"I..." Was all I could get out as I grabbed his hand to keep him from twisting the blood any further. "It was me... not Wren... wasn't it?" I said slowly as I pushed down on his knuckles, digging my nails into his skin but holding his hand firm.

"Yes... I can't let you hurt Palm-"

"And this is the way to do it?"

"I can't risk it." He tried pulling his hand back, but my grip remained.

"And you think I didn't see this coming either?" I ask.

His eyes widened, as I suddenly delivered a swift uppercut on his face from under his jaw.

He let out a grunt and released his grip on the knife and stumbled backwards. I quickly pulled the knife out and revealed the mask I had hidden under my jacket. I hissed as I put my hands over the small puncture wound but quickly applied a bandage over it. it could have been a lot worse without the mask blocking most of the attack.

"How did you-"

"Two nights ago, I had a vision of you trying to slit my throat in my sleep."

"That was the original plan, you weren't supposed to be awake."

"Yeah, I figured, sorry that killing me is such an inconvenience to you."

"Oh please, you know only one of us is walking out that door."

"Well, you probably shouldn't have done this where the magical healing beds are then." I say as I put one hand over the soft surface of the bed, watching as the glow travels up my arm and starts healing the wound on my chest. I frown a little in disappointment that my hand doesn't magically grow back, but shrug to myself before pointing my crossbow at Toucan.

He quickly brings his hand up and slams it to the side of the wall.

I go for a punch, but he suddenly kicks me hard in the leg, causing me to collapse to the floor only for him to follow his attack with a hard punch to the stomach.

I let out a weak gasp, then jerk my body to the side as he tries to strike me with his fist again.

I grab one of the stands beside the bed and use all my strength to hurl it at him, only for him to dodge and grab my hand with his left and using his other to twist it.

I let out a cry of pain before grunting as I slam the head of my crossbow onto the side of his head and firing, watching as the arrow pierces his eye and goes straight through the man's skull.

His body falls right onto a bed, the glowing effect almost instant as he suddenly managed to sweep my legs. I fall down on another set of beds, luckily twisting my arm back into the right position.

I hear a ripping sound and cry of pain behind me as he rips the arrow out of his head.

"Had enough?" I spit at him.

"Not a chance." He snarls as he lunges for me.

I quickly stick my legs out and at the last moment tuck them in as he reaches for them only to shoot my head up against his own.

He falls to the ground and holds his head with a hiss. "You motherfu-"

As soon as he gets on his knees, I kick him hard onto the ground and slide him out of the room. "We can still work this out, come on-" I plead, but he lets out a yell as he suddenly launches himself at me.

I shoot him in the stomach with another bolt, stopping him in his tracks.

"I'll kill you!"

"I haven't even done anything-"

"I don't care-" He yells but I put my boot in his face. Right after he falls, I start kicking him in the stomach and the side of his body, over and over and over again. I stomp on his head before finally stopping. "Don't get up, and let's talk-" I try again only for him to try and grab my collar, but only managing to grab my mask, falling onto his face.

"I won't let you take her away from me, I'll not have that sorrow anymore!" He yells.

Wait, that word.

I pull back just in time as he lets out a screech as his body jerks on the ground and starts to convulse. I watch as his arms split into two and as his body is covered in black and red scales with hints of purple. I watch as his jaw splits apart and extends further to resemble that of a snout while three sets of horns grow on top of his head, curling to face the front. I watch as his teeth grow to pointy blades that make my own body look like a toothpick. Purple wings unfurl from his arms and extend out as he lets out a final roar before his body is fully transformed. He looked like a Rainwing with a face that looked like a dragon's skull and the physique of a swamp dragon, his tail had a large curved blade embedded, like a long sickle.

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"Toucan, listen to me-"

He let out a roar and lunged for me.

Suddenly a pair of rusty metal claws reached out from behind me and clamped down on his jaws before quickly slamming him to the ground. The claw suddenly jerked back so the rest of the dragon's body was facing away, but the head. The dragon tried pulling itself away but it was too late as the other pair of metal claws started to spin, making a loud whirring sound as the claws turned to a spinning blade. He couldn't even make a sound before the spinning claws cut into his neck, and in less than a second, the spinning claws cut right all the way through. Minos pulled their claws back with the severed head still in their grasp. "Inferior." Was all it said before crushing the head to a pulp, some of the blood splashing onto me. "Are you alright?" Minos asked as the left claw reverted back to normal.

"Yes, but why'd you automatically save me?" I asked. "how did you know I wasn't the one who started it?"

Minos looked down at the corpse for a moment, slowly starting to liquify away until it resembled another mask. "Skoposwings are the reason I have no one to defend anymore, I would not let them take any more souls."

"I'm... sorry to hear that..."

