Beautiful Destroyer

Chapter Five

"I've met children of the streets. They don't conserve. If you come at one of them, they'll use everything they have—every scrap of strength, every last trick—to take you down. They know how close to the edge they walk. Pray you never have to face one of those, pretty boy. They'll rip you apart, chew you up, and make new reserves for themselves out of what you leave behind."

-Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection

In the days that followed, Vin demonstrated and explained her Allomantic abilities to Louise. There was no ideal place to do so—the mistless nights hid little, and their room was too small for coin jumping—but the foreign magic fascinated the noble girl. She liked Ironpulling and Steelpushing the most, but pewter wasn't flashy enough for her and tin was even less so. Vin could only explain bronze, and while she wasn't sure if copper did anything in a world without Seekers, she made sure to burn it whenever she used Allomancy just in case.

Vin kept zinc and brass to herself, though. She was allowed to have a few secrets, and she wasn't planning on using emotional Allomancy on Louise anyway.

In return, Louise began to treat her less like a servant and more like a, well, more like some sort of project. She let Vin sleep in her enormous bed instead of on the floor, eat at the table instead of on the floor, and sit at a desk during classes instead of, again, on the floor. She even encouraged Vin to wear some of her noble clothes instead of her usual shirt and trousers, though the capes remained off limits, which suited Vin just fine. Her Mistcloak beat the noble mantles in terms of style, and it had pockets.

All the while, Louise hinted that she might eventually be able to acquire a title for her, because she had "connections." If Vin had known that Louise's connection was going to float in through the window as silent as a shadow in the dead of night with her hood up over her face, Vin might not have attacked her on sight.

As it was, when Vin heard the window creak open, she burned tin and flared pewter, causing the room to light up to her enhanced eyes. She flung herself at the cloaked figure, barrelling it down to the floor. A silver jeweled circlet rolled across the floor and Vin kicked a dropped staff out of the way. She raised a glass dagger in her left hand … and stopped as the runes on her hand burst into light, blinding her.

"Vin, no!" Louise screamed. Her voice roared in Vin's ears until she extinguished her tin. "Get off of her! Get off of her right now!" Louise clapped her hands, causing the lamps in the room to light themselves, and she got out of bed.

Vin put her dagger away as she stood up, and watched as her runes dimmed. That was the second time they had lit up, first with Nightblood and then now. She wasn't sure what the pattern was—she had held that same dagger several times since she arrived in this world—but she suspected that it was the secret to understanding Gandalfr, which both Osmond and Longueville had called her. When she had asked Louise and Siesta about that name, the only hint she had gotten was that Gandalfr had been one of the familiars of a six thousand year old legendary semi-divine hero named Brimir, which only gave her more questions.

What Louise said next, however, drove all thoughts of runes and myths out of her head.

"I am so sorry, Princess," she said, helping the cloaked figure to her feet.

Princess? Bloody hell! There were no princesses in the Final Empire, any more than there were kings and queens, but from what Louise had explained to her, Vin may have just attacked the most important person in the kingdom. She abandoned all subtlety and flared brass, Soothing away anything the girl had close to anger and replaced it with … amusement? Sure, she Rioted her amusement.

The princess stood up as her hood fell from her face, and she laughed. "Oh my! I'm fine, Louise, thank you, but I was honestly not expecting that! See, that's the downside to being a princess; everyone is afraid to jump on you." Vin had seen her before, but only at a distance during the Familiar Exhibition. Close up, she seemed … more human than Vin would have expected from Louise's description, but she was certainly pretty and hardly older than Vin herself.

"As well they should be!" Louise said, shooting Vin a glare reserved for those caught murdering infants.

"You used to try to jump on me," the princess said, "before you decided that it was socially inappropriate."

"Your Highness, I was six!"

"And you were fun!" She sat down at Louise's desk. "I suppose I should have knocked or something, but I wanted to surprise you. I daresay it worked!" She shot Vin a smile. Vin had seen plenty of smiles in her life, and most of them said something like, "I'm going to enjoy killing you," or, "You have no idea what's going to happen," but hers seemed genuine. "And I haven't even met you before. I take it you're a friend of Louise?"

Friend? What did people even mean by that? Was that what you called someone when it was a surprise when they betrayed you? "I'm her familiar, your Highness." She bowed low, and when she looked up again, the princess's eyes were wide.

"Familiar? But you look just like a human!"

