Chronicles of Gaia (RP)

Rowan breathed a small sigh of relief as Rockna's flames suddenly erupted within the barrier, separating Mizuki from this "Seth" guy. He wasn't entirely sure how Rockna had managed to ignore the barrier that everyone else was stuck behind, but now was not the time to grumble about little things like that. No, right now he needed to pull from every part of his mind to think of a way to convince Iliya to lower the barrier. Rockna and Kuja had tried, but they were taking the wrong direction. Iliya already knew Seth wasn't her friend, that's why she was doing what she was. Reminding her Seth was dangerous and horrible would just remind her why she was maintaining the barrier in the first place. No, what they needed to do wasn't convince her Seth was an enemy. They needed to convince her that the four of them weren't, that they would protect her as a friend who cared for her wellbeing. To do that they'd need more... feeling. Feeling huh... Rowan thought to himself, glancing down at the folded up flying apparatus on his back. Seth had certainly reminded him of plenty of 'feeling' with the fake pain stunt. The angel hesitated, for a moment he said nothing out of fear and self-loathing for what he was about to do. But the had no choice. They heeded to help Rockna and get Mizuki to safety. "It's unbearable, isn't it?" Rowan suddenly spoke up, just loud enough to be positive Iliya would be able to hear him. "The way the things you love and cherish are dangled in front of you, just out of reach. And they're always there in your mind. You can see it, your can practically feel it, but every time you wake up and open your eyes, its never there. Its always gone just out of your reach again. And then you're finding the weight of those memories aren't just a desire, but also your shackle, weighing on your shoulders as an ever present reminder of the Thing keeping them from you. And every time you try and reach for it, to try and push past the Thing keeping you down, you only end up with a real pain that is somehow even worse than all those thoughts constantly in your head, and more unbearable than every possible pain you imagined you might receive." Rowan paused here for a moment, his armed crossed and his finger just gripping the edges of his feathers. He tried to keep them from shaking as he continued. "And in the end it all collapses. It becomes impossible to imagine what you miss without also seeing the thing locking it away. You doubt yourself, wonder if somehow this is actually all your fault, and the only option you can see from under everything is to give up. Give up and not even dare to hope." Rowan paused again, and this time he stared directly into Iliya's eyes. He would not break eye contact, even is she turned away his gaze would stay steady. "I understand- no, that's not important. What's important is that your friends understand. Frau, Labrador, all of them know exactly what you going through right now. They know your pain and your fear and it has driven them to a single minded journey to find you and bring you to safety. Because your friends care, they care and love you and would go to any lengths to save you. All because they know what you, they're treasured friend, are going through every day. And that's what I understand. I understand their wish, theoir desperation to save you, to go to any lengths to help. I understand because right now All of us standing here are in their same shoes. Our close and dear friend friend is trapped on the other side of a barrier. Her life is being torn apart and used to destroy her and turn her on the things she loves. And just like your friends would do for you, we would go to any lengths to try and save her. I'm not going to try and remind you what Seth is, or what he can do. You already know that far better than I could. But what I need right now is for you to understand. To understand just how far your friends are prepared to go to find you and save you. I need you to understand that right now we are the same as your friends, driven by our friend's peril. Iliya... If you do understand then please, please lower this barrier and let us save the person being dangled just out of our reach. If you can bring yourself to believe, in your friends and in us, that I promise to my light within that in your friends' place I will stand between you and Seth's wrath. Even if we fail, and Mizuki can't be saved, I will do everything I can, just as your friends are doing everything they can, to protect you and keep you safe. So please, Iliya. Lower this barrier. ... please..."

