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[Takosher]

She couldn't hold back the tears as she sobbed uncontrollably. It was too much for her, she wasn't strong enough. The heaved breaths of panic clutched at her throat, dragging her deeper into its depths. She couldn't do it anymore, she didn't have any fight left in her. It was over.

"It's okay Lilith." Arturia whispered, wrapping Lilith in a hug. Her face was scratched from the lashing of the shadowy tendrils that surrounded Lilith, but somehow she managed to ignore the pain for Lilith's sake.

Lilith tried to respond, but the best she could manage was an anguished wail. She couldn't do this, no matter how much Arturia supported her, she just didn't have the strength to keep fighting. "I'm sorry." she sobbed, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay Lilith, you're okay." Arturia reassured her, "I'm here for you, you don't have to fight anymore."

Lilith nodded weakly. "Okay."

Arturia let go of her and stood up. A chill ran through Lilith, it always felt so cold when Arturia let go of her. With one last loving smile in Lilith's direction, Arturia drew her sword and charged Kallisto.

But there was no fight. In an instant, Kallisto's fingers were wrapped around Arturia's throat, fingernails drawing blood from the force of her grip. "You're an idiot, Arturia." she sneered, "Genuinely stupid. What's wrong with you? She's not worth saving, and yet you keep sacrificing for her. Well now you have nothing left to sacrifice, she doesn't even have enough power left to summon Vi-Ra-Nor. This is the end of the line."

"Fuck... you... bitch." Arturia choked defiantly.

Kallisto pulled the lever to open the incinerator door. "Fuck yourself, I'm sure it'll be hot." Kallisto's face contorted with raw contempt as she flung Arturia into the inferno.

As Arturia was flung to her death, her eyes met Lilith's for what may well have been the very first time. The terror in those tear-filled eyes was burned into Lilith's memories. It was her fault, Arturia was fighting for her. And now Arturia would die afraid and alone, for her. An ear-splitting screech tore out of Lilith's lungs, drowning out Arturia's screams as she burned alive. It was too late, but she stood up. She had to fight, for Arturia. Everything. Everything before now and everything after. All of it, it was all for Arturia.

{...}

OOC thread

Captain Emily Astarotte stared blankly at the little book in her hands. It went against everything she believed, everything she'd worked for. She desperately wished she could take back the wisp of nostalgia that had prompted her to return to the old library. This book was simply awful, a blasphemous work. And yet the words screamed to her very soul that they were true. Everything had been so simple. She had worked so hard to be the best. She had wanted to serve her country, to spread the virtues around the world and prevent evil from running amok. And now this, when she'd finally achieved her goal. She had been set to deploy that very afternoon, and had only stopped by the library to say one final goodbye to the place she'd spent most of her teenage years. It was an ancient building that had stood for longer than history could recall. Nearly destroyed by ancient wars, renovated dozens of times, turned into a museum, and finally restored to its original purpose a few years before Emily was born. She had often gone there as an escape when life seemed out of balance. But now, now that same place of safety had turned to the source of discord.

Emily knew everything as it had been, she knew what she had planned. And now all of it was so small. Her goal hadn't changed, it had just gotten a lot harder to achieve. She hadn't wanted this, but it was hers now. The truth. She would serve her country and spread the virtues, but to do that she would have to tear them both down first. It wouldn't be easy, but the truth had to prevail.

Kira and Monika

When they'd been informed that a holy weapon user had appeared, Kira and Monika had been prepared to handle it. They hadn't been prepared for this.

It was customary for all regular soldiers to retreat when a holy weapon came into play. The holy weapon user would have a few minutes to wreak havoc before their counterparts arrived, but the battle would truly be decided by the fight that followed. There's were a lot of reasons for why this was, most of them rooted in tradition. Some saw it as a way to prevent holy weapon users from doing too much damage, others a way to mitigate the risk of a holy weapon being taken out by a stray bullet in a more chaotic battle, and most simply went along with it because that's how it had always been done.

No one had retreated from this battlefield.

