Pain ran through Erin's body, his arms barely able to move. Legs refusing to stand. Had they been broken already? He put his hand on a nearby ledge, using it to force himself back to his feet despite how much damage it added. He could worry about permanent injuries later.

"I hope you realize how pointless this is."

He leaned against broken concrete, vision a blur for a few seconds. Even so, her visage was impossible to miss, the yellow splotch swimming a few seconds. Eventually, the goddess's frame returned.

"It's already too late," she said. "This world and its inhabitants are under AIC control. Fighting it is only delaying things."

He bit back the pain, ignoring his shaky legs and raising up his wand. He could rest when it was over. When there wasn't a hostile entity on the assault. Elisia's only response was a sigh. He didn't expect her to understand. She was already too far gone.

Water rose at his feet, the weasel using it to push him forward, straight for Elisia. She stopped him with a hand, Erin freezing along with the water.

Whiskers.

Gravity plunged him backward, careening into a wall and flashing stars. He collapsed almost immediately.

"Satisfied?" Elisia asked.

He couldn't respond, her voice drifting in and out of his ears. Was he fading already? Whiskers. Get up. Get up, you senile weasel. His body refused to listen, limbs too damaged to respond. Elisia walked towards him.

When she'd first appeared, he'd assumed something had been amiss. Never did Elisia show her face on a whim, least of all to the likes of him. Her usual smile had been nonexistent. Nor did she even attempt to exude pleasantries his way. But the moment he'd seen AIC members in the arena, it had occurred to him she'd switched sides. He thought that made him prepared. How he wished it had.

"You brought this on yourself, weasel," she said, her heels clacking against the streets of Ursa. "I tried to be tactful. I tried to be merciful. But you just pushed me away at every opportunity. If not for you, that child might have been a force to be recognized with by now. But no. Now she's doomed to be fodder to the White Legion."

She stopped in front of him, staring down at her fallen enemy. If he had the energy, he would have attacked her right then and there. But nothing responded to his commands. Not even as she lifted him by the collar, dangling him in the air.

"What's say you, weasel?" she asked. "Do you regret the weight of your sins now?"

He glared back at her. My sins? As if she was one to talk. Goddess of Judgement. Destroyer of worlds. How many people were gone because of the choices she'd made? How many were her own graduates? The weasel found his voice again, coughing up a response.

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"Was it my sins that swayed you to betray Sasha?" he asked.

Elisia's expression didn't change.

"You assume I've been swayed," she said.

The Goddess looked straight at him, her voice as unwavering as her visage.

"A Goddess must look beyond the short term," Elisia said. "I protect the universe as a whole. And currently, these people are the only ones trying to keep it stitched together. That makes us allies. For the time being, at least."

She pushed him against the wall, his head smacking brick.

"You're in the way of that goal," she said. "And if I have to bury you to fix that, I will. You'd be wise to stand down."

Erin glared back at her. To be threatened directly by a goddess. Surely it was the highlight of his life so far.

How many lives had he taken as the AIC's general? How many people fell because of decisions he'd made? In all his time enforcing protocols and ending conflicts, he'd never quite had the chance to truly give of himself. Not until he'd become a liaison, at least. Not until he'd become her liaison.

To be attacked by Elisia for choosing to side with Sasha. To go rogue when there were legionnaires threatening the universe. It was almost funny, in a way.

There were thousands of graduates out in the cosmos. Enough to fill a small army. Enough to have their own world. Compared to the rest, Sasha was no one particularly special. In fact, she was one of the least competent graduates Erin had ever trained. Perhaps the weakest in the cosmos.

And yet she was always striving despite that. No one else at her level would be so willing to throw up their claws. So willing to fight no matter how outclassed or low on reserves they were. It was something he always liked about her. Something he wished he'd been more like in the past.

"I've made a lot of terrible mistakes, Elisia," Erin said.

She raised a brow, the weasel smiling as he met her gaze.

"You're right," he said. "I haven't done much to help the cosmos. I haven't helped the AIC either. There's a war happening around us, and I've been so focused on chasing a lost wolf. Saving a cat. If that isn't a sin, I don't know the meaning of the word."

He found feeling in his hands again, the weasel grabbing Elisia's wrist.

"But if that panther needs me to sin, then I'd gladly join her in hell."

His wand rose, water shooting through Elisia's frame. Erin dropped as her body phased the attack.

"As long as I breathe, I will help that panther!"

He pushed away, a barrier rising to help him gain more distance. Light rose in his wand, jets fired in quick succession.

"As long as she will have me, I will keep Sasha safe!"

Elisia walked through the attacks, frowning back at him. Her hand rose again, but Erin put up a barrier. It quickly dented.

"Think about this carefully, Erin Tull," Elisia said. "Is one graduate worth dying over?"

The field shattered, gravity slamming against him and pushing him back. Whiskers. Not yet. He held his ground, growling against it. He didn't care how much his limbs shattered. He didn't care that he tasted blood in his mouth. He didn't care that blowback would render him dead in minutes. As he dug in, he could only see the goddess in front of him. Someone he would never let hurt Sasha.

"If you have to ask that, you clearly don't know a thing about guardianship!"

He pushed forward, water streaming as fast as he could pump it out. He knew it was pointless. He knew it wouldn't work. But he kept attacking. As he knew she would keep moving wherever she needed to go.

I may fall, but I know you never will. And he'd never let them have you either.

Elisia blew it all away, water crashing around them. Erin growled.

Take care, Sasha. I'll leave the rest to you, Mush Head.

He screamed, charging the goddess head-on.