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The touch on his arm surprised the man, but Rave simply nodded as he took the arm of the man, keeping it in his own grip as he sighed once more, “Then we’ll go to him.” Closing his eyes, Rave tilted his head to the side as he began to track down just where it was that Kalore was. His brows furrowed as he realized that the man wasn’t in the club. Tilting his head to the other side, he cursed softly in his own tongue, gripping Monty’s arm just a bit tighter in annoyance, “I don’t recall this location. Wherever we end up, just be silent.” Shadows took them before the other could say anything and soon they were in a room, dark and dismal, but the furniture was nice, high quality and arranged in a stylistic manner. He didn’t recognize it.

Had Rave made a mistake? Was it not Eri? When they began to hear a soft voice, however, Rave knew that he hadn’t been wrong. Kalore was sitting up, a dazed look on his features as he was swaying slowly, listening to the pink haired elf as the man was stroking his cheek, talking to him and telling him what had ‘happened’ during his absence.

“It was horrible… Do you remember that demon? The redhead took you from me, Kalore… he hurt Kit.” Kalore looked confused, “So… that’s why she doesn’t… why she doesn’t work there anymore?” He continued to look confused, as if he knew that something was right but he didn’t know just what it was. Something in his head was telling him that this was wrong, that he wasn’t being told the truth, but then memories began to develop in his mind whenever Eri touched him; Kit being thrown against a wall, yelled at. At first it looked like a man almost of Eri’s build, but then it bulked up and it was Monty. The scenery looked different but… there it was. “Is she… is she okay?” His voice was soft as he continued to watch Eri.

As he spoke, a grin was fighting to get onto the man’s features. In all honesty, even with how weak Kalore was, he couldn’t implant memories that were fresh but he could… mess with some. Thankfully Kalore and Monty didn’t have the most beautiful past and there was plenty for him to take from in the elf’s memory. Monty had slammed a blonde against a wall before; Kalore. Eri had been the one to hurt Kit, though Kalore didn’t need to know that, so combining their memories… it worked out fine. He hadn’t thought that it would, but the man was eating it all up and he couldn’t help but lean against him, stroking his cheek slowly, carefully.

“She should be fine, Kalore. Monty had grabbed you from me, though, carried you out of the club…” He knew that the man was going to remember that because it had happened. Sadly he couldn’t find any memories where Kalore was struggling in Monty’s hold because of fear but because… of something that he didn’t want to think of. The thought of it almost had him scowling but he didn’t need to think of that. Kalore was with him, here and now, and scared of the demon that had attacked him and had burned the place down around him, trying to trap him inside.

Kalore had figured out that it wasn’t Monty, however, and that hadn’t been something that Eri had thought that he was going to do. Thinking of it now, he couldn’t help but curse mentally, pissed that the man hadn’t acted like Monty should have with Kalore if they were fighting. Oh well… it didn’t matter now because at the moment he simply needed to remove the memory. He could tell that Kalore was trying to get it back, trying to hold onto the one thing that would prove all of this false, but Eri was slowly pulling the memory apart. Soon he would have his submissive blonde back; just like how he had been with Kristopher had shoved Kalore to him the first time.

A strike of fear went through Kit as she saw the hand trying to get her, his eyes narrowed then wide, savage and deadly. She knew that if she got touched by this man.. she was screwed. Looking around, she nodded quickly as she was looking through some of the things, “What meds do you need, Joker?” Kit tried not to panic but it was beginning to get harder not to do something like that. Taking in another breath, she wasted just one second to calm down and to focus on the task at hand. Panicking at the moment wasn’t going to do anything and soon she had a pill bottle that she recognized Joker using when he would start twitching. It wasn’t the same as the one that she had found on the floor; the woman having avoided it partially by Joker but also from a bad feeling.

“Here.” Rolling it onto the desk, she had the cap open and quickly moved her hands away from the other, not wanting her wrist to be caught by the man in front of her. Biting her lip harder, she was almost bleeding but soon she stopped; blood probably wasn’t the best idea at the moment. “Please be okay… please be okay…” Her prayers were whispered, but even if the wind would have crossed her, telling her that the prayer was to be answered, then she wouldn’t feel it; fear was killing her slowly but coldly, harsh and restraining her. If this didn’t work… what else was she going to do?

Biting her lip softly, the woman was slowly beginning to make her way around the desk. She wasn’t completely certain that the man was safe yet, but would there be a time when Joker was really safe? If she really thought about it then she wasn’t completely sure that there actually was. Beginning to move just a bit closer to him, she slowly sank down to her knees, tentatively touching his shoulder as she whispered soothing words to the man; calming him as she would Kalore when he went into one of his panics. It seemed like both were hard to break from, but Joker’s was something that Kalore’s was not.

Dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

“Joker… Joker, can you hear me?” She didn’t get too close to the other, but she continued to touch his shoulder, not going near anywhere that could be considered a weak point as the elven woman continued to bite her lip just a bit harder, rolling the skin until it was red and nearly inviting to those that saw it. “Do you need anything else, Joker?”

Watching the scene in front of him, Rave grit his teeth as his mind was reeling. What was it that he could do to stop this? To let Monty go in there in a rage would only prove Eri right and it would make Kalore even more afraid of the demon… but he couldn’t just let the man continue to ruin Kalore’s mind! Shaking his head some, he touched Monty’s arm again, leaning close as he spoke, dreading being this close but doing so all the same.

“I can get in there… get Eri thrown off a bit… and see if I can either get Kalore to come with me willing or not. Get the information out of him. Can you do that and wait until I get Kalore out of there to do so?” He knew that Monty wanted to see Kalore but that just wasn’t something that he could do at this moment; not with the fear that Eri had put in him. If Monty would do this, however, then rave knew that there wasn’t a way that Eri could make Kalore afraid of him. Their history was too strong.

Biting her lip harder, Kit felt the fear fade and she was left with only the need to help the man that she was closer to than most of the other people that she saw every day. Wrapping her arms around the other, she was shaking her head again and again, their faces touching as her hat was long gone, her hair free to blend in with his own dark hair. “Joker… I can’t do that… Goddess, if I had to and my life depended on it, then I don’t think that I’d be able to do that.” Her eyes were beginning to water as she continued to shake her head, turning to place a kiss on his temple. “You’ll be okay, Joker... it’s gotta be hard, yes, but you’ll be fine. You have to be…”

Rave nodded but then there was a confused look on his face, “Wait… what?” Frowning some, he shook his head before he was beginning to move into the room, smiling some as he knocked on the door, calm and composed as he made sure that he was looking like he was supposed to be. He almost smirked as he saw Eri round around, eyes wide and about to yell before Kalore’s eyes widened as well. Soon he had the blonde rushing him, hugging him tightly as he broke down again in his arms, confused and hurt. Rave touched the man’s back as his eyes locked with Eri’s.

Seeing the man in front of him, Eri wasn’t sure on what it was that he was supposed to do. Rave was hurt, badly hurt, so why was he still moving around like this?! Glaring when Kalore couldn’t see, Eri snarled low in his throat but Rave cut him off before he could say anything.

“I’m glad that you called me, Eri… I heard what happened. It’s a shame…” Eri grit his teeth some as he watched the man. He couldn’t call Rave out on what it was that he was saying because Kalore was back to how he used to be; Rave didn’t lie, Rave was amazing, Rave hung the moon. Not quite to that extreme, but damn hear it and it pissed him off. “I’m glad that you could come, Rave… Did you hear what the demon did to our poor Kalore?” His words were clipped, spoken through gritted teeth. Kalore didn’t notice as he spoke back what it was that had happened, or what he thought had happened.

“I… I don’t understand… Why… Why did he do that? Monty… I thought…” His eyes welled up again as he was an emotional and mental wreck. Just by the tears, Rave knew that they were in trouble. Kalore hadn’t cried since his father finally snapped at him for the last time. Just how far back did Eri take Kalore? Glaring back at Eri when his friend was buried in his chest, Rave spoke, “I don’t think that that’s everything that happened, Kalore…” He wanted to defend Monty, for some odd reason, but the demon’s words rang back to him. He didn’t want to be defended.

Sighing some, he kept him close as he spoke, “I’ll take you home… Do you want that?” Shadows covered Eri’s mouth, keeping his hands to his side as Kalore nodded, “Y-Yes.” The shadows were gone by the time Kalore turned back, biting his lip, “Th-Thank you Eri… I… I’ll see you soon, okay?” Eri stepped forward, rage coming off him in waves but shadows were keeping him in place, a knife to his back, digging into him. He knew the message. Growling, he simply nodded as he spoke, “Rave… I’ll see you soon as well, correct?” Rave smirked, “I’m not the one you need to worry about, Eri. There are much worse things out there than me.”

Kalore looked confused but soon his friend’s arms were around him and the shadows were consuming them. He had gotten used to the shadows decades again, so this was nothing. Keeping close, he was soon in the presence of the castle in Ellwood, stiffening. “Rave…” “Shh… I know that you don’t like to be here, but we’re hiding you, okay?” Kalore slowly nodded. Something was up… but he knew he could trust Rave. Eri had hurt him before; Rave never had. He hoped not, at least. He really just didn’t know anymore.

