Welcome to Gaia! ::

((I've been assuming either different times, or miles and miles away. Beaches are pretty big.))

Again, without hesitation, Owle held out her arm to him, neatly exposed by the virtue of her wearing her usual tank top.

"It's okay. I'm no stranger to being magically drained, and..."

She stopped talking, merely staring speechless as a plant grew out of his blood. She'd seen a lot of strange things, but really...plants growing that fast kinda gave her the creeps.

Creeps or no creeps, though, she kept her arm still and steady as the too-fast growing plants wove themselves over it, into a very pretty armlet she might have been happy to wear if it didn't seem so alive and different.

When Knights told her to touch the portal, she hesitated for just a moment, afraid of what it might feel like. She remembered the times she had been without her magic before, when she'd been locked up and helpless, a willing prisoner of Morgan Flare and her own wretched guilt. Then she steeled herself, and stepped forward.

Striding across the sand, quickly because she was afraid she would lose her nerve if she slowed, Owle came to a halt inches before the portal. She paused only briefly, working up the nerve, then reached her arm out and gently rested her palm on the portal Knights had constructed. Then, and only then, did the rest of Knights words register, namely the appellation he'd given to Vahn. If she was able to once the draw started, Owle's head whipped around, staring at Knights.

"Hey, he's not my-!"

Metal reverberated with a clang as Knights own two handed sword was instantly drawn to block the on coming Flamberge.

The green eye'd man made a "tch" sound as sparks flew, and threw his shoulder into locking his blade in the serrated edges, gaining control of any momentum, and lowering himself, forcing the point of the larger sword into the ground, and bringing Vahn into close personal relations with the pommel at the other end of Knights blade as he reversed out of the lock.

"Je'en!" In the rush he forgot not to use the differant names. "Get through and stabalize things!" He growled at the man next. "Do you want to save him or not?! Last chances start now."

Meanwhile, Owle brushing the gate as she did would feel only a small pull that was instantly gone the moment she'd lift her fingers. Jean would very softly lay her smaller hand over the woman's, pointedly ignoring the fight behind them.

"If you want to open this side of the gate, you have to give it up willingly and keep your hand pressed solidly against the wood. If you start to feel tired, or when you know both of us are through, you can let go. Knights will be with you to tell you if we need it opening again."

Before turning away she looked at Owle in a small amount of confusion.

"You said you owe Sunstrike something...what did you mean?"

"Vahn!" That was all the cry she managed to get out before Vahn's flamberge collided with Jean's sword out of nowhere. She waited for her ears to stop ringing from the clash of metal against metal, then continued. "Stop it! They haven't done anything to hurt me!"

Her fingers were still lightly on the gate, though part of her wondered if she shouldn't go force herself in between Knights and Vahn to stop the fighting.

And then Jean was beside her, ending her hesitation. Getting this open was important right now. Knights could probably handle Vahn, as he had before. Hopefully.

"Alright," Owle said. She closed her eyes and laid her palm flat against the wood, even going so far as to press into it to make sure she maintained solid contact. She began mentally preparing to just let her barriers down and surrender her magic to this thing...and her lashes fluttered open to look at Jean when the girl asked her question.

She lied through her teeth. No, maybe, more evaded the truth.

"Sunstrike helped me out once, when I came to the Leviathan Stadium looking to get some training in. I was nervous, and inexperienced, and he was a nice guy...he helped me out with no hesitation."

It all sounded so much better than I slept with his boyfriend, got in the way of what looks like true love, and even though I didn't know I feel I should make it up to him.

Owle wrenched her eyes away from Jean before the girl could probe any more deeply, concentrating on the gate. It was as good a pretense as any, and she really did need to concentrate.

A purple glow within fades, the outermost shield shutting down, allowing the flow of energy.

Go on, take it.

She felt the pull from her body, and let her muscles relax, unresisting. A blue shield crumpled within.

You need this more than I do.

Spectres of Morgan danced in her mind, his taunts, his abuse while she wore the collar. A green shield fell, baring her dreams.

I can't falter now...

More memories swirled around her, memories of times when the snakes had been crushed within her, flattened without a second chance. It always felt terrible, that dwindling of magic, that slow and steady knowledge that she wouldn't be able to do anything. The yellow shield burst from the weight of her thoughts.

This isn't Morgan, nor my enemies. This is something I give willingly, a gift, however painful.

But there wasn't any pain, not yet. Just an odd dwindling feeling, as her snakes started to lash out within her, crying out as their energy, the energy that allowed them to leave her body and hop from mind to mind, was slowly drained away. It felt a lot like guilt, and just a little like love. Orange seems to simply give up. One moment it is there, and the next it is not.

I can do this. It isn't much to give.

