[03] Mountain Sector

[DA 2009]

MOUNTAIN SECTOR

Time Of Day: Dusk

Bunker: Active

Starting Players: Alexander Trafford

[Belle Hibiki]

Belle kept moving. Beyond the barrier, beyond the large walls, he crossed over into the mountains.

He lost track of the hours. Several times he slumped against a convenient rock and blacked out. He paused only once to strip off his shirt, knot it, and pressed the bulge against his wound.

He still couldn't believe Sage had actually stabbed him. He didn't know for sure what was behind it, but he had a pretty good hunch.

Belle glanced up at the sky. Somewhere out there the minds behind Dante's Abyss were watching him, fingers poised over a button that could make even someone as harmless and good-natured as Kaden become the posterboy for abusive husbands everywhere. He had little doubt that whatever had made Sage go insane, they were at least partially behind it.

Of course, Sage was a girl. So he couldn't be one-hundred percent sure that she hadn't just gone crazy.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he came within sight of the bunker. Staggering inside, he made for the kitchen and fumbled through the cabinets. He'd seen a brown bottle in the last one, and it had looked remarkably similar to the alcohol bottle Sayana had once treated his wound with.

He found it stuffed into a lower drawer. He couldn't read the label, which might as well have been hieroglyphics to him, but one sniff of the contents was enough to confirm that it was, indeed, what he wanted.

Getting a clean towel and liberally soaking a corner, Belle began the slow, painful process of cleaning his wound.

Belle moves from Forest Sector to Mountain Sector.

Belle enters the Mountain Sector Bunker.

[Ashe]

After the first fight against Kaden, she'd awoken in a dumpster. This time, Damon had shaken things up a bit by teleporting her somehow into a more abysmal location than previously. There was no disgusting smell, at the least, but the confinement was just as small and it was just as dark as the first time.

She didn't entirely understand why she had even been teleported in the first place. In the hotel, she had managed to narrowly escape from her assailant with a bit of difficulty before she finally came across another translucent stasis barrier just outside of the city block. Having not been knocked out, she was perfectly capable of continuing her escape. There wasn't any reason to turn down a perfectly good card out of there, but this wasn't exactly better for her.

She had shimmered away suddenly as the wall faded simultaneously, the world suddenly becoming quite dark. At first, she'd just stayed silent within the room, taking the route of safety before impulse. After a few moments, however, she'd heard nothing beyond a disturbing creaking sound.

Her footsteps echoed a bit on the carpeted floor as she walked across it with her arms wide, nearly jamming her fingertips as she unknowingly slammed them into the sealed door before her. Her first thoughts were that she had been teleported into some kind of dark room, an empty bunker without power perhaps, but she quickly realized that she was actually stuck inside of an elevator.

One that was also without power.

"Oh, FML," she groaned, speaking the acronym for a less than pleasant phrase for the situation.

All attempts at prying the door apart had proven pointless. Damon had clearly thought that he was being hilarious with this game of his. Her fingers had tried every combination of buttons that should could randomly think of against the keypad to no avail. Deciding that the risk was worth the chance to escape, she leveled the wand shaped Ki Rifle out before her, pointing it directly at the metal plate housing the electronics.

Pausing for a moment, she gave the wand a theatrical wave through the air accompanied by the words "Open sesame!" The blast from the wand ricocheted off of the wall before her, returning quickly to graze past her before hitting the wall behind her and bouncing off. She fell to the ground and rolled over, hiding below the beam's level to avoid getting hurt by the failed blast. Fortunately, the beam had a great side effect during its short lifespan before it dispersed.

There was a small metal grating at the top of the roof that looked like an escape hatch in case of, of all things, power failure. Ashe climbed back to her feet and took a deep breath before aiming the wand at the general location that she'd seen this in. "Let's try this again..." She gave herself a moment to settle on a phrase before lavishly announcing "Abracadabra!"

Moments later, she found herself at the top of the elevator, having attempted a few jumps before managing to catch the edge of the exit. She was extremely lucky to find that the doors leading into the elevator shaft for the floor directly above her were wide open, taking nothing more than a measured leap to clear the distance. Putting it behind her, she decided that the next course of action would be to find Kaden again to continue her training.

It was one thing, she realized, to be completely out gunned in a fight in which one had no guns to bring to the table themselves. It was entirely another to have the capabilities to accomplish a goal and still manage to fail. It was a rough equivalent to studying all night for an exam only to find your mind going blank the moment you look at the test. You fail, everyone around you scores within ten percent of a perfect score.

Her trip from the elevator took her roughly thirty minutes, stretching throughout the halls of a building that seemed to be a business of some sort, complete with cubicles and work desks, all the way back out into the block where her fight had taken place. Thankfully, she managed to recognize her location and find her way back to the city bunker, her eyes growing dark as she stepped through the entranceway of the dark bunker.