"... Pity?" It asks as the gears click while it tilts its head towards me. "I am not supposed to feel, yet... I was... un-calculated in my approach... I... do not want you to die..."

I processed that for a moment. "Thank you Mino-"

I was cut off by the sound of a sword cluttering the ground.

Both of us turned to see Palm with Pebble in tow. Her mouth pursed into a firm thin line, her eyes weren't wide, they were wet though as a few tears found their way out and fell off her face and to the floor. Her knuckles were white and shaking, her feet fidgeting. "I was so happy when we finally found him... I didn't care that he said you had to die..." She sighed before walking to the mask that had belonged or was Toucan. She fell to her knees and her face finally broke as she sobbed, letting the pain fall from her face and into the mask. She gently grabbed the mask and lifted it to her face. "I still don't. But I understand what my problem is, that it isn't Pebble's fault that Scorpion's dead, that a fifth of Sunset was killed, that was all yours."

"Palm, he saved them." Pebble spoke.

"Not all of them." Palm gritted through her teeth as one last tear fell to the floor. "What do you do with problems in your equations?"

"I remove them." Pebble answered warily while trying to put a hand on her shoulder.

"River, it's time to remove yourself from the equation. Sorrow."

I tried firing a crossbow bolt ,but she blocked it with a newly formed wing.

Her body grew as with more black and red scales, almost the same as Toucan but instead more slim yet longer and with more spikes on the back of the body, she looked more like Fatespeaker with her faint teardrops and lack of fangs. Her wings were longer and had sharper spikes. The first thing she did though was pin down Pebble. "I have no quarrel with you, Pebble, but I can't afford you to use your powers on me." She growled as she lifted him up in the air.

"Wait, Palm, what are you- AH!" He yelled as his arms and ribs were crushed as she squeezed him before dropping him to the floor.

I heard the sound of Minos's claws whirring as the machine shot the spinning claws forward, only for one of the long wings to suddenly catch it and hold it away.

Minos quickly recovered and slammed Palm with their tail, causing her to fall with a whimper.

"Don't you understand? I was made to kill you." Minos stated as the machine sank the sharp end of their head into her chest, piercing her like a giant blade.

She screeched and tried to twist her head free but Minos kept their smaller hands on her neck as he got one of his larger claws to transform into another spinning blade.

"Fine, kill me, but can you save him?" She asked as she then suddenly brought her tail down towards Pebble.

Minos changed directions and slashed the end of the tail clean off, but Palm quickly latched her claws into the exposed chest and tore into the exposed gears and core, before ripping her head out of the machine.

"Minos!" I cried out but was slammed onto the wall by Palm's claws, one of them digging into my stomach. I was forced to watch as Palm's head came out, and chunks of metal, gears and cables spilled from Minos's chest, the piano inside crumpled.

Minos's movement slowed, each move of the machine a slow twitch, taking time for every twist and turn. Palm didn't struggle as she ripped off the arm that used to be a spinning blade before using her jaws to rip off the other two smaller ones. Each limb ripped off made Minos slower, every movement lacking as more gears were blown to bits, the hind legs completely stopped working as she jammed their gears, bending them to be unable to move.

"Pebble taught me that the more complex a machine is... the easier it is to break." Palm snarled.

"No-" I muttered but Minos was ripped in half, and the light in their eye... was gone.

Then she turned to me. "Now..."

"Your new form fits, an animal, just like you." I growled as I lifted my crossbow, but she quickly dug her claw and destroyed Ant's gift.

"Damn right." She growled as she lifted me up and licked her lips as she then moved her snout right next to my ear. "I'll enjoy this..." She whispered as she raised me above her jaws and opened up her maw. I squirmed and thrashed, trying to reach my herbs in some hopes of making a last-minute poison, but her grip was too strong as I was lowered inside until she suddenly growled and threw me to the side. "You took it all away... you need to suffer for it."

She picked up Pebble and pinned him again before he could raise any of his damaged hands, before picking me up in the other pair of talons. She brought us both to the giant doors of the place, leaving the metal and wooden corpse of Minos behind as we entered the main entrance.

"You'll stay down here... for the rest of your life, alone." she said before thrusting me to the eye pattern on the wall while at the same time loosening her grip on Pebble. I fell against the wall right on the gem, activating the large behemoth gates. The gem had also dug deep into the side of my body as my body crashed to the wall. I tried to get up but just fell back on my face.

Palm got ready to fly as the lava started to spill in, Pebble's hand outstretched as he managed to keep the lava from getting in, blood already starting to fall from his ears.

"Palm! You can't do this-" Pebble started.

"Shut up!" Palm roared.

"What was I supposed to do, just die?!" I yelled at Palm before letting out another yell in pain.

She didn't hesitate. "I would have killed you for less."

I pulled the gem out with a yell and thrusted it towards the symbol again, but Palm had taken off with Pebble, and I... was alone again.