Arms around the man, Kit was slowly stroking his hair, leaning close to the other, “Don’t... Joker, please don’t say that…” She didn’t think that she would be able to leave the man if he pushed her away. Kit didn’t love the man, but at the same time, she hadn’t ever loved anyone, so what did she know of that odd emotion? Hugging him closer, she pressed her lips to his temple again, speaking quickly but softly, “You’ll gain control, lose control, gain control again, and it will continue. That won’t stop the fact that… I care a lot for you. You won’t hurt me… I trust you, Joker.” In fact, she trusted him a lot more than she expected.

Hearing the sound of something locking, Eri’s eyes widened and he immediately was going for the weapon on his hip, but soon he was arched in pain. The dagger was deep in his skin as he gasped, closing his eyes for a brief moment, gritting his teeth, “B-back off, Demon!” He tried to move out of the way, tried to get out of the room, but the demon had locked him in. Panic went through the man as he was having problems breathing, the knife having gone deeper than it had before and having perforated parts of his nerves. Pain and numbness kept coming and going; fighting for dominance. It was nauseating and painful all in itself.

Teeth gritting, Eri forced himself to not make a single sound, but hearing that Monty knew about the time thing… Eyes widened just a fraction as he couldn’t help but sputter, some blood beginning to come up his throat as he did so, “H-How…?” He tried to move forward but the moment that he did, the knife seemed to sink deeper and a gasp came from him. No matter what happened, Monty was going to make his life hell and there wasn’t anything that he could do to avoid the pain.

Thinking about that, his eyes closed and Eri ripped himself from the other’s hold, knife out of him as he touched his back, quickly concentrating as he did something that he hadn’t done in years. It was easier to change back time completely and with a whole area than in a single space, but the wound was slowly beginning to close and his body was draining just the smallest bit. It hurt to do so, but the wound hurt less now and he soon was couched, looking around as he panted, “Hiding? What a coward… but then again, you did leave our precious Kalore alone… a coward can’t care for something, correct? Is that how it is?” his voice was steady, though his breath was catching in his throat every now and then. Goddess, this hurt so badly… but he just had to get out of this place; he just had to.

“You know what he told me, Monty?” A smirk was on his features, “He didn’t understand why someone who he thought could love him could do something like that to him…” Eri laughed; short, curt, and pained just the slightest. The demon… loving someone? Impossible. But then again, stranger things have happened… “Thank you, monty, for never showing any signs that you did… it made this just that much simpler.”

Keeping close to him, Kit smiled as she was kissing his forehead softly, not noticing just how close to two of them now were. “I know that you won’t hurt me, Joker… if you think that you’re going to then I’ll understand, but I know that you wouldn’t hurt me.” She kept him close, hugging him tightly. Taking in a breath, she knew that she had to tell him about how he had been found. Repeating how it was that she had gotten in here and how she had found him, Kit frowned some. “What happened, Joker?” She touched his cheek, looking worried, “I thought OD at first but… there weren’t enough pills missing for that. What happened?” He took careful care on his medicine, so it didn’t make much sense to her on why something would have gone wrong.

Eyes widening some, Eri was struggling to stay up and not run as he saw the cats surrounding him. How was he supposed to fight this!? Time and memories; those were the things that he worked with, not this type of stuff. And when he tried to stop time with Monty, it seemed to barely affect him. This wasn’t could… at all. Another shake of his head and he took a step back, biting his lips harder as he continued to look around and had to stop as he felt the hands on his neck. Thrashing, the man tried to get them off but soon was gasping as he felt the sword tip on his throat. He wasn’t going to give up Sin, however. For some reason, he had a feeling that giving up the man would end up just screwing him over in the end anyhow.

“G-Go back to Hell, Monty.” Spitting the words out, his legs moved so that he could kick at his throat, doing some damage but air loss was something that he was fighting against now. Eri couldn’t even shake his head as it only hurt him more from the hands and put him too close to the heated sword tip. How did one fight this? Closing his eyes, he tried to work with the time, tried to just reverse all of this, but it was happening in spurts, not as controlled as it had been before. Advancing time for just Monty wouldn’t do anything for him either, though. He was a demon and they didn’t age, they didn’t get frail. Eri had a weapon that was powerful, deadly to all, but at the moment was useless to him. “You should… You should know by now… that I don’t mess with other people…” He continued to glare, gasping in breath every now and then.

