Welcome to Gaia! ::

Addie awoke to a low growling sound, and sat up abruptly, realizing it was Eli. Blinking, she turned in the dark, and sucked in a breath when she saw someone standing at her window, looking out. Eli was still beside her on the bed, his eyes locked on the intruder.

Cocking her head to the side, Addie turned to face the man, and her innocent mind didn't register the fact that unknown faces were dangerous. "...Daddy?" She asked, wondering if the man in the shadows was her father, come to make sure everything was ok.

It was at that moment that Eli pounced towards the man, just as her bedroom door burst open. Her father and brothers came dashing in, crowding into the doorway.

Seemingly unconcerned, merely wanting to know who this man was, Addie leaped out of bed without warning, approaching the man. She tapped his arm, and when she saw his face, her eyes locked on his for just a moment. In her mind, she saw, not a man in the shadows, but a familiar face who's eyes had once danced with laughter as they'd looked into hers. And she blinked, a laughing smile coming to her face.

"Night," She said, her face breaking out in a grin Night had never seen before. However, a moment later, her eyes rolled back in her head, and Warren scooped her up, his eyes burning into Night's.

In the next instant, the whole background disappeared, and it was only Eldest and Night, standing in rubble in the middle of the rain. Eldest's eyes were dark with surpressed fury, and he looked straight at Night.

"She called for you in slumber, but this will not happen again. You will not interfere. Are you satisfied now, knowing she lives, if only in an illusion? Knowing her soul remains, even if only in the spirit realm we've created?" He demanded, annoyance in every word. This demon had almost gone and blown their plan all to hell.

Eldest held his temper, reminding himself that this boy was merely a demon while he was right up there with gods. When Night accused him of planning all along to have Danni kill herself, his face paled, and he scowled. "You think I would sacrifice the life of one I hold so dear merely for a prophecy?! That I could ever use the little warrior as a pawn? We Ancients have eternity and beyond to reclaim our positions. The little warrior has only a handful of years, even if she should go and live for a hundred years as some humans do. I wouldn't sentence her to an early grave for a damned prophecy!" He took a breath, not needed of course, and looked Night dead in the eye, the secrets flying in the Ancient's eyes enough to have a lesser man drop to his knees.

"We were blinded by the taste of success we were so sure was coming, when after so long one of the Heroes of Prophecy stepped up and did what no other had dared. We didn't see what the weight of our task had put upon her shoulders, didn't see how her mind was deteriorating, and that is our fault entirely. She needed stability, love, assurance, and we gave her swords and spells and a curse." He ran his hands through long black hair, decided to hell with it all.

"This was the only way to make things right. We saw her stripped down to the very soul, something I'll pray you never have to see, and we saw what had become of her while our backs were turned. Her last wish was for family, and we're giving her that. She cannot live until her soul heals, so we placed it inside a replica of her body, became her family. Her memories come back to her slowly, in her dreams. And eventually with those dreams will come, if we're correct, acceptance. Only then can we set her into her rightful body once more, and out into the world. As it is...she's nothing but a memory, an illusion, solidified. The body you see is nothing but a...clone of sorts, a mere imprint of what she once was." Fed up with all this explaining, he shook his head, aimed a glare at the demon.

"Know this, the one she calls Night. You shall not set eyes upon her again. Exposure like that could have all her memories toppling into her brain and we'd be back at square one. We shall be relocating again, and I shall take great measures to ensure you do not track us down this time. I love that girl like my own, and hold her dear as I've held no other in all my considerable existence. I won't see her hurt, and when it comes time to fulfill the prophecy, I, and all of the Ancients, shall do all we can to assure she returns from the battlefield in one piece." With that, he turned on his heel, and disappeared with a subtle flash of fog, managing to not leave behind a magical trail.

Already half a continent away, Eldest rolled his eyes in exasperation when he heard Night's reply. Sighing, he blinked, and the rain in Montana stopped, the skies clearing abruptly.

((Lucky them.))

Ambrose, after telling Lin he'd be leaving early ((couple pages back, case you're wondering)), had returned to his room and begun packing up his belongings. His face was bright with anticipation. Often times he got this way, with a sudden urge to spend time with his baby sister. She never questioned it, and almost always welcomed his unexpected presence. He just knew she'd love the scene he'd captured for her in the little bubble he'd made into a necklace for her.

