Rain And Solitude [Pyxis]

[Vice Ysal]

It was a depraved picture. The fog had been so dense that it didn't even seem like one anymore. Miasma, if that was the word, would have probably fit it better at the moment with how thick everything was. Still, somehow and someway, the imagery had managed to surpass the quality of the ever present vapour in terms of sheer desolation. Broken buildings everywhere, abandoned cars just rusting over, and even a couple of unidentifiable matter that no one would really want to inspect. There wasn't a sun to help brighten things up, both literally and figuratively, and there wasn't even a cloud in sight. A conundrum at best but apparently that's how it was and it was going to stay that way until they found the truth behind all of it. The truth, however, was so much more elusive than anyone could possibly think and with the way things were now, the only things that they could actually do is to keep fighting. Searching, living, it was becoming a routine and should therefore be something they could all expect. To an extent, it was. Experience from the continuous explorations and searching of the outside of the Mosaic City had more or less dictated the possibilities for the different areas that they would find themselves in.

There was always a pattern, some kind of hint and a weakness to the problems they had to face. Always it could be dealt with and the prospect of loss was such a hard thing to swallow with the amount of pride that one could take in from the mere fact that they're actually defeating things that could essentially be considered as bigger than the life they had known. Nonetheless, no matter how difficult of a thing it was to accept it was still a reality. It mattered that they had been able to take down the first monster, some putrid obscenity that had nothing better to do but unleash its innards unto them as some kind of twisted method of attack. It worked, yes, but to the extent that it might have expected. The team was strong, solid in its abilities even if the trust had yet to be formed. Regardless of such preparation however, it all came crumbling apart when that Shadow appeared. The first time that Vice had experienced the actual face of death was against the Red Rider. Then, he had been nothing but a Civilian way over his head in trying to prove something to himself. It was understandable to cower in fear due to such a malignant force much greater than you. This was different though. He wasn't a pathetic normal anymore, he wasn't going around toting some half assed weaponry to kill shadows with.

He had earned his Persona by blood and all of it was for naught in the face of such an adversary.

They were mocked and prodded like experiments and whatever force of attack that they could unleash, powers that had been enough to destroy Stratum Shadows, was rendered practically ineffective. There was no dent, no stumble, no visible issue of a struggle on their opponents part and Vice, Vice had struggled the most. The wound had long healed, both naturally and through the use of the healing spells the other users had, and only left a faint scar as a reminder but it pained him still. Cold anger rushed through his veins, fury dictating much of his movements, yet disappointment and self pity being the catalyst for his actions. He knew what being weak was, and for the time he had thought to have shed that shell away in order to become strong yet this Shadow had shattered whatever misconception he had about his prowess and…the young man roared towards the heavens. He didn't care if the surrounding shadows could hear him, he didn't care if it was stupid, and he didn't care if it was the most detrimental thing he's done ever since he'd arrived here.

He was angry and damn well wanted to subject the world to his fury.

Weapons were ineffective yet still he carried it with him, armour too but it served as another bitter reminder to him. Another roar out towards the view he had. Atop the roof of a one story building, illogical thoughts mesmerising his judgment, Vice then called forth for the his Persona. It appeared, more vicious than ever and it too seemed to carry the same rage and pain that its user was feeling. In sync, both raised their hand towards the sky and gathered an immense amount of power into it. Down below, a small congregation of pathetic shadows could be seen. Individuals who made up their weakness with numbers, making sure that there would be others to compensate for their incapability. In a moment of self depreciation, a rueful smile appeared on Vice's face at the analogy. He was just like them. Pathetic, weak, and useless on his own. That moment quickly passed and was replaced with the same cold anger he had been nursing. He kept feeding energy into the sphere, more and more until it far surpassed its weak counterparts. This was not fit for a battle, specially not against the small platoon down below…but then again, had he not gone through the same thing? Thus not a battle but a slaughter and he survived.

Surely these shadows, like him, could do the same.

