[center][h1][b][color=red]A[/color][/b][/h1][/center][sub]Interactions/Mentions: VV-[@Estylwen][/sub][hr]
[indent]A barely had time to parse the discord before the world around her unravelled into sheer bedlam.

The shriek of AE rifles detonated through the air, each shot punctuated by bursts of searing light. Ghost Corps answered in kind, their retaliation swift and brutal. Bodies crumpled on both sides, lifeblood spilling onto scorched earth as the acrid stench of burning flesh and spent gunpowder thickened the air. The heat clung to her skin, feverish and suffocating, as if the very atmosphere recoiled from the carnage.

She hadn’t even realized she was holding her breath until VV moved.

Her friend’s parting glance and words struck like a verdict. 

[i]We’re definitely not[/i].

Then VV was gone—peeling away from the vehicle, her presence unravelling into something vast and insidious. Shadows coiled around her, slithering toward Vin like living tendrils, responding to her outstretched hand with eerie sentience. In an instant, the darkness closed around him, unyielding, an executioner’s grip made manifest.

A’s pulse thundered against her ribs, her body caught between instinct and hesitation. But before reason could intervene—before doubt could sink its teeth into her resolve—she was moving too.

Her boots struck the ground hard as she vaulted from the jeep, her body coiled tight with urgency. Gunfire split the air, hot metal slicing past her ears in erratic, deadly whines. Savio’s inferno pulsed outward in waves of molten gold and black, distorting the battlefield into a shifting hellscape. Every breath felt like inhaling embers, scorching her throat as she pushed forward.

Her gaze locked onto VV through the chaos, and she sprinted, weaving between wreckage and fallen bodies.

A twisted her wrist, feeling the hum of her power in her veins, restless, waiting. She skidded to a stop near VV, voice cutting through the chaos with fierce urgency. “How long can you hold him?” she asked, sparing a glance at Vin’s struggling form as he twitched against the suffocating grip of the shadows.

Before VV could answer, another hail of bullets rained toward them. A reacted on instinct, her power surging forward before she could second-guess it. The effort sent a lance of pain through her skull, but she gritted her teeth against the dizziness that followed.

She barely had time to steady herself before speaking again.

“We need to end this. [i]Fast[/i].”[/indent]