In Memorium-Swarm

[Linx]

Clouds rolled across the sky lazily, darkened mass laden with rain. The horizon was dominated by the Downward Spiral, the central point that began all this conflict. It was here that the barriers between worlds had begun to shatter. It was here that Miracle had waged her war, and later one led by Maricul. It was here, that a noble paladin had met his end. On that far off day, in that war led by Miracle against the tower and her beginning of the genocide of the off worlders brought to this realm, the Paladin Leon Belmont had met his end. He sacrificed himself to save his enemy, he died doing the right thing. The wind swept softly across the once blood soaked filled, the corpses of the fallen now gone with the passage of time.

One spot marked the grave of the noble paladin, where it remained untouched by time and scavenger. The gunblade, the weapon of that proud and mighty warrior remained stabbed point first into the earth, the lions head charm untarnished by the weather, open in its roar of defiance. It was all that remained of the paladin, the only reminder that he had once tread this world, fighting for what was right, to defend those that could not defend themselves. His memory had all but faded, and he'd been forgotten by all. Another unnamed death in a war that no one had won.

[Insanity Renaissance]

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Walking through what was once the site of a vicious battle was a lone young woman, staring up at the great pillar known as the Downward Spiral. The teen, who seemed no older than twenty, was dressed rather simply; a dark navy, thin turtleneck that hugged her frame and a pair of cargo pans, the pockets clearly filled with something. Her long, flowing scarf shifted lazily with the wind as her gloved fingers clutched the strap to her favoured messenger bag. Floating above her was an umbrella, seemingly held by nothing at all, yet it followed her wherever she go.

Swarm wandered aimlessly through the area; she had not been to the great battle, the battle between Miracle and Maricul for the Downward Spiral. So she had come to the place where it occurred, but there were little signs of conflict. It was all... barren. Like the rain had washed away all the bloodstains and wounds that had been in the ground not too long ago.

With a sigh, the silver-haired girl kicked at the dirt underneath her boots; she had heard it was going to rain, so she had went with her favored pair of army boots instead of her precious converse. Well, this was boring, to say the least. She had hoped for something interesting, but instead all she got was this dreary view. It wasn't even a thunderstorm, merely rain; not enough for a downpour, but enough to make one miserable. And it was chilly, too.

As Jezebel sneezed, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Something was standing out of the ground. Almost like a marker. Jogging over to it, the silver-eyed teen stopped a few yards a way as the silhouette became identifiable. Boredom was quickly replaced with horror, apprehension, and fear as any traces of color drained from her already pale face.

It was Leon's gunblade.

Leon Belmont was a Paladin; one she had met shortly after the destruction of the Crystal City. And by shortly, she meant minutes. Along with Caboose, they had formed a little trio of sorts, with Leon declaring that he'd not stop until the citizens of the city were avenged. Swarm, of course, had called him an idiot for his heroic nature, but in reality she was more envious than anything. Caboose and Leon quickly became the closest things the young woman could consider to be friends; she even had pictures with them. They were a dysfunctional group, to say the least (well, mostly Swarm's violent nature vs. Leon's benevolent one), but it had been fun. However, Swarm ended up bidding the pair farewell, promising they'd meet up again later as she had business to attend to.

She hadn't seen either of them since then.

Gingerly getting closer to the item, she reached out to touch it, as if to confirm that it actually existed and wasn't a figment of imagination. When her thin, pianist fingers touched the cool smooth metal, the telekinetic's blood went cold and an unpleasant knot formed in her stomach. A million questions formed in her head as the shock of seeing the weapon without its master wore away, but she pushed them all back, wanting to believe that this wasn't implying what she thought it was implying. Parts of her were screaming that... she didn't want to think about it. Already she felt uneasy and off-balance; she needed her facts straight, and straightened quickly.

Looking around, Jezebel allowed herself to indulge in a moment of blind naivety. She called out, looking around the nearby area for any sign of anyone. "Leon?" She called, her voice more shaky and cracked than she would have preferred. "Leon? Leon, where are you?"[/center]

ooc: screw the English language.

[Linx]

As her finger touched the blade, she would feel memories welling up from the weapon. Memories of its wielder, his mission, his goal. His death. Impaled on his own blade by what he thought to be a demon, his final moments would play out in her head. As she broke contact and spoke his name, a chill wind would gather around her and the blade, and the world seemed to darken around her. A light would emerge from the blade, growing brighter and brighter until she'd be forced to look away. Within moments however it would fade, and when she'd look back, she'd see before her a young man, standing easily, with a soft smile on his face and eyes of a bright emerald flashing in mirth.

