In Articulo Mortis, luna

[Khonsu Bjoran]

((End of the Silver Millennium.))

What did you do when everything you knew and loved was coming crashing down around your ears?

There were the obvious responses, of course. You could run from it, or pretend it wasn't happening. That was the way of the coward, the snake. You could meet it head on and fight, battle-hard and resisting the inevitable. That was the way of the foolish, though brave; the way of the elephant. He would have preferred to have been a snake or an elephant, anything in that moment but the cat in the window. Sitting and waiting for its master to release it, to allow it outside where it could roam and at least do something. Forced to watch as the world around him crumbled and fell.

It wasn't so much that he hadn't suspected the end of the world. Since the return of Venus and Mars, there had been... changes, in the pair of them. Pluto had not been entirely absent, but she had been silent. Neptune had long since fallen, gone with her planet. Mars was their only Seer left with any ability to tell them anything... and she was a quiet, subdued girl out of nowhere. It wasn't that she had fallen in love, because she had loved with the same fire and passion she applied to everything. She'd fought every step of the way.

And the night before, she had been hugging and affectionate. He'd known then, perhaps, because if he knew anything, it was that the girls actually did all love one another. His girls, each like a daughter to him in their own way, had been all the family he could have ever wanted or needed. And they were going to die out there, he knew it when he saw the black horde on the horizon. There were men there, men and beasts alike.

As he allowed his bones to shift and change, cat to man in mere seconds, he ran to the viewing room. It was the only thing he could do, not prepared for a war he had been given no warning about. Artemis sighed, running a hand over his doublet as he came to a still before the mirrors that showed each and every one of their charges preparing to fight. They took to their mounts with ease - and then, be it sky or land, they headed what was left of their armies. They had all suffered enormous loss, he knew. Their planets had fallen one by one, their outer comrades had gone long before.

He just wished that the roaring of this pre-war had not been accompanied by such a still. He spared a glance towards Luna, watching her for a moment instead. If nothing else, he had to be the carelessly optimistic one of the pair. He grinned, an expression that felt hollow but familiar, and reached for her hand. "They're our girls, Luna," he started, nodding towards the first mirror, "They'll make it through."

[Avetea Kaiz]

Useless. She hated feeling useless, and yet there she was, standing before the view screens, watching her girls go into battle, and knowing there wasn't anything more she could do for them.

How was it that, in all her years, she hadn't developed a single useful skill? What had she been to them, besides a babysitter? Now, here at the end, she couldn't help but look back and think that she hadn't done enough. That she hadn't done anything. Because here she was, powerless to stop the slaughter of young women who were only on the cusp of adulthood.

Luna was silent as she stood there, blue eyes fixed forward onto the screens, every muscle in her body impossibly tense. Her back was rigid, knuckles white. First she watched as Ariana and Minu stole glances at one another, and she, Luna, stood there, safely indoors, an uninvited third party to one of their last moments. Her gaze shifted then to Haellai, Uranus' young queen, whose eyes were dead now, lit only by a madness now, a thirst for death that would never undo what she had lost.

The muscles in her shoulders tensed and shifted, nearly imperceptibly, as Artemis' voice floated towards her. She turned, then, leveling her gaze at her fellow Mauian, perhaps the one person in the world right now who understood her position, because he shared it.

How selfishly she considered her own feelings! Her own uselessness didn't matter now. Her girls were going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it, except hope that it happened more painlessly than not.

His nonchalant assurance came up empty, for both of them. "There's no need to pretend now, Artemis," she responded tiredly, turning now to face him. "Not here, not in... not in these last moments."

[Khonsu Bjoran]

They were scattering, positioning themselves so that they could lead as opposed to work together. He was hesitant to even accept it as a battle strategy, knowing full-well that whether he did or did not, it wouldn't matter. They were grown and gone now, even though they were just outside of the walls behind which he and Luna and Queen Serenity were all hidden. A separate tower still to their Princess, in the vain hope that she hadn't been foolish enough to give her name to anyone, that she wouldn't be able to be tracked by anyone coming up from the Earth armies. Twisted and mutated, change by the blackness their Mars had Seen coming and had not warned them of. Too late, he would have wagered. Or assuming it would end as it had before, when she had warned of the beginnings of it and their Queen, as great and respectable as she was, had not heeded her words.

