Love From Nothingness

" I assure you there is a Sephiroth. If you want him, I shall release him. This time, I control him. I'm sure you'll love meeting your 'Sephiroth', it'll be quite a shocker for you." what did she mean by that? 'Shocker' how? Is it going to be another familiar face? Well, I've got to get over that quick, if that's what it is, because Sephiroth does damage, massacres, demolishes, breaks people's hearts and souls. If she's sending a 'Sephiroth', then I can't let a familiar face fool me. I'll have to see whatever it is that's behind that face, and that's what's really there, no matter what the face might be. No matter how familiar it is, no matter how much I cared about the person 'Sephiroth' will look like, no matter how much it'll hurt, I'll have to kill whoever it is so I can get to Angela. Whatever face I see, I'll see that true person, someday. I hope...

"Azuril?" Damien's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, she looked at him, he was standing next to the tree she'd settled herself under, "are you ok?" he asked, she wondered absently why he had come over to her just to ask that, but she nodded,

"I am fine. Do I seem otherwise?" she said, he nodded.

"You're crying." he informed her. She reached up and touched her cheek, sure enough, her fingers were wet when she took her hand away from her face, she quickly used her sleeve to wipe the tears away.

Why did I start crying? when did I start crying? she thought as she stopped rubbing at her eyes, "it was nothing. I am fine." she said, though she was still concentrating on schooling herself for when a familiar face with genocidal tendencies showed up. Damien sat down next to her leaning back against the tree trunk, he gave a tired sigh, then closed his eyes, leaving Azuril wondering if he was going to fall asleep sitting there, or whether he was relaxing for a moment, the latter was proved true when he opened his eyes and looked at her again,

"if something's bothering you, you know that you can tell us. We won't say a word. That's just how the lot of us are." he said, she lowered her gaze, then turned away, "you didn't act like this to the people we look like from your time, did you?" that one got her attention, she looked at him, surprised he could corner her so easily. "I thought not." he said, smiling, somewhat sadly. Why was he sad? What did he have to be sad about?

Did I do something to upset him? she thought, suddenly, he answered her unasked question.

"I wish you could trust us a bit more than you do. You're always so closed off from all of us, Miko and Skayr wouldn't have said those things a while back if you'd just talked to us, let us know why you're so distant." he said, "and I'd like to know sometimes too."

"Damien, I..." she didn't want to risk telling him too much, that would probably only put all of them in greater danger, Angela would figure out whatever it was Azuril might say and change those rules somehow. She hated having to keep going knowing that she knew exactly how to help and protect all of them, and knowing she couldn't use that information. "I have my reasons...if I say too much, we'll all just be in greater danger. I can't let that happen." Damien closed his eyes, still smiling slightly, then he leaned back fully against the tree and sighed.

"My friends are gone, my home town is gone, your entire world is gone, Angela took everything we both held close to our hearts. I was right. You and I are far too similar." he said absently. Azuril nodded slowly,

"now, I know I can tell you this without her altering it," she started, Damien was looking at her curiously, "she will send someone, someone very powerful, who will attack both us where it will hurt the most."

"Whoever it is, won't try to go after the others, right? Do you know that at all?" Damien asked, she shook her head,

"no, they will not. That would change the game too much, and that would lessen the amount of things to make me suffer. She won't have that, I know this much. I don't know what the target will be, but it will hurt deeply, one or both of us will suffer a heavy loss. And I think she indirectly informed me earlier, in that note, that this will be another face from my nightmares." she said, then she looked at the sky, cloudless and the same blue as the ocean on a calm day, "I only pray this blow will not be too close to the center of my heart...I think I may die if it is."

"You're not going to die. If it is another familiar face, you can make it through." Damien said, she was looking at him again, somewhat surprised by what he'd said, "You've been strong enough to come this far while traveling with people you know you can never see again. Who knows how many more people we'll find that will look like someone you once knew. But, you need to remember that they aren't those people. Some of them might even act or sound like the people they resemble, like Bobby and Annakhin, but they're not who you think you see." he paused after that, looking slightly shocked with himself, Azuril still staring in mild surprise. Damien sat back a bit, looking at the ground, "I didn't mean to make it sound like I was mad, if that's how it sounded. I just-"

"you spoke your mind." she finished for him.

"Yeah, well, I'll go now. Just wanted to see if you were alright." he started to stand up but stopped when Azuril grabbed his shoulder to keep him down. When he looked at her, she was smiling,

"thank you, Damien. I'm glad to hear that someone cares about and believes in me as you do. You've helped me greatly by talking with me like this, I needed the reassurance." she said, this time there was actual emotion in her voice, she sounded truly happy. She let her hold on his shoulder drop and watched him stand up and slink away, then she watched the sky some more, ok, it's official, this is hitting a weird note. He looks like Genevieve and now my suspicions have been confirmed, ahugh! This is getting weirder that it was when I woke up! The male version of Genevieve has it bad for me and I think I'm starting to fall for him! Aaahhhggghhhhh! Weird, weird, weird, weird, weird! Weird! This game better be over and done with soon!...before I slip up too much...and lose one of them... she thought, first making several odd faces at her thoughts about her romantic life, then lowering her gaze, taking on a sad note to her at the prospect of possibly losing a friend...for the second time. Miko watched Damien walk away from Azuril, after talking with her for a while, apparently surprising her with several things, then she watched as Azuril held him down and say something to him, something that obviously got him embarrassed in some way, because of the way he walked away from her, slightly dizzy looking like he always had when he was up somewhere near Cloud 9. She growled silently, glaring from one of them to the other,

"this is just ridiculous. She's just gonna cause more problems and leave people engrossed in her, then we'll get in trouble and she'll be to blame, though he'll probably get mad at someone else, not her." she seethed, Bobby and Zykan were the ones closest to her, they exchange confused looks, then shrugged and walked away from her.

"You people are pathetic when it comes to matters of the heart." Zykan said as he and Bobby joined Damien, Skayr and Annakhin near the fire they'd made, they hadn't been able to find a town before the sun started setting, ocean blue starting to fade and darken as the sun lowered.

"What do you mean, Zykan?" Annakhin asked, Zykan rolled his eyes,

"Oh, brother...look, Missy, haven't you ever been in love?" he said, though, he couldn't exactly speak from experience, he'd never been in love, he hadn't even learned that word until Annakhin said it for the first time around him, then trying to teach him what it meant became a chore, it still was. He just didn't seem to get it, which was fine by him.

"No. Neither have you. You didn't even know the word 'love' until I said it." Annakhin said, "and you still don't know what it means."

"That true?" Bobby said in disbelief, allowing Skayr to help her sit down, her ribs were almost healed, but she was still a bit fragile, which was a problem whenever they were attacked, especially if Azuril found the battle too risky for her and her terrible ability to turn into several different strange creatures if she was beat up enough, or angered enough. Those two things were the reasons she ran from battle at times, no one but Damien and Skayr knew that, though, they all still figured she was just a basket-case, and the task of trying not to upset her too much made it seem like Damien somewhat pampered her. Everyone save Skayr, Annakhin and Damien still had shaky feelings on letting her stick around, but they opted for not arguing on the topic, Damien just reiterated that she was staying, Annakhin they didn't even bother arguing with, she was too kind and they knew she'd never change her mind on letting Azuril stay, that also being the reason Zykan claimed indifference, that way he wasn't going against Annakhin and at the same time wasn't getting himself beat up. Skayr was a hard one to pin-point, though. She, too, was dead-set on Azuril staying, no more arguments, no other opinions, the girl was staying and that's where the argument with Skayr would end...either that or she'd just walk away and not even bother dignifying the argument right from the beginning. Bobby tried all angles at getting a reason out of Skayr as to why she suddenly wanted the nostalgic girl around, but she was always met with silence. Skayr would not break her vow of silence, no matter what was set in front of her as an argument or question. Damien was just to stubborn and Eventually snapped at the group that didn't want Azuril around,

"she's staying, we had this talk before. No questions asked, got it?" he snapped angrily, Annakhin was standing nearest him, Zykan sitting on a low branch of a tree right above Annakhin, Skayr was standing next to Azuril and Damien was up in the front of it all, glaring down Bobby and Miko, who were glaring right back.

"She's too unpredictable and unreliable in battle, she acts too aloof, for all we know she still doesn't give a shit about us, and she's overly time consuming." Bobby said, putting out the problems she had with Azuril, Miko nodded,

"Damien, you spend more and more time trying to keep her away from trouble and calmed down than you do acting like your old self. What's so special about her that's got you so wound up lately!" she snapped,

"uh-oh, incoming bitch-fight." Zykan muttered, the girls on his side of Damien nodded.

"I hope this evens out." Annakhin said worriedly. Skayr growled,

"this is damned ridiculous! All of this commotion and rebellion over one girl! Not to offend." she said, Azuril shook her head,

"no offence taken." she said,

"Skayr what is up with you! You hate useless people, she isn't reliable, she doesn't have any very strong weapons and she's too time consuming! Every thing you hate in a person!" Bobby snapped, glaring at her friend, who surprised her by glaring back, not something Skayr normally did,

"she is much stronger than she looks, she is reliable and the only reason she is remotely time consuming is because of her strength. You've no idea how admirable this girl is." she said, she was serious. One-hundred percent serious. "Azuril stays. If I find her gone, I will look for her until I find her, as I know Damien, Annakhin and even Zykan would. You are cold if you can't fathom other's pains and needs." Miko and Damien had stopped arguing a while ago, too shocked at what they were hearing from Skayr to continue. "She is powerful, and fragile at the same time, that is why she will either attempt to get rid of a threat before it can break through her, and it is also the reason she runs from something she thinks will break her too easily, the last thing she wants is to be broken in battle. This also applies to her emotions as well. She breaks if at any extreme, she despises that fact. Bobby, I thought I knew you better than this. You seemed like a person willing to see both sides and think rationally about how others may react to a certain situation. My opinion was wrong. You are just as pigheaded as all of us were when we first found her. And you are still just as ignorant." Damien, Miko Bobby and Annakhin were staring in utter shock, Skayr never spoke like that about someone else, she never spoke like that to Bobby either. The group was shocked further when Zykan spoke up, still sitting in the tree,

"ya know, Skayr's right, Bobby. You are being pigheaded and ignorant. Azuril saved your life, so I've heard that is, and now you don't want her around. And, technically, she saved you twice, once when you guys found her in that forest, and again at that hospital from hell. no matter what she says on the topic, you defiantly own her your life. And, she's promised to protect me and make sure I don't get caught or hurt by psychos out for my head, so, I can't let you boot her out. Even if I have to go against my rules and possibly get myself killed because of it." he jumped down out of the tree, landing next to Damien, then he point at Miko with his scythe, "that all applies to you too, Miko." he said, then he simply walked back to the tree he'd been in and jumped back up it, taking his seat on the branch he'd been on before, then he jammed his scythe's blade into the side of the tree and relaxed back on his branch, falling asleep. Everyone, of course, save Azuril, just stared in shock,

"Zykan actually stood up for someone aside from Annakhin. And he's risking his life on it too." Bobby said,

"there, see. If he's humane in this situation, shouldn't you two be able to pull it off?" Damien said, hands on hips, stilling glaring.

