When Titanomachia was hopping all over her apartment on one leg, she did not appear vulnerable. When she was imprisoned in Taowu's vine-chains, even struggling, even failing, even during the worst matches of her career there was no point Madeleine could remember where Machia did not feel like she was holding some kind of secret strength inside her. In face one time she had even come here early and unannounced, and happened to find her sleeping on the couch. Even then she seemed invincible. Shatterproof. Starve her, drown her, throw her off a cliff, Titanomachia would always feel like a woman who could move the entire world.

But here? With her fingers under Madeleine's chin and that look inside her eyes? With her teeth clenched and her lip trembling? With her voice, her voice, her... voice...

Madeleine's fingers slip. A jolt of electricity surges through Machia, followed by a palm on her hip sliding slowly inward. She watches the change in posture and expression with a storm inside her eyes. All that power, tamed. All that strength, useless. All that possibility, pointed desperately at a murky, blind path with pitfalls at every bend. She slides her fingers back down Titanomachia's soft thigh, whispers her wordless apology into her skin, and finishes the reconnection. 

Yes, now she looks vulnerable. Even weak. And so radiant it hurts to look at her. When? When did she become beautiful?

She pulls her hand down to rest it on Machia's knee. She allows her head to be lifted higher. Her breath hitches and her body stiffens in the cold air of the room, goosebumps clearly visible on each of her pale, bare limbs. She does not blink. She does not flinch. She does not smile.

"...Yes."