When I approached, Chiara's face was still buried in what had recently been the Bundeshaus. I knelt down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Can we try again?" I asked.

Chiara picked up her head and looked at me. "I'd thought you were better than them," she whispered as small waterfalls flowed from her face, blown into mist by the wind. "That you wouldn't try to control me."

I blinked, startled. "Control you?"

Chiara slowly sat up. "I had a present for you, you know," she sighed. "But I suppose you probably don't want it." Seeing the quizzical look on my face, she smiled faintly. "Well, I might as well give it a shot."

And Chiara stood up, reached into her pocket, and pulled out Étienne.

"Evanna!" Étienne called out, struggling helplessly as Chiara pinched his ribcage between her finger and thumb. "Evanna, please don't let her hurt me!"

Chiara ignored Étienne's plea, holding him forwards towards me. "So, Evanna, what do you want to do to him? You could finish him off quickly, if you want—just drop him, or eat him, or crush him to dust in your hand. Or you could draw it out, and make him suffer in return for all the time he spent making you suffer. What do you think?"

I stared. "Let him go."

Chiara laughed sadly. "I guess I was right. You're letting sentimentality outweigh reason." Without a moment's hesitation, she casually tossed Étienne aside. "If you just didn't want to hurt the worthwhile humans, I could understand that."

I gasped as I saw Étienne land on the ground by Chiara's feet. Somehow, he seemed to still be alive.

Chiara picked up her foot and brought it crashing down on him.

"But he was never worthwhile," Chiara continued. "He did nothing but hurt you, and you had nothing to gain by leaving him alive. You just think that refusing to kill makes you better." Chiara's hair and eyes lit up. "And I don't need anybody who thinks they're better than me."

As Chiara fired her eye beams, I instinctively brought my mechanical arm up to try to block, and it somehow worked—and when Chiara's eye beams stopped, my arm was charged and ready to fire: it had simply taken in the energy from Chiara's attack. And Chiara stared in surprise as I fired a tremendous blast into the sky.

But before I could say anything, she'd started charging for another attack.

"Chiara, please stop," I insisted as forcefully as I could. "That's not going to work on me anymore."

"This one isn't for you," she replied as her eyes glowed brighter and brighter. "This is to give you a wake-up call."

And before I could react, Chiara blasted the city. As I watched in horror, she slowly turned her head and the beams incinerated building after building in an explosion that grew bigger and bigger as she continued her attack.

I knew couldn't stand idly by. Perhaps it wasn't in Chiara's best interests to have encouraged me to act on instinct: I'd tackled her to the ground even before I realized I was doing it. As she careened backwards, her eye beams shot up into the sky, where they couldn't do any damage.

"Now you're speaking my language, Evanna!" Chiara laughed as her eyes faded. "If you want to have power over me, go ahead and try to take it."

Before I could respond, I found myself lifted up and thrown across the square, my back landing in a building that until now had somehow stayed intact. With determination across her face, Chiara walked over to a nearby construction crane, pulled the mast off its base, and pulled the jib off the mast, holding the two beams as if she were wielding two swords. I flung myself to the side as she brought one crashing down right where I'd been moments before.

"Look right there, Evanna," Chiara commanded, pointing with one of the beams. "Do you see that flattened car? You did that, not me. You broke your own rule."

I dodged as she brought the other beam swinging towards me. "I never wanted to hurt anyone!" I insisted, backing down the street as she advanced.

"But that doesn't matter, does it?" Chiara sang, landing a hit and knocking me down on top of the tram tracks. "The only way for you or me to not hurt anyone is to not exist. Am I so wrong for valuing my own existence more than theirs?"

Being hit with the crane beam certainly knocked the wind out of me, and I wasn't going to let that happen again: acting once more on instinct, I reached out and grabbed one end of a tram in my hand, bringing the other end swinging towards Chiara as a flail. The tram tangled around one of the beams of the crane, and with a quick jerk on the tram, I pulled the beam out of her hand, caught it, and snapped it in two.

"I didn't want to hurt them either, at first," Chiara continued, punching me through an entire building and striding through the wreckage towards me. "But what would I get in return? They'd never let me live among them or even live away from them."

"I really think you're oversimplifying this!" I protested as I pulled a tree out of the ground to block as she swung the crane at me.

"Maybe I am," Chiara replied with a sad smile. "But ultimately, does it even matter?"

Chiara sunk her fist into the side of the church tower, which at this point was the only structure standing that was taller than either of us. As it slowly tipped over towards me, I raised my arm to block, and I instinctively cried out as it hit, crumbling around me. I could feel my body ready to burst apart at any moment, but I put all my effort into staying together, and I rose up out of the rubble undefeated. Chiara was waiting for me, her smile finally having slipped off her face.

"If it makes you feel any better, basically any human would do the same in my position," Chiara finished. "Everyone knows that power corrupts.

"Oh, shut up!" I exclaimed.

And for the first time, I saw Chiara genuinely shocked. I was shocked too—I didn't know I had it in me to actively resist. But that was what I needed right now.

"Power doesn't corrupt!" I continued. "That's just something people in power say to avoid accountability! But the fact that you have power doesn't mean it's not your fault if you abuse it."

