Welcome to Gaia! ::

[[Her : Frozen Colosseum]]

"Not me," the girl's voice replied quizzically, "Joe, can't you tell your best friend from an impostor? Put the weapons down, it's me, Rae."

The girl stepped out of the light into clear view. Her customary white mage outfit stained black to have a black and red motif.

Sayrike's scan returned, it showed little information beyond her name, immunity to silence, and lastly, a prominent weakness to darkness.

"Seriously, do you guys honestly think I'd let that boy control me? He's a push over, haven't you figured that out by now? Sure, he tried desperately to suppress me, but I never gave in. Eventually he gave up and left me alone, so it's my win," Rachel opened her arms to each side, "Anyway, how long do I have to wait for my bear hug, Joe?"

[Joseph: Frozen Colosseum]

The wind whipped around harder. Not faster, but it felt even heavier as he gritted his teeth, eyes locked on her. He was so focused, he didn't even realize when Zell put his hand on Joseph's shoulder. At least, not consciously.

The scan info passed through his mind, and he shook his head as if to shake it out. Because she spoke. And he roared. Because no matter what the info told him, not matter what she looked like, he knew it wasn't her. Not wholly her, at least. Not when he knew where her body was. Not when they were in this twisted place.

"Shut up!" And with that bark of words, his hand swung, three small balls of condensed wind flying from his fingers in an awkward arc, up and over as he charged.

The bullets landed on the ground behind her, expanding rapidly with such humidity and heat to them. It was unlike his normal bullets, but they're effect was still the same. The intent wasn't just damage, but to propel her forward into his attack, his broken staff pieces swinging in a flurry of swipes and slashes.

[Joseph: Frozen Colosseum]

The force hit Joseph like a wall, sending him flying back a damn good distance.

He managed to land on his feet, skidding to a halt as the heavy wind kept him upright. And he immediately started charging forward again, not caring about her speech or magic spell, even.

He swung his arms out, throwing the broken staff pieces. They spun rapidly as they flew through the air, the heavy wind guiding them towards her. He kept running after his 'staff', hand raised as wind started to coalesce in his plam for a wind blast.

But then the spell hit. The dark energy rained down, and suddenly Joe was falling forward. His front hit the ground while still keeping his momentum, and he bounced, before rolling on the ground. He then skidded to a halt(on his face), and just laid there.

He was out for the count.

[Joseph is KOed]

[Dawn : Frozen Coliseum]

Dawn froze and covered her eyes in reflex at the attack. She felt as if the air was taken out of her as she fell to her chest. It was a few moments before she started to move, however with unsteady posture she started to sit up. From where she was sitting, she scanned her surroundings taking quick notice that several of her friends had fallen to the said attack. Dawn felt her heart jump to her throat at the destruction as her eyes landed on little Jenny crumpled to the ground not moving.

'WHY?!' Dawn thought in frustration as sadness as she took a glance at 'Rae' then at Jenny. She had to help her, help someone.

Dawn, without a second thought started to resume to dance again, this one to raise the little time mage, Jenny.

{James ; Auron; Leon : Louis’ Heart : Frozen Coliseum}

James remained silent as Ajora explained his intentions and Nemesis and Justice both replied in equally overly-dramatic format. At times the things everyone said seemed to be getting to the entangled shards only for them to be lost to the darkness and madness once again. It seemed they would be in a perpetual stale mate until Kyle finally appeared, making his move. With a coordinated effort which the corsair didn’t react quickly enough to be involved in(not that it was necessary) the Dragoon succeeded in wresting control of the heart from the two shards. The corsair was unsure what to do, and before any real action could be taken the curse, or whatever it was on the heart activated. A torrential roar of black fire erupted, and the corsair could feel the heat as rushed over his body, as he had unfortunately been right on the edge of it. Then everything inverted and within the fire emerged… Rae? It was fairly quickly decided though that was no way it could be her. Despite whatever the thing was pretending to be.