---

Laura looked quite annoyed by the reaction to her question. She couldn't really blame them, but still. No seemed to be bothered too much by the Siren-mention either, which was good. Without her illusion and mind control powers she was hardly a real siren anyway, so Laura wasn't too worried. At least the beastman seemed up for talking. "Well as it is I'm the wrong person it seems to answer the second question. My group didn't run into anything seemingly related to what's going on. However... those two have clearly dropped their pretense over the matter and are dropping hints faster than a skydiver without a parachute." Laura began counting off on her fingers. "Rikazu is pretty desperate to save his 'daughter.' No one here has actually met his daughter, or so we think. Given the situation. Us being trapped in third world, constant traveling, etc. etc. Its highly unlikely we'd have ended up walking near the very place his unknown daughter was staying. So, logically, the only way his daughter would be nearby would be if she was with us the whole time. Of course she could have been shadowing and only appeared when we all split up, but I think its much more likely they're part of the group. And of course that only gives one viable option: Mizuki. Given Rikazu obvious desperation, Someone extremely dangerous is messing with Mizuki. Sure he could just be worried over his daughter, but if he didn't think it was a real threat he wouldn't be so desperate and, just as important, Tore wouldn't be so adamant about keeping us all away. Tore, lastly, has had prior knowledge given to him about what we're facing and has purposefully chosen to keep quiet about it in order to stop, well mainly Rikazu from joining the Fray. Considering Rikazu's strength as one of the strongest people in the group normally it would be the best idea for him to help out in any fight going on. So why stop him? Because Tore knows that his going will make things worse. Whoever the enemy is wants Rikazu to come rushing to Mizuki's aid, most likely the attack on Mizuki herself is just a trap to get at Rikazu. And Tore, having known about all of this before hand somehow, has to work here on damage control and keep all our noses out of it."

Iliya's gaze shifted between Aislin and Rowan before averting back to the ground; eye contact was difficult for her, though she listened to every word they said. Soon enough, her entire attention was focused on Rowan, her eyes lifting up from the ground once more at his words. As her tear-filled eyes met his, she felt unable to turn away; everything he said hit right at home. Finally, she turned her head to look at Mizuki; the blue-haired girl's face was contorted in pain. It was at that point that Iliya fell to her knees. "W-what...have I done?" The words were no more than a whisper. Had this been Seth's plan all along? Not just to harm this girl for revenge, but to extinguish the pure light of her own soul as well, so she wouldn't even consider disobeying him next time? Allowing another human to get hurt...that wasn't her at all. "It is unbearable..." she spoke again, her words directed at Rowan. "There's no escape...even if I try to run, he'll find me...obeying him...is easier...it's better this way..." She shook her head. "But I...I don't want to hurt anyone...I didn't want her to get hurt..." She wiped her tears away, though they returned just as quickly. "If I lower this barrier, Seth will kill you all...but you said you'd do anything...didn't you? If you're willing to risk that, then..." Her hand reached out to the barrier before pulling back again, but then hesitantly reached out once more. A plea like that...she could not ignore it; they cared for their friend as much as her own friends cared for her... Within seconds, the entire barrier dissipated. "...Then I will risk getting hurt again...feeling that pain again...to help you save her..." she finally continued. "I won't be able to face my friends again...if I do nothing while an innocent girl gets hurt..." Seth, noticing Iliya's actions, was furious. He'd dispelled Rockna's wall of flames once more and was trying to make his way past the human Phoenix, though Rockna refused to budge. "Iliya", Seth's voice sounded even more menacing than before as he spoke. "What do you think you're doing? Put that barrier back up, now." "You don't quite have a say in the matter", Rockna snapped, locking blades with Seth again. She staggered, the male's strength seemingly having increased compared to just before. Was he really that obsessed with keeping that girl on his side? "As long as I live, I will not allow you to harm her again. She's not your 'toy'." "Then I'll just have to kill you, now don't I?" Seth's expression darkened before jabbing a knife into Rockna's side, the female grimacing from the pain. Kuja watched Iliya as she got rid of her barrier, momentarily wondering if it was truly save to try and walk past. No...even if she wanted to, there was no way the girl would have enough energy to set up another barrier now. From the looks of it, she wouldn't even be able to get back on her feet. Rummaging through his pockets, he took out a potion vial, and took some slow and careful steps towards the blonde girl. Iliya winced as he approached her, though he stopped some distance away from her and placed the vial on the ground. "It's the strongest potion I have, it should ease your pain." Kuja noticed her shaking her head in what seemed like fear, and stepped back. Instead he ran over to Mizuki, immediately noticing the sweatdrops on her forehead and her shallow breathing. "She's burning up..." he mentioned as he knelt down and placed his hand on her forehead. "Get her out of here, Kuja. Find Rikazu, get him to help you re-enact a pact with her, and tell him to get that pendant finished as soon as possible", Rockna mentioned to him. Kuja carefully lifted Mizuki into his arms before looking over to Rockna. "You do realize Rikazu would kill me the second I suggested that, right? ...For you to even suggest that...Rockna, you..." Rockna rolled her eyes while firing off a tower of flames towards Seth. "You think I like it anymore than he does? Now go, all of you! Run and get out of here while I keep him busy, you're no match for him!" It was odd, her natural healing ability should've easily healed the wound in her side, and yet...it kept bleeding, just like the wound Iliya had. Kuja did not need to be told twice, and started moving once he had a proper grip on Mizuki, holding the blue-haired girl close to his own body. Her magic was spiking, immediately lashing out at him, though he ignored it for the time being. Once he was near the others again, he turned his attention to Rowan. "Rowan, let the girl ride on your chocobo, she looks like she's about to collapse. I'll take care of Mizuki." "She's not going anywhere!", Seth had broken free of Rockna's fire tower already, attacking the green-haired female with full force. "I won't let you run from me, little Ghost."

