AC Finals: Alyssa Snow

[Silence Sei]

Apologies for getting this up late. You have two weeks from 12:01 PM CST to complete this thread. The 24 hour rule has been waived for the finals. Will our Elemental Gunslinger be the one to finally slay Pode? Good luck!

[Alyssa Snow]

Alyssa took a deep breath and exhaled through the hands cupped around her face. Within The House of Cards, the candlelight of her room caused her hunched shadow to dance along the cold, grey walls. Silence dominated the air, only interrupted by Mr. Blue’s soft warbles. The small, azure swallow hopped about her feet that she pulled as close to her body as possible. His little black eyes cocked to the side to peak at her through her knees. He chirped again as if to asking what troubled her.

Alyssa replied by pulling tear-dampened hands away from a rosy face. She looked upon her avian companion with sorrow and confusion.

Mr. Blue took the window of opportunity to flutter upon her knee and nuzzle his beak against.

Alyssa broke her frown slightly, the best she could offer of a smile.

“Hey there,” she muttered. Mr. Blue chirped a happy tone and Alyssa caressed under his neck with a finger.

“I just can’t run away from it can I?” she asked as the tears once again welled in her eyes.

Her avian partner quipped sympathetically as encouragement. Alyssa tried another smile to limited success, but the tears still came.

“I can’t be one of them, Blue. Pode’s right… I know Vincent said it doesn’t matter but… but I…”

She stuffed her head into her knees which the blue sparrow narrowly avoided. He took messy flight before settling atop her shoulder. With each of her sobs, he tried to warble sympathy into her ear.

“You stabbed him even without my coaxing…”

Alyssa jolted up as the ephemeral words sent a chill down her spine. Mr. Blue returned to his cage with a shriek and a squawk. The young blonde scrambled for her gun and brought it level in the empty room. Both the muzzle and her gaze swept from corner to dimly lit corner. Alyssa was indeed alone, no red mist, no apparition.

”If it were not for The First Ai’Brone, he would be gone forever… at your hands…”

“Shut. Up.” Alyssa seethed through clenched teeth. With her sleeve, she quickly blotted her sorrows from her eyes.

“They are only kind to you because of that pretty face. You are just an object to them…”

The young gunner slid out of her bed and paced to the center of her room. She kept her revolver at the ready; her eyes watched every nook and shadow.

“They’re my friends, my family. They—“

”That’s not what you just told your pet.”

Alyssa snapped her attention to Mr. Blue. The bird cocked his head in response. Alyssa winced and shook off Pode’s words.

“Just, leave me alone! Why won’t you just leave me alone?!”

”Because you are my daughter, and this world is too cruel for you…”

“I’m not your daughter!” Alyssa shouted at the top of her lungs. There was a knock on the door.

“Alyssa, you okay in there?” It was Vincent’s voice.

”Come visit me at the underground grove in your beloved House of Cards. I’ll be waiting...”

Alyssa felt the chill of Podë’s touch leave her.

“Alyssa?” Vincent called with another rap on the polished oak and jiggle of the locked handle.

“I’m—I’m fine Vince,” she called out, lowering the weapon she had aimed his direction. The movement caught her attention toward the vanity mirror, and Alyssa scowled at the sight.

“Who was that you were shouting at? Need me to kick someone’s ass?”

Alyssa laughed nervously.

“No, no. Uh... Blue just... knocked something over. It’s fine!” The bird screeched in testament to her lie. Alyssa shushed him with a finger.

“Alright, well. I’m heading out. I… uh… gotta take care of some business.”

“Where are you going?” Alyssa asked, concerned. She approached the door and hovered her hand over the nob.

“Questions, Alyssa,” Vincent mused with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, I’ll try not to die this time…”

Her hand retreated as though she touched a hot iron, and an expression of pain worked its way into her features.

“You take care of yourself, okay? I’ll tell you all about Otter Pops when I get back.”

“Stay safe, Vince…” She softly voiced, but the muffled sound of diminishing footsteps left her words unheard.

Mr. Blue filled the silence with his sorrowful song, and Alyssa turned to her avian companion.

“You and me again, Blue. Should I go, too?”

He ruffled his feathers and huddled against the wall of his cage.

“Listen… If I don’t come back… I want you to get out of here and fly. Fly free and far away from here. For me, okay?”

Mr. Blue warbled softly before tucking his beak into his down and drifted into a quiet slumber. Alyssa took a deep breathe of resolve, holstered her pistols, and lifted her rifle from its wall mount. In a ritualistic fashion, she checked the straps, her attire, reserve ammo, wrist garrote, and slid her combat knife into the scabbard on her back. She passed her vanity mirror and paused to tuck a few frazzled strands in place. As she looked upon her reflection, she ran her fingers over the bruising around her neck and remembered the horrors of Podë’s illusions.

Would the real Tobias be so cruel if he knew?

Alyssa tilted the mirror downward to avoid the reflection. Without further hesitation, she made for the door.