The comment with Kalore threw him off-guard, however, and soon he was grinning; the look odd on a dying man’s face. “There is none better than me in his eyes, Monty. You f*cked yourself there, scaring him like that. Maybe he’ll leave for good now… Goody.” Maybe he would see the blonde in Hell… that would always make his life pretty entertaining. With his own religion, Monty couldn’t keep in his Christian Hell, it wouldn’t work and the Goddess wouldn’t allow it. He would be sent as a servant of the Goddess for the rest of his days. A much better fate… it would hurt and Calina picked off servants for her own pleasure, her own torture, but the executioner of the Goddess liked him. If he was picked, it wouldn’t be to kill.

Eyes widening, the man wasn’t even completely sure on what it was that was going to happen to him until his clothes disappeared and he paled to match the beautiful white of his own room. “No…” Surely Monty wouldn’t do this… surely not! Even Eri hadn’t done something like this and he was someone that was horrible enough. To allow the hellcats to do what they were doing… Eri felt his screams coming up from his throat but his mouth remained closed and he could feel his body beginning to heal the damage that it was getting, but that only made things hurt worse. Closing his eyes, he took a breath and had his head down, trying to make this all go away, trying to just get over this and to go into the one place that no one could touch him.

The problem with that was, however, that the moment that he was there, pain would bring him back. Back arched in sheer agony, his eyes closed tightly as his mouth opened simply to spit in the face of the demon. “Go back and burn, Monty…” He opened his eyes and they were beginning to turn the dark shadowed color that happened only when one of the elves, the ones touched by their Goddess, decided to play unfair. Rave’s went that way often, Kalore’s had only done so once. Using the powers of the Goddess wasn’t allowed unless She permitted it, but Eri didn’t need to use Her power when he had Calina on his side.

A sharp wind surrounded them and the hellcats were sent into the walls, kept there by the power used by him and Calina, a shadow, a phantom almost, began to come behind him. The woman was beautiful as she had been before, but the look on her face was one of malice, nothing more. “You piss off so many people, my little demon…” Her voice came around them but she didn’t heal Eri, didn’t do anything to help him other than keep the hellcats away. She couldn’t interfere more than this for risk of the Goddess taking Her eye off of Kalore to help Monty. To hurt the blonde… it wasn’t something that was permitted by those that knew it.

Eri was panting but watched as the phantom was fading, so he continued, “I don’t know his name, Monty, so no matter what I say… it doesn’t matter.” A laugh came from the man, sounding almost mad with the look of pain and agony still ghosting his features. “You really screwed yourself over… and to think… Kalore did love you, Monty…” Another laugh came from him as he was on his knees, “Or so he said… ‘I thought I could love him and he loved me… why would he do this?’ So cute… you hurt him more than I did… and to think, you even have the executioner of our Goddess hating you as well? What luck do I have... what luck, what luck…”

Another laugh and he was sinking lower. Blood loss, pain, and just emotional ruin was getting to him. The words spoken by Kalore seemed to come from Kalore’s own lips as he spoke, chuckling again, repeating them and matching the blonde’s voice perfectly. “You made my job easy… so, so, so easy…” And was Monty going to simply drop the elf? Surely not… no one could drop Kalore, though the blonde didn’t realize it.

To drop Kalore was to be a fool, to be someone that couldn’t feel anything. He was something that everyone wanted but so few could have; or when they had him, he didn’t go to them willingly. It came to that part for Eri, but at least now… now Monty wasn’t going to have him again. Rave couldn’t fix this damage that he had done, Joker couldn’t use his medical science to fix it, Gambler couldn’t fix it, Dusk couldn’t fix it… no. Memories were something that could only be fixed with more memories and experience. The only thing that could fix it would be Monty, maybe, and he couldn’t get near Kalore easily and the man wasn’t even going to go to him at all? Perfect… just perfect.

No matter the damage that Eri was feeling, he knew that with everything that had happened, Monty allowed more pain to come to Eri than anything else had; but that didn’t matter. No… what mattered was that Monty couldn’t get Kalore. Eri won.

Arms staying around the man, she nodded some, “I… I see.” Shaking her head, however, her eyes widened and she couldn’t help but move so that she was in front of the man, still close and still holding him tight to her. “Monty has Kalore back?” Her face brightened for a moment as she nodded again, “Thank Goddess… I was scared that he was…” She looked away for a moment, shame beginning to fill her as she remembered just what it was that had happened and how things had been when they had first left. Kalore had been there for just a short amount of time, but that hadn’t stopped her from knowing that something was up. When she noticed it… Eri had started to change again, turn into the man that he was when he was just… wrong. Eri wasn’t a bad guy, really, he wasn’t, but sometimes… sometimes one just didn’t know that.