Mentally the corsair was exhausted, unsure what to think regarding anything anymore, though he wasn’t going to be fooled in the slightest into thinking whoever stood before them was the real Rae. Her focus seemed to be primarily on Joe, which made sense, they had been closest. The corsair was definitely glad in this case that he hadn’t gotten closer to Rae. It didn’t take too long for the impostor to tire of Joe’s refusal and her true colors were shown proclaiming she was going to delete everything.

The dual-layered spell expanded from around her and enveloped everyone. Crushing darkness and pain crashed down upon the corsair and he felt like he had to fight to maintain consciousness and succeeded. The corsair scanned the field and noted that wasn’t the case for a number of their group fell unconscious, whether from pain or something else the gunner wasn’t sure. Regardless he raised his hexagun and trained it on the Shadow of Rae. He remembered the weakness to darkness and pulled out the Dark Card and began charging his energy to make it as strong as he could. Before unleashing the Dread Cannon as the blast of Dark Energy erupted from the barrels of his hexagun he could feel a chill, the similar sensation to sensing the darkness itself. The attack made him feel momentarily ill, but the sensation didn’t last.


Leon did his best to keep up with everything that was going on. The appearance of “Rae” seemed to agitate a lot of their group and before they knew how best to act she retaliated. Darkness encompassed the gunblader and he fought as hard as he could but in the end collapsed to his knees and then landed on the floor unconscious.

Leon is KO’ed

Auron’s focus remained on Joe for as long as he could keep it there as the boy cussed him out. It did no good to get so lost in rage. However, it seemed he was able to calm down and after doing so he was able to make his way back to his feet. However that didn’t last as the impostor of their fallen white mage appeared and then after sufficient accusation she took off and unleashed a field enveloping attack. Crushing darkness surrounded the unsent samurai and even though he had to use his katana to brace himself, he managed to stay conscious. However, since Rae was still airborne the samurai was unable to retaliate. He raised his katana back to the ready and remained standing in front of the unconscious Joe in an effort to defend him.

{{James Attack: MS = 12+2(Charge)= 14 X 2(Elemental Damage)=28
Chance of Fear(MS=14-4(difficulty)=10}}

[[ Mod Note: James and Auron both receive Wall, making #2 and #3 out of 4. ]]

Joe ; Kyle : Louis's Heart : Frozen Coliseum

"Crap..." Joe cursed as Fearless Leader barreled forward towards the woman, clearly intending to rip her limb from limb.

Not that he didn't think that this "Rae" was a walking trap, but goddamn it he wanted this to be easy. And as the woman flew up and began to rant, Joe knew that this was going to be anything but easy.

Kyle finally brought himself to his feet as the heartless (because he refused to even consider calling it by some false identity it would like to claim) continued talking. He tried to figure out what Louis had done. Only Xehanort had maintained his form, and the only clue they had regarding that was that he gave his heart willing. Or, wait, what about Scar? No, he was just a ghost which coalesced into the giant Heartless thing. But this... Had Louis somehow merged the creation of an Antiform with illusion spells?

... oh, that's big.

The blast came quickly, a swirling vortex of black. Joe raised his blade to try and block it, but the spell was unavoidable.

It burned. His body felt like it was being scalded by a boiling wave. He gritted his teeth and endured, shaking from the pain.

Steadying himself, he caught his breath, trying to get a read on what the hell had just happened. It wasn’t good.

Fearless leader was down. Dani was down. Jenny, Leon, Axel, Matthew, John...

That was at least a quarter of the team, maybe more. The rest of the group was scrambling to act, throwing down raises and firing off what spells they could. Several stories above them, Rae floated above them, preparing her next attack.

Joe knew what he had to do. It would be tricky, but with some help he could just manage it. Taking a deep breath, he took off at a sprint towards Kyle’s Dragon.

“I’m heading up. Mind giving me a lift, Kyle?”

Hrrrg, that hurt.

