Mercurial Shadows [Daniel]

[Administrator]

A wocket in your pocket.

Predis watched as all of the events transpired. He kept silent from his position, and merely chittered back and forth. Soon after Jericho leaving, he shrunk down to his normal size, made his way over to Nadia, and climbed up her leg, shrinking as he did so to the size of a quarter. So now, he lay, nestled by fabric, in one of her pockets.

He was just dozing off, rocked to drowsiness by the motions of battle, when, suddenly, he received a message from she whose pocket he inhabited. Jericho's location? Mentally, he found the locale, mostly through imagery from Jericho himself, and relayed those same images to Nadia, with a message alongside.

"He's at the cliffs. It is possible for me to open a Corridor of Darkness to that precise location. If you require it of me, reply immediately." Sensing vaguely that which surrounded him, the spider sent a message through the link with Jericho. "Nadia has inquired as to your location. I informed her. Bringing her there would benefit you less than were she here for now. Is there agreement?"

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Anything but that.
--

Likewise, Emi summoned Lacewing. She had done a lot of this over the past few days. Just bringing it out and looking at it. As a result, she had become quite familiar with it and the butterfly motif was comforting, like a security blanket.

What he was saying made sense. It usually did, and as usual, she was having a hard time processing it. Everything was starting to fall into place. The events that transpired that had once seemed so far removed were now right in her face.

Maybe, subconsciously, she had been hoping to avoid this. She didn't want to get dragged into some kind of universe-saving journey. She just wanted to live, to get life back on track. Make some friends and make something of herself.

She didn't have a choice now. Arc had given her a gift. Now she had to use it- unwillingly, but maybe this was WHY she had been given the blade in the first place.

There was a good chance this was even the answer to Nadia's question. A morbid destiny, but a destiny nonetheless. Not one she would have chosen for herself, but who chooses their destiny? She had to come to terms with this.

She sighed. "What do I have to do?[/color]" she asked. "I refuse to kill people. I will not become like that image you forced into my head.[/color]"

Her fist tightened around Lacewing, and she took a shuddering breath. Damn, it had been so real... all the images had, but that one was the one that stuck with her the longest, even after all the others faded. It was still there when she closed her eyes. She thought about that for a minute. It was because that was the choice she had made, and it was also because maybe, just maybe... that had been the road she was already on before Jericho got to her at Notre Dame.

[Nothingness]

Still a Child...

Clive still smiled as Nadia continued to spurn him. "It's alright to admit fear. You're afraid of a lot of things--I can see that. Mostly everyone around you. Still, if you so desire, I'll tell you. It's your eyes." His eyes changed, losing their sad look and gaining an almost loving look. "They remind me of my daughter. You've got a fire in you just like her. The stubbornness, too." He chuckled a little.

Standing up, Clive walked over to Nadia, accidentally treading over the cross. "I've said my piece. Thank you for listening." He patted Nadia's shoulder as he walked by, though he stopped after a few steps. "Don't let your past define you. That's why you're afraid--you don't think changing will help. But it does."

He heard the rustle of Gabriel's feathers and his plead for help. "I'll be there to heal him shortly. Tend to him well." He called out in reply. As he started to head towards Aerith's house to get the various medicines, he watched Castle storm past him, trying his best to control his emotions. Clive turned around and held the young man by the shoulder firmly, his voice stern. "Fighting won't solve anything right now. If you want to take your anger out on anyone, then take it out on me. After Daniel's healed." He released Castle's shoulder, continuing to walk away.

[Aerith]

I'm getting tired of this place.
--------

The more Clive talked, the more Nadia realized that he knew absolutely nothing about her. He was the same as Daniel, except Daniel had at last grasped how far gone she was. Even if she had wanted to, there was no turning back now that she had chosen this path. The chimera in her head was proof of that.

He touched her. Why did he insist on touching her? She wanted to pull away, but the contact didn't last long enough for a reaction. His voice was practically dripping with condescension, even if it hadn't been his intention. It reminded her of her family.

