Saving The World In Spite of Ourselves

[Kura]

Sholes?

Lilith quickly recalled how she had put herself in the awkward situation of asking if Shola and Dante were together. The answer was no, of course, but the fact that Dante had just used a nickname when referring to her had to mean that he wasn't entirely coldhearted. Come to think of it, Dante seemed to hold Shola in very high regard. Lilith couldn't help but wonder if he did have feelings for Shola. It would definitely explain his disdain towards Trevean.

"And I do talk to you, don't I? I'm certainly not fucking telepathic. What the fuck do you want to talk to me for, anyway?"

Lilith nose twitched a bit in annoyance. "You and I have been together for quite some time now, and I don't see that changing anytime soon considering we're supposed to be saving the world and shit." She jumped as the ferris wheel stopped suddenly and couldn't help but snerk at Dante almost falling. This didn't stop her from reaching to grab the collar of his shirt, though.

 

[Midian]

Dante brushed her hand away.
"Seriously, you can't just grab me. Assassins aren't cats."

A crowd was gathering below the ferris wheel, pointing and murmuring. At the back edge of the crowd, however, another group was breaking away and heading towards Shola and Trevean. A third mass of people was heading towards them as well from the north.
"Looks like shit's going down. I'm gonna go down and give them a hand. When the wheel gets going I'll meet you back here," he said, vaulting over the guard rail and easily climbing down the skeleton of the ride. He skirted the crowd gathered at the bottom and made for Shola and Trevean.
--------------------------------
"Thank you, Tervean. And it really didn't cross my mind that she'd be lying," Shola replied. "I attributed her resistance to being a Purifier older and stronger than Nadia. As for what happened to her last night... I don't know." Shola sighed. "I've long had my suspicions that Lilith is a Guardian as well, but I don't know if she's even aware of it. Since the goddesses were poisoned many of us have lost touch with our divine mothers.
"And Dante does the same thing, the lying. When he first got to the palace, the nightmares he had... He never would own up to them. "

She shook her head to clear the thought and looked at the apple, crinkling her nose in curiosity. Slowly she ran her tongue through the caramel experimentally and licked her lips, testing the stickiness of it. She didn't seem to know what to make of it and tried again, this time getting caramel stuck all over her lips. Trying to preserve something like manners she tried to brush the caramel away with her fingertips and ended up having to lick them to keep from collecting every piece of lint known to man.
"Sorry," she muttered to Trevean.

A few moments later Dante had arrived behind and whistled.
"Trouble's coming from both ends," he said just as the second group of infected humans rounded the corner, facing the three of them down the long alley of booths. From behind the other group had silently gathered. All of them were drooling grey foam. Dante flicked a knife into his hand that looked suspiciously like the dinner knives from Nadia's house.
"You ready Sholes? Dunno how much use your boyfriend here is gonna be. They're not made outta fire."

 

[Kura]

Lilith snatched her hand back as Dante swatted at her and glared. "Then stop acting like one."


Her resentment was short lived as Dante turned her attention the the crowds below and the ones that were currently closing in on Trevean and Shola. Before she knew it, Dante had dismissed himself and disappeared down the ferris wheel and to the ground. She grunted loudly in frustration and forced the waist bar up, then quickly followed the same path he had taken. She pushed through the crowd, bumping into people here and there and almost knocking the colorful man from earlier off his stilts. She lost Dante briefly, but quickly found him again as he came up on Shola and Trevean. She stopped and stood next to him as she nodded to the other pair and didn't even bother to look at him as she spoke.

"Before you release that snide remark I know you're holding in reserve, don't assume that I'm weaker than you are. Isn't your job right now supposed to be staying with me?"

 

[Falcon]

A Gardian? yes that might explain it but before he could say much on the subject Dante was there warning them about the oncoming groups of enemies, Lilith following soon after.
And at the line about him not being of much use - well Trevean only laughed.
"I'm sure you've seen Maevric in battle," He stated offhandedly referring to the brother in the guard. "It's been years since I've seen him myself, but even back then the twerp was something to behold," He grinned at them cheekily. "I never could compare to him when it came to shifting battle forms, not unless you've got use for a Kraken or something, But I assure you, my voice has always been much stronger!" And Trevean turned to face one of the groups arms spread wide. "A word of warning, if you feel yourself slipping, plug your ears! though I hope you all," here he shot a pointed look at Dante, "have strong enough wills to avoid the fate I have in mind for these guys."

