|| b.i.r.d.s of a feather__

[acidgypsy]

The wad Rikelus threw at her bounced off her forehead, causing her to raise her face from where she buried it in her crossed arms. Judging from her bleary eyes, she had been napping during his speech.

"....whuuut? I didn't catch that."

In fact, she didn't even know she had fallen asleep. One sec she'd been wondering what was on the dessert table and the next someone decided it'd be funny to chuck garbage at her.
...she'd get him back for that when he least expected it.

Politely covering her mouth for another long yawn, she rubbed her eyes and muttered,

"Bleh. Normally I'm not so tired..."

Neatly arranging her fork and knife on her plate, she got up from the table and smiled somewhat sheepishly down at Rikelus.

"I'm heading back up for a nap. Maybe when I'm better rested I can stay awake during your oh-so-boring science class."

Ruffling his hair playfully, she pivoted on her heel and wandered out from the mess hall; boots clicking softly in what seemed to be abnormal stillness. Not very many people were out and about, it seemed...
After a few wrong turns and apologies to the large groups of people engaged in meetings, she stepped out from the elevator, kicked off her boots by the door, and practically bellyflopped on Rikelus' bed.

Now that she thought about it, it was still the early afternoon. There should be no reason why she'd be tired... or sick, for that matter. In fact... did she even eat anything before coming to Shinra? Probably not. Maybe it was from that bugbite still itching furiously on her collarbone.
Ignoring the slightly pianful twinges in her stomach, she curled up on her side and closed her eyes-- drifting off easily into a light stage of sleep.

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

[Outside of Rikelus’s room: Guards]

“Did you see that girl that the Commodore was with?.”

“Yeah I know, quite a catch huh, I never figured he was into corporate girls..”

“Listen here rookie if he heard you, you’d be in the yard doing updowns until he came back from a mission to the other side of the Globe.”

“I’ll let you in on a couple of secrets Rookie…see everyone likes or respects Commodore Rikelus Deverell. He was tough and one of the best militant minds that the company had ever seen. Rumor has it, he was trained by some of the greatest names in ShinRa history at a young age. Veld, Salvoleo, Takacs, and Valentine. Big, big names. There are still stories about him floating around both academies. IT’s stuff you don’t forget either, crazy stories about taking on an un-winnable battles with injuries and little or no men and coming out victorious. They say that he single handedly had won them a battle at Ft. Condor where AVALANCHE was based at in the early years.”

“Rikelus is the product of a generation of legends both famous and infamous. He was trained by oldschool, and still was oldschool about a lot of things in the mondern age. He was very serious, very proper with anyone within the organization. Before being a SOLDIER he was a person just like the rest of his men. If anyone was capable of leading a large scale revolt against ShinRa it was Rikelus. His men wouldn’t know who to obey, him or the president. Hell most soldiers would obey Rikelus, I would..he’s smart like that…”

Upon the guard finishing his sentence, The devil himself Mr. Deverell stepped around the corner nodding off to him before glancing over to the other Soldier quirking his head to the Rookie, “Go get cleaned up Soldier, oh and a haircut won’t hurt either…you have the rest of the day off”

“I know, sir.” The rookie responded before looking at Rikelus and speaking informally, “Thank you sir..”

Rikelus shot the older guard a smile breifly before unlocking his door and going inside speaking to him as he locked the door behind him, “Very well SOLDIER..i’ll see you later perhaps…”

[Rikelus’s condo: Rikelus, Majidah ]

In any case, while Maji was down for the count I showered a changed into a T-Shirt that had a couple of wacky colors and skulls along with musical notes drifting out of a plethra of lyrics. I felt much better after the hot steamy water had soaked my skin softening it considerably. My uniform is relatvitely comfortable, better than most because its more casual. There’s nothing better than regular street clothes except well wearing nothing. Society hasn’t exactly come to grips with wearing nothing, and Maji was still floating around.

Rikelus rubbed his eyes and made his way towards the couch laying down on it and curling up his crimson red eyes shutting. IT was nice to actually relax, he had work to do; but getting a bit of rest didn’t sound like a bad idea.

[acidgypsy]

Maji woke very gradually; wincing at the sudden blaze of pain attacking her senses. It seemed that stomachache hadn't quite gone away yet. From the clock mounted on the wall, it seemed she had only been asleep for an hour or so... strange indeed. and why did she feel tingly all over?
It was only when she tried to get up did Majidah really start getting worried.

I...I can't move! Dammit! What's happening?!

