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The Incubus could only look on with fascination as the hunter so many people in Amityville seemed to fear over many of the others, volunteered his scythe to an extent, fascination growing to awe as the strange sweet hum coalesced into a beautiful delicate woman. So even such a maligned weapon as his hid a living, breathing creature within, and she seemed so welcoming, so motherly. It invited trust, and he found the blossoming regret fading at the sight of her.

Still themselves. It seemed like an adventure, and at the very least he wished to see more, to know what happened between their normal shapes and those of the weapons. He'd heard people speak of the procedure they saw in trance fleetingly, in passing. But nothing of that trance could be trusted or relied on, it was a construct of the horsemen - propaganda. If the hunters were willing to invite them so gently to their island, treat them well, accommodate them, what stopped the entire procedure from being a much gentler affair?

He wanted to know.

Zar wasn't keen on the way he felt the others were looking at him as the hunter departed from their view, almost pitying. He didn't defend himself the way Isra did, though he appreciated the other boil's sentiment. All he could say was simply - in response to Mei - was, "I intend to be."

Amrita got a cold and rather calculating look. "I do. Or did. We were not speaking before this and perhaps we never would again." A subtle shrug. "He did not say it was mandatory. Simply a chance to look closer, to think most seriously about potential options." He gave a sad smile.

"Besides, the hunters were always more welcoming than my peers." The old isolated bitterness he blamed on others never truly left him.

Rin wasn't too far behind Madison at least, she looked to be fumbling quite a few papers she was working on along the way. Was she in trouble for what she'd done? Had she said too much? Most of it was a deceptive truth - she thought anyway.

Her growing concern only got significantly worse as she crossed Cael's path to which she immediately stood straight and sucked in her gut, "Sir!" spitting image of what being scared straight looks like.

Yin was frozen in shock.

A ghoul had just kissed him.

In public.

Nothing else really registered.

The gravity of what was happening had been slightly pushed to the side. It couldn't be weaponization. After all, he was Israfel. Clumsy, foolish, weak Irsafel. More suited to helping people than hurting, even if his help was misplaced. No one wanted a siren like him. He'd be the king-queen one day he'd said. But the truth was he wouldn't be. He was too small, to much a 'runt' to ever hope to rule. He was stock. Something only born and needed to create alternations in the siren's FEAR makeup. The walk down worried him less than the words. A hallway couldn't hurt him. Words?

Words could be worse than knives.

The chamber made him pause, and that reality came bearing down on him. He had a choice. Was this really the path he'd chose? Amrita's words burned in him. His choice would hurt them, make them suffer. His friends. Family.
Lucien.
That one burned him more than others. The spirit didn't need the pain of Israfel's choices. Words hurt like knives. Truth hurt. That was why it was so difficult wasn't it? No one wanted to hear because it hurt. They denied the truth to escape the pain.
They held back.
They didn't grow.
They didn't mature.
Something the siren had nearly a year's experience in.

The death hunter saying his name snapped him back to what was going on. This was reality. This was something he'd chosen. He was a sacrifice? That pained him. It hurt more than it should have. The lead left however, leaving the siren and trainee alone.

Wings curled around him, blue and black with the last traced of white. One more molt and his wings would have been true. It wouldn't have been long. Maybe a month at most. Blue eyes tinged with a glow looked at Madison. Slightly afraid, yet still slightly hopeful. He'd chosen this. He was saving them. Helping them. He could hope the others would understand. If not soon, but one day. Maybe. he would hope for that. Silently, he pulled off his coat, taking only a moment to remove Lucien's pin before setting in on the cuff of his shirt. The skull pin gone the shift Madison had seen before happened again. Slightly taller, more mature, just a bit bigger. His boots proved no problem this time as they shifted, becoming more like leather bracers. The coat folded, he handed it off. "Please give that to them. They might get cold, and it would be a waste to have it-" his hand waved a bit in the air, "-go. But Madison?" He shuffled a bit.

"I need.. I need to tell someone goodbye." The slightest hint as sadness had finally crept into his voice. Pulling out his phone from his pocket he didn't dial a number so much as he began to set a message. He might never get it, but the Siren didn't know that. He could only hope.
His hope that even after so long, faced so much denial, had never left.
A click, and the flash of recording flickered on the screen. Slowly, sound bubbled up from the siren. Wordless, it was hard to place it as far as music went. Neither a voice nor an instrument. It was a song. A sound that carried something words could not fit into 'place'. A song was all it could be.
Sad, the tone shifted to something brighter, lively. Hopeful. If Madison had ever experienced it before she's feel the emotion behind the song.
Love.
A love song.
The sound echoed just slightly in the hallway, yet there was no FEAR behind it. No threat. Just an emotion. A feeling. Israfel's voice reached a crescendo carrying the notes at a languid pace yet never missing a key. A slow dive down, yet the warm feeling behind the music never left. Finally, it ended and that feeling was gone. A few drops trailing down his cheeks the siren whispered into the phone.

"Be happy. I love you, my Lucy."

It was the only goodbye he could manage. A click. the message was stored. Dabbing his eyes he took a breath free hand waving his face. "Sorry. I... I just needed to do that. Do you think you could give my phone to Amrita? She should know who to give it to." Hope again. Always hoping.

Hope that maybe, one day, he would be forgiven for his selfishness.

Mei didn't move when Israfel wrapped his arms around her. She couldn't bare to look at him right now, not without fear of crying like a little baby ghoul in front of him and the others. Not able to respond, all she could do was nod to the boils request.