Kyle groaned, gripping the robe over his chest plate as he dealt with the lingering spell sensation. In that brief moment, he was exceptionally glad Ultima had agreed to fuse with whatever other spirit was inside him--he would have been dead for sure otherwise. Talk about a useless first round.

He watched as the rest of the still-conscious fighters began their counter-offensive (counter-counter-offensive?), grumbling that their buffs were gone; Jenny was knocked out by the first wave, and Dawn was reviving her. Heck, quite a few people were out cold--ridiculous. This heartless needed to be taken care of now.

A swirling golden glyph appeared under Kyle, followed by the tell-tale accelerating ticking, as he cast Hastega on himself, just in time for Joe's request--watching as he ran toward the wyvern.

Kyle grinned--and cast Quick on the anti-mage, giving him a healthy dose of extra time.

"Ready for lift-off in three--"

The crimson Tigrex held itself steady and its back completely straight, with its long neck lowered.

"Two--"

Joe stepped between the shoulder blades, and the neck began to curve not up, but down.

"One."

The swordsman was close to falling off the steep decline of its neck when, instead, the beast tossed its head up in a blur of speed and momentum, more than enough to send the man flying--only to follow it up with a concussive, hurricane force roar that would have given him even more upward force.

Shortly thereafter, Nanaki roared as well, giving Joe a refreshed Bravery.

As he flew through the air, Joe yelled out to the winged figure.

“Just for the record, I’ve only got the faintest idea of who this person is…”

He fired of a Raspaga, summoning a new wave of phantoms

“…so I'm the last person you want to be fighting right now.”

With his off hand, he sent the phantoms forward, putting his blade in line with the woman's torso.

"Because I've got everything I need to beat you...”

His leg’s curled like a spring and steadied himself in the air.

"...and zero sentiment!"

He shot upward, following his phantoms with spirit rending array of blows.

[ Amy : Narnia / Louis's Heart ]

Noticing Mathy was one of the fallen, Amy cast Life on him. He had the ability to raise the 'dead' as well. He'd be able to help.

[Noelle ~ Prote : Disney Castle : Residence Wing]

“You should rest,” Prote said quietly from behind the small blonde as she teetered down the corridors of the residence wing.

“I will,” Noelle replied distantly, “I wanted to-- . . . I mean I’m . . . just gonna do something first. I wanna see her.”

Prote didn’t understand what she meant by this, but didn’t feel it prudent to ask. He merely followed in silence, behaving every bit like the spectre he was and not even leaving a footstep to echo in the large stone halls. Noelle felt like those very halls that moment--just walls encompassing empty space, with silence and loneliness the only things to be heard in them. It was an uncanny feeling, but it was more comforting than any other at the time. Several moments passed before Noelle slowly stopped at one of the doors that lined the corridor. She rested her hand on the brass door knob, waiting for some sort of non-existent beckon to enter. Putting her weight against the door, she twisted the knob and pushed slowly. Prote stood behind her, not sure to whom this bedchamber belonged.

Past the door was a dark room, silent but for a grandfather clock in the corner. No one stirred as the door opened, not even the shadows cast by the moonlight through the window. The geist looked past Noelle’s shoulder into the room. There was a bed at the far end with someone in it, lying very still. It was Rae. Prote suddenly understood why they were there.

“I will depart from you, here.” He said, stepping back, “Be sure to rest. I’ll come back later to check in with you should you need anything.”

Noelle didn’t look at him, but nodded in acknowledgement before disappearing into the room. The door closed quietly behind her and the corridor returned to silence. Prote lingered for a short time, unsure why but lingering all the same. After a time he turned to leave. Just after he could faintly hear sobbing beyond Rae’s door.

