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Layla was entirely different from how she was before. Blake was certain that Aria's little bop on her head with a baseball bat did much more than cause Layla to bleed profusely. Weirdly enough, she found Layla to be much more focused and calm. So much so that it almost disturbed her more than Melody ever could.
"Um, Layla? You okay?" Blake asked, surprised at how hoarse her voice had become. Layla stopped walking at her brisk pace and looked back, examining Blake's condition once more. The girl was scarred and bloody all over without having any treatment. To think that this same girl was able to keep up at her brisk pace to save Amber was a miracle. Layla sighed.
"I'm sorry Blake. Here," Layla pulled out a small medical kit she brought with her. She had Blake sit upright for her to treat the gashes that littered her body. Pale skin and lean muscle that was once pristine and never touched was now stained crimson with blood and maimed with streaks of long gashes that crossed with one another. The sight of all of these injuries was enough to make Layla feel bad for rushing Blake to help Amber. She realized that Blake wanted to help Amber as much as she did, but couldn't do much in her current condition.
"This should work for now," Layla said calmly, "We'll slow down the pace for a bit so that you don't strain yourself. Focus on taking it easy for now while you can."
"That's fine, but what about you?" Blake asked in concern, pointing at Layla's head, "You're bleeding from Aria's last attack on you. And it looks bad."
"Huh?" Layla asked in confusion, touching her head. She felt the red liquid on her head that matted her hair, and at that moment did she feel the dizzying pain that it caused. She clutched her head and tried to keep herself steady as Blake helped to support her weight.
"As I thought; you're not doing well either," Blake muttered, reaching for Layla's medical kit, "Sit down. I may not be as good as you, but I can at least treat this temporarily." Blake set to work on treating Layla's head wound. Thankfully, it only cracked the skin and not her skull, which meant that she wouldn't suffer from too much brain damage. The worst that Blake figured for her injury would be falling unconscious, even though Layla failed to do that. She finished wrapping a bandage on Layla's head when she heard footsteps from behind them.
"Aria," Layla almost growled, trying to stand up. Blake kept her in place.
"Don't. Aria's just a victim," Blake tried to explain, "She's a direct result of Melody's 'persuasion.' To be more specific, the result of what could have been me had Melody finished what she was doing to me. Don't be mad at her."
"But she was the one that got you into this mess, Blake. You would have been fine if she didn't help to kidnap you," Layla argued.
"Only because she was threatened by Melody to be taken by force if she didn't comply," Blake retorted, "Aria's fearful for her life, Layla. She doesn't even belong in this town! She misses her family but she can't do anything because she's -." The footsteps were now really close. It was enough for them to see who was chasing after them. Surprisingly, they found Daniel running at them with full speed, looking rather relieved from finding them.
"Blake! Layla! You two are alive! Thank God!" he cried out happily, bear-hugging both girls. The surprise had Blake groaning from the pain of her wounds, causing Daniel to immediately let go.
"Shoots! I'm sorry! I-," Daniel paused, looking over Blake, "What the hell did Melody do to you, man?! You look like you went through war and just barely came back alive! And Layla," he spotted Layla's bandaged head, "What happened to you?!"
"Long story short: I found Blake, ran into some trouble, and now here we are," Layla quickly said to shut Daniel up, "But now isn't the time! Amber's in trouble, and she was fighting Melody when I last saw her!"
"She was WHAT?!" Blake and Daniel's voices peaked. Blake sprang to her feet.
"What the hell are we still standing around for?! LET'S GO!" she yelled. Layla and Daniel couldn't agree more as the three began running to the main stairway.

Amber panted heavily as she braced herself against a nearby wall for support. Melody wasn't much better, but at least she was capable of standing upright without help. Both sides had been relentlessly attacking the other, claws against whip, for the last two hours or so. Amber could no longer sustain her Aura as well as she had liked, her whip flickering in and out of existence. Melody's red claws were doing the same, but they remained in better shape than Amber's.
"I'm impressed, newbie. You've got me this tired," Melody cackled with insanity, "It will be so much fun tearing you apart." Amber may have gone mad herself; she began laughing at Melody's words, causing the latter to lose her smile.
"Tearing me apart? I don't think so," Amber spat, smiling, "You're just about as tired as I am right now; there's no way you're gonna 'tear me apart' in your state. You're tired from a newbie." Amber kept laughing, feeling her madness from the entire situation envelope her. Melody gritted her teeth. Amber knew that she was getting frustrated with her antics, and fast.
"Well see about that once I'm through with you," Melody snarled as she lunged at Amber. She managed to dodge the attack, but only barely, calling up her aura whip to pull her away to safety. I can't keep this up much longer, Amber thought as she assessed her current condition, she beat me up pretty good; one more hit from those claws and I might actually go down. Amber searched her surroundings as she continued to dodge Melody's relentless attacks. She recalled the multiple hits she had already taken from those red claws and what they've already done to her. She had hit the walls so many times that she made the once cubic room much more similar to a sphere; Melody only contributed to about twenty of the many craters that littered the main foyer where they had being dueling it out. Bloodied furniture remains and glass from old chandeliers littered the entire area so much so that the once majestic room now looked like a war zone. Amber managed to keep up with Melody's attacks, but unfortunately she was far more exhausted. Melody managed to land a solid hit on her torso, digging deeper into bloody gashes that were already there. Amber yelped from the sudden pain spike and grunted as she was once again punted into one of the walls. It was a miracle that the room didn't collapse yet. Amber fell to the floor and struggled to get up, but was pinned down by Melody as the girl straddled her in place.
"Finally, you can't get away from me now," Melody's tone was dangerously sweet, "I'll be gracious enough to let you stay with me. That is, after I give you a bit of... persuasion." Amber held her breath. Is this how I die, she wondered to herself. A part of her was very frustrated that she would be taken down by a witch like Melody. Another part of her was grateful that she was going to at least die by some hot chick straddling her, albeit a complete psycho hot chick straddling her. Then there was another part of her that hated the part that was grateful to be taken down by said psycho hot chick. Honestly, she was a completely battered mess, physically and mentally. Melody raised a claw and swiped down. Amber shut her eyes, waiting for the claws to rip through her. Seconds passed, and nothing. Amber opened her eyes again, wondering what had happened. She had never felt so much happiness in her life.

