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After a great fight between Jack Nozima and the spirit detective, Urameshi, Yusuke calls out all the fighters who are going to be competing in the next Heaven or Hell, sending a direct message.

After the events of Heaven or Hell 2007, Vahn found himself dragged out into a fight with one of the newcomers, a young man by the name of Tzenidaar.

Having chosen to step in and not have Silver deal with the enigmatic bloodlusting fighter, Vahn engaged after being goaded. The fight spread from outside the Stadium grounds into the Dead Forest itself.

When it was revealed that Tzen' was just out to steal more 'ability' from Vahn, Vahn decided to try out a new technique on him instead. With the effects apparently severely wounding both parties (both Vahn and Tzen' get thrown back and injured), Vahn believes the monster to be put down.

However, Tzen simply quietly retreats with what remains of his body, having indeed accomplished what he wanted: a new technique.

A silent observer of the battle reveals herself soon afterwards, looking to a disoriented and anemic Vahn like a small child.

~

He soon awakens within the confines of the Dark Sakura compound, a guild sequestered in secrecy and commanded by Sierra herself. It is here that he greeted by his mysterious savior; Reivian, the resident healer of the place.

While recuperating and apparently held hostage in the DSG, Vahn learns that Sunstrike is also here, recuperating after his bout with one of the eliminators from HoH '07.

The two of them manage to catch up on current events with one another, as Sun basks in a room deep in the earth and set with lava.

The reasons for them both being brought together once more centers around the events taking place before the finals for the HoH took place, which led to the 'disappearance' of Sierra herself.

Being held chiefly responsible, and eventually owning up to responsibility, Vahn and Sun are charged with temporary membership in GUARDIAN, the DSG' own private group which apparently keeps Sierra's well being as their chief objective; as well as her elimination if the need calls for it.

Leaving Sun to finish his recuperation, Vahn is then led to meet one last person: Sierra's personal guardian, and apparently Ra'Kar's own servant-- a dragon by the name of Asai.

In human form, she greets Vahn, and reveals to him that she has been responsible for the care taking of Sierra's children: twins.

She also states that their father is standing right before her.

~
Basic premise is that one of Reiyvian's patients continues ranting on and on about the 'consuming darkness' and 'living darkness' that twisted and shaped itself into whatever it wanted.

Bearing a hazy memory, Vahn is annoyed enough to listen to the man, only to discover that apparently he was talking about Shades--- and someone the Shades were now following. Someone that looked an awful lot like Vahn himself....

Gleaming the apparent meeting place for these Shades from this man, Vahn believes he has finally tracked down his brother-- and with him, Ra'kar. Remembering also the destruction of Ariel--- Vahn goes off in search of Syntaxis.

Once there--- he ends up fighting through Shades, until he encounters a strong one in particular. It calls itself Omikron...

Believing these Shades are in cahoots with Victor, he rails on them until Omikron is forced to stop him. The two end up fighting--- and it is then that the apparent puppeteer of the current situation makes himself known.

The raving lunatic at the healing center in the DSG was apparently another Shade, and upon revealing that he had used Vahn to track down the exact location of Syntaxis and gain entry-- it reveals itself as Alpha.

He then claims that the Shades are indeed allied with Victor, but only the shades on his side-- as there is an apparent schism within their race, with Omikron on one and Alpha on the other.

With that said, Alpha easily overtakes both weakened fighters, killing Omikron and wounding Vahn before being forced to retreat by the appearance of both Owle and Athan.

Despite his injuries, Vahn is surprised to find that Owle is here, as well as Athan. Faced with the consequences of his rash actions, Vahn divulges what led him here and what he is faced with currently-- careful to leave out the more personal details.

With Owle electing to stay behind and at least give Omikron a proper burial, both Vahn and Athan leave Syntaxis--- in search of Alpha, each with their own personal reasons behind doing so.

~

The duo end up separated eventually, but Vahn remains in contact with GUARDIAN at least. He is told that Sunstrike has long since left, apparently carrying out a different set of orders although he wasn't told what.

It is during this time, that in his attempt to gather information and going where there might be the possibility of both Shade and Victor involvement, Vahn becomes involved in a series of 'side quests'.

One of which is becoming involved in stopping a foreign invasion (Plan Black). It is here that both Athan and Vahn meet up yet again--- apparently on opposite sides. Vahn notably led innocents away from the severity of fighting but didn't intervene any more as he had his own problems to worry about.

After this, he apparently signed up for a fighting tournament during one of his ventures into a bar, obviously in a drunken stupor. He met another flame user during this (Brutal Underground) and was attacked with the apparent totality of his opponent's flame. Forcefully absorbing via his gauntlet, he retained a whiteish hue in his flame for a while, before the normal black color returned to him. He forcefully withdrew from the tournament however when he realized how much time he was wasting and needed to get 'back to the real world'. The last thing he remembered of that was a chainsaw being swung at him.

