Untethered

[Aria]

The kiss took Aria's breath away. What she felt from Dane was beyond any emotion she had ever felt, directed at her or not. The power and intensity of his feeling overwhelmed Aria to the point of near collapse. She clung to his neck to keep herself upright. Her knees were weak, or the ground shifted and their embrace broke.

Aria felt Dane tense around her shoulders, she buried her face in his chest and took in his scent and everything about his embrace. He should have done what? the question crossed her mind as quickly as every other emotion she'd felt since the night began. She wanted to drown in him, she wanted nothing more than him.

The inferno that had once been an apartment burned brightly in the night sky. Aria could feel the heat even from around the corner. Aria felt annoyance waft through Dane followed by need. She pulled away only to look up and see the need in his eyes. She smiled, "One of Privilege Takeo's men. He followed me. Us?"
She wasn't exactly sure how everything went down in getting here. Aria didn't even know where here was with out greater search for details.

The man's feelings were waxing and waning as he were being pulled by the tide. Even if Aria was not feeling through the haze of alcohol, it would have been hard to pin point an exact location verbally. Aria wanted to kiss Dane again, wanted to feel his lips against hers. But this was more important than her desires. Aria reached for her gun at the small of her back. This man had to die one way or another. "I'll have to show you. I can't find him exactly, he's weak and I'm having a hard time tracking right now."
She smiled softly at him and them rounded the corner.

Aria could not see him, but the he closer they moved towards him the more pain she felt. Aria stopped far from the body. She didn't need to be any closer. Aria nodded towards the man's location, "Over by the wall."
Aria spared only a glance for burning building next to them. In the distance sirens could be heard, but they were far away. Still the need to be elsewhere grew stronger. Curiosity struck Aria, what was Dane going to do? Aria thought she felt her own fear play along the edges of her emotions. Fear of what she wasn't sure, but it was gone as quick as it had come.

((Takeo's NPC modded with permission)


Edited by Aria, May 15 2014, 03:41 PM.

[Takeo]

Ren came to. Again. His teeth hurt from grinding them down against the pain. His world was dark, street lights and flames glowing and streaking across his vision. He was on his back, and the back of his head throbbed with new pain. He must have fallen back against the cement as he was trying to pull himself free.

Free... of the rubble. He turned his eyes down along his chest. His arms lay limp at his sides and his torn and bleeding torso ended where a massive slab of concrete wall had fallen. He could no longer feel his legs - he wondered if they were still attached.

For a third time, he moved his right hand, and it shook with nerves frayed, muscles slashed, dragging across glass and ash and tattered clothes. He found his ear and manually pressed the small device tucked inside. He felt something sharp against his fingertip, and something slick coating his ear. He couldn't hear from that ear, but the other heard a dull fizz. Jun would not be coming.

He coughed, and blood sprayed the night air above him. Above. There was a gaping hole in the building above. It was dark, with flames billowing out, like the mouth of hell...

There had been a window there. The building blurred, and rolling, searing pain threatened to take him again. Ren squeezed his eyes closed, bared down, and wheezed through the worst of it. He could feel the blood in his lungs, filling them slowly.

Something cutting. Glass. More darkness.

Voices. Tears, or blood, rolling cold down his cheeks. Nikolai... silence.

Beth. Sobbing - his own. The woman, talking, not Beth.

"H..h..hhh..." he couldn't seem to do more than breathe. He looked up, through redness, ringed in black. The woman, and the man. That man. Ren coughed blood down his chin. Hot and sticky. They killed her. The woman. They left the apartment, Ren had climbed in. That smell. Gas. A tiny flame ...

Ren stared blearily up at the approaching figures. He wanted to go back to Beth. "Hhh..hh.h.." Help.

[Dane Gregory]

Privilege Takeo? A quizzical expression overcame the darkness of his features. The name did not register. The last twelve hours had existed within a bubble. One that did not include titles and honorariums. Pricking that beautiful dome snapped him into more of a shock than sense of freedom.

Takeo, Privilege Takeo. Dane Gregory read the news; Dane recognized the recently appointed member of The Sphere. Yes, Privilege Takeo was Dominance-IV, young, and deadly. It was coming back to him now.

"Why would a Privilege care about you?"
Dane asked as they rounded the corner. At least there was someone they could ask. Or what's left of someone.

The body was crushed beneath a collapsed wall. There was still a man within it, too, clawing its away out from its reddish insides.

Glass crunched underfoot as Dane left Aria behind. His approach was casual, as though he had all the time in the world, and was not hesitant. In fact, he was fascinated by the sight and seemed to stroll as though leisurely exploring an art gallery.

A young man with the tell-tale black head of Japanese hair. So beautiful, Dane knelt alongside, streaming his fingers through the strands with rapt fascination. His gloves came away wet, and he wiped them dry on the ground unconcerned.

The black beads of Dane's eyes looked the boy up and down. When he shifted, his face overtook the boy's world, and Dane leaned close, unafraid and undisturbed by the grotesque and twisted thing before him.

"Why did you follow us?"

Edited by Dane Gregory, May 19 2014, 05:51 PM.

[Aria]

"Why would a Privilege care about you?"
It wasn't the words that bothered Aria, but the way he said them. If it had been any other day she would have been angry, but it rolled outside of herself and fell off with little damage done. But he was right, there was absolutely no reason why Takeo should have sent this man after her. Not one. But his questions had been about what she did. Aria would have told Dane, the same, but once she'd rounded the corner, the pain was too much.

