The exit was ahead of us. We were - almost out. I had shivered and blushed - thankfully she was not looking at me at the time - though I don’t know if she would know what I was blushing about. I hadn’t realized that I had been pushing that thought out. I - I did want to live with her. ’Neither of us has a home, so we should be each other’s home.’ That felt -right. That we were supposed to be together. She had been hanging onto my shoulders still, and every so often, her tongue would flick out and brush against my skin.

It was - affecting me. I was distracted. I - was finding it hard to believe that she was real, and here. And apparently craving contact with me. I swallowed. We would be out soon. Once we were, out, that was when we could figure out what we meant to each other. She - had said she wanted to live with me. That made me feel very, very warm inside. I blamed the distracting flickers of her tongue and lips on my missing the soldier in front of the exit.

He was large. Burly, dressed in heavy armor. In one hand, he carried a large, very large, blade. One I recognized intimately. Because that blade was the one that had left the scar on my chest, , piercing through me from back to front. I snarled. I knew this man. He was brute force, unrelenting pressure and hate. And completely, totally obedient to those bastards. I despised him.

’Experiment 71 I fought with him. Connection status: Fail. Project 25-71: Terminated. I believe we were meant to fight together but did not achieve the success rate they wanted.’

“I’m glad you’re not with him, my star. He doesn’t deserve you. 71 - you watery bastard!” Wind against water. They’d loved making the two of us fight. The large man snorted.

“87. Should have known if someone went rogue, it was you. You think you can beat me this time?” He lifted up that greatsword and leveled it at us. I set Esther down gently. When I turned to look at him, my eyes were hard as I dragged the falchion out of the sheathe I had appropriated.

“And you’re taking my 25 away?”

“She is not yours.” I snarled, fury ripping through my voice. This was - a dangerous match up. My natural strength was not enough for this fight. I needed - different. I needed - what the hell?

He grinned and chuckled darkly. “Oh. Then why can I do this?” His green eyes shifted to Esther. “25- Execute order T-1.” My eyes shot to Esther, wide, and terrified. No - not another order. She’d attacked me last time - what now?

Her eye widened then closed. She lifted her hand up to her head, she looked as though she was in pain. She turned to me, but I heard nothing. She shook her head and pointed from hers to mine then crossed two fingers over each other to signal that she could not communicate with me anymore.

Call me. We can beat him. He doesn’t know us, like he knows you. Ventus’ voice whispered, roared through my head. 71 was laughing, long and hard, as the demon in my head enticed me. I threw my head back and let out a loud snarl of rage.

“Try it, little man. You know you aren’t strong enough to beat me! I kill you for going rogue - then I take her back!” He let out a dark, ugly laugh. So I gave in again.

“Esther - look away.” I barely had time to say this, before I let Ventus in. The wind spirit ripped into me - and my body twisted and contorted. It happened in moments, before the wave of water from 71 reached me. My body lengthened, turned wispy - and I shot out of the way of the strike of water, flowing on insubstantial legs as 71’s eyes widened.

“What the hell, 87? You’ve been holding back?”

”Always, asshole. We never had a reason to go all out.” Our voice was a terrible, echoing snarl. ”You have no idea what we are like. And this is just the tip of the dune.” The water the bastard had unleashed curled and shot towards us - and we swept our right hand, holding the falchion, around in an arc, swinging down. A wave of pressurized air smashed into the water, and scattered it. 71’s eyes narrowed.

The playing field was more even now. No - it was in my favor. 71 didn’t know everything we could do. But I had always pushed him, hard, in our fights. I knew what he could do. My normal wind suffered against his water, because slicing the water just ended up making it into smaller, separate strikes. But now, the heavy, crushing air that Ventus and I used - it scattered the water too much for him to use his normal strategies. And - my whip, my arm. It was - an advantage. I narrowed my eyes, and let out an echoing growl of rage.

”For years, you fuckers tormented me, tortured me. I never fucking cared what you did to me. Why the hell would I? All I had was the voices in my head.” My eyes slid to where Esther was sitting on the floor. Intently watching us. Almost as though she was monitoring us. I returned my eyes to 71. I darted to the side, faster than this fucker could have anticipated, and brought a sledgehammer of wind around into his side. He skidded across the ground from the blow, thrusting his sword into the ground to not going flying. ”Then I learned that the most important of them, my star, was real. And she needed me. So now - now you bastard, I have a reason to end you, so I can show her a world outside of this hell.” I rushed forward.

In this form, I didn’t have my strength. Ventus’ muscles, our muscles, were not right, didn’t agree with the experiments that had enhanced my form. Instead, I was fleet, fast, shifting across the floor towards him faster than I ever had. I was keeping my left arm as a surprise, holding the muscles rigid so it mimicked a normal arm. My falchion flashed, and I was forcing him back - not through strength, but through speedy, fast slashes that were making him guard himself. It was - good. Because I had always been forced to try to overpower him, and had never been able to. So now, relying on speed instead of strength, I had turned the tables.

“ENOUGH!” Water burst from his form and knocked me away. It felt - odd, like it had started to cut through me, but had instead slammed against me and sent me flying. I hit the ground and bounced to my feet. 71 was bleeding from several small cuts, a longer one tracing up his arm where my blade had slid off of his greatsword and gouged out a piece of his flesh. He was panting, heavily. “I’m going to kill you, then take 25 for myself. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll remind her of you later, so she knows how close she came to freedom.” My eyes went wide as his hand twisted - and I felt water coil and wrap around my legs, immobilizing me. Shit - shit! He charged, his heavy blade swinging in an arc, meant to cut me in half.