Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Kyla: Hangar: Disney]

‘…yeah…. That’s exactly it.’ Came the meek reply along the link to him.
This was... unusual.
Kyla was used to it always being her verses everyone else.
Back home, and here.
Up till this point no one seemed to understand how she felt. Even those who got some semblance didn’t quite grasp it. And those who did... use it against her if they needed to. At least that was show it felt.
Riku was a very observant person. He had obviously figured out enough from her to know that she respected him so when he spoke directly to her, scolded her, she took it to heart. Joe and Kyle had a similar effect. They've used it to their advantage and after all the failures she was losing the will to impart anything more. Why let people if, if they will only hurt you right?

Isn't that what they were warning her not to do?

And then Noelle. Her rebuttal was completely outrageous it was downright insulting to mere intelligence sake! The parts of Kyla’s answer she found incriminating- were merely because Riku was talking to HER. So naturally she was imparting how she alone was feeling. That was the answer- and THAT was how Noelle was basing her claim that Kyla was some self-absorbed, selfish individual???

Of course it’s not about her!! It was Never about her!! It was always the World, The team, the civilians, -… family. She may had been a shut in, but if actions speak louder than words just WHAT the ******** did they see her do ALL the TIME in battle? Every world, every problem! Even if she went off alone, did they really think it as because it was of some personal gain or ego complex??

‘We're here for you and you are here for us. It's time to start acting like it, yeah?" -

That was joke.

But she was right at the same time about one thing.

It was her fault for that. Suddenly in a moment of renewed clarity she could see it- and all the times before she kept bumping back and forth.

~You’re wrong Noelle.~


~If you think Kyla is some self-absorbed, selfish person... you couldn’t have been more wrong about her. The one thing she cares most about is all of you!~ Kyla felt the little body of fur crawl up onto her head.

~ I know that’s a lot to say, because I’m simply a summon awakened by a sphere- but here’s something you don’t know. Kyla and I used to be one, long before this things started. Before today- before I became myself, I was who Kyla preferred to as her ‘better-half’- for more obvious reasons-~ The creature flipped an long floppy ear like a lock of hair amusedly.
The act looked silly- but she got back to the point-
~ What I’m saying is, I know her. I WAS her. There isn’t anything more important to her then all of you- because you’re all she has left- everything she’s ever done was for the better of the team- the problem is...however…-~ The summon, who has hopped up onto Kyla’s head, looked down at the artist-

There- you have it. Carbuncle opened up the door, and gave the prompt she needed to finally come clean. Regardless of the outcome, things couldn’t stay the way they are- less people start thinking worse than what conclusion Noelle had come up with.

The last thing she wanted- was for Kai’s seeds of dissension to bear fruit.

‘They’ll turn against you- no will stand with you if they know who you really are.’

That’s what she said right?

“- The truth is.-“she wordlessly opened her mouth like the answer died on her lips. Rejection clamped her mouth shut.

“- I.. I stopped.. Including.. myself.. in that word. you're right about that part Noelle.”

Team. She was part of it. They counted on her, not just to help them- but to BE there afterwards. She wasn’t expendable. All this ‘touch and go’ all the time: Torn between bonding, risk being betrayed- but also hurting those she may leave behind.

“ I’m.. not good at this sort of thing.”

“…I hate it when people look at me..” her eyes drifted up, meeting what she thought to their judging looks- “yeah.. like that.”

She fidigited. Didn't like talking so openly like this. She noticed Jame’s look again. One of understanding and didn't falter right away. Instead she just opened her book, anything to not meet their faces, she flipped through pages like she was trying to keep busy.

“It’s not any of you’re jobs to fix me. You all have enough to deal with. I’m not the only one whose hurt, I’m not the only person who has demons to face- how can I possibly ask something like that of anyone of you? That's just too much.”

‘I have no right to ‘lean’ on you. How else can you possibly risk trusting a broken person?’

~ did you know she's been keeping track of you Noelle since Agrabah- ever since she saw your face on the train back in the stables of the chocobos. She's been worried about you ever since then.~
Kyla now gave Carbucnle a pionted look- saying ' too much information now ok!'

[ Joe : Disney : Hanger ]

'OK, this is beginning to get awkward' Joe thought as he massaged his temples.

Wonderful, he hadn't spent ten minutes with these people and they were already at each others throats. Either this Louis guy was really, really important or the earthlings had some issues with each other that were boiling over, and dealing with Louis was the straw that broke the camel's back. Whatever the reason was, he was grateful to the other Joe for at least trying to diffuse things.

"Er, should I give you all some breathing space?" he asked. If he new the situation better, he'd try something, but at this point all this emotion flying around would only serve to frustrate him.

