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[[Louis : Black Pearl : Main Deck]]

Louis tried keeping up with everything that happened, replying only in short bursts to Noelle and Anthony involving Sayrike, the majority of his attention stayed latched onto Joe, Kyle, and the unidentified monster. Joe and the creature were like two blurs, moving around and striking at each other with enough speed that with Louis' limited vision gave him little to no differentiation between the two. Suddenly it was gone again as Jacob made a strike and it returned taking down two more people temporarily, You've got to be kidding me.

Louis gasped and took a step forward, only to stop as Joe took a blow to the gut. Everything froze. Louis looked around, several people were on the ground, most with darkness flickering through their forms, worrying Louis further, I can't... Louis held his blade in a trembling hand, staring as three more people dropped in from above, I can't... do anything... Flickers of things lost, flew through Louis' mind for split seconds before vanishing again. Then, without warning, Louis was assaulted b something he didn't expect... a bright flash of light.

As the pupils in his eyes shrank to the size of a pin head, Louis slammed them shut and screamed out in pain. Louis stumbled back into Anthony and gripped both hands over each eye, shadowy wisps of smoke like substance burning away after escaping through his fingers. But it wasn't over, before the pain in his eyes could even think to subside a sharp pain drove into his leg.

There was a moment where Louis didn't know what to do. His hands froze, no longer gripping his forehead but stuck where they were. He felt a sickening, sinking feeling, the blood rushing from his head, the tips of his fingers going numb like a thousand mosquitoes nipping at their tips, his gut tightening like a noose around his organs. Blindly, Louis reached to his belt and drew a dagger, thrusting it at where the pain was originating, only to plunge it into the wood floor a second too late.

Soon, the darkness rose but Louis remained the same, staring at his hands with unbreakable resolve.

Meanwhile, in the back of his mind, Ajora, faced previously with a giant wall of coiling dark tendrils would suddenly find that wall severely weakened.

[Dawn : Black Pearl : Deck]

Dawn remained on the ground where Kyle had placed her during the rest of the fight. Through the darkness, she could hear everyone's shouts that was only foreshadowed by her own pain from both her own pain from her leg that, from what Garuda told her, was either fractured or broken, and still bleeding slightly. Dawn kept her eyes closed as tears went down her face from the pain, fear and worry for the others who were fighting the fiend that attacked him.

When the darkness disappeared she chanced to open her eyes, as a few more tears went down her face. She looked around trying to look around for anyone else, she spotted the majority of the group had gathered around one area. She couldn't make out much, but what she could make out of others also laying on the deck (Some of which were bleeding) Was enough to bring the tears on even more. She made a soft whimpering sound as she closed her eyes again.

[ Zexion ; James ; Lugae ; Ajora : Hawaii : Lugae's Lab ]

Zexion resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Nicholas back-tracked, essentially 'sucking up', as some might say. He gave a light wave to the towering beast, signaling that he could stand down and go back to his post.

"These are called Geists- they deal in memories like Heartless deal in Hearts," he explained, continuing to input more and more information. The final Geist gave up its face before vanishing, leaving just the four of them (Zexion, Nicholas, James, and the cat-beast). The large bio-tubes behind him began to light up, one by one, slowly filling up with a mysterious liquid. He ignored Terra's entrance, having nothing to say to the girl and nothing for her to do.

A Corridor of Darkness soon opened near the spot where Nicholas had appeared, and from it, two Ajoras walked in, followed shortly by a third; the Corridor closed shortly thereafter. "Hello~!" said the third one; the first two turned to him, handing him more small items- if Nicholas looked closely, he could see they were tiny vials, each with a label on them, and apparently empty save for a single hair.

"So, what have I missed?" Ajora asked; the first two suddenly vanished into individual Corridors. "Get the info, Zex?"

"Already finished putting in the data," he explained, though he continued typing. "The entire batch should be done in an hour."

"Niiice~ So I need to head to get the other group's info, then-"

"No need; I swiped more than enough when I left the group."

