She became more than herself. She felt her muscles, her blood, her bones, the bead of sweat traveling down her temple at a glacial pace. Time moved slower. Her heart beat strong in her chest. The thing buzzed at the edge of her vision, letting her know it was there with her. She faced Usagi, herself squaring up. They both held their knuckles an arm’s length apart. Both waiting. Both hearing a roar in their ears only audible to them. Both waiting for the tension to break and the violence to begin.

  Usagi was impatient. Lauren knew she’d be. Her first three strikes came in a rapid move set. Even with her slowed perception, white knuckles came almost too fast to see. Lauren didn’t try dodging them. She let her body move for her.

  She felt the displaced air on her lips from the first blow. Her head snapped the other way to avoid the next punch, giving her whiplash. The third was too fast. No way to avoid it. Usagi shouldn’t be able to move that fast. It was inhuman.

  Knuckles rocketed into her mouth, snapping Lauren’s head back. Her eyes went to the ceiling high above. She knew more were coming.

  Six jabs in a second scored Lauren’s torso. She doubled over. The force of each blow shuddered through her body. Usagi didn’t even let her fall. She rammed her knee right into Lauren’s stomach. Lauren understood then just how truly little Usagi was trying that night in the alleyway. Even in the museum she was playing. Lauren plunged into the fear of realizing just how outmatched she was.

  Her head was on the ground. She didn’t know how it had gotten there. But it didn’t matter, because a shoe was coming for it. She thought to throw her hand in between the shoe and her face. She only ended up hitting herself with her own knuckles instead of receiving a kick. Her vision went black for a moment.

  This wasn’t working. She needed to do more than dodge.

  Usagi’s foot reeled up to kick again. Predictable. Lauren kept her hand up. Usagi expected the same thing to happen. Lauren was determined to make it something else. She remembered how Usagi had struggled to get momentum when grappled.

  The foot plowed her hand into her face, and she held on. She yanked as hard as she could to the side.

  Usagi fell beside her. For a split second, their faces were beside each other. But she hadn’t landed hard. She jabbed Lauren in the eye. Lauren sprung for her.

  They tumbled back over back in the dirt, hands grappling each other’s shoulders. Lauren focused on the upper half, digging claws into Usagi’s biceps. Usagi focused on the lower half, driving her knees repeatedly into Lauren’s stomach. Despite the welling pain, Lauren held on to her bucking opponent. She grew a bone spike and attempted to send it into Usagi’s head. It grazed her human ear, stabbing the dirt.

  Usagi got both of her feet in between her and Lauren. She kicked, sending Lauren sprawling through the air. She landed on her neck and upper back.

  She knew a kick would be coming before she could gather herself. Her skin sampled the air, tasted its currents. Before she raised her head or opened her eyes, she punched forward. Her armored knuckles connected with the toes of Usagi’s shoes.

  “FUCK!” Usagi hopped backwards from probably the worst toe stub she had ever received.

  That let Lauren stand. She swayed up, her stance wide. She put her guard up again. Usagi was already a blurred bullet train coming towards her.

  She tried blocking. No use. One hit directly to the nose. The other across the jaw. Usagi weaved between her arms as her head bobbled. Four more jabs to the ribs. A haymaker almost took her off her feet again. She dug her heels into the dirt.

  To an outside observer, to put it simply, she was getting her shit rocked. She was coherent enough to know that. These bloodthirsty animals were getting the fight they wanted to see. But what they didn’t see was Lauren warming up. The intruder in her mind was unspooling, seeping in, doing its analysis of her opponents moves. She wished it could work a little faster. Usagi was hard to keep track of, harder than Lilith had been with her sword. But she felt the calculations happening. She just had to hold on. Honestly, she was expecting her inner monster fully unleashed to be a bit more fearsome. Usagi was the real monster in the arena. It was easy to see why Lilith picked her.

  Again and again, she threw wild punches that staggered Lauren. It was all she could do to stay on her feet. She only blocked maybe every third hit. The rest her body absorbed. She could already feel the bruises that would form. Her ribs shuddered, ready to break. Lauren had to remind herself this was her being stronger. Usagi’s blows were hard enough to kill someone normal.

