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[Chevaleresse]

Monika's coughing drew Kira's gaze once more. Her expression didn't shift much beyond a slight tightening of her eyes, but the way she looked down slightly communicated what was going on inside her head well enough. She might have even sighed, if she hadn't already been breathing shallowly due to the extra ventilation she'd recently been given in her chest. "First Lieutenant Kira Nerest. Spirit." Normally not one to talk (if only out of habit rather than preference,) Kira especially didn't feel up to sharing much right now. After a moment of silence, she spoke again, more quietly. "I'm sorry, Major. This is my fault."

[Takosher]

Eilyth

Eilyth was sent rolling back towards where she started by Lily's second kick, too disoriented to see what was happening clearly. Leah must have done her part, because Lily was sent sprawling to the ground, but Eilyth wasn't in any position to follow up. Instead Patricia was forced to jump into close range early. A stroke of luck hit them, her shadow aura caused Lily to hesitate, and she missed her first punch, giving Patricia a chance to stab her again. But Leah didn't have an opening to assist, and the knife glanced off Lily's metallic skin. Lily's second punch took the form of an uppercut that connected solidly with Patricia's chin, sending the maverick sprawling in the mud. If she wasn't dead before she hit the ground, then she'd probably be dead in a few minutes.

Leah was exposed now, and with only one arm she couldn't fight back nearly as well as her first encounter. She was alternating which wrist she was growing bubbles from to help maintain some momentum, but having only one hand to throw with was severely limiting her rate of fire. Lily was taking her time with her approach, perhaps a lingering sense of caution from Patricia's shadow aura. More likely she didn't feel a need to waste energy on a fight she'd already won, she didn't have any stamina conservation in her toolkit after all.

Silvia and L

Silvia found her wrist caught between knocks as Cay's long, slender fingers wrapped themselves around it. Cay didn't address Silvia immediately, instead turning to a woman peeking her head out of the room two doors over. "Sorry for bothering you, Lieutenant Kelly." she said, her voice practically a whisper, "And thank you for calling me."

"Whatever." Kelly scowled at Silvia and retreated back into her room. She had a night shift and was near the end of the hall to reduce the amount of noise she had to deal with during the day.

"Captain L, if you do not leave now we will have kept General Mina waiting." Still quiet, although a tad louder to ensure she was heard through the door, "Please make haste." Cay didn't wait for a response, instead striding off down the hall. While the captain might have been prone to lazing around and playing games, Cay didn't feel a need to babysit her. She had been informed of the situation and would choose whether or not it was urgent enough to comply. It wasn't her duty to order her commanding officer around, that would ruin the point of chain of command.

...

The three officers arrived at the office of General Mina Tennen with only half a minute to spare. Her secretary, a middle aged man who always seemed oddly chipper, let them in with a salute and a wish of, "Good luck, ma'ams."

Mina's office was fairly dark, lit only by the sunlight from a half-open window to the right of her desk. Bookshelves lined every wall, populated as much with trophies and antiques as books. Mina sat behind her desk, larger than necessary to be more intimidating, leaning back in her extremely comfy-looking recliner. Two not-so-comfy looking wooden chairs were set up opposite. One was obviously for L, and Cay took the other, leaving Silvia to stand.

"I had hoped you would be late." Mina began, sitting up slightly but still looking very comfortable. She recounted the events up to this point, "On June 4th your company, along with two others, was dispatched to assist Lanican rebels with a coup de etat. The rebels insisted that they would not be foreign puppets, but assured us that they would repay our assistance with peaceful relations. While the specifics of the operation were left to you and your peers, we do have records of what the plan was. While the other two companies caused a distraction, you and yours assisted the rebels in storming an enemy fortress. According to your reports, when enemy holy weapons appeared, you ignored tradition and did not order your troops to retreat, resulting in their slaughter. Only you three and two warrant officers survived. Does that about sum it up?"

"If I may, General, I was the one who-" Mina silenced Cay's protest with a disapproving wave of her hand.

"Does that sum it up?" she repeated, more firmly.

Cay hung her head, "Yes ma'am, that's correct."

