She had to remember, how bad the situation had gone. How far gone had Elizabeth gone...

*Crack*

"Master? Should we strike?" One of her Minions sent the transmission to her.

Elizabeth had just arrived with Mom in tow, exposing her to the unknown dangers that was [The Shadow Tide], she hadn't waited the report from the scouts, nor had allowed the Shadow Armada to scout first.

Opting for putting everyone in danger, be it minions or those she claimed to love.

No other minion seemed to have a problem with this, not even her own Minions.

"No," Beatrice whispered, her internal conflict palpable. She couldn't easily transmit to only her Minions, so she opted for the second best thing and whispered. Even so, she couldn't bring herself to do it just yet.

Speaking with Elizabeth, she noticed a couple of things. First of all, Elizabeth didn't recognize the Valkyrie Order; Mom didn't seem to pay them much attention, and Rena, while she didn't recognize them, recognized their danger.

That was as good as one would expect from someone whose job would be keeping Mom alive.

The problem now was something else, a looming threat that was yet to reveal itself, adding to the already problematic, Elizabeth had barely managed to return by some kind of miracle. And now she was gearing up to fight against a new threat? For what?

A memento? A promise?

It was stupid. She should be happy with what she had, return home and live in peace with Mom, and instead she was here? Fighting against such repulsive shadows?

Madness, utter madness.

She didn't understand what Elizabeth was thinking. Even when Rena asked her about the Valkyrie Order, that was still fine, no. The problem was that Rena hadn't even thought about the fact that Elizabeth would ingest another Sin, it was such an obvious thing to see.

Elizabeth wanted to fight against a power that far surpassed her; how would she go about doing that? How would she shore up the defenses? Easy, she had such an easy way to get more power. Of course she would ingest it.

She hadn't planned to speak with Rena like that, but at least Rena hadn't given too much trouble for it, to some degree the girl was understanding, and to some degree she would be her worst enemy should she caught on what she was planning to do.

At least Elizabeth had lived up to her expectations.

"The target has ingested the Gem Master." Her Minions reported, just as she had expected.

The minions prepared and had attempted to move, but she stopped with a flick of her will, instead she turned to Rena, this would be a point of no return if she moved to intercept them.

"Will you let us through?" Beatrice said aloud, the Valkyries behind her stopped and turned to look at Rena.

They had moved as if she wouldn't be an obstacle, and, in a way they were right. If the Valkyrie Order fought, they could easily deal with Rena. Well, maybe not quickly. But defeating and restraining her would make it awkward later when the Valkyre Order needed to protect Mom.

"What will you do if I let you through." Rena asked, her eyes still eyeing each of them as if preparing for the worst.

"...will you believe me if I say that we aren't planning to do anything to Elizabeth?" Beatrice said, the Valkyrie Order didn't move or even prepare for combat.

But even so, Rena still didn't let her guard down.

"I do believe you." Rena said, making the worry on Beatrice's Core calm, "But I don't trust them."

And like that, her hopes were crushed.

"Master...The target seems to be...stable." Hrund reported from the side, her own Assassin and the Minion with best scouting abilities. "Perhaps we have enough time...?"

Enough time? Really?

That was the only thing Beatrice didn't have.

"*Sigh* Valkyrie Order!" Beatrice raised her voice, and the fourteen minions fell to their knees and saluted, "Would you harm Watanabe Rena without reason?"

"NO!" They answered at once.

"Would you hurt those that are dear to me?" Beatrice asked again.

"NO!" And the Valkyrie Order answered without hesitation.

"See?" Beatrice turned to Rena, "They will not harm anyone without reason; their main mission is to make sure Mom is safe and can live a long, healthy life."

If that was with Elizabeth or not, it was totally different point. So far it seemed that Elizabeth was getting better, but Beatrice couldn't afford anymore the doubt, she just didn't had the time for it.

*Crack*

She didn't regret the decisions she had made of course, if she hadn't moved how she did, Mom wouldn't be here. If she hadn't wrestled the control over the creation of the Valkyrie Order, then chances were that Mom would have died at the hands of the Lizard Bitch.

"Will you point your weapons to Elizabeth?" Rena asked, Beatrice was about to answer but Rena pointed her sword to her, "Not you, I want to hear their answer."

So Beatrice closed her mouth, she sighed and turned to Skuld, "Answer her Skuld." She probably would be the more diplomatic of the bunch.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"If that woman becomes a problem for the Mother Goddess or to Master, then yes." And answered as such, "The same applies to you Consort Rena, what matters to us is the orders Master gave us."

....damnit.

"....Can you explain this? You spoke about a depraved dragon, but Elizabeth doesn't have anyone that fits that description. Unless you include Nyx in that, he is closer to cute than depraved." Rena said, had she not pieced the clues together?

