As Isaac sent wild swings into the air to fend off Termination, Elise caught her breath and studied the situation. Her unhinged glare fell upon the dead avian knight she’d fatally switched with. “Found an organ donor. I’ll heal you next, partner,” she mumbled at her knees next to the corpse. She slammed Ween into his chest with a metallic ring. Her mortal injuries vanished.

She watched Isaac fight for his life. Thorin looked more annoyed by their interference than anything else. He ignored her other than little glances. Did he know her ability had short range? Did he judge Isaac to be the greater threat? Her partner rubbed his single eye against his reddened sleeve to clear the blood from view. If nothing changed quick, it’d all be over.

The ruckus of the whole encounter busted the chandelier overhanging the dining room table. Its lights toppled and extinguished against the cold ground. The level of light, already low, shrunk even further. Elise’s mouth dropped as she stared at the few lanterns and candlelight sources dotting the room. Isaac needed more shadows to work with. All-consuming darkness.

Isaac called out to her from across the room. “If I could use my other dagger, he’d be dead in no time.”

“Then use it!”

“Not here. Too dangerous.” Even pushed to the edge, he didn’t dare.

“You always talk about using it, but you never do. Does it even do anything!”

“I swear!”

Elise picked up and slung the dead avian knight’s halberd across the room. It struck and shattered a lantern which toppled over. Her plan seemed foolproof; to create more shadows to benefit Holy Diver. What she didn’t predict though was that it would spark an oil fire. The flames burst and crawled outwards from the exploded lantern, catching Isaac’s cloak on fire. As Thorin laughed maniacally, Elise’s partner caught aflame danced to avoid the heat while still evading Termination.

Isaac called to her. “Why, Elise? Why?!”

Her cheeks blushed rose in embarrassment. “Sorry. I thought it’d help.” Desperate to assist somehow, she took to chunking random objects at Thorin. First a helmet. It slammed him in the side of the head.

He glared at her, surprised. “Oh shit.”

Then she sent the chair, which snapped in half over his shoulder. He yelled at her. “You stop that right now!”

Then came a plate, and then another chair, and then a hatchet which clipped Thorin’s ear. Termination shifted mid-air and chased after her. The instance Thorin’s radiating hatred focused on Elise, Isaac vanished from sight. He reemerged in the owl’s shadow with a flurry of slashes aimed at the back.

Thorin’s yelped in agony. “Punishment!” He growled as the daggers of Dio carved chunks from him.

The serpent machina curved away from Elise and exploded. Steel shrapnel shards shot toward Isaac. He vanished again. The projectiles missed completely.

Thorin stumbled back, searching around for Isaac. His stab wounds spewed blood through his clothes. Unless he could’ve pulled a miracle from his ass, he’d bleed out in a minute. With a meek voice, he doubted his status as protagonist for the first time in his life. “Me? lose? How?!”

Desperate, he stared down the door to Al Yara’s bedroom, and scurried towards escape only to be blocked by Elise. She crumbled him with a front kick to the body that slammed all the air from his lungs. Looking up at her, Thorin begged. “Please don’t kill me. I give up. I’m sorry.”

“You’re like an entirely different person now. You’re weak.”

Isaac lurked up from Thorin’s shadow and joined Elise’s side. The villain’s dread doubled as his consciousness flickered. He curled up in a terrified ball.

Isaac contemplated putting him out of his misery but relented. “I’d finish the job, but his wounds are mortal anyway. May as well let him feel fear until the end.”

Elise put her palm against Isaac’s cheek, forcing him to look into her eyes. He raised his eyebrows, covering her hand with his own. “You really in the mood right now of all times? Maybe after we save Sasha?”

“Of course not. Let me see that gash.”

“Whoops. My bad. Got my hopes up.”

Elise shook her head, disappointed. She ordered him. “Kneel next to him.”

Isaac plopped down next to the owl with a groan. Thorin drifted asleep, blood like red wine pooling under him. Elise rested one hand on each of the men’s chests. The next moment, Thorin’s body fell limp and silent.

