Maid for Battle

Zara did not seem surprised at Sierra's words. Nimea had always been rather overzealous with her use of the corruption power. Her ruling of Daraku had always been placed as a last resort, a fail safe to ensure that her will was carried out across the world, at any cost. But she'd teamed up with Gweniverre? That seemed to be... an unlikely match. Then again, she did always seem to have an interest in the second Seat. This was concerning. She turned to Xana.
"You threaten to make me pay for any consequences that come about due to me attempting to remove the mark, or trigger it, due to the effect that it will have on Dixi. And yet, you refuse to remove it yourself. It seems to me that, if anything were to happen to her, it would be your fault, not mine." Zara responded, her eyes piercing. "If I wished it, I could simply choose to remain here, and Dixi would be stuck, unable to assist. And realistically, what is stopping me from doing so? If you threaten to drag me there, then what is the point in even having the mark at all? You claim to be all for free will, yet choose to restrict my actions in such a way. Now, I am not claiming that I do not do something similar, but at least I accept that my actions are for the removal of Chaos from the world. You, however, are being rather hypocritical." Zara commented. "That is not to say I will not accompany you, I am merely pointing out your hypocrasy."

"Is that how you want to play mother?" She replied, returning the piercing gaze "You think that I will simply remove the mark, just because you threaten to keep Dixi here? You think that would stop us from defeating Nimea?" She grabbed Dixi, paralizing her "I'm in no mood for such acts, my friends are in danger because of me, because I decided to fool around instead of helping them..." She slowly started to break the mark "If I have to choose between you and them..." Zara started to feel the effects of the forced removal.

"Xana stop!" Dixi struggled but her body didn't answered.

Meanwhile Ix was worried but something was bothering her, why was she using brute force to remove it? Why not bind her to someone else who could stay here? Then the answer came to her "It's not that you don't want to remove it... You can't remove it..."

Zara stared down at Xana, even as her heart stopped, almost feeling like it was being crushed under the pressure of the seal.
"I just said that I was not stating that as my intent. Why would I threaten to remain here, then not follow through on the threat? If your intention is to kill me, then go ahead. I do not fear death." Zara responded, her eyes watering from the pain, but her voice remaining clear. "But I will not allow you to have your cake and eat it too. Either you will admit that what you are doing to me is no better than my own plan was for the world, or you will release the binding you have placed on us." She glanced over at Ix. "And if she is unable to remove it, then it is her own fault for sending a clone that she has no control over. It does not improve her argument."

That last statement broke her, she stopped breaking the seal, released Dixi and fell to her knees, her eyes started to tear up "I know... I know... What I did is no better of what you did... I-I... Feel guilty... I know this is all my fault... I haven't done anything right in the last few days... I'm just a failure..." For Xana to be so depressed, the fact that she blamed herself for her friends capture, for the bind of her mother and sister, all of this finally caught up to her thanks to Zara's words.

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Zara furrowed her brow. She had not expected Xana to break down so easily. During their fight, she had seemed so determined. Arrogant even. But she never seemed the type to be lacking in self-confidence. But, it was clear, that even the strongest of egos had a breaking point. Zara sighed.
"Look, don't take it so hard. Even the best of us screw up sometimes." Zara responded, almost seeming to feel guilty. "But do not try to hide your mistakes behind bravado, or make it seem that it was what you had intended all along. Trust me, I invented that trick. It only ends up with you either looking like an idiot, or in a situation where you cannot rely on anyone to be an ally."

Dixi hugged her sister "It's okay Xana, I reap what I sow..." She then looked at Zara "Will you come with us then? If not I'll just stay here..."

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Zara took a moment to consider her answer.
"I will accompany you, on one condition. Once this is all over, you will allow me the time to safely remove this seal. If you fail to defeat Nimea, I already know that allowance will be made to me, so this request will only come into play if you do manage to defeat her. I will take no action to assist you, and if you accidently end up outside of the 100 metre radius, I will not hesitate to remove the seal upon me to preserve my own life." Zara responded. "If you cannot accept that, then I shall remain here with you. Though I should point out that your friends will likely already be completely under her control. It may not be wise to attack her, if you feel that she could exploit that connection."

"If that is the case, I have a counter-offer..." replied Dixi "You said that those who mastered Themis's power can remove the corruption, being you the only one who can do it, then my counter-offer is this: I will give you the time you wish, in fact I will even help you but in exchange, you will remove the corruption from my friends once we defeat them... Also I would like to talk to you..."

"Very well. If you manage to defeat Nimea, then I shall remove their corruption." Zara agreed.

"Thank you mom... One last thing before we go... I would like to talk to you... Like before... Mind link... No... This time, more personal... Soul link... Do you mind?" She asked, she had some questions, but she didn't want to make them in public.

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Zara frowned.
"I would recommend against it. You might not like what you hear." Zara responded. "A mind link would be preferable, but if you insist..."

"Even if I don't like it... I have to, Adri, could you make the soul link?"

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Anika hopped in and gave Xana an embrace to try and help ease the aching she'd been given. (I say this because I fuckin missed the mark)

(Np, and sorry u.u)

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Xana felt Anika's embrace and felt sightly better, she was still depressed by the recent events, but feeling her girlfriend's embrace sure made it more easy to bear.

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Sierra, in the meanwhile is busy giving everyone a lightning enchantment for their weapons or in Anika or others' case, their natural weapons though she takes more time with it as she needs to draw out the enchantment glyphs. The way she creates these enchantments is more akin to weaving.

Dixi looks at the touching scene while her gauntlets receive the enchantment from Sierra, then she looks back at Adri who seems to be frowning about the soul link idea "Please Adri... I need to do this..."

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"Soul links?" Yumi speaks out in inquiry while she has her bow and blades out (notably, actual swords, not bokkens) for Sierra to enchant.

"Yumi... You... Your bokkens" Dixi was surprised to see Yumi wielding actual swords "And with a soul link, we can talk, soul to soul, not being able to lie"

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Yumi's bokkens was actually a sheath and sword within one. She has been striking people with the sheath all this time. She nods at Dixi's words. "I will need them for this battle...I have a bad premonition for some reason..."

"Are you sure Yumi..." She asked, worried about Yumi's trauma.

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There is a noticable pause before she actually responded she sighs first. "A small part of me still fears here. Yet encounter with her is an inevitability." She then sound a less uncertain almost sounding peaceful. "However I have reviewed on that particular battle. Ironically she is rather vulnerable to being mentally disrupted."

"If you are sure, I'll trust trust you Yumi, I'm eager to see what you can do without holding back." Dixi smiled, Yumi was pretty good with her swords sealed, she wondered how strong would she be without the seals "Now... Adri, if you could please? I really need to have this talk with my mother, if you feel it's not safe you can join us in the soul link..." She tells Adri.

Jane entered the room, looking a little worse for wear than usual. Her hair was a lot less neat than usual, and her eyes looked concerned. As she saw Kathrynne, Adri (and Adri 2), Yumi and the Brights, she noticeably relaxed, and even seemed pleasantly surprised to see Sierra. However, she remained wary of Zara's presence.

"Apologies for arriving late, I was uncertain as to where everyone had gone after Gweniverre's breakout, and I was rather... distracted by a couple of residents who were particularly affected by her haze." Jane commented. "Can someone, perhaps, assist me in getting up to speed with recent events? Also, where is Ferro?" She asked, searching the room to confirm she hadn't missed him.

"... I'm sorry Jane... H-He..." Ix started.

"He's been captured... and it's my fault for not going to help him..." Xana admited, if Jane was going to blame her, she was okay with it.