He did not sigh, shift, or even so much as blink, eyes roaming from the mirror where Haellai stood, empty, to the next where Sariah stood looking... well, petrified was a good word. Though the Jovian army was nearby, what remained, her little Mercurian few trailing behind her all looked about the same. Their technologies hadn't survived the attack, the blasts that had all but annihilated their home planet, leaving a useless rock and some rubble and corpses behind. They had been the first down. And none of them looked ready for this, least of all their makeshift, too-young Queen.

When had they lost all of their young girls to these forcibly battle-hardened ones, though? Ariana might have worn the same face she had the day she had arrived, breaking only when she walked by Minu and only long enough to almost touch before skirting back to her people with her scimitars in-hand and a bow strapped to her back, but the rest? The rest were harder than before. They were dead or simply grimly accepting. Makatza's fire was alive more than anyone's, and that... that worried him.

"I suppose you're right," he started, green eyes lost amidst all of the mirrors reflecting the impending blood bath as they finally settled into position, slinging themselves on top of mounts and preparing for the worst. It was a moment of great still that seemed to stretch on forever, all eyes on Minu and the horizon. Waiting. "But I have to have faith in our girls." And there came an incredible black mass, cresting in the distance as everything the Earth had to throw at them came pouring out.

And each army in turn had its Princess or Queen yell their call to arms in a language they could understand, and war came to them.

[Avetea Kaiz]

Luna was no seer, but she understood what was to come. That her own life was hanging in the balance barely occurred to her, and hardly mattered. Her attachment to these girls had grown too great, and she couldn't imagine what she would do to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of all of this, should her life even be spared.

Mostly, she felt empty now. So consumed was she by this heavy knowledge that they wouldn't make it... nothing else seemed important. Perhaps she should have been thinking of a backup plan, a way to get Serenity off this god-forsaken rock. But it was too late, now, even for that. They'd never be able to hide an entire airship during an escape, and what Luna feared most was the princess' capture... and the torture that she knew would ensue.

Suddenly, the emptiness was giving way into overwhelming grief, grief for girls who were not yet dead, but who would be soon. Dead, at best. Tortured and mutilated at worst. She turned her head away, unable to face her companion, unable to bear her own weakness on top of the uselessness.

And yet, at the same time, her right hand swung out, just a bit, and found his, squeezing it lightly in her own. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but choked on the words, swallowing thickly as she lifted her chin, her eyes now locked on Minu's face.

"Maybe they'll find a way," she managed, her voice barely above a whisper as the battle roared to a start. Luna took one last look at each of their faces - Minu, Ariana, Sariah, Makatza, and Haellai - too young with the absence of years, and yet too aged with the weight of impending doom.

[Khonsu Bjoran]

There was no hope.

It wasn't that any of them looked particularly without it, save perhaps Haellai, empty though she was. Makatza and Sariah, they didn't fare much better. But Minu and Ariana were some combination of well-concealed fright, adrenaline, brave fronts... but there was still a noticeable absence of hope.

He snorted, actually amused in his 'I'm not even surprised' sort of way as their Martian Queen cried out first, calling the remnants of her once-almighty army behind her as the battle began. The trumpets of their war horses and elephants sounded like shrieks, their people yelling defiance as every other army, under the guidance of those who had been thrust prematurely onto their thrones, followed suit. What came next could only be described as a glorified bloodbath.

As quickly as they came, they fell. Both sides. He sucked in a breath and held it, squeezing Luna's hand beside him as he tried desperately to keep his eyes on the fight and be strong for the pair of them. He hadn't even been meant to become this barely-together mess of a father figure. He was supposed to have been an ambassador from planet Mau. Instead, he'd been left to babysit a group of young girls who could hardly stand one another... and one who loved them all.

And slowly but surely, he watched as even the most stubborn of the inner guard came to care for the rest, the five of them becoming a circle barely held together by their love for one another. He cast a wary glance off at their Queen, spying her entrance without a word. She moved soundlessly across the room, as though there was no battle, unperturbed. And for the first time, Artemis thought that it might have been possible that he hated her.

If only because she was going to get his girls killed.

"Can you still see them?" he half-whispered, half-murmured as each of the Princesses seemed to disappear in the black of battle, some popping back on occasion atop their mounts, and others pulled down by dark hordes from time to time. It was terrifying. It was like telling a child you needed to kill their pet, and then making them wait and watch for the entire agonising day as you did it. As slowly as you could, cracking each limb one at a time.

