Welcome to Gaia! ::

*Kyla stares directly up, and lets out a long sigh at the sight of the long climb ahead of them*

Yokoshima...you are a d**k.

*She begins the trek upward*

As the LH crew ascended the spiraling staircase towards it's zenith, the scenery around them slowly seemed to change. Where once they passed by great ancient stone blocks and musty slab work from times long lost, they now walked past metal scaffolds suspended with chains above the great hollow tower and under steel riveted pipes crisscrossing the space in between. Occasionally drops of some suspicious green liquid could be seen dripping out of the seams in the rusted conduits. The change of scenery however, brought little in the way of respite from the eerie atmosphere that had existed in the more archaic lower areas, and in fact, with the addition of the squeaking of the chains and the creaking of the aging metal around them, the place might even have become more unsettling. The air hung thickly, seeming to take a life of it's own the further up they went, the aether filled with the muted lament of souls that seemed to vanish from the edge of hearing the moment you tried to consciously listen. It took a little time, but the crew finally reached the top of the massive stairwell, exiting into the room above. The sound of feet shuffling on worn stonework turned to the clank of metal from the grating panels that seemed to cover the floor of the room before them, or what they could see of it.

The space before them seemed like another world compared to what they had been through already, an industrial hellhole of aging pipes, rusting chains and iron bolts. Piles of dubious equipment, iron-braced shelves lined with strange tools and bottles of limbs and organs suspended in green fluid - some human, some evidently not - seemed to indicate that this was some sort of workshop, but the sheer clutter of the room obscured vision too much to really tell for sure at this point. The flickering arcane flames that cast their dancing shadows through the net of piping that almost obscured the ceiling offered only marginal help in discerning what was what in this peculiar place. Was this where Faust performed his grim experiments? It certainly seemed that way.

Kokujo started into the strange place, looking around curiously as his footsteps reverberated around the dank metalwork. It was hard to tell what Kokujo was think as he most often kept his thoughts to himself, but an astute observer might notice something seemed to be bothering him, as if a feeling was nagging at his conscience.

The moment was broken by the sudden clatter of footsteps from within the metallic forest, not those of a coordinated ambush though, they were panicked, out of step, like somebody running for their life. It didn't take long before the person responsible almost fell out at the group from the flickering shadows, appearing to be a rather distraught and disturbed looking young man in what looked like a prisoners outfit, the tag on the shirt bearing the number '667'.



As he drew more into the light, one would instantly notice the stitches and patches of different coloured skin visible on his face, hands, and feet, almost like a a ragdoll that had been torn and repaired one too many times. His slightly crazy looking eyes darted around the small group, before seeming to rest on Kyla. he half stumbled over, glancing round every so often as if he was being watched "Hey, hey, you don't look like you're with Yokoshima, you're not right?" He yammered nervously "I heard, that there were intruders in the castle, I heard Faust muttering something. Listen, you need to take me with you, take me away from here! I can't stand it any more, those inhuman experiments! You need to hurry before Faust finds me" He pleaded. It seemed like he was some sort of human experiment, one of Faust's guinea pigs for his necromantic experiments. It sure seemed so with his patched together appearance. There was something sort of off about the look in his eyes though, but he did seem exceptionally crazy, and probably hadn't seen someone who wasn't undead or wanted to rule and/or destroy the world in a while. Being a prisoner in a place like this didn't seem like it would do wonders for anyone.

Kokujo, hearing the ruckus, turned from his limited exploration, but couldn't quite see what the fuss was through the masses of shelves and junk.

*Kyla rushes forwards to help the young man, before halting suddenly. She bites her lip feeling very conflicted. Instead she speaks to him*

I...want to help anyone who's been used by Yokoshima. But considering this place, and all we've seen and been through...can you prove to us somehow that your intentions aren't hostile? We have to be suspicious. Please understand. If you were in our place...well, considering your condition I'm sure anyone who isn't clearly in league with Yokoshima looks like a savoir to you. But if you were in our position...nearly everything apart from ourselves and each other seems like a potential threat.