Mina waited for assent from the other two before resuming.

"We've had three separate accounts of where the order originated, and we've concluded that it was a joint decision between Captain L and Lieutenant Cay. This was a large part of our early discussions."

Cay tensed a little, it had been her order. She knew that L must have taken responsibility in her report.

Mina continued, "All reports claimed that this decision was made because the late Lanican 'empire,'" Mina practically spat the word, "had realized that your main force was a feint and was converging on you. But not a single report from either of the other companies could confirm this fact. Furthermore, the five reports from your company all failed to provide adequate justification for your decision. Even if you were apparently trapped, the traditions around holy weapon combat apply to both you and your opponents. Yet instead of adhering to these traditions, you allowed your soldiers to enter combat with an enemy holy weapon capable of massive area damage while you attempted to fend off the approaching force. Do I still have the right of it?"

"You do, ma'am." Cay didn't bother trying to point out that the enemy had already been ignoring the unofficial "rules" of holy weapon combat when they started their pincer attack. The higher ups had clearly made up their minds on the matter already.

Mina didn't wait for the other two this time, "Your soldiers were decimated, with only the warrant officers you'd assigned to relay information still alive, but you were successful in forcing the enemy force to retreat.  You then went on to confront the enemy meister, and Captain L managed to take her out. The rebels were also crippled by the enemy meister, but enough of them survived to complete the coup. A successful operation, but at an inconceivable cost.

"I and several others were assigned to a committee to investigate this event, and have spent the past month in constant discussion over what to do with you. Today, a conclusion was reached, and I am here to hand down your judgement. But before I do, Captain L, I want your opinion on something. This is a personal question, it will have no bearing on the results of this meeting, but I need to hear it from your lips. Given the story I just laid out, where does the responsibility for this tragedy lie?"

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

L

L had always hated this office, she swore the general had always kept it so dismal as to make it so that she was bound to fall asleep. Though, in fairness, L could sleep anywhere if she truly wanted to, and she quite typically wanted to. L would see as if not paying attention, but always answer the second she was prompted to do so, something that the general would've found herself used to by now. She'd been here more than enough in her career at this point that one could say they had a working relationship... L's record however wasn't necessarily filled with reports of insubordination, or anything quite like your typical maverick. There was a lot to the contrary in truth, but that was a story for another time.

L had not spoken much this meeting, intent on letting it go it's course. She was near the end of her mandatory period, no one would much care about the discharge of a Captain who's stay was at it's end anyway. Her taking the fall here was a strategic move, the best move for everyone else involved. Her girls had much more ahead of them then she did. She knew the truth, but even knowing that truth...

"In my humble opinion General, that fault lies solely with myself." L said standing up from her seat, mostly so that she could actually properly see the General when she was speaking to her. But she also felt it was only right for her to stand as she spoke her piece. "I am the CO, our course of action was in my hands joint decision or not. So, in turn that responsibility lies squarely on my shoulders. No success makes up for the loss of life that was suffered that day. We took a gamble, and while it resulted ultimately in victory, that doesn't mean it was the correct course of action. I shall accept that weight as it is mine to bear."

L saluted the general before she slumped back into her seat as she finished, her words were filled with a conviction that one would probably think her incapable of. A resolve that came through when she truly set her mind to something when she truly believed in the words she spoke. It perhaps was subtle most days, but today it could be felt. The diminutive captain's presence would not be unnoticed this day.

[Takosher]

Silvia and L

Mina stood and walked over to L. She was tall, making the already short L look absolutely miniscule by comparison. She was frowning, disappointment. "Well, the committee agrees with you." she said, "About the responsibility. We don't agree with your conclusion that this was an unacceptable loss. The argument has been made quite earnestly that had you sent your soldiers to retreat, they would have been cut off by the trap and died regardless. The enemy may not have assaulted you during holy combat, but the rebels would have remained vulnerable. It is the opinion of the committee that your actions were the deciding factor in this key battle. Congratulations, Major, you've just been promoted."

