I turned my back on the body to walk to the remains of the airship. I skirted the main body, looking under any debris that could have trapped someone underneath. A glimmer of gold led my eyes to the second corpse. The Chartreuse mother was suspended in the branches of a tree, her blood coating the leaves red and darkening the charred remains of her dress. The next was a form burnt to a crisp underneath a hunk of metal. From the size, it could only have been the weathered husband of the woman. Keane’s body was impaled on twisted debris. The ghost of his touch made my skin crawl. I left their remains where I found them.

Having made a full circle, I entered what remained of the airship. It was a quick search. The hull had already been fully exposed, the engine rooms were completely gone, and the cockpit was crushed. My only remorse was that some pilots or crew had been caught in this whole mess, but the guilt was brief.

I left the ship, sitting on debris embedded partially in the ground. Obsidian hopped from my shoulder and fluttered to my lap. He watched me, his eyes as unchanging as always. I sighed. I couldn’t keep anything from him.

“It feels… wrong,” I told him. “I mean, I don’t feel bad about them dying. It just doesn’t seem right. I thought that if my dad was ever gone I would feel relieved. He was horrible and I meant nothing to him. But now, I don’t feel a thing. Seeing his body didn’t make me sad or angry or anything. I felt better when I was yelling at him. I could pull him apart without laying a hand on him. I loved seeing the Chartreause’s reactions and the stunned look of my family. Them being dead doesn’t give me that. Shouldn’t I feel relieved right now?”

Obsidian tilted his head as if considering the question. “Satisfaction comes in many forms. Some find it in glory and victory. Others in possessions and wealth. Some find it in control, having power over the narrative. Some even relish in the making of chaos simply for the madness. Not feeling one over the other is not a bad thing. It just means that you have your own way of finding your end.”

I hung onto every word. Obsidian had never spoken this much and the sheer volume left me awed. I tickled the feathers around his bone mask. “How does a bird get to be so smart?” I smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Thank you. I feel better.” Obsidian just stared me right in the eye, any previous wisdom lost in his gaze.

As I was starting to rise, I heard it. A tiny, raspy sound that barely carried over the breeze. I paused, listening as the seconds dragged by and the sound barely reached my ears. It took a few times, but I was able to get a grasp of the direction it was in. I moved away from the main hull of the airship and towards a section that was much farther away from the crash site. I peered around the hunk of metal, drawing a sharp breath at the sight before me.

Two figures were on the ground, one still and the other trembling over the first. The shaking figure heard me approach, turning her head to the side to look at me from the corner of her eye. Enyo was a wreck. Her hair was coated in dirt and burnt away in uneven patches. Her sash was gone, the dress underneath missing several jewels and now several shades darker than it had been earlier. Some of the fabric had been torn to expose deep wounds that ooze blood. Her exposed skin was worse, utterly covered in burns and lacerations. Still, some of her shoulders were uninjured, and her front was unmarred.

Deino was in worse shape. Her sky blue dress was drenched red where it hadn’t been shredded to ribbons. A portion of her scalp was singed away. None of her body was without injury, undamaged flesh harder to find than the wounds. She didn’t lift her head, her chest moving with the slightest rise and fall, and her eyes open a fraction.

Enyo stared at me with tears running down her face, mixing with the blood already spilled. The whites of her right eye had filled with crimson. She was failing, her arms barely able to hold her above her sister. Her legs were stretched behind her, broken and useless. Enyo opened her mouth, her voice reduced to a rasp. “Please… help…”

It was ironic. The two people that took pleasure in beating me were in front of me, barely alive, while I had gotten away with a rough landing. Deino was teetering on the edge of consciousness and Enyo couldn’t move without collapsing. Their Auras were obviously shattered from the crash and their Semblances were obsolete. The heat of mine was still simmering inside, ready to be released. Now, I was the one in control.

A closer look at Enyo’s wounds was enough for me to draw a conclusion. I looked her right in the eyes, a small smile playing on my lips. “It’s too late. With injuries like those, there’s no possible way to help you. And Deino is worse than you. It’s a miracle she’s still alive. You’re both already dead.”

I watched Enyo’s spirit crumble, her eyes dimming as the fight started to leave her. The sight lifted me up. A bubble of joy rose in my chest. Still, she hovered over Deino as if to protect her. “I... know…” Enyo croaked pitifully. “I… know…”

I crouched down to eye level, Enyo’s weakening gaze drifting between me and her fallen sister. “I want to tell you something. You asked me what my monsters were like. Do you recall?” Slowly, Enyo nodded. The pain the action caused made her whole body wince. I was pleased. “It never looked the same each time you created a monster. Still, they always acted the same. Trapping me. Holding me down. Making me weak and unable to fight back.” I grabbed her forearm. Enyo groaned as pain must have shot from her charred skin. “They made me powerless. This time, I’m the one still standing. You can’t touch me. All I have to do is leave you here to rot.” I started to stand.

Enyo clutched my hand, the skin of her palm still hot. I rounded on her, ready to kick her away like she had done countless times to me. “I’m… sorry…” She whispered, making me pause. “I’m… sorry… I… hurt… you…”

“Hurt me? You tortured me!” I yelled in her face. I took a breath and collected myself. “You can’t apologize for what you did to me. You two ruined my life. I was hurting every day because of what you two did to me. There were days I wanted to curl up and die, and others that I came close. You deserve this.”

Enyo was crying harder. Rivers of red dripped to the soil. “Not… her… Help… her…”

“I already said that there’s no helping you. You’ll die slowly and no one will be here when you go.” The feel of the words I spat at her felt amazing, but the scene I imagined gnawed at me. I pushed it away.