Isaac stared fascinated by Elise with a new hazel eye that contrasted his other’s natural blue. “You’re amazing.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank Ween.” They shared prolonged eye contact before Elise shied away.

Termination fell into a closed-off slumber in its contractor’s hand. A metallic dragging emanated from the halls they came from. Isaac’s stomach dropped as he half-expected Jericho to show up. The doors creaked open.

Abdul stood there, armor melted and malformed yet flesh unharmed. He pointed at Termination laying on the ground. “Hey, you gonna eat that?”

***

Sasha struggled and strained with all her might as avian knights dragged her tailing behind Al Yara. A burst of adrenaline and energy flowed through her veins. It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced before. Determination? Was she moved?

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She hadn’t been forgotten. The new hawks were there for her. Her hopes once embers rose like a depraved fire fed oxygen.

Al Yara had opened a secret passageway behind a bookshelf in his master bedroom. That’s where they escaped. Where were they headed? The surface where horses waited.

An owl next to their leader in the front held a torch to help find their way through the darkness. That was until he slipped and ate rock. He clacked his head and went out. Al Yara stopped the group and stumbled to recover the torch, staring at the ground with pent up frustration. “What are those? Pebbles?”

He picked one up. Low and behold, a glass marble. Once of probably thousands spilled everywhere. Moments later, the avian knight next to him slipped and ate shit too, though he stood right back up. A voice echoed from afar into the darkness. One filled with cocky bravado. “I see you’ve noticed what you’ve stepped right into. Welcome to my playground, Al Yara!”

“Who are you, you bastard?”

A laugh shot back. “I’m the one you least expected.”

The knight next to him pointed at the voice, his dented helmet now taken off to reveal a bleeding brow. “I know that voice. Rookie owl Ignazio!”

‘Bingo!” Ignazio shouted back.

Al Yara sighed and yelled. “Damned traitor! I’ll deglove you for this!”

“Come and try. Don’t be in a rush though. What other traps and cantrips may await? But they’re coming behind you now, aren’t they? I know it. The hawks. Maybe you do want to rush.”

Al Yara looked behind the group in the distance to see that Ignazio was correct. An ever-so-faint light flickered down the passage. His stomach crawled. He motioned to the owls and avian knights escorting Sasha, slight panic painting his face. “We’ll take our chances. Charge him!”

His men obeyed. They all rushed forward, more afraid of the threat in the back than front. One after one, they slipped and ate shit. Al Yara avoided a comedically placed leaf rake only for the owl behind him to step on it and get smacked in the face with the handle. From the darkness, axes hanging from the ceiling swung towards the group to leave a gash on the vanguard’s forehead.

Al Yara weaved past the antics. “I won’t lie, rookie, I’m a little impressed. Why betray us?”

Ignazio lit a distant torch to reveal a large chamber which led to the surface. He stood at the exit with his broken leg supported by a splint and crutch. “I’m a winner, that’s why. I switched sides the moment I realized you’re all losers.” The traitor played with a lighter in his hands as he looked down on his old allies. “Might not want to get too close.”

Al Yara bared his teeth. “There he is. Get him!”

His men sprinted forth, most slipping or tripping over more traps while Ignazio limped away. He’d lit something. A faint fuse sizzled like a firework near detonation. One of the few near Ignazio dragged his feet to a halt, blocking the others from their pursuit. The avian knight observed. “You smell that?”

“Smell what?” An owl responded.

“Gunpowder. Get back!”

An intense light show of an explosion planted at the base of the exit blew those two apart. They ripped into gory pieces. The cavern system rumbled as dust and powder kicked up, throwing everyone into coughing fits. Rocks fell from the ceiling. It was a reckless tactic, Al Yara’s last chance to escape had been blown away. Ignazio caved in the only exit in his departure. Now, the remaining way out was the way they came; the way the hawks chasing them approached.

Once the dust had settled enough, Al Yara measured his options with a deadpan face and tinge of sorrow in his voice. Not many confident goons remained on his side either. He rambled, questioning everything. “My heaven? Taken. Fight? Like hell. They killed Thorin, didn’t they? Maybe even Jericho too. How? The Wyrm himself?”

