savetheearth | Payback's a Bitch

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Payback's a Bitch

Who: Raye, Lily and Winter
When: Foredated to the middle of the week. Wednesday night.
Where: The streets of Locke City.
What: Raye's out for blood and she's dragging two Precures along with her.
Warnings: This is gonna get violent. Definite death and likely torture for information as well.

There'd been a lot of talk lately among the Numbered about how best to approach the situation they found themselves in. With some voices arguing to fight back, and others arguing for a different approach. Arguing that going too far would put themselves in only more danger and turn even more people against them.

And then there's Raye. Her father was gone, gunned down before her very eyes. Her sister was gone, taken away out of the city where she couldn't even have any contact. She'd been hurt terrible. Had spent days in pain, still spent her days in pain. Both physical and otherwise. She couldn't say she cared much for the stance that they need to be cautious. Her thoughts boiled down to something simple.

Fuck them.

Fuck the mob.

Fuck the media.

Fuck the city.

Fuck everybody who didn't like it.

She'd lost everything while people talked. Even more people were being hurt and killed while people talked. Raye Satterfield had had enough of fucking talking.

Those mafia gangs wandering the streets had gotten more numerous, and there's one out tonight. A group of five on the hunt for any Numbered out on the streets. Tonight was their lucky night.

From up above there's the roar of some kind of engine and a black and red shape comes down like a fucking rocket and smashes into the ground, shattering the sidewalk to bits and kicking up a swirling cloud of dust. The modified goons stagger back with a few shocked yells as a human shape steps out of the cloud, lit up by the deep red glow emanating from where Senketsu would normally be red.

"Christ, that one's supposed to be dead!" One of them shouts

"Yo, I got a question for you scumbags." A blast of steam bursts from Senketsu, the light from him blazes and the air around her explodes. Shockwaves blast the dust from around her and send debris scattering across the street. The mob thugs raise their arms against the sudden force. "Where's the fucking corpse that killed my dad?"

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Winter is furious, at least on the outside. She's abandoned all pretense of a peaceful solution, and she's transformed already. This might not have started with her, but it's going to end with her. She's going to put everything into this, not just because Raye is important to her, but because she's tired of what's been happening to her friends and those she would like to call her friends someday. Nobody else has to die.

Walking from the cloud herself, Diamond is a vision of barely-restrained violence. "Rumors of my friend's demise are greatly exaggerated. I ask: are you prepared for our reprisal?"

Lily meanwhile is someone with far more trepidation than either of her companions for the evening. She can understand why Raye is as angry as she is. She can understand the extent to which she clearly is willing to go for it. Likewise, she understands Winter's side as well... Which is why she doesn't feel it her place to sit and argue about it, but it is her place to try and keep them safe.

So, Cure Diamond is joined by Cure Moonlight, attempting to keep a calmer, cooler expression than... well, anyone else in the immediate vicinity.

She raises a hand, a Moonlight Reflection appearing behind the thugs, to keep them from fleeing back.

"I'm pretty sure you all want to answer her question."

There's a few moments where the assembled gang stares, worried at the three that approach them. Ambushing the Numbered is evidently one thing, but a stand-up fight against three of the tougher ones....

It doesn't last, and one of them takes a step forward.

"Listen, if you think you kids are gonna scare us off--"

That's apparently the wrong answer. The light shining from Senketsu glows brighter and Raye's off like a bolt, stopping behind the guy who spoke up with the tip of her blade pointed toward the ground.

His arm hits the sidewalk with a thud. Severed at the shoulder.

The mobster lets out a long scream of pain, dropping to the ground and clutching at the stump his arm used to grow from. It's about then that chaos breaks out and the largest of them, one of those big, heavy bear guys takes a swing at Raye. While the others break off and move to engage the two Cures.

There's a moment when Diamond just looks on in surprise as the arm falls, before she recognizes what actually happened. The revulsion at just having watched someone's limb be severed wars with her determination to see this through, and for now, the latter's winning; she'll have a problem later, but right now, she's in her element, catching the approach of a cat and dog pair. That suits her fine, and as she shakes off the horror of what she'd just seen, she charges in, straight as an arrow but taking minute sidesteps to evade the bullets that are surely about to come- ah, there they are, right on schedule. One whizzes past her face, another under her arm. She won't be hurt by something like this. Not right now.

Getting close to the cat, her larger concern, she drives a fist into the mobster's chest, and as the woman's eyes widen, Diamond follows through, pushing her quite a few feet back. The dog hasn't run in to capitalize on it yet, but that probably won't last.

