Scene #8425: Being Misunderstood Hurts More

Owner	Pose
Candy	PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka dials from an unknown number and starts talking immediately, voice rough. "Hey. You two. I know you don't like me, but we've-- there's something important I need from you. For Lilian." PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says tersely, "I'm listening." PHONE: (To Candy and Petra Soroka) Ishirou almost immediately hangs up. PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka sighs. "Yeah. Um. Fuck this sucks. You two, you're supposed to be Lilian's friends. And you kind of fucking suck at it. And I-- I know how, better than you do." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "So you know where this is going, right?" PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says, "Is it going to the part where I tell you to kiss the fattest part of my ass?" PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says, "Ah, goddammit. Nevermind that. I'm trying not to be so pissed off all the time. No, I don't know where it's going." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "Look, dumbass. This isn't about me. Tell your idiot piece of shit boyfriend to get back on the line, because you two are hurting her, and she doesn't need that right now." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "Okay. It's going to the place where you tell me a location to meet you, both of you, and I try to make you understand. The way that-- the way that people like Bikki do." PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy shouts off-mic for Ishirou to get back on the phone. "...You understand neither of us is like her, ah? I'm a Zamorista, and him, he is an egghead." PHONE: (To Candy and Petra Soroka) Ishirou can be heard shouting over Candy's line in perhaps a voice more than a little terrified. "Why?! Just hang up on her or tell her to go away." PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy shouts back, "It's about Lilian! She says we been bad friends to her, and you know she is not wrong." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "Sure. I don't really care. It's not going to get through to you without a fight. And I'm kind of fucking mad at both of you on her behalf anyways." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "Look I'm-- you're not in danger, Ishirou. I wouldn't be calling both of you, and letting you choose the location, if I was-- if I meant anything else." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka quieter, "You took my goddamn mech anyways." PHONE: (To Candy and Petra Soroka) Ishirou reconnects, because fear has swung back to anger, "How fucking dare you?! YOU of all people trying to say that you're here for /her/? Fuck you!! You've done nothing but hurt her, and anyone else to hurt her! Just go away." PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says, "Every third time I open my mouth to her, or even around her, I fuck something else up. I thought maybe I was different--that me and her had more in common, than me and 'most people.' But I was wrong. I'm just another piece of shit. So what's the point?"
Candy	PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "I've done nothing but hurt her?! You're poison to her, Ishirou! You're awful, and in all the years you've known her, you haven't bothered to understand her a fraction as much as I do!" PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "The point, Candy, is that you should still fucking try. She needs you. She needs her friends." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "...Candelario." PHONE: (To Candy and Petra Soroka) Ishirou hissing with a vitriol so completely unlike Himself, "Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you!! How fucking dare you say that to me! YOU!? OF ALL PEOPLE?!" PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says, "Ishirou, can it. For fuck's sake. She's got a point and you know she does. You and me, we fucked her. What does it matter if it's coming from Petra? Even a broken clock, that shit is right twice a day." PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says, "And me, I don't even know if this clock is broken." PHONE: (To Candy and Petra Soroka) Ishirou still with that same venom, "What does it matter? She wishes I had stay dead, so all I can do is just... stand there and pretend that it's not what she wants." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "All you can do is make it so you're worth being around." PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says, "If she wanted you dead she wouldn't be calling the both of us at once. Letting us pick the place. She don't." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "Fuck you for wanting to give up on her. Fucking fight for her." PHONE: (To Candy and Petra Soroka) Ishirou says, "Fuck you for doing this to her and me." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "I'm trying to be better. Are you? Can you?" PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says, "Enough already. We're going. There's a sugarcane field, about a mile outside Cuernavaca. Abandoned, since the war ended." PHONE: (To Candy and Petra Soroka) Ishirou is about to say something white hot, but is stopped by Candy. "Fine. I'm prepping the RESCUE." PHONE: (To Candy and Ishirou) Petra Soroka says, "Yeah. I'll--" Under her breath, "Rent a fucking bike or something. I'll be there." PHONE: (To Ishirou and Petra Soroka) Candy says, "There's an Irish in town, some old fart named Sean. He owes me. You ask him for a ride, he'll take you in his truck."
Candy	Cuernavaca is the capital of the old state of Morelos--before 'Morelos' meant, broadly, most of the south of what was once Mexico. It is loud, and busy, and teeming with people from all walks of life--descendants of settlers and Nahua, farmers and factory workers, young and old. Irish Sean, as he's called by the other factory workers at the textile mill, is an older man, perhaps in his sixties, whose small apartment is barred with several layers of locks. Petra is greeted with suspicion that can only come from a life fraught with upheaval--the barrel of a revolver peeks out from around the leg of his overalls as he peers through the crack of his door at her, the weapon held behind his back. It isn't until she mentions Candy that he warms up to her. The flat-faced, dour man gives her a ride to the abandoned sugarcane fields in silence--he doesn't even turn on the radio in his early twentieth century truck. All that punctuates the ride besides the growl of the engine and the rattling of tools in the woodden bed behind the cab. The field itself is muggy and hot in the afternoon sun. Rows of sugarcane are shot through with weeds, the crop itself often given to mold. In places, it's been blown apart by shelling, and craters full of rainwater still sport undetonated shells. Buzzing flies flit between abandoned rows. Candy's leaned against his own truck, arms crossed, having dragged Ishirou along with him. It isn't hard to see why this field was abandoned. On the way here, Sean and Petra must have passed two or three fields much smaller in size, each of them actively maintained. This one is a monument to excess--or was, anyway--its size could have easily provided for Cuernavaca, and it must surely have been made to line pockets rather than provide.