"No way," she whispered, running her fingers along her collar. "This place has the power shut down too? Is the entire grid down or something? All of this fortune from running this event and someone can't even pay the power bill..." It was annoying, she realized, and actually terrifying to know that she was likely to be the only person within the entire Sector distance.

Well, her mind reasoned. That wasn't entire true. There were always other fighters in this event that were looking to kill her, and Damon had made absolutely sure that even if they didn't want to, they would. Turning back towards the door, Ashe noticed a sheet of paper had fallen to the ground.

"Dear honored guests,

This bunker is no longer Active. Participants will need to travel to another bunker in order to reset their collars. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Regards, Your Humble Host,

Damon Dukes"

"Yeah, he totally would do something like that," she complained, her words falling into the darkness. She turned the paper over in her hands before she realized that someone had written the word MOUNTAIN across the sheet. "Kaden," she realized. The two of them had originally planned to head back to the mountains the first time before they had gotten turned around. He would have headed back here to find her and leave some kind of clue for her, she assumed.

Dropping the note back to the ground, she pulled her map out from her bag. "So the quickest way to the Mountain Sector would be to follow this street all the way to the end of the bridge before taking a left here..." she mumbled, making sure that she had all of the details straight in her mind.

It took her very little time at all to find her way back into the Mountain Sector, surprising her as she realized that she was simply retracing the route that she had first used to come back across into the City. There had been another bridge also just around the curve of the canyon that she'd had to climb up upon her arrival on Dante. The bridge took her completely over her arrival location and to her amusement, the floor was actually still not covered with lava of any sort.

The actual trip to the bunker took a bit longer than the one to the Mountains, forcing her to frequently consult her map to make sure that she hadn't turned herself around. If Kaden had indeed gone this direction, she reasoned, she was likely to beat him to the bunker itself, as it was a known fact to all of the girls at her school that men never asked for directions of any kind. With some of her boyfriends, she would be lucky if they didn't intentionally turn the exact opposite direction from what she suggested according to a map, in some attempt to prove the map (and girl) wrong to help their ego out.

Thankfully, the travel time had given her a chance to take her mind off of the fight from before by letting her tune the world completely out to her music player in her ears. She had everything on shuffle, from heavy guitar tunes to screaming insane music to trance and rave music. The trance music, especially, seemed to help her with the situation as she continued to try to bring some kind of life to the palms of her hands. A few times, while zoning out completely, she had reached her hands up to wipe the growing sweat from her face. The first time she panicked, realizing that she had her hair matted up with dried blood inside of it from her fight.

Lucky her, there were no brains leaking out or anything of that nature.

The second time, she noticed that her hand was once more giving off a wispy blue light, fading quickly as she realized what was happening and tried to focus on it. "That's cool, I understand," she announced sarcastically. It was a great thing that no one was nearby as well, since the music over her ears left her unable to gauge the volume of her voice. "Keep screwing with the girl who can't use her energy!"

The rest of her trip was spent with her deep in focus of trying to conjure up some kind of energy once more, taking full advantage of the chance to practice her art when it might actually matter. Seeing the bunker in the distance, however, extinguished the concerns as she burst into a sprint, her fists balling up tightly and thrusting out into the air. The collar announced her arrival as she came through the door and slid to a halt, nearly running directly into Kaden at the entranceway as he was walking outside to look around.

"Whoa, whoa!"

The two collided painfully and hit the ground. Kaden was the first to his feet and he reached down to help her to her feet before grinning. "Hey, congrats on the energy use," he commended, looking down at her outstretched hand as he took it. She looked from his eyes to her hands and saw that they were indeed glowing once more.

"Son of a-"

Ashe has left the City Sector and entered the Mountain Sector. She has entered the Mountain Sector Bunker.

[Tamsin]

The adolescent ran towards Maleficus, finally discovering his whereabouts. Tamsin was already looking for him before, roaming the many streets of the City sector after her fight with the unusual Pierre. However, the sudden demolition of one of the buildings, which was followed by a shout from a familiar voice, alarmed the human girl and she immediatelly sprinted to see what happened. She was relieved when she saw her master still standing and she ran up to him. It was only then that she realised that, in a slip of a tongue, she accidentally called him "Master" again and did not call him by his name as he desired. Trying to remedy her mistake, she asked: "M-Maleficus! Are you alright?!"

The green rogue did not turn around, his back facing his maid. It was then that Suzaku realised that he was wearing black clothing instead of his usual orange garb. Although the human girl wondered why this was so, she did not dare to ask. A good servant does not delve into her master`s business unless required to do so was her line of thinking and she kept to that as she quietly observed the alien. Suddenly, in a very brief and quiet manner, Nova replied: "Yeah..."

