"And yet here you sit, helpless to do anything about it."

"Don't listen to that bastard, Ann! You're one of the strongest people I know!"

"Skull's right, you're stronger than that, I've seen it!" 

Is she really? She's never fought until now. Not until Akira gave her the courage to. She's been a coward.

No more. She's not going to let this asshole control her life for one second longer. 

Incredible, tearing pain slams into her skull.

You have spent far too long living your life for others' approval, corazón. How brightly are you willing to burn?

She gasps with the pain and falls to one knee.

"Burn it all down," she manages. "Bright as we can."

Heh. Finally.

What of the feelings you've kept bottled deep inside? Are you willing to shine for all to see?

She growls low and hard, back in her throat. 

"I'm done with, nnnh, flinching at shadows."

You know what you want, then? All of what you want? How loudly will you shout, how fiercely will fight, to seize the love that burns within your heart?

Clover's known for a long time that she'd do anything for Shiho. 

She'll follow that to the ends of the earth if she has to.

"Yes," she gasps out. "I'll seize it all. Every last spark —"

Her voice breaks with the pain. "I won't fail again!"

Then it is time for our contract, cariño. Speak the oath and burn with me.

"Yes! I swear!" 

Ann gasps as a latex mask forces its way out through her forehead, the pain falling away. She speaks, her voice doubled on itself, Carmen speaking with her, through her. 

"I am thou. Thou art I."

She tears the mask off, and bloody flames leap from her face, lighting to incandescent fury. 

When the flames die away, she stands in a full latex catsuit and bears a flaming whip. 

"Scurry back into your hole, you son of a bitch," she says. She lashes out with her whip at the guards, striking with it as if she was born to it.

"Aaah!"

He falls backward, scrambling to the door.

The duplicate helps him up and they flee.

The knights charge.

But each crack of Clover's whip knocks another aside, lashing them brutally and flinging them into each other. Three fall just from the initial barrage.

"All right! Way to go Clover! Let's kick some ass!"

Skull tears his mask free and lets loose into the group with lightning blasts.

Mona batters them with wind as well.

Joker unleashes Julie as well, and for the first time they all strike together. Guards fall one by one to whip, dagger and flame. 

Ann tears her mask free again, and advances with brutal lashes of her whip.

And as the mask tears free, a tall, buxom woman with fuchsia skin bursts forth. She wears a red flamenco dress and a feline mask, and wields a whip of rose vines.

She looks down at the assembled guards and exhales a cloud of smoke from her cigar.

"None of you deserve to gaze upon the esplendor of our unrestrained heart."

And as the smoke falls over the shadows, red flames spring up and wash over them, incinerating the knights.

The conflagration wreaks havoc through the guards. The majority of them burn away in that moment, leaving only a few more.