Now that she thought about it, it was getting hard to breathe... like having a weight on your chest that very gradually got heavier. Her throat felt unbearably tight, and her breath was coming in short, shallow gasps.
Maji closed her eyes and fought down the urge to panic.

Poisons... which one was it? Had to be a slow acting one, and most likely had a high toxicity to be able to smear on a dart or needle. That had to be the 'bugbite' that had been bothering her so much in the past few hours since they had been on the bike.
Her fingers twitched, spasming violently.

Well, so much for the 'I got myself into this, I'll get myself out' approach.

Her eyes scanned the room carefully, listening for any noise other than the faintest whistling breaths she struggled to take in. Damn... either Rikelus wasn't here, in which case she was probably dead anyways, or he decided to be a prude and wandered off to another room. How depressing. A death from poison darts wasn't at all heroic... she had been rather hoping for going out with a bang, you know?

With a herculean effort, she got control over one limb and lashed out; frantically hoping to hit something, anything to get the attention of anyone in the vicinity.

Luckily her aim was good-- her tighly clenched fist knocked a lamp off the bedstand beside her and shattered the terra-cotta base as well as the light bulb with what sounded to her to be like a thunderclap of noise.

Exhausted by the effort, she lay on her side; arm hanging lifeless off the side of the bed. The nearly imperceptible puncture wound in the side of her neck now turned an ugly shade of blue; underlaid by a network of veins turned black by the venom racing through them. Breathing was nearly impossible now... she could hear her sluggish heartbeat pounding in her ears, getting slower and slower as her vision blurred and darkened.

Ugh. What a humiliating way to end her life. If there was such a thing as reincarnation, Maji was going to come back as an angry nightmare beastie and find the person who decided it'd be funny to poke her with a dart. And then she'd have lots and lots of fun avenging herself with all sorts of bloody ways to kill the idiot.

[/size]

[acidgypsy]

A loud crashing noise rang out from the other room, and Rikelus’s eyes fluttered opened and he jumped up like a cat that had just been alarmed of something else within the area. The first thing he noticed as his blurred vision returned was the shattered vase and shards of glass laying on the floor. Then he noticed a hand laying rather lump from underneath the covers, upon first glance she looked as though she was dead. His heart raced, and he rushed forward kicking the glass out of the way within one sweep and put his index fingers on her neck noticing the throbbing blackened veins. An Ensua spell wouldn’t work in this case, and neither would anti-venoms this case required something drastic.

Rikelus wrapped his arms around her lifting her onto his back then took off towards the lab as if he were a mad scientist, he cleared off a stainless steel table and sat her ontop lifting a cotton swap off a nearby table and wiping down an area near her heart. “This is going to hurt like a sonuva bitch only for a little bit.” He shook his head for a second before pulling out a syringe and extracting a sample of his own blood and lifted up a vial of MRNA applicators which he had been devising lately to pull his own DNA apart and imprint them into other’s genetic code. He also injected the MRNA applicators into his blood sample. Truth is that he had never tried this once before and it didn’t go so well, but that was another story. Some things in life you were just sure of.

Rikelus, “Amie predict, results of success..”

An electronic voice spokie, “Rikelus I am incapable of predicting results, too many variables exist.”

Rikelus raised up his free hand and crossed his heart before he inserted the needle into Maji and injected the liquid directly into a major artery, upon injected and removing the needle he cleaned the area yet once again before a green circle encompassed him and he casted a haste spell on her to speed up the results. He watched as the dark veins in her neck outstretched further until they finally stopped and she shook violently for a moment and then they receded into nothingness, the needle mark dissipated as well as the mark on her neck.

Everything was working right; but she wasn’t breathing? “Breathe damn you!” Rikelus spat out, furrowing his eyebrows before learning forward pulling off his leathery gloves and he started to perform CPR. It took only a couple of breathes before he felt her diaphragm contract and start to work again.

Commodore Deverell removed his lips from hers and spoke, “Status report Amie.”

“Rikelus, subject is alive, Pulse 34 and rising, breathing normal, x ray scans show abnormal bone density forming..MRI scans show a decrease in internal scar tissue..and there’s something else…”

Rikelus sat down in a nearby high chair overlooking Maji and complex three dimensional charts that the computer program had pulled up showing the increases in almost every category including the firing of synapses. Before Rikelus could further analyze the data the artificial intgellgence program spoke once more, “Rikelus, there’s been a 2% change in her genetic code..” Rikelus’s face seemed quite quizzical and he began scribbling down notes furiously on a nearby notepad before posing the statement, “elaborate?”

