Strong Enough

**Strong Enough** is the twenty-third episode of Reflection.

*Cialla burns and the group enacts a desperate strategy against the cunning Compulsion. As her machinations grind against OPIA's, a victory can only be achieved through sacrifice. Today they face their cruelest foe yet.*

## Summary

In the Derelict, Nectar orders Laughter to remain in his room due to an incoming visit from Eternity. After leaving, she heads to the Court of Death to speak to Fio, who is suddenly possessed by Arg0s. After talking about their various ideals, Arg0s asks Nectar to look out for Fio, which she agrees to. She also shows Arg0s images of two powerful demons that Compulsion has prepared for her attack before leaving. Up on the surface, a group of ESPer Corp agents stationed in Cialla watch a massive Demon fly overhead, while two Ciallans working at a fire tower see a massive forest fire tear through Cialla as a different large Demon appears and chases them off.

In Beleth, Satyr and Circuit prepare to teleport to the Sylt Islands to round up agents to defend OPIA. However, instead of appearing in Sylt, the two wind up at the bottom of the Derelict. Compulsion appears and destroys Circuit's body, leaving Satyr stranded. Back in Cialla, the core OPIA strike team meets at an inn to reevaluate their strategy. After Helena discovers that long-range teleportation across the board has been crippled by Compulsion, they decide to focus most of their forces on returning to Fuse City and disabling a region of the city that Compulsion is attempting to turn into a "Demon factory". Helena and Danger are sent ahead to prepare a portal at the limits of short-range teleportation, while Ruth and Basil head to break the siege on Cam's tower. A group of agents also leave with Treble to subdue the Ciallan countryside.

As the different teams deploy, Willow notices the presence of a Stranger hiding somewhere in the village that OPIA was resting in. After using her Reflection to hide, Stephano, assuming a more bestial form, attacked the group remaining at the village, specifically with the intent of restraining Cast. Meanwhile, Helena and Danger found themselves trapped in an illusion created by the Golden Knight. After blocking the Golden Knight from reaching her using a complex series of portals created by her Reflection, Helena opened the portal back to the village, allowing Ace and Mic to jump through and immediately begin hurtling towards Fuse City at inhuman speeds, with Mic producing clouds of Pureflame that kept Ace's Flame count stable. Back in the village, Arg0s engaged Stephano, allowing Cast, Ridill, and Breach to head through the portal. Willow, recognizing that Stephano was stalling the group, grabbed both him and Arg0s at once and carried them through the portal with her. After Danger used Signal to break the Golden Knight's illusion, the group fled to Fuse City in a van while Arg0s and Willow continued to engage Stephano on foot. Helena and Danger drove in another direction, but ended up colliding with the Golden Knight, who took the opportunity to capture them and take them to the Derelict.

After fighting through hordes of lesser Compulsion Demons, Basil and Ruth make it to Cam's tower, where they immediately engage a circle of large Demons attempting to drag the entire tower into the Coda. While Ruth engages one with the Sword of Hope and manages to kill it, Basil fights two at once, using her ESP to produce the same corrosive chitin that Collapse of the Living did in an attempt to melt their bodies to stop their ritual. After a brief combat, the priority of the Demons shifts from the tower to Basil, but they are interrupted by a Simulacrum posessed by Logic. He asks to speak with Basil in exchange for calling off the assault on Cam's tower. He agrees, and gives her a location where they might speak in person. With the situation handled, she and Ruth drive to the designated location, where they encounter Logic as promised. He tells Basil that this location is a monument to the idea of Basilisk Id herself, and each grave represents a past Basil of some kind. He also offers to help cure her memory condition, but she refuses the offer. He gives Basil a method of contacting him or Compulsion and then leaves.

Deep in the Ciallan woodlands, Charybdis and Liam fight back a horde of Demons, and are eventually joined by an unmasked Justice. Elsewhere, Treble uses her ESP to protect civilians from a chasm that opened up on the road while combatting a large Demon. Yet elsewhere, Colt rescues the two watchtower guards from the incoming forest fire. Ace and Mic arrive at the border between Cialla and Goldenrod, where they find the Compulsion thrall Ace fought earlier standing on the highway. Ace sends Mic ahead as he forces the armored warrior off the road and begins running towards Fuse, his newfound rival in tow. Back in Cialla, Ridill's van, still under fire from Stephano, is attacked by one of Compulsion's new Demons. The Demon releases a powerful psychic attack that knocks out several agents, most notably Willow. Willow finds herself in a memory of Station One, where she sees two GEIST soldiers steal Ridill's journal from under her nose, but she is unable to stop them as she finds herself in the form of a bodyless Flame once again. Suddenly, an apparition of the Director appears and tells Willow that when faced with an insurmountable struggle like this, all she needs to do is lie, cheat, and steal to the end. Now motivated, Willow forces Keyhole into the vision and uses her Reflection to force Compulsion herself into the vision, shattering the invasion's chain of command.

Fio prowls the Derelict looking for info that could help OPIA, when she sees Eternity conversing with an unknown figure about their plans. She decides not to risk her life and returns to her room. Meanwhile, Mic returns to Fuse and groups up with Lyst and one of Circuit's bodies, and quickly discovers the location of Compulsion's "Demon factory", which turns out to be Dr. Saakova's lab, halfway into a Coda dive. They break in and notice a possessed L0V3R C0LD prowling the facility, and decide to sneak through the vents. Circuit comes across a Simulacrum of Compulsion and stabs it after recieving a go-ahead from Arg0s. A few minutes later, Ace arrives at the facility, still being chased by Compulsion's thrall. He uses Flame to teleport past L0V3R COLD and several traps. He encounters another Compulsion body as a possessed Dr. Saakova attacks him with an axe. Ace uses the Compulsion body as a shield, killing it instantly. Finally, Arg0s's group arrives at the facility, with everyone besides Willow having escaped possession. Willow continues to keep Compulsion's mind occupied within the vision by summoning projections of her allies. Arg0s scans a Compulsion body and learns a sliver of her memories, as well as information about how to cripple Compulsion's network on the surface and keep it from informing Compulsion's core body about Fio's betrayal. With everyone present, they manage to kill every Compulsion body in the lab and escape the facility, either through the front door or inside Ridill's ESP.

In the Derelict, Eternity visits a cell where Satyr, Colt, and Danger have been detained. He tells them that they have seven days to reveal who betrayed Compulsion's plan to OPIA, or he will kill them all. Out in the Old World, the Golden Knight tells Helena to lay low for the time being. She begrudingly agrees to help him, seeing no other choice, and he says that he thinks its better to have a teleporter working for him rather than the Pyromancers overall. Back at the Derelict, a single surviving Compulsion suit stumbles across her floor, insulting Nectar as she tries to find Eternity to inform him about Fio. Nectar simply deactivates the suit before leaving. And back in Beleth, Sei has been adopted by the Wisp family, where two of Willow's brothers are attempting to teach her to fish.

## Characters

### Player Characters

* Ace Galatine
* Basilisk Id
* Arg0s
* Willow Wisp
* Ridill Arondite

### FLOW

* Lyst Solais
* Satyr
* Liam
* Helena
* Charybdis
* Colt
* Ruth Galatine
* Breach
* Pixie
* Justice

### OPIA

* Treble
* Director
* Mic
* Circuit
* Cast
* Danger

### Demonic Courts

* Pyromancer of Laughter
* Golden Knight
* Fio
* Compulsion
* Logic
* Nectar
* Stephano
* Sei Miscellany
* Eternity

### Other

* L0V3R C0LD
* Dr. Radmilla Saakova
* Tetra
* Vaultwatcher