Mephisto? Catatonic.

Faust? Presumably dead?

FrostNova? Reaching her limit.

That was what she could make after the two boys were kicked off the LGD base according to their intel. It was far too late for any of them to realize that Lungmen was a trap and they were the mouse that bit on the cheese like a moron. Crownslayer should have put two-and-two together ever since Talulah told her where her personal target was heading.

Hearing that Doctor cleave through forces with his commands and fighting prowess did not ease any of their morale but hearing that four people on the enemy side possessed the same power that was able to ragdoll their leader shot any hope they had down.

As far their intel said about him, he only had like two weeks of combat experience tops. The monster had half the experience of most of their frontline but thanks to that thing he was using he was devastating any unit that had the misfortune of encountering him.

She only kept going because of the intel that Talulah gave her, a certain someone being in the neighborhood. After that, nothing mattered. Nothing but getting that sweet, sweet retribution.

Someone sold her father and his colleagues out, from what she could understand was that her father and his friends were working on something important for Ursus but they were then sold out once they realized something was wrong about the project. This in turn led to them getting slaughtered by the very nation they were happy to lend their minds towards. After that she was sent to Siracusa of all places for her safety.

Ever since her father's passing Crownslayer look for any outlet for her grief, the vengeance she held was the fuel that propelled her from realizing the potential she had as a warrior, her time in Siracusa will not be all for naught. Yet all of her skills were in the end, just a means to one. The young girl adopted this code name so she wouldn't rest until she hunted down the monster you took his life, as such when she heard the presence of their target...

And then she was caught. Hook, line, and sinker.

Her comrades were easily dealt with by one unit, the one that was pinning her right now. All of her hard work and the things that she had to do to get a chance, a chance bestowed to her by their leader. The Lupo girl was ready to send her to a meaningless death but she was only abstained by her handler.

The woman that she was hunting down, Kal'tstit; her father's former co-worker.

"It's her isn't it?"

The wolf nodded, "Yes, the scent is the same." She sniffed Crownslayer once again, "Ghhh, fake. She is no wolf. Her scent is real...the true wolf's...the first true wolf's."

"True wolf?" Kal'tsit had pick up that term in passing but she never really knew the details of it, and she's saying that this kid had a scent similar to one? Or is it the same?

"Filthy cub! I-"

Before she can continue her thoughts Crownslayer snarled and struggled in an attempt to escape. Scarlet energy coursed through her but she was still overpowered by her captor, one of the good doctor's proteges; Projekt Red. A Specialist that can take on a unit in the darkness, a master of assassination and acts as a shadow to top personnel of Rhodes Island.

"Don't move." The Executor warned her, the wolf's fingers were in a dangerous position poised to break her ring finger with a pinch.

A cold sweat washed over the girl, any pride in her honed skills was rendered null by the enemy before her. It was obvious that they are holding back as well, she could have killed her whenever she wanted too. But why? What did they want from her? What else is there to take?

"How can I...I can't move!?" Her muscles weren't responding to her command, "Can you control me?"

"She tried to use a wolf technique, a bite she learned from the wolves." The wolf girl ignored her, much to her annoyance, "I can sever her spine and stop her from moving."

"No need." The wolf nodded, there was no need to be so drastic.

"You...just when I found the traitor..." Crownslayer chuckled in defeat, "All that work, all for nothing..."

Kal'tsit merely observed the captured girl with her poker face, a bit of nostalgia waved through her. However that hardly mattered anymore, those days were behind her and that's for the best. Still though, she expected more fire from the girl's eyes but instead she saw a begrudging defeat that overtook her own anger.

"You seem disappointed even after finding me." She noted, "I'd expect Ilia's daughter to be more fierce."

"Don't you dare speak his name!" Ah, there it was, "You sell-out, you traitor! You and Sergei-"

Kal'tsit didn't even flinch nor deny her accusations, "Is that what you think?" She then sighed at just looking at the girl that knew back then, Lyudmila shared her father's hair color. It was both a haunting reminder of her past failures but also a bit of hope that his child managed to grow into something. A shame that his child would be complicit in spreading the tragedies that he wished to remove.

"You have the same shade of red."

"What are you talking about? What do you-" Crownslayer tried to break free once more, forgetting the despair that was washing over her but she was immediately pinned by the wolf girl's immense strength.

"Let her go Red." The wolf assassin obliged and allowed the fallen lass go.

Yet there was no barely any fire in her left, Crownslayer never felt so defeated against an enemy after such a blazing victory. She wasn't an idiot, she was at the woman's mercy but what was her goal? What was her motive for still keeping her alive?

"What's your aim? Are you to humiliate me?" Crownslayer snarled, "Are you trying to repent!?"

"You aren't far off." Kal'tsit didn't seem bothered at the almost feral Vulpo, "But either way I'm giving you your chance to kill me."

A fair pot-shot at the woman that was the source of all her misery and pain, her only family gone and the reason why she was with this accursed power that was slowly killing her and her comrades.

"Of all the times to repent, like that bastard Sergei? You're giving up just like that?" Crownslayer couldn't believe how easy her goal was presenting herself, in her delusional and defeated self she was willing to take Kal'tsit's word as truth even though this might be a trap, "Fine, I'll make you repent. You will regret it, you'll regret everything you did!"

"No regrets. I always did say that." Sometimes to a nauseating degree, "But actually there is one regret that I'll share with you today."

Crownslayer paused.

"However I'm afraid that it isn't about your father," While an image of a pink-haired woman glazed over Kal'tsit's mind, Crownslayer's eyes went bloodshot.

"I'll kill you...I'll make you pay!" Kal'tsit's eyes narrowed at sudden golden glint, "Swallow the bitterness of the dead!"

Suddenly a fog covered the alleyway that was their stadium, Kal'tsit did not bother in covering herself while Projekt Red did as she was instructed by her master in not breathing in stagnant air. Was that last line an ARTS chant of some kind or her bitter resentment turned to words, the fog slowly threatened to swallow Kal'tsit whole.

Calling it fog however would be a mistake.

"Smoke?" So this was Crownslayer's ARTS, a smoke that comes from the Infected organ stimulated from the nervous system. A familiar mutation that Kal'tsit always comes across in her work, "An Originium Art coming from you oral cavity, well that explains the scarf."

"Do you love to run your mouth off? Tch, it doesn't matter you're beyond salvation!" In the face of Kal'tsit's perceived apathy her anger flared even more, "Since you love to talk in the face of death, tell me why, tell me why you betrayed them..."

"Director Kal'tsit!?"

0o0

Cries of a child echoed throughout the floor of the building, in Ursine speak the child cried and cried for her father. However her cries were naught but static on the ongoing chaos of the battlefield. A child does not belong in such a place and yet here they were, to be given either salvation or slaughter.

"Blaze-4, Amiya-1, come in. I'm in the slums. 4th Street, building number 10. There's a child survivor, Infected." From faraway GreyThroat noticed the child and approached her.

She wasn't any good with dealing with people let alone children but she couldn't just wait for the two to do it themselves, there were black coats lurking around the neighborhood and if her hunch was right about them, securing the child was a top priority.

That didn't make things any easier for her though, she was aware of how childish her thought process was. This child was not responsible for the death of her parents, yet they were Infected but in the end she knew that it wasn't right to hold contempt for someone as innocent as a child. Maybe if she was ordered to by the Amiya or the Doctor she wouldn't think like this.

"Are you a Lungmenite?" The child asked in their native tongue, they must have been a refugee from Chernobog. A lot of those to go around from what she heard from that Sniper from Penguin Logistics.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, I don't speak Ursine well." In the back of her head she was thinking of sharpening her linguistic skills if she ever lives through this, "I'm not an enemy."

Much to her expectations the Ursine child looked at her in confusion, her words were lost in translation it seems. Nevertheless, after a few adjustments with her words she assured the child that she was capable of reuniting them with their dad.

"Hey you." Just as they were about to leave the Liberi girl noticed a presence behind her, "Hiding behind me, you better come out."

Not to her surprise it was a Reunion member that was sneaking behind her, they looked horrified at something, scared for both themselves and for their comrades from the way they moved. GreyThroat can't help but wonder if that figure from before was responsible for their cracked morale.

"You're...you're not with them..." The Reunion member's eyes drifted to GreyThroat's apparel, "You're from...Rhodes Island..."

"Child, look behind us and don't look back." GreyThroat readied her crossbow-firing arm, "Drop your weapon and put your arms up."

The Reunion member on the other hand was confused, "What...you're not here to save us?" They heard that Rhodes Island treats the Infected very well and now they found themselves at crossbow-point with one of their Operators, of course a recruit like them wouldn't understand that their leader struck first at them, "Don't you guys know what's hidden here? We worked hard to set up this ambush, if we can't take them out we'll be slaughtered!"

GreyThroat then realized why this child was placed where they were, "So you're using children as bait? Then you deserve what's coming to you."

"What of it?" The Reunion member spat out, "You think it will end after all of us are dead? Even if all of us died they wouldn't spare the children, they won't let anyone survive! If that's all it takes then we'll gladly die so they can survive."

GreyThroat was taken aback at his words but recalled the ruthlessness of the people she witnessed before, the cold unfeeling, almost surgical way the black cloaks did their work. No noise, no unnecessary antagonisms, no enjoyment over their handiwork, it was like taking out the garbage for them and to the Liberi woman that may be what the Infected were in this city.

"We didn't even attack you." A fair point, they had a chance to take a swing on her and yet didn't after realizing who they managed to lure was. She hated such a complicated dynamic, who was good, who was evil? Knowing which is which would've made her mission easier.

"Those black raincoats...they were the ones killing children?" GreyThroat couldn't fathom what Lungmen actually is if such orders were allowed.

"So you did see them, then you understand right? They're slaughtering everyone!"

Yet GreyThroat still saw a flaw in this man's words, the person in question was still a child not part of any militia just caught up in the battle between Reunion and Lungmen. Things wouldn't have been this way had Reunion decided to not poke the sleeping dragon right where it hurts, they wouldn't have to resort to such drastic measures had they realized how outmatched they truly were.

Had their commander gone mad? Were they not aware of how strong one of Yan's premier mobile cities was? Even so...

"That's no excuse." GreyThroat pointed her crossbow at the enemy, with one hand protecting the kid she knew if this were to devolve into a battle then it would be difficult for her to respond, "After I take you in, I'll apply to have you protected."