Beginning with a low, "Ahhhhhh," and shifting back to his natural form as he did so, for he would need his own vocal chords, Trevean focused the whole of his attention on those drooling excuses of humanity that stood before him in opposition. It was a low note, almost below human hearing, but the whole alleyway, even the earth beneath their feet, began to tremble with it.

Come, Come the notes seemed to say.
Come at me and meet your fate, and be careful not to turn on each other in the process!

 

[Midian]

Dante swore, trying to steady his footing on the moving ground.
"For fuck's sake-- son of a bitch," Dante complained, wasting no time getting his feet off the ground and running across the railing of a nearby fence. The first line of infected had fallen on themselves in a writhing tangle of flailing limbs, but those behind them seemed more focused, their beetle eyes glinting coldly and with a strange intelligence. Their cracked lips spread over their filmy teeth and the next wave came stampeding over their fallen fellows with sadistic glee.

One, a middle-aged man, hurled himself at Trevean and stabbed him in the thigh with a steel scalpel before Shola pulled him off and threw him into the tangled pile. She dragged Trevea up by his armpits and assessed the wound quickly, tearing off her headscarf and wrapping the wound up. Unthinking she smoothed a strand of hair back with her bloody fingers and the unruly cowlick was stuck firmly in place. Her face was an impassive mask of concentration and Shola was suddenly in her element again.
"Lilith, I want you to cover Trevean and Dante, I need you covering the other group. Watch my back!" she shouted and between her hands a whip of blade-sharp ice formed. While her powers weren't what they normally were in that world, she wasn't totally powerless and felt a small thrill at being able to stretch her soldier muscles again as she lashed out, the slicing chain striking with deadly accuracy.

 

[Falcon]

The earth trembled as Trevean sang. His opponents slid and tripped over each other and, as the song swelled, even began to turn on each other, stabbing each other in the back, turning and fighting their comrades, each eager to be the first to face Trevean, Lilith, Shola, and Dante, not caring what happened to those who got in the way. The darkness touched humans had cut their own numbers by a third before the first managed to reach Trevean. Unfortunately for Trevean it was he that first struck for.

The twisted human in question was middle aged and Trevean easily dodge the first blow that was aimed for his head, unfortunately he failed to notice the scalpel clinch in the man's hand until it had been driven into his thigh. Trevean's song became a howl of pain as he fell to the ground with the man's greater weight on top of him. But there was something else. The scalpel that had been driven into his thigh felt ice cold beyond all reason, Trevean knew the moment it touched him that it was made of steel. Steel, the one metal in this world that could render his shifting abilities useless by touch alone.

And then Shola was there, hauling him up, pulling the scalpel free, bandaging his wound with her scarf. But the icy feeling in the cut had not vanished, and he knew he could not shift. A bit of the blade must have broken off and become lodged in his now permanent flesh. Damn it!

But there was no time. No time to stop and inspect the wound, no time to worry over what could hopefully be fixed later. The situation was too urgent, and there was no way he was going to stand around and let the others protect him when he was perfectly capable of protecting himself. He watched as Shola formed her whip an idea forming in his head. He had spent the last Eight years living on Water World, but they had not been eight years spent in vain. True, had then been on fairlyland or a world with higher magic his power would be far stronger, but in the eight years on Water World he had practiced nearly every day so that now he felt confident that he could come close to matching what he had once been. In discipline and precision if not strength. He would need both of those now.

True he had cut the enemy's numbers by a third, but the remainder had since received reinforcements from somewhere. Trevean was truly horrified to see how many had been touched by the darkness, though it hardly mattered now. What mattered was getting out of there and it was beginning to look like there may be too many. And so, Trevean began a new song . . .

. . . A song of sleep.
And he prayed to the Goddess with everything he had that it would work.

 

[Kura]

Following Shola's orders, Lilith made sure to stay close to Trevean, picking off the monsters that got too close. This proved to be a chore; the infected humans moved a lot quicker than she would have imagined they would. Without her sword or any other form of weapon, she was forced to dodge and take them out with her bare hands when she could. It wasn't long before Lilith's lack of weaponry caught up with her and she was shoved to the ground by one of the infected. Fully expecting to be tackled upon landing, she blocked her face with her arms before even hitting the ground. As she landed, Lilith felt the ground beneath her tremble and she peeked through the gap between her arms. It seemed as if her fall had caused the earth beneath her to crack, and the infected that had been after her was currently writhing in a trench.