[Alyssa Snow]

Without Vincent and the rest of the Tarot, each step Alyssa took echoed softly against the hallway’s stone. Unlike before, the House of Cards now shone brightly with magelight sconces every ten paces. Still, the young girl felt an unease and terror unlike the flickering darkness from before. To her, this journey to the grove below felt like a criminal’s death waltz. Instead of the gallows, she would face the Witch of the Red Forest, Podë.

Down the steps and at the far back of the North Wing, Alyssa approached her destination. The sweet aroma of flora wafted toward her, but an unusual spice carried with it. As she pushed open the doors, artificial sunlight forced her gaze away. When her eyes adjusted, the girl felt a shiver travel down her spine.

“You came…”

The bright green grass had become tainted a deep umber. The various trees, locked in eternal bloom, now wept scarlet petals and the stream coursed like blood through the grove. Atop the stream’s bridge, stood a blonde haired, blue eyed woman of pristine beauty clad in various hues of red sheer.

“Alyssa, my daughter, why don’t we talk?” Podë spoke in sweet, luscious tones. With each word she stepped forward and left a wisp of scarlet in her wake.

Alyssa took a deep breath, her muscles relaxed, but she did not draw her weapons. Instead, she pierced Podë’s gaze with her own.

“Why?” the young homunculus managed. “Why me?”

Podë gestured her hand against her lips with a whimsical smile. Each of her nail were filed to a menacing point and perfectly painted to match her attire.

“Of all the things you chose to say, you opted for ‘why’? Yet here you are, by choice - no illusions, no orders, no obligation. Let me answer your question with another. Why did you come? I don’t see you raising your weapons like the others.”

Others?

Alyssa paused, unsure of the answer. Her hand slid toward the green and blue bruises about her neck.

“I need to know,” Alyssa began. “I’ve lived in this place for months, so why now, are you trying to tear them away from me? Why now? Why are you here? How? What made you so vengeful?”

The younger image of Podë looked to her older reflection with fierce determination.

“Tell me,” Alyssa demanded.

Podë’s crimson lips twisted into a beautifully sinister smile.

“My side of the story? How inquisitive. I suppose your seeress, Leona, hasn’t parted with this information?”

Alyssa’s confused expression relayed the answer without need for words.

“I see. Fitting that the Tarot of Justice be sent to question The Empress.”

“What? Empress?” Alyssa repeated.

“Yes, see for yourself.” Podë gently moved aside the fabric of her gown to expose the trademark tattoo of the Major Arcana just under the collar bone.

Alyssa’s mind spun with the implications. Was Leona an agent of Podë? Were her trials for Tobias a means to corrupt him? Did she accept Alyssa because of her affiliation to Podë? How much was Leona hiding? How much did she know?

“The Hierarchy has been around for longer than the Tap itself,” spoke the Forgotten One as she let her dress cover the exposed mark. “We, the Durklan of the Tarot, knew more about the Tap than any of our people. The artifacts and relics from those days…” Podë let out a sigh of yearning. “They make your toys of today look like a grain of sand on the beach by comparison. So much wonder was ours. So much knowledge.”

As Alyssa listened to the witch’s words, she felt a massive weight on her chest. Out of all the deception Podë threw at her thus far, this sang a different tone. Alyssa felt honesty for once, and it shook her deeper than any lie.

“You want to know why Raiaera, why this forest, why now?”

Alyssa took a deep breath to steel herself and nodded.

“Those elves took everything,” Podë seethed with a clenched fist. “They took our land, our forests, our secrets, our families…”

The timeless witch paced past Alyssa. She gave the young gunner her back as Podë lifted her hand to a red blossom upon one of the trees. Alyssa’s hand quaked over the grip of her revolver, but either curiosity or fear stayed her actions.

“Do you know what it is like to lose everything? To be hated by everyone because you are better than they are? This world is ruthless, Alyssa, or should I say, Project: α1-γ55-α?” Podë chuckled darkly and turned to face her guest.

Alyssa’s heart dropped at the sound of her official designation. Haunting memories of the needles, scalpels, and horrid tests flooded back to her. The faces of the Alerian elves that treated her like some mechanical puppet of war, she remembered each and every one of them in great detail. The shock flushed the color from her face and only served to further Pode’s point.

“You have a reason to hate those elves as much as I do,” Podë continued. “They may have been exiles of the ones that oppressed my people, but they are all elves the same… These people you call your friends, they’ll turn on you as they did their own Empress. Cast out for trying to help them, trying to prove we were better than the scum that attacked us! Then, after everything we went through together, they turned their blades on me...”

The scarlet witch approached Alyssa and curled her fingers under the girl’s neck.

“Just like I showed they could turn on you…” Podë lifted Alyssa’s face to meet her own.

“I killed them, you see, the ones who betrayed me. It was my life or theirs, and I did not stop there. You already know what I did to the Belegwain I Beleg and why we’re called ‘Forgotten Ones’. My fellow scorned and I destroyed the Tap so that those jealous bastards would know what it was like to lose it all. They sought to destroy us out of fear, out of envy, out of foolishness. I was better than them just as you are better than them...”

Alyssa looked upon her so called mother as she drowned in uncertainty. Deep down, Alyssa feared those that were closest to her heart. She feared all of the hate cast upon the forgotten would translate over without hesitation. Alyssa knew what she was, a monster, a mistake, a weapon…

“And I’m going to prove it to you…” Podë whispered.