Vin decided not to be offended by that. "She's an Allomancer," Louise said. "That's what they call mages in the country she's from." Vin shot her a look, which she ignored. Vin had told her about Allomancy in confidence, not so she could tell everyone she met.

"You don't say," the princess said. She smiled again. "Only you could pull off having a mage as a familiar, Louise. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when Fouquet's attack interrupted the exhibition before I got to see what you had summoned."

Louise curtsied low. "You honor me, your Highness."

The princess let out a sigh. "You don't have to be so formal. No one's watching, and I doubt your own familiar is going to report social improprieties."

Louise glanced at Vin for support, which Vin had no idea how to give. "But, well, um, I can be polite for reasons other than fear of embarrassment, can't I?"

"You can also call me by my first name instead of by my title. Honestly, I won't mind."

Louise looked at her as though the princess had asked her to kill her own mother. "Um, if that's what you want … Henrietta."

Henrietta smiled. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

The look on Louise's face suggested that yes, it was hard, but Louise didn't contradict her. "So, was there something that you wanted, your Hi—um, Henrietta?"

Henrietta looked at her with a slightly hurt expression on her face. "What, can't I come and visit an old friend without having some ulterior motive?"

"Of course! I didn't mean to imply otherwise! Forgive me, my door is always open to you. And so is my window. But really, what was it you wanted?"

Henrietta sighed again. "You always could see right through me, couldn't you? Alright. The truth is, I need your help."

WWW

"That is it, Guiche!" Montmorency yelled, loud enough for people on the other end of the hall to hear. "I've had enough of your flirting, your cheating, your canoodling, your shenanigans, and your—your diddling! We are through!" She slammed her bedroom door in his face, leaving him alone in the hallway holding a bouquet of roses.

Really, the girl was in love with hyperbole almost as much as she was (secretly) in love with him; while he may have flirted with one or two of his classmates, and maybe even canoodled when he got the chance, he wasn't sure that added up to even one shenanigan, and his actions certainly came nowhere near diddling. Why, he was offended by the very implication!

Still, if he had wanted a simple life, he would have chosen one that didn't include women, and what a sad life that would be! He straightened his collar, fixed his hair, and strolled down the hall with as much dignity as he could muster—which, with a bouquet of roses in his hand, wasn't very much. A man on his way to his lady's room bearing flowers was a wish, a hope, a boundless possibility, but a man going away from said room with the flowers unaccepted was just sad. And what was wrong with Montmorency, anyway? Didn't she know that girls were supposed to like roses?

Founder, he would never understand that girl. Or girls in general. His mother seldom made sense, and mares were always stubborn around him. He was passing Louise's room when he stopped.

When it came to the great and terrible game of love, he knew he had no chance with Louise. Gramont was an excellent name, but Valliere was the most powerful family besides the royal one, and between Louise's temper and (lack of) charms, Guiche had no desire to try. Her familiar, on the other hand, had helped him when Montmorency had broken up with him before, and perhaps she could do so again.

Guiche raised his hand to knock before stopping himself. What did he plan to say? "Louise, I need your familiar to woo my girlfriend for me"? And Vin hadn't even wooed her the first time, she had just been there and Montmorency had … well, she hadn't started making sense, but she had started not making sense in a good way, which was the best a man could hope for when dealing with women.

And what sort of image was he presenting by knocking on Louise's door with flowers in his hand? His reputation, while wholly undeserved, was not unknown to him, and the last thing he needed was more rumors. No, Louise, I'm not here for you, I'm here for your familiar. Right. That wouldn't be misinterpreted.

And yet … that sparked an idea in his mind, which, like most of his ideas, was utterly horrible, but he toyed with it all the same. While Vin often dressed like a peasant, she could be surprisingly pretty when she wanted to be. He could admit he was smitten when he first saw her, wearing a school uniform and calling herself Valette. She seemed out of place, looking at each blade of grass like it was a priceless novelty, but less like a commoner wearing her master's clothes and more like … like a princess seeing her kingdom for the first time.

I should have asked her to dance. He had seen her at the Ball of Frigg, wearing a black gown as easily as if she had been born in it, but Montmorency had been in one of her moods again, accusing him of "looking at other girls," as though she expected him to live his whole life wearing blinders like a horse.

He heard Louise's voice muffled through the closed door. "What are you saying?" she said. "Be it the gates of hell, or into the jaws of a dragon, if it's for the princess's sake, I will go!"

