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With a ladylike snarl, Luna raced toward Alec. As they neared the upper floors, though, a smell of charcoal filled her heightened senses. As quickly as the scent trespassed through her filters, she felt her temples tighten.
It was odd, the feeling she was having as she ran. All four legs were traveling at enormous speeds... But her eyes seemed to slow everything down as if she were walking in her human form. Her vision sharpened gradually, enough so that it became inverted. It gave her pain, yes, but it dulled after a short amount of time. Luna swallowed, unaware of the process coursing through her at first.
But then it hit her. Ialo's arm, her eyes, that night at the cliffs. She'd almost forgotten that she was still undergoing changes because of that.
But why now, and not while Ialo experienced it? Was he more important? Or were there more changes to her body than she realized?

She was now able to follow Alec successfully, her vision becoming something like a thermal sensor. In appearance, her red eyes were now completely black, grotesque veins were at the sides of her face--even in wolf form-- as if her skin was being pulled to the back of her head.

Something caught her eye. She sniffed the air for a brief moment before expelling a loud howl, one heard throughout any corridor, the nearest rooms. Luna was able to see Ialo, his body heat was warmer than any normal human, but what frightened her enough was that she was also able to see heat ten times as hot surrounding him.
The howl alerted Alec to begin following her now, and even though she didn't have the ability to speak proper English, her determination was making her quicker, just a blur of silver cutting across hallways and rooms, even. She ran over bodies of dead or knocked out guards on the floor and maybe even ran over one or two. She didn't care. All she cared about was that she finally..

Her thick skull rammed through the door where fires licked out at her. The roar of the flames fought against her own mental quarrels. How was she supposed to find Ialo in this heated mess? The warmth made her feel good, but she suddenly knew what she had to do. Her wolf breed was unique, mixed from the centuries. Her ancestor, the werewolf that lived in the coolest part of the Arctic, mated with a lone traveling wolf that came from a desert long before. Over the course of time, she was given a power that could kill her or permanently damage her.

Cracks of her joints sounded as she stood upright, the tears of her clothes managing to cover the little she needed as flesh substituted for her fur. She felt enclosed again, not really in her true form. But for some reason, she felt as though something was wrong, as if something hadn't been changing. Her stomach hurt, and she felt... odd. Her eyes still wore the same blackness, her vision adjusting to find the face of the only man she'd been searching for for what seemed like months. But they hurt even more now that she was in human form. She wanted to complain to anyone who would sympathize or at least pretend to. In fact, now that she thought about it, she was also a bit hungry.
But no matter! She needed to work efficiently, be the first to save Ialo.
"Ialo..." she whispered, her voice hoarse.
She raised her arms on either side of her, and brought them together for a sharp clap. Slowly but surely, she parted the two hands as a quick mist seeped from her palms. The vapors blew out some of the fire, but most of it froze in place, the deadly flames at a pause. But there was something wrong. During her inner battle, the flames turned darker than real fire. Black.
Apparently, it was also more powerful than actual fire. The flames that were frozen in place shattered the ice covering it, sending small shards in different directions. Many of the shards pierced Luna's skin-- but not before she saw him.
"Ialo! What's wrong with the fire?!"
She turned around to Alec, her eyes searching his, as if there might be something he was able to do. Was there? She didn't know, but she thought she had it, she really did. But black fire?

((I just came from our school's football game, the one that decided if we were going to districts or not. It was the other school's homecoming game too. We lost. Damn it all. Everyone here is depressed. xD))

Luna nodded. But how was she supposed to get through the flames? She spun fast, staring down the fire. Would it burn her badly if she tried to run through it quickly?
She began noticing small bits of the flooring, untouched by fire. She hopped, almost like a small girl during a game of hopscotch would, through the fire until she reached Ialo-- finally.
Her face brightened. Then dimmed slightly. What happened to him? He looked... much different. She supposed that the difference she noticed was the battle Alec was talking about, completely oblivious to her own appearance.
She reached out to touch him, but something inside her told her different. She paused a finger length's away from him. "Ialo.. I've been stressing so much! What have you gotten yourself into, we need to leave-- now!"
She waved a panicked hand around, beckoning him to follow, but he didn't move. "What's wrong Ialo?" She stepped in front of him, making it hard for him to be able to search their surroundings. She covered everything, with her body, her hair, everything.
She was only slightly frightened by the sight of Ialo because she couldn't see him as Alec did. Her vision was still altered, and Luna hadn't started worrying.
"Why did you leave in the first place, Ialo? After I.. we.."
Her tone was soft, but mixed with her emotions it gave off a small bit of her ice breath. It surrounded Ialo, but it soon turned into pure gas at the mere contact of his aura.
Her stomach lunged, and Luna didn't expect it. She was about to clutch her stomach, but there was a voice inside her, telling her to not do anything to herself-- it wouldn't damage only her. Luna looked up through her hair at Ialo, unaware of whatever expression he had.
"Something hasn't been right since you've been gone.." she whispered.

Ialo took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of smoke. It was... different. It wasn't evil, per se, but quite different from the magic he was used to. He reveled in this new sensation, not really aware of Luna dashing in, nor Alec following. All he heard was the roaring of the flames. All he saw was Ophiuchus' aura from away illuminating the much fainter signatures of his father and Krauser.

His father.
Ophiuchus.
Luna.
Hell, he could even see Kai's aura. When was the last time he had...? The black flames were intense as Ialo's concentration on the auras throughout the building. "I see," he said softly, a bit dazed. His eyes flickered down at Luna. His eyes widened and his brows arched up. Alec was wrong. Rather than stolen or locked away, Ialo's soul was still quite firmly where it belonged. It was more like... like another element had been added.

