The Coming Darkness

A small Gaze portal opened in a discreet location on Liberty island, and three figures stepped out. The one in charge was Haimon. He was accompanied by two of Darkness' disciples, Seth and Faye. They were tasked with keeping the unnecessary ones away from Haimon as he performed his own task. "The people here reek of stupidity and ignorance" Seth commented with a calm, but eerie voice.


In reality, Darkness had given Seth and Faye another task. This one was optional, but they were set to do it away. Assassinate Enzo Ferrari in his weakened state. Darkness was not afraid of him, rather he wanted to get the message across that Enzo could not live a peaceful life anymore, not even if he allowed Darkness to corrupt the world. He sent his disciples out to do damage.

Arc completed.

The uneven thumping on the carpet floor led Ines's attention to her left, where a man who looked old enough to be a teacher. He was limping, and seemed to be in pain. Instantly, Ines connected the dots.

"O-oh no, could you be the other teacher?" the woman said, rushing towards the man to help support him, "Oh my, oh my, this doesn't look good at all..."

He had bandages on underneath his shirt, and the limping was an obvious sign that either his leg or his foot was injured in a way. Ines looked up at him, concerned for his well being.

David felt a bit more at ease around this new teacher; clearly she was nervous, so he should help her out. "Ah, okay. Well, yeah.. Everyone is on the same floor, which is this one." He nodded, but the teacher had wandered away in order to greet the other, Marcus, who had shown up. He sighed, stepping inside the elevator and going down.

"Seth, humans always smell that way." Faye replied, rolling her eyes at the stupid boy she was paired with. "Where are we supposed to start?" she asked Haimon, walking in front of him and staring at him with deep red eyes. He was busy looking around, deciding where to go next when she interrupted his thoughts. His yellow, glaring eyes wandered to her, piercing her. She took a step back, with an almost frightened look on her face, though it was obvious she was trying to act tough. "I'll tell you when I figure that out. Now shut up, and let me find out where everyone is." Faye decided to step back again, going behind him instead of remaining in front of him.

[COLOR="#2F4F4F"]"Man her hands are soft..."[/COLOR] He thought to himself, giving the woman a once over with his eyes, and greeting her concerned face with a smile. "Don't worry, I'm fine, just a flesh wound." Extending his hand towards her, he tried to steady himself a bit. "I'm Marcus, Marcus Tormod." At that, he realized he had offered her the hand with the missing finger, and slowly retracted it, so as not to be rude. "Oh, um...sorry, where are my manners? What would your name be?"
"Great job dumbass, scare the poor woman."
Before she could answer, he looked at her a bit more closely. "Wait, have we met before?" She looked familiar, like he had seen her face before. He just couldn't pin point where.

"A-ah, are you sure?" Ines asked, still not able to believe that what the man said was true. She noted the missing finger out of the corner of her eye, but decided not to mention it, for fear of annoying the man, "Nice to meet you Marcus, my name is Ines Laurentin," she replied, giggling at his apology, "No need to say sorry, it's not a big deal..."

The sudden distance becoming closer startled Ines, as the man- no, Marcus, studied her face, "I-I d-don't believe we have," she replied with a slight raise of her eyebrow, a little nervous. Ines frowned a little; if she had ever met this man, she didn't remember him.

"Ines Laurentin..." He muttered quietly to himself, looking through his mind trying to recall where he may have seen the name. "Aha!" Marcus reaching into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. With a flick of his wrist, he opened it. It was a list of the students attending the trip, as well as the teachers who were supposed to chaperon. There were only two names listed for the chaperons, 'Marcus Tormod' and "Ines Laurentin, oh! You're a teacher at Sorcerers too. That's right! I remember them saying something about you coming late. No biggie. I'm a new teacher myself, going to start teaching once we touch down on home turf again. We still have a few days before we need to return so, welcome to New York, and I hope you enjoy your time here!" That's where he had saw her! It was only a couple of glimpses, but he first saw her in the halls of Sorcerers a few times, looking just as lost and nervous as she did now. "I believe you're in the room next to mine, '134', correct?" He was actually pretty relieved to have her here. It'll give him an opportunity to relax and rest up. And her personality seemed nice. Not to mention, she wasn't half bad to look at. There was a small blush forming on Marcus's cheeks as the thought crossed his mind.