It was an answer borne out of naivety, yet it was the best she could offer.

"So we're just supposed to trust you at your word with a crossbow pointed at my neck? Is that it?" The Reunion member scoffed, "You point a tool for killing at someone you want to protect?"

"For now, either way I'm protecting your lives." GreyThroat couldn't help but agree with the contradiction the man pointed out.

The man brandished his dulled weapon, "Save it, we'll take care of you then reset our trap!" His eyes looked crazed out of a desperation to survive, "We've already got the order to form up and retreat, if we died here we would be spitting on our comrades' sacrifices to save their children."

Seeing that the time for talking has run out GreyThroat covered the child's eyes so as to not have them see the violence about to take place. She fired a bolt to the man's arm causing him to drop his weapon, then she caught the dull blade and struck his neck with its blunt side.

"Hah, that all you got?" He taunted, the man must have been a Vouivre if he was still standing after that. GreyThroat is now left in a tight spot, she can't reload and the man is ready to strike her while she is vulnerable.

"...Child, take cover!"

A sharp pain grazed through GreyThroat's arm, it felt like a very big cut but all that mattered was the child was covered from her own blood. The pain was jagged, even with closed eyes she could tell that the wound came from a broken glass bottle cutting through her skin.

She could feel her consciousness slipping as she lost more blood than she expected, in her mind she hoped that her future corpse could at least serve as cover for this child. An Infected child she tried to save.

GreyThroat then heard a gurgling noise as she closed her eyes, opening them she saw the one who saved her.

"Operator Blaze...I'm still alive?"

"What? You think you're better off dead?" Blaze rhetroically asked, "It's not like you dying would solve anything, so you better keep on ticking."

"What about the other Reunion men and the children?" GreyThroat asked in concern as she looked at the knocked-out Vouivre with sympathy, having his nasal cavity be flooded with heat might not have been a fun experience to live through.

Blaze was startled at the woman's question but after a period of silence the Elite Operator smiled at the Liberi, "Operator GreyThroat...I've got you all wrong, I'm sorry about that."

"The children, Operator Blaze?"

"I took care of the Reunion guys then I hid the kids! Just listen to me already!" She already contacted Yato and her squad to pick them up so that they wouldn't be caught with this anymore, Blaze doubted that Lungmen would go after them if they're this eager to get rid of their Infected.

But GreyThroat scoffed, "No need, as long as the children are safe."

"Can you can it with being annoying for five at least?"

"Seconds sure," GreyThroat smirked, "So what did you get wrong with me."

"Watching you stand up for Infected kids, it was hella "leng noi.""

"Your Lungmen dialect could use more work."

"Hey! That's from the top of my head!" Blaze breathed out, "Really though, I thought you were some uninfected spy who joined us for whatever reasons but I guess that was off the mark."

"If I were a spy...this is how I'd get you to trust me." GreyThroat breathed weakly, "As long as you weren't stupid enough to let me- You bandaged me?"

"I'm not done so stay still; that there's just to stop the bleeding." Blaze then pulled out a green vial of Cureinall and injected the substance on her shoulder, "It works quick according to the Doc, it won't account for any lost blood but it will hasten its production."

It was true, she could feel her fresh wound and her other injuries disappeared in seconds.

"So what if you're a spy, I'm still gonna do my job." Blaze proudly declared, "You did the right thing so I'll save this spy and pack her off to legal."

"I could just run."

"Let's not be stupid here, how exactly do you plan on doing that?" GreyThroat was threatening one of the most mobile Elites in Rhodes' barracks, "Trust isn't about letting your guard down, it's about knowing what you'll do and what you won't."

"If you do what's right then I'll back you up, if you don't then I'll correct or stop you if I have to." That's just simple logic to the Feline and you couldn't refute that, "You corrected my wrong thoughts with your right actions so thanks for that, GreyThroat. I'm sorry for thinking otherwise."

GreyThroat remained silent but Blaze understood now, it must be strange for an Infected to declare such a thing even though hours ago she was at her throat.

"But you really need to work on your people skills. They didn't want to be difficult, that was a show for survival." They did admit that their strategy was borne out of desperation and they would be fine if she just left them alone, "If you screw up, you still need to go to Legal."

GreyThroat groaned.

"Well they're getting along aren't they?" The Doctor smiled at the two, hearing the whole conversation from Pixie's point-of-view from another building separate from the other three, "I'm just about done commanding Dobermann's squad remotely, I'll be with their shortly Amiya."

"Leave it to Blaze to drop her prejudices that quick." Amiya nodded, pleased at the development, "Our elite operators aren't just excellent in combat, Blaze for instance is a miracle worker in social situations. Her trust isn't easy to gain but I know you'll get it Doctor."

The Doctor chuckled as he was running towards Amiya's location, "You sure? I fear that I was a tad harsh on her when she addressed Ch'en. In her point-of-view she and the other LGD are complicit in what we suspect is happening if she already hadn't connected the dots from what she heard."

"Nevertheless, our operators are here not out of that." A lot of their Infected operators had their misgivings with working with such a city at first, "They're here out of a sense of duty just like how you decided to put yourself here, with a sword accompanying your commands."

"I resolved myself to do this to understand my comrades, my absence caused nothing but difficulties for you all and that maybe because I was just there giving orders."

"I understand how you feel Doctor, but I know that trust between us is real." Their leader reassured, "This is the kind of trust Blaze is currently building with GreyThroat."

Rattling and footsteps came from below the building she was standing in, with a silent command her right arm pulsed with cursed and jagged energy. Black diamonds covered her back as she had no need to chant her ARTS.

"Sounds like trouble, I'll rout their escape while you deal with the top?"

"Sure." The bunny girl did not think for a second that they could lose, "Look, she's a good conversationalist but she's not so great at expressing her feelings. That apology of hers is also a way to confront her own prejudices about the non-infected."

The bias between both sides isn't exclusive to the side with rocks growing out of their skin, even the Infected had the right to be prejudiced. It's a standard human trait to have preferences both positive and negative.

"Confronting her Shadow so to speak?" Amiya could definitely imagine a smile gracing his lips, "Do we need to give her that medicine too? I'm starting to run dry here."

"That may be a possibility in the future...but no."

"I'm kidding." The Doctor clarified, "Conquering one's self only opens the path forward; it isn't the end of the journey."

"I'm well aware." Amiya charged her claw, "Those Reunion threw away any principle they once had out of fear, whatever they fought must have forced their hand. Those cloaked shadows, do we have to fight them too?"

Silence echoed through the communicator.

0o0

Kal'tsit sighed after an intense stare-off from the Vulpo, emerald meeting ruby eyes amidst the smoke as they clashed wills, "Lyudmilla, I barely made it out alive myself."

"Liar!" Lyudmilla snarled, "You expect me to believe your bullshit?"

"I don't." The accused waved off, "Not that I was lying to you to begin with."

Kal'tsit observed the girl all but snarling at her general direction with a nostalgic sigh gracing her lips, "Honestly, what was that man thinking? Reading "Truth and Justice" of all books to his five year-old."

"Huh? How did you?" Crownslayer's murderous rage wavered for a moment as she was startled by Kal'tsit's words.

"That man had no sense whatsoever," Kal'tsit sighed remembering that one summer day back in Ursus, "That book, you, at the afternoon, he made you turn around and look at me and you just pouted."

"Are you mocking me!?"

But Kal'tsit did not dignify her with an answer, " "What if we just sealed the sarcophagus and never tell Ursus about this place?" He proposed this plan that night, he thought that we could have saved more lives had we pretend the thing didn't exist. He wanted to prevent them from making more machines to grease the wheels of war."

"You're just saying these things to confuse me!"

There was no deception in her words. The medical head spoke as if she was making conversation about the weather, no hint of intent, "He and a few others came up with that plan, such convictions seeped through his entire life it seems. You may have his conviction but he wasn't shallow enough to be defined by his drive alone."

"Declare me a traitor and even take my head but once you let the sword guide you, it's only a matter of time until you find yourself at the end of another blade."

"Couldn't you be more arrogant, no Caster can pierce through my fog!" The Vulpo did not listen, sick of the woman's ramblings she took out her knife, "You have no idea where I am, I'm doing this for the scientists, for the Infected...so please die...I want...no, I need you to suffer. Scream in pain your puppet piece of shit!"

"I suppose I do look like a Caster." Kal'tsit murmured, "I can't say for certain that you're fighting for the Infected however."

"Come Monst3r."

She could have sworn that the air turned colder at Kal'tsit's command, Chernobog couldn't prepare her for the horror that she is about to witness. Kal'tsit's bent forward allowing her back to be fully curled, then out of her spine erupted an appendage of some sort. Can she even feel pain at the process of this strange proceeding, does she even bleed from it?

Little by little, a monstrous being crawled out of the woman's back. Verdant eyes darted around with no apparent need to observe their surroundings. Crownslayer couldn't make heads or tails on whether or not this is an Originium ARTS construct or an actual life-form. Then as she was trying to process the event unfolding before her, a silent roar made its way to her ears and she couldn't imagine a more terrifying sound.

"I'm no Caster, Originium ARTS is not my crutch."

Yet even though it was by all accounts, a bad move, she couldn't just go cold turkey here.

Ignoring every sensible part of her brain telling her to scream and run she faced the creature and its master with false bravado.

"Try me!" Crownslayer lunged at Monst3r with a manic vigor in her eyes, the creature lazily parried her knife. Darting around the smoky alleyway, she took her chance while the monster's vision was obscured. She shanked the thing at its joint but once it made contact with the creature's body...

Her knife snapped in half.

"Impossible...how hard is that thing?" Crownslayer stared silent at the thing as Monst3r happily hissed at her face in defeat.

Kal'tsit raised her eyes in astonishment at the defeated Crownslayer, the fight lasted longer than she expected. The kid had some moves in store, she didn't know whether it was a blessing or a curse that Crownslayer is fighting her now.

"I'll admit, the Doctor's familiar may be stronger than mine..." Kal'tsit admitted, "However, it's unfortunate for you. Contrary to your first impression of him, he's quite merciful...to a fault even. So unlike him..."

"Monst3r here has no qualms about killing."

