The world is moving in slow motion. Oberon tosses Jessamine like a ragdoll, and there's nobody there to catch her. Alina scrambles to her feet, feeling like the air is freezing around her as she goes. It's a solid thing with weight that she has to push through to make anything happen. Jessamine is flying so quickly, and she is so helpless. She screams, and she leaps. Her arms wrap around her youngest sister several feet above the ground and suddenly both of them are careening toward the ground together. She squeezes her eyes shut and tenses for impact. 

But she's caught, too. Jessamine, Alina, and Rita collapse into a pile that still manages to skid across the ground for what feels like forever. And then... a horrible stillness settles over the trio. Alina's eyes are locked on Jessamine as she holds her, so afraid she can't even tremble. Jess' bright and beautiful eyes have gone all glassy, her normal fiery expression has fallen slack. And there's that stillness. Nothing moving when it's more important than ever that everything be. 

Then she coughs, and time starts up again. All at once everybody bursts into tears. Jessamine sobs while she chokes for breath. Rita's soft sniffling mixes in with a deep and grateful purr as she squeezes herself between the pair of them. Alina pulls them both tight against her and watches Kazelia fight. Blazing as bright as Ourania normally does. Kazelia... even after everything, after the... she saved Jessamine's life. 

It's a struggle to tear herself away from her family. But Alina's got a job to do; she can't waste the opening Kazelia is trusting her with. Trusting her! Her heart pounds with fresh determination, which is how she makes it all of a single step before an arm clamps itself across her ankle. She startles and turns, and finds Jessamine's miserable face staring straight at her. 

"Where... do you think... you're going?"

"Let go, Jess! Let go! I have to get in there, I have to stop him! Kazelia's counting on me and I--!"

"Rrrraaagh!"

Suddenly she's on her back, with Jessamine pounced on top of her, arms tenser than steel holding her up off the floor by the straps of her dress. Jess' hot tears splash down on her face as she pulls one hand back to punch her big sister in the chest hard enough to drag a surprised 'oof' from her. She pounds her hand again and again, but each time it's shaking harder, landing softer. 

"You dummy! Lina you stupid, selfish... you... I... I!"

"Look at her fighting, Jess! Look at Kazelia! She needs help, please! I'm the only one who can do it, so please let me go! I can't let her die! I can't let him kill her, so please!"

"STOP IT! Stop it, Lina, just... stop it! Do you think I'm stupid? Think I'm blind? Where'd your lights go, Lina? What did you do?!"

"I..!"

"You're always doing this! Why does it always have to be you, huh? Why don't you trust me? Why, why, why?"

"I do trust you Jesss, but I need--"

"You don't! You don't you don't you DON'T! You always leave me behind! Stop protecting me Lina, don't you get it? I have to fix this! I've gotta... if I don't help then I..."

"...Jess?"

"It's my fault, don't you understand? It's all my fault! I let him turn me into the Black Princess! I'm the reason Jedad almost collapsed! We got caught in Feloria because I was so weak! He hurt you so badly and I just... I just let it happen! I keep trying and trying and I can't do anything! I couldn't save Mom, or Free, or you, or... or... I have, I have to... if I can't! Why did I even come? Why am I so useless, Lina? How come I have to sit here and watch you die?"

It's too much for her to keep going. Jessamine cries like a child into her big sister's shoulders. But Alina doesn't have any of her usual soothing words or strokes of Jessamine's hair. She's too busy looking at her sister, maybe really looking for the first time. They're so similar and yet... how did she miss the shape of this beautiful girl? Look how sharp and hard her muscles are, not like Alina's utter softness at all. Look at how strong her shoulders are, look at those legs. Like iron. Or glass! She's worked so hard. Alina had been an idiot not to rely on her. Big sister, little sister... what did that part matter? Wasn't this what families were made for? 

Her legs feel like jelly, but she stands up anyway. She pushes Jessamine away from her with all the strength she can find left in her exhausted body. And in the space that opens between them, she draws a naginata out of brilliant golden light. It pulses in the air between them, half again the size of Jessamine's normal favorite but so feather-light that even a child could swing it easily. Arcs of molten gold stream off of the edges of the blade, as if the magic of Gold was too potent to be contained in such a simple form. Alina grabs it by the pole and thrusts it into Jessamine's hands. She reaches up and brushes the tears off of her sister's cheeks with her thumbs.

"How about together, then?"

It's a moment that's been years in the making. Oberon, whose heart is cold and whose world is ice, has never stopped to notice all the fires he was stoking. Well they're all burning together now, and it's too late for him to do anything about it. Kazelia harries him from every side with her courageous spear dance. Jessamine turns her head one final time to see Alina smiling her while she leans on Rita. Her glass-sharp body tenses like a snake's.

And she leaps. Her form is flawless. After years of playing catch up, in this moment she surpasses her idol. Her beloved big sister could never land a blow like this. Her weapon curves as she swings it down, and a feral little grin spreads across her face when she sees that Oberon is too slow to block her. Her eyes are so much like her sister's, only they're made from fire. 

It's the kind of hit that sends a person bouncing across the ground. The kind that leaves cracks in the floor from the sheer weight of impact. The arc of her swing carries her around in a great circle through the air as she spirals as gracefully as a dancer could ever hope to be. A Princess must always be beautiful. She lands as softly as a cat, hardly bobbling at all except to hop an extra three times to stop her momentum. 

She turns and nods her head stiffly to Kazelia. 'Thank you', she says without the breath to say it out loud. 'Thank you for all of us.'

[Alina is adding a new Bond with Kazelia: "She was there for me when I needed her most. She's as much a part of my family as any of my sisters." Grace Finish: 2d6+2 = [b]10[/b]. Damage one of his Overlord stats, while Alina damages her Grace as the price for acting against a Threat.]