Different Sides

Pieces of her cup fell to the floor as Althea replayed that scene in her mind. "Bleh, at least Xilo is actually making progress." Trying to focus on the positives Althea felt a resonation in her soul as the connection between Xilo and her grew. "She's enduring the connection for now, you can't brute force it though." She was eager to see that girl Xelfia crash and burn. "A dragon is useful but she's quite annoying." Rolling her eyes she smashed all of the pieces of glass beneath her into nothing as a knock on her door disturbed her. "Yilel." Waving her hand she swung the door open to reveal Yilel.

"Is everything okay?"

A flat voice and dead eyes stared at Althea.

"Are you actually worried about me? That's so sweet Yilel."

"I'm not, if you're not around I'll die in this place."

"You did so well in the tournament though, you managed to knock out quite a few people. Even getting into the top half of participants. You're strong and capable."

"That little tournament also put a lot of targets on my back and some very unpleasant idiots chasing after me. The only thing holding them back from anything extreme is your presence. I'm sure you're not dumb enough to not realize that. So instead of acting cutesy when I ask you if everything's alright, just give me a yes or no. Talking to you more than I need to is tiring. You have way to much energy.``

"And you don't have enough my dear. To answer your original question, yes I'm fine. Just a bit of an unpleasant experience that let my anger get to me."

"Enough to destroy a cup of tea and spill it everywhere?"

"Oops."

Shaking her head Yilel bent down and started to clean up the mess that Althea sloppily tried to hide. With each day passing Yilel felt like she was becoming more of Althea's personal maid than anything else. "Nothing better to do." While she wasn't training or sleeping, she didn't really have anything to do. A want for something like fun and entertainment had never crossed her mind. "I've read most of the books in this place that I have access to." She had already started to reread some, leaving her only hobby to get stale. So in her free time she observed Althea and helped her out whenever she needed something.

"Learn to control your emotions. This is the stuff that gets you looked at weirdly Althea. You try to do as you please without any concern for the people around you."

"You know if you-"

"We're anyone else I'd be dead? Save it for someone who cares. You won't hurt me, no matter how much you threaten me. I might not know why but I'll abuse that as much as I can. The doctor here has also tried to get you to calm down as well and from what I've heard from her you used to be quite different. What happened?"

Glancing down at Yilel as she cleaned, Althea bit her lip trying to hold in her emotions. Ever since the tournament Althea had been starting to see new sides of Yilel that she hadn't before. "She's somehow gotten more annoying." However annoying she was, Althea knew she was right, she couldn't hurt her. "People can look at me weird all they want." As for why she changed, that was also easy, it was just a pain in the ass to explain. "I hate this place." Even if everyone here were to die she wouldn't care, especially her Father.

"I realised the person I was meant to be, I love chaos and doing what I please. Others don't share the same feelings so they just see me as an annoyance. "Just a daddy's girl hiding behind her father's protection" Sickening, I bet they all think that still."

Bending down Althea grabbed Yilel's chin and tipped it upwards staring right into her dead eyes.

"Do you know how it feels to be hated by everyone around you? All alone with no one who cares, to lose your family? For your worldview to turn upside down overnight. To watch your own Mother get betrayed by the one she loved? That would change anyone. I'll tear this place apart from the inside and get my revenge. I just need time."

Looking at Althea now, all Yilel saw was insanity in her eyes.

"Don't touch me. If you want to cry about your problems, do it somewhere else. It just sounds like an excuse to me."

"You know you've gained quite a mouth recently."

"It's hard not to when I'm stuck talking with you all day."

"Fair, you should go back to training though. I've got something I need to do."

With her connection growing she needed to get a check up with her doctor to make sure everything was stable.

"Alright."

Waiting on top of the cliff Xilo heard a pair of footsteps approaching them from the abyss.

"Hey Xelfia, what took you so long?"

"I got a little distracted, sorry. Are we ready to leave now?"

"No, we still need to figure out how to destroy this place. If I remember right I saw something at the Castle and Katrin said the core would be at the centre of the Zone. I want to go check it out and see what I can do with it."

"Alright, let's get going then."

Walking back to the Castle with everyone Xilo started to think of different ways to handle this situation as they got closer.

"I won't know until I see it for myself."

Xilo wasn't eager to destroy this entire place. He wanted to see if there was any other way he could change or interact with the Zone. "I get why Katrin hates these places but..." Repeating the same thing Katrin did before wasn't something Xilo was keen on. Arriving in the centre of the Zone again Xilo saw the Castle just up ahead.

"Now where are you hiding?"