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Persephone Kore      "I could give you an itemized bill," Carpathia says to Lilian, obviously irritated. "Believe me, my loyalty is to this work, no matter who gives us the funding. But you can't just assume the Concord would-"

     ----

     Marc smiles at Go, and it feels more sincere than before. "Look at this place. The children are happy. Everyone is well-taken-care-of. If there's a better argument that what we're doing is benign, I don't think-"

     ----

     I4 starts to search where the alien idea came from. Due to the number of references for it, this one's irritatingly taking a few seconds longer than most. Sixty percent done. Eighty percent. Ninety-

     ----

     It's all over.
Persephone Kore      There is a distant, understated blip as the artificial warpgate in the hangar activates.

     Every tidal-holographic contact lens, every special pair of glasses, shows a bewildering and horrifying storm of colors. The storm is bigger than the station, big enough to engulf the waiting Paladins shuttle, big enough that looking out the Arboretum's glass windows one can't even see the edge.

     The glasses all shatter simultaneously from the pressure.

     Why are you trying so hard to hurt me? Why are you trying so hard to do things I don't want you to do?

     There is a vast, crushing presence of gentleness and warmth here. It is as if you are suddenly subjected to the gravity of a new celestial body, heretofore unknown.

     Don't you know that both of those things are impossible?

     This voice knows you. It sees you, even through walls, even across space. You cannot run. You cannot hide. It sounds confused, and a little sad.

     I'm almost flattered you wanted to see my home. But you really should have asked. Even if I don't hate you, I think I have to punish you for that.

     Nobody else is alarmed. They seem soothed, if anything. That sorrowful attention is focused solely on you.

     All throughout the station, doors begin to slam shut. They cannot be opened again.
Persephone Kore      Dr. Carpathia is simply gone from her office, whisked away by Persephone at a considerable fraction of lightspeed. A precisely Carpathia-shaped silhouette is annihilated through the office's exterior wall, and then through everything else in the way of a straight line between her and the Artificial Warpgate in the hangar, which is switched off microseconds after she's been safely shoved through.

     Lilian is struck by a small sonic boom in the wake of Carpathia's departure, rattling the desk and scattering papers. Looking out through the hole in the wall, she can clearly see the path of her rescue, but the air simply refuses to leave through the open hole to space. I didn't give it permission to, after all.

     The mainframe that I4 is accessing is simply unplugged from the wall, shutting down instantly and denying him any further information. The physical interface he's using to connect to it is politely unplugged, too. Attempts to physically take, re-power, or damage the mainframe are deflected by an impenetrable force. Haven't you seen enough?

     Marc exhales, residual tension slowly leaving him. He offers Go a wan smile. "She's here. Good luck, I suppose. She'll understand. She always does. Just... listen to your heart, and I'm sure everything will work out."

     Persephone's clacking heels sound through the halls. Even now, she's walking sedately; she understands full well that there's nowhere for you to go, nowhere to hide. When she emerges into the Arboretum, there's a horrible spectacle.

     Without a gesture, with barely a glance, the Paladins shuttle that had been hiding at a distance is dragged through space and held close enough to the glass dome that it's nearly touching. Persephone stares up at it through the glass contemplatively. It flares its engines to full takeoff output in a panic, even tries to go to lightspeed, but all the shuttle manages to do is vibrate violently in her telekinetic grasp.

     "I'm disappointed, you know," she half-says and half-projects. The expression on her face is saddened and contemplative as she looks over the helpless shuttle. It's not clear to whom she's speaking. "Did you think I hadn't been going easy on you? Did you think I wouldn't be mad about this? ... You're right. I'm really not strong enough to be angry. But I feel like I should be."

     "Tell me: what do I have to do to make this behavior stop?"

     Wherever you are, dozens of ghostly "hands" press gently against your skin, irrespective of armor. It's impossible to shake them. And it's hard not to imagine they could exert the same force on you that they're exerting on that shuttle.
Go Shijima      Go sighs. "I'm still getting used to listening to it. We'll have to talk later, Marc." There is a subtle tension in him that wasn't there before, when he stands up.

     He's never met Persephone. But that storm of colors can only mean one thing. The contacts crack. Carefully, he removes them. That power... it's inescapable. But... I promised I would protect I4. I'm terrified, but a promise is a promise.

     If you can hear this, do whatever you want to me. Just don't hurt anyone else. But he was asked a question, wasn't he? And what does his heart tell him? What should the answer be? I don't know if there's -anything- you can do to make Lilian stop. She's the reason that we're here. She thinks that you're a weapon, and that the Concord is funding this place to raise psychic footsoldiers to topple whoever they don't like.

     Go frowns. The hands pressing against him are concerning, to say the least. But this would hardly be the first time he's been in danger from someone far stronger than he is. The thought makes him laugh in spite of the stress of the situation. I'm here because I was worried that she would hurt someone who didn't deserve it. And if you're this mad... you must be worried about the same thing. You want to know how to get her to stop?

     You're going to have to find a way to convince someone who sees shadows around every corner, even when the corners are rounded and full of life and laughter. I don't know what to tell you, other than you've got a hard task in front of you.
Hellwarming Trio Utsuho: "Whoa... You feel that?"
Rin: "Y-yeah. What kinda mess did we get into?"
Utsuho: "I'unno. I thought you knew."
Rin: "I don't know! I thought you knew!"

Utsuho's and Rin's reactions could not be more different when the shuttle comes towards the glass and vibrates uselessly in its attempts to escape. The former's face is best described as 'ooh shiny' at the display of power she doesn't quite understand just yet, although she knows that there's something broadly dangerous about what's happening. The latter's, meanwhile, is already in full on freakout mode, and that's well before the mysterious crimson voice rings out through the halls and into their minds simultaneously.

Although they don't say anything in response, the thoughts are easy enough to read. Utsuho's mind is a largely confused mass, mixed up with answers of "no" and "I don't know who you are" with some wandering specks of curious "who are you, anyway"-s floating on by as she stares right at Persephone with an incredibly slow tilt of her head. Rin's mind, meanwhile, is just full of wild speculation and panic-induced plots on how to try and escape this situation, although none of them are even close enough to being coherent.

Plans, that is. The thoughts are still readable enough, although the plans are... Colorful. Impractical, to be polite. Incomprehensible, to be honest. The fairies in that cart are freaking out, too, but they know they're not going to get too far on their own and are content with just hiding in there and waiting for death or rescue.

Feeling those hands pushing down on them, however, is enough to get some of their survival instincts kicking in (more in Rin's case, at all in Utsuho's). After transforming into their human forms (definitely for battle efficiency and not just readability), Rin continues freaking out as she conjures up flames around herself, creating a ring of individual fires that scatter from around her and home in on Persephone while being well-controlled enough to swerve around obstacles and personal effects that might still be lying around.

Utsuho, meanwhile, still has that curious yet slightly uncomfortable look on her face. "So this is the lady that she was worried about... Huh. Your powers look pretty cool." She speaks with no malice in her tone or in her mind, actually looking a little more excited while floating into the air slowly. "I'll try not to break your house, but I can't promise anything!" The control rod on Utsuho's arm glows briefly as she points it towards Persephone, then fires off a fiery beam straight at her in time with the impending meeting of Rin's flames.
Ishirou I4's got a storm of problems under the surface of his exterior, every single thing in his life had been recently turned upside down.  He's worried about losing what he's gotten with the paladins, but also at the same time here because he /trusts/ Lilian.  She has a concern that this place might become a place of horror and harm...he's also torn that Go has points that show that it wasn't.  

In fact, the proof is staring him in the face that isn't the case.  That just means Lilian was wrong, but it also is that she was for the right reasons, as far as he knows.  Even ignoring what happened recently he pushes any doubt out.  Another /thing/ helps sharpen his mind, because he was on the cusp of knowing something important, and then cut off.  

Trying to restore power was fruitless, he learned after the first few attempts.  They COULD attempt to grab the towers, but in the situation... No, he refuses to put the knowledge at risk.  Even if it's not in his hands, the knowledge that could be lost is something he can't accept.  He sighs and stands up from the chair.  

"No, just the opposite," he responds to the girl speaking to his head?  He's not sure exactly where the feeling is coming from.  He looks towards Blemishine, "I think we should go support Go.." He says and looks to his POD.  "Wide-area scan...we should know exactly what we're dealing with and support our people," he says, with a resigned sigh.

Worst case situation, she came back too soon, or they took too long.  He's not sure which, but he can't...he wants to curl up and find a corner to hide in.  Maybe he'll be left alone until things lighten.  Maybe...nobody he cares about will get hurt and he won't have to worry about it.  It's not like they...

No, I4, no...these people are protecting you.  You can't abandon them like that!  Even if it's easier, and even if you feel so completely tired doing so.  Just...would you abandon S6?

That thought caused a mental blackout in I4 for a moment, trying to come to a decision before he took a weighted step forward and behind Blemishine.  He needs to stick with what he can do, only what he can do...doing more than that isn't heroism it's stupidity.  Lil and Gil had said that or at least taught him that lesson.

The scan goes off, as I4 attempts to figure out his first move.  Persephone might feel the tugging, as he moves to learn how to fight her.
Blemishine     "Eh? Wait, what did you find?" Blemishine hurries after I4 with a mix of confusion and concern. Time is of the essence, but has he found something else? There's a glance cast back over her shoulder...just in time for her vision to get totally overcome in the storm of multicolored light, right as she shuts them a split second before they shatter. "Ah...!"

    She's not worried about the mainframe. Her first instinct - to get into the best spot in which to bodily defend I4, despite the decidedly non-physical nature of what's going on - is dulled by the emotion radiated by the immense pressure. Warmth...and sadness. And also by the voice speaking directly into her mind. It puts something of a different atmosphere on what would otherwise be a situation so scary it'd make your heart feel like it's going to beat out of your chest.