"Ahh, a few days, huh?" Ines nodded as Marcus chattered about how she was a teacher and such, and welcomed her to New York.

"Th-thanks," Ines replied, nodding. From what she'd seen, the students at Sorcerers were well behaved. Of course she hadn't met people like Sasha yet, but that would be a whole other story.

"Yes, I believe I am in room 134," she said, "Ah, that's convenient," the female commented, but on the inside she was beginning to panic. A male and female with adjacent rooms? How...how...Ines couldn't really put it in any words but the word 'awkward.'

She noted the slight flush to his cheeks, and her brow wrinkled again, "Do you have a fever? Are you sure you're fine?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. I suppose it is a bit warm in here too." He chuckled nervously, "Anyway, let me show you to your room." After only a few steps, his body decided to try to collapse itself as his body began to throb, as if to tell him that 'he's moved enough for one day.' He fell pretty roughly against the adjacent wall. "Aheh, this way..." His voice was a bit weakened and shaky, but he did his best to drag himself along the wall before his head became light and fuzzy and he blacked out, falling flat on the floor just in front of Ines' room. "Well that was a terrible first impression, you're good at that aren't you?" Marcus's conscious mind thought to itself.

JD raised his brow at Marcus’s attempt at a British accent, and then he offered a furrowed frown before continuing. He didn’t sound like that to English speakers- did he? If that was the case he had a rather ridiculous accent, and he should probably be ashamed.
Offering a terse sigh- he waved goodbye as the other man practically bolted from his presence. “Alright- farewell and good luck.” And then his wave became half-hearted, and inevitably he made his way to the stairs to head to the roof- he had promised to meet Silver there and he be was going to be damned if he didn’t have at least some moment with her.

Those eyes caught her before it caught the beautiful view of the city. “Beautiful isn’t it?” JD sashayed up to her, and then looped an arm around her waist. “And of course I mean you, and not the city. Which is nice, but pales in comparison.” There was no one up here, and quite a few lounge chairs obliviously made for those who wanted to tan- it was a good place for it considering how close everyone would be to the sun. Littered around them were also potted plans, various hotel accoutrements like an ice chest with bottled waters- and inevitably a nice little cloth pavilion for those that just wanted to observe the city without getting their face lit on fire due to the proximity to that glowing orb.
JD ignored all of that, and inevitably brought his lips to hers. “I figured since we are on vacation in some far away country, everyone is busy, and there is no one about to be intrusive- that I could finally have a nice little sit down and chat with you. There are a couple of things I need to mention. Though if you want to do that later, and now just revel in each other’s physical passions- I have no problem with that either. I did jam the door up with a chair on my way up here.”

A loud gasp of surprise came out of her mouth as Marcus wobbled on his legs, and then passed out, right in front of Ines's door.

"Oh my!"

The young woman scrambled to help the other teacher up; but he was too heavy for the poor lady. Gritting her teeth, Ines managed to drag him into her room, and rolled him onto bed, tucking him under the covers and wiping the sweat off of his forehead with a tissue. This whole process caused Ines to sweat a lot, so she took off the cardigan sweater that she was wearing.

"Mm, what had they taught me about first aid again?" she murmured to herself, thinking, "Oh! Painkillers, painkillers..."

With a snap of her fingers, her bags- which hadn't actually been carried down by another bellhop, appeared at the foot of her bed. Ines dug through them, looking for Advil, or anything really.

She found the tiny bottle and poured two pills out, grabbing a glass of water to help Marcus drink it down. Now, the only question that remained was how to get the pills into the man.