Leon Belmont stood before her as he had in life, his dark trousers over black boots, his white shirt covered by his black leather jacket with it's faux fur collar hugging him close. His belts were crossed around his waist, and his hands encased in leather gloves. Down his chest hung the silver pendant he always wore, the lions head matching the charm on his blade. He shifts his weight to his right leg, smiling gently at her as he had that far gone day outside Crystal City. "Swarm. I wondered if we'd ever meet again." he says with a light laugh, his voice rich and deep, untainted by the weariness he'd felt in life. He stood before her now as a ghost, his body gone, with only this shadow remaining. If she looked close enough, she could see through him, his body translucent as only an after image of the man he'd been.

[Insanity Renaissance]

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As the memories flooded into her head, the telekentic was taken aback. It wasn't every day the memories of someone else was rammed into your brain. Stumbling for a moment, she fell back, her face in her hands as she attempted to process the information. Amidst the wave of action after action, up to her dear friend's death, she began to find a order to things. Who knew photographic memory was so useful? But the memories weren't pleasant. They were painful, to the point where it almost brought tears to the young woman's eyes.

Leon was dead. He had left her behind. Just like the others.

"Sorry, looks like we won't be able to join you tonight, Perry."

Why was it always the kind-hearted idiots who died first?

Her moment of pain was interrupted by a growing light that almost blinded her; she turned away as it grew intensity, only to look back when it dimmed. And standing before was a figure she knew too well; a handsome, dark-haired man who was certainly too young to die. Leon Belmont. He seemed quite content, even daring to look happy. For a moment, the silver-haired woman honestly thought he was there, right before her, but closer examination revealed him to be slightly translucent; it was merely a memory of him. Or perhaps a ghost?

Swarm was unable to form words in her mouth for a moment, but when she spoke, it was strangely without emotion. "Leon." Her own simplicity even surprised her. There was no snide comment about how she told him so, no reference to Bill Murray and the Ghostbusters.

When he spoke, the pleasantness of it seemed to shake her back to reality in some way, as her anguish was momentarily overshadowed by anger. Visibly bristling, her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows lowered as she glowered at her deceased friend in rage. "Leon.." The silver-eyed teen growled, "You have no idea how much I wish I could hit you right now." The words had a double meaning; one, being that she wanted to punch him in the face and break his nose, and the other being him still being alive.[/center]

[Linx]

He laughs deeply from his belly, smiling widely, as he reaches his hand down to her. "You know, being down on the ground like that isn't really your style." he says with a light smile. "Besides, I'm every bit as real to you as I was in life. In my world, death is a little different." he says with a grin. "Granted, this isn't my world, but hey, I'm dead, I get to do what I want." he says with another laugh, pausing momentarily. "Well, I think I'm dead anyways. I don't really know. It's a little confusing for me. I'm...well, kinda like a memory. Part of my essence was imbued in my weapon here," he says, indicating his gunblade beside them.

"So, I don't know what happened to my body and soul." he says with a shrug. His emerald eyes swept the area around them, a hint of sadness touching them. "I'm glad you found me actually, it's pretty boring here. I kinda just sit there in my weapon and stare at grass growing. How've you been? How's Caboose? What's been going on? I'm kind of at a loss of information. The last thing I really know happened was a fight against Miracle and her army. Ever since then, I've just been sitting here in the dark as it were." he explains, smiling softly. It was good to have someone to talk to again, to catch him up on all he'd been missing. Not a true ghost but a shadow of the real thing, he had no capacity to learn or grow on his on, he had to rely on anyone that would happen by. Until now however, no one had. It was good to have his friend back.

[Insanity Renaissance]

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Swarm stared at him for a moment, unsure whether or not she would go straight through his hand. But if what he said was true... biting her lip, she hesitatingly reached out and grabbed it, surprised to find it was warm. Floating up with him, the silver-haired woman found herself torn between beating her friend to a bloody pulp or grabbing him in a hug. But since he was dead, or at least that seemed to be the case (at this point, she had no idea what the hell was going on with Leon exactly, but wasn't going to complain that she got to see her friend again). And suddenly she found his lighthearted attitude getting to her as a grin appeared on her face.

As the questions came, the grin disappeared as concern etched across Jezebel's face. 'Caboose?' She hadn't seen the super-soldier since she had seen Leon. A small ray of hope then grew on the idea that her friend was alive, but her more cynic side reminded her that he could have starved to death or something because there was no one there to watch him. “I last saw Caboose with you,” She informed Leon, her worry shifting into annoyance. “As for myself... let's just say I was incarcerated for a while.” The silver-eyes woman spoke with a note of finality, hinting that she really didn't want to talk about it. The events leading to and involving her arrest, and subsequent breakout, were not exactly the most fun of conversations and she doubted her paladin friend would approve of some of the actions she took.

