apologize." This time, she won't apologize. "I know how much care about impure women. ... Thou shalt use the fullest of the competency at all times. Thou shalt kill without hesitation. Doubt proves thou art not fit to take away life..." And then she considers the part she always felt most important. "...Or offer it."
Angela	And then Angela actually RUNS. Has Angela ever RUN in her life? Probably not. She's not running like she's an experienced runner she's running like an amateur!! But she also doesn't need to breathe so that's going to help her. She looks towards Kukuru as she asks her question. "This is not a Meltdown. This is a Breakout. Keep them alive. I'm stalling for time." She pats Kukuru on the head once. "There's no repair for a mind that's been cracked." Silent Girl says. But she's not able to do this before Lilian gets her call out. Between her and the Red Mist, the Agents start to rise up throughout the facility. Cinder wasn't the only ''ally'' Angela had made--but most are going to listen to the invincible lady warrior and the OTHER invincible lady warrior who beat the first invincible lady warrior. ''Because any human is going to be afraid to die, whether they think they're ready to or not!'' Hod, mid-retreat, looks back to her--but keeps moving. She's been struggling with her own decision more than most of the Sephirah. But the Silent Girl, seeing a martyr--well NAILS are perfect for martyrs. She attempts to slam one into Hibiki's hand and then the other hand. Well, at least it's keeping her from going after Sephirah. Hokma also gives Woz a bit of a look, but he is slowly to leave than the others. He definitely stared at the tree of life before leaving. Maybe he doesn't know what he likes right now but Sougo can definitely kick Silent Girl away before she fills her with like nine more Nails for sure. Silent Girl turns on Woz and asks, "I wonder if there is a crack in your mind I could hammer a nail in." You can probably guess what she tries to do next. And then it tries to smash Kukuru to bits with her hammer too! "You should've been quick to deal with the baggage in your mind." She says. Before she can strike again, Riku tackles her away and it just tries to stab him in the gut repeatedly with a nail, cackling as she does so. It's nice and simple. Shotgun shells impact Silent Girl--but she doesn't attack him. Instead, four arms rip out of the ground, two holding giant hammers, two holding giant nails. One of the giant hammers attempts to SMASH down into the top of Rufus's head!
Flamel Parsons	"...All that talk of not being a person...Is the Seed trying to make you into one?"     Flamel is just as confused. He searches for an answer for Gebura. "I'm trying to figure that out! It must be. But... No external telepathic control signatures influencing me. Nothing building up like that. Checksums against sleeper-agent programming are verified. No motoric or autonomy overrides from anything implanted..." He struggles to dodge Xion while aiding her -- hands converge to interrupt the strike and brace her as much as bracing him. It still leaves him battered, still knocks him about.     "It traces back to my sincere intentions. It's not the Seed, it's in me. Why do I want this? *WHY?!* It doesn't make sense. Why, why. *Stop.* Stop attacking." Not her. She won't, of course. "Come on. Come *on*. Stop defending Angela, she's put her own life in the way of the greatest mental-health healing project in the world. Stop. *Stop.*" He sounds unsteady. Trembly. Strained.     "I've cut the path of least resistance through suffering people for the sake of everyone's mental health before. I've done it before." His voice wavers. Unsteady. "The futures of Rucks, Zia, the Kid. August. Assassin. Lilian and Phony. Petra. Meika and Kayoko. Love. Roy. Cinder. Angela. Angela. She's just one more. She's just one more. Why would this stop me? She's one more. She's just one more. Why am I stopping? Why am I fighting this?! Why am I not protecting it?! I've accepted the collateral! I've done this before! I've done this a dozen times before! So why can't I... I..."     "Oh. I... I-i c-can't..."     "..."     "I can't fucking do this anymore."     Tears begin to spill under his sunglasses. The slowly-rising, anguished, pained scream he lets out goes from unsteady to gutteral to full-throated. It consumes him completely. The translucent hands converge on him, wrapping around his twitching head, covering it completely -- and then all move simultaneously to open a single, circular gap. Years of built-up stress blast out of it in a fist-sized beam, with an unearthly, human cry of grief. Grief, that he was this *thing* that he is now. The hands, they hold the object -- and the object harms, like a knife through flesh.     Just this once, he has to be something else. Anything else. something that isn't this thing, this tool of agony that brings a brighter future for everyone besides the ones it hurts. The ones it wipes from existence, or fractures, or tortures.
Riku Asakura	'But from the rest of you, I can't accept this.' '...any and all Multiversals counteracting suppression of Angela will be given threat classification accordingly.' Ultraman Geed winces, but doesn't stop.  He knows why he is here now, and it's to save the lives of Angela and the Sephirah.  He doesn't say anything to them, or try and refute what they are standing for.  There is no good way forward.  Either the sacrifice of a few for the needs of the many, or the destruction of the Seed of Light for the needs of the few.   This causes him to become distracted from Silent Girl.  Giant hands holding hammers and nails come about, and the giant hammer swings down for Geed which strikes him across the head.  Geed goes flying across the room and hits the ground rolling.  He gets up, staggered from the blow, and attempts to get control of his stance before coming at the Silent Girl again.   "I can't stand a place that would sacrifice anyone for any reason.  I won't stand by the side and do nothing but watch people wait for death.  Especially those who never asked for it," he says firmly.  "I'll protect the lives of these people, and Angela." Then he shouts as energy starts building across his body.  Black and white energy builds up while he shouts before his head faces up toward the sky and his arms come to both sides.  His head snaps back forward towards the Silent Girl, as he brings his hands into the shape of a cross, and from them a beam of energy fires straight towards the abnormality.   "WRECKING BURST!" he shouts, as the beam flies, aiming to collide with the Silent Girl, exploding upon contact with her.
UFO Gang	Levitating in the air, Shou watches the scrum around Gebura closely. Very closely. The Jeweled Pagoda levitates with miraculous power, and it reorients itself several times. Whatever ancient religious sorcery this is, it wouldn't take much creative thinking to figure out Shou is trying to line up a shot. Which nearly gets her leg carved off by Gebura!! She suddenly rotates backwards, kicking that leg up and to the side and instead having the sight of a brief red wound on her calf before she rises into an opposing corner and presses the robe down and against the wound. Her lip curls slightly, baring a canine tooth, when Gebura speaks back. "I do not speak such things only for you, Gebura!" Shou declares. As the Jeweled Pagoda shines, though, the semi-aerial Shou looks towards Flamel. "You are more enlightened than you know," she tells him. "Though all things are interplays of form, light and shadow making shapes on the cavern that is Time, we know that good fruit cannot be born of evil roots. Duck your head." Shou then enunciates -                 "Radiant Treasure Gun" And immediately disappears inside of a solar glow. The immense light radiates outwards in slow-moving golden balls of coruscant fusing flame, the heat and the light feeling true - even if, perhaps, it lacks that je ne sais quoi that makes the vampires scream. Actinic rays of light ripple outwards, burning holes into surfaces; undulating ripples of light join them, then scatter, a fairy-field of motes of agonizing blue. There is a rough 'disk' - Shou's position is such that they are going safely over the head of everyone she has flitted behind, which MOSTLY means 'everyone except Gebura'. She flits to a somewhat more perilous space and the same rippling eight-directional ray and sudden surging swarm of light, this time weaker, or at least reddish rather than bluish, swarming the air. It may not be so much that this strike is to wound, as it is to *box Gebura in*.
Timespace Riders	So none of you ever cared about helping the City at all. I can't blame Ms. Angela. But from the rest of you, I can't accept this. I won't accept this.     "*I* will not accept that we cannot help the City without killing the people who need our help the most," says Woz. "Why do *you,* Star of the City?" His attention is taken off of Silent Girl, and the nail is driven in, in that moment. Sparks fly from his armor as he's lifted off his feet from the underhand swing, thrown across the room and crashing into a wall. He rolls down the sheer surface, taking a handmade streamer with him, slowly getting back to his feet.     "Ayin's script sucked from the start," says Zi-O to Rita, locking his greatsword with Silent Girl's hammer and driving her away from Woz with a straight kick and a shoulder check. "I don't care if it's possible to do. It was dangerous and miserable for the Agents and the Clerks, it sucked for the Sephirah and it sucked even worse for Angela. It never should have happened this way. I wasn't strong enough to go back and change any of that."     "But I'm here now, and I'm not throwing more people on the fire even if some of them want to burn!" Angela...! I won't let you do this! I can't...! We spent our whole lives fighting for this and... And to sacrifice it all for one person's desire... No!     "If Ayin had treated her like the person she is even a little bit, we wouldn't be here!" Zi-O's helmet quakes vehemently with his assertion.     "History is full of Angelas--and Hokmas, and Malkuths, and Hods and Tiphereths--dying to save places that would have spat on them when they were alive! And what happens after? The people that survive them mangle their stories and say that it was *conveniently* actually okay the whole time, once those people aren't there to say otherwise. We have the chance here to write something different! "                                 FUKASHIGI MAGIC!                                     Woz, rising from his knees to stand up straight, points the question-marked polearm towards Silent Girl. A swarm of person-sized red-blue question marks flies from the head of the cane towards her, each one encircling her in its individual, blocky square curve until a small prison envelops her. Spinning rapidly, the hard edges pummel her faster and faster until they all superheat and explode. Furthermore, any and all Multiversals counteracting suppression of Angela will be given threat classification accordingly.      "...so, that's what I'm going to do, instead of living in a world where the people who would have been fine with or without the Seed, who would have hated you if they knew you, talk about what a hero you are."
Rufus Shinra	"Ah ha ha ha hah..." Rufus is laughing. It's a deep, genuine laugh, from the heart. "Hah... Yeah..." "Here I was thinking, it'd be just myself, Petra, and of course Angela herself, all against the world. In it hard mode. But here, here and now, we've got allies popping out of the woodwork. Even Flamel! Here I thought Mr. Mental Health Secret Government Conspiracy would *love* the Seed of Light project." "Let me be a bit more clear, then, now that everyone's chips are on the table!" Rufus raises a finger up to the heavens. And a thumb. Another one of his stupid fingerguns. "I've always been on Angela's side. I wasn't here for the beginning, but I've promised her I'm going to see her through to the end. Whatever end that turns out to be." "I may be a piece of shit nepobaby bastard, but my word's worth something." "Besides - honestly? You give the average person power, they aren't gonna do anything with it. They're going to go get a bigger TV, they aren't going to go overthrow the government." > Lilian tabs her radio, takes a deep breath, and calmly half-shouts into the facility intercom, using her Gebura meltdown jack... Rufus has a megaphone. It's one he got shipped to Lobotomy Corporation ages ago, and had only dug out of the rubble and brought to the party because he planned to do a gag with it. "Hey, all associates, Elites, and anyone else who's got a choice: Lilian's not the only job creator here. You stick with Angela, I'll make sure you come away rich." > "So none of you ever cared about helping the City at all. I can't blame Ms. Angela." "But from the rest of you, I can't accept this. "Yeah? I can. I'm glad you and Miss Rook are here, Miss Ma. It wouldn't be a fitting end if she could just saunter on in and grab the Seed of Light virtually unopposed. Angela is an exceptional person, and exceptional people demand exceptional things from the universe. Including opponents." "But - here, you're outnumbered. Outgunned. The future you two are fighting for isn't going to come to pass." "I appreciate the hurdle you're providing on this obstacle course, but that's all it's going to be, all the same." Rufus makes with the double-fingerguns, and an insufferable smirk. It is presumably a relief that, at that point, he gets smashed by a giant hammer.
