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Luna frowned. She didn't understand. She responded in the only way she knew how. Luna reached out to him and hugged him, just like she did on the roof, just like she did in the snow five years ago, just like she always did when she felt like he needed comforting.
Years without a caring hug could do a lot of s**t to a person.
Luna risked another look at Ialo.
A lot of s**t.

Her lips lingered on his, and it made him smile. "Good luck with your vivid dreams, Miss Yin."
And within a blink's notice, he was gone.

Lin giggled when she heard Dymetri respond with Miss Yin, playing along with her brief game. He was so cute.

She was disappointed to see him go, and already wanted him by her side again, but she reminded herself that the faster she went to sleep, the faster he'd be beside her again. Of course, when she closed her eyes, though, she was filled with the images and feelings of his lips on hers, his arms wrapped around her and his body pressed against hers...

She sighed in frustration and turned on her side, trying to shut her mind off.

She managed to do that after about 1/2 an hour and finally succumbed to sleep.

Ialo silently reached up and began to run his hands through Luna's hair. She was precious to him. It was his fault that he didn't try to contact her after those fateful events, and the end result but a subtle yet gaping hole in his heart. It was there all throughout college - no matter which girl (and the occasional boy!) had asked him out, tried to get close to him, Ialo was just incapable of responding. He was as cold and emotionless as his precious machines. And to him, Luna was that light at the end of the tunnel, that made everything worthwhile.
God, he was so in love with her, whether he cared to admit it or not.
"But... I'm not..." Ialo said bleakly. "It hurts. When ever I think about him, or he's near, it hurts." He looked at his right hand again, at the black vine-like mark on his wrist, surrounded by scars.
"I want it all to end, once and for all."

Ialo still didn't look up. They know my name, he thought. But they don't know me. I don't even know me.
"I wouldn't wish this upon anyone," he said quietly. He didn't deserve that kiss.
"This is the price I pay for being an indescive fool." He wasn't bitter anymore, just somber. Which was saying a lot, considering how solemn he usually acted anyways. Suddenly, he felt guilty, even more more ashamed of himself.
"I gave up a long time ago Luna, and became selfish. Even though he can't control my mind anymore, this power was still here. And I used it selfishly. I thought for a bit, that I had won. But I haven't won anything at all." He sighed again. Here he was, sitting shirtless on the floor of empty room (his aim was a bit off when he teleported them back into the school) and spilling his innermost thoughts and worries to the only girl he felt he ever loved - and one of his few friends. She would make a beautiful therapist, he thought with a bit of amusement.
"But at least for now, Ophiuchus has prevented it from ever possibly spreading." That was the seal near his shoulder, upon closer inspection it resembled an ouroboros, the god's favored symbol.

"Argh!!!!" Danni's gutteral snarl resounded through the forest, and she thrust the black bladed sword deep into the ground, leaning on it. Her features were contorted with a mixture of rage and pain, and her body trembled as she bit her bottom lip. Her eyes were black as midnight, but for the small red dot in the middle of each one. Dark, cold expressions lined her face, the darkness swallowing up her pained, struggling sounds.

The Sword of the Ancients was more than just a weapon, was more than what she'd told Cook or anyone else. It was a mystical weapon that gave the beholder the strength of all those who'd possessed it in the past, along with the dark, horrifying powers of the Underworld. The spirits of those who'd come before were trapped in the Sword, and set themselves loose in her body each time she chose to wield it.

There was just one problem with this arrangement: The darkness, the spirits, all tried to take over her body, control her magic to do their bidding. The Sword had a bloody past, claimed to have taken thousands, even millions of lives. Those who'd wielded it before had been both good and evil, and many had used it to fulfill their own selfish desires. If she ever wanted to be able to fully control the Sword itself, she had to be able to manage to control all the spirits who invaded her body each time her hand wrapped around the sword's hilt.

But the vengeful spirits now inside her seemed to be getting harder to control, seemed to grow in number every time she summoned the Sword. They seemed to be trying to destroy her from the inside, such was the pain that she felt as the spirits inflicted it upon her. Black tendrils of evil magic wafted up from the sword, seemingly wrapping around her, tempting her to give in to her own desires, to give up in her attempts to destroy the leader of the Underworld.

But, as she always managed to do, Danni fought free from the black tendrils, and was almost brought to her knees with the effort it took to ban the spirits from her head, from her thoughts. Just a bit more, she thought, just a bit more and I'll be able to control them.

She was vaguely aware of Sun Dance and Moe, the two dogs she'd brought along, cowering under a nearby tree, surrounded by a shielding spell she'd put up for them.

Her face didn't change away from the prideful grin and the bright eyes. Except, she pulled a hand away from him, making it so that he was more holding her than the other way around.
The nail sharpened.
"Lets do it right now."

[[If you think about it... She might kinda look psycho now.... Maybe SHE needs a good slap.. lmao]]

Her face stayed the same except the corners of her eyes crinkled. She thought that he was playing with her.
She began slowly crawling towards him, the nails in the other hand now sharpened.
"But.. I'm trying to help you."

[[HOLY s**t. IM PISSING MYSELF.]]

His tone made her blink, her face falling.
What just happened?
Oh my, she thought, I really am as psycho as him..
She stopped crawling and sat, pulling her legs against her. She thought about his second statement and further wondered what was going through her head.
"Right," she simply said.
Her nails already returned back to normal and her cooler turned on. The ground she sat on turned blue with frostbite. "We can always use your sword.."