  Just when Lauren reached the edge of exhaustion, Usagi gave an unexpected reprieve. She stepped back, breathing heavy. Her previously fresh hand wraps were now deep red. That couldn’t all be from Lauren, could it? She felt her own face. A hot, thick river ran down it. Yeah, that was hers. She swallowed her own blood.

  “Fight back!” Usagi demanded. “Don’t you want to give these people a goddamn show before you die?”

  Gee, where had she heard that before?

  Coach was right. Even dizzy from all the hits, she could see Usagi was thrown off balance. Lauren still standing was making her look weak. There must’ve been a lot of pressure from so many eyes. She grew agitated.

  Agitated might mean sloppier. Her mind still analyzed Usagi, micromovements being recorded at the speed of thought. She could find an opening. She could win this properly.

  She held up her hands again. “Come here.”

  Usagi didn’t need to be told twice. She led with a punch. Not even a particularly fast one. Lauren met it with her own hit. Their knuckles connected. The force of the blow tore down her arm, making it feel like it was going to fall off. But Usagi wasn’t unaffected by it. Her knuckles split open, drenching her hand.

  Here it comes.

  The next part of the fight could’ve been divided into quarter-seconds.

  Usagi hit Lauren’s cheek.

  Lauren slashed her forearm.

  Kick to Lauren’s leg. She stumbled.

  Lauren hit Usagi center-chest. Usagi reeled.

  Two more blows to Lauren’s face. She spit blood.

  A third ricocheted off her head. Usagi’s side left exposed. Lauren sent a punishing blow to her unarmored flank. Usagi bent. Her other hand hit her center mask. Usagi was on her heels. Lauren kneed her groin. She tried to put her opponent in a headlock. Stupid. Her ears swung around, cutting a deep slash across Lauren’s cheek. Fuck. Those really were machetes.

  Lauren elbowed her away. They separated, both aching and bleeding. Their wounds were different. Lauren was broken on the inside from so many bludgeoning blows, while Usagi’s arms were a lacerated mess. Strips of skin and fabric dangled, wet with red.

  The crowd began a chant. In her intense focus, Lauren had almost entirely forgotten they were there.

  “KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER!”

  “I think that’s for you,” Usagi said. She swayed. Blood dribbled from her elbows to form pools at her feet.

  “Nah. I think that’s for whoever goes down first,” Lauren replied. Blood sheeted over her left eye. Was the pattern ready? Was the predator ready to strike? The one time she had wanted it to fully take over, it seemed to be hesitating. What was it waiting for? It was now or never. Do or die. And if something didn’t change soon, Lauren would be the one to die, taking her mental passenger along for the ride.

  C’mon, fucker. You want to live so bad? Do your job.

  Here came the final charge. No boasts, just a quiet fury from Usagi. This was the burst of violence that would end in an execution. One foot after another. Bladed ears leading. Crimson fists ready. Here was the final dance.

  Lauren saw the pattern.

  She blocked a low kick with the heel of her palm. A punch with her elbow. Usagi threw a wild blow at her head. She ducked it. A knee sailed past her chin. Usagi was past her without landing a hit.

  They both turned and faced each other again. Lauren didn’t need to see beyond her mask to know her opponent was enraged. Her arms were sprinklers showering blood. She wouldn’t attack with those. A kick was coming.

  She saw the waist pivot. Usagi’s right leg came up with enough force behind it to shatter a tree. It was a kick intended to destroy the ribs on Lauren’s left side and force her to her knees. It came for her, looking fast enough to heat the air in front of her. The smart thing to do would have been to launch back and avoid it.

  Lauren didn’t do the smart thing.

  She braced and caught Usagi’s leg.

  The force exchange was bad. Very bad. If Lauren’s body was a planet, Usagi’s leg was an extinction-level meteor. It rocked through her body, somehow gaining power instead of weakening. Her joints buckled. Her muscles tore. Her bones turned to jelly. It drove up her spine like an eighteen-wheeler. God, it hurt.

  Lauren stayed on her feet. Because Lilith had threatened Lucy. Because she had a date to go on. Because she had a mad scientist to kill.

  Usagi stared at her, dumbfounded that her finishing blow had failed. Lauren did what she had to do to end things.

