even in the void, there is light {achilles}

In a second her hands are wrapped around the creatures body, feeling its muscles writhe and twist between her fingertips. The light protrudes from its tail, whipping back and forth in front of her face and throwing her senses into oblivion. Its screams are that of fear and distress, squeaks and screeches echoing into the cave pathways, bouncing and rocking against the walls, losing themselves to the shadows that bind.

When she gets a better look at the creature she sees innocences intertwined within its fur, the way its eyes dart about, desperate for an escape from her hands. She has never felt compassion before, not for flesh and bone, not for satin bedsheets and stripper poles. Not for women, not for men.

Not for herself.

But this creature strikes her with the way it is so surprised at the way it is captured, as if its bulging eyes did not read the bloodlust and fire that spread through her irises, her war hammer engraving the path of a false follower into the dirt and rock she walks through. When she looks into its eyes she sees it giving up, watches its world crumble into pieces. She sees Percy and she sees Petra, watches their bodies hit the ground and feels herself shatter along with them.

It is the same look he gave when she raised glass into the air. It is the same look she destroyed when she drove glass into his eye.

"Okay, okay. It's alright."

She speaks to it as if her words mean anything, as if they are not poison cast into an arena of arsenic and cyanide, swallowed by the shadows that line the cave walls, by the blood that seeps from her bones and underneath her fingertips.

When it does not stop struggling she pulls the gem from her bag and holds it out to the creature, watching its eyes take notice of the soft glow that emanates from the gem casing. In truth it is just a shell, and a single shake of the gem stone will reveal that there is liquid that roars inside, splashing and tumbling around inside of it. Upon closer inspection she had found a small latch, a simple mechanism to access the healing liquid inside it.

Lucy and her had used one of each for both of them. When two had still remained, glowing and shouting through the dirt they lay in, she had grabbed them before they left the fight, taking Justice's sword with her.

She had considered trapping the liquid, but had given up when the events of the day had caught up to her. Instead, she carved her name into the side of the casing, a warning as to who this gift was coming from.

The creature lowers its head in fear, throwing glances at the gemstone she holds to it before finally reaching for it slowly with its hands, snatching it from her grasp and cradling it against its chest.

She leans back on her knees, staring down at the creature. She could kill it now, snap its neck and break their trust. Cut off its tail and use it for the rest of the Games. Instead, she sighs, turning down death for the first time in her life.

"Take that gemstone to-"

The creature darts away before she can finish her sentence, its light fading into the distance. She curses, slamming the end of her hammer into the dirt before standing up.

"Knew I should have killed it." she mutters under her breath.