CHAPTER XXV

Desert Rose

Lilly leaped as high as she could before severing the vein-like structures that held James Ashland captive in the Labyrinth of his heart.

"Mr. Ashland!" she yelled at him. "Mr. Ashland! Can you hear me?"

He looked at her with tired eyes. "What...where...?"

"It's okay now. You're going to be okay from now on."

"An...angel?"

She smiled at him. "No, I'm no angel. Just someone looking out for people like you."

"I see. I think...I think you're right. I might be okay from now on."

"That's right. Now, go back to the real you, where you belong."

"Marie...I'll...miss you..."

With those last words, he vanished in her arms.

"I hope you find peace, Mr. Ashland," Lilly muttered as she looked up. She fled the Labyrinth before its disintegration even began, dodging Corrupted and defeating the ones that were in her way. She escaped the collapsing hospital building just in the nick of time.

"Why do they always have to fall apart like that?" she yelled before shielding her eyes against dust flying her way. "Okay, back to the real world."

She searched for her entry point, standing around the spot before her environment transitioned around her and she was back in an alleyway in the middle of downtown Vale. She looked left and right to make sure no one saw her appear in thin air just now and when she was satisfied, she departed, making her way to the airport to meet up with Perseus. She stopped at a smoothie stand to get something for herself and for him before continuing to the terminal, where he awaited her arrival.

"Got ya something!" she said, beaming as she handed the drink to him.

"What you get?" he asked.

"Mango, of course."

He sipped on his straw. "Peach-kiwi. Good mix."

"Isn't it?"

He chuckled. "My family's shuttle should be here in the next ten minutes."

"Awesome."

"Did you just come from...well, you know."

She nodded.

"How did it go?"

"I took down his Labyrinth. Usually, I stay for a while to make sure it worked, but we're kinda on a schedule, so yeah."

"Wow. You can even fit a last-minute Labyrinth job, huh?"

She giggled. "I've actually gotten pretty good at it."

"I can tell. You're not even tired."

"Well, I sorta am. There were so many monsters in this one and ohmygod they were creepy A.F. there were like these nurse things that looked all weird and dressed all skimpy but they all kept trying to knife me and I had to go through the hallways in the dark cuz they were attracted to light and noises but then—"

"I got something about nurses in skimpy outfits. And that's it."

She chuckled coyly. "Sorry, I did it again."

He smiled. "I still can't believe I'm taking you home for the summer."

"I know, right? I've never been to either Vacuo or Mistral and it's kinda exciting to see a new place. Although, technically I've never been to Atlas either."

"But, you're from there."

"Yeah, I know. I just never left Oasis, that's all. I kinda had everything I needed there."

"What about your family? Don't they live in the capital?"

She nodded as she drank. "Uncle Whitley and Aunt Winter came to visit us pretty regularly. I don't think they've ever missed a birthday. I mean, Ivory's birthday is only a few weeks before mine, so sometimes we actually celebrated together, but she hated it."

"I was gonna say. From what I've seen of her so far, I don't figure her as the kind who's gonna enjoy that. Although, I have to say, she's changed quite a bit since she first touched down at the start of the Vytal Festival. Beating both you and Athena must have done something to her."

"I honestly think it's just cuz she didn't see herself as being able to beat Athena."

"I dunno. She kinda reeks of overconfidence and arrogance."

Lilly shrugged. "You don't know her the way I do. She's always been mean, ever since we were kids, but there was always something...I dunno. Her nastiness wasn't all there was to it."

"It's hard to give a crap about any of that when she's a giant dick most of the time. And honestly, I think you keeping up with her the whole time during your teams' match opened up her eyes. The fact that you qualified to represent Beacon is already worth mentioning. And then that holy shit level of friggin' kaboom you guys did at the end was just awesome."

She laughed. "That was really scary."

"Yeah, holy crap, that was. I think half the audience was shitting themselves, too."

They looked to the distance as a Vacuo shuttle touched down at the Vale port.

"This is your family's shuttle?" Lilly said in bewilderment.

"You sound really shocked," Perseus said, leading the way.

"W-Well, I mean, I knew you guys had nice stuff, but this is even nicer than my family's shuttles!"

"We pride ourselves in outdoing Atlas at everything," he said with a smirk.

She chuckled as she followed him aboard the aircraft. The first thing she noticed was the abundance of polished hardwood of different shades and gold-washed metal all over the place. They couldn't be brass, not with that luster.