She hated it.

Imagined whispers of pain traveled through her body, as though her bruises and wounds were still there.

He assumed far too much about her, and most of it was completely off the mark. She feared only one thing, not many. Humans were afraid of a vast multitude of things, from the most miniscule up to the prospect of death. But she only feared death if it were to come visit Jericho.

She would be alone then, and that was the ultimate source of fear.

Clive wasn't even worth a response at this point. He refused to understand what she said and consistently made her feel lower than a child. She was more than glad to see him go. The urge to kill him scratched at the inside of her mind, but she ignored it for now.

Another voice had spoken, and Nadia turned to look in its direction, only to find herself having to look down to find the source. She was too used to Jericho, and actually being able to look down at someone was a small delight.

"I don't know where they are. Why don't you run off and find the bird? Sounded like he wanted to talk to you."

After glancing around, she finally noticed a little squirming sensation against her hip.

Predis? If you're in my pocket, stop moving so much. That tickles. And I won't need that Corridor. I can get there myself, thanks to those images.

With little more than a passing glance at the midget boy, Nadia concentrated on the cliffs, opened a Corridor, and stepped through, making sure to close the Corridor quickly behind her. Much to her satisfaction, she did indeed end up where Jericho and Emi were.

"Your brother was amusing for a while, but when he was only half-dead, I let his pet bird take him away."

She glanced at Emi but continued speaking to Jericho. "Do we have to stay here much longer?"

[Slash]

If you want to leave.

[/center]

Jericho shrugged. "The darkness affects different people in different ways. What you become depends on your ability to cope or resist. Resisting will hold out for only so long, and then your heart will collapse all at once. Coping will allow you to keep your heart, but there will be some change in who you are. Whether trivial or significant..."

Nadia then appeared, and he turned to look at her. "I see. He's not a danger at all in himself- the only threat comes from his little experiments. Either he's going to train or he's going to retreat for another couple of years, making something bigger. I doubt he'd do that now, though." Daniel had seen a lot, and Jericho knew how angry injustice and cruelty could make him.

He stood and turned to Emi, brief and businesslike in his demeanor. "If you will not kill people, then I assume you will not make Heartless. If you will not make Heartless, then I assume you will not make much of an effort to turn any world to darkness. Don't think that restoring the balance will be anything but cruel."

Jericho paused. "But forcing you to do these things would be too much effort for not enough payoff. So you will be searching for Princesses of Heart with Aerith or Nadia for now. You will not be permitted to kill any Heartless while searching. There will always be a method for both of them to contact me, and I won't allow the darkness to be weakened further. I can appear and call them off of you if necessary."

He turned back to Nadia, softening somewhat. "We can go. I don't think there's anything left to do here. Besides, Aerith and Ethan are waiting in Notre Dame."

[Oathkeeper Emi]

What, she's here? That's strange.
--

Resisting didn't seem too promising, but Emi didn't want to know what kind of "changes" Jericho was talking about. She started to ask what he meant, exactly, but she was interrupted by Nadia's arrival. Jericho spoke briefly to her about this she didn't understand, and she looked up at them from her seat in the dirt. Jericho turned back to her, and his words made her stiffen.

She glared at him. Maybe at some point, she would have been all right with being cruel. Hell, she had been, to a degree. And yeah, maybe he was right... she wasn't going to make much of a difference. At least not in that way. She opened her mouth to speak again, this time to ask if there was any other way she could do this but he spoke before she got a chance to draw the breath and answered her question.

Her mission was simple. Help Nadia, or Aerith- why did that name seem so familiar- find the Princesses of Heart. No killing Heartless. She sighed in relief. That didn't seem too bad. Unless, she was required to kill or witness the murder of the princesses... which was a possibility. She chewed her lip. The thought of being overtaken by Heartless but not being able to defend herself frightened her. Sure, Jericho could come call them off but she hated the thought of having to depend on him like that...

But it was better than the alternative, so grudgingly, she accepted it. She rose to her feet. Lacewing flashed out of existence, leaving her hands feeling uncomfortably empty... so she began to fidget with a bit of hair.