"Damien," Azuril called from behind him, all eyes were on her now, except for Zykan's, he was sleeping, "if I am unwanted, I will leave. There is no point in keeping me here if I am useless. And I do not want you to pulled away from your friends at all." Damien shook his head,

"you're back to calling them just my friends. Earlier you'd realized that they were yours too. You wouldn't have rescued us at that hospital, or back in the woods, if you didn't care. Plus, majority rules and it's two of them against four of us, five you count yourself." she shook her head,

"majority matters nothing to me. Nor does how many times I've saved your lives. If even one of you finds me useless, or is angry with Damien for keeping me here, then I will go." she said, Miko motioned off to the right,

"then start walking. I haven't seen anything from you to make me think that you even want to be here. So go!" she said, now even Bobby, who was on her side, was shocked, this wasn't like Miko at all, normally she'd just snap at Damien for a bit, then terrorize Zykan, now she was actually mad.

"Miko!" Annakhin said, looking somewhat terror stricken, Skayr looked just as shocked as everyone else, a new extreme for her. Damien looked like he was about to backhand her, but Azuril stepped in again.

"Damien! do not make a mistake that you will sorely regret later. none of this bickering and threatening is necessary on my account. I will leave, I have my curse to protect myself with." she said, walking over to where Damien and Miko stood, "don't do something you'll regret later." then she started walking way from the group Damien grabbed her wrist,

"don't. I told you before that you aren't going anywhere, I want you here, if no one else does then they can walk away from this whole thing right now." he said firmly, "you may hate yourself for something I'm pretty sure you didn't do, and everyone else may hate you for a variety of reasons, but I don't." he said, making her turn around and look at him.

"What?" she said quietly, now Damien just looked like he'd been dragged into the limelight.

"Well," he let go of her wrist and shifted around a bit, looking at the ground "I mean that I want you here. That I like having you around. Ok?" Bobby then looked at Skayr, grinning and holding out her hand,

"pay up." was all she said, Skayr growled,

"this proves nothing! You get nothing." she said, Annakhin tilted her head to the side a bit, confused, Miko was fuming angry,

"you bet on that!" she shrieked, then two girls being addressed looked at each other for a second, then at Miko,

"yes." they both said in unison, Miko half creamed in frustration and started ripping at her hair,

"dammit! This turning out horribly! The only one here who hasn't weirded me out yet today is Zykan...oh, yeah, and Annakhin." she said, Bobby pointed out something in that short rant.

"Um, I think the only reason you haven't tried to use Zykan's head for a soccer ball yet today is because he's been sleeping almost all day." she said, Skayr and Annakhin nodded their agreement to that.

"T'is true." Skayr said, Annakhin only nodded. Suddenly, Zykan sneezed and fell off of his branch.

"Ow! Fuck! Who the hell was talking about me!" he snapped, everyone pointed at Bobby and Miko, "shut the hell up, you two! I'm tired and crabby and I have a weapon, do not mess with me!" he glared at the two girls for a second, then hopped back up onto his branch and fell asleep again.

"Can we somehow get him a muzzle?" Bobby said, Annakhin shrugged,

"I don't think they make the right kind for him. I can always just ask him to stay quiet." she suggested, then there was another sneeze, followed shortly thereafter by a 'thud' and a cursing fit. "Oh, oops!" Annakhin said, turning to face Zykan, "I'm sorry, we should have stopped."

"No, you're cool on that one. Just please, for my head's sake, since I seem to continually land on it, switch the subject of conversation." he said, then he was up in his tree again. The argument seemed to have passed and now it was everyone against Miko in the 'let's keep Azuril' argument. Night time set in quicker than anticipated and the group was left in the dark, Zykan still in his tree, Annakhin sitting under the tree, Skayr had move from next to Azuril to a low branch in a tree closest to Bobby, Miko was farthest from the group, brooding and glaring at Azuril, who was sitting nearest Damien, who looked like he'd fallen asleep with his eyes open.

"He ok?" Bobby asked, pointing to Damien, Miko gave a small growl,

"he does that sometimes, falls asleep with his eyes open, it makes it look like he's still paying attention to whatever it is you're saying at the time." she said, Bobby blinked a bit.

"Oh. Ok. And no need to get overly possessive of him. None of us are chasing him. He's doing it all by himself." Miko twitched and glared,

"'possessive'? Me? Of him? Yeah, right, and Skayr can fly!" she said, Bobby gave her a flat look,

"Skayr, would you please?" she said, there was a derisive snort from Skayr, then she was jumping into the air and straight up, when she got fairly high up, away from the fire mainly, a pair of blood colored wings slowly appeared on her. Miko was staring stupidly as Skayr did some aerial acrobatics, Azuril smacked Damien's arm and pointed up when she'd finally gotten his attention. He looked up and his eyes widened,

"Jesus fucking Christ!" he cried, falling over side ways, still staring. Bobby picked up a small rock near boomerang and threw it at Zykan, who had another cursing fit when he hit the ground.

"What the hell was that for!" he snapped, Bobby lazily pointed up, then she started poking at the fire with a stick as though nothing special was going on around her. Zykan looked up and hid behind the tree he had been knocked out of, "how the hell'd she do that!"

"Who knows. All I do is know she can do it." Bobby said offhandedly, still poking the fire. Azuril had stopped watching the show almost immediately after she'd watched Skayr grow wings and fly around a bit, she was now watching Bobby poke at the fire mourning her cousin, who was know to do the same thing.

"Zykan was right. You are a pyro." she said, Bobby looked at her oddly for a second, then paused her poking when she noticed the sadness that had made its way into her eyes.

"Your cousin did this same kind of stuff, didn't she?" she asked quietly, not wanting to put the girl in the limelight at all. Azuril nodded,

"fire, music, hobbies, tendencies, personality, you are her twin in all of those ways. And she never could get rid of me, even when we were younger and she would hurt me in hopes I'd leave her be. But I've followed her ever since then, even in my nightmares. She led, I followed. She left, I sat still until she returned. She cried, I comforted. She was, now that I think about it, more like my master, I did everything I could to make her happy and to stay by her side. But, it was an imprisonment that I loved with all of my heart. If I could go back and do it all again, follow her, comfort her, learn from her, laugh with her, love and believe in her, I would without a second thought. You are far too similar to her, my mind still hasn't realized fully that she is gone, and that you are not her. It hurts when I watch you do anything, but it hurts even more when I can't see you." she said, then she nodded towards the fire, "if it was agitating, ignore my words, please go on with what you were doing, do not let me hinder you." she said, then she pulled out her gun and started taking it apart, most likely to clean it or reload it, it was a type of gun Bobby's only seen in books on the history of weapons. That reminded her of something,

"back in that crypt where we found you," Azuril looked up at her, putting down the part she was cleaning, "when Damien gave me your gun so you would blow all of our brains out, your cousin, did she..."

"Yes. She liked guns, she like taking them apart to see what was there as well. She owned a gun herself, she named it as well." Azuril said, Bobby raised an eyebrow,

"she named it?" she said, sounding curious, Azuril nodded,

"she called it 'Squishy'." Bobby dropped the stick she'd been poking the fire with and used both hands to cover her mouth and stifle her laughter, the thought of a gun being named like a pet was slightly funny, the name in itself was rather humorous as well, and seeing and hearing Azuril say it all in her emotionless and uncaring tone and her usual still demeanor was hilarious. Azuril raised an eyebrow, ok, I thought it was funny when I first heard it, too, but, it wasn't that funny, was it? I can't remember very well... once Bobby had calmed down, she as ked another question,

"she was the last one to see that thing before you were locked away, wasn't she? That's why you wanted it back so quick, it looked like a repeat performance. Didn't it." she said, Azuril nodded, then she went back to cleaning her gun. "You can go into auto-pilot anytime you want, I won't mind. Now that I know why, I won't mind." she said, she could hear a small noise of recognition from Azuril, she grinned, then went back to poking the fire. Skayr landed back on the branch she'd been perched on before she was needed to prove Miko wrong and her wings vanished, then she followed Zykan's example and fell asleep.

"Well, that was weird." Damien said, blinking a bit, Miko and Zykan nodded, Annakhin was looking up at Skayr,

"that was amazing! I didn't know she was capable of doing something like that!" she said excitedly, Zykan jumped back up into his tree, settled down on his branch and passed out again "let's not wake them both, Zykan will get mad and Skayr deserves a nap." Annakhin said, everyone else nodded. Damien looked at Azuril, who was still cleaning her gun, but now seemed to be sitting closer to Bobby, who was still poking the fire.

"What were you two talking about a second ago? I heard Bobby break down laughing, but what about, I don't know." he said, Bobby waved a dismissive hand,

"nothing life threatening, don't worry." she said, Damien huffed and gave up on it, Bobby obviously wasn't sharing and Azuril was defiantly not sharing,

"ok. Whatever." he said, settling down a bit more, "why don't we eat something quick, then sleep. Then we can get an earlier start tomorrow." everyone was up for that, the word 'food' had peaked Bobby's interest. Suddenly, Zykan was bolting away from camp,

"I'll go find more fire wood!" he called back, sounding somewhat hasty. Everyone watched him diaper into the shadows, then looked off to the left of the campsite at the huge pile of fire wood set there.

"Everyday he gives some weird excuse and just bolts, right around dinner time. What's up with that?" Miko said, Annakhin shrugged,

"he won't tell me and I won't make him if he doesn't want to." she said, no one really had any guesses, the topic was dropped. But it returned when Zykan came back empty handed.

"Ok, that's it. Share!" Bobby said, Zykan gave her a confused look,

"share what? I don't have anything to share." he said, she pointed an accusing finger at him,

"that's my point. You said you were going to get fire wood. Where is it?" Zykan seemed to look around nervously for a second, then recovered,

"I remembered we already had a shit-load of it and came back assuming we had enough. We do, right?" he said,

"nice try." Bobby said, he jumped back into his tree,

"thank you, I do my best. Now, don't wake me. I'm damned tired." then he fell asleep.

"Annakhin, make him talk!" Bobby said, Annakhin shook her head,

"not if he doesn't want to. I'm not going to force him to tell us something he'd rather keep secret." she said, Bobby gave up.

"On to the food." she said, watching as Damien and Miko set up for cooking. She paused and looked at Azuril, "another rerun, isn't it?" the other girl nodded,

"she loved food. She also had a nasty habit of telling people they needed to eat more." Bobby looked around a bit, feigning ignorance, "you do that too, don't you?" she nodded,

"sorry." she said, Azuril shook her head,

"you didn't know." she said softly, "none of you do."