Amie, “2% of your Genetic Code has been translated to her resulting in a change in eye color.”

Rikelus learned forward and used a hand which was rarely exposed to air to lift back to her eyelid and look at her eyes. What he saw was quite astonishing, the only way to accurately describe it was that she now had kaleidoscope eyes. Maji’s irises were now seemingly designed into uniquely shaped shards of crimson red, deep jade green, and light azure blue.

He leaned back in deep contemplation as he watched her outstretch finally coming to her senses, everything would filter in more vivid. Every sense, ever word he spoke, every article she read would have been if she done it for the first time. That bliss of feeling a warm hand against exposed skin, it was a lot to take in at first sometimes overwhelming.

What had happened to Maji was quite different from that of a regular SOLDIER. Rikelus has been born with Jenova cells fused into his human cells so therefore he never was human at all whereas other SOLDIERS were human and then injected with jenova cells. The MRNA applicators had done their job of extracting portions of her DNA structure so that his DNA would fill in those gaps and make her similar to him. Jenova’s cells wouldn’t ravage her body killing off the cells, instead they bonded and helped support her immune system. His crimson red eyes glanced up towards the clock, “3..2.1..and..”

Rikelus Deverell looked over to Maji watching her raise up from the cold stainless steel table with both eyes, and her mouth gaping open breathing as if she was taking her first breathe. In a sense she was, matter of factly she was reborn in his laboratory as something else. He had hoped that she didn’t get the bad characteristics from the transfer such as the hunger deep down for blood. Not to mention having to cage the monster deep down inside one’s self. Instantly I embraced her speaking choppily and between breathes, “Maji I…Don’t scare me like that..You can’t even pretend to die on me like that...I can’t do this without you…I..need you so badly..” A teardrop cascaded down the side of his face dropping down on her neck before it traced it’s way down to her shoulder blade stopping. Did Rikelus Deverell just shed a tear? He hadn't for anyone before..indeed even Amie found this interesting...

[/size] [/quote]

[acidgypsy]

Now try to grasp, if you will, the concept of a colourblind person suddenly being able to see different hues of colour. Quite a shock, yes? Magnify this sense of awe tenfold and you might perhaps get a faint inkling of what our dear Miss Alharad now felt.

It appeared her motor skills had been enhanced greatly-- a faint twitch before the injection now translated to a violent shudder from head to toe, and a casual flick of the fingers might result in a flailing arm. She felt incredibly light... as if the weight of her mortal body had died and left even though she had physically narrowly avoided the grave herself. Reborn... but as what?
Stunned, she sank back to a prone position on the table (Taking Rikelus with her); reeling with the torrent of new information clamoring for her attention. That loud thumping noise...what was that? Normally she'd say it was her own heartbeat, but she could hear that clearly and it was a distinctly different beat than this other rhythm. Hers was just starting to slow down, this other one was still hammering away like a mad carpenter.

Second... what happened? One sec she went to take a nap and the next thing she knew...
Blinking slowly, she shifted her blank stare down towards where a portion of Rikelus' soft sapphire hair cushioned her jaw. His body shook with silent sobs, leaving trails of tingling warmth across her hypersensative skin with his tears. Almost hesitant, she slowed her breathing from the rapid gasps to a more normal pace; wrapping her arms around his neck in an embrace.
That steady pounding of a heart.. it was his, wasn't it?

“Maji I…Don’t scare me like that..You can’t even pretend to die on me like that...I can’t do this without you…I..need you so badly..”

"I'm sorry... I should've been more careful."

Her voice came out sounding alien even to her-- a cool smoothness that she hadn't heard before. The closest she could come to describing this recomposition of her vocal cords was that of silk immersed in the icy cold running water of the melting of the snow at the peak of a mountain. Shouldn't she be having trouble even breathing? Surely the antidote he had given her wouldn't cure a sore throat as well...
Adrenaline still circulated through her blood, causing her hands to shake a bit as she stroked her fingers through Deverell's hair in an attempt to calm him. Strange... she hadn't noticed how vibrant his hair color was, or the glow of life playing across his skin.
In fact, she didn't even notice how very detailed the room was. Strange how a life-or-death incident can refresh your tastes for living.