Ishirou	Ishirou is here and is looking very unhappy to be here. However, Ishirou has also changed since the last time he was seen by Petra. His skin is pale white, shaped with light blue glowing hair. His lips are a deeper shade of blue, as are his eyes. One side of his face seems to have slightly miscolored skin though, specifically around the right eye. The ears are long and pointed, sticking straight up giving the appearance of ears and antenna. He's also already combined with POD, already transformed with RESCUE. He doesn't feel safe, even with Candy. He still remembers the last time. He still remembers dying. He still wakes up in a cold sweat over that. Not that he could really sweat anymore. He's pacing nervously around the back of the truck, not sure what to say... if anything to Candy. He doesn't want to be here. He doesn't want to see her. He doesn't want any of this. He just wants her to go away and leave him alone.
Petra Soroka	After a dozen phone calls, meetings, and a fight, this is the one that Petra was looking forwards to the least. It'd almost been a relief when Ishirou hung up immediately, because the prospect of earnestly trying to help him be better while he kept talking at her was almost unbearable. Especially because she was struggling to justify to herself that Lilian wouldn't be better off with him dead. But he came back, and agreed. And Petra promised to try. So here she is, rumbling up the road in Sean's truck, wearing her bomber jacket and jeans with a sour expression even in this muggy atmosphere, and her mood lowers even more when she sees Ishirou, in all his robot catboy glory. Petra murmurs thanks to Sean and hops out of the truck, knocking up a cloud of dust from the road where she lands. She watches him drive away out of the corner of her eye, before walking over to the pair, slouching a little. "You look like shit. It's fucked up that you gave up the body you fought for that easily. It's really fucked up that you spat on all the help your friends gave you to fight for it. And it's the most fucked up of all, something that fucking you and everyone else did, that you lied about how Lilian was involved. How you hurt her, all the way back then, and again now, because you haven't learned shit. None of you have." Petra doesn't even open with a greeting, upon seeing Ishirou. She balls up her fist, closes her eyes and takes a breath, then continues. "I should've known better than to kill you, though. It shouldn't have gotten to that point." Petra puts one hand on the closed zipper of her jacket, visibly tense. "I talked to her. And I learned all the things-- all the things that you two and everyone else were too fucking afraid to say. To admit that you were at fault, and hurting her too, and that she wasn't just a ticking fucking time bomb that you all had the goddamn grace and patience to defuse until she was on your side. And I learned a lot of other things too. Things you've said and done, things you fucking haven't. Things she would be justified in fighting you over." She's not sweating at all, despite the heat. She looks practically better than you've ever seen her, despite the dust and wear and situation. The skin of her face is clean and glossy, silver glitters on her eyelids like makeup. Silver glitters in her mouth when she talks, too, like-- Teeth gritted, Petra unzips her jacket and throws it off, onto the back of Candy's truck. She's wearing an oversized black t-shirt underneath, french-tucked into the front of her jeans, with gauze wrapping covering her neck. Hatchmark wounds line her arms, rimmed with tar-black and shining with chrome beneath. Quicksilver rivulets are already running down from her shoulder, dripping into the dust and dirt with weighty plops. It's immediately familiar to Candy and Ishirou, especially when looking at the concentric complexities in her furious eyes, that this is Dimo's handiwork. "But she's hurt right now. So I'm going to do it for her. And then, we'll make it better for her."
Candy	'And then, we'll make it better for her.' Time stops, when the last of Petra's words rings out. It stops, but not for Candy and Ishirou. He lifts a hand, index finger raised, held over his lips. 'Quiet.' As the sun hangs frozen in the air, and buzzing insects feasting on abandoned crop halt in their circuitous paths, he motions with a sideways nod of his head to a bombed-out farmhouse in the distance. Candy and Ishirou are simply 'there.' A place, where he can say what he has to say to Ishirou, and Ishirou alone. "The only reason I agreed to this, and dragged you out here, is because Lilian oughta be more important to me, and to you, than however me and you see ourselves. She oughta be more important than yelling at Petra about how she's wrong, or whatever. She ain't gonna kill nobody. She said she's been talking to Lilian. And if she has, what she's saying is what Lilian couldn't tell me and you. Because..." A section of roof hangs overhead, in this moment unable to be swayed by breeze or to strain against its threadbare connection to the rest of the house, its threat of collapse rendered temporarily moot. "Because we'd get a red ass over it, me and you, in different ways. I'd yell at her and put her through more of the same shit she always has to deal with, and you, you'd tear up and hide in your shell. Well, she's gotta be more important to us than that. Her being happy has gotta be more important than you and me being comfortable. It's gotta be more important than getting one over on Petra. Than saying all the things you daydreamed you'd say to her, if you got the chance again. Especially since she broke her ass to get here. You don't gotta like that it counts for something, but it does. You don't gotta like that she's right about me and you, but she is." Candy frowns, stuffing one hand into his pocket and running the other through his dark hair. A short, sharp sign escapes him. "So shut the fuck up, roll up your sleeves, put up your dukes, fight her like a couple of drunks in an alley, and listen to what she says. Especially if it hurts. If I can do that, you got no excuse not to." When time resumes, Candy and Ishirou are right back in front of Petra. Candy slips the suspenders from his shoulders, giving one arm then the other a roll to loosen up muscles. He procures a playing card--the Two of Diamonds--and crushes it. The card burns away into smoke, tendrils curling and compacting until an obsidian-tipped spear is in his hand. Candy twirls it overhead, then spaces his legs apart, one slightly ahead of the other, the spear held point-down in a high guard. "Let's get to it, then," he says, before stepping forward and leading up with the tip of the spear in a feint. The blunt in snaps outwards in a swipe aimed across Petra's jaw. "Just so you know, I'm a fuckup." His hands shift along the haft, twirling the tip for a bit of misdirection before sending it towards her legs to force her off balance. "See, I thought I did admit I was wrong. But I can't do nothing that way, 'cept the bare minimum. That shit with the cameras, I thought that was letting her enforce her own line in the sand. I thought if I jumped in some other way, I'd be stepping on her. So how can you fix that kind of stupid, ah?"
