"What do you propose then, Razputin?" Sasha asked.
"I'm not sure yet, but I think I'll know when I find out what's in the lake."
"And there's only one way to find out," Lili added. "C'mon, Raz, let's go teach that stupid lizard a lesson already!"
She took him by the hand, hopped up onto a lev ball, and started off in the direction of the lake, giving him barely enough time to summon his own before being dragged along with her. Sasha and Milla exchanged a glance and then followed after them.
At the shore, they waited for the dragon to wheel around to their side of the lake again. Raz gripped Lili's hand tighter, and they were both shaking, although he suspected for different reasons. But he refused to back down, and Lili's presence helped to keep him levitating.
They didn't even need to shout to get Melancholia's attention, not that this detail stopped Lili from hurling every insult under the sun at her as she approached with alarming speed.
"Insolent whelps!" she snarled, diving at them like a gigantic hawk. At the last moment, Raz and Lili levitated in opposite directions and the huge claws slammed into the ground where they had been with a thunderous boom. "How many times must I put you in your place?!"
Raz attempted to flank Melancholia, but the dragon was disarmingly fast for something so large, and her jaws snapped shut inches behind him, popping his thought bubble and sending him sprawling. He could hear Sasha and Milla providing covering psi-blast fire as he scrambled to pick himself up off the ice – and then realized what that meant. The repeated thawing and freezing as Melancholia tried to keep the lake frozen had turned the once-powdery snow into a thick layer of solid ice. He could maneuver on this!
"Lili! This way!"
It was his turn to grab her hand and drag her along, heading for the center of the frozen lake as fast as their legs would carry them. The ice was perfectly capable of holding a pair of human children, but with the massive cracks spider-webbing its surface, there was no way it would be able to bear the immense weight of the dragon.
Melancholia craned her massive head toward Agents Nein and Vodello, who were still bombarding her with psi-blasts, then turned back toward the kids. "I'll deal with you later!" she growled at the adults, shrugging off their attacks and vaulting herself into the sky.
Raz and Lili stopped and turned to face the dragon just as she strafed them with a direct blast of icy breath; it exploded into a billowing cloud of steam as it met the dome of fire Lili manifested above them. The pyrokinetic shield flickered out a moment later as the rush of air from under Melancholia's wings overpowered the flames, but the dragon was already past them and would have to bank to make another attack.
"Sasha, Milla! Go get the Emotional Baggage tags from her lair up in the castle! We'll keep her busy down here!" Raz called out as he launched a volley of psi-blasts at the dragon.
«Lure her away from the lake so I can find out what she's trying to protect!» he then clarified telepathically. «If she thinks I'm just the distraction she'll go after you instead!»
«Oh, clever boy!» Milla noted.
Sasha immediately played along with the ruse. "We must move quickly, Agent Vodello. Lili and Razputin may not be able to hold the dragon off for long."
Melancholia ignored their fleeing forms as she circled back around. She swiped at Raz with her claws as she flew past, but he tumbled out of the way like the trained acrobat he was. She let out a screech of frustration, and several round doors opened in the air as the Censors answered her call.
"Keep shooting the dragon, Raz! I'll deal with these bozos!" Lili's declaration was immediately followed by a cacophony of frantic nos as the burning Censors ran around in a panic.
This time, as the dragon banked, she flew toward the girl. Lili's laughter was cut off with a gasp as Melancholia braked overhead and began beating her powerful wings rapidly in a strenuous effort to hover in place. In the wind those wings stirred up, Lili started to slide across the ice, then lost her footing and fell.
But the dragon was unable to reach her prey while hovering above, and well aware that Lili's pyrokinesis was more than a match for her ice breath. She was forced to descend, her hind legs and tail touching down onto the ice – ice that Raz could see cracking and straining under her weight despite her attempts to maintain lift. A single focused psi-blast was all it took to break it, and Melancholia plunged halfway into the lake as Lili scrambled away.
Raz quickly finished off the remaining Censors as the beast flailed, breaking even more ice in her attempts to haul herself out of the water long enough to take wing.
"You worthless, impertinent little brats!" she snarled, finally achieving liftoff. Then her head snapped up toward the mountaintop ruins, her eyes focused on something distant – perhaps she'd caught a glimpse of Milla and Sasha levitating up the cliff to reach her lair.
She growled angrily as she glanced back and forth between the castle and the children, then decided she could waste no more time here. "Perhaps seeing your beloved Psychonauts' throats torn out will teach you a lesson!"
With that final taunt, Melancholia flew off.
Raz lifted his goggles and watched her go for a minute, then turned toward the hole in the ice.
"Alright, let's see what she was hiding."
He approached cautiously, and stood at the edge, staring into the water's inky depths. He'd said it himself: he needed to learn how to use his hydrokinesis if he was going to beat the dragon. But he didn't even know what he needed to do! Was it the cold that was making him tremble so, or his own fear?
Once again, Doubts began to haul themselves out of the lake, and Raz involuntarily took a step back – only to bump into Lili. He glanced over his shoulder and she smiled impishly at him, then punched his arm and charged in. He lowered his goggles again with a smirk. I'm not alone this time, Doubts!
Together, they burned through the mental monsters, and each flaming puddle of purple ooze melted more of the ice, further revealing the lake. Time lost its meaning as they fought on, until at last, the tide of Doubts slowed, still coming but in few enough numbers that Lili could handle them alone.
Razputin looked at the water, then glanced back over at Lili. Yes, with her backing him, he could do this! He took a deep breath and let it out, then put his fingers to his temple and focused, until the Hand of Galochio rose from the lake's surface.
"Uh…" For a moment, he faltered, not really sure what to do next. He looked at the distant silhouette of the castle, where he could see Melancholia perched atop the keep amid the pale clouds of her frost breath and the bright flashes of psi-blasts.
Then he pointed dramatically at the Hand and declared, "You are my own creation! I command you to stop…" he swept his hand to point at the dragon "…her!"
The Hand plunged back down into the depths, and for a moment Raz was left standing there, feeling incredibly silly.
But then the Hand of Galochio reemerged with a huge silver chain in its grasp. And a second Hand, then a third, and another one, and still another, each bearing a silver chain. A chain that looked strong enough to bind a dragon.