With her worries lifted, the prodigy smiled: "I am so glad that both of us are still alive." However, her happy attituded quickly evaporated as her master did not turn around. He continued to be covered in a dark silence in spite of the bright day and barely seemed to pay any attention to his assistant. Wondering whether she did something wrong, her pondering was interrupted by another of the Namekians brief responses: "I am going to go ahead to the Mountain sector....Meet me at the bunker."

Before the girl could say anything, the mercenary took flight and proceeded towards the mountains that stood not far from the edges of the City sector. For a few moments, Tamsin observed Mal`s silhouette as it became increasingly distant. Although she could not help but feel curious as to what had happened and what was going on, she pushed such thoughts aside. Focusing on her new task, she proceeded to move towards the direction of the Mountain sector.

----------

It was fairly cold amidst the highly-elevated land mass. With the location being far away from sun-warmed soil, the thermodynamic effect ensured that the temperatures in the mountains were much less hospitable then in the lowlands. Worse still for anyone who dared to venture onto them, the day started to end all too quickly and the sun already began it`s descent.

Intensly rubbing her arms to keep them warm and glancing at the various peaks surrounding her, the adolescent trekked on the difficult terrain. After hours of walking, her feet began to hurt and the uneven terrain only made the journey all the more difficult. Yet she pressed on, looking for any signs of her destination.

Finally, she sighed in relief as she noticed a bunker in the distance. Standing near it was a dark figure which, upon Tamsin`s arrival, turned around and entered the structure. Although she could not be certain, the adolescent assumed that the figure was her master. Wasting no time, the maid braved the remaining distance. After a long and difficult trip, she took refuge in the concrete sanctuary amond the mountain tops, a single beep informing her upon entrance that her collar had been deactivated.

Tamsin and Mal Nova have left the City Sector and entered the Mountain Sector.

Tamsin and Mal Nova have entered the Mountain Sector Bunker.

[Ashe]

"Maybe you are just trying to hard."

Ashe was standing just outside of the bunker on a large stone hill. Her frustration was written all over her face as she glared at her palms. "Yeah, that's totally it," she snapped. "Clearly its something that everyone else just has the simplest time doing with no effort and me actually having to work at something is the reason I'm failing." Total projection on her part, when she thought about it, but it was something that seemed to be one of the unwritten laws of physics. Those that work their asses off always seem to fall behind those that have special priveledge.

He took a deep breath, trying to remain calm despite her being unreasonable. "Oh come on," he pleaded. "That's totally not what I'm saying." He would have summoned another ball of energy for her to try to hold, but something told him that it wouldn't exactly help the situation.

Shaking her hand violently in the air and flexing her fingers didn't seem to cause any reaction either, so she finally balled her hand into a fist and stormed towards the bunker. As Kaden opened his mouth again, she cut him off. "Going to the bathroom."

He watched her cross the threshold and he ran his fingers through his hair a moment before looking up at the sky with shielded eyes. "Woman bladder or PMS," he decided. "Either way, I feel for Belle if he happens to be between her and the bathroom."

Belle's scream was heard a moment later as she violently threw him out of the bunker and locked the door. "What the fucking HELL, man?" he growled, pushing himself to his feet and rubbing his rear end hard. He turned to Kaden and pointed at the door as the courier began to laugh. "I didn't do anything!" he swore. "She just stormed in there and threw my ass out demanding privacy. I don't get it either. Its not like I wanted to watch her... you know... do her thing in the bathroom. They can't even do it right!"

***

The student finally unlocked the door after a moment to see a fuming Belle standing in the doorway before he pushed past her to go inside. Hitting the wall hard, she growled at him once more. "What's your problem?"

"I'm not supposed to talk to you about it!"

Kaden's voice called to her in warning from where they had been training. "Ashe!"

She turned to tell him that she could handle Belle fine before seeing a pair of figures standing right before her, sizing her up. One of them, to her dismay, was the green creature that she had just fought. At his side was another figure, a younger looking girl in what appeared to be a blue maid dress. It was such a contrasting pair, with his attempts to be demonic and intimidating being almost entirely overshadowed by her attempts to... Ashe wasn't sure, but she hoped that being kinky for a green alien, especially at her age, wasn't the goal they had in mind.

She stared at them for a moment and took a swallow of air, ignoring the green creature in an attempt to break the ice. "I love your hair!" she gushed at the girl, her eyes shifting to the silver strands.