His eyes fluttered open to see the woman's chest hovering in his face. "Yup...those are boobs alright." To make things less awkward, seeing that she didn't notice his eyes open, he closed them again and moved a bit, making a few 'waking up' noises. He shifted into a sitting up position so that his face was in front of hers, and re-opened his eyes. "Oh, hey..." He said, calmly and in a weary voice, "I'm so sorry about that, I didn't mean to scare you. I guess the injuries decided to catch up with me." Marcus chuckled a bit, but it was interrupted by his abdomen throbbing. Beneath the Ines' worried face, he saw that in one outstretched hand, she had tiny pills, the other a glass of water. "I assume those are for me?" He gave her a kind smile, his cheeks flaring red again, he just wasn't used to people taking care of him like this.

A bit of grumbling brought Ines's attention down to the male teacher, who had just woken up. Immediately, the female flushed when their faces were close to each others', instinctively shifting back a little, "H-hello...No, it wasn't any trouble at all!" She handed the pills to Marcus, "Just rest up, it's important for the injured to get better as quickly as possible!"

Maya approached Enki warily, with Kenji still riding on her shoulders. She sat down, allowing Kenji passage off of her. There were random thoughts that made their way into her head, and, instead of speaking, she attempted to open her mind up to Enki and Kenji. Taking a deep breath, she looked away, but focused all of her attention on them. She felt the connection form, break, and then form again. Not knowing for sure if it had worked, she let random images and feelings from the fight flit through her mind. She finally looked up at Enki apologetically, her intent to side that she was sorry and didn't mean to. Maya awaited any sort of response from them.

At the time same, both Kenji and Enki's minds were linked, and they could hear each others thoughts. Huh.. that's weird. Enki thought as he could of swore his mind went blank for a second. Telepathic connection, Enki. R-really? With who?

Silver had been standing there, staring out at the city below them. It was so high, and to be honest it made her a bit uneasy. She glanced down the side of the building she was on and backed up a bit, still able to see the far away view from where she was. It was about then JD came up behind her and slid his arm around her waist, causing her to blush a bit. She smiled at him as he gave her a kiss and listened to him explain why he wanted to meet her here. "A couple things? Well, okay. Go for it." She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked at him, waiting for him to explain further.

Maya heard Enki's thoughts and answered. It's me. I just wanted to say I'm really sory to both of you. Her sincerity showed in her thoughts. Ryuu, noticing the connection, stayed quiet because of his true timid nature. But, with prodding from Maya, he added, Tell Enzo I wish him the best. It wasn't the real ...me, and I hope he doesn't feel it was. I am willing to protect him, or any of you, with my life.

JD smiled sweetly as Silver graced his neck with her own arms. He had wanted to tell her all the dark things about his past, but he found himself highly distracted by the fact that this was the first time that they had been alone together in quite some time. "You told me about all those dark things in your past- and I never once mentioned anything in mine." He tilted his head to the side. "I fear something may come to fruition- sooner rather than later. And I want you to know that no matter what happens, what comes to pass, or what I say- I care for you Silver." The blonde sighed. "I'm hoping that Voltaire and I can figure it out, but considering I haven't had much of a chance to speak with him- I'm a bit skeptical. And it may be nothing- of course I hate worrying about nothing, but I do that on occasion." His brows furrowed a moment and then he shook his head. "And now I'm rambling. Either way- I would be more specific Silver if I knew what was going on, but there seems to be a curse on me and E. That is the beginning and ending of my knowledge." JD thought about mentioning E's incidents with the 'Sleeping Brother', but instead he just let himself be quiet about that. He hoped that Voltaire could help him with his problem before it was too late, but considering how frequent his episodes were getting- well he honestly didn't know.

"But that is not the sole reason I asked for you to come up here, but I thought I would mention it. Like I said it could be nothing- or it could be something. And if the latter is the case- I want us to have some time together for the impending shit storm. Of course considering how Sorcerer's is- there is always an impending shit storm." With that JD leaned in pulled her close- breathing softly on her lips before he kissed them long and hard.

A concerned look came over Silver's face as she listened to JD explain his situation to her, even though there wasn't many details. A curse? What exactly did that mean? A curse could mean anything, and tons of possibilities were running through her mind, but she decided not to ask at this point. He explained that he simply wanted to spend some time with her as well, and then leaned in to kiss her. She, of course, turned bright red at this point, but wasn't going to prevent this from happening. She kissed him back, as well as she could for having pretty much no experience, and closed her eyes.

