Changing Tides

Lexa normally didn't have dreams. She didn't know why it was like that, but when she went to sleep all she could see was black. But now, she was experiencing something in her sleep. Opening her eyes, she found herself on a strange type of bed, looking into a bright lamp with five bulbs. She turned he head, the sound of the half assed operating bed's materials crunching under her. There were five people in the room, all their faces were blurred out and shadowed over. She could see them all wearing snow white lab coats, and mumbling something to each other... Something about someone named 'Subjext X-003' or whatever. "Shit, shit, shit! Hurry get the sedative!" a hazey voice called out, the blurred image pointing off in a direction. "We've already used a whole 30 milligrams not even a few minutes ago!" a female voice responded, sounding rather panicked. "God dammit, I don't care! X-003's the only one to take to the implants. We're not risking her waking up before the rest are in place. Use an entire gram." the voice called back. Lexa felt a pain in her chest, she heard her heart begin racing. Faster, faster, and faster the beating went and each time her chest ached. Beeping was heard from a machine, the beeping was in perfect sync with her heart until finally she heard a puffing sound. She felt her heart rate decreasing, and the beeping along with it. The beeping became a steady pace as she heard the voice call "Subject X-003 stabilized..." the voice began fading, but the last bit was very clear as she heard the name 'Alexandria Lexicus Grimoire' being said. The world faded to black, the normal thing she had that was ever close to a dream. Meanwhile Lillian, who was far more accustomed to dreaming found herself seated in a magic powered car, moving through the paths that linked Lavantir port with the chained city of Silver Island. It was then that a gigantic crab emerged from the lake, slamming its foot down on the car ahead of hers, crushing the engine and causing it to explode. The force sent a piece of the car flying into the one she was in, and directly into the chest of the person sitting next to her. Lillian looked up and saw her mother's face just before the body erupted into flames and dissipated. 

In the real world, Lillian was mumbling in her sleep "Lexa... Lexa help..." as the scene played out in her mind. Lexa slowly roused from her sleep as well, not hearing her name being called; but a strange instinct telling her that something was going on. Out of nowhere, the haze of waking up was completely eradicated as Lillian cried in terror, and pain "LEXA!!!!" as though she were truly about to die. Lexa wrapped her arms around the child as the child gripped Lexa's clothes for dear life. Realizing it was a dream, the child who was panting and sweating profusely turned to crying into Lexa's chest. Not knowing what happened, Lexa looked at Dmitry and mouthed "What the hell did you do?" while maintaining her embrace with her sister.

Lexa had opened her mouth to ask Dmitry what a dream was when a pair of monkeys flew out of the treeline at the four beings, one was met with a knife that killed it almost instantly and the other took some weird smokey ball thing to the face that knocked it to the ground. Lexa watched as Lillian got off her to let her fight, but Lexa had a slight smirk on her face. "Lil... you haven't trained at all today have you?" she said with a suggestive tone. Lillian shook her head with a rather inquisitive look in her eyes. "That one's weakened, so it's not as fast as it would normally be. You know the rules, die and you lose, live and you win." she said with a dead serious look as she glared at Lillian. For the small girl, the idea of killing something was the ultimate horror. She only killed the other one by accident, the knife toss was a simple reaction from being desperate not to see Lexa possibly die. But now... she had to kill on purpose. Lillian was frozen with her hand at the grip of her dagger as she stared helplessly at the enemy that was getting up. Lexa gave Dmitry a look that spoke for itself, saying 'Help her and you're dead' without Lexa having to speak at all. The simian gotten up, letting out a loud, shrill scream before charging at Lillian in an attempt to at least take one of its enemies down with him. Lillian's eyes began glowing with a crimson aura as a type of magic circle appeared in them, her true instincts taking full effect and causing her to charge at the simian. She knew for a fact that Lexa wouldn't move a muscle unless the primate actually hit her, in which case she might die. She knew Lexa could heal others, but she knew Lexa couldn't revive the dead. Her instincts were her best friend 'a good assassin trusts nothing more than their own gut' was heard as Lexa's word, her lecture burrowed deep in her heart. The monkey threw a punch at Lillian, its fist sparking with electricity as it flew out at the small girl. Lillian jumped to the side into a commando roll before standing up on the simian's left side and thrusting the small, silver dagger into its body. A few seconds passed as her mind began clearing, the glow in her eyes fading and then Lillian saw what she'd just done. Tears began forming at her eyes as her humanity forced her to feel for the small creature. "If that thing killed you, do you think it would have cried?" Lexa said coldly. "I- I know it d-doesn't care... but..." "Abandon your humanity when your life is on the line, and only when your life is on the line. Survive even if you have to sacrifice another, even if you have to sacrifice me." Lexa said, causing Lillian's eyes to fly open. "But... if I... I..." Lillian said trying to find her words. Lexa walked up to her and kneeled down, ripping the dagger from the corpse. "That's enough training for now. You wanna ride the horsey?" Lexa said in a calm, still adult like voice that had a hint of maternal instinct buried in it. Lillian looked at the horse and immediately grabbed Lexa's hand while standing up, hiding herself as much as possible from the creature. "Sorry, looks like she's gonna be walking it off. But I'd like to ask you a question... What's a dream?" Lexa said, her eyes held absolute ignorance when the question was asked, showing she truly didn't know...