"…"

There was no utterance of rage, of power, or even with the sweet temptation of condemnation to better the experience. It was just a simple wave of his hand, dropping it down upon his prey. He had no need to be noisy, no need to express his inner turmoil to anyone but himself. After all, the screams and agony of the shadows themselves when the Megidolaon had reached them more than made up for his silence. It continued for a while, the blunt force grinding against them…and who knew? Maybe there were more.

[Pyxis]

An angry scream, more like a roar than anything else. It was clearly human in origin, and yet Pyxis in her limited experience had never heard anything like it. But Pyxis didn't blame him, whoever he was. After what had happened, she felt like screaming too. There had been casualties now. People who should never have had to die. Maybe they weren't dead yet. She hadn't heard. But there was no saving that girl now. And as much as she told herself that it wasn't her fault, she couldn't shake the fact that it was. If only she'd managed to defeat the shadow that had caused it, or else gotten the second one to show up to retreat faster. Or even just called a retreat herself and gotten everyone out right away.

No, there was no point saying there was 'nothing she could have done.' There were plenty of things she could have done, but she stayed so focused on fighting that she never considered them. And she hadn't even done a stellar job of that much. If a machine designed to destroy shadows was failing even at that, then just how strong were they? Was this the limit of her capabilities? And if so...how did she complete her mission?

An old, discarded idea rose to her consciousness once again. It was simple, when she thought about it. If she failed to rise to the shadows' strength, she brought them down to hers. It wasn't something that could be done immediately. In fact, it was something she hadn't planned on doing at all. Merely a curiosity that somehow got the skeleton of a plan attached to it. But it was the best she had. Carrying it out would take an unknowable amount of time and planning. How many more people would die before then? And how many of them should she be able to save but fail to?

They said human potential was limitless. But even if she had a human heart, it was by its nature artificial. Could Pyxis even have the same potential? Or would she plateau long before any human ever would, and be stuck in their shadow until her body rusted and fell apart? Her body was more durable than a human's, but it too, would break eventually. Much like the maid uniform she wore when exploring, now with a hole in one sleeve and a tattered and torn skirt, it would eventually become unable to perform its function.

For the first time in her 'life', Pyxis cursed being a machine.

Until that moment, Pyxis had no idea that a machine could get so lost in thoughts that it would fail to notice its surroundings. Her sensors were always gathering data on everything within range unless she turned them off or classed them as low priority. And yet, here she was, surprised at where she had ended up. The fog was so dense that human eyes would have only barely been able to pick up anything in the immediate area, but between improved optics, radar, motion detection, and shadow sensing, Pyxis was just fine. The scene was oddly fitting with her mood. It was the most ruined and bleak she had ever seen the shadow-infested zone. Buildings everywhere ranged from nothing but blank and broken windows to sitting in unrecognizable shadows of their former selves. Trash was scattered everywhere, both ordinary and unidentifiable. Cars were stopped dead in the street, rusting over on the spot. Some of them were stained with blood inside, but none contained any bodies. And the sky above and fog at ground level cast everything in a grim light.

And not too far away, the sound of explosions, reminding Pyxis that this was a war zone, not a graveyard. She turned towards the source, and saw a familiar figure standing nearby. The other survivor from that battle, and the man from the mission to retrieve one of her sisters. Vice, he called himself. Had he been the one screaming earlier as well?

Either way, she hadn't talked to anyone since the incident, save for one girl in an online chatroom. And that was before she had heard the news. This man had been present too. Perhaps they could both help each other.

"How are you holding up?" Pyxis asked, slowly approaching him.

[Vice Ysal]

It was supposed to be a beautiful landscape. A pool of black ichor filling up the crater that he had created, the writhing bodies of shadows screaming and groaning and probably cursing out his name as if he was some kind of demon. A monster to their kind a destroyer of the families they had. The philosophical musings of the biker went unheard however, and so did the dying shadows beneath his power. Again, he had wanted to paint a beautiful picture, an amazing scenery of his own prowess to show himself that he wasn't weak, that he was actually capable of doing things that didn't require the aid of others. But it wasn't enough, there was simply no challenge, and whatever novel satisfaction he could gain from the massacre of all these pathetic mongrels could not wipe away the doubt, guilt, and disappointment that bubbled within him. The biker fell down to his knees, teeth gnarled and gritting against each other in an effort to repress the echo of anger that wanted to escape his throat. His hands slammed the concrete that made up the rooftop of the building he had been on, before evolving into a pound, before turning into a heavy haymaker. The gloves that protected his digits did little to nothing to mitigate the pain but in his current state, there was really nothing for him to feel.

