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So close. So very close. Only a few more seconds, just enough time to leap back out of range of retaliation, and Iris would be hers. Tanzanite's features were a mask of concentration as she tied the cables off, and only a slight widening of her eyes gave any indication that she was aware of what had suddenly occurred.

The attack came as a shock, and as such there was no way to avoid it. The ribbon wound tightly around her throat, and it wasn't long before Tanzanite could feel the thing searing her skin. It warmed consistently, as though her skin was pressed to a slowly heating stove. With one final tug to make sure the cable was secure, Tanzanite reached up, thinking to snatch the ribbon away from the throat. It was a useless endeavor. After only a few moments of clawing at the light, she pulled slightly burnt fingertips away. Struggling wouldn't do her any good.

Much like Iris, Tanzanite was not one to lose her composure in the heat of combat. Thought before instinct, logic before reflex; it was the only way to win. The only way to live. While Tanzanite had no plans to kill the senshi, she had no doubt that Iris would slice through her throat without a second thought. The woman dripped conviction the way Tanzanite did contempt. That mocking grin.. that pointing finger... the disrespect gnawed at Tanzanite like a thorn in a lion's paw. She dared to show an agent of the Negaverse such contempt? To treat her like just another silly girl in a schoolyard brawl? Such arrogance did not deserve her mercy. Tanzanite would show her. She would show all of them.

Most opponents would have pulled back, saving their own hides at the expense of letting the senshi escape. Most would have struggled to get the ribbon from around their throat. And perhaps she should have when she smelt the strong, sickening aroma of burning skin rising up. It filled her senses, stinging at her nostrils.

However, neither Tanzanite nor Iris were like most opponents.

Fueled by her hatred, Tanzanite reached out for the senshi. She could feel her muscles growing slower, her head growing light as she was deprived of oxygen. Yet she moved with confidence, reaching out to wrap her fist around Iris' pointed finger. Her lips curled in a terrible grin, her cold eyes narrowed. That emotionless mask was freed, replaced by an expression of such hatred, such incredible loathing, that most people would be unnerved by the sight of it. However pretty Tanzanite might be, her hatred seemed to contort her features into a monstrosity, colder and more empty inside than the Negaverse itself.

“Game over...” she whispered hoarsely.

If she managed to take hold of that pointing finger, Tanzanite would pour her strength into one hard flick of her wrist, aiming to snap it backwards and shatter Iris' concentration.

If Tanzanite had the oxygen to speak, her words might have been along the lines of, You ******** b***h I think you just broke my ******** nose. However, she did not have the oxygen to do much of anything without putting her life at risk. The tables were slowly turning, and even though she could feel a small trickle of blood dripping down her face, she didn't have time for anymore words.

This needed to end, and it needed to end now.

With her head reeling from the collision and her face turning red with the lack of oxygen, Tanzanite wasted no time. She grabbed Iris by the shoulders, abandoning her desire to have the senshi watch as the helpless boy died. Pulling hard against the ribbon, grunting as it burnt into the back of her neck, Tanzanite thrust her head forward.

Objective? Head-butt that b***h right in the face. If she could just knock her out, she could kill the boy and get away. If she could just get Iris down for the count, she might live to become stronger, to become strong enough to come back and finish her off once and for all. Tanzanite savored the thought of ripping the starseed from the Senshi's arrogant chest as she thrust her head forward again, ignoring the splitting pain echoing in her skull.

She had underestimated Iris; it would not happen again.

Tanzanite's breath came in one long, shuddering gasp. Her head reeled with pain, the world spinning around her, but she was alive. She was alive and conscious, and it was more than she could say for the senshi. Tanzanite so desperately craved to plunge her hand into the girl's chest and rip out her star seed, but she suppressed the desire. There were more important things to do. She stumbled backwards, allowing the unconscious senshi to fall like a sack of potatoes.

It took a long moment for Tanzanite to regain her composure. Her nose dripped blood, and the burn which ringed her throat flared with pain as though there were still a hot iron pressed against it. Every slight motion was painful, and it took every bit of her self control not to drop-kick the unconscious woman in the ribcage as she untangled her cables and draped them over one shoulder. With one last disgusted glance to the prone woman, Tanzanite made her way to the unconscious boy.

With his star seed in her possession, he would meet a swift end. The closest piece of shrapnel Tanzanite could find, a twisted bit of car frame, was plunged through the base of his throat. There was no screaming, no pleasurable and ear-shattering sound to light up the night, but only a soft, bubbling gurgle as blood oozed out over his chest. Tanzanite held open his eyelids with slightly singed fingertips, savoring that identifiable moment where the boy passed from this world to the next. The light left his eyes as though a switch had been flicked, and it was only this small comfort which would return a smile to Tanzanite's face.

She would leave both of them there, the boy's body dragged over to be placed slightly on top of Iris. Tanzanite wanted her to wake up to those cold, dead eyes. Let her see the price of her failure.

Victorious by only a small margin, Tanzanite fled into the night.