As Anna trailed behind the Doctor and the guards, her heart sank with every step. They led her, Mira, and Cila into a cramped, dark room that seed to swallow the air from their lungs. The room was ominously quiet, except for the faint hiss as the windows opened, allowing the reddish Martian light to filter through and make the interior visible.
The room was sparse, with only a single chair occupying the center. But it was the figures present in the room that made Anna's blood run cold.
Max Schmidt, the Master, stood with an unnerving smile plastered on his face, his toothbrush mustache twitching with malevolence. Beside him, the blue-eyed monster, sat on the chair, his right eye-piece glinting ominously in the reddish light. His very presence seed to darken the air around him.
Mira and Cila exchanged terrified glances, their eyes wide with fear. Anna's heart thudded louder as she took in the scene, her mind racing with worst-case scenarios.
She forced herself to speak, her voice barely above a whisper, "What are we doing here?"
Mira and Cila looked at them with palpable fear. Their faces were pale, eyes wide as they saw themselves in the presence of the three most terrifying faces they had known in their lives.
Max's smile grew wider, his eyes glinting with sadistic pleasure. He caressed his mustache, his fingers stroking it with an unsettling gentleness, "Ah, Anna, always so curious." He suddenly produced a sharp blade, its edge shimring with a malevolent red light that seed to pulse in sync with the Martian glow, "We're here to discuss your...mishaps."
As the guards forced Cila and Mira to kneel before Max, Anna's instincts scread at her to act, "Wait! What are you doing?!" she cried out, taking a step forward, but a guard swiftly pressed a rifle pulsing with red light against her head, freezing her in place.
"How dare you yell at your Master?" Max scoffed, his tone dripping with disdain. He pressed the blade slightly against Cila's skin, causing a tremor to run through her, "I might accidentally cut this weak demon flesh if you don't mind your manners."
Anna's heart wrenched with fear as she raised her hands in a placating gesture. "Please, Master...D-Don't hurt them. Whatever this is, it's my fault. Please punish instead of them."
Cila shook her head, a silent plea in her eyes as she whispered, "Anna, no..." Mira's cheeks were streaked with tears, her emotional turmoil causing her collar device to crackle sporadically.
Max's laughter filled the room, a sound devoid of any warmth, "Haha, did you hear that, Derek? She wants to punish her instead of them," he mocked, his expression turning into a scowl as he glared at Anna, "You dare make demands after fucking up big ti? This isn't how I trained you."
Derek, who had been silent, finally spoke, his voice calm yet laced with an unmistakable darkness, "I told you that the last ti would be the only ti I would warn you nicely. So now, you will be reminded of what happens when you fail my orders. One of them will have to pay for your mistakes. You may choose who."
Anna's heart dropped like a stone as she heard his words, and she felt her legs give way beneath her. She fell to her knees, her hands clasped together in a pleading gesture.
"Please don't...I gave it my all to catch the cult mbers but their Master, Hellbringer, showed up and I wasn't prepared to fight him. He was stronger than I expected," she begged, her voice trembling like a leaf.
Derek's gaze was like a cold, calculated knife, slicing through Anna's defenses, "Did you really give it your all?" he asked, his voice devoid of emotion, "If you truly put your mind to it, all those cult mbers would have been kneeling before and Hellbringer wouldn't have had the ti to stop you. We could have finished them all easily. But you...a part of you held back because you want to fail. Am I wrong?"
Anna felt a chill run down her spine as she t his piercing gaze. She shook her head, her eyes welling up with tears, "N-No...That is not true. I have done everything you ordered without fail until now. I-I promise it won't happen again. So please...don't-"
Derek's expression didn't change, but his voice took on a sinister tone, "You already broke your promise once, and I don't entertain second chances."
Max chuckled, a cold, mirthless sound, "That's right. It seems like she needs to be reminded again of what happens when she upsets her masters. But you should be feeling lucky because unlike last ti, this ti we are giving you a choice. So choose which one of these rats you want to sacrifice? The broken rat or the half-mute rat with the annoying voice? Or both? I never liked these failed products anyway, kekeke..."