Mina paused to let the news sink in before continuing, "Do not take this as condoning your actions. The unspoken rules that govern our methods of doing battle exist for a reason. We follow them because all sides benefit. Anyone who breaks them risks having them openly flaunted in response. You are lucky that this time your opponent is no longer around to complain.

"Lieutenant Cay, I am not stupid. Your role in this is clear to me, if no one else. You should know better than to make such risky decisions without first consulting your commanding officer.

"Lieutenant Silvia, your own role in this has not been overlooked. You were instrumental in restraining the enemy meister for L's attack, that will come back to you down the line, I will personally make sure of it.

"All three of you should prepare to ship out immediately. We're gearing up for a major offensive against Neridus and you're going to be at the forefront. To that end, we'll be assigning you a small strike force of holy weapon users, hopefully a better fit for your talents than a full company."

It didn't make sense that Katria was preparing an offensive, they had an uneasy cease-fire with Neridus due to the larger country halting its advances while it dealt with issues on its northeastern border. Katria had been looking for any justification to attack, but the Neridan general, Camilla Rayze, was intent on keeping it from them at all costs. Until Neridus managed a political faux pas, Katria couldn't attack them without breaking the cease-fire, which would prevent any hope of future agreements. It would make more sense to enter all-out war with Tyran, skirmishes at the border showed that both sides were more than willing to have a go at each other, and Tyran was having internal issues that made it vulnerable.

But Mina wasn't one to jest. If she said there would be a return to war with Neridus, then it was going to happen.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth
Eilyth had recovered from her severe miscalculation moments prior just in time to see Patricia eat a blow straight to the chin. A pang of something she didn't even know existed in her flashed through her mind, urging her back to her feet as she watched the demon turn it's sights on Leah next. She was toying with them. The bitch was going to drop the others first and make her watch, helpless to stop it as far as she was concerned. An involuntary snarl escaped from Eilyth at this realization, so low and guttural no one but herself would even hear it. Her vision tunneled, focusing on the walk cycle of the Dame Supreme. The way she carried herself. The way her arms swung. The distance that was slowly growing between them.

This plan had been astronomically unlikely to work from the beginning. It had already gone horribly awry...

But she had no choice but to salvage it.

The dragon lowered it's tail, an implement which had been given many college tries throughout this nightmare but failed each time, to the sodden ground with a gentleness that did not befit such a creature. The Tail was nothing but an obstruction at this point, a peice of dead weight that would lag behind it and unnecessarily slow the beast down. It was no surprise, then, that with nary a note of warning, the scales constituting the mass of bone crushing stone disconnected themselves from those forming it's main body, and the now autotomized limb quickly vanished into dust, and that dust soon dissipated into faint brown light. In it's place a new layer of scales quickly grew on the beast's chest, head, and forelegs, granting it's upper body the added weight, power, and toughness it would need to catch its current quarry.
   "You girls.... really are... idiots, you know?"
The beast lowered it's front, loading it's forward limbs with the spring-like strength it would need.
   "I didn't tell you... so you could get yourselves killed too."
It raised it's posterior towards the sky, hind legs prepared to follow through and accentuate the motion.
   "I never asked... either of you to help me."
It gauged the distance between itself and the Dame Supreme one last time.
   "You could've just run. Anyone else in your position probably would've. Why risk facing a demon to save one misfit?"
And steeled itself to struggle for something beyond it's own self... for the first time it could ever truly remember.
   "But... I.... I appreciate that you still came to pull my ass out of the fryer anyway."

There was no roar. No war cry. No words to be spoken or primal instincts to be vocalized. Only the violent squelching of mud as a creature of rock and stone propelled itself forward and up, front claws outstretched and eyes burning a bright crimson that seemed to trail behind it in it's wake. It descended upon the Dame at a diagonal angle not unlike a falcon's dive, with it's arms and chest poised to slam into Lily's head and shoulders as it completed it's trip back down to earth.

