A Night Raid Nightmare

[Lubbock]

Lubbock felt a weight upon the back of his skull as Esdeath pressed the assassin's head to the ground, eliciting a victorious cackle. "What are you going to do, Lubbock of Night Raid? You have no one to save you..." She pressed down further on the head of green hair. "No one for you to drag down..." She placed the sharp heel of her shoe against Lubbock's forehead. "No one that has to worry about you... you're alone!" She shouted, pressed firmly into Lubbock's head... but the sadistic General exhaled a gasp of surprise when her prey grasped her ankle with one hand.

"I might be alone..." He muttered, pulling his knee up. "But that doesn't mean I'm helpless... or worthless... or weak..." His voice transformed into a growl as he stood up, still holding Esdeatg's leg, forcing her to have to balance. "In this world... the Omniverse... things like I never could have imagined to happen, can happen. And that includes kicking you out of my head!" He shouted, giving the General a shove sending her sprawling across the black floor. "You're not the real Esdeath, I know that... you're a figment of my imagination... a nightmare... the real Esdeath sent me here." He fit the pieces together, staring at his hands as if the answers were forming there for him to read.

The fake Esdeath cackled maniacally. "You really thought I was attempting to trick you?" She asked. "Your discovery means nothing; I wasn't trying to hide it from you." Her laughter had stopped entirely, and Lubbock's head hung. "What's the matter? Defeated?" She inquired, striding towards him. Without warning, her voice changed to one somewhat deeper, but still nonetheless that of a woman. "You've failed, Lubbock. I watched Night Raid die before my very own eyes. You left that night, and Danger Beasts swarmed the base, led by Esdeath in the end. They were all sl-" She began to give him the gruesome details, before Lubbock muttered something under his breath. "I beg your pardon?" She inquired, seemingly amused.

"I said... how can you tell me this, then?" He repeated, breathing heavily. "As Esdeath, you mentioned that Night Raid was slain, including Najenda... now you're acting as if she lived to tell the tale." He caught the figment redhanded. He said no more as the fake Najenda stood there, dumbstruck at her own stupidity. Lubbock's heavy breathing filled the silent atmosphere, and he bore holes into the woman with his verdant eyes. He knew that Night Raid was still alive... They had to be..