Crownslayer can feel terror creeping up in her back as the woman with her beast in tow took a step towards her. Was this it? After all that work, after all those things she did alongside her comrades. It was all for nothing?

"So Monst3r..." The monster was somehow disappointed at their prey.

Crownslayer can feel the sharp breeze on her face as she braced herself.

"Destroy the object about to fall on her."

An appendage crushed the debris about to fall on the girl like a sledgehammer on an eggshell. While the wreckage that was clattering was loud, Crownslayer stood silent and dumbfounded. She realized that she was outmatched, she had no delusion of beating Lungmen after the mutation shitshow she heard but there was still hope of accomplishing her personal mission. However, now even that was impossible, she was outmatched in every way. Motivation, Power, and even the slowly creeping doubts of the circumstances of her father's untimely demise were making her lose in morality as well.

What the hell is going on?

0o0

I had a feeling that this was the reason...

Yeah, I'll be discreet about it.

He's already lying in wait there right? If he wants to set the stage then we'll give him what he wants.

Don't worry about it, I'm already faster than most of these lapdogs combined.

Oh and I'll drop the baggage as per his request.

0o0

Rain poured down the alleyway like a shower of sorrow as thunder crackled in the distance. In the darkness, the flashes of lightning briefly showed the monstrous figure towering over the defeated fox. Emerald eyes glowed within the darkness that enveloped the alley as even the lights surrounding the decrepit buildings blacked-out.

The fox's opponent looked at her with a neutral face, was she internally taking in the pathetic vengeance that she mustered? Was she wondering where all her bravado went off too as she realized the true extent of her enemy's strength?

That ember of rebellion she had against them, the traitors, Ursus, those who dare condemn her kin with brands and chains...

Were they snuffed out by the rain?

"Just kill me..." Lyudmilla begged as Monst3r let out a soft growl, the creature seemed to enjoy the look on the girl's face, "...I've lost, you were not even my first defeat. Every time I encountered you lot it felt like someone was looking down on me from on high, knowing how to exactly burn me to the ground."

Doused by a turbo-charged water pressure valve at District 9, sent flying by a fist towards the Lee Estate only to be reeled in by a chain from some Feline to Maso Inn. Her unit dwindled and dwindled until she decided to at least leave or die with a personal victory on her hands. Even at that, she realized that she had no chance of ever winning.

"Even after enduring that humiliation, I thought that maybe if I could kill you it would have been worth it. My comrades, dead or in chains...i have nothing to live for knowing that I can't even lay a scratch on you." Lyudmila said in despair, pouring her heart out on the person she wanted revenge on. How pathetic has she become.

Crownslayer, what a joke; she couldn't even slay a bishop with her fangs.

"Or what? You think that my despair is entertaining to you?" The fox barked, "Still, even when I'm dead I've still cursed you forever."

"Are you truly prepared to die?"

No answer.

"Do you want to?" Lyudmila gasped as Monst3r's maws evoked a scarlet steam, she was willing to answer her plea but she couldn't answer, "If I'm the traitor you are looking for, would you feel better after taking your revenge?"

"Shut up! I'll kill you, I-"

"Ilia was my student but also a friend, your father was one of my finest researchers." Kal'tsit said without sparing a sad glance at her friend's child, "He would have put Ursus five years into the future with his dedication and selflessness."

The man was a true patriot, doing his work in hopes of bettering the lives of his fellow man. A shame that Ursus was not patient enough, a nation that was unwilling to compromise and adapt to the times. It's no wonder then that the nobles of the land would resort to foolish venture after foolish venture.

"I don't want to hear anymore of your drivel, why do you insist on telling me these things?"

"But you do, because doubt always plagued you." Kal'tsit answered, "Even before you became Infected, you always doubted yourself. You didn't let Sergei explain himself, so I'll do it for him."

"I don't betray people after all, not even him." That last part was inaudible to anyone but herself.

"He was indecisive but he was never greedy." Kal'tsit recalled, "Ursus had his newborn son and his daughter hostage, so he gave your father's location to save their lives."

Lyudmila's eyes widened, it must have been a lie right? But then she realized that she was just lying to herself to cope with the truth. Because the truth is much more painful than if the woman was telling her a lie. Sergei's kids, the son became one of their commanders and the daughter was forced to live out in the slums of Lungmen.

And it was her organization, Reunion, that led to their untimely ends.

"I see you realized what you have done." Kal'tsit words were like a judge's gavel, condemning her of her guilt. Alex was goaded into attempting an attack on an enemy bigger than he could have imagined and Misha was carried through the burden and the mistakes of her kin in spite of her friends and her brother's friends wanting her to live.

In spite of all that they did not deserve the fate they've ended with, because in the end they were just children.

"If I tried to go save Misha then...maybe she and Skullshatterer would be..." Then she remembered the enemy that he faced, intel that was spread too late led to clear blunder in judgment then again they could never anticipate someone just being immune to an attack like that, "N-no way, Look at how powerful you are, you could have saved him! Why didn't you save my father then!?"

"I have tried and I have failed." Kal'tsit answered simply, "No matter what, I couldn't convince your father to leave. I sent you to Siracusa because it was the next best thing but you went back anyway Lyudmila. Then again, it should have been expected. You are very much like him...willpower triumphing over time itself. I suppose it's the one path you wanted to take, and it led you here all the same."

"So all of this was pointless...my actions...my battles nothing but pointless flailing?" To Crownslayer, nay Lyudmila, this was the biggest defeat of it all knowing that the enemy was ready for her, to be treated like a nuisance that wasn't worth killing.

But was she her enemy? Crownslayer's knife that she didn't realize was still grabbing onto dropped as the mist that her ARTS created wavered. Who is the foe here? Ursus or her? Who betrayed who? Some many questions yet so little the answers, yet the truth remains certain.

"You have killed a man that couldn't even protect his own children." A brutal strike from Monst3r would have been preferable to those words, "Whether your actions are of any consequence is up to you to decide."

"But your father and his co-workers died to protect that secret, Sergei could at least take that to the next world." A bit of sorrow touched the lynx's face, "Ursus sealed the Sarcophagus, giving up on deciphering its secrets. So the only use it could ever have for them is to power a now-wrecked nomadic city."

If she truly did betray anyone, it would have the Empire itself but to Kal'tsit it was more so because only she knew a fraction of the thing's true purpose. There was something more valuable than measly energy and weaponry inside that machine after all and yet Reunion's leader knew of this?

"Your father's work may have been obscured but you can always remember it as an act of a man who died trying to save a lot of people." Kal'tsit added, "I will remember it alongside you, that act of heroism."

"However, your own deeds? Were they driven by blind revenge? When the gavel that brought down your father's and his colleagues' fates were by Ursus' own hands?" Lyudmila winced, "And here you are in Lungmen, and suppose you succeed, how will you treat the uninfected of this city? Will you repeat your actions in Chernobog by giving them the option of death or submission? Or will you evict them from their homes and let nature run its course?"

Projekt Red yawned like she heard this tone with familiarity.

"Or will you cut them with Originium to force them to experience your own pain, or will you coexist in peace forgetting that most of the people you slayed to get there had families of their own?" Kal'tsit hanged over the brutal truth of conquest in her face, this was her true attack she supposed.

"Could you do that Lyudmila? Could Reunion as it is do that? Is that how you want to create your nation for the Infected? Or perhaps it is your strategy to take the fight to Ursus? If it's the latter then why attack Lungmen? If you seek to instill terror then what can you do to surpass Ursus?"

"Kal'tsit, she is confused. She is scared, she wants to run." Red whispered to her, almost feeling pity for their adversaries pitiful state.

"Monst3r, return." Kal'tsit silently acknowledged Red's words, even though Crownslayer didn't got hurt as Monst3r defended her the girl looked as if she had her behind handed to her. If Lyudmila still insisted on fighting she wouldn't have felt so unsure of herself.

Whatever rebellious flames were stoking her were not even embers at that point, cinders or rather the shadows of them is apt.

"Is that okay?" Projekt Red still had their concerns, she is after all, dispelling one of her only means of defense.

"She can hear me enough," Kal'tsit reassured her, "Listen well Crownslayer, you and your movement's hatred has been used, abused, and toyed with. If you still long for revenge then think about what your father taught you, to whom do you bare your fangs towards?"

All of them bought into the lies and deceit because where else were they supposed to go? Yet still, that did not mean that they owe anyone their lives to anyone's own ends.

"The one leading you to this path of terror and murder," Lyudmila tried to deny it, during the fall of Chernobog and here at Lungmen but the people that were supposed to be the "enemy" they weren't holding weapons in response to their actions, "Your leader is not sane and they also lack a heart..."

Instead they ran, and they slaughtered them or at least tried to. People with families and lives to protect, in the end they weren't any better than the people that they were trying to fight.

"A leader true to their ideals would not let someone else die for them," The Doctor's resolve to fight alongside his Operators shone at the back of Kal'tsit's mind, "Much less murder someone else on their behalf. So run, leave this place and take a different path."

"And if that path is something that can change the world, then you may take it as you see fit."

Stunned by Kal'tsit words, Lyudmila deactivated her ARTS. One moment ago she was pinned down by her subordinate, the next she was pouring her heart out of vengeance and swearing bloody murder, and now she was receiving a pep-talk from her.

And yet, she still accepted the truth of those words.

There were no reinforcements.

Talulah lied to them.

They were sent there to die, a diversion to the real scheme that witch had up her sleeve.

In that flash in the pan, Crownslayer knew that...

She was a pawn of Ursus.

"She disappeared...is that okay?" Projekt Red tilted her head, "Why didn't you kill her?"

Kal'tsit looked at the now absent and fog-less alleyway, "Must I beat a dog when they are already down? Had she reveled in the pain that she caused then I wouldn't hesitate to deliver her punishment."

"With this she can forge a better path for herself but those sins will forever stain her, it will follow her everywhere she goes." Such is the cruelty of time, "Still, it would be a shame if that rebellious spirit would fade away too. Maybe once she comes to terms with herself then she would awaken to it..."

"Like the Doctor?" Projekt Red asked, "Hmmm...the scent is the same but faint for her...but her and Talulah too...they smell the same, I think?"

"That's three different races Red, how are they any similar?" Red shook her hand. That's what her nose was telling her, "Such a silly nose you have there."

