Athena and Dancer both stepped forward from their lifts at the same time, meeting each other in the middle. By this point, neither were even paying attention to Balrog's announcement; they had been here enough times that they knew the timing by heart. They felt like there was nobody left in the world, so they worried instead about each other. They bowed, took a step back, then began to fight.

Kerilyn had learned her lesson in the first fight, and kept on the offence, taking hits whenever necessary, knocking Dancer's fist aside whenever she could instead, and sticking to martial blows, rather than trying to throw her weight around. She knew speed wasn't her strength, but she stayed as quick on her feet as possible, and relied on spontaneity instead.

Athena had been battered pretty badly, cut up all over, especially its arms, but eventually she was able to knock Jenny off-balance with a jab to Dancer's face. That was all that it took; in her moment of being thrown off, Kerilyn was able to throw in an uppercut, knocking her off her feet entirely. As soon as Dancer hit the ground, she put her foot down on its chest. It would not be standing again; Kerilyn had won.

It felt anticlimactic.

The panels shifted on Dancer's upper chest, showing Jenny inside. She looked calm, but uncertain, and she looked up at Kerilyn.

"You won," she said. After a pause, she added, "I'll see you at the bottom, alright? Definitely."

Athena nodded. She stepped back, and Balrog flew down until he was at head height with Athena, floating above Dancer's body.

"Athena from Athens," he said, as deep and loudly as ever, "Let me offer you my sincerest congratulations, but first, I will show the representative from Starfall back personally. Please, wait here; there is much I wish to discuss with yourself. But I will say this now: you are a most talented fighter."

Athena just nodded again, with Kerilyn uncertain of how she should respond. With that, the lift appeared with attendants to help move Dancer onto the platform, and Balrog followed. Before she knew it, the lift had gone downwards as quickly as it had come up, and she was left alone on the plateau. All alone, at the top of the world; it could be poetic, she thought. She turned around slowly, trying to admire the view.

But instead, she saw nothing but a dark haze around the horizon. She turned, looking all about, for each of the eight tribes; Umbra couldn't be seen, Devisterre couldn't be seen, York couldn't be seen, Jia Ting couldn't be seen, Tessala couldn't be seen, and Fenelle couldn't be seen. All she could see in the distance was Athens and Starfall; their two home tribes. Her first reaction was it amplified her loneliness, but almost immediately after she realized how incredibly wrong that was. How could she not see them? But surely enough, staring out into the distance where there should have been Umbra's mountains, or Fenelle's skyscrapers, instead she saw nothing but utter black.

And as she turned around to face Starfall again, she realized that it was starting to fade.

Kerilyn had no idea what was happening, but she knew it wasn't right, that she had to do something-- and that Jenny was in trouble. She run at the lift that Jenny had gone down, staring at the hole only briefly before deciding there was no way she'd get it to come back up for her. Instead, she jumped, falling faster than she'd ever moved before in her life. After mere seconds, she landed on her feet, on the floor of the lift, with an enormously loud crash. The door in front of her was closed, but she was determined, and pried it open with her hands. Before her was a long, coldly lit hallway. She ran down the hallway, finding the door at the open open, and rushed in.

The room was circular, and directly across from her was another open door; presumably leading to the other lift. Her cockpit opened so she could see from a lower height, and she looked around, surveying the room in horror.

The lighting was eerie, and the room's walls were adorned with eight screens. Two were dark; but she stared at the others, seeing the spectral images of each tribe's land through the screens. In the foreground of every one was a person; the representative of the tribe. This, she realized, was where they had all disappeared to. They seemed sad, miserable, resigned, angry-- one appeared as though he'd been crying, another was being hugged by someone who looked like a relative, another had her back turned to the screen; although she could hear nothing, Mary was banging on her screen, clearly screaming.

Kerilyn was aghast; she knew the mechas had the power of all their tribe's magic behind them, but she never would've imagined something like this being possible. She turned, looking on in horror.

"Where is he?" she thought out loud.

Surprisingly, all six imprisoned fighters reacted to her, pointing at a door on one of the walls. It wasn't necessary; suddenly, she heard a scream coming from behind it, knowing instantly it was Jenny.

"I'll be back for you all," she promised. Then the panels shifted, sealing her off again, and she charged at the door, slamming clear through it using her full weight. She stumbled into another room, just as she heard Jenny scream again; and she saw why.

