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Weiss didn't know what to really expect when she ran ahead of Layla and Amber. She just wanted to see if Blake was going to be fine. She did not expect to step into the middle of a fight and get blown up by some force she couldn't see. All she could feel was a blast of wind and then the next thing she knew her head was pounding, her vision was blurry, and she could faintly hear Layla screaming. Layla and Amber didn't expect it either; they could only watch in shock as Weiss was hurled to the wall behind her, creating a small indent where her body first made impact. Layla rushed over to her side, screaming Weiss' name in an attempt to keep the poor girl awake. Amber turned her attention towards the source of the blast and froze in shock once more. She spotted Daniel and Blake, auras active, standing in place from the surprise interruption. Daniel's gray and icy aura encircled him as though he had it the entire time, and this would have surprised her more if she wasn't looking towards Blake first. Her Knight was fatigued beyond recognition, down on one knee in front of Daniel and trying her best to steady her breath. Amber had never seen Blake in such a sorry state before; the poor girl looked as though she could collapse at any second. Blake didn't even look that exhausted after being tortured by Melody for so long.
"Daniel?! Blake?! What the hell is going on?!" Layla cried out, cradling a now unconscious Weiss in her arms. Amber looked back over towards the two in question. As far as she remembered, Daniel was an ordinary kid with no aura powers, but for some reason she saw him right there in front of her with his aura fully on display. Not only that, but Blake had seen him to be dangerous enough to warrant the use of her own aura against him, which didn't make sense to her either. Why were they fighting like this, and how was it that Daniel was now capable of using aura? She was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of Blake's clipped breaths directed towards Weiss.
"Weiss... I-I have to..." Blake's voice was labored and pained beyond recognition. No longer did she sound like the strong Knight Amber knew; she sounded broken in both body and spirit. Blake's exhaustion was clear for anyone to see, and the same was said for the pain she felt upon seeing Weiss' unconscious body in Layla's arms. Daniel didn't seem to care about Blake anymore, although he did look in the same direction. Suddenly, Amber didn't like the look in his eyes and activated her aura as well, allowing the pinkish light to pulse in intimidation as cracked the air around him to force his attention to her.
"Daniel, you have a lot of explaining to do," Amber growled lowly. Daniel huffed and dismissed her, returning his attention to Layla and Weiss. By this time, Blake had stumbled her way over to the two girls, eyes never leaving Weiss' body. Blake fell to her knees in front of Layla, and the Knight broke down into sobs. All Layla could hear from Blake were the whispers of apology for something she had no control over. Layla shifted Weiss over to Blake and glanced up towards Amber. She found that she wasn't surprised to see the Guardian's aura in full effect, although when she looked over to Daniel she felt something vastly different. He looked longingly in her direction, and after standing and walking over to Amber, Layla took note that his eyes continued to follow her. Even after she stood behind Amber, fully prepared to fight him with her gear, his eyes never left hers.

"Daniel," Layla tried to remain taciturn as she addressed him, "What's going on? Why are you here?" Daniel remained silent, eyes trained on her. It looked as though he ignored everything else around him and focused solely on her.
"I'm here to protect you," Daniel answered simply, "Blake's tired from fighting Ires so long and I just wanted to help her. As for why I'm here..." The boy's voice trailed off and finally shifted to look over to Blake. Layla could see jealousy in his icy blues and a hint of remorse for causing so much pain on his best friend. However, what disturbed her was the other emotion she noticed in his eyes: blood lust. Despite the regret he had for harming Blake, he was still enraged and willing to harm his friend further.
"Blake here wouldn't have any of it," he continued, now resorting to spitting her name with his rage now consuming him, "And I felt the need to show my strength." He turned his attention back to Layla, eyes shifting from blood lust to longing once more, "You don't need her to protect you. I'm clearly stronger and I know I can protect you better. You don't need to fight anymore." Layla wanted to speak her mind but fell silent after considering his words. She wondered why he felt the need to prove his strength to her. Layla knew fully well just how capable of a fighter Blake was, and based on Blake's behavior and Daniel's body being covered with nothing more than ice and dirt, Layla could easily figure out that Blake did not intend to harm him at all. But Daniel seemed to have missed that part of Blake's intent, which made her frustrated on Blake's behalf. Seeing Blake in her exhausted state cradling Weiss was slowly becoming painful to watch. She didn't even have much time to say a thing about Daniel's statements before Amber's aura whizzed straight to him with insane accuracy and speed. Daniel didn't even see it coming; he took the full brunt of the attack and crashed into the building behind him, ending up at the other side of it. Layla looked over towards the one responsible for the attack and felt her spine chill. Out of all the years she had known Amber, she had never seen Amber angry. And this new side of hers was very frightening.
Amber didn't know what to think of the entire situation. All she knew was that Daniel was the one responsible for the attack that hit Weiss and the one who left Blake in such a fatigued state. And all for what? Just because Daniel wanted to protect her friend Layla. Amber couldn't think of a reason why that would suffice to justify the pain Blake and Weiss were in, and that was when she snapped. She lashed out towards Daniel at lightning speeds, using the time he took to gather his senses to step protectively in front of Layla.
"I think you may have forgotten that I'm here, Daniel," Amber's voice was low and malicious, which scared Layla a bit since this was the first time she heard her usually cheery friend use that tone of voice. Daniel shook out of his reverie and used his aura to freeze an icy bridge back through the hole in the school building, glaring at Amber all the while. A part of him felt very surprised to find himself sucker punched by Amber of all people, but he refused to let that show. D's letter had made little of Amber, so Daniel didn't really take her into account.
"Watch it, Amber," Daniel snarled, "I'm not the same weak kid that I was back then."
"I know. You're much more of a coward now," Amber snarled back, "You'd go so far as to disappear for the longest time, making Blake worry about you, and then reappear again to force her to fight you. Do you even realize that she never made a single attempt to hurt you, or are you just blinded by unlocking your aura and thinking that you're invincible now?!" Amber was beyond angry at this point. Daniel didn't even bother with her message, that much was clear in his facial expression.
"I am NOT a coward. I am merely stating the truth that Blake is now weak from fighting for so long. As proof, in our fight she was the one on her knees, not me," Daniel tried to reason despite his rage. He only wanted to prove his worth to Blake; he didn't want to harm anyone else in the process. Layla took a few steps away from Amber as she watched the pinkish aura suddenly pulse a fiery red from the spike of anger Amber must have felt.
"Weak? Blake? Do you even know what you're talking about?!" Amber's voice rose, her aura now going from a light pink to pinkish red, "She has fought Ires for years, Daniel. That is not something someone weak can do! She has the stamina to withstand hours of torture from when she was a middle schooler! You have no idea what she's been through, so don't you dare say she's weak!" Daniel instinctively took a step back from what he was seeing. D never said anything about Amber's emotions making her aura change color. Layla and even Blake couldn't help but feel taken aback by the sudden change in Amber's aura. If anything, Blake found the change to be something to take note of.