"Niiiice!" he said, grinning widely before finally turning to Nicholas. "So, yeah, how ya feelin'?"

[Noelle ~ Black Pearl ~ Deck]

Noelle held her breath a little as she saw Joe look up at her. It seemed that he would be okay, if not weak from blood-loss and any other effect the nameless' strike had on him. The blonde gave Joe a weak, teary smile as he brought his hand up to her cheek. She shuddered as he brought it away, feeling his fingers slip in the smear of blood he left on her skin. The two of them were just spotted and smeared with it. The majority of it was across their fronts, but it was such a struggle getting out from underneath him, flipping him over and healing him that she had ended up slipping everywhere in it in the process. Her situation was probably the worst for someone like her who was squemish and hemophobic to be in. She was having a hard time keeping it together. Noelle took the hand Joe just lowered in both of her hands, trying to keep calm and ignore the feeling of his warm blood making her clothes stick to her front. The girl jumped slightly when she saw him enveloped in light before it turned to an orb and went to Kyle.

"Uhh . . . hnn," Noelle said quietly, looking from Kyle to Sayrike as she asked her for a healing spell. "I . . . I h-have this if you c-can use it."

The agromancer took one of her hands from Joe's and pressed it to the small mound of dirt that held her golden pitcher plant. The plant grew taller and sprouted eight more pitchers full of healing nectar. She motioned for Sayrike to take some and take care of everyone who needed it. As Noelle went to glance back at Joe to see how he was doing she spotted Sora off to the side. She had forgotten about him in the mess of it all. He was the first taken down and probably was in need of aid.

Noelle looked back to Joe, face a little pale. "I'll be right back, I'm just going to help out the others."

Picking one of the pitchers, the agromancer pulled herself to her feet, grimacing at the feeling of the blood along her body and under her bare feet (she hadn't had the chance to put her shoes back on). Noelle wobbled over towards Sora cautiously, feeling more and more sick to her stomach with each unsteady step.

'Human, maybe you should sit down, you're not seeming--'
No, I gotta take care of them, they're all hurt and I'm not. I have to hold out until they're safe.

When she came upon Sora, Noelle could see that he had also recieved a wound in his shoulder. It had been healed but it seemed that the healing had been relatively weak. The blond knelt down next to him and poured the nectar onto his shoulder just to reinforce the previous healing so the wound wouldn't open again. Seeing her stained hands again and the blood coating Sora's shoulder made her cringe. Her tolerance had had it, and she couldn't keep it together anymore.

"Ohhhhhh--hurk!" She groaned and scrambled for the ship railing, practically throwing her torso over it so she could lose the contents of her stomach. There was little to get rid of because she hadn't eaten in quite a long time, but this didn't make the experience any less unpleasant. Before long she had finished and was just hanging from the railing, balanced from her middle with her toes barely touching the ground.

Human . . .'
Yeah?
'. . . You look like a wet mop.'
Thanks Titan . . . love you too.

[Nick :: Hawaii :: Lugae's Lab]

Nick let out a sigh of relief as the giant cat man walked away thanks to Zexion. His gaze scanned around the lab again, then specifically focused on the mysterious Heartlesslike creatures Zexion refered to as Geists. The short explanation that the Schemer gave about them made him even more curious. They stole memories...so what did they steal memories from? He opened his mouth to ask a question, then turned around to see three Ajora's appearing out of a Corridor. He blinked, watching two of the copies hand the third copy all of the vials with what appeared to be strands of hair. Suddenly, Ajora asked him how he was.

"...I'm fine, I suppose. But, there's a few things I have to ask you if you're willing to answer. What's with the vials and memory stealing? I mean, the only thing I can think of is cloning, but why would you want to clone the people from the group..." He paused, smacking his face with his gloved hand. In these six days, this was the first time he had actually facepalmed due to his own stupidity. "Oh, I got it. Nevermind. Ignore that first question. New question: How did you do the clone spawning thing? I think I need to officially cut my ties with my Ivalician self...Also, what is your grand scheme of things? I sense there's a big picture that no one else is aware of; something only you seem to really know. But, I understand if you don't want to tell me anything; it's perfectly understandable. However, I am curious at what's going on and what I can do to aid you on this journey."