As Max spoke, he toyed with the blade between Cila and Mira's necks. Anna's face paled, her heart racing with fear. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare, with no escape.
Tears blurred her vision, but the fearful and resigned expressions on Cila and Mira's faces were crystal clear.
"Anna...don't do anything...It's alright..." Cila whispered, trying to offer a brave smile through her tears. She wanted Mira to be spared, but she knew she couldn't make Anna pick Mira lest she burden her with guilt and regret.
At the sa ti, she didn't want to let these monsters use her as a reason to control Anna.
"A-Anna...save Cila a-and protect our sister...I-I will hide this ti..." Mira's voice trembled, her high-pitched synthetic tone unable to mask the fear and sorrow that cracked through.
Anna's eyes filled with tears as she looked at her sisters. She felt paralyzed, unable to move or speak. She knew that the blue-eyed monster would never budge, that he would never show rcy.
"Mira, stop talking..." she said, her voice barely above a whisper. She then looked up at the Master and added, "Please...Just take and get this over with..." She bumped her head against Max's leg, her eyes pleading for an end to their tornt.
"Ugh! How dare you touch my leg with your dirty head!" Max reacted with disgust, striking Cila's head with his knee. "AH!!" Cila cried out in pain, but Anna's movents were swift, her body driven by instinct as she reached out to catch Cila.
*SSSSHK!*
But just as she gently laid down an unconscious Cila, a high-pulsing gunshot echoed through the room, a sound that seed to haunt every cell in her body.
The world around Anna seed to slow down, as if the very fabric of reality was bending to accommodate the horror that was unfolding. She turned to the side, her eyes widening in terror as she saw Mira's fragile body crumpling to the floor. The white fabric of her top was rapidly turning blood-red, the stain spreading like a dark flower blooming in the shadows.
"Mira!!!" Anna's scream tore through the silence, a desperate, heart-wrenching sound that seed to suck the air from the room.
She lunged forward, her body moving on its own as she gently lifted Mira's head and cradled it against her chest, "M-Mira..." she whispered, her voice breaking like a fragile twig.
Mira's dark green eyes, once vibrant, flickered weakly. Her face grimaced with pain, yet with all her determination and waning strength, she reached up, her touch feather-light against Anna's cheek. Her high-pitched voice, distorted and faint through the collar, carried her final breath, "Anna...I will hide...for you in our house...You have to...find ...okay?"
Tears stread down Anna's face, like a river of sorrow. She nodded, her voice a whisper lost in the turmoil, "I...I..." But the sentence would never be completed, as Mira's hand slipped lifelessly from her cheek, her eyes closing for the last ti.
Cila, slowly recovering from the blow to her head, gasped at the sight of her sister's lifeless body in Anna's arms, "N-No... Mira..." Her voice was a mix of disbelief and sorrow, her tallic hand covering her mouth as if to stifle the screams that threatened to escape.
Lila's voice cut through the tense air, her words dripping with boredom, "Ha, this was anticlimactic. I was hoping she would make the choice. That would have been more interesting to see."
Max added with a hint of disappointnt, "I know right. You could have let have this mont, Derek."
"We wasted enough ti here," Derek spoke indifferently as he rose from his chair, a pistol shimring with a radiant blue light in his hand. Anna's quivering gaze slowly shifted towards him, her eyes burning with a dark yellow glow, her tears evaporating in the face of her all-consuming rage.
He intentionally used such a gun to not even give Mira a rciful death. The radiant mana must have filled her final monts with excruciating pain.
Anna's fists clenched, her body trembling with fury, as she gritted her teeth, gathering all her strength, her sorrow turning into killing intent, "You monster!!!"
Derek turned towards the surge of killing intent emanating from Anna but,
*ZZZ-KRAK!*
Anna's form transford into a dark yellow lightning bolt, zooming straight towards the blue-eyed monster with a speed that defied human comprehension. Ti around her slowed down, as if the very fabric of reality was bending to accommodate her wrath.
The two guards that stood in her way were annihilated by stray lightning bolts before they could register what was happening.
Her form was a blur of vengeance as she aid straight for his heart, her lightning of wrath lighting up the entire room in an eerie dark yellow glow.
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