  She raised her right arm. A bone spike grew backwards out of her elbow. She slammed it down with all her force into Usagi’s knee. Her kneecap cleaved in half. Usagi screamed.

  Lauren pulled the spike free. Blood fountained from Usagi’s knee as Lauren released it. Her foot hit the ground. Usagi didn’t stop screaming. It morphed from a wail of pain into a furious cry. Her right leg hung limp, sagging at the knee, useless. Her mobility was gone. Still, she thought it a good idea to try and punch Lauren.

  Lauren saw the punch coming before it was even thrown. She grew another spike from the back of her hand. Spike met Usagi’s knuckles. Spike pierced her knuckles, impaled its way through her hand, and emerged out through her wrist.

  Usagi’s scream changed in pitch again to become a pathetic moan. Lauren again freed the spike.

  Standing there with a useless knee and a useless hand, Usagi was suddenly a big child in a stupid outfit. She looked for help, wailing, not sure what to do now. She tried limping while flailing her arms. All she succeeded in doing was looking like a crippled bird.

  Lauren almost felt bad for her. But not really.

  She walked forward until she stood parallel to her opponent. She put her hand on Usagi’s opposite shoulder.

  “Oh yeah. I remembered what you first said to me.” Lauren put her mouth by Usagi’s ear. “I have bad news. This night really isn’t going to end well for you.”

  She wound up a punch. She stepped back and delivered it squarely to Usagi’s jaw. Quite frankly, it was the best punch she had ever thrown in her life. The lower left quarter of Usagi’s mask broke off and went spinning into the dirt. Her left lens shattered. She faceplanted hard.

  Lauren took ragged breaths. She held the position of the end of her punch, as if breaking it would undo what she had managed.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Holy shit. She had just beaten Usagi into the dirt. Not just beaten her up, but ruined her. And she had done it without losing herself to her powers. She couldn’t believe it. Lauren slowly let the position go and looked at her own hands.

  Three slow claps broke the silence. Lauren looked up.

  She was still surrounded by several hundred hostile criminals, all stewing in anger. Her jacket with the transmitter in the pocket was twenty feet away. The lone clapping, of course, came from Lilith.

  “Lauren, Lauren, Lauren.” Lilith’s voice emanated loud again. The spotlight refocused on her. She held her hands out to her down in the arena. “That was spectacular! Look at you! I’ll admit, I tipped the scales away from your favor. I wanted to give you a hard challenge. I wanted you to sink or swim. And you swam! I knew I could see your potential.”

  Lilith’s mood did not match the small army of violent-looking people above and around her. They were promised an execution of a hero kid. Now was the time to see just how much Lilith’s word was worth. Was the strike over by now? She had been underground for what felt like ages. That fight probably wasn’t even five minutes long. Had she done enough? Those thoughts were at the back of her mind. She wanted her prize.

  “I won, Lilith!” she called as if her host needed a reminder. “I want what you promised.”

  “Of course! Oh, I’m so delighted I can give you what I found.” Lilith rubbed her hands. “Now, let’s—”

  Lilith sensed something before Lauren did. She turned, and Lauren followed her attention. A small youth was worming through the crowd towards Lilith with purpose. They finished shouldering their way to Lilith’s throne. Lilith bent to receive a whisper in her ear.

  Lauren waited, certain she knew what the message was. Dread filled her belly. Not like this. Not when she was so close to getting answers. Please, just let her here what she needed to hear.

  What she feared came true. As Lilith listened, her smile sunk into a frown. Then her lips pulled back in a grimace. She grew angry. Lauren backed away to her jacket.

  Lilith rose and dismissed her lookout with a flick of her hand.

  “Lauren.” Her tone was boiling lava under a thin sheet of ice. “Were you naughty? I told you to come alone. That obviously meant not telling anyone about this. You use this deal I put together to get one over on me? To ruin the project I was put in charge of? I put trust in you. I thought we understood each other. And you…” Lilith raised her hand and slowly made a fist. Her eyes were screwed shut. “You fuck with me? I don’t think you deserve your prize tonight after all.”