"I assure you there is a Sephiroth. If you want him, I shall release him. This time, I control him. I'm sure you'll love meeting your 'Sephiroth', it'll be quite a shocker for you" I still can't figure it out. And she's defiantly watching us somehow. I say one thing about what's going to happen, she makes another thing happen instead. I'm still waiting on 'Sephiroth', my curiosity's peaked, but so has my dread. What if I can't bring myself to hurt whoever it is? It could be anyone. Becky or Laura? Manda? Maybe even Adam. I would be able to hurt any of them. I can't do it. Damien was wrong. I was wrong. I'll just prove myself useless again when I run from a familiar face. Knowing her, at least her similarities to Hojo, she'll contort the plot line enough to add in more major villains, or she'll have the Shinra and the Turks hanging around somewhere. They'll all have faces I know, they'll all kill me when I can't hurt them. I shouldn't have woken up, I should have just gone back to sleep in that grave she made me. I'll on give Miko more reasons to hate me, give Lizz more reasons to hate me. And I'll only screw all of them up even more. Damien got banged up real bad in our last fight, blocking me from trouble, I think he, Skayr and Bobby have been so overly protective of me because of my transformations. I haven't turned into the Galian Beast, or any others, since that first time in the woods...but I might end out being the reason those three die if they keep this up. I can't let them. I don't want then hurt, I don't want them to die. They're really all I have now...I need to protect that, not get it killed. Azuril thought, they'd found a town, about a day or so after Azuril and Bobby's fireside talk, but hadn't made it there smoothly, several attacks by creatures sent by Angela had most of the group bruised, bloodied and battered, Bobby still said she owed Azuril and put her life on the line, even before she was fully healed, Skayr and Damien knew what would happen if Azuril was beat on enough and didn't want to make her hate herself even more. Miko still said Azuril should shove off, and each time, Damien said it wasn't a suggestion on his part, it was a rule that she was staying. Zykan still didn't care whether Azuril was there or not and Annakhin still was dead set on keeping her safe and in the group. Skayr was a case no one wanted to try to get near, if she said she wanted something a certain way, it was left that way. And Bobby had a new shadow, she was up for Azuril staying. Azuril claimed she didn't care, but would always follow Bobby everywhere she went. Miko was slowly giving up. At that moment, Azuril was sitting in one of the rooms they'd rented at the local inn, settled in a chair near the window, Bobby and Skayr were asleep, bandaged up from their latest fight, and playing 'human shield' for Azuril. Azuril's room was next to Skayr and Bobby's room, Miko and Annakhin's room was on the other side of Azuril's room and Zykan and Damien were next to them, she'd come into the room where her two friends were, just to see them, whether they were awake or not. She missed them, Jessi and Lisa that is, Athos, Aramis, where ever you are now, I'm going to join you when this is all over and done with. If I can die that is. I don't know if I can... I miss you. I always will, hope you're happy. As happy as I am sad. I'll still be Porthos for you, my friends. I promise. she found herself crying again and quickly wiped the tears away, all for one and one for all. she stood up after that small thought, "what am I doing in here? I can't visit the living in order to see the dead. I should go try to sleep, at least I can see their faces in my nightmares, I'll think of it like that." she muttered to herself as she walked out of the room. When she closed the door to Skayr and Bobby's room, she walked right past her own room, quietly opening the door to Miko and Annakhin's room, doing the same thing there as she had earlier, watching the pair of girls for a second, chiding herself on being stupid again, then leaving, closing the door lightly behind her. She was tempted to go to Damien and Zykan's room, but thought better of it, she did want to see Genevieve though. She'd seen Jessi, Lisa, Lizz and Anna, and she wanted to see Noah and Genevieve, but decided it was, in a way, morally incorrect to do so and turned to go back to her own room, bumping in Zykan, who seemed to be sneaking back towards his room,

"uhh...hi?" he said, she gave him an odd look,

"where were you?" she asked, he walked around her and back towards his room,

"I don't need to tell you." he said, then he was gone behind the door to his room. Azuril shook her head slowly,

"He's more like me than he is Noah. But still, he is Noah's equal, and that thought saddens me as much as the others do." she said to herself, thinking out loud, then she opened the door to her room, "I wish I could tell them more...but I need to protect them, not further endanger them...this is far more painful than it should be." she said quietly, walking into her room and closing the door behind her.

"Damien, you don't need to protect me so. I am capable of fighting my own battles." Azuril said, they'd just managed to get away from another odd creature, Annakhin allowed Zykan to blow it up, and again Damien, Skayr and Bobby had pushed Azuril to the back. "I am not a weak little child. I can protect myself."

"Yeah, but what about sometime when you can't then what? If you don't want bad things to happen, don't instigate them." Damien said, "you hated yourself before for what could happen in battle, and I don't want to see you hate yourself more. It just makes me mad with myself."

"Why?" Azuril looked confused now,

"because then I feel like I didn't do enough to help you. And I hate that feeling." he said with a grin, now she wasn't confused anymore, she looked around the group a bit, found Bobby and hurriedly thanked Damien and made a B-line towards Bobby.

"Hey. You two making cutesy face at each other again?" Bobby said, she was working on fixing up her boomerang a bit, she hadn't even bothered to look up when she heard someone stop walking once they were at her side, her smirk widened when she heard a familiar clicking noise, "relax, Ms. Anti-Casanova, I was kidding." she could hear her friend putting the gun back in its holster. "So, what is going on between you two anyway? There's some kind of friction. That and Miko's pissed to the max, there has to be something there. Right?"

click

"geez, you're touchy." there was the 'un-click' again, this time the gun was left out, "look, if it's not a relationship like what Miko's pissed about, and if you don't want her to hate you, then you should tell her you two are just friends."

click

"or not, Jesus, you are sensitive on matters of the heart, aren't you?"

no un-clicky "

"ok, I'll let it alone about you and Damien."

un-clicky

"so, why are Damien and Skayr being way overly protective? I know I am because I still feel like I owe you for saving me, twice."

"They have their reasons." Azuril said, "we aren't going any further into that topic." Bobby shrugged,

"whatever. Ok. You're really not a conversationalist, are you?" she said,

"words have no power to impress the mind compared to the exquisite horror of their reality" Azuril said Lisa told me that one "conversation is made completely of words. No, I do not enjoy conversing." Bobby was staring bug eyed,

"whoa..." she said, "that was really poetic."

"And rather disturbing." Zykan said, sitting on a branch in the tree Bobby and Azuril were next to, "you're kinda scary, ya know that?"

"Again, 'the exquisite horror of their reality'." Azuril repeated. Zykan blinked a bit,

"hey, you talk with Damien a lot, that's conversing, it's made up of words. How horrified is he?" Azuril didn't answer.

does it really look like what everyone else seems to see? Yes, I talk to, and stay closer to, Damien, but he's the one that spent the most time trying to get through to me, and now he's protecting me because of the exact reason I thought would scare him away. Ir's not love. It's friendship. Now that I'm treating Bobby more like I had with Jessi, will they start to think I'm in love with her too? I hope not.

"Azuril!" Miko called from the other side of their temporary rest-spot, "come here I wanna talk with you on something!"

"Uh-oh." Bobby said rolling her eyes.

"Here we go." Zykan said, "just don't shoot her and everything will be over nice and fast."

"Oh, and don't make too many sudden movements, they could set her off." Bobby joked, Zykan snickered at that, Azuril just walked away, though they knew she found the joke funny. Damien and Annakhin were watching Azuril walk over to Miko,

"oh dear, this won't be good at all." Annakhin said, biting her bottom lip in some nervousness, Damien shook his head,

"no, it won't. I'm going over there." Annakhin stopped him,

"give it a second, see what she does. Then split it up if needed." she said, he sighed, then relaxed,

"fine. Miko's rational. She should do fine without losing her temper, Azuril will probably just walk away if the argument takes any odd twists." he said, watching the two girls.

"I'm not saying that I hate you, I just don't like you being here. You just keep getting in the way and now you're getting all of us hurt or beat up twice as badly as we normally would have been. Damien actually paid attention to his surroundings and what he was doing before you popped up, now he's getting the shit beat out of him hourly by some weird creature or another. You could end up killing all of us in the end!" Miko ranted, Azuril waited for her to finish, then responded,

"I have told Damien several times not to worry so much about me in battle, he is doing this of his own accord. I do not want any protection that I can give myself. And, whose way am I in? Why are you so concerned with what Damien focuses on? Could it be that the blatantly obvious is true?" Miko was red in the face, whether from anger or embarrassment, Azuril didn't know.

"uh-oh." Zykan said, watching the two girls, Bobby nodded,

"we should get Azuril out of there." Skayr looked up at the near explosive look on Miko's face from where she was lying on the grass near Bobby,

"what is that girl doing still standing there? Does she have a death wish?" she said, the trio looked to their right when they heard Annakhin giving up on trying to keep Damien back,

"uh-oh again." Zykan said, watching wide eyed for the scene he knew was about to happen, Bobby and Skayr nodded their agreement.

"why are you angry with me? I've no true romantic interest in him, you have no competition. If my theory is correct that is." Azuril said blandly. Miko snapped.

"Miko, don't-!" Damien started, but he was cut off by a loud slapping noise, he stopped moving, so did everyone else, they watched Damien, Miko and Azuril, who was sitting on the ground, her human hand covering the mark that was slowly darkening on her cheek, her gaze was pointed toward the ground, eyes wide, either shocked or again remembering something from one thousand years ago. "Miko...!" Damien was defiantly in shock, Miko never spazzed like that, then she started yelling,

"stay out of it, Damien!" she looked at Azuril who was sitting on her feet now, still covering the bruise on her cheek, she was leaning forward a bit, as though she was unable to sit up all the way, her left arm propping her up, "You don't have any idea what you're talking about! I know what everyone thinks of me when it comes to him, and I also know what they're all saying about you and him! But, you've no right to act so non-challaunt about something you don't seem to know anything about! Do you know how much I've gone through while I've known him! I've kept going through things that would kill someone without determination, he was there too, suffering along with me! I'm not saying it's an infatuation, so don't make anymore assumptions! You called me foolish, using different, indirect words, and I'm bluntly calling you an emotionless, uncaring burden. There's no point in you staying here if you're so upset when you even look at us!" Azuril's eyes widened more, she'd gotten into several tough spots with Lizz, but nothing like this, and seeing someone with Lizz's face hit her sent her mind reeling. "And there's no point in you staying here if all you're going to do is cry about the fact that you can't ever see the people we look like anymore!" Azuril's eyes narrowed to angry slits, she was looking up at Miko out of the corner of her eye, the girl was poking at a nerve best left untouched. "watching you mope and listening to you whine about the overly dramatic fact that you 'couldn't save' your friends or family is just annoying!" another jab at the nerve.