[Alyssa Snow]

“What do you mean?” Alyssa whimpered.

Podë spread her grin wide and took a step back.

“You already withstood Tobias’s might, but Vincent’s…”

As the witch forced Alyssa to recall that ugly memory, Podë’s fair features melted away. Her long blonde locks pulled in, frayed, and became unkempt. Her feminine curves flattened, became angular and carved. The flowing red dress hugged her form and changed to natural tones. Across her red lips, Podë kept her smile while the scarlet faded to a fleshy pink. In one hand, a long blade manifested. In the other hand, a familiar cane found her grasp.

Alyssa felt her hairs stand.

“Vincent’s might had yet to be tested…” said the likeness of the Hierophant where the Forgotten Empress once stood.

“No,” Alyssa murmured in horror. She turned for the door and pressed her palms against them as they slammed violently shut. She tried the handle to no avail. This was Podë’s game now.

“Prepare yourself, my daughter...” Vincent’s voice warned.

Alyssa turned and with eyes wide, jerked her body a hair's width from his sword’s tip. The doppelganger of her former companion plunged his blade inches deep in the hardwood behind her. Vincent’s eyes locked onto hers and his cane swung wide. Alyssa dove from harm's way into a tumble and came to a halt with twin revolvers drawn.

“That’s right, Alyssa. Fight me, fight Vincent,” he spoke as he rocked the blade free from the door’s grip. “Prove to me - to yourself that you’re better than them!”

“I’m not!” the gunner retorted, her hesitant fingers firm against the triggers. “Vincent saved me!”

“Did he?” Vincent staggered as the blade parted from the wood. “I won’t.”

The Hierophant rushed at Alyssa with incredible speed. The girl clenched her teeth as the gap closed, but she could not fire. In penance for her hesitation, the false friend plunged the head of his cane into the meat of her stomach. The air rushed from her lungs and doubled her atop the blow. Before she could overcome the pain to react, Vincent’s boot connected with her shoulder and sent her head over heels into a patch of scarlet flowers.

Pain rattled her body worse than that of Tobias’s grip around her neck. For a moment, the only reaction she could stir from her limbs was indiscriminate trashing until she remembered how to draw breath. The first lungful stung like glass, but gave feeling back to the oxygen starved senses. Alyssa coughed as she forced herself to hands and knees. The rifle from her shoulder slipped free and landed unceremoniously beside her.

Podë laughed in her stolen skin.

“Come on little one, is that really the best you can offer? Perhaps you do deserve to be put down like the abomination you are…”

“You…” Alyssa heaved. The grip around the hilt of her revolver tightened.

“Are not…” Through much effort, she stood and wiped a trail of blood from her lips.

“Vincent!” Fierce blue eyes fell on a disguised Podë through wild strands of blonde. Alyssa leveled her pistols and unleashed an icy payload upon the doppelganger.

Vincent’s wry smile faded into a scowl. His footwork mirrored that of Tobias’s trained swordsmanship. A flurry of blade and cane swatted the gunner’s ice bolts from the air, but bought the girl enough time to lodge a spent crystal into the soil beside her rifle. The volley halted and Alyssa pushed herself through the pain toward Podë’s false visage.

“Finally…” Vincent seethed.

Alyssa aligned her sights on Vincent’s chest, steeled her resolve, and fired. Instead of blocking, the impostor spread his arms wide and took the bolt square in the chest.

The sight staggered Alyssa’s aggressive advance as Vincent clutched the prong of ice buried in his heart. Shock found his features and he looked upon his attacker with one question in his eyes.

“Why, Alyssa?” He managed through a wet gurgle, blood cresting at his lips.

The scene locked the homunculus in place. Though she knew Podë wore his skin, Alyssa struggled to separate reality from illusion. Her fears surfaced in the moment as Vincent staggered toward her. His cane and sword fell to the crimson grass and burst into a red haze.

“I…” he stammered, falling upon a shocked teenager, “I loved you…”

Then, his weight hung heavy and went limp. Alyssa’s chest began to heave. The panic overrode her logic and in that moment, Alyssa believed Vincent’s blood ran down her skin.

“V-Vincent…” she stammered.

[Alyssa Snow]

From the limp corpse, a low growling laugh crept out. At first masculine and soft, it grew into a feminine cackle. Vincent’s body reanimate and shoved Alyssa away from it. Then, stood with head hung low.

“Your face,” it murmured. “I haven’t seen anything so pitiful in decades!”

Alyssa scowled at the witch and tried to wipe free the thick blood from her blue attire.

“You act like you really care about them!” Podë laughed. Her hands wrapped around the prong in her chest and effortlessly ripped it free. “You fear what they think about you, but you try to relate to them? They are nothing to you.”

As Pode cast aside Alyssa’s projectile, her form again began to shift.

“What was it I said as him last time?” she mused as Vincent’s features turned soft and supple. His messy blond hair darkened to a rich chestnut and fell loose in waves. His dark eyes sharpened to a vibrant green and body shrunk in height shorter than Alyssa. Manly abs melted into faint curves and tight clothes became a loose fitted tunic, pants, and a pair of oil stained boots.