The girl actually smiled, but didn't say anything, instead looking up into her companion's eyes for some kind of response. Ashe's own eyes followed for a moment, lingering on his somber expression before Kaden reached them. The cloaked figure looked at him for a moment and then back to her before grunting, walking past them into the bunker. The girl looked at the two of them once more before she followed him without a word.

"Sorry, I tried to warn you," the courier apologized, leading her back out to their hill top.

The pink haired student was entirely lost in thought as she kept glancing back to the stronghold. "That was weird. She seemed afraid to talk to us without his permission or something. Do you think he keeps her as some kind of sex slave or something?"

He casually passed it off with a wave without looking back. "Not really our business- Wait, what? Sex slave?" he asked suddenly, whirling around to look at her. "Where'd you get that idea?"

His expression of sheer amusement should have told her to quit while she was ahead but she gave him an honest explaination without thinking it through. "Well, I mean, hot maid outfit, bit revealing, big tall guy in a dark cloak that she looks at for permission... I figure there has got to be some kind of sadomasochistic freak action going on-" She suddenly realized who she was talking to and turned bright red for a moment. This wasn't her normal group of friends. This was Kaden, a guy that she technically barely knew despite having some alternate future showing her what a possible marraige between the two would have been. She didn't even know if that Kaden was anything like the real thing, she realized.

Changing the subject completely, she held her hand back out. "You were saying something about trying too hard?" she asked, trying to take him out of his amusement by returning to the task at hand, covering up her red face by staring intently at the palm she wanted to place over it. "What's your suggestion then?"

"Oh yeah," he remembered, sitting down on the side of the rocky terrain and motioning for her to do the same as he lay his hands over his knees. "Well, there was this guy I knew back in school that was into art type stuff. He constantly made these really cool bowls and dishes and stuff while he was there, painting them up with all these crazy color blended gradients and all."

"Glaze."

"Huh? Yeah, glaze. Guess you took art too, huh?"

"A bit," she answered, wondering where this was going.

"Ok, well, he was trying to show this new girl to the class how to do it and she was absolutely terrible at it!" he laughed before quickly moving on, hoping she didn't take that as an insult to herself. "Not really terrible, I mean, just... She would try so absolutely hard to get it to go into the shape that she wanted that it would always collapse under the pressure."

"I see where this is going," she sighed.

He put his arm up a moment and rubbed the small of her back for comfort. "Well, its not a bad thing. She ended up becoming one of the better potterers... Potterists... Whatever you call them. She got pretty good at it. But my friend was losing his mind because he was trying to explain to her how to just coax it into doing its thing without putting a ton of effort into it. She had to learn to relax and just work with the clay rather than against it. Instead of forcing it where to go, she had to learn how to soothe it into going there itself, if that makes sense."

"Not much, but I think I get what you mean," she nodded, standing back up and taking a deep breath. She held her hands back out for a moment, reflectively meditating as her grandfather had taught he to relax her mind before a question popped into it. "Kaden."

He was still sitting there as he looked up at her.

"Was that really a friend of yours that did all that or just you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "What's it really matter, in the long run?"

She nodded, accepting the answer and closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of the mountain air and feeling the natural energy coursing through her, making absolutely no effort to gather it in and instead letting it come naturally, like fish swimming into a net.

[Mal Nova]

He paused after entering, a snarl composing on his lips, his sights ignoring the other male inside th building, and he turned on heel. His eyes pupils fixating in the direction of the two outside, as they conversed. He ignored the young lass as she bumped into him and uttered an apology. His ears had perked up as he listened to the two and let out a low growl under his breath, that only Tamsin picked up, as they thought him of having some sexual fantasy with the young adolescent. His eyes darted to Suzaku, and he looked at her tattered garments and felt them weird and out of place.

Tamsin saw his gaze and noted a glisten within his bloodshot eyes, only to follow it to her own clothing and saw them in a metamorphic state. I glare of bright bluish hue warped the patterns and as it dimmed she found herself baring an open cloak of a blue nature, with baby blue breeches and a vest of sky white. She blinked at them for a moment, and her breath seemed taken from her. She looked back to The Jade Fiend, and his eyes slowly returned normal.

His eyes left her, and returned to the direction they originally had faced, but now he stepped from the shadow of the bunker, exiting the portal, and entering the unseen parrallel universe. Tamsin followed his steps outside, still astonished by her new outfit, and wanted to follow her master. She however, knew his vanishing trick very well, as she had known it and seen it done before.

What happened next, even surprised her though.

The Jade Fiend appeared in front of the relaxed, yet concentrating female with a mix of pink and blonde hair. She tried to shriek, but she tried to hold her nerve in front of Kaden, who had jumped back into a defensive position after shouting, "What the fuck!?"

