Just more prepared than most. There are wild animals that live in the forest and you can never be too careful.

[Which was an understatement of the century. She started carrying the Cure materia with her at all times ever since the Crater incident.

She was losing him, the conversation losing its innocence and becoming more questionable. Inquiring. Suspicious. She'd frown if he face wasn't illuminated, but instead gives a whisper of a smile when she spoke - forced through the screaming alarms in her mind. So long as he kept talking, she could - ]

.....! [Retreating. He was retreating towards a gaping maw of darker black behind him. Her phone lowers to her side, thumb still hovering above the send button.] Look, I'm just -

[Fuck.

Elena didn't want to see it. Fuck. Didn't want to acknowledge that it couldn't be an illusion. That it was a man that was flesh and real and trying to escape. Fuck. Escape to where? Shit. To whom? Fuck. And for what?? Because she saw it. The curtain of silver that fell forward like it had in the pictures and the videos and the partial face - lips, jaw, chin, cheekbones - that had haunted the dreams of those who had gone against him. Fuck me.

Her phone drops, clattering against the hardened earth, and her heart stops for a good, long second.]

I'm afraid I can't do that.

[Her body moves out of instinct, the side of her jacket flipped up and out of the way as the firearm is removed and the barrel aimed at the center space between his eyes. The mask of friendliness is ripped off and replaced with one of cold, hard anger. Both hands are used to keep her gun steady, to ensure that there was no waiver, no leftward tendency if she had to shoot.]

I'm going to need you to remove your hood. Slowly. And keep your hands where I can see them or Gaia help me I will empty my magazine into your head.