0o0

Hot wind blew through the air as the Yan elite observed the carnage above, they were there to also judge Lungmen's capabilities in handling threats like these. Had they require more assistance than what is required they would have deemed Lungmen's risk factor higher than it currently is. Nevertheless Taihe felt confident at this city's future once it was able to recoup the losses and repair the damages. Even if Reunion managed to defeat them they wouldn't just let their center of commerce be taken that easily.

However, where was Censor?

A loud crash can be heard from nearby, did someone detonate a bomb at the abandoned residential area

"What's happening?"

The Shadow Guards were thrown into disarray, this was just a simple diversion tactic yet it was effective enough for the attacker to take them down one by one. Once word of one of their own was defeated they were focused on finding the assailant.

"We're being attacked? Where is the enemy?"

Misdirection or sleight-of-hand is the idea of not necessarily ridding one's presence but to redirect it to another focal point. In combat this turns even the greatest of eyes against themselves, and by doing so the attacker took down five Shadow Guards by the domino effect the impact of suddenly encountering a strong enemy has.

"Where is Censor?" Taihe shouted amidst the chaos from the other end.

"She's been gone for a quite a while, she sprinted off towards the Rhodes Island commander last I heard."

Taihe's eyes widened,"Why did she do that?" There was no point going there to rectify the situation, he knew that and bit his lip in frustration. Just when things are clearing up another storm passes by.

"I don't know sir, she didn't say anything before she did that."

How could this be? Did Reunion still have an ace that they did not see, and Infected so strong that they out sped the Shadow Guards? They aren't as strong as Yan's royal guard but they aren't slouches either.

As for Leizi, what was on her mind when she did that?

But before he could process his thoughts, a fist came towards him.

"Bastards!" Taihe easily caught the haymaker with his palm, almost amused that this Rhodes Islander would attempt one, "How dare you-"

This time her kick to the head was blocked.

"Are you done?" Taihe taunted, "You are an Infected right? Then you must know what fate awaits you by attacking me right?"

"I'm with Rhodes Island dumbass, like hell you would actually do that."

"That "Infected Specialist" group that Lord Wei had hired, yes, that is the reason why I haven't delivered what I meant to you." The gruff Yan official begrudgingly agreed, "That may be subject to change however seeing that your commander might have killed one of our own by accident."

"That's an insane accusation, the Doctor would never kill." If there's one thing the Feline picked up on was that his attacks aren't ever lethal.

"I heard that he just slew a Reunion commander a few weeks ago, or am I mistaken?" Taihe recalled.

"They succumbed to their condition before they could have done so, you would have known if you read the file." A voice came behind Blaze, a tone that was holding back their own anger at them.

"Ch'en Hui-Chieh..."

"Apologies for my companion but I can't blame her, such an accusation warrants evidence more so than your compatriot going off the accused's general direction." Ch'en reminded the man of how due process works in this city, "With the chaos of the battlefield it is hard to tell who is friend or foe, your ally going off knowing this is responsible for whatever fate awaits her."

A sudden breeze came over the roof of the building they were on, a cloaked figure greeted them with a carefree wave while carrying a red cloaked woman with them.

"Luckily you don't have to wonder." The mystery figure dumped the girl like a sack of potatoes, "Here's your baggage, courtesy of the Doctor."

"What do you say to this then, they admitted that they are affiliated with your commander."

"Oh he doesn't even know who I am, in fact he begged me to spare her." The cloaked figure then sneered at Taihe, "Mercy is in short supply here and I gave in to the demand, simple economics."

"Besides, she assaulted the Doctor first during combat with Reunion no less, don't believe me? Well good thing I have a drone recording the whole scene for m-"

A blur blitzed through the roof and made its way to the newcomer, but their cocky smile did not waver.

"Was that supposed to be the best punch you had?" Taihe was dumbfounded at the ARTS that blocked his fist from connecting, wind? Of all things? "Here I thought you're supposed to be Yan's elite, then again pretty ballsy of you. You strike me as someone who wouldn't even dare touch an Infected with a stick."

Taihe was released by the breeze and was pushed back from a fall almost to his death, he knew that this person was just toying with them. Fighting and honing his skills for all his life, he can tell when someone is just playing around with their opponent. It frustrated him that this Infected was using their ability to subdue him like an animal.

"It's pretty incriminating evidence that goes against what Lungmen assured Rhodes Island, right?" The cloaked held up the data stick, taunting the Yan official, "I'm sure Wei would have a lot of questions to ask if he sees a Yan official not just doing their oath as well breaking an agreement with an organization he trusted for him."

Like a lawsuit would deter that man. Taihe scoffed, "You think that Rhodes Island is held in such high regard by him? You have no understanding of their contract outsider."

"True," The cloaked figure admitted, "However, it's not so much his trust in Rhodes Island that would irritate him. More so the idea of Yan not trusting Lungmen on who they choose to hire, you know that he is a man that derives a lot of information based on one simple action and you know that this can be interpreted as an insult to his own abilities and judgment."

"The man would rather avoid unnecessary conflict so why not drop the whole thing, your ally is alive and well and in her right self after all, so don't mimic your enemies now."

Taihe stared at the figure in anger and outrage not wanting to give them the satisfaction of victory.

"Oh don't look at me like that, your lot aren't as tough as you think, besides...aren't you also preoccupied with a certain dragon?"

"How did you-" Once more the man was disarmed.

"Dragon?" Ch'en and Blaze raised an eyebrow.

"Oh you didn't know? Well the thing is-"

Debris fell onto the ground below as a loud thud resounded across the roof, a powerful punch that would have hit the cloaked character had he not been bound by the very breeze flowing through the sky.

"We'll yield," Taihe bit his lip, "Just don't speak another word of that."

Two onlookers that were too troublesome to deal with had that question planted into their heads still, then again it was his own stubbornness that had things come to where they are. He should have known that bluffing wasn't his strong suit but even he was confused as to why Leizi would do such a thing.

"Good, good then we'll have no issues then." Denizen got a kick at how emancipated the man looked, "Oh and if you snitch on me...I'll know."

"Your name?" Ch'en called out to the cloaked figure, "You helped the Doctor so I'd like to know it."

"Denizen's the name now, my old one doesn't belong to me anymore. Not that it was mine originally to begin with."

0o0

The Doctor instructed his allies to divide and conquer with the remaining sectors, leaving only a certain sector alone. He heard of black cloaks wandering the city, perhaps Wei was getting impatient with both Rhodes Island and the LGD? However, no one seemed to be spared from the onslaught these elites created. He had yet to see a black cloak in person though, the Doctor wondered if that was an order or a collective judgment call.

Even though they were allies Wei wasn't one to show his hand to those who can read it.

Him already knowing their purpose without seeing one himself, it wasn't a bad call on his part if that was intentional.

"I had a feeling you'd be in the neighborhood." Parvati inside him was resonating with a familiar person's presence, "So, what brings you to Lungmen?"

Kal'tsit stepped out of the Shadows with a mirthful face, something must have amused her earlier, "Personal business, how about you? Aren't you here to deal with Reunion?"

"Just cleaning up, then again you probably already knew that."

"Oh how so?"

"If you're still in the landship then you would have picked up the Shadow before."

"Shadow?"

"Well that just confirms that you're up to speed with the whole Reunion situation at the very least." The Doctor noted, "Closure took over for pinpointing the distortion while you were away from the landship."

"I see...was it a BOARD?" It would be troublesome to deal with a gigantic area at this stage of the operation but thankfully that wasn't the case.

"No." The Doctor shook his head, "It was similar to Skullshatterer's but it had the time-distorting of a BOARD, I have a few theories about this phenomenon but that would have to wait."

"Whose Shadow was it and who did you bring with you?"

"It was Faust, someone got to him." Kal'tsit raised an eye, "As for who was with me, well it was Amiya, Ceylon, and Schwarz."

The Doctor then took a deep breath, dreading the reaction after he says the last two.

"Followed by Blaze and Ch'en."

As much as he enjoyed the lynx's startled expression, the woman looked at him with dagger eyes, "Ch'en? Why did you drag her along for this?"

"She got one."

"What?"

"Ch'en manifested a Persona," The Doctor silently repeated, "We both sensed it as we dropped down to assist her against Mephisto, I have to say lightning suits her. Course I had to administer that emergency medication afterwards but she's really resilient, she's pursuing a target of her own."

Must have been her race's physiology.

"Also Blaze was a key part of our strategy to beat the thing so don't try to scold me."

"I wasn't going to." Kal'tsit scoffed, "So did you find out who killed him? That kind of corruption only occurs postmortem when an individual with potential perishes, right?"

"No I didn't." Kal'tsit noted how disturbed the man looked after bringing it up, "Even after I peered into his memories, I'm sure it wasn't any of our allies."

Before Kal'tsit could take her leave her arm was caught by the Doctor, he didn't make an effort to hide the worry he has for her. The Doctor knew that it was foolish to hide it from her, while working she picked up on the oddity that is the Doctor's expressions.

His worry was carefully hidden as his concerns and anxieties every time danger was looming back at Siesta inside that BOARD. Of course if he cared to hide it, she was sure that even she can't pick on it. Whether it was an unconscious quirk or a weak attempt to obscure his own anxiousness for the sake of morale, who could say?

All she knew was that he was being true to her right now.

"Be careful ok."

"I have Red with me, so don't worry about my well-being." Kal'tsit reminded him, "Monst3r too, or do you have any misgivings of trust still?"

"I won't ask to elaborate on why you're here, I trust you, though with all your secrecy I guess the feeling is still not mutual." The Doctor said in dismay, "Sorry, that was out of line. I must not be feeling well. That's the second time I said something off."

"Are you pacing yourself properly? It may be because of exhaustion," Kal'tsit inquired and then continued, "Do note that trust isn't an obligation Doctor, I'm sure you are aware of that with our dealings with Wei."

"Look, I know I can't apologize for whatever my past self did to you." Kal'tsit was slightly perturbed as pulled out that "card," Something along the lines of "So he did notice" went through her head as he continued to speak, "I understand the disdain even if I don't know the sin, I just wish that you'd see me at the same side as you."

"I still have a score to settle still so see ya around I guess."

Feeling disheartened, the hooded man left the alleyway in a brisk walk towards the rendezvous point. Leaving her before she could reply, there was no time to waste when lives are on the line. They both can do without addressing such sentiments for now.

