Rebuilding the Troys [MiMo FC and Associates Only] COMPLETE!

[Melody]

Though feeling somewhat relieved when Ana identified the contents of the mysterious envelope, Melody frowned as she held the branch and wondered if it was actually Mortine who sent it. After what guy did to her two special people, she found it highly difficult to believe he'd be feeling any semblance of guilt. Her look turned dark as she finished making a cup of lemon balm tea.

 

" I'm gonna go wind up at the beach. Call me when you have a plan or something "

 

"Alright, I'll check on you in a little bit." She nodded understandingly as the girl left. She thought it odd that Quki didn't just hand Jigumundo's staff back to him since he'd been about to reach for it. Then she remembered this was Quki she was thinking about, and Quki didn't make a lot of sense to her sometimes...

But then again, the events from yesterday seemed to hit the girl fairly hard. It would probably be good for her to get her thoughts and feelings together sooner rather than later.

 

"Mar talked a few times about growing up in the Shroud. If that is in fact another clue sent to us by...Mortine...why would he do that? Actually, why would he even have sent the other note that blatantly proclaimed he already took her. Wouldn't he want us to be distracted and go to Coerthas so her family could have all the time in the world to do what they're planning on doing?" she felt her jumbled thoughts start pouring out her mouth and quickly stopped herself from rambling too much. She took a deep breath and let it out, "Aside from that, we obviously need to go there and start looking for her."

 

Making her way back to the living room with the tea, Melody picked up the staff on her way and set it against the chair Jig was leaning on. "Sit down, please, before you hurt yourself even more." The look she had was strained and her tone was warning. She stood next to Jig with the tea and waited for him to do so, noticing he wasn't using his injured arm at all. It just hung limp at his side. Her look turned to strained worry. This was all starting to be too much.

 

Martsia and Mortine's next posts will be delayed so these guys can have time to discuss and plan the next moves.

 

 

[Jig]

Jig sat on a couch, surprised of Melody's tone, as he walked Ququki outside with his gaze. Then he'd turn to Melody with expression of concern. Jig finally opened his mouth as he took the tea from Miss Adagio.

 

"Why would he leave a trace after he got what he wanted? That makes no sense..."

 

Jig tried to deduce what is happening, regretting that his arm laid limp, since it could be useful to comfort his girl.

 

"Even if it's a trap, it's worth checking. At least it's a good start. Don't worry... we WILL find her. And those bastards WILL pay! I'm sure Mortine wasn't working alone or for his own benefit. It's obvious. Our next move should be checking the shroud."

 

Professor spoke with faint voice. He was still weak, yet he regained his ability to speak. Melody's treatment worked... yet his right arm still leaves much to be desired.

 

"Sit by me..." - Professor turned his voice down to soothing whisper. "You need to rest as well... I..."

 

Words that he wanted to tell her as usual were hard for him to spit out.

 

"I'm here for you, and your family."

[E'jusana]

Ana suddenly ran back to her room and disappeared for several minutes. When she reappeared in the main area of the Moogle she was no longer wearing her leather armor but lighter weight clothing in shades brown and green. She was also carrying a quiver full of arrows, a light pack on her back, and a beautiful, hand-carved bow in her hand.

 

"If this is a clue as to where Martsia is we can't let the trail go cold we have to act quickly," she spoke with authority in her voice as she crossed the room to where Melody and Jig were sitting and looked at them with a stern face "I'm going to the Shroud to gather a few of my tracking friends. We will scour the Black Shroud to find Martsia's location, you all will stay here." She held up a hand when she saw them about to say something "Tracking and finding things is what we do. A small group of hunters can move through the forest quickly and quietly. We do not want to tip our hand so please, let me do what I do best. We will find their location and as soon as I know where they're keeping Martsia I will send for you."

 

Ana shoved her hand into a small pocket on the side of her pack, pulled out a small, cream-colored linkpearl, and handed it to Melody "This way we can keep in contact with each other." She looked at the two weary Lalafells on the couch "Regain your strength quickly, this shouldn't take long" she said with a confident smirk and a spark in her eye then turned towards the door to leave with the letter and gear in hand.

[Melody]

Ana had left, and no one else remained in the Moogle but Melody and Jigumundo.

 

Jig wakes up after another unintentional nap.

 

Melody sat next to Jig on the couch after she picked up her med kit off the floor. "I need to change your bandages." she said, sounding a bit weary.