  The crowd grew choppy like chummed water. They could sense Lauren was losing protection. Lauren sensed the same thing. She was five feet away from her coat. She could dive for it and press the button before any of them reached her. Then how long would she have to survive for? Five minutes? Ten? There were too many. Galaxy Girl would be fishing her corpse out of a sea of villains brutalizing it. Where had they all come from? The school never would have sent her down here alone if they knew the true size of it.

  “I gave you so many opportunities…” Lilith was lamenting. “I wanted you… I could have given you everything…”

  Things happened in slow motion. The crowd began rising from their seats. Lauren unsheathed both bone spikes. Her jacket lay at her feet. She spun in a circle, looking for her own way out. There had to be some path of least resistance. But dozens of angry faces met her at every angle. She’d have to cut through swathes of them. And many were clearly powered. If only she could jump over their heads to reach one of the many exits behind them. Her body was taxed. Even prime, this was too much.

  There was no time to decide on a course of action. She kept looking for a way out. Her mind whirled. There had to be something she could do. It couldn’t end here.

  She stopped looking and went still. The rest of the world fell away. It wasn’t a way out she had spotted. No, it was something much stranger. She must have passed out and slipped into a dream.

  Because she was making eye contact with Dr. Smythe.

  There she was, sitting there. Halfway down the seats, not far from where Lauren had first entered. She hadn’t stood with everyone else. That was what made Lauren notice her. She blinked, and the doctor didn’t disappear as some specter of her looming death. She was still there. Red lips. Dark frizzy hair. Brown eyes. She watched Lauren. Delight spread across her face as she saw that Lauren had seen her.

  Next to her was Isaac, the man who had kidnapped Lauren outside of Callis. Her right-hand man, with his weatherbeaten face and dark goatee. Lauren didn’t pay much attention to him.

  Sitting on the other side of Dr. Smythe was Rachel.

  She was there. She was there, she was real, she was sitting next to Dr. Smythe. Lauren’s twin gazed down on her. It was Lauren’s face, minus the scars she had earned that Rachel hadn’t. Her dark brown eyes. Her light brown hair. She was there. She was real. Hogan was wrong. Rachel was real. Lauren had found her sister.

  Lauren could only stare as her breath caught and tears threatened to spill. She didn’t know what to do or say. The relief she felt almost brought her to her knees, more so than any blow from Usagi. She was fifty meters away from her twin sister. Nothing else mattered.

  Even as others climbed over the arena railing to come for Lauren, she waited for Rachel to get up out of her seat and into Lauren’s embrace. But her sister remained planted. Lauren blinked. Of course she did. She was Dr. Smythe’s prisoner. Lauren would have to do the rescuing. It seemed like the simplest thing in the world.

  The first thug had reached Lauren. He wound up a punch. Lauren hardly glanced at him. Was that how slow normal people moved? She had almost forgotten. That was okay. Her sister was alive and right in front of her.

  She grabbed the fist coming her way and ripped the man’s arm off.

  He screamed as blood jetted from his shoulder stump. Lauren dropped his arm and stepped over him. Her eyes never left Rachel. She was right there. They were about to be reunited. She still couldn’t believe it.

  A man in a white suit with a blue lightning bolt on his chest stood in Lauren's way next. Electricity arced from his hands and hit her head-on. That was okay. Rachel was right there. She stabbed the man in the chest and tossed him aside.

  Dr. Smythe, Isaac, and Rachel all stood up together. That was troubling. Rachel seemed to rise without any prompting. Did they have her so conditioned that she followed orders that weren’t even spoken? The Rachel she knew was a fighter, a rebel. Oh, the things they must have done to her without Lauren there to protect her. Lauren would make it all right soon.

  More people crowded in front of her. Why were so many people standing in between her and her sister? What did they want? They were being such a bother.

  She used her claws to swipe off the face of the next man in front of her. The one after that had a gun. He was too close to fire it very effectively. Lauren took it from him. She wondered if Rachel would like Rosewell. She turned the gun around and began firing it into the crowd. That seemed to get people to disperse. Rosewell was a good home. She’d take Rachel there first thing, get Dr. Yeoh to look her over.

