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"Yooooou're forgiven," the boy's voice rang out anew, cheerful and crazed as ever, from all directions as a set of serrated claws drove their way into Shiva's back, then up to her diaphragm with enough force to pierce completely through the summon, the index through little-finger exiting just below the woman's breasts with the thumb protruding just barely from the center of her ribs.

The young man jerked his arm back, but the edges of the claws held fast inside the summon, shifting her back into him, "Oooh," the pushed Shiva forward then lifted his leg up, placing his metal boot between her shoulder blades, before pressing with all his might. The result, was a slow, squelching rip of pops as each thorned serration came loose from her flesh till at last it released and her body was allowed to fall forward with a spray of blood splashing over the Louis' torso and face.

"Ehe," the boy ran his tongue along one of the scarlet drenched claws. The boy's eyes were still black, but one glowing yellow pupil rolled back from the top of his head, looking off to the side, missing the center, zipping back and forth a few times before finally locking correctly again to stare at Bobbi. Black shadows danced around him bending the air and distorting the girl's vision making the already disorienting scene dizzying as the blood glowed contrast against his blackened body like red neon light, "That's a lot of blood, ehehehehehe."

[[Snow In Summer from NieR Piano Collections by Keigo Hoashi]]

Laughter was the only reply to Bobbi's question, spikes erupting from the floor, piercing Louis and Shiva both, hanging their bodies overhead. Louis stared at Bobbi, still laughing from his perch, having made no attempt to move the spear had passed through one side of his ribs and out his collar bone and shoulder, "Boooobbiiii~ Your darkness is showing~ Ahahahaha!!!"

Both the boy and his impaled companion burst into vanishing clouds of darkness. Shadows danced midst the forest of icicles blurring the scenery more and more till at last it collected around the girl, blinding her for but a moment before expanding outward, revealing a very different scene than she'd been used to.

Her station, normally sparkling and colorful was dim and dyed under a consistent shade of red light. Through the cracks of the glass, ran pulsing black veins that while just running along the surface appeared to be embedded lightly with smaller veins that split off. Connected to them all at the center however, was the familiar throne, only this time, grotesque, asymmetrical, and adorned off-center by a large black rose, at the core of which, a bleeding, tumor-like mass pulsed and writhed like a beating heart.

Atop the opposite side of the throne than the flower was Louis sitting with a smirk. Shiva stood some distance away, unharmed but she'd experienced every moment of what just transpired like Bobbi did. Behind them both, a large, black... what couldn't be better described than a hole in the light hovered like a looming mouth open wide to devour the station at the first opportunity, "Boooobbiii~ You should bring more friends to play~ This is so much fun~ Haha! Ahahaha!"

[[Magenta by Nano]]

Louis spun around, shadows whipping around him and settling in a flash as he froze in the air, floating suspended in a casting pose. His left claw thrust itself forward, spreading out into a wall several yards in front of him, Shiva's blizzards impacting the black pit and vanishing within like passing into a pool of oil. His opposite hand shot up, a sphere forming again from the other claw, reverting to its original form. He charged darkness into it but stopped a shocked expression coming over his face, looking skyward a moment later... a second after the arrows passed high over the wall of shadow... after a second of vibrating in place the sphere rocketed off upwards at first before cutting unnaturally in a new direction, homing in on Bobbi's fired arrows.

As the arrows hit the pinnacle of their flight and exploded, sending a rain of icicles down on the young man and his throne, the sphere detonated, absorbing countless of the icy arrows in its area of influence before compressing into a small ball once more and firing back down to the boys open palm. The remaining icicles landed in a massive ring around the throne while his left hand retracted, reverting the black wall into a sphere once again zipping back and merging with the other, never increasing in size. His palms held parallel and horizontal to one another, pressed together on the sphere, then pulled apart, throwing his arms out to each side with only a small line of glimmering dust left to prove the darkness had ever been there.

Instantly, with a loud snap the area behind the throne flickered into a small army of black spheres, each humming deeply with rising intensity, almost loud enough to drown out his hysterical laughter.

Elsa nodded in response to Kyla, but also made note of Bobbi's first reaction, as well. A bit of a half-acceptance, but it would suffice. Still, she wanted to give Bobbi enough privacy to finish her and Kyla's murmuring remarks.

So, though she began to open up a path in the ice wall (as she had before, opening enough to step forward but closing behind James as he stepped in), she did so slowly. As a result, Kyla would be able to at least respond to Bobbi's aside before anyone was within earshot. Only after Kyla and Bobbi finished that would the final barrier open up to allow James through, closing behind him when he did so.

While this continued, she remained comfortable in her chair. She'd have offered a chair to the others, but they seemed comfortable enough on the floor against the wall.

{ATE : Healing Bonds : 3}

James : Disney Castle : Castle's Public Library}

James waited for some kind of response, either verbal or otherwise, his focus still on the ice wall. After a little bit he watched as the ice recessed inward a bit, starting to allow him to enter. As he walked through the opening created it closed behind him, clearly barring anyone else from getting in as it slowly continued further inwards until it finally allowed him through. He walked into the large library and spotted Mizu, Kyla, and none other than the Queen of Arendelle, Elsa. The corsair bowed his head in respect to the queen with a warm smile before turning his focus to his friends.

"Hey, What's going on?" the corsair asked as he made his way over to them.

He paused though as he looked at the clearly unnatural looking bruise on Kyla's back. Her hair had clearly covered that up before when they had spoken, because he hadn't noticed it at that time. Even from the distance he was at he could feel the darkness coming from it. It was pretty much exactly like what had happened to him after Ajora's seal had been removed. He looked to Kyla, not sure where exactly they were at in regards to what they had been discussing, if it even really concerned the corsair.

