A Starlit Paris [Caroline, Jericho, Nadia]

[Oathkeeper Emi]

I don't know how to use computers.
--

Caroline had struggled against Ain when he picked her up. In her state, she was going to fight against anything coming near her. Everything was a monster and no one could help her. At least until he struck her on the back of the neck and she went limp in his arms.

Blessed darkness. Release from her nightmare world. She slept for only a few moments before coming back to reality and she hit the ground running. She was sitting in the door way of the ship- lying on the floor in the doorway of the ship, rather- and whatever it was that had been terrifying her was gone. She sat up. Besides her cold, she now had a very bad headache and her heart was still racing. Adrenaline rush?

Ain had told her to do something. What had it been? She watched the battle for a few seconds, silently rooting for her friend before it hit her. She was supposed to start the ship. She rose to her feet, shakily, coughed and made her way to the control room... but not without looking over her shoulder one more time.

On her way to the control room, she was thinking. She had no idea what Jericho had done to break her like that but at least Ain had been there to help her. She knew what he'd done. Somehow, through the haze of her nightmare, she knew what he had done. She wasn't mad at him for hitting her. In fact, she was thankful.

She made it to the control room and went in.

Once she was faced with the task, though, she realized... "I don't know how to do this.[/color]"

She reached out hesitantly and pressed a random button with one finger. Nothing happened but then again.... nothing happened.

[Aerith]

This guy is going to crack before the night is over.
--------

Jericho and Ain were absorbed in their fight, but it seemed Caroline had roused from getting knocked unconscious. Smartly, she was avoiding getting involved and retreated inside the ship, which meant this was truly a two versus one fight. Not that Caroline would have been much of an asset to Ain's cause.

Drawing both of her knives now, Nadia caught the look Ain gave her. That blank stare was just too much. No one should be that emotionless unless he was a Nobody. Was Ain a Nobody?

Apparently, Jericho was on that same train of thought, but he took it a step farther. Ain, however, debunked that assumption. If not a Nobody, what? Why was he like that? If he really did have a heart beating inside his chest, emotions should accompany it. Otherwise, he was not human.

"Let's see if he bleeds. Then, we'll have a better idea of what he is."

Ain seemed mostly concerned with Jericho at this point, so Nadia decided to take advantage of that. When his eyes went completely back to Jericho, she moved. Keeping in mind that she needed to get much closer to him than he needed to get to her to do damage, she aimed a slash at his ribcage with one knife while keeping the other ready to defend herself if need be.

[Summary:
Matarukaja wears off after the attack is resolved.
Posts until next use: 4
Uses remaining: 1]

[Slash]

Your existence is pointless.

[/center]

His answers were not only unsatisfactory, they were completely infuriating. Calling this man a blank was an insult to others of that kind, like Clive. Clive had at least had something behind him- some hidden, unreachable humanity that Jericho had only barely sensed.

This thing in front of him was worse than that. He wasn't even a Nobody. Nobodies had minds within their shell. It- he refused to call Ain a him- was just a lichen mindlessly clinging to a rock being pummeled by the tide, struggling for life without any comprehension of what life was.

"Something I wouldn't understand? Something I wouldn't understand?" What an ignorant statement. It was such an outdated view that light could not understand darkness and vice versa.

"If the only point of living is the act of living itself, then what is the point of doing anything? No, I know what you are now. You don't understand anything- not even yourself! Not even your reason for living- nothing!"

He was going to kill the idiot thing, and Nadia was going to help him.

As Nadia attacked Ain, Jericho moved in. His purpose was not to wound him- no, it was to get him out of the open, into an area where trees grew. There he could destroy him.

He hoped that Nadia would figure it out, but if not he could handle it on his own. He put the strength of his fury into his swings, ensuring that anything close enough would be greatly damaged, relentlessly moving forward all the while.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

This is hopeless, I'm almost out of time.

This fight was utterly pointless, there was to nothing to gain from engaging them except blood, injury and even death. Yet, it was Ain himself that started it when he could have walked away, deep down he just wanted to knock Jericho and Nadia around a bit. A silly notion, yes, but no matter how angry he wanted to be at them it just didn't come out that way. The only way he could show his rage was to fight, yet even then it was empty as everything else- the pain he felt was not. Perhaps it was for Caroline, though that was something he didn't NEED to prove.

His thoughts swelled as the flames of his Aura rage swirled around his body.

Ain stood his ground against Jericho but as a result let his focus on Nadia slip for a moment, her movements almost unnoticed until the last moment. Trying his best to parry the attack from Nadia with a slash of his own, but due to his lack of focus she still managed to cut his side a bit through his jacket. His Jacket was torn, he was bleeding on his right side from Nadia's cut and his left shoulder was bleeding from Jericho's cut. He had no time to react to the pain as Jericho had already made a attack on him, but it was noticeable that the power of his slashes was back to normal levels. Hmph. Fighting two at once was really dangerous and it was clear that he could not win.