"Good afternoon, Miss Schnee," a female attendant said as Lilly entered the main cabin. "May I take your belongings?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure, thanks," she said. "Oh, and 'Lilly' will be fine."

"Very well, then, Miss Lilly."

"Drinks?" another attendant asked her.

"Oh, no, thanks, I've got one."

"When you finish, then."

"Sure!"

"Ma'am, would you like to be seated with Master Perseus?" yet another attendant asked.

So many staff! "Uh, yes, I think that'll be good. I mean he kinda is my host so yeah."

"This way, please."

Perseus was already at the very front of the shuttle, the first seat next to the cockpit door. An attendant was by his side, taking his order for some snacks. Lilly sat across a small coffee table from him, astounded at how different he was. The Perseus seated before her now was reserved, the total opposite of the loud and carefree Perseus she had come to know.

She watched silently as one servant after another came to him. He mostly declined their offers, but snacks were a high priority for him.

"Master Perseus," said a man Lilly could only assume was another butler. "Your father is on the line for you."

"We haven't even taken off yet," Perseus sighed. "All right, I'll take it. Thanks, Gio."

"Miss Schnee," the butler said to Lilly. "My name is Giovanni Fortunato, the butler assigned to Master Perseus. Might I offer you some snacks and drink?"

Somebody already offered me some, though. "Um, I guess some snacks would be okay," she said.

"Chips? Cookies?"

"Oh, do you have any of those, uh, strawberry wafer things?"

"I have just the thing, madam."

She chuckled. "Please, 'Lilly' is fine."

"Very well, Miss Lilly."

"No, really, just 'Lilly'."

"I will be back with your snacks in short order, Lilly."

She gave him a bright smile before turning back to Perseus, who was on a miniaturized communications terminal with his father. She remembered earlier conversations about how Vacuo technology had more or less caught up with the rest of the world, even leading in certain fields nowadays, but this must have been the smallest communication terminal she had ever seen. It easily fit on his lap.

"Yeah, I'll see you when we get there, dad," Perseus said into the microphone. "Also, it would be super if you didn't embarrass me in front of my guest."

Lilly chuckled quietly.

"Yup. Love you, too, pops. Say 'hi' to mom for me, wouldya?"

Giovanni returned with their snacks and also to retrieve the communications terminal before returning to the rest of his staff.

"So," Perseus said as he opened up a bag of chips. "That Labyrinth you went through. Wanna talk about it?"

"I know you wanted me to bring you with me, but—"

"No, that's no big deal. I just wanna hear the story."

"Oh. But, I mean, you wanted to join, right?"

"Yeah, but I get it. I mean, out of all eight of us, you're the only one with magic, so I'm guessing you're the only one who can go in and out at will. And safely."

Truth be told, she wasn't sure herself just how the whole thing worked. All she knew was that there were certain places around the city where she was capable of crossing over into the other world known as the Labyrinth, though there was really no scientific way of explaining it. She relied primarily on gut feeling.

"So, who was the person you saved this time?" Perseus said, interrupting her thoughts.

"Oh, um, it was a man named James Ashland," Lilly began. "He was suffering from extreme depression after the death of his wife, Marie, to the point that he wasn't even showing up at work or anywhere else. He only ever left his apartment to visit her grave on Saturdays."

"That's heavy."

"Yeah. They were a young couple. I think they were both only twenty or twenty-one when she died."

"No kids?"

She shook her head. "Didn't even have a chance. She died of cancer."

"Shit." He took a sip of his smoothie. "So, how do you usually start these things?"

"Well, first I do some research, try and figure out what kinds of problems my target has. The Labyrinth creates a world in which a person's subconscious fears and desires and guilt and regret and stuff all come to life, like, not as hallucinations, but as actual manifestations. I mean, I'm pretty sure they're real cuz it hurts when they hit me. Anyway, knowing my target helps me to plan out how to go forward. Cuz the Corrupted are usually formed after whatever it is that's holding the person down."

"'Corrupted'?"

She nodded as she drank. "That's what I call them. Cuz it's like, they're corrupted versions of the real world. For Mr. Ashland, his Labyrinth was located right in the apartment building he and Marie used to live in, except that the Labyrinth corrupted it into a really disturbing looking hospital, like the kind you used to see a long time ago where they did lobotomies and stuff on people and all sorts of crazy stuff."

