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Joe flinched as Kyle looked at him. Well...more at what he looked like, anyway. Of course, then came a slightly harder part.

"Kyle, how long ago was it that I tried to kill you all? That's right, kill. And I was conscious of my actions. It was...hateful, but I knew what I was doing. And then of course I lost my eye because of rage-induced stupidity. But...that doesn't make me a bad person...apparently. I don't think anyone even thinks of it, but...I don't want to be that again, and...I don't want to see you do something you'll regret. I...."

God, why was it so hard for him to just say what he wanted to say? "I don't want to lose you, Kyle. Not to the darkness, not to yourself." There was a small lump in his throat, which he tried to swallow and cursed that he was getting so worked up over this. He needed to be collected, didn't he?

{ ATE : To Prove One's Worth : 14}
{ Noelle : Kyle's Heart : Station of Awakening }

Noelle kept close to Joe, shocked by the changes around them and in 'Kyle'--but at the same time, not. She searched his eyes as he spoke, hoping they could still convince him.

"You're as strong as any and all of us," She replied softly, hand holding her spear tightly, "Why else do you suppose you're here, or made it this far? We can't lose you Kyle. You don't understand the loss it would be to us if we did. I don't care if we have to drag you around because you've fallen, we're here to pick you back up. No matter what."

The sound of glass scraping resounded with more clarity this time--clear enough, in fact, that they might recognize it as the reversed sound of glass cracking.

The entity's arms dropped to its side, looking at them in confused awe. They stood their ground. They refused to give Kyle up.

Something about the way it looked changed then. Its mouth seemed to curve into a slight, disbelieving smile as its shoulders sagged.

"So much faith," it said, the voice of Kyle slowly slipping into some strange, unfamiliar tenor that was familiar yet not. The black tears in its eyes seemed to shift to white before sliding down its cheeks. "This strength... he missed it. He'd thought he'd lost it forever when he'd failed them all."

Upon reaching his chin, the white drops fell down onto the rotten mosaic--and a pulse of Light slowly spread, filling in some (though not all) of the cracks. If they were looking at the person before them, they would see that the pulse had also healed portions of its own wounds, while simultaneously causing its face to disappear, leaving a blank slate without features.

Immediately, they would hear the agonized screams of the two specters behind them, only to fade into silence as they vanished; the portraits of Joe and Noelle were completely cleansed, devoid of taint.

"He's going to need you, you know," it spoke as the sounds of glass continued to echo around them. Other specters began to dissipate into bursts of Light as the cracks continued to partially heal, though some merely faded into the ground. "All of you. So much more than you probably realize. He doesn't give up--he just gets desperate. Desperate enough not to care about me. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. So, for everyone's sake, I hope you're willing to back up what you just told me..."

The sounds all stopped. There were no more specters, and the Station was back to the way they'd originally seen it. All was silent.

"... because if it comes down to it, we will fall."

And with that, the being faded away, and their sight failed them.

{ ATE : Drive in Atlantica : 2}
{ Noelle : Kyle's Heart : Station of Awakening }

Noelle took a few seconds to regain her bearings, quickly looking about. As soon as she spotted the screens and Ultima, she approached, standing next to her and glancing between what Kyle was seeing and how his health was.

'Be wary, Human, she is nastier than Kyle was.'
'Don't care, we have things to do.'

After a short time of inspecting the screens, Noelle finally spoke, keeping her eyes forward in thought, "The lesser Geists, or what's left of them, are easy prey, they'll fall quickly. The Grimms and the Shades however are tricky--more resistant to physical attacks. We need to keep them Phasing and attack with magic . . . not that you didn't know that already. But if you could do me a favor and enlighten me . . ."

The agromancer turned and looked back up to the swirling vortex above them, "As to what that is."

"That--," she said, not even turning to glance back at the vortex--there was only one thing worth pointing out. "--is a link between Kyle's heart and Mateus. He and his host are the ones who originally interfered with Bobbi and Kyle. When you interrupted Kyle's concentration, all the magic he'd spent the course of the night gathering was lost, and Kyle fell into hopelessness. That's when Mateus made a second bargain--and now we have that to worry about."

Meanwhile, Kyle had taken the knowledge granted by Joe and Noelle and formulated an idea--which popped up on a third screen as nothing more than a massive underwater tornado, with Kyle in the middle and massive swords of light surrounding the battlefield. Without bothering to wait for confirmation, he sent out the call for aid, which could be heard like a dulled-speaker overhead.

Ultima's eyes narrowed and she reached out to touch the screens, pulling up his status once again, only this time with projected results from the various enchantments he'd thought of. As they began to accumulate on his form from his allies, the overall enhanced state of his body became apparent on the screen.

"It will remain there until Kyle calls out for more power, or perhaps whenever Mateus gets bored," she continued with a displeased tone.