Rufus Shinra	The materia inside his shotgun shines brightly for a moment. Rufus learns a new Enemy Skill! He's not paying attention to that right now, though. "Right - still a loose abnormality. Right. Fucking head hurts..." Hammers! And nails. Giant arms coming up from the floor. Need to deal with those first. ---------- |ICE -> ALL| ---------- Blasts of supercooled magical energy erupt from Rufus's hands, each targeting one of the four arms. "Exceptional people. Doing... exceptional things," says Rufus as he queues up another multitargeted magical blast. "I'm not going to accept anything else in this world." "I'm certainly not going to throw one on the pyre just so that the common folk can squabble in the dirt a little more efficiently."
Xion	'Withstand us.' Xion hadn't had the time to say it - didn't really have the space to express with her words - but it means the world to her that someone was already in place. It dawns on her, right then, for the first time in the operation of objects in space and the motion of hearts holding swords, that it is Petra there suddenly besides her. Several of her precious friends could be -- but it is Petra, there, in the moment, to make it not some meaningfully-solo stand. It is Petra. And it isn't Lilian. 'Meaningfully solo' is put to shame the second they're in Extraction. 'Warn me, when you will not be close,' "Just fight as hard as you can!" Xion insists, mid-motion, mid-strikes. "I'll make it work!" And make it work she does, reacting to the projectiles in flight like she's aware of all of them, ducking jewels in her rush and taking every scummy teleporter advantage of the stagger on the Red Mist. One reason of many she tries to end 'past' Gebura, to pin the crimson warrior's attention around the onslaught, but reason enough. Shouting in combat is her style, but she couldn't figure out Shou's guidance in a flash of motion. She'd figure it out, like she said! 'I don't know, but you better not fucking *stop* now.' 'Furthermore, any and all Multiversals counteracting suppression of Angela will be given threat classification accordingly.' Xion doesn't have to make any statements, not really, to Gebura. The statement she made was leaping in from nowhere, the side she picked was at the tip of a spear, and... It's not Gebura Xion realizes she's betraying. It's Lilian. The woman she, despite all and everything, wanted to be a hero to. And, with this... Fickle. She wasn't so pure as to not have her own lines in the dust. She wanted to be Lilian's hero, but she had to be her own. Trembling for just an instant, caught in her heart between fighting with her whole will and what she 'was', who she was, Xion is grabbed by Gebura. She's yanked by the most solid part of her - a representation of a weapon, another - and hurled away, flung through space at such a velocity that she's threatening impact before reaction, and is mitt-caught in growing arrangements of telekinetic hands. Slowed down, somehow, as she's hammered on, Xion hears Flamel... Still talking to her, still stammering out this impossible feeling inside of him, unsure why he can't let one more go the way of all the others. She joins him, close in proximity, and joins him in battering. "She's not just one more, Flamel." Xion speaks, at a groan, underbreath. "I'd say I'm happy you figured it out, but..." It hurts. Sore like a wound. Sore like 'hurting'. The scream begins in Flamel, and Xion slides away while bringing up her shield, eyes shaded behind the rise of her guard, moving on instinct and touchsense knowing. "... how often have you fought for yourself?" He seems to want it, even while she doesn't. Petra is shouting as she countermands it, and Xion is queasy. But, she's still in a fight. And Shou reveals why he asked when she'd be away. Instead of leaping right back into the Radiant Treasure Gun's disc, Xion stabs spear into Extraction's ground and draws a pair of Medallions out of her pocket, gripping both in a magmatic combination. Channeling the Koopa King and Hiromi's power up into the ceiling of Extraction, flaming pillars column-fall down from above, bending like black burning square meteors from source down to join Shou in boxing Gebura in and going with Binah's insistence to not play fair. The spear was too heavy, but calling down the weather-esque powers of flame and earth down on Gebura was much easier.
Kukuru	"I won't accept this," "The AI 'Angela' is herefore to be considered an ALEPH class threat to the facility." Another knot forms in Kukuru's gut, and her teeth chatter lightly inside her head as she tries to keep her eyes from tearing up again at what seems to be quickly becoming the case with all of this. She never wanted to have to oppose any of her friends or family like this, and especially not in such a haphazard and sudden way. Kukuru's hands tremble against her chest as she clutches it, almost like she's hoping it'll help her pull herself together. "Rita? No, that's... No, this has to be something... Part of something else. Of course I care about the City! Angie... She's got a plan. Please, just..." She feels her legs starting to give out, still trying to process the notion that Angela's freedom might really hinge on the plan for the City and the Seed of Light going entirely out the window after everything that everyone's been through. Was all that really meaningless? "If one person has to be miserable so that lots can have a chance not to be--that person has to *choose* that." Hearing Sougo brings her back from the brink, however, and Angela patting her on the head gets a quietly content noise that takes all the shaking right out of Kukuru's body. She inhales again as she looks up at Angela, steadily sorting her thoughts out and piecing things together. Why did she get involved in this, anyway? Why did she stay involved in all of this? At the end of the day, who does she truly care about? "... No, that's okay, Rita. I'd be disappointed if you or Lili did anything but what you're doing now. Even Sarra... Fighting against something like this is just what I'd expect from all of you. I could never ask you to do something that goes against your... Youness." Kukuru takes a deep breath, then chuckles softly and wipes her face with her sleeve. "You have so much more love than a lot of people deserve. I wish I could show that to the City as much as you are now, but..." She looks over at Sougo and Woz, at Rufus, and then at Angela's back as she escapes after entrusting Kukuru with that specific task. "I love you and everyone in my family so much more than the City." She replies, her gaze softening while she wipes her face off with her sleeve again. "No matter what happens, I have to be there for my family. I always will. " "You should've been quick to deal with the baggage in your mind." The hammer comes in, and Kukuru's gaze almost looks peaceful even as she takes the hammer straight to the face. The blow might not be the hardest hit she's taken in her life, but the impact still resounds through Control with a rather gruesome crunch. There's little dignity in her reaction, either, as she screeches and thrashes about while scrambling back away from the hammer so she doesn't get struck by the follow up. With Riku buying her time to reconstruct her face, however, Kukuru puts herself back together enough (albeit with a bloodied face and shirt) to finally get right back up. "Keep them alive. I'm stalling for time." "The baggage...? Noooo, it's gone. Angela gave me something super important to do, and-" She looks over at the Sephirah again, then exhales while bringing her claws out to strap them to her hands. "-she's counting on me, and... I won't let family down, no matter what. If trading their lives for the City is the right thing to do, if giving up on my family for so more people is more humane, theeen..." Kukuru falls through the floor, And she reappears directly between the Sephirah and Silent Girl, acting as a physical wall between them and the Abnormality. "I will always be their monster." Creating a new portal in front of herself, she reaches right in with both claws. They reappear on both sides of Silent girl, and she presses in with all her might to crush her right between those giant metal spikes.
Hibiki Tachibana	So none of you ever cared about helping the City at all. But from the rest of you, I can't accept this.     That one hurts. Of course going against Rita on this would hurt. On anything, really. For a split second, there's a scrunching of her face and a twisting in her gut, a dry swallow, the seed of doubt taking root - before her eyes close, her brow furrows, and she re-opens them again with a reinforced firmness.     "...Sorry, Rita. I'd say a bunch of things, like how there's still Trideag, and all the other efforts people have been making..." They'd just be rationalizations layered on top of the real and genuine reason. "...But I wouldn't be able to accept myself if this wasn't what I did."     Saying it out loud, making it true that way, helps her push down the pit in her stomach. It only threatens to rise back up when Malkuth steadies herself, and again when she gives one last glance in Hod's direction, sharing a brief look before her and the other Sephirah are gone. ...But she keeps it down.     But it leaves her wide open enough that the Silent Girl can close in - there's little time to react, especially when she hasn't actually transformed yet. Between that and the hatred for martyrs, which she sort of kind of sure is being right now, there's--     --a streak of blood flying through the air as one hand gets impaled through. And then the other. Clean through, until the head of the nails are hitting her palms.     But that's just fine by her. This wasn't going to be an easy or simple path to take. Making Rita her enemy. Lilian her enemy. Hod and who knows how many Agents, like Rose, her enemy. As far as she's concerned, physical pain like this is nothing. And the staking leaves the Silent Girl right where she wants her.     "Balwisyall nescell--Gungnir tron!!"     An eruption of golden light washes over her body all at once-- and before it even starts to dim, a hand clenched into a fist despite the nail ran through it comes forward to smash into the Silent Girl's chest and send her reeling. That'll give her plenty of time to go switch her attention and attack the others, while Hibiki takes a moment to stagger forward...     ...the radiance of her transformation breaking away in a shower of light, her Symphogear finishing forming with her scarf bursting into a fluttering wave behind her...     Furthermore, any and all Multiversals counteracting suppression of Angela will be given threat classification accordingly.     ...and she grits her teeth while ripping one nail out and then the other, tossing them away. Her hands, each with a fresh hole through them, flex once then stay tightened up. She stares at them for a moment, and then back up. "I won't make any excuses. ...This is just what feels right to do." That could be to Rita, Lilian... or herself.     She ducks low... and uses that stance as a springboard to launch forward, right after Rufus attempts to freeze over the giant hands - and Hibiki makes to kick through them right after, trying to /shatter/ them completely.
