Alchemised

by SenLinYu

Her dress was poison green, embellished with a black external corset resembling a rib cage, and a gleaming plated bird skull was fastened so that the long beak ran down between her breasts.

where her prosthetic was joined to her thigh. “—in the hospital, every battle looks like losing. I can’t imagine what that’s like.” She looked at Helena. “All you see in there is the worst of it.”

Let him think he has all the power and gradually make him begin craving things he can’t demand from you. Whatever passing interest prompted this, I want you to turn it into an obsession that consumes him.”

She’d been so terrified he would betray them that she’d never stopped to consider what would happen if he didn’t.

Calculating, Cunning, Devoted, Determined, Ruthless, Unfailing, Unhesitating, and Unyielding.

She’d always thought that she could do anything for her friends. She didn’t need recognition, just the comfort of knowing she’d done what was necessary. Pragmatism had stolen away any lustre of heroism from her, and she kept telling herself it was all right…

She smiled bitterly at the difference between them. Her death count was the numerical representation of her failures. All the lives she hadn’t saved, the ways she fell short. For Kaine, it was a mark of power. His victims, even Principate Apollo, all represented what made him so valuable. They were the inverse and counter to each other. A healer and killer, circling slowly, the push and pull inexorable.

“I live among idealists, but all I see are bodies. I’d like the opinion of someone who doesn’t believe that optimism somehow improves the odds.”

“In the future, perhaps tell me what you want instead of expecting me to fail where it’s convenient to you. Maybe then we’ll both end up less disappointed in each other.”

“Penny, if I thought we’d all die, I wouldn’t be so afraid of losing. What they’ll do to us if we lose will be far worse than death.”

“He’s a god. You’ll notice that making humans die for them is the gods’ primary mode of operation.