"I have won," Cyradin gloated. Ammadrine stared up at him, fire in her eyes. She hated that he had manipulated her so easily, that he had used her emotions to deceive her. She hated herself for being so easily taken in. Now she'd seen thousands of years of human civilisation, she felt she understood love a little better. But she still couldn't see a way to look past her own heart's desires, and to avoid hope. He was right; he had built his armour and his army of demons while they were still arguing about what was real. They hadn't seen their real enemy.

"I'm sorry," her lips shaped the words, but the Princess couldn't make a sound.

There was a crash like breaking glass. Ammadrine couldn't even bring herself to look, and buried her head deeper into her hands. Then there was a scream, a yell of anger and a cry of terror mixed together.

"You're a fool, Belmadir." The voice was Amber's, but the words were a repetition of something someone else had said, innumerable lifetimes before. "You think you can talk about love, and you use emotions to manipulate people. You can't stop gloating, saying how much you know about love, and how you can own the Princess. Yeah, you know lots about love, don't you? You know it, but you don't feel it. It doesn't matter how much you try to trick us with memories, because we were all friends. I trust my friends, and I love them in a way you don't understand. So no matter what you showed us, I knew who I could trust. Even Jack feels that, as much as he tries to deny it. You cannot trick us."

"But..." the figure before her wheezed, "How..."

"You hid her from us. You drew a veil around you. But did you think I can spend a minute without looking to see she's safe, even in battle? Did you think I'd not notice her spirit colours just vanishing? Did you think I wouldn't drop everything to come and save her?"

For a moment it looked like she was wearing armour of her own. Smaller than Cyradin's, and made of highlights shining off a jewel when the crystal itself wasn't there, but she could remember the power. Of course; the bonds between them strengthened their powers. If Orsertro needed armour, he would have it. When he was fighting for the Princess, he would have whatever he needed.

But it wasn't enough. Cyradin's armour was a design that they'd worked out together at the height of the Empire, when they understood all the science that their former race had developed. And Belmadir had always been a scientist and engineer, so he had the greatest memory of all the physical sciences. Now, he'd rebuilt that armour using modern human technology as a base, and what he could make was truly terrifying.

"You can face me," he snapped back, "The weapons you conjure in the heat of battle cannot compare to what I have spent weeks perfecting, not without a lot more understanding. Creation is a power for the citadel, not the battlefield, girl."

There was so much bitterness in his voice there. He resented the others for changing, just as he resented the Princess for staying the same. Always beautiful, always perfect, never ready to see how she needed him. And he thought Amber was weak, because he'd only seen Orsertro working to construct things that Belmadir had designed, fusing the crystals that his blueprint required. Of course, he hadn't let her remember any designs that could beat his current armour, created with all his knowledge even if it was constructed with mere human technology, and with mundane skill. He knew that in every scenario he had foreseen, he could beat any one of the Knights, or even two of them.

Cyradin lashed out, lifted Amber off the ground and smashed her improvised gauntlets with a single stroke. She reached for his throat again, but he was too strong, and she was too small. Her fingertips barely brushed the perfect, smooth surface of his armour.

His visor went clear for a moment, allowing her to see the cruel sneer on his features. He could kill her now, he said with his eyes, and in a hundred years he would have built the memory transfer machines. He would make them all slaves. He knew he had won, because he knew everything she could do. He knew she couldn't make a weapon to extend her reach without some kind of raw materials. He knew her human body was too weak to present any challenge. He alone was the repository of all knowledge from an ancient civilisation that a human could never understand, and because of that knowledge he would win. But maybe there were things more important than knowledge.

Like the way she found herself smiling each time Ammadrine spoke to her, Amber realised. Like the way she could hardly stop shaking with anger when she saw the Princess crying in defeat. Some things were remembered on a level too simple to tamper with, they were at the core of who she was. And one of those memories in the bone, for the Master of Creation, was a simple equality.

Creation is destruction.

She channeled her full powers into her hands, and focused her mind on what she wanted to create. She was in too much pain to do anything complex, but she could at least make diamond. Pure, blue-white, without impurities. No complex circuitry, no fluid joints, no ornamentation of ancestor channeling nodes. She couldn't make those things without the knowledge Madir had kept from her, but it didn't matter. She couldn't make anything technological, but crafting artificial diamond was so easy it was second nature, if she just had carbon. And there was an almost-pure diamond right here; a suit of armour that was just the shape she wanted, and already ninety-nine percent pure.

Cyradin wasn't a fool. He jerked the child away from his body as soon as he sensed her powers reaching out to resonate with the main processing nodes in his armour's computer core. But she was still touching the armour, she could reach out just as easily through the gauntlets gripping her arms. He tried to squeeze, to grind her bones into powder, but those powerful fingers were solid chunks of crystal now, a ring around each of Amber's arms.

"Princess?" Amber called, "Are you okay?"

The Princess didn't move. She was kneeling on the ground, still crying.

"Amma," Amber called out again, trying to remember the words Orsertro had used so long ago, "Don't. Don't panic. I'm here for you. And I won't let him hurt you. But right now, you need to fight the demon. You can seal it, and make sure it doesn't come back."

"He's right," the Princess sobbed, "This is all my fault. All the way back to the Fall of Mimas. I can't remember everything, but I know–"

"Listen to me! Don't trust what you remember. You're immortal, but you're in a human body. Your Immaculate form is humanoid now, so you've been kind of dead at least once. So don't trust what he's tried to put in your head. Think about what you know. Would you ever hurt someone? No. Would you ever let your people down? No. You might remember things the way he's framed them, but he can't lie to you about the kind of person you are. Kind, honest, frightened, always wanting the best for everyone. That's the Ammadrine I know. That's who my heart tells me you are, even if I don't have the memories to back it up. Now, he can't stop you."

"What can I..."

"Trust what you feel. There's all these emotions trying to crush you, and he's the master at this kind of trickery, but there's a light inside you that nobody can put out. Feel that, and then try to tell me you don't want to help. Trust me, that's all I ask."

"I... I know. I think you've said those words before. Lifetimes ago. And I can't argue. But what are we fighting for now, just an Empire that's long gone now? Maybe the world doesn't need us anymore."

For a moment, Amber found herself wondering if it would be Ammadrine's face behind the visor, or Robin Biden's. The distinction between minds and bodies wasn't as clear cut as Madir had intended, as evidenced when both minds had spoken through both mouths at different times.

"Maybe. But if these demons came from Mimas with us, it's our job to deal with them. And the Rainbow Knights need our Princess. Destiny needs you, isn't that the whole point? To give you a chance to feel human, and I think you're doing pretty good so far. And I need you. I don't know why or how, but I can't imagine how I'd manage if you weren't here after all this. We can find some way. If you're in that body, or a new one. If it's this life or the next, we'll be the same age. And we can see if we could ever be as close as you dreamed. Don't tell me you'd give up without knowing. It's scary, yes. It's scary for me too. But we can do it together. We can save the world."

"Well, I can't miss that." Only half a breath, but there was a little laughter behind her words then. She wanted to help people, that was something even Madir couldn't make her forget. And the thought of working together with Orsertro was a very strong motivation. "How do I do this?"

"Let Biden have the body. Take the leash off, give him the full immaculate powers, and point him at the demon. He's selfish, but he can't just ignore that thing. He'll do the right thing this time, and then he'll owe you a day of being human. A fair reward?"

"Don't die on me," Ammadrine got to her feet, voice rock steady again. "I'll be right back." Her armour was starting to glow again, and when she next opened her eyes there was a different soul looking out at the world.