Dignity is a fickle thing. It always had been for her. A wasteland of shifting sands, as Ivy would call it, had made the majority of her fragmented ego even before she arrived at the Aerie. Her bond with Lila made her believe things could settle. But it had become abundantly clear that she knew.
"Ivy, I'm getting jumped!" Lila screamed into her mind. "I thought they were fighting!"
Her partner took a moment to respond, her legs thrashing about as a single shoe slid across the smooth floor. Lila could feel her confusion, even as Sonera held her down by the neck face-first.
At least Yrix's floor smelled nice.
"I didn't...I'm sorry, Lila," Ivy's voice came through muffled. Something was blocking out her Psionic abilities. "I don't understand."
"This ain't the nineteenth century girl, there's nothing to apologize for! T-try and talk to Lunae!"
Neither Sonera nor Lunae seemed talkative, venting their frustration and passion on the two innocent girls. But whereas Lila seemed skittish and defensive in the face of Sonera's onslaught, Ivy was simply more bewildered. She had never properly reckoned with those she called family.
"Don't you get it?" Lunae's voice drowned everything around her. "If Lila can fix you-."
"Lunae stop-." Ivy tried to fight back.
She had forgotten how strong the princess really was. Somewhere in that twisted heart of hers, she wielded a strength more formidable than even Sonera. Yet there was beauty in it. Ivy had felt it before.
Never did she think she'd want it again. But as the trembling girl's azure hair draped upon her face, its scent fragrant and mysterious, Ivy found herself morbidly satisfied. She needed more. And for that reason alone, she didn't protest nearly as much when a long, wet tongue gently glided down her throat.
Her voice had been cut off by a Psionic aura more powerful than hers. But that was quite acceptable. Ivy had learned to give in during her time with Lila.
"Then why would I give up on Sonera?" Lunae continued, her irises narrowing like a serpent. "I nearly gave up hope. If only voicing my concerns would make them true. I need more than that. You've reminded me."
Ivy felt herself slipping. Lunae's mind was too much for her to process. Not without an anchor.
Gnashing teeth and crimson ponds.
A vast sea of stars.
Truth and lies unveiled.
It meant nothing to the heiress. All she could focus on was the distant visage of a sewn-together smile, its simple appearance belonging to a little toy Lila had called her friend. It was through the Earthling and her "Ginjou's" that Ivy could begin to flow through the current.
"That's how I beat this," Lunae almost laughed. "Thank you, Ivy."
The heiress shut her eyes and grimaced, realizing her own information was being plundered by the nosey Infestare. It was the sort of thing she had agreed to only the day prior, yet she never expected it to go down quite so passionately. She wanted to scream.
She couldn't.
"Your story," Lunae pressed her chest against Ivy's, her scent and warmth smothering the heiress. "I...there is hope. A song. For both of you."
Ivy had no idea what Lunae was referring to. She was far too absorbed in the princess's side of the Psionic link. And while it may have been a barely comprehensible maelstrom, she was glad to be there.
Explicate.
A shape of violence and meaning.
A shared tale.
"Funny, isn't it?" Lunae's voice carried another soul, one Ivy had not heard before. She was not aware of Lovatte. "We chose two feeble humans as our bond-mates when we were always meant for each other. If there's some sort of cosmic joke..."
I don't hear it.
Lunae pulled away, retracting her tongue. The Infestare felt bitter and almost jealous at Ivy's story. She had a completed bond. And Lunae did not. But perhaps that was for a reason.
"You've accepted what you are," Lunae sighed. "And for that...I respect you."
Ivy could finally manage a few words, coughing and gasping for breath.
"I think you're doing a little more than that," the heiress frowned, exhaling deeply through her nose. "Does Sonera even know?"
"How important we are?" Lunae cocked her head.
"How fucked we are."
Lunae was surprised to hear Ivy swear. She may have been sprawled out in between the folds of the heiress's skirt, yet it was a single word that made her recoil. A look of confusion soon formed across her face.