[ Kyle, Sora, Riku : Disney : Hangar ]

Kyle had sat back and let Riku respond for a reason. He wasn't quite sure he could handle talking this over again; he'd already discussed it before. It was compassionate, yet logical. Joe's agreement helped matters--he appreciated how the younger man thought, and would tell him that when the time came up. Even Amy spoke up, and he'd not known much about her. She was a bit gung-ho, but they had few people like that, and her head seemed to be in the right place.

But then Kyla responded.

No... not now.

First, it's nothing but sympathy and pleas, and now it's just cold distance--bipolar little--

He could see it in her eyes. Something shifted. The compassion was gone. She was closing off--

He unconsciously lifted his right hand and gripped his left arm around the bicep as the arm hung loosely at his side.

--she looked to Riku, she shrugged in neutrality, in apathy, all trace of emotion gone beneath the cold stone exterior--

Noelle grew frustrated with Kyla's response. It was understandable--it was the same issues they'd had with her when she ran off. He'd spoken to Kyla about that, warned her that the others might still be upset at what she almost cost them--

--when James interjected, consumed by mercy for Louis.

Would any of us have fared--you moron. I had a perfectly evil scion before the dress sphere, you didn't see me give in--

Kyle squeezed his arm, looking down at the ground.

Oh, but he's just a hindrance. Right. Trying to kill me, trying to get the other group to kill me--just a hindrance. Let's forgive him. But Ajora takes Rachel's heart, and suddenly he's a monster. Unforgivable. An abomination.

Kyle...

"James, no one's saying we refuse to help him, if you'd listen," Sora had said shortly after the corsair finished, raising a small brow from the doorway. He noticed that Riku remained quiet as they spoke, massaging the bridge of his nose in obvious frustration. Still, the rest of the conversation carried on.

No, of course not, let's help the poor sociopath who's tried to kill me on multiple occasions, who would rather my heart be torn to ******** shreds than he leave it alone, who HELPED MAKE the chaotic replicas you hate so much, no, let's save him, let's save him, damn Ajora, damn his original, but save this POOR TORTURED SOUL--!

KYLE.

Kyle inhaled sharply, softly--he'd been unconsciously holding his breath. It likely went unheard as the others spoke. He was snapped out just in time to hear the tail-end Joe's response to Kyla, and Noelle's as well. They were trying to come to terms. His left arm was aching--he couldn't tell if it was from his vice-like grip or... something else. The others were all focused on the conversation at hand, at each other.

Sorry... sorry, I--

I know you don't. You're upset. You're being affected. Try to calm down.

Kyle tried to return his breathing to normal as they continued talking. He looked to each of them, his eyes finally falling on Kyla. They needed to remain united. It was like Joe and Noelle said--as he'd said just hours before in her room, talking one on one with her. His gaze attempted to appeal to the conversation they had before, praying she'd remember, or at least understand.

We just want to make sure we're all on the same page...

Riku held out for the moment. He had input, but at the same time, Kyla already had enough to respond to, so he waited. How she would handle this would determine quite a bit.

[Kyla: Hangar: Disney]

There numerous ways in which Kyla could have responded. More defensively. More indignantly. To be called selfish- the one thing she loathed the most in people hurt a lot. Her entire life had been controlled by people like that.
Now it was clear to her, that despite all her efforts, shed had done nothing but make things harder for everyone around her. Kyle was proof of that fact.
Now everyone was frustrated with her. And who could blame them? They were right. The very thing she had feared from the get go was her reality and there was no way of changing it now.

She could have reacted during at any point, but she was simply quiet. Her face was expressionless, eyes distant- but somehow you could tell she was listening.
The summon crawled down to the floor turned around and face her own partner.

~ I agree with them too- and if I do, that means somewhere you feel the same.~

Kyla’s eyes finally seemed to come back into focus and they met Kyle’s, she stared at him for a long long moment. Yes- the artist was thinking about last night. KYla had made some kind of decision, but there was no way of telling what it was- and not even her summon was aware.

Slowly she closed her eyes and took two deep calming breathes and replied softly.-“ wakatta.” ( I understand/follow you know) - after exhaling. It seemed like she was breathing out whatever she was feeling till it visibly drained from her body language till she looked overall relaxed.

Carbuncle seemed satisfied with that response and padding up to her, instead of climbing she phased right into her body at last.
“I’ve got a lot to think about.” Her voice was no longer monotone, but calmer, gentler now actually- the change was unnerving.
“I’m sorry.”

Now I simply have to find the strength to do what must be done.