Okay, that... There's a part of Moonlight that knows she should have been expecting something like that. She knows, and yet seeing it is a whole other matter - she'd seen acts of violence since obtaining her numbers a year ago, but something about it churns her stomach. In fact, the only thing that prevents her from just standing there in abject horror was the immediate danger, and not to herself - Raye is one thing, Diamond is a whole other one.

Cure Diamon - Winter - dodging bullets and about to be attacked by a dog man. It's like a whole cavalcade of every fear she'd developed over the summer, rolled up in one dangerous package. As such, it's before she's even thought that the next thing she knows, her fist has connected with the thug's jaw and sent him careening back. It's only at that last second she pulls her punch enough to not... well, explode his head all over everyone.

She realizes it as she does it, both where that sudden burst of unrelenting fury came from, and why she stops short. Both of them don't do much to settle that churning in her stomach, and her calm demeanor from only a few seconds ago is rapidly deteriorating, which is almost physically noticeable in her expression. Without even calling for it, she draws the Moon Tact from her brooch, swinging around in a circle, a ribbon of kinetic energy lancing out in all directions.

"Would you idiots jut LISTEN?!"

That big hairy fist comes at her and Raye grits her teeth as she brings up her arms to block. The impact is hard but she holds, and curses under her breath. Somehow, she feels as though she should have been able to dodge that but she's... slower than she should be. And she can't help but feel that the fault isn't on Senketsu's side.

Still, this hairy fucker is going down hard. She raises the Scissor Blade to cleave him in two-- when the sound of gunshots reaches her ears.

The Blade freezes in midair and she looks past her opponent toward her friends. That sound. Shooting. Pain, blood, her sister's screams, her father falling. That terrible, creeping numbness. It all comes rushing back.

The bear-man blinks, not knowing what stopped the attack but it isn't going to stop him. One huge fist swings and crashes into Raye with enough force to send the smaller girl smashing back into Moonlight's barrier with a grunt. It's not hard enough to harm her and the slam snaps her out of her daze... but then she sees the gun aimed right at her.

It's like her body is frozen, panic creeping across her senses and drowning out every one of the dozen ways she should be able to end this now. All she can focus on is the gun pointed at her.

Pain. Blood. Numbness.

"Stay calm, Raye! Those weapons are not strong enough to harm us!"

She hears Senketsu but it doesn't matter when the trigger is pulled and the gun blazes. The first bullet thuds into her stomach, flattens and clatters to the pavement. Even so, Raye turns, bringing her arms up and curling up defensively as the gun goes off again and again, bullets slamming against her and each one bringing her back to that afternoon.

She's vaguely aware of the short scream that escapes her over the gunfire.

Her attention's divided. Lily's patience is fraying quickly - which is largely her fault, of course, but that's another matter entirely - and Raye's on the ground screaming. She's not hurt; Winter makes sure of that as she watches another bullet crush itself against Senketsu. Lily can take care of herself for now. Raye needs more immediate attention, and as Lily decks the other attacker coming after her, Winter rushes to Raye's side, delivering a harsh spinning kick to the one shooting before crouching next to her.

"Raye? Come on, Raye, snap out of it! We're still here, you're okay! Please, talk to me!"

Lily's attention shifts much like Winter's does, however - the act of her friend getting plugged multiple times with gunshots is certainly noticeable, even in an increasingly panicked state. There is light again from her Moon Tact, charged and strong. She bounds into the air, a place their opponents will have a hard time reaching her physically, which is why the guns go off at her. She twists in the air, twirling to avoid the shots, dimly aware at how impressive it may be she actually does without even a hole through her dress to show for it.

As she's over them, she drops the charged blast down at them. Bodies are scattered in the resulting impact, and she lands nearby the other two, dissolving the Reflection barrier with a wave of her hand because they clearly need a little more room to fight now. She may be freaking out a little - but she still knows what she's doing.

"Are you okay?!" she shouts to Raye, and now throws the barrier down in front of them to give a temporary warding to anymore incoming shots, of which there are a few. This was, indeed, the entire reason that they came, wasn't it? The most important one, anyway - to make sure Raye didn't kill herself in the process.

Raye stumbles a step when the barrier behind her suddenly vanishes and the shots stop hitting her. For a second, there's no response from her. She's still trapped back there, in those memories, lying on the street, struggling only to fail to even draw a breath. She can smell and taste her own blood again, and the feeling is back. Burning pain fading to cold, and then cold fading to nothing. It happened again, and now all she can do is wait for it....