The rogue fiend's visage seemed to show more emotion then the skull face did, but that didn't seem to matter much to the young Namekian, as he only had one point in proving, and settling here and there. He fought against the beast and the abyss but he meant to make a point here and there! "We hear... more then you think..." He struggled against the fight within and it came out as almost as a gurgle.

His arm aimed her way and out shot the unseen Feral Claw, but this one, unlike before, shifted her body, making her look at the made, newly clad. Kaden, at the ready, found another unseen claw stretch out at him, and hold him, weakly, and Nova saw the confident look on the blonde's face.

"Apologize!" Barked The New Evil. Aiming it at multi-colored haired girl. She seemed confused until she took it all in, the words she had spoken, the clothes the maid had entered and exited with, and the statement of 'Them hearing more then she though'. She tried to look to Kaden for help, but remembered, how horrid the monster could be, and though she trusted Kaden, she didn't want to bring him harm. Tamsin only stood there in disbelief, not sure what was going on.

"I'm Sorry!" The Enhanced Human shouted. She meant it just as much as she feared for herself and her friends.

"For what reason are you apologizing to her for?" He demanded, His hold now strengthening on the human in the Red Jacket.

"For thinking you his kinky sex slave!" Her voice was high pitched and hollering so much that the Renegade knew that the third within the building would come ambling out, but a gust of wind shut his bickering up before he even stammered out.

The Imperfect Namekian looked to the Maid, and nodded, His voice still evil, "Tell her who you are, and your job."

"I am Tamsin Suzaku of the known guild of Servus, known as the top guild of Maids and Butlers!" As she spoke, the medallion that had till then been translucent, showd itself with an S in the front and a bowing member in the background. However, eveh she had to look at the newly green glowing eyes that appeared in the upper half of the medallion. They looked nearly feline but she looked at Nova and understood they meant her. "I am an official and Proud Assistant of Maleficus Nova!"

The Namekian cringed at the final words, but he released his grip on the two. and as the bitching fool came out again, he found himself slammed back in to the room a second time. Kaden chuckled, trying to relive the tension sensing more then he let on, but kept his cool," I',m going to have to tell him that the Jolly Green Maleficus Giant did that to him."

The namek knew three on one wasn't a smart idea, but still managed to turn about, motion for Tamsin to follow him, and then give a wink, "There are no friends among enemies. And as it is, all your friends are enemies."

With that he stalked off, the new cloaked female walking off, Ashe a bit shaken up again, and Kaden sensing it, had to let it go for now. But he wouldn't forget it.

Then again, The Imperfect Namekian smiled for a moment; Maleficus Nova and Tamsin Suzaku, A great team if they ever reached their full power.

"Tell me", He asked, "Who were your opponents and how did you fare?"

She bit her tongue before she spoke. "I fought your freind of before, Vad, you had called him, he caused me my wounds, but I... I think I did the same. But I fled trying to find you." She managed to mutter. "As I promised I would." She Added.

"My second opponent was, a really weird one, and I took care of him with ease, actually." She looked up at her Master, and saw he had stopped. She seemed confused, but he seemed to answer the unhidden questions as he gave his confession...

[Mal Nova]

"I am Maleficus Nova. Respawne was my orginal name. I am the only child of Retane. Retane named me Respawne and is the onlyonee to call me so. I was pre-borne by a shudder in the ship, and mty egg cracked to the floor. Not all my right side was complete so they injected a nano-technology, that adapted with my cells and took hold, allowing mt to survive."

"That's the reason for the silver skin", She muttered remembering the it and wondering from before.

"Yes," His answer startled even her, but she was fast at understanding that even whispers could be heard by his ears.

"I am a Namek by birth, but an android partially by this flesh. I was to be the same as my father, but we are so different, yet in parts the same... I follow his tracks, but I have a great control of aspects, like the wind, and less control of others like the darkness. We share a demon deep within. We share many traits, but we differ from the accident. I dont understand it, but it's juist how it is."

She looked down at her clothing then at his, wondering if it had something to do with it all, and frowned. She didn't mind the change of clothing, as her medallion shown true, but it had been altered, and she assumed it was something to do with the Namek.

"I'm challenged to face the beast and the dark side of the abyss. So please forgive me." His hand snapped upward, and holding a fist, but it was an unseen hand that grabed her by her neck, and lifted her of the ground, She tried to struggle for breath, her only charge threatening to kill jer then and there, and her eyes filled with confusion, demanding an almost; "W-Why" She managed to ask.

"Would you die now, for me if I asked?" He questioned, his grasp not laxing, but tightening.

"Y-Yes", And she stopped struggling. She gave in.

THe Namek withdrew the hold and collapsed to his knees. His Father WAS WRONG!. But how did that explain the beast? Was the Abyss the Beast? were they differnt? Was this some fucked up hallucination?