It had been a small patrol, but Kira and Monika had been in charge of that patrol. They'd broken off for a moment to talk, and in the thirty seconds it took them to return after the warning came through, the woman in front of them had managed a total victory. Neridus had a few holy weapons capable of that, but intel didn't place any of them in the area. The nearest holy weapon was supposed to be an hour away at Nana's Cave, near the Stone Ocean. This wasn't even worth the time, it was just a small probe, nothing that should have warranted such an aggressive response.

Yet here they were, two dozen bodies sprawled across the ground. Half of them were clearly alive, breathing heavily or groaning in pain. Most of the rest were unconscious or dead, but not clearly either. One had splattered against a tree. The woman didn't seem interested in the bodies, living or gruesome dead. She wasn't interested in Kira and Monika either. Her attention was on the small phone she held to her ear. It seemed they were deep enough into Neridus to get call service.

She looked up when she noticed she had company. "Gotta call ya back, pair of chicks just showed up, probably lookin' for a fight." she spoke up, making sure Kira and Monika could hear. "I got what I need." she called to them, "You can go, I ain't gonna mess with you or any of the rest."

She rested her bat over her shoulders, a leisurely pose. She dressed just as casually, her outfit reminiscent of baseball, a rather frowned upon pastime. The cap she wore concealed her face a bit, but she was too small for the effect to be particularly intimidating. It became even less so when she parted her lips to blow a bright pink bubble. She was mocking them, casually flaunting the fact that she wasn't afraid. Her words said she didn't want to fight, but her body language was practically begging them to attack her.

Eilyth

"Alright Lieutenant, you're up."

Naive was the best word for her. She was too young for this, she didn't understand the consequences. It was like she totally forgot about the battlefield the instant she was off it. And worst of all, she was good at what she did. Sometimes the Church propped up naive officers like Captain Leah for political reasons, but Eilyth's cheery commander wasn't one of those. Leah was quick-witted, confident, and charismatic, all great traits for an officer. Even if she never shook her naivete, it wasn't hard to imagine her with a major command down the line.

Today's plan was the standard one that Eilyth had been employed for dozens of times before. In other words she was bait. Patricia was her backup for this op, the two had been working together for nearly two years now. In many ways they were similar, both of them had caused problems for their superiors, both had their troubles with family, and they were both rather masculine in appearance. But Patricia was an intentional troublemaker, someone who went out of her way to cause problems. Where Eilyth sought to prove herself and overcome her familial troubles, Patricia had run from them. And while Eilyth was stuck with her appearance, Patrica had intentionally ignored her bombshell figure because she could. She also made it no secret that she wanted to put her head between Eilyth's legs.

Patricia was twirling her knife to produce an aura of black fog. She was either preparing to fight or just showing off, they were basically the same thing to Patricia. It was difficult to read Patricia's face behind her sunglasses, but Eilyth knew her partner well enough that she didn't have to. Patricia was bored. They'd been fishing on the Tyranian border for several days now, traveling across Nyght and now into Hymn. If they went much further they'd find themselves in Neridus, near Haley's Sister, and they did not want to be anywhere near Haley's Sister. It was troublesome to do nothing, but these fishing trips weren't really much of anything in the first place. They rarely actually killed any Tyranian holy weapon users, and those they did were usually just Ladies. The Tyranians were probably wise to the trap. Without an actual force behind them, Eilyth and company weren't much of a real threat.

If that was true, then Eilyth was about to go sweat to death in the hot summer sun for an hour while nothing happened for the sixth day in a row. Patricia was bored, but at least she got to wait in her tent.

Silvia and L

"Go wake the captain." Cay had said it so matter-of-factly, like it was an easy task. Silvia knew better. This was a punishment, trying to awaken their lethargic captain was like being sent out to collect monkeys from the ocean. Even if you managed to pull it off, you'd still have to deal with a bunch of wet monkeys. Captain L could be awoken, but getting her to stay awake was a huge pain.

Worse was why Silvia had to wake her. They'd been called back to the capital after their entire company of enlisted was decimated by an opposing holy weapon. It had been almost a month of deliberating on the part of their superiors, and the verdict was finally going to come down. L was going to take the fall for certain, and she'd probably be ousted from the army.