Still oblivious to her genetic shift, Maji's mixmatched optics scanned and assimilated her surroundings differently due to the chemical makeup-- primary colors (Ie. Red, Blue, and the secondary color green) were more dominant, shifting oddly so her sight would fuzz between the three hues. These observations were in due course analyzed with a strange new swiftness, and the end result being new knowledge she hadn't even thought of before.
Cradling her friend's head against her chest (To hell with decorum. He needed comfort, and to be frank, he didn't look to be in the condition to appreciate what she was allowing him to do), the merc continued her soothing passes over his hair and cheek with her fingertips.

"Rikelus...? Please cheer up... You saved my life again! I don't think I'd be turning on the waterworks if I was in your position."

Smiling softly, she ran her thumb over his bottom lip.

"Goodness knows... I'd probably have died a few years ago if you hadn't been looking out for me. I just hope I can return the favor if I get the chance."

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

We sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of the electrical monitor in the background. It’s not very loud, because it’s not really very busy, but you could hear a couple of operations whizzing through here and there.. Silences like this happen between Maji and I not very frequently.., but its okay.

There are people in the company would could rattle off all sorts of stuff off about me. Who I talked too, where I grew up in ShinRa, the guys I used to hang around with, where my favorite place to eat on a night off is, all that kinda stuff. And maybe Maji could too. She’s a smart girl who picks up on a lot of stuff I do; but isn’t really showy about it to anyone particularly.. The point is, all these people who know stuff about me, yeah, that’s all well and good, but they don’t know who I really am. Maji knows that, I guess that’s also why I trust her so much..

“It’s just I’m glad your ok Maji. Water works huh?” HE sniffled before nuzzling soft locks of azure hair across her skin slightly wincing as she stroked a hand through his hair, “I didn’t give you an antidote though..” He paused for a second before lifting his head from her chest glancing at her kaleidoscope eyes with his deep crimson watery pools. “You were too far gone for any phoenix downs, or any anti-venom..so I had to do something drastic.” He paused for a minute biting the inside of his lip before he sat his forehead against exposed open skin near her neck and spoke, “I didn’t have a choice…I had to inject you with my blood among other things..the results were staggering..”

He raised his head and began reciting them off until he got to the end of the list and ran an index finger across her eyebrow tracing down the side of her eye, “Except..within the process I transferred two percent of my genetic structure resulting in a change in eyecolor..” Truly he had saved her by doing so; but, also he was afraid that he had forever closed the doors to the lifestream from her grasp.

Had he damned her much like he was. Despite all of Rikelus’s reassurances of everything was going to be okay, he felt that he had done a wrong thing. One demon was bad enough, he was wondering how it was going to affect her psychologically, he couldn’t control the amount of Mako and the effect it had on his mind; so he knew that hers was yet another story. Her mind felt somewhat more fragile, and he felt responsible for it.

He wished he could take away all the nightmares that sent him to his room and made him bury his face in his pillow every night he wasn’t with her. He had sought the comfort you could only find in another presence someone who was your exact opposite. She held me telling me that everything was alright, and I knew she was safe and no one could hurt her but herself. Reassuring myself I just lay there in contemplation…I Knew she could do more than see the hurt in my eyes, I know she felt it. She knew now how I was in constant pain without her, and how I always seemed to have everything bottled up eating away at the core of my existence..I didn’t want her to be a monster, like I am..i didn’t choose this life for myself..but I made the choice for hers..

What makes me fear loneliness more than sister anguish..is not that I have no one to bear my burden, but it is the fact that I simply have more than my own burdens to fear. Although i sort of sighed a sigh of relief when i saw the beauty in her eyes, beauty isn't just waiting at your front door. It's everywhere if you know where to look. Even in people like us, you can find admirable qualities.

[acidgypsy]

Her eyebrow quirked a bit, but other than that she seemed to take this startling news in stride.

"New eyes, huh...?"

Her train of thought muddled off in another direction as her voice trailed away, a slight frown on her face. Interesting. That must be why her reaction time was drastically cut in half, among other things... did that make her a specimen of a branch off of the SOLDIER program? Curious. Curious indeed.

"You know, I bet these new eyes of mine go better with my shades than my old ones."

She grinned, gathering her strength to sit up. Waiting patiently for the disorienting headrush to dissipate, she swung her legs off the edge of the table and eased herself into a standing position, walking a few steps to test any loss of muscle memory that might need re-education.
Other than a few minor stumbles, she felt okay...
Maji flexed her fist slowly, seeking any abnormality in muscles along her arms and shoulders; heaving a sigh of relief when her fears of partial paralysis from the initial attack on her system from the potent venom were all dispelled at once. That infusion he'd given her worked wonders.

