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Priscilla     The way in is veiled in such heavy shadow that it is akin to a wall of blackness. A tunnel that leads nowhere. It's a perfectly square void in the middle of a well lit corridor that reeks of sugar and radiates cold, palpable unease. It's not a 'weird' kind of unease. It's not unsettling in any kind of nameably surreal way, like the post offices of Sachihata, or the processing stacks of Vesper, or the bleak lines of the purified Zone 1. It feels bad. 'Off script'.

    The walk through the void is short. Too short for it to be pitch black for the length of an unlit tunnel. Almost immediately after entering, you're in the light again, surrounded by bright, plastic yellow. The 'cellar' isn't much, as most rooms aren't here. A square vault of plain geometric lines, only identified by one of the rarest possible things found in this whole world: something akin to artwork. A symbol, painted on the floor. For some reason, the gigantic likeness of a swan, not too dissimilar from the ubiquitous pedalos elsewhere, but drawn with an odd amount of loving elegance.

    The room had been stocked by the Judge, or perhaps Zacharie, with only three things. One; a light. Two; mounds of glistening white sugar piled around at random, overpoweringly sweet, but without the chemical aftertaste of the vault in Vesper. Three; a woman, huddled in the corner, up against the wall, head in her knees, knees to her chest, unresponsive.

    Unlike the Batter, or the Elsens, there is still some trace of colour to her. Short, vaguely blonde hair, baggy yellow leggings that stop below her knees, tied up with a ragged orange sash looped too many times, and a barely on yellow jacket vest, unbuttoned. Bands of black tape, or something like it, stripe her bare arms and legs, and ominously familiar-looking Xs barely keep her upper half decent.

    Even when you all enter the room, she doesn't stir. There's only the faint sound of her breathing, and the rapidly intensifying sense that you shouldn't be here. She doesn't appear to be restrained or trapped in any way, nor does she resemble anyone or anything you've come across at all, in even the slightest way. The feeling of being 'off-script' just gets worse by the second.
August Kohler As the group recollects and heads inside, August has summoned Dietrich for safety, riding on his back, sword out for defense. As they head through the 'cellar', and see the swan, August speaks up. "You think we'll find the Judge in here?"

And then, as they look through the lit up room, August's eyes sweep over. Light, sugar...a woman?!

Jumping off Dietrich, but keeping a hand on his holstered revolver just in case, August approaches, stopping some distance away for safety.

"Hey! Hey, are you alright?" He doesn't trust this woman because this land is super weird, but, he's willing to try and talk to her and see if she'll respond, at all. In the likely event she doesn't, he speaks again. "Can you hear me?"

The feeling of being 'off-script', the sense that he shouldn't be here, makes August take a breath, getting uncomfortable. What the fuck is this place?
Yuuki Kuran Heading inside to the area, past the deepest darkness (a familiar friend), Yuuki wanders into this room that isn't 'right'. It breaks the mold.

It's off-script. There's a girl cowering in the corner. Sugar - real sugar - is piled everywhere.

Turning up her nose at the overly sweet air, there's... nothing here she wants.

And so, to Stephen Strange - and George - Yuuki turns her gaze. "So? What are we doing here."
Janine Liberi     Janine strides through the darkness, pushing through the growing sense of unease and the sense that she has stepped off the expected path. She has decided; this world throws bad sensations and vague cautions at her constantly, but if it can't give a good reason why she should or should not do something, she's gonna do as she pleases. And so she marches through the dark, soon emerging in the light.

    A return to the plastic, the source of the sickly sweet scent obvious. Piles upon piles of sugar, and a woman sitting against the far wall. How long has she been down here? How long has she been 'forgetting her troubles?' "I can hear her breathing," Janine says, not joining August in rushing over. Junkies are... unpredictable.

    Rather, she investigates the nearest sugar pile. It's so thick in the air she can taste it with every breath, and she can tell there's no aftertaste. This sugar isn't the same. To make sure, she dips her pinky tip into the stuff and brings it to her mouth to get a proper taste.

