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Amphi was still reeling at the lost of the Siren...His gorgeous voice and coloring. The simple easiness he had as a friend to be...

She was so sad that she just had nothing to say at the moment. No words to even Zar who had turned down becoming a weapon as well.

She was back in the cell in a heartbeat and shuddered as she looked at Mei, the only one to talk in their silence so far.

And she couldn't help but sit on the bed and tuck her head in her legs, tears staining her legs as she finally broke down from their situation.

Even with the talks with the hunters, she felt nothing for them now but distrust and loathing. Except for Wash. Wash was a good hunter...surely he would never let students becoming a weapon.

Amrita shambled back into the room in a more Zombie-like fashion, feeling some vague sense of relief at being in those four contained walls again. It was nice to not have to look at that conversion tube, to know that a friend went in, but would never walk out. This room gave her the opportunity to pretend it never happened, but that was just wishful thinking. She would never forget. The memory was fresh, but it was surreal now, every step she took felt...different. Like she was still dreaming. She knew she wasn't.

The brief conversation between Mei and Zar had her attention, and the latter was approached without hesitation. She couldn't think of anything to say, having lost all interest - or perhaps ability - to speak. Instead she reached out, pressing a hand to Zar's upper arm and offering him a small smile. She was glad he didn't go through it, but she couldn't bring herself to say it. Or anything, really. A brief squeeze to his arm and she was on the move again, heading towards one of the unclaimed cots.

She was about to crawl in when she heard Amphi. The patchwork paused, hands already on the cot with every intention to lay down and never move again, but just stared at the ghoul as if trying to process what was happening. All she wanted to do was lay down and cry, to force her body into rigor so she wouldn't have to move ever again; but Amphi was crying. How could she ignore someone who was crying?

It was simple; she couldn't. Instead of climbing into her own bunk, Amrita slid onto Amphi's to sit beside the ghoul. Wordlessly, the patchwork wrapped her arm around her shoulders, holding her close with one arm. Amrita bit back her own tears, blinking furiously through the burning behind her eye of the tears that wouldn't fall...and just held onto Amphi, giving the ghoul a reassuring squeeze.

Amrita shifted her weight, adjusting her limbs as Amphi moved to tuck against her to more comfortably accomodate the poor ghoul. No matter how badly Amrita wanted to cry, no matter how much her eye burned with the tears that wouldn't fall, she continued to try and comfort the ghoul. She rubbed Amphi's back, unable to find the words of comfort she so sorely wanted to give.

These were Hunters after all. Hunters who, despite their recent kind words and talks of partnership, hated them. Who knew what was planned for them now; there was no guarantee they'd be able to go home. She witnessed their lies in the Trance, something she still believed to be true.

Amrita had been looking away as she held Amphi; it was the only thing she could do to not completely break down herself. She couldn't, not yet. Not here. It was the sound of her name that brought her back, looking down at the ghoul and returning the watery eyed look with a smile that was trying to be hopeful.

It'll be okay, she wanted to say. "I'll miss him too." She said instead, her voice barely above a whisper in an attempt to hide how badly her voice was breaking. Instead she fixed her faltering smile, taking a moment to brush some of the tears from the ghoul's cheeks.

"I'm sure they're coming for us." She assured Amphi, raising her voice to let the others hear her too. This was the only thing she could think to say that she completely believed. She didn't know how long she'd been here, but it felt like days; someone must have noticed they were missing now...and if she knew her friends... "W-we just...have to hang in there, okay?" She started to pat down Amphi's hair like Lizzy used to do to her, finding a small amount of comfort in the repetitive motion. "We...we've gotta be strong now. ...C-can't let them break us. W-we can't let them win." But all she wanted to do was cry.

A system. Quotas and numbers and systems. He found it simultaneously chilling and reassuring, like he was standing once again firmly on terrain he could navigate. His attention was rapt as the death hunter laid out their files, explaining how things worked. They had attained a single weaponisation thus far - they required a second.

The Incubus' expression remained impassive and cold as the man went on, only fracturing into surprised as the photos from the other files were laid out. Nuru. Nuru could end up here just like him. It was the most chilling of thoughts, and one he hadn't even considered. He didn't know how they could know about the dog boil, but the means were irrelevant. It presented so many unforeseen problems, bolstered the doubts he'd already been carrying. It drove home his cowardice and made him doubt his decision to walk away from the cylinder primed to put an end to this ordeal.

It was another of those crossroads in his life. The ones he dreaded facing, where one choice made could dictate all else. He had never been good at choices, he tended to make the wrong ones.

Since he was a scareling he'd been walking two paths, the one his father wanted him to - that of business, of paperwork, of filing and corporate takeover - and the one his mother urged him down - the tradition of sexuality, of emotion, of love and sensual desires. He'd never been able to fully decide. This situation felt like having to choose with a finality one or the other. Would he embrace this system and play it for all it was worth, abandon the hesitance and emotion that made him weak, or would he instead choose to make one final grand gesture of devotion for a boil who might never realise the sacrifice that had been made for him? It was a tough decision and one he felt would have to be dwelt on for a long time if he was any sort of good person.

However, as he thought it over he realised with a sinking sort of dread something undeniable about himself. He wasn't a good person.

He wasn't a hero.

There were people out there who could lay down their lives for the ones they loved, who in a final act of compassion could give up all that they were for an ideal, for a belief.

Zar was not one of those people.

