The steel door groaned, not opening but sealing itself shut, the metal pins reforming from dust into solid shafts with a sound like grinding bone. The lock re-engaged with a deafening thump that vibrated through the floor. The room plunged into deeper shadow as the main power seemed to flicker, the miniature city's lights sputtering like dying stars. Eliana felt spikes of pure terror from all of the dolls in the city, she doesn't think she'd ever seen such strong negative emotion before.
The heavy steel door swung open with a groan, revealing Sabrina standing in the doorway. She was wearing a simple black nightgown, her hair loose around her shoulders. And Eliana had to think, at the worst time, so Sabrina does stay in the gym, I was unsure. Sabrina looked younger, more vulnerable, but her eyes were burning with a cold, furious fire. She didn't say a word, but her mental voice was a deafening roar in Eliana's mind, a tidal wave of pure, unadulterated rage.
The words were not a question. They were a judgment, a sentence, a promise of pain. Eliana felt a crushing weight descend upon her, a psychic pressure so intense it felt like the entire building was collapsing on top of her. It was worse than Alakazam's, a thousand times worse. It was a raw, untamed power, a storm of chaos and fury that threatened to tear her mind apart. Eliana distantly thought, So this is what a real punishment from Sabrina is like. A small, dark corner of Eliana's mind, the part that was still the pragmatic killer, felt a flicker of satisfaction. She was finally getting to see the real Sabrina.
But the rest of her was too busy fighting for her life. She raised her own mental shields, her mind a fortress of psychic energy. But Sabrina's power was a battering ram, smashing against her defenses with relentless force. The pressure was immense, a crushing weight that threatened to shatter her concentration. She could feel her mind starting to fray, her thoughts becoming jumbled and confused.
Eliana's mind was flooded with images, a torrent of psychic energy that was not her own. She saw the city again, but this time she saw it through Sabrina's eyes. She saw the trainers, their faces contorted in a mask of rage and defiance. She saw their transformation, the feeling of their skin hardening into porcelain, their joints freezing in place, their minds shrinking into a tiny, trapped spark of consciousness. She felt Sabrina's satisfaction, her cold, ruthless pleasure in their suffering.
Eliana, still herself even through the pain, grumpily answered,
Eliana distantly felt insulted that she was ignored, but blinked in surprise as she could feel her consciousness starting to slip, her grip on reality starting to fade. The dollhouse city swam before her eyes, the miniature buildings blurring into a kaleidoscope of colors. She could feel the cold, hard porcelain of the dolls against her skin, the terrifying sensation of her own body starting to change.
Eliana frowned unhappily, lashing back out with her own psychic abilities, an agitated
Sabrina raised an eyebrow in shock, no one had ever fought back against her in this state before, let alone broken through one of her attacks. Her anger, the thing she had been using as a weapon, faltered for a moment, and Eliana seized the opportunity. She didn't try to counterattack, that would be suicide. Instead, she did something Sabrina didn't expect. She pushed her own consciousness forward, not with force, but with curiosity.
The question, so utterly devoid of fear and filled with a chilling, academic fascination, was a bucket of ice water on Sabrina's rage. The psychic pressure faltered, the storm of chaos receding to a simmering tension. She stared at Eliana, her expression a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and a dawning, horrified understanding. Her apprentice was staring up at her with sparkling eyes and a long pout on her face. This girl wasn't scared or broken, she was… impressed.
Sabrina's jaw tightened, she looked from Eliana's unblinking gaze to the miniature city, to the frozen faces of the trainers who had defied her. She saw them through Eliana's eyes, not as victims, but as specimens, as a successful experiment. A cold dread, a feeling she hadn't experienced in years, coiled in her stomach. She had spent years building her walls, her control, her persona as the cold, untouchable gym leader. She had done it to protect the world from the girl she used to be, the scared, powerful child who had lost control.
But in her desire to create a new toy, a weapon in her own image, she had made a terrible miscalculation. She had focused on teaching Eliana control, discipline, technique. She had assumed that Eliana's morality, her empathy, her humanity, would hold her back. She had been wrong, just like when she was a child, this girl had nothing of the sort. Eliana was something new, something she had never encountered before. A powerful psychic with no leash, no conscience, and an insatiable curiosity for the darker aspects of their power. Most others either didn't have the willpower or the ability to keep up with Sabrina.
She tilted her head, a gesture of genuine inquiry.
Every word was a nail in the coffin of Sabrina's composure. This wasn't defiance, this was a dissertation. Eliana wasn't challenging her authority, she was requesting a lesson plan. Sabrina felt a shift in the psychic plane, a subtle but distinct change. The other presence, the one Eliana had felt earlier, was stirring.
Sabrina scowled back at the girl who was pouting at being dragged around,