“I… promised. I… promised… her…” Enyo’s grip was growing slack, the last of her strength fading. Still, she didn’t let go. “I… promised… Deino…”

“What are you talking about? What promise are you-”

My breath caught as I remembered. It had only been this morning but it might as well have been a lifetime ago. Enyo’s fingers were weaving my hair as she spoke to me. Her words had made my blood boil at the time but now some came back with cool clarity. The time Enyo had used her Semblance on Deino and created her monster. It had toyed with her, drawing out her death instead of making it swift.

The memory shattered. Enough of this. “We’re done.” I tried to walk away, but Enyo’s grip tightened again. She fell off of Deino as she put her full weight into holding my hand. “Let go!” With another pull, I freed myself of Enyo’s grasp. She collapsed. As I stumbled, I noticed that some of the dirt had been moved. A trench had been formed in the soft ground, leading away from a small crater several yards away. The trail was streaked with blood. It led to Enyo beside her sister. She had dragged herself, in that state, to her sister’s side. Legs broken and bleeding profusely, Enyo crawled to Deino.

A new realization formed. I looked at Deino, completely covered in wounds. Then at Enyo, parts of her having escaped injury. A scenario played in my head: The ship falling from the sky, Enyo screaming as the ground rushed up to kill them, Deino throwing herself around her smaller sister, an explosion. Deino protected Enyo. Even though it wasn’t enough, she gave up any chance of her survival to shield her sister.

Memories emerged. I saw Enyo and Deino, their faces blurring across years of recollection. I saw how they stayed close together, one never leaving the other’s side for long. No matter where they went or who they were with, Enyo and Deino had been inseparable. I never noticed how much they leaned on each, supported on another.

“My mother wasn’t around much when we were growing up, especially after our father ran off. I wasn’t in the best place.”

“I was young when I had my girls, and I wasn’t able to give them a good life at the start. I spent years building my reputation so that I could give them the life they deserved. I wanted them to be happy, so I kept working more and more, reaching higher heights in society at the expense of being with them.”

How long had the sisters kept the other going? When they were alone, how much work did one put in to keep the other happy? To me, they were horrible and heartless. To each other, they were everything. How much would two people have to mean to each other to forge a bond like that? To risk their life just to desperately protect the other? To push themselves past the pain and keep living to stay by the other’s side when they lay helpless? To stay together even when Death was closing in?

...Oh. The meaning of Enyo’s pleas suddenly made sense. She had been the more grounded of the pair, seeing the world clearly and stating her mind bluntly. She would know that they couldn’t be saved. And yet…

“You want me to kill you,” I said softly, my spite lost.

Enyo lifted her head, the struggle to do so making her body quiver under the strain. “I… promised. Please… help…”

She doesn’t want Deino to suffer. A quick death to spare them from the wait. Right now, I had a choice. I should leave them here to bleed out. I owe them nothing. All they did was take from me and hurt me. They took my life and destroyed it. They deserved everything that comes next. And yet, I couldn’t make myself leave. The thought of being the one to leave them to suffer made my stomach turn. Why is it that making them hurt makes me thrilled but acting merciless about their slow demise pained me?

I took another look at the dying sisters. I saw the blood and deep wounds. I saw how their bodies were giving up with each passing second. I saw that I could leave and finally be rid of them forever. And I felt no satisfaction.

Obsidian pressed against my temple. One look at his blank eyes was enough to solidify my decision. I knelt and wrapped my arms around Enyo. She tried to scream at the contact but could only manage a whimper. Gently, I lifted her and set her back down so that she was facing Deino. As they lay face to face, Deino’s faint breaths stuttered and her eyelids fluttered. Enyo was looking up at me. I swallowed before saying, “It’ll be quick. You’ll feel a brief heat, but that should be it. You won’t suffer.”

Enyo smiled. It was foreign to me. I was used to her casual sneers and easy smirks. This was different. It was genuine. “Thank… you…” She blinked, her eyes barely opening again. “I’m… sorry…” The last two words seemed to stab my chest, but I gritted my teeth and ignored it.

Enyo reached out, her arm barely able to lift from the ground. She took Deino’s hand in hers, twining their fingers. “I’m… here… Deino. I’m… here…”

Deino’s body grew slack. To my surprise, Deino's eyes opened just enough to see her irises. She saw her sister’s face and returned her smile.

Their hands started to slip apart. I took them between my own, held them together. I activated my Semblance. Heat flowed from my palms into their bodies. They both sighed as it washed over them, their bodies glowing orange. The heat reached their peak, but they were already gone. They began to scatter as ashes.

A voice boomed across the clearing. I turned to the source, all the way on the opposite side. A figure emerged from the foliage, the sun reflecting off waves of silver. Pem was fixated on the wreckage, her voice breaking as she yelled, “Enyo! Deino!” Her silver Aura shimmered around her. I saw her body tense before a blood-curdling shriek tore from her throat. She was running, a blur of metal across barren earth, straight towards me. She didn’t slow as she drew near. Her arm whipped out, slamming into me. I flew through the air, the strike carrying a force that Pem’s physique hid. I landed on my back, tumbling through the dirt. Obsidian took flight before I hit the ground. I scrambled to stand.

Pem was on her knees, leaning over the glowing bodies of her daughters. Tenderly, she laid her hands on their faces, ignoring the heat that must have been rising off of them. Their forms fell to nothing, particles dancing away on the breeze with faint embers. The last of the ashes slipped from Pemphredo’s hands, leaving nothing behind.

She watched as the last of her children drifted away. Tears fell from her chin, soaking her silver dress. Her shoulders shook as sobs racked her body. Then, it changed. Her hand became fists clenched in the dirt. Her lips pulled back in a snarl. Her eyes found me, a ferocious light inside them. The scream of a wounded animal rang through the air as she threw herself at me.