When she realized what had been going on, she had confronted the man but that hadn’t ended well. No, she ended up bruised, hurt, without a job, and having to move from her apartment because he stopped paying it for her. Now she was in some crappier place than before with neighbors that she didn’t trust at all. The men scared her a bit; and Kit had worked with some terrifying men.

Hearing the rest of what he said, Kit frowned, touching his cheek. “You think someone’s out to kill you.” It wasn’t a question. She knew that sometimes things happened and there wasn’t anything that they could do about it, but something like this… this wasn’t normal at all, that much she knew. Shaking her head again, she continued to stroke his cheek before she was hugging him tighter, their faces touching as her face was nearly buried in his shoulder. “Goddess, joker… I don’t think that I can lose you… This was close, Joker. Do you have any idea on who it could be?” She parted from him just long enough to question him. “We need to get to Gambler… What if someone’s after all of you guys?”

Kit softly was biting her lip again as she shook her head, looking down for a moment as she was wondering just how much to tell Joker. It seemed like Kalore and Monty would be back together, but that didn’t stop the fact that Eri had done some things that she had seen that were… bad. Sighing softly, she told him what all had happened, including what had happened with her and with the apartment. “I was scared that Kalore was going to be lost, joker. I’m really scared that Eri’s going to hurt Kalore to the point that he won’t have any choice but going back to him. Eri’s a good guy, he really is, but sometimes he just… snaps. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but it’s just something that’s been happening more and more lately. It scares me a bit, actually.”

Calina wasn’t a divine being, but she was someone that would help out anyone that was against Monty. Well, to an extent. She and Eri had made an agreement centuries ago and she planned on keeping to it. However, that didn’t mean that she had to help the man as he was impaled. Chuckling softly, she shook her head, fading completely in amusement at the other. “How sad… Those who walk this earth still confuse me in their ways.” She left Eri gasping and trying to get out of the hold, but soon he was concentrating and the time around him slowed, soon reversing as he was back on his feet, very little damage done to him but his energy gone.

He walked to the couch, collapsing there as he panted. Though he looked fine, his body was still in pain; remembering each attack and form of abuse that the demon had set on him, shivering in a mixture of fear and remembrance of pain. He never wanted to deal with the demon again, or at least not alone. Getting him with something else… that would work. But Eri was alive and he had a feeling for where Rave had taken his elf. Hopefully he could get to him soon… and he would. But before he did anything, the man had to rest and rest he would .Though being collapsed on the couch, looking nearly dead and fatigued, hardly counted as rest.

At the palace, Dusk was pacing as Rave came out of the room, having put the blonde to bed, calming him down a bit from what he had been doing before. When the man came into the room, she glared at him darkly. “So… how exactly did Kalore get stuck in yet another shitty mess including Eri?” Her voice was low, dark, and her emotions seething through her. Kalore shouldn’t be dealing with things like this, really, he shouldn’t, but there wasn’t anything that either of them could do to stop it until this mess was solved. Rave was left sighing, shaking his head.

“Dusk… I don’t know what all’s going on, but at the moment… we need to get Kalore back to nor-“ “Normal? Seriously, Rave?” Words becoming spat out, she shook her head again, turning on her heel to glare daggers at the man. “His memories are what’s f*cked up, Rave. Memories. Before things were being suppressed and his emotions were being messed up, but this is different. Hell, you’re the one that taught me that!” She glared more, having to continue to pace to just be able to do something. “They can only be fixed by those that are involved in the images, truth coming alive to set the lies free and save the victim. Isn’t that what you told me about them?”

Rave sighed, nodding some. “But…” “But the demon said he didn’t want Kalore to remember, right? That’s what he said he wanted before you guys parted?” Dusk’s eyes were darkening more, almost obsidian in their color as her nails were digging into the skin. The red gown that she wore only emphasized the beauty of the angry woman, making it harder to look away from the seething being. “So he’ll be trapped like this unless he comes out of it himself; just lovely, Rave.” The man ran a hand through his hair, sighing again. “At the moment, let’s think of the other issue, Cecilia…” Dusk crossed her arms, the black of her painted nails becoming smaller as she dug into her arms, needing to do something to just stop herself from lashing out. Kalore was important to her, very important, but the fact that all of this was happening to him was killing her. She wanted to find the man that was helping cause all of this damage soon. To hurt him… oh yeah, Dusk would have some fun there. As the saying goes, Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn.