A break up and a break down

"Oh no..." Tara whispered as she saw Lucile's eye began to twitch.

"'Our... Friendship'?" Lucile asked, her voice as cold as ice and as venomous as the venom coursing through her. As Talrach's smile faltered a little, Lucile narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth. "'Our Friendship'?"

"Um... Yes?" Talrach asked in reply.

"Tell me something, Talrach..." Lucile said, "Do you think I'm ugly?"

"What? No! You're beautiful!"

"Do you not find humans attractive?"

"Of course I -"

"Are you straight?"

"You know that I like both men and women, Lu-"

"Do you pretend to be stupid so that potential enemies don't take you seriously until it's too late?"

"No, and I never understood why people would use that as a -"

"THEN WHAT THE HELL DO I HAVE TO DO?!" Lucile screamed, angrily stomping her foot as Talrach jumped in surprise at the outburst. "What the hell do I have to do, Talrach?!"

"What's going on?" Desiderata asked as she came up to Tara, using the remains of her shirt as a makeshift tube top.

"The third future vision..." Tara whimpered.

"Look at me, Talrach!" Lucile barked, gesturing to herself. "I completely transformed myself with the help of those succubi! I had my hair and nails trimmed, had my loincloth washed, had my nethers shaved, and was practically scrubbed and polished until my skin was raw yet shiny. And for what?! Just so you can say "YoU lOoK dIfFeReNt, LuCy'?!"

"It was meant as a -"

"But you know what? That was all probably my mistake!" Lucile shouted, her voice cracking. "You either never picked up on any of the hints I dropped, or you did and made it clear that you don't love me!"

"What?! Of course I love you, Lucy! Just like all the times you said you loved me. You're my best -"

Lucile threw her head back and screamed so loud in frustration that birds were frightened from the trees, the witch pulling at her black hair while Emily screeched to a halt. Once the elf turned rhino did so, Helena was flung forward before being caught in Integra's magic. The group looked over as Lucile glared up at the tiefling with teary, anger filled eyes and a snarl.

"I meant 'I love you' as in 'I am in love with you'!" Lucile shouted at a surprised Talrach, "I want to marry you! I want to find a spell that will allow me to have children with you! I want to grow old together with you! Did you understand that or did that go over your head like every other hint I dropped, you scatter brained... Buffoon?!"

Talrach looked hurt as her lip began to quiver and her eyes watered. "I... I didn't..."

"Yeah! I know!" Lucile spat, "But I don’t -"

"Lucy! Stop!" Tara shouted, finally stepping in. "Don't say it!"

"Please stay out of this!" Lucile growled at Tara, "You and your stupid pick up lines weren't helping my cause. At all! Not that they ever were going to, considering that Talrach has made it abundantly clear that I'm wasting my time trying to court her anyway. And if she can't even pretend that we can go past being 'BeStIeS', then," she returned her gaze to Talrach, "fine! You win! I give up! You don't like me, I..."

Lucile choked back a sob, fury and distraught on her face as she looked into Talrach's eyes. "And you know what made this worse? I know you're smart, and you could've at least told me that you didn't feel the same way about me. I would've understood. Now, I..." the witch merely looked away before saying, "I hate you."

Without another word, Lucile ran off into the woods, the witch fighting back her angry tears as the group watched on.

"Someone get her back!" Integra shouted, "We need the whole party to continue on!"

"Okay." Tara said, "We just need to -"

"By the gods, what have I done?" Talrach asked with a whisper, tears streaming down her face. With a whine, she shouted, "What have I done to my baby?!"

"Talrach! Wait!" Tara called out as the tiefling ran after the witch, Talrach disappearing in the undergrowth. "Oh, we have a little problem here..."

"And speaking of little problems..." Emily said as she turned towards Helena, snarling as she cracked her knuckles and transformed into a wyvern, wrapping her tail around the dwarf.

The dwarf woman chuckled nervously. "Um... How long did Talrach say this venom was going to last?"

"That's it! I'm killing that bitch when we get away from this thing!" Clarisse shouted as the siblings and the half-orc ran from the manticore, Olga holding Cevin in her arms.

"If we get away, you mean!" Collette yelped, tripping on an exposed root and falling flat on her face. Groaning, she sat back up... Gulping as she was now face-to-face with the manticore. "N-nice kitty!"

The Manticore snarled and bared it's teeth as it came closer. However, once it was an inch away from the woman, the beast took a few quick sniffs before recoiling in disgust, bounding away from the supplies bunker and the siblings.

"Ha! A good use for that smell after-" Was all Clarisse could get out before the manticore shot out it's tail at her, the stinger hooking on to her shirt before ripping it off her. Clarisse looked down at her flat chest before looking over at the manticore as it fled, covering her miniscule bug bites with her hands before turning to her siblings and Olga. "Not. One. Word."

"Okay, okay. Keep your - er, never mind." Cevin stated.

"Shut up and give me that shirt!" Clarisse snapped, "Not like you actually need it!"