Lilith gasped and crawled backward, barely escaping the clenching fingers of the infected that followed the trapped one. She quickly got to her feet and stood beside Trevean, staring at him in confusion as he began to sing. To her amazement, as she looked back at the horde, the ones closest to them looked like they were beginning to drop.

"Goddesses.. I think it's working. Keep it up.."

 

[Midian]

Shola snatched her whip across the face of an older woman and took in a shuddering pant. Their numbers had only slightly increased after Trevean's first attack, but the infected that it had culled were somehow stronger, meaner, and (unfortunately) more resilient. A few had fallen prey to the sleeping spell and their prone bodies were now being trampled under the sometimes-shoeless feet of their fellows who remained conscious. They largely seemed fixated on Lilith and Trevean until suddenly Dante seemed to catch their attention.

He was moving fluidly through the group that had surrounded him, a constant-motion machine honed to kill with graceful ease. His concentration wasn't grim like Shola's, but rather calm and almost unfocused. His entire body moved as though he'd done that dance a thousand times before, but what seemed to be drawing the attention of the infected was the shine of his knife. It was far too bright to be catching the weak rays of the sun, shining as though it was a tiny chip of the sun itself. Shola stopped, dumbfounded, and watched as the shining knife dropped each infected like they had been transmuted into salt.
"That's it," she whispered. "That's it."

Suddenly two women emerged from between two booths. One was riddled with ball-tipped straight pins and twitching violently while the other was covered in garishly-colored rags and jingling jewelry. They launched themselves at Shola, heedless of the broken ground or Trevean's song of sleep. One tried to put Shola's eye out with a pin, but Shola caught her and threw her to the ground. Just then she wished she hadn't let the whip melt while watching Dante fight.

The women seemed uninterested in anyone but her and were bent on attacking her in tandem, somehow not getting in each other's way in the process. Just as Shola was about to call for help from Lilith a bright flash of light, so bright Shola had to blink, rounded the corner. The women screeched and were gone inhumanly fast, bounding over the roofs. The other infected seemed overcome and the last walkers dropped like flies.

"Miss Lilith, Miss Shola! Are you guys okay?"

Nadia hurried up to them, wrapped in her new and dark-green coat. The matching hat sat jauntily on her head. The light quickly faded from her body as she skidded to a halt.
"We're mostly fine," Shola replied. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm done for the day and thought I'd come see the fair, but then I heard there was some rabid people fightin and came to see..."
" We need to get the fuck out of here," Dante called and impatiently waved them over. "We're drawing a different crowd now."

They hurried away from the puzzled onlookers and out of the fairgrounds, finally stopping to rest in a little dead-ended alley. Shola had left the task of helping Trevean keep up to Dante who quickly deposited him on a crate and jerkily shuffled away at the first opportunity.
"Mr. Trevean looks like he's bleedin' bad," Nadia said suddenly, pointing to the soaked scarf.
"The blade must have knicked an artery," Shola muttered, quickly kneeling to peel the bandage away. The scalpel must have gone deeper than she had thought, or else something else entirely was wrong.
"Dante, do you have any more of that spray left?" she asked and Dante fished out the canister, tapping it next to his ear.
"One more dose at best. And if there's anything in there it's gotta come out first. I thought part of that scalpel was missing when I saw it, that's why I didn't pick it up."

Shola swore and took the canister. Dante had broken his field forceps (whatever those were) in the palace trying to use them to pick a lock, so that meant they'd need to get the piece out by hand in order to apply the caustic spray. But who had the smallest fingers? Not Dante, not her... She didn't want to ask Nadia and so...
"Lilith," Shola said softly, "can you get the piece out? Your fingers are the smallest."

As Dante sprayed Lilith's hands with a blue bottle labeled "ANSPT" that smelled like jet fuel Shola slid a small leather belt from around her arm and handed it to Trevean. It was heavily worn and notched.
"You can bite on that," she said and knelt at his side.

 

[Kura]

"Wait, what?!"

Lilith turned pale. Was Shola seriously implying that she should dig her fingers into Trevean's leg? She looked around wildly as if a hospital would just happen to appear out of nowhere, but sadly her actions were in vain. With all the commotion that had already happened today, it wouldn't be surprising if another horde of infected found their hiding spot. With Trevean being injured and losing blood that would definitely make for a less then ideal situation. She drew in a shaky breath and sighed heavily, looking first back at Trevean, then his injured leg. Her face took on a determined look as she knelt in front of him and inspected the wound, then looked up at him.