He frowned. When had humanity come to this?

[Avetea Kaiz]

Luna stood steadfastly, gazing into the mirror with a clenched jaw. She willed herself not to shed tears, to remain, as always, even-tempered and rational. It wasn't easy, and she quickly found her eyes filling with tears. They had been in danger at various times, for various reasons. But it had never come to anything like this. It had never come to a single moment wherein she knew she would lose everything.

Artemis' hand found hers with a squeeze, and it was in his touch that she felt for herself how cold her own skin had gone. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as the light rustling of a gown behind them indicated the arrival of a most unwanted party.

Her grip on his hand tightened, her expression stony with anger. She knew, in that moment, that she hated the Queen. She hated this woman who had doomed everyone she loved to a gruesome death. They would all fall, but not before she and Artemis had the special privilege of watching the slaughter of their princesses.

The Mauian moved to answer him, but froze as her eyes locked onto the image of Haellai climbing out of a pile of bodies. An unholy amount of blood was flowing freely from her left temple, and her eyes were vacant. Her armor had been cracked wide open at the left shoulder, exposing a gruesome wound, and fierce though she was, her gait was labored.

The Uranian Queen let out a monstrous cry, and Luna herself gasped, steeling herself as another hoard dragged her down. The Space Sword glimmered among the black mass, and then, quite suddenly, a mutilated limb flew past the perspective of the screen, disappearing back into the hoard not ten feet away.

"Haellai," she whispered, her stomach lurching. Two tears escaped the growing pools in her eyes, flowing freely down either side of her face.

[Khonsu Bjoran]

It was a terrible thing. One moment, they were all there, and it was peaceful, almost.

And then it was an explosion the likes of which he had never seen before and, given the grim looks on the faces of everybody he had come to know and love outside of his homeworld, would likely never see again. The clang of blade against bone, the roar of fire or the singing whistles of arrows being shot from here or there. A few fought fist-to-fist, similarly disarmed already. Others used their mounts to trample, the Martian elephants trumpeting and rushing the largest groups of the enemy their rider could spy. And fewer still used different weapons. Maces, axes, clubs, spears, staffs, or things the likes of which he had never seen before. There was everything out there.

Including their own magic. He grimly clutched to hope, and Luna's hand. Artemis wanted nothing more than to draw his comfort from the woman beside him, the one who had been his partner in raising the women on the battlefield from princesses with too-different cultural upbringings to young women who were willing to love and be loved, to make friends and overcome significant odds against them to stay together.

It was a shame that he had not known Haellai well enough, he thought, watching as she melted into a pile of weapons and bones, snarling and fighting her way as she was sucked down. The enemy became like quicksand, or a pack of rabid dogs. There were the faintest sounds of hollering screams, not from the Queen that they had known, mind you, and then - just an arm. A bloody arm flying from a writhing mass of where the rest of her was. The mirror focusing on her tinged grey, indicating a lack of life, and he winced almost imperceptibly.

One down. They were already so disadvantaged.

He didn't dare look at Luna, swallowing as he desperately tried to find one of theirs on the battlefield who was cleaving a clear advantage for them, something, anything that said they might win this yet. "May her soul find peace now." It was the only thing he had to say, murmured as his eyes flit to their own Queen, watching without feeling it seemed, then settled on the mirrors once again.

Artemis spotted a handsome young man with elegance and grace, strolling up to Sariah with arms down. He was not there to fight. Immediately, the advisor felt himself panic, trying to draw Luna's attention elsewhere as Sariah herself seemed relieved, seemed happy in that moment, buying what he knew had to be an act. This man came from the other side, he was an enemy. No good would come of this, nothing - "Look at Makatza," he tried, swallowing a hard lump in his throat as he prayed to the gods that be not to lose their youngest, "Her technique could use some work." The only attempt at a joke he could even make.

[Avetea Kaiz]

Was it fair to say that things had ever been peaceful? When Luna had first arrived there, she had arrived with high hopes for what this kingdom could be. Her princesses, plucked too young from their home planets, had every potential in the world - even Mars, the one that her own assistants murmured she should give up on. There was love between them, unspoken though it was at times.

