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"Wherever you wish to go is fine," Yin intoned. Honestly, the sight of the horsewoman...confused him. He had conflicting feelings about her now. He recognized one of the hunters being taken. He felt...sorry to see her taken. It was confusing and he did not know why.

But really, he just did not want to be here anymore. He wanted to go with Alexander but he still knew he should not. But he needed to protect him. He would just stay by his side for now, until everything got sorted out. That was all he knew how to do.

((Yin is exiting with Alexander to wherever))

Another crossroads. He had a feeling these people - horsemen, he remembered - had a strange affinity for these.

. . . Huh. He could've sworn he made this observation before.

Yet even with his mind muddled, Mort felt down to his core that he had to follow the leader - not because zombies made great followers, but because he himself wanted to. Needed to. All of this wouldn't come to a conclusion and be made clear for him unless he followed through to the end.

That, and he heard familiar voices, names tagged to them as an afterthought as he dragged himself forward through the portal.

~ ~ ~

Revenge turned to victory. Shik joined the hollering for a few seconds, wings flared with the excitement of the capture. It didn't matter to him that the goal wasn't to utterly destroy those Hunters - having them under their control was enough to satiate the normally bloodletting executioner.

He followed the crowd with a large grin, awaiting the party on the other side.

This was not a victory.

Not to her.

Lizzy had felt so helpless back then, when she first heard of the kidnappings; sure, she had believed that if Amityville stood together, they could achieve many great things... However, when it came down to it, she was just one student without any sort of backing. She didn't even have a way to the island - and even if she did, what then? What would she have done that would ensure the safety of those who were captured, and those who wanted to fight to get them back?

Nothing, that's what.

Seeds was useless. She couldn't even stop Mitsu from being taken away... How much grief did that one incident cause Shun? Hel? Mot?

Useless useless useless.

It wasn't the first time she felt like this, but it was definitely the first time she felt like shutting everything down, and giving everything up. Just let the Horsemen handle things with the hunters... It was never Amityville's fight in the first place. It was between the humans and the ones who wanted the humans subjugated, destroyed... Amityville was just caught in the middle of this tornado - this tornado that felt like someone had set fire to it, scotching everything in its path. And a tornado is bad enough, why would you set fire to it?

She used the tree she was sitting under for support in order to stand up, ignoring how the bark was digging into her skin, littered with cuts and bruises from her ordeal. They were leaving... And yet, when she saw hunters being kidnapped from their home the same way her friends had been taken from theirs, she frowned, anger bubbling up from within.

Revenge is a stupid, painful cycle. An eye for an eye doesn't work. It simply causes more hurt in the end. Revenge meant that one side won't be happy until the other side had been completely razed to the ground. Seeing students - students of Amityville - follow the Priestess made her want to scream.

She was the one who led them here, left them to be ravaged by the crystals... But something told her that she was not their savior. From Medea, she could feel nothing... Sure, she had helped, but she had also asked for something in return. That was not helping out of the goodness of her heart...

"A-Arel...?" She stared at the secretary, almost unable to recognize him without his usual get up; he always seemed to appear only at the end of a traumatic experience, guiding them back to the familiar. To home... And that was where she was going.

Inhaling deeply, she glanced at where Jericho was before he turned to fog, feeling a pang of guilt and sadness in her heart; she wasn't going to assume this time. She liked Riley, but she loved Jericho like a brother. She would wait. Even if it took her whole life, she would wait. If she died before he came back, then she hoped that at least they would be in the same place.

Clutching her chest, she turned to move towards Arel, towards that little door...

"Shun! MITSU!" The ghoul was alright. Mitsu was alright! She started to smile, raising a hand as if to wave, only to realize the direction that Shun was walking towards. Her heart started to race, and with whatever energy she had left, she broke into a run, skidding to a stop in front of the reaper, her arms out as she attempted to block his way. She was crying again, shaking her head, "Shun. No. Please. Please don't do this. Please please please."

No. No, she did not approve of his decision at all.

Yes, his path was his own to pick, but she did not want to see him walk it. She did not want to see him fight and fight and fight till there's nothing left... And Mitsu... Mitsu will follow Shun to the human world and back because she love him.

"Revenge is stupid," Lizzy sounded angry when she said this, tensing up briefly before relaxing again, hands balled into fists, "If you get the hunters, they will get you back. What if it's Xiu next time? Or Hel? Then you get them back again? And then they get you back again? As long as there are humans, as long as creatures of Fear continue to hurt them, there will be hunters. If you go with Medea, if you walk this path, if you want to wipe them out - we will be wiped out too. Can't you see that for all their age, for all their so-called wisdom, they are walking a path that is pretty stupid?"