Except there isn't nothing this time. As the bullets stop hitting her, voices make it through. People are here, calling her by name and bit by bit, reality seeps past the haze of panic.

"Listen to me. You're not injured." It's Senketsu's voice that's the loudest. Coming in over all other sound as it always does, quiet and calm. "You're okay."

"I'm okay." She echoes, more to herself as she touches her side where the bullets struck and finds whole skin there instead of ragged, bloody holes. "I'm okay."

She looks up, at Diamond first and then at Moonlight, and some clarity seems to return to her eyes. Then she looks past, toward the gunman who had been shooting at her as he recovers from Diamond's kick and raises the gun again. Pointing it at her. At her friends.

Something snaps.

The red light from Senketsu blazes and a cloud of steam bursts from him, and the howl Raye lets out is almost primal in its fury. The Kamui's eye bulges in something approaching shock.

He shot her, he shot her, he shot her. HE'S NEVER GOING TO DO THAT AGAIN.

Her jump carries her over Moonlight's barrier and her foot comes down on his arm.

"You're dead, you bastard!" With the gun arm pinned down, she raises the Scissor Blade in both hands, preparing to bring it down to split both the man's skull and probably whatever happens to be beneath it as well.

As Raye bounds over her shield, preparing to cleave their attacker in two, something suddenly snaps inside Lily. This is too much. Even for what they're dealing with, people who want them dead, who have assaulted their homes and families and taken away things that can never be replaced... Just what were they becoming? What would they be if they just started killing people left and right? The thought of their place in the public eye doesn't even cross her mind in this moment - rather, what happens to them when they start to follow in the footsteps of the very people they're up against? To their minds, or their hearts?

So, Lily's not really thinking when she lets her barrier drop, driven purely by her instinct and emotions. Her hand snatches out for Raye's arm, understanding at least it might not end well, but she can't just let it happen like this. They won't gain anything from this, killing a perfect stranger, who - even if they're in league with the mob - they don't know what they've done. Albero, the actual triggermen that have committed atrocities against Alan or Raye's families... murdering a bunch of flunkies won't get them answers.

It's just more and more bloodshed.

"Raye, stop! We won't find out anything like this! This isn't you! This--"

That's where she stops. The hollow beat of an echo comes over her, and its results flood into her mind in an instant. Fighting a man with green hair, alongside Cure Blossom and... Dark Precure's overseer?

...no. No, it's... her father. Yuri's father...? Yet she can't even begin to comprehend that, because in the next moment there's a devastating attack, caught by Yuri's father, there's an explosion and...

For the moment, everything else afterwards is a blur. It's there, in her memory, but she can't yet seem to get to it as first, she feels the unmistakable, gut-wrenching realization of... Her father is dead.

No, no! Not her father, Yuri's! But... the sudden, billowing hatred, directed all at his killer - Dune - the unrelenting, burning desire to erase him from this world. All of that anger, all of that rage, all of that loss... Lily feels it twisting her insides in but a moment.

Something... someone stops her, pulls her back, but it'll take her another moment to understand that. For now, everything else has sent her mind spinning into a collision of so many emotions, she doesn't even realize the expressions that cross her face in those few moments - shock to homicidal rage to tears falling uncontrollably from her eyes as she stands there, shaking violently.

"...no... no, God no...!"

She feels sick to her stomach, and most unfortunately, has seemed to have lost track of the fact she has several men with guns trained on all of them.

The burst of steam takes Winter by surprise, once Raye gets up. The threat of imminent violence galvanizes her to action, but Lily's there before she can start to move. And then Lily's pulse hits, and the girl seems to just... lose it. Which is not something acceptable when she's still surrounded by guns, and Winter panics. Reaching for her power, not knowing what to do, her Love Heart Arrow falls into her hands, and she slams the Loveads into it blindly, praying that whatever answers can save them, a blue light shining into being around her.

Casting that power out with her eyes slammed shut, something not unlike a freak snowstorm kicks itself up around her, and with emotion rather than conscious thought, she directs it toward the mobsters, a lay of frost and crystal-clear ice covering everything the storm touches, and conveniently making the metal guns in their hands ice-cold to the touch, on top of covering the muzzle in ice. She doesn't really take time to appreciate it, though, instead turning and grabbing the hand Lily doesn't really have the presence of mind to continue holding onto. "Raye! If you do this, you can't ever take it back! Is this... is this something you'd be proud to tell your papa about!?" There's no other way she knows how to get through to her. Between the thugs that are trying to put holes in her and her mind's eye seeing quite clearly what Raye is about to do, and it sickens her. "Even if these people aren't worthy of mercy, if you kill them like this, you will become the monster everyone is afraid we are! Please... isn't there another way?"

