Devors whistled when he looked back on his camera feed, seeing Elise swiftly disposing of one too many Cruxi. The man wasted no time in turning around Ranius with almost dangerous speeds, flying back towards most of the action. As far as he could tell, the only real threat here was that miniature orb of whatever-the-heck that this squad called 'Mist'. While he would love to drop a nuclear warhead on it, Devors fears that may be a bit overkill and currently just not practical. After all, he was still extremely far away from the damn thing and it had those crystal shards still circling it.

[color=Gold]"Eyy Elise, nice one but uh, can hear your breathin'. Ain't that much left, so take it easy for a sec alright? Oh, and you might want to step back a bit."[/color]

Devors' tone was still as confident as ever as he flew closer to the mist. Those shards scared him and getting hit by a blast from that thing would cook his goose, but the man had a plan. Not a master plan, as Devors is as far removed from a genius as he got, but a plan nonetheless.

[color=Gold]"So I was talkin' about suicide missions earlier and I think to myself: Gosh darn I got a fast machine, don't I? Well, laddies and ladies, you're in luck! I'm gunna try and get that ass of a smoke ball off your backs, just make sure ya kill it before it [i]actually[/i] hits me!"[/color]

The man wasn't sure whether the females in this squad even qualified as 'ladies', but the words were already out there. After relaying his intentions, Devors flipped a switch with his feet, because he could. Might have been because of all that drinking he did. Drinking totally makes you fly better, right? Or, well, at least it made you more brave. And stupid. Two qualities that Devors excelled in already. The man's little bird suddenly zoomed off, all thrusters engaged. At first he seemed to make a beeline for the MIST unit, but at soon as he got anywhere near close Ranius suddenly jerked off to another side, spinning in the air from the sudden shift in momentum even in the vacuum of space. Now all Devors hoped is that whatever shot the MIST had fired was aimed high up in the sky, missed him and was totally not aimed at Elise because things were going to suck for the both of them if it was.[hr]Atty rocked violently as Caretaker's drones attacked it, briefly snapping Serah out of the prison of her own memory. The sensory overload caused by Elora's screams may have stopped but the girl wasn't freed from her binds just yet. The previous memories of her most traumatic experiences were replaced by another set, a different flashback. A flashback of times that might not have been the happiest, but... they weren't bad. Not with...

[hider=Flashback]
[color=00aeef]"Uuunh... *sniff*, *sniff*"[/color]

A young Serah wiped the tears forming from her eyes with a slightly too long sleeve, yet no matter how many times she wiped them away more just kept coming. All she could do was stare at the beaten-up box and torn game board in front of her. She'd been saving up her pocket money for long enough to buy it. Unfortunately, when she wanted to share it with the other kids they snatched it away from her and didn't treat it with any care. Now it lies in front of her, broken beyond repair. All the other kids had already left the lounge and the adults didn't seem to care for her situation at all.

[color=FF8C00]"...They're mean, huh?"[/color]

Serah flinched from hearing a boy's voice from the other end of the room. She looked up and saw a kid of her age, short and faded blonde hair thrown around on his head like a bird's nest. He had two red markings underneath his eyes and a lot more red stains on his clothes and knuckles, scaring Serah. She scooped up the broken remains of her new game and scuttled back. He took notice of her frightened pose and quickly raised up his hands, palms open and facing outwards.

[color=FF8C00]"N-No, it's alright! I just didn't want them to pick on girls!"[/color]

The boy's words calmed her somewhat, but she was still fearful. Awkwardly he shuffled closer to her, trying his best to calm her nerves. Eventually he came in front of Serah and crouched down to get onto her level, as she was sitting with her legs tightly hugging her chest. The boy managed to convince her to give him the box and he got to work on fixing it up with some simple tape that he brought, hoping to make her feel better. Serah watched him work, still sniffling but without tears. Eventually the boy was done, breathing a sigh of relief
and rising up to meet Serah's eyes with a wide grin.

[color=FF8C00]"A-Alright, I'm done! It's not like before but... we could play with it again? I'm not like those jerks, promise! I'll be careful with it..."[/color]

Serah teared up again, unable to speak a word and threw herself into the boy's chest, who got flustered and almost instinctively pulled back. She cried into it for a little while before picking herself up again, looking up at him with a grateful smile. Then, the door to the lounge swung open. One of the caretakers angrily stomped over to the boy and picked him up from the floor by the scruff of his neck.

"You! You got into another fight, didn't you?"

The boy laughed nervously and didn't answer, trying to look down at Serah and giving her a reassuring smile.