With both of them now in sight, it was time to fight back. As Jericho tried to push him with his attacks, he simple refused to move and used a fast Swift Blow to strike back at Jericho for almost moderate damage(due to Aura Rage still in effect) to both attack him or push him back and slashed to the left at Nadia as he moved away. He couldn't put all of his attention on one of them or he would get caught by surprise.

[Ain used Swift Blow on Jericho
4 post cool-down in effect]

[Oathkeeper Emi]

I think I did it...
--

After only a minute more of searching, Caroline stumbled across something. There was, conveniently enough, a large red button labeled "emergency auto-pilot". Hesitantly, she reached out and smacked it , open-palm. Then something happened. The navigation system was still being repaired but at that moment, all of the screens were overridden by big red letters that said "Emergency Auto-Pilot Engaged. Departure in 60 seconds...59...58...[/color]"

It was a count down. Caroline stared in awe for a moment, but then realized she needed to get going. She left the control panel and took off running for the door. A minute wasn't a lot of time at all.

She made it to the door and hung out of it, screaming "Hurry up![/color]" No time for any further explanation. The battle was not going well for Ain. At least, it didn't look that way to her. She knew that before when he had used that power he had collapsed in exhaustion and there was no time for that. She clung to the door frame, hoping he could at least make it inside before something bad happened and he ended up dead and she ended up in space by herself. He was hurt, too... not good.

Looked like she had a lot of work to do tonight anyway.

[Aerith]

Too much stress or lack of sleep? That must be it. Yeah.
--------

Drawing blood was quite satisfying. So, he was human, after all, or something close to it. But his answers to Jericho's questions were severely lacking and said nothing about him personally. The guy truly was a blank slate.

His slash in her direction was partially deflected by a knife, though pain shot up her arm from the contact. Those dancing flames around him must have been doing something to make him stronger. Even as Jericho tried to push him toward the trees, Nadia was running through possible angles of attack. Ain couldn't possibly stand his ground for long if he had to deal with two people.

Besides, she had tasted blood, and she wanted more of it.

Before she could move to strike again, she stopped and grimaced. Dull pain throbbed in her temples. She tried to shake it off.

Headaches now? Not the time...

It seemed, however, that further action on her part might not even be necessary. Caroline had reappeared and was shouting at Ain to hurry. Maybe Stoneface would leave. She took a few steps away from the fight and put a hand to her head, trying to will the pain away.

[Slash]

A lost kill. How disappointing.

[/center]

He tried to block Ain's blow with his sword, but the resulting impact knocked him back and damaged one of his wrists, causing his sword to slip out of his hands. It was a sprain or a fracture, if not an outright broken bone. Shit.

Didn't matter. He could keep going- he knew he could. The monster that he drew that power from would ensure it, as long as-

Nadia's hurt.[/color]

The girl had started the ship, and the thing had a way to escape. He could still kill him before he went anywhere.

Two conflicting interests battled within him for a second, rendering him motionless, then he made his decision.

To hell with it. He's the less important one,[/color] he thought, and moved to Nadia, picking up his sword as he did so.

"You have three seconds to go," Jericho said to Ain, angry that his kill had been taken from him. He had wanted that kill. Damn it all.

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Reminder of the past...

Ain heard the voice of Caroline echoed in his head, causing him to glance over at her. Thankfully she was fine and from the sound of things- the ship was starting up. It must have been on Auto-Pilot, which begged the question of where the Auto-Pilot was set to. Still he had little time to make it back to the ship, if it wasn't for the two strangers he could make it easily. His dark hair covered his face as he eyed them, completely ready to fight to the bitter end when both of them seemed to just walk away after his counter attack.

Looking carefully at the girl seemingly in pain and holding her head.

"You should get her to a doctor, she doesn't look good." he stated in his normal dull tone before walking off a bit towards the ship.

The battle was over for the time being and it was best not to test Jericho on this. This easily could be a feint to allow him to drop his guard and then attack him for the kill when his back was turned. This was a lucky break at the very least, had they known he was at his limit would they have decided differently. Ain wasn't about to correct them as his injuries and his time-limit would easily mean his death, quickly he used Dancing Feint to move at high speed towards the ship and instead of his normal attack he canceled the ability. Aura Rage was almost over he had to run for the door before he fell limp and could no longer move.