His Persona, the Fallen King, as in some moment of clarity reflected the same turmoil that his user felt, he too fell down into an unregal position. Crossing his legs as he sat down, hands gripping unto his knees, and wings flapping wide open in a show of fury. There was no one in sight to see it and maybe it was for the better. No one to judge them, no one to call out on his frailty, and no one to call out their inability to be good enough for the situation. Vice curled his fingers back into a fist before throwing himself upwards into a shaky stand. Seeing this, Arondight too stood up and wordlessly did the duo move towards the ledge. Red eyes scanned the evaporating pool of darkness and what lingered of his power had long since dispersed into the environment after subduing all of the supposed threats. Wide wings spread out and heavy arms gripped unto the biker's shoulders and as if he was simply walking, the young man was carefully flown down into the crater that he had created. It wasn't on such a grand scale but he was capable of reforming the earth within this reality. That had to count for something, and yet that monster waved it away as if it was nothing. The black haired teenager took in another breath.

He had to focus. Focus on getting stronger and less time on being like this. Mentally he knew the answer, hell he knew it all along, but there were some things that no matter how illogical or unreasonable it was for who Vice was that he just couldn't stop. Standing there, Arondight's apparition having returned into the confines of his mind, did Vice notice the clink clank of foot steps on the uneven ground. His hand had automatically reached for the revolver, and in the density of this fog it was a lot safer to just point now rather than hesitate. Still, no bullet had been fired just yet in the assumption that he could be doing something stupid if he actually pulled the trigger. The moment the familiar face presented itself, the young man narrowed his eyes and dropped his arm to the side.

Guess his screams could attract more than just shadows.

"Disappointed."

Vice admitted without much of a fuss. What use was there to lie about it. This machine had been there through it--she knew what it felt like to have her strongest and greatest effort be shrugged off so really, there was no reason to hide anything from the girl.

"You?"

[Pyxis]

'Disappointed.' Pyxis looked around the surrounding area again, taking it in with every sense her mechanical body allowed her. The utter destruction that that man had wrought on what had once been an ordinary city block, the slowly growing pool of shadow remains pooling in the center...'disappointed' seemed like an understatement. Whatever the man was actually feeling, his words didn't quite match up with his actions. He then turned the question around without another word.

"I'm not sure..." Pyxis answered. While she was more human-like than many of her sisters, she didn't pretend to know everything humans felt. This sensation, for instance, was entirely knew to her. It was like a heavy, painful weight had situated itself in her chassis, and was pulling down on her from the inside against all logic. And no matter what she tried to think about, whether it was relevant to the current situation or just a desperate attempt to distract herself with some new RPG, her thoughts drifted back to the same thing. She kept dwelling on what had happened, and what she could have done better. Should have done better, rather.

It was a painful feeling. One she wished she could choose never to experience. And yet, here she was. And while she didn't fully recognize it, she knew exactly why it was there.

"It hurts..." Pyxis finally said. "It hurts, and I don't know why. I keep thinking back to that fight, and what I could have done different. Like...I should have killed the first shadow faster. Or I should have just taken the two of you and run from the second. I wonder..." A word finally dawned on her. "Is this what you humans call 'guilt'?"

[Vice Ysal]

"It's poisonous isn't it?"

Vice began, his voice slightly shaking from the invisible pressure pushing on his shoulders. His head looked down towards the infertile soil, further marred by the debris from the destruction and corrosion the weather around them had caused. "The feeling of powerlessness, of our inability to do something when it had mattered the most." The male further dug his nails into his palm, leaving dents due to the force being applied unto the flesh. He turned around, his back towards the girl as his eyes raised to once more look upon the wide spread destruction that he had single handedly caused.