Ishirou	Ishirou turns from Petra the moment she showed up. He just listens, without saying anything. Hiding the seething he was doing right now. He hasn't hated anyone in his life like this, not even the humans in INDUS. She was second only to Eggman in his hatred right at this moment, and the more she talked the more anger was stoked. 'You look like shit. It's fucked up that you gave up the body you fought for that easily. It's really fucked up that you spat on all the help your friends gave you to fight for it.' 'What, now I'm being mocked, by you, for pretending /not/ to be human? Wasn't it you that couldn't shut up about who I /really/ was? Inspector Unit Four? Go ahead, Petra. Go ahead. TELL ME AGAIN who was it who said that name? Was it me? Was it Hibiki? Candy? Lilian? COME ON, TELL ME?!' he thinks almost immediately. Every emotion, every injury, everything that's happened to him is boiling up. Even if it's not even her fault. `I should've known better than to kill you, though.` "I should have known better than to not antagonize you. I just really wanted something to happen so I could feel justified. I'll admit that. I just wanted to hurt you. I wanted you to feel what you've done to me. What you did to people who didn't do anything to you.." '...and that she wasn't just a ticking fucking time bomb that you all had the goddamn grace and patience to defuse until she was on your side.' Ishirou pauses, looking at the ground at this point. His fists ball up at his sides. His artificial heart pounded in his ears. '...I don't see her like that. I don't..!' he internal monologues hissing through his teeth. 'I thought it... At that moment... BECAUSE THEY WERE CALLING HER 'Rook' and not /Lilian/. I didn't want her to explode, to hurt herself! But how can I help her, if she won't let me!!!' ''Don't protect me!' She says! She wants to be a knight! All the time! Anytime I show worry or concern I'm afraid she'll snap at me because I'm overstepping boundaries! That I'm trying to take her role! She wants to protect others, but who protects and helps her?' His mind pounds before he starts to settle down. Especially when he sees the chrome. Dimo's markings. Why? Why did...she..? All those words, she had said to him. No, it's really because he wasn't worth it, wasn't he..? '...At least I know myself.' His stomach turns, and he wants to throw up but has long since lost that ability. His voice is now ice cold, having lost the last bit of mental armor to this. "Are you ha-" is all he manages to get out before Candy drags him into the time stop. 'The only reason I agreed to this, and dragged you out here, is because Lilian oughta be more important to me, and to you, than however me and you see ourselves. She oughta be more important than yelling at Petra about how she's wrong, or whatever.' Ishirou pauses, almost turning into puddy right there and sliding back against the dilapidated house. He hates all these things he's feeling, everything he should have shrugged off. Everything 'Father' or Dick Hardley has said. Everything Petra said before this point. Everything Lilian has said because of what's happened to her. He sits there both listening and letting the words ring in his ears for a time. He's still struggling internally, trying to grasp something that continues to elude him. But... he's right. This wasn't about him, or Petra. It was about Lilian. Even if he ABSOLUTELY HATED where this was coming from...
Ishirou	Why could she be so open with /her/ and not him..? Why did Dimo do this to her? Why did it seem like everyone rejected him? No...no... stop. Not now...not now. This is about... Lilian. He wipes his eyes, rubbing every last tear he could out of them, and nods once to Candy. He holds a hand out and a rapier lands in it. He looks at the blade. She... she had taught him the basics. How to stand, and how to use it effectively. He still was a novice but... The blade swings down immediately after the time stop ends, the blade pointed at Petra. He only waits long enough for her to get ready, before he jumps forward, swinging under Candy and thrusting up towards Petra under the blade. "I wanted to help her... I thought I could protect her, but I'm not a knight and she spent so much time letting me know I wasn't. She got mad every time I worried for her or tried to step in for her.." he pauses. "I stopped trying because I thought I was making things worse. I worried for her even though she didn't want me to.." OPTIONs fly over to Candy, and start coordinating his strikes with Ishirou's. Ishirou was hardly a threat on his own but with Candy? With someone who was a capable fighter?