“Who else is next?” asked a more petite female voice. “Stella? Rayleigh?”

From behind the spitting image of Ray, an even smaller girl peeked her head. Bright amber eyes peered through ashen blonde locks at Alyssa. Her small fingers clutched to Rayleigh’s attire.

“You not hurt us, right?” spoke Stella’s exotic accent over sweet tones.

Alyssa’s stomach knotted. Disgust, anger, and a sense of dread flushed the words of Vincent’s dying confession from her mind.

“Stop this,” the homunculus teen weakly demanded.

“What was that?” Rayleigh’s double asked with a hand cupped to her ear. “I didn’t catch it.”

“I said stop this, Podë. If you want to fight me, do it as yourself!”

“What lessons would be learned by that?” Podë echoed in Alyssa’s mind.

Alyssa gripped her pistols tightly. The witch's tricks began to get under the gunner’s skin.

“Now, kill them. They’re just obstacles to you,” Podë demanded as the image of Rayleigh pulled Stella defensively behind her.

“I won’t,” Alyssa seethed.

“You don’t have a choice.”

Suddenly, Alyssa crumpled to her knees and clutched at her stomach. The blonde stifled the painful screams through clenched teeth. Something felt as though it were burrowing through her intestines and wrapping around the column of her spine. The humuculus focused on her breathing and managed to look up at her fellow Tarot members for help. Instead, the doubles glared at her and retreated back a step.

“Feel that? Since you walked through those doors, you’ve been breathing the pollen of the Ruilserk blood vine. Right now, my babies are wreaking havoc inside you. The longer you hesitate… I’m sure you can make up the rest.”

“Damn you,” Alyssa groaned.

“I always thought you were a whiny little bitch anyway,” Rayleigh added. “Always throwing some fit or crying over something Tobias said. You’re pathetic.”

Alyssa felt around for her pistol in the leaves of grass. The edges of her vision faded in and out as the cursed vines writhed inside her. If Podë wanted her to murder some illusions, so be it.

“I know what you’ve done Alyssa,” Rayleigh’s double continued. “While I helped you work on those guns, I saw what they saw. All those people you killed looking for Daire, not all of them were guilty of the crimes you executed them for.”

“Shut up.” Alyssa’s fingers kissed against the cold alloy frame of her weapon.

“I never told you, but I can see into their future as well. Do you want to know what I saw?”

Alyssa leveled the sights on the impostor of her friend. From behind her, Stella ducked her head and peeped out over the edge of Rayleigh’s hips. Alyssa’s finger hovered over the trigger. Her aim swayed, her free hand gripped at her agonizing abdomen, but she paused to fire.

“You killed so many innocents with those weapons. People like Stella, Daire, even Cellar. You’re a monster - a murderer.”

“And you’re not real…” Alyssa returned as a trickle of blood fell from the corner of her lips.

Click!

The blonde pulled the trigger, a prong of ice shot forth, and in the center of Rayleigh’s forehead it came to a halt. Ray’s body didn’t stagger, but crumpled like a rag doll and revealed the innocent Psaróni behind her. Stella’s face froze with shock.

“You shot Ray!” Stella exclaimed as she fell upon the corpse at her feet. The exotic youth shook Ray’s shoulders. “Wake up! Not time for sleep! Wake up!”

“You make this look so easy…” Podë cackled.

Alyssa winced and coughed up a glob of scarlet fluid to the crimson grass. Time was running out.

“Why so much violence?” the foreign girl asked in her best common. Tears streamed from her eyes. “I not understand! You nothing but problem!”

Through labored breaths, Alyssa managed to bring her revolver up again. This time, leveled on the innocent Psaróni.

“I hate you,” Stella managed before her attacker silenced her with a bolt of ice in the chest.

The girl dropped, but struggled for a moment. Small hands clutched at the protrusion as frantic breaths grew shorter and wet. Blood began to flow freely from her mouth until finally, all motion ceased. Stella’s vibrant amber eyes fell onto a suffering Alyssa Snow and forced the homunculus to watch as the light faded from them.

[Alyssa Snow]

Alyssa dropped her revolver to the grass and tended to the pain in her gut. The girl doubled to a fetal position as the thorny vines chewed away. The homunculus’s mind raced and the faces of those she cared about ran repeatedly in her mind. She recalled the empty eyes of Tobias Stalt as he strangled her, the vengeful eyes of Vincent Cain as he tried to cleave her in twain, the blame and hatred of Rayleigh’s words, and the confused innocence of Stella Stern as her life trickled away into the soil. Although she knew they were not real, Alyssa hated herself. Of all the things she feared, Podë preyed on them all. Then, she forced Alyssa to destroy them with the brutal force the Alerians engineered into her.

She hated herself.

All of this was her fault.

“I thought you would have put up more of a fight” Podë whispered amongst Alyssa’s thoughts.

The homunculus heard someone snap their fingers and almost instantly, the pain subsided. Alyssa drew a long, deep breath of air then hacked up the blood from her lungs.