    Not that it's not. The raw power in which Persephone can /restrain a shuttle/ and threaten to do the same of them is no joke. It's a pressure unlike anything she's ever felt before. But if she wanted to do something like crush them, she would have already. And, small as it may be especially compared to this, the fight with Dylan helps her get a concept of the whole thing rather than panicking blindly. 'Persephone... yeah. She's like a big sister to everyone. If you saw her smile, you'd understand!'

    "...Sorry. I didn't think anything like that at all. But you do have every right to be mad." Blemishine speaks out loud, regardless of the necessity of doing so. She's...sad, that they're running into Persephone under these circumstances. And she can't help but even now feel bad about what had happened with Dylan. But she's still resolved.

    "...I had to find out the truth of things and your dream myself, good or bad." And, there's a seed of worry. Still about a certain something Trudy had said once...and on how Lilian might be feeling after the talk of 'family' last time. "But if you're set on punishing us, I'm going to have to protect everyone here!"

    I4 gets a nod right after, with the knight giving a small smile at him deciding to push on himself, and she leads the way forward back to the Arboretum. She has to keep him safe...and do what she can to help get them all out of here. She's not going to attack physically yet. But she's steeled herself to not budge, even against this smothering presence. She won't.
Lilian Rook     One moment, Lilian is sitting there in Carpathia's office, watching the woman sweat. She is comfortably in her element. The position of power. Carpathia is afraid, but she's willing to play ball. She knows what the best choice is for her, and for the children. Scattered and scared as she is, she will listen, and she will fall in line, like all the others. In the end, this will play out just like it always does for Lilian.

    §She took it. Everything will be fine. Things will all go back to normal and I won't have to--§

    And the next moment, she hears Persephone's voice.

    <<Why are you trying so hard to hurt me? Why are you trying so hard to do things I don't want you to do?>>

    §What the hell is she doing here?! This isn't even half the projected time! This is barely a quarter! Is it becase Carpathia panicked? Can she sense that over long range? Some kind of familial connection, like twins? Fuck, fuck, fuck! What now? I need to check in on the others--§

    <<Don't you know that both of those things are impossible?>>

    §Right. Think clearly. She can obviously sense that Carpathia is with me; she can't read *my* mind, even if she can read hers. All I have to do is relocate once, and she'll lose me on the station. Even without the tidal holographics, her mental presence is massive; I can avoid her easily. If I can confirm that the others have the data, and their locations, I can use some time in a corridor that she doesn't appear in within the next two minutes of probable future, and ready enough chain to pull the others out from their respective locations.§

    <<I'm almost flattered you wanted to see my home. But you really should have asked. Even if I don't hate you, I-->>

    §I4 first, Shijima second; I need to assume he has his physical records. The shuttle is probably a lost cause, but she won't kill the pilot. Command can sort out his situation; even if these people turn it into a PoW situation, that's a higher pay grade job. I can work with this. We'll have to give up on the rest of what we need, but there's no way this--§

    <<--think I have to punish you for that.>>

    That smooth and confident calm, the aura of effortless, menacing control around her, burns off of her like a coating of ice on reentry. The thoughts rapidly being pieced together behind Lilian's patient stare, snap-assembled into the complex gear train of a plan, burst their mainspring and fall apart all at once. Carpathia can practically hear the clink and clack of stray ideas bouncing and scattering like marbles. Carpathia can feel when Lilian's affected menace is scoured away in a puff of fire, and is replaced with something infinitely more genuine, and so, so much worse.

    Lilian's breathing catches. Her eyes go wide, and focus well past Carpathia. Her fingertips clench into her upper arms, knuckles turning white. Shaking, only light at first, builds up in her body. And raw, gut-churning, fight-or-flight instinct, slick with animal hindbrain gore, pours into the office from Lilian like cold fog.
Lilian Rook                      Punish? *Punish*?! She thinks she can                      
                       *punish* me?! You can't *do* that,                      
                     Persephone! That's not *possible*! You                    
                      don't have any *authority* over me!                      
                    None! You can't tell me what to *do*! I                    
                      haven't even done anything *wrong*!                      
                     Every single thing here; you *made* me                    
                    do it! Don't make it harder than it has                    
                     to be! Why do you have to make this so                    
                       hard?! Why do you have to *pretend                      
                       you're in control*?! You're not in                      
                    control! *I'm* in control! I'm always in                    
                    control! Why can't anyone see that?! You                    
                    can't punish the one in control! That's                    
                       how it works you idiots! I do the                        
                    punishing, not you! Your 'consequences'                    
                      don't *apply* to me! There's no such                      
                      *thing* as consequences! Not for me!                      
                     They're a lie people like you make up!                    
                     Don't drag me down to your level! You                      
                     don't get to decide! You *can't*! It's                    
                     *my turn* now! I *can't* be punished!                      
                      It's not in anyone's power! It's my                      
                       power now! I won't allow anyone to                      
                             punish me ever again!                              
                          Do you hear me, Persephone?!                          
Lilian Rook     Any value in Persephone being unable to read Lilian's mind is lost the moment it happens. When Lilian becomes the epicenter of what may as well be a psychic scream, blasted across the station with Carpathia at ground zero. A high frequency radio burst of deeply irrational, toxic manic-reactive instability. Lilian bolts up and hurls her chair backwards, crashing through the door. Her right hand bursts into flames, and she drives it straight through Carpathia's desk with an audible scream of animalistic rage-tinted "DO YOU HEAR ME?! I HOLD THAT POWER HERE! NOT YOU! AND JUST FOR THAT, I'M GOING TO START WITH--!!"

    But by the time she turns to Carpathia, the woman is sucked away through mind-bending, physics-ignoring feats of Jungian-Newtonian tidal force reactivity. Deprived of a target, she looks around the room, and her eyes catch on the drawings on the wall. The little paper icons of innocent childhood attachment to their caretaker; they make her even angrier. She releases that pent up blast of fire on them, despite the utter lack of material value, and then collapses to her knees, her clenched fingers digging gouges in the floor.

    §Fuck her fuck her fuck her fuck her fuck her No, stop, think, this is what she wants. She's trying to do this, that stupid bitch I hate her fuck her fucker her fuck her fuck her fuck her You're in the middle of a mission. The others are relying on you. Get your shit together and use your head. Gerart was right about this. Exfiltration. Focus on recovering the data and not how I hate her so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so MUCH--! HOW *DARE* SHE SAY THAT! HOW *DARE* SHE THINK SHE CAN--§
Persephone Kore      One of those hands scruffles Go Shijima's hair gently. Another intertwines its fingers with his, and a third lightly pats him on the back. "It's okay", they seem to say. In that storm of imposed feeling there's a soft acknowledgement; shared frustration, shared confusion.

     I'm not here to punish you, Shijima. But follow your heart, and don't worry about hurting me. I'll show you something nice, and maybe it'll even help 'her'.

     Persephone isn't wearing armor. She has no weapons. The keyhole sweater she's got on is the very opposite of protective. And yet, when Rin throws those fireballs at her, she doesn't flinch or try to evade: they simply break to either side of her as if deflected by an enormous gravitational well, striking the ground harmlessly instead. Utsuho's beam strikes her dead on- there's a hint of red behind the bright flames- but when the attack fades, she's back to being perfectly fine, even if her right arm-warmer and sleeve are still burnt.

     Phony walks across the Arboretum placidly, unhurried. There's no pain or anger on her face. You don't know what you're here for at all, do you? It's almost cute. I can't stay mad at that, Utsuho and Rin. But before I can let you go, there's a lesson you have to learn.

     Blemishine, too, can feel that smothering psychic attention turning its gaze on her- followed a moment later by Persephone's actual eyes. She isn't, unfortunately for everyone, smiling. But there's an understanding sympathy in it.

     You're here to protect your friends. I really like that, actually. I hope that someday, after all this is over, you can think of *me* as a friend. But... there's someone here I can't have you protecting. Even if she's my friend, too.

     I4's scan turns up baffling results. Tactical information: Persephone's physical body is almost inconsequential to her powers, so not much can be discerned about them via a scan. Her brain is the weak point, with organs in general appearing blurry and abstract. But red text scrolls across his display as if forced into the sensors:

     Lungs, not to breathe, but to laugh and sigh and whisper. A heart, not to pump blood, but to beat and race and skip. The human part isn't the lips but the lipstick; not the ears, but the holes for the earrings to go. The human body imagined by humans is both human and not human at all.

     Lilian lets out her awful psychic scream. Persephone stops her advance, closing her eyes and wincing with a sigh. I hear you. And I'm disappointed. The last time you opened yourself up, I thought you were beautiful; trying so hard to be good, so hard to be a hero. And now look at you. Invading my home. Intimidating Carpathia. Burning children's crayon drawings. What happened to you?

     "There she is," Phony says, rubbing her temple as she opens her eyes. "Now that that's all of you..."
Persephone Kore      I want you all to be in a Decompression Chamber. And so you are.

     Or, more precisely: Air bent out of the way to provide your bodies with a frictionless path. An immense force acted on every atom of your bodies simultaneously, yanking you through the station at a significant fraction of the speed of light without inertia or G-forces. Doors were opened in front of you and closed behind you at celestial speeds under unimaginable forces. Unless you have very fast perceptions, it must feel as if you've been teleported.

     In one eyeblink, you're standing in the Arboretum- or, in Lilian's case, kneeling in Carpathia's office. In the next, you're slammed into the back wall of a medium-sized, high-ceilinged, white-walled room with moderate force. It has an observation window, an airtight door, and a control panel on the outside. Through the window you can see several identical rooms lining the opposite side of the hallway. This must be a Decompression Chamber.

