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 Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 7:48 pm
It took her a while to figure out what he was doing. There was always some good reason, some excuse, why her revenge needed to wait. There were people to help or their remaining daughter to care for. Days slipped by before she realized he was only trying to delay, to stall. She wasn't sure why he'd do that except to hope that she'd come to her senses and let Painite escape punishment. No, that was never going to happen.
Taking matters into her own hands she kissed her husband and daughter goodbye hoping that Tony could forgive her when he woke. She had no illusions that she was doing something spectacularly dangerous and was not likely to come home again uninjured if at all. She was heartbroken by all of it and hated the Negaverse officer for breaking up her family so entirely in two blows.
Blinking back tears she set off toward town, only powering up once she was close and there was no chance to trace her back to the settlement. Her third stage aura was probably like a blinking beacon at the edge of the city moving toward the abandoned library as fast as she could, an invitation for Painite to come meet her. Undoubtedly she'd know the significance of the place. Shalott also had no doubts that the invitation would be recognized and accepted. What she didn't know is if Painite's pride would allow her to come alone or not. Either way the knight was willing to take on the world if it meant to getting to her ultimate goal: find Painite and make her bleed.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 8:01 pm
General Painite was all too happy to feel the aura nearby, wondering what White Mooner in their right mind would come so far into the city while powered up and so clearly obvious to anyone nearby. She looked at Chaonis, who was standing near her, as he often was, a silent guard dog.
"Come on, handsome, let's go see who wants to play." She purred, but he did not have a choice in the matter. What she said was his law, and he followed after her without a sound. She took his arm in his and teleported them both toward the aura, reappearing in front of Shalott without any hesitation or fear. She was surprised to see the woman, though she had been hoping it was one of them. The other one was a Royal Knight, though, and his aura was stronger.
And it was not here.
"Well hello, Mrs. Camelot," she said with a grin. Chaonis snapped to attention, looking at Painite and then at Shalott. Painite had told him the names of his parents, at least their powered identities, and that he was to kill them if he had the chance. He had questions, but with Painite there he would never be able to ask them, and would instead just carry out his orders.
"Came all alone today, or did you bring another kid for me to take from you? I'd love to round out my collection some more, if you've got any left." She grinned at Shalott, seeing all too clearly the pain and desperation on Shalott's drawn face. She was clearly in the throes of mourning, and this was just a way for her to deal with her pain. Take down the source of it. Painite had seen it before, and it was sort of a moment she adored.
The fights were always so much more fun, when her opponent was at their wit's end.
"Chaonis, sweetie, this is the woman I was telling you about. You won't remember her, but that's alright. There will be nothing to remember soon enough."
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 9:11 pm
"Nathan, I'm so sorry."
She ignored Painite at first, her heart bleeding to see her stepson. It was nothing more than she'd been preparing herself for but it hurt all the same. She didn't want to but she would hurt him if she had to. Like she said before, she would never be clean again. She caught her son's eyes and tried to tell him just how sorry she was for all of this, for not protecting him as she should have. They all knew the risks.
"That b***h you're standing behind killed your sister. I love you. I love you so much but I won't allow you to protect her."
She finally turned her attention back to the General who by now had to know of her intentions.
"And you. Are you really planning on hiding behind someone else this time?"
Of course she knew she would if it suited her. She probably thought it would deter Shalott in some way to have to go through Nathan. There was no end to her cruelty. Her eyes narrowed and she looked through Nathan to the person she really wanted. She was outnumbered by two people that were just as powerful as she was. Her pain allowed her to be reckless but not stupid. The pain was why she was there but she wasn't going to throw her life away without taking someone with her.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 9:17 pm
"I have no intention of hiding from anyone!" Painite laughed, growling and calling her weapon to hand. She shook her head, patting Chaonis on the chest and letting him stand like a sentinel as she stepped forward.
Chaonis watched, silent, absorbing everything that was happening. He folded his arms over his chest and let Painite saunter closer to Shalott, his eyes on his step mother. He had no memory of her, and he watched in confusion and wonder as she spoke to him. Painite had killed his step sister, though he had not been there to witness it. Not that he would remember it.
"I'm going to enjoy tearing you limb from limb, Shalott. I'm going to cut you open, like I did to your daughter, and you're going to feel the same pain, the same terror, as she did while she bled out on the street." She grinned ear to ear and then charged forward, holding her spear behind her until she was close and she lashed out with it, swinging without holding herself back at all.
She wanted to hurt. Maim. But not kill, not right away. There was a lesson to be learned here.
"You're a stupid fool, coming out here, looking for a fight you can't win! Do you want me to kill you, is that it? So broken up by the death of that useless girl, you want me to help you commit suicide? I'm all too happy to oblige!"
