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[Kichi :: LoD : Throne Room]

Kichi calmly responded. "You did not answer my question. You promise salvation, but that term is far too general to base an agreement off of." He paused for a moment, but before the armored man could speak again, he continued. "SECONDLY. I figure you're talking about Kyle, in which case, I see no reason to assume he will betray us. He's shown compassion, caring, and loyalty to this group, in his actions and his words, at all times I have watched him. Furthermore, we share a goal, as does everyone in this group." And with the final part he glared. "As I said, siding with a guy who says 'betray your friends and I will give you salvation' is a d**k move, and an unwise choice due to the ambiguity of your end of the deal." Then his glare intensified five-fold. "I don't know where you come from, or what you're thinking, but betraying your friends makes you an idiot, and asking someone else to betray theirs...well, I'll say this much. It's one of the biggest @$#-hole moves one can do."

His voice remained calm, but the look on his face was one of utter contempt, especially after what he did to John. "Now I was not happy with that friend you just cut, but everything he said is right so far. Unless this salvation of yours is exactly what I'm looking for, my answer is that you SHOULD be kicked into a pit, filled with spikes, fire, and poison, for asking me to betray the friends I have left. Now explain what your 'salvation' entails. It's either that, or leave."

'Watch it Kichi....he obviously doesn't like insults, and he seems strong.'

'That's why I didn't directly insult him.'

[Kichi :: LoD :: Throne Room]

"Feh, and like following you without knowing what you mean is any different?!" Kichi watched him rush in, and used a sudden glide burst at the last second to push off the ground...straight for him. He lowered his tonfa to his sides, angling them so that the attack would both be parried lower, and at the same time, puch Kichi faster at the armored man. At the same second, he lifted his legs over the Ice swords, and into the the front of the guy's helmet, then he jumped off backwards.

[ Kuja ; Kyle ; Sora ]

Kyle stopped as the blade whizzed by him, having known it had been no actual attack- Cory wouldn't be that stupid. He never turned around, only stood in place as the ronin spoke to him, insulting him, attempting to strike deep.

And so he did.

The older male disappeared, and Kyle glanced up, a stoic face staring at the blade that was stuck into the train.

"Hey... you know, it's not your-" Sora attempted to say walking forward and hoping to reassure Kyle- it was obvious from his cold facade that he'd taken it rather heavily. However, he'd been interrupted mid-sentence by Kyle's blurred movement.

The teen had swiftly leapt to the train top, his legs glowing with a bright white aura, which shifted to his arms the moment he grabbed onto the Rev-Blade, planting his legs against the train. Without so much as a grunt, he removed the blade from the train and landed on the ground, beginning to walk into the Lounge Car, ignoring Sora and Kuja. He dragged the blade across the train floor to the front of the car, beside the exit to the train car, and began to press buttons on a small terminal, most often used to give announcements. However, he'd played with it boredly during their last trip, and discovered a few other tricks. The one he decided to employ now-

"Cory, owner of this blade, is no longer allowed on this train," he spoke, his voice revealing a minuscule amount of frustration. He then lifted up the Revblade in front of the terminal, which seemed to process something. "Timmy, owner of the Dual-Shields, is also no longer allowed. Both have declared themselves enemies and should be locked out."

The terminal beeped twice, the small screen revealing that it had accepted the 'new terms', and went dead again. As it did so, Kyle once again stalked out of the Lounge Car (just as Sora had entered, walking over to the group around Rae). He once again charged his blade arm with Holy energy, and with a power twist of his arm, tossed the blade through the air, lodging it into a tree on the other side of the crater.

With that done, he glanced once at Kuja, who had merely raised his eyebrows at him, before walking toward the back of the train, bypassing the other cars and heading into the Stable Car.

[Joseph: Inside Train(Lounge Car)]

The male, while not reacting to anything, was actually quite aware of what was going on around him. He just...didn't have the will to react to it. Not yet, anyways.

Of course, the mentioning of having Rae sent to the castle made his eyes open and his head lift. As he stared at Rae, he thought. He thought, and thought, and one could probably hear the gears in his head clicking and turning.

He now had a decision to make...

[Nick :: Jadis' Castle]

"Well, that's...surprising, really. It's odd that you're stuck on this path, but I hope you find your calling on your path...Or something." Nick muttered in response, unsure of her answer. He could only imagine what forced her on this path...Maybe she was threatened or her family was being held hostage. It was a scary thing to be forced upon this path, and he quietly wished for her to be free of this curse.

He quietly took a seat, then stared at her with an expectant gaze for her to join him. He was raised to not eat without everyone seated. It was a simple rule, but proper ettiquette-wise.

((Kyle, I know I said in my reply to your PM that Evan and I would both be posting, but he's working on his workstation right now to make sure tomorrow doesn't go as horrid as tonight did. Potential job loss in the first few days of starting a new one is fun. smile I'll try to get him to post in the morning assuming his insomnia doesn't kick in again... in which case, it might be afternoon... >_>))

{Bobbi | Nanaki .:. HT/BC .:. Outside train >> Dining car}

Bobbi wasn't quite sure of what to make of the two Rae's. Her mind wasn't quite up to par, and her mana drain was affecting pretty much everything about her, not to mention dizzying her and making it very hard to see straight.

