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Sydney stared, watching as Ami, as Wash, as others were dragged away. "Izy," she said, touching her choker again. "Izy I NEED YOU. I need you NOW." But he said not a word. "Izy, please, I need you," she said, tears threatening as she tapped the choker. "They're taking our friends, Izy--they're taking Wash!"

On her own--with no weapon--there was nothing she could do. She wasn't strong enough to take on an entire group like this, even with Izy's help. She could just stand there, weakly, helplessly, and watch them drag off other hunters.

These were the shadows that needed to be destroyed.
*******

Fai took one last moment to glance around, one last moment to think of what they'd accomplished and what they had yet to accomplish. Things were looking up, he decided. Sure the scarelings were confused, and he had no doubt that only a handful of them would follow, but a handful of canon fodder was better than none at all.

Although, he admitted almost cheerfully to himself, their new "leader" was crazier than a rabid squirrel. Then again, the leader of the famine tribe before the incident had been insane, as well. Ahh, well, that was the old saying wasn't it? Something about "all hail the new queen, same as the old one..." or something like that. Either way, that seemed to be the signal to leave, he thought, heading for the portal behind Sal.

[Following Medea]
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"I once said you deserved a guy that went through hell and back for you," Roch said, turning to Amphi. "I just did. But Blue Eyes, I ain't goin' further unless I have to. Those horsemen, I'm thinkin' they're as bad as the hunters in their own way--I saw the pictures back in their homeland. And I wanna get this jackin' symbol off my shoulder, but now's not the time for that. Now is the time to go home, to recover, and to figure out why you ain't said a word since we showed up. They might be offerin' power and FEAR, but they've already branded us like slaves. And if you're thinkin' we can take on all the horsemen and their followers after what we just went through to save someone, you're out of your mind."

He looked at Danny, then at the portal that the horsemen had opened. "We don't know what's through there. For all we know we'd be as trapped going there as we were here--maybe more, cuz they're the ones that are helpin' us get out of here. If they don't want us leavin', we won't be leavin'. So you tell me," he said, looking at both of them, "which way are we goin? Cuz I already told you what I think."

Of course with the way he had just put it, and their inclinations to go along with what he decided nine times out of ten, he'd pretty much just told THEM which way they were going. But they got a say, he figured.

She'd seen Mei, for a brief moment before Medea started talking. And then kidnapping Hunters, which... didn't really seem right. It hadn't been right when the Hunters had kidnapped Amityville students, so surely it wasn't right when it was Medea doing it?

Then again, Medea was on the good side. The right side. Maybe that made things OK? There wasn't long to ponder on this moral quandary, because soon enough the Head Priestess and the horsemen were leaving.

And they'd invited the students to join. Unimaginable power and FEAR - that seemed about right. Leo hadn't ever been able to imagine as much FEAR as Medea had, but there it was, right in front of her eyes. And she herself had been so weak in this battle, hadn't even stopped cowering long enough to help the others in the fight.

So maybe this was a chance at redemption. Maybe this power that Medea was offering would be her chance to do something right, something good. Maybe she could finally help out instead of standing on the sidelines and wishing she wasn't so useless.

In the end, it wasn't that hard of a choice for her to make. The elf that looked like Arel had said there were other ways to fight, but Leo wanted to fight now - she didn't want to wait endlessly without ever getting better, no, she wanted to finally be of some use.

And that was what Medea offered her. Without any hesitation, the mare stepped through the Head Priestess' portal, following the horsemen and the other students that had gone before her.

Not a hard choice in the least.

[Exiting to follow Medea!]

Calder said very little as she followed behind, a massive mare, but soon shifted to a slender boil following closely behind like a puppy behind it's masters. It glanced to faces he felt were familiar but the names were just on the tip of his tongue. Right now, he just didn't want to loose sight of the Igor and the ghoul he was carrying.

Exit to Arel

Was this a dream? If he put enough pressure to his skull could Wilson wake up? No. This was undeniably reality, but he didn’t want to accept it. He didn’t want to believe he had only watched, tripping over his weak legs, while the horsemen dragged away his comrades and friends. Wilson hoped they would take them back somehow because he didn’t want it to end this way. He wanted to know them and talk with them more. He hadn’t even managed to mend things with Ami. Regret clawed at his insides. It tore at him relentlessly as he continued to lie on the ground hunched over, hands on his head. The feeling was familiar, but this time there was no one in his head to comfort him awkwardly. Wilson still couldn’t hear the raspy voice, often tinged with irritation as it grumbled continuously.

Gramps? Still no answer. Gramps. Nothing. …Dabir? Had Wilson ever called his partner by his full name before? There was a flicker of hope that maybe it would rouse his weapon’s attention, but nothing came, so Wilson continued to dig himself deeper, regretting and thinking of failure, failure again.

A simple touch pulled him out of the hole, back to reality. Slowly, his arms loosened and he looked up. The touch lingered. Wilson reached for the hand, looked up even more to see Gale. He wanted to grab Gale’s hand as it left his shoulder. He needed to grasp someone’s hand for security, but instead Wilson rested both hands on his knees and stood back up. You’re twenty-two—three. Twenty-three. You’re not a kid anymore. As Wilson nodded back at Gale, he could see why the blond had become a hunter despite his age. Wilson stared at his own hands. Unlike me.

Rather than stand cluelessly on his own, Wilson followed Gale like a lost puppy. He watched the boy pull aside foliage to reveal a fallen Madeline. His self-pity and pain disappeared as he quickly reached for the sun trainee’s other arm. “Mads.” The nickname tumbled out easily. “You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?” Physically, at least.

The sight to behold when Shaheen reached the portal area had her lips curving up into a smirk of satisfaction, despite how confused she still felt. The war horsewoman did not hesitate to follow the others, glimpsing a couple that she did indeed recognize, names springing to mind at last.

((exiting with Medea))

The battle was done with and now they had prisoners too! Tseng felt this was quite the victory indeed. And so he wasted little time and moved on after Medea.

((Exit to Medea))

As Shun moved away Mitsu watched the portal retreat with wide eyes almost jerking toward it for a moment before relaxing into his hold again. It was hard to say why but she seemed drawn toward it for a brief second before she turned her gaze to the other portal with an odd little man waiting for them.

Her expression relaxed as they got closer, casting one last glance at the other portal before looking up toward the reaper who held her. "Are we going home now?"