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Azelus suddenly remembers something. His armor was endowed from Judgemaster Gaband, and therefore, to his knowledge, nothing could get through it. He takes the chance, since he had a single arrow left. She drives a knife into his armor, but it goes through, and he smiles. "I am a Judge, surely you were there when me and Gaband were parading with Logan?" He kicks her feet from under her, and then disarms her, Sara is upon him, pissed, but then Jamie is also there. Things were happening way too fast. Gaband attacks Sara, while Jamie and Azelus get Hitomi to the ground. Johanna slings rocks and bullets at Sara, and she lands some pretty good shots, but she is soon forced against a tree. Sara was deflecting them now, and throwing them right back at her. Gaband keeps her focused on him though, and suddenly Johanna sees Hitomi coming at her. Azelus looses his last arrow, and it lands right in the back of the Hitomi girl, definitely doing damage, but not killing her. He turns his attention to Sara, and Jamie does as well. She hands him a sword, and he realizes where she came from. She had no wings for one, and her eyes were a dull gray. She was in the Quell as well. They both come at Sara, but again, the last contestant is upon them, and he keeps attacking, not realizing who was there. Azelus backs up, shaking his head. Things were going to fast for him to realize what is happening. Suddenly, he is on the ground. There was blood spilling from his chest, and Sara's scythe had his blood on it. The armor cracks away, and a knife is plunged into his back. He hears Hitomi say something about payback, and blacks out.

Johanna watches him go down and slings a hail of rocks and whatever she could find at the others. She keeps it up, and Sara keeps getting pelted, as does Hitomi. The other contestant slowly dies from the hail, and Jamie and Gaband keep out stepping them, to her extreme pleasure. Allies were allies.

Suddenly, all hell breaks loose, and Sara is making the clearing erupt. She smiles widely, and then brings Gaband to his knees. Jamie throws her blade into Sara, but it does little. Jamie is swatted away. Azelus lay there, half dead, and in a fantastical dream land. But Johanna, who, despited the need, kept slinging away. "Stone throwing?" She grabs Azelus's bow, and then a dropped arrow. She brings it up, and aims. "Dead in: Two, one..." She looses the arrow, and it gets Hitomi in the other leg. Now, with Hitomi almost immobile, she kneels down to Azelus and examines him. She determines he will be fine, and comes back up, her sling loaded with a rock. "You better take that back, about stone throwing!" She brings the sling completely back, and lets it loose. The rock strikes Hitomi in the nose, and a CRACK! is heard. Johanna smiles. She looses her footing as the clearing starts to rumble, and is caught by Azelus, who was getting up. He swaggers a bit, but brings up his bow, and a new arrow, given to him by a dream Gaband. He aims it, and waits for Hitomi to do something.

"Gaband!" He yells, and suddenly the Judgemaster is back to his feet, huge sword in hand. "Take Sara from here! And Take Jamie as well! Hell, take us all home! I know you can do it!" He keeps the arrow on Hitomi, and then they are out of the woodland, and touching down in Dresden, the tattered buildings rising up. People on the streets cheer as they appear, and Sara gets flustered. She retreats, and that is when Azelus falls back to the ground. Jamie slides in front of him and Hitomi, her sword chest high. Gaband stands behind them, his sword resting on his shoulder.

Jamie stands, and sheaths her sword. Gaband nods, and Hitomi is immersed in a gold glow. He goes up to her. "You played Sara's game, and you did it well. Your actions, the killing, may not be able to be forgiven, but your reasons for it are clear now." He says quietly, and the people around them fall silent. Vertusk, in Atlantis is watching with quiet determination. Night was limping to the portal, determined to see his daughter. Back in Dresden, Gaband grabs Azelus and Jamie takes Johanna's hand and they walk from there, right into a hospital that several people had set up. They take the wounded contestants, and they check them in. Gaband stands guard, should Hitomi come looking for revenge.

Azelus stands with his body glistening, the muscle tone that came only from swimming made him slender, yet strong and agile. He loved it. Yesterday, when Sara came to Atlantis to talk of the rules, Vertusk agreed, having to have to. Since, Gaband had been enslaved by Sara, the Judges were sent out on their own. Jamie and Azelus, ex-Judges still with the powers after they regained them last Quell, were planning to help. But soon after they regained their powers, Sara told them they would be back in the Quell. They devoted their lives to training for it.

Sara had refined it, and soon a system had come out to choose the contestants. "Each realm, besides those with a previous victor, will have to send out a contestant, not of their choosing, but from a pool of eligibles. These eligibles will fight, and there will only be one victor. If I deem that it is necessary, I will send in something nasty to stir up the fighting. Though, I have already picked die hard killers, who will love to play the game. Prideful people. Mixed in are those too scared, or young to fight. Slowly, I will widdle down your hope, your fighters, and most of all, your spirit."She laughed at that. "No escape, definitely no escape. And unlike last time, contestants will be pre screened before hitting the arena. They will show the Judges their armor ebfore going in. Weapons will be scattered throughout, combined with the weapons that are given to them based on their skills. Do not worry Azelus, you and your little girlfriend will get your weapons. But don't plan on finding her!" She leaves after that, and continues to the next realm. Vertusk kept to himself.

