Explosion

As Raven continues to kill everyone that she can find, she eventually comes across a large metal door.

'This is the only room I haven't checked on this floor.'

Raven uses her tendrils to pry open the door, ripping it off the hinges and throwing it to the side as if the weight was nothing to her.

As she steps inside, she is greeted by several men holding makeshift pistols. Raven shields herself with the tendrils as they fire upon her, blocking the bullets as she casually walks towards them.

When they are within her range, the tendrils pierce their bodies with precision, leaving only one man left.

The man at the back of the room grinds his teeth seeing everything that he had built torn down by one person in a single hour.

Numerous large wooden crates stand between her and the man.

The man smiles at her, knowing the outcome of both their fates. He reaches into the only crate that is open and grabs a stick of dynamite and pulls out a lighter from his jacket.

Raven opens up the crate closest to her and finds more sticks of dynamite.

"So you're going to blow us both up?"

"You gave me no choice. If I kill you, then whoever you didn't kill will survive. My plan will succeed even if I die."

"You think this will be enough to kill me?"

The man nods his head. "I don't care how strong you are, not even you could survive an explosion this size."

The man lights the fuse. As Raven watches the fuse brun, she morphs her tendrils into a black suit of armor to protect herself from the explosion.

When the fuse has only half it's length remaining, Luna and Tom rush into the room.

Raven turns her head to look at her. Her seasoned fighter instincts kick in after only a few milliseconds of shock.

Raven doesn't have enough time to prevent the man from blowing everyone up, so she does the only thing she can do.

She leaps towards Luna and takes off part of her armor and uses six tendrils to shield Luna instead.

Normally, one tendril can change its shape enough to fit around an entire person. However, increasing the number drastically improves its defenses.

Right before the explosion happens, Raven realizes she instinctively protected the human who was with her. She doesn't know why, but something subconsciously inside her knew she had to.

In this moment, time stands still for her. She realizes her mistake. Her overconfidence didn't account for Luna being in the range of the explosion.

She could have easily prevented this if she stopped that man.

'This reminds me of when you found me, master. I was living in similar conditions as she was.'

Raven turns her head slightly, moving her eyes to the man behind her. 'Who would have thought a mere human could force me into a position like this.'

A moment later, everything erupts. The entire building explodes.

Luna wakes up next to Tom who is unconscious. She looks around for Raven, but there's no trace of her.

Her teacher, her mentor, sacrificed herself so her disciple could live.

As they lay in the rubble, Luna can hardly believe Raven is gone. That she would sacrifice herself so she could live.

Luna hardly knew her, but the time they spent together was a breath of fresh air.

'She saved my life twice.'

Luna jumps back when she hears something underneath the rubble in front of her. She kneels down and quickly removes large chunks of concrete to find the source of the noise.

She finds a small round black object. A sphere of black spiritual energy slightly bigger than a bowling ball, but this thing has legs and arms. Two horns stick out of the of its head. It's blue eyes staring back at her.

"I can't believe I survived." It says in a high pitched voice.

"Umm..who are you?"

"What do you mean?" It asks. "It's me, Raven."

Raven inspects her body. "What the fuck did you do to me?"

"Me? Didn't you do this to yourself?"

"No! It has to be that special type of magic you have. How else do you explain this?"

"This isn't something you can do?"

"HEY!!" Raven shouts. "That's three questions."

Raven saddles up to Luna to slap her, but Raven's hands are too small to do any damage.

"Turn me back, now."

"Even if I did this, I don't know how to change you back."

"Fine, let me think. First, check on your boyfriend."

"He's not my..." Luna stops herself and checks on Tom who as far as she can tell is still breathing.

"I can't return to him looking like this." Raven paces back and forth while talking to herself. "Everyone's going to laugh at me. Especially that bitch, Fala. God, she can be such a dick."

"Hey, we'll figure this out." Luna tries to calm her down.

"You better figure this shit out, otherwise I'll kill you."

Luna tries to make sense of her logic.

Tom opens his eyes to see Luna talking to a small black creature.

"My tail is gone too." Raven keeps rambling on. "And my ears, my cute ears."

Tom checks out his surroundings before turning his attention back to them. "What's going on here?" He whispers to Luna.

"This is the demon you were so afraid of."

"Really?" Tom rubs his chin. "I like this new look. It's kinda cute."

"Don't call me cute. I'm a beautiful but scary killing machine."

Tom raises his eyebrows. "Didn't you just call your ears cute."

"Don't get involved in this." Raven tries her best to look menacing.

Luna checks her surroundings knowing there still could be more of the Twin Blade gange nearby.

"Let's go back to the hideout for now. We'll figure this out later."

Tom and Raven nod in agreement. Tom picks up Raven to carry her back.

"Put me down. I can walk."

"No, you can't." Luna shakes her head. "You barely have legs. You'd have to run to keep up with us."

"Fine. I'll allow it this one time."

After they make it back to Luna's temporary home, Tom lays Raven on the floor because she fell asleep on the way back.

"Is it just me, or is she acting a bit strange?"

"How would you know that?" Luna asks tilting her head to the side. "You don't know her."

"She's a ruthless killing machine that took out a whole gange. And now she's taking a nap like a puppy. Don't tell me she just passes out like this on a regular basis."

"No. You have a point. Maybe changing into that thing was exhausting for her."

Luna stretches her legs to prepare her body to run more laps around the city. Just because her teacher was in terrible shape, doesn't mean she can slack off.

'Knowing her, she still wouldn't give me a day off to rest. I have to keep training so I can become as strong as her one day. Only then can fight against the Zendarians.'

Her will to get stronger after seeing Raven's impressive display of power is unquestionably strong. She's determined to carve out her own path.

'I'll kill whoever stands in my way.'