As Celly and Susanne trade blows, they also trade insults. Perhaps it was petty, but any measure that would tip the hand in your favor was used and exploited.

"So, Celly... what happened with Dionysus?" Thrust.

Waver. Block. "Don't speak his name in my presence!" Slash. Slash. Jab.

Sidestep. Block. Parry. "Ooh... did I hit a nerve?" Feint. Punch.

Block. No! Block! Bleeding lip. Headache... "*I don't want to fight you!*" "I'll get you for that, bitch!"

Susanne was momentarily surprised as Celly's voice and intonation changed. Something was wrong. The first voice had a pleading, young quality to it. The second was full of malice and hate. It's probably a trick, she thought to herself. She threw a snap kick that connected.

As Celly reeled back, tears shone in her eyes, though she moved to attack again. "*Please! Susanne! I don't want to fight!*" "Insolent whelp!"

Susanne was thoroughly confused now, and missed the blade coming straight for her. But the position was shifted, and she was hit by the flat instead of the blade. Nevertheless, she was thrown off through a picture window.

"Curse you! Stay out of my affairs!"

"*I told you that I would never let you win!*"

"You can do nothing against me! I possess this body now!"

"*Not if I have something to say about it!*"

Susanne stared in shock as she watched Celly start to rant and rave. Well, Celly ranting and raving wasn't the unusual thing. It was that she was ranting to *herself.* Ranting? Hell, she was having her own little conversation, not heeding that the action around her had stopped and she was being stared at by many pairs of eyes.

Dionysus was at his wit's end as he watched his Ce-ko and Susanne fight. He thought that things could not *possibly* get worse. He was wrong. He could almost visibly see that the barrier separating Ce-ko and Terra was nonexistent. Both mindsets were inhabiting the same body AT THE SAME TIME. And he couldn't help her! He couldn't go to her aid because there was no way he was going to get through to either Ce-ko or Terra. Either the physical body would collapse under the strain of two minds, or one of the personalities would leave willingly. Fat chance of that happening. I'm going to go insane, Dionysus grimly decided. They're going to have to put me in a straightjacket after all of this was over. For once, he was glad that he could not read anything that was happening in his Ce-ko's mind.

TBC...