    What's different about it?
Zero Kiryu "I'm not sure." Zero admits, folding his arms over his chest and taking up a position next to Yuuki. Despite being the person who prompted this specific investigation, he doesn't really know what he wants out of it. Or if there is anything to be gained at all. He nods towards the woman.

"Her name is Sugar. I don't know much else." He adds.
Doctor Strange      Does he think he'll find the Judge here? "No," says Strange to August. The conversation with Zacharie just a few moments ago implies something worse. So it is that when they enter the room, everyone's eyes are drawn to the huddled woman in the corner. That woman is the danger--she must be, because there's nothing else here. If she herself isn't dangerous, then her existence, or the tampering thereof, represents some danger grave enough to make Zacharie break his cheery exterior.

     As such, Strange gently warns August. Not verbally, but with an outstretched hand, held before the younger man's chest. He slowly turns his head and levels a wary look at the redhead. The opposite hand forms a fist, save one finger. The index finger of that hand is slowly, shakily lifted, as if to say 'one moment' or 'be careful' to Yuuki.

     A subtle, quick gesture of that same hand conjures a spell mandala, burning brightly. "Why did the Judge put you down here?" He asks of Sugar. "Why are he and Zacharie that scared of you?"
Starbound Flotilla     "Isss good quessstion. /What/ are you doing here? You're not sssupposssed to be here." Biteblade is somewhere. Where? She passes, somehow, seemingly through the ground. As if she'd been swimming in it, she lets out a sudden breath. "Why are sssinging purification friendsss here? /Why/?" She's almost interrogating as she rises, in all her bone-and-wood-armored glory, looking... cautious. Worried. Defensive. "What isss going on here?"

    She tries to stand between August or Doctor Strange and the woman. "Leave her alone! She'sss not Guardian anymore, doesssn't need to be part of thisss. Why are you bringing purification busssinesss around here? Get out! Sucre friend hasss it bad enough without you." She points accusingly, aggressively.
Starbound Flotilla     "HELL!" George practically leaps back as he's wandering in. "/What/ the fuck, how--" He braces, as if Biteblade might attack him the way Seft did, but it doesn't happen. He takes several steps back. "Iiiii'm not in on this one, kids. I like keeping all my fingers and I don't know why I'd wanna mess with blondie over there." George backs out; as the practically weakest of six Captains, he knows how any fight involving him and Biteblade on opposite sides goes down for him.
Zero Kiryu Violet eyes dart towards the floor as a blip appears on his radar, and rises up through it. Zero makes immediate eye contact with Biteblade, his posture going from neutrally defensive to absolutely and unquestionably noncombative. He raises a hand to rub at the back of his head, an awkward gesture more characteristic of what he might do in familiar company than among all these strangers.

Leave her alone!

"Yeah, okay." The hunter answers, flicking his wrists into the surroundings to deposit several rapidly-growing thorn bushes that begin to form what can only be described as an arena.

"I'll take it down when people have resolved whatever business they think they have here."

Having said his piece (after a fashion), Zero turns and walks back down the passageway that brought them here, content to observe through the plants he left behind.
Yuuki Kuran Stephen Strange raises his wordless finger, and Yuuki crosses her arms. This is not a good look. This is the opposite of a good look. This is a Bad Look.

When Biteblade's voice appears - and Yuuki is used to 'voices from weird places' - she closes her eyes, half-turning away as if to leave. "This is pathetic. Is this Elsen? A Guardian? George..."

"... It's not even for purification is it? She's 'not the guardian any more'."

