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The lioness was practically fuming, cheeks flushed with anger one could almost see the thick clouds of steam billowing from her ears. Fists clenched tightly at her side, knuckles turning white from the tension, she walked with quick, stiff strides across the ballroom. Her bare feet thudded softly against the tile, the coldest stone meeting the flesh of the soles of her feet, ridden of those ridiculous heels Lafelle had forced her to wear. What would her aunt say if she had used an accessory to fashion as an accessory to assault. Assault on an old teammate whom she couldn't stand the prescence of. That dammed wolf. Speaking of matters who knew nothing of. Who was he to judge her actions when he knew nothing of her past or the dreams following g her every step. He had never bothered to ask and she had never bothered to share. Not that she had ever bothered to ask him about his past either. They were always too busy trying to one up each other, if they weren't at each others throats. If it weren't for Prism, they likely would have turned into a rolling ball of teeth and claws in the middle of the ball. Kenna may have struck first, but if she knew anything about Feralis, he wouldn't leave it unmatched. Rather, the stupid robot had sent her on some silly quest to obtain a scroll that didn't even matter to her from some stranger she did not care to meet. Kenna knew she had lushed too far. She knew she owed Feralis an apology, but she was too stubborn to swallow her pride. Maria was a different story, for every time she lashed out at the wolf it, every time he lashed back, it affected their blue-haired friend who was stuck in a wheelchair and unable to intervene like she once had. Whether it was to douse the flames in gasoline or extinguish them completely, she was helpless to any of it now. All she could do was sit there and watch. Kenna had already had caused the girl enough pain, but she just couldn't seem to contain herself around Feralis. Not that she ever had much luck in that act.

Letting out a long huff of air, she would stride forward, coming to a stop in the center of the dance floor. She didn't pay any mind to the other students dancing, pushing past those that were in her way without any regard to their feelings. She just wanted to get the stupid scroll and get out if this blasted event. The task was made bit difficult by the fact that she didn't know the name of the person she was looking for, nor what they looked like. Prism said they would be waiting near the dancefloor, but that didn't exactly rly help. There were so many people. Too many people cluster around her. That alone made her feel restless, uncomfortable, like a caged animal with no possible hope of escaping. It caused her entire body to go rigid as she turned in a slow deliberate circle, looking for someone without the slightest clue as to who she was actually looking for. It was in that last, slow turn that she caught sight of something that caused her blood to run cold. White feathers, with long white strands of hair to match. White hair that matched so closely to her own, pale blue eyes, delicate, doll-like features, also so similar to her own. The feature that stood out among everything else was the grand white wings protruding from her back. The trade mark of the Lioncourts. The most significant difference between the two, for where she lacked wings she had a fluffy white pair of ears adorning her instead. The one thing that had caused her to be hunted nearly her entire life. Hunted by a shell of a woman, an evil soul inhabiting an empty husk. The very husk that was standing before her.

Eteria.

Her heart was racing, pounding I her hears so loudly it caused her head to throb. There was no room for thinking or for logic thought. Panic, it coursed through her veins like shards if ice. Ripping through her delicate insides and destroying all in its path. It mixed with the adrenaline, white hot as it pumped through her heart, burning her from the inside out. Fire and ice at war within her own body. Fear and anger boiled with in her stomach. Bubbling thickly like the most venomous of poisons stored over a flame. It was the panic that drove her forward. The lion acted on pure instinct, an animal cornered, ready to fight tooth and nail to escape with her life. There was no thought as her arm swept up, vicious clowns protruding from her skin, glinting beneath the golden lights of the chandeliers. In one fluid moment, pale skin blurring with its speed, it would be impossible for anyone to realize what was about to happen, let alone stop her. Claws would rip through the tender flesh of a pale cheek, drawing crimson streaks of red. Scarlet, such a stark contrast against the white. Vibrant drops of blood dripped from a chin, splattering across the pristine tile of the ballroom.

For just a moment, the world stood still.

Kendall wouldn't realize her mistake until it was much too late. Not until steely eyes were staring wide at the crimson drops on the ground, the sticky substance dripping from her own claws. Eteria could not bleed. Multiple times Kenna had watched her be struck with such a blow ghar her entrails should have become her outsides. Yet when the woman was cut open, there was nothing but darkness. Cracked porcelain skin revealing nothing but emptiness beneath. She had just struck an innocent human. One who had never done anything but try to help her. Kenna was a lot of things, rude, brash, abrasive, but as terrible a person as she was, she was not evil. She had a sense of justice, of what was right and wrong, and while her judgment was often clouded, twisted and beaten by years of hardship. While she often spat cruel and venomous words at anyone unfortunate enough to have the extreme displeasure of speaking to her. While she was often violent and aimed to draw blood, she would never aim to hurt a person that had not on some level or another violated her. The guilt of her mistake, of the atrocity she had committed, was freezing her in place. She was unable to move. Unable to speak or even blink. Bubbling pools of liquid mercury were growing cold, turning to stone. It was a dead look, a look of a corpse. If not for the rapid rise and fall of her chest, one might think she had fallen to the grasp of death. It was a look only one person would recognize. A look that had pocessed her expression years ago when her.parents had died. Again when she had seen the remnants of her mother. Once more, when she had watched her beloved cousin befall the same fate her mom had. The same fate that had been set up for her with the burning crest upon her collar.