The girl's oddly hued patchwork eyes glittered with her usual bright energy as she flung her arms around Rikelus' neck and planted a kiss soundly against his cheek; her crooked little cheshire cat smile starting to creep up on her lips as she released him and transferred her hand to his. His ungloved palm had interesting contours and calluses from handling a sword.

She didn't need a catchy phrase to express her devotion, seeing as how it was already blatantly obvious.
Wether he liked it or not, it looked like Rikelus Deverell, Mr. Macho-man, I'm-oh-so-more-responsible-than-you, had gotten a girlfriend or something along those lines.

Er...not that she was admitting it outright. Nope.

She cleared her throat before speaking again, blinking away her self-conciousness and embarassment at the thought of being coupled up in the dating sense. But when she spoke, it was the no-nonsense Maji; bent on getting straight to the point rather than beating around the bush with the corny snuggle scene in the soaps on TV. She'd had about enough drama today alone to last a year.

"So...um...what next? Have we got a heading for what to do about these creatures that keep coming after you?"

[rikelusdeverell]

“Correction: Heading after us, I’m not the only one hunted now by them.” He added to her in a rather serious and stern tone making eye contact with her before nodding and making his way towards the laboratory. His free hand reached out and sporadically chose a vial dropping it onto the stainless steel work table. The vial shattered sending the liquid splattering all over the table, and Rikelus raised up her hand before shooting her a sad face, “Forgive me Cherie..” He picked up a scaple and sliced into her hand across the side which would normally be an injury in which a normal person would bleed rather profusely. Her blood trickled down onto the table, and the sample snaked out across the table until it snapped at the blood and started to change it, coagulating it into a darker purple almost black damn near…

Rikelus Deverell watched her hand as the cut sealed up and it was as if it never occurred, healing around the area of the skin. The blood on the table seemingly churned and acted as if it was going to form into something, like a tendril before Rikelus lifted an open bottle of hyposulfuric acid and let it spill over onto the blood and it bubbled before the combination of liquid spilled over into the stainless steel sink bubbling down the drain to a treatment facility below. The Commodore looked over at her speaking, “As you’ve probably guessed by now, these scars on me aren’t from swords nor shrapnel. They’re from teeth, claws, and talons of those wrought with Jenova’s cells in the worst way..”

He took her down what seemed to be an endless corridor and up a staircase before heading down a stainless steel hallway into a small dim room. Before he realized where they were, he glanced back towards a stained floor and plug in, where a preservatory tank was. That’s where jenova was housed at one point, ironically they put it at the back entrance to his room near a staircase for emergency exit. He could almost remember her waxen face and empty sunken eyesockets that disgusted him. He was always mortified and found her hideous with awkward tubings protruding under her grey blue body…

“You finally getting the hang of things? It’s awkward at first the sensitivity to everything extremely light..You’ll tend to be nocturnal..” That part came with the monster DNA or at least that’s the way that Rikelus felt. For he had always been nocturnal his entire life whereas other soldier’s developed it within the program and they called it “The Grimmore factor”, coined by Vincent Valentine’s father who discovered the behavioral changes in subjects before being destroyed by stagnant Mako himself..

Rikelus Deverell had led her down the back exit, and upon entering the parking garage he noticed a couple of Turks who shot them a glance and lifted their sunglasses for a moment before traveling the opposite way down another flight of stairs away from his position with a snobby look on their face. Rikelus scoffed slightly at their leaving presence before he walked next to a car and spoke, “Unlock Amie” The sleek black four door car’s lights flashed before the clicking locks were heard and Rikelus opened the back door and took a seat inside. “Aime set destination for Sector 2 after Maji enters.”

“Yes sir Mr. Deverell is there anything else?”

[acidgypsy]

Maji remianed curiously mute to Rikelus' questions, staring down at the flawless skin of her hand where the scalpel had sunk so deep. It couldn't have healed that fast... she felt it slicing into a major vein. And yet... here she was, unharmed.
Trailing along behind him like a lost sheep, she didn't even notice the Turks until she bumped into one. Luckily he didn't give her as much as a second look, and simply muttered something about "Air-headed mall rats" before followng his buddies down the stairs.

She released her grip on a knife concealed in the waistband of her pants, and followed Deverell to his car.

