[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/170615/43e17457caa6a0a9fdbfeac4e8542da1.png[/img]

~ [i]The Shattered Lover[/i] ~[/center]

Cautiously, Thalia kept her ground, shielding Penny with her body, hoping to stop any and all attacks at whatever cost. She couldn't regenerate, and she couldn't use her Healing Artefact, but she could take hits; most Monstrous forms enhanced a girls physical capabilities, and that was all she had left to count on. But she just had to stop them... The silence in her head throbbed; the static, incessant, and empty nothingness growing into a crescendo of absent reality, but even in her lack of thought and comprehension of reason beyond her summoning, the girl knew she was reaching her limit.

Was Thalia trying somehow to escape from within the Monstrous form, silencing its urges, brought about from a desire to protect, from behind the tempest of emotion and within the spiral of silence she had so created for herself? Why would she try and do such a thing? 

[center]~[/center]

[colour=LightCoral]"G-get away from me..!"[/colour] you cried, slapping away the hand that reached for you as you crawled backwards into the dark, sliding against the cold, and damp cobble you found yourself upon. Looking down on you were two girls, brandishing weapons and Monstrous Enhancements upon your sorry form, face polluted with tears from the attack.

You probably didn't know I was watching. Your Third Eye might have been able to detect me, but I hoped it wouldn't. At the very least, you were preoccupied with your predicament. I giggled in the darkness, involuntarily, but you didn't seem to notice that either. In any case, I was enjoying your little scuffle. Gosh, how long had you been a Magical Girl? It couldn't have even been two months, right? So young~! Not that those thugs seemed to mind your age; after all, why would they? You were in one of the zones Beacon didn't have such a strong control over, so they had nothing to fear. 

And plus... You were a Monster too~! Not that that's a bad thing, I'd never say something like that. But I could see the abject terror and despair on your face as they got closer, grinning, prepared to hurt you even more, and perhaps put an end to your life. You were mortified, with little to no experience, and control over only one of your Specialisations. What were you going to do with the power of Beasts, summon wolves until you exhausted yourself? Then you really would die. 

Instead you did something different. I hadn't expected you to pull a trump card like that, but surprise to me is always welcome. Honestly, Thalia, I couldn't stop myself from [i]smiling[/i]~! You really were beautiful that first time. Your perfect, black coat, and your piercing blue eyes, and the way you stood, head on, facing your opposition like a hardened warrior, submerging their confident and cocky minds into the terror and despair you had felt just minutes before. 

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why you chose to lock away such a power. A sudden burst of power, available in your most dire of moments, capable of destroying any one who stood as your enemy. In the face of the Magical Girls that normally hung around, you were nigh invincible. I had hoped you would be more... Accepting. The panic that threaded its way into the very fibre of your being and penetrated your soul, and the disgust and guilt you felt seeing the bodies of the two who had just attacked you. But they attacked [i]you[/i], Thalia! If they weren't prepared to die for their malicious and cruel actions then they deserved it all the more so. 

Being your God, it was hard to watch... Every time you transformed you panicked, in the mindset that at any moment your inhibitions might shatter like a sheet of glass and you would rampage through the city, leaving destruction and death in your wake, you brought yourself closer to becoming that which you feared to become. Honestly? It was pathetic. But still you never accepted it... And in the end, you forced yourself apart from it, isolating your emotions from yourself so no one would bear witness to you. No... It wasn't [i]my[/i] fault, but I'll take some credit for it. The Demon of Lothreen~

[center]~[/center]

Thalia shook her head, regaining what senses she had lost in the moment of idle drifting. The beast shuddered visibly at the feeling of being touched, but didn't retaliate or attack, seemingly identifying whom the hand belonged to long before any words transpired. Her eyes narrowed onto Scout, who had stepped forward, unarmed, to diffuse the situation, and the wolf growled, warning her to back off. Penny was here now. Nobody would be getting any closer.

Her ears swivelled, to take in what Penny was whispering. Whether or not it made any sense was a question up in the air, eliciting no reaction from the creature physically. But inside was a different matter. The drowned voice spoke up, piercing through the tempest of emotion and into the silence that had taken over full control. She had done her job, and Penny was safe, but it refused to give up command just yet. Enemies were still on the field, in her head, and that was enough of a reason to stay vigilant against the threats. They hadn't attacked, but the beast couldn't take risks. For Thalia's sake, it couldn't take risks. 

A beat passed in the dust ridden wind; and a second, followed by a third. Thalia remained steadfast, watching closely the wall and Scout, looking upon them as if they would and could move at any second. A fourth beat passed, and finally she was satisfied. They weren't going to attack, that much she could gauge, though the lack of thought that made it up classified it a somewhat unruly guess. 

From her standing position, the beast turned its back on Alicia and the others, but even still her tails lit up with the same will-o-wisp of flame each had been embroidered with before. She crouched down, and dashed between her friends legs, picking her up onto her back before she could even protest to the action. Immediately, she dashed away, making use of the vast amounts of agility her body possessed, especially in her Monstrous state. She kicked from the ground, and in a second scaled the nearest building to her to the roof, before vanishing into the distance, Penny in tow. 

[center][@Flamelord][@Hammerman][@Majoras End][@Shydot][/center]

[center]~[/center]

Despite her lack of intelligence, and cognitive thought, the beast still remembered the location of their hideout; that was something she would never forget, no matter how much her mind deteriorated. She dashed in between the mounds of scrap metal, and other such rubble and junk, and between the triggers for every trap Penny had set, as though she had memorised them in the week since arriving. Her paw swatted violently away the metal sheet that made the entrance to the lair invisible to onlookers, and crawled her way inside, making extra sure nothing was knocked from the shelves due to her increase in size. 

As soon as she got the chance, she gently - as gently as she possible could -  laid Penny against the bed, and pushed the blanket haphazardly on top of her. The animalistic appendages made it difficult to do so, but Thalia was regaining control, bit by bit, making it easier to accomplish such human tasks. 

The beast couldn't think, but if it did it would have wondered. Thalia had done this. She had set up the mechanisms, conscious or not, so that she wouldn't have to deal with the outcomes of her transformations. A safety mechanism, on top of the isolation. Her emotions were separated entirely from her reality, in an attempt to keep anything overflowing into herself. In the event it did seep in, she would engage a mental trigger, which would silence her mind and let the Monster take over. As soon as it was time to return, she would be unable to remember what had happened. Why would she want that? It only meant she was in denial, unable to accept the truth of her being and reality. 

The creature blinked, over come with a fatigue that spread rapidly throughout its body, causing it to sink down into a sitting position. Within a second, it was forced to lie on its side, staring at Penny, curled up on the blanket they had shared. It was time for Thalia to take back over, it seemed, and so the creature let her. That was its purpose after all, and for now the job had been satisfied appropriately. All that was left was to drift off, deep into sleep, and let her transform back...

[center][@Shifter_Master][/center]