Wind coaxing a blasted landscape back to life. A refuted beating sun keeping the cold mountains at bay. The grit of dusted existence everywhere it just should not be. Haggard breaths and burning overused lungs, muscles drained of everything but the barest strength necessary to keep moving. Bones feeling like lead. The weight of a world given back its safety, happiness not included. This borrowed slab was though, as it stabbed into the blackness and all that weight leaned against its almost purring relief. A crutch, a moment to just breathe. To consider what had been done, what Seth had done to get here. To take it all in. And to understand what it meant. Because his duty wasn't over just yet. Another end ahead. But Aegis could see nothing but a victory hard fought. The same rasping breaths a little too synchronic as she shook away.

Tethering allowed to lapse, releasing as its barer finally let go of the need of it. A relinquish she was hesitant to copy, as her own taken up blade stayed its edge at that scattered pile of disassembled abomination. Circling that faint glow still bleeding through the dust trying to bury it away. But even her adrenaline was falling as that glow stayed its soft slow death. A fact mirrored in the simmer receding back into this transient sword.

Its will finally giving a damn about its wanted wielder, now that it found her. A fact only adding curmudgeon to her already blistered attitude. That stainless surface being stuck into the ground not far from its distant, larger, kin. With more force than civility, but still the same crutch of relief offered despite the judgments of the inanimate. Her duty was up, that much was irrefutable, and she didn't really know what came next.

The trepid steps of the outmoded behind, looking for openings or conformation of this battle's conclusion, only hurried Seth along with his recovery and part to keep playing. Snout raised up to that warming sun for at least a bit of shared power for what he had to do. Only finding the shared energy in his crutch, to help calm its tachycardial rev. Letting him lower with a centering exhale, weight pouring off as power returned in marginal remainder, claw flowing away from the handle keeping him up.

An even glide ahead to his fallen malformed twin, to his corrupted cocoon, to his former life's work turned weapon against all. The eyes of everyone still failing to take in the expenditure, the devastation, the broken promises and the broken molds. The eyes of solemn fought back hate, of refuted thankful fear, of begrudging thanks for giving them this justice. Of still stubborn wrath watching for even the slightest misstep. And of synced up relief, regrowing into concern. All of them watching the only one left responsible as he made way for what...

"What happens now...? Is it done?"

Aegis' words were a world away but clear as the day they spoke down to him. Her gaze offering more than questions but found none of the strength needed to voice her worry. This had to be over, or else there was nothing either of them could do. She followed him all the way down to the heap that was Resent. To a still straining knee meeting the ground just short of it. His target all too unavoidable.

Seth brushed away the dust sucking at the crimson glow, the emptiness that wanted to tear it away from its shallowed pit. Scooping up the broken plate that used to cover his left eye. The faint itch of that scar. The feeling of it opening without him in control. The darkness. It was all so small and far away now. The past. Something more that needed healing away.

"Seth…! Is it gone…!?"

He turned it over in his hand, the inner layer of Ark metal matching nearly to the void. Crisscrossed in calcified veins like fossilized flesh. A pliable medium trying to make a body all its own. Yet, despite the damage, there was still the slightest fraction of that burned in message from Speaker. Glowing its soft light at the broken edge. Words ringing through despite their state, all the rest of the Garkahs' hopes coming through everything he'd had to do to get here. He knew this had to end, this had to be done. He had to do more than just destroy and kill. What was always a part of him. He had to make this right, make this resentment his and let it go on his terms.

Because in the end it had always been his.

He stood up with his cargo, steadying resolve staring down at his palm. An over long moment tensing his onlooker, as the tether once shared was already being missed. Intentions uncertain to all those unmoored, possibilities allowing rampancy to flow, inscrutable gaze down rendered a lapse in judgment no one should be allowed in this moment. But she would not need to be in the dark for too long.

"There's just… something I still have to do."

"Wait… DON'T!!!"

Because he was already slamming that laden piece of metal on to its rightful eye. And letting that parasite have just what it thought it wanted!

A burst of dust and static life! That heap of broken armor jumping up like an ambush predator from its sprung trap! Claws and edges, hooks and threads, the void come to retake its original body and make this world know regret! To turn sentiment to rue! To take back power stolen! To rip these fools to shreds with their own unwanted ally!

To make them suffer!!!

A crawling clanking spread over dusted scales, tattered metal piecing itself into place like so many times before. Scorching its way in, wrapping its being around the already occupied. Shin to knee, hip to spine, shoulder to every bleeding crack in that terrifying helmet. Those once receded horns splitting into place over their real counterparts, tail segments fitting together over their stilled former occupant, claws whipping out as forces foreign took control for themselves. And that eye opened to the red of its ever existence!

No longer form fitting, no longer contained and concealed with the ambiguity of outward aesthetic and motif. Already drained power leaking out from between shattered and cleaved through plates. Oozing crimson connection barely able to keep the armor in place on the body it was always meant for. Turning already nightmarish visage into patchwork solid soul. Dragging its charge about as it rippled and fought for continuity. That red eye blaring at Aegis like it had always been, those threads snaking beneath cutting and spreading through the body horrifyingly visible in its cracks. And that whipped about left arm rising with that wanton need for more despair!