Guiche cocked his head. It sounded like Louise was reciting a play of some sort. He hadn't known that she had any fondness for theatre, but she seemed to truly be getting into it.

"There's no way I, the third daughter of House Valliere, could overlook such a crisis for the princess and Tristain!"

Alright, so it wasn't a play she was reciting, at least not one that had ever been performed on stage. Was she roleplaying? Many children enjoyed playing make believe, but Louise had always seemed too serious for games. He pressed his ear against the door. He wasn't eavesdropping—he just wanted to get the facts straight.

"So you'll help me?" a second voice said. "Oh, Louise! You are such a dear friend!"

The second voice wasn't Vin's, but it wasn't one he recognized either. Wait, that wasn't actually the princess, was it? Impossible! The princess of Tristain wouldn't come to the Academy to visit Louise the Zero! She wouldn't visit anyone! That was the point of being a princess, so you could make people come to you! Unless … unless it was some sort of secret. A secret mission? Well, if anyone could keep a secret, it was him, so he pressed his ear harder against the door. Which swung open.

He stumbled, off balance, but he would have caught himself if a surprisingly strong hand hadn't grabbed him by the back of his neck and slammed him face first against the floor. His bouquet fell from his hands, scattering rose petals across the floor.

Louise looked down at him as though he were an exceptionally putrid slug. "Guiche?"

"Guiche?" he heard Vin say from over him. Was she the one holding him down? She had a … remarkably strong grip.

And then the jewel of Tristain, the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, Princess Henrietta herself, looked down at him before glancing at Louise. "So, does she do that to everyone?"

"No," Louise said. "She's just jumpy this evening." She turned back to him. "So what are you doing here?"

He swallowed. He had half a minute to make a good first impression, and his life, nay, the princess's opinion of him hung in the balance. "Well, I was just on my way to visit my girlfriend when I … heard you talking about a secret mission! Can I come with you? Please take me with you. I already know what you're planning, so the only way you can keep me quiet is to take me with you!" Did that sound like blackmail? Oh Founder! It did!

"I wouldn't say that's the only way," Louise said. "I bet we could hide your body without much trouble."

And that attitude is the reason why you're single.

Vin, however, loosened her grip on his neck. "If you know what we're planning, why would you want to come with us?"

To avoid the issue of hiding my body? "Because I, Guiche Gramont, am a loyal son of Tristain, and desire only to be of use to her Highness, Princess Henrietta."

The princess looked down at him, a smile tugging at the corners of her perfect lips. "Do you really mean that?"

He wished he could speak to the princess from a position more dignified than lying face down on the floor. "With all my heart." Truthfully, her status as next in line to the throne had nothing to do with his loyalty. Even without her title, Henrietta was regarded by common consensus to be the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.

"Then I have nothing against you participating in this quest," she said, and his heart flew. It crashed when she turned to Louise. "But you know him better than I, so I'll leave it to your discretion."

Louise looked down at him, and his blood ran cold. Her face was halfway between a smirk and a sneer, not because the situation amused her, although he was sure it did, but because Louise the Zero was the weakest, most incompetent mage in the Academy, and she was in love with power.

"He might come in handy," Vin said.

Louise glanced up at her. "You really think so? He is only a dot-class mage."

Guiche wanted to protest that being dot-classed put him above both her and her familiar, but he doubted that would help his cause.

Louise sighed and turned away. "Oh, why not? If nothing else, there's no harm in having an extra meat shield in the group."

He let out an airy chuckle. "Louise, my dear girl, I'll have you know that my golems are made of bronze."

Louise gave him a flat look. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Guiche began to suspect that, throughout the duration of his quest, the pecking order was not going to be his friend.

"Then it's settled," the princess said. "Arise, Sir Guiche Gramont, and enter my service."

Vin released him completely, but as he stood, he saw the royal princess of Tristain smiling at him, her face as beautiful as the fae spirits from the stories, and his mouth disconnected itself from his brain. "You said my name!" he gasped, and as the blood rushed from his head, he fell over in a faint.

He woke up several hours later in a daze with his left cheek stinging. The princess had long since departed, and he found himself being firmly asked to leave.

WWW

The next day, Vin decided that she did not like horses, and horses did not like her. They were stubborn, arrogant, spiteful monsters—the beast Vin rode, a black and white stallion, spent the entire day doing everything in its power to make Vin's life miserable as they traveled to La Rochelle.

