[Fa'e PRP] Seeking the Lost (Riven & Nozomi)

[Zero Dream]

I need to go, Sei.

I need to...

It was unwise on multiple levels, but... who was he to deny his guardian this ? And he was going to head back there sooner than later, anyway.

It had taken a few attempts, but he'd finally found a way to spread out her weight (mostly metal from the cybernetic legs) in a way that allowed him to carry her without wasting energy by altering it's flow - from there, it was a quick walk over to Youko's house... though perhaps it could not be called such anymore.

Sei stopped at the door, giving a knock of warning before coming in, as he had taken the habit to do ever since... it had happened. He checked onto Raven and Omi whenever he had the chance, in between everything else.

Zero looked like she had seen much better days - heavy bags under her eyes as if she had not slept for days, even if, in reality, it had been all that she had done. Tears still stained her cheeks, black and blue hair were messy, but perhaps the most telling sign was the jagged cuts running in circles around her neck, no longer bleeding but not having the time to start to heal yet.

The cyborg was quite sure she had earned herself some new scars for the collection, so to speak.

[Youkochylde]

Omi collapsed into Riven's arms, shivering slightly as she tried to keep herself together. "Why didn't it just come after me?" she asked softly, not quite sure what else to say. "Why didn't it come after me and leave him alone? He didn't have anything to do with this."

When Raven heard the knock and noise downstairs, she turned from the attic door and headed down, smiling when she saw Sei. "Hey there," she said, moving to turn on a light in the livingroom so that he could get Zero settled there. "You must be Miss Zero," she said, looking to the reploid as Sei helped her to sit. If it wasn't his guardian, then she'd look like an idiot. "Is there anything I can get you? Something to drink?"

[Sosiqui]

"It wasn't just you," Riven whispered, encircling them both in his misty wings. "It came after everyone - every Fa'e, every Guardian, attacking the bond. Even the littlest children. A traitor's trick... and we will make it pay for this..." He had to struggle not to let his frustrated determination show through in his grip on Omi. "I don't know how it got out. It wasn't through the Spirit Realm."

The spirit Fa'e was abruptly very grateful for that. At least it wasn't his fault or his negligence that had caused all this to happen. Things would be bad enough without guilt and blame on top of it all.

[Zero Dream]

"And you must be... Raven ?" The woman's voice was raw, and with only one look at her neck, it was easy to see why. Sei let her down in the chair as well as he could, her legs not once moving to attempt to support her, only her arms and her hands. "I should probably have called first, but I... I needed to..." She sighed. "Im sorry. I wish we would have gotten to meet in truth in better circumstances... If there is anything I can do..." She recalled seeing the girl once or twice, when she was much younger, but nothing more than that.

But she knew the pain of losing a father. She knew it all too well.

Sei, for his part, remained standing beside the short woman, looking much like he was the guardian figure, and not her. "Can you bring her some water ?" Zero was, as always, overlooking her own needs.

[Youkochylde]

Raven leaned in, catching Zero's hand and squeezing it lightly. "It's okay," she murmured. "I wish we'd met under better circumstances too. Either way, it's still good to meet you." She turned then, nodding to Sei. "Just a minute, I'll be right back. Did you want anything as well?"

Omi didn't want to let go just yet. "I need to find out what did this," she said, finally looking to Riven. "We need to find it... and make sure this never happens again." It was easy to switch to protective mode... it made things so much easier to handle. "What about the others? Did anyone else... did anyone else lose their guardian?"

[Sosiqui]

"It was Chaos, Omi," Riven said, still keeping his voice low. "Just as you saw memories of in the Spirit Realm... he's taken the HQ, too. Trapped Airi inside, I think... I'm not sure how it was able to push its power free without breaking the Barrier in the Spirit Realm, but it has. It found a different weak point outside my power."

He paused. "I don't know... my Guardian was hurt, but our bond remains. The same with Sei and Ghlyssa. I haven't talked to very many other Fa'e yet... I've been at HQ studying what Chaos did there."

[Zero Dream]

"Im fine." He answered with a smile, though still didn't move to sit. It was silly, but he felt better standing right beside his guardian.

Just in case...

Zero squeezed Raven's hand in return, and then let it go so she could move. "I am not... very useful at the moment, but if there is anything I can do..."

