Welcome to Gaia! ::

"It...It wasn't just him." Sophie squeaked out from somewhere behind Vanth, the usually bubbly mirror ghost a bundle of terrified nerves as she answered May. "There were...others. They drew everyone else away. But that one...that one sounded like the leader." There was something in the way he spoke to himself that made him sound like he was speaking to others; the appearance of the other figures coming to drag her classmates away were engrained into her wide black eyes. This was wrong, so wrong.

"He said something about...weapon candidates. What does that mean?" She wanted to believe in the peaceful coexistence he was promising; she would be so happy to turn around and bury this place, to spend her life turning people away from it, to keep it safe until it became no more than an old wives' tail. Yet she knew, deep down, that it wouldn't happen. Couldn't happen. Too much had happened in these last few days, too many people had been lost to just smooth this over, and then---

"Wait. If we...if we do as he says...do you think he'd return them? Give them back to us?" Normally Sophie would have sauntered right up to the figure and loudly proclaim that this was their ultimatum; but that Sophie was gone, leaving in her wake someone too scared to raise her voice above a whisper.

They had taken her friends, their friends; and it seemed too easy for them.

Something was wrong. In spite of how many times she checked - and it was beginning to add up, with the frequency that she was now glancing at it - there was no message on Taru's skellyphone. No response. No annoyance. She couldn't see Malcolm anywhere nearby, but she tried to tell herself that didn't mean anything.

She just stared at the reaper, overwhelmed with disbelief and worry. Was this not the same being who had just done something unthinkable to a portion of their graduating class? Was he really making an attempt to bargain with them right now?

"Don't trust him," she quietly piped up, once a handful of the others had explained the conflict at hand better than she ever could. "Think for yourselves here. Nobody's gonna save us. Just don't trust anyone and don't get yourself thinkin' that you can. Or you'll be gone."

It was a grim truth, but a truth nonetheless. She hugged Bee close, resting her chin on the least wiggly of his three heads.

Vel's eyes widened at that. This was not sounding good at all. Snarling, she turned her gaze back to the reaper. That pretty much summed up her thoughts that this guy was bad news all around. Chances were that they were already surrounded right now. Or will be shortly. She had strong doubts the mysterious figure would let them walk away.

"Keep your senses sharp," she urged Sophie and anyone else who could hear her.

As with what Taru said, they should not trust the reaper. Also it was probably safe to say no professors would be coming to help them here. They probably didn't even know they were here in the first place.

"I don't see whether we do what he says or don't do rightly matters," Tex said coldly, holding his guitar ready and staring at the so-called reaper. "I know a snake when I see one. They talk mighty smooth and you find yourself wantin' to believe every word they say, but they still got fangs. No offense to Miss Selene," he added quickly. "I ain't talkin' the physical. I'm talkin'... my pa."

He loved his pa. Didn't mean he didn't know EXACTLY what the old man was.

Selene had been doing a mighty fine job of not being noticed until Tex suddenly addressed her, and she squeaked at the sound of her name, clutching at Tarot's hand and diving back into Arcana's arms. She listened to Arcana explain what happened, and her face screwed tightly up once more, so she turned it to his chest and smashed it against him to keep from showing her tears. It was all just so sad, and terrible, and there was no hope for any of them!

Arcana was speaking to her directly, now. She lifted her head, as wet eyes stared up at him mournfully, and her hand drifted away from Tarot to press against his cheek.

"I don't want you to be hurt either, Arcana.. if you think a truce is the way to save us all, I agree with you."

She would do anything to simply make all the bad things stop.

As he was very suddenly released from the net, Malcolm groaned, balling his hands into fists as he pushed himself off the ground; yeah, see, cool guys need no help. Summoning his staff and using it to prop himself up, he walked over to the group that was at the end of the cave, standing in front of the reaper from before; it sounded like he was trying to make another bargain with them.

Sadly, it wasn't going to work on him. Not when there was any sort of reason for him to let them go now, when they could easily tell others about this cave.

He walked past Taru, giving her, and Bee too, a pat on their head, and he kept walking until he was standing near Arcana. He didn't say anything, but his expression said everything... That he still hadn't learned another expression other than 'poker face' and 'frowning face'. And that he did not trust the reaper. The latter was the more important thing.

Westhor's eyes widened in disbelief when he saw his trapped bro come towards them; he was fine! Akithor was fine, and they were hugging, and he felt so solid and so real... he teared up again; sure, he had promised Tarot, but these were happy tears! He hoped that Tarot wouldn't mind his happy tears... happy tears were always full of love.

"A-Akithor bro..." He smiled, although his expression soon turned into one of confusion as he looked at his Thor bros, "B-but what if this boss is speaking the truth, bros? What if... What if we can walk away now, a-and chill together again, you know? Like old times? No more fighting... Bros..." He trailed away, knowing - somewhere deep, deep in his heart - that things would never be the same again... And he didn't like it.

It broke his heart to realize that.

"W-weapon... C-candidates...?" Something about that word, and the way Sophie had explained why so many student weren't here, caused a shiver to run down his spine. His head then turned to stare at Arcana, "D-disappeared?! As in taken?!" He stared at the reaper person, fear clearly reflected in his eyes, "I... I want my bros and sisters back..."