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Had it only been a matter of Morganite and Pearl, Earthshaker could have handled it without issue. Even if Pearl shot her mid-leap, Roche was ready for it and would have absorbed the shot right then and there with her bare arm. Yet that focus was too narrow when the GEMS were so numerous, and once again in minutes of the first sucker punch, another took the Rule Keeper without Shatterscape to intervene. 

The glimmer of gold under the iridescent lighting of a city by night was the only herald Roche had for the incoming strike, and unlike with Pearl, she wasn't prepared for it. They struck her with mercy, and the kiss of each shaft piercing her brought neither pain nor blood. How bizarre that one like Pearl could be so exceedingly lethal yet they had an Archer who could only strike at the heart in it's purest form. 

Each puncture roused not pain, but memory. An attack upon her emotions, turning recollections of joy into a tool to undermine her own resolve. She faltered before it as rage was bludgeoned and battered under flashes of joy. Those moments she held dear roused not by her will, but the impetus of another to smother her heart under a heavy blanket of warmth. The Rulekeeper's fist unfurled, brushing against a floating shield in passing before coming down upon a patch of grass. 

A softer fall then one would expect in such a furious trace, the folliage watered with the overflowing tears that were ripped from her by Topaz's magic. It left her with a feeling of fulfillment she had long been denied. An acceptance like her father's arm around her once more. The laughter of friends who cherished her for company. The feel of Shuuko's lips against her, meeting in a dance as old as time without any fear in their hearts. 

Roche felt it all. With hot, salty tears rolling down her cheeks, Nyxia beside her with a trepidation that far more real. Because Roche [i]knew[/i] that her friendships were not ones so lofty as exist without give and take. The club would have turned from her had she not the strength to be of use, and the desperation to bear her throat to them when the time called for it. 

She knew Shuuko's fears ran so deep, and scared her so deeply, that the vulnerability would not fade for so fresh a crush as Roche's. 

She knew her family was dead, and she could never have the innocence and safety she took for granted. 

But most of all, Roche had felt Suki's poisonous touch warp her mind with love and lust aplenty. Try to drown resolve with bliss and humiliate her as just another conquest. To know the body and spirit could be turned against oneself, and only the mind would remain. Resistance was a losing gambit. Denial and suppression failed when the flesh was as weak as the spirit. 

So the Rulekeeper didn't deny the happiness the arrows had wrought. She accepted, wept for it, and looked beyond it. Roche wanted those feelings, but Suki had taught her to want them on her terms, and her terms alone. 

[color=orange]"I'm...Pretty fucked up right now."[/color] Earthshaker breathed, her voice hoarse and scratchy. Weak, even to her own ear. Bloodshot eyes and glistening cheeks turned to Nyxia, expression morphing into a wry, depreciating grin as she saw her partner so off kilter. Feeling her hand against her own shoulder was a relief threatening to plunge her heart back into that poisonous joy that wanted her to succumb. To drown in a lie till she couldn't even dream of facing the cruelty of reality. 

Roche took in all the discomfort plain upon Nyxia's face and focused instead on how much it unsettled her to do even that much. It made it...tolerable. Enough so to rise to her feet. 

[color=orange]"Those arrows bombard your heart with lies. Everything you could ever want. Every happy memory you...you know can't come back, till you don't have the strength left but to weep at how beautiful it would be to live in that delusion. You....You must not let them hit you, Norika. Please, don't even get grazed."[/color]

Because the city was going to have a hard time surviving what Roche would do to the GEMS. A Nyxia who experienced even a glimmer of her brother's love, only to have it torn from her by cruel reality? If Rei didn't strike her down in a heartbeat, there wouldn't be much of a Miso City left. 

Magical Girls were beings of emotion, after all. The Light Girls clung to the pretty ones without substance, those lofty notions of Righteousness, Love, and Justice. They acted with surety in their actions, but it made them feel untouchable. Dark Magical Girls were a more realistic bunch. All that tripe was like junk food congealing in their veins, slowing them to a bawling mess. 

So Roche looked at all of Topaz's happiness and asked herself, 'How happy would I be once the GEMS feel free to run this city?'

Her eyes turned to the direction she saw the arrows come from. Knowing it was a threat she couldn't stomach any other Club Member to suffer from. With a curl of her fist her shield was in hand once more while the other pointed in the direction of Topaz. 

[color=orange]"I'm so tired of being smacked around without a chance to fight back. I'm exhausted from letting someone else make the first blow. Nyxia, can you do me a favor and shoot my shield over there? I need to break a few rules tonight."[/color]

With a leap Roche was airborne, turning to hold her shield out towards Nyxia to catch a ride towards the distant Archer and whomever else was waiting there for her. Drawing power from the laser itself, a bright light show that would be impossible to miss even through the swarm of Eyeballs above.