“We have an understanding, but not an agreement. Besides, what’s with the rush?” Wildebeest asked with a hint of mockery in her tone.

“I do not have time for this, let me go back this instant!”

“We have plenty of time, your senses have been overloaded and are dumping the data as we speak. There is a more pressing matter I wish to discuss, if you are willing to listen.”

A pause.

Grusha snapped. “If it is so pressing, then out with it! You never asked for my permission to speak before, why start now?”

Wildebeest chuckled. “Fair. Why are you reckless?”

Taken aback by that comment, she was surprised. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Stop it already, I am just as much of you as you are me. You were allowed to prove to me what this compassion can start up, but you are charging in suicidally. You never intended to make it back out, were you?”

Growling in her breath. “What if I were?”

Wildebeest swiped a strike across Grusha, sending her flying across that dark abyss. Landing on her feet, Grusha wiped her stoning face from that surprise attack. Usually she could sense her opponent's intent, but Wildebeest somehow masked her scent from Grusha.

Pillars of bones rose from the ground, surrounding Grusha with hill after hill of bones, leaving her in the center of it all. The piles crumbled and came toppling down, ending at Grusha’s long feet. From beyond the piles an ominous growl rumbled in the distance, masking its scent with the shower of odors that filled the room.

“My survival is of utmost importance, don’t take my gift for granted. Find another way, or I will stop you.” Rumbled the disembodied voice.

Grusha howled into the abyss, tensing her muscles angrily. “What difference does it make for me? You have more to lose than I, skorto! If you stop me now, I die.”

“It is the contrary, you have more to lose than I. If I am to perish either way, it’d be on my terms and not yours. You need my strength to stop Static either way, I need to live either way, so I won’t let you have what you want if I cannot have what I desire to begin. You promised a world free of pain to that little girl, then let her have it with you in it.”

Letting her muscles relax, Grusha took a deep breath. The floor beneath her rippled in a gentle glow of blue and red light, lulling her senses. A cascading pressure sent all of the piles of bones that surrounded flying in the wind, blown deep and far into the abyss. Her eyes glowed between red and white light, accepting a part of Wildebeest into her, acknowledging that she needed Wildebeest’s strength.

“Very well, skorto.” Grusha said. “Let’s meet at the halfway. I will preserve our life above all else, but we will do things my way. Do we have an agreement?”

Wildebeest appeared from thin air, forming her body from the dark abyss. Her red eyes glowed victoriously, pleased from this happenstance.

“I agree.” She said. “For now.” She added slyly.

Crackling thundering continued to buzz statically in the abyss, sending the hairs on her skin rising. In the world beyond her mind, a fierce battle was still going on. Charges in the air impacted even the realm of her own mind. Grusha eyed Wildebeest, narrowing pupils in impatience.

“The skorto is about to eliminate us, with as much output he is letting off, he intends to absolutely pulverize us down to the atom.”

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Wildebeest sniffed the air, vibrating her long quill-like hair. A long grin grew on her face as she became excited over the direness.

“That skorto is going to try to eliminate us.” Wildebeest corrected. “But we will not fail, he is one and alone, we are apex. A childish tantrum is all he is doing now.”

“Trying? This level of power is tenfold more powerful than the village six years ago. Our body barely was able to keep up with that strike, my organ ruptured from the scale of the energy. There is no way we can survive this one.”

Wildebeest grinned. “You’ve become dependent on my protection, always requiring me to pick up the mess after you. Perhaps it is time I surrender my role as your protector, for who is going to be there to pick you up from the ground when you are all alone?” Standing up on her only leg, Wildebeest’s body glowed again. “It is time for you to take claim of your weapon, your promise of our survival above all else is enough.”

Her skin cracked and rays of light shone through from the crack, red eyes dried up and darkened into a deep darkness. Wildebeest’s quills sparkled and turned into glowing speckled dusts in the air from the top, it broke down and reached her head. The rest of her body broke and exploded, the white dust flew from her into Grusha.

A torment of emotions and feelings flooded through Grusha’s veins, her body glowed a bright white from the glowing dust that was embedding itself into her. Before she had felt freed and in control with her body, now she felt a new sense of control of her body. She fell to her knees, coughing and hacking for air.

Wheezing. “What did you do?” Grusha demanded.

A voice in her head resonated. “You’re no longer a rebel, I trust you to keep your word as honor of a beast. It is time for you to rise up to the occasion and show me this world I am intrigued by, one that this Aput and Lady Hammer would be proud of.”

Lifting her chin. “Explain. I still don’t know what you mean by any of this, Wildebeest.”

Wildebeest clicked her tongue loudly in her mind, growing frustrated by Grusha’s slow comprehension.

“Defeat Static you fool! You have full free reign of my strength, use it as you see fit.”

Growling, Grusha slowly understood what was happening. Her entire was a sandbox, Wildebeest gave her the ability that Static sought. Grinning mischievously, she knew Static was about to be overwhelmingly angered by this outcome. The abyss pooled back into Grusha like a blanket being rolled back in, the end of the abyss was the real world and all of its bits returned to its place as she remembered them.

A lightning bolt zigzagged and cut through the sky above her, rolling through the air towards her. It crashed into her and sent cascading pressures through the air, sending earth flying through the air far and wide. The icy landscape turned into a marshy swamp, tangy singe reeked in the air. Grusha absorbed the lightning, it was as she had expected, tenfold stronger than the strike that she had experienced six years ago. Her fingers flicked, the bolt disappeared in an instant. Exploding thunder came to a sudden stop.

Static stood on top of the pillar in the distance, stunned from surprise. Grusha rolled over onto her knees, hunched over like a wild beast, narrowed eyes of a predator over its quarry. The entire world took on a new shape around, just as it had happened in the village. Color was devoid from her sights, in its place shapes of varying lights took form in spectral fashions.

Streams of lightning coursed in between threads of her black quills, chirping the crackling sound of electricity. Grusha’s muscle tone thickened and adapted to the energy that flowed through her, fully acclimated to Statics frequencies. Immune to his power, her veins widened on her neck and limbs and glowed blue. Accents of blue lines spread through her whole body and blinding light beamed from her eyes, every one of Grusha’s senses heightened to unparalleled scales.

A powerful charge was being drawn from the hard metal and pulsed back into, Grusha could taste and track the intricacies of Static's incredible and seemingly limitless power. The entire facility that he bonded with is an extension of his existence she had concluded.

“I must confess!” Roared Grusha across the misty landscape. “You had me for a fool, and did well in covering your true capabilities. Never had I ever given it any thought that you were just an overglorified beta.”

Her ears rang from the metallic gritting of his teeth, sparks flew from his eyes and his two hands glowed brightly, emitting a large orb of white and black in each respectively.

“How-” Static cut himself off, growling to himself. “Blazes. Screw the how, JUST DIE ALREADY!” He roared viciously in malignant intent.

A spiraling tower of beams of black white rose from the base of his black metal body, long snaky arms grew three fingered ends serrated in sharp foreign metals. She could hear the high pitched form from the slicing of the bladed hands.

Grusha braced herself, pumping her bodily energy into every fiber of her.

Remember your oath, Grusha. You owe your life to me. Warned Wildebeest in her mind.

“Don’t fret you weasel. My word is my oath, and that is all you will ever need from me.” Grusha said.