INT. DUNGEON - CONTINUOUS
The dragon lay dead, a mountain of ruined meat exhaling its final, smoking breaths.
Above the carnage, Marius Tepes soared. The wind howled past his ears, sweet and cold, carrying the promise of the open night sky. He shot upward like a rocket, his robes snapping violently around his legs. A breathless, hysterical laugh bubbled up from his throat. He made it. He was escaping. CUT TO:
REALITY
There was no wind. There was only the stagnant, copper-thick air of the dungeon.
Marius was hovering a mere four feet off the ground, utterly stationary. His eyes were wide and glazed, reflecting a night sky that didn't exist. He was trapped, utterly submerged in the genjutsu.
From the shadows of the slaughtered dragon, Jin moved. He leap in the air.
Iron fingers clamped around Marius's ankle like a vice. The sudden, violent downward yank ripped Marius from the sky of his own mind. Jin slammed the vampire lord into the solid stone floor with the sickening, heavy impact of a wet rag.
The illusion shattered like cheap glass. Pain—white-hot and blinding—flooded Marius's nervous system. The starry night vanished, instantly replaced by the oppressive, damp ceiling of the subterranean prison. He realized, with a surge of cold terror, that he hadn't reach freedom in sky instead he is in dungeon away from it.
"No—" Marius gasped, choking on the dust and his own blood.
Jin was already standing over him.
Jin raised his right fist. The air around it warped as the skin transformed, turning a glossy, deep obsidian black as Armament Haki coated his flesh to the density of diamond. Around that impenetrable black fist, a chaotic, white sphere of Tremor energy began to hum, emitting a high-pitched, vibrating whine that made the dust on the floor dance.
Marius's survival instinct screamed. He kicked wildly, his boots scrambling for purchase on the slick stone, desperately trying to put distance between himself and his doom. He managed to push himself backward, coughing up dark blood, his hands slipping in the gore.
He didn't make it far.
Jin closed the distance in a single, fluid step. He reached down, grabbing the collar of Marius's coat, and hoisted the vampire up. With no wind-up, Jin delivered a stiff, piston-like jab dead into Marius's sternum.
The impact sounded like a cannon firing underground.
Marius was launched in a blur silhouette . He flew backward in a perfectly straight, horizontal line, a blur of motion that crossed the length of the corridor in a fraction of a second.
INT. VALERIE'S CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
CRASH.
The heavy iron door of the cell exploded inward. The hinges shrieked and snapped, and the massive slab of metal skidded across the stone floor in a blinding shower of orange sparks.
Marius tumbled violently after it, a ragdoll of shattered armor and broken limbs, rolling over the harsh stone until he slammed brutally into the wooden foot of a modest bed. He lay there, wheezing, his chest caved in, his magic entirely spent.
Sitting on the edge of that bed was Valerie Tepes.
She was wide awake. She had heard the earth-shaking impacts, the roars of the dragon. Her eyes were huge, drinking in the sudden, violent intrusion into her quiet prison.
At her feet, Marius clawed pathetically at the floor. He dragged his broken body upward, leaving a thick smear of dark blood on the pristine stone. His head lolled back, his eyes finding his sister.
"Val..." he gurgled, blood bubbling past his lips. "Help..."
Heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed from the corridor outside.
Dust swirled lazily in the ruined doorway, catching the dim light of the flickering torches. Through the settling debris, Jin walked in.
He was a terrifying vision. His shirt were singed and torn, his skin marred with ash and drying blood. From his knuckles, bone claws fully extended, dripping thick, black drops of dragon blood that hissed faintly as they hit the floor.
Marius scrambled backward, a whimpering animal crab-walking away from the door. He pushed himself desperately against Valerie's legs, his bloody fingers clutching the white hem of her dress as if it were a shield.
"Heal me!" Marius screamed, his voice cracking into a shrill, panicked pitch. He pointed a trembling finger at the doorway. "And kill him!"
Jin stopped ten feet away. He didn't even look at the pathetic creature clutching the girl's dress. His cold, crimson eyes locked entirely on Valerie.
"If you help him," Jin stated, his voice flat, carrying no anger, only a promise, "I will kill you."
It wasn't a villainous boast. It was a terrifyingly calm threat to the wielder of a Longinus-tier Sacred Gear.
Valerie froze. Her breath hitched in her throat. Inside her, a violent war ignited. decade of brutal conditioning—the ingrained, Pavlovian need to obey her brother's every command—clashed violently against her raw instinct for survival, and deeper still, a stirring, chaotic swell of repressed emotion. Her pale hands began to tremble, hovering over her lap.
