Reign Victory

"Those... black is a new color, isn't it?" I asked Illya.

She seemed to dodge the topic, looking at me and peering into my eyes.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, her gaze was irritating to me.

"Count to ten," Illya told me.

"That's stupid... but, okay. One... two... three..." As soon as I reached three, I knew that something was wrong.

I couldn't think of the next number.

"Dammit, what is that? What's going on? Another weird strand thing I assume?" I asked Illya. She shook her head and told me to sit down again. My muscles felt weak and a pain in my head started to form on the left side near my temple.

"It's your brain frying. The last time you entered that state, you had time to recover, but being awake is doing a number on your body. Get a little bit of rest, you need it," She told me. I wasn't used to her being sincere, but I wasn't going to argue with her. I decided to listen, lying down on Zeka's body while looking at the sky.

"After this, I'm going to help Sky fight Cole," I told Illya, keeping my eyes closed.

"I'm going to make sure none of the groups need my help, and then I'll group up with Carl and Alexia. Do you need anything? Water? Food?" Illya asked me.

"Aren't you surprisingly nice? That's really unlike you," I told her with a sheepish smile.

"I told you before. If you're injured, Sky would kill me. You are roughly as important as his life to me," Illya explained to me. I didn't like that explanation, so I scoffed and mocked her voice.

"Before, I heard you wanted to die, maybe even tried to. You didn't want to reap the consequences of your actions, and you tried to take the easy way out. You didn't want reimbursement or redemption. Sky was nice enough to give that to you, so why has that changed? Why do you all of a sudden care about me, and the people you used to call 'worthless'?" I asked her with my eyes still closed.

"You weren't my friends, you were my enemies. I wouldn't say it's an understatement to say that you feel the same way about your enemies, would you? Nobody is roughly good or bad, you just knew my bad side before my good one. If I wanted you gone, I could easily kill you while your eyes are closed, but you are my friend now, Dani," Illya said.

I found it odd she admitted that she could kill me... but I guess that's just her way of showing companionship.

"That makes one of us. I'm only working with you because you have Golden Strands and can match my power. Otherwise, I would lodge you in with Faith, because at least one of the two of you are sensible thinkers," I argued back with her, taking a deep breath.

"I understand that's the reason. Although, I'd like you to consider how this entire operation is entirely dependent on your trust for me. I told you Quake's abilities, to the best of my ability, to conduct this fight back toward Quake. That trust is worth something, isn't it?" Illya asked me.

Her naturally sarcastic and cocky tone had subsided, and she was curious now. Sure, she might have a point, but she wasn't our enemy too long ago. Sure, I could forgive and forget, but she killed my friends. She was a teammate, not an ally.

"Xavier and Drake would disagree with your trust," I told her, peeking at her with one eye open while lying my head back. I counted silently in my head, reaching the number five before losing my head again.

"I think about them every day. I hope I killed them without the suffering involved. I hope it was quick, and I hope they're not able to understand what they've lost," Illya admitted.

I got pissed, pushing myself off of Zeka's dead body and standing on my feet toward her.

"You have a lot of nerve, talking like that after you killed our friends. How dare you? We woke up with Xavier and Drake, we didn't want them dead, we wanted them to make it to Earth! You stole that dream from them... you should've died for that," I told her, holding in the true pain I felt for my lost friends.

"Death is quick, and not lenient on who it takes. If I didn't kill them, Quake would've. Maybe Eirikr would've killed them. It doesn't matter, Dani. Xavier and Drake couldn't use strands, they wouldn't have been useful to our cause," Illya said. I felt my eye twitch.

"Somebody's power doesn't define their right to live! It doesn't matter if they could, or couldn't use strands! You can't grade their right to live based on that alone... strands aren't all there is to life, and you need to understand that quickly before it bites you in the ass... I can't believe you got to live, of all the people I knew that are dead. You're so ungrateful and stupid... I should just kill you at this point," I muttered under my breath, looking at Illya with an annoyed side-eye.

"You can kill me if you want. That's all I want. I have nothing else to lose," She commented.

"As much as I'd love to... that's not my call to make. It's Sky's. If he wants you alive, then you get to be alive," I told her.

"Oh, come on, you're such a prissy bitch most of the time, but you're a real obedient dog to Sky, aren't you?" Illya asked me next, waving her saber around aggressively.

"That's real rich coming from you. Betraying your own friends and reincarnating Sky, just to end up as his dog, to call me obedient of all people. I need time away from you before I do something I'll regret," I told her, slowly walking away from the battlefield to wherever Sky was walking to.