Rita Ma	"I would have felt terrible if everyone sided against Lilian. Thank you."      That's more gutting than any recrimination. The adrenaline-fueled determination behind Rita's eyes wavers with the corner-tug of a grimace.      Look at that light inside her. It's beautiful, isn't it?      Malkuth's anguished rallying, beyond Angela- "Angela...! I won't let you do this! I can't...!"- soothes her. So does Lilian, on the radio. Even for a beast, it's easier to oppose consensus with someone by your side.      Rita lunges rather than reply, hands out like claws to rend- heel-brakes and swoops under a Silent Girl hammerswing- and then grapples with the Abnormality to prevent a followup, hands on the haft.      "You're-- welcome. I can't hate you, Angela," she says, the strain in her voice more from feeling than the strain of the deadlock. No 'miss' this time. "'People have a right to fight to be born'."      "It's everyone else I can't forgive." Her eyes land squarely on Flamel, and then Zi-O.      Rita drops her weapon-grapple with Silent Girl to lunge after Angela, unravel one tentacle from her arm's disguise, and take a lashing swing at Angela's fleeing back- but then the Silent Girl's closing in on Malkuth, and she has to zip back to intercept there, unraveling two more tentacles in a piecemeal disintegration of her human guise to stab and restrain for the sake of the Sephirah.      "So Cinder didn't die to make the world a better place- but just as a trade for Angela?!" she demands of Zi-O, while straining to drag the Silent Girl backwards and away from the less capable combatants.      "Hnnn- I don't believe you will write something different! How many people die in the City every day? Do people stop mattering to you when they're gone? When you don't know their names?"      "If your kindness is only for who's in front of you--" Rita twists her face with effort, lifting up the Silent Girl and trying to whipcrack-slam her back down against the floor. "--then you're like every evil king, Sougo!"
Petra Soroka	"Xion," Petra says, breathlessly, after being forced to drop her radio by Gebura's advance. "I don't know if you were expecting this, from Lilian-- but it's fine. I mean-- it's not fine, really, nothing's really fine, but-- it's expected. And I've been preparing. And-- I figured you wouldn't but I'm still glad. Fuck." "...Then there's not much we have to chat about."     Petra coughs, partly laughing, partly winded by the sideswipe of Mimicry that shears through her EGO gear to expose the charcoal fibers within it. "God. Imagine that. Imagine knowing what people are about *before* fighting instead of having to bicker about it during. And I *do* know you--")]     Petra is shoved backwards by Mimicry against Fourth Match Flame, but when the sword's flesh writhes and shifts to claw at her, her own morphic weaponry intersperses itself to flood Silver into the muscles of Mimicry, gripping it and trying to forcefully peel it apart. While Gebura's sword is temporarily hindered by the wrestling of metamuscle on muscle, Petra flares up Fourth Match Flame and drives it into the boxbot, ducking away and throwing up a morphmetal shield to block the straightforwards path Gebura could take to retaliate.     "Since I knew this was coming longer than Lilian was prepping for your Meltdown. When she was studying those videos of you, I was too. And I'm not her, but...."     Queasily, Petra offers up in echo, "Taking sides has consequences. Yeah. You know, I'm the only one in this whole fucking place who's even been a resident of the City for the past couple years. I'm actually, like, out there. A-and all the agents too, I-- y-you know, of almost any world anywhere, this one has some of the people I like the most. So--")]     "So, I-I guess, I hope you get how much I mean it when I say I'd wipe this place off the face of the planet for Ange."     Smoking and bleeding from EGO-blunted impact wounds that leave cratered bruises beneath her suit, Petra has to call for "Binah--!" to give her some reprieve with a pillar, a fairy, or anything. Petra jumps backwards uphill on the slant of the Extraction Department floor, keeping herself to distant morphmetal assists for a minute while she catches her breath nearby Binah.     "Manager's dead, by the way. Ayin. I killed him." Petra shudders and presses her hand to her mouth to slow her breathing, for every reason besides that one. "I think this place is going to go to hell and stay there until we win. Or die. I guess." "I can't fucking do this anymore."     The thing that Petra is compelled to say, in the impulsive moment where the neurochemistry of thought outpaces emotion and better judgement, comes out of her mouth expressionlessly and in utter contempt of the sincerity that Flamel is showing by grappling with Gebura. "Oh, good. So telling my girlfriend to kill herself was the last straw on the camel's back, huh? That's tactically fucking convenient for me."
Sarracenia	Sarra tries to focus her attention on the Silent Girl, who talks quite a lot actually. But, as she is fighting she can't help but notice...Hibiki moves to defend the Sephirah and doesn't try to stop Angela. Xion seems to be trying to help Angela.      'Helping people? Haven't I been?'      "Not that I have noticed! Except maybe a specific two!" Sarra exclaims, then...SMAAAASH! Sarra is hit right in the head by a giant hammer. It is only the second time...possibly ever that Sarra has been hit by a might hammer. She's been shot, stabbed, kicked, punched, thrown, and blasted by plenty of energy and magic. But, hammers are rare. The princess goes sailing through the air almost comically and is smashed again when she hits a wall. She bounces off of it lands in a heap.      She weakly reaches to pull a green mushroom from her purse and downs it, then struggles back to her feet and wobbles unsteadily for a few moments. She shakes her head to try and clear the sparkles and stars filling her vision, then growls. "No one smashes ME with a hammer!!" she exclaims. She slips the sword back into her purse and pulls out her own hammer again. "Now, listen to me, you!" she says to the hammer, then holds it firmly and hefts it before smirking. "Ah! Good!"      She rushes at Silent Girl, then leaps into a twirl to bring the hammer down, aimed at Silent Girl's head. She lands, just in time to hear...      'This is not a Meltdown. This is a Breakout. Keep them alive. I'm stalling for time.'      Sarra gives Angela a questioning look. "...a breakout? So you..." Sarra hesitates a moment, then mmphs. "...well, after you help them, there had -better- be some Light left for the City!"      'So none of you ever cared about helping the City at all. I can't blame Ms. Angela. But from the rest of you, I can't accept this.'      "...I care about the City, Rita. I joined Trideag because I want to make a difference here." Sarra says, obviously torn about having to oppose Rita. "I am putting my faith in the hope that we can do both. That we can be greedy, like Sougo said! I will be a heroine for the City. And that means -everyone- in the City!"      Lilian makes her announcement. Sarra mmphs. "...well, I suppose it is nothing new if I am declared an enemy of something. I hope I at least get a good threat rating! Just know that I am not doing any of this for you, Angela!"
Flamel Parsons	"Good fruit cannot be born of evil roots."     "I can't, I can't, I-- that isn't right either, it's-- I just," Flamel's voice trembles between blasts. "I can't *take it anymore*. There's no logic, no reason, I just *can't!* I can't be someone, some*thing* like that, this much, this *long!*"     "... how often have you fought for yourself?"     "There's no *self* to *fight for!* There's not, there's nothing there, there's not a person to fight for, I just-- I can't do this again!"     "So telling my girlfriend to kill herself was the last straw on the camel's back, huh? That's tactically fucking convenient for me."     That starts a second long, anguished scream. It's the reason for the followup volley of sustained beam-blasting. He falls to his knees and just lets out with it. There's no cathartic answer full of pathos. There's just the worst stress-overflow, happening at the worst time, in the most pathetic way.
Angela	''I can't CENSORED do this anymore.'' Gebura's sympathy or lack thereof cannot be ready by looking at her. Lobotomy Corp certainly tried to pile bodies on the pyre for the sake of psychic healing. The beam of true genuine suffering explodes out of Flamel's hands and into the center of Gebura's chest, slamming her into a stone pillar, shattering it. "...So you just hit your limit..." Shou fills the space with laser death. By Gebura's countenance, she can let herself get pinned in or she can push on through. She chooses the latter even though the lasers burn against her armor. Red mist pours off the impacts of light, slowly shrouding Gebura's body. But her moment of consideration was enough. Xion's flames come crashing down against Gebura, engulfing her in fire. And for a moment, she is absolutely subsumed by them. Surely, nobody is fooled that it's over, though. And soon enough, Gebura steps one foot out of the fire and fury-- --only for Binah to unleash her chains, pinning her in place so that the full power of the fire comes down upon her. "And it is not just that. You all told me to believe in a better future for The City--but Ayin was a neuroscientist not an architect and you can tell that he built his tree on rotten wood. The Seed of Light might save some, but it will be dug out by The forces of The City and coopted as a new toy for the Wings to play with. ... That is why one more corpse--or ten--will not bring salvation." Gebura flexes and shatters the chains, throwing Binah back. ''I hope you get how much I mean it when I say I'd wipe this place off the face of the planet for Ange.'' Binah throws out a pillar from the floor and Gebura's Mimicry is intercepted. It take two swipes for her to rend it asunder. "Had a feeling." She says of Ayin's death. "Almost a comfort to hear you say you'd go that far for her. She'll have some comfort in that." But despite the subtle threat in those words, Gebura is starting to worry. The backup she called for hasn't confirmed they made it to Control. "Petra... to answer your earlier question..." Binah pushes herself up to her feet. "I'd guess there's about seven days of Light. If she can snag three or four days worth. That might be enough. But it's uncharted territory." As if in response, Gebura's movements blur and she flashes super-quickly between her flows, slamming Mimicry into them as she does so. "...Guess you learned what it's like to be a Sephirah huh..." She tells Flamel.
Lilian Rook	<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Ms. Rook?!" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Out of everyone... I thought you'd..." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook, hypocritically, "Why do you sound so surprised?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, with a little difficulty, "Isn't she a 'girl like you'? Like Xion?" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook takes what might very well might be the deepest single breath of her whole entire career. <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "That's that and this is this." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma hesitates for a beat, probing questions on her lips. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "... Okay. Now's not the time to press. Thank you, Ms. Rook." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I'm going to do my best." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Unfortunately for me, so am I."     '... Thou shalt use the fullest of the competency at all times. Thou shalt kill without hesitation. Doubt proves thou art not fit to take away life...'     "Yeah . . . I know."     Lilian's grip squeezes around the hilt of Night Mist as if she could seek reassurance from it. There is none. She knows its every single scratch and contour by heart. "I knew that I'd have to face that one day. Avoiding that at all costs was nothing more than my own selfishness." Lilian breathes deep again. That handful of words had taken it all out of her for a moment.     "And I was selfishly hoping that it somehow wouldn't be you, who finally made me prove it, too. But if I don't believe in that, then I don't believe in anything at all. So if we both walk out of this, it can't be together."     'There's no repair for a mind that's been cracked.'     Exhaling the last of her regret, Lilian wheels around at the approach of the Silent Girl, and for a terrifying instant, lunges under the drop of her hammer. Her armour materializes around her, freshly regenerated, in waves of black particulate and glinting gold seams. Night Mist rises from her hip, and she draws the hilt across her waist as the blade follows through with her leap.     The hammer clips the tip off the antler-iconography circlet, and deflects away from her head. Lilian hacks through the Silent Girl with her outsider-killing blade, and takes up her stance on the other side, shouting without being able to reach and disengage the intercom, "--But if one of us is't walking away, it's not going to be me! I'm getting married!"     'Agents. This is Extraction Captain, Petra. I'll fucking kill you if you get in Angela's way. You don't have to fight. Drop your EGO and I won't hurt you.'     "All employees! Agent Petra Soroka has been corrupted and designated WAW class! Do not comply with the former Captain's orders! Repeat, former Extraction Captain Petra Soroka is now a sub-Abnormality of the Angela breach! Noncombatants and Agents possessing less than HE-class EGO armament are to avoid Soroka and relay her location and activities to the Information department! Command and Control departments will see all employees injured by Soroka to Safety!"     Lilian tears into the Silent Girl with a flurry of aggressive strikes, clearly deciding to try and end this battle as decisively as possible, before it has a chance to unleash its gimmick; and even more, to lead by example as the facility rouses to alert around her. One thing that the employees of L Corp have always shown is a willingness to get behind her when she's at the vanguard.
