Welcome to Gaia! ::

He’d wanted to help but how did you fight an enemy that seemingly had no weakness, an enemy that ripped entire bodies apart as though it were nothing? There was nothing they could do but watch in horror or die themselves, until the room was splattered red, until it simply was red, until the red swallowed everyone and everything and then there was nothing.

He was nothing, but he did not know he was nothing, had not the awareness to know he was nothing. He was only grey and colorless, a wisp of any sort of self, driven by his longing, by an intense desire for something intangible, something he could never quite reach and couldn't describe, an appetite that was never sated. He wandered aimless, because there was no direction, only need and insatiable want.

When he regained his sense of self, it was to find a sword pointed directly at him.

It took Gale a while to realize that the illusion was, in fact, an illusion, and it collapsed around him fast, Gale and his team left standing in the middle of an empty room. He stared around, blinking in bemusement, and it wasn't until the door had burst open and the sword pointed at him that Gale started to piece things together.

A circular pin.

He slowly pivoted to look at her, and then at the red fragment, the long, white form of Jinhai appearing in Gale's hand. He pointed the rifle at the girl, his expression quite calm, though inwardly his heart was beating too fast for his liking.

"I'd really rather you not," he said, hoping he sounded a lot braver than he actually felt at the current moment.

"Oh come on now, this is the more humane alternative to putting you guys in an arena and broadcasting everyone killing themselves in public right?" The girl grinned, and didn't put away her weapon. "I hate to have to do this, but we are Couriers, and we really need that piece of the Heart to get things done, so-"

- "Wait, let me do this." A hand restrained the first girl talking, as a second petite girl broke the ranks. She had long blonde hair, curly, delicate and perfect and wore a simple grey one piece dress with tiny grey boots. She looked exactly like the deceased Moon Assistant.

"Hi Gale," Charlotte took a step closer. "Don't be scared. It's exactly as it looks. I'm here to save you."

"Gale, slow down, I'm safe, we did the broadcasting as a precaution of sorts." Charlotte really had abandoned all pretense of accent or her old personality at this point. "We're on your side. We have always been. You know that right, we've been trying to rescue everyone off the Island. That's our primary goal. To save you and everyone else. You'll be safe with us."

He cast a sideways glance first at Stormy, who was somewhere to his left, and then at the rest of the group, still clustered around him. Gale took a small, sharp breath, his fingers tightening around the rifle. A part of him wanted to believe that this was true, that Charlotte really had managed to somehow orchestrate everything, but at the same time, the pieces to the puzzle did not quite fit right.

"How?" he asked her, still holding the rifle. His gaze unintentionally moved towards the red fragment once before meeting Charlotte's again. "And save us from what, exactly?"

"Of course silly, none if it was real. This whole O thing, us, it's all a stage act to intimidate and scare." Charlotte flipped her hair just a bit as she spoke. "We're just all actors and we set it up because we needed everyone to see they were destroying themselves. To gain that awareness. The greatest enemy to a Hunter is another Hunter. That's what we're saving you from. Each other. We'll give you shelter and food and you don't have to fight. No more missions or life and death threats. No Caelius. No H. Just what you want. All of you."

In an instant, she had a direction to look, because there was nothing more important than directing a fixated stare towards the figure. She liked the idea of meeting her predicted end, even if it still felt like she was missing something, but the heart looked so perfect, and red, and...

There was no heart. No shift in reality. Just everything as it had always been. Mimsy glanced towards Lucky before he eyes settled on the fragment. Power. She smiled and lifted her hand as if she might make an attempt to touch it - then froze, interrupted again. The frown faded, and she watched in silence, lowering her arm to tug her sleeve over it.

Their identity was immediately clear, and she'd known for a long time that she had no desire to be involved.

She still didn't, even when they began to explain. Even when Charlotte, skilled at deception, revealed some supposed ruse and offered them some disgusting idea of freedom.

"No."

It was a reflexive response, and the single word came spilling out before she had a chance to consider her options. Her gaze found Lucky again, brow knit with confusion at his apparent anxiety, and she tightened her fingers around her coat sleeve.

"I want none of that. I was very aware of our penchant for destruction, and have no desire to escape it. I would..." Lose myself even further? No longer have a purpose? What was there, if not successes and victories built on the destruction of those beneath her? She stared at Charlotte, and though she looked a little lost, her words were sincere. "I won't go."

He didn't trust her - that feeling, at least, was immediate and overwhelming. The cadence of her voice, the sterile, all-too-perfect reply that slipped from her mouth, none of it sounded real. It sounded like a fantasy, a wonderful, open promise; and after all they'd been through so far, after everything that had happened, Gale wanted more than anything for it to be true. He wanted that safe and secure life with Stormy, with his friends, with everyone.

Which was why he didn't trust it one bit.

"Sorry," he said, echoing Mimsy's sentiments. He jerked his head towards her, and towards Shiloh, who had voiced the same suspicions Gale had already. "But I agree with what she said. We knew what we were up against when we signed up in the first place."

And then he leapt towards the red fragment, his hand outstretched to grab it.