     Persephone stands outside the room and turns a knob. "ZERO PRESSURE CONFIRMED," chirps a robotic voice. But the air doesn't leave the room. Instead, something else does. It feels like a hot, muggy, invasive pressure you've been living with for your entire life is suddenly peeled off. There's a freeing lightness; a sense of finally having room to breathe. It's... nice?

     Looking around the room, one might see differences in one's colleagues.

     I4 is a little less short, slightly less feminine; indefinably a little more 'human', and even has a cool scar on his face. (To him, something about his inner workings feels... squishier? And warmer.) Blemishine looks more mature and experienced. Rin is taller, a little less cute and a little more 'cool'; Utsuho has gained a miniature sun accompanying her. Go looks a bit more like a comic book hero, earnest and stalwart, in his face and proportions. Lilian- if one looks closely- has a gold ring on her left ring finger.

     Phony steps into the chamber and shuts the door behind her. Her appearance doesn't change in the slightest. This is a body made of identity, after all. It's exactly what I want it to be in the first place.

     The white walls fade away. Under Persephone's influence, they're supplanted by the surface of a foggy lake. You can walk on the water perfectly well- all the better, because enormous stylized red hands are pressing up against the surface from below, sprouting from the bottom as if they were seaweed.

     Phony inhales slowly, then exhales, her eyes shut. Her emotional aura has calmed a little. "I want to show you why our work is so important for mankind. Let's fight like humans do- to learn, to communicate, to grow. The idea will get across."
Hellwarming Trio They hear her clearly, but they don't see her mouth moving. They exchange slow glances, and then they speak through their minds instead of trying to verbalize anything. They already know they don't need to, if it's just to speak with Persephone, and it's easier than trying to find the words that would make sense to a... Human? No, she's a mind reader. That means she has to be something like Master Satori. That sense of familiarity might actually work in Phony's favor, as they both ease up in their posture a little bit and test the limits of how far this telepathic communication* can go.

Utsuho: Whoa. You already know? You're like Master, then.
Rin: So you've got powers like Master, too...
Utsuho: I think Lilian mentioned something.
Rin: Lilian mentioned something about this place.
Utsuho: I forget what, but she sounds smart enough to know what she's doing.
Rin: I bet she's got it all figured out, though.
Utsuho: A lesson? Uh. Okay. Show me.
Rin: A lesson? Aren't you supposed to be fighting us?

Instead of fighting, Persephone pulls them way out of wherever it is they are. They briefly see familiar and unfamiliar hallways on the way towards wherever it is they're being pulled, with the bird trying to read labels on the way (and failing because speed) and the cat screeching and trying to grab onto anything to slow herself down (also failing because speed).

The impact with the wall takes some of the air out of their lungs when they're slammed right into it, and their first instinct is to (collectively) turn around and start trying to blast the door to the Decompression Chamber open. Before they can, however, they notice something odd about themselves. Everyone, even.

Utsuho: "Whoa. Orin, when'd you get bigger?"
Rin: "When'd you get to charge that up? Wait..."
Utsuho: "I4 looks cooler."
Rin: "Horse-lady looks cooler, too."
Utsuho: "Lilian looks the same, at least."
Rin: "Does she? Mm... Wait, she got some new stuff on her."

Sufficiently distracted by the effects of the chamber, the youkai don't even notice immediately when the hands beneath the water start pushing up against it. It's only when they do that they jump into the air in surprise, floating well above it only to realize that the hands aren't actually coming through.

Utsuho: "Freaky."
Rin: "Yeah... What's the big idea bringin' us in here, anyway?! What do you got planned?!"
Utsuho: "Fighting like humans, though... Hm. Yeah, I think I can do that."

Once again, Rin is still far more anxious than Utsuho about the whole thing, but she's a fair bit calmer than earlier when Persephone had arrived (partially thanks to being 'hotter and cooler' now). They exchange quick glances with each other, and then they point their hands in the air. Instead of flames appearing, however, stylized cards appear overhead, with colorful balls of light emerging from them.

"If fighting like a human's really gonna help, then... Wait, is this even going to work the same way?" Utsuho asks as white orbs starts spiraling out from around her, the vast majority of them just sort of careening into walls rather than coming anywhere near Persephone as the pattern of her shots go wide.

"If it doesn't, then we can just go back to the fire thing!" Rin shouts as her own card spits out a more colorful arrangement of white, blue, and red balls, leaving more measurable gaps while also making more coherent patterns of magical bullets flowing generally in Persephone's direction. Combined with Utsuho's bullets, the display is almost like spinning flower wheels, but with a distinctly fiery flavor to them all. The power is still there, but there's a distinct lack of hostility throughout.

They're curious. They're in danger, but they want to see where this goes.
Ishirou There was...information he has to make sense of.  More than that, there was communication from Persephone.  There is a stare between them for a moment but interrupted by the information he was gleaming off of her.  There is a mind, so of course, there is a brain.  There are no organs...no that would check.  

She's not just more powerful, but he thinks he has a working theory of what's going on.  She absorbed more of the alien idea than others.  Did she give up more of herself to it..?  Or was her mind uniquely capable of taking more of the alien concept?  The entire group is YANKED across space, which he was not ready for.  

He hits the ground and then the wall and coughs out in surprise and pain.  He wipes his mouth to discover...blood.  His POD immediately starts reading his signs.  Oh...oh no.  He was...

Human.

His hands shake, being taller was...something, the scar?  Sure.  But he was /human/ for a moment.  That confusion of being somewhere in between android and person was not simply there for once.  This, of course, gets his mind racing.  Was he without his tools..?  No...no?  He could...

What was going on here?  His eyes look to others, noticing little difference.  Ok, focus I4...this is obviously an idealized version of you.  He stands up, wobbly, but not completely incapable of action.  Ok I4...ok.  Think this through...think.  We just need more data or time..?  

'It is something I can give you.' It's something that makes I4's legs a bit weaker.  That temptation to...it'd put to rest what he really was.  Others might see their form as something they have to earn, but actually being human was never really on the table for him.  It was a fascination...understanding humanity and learning to be more like them and fit in.  

Maybe he could forget what he was.  Whereas before it was because he could...forget he didn't fit in as an android.  He takes a breath, he's trying to find out why he's even fighting now.  It's a massive hit to his morale.  It wasn't a fight he didn't think they had a chance at, but now it's made worse by trying to even consider the fight.  

But...the others still want to fight.  He pulls a hand up and fires another ball to establish biohacking.  If there was a chance at winning...then he would have to make it so her mind wasn't able to deny the reality of the world trying to hurt her.  Which...

Really seems cruel.  Though, he is reminded of what people have told him.  Not to feel guilty and hold yourself back.  Don't play on their terms...play on his.  His eyes narrow, as he tries to wither that defense away.
Go Shijima Go blushes--who ever heard of an immensely powerful headpat? It's a little difficult to concentrate, for a moment. And then he's just somewhere else, instantaneously pulled across the station by an incredible, invisible (at this point) force. Would being able to see it, represented by colors, staining the air, make it any less overpowering, any less terrifying?

     Probably not. It's abrupt. And even the end, as quickly as it comes, is intimidating in its finality. There is no arguing with it--he is simply against the wall.

     "What... happened to all of you...?" He realizes, when he looks down, as little pockets of fog briefly reveal the surface of the lake, that he, too, has changed. But it doesn't feel -wrong,- exactly. If anything, he feels Seen, with a capital s--and there are all sorts of complicated emotions orbiting that particular thought. Many of them, thankfully, are good.

     "Like /humans/ do?" Go smirks. "Are you sure you want that? It's handing me a pretty big advantage." He knows what she really means. But it's fun to say things like that, isn't it? I'd be glad to. There's several people I'm on better terms with for having fought. I know I'm in your house, but I do have a favor to ask. It can wait until we're done.

     "If that's how you feel, then..." He reaches into his pockets. They're a little emptier than usual... Oh.

     Palm over his mouth, stage whispering, "Um, Rin, Utsuho, could I please have the Signal Bikes back?"

...

                               Signal Bike! RIDER!!                              

     "Let's..." His right arm is held up, bent upwards at the elbow, left hand resting beneath the elbow. There's a dramatic flourish to reverse their positions, and a self assured nod. "Henshin!"

                                   MACH 555!                                    

     A sleek bodysuit of lightweight white armor with two red vertical stripes down the left side appears, complete with a blue-visored full motorcycle helmet with V-shaped antennae, and two waist-length shoulder capes also at the left side. On the right side of the chest, at shoulder level, there's a wheel with the hubcap facing outwards--the left breastplate bears a familiar 5 in a circular field of red.

     Mach mashes three buttons on the dialpad of the strange little supercar-phone in his belt.

525 - JCK
JUMP JACKS

     The surface of the water is disturbed as pneumatic jacks rocket from panels at the back of Mach's boots, lifting him up into the air with a crack. Chemical thrusters at the back of his armor fire, driving him towards Persephone. He pitches left, into a barrel roll, and aims an overhead roundhouse at her shoulder.

     When he lands, there's a jumping back kick already on its way, the jump jack on his right boot shooting outwards with another crack to add to the force of the attack. "This gear was made by human hands, for a not-so-great purpose... but I've decided that purpose is stupid. Hope you like it!"

     Mach's visor conceals his eyes, but Phony has no need to see them to know that there's not an ounce of hostility in him. Not even when he hurls a flurry of rabbit punches her way, the Driver around his waist revving with each one, his hands a blur of white and black.
Hellwarming Trio Rin: "Oh! The bikes, yeah. We still got those."
Utsuho: "Oh yeah. Sure, here."
Rin: "Careful. They might still be a little wet."

