Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Quistis :: Caribbean Sea :: Below Deck on the Pearl]

Quistis had remained quiet during the whole ordeal, the blonde man getting his eye ravaged by the girl's kiss. She watched the man across from them get brutally tortured. She even saw the group nearly fall apart as one of their members grab the guy she was with at the gallows and attempt to knock some sense into him.

Then a mysterious woman appeared. Offering them freedom. A dark portal opened up, opened up to somewhere. Should she step in? Avoid it? Await an unknown, but not looking good, fate? She decided to go for broke. She moved into the portal, appearing on...another ship. But Quistis felt safer than she did on the ship. She found a place to sit down away from everyone and closed her eyes. She still wasn't sure about everything she had seen, but she decided staying with this group was waaaay better than sitting in a jail cell on a ship.

Don't tell me you can't do anything! Get into his head. He's more receptive to you. He'll open up. Find out what he's remembered so I-

So you can what? Corrupt it again and twist his good nature into the killer you want him to be? I don't think so. Besides, his mind is like a fortress now.

Then I'll just force my way in like before! I'll take over and then he won't have a choice in the matter. A broken vessel is better than no vessel at all.

No! If you do that you could break him all together. If his heart breaks there will be nothing left.

What do you know? I have to try! I will not let this weak hearted fool rui-

Hold on! Something's happening!

Kyle's hands touched Louis' chest, the moment of contact sending a pulse through the room, flickering the lantern once more threatening to put it out for good, but it stays firm. Shadows danced across the walls as vibrations quickly grew into earthquake force movements in the supports to the space. In the depths of Louis' sub-conscious where the two specters held their ground they could see the piercing light breaking through the surface.

What is that? What is that light?

This, Mateus, is a miracle.

Louis' eyes seemed to whiten slightly, his body gaining back some of it's paler colors that were for a moment becoming a dark grey, near pitch black, like the depths of hell. The boy took in a deep breath as though a moment before he'd been physically drowning.

I don't understand. He was almost gone. How can he be pulling together like this? I know his heart, it's too weak for this.

This isn't his heart anymore.

How can this not be his heart? You're not making sense.

It's his own, and another's... another's strengthened by years of others sharing their own. Something you initially took away.

You're not making sense!

Give it up Mateus. A being of pure darkness like yourself will never understand. This light is beyond your comprehension.

The darkness in and around Louis seemed to fight back and press against the light, pushing it back until it remained as a solitary ball that hovered over his chest. It pushed back against Kyle with all its might then slowly gave way and fell back into Louis' chest. As the last fabric of space fell from between Kyle's hands and his chest a burst of light and darkness perforated the room and slid through the walls like they were never there.

When the wind kicked up in the small room died, and Louis' hair drifted to rest on his forehead, The Arcanist blinked suddenly becoming aware of his surroundings once again. He looked at Kyle, then around the dim room before asking nervously, "K-Kyle? What's wrong? Where... where are we?"

[Anthony ~.~ Caribbean Sea ~.~ Brig of the Pearl]

Before Anthony had a chance to explain to Dawn why he carried her through the portal, Joe, amidst his pain, took the words right out of his mouth. "Exactly," the warrior-knight said immediately after Joe, stepping back and allowing Louis to walk passed them. "I don't feel comfortable leaving him behind either, but without our abilities or weapons it would be pointless to stay behind... We'd just make things worse." He paused as he watched Kyle leave the room in the same direction Louis had walked off to. "And like Joe said, we still have time to save him. I doubt that was the last we've seen of the Replicas. We'll get Jam--"

The man stopped in the middle of his sentence as he heard unnatural creaking coming from the direction Louis and Kyle had gone. "Did you hear that?" Anthony asked, moving towards the sound without waiting for a response. Once he neared the source of the sound, the door to the room suddenly slammed shut right before him. "Kyle? Louis?" he said, as he knocked on and tried to open the door with no luck. "Guys? Is everything alright in there?" No matter how hard he pushed, the door did not budge. He even resorted to slamming his shoulder into the door in hopes of knocking it down. It was as if something on the other side was holding the door shut.

Suddenly, light shone through the crevasses of the door before it began to shake. For a moment, Anthony stopped trying to open the door and took a step back, confused as to what was happening on the other side. Once the light had faded and the door had stopped shaking, the warrior-knight resumed slamming his shoulder into the door. Half-expecting it to not budge, the man slammed his shoulder at full force into the door, causing it to break off its hinges and fall to the floor, followed by Anthony who had lost his balance at the sudden change.

From where he laid, the warrior-knight looked up at the two before him, fanning away whatever dust had lifted off the floor. He pushed himself up, coughing and dusting off his clothes, then picked up the door and leaned it against the wall before cautiously walking backwards away from it, hands out and ready to catch the door in case it fell. Anthony then turned to face Kyle and Louis. "Erm... Sorry about that," he said, laughing a bit at the end. "I heard some noises coming from in here and before I had a chance to come in and investigate, the door slammed shut on its own and I couldn't open it. Is everything alright?"