'Mind giving me a bit of a recap? Is something wrong?' the corsair asked, trying not to let his concern be clearly evident, in either the way he appeared or in the way his thoughts sounded.

{ATE : Healing Bonds : 4}

[Kyla : Disney Castle : Library]

Thankful for the efficient method the charms provided for translating information, A wash of images flooded into James’s mind in proper sequence. First their talk, then Maggie, just little cue notes of the conversation-
Followed then by Kyla attempt to try and figure out her way around this in the library- Carbuncles meddling, Elsa’s first reaction, then her secondary reaction by trapping her.

Next she showed him the most important thing Elsa recommended ot her, that being how she could try and take down her problems one bit at a time, instead of letting the entire ball of wax fall and crush her. Then finally bobbi coming in.
((James puppeting approved))
After seeing the bruise revealed in memory she could feel James proding her with a quentioning- why- why didn't she say anythign right away!?
A number of things came to mind, but deep down it did boil to a very deep guilt and shame...

A few short images followed, like walking down the hall behind Joe and Dawn being given the silent treatment, then inside the dive and remembering Noelle's anger-
truthfully Kyla was afraid revealing this would only worsen things between her and everyone else even more. She felt it was a flame, being lifted to a powder keg-

Kyla hadn’t exactly shown him anything about the Nameless yet- or how this wound appeared in her in the first place- only that it was there.
“…I’m sorry.” She muttered, “ I guess you were right. About before.” the artist replied verbally to James, obviously referring to what he told her before on the balcony: About trying to give the others some leeway into her little world.
She never thought it would happen so quickly though.

Bobbi jumped a little at the crack of thunder—she always had at the first clap during storms, more from surprise than from fear. Her heart hammered in her throat as what she assumed were the spheres slammed repeatedly into her and Shiva's shield, making the ice walls shudder with their impact. Cracks began to appear in the walls, both inner and outer, as she and Shiva rushed to reinforce the Mirror Wall.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't be hiding if you were sane and not trying to kill me, so shut your face!" Bobbi shouted to Louis, her voice trembling a little with rage and no little fear. Her anger was starting to lose out to her very real and very potent fear, but she knew that her fear would paralyze her, so she fought against it. Not to force her anger to override the fear; no, too much rage would send her into a rather berserk state where she was incapable of thought. That wouldn't do, either.

She'd already entered a state of icy calm before, but now she sought a different sort of calm, a different… cold. That previous calm had been brought on by her rage, causing her to snap into a state of heightened focus that, if sustained, would be severely detrimental. No, what she needed was to clear her head of her emotions, especially the negative ones. To be able to think without the impetus of fear and anger clouding her judgment.

The cold radiating from the ice barrier was very soothing, and Bobbi seized on that cold, letting it cool her anger and soothe her fear. Almost like applying her Ice Balm to her emotions, she let the cold soothe and numb her. It was hard to do with the barrage still going on, but the first time she had ever been to a firing range and shot a gun, she'd learned how to tune out the sounds of explosions around her, and she employed that lesson now, dusty and rusted with disuse though it was.

She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath, held it for a moment, and let it out slowly. She felt a surge of reassurance from Shiva, conveying through emotions rather than words that Bobbi could leave the defenses to her for a moment. Of course Shiva knew what she was up to, and took it upon herself to remove as many distractions as she could; and keeping up the Mirror Wall was a distraction.

Bobbi sought the sources of her anger and fear. All external, it seemed…

No, not external. She was the one feeling these emotions, and they did come from within her. But the trigger, the cause was external. Anger and fear were perfectly healthy emotions to experience, but not when the flames had been fanned to such an extent. Especially her anger; it burned like a fire, the natural detriment to her element. No wonder the emotion weakened her so quickly and easily.

And of course, the driving force behind that inferno… it wasn't her fear, though partially the anger was there to help burn away the tangling webs of fear. No, the primary cause, the fuel to the fire, was her hatred of Louis. She hated him as she'd never hated anyone, and that is what had kindled the fires of her anger into an inferno.

Hatred isn't my strength. It's a weakness. Where does my strength lie? What is the one thing I'm best at that will help me?

An image came to mind; a name, a face, the man who had hurt her most, long, long before this adventure had even started. The rage, the pain, the despair, in a moment they all came flooding back, mere ghosts of memories felt through an enshrouding and protecting shell of...


Was she ready for that?

When Kyla mentioned wanting to get to know Bobbi and the others better, the Archer smiled a little, then settled back against the wall and waited expectantly for James to finish making his way through. As Kyla graced them with a quick recap via charms, Bobbi's brow creased with a frown, partially from concentration as she tried to sort through the information flood, but mostly because it… wasn't at all what she was expecting. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn't all that. When she saw/felt/heard Kyla's reasons for not speaking up before, Bobbi's lips pursed a bit. She understood how Kyla felt on that; especially not wanting to make worse an already shaky relationship between herself and people she respected and admired. However, Bobbi's previous point still stood: was preventing personal embarrassment or shame worth risking the lives and safety of others?

"Is there anything else you need to tell us before we tackle this?" Bobbi asked, calmly and putting as much sympathy as she could into her voice. She'd thought her words through carefully. She knew Kyla wanted to keep some things private, but Bobbi couldn't shake the feeling that there was something vital Kyla was holding back.

Bobbi knew the bruise had been there since Atlantis. But how did it get there? Was it outside influence à la Louis, or was it something else?

Something worse?