Dancer was chained to the wall, with a massive, unfamiliar mecha lumbering over her, menacingly holding a golden instrument up to her. She was writhing, trying to avoid it, with her cockpit open and exposed. She might not have recognized the mecha, but instantly she could tell who was in it.

"Balrog!" she screamed, not caring if he could hear her through the cockpit; she charged at him as fast as she could, catching him off guard and managing to pin him to the wall, knocking the instrument out of his hands in the process. She punched him in the face, opening her cockpit again and raising her arm to strike again. "Leave her alone, you monster!"

She pulled it shut again as Balrog fought back, managing to throw her at the wall behind her. His strength was amazing, and she crashed not only into it, but clear through it, suddenly finding herself in midair, falling. She stared up in horror as she rapidly approached the ground. Balrog had jumped out the hole, flying after her.

After several seconds of flight, alarmed at the thought of how bad her landing was going to be, she crashed, hard-- landing on her feet, but it didn't especially matter. The impact send a shockwave through her whole body, being hurt despite all her protection. And she knew it had severely damaged her legs; she was barely able to stand at all.

And then Balrog landed in front of her, lumbering at her quickly. As her legs stubbornly refused to move under her, she was powerless to do anything but raise her fists and wait; as she watched him approach, she was shocked, realizing that his mecha wasn't quite so unfamiliar after all.

Each part of its massive body was formed from one of the other fighters' mecha. They had all changed to a horrible, blood red, but even still she could tell; it had the arm of Mary's mecha and the blade to match, and another massive arm was clearly formed by the Baron. The only hint of that was the fact that, caught as offguard as the Baron had in their fight, the arm had shot out its socket, and grabbed her by the waist. She struggled to free herself, but her legs still refused to move, and striking his fist was futile. She was caught powerlessly in his massive grip, and he lifted her up, taking to the air again.

He flew up and up, Kerilyn looking at the ground below her in horror, still struggling, still unable to break free. He only stopped flying upwards when he was high above the plateau of his tower. Then he threw her at the top of the tower. This time she didn't crash nearly as gracefully, landing on her back; it wasn't quite as painful as the first crash, but she still felt it. Balrog was diving down at her, and she knew the impact would be the end; after the fight with Dancer and the impact with the ground, her mecha's body was too cracked and bruised, and her legs had failed on her. She would be crushed under his massive weight. She raised her arms vainly, knowing that she'd be unable to throw him off, but still willing to try.

Then there was a flash of white in front of her, watching in surprise as Dancer flew over her head, dropkicking Balrog. He crashed into the ground and slid off the edge, sparks flying, at the same time Dancer landed gracefully in front of her, turning around quickly to face Kerilyn. Her cockpit flew open, and Kerilyn pulled hers back open too, a little more sluggishly.

"You have to get up, Kerilyn! He'll be back any second," Jenny said, frantically.

"My legs aren't working. I'm powerless."

"You have to! I can't take him on my own, Kerilyn!"

"I can't...," she said, groaning as she tried desperately to pull herself up, the whole body responding sluggishly under her. It was no use; Athena would not rise to its feet, they were far too damaged. "I'm sorry, Jenny...."

"Then...," Jenny said, Dancer's head turning to look over its shoulder. Balrog was pulling himself back up. "He absorbed the power of everyone else's mecha... I'll give you mine, Kerilyn. You have to keep fighting!"

"No... no way," Kerilyn said, a look of pain on her face. "I wouldn't do that to you."

By this point, Balrog's waist had appeared above the ledge-- his ability to fly damaged by the kick-- and he had nearly pulled himself over. A look of pure rage was in his mecha's eyes.

"There's no time to argue! There's only one way to win... come on, Kerilyn! You're not going to give up, are you?" Jenny yelled at her.

That did it for Kerilyn.

"Never," she curtly said, groaning as she struggled to raise herself again. She reached out, and Jenny offered Dancer's hand; holding tightly, she pulled Athena up to her feet again. Both their cockpits slammed shut at once as Jenny offered herself-- and Kerilyn, uncertain, but refusing to surrender, accepted her. Their hands started to shimmer and glow, then their arms, then their whole bodies, as they both moved inwards. Balrog pulled himself over the edge, and was charging at them.

