In the Name of Love and Hate

The day had only just started. With everyone stationed in their departments and waiting for orders, it looked like it was going to be just a standard day- the same people working on the same abnormalities as the clock ticked on by and meltdowns happened like clockwork. Same shit, different day- they just follow orders. But there was something new in the facility, like always; the Welfare Team, still under construction, had just recieved its newest abnormality, and there were murmurs around the facility of what it could be. Soon enough, an announcement rang out across the facility.

"Agent Kaerno, please report to WLFR-02. You have been assigned to Attachment work."

Kaerno looked over her shoulder and turned around, curious, a little excited, and a little scared all at once. She was being assigned to the new abnormality? All the way down in Welfare, of all places? She was a little excited to see what it could be, but a nervous soul at heart, she couldn't help but worry. There were so many things it could've been. It could've been something cute and relatively harmless, like that adorable doll-girl or that bratty little bird up in Training. Or it could've been something dangerous and scary! She'd heard so many stories about all the terrifying monsters in the other departments, and every time she was assigned to something outside of her comfort zone, her heart skipped a beat. She could only wonder what it could've possibly been...

When she opened the door, what she was greeted with startled her a little bit, but not exactly in a bad way. Sitting quietly behind the cautionary line, there was a seemingly-ordinary woman! Well...not quite "ordinary", but definitely less obviously abnormal than anything else she'd seen in the facility. She looked to be about 19 or so, wearing a frilly pink dress with a ribbon around her neck and a pink-and-black heart-shaped clip in her light-blue hair. Laying against the wall next to her was a colorful star-shaped staff, small blue wings attached to the sides. She perked up when she heard the door open, before happily waving at Kaerno.

"Hi there!", she said, in a chipper tone. Kaerno breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, she hadn't been assigned to something that wanted to immediately murder her. This girl seemed nice enough...but why was she here in the first place? Other than her extravagant taste in clothing, nothing looked especially unusual about her. She stood up and waved again, seemingly very eager to meet someone new. Being that she was assigned to Attachment, Kaerno figured it wouldn't hurt to strike up some conversation. So they talked.

"Hiya. Uh...my name's Kaerno. Nice to meet you!"
"You too! Me, uh, I don't really like to tell my real name to new people, but I go by 'The Queen of Love'! You can just call me Queenie or something for short." She chuckled.
"That's cool. Queen of Love, huh? That's a really cool nickname. So, uh, if you don't mind me asking...what are you, uh, doing here?"

She shifted a little, putting a hand against her chin for a moment. "...Y'know, I don't actually know. Either that, or I don't remember. I think your manager or someone brought me here. Dunno why, though."
"Yeah, I'm not sure either. You don't seem like you're evil or scary or even...all that out of the ordinary. We contain things here because they're dangerous or they 'defy the laws of normalcy', or that's what the higher-ups say, at least. Is there something you think might have convinced them to bring you here?"

The Queen perked up at the question, suddenly seeming to realize something. "Oh, that explains a lot, actually! I'm what you'd call a 'magical girl'. I was chosen to fight evil and to bring peace!" She posed playfully. "I've got some cool powers I can use to fight or to protect people. If things are brought here because they're weird or 'abnormal', I guess me being magical would be abnormal enough!", she said with a laugh. It seemed to make sense to both of them now!

"A magical girl?", Kaerno replied, seemingly fascinated. "That's awesome! Ooh, could you show me anything you can do?"
"Certainly!" The Queen turned, and with a click of her heels, a bright pink circle of magic appeared below her. Her staff seemingly picked itself up and hovered into her hand, and with a quick spin and pose, glittering hearts appeared around her. "Cool, huh? I can do more, but y'know, I don't want to be hurting anyone."
"Of course not! I'm no evil villain," Kaerno joked. "Well, uh, that's real neat! You're really nice, and-"

A tone chimed over the intercom, making both of them jump. "You have gathered enough energy from this abnormality for one work-shift. Please return to the deployment bay."

"Oh, that's my cue to go," said Kaerno. She turned and began to walk toward the door-
"Oh, wait, wait, I have one more thing to show you!", the Queen shouted, motioning for her to come back for a moment. "Just 'cause you're so nice..." She stepped back for a moment, before blowing a kiss to her, a glittering, pink heart forming in front of her. Kaerno couldn't help but notice that she felt oddly refreshed afterward. "Okay, now you can go. Sorry to hold you back, haha."

"Uh...thank you!" Kaerno waved, before leaving the containment chamber. They said not to form attachments to the abnormalities, but...