Only now that she'd reached out could the iron shackles be seen on her wrists; there were no chains connecting them, but they were there all the same. But they were cracked, rotted by an all-too-familiar black pattern.

"Tell me, hume, these Grimms and Shades--" she asked, still focused on the status screen while the view screen revealed the show: Kyle casting a large Dual-Limit from a page, calling down massive golden spears on the battleground before swimming into the fray at a break-neck speed. Ultima, however, was more focused on the large amount of enchantments currently being placed on Kyle--the status screen showed his magical circuits slowly burning back to life, having been dormant moments before. "Would they be able to withstand the kinds of force he looks to conjure?"

Joe had been quiet as Noelle and Ultima talked. What was he to add to the discussion, after all? Kyle had a plan, Noelle knew more about those thing than Joe ever wanted to know. So he just kind of...stared. Mainly at the little black vortex. That stupid little link between Kyle and Mateus. How in the world did it get there?

"You know...." Joe finally spoke up, still staring at the Vortex. After all, what else was there for him to do at the moment? "Even Glipner...Gleipnir? Whatever. The ribbon to bind Fenrir was always fated to break, even after being made out of impossible things. Well, four, anyway. A woman can totally have a beard. And bear sinews aren't really that rare, either. Regardless, I don't think it's...impossible for us to remove. Well, maybe. Have you tried shining a light on it? Or...plugging it up?" He was just kind of rambling now, rubbing his chin and not even paying attention to the ladies, so he had no idea if they were even listening to him.

~~ { ATE: The Dark Visitor and the Opened Door }~~
[Kyla: Inside Kyla's Heart : Sancturary of Heart]

The plan was set into motion now and there was no going back. The daring gamble had paid off, and she had her line of connection to what maybe the true enemy of this entire journey. But now the girl had to pay for the consequences. To open ones heart to darkness was a dangerous thing. She held no desolusion that she could control it. But she hadn't 'dipped into the pot' in order to do that- no, what she wanted was a way in. The door was now open, and doors when two ways don't they.

On her side of the door would be a most interesting environment for the entity to behold, and it wouldn't be long before one realized that she was prepared for them to come.

Outside, she continued to play her little game, blurring the lines between herself and that of her replica's demeanor, enough to even throw Ajora for a loop. His confusion was oddly pleasing to her.

Inside, the inner catacombs of Kylas heart could only be described best as a distorted labrinth.
Layers upon layers of delusion and illusion contructed by memories and figments of imagination created a confusing and orderly world. Every chamber and stage was an isolated layer of it's own. Each working with a level disconnection that allowed other parts to work normally.

In psychology, when a trauma victim undergoes sever abuse it is not uncommon for their personality to split and create facets as a protective counter measure in order to handle extreme conditions and prevent unrecoverable mental damage.
Over the years her displacement had matured into a complex network where she could separate herself into pieces inside her own mind and look her own thoughts and emotions from an unbias perspective. It allowed logic to move freely without hindrance, and when she was ready she would reconnect with whatever was most nessessary and deal with it in that inclosed and controlled environment.
But this was an imperfect system and that was here her summon came in. Long before Carbuncle was a summon. Carbuncle was Tyue.

Over the years there had only been one true splintering.
Tyue. Out of sheer desperation to survive the complete isolation.That facet came into being. Other figments came as well but none were a true splinter the way the summon had been. By the time she transitioned over into this world that splinter had been inhabited by the true Carbuncle summon. Both became one, and thus the creature became a true seperate entity in Kylas fragmented world.
In this labrynth of the heart the summon knew the secret passages, the hidden doors and cracks between the layers to reach the inner sanctum. Without a guide any foreign entity would need to navitagte on their own and that would time. Patience, and understanding of the symbolic clues and manifestations.

So in a way- Ajora was right. Kyla was indeed mental. Just the right kind of mental to handle the dark visitor.
She was the right sort of mind to welcome a presence that was the true darkness. As it would arirve in the first layer of the Sancturary, Kyla would be there waiting.

----------------

[Sanctuary of Heart: The Shores]

The first layer was simple in it's design. An erry fog would slid back over a shallow grey ish shore. The sands immersed under the thin layer of foam and waves.
The land mass was luminescent, crystal ore jutting in unrefined stones and formations that sprung out fo the water till they rose high enough to form the land. When one approached they would cross a rock what was bound in red cord that threaded through folded papers of book pages made into a makeshift talismen.

The shore itself was rough, rocky terran yet beautiful in it's unrefined, fragments of crystal and granite were crushed together and there facing the water was the first gate. A tunnel of red torri gates fused together to make a crimson tunnel that led inside. Usually these gates were made of wood, painted in crimson in color but these gates were disinctly stone. A dark garnet stone that reflected the very faint glints of light that bounced off the stones and water that broke upon the bank.

There she stood waiting, her eyes scanning the horison where the dark entry formed. Beyond the shore over the water the gate appeared like a slash in space, hovering just beyond the rocks.