Wow, she had never used the word stupid so many times in dialogue before.

"If the horsemen hadn't planned to wipe out the humans, maybe we wouldn't be caught in the middle of this war... And you should know that Medea's so-called promises always come with a price too heavy to pay. The only horseman who helped us without asking us for payment was Invictus," She muttered, staring at Shun, tearing up again as she reach out to hold his arm, tugging him gently towards Arel; the symbol of The Lost Clans could be seen on the back of her hand, "Please... Don't do this. Come home with us."

"And you're taking Mitsu with you," Lizzy continued, looking at the werewolf in his arms, biting down on her lower lip as her grip on his arm tightened, "Shun, is there no way to change your mind? Revenge is the easier route. It is harder to let go... And the right path is always the harder path."

Ugh. What to do, what to do... Xiu, where are you?

"How do you define strong? There will always be one mountain taller... I just... I'm tired of feeling weak and helpless too, but I never thought that hate and revenge was a suitable path to take," She urged, tugging his arm again, "I don't know what Medea is planning, but there will never be peace in your life if you follow. I'm sure of it."

It was like learning to run all over again, only she'd skipped the part where she'd taught herself how to crawl, to walk.

Madeline stumbled through the jungle like a fish out of water, tangling her legs in vines and tripping over every damned thing her feet could possibly find to collide with. She kicked up dirt and grass and scowled when her knees hit the forest floor again, aching painfully, bruised and bleeding by now. But she had to keep going. It wasn't a question of whether or not she could.

The Sun trainee pushed herself to her feet, continuing on. Counting down miles, minutes, seconds.

She couldn't remember much, memories nothing more than blurred images fluttering in the back of her mind. But instinct and adrenaline coiled in her bones like a virus, spreading and taking up the tiny spike of peace that had lingered in her mind just after waking. She'd tried calling for Arsen in vein, and her clammy fingers still touched the bracelet instinctively whenever she wasn't untangling herself from vines or shoving away the underbrush to get to where the noise was coming from.

A flash, a bang, a shattering echo of noise caught her attention, and Madeline stumbled through the underbrush just in time to see --

Coats, wings, a battle, panic.

Arsen! She pleaded in her head uselessly; her fingers groped at the bracelet, willing it to awaken and form the familiar mace in her hands. But the familiar voice of gravel and blues did not come. The thick comfort that his snide comments brought was nowhere, lost, gone.

But that didn't stop Madeline. She pushed forward towards the fray, looking desperately for someone - anyone - in a white coat, in familiar colors to her own. An ally, a friend. A stranger even, if thats what she could get. Her eyes caught on a splatter of strawberry blond, and relief pulled into her system like a tidal wave.

"Ami!" Her voice was loud and thick at first, but then they were on her, creatures in bones and cloth and feathers seizing her and dragging her away - "Ami!" She screamed desperately this time, and she staggered forward into a sprint. Others were being taken too - someone she'd seen during the minipet cleaning excursion, the one who'd said his name was Wash, the girl from Jerry's room. All of them were being taken, kidnapped. "Wait," She shouted, anger splintering in her tone, "don't!"

In a moment, in a flash, they were gone. Lost.

Madeline kept running though until her feet caught and she landed hard on her side, staring at the portal where Ami had been, where they'd all just been. She pushed herself up on her elbows and scrabbled at the ground for purchase, but she couldn't do it. Couldn't get back up. Some Sun she was. And what had she been expecting herself to do anyways? Beat them away, save someone, anyone? Do something that she could count as a victory, when in all truth, she was just counting losses and mistakes she kept making here.

Madeline pulled herself together shakily, sitting back on her knees and staring at her dirty hands.

If she'd been just a bit faster, just a bit stronger, just a bit more, she might have - she could have -

"Arsen," She whispered, "Arsen, help me."

But only silence followed her words. Only the echoes of a battle both won and lost remain, and her none the wiser, none the better, none the more worthy of anything at all.

It was a sight for sore eyes to see the portal again, knowing that it would take her back to the school and she could get the hell out of this place. But as Poke came in for a landing, she saw Medea walk towards the portal as well. She crouched, watching intently as she gloated about their victory. There was something about her now that made her wanted to back away. Her ear-fins pressed to the sides of her head as she watched other horsemen flank her.