When Cory attacked, and the other Rae revealed herself as the Replica, Bobbi managed to get out a quick "f--" before the dark explosion sent her flying. The "uck!" only came out because she slammed her head against a tree at just the wrong angle, so her throat and vocal cords were compressed just right to make the noise.

Nanaki was immediately suspicious that one of the Rae's was the replica, however due to the exactness of the copy, he was unable to determine which was which through scent or sight alone.

That is, until, the black wings betrayed the others' true nature.

He yelped in surprise and pain as the dark eruption sent him flying, and he was unable to land properly, thus rolling a few feet to a halt after impact. He was going to attack, but the Replica was already gone, to be replaced with Rae's terrified scream, and the appearance of yet another Replica.

And, of course, the most horrifying event of all.

"No," Bobbi whispered, seeing the precious Heart floating in Elleon's grasp. "No, Rae, NO!!!"

Bobbi surged to her feet from where she had slumped to the ground, Taulmaril raised and an arrow notched in the blink of an eye, aimed right between Elleon's eyes, but too late. The Replica had already gone through, with Noelle close on her heals.

"NOELLE!" the Archer screamed, tossing Taulmaril to the side, allowing the silver bow to dissipate as she ran to where the Replica and Agromancer had disappeared from. She reached the portal moments after it closed, dropping to her knees and skidding to a halt. She screamed in frustration, anger, and sorrow as she repeatedly pummeled the ground with a gloved fist, scraping her knuckles bloody on the earth and rocks.

"No! Don't leave! Noelle, Rae! Come back! Please! Come back!"

Her fist slowed it's pounding as she curled up on herself, hugging her arms tightly to her chest as wracking sobs reduced her shrieks to a pained whisper.

"Come back..."

She didn't notice anything else going on around her. She couldn't hear anyone's voice over the sound of her own wracking sobs. She didn't even notice as everyone started filing into the train.

Nanaki was pained at the loss of the White Mage. Perhaps not as much as most of the children, but he had hoped she could become someone he would be willing to call a friend. He looked around at the children, each expressing their grief in their own way. Some were more vocal than others, some valiantly held it in to complete their duty... There was nothing he could do to aid any of them, so with the rest of the group he boarded the train, and headed to the dining car, not wanting to intrude on the grief of those closest to the lost one.

{Zell .:. Train .:. Engine Car >> Lounge Car}
Zell heard some sort of commotion outside the train, and felt the shock of some sort of explosion. He heard some of the kids coming in--at least he assumed it was the kids since it certainly wasn't Kuja, Zex, or Silver walking around out there with more than eight pairs of feet.

The conductor wiped his hands on his shorts and walked out into the Lounge car, looking around at all the sad, tear-stained faces.

"What's up?" he asked, having no idea what was going on. "Something go wro--what happened to Rae?!"



{Riku | Demyx .:. LoD .:. Throne Room}

Riku was having one of those rare moments where it seemed like too much was going on at once. Jafar, Seymour, the Emperor, the new kid, the guy in the armor, the battle--crap, the battle? Great. Just freaking great. Not what he needed right now, despite the Curaja.

He really wanted to yell at everyone to knock it off, kiss and make up, things like that, but he wasn't that kind of guy. Instead, he raised the Road to Dawn and looked for an opening. Instead of rushing in for an attack, Riku raised his hand and fired off a Dark Firaga at the man's side, hoping at least one of the attacks going in would hit.

Demyx was impressed with the spell-gun-kickass thingy of awesome and win, but other than that didn't grasp much that was going on. The new kid was throwing around some pretty impressive water jets, but even Demyx could have told him don't throw the base element of your enemy's element at your enemy! It was obvious the dude used Ice, so Newbie over there throws water at him?! Lame! He had a freaking fire spell, obviously since he was using it now, why didn't he just lob a fireball in Frigid Freakshow's direction?

...crap, he was picking up Axel's nickname fetish. He'd have to correct that later. Until then...

"Hey! You! With the book! And the water and the fire! What were you thinking?! Talk about stupid, why I oughta--"

The Melodious Nocturne was cut short by the newest battle emergence, and all he could do was groan.

"Great, just great. These brats are gonna get me killed! Again!"

[[Louis : LoD : Throne Room]]

The glaciermancer felt his balance go as he fell backwards slightly due to Kichi's counter, leaving a crack in his helmet, followed closely by a sword, a fireball incoming, and shouts from the mage. The next few movements flowed through like water. Louis bent backwards, the blade passing right over his chest. Louis' hands froze to the floor, his feet flipped up following his momentum, his feet clamped on the swordsman's sides freezing in place, then with an inhuman strength he flipped the man over his head and into the floor on the other side of the fighter. As Louis returned upright he continued backwards again, slinging the fighter out from under him, sending him flying back at Kichi, only to be intercepted mid-flight by the dark-firaga.

Louis righted himself once more glancing to the side only a moment to late to avoid Mulan's sword. As it skimmed across his torso, cold sparks shimmered off the armor and scattered across the floor. As he examined the scarring damage to the armor, Louis' hand thrust forward and blasted a pillar of ice from underneath Mulan, What a weak heart.. not worth much of anything.