The Coming Darkness

JD snorted a bit at the mentioning of wings made from the element that they had an affinity with. “Metal wings,” he snorted again. “That will be a short walk and a long drop down into oblivion.”

It was then he frowned at Voltaire and patted him on the shoulder slowly. “Hm- that sounds painful there chap. Hopefully we’ll be able to help you, and this can end. Either that or you can just drink your pain away- become the young, future alcoholics of Sorcerers.” He smirked. “I’m kidding.”
Giving one last glance to the islands JD turned on his heels. “Let’s head back- maybe E has Sasha all fixed up and we can find a way to get out of here. Something about what Red mentioned earlier might help. I honestly have no idea what is happening. I just keep smiling and cracking the jokes, and it that makes it look like I everything under control- when shit is just going crazy in my mind.”

Volitaire laughed. "Shit is always going down in my mind. I just remain quiet about it. I also remember Enzo saying I'd turn into a alcoholic when Einso died. A small joke he made but I wanted to punch him through a wall...and now that you mention it, I do hope Sasha is okay." He followed JD, keeping next to him.

" Foolish."
Chains flew from the side of Josef, encircling Enzo, " I'll just have to kill you instead. Oh well. " The child shrugged, a malicious grin flitting across his face, " Too bad, dear sister, it looks like you'll have to get a new boyfriend~" The chains tightened around Enzo, constricting him, attempting to squeeze the air out.

Sasha grimaced as she tried to get up, " I-I won't have to get a new one, because he'll fight through this, like a man!" She glared daggers at her younger brother, and managed to prop herself up on the tree.

Maya was kneeling down on one knee, watching them argue. If a fight broke out this time, she was willing to participate. The one who had approached, Sasha's apparent brother, was getting on her nerves. It was obvious that Sasha would not give him what he wanted, and he would not leave without it. Maya had a lot that went on today, and, at this point, nothing got to her. She felt no particular emotions except annoyance and frustration. Then, the brother attacked Enzo, chaining him. "I don't think so, Joseph." Maya growled, standing up. "You won't win this fight."

“The quiet, brooding type- that is probably a good way to keep everything in your head IN-YOUR-HEAD; l I just keep talking, and talking, and talking. Someday I’m going call some girl fat, and she is going to stab me with a sword- and my eulogy everyone is going to be like: that bloke should have just kept his damn mouth shut, but nooo- JD had to keep talking.” He chuckled afterwards and then frowned realizing that might be closer to the truth than he would like to play at.

Before they fully got back to the others- JD had a moment of realization. Eos was panicking, and she was scared- someone was threatening them. Honestly he couldn’t quite explain the bond he had with his sister, but if flared up when emotions were piqued. “E’s in trouble.” JD bolted- running as fast as his legs could take him towards his sister. It wasn’t too long when he stumbled upon the situation; he was insanely confused but otherwise assured that something was very very wrong.
JD got in front of Eos and kept her behind him. “What is going on E? Are you alright?”

Volitaire saw JD began sprinting and he followed after and saw Enzo being tied up by chains by some sadistic and crazed boy. "Chains...like that hasn't been done before..." He sarcastically thought. Near invisible, he dashed forward, drawing his sword and cutting the chains. Setting his friend free. He pointed the sword at the neck of the boy and kept a serious glare at him. "Are you some abomination made from this twisted realm? Either way, if you don't stop, I will kill you." He knew Eos and Enzo was in danger. He had no idea what was wrong with Sasha, or if the problem wih her was resolved. He just wanted this little bastard away from his friends.

He laughed, " Kill me? Oh man, that's hilarious."

Josef pushed the sword away from him with his hand, not even wincing, nor even bleeding while he did, " You can't kill someone who's already dead, idiot."

Josef looked towards Sasha, " Now GIVE IT TO ME." He kicked the girl again, " Come on, dear sister~"

Sasha choked, and glared at her brother, the spirals spinning, " I said, no way in hell, Josef."