He cared deeply about Nuru, that was an irrefutable fact, but he found himself thinking more and more that it would be impossible to simply kill himself over a shining vision of love, over the idea that his death would somehow spare the dog boil indefinitely, especially when he would never know the truth of this island. He would never be prepared for what the hunters might do to get him on their side. And Zar would no longer be there to protect him, to shield his naivety.

No, he had to go back, he had to make it out of here - and if that meant playing the system, playing their game, then so be it.

After all, there was only one person he had to protect. He could look out for Nuru and was perfectly willing to turn over however many of his peers it took to do so. If there was a system, a machine, he was willing to shovel in as many bodies as it took to spare what was important to him. He was a demon, a demon of paperwork, of rules and regulations and practicalities. He was born to defend his own interests - and his interest were simply Nuru.

Faced with the crossroads he'd toyed with most of his life, he found in the end there was another path to take he'd never noticed. He didn't need to decide between black and white.

He'd been grey all along.

The images of the mangled humans simply made it all the clearer that all of this was more than about good and bad, transcendent of one faction being the antagonist over the other. He realised the cold truth was that - on a grander scale than their captor had said - all of this, all the fighting and death and every heinous crime - it was all a system.

Throwing himself under the wheels of the machine wouldn't stop it. It would trundle on regardless. It would be a waste, and in Zar's world, there was nothing more unforgivable than a waste.

He would not choose to die today.

He was back. The man that seemed to be responsible for most of...this. For Miss Israfel being taken from them, turned into an instrument to be utilized against them. Still recruiting, as if any of them would agree after they had seen what had happened to the siren. Chosen, chosen, chosen. No reasons why, no idea what he could have done that would make the hunters believe that he would join them. Maybe some things that they said were a temptation, but that was all it was. A temptation. They would be released. The idea that someone else would be taken...it grated at him. But maybe it would be someone like Miss Israfel, who had explained why she wanted what she wanted, even if Yin did not agree with her decision. The hunter was just saying things, just talking about them being endangered. He had no false hope of being rescued, five days or earlier if he took his own fate into his hands. Somehow. Maybe.

Something was pulled out, papers, and papers did not tempt him. But curiosity was compelling, especially when the hunter began to talk about explaining the system. It was almost like a professor, about to explain something he did not understand. Some of them used boards to write on or images or other illustrations. He got up and moved toward the window to look. Candidates. That was how they saw them. Two needed though? They had had two, but Zar had dbacked out of that. But that simply meant that all of them would refuse. The hunters got their one and it would all be over with.

It seemed he still had false hopes after all. Papers were being shuffled, new ones put out. Words that he could maybe struggle to read, but he was not, merely giving them a cursory glance before an image caught his eye. His throat tightened, blood draining away. No. It could not be. One of them in his situation. Making this choice. Alexander. They had his picture, and a quick glance and a bit of concentration revealed that they had his name as well. They knew who he was. How, Yin did not know. But they knew about Alexander. He could be next. They might have had a pact, not to be weapons, to resist together. To do whatever it took. But if the difference was between him being weaponized and Alexander being forced to face this...it was not a choice. He would protect him.

Another folder was being pulled out. Human bodies. There was no way to prove it was anyone from Halloween. It was not a student, surely. They did not have permits. Maybe it was a horseman, but Yin did not even know them that well. They could not really be held accountable for that. The images were devastating, but there was no proof shown as to who or what caused it.

His mouth was dry as he tore his eyes from the images, looking at the Death Hunter. "But if...if one of us chose to...to have the same fate as Miss Israfel," he was stumbling over the words, mind trying to work out everything, to try to make sure that he was hearing the right thing. "If you get two of us you will leave those others alone? You would leave A--you would leave those in the pictures out of this?"

Amphi looked up from her spot on Amrita's shoulders to listen to the hunter. Since coming here, She had begun to realize the man was a pain their a**. Even more so, he was so bluntly honest and true...if not rude, that she had nothing else to do but listen..

And she shuddered. She was friends Tybalt, watching his image flash on the screen and imagined that they were Danny or Roch instead. Her heart ached at the thought of THEM being caught, of anyone ELSE being caught here.

Yin and Amrita both had lept to action, causing the mermaid to reach out for the undead ghoul. "Amrita..." She squeezed. "Maybe it would be better if I did." She wiped her tears..."I got along well with one of the hunters, Some of them aren't so bad...it's ones like him that make us hate them..." She bit her lip nervously, hands shaking.

This mermaid was not brave, but she wouldn't let this students sacrifice themselves! And this system, she didn't understand in it in full because when would the next time they went on a hunt for students be? Tex's and Arcana's class had been a lot of students that went missing....how was it any different now?

Her lips was almost bloody with how much she was gnawing on it with nervous energy. All she could think of was Roch brought here, forced in the cell..."Amrita...Please...Don't go. I'll do it instead." Roch would need Amrita after all. A lot of people counted on her! She was involved with everything! Amphi on the other hand...she was just there, A fish trying to live on land.

Yin could not help but hear what the ghoul was telling Miss Amphitrite that she was doing it for them. No matter how much she said she wanted to it rang false to him. He turned to Miss Amrita and cleared his throat.

"No Miss Amrita. I ave already watched one ghoul get changed and I will not stand by as another sacrifices herself. I will volunteer." Really, it was only fair. He had no family barring Princess Eva, and if he did this...Alexander might hate him but he would be protecting him. Protecting all of the friends he had made. It had been less than a year since he had come to Amityville, they would get over him. He was just a boil.