With any luck, between the sheer weight of the beast, the raw force behind it's leap, and the Dame's voluntary forward motion, landing such a pounce would prove enough to send the demon sprawling yet again, and keep her in that position.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

L

Well that... L was in a bit of a shock. She had figured that this was merely a death sentence to be handed down, whether for her or another within her squad. To think it would end as such... It was hardly evident on the tiny major's face, as she silently ran through how this was even possible in her mind. Perhaps it was difficult to believe due to the mouthpiece that delivered it, L never thought the general was truly in her corner... and maybe she wasn't, but evidently somebody was. She wasn't quite sure how to handle having her expectations flipped entirely on their head. She was at a loss for words unable to speak into the silence as The General left a pause for reflection. Perhaps this was for the better.

It would seem that rest was far from them however, as they received new orders. It was nearly as unbelievable news as her promotion. War with Neridus? Something major must have shifted in the political landscape while they were on leave due to the deliberations. L had been to preoccupied with the sword she perceived dangling above her head to keep up with the current goings on. "We will be prepared General. A personal question of my own if you will allow me. What is the reasoning behind this offensive, has something changed to void the ceasefire? When last I was abreast of the situation matters were quite different. I do not question the decision, merely to understand the current climate we are in and the nature of the assignment. Our unit has been out of the loop for some time, I think it would do us all a measure of good." L was always wary of asking questions, the higher ups had varying opinions on such themselves. She felt it prudent within this moment however, as the leader of this force she should understand the situation it was about to find itself in.

[Glass]

Silvia

Silvia hadn’t been particularly paying attention. It had seemed relatively clear that she wasn’t really supposed to be involved, given the lack of a chair. She’d been leaning back on the wall, behind her superiors.

When she was addressed, it took her a moment to realize it, given the notable exclusion of “second” before “lieutenant”. That was... interesting. She straightened up there. And the General... Mina, General Mina has commended her work. Either she didn’t care too much for “how things are done” either - didn’t seem likely - she cared more about results, or she just didn’t know about Silvia’s record. Whichever way, it might be worth remembering who she was.

Might. If she could remember why a few weeks down. Which it sounded like she’d be receiving a reminder.

Regardless, it sounded like they were moving out. To...
Oh no.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

"Major Monika Sydow, Flame user, and available" Monika replied with a short wink, shifting her position slightly in order to be more comfortable, "I wouldn't worry about us trying to run. I don't think I could walk all that well if I really tried. And Kira? Don't worry about it. I should've taken the warning" she added with a tired wave of her hand, seemingly uncaring about talking about their loss in front of an (technical) enemy. Now that she had a bit of time to gather herself, Monika managed to return to her casual nature, taking the conversation and situation in stride as she normally did.

[Takosher]

"Jenna, you know a lot about history, right?" Emily didn't really need to ask the question, her best friend never talked about anything but history, "What was the world like before the church?"

"Before the church, don't be silly." Jenna answered absentmindedly. She had her nose in a book, as usual. she hadn't even noticed the nail through Emily's chest, or maybe she had just decided not to care.

"I know we're taught that the church has always existed, but that means the ideas and religion, right? Not the actual, political entity."

Jenna looked up with a quizzical expression, "You're serious." She put the book down and made her way to the door of her room, shutting it. She didn't want her extremely devout mothers to listen in on their conversation, "This is real, you're not just trying to trick me into a religious debate? If you blow up our friendship right before you ship off to war I'm not going to forgive you when I catch up."

"I'm serious Jenna, I want to know."

"Let's start with what you know then, the common view of it. You aced your history class so you should know the official story."

"Well, a long time ago, most of the middle continent was ruled by Katria, and lived in harmony under the church. Then the church's influence started shrinking, with secular beliefs growing extremely popular before other religious organizations found footholds. I don't know anything before that." Emily wasn't ready to bring up the book just yet, so she stuck with what she'd been taught.