Yet one has to wonder who was hurt more in that little exchange?

"Trust..." Kal'tsit whispered, "Forgive me as much as I want to...I still can't."

0o0

How long has it been that she was using her power to protect rather than to harm? FrostNova couldn't help but crack a smile when she saw her comrades and her siblings work together to protect what this city couldn't. In that brief moment she saw the old Reunion's smiles, even some who already passed on to the next world. She was envious of them in all honesty, getting to pass on without being ashamed of the insignia that unites them.

Even as a nightmare plagues this movement there was still hope of an awakening.

"Petrova, leave with them." There was still one thing FrostNova had to do, she didn't know what happened to the enemy that they were repelling but somehow the number of those cloaked shadows dwindled.

FrostNova took it as a sign of good fortune and one she knew who to give the blessing to.

"But Sis-"

"Have they all left Lungmen?" Their sister did not skip a beat as she asked.

"Yeah, for some reason Lungmen's forces wavered, the cloaks disappeared one by one. Come on we can leave now." Petrova insisted, knowing better than the others of their sister's state. Anymore fighting and she will...

"No...I'll stay, someone has to confront them."

Of course, Petrova knew better when their sister had her mind made up, "...Ok then...are you sure...those Rhodes Islanders aren't bad people but..." They still had their misgivings even if they worked together to unearth their commanders.

"Petrova, it's fine...even if I don't make it back..."FrostNova wasn't planning on fooling them, she knew by now her state and yet, "I was still able to do even this...takes you back doesn't it?"

"Mhm...we were the heroes of the Infected...nowadays..." There was shame on that last word, even though they thought what they did to the residents of Chernobog was disgusting it didn't change the fact that they were complicit with it, "I can't feel proud of our actions Sister,"

"You don't have to, if you guys ever see him again tell him that I'm either at the enemy's side or I reached my limit before then."

"You're awfully calm about this Sister...but I'll pass the message along."

"Thank you...now go...band together with the other remnants or join Rhodes Island in the future...do what you will." FrostNova made a weak smile at Petrova, "Just don't die doing something stupid."

"Yeah, I'll see ya soon Sister!"

"Aye...see ya soon."

"Strange...I feel so cold yet for some reason my heart has never been warmer."

Her very spirit roared alongside her frigid blizzard, whatever foolish foe that would dare interrupt her meeting will never wake from an eternity of winter. The LGD forces outside were taken aback by the sudden cold gales but remained ever-resolute.

"Carefully pull back!" That is until Hoshiguma ordered them, it would be suicide to confront this blizzard that emerged.

Meanwhile in a building above, another group of remnants were hiding away looking at the scene before them as if it was nothing short of a miracle. Nine hummed in both amusement and intrigue at the hard time her former co-workers are having at the death throes of one of other new allies' comrades.

"The Yetis...everyone...they actually escaped?" A Reunion member said in awe, a fiery beat burning with determination, "Should we try to regroup?"

"It's pointless, we are no match for Lungmen's combined forces." Nine knew this better than anyone else, after all she used to be one of them, "Come on and get a move on before the LGD spots us."

"I know."

"Still, there's something iffy about your eyes." The Reunion member pointed out, "Honestly thought that you were a Lungmen spy."

Nine chuckled at the accusation, "How about now?"

"Does it really matter at this point, it's probably even worse for them given the current state of their city."

"True...I'm not really anything anymore...and we can't really call ourselves Reunion anymore can we?"

Once the realization that those reinforcements were nothing but hot air, the morale of the Reunion deployed dwindled. Some of them still decided to charge foolhardy but that didn't flew well for them, the shadowy cloaks easily ended their crusade without so much as a care in the world. They were nothing but pest control to them, as much as they want to raise their banner around the troublemaker that was fighting those cloaks they were so disillusioned by heroics at this point that they rather live as losers than die as fools.

"Yeah...our leader wasn't expecting us to survive...doesn't she?"

There were no words spoken as Nine looked over the ashen sky, even though she wasn't sure of their fates she felt that such a tribulation shouldn't go unacknowledged. A flower formed from her palm, she then blew at it, spreading its petals to the wind."

This was her ARTS, a beautiful power.

0o0

"Madam Hoshiguma, shall we proceed?"

"No...that frost seems dangerous..." Hoshiguma bit her lip in annoyance, "We don't know what that ARTS can do but all I know for certain is that it's no joke..." This was the same ice that stalled Rhodes Island back at Chernobog for so long, "And while I don't like those guys, the black cloaks don't have much of a chance too now that they seem to be retreating."

She didn't like the aura those cloaks gave off, don't get her wrong but she can't deny that they are strong enough to brave the blizzard. Yet they were gone at the most important part of the operation by some unknown reason that she has yet to be informed about. Swire didn't say anything for all the good her information network was worth and she has yet to hear from Ch'en.

Hoshiguma wasn't confident that they could come ahead if Reunion rallied behind that commander of theirs as well as that unknown element so she was at her wit's end.

She didn't want to doubt her friends but somehow she felt like being out of the loop.

"Stand down, we are the ones they want." The Doctor stood behind her, a commanding but gentle voice.

"Doctor..." Hoshiguma wanted to ask him more but she then looked at his companions, A Feline, a Liberi and Amiya; a relatively small unit but that Feline was the one responsible for their rescue.

"He's right, tell your men to stand down Hoshiguma." It wasn't a suggestion, it was a command from the small Cautus.

The three of them knew the situation very well, Hoshiguma is aware that they are aware of her unit's current helplessness. The Doctor can keep up with the ice with his own ARTS, Amiya is a wildcard of strength that easily tricks you into thinking that she's just a Caster and the other two are Operators that stuck with the two throughout the operation.

Not to mention, the Doctor's team seemed to know more about their enemy than they do.

"Alright...men stand down and retreat."

"Are you sure Madam?"

"I am. Remember this is an Infected we are dealing with." "I'd say that they have a better chance dealing with them than us...besides those things have already disappeared."

Her unit accepted her words and put down their arms, instead deciding on supporting another point in order to wrap things up quickly.

"Thank you Hoshiguma," Amiya was grateful for her understanding but Hoshiguma returned the gesture.

"You're welcome, just don't die out there you four."

0o0

Wind kept howling like a swirling storm inside the building but in a way it is. Instead of keeping in the force of nature inside her, she let it go. However, to the Doctor, it may as well have been an open door. Ophiuchus allowed them to brave the storm like a large moving boulder blocking out a violent blizzard.

"Did you wait too long?"

"No...in fact, you all are pretty early." FrostNova stood there in place, awaiting them for so long.

"That's good to hear, I usually prefer to be on time for anything."

Make no mistake, there were people here before. FrostNova's strong but even she can't fight against the LGD and those special forces together on her own. The Yeti squad left her alone?

"Does that deal still hold true?" No, she asked them to leave...all for this moment.

"Yeah...Amiya." There were no questions from her, "Show her your resolve."

"Right." A claw of cursed energy burst forth from her right hand, FrostNova was slightly stunned, she didn't take the girl for the melee fighter type.

"Wait a second...what's going on?" Blaze on the other hand was confused to all hell.

"Oh yeah, you two...go assist her."

"Huh?"

"You haven't told these two our terms?" FrostNova was getting confused at the two's collective confusion.

"It slipped my mind after all the things I had to go through, maybe your ally's ARTS scared it out of me."

"Understandable..." The Phantom Crossbowmen told her enough to catch her up on the situation, "To tell you the truth I don't think any of us sans Faust ever knew about what his ARTS did.."

"Well there's no point in talking about this now, take your places everyone."

"Doctor, you're not going?"

"As much as I want to...no I cannot." The Doctor explained, "We already clashed before so she wanted to see your resolve instead."

"That's the agreement our ceasefire was based upon." "If you win, I will yield, if you lose then the Doctor will join us instead."

"What? Join Reunion?" Blaze couldn't believe the agreement that the Doctor signed himself up for, "Doctor why did you-"

"Reunion?" FrostNova scoffed, "Tell me Black Cat, can I really call myself that anymore?"

"You have seen the horrors and the lengths those people would do to see their vision and yet it was all pointless in the end. Chernobog was a fluke or a handout to lure out the Infected and I say that worked very well."

"Doctor, what is she going on about?" Now it was Amiya's turn to be confused.

"If you think about it, Ursus is the most anti-Infected country across Terra, so then why did they not destroy Reunion while it was in Chernobog?" The Doctor pointed out, "They have the means to deal with an insurgency and yet they sent all their people to the slaughter."

You could always count on Ursus to deal with things personally and yet Reunion was met with middling resistance. That fact in the news was always the one thing that was strange to Blaze and GreyThroat.

"I brushed up on our current geopolitics and I know for a fact that a large part of Ursus wants to regress back to its warmongering ways, but they aren't in control of most of the military so the question lies is...where would they get the soldiers?"

"The Infected..." It slowly dawned on them what Ursus was planning, how dare they?

"Then their leader?"

"Talulah...a disgraced Ursus noble...what a laugh" FrostNova scoffed, "...She's their puppet."

"But the current king wouldn't want to start the conflict!" Blaze rebutted, "How would they start the war in the first place?"

Amiya was the first to know how, "Chernobog."

"It's a mobile city near Lungmen, a mobile city." Blaze and GreyThroat had an idea of what they wanted to do but that was just-

"Are they insane!?" GreyThroat added in, realizing the gravity of the situation they find themselves caught in-between, "Thousands will die! There's nothing to gain by doing this."

"And yet they insist." FrostNova tiredly said, "I swear that level of stubbornness is trademark Ursus. Nevertheless all signs point to that being the truth and knowing who Skullshatterer was...I know for certain that this was what she was aiming for."

That would explain the lack of manpower in this mission, she was hoping that all of them would just die fighting Lungmen long enough to weaken it. Not even Lungmen would survive fighting off a full-scale invasion after another one.

"Then why do you still want to fight us?" Blaze countered, "We all know by now who the real enemy is so then-"

"I don't want to fight the Doctor, yes, but you three...I want you to be your organization's representatives...I want to know if my and his faith is not misplaced in you all. If you fail then I cannot trust you to stop this nightmare."

"But-" Blaze knows that her fighting will just put her close to death, as much as she want to respect her wishes.