And chewed on. It's not like they had proper hands to hold the things. Still, they're lobbed right back at Go when he requests their return, the arc aided ever so slightly by weakened bullets bopping them from below in mid-flight.
Blemishine     There is the tiniest of tiny moments where the knight can register the hyperspeed-blurred surroundings. Only just enough to realize that it happened rather than a flat-out 'here one moment and there the next', only for the realization to get slammed out of her along with the wind in her lungs in a wall impact that's more disorienting than legitimately injuring. She lands on her knees and rises back up to her feet with a wince in time to pick up on the change. First towards the others.

    I4 stands out as the most obvious. Rin and Go right behind him! Lilian...she catches the glint down at her hand. It's only because of herself being mentioned that she even looks down at herself, realizing her point of view is noticeably higher up than normal. "Eh? Eh!?" There's a long moment where she looks over herself, turns slightly from side to side to look over every changed feature or feeling different from the normal. It's...

    Wonderful. She even looks a little bit more like her sister now, doesn't she!? It's exactly how she hopes she might look at the end of everything, as eternally distant of a goal that might be. Or maybe what she hopes she was /right now/. What would she and her auntie think if they saw? That thought alone is incredibly exciting! A strong and experienced knight, one able to be the light that shines for all around them...!

    ...is not something she is just yet. Not truly, she thinks. If everybody could be their ideal self so easily--no wonder that's a dream worth fighting so hard for. But for her...the struggle to reach it herself is just as important than the end result. Can she be content being gifted with that?

    In the middle of her probably-too-deep contemplation, she stops to acknowledge what Persephone says. "To understand...you said the idea will get across if we fight? Then...!" Her blade is drawn from her side. Her shield is readied. There's the smallest of smiles on her face, only kept in check by those prior words. 'Someone here I can't have you protecting'. Even so. "Then we'll just have to go at it! I'm no stranger to that!"

    She rushes in, swiftly weaving in between the gaps in Utsuho and Rin's shots. An armored boot braces against the watery surface below--and launches her forward in a low-to-the-ground leap. Shield first, in a tackle that'll have her barreling right into Persephone. If she wants a fight like a human, she'll give her one, both as one (or something close enough) and as a knight!
Lilian Rook     Under ordinary circumstances, Lilian wouldn't be grabbed like that. Even if Persephone's power is boundless, effortless, without rules or limitations, Lilian knows what it looks like, what it feels like, what Persephone is thinking when she wants to use it, and in her way, has spent many hours examining exactly what she'd do about it the next time. There's a moment where Persephone wants to reach out for her, in the liminal instant where thought has yet to recognize its own existence, and bend reality to its whim, that Lilian had told herself she would move. Something she knew to look out for. Be prepared for. To exploit to its utmost. But . . .

    §I don't need your fucking *approval* Kore! You don't know a goddamn thing about anything! Don't you *talk downto me!*§

    These are not ordinary circumstances. Lilian is torn from the floor, threaded through umpteen hallways at near-luminal speed, and hurled straight through the door of the Decompression Chamber. She crashes into the back wall--

                     No. I decide who touches me when. And                      
                              not a moment before.                              

    --or, so it seemed for a moment. There's a sound like the dull taill end of a thump, but Lilian has clearly brought herself to a halt via three point grounding stance, so that might just be some audial confusion in the closed chamber. The door grinds, the sunny pre-recorded attendant voice chimes, and Lilian reflexively jumps upwards off the surface of the lake, recoiling from the red hands before she can even come to stand on them like a cat flinching from water. A subtle pulse of black fog ripples from her toes where she 'stands' on the air instead. Reflexes taking over. The visceral disgust and anger is now driving shotgun to combat instincts. Life and death. Her hand jumps up to where Night Mist is kept in glamered form at her throat, and her eyes catch the glint of the ring.

    There is a moment, tense and breathless and crackling with vile, unhinged energy, where it seems she will tear it from her finger and scream and hurl it at Persephone, but Lilian only gets as far as clenching her fist around it, squeezing her eyes shut, and drawing a deep, shuddering breath instead. Her hand falls away from it limply.
Lilian Rook     "You haven't earned the right to be disappointed, Persephone." Lilian gasps, her voice hoarse with the edge of still catching and controlling her breath. "If anything, I'm disappointed in you. This shouldn't be a surprise to you. It's not a secret. You already knew what your 'home' is used to produce. You already knew what kind of person Carpathia was trying to become. You already knew that I couldn't just let it stand. You even already knew that I was coming."

    "But this is how you want to settle it?" Lilian's teeth audibly grind. "You already said that last time, remember? 'Fighting like humans'. And I didn't fight you then. When everyone was screaming and shooting at you, I didn't hurt you once, did I? Why do you want me to hurt you? Why did *Dylan* want me to hurt *her*? Why is everyone so--"

    Lilian stops herself, taking a deep, centering breath, and floating down to a scant inch above the lake surface. "Nothing *happened*, Kore. I'm still trying. But when it comes to your friends, you're too entitled to see it. When we first met, the *easy* thing to do would have been to put my sword through you while you were still talking, not chase the Eater Thought, right? The easy thing to do at Zubrin Station would have been to leave these people at home, throw Cruise out an airlock, and seize everything on board, not try to investigate above board and keep her out of it."

    "The easy thing to do here would have been to drop a bomb the moment we landed in the hangar and jump out through that Warpgate --and trust me, some people thought we should-- not waste all this time trying to learn more about the program and the children. The easy thing to do to stop Carpathia would have been to shoot her the second I entered the room, not try to talk to her. And the easy way to settle this would have been if you stayed *away* and let me buy it from her."

    Lilian clutches her temple. "But you didn't. You won't. You can't. None of you will. You can't help yourselves. You're incapable of learning. No matter how much *I* try, nobody *else* will learn. No matter how often I take the higher road, all of you will take the lower one every single time. However hard I try-- that's just a self-imposed challenge, isn't it? It won't change the outcome; it just makes it rougher on everyone involved. I thought maybe you'd be different. But you aren't. Just like--"

    Her hand balls up into a fist over her face, her head lowering incrementally until her eyes are blocked out by her bangs. "How humans do things. Humans only see what's happening to them, not what matters to anyone else. The way they work; humans don't *want* to learn. They don't *want* communicate. They don't *want* to grow. They have to be forced to. Otherwise, if you show them good will, they monopolize it. If you show them mercy, they take advantage of it. If you show them trust, they exploit it. If you show them kindness, they use it against you. And if you show them any *hint* of vulnerability, they *think they're better than you*."

    Lilian tears her hand away from her face. The attempt to calm down didn't work. Furious tears are smeared across the side of her cheek. "I hate your humans Persephone! I can't stand being human like this!"

    Lilian 'catches' something in the air, and it ignites in her fist as if from immense, nuclear pressure. Slashing her fingers towards Persephone, she throws up a wave of choking ash and searing embers, shrouding her half of the Decompression Chamber in deep, asphyxiating shadow, where then each burning light begins exploding.

    "Exfiltration is our prime directive." Lilian says to the rest of the Paladins. Everything about her tone has gone completely flat and lifeless. 'Turned off'. "The shuttle is a no-go for now. You know where the Warpgate is. Focus on making a breakthrough."
Persephone Kore      Utsuho and Rin get their response, and it feels significantly less stressed and upset than Phony was at first. Haha, that's right. Just like 'Master'. I'm not human anymore, but I still do a good job pretending, don't I? ... Lilian is smart. But I think she's making a mistake. For her sake, I want to set her right.

     Something about their danmaku performance absolutely captivates her. At first she's tempted to just stand there and take it- that's what I usually do!- but soon she gets the idea of the game, and starts clumsily trying to dodge. I'm no good at this at all, but she seems to understand the spirit of it! "Who invented this game? It's really beautiful! I love it a lot, actually."

     I4's clever: he's entirely right about the nature of her defenses. If I can deny something, it's like it never happened at all! And if she can't think of something, she should, in theory, be unable to make it happen with her reality warping. Where he goes wrong is that she's much less susceptible to his mental effects than Dylan was.

     That human body is deceptive. Persephone is terrifyingly large in a metaphorical sense; she has the mental gravity of a spiral galaxy. Trying to affect her is like trying to poison the ocean. She raises no defense, but the hacking simply dilutes to nothing against her magnitude. I'm really sorry, little human! It feels unfair that that didn't work. You could try shooting me instead!

     ... Or you could just give up and let me be nice to you. Why do you feel so bad about accepting something that'd make you happy?

     To Go, she responds with a halfway smile: "I know you're better at being human than me. But that's okay! I love them a whole lot, you know. And maybe you'll teach me something new about them." Her eyes widen in anticipation against his initial charge; his foot strikes an unstoppable force just inches from her skin. Ahaha. Good try, but too predictable!

     That immediate followup kick does catch her by surprise, though. She makes a startled noise, then a little laugh as it strikes her, drifting sleepily away from the blow as if in zero gravity. The followup punches strike home, too, until their momentum pushes her out of reach and she turns around midair. "See? I told you you could beat me like that. I'm really almost helpless." It's almost coquettish; there's no irritation in it.

     The good cheer drops away as she regards Lilian. Her tone, once again, is soft and grave. "I can do whatever I want to you at any time. And I know you could do the same to me. I don't think I'm better than anybody, but especially not you."

     "But you are what Carpathia didn't want us to be. You know you're not good inside. If your family's better than mine, then why do you have to try so hard to be good? If mine is rotten, why is it so easy for me to be kind? I want it to be easy for you to be good, too. I want you to be happy like I am. But I don't know how to reach you. You have to let me help."

     Explosions rip through the space around her. She makes no effort to dodge. They bare flesh that isn't flesh; solid red with no detail, but not a red that blood has ever been. A moment later it heals, not biologically but as if smoothed over by an AI image transform; just eerily photoshopped away.
Persephone Kore      Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Persephone steadies herself, as best she's able. The effect of this fight is emotional fatigue, more than accumulating physical damage.