"Let's start with that and work backwards." Jenna offered, "First, you need to understand one thing: Katria didn't rule half of the continent, the Minarc Empire did. The Holy Church of Katria claims to be the rightful heir to the church-empire's legacy, but there are other claims. Valea-Minarc is the most obvious, being historically recognized as the birthplace of the Minarc Empire--although scholars actually believe it started further south, possibly in what would now be considered Neridus or Havenfel. Minarc's claim is pretty weak since, on top of its geographical failure, Kathleen I, the first Minarc empress, named Katrespite as her capital. There's a more troublesome claim from the Katrina Orthodoxy, which serves as the main religion in the northeast, because both the Orthodoxy and the Holy Church were created at the same time. They're the direct cause of the Minarc Empire's collapse, religious tensions caused a civil war and split the empire in two. Then people got fed up with religious warring and started to rebel, further breaking the empire apart. Eventually the Orthodoxy gave up its governing power and split up its remaining territories into what are now known as the United Federation of the North. The Holy Church, on the other hand, continued to take losses until only Katria was left."

Emily struggled to take all of the information in, especially with how Jenna tended to ramble when she was talking about history. Emily knew of Valea-Minarc and the Orthodoxy, of course, but school had simply labeled them as pretenders and moved things along. The collapse of the Katrian Empire after the Minarc Empire split in two was pretty heavily glossed over, and the original split was entirely blamed on the Orthodoxy, which was framed as a rogue faction.

"Okay, so Minarc ruled half the continent and Katria has the strongest ability to claim Minarc's legacy, if only because the other major contender doesn't hold territory anymore. But what about before Minarc?"

"We don't know." Jenna sounded angry at that fact.

"What do you mean we don't know?"

"Minarc's territory was half the contine,t but its influence covered the entire thing. Jiniviv IV used that influence to completely purge all historical evidence of the time before the empire existed. Since there was very little communication between continents at the time, we can't look outside her influence for answers. A few bits and pieces survived here and there where people were able to hide an heirloom or two, and there is some archaeological evidence to look through, but there's just not enough information to piece together anything more concrete than an educated guess. I can tell you about the history of the west  if you really just want to know about the past. Curiously, they have a similar event they call the Era of Lost Knowledge, but it's much further back and appears to have been caused by some sort of natural disaster rather than a crazed empress."

"The Era of Lost Knowledge?" Emily blurted it in surprise before she could stop herself.

"You've heard of it?" Jenna was clearly surprised.

"I've heard the name, I don't know western history though."

"Me neither, not as much as I'd like. Most of their history was kept orally both before and after the Era of Lost Knowledge. Lots of discrepancies, it may as well just be a collection of myths."

"What about the eastern continent?"

"The eastern continent was almost completely eradicated seven times by war, probably eight soon, history may as well not exist there."

"So we really don't know anything before the Minarc Empire?"

"Nope."

Emily furrowed her brow. It just didn't fit. "Isn't that a little odd?"

"What do you mean?"

"History is just totally missing? We don't know anything?"

"We know a little." Jenna defended her passion rather weakly.

"No, we don't, not really. And I think there's a reason for that."

"Oh no, you've been listening to Kiku's mom, haven't you?" Jenna rolled her eyes. Their friend's mother was the sort to believe that the Holy Daughter was born as a man, the church was run by a secret shadow government, or men were being genetically altered so they could take over the world. A crackpot, basically.

Emily considered how to respond to that. She could show Jenna the book, that would answer everything. Jenna already didn't much believe in the church, it wouldn't shatter her worldview like it had Emily.  It was still a big deal though, a huge secret that had to be kept until the right time. Emily looked carefully at Jenna, long enough to make them both uncomfortable. It was the right time.

"I found something." Emily pulled the book from her bag, "I found something big."

Jenna took the book and read a couple of pages. What started as curiosity quickly turned to disappointment. "Is this a prank?" she asked, unamused.

"It's real. Don't you feel that it's real? Doesn't it make you believe?" Emily had felt wholly convinced the book was legitimate from the first sentence, but Jenna looked ready to throw it in the trash.

"I believe it when it says it would make good toilet paper." Jenna handed it back to Emily with a shrug.

"Jenna, I'm being serious here. When I read it, it made me believe. I thought it would make you believe too. I promise, it's real."

"Look, I don't exactly believe in the church, but that book is absurd. A worldwide empire? Men and women being equals? The 'Spirit of Humanity?' Absolutely ridiculous! And you don't have a shred of evidence."