"The Doctor agreed to this because he wants to save her Blaze." But it was Amiya who convinced her that it's alright, "For now, all we must do is to convince her with our actions."

"Are you sure?"

Blaze got her answer by looking at Amiya's determined look.

"Why are you getting so indecisive now?"

"It's just..."

"Afraid that I'll melt before that comes?" FrostNova took out her sword, a fine Ursus blade looted from a Ursus commander, "There is a fine line between compassion and pity and I don't need the latter."

0o0

FrostNova gestured to them to come with their fangs open, she wanted to test Rhodes Island. Her old friend had gone insane, but even in that madness she was still the superior warrior with an unfaltering resolve. She wanted to know if these people held the same resolve as her and the Doctor, do they have what it takes to end this nightmare or are they just piggybacking off the determination of another, like Reunion, like her in the past?

If they are, then they have no right to profit off his spirit.

Platitudes are nothing if you lack the power to exert it.

Within the mist, FrostNova fired a row of icicles at the trio. With her mobility as a Cautus she was able to leap circles around them, firing in rows.

"Take this!" GreyThroat hardened her gaze as she fired through the ice, facing the attack head on for a better position of the target.

FrostNova fired a small chunk of ice at the barrage, causing a ricocheting effect that made all those shots miss. Her counter was a rush with her blade but it was blocked by Amiya's claw.

"Got ya!" Blaze shouted but FrostNova ducked in time, forcing the two to clash giving her time to get in with a ranged barrage of hail.

Scarlet lines broke through every shard that was shot; however, Amiya took this chance to close the distance between them. FrostNova met her claw with the sword but that was not enough to stave off the other Operator.

"Khhhh," Amiya struggled as their weapons clashed, "I have no choice but to use it...come Miseria!"

Miseria emerged from the depths of Amiya's soul shocking the older Cautus, without a word the Persona knew what she wanted to do. A slash of cursed energy was waiting and FrostNova had already felt how hard it is to fight a user of this kind of ARTS to shoot down any attempts to block it.

"Hah!" Instead she fired a strong bolt of ice to delay the attack to give her enough time to dodge the attack and jump away from the consecutive shots coming from GreyThroat.

"I didn't know you were...capable of this kind of ARTS..." FrostNova chuckled, "Were you holding back before?"

"I couldn't just put all my cards on the table, could I?" Amiya asked in rhetoric, "After all that isn't what he taught me."

How envious to learn from such a man. Still to risk dying in order to hide a power to be used in future battles, how assured are they of winning? Was it because they had him at their side or is it because they had faith in their own strength as well?

"Hey, don't just ignore us!" Blaze cut in with a rev from her chainsaw almost cutting her face.

The pressure against these three was insane, Blaze can keep her on her toes while GreyThroat can cover her with firing support. She couldn't even aim at her as it was already a struggle to keep up with the older and more physically capable Feline.

Even then it was still manageable, but with Amiya here.

That made things much more complicated.

"That ARTS...is such a cheat..." FrostNova gritted her teeth, "Alright...I'll get serious too."

Yet even with this pressure, she wasn't one to give up. Talulah will not be overpowered that easily and if she's easily beaten like that then both of them will have no hope in standing against her.

A sharp gale burst forth as black ice tendrils seeped out of FrostNova, another layer of frost coated the whole building.

"That ARTS..." Ice permeated from FrostNova's body like how water permeates from a cold glass, "Why go so far? Using that kind of ARTS must be giving you indescribable pain!"

FrostNova remained silent at the word. Pain.

"Oh if only I could feel it." She thought to herself, the ARTS that only she was able to do was the very reason why she could use it to this extent. The pain was barely there at all given how numb her body is, a body where pain is fleeting and warmth is an illusion.

FrostNova would have given up everything to feel that sensation.

But alas...she must still…

"Scar the world in an eternal winter."

0o0

FrostNova released all the restraints, black ice surrounded her as they swirled around awaiting to be fired. Black ARTS was somewhat of a taboo subject across Terra, it's an additive to ARTS rather than a whole ability. The conditions that scholars knew of is that to use it were to be so skilled in Originium ARTS that you would either have to be a genius with an outstanding quality catalyst or be an Infected and like a contract you have to abide by the cost that using such power entails.

Namely...to cut one's life short.

"FrostNova...stop!" The Doctor called out from the balcony where he viewed the fight, "That's enough, at this rate you will-"

"No! If they cannot deal with me, what hope do they have in dealing with her!?"

The tempest surged loudly as FrostNova charged at Amiya with her sword ready, instead of blocking it Amiya was forced to dodge as the black ice rotated around her like a protective barrier. She didn't want to learn what being hit by one of those tendrils entails. Now FrostNova was the one putting pressure on her.

As GreyThroat quickly fired three shots from her vantage point, she barely dodged a blast of ice as FrostNova found a perfect buffer that she can deal with the three of them easier than before. The Sniper's attacks will lose their quality if she's being attacked during the time she is focusing after all.

"Dammit!" GreyThroat swore as she ducked to a pillar as ice kept being pelted, "Hey Blaze keep her off my tail!"

"I'm trying but, ghhhh." Blaze grunted as she chose to endure some damage to avoid the black tendril, "Those black ice ARTS are not giving me any room for error either."

Any moment now they would slip, they can't even think of a plan of attack while they were busy dodging FrostNova's assault. They didn't have the ability to parallel process their thoughts and actions unlike the man and it clearly shows the difference of not having him command you.

Amiya on the other hand was not here to lose, she tried to force FrostNova to launch her attacks at her. Trying to dodge her regular attacks cleanly, only to suffer blow after blow while overly dodging the black ice.

She was trying to get a feel of the other Cautus' timing but she it's only a matter of time until that mistake proved fatal. Miseria was working double-duty in shooting Eihas to protecting GreyThroat and Blaze with melee attacks.

"Rhodes Island, formation five!" A sudden command blasted through the arena, it was the Doctor's orders.

A formation that deals in the event of a high-value target alone with both ranged and melee capabilities. Of course! That formation was devised for situations like this. It was a strategy that he came up with after his and Amiya's fight with Skullshatterer's Shadow, in the event that they may fight such a versatile adversary ever again.

"I can feel their will wavering before but as soon as the Doctor gave that one command, they were instantly rejuvenated?" FrostNova narrowly stared at the man but he paid no mind to it, "Doctor you would?"

"You didn't say that I can't command them FrostNova." The Doctor dropped down the balcony with ease, "I'll be commanding them from here if you wouldn't mind."

Damn loopholes.

"Doctor..." Of course, he isn't someone who would just command people on a high horse if he could help it. Blaze already saw his resolution during that fight with that monster and it was only strengthened in the brief time they spent in this operation.

No wonder Ace and Scout were willing to get him back.

"I asked you to stop using that ARTS and you used that power anyways," The Doctor shot back, "From where I'm standing you're the one who broke our agreement."

"It was a suggestion that I promptly ignored." FrostNova countered, "That wasn't a stipulation that you said to me back then."

"Well you got me, but I was asking you to stop because I'm your Doctor."

"I never remembered asking you to."

"I wouldn't be entertaining this if I wasn't."

FrostNova went silent, their positions on the matter were already clear. No room for debate, only room for battle.

"Any debris that comes my way will be blocked by Ophiuchus here, so you don't have to worry about me." The Doctor reassured the squad of three, "Besides you don't necessarily need to defeat her. All you have to do is show your resolve."

"My resolve..." What did that even mean? How do you convey your resolve to someone fighting for the same thing but thinks you lack the will to succeed?

"Show her how fiery your passion is I guess?" The Doctor shrugged, "I know you already have that inside you Amiya and I know Blaze and GreyThroat are already getting there."

Then again maybe Blaze's fire was hotter given that her ARTS is her body being a hot water bottle.

0o0

"Frontal Assault!"

Blaze charged in first to intercept any shots of ice making their way towards them. Amiya followed close to shoot ARTS attacks at FrostNova as well as having Miseria block fatal attacks from FrostNova. GreyThroat stayed where she was, focusing her shots on the black ARTS. While she can't block them she can manipulate the trajectory where the ice will land on with her attacks.

Saw and sword clashed with Amiya covering the Feline as her shadow, giving FrostNova no room to counterattack as Miseria is taking the brunt of the black ice. FrostNova can't just make more as that would drain her strength faster but she had a way to counter this.

FrostNova deliberately let the fight go longer so she could gather information about the patterns these two had and when she finally gathered enough...

"There you are." She predicted where Amiya would come from in the shadows and stomped on her head, this gave her enough of a window to break through her clash with Blaze, whose weapon was getting duller as they clashed arms.

"Damn it!"

Blaze tried for a low sweep out of instinct but FrostNova deliberately let her connect with her bare ankle.

"Blaze wait!" The Doctor saw FrostNova's smirk from a distance.

"Crap." But it was too late, Blaze could feel her leg freeze and the only thing stopping her from having one less leg was the ARTS in her blood. Like a tongue on a cold lamp post getting poured over hot water, she focused on that spot to break free from the trap.

So she tried a haymaker but FrostNova caught it easily, her reprisal being a blast of ice.

Before Amiya could close the gap, FrostNova jumped backward and climbed above to create distance between them. On one of the rafters FrostNova focused heavily on her ARTS, the dark grew darker and larger and the icicles became small icebergs. As Amiya was about to catch up from below FrostNova herself jumped from the platform with a ring of those ARTS.

The Doctor did not order them to retreat even though any other would think twice about confronting that attack. It was because he knew.

Larger black chunks were about to descend on them all but as they were about to collide Amiya shouted out with her very soul,

"Miseria! Eigaon!" He knew that Amiya's will was stronger.

Her strongest curse attack was fired from the faceless mouth of her other self, but in that moment the small icicles merged into a giant sharp icicle. The attack did nothing but to slow down the descent of the black ice hailing down on them. With this FrostNova was about to defeat them using gravity as her weapon and witness.

"It's over."

Had it not been for Amiya's determination that is.

Miseria switched gears and let her palm be skewered by the ice, she then used her other arm to push back the dense black ARTS as much as she could. Amiya can feel the pain but she tiredly grinned at her opponent. As the Persona was trying its best to stop the collision of the ARTS and with the brief time that FrostNova was astonished by her power Amiya bit her lip and rushed towards her.

