Heroes: Shadows over Millenium

[LadyTevar]

Oh. Hell. It was going to be full ceremony. Argent took a deep breath, wishing that Kyosuke was not honoring her *this* deeply. Silently she blessed the Yakusa elder who had bludgeoned the ritual into her Chinese brain, otherwise she'd offend Kyosuke for sure.

She reached out with both hands, accepting the bowl of tea with a return bow. She cupped it in her hand, turning it as she looked over the design on the bowl. She had to admit it was lovely craftsmanship. Only once she had turned the bowl completely around to view it from all sides did she bring it to her lips to sip the tea.

Hot... but very smooth and flavorful. She bowed again, acknowledging his taste in both bowl and tea, waiting for him to take up his own cup.

[B4UTRUST]

Kyosuke took his own bowl and cleaned it with the cloth before adding water and mixing the tea. He turned the bowl's front towards Argent, bowed towards her over it and sipped. He bowed again and set the bowl in front of him as he looked at her.
"Now what is it that you have come here to speak to me of?"

[LadyTevar]

Argent set her bowl down in front of her, silently grateful that he was the one to cut the ceremony short and get to the point. Obviously, he dealt with hasty Americans far too often.

"First, I thank you for the tea," she said, to show that she could have played the game if he had wished. "Today, Blackheart was injured, stopping an attempted bank robbery. It caused the ... Other ... inside him to grow."

Here she paused. So far, this could be merely polite conversation, continuing the ritual. It was how she was going to broach the topic had he not shown himself willing to cut things short. "After he was checked over, Legacies and I tried to communicate with the Other ... and I wish your opinion on what we found."

[B4UTRUST]

"This Other. You refer to the thing festering inside of him, spreading and corrupting him. I believe on that subject my opinion is already known. I believe that it is thought that I am zealot? Or perhaps kook is the better term?"

[LadyTevar]

"They think only in terms of Science," Argent replied. "The doctor treating him does not even believe in magic, or demons." She paused again, gathering her thoughts so she could put what she Felt into words. "The Other has no mind. There is only endless depths of Malice, of Hatred. There is a lust for death and destruction that I cannot put into words, and I refuse to share."

[B4UTRUST]

"And what is it that you wish me to do about this?"

[LadyTevar]

"There was another place where I felt something similar," Argent explained. "Two places, actually..." she added as she recalled the fight against Abaddon, whose aura terrified her into running. "Both were places were meta and demons were involved."

Here she dropped her eyes. "Understand this ... I had never met any meta whose powers were demonic in orgin before this month. The only knowledge I had that demons could exist was my grandmother's ..." she did not say accusations. "... stories that a demon was my father." Her eyes rise again, slightly challenging. "With so many different meta in the world, so many ways for the gifts to show ..." again, she pauses for words. "It is ... easier ... to believe my father was merely meta, that the only demons were in my grandmother's mind."

[B4UTRUST]

He picked up his tea bowl and sipped again, closing his eyes to further concentrate on enjoying the taste. His eyes opened and he stared at her over the top of the bowl, tendrils of steam rising from within.
"Even now as you sit before me you do not fully believe in what you say. What you ask.

"In our age where metahumans are so common we have lost something vital. We are greeted every day with tales of the fantastic, displays of power and ability that astonish, amaze and baffle. Things that by the laws of reality are impossible. And with the prevailence of these abilities we have lost our belief in the fantastical and the preternatural. Our own hubris prevents us from considering that even some of what we see and what we are is not natural, not the common aberrancy that we see so often.

"So again I must ask you, what it is that you want of me."

[LadyTevar]

Argent's eyes dropped down to her tea, and she took a sip, giving herself time to think.

What did she want? His knowledge, obviously. To see if there really.......

Yes.. that's what it all boiled down to in the end, didn't it. To see if Demons are real. And she wanted -- needed -- his skills, because she had no way of knowing on her own.

"Proof." she said, lowering her teabowl and looking up at him. "I don't know how to see what is there. I don't know what I am looking for, how it is different. I need your eyes, your knowledge, your skill, DemonHunter." She used the name as a title, a rank. "There is something happening here, a thread that is running through the last two weeks, and it all seems to tie back to demons. I need to know why."