 

Jigumundo tries to move his right hand to rub his forehead. Immidiately regrets that decision. "AAARRGHH..." Clenches his teeth in pain. He grabs his right hand trying to withstand the pain. Professor hisses through his teeth.

 

Melody opens up her supplies and attempts to grab his arm so he stops hurting himself.

 

”That.... bastard... Why can't I move my ARM-AGH!” Jig takes it away. "No!"

 

"If you let me check it again, we can try to figure out what more is wrong." she says sternly.

 

Jig groans and ultimately lets her do the job. "I swear... If I get this bastard I'm going to tear him apart piece by piece....” He looks very angry.

 

Melody gets to work unwrapping last night’s bandages. "I know...I want you to." she checks on how the stitches are holding up and sees she needs to apply more cream to the burned areas.

 

Jig speaks furiously. With every word of his angry rant the flame in the fireplace gets bigger and bigger. He clenches his teeth again trying to go through her treatment.

 

Melody notices it start getting hotter and quickly looks up at him with a dark look. "Keep that up and you'll only make everything worse."

 

“Like it could be worse....”

 

Melody steels her gaze. "It could."

 

Jig keeps ranting. "That wimp got lucky... he barely survived my blow... ran away like a coward!" The flame in chimney went up a bit. "How dare he threaten you like that?!"Another blast up."If he did anything to Martsia...~!" The fire burns furiously like Jig's growing anger.

 

Melody feels a quickly growing need to calm him down. "I understand you're upset. We all are. But please, right now, be still." she is getting more stern and warning.

 

Jigumundo shuts up with grim expression. Looks down. His lower lip would twitch. Fire keeps burning.

 

Melody feels safe enough to look back down at the mess of his arm. "You yelled out in pain when you tried to move. How much feeling do you have in it right now?" she starts poking and prodding.

 

”Not at all... pain when I'm trying to move it.”

 

"Then what hurt?" she tosses the dirty bandages on the floor.

 

”I don't know. It hurts like hell. I can't move it.”

 

Melody frowns and thinks a moment. Her poking and prodding made her notice the muscles in his arm felt...odd."Hm...." she hops off the couch and stands in front of him."Let me see something...." she mutters almost to herself and moves to pull his wrists towards herself.

 

“ACK! What the heck are you doing?!”

 

"I need to take your gloves off so I can see if I'm right." she looks up at him, seeming asking permission.

 

”If you have to....”

 

Melody carefully un-gloves his hands, trying to be as gentle as she could. Putting them aside on the couch, she held his forearms one in each hand and started feeling around with her thumbs, as if comparing.

 

Jigumundo clenches his teeth in another painful expression.

 

"Something's not right with the muscles in this arm." she concludes, holding the damaged one up a little bit. "They seem torn up..."

 

Jigumundo looks down in silence. Clearly he's not very happy about that conclusion.

 

Melody sighs deeply and wipes her brow. "This might be outside of my current abilities. But I do have extra serum from when I helped Mar with her ankle...." is she talking to him or herself?...

 

Jigumundo was awfuly silent. His face however shown some wide variety of emotions: from anger to guilt and even despair. Melody's rambling wasn't helping either.

 

Melody went back to her kit and pulled out what looked to be a vial of....something, and a small hard case with a hinge. She put down the case for a moment and started shaking the vial vigorously. "If it works it works and if not, then at least there won't be any more harm done..." she mutters, lost in her own thoughts.

 

Jigumundo looks away, probably feeling ashamed now for some reason.

 

Melody finally looks over to him while still shaking the tiny container, not sure if she wants to talk to him right now or not. She seems like she might be a little upset at him, but doesn't want to provoke any further. "We'll figure it out..." she says quietly.

 

” What...?”

 

"I said we'll figure it out." she says loud enough for him to clearly hear her.

 

“Figure what out?” Jigumundo almost yelled but held his emotions at last moment.

 

Melody looks back down, done shaking the vial. She opens up the case with her other hand and pulled out what looks like a hypodermic needle. "This mess we find ourselves in." she feels like she should've just kept her mouth shut.

 

”Mess... Enough said...”

 

Melody snaps her finger and a small flame ignites above her fingertip. She sterilized the needle while she bites her bottom lip, looking very frustrated.She takes another deep breath as she snaps her finger again, putting out the flame. She fills the needle up with whatever is in the vial and walks back over to his injured side. She peeks up at him, frowning.