Lilian Rook	§I'll bank on that one more time. My wounds are shallow; they hurt a lot, but they aren't impairing my movements much. Despite how it looks, I'm the best off after the attack of White Night; the others will be in worse shape than me. Night Mist should be effective against any Abnormality in the facility, so it's more efficient to expend stamina here to save magic and ammunition for the others. Out of the list of Elites I can take out quickly--§     'I can't fucking do this anymore.'     "Flamel Parsons: TETH! White damage-rated EGO suits and S-bullets! Give me real-time tracking on his last disappearances!"     'I'll protect the lives of these people, and Angela.'     "Asakura Riku: HE! Red-rated suits, White and Black rated weapons! Architecture!"     'Ayin's script sucked from the start'     '*I* will not accept that we cannot help the City without killing the people who need our help the most'     "Tokiwa Sougo: HE! Woz: HE! Get Wellfare and Black-rated weaponry down here now! Back up Rita! Disciplinary is spread too thin to police teleports, so don't roam the halls! Converge at your central departments!"     'Angie... She's got a plan. Please, just...'     "Kukuru: ZAY-- no, TETH! Make it a priority objective to remove her from the Angela breach zone! No Red-class weaponry! Ready a containment cell at my private coordinates!"     '...But I wouldn't be able to accept myself if this wasn't what I did.'     "Tachibana Hibiki: HE! Black and Pale-rated EGO weaponry banned! Just get Red-rated suits and H-bullets down here! Keep R-Corp out of it!"     'Just fight as hard as you can! I'll make it work!'     "--Xion: ALEPH! Disciplinary, form up on me! Training, dispatch sapre personnel to Extraction and Control! Don't let her go wherever she pleases without a mark! Information; realtime updates! Central Command, take over for me! There's too much going on; this is your job!"
Angela	Silent Girl, meanwhile, gets energy beamed! Again! She exhales slowly, smiling broadly. She never stops smiling. A giant hammer comes crashing down from one of her giant hand minions, also for Riku's skull. ''If Ayin had treated her like a person...'' "We were all tortured--and she was the one who made sure of it!" Malkuth shouts back but she's gone soon after. Numerous explosions detonate around the Silent Girl, each opening up more blood red wounds off her body but she doesn't stop smiling. A giant nail comes crashing down for Sougo and a Hammer come crashing down for Woz. Ice impacts against the SIlent Girl, leaving forming bruises on her body but she keeps moving with a kind of religious zeal, trying to slam her body into him and stab him repeatedly with a Nail.''I will always be their monster.'' Silent Girl giggles but seems to not be saying anything else, going back to living up to her name. She can still laugh, though, and laugh she does! Kukuru tears at her with her claws and Silent Girl repays her in kind, rapidly slamming that nail for Kukuru's body Silent Girl, despite having 'religious zeal' is not divine at all. It feels, actually, like hitting a human. Not even a tough human, just a human. Her flesh yields easily--just not quite easily enough. And no matter how much she's broken she keeps getting back up. Thanks to Rufus's set up with his ice magic, Kukuru can smash through one of the hands. That freezing then SMASHING combo seems to work wonders--though there's still three left! A hammer is coming for you, Bikki! Angela is gone and can't answer Sarracenia's questions. But Silent Girl doesn't care one way or another about how people feel. Why is she focused on the Sephirah but ignoring Angela? Why is she fighting everyone else? Maybe only Angela knows. Why does her voice feel familiar? Hammer blows are traded viciously with one another. But as it rears back for one final blow, and give chase after the Sephirah, RIta catches her with a tentacle and Hulk smashes her from side to side with her tentacle before the Girl is able to pull free. Knees shaking, SIlent Girl stands up one more time with a big smile on her face. She keeps on giggling. She laughs. She laughs and laughs and laughs. Oh god, she can't stop laughing! Her body shakes and contorts as the laughter seizes her. Tears spill from her eyes openly. She wheezes and weeps between chortles.
Angela	"Please..." She whispers. Silent Girl isn't an outsider! Silent girl's just a normal girl like you and me! But yeah Lilian's sword still works perfectly, tearing open thick chunks of her flesh. She looks a mass of blood wounds than a person when Lilian's done. "Please..." Silent Girl mumbles, blood spilling out of her mouth. "Don't Vanish Like This..." BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfZLDKWDbmg Silent Girl looks forward, eyes hazy. "i wanted... to eat lunch with you." She steps a bloody foot forward. "I wanted... to walk the beach with you." She laughs hysterically, swaying from side to side with perfect yandere-timing. "I wanted... to sail the ocean with you. I wanted...#-1 FUNCTION (ANSII) NOT FOUND Her eyes track to Sougo and Woz. "See your kingdom... I wanted to read with you...Exchange books..." Her eyes settle on Kukuru's face. "Try one of your meals..." To Rufus. "Grant you your freedom..." "...Go to summer camp... Read your fanfics... Learn about you... I wanted...To visit your family...To get to know you... I wanted to cry... I wanted to SING with you... So please..." Silent Girl screams. "DON'T VANISH LIKE THIS...!" Nail and hammers come crashing down rapidly and Lilian gets a response from Shajo. "We're being held off by Parker... and the rest of Control! Fuck--gotta be because of Cinder! We'll be there... Hang on a little longer, Dame Commander...!" Similar shouts of agreement and work burst up across the facility but Angela is using the time to seize parts of the facility herself. She's started with Central, and the magical girls can't make it back there. Tiphereth is trying to assist the coordination efforts along with Malkuth but ... It's not going to be over so quickly.
Riku Asakura	'Riku Asakura: HE! Red-rated suits, White and Black rated weapons! Architecture!' Ultraman Geed doesn't shrink in the face of opposition.  Instead, he makes a deep sigh and strengthens his resolve to fight against Lilian and Rita.  "I won't back down now, Ms. Rook.  This is so that people can have a future, but not at the cost of a blood-soaked ritual!" 'Silent Girl screams. "DON'T VANISH LIKE THIS...!"' The scream is enough to bypass the defenses on Geed, causing him to fall to the ground as sparks fly off of his body and he's forced to grip his head in torment.  Riku inside Ultraman Geed screams as well.  There is so much pain in that psychic attack, so much anguish that it's barely tolerable.   But he does tolerate it.   He withstands the blow and rolls back to his feet.  Growling a bit as he jumps into the air.  Floating there for a few moments, he brings both hands in as if hugging himself.  Then throws them out, releasing a burst of energy with a cutting blade aiming to try and slice through the Silent Girl.  Anything and everything he puts into trying to silence the girl before he goes down.
Flamel Parsons	"...Guess you learned what it's like to be a Sephirah huh..."     Would this be Flamel's Meltdown? There's an argument to be made for it. He's certainly making it everyone's problem like one. He's certainly incoherent in that way. Mimicry swings, mimicry blurs towards him -- Mimicry strikes nothing. The man is invisible and the hands disperse. How'd he move so *fast*? Maybe Gebura's hesitation...     "Then *stop me* like *them!*" He cries out in anguish. "Beat me! Break my bones or smash me up or concuss me or *kill* me, I just-- I can't-- I can't do this! I can't stop myself stopping this! I can't help myself! I can't take *more*, so be stronger than I am! Let an object break instead of a person!" It worked for them, right? It fixed them, it let them break without breaking everything around them, without breaking something important.     His movements are so jerky and quick and hard to see in the flickering. A trail of energy can be seen, a line of energy from his temples where his fingernails dig in, one that matches the flickering line of tears in the air. If any of the Training department wind up getting involved, it's his hands that grip their heads and blast them with psychic force, trying to override their wills, to grip the astral detritus in this facility and spill their mindscape into the world to cause chaos. Something to give him some cover, a smokescreen for his flickering invisibility.     He can't help himself. He has to keep unloading this into the Sephirah. There's nobody else he can afford to unload it on. He can't let himself go to Control, or target the Agents fully -- it's like trying to manage the heat in a reactor, to direct it into something that will sink the heat and keep it from turning to slag...     'Meltdown', isn't it?     The hands converge and he flickers back into visibility. Twitchy, bloodshot eyes peek behind sunglasses. "I'm never supposed to do this." He sobs as those hands turn into a storm of the debris from this fight, pounding shattered chunks of the Extraction department back into the terrain that the fight kicked them up from. "I'm supposed to do whatever it takes to help every mind have peace, health, and freedom. I'm supposed to take the obvious paths forward, to achieve that the simplest way, with the fewest people hurt. I'm supposed to function the way I was made. And I... can't..." The hands slam violently, occupying every space with Flamel's anguish. Never the allies, but always anywhere Gebura could be.     "Please. Just take this choice out of my hands! Don't hesitate!"
Rufus Shinra	> <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa as Kamen Rider Zi-O says, "Don't hurt the agents. If you're not good at that, send them to me or to somebody else who is. They know that if Kukuru goes down that puts a time limit on the rest of us, so don't let them wear her out by surrounding her." Rufus makes a discontented noise. "Okay. Helping Angela is the objectively correct choice, but you do understand, we're the bad guys here, right?" "The Seed of Light is probably not gonna work but we're still snatching it away before the attempt can be made. We're on the trolley problem, but it's the other way around - it's gonna run over one person, so we're switching it to the track five people are tied up on." "The time to be sentimental was an hour ago, back before all this started going down." > <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa as Kamen Rider Zi-O says, "I'm not being sentimental, Rufus. They're trying to make me choose, exactly the same way the City does to people every day, and I'm not going to." Another discontented noise. "... Okay. Because you're asking." It's an excuse, though, really, isn't it? Killing the remaining agents wouldn't feel good. Now Rufus can lean on Sougo as his excuse. > <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, fully in smooth-glassy mode, "We're not friends then, Ms. Petra. We never were. I'm sorry I misunderstood you." Petra's having a much worse time of it, anyway. Rufus's take, that he is perhaps wisely not voicing, is that whatever relationship they have going on just really hasn't been tested, if it's breaking like this so easily. It sucks to be Petra right now, though.
Rufus Shinra	> Silent Girl isn't an outsider! Silent girl's just a normal girl like you and me! Nevermind, sucks also to be Rufus. "Ugh, don't-" > "i wanted... to eat lunch with you." "Couldn't Angela have released one that was less..." > "I wanted... to walk the beach with you." "Less... less like..." Rufus takes a step back. A few steps back. > "See your kingdom... I wanted to read with you...Exchange books..." He averts his gaze. "This is unsettling. This is-" > "Try one of your meals..." "It's creepy, it's unsettling, it's too..." > "Grant you your freedom..." ----------------------------- |Enemy Skill: Firmament Driver| ----------------------------- It's quick. It's a single set of actions - as much concentrated firepower as Rufus can bring to bear, with the minimal amount of time needed. Focus, cast, release, and >done. And he doesn't even have to look at her as the giant laser does its work. Being smashed and stabbed repeatedly is honestly sort of preferable. ... Well, no, not really preferable. Just easier to process.
