Your Time's Up Now [Open]

[Cloud]

"Don't strain yourself Sparda..." Said a voice from what seemed like nowhere. A portal of pure darkness would open behind Sparda, and out of it stepped Cloud. The portal would disappear into nothing after he stepped out, leaving the four people here alone. Cloud wore a different outfit than that of the one he came to this world in. This also paired with a new haircut that would help Cloud blend in with the crowds of Genesis. However it still retain elements of the old SOLDIER uniforms, but with fabric made to help the wearer defend against dark energy and suppress his own.

He took a few steps, his right hand rising to his bandaged Buster sword that rested on his back. "I heard your gunshot... Thought I should check it out." He said to Sparda.

[Saephara]

The woman spoke after Sae had stated her piece, but didn't really hear what she had said. She was too busy staring into this man eyes, trying to get a read on what his problem was with the vampire behind her. All Sae caught was the last sentence, You were always about justice, Sparda." Silver paused, laughed, and then said: "Oh, that's right, you weren't. You don't exactly have a clean history, Knight." At that last word, everything happened at once.

Rage flickered across the man's gaze for a second as the shadows became more prevalent. Sae's breath hitched as the air grew heavier. She couldn't afford to turn around now to check on the vampire. As a being of light, the shadows naturally affected her. "I don't suppose you've seen that crime scene a dozen or so blocks from here? This woman's not only massacred a whole family back there, she set up the father to take the fall for her and get the police off her tail. That isn't..." Sae's vision grew dark. She could now feel the power of the man, a great demonic force. It was like he was saying to her that he was bigger and badder than her. He thought she was weak. It wasn't incorrect. In the state she was in, compared to his power she would be obliterated. However, if she removed that....

Saephara shook her head vigorously to clear her head. No, she mustn't. The man was still speaking, commending her slightly for not being as the vampire was. He walked forward with his weapons pointed towards both women: one towards Sae, the other towards the other woman. "Final warning, child. Stay out of my way, or I'll take you down too." Sae simply growled low and muttered, "Is it true...Did she slaughter an innocent family and just leave a man to take the blame?!" Her voice had grow louder until she was yelling. It couldn't be that she misread the information laid out before her. She just defended a murderer? She couldn't have.

"Don't strain yourself Sparda..." Sae looked behind Sparda to see a blonde haired man step out from a dark portal. 'Just great. Exactly what I need. Another person to join this screwed up party...' As he stepped up to speak to Sparda, their eyes met for a split second. Suddenly, the darkness within her body overwhelmed her and visions of her family's gruesome murder appeared once more. Her eyes welled with emotional tears as a cry came out from between her lips. She fell to her knees as the emotions came. 'Who are these people...?!'

Her bow fell from her grasp landing on the dirtied ground. She bent over, one hand grasping her head, the other her chest. The marking that was placed on her chest as a child was throbbing, her lungs felt as though they were on fire as she breathed. It was as if she were breathing in fire and nothing could calm its blaze. She could feel her power fluctuating and hidden in it, was a deeper hidden strength. Sae was scared of that strength. She could feel it had a mind of its own...As a slideshow of memories flashed before her eyes again, she could feel the hands of darkness grasping for her. What a victory it would be if they turned her... She had no choice.

She grasped her bow and staggered upwards again. In a clear, low and pained voice, Saephara spoke. "Please. I wish not to fight anymore. Do not kill the vampire. Take her into custody at the very least and interrogate her. As for me..." Suddenly she held the bow out and pointed the sharpened tip towards her abdomen. "I will need a medical team and someone that can fight this darkness within me." Sae took a breath and plunged the end into her abdomen. The pain was sudden and swift but she was used to it. She had never died from this method of temporarily holding back her memories and that dreaded deep rooted darkness. All she needed was somewhere to rest and heal... As for the darkness? It was just a waiting game and for some reason, it was triggered by that blonde haired man. Saephara's vision began to grow dark as she stumbled against the wall of the alley.

[Silver Eyes]

"Oh, please. That family was hardly innocent, Knight. You really ought to do your research." Silver glared knives at Sparda, "If you were willing to take in enough of their blood, you would have seen what they really were behind their lies, but of course you're quick to jump to conclusions. There weren't even children in that house--" The shadows lurched forth, wrapped around her, and held her in place before she could continue her explanations. It mattered little now. Sparda wouldn't listen, but she at least got some fun out of irritating him. "Sparda, Sparda, Sparda. What made you think I was her to begin with? The outfit? The guns? Please. She wasn't even using these anymore and they were collecting layers of dust."