"I... I..." He tried to begin as he stared at Luna, more than a bit surprised. "I..." Ialo wrapped his arms around her shoulders and hugged her. The flames that weren't being barraged by twilight magic were circling around Ialo and Luna, perhaps joining the embrace. They rose taller as he let go, only to kiss her deeply. He loved Luna and to see her before him, even upset and anxious and tired. It most have been a whole minute before he finally stepped away. Damn it, he really missed her.

He blushed a bit and looked down at the floor, running a clawed hand through his hair. "I didn't treat the way you deserve, so karma circled around and bit me in the a**." Even with physical transformations of Riser's curse (or maybe, a twisted blessing, Ialo grimaced as he thought), it didn't seem to have changed his personality much. At least, not to himself. Before Luna could say anything else, he shushed her, begging her to listen a bit longer. Alec too, but Luna mattered that most at this instant.

"I couldn't really tell you if I tried, what happened," he admitted. Something, drugs most likely, had caused large memory blanks. "But a few minutes ago... Luna..." Just the way her name rolled off the tongue made him love her that much more. "I could feel myself splitting. It hurt." That was how everything got set on fire in the first place. "And that bit of dark magic, that I did my best to keep locked away, it did something. It reacted, and I swear it felt exactly like a zipper pulling my dragon and my human sides together. I don't know how Luna, but I think it saved me. I won't ever forgive Riser for everything, but what he did to us five years ago saved me." Ialo was not happy - well, not joyous about this revelation at least. He was quite pleased to be alive and to have a chance to be with Luna again, but it's not the best feeling in the world knowing you might be in debt to someone you absolutely hate.

He took a breath. His voice was ragged and hoarse but damn it all, he had something to say. "Luna, I love you with all my heart. Please, please forgive for leaving you - and for what I'm about to do. I will come back with you and Ophiuchus and Kai-" he choked a bit on Kai's name. One of his closest friends, wasn't he dead? Yet Ialo could feel him in this very hellhole. "-And everyone else and I'll be the Headmaster of Mystic Fountain and I'll be by your side forever. There's just... loose ends." Ialo could feel his own voice change subtly with those last two words. His eyes turned cold and angry again, not at Luna or Alec, but at some threat perceived beyond the immediate walls. He pulled Luna towards him and hugged her protectively. "And if you've any objections - " he raised his head to stare at Alec. " - You have three seconds."

Alec took all of what Ialo said in stride, marveling at how well he was controlling himself given the circumstances. Normally people who gain access to dark magic like this either went power hungry or lost all sense of sanity within minutes. But as Alec knew all too well, dark magic wasn't actually evil to most, just powerful and misunderstood. It's easier to call things like that evil, just to give people the peace of mind that 'everything has a place in life.'

So when Ialo looked around at everything with that malevolent glint in his eye, which Alec knew was for someone else, all he could do was stand there (glowing no less) and shrug. "Just don't burn the entire place down while we're still in here."

Alec also made one last parting comment to Ialo before he shot out of the room and took care of business. "I'll make sure she stays safe in the meantime. She probably doesn't need it, but it can't hurt." Alec smiled, hoping to let his new boss (which Ialo probably hadn't the slightest idea about) that he meant well.

Heh. Personal heater. Between that and her tears, undeniable proof that Luna wasn't angry at Ialo. Good. That means he could tell her what he was going to do. "I'm going kill Krauser," Ialo said. Just saying the name made him livid. "Slow and painful, or quick and merciful. I won't be picky, just as long as not even Ophi can salvage him afterwards." He wiped away Luna's tears. A little thought in the back of his mind said "Keep this one safe, she's special." If Ialo were paying closer attention, perhaps it would have sounded a bit like three voices in unison. "So sit tight," he said sweetly. "It won't take long either way. And afterwards, you can tell me who that strange man was." Not that he was jealous - well, he was, a litte, in the typical male fashion, but to accuse Luna of cheating would be to accuse his own heart of conspiracy. Not a bright idea, nor an accurate position.

((I'll post more later. Happy Halloween!))

If Ophiuchus could (but being that he was in his serpent form, he could not), he would have raised an eyebrow. Surely Krauser felt the heat from a fire - and even not-so-magically inclined would have to be dead to not have noticed a change in the atmosphere. Something intangible, but something there. Something very dark, brooding one moment, pleased the next, angry afterwards. Because of Ialo's aura, Ophiuchus noted, the whole place seemed to be at the mercy of one young dragon's mood swings.

Wonderful.

"If I were you," the White Serpent hissed aloud. "I wouldn't even bother with hope."

Arzol rolled his eyes, sighed. "Do you really? You want our help, but we're just as blind as you. Word from the boss is that the Ancients have dropped off the radar, too. Obviously there's something going on, but they could be anywhere. And with their resources and their magic, they could be in one place, then in another before another second passes."

He frowned, then glanced over when Gambit began to speak. "They'll want her to have forgotten the things that made her take the jump in the first place. So she'll most likely be without any memories, and in an area where she can be...raised, in every sense of the word. Most likely the Ancients are posing as humans. Clever bastards." He said, his eyes flashing.

When Dunstall blinked, then turned to Arzol, the other demon looked over. "You've something to say." He said, and Dunstall nodded in the quiet way he had. "I've some connections with those supposedly on the Ancients' side. The lead Ancient, Eldest, he favors Shadow Runner above all others. He calls her his little warrior. Most likely he'll be acting as a father figure." He said, and Arzol nodded, though he rolled his eyes a bit. Dunstall, the b*****d, was so softhearted, it was a wonder he'd been denied entrance into the pearly gates.