Biteblade can burrow, which... actually makes perfect sense, so Yuuki looks right at biteblade, opening her eyes as she crouches down to get on the Floran's level. "I think we got lost, Biteblade. Are you okay?"
Janine Liberi     Janine pauses her taste test of the illicit fifth element as Biteblade erupts from the ground, only to roll her eyes as they point the accusatory finger. "There it is. Buddy, you and yours gave up all right to paint us as the bad guys when you refused to tell us anything. Any bad shit we blunder into that you had information on is on you. If you had said, 'Hey the old Guardian of Zone 0 is underneath the Zone, leave 'em alone,' I'd have listened."
Starbound Flotilla     "Lossst-- what? Not lossst. Not even ssssuposed to be back here. Why are you ssstill here?" Biteblade says, cautiously. She shifts her left arm oddly, and there's a noise like paper and water as she rises all the way. "You won! Zonesss purified, bad Guardiansss dead, Queen plan ssstopped. Why are ssstill here? /How/ are ssstill here?" This isn't rhetorical. She seems to think the gang knows more than she does about this.

    "Floran isssn't-- Floran issn't calling you /bad guy/, Floran isss calling you not sssupposed to be here. Like, rulesss ssay is wrong. You're done with misssion! Enemy isss sssurrender. /How/ are ssstill here?" She emphasizes, taking a more defensive stance. "Floran not /withhold/. You, sssuposed to be gone. World map? sssuppossed to let you out. Big fanfare, purification isss winner again. What..." She takes a step back and keeps a hand resting at her hip, where her daggers protrude from her Matter Manipulator. "What are you ssstill doing in world here?"

    She sounds worried. Stressed. Suspicious. Worried they have a Scheme. She's tensely protective of Sugar as well -- "Sucre", to her.
Priscilla     Janine tastes the sugar. It tastes . . . really good, actually. Not a hint of Burned Bodies. It's not like table or icing sugar either. It abstractly reminds her of dessert. A lot of different desserts at once, actually. It's hard to pick one. It's like a hint of the flavour of every sweet thing she's particularly enjoyed before, nostalgic and with a hint of homesickness. It appears to be non-harmful.

    Strange talks to the woman in the corner, and the woman laughs. She draws her knees tighter to her chest, and lets out a few, weary little sounds, almost familiar, but laden with the hoarse tones of someone stressed to the point of exhaustion --tired and distraught to the point of giving up on the latter. She smiles, and he can see lips painted black in a way that terminates in a little curl and dot at the corners, not entirely dissimilar to Zacharie's usual, crude mask. He still can't see her eyes under the shadow of her heavy blunt bangs.

    "Zacharie? He isn't scared of anything. I don't . . . know why. I'm just ignoring . . . why everything's so frightening." She giggles to herself, as if something were bitterly funny. "You know, if you think of something beautiful really hard, maybe you will see it tomorrow. Like a beautiful day. With a great big ducky."

    "A frightening one. There's a frightening one out there."

    The worst part is that she doesn't sound even slightly out of it. No trace of addiction, insanity, corruption --she sounds entirely, lucidly, crystal clearly 'given up'.
Starbound Flotilla     Biteblade makes cautious, calming, almost soothing motions at her side towards Sucre, assuring her through the bramble-arena. "Isss gonna be fine, Sssucre friend. Day isss beautiful, and nothing isss gonna be frightening. Floran isss here to protect! Floran isss strongessst hunter, kill ssscariest prey-bird." She doesn't look like she believes it. She looks like someone who just had a rug pulled out from under her feet, and is ready to cut someone about it.

    This isn't like Seft, where it was a fully informed issue of strongly divergent morality and ethics. This is just Biteblade genuinely not knowing what's going on, and seeming intent on equal parts keeping the group at a distance, and interrogating them. She has the look of an amusement park employee who found out that someone's been on the ferris wheel for five consecutive hours, and has a gun.
Janine Liberi The sugar is good. /Real good./ And abundantly not actual sugar. It's like... the itea of sweet, tasty things. It reminder her of her grandmother's cannoli, and her favourite picks from her father's sweets company. No wonder everyone here got so hooked. Even the nasty corpse-version would be nice if it could dredge memories like that.
    But, Biteblade is hear, and she can't get another taste. Janine drops the attitude when the weird plant person makes it abundantly clear they're not being smug, they're genuinely confused. As the knives come out, the Italian girl raises a placating hand. "Okay, sorry. You genuinely don't know, my b. Personally, I'm looking for the Judge, haven't seen him since Zone 2."