     "You've already figured out part of what the Decompression Chamber lets you do. It's nice, isn't it? I know I hated my body until I learned how to do this. But I'm going to teach you something more."

     Those red hands beneath the lake's surface abruptly press upwards, breaking the water tension. They lunge for each of you- sometimes more than one, if the first can't get a good hold- and then drag you beneath the surface.

     There is no risk of drowning, however. A separate air bubble surrounds each of you, keeping you safe- at least until the lake starts to freeze. Blasting your way out would take obnoxiously long, and the hands might further sabotage you as you try. Persephone further surrounds herself in a fortress of ice with a thought, making assault impractical. But a subtle pull on your thoughts makes you aware of another property of this reality-frayed place.

Rule 1: You can become anything you really truly want to be.
Rule 2: You can create anything that is a reflection of your true heart.

     Reshape the world. Make it more convenient, and have it reflect your heart. I believe in you!
Ishirou I4's idea is a good one, just unfortunately it's a weakness foreseen and covered for.  He briefly signs, wishing he'd have more things to hack, and fewer things resistant to it.  It's a passing thing because he can just...attempt this a different way.  He can think through this.  "POD, missile launcher mode," Which gets a weapon mode change sound.  

Of course, what Persephone does not see is an exchange over the radio.  I4 goes from forcing determination to recoiling as if struck.  There is a dullness to his actions for a moment during the exchange, before acceptance of the situation.

The question hits his awareness now, "What's the point in pretending to be something you're not...I know what I am, a necromancied soul in a jar used to fuel an android tool...the soul having more soul to it doesn't change facts...I can't be human because I never was..."

It was only then that he was dropped into the water.  The water freezing, though drowning wasn't going to be a concern.  It was all too much for him, he can only collapse on himself again.  The difference between the other day and now is...

That he can actually try and disappear.  The world reshapes around him to do just that.  
Go Shijima      Mach is an extremely slippery target. Those hands have to grab much more than one time, in a concerted effort, to catch him. He makes convincing for Lilian, which probably makes it fun for Phony. If this is going to work, it has to look convincing. "Gh!" Eventually, he's pulled below.

    Maybe you're right. Maybe you're -too- right. Maybe it won't help at all. But no one in the Paladins stopped /me./ They went along with it, believed me every step of the way, until someone outside set me right.

    His true heart isn't a destroyer. It never was. Of course, he tries to break his way out, because that's what he's good at. But there is that subtle pull--he listens. Thinks, for just a moment.

    If we're going to be what we say we are, then more of us need to watch each other. I can't let Lilian tear herself apart the way I did.

    Go loves people. He loves to impress them, loves to share his art with them, loves to be there for them. He loves protecting their smiles. He's fatigued himself considerably by the time he does stop and think. But his true heart makes itself known in a physical way.

    If all this does is just get her to stop for a -second-, even if it causes a huge argument... even if she never trusts me again, I have to do it!

    The bubble cracks, opens wide. Asphalt paves itself. A sleek superbike in white and red appears before him, suspension bouncing briefly before he sits astride it. Pylons crackling with electricity intersperse themselves along the track. That track extends above the lake, turning into loops, breaking for jumps.

    "DRIFT!" Mach guns the accelerator, smiling behind the helmet. The bike takes off with the peeling of tires and a roar of its performance engine. Every pair of pylons supercharges it, increasing its speed further, and further and further, until it's going as fast as Go's heart can conjure the track.

    He loves all those things, and he loves the freedom of the road. The bike hits a pair of loops and strikes another pair of pylons. A break in the track, deliberate--a death defying, high-speed jump. Mach grandstands, hands on the handlebars, turning the bike in a forward flip that'd easily kill a rider in his position with the slightest miscalculation.

    "OVERTAKE!" There is none--he lands on a straightaway, sitting on the nose of the bike, holding the handlebars steady with one arm, and giving a salute to Phony with the other. He nimbly flips back into the driver's seat just in time for the track to flip upside down for a few harrowing seconds. ""I'M ALWAYS AT..." Rightside up again, the bike and Mach are an indistinguishable white blur. "MACH SPEED! KAMEN RIDER..."

    The track turns towards Phony. Mach lifts the bike up into a perilously fast wheelie, somehow maintaining control despite the terrifying speed. A ramp is all it takes to turn the bike into a blindingly fast projectile, which "MACH!" kicks with his jump-jack. It's actually burning, it's flying so fast.

                            HISSATSU//Full Throttle!                            

    The slipstream from the bike is overpowering. But Mach doesn't resist. Instead, his suit pushes him right along with it, foot extended and beginning to burn for an explosive strike, trailing the bike by a split second.
Hellwarming Trio Utsuho: "Does she?"
Rin: "She looks human enough."
Utsuho: "Yeah, but so do we."
Rin: "But she doesn't have the cool accessories."
Utsuho: "Hey, yeah. So I guess that makes her more human than us."
Rin: "But if she wants to help Lilian, too..." Wait. Isn't that reverse psychometry or something? Are you reverse psychometrying us?!
Utsuho: "Danmaku and spell cards? It's... Uh. There's a whole bunch of rules, but it gives even weak youkai and humans a chance to compete with the strong ones."
Rin: "... Right! Yeah. You'd have to ask the shrine maiden 'bout where it came from, though. I think they came from her place waaay back."

Persephone asked about the danmaku earlier, and the pair are more than willing to oblige with that information. They're even making a show of launching those colorful patterns of bullets every which way, letting them swirl around as the large ones slow to a stop before exploding into larger waves of messy swirling colors. They're not too sure what Lilian's plan is, anyway, so they simply focus their efforts on what they do know!

Right until those hands burst out of the lake. Rin, as expected, freaks out when she's getting pulled down, but Utsuho still seems pretty zoned out about the whole thing even as she's getting pulled down as well. "Right, yeah... I think it was something like this. Or not like this. Uh."

And then Utsuho confuses herself. She doesn't even seem to register that danger is a thing until the lake starts freezing around her, and only then does she start trying to blast her way out like Rin's already started doing. It's actually taking quite a bit of effort, too, as the hands are making it nearly impossible for them to even move or function, but with the extra information hitting their minds?

They might still have a shot at this. With the idea of being able to just become anyone or anything, there's little limiting just what they can become, but actually doing that is tricky. Being stronger or cooler is one thing, but what is it they actually /want/? What did they come out to the human world to accomplish in the first place?

Satori told them to learn more about the world. They wanted to make her proud. Yes, that'll do. Rin is the first to emerge from from the ice, burning right through it and looking like a child's impression of the stereotypical smart person: A doctor's coat, a stethoscope, a belt filled with vague vials and tools with no clear organization, and a heavy tome tucked under her arm that's slightly on fire!

Also, her figure is a way more stacked and hourglassy because of course that's her ideal form.

Utsuho comes out afterwards, although her general body's shape hasn't changed so much as the general aura around her (most of which is fire but also figuratively). Her idealized form (at least right now) looks more like a child's impression of the stereotypical wise sage/hermit/god: Glowing symbols floating around her, several necklaces made of colorful stones, an extra set of black wings, and a whole lot of Yatagarasu motifs for anyone that might recognize that sort of thing.
Hellwarming Trio Utsuho: "So... How do you know Lilian's wrong, anyway?"
Rin: "Maybe you're right, but what if you're wrong?"
Utsuho: "Heck, maybe you're both wrong. Then what?"
Rin: "We're open to seein' what's what, but she's a partner now. Ya know how that is, yeah?"
Utsuho: "So we can't just let you bust her mind open even if she really is wrong."
Rin: "... Not that we're sayin' she is!"

Following Go's lead, the pair raise their hands again as those oversized magical cards appear overhead again. Unlike the earlier cards, however, these appear with far more fanfare than before as Utsuho's outright blares out the sounds of a nuclear warning klaxon while a pair of CAUTION banners scroll across the top and bottom of the room for emphasis.

________________________________________________________________________________
· CAUTION!! ·   · CAUTION!! ·   · CAUTION!! ·   · CAUTION!! ·   · CAUTION!! ·  
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯


That miniature sun that had been trailing Utsuho expands, spitting out smaller white balls towards Persephone in a sort of fountain-y sprinkler pattern, but rapidly as though someone had just cranked the hose all the way open. Rin's card, meanwhile, deposits bullets in a horizontal pattern at first before spreading towards Persephone and dropping more of those spiraling flower-like patterns towards her.

Unlike the earlier shots, however, these ones actually have some heat to them. It's still a controlled heat instead of a raging inferno, but there's a distinctly more physical danger to these as though they're actually trying to grab Persephone's attention instead of just amusing her like before.
Lilian Rook     "I don't care what Carpathia wants." Lilian spits back. "Neither she nor any of hers care about what *I* want either. Nobody ever does." The tactical band is abuzz with no goes. She's tried to get I4 to hack the room security, but Persephone has blocked it. She can't get Go into a high-speed breakaway either. They're asking for a plan, but if she tells them, Persephone will just read it right off them. "All she cares about is pursuing her insane science project to its conclusion. She's not your mother, Kore. She's a neurotic freak playing god and taking blood money to keep up the high as long as she can. You don't know what a real mother is like. You don't know what a real family is like."

    Biohacking isn't working. The youkai pair might be able to simply blast her out. Blemishine is wasting time with concern. She needs to think of a way to move them all. "And you can't help me. You can't help me because you can only conceive of fictional reasons to. You don't even know if there's anything to help with; you just want to believe you're that important. That you can have that kind of impact on me."

<Tac-Paladins> 4 I4 says, "That's not an answer, or a plan I can react to." a pause less robotic, "Are you sure that's not her game plan..? Specifically trying to distract us with this power of hers, while she focus on you? That line 'I am going to punish you' isn't aimed at us."
<Tac-Paladins> 4 Lilian Rook's radio squeals at the word 'punish' again. "Shut up."
<Tac-Paladins> 4 I4 quietly, "Okay.."