"Elizabeth." Beatrice said, trying to not shake from anger at the memory, "She is the depraved dragon."

"...is it puberty?" Rena said, she smiled as if that had been a good joke, but Beatrice didn't react, " Okay, explain. What happened while we were sleeping."

"She...We lost her," Beatrice said, trembling, "We lost Elizabeth."

"...What are you speaking about? She controlled her powers and returned, she brought us back from the brink. What do you mean?" Rena asked confused, that was what made Beatrice more angrier than anything else.

"Elizabeth didn't made a steady recovery, she didn't fought back to come back." Beatrice shook her head, "No, we are not a tale or an epic."

Really, it was funny. Beatrice always thought that even with Elizabeth always saying that she wanted normalcy, that she wasn't some chosen Hero, she acted like one. Everything seemed to move into place to make sure that she could end better than she started.

Till this event happened.

"Elizabeth Starbright lost herself to her sin." Beatrice merely stated, and snapping her fingers, a shadow screen manifested, a recording of the day that Elizabeth lost herself in her Pride and hurt those that she had said to love. "She broke Mom's back in several spots, you know? She crushed her hand's bones into dust, no surgeon and even most healers wouldn't be able to fix this."

And then turning the camera to Rena, one could see the conflicting emotions on the girl's face.

"And even while you weren't that badly hurt, you didn't fare better, did you?" Beatrice said, she fast-forwarded the video, and it showed them arriving at the shadow spire.

How they moved them into the healing tubes, how Elizabeth was more of a nuisance than anything. And then...how she just sat against a wall staring blankly at both girls.

"She stood there, doing nothing, blaming herself (quite rightly so) for how you both got hurt..." Beatrice could tolerate that, hell, she even felt bad for it. "But when it mattered the most, she still clung to what had made this mess, she still clung to the power and sought more."

That was the problem, even with all of this, Elizabeth was still blinded by her own hubris, was Beatrice being too harsh? Perhaps.

But she wouldn't apologize for that, she would never apologize for that.

"What do you think Elizabeth did when she lost herself?" Beatrice asked.

Rena stopped to think for a few seconds before answering. "She has my Wrath, and some of Rossie's Lust, besides that what else?" Beatrice didn't answer of course, that was besides the point. "I assume she started destroying stuff around?"

If only...

"She lost herself in Pride," Beatrice said, "She was so sure of herself and didn't take anyone else into consideration; she spent days on end thinking herself the best, and when she noticed that some of us spent time focusing on someone else? What do you think she did?"

Beatrice seethed at the memory of that.

"She..." Rena said as the realization hit her. She knew what people who basked in depravity did after all.

"Yes, she started getting angry at us for not focusing on her, she started wanting to deal with the nuisances." The image morphed into the reflection of the Dragon Bitch.

She had the same blonde hair, a pair of leathery wings, horns, and scales covering some parts of her naked body. It was an image of a woman who reeked of debauchery.

"And when this wasn't enough? She started partaking in depravity." The next image was one of that bitch pleasuring herself with random objects while eyeing first the tubes, then a mirror...

It was very weird seeing her using a mirror for those acts.

"And she was not mad or possessed; no, she was aware of what she was doing. She moved with purpose. And like that, she attempted to kill you both." The image moved forward, to the point where The Bitch attempted to purge the healing pods.

The point where Beatrice started to break, for who do you follow? Your progenitor? Your Mother? Your father?

Who do you owe loyalty to?

Beatrice wasn't sure if her decision would be the correct at that point, but she would the same, should history repeat itself.

If you had the opportunity to save your Mother, even at the cost of losing yourself... what kind of daughter wouldn't make the choice?

What kind of person would not do it?

Would you not sacrifice everything for a chance to save your Mother?

She would.

"I did what I had to," Beatrice said as the image moved to one where The Lizard Bitch was making fourteen drops of blood. This was something that she didn't saw, but it was easy enough to get footage, Aura had footage of everything. "I used fourteen drops of blood to make them."

The image shifted to a dark room with fourteen testing tubes similar to those that Rena and Mom slept in, "And using the lifeblood of Elizabeth, fourteen Minions were born." The image changed to those same fourteen tubes but now with a girl in each, sleeping. Waiting.

"I prepared for the worst and set it up so I would be ready, so we would be ready..." Beatrice felt her core split and tremble, she was close, speaking more about it, explaining more what she had done brought her closer and closer to the innevitable resolution.

She had betrayed her progenitor, she had prepared to commit regicide...

"We were born to fulfill something first, and to make sure the wish of our Master was achieved." Skuld spoke placing a hand atop Beatrice's shoulder. Followed after Sigrun took a step forward, "We were born as Dragon Slayers first, and second as caretakers."