She whistled softly in admiration, running her fingers lightly along the streamlined hood. No wonder ShinRa had a reputation for some powerful machinery. But she still liked her bike better... it was more real to her than the other more modern models that came by at ridiculous amounts of gil.

"Nice ride."

The door popped open easily and she slid into the seat, goosebumps forming on her exposed skin from the cool press of leather. Mmm. Still had that new car smell too.

Maji shut her eyes, only a thin filiment of her stained-glass irises visible between the gap in her eyelids. She'd have to get used to this sensitivity... a migraine was already starting to form in the back of her skull from the loud noises, bright lights, and other factors of the senses that still amazed her. She felt like a newborn in a store full of neon lights and airhorns.

Moistening her lips with a flick of her tongue, she spoke softly with her eyes still closed.

"I'm betting I'm going to have to disguise this...genetic change, yes? Otherwise I bet your ShinRa scientists would jump at the chance to experiment on a new specimen."

Majidah shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. Really the only irritating factor of her new DNA structure and such as an acute sens of her surroundings-- and right now she was freezing her sorry butt off just from touching the leather seats.

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

"Amie heat the seats please, thank you.” Rikelus posed before looking to Maji and clearing his throat before speaking after reaching out and his calloused fingers trailed down the side of her arm before finally grasping onto the tips of her fingers and separating them as he integrated his warm hand into hers, “What you have to be careful is that in killing monsters you don’t become a monster yourself..Sephiroth made that mistake many years ago in a lofty mountain town, and so did many others who preceded him. It’s an addiction, the euphoria of bloodshed and slicing through sinew and bone. Quite possibly better than any addiction man could think of..”

Rikelus paused for a moment before continuing, “You have to be careful you don’t lose sight of yourself and what you love within the raging war were about to enter. It’s far beyond all human comprehension..” Rikelus lifted a sleek pair of onyx black wrap around stylish sunglasses out of the side console near his window lock button and passed them over to her before adding a warm smile to his gesture. It seemed like they definitely weren’t going out for a night on the town and dinner and a movie. Rikelus grinned before adding, “This reactor that were going to is the site in which one of Jenova’s limbs were lost…allegedly monsters have been brewing down below, and of course instead of sending a group of soldiers into get slaughtered they’re sending us. The Turks are unreliable unless it involves being late for assignments or sleeping in; so we get to play the part of the good Sheppard for the day, and I don’t feel like playing very nice.”

The ending was always the same. The bodies of the the monsters would soon litter the reactor and rungs of ladders as they tried to escape. Their spilt blood would cover the gray flecks of stone, and rusted metal grates making them look premier once more..Did these monsters truly have lives? Had they ever existed outside of their deformed skin? The thought had passed through his mind a time or time before drifting off where all thoughts go.

Away…like everything he had ever had…

After all, what did he truly have?

The sound of rain and her..

The sound of rain always made him remember. It whispered to him as if it were Maji herself, sitting herein leathery comfort was nice compared to being once surrounded by silent stone and ageless darkness. Memories resting at the distant edge of consciousness stirred slowly like fish in a deep pool awaiting their release..He had been several levels down into the reactor without reaching the bottom…the battles had always been so hellishly hard...

The memories traveled like ripples invisibly upward, devoid of form or substance. He hummed outloud a rather melodious tune filled with a faint bit of melancholy and despair.. He never knew what would surface, which memory would play itself out when he hummed that tune... They were always so clear, however, almost like a waking dream. He could recall every detail, though he had long ago lost track of how much time had passed since then...

He traced a free finger throughout the air and he stopped and winced for a moment, “I made it exactly forty three out of sixty five floors.” The window cracked slightly for Maji to glance out at the moonlight stretching down from the heavens down towards the sleek black car. They drove through large polished stone grey columns as they headed towards the very corner of Edge where the reactor was at. The street seemed rather rocky, torn up, with vines and weeds growing about haphazardly in no form or fashion.

[acidgypsy]

Wincing at the glare of moonlight washing over her face, she closed her eyes with a sigh; popping some wireless earbuds into her ears. Without further ado, she tapped the music player control, the wiring of which was integrated cleverly into her belt, and rested her head against Rikelus' shoulder.
Even with the volume turned down relatively low, the faint strin of the singer's breathy voice could be heard quite clearly above the occasional rattle of a rock bouncing harmlessly off the hood of the car.

From the gentle swell and fall of her chest, Maji was at peace with her abrupt transformation; happy to enjoy the simple things in life. Right now, she was content with listening to her tunes and cuddling with Rikelus.

