“Tell me something,” she asked them bitterly, her face twisted into a grimace as she looked down upon those that had taken her in. “Tell me why, when all I have ever done is try to help, you all turn on me when you find out that my fate is out of your control?” They were silent. “Tell me!” she screamed out brokenly, and took grim pleasure when they flinched back. “You’re fate is to destroy us all,” Mafalia hissed out, stepping to the front of the group. She was trying to be strong for the rest of them. For once, it was a facade. “And did I choose that?” Amalie shot back, receiving only a low growl. Around her, the others still stood unmoving, watching with pursed lips and breaking hearts. “The answer is no,” she snapped. “If I had any idea what I was supposed to do, then I would have told you all much sooner. In Paradise’s good name... why don’t any of you believe me?” Silence yet again. “Is it because I look different? Talk different? Is it because I’ve just *ruined* you all? Or is it because you’re just a bunch of hypocritical, power-hungry fools?” “We’re not power-hungry,” Mafalia snapped back, which Amalie had to scoff at. “You’re one to talk.” Within seconds, she was pinned against a wall, sharp claws restraining her wrists. “Say that again,” the demon spat. “I *dare* you.” Amalie felt a twinge of fear spike within her heart, but she would never have spoken of it. Nor did she. She just stomped her foot down hard on top of Mafalia’s to get her to loosen her grip before quickly side-stepping her and walking swiftly towards the double doors. “When you look for where I am, I won’t be there.” And with that, she was gone. Over the next few days, that was proven all too much. Amalie’s pendant turned up on the front steps, tossed down carelessly so that no OPAL recruit could track her. At her apartment, everything had been sealed away neatly, as one might do if they were going on a long trip, but both her car and bike remained. In OPAL’s weaponry, her sword was gone. When a week passed with no word from her, everyone started to worry far more than they had been. Search parties were sent out, posters were put up, and frequencies of all sorts of planetary communications were tapped into to try to find the missing savior. But it was as if she had just... vanished. Most of the recruits had quickly realized their mistakes after Amalie had left. For some, it took a few weeks. But when she was gone for two months, that’s when Mafalia finally snapped. “It’s not fair!” she shouted in the bedroom of her own apartment, throwing a dagger so hard at the wall that it split the wood. “They’re being completely unreasonable! She’s a *destroyer*, not a savior! They’ve all gone mad!” Another blade thrown, this time shredding a poster on her wall. Her landlord would not be happy about the property damage, but she could care less. She’d done worse, after all. Her Norvaryan seeing-flower trembled in its pot on her desk when Mafalia pounded her fist down next to it. “It’s just not fair!” The problem was that she knew it was. She knew that this day would come, deep down in her heart. She just never wanted to face it. But she had to. Glancing over at her mirror, she hated what looked back. She was so ghastly, her hair a mess from running her fingers through it and her her eye bags an ugly purple from far too many sleepless nights of waiting for an updated report. When she slammed her fist into the glass out of fury and helplessness, it shattered around her. As the shards fell, she fell with them, and her body wracked with heavy sobs. Only then did she truly understand that she was the reason why the girl she had loved so fiercely but so silently was most likely never coming back. And there was nothing she could do to fix it.