Fuck, that got crazier than I expected. Drake walked down the last few steps towards the platform, glancing at the timer in the corner of his vision. Still three hours. Not sure what I'll do if Emma's wrong, but she's been right so far.

He took a deep breath as he came to stand in the doorway, avoiding wiping at any part of himself no matter how much he felt the urge. Okay. Carl, I know I said I'd help you and your alien girlfriend out because we're friends, but you really owe me for how fucked up all this shit is. And for how hard it's been to keep your friends here grounded.

He took another breath. Yeah, no chance this doesn't work. It's a fucked up plan, but it's solid.

With an affected confidence he was only six-point-five feeling, he strode out onto the platform. "Ir'alith!" he called. "Let's talk!"

There was no reply, so he kept walking. Shit, is she just lurking under the platform again? If she's really lost it, then she might just kill me before I can do anything. What a way to go.

"I brought you something, Ir'alith," he shouted. "Hey, I know you're in—"

A thunderous roar sounded out, vibrating his body so fiercely that he almost fell over. Almost immediately, a pressure descended on him, faint at first, then growing stronger until it required most of his concentration just to remain standing.

"Why have you returned, ally of humans?" a deep, ominous, growling voice rumbled. "Step no farther into my domain or you will die."

Oh fuck, she's even worse now. Drake looked around, but he saw no sign of the blue-or-red-skinned woman. Weird as it is with how briefly I've known her, I wish Emma was here with me doing her thing. It's hard to have time to worry when she immediately jumps in with a distraction. "Do you even know where you are, Ir'alith?" he called.

"This is my home," the voice growled.

"If it's your home, Ir'alith, then where's your family?" he challenged. "What about your mother, who's supposedly better at healing than you?"

No reply was forthcoming, so he forged onward towards his goal. "This isn't your home, but you do have a home, don't you, Ir'alith?"

"Home," the voice rumbled quietly, sounding slightly less deep.

"You've been here a long time, all alone, Ir'alith," Drake continued. "You weren't always alone though, were you? You have friends. Do you remember them?"

"Friends…" The voice grew silent again. Abruptly, another near-deafening roar sounded out. "No, ally of humans, I will not fall to your tricks!" the voice bellowed. "You seek to deceive me! To betray!"

The pressure on him increased, except that now it was being exerted by a massive, red hand with claws emerging from its four fingers, instantly knocking him over onto his back and pressing him against the cool stone. Red, glowing eyes glared down at him from the sides of a dragon's snout which hung from a colossal body he was unable to see the end of.

"Wait!" he yelled with widened eyes, mobilizing every shred of willpower to avoid panicking. "I'm friends with Carl and Vol. You wouldn't kill a friend of theirs, would you, Ir'alith? You remember them, don't you?"

The claws covering him pressed down harder, and he winced. Then they lifted a slight amount, and he breathed a relieved sigh.

"Do not test my patience, ally of humans," Ir'alith rumbled. She lifted her claws a bit more, and he scrambled out from underneath. "I will spare you now. Leave, and—"

"So you do remember," he interrupted, feeling more relief at the idea. "This isn't your home. You do have friends. You have a life, Ir'alith."

Her eyes closed, and her head swung slowly from side to side. "I…" A low rumble shook the platform under him. "Why do you speak such words to me, ally of humans?" she asked, her eyes remaining shut.

"I said I'd make it up to you for helping me last time, and I never give up at anything I set my mind to," he said confidently. "You're Carl's friend too, and he'd be sad if he saw you like this. I wanna help you, Ir'alith."

She remained silent for a time, and then, slowly, she folded her forelegs beneath herself and sank to the ground. "Speak," she commanded.

"The Ir'alith I knew when I arrived here was a proud, mighty warrior," he said, working to recall the ideas he'd discussed some time earlier. "She was kind. Generous. Disciplined."

"Do not think to gain my goodwill through compliments, ally of humans," she said with overt hostility. "You spoke of help. With what do you believe I require help?"

"Well, you're acting crazy right now, and I think—"

She roared, and her eyes opened to glare at him.

"—And I think you know it!" he shouted. "You remember, right? Think back, Ir'alith!"

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"I have never felt more clarity in my thoughts than I do now," she rumbled. "You intend to deceive and convince me otherwise? A feeble scheme, even for…" She halted, and her head surged forward, placing one eye just in front of him. "Perhaps you are human," she said. "A human who wears a disguise in order to betray me?"

Her claws darted out, wrapping him tightly in an unbreakable grip. "I understand now," she rumbled. "This explains the weakness I have seen in the other races. They are humans who appear otherwise to deceive my eyes. They must be purged as well."

"You fucking told me you were going crazy last time I was here, Ir'alith," he said with a grunt as she constricted her claws around him. "Think! Or do you really not remember?"

She snarled, and a hot blast of air buffeted him. "I remember everything, ally of humans!" she bellowed.

"Then you remember telling me that, don't you, Ir'alith?" he repeated.

Her grip loosened slightly, and he finally took a deep breath. "Why do you continue to speak my name?" she asked, her head rotating to one side as she continued to glare down at him.