"This kind of strength, an ability capable of forming the very earth we live in, it's a heaven sent…yet even with such power, again we were too weak, too short sighted, too pathetic to have done anything about it." The biker was tired of trying to keep his calm, of keeping his voice on a respectable level to not betray more of his emotions, and like a dam did it burst through his eyes. "Nothing! Scenario after scenario, simulation after simulation, every single goddamn time there was nothing I or even we could do that mattered! Against insurmountable odds, we've lived through it but at what cost?! This emotion…this thrice damned emotion is as deadly as that abomination's spear!"

Vice roared, shouted, growled, and gritted his teeth. The torrent of anger flowing out of his voice and whatever calm and collected facade he had been able to keep up until now was simply shattered away by the sheer volatility of his actions. "Guilt?! Guilt is too soft a word to sum up that experience! Melancholic? Depressed? Incapacitated? A million words and a million languages yet not a single one of them could aptly describe this…this sensation!" Heavy clouds and the booming of thunder had began to roll along as the Chinese man raved about their predicament. Closer and closer did those clouds become, stronger and fiercer did the streaks of lightning and echoes of thunder become as they began to reach some kind of peak in their ferocity.

There was no soft pitter patter on the window sill, or the continuous tick and clack of rain drops on the roof top. It was so sudden that nothing less than a torrential tidal wave could have summarised the amount of red rain that fell upon them. Blood washed away blood…was that what this was? Some kind of significant sign to tell the wayward Users on what had to be done? Just what was it? And that question had dug deeper than Vice would have wanted it to. His black hair became matted and slicked down with the heavy crimson downpour, glazed eyes that still carried unbridled rage within them raised to meet the robotic girl's own optics, and Vice barely found the voice to carry out his words.

"I don't know, Pyxis. Not anymore."

[Pyxis]

At the words 'we lived through it', Pyxis's face visibly pained. It was clear that Vice was lamenting his own powerlessness more than the loss of a companion. She would have thought the latter would shake a person more, but...all humans were different, after all. Or else the two were directly related, like with her. Or, going by those particular words, he hadn't heard yet. But there it was again, the stabbing pain in her artificial heart, the heavy weight dragging down her inner workings in defiance of all logic. It all intensified at his words and no amount of denial would keep it from showing on her face.

How could she say it? How could she say anything in the face of this? To add on to the man's existing distress would just hurt the both of them even more. And then what? Would she end up blowing up everything in sight as well out of sheer frustration? Or would she just end up caught in Vice's next blast? The prospect of just getting blown up suddenly didn't seem so bad. After all, she was an utter failure at the very purpose for which she had been created. What good was a machine that couldn't fulfill its duty?

Then the rain hit. It came so suddenly that it almost seemed to be brought on by Vice's rantings. Pyxis privately thanked her creators for making her waterproof. But even with that, her hair and clothes quickly became drenched and messy, adding a real, physical weight to the one Pyxis was already feeling.

"I once thought, when I first broke into this city, that I was helping people. That my organization would be the heroes from the outside, come to destroy the shadows and save everyone trapped inside. Seeing so many survivors left in the safe zone just added to that. Was I just deluding myself? Was I just trying to play the part of some stupid, innocent RPG heroine who rose up from nothing to save the world?" She shook her head. "Turns out I'm not good enough to save anyone."

[Vice Ysal]

The red torrent continued to strike down on his shoulders. Idly, Vice wondered what it would feel like if he looked above directly. He'd probably choke on whatever kind of liquid this was. It wasn't blood, the consistency wasn't quite right, but at first glance it sure as hell played the part. Rivulets streaming down his face, his black hair barely managed to contain the offending precipitation from his eyes, the young man felt the anger that had exploded so furiously from his person begin to ebb away and with it, whatever energy he had in his body. His shoulders sagged, arms limp, and neck bent. The perfect posture that he had always kept with him, even during the heat of battle, no longer visible from how inept he currently looked. His vision was also obscured, red covered majority of the things he could see and the voice that he had been listening to was becoming weaker and weaker as the intensity of the rain became stronger.

