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Hvergelmir did not want to stay long enough to find out who the nearing auras belonged to. It was enough to know their rank, their alignment: a royal senshi of the Negaverse and some allies along with them -- more than sufficient to dispatch two knights. Especially when one of the knights was Hvergelmir.

She wasn't sure, though, that she could convince Hyperborea to retreat. The other Cosmos knight had always had a stubborn streak.

"I can't fight unless I'm attacked," she answered as a reminder. "These aren't good odds for us. We should get out of here." Hvergelmir bit her lip. "Come on, let's -- let's head that way, down that rear access street?" she asked. If she was lucky, Hyperborea would be amenable to it. If not, the other knight would likely dig in her heels.

Not ideal.

Hyperborea was about to tell Hvergelmir That she doubted they had time to get away when her answer appeared in person. "Hver stand back." She said with a sober seriousness summoning her bow.

"Well what can I say, I've never been a fan of my dorm's curfew." She retorted to the corrupted eternal. The agents began their attack. This was not the first time Hyperborea had had to fight multiple enemies but it wasn't any easier now. She was doing pretty well blocking their weapons with her bow and taking a swing at one of them when the opportunity presented itself.

She noticed that the eternal senshi wasn't attacking. Hyperborea's brain raced to figure out why. It was then that Hyperborea noticed that through the course of the fight she had been pushed away from Hvergelmir and towards the observing senshi. Maybe her magic is done through touch. That'd be bad, I have be careful. Damn! She thought as she blocked another attack.

Persephone was waiting, for the younger Knight to be driven for her. She adored her squad for their coordination - and for the deference they gave her, when many officers mistrusted and sometimes undermined the Negaverse's only Corrupted Princess.

"Oh, Hvergelmir," she said, and her tone was sweet and sugared, "yes. We do." And then she reached into herself, and burst from Eternal to Prncess, great black bat wings stretching wide behind her.

"Persephone Crystal Power!"

Calling on her Princess magic with so few opponents was unnecessary. It was reckless.

It was making a point.

The cold fog of her Princess magic rolled out around her, and she inhaled the scent of pomegranates, and she just kept smiling that terribly serene smile.

Hvergelmir didn't understand what had happened, at first. Hyperborea had cast her magic, firing one of her bright arrows at them -- but Hvergelmir had initially assumed it was a misfire, an attempt to help her gone wrong. She couldn't see.

But she could hear.

"No!" she shouted immediately, turning blindly toward the sound, to the general direction she knew the knight to be in, and stumbling forward, trying frantically to get to her even through her dizziness. "Hyperborea, don't!"

The agents she was fighting were temporarily blinded, too -- but they didn't need to be able to see to stop her. They just needed to get a hand around one of her arms, one of her legs, and drag her back, arresting her momentum. Hvergelmir flailed and tried to jerk free, but it was no use -- Persephone's magic left her weak and nauseous, and she couldn't extract herself from their grip.

Hyperborea was going to sell them both.

"Don't do this! Hyperborea! You have to run!"

"Hyperborea, don't!!!"

It was too late.

It was done before Hvergelmir's vision even cleared of the effects of Hyperborea's magic -- the bargain struck, the change made. It was done, and she didn't even need to be able to see it to know.

She felt it. The only friendly aura in the area began to dwindle, to twist, to shift into something distasteful and ugly.

It was funny how fast it happened. Hvergelmir was suddenly very much alone.

Was this really all it took to spur some people into service among Metallia's murderous army? The belief that the Resistance fought a losing battle? Was the cause they'd all been fighting for really so unimportant, compared to saving one's own hide?

Hvergelmir's skin was clammy with cold sweat, half from struggle and half from Persephone's crippling magic. She felt sick to her stomach -- but she didn't think the magic was the only reason why.

It was hard to stand. Her head was a blur of dizziness and her vision was mostly still spots; she thought she might throw up at any moment. The two Negaverse agents on either side of her were holding her up as much as they were keeping her contained.

Hvergelmir prepared herself for the possibility of death as best she could -- which was not very well. She sighed. Hyperborea had bargained for Hvergelmir's life, but there was no guarantee that Persephone would keep her promise now that the deed was done. There was no guarantee that Hyperborea would even care.

"This is a mistake," she said hollowly, trying to focus. "You've sold your soul... in exchange for your life. A... terrible bargain."

You will never come out ahead in this deal. You cannot change this system from within it. The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

It was ugly, the change in Hyperborea's voice. Immediate. Either Chaos was working on her quickly, or she'd been faking another personality for some time.

Whatever it was, five years had passed since she'd first met Hyperborea of the Cosmos, and apparently in five years she'd never learned to plan any deeper than the immediate choice in front of her. Hyperborea had been so young, though -- had lost her parents so early. Maybe she'd never really stood a chance, since then: in some ways, parts of her still belonged to that shattered fourteen year old girl, who'd been so unprepared for what heroism looked like in the real world.

Hvergelmir's sorrow for her was fit to break her heart.

"No one is born a hero," she answered, weeping. Her vision was starting to clear. "You have to choose to be a hero -- and choose and choose and choose again -- even if it never rewards you in the way you want. If I never taught you that much . . . I'm sorry I failed you, Hyperborea."