It was at this point that Weiss opened her eyes. Her vision blurred and cleared to see Blake holding her tenderly in her arms. However, Blake's expression gave her an uneasiness, and even more so after noticing a faint black light surrounding her. Weiss felt her body ache all over as though she were hit by a wrecking ball, but it didn't stop her from trying to see what was going on. She was surprised to find Amber surrounded in a pinkish-red light saying something in a heightened voice that sounded muffled to her, as well as Layla's equipment glowing in a similar sky blue light. She finally turned her attention to the one they stood against and felt her blood run cold. It was a boy, just around their age, but his eyes were icy blue and a grey light accentuated his body. Just what on earth is going on, Weiss wondered in a slight panic.
"B... Blake?" Weiss cringed from how feeble her voice sounded then. Luckily for her, it was all that it took to get Blake's attention to her, and the Knight couldn't have been happier.
"Oh thank God!" Blake breathed a sigh of relief, hugging Weiss, "Weiss I thought you were a goner!" Layla overheard Blake and rushed over towards them, a smile quickly replacing her terse expression earlier. Amber felt a wave of relief over herself as she heard Weiss being awake, but she steeled herself and kept her focus on Daniel, whose eyes were trained on Layla.
"I'm not dead, am I?" Weiss asked, trying her best to speak up despite the growing pain throughout her body.
"No! Of course not!" Layla answered her this time, a smile stuck on her face. She and Blake looked extremely happy to see Weiss, but something in Weiss' expression made them pause their excitement.
"Hey, uh, Weiss?" Blake asked, "Is everything okay? What's up?" Weiss continued to look over everyone with confused eyes. If I'm not dead, Weiss thought to herself, why on Earth is everyone glowing? She wanted to ask them out front, but she felt as though they would think she was crazy. She recalled them mentioning something about their auras being something only Ires and themselves can see, but in terms of how it looked was something she never really questioned them about. The interpretation of their aura in her mind was quite different than what she saw before her, and so she remained silent. Obviously, her silence didn't sit too well with her very concerned friends, as they continued to nag her for some sort of response. Meanwhile, Amber returned her attention towards Daniel and noticed that he had begun approaching Blake, Weiss and Layla. What made her feel worse was that he was only a few feet away from them when she finally remembered that he existed. Amber quickly made her way over to stand between him and the girls. Daniel stopped in his tracks and frowned upon noticing Amber standing in his way.
"Move it," Daniel simply warned, aura flaring with power.
"No," Amber was determined to make sure Daniel didn't get any closer, flaring her aura as well. At this point, her pinkish aura was now closer to a fiery red from how angry she was of Daniel. Weiss waking up had calmed her somewhat, but it wasn't enough to curb her anger for good. Daniel wasn't looking too pleased either; his aura began to freeze the space between them. Emotions left unchecked, he freely displayed his anger towards Amber. Blake sensed this all too well and flared her aura in response. She didn't mean to use her power, but she ended up doing so within that moment, causing a wave of powerful air to blow past the two warring individuals. Layla felt her equipment shake alongside the shockwave, realizing that Blake never showed them her full potential. Weiss could only leave her mouth agape as she looked over Blake's features. The black aura flared around her like an eternal flame, glowing in an almost ethereal way similar to a spirit from hell. In a sense, Weiss found it majestic. Both Amber and Daniel immediately reacted to the sudden rush of power albeit in different ways; Amber tensed and turned her body towards Blake while Daniel staggered back slightly with his aura wavering from sudden fear. Somehow, Blake's display of power compared to how she was earlier was drastically different. It terrified and angered him simultaneously.
"You never took me seriously in anything did you?" Daniel grumbled, now set on Blake, "Not even now, when I clearly have more strength than you do at this very moment." Blake remained poised and intimidating despite the sharp words, but she knew he was right. There was no way she would hurt him, especially after knowing what he went through.

"How far do I have to push for you to understand?" Daniel's voice rose in frustration, "Why can't you understand that I just want to protect Amber?!"