The odd figure glanced at Kold for a moment, then back to Kyla, taking a few more unsteady steps forwards. He partly extended his arms to his sides in a truce-like fashion, seeming to be attempting to show that he was neither armed, nor meant any harm. When he spoke next his voice took on a little more of an exasperated tone "Look, we don't have the time for question sessions, or figuring out how I can prove myself to you" The eye on the stitched-on part of his face twitched, seeming to be subconscious, a side effect of whatever dubious means had been used to attach it. "I can understand that you're a bit on edge towards strangers in this place, yeah, that's a smart move, but you don't understand. You're already..."

"Hmm?" At this point Kokujo came into view again, getting his first real glance at the mysterious person who was causing the sudden ruckus. Almost immediately a look of surprise flashed across his usually stony features, as if his heart just skipped a beat "...!".



"...too close" The stitched boy finished as his face suddenly contorted into a twisted grin. What had been uncoordinated shuffling suddenly turned into a precise, lightning fast dash forward towards Kyla. A familiar darkness swirled around his left hand, forming a set of black talons. Was that shadow magic?!

There was another wisp of shadow energy towards Kyla's side. A flash of sparks illuminated the dull surroundings for a split second as claw of Kokujo's mechanical arm was quickly clamped around the shadow claw, followed almost immediately by a sharp crack, as the elbow of Kokujo's free arm was brought sharply into the joint of the arm he had just intercepted, skewing the limb at a painful angle. Before the ragdoll man had time to react, Kokujo brought his weight forward, sweeping a leg forward and hauling the boy into a rough judo throw with his damaged limb, sending him crashing across the grated floor with a clatter until he came to a halt with a metallic thunk upon the sturdy sheet metal of a large storage tank, leaving a dent in the rustic steel as he did so.

The strange boy scrambled unsteadily to his feet, clutching his left arm "You broke my arm! YOU BROKE MY GODDAMN ARM! AAAAARRRGH, OH GOD, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!? IT HURTS, IT HURTS SO MUCH!" He yelled distraughtly. even as he was yelling, there was the horrible sound of flesh and the crunch of bone as he seemed to snap his arm neatly back into place with the hand he had been clutching it with. He gave it an experimental waggle, then waved it at the group "Hah! Just kidding, I'm fine".

Kokujo seemed very much less cheerful about the whole situation. "You..." He said, a clear disdain, more than usual lingered in his voice "When did they let you out? I was under the impression you rotted away in a death-row cell somewhere back in Gaia"

"That's so cold!" Exclaimed the stitched boy "I haven't seen you in so long, SO LONG, and you greet me by breaking my arm and then some depressing comment like that?" he wrapped his arms around himself, almost like a child about to burst into tears, but instead seemed to grin even wider, in his crazy lopsided way, giving a rather unsettling view of what looked like an array of sharp teeth from some wild animal beneath the stitching that trailed off from one of the edges of his mouth. He let out a dark chuckle "It's just like you though, I thought I sensed something different about you, but that hatred and malice in your eye when you stare at me, that cold indifference, it really makes me feel at home again, like the good old days, right? Kokujo-sama...."

From a friend to an enemy to seemingly referring to Kokujo so respectfully, who was this crazy guy? Though Kokujo didn't seem nearly as pleased to see him as he apparently was to see Kokujo.

*Kyla reacts quickly to the man's sudden advance, but her hand is barely on Hien's hilt when Kokujo intercepts. Kyla can't help herself but remember a time where she would have assumed that Kokujo would have allowed her to be skewered to give himself a better opening to attack. Now, she leaps back quickly and unsheathes her blade, taking a defensive stance next to Kold*

Thanks Kokujo, I owe you one, mew mew. You can lecture me later about the mind poison of optimism and good intentions. For now, who or what is this guy?

For a moment Kokujo was silent, staring ahead at the groups odd assailant. His furrowed brow gave way slightly to a look of deep thought. His gaze became more solemn, looking upon the boy with a far off expression, recalling something from a past time perhaps.

"I suppose..." Kokujo sighed "That I do owe you some explanation". He admitted this begrudgingly, clearly not wishing to bring the others into whatever was between him and the boy, but having little real choice. They were all involved now whether he wanted it to be so or not.



"This man before you, goes by the name of Jack, Jack Egor-" The boy - Jack - quickly cleared his throat "-It's pronounced: Igor" he cut in "You never remember...". Kokujo went on, apparently ignoring Jack's correction "He was an... associate of mine, some years ago. We ended up parting ways due to his rather, unstable nature" he explained, seeming to choose his words carefully.