Enzo was bound in chains, and was losing oxygen. "Kuh..!" Eventually, he couldn't breath, and passed out.

Spoiler

Enzo found himself in a dark abyss, and felt light, as if he were lucid dreaming. Am I dead? He wondered. The darkness around him changed to nothing but the sky. Clouds drifting over him. I guess I couldn't save her, or anyone, for that matter. He thought. "That's pathetic." said.. Enzo? It sounded like him, whoever it was, Enzo looked around and saw a copy of himself, a darker, blue-tinted Enzo, and he had a flame aswell!



"Why can't you man up? Why do you deserve my power?" "Who are you? Why are you me?" Enzo asked his clone. "I am your.. 'curse', as you call it. I'm sick of being in your body. You calling on my power for useless, dumb shit. You can't even stand up for yourself on your own." His words stung, they stung bad. Enzo was already aware of his inability to fight without his flames. "I'm not.. good enough.. At anything." He said. "And now, i'm dead." "Soon, yes. You're only unconscious. But once i'm done with you, you'll be dead for sure, then I'll claim your body, and kill all of those people, as well. How dare that girl call me an idiot!" The clone went on rambling. Enzo knew well that he couldn't let him do that. "I will stop you." "Oh? with what power?" The clone laughed, seriously, he took Enzo for a joke.


His orange flame appeared on him, but his voice, and personality stayed the same. "I'll defeat you.. with my dying will!" He shouted before flying for his clone.

http://i47.tinypic.com/jtou0w.jpg

"Still weak as hell." His clone told him.

http://i48.tinypic.com/33cx35y.jpg

"With weak attacks like that, you won't get me to respect you anytime soon." Respect..? Oh, thats right! Enzo remembered all the talk about having the flame respect him, but was this really what Kenji meant? I.. want to protect my friends.. I just want them to be happy.. While Enzo was caught up in his own world, literally, his clone pulled a fast one. "Pay attention, idiot!"

http://i49.tinypic.com/dwrmuu.png

Enzo suddenly caught his fist. "Oooh?" His clone seemed interested at his sudden power. "You really want to protect your friends THAT bad?" "Yes. It isn't like you can go anywhere else! Besides.. we're evenly matched, we can end this without having to fight all the time." "Hmph. Your power has grown, from seemingly nothing. Fine, but don't expect all of my power to come rushing to your aid. If you die, i'll have your body." Enzo nodded. It was a deal. He planned to live on, to protect those who he held dearest to him. He wouldn't do it with his curse, but with his dying will.

Enzo felt the cold grass around him. He was back. He slowly sat up, and his flame appeared on his command.

http://i48.tinypic.com/6dy8hj.jpg

Volitaire made a sinister smile. "Something that's dead? But my magic works around dead beings..." He snapped his finger and a blood red colored light flickered and a red torrent surrounded the boy. "Something that's already dead is a menial task for a Necromancer. Which I happen to use Necromancy." He glared at him, as if he was expecting something.

Josef was taken aback by this, " Kuh!"

The boy stepped backwards, being caught in the red vortex, ""N-no! screamed Josef, " I was so close to getting it! That power!"

His eyes darkened as the chains whipped out again, attempting to reach the necromancer from inside the torrent, " I must...I need it..."

Sasha had managed to right herself, and had stood up, still shaking, but nevertheless, she was standing, " Josef, I'll say this to you as many times are you need, I am not going to let what happened last time repeat itself!" she yelled.

"Enzo, if you don't mind.." He turned towards his friend who seemed to gain better control of his power. He was proud but wished the same of himself.

"I know." Enzo replied, getting back onto his feet. He walked over to the boy, who looked pretty caught up in the red vortex. He reached through the vortex and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. Then, he increased his flames, and unleashed it's actual temperature. The flames burned his shirt, and quickly started to burn his skin. Enzo watched with blank, orange eyes as he burned him alive. (???)

