Welcome to Gaia! ::

a kiss eh? Well then we should get right on that wink .. I promise I won't let him hurt you.. at least as long as it looks like you are still having fun blaugh *she laughed at him, giving him a little hug as she teased him again*

*Rave let Sun lead her away, laughing at his stories... Knowing all along that saving the world was easier than living in it afterwards...*

The Gate of Song


Prologue


Even when their 'conversation' was no longer one, but a mute fight, when Victor had tried to persuade her to voluntarily help him and Lucind resisted invisible fingers which wanted to plant nice, pleasant visions in her head, strong and luring hallucinations of a new paradise, made to undermine the Half-Sirens shields like a sweet poison - none of them had lost their smile and only two pairs of eyes, yellow and amber, flashed with resolution.

The silent duel lasted more than one hour. By then, she'd become incredible tired, as if the stone walls of her chamber around them radiated an eerie, heavy aura which weakened her senses and body. One last time though, she rebelled against the man, forcing him onto the defensive.
Lucind had expected him to give up and using another, more physical way to turn her into his Apostle. But the look on Victor's face had just softened and he came at the woman with another mental attack - Var knew where he had stored it - once again tightening his grip around the Half-Siren's mind.
To Ezekiel Lucind had hinted she wouldn't hesitate to 'deactivate' herself, but right then and there she failed...or refused going the traditional way to protect other people's lives and instead tried to connect to the lhor aven - it was mere reflex or instinct...and a big mistake: the lhor aven could've indeed given her enough power to force Victor back, maybe even evade him. But she was far from using the Sirens' own source of energy without the aid of water as a medium...

The man was literally kicked out of her head by the uncontrolled wave of psionic power dwelling up out of a sudden. And Lucind staggered backwards, eyes wide open in shock.

One of Victor's men entered in this moment to tell his master that his brother and the others had arrived.
With her blood pounding in her ears and her mental structures slowly breaking down, Lucind barely heard what was said.

"Look after her. I'll get her later."

"But...what's wrong with her?"

"Nothing. She's just getting ready to...share my dream with me."

"... What if you damaged her?"

"Tch, don't be a fool. She's just in the right state now to fulfil what fate tells her."

When Victor headed along to meet his brother, a painful scream coming from the woman's chambers echoed throughout the ruins.


Prologue end

Across the Barthovos desert, the cauldrons of Yaits Corp, mobile test labs, temporary research outposts, SUV convoys, rolling metal detectors, would begin their search. The wells were ready, as were the mining equipment, if anything was found, the land would be bought if possible, and it would be tapped for the profit of Yaits corp. The primary hunt was for oil, but there were other things worth hunting for. Yaits cities location on the north-central edge of Barthovos made it quite a valuable strategic base for the exploration of the deserts untapped mineral resources.

This is a story...

..about love.

Friendship.

Family.

Betrayal.

This is a story with real people, a never-ending tale of regret, redemption and what it means to "fight".

To "save".

"Let it be. LET IT BE!"

Victor stared upwards, looking through the room's sole skylight, as the Tower groaned and began to pierce the sky itself.

Lucind's song filled the massive structure, as it resonated with her voice, all the souls within crying out in response, even as the Gate began to finally open.

"Soon... soon all our dreams will come true."


"VICTOR!!!"

The shout carried through the room, causing even the Devils that accompanied Victor, to turn their head.

Hollowed out steps could be heard from the adjacent hall, coming directly from behind Lucind.

"Well... still alive. I expected nothing less."

Yellowed eyes stared out, even as a shock of red hair stuck out from the darkness of the hall, the broken body of one of the countless tower's "newer" inhabitants skidding along the floor, and stopping near Lucind.

"I just wanted to give you a proper send off."

"I'm touched."

Vahn, Sunstrike and Raven stood in the hall.

Victor, Ezekiel and a few others stood right in the doorway leading to the "bridge".

Lucind was smack dab in the middle.

The Tower continued to resonate, shifting and growing, rumbling all the while with the songs of the dead.

"You could come with me you know. We can bot--!"

"Not a chance."

Vahn stared his brother down, even as the souls of the spirits trapped within Babel swept past him.

This was a story...

...this is our story.

*Orange eyes framed by blood red lashes opened wide at the sight of their apparent final destination.. and it was with more than a little despair that Hono once more wished she wasn't all alone in her head right now... having a couple of true immortals telling you what not to touch could really come in handy... but still there was someone she thought she should recognize in between where she stood and what was now apparently, from Vahn's statement, Victor....* The tides of fate wind tighter.. or something like that xp ...

*Raven had a moment to squeak in surprise as Sun started to tear off towards Lucind, with Hono in tow... before she was trying to match his stride, squeezing his hand tight with her own to show she was along for the ride at least...*

*Rave didn't look back, but she did send a little thought Vahn's way, a tiny whisper to Kas that she would watch Sun's back for him... an amused laugh like the tinkling of wind chimes in the night echoing silently around him... Raven's own version of a loving good by, and see you later...* wink

*The little elemental almost tripped as she and Sun got a little further through the room and a memory came to her.. the figure they were headed too.. she had seen that face quite a few times before.. at the stadium, and the GSF... now there was a twist for her...*

She didn't protest. In fact, the Half-Siren didn't react at all, neither to the appearance of Vahn, Sun and Hono, nor to the arm which suddenly locked itself around her.

Lucind wasn't completely unaware of what was happening, but her current state didn't allow to interfere: sweet pain filled her wounded soul, but her song had freed her from this unbearable, mental pressure. Even this time, chances were she was going to get out of this episode with all her senses complete, sane.

However, there was still enough energy of the lhor aven in her to make her perceive both spheres, the psionic and the 'real', physical one at the same time. Like an imprint of objects when you close your eyes after staring into the sun.

Lucind could see all these persons around, but everything seemed so far away, transparent somehow...or blurred...shades of blue...slowmotion...faces which screamed, only that there was no sound....only distant whispers...murmuring....wind? The view she had on the persons close to her was dominated by the translucent, watery shimmering soul thread in front of them. But...there were more...many, many more of these threads...filling up the space, wherever she looked at.

A faint roaring...and gurgling...from time to time Lucind thought to see bubbles rising higher and higher...she tilted her head back to watch them wandering up to the surface...

And then this melody, the answer she got from all those souls around, not only these inside the tower, still waving their sweet, sweet voices, forming a counter-lament...painful....but also calming...like the arms of a mother gently rocking her baby and her voice protecting it...knowing....knowing all these troubles and worries...

*Sling shot also known as Crack the whip, not always the funnest games to play without warning... Sun was just lucky that she was a little too busy to mentally yell at him right now!....well Rave had always wondered what it was like to fly in this form, and with Sun's help she was able to use her new found momentum to temporarily fly... or at least it was falling with style xp ...*

oh, this is going to hurt... all of us sweatdrop *There wasn't time for much more as Raven tucked herself into a ball for a moment and twisted and spun around like a trapeze artist in mid air, changing the angle of her decent slightly so that she was suddenly hurtling down towards Lucind and the female devil, feet first... three blue whisps suddenly appearing in front of the devil and Lucind and then exploding like flash bulbs in distraction before Hono hit, crashing feet first into the Devil and Lucind... Sun's borrowed boots doing a real number on the devil's face as all three were knocked to the ground* twisted

*Rave wasn't too worried about hurting Lucind, she was more along the lines of hopping to get the other woman to wake up and stop playing with the dead, before she ended up as one of them* Hostages don't work that well against me....