Petra Soroka	Petra's eyes flicker down to the ground when time stops. Candy's instanteous stutter of movement, matched by almost imperceptible bootprints in the grass where he'd walked to take Ishirou to the barn, there and gone in a split second. I wonder how often I never noticed before. "You are a fuckup. All of us are." Petra tenses up when Candy slides into his stance, and then reflexively steps back and snaps her arm up to block her face, haft colliding with forearm with a muted clang. Petra twitches with discomfort, and stumbles when Candy sweeps her legs, her stance still unsteady. "Don't you fucking get that she always has to do that? She's always enforcing her own boundaries; against the world, against her enemies like me, and against her fucking friends, too. Of course she'd be tired of fighting! Fight for her!" The growing stream of quicksilver down her arm stopped dripping to the ground at some point. It builds up on her hands in a viscous, quivering mass, and then all at once recoils and hardens, sliding back up her arm with the rasp of steel on steel, forming two heavy gauntlets, spikes jutting up over her elbows. With one gauntlet, she catches Ishirou's swing and deflects it into the ground with a shower of sparks. With the other, she advances past his lowered guard with a single, heavy step, and punches him into the truck. "Fuck you for justifying yourself that way. Thinking that you were caring more by jerking off in your own inadequacy, that you really were trying as hard as you could with your fucking heart of gold. You-- what's wrong with both of you! Why would she want you to be apathetic about her wellbeing? Why did no one step in to defend Lilian until you fucking got hurt! Why did no one ever ask how she was feeling!" Morphmetal squirms and reallocates in her left gauntlet, pooling into a smoother shape and then spiking forwards into Ishirou's rapier, details rippling into place down from the tip's impact to form a sword reminiscent of her gunblade's bayonet. Petra knocks Ishirou aside, further scraping the RESCUE unit on the truck, then suddenly freezes and takes a few steps back. "Fuck. Shit. Sorry about hitting your truck. We should--" Petra clenches her remaining gauntlet, hard enough that metal bends and squeals, and it shatters into a thousand razor-edged fragments, suspended in a cloud around her hand. She swings her hand in an arc towards the field, and the flechettes rush through the air to shred the ruined sugarcane and make a bare patch of field. Petra looks briefly pleased with herself, then moves to put more distance between herself and the truck. "The way to fix it, is to stop fucking being one of them! Stop being one of the fucking infinite people who are more excited to see her fight and bleed and fail, and who think it's easier to hate her than understand her! Be someone she can just be safe around!"
Candy	'Don't you fucking get that she always has to do that?' "I guess I didn't get it," Candy says, he looks utterly defeated to admit it. "But that's the problem. I don't fight like Hibiki and them. For me it's about being mad as hell. Or punching up. You know," he says with a grimace. "Fighting like -they- do, when they think they're right. But doing that, for as long as I did, put all these dumbass ideas in my head that just... jump out. 'Cause I can't hold 'em." Ishirou goes flying into the truck. The vehicles of this era are made without knowledge of things like crumple zones. The impact will, unfortunately, be painful. But even as the truck groans and rocks afterwards, Candy's attention is on Petra. "Don't worry about it," Candy says dully, regarding the truck. He doesn't even look back. "This is more important." The field is cleared, and Candy charges forward, haft held parallel to his back. Anticipating more use of her heavy gauntlets, he whips it around to bring the tip across her center of mass, hands twirling it to put the butt towards her. It shoots out in a rapid flurry intended to force her guard, before he plants the tip in the freshly cleared farmland and vaults towards her in a dropkick. Candy hits the ground and gets to his feet in a nimble whirlwind that has the spear swung out as he rolls to a kneel and rises. "How did you do it? How did you stop? 'Cause you musta. This don't sound like 'one of them,' to me, what you're saying. How can you let go of something when you don't even know how much of it you're holding?"
Ishirou	Blade meets gauntlet, the rapier wants to give for just a second, before sliding off of it. When the fist comes to knock him back, he barely has enough time to produce a blast of force right into it. He does go flying and hits Candy's truck, but the blow was blunted in a way that could easily be felt. He brings the weapon up, but what he see's forming in her hands causes him to seize up. His legs shaking, his hands shaking, and his eyes focused solely on that weapon. He's hyperventilating, seeing that weapon, remembering the pain of it going through his chest, remembering the feeling of dying. Remembering how it would feel this time, because of the feeling Rita had given him. When she swings to knock him away, he can barely parry and goes flying across the field. He rolls around before coming to a stop. Dirty and muddy, and hating it. He pulls himself to his knees and stares at the ground. 'You have too much of INDUS in you.' He wants to wretch even more now. So many parts of him are warring with other parts. Some things want to just shut down, roll over and give up. These parts just want things to be easy, so that he can just coast through things. 'Just good enough.' Some parts just want to be /superior/ to her. She's wrong, she is a wretch. Brick even said so! Why is he listening to her? He's smarter, better, better trained... he wants to do good things! He doesn't need to take this from her! He should just do what she did to him! It's /right/! But... that part of him. That small part, smaller than he'd like to admit rejects both ideas. It /isn't/ right that she has to fight alone. It's afraid that he'd make the wrong move and say the wrong thing. It's afraid he'd lose every connection to his humanity. It's the part of him that was cracked when Petra called him by his previous name. The part that was afraid of becoming inhuman. It's afraid. He's afraid. He hasn't stopped being afraid. He ran off to fight Petra because he was afraid. He was afraid that he didn't put as much effort in as he should have. He's afraid that... he'll... just not be good enough for her. When she said he wish he had died, that part of him just clung to it. Because he felt she was right. Now he's more afraid than ever. Every ounce of courage is straining against the overwhelming fear that had come to pass. Slowly, rising to his feet he just can't hold anything back. Tears are flowing, he's afraid... he's absolutely unable to mask anything now. He's not fine. "I'm afraid... of losing her... but I guess I can't be afraid of that anymore. She's already gone. So what's the point? Maybe they can recover, but we all know that I can't. It's better that I just... stop." Being human? Being brave? Yes, that and more. He falls back on the anger. It's all he can to push himself forward. Once more dashing at her, aiming to slide under Candy and thrust his weapon, trying to poke at her weak points. Trying to set up Candy's next blows. He can do it... all he can manage is just not being in the way.