Lexa took in the lesson, maintaining eye contact with Dmitry as bright lights flickered across her bright blue eyes making it look like they were shimmering. The lights were thousands of tiny magic circuits, processing the information and downloading it to Lexa's memory. She looked at the ground afterwards, matching the word 'dream' with what she saw when she was sleeping. "Is it normal to dream?" she asked calmly as she began walking. Lillian followed behind closely, staying close to Lexa but being as far from Dmitry and his horse as possible. 'Humans have dreams...' Lexa thought, her eyes growing sullen for a moment as she walked but soon turning confident again as she heard that damned platypus off in the distance. The world lit up as the blast of electricity came at them, and Lexa, acting off of pure instinct shoved Lillian away from her and along took the full impact of the attack. The force behind it sent Lillian and Atracrema flying into one of the trees lining the path, and Lexa flying backwards and being slammed against a large stone pillar that cracked under the immense force. Completely engulfed in the attack, Lexa wasn't seen at all. What seemed like a whole minute, was in fact but a few measly seconds that she was encased in the raw energy. The attack ceased, and Lexa was seen with the bottom half of her shirt completely fried off and burn marks on the bottom of her arms. She collapsed to the ground, first on her knees with her eyes closing as the world blurred and hen falling on her body unconscious as her body continued smoking. Lillian, no longer under the force of the attack tossed Atracrema off her and ran to Lexa's side with tears forming. "Lexa...?" she said. Lillian held her head as she had a flashback to the dream she had of her first family dying. "L... Lexa...?" she said again, her eyes beginning to glow bright crimson. "Lexa..." she said as her disbelief set in. "Lexa..." she said again while turning to Dmitry. Her crimson eyes turned pure black as black flames engulfed her fists and Lillian's soft, loving eyes took on the true essence of wrath. She grabbed the smoldering swords from Lexa's back, the blades being engulfed in the black flames like her hands. "A good assassin... never lets her partners die..." Lillian said, her voice still soft. "A good assassin... never takes revenge." she said while walking forwards, the platypus turning towards her. "I'm not an assassin." Lillian said while looking at the platypus. "You hurt my big sister..." she said, her voice sounding scratched up as the tears flowed. "I'LL KILL YOU!" she shouted as the platypus fired its cannon. Lillian crossed the blades, making a slashing motion and causing a surge of black fire to erupt, cutting directly through the attack and creating a massive linear crater as it slammed into the platypus. She then flipped the two swords to hold them backwards and charged at the being. The platypus quickly shook off the fire in its mouth, and began rapidly firing electricity. Lillian jumped again, spinning in the air and firing multitudes of black fire, each intercepting one of the platypus's shots and launching right through it. Filling the weapons with her power again, Lillian slammed the swords on the ground directly in front of the platypus and created a huge pillar of black flame that tore into the megafauna. When the pillar was gone, it revealed only the beast's head, legs and tail to be left. Lillian dropped the swords and immediately ran back to Lexa where the began shaking her rapidly, and trying to bargain with her. "If you come back... I swear I'll kill whatever you want me to! I'll abandon my emotions! I'll stick to every shadow! I'll... I'll... Please big sister... Don't leave me..." she screamed while crying, noting that Lexa didn't move a muscle, wasn't breathing, and she couldn't hear a heart beating. Out of nowhere, a monkey appeared and started charging for the grieving girl who was too pre-occupied to notice it.

