vivi stares at the spear forced into her hand by sooyoung. sooyoung wraps her coarse hands over vivi's, holding tight, imprinting an unspoken promise onto them. sooyoung squeezes twice, before reaching for her broken blade, and stumbling away into the darkness.

it's a heavy thing and the metal only feels cold under her touch. she doesnt want this, she's never had. the guilt is already resting in her throat and she hasn't even lifted the spear from the ground yet. she closes her eyes, pressing the metal to her forehead.

frantic footsteps approach and she bites her lip, she reclasps the cold metal in her hands, and lifts her head. jungeun stands in front of her, heaving air back into her lungs. she's holding her halberd to the side, not even thinking of vivi as a threat and vivi thinks thats the worst part.

"vivi, where is she?" jungeun spits out.

"i'm sorry," vivi steels her voice, lifting her spear. "you have to stay here,"

"you--"

a flash of anger filters through jungeun's eyes but vivi doesnt move from her stance. she waits for jungeun to process her words, waits for both of her hands to grip onto her halberd, waits for jungeun to charger at her. vivi knows the stories of the halberd, witnessed first-hand on jungeun might but she has a promise to keep. jungeun jumps forward, throwing her entire weight into a swing at vivi's spear.

"i dont want to hurt you," vivi whispers, deflecting the swing with the tip of her spear, and taking a backward step to absorb the blow.

jungeun follows up with another swing that vivi meets with the shaft of her spear that leaves them at a stalemate.

"vivi please," jungeun begs, her eyes are red-rimmed and her halberd shakes against vivi's spear.

"i'm sorry," vivi repeats, kicking jungeun back before she can react. vivi flips her spear around and the thrusts the blunt end of the spear against jungeun's collarbone.

jungeun stumbles back once more, there's pure rage in jungeun's eyes now and vivi thinks this is what she deserves. she breathes in, resets her stance, and breathes out as she watches jungeun charge at her once again.