Toré's eyes once again flashed red, and he had to stop his body from landing a hook into Rikazu's face, an angry 'Knock it off!' aimed at the other soul in him, "She'll make it back here alive, you rushing off straight into his planned attack will only make things worse for all involved, yes, she'll be alive when she's brought back, but she'll be needing you alive, and able to keep her mind open to access." his spare hand went to his forehead, grimacing as he fought to keep the other soul from just attempting murder of Rikazu. "Besides, I let you go and any chance I have of fulfilling the request to save the other from her fate goes clean out the window, she'd clean blame herself for your death and then the further deaths that will occur, all as a result of you being too brash, plus, what makes you think this group would survive all that long without you around? Sure, you might be able to get Mizuki out of there faster than she's currently being brought back, but it'll be worse in the short haul." the goat was trying to explain as simply as he could to the Male, but explanations were not his strong suit when under duress.

"Reload On Fire" The barrier had just barely dropped when the magic words escaped the angel's mouth. Rowan felt time compress around him, as a pre-prepared action that would have taken several seconds was instead completed in a fraction of one. Rowan was now standing the other Side of Iliya, directly between Her and Seth. His bow was out, raised, and with an arrow knocked at full pull. In the next moment the arrow was glowing, Magical energy flowed around its shaft. Growing until suddenly it looked more like Rowan was about to shoot a lance made of light from his bow instead of an arrow. It was a simple but somewhat inconvenient spell to deal with. The Light-Lance had no mass and required magic designed to block magic, but the arrow was intact as ever and didn't care for protection designed to stop magic. Meanwhile behind him, Iliya would find a green feather would have been dropped into her hands. "Hold that feather over your head, my chocobo is just nearby. If it sees you signalling with your feather it'll come over and let you ride it. You'll need to climb on, if you don't have the strength I'll carry you. Once you're ready I'll send you back to our camp to the rest of our group." The angel told the ghost, with only a brief glance over his shoulder at her. His attention was focused almost entirely on Seth's movements. The instant there was an opening, the smallest pause in his ferocious attacks, Rowan would loose his light-Lance arrow directly at Seth's heart.

Aislin tried her best not to frown at what Rowan had said. It wasn't so much of what he was saying, but more of how much it spoke to her and moved her to tears. Aislin absolutely could not afford that distraction right now. She watched the interactions alertly, waiting for the moment that they could leave. She resisted the urge to slap her forehead when Seth caught Rockna in the side, though. How did she forget that particular info again? "He's a master of poison, Rockna!" she called out, "Don't let him catch you a second time!" Aislin took note of Kuja moving away, but a moment's deliberation told her it might be better to... Oh my land what is he doing!? Aislin darted over to Rowan and Iliya before she could properly think about it, snatching the green feather and holding it up long enough to get an answering wark before dropping it back into the girl's hands. Her next move wasn't fully thought out, and she'd surely beat herself up over it later, but she put her hands on his shoulders, fingers on the wings and pulling down and back. With any luck, he would cancel his shot. "Don't be stupid, angel! Let's leave already!" She'll apologize later, if they all made it back and if she survived the trip. There was no longer a guarantee that he might not whirl around and hit her instead. Kudret mulled this over in his head for several seconds before nodding. The pieces all fit, but he could provide at least one clarification for Laura. "Before they left Rowan, Aislin and myself spoke of the events prior to our reunion here. Both my group and Rowan's were approached by two men who were seeking help for a woman that is captive of the man seeking Mizuki. While mine warned us of what the captive is capable of, it seems Tore's person asked for his help." He offered a smile then and added, "You are correct, though: Tore's job would be easier if Rikazu didn't fall for the bait. If you wish to know more about him, I would suggest asking Aislin. I believe she knows the entire story." Kudret paused a few moments, debating on whether or not to ask again, but decided to. "As for my own question, I simply wished to know what had happened during the time we were all seperated, regardless of if it is relevant or not."