"Miko, stop it!" Damien said, but Miko wasn't up for that.

"Why? What are you so worried about! What's she done for us, besides the hospital, which we probably could have gotten ourselves out of anyway! And why do you care so much? Is she suddenly the most important thing there is to you! What about the rest of us! What about getting rid of Angela! Are you gonna put that on hold too!"

"Miko, cut it out! This isn't helping anyone! Especially not her!" Damien pointed to Azuril, who'd gone rigid, "she's lost ten times as much as us! And I'd like to know why you hate her so much. What did she do to you!"

"She takes up all of everyone's time and attention! Look at her, Damien! We found her in a box in a basement, she even said herself that she didn't want to go with us. She keeps running off, we have to go find her. She doesn't care about us, we keep her anyway. She prays for amnesia, we have to sit and listen to her bitch and moan. She can't seem to function properly around us, not to mention she hates herself and whatever it is she thinks she is, and we have to try to keep her head above water. She can't let go of something that happened and something she'll never see again, one-thousand years ago, we have to survive her emotional and psychological tantrums. Damien, tell me what actually sounds remotely appealing or worth your life that you want her here! She can't see us for who we are, she probably only sees who we look like to her! It's not worth our time to drag her around-!"

"Shut up." came a new voice, Azuril's. Miko and Damien were staring at her now, she was still on the ground, in the same spot they'd left her, but now, something was different about her, Damien and Skayr caught it right away.

"Get as far back as you can!" Skayr cried, shoving Bobby away from the arguing trio, Zykan, apparently sensing something not very nice radiating from Azuril, dove off of his branch, snagged Annakhin, and bolted, Damien backed away from Azuril a bit, as did Miko,

"W-what's happening to her!" Miko cried,

"exactly what I've been trying to prevent from happening." Damien said, still backing up, "Azuril, calm down!"

"No. Miko, you've forced me into doing something I wish I couldn't. You haven't a clue the pain I feel. You have your guesses and assumptions, but you have no idea what I feel. And what I went through myself. I will also never hear you talk about my friends and family in any way again. Thank Damien after this. He'll save you—Ahh!" finally, there was a blinding flash of light and, once the light was gone, the same creature that Damien and Skayr had encountered in the woods stood there, teeth bared, eyes set on Miko.

"Azuril, don't! Stop!" Damien cried,

"Damien, get away from it! I don't think it wants to play nice!" Bobby yelled, Damien backed away a bit more, but wouldn't leave, not without Miko. Even if part of him said that this was the exact kind of wake-up call she needed, the rest of him was running around from behind the creature to stand in front of it,

"Azuril! Stop it! This is enough! I'm sorry for what she said! She didn't know any of the things you told me! Snap out of it!" he said, he could see Bobby winding up to throw her boomerang, "Bobby, don't! You might kill her!" he yelled,

"'Her'? How does he know what it is?" Bobby said,

"Well, I can assure you he didn't turn it over and look." Skayr said,

"you're disturbing." Zykan said, there was a loud howl from over by Damien and Miko, the noise made Skayr sigh with relief,

"the stand off is over." she said, walking back to curl up under the tree Bobby had been sitting under earlier. Several seconds later, the howl turned into a human scream, then silence. Short lived silence,

"Azuril!" Damien cried, grabbing her as she collapsed from exhaustion, "are you ok?" she looked up at him,

"I'm-I'm sorry they had to see it. I—"then she passed out. Damien huffed, carrying her back over to where Bobby, Skayr, Annakhin and Zykan were, Miko was stuck on spot, frozen from fear, finally, she took several deep breaths and walked cautiously back to the others.

"What the hell was that thing?" Zykan asked, not frightened, curious...it would be hypocritical in a way to be scared of another monster, after all. Damien took several deep breaths, he'd been convinced she was going to eat him.

"This is why I've been so oddly over-protective of her. If she gets too upset, angry, sad, anything that overcomes her senses completely, she loses control, she told me that it's almost impossible to rein her in if she turns into a monster. She also changes when she's beat on too much. That's why Skayr and I wouldn't let her do too much fighting, we saw her like you just did, but she was ripping something possibly three her size and more than thirty feet long to shreds. It was a nice and fast fight, she'd spread her enemy's guts all over the place in under a minute. Skayr and I were just lucky she somehow exhausted herself and had to turn back into a human." he said, still looking at Azuril, all of his thoughts focused on why she didn't attack him and Miko, why she got exhausted so fast, and just in case an incident happened like this again, what routine would they have to use in order to stay alive and not hurt her.

"Yes, we would have died as well had she not first killed our enemy then run out of energy." Skayr said.

"So that's what you promised you wouldn't tell us?" Annakhin said, Skayr and Damien nodded.

"I can imagine why she wouldn't want anyone to know. I've been there, a really dangerous secret that you really need to keep hidden." Zykan said, Bobby looked at Miko,

"the bruise is still there from where you hit her."she said, "if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to cleaning my weapons." then she walked back over to the tree Skayr was lying under, sat down by her earlier abandoned cleaning tools, and started working again. Skayr closed her eyes and fell asleep. Zykan jumped back up onto his branch and dozed off as well. Annakhin was taking Azuril's cape off and gently unraveling the bandana she wore,

"we'll make this at least a little comfortable for her until she wakes up." she said, Bobby looked over at them,

"and then the massacre will return." she said, "do you guys know how she'll react to all of us knowing she can do that? She'll probably shoot herself in the head." Damien took the gun, holster and all, away from her, "or claw herself to death. I'd love to see you take that from her."

"Point on that one." Damien said, everyone had started acting normally, except for Miko,

"You guys don't see anything wrong here? Not a thing at all?" she said in disbelief. No one dignified her. "Is this because of what I said to her? Is that why I'm being ignored? Well, fine I won't try tp make you let her go anymore. And I'm sorry I badmouthed her."

"It can't be tongue and cheek, Miko. If you really mean it, wait for her to wake up and tell her yourself." Damien said, he tilted his head to the side a bit, "why would she wear the cape? She would attract a lot less attention if she didn't. And the bandana, I don't know. She obviously can't tie it herself, but I can imagine why, though." he said, stealing a quick glance at her left arm. "She was right earlier, this isn't right. Not at all. Too many people suffer in Angela's wake. Too many people are left to be killed by their own pain. I think that's somewhat how Azuril might put it. I just wish she'd been born in our time. Then I might have been able to do something sooner."

"Don't guilt trip yourself over it. Remember, Skayr was altered too, though not quite like that..." Bobby said, "feeling sorry for yourself and going on a guilt trip won't do anything for that girl. Guilt won't make her human again, Damien. So, be stronger than that and keep going for her. Then you'll have done something huge for her." she said, going back to her boomerang.

When Azuril woke up there was an odd exchange of apologies, Azuril sorry for overreacting, Miko sorry for hurting her, both apologizing to Damien for somehow putting him in the middle of all of it. Once the apologies were sorted out the entire thing was to be dropped and never spoken of again.

"It's really the best for all of us that way, I think." Annakhin said, Azuril was still retying her bandana, the cape had been easier to get on, but this was hard, then she remembered it was supposed to look sloppy and left it alone half hazard..

"want some help with that?" Miko asked, though she was still rather frightened of the other girl, but she figured giving Azuril a chance was the least she could do after what had happened earlier. Azuril shook her head, pushing her bandana up above her eyes, it had slipped down when she shook her head, "you sure?" Miko couldn't help but smirk as she watched the same scene play out. Finally, Azuril got mad at the bandana and yanked at several different places, then growled angrily when it didn't work, then she nodded. Miko took the bandana out of her hair and paused for a second, "this thing's really long. You defiantly don't use it like a normal bandana. I assume, then, that means you were trying to make it look a little unwound, like it was when we first found you?" Azuril nodded, she have spoken since she'd apologized earlier, this somewhat concerned some of the group members, but they knew talking to her would do nothing but bring more silence. Miko paused again, running her fingers through Azuril's hair once, "you really take care of your hair, don't you? It's soft, even though it's un-tameable. I assume that's at least where the idea of the bandana came in." she said, a shrug was her only answer. She sighed, Damien had warned her, and the others, that if she feels she's done something horrifyingly wrong she won't talk, even to him. "Alright. Let's see how good I am at making a mess of something." she said, starting on the bandana.

"Damien," Bobby whispered, pointing behind them, "they're not on opposite sides of the group anymore."

"I'm glad we won over Miko. I hated having to argue with her about this." Damien said, then Miko walked ahead of Azuril a bit and started talking with Annakhin, "but, there's that nasty habit of Azuril's."

"What, you mean hiding in corners or the back of the group?" Bobby said, Damien nodded,

"we need to break her of that habit." he said, Bobby made a 'hold a sec' gesture with her hand, then looked behind her more,

"Azuril!" she called, said girl perked up automatically, "come on up here, we don't want to leave you behind." several seconds later, Azuril was tailing Bobby. Damien stared dumbly, then he looked at Bobby,

"how did you do that?" he asked, stunned that Azuril had done what was asked of her so quickly,

"'Family' secret." Bobby said,

"so, she listens to you now?" Damien said, Bobby nodded,

"not to make it sound like she's a pet, she certainly isn't. You know me and the whole 'human pets' thing. But, she sealed her own fate earlier by telling me a few little details that I can use every now and then."

"She'll participate if you tell or ask her to?" Bobby nodded, "she'll follow you everywhere, thus meaning we don't need to go running on a fox hunt all the time?" Bobby nodded, "can you get her to talk?" Bobby shrugged, "how about participate in all of the fights we might get into on our way around?" Bobby paused for a second, seemingly thinking on that one, then she nodded, "I love you." Bobby stared at him bug-eyed, "it was a joke." Bobby relaxed.

"Do you think this is a good idea, though, Damien?" she said, watching the ground.

"What?"

"Using the fact that she's on auto-pilot and still unconsciously thinks she following someone else to our advantage. Is it right to use her memories like that?" Damien was stuck on that one, he wanted Azuril to stay, but he didn't want it to be more like imprisonment. This was her choice, but Bobby had a point, her mind still hadn't forgotten that the people she sees around her aren't who they look like. Especially Bobby and Skayr. Those two impacted her the most, Bobby above all else. A relative that had been like a sister to her was leading her around, just like she used to when she was alive, Bobby was that person. "Part of her still hasn't forgotten them, it still thinks I'm her cousin and that everyone else are her friends from her time. Damien, we're using that part of her to make her stay with us. We can't do that. It isn't right."

"I know. But I need a little more time to think of a fair way for both her and us." Damien said, "I know and hate the fact that I have to use a familiar face that I know she'll follow everywhere to keep her here, but I need time to think of something else."