Petra Soroka	Petra brings her arm down to protect her core, but with the sword in her hand-- attached, actually, to the gauntlet, melded seamlessly into the uniform silver shape-- she can only clumsily take the hits on her arm instead. Candy's kick, then, slams into her with its full intended impact, and the force knocks through her torso with an odd recoiling feeling of fluid-compression. The transferred inertia exits through her back with a spray of shards and twisted metal, ripping through her t-shirt and exposing the cavitated crater in her back, filled with gleaming cords of silver and tubes and supports, dripping with mercury ichor. Not, of course, that Petra would let either boy see that. She tumbles to the ground and shrieks, scrambling back up to her feet with her front faced carefully towards the pair. The cloud of razor shards, now doubled or tripled in size from before, swarms around in a curtain to give Petra a moment of breathing room. After a moment, Petra jumps out of it, flechettes coalescing around her arm mid-swing to reform the gaunlet on her hand, punching down at Ishirou to pin him to the ground when he slides. "This is pathetic. You spineless piece of shit! That's all you have to say? You're still fucking blaming her for not dragging you around with her! Why is it her job to be perfect? Why can't you put any goddamn effort in yourself? If you don't see a point in trying to support her even when it's hard, then you seriously are the most worthless person I've ever met!" PHONE: Phoning Xion, Petra Soroka says, "I-I don't think they'll ever get it. I don't really know you, I don't know if you do. But they don't need to be perfect, they just need to be... outer rings of a world that doesn't want her gone, I think." PHONE: Phoning Xion, Petra Soroka says, "And if they can't do that, then I need to know that about them too." Petra grabs Ishirou by an angle on his RESCUE unit, fingers crushing metal with terrifying strength, and throws him to the edge of the field. "If that's the best you have, then you're right. It's better that you stop. Kill yourself. I'm not going to do it for you. If the limit of your care for Lilian is wanting to leave her the moment that you can't fucking ignore how badly she's suffering, then kill yourself before talking to her again, so she can't accidentally think it's her fault. That's the best way you can help her." "How can you let go of something when you don't even know how much of it you're holding?" Petra cuts off her tirade on Ishirou, holds her breath for a moment, then exhales it with a groan. "That's literally the hardest question in the world, Candy. I'm fucking full of it, that rot. It's not-- I was just in jail for two months. You know what I was like. It's not like-- like I've suddenly figured it all out, like I secluded myself in a cave like a monk and came back fucking enlightened. I just...." Audible to Candy, and soon after Ishirou, is the building pitch of Petra's reactor hum. The twinkling metal shards shiver in the air, sliding a million sharp edges against each other at uneven speeds to make a shrill cacophany that Petra doesn't even seem to notice, talking underneath it. "It's her fucking dad. I-I-I, I saw what he did to her, and I'm so fucking furious that I'll do anything to make the world better for her. Weren't you at her house, before? Didn't you see? How could you not feel the same way? If she's important to you, you just have to keep trying, and listen to her. I'm not-- I'm not smart, about these kinds of things. I just love her enough that I'm going to force my way through it anyways."
Candy	'That's literally the hardest question in the world, Candy.' "Yeah. I figured. Sorry." 'If she's important to you, you just have to keep trying, and listen to her.' "...but I think you're onto something, with that." He grimaces at the cacophony of shards grinding against one another, one eye shut tightly as if that might shut out the noise. No such luck--and when he steps forward to try and force her out, he is cut several times across the back of his hand. He jams the spear into the ground. From the sharp obsidian tip, a jet of pressurized water erupts, rocketing upward at a right angle to his attack, to shoot up at Petra with diffused, blunt-force impact. When Candy twists the spear, left then right, two more of these water-powered 'punches' shoot up to meet her. "Ishirou," he says, picking his head up. "Rub some dirt in it and get back over here. We ain't done shoveling yet." Pulling the spear from the ground, he holds it in a high guard, as if to stab downwards again. "That's the problem with me. Is that I'm stupid enough to think you could solve something like that by just... beating the shit out of him. But shit like that, it don't go away just 'cause you get angry enough. It don't go away, just 'cause you can be bigger and uglier." He looks exhausted, his head momentarily turned downwards. "Not really. Not for real." Turning back to Petra, he decides to charge in anyway, consequences be damned. to lower the spear and lead with a knee strike followed with a haft strike aimed at her ribs. "I wish I'd told you right, when we first met. Instead of telling you what I saw with my head up my ass." "But... if you really mean that shit, then I got no excuse not to try anyway. To shovel that coal. That goes for you, too, ah?" He calls to Ishirou.
Ishirou	'Why can't you put any goddamn effort in yourself?' "Because she was hurt..." he says pinned by that gauntlet. Still staring at it, still worried about that blade. Still, remember the last time they were in this position. She can feel him shivering, utterly terrified about what would happen if she did it again. "Because I hurt her going out and... wanting to not be..." He kicks up at her, trying to shove her away, even as she throws him away. The combined effort gets him scuffed, but he's back on his feet. "Why are you surprised about how pathetic I am? I know it, you know it, why is this a surprise? I couldn't handle being an Indus Android, so I ran away to become human." Once more, the blade comes to his hands. He dashes at her, trying to once more get in close. He thrusts, parries, and then attempts to flip behind her, aiming to try and kick her in the back of the head and send her into Candy's spear. "That hurt her because she couldn't give me what I needed," he says, staring at the ground. "I thought I could be better, but too much of that place is in me. I'm... wrong. I'm warped. I'm no more Ishirou than I was the day I stepped out of that place to work for the Paladins." "You said it yourself, I shouldn't pretend. I'm just the same stupid robot I was then. Inspector Unit Number Four. Too afraid to do anything because it'll hurt her. Always questioning everything he does, because he doesn't know what to do. He's not strong, or smart, or brave... he just thought he could try to be like that because he /really/ wanted to be like her!" "Because if he was like her... he'd be less like him," the steam is gone, he's just... tired. Exhausted. But before he can just collapse, Petra says something that causes him to pause. "What... did he do? What..? I wasn't at her house before, I didn't see anything..." he says genuinely confused. He looks at Candy, because he wasn't in the group that did. "I know... I know she hates him. A lot. But..." a pause. What he did. He remembers what happened at the meeting on New York. How she looked... what she felt. "Oh... oh no... he didn't..." he pauses, looking at Petra. 'We're not done shoveling coal yet.' He pauses, again, looking at Candy. He... isn't sure what to say, or do. He's torn between indecisiveness, his own pain and suffering, and genuine love for her. Everything screams in him to give up. It's just not worth it. You'll just hurt yourself again. Just give up and be a robot, that was easier. The blade raises, and he points it at the ready. "Y-yeah..."
Petra Soroka	The whirling spiral of metal shards around Petra cuts through Candy's water blasts even without her conscious direction. Pressurized jets turn into spray on the edges of razors, filling the field with rainbow mist like at the bottom of a horizontal waterfall. Undirected as they are, though, Petra still takes the hit from one of jets, stumbling back out of her swarm. Still keeping it between her and Candy, keeping her front facing towards him, she forces him to charge through it to get to her. Mid-whirlwind, aimless splinters of metal briefly clump into ephemeral weapon-shapes, swinging at Candy with half-formed blades as he passes through, continuing the assault when he knocks her to the ground. Sprawled on her back, Petra spits out a globule of mercury-- narratively, Candy can guess that it should be blood, but really it's hard to tell-- and it immediately synchronizes with the tooth-hurting vibration still screaming from Petra's core. "Yeah. I thought that too, for a moment, even though I knew it wasn't the right way. But Exigent Serenity and Xion were right. He has to go, but we can't just rip him out." Petra climbs to her feet again, using the brief interlude of Candy being occupied by the harrying weapons to restabilize. "It'll never really end for her, if this is the last way she sees him. If this is the way that he stays in her mind, forever. We can't rip him out, we have to ruin him." "I couldn't handle being an Indus Android, so I ran away to become human." "I'm... wrong. I'm warped." "I'm just the same stupid robot I was then. Inspector Unit Number Four." Petra flinches, her lip curling in disgust. She opens her mouth silently, struggling to find words, looking like she's choking on them. "You're disgusting. Never say that again, or I swear to god I'm actually going to kill you to keep you away from her. What's wrong with you? Did you stop bothering to fight for the shape you said you preferred the moment people stopped giving you praise for it? Was it a fucking kink? Just fucking around in the fucking Decompression Chamber until people made sympathetic noises at you? Pathetic. Embarrassing." "If you're too much of a coward to fight for it, then at least don't fucking say it out loud. Have some fucking consideration for the people who actually exist at full normocausative pressure. This is your problem. You're weak and want everyone to fight for you while you crawl behind and moan and complain. You're worthless." "Oh... oh no... he didn't..." Petra looks like she's going to be sick. It's an active, visible effort for her to swallow and twist her gaze back over to Ishirou as he raises his sword at her. The whirlwind of flechettes spreads over the entire battlefield like a miasma, loose enough to be barely a hindrance, but inescapable. "Tell me. What did he do to her." The squeal of Petra's reactor sounds choked, at a high enough pitch that it burns in your ears like tinnitus, and then something audibly shifts, slackening the stranglehold tangible in the sound. The shriek opens into a voiceless, humming scream, plummeting pitch, and every flechette in the air twists and splits and splits again, darkening the field with a galaxy of razor stars. The sharp, suffocating cloud is filled with the ghosts of shapes of weapons, cutting at the two boys as Petra stands in the center, fists balled up, still expecting them to respond.