"Creepy."

"Yeah. Anyway, his Corrupted were all physical manifestations of his guilt and stuff. I'm guessing the disturbingly sexy nurses had to do with his late wife, probably some kind of sexual frustration on his part. There were also Corrupted that were chained to beds and stuff, and other...things."

"What about the environment? Is it as deadly as the Corrupted?"

"Not always, but yeah, sometimes it can be. There's this one Labyrinth I went into which was basically a huge factory with lots of heavy machinery and sharp things and hot surfaces and absolutely no safety standards, not even any guard rails on the catwalks."

"The hell?"

"Yeah."

"So, wait, how do you, like, 'take it down' as you said?"

"Basically, I get all the way to the core of the Labyrinth. The deeper you go, the more abstract and nasty the environment gets. Lots and lots of blood and bodies everywhere, and the inner sanctum is more like a prison than anything. Right in the very center will be the person, or, I guess, a Labyrinth manifestation of that person? Anyway, the very last obstacle I have to face is the very embodiment of the thing that's torturing them. In this case..."

He waited for her as she trailed off, but she stared off into space. "Lilly?"

"Oh, sorry," she said, snapping back. "It was...it was his wife I had to fight."

"Wait, but didn't you say that..."

She nodded. "A lot of times, the actual thing in the middle of the Labyrinth will catch me off-guard, cuz it's never what I'm expecting. The very first Labyrinth I ever went through, Mizuki's earlier this year, the, uh, warden, I guess, was a giant monster with really big weapons. Like, he was big enough that I had to jump on top of him to hit his head."

"Holy crap."

"Mm-hmm. But then there was Yuan's Labyrinth. He wasn't deep into—"

"Yuan?"

"You remember when he was in a coma? After he and Ingrid were attacked?"

How could he forget? For the longest time, the suspicion was that it was his family's company that was behind the attack, though it was never confirmed definitively as to who the true culprits were.

"Well," she continued, "it turns out he wasn't waking up because he got stuck in his own mind, thinking he failed to save Ingrid. The good thing was that he wasn't super deep within his own Labyrinth, so it wasn't fully formed yet. The, uh, other world wasn't all that different from the real world, just super dark and with monsters everywhere. Although I did have to get around a lot of locked doors and barred windows. Also, he didn't have a, uh, warden guarding him. I just had to cut the thingies that were coming out of his body."

"Thingies?"

"Yeah. Everybody stuck in a Labyrinth has these, like, vein things coming out of their body. They look like they're pumping blood or something, but it's just red glowy stuff. I dunno, maybe a person's aura?"

"Soul, maybe?"

She shrugged. "So, after I cut those, the person regains consciousness and I guess that kinda frees them from their whatever it was tying them down to the dark world."

"I see. Man, that's pretty gnarly."

"Huh?"

"Most of these Labyrinths, at least the ones for people who are really bad off, they have like a big boss fight at the end."

She giggled. "Too bad Leon and Xanthus aren't here right now to nerd out with you."

"I mean, I know it's probably dangerous and stuff—and I still think it's not cool that you don't trust us enough with it, but I know you have your reasons—but holy crap that sounds like some pretty awesome fighting."

She shrugged. "It does have its moments, kinda like when we're fighting the Grimm, but when I think about it, it's so much deeper than that. I'm literally fighting my way through someone else's grief and pain."

Perseus looked down at the empty bowl of chips on the coffee table. She had a point. Unlike battle with the Grimm, she was fighting against physical manifestations that represented the fears, guilt, regret, secret desires, pain—everything—that kept a person down, oftentimes without that person's awareness. There were many mental illnesses out nowadays, most of which had no cure, only treatments—schizophrenia, psychosis, depression—but this girl sitting before him had the power not only to treat those conditions, but also to cure them outright. Like the others privy to the existence of the Labyrinth, Perseus had been keeping track of all the cases she had been working on. Every single one had undergone a miraculous recovery.

He looked over to his companion. Her fatigue was definitely starting to show, even though she tried her best to stay awake. They were still hours away from Vacuo and she needed some rest.

"Here," he said before standing up to grab a pillow for her from a nearby closet. "Your seat reclines all the way, too, so you can lie down if you wanna sleep."

She looked up at him and smiled. Her light brown hazel eyes smiled with her. "Thanks."