There was a huge glow of light, sparks flying as the two mecha embraced each other. Kerilyn screamed out as the two became one, the barriers of the cockpits melting together, Jenny being pushed through the light and against Kerilyn's own body. Outside, parts flew and shifted, shining and changing colour, light and sparks flying. Athena's legs were envelopped and replaced by Dancer's, with its chest being covered by Jenny's mecha's white armour. Dancer's wings spun backwards, their arms intertangled; Jenny gasped and panted as Kerilyn absorbed her magic, gripping her tightly.

Kerilyn cried out louder than she had in her life, her body twitching all over, feeling the heat rushing through her body. There was a bright flash of light; then as she shuddered, she felt at calm, the glow fading. The combined mecha stepped forward, Athena with the brilliant white, winged armour of Dancer, its head a serene-faced amalgamation of the two, holding their sword up high. Inside the cockpit, Jenny was panting, her arms wrapped around Kerilyn's neck, their bodies pressed tightly against each other; their power willingly shared rather than stolen, they were both equally in control, fighting as one.

Balrog's abomination of a mecha was charging forward with heavy footsteps, and had reached them; he raised his arm, trying to knock them back, but Athena/Dancer dashed to the side gracefully. They responded with a sharp kick to Balrog's side, damaging his armour where their foot struck.

He grabbed their foot with his oversized hand, throwing them away and into the air; it only threw them off balance, immediately stopping in midair thanks to Dancer's wings. As they floated above him, they looked around, seeing the horizon flickering, images of the lands of Earth appearing and disappearing-- both knowing exactly what they were fighting for.

"You don't know what you're doing!" Balrog's deep voice boomed out, turning around to face them once more.

They flew at him, striking with their sword, putting a huge gash in his arm before he managed to punch them in the face, bodychecking them backwards. They flew back with the check, instead causing his horrific mecha to stumble forwards, thrown off balance.

"We're saving the people of Earth from you," their voice echoed out, each at the exact same instant, their mecha itself carrying their words. "You monster."

"Monster? Monster?!" he shouted, furiously. "Do you know who the fuck I am?! I am Dr. Balrog, the defender of Earth... humanity's last hope of survival! How dare you?!"

They flew at him swiftly, slashing again, this time taking his other arm clean off; it crashed into the ground with a loud noise, falling into pieces. They spun about to face him, floating above him, preparing to strike next.

"How dare you!" they both said. "Defending the Earth by destroying it? You're a madman!"

Without warning, there was a sputtering noise from Balrog's mecha, as it took to the sky clumsily, uppercutting the two's mecha strongly. They both felt it, knocking them back; inside, Kerilyn gripped Jenny tighter.

"You have no right to challenge me!" his voice boomed at them-- but they could both sense a weakness, a desperation to it. "It is my responsibility-- my duty-- to save the people of Earth! I don't have time to deal with a pair of children!"

"You're mad, Balrog," they replied, Jenny's voice furious, Kerilyn's sympathetic. "Can't you see that? Listen to yourself!"

They flew at him once more, his remaining arm shooting out to catch them in midair. But they weaved, dodging it, landing a swift kick to his chest, knocking him out of the air and crashing into the ground again. They flew at him, and suddenly, panels all over his body shifted, revealing the mecha from Tessala's fireworks; knowing that they'd never survive getting hit by them all at close range, they thrust their sword downwards, straight through Balrog's chest and leaving it there, tumbling through the air to get out of his line of fire.

Kerilyn panted, getting ready for the volley to go off, almost expecting him to pull out the sword. But he didn't. In the distance, they saw the horizon fading back to its normal self, no longer flickering, the lands of Earth returning to sight again as Balrog's horrific mecha's colour faded to black. It took them a minute to become conscious of their surroundings again, their fighter's trance wearing off; realizing that they truly had won.

Their cockpit slowly opened, and Jenny looked behind her, both seeing that in front of them, the sun was setting.

But then they stopped, and instead looked at each other, staring into the other's eyes. Together, they had done it; they had saved the Earth only with the help of the other, only by fighting as a pair, only by staying close as the world literally disappeared on them. All these thoughts, and a few others, went through their heads, but neither of them said a word; simply gazing into the other's eyes.

At last Kerilyn could bear it no more, lowering her head to kiss Jenny deeply; and she responded in the same way.

When the six fighters, released from Balrog's hold, arrived by the lift onto the roof, that was how they found the women who had saved them; heroic, triumphant, in love and in each other's arms, locked deeply in a kiss.

In the distance, the sun set, signalling a close to tournament.