Night and his daughter had been seen rarely. Earth already had bets in, and Atlantis was busy getting things in order. Now, it was mandatory, under threat of death, to not watch the Quell. Gaband had released his laws against Sara, with her looming over him. He was all but powerless to do anything against her as well. As was the Judges. She had enslaved Atlantis, and many other realms again. It was pitiful!

Sara appears in the magical screens, and Azelus is whisked away. He stands in the doorway of a large concrete building. Several other contestants are there. he makes his way up to Logan, the pain in his eyes evident. "I am sorry you had to be enslaved, I hope you don't feel bad." Logan shakes his head.

"I hate it," he says sullenly. "She is so.... I can't believe she got to Gaband! He was so much better than her! I-I hate it! But now what do we do? We are bound by our own immortal laws. A weapon we thought would get rid of Sara, has not." he checks Azelus's armor. Not Judge armor, but damn near close. It had no magics, and was a simple plate of armor. But it fit his toned body. And Logan smiles. "Swimmer's muscles, Atlanteans all have em. Damn sexy too" He jokes and sends Azelus on his way. He gets a bow, not too bad, two quivers of arrows, three dozen in each quiver. He stands ready to be whisked to the Arena when he see Johanna.

She comes up, her eyes screaming sixteen. he looks to her. She had grown, matured heavily in the year. Now, instead of the small girl, she looked like a young adult. She almost was at eyelevel with him. She smiles. "Now, I can not wait to get back in there, I am so much more a better fighter, and look at this body!" Azelus gulps as she twirls. She was beautifully muscled. They quiet as Sara comes into the room, he teeth showing in a big smile.

"Good luck!" She says. She raises her arm, and then Azelus is in a nice bit of snow. He shivers. It would be good for him, a mountain was a good place for archers, but it was good for snipers too. He finds a good place to start, and he waits for something to happen. That day, it does not.

Sara appears that night, her eyes glowing. "Instead of just twenty-eight, I threw in ten more contestants, from random realms. good luck!" She disappears, and Azelus makes a small camp, by making a trench in the snow. It would provide great cover till he could get a foothold in the new Arena.

Johanna is up early that morning. She keeps going with a huge down coat she had found. She checked it for booby traps, but found none. It was very warm, and was not too bad on limiting her movement either. She had found no enemies yet, nor any allies. Not thinking of where she is going, she almost walks off a cliff. She jumps bcak and then stops her beating heart. She looks down the high cliff, and sees two shapes moving. She brings her slingshot into a drawn position, and makes out the gun of one of the figures. None of her allies used a gun, so she quickly dispatches them. Two well placed shots to the temples. She scales the cliff, and lands at the bottom. She collects the supplies and heads on.

Azelus, on the other hand, wasn't doing as well. He had found the bottom, which had a woodland around the base of the mountain, thankfully, and it was not as cold either. So he set up shop there. He had no kills, but most were probably trying to get to the top. He had found fresh water, a small lake sat near the base, and three streams fed into it. He took roost up in a nice tree overlooking one of them. Water would not be a problem, neither would food. Plenty of wildlife were all around the small woodlands. And he was clear of any other contestants. "Come on, Johanna. Jamie." He says lightly. He settles in for the rest of the day, his bow tout and ready to be used, with an arrow knocked already.

Sara appears, even though the rain was heavy. Azelus watches with intent eyes. First, she goes through the faces of the contestants, and sure enough, Hitomi is there, as is him, and two others he knows. After that, she talks about what may be in store, but the sky is again dark. The rain falls harder and harder, and finally, Azelus is forced into a small culvert he dug for just this kind of thing. He waits there, drying with a small fire, the smoke being filtered by leaves so it would not show. He waits for the night to be over.

Johanna wakes the next day, to more rain. She blechs at it, but goes out. Her coat is waterproof, but the snow had turned to sleet, so she walks carefully. Nothing was at the top, except for yetties. She had landed there, and left quickly thereafter. Now she was nearing the bottom, and she decides to jump the rest of the way. She dives into the water, and quickly gets out. She strips to only her bra and undergarments, and lets the rest of her clothes dry as she builds a shelter from the rain. Safely inside, she looks to the gray sky outside her small shelter. "Oi."

Azelus waits for the last of the drizzle to stop before he comes back out. He walks the perimeter or the Arena. The wall was twice as high, and had a weird bit of chain, and the same flicker as before. He keeps going in the wide circle, and finally bumps into Johanna, doing the same thing. She eyes him. She had nothing but a small shirt, a pair of shorts, and a belt carrying her sack of rocks, a small knife, and a small awl. "Imagine seeing you here, what brings ye up to these here parts, misser?" She says in a weird Western accent. Azelus laughs silently. "Checkin' this here umpitty wahl, huh?" She cracks up a bit before they continue the perimeter. they settle down near the lake, and then a blizzard hits. "Ah crap!" She pulls out a large blanket she had recovered and drapes it around a refusing Azelus's shoulders. Their cave was inset to the mountain, on the back side. The lake was visible off to the side, but that was the longer arm of it. The woodland seemed to fade a bit where they were, but otherwise it was still thick. She pulls out her coat and bundles up. The weather was terrible this Quell.