"Errgh-" A grunt of surprise and pain escaped Rowan's lips as Aislin pulled on his back and wings. His back muscles contorted, his arms rose and the grip on his arrow loosened. His attack soared through the air, several feet over Seth's and Rockna's heads, and landed harmlessly in the trees on the other side. The look that he gave Aislin, as he tore himself out of her grip to turn and face her, was not so harmless. His glare blazed with a ferocity not unlike that of a wild beast as all the emotion and memories he'd been holding back threatened to spill out of him. His body was tense, expression strained as the angel used every ounce of restraint not to retaliate. For a hot second Rowan stayed like this, his grip on the shaft of his bow overly tight. But then Mara flew down and landed beside them, and Rowan turned away. "Fine. Let's go then." The angel said, his voice cold and resentful. And just a little bit hurt. He walked back over to Iliya and made sure she got onto the Chocobo safely, even if it meant he had to pick her up and carry her onto the bird. He himself climbed on as well, then turned back toward Aislin. "It'll be slower with three people, but you should be able to ride as well." He told her, his voice still somewhat on the cold side.

---

"Oh, my trip wasn't too eventful." Laura replied lightly to Kudret's repeated question. She began to count off on her fingers again. "We were attacked by some mercenaries, which we lost by heading into some old tunnels and causing a small avalanche. Trapped, we went through the tunnels until we discovered a just-as-old Dwarf Settlement. They agreed to help us to the surface if we helped fix their broken down main furnace. That took a while but eventually we got let out and we made our way to the 'village'. As it turned out the village was just an elaborate prison to keep human guinea pigs in one place, as an invisible sky facility run by that Jester Kuja keeps fighting was doing experiments in them. Bora went to beat up the Jester and I moved the people out of the village. I then scoured the facility for valuable objects and found this strange black tablet being analyzed. After that Bora destroyed the facility and we all headed over to where we are now."

Rikazu had done nothing but raise an eyebrow when Toré's eyes had flashed red again, but listened intently to the goat's words. "You seem to know quite a lot about all this", he noted, but then sighed. "You're certain about this, right? That she'll make it back alive, that is. If she doesn't..." His expression changed to a more threatening one, before calming once more. Something else the goat said didn't make much sense to him. "What do you mean, 'keep her mind open to access'? Who would want to access her mind, and for what purpose?" He sighed again, hating the current feeling of powerlessness he had. "...I don't want to cause that kid any more pain than she's no doubt already in right now. But with all the magic in the air right now, can you say for certain that Seth won't make his way to our camp either?" Rockna, keeping a hand cupped over the wound on her side, was grimacing. "I know he's a master of poison, I've fought him before and came prepared for that, but this..." She paused, making another attempt to purge her body of the toxins. "This is different, he's learned of a way to block healing off completely, it's powerful enough that even my regenerative abilities as a Phoenix don't seem to work." She watched as Rowan's arrow flew over her and Seth's head before slashing towards Seth again. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Get out of here already!" She couldn't fight at full strength with them around, and Seth looked like he was planning something. Iliya's eyes had remained wide and fearful, though she had no energy to resist when Rowan helped her onto the Chocobo. She was trembling as she sat on the bird; the idea of somebody close to her making her feel uncomfortable. She then turned to look at Rockna and Seth again, having seen the arrow fly over them. Something was wrong... The energy surrounding Seth was absolutely malicious and intense enough to notice from where she was sitting on the bird. She could sense his intent to kill, there was no doubt about it. It was at that moment she saw Rockna fly backwards and fall onto the ground. While Rockna jumped back onto her feet right away, it wasn't in time to stop Seth's second attack; an energy ball was shot towards Rowan at a high speed. "No!" Iliya had been just in time to create another barrier of Zaiphon words, a small one this time, just big enough to hold off the energy ball. The energy ball clashed against her barrier, a crack soon appearing on said barrier. "Nngh..." Iliya groaned; she was using magic she really didn't have the energy for anymore, but the energy ball had enough power behind it to be lethal should it have hit. "I...can't..." Iliya's barrier then suddenly reinforced itself, the blue hue surrounding the Zaiphon words suddenly turning red, as did her irises. A red gemstone had appeared on the back of her hand, and her voice sounded different as she spoke next. Her voice had become deep, oddly masculine and held a haughtier tone to it than before. "You may have this back." The energy ball was instantly reflected, hitting Seth on his shoulder. "Go, before he recovers. My Mistress doesn't have enough energy to block another attack."