The priestess was promising power. Whoever followed her would obtain unimaginable strength and fear. The dragoness thought it tempting, but she was sincerely doubting Maedeas offer. She had been told many times by her mother as a hatching that power could not be given, it must be earned. She was not about to be tempted by a promise that was too good to be true. She would earn her own power, not received from someone else.

What happened next, had her holing back a snarl.

All in all she knew very little about the hunters and their true cause. She had seen them act cruelly to her friends, seen the state they had left Mitsu and the other captives. They could not be trusted, and she would be happy to fight them again. But....even so...

She could not forget the one she had fought. Her words still echoed inside her head; a loved one had been killed, and she was out for vengeance. She had seen two of them assist them in escaping. They had every opportunity to stop them and yet they didn't. They showed kindness. And the major factor was the fact they were human. This fact alone made all the difference.

There were too many similarities. The story was so obvious, so rehashed. She had heard it before from her parents, from her relatives. And with her nightmare trial at the four clans. She could not forget those screams of pain, torture of those humans. It may of been a story, but she was sure there was a string of truth

These thoughts echoed in her head as she watched them take the hunter known as Wash. He had been the one to help them, and now he was being beaten and captured, along with others, much like Mitsu was.

She didn't like this one bit.

As the horsemen left, a noise caught her attention. She swiveled her head to see a talking tree. Why there was a talking tree she had no idea, but upon closer inspection, she found it was a small elf that was talking. One that looked very familiar...

Aha! The secretary! And he had a way back home for them too. He seemed to mix up his words, but she could see he wanted them back.

She wanted to go back. But not yet, she wanted to see her friends.

She found King first, but he was heading towards the portal. She frowned, hoping he would make it back out. But what concerned her was when she found Shun and Mitsu, talking with a pink haired demoness she had not seen before. She was crying, obviously upset. She had a pretty good guess as to why.

Stepping closer, she listened intently to what each party was saying; The spider demon had a point, and not only that she was answering things for her. Hunters protecting humans? It made a lot of sense. But Shun didn't look like he would budge; he was intent on making himself and Mitsu strong by relying on the horsemen.

Not if she could help it.

"Excuse me for butting into this conversation" the dragon interrupted, stepping closer to the group. "But I feel compelled to put forward my own opinion. I have to agree with...uhh...This lovely ghoul here." She glanced at her, not sure what her name was so she went with being polite.

"You talk about the meaning of strength. Well I happen to have my own meaning of it. Strength is being able to stand up for what you believe in. Strength is being able to get back up again after you're taken a fall. Strength is relying on your own jacking power instead of asking someone else to give it to you Her eyes narrowed, then widened as she shook her head. She didn't want to cause a argument considering she was just happy to see them alive and well.

"Look....I..." She fumbled. "I'm not trying to tell you not to seek revenge. That's your own business not mine. But don't drag Mitsu into this one in a million possibility Medea will make you and her stronger. More then likely it's a excuse to make you her pawn. Do you really want to take that chance?" She looked at Mitsu. "Do you really want her to be in any more danger? For all you know she might be put on the front lines in another attempt to destroy the hunters."

She sat down on her haunches, regarding the group. "I want to grow strong as much as you guys. I hate being weak. I wasn't even able to pierce the barrier. I..." She looked the other way. "I got sent away to carry messages instead of fight " And she almost died because of it. She almost died alone...

Poke shook her head to clear those images. " But I don't trust the horsemen, not after they did the same thing the hunters did to Mitsu. Arel said that there are other ways to fight, and I believe him. We could go back and train, and. I'll help you as much as I can. We can gain strength under our own power instead of someone else's."

She stopped in her speech to see Mitsu stir, and watched as she tried to grab the demon ghouls hair, growling softy at just how...weak she was. The lycan looked out of it.

The priestess of death arrived just in time to catch Medea's appearance, and she stood in awe and shock at what she was privileged enough to witness. That power, raw and wild, it was beautiful, incredibly desirable. Where this woman walked, Nergui would follow. There was no hesitation in her, not for the students she passed as she moved to join her kinsmen, and not for the hunters that were scattered around them, so obviously defeated.

Her head was high, pride sharping dark features. They had won, Medea had delivered what was promised.

----------------

"Junko?" The ghost boil's voice rang through the clearing near the portal. Finding her was his one and only goal. Once he'd done that, once he knew she was safe, then, and only then would he worry about how they were getting home.

Of course, having spotted the small door and the diminutive figure beside it trying so desperately to conceal himself with surrounding foliage, Seiji knew which why he would choose.

(Waiting for Junko, but exiting with Arel more then likely!)