"Time is something we constantly worry about not having enough of. We might be killed when we walk past that tree up there, or we might live to see this through till the end. Even if we watch some of our friends die along the way. If it's time you need, Damien, then think fast." Bobby said,

"you sounded kinda like Azuril." Damien said,

"yeah, well, you sounded like her earlier, too." Bobby pointed out, Damien shrugged, then looked to the front again,

"she's poetic, and kinda philosophical at times." he said, Bobby grinned,

"yeah, but she also seems to like the whole enigmatic thing too." she said, Damien nodded,

"but, that's just how she is. After who knows how much time spent being a human lab rat, one thousand years of sleeping in suspended animation, then all of our little mishaps and near death misses, she has a right to act closed off, and to be closed off if she wants. We owe her that much."

"Yeah. Yeah, we do." Bobby said in agreement.

"I'm telling you, don't fall asleep right away, you'll see what I mean, got it?" Bobby whispered to Zykan and Miko, Skayr had given Damien and Annakhin the same message.

"What is this all about? What are you-" Damien was cut off when Skayr clamped a hand over his mouth,

"here she comes, not a sound out of the ordinary, understood?" Skayr said, Damien nodded, then Skayr took her hand away from his face and watched in some sadness as Damien started breathing deeply,

"damn! You almost suffocated me! Oh, man!" he snapped. Skayr hid her face behind her hands and groaned,

"pathetic." she said, then she lowered her hands, turning to walk away, "and we call you our leader..." Damien glared after her,

"I heard that!"

"Should I care? I don't."

"What was that about?" Azuril asked as she sat down on a large tree stump near the edge of the group, but not too far away.

"Skayr tried to kill me!"

"Damien's a wuss!" Skayr called of from the branch she was lounging on, Bobby, who had been drinking some water when those two answers were given, sprayed water at Zykan, bursting out laughing at the two comments made, then she stopped and looked at Zykan, who had his hair unbound so Annakhin could brush through it, and now he looked like a drown rat, that set her off laughing again and she fell over clutching her sides,

"oh, God! Zykan, you–you should see yourself! You—drown rat! Oh, fuck! My ribs! I can't breath!" she said through her hysterical laughing,

"Good, dammit!" Zykan snapped, allowing Annakhin to quickly brush through his hair, then she started drying it, "I feel like a goddam dog." he muttered, glaring around the campsite, daring any of them to make a joke. Skayr was no the ground trying to help Bobby breath properly while she calmed down. Miko was biting her bottom lip, obviously trying as hard as possible not to laugh at him, Damien was avoiding looking in that direction, for fear he'd burst out laughing and get himself killed. Azuril just started cleaning her gun. When Annakhin backed away from Zykan to put the towel down and grab the brush again, Zykan shook off like a dog, that did it, Miko hit the ground laughing, Bobby was, once again, laughing and Skayr was snickering and smirking, "Shut up!" he snapped, then he felt his hair frizz up a bit, "oh, hell! Who, out of all the deities ever created, hates me?" he whined, now Skayr was laughing, sitting on the ground, clutching her sides, Bobby was at that same point of hysterics she'd been in earlier, Miko was laughing about as much as Bobby, Damien was still turned away from the scene, he didn't want a scythe up his ass when he wasn't paying attention, Azuril was watching the little scene play itself out, raising an eyebrow in some amusement.

"You-you look----like a poodle!" Miko managed to say, that ticked him off,

"poodle! Oh, that is it, I have had enough of you three laughing, I'll-"

"Zykan, down." Annakhin said, he hit the dirt face first. Everyone stopped laughing and stared, then the girls laughed even more,

"hey, how'd you do that?" Damien asked Annakhin,

"I did some manipulating on the seal that he's bound by, but it needed a medium to work."

"Why?" Azuril asked, this reminds me of Inu Yasha. Cool.

"well, the seal's power in general is what keeps him in spell-hold, but, to add extra, specific tricks, you need something to connect him to the person giving the command. In this case, I'm using his charm around his neck. I drew the symbol on an ofuda and wrapped it around part of the bracelet, then the bracelet absorbed the symbol and I could use it as a connection to him." Annakhin explained,

"cool. Confusing. But cool." Damien said,

"maybe for you." Zykan growled, still laid out on the ground, propped up on his elbows, "you try eating dirt whenever she says 'down'."

too much like Inu Yasha! Is she doing this on purpose too? Azuril thought, nervous on that fact, "why 'down'?" she asked,

"because having a connection for a certain trick made is useless without a command to make the trick happen. I had to loosen the bracelet on my wrist so I could get the ofuda wrapped around it. He started running off the instant he felt the seal weaken slightly and I had to say something quick, and since he was up in a tree when I needed to say something to complete the process, I didn't really think on it and yelled at him to get 'down' from the tree he was in. When he went crashing into the ground a second after I said that, I knew I'd accidently completed it, I'm sorry, Zykan." she said, looking at Zykan, who was glaring at her with a face full of dirt, "I didn't mean to."

"Just put me back in the bracelet, I'll be safer there." he said,

"no. you're staying right here, or I'll say it again." Annakhin said sternly, Zykan's eyes widened,

"you wouldn't."

"Try me."

"Go, Annakhin!" Bobby said, grinning when Zykan stuck his tongue out at her.

"How long ago did you put this seal on him?" Skayr asked,

"too long ago." Zykan said, "she never should have put it on at all."

"I needed some way to get you to behave better. Just because I followed Damien's advice and allowed you to use more power doesn't mean you can act up like this. You could hurt someone." Annakhin said, she'd been getting more bold as of late and, though, apparently, she was letting Zykan loose more, she was keeping a tight hold on him, they were proud of her for that fact.

this whole thing is just getting too weird! First Lisa reminds me of Hiei, now Anna and Noah have turned into Kagome and Inu Yasha!–awk! I mean Skayr reminds me of Hiei, and Annakhin and Zykan remind me of Kagome and Inu Yasha! Geez! I need to get used to this whole thing and fast! If I can't figure it out now , what am I gonna do when Sephiroth pops up?

"Azuril?" she snapped out of her thoughts,

I gotta quit getting lost in my own head, it isn't safe anymore.

"Azuril," she looked around for a second, remembered where she was and looked in the direction her name had come from,

"Damien. What is it?" she said,

"we're gonna get to bed early, ok? I know you're always the first one up, and I don't like making people wait on my account." he said, they both looked back over towards the campfire when Zykan announced his return, and reminded them that where he went and what he did was none of their business.

"One of his odd little runs?" Azuril said,

"yup," Damien nodded. "He didn't give any lame-ass excuse this time, though. Just disappeared. Maybe she's letting him too loose."

"Did you even see him leave at all?" Bobby said, Skayr shook her head. They looked over at Azuril when she spoke up,

"Let her worry about him, she can control him, we cannot." Azuril said, "now, about getting to bed early."

"Oh, yeah. We're all gonna pass out over there ans I wanted you closer to the fire so you can at least keep warm." Damien said, Azuril stood up brushed some loose bark off of her and followed Damien back over to the fire side group. "Ok, all, here she is, let's sleep."

"Amen!" Zykan said, jumping up into a tree above Annakhin, Skayr perching herself in a tree as well, above Bobby. Everyone else just fell asleep where they sat. Azuril stayed awake and waited, watching the rest of the group, waiting for the slightest movement that would be out of place. None came. After about an hour, she unbuckled the cape, letting it fal to the ground, she normally didn't like being out in the open where people could see what had become of her, but no one was there to see her at the moment, so it was ok. She wasn't taking the bandana out, she'd end out spending half a day trying to get it back on, then she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin in them,

"I hope this doesn't appear too childish to anyone who might come by...a grown woman acting like a scared child...I'm still seventeen inside, I may physically be twenty seven, but, that's ten years worth of time gone in a heartbeat, and I didn't even get to stay conscious through it..." she watched the fire for a while, then spoke up again, "I wonder if Genevieve got to the life she wanted. And I wonder if Lizz enjoyed Florida. I wish I'd been there to see Anna's wedding. I hope Lisa got to live her own life, not her mother's. and I hope that Jessi made it to where she wanted to be. I wish I'd been there." suddenly, a small light went on in front of her, the tiny lights slowly multiplied, "fireflies?" she watched them flying around her, it reminded her of snow in a way, that an a shoujo manga or something of the sort... "what are you all doing here? It's far too late at night for you to be out." she said to a firefly that had landed on her left hand, "I don't suppose you even have a clue as to what you're standing on, do you?" the firefly glided away from her, several more replaced it. this looks like one of those scenes in an anime where something big and emotional pours out of the main character's mouth, either that or someone sings. Well, no point in keeping my public waiting, I've done my emotional spirt for tonight. "are you staying to complete the show? Or will you be gone in a second?" more fireflies appeared, floating around slowly, lighting up the small gap in the trees they'd stopped at while traveling through a forest, she found flowers opening all around them, flowers the same waxy and beautiful color the full moon was that night, some of its light shining through the trees down onto the flowers, making it look like they were glowing, more shoujo stuff, I'm gonna scream in a minute...and the Lunar Flowers from Wolf's Rain. Ok, this bitch is scaring me now. Well, apparently it won't stop until I do something shoujo-ish...I did the whole emotional thing, now what? Oh, yeah, normally, if it's not emotional blah, it's singing. Ok, I guess it's time for the fireflies to be glad that they have no ears...I can't believe I still remember this song. It's kinda pathetic if you think about it, but I mush make the shoujo go away! And to do that, I, unfortunately, must sing. (A/N: authoress really does have this song memorized. She also really does find it sad that she knows it so well. Authoress needs to get out more... (--) ;;) "well, if this is what you want...then I must give." she closed her eyes for a second, processing all of the words for the song, sometimes she got several parts mixed up with each other, even through a 1027 year life span, she was still a ditz at heart. Four Seasons...I can do this. Besides, who's gonna know whether or not it's wrong?