{James : Disney : Hangar}

As the corsair heard Sora's words that were directed at him, telling him to just listen James began to calm down, realizing he was misreading the situation. He had gotten so riled up in his own emotions, that he had completely lost control of himself. Control that he absolutely hated to lose. He reached up beneath his glasses and similarly to Riku began to massage the bridge of his nose and rub at his closed eyes as he focused on slowing down his breathing and in doing so focusing and getting control of himself again.

"Su'um ahrk morah.... Su'um ahrk morah...," James repeated a few times in between deep breaths, he spoke this strange mantra quietly enough that no one, other than maybe Kyla who he was right next to, would be able to hear it.

'James... Are you alright?' Fenrir asked, feeling the unbalance in the corsair's heart and mind.

'I will be... This is exactly why I try to think with my head nowadays instead of my heart. It gets me into more trouble than its worth,' the gunner stated, mentally smacking himself upside the head as he probably would have been physically too if he had been alone. 'Thought I had grown out of reacting that extremely though. Why did I even draw those parallels? The situations are completely different.'

'What matters is that you did make that connection. While the situations are different, the significance of your response is what is important. Do you still feel that way? That you want to help Louis?' Fenrir replied.

'Aye, he may have tried to separate himself from us by claiming he was an Ivalicain but he's still an Earthling. If he can be saved, then we should still try. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it though, I guess.'

The corsair's eyes opened again and he was noticeably calmer from before. He had a strong feeling that to most of the group that knew him, for him to convey that level of emotion was uncommon. He didn't think he had shown that much raw emotion since the time he had punched Cory.

"Sorry guys, guess I over thought things and overreacted there," he stated, evidently embarrassed at the fact. He stopped speaking there, not entirely sure what to say at this point. He figured he would be better off not talking anymore. He turned his focus towards Kyla again and gave her a small reassuring smile, simply as a way of him saying that he believed that things would turn out alright before he turned his focus back to the group as a whole.

[ Daniel ~ Shinra Headquarters ~ Vehicle Garage 005 ]

'Thankful' was an understatement. The scavenging efforts seemed ridiculously fruitful, and the prototyping of various forms of travel always seemed to transcend time. It made Daniel's projects almost too easy.

Shinra's lackeys were an active bunch. They scoured the landscape for any advantage they could get their hands on, and man was it good. Intel may have been the currency of choice, but the riches left in other peoples trash..

well...

Who could say if the supplies were discarded or stolen? what mattered is that they were here. And Daniel needed all the parts he could get.

As with all his hobbies, this one was certainly dumb. And reckless. And probably misguided. Definitely misguided.. And the Earthling was invested wholeheartedly.

The motorbike stood upright in all it's glory for the first time since he had begun. Daniel had finally managed to find wheels intact in the Turk scrap pile, and with one air compressor and hose later, they were on the bike.

Triumph!

The Turk smiled, walking a slow circle around his creation. It certainly couldn't run just yet, but boy did she look nice!

It's ugly.

A sigh.

It's not done... Can't you at least see the potential?

Zodiark huffed, A coat of paint? what about the bent frame, huh?

Honestly, the frame was a problem.

Oh come on it was the best one I could find. Every other bike frame looked like it was a descendant of a pretzel..

Daniel stopped in his tracks and frowned. Zodiark was right though, especially at this angle; The bike looked like it got into a fight with a telephone pole. And lost, as non-tank vehicles tend to do.

The easy solution would be to hijack the Shinra CNC machines and just make a new one in a few hours, but he was already getting dirty looks from their machinists for wasting their time and material. Even with all of the scavenging efforts, raw metal was not a commodity. Making a new frame though would require skills he didn't have, particularly in pipe bending and machining.

Daniel stared at the problem, quietly coming to a conclusion his lazy ego was vehemently seething over.

It was time to learn how to bend a goddamn pipe.

---

The machinist shop was a short walk through the various hangers; large, but nestled deep in even larger cavernous docks for airships and land vehicles alike. Instead of his usual scenic route through the airship hanger, Daniel cut straight to the chase and found his target. There was no telling when Tseng's brief would yield a call from HQ, so time was of the essence.

Today was Daniel's lucky day; Almost no mechanics staking claim to his intended machines this time! The Turk took quick stock of the various pipes at his disposal and selected a few that boasted the same relative length and girth. He would surely fail the first attempts without any training or exact measurements, but that didn't bother Daniel in the slightest. He was here to learn, and learning was best retained when actively practicing!

Especially considering no one was watching.

The pipe bending machines were essentially a set of large metal wheels. The intent was to put the pipe in between or into the wheels and push it through as they clamped down on the metal.

Simple enough right?

---

Poor Daniel was running out of pipes.