Louise, who had managed to pick out a meek, docile animal to ride, suggested that Vin name the horse to help them get along—but even with a name, Torment never grew to like her.

Unfortunately, a fourth person joined the group and replaced Torment as the least pleasant member of the group. He was Viscount Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes, Captain of the Griffon Knights, and Louise's fiancé. There was nothing wrong with him personally, but Vin didn't know him, she had never even heard of him, and she wasn't involved in a game she wanted to play with strangers.

Also, he was way too old for Louise. Lord Ruler, he was nearly twice her age!

Not that Louise minded. As soon as he showed up, Louise climbed up on his griffon—a creature the size of a wagon, but with wings—and rode the rest of the way to La Rochelle practically on his lap.

The two of them spent the entire trip exchanging his cheap compliments for her awkward blushes, and no one even mentioned the mission until that night when they checked into an inn.

The inn was ostentatious even by noble standards, with polished marble floors and tables, and paintings and stone statues along the walls. They had a private dining room to eat in, but the food was covered in so many spices that even Vin's tin enhanced senses wouldn't have been able to tell if there was poison in it.

"We won't be able to leave until the day after tomorrow," Wardes said. "So it may be our last day to rest before we return."

"It's also our last day to prepare," Vin said. "We'll need an alibi for why we're traveling to Albion." At least, she assumed they did. In the Final Empire, there had been no such thing as another kingdom, but skaa couldn't travel at all legally, and even as Valette, she had needed an excuse for traveling to Luthadel as well as an obvious ulterior motive to hide her true reasons.

Guiche took a long drink of wine. He drank clumsily, just like he spoke. "Why, that's obvious," he said. "If anyone asks us why we're gracing their island kingdom, we'll tell them that it's none of their business."

"No," Wardes said. "Vin has a point. We'll need a story that will incite neither curiosity nor offense. Tourism would be suspicious during a time of war, but if we can't go under the guise of pleasure, we'll travel under the mantle of business. We're traveling to Albion to negotiate a trade agreement with one of the noble houses. We'll have to wait until we know which houses still stand before we can say which one, but a few merchant lords paranoid of corporate espionage will arouse less suspicion than anyone seeking an audience with the prince."

Vin glanced around to see if a third party had overheard. Wardes didn't speak much louder than she had, but he had a clear voice that carried far too well. They weren't in too much danger here in Tristain, but it was still best if they didn't discuss the details of their mission any more than they had to. They needed to acquire a letter from the prince of Albion that could jeopardize Princess Henrietta's marriage to the Emperor of Germania. On top of that, Albion was in the middle of a civil war, and the prince in possession of the letter could end up dead, king, or off the edge of the map in a matter of days.

Wardes narrowed his eyes at Guiche. "Actually, is House Gramont still involved with mercantiles?"

"Well, my father is, first and foremost, a general," Guiche said. "But wars have been rather slow recently, and trade does make for decent passive income."

Wardes nodded. "Good. In that case, the good general is considering an arrangement with one of Albion's noble houses, and has sent his youngest son to oversee his interests and give you some real world experience. I am your bodyguard, Louise is an advisor to make sure you don't make any financial blunders, and Vin is a servant. That story should survive passing scrutiny."

His eyes met hers at the end, as though gauging her reaction. It was a good plan, but that last look made her feel like she was being measured. Well, she had been measuring him since he showed up. Both Louise and Guiche already gave him their support, Louise for their past relationship and Guiche for Wardes' military position, but not Vin. She didn't trust him any more than he trusted her. Kelsier had been foolish to trust people he had just met, but he had been crazy enough to make it work.

Besides, he wasn't here. He was a world away, and probably dead.

"If there are no objections," Wardes said, "we can work out the details in the future. For now, we should get some rest. I've arranged Guiche and Vin to have their own rooms, and Louise and I will be sharing one."

Guiche raised his eyebrows, as surprised as he was impressed, while Louise seemed as shocked as frightened. "I—w-what?" She started to blush. "But Wardes, we're not even m-married yet."

"We're engaged," he said. "Besides, there are some things I need to discuss with you in private."

"She said no," Vin said. "Anything you need to say to her can wait until morning."