As he stopped the ship was already taking off already, yes, it was indeed auto-pilot. With one final jump he entered the doorway just as his power expired. All the strength in his body was gone, his body went limp. The ship continued to rise up but with little power to speak of he started falling backwards towards the outside of the still open door. He was going to fall from this high up, and he would not survive it.

As he fell backwards he closed his eyes, a memory of along time ago firm in his head...

It was stormy night unlike he had ever seen, the fishing boat Artemis hung low as the waves crashed on deck. It was unnatural how fast the storm came, his gruff bearded father worked fast to secure the sail so they would not be blown under the waters while he tied his self down to prevent himself from being thrown overboard. A young short-haired Ain looked over the railing at the water.

"Father, I see something black in the water!" he yelled over the loud crashing waves.

"Don't mind that, just make sure you have your line firmly attached to your body, Ainus." Arukia answered roughly with a stern voice. "We have to wait until the storm passes!"

"--But, Father!"

Before Young Ain could finish black shadows crawled up the side of the ship and nearly covered the deck. In moments the shadows took shape and formed into Shadow Heartless. Arukia took out his knife from his pocket and threw the sheath overboard.

"Monsters, Impossible. Not in this world." Arukia stated as he jumped at them and tried to fight them, he however could not even hit them, let alone damage them. "I--I can't.... AINUS..."

As the heart rose from the chest of his father and he faded away into darkness. Ain froze with fear. Up until this moment the heartless had ignored him, however now they looked at him. Swarming around he cut his line, with no where to run he climbed the railing of the ship.

"Father, I'm all alone." he stated as tears rolled down his cheeks. "I have nothing left."

Closing his eyes he allowed his body to fall back, young Ain fell within the waves. All hope in his little body gone.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

And so the long night begins.
--

Once again, Caroline felt relief only to have it snatched away a second later. She was so happy that Ain had made it back inside, just to watch helplessly as he lost his footing and started to fall out of the ship.

She hated that she kept running out of time. First, the auto-pilot and now this... she couldn't wait until she could finally relax. But first, she had to stop her friend and pilot from falling to his death.

She reached out and grabbed his arm, but that wasn't a very good idea as it nearly sent her out the door, too. She stopped herself at the door, digging her heels in, and grabbed a handful of his coat, hauling him back inside.

She couldn't support him for very long though, so she sat him against the wall and fell to her knees in front of him, breathing heavily. The door shut, and she coughed and began to laugh. "Well, that was...[/color]"

She was going to say fun, but it really wasn't fun. It really wasn't. For a moment, and only a moment, her mind went back to the things she had seen while she had been unwittingly under the affects of Jericho's Amplification. She shook her head. No, now was not the time.

She looked to Ain. "You're pretty badly beat up. I'll go get the first aid kit...[/color]"

[Aerith]

Just a headache. That's all.
--------

The pain was not ceasing, and Nadia almost wanted to sit down. Not much good that would do her, though. At least it was not a sharp pain, just a persistent throb in the recesses of her head. Because of this, she missed much of what occurred in the interval between the pain's beginning and Ain and Caroline's exit from the graveyard.

She was aware enough of Jericho's approach and heard his parting words to Ain. Beyond that, she was too consumed in her own mind to notice anything else. An outline, like an afterimage burned into her mind's eye, flashed for a split second. She gasped softly.

Asherah?

The pain began to recede, muted to mere whispers of discomfort. Finally, she could focus on objects outside of herself, and the first object of her attentions was Jericho.

"Sorry... I don't know what happened."

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

Injury and rest.

Ain's eyes opened slowly only to see Caroline pulling his arm with her small body and risked falling out herself to save him. With the door shut and his body resting against the wall, he was safe to relax and get his bearings. His long dark hair concealed his face as he turned to look at Caroline, the rest of his body not responding like he wanted. He felt lucky to have someone with him this time, had he been alone in this- he would have died. Well, it was a given that he wouldn't have been in danger if he had not picked her up but he made his own choice.

His jacket was now torn and bloody on both the shoulder and the side, and of course the cuts. It would be noted that he was more worried about his jacket as he continued to bleed. His logic must have been faulty for once, he obviously needed to focus on the bleeding wounds.

"Thank you Caroline but you should go rest up." he stated as he looked at her still sick form. "You are sick. I will be up in a while after I rest."

At least he didn't want Caroline worrying about him, as much as he wanted to act tough though- it didn't change the fact that he couldn't move. He was pathetic for ending up like this after every fight, it was enough to make him not want to use his power at all.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Almost done for the night...
--

Caroline shook her head. She wasn't just going to leave him there to take care of himself in this state. She could do it because she had a little strength left in her. She didn't say anything else, just got up and walked off to get the first aid kit. She had a feel that by the time they finally made it to New Orleans, the kit was going to be running low. How many battles had they been in so far and it had only been a day? Three. With those Heartless things running around, she just got this feeling that this was the least of it.