At the edge of hearing, among the dank pipe work, a drop of water could be heard falling upon the rusty metal with a distinctive reverberating clink.

"Parted ways?..." Repeated Jack, his patchwork face quickly snapping from lazy grin to a disgusted scowl as he glared at Kokujo with a sudden hatred. "You threw me out, took away everything, EVERYTHING I had! You tried to KILL me!" He shouted with an unexpected fury, his left eye twitching a few more times as he glared daggers at the shadowmancer.

Drip....drip... more drops could be heard, falling around the group almost like the patter of approaching rain.

"ASSOCIATE!?" Jack continued ranting "I was your goddamn APPRENTICE! Your right hand man! Your loyal servant for all those years, all those years. I dedicated my LIFE to you, to your ideals" He turned his head away, seeming lost in some painful memory for a moment "In the end, Faust was the one who saved me" As Jack turned back, the deathly scowl had vanished, replaced once more with his creepy lop-sided smile "I knew that eventually he'd be able to lead me back to you...".

The patter of droplets grew in volume and number. A few silvery slivers of rain could be seen catching the sparse lighting as they fell seemingly from the ceiling itself, now shrouded in a cloudy haze.

"Things have changed, Jack" Kokujo said firmly, seeming to show little emotion at Jack's outburst, save for annoyance that he had revealed more that maybe Kokujo would have liked the others to know about their odd connection. "A lot has transpired since then, the Kokujo Atradeus you used to know died some time ago, while you were in this timeless Horizon. Xanath and Dante are dead and Isilvara is no longer with me, there's nothing left of the world you remember....Even my own memories of those times are starting to become faded".

"And yet, somehow I still sense that presence about you. That glorious all consuming darkness. It's different, changed, but the person standing before me is still Kokujo, 'He who gathers the darkness of Gaia, so foolish in their complacency'" Jack quoted, chuckling eerily "Even if you don't want to remember, Kokujo-sama.... Horizon still does..."

Without warning, the patter of mysterious rain around the workshop went from drizzle to downpour as a sheet of rain descended from above, obscuring the surrounding metalwork in thick fog as it swept over the group. As Kokujo glanced upwards, he found himself staring up not at gratings and pipes, but at grey skies and swirling dark rain clouds. Gone was the workshop, and in it's place, dampened grass, ominous windswept trees, the outskirts of a forest... and a scent of blood on the air...

A couple of glowing red eyes watched the change from the distance, amidst the darkness cast by branches and foliage, as Corbenik looked on, oddly silent.

*It takes Kyla a moment to dig through her memory back to a time when she was positively horrified that Kokujo would show up to the Lunar Hope in the middle of the night and desecrate Kold's body...back of course when Kold was separated from his body and Kokujo was out to murder him...(what did you think I meant?)
She realizes that it will probably be impossible to convince someone of Kokujo's change if that person hadn't witnessed it...and even less of a chance if that person seemed as unstable as Jack. Instead, Kyla tries her best to repay Kokujo for leaping to her defense earlier*

Fool me once, shame on you, and that's the only chance you get. You have your reasons why you're so angry, and you may just have a right to them. There's a good chance that if you were sane enough, and if there was enough time, you might actually be able to believe that this Kokujo is different from the one you knew so long ago. Even you are not the same person that you were yesterday. If everything you're saying is true, then you have my sympathy for your situation however...I cannot change present circumstances any more than anyone in this room.
To me, Kokujo is a good friend and he's a resident of the Lunar Hope. As the owner, I can't allow anybody to hurt someone who calls the Lunar Hope their home. Different people come and go, but when we all wind up there at the end of the day, we might as well be family. So know this...
*Her expression changes. The look in her eye is surprisingly intimidating for someone who's usually so happy go lucky, but she wants Jack to know that his creepy expressions aren't going to unnerve her, and that she won't let secrets from Kokujo's past kill her determination*
Kokujo is a resident of the Lunar Hope and if you're fighting him, you're fighting me too because it's my duty to protect every single person who lives there. The past is the past. As long as Kokujo wants a future that includes the Lunar Hope...
*She raises Hien into the air*
Then he's got the protection of the Golden Lioness!