Welcome to Gaia! ::

"What is a god but an idea John? Do you think that the gods who destroy are lesser beings because they tear down what others have created? they are bound by rules... just as mortals are, and they do what they must to keep the universe in balance..."

"Would it help to know that your fate makes a difference to others? That by your suffering those others that you worry over actually lead better lives..." Verandi stroked his hair, her head tilted down as if she was looking at him.

"You, I think, are the type that will fight no matter what... fight Fate, and everything else that gets in your way, so why not accept it? Make of yourself a better being inch by inch so that in the end, you know that you have truly lived you life the best you can! I can see a happy ending for you... many years down your road, an ending where your life had meaning, and where those you leave behind mourn you instead of cursing your name." She wiped the blood away from his mouth, her robe remaining pristine, never showing the sign that he had sullied her.

"I could see that for you... I could bargain with you instead of dragging you down to hell for fighting me! Fate is never really kind, but you can chose a kinder Fate than the one that you started the day with!" She was no angel, but neither was she a devil in disguise either... Verandi was simply Fate... and there is no Fate but that which Men make for themselves in the end!

" No! No...it wasn't your fault. I have issues with the gods."

Issues was putting it mildly, but Damion pressed on regardless.

" During Heaven or Hell, 2 years ago, I hit on the idea of binding something too me to make up for my lack of natural weapons as they were my favored way of attacking. For days I thought on what creature would be right and proper, reading through books upon books until atlast the idea hit me like a thunderbolt. I wanted to bind a dragon's spirit into a talisman to use when I needed it, to retain my humanity."

He motioned to his neck as he spoke, tracing the band of lighter skin that ran around his neck.

" Maximos helped me, helping me to summon a creature to bind to a collar I had and the jewel that was attached to it. It....did not go as planned. I got more than I bargained for and the creature we summoned was not what I expected at all. I found myself lost to the Dagons will, his tendrils reaching far into my heart and summoning me into the north, into its swamp. I had never been so powerless. I had no control over any of it, drawn to that place, and told that now I was its guardian until the time that I died. I won't lie and say I was not pleased, this body is capable of more than I thought possible."

Hands dropped and flexed, muscles twitched and tightened.

" But....I did not realise just how much control Dagon had. I have come to resent that elder god in my time away and hate it. I hate all the gods, or maybe I just hunger for their blood, the challenge they represent. I don't know."

He sighed and took her hand in his, stroking the back of it with his thumb. There was more to say but he didn't have the words to describe the intensity of his hatred for the gods. Everything they were he hated and wanted to destroy, wanted to tear them from their golden thrones high above and below and wherever they dwelled. But few hated like he hated.

He couldn't keep the shocked expression off his face as she spoke, only quelled when she kissed him and then popping right back up again afterwords. It wasn't the confidence that shook him or even her upbeat attitude towards the whole thing. What shocked him was that she was so ACCEPTING of his oddity, completely unphased by the fact that he wanted to slaughter creatures far beyond his own power to even find. Damion knew then that he had found something very special and precious, something he had already vowed to protect but now finding even that inadequate.

" Yes...you were, weren't you."

He smiled finally and kissed her again for good measure, letting the experience cleanse him of any further suprise or shock. Mentally he chided himself for forgetting that Gaia was full of people and things that would suprise him, chiding the fact that he had even been shocked in the first place. After all he had seen some things still had that power though.

" And come Hell I like to think they'd rather run in fear of me than face my anger."

He added, winking and chuckling, a sound like rocks grating.

"Ak! Nnng..."

John's slack body suddenly stiffened, blood shooting grim his nose as his breath was shot from him. Dr. Sarona, in her haste to care for him, must've forgotten what had happened the lay time she'd tried to heal him.

The time for guilt ridden stubbornness was over. John would either die or become a walking lightening strike if they didn't get that bullet out of his head. These two mice would have to work long and hard to get such a tiny thorn out of a very sensative lion.

His brain, basically a mass of scar tissue, was being torn apart and reshaped due to Dr. Sarona's magic in a vain attempt to rebuild itself...but scar tissue is what it was now. There was no way to healing it any morethen there was to replace the primordial tails of their ancestors - that was his brain now, and he would have to suffer the consequences.

The bullet, however, would definitely have to come out - the only thing the women women had to ask now was...was the bullet killing him? Or was it the lynchpin that kept what was left of John Tomorrow's brain working?

If they removed it...would he remain the man he? was

Some of the larger orderlies came into the room, wheeling a new bed in for the over sized patient lying on the floor. They knew not to ask questions - for them, this was par for the course.

It took three of them to get him onti the bed, all grunting and groaning - before whisking him away to the OR.

When he arrived, the surgeons were scrubbing up. The anesthetist put several needles into him to keep him pain-free - before looking up to the nurse. "okay...wake him up." He said.

They roused him slowly, his bloodshot eyes opening to look at the nurse. The orderlies propped him into the operating bed face-down, his face poking through a hole in the bed. The nurse smiled at him. "Mr. Tomorrow, we're going to operate on you now. We need to keep you awake so we know that we havent done anything too damaging. You will feel no pain during the process, but there will be some discomfort. Do you understand?"

he looked at her dumbly. He was out of it, completely helpless.

"Someone shave his head abd we'll get to it." Someone called.