A scream erupted from Josef's mouth as the kid burned out of his very core, leaving only a small ash remaining as his mere existence...vanished.

Sasha's eye throbbed one last time, as she watched her brother burn to non existence, and a single tear ran down her left cheek. Sure, he was a bitch, but he was her brother. She'd gotten to see him again after two, long, hard years of the pain and guilt she had to endure.

And then came the relief. The eye stopped its intense burning, and Sasha suddenly felt wobbly; she had resisted the pain far too much. The girl's eyes began to flutter closed, and Sasha fell forwards.

Switching his flame out for his normal being, Enzo felt used to it now. He felt more familiar with it, and although he seemed different, his actions were totally under his control. He walked over to Sasha, and picked her up, still maintaining the blank face he had once he woke up. "Is the way safe?" Enzo asked Volitaire. "What did you find?"

Volitaire sighed. "There's a bit of a drop...those who can fly can make it. But we'd have to carry other across. This place is a bunch of floating islands." He said disappointingly

She lay there in Enzo's arms, fading in and out of consciousness. If Sasha had any power left in her, she would have jumped right out of Enzo's grip, but alas, the poor girl was exhausted. Although the markings on her eye did not fade, they had stopped spinning; a good sign. The burning feeling had completely vanished, exactly as her brother had.

She could hear something about a drop, and flying, but in reality. Sasha couldn't keep herself from fully passing out...

With all that had been going on, Silver lost herself. She found herself in a black area with nothing around; no sound, no light, no other people. Nothing. Taking a step forward and turning around in a circle, she tried to bring out her swords to light up with her flames for some light, only to realize that she didn't have them with her.

Suddenly she saw her shadow on the ground, meaning something was lit up behind her. She turned and was nearly blinded by the light, and she would have been if she didn't cover her eyes. She heard a strange low humming noise in the distance, and wondered what it could be. The noise got louder and louder with each passing second, and eventually it was unbearable. Silver covered her ears trying to ignore it, but she couldn't. It was too loud, and she felt like her head was about to explode. After a few seconds of this, she screamed at the top of her lungs. It all stopped.

Silver jerked awake, panting and realizing that all of that was just a dream. She was still in her dress and she was without her swords, which made her feel very uneasy. Looking around, she realized she had no idea where she was. She stood up, feeling a bit unsteady, and took a step forward. She felt completely alone.

"..Where the hell am I?..."

Montesque, with a leg folded over the other and sitting over a ledge, looked down at Silver with a strait glare. "You're awake. You took quite the blow to the head when Enki made that large push and you fell back. Everyone has seemed to forgotten you so I took it upon myself to keep you safe for the time being." He stood up and levitated down to Silver.

"..." Silver looked at the strange man as he came down to her level. Quite a blow to the head?.. Keep me safe? From what?..
"Who are you, exactly? And why did you decide to keep me safe?"
Crossing her arms, she stared at the man with suspicious, narrowed eyes. Wasn't he the one who was looking for Voltaire before?

He kept his stare a her from under his hood, listening to her questions and thinking of the best way to answer them. "You are Silver, no? I've noticed you share traits close to my sister. Appearance, attitude, and magical prowess. Also, you look like the child they had to leave behind long ago. Tell me, does the name 'Malinda' ring a bell at all?"

"Mal..inda..?..." As she spoke, she felt something. She felt a warm, familiar feeling, and it confused her. As far as she knew, she had never heard that name before.
Shared traits? His sister? What was he going on about?.. Her head still hurt a little and she put her hand on her forehead, hoping it would ease the pain a bit.

"Hmmm..it looks like you don't. Well Silver, you've been growing my curiosity because of your uncanny resemblance. I've prepared this for this encounter..." A little spark fizzled and a small Polaroid print materialized. The photo captured a man and a woman holding a small infant child. Looking a lot like Silver, hair and eyes were completely accurate. The bottom was written "Malinda Viravichi" with her date of birth under it. The parents looked like the feeling of happiness captured in still life.