Lillian found herself completely engulfed by sadness, unable to escape the pains of her second family being destroyed. She was ignorant of the monkey, as well as unaware that Dmitry was currently fighting a much stronger opponent. It was only after she was addressed that she'd noticed another opponent had entered the fray. She turned watching a knife being thrown over the large beast made of rock and lightning, not thinking, only acting she ran up and grabbed it. In her heart was the purest of hatred for this island and its inhabitants, such malevolence filled Dmitry's knife as she prepared her attack. She jumped up, lining a shot directly with the golem's chest. Just as Lillian was prepared to release the energy stored within the blade, the golem fired a single stone from its chest at her sending Lillian flying across the ground. She got up, once again her eyes filled with the instinct to fight, the instinct to kill, the absolute desire to finish the mission. Small orbs of black flames formed, seated mid air while more formed. The golem let out a howl of fury at the small girl, and then was immediately barraged with black fire. Each orb shattered a small chunk, but in such quantities the golem was fighting far more than it would ever hope to withstand. Lillian stood there breathing heavily with anger in her eyes. Atracrema walked up to Lexa and gave her a good smelling, double checking the child's claim of her being dead. "Humans, this one's life is fleeting but is not gone." he said calmly. Lillian looked at the ground, knowing that this is the only chance Lexa has to find out more... possibly even get her memories back. "Mr. Dmitry, you came to protect Lexa and you failed. But now I want you to protect me please. I... I want to find out why big sister came here. That and a good assassin never fails their missions... not while she's still breathing." Lillian said while looking at Dmitry with uncharacteristically confident eyes. "You mortals are strange beings. However you entertain me... so I shall carry this one to the shore and safeguard her body. I trust you have transportation?" the fire god stated. "No. Mister skippy left with the boat and will only come back when big sister or me sends out the signal." Lillian replied, her voice was soft and sweet, as though she held no hatred in her heart at all. "Very well, complete you task. I shall remain at the shore, such will allow us to leave without lugging her all the way back, possibly under unfavorable circumstances." he said, not exactly wanting to have to guard what is likely a corpse. "Thank you." Lillian said and gave a polite bow. She walked over to Lexa and pulled the sheathes from her back, sliding them over her shoulders. She walked over to the two swords and picked them up, gently sliding them into their sheathes. She walked back to Dmitry and hesitantly grabbed his hand, her own was trembling from fear. "I'm sorry mister Dmitry... but for big sister... I need to finish the fight." Lillian said sheepishly. "And... when... when we're done... please don't let big sister know about... about my magic." she added. Atracrema placed a paw on Lexa's body and both disappeared in a burst of flames. Lillian pulled out a small rectangular lacrima and pressed a button in the middle. Holding it to her ear she said "Emergency assistance requested, log in Alexandria Lexicus Grimoire... Ace of Petals." she then placed the object back in her shirt pocket and said "Let's go, reinforcements are on the way." she said to Dmitry before letting go of his hand and entering the cave.

Lillian watched as the man came to life, instinctively hiding behind Dmitry as he began sputtering madness about something names X-003. The ground shook violently with a loud thud as something impacted it just outside the cave. A large robot, nine feet tall to be exact rolled into the cavern with a machine gun aimed directly at Dmitry and a phase sword pointed at Lillian. Lillian let out a slight squeal as the blade nearly poked her in the nose. "CASSIE stand down..." she said weakly, the robot's eyes began flashing as it processed the girl's visage. "Unknown user... state your name, position, and rank please." Lillian stiffened like a board as the barrel of the gun was shifted from Dmitry to her. "L-l-l-Lillian G-Grimoire, Silver Island Citizen; no av-vailable rank, Omen in-n-nitiate!" she said nervously, her eyes both staring at the tip of the bullet on the other end of the barrel. The lights in the automation's eyes began flickering as it processed the information, searching for anything in its existing data. "No relevant data found, searching for available updates.... updating roster... Lillian Grimoire confirmed. Where is big sister?" the female AI said. "Lexa's waiting at the coast for our task to be done, we... I'll be counting on you for support fire and updates on enemy weak spots." Lillian said after the barrel was lowered from her face. "Understood. Will big sister be requiring emergency evacuation?" CASSIE asked, her programming caused her to sound concerned. "Yes please." Lillian said. "Sending evacuation request... due to inclimate weather evacuation will be delayed for approximately five hours. Is Lexa in a safe location?" the AI asked. "Yes, she's with a small white fox, it has nine tails each having blue fire at the tips." Lillian replied. "Understood, sending data." CASSIE said, her eyes flashing as the information was sent. Lillian walked over to the man with his stone and picked it up, she then walked to the large robot and opened a hatch. She gently placed it inside the empty area and turned to Dmitry with a weak smile, feeling a bit uncomfortable being with a total stranger and a trigger happy robot. "I-it might be helpful... C-CASSIE can keep it safe." she said hesitantly before moving on. Movement was heard up ahead, immediately a type of barrier was placed on Lillian followed by the words "Movement detected, Over-Shield activated. Proceed with caution, you know my combat control unit's experimental." coming from the small squad's robotic companion.