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And so, the day continued on. Assigned to the Queen a couple more times, Kaerno formed what felt like a genuine bond with her. She was a kind, excitable and very ambitious soul, always driven by her desire for justice. Unfortunately, it soon turned out that that very same desire for justice would bring upon something quite concerning. When the meltdown alarm sounded, and employees were assigned around the facility to deal with the damage done to the containment chambers, reports came in from Welfare of what sounded like sobbing and mumbling coming from WLFR-02. Unsurprisingly, Kaerno was one of the first employees to have one of these reports forwarded to her, and she proceeded to the chamber with haste.

She opened the door to see the Queen kneeling in the corner of the room, weeping quietly but otherwise looking...listless, unfocused. Like something was very wrong. She barely even looked up at Kaerno, sniffling and seemingly trying to regain her composure. "...hi, Kaerno," she said quietly.
"Are...are you okay?", Kaerno replied.
"...no. I'm not okay at all."
"What's going on? You want to talk about it?"
The Queen turned away, thinking to herself for a moment. "It's...personal. I don't know if I can put it into words without sounding like a crazy person."
"I promise I won't judge you. You can talk to me."
"Mmm...I just...it's weird. I can't help but think to myself...you guys have been doing a great job keeping the peace around here. Don't get me wrong. But I...I don't feel like I have a purpose. There's no light without darkness." She paused. "I'm a magical girl. I was chosen to fight for peace and justice. And I know peace is a good thing, peace is what I fight for, but...when that peace is here, when we've won, I..." Her breathing hitched, and she sat back, curling her knees close to her body. "...it makes me feel worthless, like there's no point...my head hurts, I think I'm hearing things..." She started weeping again, putting her face in her hands.

Kaerno was a little startled and deeply concerned by what she was hearing. This was the exact opposite of the Queen of Love she'd come to know. It pained her heart to see such a nice girl under such duress. She had to help somehow.

"Um...okay, if this makes you feel worse I'm sorry in advance, I'm not too good at this, but...I think you're great at what you do. When you come out to help us when something gets out, you do a great job. And frankly, this place is kind of a mess...there will always be times in the future when you're needed. You're not worthless, you're not a burden, and...I think you're pretty great." She smiled.
The Queen looked quietly into her eyes, but did not reply, instead shifting and hiding her face.
"Uh...do you want me to just leave you alone for a while?"
No response. Kaerno nodded, stepped back and began to turn to leave, but stopped when she heard what sounded like the Queen getting up. She turned back, and saw her beginning to levitate in place. Her staff picked itself up again, but this time it twirled around her and flipped around in the air, hanging over her head and glinting like a knife. From nowhere, crystalline spears manifested, firing themselves through her and making her wince in pain. She seemed to mutter something quietly under her breath; Kaerno couldn't understand most of it, but she could make out the words "justice" and "evil"...

The Queen looked up at her, and managed to choke out a final warning. "...i'm sorry...please...run."

With a blast of light and a painful sound like metal breaking glass, her staff came crashing down upon her and consumed the containment chamber in a blinding white glow. Kaerno took a couple steps back, but "running" wasn't exactly something she could do right now. Not only was she terrified, but she'd just witnessed probably the only abnormality in the facility that she really considered a "friend" get violently impaled at least eleven times over. She felt like she needed to do something.

The light dissipated, and behind it, something unfurled itself. With sparkling blue scales, great pink-and-blue wings, and clawed arms sprouting from near the head, the creature resembled a great serpent, snarling and baring its fangs. For a split-second, she wasn't sure what she was looking at, but around its neck, she saw a ribbon- the very same ribbon the Queen wore. And she realized she was still looking at her, transformed almost beyond recognition into a mighty beast. She started to say something, but the Queen only hissed and forced herself out of the room, pushing Kaerno into the wall and knocking the wind out of her. And down the hall she went.

Kaerno quickly realized the severity of the situation. She's breaching. The abnormality is breaching. She's WAW-class and she's turned into a monster and she's breaching! Frantically, she got back to her feet and pulled her rifle out of its holster, running down the hall after her. Over her radio, she could hear her teammates shouting. "What the hell is that!?" "Hostile detected! Open fire!" "It's going to kill us all!" She winced a tiny bit when she heard Lamarcus shouting for her to get to Control HQ as fast as she could, hoping that he would be okay.

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The entire facility was in a rush, hurrying to get to Control HQ as quickly as possible. Brandishing their weapons and ready to fight, everyone from Hao to Hayden to Loki was on their way up. Not much was known about this abnormality yet. Its weaknesses and resistances hadn't been well studied. Lamarcus fired shot after shot into it, but it seemed to simply shrug them off, hissing in rage and swiping at everyone in front of it with its clawed forelimbs. From behind him, Piper and Stranger rushed ahead, brandishing their ALEPH-class weaponry and ready to fight, while Leanne and Mortimer fired on it from a distance. Seeing the amount of foes in front of it, the creature narrowed its eyes, and with a crocodile-like rumble, it curled its wings in front of it, as a magical circle appeared beneath it. The manager barked orders for everyone to retreat to the hallway behind it, but Lamarcus stared, like a deer in the headlights. What's it doing? It threw its head into the air, an orb of pinkish-white light forming in its mouth...and Lamarcus suddenly realized what was happening.

