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Emma was scared. Of course she was. Last time they fought things didn't feel so... big. But now with Factory and the steel dragon looming in the distance paired with the sheer scale of the battlefield it felt like they really were in a warzone. She felt the pressure again, the pressure to do [i]something[/i], a migraine forming under the combined weight of the battle and her stigma. Even now she couldn't get rid of it, that voice in her head reminding her of all the things she wanted to forget.

[color=00ffbb][i]If you end up investing everything in the people around you as your foundation instead of yourself, then when they die here it's going to destroy you.[/i][/color] She hated Lawrence a little in that moment, for shattering her fragile conception of survival. She'd always latched onto other people, let them carry her forward in life... he was trying to help, in fact, he was right. She knew that. That's why it hurt so much.

[color=a2d9ce][i]Keep offa' my turf, Time-boy.[/i][/color] Jealousy burned inside her, watching how close Callan and Marcus were getting, living together and bonding while she watched from a distance. She worried that she was a third wheel among the few she'd come to care about during her short time here. She despaired every time she though about all the things they were doing without [i]her[/i]. She was a petty creature.

[color=00a99d][i]You're not so nice either, right?[/i][/color] She knew that Ernie was right. She wasn't a nice person. What would Marcus think if she knew what she really felt, what she had done in her past? What about Callan and Siena? Would people still like her if they knew that the prim and proper Emma Halwell was a lie? No, she decided, no one could love her for what she was. She wondered if they even liked the fake her.

[color=f7976a][i]You're one of them? Subnaturals are nothing more than monsters.[/i][/color]

She gritted her teeth. She had to focus- she couldn't let her team down, not here. Once she got into the battle it would get better, right? Violence sates the stigma, she reminded herself. The curse of the Aberration. Before the canines charged into her trap, her attention was drawn above the battlefield. A dragon was flying above them. It was Chris, she realized, meaning the helicopter behind him held the rest of the Striker team. She reminded herself that Callan had the most dangerous assignment of them all and she was still brave in spite of that... what right did Emma have to be scared?

That thought was shattered the moment the helicopter was blown apart.

Her mouth went agape. She knew Callan was tough, but could she survive that? She'd thought she'd been ready for the people around her to die, she'd certainly been ready for her own death, but now...

"[color=a2d9ce]We're FINE! Stay focused![/color]"

A sigh of relief. Callan was fine. The battle didn't stop for Emma to worry, she had to focus. Her eyes shot back down to the ground, to the group of clockwork canines before them. They decided they were no longer interested in Shane's team, now turning their focus towards them. Now was the time to see if Emma's orders were good enough. The canines charged forward, Devotion turning the ground below them to sludge just as planned. The canines ground to a near halt in the field, fighting desperately to trudge forward. Meanwhile Love began pulling them out from a range, shooting towards the shadowy constructs, where Determination would begin destroying them, catching them mid-air with a waiting fist.

The duo began dispatching canines one by one, her plan working without a hitch, at least at the moment. She was sure that it wouldn't take long for Factory to formulate a counter-attack, but the small victory along with her fading stigma encouraged her.