"Aishi aeba wakareyuku
Sonna deai kurikaeshita
Kioku fukaku tesaguri de
Amai kage wo motomete wa
"
slowly, one by one, everyone open one eye only the slightest bit, watching the fireflies dancing and swaying to a song they weren't supposed to hear.
"I can taste the sweetness of the past
Doko ni mo anata wa inai kedo
I'll be alright
Me wo tsubureba soko ni
Kawaranai ai wo
I believe
"
Bobby and Skayr fought back their smirks when they noticed, each looking at the scene out of one early crack eye, everyone else was doing the same thing, Azuril had moved back to the tree stump she'd been sitting on before, the fireflies following her like a veil of some kind, the moonlit flowers were still everywhere and moon beams still shown through the trees to light the scene more. It looked like something out of a story book in a way, an impossible, make believe fairy tale, because this was impossible.
"Haru no hikari atsumetara hana sakasete
Natsu wa tsuki ukabu umi de mitsumete
Aki no kaze fuyu no yuki mo
Sono toiki de atatamete hoshii
Four seasons with your love
Mou ichi dou
"
this time, the two girls did smirk, the normally melancholy girl they'd come to know and get used to looked now serene, holding her hand out and watching fireflies circle it, one landing on her fingertip, the flowers were sparkling a bit more and the moonbeams were shifting around, some shining down on the camp, making everyone close their eyes fully for a second, then they got up enough courage to open their eyes fully, watching Azuril be somehow amazed by the fireflies and the flowers.
"Negai dake no yakusoku wa
Toki ga tateba iroaseru
Can you feel me underneath the skin?
Anna ni kasaneta omoi nara
We'll be alright
Shinjite ireba sou
Donna tookute mo
Stay with me
"
the next time the moon's light shifted hit Damien square in the face, he could feel Bobby kick him the tiniest bit, reflexes, the moon had blinded her too, he saw some leaves fall from off to his left a bit, it got Skayr too. He didn't move, he knew she'd stop if she heard movement, then he'd never live it down. Azuril was partially turned away from them now, she had several flowers laying on her lap and was snow looking up, most likely trying to see the moon through the canopy of trees, the same moon that Damien found himself blinded by again. Why was everything suddenly acting so oddly, like a play that had already been rehearsed and finalized for them. Was it Azuril that was doing all of this? Planning it out and setting it up somehow? Doubtful. Bobby and Skayr had to tell them to stay awake ib order to see the show, and they'd done a pretty good job at keeping it secret. Still, it felt planned out somehow. Someone wanted this to be seen.
"Haru no hana nemuru yoru ni mukae ni kite
Natsu no sunahama ni message nokoshite
Aki no ame fuyu no namida
Kazaranu ai de atatamete hoshii
Four seasons with your love
Nagareru toki wo kokoro ni
Ari no mama ni
Futari no hibi wa mou sugu omoide
Ai mo yume mo wasure mono
Itsu no hi demo atatamete hoshii
Four seasons with your love
Mune no oku
"
who would be smart enough, quick enough and thorough enough to plan all of this? The perfect setting to get Azuril relaxed enough to do something she'd most likely shoot herself in the foot than do in front of people, the riming, the beautiful, fairy tale scenery, all of it. Who would bother with all of that? And why? When he noticed Azuril was standing up to come back by the fire, he shut his eyes,

she still has the flowers. That'll look suspicious in the morning though. What's she gonna do with them? then he gave in to real sleep.

"Damien, wake up, wake up!" Miko said excitedly,

"what? I'm up." he said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, then he was met with a handful of flowers,

"did you give me these? Because I know Zykan didn't."

"Damn straight."

"Down."

wham!

"$ &! $$ #& #$ $!"

"Huh? But, those are-" he was cut off when Miko hugged him,

"oh, thank you, you're so sweet!" she said, Damien looked around the campsite, finally finding what he was looking for, giving her a questioning look, he looked a little betrayed. Azuril closed her eyes and turned away, walking over to where Bobby sat, she sighed loudly,

"you put the flowers there, didn't you?" she said, looking up at Azuril, who didn't answer, "you shouldn't play with people like that, Azuril. It's not right."

"I do wish for a day when everyone practices what they preach." Azuril said, then she headed for the stump she'd been sitting on last night, "besides, he doesn't fully know it, but I do, and he deserves better than anything I will ever be able to give him. He only needed help seeing that. If I must, I will continue to attempt to prove that to him." she said, then she walked over to the tree stump and sat down quietly, watching Damien and Miko, even though I don't deserve him, I'm still disturbed at the fact that he looks like Genevieve, and has it bad for me, let's not forget that I'm starting to fall for him, I think...I'd better move faster with this. I need to get rid of the feelings before they do me in. Sorry, Damien, you might care for me that way, but you don't know me, I can't let you in. she thought, looking miserable,

"Those two should just get together and get it all over with already. I'm tired of soap operas around every corner." Zykan said, Annakhin gave him an irritated look,

"well, if that's the way you think it is, then you're right, we should do something, before the dramatic and sad ending happens." she said, Bobby and Skayr nodded.

"It looks like Azuril planned on getting him closer to Miko, you know, metaphorically speaking, she planted the flowers by Miko and left the rest to chance." Bobby said, Skayr folded her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side a bit,

"but, if she wanted Damien away from her, why not tell him herself, not use props and tricks." she said,

"Don't ask me to fathom the way she thinks. She's too unpredictable." Zykan said, swatting at a bug that wouldn't leave him alone, "anybody got a fly swatter?"

"She must not want to see him hurt right away, that's why she did it this way." Annakhin said, watching Miko and Damien, who looked totally lost. Then she looked at Azuril, who had schooled herself back into a non-caring appearance, though the fact that she felt guilty about what she'd done was evident because of her unwavering watching of the pair. "She already feels terrible about it, but, they were getting along so well before. What changed so quickly?"

"Maybe she doesn't want to feel that way about someone who looks like an old friend, a female friend at that." Zykan said, then he got fed up with the bug and started after it with his scythe, "hold still, ya little shit!"

"Should we stop him?" Bobby said, watching Zykan, Annakhin shook her head,

"let him work of the frustration." she said,

"your call." Bobby said, shrugging and turning her attention back to Miko and Damien, "I wonder how she's taking that scene in as...two old friends, as Zykan stated, female at that, acting that way."

"She probably despises it." Skayr said, "if I were in her position, seeing everything the same way she does, I wouldn't be able to take it. It would be too odd to me, especially because her brain is still attached to the past to a certain a bit of an extreme, she must be doing a lot of inner struggling at this point, it'd just be too much to take in at once." she turned her head to look at Azuril, who finally growled angrily and stood up, they figured to go and drag poor Damien away from Miko, but, instead of doing that, she stormed of into the forest. Everyone was staring at the spot she had once been in,

"what's with her?" Miko said, confused, she and Damien became even more confused when the rest of the group suddenly became very nervous.

"She heard us, didn't she?" Zykan said,

"if she had, she'd have shot us by now." Skayr said, looking around, "I only hope she isn't angry enough to turn into that monster."

"She called it the 'Galian Beast'." Damien said absently, prying himself away from Miko so he could stand properly, "let's go."

"Another fox hunt..." Skayr whined, Zykan gave a similar response but Annakhin was quick to tell him that he was helping whether he liked it or not. Once he'd climbed out of the crater that had formed while was being convinced to aid in the search, he let Annakhin up onto his back and carried her like that,

"this never leaves the group." he muttered, slightly pissy at the fact that he had to jump from tree to tree while carrying his scythe and a passenger.

"Hey, what happens at camp, stays at camp." Bobby called up to him from where she, Damien and Miko were forced to stay, Skayr was ahead of the group a bit, also hopping from tree to tree, acting as a moving look-out.

"I think I hear something, stop." Skayr suddenly called back at the group, who did as told, Bobby's hand already holding the strap on her boomerang.

"What is it, Skayr?" Miko called, Skayr waved back, motioning for her to keep quiet a moment longer. Then she relaxed,

"it's gone." she said,

"what did it sound like?" Damien looked up at her as he spoke, she looked down at them,

"I'm not sure. It wasn't someone walking through here on foot, or any type of wild animal I've ever heard."

"Do you think it's Azuril and she headed off away from us because she knew she was about to pop and didn't want to hurt us?" Bobby said relaxing as well, Skayr shrugged,

"maybe. I can't be sure until I hear it better. It went that way," she pointed of to the right, "let's go." then she was off again, headed after the noise like she was magnetized to it.

"Well, let's try to catch up to her." Damien said, running after Skayr, everyone else following his example,

"I hope we 'catch the fox' soon, or I'm going to find my way back to camp." Miko snapped, annoyed.

"Well, a fox won't come out of its den, or hiding spot, until it's sure danger's passed it up. Even then, it'll wait a bit, just to be safe." Bobby said, she'd done some hunting before she joined the group, she knew a bit about almost every animal they'd come up against, though she'd never actually tried or wanted to hunt foxes, they were cool little creatures to know about, though.

"That's a nice tid-bit of information, Bobby. But Azuril's not a real fox. She just manages to hide and get around when she's running from something she doesn't want to catch up to her exactly like a fox might, quietly, cleverly and impossible to catch. Even if she's anything but camouflaged." Damien said, Miko gave him a look,

"sounds like you read a lot into her personality and abilities, Damien." she said, Damien slowed a bit so Bobby was ahead of him, and Miko was ahead of Bobby, as opposed to back by him, thin ice was being tread on if that area of conversation, he wasn't going there.

"Hey!" Zykan suddenly yelled, Skayr jumping back to them when she heard him yell, "she abandoned the cape." he said, pointing to said item, which Annakhin was holding, "why would she do that?"

"Hell, I don't know. Once we catch the fox, we'll worry about its tricks." Bobby said.

"Maybe she found it easier to move without it and discarded it, to come back for it later." Skayr suggested.

"Again, we're asking the fox, not each other." Bobby said, then she started to focus on where she was going instead of talking while not running into things. "Anything up ahead at all?" she called up to Skayr, who shook her head,

"aside from more trees, no."

"that's what I was afraid you'd say." Bobby said flatly,

"we should go back." Miko said, "she'll probably be there when we get back to camp. She can take care of herself. She had her gun with her."

"She's defiantly safe if she had that damn thing!" Zykan cried, "she could hit a thimble from who knows how far back. Then there's her transformations."

"Damien, Zykan has a point." Annakhin said, "she can take care of herself. She's been telling you that for a while." they all stopped running, hard to hold a conversation if you were running.

"I know, but I just want to be sure." Damien said,

"So, we run all over the place in this goddam forest until finally we get back to camp and there she is sitting there waiting for us?" Zykan said, Miko shrugged, looking at Damien,

"they have a point. I know I'm just making it sound like I don't want to find her, but I agree with those two, we can't keep running around like this. Eventually we'll be out of energy and stuck in the middle of a forest. We should go back."

"I cut a symbol into each tree I landed on, we can follow those back to camp." Skayr said, "let's go, Damien. She is fine. I know it." Damien finally gave up and nodded his consent,

"let's go." he said, still looking from side to side as he walked, I don't care what you say, I'm still going to at least try to look out for you. he thought, wondering why she kept running from them.

"See? What'd we tell ya. There she is. Out cold, but there she is." Zykan said as they returned to camp to find their 'fox' curled up in an unconscious attempt to get warmer, lying on the ground next to the fire. "Looks like she ran outta steam."

"You're weird." Miko said, giving Zykan an odd look, he glared,

"you're one to talk!" he let Annakhin down and was then allowed to argue furiously with Miko.