He held it in his hand, tossed it in the air once, then cursed under his breath when it bounced off his finger and rolled under the bed. Muttering to himself, he got down on his knees and peered under the bed. And there, he saw was the bubble, thankfully intact, beside a piece of paper. He grabbed both, storing the bubble safely in his pocket before he smoothed out the paper, glanced down at what it said. And felt his blood run cold.

For once, that initial urge to resist disappeared. The dragon - no, Ialo tucked his wings in and swooped in behind Horus. Long curving claws reached out and embedded themselves in the enemy's wings, shredding and pulling them as Ialo pulled himself and Horus towards the ground.

Ophiuchus stared at Riser. "Is he... Did he just listen to you?"

Outside, the police were swarming, blocking off that whole section of the city. Due to the dogfight, no helicopters or other aircraft had been able to get close, but some shots from the ground units had been fired. They were ineffective, either missing the targets wholly, or not affecting them.

In the higher atmosphere, there was a combination of awe and smugness from the fifteen gleaming white satellites.

Ophiuchus crossed his arms and glowered at the floor, knowing Riser had a point. "Three years ago, the boy told me he wanted to be like his dad. He said communication was the cornerstone of all life, and he wanted to help everyone all over the Earth be able to talk and share with anyone else in the world. I guess, in retrospect, that's a bit of a small goal for someone of his mindset." He looked up, and solemnly watched the fight. A thin, pale barrier formed close to ground, alleviating the worst of the pressure on the nearby humans.

"Augh!" Horus's headbash agitated Ialo more than it actually hurt him, thanks to the dark steely scales. "The hell is wrong with you?" he growled. "You're dead, dead, dead! What're you doin''?!" Ialo did not expect to get an answer. He did however, experiment with the possibility that by destroying Horus's corpse in a giant incinerating ball of dragon fire, the pressure would disappear.

"You." The message was unmistakably aimed at Ophiuchus and had the tone of a man who expected to be obeyed. "Kai stays. Take the rest of my family away."

Ophiuchus paused. "So you consider Alec to be your-"

"GO, AND DO NOT QUESTION ME."

"Riser, I am blaming this on you."

"So. So so so. This is how it ends, I'm sure that's what you smug bastards are thinking." He looked to the silverwing, to the dragon still wrestling with his Altered-turned-bomb, to the Fallen standing on the edge of the broken wall. "Well, you're wrong. You're wrong I tell you, wrong! This is going to end yes, I will not deny a blatant truth. But since this must end," he pulled a small metallic object from his pocket and flipped it open, revealing a red switch. "IT'S GOING TO BE ON MY TERMS, NOT YOURS!"
He slammed his thumb to the switch.
Horus began to swell from the spiritual pressure being artificially generated within him, his body distorting and becoming grotesque; if any feeling was left in that poor abomination it must have been horrendous, nothing any child should ever be put through.
Riser looked just below his feet; the massive, fleshy feathers embedded within the buildings walls were beginning to flash.
And then,
And then,
AND THEN,
Nothing.

The group looked around, startled to realize that they had been returned to the courtyard of MFHS. Kai was still flying, Ialo was still a dragon, and he still clutched Horus' disfigured arm-wings in his claws.
Riser was nearby, upon his hands and knees staring into the tiled walkway. Something was wrong. He was gagging, choking even; a grotesque blood-like substance burst from his lips, staining the tile a reddish purple.
He collapsed.

Riser began to reawaken slowly, and quickly after that he began to scream in what seemed like agony. None present had ever heard him scream like that. His right hand shot to his face, searching for something. His fingers found the edge of his mask, and with one massive outpouring of strength he wrenched it from his face with the sickening sound of tearing tissue. His face repaired itself nearly immediately, but he lay shaken; awake, but shaken.
Then it dawned on them all, none had ever before seen his unobstructed face. His various forms all shared very similar faces, but all bore strange and ornate forms of that mask. His face was, well to say the least, handsome; it possessed a quality to it, a quality that seemed to be impossible for mortals to fully grasp, one that made his face reminiscent of just about every person they had ever met or seen. Perhaps what he had said was true, maybe all humans truly were descended from this dissident God.
"You," he muttered towards Ialo. "need to do as I say...from now on alright? If only you knew..." he turned his gaze towards the ground. "If only you knew what I had to do to save your little friends."

((All that were in the building that were related in some way to MFHS. Aurora for example, is on his own, who knows whats happened to him. Specifically the ones in the fight are in the courtyard, the others are somewhere around the campus.))