Wardes looked at her, then down at the steak knife she gripped in her hand. She couldn't even remember grabbing it, or burning pewter, but there it was, a furnace of power in her stomach, and Wardes was well within arm's reach.

"I suppose I can't fault a Familiar for being protective," Wardes said easily, and for a moment Vin thought he had made the suggestion just to provoke a reaction. "Shall we trade, you and I?"

She considered that. "No. I'll stay with Louise, but you and Guiche should share. We don't want anyone to pick us off one at a time."

"I doubt that will be an issue yet," Wardes said. "But so be it. There is no harm in caution." The corners of his lips twitched in a smile. "Might I at least bid my fiancé good night?" He offered his hand to Louise, who took it eagerly.

Guiche sighed after they left. "I could have had a room all to myself. Oh well. Such is the price of being of service to the crown."

Vin burned a bit of brass and nudged his emotions. "Could you do me a favor?"

His melodrama vanished. "Happily, Vin. What would you like?"

"Could you keep an eye on Wardes? I don't know what he's after, and that makes me uneasy."

He let out a laugh. "If you want, but I could tell you right now. He's after the favor of her Highness, the Princess, just like any royal knight, and if he secures a political union with the Valliére house while he's at it, so much the better. Also, he lives here, so if Tristain isn't conquered any time soon, that's probably something he'd approve of."

There's always another secret. "Thank you. I appreciate it." She got up to make sure the "good night" Wardes was giving Louise didn't turn into a "good morning" when Guiche stopped her.

"Oh, by the way," he said. "Um, I don't know how to say this, but, uh, oh Founder." He took a deep breath. "Montmorency and I broke up again."

"Oh." Why bring that up now? "I'll fix it for you when we get back."

"Will you? Lovely! But, um, that's not what I was getting at. See, the thing is, I'm single now."

"Yes? So?"

"So … so I'm single. Things could theoretically … happen."

"Things that Montmorency wouldn't need to know about?" Vin guessed.

His eyes lit up. "Exactly!"

She gave him a flat look. "Fine. If you want to flirt with the barmaids and waitresses until we get back, I won't tell anyone, and I doubt Louise cares one way or another."

He blinked. "Right! That is, that is exactly what I was getting at. Well, good night, Vin."

WWW

The room had one door, two windows, two dressers, one writing desk, a sofa, a bookcase, and a bed big enough for five. The door seemed sturdy enough, and Vin locked and latched it.

"I could have handled that, you know," Louise said, sitting on the bed. "I don't need you to protect me. Well, I do, but not from him. I'm perfectly capable of telling him no when he needs to be told no."

"Do you trust him?" Vin moved on to the bookcase. The shelves were lined with books. She couldn't read in the language of this world, so she couldn't tell what the books were about, but none of them looked used.

"Well, yeah, of course I trust him. We've been engaged for ten years now."

Ten years. Louise would have been six at the time. Vin wondered if she'd had more sense back then. "Who decided that?"

"Our parents did," Louise said. "I think he was supposed to end up my sister, Cattleya, but she got sick and I was next in line. He's always been very good about it, though, and never complained about ending up with me instead. Not that I'm being self-depreciatory, of course, but if you met my sister, you'd understand."

Vin burned pewter to move the bookcase forward and examined the wall behind it. She tapped it with her knuckles, but her tin-enhanced ears didn't pick up anything hollow about the sound. "So what do you know about him?"

"Um, he's the captain of the Griffon Knights. And he's a Viscount. And … he has a neat hat."

Vin gave her a flat look. "That's it? Ten years, and that's it?"

"What? He keeps to himself," Louise said. "That doesn't make him a bad person. Besides, none of that matters, because he has a reputation. I don't know how things work where you're from, but here, we nobles are watched our entire lives, and everything we do is remembered until the day we die. There are plenty of lesser aristocrats who sit on a pile of half-buried scandals, accusations of corruption, servants' rumors and so forth, but Wardes is clean. Besides, he's a knight. You can trust knights."

Vin cocked her head. "Why?"

Louise blinked. "Because … you just can. Knights are trustworthy. That's one of the rules."

Vin frowned. "I'm not sure trust works that way." It's the ones who try to make you trust them that you have to watch out for, Reen had always said.

Louise rolled her eyes. "You're just being paranoid."