"That boy has a lot of pent up aggression." Bobby said, watching the argument with an odd look on her face. Skayr jumped out of the tree she'd been in and landed next to Bobby, then she looked at Annakhin,

"You're not going to silence him?" she said, slightly surprised when she shook her head,

"we'll let him work it off a bit. In about half an hour we'll see how he's doing." she said, Bobby and Skayr just shrugged, then the three of them walked away, over to where Damien was, he was dropping more wood onto the fire.

"Isn't it big enough?" Bobby said, "it comes up to my hips."

"And the pyro's complaining about fire. Then, hell froze over." Damien said absently, Bobby decided against kicking him while he was so close to a semi-large fire.

"Ok, you have a point, give me that log."she said, snatching it from him and sitting down next to the fire, poking at the rest of the wood that was already burning, slowly making the fire grow taller, grinning the entire time. Skayr sighed, shaking her head in exasperation, then she dragged the water they'd brought over by the fire for when it was as tall as she was, Bobby had nasty habits of making fires bigger quicker.

"You sadden me greatly." Damien said, Bobby poked at him with a burning stick, making him back up fast,

"shut up! Or I'll light your ass on fire and laugh at you while you run around like a chicken with its head cut off!" she said, Skayr rolled her eyes,

"god help us." she muttered, Zykan walked over, obviously bored with the argument, he normally walked away from whatever bored him,

"Ladies and gentleman, this is Bobby, she likes to burn things." he said fake enthusiastic,

"I'll burn your ass too, shit head." she threatened,

"Oo, I'm scared!" he said mockingly, then he pointed at the stick Bobby still held, laughing when the flame went out and Bobby spazzed,

"you little ass!" she snapped,

"I can be worse." he said, "I won't even charge you for it."

"Why you-" she stopped when Zykan vanished from in front of her, "what the hell?" she was then hit with an acorn, she looked up and found Zykan lounging on a tree branch above her head, "you little shit!"

"I love you too." he said lazily, Bobby stood under him screaming swear words, red in the face from her anger, suddenly, she found herself calmed sown at the sound of one word,

"down." Annakhin said, ignoring the loud 'thud' of Zykan hitting the ground, then the hysterical laughter from Bobby.

"Is it sad that that's becoming normal?" Miko said,

"No," Damien said, poking the fire with the stick Bobby had abandoned, "it only becomes sad if we start begging her to let us try it somehow."

"Then I was made a fool about a second after it happened the first time." Skayr said, Miko and Damien gave her odd looks, then their gaze switched to Azuril, Damien had covered her up in her cape, when she made a small noise, "is she waking up?"

"Lisa...?" Azuril said in a small and unsure voice, like a small child.

"What?" Skayr said, exchanging a confused look with Miko, who shrugged and shook her head a bit,

"your guess is as good as mine." she said, then she jumped when Azuril gave a small whine, Bobby and Zykan walked over to the group, Annakhin looked up at them,

"she heard Skayr talk and then she said a name." she said, motioning towards Azuril, who folded in on herself tighter,

"is she ok?" Bobby asked, walking over to kneel next to Azuril, "hey, wake up. It's a dream. Azuril, wake up." but the only response was an even louder whine, "wake up!" she said, louder, hoping to wake Azuril quick,

"Jessi?...I'm sorry...don't be mad..." Azuril said desperately, still sounding small and child-like.

"Wha-" Bobby started, but Damien cut her off, kneeling down next to her,

"she keeps mentioning nightmares. This must be one of them. She sees what she hears. You and Skayr, her cousin and best friend." he said quietly, hoping to avoid Azuril hearing his voice,

"Ok, I get it. But, what about you? You look and sound like a boy, but she sees a female friend in you. What are you gonna do when all she seems to think of you as is a girl?" Bobby said, Damien hesitated, then answered, slightly shaking, but firm,

"then I'll let her see her friend. She hasn't in a very long time. Even if that means I have to live with being someone else." he said, Skayr had a mildly surprised look on her face, Zykan looked nauseous, Annakhin was smiling, Bobby was grinning and Miko was staring dumbly,

"what!" she cried, Azuril cringed and curled up further, whimpering a bit, Damien gave Miko a glare that told her to cool it for now, Bobby had gone straight to trying to sound like she was Azuril's cousin as she tried to get her to wake up, "Damien, you can't just fake it for just one person's loyalty, you should be you and if she doesn't like it then forget it."

"Miko, once we get her truly used to this time period, I'll work on separating the past from the present. Until then I need to get her loosened up a bit. Figuratively and literally." he said as he tried to coax Azuril out of the curled up position she'd put herself in, "damn, even in her sleep she stronger than I thought she'd be." he muttered, she wouldn't budge. "Bobby, can't you do anything more?"

"Hey, you try acting like a dead girl!" Bobby snapped, then she went back to trying to wake Azuril, ignoring the odd look Damien was giving her.

"O...kyay..." he said, still giving Bobby a slightly disturbed look,

"Damien, just give it up, man. Let her sleep. She'll wake up Eventually." Zykan said, pulling at the charm on his choker.

"She's having a nightmare that we can't wake her from, doesn't that sound bad to anyone else here?" Damien said,

"she's an unusual person, Damien, she might just end out ok." Annakhin said, "all we have to do is be there for her when she wakes up."

"Yeah, and she fell asleep by herself, knowing the nightmares would come, let her sleep. She can wake up whenever she wants." Miko said. Skayr stayed silent, Damien glared at them for a second then looked over at Bobby, who shook her head,

"I got nuthin. Sorry. They might win this one, she might have to fine the exit by herself." she said, they looked at Azuril when she whimpered again,

"or, she might not." Damien said, then he shook her by the shoulders, "Azuril, wake up! It's a nightmare, it's not real!" he said as he stopped shaking her, she seemed to relax a bit,

"Damien?" she said in the same afraid and childish voice she'd been using, he nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see it,

"yeah. It's me. Azuril, wake up. Whatever it is you see, it's a dream. It's not real. Open your eyes." he said, giving her another shake.

"You're still there..." she said in her normal voice, then she collapsed forward and everyone, including Damien, watched her grab hold if Damien's shirt and start crying while leaning against him. "You're still here. You aren't-you're here." she said, once he recovered, he pulled her into a more comfortable position and wrapped his arms around her, holding her to him,

"yeah, I'm here. It's ok. I'm still here." he said quietly, avoiding looking at the rest of his friends, he didn't want to deal with shock or taunts yet, he Especially avoided Miko.

"What the hell was that about!" Miko screeched at Damien, who cringed,

"hold it down, will ya? I like being able to hear things." he said, Miko just glared, she was seething mad,

"does it look like I care at all! What was that about, Damien! You went from faking your identity to somehow worming your way into her dream from earlier! What's the big idea! First, you ignore me, then you give me flowers, then you go totally overboard with mixed signals!"

"I'm sorry if you thought it was me sending mixed signals, but I wasn't sending any signals! I didn't give you the flowers! Azuril must have put them there because she knew how you would react! She was trying to distance me from her!"

"So, she used me!"

"I guess so!"

"And you just let her do it!"

"I would have gotten to her earlier but you were hanging on me, then she ran off!"

"Why didn't you stay then, after she left!"

"I didn't want to possibly leave her behind."

"Damien, we've known each other for how long? And you can't ever hide something from me, I can read you too well. And right from the start, I partially wanted to close that coffin lid. You were falling for her from the beginning, even after she said she saw a female friend in you! Even though she still thinks of you partly as being that girl!"

"But, she used her cousin's name when she talked to me." Bobby interrupted, Skayr nodded,

"and she used her best friend's name when referring to me." she said,

"come to think of it, man, she only said your real name, not her friend's. whether it's because she heard a boy's voice and recognized it that way, or because she knows who you are fully now, I am not sure." Zykan said, he was looking at Azuril, who had stopped crying and was now simply asleep in Damien's lap, still clinging to his shirt.

"The least you could do is get her off of you." Miko snapped, glaring at Azuril,

"she won't budge. Bobby and I tried earlier remember?"

"Yeah, we would have to undress him half way to get her off of him. And he wasn't up for that." Bobby said, Damien turned red and glared at her, "what? I tell it like I see it."

"Shut up." he snapped, still red in the face,

"what? No show, Damien? I'm disappointed." Skayr joked, Damien turned an even darker shade of red,

"shut up! Shut up, shut up!" he snapped, glaring from Skayr to Bobby and back again. Miko turned slightly pink,

"fine! Keep her then! What about when she wakes up? Then what?" she said, still angry,

"I'll deal with it when it comes." Damien said, shrugging. Annakhin walked over to them, holding Azuril's cape,

"here, cover her at least a bit with this. She'll just want it back when she wakes up anyway." she said, handing the cape to Damien, who followed Annakhin's instructions.

"Great! Now you're babying her. Very mature, Damien." Miko snapped,

"go have your jealousy trip somewhere else, Miko. She'll be herself again when she wakes up and we can go on like this never happened. Until then, let's at least give her a chance to sleep without nightmares haunting her around every turn." Damien said, they had a glare down for a second, then Miko stormed off in a huff,

"this won't end well." Bobby said,

"my money's on Miko gets shot." Zykan said, Skayr looked at him,

"My money's on she gets eaten by the Galian Beast." she said, Bobby's turn,

"mine's on Damien gets fed up with her and turns her into shish-kebab."

"You do realize you're all betting against her, don't you?" Annakhin said,

"safest bet." the trio said in unison,

"we, uh...ok..." the subject was dropped, for a second, then Annakhin looked at the trio, holding up her money, "my money's on Damien boots her from the group for being annoying." Skayr, Zykan and Bobby all stared at her, then each other, then at her again,

"we're in." they said in unison

"in on what?" Damien asked as he walked over to them, carrying Azuril, who still refused to let him go.

"Nothing." all four of them said at the same time. Damien gave them an odd look,

"don't do that again." he said, "it's creepy."

"So, what's the buzz with you and Miko and Azuril?" Bobby said, Damien twitched,

"she thinks I'm doing this to get her away from me." he said,

"by 'she' you mean Miko, don't you?" Bobby said, he nodded, "when actually what it's all about is painfully obvious." she said, he blanched, "thought so. Well, if that's the case, then we'd better detach her from the past, and fast, she still, in some tiny corner of her mind, thinks you're her friend from one thousand years ago."

"I know. This might not be as hard if her friend wasn't a girl." Damien said,

"tough shit, man. You're gonna have to deal with it and figure out a way around it, or a way to close it off. Then she'll see you as you completely." Zykan said, leaning on his scythe.

"Please don't mess with that thing while you are so close to my head." Bobby said,

"shut up.

"Down."

"Ack!"

thud

"ok, now that we've gotten that out of the way..." Damien said, watching Zykan stand up and brush the dirt off of himself, "what to we do with Miko?"

"Shoot her."

"Properly season her."

"Get the fire going nice and high and then find a spit."

"Give her some change of address forms."

"Um...I think I'll think of my own way of dealing with her."