"I have what my heart tells me."

"Your heart is an idiot." Jenna crossed her arms angrily.

Emily felt tears well up in her eyes. Not even her best friend believed her.

Jenna's expression softened a little, and then swiftly went into a panic. "Hey, no, Emily, don't cry on me."

It was too late. Emily was already high-strung before, and now she had the stress of carrying a blasphemous book around and trying to figure out how to share it with others. She'd assumed the book would do the hard part for her, she just had to time it right. Now that she knew it wouldn't even alter the opinion of her best friend the entire thing suddenly seemed hopeless. She started bawling and ran out of the room, Jenna's helpless protests growing quieter behind her as she ran away.

Silvia and L

General Mina glared at L. "You would ask that." she spoke slowly, as if fighting against saying something else, "I suppose I owe you. Fine. In a few hours we're going to be forced to look into a mysterious death, and in the process discover a Neridan spy. The obvious conclusion will be reached, that Neridus killed a spy that was about to turn on them in order to prevent an information leak. At the same time, it will be noted that General Camilla has been moving large numbers of troops near the border over the past week. A few leaps of logic will be carried out to justify the belief that this information leak would have included warning of an impending Neridan attack. The ceasefire will collapse under the weight of these revelations, and we will rush to deploy a preemptive strike."

Cay kept quiet through the explanation, but the way she shifted made her unease clear. The matter-of-fact way the general was talking about this despite speaking of future events could only mean one thing: the events in question were being orchestrated, and Mina was involved in orchestrating them.

Eilyth

Eilyth slammed into Lily and knocked the Dame Supreme to the ground. The armor along her belly was torn to shreds as she skidded against the unshakable metal that made up her foe, but it held together well enough to prevent her from being injured by her own attack. Lily struggled, but it was fruitless. Without any momentum or leverage, she wasn't strong enough to break the scales. Eilyth's stomach was in contact with Lily's back, she could feel her emotions shifting in response, but her armor was already knitting itself back together, so that wasn't a long-term concern. Lily started spewing curses as she struggled, but it didn't change anything. The Dame Supreme was a sore loser, perhaps because this was the first time she'd lost.

Monika and Kira

Doc gave Monika an annoyed glance between jotting down names. There were no circumstances in which she appreciated flirting, but she appreciated it even less from patients, she couldn't ignore patients. "Unless you insist on flirting more, you'll be on your feet in a few hours, we have six battalions here and every single one has a healer capable of restoring you to full health. Unfortunately, none of the are brave enough to become certified medics, so I don't have any authority over them unless I actively need them for something and decide to pull rank. In other words, it might take a few for Verna to convince one of them to get their ass in gear, sorry." Doc put away her phone and checked Monika and Kira over again while they waited. Monika couldn't be certain, but she thought Doc was a little rougher this time around.

It didn't take all that long for Verna to return, a woman carrying a magnifying glass following behind her. The magnifying glass woman had a distant look in her eyes as she stared off into space. She was so distracted that she nearly stepped on Kira before Doc stopped her (Verna made no attempt).

"Lieutenant Talya, thank you for your help." Doc said, "I've got a gunshot to the chest and a bludgeoned stomach, as well as two concussions."

"Uh-huh." Talya continued staring.

"Probably some general bruising as well."

"Uh-huh."

"That's everything, I promise, you can look at them now."

Talya seemed to struggle to tear her eyes away from where she was staring and direct them to Kira and Monika. She didn't act right away, simply staring at them for a while. Doc and Verna both stepped back, giving her plenty of space. After staring for a while, Talya spouted off a list of injuries ten times as long and detailed as what Doc had provided, finishing with, "You forgot the cancer."

"I did no such thing." Doc insisted, "If one of them has cancer, then neither they nor I were aware."

Talya pointed vehemently at Kira, giving Doc a harsh glare, "It's right on her face, you don't need me to see it." she sounded extremely upset, "But you didn't tell me about it, so it hurt me to look at it."

Doc gave Kira an apologetic glance before responding, "I'm sorry Talya, I know how much that hurt you. I honestly didn't know there was something wrong with Kira's eye."

