Hm. Unexpected complication. The sacrifice of the Gods-Smiting Whip for the sake of final victory was always part of her plan. First consequence of the Nine Drive System. Necessary in the end, to drag the things she needed into the realm of the physical and create the only future in which she could be happy. There was simply no other way. She'd known it from the very beginning. Before the beginning, in fact. Within her first three months of captivity she'd known that another chance would end like this, or else in failure.

But then. Why? Mira turns her head to the sky and watches the last vestiges of her Nine-Tails disintegrate in the coruscating True Rainbow of destructive power she herself had unleashed upon the arena. Why? Why why why why why? Why do her eyes sting with tears? Why is this goodbye so painful when none of the rest have ever been? What made it so special?

Overcome.

Mira turns her attention back toward Solarel. She watches her through crystal patterns now, the blurry vision of her overtreated eyes when she does not bother to stem the flow of tears. She is even more beautiful than before. Another unexpected complication. This one pulls an unintended smile from her lips. Damn it. Damn it! Why does nothing ever go according to calculations when this woman is involved? What makes her so special?!

"I love you!"

The sound is forced out of her. By the fall. Or by the spirits hanging like cameras in the air about her. Something beautiful against the achingly gorgeous, haunting backdrop of death, rebirth, and death again painted across the ground beneath them. It's even more of a sight than she anticipated. More spectacular, more fantastic, more... ah. What is that word?

Awesome. 

Her steel-silk dress flutters in the winds she makes by answering gravity's call. There are tears in her eyes and a smile on her face and I love you on her lips and a three section staff in her hands. Click! She pulls it together. Thhhhhrrrsh! She swings it as hard as she can. Clang! It impacts one of Solarel's blade hilts and forces her guard open. Clink! It separates and wraps around her back.

"There is no one else I would have done this for! No one else I [i]could[/i] have done this for!"

She flies in close, but does not connect with a kiss. No, this moment is punctuated by a headbutt. Her vision briefly turns to stars but the training she's used to fake normal piloting credentials had a secret second purpose and it is exactly this moment: Mira is in excellent shape. She cannot pilot any mecha that now exists in the galaxy (thanks to her), but she can pilot her own body. 

And that is how she fights. Even now. Elbow punishes elbow. Knee locks around knee. In the opening of a guard she throws both arms around Solarel's neck and buries her cheek against the kinetic transfer induced warmth of her collarbone. Her legs lock around her prey's waist and her fingers lock together like iron behind her around the sections of her staff.

"I love you," she mumbles it this time, "Always. Forever. My missing piece."

There is no parachute hidden in the trailing sleeves and skirts of her magnificent dress. There is only the whispering caress of the at once soft and rigid fabric against the most beautiful and perfect scales any Zaldarian could hope to have. There is only the warmth of fur and the tickling of whiskers against an iron neck as she nuzzles and purrs like a love-drunk kitten.

"So save me. My princess."

And she drags her tongue along your jaw, Solarel. No victory to be stolen here. Your love was priced into her stupid plan from the very beginning. Life would not have been worth living without it.