[color=FF8C00]"I-I gotta go now! I'm Xane! Let's play later, alright?"[/color]

The boy nervously laughed to Serah as he was carried out of the room, leaving her alone with a taped up board and box. She looked down at her own game, her smile still somewhat present. She picked up the box and closely hugged it to her chest, but not hard enough to smash it again.

[color=00aeef]"Yeah."[/color][/hider]
Her Synchro seemed to be going up a little as these memories came back to her, Atty picking itself up from the wall and stumbling a little.  As soon as it seemed like Serah was about to calm down from the happy memories, her synchro suddenly plummeted again. She was reminded of how she first met Atty- which was a happy moment, of course. But what happened after broke her heart. She was forcibly dragged away from the orphanage, clearly able to see how Xane was desperately trying to struggle free from the caretakers to try and help Serah. How he screamed her name as she was thrown into a strange vehicle, taken away for military training. Her breathing became more rapid again as she desperately tried to cling onto the happy memories of Xane, unwilling to remind herself of how she was forced to leave him behind.

But then it happened.

[hider=Flash...back?]She heard his voice again, but differently. This wasn't the same Xane she remembered. This wasn't the nice, albeit reckless, kid she knew. The voice was more mature, clearly older. It was almost bored and emotionless, serious to a fault and came from inside. Repeating orders much like she had. She knew, in that moment, that these weren't her memories. They were Xane's, through his eyes no less. She was forced to watch as he himself tested out a Framewerk and was dragged away, how he trained. How he formed a bond with three other people. Fought with a brown-haired boy and got scolded by a vividly haired girl. Guided by a boy who's hair was a sapphire blue, but his face shrouded in darkness. How he fought his first battle.

He double checked his screens. He doubted himself and his framewerk's abilities, but was still resolved. Dare she say, he was even looking cool with how calm and collected he stared at his screens. The memory was vivid, as if she was actually him. He landed, waited for orders. The orders came, alongside a nasty Cruxi surprise. His ally rushed in immediately, causing him to be forced to follow. Two other machines of war were taking out some of the alien battle machines of their own, but their combined fire only punched through one. She heard how his team was getting more confident as the battle went on, with a familiar voice and another, female one sharing some flirtatious dialogue.

And then everything went wrong. Confidence got the better of their team, but the girl's framewerk was swiftly disabled. Soon, Xane's was too. The head of his werk was ripped off and he tried to fight against the commands, but the voice of his commander rang through, telling everyone to get out of there. The voice of Serah's current boyfriend. Xane just couldn't get Jetto Chosa to work. He saw how Ribasu left him behind. How he briefly glanced at two pictures, one a group picture of his new squad, with the girl hugging Jason and one where a blue-haired girl pecked him on the cheek. She saw, through his eyes, how a green flame rapidly engulfed his teammates, registering for only a split second until...

Nothing.[/hider]
The blood in Serah's veins stopped rushing and became ice cold. The noise of the battle and Atty's jerking into aciton didn't register to her at all. Her framewerk was still moving on its own, raising up the blade and slamming it downwards for a vertical slice at the drones before dashing off again, pushing on despite it's damaged body. The legs didn't function as well as they should, but the core and thrusters were still intact. It lined up it's blade towards Elora, aiming to go through her with it. Logic Gate had, after all, just been pushed out of the way thanks to Neo Angel.

Meanwhile, Serah was blankly staring at the red, flashing letters. She didn't even have the energy to cry anymore as those last few moment's of Xane's flashed before her eyes. To make it worse, Jason was the one leading that squad. If it hadn't been for her boyfriend, Xane would still be alive. She would have been able to see him again, play with him again. Serah reached out her hand in front of her in a trance-like state, trying to grab something that isn't there. It snapped her out of her predicament for long enough to register what is actually happening- Atty had not only kicked in without Serah's input, it had hurt her friends and was planning to hurt them even worse. Unfortunately, she didn't register Jason's voice coming in through the communications.

[color=00aeef]"Stop! N-No Atty, please, stop!"[/color]

Serah frantically screamed out to her machine, but it wouldn't listen. She tried to manually override the controls, but Atty wasn't listening to her at all- not that she had any control over herself. A strong wave of despair washed over the girl. First her parents died because they took her on a trip for her birthday. Then Xane died because of becoming a pilot like her. Now, her being unable to control Atty is going to make her squad die as well. She started to sob, stronger than ever before. Her voice was strained and soft as Serah buried her head inside of her arms and knees.

[color=00aeef]"I... I-I don't... want to lose everyone again...!"[/color]