Lillian watched as Dmitry took care of their opponents rather quickly while CASSIE stayed back as ordered. The man had asked a few questions regarding their non-human ally, ones that Lillian didn't know or care if she were allowed to answer. "CASSIE means Ciminal Appwehension and Site Serveilance Inte... In..." "-Integrated" CASSIE said, helping the little girl out. "Thank you, Integated Exo." Lillian said, her voice was a bit embarrassed from having messed up. "She's an artificial intelligence progwam our guild normally uses for support." Lillian explained. "I offer a high-density kinetic barrier, as well as increase the levels of ethernano within the immediate area. Additionally am capable of emitting a high-density scan of opposing forces and audibly exploiting weaknesses in their structure or formation. As of recently, big sister Lexa has taken to utilizing my internal programming to indulge herself in many games of chess." CASSIE said, adding to Lillian's explanation. "Hikki!" Lillian said, at the mention of the chess games and turned slightly red while giving an awkward smile, the kind of expression that lets people know that she's actually the culprit. "Uhh... umm... C-CASSIE?" Lillian said hesitantly. "L-Lexa wasn't the one d-doing that... I- I was." she admitted, walking with her eyes tightly closed for fear of a reprimand beyond reason... likely in the form of a bullet through the everything. "You're really good at it little sis, the others can only make it to two hours at best." CASSIE said. Lillian, still not being used to compliments became even redder than before "Th-thank you." she said sheepishly while holding her own hands.

It wasn't long the group was travelling, only being a good twenty or so minutes in all honesty when they'd arrived at a large room with light filtering through. Despite the outside world being caked with thunder, and lightning; this room was filled with pure sunlight that filtered into a small creek. Lillian ran over and got on all fours to look into the water, marveling at all the fish inside. She saw they all had some scales that looked like circuit markings, glowing blue instead of yellow. Lillian poked her finger in, conducting a quick test and found that the fish, unlike the animals, were completely unchanged beyond the magical altering. When Lillian's finger hit the water, the smallest fish dispersed in an attempt to get to safety why the larger fish just swam to a deeper section. Lillian found it strange that they reacted so differently, whereas the animals from outside all attacked on site. It wasn't long before a commotion was heard, making its way towards the group.

