Alice sat in the gloom of the Violet Abyss cavern, her sleek Voidweaver Panther form a pool of absolute darkness against the faint purple glow. The silence was deafening, broken only by Ignis's pained, shallow breathing.

Every second stretched into an eternity, each one filled with the echoing memory of Adam's final, decisive command and the psychic scream she'd sent after him.

'He left me'

The thought was a cold, sharp shard in her heart. It wasn't the first time he'd taken a risk, but it was the first time he had so deliberately cut her out, sealed her away from the danger. Her new power, her evolution it all felt hollow.

'Was I not strong enough?' Her claws, capable of tearing voids in reality, flexed against the stone. 'Am I still just... a burden he has to protect? He told me to protect Ignis... as if I'm just a babysitter. He doesn't need me by his side for the real fight.'

A darker, more terrifying thought wormed its way in. 'Did he... abandon me?'

The bond, their Soul-Link, thrummed with life. He was alive. But the connection felt distant, strained by his focused determination and the physical distance. The uncertainty was a poison.

'Alice…'

Ignis's weak telepathic call cut through her spiraling thoughts. Alice turned her head, her abyssal eyes meeting the pained, glazed eyes of the Solar Drake. Ignis lay where she had fallen, her side still bearing the shiny, newly healed scar from the Gleamdew Berry. She looked small, vulnerable a far cry from the proud drake from earlier.

Looking at her, Alice remembered Adam's last words. "Protect Ignis." A duty. Not a choice she made for herself.

'I don't need this duty,' she thought bitterly. 'I don't need to guard the reckless lizard. I just need him. I just wanted to be where he is. Why did he leave me behind?'

But then, the logic she'd been ignoring forced its way forward. 'He diverted the monster... for me. So I could survive. So we could survive.'

The bond was still there. He was alive, fighting, for them. He hadn't abandoned her, he had, in his infuriating, self-sacrificing way, put her safety above all else.

'Why am I doubting him?' The realization hit her like a physical blow, cooling the fire of her panic and leaving behind the ashes of shame. 'After everything... I'm the one who doesn't trust him to come back. How pathetic.'

'Alice?' Ignis called again, her mental voice thin. 'Are you... are you okay?'

Alice let out a soft, staticky sigh, the sound of collapsing stars. She padded over to Ignis and sat down beside her, their bodies not touching, but close. The gesture was unlike her usual aloof or hostile demeanor.

'I am not okay,' Alice admitted, her telepathy quieter, more subdued than ever. 'I am... foolish. He told me to protect you, and all I could think was that he was leaving me behind. I doubted him. Even though the bond tells me he fights, I doubted.'

There was a long pause from Ignis. Then, a weak, pained chuckle echoed in Alice's mind. 'Then… I guess we're both fools.'

Alice's head whipped around to stare at Ignis. The little drake managed a faint, wry flicker in her eyes.

'I was so excited to evolve, to be strong, to help,' Ignis continued, her thoughts laced with physical and emotional pain. 'But one hit from that big monster and I was down. Useless. If I were stronger… he wouldn't have had to do this alone. So I'm a fool too.'

The palpable, shared vulnerability hung in the air between them.The usual competitive edge, the jealousy, it all seemed so trivial now. They were just two creatures, hurting and worried about the one who held their strange, monstrous family together.

A soft, almost imperceptible sound escaped Alice. It wasn't quite a purr, not quite a sigh. '...Yes. We are both fools.'

'Akh... ha...' A soft, pained laugh escaped Ignis, making Alice's ears twitch in surprise.

'What? What's wrong?' Alice asked, her head tilting, a hint of her usual sharpness returning.

'It's nothing,' Ignis managed, her mental voice gaining a sliver of its old warmth. 'It's just... you're funny, Alice.'

'Funny? I am not telling jokes,' Alice replied, her tone flat, but without any real venom. 'You are delirious from pain.'

'Maybe a little,' Ignis conceded. She took a deeper breath, testing her body. The miraculous healing of the Gleamdew Berry was doing its work, the sharp pain had receded to a deep, manageable ache. She was weak, but no longer on the brink. 'But it's true. You're trying to be nice in your own... Alice way.'

Alice didn't dignify that with a direct response. Instead, she observed the drake critically. The terrible gash was now a closed, shiny scar. Her breathing was steady. 'You seem... less pathetic now. Can you stand?'

Ignis grunted, slowly pushing herself up onto her forelegs. It was a wobbly effort, but she managed. 'I think so. But I'm so... empty.'

'That is called hunger, you gluttonous lizard,' Alice stated, getting to her own paws. 'Your body burned through its reserves to heal. You need to eat.' She looked around the cavern, her star-filled eyes scanning the glowing shore. 'What do you want? I will procure it.'

Ignis's eyes, still weary, lit up with a spark of her old self. 'I want... a giant fish! The biggest one in this purple lake! A royal feast!'

Alice stared at her, unblinking. 'Stop being absurd. Request something reasonable. I am not fishing for leviathans.'

'But that is reasonable!' Ignis insisted, a playful whine entering her thoughts. 'I'm a growing drake! I need sustenance! Grand sustenance!'

Alice let out a long-suffering sigh, the sound like rustling velvet. She gestured with her snout towards the colossal, crystalline corpse of the Marsh Lurker half-submerged in the violet water. 'Fine. There is your grand sustenance. Eat that. It should be sufficiently 'royal' for your palate.'

Ignis followed her gaze to the mountainous, multi-eyed carcass. Her own draconic form, which had felt so large and powerful earlier, now looked tiny in comparison. The Lurker was longer than Adam. She blinked.

'...It's a bit too big for me,' she admitted sheepishly.

'Obviously,' Alice deadpanned. She shook her head, a gesture of exasperated fondness. 'Stay here. Do not move. Do not try to hunt. I will find you something that won't crush you under its own weight when you try to take a bite.'

Without waiting for a reply, Alice melted into the shadows.

Alice stood before the wall of collapsed rock that Adam had sealed with his Fire Breath. Her starry eyes narrowed. 'Stupid Adam. Blocking the exit. How am I supposed to get out like this?'

She wasn't planning to chase after him, His last command had been clear, and for once, she would follow it to the letter. Protect Ignis. But to do that, she needed to hunt. And to hunt, she needed to get past this rock.

A low hum of void energy began to emanate from her form. She didn't need brute force. She focused on a single point in the center of the rubble, where the rocks looked most fractured. She opened her maw, and a small, concentrated sphere of absolute nothingness a miniature, controlled version of her Void Bolt formed and shot forward.

It struck the rock with a soundless pop. Where it hit, a perfectly spherical section of the rubble, about the size of her head, simply ceased to exist, vaporized into nothing. The surrounding rocks, now unsupported, groaned and crumbled inward, creating a narrow, jagged tunnel large enough for her to slip through.

'Hmph. Easy.'

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