"Mate Cevin do look sexy without shirt. " Olga commented, licking her lips at the idea.

"Oh, you like that, do you?" Cevin purred at the taller, muscular, and chunkier half-orc. "Well then," he slipped off the shirt and tossed it at Clarisse, "wouldn't want to keep my big, beautiful, green goddess waiting now, would I?"

"How adorable..." Collette cooed sarcastically as Clarisse slipped the shirt on. "But can we please head back to that supplies bunker so that," she shrieked, "I CAN FINALLY WASH THIS CRAP OFF ME?!

"Yeah! And if they're still there..." Clarisse began, chuckling darkly as electricity crackled from her hands.

"Don't be too hasty." Integra said as she approached the four, "After all, **** is a dish that's best served -"

"Oh, you have no right to talk! You didn't do anything just now except wink at that seventh woman!" Clarisse spat. A second later, she powered down as she added, "Come to think of it, I couldn't help but notice that she looked exactly like you from the back..."

"Preposterous!" Integra scoffed in disbelief. "And I wasn't winking. A dust particle got into my eye."

"Then why were you smirking then?!"

"Clarisse! Stop it!" Collette snapped. "Don't forget it's that nude freak and her friends who are our enemies. Not each other!"

"Quite." Integra said, "And the best way to destroy her is to do it once she is mere inches away from her goals. So patience is not a polite suggestion here."

Clarisse merely sighed and nodded, briefly making the 'I'm watching you' hand movement as the siblings and Olga turned around and walked back towards the supplies bunker. Once they weren't looking, Integra let out a small sigh.

"Integra!" She thought, "We might have a situation..."

"What kind of situation?" The Integra with Tara's group thought as she watched Desiderata try her best to hold the jaws of the Wyvern Emily back from Helena as Tara tried to pry the dwarf out of her coiled tail.

"It turns out that one of my stooges isn't as dumb as I originally thought. Fortunately, I was able to write her off as crazy, but she saw our subtle winks and she suspects something..."

"Same happened to me last night." Integra thought in response. "That nosy elf nearly ruined everything when she plucked that note I received from our third stating that The Chosen One had been summoned to our world. Thankfully, I was able to use my illusions to make it look like a picture of me unclothed 'for my boyfriend', and all but the elf bought it."

"... Did you really have to have it be a picture of us in our Eve suit?"

"It's the last time they're ever going to see our naked body anyway."

"Whatever. I convinced those vengeful hearted fools to wait until they entered the castle to exact their **** against your heroes, hopefully giving us enough time to reunite with our third. At the moment, they're heading back to the supplies bunker, so you lot had better get a move on."

"One small problem." Integra thought, "The witch and the elf got stung by that manticore, and the witch ran off with the tiefling after her. And now the elf is trying to kill the dwarf. Fortunately, the venom in their bodies will be wearing off soon..."

"Thankfully I only realized just now that I made a mistake and the venom will be wearing off in just a minute... If she even wants to talk to me right now." Talrach thought to herself as she searched through the woods for Lucile. She suddenly came to a stop as a low growl came from behind her, turning around to see a jaguar looking at her from behind and ready to pounce...

"I don't have time to play right now, Janice!" Talrach said sternly, causing the jaguar to step back. "I have a world to save and, more importantly, I have a broken heart to mend. Have you seen a woman with long black hair, tattoos, and dressed in a reddish green loincloth? Maybe smelling like a bunch of flowers?"

"Growl..."

"You have?! Please, show me the way!"

Janice the jaguar bounded through the foliage as Talrach chased after her.

The wyvern was just about to snap it's jaws down on Helena when she stopped, Emily blinking as she felt the effects of the venom wearing off. Slowly, she let go of the dwarf and transformed back to normal. "S-sorry, Helena." She stammered.

"I'll forgive you once my ribs stop hurting..." The dwarf muttered in reply.

"Tara, how exactly did you know that Lucile was going to say those things?" Desiderata asked in confusion.

"I... May have saw it with The Orb of Revealing." Tara admitted. "Just like I saw your mom cop a feel on Integra or Helena stuffing her shirt with fruit. This one I was desperately trying to prevent."

"My mother was doing what to Integra?!"

"Yeah, and I'm still mad at you about that!"

"The Orb of - That’s it!" Emily thought to herself. "I can't prove that something's fishy about Integra, but the future can. I just need to backtrack to the tower, grab it, bring it back, and we can finally see what she's up to! I just have to sneak away when we camp tonight so I don't raise suspicion."

Near a spring, Lucile sat on a rock crying as she felt the effects of the venom wearing off. Despite this, she still felt a little anger at herself at how she treated Talrach. Granted, she knew that she was under the effects of the venom that **** her to do so after Talrach once again labeled them as only friends, but still...

"She's not even going to want to be friends after I said that!" Lucile sobbed.

"Wanna bet?"

Lucile gasped as she looked up, seeing Talrach standing in front of her with Janice at her side.

"T-Talrac-" was all Lucile could get out before the tiefling wrapped her arms around her in a hug, tears running down her face.