His mind wondered

"I-I need ... Help. I Need you to help me", He managed to stammer.

She was at his side within a second, rubbing his back, a technique tought in her guild. It didn't really work like she thought, but deep inside, he knew she was there. But not only his kind side, but the beast within asked, "Consider and call me as a friend would."

"How shall I call you then?" Her question escaped her lips with ease.

His were loose as well, "It seems most just call me Mal." He wanted to snarl but didnt, and gave a nice grin.

Deep inside he knew something was wrong and he snatched about, trying to remove the fouth being from within... and the True Namek felt over whelmed.

Tear's erupted through hid eyes as he looked from the cold region, back to her." Don't follow me. I BEG!"

And he was in flight in a twitching mode she had never seen. Then again, he had never seen him tell his story before and saw that there was an issue. She gritted her teeth and started trudging on. If only, she could fly.....

He had begged, not ordered.

Mal Nova and Tamsin enter Arctic Sector

[Ashe]

"You know, I was thinking about what you said earlier," Ashe announced, returning to the bunker. Kaden and Belle looked back up from the table where they had been happily stuffing their faces, leaving the courier to push a chair out next to him for her to sit down, to Belle's dismay. She took the seat, thanking him, before scanning the dirty plates before her. "You guys sure have been busy," she noted.

Belle glared at her as she reached her fork towards a slab of steak that was left, finding the boy's fork intercepting her's halfway in an attempt to lay first claim on it. Kaden coughed loudly while giving him a look and Belle relented, but not without argument. "Oh, come on! She's going to clean us out!" he complained, ignoring the fact that the two had almost reached their unreachable limits until Ashe arrived.

"Anyway," the girl interrupted, completely paying no attention to the raving kid across from her. She carved a bite off the steak with her knife before putting it into her mouth and chewing it tastefully. "Hmm, this steak is excellent. My compliments to the chef," she mused before continuing on. "But yeah, you know the thing about the pottery, right?"

Wiping his mouth with his napkin, the courier looked at Belle for a moment and then back at the student, thinking back. "Uh, yeah, I do," he coughed. "Why?"

She reached across the table and grabbed random bottle sitting nearby. Studying it a moment, she finally twisted the cap off of it, taking a quick swallow. After a moment, she set the bottle down with a slightly disappointed expression. "I totally hoped that was alcohol or something, but I think its like some knockoff of Diet Pepsi or something. I'm not really sure," she mumbled.

Kaden nodded, picking up the label from the floor and setting it on the table with a grin. "Actually, its supposed to be Diet Dr. Pepper, but nice guess. Belle and I," he jerked his head into the orange haired boy's direction, "were sitting here trying to figure out how they managed to make a drink where they kept the diet but removed the Dr. Pepper."

Belle started to speak up but Kaden cut him off with a jab of his thumb. "His theory, of course, is that-" The louder boy would not allow Kaden to finish, wanting to lay claim to his theory on his own. "Menstu Ration did it!"

She sat a moment in the silence as Kaden covered his mouth with his napkin to keep from cracking up. "Is he seriously blaming this on PMS?" she finally asked, unsure whether to be amused or offended. Not giving either of them a chance to follow up on that, she change the subject. "So back to the pottery. I remember watching this movie with my friends sometime last year at a sleepover, right? Well, it was this movie about some surfing penguins, and it was actually really adorable if you ever get a chance to see it."

The blond haired companion tossed his napkin onto the table as he recovered from his amusement, giving her a slightly odd look. "How does this relate to pottery again?"

Belle pushed his plate forward suddenly before she could respond. "You guys are boring!" he announced, jumping to his feet. He immediately cleared out of the room leaving all of the dishes sitting there for the two of them to clean up.

Ashe paid him no attention and picked back up on her conversation. "Well, let me finish!" she pleaded, watching him hold up both hands in mock surrender as he leaned back in his chair. "In the movie this penguin is trying so hard to live the dream of being a professional surfer, which is kind of cool since he's, you know, a penguin."

"Have I seen this movie?"

"Probably, unless you've been living under a rock," she answered, not catching the wince he gave in regards to her comment. Without picking up on it, she continued. "So anyway, he is trying so hard to be this professional surfer and live up to his idol and ends up running into this other fat penguin hermit dude that lives somewhere else on the island."

Kaden was now picking at his teeth with a toothpick as he listened to her drone on.

"Well, he ends up finding out that the fat hermit penguin is actually his long lost idol, so he starts trying to get surfing tips from him and train under him. The guy teaches him all kinds of cool things like how to carve out a surfboard by putting your heart into it and tells him all the time to chill out and about the things he really enjoyed when he used to surf. The younger penguin is all hardcore focused on how many points each type of trick brings in, though, and he is trying so hard to figure out how to win the competition and give it his all. The only thing he wants to focus on is what will help get the attention of the score keepers. Put in all of his focus and all that."