"Amiya!?" Even the Doctor was surprised at her reckless charge but Amiya ignored her comrades' calls. But when he saw it, this was the only path to victory, "Of course, in a battle of wills my only job is to reassure her that her conviction is real."

Her mind was made up ever since she spearheaded that mission at Chernobog, no one will ever take him away from them again. No amount of pain and misery will compare to that feeling of helplessness, that level of despair that she couldn't scream her heart out.

"You want to test our resolve, fine!" Amiya ran towards FrostNova as the latter was taken aback by the drive at the former's foolish charge at her.

"I'm not...all out just because of that!" Her target called out smaller black icicles and readied her aim.

Dodging the first shot and the second, FrostNova or anyone else for that matter could never expect what will happen next.

"If your plan is to keep us away with those black ARTS of yours..."

Amiya opened her raw palm and then,

"I'll just make sherbet out of it,"

She grasped the black icicle.

"Amiya! Your hand!" For a split-second Amiya flinched from the pain the ARTS was doing to her body, she could feel her body temperature steadily decline but the adrenaline had overridden that sensation. So she ran towards FrostNova with her other arm ready, cursed energy meeting cold steel.

"Don't mind that, finish this now!" Amiya shouted back.

"Roger!"

"It hurts like hell and I don't think I can feel anything with my left hand anymore but with this..." Cursed energy poured out Miseria's skewered palm, despite the growing numbness Amiya kept on flowing small Eihas into the ice as Miseria struggled before and now using a final Eigaon the black ice burst from the inside due to all the build-up of power.

The black ice shards shot out like a ring covering the whole arena but FrostNova couldn't process it as GreyThroat and Blaze were in the act of pinning her down, she was forced to step back before she could make her next move.

"The terrain...wait...I'm stuck!" It dawned on her why they were forcing her to use her black ARTS on them, "So this was your aim..."

It takes time to create those black tendrils as well as manipulating them, so when Amiya and her squad charged forward to have her retreat as well as the Cautus willing to take such an attack openly. Her very own trump card was used against her...

She couldn't make enough ice in time to protect herself.

Amiya disarmed her of her sword, forcing her to fall flat on herself. The victor was clear and she pointed her hand at the defeated FrostNova, asking her to finally…

"Yield, FrostNova."

0o0

"We won Yelena. So...was this outcome satisfactory to you?"

FrostNova looked at the people that she fought earlier, their leader was nursing her already recovered arm and her teammates' injuries were also nowhere to be seen. No doubt that the Doctor had energy to spare in using that strange healing ARTS of his and by the sudden feeling of warmth that she felt it appeared that he healed her as well.

They were also tired though, that's the one thing the Doctor can't heal it seems.

"Alright...alright I see why you trust them..." FrostNova picked herself up and dusted her clothes to the shock of the others.

"Wha...how? You should be tired at the very least." Blaze didn't know where to begin; their foe had just gone off the wazoo with the black ARTS attacks, those kinds of attacks should have accelerated her infection to the point of lethality.

Until Blaze and Amiya noticed a familiar teal glow underneath her cloak.

"Why does she have a Rhodes Island model suppressor?'

"Ever since...that incident I was always carrying a spare suppressor with me." The Doctor admitted, "Still though...to output that level of ARTS even with a suppressor on..."

"Yeah...I amaze myself sometimes...I already knew I was fighting a losing battle but I put up quite the fight.."

"Are you an idiot!?" Blaze shouted, "Why would you cut your life short when you know that you would lose?"

"I wanted to break through...my limits..." FrostNova admitted finally, "That power that girl and the Doctor has is full of your resolve and when I heard that little Misha got one too...I wanted to...no I needed to..."

"Yelena..."

"Don't look at me with pity...you four," Yelena sighed, "I just figured that if I'm going to join you that I'd try to extend my...life a little further...Besides, I wanted to know if you truly possess such a resolve..."

Yelena tried to stand but she was almost about to collapse until the Doctor caught her.

"Say no more, you need to be treated ASAP."

"Haah...I'm not that frail..."

"Indeed, you shouldn't insult her like that Doctor."

In a fraction of a second, before the Doctor could sense what was happening, ice met darkened energy.

Yelena blocked the attack with a shield of frost, surprising GreyThroat, Blaze, Amiya, and the Doctor.

"Impressive, your battle instinct really is superb...FrostNova."

There was something off about the gentleman that entered the battlefield, a surgically clean white two-piece suit and a top hat with the same material adorned his body. He looked like one of those old-fashioned Victorian nobles but his face was very youthful even though the gold monocle on his eye must have been ancient.

"I...well forgive my manners." The gentleman straightened his suit, "...I am Testament, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

His pleasant smile did not waver even though he was just attacking Yelena with a blast of light.

"Faust...you reek of his scent." Yelena growled, there was no doubt that he exuded an energy that screamed of danger in her mind. A person like him has the capacity to eliminate someone like Faust without any difficulty.

Testament did not deny what Yelena was accusing him of, "Ah yes, Faust he was a clever boy. Truth be told, it did me no pleasure to cull his life short."

That all but confirmed it, to those in the know this stranger was the cause of that distortion a while ago. To Yelena, he was a murderer and how he recalled the crime was sickening to all of them. No one sane would have prided themselves on ending the life of a child that had nowhere to go.

"It does not matter either way," The man dismissed, "Alright then..."

"Shall we get started?"

With a snap of his fingers the shadows of the building suddenly darkened, Rhodes Island tried to see what he had planned but like a flash Shadows emerged from that darkness. How could it be? The Doctor and Amiya would have sensed a distortion forming within the space and while Rhodes was distracted by the sudden threat Yelena was pushed back from them by a stronger blast of light.

"FrostNova!" Blaze cried out, seeing Yelena take the attack with determined resistance.

Not now, not when there was a way to wake up from the nightmare. Yelena steeled herself as she donned her FrostNova self once more, this time as a Rhodes Islander.

0o0

Fighting this guy was frustrating to FrostNova, unlike the Doctor or Amiya where she can be sure that they were trying to beat her, this thing was playing with her. Easily dodging attacks and taking ice ARTS without even as much as a single flinching face.

Still, something deep in her soul was saying that she must kill this person now.

As well as another part of that deep saying that she should run with all her might.

FrostNova charged towards Testament at a breakneck speed, the man dodged and countered hard with a thrust from his cane.

"Gah!" It was a direct hit, it was made of wood but it busted FrostNova's shoulder easily. She couldn't even scream in pain only being left with the sensation of overwhelming numbness that she was so used to.

Powering through the numbness she shot a volley of ice from her body, the blackness permeated from her skin as she let it out like a fusillade of ebony rime.

"Do you not feel pain doing that?"

"Like you actually give a damn." FrostNova readied her ace in the hole with gritted teeth.

"Right you are." He smiled as he tried to slash FrostNova with a cold sonicboom.

This man had slain her comrades without giving any reason as to why, he reeked of the same evil that she started to sense from her former friend. An insatiable desire, one so human but one so depraved. This battle wasn't about the Infected or the healthy anymore is it?

"I'm not just fighting for my comrades anymore am I...?" FrostNova asked herself.

More crystals permeated through her body, there was no point in not firing at all cylinders against this man. Nay, this thing before her. Even though there was a high possibility of her being killed, she just couldn't give up against this adversary. She couldn't explain but power began to well up inside her, her determination manifesting into strength.

A promise to herself, to her brethren, and those who still saw her as someone that can be saved.

"What was that?"

So even if she perished here, if that meant that this monster would not haunt them...

"I'll make you face winter's true terror!" The suppressor hidden in her arm was glowing red but the beeping was buried under the loud snowfall that was about to occur.

The only light in that blizzard was a brief glint of gold.

0o0

Vigor emanated from the Doctor as he rushed towards the slowly freezing horizon, Shadows intercepted him as he slid down from the assault. He ignored the stragglers chasing after him after their failed attack, without a word a second wave fell under his Persona's slash. The Doctor had no time to spare, with Sukukaja in his veins he blitzed through the path trying to catch up to the man and FrostNova. He was hoping to every deity he could that he would make it in time, he had no countermeasure, no Plan B, no actions that he could do to absolutely mitigate the situation.

All he could do was wait and hope, doing his damnedest to not be deterred by these Shadows that the man summoned.

Amiya, Blaze, and GreyThroat followed in his footsteps, the latter two taking refuge under Amiya's claw. Miseria emerged from Amiya's form and blasted the Shadows that were out of range with masses of cursed energy. How could this be? Shadows required certain conditions to manifest, that much was made clear of their nature. It took a strong enough distortion of the heart for a space to take shape, in fringe cases a distortion must be strong enough to attract or form minor Shadows.

But at the gentleman's whim they emerged to obstruct them, he wasn't hoping to defeat them with weak peons. He was stalling them as he fought FrostNova, who was in no shape to take on such a threatening foe. Even if she's on the verge of awakening, Blaze doubted her survival even if she managed to beat the man.

If the Doctor was frantically chasing with no plan in mind, things must be desperate.

Thankfully the remnants of the Doctor's ice still had that healing effect for his allies, they were the reason why Frostleaf and Meteorite were easily recuperated even against the wrath of the heart of the Reunion Movement.

Amiya couldn't count the number of Shadows she just cut down with her claw, it's hard to keep up with the volume of them that keep spawning from the darkness. Blaze and GreyThroat lack the arms to slay for themselves not because they were weak but with the same logic of not being able to mine a rock with a shovel. The two simply lack the arms to deal actual damage, Blaze knew this very well after her first encounter with the anomalies. The best that the two could ever do was stagger and stun them so that Amiya would have an easier time in dealing the final blow.

"Amiya, I'm pulling the Shadows at you!" Thankfully Shadows are still affected by her ARTS, "GreyThroat use your strongest shots to push any stragglers back to the air current."

"Got it!" The Sniper fired a charged bolt at one, it did minimal damage to the body but it did the desirable effect. Amiya did the rest, a swipe cut down the monster down the middle.

Miseria was then summoned as a porcelain mask was crushed on Amiya's palm; firing a salvo of Eihas, Amiya was surprised at how easy it was to deal with them. However many more sprouted from the darkness, sooner or later they will be overwhelmed by the massive numbers of Shadows that threaten to separate the three from their commander.

"Damn it!" Blaze bit through her lips, "We need to go a different route!"