    Lilian's radio wire buzzes under the breathy, growling undercurrent of her voice. "So don't talk to me about *punishment* when you don't know the *meaning* of the word."

                    Don't just stand there. Don't just take                    
                    it. Don't ask me to do it. If you know I                    
                     can, then you're just taking advantage                    
                      of me while I don't want to. If you                      
                       think we're even, then you're just                      
                     admitting that you're ignoring how I'm                    
                     being fair to you, because you want to                    
                                be unfair to me.                                

    One of the red hands bursts upwards from under the surface and grabs hold of Lilian's leg. It wrenches her downwards, imparting a fraction of its momentum on her, and then Night Mist flickers into her hand, sending a storm of severed finger joints effortlessly tumbling from its palm in the space between blinking. More rush past it from below, thrusting to the surface to join it; to take her arms and legs and pull her below the surface and into their realm. So many that it'd be difficult even for her to fight them all.

    But it's like she doesn't really have to. The moment the sword is in her hand, and the black tattoos on her skin, the air, or perhaps it's the Decompression Chamber, writhes with erratic, restless energy. Lilian's silhouette breaks up against a backing of deep black visual static, and the ghastly 'glitch' follows her where she descends, enshrouding her as if her shadow were cast up against a wall right behind her.
Lilian Rook     The hands that follow can't make it. They crash into solid panes of thick, soundproof glass with muffled thumps. They catch in tangles of invisibly thin wire, creaking and groaning as it digs into them. They're skewered by a flurry of mounting pins, pierced through every joint to completely arrest their movement. Beyond the first, not only can those needy grasps not catch Lilian, they cannot approach her. Even when she stops herself at the surface of the water, only for it to rise around her in walls of ice, those around her are frozen solid. It doesn't appear conscious.

    "The world is already too convenient, Kore." Lilian aims, through the ice and out to Persephone's personal bastion. "I'm drowning in it. I can barely *breathe* for it. I don't need this hammer-handed metaphor to picture it. It's *people* who want to be inconvenient." She begins walking straight into the ice. The ice melts-- dissolves? Around her. Where Lilian marches forward, she leaves a perfectly her-shaped tunnel through it. As if it never were. Its existence is not changed, it is denied. It's almost not even noticed.

    "But the worst part, Kore, is that people can be convenient too. That's the part I hate the most. It's bad enough that they earnestly want to be as inconvenient as possible, but it's even worse that it's so easy to fix them. No matter what they think, they can be tweaked and changed just as easily --no, even more easily-- than the world around them. I really do hate that. So much that I even try to pretend it isn't true. But what you're doing is . . ."

    Lilian halts outside of Persephone's ice castle, having ascended to the surface of the frozen lake, but stopping there. She searches for words. "You think you're making that not true. But you aren't. All you're doing is making it *impossible to ignore*. Even you can be convenient, Kore. See? Look."

    Lilian spreads her arms wide in both directions, turning slowly, as if appealing to a crowd, the ice around her materializes Persephones. Dozens of them. Scores of them. A horde of 1:1 scale, moving and talking Persephone dolls. This one in a sweater, this one in a party dress, this one in a maid outfit, this one in a bikini, this one in a three-piece suit, this one with the exact same burnt arm warmer as the real one. An entire crowd of smiling, chattering Persephones.

    There's no risk of getting lost in them, though. Not one of them has the smile right. Or the eyes. Or anything about the face. Below the neck, they're crystal clear renditions of reality smashed together with trivial imagination. But the face always comes out a smeary kind of dreamy blur. A deep learning AI trying to peek into the memories of a sleeper. There's no way to mistake something like that for the real article.
Lilian Rook     Lilian continues on as if she doesn't care though. "Why are you so hellbent on taking away the only way I can deal with you, Kore? Why are you so determined to take away all the ways to smile and nod and pretend that people are special? That fiction --that lie-- is too important to throw away because of one lady scientist, Kore. Can't you even try to get that?" The sword flips over in her hand.

    "Does this hurt you too?"

    A streak of red light casually arcs through the nearest 'Persephone', cleaving 'her' through the middle and causing 'her' to disappear into mist. Then another one. And another one. They stand around like dolls. They *are* dolls, of course. They aren't real. They have no concept of their imminent fate, despite their chatter. But even if they're simply figments from Lilian's mind, in a room where all of reality has been vented and the mind is all that matters, each one has just a teeny tiny sympathetic spark of the original. Enough to connect.

    Lilian raises her voice over the sound. It gets just slightly louder with each disbelieving word. Yelling until she gets an answer. "What in god's name am I supposed to learn from this?! What kind of realization do you think I'll *have*?! Do you think I hadn't already thought of this?! Do you believe there's something I *want*, that *you* can give me?!"

                             Please don't make me.                              
Blemishine     Lilian's outburst is impossible not to notice. Even not attuned to the psychic outburst she let out before, even not privvy to her mess of internal thoughts, everything she spills out loud...she's not in a place to understand all of it, or where it comes from. But between Go, this, the context from what she said back then towards Dylan...she'd have to be blind to not notice just the surface of how much she's going through, and how personal this must be.

    And the shift she undergoes. Her...and I4 both, over the radio. What can she...?

    In the next moment, those hands that seemed like they'd never break the surface suddenly do. Her reactions are quick enough to almost get out of the way of one, only for more to seize her and pull her down. Just like with Dylan, she had a feeling that being 'seriously' hurt was never going to be a problem. Still, that doesn't mean she's not going to be trapped by the water icing over in all directions around her. Her and the others. Eyes widening, her head turns to gauge the condition of everyone else, just in time to see I4 willingly vanishing into the depths. "...!"

    If it's just in this place...maybe that small light of hers can become something more. Just for a moment. Her sword comes high, and light spills out.

    It looks hot. It should be hot, spilling out in all directions like a miniature sunburst with Blemishine at the epicenter. But it's not blinding to gaze at, and it doesn't scorch flesh one bit even as it burns away at the cold. In fact, it's pleasantly warm, like a nice embrace or a comfortable summer day - vaguely similar and yet very distinct from the kind that Persephone herself radiates. The kind that says, 'it'll be okay! I'm here!'. That feeling...almost definitely won't reach I4 in the state he's in.

    But it fades away to leave water in its wake. Not that of the foggy lake, but clear if turbulent waves. Ones that she has to fight through to return to the surface, soaking wet and pushing her way through them. Not because that was how it had to be, especially in this world of the heart and mind, but because that's how she wanted to do it.

    "That's good advice, Miss Persephone...! And I'm going to make use of it, for at least as long as our fight here lasts!" Her sword, still wreathed in light, is taken hold of with both hands--

    And wrenched up as she closes the distance in a water-scattering rise, a clean vertical cut!
Persephone Kore      Persephone, floating just above the icy lake's glassy surface, stands in childlike awe of Go's urban terraforming. Even though all this is an attack, even though it's aimed at her, she can't help but cheer for the spectacle, waving him on and celebrating with arm-pumps.

     Just to make things more exciting, she obliterates sections of the track behind him in periodic blows, hundreds of tons of concrete and asphalt lathed molecule from molecule under the ruthless grinding weight of a spiral galaxy's worth of psychic gravity. But they never seriously threaten Go himself- it's purely to make his stunts look more impressive!

     He strikes her dead on. The heat melts a hole through the ice fortress. The explosive force of the twin impacts cracks her body instead of shattering it, showing lines of that un-bloodlike red at her neckline and behind her keyhole. But she laughs, anyway, and telekinetically slows Go's velocity just enough to pat his head in passing.

     I get it completely. You want to be a better friend to her than she is to herself. You want to save her, the way you wish someone had saved you. But how can you do that when she doesn't even think you're real?

     She rests her hand in one cheek to appraise Rin and Utsuho as they burst out of the ice. "A way to make fighting a game... ahaha. So someone else really does get it. That's really beautiful, you know."

     A doctor and a sage. You're really new to being 'human', aren't you? Still learning so much. But when you've learned enough, you want to use it to help others. I think that's wonderful!

     Persephone doesn't move in the face of the onrushing attacks. "Dodging" doesn't seem to be in her combat vocabulary. The giant fireball parts in half in front of her, both halves striking the ice behind; the heat-stress causes more, smaller cracks to appear on her skin, instead of burning or blistering. Rin's smaller bullets are placidly allowed to strike her dead on.

     "I could give you a way to understand people, you know. Like your 'Master' does, but easier to handle. ... More than that, I want to give it to *everyone* who's sad because they can't understand others, or can't make others understand them. I think that'd be beautiful. Don't you?"

     And Maria, that warmth... your heart is beautiful. I can feel it. I'm almost sorry that we have to fight like this. Is it bad if I enjoy it too?

     The water is calmed, the ice destroyed. Persephone drifts down a foot or two to stand on its surface once again. She shuts her eyes, takes a deep breath, and holds her hands out with palms up. Her eyes open again, but more than kind, they're resolute.

     "You're trying to protect your friends. And I am too. I really like that about you, you know. But if your friends are saying things like 'at least I didn't bomb a station full of children'... don't you have to think twice about that?"

     The blade washes over her without resistance. The off-red gash cuts from one hip to beneath the opposite side's ribcage. Her hand brushes Blemishine's cheek in passing; they lock eyes, and that sadness has returned, not entirely assuaged by Go and the youkai pair. "Even so... thank you, for letting me show you a piece of the world we're trying to make."
Persephone Kore      Lilian's outburst is met with frustration-gritted teeth, briefly shut eyes, and hands balled up into fists inside her singed arm-warmers. Persephone has the air about her of an adult scolding a stubbornly misbehaving child. "You're being awful, and I won't allow it. Listen to yourself. I thought I understood you, but I don't understand this at all. Whatever happened to that Lilian, I want her back."