Silver's eyes flickered towards the newcomer: a blonde with a large sword. So, now we have a woman with a bow who's having second thoughts on defending her, a legendary demon with a short temper and explosive guns, and now a stranger with a giant sword. Oh, the jokes she could crack...

But an interesting turn of events occurred.

The woman who had intervened, and tried to save her life, was experiencing something. Silver could sense it, but what it was, she didn't know. All she could tell was this: she was fighting something that was desperately trying to crawl out. Judging by her reaction, it was not something good.

"I will need a medical team and someone that can fight this darkness within me."

"Hey, what are you--?" Everything happened so fast. The arrow dove into her flesh, she staggered, and fell against the wall next to her. That method, as painful as it seemed, was holding whatever "it" was back. No, it was still there, just weaker.

The shadowy tendrils tore and popped as she ripped free. Instead of running from the scene, she was beside the girl with her cold, taloned hand resting on her head. Her free hand lifted a finger at Sparda, "A moment, please. Do try to contain your temper--it's very unprofessional for someone your age."

And with that, she plunged into the woman's mind. There was a dark haze surrounding her thoughts, clouding them, trying to break through--it was like seeing ink curling through water. They were surrounding a set of memories. If she can draw out this poison, the others can handle the physical aspect of her injuries. Her grip on the woman's head tightened; Silver's features scrunched up as she concentrated. It was starting to clear up. Her memories were developing like pictures. But before she could continue, an image flashed before her that took her by surprise: a woman with silver hair and emerald eyes.

With a yelp, she stumbled back. Silver Eyes looked exhausted from that effort, and out of breath. "My debt to you is repaid, now someone get that arrow out of her." Her head was splitting. "...and one of those aspirin things while you're at it would be nice."

[Sparda]

The vampire would barely notice a flicker of motion in the very edge of her peripheral vision, before a sudden stomp to the small of her back slammed her to the ground with such force that the cobblestone threatened to buckle and crater beneath her. Sparda shifted his weight onto this foot, sneering down at her. With a wave of his hand, he bound her again; this time with rings of magical energy that bound her wrists and ankles together, exerting a seemingly unbreakable force of attraction to one another.

"Much appreciated, Cloud," came his response to his companion who had just arrived. "But it'll take infinitely more than some renegade vampire to give me any trouble." He waved a hand in the direction of the wounded archer. "Take the girl to the castle. We'll treat her wounds and hold her for brief questioning, find out what her business is." He reached down and waved a hand over the vampire's back, and a thin rod of energy materialised to join the binds at her wrists and ankles, allowing him to lift her off the ground as if he'd hogtied her. "You're coming with me," he snarled, "And you can say goodbye to those weapons. A common beast like you has no right to even touch them."

[Cloud]

Cloud watched with disbelief as she wounded herself. Before then he felt his own darkness attempt to reach out to her.. to spread. However his enchanted clothing had sealed it inside but it did make him lurch forward. She seemed to have less control over her darkness and used drastic measures. By weakening herself, she weakened the darkness within. Smart but she must not have realized that when she regains strength, so would her darkness.

Then the vampire went in her mind and wiped most of the darkness clean. It was still there, but small, minimal. Something must have scared her out of the wounded girl's mind. Strange. "Will do Sparda", Cloud replied taking his hand from his sword and approaching the bleeding and unconscious girl. Cloud reached down and scooped her up in his arms, keeping the wound upright to help control bleeding. It wasn't much, but she would have bled more with gravity pulling the blood out of the wound.

He held her close as a Corridor of Darkness appeared and closed around him in order to help keep the dark energy from seeping into her heart as she rested. When the corridor dissipated they were within the castle. A guardsman must have been alarmed by his appearance but quickly calmed. "Go fetch a medic, soldier", Cloud ordered setting her down on the ground. The soldier nodded and ran off leaving Cloud to at least stop the bleeding. He reached into one of his outfit's pockets and pulled out a small first aid kit.

Cloud opened a bottle of sterilizing liquid and poured it over the wound. Should she have been awake the pain would be searing, but it cleaned the wound and kept infection out. He then took a bandaged and tightly wrapped it around her, covering the wound and stopping the bleeding. He sighed in relief afterward and waited for the medic's arrival.