"Til then, what're ya gonna do with Sleeping Beauty there?" Zykan said, pointing to Azuril, leaning on his scythe again, this time not near Bobby. Damien looked down at Azuril,

"good question. I think I'll just hope she wakes up soon. I can't carry her around forever."

"I will keep my comments to myself." Skayr said with a smirk,

"shut up." Damien said, he was red again.

"Ah, let him alone, he'll bust a vein or something." Bobby said, "but, seriously. What should we do? Miko's at an uncontrollable high, Azuril seems to be faking she doesn't care all too well if this was built up inside her. And if her first few transformations were based on an OD in adrenalin, we need to figure something out before we all owe Zykan or Skayr money,"

"what do you mean by that?" Damien asked, giving them a suspicious look,

"we made bets on Miko's future in our group." Annakhin said, "I bet that you would boot her, Bobby bet that you would shish-kebab her, Skayr bet that she'd be eaten by the Galian Beast, and Zykan bet that she would get shot."

"Oh. That's not too disconcerting or anything." Damien said, then he heard a small murmur from close by, looked around a bit, then looked down at Azuril, who was finally coming to. "Are you alright?" he asked carefully. She looked around a bit, finally processed her surrounding, had a momentary spaz attack and ended out knocking Damien over and falling on top of him in a quick attempt to stand up. He went rigid, "um..."

"Oh, no!" Annakhin said, biting her lip so she wouldn't laugh. Zykan had to turn away to avoid laughing, Bobby buried her face in her lap and covered her head with her arms to muffle her snickering, Skayr was turned away as well, trying to stifle her own laughter

"good...morning?" he said in a tiny voice. She still looked stunned, not fully awake yet.

"Damien?"

"Yup."

"What are you..." then she paused, looked around, and woke up all the way very quick, "I-I--" she stammered as she attempted to get up without hurting Damien, she fell back down on him from a sudden shock when something that no one wanted to hear made itself known.

"Damien! What are you doing!" Miko screamed, staring wide-eyed, everyone could practically see the anger rising around her, "what is your problem!"

"This is so not what it looks like." Damien said hastily, "shewokeupandbuggedoutandwebothkindaendedouttrippingovereachotherandnowI'mstuckunderherand-"

"breath, Damien!" Zykan said, "you're making me suffocate just by listening to you!" Damien took several deep breaths,

"ok, we'll try this again, this is not what it looks like, we both ended out tripping over each other when she woke up and had a short freak out. You just came in at the end of it, the part where we both get up-shut up, Zykan-"

"what'd I do?"

"It's what you were going to say. This is the part where we both get up and run to opposite sides of the camp and babble apologies at each other until we both give up on it and sit in silence."

"Then get laughed at." Bobby added,

"if you want, sure." Damien said, getting more and more nervous, "ok, we're getting away from each other now."

"Don't you mean you're 'getting up', Damien?" Zykan said, grinning Cheshire Cat style, Damien glared at him,

"I'll kill you for that." he said,

"Damien-" Azuril started, but stopped right away, eyes growing wide, cheeks turning some-what pink

"shit." she was on the opposite side of the campsite before he'd finished that one word, knees pulled up tightly to her chest, arms wrapped around them to keep them up, eyes wide as she watched the scene play out from the opposite end of the camp. "Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit!" he sat up, ripping at his hair, Zykan fell over laughing,

"oh, man, I'm good! Hah! I knew it!" several seconds later Skayr and Bobby were on the ground laughing as well, Annakhin had her hands over her mouth, either in shock, or trying to hide her laughter, no one knew. Miko looked horrified, Damien continued ripping at his hair and swearing, Azuril was sitting perfectly still, on the edge of the campsite, watching the rest of the group,

w-w-what the hell was that about! I've got to finish this game fast now! And I mean fast!–before either Miko kills me, or I try shooting myself because of all the chaos I'm causing. We're doing this fast. I'm a masochist, not a martyr! she crawled back over by the rest of the group, Annakhin and Skayr noticed her first,

"are you alright?" Annakhin asked, she nodded,

"are you sure you want to go back over there?" Skayr said, pointing behind her towards where Zykan and Bobby were still trying to calm themselves and Miko was now screaming nonstop at Damien, who was still red in the face, and covering his ears.

"Yes. I owe him." she said, staying down low, crawling over to where Damien sat, she was about to speak when a comment Miko made stabbed a vein she didn't know she had,

"you're turning into some kind of freak, Damien! You two are starting to belong together you'll be just as weird as her soon-!" a bullet shot past her head, missing by only a centimeter,

"the next time I pull this trigger, I won't miss." Azuril hissed, she was up on one knee now, in front of Damien, blocking Miko from him, "you yell at him for being an unfair and ignorant friend and person in general, but then you never bother to listen to or take into consideration his side of the story. Your jealousy is clouding your judgment even further now. You may end out hurting more than his pride one of these times. Think before you start to over react. You will most likely lose something irreplaceable if you don't. Let him have his own interests, feeling and life. If you care for him at all, you will be satisfied and complete when you know he is happy. even then, you won't lose him completely, he will still be there to call you his friend." then she stood up and grabbed Miko by the throat, "and don't you ever compare him to me, he is far better than that. And I don't deserve the recognition. I am the freak and the monster, not him. As far as I have seen and heard from him, he could never be a monster. Not him, maybe all of you at times, and myself all the time, but not him. Understand?" she said angrily, Miko gave a small nod, then fell over when Azuril dropped her hold on her. She stayed there, sitting on the ground coughing a bit, watching Azuril walk back to the other side of the camp site, putting her gun away and taking her seat from earlier, bowing her head slightly and closing her eyes.

"Please, dear God, don't let her fall asleep again." Bobby moaned

"poke her with a stick, see if she moves." Zykan said, Bobby gave him a flat look,

"if she does move, it'll probably be solely to grab her gun and pump you full of lead." Zykan whimpered and hid behind Annakhin. Damien watched Miko pull herself together for a second, then turned to look at Azuril, she didn't move, or acknowledge him, she just kept her eyes closed and sat there quietly.

'I am the freak and the monster, not him...he could never be a monster...' Azuril, what did that mean? You're a monster? Only in your own mind. Why would you do that for me? he thought, watching her for a while more.

what the hell did I do that for? I don't want him to be attached to me in the way he is. Standing up for him like that and saying all of those things, it just complicates matters more and more...but still...I couldn't let her do that to him. He's not to blame for any of this, it's not his fault, nature fucked him over there. I shouldn't have run as fast as I did too. This relates, remotely, to that accident at school a while back-at the time a while back...I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have made them cry. I shouldn't have even spoken to them afterwards. Yeah, that would mean more pain in places I can't help anyways, but I would have felt better...if I hadn't made them cry.

"Azuril?"

"What?" she said softly, not opening her eyes or looking up, she could hear him sit down in front of her, but she didn't want to see him, she didn't want to possibly see more tears.

"Open your eyes, please. Look at me." she shook her head,

" I can't do that." she said, readying herself to fight her own sadness as the possibility of scaring him away, or hurting him, weighed heavily on her, she wouldn't look at him, she'd just see tears. "It's the same thing as when I broke down."

"What?"

"I hurt them. They'd done me a favor and I assume something different before I even bothered to look deeper into it. I broke down, yelling, screaming at them, and when I finally walked away...all I could think of was what a monster I'd become that day...of how terrible I'd been, this spread, gossip and whispers, and I heard from the rumors about me that they'd cried." she stopped, bowing her head more, hoping her face was hidden, tears were escaping, and she couldn't stop them, "...they'd cried, and I caused it. I couldn't stop hating myself...I still do, and always will, for that one incident alone. I'd die to go back in time and fix it. I'd do anything, sacrifice everything, just to listen to them, and see them smile, not cry." there was no response for a second, then she felt a hand on her cheek,

" what about your tears?" Damien asked, gently gripping her chin and lifting her gaze, her eyes were open and she was staring in confusion, he let his other hand wipe the tears away from her eyes, more replaced them, "did you cry too?"

"Yes. I hadn't cried in so many years, but I cried for them, I didn't think I remembered how, and part of my mind kept wondering if I was doing it right. But if there is one thing that can and will get me to shed my tears it is them." her eyes widened in surprise for a second when Damien pulled her to him, like a doll, a rag-doll... she thought, closing her eyes, they snapped open again when Damien spoke next,

"you cried during your nightmare, when you said my name. Were you crying because of me?" she sat in silence for a second, she could feel his heart beating fast, she could also early hear him taking several shaky breaths,

he's crying... she pulled away from him and then gently pushed him down so his head was resting on her lap, he looked confused, but closed his eyes and smiled when she rested her human hand on his cheek, "Yes, Damien. I was crying for you. Crying because in my nightmares, you were taken away from me...some place I couldn't follow, and I didn't want to be alone. I was crying for you." he shifted and moved a bit and wrapped one arm partially around her waist, pulling himself closer to her,

"thanks." he said tiredly, "I didn't want to think I was the bad guy in all of that pain. Go ahead, cry for them. I'll take care of crying for you." he said, she ran her fingers through his hair several times before just resting her hand there,

"I'd never even contemplate thinking of contemplating something remotely close to this with the girl you resemble, but I would cry for her, and die for her, and everything in-between, if it meant I could see my friend smile, Damien, there is your similarity to her, I would sacrifice everything for both of you." Damien grinned,

"nice to know I'm loved. Even when I was a girl."

"Anyone else who heard that would be terribly disturbed."

"Yeah, well, their loss."

"Damien, you are something different in every way."

"He drowns in his dreams

An exquisite extreme I know

He's as damned as he seems

and More Heaven than a heart could hold

And if I try to save him

My whole world could cave in

it Just ain't right

It just ain't right

Oh and I don't know

I don't know what he's after

But he's so beautiful

He's such a beautiful disaster

And if I could hold on

Through the tears and the laughter

Would it be beautiful

Or just a beautiful disaster

he's magic and myth

As strong as what I believe

A tragedy with

More damage than a soul should see

But do I try to change him?

So hard not to blame him

Hold me tight

baby Hold me tight

Oh and I don't know

don't know what he's after

But he's so beautiful

Such a beautiful disaster

And if I could hold on

Through the tears and the laughter

Would it be beautiful?

Or just a beautiful disaster?

I'm longing for love and the logical

But he's only happy hysterical

I'm searching for some kind of miracle

Waiting so long

I've waited So long

He's soft to the touch

But frayed at the ends he breaks

He's never enough

And still he's more than I can take

Oh 'cause I don't know

Don't know what he's after

But he's so beautiful

Such a beautiful disaster

And if I could hold on

Through the tears and the laughter

Would it be beautiful

Or just a beautiful disaster

He's beautiful

Such a beautiful disaster

Beautiful, beautiful disaster

Beautiful Disaster "

---

Kelly Clarkson; Beautiful Disaster; Break Away