They’d fought before, sparred mostly and, while he was getting better and better with time, Marvin had never actually managed to defeat Marly. The last time they sparred he thought he was on his way to beating her, but they never found out what the result of that would have been.

But it wasn’t looking too bright at the moment.

Marly was moving faster than he’d ever seen her move before, striking with such accuracy and speed that he’d be impressed if he wasn’t trying to keep himself from dying.

Marvin, for his part, was doing his best to block her offensives and attack whenever he was able to. He wasn’t successful, but neither was Marly so he took that as a win.

They were also limited in space. While the platform they were on was open and large, Amdis and the Magesmith were darting around so much and so fast that they took up half the space themselves. Not to mention the commander and Chiron who were in a similar situation.

While they weren’t moving around as much, Marvin didn’t want to get anywhere near James Mallory. He had gotten a good enough read on the man to know that he wouldn’t hesitate killing him if the need arose.

Marvin used his next block to put himself and Marly on a bind, pushing his blade against hers. He wasn’t nearly as strong as her physically, but the element of surprise was enough to give him a momentary advantage.

“Don’t do what James Mallory wants. He’s lied to you and manipulated you. Please…” He was stating the obvious, but he couldn’t find the words to say anything else.

Marly’s dual coloured eyes connected with his and, for a split second’s time, it looked like there was some doubt in there. Marvin allowed himself a small smile at that. It would be an uphill battle for sure–Marly was still convinced that James loved her even after all these lies he’d told her and Ava.

Marly drew back, making a huge swing at Marvin’s sword instead of his body, managing to knock it back a couple of meters.

“Aspis tou Aiax!”

Marvin’s shield formed in perfect conjunction with Marly’s strike, saving his life and causing her sword to be stuck in it.

“Gleipnir!” said Marvin quietly, and the dozen chains formed out of thin air, moving around the shield. Letting go of her sword, Marly jumped back in an attempt to dodge the chains.

They followed her suit, like flying snakes that were always one step away from their target. Their incredibly agile, frankly stunning, target. No, no, no. Not frankly stunning. Well, she was, but this wasn’t the time or the place to have such thoughts.

The heptagrams glowed on Marvin’s hands once more, and he brought both of his arms up in front of him, and he mentally dropped the shield, freeing Marly’s sword and making him far more accessible to her attacks.

It was a risky thing. What he was about to do would most likely fail or cause a lot of damage to one, or both, of them, but he couldn’t overcome her without a few risks.

It only took a few seconds for Marly to turn back to his direction. He braced himself. She was a few ways away, so he needed to wait. She had good momentum, she wouldn’t be able to both dodge it and escape the chains if he managed to get the timing right.

He’d use Ignis, the spell to summon a torrent of fire to shoot after Marly. But he’d need to be very careful with it. Control it so she wouldn’t get hurt by it too badly if she got hit by it. A bluff essentially. Misdirection. He silently cursed himself for being too afraid to hurt her when she seemingly had no quarrels about hurting him, but he shut that voice down.

Mainly because he knew she wasn’t thinking clearly, but also because he knew that she was holding back as well. He didn’t see it at first, but it was clear to him now. Neither of them wanted this, and Marvin wasn’t willing to let this go on too long.

Because they might actually stop holding back if that happened, and he wouldn’t be leaving this room without Marly by his side.

“Ignis.”

The torrent of flames formed out of the heptagrams on his hands, headed straight toward Marly. And she, in a move that defied all sense and logic, leapt through the fire, landing in front of Marvin.

“How-”

He couldn’t even get a portion of his question out, she had punched him in both the face and stomach. The sheer force of those two punches threw him back quite a bit, almost knocking him unconscious. He was still just focused enough to stop the Gleipnir up though, the chains of which still hunted Marly.

Not that they’d be for long if he were to guess. She grabbed her sword from the ground as she rushed towards Marvin, stabbing him through his prosthetic leg.

The same leg that was his Conduit, the thing that allowed him to use magic. In a small, almost unnoticeable but still all too significant way, his world shifted slightly. As if it were suddenly smaller. He was still tied to the universe and the ever present broken nature of it, like a massive shadow at the edge of everything.

But it was-it was… He couldn’t even describe the feeling. In the span of a singly moment, Marly was able to change everything. He looked up to see that she was looking down at him, her eyes meeting his.

Her eyes…

They had two colours. Light blue and red. If he wanted to get really pretentious he could say that he saw two different emotions, two different Marlies in them. That would be a lie.

All he saw was Marly. Everything that he’d come to know her to be–but also more scared than he had ever seen her before. Almost like she was ready to give up. Almost a carbon copy of himself after his parents died.

“Sucks, doesn’t it?” he said with a small chuckle.

“What?”

“Your life. It will never be the same again,” said Marvin simply, a faraway look on his face. “Everything’s changed because of something that you had no control over.”

“Shut up,” growled Marly. “My grandpa, Ava, both of them have loved me unconditionally. I can excuse one error in judgement from the only two people that ever loved me for what I truly was. Something not even Adam and CB have fully done.”

“One error in judgement? James Mallory lied to you for your whole life!” said Marvin. He tried to hide how much that hurt him. Not the ‘error in judgement’ statement in particular, although that did anger him as well.

No, that wasn’t the thing that really got to him.

“What about me?” he asked simply–no that was a lie. He was desperate. Desperate for an answer, and he did a piss poor job of hiding it.

But before Marly could answer, the body of the Magesmith was thrown to her, pushing her back before she threw it away like it was nothing. Marvin had no love for the Magesmiths, but he had to admit that he felt a little about that one.

“Apologies, my dear teammate,” said Amdis as he walked up to Marvin, a smirk decorating his face. “I didn’t mean to interrupt this little moment of yours, but I figure saving your sorry ass will be enough to balance it out?”

He had a tone so arrogant it could only be born out of some genuine skill. And Marvin knew that he had plenty of that. Well, not skill per se, as much as overwhelming power.

Marvin hated that tone. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Marly get in a battle position. Amdis launched himself at her, and the dark haired teen knew that this wouldn’t be a fight.

That was until James Mallory leapt in front of him, slicing Amdis’ face from his right cheek through his nose and to his left, stopping his advance. The wound healed almost instantly, and the two stood against each other, neither moving even a single millimeter out of position.

“Marvin!” said Chiron as he rushed to his side, kneeling down to inspect him.

“Please don’t let Amdis hurt Marly,” said Marvin, grasping Chiron’s arm.

“My dear boy, Amdis is about to face off against James,” said Chiron gravely. “And I will not involve myself. James will come out on top, I am sure of that, but he will be hurt. And then I will bring him in without being forced to kill or gravely injure him. I am similar to you in that regard. I want to save my friend’s soul.”

Marvin looked down, nodding in understanding. He didn’t have any love for James Mallory, but he understood.

Not a full moment later, Amdis and the commander began their fight and Marvin could almost feel it.

He could almost feel this conflict drawing closer to its end. He just hoped that they’d be able to pull through, all of them, and save everyone.