Realization would slowly sink in. Realization of the only person this could be. Faded memories of running through the Lioncourt manner. Chasing after Sensui. The stories he told her of another little lion court, a little bird rather than a kitten. They'd never gotten to meet, likely because Eteria didn't want her daughter playing with the impure blood of the feline. The Lioncourt that adorned fluffy white ears and claws rather than the grand white wings that were so reveled. She knew who this girl was, standing before her. Sensui's little sister. What would Sensui think of her now? Surely he would hate her, strike her down for assaulting his baby sister. A person Kenna should have worked to protect in his absence, and yet she did the opposite. He would be ashamed, as he should be. Any punishment he saw fut to deliver would be something she knew very well she deserved. Stormy eyes were burning, shimmering with the salty liquid welling up with them.

The feline was struggling, lost to the real world as she traveled endlessly through the memories that haunted her past. There was no escape as she desperately grasped to the strings of reality only to sink further and further beneath the weight of her own pain. Moments of clarity were far and few between them, clinging to them without enough strength to hold on. Images were flashing behind her vision in a confusing tangible she just couldn't keep up with, past and present colliding with a force that shook her to the core. She wasn't really here, at least not entirely, bouncing back between moments of clarity and fantasy quicker than anyone could keep pace. No one seemed to understand why she had seemed to pierce herself o. The spear, but she didn't completely understand it herself. She didn't even seem entirely aware of it. Neither on complete control of her thoughts or actions, the events of the night would later befuddle even her. Once she had the time to a tually wrap her mind around it. Having acted out on the defensive instincts of a predator, she was left a trembling pile of guilt and regret. A mighty lion had transformed into a frightened kitten right before their eyes. It was a vulnerability that hardly ever made it's way to the surface. A fragileness that only Maria would have ever seen before. Her best friend, who had been with her through the best and the worst of times. The ghost of a girl who was now standing in her astral form, apologizing for an action that was not her own. No amount of comfort would change her mind, it was a battle a small part of her in the back of her mind knew she would be faced to fight one day. Even the one who had threatened to kill her and aimed his spear so valiantly towards her chest seemed taken aback by her actions. He would ask, but Kenna would not answer. She couldn't, for even if she could speak. She didn't know. She didn't know why any of this had happened and she certainly didn't know why she continued to do the things she did. She had acted purely in panic of seeing g Yui who looked so startlingly like Eteria and had been reduced to nothingness as both the reality of her actions and her defeats of the past bombarded her.

The woman with the white hair was speaking, but her words were falling on deaf ears because there was a separate entity dominating her mind. The eerily terrifying voice of Eteria. There was a pressure on her chest, thrusting her backwards. Stumbling several steps as the spear tip left her body, another waterfall of red splashed down her front. Her chest was throbbing and the renewed pain kept sending her backwards. Back to that day Eteria had branded her with the Lioncourt chest. The day the woman decided the little lion no longer needed to be purged entirely but rather used for her own evilbidding. The day she only just managed to escape with her life. Thanks to Sensui. Grey eyes would lock with that of azure, blinking in confusion only to widen slightly as a palm collided firmly with her cheek, nails dragging jaggedly across her face. They were neither long enough or sharp enough to cause nearly the amount of damage that Kenna had done, but it was enough to dig at the tender skin of her cheek. Enough to draw vibrant crimson welts across pale flesh. Enough to bring her back from whatever nightmare she was trapped in. For one who had so violently slashed at the poor bird just a few short minutes ago, one might expe t some sort of outlast from her now. However, that was not the case. Kenna knew she deserved whatever punishment the rest of them saw fit and she wasn't going to shy away from it. She would hardly even flinch, biting the inside of her cheeks to keep from letting out even the slightest sound of pain. As Yui's hand rose again, Kenna would brace herself for the attack, ready to take the assault on like a lashing. However, the second blow never came, instead she would find the girl falling slack against her chest. "Yui... I... It was... I just..." Once again Kenna attempted to answer the questions in a voice so meek, lacking the mighty lion pride she often bore. Once again she failed, but a question might be asked of how she new the name of a woman she had never actually met before. As Yui fell limp, pale arms would only just manage to break free from their shell shock in order to wind around the girl and keep her.from falling to the ground. A surprising amount of strength would be shone as she lowered Yui to the floor to avoid further injury, letting her fall back to her scout. The lion had returned to the present but shimmering pools of mercury were still shrouded by ghosts of the past.