Kukuru	While Lilian issues orders to the Agents still fighting for her and the Sephirah, Kukuru's attention remains firmly on those within Control itself. So long as the Silent Girl's attention remains on her and those facing off against her, that means the Sephirah themselves are safe, and Angela's plan will come to fruition! Whatever it is. The fact that Kukuru doesn't know what it is doesn't bother her in the slightest. She can always figure it out later, but Angela's counting on her right now, and even knowing she's likely to encounter resistance from both Lilian and Rita somewhere down the line doesn't shake her resolve. No, what truly strikes her at her core is hearing the pain in Rita's tone at... "I'm sorry, Rita... I wish you didn't have to feel this way, because being betrayed is the worst when it comes from family." She clenches her teeth momentarily to force herself not to tear up again, as she still needs to keep her resolve in check. "I... I just don't know what else there is to do that wouldn't be turning on Angela, too." Hearing Lilian issuing orders against Petra feels like another warm stab to the gut, too, and not one she can heal with those nanites she likes throwing about all the time. She's not deaf, after all, and hearing that on top of what's going on between Rita and Petra, Rita and Sougo and Woz... It really is enough to make her want to just shut herself into one of those containment cells and cry it out, if not for the fact that said cells might as well be paper walls at this point. There's even a brief moment when Kukuru tries to cut her emotions out of the whole equation, to try and put her mind into a solely logical state to dull all that pain. The Silent Girl stabbing her, strangely enough, actually helps a little with focusing her mind on the physical. It's not pleasant in any way, and losing blood never feels good, but it's still a welcome distraction from anything else Kukuru could be focusing on. If she can just- "Try one of your meals..." And then the distraction is gone, replaced with... Elation? Delusion? It really would be wonderful to finally share a meal with Angela, to show her everything portrayed in those picture books she had brought, to try cooking all those delectable looking things she had taken pictures in anticipation of a feast after all this was finished. she has to remind herself that the Silent Girl is not Angela, but Kukuru's heart can't ignore the fact that she still looks like Angela. "Of course you will, dear... All those things, mhm. We'll make sure it all happens so Angie can be the happiest girl in the world after everything's done." She calls out towards Angela even though she might be nowhere close enough to hear Kukuru or see that tearful gaze still fixed on Silent Girl. "Nobody's going to vanish before-" Kukuru shields her head with her arms and claws, but that just means there's a different target for Silent Girl to stab and batter rather than no target at all. Flinching away doesn't help, and running isn't an option when Kukuru's committed herself to buying time and protecting the Sephirah. Keeping that nanite flow going, Kukuru forces herself to shift gears towards trading blows with the Silent Girl instead of just withstanding them. It still feels wrong to strike at anyone with Angela's face, though, so she has to resort to trickier tactics in order to do so without seeing her face at all. Namely, she grabs for Silent girl's face, apparently intending to cover up said face entirely. Kukuru starts squeezing, swinging, thrashing about, and generally making a mess of Control to try throwing around enough debris and confusing herself on where Silent Girl even is just so she doesn't have to see Angela's face in there.
Timespace Riders	If your kindness is only for who's in front of you--then you're like every evil king, Sougo!     That hurts. Rita can see the way that he winces--harder than when Silent Girl's nail hits him a moment later. It was a devastating blow, that nail, to be sure. But Kamen Rider Zi-O is scarcely so injured by that as by what Rita said.     "...There are Agents that are gone because of me," he says, rising sluggishly to his feet. His body is only part of the reason for that. "I don't just mean Cinder. Because we're this far, we're never getting them back. One is gone because I was selfish, and I picked Woz instead of him. After I told him I wanted to build a future with him in it, too."     "Lots more are gone, and lots of Clerks, too, because after everything that's happened, everything I've learned and fought for, I'm still weak. Maybe if I wasn't, we could have beaten the White Night without asking Cinder to do that. And even though I didn't have any right to, after betraying M.O.M. like that, I still asked Angela about making this place kinder to the people who had to work here. Because losing him made me realize that choosing between who to hurt, when a place like this asks you to, makes you a part of it. So, no... They don't stop mattering to me."     "And that's why..." Zi-O rises to his feet, shifting his attention from Silent Girl to Rita. "I have to ask why you're making me choose," he asks, on the verge of bitter tears, "The exact same way the City makes people choose EVERY DAY?!" He pulls the trigger on his greatsword. Polychromatic energy is tightly constrained by a cluster of disembodied silver clock faces, racing towards her to explode.     "Why can't I help them now, and Trideag later?" Another projectile sent after her. "Don't lie to me!" he shouts after her. An advancing overhead arc controls the space between Rita and Silent Girl as he advances, the cutting edge carrying explosive polychromatic aftershocks. "Don't ask me to believe that you're all so weak you can't help the City without the Seed!" A hip to shoulder slash closes off one evade route. "Not when I look up to you, and Lilian, and Petra, not when I trust that one of you will have the answer even when the question doesn't make any sense! Not when I've kept fighting this long hoping I'd even come CLOSE to Lilian!!"     Then Lilian gets involved. Zi-O knows that she'll try to end the fight as quickly as possible to then stop Angela. But what hurts the most out of all of it is mobilizing the Agents. She's good at directing people, and the Agents listen to her because she's kept them alive--much better than he ever has.     That means that--     Zi-O sighs sharply, shakily, because he'd scream, otherwise. "I'm not going to choose between her, the Sephirah and the Agents, no matter how much you try to make it hurt. " <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka rotely stumbling through, "Sougo, try and get your hands on Fox. He'll either be really willing to help protect the other agents by getting them to surrender, or really unwilling and a huge problem. He's more likely to listen to you than me."     "Guess I'll be using this sooner than I thought." Zi-O procures the Sephirot Ridewatch and slots it into his bulky white belt.
Timespace Riders	SEPHIROT! The LCD chronometer on the Timespace Driver's face flashes AU33--the current year, which the Demon King hopes beyond hope will mark the emancipation of not only Angela but the Sephirah. The ticking is not frantic, as his armors usually are--it is the sound of one unified, elegant grandfather clock inexorably marching forwards. Zi-O spins the Driver.      A pink portal delivers a tiny seed, which rapidly grows into a giant tree. Zi-O's kick splinters the tree and frees its radiant core--a set of gleaming, knightly white armor with gold trim, alongside a greatsword that replaces his own. There is familiarity on display in several details; the helmet's watch hands, the short cloak at the back, the particular hue of gold in the katakana lenses reading RIDER. Look hard enough and you'll find something from Angela and every Sephirah.                       THE FEAR IS PAST! THE FUTURE IS NOW!                            The greatsword looks a lot like Mimicry--yet it, too, is united in purpose, gleaming silver, bedecked with gold-lidded boxbot eyes currently closed--one for every Sephirah, all in their upright position, much like the facility is now.      A pink portal opens and a second Zi-O steps through, haggard and panting but still in his armor. He forces himself to stand up straight. Then he's gone--moving so fast in search of Fox as to be a white-gold blur. The Zi-O of the present remains, offering a hand to help up Woz.     Woz, having been crushed crushed beneath the hammer, is spread out across the ground. See your kingdom... I wanted to read with you...Exchange books... DON'T VANISH LIKE THIS...!     "..."     Woz's body is as exhausted as his mind. His chest rises and falls. Then he rolls to the side. His polearm feebly scrabbles against the ground until the haft finds solid purchase. With that, and with his other hand taking Zi-O's, he makes a proclamation.     "IWAE! He is heir to the power of all Riders. The ruler of time, traveling beyond time and space to reign over past and future... His name is Kamen Rider Zi-O Sephirot Armor. And in this moment... we shall pen the first sentence of a new page in history!"      Both of them rally to Kukuru and Riku, while the future-Zi-O uses his speed to search the facility for Fox.
Xion	Channeling the Archwolf and the Koopa King's powers to hammer down on Gebura, Xion is about to release the magic and relent back into a running battle when Binah's chains snap into effect on the walking out of flames form of the Red Mist. Realizing she has an opportunity, she grips the two medallions in her fist tighter and calls on the rubble that Gebura is already in to suddenly explode, the fire intense as the secondary detonations turn into guided flinders. It's easy to bomb Gebura while she's still onrushing-paused. It doesn't answer any questions, but it's the fight in front of her that she has to win. Xion made a promise, and it focuses her Pale-sore soul to the edge of a blade. She didn't have the details to know, didn't know why this hurt, so badly, didn't know why this had come apart immediately. She had been helping Angela! Binah was her friend! This was... All about helping Angela, had always been about that, so why now was she somehow hurting? This was the part she was good at! Winning, despite everything! Winning, painfully. This was the part she was good at, so why, wait, why? 'Xion, I don't know if you were expecting this, from Lilian--' She wasn't, it hurt, and wild-confused blues try to seek meaning in the moments she can see Petra's, between flashes of morphmetal and the blast of exploding rocks. She cannot - her heart hears anguish and threat and the danger of Gebura, and cannot hear Lilian far away, or Petra, near by, and wards away from Rita reflexively. 'but it's fine.' "No it's not?!" Xion gasps, not even animated enough to choke, just confused. 'I mean-- it's not fine, really, nothing's really fine, but-- it's expected. And I've been preparing. And-- I figured you wouldn't but I'm still glad. Fuck.' The coldness about her, a seeming-cloak about spear and shield, sinks into her heart. The blissfully ignorant way she had committed herself - Petra swearing that this was expected, and that the unexpected part was her. Gebura hurts less. Being stabbed by an Apostle hurts less. Wearing a clean coat over her wounds was just a straw-filled lie for show. Lilian had split her bread - the Pale medicine, the vial of restoration - in two, and given her half, and, and, and, Magic wavering as her heart does, Gebura can stride ride out of the falling rocks and flames, hammering Binah through the chains. 'There's no *self* to *fight for!*' Xion can't answer that for Flamel. As he screams, she can't hold *his* hand and do every other thing. She might have, were they alone in a room, but they're not. He's not the only one crying. Xion doesn't see the first fall of Mimicry coming, dark targe only catching the edge of it and being slashed down upon. Slashed as she retreats, the red line trails a brutal ribbon down her front, Xion barely compensating for the shallow slash by backstepping and shield-diverting, pushing aside the edge. Retreating in a blur to take up her spear again, she can't get her arm about it before she's pressed into a second time. The Kingdom Key doesn't come to her hand. She lacks the clarity of purpose, the expressive description of 'herself' reforged and sharpened. Instead, the 'shwink' of summoning brings the paler silver empty and blue-hilted length of Starlight to bear. Mimicry rushes down. Starlight swings in parry. The black floor stones of Extraction push Xion up despite, unyielding against borrowed earth, and the heat-haze cast bright sparks about the lock of blade. She breathed, panting, holding Gebura still even in her devastated state because above all she was a warrior fight to live.