L's quarters were a bit smaller than most, perhaps a joke by the higher ups about L's stature. If you made a relative size comparison, she probably had some of the largest quarters in the entire army. It might not have been a problem for L, but for any of her underlings trying to wake her, it just made the act that much more uncomfortable.

[Glass]

Silvia

"Morning, madam. Rise and shine. Etcetera, so on, and such forth. Wake up please."
The voice carrying the message sounded itself like it would prefer to be asleep right now. Possibly compounding on the cruel joke of the assignment was the fact that Silvia was, herself, rather tired. But too damn bad.
She stood at the door, quarterstaff poking in. Specifically, poking the captain. It was easier than trying to stoop over to get in the door and poke at her directly.

If asked, Silvia would swear up and down that the military had put extra expense into making Captain L's room as sarcastic as possible.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

In war, there was always the risk of doing something that puts the lives of everyone around you at risk. Even if that "thing" is as small as leaving for a minute to take a chat with your assistant. The exact talk was something that already felt like a distant memory, but Monika remembered taking Kira ahead of the main group for some "advanced scouting", though clearly using it as an excuse. When the alert came through, she had dropped the entire conversation, even using her holy weapon's abilities to boost her way through the woods. But it didn't matter, as when she finally arrived at the sight of the battlefield, it was already over, the patrol utterly defeated and their attacker casually talking on a phone.

Why hadn't they retreated

For anyone who spent time with Monika, it would be clear that the woman was absolutely furious as she looked over the battlefield. Even against most enemy holy weapon users, Monika would immediately open a casual conversation with them through complementing their appearance, as she does with anyone else. But instead she was silent, halberd pointed to the ground and her body seemingly relaxed, yet ready to spring up at any moments as her red eyes glared at the woman.

Taking a deep breath, Monika placed a hand in her uniform's pocket, taking a few steps into the clearing. Her eyes left the woman, glancing over the various living and still bodies that littered the ground, a pained expression flashing in them for a moment before she closed them.

"... I don't think I need to bother to tell you why I'm not even going to consider your offer, right?" Monika asked, stopping in a spot that had the least amount of bodies between her and the woman, opening her eyes to make eye contact with them. Right now she could care less about what they had to cause this kind of attack. For now she held her anger back, instead trying to make small talk before the inevitable fight. It was her tradition.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth

Eilyth gave little more than a shallow nod to her commander as she departed. It was of course absolute bullshit what they were doing here, she had figured as much from the very start. The brass sends a competent commander to corral a couple of misfits through border territories and boonies? She might not have been the sharpest sword on the rack, but for fuck's sake, even she could see this was a thinly veiled punitive assignment. Something to keep the problem children occupied until they were actually needed again. What better way to do that than to let them be the enemy's nuisance for a while? And if they actually managed to kill a few rival weapon meisters in the process, even better.

She didn't complain though. She was far past such wastes of energy at this point. Both in general and for this assignment. She'd always hated wet heat; it was thick, oppressive, and it would drown you with your homeostatic processes if you weren't careful. In this humidity this bad, with no decent cover for miles around, she didn't want to expend anymore energy than necessary. Bitching about having to be the only one out here actually doing something would've done precisely that.

As she exited the command tent, she gazed upwards at the sun, quickly judging from it's position that the way she currently faced would take her east. East was... undesirable. Very much so. East could lead to a very foolish and easily prevented death. North would just lead her back towards home territory. West... they had just wasted the last week trudging out here from west. She was tired of West. Quite frankly, she'd already wished West would cease to exist several times during this mission. That left South the only redeemable direction in her eyes. Deeper into Tyra than intended, but it's not like her other options would prove more productive.  Her mind made up, she set out from their small encampment, walking off into the endless sea of wetlands that stretched off into the horizon. It could've been worse, she told herself vainly. Had this assignment happened a few months earlier, she'd be wading up to her fucking calfs in water. At least right now there were only the occasional puddles... filled with mosquitoes breeding like rabbits who would be more than happy to try and consume her alive if they detected her. And plenty of ticks who would eagerly join in the feast too. Because who wouldn't relish the chance to have survived multiple battles only to end up dying of lyme disease thanks to an outing in podunk, nowhere?
      Eilyth wouldn't. So just as she had for the six days prior, she quickly awoke Amicus and took to walking on all fours as it's scales quickly surged over her skin, molding the sandy brown light emitting from the choker into the reptilian armor she was so known for. Had this been a dry heat, she would've been saved from the bulk of her current suffering, but as it stood the only thing Amicus could spare her from out here was the endless swarms of pests.