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 11:06 pm
Shalott wasn't going to let Painite's barbs go beneath the skin. She wasn't going to let the woman distract her now that she was so close to the end. Her fists tightened by her sides as she imagined pummeling the General senseless. She took the heavy metal ends of her garland in hand and held them in case she needed to hit hard and fast.
"Forgive me Camelot." she whispered, hoping that he would if she didn't manage to make it back home.
She wasn't concerned about what she was setting out to do, only if her husband would forgive her for it. She moved forward to engage Painite, avoiding her spear to get close to the woman. She'd draw first blood if she could in order to prove to Painite that the time for threats and idle jokes was over.
"Do you really think you can do anything to me now?"
There was nothing left, nothing inside her. She wanted Nathan to find his father and reconnect with him and she wanted her daughter to grow up on a peaceful world. She deserved that, a normal life. She didn't want Sarah to only know war. But Shalott was painfully aware that she was not going to get what she wanted.
"I will only rest once I see you dead."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:50 pm
Painite watched as the knight moved to fight her, chuckling. They always thought they were ready for a fight, when they came at her like that. All fire and bluster, and just wanting to hurt her for all the terrible things she had done. And who could blame them? There was always a good reason to want to hurt Painite, but the Negaverse General had seen so many people fighting out of pure pain and a desperate need for revenge, it was easy for her to predict their movements.
She moved to counter the first attack, teleporting and reappearing behind the pained woman to launch her own first attack. She slashed her spear at Shalott's back, wanting her to know what pain really felt like. She would cut Shalott to ribbons and while she was bleeding out on the floor the real fun would begin. People with things to lose were always so much fun.
Even when they thought they had lost everything, there was so much more.
"To answer your question," she growled, leaping at Shalott to continue her attack, slashing and stabbing with her spear as if trying to make the other dance, "I don't think I can do too much to you that you'll care about. But it's sure going to mean a lot to your husband."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:48 pm
Shalott cried out as the spear raked her back more deeply than she would have liked. She was doing exactly as she promised she wouldn't, charging in like an impassioned idiot and being careless. Just because she had accepted that she might not make it back to her husband and child again did not mean that she was prepared to throw her life away needlessly. It certainly wouldn't help with her goal to make Painite suffer. Though, she imagined lots of people wanted Painite to suffer.
"He deserves better than me." she admitted quietly, accepting that too. It was a truth she'd come to recognize and accept. "I didn't protect my son. I didn't protect my daughter. And I don't believe in peace anymore."
The simple truth was that she was no longer hurting. She was just angry. She wanted all of the evil in this world to burn as they made others suffer and to her it felt righteous. But it wasn't something she thought her husband could ever understand or accept. Which was ironic considering where she was now and what she felt just before Sarah was born. She'd been ready to put away her garland and leave battle to younger soldiers. Now she was here and battle was all she had left.
"But I won't allow you to end my life yet. We can die together; it's fitting."
She turned and grabbed the spear, jabbing it quickly backward toward the General as she moved, trying to keep the woman on her toes. She threw a very strong punch toward Painite's jaw using the metal of her garland a but like brass knuckles. She looked passed her target to the attack dog behind her, a painfully familiar face.
The only thing she was sorry for at the moment, truly sorry for, was not trying harder to get through to Nathan who stood only feet away. Her eyes caught his for a split second, showing him her love and regret. Maybe, somewhere, a mother's love still trumped that seed of Chaos.
It was a slim hope...
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:16 pm
Chaonis watched the two as they brawled, and noted when Painite was thrown off her balance by Shalott grabbing on to her spear. The heavy, weighted punch landed hard on Painite's jaw and knocked her sideways with a serious crunch, but Chaonis did not move. She had not told him to. She never once told him to defend her if she was in trouble, and that was as good as an order in itself.
This was not his fight.
He looked at Shalott and his gaze was empty, though inside he felt a small tug. He ignored it, looking away from her and watching his handler, his master, instead. That was easier to focus on.
Painite, for her part, was too furious to really care what Chaonis was up to.
"You b***h!" She was angry, but her words came out with a cruel laugh curling around them. She pulled her spear free by a cheaty method, banishing it from the fight and then resummoning it to her hands not too far back. She stabbed it forward again, aiming for Shalott's gut this time, blood running down from her mouth where she had been struck. She was going to make the knight regret doing that.
But really, Painite lived for fights like this. Pain just reminded her that she had something to fight for. A reason to get stronger. There were always those out there that could kill her, and the thought invigorated her.