"To help you remember," he said, patting the top of her giant, scaled finger-claw. "I need you to remember, Ir'alith. Can you do that?"

She lapsed into silence again, and her eyes closed once more. "I… I remember speaking such words to you," she said slowly. "You sided with the human instead of aiding me. You forced me to look upon one despite my madness. You harmed me, ally of humans!" she finished with a roar as her eyes opened, glowing even more brightly.

"I said I'd make it up to you!" he shouted back. "So give me a fucking chance here!" Fuck, she's the sanest crazy person I've ever met.

"A chance?" she said. "A chance given to humans is a chance to betray. To despoil."

He took a deep breath and set his brow determinedly.

He was Drake Storm.

The idea of surrender didn't exist to him.

"If I can't help you, then you'll kill me anyway, Ir'alith" he tried. "Won't you."

"I will kill you, ally of humans," she said in a creepy, whispered snarl that was immediately followed by the most disturbing laugh he'd ever heard.

"I think you don't actually hate all humans, Ir'alith," he called. "I think you hate one human so much that—"

She roared and slammed him against the ground, causing his vision to go dark for a moment and his head to ring. "DO NOT SPEAK OF SUCH THINGS!" she screeched in a discordant wail like two separate voices speaking in unison.

"—that it's making you crazy knowing he exists!" he finished quickly.

She smashed him against the ground over and over, and he cast his Restoration spell on himself four times in quick succession to stave off the worsening pain he felt from each one. "HE MUST DIE! EVERYTHING MUST DIE!" she roared, now with three even more discordant voices.

"But you already killed him, didn't you!" he shouted despite his disorientation as the last healing spell took effect. "You killed him, Ir'alith, but you started thinking about him again eventually. Maybe you would've even if you never saw him again. Because you do remember it."

Stoneskin.

She was silent for a moment, and the claws around him trembled. He crashed down into the hard stone of the platform once again with more force than any of the previous blows, and agony exploded in his head, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut and grit his teeth in the aftermath even as he invoked his Regeneration spell.

Shit, that's the last of my mana. That better be the last of that. He took a deep breath and stared up into her eyes determinedly, even though the brilliance of their glow was now so bright that spots began appearing in his vision. "Do you think you're weak because you became like this?" he asked as he shifted into to final step of the plan. "Because madness overwhelmed you?"

"I…" She hesitated, and the grip of her claws pulsed around him.

"Look closer at me, Ir'alith," he said. "Really look. You haven't actually looked at me yet, have you."

"Is this a trick?" she said, now sounding uncertain.

"You've seen this before, I think," he continued as her claws loosened. He pointed up at his red-drenched hair, then at his crimson-splattered face. "I'm covered in it, Ir'alith. What is it?"

"Blood," she said slowly.

"Whose blood, Ir'alith?" he said. "It's not mine."

A soft rumble began to echo out, growing until it became deafening. "I remember," she growled.

"Maybe I'm an ally of humans," Drake said, "but that doesn't mean I'm an ally of everyone who looks like a human." He brought up his inventory and retrieved an object, tossing it casually into the air with one hand. "It wasn't weak to be driven to insanity by him," he said as he caught the bloody head with a grin. "Anyone would feel like they were going insane after being near this piece of shit for even a few minutes. Anyone would feel like they needed to kill him. Shit, they'd feel like they needed to do more than kill him. Even other humans."

"Quite a lot more," Emma called out from behind him on cue. A small, bloody object landed nearby. "Filth such as this is not human, and I've a mind to be deeply insulted by the comparison."

"What…" Ir'alith's eyes flickered, and her head swept back and forth over her surroundings.

"He attempted a considerable struggle," Emma said as she clicked towards them. "We'd thought to make it swift, but, well, I'll confess that while I've no notion of his background, his like would drive even those for whom I've substantial admiration near to madness. Myself, I'd felt as though I'd wholly lost my sanity for a time, and my restraint was noticeably loosened." She came to a stop nearby, a wide grin on her face as she stood in her blood-splattered white dress with drops of blood dribbling down the sides of her face.

Ir'alith's head swiveled between the two of them, and the light shining from her eyes began to dim. "You…"

Drake tossed the head aside, then began pulling bloody, severed limbs out of his inventory. "He could regenerate, so it really took a while," he remarked, grimacing as he tossed another small object to land next to the one Emma had thrown earlier. "Sorry, Ir'alith, but I didn't even do this completely for you," he remarked as he discarded a foot. "I just lost my fucking mind for a bit. Feel great now though."

"Yes, quite relaxed, even," Emma added, wiping away a line of blood from her brow. "A spot of insanity's a splendid outlet now and again."

Ir'alith stared at them. Kazuto's head floated into the air after a short while, and her eyes glowed again for a moment before the entire thing exploded outwards, then disintegrated. Her eyes closed, and her body visibly shrank a small amount. "Speak then. Tell me of this madness you have endured."

Drake glanced at Emma, and she gave him a small smirk and a nod. "Well, it started like this…"