From the distance Aria couldn't see but she could feel every ounce of his pain. She could almost feel the wall crushing his lower extremities. It washed over her and through her, and it exhilarated her. The energy fed her soul, it was unlike anything she'd ever felt.

Aria watched passively as Dane walked up to him, and ran his hand through the broken body's hair. Dane felt admiration, of what Aria could not fathom. The scene felt gruesome.

She took one step forward and the pain was even more intoxicating than before. The closer she got, the less Aria wanted to be there. The sirens grew louder. The pain made her stomach turn. But Dane asked the mangled body questions. A body that barely housed a man.

Aria stood behind Dane, she didn't want to touch him for the first time that night. She was afraid to touch him, to let him feel what she was feeling at the very moment. It hurt, but was so much more. Aria leaned over Dane's shoulder with barely a whisper, the pain in her voice she couldn't hide. "He can't answer your questions. He can't speak, he's barely alive and I doubt a lackey would know why his master commands him to do such stupid thing."


The ring of metal on metal as Aria drew her sword from it's sheath made Aria shiver. The sound was one of her favorites. "It is time to go!"
Aria plunged the tip of her sword into the skull of the fallen bodyguard. It made a distinct sound and the pain vanished, Aria nearly fell down when the connection was lost.

Aria fought to stay upright and continue on, but it had to be done, she had to get away from here. Aria pulled her sword from the bone with ease. She looked at the tip only to find the cement it had bitten into did no damage. It was a marvel, Aria loved this new sword. Nothing could harm it, nothing.


Edited by Aria, May 20 2014, 10:00 AM.

[Dane Gregory]

A quiet voice spoke over his shoulder.

"He can't answer your questions. He can't speak, he's barely alive and I doubt a lackey would know why his master commands him to do such stupid thing."


Frowning, Dane took to his feet. Thin, slanted eyes followed him all the way up. Expressive: pleading, perhaps, or maybe fearful. Dane could never quite tell the difference, despite years of practice.

A slender ring of metal, and a tiny grunt from Aria, and a silver spike plunged between forever wide eyes.

He'd seen her wield this toy of hers before. She carried it like she was used to the burden. To witness so closely the violent extermination of this individual was fascinating. She slumped immediately after like she were relieved. The strength needed to plunge the tip of a blade through bone Dane was well-aware.

He let himself be pulled away, but not without regretting having not taken a sample that luxurious head of hair.

[Aria]

Aria didn't want to get blood and brain matter on her clothes, she sighed as she slide the sword back in its sheath. The pain was gone, only thing left was her own emptiness, and Dane's calm exterior. But the sirens drew closer, the police, fire department and god only knows what other government branches would soon be swooping in on their position. An explosion like that was going to bring in too many people. Aria could feel their encroachment. Each person barely showing up at the farthest range of her senses.

The need to be gone grew as she walked away. Everything from before was very far off, but with every glance at Dane she knew what she had done, and she wished for it to not have happened. The guilt slide away, but she did not regret a moment of it. The moment, the waiting, had finally come, and it had not come as she expected it. Questions would always be present, she wasn't sure what was next. Would she even see him again? The longing from before had only been increased. She still wanted him to touch her, to touch him. But that moment had passed and it was time to focus on reality. On getting home.

The siren's had faded off in the direction they had come as they walked , Aria started looking for signs to indicate some sort of location. She'd learned the streets of Moscow pretty well, it became a matter of finding something she recognized.

Aria stopped at an intersection she recognized, and knew that she had to go one way, but it was not the way they were currently heading. "I need to go this way."
She pointed the direction. Aria wondered if Dane knew where he was, but he was a big boy he could take care of himself. They probably didn't need to be found together either, there was no telling what the bodyguard had relayed to his superiors, to a Privilege, before his demise.

Aria fumbled in her pockets, careful not to cut her gloves on the exposed knife inside. She pulled out her apartment key and walked up to Dane and grabbed his hand. "No more hiding in the shadows."
She tucked the key in the palm of his hand and closed his fingers around it. Aria looked up at him, she didn't want to leave, didn't want to part ways. She wanted to kiss him, but the last one had nearly floored her and left her wanting much more. She smiled up at him, hope, fear, longing danced across her eyes. Aria turned and left, walking the direction she had pointed out. It was time to get back to reality, if only she could get away from the monster with in.


Edited by Aria, May 26 2014, 10:08 AM.

[Dane Gregory]

The wail of sirens crept up Dane's spine. He was itching to run, rather than stroll hand in hand with Aria. The sense of self-preservation was strong, and he knew the police would slap them both in handcuffs before they had a chance to explain themselves. Jail was the last place on the planet he would like to go.

His mind scrambled for a destination to hide. The priority was on distance; placing as many people as possible between himself and the inferno. When Aria stopped him, the desperation in his gaze turned to her, impatient to continue.

She removed a key from her belongings. The gift was largely unacknowledged by Dane, whose mind was otherwise keen to depart altogether.

He took a half-step away, but turned back to correct her. "I belong in the shadows,"
he stroked her cheek. "Good bye my dear."


Yet he placed the key in his pocket none the less. Quick strides carried him swiftly away.