Melody's claw was suspended midair by a familiar black aura gauntlet. Melody was glowering at someone while failing to free herself from the strong iron grip. And who else did that grip belong to then her best friend.
"Layla," Amber said weakly, happy to see her friend. Layla looked to her and smiled warmly for a moment, relieved to find that Amber was still alive. She quickly returned her attention to Melody, calmly eyeing the girl and slowly lifting her up. Melody's eyes widened for a few moments from the surprising strength but faded fast as she planted her legs firmly to the ground in an effort to hold Amber hostage beneath her. She didn't count for Blake to help drag Amber away to safety. With Amber resting against one of the walls (or rather, in one of the craters of said walls), Blake returned her attention to supporting Layla. Out of the three in the group, Layla was the only one with most of her strength, so she was the one suited with Blake's aura to go up against Melody and her red aura claws.
"Blake, you're alive," Amber's smile widened.
"Geez, you took quite a beating," Blake turned her head to her and smirked, "Thanks for sticking out in time for us to catch up."
"Hey, no problem. Speaking of which, where's Daniel?" Amber asked, struggling to stay up. Sure enough, Daniel was no where to be found. Amber was beginning to think that he got lost or caught by Aria from searching for them.
"Oh, him? He's escorting Aria outside," Blake explained, "We got stopped by Aria along the way here and I persuaded him to take her outside where it was safe. Hopefully, that should keep the place safe enough for us to take her down."
"Yeah, seriously. I did not expect that she would be a Guardian," Amber muttered, keeping an eye on Layla as she blocked an attack with an aura shield. Layla returned the favor by slashing at Melody's face with a short sword made courtesy of Blake's aura, able to cause a thin line of blood to seep out of Melody's right cheek.
"That's actually one of the reasons why she was so adamant with chasing me," Blake grumbled, her eyes trailing to her tattoo, "Back then I kept my tattoo in the open so she saw it immediately. It made her angry that she wasn't the one to activate my first Calling, so she's tried to keep me by her side and make me her impromptu Knight through brainwashing via fear and torture."
"How lovely," Amber deadpanned sarcastically. It was at this time that Amber's focus returned to Layla as the girl hurtled towards the ceiling. With a softened crash thanks to the many times Amber and Melody had gone up there themselves, Layla bounded back into the action with a huge bash to Melody's head with her shield. Melody took the hit literally head on, collapsing to the floor unconscious. Layla stumbled to get back on her feet, supporting herself upright with her sword.
"I think," she panted, "I think we're done here." Blake nodded, smiling as she relinquished her aura surrounding Layla. Amber groaned as she stood up as well to walk over to her exhausted friend, who had collapsed upon losing her one support. The three girls regrouped and smiled wearily, glad that the event was finally over.

They lugged an unconscious Melody with them out of the building towards the outside, where Detective Stern and Daniel awaited them outside. Daniel noticed them first and rushed over to help them drag Melody into one of the police squad cars. When asked where Aria was, Daniel told them that she was talking with two of the police officers on a way to get back home under the condition that she were to testify against Melody in court.
"Those are some heavy injuries you three have there. What happened inside?" Detective Stern began interrogating.
"Yeah, we kept on hearing crashes and walls breaking inside," Daniel added, "Did you guys fight with her or something?" The three girls exchanged tired looks.
"We'll give the whole story a bit later on," Layla was the one to speak, "But first, let's get to a hospital. We're not quite in the shape to handle an interrogation right now as you can see, so if you'll excuse us..." Layla walked over to one of the police squad cars with Blake and Amber following closely behind. All three girls opened the car doors and slumped inside, immediately asleep the moment they hit the seats.