Devils in Details

[Kyrie Blaze]

Frosted, bleary blue eyes opened. How long had she been resting? Not long, nor long enough, she could almost guarantee. Kyrie turned her face back into the small pillow she had her arms around and yawned into it before stretching her limbs out. Easing back onto her hands and knees, she sat up and shook her fingers through her hair.

"...no, not long enough..."

Still, the petite blonde didn't complain. She simply pushed up, off the small bed. Rolling her shoulders and stretching muscles, she shook her head before pushing her hair back over her shoulders. A quick sense with her qi told her she was alone. Einrik wasn't there. Perhaps he had slipped away to gamble on getting some sleep. So she stole out into the halls to go interact with the Dragon Core and civilians aboard the ship.

It wasn't long before she hit the edges of the civilian quarters on the ship. They were much happier since settling in. Meeting Ceres and her family had softened the anxiety and fear and shown them they would be just fine on the ship. But that didn't mean she could or would neglect her duties, or take herself out of the leadership position she had found herself in when David had been comatose. She wasn't going to let all that weight drag him under again, so she'd kept up with her active duties and continued as she had since they had all blasted into space.

Kyrie focused on appearing bright-eyed, if only for the civilians that looked to her for safety. She nodded and exchanged a quick pleasantry or two, but didn't tarry too long with anyone. Food, cleanliness, adequate lodging - still, in case there were any disputes that arose - and medical supplies were checked consistently. Ceres could handle their needs, of that the blonde didn't doubt, but the hands-on approach the younger Barrial took was obviously welcome to the civilians.

[Scene]

As Kiyr walked comfortably among the civilians, Scene stared at her from the outskirts of those directly around her. His mask was off, his hair falling down around his face as his piercing green eyes watched the girl he had only met in dreams and whispers. Things in trifes along the Rhine, on the towers in Paris...shadows in a forgotten nightmare.

His history was long and bloody. But still...he made it on the ship. Still, he stood as a shade in the throngs. He stood up out of the dark corner, allowing light to hit him...just as she was turning to gaze among the people. Reassuring them of the presence of their leaders. Letting them know they weren't alone, and that she would be there to comfort them.

It was so endearing.

He gave a crooked grin and would turn away from her, towards one of the side doors. His hands, which were behind his back, would come out, lifting the white, circular iron mask and clasping the seams onto his skull as he walked away, towards the door...and around its corner.

[Kyrie Blaze]

The heavy press of eyes that bored into her she could ignore. It still caused the hairs at the back of her neck to rise, but outwardly she gave no real sign to her unease. Those remaining aboard the ship that meant harm she would weed out sooner or later; preferably the sooner the better, of course. She simply looked around to mark who might be staring just a little too intently: those who looked away abruptly or after too long were noted. Eventually the others would give themselves up...

--a face and body appeared that had no right to be there. Kyrie did an abrupt double-take, aware that she must have lost a little colour at seeing a ghost materialize. How could a figment of her dreams suddenly emerge to reality? Blue eyes widened, showing her shocked disbelief before she refocused and calmed herself. The civilians still watched.

She smiled for them, asking how the ones nearest to her were before excusing herself as she moved between bodies to tail the much-taller male. She had thought maybe she was mistaken. Perhaps he was simply familiar. Her mind couldn't make the face of a person she had never seen; the mask was an easy enough explanation. It was a simple construct. A person's face? Not so much. Not to mention personality traits that remained constant.

The feeling of déjà vu settled over her.

She hadn't been able to physically see the dream qi user physically, but he had taken both her and David to play their lives on multiple theatre screens and she had never seen his face before that point. He had come back to show her her fate if she...

The blonde pressed her teeth into a firm set as she took the corner wide; maintaining a far distance that would mean he couldn't grab her. Perhaps he was a result of the dream manipulator? Perhaps there was another like Aaron's man running around, that could shift to whatever form he could imagine. She was as prepared as she could be, given the abruptness of his appearance; she erred on the side of caution, still with some slight lingering soreness from a recent pummeling that David had delivered when things had gotten out of hand between him and Einrik, whose barbed - and extremely well-placed stab - tongue had gotten him even more than he had bargained for with Damien in the aftermath. It was easy enough to shake it off, but Kyrie wasn't willing to be caught all the same.