It was a little nickname that brought with it a roaring sense of nostalgia. Little Lion. Something her parents started calling her when a younger, playful version of Kenna had insisted that she was much to big and much too tough to be called little cub anymore. After all, she had been a whole nine years old. She wasn't cute or little, but ferocious and mighty and she would prove that with the most beastly of roars she could manage. Her dislike for cutsie nicknames was something that followed her back to her younger days. It must have been the lion's pride that always seemed to got the better of her, or perhaps it was as simple as even as a child she had never appreciated being viewed as weak. However, as her world was shattered and her heart was hardened, the slight flustered frustration from such acts had boiled into an indignant infuriation. Perhaps just one of the many things that changed in her personality, all her negative straights being amplified while the positive ones were buried deeper inside. Maybe it was something else entirely, something she wasn't willing to admit to anyone, including herself. Maybe it just hurt too much, now that they were gone. If Kenna were in a normal mindset, the teacher likely would have received an entirely different reaction. Instead, her head drifted slowly towards the woman, blinking as a fresh stream of tears smeared across blood-stained cheeks, burning as the salty liquid fell over tender welts. Mercury eyes would lock onto yellowish hues as if she were noticing her first the first time, despite the tight grip she had on her arm. The feline had been to lost within the depths of her mind, too dissolved in the seen before her that she'd hardly noticed until now. The words the woman spoke were confusing. It was almost as if she knew the inner workings of her mind. "How?" It was all she said, a soft and confused question. Surely the guilt and the fear was written all over her face, but how would she know to assure her that 'she' wasn't here. Did she know about Eteria? Was it something to do with her semblance? But furthermore, why was she comforting her? Why wasn't she scolding her? For maiming an innocent bystander, that was certainly what she deserved if not far worse.

The feline was breaking. She had managed to drag herself back from her own memories, with the help of Yui, but reality was crashing down on her harder with all the force of hurricane. Confusion, mixed with the guilt, and of course the fear, it was a much too toxic concoction. Where a firm slap had brought her back to her senses, Kail's calming voice was pushing her closer towards the mental break down she was teetering on the edge of. The girl was emotionally damaged, and thanks to a number of factors, a certain shark included, she didn't exactly respond to emotional factors just the way once might expect. Body trembling, teeth but down hard on her lower lip to fight back a sob that was threatening to shake her body. All that pain she fought so hard to keep locked away had been resurfaced with the flood of memories. Her whole body was throbbing. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep it together, if this state could really be called such, but she was desperate not to let anyone see her when she fell and hit rock bottom. She needed medical attention, not nearly as badly as the bloodied bird on the floor, but a wound like this couldn't continue to go untreated. It wasn't fatal, but it was deep enough to need looked at, not to mention, an infection was a possibility. However, she didn't care at the moment already her arm was tugging against Kail, straining to be free. Whether the teacher held on to ensure she was punished or ensure she was safe was another mystery entirely. One Kenna didn't have the time to think on. Her mind was too crowded. It was when Prism approached that she took advantage of the situation. With everyone's else's attention on the robot, she forced her wrist backwards against Kail's with all the strength she could muster. The woman's hold was strong, but it was a simple movement created for even the weakest of people to be able to use against much stronger opponents. If she failed, she would attempt again, and again until she slipped free. There was an almost desperate look in her eyes. She didn't want to be here. She couldn't be here. So the moment she managed to break free, she would turn around and sprint, pushing past anyone who stood in her path.

Bare feet would thud against the hard floor, painfully so, but it was nothing compared to the hole in her chest. Both literal and metaphorical. Yui's slap might have been the best thing for her, for had she slipped away sooner who knew where she would have ended up in that dazed state and right now the girl might as well have been a Beacon for the Grimm. She was more sensible now, but no more stable. Even so, while her feet longed to carry her outside, she instead continued down the halls, running until she no longer heard the chatter of the ball. Pushing through the first door she came too, she would find herself in a dark and empty room. It wasn't very large and she wasn't sure of its purpose. Perhaps a vacant office. The door would close behind her. Followed by the soft thud of her back hitting the door as her body slid to a. Rumpled heap on the ground. The lioness wasn't particularly fast, which wouldn't make it hard for anyone to follow her. However, she hoped their attention would be focused around helping Yui. For as she collapsed against the ground, a breathless sob ripped through her chest, muffled by her own hands pressed tightly over her mouth. She was broken, wrecked, a complete mess, and she certainly wasn't ready to face anyone like this.