     "Do you think I don't have to be oh-so-gentle too? Do you think I don't know how fragile the world is, other people are. You're just doing *whatever you like* and then calling it bad when other people try to stop you, like they could never have wishes, like what they want isn't real. Like they're *scenery* that's rudely in the way."

     Her eyes open, holding Lilian's gaze unflinchingly. "You invade my home. You abuse my friends. And you think you can ignore what I want. But that stops here. You should've been respecting everyone else's wishes all along. But you have to respect mine. If you won't break this habit, I will."

     She grits her teeth, flinching as the lifeless copies are struck- more, sympathetic cracks form along her own body where they're hit; by now red outnumbers human skin. With a thought, all the shades within Lilian's easy reach flung a million miles away in an instant, leaving only a scattered handful behind. Then, echoing Lilian's broadcast thoughts back at her: "You don't have any authority over me. None. Why do you have to pretend you're in control?"
Hellwarming Trio Utsuho: "Yeah, I guess. Would be easier if we just blew them up, but then we'd get lots more other humans on our case."
Rin: "Way too much work that way. Then again, it'd give us plenty of fuel."
Utsuho: "Being human is kinda hard, though. It's always so complicated."
Rin: "Like with all this stuff. Knowing it in an easier way, though?"
Utsuho: "How's that gonna work? Wait. This ain't a trick, is it?"

They're not saying no to her offer, but they're not saying yes either. They're also looking around rapidly to try and find I4, but without seeing him...

Plan C! They have no idea what plan C is. They just know it involves blasting a hole through a wall somewhere, so they start blasting as hard as they can at the nearest wall! At least until Persephone turns their consciousness/ability to fight off through aggressive psychic things they don't understand, but have some vague familiarity with.

If they're lucky, it might not be too unpleasant a feeling.
Persephone Kore      The lake is gone at Persephone's whim replaced with a friendlier campground. The sky is stained all kinds of colors by the sunset; the ground is worn dirt trails snaking between moss and grass and ferns, with a dense treeline, uneven ground, small numbered wooden cabins strewn about and the ashen remains of a campfire. Persephone floats just a few feet off the ground, her body bloodlessly mangled and fractured.

     And then I decide to not be hurt anymore. Phony briefly stops being human, and then becomes human again. There's a smell in the air like smoke and honey, burning religious incense, an evening out in the woods, holding a firefly oh-so-carefully in your hands as night falls. It's a delicate, beautiful thing. You'd feel heartbroken if your clumsy fingers hurt it, and so you let it go.

     A moment later, she is perfectly untouched; not a hair is out of place. "I've been trying to show you nice things," she says softly. It doesn't seem like she's talking to Go or Blemishine. "But you won't listen. You just do things, and when people are in your way, you blame them for not moving. Is being forced to move yourself the only thing that'll get through to you?"

     She grits her teeth, scrunches her eyes shut, and tilts back her head. I don't really want to do this. Please believe me. But I don't know what else to do. And making myself do something I don't want to... it's hard. I can't lie to reality and tell it to bend for a false wish.

     No, I know how to want it. "My wish is to help Lilian." And what Lilian needs is to see that she's not the most 'real' thing in the world. Maybe that'll only hurt her worse, but I don't know what else to try.

     There's a soft sigh exhaled through Phony's teeth. Her posture slackens. Then a hammerblow strikes the world.

     The ground splits open in huge fissures. Every tree is crushed into toothpick splinters. Every cabin is shredded into jigsaw pieces. The mountain in the distance splits in half, smashed a thousand times over, ground into pebbles, into sand, into dust. The impact can't inflict lethal wounds to living things, but it's no less brutal to the capacity to fight. It strikes everything out for miles, and it feels like being crushed under the weight of the universe.

     And then it relents, just a fraction of a second later. The terrible roar of earth, stone, and wood being annihilated takes a while to taper off, but Persephone can't keep it up. She touches down onto the shredded ground and slumps her posture, wiping at her face with an arm-warmer. "Haha. Sorry." It's mirthless. "I tried my best. But I'm still no good at making myself want things like that."
Blemishine     "...I do."

    The knight gives a solemn, more acknowledging-than-happy smile back towards Persephone in reply, when their gazes meet. She knows that's not okay, things like that being said. It's really not. Her lips purse together a little more tightly at the contact of skin on skin, but her eyes remain set. They're also resolute...until she closes them.

    "But if I didn't try anyway, I don't think I'd really even start to understand. About your dream, or about..." They both know where that goes. "Sorry, that's just how I am. I can only get things if they're right in front of me. And...I think I've seen most of what I wanted to see here. Thanks, Miss Persephone." And um...tell Dylan I'm sorry sometime, please?

    And then the moment is gone, and the scenery shifts entirely. She knew the injuries wouldn't keep. And she can tell that they're not the ones really being spoken to. What's happened and is still going on between her and Lilian...just how deep whatever goes on in Lilian's head is...she can't even begin to imagine it. And it's probably not her place to really interfere in it. Go's maybe, but not hers. Not right now, at least.

    Especially not when the world is brought low, and Maria is brought with it. Even if there are no terrible physical injuries, her ability to keep upright is smashed as flat as all the earth around her. One of the fissures swallows her up while she's stumbling--

    And a few meters down, she catches herself with her sword embedded into the wall. "Hah...I won't be able to do anything to step between those two. But at least..." After a heavy sigh, her expression tightens back up. Wherever I4 is right now...she'll have to put in her own effort to find him. Even if it takes until the room powers down and he loses the ability to keep hiding himself, or if he's too down on himself to do it himself, she'll make sure he gets out with them.
Go Shijima      I'm not real, to her? To be honest... The hammerblow utterly drowns out the Mach Driver's onboard AI. Whatever tone-deaf congratulation it may have given is drowned out by the world splintering into dust. The armor fades away in an instant.

     That sounds like a 'her' problem. Not a 'me' problem. Smiling despite a split lip, Go's hand instinctively reaches for the belt, struggling through both his exhaustion and the rubble piled atop him. Despite the world itself reeling from the force of Persephone's incredible might, Go, for one brief moment, is not done yet. Call it muscle memory. Or a bad habit.

Ha. It's funny. Usually when I do that, things are really hopeless. I don't feel that way right now, though. I'd love to fight with you some more, but I think I should go now.

     His hand drifts away from his belt. I'm going to pretend to escape. Maybe suit back up and beat on that wall Utsuho and Rin were working on. I know you're busy with Lilian, but I'd appreciate a push towards wherever I can find that thing we talked about.

     Go's body is covered in welts and burns from the kinetic distribution and feedback systems. His bones ache. His lungs burn. His muscles sting. His head is pounding.

     These wounds will follow him, will make his work in the days to come much more difficult, just as his initial encounter with Dylan was, just as Xion before her, and Heart before her. Hurt and exhaustion are old friends, and whatever one may say about the healthiness of such an outlook, it is Go Shijima's outlook.

     It's nice, not forcing himself back onto his feet for once. The rubble on top of him is not so nice, but collapsing worlds will be what they are. He shoves it off, one piece at a time. What a strange feeling it is--to channel his determination towards something other than direct combat. Strange... but rewarding, in its way.

     Oh, and one more thing.

                               Signal Bike! RIDER!!                              
                                     MACH!                                      

I know I've asked a lot, but if you could give Dylan my number, I'd owe you one.

     Mach nods towards Lilian. The Mach Driver revs up, flame belching from the exhaust, and in a blur, he's off, totally for reasons of exfiltration and not for any other reason.
Persephone Kore      The rubble on top of Go shifts itself off at the same rate that he removes it, giving him a subtle helping hand. A subtle psychic nudge gives him a hint of where he ought to go- directions to Persephone's own room, a small plug-in memory drive. I don't know if anything will help her. But... if it might do Lilian some good, I'm willing to give up that memory. Be careful, Go Shijima.

     And be careful with Dylan, too. She's more delicate than you'd think! Ahaha. A subtle shimmer in the world, willed by Phony, lets him eventually find his way out of the woods and to the door.

     Similarly, Blemishine receives a small telekinetic force buoying her upwards, helping her avoid falling deeper into that chasm. I'll tell her that. And I'll tell her you really meant it, too. She's a good girl, really- even with all that poutiness, she's good with apologies.

     Like with Go, a subtle mental nudge points her in I4's direction, as sensed by Phony's mind-sight!
Lilian Rook     <<"You're being awful, and I won't allow it.">>

    "You don't get to *choose* what is and isn't allowed, Kore. No matter what Carpathia tells you." Lilian growls. Without knowledge of the tender contact between the minds of the others, all she can do for the moment is to continue blasting while arranging new orders.

    <<"I thought I understood you, but I don't understand this at all.">>

    Lilian's voice raises to pitched shouting, unnecessary by far just to be heard. "That's right! You don't understand! How could you?! All you've ever done is live in *this station* and be *groomed* by *these people*! You really expected to understand *anything*?!" Plan C is danger close. Blow a hole right out of the chamber using the firepower of the youkai pair. Persephone can--

    <<"Whatever happened to that Lilian, I want her back.">>

    "She isn't here! She can't exist in your perfect little world, Persephone!" Lilian screams. "I'm telling you to *move*! And you're telling me to *die!*"

    The bulk of the swarm of Persephone clones is vapourized. Spaghettified. Obliterated without a trace. Lilian is left swinging at air for a moment, left with no target for her boiling vehemence. Far from carefully analyzing Persephone's mindstate for telltale pulses of power to tactically exploit, she barely even registers half of what she's saying.

    <<"But you have to respect mine. If you won't break this habit, I will.">>

    Lilian flinches. Locks up. Brain crash. For that split second, everything about her stops, save shallow, high-pitched sounds of hyperventilation.