: - . - . - . - . - :


Noelle started awake, jumping to an upright position and looking around. She was stiff and alert for a half minute, scanning the room, before a realization came to her and her body lost tension. Her hands rubbed her face as she leaned back into her chair heavily. The imprint of her upper body had been left on Rae’s bed where the girl dropped off to sleep. She couldn’t be sure how long she was out, but got the feeling that it hadn’t been for too long--the tears from where she had leaned over on the bed weren’t quite dry yet.
With a sigh, the agromancer rested her chin in her hand. Her eyes were resting on Rae’s sleeping form, but she wasn’t really seeing her. Her mind was a raging torrent of different thoughts and memories, all of them unpleasant. At least the emotional response to these things had stopped. Though, that wasn’t exactly a positive thing in itself. She inhaled through her nose and rubbed her face with both hands. She hoped the others were alright.

Noelle shivered, noticing the room temperature actively drop. Her eyes first went to the window, thinking a breeze might have pushed it open somehow. The window was still latched closed, and there was no ripple in the curtains, so it wasn’t a draft she felt. Upon looking around she saw a ghostly figure in the far, dark corner.

“Oh, Prote, you’re back.” She mumbled tiredly. He was probably just going to escort her back to her own room to be sure she got rest. For not being able to feel or express emotion, he sure seemed like a caring fellow. “I was just about to--”

“None of the Earthlings were supposed to be here . . .” A different voice mused.

Noelle froze in her chair, looking back to the spectre in the corner and straining her eyes to focus on it more. That wasn’t Prote. The figure stepped forward into the latticed moonlight coming through the window, a smirk on it’s ethereal, white face.

“No matter.”


: - . - . - . - . - :


Prote heard a muffled crash from the far end of the hall. He had been wandering for the past half hour or so, trying to give Noelle her time while also making note of the information that could be found on the placards next to each of the suits of armor that lined the halls. It was a peculiar thing to have lining the halls of a castle--famous battle armors from Camelot and the history behind them. This sort of thing would have better suited a museum, but Prote thought that perhaps the King had done this specifically in the Earthlings’ residence wing for their knowledge benefit. But none of this was important now.

Prote started toward the source of the crash with a brisk pace, on high alert despite the knowledge that this castle was the safest place in all of the world right now. Perhaps Noelle had gotten up to go to her room and sleepily walked into something. This was a likelihood, the sound had come from Rae’s residence after all.

Unfortunately he was mistaken.

Just as he approached, there was another very loud crashing sound, and no sooner had it ended was the door flying off its hinges. Noelle had her feet to it, propelled back into it by something Prote had yet to see, and was able to keep her balance as she and the door skidded across the floor and into the suit of armor against the far wall.

“Noelle!” He exclaimed, garnering a brief glance from the girl. From where he stood he could see the frost lining her hair and eyelashes, as well as coating the heavy winter clothing her dressphere had changed to. He next felt the severe cold that emanated from Rae’s dark room. This presence was familiar.

“Ah, Prototype IX,” Noelle’s opponent declared, stepping from the darkness of the room and into the hallway. “You’ve saved me an extra trip.”

“Prototype I,” Prote breathed, immediately on the defensive.

Noelle’s eyes widened, “This is--?!”

Prototype I chortled and mockingly did a slight bow, “Charmed.”

The Geist had hardly finished his charade before attacking once more. He went for Noelle first, knowing she’d be the easier to beat of the two. She was a fast one, and the vines and stones were moderately annoying, but he truly felt like a cat playing with a toy. A stubborn toy, he’d give her that. He didn’t plan on killing her, it was really all just fun. But then again, he didn’t plan on her being there, either.

She deflected his punch and faked a kick before throwing two punches of her own. It was rather smart of her--try to get him to phase as many times in as many areas as she could to run down his heat energy. This was no doubt something she’d picked up from Prototype IX. It would hardly work with his current reserves of energy, however. After she missed each of her attacks, he swatted her away like the little pest she was. Noelle landed hard and slid across the floor.

Prote attacked quickly, trying to give Noelle as much time to recover as she could. He knew Prototype I would try to take her down first, that’s how he liked to play his games. Prote had to do his best to protect her, and give her openings to attack safely. Neither of them would be able to defeat Prototype I on their own, but together, if they utilized their teamwork to its fullest, they just might be able to weaken him enough to drive him away.