Stretching, she puts her other arm around Lily. She feels numb, having to watch everything that's going on, but Lily's well-being is very, very high on her list. "Moonlight... Lily... it's going to be okay, I'm here, I'm right here. Stay with me, it's okay, please be all right, I can't do this without you... It's okay, it's okay, just relax a little, I'm with you..." This is not a good situation for her mental state, and she's not at all in the commander mindset she's accustomed to, that lets her push all the unhappy things off for a little later.

She hears the voices calling to her, but they don't attract much attention. Neither does Lily's plight. She's too focused elsewhere, on the boiling in her blood, and the anger rushing through her like wildfire. The kind of anger that only spawns from fear and panic and the urge to destroy what you feared.

The sudden rush of freezing wind, however, does make her pause. Steam rises from her again as the ice hits her and flashes into vapor just as quickly as it appears. Her head snaps around and she glares at Diamond when she seizes her arm, jaw clenched, eyes wide in almost wild fury.

Something she'd...? Something new sparks in her eyes.

"Tell my dad? My dad's dead, I can't tell him anything anymore! He's fucking dead because some piece of shit just like this guy shot him down because of me!" Her gaze snaps back to the mutant on the ground. For a second, she hesitates, and there's a tremor in her sword arm before her hand steadies again. "And I don't give a fuck what people think of me! I'M NOT LETTING THAT GO!"

With all the strength she can, she rips her arm free from Diamond's grip while she's distracted and brings the Scissor Blade down, completing her swing. The impact shatters the street, sending broken rocks and debris into the air and leaving a hole in the ground.

....

There isn't much left of the mobster either.

Winter's touch and words reach Lily, but only just barely. She feels as if she's somewhere else entirely, still. Still reeling from the death of Yuri's father. Still wanting to exact that horrible vengeance... but then other words strike her. A hand on her wrist, and a crying girl. Her pleas overlap just slightly with Winter's, and...

...and then, Raye wrenches free of them. Still caught in her own mind, there's nothing Lily can do to stop her. Not having braced herself, the impact sends her falling, and she lands hard onto the concrete. As she looks up, vision blurred by her tears, her expression shifts back to one of utter horror.

Bringing a hand up to her mouth for fear of actually getting physically ill, those tears fall even faster. "No, no... oh my god, Raye..."

There's just enough time for Diamond to register that she made a mistake before Raye jerks free, and there's not even an attempt to lunge after her. Particularly not after what happens next; she's so close that the impact kicks up a cloud, pushing her back and onto the ground, as blood - not hers, and not Raye's - splatters onto her face and her dress. Her mind grinds to a halt as it tries to process what she's just seen, and isn't doing a particularly good job of it. Diamond just lays there, on the ground, partially propped up to see what's happening.

She'd made a mistake. She'd underestimated the depths of Raye's rage. Of her guilt. Of her need for revenge. And now Winter had basically been the person to push her to take that next step. Now... what had Saretha said? Not to leave evidence? That was an impossible goal, after this. And she'd left everything to Winter, with regard to Raye. She'd failed there, too.

It isn't processing. She'd watched something terrible, but it's not clicking yet. She knows it's horrible, that it's something she can't un-see. She just doesn't know how to cope yet. Right now, she's replacing that with denial until someone - or something - gives her cause to do otherwise. She can't even find the words to croak out some kind of question. She just... stares.

For a second, the dust hangs around her, obscuring her from view. Blocking the expression on her face as she stares wide-eyed at the point of impact. From here, there's nothing getting in the way and she can clearly see the result of her anger. Ever since she'd woken up in that hospital, she'd imagined this moment, the moment when she could exact a measure of vengeance on the people who'd hurt her, let out some of the anger and hurt that had plagued her for every minute since it happened.

But this... the reality doesn't feel anything like what she'd imagined.

She yanks the Scissor Blade from human remains and concrete and staggers back. Blood drips from the blade and she follows it until it splashes against the ground. Her eyes drift further to find more of it on her. Covering the black armor on her hands. Covering her.

Another step staggered. The light drains out as her anger falters from shock and she feels her legs wobble. A harsh, burning pain sears through her and her head spins suddenly, drawing a gasp from her even as her stomach heaves.

