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Post by wanderer on Nov 2, 2009 14:14:18 GMT -8
He was back at a school that he didn't think he'd see again. The afternoon sun was dipping down to touch the horizon, bathing the land in a reddish glow. Eric looked down from where he sat, the edge of the school's roof, and looked into the empty courtyard below. Why he was here... He didn't want to think about that. The plans that were for the children that would fill the courtyard below were... Well... Shaking his head, ice blue eyes looked back to the empty yard without really seeing. He had thought himself free, but there was no freedom to be had. Perdition was still alive and so was Roland. Apparently the explosion that he thought had given him his freedom had been a clever ruse. Not against him though, he hadn't even suppose to have survived the explosion. Another sacrifice to make it all the more convincing. Then again, he normally survived what he shouldn't. Maybe that is why when the truth was revealed to him finally that he was allowed to rejoin the ranks and be hunted no more.
His fingers played ideally along the body of a simple wooden flute that he had brought with him. An item that hadn't spoken to him in some time. Not in those days before he had escaped the Dogs of War, not in the days he had been hunted, but today of all days his fingers seemed to find the right spots. Raising the instrument to his lips, his breath brought the flute to life. A slow, melancholy melody carried over the empty yard and through the buildings. There was no musical score that he followed to play that song, but what left the flute was music none the less.
He wasn't sure what had allowed him to hear the song of his instrument again. Perhaps it was what Roland had told him, or perhaps it was something he had realized after running for so long. Dark days were past, darker days lay in the future, but this moment was his to make.
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Post by Gabriel Seran on Nov 2, 2009 14:20:41 GMT -8
Dark Days indeed, the path towards redemption was cluttered with them. And alone warriors treked the path of the essentially lost. Gabriel Seran had died walking that path alone. Where he fell Sky picked up essentially becoming the new lifesource from which he surrendered. He strode into school this morning appearing rather content with the simplicity of it all.
All to be wasted and forgotten again much like a silly dream, he walked along his own path lead by a single flute. The pied piper you could say that would lead him astray.
"Pleasant." A small gruf remark noting the feature's of this man.
He'd never gotten his name, but the face he remembered. It was the fellow whom helped him save Bastille from sheer danger. Death even. The man who walked as if a ghost. He wondered now what had changed over the past year. Something new to behold.
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Post by wanderer on Nov 2, 2009 14:34:04 GMT -8
The melody finished and Eric lowered the flute. "A silenced soul speaking at last for those already lost and those about too die." Eric said in response to the comment from the yet unknown stranger. He looked over his shoulder, seeing a familiar face with an unfamiliar aura. "You've gotten stronger it seems." Even without the seeing him in action or even facing off in a fight against him Eric could tell that. He wouldn't have believed that so much improvement could happen in such a short time.
"I would like to say I have done the same, but my focus has had to be on different matters." Stagnant, his strength had grown stagnant. Normal people were not a challenge, but that is what his job entailed him going against usually. He could only imagine what sort of monsters that this familiar face has had to fight to get to where he was.
"So what brings you to the burning of the world?" Eric asked as he looked to the blazing sun set.
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Post by Gabriel Seran on Nov 2, 2009 14:48:07 GMT -8
A small flinch as he recognized him. No one had recognized him... Was this some sort of ability he harbored? Initial suspicion built within him thinking to prod for such an answer though he was decided to be against such matters. Rather he would remain who he always had been. Sky Dalten.
Burning of the world?
Did he mean the sunset by that or something slightly more ominous? Sky was left in a short moment of thought however would appear not to do as such. His mind racing while his feet elongated out several steps meeting at the musician's side.
"I would enjoy the view... though I'm more of one to watch the beginning..." He smiled faitly at his duel perception.
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Post by wanderer on Nov 2, 2009 15:10:58 GMT -8
"The beginning always does seem to be the best moment, but I've found that the end to be the moment I yearn for the most. In the end, when all is done, maybe then we will find our rest." Eric looked over at his current companion. His face was different, however there was something that was the same. "You can change your face, but you need to work on your mannerisms. The way one walks, the way one holds themselves, they speak of ghosts of the past. I have had many people that I have known change their faces, even had their personalities twisted by drugs, insanity, and the darkness of the world. If the change in your face means you want to leave the past behind, then you must take care of that as well."
Eric raised his flute to his lips again and a different melody flowed across the school. This one held a tension to it, like the suspense of a knife pressed to one's throat. The sun was starting to sink below the horizon and the shadows of items in the courtyard lengthened and clashed. A battle of darkness against darkness was beginning, playing out before the ones sitting on the edge of the roof.