Somehow, during this long drawn out monologue, she had managed to finish the steak under her and pushed it to the side, pulling a bottle of water off the table to wash the remains down with. Twisting the cap off, she continued her tale. "So the fat penguin looks at him and was like, Why so serious!" At this part she changed her voice for dramatic effect, laughing as Kaden leaned forward while waving his hand in the air.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ok, I've seen that movie," he began.

"What?" she laughed. "The one with the adorable penguins?"

"I'll neither confirm nor deny," he said avoiding the answer. "But the 'why so serious' thing was totally from a different movie, one with no penguins in it!" he added.

"Psh!" she snorted, pushing a strand of fallen hair back behind her ears. "Maybe," she relented before continuing on. "But it could work as a paraphrase of what he said either way. He was trying to get the young penguin to lighten up and just enjoy surfing, teaching him that surfing was about just being one with nature and letting go, going with the flow instead of fighting everything. There was even this entire scene based around him and this girl penguin that he met where she's trying to teach him that if he is trying to always force everything to go his direction then it will just send him off course, but if he just goes with it and sees what happen, he may not end up where he planned, but he will still enjoy his experiences along the way!"

"You got all of this from a movie about penguins?" he asked, blown away. "Man, I'd hate to see what would happen if the penguins started dancing or something."

"No, that's a different movie, and its also adorable," she piped up.

"So I take it that this entire story relates back to my pottery story by the base point that you are trying to hard and should relax?"

"What?" she suddenly pouted, having lost focus on what had brought it up in the first place.

He quickly changed the subject. "So have you figured out anything else with energy then? Like how to just go with it and not try so hard?" he hinted.

"Well," she began, pausing for a moment before looking at the table. "Not exactly. But I think I might be close to something. Man, that steak was really, really good!" she gushed, realizing just how fantastic the flavors had been.

She climbed to her feet and walked past him, tossing her dishes into the sink while deliberately ignoring Belle's. She'd leave his for the cleaning crew when they arrived. "I don't know, I mean, I just feel really good about now, other than this sharp pain in my back from when that Maleficus guy started manhandling us."

Kaden came up to her side and put his plates on top of hers. "Yeah, sorry about that again. So that's the guy you fought last Combat Day?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Not much to really talk about though. Take what you just saw when he was here, expand that by however long the fight actually was, and there you go."

He nodded.

She turned around and went back to sit on one of the beds in the bunker, noting that Belle was once more no where to be found, somehow. "Ugh, my back does feel like crap," she whined. "But yeah, I'll try to put some more practice into the energy later. It might come in handy if I ever actually figure out how to go with the flow and get it to work."

Kaden stood for a moment thinking before sitting down next to her on the bed. "Here, lay down a moment," he offered.

"Huh?"

He put her fears to rest by gently laying her down so that she was facing the bed. "I think you were right about that steak. I'm feeling generous, so I figured I'd help work some of the knots out of your back since you worked hard today to practice," he explained.

"Uh, well," she began, letting him move her into position. His hands did feel great on her back, she had to admit, even through her shirt. "Sure," she relented, laying down and resting her head on the pillow with both of her arms stretched down along her sides.

As his fingers began digging into her muscles, she gave a small noise of happiness without actually intending to. "Haha," he laughed, taking that as a sign that he was doing a good job. "Feeling a bit better?"

"Oh man, you have no idea," she whispered, soaking up the attention. She would have found it slightly odd that he was suddenly so laid back instead of brooding as he had been off and on, but she didn't think much of it. There was no way she was going to argue against a great back massage that had been offered.

She felt as if she had taken extacy, feeling a large rush of passion washing throughout her system that just really helped take the edge off. His fingers seemed to dig into all the right places, finding every bad or painful place in her back and sides. They danced along her ribs and up her spinal cord like a symphony of comfort, releasing all of the pains that she had felt, but only as long as he stayed in contact with her back.

After a while, she finally rolled over, turning around so as to lay her head into his lap to look up at him. He seemed a bit surprised but she really couldn't help herself. At that moment, she had an overwhelming urge to just be with him, and she could only blame the steak that they had eaten. "Is that wrong?" she suddenly asked out loud.

"Is, uh, what wrong?" he repeated, stiffly leaning back against the wall next to the bed as she looked up at him.

She turned slightly red but didn't say anything, instead rolling over onto her side with a happy smile and wrapping her arms around his leg to better position her head. She didn't care if she was comfortable or not. She just wanted to feel him close to her, and she felt that by having him nearby, all of her stress and pains would just go away.

