Quinn's heartbeat, so recently slowed, roared back to life again. One singularity. Two singularities. Three, four, five. And then...Besca spoke over the comms. A piece of Quinn had known what she was going to say before she said it, had known it'd happen before the loudspeaker had crackled. Speaking objectively, it was like a gift from above; if she'd learned anything political from her brief career as a pilot, she knew that this was the [i]perfect[/i] way of extending the olive branch and mending relations with Casoban.

All that being said, though, whenever she thought of fighting a modir again--after the disastrous outcome of the duel--she could feel fear and anxiety and any number of other things tearing into her, pulling at her skin, dragging her down and trying to stop her from moving forwards. Moving [i]anywhere.[/i] But...but...

There was something else there too. 

From deep down within her, a brilliant warmth burned upwards, chasing out the shadows of doubt with...she frowned distractedly, trying to figure out which emotion it--

Joy. It was joy, and a hot and wild anticipation that nearly stole her breath away. She could almost hear the voice resonating out from inside: 

[i][color=black]This is what we were [b]made[/b] to do.[/color][/i]

It ripped through her like fire, purging the cloying odor of fear that clung to her and setting her veins alight. And standing there for just a brief moment after Tillie flickered away, she felt her mouth spread in a wide, fierce smile.

[i]These[/i] were monsters.

A loud clanging noise of machinery from below, and the spell was broken. Blood still running hot, she whipped around, dashing to the lift and hammering the button, even after it had already started to descend. She hadn't come within ten feet of the ground when she leapt, barely touching the ground before she skidded off again towards the lockers, making it there a few moments after Dahlia. Her breath hissed through her tight teeth, and she near ripped her clothing, taking it off so quickly. It wasn't more than thirty seconds before she was running back up the hallway, this time sweating through the heat suit as she went. She spared a terse "[color=ffe63d]good luck[/color]" at her sister before she split off again, back towards [i]Ablaze.[/i]

The lift had [i]never[/i] taken so long on the trip up.

She trusted that Tillie had done her job, and [i]flung[/i] herself into the skullport, barely sparing even the vaguest through at the door as she slammed it closed and hopped into her seat like she'd done it a million times. She closed her eye, and took a deep breath.

[i][color=ffe63d]This...is what at we were [b]born[/b] to do.[/color][/i]