She should be stronger. Faster. More ruthless. She should be everything Mynx is accusing her of being, and everything she feared that she was. But in this moment she is pinned. All that power won't come to her; muscles strain and her body thrashes, but it's not enough to even move Mynx. Her fire has gone cold. Her ELF flickers out. Their lips come this close to touching, and all her strength is good for is wrenching her head away instead of closing the distance.

That's how it always was. In the lonely dark, in the heat, just the two of them. Clinging to each other, listening to the sounds of their breathing mix. Mynx's, slow and shuddering. Bella's, short and sharp. Their hands would find each other's, wrapped behind their backs. It was as difficult to move back then as it is right now. And then she, and Mynx would close her eyes like an idiot and inch her face closer... only to flinch. Only to let go suddenly, and draw back the entire space of the bed with her scales constantly rippling in complete embarrassment. 

[i]"Do... do you want me to..?" she asked, already shifting her form to be smaller, more muscular, covered in smooth skin.

"No. Don't you [b]dare[/b]. Put on her face and I'll kill you."

"But why? She's the one you want. Just because she's not here doesn't mean you can't have h--"

"I SAID! I... said no. She's not here. You're here. I don't want you to be anyone else."[/i]

It was on Bella to cross the distance again, to prove her words meant anything with her lips, and her teeth, and the fingers where no claws grew. That was how it was. She'd never forget...

Well. Apparently she would. Before long it would be failure or erasure. No other options. Bella's stomach twists in knots as she strains and thrashes against the captor still pinning her to the floor, but none of it does her any good. She's still stick, still mute, still snarling and frustrated when any decent person would be understanding and sympathetic in the face of those scars. 

"Mynx, you are... such a liar."

Her accusation explodes in a storm of feathers. Her tongue sits heavy in her mouth, her breath sticks in her lungs, her eyes blink stupidly. Stunned. And then suddenly the weight is lifting off of her. Suddenly she is free. Suddenly she lifts her neck and there's no threat of a final kiss anymore because Mynx has turned toward Redana and shifted her weight away from Bella.

But her eyes are only on that scar. That pale patch of pinkish scales among the red where they've had to rapidly regrow; the thing that probably pushed her into this latest transformation. That's where her claws dug in. Where she buried her arm up to the elbow in her sister, and never knew that it was her until it was too late. Which is why she recognizes the posture: Mynx is rearing her hand back to put claws into the distraction. Because she too does not recognize her target. She doesn't have a name to guide her. Redana is about to die, and the stain on both of them will run so deep not even the Lethe could wash it out. 

Her entire being is a scream. Her legs are lightning, and she plants them in Mynx's stomach with desperate forces that launches her a full dozen meters into the sky. Bella is on her feet faster than thinking, surrounded in a burning halo of ELF light. Her tail thrashes behind her with the fury of a dragon's, and in that single gesture she takes to the air and meets her target halfway to the ground again. 

They speak in combat. Heavy elbows against enlongated, whiplike arms with claws wicked enough to give XIII pause. Crushing knees meeting bones suddenly solid enough to pierce a star ship, and a dozen dozen heavy bruises appearing on both bodies where they meet. I hate you, I hate you, I love you. You rejected me. You lied to me. You told me I was special. You told me I mattered. You lied. You lied. 

You lied to yourself. The entire fucking time. And now you. And now you! And now you're killing Redana!

Two bodies crash into the ground together, their positions flipped. Bella is stronger. Faster. More ruthless. She is as unstoppable as Mynx threatened she would be. Her body is softened, slowly turning blackish blue underneath thin trickles of red, but it's nothing compared to Mynx. She howls in fury. She howls in victory. She lifts her arm back for the final strike, the one that will render Mynx unconscious and give Bella a chance to put her words in order. She'd fix it. She'd fix this. She'd say the last and most important 'sorry', and nothing would get in the way. 

But the blow never comes. Bella's eye blinks shut to block a sudden drip of blood. She glances up, only for a moment, to see where it came from. 

Her claws are [i]dripping[/i] red.

Her.

Five.

Claws.

Bella's eye opens wide, iris shrinking to a slit in equal parts surprise and terror. Her body freezes, first in place and then in temperature. She no longer breathes. Heart no longer beats. Her every nerve is a frazzled, frigid mess of pure static. The sense of power is welling in her core, ready to explode into violence. 

She disappears from on top of Mynx, reappearing several steps away on her feet in the same instant. Her wrist is gripped tight in her other hand, which digs her other pair of fresh claws into her own skin and muscles. Her posture is hunched, back arched, tail bristling in terror. And only now does she see, feel, smell how much damage she was really doing. 

"...Mynx. I--"