Arcana Blade.

Adrenaline shot through his heart as a painfully bright laser fired across the room. He attempted to dodge aside, but the beam hit him from the waist down, searing, shooting pain firing up through his entire body. With a cry of agony, he managed to roll aside, slumping against the wall. His legs were scorched, and trying to move them produced little movement and lots of burning pain. He shouted into his radio- "I'm hit! I need- ugh- I need medical assistance, stat!" It didn't even seem to notice him as it continued to fire ahead of it. The beam intensified, flickering black embers appearing around it as it shifted from pinkish-white to bloody red. He could feel the heat and energy radiating from the beam, and prayed that it didn't decide to change its trajectory and incinerate him. The other employees came back into the room from behind, firing upon it, but it didn't seem to notice them either.

It only, finally, stopped when a distinct pinkish bullet was fired into its back.

The noise and chaos of the room came to a sudden stop, as everyone- even the abnormality- turned to look at the source of the bullet. In the doorway, Kaerno stood, holding her rifle in firing position and quietly readying to fire again. The abnormality hissed and turned around, seemingly preparing to fire again, but Kaerno shot once more. Lamarcus was confused by what he was seeing- both his and Kaerno's weapons did Black damage, but while the creature shrugged off his shots like they were nothing, Kaerno's gunfire seemed to make it flinch and shrink in upon itself like in great pain. What was going on here? As he wondered to himself, Kaerno began to speak, continuing to fire.

"Why are you doing this? This isn't like you! You tell me you want to fight for peace and justice, but here you are, creating the very chaos and evil that you want to put a stop to! This isn't healthy, you're doing yourself no good by doing this...so please, as a friend to a friend, listen to me. You're hurting everyone. You're betraying the people who've been so kind to you. You're going to regret this later, and I'm sorry for being harsh, but I need to put a stop to this!"

With every shot, the abnormality winced, curling into a rattlesnake-like position, but it didn't seem to want to stand down. It continued to hiss and growl, crawling toward Kaerno and seeming to fight with itself on whether or not to tear her apart...

"So In the name of the love and justice you hold so dear, stand down, Queen of Love!"

At the sound of her true name, the Queen gave a pained roar of grief, of self-loathing, of hatred. And she collapsed. Kaerno was right. This wasn't what she wanted, this wasn't what she fought for. Why was she doing this? She was only hurting everyone...With a flash of light, the transformation broke, and the Queen, having returned to her human form, slowly descended into a halo of magic circles, coming to a quiet rest on the floor. The room went silent and cold. Kaerno rushed to her side, gently shaking her to see if she could rouse her back to waking. She opened her eyes, and shifted to get onto her hands and knees and get her bearings. A pause filled the air, before the Queen burst into sobbing and reached forward to hug Kaerno. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, you're right...this isn't what I want, I'm just ruining everything...I didn't kill anyone, did I? Oh, I'm so sorry..."

Lamarcus interjected. "It's fine, kid. You didn't hurt anyone too bad. I mean, I can't move my legs, but it's nothing we can't fix up at medbay. God damn this hurts, though." He motioned for Kaerno to help him up, and both she and the Queen stood, before Kaerno walked over to help him stand.
"You're really okay?", the Queen said. "You look really, really hurt..."
"I've had worse. The medical tech in this place is good enough that as long as we're not outright dead, we can usually recover."
"Yeah, he'll be alright. I promise, it's okay. No one is dead. Everyone is going to be alright. And I don't hate you. I don't think anyone does. You're just a confused magical girl trying to find her way in a world where the peace isn't always being broken. That's okay. It doesn't make you a bad person to have breakdowns sometimes. Even if you turn into a big snake and try to laser people when you're having breakdowns."
The Queen chuckled quietly at the absurdity of the situation. "...yeah, I guess you're right. Uh...thank you for helping me. I'm surprised you didn't lose faith in me after I turned..."
"You've got a good heart. I'd never."

Another pause. "Oh, I have something for you, Kaerno." The Queen reached into a pocket on her dress, pulling out a small pink-and-black heart. "It's a hair clip, like mine. I think you deserve to have it. For all you've done for me."
"...Well, thank you! That's really nice of you."
"Anything for a friend like you." She smiled, before turning to make her way back to her containment unit.

"...So, are you gonna carry me to medbay, or...?" Lamarcus snarked.
"Oh, right, sorry! Come on, honey. Let's get you fixed up."