Meanwhile, David had gone to a store not that far away and bought some eye drops. He left the store, took off his glasses, and put them in. He blinked a bit, and put his glasses back on. "Much better.."

Enki smiled. It is not either of you that is at fault here. I have went through the same misfortune. He chuckled a little bit. I haven't talked with a dragon before.

Spoiler

Enzo shuffled about in his bed again inside his mind, a world was forming, nothing but a clear sky, and an ocean that stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see. He stood on a unseen platform, which prevented him from falling into the bottomless sea below. He knew it was a dream, but the cool sea breeze that blew past him made it hard to tell reality from the dream world. His vision was blurry, and was slowly clearing, when he saw a figure, that looked much like himself, form before him. When his eyes focused, he saw that it was Destruction before him.

"You've done well with your guardians, Sky." He complimented him in the same ghostly voice. "Darkness is noticing your growth in power, but you still have not used even 50% of it." Enzo blinked. He didn't know he had the potential to gain that much strength, but another question ebbed in his mind. "If you are so powerful, why don't you stop Darkness?" Destruction smiled at his curiosity. "Because he is my Guardian, Sky, and to attack him would mean war, not only between us, but our followers as well." Enzo was still confused, and huffed.

"Sky, I was once like you. A boy that only strives for peace. I knew I had a duty to perform when I was given the Sky ring myself, now, I am Destruction, and I watch over the Gaze." He paused before continuing. "I do not know the origin of our flames, either, but I noticed a new flame within you. The Minus Fire." Enzo looked down as if he were ashamed. He knew it was an evil flame, and he shouldn't be using it. "I've had it too, but I could not control it. You can, and should use it for good." He gave Enzo a pat on the shoulder like his friends would.

JD parted for a moment and glanced at the scarlet blush that Silver was currently displaying- and he nearly laughed. “I’m sorry was that too forward?” He inquired as he slipped his hands under her and lifted her up a bit off the ground before taking a few steps back and plopping into a chair with Silver in his lap. “I’m sort of a forward person- apologies- didn’t quite have an innocent childhood. So I don’t want to make you too embarrassed, and so just let me know if I do too much or say too much. I don’t want you turning bright red and staying that way all evening- can’t be good for your face. I also won’t stop laughing- and that just ruins the romance. Because then I start snorting, and that is rather bloody unattractive.”
Slowly he brought his hands up and rested them against her waist, and brought his chin to the sweet crook of her body where her neck met her shoulder. “So what say you Silver? Because if we get too into this- I might have to start explaining other things, and it is really hard to back pedal when it is quite obvious where my mind went.”

"Plan all you want, Haimon. I know what I am going to do." Seth's body was starting to emit a dark aura like black smoke. It covered his entire body in flash, and when it dispersed, Seth was a flock of crows. The birds took off flying towards the main land.

Silver looked at him for a moment, biting her lip. The blush had faded to where it was only a little and she smiled. She casually shrugged a little and put her hands on both sides of his face, leaning in to kiss him again like they were doing earlier.

Faye sighed, watching Seth fly off. She glanced back to Haimon and stared at his blank face, waiting for further instruction. Haimon, on the other hand, stared after Seth and took a few steps forward. "Come." He stuck out his hand, dropping some sort of a crystal in front of him, which opened a portal of some sort. He stepped through it, and Faye followed without a word. They ended up on mainland, and looked around thinking of where to go next.

Yes, well, this whole ordeal seems to have ignited my flame. This sharing of thoughts seems to be a benefit. Maya continued. I'm glad that everyone came out, alive, though. She leaned closer to Enki and gave him a hug, still managing to connect their thoughts with ease. She made sure none of her thoughts obviously reflected how strongly she cared.

JD smiled softly at her shrug. He was not offended nor confused at Silver’s lack of words, but instead smiled gracefully at her as he returned her kiss. His ears caught a few disturbed knocks on the door he barred, but beyond that they were left in complete silence for the time being.