And yet, there was also Queen Serenity, and her unclear motives. There was Queen Serenity, and her subtle grip on all instruments of power in the kingdom. There was Queen Serenity, who seemed willing to sacrifice anything but her daughter for her own ends.

She couldn't stand it. Her grip further tightened on his hand, this time in a bone-crushing rage that was wholly unlike her. Her jaw clenched so hard she thought some of her teeth might crack, but she dared not say anything.

Luna had but one possible gift left to give. From the viewing room, she could help to impact decision-making. If she could, she would utilize any tools available to ensure their safety. The possibility of gaining leverage was important, and it wasn't one she was willing to let go of out of anger.

That had always been her MO, though - act as the calm, rational adviser. Artemis was better at it than her, much of the time, but no one else knew that, because she hid it well in the face of company.

Come to think of it, Artemis was the only one who had known that side of her. Her girls knew her very well, but it was a different kind of relationship, sort of mother-child. Artemis was her friend, the one person who knew her best.

So he could probably sense she wanted to tear the queen's arm off for this.

She didn't respond to him. Her eyes were fixed on Sariah. "Can't we do something?" she hissed, glancing at him. This wasn't a hoard dragging her down, but something else entirely. "Anything?"

[Khonsu Bjoran]

It hadn't worked. There was no group turn and glance to Makatza, as he had hoped. Instead, all eyes were on Sariah, her ice walls falling in the wake of seeing the Earth boy she had undoubtedly come to love. One by one, all of his girls had found someone. Some of them hadn't had to look very far, seeking love in the room across the hall. Others had travelled to a planet they had long forgotten and found young men there. Others still had known love only via interplanetary relations, legendary unions between outer guardians that would be the stuff for the ages. If any of them lived through this, their grandchildren would still murmur about loves like that for ages.

Artemis did not know love personally, not this all-consuming kind of love, at the very least. The love he knew was familial, cordial, friendly. He did not know a love that would stop him in the middle of a war even he had to have known was doomed, and had him actually smiling. But there their Mercurian Queen stood, all of sixteen years, looking at this man like he was her world.

Silently, he begged her to stab him and run. Even though his lips were turning upwards as well, there was something to him that didn't seem right. An emptiness he couldn't place, in all honesty. He shifted nervously, trying his best to stay still for the sake of his partner. Could they do anything? Was there anything to be done?

Sariah actually took a few steps towards this stranger, embraced him with a heart he'd never known to be full of anything but love, happy - a knife in her back with the flash of seconds. He could scarcely see it register on her face, still clinging to the man as he seemingly whispered something to her. And then came the ice, along with her red. It started at their feet, swirling upwards until the pair were encased on the battlefield. She had whispered something in the last second, and the emptiness in him had filled with something Artemis knew too well - remorse.

He swallowed thickly, mouth a thin, straight line. "There is nothing we can do but hope it ends quickly." For all of them. No use pretending to be optimistic anymore, he supposed. They'd already lost so much. How much more would it take before their Queen would call on Saturn? Had it been up to him, he would have done it right there and then. Spare them their suffering.

So then... why wasn't she?

[Avetea Kaiz]

Luna watched wide-eyed as Sariah started to slip, now held up only by the walls of ice that engulfed her and the love that she had suspected her of having all this time. Had she been wrong, to implicitly allow it? It felt that way now, as she watched lover destroy lover. But they'd have found a way anyway, wouldn't they? Her casual allowance of that romance had helped her build a relationship with Sariah. And it had made her happy, while it had lasted. She decided that she didn't regret it.

The imminence of their death brought to light things that she maybe did regret, a little. The warmth radiating from Artemis made her think of one thing, in particular. Should she have told him the truth? No, they were partners and friends. And nothing more. Her feelings were heightened now by the intensity of the situation.

Any thought she had along those lines was interrupted as she pulled Artemis' arm as Kunzite cornered Serenity. "Look," she gasped, inhaling deeply as Endymion jumped between them, their swords clattering in the open air as the pawns of their respective armies gathered around them. Serenity was screaming behind them, in tears now as the two men fought. "She's just standing there, why is she just standing there?!"

And more to the point, why was Endymion fighting for her, against his own man? She leaned forward, staring into the screen, waiting. The prince of Earth might turn on her yet, if his men were any indication.

"There has to be something we can do from the control room. Something."