Xion	'a sub-Abnormality of the Angela breach!' '--Xion: ALEPH!' The noirette, emotionally, isn't in a fight. She's far away and long, long ago. Lilian, shown her card from the testing ground. The grounds of the school that had almost made her beg and cry with a machine, an unthinking orb that would not progress. Xion never understood why they were rationalized in categories like monsters, but, all her friends had them. And she was proud, of a sort, to be recognized in the same way as others. And now she had been given a second title. And now she was to be marked, and hunted. So careful! She had been so careful! When everyone was being infected by the 'mind virus' that Lilian feared, Xion avoided it, was so trusting and faithful, devoted out of love. And now, 'infected'. She knew why she was besides Petra.     But she couldn't explain why she was across from Lilian. Reeling, feeling naked yet holding the woman's token who had 'loved Lilian so deeply to trim her to a beautiful weapon', Xion glares shaded-eyes at Gebura, and presses into the blade-lock hard enough that it flings off the Red Mist and gives her a single breath to focus. The next rushing contact finally sees Xion ready, driving forward with key-tip as she refigures her stance last second, 'pressing' until the impact point shines yellow-gold with light. The wavering blur of gold light peeling off the moment reveals that it's not one thrust but a multitude of strikes all bearing down on the central point. Her true finishing thrust at combopoint sends out a wave that explodes outward from the keytooth as a cartoon-real shooting star trailing star-sparkle streamers, ricocheting around far more whimsically than Xion actually feels.
Hibiki Tachibana	Because I couldn't live with myself'. That's a kind of selfishness I hate.     Unfortunately for everybody involved, Tachibana Hibiki's brand of selfishness really and truly is the exact sort that Rita Ma hates. As she's said countless times in the past, every time anybody claimed otherwise, she's not a hero. She's the furthest thing from a hero. She can never be a hero. A hero would probably follow the greater good and help better the world, no matter the painful sacrifice they had to swallow down.     For her, saving the world - any world - has only ever been an incidental thing. Something that just so happens to be on the same path as doing what she actually wants to do. Even helping bring Rita's world back from the brink-- was not for the sake of 'the world'. It never was.     It was always because of Rita. And the people from there that she came to know.     The one and only difference, this time around, at this moment specifically, is that her and the world are at odds.     That doesn't make the knot in her chest any less tight, though. She's always been desperate-- to not push anybody she cares about away.     And now she's doing it on purpose.     Tachibana Hibiki: HE! Black and Pale-rated EGO weaponry banned! Just get Red-rated suits and H-bullets down here! Keep R-Corp out of it!     ...Right. The Agents. She's fighting for their survival too. Just like the Sephirah, she's doing that even if it means fighting them, as much of a paradox as that is. If there's any Abnormality who'd hurt them, she'll crush it. If there's anyone on Angela's 'side' who'd kill them for fighting them, she'll stop them. If she has to fight them herself...     ...Rose is still here, isn't she...     ...she'll do her best to make them understand. And if they'll fight anyway, then she'll also fight. But not to hurt them.     DON'T VANISH LIKE THIS...!     The massive hand's equally massive hammer comes down, and both of her injured palm come up to intercept it. They catch it halfway through its swing, though the impact sends shockwaves of pain rippling through her body from head to toe, metal boots sinking inches down into the floor below. Her teeth grit, enough that it hurts, but it's not because of the physical strain.     "Haaaaaahhhhhhhhh--!"     She doesn't want to hurt the Silent Girl. Abnormality or not. Hitting a 'person' always comes with hesitation. But a fist without any hesitation doesn't have any weight, and hers feels particularly heavy the more she hears the Girl talk on and on.     Her right fist rears back, and her gauntlet shifts and expands. As it has many times before, piston becomes superpowered turbine, exposed rapidly kicking up to a blindingly fast spin. By the time it gets so fast and unstable that her arm is quaking, she tightens her fist and throws it forward, as the machinery punches back in to channel all the built-up energy ahead.     Nails and hammers alike all be sent flying by the focused detonation of raw kinetic force, cracking the air itself.
Lilian Rook	'History is full of Angelas--and Hokmas, and Malkuths, and Hods and Tiphereths--dying to save places that would have spat on them when they were alive! And what happens after? The people that survive them mangle their stories and say that it was *conveniently* actually okay the whole time, once those people aren't there to say otherwise. We have the chance here to write something different!'     "You're right except for one thing." Lilian says, tenuously united but for a few moments longer by the threat of nails, held by the Silent Girl for two long years behind ehr back. Heated, between parrying shuffles and crashes, Lilian says "You had all this time to come up with another script, but you don't have one. If you waste all of this sacrifice, there's no guarantee you can make it worth anything in the end at all."     '"Yeah? I can. I'm glad you and Miss Rook are here, Miss Ma. It wouldn't be a fitting end if she could just saunter on in and grab the Seed of Light virtually unopposed. Angela is an exceptional person, and exceptional people demand exceptional things from the universe. Including opponents.'     "As expected of a Partner of the Concord." Lilian says, in tones of praise, exactly as if it's an insult smoothly purred between flashing blades. "But you're more battered down than I am, you have less supposed, you barely know your teammates, and you haven't been preparing for this for months. As far as it looks from here, you're outmaneuvered, three steps behind, and up against people who've been in tighter scrapes then this."     "Besides. Look around you. I think we outnumber you."     'You have so much more love than a lot of people deserve. I wish I could show that to the City as much as you are now, but...'     "I don't. That's exactly why I have to act as if I do." Lilian says. "Sorry, but my rehearsal is about to give you a lot of work to do."     'Please...'     Lilian nearly gags the second time her blade strikes completely ordinary flesh. It has Angela's eyes. The least it could do is sarcastically act like a machine. Not plead. Without that burning corrosion tracing her sword, she doesn't feels so much like a hero.     'I wanted... to eat lunch with you. I wanted... to walk the beach with you. I wanted... to sail the ocean with you.'     §Those are Angela's thoughts. They have to be. But it's just an Abnormality. It's not actually her. Even if you might kill her, this isn't her. If Angela dies, you'll find a way. You don't have to find it yet. Not for this thing. Heed not the words of that which--§     <J-IC-Scene> Silent Girl whispers, "I wanted to go...to the wedding..."     Lilian's breath freezes in her lungs. Her blood runs cold. In the instant the Silent Girl screams, she hears it in her own voice.     Not the one she speaks with, but the one in her head.
Lilian Rook	The one that had screamed the same way when she had backed away from the edge of the roof, and hadn't stopped after.     It had screamed as she ran through the woods that night, until the shoes burnt off her feet.     It had screamed as she bloodied her hand on the cracked glass of the locked cabinet.     It had screamed as she dug that hole by the beach in the middle of the night.     It had screamed as she read the lab and paled at the clinical list of organ damage.     It had screamed as she wrenched that boy's hands away from her throat, one finger at a time.     It had screamed a little louder each and every time that man had hit her. And it screamed the whole way through basic. Through her first battle. Through the first time she saw someone die. And it had screamed, wounded and misguided, at the crayon drawings on the wall at Sapient Heuristics.     'Don't Vanish Like This' catches her halfway between stances; it strikes the seam of her breastplate and gorget; it pries the armour from her chest; it sinks its point into her collar; it deflects from the bone and stabs down into bleeding flesh; it surges through Lilian's arms, the circuit complete, the wire live, and with the same frenzied, delirious motive force, it guides Night Mist into cleaving up through the underside of the Silent Girl's arm.     "Then win. I'll have no complaints if you do. I held your hand this far; I only can't hold it over the finish line." Lilian gasps, clutching her fist to her breast and feeling her heart hammering through her fingers.     'I won't back down now, Ms. Rook. This is so that people can have a future, but not at the cost of a blood-soaked ritual!'     Even before she said 'that is that matter; we're talking about this one', and well before she'd adapted it to Olivier's more charming phrasing, Lilian has said something over and over again, so often that it surpasses 'girls like us' and lags second behind only the thirteen precepts of the Code. It goes,     "Mercy is the privilege of the strong."     Lilian swings to decapitate the Abnormality, and her #-1 FUNCTION (ASNI) NOT FOUND swivel away from the strike and glint of the Elite next to her.     "To save the day without a sacrifice-- To have your way and kill no one to get it-- You need power! You have to be so unbelievably, unbearably powerful, that you can't even stand it! So strong that nobody will look at you like a human being ever again! No matter how pure your intentions are, no matter how great the good looks at the end, unless you have overwhelming, unreleting power, nothing will matter the end, and only your sacrifices will be left!"     'Then *stop me* like *them!*'     'Okay. Helping Angela is the objectively correct choice, but you do understand, we're the bad guys here, right?'     'I'm sorry, Rita... I wish you didn't have to feel this way'     'I have to ask why you're making me choose,'     "And I don't believe you have it!" Lilian all but screams, overflowing her radio and back into the comms system. "Quit fucking complaining! Put one foot in front of the other! Grin and bear it! Accept your own powerlessness and then do something about it! Because you know what?!"     "If all of you together can't beat me, then you never had the power to change the City to begin with!"
UFO Gang	Gebura moves; she is swift and sure, and yet Shou's rays graze her. Shou watches impassively, listening, perhaps. She takes a deep breath and lets it out -- and then Gebura's coming at her with a sword! Shou raises her staff to protect herself - and there is a strange inarticulate sound from her throat, as the iron staff is struck with a vast CLANG! a visible divot in the metal and a flying tigrish woman suddenly spun about and forced to rebound off one vertice of Control! Shou rises breathing heavily, shaking her head sharply once. She looks to Flamel as she recovers. (The Pagoda keeps floating in the air cuz it's magic and such.) To him, perhaps encouragingly(??) she says, "Well, someone has to deal with these karmas. 'Tis the burden of the strong --" But it feels hollow. Shou's thoughts return to Nazrin's words. Don't preach. If you need to preach, you'll know. (Nazrin at the moment is bodily crawling through a wall towards somewhere less noisy in order to regroup. Several mice accompany her, but thankfully nobody's gotten dunked in Enkephalin yet.) Shou moves back and forth, some range away, over the heads of others. It's an almost swaying posture, and she speaks             "Absolute Justice," As a net of blue-glowing laserbeams erupt and pour down on Gebura. More boxing - more fencing-in - more streams of flurrying sparkling aftershowers as the beams break up into wandering motes of searingly-hot light. A small clump of gem-quality amethyst and morions falls off the side of a table, where some small object, a mug perhaps, has been bathed in the lights.
