Despite all the hits he had taken, the implants cutting out one by one and the blood lost from a dozen wounds, Wiggs was still on his feet. [i]The man's a fucking machine,[/i] Duncan thought incredulously. [i]How in the Hell are we supposed to knock that out?[/i] He had no reply to Jericho's question, Hell he had kind of been banking on Xerox figuring something out... Duncan tensed, torn over whether the objective was worth the losses and considering giving the order to just kill the bastard; it would have been so much bloody easier... it was all he could do to slow the Major, firing a shot here and there to knock him off guard or make him flinch; Duncan was focussing so hard that he didn't a new another presence beside him until it was far, far too late. A wall of chilled air swept though the corridor from Jericho's spell and Duncan shook the frost off and - suddenly warmth. Heat, the familiar feeling of magic flowing from his body and the less familiar feeling of softness on his lips...

[i]What. The. Fuck?[/i] Duncan's mind went totally blank as his already frantic thoughts completely disintegrated. Was that Eika..? [i]But she- coma? In Balamb...[/i] Even after the girl moved on to cast her magic, Duncan stood transfixed, gaping after her like a fish out of water. The realisation came like a bucket of cold water. [i]Did she just fucking kiss me!?[/i] More than that, he realised. Some of his junctioned magic had been drained away, enough for him to feel physically weaker; with that many support spells you could make cripple dance the cancan. Was she still injured..? A voice tugged at Duncan's ear, just loud enough for him to pay attention. It was Xerox. [b]'T... thunder you say?'[/b] After a few false starts, he was able to aim his weapon once more, if more by instinct than anything else. His concious mind was gone, well away with the fairies by now; three of his team were likely dead, one he had never expected to return had fucking [i]kissed[/i] him and now he was taking orders from his subordinate..? Confusion muddled his thoughts into a malaise and instinct took over. He aimed and fired the spell.

The traitors... had rallied. He didn't understand how they could fight so much better, harder after the fight had dragged on so long. Surely they should have become demoralised as Wiggs tore through their comrades? Surely the deaths of three traitors would have frightened them? It normally worked like that; kill one or two and the rest run away. But these... these traitors were [i]different[/i]... Tougher, smarter. And they had figured out his weakness at last. Arnholt could feel the power leaving his body as implant after implant shorted out; at first it was just the weapons and armour, but then his muscles stared dying and his retinal enhancements. Now after a dozen lightning strikes, Wiggs could feel his third and fourth hearts shutting down, drowsiness slowly overtaking him. He could fight it, so long as they implants kept rebooting, but even he couldn't keep this up for- another bolt hit him, this time dead centre mass, the magical electricity arcing right though him to destroy his most vital implants. And suddenly, it was as though the fog had been lifted from his eyes. For the first time in years, Arnholt looked at what he had become... and screamed. The next bolt went through his true heart, knocking him to the floor and cutting his conciousness.

No-one moved for a long moment after Wiggs fell, every weapon trained on the unmoving hulk, perhaps unwilling to believe that it had ended so suddenly. Eventually Duncan broke the silence. [b]'Ex... traction team, so uh... you Xerox. Take him back. Load up the wounded and... the dead too. Kein's a healer, he'll keep them going.'[/b] His voice grew slowly stronger as he spoke, as if giving orders were slowly restoring his confused mind. [b]'The rest of you, search the area; anything of value, nick it. And Jake, do your thing, the office is yours.'[/b] He studiously avoided looking Eika in the eye, unsure of how to approach that particular situation... Instead he kept himself busy rifling though paperwork, not paying enough attention to realise that it was just a a visitor's book...