  Dr. Smythe was leading Isaac and Rachel up the stairs, to one of the doors at the end of the row. Rachel glanced back at Lauren. Lauren was moving too slow to catch up. Still, there were people intent on standing in her way. Her gun clicked empty. She tossed it aside. A gray giant tottered over and stood over Lauren, blocking Rachel from sight. She had vague memories of fighting him before. He swiped to grab her. Very slow. She ducked and inserted two bone spikes into his knee. She moved around him as he toppled down the stairs.

  The stairs were now clear between Lauren and Issac at the end of the procession. She broke into a jog, then a sprint. So close. Just a few more to take care of. Then Lauren and Rachel would be together again.

  Isaac saw her coming. He unholstered a heavy pistol from his thigh. He aimed and fired three times in quick succession. Lauren didn’t really register the threat until the bullets tore through her heart.

  She flopped onto the stairs. The world came rushing in.

  She gasped.

  What was happening? She had been moving on autopilot. Her brain so preoccupied with seeing Rachel, reaching her, she hadn’t been paying attention to the movements she made. What was going on? She had just been shot. Blood gushed from her chest. She sat up. Isaac was closing a door behind him, the three of them having entered a sort of booth with a window overlooking the stadium. They were still right there.

  Lauren grabbed the middle railing, her hand slick with fresh blood, and pulled herself to her feet. Three bullets through her heart. So what? She had to keep moving. She was not leaving tonight without Rachel.

  She climbed the steps, each step up harder than the last as more blood gushed out of her. She looked behind her. There were still a hundred threats behind her, but they waited, wary of the bodies Lauren had left in her wake. She faced forward and kept climbing. The booth was right there, just another flight. She had the will, and the will made her broken body move. Darkness whispered at the edges of her senses. She ignored it.

  There was the door they had gone into. Her hands slid off its handle. She focused on gripping it tight, then turning. It was locked. They had locked it behind them. Lauren pounded on the door. It was solid metal. She stumbled horizontally to the window beside it.

  Her hand left a blood streak as she braced herself. The glass was thick, laced with reinforcing wire mesh. She held her head up to look into the room beyond it.

  They were still there. All three of them. Her eyes went to Rachel first.

  Her twin was right there. Ten feet between them. Rachel wore simple, unassuming clothes. Her face… what was that expression on her face? Lauren blinked blood out of her eyes, trying to see it properly. It was a wrong expression. A bad one. It was like she was stunned. Or even afraid.

  Lauren opened her mouth. She tried to find the words to explain. God, she must look monstrous right now. How could she explain everything that had happened since the lab? She had done all this for Rachel. There would be time to explain later. She could be a monster for now. As long as Rachel was okay.

  Dr. Smythe came forward to stand on the other side of the window. Lauren was too exhausted to properly convey with her face how much hatred she felt toward the doctor that had stolen her life. She did her best anyway.

  “Incredible,” Dr. Smythe breathed. “You’re doing better than I could have predicted. You’re better than my wildest dreams. And I am a dreamer.”

  “Open the door.”

  “No,” Dr. Smythe said simply.

  Lauren pounded on the glass. She tried to kill with eyes. Her claws scratched grooves over Smythe’s face. “Open. The door.”

  “Or you’ll kill me?” Dr. Smythe asked. “That’s what I’m worried about.”

  “Give me Rachel and I’ll spare your life,” Lauren said. A clear lie. But she was desperate. Even as she spoke to the doctor, she looked beyond her to Rachel. Her sister’s eyes were pointed to the floor. Why couldn’t she look at Lauren? What had gone wrong?

  Dr. Smythe spoke to Lauren. Her voice was always so terribly tranquil. Some lipstick was stuck to her teeth.

  “I know you don’t understand this, but this is all part of the process. The experiment is ongoing. And it is more important than you could ever fathom. But nothing’s changed. The only thing that’s expanded is the laboratory. But I want you to know, you’re doing so well.”

  Lauren’s eyes burned into her. She used the last of her strength to press on the glass, needing it to shatter. Right here, and she couldn’t touch them. She raged at the unfairness.

  “Can I tell you a story?”

  “When I catch you, nothing will save your life,” Lauren promised her. “They won’t be able to pull me off of you. Nothing will save you. You’ll be a stain on the ground.”

  Dr. Smythe continued on in her own world, heedless of the threats.

