"Lila?" Ivy waded her hands through the ash and smoke. She could hardly spot her partner amidst all the chaos. But her Psionic presence was more poignant than ever. "Is that you?"
The heiress had been grappling with far more than her wounds or the stress of it all. There was a revelation she still had yet to accept; that somehow- in some way, her love for Lila was far from some humble anomaly. It was fate, as if her battle with the Mimic had to happen.
"Come on now," the Earthling's shrill voice pierced through the fog of battle. She sounded exhausted, yet tirelessly motivated in service of her Ivy. "Let's finish this!"
Ivy squinted, pushing through the pain as she limped forward. The Mimic wasn't after her any longer. It, too, was mesmerized by Lila's presence.
There she stood, just a little Earthling - encased in an aura of magenta energy. On her back twitched a set of wings, ragged and vapid in appearance. Lila wasn't like the other Psions, not as far as Ivy could tell. She was chaos incarnate.
"Oh," the Mimic clenched its fist, summoning an array of prisms that orbited closely. "Lila. We have just begun."
Ivy never expected to third-wheel in her own assassination. Both Lila and the Mimic had changed so much in the course of their feud. And so it was that Ivy nearly missed her own shift in perspective.
You can do this.
You're one of them now.
They don't tire.
Ivy grasped at the empty well in her gut. She had nothing left to help Lila with. But that was the pathetic cry of those without strength. Ivy had to be more.
Expectedly, Lila and the Mimic wasted no time surging forward as Ivy struggled to piece herself together. The Earthling's new wings - more like a tattered cape - flickered to life with new energy that shone through the smoke like an angel's light. She was without hesitation in her assault on the Mimic.
"Hyah!" Lila screamed, unleashing a spiral kick that tore through the Mimic's wall of constructs.
Her foe responded in kind with a low, sweeping claw, shredding the hanger's weakened floor as both flame and shrapnel shot forth. The very Aerie around them had reached its limits. Lila darted out of the way as if her own momentum were a mere expression. Each blink of reality she defied was accompanied by a pulse from her wings - the beating heart of Lila's resistance.
"I said come on!" Her voice cracked.
For the first time, the Mimic was truly on the back foot, choosing to evade Lila's smashing heel as she descended with furious speed. Like a spastic bug she was, refusing to stay in one place for too long. Yet this meant little in regard to cowardice and fear. Lila was biding her time.
"Shit," Ivy coughed, clutching her heart. "Get...up!" She spat at herself.
The Mimic's patience was running thin. Engulfing itself in Psionic mist, it unleashed a pair of arms towards the Earthling in hopes she would be caught off guard. Lila answered the challenge with a dash-back, followed by a Psionic strand that threatened to pull the Mimic's limbs clean off.
Her wings quivered and shook. Both Lila and the Mimic were trapped, struggling for ground as they planted their heels. But as strong as she had become, Lila was still just a human.
"Lila!" Ivy fell forward, watching in horror as the Earthling's boots struggled to keep traction on the floor. "Dammit-."
The heiress's eyes changed hue. Her crimson determination cared little for death's doorstop. With a pained grunt, she managed to call forth her staff before levitating it skyward.
"Ivy?" Lila escaped her frenzied concentration for just a moment.
She could feel the air around Ivy's staff turn cold as it spun faster and faster. The heiress was preparing something massive. And the Mimic could see it coming a mile away.
Predicting its escape, Lila gritted her teeth before launching another restraining strand. "Oh no, you don't!"
Her arm was close to flying off its socket. Her mouth was leaking blood. But the Earthling stood firm.
The Mimic remained in place, tearing Lila apart with its frantic attempts to escape.
"F-fuck...you!" Lila trembled. "Ivy...babe...now!"
Ivy was ready. Releasing her spinning staff, she split the Mimics' extended arms in two. The kinetic force built within its tug-of-war with Lila, having finally been released, sent both monster and girl flying backwards.
"Gah!" Ivy struggled, using her powers to replicate one of Lunae's portals.
Lila sailed right through, reappearing behind the Mimic with full awareness. She had no quip - no clever taunt to announce her impending moment of glory. All that was left for the Earthling was silent victory.