She felt her spear find a home and she grinned when the staff became tense, the blade sinking into Shalott's side like a knife through warm butter. There was a satisfyingly stomach twisting squelch of blood and flesh as Painite wrench the staff, twisting her wrist viciously enough to cause herself pain, dragging the blade around inside Shalott just to cause more pain and suffering. She was not sure the wound itself was deadly, but the blood loss certainly would be, in due time.
Shoving forward on the spear, she forced Shalott backwards into the nearest wall, then let go of her spear to get herself nice and closer. She looked up at Kyndall and grinned at her wickedly, languidly draping over her.
"I'll make sure to tell your husband that you died like a cow, gutted and bled. I might even hang you up by your feet. Seems fitting for the slaughter this has been."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:51 pm
Shalott screamed as her side was torn open by the end of Painite's spear. She'd managed one hit but knights, for their order to protect, were not very offensive creatures. She didn't have anything like a spear to defend herself with.
No matter, she'd take the General's.
Not that that plan seemed to be working as she was forced back, pain and red all she could see and think about. Her breathing seemed very shallow when she heard it, looking at Painite with wide but empty eyes. Her threat made its way into her ear as a pleasant seeming darkness began to color her sight. God, Tony, I'm sorry. Remember me to Sarah... For a split second she welcomed the darkness to come and swallow her and carry her to wherever her daughter was. It was selfish of her, and stupid, and no one had ever accused her of being anything short of impetuous.
NO!
She forced her eyes open and looked into the eye of the enemy, her enemy, a woman that got much too much joy from hurting people like her. She was better than this. Shalott made a vow and by God she was sticking to it. Somewhere between dying and remembering her true goal that clarity brought with it another surprise. On top of the library she felt a connection to the Earth opening, the very place she first showed her husband who and what she'd become. The place where she learned who he truly was for the first time. The very rooftop where they'd had some of their best dates. This was their place, not hers. She was not going to die here.
A feeling of strength and love washed over her, washed through her, and though the pain didn't go away she felt something else momentarily overpower it, a sense that she truly belonged here and belonged to the Earth itself as its protector. It's knight. She powered up to her awakened form and opened her eyes again, looking at Painite and knowing now that she could win this.
"It's time to be afraid." she promised, grabbing Painite's neck and slamming her against the same space of wall she'd occupied only moments ago. Shalott calmly wrenched the spear from her side and held it in hand looking at her own blood coloring it. It was as if all pain ceased to register in the brief aftermath of her ascension.
"One for you, Painite."
She brought the point up and scored the skin over the General's heart, going deep in a long line. First one way and then the other to form an X.
"And now one for me. You know what they say, X marks the spot."
And with a target to aim for Shalott brought the spear back and prepared to ram it home straight through her heart just as she murdered her beloved child.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:31 pm
Painite thought she had won, but was quickly proven very wrong. She let out a gagged yelp when she was hauled off her feet and slammed into a wall, scrabbling to grab a hold of the arm that now pinned her. She looked at the knight with wide eyes, shock still settling over her at witnessing the Royal Knight emerging.
Damn White Moon and their ability to inexplicably power up whenever she was close to winning.
She let out a howl of pain as Shalott carved into her chest, ruining her outfit but much more importantly, the flesh beneath. She could feel the tip of her own weapon scraping across the top of her breast plate, and the pain was so intense she thought she blacked out for a second. No such luck, though, as she had no escape from this moment. Embarrassed, furious, and wholly impotent, Painite struggled as hard as she could to try and get away from her.
"I will not forget this, I'm going to make you all pay!" She screeched, finally remembering that she could teleport. She did so to avoid getting stabbed by her own weapon, banishing it from the knight's control as she did so. She did not reappear anywhere nearby, having vanished completely to go and tend to her wound and deal with her new fury.
Chaonis was left to his own devices, and he moved over to Shalott. He offered her a cloth he had procured while the two were dueling.
"You're going to bleed out." He said simply, before he turned to leave. He hurried off, though he tried to look calm and collected as he did so, running away and disappearing somewhere as he powered down to hide his aura once he was far enough away. He did not want her following him, or trying to talk to him. He was too confused to be useful. Plus he had to go find his handler, and make sure she was alright.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:57 pm
She let Painite go and fell against the wall once the General was gone, succumbing to her injuries now that powering up and adrenaline couldn't cover them. She was in fantastic paint to the point of nearly passing out in the act of breathing. When Chaonis spoke she focused on him, still seeing her son in his face. He wasn't wrong, the new Royal Knight was dying for a cause she believed in to the death, her family.
"Nathan," she refused to call him Chaonis. His name seemed more powerful right now when he didn't know it. "I love you."