Luckily, a patient machinist had spotted his wasteful 'learning' expedition and intervened; Otherwise the Shinra machine shop would have quickly found a need for new plumbing. The bending process itself did not take that much effort nor experience. The angle of the bends, however, needed clever measuring skills and experience that Daniel simply did not have.

The machinist sent the Turk back to his project with specific instructions on how to size it up. Daniel's bike took up a small corner of a land-transport repair wing, tucked behind what looked like a cross between a hummer and a dune buggy, affectionately called the 'Saluki01'. The poor thing never seemed to have a ball joint- suspension design that could last in high-stress environments. As it stood, the 'all-terrain' vehicle covered his project up, and he got very few visitors.

It's official; You can't just LOOK at something and make a good guess.

Thanks, very much appreciated.

What? I'm tired of watching you make this trip over and over. Get it right this time so we can move on...

Daniel began the process laid out for him, and all was going well. The only problem was a creeping suspicion that he actually wanted to modify the design, rather than copy it. The frame didn't seen to stretch far enough to give the visual impression that he was looking for, and the seat would have sat slightly too high for his taste. These were minor annoyances before when his priorities were just "get working parts". Now the Turk had the skills necessary to make his own custom design, and the one he was working with was not going to cut it.

Zodiark realized Daniels intent and sighed in annoyance, Really? After you went through all that just to put the engine on?

Listen, if I'm going to make only one, it's going to be the way I want it... even if that means taking it apart and putting it back together a couple times..

---

Engine, exhaust, seat, fuel tank... the entire bike was strewn about in it's various pieces minus it's skeleton, now hoisted over Daniel's shoulder. He trekked through the hangers to the machine shop, avoiding the gaze of curious machinists and Turk's alike. There wasn't any time to lose.

With a pencil and paper, he modified the measurements slightly, accounting for a slightly longer and lower frame. When each angle and curve radius seemed satisfactory, Daniel checked it again. And again... One more time just to be sure.

Screw it, time to waste a couple more metal pipes.

---

Despite the odds, and the local betting pool against his success Daniel managed to produce two functional, Dare one say beautiful, halves of a motorcycle frame. a few quick welds of cross members, and several holes drilled yielded the finest motorcycle frame the Turk had ever produced.

Albeit, the first.

There could not have been a more smug grin on his face



" Daniel, Please report to Debriefing IMMEDIATELY "



" $%^&! "

[Rufus : ShinRa Headquarters : Main Office]

A CEO's job never rested, at least, not for this CEO. Rufus Shinra, son of one of the greatest entrepreneurs in Radiant Garden, was as close to a work-a-holic as one could get, especially now with the world as it was, there was no time to rest. To the right on his desk, a stack of papers two feet tall, just beyond on the floor lay a massive, dog-like creature resting its eyes, but ear perked up and alert. To his, left a keyboard and screen, several windows open and displaying an array of statistics fluctuating separately by varying seconds. And in his hand, three pages of text and hastily placed pictures labeled, "REPORTS" in bold red letters.

Waiting quietly to the side was Tseng, his most trusted Turk and dare say most capable one when it came to doing exactly what Rufus wanted. There was beep from the intercom, "Mr. Shinra, Daniel is here as you requested."

"Send him in," Rufus replied, finger on the small white button on the corner of his desk. He released it and made a nod to Tseng, silently dismissing him from the room.

The two would pass each other on their way as Tseng stepped out and Daniel in. Rufus took a deep breath as he put the papers aside, smiling lightly at the young man as he entered, "Thank you for arriving so expediently, I hope I didn't wake you," he motioned with his left hand while adjusting his tie with his right, "Have a seat, I'm told you had a very rough morning."

[ Joe : Disney : Hanger ]

Joe felt like slapping himself in the head. It was his rotten luck that he came in just in time for group therapy. First it was "uncomfortable debate about killing earthling", now it's "Hey, I just made a deal with the devil and am now a possible liability". And he had been afraid of making a bad impression on them?

"So you made a Faustian Deal the blue haired, nihilistic psychotic and now you've become a wild card?" Joe inquired as he moved to get better look at Kyle's arm.

Some of the markings defiantly looked like they were straight out of ten, but there were many others that looked unrecognizable. Joe could have sworn that on occasion, he saw the slightest movement or pulse from them, but that was probably just his eyes playing tricks on him, right?

In any case, he hadn't had much experience with Seymour outside of the character's own game, but it was enough to know that when someone like him offered you something, chances are good that there was a very dark ulterior motive behind his "kindness", however much said altruism correlated with your short-term goals.

"I can't say I don't think that was a dumb move, even factoring in what you've told me about your situation. Still, I can respect that your not keeping this a secret from me or anyone else."