It wasn't long after Israfel finished that the death lead and the two other lab techs from before entered the room. Here she was hoping she had seen the last of him for today. She remained in her spot on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest as the hunter made the rounds of distributing bracelets to all but Israfel and Zar. When it came her turn to receive the accessory, the doll just stared at it, flinching when she heard the small click as it fastened. After a moment, she tugged at it a bit, not too comfortable with the idea of this bracelet being on her when she didn't even know what it was for.

Following along quietly, Mei glanced over at Amrita who drifted closer to her as they walked. Lifting her arm, she wrapped it around the ghoul's shoulders and continued on.

When they finally arrived at their destination, Mei sucked in an unnecessary breath of air when the room was revealed to them. So this was the conversion chamber. She knew very well what it was. She had seen one of these things at the haunted house. Apparently, they had tried to turn Calder then. So what was it they were going to do? Make them watch as they weaponized Israfel or Zar? Both maybe? Or was this just part of the grand tour of Deus Ex?

Jack she hated this place..

Zar looked on with what seemed to be indifferent cold logic as they were shepherded down the hall. It was a dizzying and unpleasant journey, one during which Zar was left wondering if it was emotion or the human world itself that left him feeling so dazed and off kilter. He tried to tell himself at least it was clean, at least it was organised. But those arguments weren't entirely holding water any more.

The room was far from what he had expected, though he didn't have an entirely clear mental picture of what he did expect, something less clinical perhaps - he'd been entertaining a rather fantastical image of a bonding ceremony of some description. It was the sort of thing he generally despised, mysticism and more ethereal fear type applications outwith his normal purview. But for some reason, despite living his entire life around the confines of business and formality, he entertained a quiet inward hope that there was something more, something greater out there than mere spreadsheets and business lunches. But it seemed the human world was far more akin to his own personal world than he might have guessed, it seemed little more than a mechanical operation for whatever was in store. Imagining himself inside that cylinder, alone, gave him chills. He couldn't bear to look at it.

Instead he eyed Rin as they waited, considering her. She'd been nothing but pleasant to him since he'd met her, even when he had taken advantage, entertained murder, essentially used her. She still remained civil to him, told him about her partnered weapon. He found her mesmerising, exotic, beautiful, forever out of his league. Would she let anything bad happen to him? He had no idea, the hunters seemed to be kept very firmly in line by their superiors. He was likely just another monster to her, one that was entertaining for a single evening and now a mere specimen. He wasn't sure what she was to him, emotions were something he filed away and didn't understand. He dealt with them by perpetually moving them into the drafts folder of his mind. To be mused on one day perhaps, but not while his schedule was so busy.

He was always busy.

Amrita's mention of Nuru had set a seed of doubt in his thoughts. He missed the dog boil, he genuinely did. He was there, had always been there, through hard times, through good times. A steadfast and loyal partner who asked nothing of him and gave everything. Every scrap of attention Zar gave him seemed to mean the world, and when he gave them, he meant them to. He did not give affection -true affection - distinct from the businesslike sexuality of his kind - easily. But Nuru warmed him, drove away the chill indifference that crept over everything like frost when he was with his paperwork too long. He was the warm fuzzy body to cuddle at night when he chose to sleep, when exhaustion overcame him and reminded him of his fragility, and the one to tell the pressures and expectations of his family. Nuru never judged him or expected anything of him, his laid back lovingness was free.

It almost hurt to think about and he didn't know why.

There was a hollow stabbing void in him at the idea he might never get home, that he might never get to tell Nuru that he was important all along. That he meant more than anything, that he'd been a lifeline so long through such solitude.

Zar didn't feel emotions easily, but he let himself muse on sorrow a while.

Isra being taken out made him glance up, creasing his brows anxiously. Would he come back? Would he eventually be taken out the same way? Suddenly being one of the individuals without the wristbands didn't seem like a wonderful place to be, he began to fret.

He was starting to wish to breach this verbal contract.

In the moment of doubt and growing fear, he found himself moving just enough to take the trusted huntress's hand, a shamefully needy gesture in his own estimation, but one he could not help. A simple reminder that despite all appearances to the contrary, he was still young, and he was afraid.

Madison had listened to Caelius, and resisted the urge to punch the air or show any emotion other than solemn agreement when she realized what was going on. Mission complete, yes - and it seemed the choice had been willing. Very willing. She pondered this as they walked to the weaponization chambers, Kouki silent but his presence still heavy in her mind. Did the serpent-sword remember something like this?

If so, he wasn't offering that memory to her.

When Caelius acknowledged her contribution, her only response was a nod and "Sir." She remained silent until Caelius left them alone, and then...

... Then Israfel began to sing.

She closed her eyes against the strange rush of emotion - no, she couldn't possibly admire this freak. Could she? Was it allowed to do so, if he was buying in completely to their cause? Once he was safe, partnered, she would be free to trust him. He wouldn't be a freak any more. Her gaze flickered to a hint of anger at the name Amrita, remembering the rotting freak who had flung bits of her own flesh at them in the Haunted House.

But she owed him. After all, he'd done this for Stacey.

"I will," she promised, accepting both coat and telephone. "And - I agree with Caelius. You're doing the right thing... I don't know who your Hunter will be, but I look forward to protecting my world - our worlds - with you." A faint smile appeared on her face.

She tucked the phone away and kept his coat draped over one arm. "Are you ready?"