Danger Zone [Daniel]

[Slash]

That bastard.

[/center]

The girl screamed and attacked, summoning a creature that was actually a strange combination of seperate creatures.

Daniel jumped back. Gabriel flew near the roof of the cave, somewhat hindered by the lack of space.

Jericho, you monster, look what you did. Look what you did to her. What was she before you got to her? Was she kind? That would be just like you.

He didn't want to kill her. There had to be a way to help her. Had to.

But how skilled had his brother become at crushing a person? It was possible that this girl could never be helped.

"Don't do this! If he controls you, if he taught you how to kill people, then break his control! Don't attack, please! Don't do this to yourself!"

Gabriel let out a high-pitched screech and struck down at the back of the chimera.

[Aerith]

Not another word. Ever.
--------

"Quiet! I don't want to hear you say anything to me ever again!"

Nadia gripped her head in her free hand, barely noticing the fight going on between the winged man and her Persona. It didn't matter what happened. She was drowning in despair, and the only thing she knew to make it better was to kill.

She had the darkness, even if it was his. The thought of killing Daniel immediately brought her a wave of happiness. She didn't care who it was, she was going to kill someone, and it was of her own free will.

Azrael was keeping his target occupied for the time being. Nadia drew her other knife and turned rage-filled eyes onto Daniel.

"Is your pet bird really enough to protect you? Seems quite busy right now."

Knowing that Azrael would vanish soon, she dashed at Daniel, aiming to put a few non-lethal holes in his shoulder and ribcage first. He would know her suffering, if perhaps in a more physical form.

[Summary:
Azrael has vanished.
Posts until next use: 2
Uses remaining: 3]

[Slash]

I don't want to fight.

[/center]

The girl went to stab him. Desperately, he summoned his shield. Her attacks were deflected.

"Don't do this...please..."

This was a girl who had been turned into a mere extension of his brother, to be used at his leisure. Daniel felt his hatred rise up to choke him.

Gabriel was busy with the chimera, but out of nowhere it faded.

She kept ignoring him, torn apart by an inner conflict and dead-set on ripping her apart. There had to be a way to stop it. Had to.

"I said stop!"

Gabriel, reacting to his master's anger, struck at the girl.

Incapacitate her! Do not strike to kill.

Understood.[/color]

In a flash, Gabriel was behind her. He aimed a powerful kick straight at the base of her spine.

[Daniel used Seal of Protection.
Effect is active for one more turn.]

______

Jericho exited the Corridor, Aerith in tow. Nadia was...What was happening? There was a winged man, and Nadia was stabbing at someone else.

Someone...

Jericho's mind reeled for a second in recognition.

Daniel? What is Daniel doing here? What did he do to Nadia? She seems...oh, God, what did he do to her?

"Nadia? Nadia!"[/color]

[Aerith]

I'm like a twig right now. A very dry, brittle twig.
--------
Master of Tartarus from Persona 3

How unfortunate. She drew no blood because of some shield. No matter. She would break it. Even if it didn't make an audible sound when shattered, his screams would be more than satisfying. If he was saying anything to her, she did not--would not--hear it.

Before she could call Azrael to her again, pain exploded across her lower back. The damn bird. She had forgotten about it. There was little she could do except go tumbling across the ground. When she finally stopped, she lay there for a few moments.

That sound. Her name. His voice.

A fresh wave of self-loathing slammed into her, and she remained motionless for what might have seemed an eternity.

But she did not stay that way for long.

"You."

Rage surged within her, rage that would not let her stay there to die. Even as she pushed herself to her feet, the swirling darkness inside her heart seemed to find its way out through her pores. The strain on her heart was heavy, but she didn't give a damn at all.

Her eyes locked onto Jericho for a moment, but words failed her. There was nothing except pure, animal rage permeating her entire body. If she noticed Aerith, she didn't care.