And so it was that a stone dragon prowled it's way south through the wetlands, eyes peeled on the horizon for any sign of imminent civilization.

[Chevaleresse]

Kira & Monika

"Major, her abilities are unknown." Kira spoke the reminder to be careful quietly, dancing around the issue of insubordination. Monika was still her superior, after all. Kira unwrapped her scarf from around her neck, preparing for any sudden movements from the woman before her. Her appearance was. . . strange. It seemed unlikely for a soldier, but then, so was her CO's.

She assessed the scene, trying not to let her gaze linger on the agonized dying. Thrown around violently. A Force weapon? At the very least, it seemed that the bat was likely a close combat weapon. That gave her an advantage, in theory; in practice, she had just devastated the patrol effortlessly, after appearing out of nowhere.

"What was your purpose?" The actions made little sense. Attacking the patrol made sense to draw them out, but then why not attack them directly? She pitched her voice down again. "This might be an ambush."

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

L's Deep Sleep

It was going to take a lot more than some halfhearted pokes to awake the captain she was sleeping particularly deeply this day, honestly she had been ever since the incident that had landed the back in the capital. No one had asked her if there was any significance to it, though the only one in the squad she'd consider telling would be Cay. L knew she would keep it to herself, the girl didn't speak much. L appreciated that for many reasons, chiefly that Cay wasn't an exhausting experience to talk to. She wasn't sure how she ended up with such a solider under her command but she was more than happy she had one she could work with on a level such as theirs. Cay listened and she listened well, she always did what L asked and didn't make her over explain herself. L was never entirely sure as to why... she didn't feel the need to pry into her past ad was sure she'd get little in the way of words if she bothered asking. The fact their working relationship was as strong as it was, truly that was all that mattered.

In L's mind, played out the events of incident that had landed them here. Typically... she didn't do this type of thing, she preferred to move on, to not let the past linger. Getting stuck in the past was akin to dying in her opinion. If you could not be in the present, if you couldn't keep walking forward you might as well not living. But... she couldn't help it this time. As the Commanding Officer this responsibility was hers, and she hadn't even known what happened. The only things she knew was that by the time they had recognized there was a meister in the vicinity it was already to late. Even had she known, she wasn't sure how much she herself could've done, her own holy weapon might not be able to harm her, but loosing a bolt of wrath into her own company would've been their end. She kept playing it back in her mind, trying to understand how the enemy executed such a operation... but she couldn't make any progress, it was all too quick, over before she even could comprehend what occurred. Perhaps she should use her dream time for more pleasant thoughts? It always felt like the only time the military didn't siphon out of her soul. And what good it did her, all she had was enemies who didn't understand that the reason she could barely stay awake was the accursed hammer that sapped all she had just to wield it. That the fact she feel asleep in conferences was due to the fact she had to work her ass off to get anything done and then thought to be anything but giving her all for this damned cause. She could say she didn't care, but it was more accurately she just didn't have the energy to. She never had any left for herself, all she had was sleep to look forward to.

The pokes had no effect, the lump in the bed not even stirring. It was clear to Silvia that this method was going to get her nowhere. She'd have to make her way within the miniature quarters.

[Glass]

Silvia

Well this was accomplishing nothing. Silvia sighed.
“Alright, I guess we’re doing this the stupid way.”

She had to get down onto her knees and elbows to be able to get into the room without worrying about hitting her head; even when she got inside, she was tall enough that sitting up would have left barely an inch of headroom. She shuffled over to Captain L’s bedside.
“Madam, I don’t feel like waking you any more than you feel like waking up, but we all make sacrifices for our country.” The second part of the sentence positively oozes with sarcasm.
She starts pushing the captain by the shoulder to see if that accomplishes anything.

