106 Interlude: Lucy Darwick again! Cuz I think she's cool! :D

Columbus, Georgia. April 9th, 22:02.

The stars are beautiful to look at.

Especially from so high up, and there isn't a taller building than the one I chose to relax on.

This way, I'm sure I'll be left alone.

I think part of the reason the sky is such an attractive sight, is because when our heads are in the clouds, we never have to take notice of the suffering that surrounds us.

Sitting as I am, with my legs kicking back and forth over the edge of the tallest building, I hum along to the music playing from on old Walkman that thankfully has some more modern songs available on it.

It was being sold by some collector dude, saying that with so much tech fucked up by Shatterbird, people need something to occupy themselves and music is always good for morale.

I'm paraphrasing, but he's clearly a good guy.

"𝘔𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦,~ 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥.~"

The songs are rather fitting too. I'm not sure if he was being intentionally ironic, or if he just forgot what songs he had on it, but either way, it's fitting, and I find myself singing along as I lie on my back and look up at the universe.

"I think I'll slit my wrists again and I'll be gone, gone, gone, gone.~"

I think I saw Shatterbird doing something earlier today. A storm of glass and dust rising in a specific spot on the other side of the city is kind of a give away.

Probably her testing some fellow candidate.

I thought for a moment about going over and helping, long years working as a Hero ingraining the instinct into my head, but I managed to come to my sense and realise how pointless that would be.

Besides, she still hasn't tested me yet, there's no reason to antagonise her and potentially make my test even worse.

I continue on in peace for a moment, humming along to the song as it reaches it's climax. Only to flinch minutely as I am suddenly surprised by a melodic, high pitched voice, that sounds as if it belongs to a little girl not even in her double digits, behind me who finishes the song.

"I wish that I could fly!~ Way up in the sky!~ Like a bird so high!~ Oh I might just try!~ Oh I might just try!~"

I don't move from where I lay to acknowledge the voice.

It's obviously not actually a little girl, considering where I am and who is 'hunting' me, so given that I'm vaguely sure of who it might be, I don't bother to look back as her calm footsteps click closer.

However, I prove to be mistaken, as, instead of the monster wearing the skin of a little girl that I was expecting to walk into my view, I instead see a face that brings forth some very unpleasant memories.

Tear opens her mouth to say something, but she never gets the chance as I release my hold on my power and she suddenly crumples, as if a puppet who's strings have been cut.

Unfortunately, I am reminded of how I forgot to consider exactly where we are, as the roof beneath and around us suddenly Breaks into dust, causing us to fall down to the next floor, only to hit another wall of Broken floor as we fall to the next level, my power's range exceeding a single rooms hight.

We both hit the floor with a dull thud, soon followed by a dusting of concrete and steel to almost cover us completely if we both didn't jump up to avoid suffocating.

Looking down to the Walkman attached to my hip, I am glad to see that the fall only seems to have turned it off, rather than destroying it.

A quick shake of my body gets most of the dust off, thanks to my poncho. The only annoying part is the dust stuck in my hair, as well as what I have to shake out of my hood, but at least my clothes are mostly ok.

Certainly better than Tear at least.

She's still wearing a classic prisoner outfit, only despite looking brand new, this one is covered in blood stains that I recognise to be fairly recent, but still dry. Her stark white hair is spattered with blood, looking like a half done dye job.

Her lower face is covered by a mask that has a sideways 3 on it, like a smiling cat, while to cover her eyes she has a pair of ridicules pink shades that are shaped in an upside down V.

Of course, this is all covered head to bare toe in a layer of dust.

"Icky.~" She says, before violently shaking on the spot, like a wet dog, clearly doing her best to get the dust off of her to little avail.

I allow myself to feel plenty of schadenfreude from her predicament, happy to have caused her a minor inconvenience.

I feel like I should be more angry.

I'm certainly mad at her. Yet, I find myself blaming the people who used to control me more and more every day, and I just can't bring myself to hate her as much as them.

I must really be going crazy.

"Heeey!~ How you doin'?~ Saw that you killed Mannequin?~" She pauses her overly casual questioning to lean forward and playfully hold a hand over her mouth, as if worried about people overhearing, "but between you and me, he was kinda lame anyway. I'm rooting for you.~"

She finishes her sentence with an exaggerated head tilt, like she really wants me to know she's winking through her stupid shades.

Honestly, I'm surprised they even survived the fall.

But no matter how I think about it, I can't figure out 𝘸𝘩𝘺 she's here. She's already given her test after all.

Perhaps she's just here to annoy me?

"So are we just gonna keep staring at each other or something?" I blandly ask, as I obviously don't really have much of anything pleasant to say to her, so it really should fall to her to tell me why she's here.

"Boooo.~ So cold.~ I thought we were building up sexual tension.~" She starts pouting, but I interrupt her before she can continue further.

"I'm sixteen, and I'm pretty sure you're not a minor," I deadpan at her, but she just waves her hand as if to blow my words away.

"Pssht, I've killed like, three hundred ish people just this week.~ And I feel I should remind you that you yourself have killed a fair number too,~ so really, what's a little minor major relations in comparison to that?~ It's not like you're a prepubescent anyway.~"

She makes a good point, but I don't think she's actually even interested anyway. I think she's just trying to be annoying.

"Now! As I was saying before I was oh so 𝘳𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘺 interrupted-"

Or maybe she isn't trying, and it's just her natural state of existence to be annoying?

"-it's test time!~ Not with me of course, I'm just here to bring you down, and to make sure you don't kill the Chibi!~ But first, I figure we've got a minute to talk?~"

I assume that this 'Chibi' is Bonesaw. I am not above admitting to the apprehension that information causes me.