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Post by Gabriel Seran on Nov 2, 2009 15:22:29 GMT -8
Sky scoffed at the boy's interpretation. So he did know, it changed nothing aside from a slight twinge of fear, already he'd left too many open holes in the framework. The end indeed would come, but by his hands. Gabriel Seran would be needed once again to control how the end came about however. Asiv gave him the power, and Areon gave him the tools all he needed now where his soldiers.
"Why do you long for the end?"
He would say simply before taking a seat staring off into the distance, potential there was essentially but for a future to exist beyone the end, precautions had to be taken. There had to be a grand dawn on the other end.
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Post by wanderer on Nov 2, 2009 15:43:53 GMT -8
His song ended as the sun disappeared to a sliver on the horizon. "Because the promise of the end has come and gone so many times before. I've grown tired of drowning in the darkness one moment, only to be scorched by light the next. Next time the end comes, perhaps it will be the final one." Eric looked over at his the person he was talking to. "But then again, perhaps that isn't the true reason. Merely an excuse to explain away my exhaustion. After all, the only rest we ever truly have, is the rest of the grave."
He stood, carefully balanced on the very edge of the roof. "There is the edge we walk to accomplish what we need to do. Step back and we'll never accomplish our goals." He rocked on his feet ever so slightly, balancing precariously on the edge of the roof. "But one slight misstep and our doom awaits us."
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Post by Gabriel Seran on Nov 2, 2009 15:52:32 GMT -8
"Mortality...it's all that is." Sky replied quickly.
His attention on the last rays fading into a purple hue. Beautiful as it may have seemed, the dismal dark creeped in with a small bout of terror.
"Though what is to be done?" He shrugged, "Each man to his own divination, or would one live a life of emptiness." It was directed at the man as a question of his own goals and perhaps a future. Hopefully inciting a better incite of his personna.
"I know for one I've walked a great many times only to fall, and with each memory I looked back at is filled with only dissapointment at what could have been. And yet looking at that next sun's rise fills me with a sense of hope, that tomorrow can be better than the long lost eves before."
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Post by wanderer on Nov 2, 2009 16:14:16 GMT -8
"Have you, truly fallen?" Eric asked, looking over at his companion. His eyes were different in the darkness, the light of bale fire seemed to glow in them. " Tonight, a man is arriving at the Hilton in this city's downtown. He'll be accompanied by two bodyguards and three women that he's bought at a local brothel run by the Russian Mafia. They will go up to a specially prepared room where, unknown to these women, they will rape and kill the prostitutes while filming it for the underground snuff industry. However when the man arrives at the hotel, he will enter the room and a single round from a from a Browning Precision Tactical Elite will enter his head right below the spot where his eyes meet. And then the assassin will continue on the next day, as if not a thing changed."
Eric turned his eyes to the court yard. "But that isn't the case. Because each time you see something like that it sticks with you. A small piece of darkness that never leaves. And each time you look into that Abyss, a piece of what made you human dies as well. Until you're left wondering whether there is any humanity left in you at all."
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Post by Gabriel Seran on Nov 2, 2009 16:24:03 GMT -8
Sky knew the feeling, the gaping monster that consumed his heart, his insides to the point where everything felt cold. And yet there was always a sense of hope so long as he kept a hold of those memories. The fleeting bits of good that kept him alive. A life filled with terror and madness. The death of Olivia, the death's of Eva and Aubrey. His inability to seek revenge upon their murderer because he'd loved her. And the final betrayal when she left him. That was what stung now, the remeniscent pain that throttled him. Everything could have been saved if he'd set everything aside. Left it all behind and stopped dreaming.
"The man continues on to a family, his pay greatly increased and not a word is spoken of the past, only what his children have to offer the world. One wants to be a Doctor, the other a President. What then? Does the monster have any say to stop their dreams. They can become a reality..."
Sky looked away, "I can make it so..."
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Post by wanderer on Nov 2, 2009 16:40:18 GMT -8
Eric chuckled and turned his back on the empty courtyard. "The flame of a candle, dim and vulnerable to the wind. Protect that flame well, because when it dies you will have truly fallen." Eric's aura was already growing around him. His presence flickering in the presence of his companion. "There are those that have lost that flame and all they can see nothing in the darkness."