 

"This might hurt, but it might not. Since you're both feeling pain and not feeling anything at the same time it's hard for me to know what to warn you about." she uses her free hand to position his arm. She looks back down and searches for a good entry point.

 

Jig looks away. "Do what you have to..."

 

Melody nods and sticks him with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever.

 

Jigumundo hisses a bit, showing his teeth and frowning.

 

Melody hears him hiss and peeks back up at him. Is that curiosity in her eyes? She can't stop the questions from bubbling out. "What do you feel? Does it hurt? Anything tingling?--!" she bites her lip to shut up and looks back down.

 

Jig stays silent. No comment at all. Not even a swear.

 

Melody tries to bite back her curiousity but it's so very difficult

 

Jigumundo answers quietly, almost whispering. "It hurts..that's all." He doesn't even looked at her.

 

Melody peeks up at him once more to see no reaction on his face. Her face turns into one of utter frustration, and also a little red as well. "You know this could be good research for me. This is only the second time I've used it, so I don't know much about its effects yet." she tries to bait for more info. She realizes the needle is still in his arm and draws it out.

 

”Research, huh....?”

 

"Mhm." she hums affirmitively and goes back to clean everything up.

 

“Your dearest friend is in danger... and you care for research now...?” He furrows his eyebrows and glowers at her starting with really angry voice. "Research is now the most important part?! If you really want to know, YES IT HURTS LIKE HELL! I'm just curious though... How does YOUR DEAREST FRIEND feel right now?! Research... Haha.... Hahaha..."

 

Melody Adagio twitches.

 

Jigumundo laughs hysterically. He covers his face with the healthier hand laughing."Research..."

 

Melody Adagio just stands there, dead-faced.

 

Jigumundo stops laughing and glowers at her once again with blaming tone. "How does it make you better now than those BASTARDS who destroyed half of your country?!THE ONLY THING THEY CARED WAS RESEARCH! I CARED ONLY FOR THAT! And you see what happened?! All those who was dear for me DIED! How. Does. It. Make. You. Better?!” he breathes heavilly. “ANSWER ME!”

 

Melody flashed him a horrible, hurt-looking glare. "What more can I do right now?!" she seethes. "My best friend is somewhere going through gods know what, and you almost died last night!"

 

"I was doing my best to save her!"

 

"I'm trying to do whatever it takes to stay SANE right now!"

 

"Your mad-scientist muttering CERTAINLY helps! What are you going to do? Take notes?!”

 

Melody stomps over to him. "Like you are ANYONE to talk right now." she clenches her teeth.

 

Jigumundo opens his eyes wider. "What did you just SAY?!" glowers mad at her. The fire in fireplace bursted out again.

 

"You heard me." she steels her eyes and places her hands on her hips, not giving any shits about the damned fire behind her."In case you haven't figured it out already, neither one of us is currently capable of doing ANYTHING USEFUL RIGHT NOW."

 

"All we can do is wait for Ana."

 

“Waiting does not HELP! This is a waste of time!”

 

"Neither does using black magic AND NEARLY KILLING YOURSELF!!"

 

“I WAS TRYING TO STOP HIM! Not like you could do anything about that!What should I do?! LET HIM HURT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY MAYBE?!”

 

Melody takes a deep breath while pinching the bridge of her nose under her glasses.

 

”I HAD to do something! What were you expecting me to do?!”

 

Melody is still shaking with frustration and hurt, but tries to calm down. "I know! It was never a good position for any of us! But I don't need to lose two people at the same time, and I DEFINITELY don't need to now be arguing with you over impossible circmstances! This is not helping anything right now!"

 

Jig tries to stand up. "Nothing is... uh..."

 

Melody Adagio flashes him another glare. "What now?!"

 

He slowly goes towards his coat.

 

Melody Adagio closes her eyes, biting her lip. She grips the couch and starts putting away her things. "I need to bandage your arm again. You don't want your stitches coming out, do you?" she sounds subdued.

 

Jigumundo clumsily wear his coat over his shoulders. "No time for this now. I'm going to find her... hng... Myself..."

 

Melody has had it. She walks over to stand in front of him, making sure he can't get away. He had to still be weakened enough for her to be able to do at least that. "Are you even thinking right now?" she looks him in the eye.

 

"Get off my way, Melody..." He says through his teeth.

 

"No.Ana said she would send for us.There is no point or use in you going anywhere right now."

 

”This could take weeks!”

 

"She said it wouldn't take long.She knows the area that clue came from.”