[Khonsu Bjoran]

He had to be the calm one. It wasn't as though he was any more thrilled by Serenity's inactivity than she, but he needed to keep his head. For both their sake.

Artemis stood like the rock to her water, letting her flow about him and slowly break him down without showing the signs of it in such little time. Were this an event that would last days, surely he would erode and crumble like any good boulder in a river, a faded memory of his past self along a steady waterbed. But for now, in that very moment, he was still near a mountain. Immovable in both form and emotion, because he had to be. Even if all he wanted to do was scream at their Princess to bloody move.

And even though he was being told to look there, all he could do was stare elsewhere. The battlefield had erupted, likely the remaining soldiers feeling their Princess' panic. Perhaps she had summoned them, or perhaps she had not. Regardless, there was a flash of panicked recognition that seemed to hit their faces. Makatza was too far, Wele was flying above. He winced, watching as she called lightning down to strike the next wave. Ariana dealt with her swarm differently, growing tired of shooting off arrows into masses that wouldn't stop and simply digging her hands into her felsteed's neck and practically exploding, only to have the next way move in and surround her instead.

It was only Minu atop of Roshan that seemed to be getting anywhere, swiftly ending the lives of a few enemies about them with her chain before taking off towards the castle as fast as her wolf could move.

Things happened all too sickeningly fast from there. The white-haired man, one of the generals, continued his fight with Endymion, both of them aggravatingly clumsy in their desperation. Serenity did nothing. And Minu, as she finally hit the castle and walked inside, was trailed by shadows for the few steps she made it. "NO!" Not that she could hear him. A blonde man appeared from the darkness, using unholy blades of shadow to slice clean through her neck, removing her head.

He stood in shock from that moment on, barely even able to recognise the deaths of the fighting men on the opposite mirror as he fought down his bile. The blonde man heaved a shuddering breath, staring blankly ahead as both body and head of their leader was moved. It created some chain reaction across the battlefield, with Ariana grasping at her own neck, intact, and flew backwards off of Vulcan's back with an impact that wasn't there for her.

Endymion fell, his thigh bleeding uncontrollably, as his general fell as well. He died in their Princess' lap, and she sobbed uncontrollably.

This was war. This was the madness of it. And now, they were down to two.

[Avetea Kaiz]

She was weak, and she knew that now. Too weak to watch her girls die with any sort of sense of calm. Too weak to carry this burden, as she had known she might, one day, when she'd accepted the job. The danger had always seemed so remote, or at least, danger of this scale had.

They'd all been foolish. The Queen had lived in a delusional state, mostly confident in that there probably wouldn't be war, not like this. And certainly not one in which she would lose all there was to lose.

Not that that really resonated with her much, because all she had ever cared about was her own daughter. It was why the daughters of other men and women had been pulled away from their own homes and families, permanently, to serve the princess on the Moon.

Her hand moved up and clutched Artemis' forearm, harder than she meant to, as Minu was followed inside; she barely had time to process her charger's danger before her head dropped off, and her body crumpled to the floor. Luna shrieked, unable to help herself as she pulled Artemis closer. Just as quickly, she pushed him away though, falling to her knees and retching on the spot.

A small pool of vomit gathered in front of her, and only then did the Queen finally take notice of the pair of them. She marched towards them, losing her usual regal air as she approached.

"Do something," Luna gasped, desperately, tears flowing freely from her eyes now.

[Khonsu Bjoran]

He tried to catch her, but he failed. The same way he had tried to keep all of their Princesses - now Queens safe, and had failed. Years of protecting them just to watch one get her head cut off. Watched the Princess, the one that two other Queens were still out there fighting to protect, kill herself. His jaw went slack, hands still reaching down towards the fallen Luna as Serenity took her own life on top of her lover.

Now... now what? Carefully, he watched as Queen Selenity approached, scowling for the first time in years as he hurriedly picked up his hysterical co-advisor, rushing the space between the two women to insert himself in the situation. "It's over, Your Highness. Your daughter is dead. Don't make the rest of your people, don't make Makatza and Ariana suffer. End this." Saturn was somewhere. Saturn had to be somewhere.

For a moment, he watched as the Queen of All turned to look at him strangely, then back to Luna, before she offered one simple phrase. An ultimate, inarguable and resounding, "No." His shoulders sagged, mouth agape in horror as he stared at what she had become. There was nothing left to fight for! A group of dead planets without rulers, people who wouldn't swear allegiance any which way after this whole mess. Her own daughter, dead, and she would allow the fighting?