Bonesaw is the scariest for a reason.

But the last part of her words cause me to raise a brow.

"What could we possibly have to talk about? You've killed everyone I loved. If not for the simple fact of not wanting to fall sixty stories, you would be but a writhing mess beneath me."

My cold words are completely true, yet they seem to make her do a little dance out of joy, as if I just proposed or something.

I don't know what I really expected to be honest. She's clearly insane.

I suppose that will just mean I'll fit in, as I've clearly lost my sanity if I'm actually calmly talking with this woman.

"You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that!~ As a hero you'd never be allowed to be so callous!~ So tell me, how are you feeling?~ How does it feel to be finally 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦?~"

My body tenses slightly and I for some reason feel as if there is far more weight behind her simple question than there has any right to be.

I decide to follow my gut feeling, and to just answer honestly, if a tad cautiously.

"...I feel good. Great even. I hate it, and I hate you, but I feel better than I ever have, while also feeling worse than I can ever remember feeling. Like the weight of the world has been lifted of my shoulder, allowing me to fly freely through the skies, only to have my heart ripped out in exchange."

For a moment, she doesn't say anything and we stare each other down once again, but then she suddenly blurs forward and I immediately release my power again, causing her body to Break.

However it doesn't loose it's momentum and crashes into me as we both start falling another two stories.

I'm briefly caught by panic, unsure if I should keep my power running loose to stop Tear from crushing me, of if I should hold it in to stop from falling to my death.

In the end, the choice is taken from me as I freeze completely and give up on fighting as soon as I hear her soft words in my ears, so full of joy and pride, almost sounding 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺.

"𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘥."

She spins us around and we hit the floor with another thump, only she takes most of the fall for me this time.

Right as the cloud of Broken debris is about to bury us, a massive pair of magnificent, horrendous wings sprout out from her back and swiftly wrap over us, forming a tent of sorts.

It takes a moment for the dust to all settle, during which time I find myself simply staring up at the woman cradling me in her arms.

I don't understand.

This woman is a walking contradiction and I can't make sense of it.

On one hand, she causes suffering at the drop of the hat. Has admitted to killing literally 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘴 of innocent people by her own hand, including everyone I loved. That's not even mentioning the fact that she's a cannibal.

Yet, she also seems to just be genuinely happy that I feel so free. Like she truly wants me to be happy. Her words felt so 𝘳𝘢𝘸 and 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘦, as if me being happy is the greatest thing.

She really doesn't make any sense.

Then again, I suppose that's what it means to be insane, isn't it?

"Phooeey,~ you've got to stop doing that!~" Her teasing voice brings me out of my thoughts and I immediately feel spiteful.

Her earlier words aren't just suddenly going to make us all chummy with each other. I'm still mad at her, so I release my power one more time, Breaking her for a third time in as many minutes.

She heals it almost immediately and just starts laughing, as if having every part of her Broken is some kind of joyous occasion.

"That's the way!~ Hahaha!~"

We hit the floor once again, her wings still up to keep us clean as her head tilts forward slightly, allowing me to stare straight into her boiling crimson eyes, my head resting on her assets as I do so.

"Fuck doing what you're told, right?~ 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, do 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, unless you yourself want to."

I'm struck momentarily speechless at her words, still confused about why she seems to be so friendly instead of psychopathic.

"But if you want to go down to the Chibi so quickly,~ then who am I to say no?~" She asks, her annoying personality clearly slotting back in place as her wings shudder and launch us across the floor and out of the Broken window.

I release my power a second too late, as we were already right at the edge, leaving the both of us falling from over a hundred metres in the sky.

Fuck.

I should have just been happy with Nice Tear, why did I have to jinx myself back into having to deal with the Psycho Tear?

Looking to my side in a vague desire to not die, I see Tear falling alongside me, except she is twitching all over the place as she falls.

Oh, right.

With a minute flex of will, I once again put a cork in my power's constant need to Break everything around me.

Tear immediately becomes lucid, but we are probably only a couple of seconds away from hitting the ground, so I hardly see what she can do to keep me alive.

With somewhat surprising speed, her wings flap once to bring her next to me, allowing her to hold me in a princess carry, with one hand holding the back of my neck.

Her wings suddenly spread out, slowing us slightly, but not enough to keep me alive as we are less than a second away from becoming a modern art piece.

Except, that is when six ribbons burst out of her back and rapidly shoot around her body, forming six spires below us, pointing down like the worlds biggest spring.

Our bodies come crashing into the ground, but the six ribbons each bend and absorb all of the force, causing us to rapidly slow to a halt, not a metre off of the ground.

Both of us glance at each other before she unceremoniously drops me to the ground with a now familiar sounding thud.

Huh. I think to myself as I stare up at where I was sitting a minute ago, ignoring how Tear dropped me.

That was actually pretty fun.

Raising a hand to my chest, I feel that my heart is beating rather fast and a ghost of a smile briefly passes by my lips.

"Ah! Is it finally time to start my test!?" I hear an excitable voice from behind me, and when I tilt my head over, I see that it is indeed the monster that I was expecting the first time.

Haaah, just great.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

This chapter was actually supposed to have Lucy's test in it, but I got carried away because I've accidentally turned her into someone I think is actually super cool. I even had a brief thought about how funny it would be to just suddenly turn Lucy into the new protagonist. Her name is close enough to Lusia after all XD

But nah, Lucy is cool, but Lusia is more fun.

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

pat/reon.com/user?u=41732867 (get rid of the first slash or check the description)

Also, join the discord with this invite code! Pj3Dttwses