"I'm being cautious," Vin said. "People are going to try to kill us in Albion. I need to know who I can turn my back on." Louise might sacrifice her if she needed to—anyone would if pushed far enough—but Vin was useful to her, and the girl knew it. Guiche didn't seem reliable, but neither did he seem treacherous, so as long as she kept an eye on him she should be fine. The only thing she knew about Wardes was that he was competent and probably strong enough to get them all killed if she wasn't careful.

"Cautious," Louise said. "Right. So why are you moving the furniture around and tapping on the walls?"

She hesitated. "I'm checking for secret passageways." She never slept in new places without checking if she could help it.

Louise stared at her and shook her head. "Yeah. I'm going to bed."

WWW

The next morning, Wardes came by early to invite Louise on a walk. Vin didn't try to stop them, not that she could have if she tried, but she followed them just in case. She couldn't get close enough to hear them with the sound of the crowd drowning out everything, but if he tried anything, she'd be there.

He didn't, though. They just talked and walked and talked some more. When she found out what they were talking about, Vin wished she had listened better.

"Vin!" Louise called after they returned to the inn. Her face was flushed and she looked cheerful, giddy even. "Wardes and I were just talking about you."

That's not good. "Oh?"

Louise nodded. "Long story short, he wants to spar with you." She grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door.

"What? What did you tell him?"

"Oh, you know, that you're a mage with a different sort of magic and stuff. He was really interested in Allomancy and he wanted to see for himself."

She gritted her teeth. "I told you that in confidence." Just like with the princess, Louise had spilled her secret without hesitation.

"And I told him that in confidence, so we're all confident people. Don't give me that look, Vin. We're all in this together, and Guiche isn't going to be much more useful than me in a fight, so if we get in trouble, it will be you and Wardes, and that means you'll have to learn to trust each other."

"Trust him? I don't even know him! You don't even know him!"

"Yes I do. He's my boyfriend."

"No he's someone your parents picked out. You met him for the first time this decade yesterday."

Louise rolled her eyes. "You never trust anyone."

"And I'm still alive!"

"Eventually you'll need someone to have your back."

"That's what walls are for. Why is this so important to you? Why do you care if I fight your betrothed?"

"Because I'm trying to impress him! He's a square-class mage, a Viscount, and Captain of the Griffon Knights, and what am I? Louise the Zero, the girl who failed at everything she ever tried except one: summoning you. The familiar is the measure of the mage, and as long as you keep on masquerading as a commoner, Wardes will never see me as anything more than a failure."

Vin blinked. "That's it?" Part of her had thought—had hoped—the Louise had wanted her to open up for the same reason Kelsier had, that she had the same, irresistible insanity that had made so many put their faith in the Survivor of Hathsin. But, no. She was just trying to use her.

"What do you mean, that's it? You can do things nobody has ever thought of, Vin. You don't know what it's like to have the world expected of you and be nothing but a joke your whole life!"

No. All Vin had growing up was a brother who would beat her for talking to strangers and threaten to sell her to the brothels if she complained. You can't trust anyone.

Louise dragged her outside to a courtyard where Warde stood waiting. "So you agreed to come," he said. "Good. I look forward to seeing if you are as skilled as Louise claims."

You still think you can trust people, but you can't.

"Oh, she is," Louise said. "And I'll know if you're holding back, Vin, so don't let me down."

Anyone will betray you.

Guiche wandered out of the inn to join them. "Good morning, everyone. Is … something happening?"

She didn't mean to, Vin told herself.

"We're having a sparring match," Louise said.

That doesn't matter, Reen replied.

"Oh, that's nice," Guiche said. "Who's fighting? Wait, Wardes and your familiar? Are you insane? He's a mage and she's a peasant!"

You trusted her with your secrets, and she betrayed you. Kirche and Tabitha probably had too. By asking them not to talk, Vin had only revealed where she was vulnerable.

"No she's not."

She's using you now.

"What?"

And when she uses you up …

"Just watch."

… she'll abandon you, like I did.

"Alright, are you two ready?" Louise called out.

And you'll keep on falling for the same old trick …

"Fight!"

… until you have nothing left to lose.

WWW

A/n I was not planning for so long a hiatus, but I was distracted by … less important things. Anyway, here's the next chapter, including what I love most about writing: the cliffhanger! Yeah, I'm a terrible person.

As usual, thank you to everyone who left reviews. If it weren't for you, I would keep these stories in my head, and they'd never get anywhere. Thank you also Magery and Stone Mason, for editing this chapter, as with so many others.