Yes, the Valkyrie Order had been born to fulfill the twisted desires of Beatrice, to make sure that even in the worst of situations, Mom would have a chance to survive, to make sure that even if Elizabeth could not return, Mom would have a chance to survive.

"...I'm sorry." Rena said as she lowered her sword, "I am sorry that you had to go through that."

Beatrice couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Don't be." And said as much, "It was neither Mom nor your fault that any of this happened."

That was Beatrice's heartfelt feeling; she was aware that this was no one's fault. No one's but The lizard bitch.

"But even so, can't you give Elizabeth a chance?" Rena said next, Beatrice knew it would come to this, "Even at this moment she is fighting, can't you wait to see how it ends? Should she lose herself in a new Sin, I will help her, and Rossie will also help her."

Mom?

"We will make sure that Elizabeth returns to us. Even if Rossie doesn't, I will. I know better than anyone that forcing oneself to chance is not the answer." Rena smiled while saying that, "So, can you promise me that those girls will not try to harm Elizabeth? That they will not move first without giving her a chance?"

A chance?

A CHANCE?!?!?!

"Master? The target seems stable and her Mana is in harmony." Eir spoke, she was the Healer within the Valkyrie order, the only Valkyrie whose hair had pink hues. The Valkyrie that Beatrice had made as closer to Elizabeth and Mom. "We can wait."

The Valkyrie that had opposed her plan after Elizabeth returned.

"...We will wait, but if she fails to reign it, if she starts going into a road to debauchery... Not as Elizabeth Starbright but...as something else." Beatrice took a handkerchief and cleaned some tears that formed on her eyes, the liquid was red. "I will make it so Mom is safe, no matter how much more Time I have to sacrifice."

So they waited, Beatrice explored the connection to Elizabeth's Shadow Haven. Her hometown, the place she was born, the place she had managed these two years, a place that she loved at first but had become a prison to all her sins.

A place full of life, even while only being populated by the souls of a damned planet.

A place infused with the desire to survive, thrive, and return to life. A place where Mom's Soul spent time interacting with other Souls, or at least used to.

After that event, Mom's soul no longer traversed these streets like before; the reflection with brown hair disappeared when Elizabeth returned and brought Mom back to normal.

Same with Rena's reflection.

Now they only walked in these streets while sleeping, admiring the beauty of the city she managed, and marveling at what Elizabeth had.

"Status," Beatrice said trying to not think too much about that, she had no right to claim any achievement from Aquila. Even if she was responsible for managing it, it wasn't hers to begin with.

"Target seems to be stable. Lord Reginald was summoned and after exiting Aquila, he shifted as he left turning into a lightning-attuned form, right now he is in a settlement 400 kilometers west of Aquila," Herja answered, her scout really was the best.

"400 kilometers west of Aquila?" Beatrice answered thoughtfully.

"What is there?" Rena asked, still in front of them, still blocking the path.

"Nothing," Beatrice said, she knew better than anyone what surrounded Aquila, she had made sure to set a scouting party a thousand kilometers around the Shadow Haven. "There is nothing outside Aquila, the planet is empty, devoid both of life and objects, there aren't even other ruins."

The Soulscape that Elizabeth had while big, it was empty. It was as if everything that had been Terra Invicta had been erased. But now one of her Valkyries said that there was something, and Reginald even went to check on it?

What was happening?

"What are you doing Elizabeth?" Beatrice couldn't help but ask, she should have broken down by now. She should have lost herself in another Sin.

She should.

If she didn't...then why couldn't she do that before?

Why did she risk Mom's life before? Why did she make her crack her Core while making the Valkyrie Order? Why did she make her suffer like this? Why did she suffer? Why did she allow Mom to sacrifice her humanity?

Why did she let Mom succumb more and more to her Sin? Why did she act like nothing?

Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why...why was she able to have a happy ending?

Why could Elizabeth Starbright have a happy ending?

Why couldn't Beatrice Von Starbright have a happy ending, too?

Even so, Beatrice knew it, The world wasn't a fair place.

"Dial down the preparation levels." So she gave her order; the Valkyrie order let out some of the stress that they were keeping and relaxed, and so did Rena, whose swords disappeared. "We are going to talk with Elizabeth, prepare for the worst, and be ready."

She was feeling it too, even with Aquila sealed away in a layer of shadows, she could see the lightning raining down in the distance as a new settlement was being born in the dead planet that was the Soulscape of Elizabeth.

She felt the influence of a new type of Minion. One that wasn't born out of shadows but something else. Something that was much closer to Elizabeth.

"We need to speak with my progenitor." Beatrice prepared herself, she had wanted for this to happen in a more private setting, but she was running out of time. Speaking with Rena only accelerated it even more, she...

She would not live long, so she needed to make sure that everything was in order, she only hoped her Core didn't crack before time.