For a moment, he wondered briefly if she was trying to get back at the other two, glancing back to the mirrors as he held fast to Luna, suddenly wanting to keep her in his arms. Makatza was still fighting hard, though the crowd about her was dying down. Ariana, after frantically grabbing at her own neck on the ground, had screamed and reclaimed her steed, rushing off in the direction that Minu had gone, originally. Their Venusian's head came flying over the battleground, some sick banner of the enemy's triumph.

And then Vulcan was alone. It seemed that the Martian Queen had blazed a trail from where she had been to where she had lost her lover, slapping the felsteed off. He watched for a moment as the beast, unsure of what to do, followed after the lightning in the sky. Going to help where he was needed, with Makatza.

He would be needed, after all. There was some hulking beast of a man wielding weapons the likes of which he had never seen on his fists as he slumped towards her then. They would lose these two yet. All because of their deranged Queen's broken mind. "Please," he begged, tearing his eyes away from the death awaiting on the screens, "Please just end it!"

[Avetea Kaiz]

She had glanced back to the screen just in time to see Serenity take her own life. Her sobs grew harder now as she crouched there, on her knees, too weak to stand. They had been hers more than they had been Selenity's. She had been the one to train them, raise them, love them from the time they'd come to the palace. She'd given them guidance, cared for them. And Selenity would make sure they were all dead before it was over.

The no was resounding. It seemed to echo off the walls, engulfing them, swallowing them whole. She leaned into Artemis, suddenly aware that he had his arms around her, and that she was shaking violently. Her gaze had shifted back to the screen, where she was watching Ariana and Makatza. They, too, were about to die.

The Queen looked down at them, her nose turned up as if they were nothing to her now. After all of the years that they had served her, been her faithful guides, and even acquiesced to some of her most outrageous demands, she was done with them, and would hear no more of it.

All of her rage boiled over, in a way it never had before, ever. She attempted to launch herself at the Queen, only to be held back by Artemis, who somehow anticipated the way her body was shifting. "You monster!" she shrieked, clawing and trying to throw her momentum forward. "You're going to kill the last two we have for nothing! STOP!"

She hated her. Hated her with everything she had, and she needed to destroy her, as she had destroyed their girls.

[Khonsu Bjoran]

He was torn, eyes flitting between the heartless Queen before them, between looking to Luna and trying to calm her enough to keep her from doing something that would cause more pain for either of them, for either of the two still on the battlefield, and looking to the mirrors where they stood. Makatza had started fighting her lover now, a final showdown of sorts. Ariana was destroying good men and bad men alike, frenzied. She wasn't empty the way that Haiden had been, she was positively incensed. But she wasn't herself, not without Minu, and that much was easily recognisable.

He glanced back to Luna for a moment, trying to pull her backwards. "There's nothing we can do," he murmured, keeping his lips close to her ear, "I'm sorry. I know, I know, I'm sorry. If we see Saturn, then maybe... maybe we can at least bring the end quicker. But she's not going to do anything for us. Going for her would only hurt our girls more." What was left of them. The shattered pieces of Ariana and the soon-to-be-dead Makatza, given the way she seemed so suddenly powerless to this male attacker.

And then Vulcan was there, slashing out with his hooves and protecting a woman who hadn't even been his. For a moment, Artemis felt extremely thankful for the beast. He'd often wondered what they knew of the situation, how intelligent the mounts his girls had brought with them truly were. This one was nothing short of being one of the Martian people, honour bound and full of pride. Enough to know that he was sacrificing himself as the first blow to his rock armour ruined one of the general's attacking punches, destroying the weapon.

Sure enough, the next blow saw to it that the hulk of a man had gone between the cracks in the plate, opening the katar inside of the horse. It screamed pain, mouth open in an agony Artemis could only feel glad he wouldn't hear. But at the same time, he couldn't help but draw a little bit of hope. Maybe... just maybe this would be what their Thunder Queen needed to win. The horse had brought blood onto the man's shoulder, back, he'd ruined one of his weapons... and even though he was dying and in agony, twitching and churning from his place on the ground, he had bought Makatza time.

She was readying her lightning. Good. Please, please let us save at least this one. At least for now, please, let us win just the once.