[Takosher]

Kira and Monika

The woman shrugged in response to Monika. "Your funeral." she said nonchalantly. She lowered the bat from her shoulders and started swinging it around idly, circling slightly towards her left. She stepped over a groaning soldier, glancing down as she did so. It was an obvious opening, but she didn't leave it nearly long enough to let Kira or Monika take it. In fact, the timing was so perfectly executed that it seemed like bait. The woman had let her guard drop just enough that an inexperienced combatant might have attacked, a potentially fatal mistake.

"Purpose? I'm doin' my job." she answered Kira, "Or I was. Now I'm thinkin' about havin' a little fun." A smirk crossed her face, her eyes shining brightly. She was enjoying this. "Y'all sure you don't wanna turn tail and run?" Her body language shifted and the bat stopped swinging. It was still held casually, but this was a different sort of casual. The woman had stiffened, preparing for combat. Casual combat, apparently, but combat nonetheless.

Eilyth

The plan was to go rough up a rural town or attack someone's homestead. If Eilyth knew the lay of the land she probably would have gone east, there was a small village not far in that direction. Unfortunately, keeping track of their exact location wasn't easy, and the Katrian Army didn't exactly have time to dedicate to mapping out every village in Tyran, so she was basically flying blind. It would be some time before she found anything to the south, more time wasted in the heat. Plus it would make the whole plan more difficult. If civilization proved too distant, she would have to make a fighting retreat back into the radio range of the camp.

In the end, none of that mattered. {Curbstomp Theme}

The armor on her left side shattered at the impact, barely holding together enough to prevent her from taking damage to her person. She caught a glimpse of her attacker as the force of the attack sent her flying. A seemingly nude woman with long black hair, the very image of Layla herself. It was one of the two Dames Supreme, Lily of Damnation.

Lily didn't give Eilyth a chance to land. She was above and behind Eilyth in an instant, her fists clasped together. They slammed down on Eilyth just as the draconic warrior came into their range, turning her into a living lightning bolt. The impact with the ground would have killed virtually anyone else. Eilyth was perfectly intact, she couldn't say the same for her armor. Lily was already on her again, delivering a flurry of punches from above that shoved Eilyth further into the mud. Eilyth's armor took these hits much better, apparently Lily couldn't shatter it without some momentum behind the attack.

Eilyth had the few seconds it would take Lily to realize her punches weren't working to come up with an escape plan.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth
The initial blow came so fast she barely had time to register what was happening before she went airborne. What she saw shortly before she was sent careening back to the earth caused to involuntarily tremble beneath her scales. How.... why? Why here? Why was the fucking Dame Supreme responsible for guarding the Chancellor Supreme here, in the middle of goddess forsaken nowhere? She would've rather ran face first into an ambush of five armament-shaped Force meisters than this monster wearing the guise of a human.
     "I guess that's it then...fate itself has finally grown tired of me." Eilyth thought bitterly to herself as she hit the sodden ground. As shock and terror slowly gave way to indignant rage, the instinctual urge to resist and survive took over her body. Anyone who had was even slightly less accustomed to fighting tooth and nail would've likely been left petrified and dumbstruck, meeting their death with all the poise of an idiot standing with her mouth agape.
     Eilyth, however, rolled over in the mud just as the Dame Supreme descended on her again, presenting her still intact right flank and raising it's respective wing to shield herself from the subsequent blows. Rather than having the wing smashed to bits and feeling the cold embrace of death however, all that happened once the barrage landed was that the girl found herself slowly being pushed deeper into the mud. There was no telling how long it would be before the demon realized it's current approach was proving fruitless though, and Eilyth gauged at best she would have moments before death again came for her. What she did in those few moments would determine... everything going forward. She knew that.

And as much as she hated it, she knew she had no chance of prevailing against the legendary heroine of Damnation.