"Ish shold you…!! Ihh don'sh die!!"

Its words were splattering static, buzzing gaps in that misaligned maw. Talking for itself without a need for the one it sapped. Helmet peeling off and canting toward her like an astral body made physical and eldritch.

"Buhsh you… do!! Ahnhd you... will ALL... SUFFER!!!"

That claw peeled open, arcs dancing between, blood of false being in step with its discharge! A cacophonous whir, a clanking violent wind, power ripping out and through and feeding one last stab at thee who felled me! Every shellshocked onlooker frozen in their hesitant tracks, every disarmed hero stuck on the conveyor to the slaughterhouse! Forced to watch their only hope be dashed away in front of them, all because of some stupid attempt at redemption!

Aegis couldn't move, her expenditure catching with added tripwire. She couldn't escape fast enough even if she tried, her reflexes shot by these burdensome marks of authority. All she could do was stare into that red glare, feel that torrential buzz fill every nerve beyond its ability, and watch that other claw…

Snuff out this plasmic death knell.

That red whir dimmed away, that tremor of tensing waveforms subsiding, and that bleeding ooze receding in. As this rogue soul was called back to the body it so grievously wanted for itself. Those drooping drooling plates softly snapped into their set places, that malicious cant retracted back over the head it was supposed to hide, and that widening eye at its center fit over the one it thought it forced open. But the reality of the dawn that was yet to shine, fell over that glare.

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As that real maw spoke with its own overriding tone.

"No… this is not that end. Not yours… Not theirs…"

That reined in claw folding in at his side, its calming twin mirroring thus. All that oozing excess pulling inward, all that malignant threading drawn in to the place it wanted to spread. Drawn out of the one who wanted to spread them.

"I meant what I told you before. I'm not going to let you go."

That eye soon lost composure and stature, its spread falling inward like it had chosen a real black hole to subsume.

"Not now…"

All its light, all its burn, all its being collapsing away until there was nothing but that one scared eye.

"Not later…"

Whipping about seeking escape, looking for help, looking for anything! But only finding what it had long wanted!

"Nor ever…"

"Again!!"

A pull, a flash, and that ever shining crimson glare burned into all-consuming blue! A new gravity, a burning halo slicing the blasted ground in every axis, a final total to that promise now kept! All those cancerous threads, that scorching ravening energy, that being of near perfect disassociation! All of it falling into the void it had coopted too much before! All of ripped from the armor it stole!! All of it re-tuned to the tone it had ignored for too long!! All this energy, all this power, all these memories used as structure, all this being made wrong!! All of it was his now to rend and make rue!! All of it was Seth's to redeem and judge as he saw fit!!

The outside world would hold no sway, even as it felt the unfortunate effects of this needed total pressure. Dust swirled in irking concentrics, bodies lurched and grabbing to whatever there wasn't to hold on to. Aegis was buckled into her new blade's handle and dragged for all she was worth. But this fearful return of terrifying power was over before it broke more. Another lurch of full of emptied air, replaced by another familiar light. The burn and sizzle of restoration.

Broken plates and shatter servos. Torn open layers and horrific patchwork. This visage, this terror, would not stand! Burns from every corner traveled those lines. Azure stars of self-weld and self-repair. The body over this body, this weight adding to weight, just more that needed to be healed and returned to what it once was. The dull shining dark spot in everyone's minds. The broken open box from which their nightmares spilled out yet again. But now…

No more.

The last burn cut high, smoking air trailing off as that helmet sprang back. This being in double a statue of unbroken stature once more. Dark eyes sucking the light away and threatening to open, to flip the coin to the truth of this show of force. Aegis couldn't help but tense, to stare at it, to hope beyond hope for it to open with that powered plasma blue. To prove his success, to prove the end to this already, to make all of this worth it so they can just stop! But all she got in return was that eye staying its emptiness. Even as that helmet turned toward her.

Fear, resolve, whatever was left ripped that judging blade out of the ground and into stance. Whipped her eyes to the other object within reach before that turn toward could complete. That over large handle receiving a new hand, as Buster's goofily named sword was burst from the ground as well. Twin swords… twin wills feeling the fear between them. Another level of too much to just bare like fangs. A terrifying need that she couldn't hope to live up to. Some obscene call to too many arms. Some god-awful jealous tension curling that antiquated will. Just more distractions only making Aegis regret her inability to end this before it started. But all of it only mounting strange, as that darkened armor… kept turning away.

Turning about, all the way around. Back at the scrambling unarmed and fear filled unprepared. Samurai and Kaze rushing to add what dissuasion they could but knowing this was something more than manageable. Least of all as that restored behemoth took a step toward and drooped its hollow gaze.

Glass and bedrock, rippled into circles, crunched under armored talon. The empty Earth echoing every agonizing step. Uncertainty driving tension, tension fueling fear, fear flooding out into uncertain possibility. Into taken back steps at every motion. No one knew, but no one wanted to find out in the instant it would take to break this cycle into a deeper curvature. To collapse Schrodinger's Laceroid into reality they couldn't help but fear. But all that fear found no end to its ascension. But those steps found theirs upon that wave scorched center. As that gaze tracked down all the way to that obliterated ground.

