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Damien watched in shock as Michael stood wide-eyed, looking down at the blade that dripped with his blood. Behind him stood the culprit. Vicki was covered in bleeding lacerations, and one of her cheeks beneath her mask was swollen. She wore rags and a pair of suppression cuffs hung from one of her wrists while she held the end of a sword similar to the one Junichiro once used. The sword itself appeared to be coated in some of Avarice's potent energy. Surprisingly, she'd managed to sneak in unnoticed, thanks to wearing a binding suit that masked the presence of spirit energy within its boundaries. It was the same device Naomi told him Kaila and Claeg used to attack her unnoticed once.
"Michael!" Alissia yelled as everyone turned their attention to Vicki, who withdrew her blade, and Michael fell to the floor.
Alissia and Naomi rushed over to him.
"Is this what contingency plan he meant? To think he was prepared to kill everyone on the planet even before his breakdown," she said as she panicked and pulled cloths from her spatial bag to clog the wound while Naomi tried her best to freeze it shut to stall.
The lights flickered and sparked as Damien approached Vicki angrily. She was alive because he'd given her the benefit of the doubt. He felt responsible for this happening to Michael. The threat to Michael's life was because of him...
"Damien, don't," Alissia said, but he could tell she was still too shocked to react as her hands were covered in Michael's blood.
Vicki looked at Michael lying on the floor, bleeding out, then she looked around as if suddenly coming to her senses.
"No...no, no, no. Oh my God, I didn't...please," she looked at Damien, who stood before her, his eyes glowing threateningly.
"I was forced to," her words were barely audible even up close, "I couldn't defy her."
So, it was Verin who put her up to this.
Damien understood her predicament and looked down at her softly.
"I sympathize with you, truly," he said tenderly, pointing her chin upward. "But you've fatally wounded our friend, so I have a promise to keep."
Looking into her eyes, he was filled with sorrow from what was reflected.
"You poor soul. I'll make this as painless as possible," he said compassionately, removing Vicki's mask. Vicki closed her eyes, seemingly in acceptance, as Damien leaned her head down and kissed her on the forehead. As he did so, he sent electric charges into her head and used Overload simultaneously to stimulate her brain to perceive her electrocution as blissful pleasure.
Alissia was too preoccupied to understand as she finally reacted and rushed over to pull Damien away from Vicki.
"Why did you do that?! She was human! She wasn't fighting back!"
Damien glanced at Tymon before responding, "She proved to be a threat to us. It's also why I had to take out Junichiro..."
"No, Junichiro was one thing. We still could've..."
It was the right call, Lisa. Viraa's voice was heard in each of their heads. The human was too far gone to ever recover from what was done to her psyche.
"No, that's not—" Alissia started but was stopped as we watched Za'Fia, uncharacteristically distressed, approach Vicki as she wobbled unbalanced.
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