She was feeling more and more tired as the time - how long had it been? - moved on. Maybe it had been less than a second, maybe it had been eternity. Owle couldn't have told the difference. But she did not remove her hand, nor try to stop the flow. And the red shield knew it was time to let go.

Almost there...

This was the last inch, the last piece, the final shield that was an integral part of her. The final piece that she would have to surrender to make this work.

For Vahn, for Sunstrike, and for my own past.

The black shield allowed itself to be breached, and the magic was fully let loose to be used in the spell.

Warmth flowed from the gate as it began to charge itself. What had once been an arch was now filled with rings that were solid, and coloured like the barriers that shielded Owle's own mind.

The bracelet and the vine moved in harmony, small circles twisting clockwise, only to be mirrored by the inner circles. Owle herself would be covered in a soft golden glow as magic was taken.

The sleepiness that Jean had spoken of was almost instantaneous, a kind of lethargy that came from nature and trees, and the slower passages of time between one place and the next.

Somewhere far off, a bell as low pitched as the deepest base knelled and fell silent.

The gate was open, and ready for passengers.


~~~

CRACK.

Both men impacted with each other, the flat of Vahn's blade meeting Knights shoulder. The cloth of the green jacket began to smoulder as Knights leaned in, and glared back at the determined Vahn, his boots making furrows in the sand as the raven haired man proved to be the stronger, or at least more stubborn, of the two.

"What the hell do you know about love? Who created you? Who brought you into life, soul, being...something that is all....you. That woman? This planet?! I don't know, nor do I ******** care. I just know who created me, and what I've been told to do. Whether I like it or not."

His shoulder eased and then slamed back into the gaurd with another crack, the heat had gotten to his skin by now, something sizzled.

"Something has gone wrong, and we could fix it by ourselves. But he'd want you. Even if you were going to leave, even if it was false..." Knights shoved himself back off the sword, a black mark angrily smoking on his arm, and dropped his own sword into the sand with a clunk, giving up with that statement.

"But if you do feel any remorse of some kind, you might as well try and do you're best. Sunstrike won't know your face. Be prepared for that, and probably worse. And if you're lucky, you might be able to kill him before more damage occurs." Whether this was to Sunstrike, Vahn, or Gaia itself was hard to tell. Then the bell tolled and he looked away, towards the sea.

"Jean will tell you what happened when you get to the ocean, where you go from there is up to you."

[Break the sword of justice - Tsubasa Chronicle Original Soundtrack]


"Damn you."


There was a long pause before he muttered the words, even as yellowed eyes narrowed in towards Knights, and Owle's words drifted towards him from the side. "Damn you all." His hsoulders slackened even as he stared towards the ground, ashamed and guilt-ridden.

"You really think you know it all don't you!" He raised up angrily, bringing his flamberge up and holding it right at Knights' neck. "Me and him--- we're connected far mroe than just through something as stupid as love or our own two bodies. He's the part of me I thought was taken before I even had a chance to realize it was there. Without him-- I'm nothing! He shares half my will-- and I share half his. You think we cna be lumped in as some kind of couple or people destined to live happily ever after?! We can't ever trully be together-- but we take what we can get."

His teeth gritted, even as he lowered his head. "Yea-- it's true, I do love Owle. And part of me wishes I could just run away with her, and live the rest of my life on a beach somewhere--- but that ain't how the real world [b[works!!" His voice grew in decibles even as he straightened up once more. "She's got someone she has to fix things with, and she has a kid to worry about. There is someone I have to repair things with as well-- and I know she's waiting for me. In that place beyond time... beyond the reach of any mistake I make in this long life--- and I'll be damned if I can't love others just as equally! If it's childish then so what, if it's wrong-- then so WHAT!

At least I can say I made my own decisions, created my own paths to walk on or stumble along. I have no maker--- I am my own goddamned man!"

He lowered his sword arm after a moment, finally looking away from Knights'. "I can't ask you to understand me Owle, not even to forgive me... but I never regretted anything." He shouldered his flamberge, moving towards the portal.

"My best friend is waiting for me. I'm not going to keep him waiting any longer."

And as the left hand was extended Shouyin would grab it with his left, pulling the clone into a heavy rear-handed straight punch with his right. It would've been nice if the man would ever consider the consequences of his actions, but all he really knew how to do was beat stuff up, and thinking things over just got in the way. Anyways, his reasoning was fairly solid, one less Shadow clone meant one less obstacle on the way to figuring out what the Hell this girl wanted with him.

And in a way it brought him a little step closer to that righteous goal.

Owle offered a small, forced smile to Jean before the girl vanished with Vahn. For a moment she stood watching the place where they had vanished.

"So...now what?" She seemed to be asking the portal, since she didn't turn to look at Knights until after she'd finished speaking. Her free hand wiped at her eyes...must be something stuck in there. Then and only then she turned.

"Can I let go? Do we just...wait?"