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Pompeii was restless and cold. She was currently patrolling but found that for the most part the city was quiet. She was annoyed and anxious. So much had gone on recently it was hard to believe it was only February. Maybe it was residual anger from her failure from the New Years party or the wedding invitation she received in the mail yesterday.

The squire paced across an empty roof top, her skirt tail trailing behind her. Her shawl around her shoulders helping to keep her warm as she mentally worked through her issues, thoughts completely off of searching for youmas or orders who needed help. Pompeii normally knew better, she was taught better, but everyone has a off day and little did she know just how much this off day was going to come back and bite her.

One moment Pompeii was mentally picking over the issue of Lilly's illness and the next a figure was on roof with her. The dim light seemed to add menace to the Pompeii's company but it was most likely the two limp figures held on each side of the negaverse agent. It was delayed but Pompeii picked up the aura signature of the other female and realized she was pretty outclassed when it came to power but she wouldn't leave those other two alone with the girl... Lilly would be disappointed in her and Pompeii herself would not be able to live with it if they turned up dead or just disappeared.

"Let them go!" She tried to go for authoritative but feared she sounded like a child whining for a toy. She was an adult for goodness sake and she would act like it, a quick breath helped steady her nerves. She let her shawl slide down her arms until it rested lightly on the rooftop the end securely held in her grasp. "They have nothing to do with this." her statement much more forceful this time.

Pompeii had experience but it was mostly just fighting youma or practicing with other order members. She frantically tried to remember all her training as well as all the battle tactics she had read up on. She might not win this fight but with luck and her training she at least would survive what would likely come.

Pompeii had a bit of a struggle to mentally keep up with the negas statement. "Knight actually and I wouldn't call this fun really. It's also cold so I think you might be using the wrong phrase. As for those two... They are nothing more than regular civilians. Why would you want to 'play' with them? They can't be very much 'fun'." Her comments might have been as random as as the negas but she believed she covered all the other's points. She really didn't want to go into the whole war battle not that Pompeii really thought that the nega cared.

"Dance? But I..." She was cut off when the nega shook her captives like a dog shakes a toy. Both were still alive but Pompeii was glad that both still seemed out of it, it was safer for them. Her mind raced as she understood, at least in part, what the nega was saying. She couldn't say the guy without potentially signing the girl's death certificate or vise-versa. Nor would offering no answer at all feasible.

"Both," she chose and then added "after all a group dance is much more fun than a simple dance." All Pompeii could do is the girl took her off the wall comment as truth and gave her both hostages. Then the squire might actually have a chance to get them to safety or at least lead the chaos soaked nega away.

Pompeii listened with growing horror as the nega decided that she didn't play fair. She took a few steps forward only to stutter to a stop when the dark lady disappeared only to reappear much farther away. "Wait!" She scrambled closer, her heels scrambling across the asphalt roof. "Please!"

Her cry to delay the inevitable was too late and Pompeii could only stand in horror as both innocents were impaled. She would have sworn that the sound of their deaths would live with her forever. Pompeii had witnessed death since her introduction to the war but never anything she could have prevented, never anything caused by her own actions. Pompeii didn't feel the stones dig into her knees as she collapsed to the roof, her shawl trailed behind her like a child's security blanket. She had only eyes for the two slowly bleeding out.

"Why! Why would you do that? What did they do to you? You were once a knight too! You were given the power to protect them not murder them!" Her voice got louder and more vicious as she turned her flashing eyes to the negaverser. "You would have been a sister in arms if you hadn't let chaos corrupt your soul! These people had done NOTHING to you!" A single tear tracked down her cheek unnoticed by the purple clad squire.