Noelle huffed and wiped the stream of blood coming from her nose with the back of her gloved hand. Today just couldn’t have gotten any worse. She staggered to her feet, spear forming in her hand with a flash. He was there for Rae’s body. She didn’t understand it, didn’t know what he could possibly want with her body, but she wouldn’t stand by and let him take it. But if Prote hadn’t shown up to help . . .

She watched the two in combat, almost unable to read them with how fast the two of them moved. It wasn’t an even match by far, Prote was taking blows, but he was certainly holding his own. Noelle stepped closer, holding her spear on guard, delicately stepping to move with the two Geists. She tried to read moments as best she could, finding weak spots in Prototype I’s guard, then acting with a lance of her spear, or large patch of stone wall. Periodically Prototype I would push Prote off, still cool as ever, and move back at Noelle. She would block, block, strike, miss, be struck, counter with a stone and just barely land a hit, before being hit harder as punishment. She and Prote danced in combat with the superior Geist, trying their hardest, but weren’t a match in their less than optimal state. There would be no defeating him, nor would there be a stalemate. Both Noelle and Prote knew which way this was going.

And then the situation got worse.

Another Geist stepped from Rae’s room, holding her heartless body in its arms. Prote didn’t take notice at first, but Noelle saw it. She shouted and diverted a strike meant for Prototype I to the faceless Geist holding Rae. Next thing she knew, her small frame had collided with the wall, and then the ground where it came to rest. A similar attack came at Prote shortly after. The agromancer looked up from the stone floor, her fiery eyes resting on Prototype I. He’d taken advantage of her distraction, and then Prote’s.

“No!” She hissed, struggling to get back up. She almost feared being struck down again, but Prototype I’s attention was no longer on her. There was a movement down the hall--a single working broom. It waddled into view a few meters off, noticed the scene, then scurried away in a panic. Maybe help would come in time.

“Now,” Prototype I sighed, looking down at Prote who was returning to his feet, “While I can’t say I’m not enjoying myself, I really should return to business. Time for task two.”

Noelle watched Prote who glanced her way. The look in his eyes told her to run, to go find help. Prote could hold Prototype I for just a little longer, she could find Merlin, or anyone really and . . . but she wouldn’t. There was no way she could chance Rae’s body being stolen in her absence. She raised her spear . . . but didn’t get to throw it.

Prototype I caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. This girl’s tenacity was almost commendable. Annoying, but commendable. She might prove some sort of asset in the future . . . he’d follow through on keeping her alive. Before she could take any further action, he appeared before her in a flash, a bored expression on his features. Noelle hesitated, eyes wide in surprise. All she could do was watch as he phased right through her.

Prote watched as Noelle faltered, and then crumpled to the ground in a heap, her clothing covered in a thick layer of frost. Within a matter of seconds she had been rendered so hypothermic that her body would no longer even shiver. Prote moved to attack again, understanding that every second Noelle went without help was one where she was closer to dire trouble. But before he could even get back on the defensive, Prototype I outmaneuvered him. He was left to the same fate as Noelle, and could only lurch as Prototype I phased through him, only he was left in quite a different predicament.

What was this memory? How had he not seen this before? His system seemed to lock up, he couldn’t move as his senses were flooded with a stream of information he had never before seen. He tried to think through it, tried to stay focused, but could only watch as Prototype I smirked and disappeared with Rae’s body. What was this? Why would Prototype I give him this information? Or had this memory been with him all along?

Was time passing? How long had he been stuck in place, unable to move or respond? Seconds, minutes? Things started to clear up, but slowly. There were castle guards there now, but Prote wasn’t sure when they’d gotten there. His body slackened as sense and movement returned to him. The guards were tending to Noelle, who was unresponsive. They were questioning him, but he was having a hard time responding, the severe addle of his thoughts and memories finally starting to wear off. He looked around and into Rae’s dark, empty room. Prototype I was gone.