Amelia was wondering at this point what Luna saw in the Dragoness as she was finding her cold and almost brutal. However she was able to sense the power of Akeya so Amelia knew better then to outright call out the dragon. Although the main reason Amelia knew she couldn't afford to contest the dragon was one of their elements was light, and Amelia was a master of Lightning. While she knew that meant she might never beat the dragon, she would be lying if she claimed not to be curious as to how it would play out.
Meanwhile Luna paid close attention to Akeya's orders, slightly afraid of what the Dragon was planning. She knew from experience that there is nothing more dangerous then someone who masters opposing forces, she recalled tales of mages that wielded air and earth to master sand magic, fire and water to master steam, and even a speed and ice magic for impressive results. However none of them compared to Light and Dark due to the unpredictable nature of the two clashing, Luna knew that twilight was by far nothing to take lightly as it required careful timing and dual concentration and if it went wrong it meant a horrid explosion. "Ladies! hit the deck!"
Amelia and Luna made sure to be behind the dragoness out of her focus and sight, and the summoned nature spirits stopped their bickering for a moment when they heard Luna call out. Vita broke her running by suddenly turning and sliding, managing to get low and put distance between her and the minotaurs chasing after her. Meanwhile Savi seemed to slow down and let the two promiscuous minotaurs behind her, before she seemed to jump back and kick the two back with her hind legs before she fell over onto her side right before Akeya unleashed her twilight magic.
It was a moment when all four noticed the power of the dragon, but even more frightening was her precision with the magical power as she cleanly sliced the masculine beasts. As Amelia passed the lower half of one she whistled for a moment as she couldn't help but be impressed with the precision and cleanliness of the cut and examined the room, seeing a lack of extensive damage. "Damn, even a surgeon would be jealous of such precision. Even the spines are cut smoothly." She said before continuing to follow Akeya and Luna.
Meanwhile the two spirits slowly stood up, brushing off the dust their bodies before they began to follow the group. "Well, so you have no problems getting down here." Vita snarkly hissed towards the centauress as the two joined paths as they left the large room area. Savi responded by bumping into the princess, slamming her against a wall. "Oh, sorry, it's a narrow hallway." She said with a sarcastic tone in her voice. Amelia gritted her teeth as she was starting to get annoyed with the two bickering spirits. "Luna, are you going to get rid of them?" She asked but Luna was looking away, not wanting to get involved. "I'm not in the mood for dying, if I try getting in the way of them or send them back now, they might resist and the backlash for Nature Fairies is brutal for even one of them considering these aren't average spirits."
Amelia sighed as she was almost hitting her breaking point as the two spirits seemed to be in the midst of some terrible lover's quarrel. Amelia took a deep breath before she turned around and slapped Vita before jumping up and slapping Savi in the face. "Hey!" Both spirits said in unison as they prepared their bows. Amelia let out an exasperated breath. "Alright, I've had it with this weird lesbian archer thing, it's clear both of you want this to work out. I think I figured this out." She started by looking at Vita, she had a feeling she knew what was wrong with the princess. "You need to be more clear and open with what you want, otherwise how the hell can she make up her mind!" She said directly, which Savi agreed with and Vita pouted a bit at the way she was treated. "Yeah, you see, she gets it!" Amelia turned towa/rds Savi, moving onto the problemscaused by the centauress. "As for you, make up your damn mind, it's clear you love her and if you want something, go for it, you're an archer for crying out loud and it's clear she was waiting. Take your shot for crying out loud!" She said aggressively, Vita snickered in response. "Finally someone gets it!" Amelia took a step back. "Seriously, if you guys just sit down and talk honestly, it's okay to have doubts, it's okay to be as insecure, you don't need to resort to clearly sexual turned aggressive tension bickering if you just sit down and talk!"
Amelia took a deep breath as she finally got that off her chest, both spirits turned to eachother. "She's sorta right, I don't wanna lose you but I need to know I can count on you, I've been burnt before." Vita took Savi by the hands as she looked deep into the eyes of the centauress. "I love you, no one else means as much to me. I will always be here for you." Savi sighed relief as she was glad the air was finally being cleared. "I think I'm ready, to make things, official. I suppose things got complicated when too many figures got involved, meddling in our own business." Vita nodded and both slowly turned towards Amelia with a look of annoyance. "Yeah... like her, trying to tell us how we need to run our lives and relationship." Vita said as she and Savi were finally on the same page, albeit on hating the one that got them to see a form of reason. "Yeah, like this sack of bolts that thinks she can tell us how to run our lives, we will do what we want. Go marry a toaster!"
Vita stuck out her tongue towards Amelia before the two began to disappear as their bodies turned into a green energy the dispersed into specs of light. Amelia was left with a dumbfound look on her face before she let out a long groan. "Luna, you're spirits... I swear to hell either kill them or me, please, I can't take much more of them. It's like some cruel monster put together the worst possible cast for a low rating sit-com that is made by the kid of some big wig and can't be canceled because of that!" Amelia whined as she caught back up with the two.
Luna sighed as she understood where Amelia was coming from, but she did not want to disrespect her spirits. "That's not fair, Aegis and Chuck are pretty cool." She said as she tried to keep a balanced perspective. Amelia rolled her eyes at that response. "What of the rest?" Amelia said inquisitively. "Aegis and Chuck are pretty cool." Luna repeated herself. Amelia threw her hands in the air stressed. "I swear, sometimes I feel like my self destruct is kept from me so I can experience this cruel joke you call summoning magic. They either come with drama, or varying degrees of drunk, Akeya have you ever seen summoning spirits less reliable then Luna's?"