And that's how I knew I was ready to fight back. Still holding the tree I'd uprooted, I grabbed another tree in my other hand. And with just a small pulse of energy, the tree in my metal hand erupted into flames. Once I used the burning tree to light the other, I had a torch in each hand—I was dual-wielding bonfires, bathing the fog around me in orange light. Swinging an arc of flame in front of me, Chiara was now the one retreating, stumbling backwards over buildings and rubble,.

"I'm impressed, Evanna!" Chiara sang out, fending off my attacks with her crane. "I was worried you'd never fight back." She grabbed a car off the street and threw it into one of the trees, but as it exploded I still barely managed to keep my grip.

"I'm done with not fighting back," I declared. "You were right that I should have resisted when Étienne did whatever he wanted. And now you're acting just like him, so I'm taking your advice."

Chiara growled. "Don't compare me to a worthless human."

"Then don't act like one!" I snapped.

And Chiara paused, and then laughed. "What am I doing?" she sighed. "I know your weaknesses. I might as well exploit them."

"Weaknesses?"

Chiara turned her head, her hair and eyes lighting up. "They're evacuating over that bridge," she announced. "They're probably going to need your help."

Through the fog, I could see the glow of Akita's wings as she directed crowds across a bridge high above the river. And as Chiara's eye beams hit, the supports under one side gave out, and the bridge buckled and swayed.

Chiara turned her gaze to me. "What are you waiting for?" she asked. "They're going to die. Doesn't that matter to you?"

She was right: she did know my weaknesses. Dropping the trees to the ground, I leapt over building after building to get to the bridge, and when it finally cracked and started to fall, I was underneath, my hands holding it up and my feet planted in the river.

"Keep going!" Akita called out to the evacuees. "She's here to help!"

I was. But Chiara wasn't, and as she casually strode forward with a slight smile on her face, I realized I was trapped: I couldn't move my legs or my arms or else the bridge would fall.

"Well, now, what should I do with you?" Chiara mused, walking up right next to me and stroking her hand under my chin. "If I blast you right now, you'll lose your size and the bridge will fall and kill you. So I guess it's time for me to decide if I want you dead."

"You don't," I replied, my voice strained from the effort of holding up the bridge. "You told me yourself: I'm the only one who's like you, and you can't lose that."

Chiara sighed. "You're right. I guess I'll just have to bring you home and do whatever it takes to bring you to your senses." Her hair and eyes lit up and she reached her arms out to grab me.

I shifted the weight of the bridge to just one hand. And with the other, I blasted Chiara in the stomach.

The energy of her charged attack burst outwards as her body vanished, in an explosion that knocked me over. I landed in the river and the bridge fell, at this scale almost seeming to be in slow-motion. I could see Akita flying to rescue person after person by carrying them to the other side, but that wasn't enough. In the last moment before the bridge landed on my torso, I scooped all the remaining people from it into my hands, and I placed them safely on the ground.

And the bridge landed. I probably could've withstood the impact if I hadn't already taken a beating from Chiara's explosion and her prior attacks. But this was too much, and so my body disintegrated. I found myself trapped underwater, pinned down by a gigantic chunk of stone that moments ago I could have held in my hand like a baseball. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't fire a blast without it hitting me.

But perhaps I could grow. My bag of berries was out of reach under the rock, but Chiara had been able to grow without one, and on the train I had too. I tried to let my emotions expand within me, thinking about how quickly Chiara had turned on me as soon as I expressed concern about her actions, how I'd failed to get through to her, how I'd most likely killed dozens or hundreds of people.

And it seemed to be working: glimmers of light began to dance around me, distorted by the current of the river, and my muscles began to feel tighter and stronger. As my breath ran out, I prepared to lift as hard as I could.

The rock exploded in a single bright flash.

It had to be Akita. Of course. I should have known she wouldn't leave me to drown.

Two firm hands closed around my arms and pulled, and I was lifted up out of the water. I coughed and panted on the riverbank before looking up at my savior.

"That was a close one, Evanna," Chiara declared with what looked like a genuine smile.

I instantly raised my arm defensively, charging a blast.

Chiara laughed. "Don't worry, Evanna, I've come to my senses."

I gave her a quizzical look. This sudden change of heart didn't make any sense.

And Akita dove out of the sky, pinning Chiara to the ground with a wing at her throat. "This is your final warning," Akita announced. "If you politely come with me now, I promise you will be treated with civility in return. If you don't, I—"

Akita was thrown backwards in a flash. I assumed at first that it was her eye beams, but as I watched, Chiara stood up, surrounded by light.

"Don't worry, Evanna," Chiara sighed, with a smile on her face. "I understand now. You're not to blame. This human has been manipulating you, and so my quarrel is with her, not you."

"Please give it up, Chiara," Akita sighed. "You should know by now that you're not too big to fail."

"You want to see too big to fail?" Chiara laughed, stretching her arms and legs as she prepared to grow. "You want to see the true power of a goddess?"

"Chiara, please stop!" I cried out, running towards her, only to be held back by Akita's hand.

Chiara flashed me a wink and pulled a berry out of her pocket.

"No!" Akita shouted, lunging forwards.

Chiara popped the berry in her mouth and grew.

I knew that taking a berry would do nothing while already at full size, but I'd never thought about taking one while growing naturally. And the two methods did seem to have a combined effect: as Chiara grew, she showed no sign of stopping, ascending up, up, far past her usual size.

"Run," Akita ordered. And I did.