A smile touched her lips as she wriggled a bit closer, her hair veiling her face down to the brdge of her nose and her longer locks splayed in black velvet waves over Deverell's shoulder and collar.

"Don't mind me, just cruising by
By the girl with the balloon...
Good, it looks like we're the only ones around
Caught on CCTV;
Heading towards the city lights,
Winking diamonds at me,
Arms stretched out now.

Ha-ooooooo It gets me every time
Ha-ooooooo It gets me every time

Sexy Baby,
Happiness and silhouettes,
Revolving in the deep water indigo;
It's high tide, night sky
Pleasure moment
Thinking big,
Thinking positive,
And itching to get on with it;
It's all stops out.

Excess
Is the new moderation;
Get dressed up
To the power of ten,
Raise glasses
On repeat and again, again, again...

Ha-ooooooo It gets me every time
Ha-ooooooo It gets me every time

Oh, wade in the sonic joy
Pleasure the wave and synchronize
Sway in the sonic joy

Ha-ooooooo It gets me every time
Ha-ooooooo It gets me every time

Every time,
It gets me right here
Every time,
It gets me right here
Everytime."

[/i]

By the time the song ended, she had fallen asleep-- her face blank of the usual humorous and often amusing expressions. for all her protesting the merc really didn't mind showing just tiny amounts of affection in private. It was the public stuff she got antsy about.
Little moments like this truly left her with a feeling of peace both inside and out.

(( You can listen to the song here if you like: ))[/center][/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

He almost didn’t want to wake her up, it was as if Minerva herself had descended down the heavens and touched her face with the most adorning smile you ever could. Rikelus laid a soft peck on her forehead before the car stopped outside of what seemed to be a large steel rusted door outside of a Mako Reactor. Amie cut into her signal on her music control overriding the signal and speaking softly in that robotic voice, “Rikelus we’ve arrived at our position I’ll await for you’re return..your chances of reaching the bottom of the facility with Majidah’s help is 47% which is higher than your previous score given that all scenarios are equal.”

Rikelus sighed softly before he replied to Amie, “Yeah, I know it’s not good odds Amie it might be a while before I return, after the twentieth floor we will lose contact, I’ll miss you.”

The robotic voice paused before replying to Rikelus ,”I’ll miss you too Commodore come back in one piece.”

Rikelus looked over to the waking Maji and shook his head grinning waiting until she sat up before he climbed out of the sleek black ShinRa automobile walking down a cobblestone path and turning the iron door’s handle opening what looked to be an empty room. Upon entering, he closed his eyes before numerous voices echoed from the shadows and seemingly wraiths were visible reaching out some showing a level of melancholy not achievable by most while others showed sheer wrath..

A green light came from all corners encircling them before the door slammed shut and they descended on a glowing green pillar down below a couple of meters. Upon reaching the bottom of their destination he started walking down a long rusted corridor glancing at Maji quirking an eyebrow stopping midway, “Are you sure you’re ready for this? You don’t have to do this if you don’t want too.” He reminded her as he glanced at the stone walls and the acidic smell of rust and oxidation of steel was present and overwhelming. The hallway itself was reminiscent of an old style reactor like in Modeoheim, the whirling of fans could be heard as well as machinery as it seemingly droned out any moans and groans made.

A gentle but bitter-cold breeze always blew through this dungeon. It caressed Rikelus’s exposed skin sending a slight shiver down his skin. The darkness seemed to creep away from the light curling and spinning it’s way on a path towards their present position..The skitter of rats echoed across the metal gate below before the sounds dissipated back into that same dulled out machinery.. ominous machinery began whirling in the back ground as Rikelus glanced towards the door noticing two Deep Ground soldiers with assault rifles raising up their guns and pointing them towards the Commodore..He never took his eyes off her regardless of the pressure, and flaming hot steel residing in the end of their barrels.. he seemed more asphyxiated upon her answer than what they had to fire at him.

[acidgypsy]

Maji's strange kaleidoscope irises narrowed, shattered stained-glass colors shifting imperceptably to match her mood as she eyed the soldiers steadily approaching with raifles raised. Running her tongue over her thumb, she tested for any interference of airflow, her reply full of her spitfire agression as a precursor to the violence she penned up inside her head.

"Chicken out on a challenge like this? You must be joking."