    And then the girl talks.

    Janine knows that tone. She spoke with the same one for the longest time. Not hollow, just full of numbing despair. It's how you sound where every second of living feels kind of pointless. But she's not like that anymore. "Second best time to have a good day is tomorrow. Best time is today," she says sternly. "And if any scary ducks come at us, I'll gut it and cook it. You look like you need something more filling than sugar."
Doctor Strange      Strange's attention turns away from Sugar, and towards Biteblade. There isn't much Sugar could tell him that's actually of use--interesting, perhaps, but not of use. There's no point in continuing to press her when their real objective has just shown itself. "We're not here for her," says the Sorcerer Supreme. He makes a fist with the hand that was previously held in front of August. A mandala appears before that hand, too. "And we have no intention of harming her."

     "If we've won, consider this our victory lap. The Grand." Strange's expression darkens slightly, and he inclines his head towards Biteblade. "Please."
August Kohler Well, this is as confusing as shit. The girl, Sucre, is full of despair, and Biteblade is here defending her. Biteblades says...they won? But that makes no sense. He doesn't say it out loud, but...

He's clearly thinking 'we haven't even fought the Queen'. As Strange moves to ask for the Grand though, August takes position next to him, Dietrich stepping up. It's vaguely threatening, but not overtly - he's just being there in case Biteblade's response is to stab someone or threaten herself. "We don't want to hurt her. Believe me."
Starbound Flotilla     "..." Biteblade grits her teeth anxiously. It's hard to differentiate anxious teeth-gritting from aggressive teeth-gritting when you have so many teeth that are that long and that sharp. "Sssmall cat friend, firssst one, guardian, wasss sssupposed to come here. Ride out renovation. Haven't ssseen. You sssay, Zone 2? And not at Zone 1, bird friend would tell. Uhhhh... Hasss to be alive, or Zone 0 would be purified already. But, if not back yet..." She looks genuinely worried in a way she was expecting to not expect. Like Janine just told her the fridge won't turn on, or the nuclear codes are missing.
Priscilla     The woman --Sucre-- giggles at Janine. "I'm never hungry anymore." she declares. "I don't know . . . why that is. Cooked duck. Pablo would like it. But the big ducky out there . . . is too frightening."

    "There isn't going to be a tomorrow . . . but I'd like to imagine it."

    She raises her face just high enough to look over her knees at Biteblade. Her eyes somehow still aren't visible. "I'd like to imagine just one beautiful day, with a pretty flower, and a cute kitty, and . . ."

    "Pablo is a good kitty. He knows where his home is."
Starbound Flotilla     "You don't get victory lap. You win and then misssion isss done, you go back and be winnersss." Biteblade says, narrowing her eyes and keeping her palm firmly on her daggers, certainly looking negatively at Doctor Strange. "Kingdom isss closssed for renovationsss, come back later. Don't play gamesss longer than the clock. Floran hasss ssseen the sssign of Grandsss. Tassste of /that/ Ram, Floran never like. Nothing... nothing /right/ coming out of getting thossse, whatever plan isss." She flexes her arm a little again. A noise like paper and water again, ready to go and do whatever she intends.
Yuuki Kuran This is Hard for Yuuki. Hard in a lot of ways. 'Feeling' just what the girl gives off - the ladeling of despair and burn-out in her voice, the barely-articulable feeling of sandpaper underlaying all of this, the abrasive off-scriptness...

Yuuki contines squatting, crouched down in a practically-seated position with her arms around her legs. Her long hair fans out behind her in a penumbra of brown. "Renovation? George, wasn't this going to be the last cycle? And... Where's the Batter? Zero, didn't you leave him to come here? If he's not here, I don't think the Judge is here either."

Biteblade speaking about winning and then leaving gets another grimace.

With a hesitating rocking back and forth, Yuuki mutters quietly. "I don't want to just start poking around in people's heads. Biteblade - what's wrong with the Grands?"