[Saephara]

It was hazy. Sae was lost in her own mind, traversing the complex maze of her own mind trying to escape. Below her to either side of the path she traversed were dark waters. Shadowy hands reached up, attempting to grasp at her ankles. This always happened when she had to resort to that last measure. Self-inflicted harm had been the only thing so far that would suppress that inky darkness inside of her. The only thing she could suspect was it was from that fateful day at the age of 17, but something deeper inside of her subconscious told her there was more to it than that.

Every time she slept, every time she had fallen unconscious from her desperate measures, however much she tried, they plagued her repeatedly like it was a sick joke. It always started with her mother asking her to go to the store. Time in the memory would be fast-forwarded to seeing her mother, father, and little brother sliced into ribbons. Not an inch on their skin was untouched by the blade that had carved them. Next would always be that man that surprised her. She hadn't sensed anyone else in the home. Last would be that long sword that had pierced her through, effectively pinning her to the wall until he had removed it slowly. He had wanted to draw out the pain. She remembered seeing it deep in his eyes. Deep within that man was an evil so deep, it was immeasurable.

In her haze, Sae had felt her physical body being moved. it jolted her from seeing the reeling tape that was her past. She wasn't sure who it was, but she sure as hell hoped that her weapon had not been left in that alley. The one carrying her moved quickly but carefully. She suspected it was not to jostle her injury any further. She smiled sadly. Whoever it was had some medical knowledge and it comforted her for some reason. Before she could think further on it, the seal on her chest burned again causing her to cry out within her mind with no one to hear her but the never ending space. 'This is not good...'

Faintly she heard a male's voice sound out to call for a medic. It sounded like the blonde man with the giant sword from earlier. That she could hear him even faintly meant that she was regaining consciousness, although the numbness of her body remained. Sae felt a hard surface touch her back, replacing the firm arms that had held her meaning that she had just been placed on the ground. Carefully, she opened her eyes and peered around. It seemed to be a building that was decorated and embellished in such a way that there was only one place it could be: the castle of Hallowton. Saephara cursed inwardly and looked up to the man acting to aide her.

He had pulled a miniature first aid kit from somewhere on his person and removed a bottle of some sort. Instead of looking at what he was doing, she stared up into his face with her tired sapphire eyes and tried to read what sort of a person he was. He was wearing an outfit that was local to Hallowton. If anything, she would know. She had grown up here after all. He filled the clothing well. It seemed like he worked out regularly and had the demeanor that a soldier would have. Looking up to his face it was essentially a mask that had been placed to keep others from knowing what he was thinking or feeling. But what surprised her were his eyes.

They were a goregous shade of light blue with a splash of green. But they held such a sadness in them, a sadness that seemed to match her own. They had the look of someone that had seen far too much and lost too much. But right now, they held a twinge of worry as his eyebrows furrowed together slightly as he worked. He moved his arm to pour the liquid in the bottle onto her wound. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt. He then pulled out a bandage and gingerly wrapped the wound and sighed in relief. He had effectively stopped her bleeding wound.

There was something else that bothered her. As she stared up at him, she could feel something inside of him that made her worry slightly. It was similar to that dreaded darkness that threatened to pull her beneath that black water surface and suffocate her not too long ago. Right now he was helping keep her darkness at bay...Saephara finally figured it out. He held the same darkness in him, if not more.

The seal on her chest pulsed harshly at the realization and she could feel the darkness start to writhe within her again. She winced hard at the feeling. So the numbness had finally worn off. Weakly, one hand reached up to be placed on her chest, the other reaching towards the blonde man and finally landing on the hand that was hanging off of his leg. She grasped it gently. 'He can help. We can help each other...We just have to figure this out,' she thought as she softly began to sing. Her eyes held understanding and pleaded for him to understand. The song she sang was one of sadness, but she had read in her mother's books that it was to help keep the seal from bothering her any further. It was an ancient song, full of forgotten words. Not even she knew the language but it soothed her and quieted the darkness lurking within.

[Silver Eyes]

So, on top of a splitting headache, she was tied up like some wild animal. Oh, what a tangled web one weaves. Fortunately for her, Cloud decided to take the injured girl away from the scene, which means she'll only have to deal with Sparda. The bad news is, she'll have to deal with Sparda.

"And you can say goodbye to those weapons. A common beast like you has no right to even touch them."

Okay, that was it. She was getting sick and tired of his high and mighty act. "I'm sorry, since when did you dictate what I can and can't have?" she growled, "My mother passed these weapons onto me, so you have no right to take them away." Silver did her best to glare at Sparda but he wasn't looking directly at her.