Amidst the darkness building around her, she summoned Azrael, not once, but twice. First, for a surge of power. Second, to fill the cave with a billowing cloud of darkness that would envelop anyone close enough to her or strike anyone outside the cloud with jagged electricity.

[Summary:
Nadia used Heat Riser (self only).
Remains in effect for her next three posts.

Nadia used Thunder Reign.
The darkness cloud persists for one post.]
____________________

Aerith followed Jericho out of the Corridor only to witness a completely unexpected scene. Nadia was here, minus Ethan. But there was someone else instead. Two someones, actually. And one of them looked strangely like Jericho.

Nadia... Nadia was enraged for some reason. She was attacking the man who looked like Jericho. But then the second presence there, the one with wings, kicked her away.

Jericho called out to her, but that only seemed to make Nadia even more angry. What in the world was going on?

Darkness was a sudden presence that filled the cave. The space was already small, and Aerith had nowhere to go. She couldn't see very much at all anymore, and now her body was being wracked with mild but constant pain.

She managed to stumble her way to a wall and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

"Nadia!" Aerith called out to the darkness in between gulps of air. "Nadia, please stop!"

[Slash]

Retreat.

[/center]

Gabriel froze up as the darkness surrounded them.

New subject exceeds Class A levels by 334 percent. Chance of death is 92 percent.[/color]

Shit. If this was the girl's power, and it was only a fraction of his...How did his brother exceed a Class A by so much?

He backed up from the cloud, but a strike of lightning hit and shattered his shield.

Retreat. We're retreating.

Understood.[/color]

Gabriel's flight capabilities were phenomenal. One second they were in the cave, the next Daniel was trying to catch his breath outside.

Damn it. If we're no match for that girl, then we'll die if we ever go up against Jericho.

____________________________________

Nadia's cloud of darkness billowed around Jericho. She was...attacking him? Nadia was attacking him?

Part of him was shocked, part of him was confused, and the other part was absolutely furious.

He raised a hand, the darkness disappearing around them and condensing to that one point. In a few seconds, it was all but gone.

She thinks she can kill me? She only has a fraction of my power, the power that I gave her. Ungrateful bitch.[/color]

No. He couldn't attack her. Wouldn't attack her.

But part of him struggled to do just that. In fact, part of him was going over the various ways in which killing her would be possible.

"Explain yourself."

[Aerith]

Let me tell you something.
--------

Aerith's voice actually broke through the red-tinged haze in Nadia's mind. Oh, God. Was she killing Aerith? No. No, she couldn't do that.

It didn't matter a few seconds after that. The darkness was there one moment, and then it was gone. Daniel and the bird had vanished. Aerith was leaning against a wall looking a little pale. Jericho was demanding an explanation.

"Guess you finally decided to retrieve your toy, did you?"

Nadia had to remind herself that Aerith was here. She wouldn't hurt Aerith anymore, but the swell of all her emotion cried out for violence. Her knuckles turned white around the hilts of her knives.

"That's all I am to you, isn't it? You don't give a damn about me, just like everyone else. I don't even know if I would give a damn about me. My only purpose for living is either to be a doormat or a toy. Not a person, just some worthless inanimate object. Well. I guess that really is true now, anyway. I'll never be a real person again."

She laughed. Traces of insanity laced the sound. She felt like a rabid animal that just needed to be put down before it infected anyone else.

"If that's all I am, then kill me. Find someone else to play with. I don't fucking care anymore!"

Gathering herself, she rushed Jericho, knowing full well she had no chance to survive if he did decide to kill her. But maybe she could make him bleed just a little before he did.

[Slash]

You were talking to Daniel, then?

[/center]

Nadia kept going, attempting to stab him. Jericho's arm shot out and grabbed her wrist, holding her arm at bay.

What a joke you are.[/color]

Her words were quite shocking. Daniel. This was his doing. So, he'd finally left his little home in Twilight Town. It was shocking to think that he had grown some remnants of a backbone after all these years.

