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Iko

Iko used to think of herself as invincible. After all, what could hurt steel? Sure, she's suffered a few dents and got dazed a few times, but actually hurt? Never. The thought of dying in combat, a terror for every fighting soldier, whether human or prodigy, was nothing but a joke to her. Only now, her confidence in that thought was feeling a little flimsy.

Annoyingly, Wolf had quickly figured out that his teeth and claws weren't doing any damage and had quickly resorted to whaling on her with brute strength, throwing things at her or even throwing her at things. Iko didn't think she'd ever felt so many dents in her life! The metal had even broken open in some places, actually growing thin cracks on its surface! Those were going to need stitches when she turned back to normal, and stitches were downright hideous. She'd have to wear gross baggy clothes to hide them!

She lightly hit herself on the head. No time to think about that right now. She had to find Cinder, or Kai, or any of her teammates. And, preferably, avoid Wolf. She did not want any more stitches, thank you very much.

With only a little groaning, Iko pushed herself to her feet and ran off into the battlefield, tugging her gun out of her belt. Metal fists were all well and good, but you can't go wrong with a good firearm.

And, judging by all the chaos around her, she was going to need that firearm. And seeing as this was a battle between prodigies, it really was chaos. All of the elements seemed to be warring against each other, lighting clashing against fire, tornadoes crashing into tidal waves. Multicoloured lights shone from between the warriors and, in some cases, from inside them. Random explosions punctuated the cacophony of gunshots, war cries and agonised wails that made up the battlefield's soundtrack. There was no doubt that a lot of casualties would come from this war.

And Iko was determined to not be in that number.

She jumped into the fray, ignoring the complaints of her dented joints, and set about trying to thin the number of Lunars stuck in the battle. She quickly found herself out of bullets and reaching for a fresh magazine. And another. And another. Until her belt was completely empty.

"At least that means I've taken out a good few Lunars." She muttered as she hit one of the Lunars with the butt of her gun and lashed out with her metal fist at another.

Something tapped her on the shoulder and she whirled around, fist raised, ready to nail whoever snuck up on her.

Jacin quickly ducked out of the way and scowled at her. "You know, we're supposed to be fighting the Lunars."

Iko rolled her eyes. "I'm well aware of that Guard. You shouldn't have snuck up on me."

"I didn't. You just weren't paying attention."

"Because I was busy fighting for my life!"

Jacin sighed in exasperation. "I don't have time for this. Have you seen Winter?"
Iko stared at him. "Winter?"

"Yes, Winter. Also known as Soul Blood, has three scars below her eye, can make pretty much any male who sees her into her servant with her face…"

"I know who Winter is, thank you!"

Jacin growled in frustration. "Well, she's gone missing. I was trying to keep her close to me so I could keep her safe, but she must've wandered off somewhere. This stupid battle is really stressing her out and with Levana here she's even more unsafe than she would already be and Winter can't fight very well-"

"So you're worried about her." Iko interrupted. Normally she'd be all for listening to Jacin's worried rant about all the ways Winter could get hurt (as far as she was concerned, his devotion to Winter was his only redeeming quality) but unfortunately this wasn't the time or place.

Jacin sighed. "Yes, I'm worried about her. I'm supposed to protect her, and I've completely failed at that. For all I know she could already be dead because I was too distracted to notice she wasn't by my side."

"Hey, don't think that way." Iko said, "Winter may not be much of a fighter, but she can take care of herself perfectly well if the need arises by… you know, scrambling people's emotions and stuff. Trust me Jacin," she continued earnestly at the look of borderline fear on his face, "she's okay, and she's just waiting for you, her Guard to come and find her, and carry her off into the sunset."

He quirked an eyebrow. "The sun set hours ago, and I'm pretty sure that the way things are going, the only place I'll be carrying her off to is the hospital."

Iko huffed and shook her head. Some people just didn't get romance. "Anyway, I'm sure she's around here somewhere, we just have to find her. Think, if you were Winter, and your Guard went missing, where would you go."

"You're asking me to guess what's in Winter's head? Have you ever even talked to her?" Jacin asked incredulously.

"Just give it a try and stop being such a pessimist. Honestly, what does Winter see in you?" Iko muttered.

He huffed. "Okay, fine. So, she doesn't like confrontation. Or blood. Or basically anything about fighting which is why this is the absolute worst place for her to be and she should have gotten out of here as soon as possible, but she's also loyal to a fault when it comes to her friends and likes to make herself useful, so that's not an option. Do you know where any of our other teammates are? Maybe she went and found them?"

"Well, Scarlet's probably trying to bring Wolf back into the realm of sanity, Thorne most likely would have found a way out of his cage by now and is probably with Cress-"

"Or in the next state." Jacin interrupted, "You think way too highly of that thief."

"Shut up and let me think. I think that Cress was planning on jumping between all the tech the Lunars carry around, so she'll be on the move if she's not already with Thorne. That leaves Cinder and Kai."
"Kai is probably trying to get his father under control, what with him being manipulated by Levana and all, so chances are he's lying somewhere with every bone in his body broken beyond repair." Jacin said.

Iko winced. "R-right, then that's just Cinder, and if her earlier defiance was anything to go by, she's gone off looking for Levana, so if Winter's looking for her friends-"

"No."

Iko glared at him. "Will you stop interrupting me!"

"Winter will never go anywhere near Levana." Jacin insisted, "The Queen hates her more than anyone in the world and has been looking for an innocent-looking way to get rid of her this whole time. Or did you think her sending Winter out into the big, wide dangerous world instead of someone more experienced was an accident?"

Iko's eyes widened. This lady wanted to kill Winter? But Winter is so sweet and lovable! How could anyone want to hurt her?

An image of Winter's incredibly beautiful, fully natural face came to her mind. Ah, that's why.

"Look Jacin," Iko said seriously, "you know Winter better than anyone. I need you to ask yourself, and for you to answer this truthfully: would Winter see Cinder sneaking up on Levana, and decide to retreat and find someone in a safer situation to hang around, or would she walk right in there, regardless of the danger, and try to help?"

Jacin's shoulders slumped in defeat. "She would… she would try to help." He said exhaustedly.

Iko nodded. "Right, so that's probably where she's going to be, and where you're going to have to go if you want to protect her. You ready?"
"For Winter?" Jacin frowned determinedly, "Always."

A/N: Iko, because I felt the need to write this amazing character.

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