Candy	"ISHIROU--" Candy nearly does it again--nearly flies off the handle and makes things a thousand times worse. He stops himself, because that's how he stopped himself in New York. "Ishirou." Candy crosses the space between them in an instant, inches from his face, bleeding from his encounter with Petra's defensive cloud and from her half-formed weapons further into the cloud. "Shut the fuck up, okay? I dunno how I can be no clearer." He hadn't even bothered fighting off her pursuing weapons--such is the dire need to address what Ishirou said. Candy tosses the spear into the ground. "When you call yourself -that name-, when you run to being a robot 'cause that's what's more comfortable, you're settling for being unhappy. It hurts you. It hurts me to see you that way. And it makes every-fucking-body around you, even people that don't know you, even people that fucking hate you, uncomfortable. 'Cause they know it's not what you really want, and they know there's something... fucking disgusting about it. You don't believe me, you ask the person right here that don't like you. Shit, even that goddamn doctor would probably wince." He huffs an aggrieved sigh. "So stop it. Stop talking about being 'broken,' and all this other shit. You sound like fucking Petra did. No offense," he says, looking over his shoulder at her. Back to Ishirou: "Nobody's gonna come and fix you but you. You didn't wanna be like Lilian. You wanted to be like the version of her you had built up in your head. But that Lilian is something that a real human being made--a human being like you. She made up that Lilian so she could survive in that fucking house. Around that fucking man. Yeah, we went there. It was bad, Ishirou. And she is tired. I shoulda seen it before, but she is tired of being that... fucking... invention of a person. Don't use that as some excuse to pity her like I did." His finger is jabbed into Ishirou's chest. "Fix your shit, and be better, for you and for her." The skies overhead darken, and Candy is forced to rip the spear from the earth. The air around them is host to a brief but ear-splitting clangor of stones dragged against obsidian and hafts carefully lathed and hammered. A spread of spears identical to the one he holds are brought into the world, assembled in fast-forward only to be flung in rapid succession towards Petra, a one-man phalanx conjured by the farmer at significant cost to his physical and magical fatigue--he leans against his spear, wiping sweat from his brow. "He fucking beat her." It isn't clear if he's saying it to Ishirou or to Petra. "Any time she did something he didn't like. Any time she tried to be some kinda way that didn't fucking flatter him personally. 'Cause that's all she ever was to him, was fucking property that you gotta treat a little nicer." He looks over his shoulder at Ishirou. "So stop fucking worshipping her and just be her friend. That's all she ever needed from any of us, and God himself would say we fucking failed. Starting now, we fix our shit and be better for her."
Ishirou	'...Decompression Chamber...' The world just jolts for Ishirou after a moment. It's like he ran into a wall, at full speed. Like a paradigm that shifted, but without a clutch. Just being reminded of the Decompression Chamber... He remembers. That moment. His one wish. The form he was in, but...being allowed to breathe for the first time. To actually feel things on his skin. To have the warmth of flesh and blood around him. Remembering how /complete/ he felt to have the body he wanted. Maybe some of it was conflating his personhood with his body image... Oh. "Oh fuck..." he says finally getting it. At that moment the reality of what he was doing actually crashed on him like an avalanche. He was completely stunned by how he couldn't see it before. How many twisted things in his brain were tunneling into his own thoughts? How much of Indus was still in there? In his mind. Wanting him to throw everything away because he wasn't supposed to feel these things. "It's... oh my god... it's the same..." he realizes, in a moment of self-realization. 'Tell me. What did he do to her.' 'When you call yourself -that name-, when you run to being a robot 'cause that's what's more comfortable, you're settling for being unhappy.' 'Fix your shit, and be better, for you and for her.' He looks sick, actually sick. What has he done..? What did he do to her? He shakes his head, heart pounding again. Thoughts blazing through his mind, trying to search for some answer, or some excuse. Then it hits him a second time. He's doing it again. This time it was both of them, next time it's just her. It's not. It's him. He's been so self-absorbed in... everything. He didn't go out there and got killed for her... it was for himself. He didn't try and get a new body because he wanted to make a new humanity... it was because he couldn't handle the pressure of just one girl with bad thoughts. He wanted to be the hero, but he didn't understand the pure strength needed to be that. He couldn't /do/ that, he couldn't shoulder things like she can. She wasn't yelling at him to stop because of herself... but because she /knew/ he couldn't. She didn't want to see him suffer, but he threw himself into hell anyway. She made the same mistakes and did everything to survive in that house. And all the time he acted like a petulant child. Even when the fletches come, he doesn't run. He doesn't hide, he stares at them. This isn't even half of what she must go through every day, is it? To feel these stings from every side. Electromagnetic energy erupts around him. He can't protect himself from everything, but he can lessen the blow. Their reactors race against each other, but he doesn't have to outlast hers, he has to parry and riposte. Just like she taught him. Electromagnetic energy fires in a pulse the moment her reactor's sounds start to recede. He recalls the OPTION, and it pumps all of the collected data into his mind. Every single thing around him, allowed him to trace a path. Missiles fly out, and right as Petra might swing for some, the debris she might control stops, opening holes in her defenses, and aiming every explosive down at her. He isn't strong. He isn't tough. But he has to stop thinking in terms like that.
Ishirou	He has to fight his way, with what she taught him. 'So stop fucking worshipping her and just be her friend.' A person... he didn't really see her like that. A figure, a hero... but never the person. How could he say he loved her when he wasn't even looking at her? "I'm sorry," Ishirou says, finally. "You're right. I... wanted to be saved, and... when she did I just.." he pauses, "I wanted to be rescued again and again... but that's not how this works. You don't just wait to be rescued by a hero you love and respect. You... you need to make their life easier. I... need to be a better friend. For her... for someone... who I want to call family..." "...I'm not going to run anymore. Not from myself... not from her... and not from /that piece of shit/." he roars, as he closes his hands, aiming to retract the field right on top of the explosives.