A moment, a pause, a stalemate only adding more tension longing to snap. A silent dread dropping everyone back by inches at a time. Scraping the dust beneath their feet, cracking the glass at angles wanting to flee or charge forward to give that chance. The wind was cruel, that taunt line plucked. But only allowed to play its unnerving tune as long as it took for that head to rise again. To bear its hidden truth like a tacit warning. Before its claw rose with it.

To tower over everything. And spark to life with a familiar overpowering light.

"OUT OF THE CRATER NOW!!!"

All that fear and lock and rearguard sacrifice snapped apart, broke into sprint across every once frozen hero. The Elite knew firsthand what was coming but the urgent demand in Aegis' voice tore away any doubts in the others. No heads turned, no time spared, just a mad dash to get the hell away as that light grew brighter across their backs. A lucky minority, Cauterizer and Zeus, already out with Para in toe. Zeleny had Jacob and David by the hands and Maya was booking it as fast as she could before Buster scooped her up in her own storming retreat. Erd snatched up by Phoenix before he could relapse in stoic defiance. Samurai and Kaze too fast to need worry. Just leaving Aegis to cut and fly with her own twin cargo. All while that light crescendoed its own magnetic tailwind.

Coronal flares filling her peripheral, that same torrential buzz blowing away everything but, and the weight of this damn vibrating sword making getting up to speed a class in utter futility! Dust trailed as simmer poured out, and yet was dragged away by that conducting willful sword in her other hand. A more pressing need refused, more delay not fucking needed right now!! The others ahead dead sprinting and fleeing with everything they had, but her in the dust and flare and feeling regret of other people's fucking property! Feeling the reason Erd hadn't ever used anything but this stupid sword since he'd made position! It was a greedy bitch that would rather drag her through the dust than let her fly! Leave her grounded as that reconstructing palm found its peak. And drop all the way to the ground! With the gravity of a meteoric strike upon this titanic drum!

The crater heaved and split with burning white zags, with force enough to drop it deeper than it already was! But instead… it rebounded! The crater bucked and walls of dust and stone and rock shot to the sky on either side of Aegis' half assed flight. Filling this darkness with more actual shadows. Arcs of pure electricity racked over head as those walls found their level, and kicked her up from the ground roiling under her. Accommodation run out.

That simmer found its catch and speed fought all this abstract sequestering to get her the hell out of this flash filling in pit! A turn over aileron to pull that sword off its side, to give her the chance to see the raucous heart of this effort clear. A storm of bolts and aurora, solidifying Earth towering over. A dynamo of matter restoration just waiting for the moment her flight cleared that- *POOoofff* Lip!

Altitude shallowed and her back struck it, but she was clear and that storm was free to rip asunder no more.

Like panels from a stage, her roiling ramp lifted up to level with its brethren grades. Dust folding over and over again, dirt and rock reforming into what they used to be. That center self-spotlight lifting from the pit it kept to, a pillar to complete this reflattened land. That storm spilling forth and casting out to the still blackened circumference, raking through the unclaimed disintegrate like a road scraper to a pothole. The darkness failed, turning brown and green and grey and lifting. Concrete and top soil and trees and asphalt. This emptied pit torn to ashes rent back to what it used to be.

Grass spread over gentle gradient. Trees fizzled into towering being. Concrete layered and recovering with grassy camouflage. Lines and reinforcement cut into the smooth nature. More concrete towering over in strong sturdy blockhouses. The base that once vaguely hid in this empty foothill rose back up in its shadows. And with it the center of that restorative storm.

That blaring palm was full and grasping, waning the light around a solid shape now fading. That spear thrown taken out to leave nothing behind. That divining rod pointing all the way to the core of this Earth, pulled free to stop more destruction from coming to pass. And all the energy it carried used to more giving purpose. Fort Terrace now stood again. Yet stood quiet as that palm emptied and its burden dissipated to the rolling thunder against the mountain wind.

Its bearer, that shining armor staunch before the gate it never crossed. The air wavering as excess steamed away en masse, a mist clouding up from every blade and leaf and concrete pour. Those huffing their exertion and flight to safety at the edge now gone, the knee high clouds billowing away before they could take away the sight.

All was still and stopped.

Another restoration of damage done. Another proving of that wanted goal. That atonement. But still that armor stayed dark in its mist unnerving. Aegis stabbing upright with both borrowed blades in unfortunate ready. But silent hope not so silent.

"Open blue…! Please… please let them be blue…"

Her lungs burned yet carried her tighter, her arms ached yet rallied those blades with intent. That cleared sun beginning its wane overhead. The eyes on her flanks locked same as hers. Another tension, another stalemate wanting to snap. Another dread risen when it just shouldn't have to be. She shouldn't be this scared, she shouldn't mistrust him on this. But there was nothing else allowed until…

Until that armor glinted in that early afternoon sun. Trailing its heated condensate as the sun shined down clean. That metallic form turning to face its comrades or enemies still. That locked on head calmly rising to meet all this fear in stride. As those hollow dark eyes… opened their vibrant plasma blue.

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