The fibrous giant that had been cut fell to the ground, stirring up swarms of dust into the air. The large cat that had been entangled into the plant's grasp fluttered to the ground and landed on its feet. It breathed heavily, but still was on high alert for any intruders. The three nails that were left on the animal retracted back to a normal length.

"Did we win?" Buddy asked, looking through our small peep holes in the unbreakable container.

"Not yet," Rin answered. She looked like she was in pain just from seeing the cat's presence. "Catherine is still suffering in that form."

"Let us out so that we can figure out how to get her back then."

"If I did that we'd all end up killed anyways. Look," she said, apparating a black disk in front of the cat's face. The cat scratched furiously at the impenetrable disk, but acted as if it was in the heat of battle still. "She wouldn't think twice about taking us down with her when she's like that. Not even us."

An injured Ren hobbled back into the area. She looked at the beast in front of her and quaked. "C-catherine?! Is that you?!"

The large cat saw the movement and pounced at her without hesitation.

Ren screamed and leapt out of the way. "Catherine, stop! It's me! Ren!"

The monster that Catherine had become didn't hear her plea, and instead kept lunging at her, swiping its only remaining front leg at her. It was struggling to not fall down at every step of the attacks, and was waving its tail frantically to keep balance.

Rin made a hole in her barrier and jumped out of it. Her mother was in trouble, and her entire being pushed her to try to fight back.

"Aw, screw it!" yelled Buddy, jumping out after her. The rest followed suit, rushing headfirst into danger from supposed friendly fire.

The cat panted, now simply trying to stay on guard while losing energy fast.

Ren attempted to step forward, but the cat leapt slightly into the air with its hind legs to give it a small, quick slash at the air. Ren had an idea.

She cautiously bent down and touched the ground below her. Out from the earth rose a dirt humanoid, which stood at attention. Its features changed and morphed until it resembled a familiar face.

"See! This is what you are, Catherine!" Ren said, pointing at the dirt sculpture that now wore the girl's resemblance.

The cat growled and looked at the new opponent, which stood at attention unmoving.

The rest of the crew encircled the beast, making sure not to step any closer than Ren already had.

"Come on! Come to your senses!" beckoned Rin.

Looking at itself as if by mirror, the monster saw something that pierced its conscious. In that instant, it leapt over all of their heads and ran as fast as it possibly could into the forest.

"Catherine! Where are you going?!"

-----

Off in a distant laboratory, Sid's voice crackled over the speakers of Urbain's scanner, which was actually a pair of glasses that he held up to his ears.

"I'm sure you're aware that Havel's life force faded just now..."

Urbain pressed the side of the glasses and saw the numbers fly across the lenses. "No sir, but I see it now."

"Yes... He was in the middle of a mission when that happened, so now I must ask you to carry on that mission instead. Drop whatever one you're doing right now and find and kill Catherine. She's reached maturity so it is time for the harvest."

"Yes sir," he said.

Around Urbain was a town, now smoking in ruins. A survivor leapt out at him trying to attack him with a sword.

Urbain didn't even flinch, and instead drew a line across his attacker with his finger, promptly slicing straight through him with a beam of energy.

"What are you waiting for?! Get to work now before she dies naturally!"

"Yes, of course sir," he replied, eyeing the new corpse which was fading away into nothing slowly but surely. He hung up and put on the glasses, then unfolded his wings and flew away. He was going to finish his mission correctly, as he always did.

-----

The cat settled down in a ditch, hiding from everything. Slowly it morphed back into its original form, a girl. She leaned against a tree, clothless yet fur covered, and looked at her wounds. There was a bloodless black void where her arm once was, and she had broken her remaining fingernails as she jumped through the air. The fact that they were bloodless, however, is what shook her to her core.

That, and her real ears, her feline ears propped up on top of her head as if she was wearing a headband, were exposed for the world to see.

"Just when everything was going so well... Just when I felt almost human..."

She sniffled a little bit, then shook her head at herself.

"No, stay strong. You've had your fun, now you need to get as far away from them as possible," she said to herself. "You can't get them involved any further in your own problems."

She licked her skin to clean it, now not even trying to hide her cat-like behaviors. She sighed when she realized that her body was indeed almost entirely covered in fur.

"I'm such a mess. I'm having trouble holding an even mostly human form."

It was then that a beam of energy shot through her heart, leaving a gaping hole in her body.

Catherine collapsed forwards in pain.

Urbain landed in front of her. He looked down upon her with obvious hate, yet did it in a collected manner. "Die already, you dirty blightmare."

He looked at her until her body lay dissolving into thin air on the ground, then rocketed off into the sky. "Leave it to Havel to get himself killed on such an easy task. Well, soon as she disappears completely Hades will have all the data he needs, so soon we won't need fighters as stupid as him anyways."

Catherine thought her last thoughts as she lay dying.

Why? Why did I have to be born this way? What did I do to deserve this?

Rin! Ren! They cared for me just as if I was their closest friend, yet they didn't even know what I really was.

No! she thought as she tried pushing herself across the ground with her shrinking limbs. I can't let anything happen to them! I can't die now, not when they're still headed straight for Hades! They'll die!

She stopped moving as her limbs were finishing their process of dissolving into purple fog. She cried, unmoving and face down on the ground. She knew that there was no more that she could do.

Goodbye, the only ones who I could ever call my family.

-----

A/N: Appropriate music to listen to with this scene. It's a variation of IW's official unofficial theme.  

https://youtu.be/Pk3EUwBzDuw

It was like a dream.

They met in an alley, as some guys were harshly teasing Catherine to remove her hood. Rin and Ren swept in and claimed her as their sister, scaring the guys off.

She had nowhere to go, and so the girls let her come with them.

They shared a history together after that.

Running away from an in-progress avalanche.

Catherine growling at blightmares to scare them off, to the delight of the other two.

Watching the sunset from on top of a mountain.

And from above the ocean.

And from the comfort of a quiet inn.

Pointing at the stars like they knew what they were and the stories that they had to tell.

The girls switching hairstyles to confuse her.

Getting lost.

Getting found.

Finding the lost, even.

Learning to blow grass whistles.

Joining the grass whistle orchestra.

Getting kicked out of the grass whistle orchestra for not being good enough.

Never once asking each other what they didn't want to reveal.

"Hey, Catherine," said Ren, stopping the black disks in the air.

"Yes?" she responded, looking anxiously at the lake below them, hoping to pass fully over it already.

"Stick with us forever, will ya'? We need two quiet people to balance the scales with me at the other end." She smirked.

"Uh, okay." What a weird request, she thought.

Rin grumbled, looking up from her book. "Wha--"

"Oh no! The scale has been tipped!" Ren yelled out playfully. The disks that they sat on tipped over and dropped them over into the water.

All three splashed down, and then resurfaced seconds later. They treaded water. Clearly no one had thought this far ahead.

Rin looked into the air above them, where she had her book covered in a black film suspended in the air. "Be glad I saved the book."

They all laughed.

Catherine noticed that the water wasn't really that bad. I couldn't imagine it any other way.

***

A/N: Insomnia Wake will now be published on Sundays, because that is when I have adequate time and energy.