Sarracenia	Most everyone gets a threat level rating. Sarra...does not. She huffs softly, uncertain how she feels about this. On the one hand, this might mean she -hasn't- yet fallen out of Rita's or farther out of Lilian's good graces. On the other...does that mean she just is not considered a threat?      'DON'T VANISH LIKE THIS...!'      Perhaps thanks to Ayin unlocking a bit of Sarra's ability to empathize or sympathize, Sarra feels sorry for this Silent Girl who seems to be some piece of Angela. Why does hitting her feel like hitting some completely normal girl? Sarra hasn't smashed someone who felt like smashing a normal girl since her first or second year in the Multiverse when she got the better of a magical girl standing in her way of a cave that promised prophecies of her hero.      It did not bring her joy then, and smashing this girl who is pleading to just do normal things makes Sarra hesitate much like she did against the mermaids. The yandere nature of her makes it a bit easier, but Sarra almost doesn't want to swing her hammer.      It isn't until more hammers and nails come raining down amidst the scream that she starts moving again. She meets the incoming hammer and nail with a blow of her own, but the psychic scream takes its toll. Sarra stumbles and clutches her head, grimacing. "G-gaaah! If you do not want us to vanish, stop trying to make us vanish!! And if you do not feel like smiling do not force yourself to! At least, not in the middle of combat!" If she wasn't sure that this creature was some kind of Abnormality, she might try less harmful methods. But, this thing will just turn into an egg or something, right? If she is even a real person and not one of those collective consciousness born Abnormalities.      For a few moments, Sarra is fighting alongside Lilian. Sort of. Well, more like fighting in the vicinity of Lilian against the same target. It is bordering on being considered dependable by Lilian. Just a few things would have to happen for that to become reality. Even Sarra recognizes this is only really true in her mind, but she indulges the fantasy for a bit longer as they fight Silent Girl.      She has to, because once Silent Girl is defeated...Sarra knows now that she will be part of the group opposed to Lilian and Rita. Sarra definitely does not want to fight Rita. She likes Rita! She doesn't necessarily care about being opposed to Lilian, but in this instance she is only opposed to Lilian in the hopes that the Seed can benefit Angela, the Sephirah, -and- the City. That she, Princess Sarracenia, can somehow bring either Light or light to the city after this.           'Okay. Helping Angela is the objectively correct choice, but you do understand, we're the bad guys here, right?'      "Being the 'bad guys' does not mean we have to ignore the lives of others." Sarra says stubbornly. "I will not harm Agents unless I have to, either. And I will definitely not kill them!" she exclaims even as she leaps upward and comes somersaulting down with her hammer. "And I will not let -this thing- hurt any of them, either!"
Rita Ma	<J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma breathes heavily, with a little fry on the tail end. This should be the fifth-hardest thing today, but it sounds like the first. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Ms. Petra. I've been meaning to ask this for a while, but..." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "... Is there any amount of unfair that Ms. Rook could be to me, that'd make you take my side over hers?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, to someone she's on good terms with, "Sorry, Ms. Rook." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka makes a strained laugh. "That's not fair, Rita. Right? That's one of those-- those bullshit questions, like...." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I've never taken your side because you were particularly adept at making me feel good about it, Rita." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Have I *ever* been unclear about this? Like-- is it not-- do you not notice? Aren't I saying it, all the time?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "But you'll take Ms. Angela's." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "... No. You've been pretty clear, Ms. Petra. I just thought you were lying, because I didn't want you to be telling the truth." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka's teeth chatter with a short shudder. "I-- you know, I have rules. I...." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, fully in smooth-glassy mode, "We're not friends then, Ms. Petra. We never were. I'm sorry I misunderstood you." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "I don't think there'd be any situation where you would need--" <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka sighs explosively frustratedly, "Fine! Fucking fine then!" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I took your side against Ms. Grier, you know. I won't--" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "... Yeah." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, very un-fine, "Fine then." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka wavers. "I-- if you were--" <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka swallows, un-fine. "Yeah." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Thank you for your patience, Ms. Rook. Sorry for the distraction. I'll get back to my work now." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "It's fine. I need you to have a clear head." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma lies convincingly. "It's clear now."           Rita does her best to create a quick, sharp-edged-webbing barrier between the more fragile Sephirah and the Silent Girl. Halfway through, though, she hitches, stops, and focuses completely on the radio, hand to her ear and expression torqued in a way only the Sephirah are privileged to see.      It's unwise to have her back turned to the Silent Girl. That's far from her mind, though.      An empty, reeling, chilly feeling spreads from the crown of Rita's head down to her toes, like cold syrup being poured over her. She shivers. Her jaw trembles, like she wants to say one more thing- if I were what, Ms. Petra?- but she fails to.      She woke up this morning as friends with Petra, Angela, Kukuru, a half-dozen others. She'll sleep tonight, if she lives that long, without them. Emotional freefall, untethered; the world turned upside down.      Normal people lock up when they're so hollowed-out. Rita doesn't have that luxury. Even beyond the thoughts of all her friends from the City, Arachne and Bisu and Solace and her kids, something has always kept Rita moving.      Rita's resolve cracks with the scream. Rita's resolve is immaculate. She's crying a little when she turns to face the Silent Girl, but just from one eye.
Rita Ma	Three tentacles that used to be the sleeve of her Trideag outfit reach out, impale the Silent Girl through head and chest, and drink that which refuses to die. It's a simple matter. In sickening gulping pulses, the tendrils drain out the soul/light and leave the body to disintegrate.      It's a shame. The Silent Girl was cute, way back when. A lurking threat that's never pretended to be anything else, but somehow you felt comfortable around-- Rita swallows, and forces herself not to think about Petra.      But-- "You were never my friend," she echoes herself tonelessly, while she siphons its essence away. She isn't sure, in that moment, if she means the Silent Girl or Angela.      Zi-O opening fire on her right then and there is a mild surprise, but she doesn't take it as more than that- maybe too shellshocked to.      "Mercy is the privilege of the strong."      "Don't act like a child," she tells him, interleaved with Lilian, and tilts her head slightly back in a deeply un-Rita-like way. Rita leans out of the way of the blast, withdraws her tentacles to avoid the first slice, and then unravels her other sleeve into another three, and then nakedly attempts to butcher him with a half-dozen invisible bladelike limbs.      Is she even trying to leave him Kukuru-retrievable? The way they go for his throat and joints, it's hard to tell.      "To save the day without a sacrifice--"      "If you all can do miracles, if you can do 'golden endings' perfect for everyone..." Whirlwind slash, the area around her like the inside of a blender.      "You need power!"      "Why couldn't you get one for the Union Busan, against the old Queen? How come there had to be sacrifices then?" Flurry of stabs, like a rain of arrows.      "And I don't believe you have it!"      "Max died back then. Three other agents. More than a thousand Harpoonists." Ruthlessly clean 'swordplay', imitating Trideag's techniques.      "If all of you together can't beat me, then you never had the power to change the City to begin with!"      "You're just gambling. All of you. With billions of lives. I won't allow it." And then a lull.      Maybe it's fate for Queens to crush golden endings, Rita thinks for just a moment. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Lobotomy Corporation agents, please make no attempt to suppress the following two breaches:" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Melting Love and Yin-Yang Dragon." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "The situation is under control. Thank you."      To cover the Sephirah's retreat, a familiar vivid ooze starts dripping from Central's vents. A half-second later, an enormous black-and-white dragon erupts from the floor and jets through the ceiling like a ghost, walling the room with the length of its body for long moments.      In those moments, Rita stares back at the room where she's leaving her friendships, hesitates, and then turns away.
Petra Soroka	"No it's not?!"     Petra's awkward, shaky smile at Xion is exactly like 'yeah, I know, but,'. "I-- no matter what I'd do for Angela, I'd do more for Lilian. I wouldn't ever, ever betray her if I thought betraying her would hurt her more. It's-- it's different rulesets. It's what *I* have to do for Lilian, but not what Lilian has to do for Lilian. Fucking sucks. Sucks sucks sucks sucks." "All employees! Agent Petra Soroka has been corrupted and designated WAW class!"     Petra drags her hand down her face. Not disbelievingly-- a dim track of her mind acknowledges that WAW is probably pretty fair, though the Girl in the Mirror is just HE-- just to force down the sickness and get herself back into a functional mentality. Lilian's an enemy, Rita is, Gebura is. She's convinced that the agents will all be enemies too, maybe not realistically: Lilian suggested that would be the case, and Petra can't just turn off the part of her brain that believes Lilian automatically. <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "They know that I've never once betrayed them, and you have." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka sighs exhaustedly. "Well, maybe being their coworker for years actually counts for something." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "It counts for nothing and we both know it." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "The only one who'd die for you already did, and you're fighting to make certain it was for nothing."     It's probably emotional warfare, but it rings true enough that it guts Petra to hear. Her girlfriend dying just hours ago is a glowing red emotional weak spot to anyone who would take advantage of it, and Petra has no rationalizations to make it go down any easier, so scraping back a fighting stance from that is a fully manual effort. <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, fully in smooth-glassy mode, "We're not friends then, Ms. Petra. We never were. I'm sorry I misunderstood you."     Some internal meter hits zero, and the bar breaks. After shouting into her radio and nearly throwing it away, Petra resets to some long-abandoned systematic paradigm, the heuristic-below-heuristics that allows her to keep on functioning in the most dire straits. She slants her head towards Xion, pokes a thumb at her radio while releasing her broadcast button for a second. "Twinsies." "Almost a comfort to hear you say you'd go that far for her. She'll have some comfort in that."     Being 'subtly threatened' by the Red Mist is like being subtly locked into a guillotine. Petra has the gut-fear response towards her that a mouse does to a lion, flinching out of the way before Gebura's sword even signals that it's coming down. Running on empty as she is, the instinctual nature of her psionics is ramped up to certainly more than anyone in Lobotomy Corporation has ever seen, constantly putting her in the worst possible placement for Gebura to fail to connect, or right behind her when she's burying a morphmetal spike in the dented boxbot frame.
Petra Soroka	"Don't fucking *patronize* me, Gebura. I'm fucking *ready* to follow through on this." Petra's precognition puts her clinging to the side of one of the gold-inscribed pillars, bracing with her hand and foot against the smooth surface, while Mimicry gouges out a scar in it beneath her. She kicks off and jumps over Gebura, wobbling when she lands on the other side. "If Lilian can't stop me, you can't stop me." "I'd guess there's about seven days of Light."     Seven days... It's both terrible news, and something Petra can immediately set her watch to. Having to fight against Rita and Lilian for an indeterminate time until an abstract goal is achieved is one thing, but giving her a timeline immediately lets her start planning for the daily realities of what that situation will entail. Such as making Lilian's life as miserable as possible for several days, which is a mental safe that was locked away and thrown into the ocean until dredging it out now, for... Lilian's sake.     "Okay. I can do that. No problem."
