"He's...an ally." Vargas managed through his clenched jaw, unwilling to refer to Haniel as anything more - he could've called him a few other choice words, but it was probably better not to seem antagonistic towards the other guardians, particularly in front of the holders. Leo's naivete was incredible, though understandable. He hadn't spent far too long barely begrudgingly getting along with his opposing element, after all. "You aren't-" He exhaled a short sigh, then corrected himself, "We aren't the same. The only reason I'm tolerating the walking Renaissance fair here is-"
Before he could finish his sentence, an enormous bird swooped out of sky, grabbing Leo, who had the common sense to hold onto Tamsin rather than drop her. For a moment Vargas stood there, incredibly confused, then he realized that there was really only one person - one thing - that could possibly do that, and that it had just swooped away with two holders. His immediate reaction was to curse. Loudly. In several different languages. With that out of his system, he cupped his hands over his mouth, hoping that his holder could hear him. "Leo! Hold on!"
He watched the bird fly towards a hill that he knew was on the outskirts of the city, and that was all he needed. "Put that thing down before you jab an eye out." He snapped, electing not to continue in the ancient language. It felt too formal for him, though he did like the feeling of his words weighing heavier when he spoke. But it was for important matters and negotiations, and he wasn't about to painstakingly weave together something for Haniel, especially when he was almost never so formal, and now that they were seriously pressed for time.
"Enough with the damn treachery already," Vargas snarled, attempting to sweep past Haniel, "Leo wasn't even aware that I was his guardian until just now - I was a history teacher, for gods' sake! What kind of ideas could I possibly put into his head?!" He'd reached his car by now, parked a bit away from the alley - unlike Eis's, it was simple and relatively unnoticeable, colored black and obviously a slightly older model. Vargas realized suddenly that Haniel was no longer near him, but rather, right in the middle of the goddamn road.
The light guardian had, for some reason, elected to stay stuck in feudal England mode while the rest of them adapted for the most part. Maybe it was the way a knighthood felt, or maybe it was just because he'd liked it there. Either way, he was more likely to get hit by a car rather than offered a ride, particularly since he had the idea that someone would willingly commandeer a car for him to look for two kids and a giant bird. I could find Leo and Tamsin without him, Vargas thought, climbing into his car, but that means I'd have to face NoVERous alone. One of us with our full powers might be able to do that, but right now... He wasn't dumb enough to think he had enough power by himself - he actually had to work with Haniel. This had never happened before - all too often they avoided each other, traveling to the opposite sides of the globe, fighting on opposite sides of wars. He would've been okay working with anyone else, but this was what he'd been thrown. None of the other guardians were nearby, and Leo and Tamsin were running out of time every second that they waited.
He hated this - gods, he hated this, so much. The circumstances, the fact that the loss of his powers had made him so disgustingly fragile as compared to before; he wanted nothing more than to cover everything in shadows and suffocate whatever was in it, so he no longer had to deal with anything. But that would defeat the purpose of his existence as a guardian, and it wasn't like he could still do something like that. Vargas felt a prickling feeling in his hands, knowing the shadows underneath his shirt sleeves had started to crawl across his skin and were itching to form claws, to rip apart his anger and frustration. But no, he couldn't do that here. He had to make a decision. Inwardly, he was probably more logical than Haniel - he wan't bent on keeping himself pure so much as doing whatever it took to keep his powers intact. And if that meant fighting side-by-side with his elemental rival, then...
Vargas's hands tightened on the steering wheel for a second, and then he gunned it towards the knight before anyone else could reach him, stopping next to him, rolling down the window, and raising an eyebrow. "Get in, you ridiculous- You're rescuing no one if you can't even get there fast enough, and we've wasted enough time!" Then, before Haniel could protest much, though it almost physically pained him to say it, "Either you get in and help me, or I go alone, and there's a good chance that Leo and Tamsin and I are gonna be killed."
██████████████████████████████████████████████████
I'm gonna . CH Δ NG E . you , like a . ɾ ε ɱ ɩ xdust;◄
then I'll . ɼ a ɩ s ε . you , like a . ϼ н o ε n ɩ xto dust;
here
lies