"There isn't any, these monsters are forcing us to go a certain way!" GreyThroat shot down the idea as she shot down a floating Shadow back to the funnel of an air current that Blaze is generating.

"Then what should we do?"

"On your left!"

It came from the communications device, as soon as those words were said a massive tidal wave of water splashed through the left side of the building. The Shadows melted like they were solubles in a vat of hydrogen peroxide.

Help had arrived, and that help was in the form of Ceylon and Schwarz.

"Amiya, what is going on!" Ceylon called out from the channel, "Closure alerted us that there is a massive population of Shadows at your location! That shouldn't be possible right?"

"I don't know the details, there was some guy that attacked us and then summoned these things!"

0o0

More, more, she needed more power.

Even after going over her limits, it still wasn't enough to at least make him twitch. The likes of Talulah feared her ARTS to the point that she realized in hindsight that she wanted her to die here by the hands of Rhodes Island and the LGD.

And yet...

"Is that all that you can muster?"

FrostNova bit her lip, the ice that she shot out were nothing but mere nuisances to this guy. Was this the utter feeling of defeat her subordinates and her enemies felt when they clash against someone stronger?

But even so...

"I won't admit defeat just yet!"

FrostNova didn't know what would happen if she touched her own black Ice but without any clear options she just decided to go off on the rails with this one. She may turn into a Cautus-sized popsicle but she was already going to die if she can't beat this bastard.

A sword, that was what her ARTS was. Something used to destroy and kill others.

She visualized the image of a sword, a weapon as she channeled her black ARTS. Using her memories of when she awakened to her power, she focused all that into the construct that she was making.

Then again she can't say that she was fighting to destroy others as well. She never really understood the glory and value that came with a blade but now she had an idea.

Its true value lies in what that sword was protecting.

"Blade of rime...tears sublime..." And now...

"Blade of rime...winter's cry!"

That sword's worth had no equal.

"That blade...could it be?" Testament focused his eyes on anyone but FrostNova, only to see a faint figure guarding her. There was no mistaking it, it was a Persona.

"She has yet to seal a contract so then...is she channeling that power unaware?" His answer came in the form of a brief glint of yellow gracing the girl's eyes.

Testament's composure cracked for a bit, but he quickly recomposed himself. After all, even if its her Persona's power she had no idea that she was even doing it. By all accounts then that might as well not even exist.

He tried to block one of FrostNova's slashes but he met with a blast of ice instead.

"Such power..." Before Testament could process what was happening FrostNova came at him with a stronger slash, rime following her every stroke.

FrostNova did not waste a second in slashing through his stupid white suit, his stupid cane, and his stupid tie. Anger, rage, and adrenaline coalesced into a beautiful symphony of fiery retribution and Testament could do nothing to stop it.

"Enough with the theatrics!" That is until he got sick of being pummeled by this winter child.

Testament's aura pulsed and FrostNova was pushed back, she wasn't stunned however so she tried to attack once more with her sword to keep the pressure on him.

"It's a pity really..." But Testament easily caught the sword, the last hope that Yelena had in defeating this monster before them, "But every candle has to burn all of its wick in the end."

He crushed the sword between his hand, the permeated ice, her Originium ARTS were rendered useless in front of him. Her very life was pointless in front of the man, nay the monster she was fighting.

Yet even with hopelessness staring at her, she couldn't dare herself to give up.

"Too bad FrostNova...that contract has been revoked before it even began."

The shards flowed and with her command, swiping Testament's face cleanly.

"Ack! Even now you still fight?" Testament touched his cheek, "It does not matter, that was the last attack that you could do. I'll let you have this last victory as you succumb to your wounds."

"Wait!" FrostNova called out, "You...I'm not..."

"Gah!"

He was right, that was all that she could do. The bastard could have killed her in any way he would like but he separated her from the Doctor and his allies as a way to force her to fight with all her remaining strength. He watched Yelena flounder and flail hopelessly while smiling mirthfully at her futile attacks, even as she made a blade out of her own life to take his; it was nothing but sand in his eyes.

As he was about to leave her cold and dying a burst of light blasted through the wall.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Testament narrowly dodged an axe kick from Kresnik, never seeing the need to retaliate from the attack. The Doctor on the other hand rushed towards Yelena's side, quickly bringing out Ophiuchus on standby to protect her like a lioness to her cub.

"Yelena!" The Doctor looked at her state as he carried her in his arms, flashing in her mind was Misha's last moments as he carried the young girl in his arms as she succumbed to her infection and fatigue.

"Well I'll be off Doctor, it's been fun but it appears you have more pressing matters to attend to." The Victorian-fashion wearing man seemed pleased at his own handiwork, aware that both he and the Doctor were of the current situation, "I'll be leaving now."

"Bufudyne!"

Ophiuchus shot the spell from his hand with deadly precision, aiming to ice the enemy on his sight. There was no way he'd just let him leave as he pleased.

"Agidyne." Flames blasted out of Testament's hand.

The spells canceled each other out but the Doctor's eyes widened now knowing a clue of what Yelena fought. His control over Shadows, his ability to bring them here without a distorted space of some kind and now his ability to use the same spells as Persona-users...

But that didn't matter, there were more pressing issues at hand.

0o0

Was he too late? There were so many things racing through the Doctor's mind but for now that singular thought was all that he could ever think of at that moment. Not like this, it can't be; those assorted thoughts accompanied him as he assessed the wounds that this battle-worn girl had.

"Hang on, I'll-" As the Doctor was about to pull out some medicine Yelena weakly signaled for him to stop.

As he observed her, he felt that something had awakened within the white rabbit. Gone was the face of uncertainty she had as she fought the three from before but it was replaced by calm and accepting visage. Did she awaken to a Persona?

"There's..." Yelena coughed, "No need...for that...I expected this outcome..."

"I never had enough time...to begin with..."

Yelena was just borrowing it as her contract was formed, however she wasn't a fool to think even if it was made that she would have... Her eyes were hazy, and yet that was fine to her. It was too late for regrets, no more what-ifs should plague her beguiled mind and so there was one thing left to do;

"Take it, I couldn't make my contract...so I'll pass on my wish to you." Yelena whispered to the Doctor as he held her up in his arms, "It isn't...a wish anymore is it? More of a promise...if anything."

The Doctor shuddered as he distressingly accepted Yelena's request, the crystal radiated a cool teal with marks of snowfall inside of it. The rock embedded itself onto the Doctor before it fully inserted itself in him. As memories of the young woman reverberated in his mind, he could see her homeland up to now; seeing himself as her he had gotten used to the odd perspective but it was clear that she held the brief encounters with them in high regard.

Sorrow filled most of her life but in the end between those little nuggets of joy in-between, he can feel that she was content with this life.

"Take my sword with you too…since I don't have a use for it anymore."

"If you don't mind, take this as well..." With the last of her strength, she produced a Originium Crystal and gave it to the Doctor, "There...was a saying...that the Infected give pieces of Originium...to those they trust. Like my brethren...whom I cherished with all my heart...I want you to have it..."

The Doctor did not speak a word as he kept it on an empty container, without a word Ophiuchus appeared behind him. The spectral angel of healing split out of the Doctor like shedding skin, its ethereal self started to lose more of its incorporeal appearance until it became real. To a non-Persona user he was still hard to make out, Blaze was only barely able to see the figure compared to his appearance inside that distorted space.

Beautiful, that was the word that the Feline would use to describe it.

"Recarm..." Ophiuchus' hands glowed a verdant green, the spell that can resurrect the dead had they been dead for a few brief moments. Normally a spell like this would have been used and might have heralded the man as saint, but the window of time where the spell is actually useful is no more than a spiritual smelling salt. Nevertheless as long as the body has the capacity to store life in it, then the spell will work.

Maybe he already knew this but nothing happened.

He touched her abdomen to try and feel a heartbeat, even a faint one but there was none. In a panic he opened the Velvet Key to view his party members' conditions but the display of her maximum HP, the numerical measure of one's life force, on the app was zero; telling him the cold hard truth. No Recarm or anything in his arsenal could have saved her but the Doctor kept trying. Shouting Recarm over and over again even as he can feel his head get lighter, his vitality getting drained by the very Trait that empowered his Persona. The skill had a very specific and brief time before it couldn't heal a corpse back to life and he is the only one who could use this skill as far as they are aware of.

The Doctor knew this and yet he still persisted, shouting the spell over and over with each cast slowly leaking out his cries. Each cast getting more gargled as his oration was distorted by the bile building up in his throat.

Amiya looked at his futile attempts with shared pain as she too was trying her best to not cry for him, Blaze felt awful just witnessing their commander's desperate cries a far-cry from the rumored ruthlessness this man was capable of, while GreyThroat was reminded of herself begging that her parents were still part of this world.

It was never a good day when a patient dies.

The trio didn't dare stop him in what is in the end a pointless effort, his grief was palpable and the ice that did linger were the only companions that felt right being there. It was never easy to see a comrade die but whether or not the memories he witnessed from absorbing Faust's wayward memories affected his heart or that he genuinely felt a connection to the girl they couldn't say.

All they could do was be there for him as he was processing the result in front of them.

"Recarm." It doesn't affect FrostNova.

"Recarm." It doesn't affect FrostNova.

"Recarm..." It doesn't affect FrostNova.

The last Recarm had been uttered and Yelena still laid there coldly in his arms, smiling peacefully knowing that she died a Rhodes Island Operator. She was satisfied that her last act was that she protected the people important to her; those who are her family and those who saw hope in a dying girl.

Yet to the Doctor it felt like someone stabbed his heart, his actions were futile, his power wasted, why was he so venerated if he couldn't even save a single suffering life?

He failed, he lost.

He failed to save a life that he swore to help, just like Misha, just like REDACTED

He was holding it together when they confronted Misha's end, for Amiya's sake. He knew he could have done better to make sure it had never ended like that, he thought that he had learned from that incident and yet he still came up short.

The logical part of him was saying that there was no way he could have accounted for that thing they just fought and he was right. There was no way to account for that. So then what if they encountered another incident where something unpredictable happens? Do they just leave it all up to chance?

He couldn't answer that and it scared him.

He was outmaneuvered by an enemy that he didn't even know.

With no more moves left he wailed in anguish and he was forced to taste a foreign bitter taste.

The taste of defeat.