Amelia screams and collapses, blinding clouds of blue flame and smoke flaring up around her. Blinding. Choking. Inside, she writhes on the ground, helpless and in agony as her own magic burns through every vein and part of her.

She's failed- again. She did all this to do something that mattered- to be someone better- but she can't even defend herself. It's almost a good thing that she's hurting too much for much rational thought right now.

She's dimly aware that she's still screaming- and that the noise sounds wrong. Warped. Too loud. She can feel every moment of it as her bones snap and reform and her flesh flows like hot wax into new forms. She'd thought her injuries in fights had been painful enough- but this was on a different level.

She feels something tear free from one shoulder then another, like another pair of arms. She can feel them. Move them. At the same time, her hand and feet are warping into new strange shapes- like plastic in a fire. Then her face...

Her screaming become screeching.

The smoke fades, somewhat and the fires die down. There's a smell of cinders and burnt feathers in the air and its hard to make anything out through the clouds of smoke and crackling flames.

Amelia had been a small girl- short and slight for her apparent age, something her form-fitting uniform and drive had only partially made up for.

The thing she's turned into now is anything but. Scraps of burned cloth and flakes of ash drift through the air around it along with clouds of smoke and blue flame. It- she- takes deep, ragged breaths- she's finally stopped screaming. It's shaking uncontrollably, seemingly in intense pain and dead to the world.

At a glance, Amelia's new form gives an impression of gangliness- she's clearly much taller than she was, even as she hunches over on the ground in pain. A pair of short wings- at least relative to the rest of her- extend from her back. She's unconsciously wrapped them and her arm protectively around herself. Her once-pristine outfit's a tattered, singed mess, missing entirely below the knees and from her shoulders. The metal of her kneepads is warped and blackened, the braids and trim have burned away, and the cloth's charred.

She's unconsciously wrapped them protectively around herself. A mantle of mockingly-bright blue feathers sprouts from her bare arms, back, and legs- with a scattering of red feathers around her neck. Her legs now end in scales and clawed toes and her fingers have warped into claws. Her one remaining arm's digging into her side hard enough to tear outfit and skin, leaving a trail of blood that smolders as it hits the ground.

Her face's changed too- already sharp features have been drawn out on top of a long neck, a beak dominates her face and a v-shaped scattering of blue feathers stretches up her forehead to vanish into glossy, almost-feather like black hair. Only her eyes are unchanged- darting about and staring wildly in pain.

Her flesh seems to...ripple, either from heat, or like a half-finished waxwork.


The new phoenix-girl gasps for air with pained breaths.

Something slips from her taloned grasp and shatters on the floor- the crystal token Alexa'd given her before- the once pure gem is charred and useless. At the same time, Alexa feels Amelia's own gift of an ember flare up with painful, burning heat. The blue-white gem's darkening to almost black.