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Merci gasped and reached up to grab her head with her free hand, one of her arms was being grasped by Dio as she was drug into this new room. The wood under her was luckily finished, or she might have ended up with a few splinters in places she would have had a hard time getting them out. "Dio, stop okay?" She pulled her hand free and sat up slowly, rubbing the back of her head.

"You okay love?" The brisk voice could only belong to Cinder. The fox woman turned slowly and looked over her shoulder. She was sitting in her own house, in home office it looked like. Cinder had some piece of machinery pulled open and was tinkering with it.

Dio felt relief wash through him. Somehow they were home. Thank goodness the horror he'd been going through tonight was over. 'Oh good we're home.' He hovered closer to his guardian and helped her get to her feet.

Merci frowned and tilted her head "Weren't you supposed to be at the bar tonight?" She was wary by nature, and something about this situation didn't ring true.

Cinder shook her head, "We hired people to help so we wouldn't have to be there all the time remember? Anyway I needed to get some work done on the 'Hammer."

The fox woman's ears flattened out and she frowned, "Why? It isn't like your leaving again?" She was getting pulled into the illusion. The worry that her love would leave her bubbled up inside of her.

The red head put down whatever strange gadget she was tinkering with and fixed Merci with a cold stare. "What do I have to stay here for? You? You aren't even mine anymore. You belong to that." She jerked her head at Dio and then turned back to her work.

The fiend frowned and put his hands on Merci's shoulders. 'She doesn't belong to me, she's my guardian.' He would have said more if the woman he was holding on to hadn't put a hand up to shush him and stepped closer to Cinder.

Merci couldn't keep the anger out of her voice, "So that's it then? You're just going to pick up and leave? What about Rhys? He's just getting used to things here."

Cinder opened her mouth to say something and then the thing in her hands seemed to malfunction somehow. Little sparks shot up in the air and the space pirate cussed and dropped it in her lap.

Then it exploded.

Merci was thrown back against the wall before she crumpled up on the floor. Her whole body hurt now, not just the dull throbbing in her head. She let out a hiss as she opened her eyes. Whatever pain she was feeling she pushed aside when she saw what had happened to the room. Furniture was turned over, some of it smoldering. Her eyes searched for Cinder and Dio, she needed to know they were okay.

The fiend had freaked out at the first sparks and let himself go incorporeal. He floated down and looked at his guardian, very concerned for her. 'Are you okay?'

The red head nodded to him and shifted away from the wall. She put her hand down on the floor to help steady herself as she tried to stand up, but her fingers touched something strange and wet. Her green eyes moved down and fixed on an arm.

An arm. It took her a moment to realize what it meant. When she did she let out a heart wrenching scream. Merci picked it up and held it against her chest as she rocked back and forth. This was too much for her, and she started to cry. "No... no no..." she just repeated it over and over again.

Dio felt the soul eating loss ebb into him from his guardian. 'It's an illusion, remember it's just an illusion.' He tried to pull the limb from her grasp but she wouldn't let it go. 'Merci we have to go, we have to keep going if we're going to get Rhys out of here and go home. Cinder's there waiting for you.'

She looked up at him, her little shadow. Merci could feel the fact he was trying to comfort her, he was using his empathy to push calm toward her. She clung to that feeling and let it carry her to her feet. When he reached for the arm again she let him have it. "You're right, we have to keep going." She used the back of her hand to rub the tears from her eyes.

This house wasn't going to win, it had made things personal. She was going to push on.

Everything in this place seemed so surreal. Merci recognized her surroundings right away. They were standing in her bedroom. She honestly didn't like that this place seemed to know what her house looked like, "Okay for the record, this place just keeps getting creepier." For some reason she couldn't bring herself to speak in more then a whisper.

Dio lifted his head from his guardian's hair and looked around the room. It was dark outside, the double doors that lead to the balcony were open and a slight breeze gently wafted the lacy curtains into the room. Nothing seemed to be immediately threatening, but that didn't mean anything. The fiend moved away from his guardian a little bit, and that's when he saw it, oozing from the shadows.

Darkness seemed to coalesce, rolling together, into a larger form that the fiend recognized right away. It was the tentacle dream creature that tried to kill him before. Cold dread settled itself in his stomach, and he found himself moving backwards before he realized he was doing it.

Merci growled and freed the pistol that she was carrying. But before she could do anything, something red seemed to barrel through the nearby wall. She froze when she realized that it was Red, and he seemed to be lost in some sort of crazed anger.

Dio let out a mental shriek and he started to move forward toward his best friend. 'Red don't! You'll get hurt!' The smaller fiend felt panic as he watched the battle. He wanted to have faith, he knew that Red had beaten it before, doing it again shouldn't be to hard. Right?

But even as he was trying to tell himself that everything would be alright, he saw two tentacles manage to get a hold of his protector. With a cry from the snake like fiend, the tentacles flexed and bulged with effort, tearing him in half.

A scream tore itself from Dio, and he didn't even think. He launched himself toward the creature. Not knowing what he really even intended on doing. He was consumed by the overwhelming pain and grief.

Merci took a step forward, trying to grab her charge before he did something foolish, but she was too late. The creature grabbed Dio moments before she felt herself get lifted off the ground. She gasped for air as the thick appendage squeezed her. Her voice was strained, but she managed to yell, "It's just an illusion! It's just an illusion!"

She felt the world slip away, and found herself standing once again on the front stoop. Merci glanced down and saw Dio laying propped up against the door. She crouched down and brushed her fingers against his cheek, "Come on, it's not to much longer. Pull yourself together alright? We'll help each other through."

The fiend turned his eyes up to her, and he felt himself nod. He wanted to conquer this place, now more then ever. It had crossed the line. No one hurt his Red. No one.

The guardian leaned over and took Dio's hand, helping him off the ground. With a deep breath she reached out and opened the door, stepping across the threshold.

"Aww man. You got Hawk's sucky room," Reyna lamented, showing up just behind where Merci and Dio stood seemingly out of no where. "I thought I was the one with the ******** up mind, but his rooms take the cake. Have you seen Mystic's?"

She grinned outright and handed a piece of candy to Dio. "Don't let this place get to ya, kiddo," she said playfully as she ruffled his hair and ran off towards the next room.