“I’m not just a vengeful woman, I know benevolence,” Podë spoke in her physical voice.

Alyssa heard another snap, and her coughing stopped. Her chest heaved fresh air unimpeded by the damage wrought by the Ruilserk. The darkness from the edges of her eyes bled away and the soreness from the bruises around her neck vanished. The gunner shifted to all fours, plucked her pistols from the ground, and rose to her feet. Strangely, Alyssa didn’t just feel relieved, but better than before.

As she stood, the crimson clad witch hauntingly hovered over the two grass impressions where Rayleigh and Stella had fallen. Podë waved her hand over the seeping holes in her body where Alyssa shot the girls. Both the wounds and blood hissed away into a fine mist, leaving flawless skin behind.

“Why don’t you just kill me?” Alyssa spat, fire of hatred burning fiercely in her eyes.

“You haven’t learned a thing, have you?” Podë coyly responded. Her hips cocked and she placed a slender finger on her lips.

Alyssa bared her teeth and unleashed the remaining payload of her pistols unto Podë. Unflinching, the Red Witch bore the brunt of the assault without lifting the finger from her lips. Each prong of ice sank into its intended marks, lung, heart, head, liver, and neck. Alyssa kept pulling the triggers, but the cylinders only spun to empty chambers and hollow clicks.

“Apparently not…” Podë scowled. One by one, she pulled the bolts from her skin in the same haze of healing red mist. As quick as the wounds were created, Pode had them unmade. Was this the true power of the Forgotten?

Alyssa scrambled to the pouches at her hips. Her hands fumbled, but finally pushed new magnetic cylinders into position to replace the old. Both spent magazines fell to her feet and Alyssa brought her weapons back on point to a flawless witch. Should she fire? What was the point? Podë would only heal again…

“Perhaps I’m not making this personal enough for you?” Podë took a step toward Alyssa, and she reactively took a step back. “One more test. This time, without your pesky toys.”

Podë flicked her hand twice and the pistols in Alyssa’s hands scattered to opposite ends of the grove. Instinctively, the mage gunner reached to the blade sheathed at the small of her back. She brought it to bare at Podë, ready for whatever was next.

“You won’t be needing that either,” Podë remarked. As she spoke, her features shifted once more. Golden blonde turned black and curled to the small of her back. Blue eyes grew to a vibrant green and pale skin to a soft feminine form. As her garbs faded to the loose clothing of a beggar, her arm flicked again and ripped Alyssa’s knife from her grasp. The blade sang past Podë’s finished transformation and thunked into the tree behind her.

“You bitch…” Alyssa hissed.

The image of Cellar Door turned to the tree behind her and pried Alyssa’s knife from its bark. The young beggar, the most innocent of the Tarot Hierarchy, turned to Alyssa with blade in hand. The double perfectly mimicked Cellar’s expression of uncertainty and fear as she clumsily wielded the weapon close to her hip, the tip pointed at her target.

“With your hands, let’s see you kill the most innocent of your loved ones before she kills you. Maybe then you’ll understand…”

[Alyssa Snow]

“What is this supposed to prove?!” Alyssa shouted.

“Sever your ties, that no one can betray you.”

Cellar took a shaky step toward Alyssa.

“Accept who you are and destroy those who oppose you.”

Alyssa held her hands into open palms toward her opponent and began to strafe. Cellar’s timid eyes traced her moves and mirrored them but with much less finesse.

“Y-you won’t hurt me like you did the others… Will you?” her mousy voice weakly asked.

“Learn that those who are beneath you will only envy, and that envy will turn to rage.”

Alyssa scowled as the witch spoke cryptic nonsense into her mind. The homunculus valued her friends, her new-found family. They made her feel human, accepted. Seeing them turn on her, magic or not, lit a fire of anger deep within her. Though she knew these were only copies, a sense of relief had built up with each one she slaughtered. Alyssa felt herself slip, giving into the brutal and ruthless aspects of her childhood.

“In this cruel world, you must kill or be killed. Do not give them the satisfaction of the latter.”

Cellar locked her stance, coiled, and rushed at Alyssa with both hands wrapped around the hilt of the knife. Screaming, the young beggar thrust it at Alyssa only to have the homunculus gracefully sidestep the attack.

“This is your lesson.”

Cellar spun on her heels and lashed out wide. The blade sung toward Alyssa’s face and was halted as Cellar’s hand slammed against the back of Alyssa’s. The homunculus swatted away the blow, but didn’t disarm the girl. Instead, she firmly rooted her forward step between Cellar’s feet and delivered a brutal palm strike to the girl’s stomach. The young beggar doubled over from the blow and staggered backward with a whimper.

Alyssa assumed a wide combat stance.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Why?! That hurt, Alyssa!” cried the double.

“The real Cellar would never wield a knife against a friend,” Alyssa retorted.

The young beggar recovered from the blow and looked to her opponent in tears.

“You’re not even human! How would you know what is real?!”

The impostor’s words staggered Alyssa with their truth. Cellar took advantage of the opening and charged wildly at her foe. This time, Alyssa’s reactions failed to deliver her unscathed. The homunculus swept her hand to parry a second time, but the lapse of focus cost her a gaping wound across Alyssa’s side. The tip of the knife bit through cloth, skin, and muscle.