Talya still looked upset, but she lowered her arm at the very least. "It's not her eye, it's different, like cancer. It's all wrapped up in her brain too. I can't fix it, it's different. But if you're really sorry then I can make the rest better."

Doc smiled softly, the expression looking wholly unnatural on her, "I'm sorry, and I'll do better next time."

Talya mumbled something to herself as she turned back to the pair of injured Katrians. She held the magnifying glas above them, angling it so it caught the sun. A dozen beams of light lanced out of it, moving across Monika and Kira to settle on their injuries. They were extremely painful to endure, but they did the job of healing more than adequately, swiftly moving on after one injury to start working on the next. The entire process took about fifteen minutes, with Monika's stomach taking the longest. At the end of it, Kira was left with a bullet for a souvenir and Monika was left with a whole lot of searing pain in her stomach. Talya said the pain wouldn't last long and then left, turning her eyes back towards the horizon so she could avoid looking at anyone.

"I really don't get it." Verna said once Talya was gone, "You shouldn't let re- I mean, the mentally ill into the army. Talya isn't the only rank six healer in the world. How did someone like her even end up as an officer, let alone a meister?"

Doc sighed, "Talya's mental troubles probably should have been a deal breaker, you're right. But there's a good reason it wasn't, one that you're not privy to, and that's not likely to change anytime soon."

Doc didn't bring up that Verna wasn't exactly one to talk when it came to mental illness, that discussion had already been played out. Verna made an internal distinction between being "screwed up" and being "mentally ill." The former were people who had something off about their behaviors that made them do bad things, Verna counted herself among them, while the latter were those that appeared less capable by virtue of their mental issues. Doc had given up pointing out obvious exceptions to this philosophy when she realized that Verna was using it as a defense mechanism. She didn't know what Verna had been through, but she was fairly certain that the resident murderess had a lot more going on behind the scenes than just having some wires crossed in her brain.

Once Monika no longer appeared to be in agony, Doc recovered her phone and prepared to take notes again. "Alright, question time." she announced flatly, "As promised, no operations questions, I'm more than happy to just figure out what happened here." She pointed up towards the corpse in the tree, "Did you two kill the woman in the tree? If not, do you know who did?"

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Eilyth
A wave of relief and, quite frankly, immense satisfaction washed over Eilyth as she finally put an end to this nightmare of an engagement. She had... actually halted the advance of Lily of Damnation. Probably the only godsdamn person to do so... ever. She may have had to resort to gank tactics in order to pull it off, and almost certainly would've perished had it remained single combat, but fuck it. She had learned well already that the measure of one's strength could be more than the might of your arm; there was always something useful about being able to apply a base and predatory cunning when the moment called for it. Perhaps she was not so weak afterall, despite her previous failure.
...
...
...
There was just one lingering problem with the situation, however.

"What the fuck am I gonna do now?" She glanced over to Patricia, still sprawled in the mud, quite possibly dead for all she could tell. The second phase of this whole idea had hinged upon having her come in and make the final blow that would either kill the Dame outright, or at the very least scare her into retreating. She had herself suggested that had it failed, she'd start beating her but... she was exhausted enough as things currently stood, and she doubted she'd inflict any lasting damage before she collapsed from heat stroke.

They had reached an impasse. She couldn't very well just sit her stoney ass atop the Dame Supreme forever. They still needed to bug out of this humid hell. One comrade was injured, the other quite possibly dead. She was the only one still fully intact, and even she would drop sooner or later if she kept at this rate. Momentous as this achievement was, it was very quickly becoming clear it had been a Pyrrhic Victory. There was but one way to truly assess how Pyrrhic.
     "Leah," Eilyth called out to her captain "Patricia.... is she...?"

[Glass]

Silvia

Silvia’s expression was very carefully blank.

...

There had to be something better than the endless parade of shit that was the whole fucking continent.
There had to be.