"I'll wake you up before we get to the city limits."

—

Lilly awoke abruptly, startling Perseus, who was reading something on his scroll.

"Everything all right?" he asked.

Her eyes went around the cabin before settling on her companion, whose attention was fixed on her.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Lilly said. "Just a stupid dream."

He watched her for a bit as she tried to close her eyes again, but she was breathing hard, sweat dripping from her forehead. "Your trips into the Labyrinth have really taken their toll on you, haven't they?"

She didn't answer, reflecting on the question. It was true that going through Labyrinths was quite the soul-sucking experience. After all, she constantly exposed herself to the absolute lowest society had to offer, whether it was victims of crimes or victims of self-punishment. If she were to be honest with herself, though, the most crushing of Labyrinths she had gone through to date were those belonging to victims of the heinous acts of another. One particularly infuriating case was a victim of abuse by her father and elder brother.

The thought alone made Lilly want to vomit. Even though she had succeeded in freeing the girl from her mental anguish, it was completely out of her power to stop those two monsters from continuing to torment her.

You know exactly what you could have done.

She gasped before jolting herself out of her seat. Perseus was at her side in an instant.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded in a daze. "How far are we?"

"Actually, we're only a half hour away from port. Did you wanna check out the countryside?"

"Yeah, sure." Anything to get her mind off of that.

She followed him down the aisle to the observation deck, which was encased in a giant bubble of laminated glass, allowing for a complete three-dimensional view of the sky, the land below, and even the shuttle itself. She walked out to the end of the platform, looking past the railing at the world.

They were flying now over a great desert. Gazing out toward the tail end of the craft, Lilly watched as the ocean receded from her with each second. Below her feet were endless sands, but if she looked out far enough in the distance, she could see a mountain range that housed a vast forest. She imagined beyond those hills to be even more trees and wildlife, a stark contrast to the unbroken golden brown below.

"Remember I told you that we turned the city into an oasis?" Perseus said.

She looked to her right. He was leaning back against the guard rail, looking in her direction, but past her. She turned around to see what he was talking about and spotted the city of Vacuo, which sprawled in every direction. The city proper was walled off, protecting it from marauding Grimm and bandits, but the population had since expanded to the point of building outside of the original city limits. Much of these sections of settlement were completely unprotected from the outside world, though Vacuo was known for being home to some of the roughest people in all of Remnant.

"There's so much green!" Lilly said, gazing at the literal oasis in the middle of the desert.

"Remember the crazy stuff that happened twenty years ago? The geological shifts and all that?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Well, not only did new Dust mines open up, but a huge aquifer beneath the city. It turns out that an underground water system all the way from the north feeds this big aquifer. Over the decades, and probably centuries, the aquifer built up a lot of pressure and the war twenty years ago released it, feeding not just our city, but the surrounding landscape. Vacuo literally sits on a giant oasis."

"Wow."

"Yeah. We've also been expanding all around the kingdom. Most of the Dust mines that opened up were in the north and so we've got two large settlements out there. There's also quite a bit to the south, where a good number of Dust veins have yet to be excavated."

An alarm sounded.

"Oh, crap," Perseus said, grabbing Lilly by the hand. "We're under attack."

"Grimm?" Lilly said.

"Probably."

They both ran back into the cabin. Perseus headed straight to the cockpit.

"Status!" he yelled as he burst in.

"Several aerial Grimm are attacking us, young master," the pilot said. "But don't worry, we have plenty of point defenses."

"Yeah, three guns? I don't think so. When I give the signal, open the deck hatch."

"Young master?"

"Don't question me, just do it!"

"But—"

"We're going to save everyone on this ship, is that understood?"

The pilot stared at him for a while. "Yes, Master Perseus."

"I'm coming with you," Lilly said. "And you're not gonna say no to me cuz I'm more powerful than you now and you can't do anything to stop me."

Perseus chuckled. "I mean, yeah, I get it, but it just sounds funny when the sweetest girl in our entire group tells me that she's more powerful than me."

She reddened. "I mean, it's true, right?"

"Hell yeah." He stopped beside his personal butler. "Gio, make sure everyone is strapped in, okay?"

"Yes, Master Perseus," he said. "Do take care of yourself and the young lady."

"Don't worry about me. Hell, this is my chance to show off what I've learned at Beacon this past year."