Alyssa yelped in pain and staggered backward. As she gripped the oozing gash, she neglected to notice the roots at her feet. Her heel caught against one and promptly cast her to the ground. The gunner’s head thumped against the soft soil, and sent her into a daze.

Cellar rushed Alyssa and leapt into the air. While Alyssa shook off the stars in her vision, she noticed the long curls of hair whipping wildly behind her airborne assailant. Cellar's bright green eyes held the panicked expression of an animal backed into a corner. Alyssa threw up her hands as she descended and caught the girl by the arms.

“You killed Stella! Rayleigh! Vincent! Tobias! You killed them all!” Cellar shouted while pushing the full force of her weight into the blade.

“They weren’t real!” Alyssa shouted back as she tried to keep the blade’s tip from plunging into her chest.

“You killed them! I won’t let you kill anyone else!” Cellar kept her weight on the blade and kneed Alyssa in the side where her last attack succeeded.

Alyssa winced in pain and her body’s natural instinct to grasp the pain gave leeway into the struggle against the girl atop her. The blade’s tip plunged into the meat of Alyssa’s chest. The homunculus urged her strength forward and stayed it from piercing the vital organs below.

“You’re… not... “ Alyssa groaned.

The homunculus jerked the blade to the left though much pain as it tore a cut along its path. Cellar tried to regain control and in that moment, Alyssa took advantage of the shift in weight.

“Cellar!”

The blonde quickly jerked the blade right and threw her attacker off balance. Limbs flailed, the knife flew free, and Alyssa forced Cellar to the ground. There, the beggar’s terrified eyes locked with Alyssa’s. Again, the homunculus froze for long enough to feel the girl connect to her open wound. Alyssa lapsed, and Cellar wiggled free, toward the knife.

“No you don’t!” Alyssa grunted as she tackled the girl around the waist.

Cellar tried to push Alyssa off, but the homunculus gained ground on her. After a short struggle, the superior of the two wrestled Cellar into a headlock and scrambled away from the knife with her quarry in tow. Cellar wildly grasped at Alyssa’s arm and gasped for breath. Her nails dug into the flesh of the gunner’s arm and again purchased her a moment of freedom. With grit teeth, Alyssa remembered the coil of prevalida razor wire mounted upon her left hand. The beggar reached for the knife, but the zipping sound of wire being uncoiled lead to a sudden pressure on Cellar’s neck. Alyssa pulled hard and planted her knee into the small of the beggar’s back.

“You’re not Cellar! You’re not Rayleigh!” Alyssa screamed with all her might pulling the wire taught.

Cellar released a muffled scream of horror as she clawed at the wire cutting her neck.

“You’re not Stella! You’re not Vincent!”

The snared impostor kicked, clawed, choked, and gasped. From the wire, a line of red bubbled and spilled down the fair skin of Cellar’s neck.

“And you’re not... Tobias!”

Alyssa tensed her back and pulled with all her might. She felt it slowly give way as the sounds of struggle faded. In one last jerk, all resistance gave way and sent Alyssa reeling. The bloody wire slipped from her hand and retracted into the coil as the homunculus lay on her back. She felt sudden warmth along her inner thigh and when she sat up, the image stained into Alyssa’s mind.

Cellar’s body lay between her legs, headless.

[Alyssa Snow]

The gunner felt her stomach churn. Compelled by horror, her limbs pushed her frantically away from the corpse. As she did so, she felt her hand tangled in a silky web. Her attention turned to it and found Cellar’s milky eyes looking up at her. A nauseous wave washed over her. She twisted her body away, heaved, and spewed bile into the grass.

“Entertaining…” echoed the telepathic vile voice.

Alyssa heaved air before finally wiping her lips clean.

“Not exactly the outcome I would have preferred, but intimate enough,” sang Podë’s voice from beside her.

Alyssa jolted to see the words spoken from Cellar's severed head beside her. Alyssa frantically scurried to her feet.

“Do you see now?” Podë asked as her body retrieved its missing piece and placed it upon headless shoulders.

“You’re just like your mother - If they rise up against you, you will prevail.”

Alyssa heard her words, but in her mind, she could not erase all those dead eyes looking back at her. She could remember the exotic feeling of relief as each one of them fell. She survived, they did not. Deep down, somewhere nestled in the dark recesses, created by torture, painful repeat surgeries, and militant programming, she felt a small truth. Though she screamed through the memories and cried at the blood on her hands, that small part smiled wickedly.

“You see it don’t you?” Podë snapped her fingers and again, Alyssa’s wounds mended.

The young teen hung her head low, messy bangs of blood tinted blonde masked her face.

“Alyssa, my dear, I ask you to see what I see, feel what I feel… Embrace who you are. Carry on in my image when I am no longer.”

Podë strode toward the girl in long strides. Upon her face, the witch expressed compassion and sincerity. She reached out to Alyssa and pulled her close to her chest. The gunner did not resist as the Forgotten One, the closest to a mother she would ever have, embraced her.

“Podë…” Alyssa mumbled.