Very deliberately, she drew two thinner knives, flipped them around to grip the weapons by the blade, and threw one after another in quick succession; watching with relative indifference as the gleaming metal sheared arcs through the air and plunged deep into each soldier's jugular.
She crossed the space between the corpses and herself with her usual catlike grace, bending on one knee to pluck the bloodied knives from the cadavers' necks.

"Comeon, then. We'd best get this over with."

((Sorry for shortness-- my dad put a password on my comp, so I can only post on a school pc. x.x))

[/size]

[rikelusdeverell]

Rikelus recounted the brief events in his head before looking at her smirking as they began dashing towards the exit. His crimson red eyes radiated a powerful aura, as they began treading across a framework that was sheer chaos. It was a mutilated network of pipes heading in every direction possibly skewing further off course than what they had expected. Rikelus almost couldn’t stop at one point, as he soared from his feet, as the reactor shook he drew his sword slicing part of it into the wall using it to slow down his helter skelterish advance until he landed on a solid piece of pipe. He had made a rather loud clamous as pieces of pipe fell, he heard the sounds of various triggers being pulled back before darting back across a network of pipe and grabing onto Maji yelling out, “C’mon..” The sounds of bullets whizzing off metal framework encompassed the area, as hot lead was unleashed upwards towards them and the heavens.

He glanced towards the old elevator which had been stopped via someone cutting the wires for the box. “Shit…” Rikelus charged over to it, releasing Maji’s hand before he furiously began making modifications to the oldschool system. He spliced a set of wires together before connecting them to the power supply loop, and nothing happened to his avail. He took a step back shaking his head before kicking the box, and the lights came on. HE scrambled with her inside the elevator hitting a set of codes into the master console. Whatever happened, happened, for the fact he seemed to be just randomly dialing with one set of fingers crossed.

A sudden rush of electricity flooded in, and filled the elevator’s buttons with light almost like hot blood fills empty veins. With no more impeding of the flow, he pulled a lever before raising a single hand to wave towards surging Deep Ground Soldiers. Several cable wires that were hooked up to laterns and safety switches brightened, and the entangled technological way station that they arrived at was lit up like a fun house in mid October.

DING

The door slid open, and Rikelus looked over at a couple of Deep Ground Soldiers at the waypoint, before kicked one aside and wrapping the other one up using him as a human shield before tossing his lifeless corpse at a window haphazardly watching it smash the glass façade. He reached down pulling up two rifles which were on the ground and began blasting away at Soldiers, and machinery had it been the end of the world. He looked forward at the part of the reactor which seemed separated due to the broken bridge with rusted supports. The area was mangled heavily by rust, decay, and damage, although the means of the bridge was completely destroyed a chain was used to grab onto and transverse a looming black void below..Rikelus glanced over at Maji before that devilish grin slid across his once stonewall expressions, “Ladies first?” He questioned quirking an eyebrow quizzically speaking over the blasts of grenades and over the uproar of machine guns..

[acidgypsy]

Maji smirked.

"Cocky bastard. You're trying to get me killed, aren't you?"

Her laugh seemed so out of place amidst the chaotic grinding of machinery and the chatter and muzzleflash of Deepground soldiers peppering the halls with rifle fire; a tiny ring of a silver bell in the padded room of a maniac that left a warmth in one's chest long after the last wavering note faded. In the split second of silence following her voicing of amusement, the crash of noise that accompanied battles roared down and hit her ears like a hammerblow, nearly visibly rocking her back on her heels.
Wiping away blood from a shallow cut on her cheek, she flipped a knife cowboy-style around her forefinger of her right hand, grasping the knife by the blade before letting fly. end over end the seemingly tiny blade flew, parting the air with graceful purpose in a straight line before a soft 'pop' sounded and the lights died overhead. a pause followed; deep silence blanketing the area to the point of being suffocating. Two seconds...three.

She ducked, narrowly avoiding the hissing crackle of one of the power lines running like veins in bundles in the roof, now severed by her quick thinking and quicker action. the Deepground soldiers, however, weren't so intelligent... a dozen or so were electrocuted by the wildly flaying live wires before the rest decided to back off.

"and awaaaaay we go!"

Smugly watching the men retreat, she winked at Rikelus and overbalanced, toppling backwards to grab on to the rusted chain and begin shimmying backwards across the crevasse like it was child's play. Once or twice she got intense vertigo from looking down over her shoulder, and the chain heaved once in her grip, but she kept her cool and kept going.
Sure, she looked damn sexy, but to tell the truth, she was a little worried for her safety... bullets and grenades and shiz weren't good for the health.

[/size]