Time was an affable noun, and honestly he had no idea how much had passed before he breathed a soft sigh into her ear. They had been passionate, but not to the extent that anyone would call it carnal teenage hormones- no JD was much more skilled than that, and much more in love with Silver than he had been with anyone before. “So America is nice,” he smirked. “Not that we have seen much of it.” They were curled up on the loungers together- a bit disheveled but mostly reformed since their foray. “Oh right the gift in my pants,” JD then snorted. “Oh that sounded bad.” Yet he produced a small box before she could inquire further. “Here.” He thrust it toward Silver, and seemed more nervous about the presentation of it than he had been in the previous moments about anything else they had committed too. What she would find was a thin Silver band with a dark stone imbued into it. It was an odd cut, but he figured it suited her. Especially considering the fact that the gem was a dark emerald- about the same color of her eyes, and the other two that were set next to it were small twinkling diamonds that had about the same hue as his own orbs. “Nothing fancy- it wasn’t expensive. Actually it was free, but let’s not inquire about that.”

She'd fallen asleep against her will. Sasha's head was now on the bed, her arms folded below it, and very close to the sleeping Enzo. The girl looked peaceful, but tired- exhausted from keeping her eyes open and watching for an enemy that wouldn't come...yet.

Enki smiled and returned the hug. He had only known and trusted Enzo after the fight in the Gaze, but overtime, he had grown to trust his friends, too. He was beginning to feel a lot like Sky, with the desire to protect them. If he wasn't so absorbed into this realization of this, he would have noticed he was blushing heavily.

"Aww, look at you two." Kenji teased and shook his head a little.

He swallowed the pills and nestled into the pillows he was propped up against. "Thank you, again. You're so kind, and we only just met. I'm glad there are still caring people in this messed up world." There was a brief moment where their eyes locked, by he averted them quickly. It was apparent that this woman was shy, and a bit nervous around others. Marcus didn't want to make her more uncomfortable then she already was. "Thank you Ines..."

Their telepathic connection snapped away, and Maya released Enki. "Don't think you'll get out of it," she chuckled, and aimed to hug Kenji as well. As she was hugging and squeezing Kenji, she noted Enki's red cheeks and giggled a bit.

Meanwhile, Ryuu was resting happily outside of New York, watching the far away islands. Suddenly, he could sense the Darkness, still predisposed to it. He growled, altering Maya that there might be more trouble. Then again, he could just be sick. He rested his head in between his paws.

His words brought a faint blush to her cheeks, "No, it wasn't a problem, really! There was an injured person who had collapsed, of course I would help!"

Ines felt that the man in front of her had a certain distrust for humans, though she didn't understand why. Sure, there were certain people that one wouldn't trust, but Ines usually went with a 'I'll see for myself,' type of attitude.

Their eyes met for a moment, and Ines instinctively looked away, Can't have stuff combusting in here...

"You're welcome, Marcus," she said, "Fellow teachers have to help each other, right?

Silver smiled and looked at the small box he gave her, opening it. She took out the bracelet and smiled more, putting it on quickly. "Oh it's wonderful. I love it!" She glanced back up to him, still fidgeting with it on her wrist. "I should have gotten you something. I will eventually," she explained, nodding to herself. She gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, JD!" She was thinking about how thoughtful he was to give her this, especially since she still had her pretty charms on her swords too. Either way, she was glad he did. It gave her something else to remind her of how wonderful he is.

David was walking along, to go back to his room. He was alone, and didn't mind it, but he was feeling kind of lonely about now. People didn't really seem to enjoy his company, and he began to question why he even came along. Of course it was for Silver, but she had JD and all her other friends. He had come along looking for a challenge, a new opponent to duke it out with. He didn't expect any of this to happen, and he wasn't even sure he wanted to be here anymore. Perhaps he should just leave, without saying anything. He doubted they would miss him too much. He arrived back in his room and flopped down on the bed, leaving the door wide open; something he had warned Silver about before.

Meanwhile, Haimon and Faye were still standing there. He glanced to her and sighed. "Why are you still here? Go, hurry up and find them. And don't return to me until you do." Faye clenched her fists and nodded, a small black circle appeared under her feet. She sank into the ground and vanished, leaving Haimon alone there, still on the look out for Silver.