Zora crashed into her like a spitting, snarling wave, her jaws snapping for their face. They didn't know what she saw, could only assume it was whatever weird... hallucination that had made them see her, dead on the ground when she very clearly wasn't. But the illusion had fallen apart the second they'd touched her, looked closer and noticed that she was wrong. So why wasn't it doing that now?

Adrenaline pulsed through her veins, slow at first but getting faster as Gladiator saw the look in Zora's eyes and knew it was directed at her. She didn't know how to stop this, how to tell her it wasn't real when the circumstances had changed and it... kinda was.

It's okay, it's me! It's Gladiator! She tried, turning her face away from her teeth, too close, and inadvertently exposing her throat. It shot a healthy dose of panic into her veins but she didn't know what else to do. Maybe she'd see the scars and remember? ...Remember.

We were gonna start a gang together, remember? We were gonna take over the world! Her legs buckled under the onslaught, Zora's snapping fangs getting closer, closer— fuck. Zora had always been smaller, weaker. She hated to use it against her, but if the only alternative was staying here and playing keep-away forever, then.

Gladiator pushed against her to create space and scrambled to roll onto her feet. The ground pitched dizzyingly beneath her. She might've hit her head on the way down. She still smelled blood. She didn't stop to check if it was hers, she was too busy reeling, backpedaling wildly not knowing which direction to go just that they needed to get out. It's me!