The reason she was forcing herself up and to work was simple: she felt bad. She knew that if it wasn't for her, he probably wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place. She had promised to do her part around the ship and she would do so until they got home but... now that he was injured again and it was her fault in a roundabout way, she felt like she had to take care of him. She had to fix it.

She grabbed the first aid kit and glanced at herself in the mirror on the way out. She looked like a train wreck. Mud was splattered all over the side of her dress and face, her blond curls were limp, her cheeks were red from either running or a fever and she had dark circles under her eyes. It shocked her into silence. She had never seen herself like this before because she had never been in this kind of situation where she was going to get dirty and out of breath. She at least took a moment to wash her hands before going back out. It wouldn't do to tend to his wounds with muddy hands.

She returned to the hall way with the first aid kit in one hand and a towel draped over one shoulder. She knelt down in front of him and opened the kit. "All right, let's get you cleaned up and in bed, okay?[/color]" she said, smiling. The smile didn't quite reach her eyes, though.

[Slash]

What happened?

[/center]

Ain left. He got away, along with the girl. Damn it, damn it, damn it. He hadn't left a single lasting injury on him, and of course he hadn't gotten to really get to the girl. Such a disappointment. Such a fucking disappointment.

And why ignore the facts? It was completely Nadia's fault.

She didn't mean anything by it, so shut up and focus. You're angry at the two who got away, so stop taking it out on Nadia before you start hating her.[/color]

Sometimes the slope he sat on was annoyingly slippery. Very well. He took a deep breath and pushed it out of his mind.

"It's okay. Are you all right now?"

[Ain_Soph_Aur]

First aid, again. Am I accident prone or something.

Wait, Caroline didn't listen to him. He told her to go rest, who cares about his injuries and pain. He is a cold man unable to smile, unable to express himself and yet this girl was willing to help him in his time of need. Why would she do that, he just didn't want other peoples kindness because one day they will go away like everyone else in his life. In his past he was always on his own, no friends, no family, no home and nothing to live for except moving forward. A endless journey with nothing to gain.

Maybe Jericho was right about him after all, and he was a big nothing.

Ain turned to Caroline, the feeling in his arms slowly returning he lifted them with strain. As he did he felt a sharp pain in his side and flinched. Putting pressure on from over his jacket he realized that healing magic would have been nice right about now, no time to find someone that had some so it was down to regular first aid. He felt like laughing but it didn't come out. "I can't lift my shoulder due to the cut and the gash on my left side hurts pretty bad." he stated as he looked at his torn and bloody jacket he wore, it was totally ruined and it was his favorite jacket too. "Since you won't go rest, let's clean the wounds and bandage it up."

It was going to be a long night, but more then anything. He was mighty hungry, causing his stomach to growl as a result. How embarrassing.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

I can do this. I CAN DO THIS.
--

Caroline sighed. Not much to be done about the jacket. She supposed she could probably patch it up... if she had the supplies. And it would have looked awful. Sewing was not her strong point, though she did like to knit. Maybe she could knit him a new jacket.... no, they wouldn't know each other for that much longer anyway.

When that thought hit her, Caroline got sad. She stopped what she was doing for a second, which was helping him take his jacket off so she could actually get to the injuries. Pretty soon, things would be back to normal. They would part ways, probably never to see each other again. Caroline bit her lip, suddenly holding back tears that she'd probably been holding in for several minutes now. At least since she woke up from that awful, awful nightmare...

She carried on. Despite all the blood, she kept her composure and neatly folded the jacket (or what was left of it), setting it aside to be taken care of later. Once she had a clear view of the gash on his side and the deep cut in his shoulder, she cleaned them up, using the towel to wipe away as much blood as she could. Did she mind more than a little bit got on her hands? Yes, but she put that aside to be taken care of later as well.

"You probably need stitches,[/color]" she murmured. She didn't know how to do stitches. The only thing she could do for him was bandage him up and make sure he didn't get an infection. The bleeding seemed to have stopped though. She worked quickly and efficiently, wrapping bandages around his side and crossing them over his shoulder. When she was done, she sat back and admired her work. "It'll do,[/color]" she said, but then she accidentally wiped her hands on her dress, adding blood to the mess there. She froze.

"Ah...ah, ah, ah....why don't we get you to bed?[/color]" she said nervously, forcing a smile and shaking her hands. "Do you think you can walk yet? Or do I need to drag you? Haha, that was a joke. I can't carry you.[/color]"

She babbled like that for a minute and then stopped, realizing something amongst everything else going on in her mind. "I'm hungry.[/color]"