Her shoulders crept up, tense as he made the gesture. “Considering you are going into a den of elementalist inspired… knick-knacks, I wouldn’t say chivalry is dead, but you’re being smart for once.”

Sixteen looked down at the approaching projects, watching the one just stop in his tracks as he looked up at him. Oh. It was that one. He owed that one rather greatly for electrocuting him off a building, and a smirk crossed his features as he teleported down to him and proceeded to just throw him off the freaking tower. He then reached out and grabbed the other one, dangling him off the edge. "One good reason I shouldn't drop your ass too?"

"Kinda wanna see what the mark's got though," the scion says, as lighthearted as an athlete might watch an enemy's game. Curious, intrigued, hiding something more analytical underneath the surface. Something dangerous as it is clever; a blink of the future exemplar he would one day be. Unrelenting and uncompromising.

And maybe cruelty is a color he can wear too.

"Ya can at least meet Ten tho, he needs more friends for his lonely ass." Okay now he was just being mean. "Big ol' Tenny Bear just needs a big ol' hug."

“I’m a wee bit lost,” she says, intentionally playing up the Scottish accent. The output vent cover, offended by that brazen bullshit, clatters to the ground behind her in protest.

The little goat bleated as he pranced around. So young, so carefree, completely unaware of what had happened to him. All he knew that he was a goat, and he was little, and that was usually the perfect recipe for being a little asshole if he so chose. Whether that would truly occur to him later in life remained to be seen. He hardly noticed as Archie meandered away, too busy doing goat things.

Freedom...

So long he had craved it, and now that he finally had it, the hellion was doing all of the things that he hadn't gotten to do while locked away in the depths of that place. It always seemed like he was locked away, just the monster beneath the floor that no one wanted to talk about or acknowledge. This time though, instead of dragging everyone to the depths of hell with him, he broke free and brought the light with him. He pushed everyone that followed him to live their lives, to follow their dreams, and not look back. It was all so strange to him honestly. If anyone had asked him back then where he thought he would be in ten years, he wouldn't have known what to say. He wanted to be feared. He wanted to be the monster that haunted the nightmares of everyone around him. He lived to cause chaos and death and destruction.

But now? Now, he couldn't see himself doing that unless it was to protect those that pledged their loyalty to him. He wanted to keep them safe, make them happy, and give back the lives that had been stolen from them all. That was all he wanted.

The burdens of life felt lighter after Lex melted into his embrace. Her fingers gliding gracefully across his arm forced his eyes shut. For a moment, he enjoyed the rise and fall of her chest. Everything around him faded into the background. There was only him and Lex.

These were the moments he enjoyed the most. Moments he thought he'd never have. Before Lex, there was no one important, no one worth chasing halfway across the world. She was Killian's north star. His brilliant beacon in a world shrouded in darkness.

The history books always made a bloody death seem so honorable, like the only form of piety that Cagliostro knew. But Sofia saw no glory in the butchering, the critical path of a well-intentioned sword. Whether she died for the glory of a brighter tomorrow, or she was slaughtered by mindless automations— what was the difference?