The duo made their way to the rear of the shuttle, heading up a small hatch that led to the upper level deck. Perseus pressed a communications button to the side.

"We're in position," he said into the microphone. "Reduce speed so we don't get blown off and then open the hatch."

"Affirmative," the pilot's voice sounded through the speaker.

Lilly gripped Myrtenaster tightly as she and her companion awaited the opening of the hatch. Each second felt like minutes. She had been through much worse than this, but no matter what, every battle always put her on edge.

No, there was a different reason she was so uneasy.

The hatch opened and Perseus burst through, immediately engaging a Beowolf Grimm.

"How the hell did this thing get on the ship?" he said as he stabbed it in the chest.

"Look!" Lilly yelled, pointing to the sky. Several Nevermore Grimm were carrying other Grimm of all types.

"What the? Since when did they start behaving like this?"

The duo fought through Grimm after Grimm, keeping them from doing too much damage to the shuttle. One thing that caught Perseus's attention was the fact that Lilly refrained from using her runes the whole time. He wanted to ask, but he concluded that the act must tire her out. She probably still needed time to recover.

"There's too many," Lilly mumbled.

Perseus looked over to his companion.

"I don't have a choice."

"Lilly?"

"Ritter von Remnant, beantworte meinen anruf! Leih mir dein schwert!"

Perseus shielded his eyes as a massive indigo rune opened up at their feet, from which emerged that same knight she had summoned during the tournament, the exact replica of the statue which stood in the center of Beacon Academy's quad, the same statue they always hung out at every day.

Seeing it from a distance did it no justice, but up close like this, Perseus couldn't stop his jaw from dropping. It was easily twice his height, its sword just as massive. Two medium-sized Nevermores flew in to try and grab them, but the knight was fast for its size, cleaving both Grimm in half in the blink of an eye.

"Oh, my god!" Perseus said. "That is so cool!"

Lilly grinned at him before turning to her knight. "Ready?"

Her knight turned to her before giving her a nod.

"Okay, let's do this!"

A rune appeared beneath her and her knight, propelling both skyward. The knight made the first move, slashing right through a pair of Nevermore Grimm with a single swing, sending the Grimm they were carrying as cargo plummeting to the earth. Lilly was next, aiming Myrtenaster at a group of Lancer Grimm, those hornet-like creatures that should always be killed with fire and with extreme prejudice.

"There's too many for just one fireball," she mumbled. "Take this! Feuerregen!"

A Fire Rune manifested in the air at the tip of Myrtenaster before unleashing the spell she had cast, sending a rain of fire at the swarm of Lancers. She created another rune beneath her feet, using it to propel herself in another direction. She landed on top of the giant Nevermore, stabilizing herself before pointing Myrtenaster at its head, forming another rune in the air, a rune nearly black in color with hints of dark violet.

"Verwünscht Berührung," she began the spell. "Es gibt keinen freien willen."

In an instant, she had that Nevermore's mind ensnared in her spell borne of the Darkness Rune. She needed but think and it flew in the direction she wished. The Nevermore served as her platform as she soared through the skies with her knight, slashing and burning their way through the numerous flying Grimm of all types.

She noticed Perseus down on the shuttle below. A large group of Beowolves had managed to land and were beginning to do significant damage to the vessel.

"Let's hope this works on my friends," Lilly muttered before aiming Myrtenaster in Perseus's direction. She closed her eyes, summoning an Earth Rune. "Gehärtete Verteidigung!"

Perseus looked at his arms and legs as some brownish light emitted from his body. He looked up at Lilly, who was circling him with her captive Nevermore.

"Stahlknöchel!"

"What is this?" he mumbled as his body glowed yet again. Something was strange. He felt light, but powerful.

Without a word, Lilly continued her airborne assault against their Grimm attackers alongside her knight. Perseus noticed a pair of Beowolves tear open a hole in the shuttle and, without thinking, he darted in their direction, but he moved much, much faster than he was anticipating and merely running into them knocked one clean off of the aircraft.

"Holy shit!" he yelled.

The other Beowolf roared at him before swinging its mighty claw. He instinctively brought up his arm to block the strike, but it didn't hurt at all. He looked at his arm. There was no damage. Pushing the shock aside, he swung his sword, but the swing was so fast and hard that it went through the full thickness of the Beowolf's body, sending both halves falling to the deck.