[Cloud]

For a moment he could not feel anything. The music peirce threw him like a swords tip, wrapping around his heart. The darkness within him retreated inward, and his wing itched unbearably. The numbness receded and he found his legs weak as it did. He stumbled back but her weak grip seemed to keep him from falling backward but rather he fell to knees. He answered her grip with his own, however softly. She seemed fragile, and yet.. unbreakable.

It was as if for a few moments, he knew her. He knew her pain.. it was similar to his, though his was on a much grander scale. Pain is pain never the less and she was heartbroken from it just as his was. They could put the pieces back to together... they just needed help. Cloud had a headstart, but he could still help her find her starting place to. However her behavior completely contrasted that of Sephiroth, Cloud could see the resemblance between the two. However he knew they weren't related in any way. "What are you singing?" Cloud asked her, his blue eyes moving down to meet hers.

[Saephara]

Sae kept singing her soft song, keeping her eyes on his. She knew not his name but she could feel him. As soon as she had touched his gloved hand with her bare, delicate hand, she could feel who he was. A desolate soul looking for an answer. She could also sense the darkness inside. The overwhelming strength of it inside of him surprised her. How he could be so sane with this much inside, she would never know. But...she felt at ease in his presence in an odd way. The darkness in both of them should be pulling at one another, but instead it was receding.

Her song came to an end and as it did a woman came up to them. She was dressed in a garb that dictated that she had somewhat of a status within this castle. "I am uncertain what it is. I read it in my mother's books. It helps..." She looked towards the woman. "The medic, I presume," Sae muttered. The pain that had dulled with her song came back and she gasped, the hand on her chest clasping her dark shirt. The woman knelt down and immediately went to work checking the bandage on Saephara's abdomen. She pulled it up to expose her injury and gasped. Before the woman could say anything, Sae said in a flat tone, "I did this to myself with the end of my bow." The medic's topaz eyes darted up to Sae's eyes with surprise in them. "Yes, yes, I know. This man here has already disinfected it with a solution in his kit. Just...sew me up and I'll be okay." The woman nodded and said, "We'll have to move her to the infirmary." She motioned to one of the guards walking past to her. "Can you help get this young woman onto one of the beds in the infirmary?" The guard nodded without a word and knelt alongside the woman to pick Sae up into his arms.

As he lifted her into his arms, Sae's hand lost contact with the blonde haired man and that was when it all hit her again. The pain in her side that had dulled came back with furious force and Sae yelled, "Son of a-" Her sentence was cut short by her seal throbbing and burning painfully. The mixed sensations caused her eyes to tear up and Sae's breath came in short gasps. 'Why does this hurt so badly? It's never done this before...' The guard holding onto her began walking, jostling her. The medic had also stood and began a brisk walk ahead of the two. Her vision went dark then the hallway focused. In and out it went, making her dizzy. Sae twisted in the man's arms, looking for that blonde man. Was he following? She wanted him by her side through this. She couldn't tell if he was...it was blurry...her chest was struck again with a piercing pain, making her scream. She couldn't handle it. "Please! You must draw blood from me!" she cried out to the guard. 'What in the heavens is happening to me?'

[Silver Eyes]

[You two continue the thread. Sparda whisked Silver away to another thread to interrogate her ]

[Cloud]

Cloud never left her side. After all he was responsible for her care, but that wasn't the reason why he did it. Could it be that he had feelings for her? Cloud tossed the thought asside but he knew from those few moments they were connected in some way. When she screamed, Cloud wanted to as well. It was as if he shared her pain. He realized that when she stopped singing, the darkness came back like a spring, ready to burst from her.

Cloud acted fast. He took a glove off of his hand and placed it on her forehead, concentrating. He drew most of her evil dark energy into himself. She would feel a more dull relaxing sensation almost to the point of deep sleep. Cloud however felt agony as he kept up with the soldier. He could have left but he chose to stay. When the guard layed her down on the bed Cloud collapsed spent from his effort to take away her pain.. he hoped it worked

[Saephara]

It was some time before Sae opened her weary eyes. She felt as though she had been through hell and back. As she moved around, she became more aware of her surroundings. There was light from the window leaking into the room falling on the end of the bed she lay on. She groaned slightly she moved her body. It was aching, her wound on her side pulling. Looking down at herself, she saw that she had been taking out of her clothing and given a gown. A pale green blanket lay on top of her to keep her body warm.