"Please, be the one to give me some answers, Biteblade."
Starbound Flotilla     George has pulled well back; he doesn't want to be near Biteblade's, uh, blades. Biteblade answers Yuuki with a rush of almost panic. "Lassst-- /what?!/ Why would be lassst?! Who sssaid?! Nobody did anything for dessserve that!!" She looks aghast. Then, something makes her deeply pale. "Batter? Wait-- what? Batter isss jussst wherever leave him. Doesssn't go anywhere without misssion. Jussst sssit around until ssssumon for new misssion." She's acting like the Batter should have just shut down like a robot after Zone 3's purification.

    "Grandsss... like, um, rootsss? Like... ssstring on puppet? Uhhhh... Important. Not big power, but important for /world/. Flotilla isss architectsss, know how to hold careful. Trying to get Grandsss mean... wanting to do sssomething with." She regards Strange in a suspicious, scrutinizing way. "Not good while trying to purify. Worssse /after/ missssion isss /done/."
Doctor Strange      "I'm afraid I have to insist."

     Strange rises into the air, slightly backwards, not so high that he risks bumping his head against the cellar's ceiling, but enough to put him out of Biteblade's immediate stabbing range. "Even if we told you, you wouldn't give it to us." This is before Janine and August insist on the former being told of the plan. Strange sighs through his nose, eyes screwed shut, brow twitching in irritation. She'll make it more complicated, just to satisfy her own sense of comfort. He has no choice--this has already gone on long enough.

     He explains the plan--his own reservations notwithstanding. Get all of the grands, use them to make as fresh a start as the artifacts' power allow. Pressure release valves to keep Guardians from buckling under their own psychological weight, and a reprieve for Elsen.

     Biteblade gives her defense. "I understand the risks. But your best--their best," says Strange, pointing upwards in that way that mortals do when speaking of gods. "Isn't good enough. If the Grands can't do it on their own, so be it. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme, Seneschal of the Paladins. Yuuki is your Director. Look around this room, and tell me, honestly tell me, the between everyone in here, there isn't enough expertise or sheer brute strength to fix this with the aid of the Grands."
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki is quiet.

"You told me you knew it'd work. That you were absolutely sure. I asked you 'are you sure', and you could have said no. You had that choice. I still would have went along with it." Her shoulders sink and rise in time with slow breaths, and her fingers unlace around her elbows as she stands back up, first at the legs, then righting her back, arms re-lacing in a cross tucked tightly against her coat.

"You lied to me, Stephen Strange. Don't you dare use my name as your authority."
Janine Liberi     "Too frightening? Hah... I thought that way about the things I fought for the longest time. But you know what?" Janine draws her sword, looks into her reflection, and summons Catherine. "I became even scarier than they were. You're the former Guardian right? I bet you're tougher than any duck, especially when you kick the sugar habit."

    Pablo, the Judge. "Yeah, he's a great cat. But he's gone missing. I'm trying to find him. Want to come with? I'm sure he'd come out if you called for him. You're friends with him, I'm just the moody bitch he had to cajole through this place." A weak jab to inject some humor into this tenser and tenser situation.

    Talks happen. Janine puts her foot down and demands all parties explain their agenda. Strange wants the Grands to remake things, make it better. Biteblade thinks that using them poses to much risk, as it might 'let in' whatever is 'out there.' Janine thinks of the Secretaries, but mention of 'iodine' and 'fallout' has her antsy.

    But hey, talking! Communication! She claps (by slapping her thigh with her good hand) and says "Okay, good talk. If we're gonna fight over it through, maybe not now, in this confined room with the girl?" She looks to Biteblade. "At the very least, I'm sticking around until we find the Judge, and hopefully Sucre comes with. Want to tag along?"