Apparently, it was time to go... and back to Notre Dame at that. She couldn't suppress a small shiver at the thought of going back there, but there were two others waiting for them there. Good. She wouldn't be alone with them. No doubt the others were a little more willing than she was to be there, though.

Suddenly it hit her. "Ahh, Aerith! I know her. She's the one who stitched me up after Sephiroth beat-- I mean, after a close battle with him.[/color]"

She reddened. "...I only lost because he cheated.[/color]"

Still, she couldn't for the life of her figure out with Aerith was associating herself with these people. Maybe she had been forced into it too...

[Castle]

Castle tried to shrug off Clive's hand a second before it was removed from his shoulder anyway. The man's words didn't help his mood at all. On the contrary, he had to fight back another wave of anger just from hearing them. But, now that he wasn't completely mindless anymore, he did acknowledge, in the back of his mind, that Clive was right. That didn't mean he would have to admit it, though.

The woman gave him an infuriatingly unhelpful answer. He wanted to grab her and start shaking, but before he could do anything at all she disappeared into a Corridor. Castle lunged at it, but it vanished.

"Damn it!" he growled.

Now what? Just like that, everyone was gone, though Clive was still within sight. He almost didn't want to follow him. He almost wanted to pick a direction and start running. However, common sense managed to stop him. Running off by himself with no direction, plan, or backup would just be stupid. He would never find Emi that way.

He hurried after Clive and caught up to him quickly.

"Are the caverns near the Maw? You know how to get to them, right?" he asked rapidly, still far from calm.

[Nothingness]

Don't Speak Now

Clive could've heard Castle's stamping feet clear down the street. Still, the kid needed company right now. Rather him than some total stranger. "I know how to get to the caverns." Clive answered far more calmly than Castle was probably capable of right now.

It only took a few minutes for the two to reach Aerith's house. Cinderella was alright--which certainly calmed Clive's slight anxiety--and she readily helped the two of them get the medical supplies. Of course, Clive completely lied about why he needed them, telling the princess that some guy accidentally sawed into his arm on the job. "Take these." He began passing Castle some of the supplies, taking most of them in his own arms.

After bidding farewell to Cinderella, the two hurried over to the Maw. Clive walked over to the closest cave and called in, "Hello? We've got the supplies--we're coming in."

[Aerith]

Guess I'm not part of the club.
--------

Nadia patiently waited for Jericho to explain this situation to Emi. It seemed the girl was going to be traveling with them.

Things are starting to get crowded...

Were all these people really necessary? From the sound of it, this was not going to be a temporary arrangement unless Emi refused to cooperate. Maybe it had something to do with the odd weapon in her hand.

A Keyblade.

There had been a Keyblade wielder who had visited Agrabah once. Actually, multiple Keybladers had walked Agrabah's streets, killing Heartless. She had also heard rumors of multiple Keybladers visiting Twilight Town every so often.

It suddenly hit her. Jericho had a Keyblade now, too. She had caught a glimpse of it back at the Castle of Dreams. One more thing he had that she didn't. Maybe she could never do enough or work hard enough to measure up.

Shaking the thoughts off, Nadia glanced at Emi again when she mentioned Aerith. Had the woman treated everyone at some point or another?

"If you lost, it was your own fault for not being strong enough. Blaming others will only get you so far." In her case, she could blame her family for the way she had turned out, but she knew that wasn't true. She had made her own choices, and she was more than satisfied with them.

Turning to Jericho, she nodded. "We should go, then."

[Slash]

The group gets bigger each passing day.

[/center]

Ah, Nadia's hatred was always so present. She was new to everything, though, so having constant masks was an unreasonable expectation. Besides, it was far more interesting seeing her act like the maelstrom of negative emotions that both she and he were.

"We'll go, then." He opened a Corridor and glanced back, watching Emi. He doubted she'd try anything, though. She knew that whatever she did would go back to Castle, and she seemed to have grown far less selfish.

