𝚒‎ ‎ ‎ 𝚊𝚖 ‎ ‎ ‎‎ 𝚖𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚎

𝚊‎ ‎ 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝‎ ‎ 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝

Roman slowly made his way up the stairwell of the dark office building, holding his flashlight out in front of him. Axis and Ariel followed behind Roman up the stairwell as Ariel held onto Axis' hand. Eventually, Roman stops at a door in the stairwell and places his hand upon the knob.

"Third time's a charm..." Roman then says, giving the knob a twist, the door clicking open.

"Thank God..." Roman gently sighs out, stepping through the door and aiming the flashlight through the darkness of the office space, seeing the walls of cubicles and papers scattered around the floor. Axis and Ariel follow Roman through the door, glancing around the dark office space as well.

Roman then begins to stroll further into the office, scanning his flashlight through the darkness and towards one of the cubicles. Axis then turned his attention to Ariel as she stood next to him, her ears pinned back and her tail between her legs as she stared down at the floor of the office. Axis then softly tightened his grip of Ariels' hand, causing her to glance up to him.

"Are you okay?" He then asked.

"Y-Yeah... it's just... just..." Ariel replied, glancing back down at her feet.

"It is just what?" Axis then asked.

"...It's just that I feel as if I am causing too many problems..." Ariel replied.

"No... not at all." Axis then said.

Roman then lets out a scoff, turning on his heel towards the two. "Speak for yourself, partner. Personally, I think the princess is a royal pain in the ass."

Ariel continued to stare down at her feet, tucking her tail between her legs.

"That is inaccurate, Roman." Axis then said, shooting a glance over to his partner.

"Oh, really?" Roman then sarcastically asked. "If I am not mistaken, the reason why we are still even in this situation is because this sniveling little girl fucked everything up. We could be on our way to New Milwaukee by now."

"Do not take this out on her." Axis then said.

"Ohhh, that's right." Roman then said, placing his hands upon his hips. "Now that I think about it, you are the one to blame for this colossal snafu, huh?" Roman then asked.

"I accept full responsibility for the precarious situation we are currently in, Roman." Axis said.

Roman then lets out a chuckle. "Kind of too late for that, partner. Right now, we are neck deep in a world of shit. If the girl simply just went back to her daddy, then all of our problems would have been miles behind us by now!"

"Getting angry and lashing out is not going to get us anywhere at this point." Axis then said.

Roman then furrows his brow and steps up to Axis. "I have every right to be pissed off, Axis."

"I'm... I'm sorry..." Ariel then said, letting go of Axis' hand as she continued to glance down at her feet.

Axis and Roman turn their attention to Ariel.

"Ah yes, and how could I possibly forget part two to our mountain of shit?" Roman then said, stepping away from Axis and in front of Ariel.

"I... I didn't ask for any of this..." Ariel then said, glancing up at Roman.

"Oh, you sure didn't, princess." Roman scoffs. "We should have put a fucking bullet in you when we had the chance." He snarls, causing Ariel to turn his gaze away from the man.

"That is enough, Roman." Axis then said.

"Or what?" Roman snapped, turning his attention to Axis.

Axis stared at the man, glaring at him with an intense stare. The two stare each other down for a moment before Roman lets out another scoff and turns on his heel and begins to stroll further into the dark office space.