"Command, come in." She spoke into the small mic near her lips; it was a rather queer set-up, connected to the small radio contained within the steel box attached to the belt of her uniform. It was one of the few practical ways for her to have communication with the rest of the company while armored up, given with her claws and strength, and the various rigors of the battlefield, well.... wearing a radio external to her scales was just begging for it to be smashed the moment she took a heavy hit, or moved the wrong way. This way however, it would be kept relative safe, and she could transmit as needed by shifting a few inner scales to hit its switch "I've been ambushed. Due south, can't be more than 2 to 3 klicks. It's Dame Lily. I'm absolutely certain of it. She appears to be alone. Over."
      Her left flank had been flaking away into the mud since the moment she rolled. By now, the shattered scales had crumbled to dust, replaced by new ones. She wanted to do some minor touch ups on a few other areas, but that side had taken the brunt of the beating, and priorities had to be made. If she wanted to escape, she'd have to create an opening to do so. To that end, Eilyth shifted her immense weight and power towards her right flank, the one currently being hammered on, and unfurled her wing so hard that it created a massive updraft of wind, at the same time swinging her tail around towards Lily's ankles.

A normal person surely would've been shredded by the raw force behind the razor-like edge and had their ankles turned into dust, but Eilyth knew the best she could hope for here was momentarily stunning and knocking this demon down. If she could just do that, then maybe, just maybe... she'd live to struggle another day.

[Takosher]

Eilyth

Eilyth's call for help had taken enough time for Lily to realize her attacks weren't working. She was already backing off when Eilyth tried her tail sweep, and she was able to avoid the attack entirely. Electricity crackled across Lily's skin, although Eilyth couldn't discern its source. It was pretty obvious what Lily was planning to try next. It seemed Eilyth was about to find out what it felt like to be cooked in a stone oven.

"...ot joking." Eilyth's radio crackled to life, a faint voice in the background coming through.

Patricia spoke into the radio, "Not funny, Eilyth."

"Give me that!" the faint voice got louder, revealing itself as Leah. The radio crackled again and for a moment Eilyth thought the last thing she heard was going to be the sound of her two companions fighting. Luckily, Leah got a handle on the rebellious Patricia in time to announce, "We're on our way Lieutenant. ETA five minutes, I'll make Patricia run. Stay alive, that's an order." It was exactly the sort of corny pep talk that Eilyth had come to expect from Leah.

Lily charged. She didn't plan to let Eilyth obey that order. With the speed she was moving, Eilyth didn't have time to dodge. But if she hit with that electric charge it was all over.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

L and the Inexplicably Tiny Room

It was typically Cay who awoke the captain, and for whatever reason she never seemed to have any issues doing so. The rest of the squad could never get out of her however how she would was capable of such a herculean feat. Cay would never say much and getting any words out of her was nigh impossible. Any answer that could be secured was so few words as to be useless. So, whenever the words "Wake the Captain" came out of her mouth, it felt like being marked for death. It was a curse beyond curses, that Cay always seemed to speak as if it was anything but. And if it hadn't become clear for dear Silvia already it was certainly about to. The prodding had little effect before ad it had seemed that the pushing was having little as well.

Suddenly there was a moment where L had stirred... to go directly back into her deep slumber. It was unclear if it was a response to Silvia's method's or simply a natural stirring. It definitely was feeling hopeless at this rate however, that much was clear. A few things that would be noticeable if Silvia was heading her surroundings, chiefly L's giant hammer was exactly within her reach on the other side of the bed, leaned against a tiny nightstand... secondly, that it was basically creating a groove within the wood where it was resting presumably from it's weight alone. Just how heavy was that thing? Thirdly, their captain was... actually pretty cute if you took the time to notice. She had a sort of air to her like a sleeping princess, it was quite different from when she was awake. It almost felt, heinous to even attempt waking the sleeping beauty. She seemed to enjoy her time in slumber, so much so that her underlying beauty was able to be seen as if it was the simplest thing in the world. One would wonder how they could miss such a divine beauty in her waking hours, it seemed almost impossible.

But that wasn't the task at hand! It was time to wake the captain!

[Glass]

"..."
*sigh*
"Ok."

Flip the quarterstaff, pull back the sheets, tickle the captain, and if the hammer is ready to come down, get the fuck out of the way.

