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Chiaro and Oscuro did a double-take when they saw Rhone phase in.

O.o "All right, so you found out touching the jewel gives you a look in here. But...how the heck did you get in here?!"

Chiaro had a bit of a twitch in her eye. "So. Might you be the one who was playing with them?" stare

Oscuro snorted. "Hey, you gotta admit that was funny. 'Least mine hadn't ended up hitting me in the face..." Chiaro drew her hand back with a more fierce dry glare, then flung it forward to slap Oscuro upside the head, but Oscuro caught her by the wrist in time. "HEY. Back to the question at hand."

Chiaro cleared her throat. "Ahem. Right. Well. We can feel that her mana is replenishing adequately, but she still doesn't have the strength to wake up. But overall...we can say she's all right. Thank you..." She turned away and crossed her arms, as she was kind of ashamed to look at Rhone. She concluded softly, "...And I'm sorry."

~

Fortunately for Zelos, Sheena, her back turned, was unaware of his ogling. They proceeded into the resort city, straightforwardly heading for the Lezareno Company headquarters. As they walked along, the heads of those who knew who they were turned toward them with semi-curious looks. And that was fairly many. Sheena was kind of unnerved, but she ignored the stares and moved onward.

Soon, they entered the building's lobby, greeted by the respectful bows of passing employees.

"Ah, Sir Wilder, Miss Fujibayashi," the receptionist greeted as they reached her counter, also bowing, "Welcome. What brings you here today?"

"We would like to see Regal. Is he in today?"

"Ah, yes. Master Bryant is currently in his office at the top floor. I will inform him that you're here." She kindly gestured the two toward the elevator.

"Thank you," Sheena returned with a slight bow of her own. The two proceeded into the elevator, taking it to their desired floor, soon reaching the door to Regal's office. An attendant opened it as he saw them approaching, and made a welcome gesture for them to enter.

Chiaro remained facing away. She sighed and bowed her head, her wings beginning to droop. "...I know that. I've always intended on apologizing to her."

Oscuro rolled her eyes and shook her head at Chiaro's moping. Looking back to Rhone, she said, "It'll blow over when she wakes up. I hope. Now...Rhone, if you can't figure out how to leave, then...how do you eventually leave? Do you ever get stuck in someone's mindspace when they wake up?" O_o

~

Sheena gritted her teeth and had a twitch in her eye. She clenched her fists and retorted, in increasing volume, "What makes you think I would willingly have a vacation with this perv---" Realizing how she was reacting and remembering what they were here for, she abruptly stopped. "Er-hem. I mean...we were wondering if your company has a pharmaceutical department that carries some really strong painkillers. It's...well, our friend is gonna need some when she comes to in a couple of hours."

Oscuro blinks at him several times in a minute of awkward silence.

"O...kay. That's gonna cause quite a stir when she wakes up hurting and you're still stuck in here." O____o;; She holds her chin and begins to think deeply. "Hmm..."

Noticing the conversation, Chiaro looks up...to find the "rift" gone. "Right, you sent your consciousness into here, so of course it would close up..." She turned back toward Oscuro and Rhone again. "Do you recall what kind of measures you took to be able to leave someone's mind before?"

~

"..." >:T Sheena held her breath for a moment, puffing a cheek...then she elbowed Zelos in the chest. Hard. Clearing her throat again, she continued, "Her name is Azriel, and...huh. It's a long story, actually." She paused to collect her thoughts. "You see, we were up at the Fooji Mountains to build a makeshift portal that would help us get to Kratos. Er...the story behind that is pretty long too. Anyway, after we got him back, someone in our group suddenly betrayed us." She paused in thought again, feeling like this was the tricky part to explain. "And well...Azriel has this curse that makes her have two other beings inside her. That betrayal triggered a berserk rage in the one made of light. It took over and began to destroy the mountains, and we had to stop her before she could get to a town or something. So our other friend, Rhone...he...uh..."

Sheena was at a loss for words at that point, furrowing her brow and snapping her fingers while she tried to find the right ones. She was kinda hoping Zelos could back her up a little here.

Raine having nothing to do sat down on a couch and waited for the Zelos and Sheena's return.

Out in the yard Oro yelled, "What was that you foul mouthed little no good darkness loving, piece of-"
"If you going to insult me. Say it simply and not like a running faucet!" Schwarz yelled back.
"Fine then! Cross bolt Explosion!" Sudden bolts of light came soring from the sky and came landed around Schwarz exploding on impact creating small craters in the ground.
"Waaahh!" Schwarz ran away knowing Oro was not going to give up anytime soon.