Aislin was still a little too panicked and angered to care very much about anything at the moment. "Just get going," she muttered, bypassing the chocobo and pushing into a jog. She did not see the energy ball fiasco, having already turned away, but the sudden deep voice had carried. Aislin did not glance back however, content with mentally beating herself as she moved back to camp. She was pretty sure it would take some time before Rowan would forgive her for this. ...Maybe a letter explaining herself would suffice; she was good at explaining things. She caught up with Kuja fairly quickly and managed to huff out, "You ask for the pact thingy and I'll keep him calm and explain. Sound good?"

Toré's fist collided with Rikazu's face dead on in response to the angry expression, once again the other soul briefly took control before willingly handing it over, said other soul disappearing into the depths of the Goat's mind to 'Go Murdering an interloper' as it so said, "I'll give them that one, even I can feel that, and if I can, not a hope in hell you can't, 'Open Mind', let me put it this way, she'll need a limiter on that power of hers, something to... 'even the load' if you will, you probably don't like it and sure as hell don't agree with it, but do you want your daughter to remain alive after making it back here? A temporary truce might just be your ticket to seeing her live another day." Toré then turned his back on Rikazu, a look of disgust aimed at the man, "Get your priorities straight, I have more pressing matters to attend to, like staying the hell away from someone until the time is right to do what must be done." his footsteps were barely audible, and Rikazu's soul did not cease it's blue glow until the Goat was long out of sight and reach.

((Here we go!)) A distance away from the hot spring, and far from the battle between Seth and Rockna. Alex and Company were making their way to the designated meeting point having gone on quite the mini adventure of their own. They were all in rather high spirits as they reminisced "Well that certainly was a once in a life time experience, I'm almost sad it's over now." Victoria hummed "Yeah, It was amazing, I don't think I'll ever be able to find the words to describe." Alex chimed, a huge grin on his face "Indeed, You had to be there to truly experience it." Lumine said with a content sigh "Plus I got this bag of money as well!" Nicole said proudly holding a heavy money pouch in her hands while everyone just looked at her with disappointment on their faces "What? It was just sitting there." The group continued on like this until they reached the Hot Springs which Nicole was more than happy to see "Hey nobody told me we would wind up at a Hot Spring!" Nicole said in surprise and without any Hesitation grabbed Lumine's hands and ran off with her "I'm taking Lumine, you guys go find the others!" Lumine was startled by the abrupt hand grab and announcement "Wait! Don't I have a say in this?" Lumine tried to say but the two were gone already leaving behind a very baffled Alex and an indifferent Victoria "Should...should I go after them?" Alex asked unsure of the situation, to which Victoria replied with "Oh I don't know...two beautiful girls going to go relax in a Hot Spring. You never know what might happen." she said with the most devilish of smiles. Alex's face immediately went beat red and he made a loud gulp "Th-that's a good point. Can't let any perverts peep in on royalty." Alex quickly walked off after Nicole and Lumine but paused momentarily when Victoria called out "Have fun!" which caused him to shrink a bit before continuing on. Victoria then let out a sigh and could already something was amiss in the group and headed off to find the others. It didn't take her long to find most of the group around Tore and Rikazu, who seemed to be having an altercation at the moment. "Well, I'm gone for a little while and I come back to infighting. Mind sharing what's going on?" Victoria asked to no one in particular, as she stood casually leaning on her spear.