[B4UTRUST]

Kyosuke nodded.
"Alright. You speak of having encountered demons twice before, within the last two weeks. How is it that you are able to recognize these as something that is supernatural or spiritual rather then simply a meta ability? What has happened to give you this knowledge? I think that is our first step in figuring out this thread of yours.

"Though do not get your hopes to high. It may simply be coincidence. Something may have simply awoken your perceptions and you are just now noticing. But we will see.

"So, begin. Tell me about what has happened..."

[LadyTevar]

Argent played with the teabowl, looking down into the liquid as she slowly turned the bowl in her hands. Where to start, how to explain....

"My partner Ember and I ... were hired to cause a disruption at a local park. The goal was to capture at least one Ultima agent." She did not lie, it would not aid here. "We were hired by a meta called Abaddon, who was on-site to oversee the work. Blackheart's team responded ... and Ember was killed."

Her voice was flat, no emotion showing over the death of her partner, even now. "I caught the Ultima agent responsible, and delievered him to Abaddon, who directed me to remove him to his base. When I returned, my second target ..." how to explain what happened with Garth? She wasn't even sure. So, Lei glossed over it. "... Saibot caught me, convinced me to return him to the park. Abaddon, by that point, had stepped into the fray." Again, she paused, trying to put what happened, how she felt at the moment she started to run. "They had him trapped in a building nearby. I followed Saibot, Legacies, and Blackheart inside."

The cup stilled a moment. "Blackheart had no problems with this. I don't know why he trusted me, but he did. And when Abaddon brought the building down, I teleported them all to safety." She did not want to think about why she changed sides so suddenly. It was just unexplainable. "When Abaddon emerged from the building... he wasn't human or meta anymore." The bowl trembled in her hand, and she cupped it with both to steady it.

"It wasn't so much what he looked like. He was bigger, horned and covered in reddish skin, branded with marks that ... moved wrong." Her voice broke, trying to put what she saw/felt into words, into sentences that made sense. "There was power around him, strong emotions. Desire ... to destroy and kill. Malice. Hatred." She shook her head, feeling the echo of that in what she felt from the Other inside Blackheart.

"I broke. He scared me in ways I don't understand. Legacies and Blackheart both insulted me for my cowardice. That, and Saibot, are the only reason I did not run totally, merely... backed away, pulling the wounded away from the fight." She trailed off, trying to think of what to add, since it seemed to be missing the heart of it.

"Words aren't enough, Kyosuke-san. I can't explain what I don't understand myself."

[B4UTRUST]

"I see. And you think this Abaddon was a demon then? Alright, what of this other incident you spoke of? After you tell me we'll go review the sites to see if we can't find something."

[LadyTevar]

She breathed out, relaxing as he told her he would go with her. That was what she wanted, for him to go to the sites, to see if it was more than just her empathy going wild.

"As I said ... I captured one of Blackheart's team, Avatar." Again, truth was more important than how he would view her on this. "I did not know it, but he was taken to the one called the Astronomer ... and tortured for the sheer pleasure of it."

For a moment, she considered not telling him about Em's involvement... but it needed explaining. "Em had also run into the Astronomer. I am not sure how or why, but she had the run of the base when I teleported Blackheart's team inside. She says she was trying to save herself. Avatar recalls her in the torture chamber with the Astronomer." Argent gives a shrug, as if to say 'which do we believe?'

"Em led us to Avatar ... and I could feel it in the walls." Again, her eyes close, memories too close to the surface. "He was not the first to be tortured there. Pain, suffering, despair... and over it all a malevolent twisted pleasure in the act."

"Saibot found the Astronomer first." She continued after a pause. "I knew the moment he did... teleported all the team to that location without clearing it with Blackheart first. It was a ... an altar. The whole room was covered with the same emotions from the torture room, as well as a feeling of death and joy in that death. Writings, runes, were on the floor and wall... but I did not see them clearly. We were too busy fighting. The Astronomer was able to phase through our attacks, as well as attack our minds directly. He could also phase his hand inside you, striking your organs directly."