Eric stepped away from the edge of the roof. "Unfortunately our time is at an end, I have things to do tonight. From this moment on perhaps it would be best to treat each other as strangers. If I see you again, it will be as if I've seen you for the first time. And I don't suppose I have to ask, but just in case... I'd appreciate if you don't follow me."
And with those words, Eric's Qi enveloped him completely. His presence and the sight of him vanished from the world. If Sky actually tried, he could probably sense where the wandering male was. He was that advanced at least. But that was only if he put forth the effort.
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Post by Gabriel Seran on Nov 4, 2009 20:18:38 GMT -8
Tracking would be simpe enough, it merely seemed as though he was caught of guard by the ethics of such a thing. His gaze traveled the length of the boy's escape, there were still a few things on his mind. The deep issues had been disolved nonetheless and he felt a twinge of understanding for the fellow he met so long ago, yet still there was the fear that he was a much bigger part of things than Sky could imagine. He'd undoubtably be a powerfully useful asset for the future, and going on as strangers was not part of his interests.
"Yes.." 'alone'
Sky would follow in close pursuit of the phantom taking to the rooftop evading any noticable sight. Luckily his training had increased tenfold since their last encounter and he compensated for it with increased speed to stick towards the darkness.
safe.
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Post by wanderer on Nov 4, 2009 20:42:39 GMT -8
The path Eric took was a simple one at first. He left the roof of the school, moved down a couple of streets, and got into his car. From there he took a long, winding route through the city till he came to a rather plain three story building with an underground garage. He pulled up to the garage door, which opened after he waited for a moment, and then entered the parking lot which closed up behind him. Getting out of the car, he went to the stairs leading into the building, walked up two flights to get to the second floor, and entered a room that had several other figures in it.
[Yo, what's up Hell Hound?] Replied a boy sitting on a couch situated in front of a rather large flat screen plasma. He was busy blowing away Super Mutants in Fallout 3 when Eric entered into the room. "Not much Sharama." Eric replied, causing the boy to wince. [Can't you call me Alan while we're off the clock?] "Can't you call me Eric?" Was all the wandering male replied with as he moved to a table on the far end of the room. On it was a long case which he opened and looked down onto the very rifle he had told Sky about earlier in the night.
[It's all there, clean and ready to go.] Sharama said, dodging mini-gun fire in his game. "I know, but you can never be too careful now can you? Where are the others?" Sharama paused the game and looked over. [Jobs, recon, the usual. Gabriel is here though, had some paper work to do. And rumor has it that Perdition is stopping by tonight.]
Those words made Eric shutter. "What does the old man want now?" Sharama shrugged. Eric nodded. "Yeah, lucky us, eh?" Sharama only nodded before getting back to his game.
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Post by Gabriel Seran on Nov 5, 2009 21:40:44 GMT -8
It was a certainly long pursuit, almost across the entirity of Long Beach it would be tiresome should his efforts fall for not, at the very least he entered a car and the fumes where an easy enough tacing means.
"This guy knows how to lose someone.."
*ring*
"Marcus I need you to run some plates.."
Sky followed till the track was all but gone, a section of the city where there were very few households. It was a process of ellimination then he supposed.
*ring*
"Got it," He'd say gruffly in the phone not needing to search every house tirelessly. He escalated on the outside window perched quietly as he listened in. Little more than a creek at each step he'd made. At least he was close to stealth, hopefully no one would notice a squirrel in the gutters.
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Post by wanderer on Nov 5, 2009 23:07:48 GMT -8
Sharama paused his game and got up for a stretch. [So what's the deal with this target? Yeah the guy is a scumbag that deserves to be put six feet under, but the boss isn't usually into doing the right thing. At least not unless it profits Perdition.] Eric shrugged in response. "I don't know, all I know is that I've been given a target and I will carry out my mission." Sharama sighed and crossed the room to a refrigerator. Opening it up, the one eyed grabbed a soda. [Still, you must have an idea of what is going on.]
Eric didn't comment as he did his final check of the rifle. "Yeah, I do." He slammed the magazine home. Sharama looked at Eric, waiting for more of an answer. When there was no more words coming forth Sharama let out a tisk and took a long sip of the soda. [That's the way it is then, guess I can't blame you. They don't like it when we know more than we're suppose to.] Eric nodded and put the rifle back into its case.
Above Sky a window opened, a single figure silhouetted by the light of the room. A harsh face looked out into the night at the person that was listening in. |A bothersome fly should be careful, least they get swatted.|[/color] The voice was a harsh whisper that carried through the night to Sky's ear.
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