[Youkochylde]

"Hopefully I'm the only one this happened to," Omi said, finally pulling away to sit back on the bed, her fingers toying with the paper in her hand. "I mean... I'm not going to say that it's all right, but if no one else has to go through this, I'll be fine." She unfolded the paper then, looking over the words again, even though she knew them by heart. "To-san would have wanted it that way too. If he had to be the one to get hurt so that no one else had to... he'd have done it in a heartbeat."

Downstairs, Raven re-emerged with a tall glass of ice water, and a glass of iced tea for herself. She handed the glass to Zero, then moved to curl up on the side of the couch closest to the recliner chair. That was where she started to stumble, not knowing what to say. "I know that you were friends with my father," she said, turning the glass in her hands. "I'm not sure what to say or do right now, so I'm sorry for that. We're just trying to make sure everything's taken care of."

[Sosiqui]

"He was a good man," Riven said, with a soft smile. Then, his attention drawn to the paper, he shook his head. "Ah, you got one too... those have been going around, it seems. You found it in your hand after waking up from a vivid dream involving darkness and four lights and Airi, right?"

[Zero Dream]

"...I... know what it is like to lose a father." Or at least a father figure. Her finger fidgeted along the rim of the glass, a nervous habit. Apparently, not knowing what words to use ran into the family, so to speak. "This... hits very close to home." Her eyes looked haunted, for a moment, as she remembered. "This... this isn't fair." Anger still lingered with those words, but she did her best to control it. "If I ever find the b*****d that did this... Whatever it is..."

"You will stay out of it, let me handle this, and not endanger yourself further." Sei cut though his guardian. He knew what was behind this, and knew that this was beyond the cyborg. Zero shot him an half-hearted glare, but said nothing else about it.

Protective urges apparently ran in the family, too.

[Youkochylde]

"I really don't remember the dream," Omi said, looking down at the paper regretfully. "I hadn't been sleeping well... and I've been trying to forget everything that I've seen since then. The nightmares have been almost nonstop." She handed the paper to Riven then, winding her arms back around herself afterward. "He really was a good man," she replied then, offering a faint smile up to Riven. "He put up with all of us, after all."

(Link to paper text)

Raven's gaze slanted to Sei, and she immediately understood that he knew more about this than he had let on by simply murmuring the name Chaos. However, now really wasn't the time to grill him on that. Also, unlike the other two in the room, she was simply flesh and blood... she didn't have Fa'e abilities, she didn't have a metal skeleton or strange powers of any kind. All she had was fur. Therefore, by logical reason... while she wanted to find this 'Chaos' and strangle the life out of him the way he'd done to her father, she knew she couldn't.

[Sosiqui]

Riven smiled, then scrutinized the paper. "To be or not to be... Hm. That doesn't make any more sense than the others," he sighed. "Still, I've seen another one of these paper slips written in the same handwriting. About something trapped between heaven and hell..."

He quickly reached into his waist-pouch and produced his own paper slip, handing it wordlessly to Omi. "Glee's made no sense at all," he added. "Something about kisses and continents."

[Zero Dream]

Sei was not especially good at reading most people... the two women that he was in the presence of excluded - and the second that look landed on him, he knew he was in for some explanations. "I don't know alot." He admitted. "Chaos is... a force, kept contained. It... found a way to break some part of himself out from where it was contained and do this attack... That's pretty much what I gathered. It's powerful, and it's not especially friendly, I figure. I doubt it can be reasoned with, either." If that had been an option... Riven would have told him, he felt.

"It... kind of took over the HQ, too. It's creepy." The blonde muttered, not especially happy about this.

[Youkochylde]

"I can't make any sense of it," Omi said, shrugging softly. "It's in reference to a Shakespeare quote. Hamlet, to be exact." For once, she was glad that she had picked up reading at an early age. Youko's library had included a book that for the longest time was heavier than she was... the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. "I think that's the only quote I remember from it." She took his then, frowning softly and offering another shrug. "I won't be much help there, I don't think. The only thing I can think of when I hear 'guile' is that stupid video game Kaeru plays all the time."

Raven curled into the chair, her arms wrapped around her legs. "Good thing you warned me," she murmured. "My next thought was to take Omi there, so that maybe she could be around other Fa'e. I was just waiting until I got Dad's... things taken care of."

[Sosiqui]

"I think the dream might have come from Airi," Riven said, shaking his head. "She has a great deal of power over dreams, and if she is trapped by Chaos then it could be a cry for help. But this..." He scowled at the cryptic papers. "If she's sending us clues, why can't they be normal? Everywhere I look there's nothing but more questions. Unless someone somewhere got a piece of paper that makes sense..."