[M&M 3e] Defying the Future IC

[Quellian-dyrae]

The sparkling light...didn't fade from Lily, quite. It rushed out of her and into Gabriel as she put everything she had into healing what Manchineel had wrought, permanently. Or most of it, anyway, but what little traces remained could definitely be filed under "take the win".

She swayed on her feet, as the last of the energy left her. She felt tired and...strangely empty. Not hungry, just...like something inside of her wasn't there anymore, something that had grown too slowly for her to even really notice it, until she felt the difference caused by its absence. She burned it all, she realized, every last drop of Raphael's power. To excise the power of one member of the Menagerie had taken the full strength of another.

For a moment there Lily almost wanted to cry, or scream. She hadn't realized it would take all of it! She hadn't known! With Raphael's power she could have...she could have been, could have done...!

Lily took a deep breath, something she could still do for its psychological benefits even if she had no physiological need for air, and looked down at Cosme lying on the ground, back in her human form - and hopefully freed of the awful biological chains and phobias that had been inflicted upon her as part of her transformation.

Worth it, Lily told herself. It was fine. She didn't need Raphael's power to be a hero. Humans hadn't reached where they were by having the sharpest claws or the strongest armor. Lily had always believed that her mind was her greatest weapon, and if anything this battle had proven that she had been underutilizing it. Her attempts to play on Manchineel's weaknesses and obsessions, to provoke and disorient her, had done at least as much here as any of her powers or even the Blight she had prepared for her specifically. And now through their efforts, here she lay, defeated.

...Wait a minute.

It was funny. With the whole thing with Lucia, and needing to stop Gabriel from actually killing her, and trying to heal Cosme, Lily hadn't actually had a chance to really let her brain notice but...

THEY HAD DEFEATED MANCHINEEL!!!!!

As tired as she was and as belated as it was Lily didn't care! She let out an exuberant whoop of triumphant glee and literally launched herself at her nearest teammate (which according to the map appears to be Ariadne) in a massive hug! "We did it!" she said in an almost dazed tone of astonished joy and relief. "We actually did it! We got her! HAHAHAAA!"

Lily released Ariadne and pulled the noseplug off of her nose. No danger now. In fact, a valuable opportunity. She made it a point to take several deep breaths of Manchineel's scent, and that of whatever traces of her previous pheromone attack still lingered in the air, analyzing the scent and committing every detail of it to memory. She wasn't sure what the effects of Manchineel's defeat and capture would be on her minions, but she'd bet knowing what Manchineel and her pheromones smelled like would be useful in making sure they ceased to be a bother to anyone.

"Oh man," Lily said, a bit breathlessly between both excitement and fatigue. "One down, you guys. We can do this. We can actually, actually do this!" The air around Lily was filled with the scent of daisies and poppies, with some hints of sunflower and jasmine.