He stepped through the Corridor.

______________________

Gabriel looked around, hearing a voice. The voice was quite far off, though. He called out in his own tongue, the musical sounds reverberating through the caverns.

The pain was unbearable.

[Castle]

Their detour to the woman's house provided Castle with some time to cool off. It was hard at first, but the rage finally fizzled out to a nervous restlessness. He was no longer openly violent, and the drive to keep moving was forcibly dismissed when they went inside. He didn't want to be completely disruptive, since the woman Clive talked to was pretty nice. She was definitely beautiful, but he hadn't seen her around the Radiant Garden before. However, he was too distracted to think much about it as they hurried to the Maw.

He hadn't been to this part of outskirts yet. Still holding the medical supplies, he hung back while Clive called into the cave. Not long after, a strange, musical sound responded. It sounded like words.

"What the hell?" Castle muttered.

He glanced skeptically at Clive before he followed him into the cave.

[Nothingness]

I Need More Practice...

That wasn't really the reply he expected, but it was something. Clive walked in cautiously, going down what seemed like an endless corridor before he found Daniel and the winged-man. "Ah, shit." Daniel looked like he was already dead, and if it wasn't for the fact that he was still breathing Clive may as well have started digging a grave. He knelt down to Daniel and immediately started to work.

After patching up the burns with the proper treatments, he looked at the two stab wounds on Danie's shoulders. "Well, it's worth a shot." He touched Daniel's forearm and closed his eyes, focusing on healing the wounds. Clive immediately felt a sharp jolt of pain in both his shoulders and pulled his hand away: the wounds on Daniel were healed. Touching one of his shoulders, however, he felt blood seeping through his shirt and an identical stab wound. "Guess I'll need to work on that. Still, that should do it."

[Clive used Retribution, three posts until next use]

[Slash]

I must be alone.

[/center]

Daniel cringed at Clive's touch, and Gabriel cocked his head sharply as if listening to something.

He was being spoken to. The pain had lessened up to the point where he was not panicking, and he could speak well enough.

"He is too weak to speak right now, so I shall do so for him. He says that he is grateful to you, but you must leave. He wants to talk to Castle alone."

Gabriel said something to Daniel using the strange music, then looked back at them. "He says that it is of the utmost importance, since he is no longer dying. Either you leave or I will be made to force both of you out."

In a softer voice, he said, "He needs time now to think. While in this state, he does not want any more company than what is necessary."

[Nothingness]

Very Well

Clive nodded his head. "If that's what he wishes." He gathered up the supplies and left, saying as he went, "Be sure to put fresh bandages on the burns every day."

As he left the caves, he stopped a good twenty yards away and leaned against a rock. Taking his shirt off, he began to sterilize and stitch shut the wounds he'd removed from Daniel. He winced the first few times he dug the needle under the skin, but it needed to be done--it wouldn't do if he bled out before he got back to town. Once he was done, he put his shirt back on and headed back to Aerith's house.

[Castle]

Daniel looked even worse than before. Castle hadn't noticed the burns that accompanied the blood. The poor guy was practically dead. Clive started helping him immediately, and Castle put the supplies he was carrying near him and moved back to give them space.

He crossed his arms and watched silently. He was impatient to search for Emi, but he wasn't about to try and rush this situation. Then, things started getting weird again; Clive did some sort of faith healing on Daniel, and Castle was surprised to see the blood appear on Clive's shirt. However, as weird as that was, it seemed to work, and he knew Daniel was out of the danger zone. Immediately after, Gabriel finally spoke up, apparently speaking for Daniel. Were they telepathically connected, or could Gabriel read minds? Bizarre.

In spite of all this, the thing that surprised him most was that Daniel wanted to talk to him alone. Clive got up and left, and once he was gone, Castle wasn't sure whether to look at Daniel or Gabriel. He kept his arms crossed, and though his expression was much calmer than it was before, a troubled look still lingered behind his eyes.

"Well, I'm listening," he said, but not in a hostile way.