“Yes, my dear?”

She pulled away, holding Alyssa by the shoulders. Then, she gently lifted her face to face and brushed aside Alyssa's messy locks. What lie beneath was a younger reflection that bore a fierce determination and defiant scowl.

“I would rather die.”

Alyssa quickly thrust her open palm against the woman’s abdomen and using the artifact fused to her spine, summoned forth the elemental fury of ice. Meat, blood, and shreds of Podë’s attire ruptured outward from the force of impact. The crystalline shards tore through the witch like hot coals through paper. Podë howled and reeled backward, but the Alyssa did not relent.

Podë’s hateful gaze locked on her younger self as she extended her arm for a second blow. Heat from the deepest pits of Hadia welled from within the gunner and collected in her palm. Podë snarled and lashed out with a brutal backhand. Alyssa’s spell fired off a burst of smoke and ember, but was too late to avoid the counterattack. Heated char shot awry and scattered among the underbrush as the mage gunner’s back slammed against the bough of a tree. Her body bent nearly in half before recoiling itself to the ground. Podë cradled her missing midsection, Alyssa groaned to her knees, and rogue embers caught fire.

“You ungrateful little bitch!” Podë seethed. Red mist swirled where part of a torso once was, slowly mending intestines, muscle, and skin back together.

“You've learned nothing! Nothing!” Podë screamed. “You have my genes, my beauty, my potential, all wasted! Why!? Why do you defy what you are?! Why do you resist?!”

Alyssa coughed to catch her air. Pain racked her limbs and everything beneath the waist tingled as though it had fallen asleep. The gunner winced, and looked up to the visage of her biological “mother”.

“Because…” Alyssa wheezed, “I’m better than you.”

[Alyssa Snow]

Of all the words chosen, those hit the witch harder than any spell Alyssa could muster. She watched Podë clench her fists into pale knuckles with white teeth bared, and long wisps of hair began to lift hauntingly into the air. Dark purple veins crackled from beneath Podë’s attire and crawled outward like poison vines. A low growl at first, Podë unleashed a spine tingling howl.

“No one--”

In a flash, the dark mistress of the forest was upon her prey.

“--is better than me!”

Alyssa felt a sudden impact to her gut, lifting her helplessly into the air. Her stomach tried to empty itself further only to spew blood over bile. Stars flooded her blurred vision until a sudden darkness overcame it all as she brutally slammed into the various branches in her path. In the black, an eerie light pulled her from beyond the veil. Alyssa sputtered back to life and gasped for air. Senses flooded back and with it, the blazing pain of something in the meat of her shoulder. A yelp of pain slipped from her lips as her fingers wrapped around the jagged branch pierced through her shoulder. The rest of the arm laid limp beside her, bent in more places than it should.

“You will understand, and if I have to break every bone in your body, I will prove it to you!” howled the fury of a woman scorned several yards beyond the burning trees.

Alyssa cringed through the pain in an effort to stand. Using the trunk of a nearby tree, she managed to get upright enough to hobble further away from the witch. Maybe, just maybe, she’d happen upon one of her discarded pistols or at least close enough to manipulate the crystals within to return it to her. Each step felt like swimming through a sea of needles. The wrath of a Forgotten One rarely spared any survivors and Alyssa was learning this the hard way.

“Hide all you want, girl, you are trapped in this grove.”

A grunt escaped Alyssa’s lips when a root staggered her against another tree trunk. Her wounded shoulder slammed against the bark and forced a muffled yelp from her. Grasping at the wound, Alyssa tried to focus on trying to find her missing weapons. She reached out to find the smallest hint of their presence and felt a flicker in the distance.

“There…” she muttered.

Alyssa only took one step before she felt a searing pain in her ankle. Looking down, the thorny maw of the Ruilserk vine purchased a meaty grip upon her flesh. The young teen pulled to break free, but the sentient plant did not relent.

“Found you…” Podë whispered in Alyssa’s panicked thoughts.

The vine around Alyssa’s ankle chomped down and while she yelped, it jerked her to the ground. Then, like an animal caught in a snare, it dragged her toward the flames. Rocks, twigs, and thorny underbrush battered, cut, and scraped at whatever piece of Alyssa they could manage. Each tree her torso collided with reminded her of the broken ribs, shattered arm, and bruises.

Then came the fire.

The vine pulled her through scorched earth and cinders. Skin instantly blistered and charred. Howling screams was all the poor girl could manage as Podë reeled her close. Finally, her body came to a halt in the cool, grassy opening.

“Better than me…” Alyssa heard Podë scoff above her.

The girl rocked and groaned in reply, desperately begging to make the pain go away. The blood sucking plant on her ankle snapped its jaws open and Alyssa whimpered. Podë lifted her slender fingers to the vine as it slithered to her.

“I turned an entire forest into my plaything…” she lectured while the vine rattled and cooed against Podë’s arm like a pet. “I slaughtered countless heroes, created hundreds of beautiful creatures, and harnessed the source of all magic… And you, what have you accomplished? Hmm?”

The young homunculus grunted between the fading of her consciousness.

“Pathetic,” Podë hissed. “Stand up when you’re being talked to!”