What the hell just happened? he thought before turning to the other Beowolves and besting them in combat without so much as the slightest effort. More Grimm were coming from above, ferried in by Nevermore Grimm. Among them was an Ursa Major, one larger than he'd ever seen. Its impact nearly brought the shuttle down, but the craft held steady for now.

He faced off with the Ursa Major and three Alpha Beowolves. Under normal circumstances, this would be a stupid idea, but whatever that glow earlier was, it clearly gave him increased defensive and offensive capabilities. He had to trust in Lilly's magic.

"Here goes!"

He dashed at the Alpha Beowolves, this time making sure to control his speed. He dodged and deflected before countering with his sword. His enemy managed to duck out of the way of his swing, but he was fast to follow up, tripping the monster before impaling it and moving on to his next target.

Meanwhile, Lilly and her knight continued to tear their way across the sky, taking down Grimm after Grimm. Their numbers appeared endless.

Even I can't keep this up forever, she thought, contemplating whether or not to use her most powerful magic. That would certainly drain her energy, though, maybe even kill her. She was nowhere near fighting condition right now, especially not with that thing in the back of her mind—

Lilly...

"Not now, please," she begged.

Do you fear me?

She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, fighting to suppress the voice, but there was nothing she could do to drown out the loud whine that grew in intensity until her head began to throb.

Something swept her off her feet, carrying her through the heavens. She looked up at her knight, which seemed to shine brighter than ever. He had extricated her from the Nevermore she had been controlling. It had been bitten in half by an even larger Grimm, one that hadn't been seen in decades.

"A...dragon?" she mumbled.

"Lilly!" Perseus yelled as he ran to her. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah," she said, looking up at the Dragon Grimm, which roared.

"Where the hell did that thing come from!"

Please don't attack us, she thought as dizziness began to set in. Please, just fly away.

The Dragon Grimm turned its sights toward their shuttle, circling from above before hovering.

"Oh, shit, this doesn't look good," Perseus said before pulling out a radio that connected him to the cockpit. "Guys! Evasive maneuvers!"

The massive Grimm began its dive, intent on completely destroying their aircraft. In the midst of its attack, Lilly's knight leaped with enough force to dent the hull on which it stood.

"Wait!" Lilly yelled to it, but it did not heed her command. Its intent was clear. It would protect her at all costs.

Perseus looked over at his comrade. Even though that thing she summoned wasn't even a real being, she still cared for it as if it were anyone else. Never had he thought anyone could possess a heart as big as the one she had.

He turned back to the sky to watch as Lilly's knight dove right into the Dragon Grimm's mouth. The Grimm stopped itself in midair, hovering around, roaring, screeching. Finally, something within exploded, tearing the Grimm in half and sending bits of it all around. Lilly's knight was there, its armor broken in places, blood dripping from the segments.

Wait, Perseus thought. That thing isn't real, right?

"Knight of Remnant," Lilly said quietly. "Please, return from whence you came. Kehre dorthin zurück, wo du hergekommen bist!"

The knight bowed in midair before vanishing into twinkles of light. At the same instant, Lilly fell to the deck and Perseus ran to her.

"You've overdone it, haven't you?" he asked her.

"I might have," she managed, looking up at him as he cradled her head. They both looked around as more Grimm circled above. "I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough."

Perseus chuckled. "What're you talking about? It's cuz of you we're still alive."

"But...I don't even have the strength left to fight."

"You don't have to anymore. Like I said. You've saved us."

She followed his gaze to a massive fleet of aerial warships, some enormous and others small and maneuverable. All manner of ordnance flew through the air, tearing apart whatever Grimm were too stubborn to flee. A few of the fighter craft pursued some of the escaping Grimm, returning to the fleet upon termination of their targets.

"So, this is Jupiter Tech, is it?" Lilly said, rising to her feet.

"Yup," Perseus said. "Pretty good for something that's not Atlas Tech, eh?"

"It is." She refrained from mentioning the pointlessness of war itself. "Thank goodness they made it in time."

"Like I said, it's all thanks to you. C'mon, I'm thirsty as shit after all that."

Lilly chuckled, following him inside. She passed by a reflective surface, stopping to look. She paled upon seeing that old apparition again, the distorted vision of herself, the one with the intimidating scowl and eyes that glowed menacingly.

She shook her head and hurried back into the cabin.