Lillian watched as Dmitry cast a line out, nodding as he explained how to catch a fish though it was a lot different from how Lexa taught it. Lillian pulled out her dagger, aiming at one of the large fish that had been startled out from hiding when suddenly "I am not a refrigeration unit!" the large machine shouted with an elevated external audio setting in place. Lillian watched as the fish moved about, predicting its next movement just as Lexa taught her many times before. Just as the fish was about to tap the surface of the water, Lillian chucked the knife. Just as the fish did tap the surface of the water, the knife tapped the fish's spine and kept sinking in. Lillian reached over, and grabbed the dagger by the grip and pulled the fish out. It gave a few vain flips of its body, but couldn't get off the blade. She turned to CASSIE saying "Excuse me miss Cassie... you wouldn't have a way to keep this fresh would you?" with a voice too sweet to possibly get mad at, her large crimson eyes seeming more innocent than creepy. The large machine raised its hand and rested the top of its head in its metallic palm. "Did I not just say I am not a refrigeration unit..." the voice came out using an altered level setting in the AI's programming, one that mimicked the human emotion of frustration. Suddenly, another large platypus flew out the water with its moth wide open, a large ball of golden energy ready to fire. Just as suddenly, Lexa had appeared in a burst of light spinning with the back of her heel planted in the stupid animal's cheek. The platypus fired its shot, but due to Lexa's  sudden reappearance the shot was sent at an angle, and missed everyone entirely. This version of Lexa was different... not only was it the elevated amount of magical presence, but it was an increased malevolence that undoubtedly Dmitry's blade could pick up on. More than that... on Lexa's head were a pair of fox-like ears, accompanied by a blonde tail sticking from under her skirt. The platypus rolled from the wall, landing on all fours with an audible slapping sound. Lexa's magic circuits flashed from bright yellow, to pure black with shots of black electricity sparking off them. Loose debris began defying gravity around her feet as the dark energy seemed to radiate more anger than her heart did. The platypus began charging another shot, Lexa stood still for just enough time for the creature to get its shot ready. Just as it was about to fire, Lexa disappeared and reappeared with her hand shoved inside its mouth. The platypus let loose its attack, thinking that it would work. As the attack fired, Lexa brought up her reflect, and her Perdition Barrier at the same time, mixing them in with the increased power she had from her now blackened circuits, and that of the will she had to return to her guild with Lillian in tow. A blast of magical light flew from the platypus's ass, and the creature went limp. Lexa turned her head to face her allies, her eyes were shimmering bright blue as she said "Those fuckers... ripped my skirt." in between breaths, sounding quite unhappy. "Lexa!" Lillian seemed to disappear as well, reappearing as a streak across the opening that ended with her tackling Lexa to the ground. The fish was in free fall when Lexa hit the ground, her adopted sister on top her soaking her lightly fucked up shit with tears. Lexa looked down, a look of partial sadness, mixed with happiness and enlightenment in her eyes as she reached over with an arm and returned the hug. Her black circuits began steaming as they disappeared. "I... I caught a fish." Lillian said between sobs, her voice was scratchy as it pierced her sadness. "I guess ten thousandth time's the charm." Lexa replied. "Hey cass..." she called to the machine. "Yes bis sis?" the automation called back. "You got some way of keeping that fish from gettin' nasty?" Lexa asked. "DAMMIT JUST COOK THEM!" the machine said with it's external audio function at its maximum setting. "Kay... hey 'mitty... mind taking care of that?" Lexa said while raising the hand she was hugging Lillian with in the air, pointing to the fish. Her hand relaxed and flopped back to resting on Lillian, who was still crying. 

Lexa felt Lillian begin lifting off, the small child still crying as she sat on Lexa trying to stop the tears. Lexa sat up herself and pulled Lillian in for another hug, using one arm to support herself while doing so. It was the first time since Taranis left that she'd had someone to hold, or be held by so she didn't care if the whole damn island sunk she wanted her damn hug. The two disconnected and Lexa wiped away Lillian's tears with a warm smile on her face. Lillian got off Lexa, and then handed her back her weapons as she got off the ground. Lexa took the blades, and turned to CASSIE. "Log me in cass." she said with a commanding voice. "Logging in user... Alexandria Lexicus Grimoire, Omen Operative - Ace of Petals. Engaging Over Shield." the large automation said. A green array flashed over Lexa before fading away, letting her know that she was covered with the kinetic barrier.

Walking down the tunnel, Lexa heard an inquiry about her new features... something she'd already forgotten she had. "Well... evidently I'm something called an 'Ace' and for some reason my guild master gave me fox ears... and a couple weeks later I found out I had a tail. Rn'D looked into it, but no one knows where the tail came from." she said with a somewhat embarrassed voice. "But they only come out when I'm pushing myself... they should go away soon." she said with an uncomfortable smile on her face. Lexa didn't like having those parts attached, and even less when others could see them. She hated more that she couldn't remember her guild master's face, otherwise she'd know who's ass to chew for sticking her with them. Lillian had moved herself closer to Lexa and grabbed her tail, causing her face to completely flush red. The younger one began rubbing on the super fluffy anomaly, making Lexa feel rather... abnormal. It feel good, but in a strange way to have her animal parts rubbed which was the thing she hated the most.

The halls quickly changed to a smooth look, being coated in some weird materials. Dmitry made a valid point, and Lexa, wanting to see walked up to the wall and looked at her hand. A pulse of energy caused her hand's circuits to light up for a second. She looked at the wall and placed her hand on it, sending some magic power through her hand which transferred to the walls. The energy traveled in a pulse that made the markings turn golden for a moment and then return to being inert. "I think that's a yes..." Lexa said with amazement, the flustered look on her face vanishing as her ears and tail turned into light and disappeared. "...Finally." she said under her breath, letting Dmitry's fishy comment swim right over her head.

Swapping out the boss for 2x Platypodes