Silver stared at the photo of the woman and the man. The women did look a lot like her. So much like her that it freaked her out a bit. And that was her birthday too. She took the photo from him.
"Who... Who's that?...."
Looking at the photo, she again felt that strange feeling of familiarity and warmth. Could these be her parents?.. Even if they were, it wouldn't matter. She hated them and never liked talking about them, for legitimate reasons.

"These are your parents, if this is correct. Venciersio, your grandfather, ordered them to abandon you. Not only for room issues in the household, but for the fact that your father was not a actual Viravichi. He had such issues with family members losing their last name. You wouldn't believe how he made fortification work...but if this is true, then I'm your Uncle, Silver." Montesque kept to his thoughts, he knew this was his niece, there was no doubt. But he wondered what became of her all these years and how she ended being seemingly friends with Volitaire, his now temporary associate.

"Tch..." Talk of her family left a bad taste in her mouth. They abandoned her, left her to die, that's all she knew. She didn't care enough to learn much else, nor did she even want to. The fact that this guy could be her uncle made her enjoy his presence even less.
"..And? If this is true then I really would rather not stick around and chat."

"Then I'll leave you to your friends..." Opening a Temporal rift with his hand, he overtakes Silver in the rift and closes it. The rift opens behind JD and Eos and she is pushed out from it.

Silver stumbled out and fell to her knees behind JD and Eos, and looked up to see them in front of her. She gasped and turned to see if her "uncle" was still there, but he had vanished. Tch.. That bastard...
She laid her hands in her lap, which clenched up after she thought about her family and the conversation she just had. Angry couldn't even begin to describe what she was feeling. That conversation only confirmed for her that her family didn't love or want her, and if she had her swords, she might have attacked that man. Instead, she sat there with her emotions jumping all over the place. She didn't even realize that she let a few tears roll down her cheek.

It was a relief when Volitaire and JD came running, realizing that Sasha's brother stood no chance against all of them together. Eos was impressed by Volitaire's power, and Enzo's as well. It was hard to say what happened when Enzo passed out, but when he came back he seemed rejuvenated.

Eos was so very curious, watching the boy vanish to ash. How did he pass away in the first place? And what was so important about her eye? She always asked herself many questions - most of which will remain unanswered.

A strange buzzing in the atmosphere drew her attention behind her, seeing that Silver had somehow ended up there. "Oh, Silver?" Eos watched as tears began to drip down her face, the sight making her heart ache. She didn't know what happened, but perhaps Silver was just scared? It was then she realized Silver hadn't been with them this whole time. "I'm sorry," She apologized not just for herself, but for the others as well - for leaving her unattended.

"Are you alright?"

Volitaire yawned and rubbed his eyes. Who knows what time it was back in the real world. Either way he was getting sleepy. He saw Silver pop up out of thin air but he noticed she was sobbing. So many things were happening so fast he couldn't keep up too much due to him getting tired. First hearing Eos apologize, he felt he should reassure her. "Don't be sorry, Eos. Whatever it was it's over now, I hope.." He wasn't sure what just happened, but he got to use a trap spell on a actual lingering spirit of some sort. He felt it was rare had to use it on one that wasn't conjured by himself.

"What happened anyway, Enzo? Where did that spirit come from?" He felt a little rude not helping Silver at first, but he was a little afraid that she'd blow up on him or something. He felt Eos had less of a chance because she's a girl and JD's sister.

When Volitaire approached her, she continued to comfort Silver, even after he assured her everything was alright now. Eos could sense a very sorrowful and painful aura surrounding Silver, and felt obligated to be a shoulder to lean on for her.

"You really saved our hides there, but it's a shame we never got that dance." Looking up at him she offered him a weak smile, she was thankful everyone was alright - but was emotionally and physically exhausted.