    And now Yuuki is pissed. God, is there ever a moment where feelings can get low?
Zero Kiryu "The Batter is in Nothingness. He indicated that he was sweeping the Zones on behalf of        . He had just left Zone 1." Zero's voice echoes out of the VINE ARENA in belated answer to Yuuki's question. He's just down the hallway, still.
August Kohler August should be quiet. He shouldn't interfere, Strange has a plan. But Janine, despite their conflict, is a dear friend to him. She deserves to know. And Strange is being cryptic. So, August demands Strange tell her, or he will.

Strange tells her. Biteblade explains that there'd be risk, but the reaction on August's face shows he's willing to risk it. As Janine tries to recruit Sucre, August steps back when Yuuki reveals Strange lied to her.

"Did you really lie to her...?" August seems frustrated - not on Yuuki's behalf, but on the fact everything's starting to fall apart. "Jesus christ."

And then August moves to talk to Biteblade. The threat is lifted, slightly. "Come on. Help us help Elsen, help Sucre, help everyone. We can work together." Though if she refuses...there's no more time for negotiation.
Starbound Flotilla     "Even geniusss can't build a new world in a shed." Biteblade says, frowning hard. "Doesssn't matter how... how ssstrong or sssmart. Believe Floran -- Floran isss ssstrongessst, sssmartessst, would fix if it worked. It's-- Open door, let in the uranium. Won't know isss walking ghossst until two daysss later. Can't ssstab, can't outwit. Isss..." Her face scrunches up like a piece of paper getting smushed. "Nature. Can't fight nature. Not without more than inssside a shelter. Floran can't believe will win. Need to keep Grand." She's sounding... almost sorry.
Starbound Flotilla     August grits those teeth again and fidgets anxiously. She bites her lip, in the way that Florans tend not to. Their teeth, after all, make it painful. "Floran would want to help. Open door wide, rebuild. Hugo would be dead, lesss than week. Maybe daysss. Elsssen, go jussst like Damien, jussst like Pentel, jussst like..." She starts rambling the list of the old and honored dead again, always coming up in topics like this. "Thisss isss help! Life lived isss better than risssk everything for--"
Doctor Strange      "Well, I explained why we needed the Grand, we still don't have it, and the Queen probably knows the plan now. So, we've got that going for us." He presses a scarred hand to his face and rubs it roughly. "And now here we are. Everything is a thousand times more complicated because you had to have your answers at the worst possible time." He heaves another sigh, muttering under his breath. "We could have just grabbed the Grand and been on our way to Pavo by now..."

     "I didn't lie," he says sharply and vehemently to August and Yuuki. "I /know/ it can be done because I /know/ I can do it. I outsmart nature every. Single day. I bend it, I even break it over my knee when I have to, all to serve the greater good. The... /butchery/ that passes for living in Zone 3, this world deserves better than that. Much better."

     "If the bugs come in when we open the door, then we get Hugo and Elsen and anyone else out before we open it. Then we make the changes we have to, and we clean it up, however long it takes. If we can't do that, then we'll do it the hard way, without the Grands."

     "Humanitarian aid, mental health professionals, whatever it takes. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme. I don't do 'cant.'"
Starbound Flotilla     Zero mentions the Batter is still active.

    Biteblade goes completely pale. Suddenly, nothing else matters.

    "Checking all the places you've been before heading to the last one is common sense." She whispers, in a surprisingly clear voice, in the exact same cadence as the Batter said it to Zero.

    "Floran won't let him keep going. Inningsss are done. Bassstard bat thing, Floran will clean off hisss bonesss." She cracks her arm. A noise of paper and water -- or something a little thicker -- can be heard much more loudly. She intends to leave; August Kohler has at least managed to assure her they're not going to kill Sucre, but this means Biteblade intends to "defend her" from something else entirely; she intends to rush to Zone 2 and ambush him. But that means no more Grand in reach. As Biteblade moves to rush and phase around the brambles with the odd phasing effects of her Grand, it's likely Doctor Strange will need to act fast if he intends to pursue his plan.
Priscilla     "I don't . . . make the sugar anymore. No more sugar. This is the last . . . the last sugar in this world. I don't want to . . . not anymore. Just for us . . . where we can forget all the frightening things outside."