Pompeii was broken. Never had she witnessed death up close and personal. No one in her family had died, none of her friends, not even strangers before now. She had passed accidents on the road, read about deaths in a house fire, had even seen the devastation caused by nega attacks but never… never like this. Even Lily’s slow slip into death was some how less than this senseless murder. With Lily there was fighting for life and love and even if there seemed to be no hope, still the hope was there but this… this was a pointless killing that did nothing more than to amuse the demon that stood in front of her. Something changed in her. Prior to this little revelation Pompeii hoped everything could be resolved peacefully with the balance being restored and none would have to die for it… Naivety thy name was Pompeii.

“‘The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.’” It was said quietly but with true feeling behind it. Pompeii glanced once more at the two that died because she tried to be smart before she carefully climbed to her feet. Her eyes were dry and surprisingly clear sighted. She knew the odds were against her in this fight but Pompeii couldn’t let the deaths stand without trying. Her mind raced with everything, from the reach of a polearm to the traction of the roof, everything factored into her rather stupid move of rushing the negaverser. Without a sound, and barely a sign, Pompeii pushed off of the roof top and began to run right to the crazy woman. She knew she needed to get within the reach of the spear or she would never survive… and she had to, if only to prove to herself that no one else would die because she couldn’t prevent it.

(quote by lois mcmaster bujold)

Pompeii ignored the general. Talking wouldn't help now, only blood could in some way pay for the deaths, either hers or the negas.... Blood would be paid one way or another. She got closer and saw the spear begin it's downward trajectory, Pompeii needed to get within its reach. She began to dodge but her heal slid on the loose gravel making her slip and she felt spear tip slice along her arm shallowly. Not willing to have spilled her own blood uselessly Pompeii whipped out the edge of her shawl, with luck it would latch onto the spear and give her a chance to remove it from the generals grasp just long enough to get in the negas space where the spear would be next to useless.

When she concentrates and throws the shawl at someone, and it comes in contact with them, the shawl wraps around the body part it touches and binds it to the nearest item. For instance if it catches a leg it will likely bind the leg to the other leg, an arm to the body, or to a object near by such as a light pole or another person, but leaving the rest of the body free. The shawl becomes nearly impossible to remove while the shawl is in use but this only lasts for a total of 30 seconds and leaves no lasting affects regardless of what it binds/catches. After the full time has been used the shawl becomes inert and nothing more then a mundane yarn distraction. She MUST be in contact of the shawl in some way in order for it to work which will likely place her within striking distance of her opponent.

A opening! It wasn't much and it wasn't a good idea but Pompeii was passed caring. She slipped into the guard of the generals and with a smile full of ice she aimed a full body punch to the kidneys. With luck it would land with great force and pay back at least a small amount of what was owed to the dead. A kidney punch was painful and had the benefit of not having the main ribs in the way to lessen the blow. It would hurt like hell but Pompeii wouldn't walk away with a broken hand, a win win as far as the squire was concerned.

Since Pompeii had switched her focus from her shawl to the punch the magic of the thread had stopped and the gray material had fallen off of the spear all but forgotten by the knight who wielded it. It had served it's purpose and if she was lucky Pompeii might get a few more seconds of magical use out of it. It pooled on the rooftop just a lighter shadow among darker ones.

Pompeii watched dispassionately as the nega reeled from her strike. She was stepping in to strike again when she was scored across the chest with the wildly swinging spear. She brushed the cut with her hand absently. Once more Pompeii's blood was drawn and it was just one more mark in the ledger against what the nega owed. Each drop she shed and each blow she made helped to balance Pompeii's account with regards to her part in the deaths of the civilians. The general's ledger still had a long way to go before it was balanced and Pompeii wouldn't rest until everything was paid back tenfold.

How did one pay back for two deaths? What was the price for lives cut short in their prime? With these thoughts running through her head Pompeii stepped once more into the generals guard. This time she went to shove the female down. She didn't even noticed she had blood on her hands from the second cut. Let her feel some of the pain the two she killed would have felt. The fear and hopelessness that they experienced in the last seconds as there lifeblood slowly seeped out onto the rooftop. The squire had forgotten that both victims had been unconscious when they were killed and was actually projecting the imagined feelings of all the victims from the war between chaos and order.