Rhone, when he notices Oscuro's reaction, quickly slaps his carefree grin on his face and watches her curiously.
"Hey Chiaro....what's your sister doing?"

~~~

Zelos doesn't even slowly fall this time, he literally staggers back, and falls face-first on the floor.

"Um....is Zelos alright?......nevermind, he's gone through worse than this."
Regal walks to the door of his office, opens it, and holds it open.
"After you, Chief of Mizuho."

(You'll see. X3)

Chiaro made a puzzled look and blinked as Rhone referred to Oscuro as a "sister". Opposite, counterpart, parallel...those words were often what they heard and thought of regarding their relationship. "Sister"...actually felt like a very new way of putting it. Perhaps it was because in their base forms, they really had no gender definition, and would conform to the traits of the collar's bearer. In fact, the majority of, if not all, of the previous curse-bearers were male, so technically, they used to be male too.

Realizing that her train of thought was going off on a tangent, Chiaro shook her head and replied, "Schwarz was in here previously. Apparently, he left a means for Oscuro to communicate with him while remaining here in the mindspace."

Oscuro flinched as the rather sudden loud noises rattled her mind's ear. Once receiving nothing more than silence from the pendant, she grimaced and picked into her right ear with her pinky finger. "Damn, Oro's just as pissy as you, Chiaro," she muttered. With a sigh and a shrug, she concluded, "...Nothing there either."

((Technically, Chiaro and Oscuro should consistently be called "it", but I'm too lazy for that. xp ))

~

Sheena huffed as Zelos fell to the floor with a loud thud. Then, upon hearing Regal refer to her by title, she began to look a little embarrassed and replied, "Please, Regal. We're friends, aren't we? You don't need to call me that..." sweatdrop She then proceeded out the door.

((I know, I'm just pointing out how I should be doing the same yet I'm not. xp ))

Chiaro and Oscuro fell silent in thought as well.

Suddenly, what seemed like a white ball of flame appeared in the corner of the room in the mansion---a wandering spirit. It drifted over to Azriel's body, hovering over the collar...then it entered the sapphire jewel. Nothing appeared where Chiaro, Oscuro, and Rhone were...however, there was a sort of chill in the air, followed by a strange feeling. It was somehow very familiar to Chiaro and Oscuro, and yet they couldn't place why. They began to stare at each other with wide eyes.

O_O "What...is that?" O_O

Downstairs, Kratos felt a little chill in the air himself earlier, at around the time the wandering spirit appeared within the mansion. His curiosity piqued, he looked up the stairs---his senses were pointing him there. At a casual pace, he walked toward them and began to climb.

~

Not having seen all the floors of this company yet, Sheena found herself impressed with the pharmacy. She was only very knowledgeable about the medicines of her clan, however. Not so much about the kinds all over the world. "So...um, where do we look?" sweatdrop she asked, a little embarrassed.

((Mood music time. wink ))

With a look of unease, Chiaro replied, "I think that is unnecessary."

"...She's right. This feeling...it... There's nothing bad in it."

"Could it be---" Her words were cut off with a gasp. They felt that strange feeling sort of intensifying. "Something's in the outer layer."

~

In this so-called "outer layer" of the mindspace that Chiaro spoke of was a lying form of Azriel, representing her state of consciousness...which was actually unconscious at the moment. If one were there, they would describe her as floating in pitch darkness, no visible floor.

A masculine figure (standing at 6'5") appeared before Azriel, his features indistinguishable because his body was glowing rather brightly. He drifted over to her side, smiling and seeming to place his hand at the side of her face endearingly. He began to speak words of an unfamiliar language.

"...Tina zot weylos necwol. Tina rody sew rafe..."

Feeling something cold on her cheek and hearing those whispers, Azriel stirred and opened her eyes---but only on that plane, not yet physically. She remained lying still, as if she hadn't enough strength to move around. She squinted, trying to look at the face that was looking down at her, but she couldn't recognize anything due to the glow.

Completely confused as to what was going on, all she could utter out was a simple "...Huh?"

~

The words could be heard where Chiaro, Oscuro, and Rhone were. Azriel's otherselves were looking at each other, even more surprised.

"There's no mistaking it! Only HE would know that language!"

Kratos had reached the door of that room by now, knocking upon it a few times. "...Hello?" After several seconds of not receiving an answer, he decided to enter on the assumption that something might be going wrong in there.

He found the dark elf kneeling at Azriel's side with what appeared to be a meditative look on his face. His hand was placed upon her neck, at that collar. Wondering what was going on, he stepped to the opposite side and looked over the both of them examiningly. Not a response from either of the two yet.

"Rhone. What are you doing to her?" Silence. "...Rhone?"

~~~

Sheena answered, "Well, with the injuries Rhone inflicted to restrain Chiaro... He made some pretty deep wounds and even pierced clear through parts of her. When she comes to, she'll definitely need something that gets to the source of pain fast."