"What's a hero even? One who fights for the name of justice and willing to give everything up for the cause? Is he the one who leads the people to their salvation? Whatever the definition is, just being one was never enough. Babbling here, being like this, I can't seem to help it but waste time when I could be out there, doing whatever it is to make myself even the smallest bit stronger from before." The soft chuckles began to escape his lips. He wasn't laughing was he? He was angry, furious, tired maybe but not enough to the point that he'd lose his sense of self. "We lost miserably, nothing we could do, but there is one thing that we did right?" Vice looked forward, a rueful and cynical smile dancing on his face and it looked so wrong to be there. "We lived, lived long enough to fight another day and to keep struggling."

The biker's arms waved around, his drenched clothing desperately clinging unto his skin as he moved around. He was trying rather desperately to prove that there was something that happened then, that their efforts weren't for naught. That, somehow some way they managed to make a difference no matter how small. "You, Me, Chidori? We lived through it. And now we're given another chance to become stronger! We may not be good enough now but somehow, eventually, we will be so long as keep struggling, right?"

[Pyxis]

Pyxis bowed her head as Vice continued to talk. He had a point. They were wasting time, when they could have been doing more. Getting stronger. Blowing up shadows like he'd just done until there were none left to stand in their way. But every word he said after Pyxis recognized that point added to that weight in her chest, driving it deeper until she felt like her leg joints would break and give way. The falling rain pushed her hair off her shoulders and into her face where it hung, dragging her down all the more.

Then, finally, the man mentioned Chidori, along with the assertion that the three of them lived through the ordeal. At that point, something in Pyxis really did snap. "Have we? Have we really?!" she asked bitterly. The pained expression appeared on her face again, and this time it didn't go away. "You haven't heard, have you?" she asked, looking back up at Vice through stringy, matted hair. "Chidori's dying."

She crossed her arms under her chest and squeezed down on them, as though trying to keep them from falling off. And with that weight feeling heavier than ever before, she almost felt like they really would. "She caught some kind of disease during the fight with that bloated monstrosity, before the second one even showed up. There's nothing anyone can do anymore."

[Vice Ysal]

Vice was finally beginning to slightly feel better. He wasn't an optimist by nature and thus took things harder depending on the circumstances but regardless of his preference in ideas, the weight of his shoulders was finally beginning to lighten. Then it stopped, whatever positivity he had working for him at that moment took a momentary halt at the sight of Pyxis' expression upon the matter at hand. He was willing to retort but kept quiet when apparently there was something he had been missing in the whole picture.

And after those two words were uttered, a piece to a puzzle that Vice never needed fell unto his hands and the gravity of that sole mark was too heavy to bear. This was when whatever hype there had been in his head began to dwindle away faster than ever. What did she mean there was nothing they could do? It was so bewildering that Vice actually voiced his concerns out. "What do you mean there's nothing anyone can do anymore? We've lived through fatal situations, at the brink of death we've managed to come back because of the power we have! We have other users don't we? Ones stronger than us, people who have more experience, don't tell me there was nothing they could have done! How about the lady at The Gap, or at Laharls?! This…"

Vice trailed off as his voice began to fail him again. His shoulders shook, eyes downcast once more, and slowly he could feel the cold fury beginning to work its way into his veins to freeze the blood running through them and to replace them with hate. The broken presence that had permeated around Vice's person began to morph into something malignant, that it came to the point whereas Arondight had appeared behind him with a ball of energy beginning to form over head. Wisps of power emanated from Vice's body as he stood stock still, shivering being the only tell tale sign that he was still conscious. The power swirling around Arondight had began to turn grey from the sheer amount that Vice was calling for and just as it was about to reach critical mass, all the power simply dispersed into the surrounding and vanished from their vision.

"I'm sorry, Pyxis."

There was an indescribable emotion from his words, some kind of guilt laden condolence to give away. He too had been there, and somewhere deep down the biker imagined it to be his fault for whatever circumstances that had gone through. His weakness was what had caused Chidori to overextend herself, most likely forcing the attracted disease to move faster than it had intended to. And aside from those three little words, the biker had no other way to express anything else. He was simply at a loss of words.