Petra Soroka	"You sound like fucking Petra did. No offense," Petra still looks a little queasy, when Candy catches her eyes. "I-- sorry. I actually d-do take offense. Don't compare me to him. Not on this." She wraps her hand around her upper arm in an insecure half-hug, thumb pressing into her shoulder. She shudders, swaying in place, and it's like a spell is broken. Petra looks around at the storm of metal, the stream of it constantly pouring out of her back and arms, the chrome-filled wounds all over the narrowly visible parts of her body, and her eyes widen. She clamps her hand to her mouth, stumbling backwards, and the flechettes don't part around her like they had before, as if no longer recognizing her as part of them. Metal digs into metal, digging out new gashes leaking quicksilver, and Candy's barrage of spears and Ishirou's missiles pass through the cloud with only minimal resistance, some shredded by the swirling blades, but most striking Petra. With the poor visibility, the only way to tell that she's down is from the way the airborne fragments of her react. The rotational speed of the cyclone grinds to a halt over long seconds, every shard suspended in the air, vibrating in place. Candy and Ishirou catch a glimpse of Petra lying on the ground, covered in cut scraps of weeds and sugarcane, sticking all over her, before the razor-sharp fragments all soften at once, and fall as droplets to the ground like a ten ton cloudburst. The mass of silver puddles across the field, then slowly crawls towards Petra. She struggles up to her hands and knees, and scrambles backwards away from the encroaching tide, chest rising and falling in panicked hyperventilation. She seems to have forgotten that Candy and Ishirou are even there, for the moment. The first pseudopodic growth of the mercury tide makes contact with her, and starts absorbing back into her body. Petra stops trying to escape, putting both hands over her mouth and hiding her face in her knees, shoulder shaking with quiet sobs. Muffled by her knees and unsteadily jumping around in pitch, Petra still tries to keep talking. "I-I-- good. You're b-b-both, both willing to-- to help her. I'm g-glad. I-I-I-I-I'm--"
Ishirou	In that brief moment... A sullen-looking Ishirou could be seen in his mind. The Ishirou simply accepted things and just went with the flow. Who cared so little about himself or his own self-worth. The one that accepted he wasn't a person because then he wouldn't be broken. Another Ishirou, the haughty and arrogant one. The one who knew everything, who knew better than the experts. Who could argue everything and everyone. Everyone was wrong, he was the only right one...and he could look down on everyone. They look down on the fallen Petra. She's weakened, they whisper to her. You could get rid of her right now. Only Candy would know, and he'd help you hide the body. You could have her all to yourself, you know... she'd come around, to either your laziness or your superiority. 'No,' Ishirou says to both. 'I hate you both. You're what kept me chained to Indus. I could have been better than this... I should have been better than this. I /will/ be better than this...' He says, looking at Petra. Her words sting, and those two almost immediately try and leap on what she said in response to Candy. Their features grow, their shadows deepening. Their teeth drawing sharper. 'She's right. I'm not someone she should compare herself to... not yet. I've been a shitty friend. I've hurt someone who didn't deserve it, and I've let you two in my thoughts long enough. Two rapiers fly out from nowhere, controlled by what looks like the mental equivalent of the VCRS. Each one was impaled. Vanishing like shadows. "...I have a lot to make up for, " he says, finally. He says, walking to Petra and kneeling by her. "Candy, we need to help..." he says, looking back at him. "I can ride in the back. I just..." He takes or rather tries to take her hand. "I'm sorry. I'm... so so so very sorry..." he says, shaking his head.
Candy	Candy sighs. His arms go slack. Really, his whole body does, in as much as it can while he still stands up. One thumb hooks a suspender strap back over his shoulder, then the other. As the silver tide rolls back towards Petra, Candy follows it. Spears conjured for the purpose of his attack burn away into smoke ahead of him, that he need not edge his way around them. "Yeah. Well. I wish it didn't take all this to get us there." He runs a hand through his hair in a display of plainly evident fatigue, the other palm pressed against his hip. "Yeah," he says to Ishirou. "Petra, you want a ride, you got one. I can..." Candy looks over to his truck, in the distance. The passenger side door is dented from impact. "I can get that door off and get you to the warpgate." "Ishirou--take some time, clear your head. When you had a minute to get everything straight up there, give Lilian a call. See if maybe she wants to... I dunno. Spend some time or something. Have a few beers, go see a race." He shrugs his shoulders. "I dunno what the fuck I'm doing. But I can't remember the last time me and her just did something like that. Or even was near each other, without it being about a job."
Petra Soroka	Petra flinches and scoots away from Ishirou when he approaches, lifting up her face to stare at him in horror. She pulls her hand back and curls into herself, shuddering. "I-I-I-- sorry, I-- d-don't. Please. Don't. I said this wasn't about me and I meant it. I still can't stand you. You're Lilian's friend, not mine. I-I'm just, not your enemy, and I need to help you to help her. Don't apologize to me because I don't think you can possibly understand what you're apologizing for." Petra pushes herself to her feet alone, back angled away from Ishirou and Candy even while the silver mass crawls back inside the cavity. She turns to Candy, scrubbing her face with the back of her hand. "Y-yeah. Thanks. I... I'll take the ride. Thank you." Petra voice and eyes drop, murmuring to Candy while she follows him to the truck, trudging along through the grass and dirt. "...Thanks, Candy. Throughout this whole thing, e-everyone that I'm trying to reach out to for her, you two were the-- the ones I was most worried about. So thank you for trying. And trying for him, too. I don't want Lilian to have to hate anyone she's close to as much as she hates him right now."