"His overconfidence beat him. He had thought Saibot out of the fight, until Saibot stabbed him through the back and killed him."

[B4UTRUST]

"And you believe this Astronomer to likewise be a demon then? You said there was many tortures there. Are you sure he just wasn't a depraved individual?"

[LadyTevar]

"That is what I am not sure of." Argent answered truthfully. "He did not scare me like Abaddon, although the emotions I felt from him were similar. Yet, the altar room had a ... stain ..." she trailed off, frustrated. "Again... words fail me. I can take you to those places, let you feel them... and then share what I felt with you."

She set the teabowl down, the tea inside growing cold. There was no peace or relaxation to be found in finishing the tea. "I need to find the answers. You are the only one that may have them, or who can show me where to look. That is why I came here today."

[B4UTRUST]

"Very well then. I'll look and tell you what I see. Please, lead the way."

[LadyTevar]

"Very well then. I'll look and tell you what I see. Please, lead the way."

"Let us finish our tea," Lei countered, knowing he'd want to put the implements away first. "Then I will teleport us first to where Abaddon fell, then to the Astronomer's Base."

[B4UTRUST]

"Very well."
Kyosuke lifted the bowl to his lips and drank deep, the hot liquid burning slightly in his throat. He could feel it warm in his stomach. He savored the taste as it passed over his tongue.

When he was finished he sat his bowl down in front of him.

[LadyTevar]

Lei finished off her tea as well, setting her bowl down again. "If you are ready, Kyosuke-san..." Lei asked, merging into her shadowdragon form. Like a shadow-puppet, it held the shape of a winged oriental dragon, with none of the fine detail but for the slanted silver eyes. Shining like metal studs in the elongated inky head, they looked down at Kyosuke in patient expectation.

[B4UTRUST]

"If you'll allow me a moment," Kyosuke spoke softly as he rose gracefully to his feet. He gathered up the bowls and other dishes of the ceremony, moving them into the kitchen.

He carefully rinsed the bowls and cleaned them with the chakin cloth and drying them before returning them to his wooden box. He carefully replaced the rest of the equipment and closed the box, leaving it on the counter.

He returned to the living room and stood before the shadow dragon.
"When you are ready."

[LadyTevar]

The shadowdragon bowed to him, and then one wing unfurled to wrap around him. Then they slipped into the nearest shadow ...

... blackness, lit only by the silvery glow that shown from the dragon's eyes and outlined her form as she crossed the pathway between. A pounding thump echoed in the near-silence, like a great heart beating out the time. Once. Twice...

... And Argent emerged from a shadow at the base of the wrecked building, setting Kyosuke gently down on his feet.

[B4UTRUST]

Kyosuke was in his apartment one second and somewhere else the next.

He was in a realm of darkness. There was a faint ambient light that came from around him where Argent held him inside of her. He could feel his heart beating, matching the beating of the unseen omnipresent heart.

His mind was flooded with feelings and emotions that seemed to permeate the atmosphere around him. Pain, agony, hatred and suffering.

Another heartbeat and it was over. Gone. The darkness erupted into blinding light as they shifted from whatever alter realm they had moved through.

As his vision adjusted to the new light he spun around to face the dragon, his sword appearing in his hand held ready.
"Nanda?! What did you just do, Demon," Kyosuked asked, shock and anger in his voice.

[LadyTevar]

The silver eyes grew huge, nearly crossing as she stared down the length of the sword. Somehow, Lei got the feeling that her shadow form wouldn't protect her from it, bokken or not. "I teleported you... like I did to the roof of Blackheart's building when Em was attacked..." she answered, confused. "This was a longer trip between..." She said the word as if naming a space that she had no other name for.

[B4UTRUST]

"That was no teleportation. I've been teleported. It wasn't that. This wasn't an instant transfer between A and B. You took me somewhere, Demon. Where in the eight hells did you take me?"

[LadyTevar]

The shadowdragon spread her wings in a helpless shrug. "Between shadows..." she protested. "I don't know how else to explain it. It's just between." She had no idea why he was so upset.