~

In his further attempts at gathering information (apparently he's the worst for this type of job), Vahn winds up running out of money in his travels. Needing to secure some fast income so he can continue on his way, he ends up getting hired as a mercenary for a merchant airship, that apparently is carrying some precious cargo.

A tumult of noise waking him from a nap, Vahn grudgingly emerges to do what he was paid for...and is surprised to see Athan on deck of the merchant ship, with pirates behind him.

Bored out of his mind, and finding an irresistible urge to want to gut the other man, Vahn lunges forward to attack....



There is something to be said for a good day at work.

Before the finals for Heaven or Hell 2007 took place, Victor made a surprising discovery: the Asgard. Due to his experience from being literally displaced from reality-- he was able to tell that the old haggard man stuck out like a sore thumb...

Approaching the Asgard, he discovered that the old man was none other than John Tomorrow himself-- albeit a future version of the current man. With a tale of a future gone wrong and a need to slay Enki Leviathan, Victor went about using his current knowledge on this world's Tomorrow, which he gleamed from his 'tenure' as part of the Kyonuske.

Playing on the Old Asgard's fear of being alone in his quest, and offering help-- he made a pact with the man, sealing the deal with a Fruit from Eden's garden. With a powerful ally on his side, Victor invited his new friend to accompany him as they went to pick up another old friend.

~

Emerging from a Void rip, Victor is now standing over Vahn, watching as a newly emerged and strengthened Ra'kar makes her way towards him. Mocking his fallen brother for his weakness, Victor exits, stating that he 'will be the one to clean out the world.'

With both the frightening power of fire and thunder under his disposable, the task of breaking the elemental seals surrounding DESTRUCTION don't seem so impossible for Victor anymore....

~

The emergence of unknown energy occurs as Eden is in transit within the Void. The result is a foreign object effectively lodging itself within Eden's ancient ground....something 'so new on something so old'.

Upon investigation, Victor is introduced to the Sword of the Forgotten...and everything changes.

With impressive willpower, Victor is able to pull the blade, and apparently prove his worth to the newly acquired multitude of voices within his head. With the agreement made, Victor now has power on par to rival any who would stand in his way--- seeing the power of the blade as nothing more than a tool he can use and toss away when his goal is reached.

It is this effective belief in self-control that keeps him from going completely insane and giving in to the Forgotten One completely.

With the acceptance of the blade, Victor becomes its 'champion' and thus gains access to its servants: The Shades.

One Shade in particular makes itself known...calling itself Alpha.

~

Barton is besieged by a horde of undead. From the safety of Eden, Victor watched as news streams came in and the general public was in a panic.

However, Victor himself recognized the attack for what it was: a repeat performance. He had been there when the same horde had made an appearance at Latent.

With the Forgotten Sword in his possession now, and the Shades under his 'command', Victor was all the much more bolstered-- yet he could not act as openly in the world, since the work needed doing required...a more quiet tone.

So with this in mind, he tracks down the source of the undead horde, surprised to find them holed up in his father's ancient sanctuary. Evil bred evil apparently.

Striking a deal with the Council of this undead cult, Victor commissions an army to be drawn up and to wreak havoc upon the world, claiming to need their help in combating those who would get in his way.

The true motive for Victor is to, of course, use this bred chaos as a smokescreen for his true actions. He still needed to acquire several more things in order to locate the seal, then breach the seal--- and destroy what was behind the seal.

With that done, Victor retreated, not feeling like himself due to the nature of the sword.

~

Now needing to get the first of many phases underway-- Victor set his sights on separating the ancient guardians of Gaia's leylines from their 'post' so to speak.

By pacting with Ra'kar, Victor had assured the ancient elven wards placed upon the leylines were weakened enough to allow one to tap into them if they had the right means to draw on them, i.e. elemental avatars.

However, because of the presence of the leylines guardians, with the wards weakened or not--- getting at them was impossible.

And it just so happened that these guardians were located in Angara: the remainder of pure Dragon-Kin in Gaia.

~

Using his Nephilim, Victor tracked down one unique individual who could both access Angara, and bring about it's downfall: Silver Moonblade.

Using Silver's own self doubt and repressed hatred for his former friend, Ryugi, Ezekiel the Nephilim was able to tempt the now undead warrior to Eden.

Under the compulsion of the sword, Victor used both the undead power within him and the power of TFO to recreate Moonblade from the ground up, literally. The result was the Death Knight.

Arming his new Knight, he gave him a simple directive: eliminate the dragons.

Everything was moving at clockwork pace and going just as planned.... for now.



* When italicized, this denotes that a particular section has not been role played yet, as such events are subject to change.