 

”She thinks so... But that doesn't mean she's right.”

 

"You're not right all the time either, Professor." she hisses.

 

”She might be falling into a trap right now and not comin back...”

 

"And what are you going to do? Hm? Stumble around blindly until you just walk into Mortine by chance and pure luck?"

 

”I have my ways....”

 

"Your ways can wait." she plants herself firmly in his way.

 

Jigumundo said that with sinister tone like he's going to do that over corpses.”No.They. Can't... Get off my way.”

 

"No."

 

“I said GET OFF MY WAY!” Jigumundo's eyes glew purple for a second.

 

Melody doesn't budge. "It's alright to rely on others sometimes, you know..."

 

“We don't have time for such luxury... NOW MOVE!”

 

Melody thought she saw his eyes change color for a second and seemed confused briefly, but went right back to being stubborn.

 

Jigumundo grows mad with every passing second. Melody could feel Aether around getting dense. The purple spark in his eyes appeared again.

 

"Instead of triapsing around the forest when we already have someone there actively hunting for them, why can't we just strategiz--!" she saw it again, and something made her skin crawl.

 

Jigumundo grabs her arm with his healthy hand and pulls her closer. His eyes glow faintly. "What good will it make now?!" Is the furniture began to shake along with small objects or she's crazy...?

 

"Jig...?" she winced at his grip and looked at him, feeling ill for some reason.

 

Jigumundo breathes heavily and glowers at her madly. The fire extinguished and nearby plants began to wither slowly.

 

"ANSWER ME!"

 

Melody moved out of sheer instinct and terror. Her hand flashed lightning fast and would strike him across the face, very very hard.

 

Jigumundo was taken by surprise. The slap was so hard it sent his glasses flying on the floor, cracking one of the spectacles. The force turned his face to the side with surprised expression. He instantly releases his grasp.

 

Melody stumbled away and landed on her rump in front of him. Her hand was numb from how hard she'd slapped him, and she was breathing heavily while watching him. She started to shiver.

 

JigumundoDarkbore falls to his knees, covering his face with healthy hand. His eyes were widely opened.

 

Melody could barely speak. Her heart felt like it was thumping right inside her throat. "I....I-I'm..."

 

Jigumundo sits like that paralyzed with the shock he just experienced. Things around them settled down as well as the aether density.

 

Melody gulps and feels the change in the air to her relief, but she can't seem to stop shaking. "I'm-" *gulp* "n-not sorry." she chokes out.

 

Jigumundo starts to shiver and hunches a bit almost reaching floor with his forehead. He grabs his hair. Melody could hear unstable breathing and... sobbing?

 

Melody watches him intently with wide eyes. She tentatively starts reaching out her numb hand, but hesitates to touch him. She slowly scooted closer to Jig's hunched figure and gently laid her offending hand on his shoulder. She was nervous to say anything, not trusting his stability right now.

 

Jigumundo pushed her hand away with shaking hand. "Don't touch me!" His voice cracked. Was he crying...?

 

Melody pulled back for a moment, but then scooted closer to sit next to him. She stayed silent and kept watching.

 

Jigumundo sobs silently. "Stay away from me..."

 

Melody doesn't budge. "I'm not going to run and hide from you if that's what you want..."She thinks to herself that that probably should seem like the logical thing to do, but chooses to ignore herself.

 

”I'm going to hurt you...”

 

Melody takes a huge gamble. "Willfully?"

 

"I don't know...."

 

Melody Adagio thinks about it for a moment longer and decides to take a seat on the chair. She waits for him to get himself together. They were going to finish this and she would wait as long as it needed.

 

Jigumundo straightened after some time. It took him a while... He just sits on the floor staring with tired eyes at extinguished fireplace.

 

"Whenever you're ready..." she was getting tired of waiting.

 

“What are you expecting...?”

 

"Not sure..." she tested the waters. "I don't really know what to expect from you right now and it terrifies me."

 

Jig stands up, showing some pain on his face. "I... don't know either..."

 

Melody eyes him him warily. "That's even more terrifying."

 

Jigumundo hobbles towards the door looking down.

 

Melody hops up and stops him.

 

”No...”

 

"Jig…I'm not letting you run away from this.Also, your stitches need re-doing..." she notices blood and torn threads.

 

"I'm not going to..."

 

She doesn't care to argue anymore and starts pushing him back to the living area. "I'm not going to keep doing this. Go sit back down." she says darkly

 

Jigumundo's voice crumbles. "Melody.... stop..."