[Chevaleresse]

Kira didn't seem particularly convinced my Monika's reassurance, but before she could decide whether it was appropriate to respond in front of this group, the healer appeared. She simply gave Monika a (slightly off-kilter, as usual) glance that more or less communicated that she was going to continue insisting it was her fault later. She had been more focused on hurting the enemy than protecting her fellows again, and now they were captured and at the heart of an international incident.

The scarf-wielder's eyes widened in alarm at the word "cancer." She looked worriedly between the doctor and Talya. Kira might have just dismissed it as some discussion of the damage to her eye. . . but hearing it compared to cancer and stated that it wasn't actually her eye made her concerned. She knew that it had affected her mind at some level, but hearing referenced as such was far worse than any amount of anxiety she might have felt about the concussion. The pain that followed didn't provide much of a distraction, either, other than perhaps a slight flash of envy of the healer. A useful, powerful ability, that let her inflict that sort of thing without having to feel any guilt about the aftermath was something of a dream.

Kira looked startled again, though rather less distressed, at the doctor's question. "No. I thought it was one of your meisters." She glanced at the corpse, then quickly glanced back. Despite her tastes, gruesome death was still something that disturbed her. "She said her name was Mack."

[Takosher]

Eilyth

Lily continued to squirm and screech, but Eilyth's armor was only getting tougher as time went on. Leah looked haggard, the fight had taken a lot out of her. She got worse when she checked on Patricia.

"She's not breathing, but I think she has a pulse. My hands are too shaky to be sure. Her throat..." Leah trailed off, "I can't help her."

Although Water as an element had healing powers, Leah's specific manifestation of power didn't include healing others. She could heal cuts and bruises on her palm and fingers, but that was it. Their fourth member was a field medic, but they'd left her behind to keep order in their company while they were out on their little fishing trip. They hadn't been obligated to, but Eilyth had been adamant that they leave the medic behind. Being in the same company was bad enough, Eilyth didn't need to be stuck out in the heat and mud with that coward.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Monika

Although Monika couldn't discern the reasons, it was rather obvious that Doc didn't appreciate the flirting, mostly thanks to the annoyed looks she gave her, "Nah, just trying to lighten the mood. Felt like it would be better than being glum about-" Monika admitted, only to be interrupted when Doc checked her and Kira, the rough handling being enough for a bit of pain to spike in her stomach, "Ow, ow okay, I got it, point taken, I won't do it again" she quickly stated.

What followed was a small conversation between the Doc and another medic, allowing Monika to relax and give the talk a listen, noticing the look Kira gave her and merely shrugging in response. She'd simply have to deal with her guilt later. Unlike the other Katrian, Monika didn't give too much mind to the conversation going on in front of her, aside from noting that the Lieutenant was able to (seemingly accurately) list off their injuries with a mere look, and that she made note of a 'cancer' in Kira's eye and mind. The Major always figured there was something going on with it, but never thought of it much more than a damaged organ, not something as bad as that.

And then began the healing process.

Although the initial blow was painful, this method of recovery was infinitely worse. In fact, Monika was sure that it was the single greatest pain she had ever felt, enough to cause the experienced warrior to make a slight gasp before clamping it down, her entire body becoming tense as she fought to keep herself where she was and not scream. This was her only focus and thoughts for what felt like a day, despite being 15 minutes, and when the Lieutenant's job was done, Monika pretty much melted into the ground, letting out a large breath ,"Kira's right. Only thing I can add is that she said that she 'got what she was after' before fighting us.. Not sure what she got, but we didn't have much time to figure that out" she commented, lifting her hand to rub her eyes. Recovery was always tiring, but the rapid healing she just went through left Monika outright exhausted.

[Takosher]

Monika and Kira

Doc took a couple of brief notes. "Mack, and she got what she wanted." she mumbled, mulling the responses over, "Can you tell me more about how she managed to take out two meisters so handily? She seems like a pretty dangerous threat."

"I can kill her." Verna said.

Doc shot her the standard look of annoyance, "I'm sure you could, but you could do it faster if we know what she can do."

"Can't do anything if I kill her." Verna grumbled.

Doc sighed and turned back to the pair of Katrians, "Never mind her, tell me about Mack."