Marius saw Jin take a slow, deliberate step forward. Panic entirely overrode the vampire lord's sanity.
"What are you doing, you bitch?!" Marius shrieked, his face contorting with a tyrant's fury. "HEAL ME!"
The venom in that familiar command acted like a physiological trigger. Valerie's body moved on pure, unthinking instinct.
"Sephiroth... Graal," she whispered, her voice shaking.
FWOOSH.
A breathtaking, holy light banished the gloom of the dungeon as the golden chalice manifested in her cupped hands. The divine aura illuminated the damp cell, casting long shadows. Warm, restorative energy began to pool at her fingertips, ready to mend the broken flesh at her feet.
Jin stopped. He tilted his head slightly, studying her with a predator's curiosity.
"Is this what you want?" Jin asked, his voice cutting through the hum of the sacred magic. "To be tied to his will? To remain his slave?"
Valerie flinched as if struck. The brilliant healing light in her hands flickered, dimming for a fraction of a second.
"Look at him," Jin commanded softly. "Look how weak he is."
Slowly, against the chains of her conditioning, Valerie looked down.
Marius was utterly pathetic. The all-powerful King of the Tepes Faction was clutching her ankle like an infant, a mix of snot, sweat, and blood running down his chin. He saw the hesitation in her eyes—saw the Graal's light wavering—and his mask of absolute authority shattered into pieces.
"Do it!" Marius roared, profane rage spitting from his lips. "I am your King! I command you! Heal me, you stupid cow, or I will throw you in the black hole for a century!"
Jin took another step closer. The obsidian hue on his claws darkened, pulsing now with a thick, suffocating aura of white Touki. The air grew heavy, hard to breathe.
Marius felt the aura of death closing the distance. His tyrant's rage instantly dissolved, melting into a puddle of desperate, frantic bargaining.
"No... no, wait!" Marius babbled, his words tripping over each other, his eyes darting wildly between Jin and the chalice. "Val, listen to me. If you heal me, we'll win. I'll let you out! You want to see Paris? You always wanted to see the sun in Paris! I'll take you. Just you and me. I promise. I swear on our mother's grave, Val!"
Valerie didn't move. She stared down at her brother. For the first time in her long, miserable life, she saw him not as a monster, but as a coward. She didn't know if the tight, hot feeling in her chest was a twisted, soaring joy, or a profound, crushing pity.
Jin took his final step. He was three feet away. The heat radiating from his Touki washed over them.
Marius broke. Completely.
He buried his face in the folds of Valerie's skirt, his fingers digging into her calves, and began to sob. It was an ugly, guttural sound of total surrender.
"Please... Val..." Marius wept, his voice muffled by the fabric. "I don't want to die. I'm your brother. Please. Help me. Please."
Valerie looked at the sobbing, broken mess at her feet.
Then, she slowly looked up at Jin.
Jin was waiting. His expression was a mask of cold stone. He wasn't judging her weakness; he wasn't rushing her. He was simply the executioner .
Valerie closed her eyes.
She inhaled the scent of blood, dust, and holy magic, and then exhaled a long, shaky breath that seemed to carry the weight of a years of captivity.
The brilliant, golden light of the Graal began to fade. The divine warmth receded, pulling back from her fingertips. The solid gold of the chalice dissolved into a fine, sparkling mist that slipped through her fingers and vanished.
UNSUMMONED.
Jin " Good girl."
Marius felt the light die. His head snapped up, his bloodshot eyes locking onto her empty hands. The ultimate betrayal fractured his mind. His jaw went slack.
"Val—?"
Jin moved.
It was a blur of black and white. A single, flawless, horizontal sweep of the obsidian claws.
SLASH.
Marius's final sentence was cut short. His head separated from his shoulders with a wet, tearing sound. It spun through the air, hitting the cold stone floor with a heavy thud, rolling lazily before coming to a stop against the base of a stone pillar.
The decapitated body slumped forward, collapsing entirely onto Valerie's shoes, hot blood soaking into the white fabric of her dress.
Valerie kept her eyes tightly closed. She didn't scream. She didn't move. But from beneath her long, dark lashes, hot tears squeezed out, tracking silently down through the dust and grime on her cheeks.
The heavy, suffocating silence returned to the dungeon, broken only by the steady drip of blood onto the stone floor.