"Are you two making out?" Belle suddenly yelled into the room in accusation.

Kaden jumped in surprise, still unsure how to handle the situation, and raised his hands defensively. "What? No, not at all!"

At the same time, Ashe blurted something entirely different. She immediately regreted her words, having no idea where they had come from. "Why, do you want to join in?" she had asked hopefully.

"GROSS!"

***

She awoke a couple of hours later to find that Kaden had let her rest in the bed and had opted to go to nap in a chair instead of taking one of the beds himself. It was a bit disappointing, but she knew that sometimes people needed to be warmed up to one another. Had she come off a bit strong, she wondered? She dismissed that idea quickly, wondering why it had even occured to her. Right now, every inch of her wanted to be with him. It was like a major crush had just passed over her, a love at first sight type of thing.

If she didn't feel like her chances were so good right now, she would have been depressed that he had relocated himself. It was pretty obvious though that he was just being shy, or else he wouldn't have reacted so favorably, she supposed. Belle hadn't been around much, she had noticed. He seemed to run in and out whenever he wanted, and despite his constant commenting, he seemed like he was enjoying himself overall. That was good, she reasoned.

Creeping across the room to pick up her bag, the courier suddenly awoke and looked at her while yawning. "Hey," he called out, causing her to jump in the air.

She turned at him and stuffed her hand back into her bag, snatching the entire thing back up instead of pulling anything out. "Uh, hi," she responded, drawing out her last word.

"How'd you sleep?" "How'd you sleep?"

They both had asked each other at the same exact time, echoing each other perfectly.

"Uh, great-" "Excellent!"

Their responses trampled that synchronization.

"You headed out for a walk?" Kaden suddenly asked, yawning again and looking at a clock. "I was thinking that we could find Sophia again," he added cheerily.

She felt a small wave of gloom pass over her, dousing her mood a bit before vanishing almost instantly. She shook her head and jabbed her finger at the bathroom door. "No. I mean, sure, we can head out again, I uh, just need to use the bathroom real quick." She turned quickly and rushed towards it.

"You need your entire bag to use the bathroom?" he called down the hall, receiving nothing more than the door slamming as a response.

***

She pushed open the door and slid through it, pulling her jacket around her to shut out the chilly Mountain air. "Should we find Belle and let him know?" she asked, siding up close to Kaden. She stumbled a bit at the door frame, falling against him before catching herself and stepping out.

He didn't seem to mind the proximity, thankfully, although his mind appeared to be elsewhere. "Nah, I don't think he would care either way. Sophia's probably having a fit though," he pointed out.

He didn't see Ashe look up at the sky a moment to let the thought pass. "I guess I can see that," she acknowledged, pointing a hand up at the sky excitedly. "Look!" she breathed, trying to get his attention.

He looked up right in time to see a streaking light passing by over head. "Haha, nice, looks like a falling-" Ashe's hands suddenly clapped over his, holding them together in her own while looking up at the sky. He looked back at her quickly but saw that she was still looking up at the sky.

"Hurry up and make a wish!" she prodded him, smiling.

"Uh," he stirred, trying to think of something quickly. Settling on nothing, he waited till she watched the streak of light fade away and then saw her immediately look into his eyes, beaming.

"What'd you wish for?" she asked quickly, putting her finger suddenly over his lips to shush him as he began to try to cover up that he hadn't been able to think of anything. "No, don't tell me, that'll ruin it! Keep it secret," she laughed. "Don't you know how these things work?"

"Ashe, your eyes are glowing," he suddenly announced, looking into her eyes as she smiled wider.

"Of course," she gushed. "I'm happy, I'm having a blast, why wouldn't I be glowing?" she spilled out all at once, nudging her elbow into his side.

He shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment before he reopened them, his Sight taking effect and a small hue emanating off of them. "No, I mean like this," he clarified.

Her pure blue eyes widened for a moment as she giggled. "Yeah, I think... I think I can see the rest of the starlight moving through things again," she agreed, using starlight to explain the way the Ki fields looked to her. "It's beautiful," she gasped, pushing away from him for a moment to spin around in a circle with her arms out, taking in everything at once before growing dizzy and falling over, thankfully landing in Kaden's arms. She laughed more as he helped her get her ground again.

"Yeah, it is," he agreed after a moment, looking around. "Hey, I think we might find Sophia if we go that way," he said, pointing off in the distance at a shimmering wall before tapping his head. "I just have a good instinct for finding people. But yeah, we should probably hurry before it gets late," he warned.

"Why so serious?" she giggled under her breath, changing her voice again for dramatic effect before pulling her jacket tighter around her.

Ashe and Kaden have left the Mountain Sector and entered into the Arctic Sector.