Podë swatted away her Ruilserk servant and motioned upward with a clawed grasp. As though possessed by unseen strings, Alyssa’s body rose into the air. The fight, having nearly left her body, left her arms and legs to dangle. Only faint nods of her head and soft moans of agony proved her to be alive.

“Kill me…” Alyssa begged in raspy words.

Podë snarled.

“No. You have a purpose, and I will see it fulfilled before this day is out. Resist as you may, I am part of you and you will be my vessel willing or not!”

[Alyssa Snow]

With Alyssa suspended in the air, the fire encroaching upon them, and smoke filling the room, Pode walked face to face with her prey. She lifted Alyssa by the chin and pierced her with her sinister gaze.

“No more games,” she muttered, turning the weakened girl’s charred head side to side as though examining merchandise. “Time is running out. Madison is not ready, Vincent is a pest just like his father, and the others are not compatible. It has to be you.”

“I don’t…” Alyssa muttered in an attempt to shake her head free.

“You don’t have a choice,” Pöde finished.

Alyssa felt a sharp pain dominate over her combined agony. Pöde’s long nails violently plunged beneath the homunculus’s sternum. From the hand inside her, Alyssa felt a scalding fire as though the witch poured magma into the wound. The sensation crawled throughout her body and forced a blood curdling scream from her. She tried to thrash free, but her limbs ignored her frantic requests.

“It’ll be over soon,” Pöde cooed as fire roared around them. Trees crackled, snapped, and sputtered embers to the air, but Alyssa’s screams reigned over the blazing chaos.

Like foretold, the pain subsided into a cooling, almost frigid sensation. Alyssa’s body numbed, her vision faded black, and her head hung limp. For a moment, she felt as though cast into a pool of arctic waters and around her, images came in and out of focus. Deeper Alyssa fell into the chilling depths.

Each scene that passed by depicted a young blonde, like looking into the mirror but the girl was not herself. Alyssa saw the Belegwain I Beleg before the curse, a young man madly in love with the girl, happy faces, and smiling friends. The scenes depicted the familiar halls of the Tarot Hierarchy, but she did not recognize the people in the hall. Then, the likeness of Vincent appeared beside the blonde. Together they held cards of the Tarot, one Emperor and one Empress.

“What… What is this?” Alyssa reflected into the echoing void.

Then, so much destruction as Elves swarmed through the trees. The people from the prior scenes fell one by one in swaths of crimson red blood. The halls of the Tarot were painted scarlet and inside the grove, the young blonde stood defiant.

“Are these… memories?”

The Elves advanced on her, but the girl was not alone. Vines ripped from the ground and impaled her attackers. Leaves took to the wind and swept through the armored men, cleaving through iron defenses. The girl unleashed an ungodly howl and materialized horrid wolf/plant hybrids to the fray. As her battles were fought for her, the girl stared upon the carnage with tears streaming down her pale face and revenge in her eyes.

“Pöde?”

Then, something went awry. The scenes drifting past Alyssa’s consciousness shattered. Fragments of memories spiraled to the blackened depths and formed a faint light. From this glow, a typhoon of boiling water spouted forth and swallowed Alyssa in its fury. Only one final image flashed in its wake:

A beating, vine wrapped heart.

“What?!” shouted the Forgotten One.

In the midst of her burning grove, Pöde struggled to pry her hand from Alyssa’s body. Though the girl hovered limply in the air, an unseen force bound the witch to her would be vessel.

“This isn’t-- why?!” Pöde wailed, panic in her eyes. She placed her second hand against the teen’s corpse and pushed to no avail.

“Accessing key,” slipped a flat voice from Alyssa’s lips.

“You shouldn’t be -- You should be a hollow shell! I severed you from the Tap! You should be gone!” Pöde screamed, now clawing desperately at Alyssa’s flesh as the fires enclosed on the two.

“Opening initial gate,” Alyssa continued, light returning to her eyes. “Presence of target confirmed. Executing experimental protocol: F.0.X. Drive. Reinstating control.”

“Those elves… they didn’t… No!”

“Pöde,” Alyssa began in a strong, firm tone. “You no longer have power over me.”

The charred, cut, bleeding and broken blonde laid a firm grip on the arm lodged in her chest. Each second that passed, Alyssa felt a god like strength compel her onward. She felt no pain, no fatigue, and no fear.

“I will not be your vessel,” she continued.

Over the witch’s shoulder, Alyssa caught a shining glimmer of one of her crystals. She remembered marking the place her rifle fell with one and instinct formed a plan in her head. She motioned toward the gem, using her domain over them to seat it into trigger guard. Using her command of the crystals inside the magazine, the homunculus positioned the muzzle toward Pöde’s back. The Forgotten One traced Alyssa’s gaze.

“Don’t!” Pöde shouted, “Foolish girl, not now!”

The Forgotten Empress wrapped her clawed grasp around Alyssa’s neck.

“And I am not your daughter!”

The crystal pressed into the trigger by her will and the muzzle roared to life. A spear of ice ripped through the roaring flames, pierced Pöde, penetrated Alyssa, and buried itself in the stone beyond them.