Luna bit her tongue as she had enough at this point, her small form glowed in a pink light before enlarging with her wings retracting into her back and her clothing changing back to her human attire she had on earlier. "Don't bring her into this, remember back then, you came to me, asking for me to hold your keys and join me in this line of work. I told you my spirits were a bit much. I swear to Shirain, they aren't always that bad." Amelia huffed, she always held her tongue on Luna's spirits before but at some point the artificial being hit a breaking point.
"Yeah, Woody's a real catch, you were halfway to dead with a sword between your ribs and you called on him, he was blacked out drunk five seconds after you summoned him. Tierra once bitched a bull into submission, Vita and Savi are the most cliche couple I ever met, savi is half decent on her own but Vita is honest to god worse to deal with then Tierra at times, Plantette is a lazy whore, and Zixcor actively tries to kill you for crying out loud! It is clear they're a cavalcade of rejects that no one wanted, probably due to your late blooming. I swear you're worsely blind to a poisoness relationship then Mai-"
Amelia stopped midway as she saw the look on Luna's face overwhelmed sadness and anger. "That was too far Amelia, you know I can't control what spirits I am bound with and while you see them as nothing but faults, they were there whenever I needed someone to run to, yeah, they're not perfect, but they are practically family to me. When I needed them, even if they were at their worst, someone came." Luna shoved Amelia against a wall as she was not having anyone insult her spirits. While anyone could take shots at her but she was the type of person who would rather walk through hell herself for those she cared about. "When I was beaten into a corner, they tried, they fought to try and pierce through worlds to save my life but the curse preventing magic wouldn't allow the forced summoning root, but they were watching, they wanted to save my life, save the little girl who was being abused and beaten by someone who should have been looking out for her. That is a level of loyalty alone that makes them invaluable to me. They are not rejects, you hear me! They are my family, they have proved their use again and again even if they are not the best fighters. Even if I could I would never cast any of them aside."
Amelia scoffed at Luna's story, she threw off Luna's arm before starting to walk away. "Fine, I see you made your choice. I'll show myself out." Amelia said as she disconnected Luna from the Archive Link and started to walk away. "Amelia, don't walk like that, we can talk this through-" Amelia scoffed again. "Talk? You're weak minded and despite having the power over life itself you submit yourself to toxic relationships, the most healthy is your fetish of being dominated by dragons and somehow dragon slayers. Your sister is a leech in bail and your family is too cowardice by hiding behind religion to get her the actual help she needs, you forgave your mother after she abandoned you and left you at the mercy of Hakar, who drunkenly beat you nearly to death many times, in a situation where you were the one keeping him close out of some stupid sense of family. You rely on spirits that are nothing more then sanity killers when you yourself are often the most powerful being in the room most of the time yet you are afraid to use your own power. Face it, I think I'd rather lose my power then deal with you any longer." She said as she started to walk away only stopping for a moment, musing one last thought. "You even have the ability to control me like a puppet, but yet I still walk, but hey, look on the bright side, for once one of your bad relationships is cutting itself."
Luna gritted her teeth as she clenched her fist, she closed her eyes, a tear streaming down her cheek before she tapped her wrist rematerializating the control device before unbuckling it from her wrist and tossing it at the gynoid. "You wanna go, fine, go, go right to hell! I took you in when you had no where to go, I welcomed you as a partner when we were both screwed over and abandoned, if this is how you treat me after all we've been through, if that is how you honestly think of me, then you can go die in a scrap heap you ungrateful toaster. I never tried to give up on anyone I care about, my family, and if you don't consider yourself part of that, fine. I did, but I won't tolerate you treating mine like garbage if you want no part of it." No more words occurred between the two as Amelia started to walk again, trying to follow the path the group took on their way in. "Good luck Akeya. I'm out."
Luna took a deep breath as she recomposed herself, wiping away the tear shed. She was still working on a job so she knew she had to fight every urge to cry or fall apart as she felt the betrayal of Amelia's words sting deep like a heated knife that suddenly froze. She returned to following Akeya, deeply ashamed of what transpired and feeling incredibly betrayed. "I'm so sorry you had to witness that. Sorry if I'm just an inconvenience..." She said, rubbing her wrist where the control device once sat. "Guess that's all I am, inconvenient. Most of my life I spent out of the way or in the way, reading, trying to help everyone, not using the fullest extent of my power. Guess I am worthless like she was trying to say... I never think that power or direct confrontation is the best approach, but is that so wrong? I made it clear that I can't abandon my spirits, nor do I want to." Luna stopped for a moment to really think about her spirits, how they supported her as her nature powers developed.
"Call them whatever you want, whenever I needed them, they would be there. I nearly did a lot of stupid things yet Tierra never failed to talked me down when my life would be ruined, when I couldn't sleep Aegis crawled into bed and made the cruel nights easier, and while Woody may have a drinking problem, he was always there to stop me from developing one. They might have their quirks, but I wouldn't trade their loyalty for anything."
WC 2386
PWC 8685/11,000
TWC 14895/22,000