  “Once upon a time, a man fell out of the sky. He was a very powerful man, and he changed the course of things. And among many other changes, little Lauren’s life was never the same.”

  Tears ran down Lauren’s face. There was more blood outside her body than in. But still, she held herself up. There was nothing in the world more important.

  “If you hurt my sister, if you hurt a single hair on her head before I’m back with her…” It was more a plead than a threat. The darkness crept in further. She was fading.

  Dr. Smythe turned and walked away. Isaac followed her down the hall on the other side of the room. They left Rachel alone.

  “Rachel…” Lauren was slipping on her own blood. She slid down the glass. Her muscles were done. Her heart was wrecked. Rachel walked forward.

  “Rachel.” Lauren tried to gesture to the locked door. “Open the door. I’ll get you out of here. I promise. O-open…”

  She looked up at her sister just beyond the glass. Rachel made no move for the door. She looked… healthy. The bags under her eyes were gone. Her skin wasn’t sallow. She looked good. But her face was still wrong. She looked at Lauren wrong. Sadness. And fear. And… pity?

  “You need to let me go,” Rachel said.

  Lauren blinked slow, feeling stupid for not understanding. Let… her go? She was right there. The doctor was gone. If she just…

  Rachel walked away to follow the doctor out.

  Lauren fell into a sitting position. Her mouth hung open. Her world turned upside down. Let her go? Rachel wanted Lauen to let her go? This wasn’t right. This wasn’t real. This was some nightmare where her sister had been turned against her. What had the doctor told her? She was right there. Lauren had found her. What was happening?

  Somewhere, in a distant other place, Lilith was climbing the steps toward her. Dozens followed. Lauren was still in the arena. She had fought Usagi to get here. Why wasn’t that enough?

  “Are you happy?” Lilith asked. “You cripple my friend, you massacre my guests, and you get to eat your cake too. Do you know how much work I had to put into arranging your sister’s visit? And you go and fuck everything up. Because that’s all you’re good for. You’re just a fucking wrecking ball to people’s lives. You’re a bane. You should just die right here and right now.” Lilith drew her obsidian sword from nothingness. “And I should do the world a favor and be the one to end you.”

  “She left,” Lauren said.

  Lilith, having reached her, sneered. “What?”

  “She left,” Lauren repeated. “I have to find her.”

  Lilith shook her head. “No. You’re done. No more blundering. No more chances. You wasted it. You tried to have it all, and now you die here.”

  “You don’t understand. I’m going to find my sister,” Lauren said calmly. The bullet holes and exit wounds in her finished stitching together. In that moment, she understood something Lilith didn’t.

  Her fighting Usagi wasn’t giving herself to her inner killer. This was.

  She lost consciousness.

  . . .

  Lights were the first thing to come back. Red and green blurs against dark nothingness. She heard traffic passing. Her movement was staggered. She was limping. Her eyes weren’t easy to open. Neither was her mouth.

  She moved her lips until they came unglued. Her tongue passed over them. Blood. She was covered in it. A whole crusty layer across her body. She had to peel it from her eyes to see.

  She was on a sidewalk. In the city. People around her looked horrified. They gave her a wide berth. A few tried to ask if she was okay. She kept moving forward. Time was a void she had fallen in and out of. No memories of what had happened. Sunlight was creeping above the horizon. It was dawn.

  Rachel was alive.

  Her thigh buzzed. Everything else hurt. She felt her thigh. There was a pocket in her suit. She had kept her slim phone in it. She fumbled it out with clumsy hands. Her phone was ringing. It was Hogan. It took her two swipes of just smearing blood on the screen before she was able to answer.

  “H-hello?”

  “Lauren? Thank God you’re alive. You went dark for hours. Where are you?”

  She had a life. The school. Her friends. They were on a mission.

  “Did they shut down the machine? Is the city safe?”

  “What? Lauren, the mission’s been over. You need to return to campus right now.”

  “I need to tell you something,” Lauren said. “You were wrong. She’s—”

  “There’s no time for that. You need to return to campus now.”

  Lauren tried to swallow through her dry, aching throat. “What’s happening?”

  “We aren’t sure. But we believe a planet-class threat might have just entered the atmosphere.”