"When did I say that? When did I even let on any indication that I thought of you only as that? My traitor of a brother speaks to you, the same brother who's been seeking to kill me, and suddenly you take everything he says at face value? That's who you're going to believe?"

He backed up a bit, letting go of her wrist.

"I never laid a hand on you. Never did anything to you against your own will. Why would I kill you? I saved you twice over, I gave you strength, I helped you. If you were a toy, then why didn't the spider kill you? If you were a toy, then why didn't I dispose of you after learning of the darkness?"

[Aerith]

Only a little.
--------

Nadia hadn't expected to do anything to him. She waited for the killing blow to come, but it didn't. Instead, he released her wrist and tried to talk to her.

She stood there for a while, reason slowly infiltrating her mind again. She had said something of the same effect to Daniel. Her tone was not so much accusatory as it was confused. "He said... He said you only saved my life to control me. You just want to use me."

Her fingers relaxed and let her knives slip to the ground. "Why? If not some tool... then what am I? Why would I be an exception if you hate everything else?"

[Slash]

Trying not to start a fight.

[/center]

"And how would he know all this? Keep in mind that we haven't seen each other in 14 years."

As to her question...well, that was a simple one and he wasn't going to lie about this. If she couldn't accept her own inhumanity, that was a problem.

"I hate humanity, yes. But are you human?"

[Aerith]

No.
--------

She knew the answer to that as it was now. That wasn't her issue.

"I was once. Not anymore. But... you should have hated me then."

Why couldn't she stop running these circles in her head? "And he did tell me he hadn't seen you in a long time, but he said he knew that you'd done this before. Used people and then thrown them away."

She couldn't take being abandoned again. She would shut down emotionally before she would let herself be abandoned again.

[Slash]

I don't want to hurt you.

[/center]

"I saw what you could be, rather than what you were."

Something was beating on the inside of his head- something that made it hard to think, let alone lie. It hurt- not as bad as the spider, but a considerable amount nonetheless.

"I won't throw you away. I can't. If I do, then...ah, this hurts!"

He clutched his head with increasing desperation.

[Aerith]

Don't do this to me.
--------

As if responding to the word "hurts," Aerith regained some of her color and snapped her eyes on Jericho. She pushed herself off the wall, but she took only one step before stopping.

Nadia was faster. In a second, she had closed the distance between her and Jericho. Her hands held his shoulders. Everything that had happened before vanished from her mind in an instant. Panic rose up to take the place of her anger, frustration, and self-loathing.

"What's wrong?"

She searched his face for some clue, immediately assuming the worst thing possible. Was he dying? If he died, he might not have abandoned her on purpose, but the ache would still be the same. Or worse.

[Slash]

Only dying in a sense.

[/center]

He tried to stay anchored. Nadia was there, and she could keep him here.

But she had attacked him. She was going to betray him. What did it matter?

His mind felt like it was tearing itself apart. No. He did not want to be broken. He was the last mask, and he was afraid of being broken. Afraid of what was struggling to emerge from behind him.

"Something...It's inside me. Please don't attack me, Nadia. If you attack me again, it'll destroy me. And it'll kill you, Aerith, and anything else it so much as sees. Please, Nadia, I do love you but this thing doesn't. And I'm weak compared to it."

[Aerith]

You mean that?
--------

Four words. Four words out of everything he said.

"I do love you."

She almost didn't hear anything else. He had never said those words to her. And as he said them now, she felt they were four of the truest words he had ever said.

"You... you love...?"

Her hand moved to gently bend his head toward her, and she rested her forehead against his. The rest of her surroundings faded away.

"I won't. I won't attack you again. I'm sorry."

She played her fingers softly through his hair and said without hesitation, "I love you, too, Jericho."

[Slash]

Then I'll be fine for now.

[/center]

He took a deep breath. The pain gradually subsided.

"Okay. I'm okay. Thank you. Thank you, Nadia."

Jericho held her for a moment or two, then sat down. That was tiring. Extremely so.

"What did...what was Daniel here for?"