Sae pulled her gown up enough to look at her abdomen. Someone, presumably the medic woman, had sewn her side as she had asked. The work was fantastic. She ran a finger along the edge of the wound. The only telltale sign that there had been any wound at all were the stitches themselves. On an off note, she noticed that her seal had stopped it's incessant throbbing. Finally it had stopped. In her right hand was an I.V. line with fluid coming from the bag above her. It all looked like the most modern technology in the medical field. She was thoroughly impressed.

It was then that she heard a soft cry escape someone's lips. Immediately, she moved to place her back against the wall, arms up defensively. In the bed opposite hers lay the blonde man from before. Her pale lips parted in surprise and she moved her arms down. Why was he in here with her? Had something happened to him as well? Sae decided to slowly move the side of the bed, bringing her legs around to hang off the bed. She could feel the wound pulling on her, but she paid no attention to it. Carefully she placed the hand with the I.V. in it on the pole that carried her fluids and pushed herself off the bed. As soon as she had placed her weight on her feet she could tell her body was weakened. Cautiously she stepped towards the man. His face was scrunched up as if reliving something that he did not wish to. When she finally reached his side, it felt like it had taken days to reach that point. With a groan of satisfaction, she sat on the edge of his bed.

Now that she thought back, she could remember that when she was in an out of consciousness she had felt a hand on her head and it had placed her in a dull, peaceful state. It must have been then that she had fallen asleep. As she looked at his face again, she believed it had been him. He was her guardian angel. At this, she started to laugh softly but stopped with a grimace at the sensation of her abdomen protesting at the action. She felt the blanket near her thigh tightened and looked down to see that he had grasped it tightly, his knuckles turning white. At the very least she could sing again. She liked to sing, but then again it was part of her heritage. So, she could a calming breath and placed her mind into a tranquil state to put aside the slight pain she would feel and began singing. At first her voice was dry but it passed and on she sang repeatedly. As she did so, she thought, 'I never even got his name...'

"Tellus dormit
et liberi in diem faciunt
numquam extinguunt
ne expergisci possint

Omnia dividit
tragoedia coram
amandum quae

Et nocte perpetua
ehem vel vera visione
par oram videbo te
mane tempus expergiscendi"

[Cloud]

When Cloud's conciousness regained itself he felt a presence near him. He was in a bed, and his back hurt from when he fell. The doctor must have come when he was out and put him in the bed beside the girl. He wondered if she was fine and opened his eyes to see. She was beside him singing in that.. angelic voice.. was she alright? He had to see. "Are you alright?" Cloud asked sitting up in the bed his eyes locking with hers.

He nearly forgot to ask her name and wanted to do so before this situation got any stranger than it already was. "I forgot to ask you... what is your name?" Cloud asked quietly.

[Saephara]

At the sound of his voice, Saephara abruptly stopped and she turned to face him. His stunning eyes had locked with hers and she felt taken aback. For what reason, she had no idea. "I am doing well, thank you," she said, looking down at the ground. Someone had unbraided her long silver hair and loosely it hung over her left shoulder, shielding her face from his. Her right hand tightened ever so slightly on the I.V. pole, her left playing with the strands of her silken hair.

The room was quiet. There was a soft whir of air conditioning from somewhere in the room and she could feel the gentle breeze tickling her arms, raising goosebumps. Outside she could hear the fighting occurring. Every now and then she would hear an explosion. After a moment she turned back to him, her eyes peering through the curtain of strands. "We have not formally met yet. My name is Saephara. I was once raised here." She delicately held out her left hand to him and said, "Might I ask yours as well and where you are from? Never have I seen eyes like yours."

[Cloud]

"My eyes..." He said as he thought of a way to explain this to her. "The glow is caused by a certain type of energy I have been exposed to in the past... My homeworld.... used this energy called Mako to power homes and give people powers they could not have dreamed of. The authority there was called Shinra... and created a group of Super Soldiers called SOLDIER. These warriors would be enriched in Mako energy, giving every single one of them a set of blue.. glowing eyes. However this was the planet's energy, and using it drained the planet. Eventually their draining of the world's power brought upon an era of literal darkness... the kind of darkness that consumes and destroys. I managed to escape with others... but the darkness still causes turmoil within me." Cloud placed a gloved hand over his heart to indicate that it was really inside of him, lurking and tainting him from within.

"I fight it everyday... but I know I can never get rid of it all. The darkness that was causing you to suffer I took into myself... a little is still there... but I got the majority." Cloud said with a smile. He didnt smile much so it looked un-natural on his face. He knew this but he didnt care."As for my name... my name is Cloud. And the world I am from is known as Gaia "