“As for what you've missed... I heard that Miracle lost the battle after she summoned powers of Aper the Arashi, which actually served to keep Veran away from Utopia or something. Maricul banished her from Genesis. Then an Amoura from another reality showed up and teamed up with a group called the Intergang to kill Carari Grey, the mayor of Moon Valley. Superwoman found out and fought with the Other (alternate Amoura), but while that was going down they released the Intergang released the Valley's seal.” For a moment, she grimaced. She had been just outside the Valley having a picnic when the incident occurred, and only needed to see a few moments of it to know to get the hell out of there. “Superwoman fought the demon that was released, only to die as the seal was re-shut. But during her funeral, this crazy-ass guy called Darkseid literally came from the sky with his planet, just like the End of Time special from Doctor Who, and declared himself to be the new man in charge. And of course, the people of Genesis fought back, and though Tori died, they beat his ass and locked him in some void. Oh, and Tori and Superwoman have returned to live and now Superwoman is a goddess in charge of a whole new kingdom as the Crystal Expanse as been melted.” The summary seemed simple enough. “Of course, most of this I only know through second-hand sources, as I was a guest of Isafaro for most of the time.”

Looking at her friend, the telekinetic found herself remembering a rather important fact; he was dead. The waves of anguish and memories that Leon had distracted her from with conversation came rolling in again, and she suddenly found herself grabbing him by the collar and yelling right in his face. “But you died, you gorram idiot! You actually went up and died! Do you have any idea how idiotic your death was? Ta ma de, ni shi tian di wu yong! Do you have any idea how useless you're death was!? You didn't even get to avenge the people of Crystal City like you wanted!” the more she yelled, the louder she got, and the more upset she became, until she was borderline hysterical and tears were streaming down her cheeks as she glared at him. “And you're just sitting pretty here all 'Tiptoe through the Tulips' like everything's fucking fine!? You're not fucking Obi Wan, and I am not fucking Luke Skywalker. You're just- you're just-” Swarm stopped herself, holding back her sorrow as she prevented the mental breakdown she saw coming over the hill that was her mind. Her head fell as her face was hid from Leon's view as she recollected her thoughts. “... you shouldn't have died. Not like that. Not at all. None of you guys should. You people were too idiotic to die.” Wiping her face, the woman was suddenly aware of the fact she was crying, looking at the wet spots on her sleeve with disgust.

“And now I'm fucking crying,” She glared up at Leon again, pointing an accusing finger right in his face. “This is your fault, asshole. Your fault.”

- - - - - - Z E - - - - - - E N D - - - - - - -

Ta ma de, ni shi tian di wu yong! – Fuck, you're completely useless.

OOC: HEY LOOK SAD MUSIC TO GO WITH THE SAD MOMENT. There's Swarm official moment of sadness for this forum. And blame my Brother's 33rd Birthday, my English teacher, and my Global teacher for my lack of posting.[/center]

[Linx]

Leon smiled lightly as he listened to her get him caught up on all that had been happening. It seemed like a lot had happened since he'd disappeared, and he was glad to have the conversation. While somethings she'd made mention of worried him, it seemed as if she herself had been doing alright. He worried for her time in Isafaro however. Nothing good could've happened there, and she seemed more than a little reluctant to speak of it, perhaps because she feared his reaction to things. Whatever measures she took to escape, he was sure they were justified. Had he himself been around and learned of her incarceration, he'd have led the charge himself to free her, and more than likely slain everyone in his path. He held no love, nor mercy, for the soldiers of general Vulture and wouldn't have hesitated for a moment to free her from their clutches.

When she began to break down, he smiled softly, letting her rage and sorrow play themselves out, before speaking. "Truly, you have my apologies. I did what I thought needed. If my sacrifice meant that all would stand ready to face the Arashi, then so be it. If in death I could prevent more needless killings, then so be it. I do not regret my actions, only that they have brought you sorrow." he says gently, smiling sadly at her. He was touched that she was concerned for him, and he grieved for her pain. "And for the record, no idea who Obi-Wan is. You forget, your world was nothing like mine. I lived each day in battle, and knew that in battle I'd die. I don't regret it, and you shouldn't grieve for me Swarm. I died doing the right thing." he hesitates for a moment before shrugging. "At least I think I'm dead. I have no idea really. What I am now...It's not my soul, nor is it my body. I've no idea what happened to them. I'm just a memory." he says, shrugging lightly.