[Pyxis]

"Don't you think she would have tried that already?!" Pyxis asked. Seeing all the optimism he was trying to build up stop dead and come crashing back down. And then when he asked if there was really nothing to be done, she snapped all over again. Her voice reached a volume normally reserved for getting attention on a battlefield, then subsided again, until it was only strong enough to be audible over the rain. "I don't know all the details, only that it was already too late. But...you saw what she did during that fight, right? She managed to wake us up after we were hit by that spear-wielding shadow, and even healed her own poison twice over. If that couldn't stop it, what else would?" She looked back up at Vice, seeing that he had gone still. If not for the faint signs of movement, she might have thought he'd gone unconscious. There was more she wanted to say but, seeing him in that state, the rest of her words failed her.

A machine, like her, could be repaired. So long as her personality module and the Plume of Dusk it contained remained intact, she could be rebuilt from the ground up if necessary. But humans, humans weren't so lucky. Even with miraculous healing abilities and the power of Persona, if their bodies broke too much or if they were hit with the wrong affliction, there was nothing that could be done to save them. Pyxis would never deny a human the ability to fight alongside her on those grounds, but at the same time, someone had to be responsible for ensuring their survival. In that fight with the spear-wielding shadow, with Vice being weak to its attacks at all of them at such a disadvantage that Chidori could do little more than to keep trying to heal them, it should have been Pyxis.

Vice apologized, but Pyxis shook her head again. "I should have gotten her out," she said. "I should have gotten both of you out. But instead I had to stay and try to fight. If I hadn't, maybe something could still have been done."

[Vice Ysal]

"Don't. Don't bring all the guilt down on yourself. I was there too. I could have done something more. We saw that I was weak to its attacks but I still kept coming back, I still forced myself to keep on fighting when the objective had already been completed." His voice began, a murderous tint at the beginning but just as fast as it had appeared his words then became hollow. "My pride had gotten in the way--it got into my head you know? I used to be a normal, fought and bled like one on the battle field. I rose through the battle field, over and over again despite my lack of a persona. Then I awoke to my own and everything just became so much easier for me to deal with. It was so empowering, so addictive, so poisonous that I had somehow began to believe that I couldn't be stopped." Vice felt himself stand up a bit taller as he felt his words finally leave his mouth.

"Both of us could have done more, Pyxis. Both of us should have done more and it pains me, grievously, but…" The biker began to trail off as the words once more became difficult to utter. A frustrated wringing of his hands and before he knew it, he was wiping the drenched black hair off of his face. "What happened can't be undone and though I may not have known Chidori as well as you, I did fight by her side enough to know that this? Us? This isn't what she would have wanted to be happening." It was a pathetic attempt at becoming positive, at trying to push both him and the robotic maid up back and out of this disastrous emotional turmoil that they were drowning in but it was still an attempt, and that much had given Vice more strength than simply standing by.

"Chidori gave us the chance to live on, to become stronger. Let's not waste it, do what we can to make sure that this never happens again."

The words 'And to murder that Shadow in the process' went unsaid.

[Pyxis]

So this person...was just like Alisa, in a way. He started fighting shadows before ever obtaining a Persona. Then, once he had one, he felt like he could do anything. Pyxis couldn't blame him. Even she wouldn't have survived the trial by fire she had been thrown into back at the lab. Some of her siblings really were destroyed before they could ever awaken. To survive through all of that, and then gain an even greater power? It must have been an exhilarating sensation. But if that was the case, she should have gotten him out as well. If anything, his words just reinforced Pyxis's earlier assertion, that she should have been responsible for their survival.

Maybe he was right. Maybe Chidori wouldn't have wanted this. But at that moment, Pyxis was still struggling to cope with the sheer unfamiliarity of the pain. When she heard that one of her siblings hadn't made it out of the test chamber, she didn't feel anything like this. She hadn't been there. The option to just pull someone in danger out didn't exist. And now that it had, she hadn't taken it, and this was the consequence. "It still hurts," Pyxis said. "Logically, I should know you're right. But...I still can't help but think of what I could have done differently. Should have done differently. But at the time I didn't even realize the option existed.