Ryugi

Ryugi participated in the resistance fighting against the Undead Horde that attacks and ultimately overtook Barton Town. But at the last moment, he was attacked by the young girl he was trying to save, who was actually an undead minion in disguise. A daring rescue attempt saved Ryugi's life, and left him to recuperate in the town of Latent where he did several small jobs, one which ultimately led to him receiving the Artifact known and Coinspinner. Ryugi is currently unaware of the object's powers, and has not made use of it's luck.

Not long after the siege on Barton Town by the Undead hordes, and Ryugi's recovery, he left town to sit by himself and try to think things over. Silver Moonblade, his good friend for many years had turned into an undead monster bent on killing him, and he needed time to think things through.

However, by sheer coincidence, he met up with his good friend Maximos, and together, after a bit of talking, they both headed for Angara to allow Maximos to see his homeland, and help his friend on a very important mission of his own...

Ryugi would later return from Angara, being blown southward by strong winds and find himself in Barthavos Desert where he would travel before being attacked by a mysterious stranger. After a battle, the stranger was revealed to be Joshua, the same combatant that Ryugi had faced last year during the Heaven or Hell Tournament. More blows were exchanged, but before Joshua could land a serious blow to Ryugi, the fight was halted by "Lady Jennifer".

"Lady Jennifer", who Ryugi soon found out was the incarnate of Death, had a couple propositions for him. She offered to allow Ryugi to join the Reaper Corps, but Ryugi turned down the offer, claiming he wasn't going to serve as Death's Right Hand, and claimed he was, "Just a country kid with a sword."

But "D" had more in store for Ryugi. Ragnarok, Ryugi's trusted weapon, was awakened, its sentience coming into being, a new soul birthed into the world before Ryugi's eyes. But before she left Ryugi and her servant Joshua, she left Ryugi with a cryptic message...



And then, as quickly as she appeared, she made her exit, and Joshua was left to test Ryugi and his weapon's new abilities. The Reaper brought about the remains of an ancient Red Dragon and fought with Ryugi. After several sword strikes, Ryugi had defeated the beast, but his battle with Joshua was not over...

Soon after the battle with Joshua in Barthavos, Ryugi would travel to the desert city of Strata, where he would spend a few days thinking over the last few days' events. This sword's awakening, and the cryptic message left to him. After several days in Strata, Ryugi would head back to Latent where it would once more be time for the Heaven or Hell Tournament. But would he be competing? Without Team Ryugin, who would fight by his side?

Only time would tell...

Rumors are starting to flow into the world from the western city of Heaven's Gate. They tell of a street-fighter in the yellow district. While details are few and far between, most stories tell of him as undefeated.

A few of the stories may actually mention a particular intersection, one where the man takes on challenges every day, calling out for true competition.

And perhaps if you're lucky, you'll have heard the man's name: Scarker.

Would you make the journey to challenge this rumor?

"Stop me?"

With a fistful of flames, he clutched the nightmare's mane, riding it at full speed towards the black iron gates which stood closed, barred, and locked.

"Who the ******** do you think I am?"

He pressed his heels against the monster's flanks, driving it onwards. It bared its teeth and shot a glance back at him. He bared his teeth more and glared it down.

"YOU'LL NEVER STOP ME."

A flash of the giant cleaver, the spring of the animal, and the black gates burst open.



The second task was complete, and now he was free to return to the prime material. It was time to kick some a** and take some names ******** taking names. Anyone with a name worth remembering was already engraved into his genetic structure, and everyone else was just a nobody as far as he was concerned.

Necropolita is on the war path.

With the festivities of HoH '08 closing ceremonies holding the attention of most of the movers and shakers in Gaia, the necropolis has launched a simultaneous attack on Lament, Durem, and Aekea, looking to immediately seize control of strategic locations and resources. Armed with the technological legacy left behind by the late Dr. Iskugawa, the remnants of West Fall City's research and development, and three huge airships, the Horde is more powerful than ever.

This is only a prelude to the chaos yet to come. . .

With yet another world-wide disaster averted (What Remains), Vahn finds himself in the debt and fellowship of three individuals; Rage, Kael and Athan.

Parting separate ways, all four of them would soon find out that fate had more in store for them...

Upon arrival back in Latent, Vahn finds a courier from the Stadium awaiting his arrival (having done so for the past week!). With the closing of the year comes the infamous Heaven or Hell tournament.

Having been part of the reigning championship team, Glacier, Vahn is sent an express invitation, along with a few other prominent teams and fighters who managed to stand out.

At the same time, he is reunited with Sunstrike, who claims he has accomplished what GUARDIAN had sent him out to do; find Sierra.

And find her he has, in a manner of speaking.