[Chevaleresse]

". . . Yes, maybe we will have some fun." The corner of Kira's mouth quirked up with a hint of a grin at the prospect of what combat might allow her to get away with. She reached up to remove the patch over her left eye; she would need the extra vision. Plus, it sometimes intimidated her foes, not that it seemed likely here. The lieutenant started forward, readying her weapon. She knew Monika well enough to prepare for her immediate assault. When the counterattack came, she would be prepared.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

A slight shift with her eyes and a tilt of the head was initially all Kira got to show that Monika had heard her, though a short shrug afterwards pretty much confirmed it. It was true that they didn't know the girl's abilities, aside from casually wiping their squad, but on the other hand, neither did they. Presumably, at the very least, since this could very well be a planned ambush. Though if that was the case, why they bothered to take out their squad while they were gone was beyond her. Combined with the fact that the girl was giving them a chance to leave, Monika felt like there was a very small chance of this actually being an ambush.

"Nah, I think I'll stick around" Monika replied with the same forced casualness she spoke with before, "It is a bit rude to ignore a lady's question like that, but your business is your business. I don’t suppose I could interest you in a less cramped area?” she continued, pulling his hand out of her pocket to rest it on her hip, a finger idly tapping the handle of her halberd. The lieutenant was ready, and so was she, and if there was one thing she was certain of, it was that she could cross the distance before the girl could make it to Kira, if it came down to it.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth

She missed. One chance, one opportunity, to walk away from here alive. She wanted to walk away from here. But yet some part of her even baser than the animal clinging to life had overridden the planned order of operations. Instead of prioritizing survival... it chose to tell them instead. Why? If she couldn't help herself, they certainly couldn't. Was she really that desperate to not fade into nothing that she would sacrifice what little chance at life she had left for the opportunity to asauge that dread? Was having someone know that she died on her feet, facing the most powerful person in the world, truly more important to her than not having to die on her feet to begin with?
    "I guess it is..." Eilyth didn't know if she should be thankful, or scornful to have ended up with a commander like Leah in the end. She'd certainly served under worse ones. But she never really meshed well with that... optimism, that perkiness of hers. Maybe in a different life, in a different time, they might've been friends. Same for Patricia. There was no denying that Eilyth found her very open interest in her.... annoying, for lack of a better term. But the two of them had managed impressive things in the past. She of course had never liked the idea of partners, having to put your life in the hands of someone else, having to be weak like that. Patricia somehow made the arrangement almost tolerable, however. Probably because they weren't so much a team as they were two forces of nature who just so happened to work well when they occurred simultaneously.
The flash of thunder drew ever closer.
    "You girls really are idiots, ya know?"
The scent of burnt ozone intensifying.
    "I didn't tell you this so you could come and get yourselves killed too."
The taste of bile in her throat as the primitive reptilian side of her brain begged her to at least make an attempt to flee, however futile it might be.
   "I just didn't want you to think I ran away like a coward."
Her legs trembling, but her spirit locking them in place. She would neither kneel, nor turn tail here.
   "I never asked either of you to help me."
Amicus getting tighter around her neck, as if the trinket itself was beginning to panic, to warn her of what she already knew.
   "No one else ever did. Why would I expect you to?"
Her heart racing.
   "If I can't help myself, then I'll just suffer through it. That's the way it's always been."
Her mind pacing.
   "I'm used to it. It's the only way I know how to do things. That's just how my world works."
She was going to die.
   "So why?"
Pathetic, scared, and alone.
   "Why do you do it without even thinking?"
Just as she'd always been. And knew she always would be.
   "Why are you willing to risk everything... for someone who won't even know how to thank you?"

She stayed her course. Stood her ground. Even as her vision of her incoming demise blurred with the moisture welling in her eyes. She told herself it was steam and the ozone. It was a nice lie. A lie she was happy to die with.

Because obviously, she could no longer rely on the lie that was her own strength. Not as the last of it fled her, manifesting itself as a final, desperate, and infinitely defiant roar. A cry of pain and fear, of hate and anguish, of things that should've been, never were, but might've still become someday. A fitting requiem for the little girl who tried to be a dragon.