[Scene]

As Kiyr rounded the corner, there would still be come civilians in the corridor, as this lane had turned into a "free market" of sorts, where people traded goods-but it was likely she would spot the white of his mask easily as he moved among the people, almost at the other end of the corridor, and rounding it to the left.

If she continued to follow him, she would round the corner...and right into a brick wall.

Kiyr would now, strangely, be back on earth. Wind would whip through her hair...something was different. She likely knew he could create elaborate visions like this, but the one he made her see was not the same as the others. They were always the present or past state of things...this seemed more desolate. Dead. In the skies above her there were brown clouds covering everything in a storm. In the wind and dust, she would see Scene continuing to walk away...toward a spire in the distance.

He would turn back, grinning under the mask as he crouched.

"Come then, girly. Let me show you your future."

He would stand, turn, and walk into the spire.

[Kyrie Blaze]

Kiyr's eyes narrowed as she tracked him through the crowd. To follow was to fall into some sort of trap, she knew, but at the same time...if this potential threat was hostile...

The corners of her lips pulled downwards.

She was tired of this. One threat after another and then another would follow, only to have another nipping on the previous one's heels in a never ending cycle. But it would not break her.

She continued to follow, pulling up sharply with wide eyes at the close proximity to the brick wall. Her gaze took it all in as she spun, hands hovering over the hilts of the blades she carried. This was...

She had to have been back on the ship still, right? The wind played with her hair to fling it in every direction and her eyes searched to find him. She stared, near to glaring, and felt her spine stiffen. Everyone seemed to want to show her her future. The dream manipulator, even Robbie had. The small woman just wanted to wait and see. But...

Kyrie might have hissed an angry oath but stuck stubbornly to silence, instead. It wasn't out of fear she did not step forward immediately, but a more simple issue. If this was him, he had coerced her into places and situations, before. And chances were...if she stayed somehow something would happen to drive her towards him. She stopped and caught two small handfuls of dirt before looking up, tucking her hands into her pockets after seeming to let it fly to the wind.

If he was real...if this was true...then it was possible he could be her only way back. Setting her jaw and feeling the tension start to gather in her shoulders, she moved forward, but tried to contact Ceres along the way, before she got a chance to go inside.

[Scene]

Ceres would not respond.

Kiyr would be able to follow, moving into the spire easily and finding herself inside the tower, which was apparently a library, at least on the bottom level. Scene stood, back toward her, staring up at the staircase that wound to the left...toward a steel door that seemed impassable. Scene pointed to the door.

"That is where he is buried."

He turned to look back at her.

"You as well. The four caskets of the rebellion on Earth."

He giggled.

"Quite anticlimactic, don't you think?"

He walked forward, toward the door, and started up the stairs. He had his hands in his pockets as he reached it, before he brought out a hand and pressed it to the vault plating.

"You and I...we're connected, in a way. You can't win without me, and I can't move on without you. Of course...there is another with that connection to me...but I fear she no longer cares for it. You do, whether you realize it now or not. I'm sure you remember Paris, after all."

He would phase through the door...and she would probably be able to use her Qi to move through the cracks.

[Kyrie Blaze]

The wary Marshall absorbed the room as she moved inside it. The Earth reclaimed what she would for she would always find a way. This space was peaceful. If the blonde could have had a library integrated with green space, she would have been content. But now? It all was suspicion.

She could feel her shoulders tense a little more at Scene's words. It didn't take her more than an instant to understand who he meant. Blue eyes stared up at the door and then bored into Scene's back as she ghosted after him.

Just four? Who else?

She wanted to ask but clung to her silent vigil. Kyrie felt a twinge at his words about a connection. It was disturbing more than it was angering.

But his final words were the confirmation she had dreaded.

"What game is this." The question that was more a demand slipped out of her mouth, briskly.

Shame fizzled over top of the anger and she followed after him, slipping into his shadow with a mental hiss before she could convince herself otherwise. Dreams faded with time and she had hoped it wasn't true. That none of it was. It might have been for something important but it was coercion, still. That it was hit harder than the potential death of David and herself and the two others. One way or another she would have her answers. Even if they were painful.

At least she would be able to know where she would have to go from there.