[Nick :: Hawaii :: Lugae's Lab]

Nick grinned, giving Ajora a 'I think you're full of sh*t' look from behind his mask. "Do you really expect me to believe that? It'd be too easy to say you'd think on the fly...Although, in the case of the other...you, I guess, his reckless endangerment of himself to come attack me on his own against a rampaging Chaos indicates a few things: One: he is stubborn, two: he is brave in the face of overwhelming odds, and finally: he can either think on the fly...or," he smirked, crossing his arms.

"He knew he wouldn't be able to take me on without allies, so he went ahead to stall for time. Ajora, forgive me for being so bold, but I don't believe in the slightest that you go with the flow in your plots. If you do, it's solely because you've given yourself enough flexibility in order to mess around as you please while still completing the task at hand." He yawned, taking off his mask and rubbing his eyes. He stared at the Blood Saint, his blue eyes flashing a deep golden before returning to their normal color.

"I know that sounds all analytical and super intelligent and all that bull, but it's a waste of your time. So, 'my liege', how do I learn this Darkness clone ability?"

[Azrael: Hawaii: Lugae's Lab]

Azrael fell into the Lab, his own dark portal appearing in mid-air next to his catman. He caught the tail end of what Ajora was saying, something about a 'grand scheme' not being there or something. Az decided to ad his two cents.

"Bulls***."

He then turned to the weretiger, hand petting the side of it's face, as the beast nuzzled the hand in return. "Aw, how's my kitty doing? Was he a good kitty? Was he? Aw, so wonderful~" Deciding the creature needed a name, he said the first thing that came to his mind. "My wonderful Noku." He'd eventually need Ajora to give the beast a human form. Ah well.

[Joe: Black Pearl: Deck]

The male blinked his eye at the sky, reaching over to the pitcher plant and grabbing one of the pitchers, chugging the thick, sweet nectar before attempting to sit up. Oh, yeah, he was gonna hurt for a bit. And from judging how they felt, he was gonna scar. That made two new scars...well, four, both attacks went through, after all.

Chucking his empty 'pitcher' away, he grabbed two more and headed over to where Kyle and Sayrike were. Oh, he knew Kyle did something that he shouldn't have, in Joe's eyes.

With a small kick to Kyle's foot, the male frowned. "Oi, why? Didn't ask you to do whatever you did." The male had to think for a second. Whatever was inside him wasn't crawling through him. Taking a swing of one of the pitchers, the male wished for something more solid, like a sandwich. He could use a bite to eat. "Now, answer the girl here...Sai-reek? Sorry, I don't remember your name that well. Anyway, answer her so we can take care of it before it progresses to worse s*** that'll hinder you to being useless." The male took another swig. Stuff wasn't half bad.

((I believe Joe can heal it with his Esuna, but since it's more of a 'plot' poison, I'd feel a bit better with him working with, like...Jenny and Louis, cause Jenny has her own form of Esuna, and Louis can work with darkness. I'll talk to you two about it, I hope, see if it's possible or we do something else or whatnot. Or if anyone else has a type of Esuna o.o))

[ Zexion ; Ajora ; James : Hawaii : Lugae's Lab ]

Ajora merely grinned as Nicholas (and then Azrael) countered his questions. They thought so highly of him; he was flattered.

"Well, for that, you mostly just temper the Darkness, imprint yourself upon it, and voila," he explained, and to give an example, Darkness suddenly coagulated next to him, almost as if an Anti-Form Heartless was being made, only to suddenly gain the texture and color of human form- Ajora. It quickly vanished the same way it appeared. "Pretty much anyone adept with the Darkness in their hearts can do it. But don't bother trying to create a perfect copy- focus on one aspect. Otherwise, it'll just collapse into itself, wasting your energy."

Ajora eyed the monster of a were-cat that Azrael was petting. "You know, I shouldn't be surprised to find out you're a furry, but hey, learn something new every day."