But he was already leaving. Maybe he heard her; maybe he didn't, her voice was eerily weak. She pressed the cloth to her side and collapsed onto the roof. Darkness was calling again and she didn't fight it. Their spot, hers and Tony's. His life's work closed up in this building. She searched for something to write with and found a torn page from one of the books below. Using her own blood she wrote a short note, library, and sent it to him with her signet ring. If he hurried maybe they would have a chance for saying goodbye.
She thought of her beloved island of Shalott, of the sparkling lake that surrounded it and the blue sky. She thought of things she could remember now, clearer as a Royal Knight. Talfrid...
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:00 pm
Chaonis was not sure what to think, so he did his best not to. That name, Nathan, meant nothing to him. He could not remember that young man, and all he knew was who he was now. He did, however, feel a tug, and he knew that his mind was shuddering because he knew that she was right. She said she loved him and somewhere inside him he knew that was true, and maybe he had cared about her, too. He just had to go and find his handler.
That was easier, for now. He had more questions, but seeking answers while that woman was dying and all these emotions were running high would do him no good. If she died, he would have to find someone else to ask, anyway. He just needed to get away, so he did not look back as he ran from her.
Elsewhere, Camelot was fretting about the camp, unable to find his wife and knowing she had done something stupid. This was confirmed when he got her message. He did not hesitate when he left, running at full pelt through the forest, powering down when he got close to the city and powering up again once he traveled far enough to prevent anyone that might have felt his aura approaching from following his path back to their safe haven. He was desperate and angry, but he was not going to risk the lives of everyone that counted on him because of it.
Just his own.
Once inside the city he powered up again and hurried to where the library used to be, the new information center being built in its place but taking so long, it was like they were just pretending that was the plan. They'd closed the library because of him, and that was it.
"Shalott!" he saw her, feeling no Chaos orders near enough by, though he was shocked to find that she was no longer the knight he knew, but a royal knight like himself. He did not stop to question it, though, skidding to his knees beside her in a chorus of metallic clangs. "What have you done?! I'll take you back to camp... or to the hospital? Oh, god, Shalott, you're bleeding everywhere. I told you not to come out here! Why did you do this?!" He couldn't help how upset he was, panicking as he tugged off his cape and tore it into thicker, more useful bandages than the cloth she had. He had to tie it around her, hoping to do his best to stem the bleeding.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:45 pm
"Tony..."
She tried to smile and weakly turned toward him. She powered down as she did, wanting to be herself. It was such a relief to still be conscious when he came that she didn't pay attention to his chastising. Shalott knew she deserved it anyhow. She'd done something stupid in coming but he knew she was stubborn when he married her and, in all honesty, he should have been there with her like he promised.
She was too tired to focus on anger and pain.
"Our place." she panted, moaning in pain when he moved her. "I'm glad you're here..."
She'd failed to kill Painite but not all the blood around her was her. Quite a bit of it was, of course, but she'd come very close to killing the General. She wanted him to know she loved him, in case he didn't get to hear it again. In this situation it dawned on her all of the things unspoken between them, things she always meant to say or never thought of before the threat of not being able to came between them. She wanted to share all of his memories of who they had been before, how they had always been in love and it came with them through time. She wanted to give Sarah a happier world to grow up in.
"I'm sorry. I love you.I almost...I almost killed her. I tried."
They would both bear the scars of this fight for the rest of their lives, however long that might be.
"Don't be angry with me, please. Tell me you love me."
That was all she'd been able to offer Harmony in the end and it was all she wanted, too. It was all that mattered. Though his bandages were working it was still a very precarious position she was in. It bought her a few minutes, time to come up with a plan, but she was still in danger.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:54 pm
"I love you, Shalott, but you're not going to go anywhere. I told you I would not lose you, on top of everything else, and I mean it."
He was mad, but he could not show it now: he was too worried to be caught up in anything else. All he wanted to do was take her some place safe and get her patched up. Not knowing who might have felt their auras by now, he did not want to risk staying in the city any longer. He picked her up and ran with her, taking her as far as he dared while powered up before powering down to carry her toward the camp, still needing to keep the path there as concealed as possible. He was always careful, usually over careful, when it came to moving around and the chances of being followed.
It was murder on his leg. The old injury had never gone away, and over the years he had suffered a number of wounds to his leg that just made the pain worse. He still needed his cane when he powered down, but he did not have it now. And he did not let it slow him down: he couldn't. He hurried along with his limp, running when he could, until he was close enough to the camp to know his aura was hidden and he could power up again to carry her the rest of the way.
He would find her someone to heal her, and tend to her injuries. Then he would worry about yelling at her for the terrible risk she took. It was just impossible to be angry right now, and he really did not want to be. All he wanted was for her to be alright.
The rest could wait. The rest did not matter. Whatever had happened was over with and there was no changing it. He just needed to focus on the future, and making sure she was in it.
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