"Oh," Ivy rolled her eyes. "I forgot, you're still a bimbo. Just put your stupid fat tits in my face already."
Lunae smiled before obliging. She could feel a bit of envy from the heiress on that account. The endowment of a large figure was a divisive thing, even during the most grand of cosmic tales. Lovatte had told her that long ago.
And she was right.
Lila wasn't faring so well in comparison. Her connection to Ivy was blotted out, leaving the heiress to assume she was having similar success. But in truth, she was a bit intimidated.
Sonera was an animal.
The assassin had come onto her before, in a pleasant, kindly sort of way. They had just the right amount of things in common. But Lila never expected to be held in such high regard.
Every time she tried to lift her head and say something - anything Sonera would press her neck down. The taste of office tile was getting old. And so were the incessant claws that kept digging into her mouth.
"M-gah," Lila slobbered onto herself. "S-son-e-wah."
"Where were you?" Sonera whispered, sniffing the Earthling's nape as she straddled her tiny frame. "All this time."
Lila tried to offer a clever quip, only for Sonera to up her game by a whole finger. By then, the Earthling couldn't form a single syllable. All she could do was stew in her own saliva.
Sonera locked her mechanical feet around the inner edges of Lila's skinny calves, spreading her out like a starfish. "I needed you."
Anything to justify her mania.
"But I-..." Sonera hesitated. "I couldn't have protected you. You're so fragile and I...I'm not strong enough. I can't beat Yrix. I admit it."
She whispered into the Earthling's ear as Lila began to finch violently. "What can I do? I can't even die properly. Wouldn't it be so simple if I could take her with me?"
Lila was listening carefully through her trembling eyes. She wanted to be afraid. But in truth, she was filled with sorrow.
Sadness for Sonera.
"I'm afraid," Sonera finished her word with a poignant touch, pinching Lila's freckled cheeks with a careful claw. "Not even Lunae really knows it. But you did. You always did."
Something was dawning on Sonera. She could see it in the black void of Lila's brown eyes. A burden she was proud to inherit.
"If I persist..."
Would that change who I am?
"You'll live long enough to find out."
"I'll see to it."
Lila felt a peck on her cheek. A hand parted through her braids. They grasped their fringes lovingly before untangling the knotted hair with the precision only a craftsman of death could provide.
"I never needed much," Sonera smiled. "I never could have dreamed of a girl like Lunae. But some things don't change."
I want you.
Lila's eyes began to dart around with a panicked frenzy as a pair of mechanical fingers clamped down on her nostrils. With both her airways smothered, she was already beginning to depart from the scene. Sonera was enjoying her work.
Audibly.
"I remember seeing a girl like you in the streets. A real natural-born Earthling. I wasn't courageous enough to ask her out."
Lila didn't hear what she said next. Her eyes were already locked onto the ceiling. The last thing she could remember was the ticklish feeling of her own unbraided hair brushing against her cheek.
The room fell silent. Ivy had similarly fallen unconscious. And all that was left were the two quarreling lovers.
"Sonera," Lunae looked over her shoulder, her chest dangling over Ivy's slumbering face. "I-."
"I know." Sonera nodded before crawling closer to the princess. "And I'm sorry."
The two pressed their foreheads together, holding hands as they knelt under the dim light of the workshop. Lila and Ivy were crumpled lifelessly at the far ends of the room. Yet their efforts were not in vain.
"I promise," Sonera whispered with a softer, feminine voice. "We will leave this place. Together. All of us."
Lunae exhaled in ecstasy. A crooked, yet passionate smile formed across her lips. She brushed aside her hair before narrowing her gaze in silent contemplation.
The sun and the moon.
Lunae and Sonera.
The inflicted and the inflictor.
A night of love and promises, they'd call it. If only they knew of the joy she took from it. For in the eyes of Yrix, everything was falling into place.