Not actually able to meet the young woman known as Teira, Sunstrike explains the circumstances surrounding her origin. He is susprised to hear that the engimatic Maximos is behind this; a man who was well known to Vahn, but someone whom he had never had the pleasure of meeting so far.

It is decided by GUARDIAN that an attempt to 'jog' the past memories of Sierra in Teira should be allowed, and Vahn suggests using HoH as a medium to do so.

Thus, both Vahn and Sunstrike undertake two different courses of action; Sun will stay with Teira and protect her while helping her along in the coming fights. Vahn will take a team and watch over Sun and Teira both, while on the lookout for Ra'kar or Victor.

With this in mind, Vahn contacts Athan, requesting to be placed on his team from last year's Heaven or Hell tournament, since he can't have any direct contact with Teira, and bringing Glacier back together was impossible.

Although reluctant at first, at the mention of Alpha possibly appearing at HoH, Athan readily agrees to put in a word for Vahn. And so, Team Swords! is reborn into Team Fracture.

Not fully disclosing his reasons for joining to anyone but Athan, the team is seemingly divided from the onset, as each member has a keen dislike for another; hence the fracture.

They take part in the Heaven or Hell preliminaries and pass, becoming accepted into the third annual run of HoH.

Even with the schism present in the team, Fracture proceeds to dominate and roll through the opposition in the tournament, even gaining a mascot in the form of a polar bear; which is aptly named Poley by Rage. Their first real roadblock appears in the form of Sunstrike's own team, Frozen Flame. It is then that things get heated, and both Rage and Kael learn about GUARDIAN and Teira.

During this match up, Vahn is forced into combat with Silver Alexander, who confronts Vahn over his decision to not bring Glacier back together, as well as wondering where Vahn has been all this time. Confused, hurt, and angry, Silver lashes out at Vahn who calmly tells him the harsh truth of it all; Silver was just taken in so Vahn could better himself. The two fight within the confines of a steel mill, their flames canceling each other out even as their fists collide numerous times; friend against friend, pupil against student. The fight continues until the match itself times out, with no clear outcome decided amongst them both.

Deciding it was for the best, Vahn leaves Silver behind, only wanting to spare the younger man from the fate that had enclosed itself about Vahn.

After the fight, Vahn tracks down Sunstrike and tries to find out what's going on with Teira's progress. In their conversation, Vahn begins to get the worrisome thought that Sun isn't exactly agreeable with the proposed plan by GUARDIAN. For Vahn, all he can see right now is how he ultimately failed the most important woman in his life, and he has to atone for his sin.

It is afterwards that Vahn makes the choice to take Teira away no matter what the outcome of the tournament or what anyone says.

The growing tension between both Sun and Vahn becomes even more apparent, when both teams are forced to face off against one another yet again, as they each continue to advance throughout the tournament. The match ends in a supposed stalemate, with Sunstrike relinquishing Vahn of his blade, the Fang.

Shortly afterwards, his entire team is surprised by the appearance of not one-- but two Owlets; one of which turns into several miniature versions. Not having seen her since the past events (What Remains), everyone is at a loss for words as none of them know how to readily fix Owle's problem.

Although it is eclipsed by the overall problem with everyone disagreeing on what should be done with Teira. While not everyone at GUARDIAN was happy to having possibly get heavy handed with treatment of her, they didn't really see any alternative.

Visiting Teira's suite just before the semi-finals were set to get under way, Vahn discloses pretty much the same to her in person. He doesn't view her as an actual, living being. He calls her a 'construct', something that shouldn't exist. Noticing that she has possession of his Fang, Vahn realizes now where Sunstrike's loyalties lie.

With nothing more to say to the girl, he leaves, gearing himself up for the rest of the tournament, although his heart isn't really into the fighting anymore. He realizes that he may have to undertake Teira's retrieval all on his own, in order to have any chance of getting Sierra back.

As Fracture makes it the Finals of Heaven or Hell, Vahn is the first to step up and fight. Disheartened with fighting altogether at the moment, he does nothing but play about, purposely using up every minute on the matches clock in order to end the fight in a stalemate. Knowing his teammates might not exactly be happy with that decision, he simply makes the excuse to them that he still suffering from wounds inflicted in the Eliminator match.

With the match ending, so does HoH. Fracture comes in second place, with their opponents, the Bloody Pandas' taking first place. However, the man that Vahn had fought against, Dzan, swears to the Murmillion that he will get his proper rematch someday, not satisfied with claiming victory this way.

Vahn nonchalantly brushes it off.

The time for GUARDIAN to act has arrived. With Sunstrike immediately on the move and being tracked by a select GUARDIAN retrieval unit, Vahn prepares to give chase...

...only to hear a loud declaration coming from the shadelord known as Alpha...and a sharp retort from someone so strange...yet familiar.