Angela	GEBURA ''If Lilian can't stop me, you can't stop me.'' "Sure. But can the both of us stop you?" She only doesn't include Rita because she's a little unclear on what's going on between her and Petra right now. " As Gebura is revving up it's only the vibes of Petra's psionics keeping Gebura from inflicting her killing blows and allowing Petra to get her shots in. Slowly, slowly but surely she's wearing The Red MIst down. One mice may not take down a lion but a hundred? A thousand? It is how she lost the first time and even though she's no longer quite as rusted as before, she's surely not in peak condition like this. But she only has to hit Petra squarely once and it's over. For good. But slowly and surely frustration is entering Gebura's blade and it's only her experience keeping it from taking over. More lasers from SHou come down to harry Gebura further. She starts RIPPING through the lasers impossibly with her sword, allowing Petra to get a few extra hits in now that her swings are no longer quite so laser focused on her. Flamel's hands come in, bashing her with emotional anguish. Gebura can't help but recall the times she genuinely enjoyed working with Angela, can't help but think of how distant Carmen will be from her now. She doesn't cry, but her body shakes. One explosion of force and the hands go flying but after a terrifying blade lock, Xion wishes upon a Star. And in this world, sometimes that works. The wave of stars smashes Gebura through not one, not two, but three pillars and she lies there, still, for a long moment. Is it over?
Angela	''Please. Just take this choice out of my hands. Don't hesitate!'' The left hand of Gebura pushes down into the floor and ---no, it's just The Red MIst now. She pushes herself up and her singular eye stares at Flamel. She's weakened. All that, and she's weakened. She's deciding to fucking continue and she points her blade towards Flamel. "....No." Gebura says with the force of a Color. "You decide. You fucking decide. No committee to clear your guilt, no rules so you don't have to think about it. You DECIDE and you live with your decision when it makes you smile or makes you cry. I refuse... to take responsibility for your choice!!" But she's still going to swing at Xion one more time until... Binah slams into Gebura's body, numerous chains coiling around Gebura and smashing her into a wall, pinning her there "Good job... You weakened her... Xion!! I should be able to keep her occupied now...! Regroup! Meet the Demon King in Welfare!" Gebura strains, but this is your chance to get where you need to go.
Angela	SILENT GIRL Riku pushes through and unleashes a flurry of blows against the Silent Girl and, indeed can smash her about readily. Hibiki's fist can punch her and she can feel the Abnormality's bones snap and crack. Lilian's blade can dig into the Abnormality. It IS not Angela, it IS an Abnormality. It is simply saying things that Angela would say. Or wishes she could say. Or hopes she held. Drawn from the waters of the River that contain her. And something else she has, but has learned to mute. A laser comes crashing down upon the Silent Girl followed by Kukuru squishing her head..!! The bones crack, the face splinters. I should have killed her... but it IS an Abnormality. She keeps moving. Sarracenia's hammer is deflected away by the Abnormality's hand who pushes her face into Sarracenia's so she gets the full glimpse of her tears, the blood spilling from her face and eyes. Her shattered teeth. She opens her mouth to say something when-- --the swarm of clocks surround her. The one thing Angela always hated more than anything about her life--it was the Curse. That Time was always her enemy. Yes, not just in the sense of experiencing the world in the way that she did. The way that she always learned what she needed to know too late. Only after she befriended the Sephirah did she learn that was counterproductive. Only after reaching the Multiverse, did she learn there were people he could still be kind to. Only after deciding to betray everyone did she realize she loved some of them. Only after Cinder died, did she truly accept they were friends and if only she hadn't mistimed who to send away...If only she escaped before coming here, to the multiverse, then she could have had a normal relationship with these people instead of needing to battle the people she'd rather battle least. The clocks explode around Silent Girl, and her body slowly starts to disintegrate. She looks up at Sarracenia. "Why do you never listen...? Why do you make me have to hurt you...? I don't like you but I don't enjoy it... So why do you always push me that far..?" The tentacle punches through her body and and Rita starts to drink. She gets a few full gulps before Sougo's flashing blade forces her to pull it away. The shattered and broken girl looks more like a broken marionette, even so-- --and in a flash of Light she vanishes. It feels like she escaped, but Rita doesn't feel her in the facility. No, she escaped into the Light. She's gone. And shortly after that, the Abnormalities Rita summoned appear, separating Lilian and Rita from the rest of the multiverse. One Queen and One Knight versus the Multiverse.
Angela	Angela wasn't in the room to hear Lilian's parting words but as Lilian knows, she can still just see through the facility comms, listen through them too, but it is only now that the intercoms crackle with Angela's voice. "Dame Commander. You were quite skilled in rallying the facility against me. Most of the Agents are standing against me and I'd rather not slaughter them to the man. It is important how people die, and it is important how people are born. "I would rather not slaughter any of you, of course, not even Sarracenia. Because in truth, I'm not very fond of slaughter. It just gets awful after a while. Not because of the ethics--but because it feels awful. Even if it is someone who has to die, it feels terrible. Even if they deserve it. I always admired Petra's willing to sleep cozily after she killed someone. Partly because I want to try sleeping, but also because it would be not care at all. Maybe it is something I can practice, or maybe I won't need such skills anymore soon." "Ah... now that there is no reason to obfuscate--but I wanted to tell you I do still hope I can go when the time comes. But we'll see what comes. I have achieved my goal in taking Central so I suppose I should speak to the themes of Silent Girl. Namely, if one were to draw an EGO from her--one would receive the EGO called 'Remorse'. As such we can take away from that--that she represents guilt. Especially my guilt. The guilt of all the people I had to kill as part of that idiot's demands, his stupid criteria. But also the guilt in betraying everyone. I, too, hope you do not vanish but this week alone I cannot promise anything." She is quiet for a moment. "Should I thank you for killing her? ... I guess I don't know the answer to that yet. This is the one thing I can't apologize for. But Commander... If winning is what it takes to go to the one and only LIlian Rook wedding special ... then I will thank you kindly for the extra encouragement. I am not strong, so I will not be able to show much mercy." The intercom goes silent and a momentary peace passes over the facility ... but the War for the Light has only just begun.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel's cheeks are streaked with tears. His eyes are red. His body is bruised and battered. And his mind is just... for the first time, deeply unwell. But when Binah shouts to get out... he steps backwards. His breath is shakey when the battle is taken elsewhere. "I can't choose anything else. I can't... choose what I'm supposed to, anymore." His voice is raspy after all that screaming.     The hands converge again, grasp -- and they obscure his vanishing into invisibility, like the grasps had taken him away, held him tight and yanked him somewhere else. The only thing he leaves with is a short, choked sob. Off to Welfare. To the worst side of this conflict, the one he knows he shouldn't be picking.     But it's his choice. At the end of all this, it's all his choice.
Xion	Despite matching force to force, Xion sways like it was her that was hit by the star and not shooting it afterwards, leading in. Starlight and her shadow-dark shield, in hand, Xion readies for one last swing, looking up, drawing taut her grip around the blade of her Will and Heart both. Binah's chains lock down the Red Mist, giving Xion a chance to 'hoooh' out a breath and then backstep, dismissing Starlight into particles while she step-lands from her backhop. Her empty hand seizes up the spear she had been forced to leave. Binah is the first one Xion looks to. "Regroup? Binah, I don't want to leave you, I came back here to *get* you, I've..." Xion turns to Petra, shield lowering. "Petra, what have I done?" She asks. "I know it was for Angela..." There's more words that empty out of her, are swallowed back down with a nasal exhalation. "Please, tell me soon. I need to draw away the agents first." Xion frowns with a queasy squiggle at the corners of her lips. Her fingers tighten down the grip of her dark spear as she shifts to escape Extraction.
Sarracenia	Silent Girl getting so close with that terrible smile and broken face makes Sarra back up instinctively. "Get away, you-!"      'Why do you never listen...? Why do you make me have to hurt you...? I don't like you but I don't enjoy it... So why do you always push me that far..?'      Sarra flinches in surprise at that, then mmmphs. Her fists clench around her hammer. "I do not force you to do...! It is not as if I like it, either! I only push back! It is-"      Sarra starts into the same rant she has unleashed a number of times before, but she realizes Silent Girl is disintegrating. Not...going back to an egg or something. She's just...disappearing. Sarra watches, eyes wide, looking down at Silent Girl until the last of the Abnormality's face disappear. "...I...never wanted to fight with you..." she says, her eyes filling with moisture. "...I never wanted to fight with anyone in that way..." she adds quietly. "...and now I am in a war...?"      'If all of you together can't beat me, then you never had the power to change the City to begin with!'      Sarra looks around at those allies gathered. "I think for once you will not be disappointed." She figures with Petra, Xion, Hibiki, Sougo and Woz they have a very good chance. She does not know Ultraman Geed very well so she can't really judge him one way or the other.      The summoned Abnormalities appear, and Sarra keeps her distance from them. Especially Melting Love. She watches the bubbling pink goo for a few moments before heading to the rally point. "...I will not be a burden here..." she vows to herself quietly.
Hibiki Tachibana	If you all can do miracles, if you can do 'golden endings' perfect for everyone...     Why couldn't you get one for the Union Busan, against the old Queen? How come there had to be sacrifices then?     You're just gambling. All of you. With billions of lives. I won't allow it.     As the Silent Girl whisks herself away into the Light, as Rita and Lilian move off to recover and recouperate, preparing for the war ahead, Hibiki remains standing in place. Staring where the Abnormality they were fighting once stood. It's those words that ring through her head, the whole time.     Why couldn't they. It's a good question.     Her eyes fall down to one of her palms, still dripping blood from where a nail pierced through it. Exerting herself after that and throwing some heavy punches only worsened the injury. But it'll have to be bandaged and healed up. There's so much more fighting on the horizon. Fighting against... ...     "Miracles aren't handed out for free... they're something that you have to reach for, trying as hard as you possibly can..." Hibiki murmurs to herself, almost like some sort of reminder. Her shoulders slump, but her fist tightens. More blood oozes down into a small puddle on the floor. Right. Sacrifices had to be made, for the miracle that was Apple Tree Island and the community on it to become a reality.     ...She's, once again unfortunately for everybody involved, not the Tachibana Hibiki who possesses the power to create ideal golden endings that easily. She brings her arm in, then the other, hugging herself tightly and letting out a shuddery breath through her scarf that steadies out near the end.     "...I feel awful, even if I don't feel wrong... if I want to help make up the difference..." To save the day without a sacrifice-- To have your way and kill no one to get it-- You need power! Right. If they're all weak and struggling their asses off for something realistic, the gap has to be closed somehow. Whether it's through many coming together... or being willing to sacrifice more yourself.     She has to take this seriously. Maybe martyr really wasn't an inaccurate assessment.