    When Janine actively suggests that the woman leave though, she immediately slams her hands against her face, curling her fingers tightly into her hair and hunching over her knees. "No. No no no. I'm not going anywhere. This is the only place where he knows where to find me. And this is the only place where the big ducky *can't* find me. Not if you don't tell him. I just want to stay here. I'll stay here for Zacharie. He said I didn't have to leave. If I leave, I'll get lost and never come back."

    She spreads her fingers slightly, and glares out at Janine, and the others, from between them. Her eye is surrounded in black, but flickers with a sort of dull white light. "No you can't. If you go out there . . . you won't come back. You'll disappear with the big duck, or he'll get you either way."

    Then, she lets slip a dry, now slightly unhinged cackle. She isn't even looking at Strange, but knows what he's talking about. "Forget about it. Don't touch them. Don't go near them. If you do, it'll all be over. I'll be here, and it'll all be gone. You too."
Janine Liberi     Negotiations are breaking down it seems. Janine cajoled the truth out of all parties, but she doesn't really have much stake. She half-shrugs at Strange and says, "Hey, you're the one basing all your confidence on your title and skill. You can handle it." Her interest lies in Sucre, and her refusal to leave. Maybe it's because Janine sees too much of herself in her, but she refuses to leave it at that.

    "Catherine!" she shouts, drawing out the shackled bride once more. The threads on her binding dance, lashing out the embroider the symbol of a swan on the ground, outlining it in gold. And from them, more and more thread spills, spinning itself into an orb of golden thread that lands before Sucre.

    "I'm going to find Pablo, and Zacharie too." Frankly, she's kind of mad at the masked merchant considering how worried this girl is for him, but she's not going to say that (to her). "But you know them better than I do. You would know where to look. If I had your help, I would be more likely to succeed. But, if you're worried about getting lost, use this."

    She takes up the ball of string and offers it. "The end of the thread is bound to this room. That means if you bring this string with you, the trail you leave behind will lead you back here. And when we find Pablo and Zacherie, they can come back with you. And if we run into the duck, I'll stand between you and him. If you don't think I can win, I can at least slow him down so you can get away."

    Biteblade makes his escape, but Janine doesn't try to stop them. The Batter can more than handle himself, after all. She rises, leaving the thread with Sucre, and starts to head out. Her destination? Zone 2. She's already backtracked the first, after all.
Yuuki Kuran Biteblade attempts to make her exit. Strange challeges Yuuki's vision of things, and tensions run higher. Well, Janine's happy. That's something!

"It's always been about respect, Stephen. It's little things. I was half-asleep for most of this, just going along, but this place got very good at waking me up."

"There's a difference between knowing and being confident, yes. If I want to be kind, and understanding, I don't know if either of us was communicating well that night. Our expectations."

Biteblade uses the Grand Meat - whatever its power - and somehow phases through the rumpus room arena of thorns. Yuuki just stands and watches. "Biteblade is right, though. We're not supposed to be here, in this room. Fighting anyone here."

The sentence is punctuated - Biteblade makes good on their escape as she finishes 'fighting anyone here'.

"It shouldn't be hollow, coming from me, to say that you shouldn't put an absolute faith in your own ability. It's too much stress."

Another sigh - Yuuki has done that a lot, in the Batter's World - and she turns to leave Sucre behind.

"If the Batter is active, the purification isn't over. But if he's not here, it means everything that Biteblade said is true. Maybe we can send Zacharie this way if we see him."
Zero Kiryu The vines rustle in the surroundings, Zero's voice continuing to emerge from them, "The Batter said that he and the Queen serve the same function, running in opposite directions. If this is true, it is likely that the Queen reflects and brings corruption in the same way that the Batter reflects purity. What that actually means, I can't say. But it brings the 'popped' Elsen to mind."

"But,"

"Wouldn't that also make her creation to his destruction?"

The rustling stops, for now.