Lucrezia knows she would make the worst wingman in any kind of fight that involves less repartee and more brute force and agility, both of which Cass has in plenty. She should feel grateful then, when she watches her friend launch into motion, moving like something more than mere human. A guardian angel. To her untrained eye, her friend seems just as fast as Joshua. Only Joshua would easily dodge that blade in Joel's palm now aimed for her friend's neck. Right? Perhaps Cass could be just as fast.

Still, the helplessness she feels is all too familiar. It feels as if the world is a tempest and she is trapped in the eye of the storm, resigned to watching everyone else fight against her, for her, die for her. Fools, the lot of them. There are many more worth protecting than her. Cass herself, for one.

She knows too that her rushing forward now to pick up the smaller gun thrown to the floor would hinder rather than help her friend. But that never stopped her before. The weapon nearly slips out of her hand when she aims it at the both of them, and she finds she can't remember how to turn the safety off. Damn Spiegel and his half-hearted lessons. Damn her mind for failing her when she needs it most.

"Sto--" her throat clenches shut and she has to force out a scream to make another sound. "Stop!"