"My mission is to defeat shadows, not to save people. It's hardwired into my very being. It's the reason I exist. I chose to try to save people because I wanted to. But now I'm failing at both."

[Vice Ysal]

"Pain never really leaves us, we just learn how to cope with it until it stops hurting. And your self imposed mission? The only time you really will fail is when you stop trying. Think back, all of the times where you managed to save someone, wasn't it amazing to know that you made a difference? It hurts to know that we can't save everyone, even if that includes the people dearest to us, but we still made that choice to do what we did. It's our responsibility to stand by those choices, and if they turn out to be mistakes then we learn how to rectify it so it doesn't become a mistake again."

Vice continued as the torrent of rain had finally began to slightly lighten its impact on them. An exhausted sigh escaped the biker's lips as he raised a fist in front of his chest before opening it. Patiently he waited for his hand to be filled with the precipitation of the outer circle, some sort of philosophical tenant going through his thoughts as he dropped the blob of water that had began to form.

"I don't really know what else to say. I'm not some an orator who could find the best words to say, I'm not a man so great that I could inspire you to be more. I'm mostly just like everyone else. I cry, I laugh, I bleed, I live, and I'm not going to let anyone fall behind if I could help it." The young man finally rested his tired eyes and looked straight at Pyxis, a weak but true smile on his face. "And you're one of us too. Be that pushing you forward or pulling you along, I'll do what I can to make sure that we all stay together through this." Turning around and facing the bloody pool that had formed due to his crater, Vice once again exhaled but this time a small smile had finally followed. "You know, there's someone out there who's probably hurting more than any one of us because of this. Thanks for hearing me out, but I'll be fine on my own from here."

Turning his head to face Pyxis one last time, an understanding look on his face, Vice finished:

"She'll need your support more than I do."

[Pyxis]

"All the times" may have been overstating things. Pyxis hadn't actually had much chance to save people before. Sure, it had happened occasionally, usually by accident or in the heat of the moment, but her failures were much more memorable. Not just Chidori, but when she was tasked with retrieving one of her sisters as well. They'd brought her back without hurting her too badly, but...she'd never actually heard what happened to her after that. No one Pyxis had asked had an answer for her.

Despite that, for a moment Pyxis was starting to feel better from Vice's words. Then, he ended with something that dragged the weight in her chest all the way back again. "Alisa," she said, the image of the 'someone else' Vice had to be mentioning coming to mind. It had been clear from what little interaction Pyxis had seen of them, up to and including Alisa thanking her for healing Chidori during the fight with the cleaver girl shadow, that they had been close. Now, Pyxis was also faced with the realization that she'd failed Alisa as well as Chidori. How was she going to be able to talk to her now?

But she had to, eventually. Alisa was her first and closest ally outside of the organization. Abandoning her now would constitute a grave betrayal, far worse than her previous failures. "You're right," Pyxis said, nodding. "It's hard, but...I guess I do have to face her."

[Vice Ysal]

The drenched gloves were slick and it was difficult to get any grip with them. His shoes and socks were clogged with water and every step he'd take would most likely be dangerous. His clothing were weighed down by the absorbed liquids, and his body was cold from the continuous rain. Like with every disadvantage he had ever since he went down this road, Vice wasn't going to stop from moving forward just because of them. A deep breath, filling his lungs with oxygen, and the same clear eyes that he'd always wear into battle finally beset him.

"As for me? I'll be looking for myself out there."

The biker admitted, the tone of joviality finally noticeable in his voice as he didn't bother looking back. Tapping the floor with his foot to try and tighten his footwear with what he could, rolling his shoulders to take away the built tension in them from his earlier fit of anger, and a crack on his neck to finally set everything straight. He would have gone back right now with the robotic girl to find Alisa, to see to it that she was alright as well…but how could he bring to it empty words? He had done what he could, and hopefully the Anti Shadow Weapon would be suitable for the job. Vice was sure that the girl was far more close to Alisa than he ever was.

"Keep her safe…and thanks Pyxis."

And with that, the young man started forward with a paced walk. His speed slightly increasing the farther he got away. There wasn't much time to lose after all.