His uncertainty spread across the chamber, wavering the spirits of even those with utmost loyalty. One of the avian knights tasked with dragging Sasha along released her, falling to his knees. “Is this really happening to us? But I tried my best,” he asked.

Still coughing, Sasha took the opportunity to jolt free from the other’s grip and make space between herself and Rath Ghul’s agents. She struggled to break her shackles by any means necessary as Major’s voice warned her. Something about the air has changed with Al Yara. He is as desperate as he is twisted and spiteful. Don’t meet his gaze.

Then, just as foreseen, Al Yara gazed at her with an eerie, skin-crawling calmness. “I think I understand clearly now. Lloyd was right. Convergence is a curse. It destroys families and all that is good. I’m sure of it; if this girl escapes, the rest of the world will face the same fate as Rath Ghul. It’ll rip itself apart.”

He motioned to his five remaining owls and pointed at Sasha. “I cannot die here. Restrain the girl. She’s our last bargaining chip. If those hawks get too close, break the dagger, slit her throat.”

Thorin’s old words bounced in Sasha’s head. They bounced with her heart’s beating. The destruction of a machina meant the death of its contractor. These deathbed owls planned to drag her down with them. Major’s voice reverberated one last time.

Do whatever you can to live.

She growled back at him with a nod. “I want to live. They came because they wanted me to live. I’m going to live.”

Her wrists still bound tight; Sasha beckoned the dagger to come to life hidden between her hands. Horns grew from the hilt and blue light radiated. Its spiritual energy manifested in her through her veins and hair and eyes. Her bindings strained under her strength before splitting to fall onto the ground. “Ghost in the Shell.”

Sasha wielded Major in her teacher’s stance, the blade of light extending into the longsword she knew most.

Al Yara shook his head. “I’ll beat common sense into your corpse.” Two avian knights and an owl backed him.

She stood with unbroken focus. “I won’t let you get away with what you’ve done to countless families.”

“Family this, family that. Who cares? It’s all fake. It doesn’t exist. It’s nothing more than a perfect tool to enslave others to responsibility.”

Sasha looked to Al Yara’s minions surrounding him. She spoke to them. “Don’t you hear that?! He doesn’t care about any of you! You’re being used! Wake up and choose what you really want to do with your lives!”

Al Yara scoffed. “Ignore her delusions. Virtue signaling brats like this always take back their words on their deathbeds.” He motioned to his now apprehensive men to begin their approach.

Sasha stepped forward, startling Al Yara. He moved backwards to make space between them as she walked him down, beckoning him with unbroken resolve. “Then come, coward. Take a swing yourself. You sure like to sit back and order people around, but in the end, you’ll never raise a finger. All bark, no bite. Afraid of me? Someone who’s just a simple, little woman in your eyes? Where’re your balls?”

“Only an idiot would fight a machina wielder without a machina, and one never found me worthy. There must be leaders as there must be followers. I am a leader.” With a panicked face, he pointed fiercely at Sasha. “Get her! What are you all waiting for?!”

Al Yara’s men meandered. They looked frustrated. The final owl took off his mask and threw it on the ground. “We’re not a family? Even after raising us up in the guild, we’re nothing but slaves to you. We’ve placed our blood and allegiance in the wrong place.”

That owl looked around the room and beckoned, “Any of you with sense should give up and grovel. The hawks approaching are machina users who’ve beaten Jericho and Thorin. Maybe they’ll spare us losers.” Such a demand sent a wave of bleakness over all who remained. The nearing echoes of rapid footsteps in sprint worsened the impact on morale.

An expression of absolute rage painted across Al Yara’s face. No matter how furious though, he still did nothing in the end.

Abdul burst out from the shadows followed by Isaac and Elise. They witnessed a cavern full of owls sitting on their knees, foreheads against the ground, with their weapons thrown aside. Even Al Yara now kneeled in hesitance too, staring at the ground. He refused to even glance at Sasha’s saviors, but was it out of fear for his life or embarrassment?

Sasha's heart raced. She shyly waved at Isaac and Abdul who gawked at her like she was a ghost. “Thank you for coming to save me.”