    It is the worst possible time, but it's questionable what she would have done about the entire world exploding. Persephone closed her eyes. Looked away. But she can still hear that shriek. And when she floats herself back down, and wipes off her face, she can see the result perfectly well.

    Lilian is still moving just fine. But for a few moments, that movement is confined to slowly lowering her arms from their protective flinch and daring to look up, having fallen over at some point and instinctively protected her face. As she hesitantly begins to straighten up, it's easy to see that her combat suit has been replaced with a ruffle-edged red dress. She is easily a foot shorter. Her hair hangs down to her elbows. The ring is gone. With Lilian lowering her hands away from her face, Persephone sees the purple bruise below her eye. The dried blood on her forehead. The split lip and gashed cheek. The red marks around her neck. There's only a tear in the collar of her blouse, and no visible injury anywhere else, so it seems strange that she'd take that kind of damage from--

    --an attack that can't cause physical harm.

    Lilian gropes around in the dirt for her sword. Her hands touch the edge of a coverless book instead, but she picks it up all the same. The ground around her is dust-blown and churned up, but it's only to either side, in a narrow wedge. Like a rock splitting a river, the bulk of it appears to have parted around . . . some sort of fuzzy apparition. Mostly black and white, with a tint of purple, blearily shaped like a human with their arms outstretched. No details are possible to discern; even the shape itself is like a broken television image. It even hisses with some kind of corrupted audio, backed by a dreamy, half-remembered, half-imaginary hum in the wires. It goes:

    "Don't be sa-- --even if you can't see m-- --or if it seems like I'm not th-- --remember that I still l--"

    Then it sputters out. Lilian looks to Phony. She looks down at herself. She staggers right back upright. Phony doesn't need to read her mind. She doesn't even need to hear any of those voices. But she can.
Lilian Rook                                  How dare you.                                  
                                 How dare you.                                  
                                "How dare you?!"                                

    The torn dress blows off Lilian with a flash of fire, replaced by the combat suit once again. Her real height is back. Her hair is back up. The book is a sword. The ring is still gone. There's still a dark bruise on her face.

    "You're so *fucking* proud of yourself! It's all you ever want to talk about! How strong you are! How invincible you are! How fearless you are! How much you could hurt me if you ever *felt* like it, but oh how you *never* would! How much I should love you! How I should thank you for the fact that you can find it in your heart to 'like me'-- as if I ever asked!"

    "But here's the truth, Persephone! No matter how real you think you are, it'll never, ever, ever be real enough to matter to me! You move for me because I say so!"

                    Learn your place with the rest of them.                    

    Lilian sucks in a sharp breath. Her teeth clench. The black tattoos explode onto her face. Her eyes flash red. The entire Decompression chamber strobes with its own inverse colours, turning shadow to light, and light to shadow. A sound like a single, deafening glassy tick-crack pulses local reality. A garish, flickering ribbon of light wickers back and forth through the air between Lilian and Persephone, backed over a crackle-humm of buzzing radioactive static. The two of them have swapped places. Lilian and Persephone are now back to back, twenty feet apart, Lilian's sword stained with blood. Tendrils of luminous steam, burning with pulsing stars, roil off of Lilian's silhouette, all the wrong colours of a reentry craft crashing into the ocean. Deep crimson gore sprays from Persephone as she crumples to the ground, in thirty smoking pieces.

    That is to say, dummy Persephone falls. The very last one; the one with the burnt armband. It doesn't react in the slightest. Its blurry dream-mess of a face doesn't even betray an expression. There is a moment where it seems obvious. Lilian had fired a warning shot. All that screeching instrumentation, just to intimidate Persephone. There is then a moment where Lilian releases a pent up breath, slumps her shoulders, and touches her radio. She remembers now, seeing Go speed past and Bleminishine fall. She has to check on the others.

    "Sitrep. Come in." Lilian sighs into her mic, her voice the absolute model of burnt to a crisp. "I'm still engaged with the primary target. I estimate about twenty seconds until she can self-resurr--" And then she catches sight of the heap on the ground, and chokes herself off. She staggers back. Her face turns white. Staring in building horror and revulsion at the blurry-faced corpse.

    She didn't notice. She can't tell the difference.

    "Kore?"
    "Persephone?"
    ". . . Phony?"

    "You're . . . still okay, right?"
Ishirou To describe where I4 is is like falling into the abyss of an ocean.  The ice surrounded the ball, but even in that ball, it was just abyssal-level darkness.  Somewhere at its center is I4, crushed under the weight of the last few months of the shift in paradigm, sudden shifts in what he thought were stable relationships, and years of abuse because of what he was.  

Why darkness?  It's easier to simply fade away there, to be ignored to let himself stew in his own problems and not do anything about them.  It was easier to fall in on yourself when nobody could see it.  He was tired of explaining himself, or justifying himself, or dealing with...

Everything.  He was absolutely taxed to some sort of point.
Persephone Kore      Persephone is stunned into silence by Lilian's reactions. A creeping dread comes over her- first as she mentally parses the bruise, the ghost, the dress, and then more as she grasps the reason for attacking the dummy.

     That gives enough time for Lilian to panic; enough time for her pleas to start to crack, to grow hollow and desperate.

     She really doesn't believe me, is the first thought that crosses Persephone's mind, even though it shouldn't be what I'm thinking about at a time like this. But I don't know what else to say. "Get out of my house?" I thought I could help her. Maybe I was wrong.

     I don't feel triumphant. But I don't feel sorry either. Just sort of clammy, like things could have turned out better than they did.

     "I'm okay," Persephone finally manages, standing awkwardly off to the side. Her own voice is soft, exhausted, bled of irritation. "I'm always okay. You didn't do anything bad." She clearly doesn't know what the correct response is.

     Instead she awkwardly holds out her hand, the one with the un-singed arm-warmer, as if it should be held or squeezed. "Are you? Your face... I'm sorry for hurting you. I don't know how that happened." It's all sincere, except that last part. But I'm not going to say out loud what I saw.
Blemishine     Thanks again, Persephone. Please--um...

    She doesn't know what she wants to say. Be careful? Take care of Lilian? Something else? The right thought doesn't come, so she doesn't finish it. She just focuses on doing what she can do right now, with the guidance she's been given. And thanks to that...

    She can find I4, still buried away. There's a downcast frown on her face when she realizes. Just like with Lilian...she can't even begin to understand what he must be going through. Only the bits and pieces she's managed to pick up. She doesn't have Persephone's abilities after all. She might not be able to do anything about Lilian. Maybe not even this. But even so, resolve comes back to her face. "I4..."

    She moves in and rests a palm against the iced-over sphere, light spilling forward from it. It melts at the cold, and after it does so, it breaches the darkness. Barely. It's a small and warm light, very meager compared to what she had done before, far from enough to illuminate the abyss he's made for himself. Only a tiny beacon to find her way forward, and show that she's coming for him.

    He could probably snuff it out if he really tried, while they're still in this room where the heart becomes real. But if he doesn't, Maria will simply rest a gentle hand on his shoulder when she reaches him, and give him a tiny shake.

    "...You've had it really hard, haven't you? You don't have to say anything. Come on. Let's get out of here. You still have people waiting for you, you know?"

    From there, if she gets that far, she won't say anything else. She'll simply make to try and lift him up - carefully, gently - and guide him back to the others.
Lilian Rook     Lilian startles when she hears Persephone's voice. How could she not? That silence was just long enough. She clutches her mouth, as if about to throw up from the shock. All of the fight leaves her in one single shuddering gasp.

    "This is what you wanted, isn't it? That we fight like 'humans'. That we 'communicate' and 'learn things' about each other. That we'd get too tired to keep fighting and nobody would get hurt." Her fingers gingerly touch her cheek. She winces.

    "Did you have fun communicating? Did you learn something interesting? Good for you. I'm so glad you could have this opportunity to grow."

    She makes an uninterpretable noise with her teeth. "They didn't teach you how to lie either."

    Lilian blips out of existence 'more normally' this time. Like the desolate anticlimax it is.
Ishirou The darkness is oddly has a bit more give to it.  It isn't JUST darkness, but a manifestation of I4 trying to isolate himself from pain.  In reality, it does more to trap him inside his own head, to let him stew in everything.  However, with a bit of a PUSH it can be pushed through like a membrane.  Inside there are the echoes of memories.

However, she wasn't there for that, she was there for I4 himself.  The touch on his shoulder doesn't immediately get a response.  His face streaked with tears, eyes red...he's still human in here right now.  This will probably fade the moment they're out of the chamber.  He doesn't know how to respond to Blemishine.  

At least until... "I'm...awful.  I don't want to give this up.." he finally says.  It's not clear if he meant the darkness or the human body.  Both?  Neither?  

However, he doesn't offer any resistance.  He's not very heavy, in fact maybe barely over a hundred pounds soaking wet.  
Persephone Kore      Leaving at this point isn't hard. Persephone has, by now, released the shuttle outside, allowing the pilot to pick up anyone who finds their way out into space. The artificial warpgate is a little clunkier to boot up and use without I4's help, but is also an option.

     Once everyone is out, those in the shuttle are treated to one last spectacle through its windows. Our best defense was obscurity. You know where we are now. I have to fix that. We are *not* having a repeat.

     The entire Sapient Heuristics lab vibrates dangerously in space. Its edges blur with chromatic aberration, though that might just be redshift and blueshift blending under the abhorrent force. The stars beyond seem to shimmer and dance as they're lensed around the horrific knots forming in spacetime.

     And then, without a noise or flash of light, the entire station is gone. Those with very, very fast sensory processing- or who comb over the visual recordings later- might discover a single "frame" of it leaving the solar system, redshifted almost beyond visibility.

     It's over. Don't look for us again.