"This is going to hurt. Are you ready?"

Without giving him time to respond, Lilith plunged her fingers into the bloody hole in his leg, searching for the lost piece of blade.

 

[Midian]

"Really, so you asked Miss Manfingers to do it?" Dante asked Shola. "Get the kid to do it, she'll be fine."
"I think since she has her fingers already in him that Lilith will do fine," Shola said through gritted teeth and Dante shrugged.
"Trust me, they come out," he replied and Shola glared at him until he relented and rolled his eyes.

 

[Falcon]

All of this was lost on Trevean. Truth was the longer that piece of steel was in him, the more blood he lost (slightly more purple in ting that an average human's), and the greater the frozen feeling seemed to spread away from the blade's location. That's what it was, he supposed, there was something about steel that froze his liquid form, literally. Why shouldn't it feel like it was turning him to ice? The wound was so numb by this point that he couldn't tell what Lilith was doing, man fingers or not, and he held Shola's belt in a clench fist refusing to believe that he was in any pain what-so-ever.

Sweat was beading on his forehead at thins point and he was forcing himself to take deep even breaths, yet at the same time, he knew that had he not been bleeding he could handle the discomfort a while longer. Still, If Lilith could get it out than he could shift and stop the wound on the surface at least. the actual damage to his leg would take more time to heal, he'd probably be limping for a couple of week, but if he understood the voices around him the bleeding was the most serious issue at this point.

Where his thoughts rambling?
Light be damned maybe this was more serious then he thought!

 

[Kura]

Lilith grunted in frustration, not quite able to find the piece of steel inside Trevean's leg yet. "Dante, for once, please shut your goddamned mouth."

Despite how guilty she felt doing so, once she felt the tip of the steel blade against her fingers she couldn't help but dig a bit harder. Ten more seconds at most and the thing would be out of Trevean's leg and they could move on, hopefully back to the hotel room where they seemed to be remotely safe. Those ten seconds passed more quickly than anticipated, but luckily Lilith was correct in her prediction. She held up the tip of the scalpel and stood. "There.. Looks like it was a pretty clean break, so that should be all we have to worry about. Now we just stop the bleeding."

Without another word, Lilith dropped the scalpel tip to the ground and spun on her heel, walking over to Dante and using a bloody fist to promptly punch him in the face.

 

[Midian]

Dante took the punch fairly well for not expecting it and popped his jaw back with his hand, smearing the blood on his fingers. For a minute he looked at her with an expression of mixed white-hot anger and amusement as everyone in the alley stared in stunned silence. Slowly, deliberately, his black boots grinding cruelly into the stony ground, Dante walked up to her and blocked her view of the sun. He took hold of her chin between his thumb and forefinger and forced her to look up. The fingers he wrapped around her throat were cadaver-cold and in the next instant he had slammed her against the wall, her feet dangling over the ground.
"Do.Not.Strike.Me," he ground out. "Tchtch."

 

[Kura]

Lilith coughed and struggled to breathe, but didn't try to claw at his hand. It wasn't like she didn't know what the consequences of her actions were going to be the moment she decided to punch him, at least she knew that much about him by now. All of that aside, though, she was sick of his fucking mouth. It just happened to be the comment about her hands that sent her off the edge, no matter how small and stupid it was. She glared at him as she sputtered out her words.

"If you're.. going to kill me now.." Cough. "Do it.. At least.. I don't have to listen to your goddamned mouth.. any longer.."

 

[Falcon]

"That. Is. Enough." Trevean snapped. Standing the moment he was able and shifting the wound closed. His pants were soaked with his own blood, the steel gone the injury now felt like fire and he probably shouldn't be putting any weight on it at all because appearances aside he was injured, But the sight of the woman, who he now credited with saving his hide, slammed against a wall propelled him to action.

"That's enough, Dante." He stated again summoning all the magic he had left within him and forcing it in to his voice making it a full command, one that demanded obedience. Such was the strength of his magic that had he been in fairyland where magic itself was stronger he doubted even Dante would be able to resist. Yet even here in Waterworld the pull of the command would be undeniable.
"Put her down. Now."

 

[Midian]

He leaned down to whisper in her ear so the others wouldn't hear.
"You're tired of my mouth, huh? Nevermind that I've been fucking looking out for you since Shola sent me after you. Maybe you don't like my mouth, but I'm sure you owe a little gratitude to my fingers, huh?" he asked, squeezing her tighter.
"DANTE!" Shola yelled, but he didn't respond.
"And especially after what I think happened to you that night I figured we'd reached some common ground. I won't make that mistake again."