[Scene]

Once inside the room, Scene would be sitting on the far wall, and despite having entered his shadow before going inside, she would find herself pushed from it once inside the room. Her Qi would be harder to reach, and the room seemed more painted....like even Scenes power wavered here. The coffins had moldings of the bodies of those who lie inside, and they were made of stone situated between him and her.

The closest one was her own.

She looked older, her hair cropped close to her neck. She wore armor, and held "Hulda". The inscription read at the bottom:

'Here lies Kyrie Barrial, Elder and Shadow Dragon, clasping Hulda, the sword that felled nations.

Beside her was Mathew Amtrum. He was younger than she, it appeared, but at peace, wearing his usual jacket. His inscription read:

'Here lies Mathew Amtrum, Elder and Earth Dragon, the man who shook the world.'

Next to him was Leon Sudeki. He seemed to have died around Kiyrs time, looking roughly the same age. He was laying on a bed of shields and swords, and was covered in even more scars than before.

'Here lies Leon Sudeki, Elder and Lightning Dragon, whose legend lay on the legions who have fallen before him.'

And the last.....

Was John Strike.

He was wearing the armor previously seen before Kiyr took off. At his feet was nothing special, like the others. just-

'John Strike.'

Scene whistled a merry tune as he would watch Kiyr, waiting for her to finish before he looked down at Strike.

"See...he is buried here. He dies. You win, and peace is restored to the galaxy..."

He looked around at the dank, dark room, as though expecting what he had said to magically come true. When it didn't, he turned his eyes back to her, as though waiting for something, but instead asked something quite simple and direct. Something she probably wanted regardless.

"Shall we go back now?"

Testing.

[Kyrie Blaze]

...ugh..!

Kyrie wavered on her feet a moment before shaking her head. That was rough. Between experiencing it for herself and looking around at the rather bleeding details of the room. The coffins, however...were the clearest things inside the room, aside from herself and her sudden - and rather unwelcome - companion. She took note of the coffins one by one, walking around them but keeping Scene in her peripheral vision.

Herself, Mathew, Leon...Strike.

Not what she thought. The knot that had been tightening in her chest since coming here dropped down to the pit of her stomach. She swallowed slowly, having ignored the humming, but paying attention to the words the unstable man with her said. His question certainly...

Yes, she wanted to leave. She stared at him, the answer clear in her eyes despite the quiet composure on her face.

"And David? What of him?" It always came back to him, one way or another. But there were only a few options as to what happened and why. She eyed the man in his mask, as steady as she could be. She reminded herself that the future was fluid. Yes, they would all die eventually, that much was certain. This was troubling...but likely no more true than the supposed future that the dream manipulator had shown her.

[Scene]

"David?"

He leaned forward...just a little.

"There is no David here, Kyrie."

[Kyrie Blaze]

Her head tilted, slowly.

"Why is that?"

[Scene]

Scene tsked, then leaned back.

"I didn't bring you here to discuss David. I wanted to show you that the path you are on would lead to his death. John Strike. Barkers dead too, but not buried here for obvious reasons. You defeat him. David... Doesn't matter. What you should be asking is why he's buried here with you. What happened to the four of you."

He hopped down off the edge and walked away, towards the vault.

"Nothing else matters, does it?"

[Kyrie Blaze]

"If it has something to do with my primary question, then it would matter very much. It is little details like that, Scene, that matter to me." Her eyes flashed, a quick glint in the darkened room. "Just because I chose to ask that first does not mean I would not have asked the second. But while we are on the subject, why is John Strike with us, or us with him?"

[Scene]

Scene leveled his eyes back on her, letting out a sigh.

"David will leave you on the day of Damiens wedding. He won't come back. Not even I can see far enough to see him again."

He stuck his hands in his pockets.

"As for Strike...it was discovered he actually was going to help you from the beginning. So...to honor him, you planned for your bodies to be buried with him."

He shrugged.

"But...that doesn't mean he wouldn't try to destroy you in the past. Just...what came to be."

[Kyrie Blaze]

The petite blonde stared a few moments, an icy hand closing around her heart. She would...never see David again? She could have handled being by his side, part of his life, as a friend. She would find some way to deal with his death when that time came.

But now she wouldn't have even the years she thought she would.

Her blue eyes lifted from drilling holes into the floor.

"...help us, how? And for what? And why are we all dead?"