Jacob ll Crow's Nest ll Pearl

Jacob let out a deep, rumbling yawp from the crow's nest. He felt energy coursing once again through him. In a flash his black dagger pouches were once again against his side. He slid his hand in and with a soft clink felt the silverwings dance in his hands. He grinned. Defiantly, he threw dagger after dagger at the quickly diminishing boats in the distance. In time, he slowed and stopped, panting slightly.

"Never again. Never again. Your debts are paid Jacob. You're paid off. You don't know them. They're nothing like you. Joe...Kyle maybe. But nobody else. They just don't understand how to live. How to die. It's all a ruse. Don't get trapped." He whispered to himself. "Don't ever put yourself in a place like that." His eyes were tearing up. "Never again." He sat down and curled up against the cold wooden. He was suddenly very afraid, like everything hit him all at once, and the floodgates had to open. He stayed up there, weeping for a moment. "Never again."

Never again. Just run. Just fight. Never a caged animal.

His eyes glinted like two sparkling dress spheres. He sat bolt upright. He was going insane. He heard an unfamiliar voice in his head. Not the voices he had invented and named, his conscience, his dialectic. No. This was new and...

Hello.

Jacob yelped slightly when it spoke again inside his head. "Wha--What are you doing in my head?"

Waiting. Watching. Why did you do so many stupid things? You should have just left that fight with the nobodies. See what happens? I can't help you when you're that idiotic.

Jacob smiled. He was still rather creeped out about the voice in his head, It was a deep, alluring voice. Slightly raspy, but Jacob found it pleasing. When his dress sphere reactivated, his hands and skin were cleansed. He wiped the tears from his eyes and grinned. "Sometimes I get sad...So what ARE you then, oh alluring voice in my head?" He told himself.

A moomba. Awe-some. Fast. Take your pic.

Jacob grinned again. His cheeks were still rather red, but Jacob was content with his moomba answer. He didn't know much about them. His friends Collin and Chris talked about them a few times way back in the day...before this mess. They sounded pretty cool at least. He sorta hoped it wouldn't be another thing yelling at him.

[ Ajora : Caribbean : The Dutchman ]

Ajora's eyes flashed dangerously at Davy Jones as the man threatened his neck, remaining silent. How, indeed?

"Sure, send the Kraken- if you want them to kill it," Ajora said, eyes returning to the horizon as the Pearl took off. His tone was blunt, almost apathetic as he spoke. "Unless we can catch up with the Negator, they'll just kill it with magic before it can do any significant damage."

[[Louis : Caribbean Sea : Black Pearl]]


[[Cue: Ashes of Dreams ~ Aratanaru]]


Louis blinked a few times, speechless before finally nodding in reply, "I feel fine..." Louis examined himself as he sat up, wincing suddenly while running his hand over his shirt. The spot on his chest underneath felt burned but aside from that his aches and pains were minimal. Louis shook his head, finally looking to Anthony as he fell in. He chuckled nervously as he answered back, "Yeah... everything's alright... I think."

He looked at Kyle quizzical, slightly pained expression and asked, scratching the back of his head, "What exactly... do you mean by 'back' on the Pearl, exactly? Did... we leave?"

*makes note of someone else to teach how to spell her name ^o^*

{Bobbi, Demyx .:. Angel Grove .:. City}

"You too. I'm Bobbi," the Archer said, taking Kyle's hand in a brief handshake. She wasn't the kind of person to offer a bone-crushing grip, but she still tried to make the handshake firm, not the wimpy little "I offer you the honor of touching my hand, mortal" kind of handshake she got from other women. She smiled a bit, too, before turning her attention back to the conversation at hand.

She was about to open her mouth to make a suggestion when another one of the kids in the group she didn't know approached, asking how she knew Kyla.

"I've been with the group since we all got here. We ran into Kyla in Agrabah. The main group split... yesterday, I think. Kyla came to this group, which is on a mission from Queen Minnie. I was on the mission King Mickey sent us on initially. Oh, crap, that reminds me, th--"

Right about then Kymy's Drive expired, and suddenly they were Kyla and Amy again. Bobbi started to rush to their side, but saw Kyla was still alright enough to stand, and was checking on her Drive partner. It took her a moment to realize that the three captives had taken the last GTFO train out of there.

"Sunnova--" the Archer growled, hands clenching into fists. "Too many things going on at once! Brain. Does. Not. Compute!"

Demyx let out a curse word he'd learned from one of the Earth kids when he noticed Axel open the corridor, and immediately flung himself after his former ally. Unfortunately, he had a bunch of kids and Seymour to dodge to get there, and arrived too late to catch a ride in the portal.

"Well, that sucks," he said nonchalantly, then shrugged as if it didn't matter and turned back to the group. "I vote you forget about splitting up and whatever else you pipsqueaks were talking about and all go after that chick that tried to blow us up. They probably went to the same place. I'll stay here and... uh... guard the uh... Something."