The void yawned underneath her.  Yue's breath came heavy in clouds of condensation.  Beyond the brilliantly lit wall of the settlement was pitch darkness, save the faint glimmer of another settlement in the distance, and the thrust glow of drones patrolling.  She'd run across the rooftops clear to the edge of ShieldTown.  Her heart thumped in her chest, and all she could hear in the unnatural silence was her breathing.

Her fists clenched and unclenched rhythmically against the pins and needles sensation she'd come to associate with pain.  She was banged up, particularly her head and her left side.  Fingers ran across the rough texture of of an old(?) scrape on her cheek, and her skin protested as she prodded a tender spot beneath her eye.

Right.  She fell.

Yue took a deep breath and tried to relax, though the coiled tension wouldn't release her bones.  [Crimson] coiled itself angrily around her limbs, and she tried to brush it off her skin reflexively.  Her hands wouldn't stop shaking.

Tragedy.  She encountered the masked killer.  A teleporter.  She'd been translocated beneath the plate surface and she fell.

Yue's heartrate slowed.

Something had happened after she fell... that part was still fuzzy.  She met Sir Viking, Runepriest... no, Raudd and Zolya.  Murder-Bot... she couldn't remember his name but that probably wasn't it... and Meathead.

[color=deepskyblue][i]Call me Alex while out of costume. Jabbing and banter aside, I’ll make sure you get back topside.[/i][/color]

They split up.  She went with [i]him.[/i]  Met his Super-Groupie... [i]Dean[/i].  Drove to the [i]Ignis Citidel[/i], or a replica of it at least.

[color=deepskyblue][i]Did my favorite angry kitty ever get that 0.5% epic sword drop?[/i][/color]

No.  She didn't.  Because you were the one that kept us all together... and you [color=#CE2B95][s]Ď̵̪͉͉̈́̈́Ǐ̴͕̦͈͌͝E̶̖̝͆D̴͔̀̃ [/s][/color] left.

[i]The Scream.[/i]

Yue flinched as she recalled the sound and that feeling like she'd been torn free of her body and left to fall in an endless void.  That part she remembered vividly, as well as the dream that had accompanied the sensation.  Was it a dream?  Dragons weren't real.  Or were they?  We don't talk about the [i]second moon[/i], her psychiatrist changed her meds last time she tried.

[b][color=#CE2B95]I̶̘͆'̷̙̎m̸̹̐ ̷͓̿n̷͕͑o̴͔̾ť̷̹ ̸̤͆š̵̮ḯ̴͍c̴̗͐k̵͊ͅ[/color][/b]

Deep breath.  Exhale.  [b][color=#CE2B95]š̵̮ḯ̴͍c̴̗͐k̵͊ͅ[/color][/b]  Count to ten.

[i][color=#CE2B95]Does it kill Kaiju?[/color][/i]

[i][color=#EF3F16]Oh, enthusiastically so.[/color][/i]

[b][color=#CE2B95]n̷͕͑o̴͔̾ť̷̹ ̸̤͆š̵̮ḯ̴͍c̴̗͐k̵͊ͅ[/color][/b]

Right.  They fought the Hydra.  And then...

[color=92278f]"You’re… Panicking. Do you want help?"[/color]

Yue flinched, and her eyes flicked towards the source of the voice involuntarily, but her head didn't turn.  Every muscle in her body was coiled.

[color=#CE2B95][i]Don't look.  You won't like what you [ş̶͝ē̸͉e̶̗̚].[/i][/color]

She pressed her palms to her eyes and tried to collect herself, though that just made the threads of [Crimson] coiling around her bones stand out against the black.  Coming undone.  Yue inhaled and blew a long shuddering sigh as she tried to hold herself together.

[b][color=#CE2B95]"I'll be okay.  I just need... a minute,"[/color][/b] croaked Yue after an uncomfortably long silence.