[03] Arctic Sector FIGHT

[DA 2009]

TAMSIN VS. SOPHIA

Slowly, but surely, the effects of the cocktail faded away, leaving the two girls with something of an emptiness in the wake of their jubilation. Their tolerance for it was either higher than the rest—a surprising feat—or perhaps they had received doses that were too low. Sophia groaned as she put a palm to her head, and her line of sight followed Tamsin’s to the snowman. It was as if the very same thoughts ran through her head, except for one. Immediately, the priestess could see an image of Tempo flashing in her eyes, and in her jest, had almost done the same thing to this poor girl, and she would have done it happily, thinking it nothing but a joke. The sudden unsettling horror of it didn’t sit well at all. After all, she’d made a snowman with the girl, so she couldn’t very well kill her, could she?

“I don’t…really want to do this,” Tamsin admitted finally.

Sophia looked her square in the eyes. “Neither do I. But, we don’t have any choice. I…have to see my friends again.”

“I have to see my master again,” the maid replied.

It was odd. The fight was becoming oddly reminiscent of that Sophia had had with Piper, and after a moment of thought, she realized she hadn’t seen Piper in a while, and briefly wondered what happened with the girl. Piper may not have been a friend, but that didn’t mean she was any less important as a life. Knowing that she’d given Tempo a much quieter way out than the boy would have likely gotten from anyone else, Sophia wrestled with the prospect of repeating history. This girl was…different, kindred somehow. They both wanted the same things, and if it really came down to it, Sophia was going to be the one to get what she wanted, but she couldn’t help but feel remorse as the barrier of the happy cocktail opened the threshold of guilt that it had been holding back.

“I can make it painless, you know,” Sophia offered. “It would hurt, for a moment, and then it would just be like going to sleep.”

“You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t take you up on that offer,” Tamsin smiled sadly. “So what do you want to do?”

Sophia thought for another moment, and then, completely reiterating the words that had been laced into her mind by her very first opponent, said, “One attack, for real. We both hit each other at the same time, and whoever gets up first, wins.”

Tamsin nodded. She had to be brave, for her master. She had already made up her mind to find him; he’d asked for help, and she was going to give it. The maid flipped the knife expertly in her hands, poising it against the inside of her arm for a quick strike. Sophia had nothing but her two fists, but as she had proven once before, it was all she needed. The wind whistled around them as their duel ticked down to the quick-draw. As if on cue, both of them launched at each other at the same time. Tamsin’s knife came up, and so did Sophia’s hand, charged with venomous ki. The weapon cut a shallow line along Sophia’s arm from the wrist all the way up to the elbow, sending a spray of blood splattering across the snowman. Tamsin, however, froze before she could complete the maneuver: Sophia had gone straight for the throat, literally. Her arm had gotten in the way of the intended path of the knife, and her hand gripped tightly on the maid’s neck, pumping a steady flow of poisonous energy directly into her veins. Tamsin’s arms fell uselessly to her sides.

Before Sophia could inject enough, her mind played a trick on her, and she could see Tempo’s dying expression superimposed over Tamsin’s body. She squeezed her eyes shut momentarily, and the image vanished. The priestess immediately halted the flow.

“You lose,” she whispered. “Just walk away. Go back to your master.”

Realizing Tamsin was being given a second chance, the servant girl merely nodded wordlessly.

“And I do not want to have to fight you again,” Sophia continued, feeling the same old well of tears. Trustingly, she released her hands, and Tamsin clutched her wounded throat and stumbled away, off into the tundra on the other side of the stasis field. Sophia looked at the blood-covered snowman, wondering why she’d been allowed to be so happy, only to cruelly have it ripped away from her at exactly the wrong moment.