Having overexerted herself again, Ivy collapsed in a heap. But not before witnessing Lila pierce through the Mimic's spine with blinding speed.
Like a silver bullet.
"Ugh," she whimpered. "F-finally."
Ivy felt herself slip. She could no longer witness her partner's glory. And for the briefest of moments, a cold, terrible stillness came over her. Ivy's heart had stopped.
Her sight lasted just long enough to spot the sheet of metal tumbling down toward her from the slanted roof. From there, it all went to black.
"Ivy!" Lila slid under the falling debris, kicking it away as if it were a sack of potatoes. "Baby girl," she whimpered as she cradled the heiress. "We won. We actually won...are you there?"
The Mimic had all but disappeared. Lila's impaling strike scattered its remaining pieces into the collapsing corners of the hangar, ending the fight in a flash of brilliance. Only its Psionic presence lingered like a taint of horror.
"Hey!" Lila shook her partner. "Ivy!"
She couldn't wail any longer. Locking herself back into place, Lila dragged her partner into the Riven, amazed to find that the vessel was still intact at all. Perhaps it was the Mimics plan to preserve such an escape on the basis that it emerged victorious. But that no longer mattered.
"Come on," Lila groaned, her body nearly crumpling as she lifted Ivy into her seat. "Let's go. I'm getting you out of here!"
The Earthling knocked her own helmet with a quick fist, checking for its remaining functions as she began to put the Riven through its proper warm-up. Only through her training with Serix could Lila concentrate through her own manic adrenaline.
"Hang in there, baby girl." Lila glanced over her shoulder before lifting on the control stick. "We didn't come all this way for nothing."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sonera had never seen Neirophen's face before. She couldn't even imagine such terror.
Not in its entirety.
But fear wasn't the mask she wore as she stared into the abyss. Those days were past. Only cold acceptance remained.
"I'm...ready." Sonera presented her hand.
From the black pool of despair, it emerged. A many-eyed face blinked at the girl. Three expressions it wore, each stacked on top of the other like a painted canvas.
Agony.
Callousness.
Joy.
Sonera couldn't ignore how closely the creature resembled Yrix. The horns. The Psionic powers. The strange skeletal structure. She was simply the one-eyed iteration of the faceless beast. Perhaps, the assassin wondered, that was the fate of all Psions.
To be wiped clean of one's features.
Or maybe that was simply the biology of a race like the Psions, whose very namesake had become synonymous with the mystical arts. Either way, Sonera couldn't turn away from the graphic visage. It had pulled her in.
Gone was Neirophen's previous rage. Gone were the countless contradictions of its many appeals to Sonera. It need not pretend to be upset with her resistance. The brutal honesty of its face would suffice.
"I...you know I can't trust you," Sonera bargained, thinking back to her promise with Lunae. "What does that mean?"
Neirophen didn't seem the least offended, whispering into Sonera's mind with many voices. "Trust nothing. Only pain can lead you forward. This is our offer."
Sonera sighed, exhaling a breath of cold air as the fire in her eyes began to dim. She hadn't been asked to really join Neirophen at all. Its words were both crass and fluffed in tandem. What truly mattered was her acceptance of the Psionic arts - and its blackest recess.
Neirophen.
The First Psion.
Carmen Ultimum.
He was Psion. There was never an escape from his influence. Sonera was merely accepting the bedrock of her existence.
"I...will fight you," The assassin clenched her fist. "When this is done."
Again, Neirophen appeared more vindicated than anything. "Struggle. To be Psion is to accept this. To turn the worthless, infinitesimal thrashing of existence into something...beautiful."
For all its fanciful words, Neirophen was mocking Sonera. She couldn't win. Not in a million years.
"Then lend me your hand," Sonera sighed, reaching out towards the shriveled face. "I will sing your song alone."
Ironic, given how Lunae was the more proficient singer of the two.
Neirophen offered a shriveled hand, both bloated and muscular in its blackened, scaly appearance. It possessed only three fingers. But they were more than enough to smother Sonera's tiny face.
Past the point of no return.
No second chances.
Our one-sided conversation ends here.