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"A man with a gun - Aurum - came and took them all by surprise. The phoenix's dearest love pushed her into a swift river to spare her life, before she could be killed, too." Nyl shook her head. "In the story I told before, I never mentioned that the man and her love were the same person."

"Yes. And once she was reborn into a form that could, she chased him - he's immortal, not resurrectable - across the world, seeking revenge. ...Until she turned into me, and somehow they started working together. Anyway, you know most of that story." Nyl laughed. "The two of them are representative of sunlight and moonlight, which has been interpreted as light and dark, but isn't really. They both exist now, in a secret place, in their natural forms - the phoenix is a golden bird about the size of...oh...a golden eagle, I think, and Aurum is a silver one." She smiled in memory. "They plan to have...chicks."

The Protector nodded and took a deep breath.

"Then I believe my time is slowly coming to an end."

"Yes.. Add to his power.." The Protector seemed lost in thought. "I'm afraid I must leave, then. Whether or not I am to protect the Phoenixes any further is not up to me, I'm afraid. I'm old, and I believe He wants to put me at a desk job, if anything." A sigh escaped. "And I think Sephiroth has forgotten what it is like to be a normal, regular human being. He's relied on the power he did not earn, too much..."

He blinked some, raising an eyebrow. This was something he was not used to. He looked down at her, then wrapped his arms around her, still somewhat confused. "Thank you.. You'll be missed, as well. Goodbye, Phairen." And with that, he was gone. Seph's eyes were bloodred once again, and he looked back down at Nyl. "What.. just happened?"

((Aye, same here. Clean, eat, then going to Dad's. Be back soon. ))

Seph rose an eyebrow. "..Who?"

He nodded slowly. "I know.. that's the only thing that missile could mean. ..While you were gone, a large group of them attacked. Most of them Merc's. Guys paid off and given guns. But one of them was a real commando. He knew what he was doing.. And he also had a self-destruct system attached to his spine." Seph sighed and rolled his sleeve up. There were small scars from where he had to force the deeper peices of shrapnel from his skin. The one's Fen had missed. "He said to me, 'If I die, we'll nuke this place.' ..I guess he wasn't bluffing.."

"And so now, we see what they're after. Three years old, and has the chakra storage massive enough to not only grow and control vines, but to stop an oncoming nuclear weapon. That's.. that's scary. She has the potential to become one of the greatest.." He trailed off, crossing his arms in thought. "We can't let them have her. Before, it was just keeping a kid out of harms way.."