No. No, no, no, no. Even as her body fails and her mind tries to withdraw from what it's seeing, she reaches out, seizing hold of that failing anger and pulls it back. Shoves the horror back from her and slams the anger between her and it like a wall. Wraps herself in it. Lets it bring her strength back to her.

She stops staggering, her legs stop shaking and she straightens slowly. Senketsu burns red again.

"You see that? All of you fuckers." Her voice starts off quiet and she turns her head to what was left of the gang. "That's what's coming for you. Every fucking day until somebody hands over the scumbags that killed my dad! You hit me with everything you had and that didn't stop me! You get it yet?"

Her voice rises with each sentence. By the end of it, she lifts her blood coated weapon and jabs the point their way.

"Take off and tell your fucking boss that I'm coming for all of you! Every last fucking one of you and there's nothing you can do to stop me! There's nothing anybody can do to stop me! You hear me? I'M GONNA KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU AND NOTHING CAN STOP ME!"

"Raye..."

Lily's voice comes out almost choking, and she has her head twisted away, not being able to stand looking at the sight. At her friend in such a state. "This... this isn't going to get answers, not like this... This isn't going to protect Abigail..."

Finally she sucks in a breath, forcing herself to look ahead. "Raye... Senketsu! Please! Think about what they're going to do...!"

Abigail? Right, sister- oh, hell, that girl's going to get herself killed like this. Raye's signed a death warrant for any remaining Satterfield in the city limits, with this. "We... we have to go. Take her, and run." Her voice is unsteady, and she's forcing herself to speak as her mind continues to protest, but this has to happen. Her conscience won't forgive her if they don't at least do this much before it all goes to hell.

"She's in danger if we stay any longer! We have to go!" Diamond forces herself to her feet, shaky and uncertain where to put her hands, or which way to go, or who to turn to. But it's the first step in moving on, even if her stomach is sharply protesting and her heart is screaming.

The mention of Abigail is a stab in her heart. Talking about how they have to find her and run away is a twist. How could they think...? As if she wouldn't have done that?!

"She's already gone!" She shouts, not even turning her head. "Do you really think I'd be doing any of this if I still had to take care of her?! That's what they did, before I even woke up!"

She grits her teeth, trying to swallow back the lump in her throat.

"They took her away from me! Sent her off to go live somewhere else, somewhere safer! I don't know where! They won't even let me talk to her!" Her voice wavers and she locks onto the recovering mafia members, who suddenly look like they're second-guessing wanting any part of any of this. "They took her away because it's too dangerous for her. Because I'm too dangerous."

Broken gravel crunches under her feet as she starts forward, toward the surviving mobsters.

"That's the other thing. See, now? Now I got nothing to lose anymore."

She's moving slower though, and if one looked closely enough, they could see the shaking of her hand as it clutches the Blade. Senketsu's eye flickers toward Moonlight and Diamond, lingering on them for a moment. He looks... off somehow. Strained. As if struggling against something. Whatever it may be, something is not right.

Lily's eyes somehow manage to widen further. Abigail... It made sense for her to be in protective custody, which was good. It meant she was safe. But for Raye to not even know where she was, for her to have been taken so far from her... Even if their age differences weren't as stark, she can only imagine the thought of having Jasmine ripped away from her like that.

"That... that isn't true...!" she barely manages to get out. "There are still people who care about you, aren't there?! Winter and I, Jasmine, Rakka, even my fath--"

Her gaze becomes distant, and she stops abruptly. It flashes in front of her mind's eye again, the death of Yuri's father. The sense of that anguish repeats itself. Finally, it's all she can take. She can't say anymore. Her shoulders heave, her body convulses and she just... throws up.

This is beyond more than she can handle, it would seem.

That explains a lot. She understands, now, how wrong she was. From the beginning, Raye hadn't needed help. Winter's only job had been as a babysitter, to make sure nothing happened. The depth of that rage was bottomless, something she couldn't even fathom.

And yet. That last thing she said, coupled with the weird eye twitch some small part of her head registers. "Bullshit," she asserts quietly. "You still have something to lose. You would never have let us come otherwise, and-"

The exceptionally unpleasant sound of vomiting just next to her makes her pause, and without thinking, she reaches a hand down to keep Moonlight's hair off the concrete, putting her other hand on her partner's back and rubbing it gently.

"You're as dangerous as you let yourself be, Raye. There's a time for that. But... there's also a time to let love guide your hand, instead of anger. Don't lose yourself in your rage. Otherwise, you really won't see your sister again."

She is not anywhere near as calm as she sounds. Privately, she's deferring a meltdown for when it's safe to do. Which is the moment they can teleport out of Locke.