He threw her down on the gravel just as Shola grabbed his shoulder and yanked him away, swearing profusely in her archaic tongue. She shoved him into the opposite wall and he stalked out to the mouth of the alley while Shola helped Lilith to her feet. Nadia watched in numb horror, hands over her mouth. Quietly she edged next to Trevean and sat down by his feet.

 

[Falcon]

Trevean, still shaky on his legs, shifted slightly so that he was in front of Nadia, and technically between Dante and the others.
His jaw was set, the laughter gone from his eyes, and for the moment Trevean was entirely serious.

"Are you ok?" he asked of everybody except Dante. Trevean didn't care how ticked the other man was, anybody with the skills and training he presumed the assassin had, should have enough self control not to harm his comrades, no matter what the provocation.

"Lilith? Nadia? Are you ok?" He asked again scanning the sky. It was strange really, there wasn't a cloud in it, and yet he could sense a storm coming. Stranger still the storm seemed to be centering around the circus where the others had gone. "Shola-" he started hesitantly, wondering if she had already picked up on the odity in the air.

 

[Kura]

Lilith stood and coughed, rubbing her neck and glaring in the direction Dante had gone.

That night? Common ground? What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Lilith paused to think. She had allowed the group and Dante to believe that she had been assaulted to explain her absence. Now that she thought about it, it did seem to weigh on Dante a bit more once the 'truth' emerged. Was that common ground for them? If so, then that would mean that Dante was..

No. It couldn't be. Dante is too skilled and well built as a fighter to have allowed such things to happen to him. How in the hell could something like that have happened to someone like that?

Lilith shook her head, allowing her hair to fall around her now bruised neck. She gave a half smile at Trevean and merely nodded to his inquiry of whether or not she was alright, then offered her hand to Nadia and pulled her up. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hit him in the first place. Don't worry, Nadia, everything is fine."

 

[Midian]

"I am ashamed of the both of you! You're both assuaging wounded pride while an entire world of people slowly crawls to an end!" Shola hissed. "And Trevean, sit down, for the love of the goddesses or I will sit you down. Nadia, spray the wound with this. It will hurt, but it will cause the wound to swell and close. It should also begin to sterilize it, if I understand correctly. Lilith, stay here and try not to hit anyone else. Dante, come with me."

Stiffly Dante followed her around the corner.
"Dante, what the hell was that? If Trevean had not intervened, you would have killed a teammate! I know what situation I brought you from but I thought--"
"She hit me," he said dully and refused to meet Shola's eyes. The tic in the corner of his mouth was steady now.
"That doesn't mean you needed to choke her, Dante!"
"You're acting surprised. How do you expect me to act like a human when I've never been one, Shola? I don't save people, I don't play on teams. I kill people. That's about all I'm good for, but you want me to be a medic and a protector and a soldier. I'm not one. Let me know when someone needs to die; I'm obviously not fit to do much else," he finished, going back into the alley. Dante shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall, watching as Nadia applied the spray shakily.
"I'm so sorry Mr. Trevean, it looks like it hurts a lot," Nadia apologized. "Ms. Shola, are we gonna check out that haunted house they were advertising? I saw a flier for it on the way in and it looks like we might find something here."

Shola nodded.
"I already have a team at the circus. I think that's a good idea. Trevean, how well can you walk now?"

 

[Falcon]

Trevean bit back a hiss as the spray hit, but it did help with the pain, and keeping the wound closed became easier.
"It's going to be chore," he answered honestly when Shola asked about his walking ability, "I'll be limping for days but - hold on." he shifted on the crate a bit so that both his hands were in front of him. "I think I have energy for one last shift," he muttered, "it might make things easier on all of us."

Reveling in the fact that with the steel gone he could do it, Trevean smiled. Shimmering into water his form hunched forward, his clothing melting away into fur, his frame dropping in size drastically. Seconds later where Trevean had previously sat now perch a small white cat with piercing blue eyes. A bit of Shola's scarf still wrapped around his leg.
"I've kept my own vocal cords," he stated the voice odd coming from a cat, "But it'll be easier to keep weight off the injured leg this way, and if I lag too badly someone can always carry me. A cat is much easier to support that a man after all." Besides there was still the fact that wanted posters with his face had been plastered up all over the place.