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Loque held Azmaria supportively and looked around, spotting Joshua and Chrono. He looked to Remington and Gilliam, not knowing who they really were, but knowing that they were allies.

"What are we to do?" he asked, "We must get her back . . . and Chrono . . . We're stuck, none of us are strong enough to . . ." He let his voice trail, still in a bit of a daze. Looking down to Azmaria he gave her a sad smile. "Are you all right?"

Booker lifted Blaise up and followed after Kaden who had Soto by the collar. He dragged the nix over to where the others were and pushed him to his knees. As Soto tried to get back up Kaden gave him a sharp kick in the side.

"Stay down, slime!" he hissed and Soto listened. There would be no escape at this time.

As Booker came up behind him with Blaise, Kaden looked over her. "Is she alright?"

"I think so . . ." Booker replied quietly.

Kaden looked to Gilliam and Remington and said, "A word of thanks from all of us. If you hadn't shown up to help we would have . . . well . . ." Kaden looked around a bit and stopped, "Where's Annalise?"

Turning around he could see her where she had been previously. She was looking up at Shader with tears in her eyes. "Why, Shader?" she asked in a small voice, "Why did we do this? . . . I thought you cared about me . . ."

"No, Shader! Don't leave me." Annalise begged her, "You don't have to follow him! It's not right, and you know it! You don't have to, please, you're not a bad person . . . you can stay with us and it would be like we were a family. Please, you don't have to go, you're not evil like they are . . ."

Kaden was usure of what to do. This woman was one of them . . . but she didn't act it. He could see that Shader regretted all this. Loque held Azmaria tightly and they all remained silent, not knowing what was to come next.

Annalise reached out for Shader as she dissappeared and was dissapointed to find her grasp empty. She let her arm slowly come back to rest at her side and stood unnaturally quiet, just staring at the space where Shader had been. She was so heartbroken.

Kaden looked to Blaise in Booker's arms as Shader gave her something to tell Chrono. The girl looked just barely conscious; Kaden would make sure she caught the fraze. He watched Annalise for a few moments after Shader had vanished, letting her have a little bit of time. Slowly he approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Things are going to be all right." he said to her softly, ushering her over to where everyone else was standing. The little girl stood by Booker and took Blaise's hand. Blaise moved weakly and pulled Annalise's hand closer to her.

((Jar time, don't question it. XD))

Soto had made several more attempts at getting away, each one of them and would have been successful had Kaden not been so keen on beating him senseless. Soto's last attempt was to turn into a small beetle. Unfortunately for him Kaden grabbed him and threw him in a jar. No escape.

Annalise refused to leave Blaise's side and so she stayed with her, curled up in her arms as she slept. Kaden watched the two closely and he sat in a chair in the same room along with Booker in Loque. They spoke in low tones so as not to disturb the others.

"So . . ." Kaden breathed heavily, "Now what?"

"I . . . don't know. It's hard to say." Loque answered then touched Booker's shoulder. The younger elf had been watching Azmaria sleep for quite some time, a worried expresstion on his face.

"She'll be okay, you don't have to worry." Loque told him softly. Booker nodded but didn't take his eyes away.

They all looked up as Gilliam spoke. It still felt a bit strange because they didn't know him at all yet.

"You can tell her we're doing fine. Azmaria and Blaise are still asleep and the rest of us have only been talking. You should insist she join us, though I'm not sure if she'll be willing to." Loque said then noticed an annoying sound coming from the jar on the table that had the little beetle in it that was Soto.

The bug was clawing at the sides of the glass, desperately trying to climb up the side but there would be no possible way with the slick glass on the inside. Kaden looked at it in a bored way, turned the jar on its side, and gave it a good spin. It went round and round for a time and slowly came to a halt. the bug remained quite still afterwards.

Booker gave Kaden a slight look of amusement before saying, "Are you ever going to leave him alone?"

"No." Kaden responded blatantly. "He deserves it, the bloody git. He's just lucky I haven't squashed him yet."

Kaden bent forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. "There's not much I can tell you . . ." he told him, "Besides the fact that where we were taken is not a land based building. It was strange, but all around were clouds . . ."

As Gilliam mentioned Soto, Kaden looked and placed the jar back upright roughly. "To the best of my knowledge, yes. Though I'm not so sure we should let him out yet, I'm not done shaking the jar."

Loque tried not to chuckle at Kaden's statement. He really had it in for that bug. "Well, at the risk of being squashed, I'm sure he'll give us what we need know."

"Yeah, sure . . ." Kaden murmered as he unhappily took the lid off of the jar and set it on its side to free his captive. The little beetle warily crawled out and stood still on the table. Kaden took Loque's sword and stood ready to deal Soto another beating should he try anything.

The change from the bug back to a human happened faster than the blink of an eye. Then Kaden had him pinned against the wall just as fast.

"Oi! I'm not going anywhere!" Soto shouted defensively. Kaden held him there for a few seconds then sorely stepped away.

Soto drew away from the tip of the arrow as much as he could, but it wasn't much. "Is this really necessary?"

Kaden gave the nix a good poke with the tip of his sword and hissed. "Imagine this from our point of view. Now is it necessary?"

"I suppose so . . . well then, I best get to it. I'm afraid I can't give you much, but what I have, I do admit is useful. The only reason I am in the service of Aion is because we made a deal. I fulfilled my end of it, and now I doub't I'll be able to see the fulfillment of his. He told me to in one way or another get something in a vial into your comrade's system. He told me no more and so I did no more. Also, just in familiarity, Aion also takes on the title Bane . . ."

Kaden frowned a bit. Why is that name familiar?

"Doomed us all, oh well isn't that thoughtful of me." Soto murmered to himself sarcastically. Look what you've gotten yourself into . . . looks like you we'ren't doing much good anyways. I'm sorry Eli, I should have been smarter.

They all paused as Miranda came in and as Gilliam started shouting at him again he replied. "I don't know, I didn't bother to ask! The color was dark, it didn't seem relvant."

"Well it is now!" Kaden growled. Loque touched his shoulder to get his attention.

"Blaise might know." the elf told him, "She was there."

"But I'm afraid if we wake her . . ." Kaden said in uncertainty.

"It's important."

". . . Alright."

Kaden moved to Blaise and touched her shoulder, lightly shaking her. She responded just barely at first but he was able to coax her awake. She groaned as he helped her sit up. As soon as she saw Soto her eyes widened and she made a weak attemped at getting at him. Kaden held her back and moved the girl's head so she was looking into his eyes.

"Blaise, calm down, it's alright." He said softly so he wouldn't disturb Annalise.

"He hurt Rosette! I'll kill him!" she growled but was still held tight by Kaden.

"I know, I know, but we need you to help us. What was in the vial? He said his job was to get the liquid in the vial into Rosette's system. What was it?" He asked.

"Blood." she said shakily, "Aion's blood."

Kaden still held her upright as he was afraid she might not be strong enough to stay up herself and looked to the others. "This sin't good at all . . ."