Raye's footsteps continue, undeterred from the words of her two friends. She'd made it clear what she planned to do, hadn't she? They'd known exactly what they were coming along for, just because they were getting cold feet now--

It's something else that gets her to stop. Finally turning, she looks to the two of them, blinking at the sight of Lily hunched over, sick from what had happened. Again, reality hits hard. They had agreed to come along, not because they agreed with her mission of revenge, but because they really did care about her, and wanted to watch her back. And this....

"It's time to stop now, Raye. Or is this the person you want to be?" Senketsu's voice comes through again, low and quiet, and Raye looks down to the blood-splattered Kamui. "If Abigal looked at you now, what would she see?"

If she...? Memory flashes through her mind, of Abigail running to her on the last day she saw her. Now mingled with something new, the little girl staring in horror at her sister covered in the blood she'd just spilled. ... It's enough to stop her in her tracks.

She turns away from her friends, lowering her eyes. Fuck.

"... Take off." The mafia goons pause, looking up from their frantic attempts to clean the ice off their guns. She snaps at their hesitation. "I said fuck off! All of you get the fuck outta here, before I change my mind!"

You don't have to tell them twice. After seeing that display of rage a minute ago, all the remaining mob guys scramble up and take off into the night.

"... You two better get outta here too." She turns away again. Sirens are beginning to approach. "Anybody asks, I did this on my own."

Lily finds herself leaning against Winter slightly as she regains control of herself. It's certainly about the most undignified position Cure Moonlight could possibly find herself in, but she's at least grateful for her presence, which she makes known by reaching up and grabbing her by the hand.

She manages to look up at Raye. What had made her stop? Was it either of them? Senketsu? And something was clearly wrong with him, too, but...

"Raye... if you just stay here, you're... you're going to be..."

Hunted. Chased down by just about everything imaginable. Without anyone to watch her back. How could they just leave her like that?

As Raye stops, Winter lets out a breath. They'd managed to keep her under some semblance of control, rather than letting her go wild all over the mob. Lily's grip helps her push the night's events aside for a little bit longer, as she shakes her head. "Lily... that's enough. We should go, before anyone else comes."

She can't look at Raye. But... there's a respect there, along with the concern and the horror, and as she turns to run into the night, she speaks again, back turned to her friend. "You've chosen a hard path, Raye. We can't help you. Not like this. But... don't give up, okay? Do what you have to do to keep moving forward. I believe in you, whatever happens."

Hauling Moonlight to her feet, Winter starts to walk away, intending to get them into a handy tree and use the Mirage to get them out. That, of course, assumes Lily is okay with that plan.

... a cruel fate will be in store for you....

That warning again. A warning from a dead man to a dead girl of the consequences she would face for choosing to fight. She still doesn't know if Ryuko managed to escape that fate, or if it eventually caught up with her, but it's not so important. This is her path, her choice.

She doesn't look back as Diamond and Moonlight go the other way, eyes forward, focused on the city up ahead. A city that had just made her enemy by her actions here tonight.

"Raye...."

"I didn't change my mind." She mutters to her own partner, keeping her voice low. "I'm still gonna do this. Not just payback but somebody's gotta take these fuckers on, and might as well be me. ... I just don't wanna drag those two down with me, that's all."

"... I see, then I'll be dragged down with you in their place."

She misses a step, flinching, and meeting Senketsu's eye.

"I didn't--"

"It's fine. I only meant that if this is the path you've chosen, then I will stay with you on it to the end. Even if you'd asked me to stay behind as well, this is the choice I would have made."

She pauses for a second, then blinks, her hard expression softening just a little bit.

"Thanks, Senketsu." A shake of her head and then she looks forward again. "You ready?"

"Of course."

"Right!" And then she's running forward. "Senketsu Shippu!"

A flash of light, a roar of engines and she's in the air, flying back into Locke City. She spots those flashing police lights and sticks low, buzzing right over the top of them. Hopefully, that'll give Lily and Winter time to get out of town....

Lily's momentarily resistant to being led off. She grips her partner tightly, wanting to call out to Raye as she blasts off - wanting to chase after her! To tell her she understands that feeling, that anger and hatred, but... She knows it'd fall on deaf ears. Just attract attention to themselves.

Cure Moonlight curses herself quietly and wills the Heartcatch Mirage to appear in her hands. She passes Winter a look, a defeated and weary one, horror still held in her eyes. She just... nods to her.

There was nothing more they could do here. Not anymore.

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Payback's a Bitch

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