 

She shakes her head and grabs him in a tight embrace, not wanting him to go anywhere. "How do you think you can just walk out of here after that?"

 

Jigumundo speaks no more.

 

Melody grips him tighter. "Can't you say anything?" her chest feels like its tightening and tightening. What does she have to do to make this man stay put?!

 

Jigumundo, feeling Melody's embrace starts to shake. She could feel his heart pounding like crazy. He sobs quietly, shivering. His head fell on her shoulder, losing all strength.

 

She keeps her grip on him and feels her face crack into a cringe. "All I wanted to do was take care of you."

 

His healthy hand clinches on her back as he's embracing her tight, sobbing at her shoulder. "I'm so sorry......"

 

Melody violently lets out the breath she was holding when she feels him finally responding. She rubs his back soothingly through his sobs. "I'm fine...you didn't hurt me..." she's not sure if he is listening, but tries to comfort him anyway.

 

“But I would... and was close to..."

 

"But you didn't."

 

He shakes burying his face in her neck. "F-Forgive... m-me..."

 

Melody holds the back of his head and lets him get it all out. "I do. I forgive you." she nestles her face against his head. She tries to keep it together. This hurt worse than his angry words earlier...

 

"I-I should leave..."

 

She grumbles and keeps him right where he is. "For the last time, no."

 

"You don't understand..."

 

"I don't care."

 

"I'm dangerous... I could hurt you and everyone here... You can't do this, Melody!"

 

"Please don't leave me alone right now..." she squeaks.

 

"You want me to stay... even if I could snap at every moment and hurt you...?"

 

Melody grips him even tighter if that was even possible and starts quivering.

 

"By the twelve, what have I done..."Jigumundo hugs her with all strength he had left. Embraces her like there's no tomorrow. He gently pats her head while hugging her, trying to comfort the girl. "It's okay... it's okay... I'm here with you…. I'm so sorry!"

 

She is trying to hold in her own sobs by keeping her lungs full of air, but that wasn't helping too much.

 

Jigumundo let's her feel his touch on her cheek. "I'm here! I'm not going to leave you... Never. I promise." he looks like he's kinda freaking out right now...he starts kissing her forehead and cheeks.

 

Melody Adagio lets out the air in her lungs and tries to get fit over with quickly. "D-don't - gasp - do this - gasp - to me - gasp - again!" she says looking very upset with the waterworks pouring down her face.

 

Jigumundo just hugs her very tight, as strong as it's possible with one hand. "I won't..."

 

Melody is calming down now. "G-good!" she starts taking deep breaths to calm down.

 

"You are my precious, little treasure... I don't know what would I do if something happens to you... especially if I would hurt you..."

 

Melody's sobs have now turned into sniffles.

 

“ Please, say something...”

 

She looks back at him when she was done. "I'm okay." she’s breathing almost normally and has calmed down.

 

Jigumundo lets her go and rubs his forehead. He tries to grab her hand, but he’s not very sure about it.

 

Melody lets him take her hand."I'm sorry…I could only handle so much after everything that's happened."

 

“ You don't have to handle anything... You've been strong. Stronger than I would ever be. Everything that happened today reminded me of something I wanted to push out of my memory for a long time...”

 

Melody Adagio runs her thumb up and down his bare hand and moves to guide him back to the living area. "Talk while I fix you back up. You're bleeding all over the floor...”

 

”Right... forgive me. Did... Martsia ever mentioned any details about her family?”

 

She opens her supply kit for the umpteenth time now and fishes out things to clean his arm with. "Some. Why do you ask?"

 

“It may be important...”

 

Melody pursed her lips together. "She sure didn't tell us EVERYTHING, but ask what you need and I'll try to remember." she cleaned up the bloody areas and started pulling out the torn stitches.

 

“Is Mortine the only member capable of using magic?”

 

"That, I don't know. She never even mentioned he was a magic user, from what I recall...Sorry, I don't have anything to numb this with…" she keeps pulling torn threads out of his skin.

 

“Well if there's one there may be more...I need to know... to get prepared for the worst.”

 

Melody continues working while speaking, "From what she told us before, all that was left of her family was her father and brother-in-law. We were all under the impression Mortine was killed by her father."

 

“Who are they?"

 

Melody Adagio cocks her head..."Hm...I think her father's name started with a K...Kertaw...Kershaw maybe?"

 

"Kershaw... Kershaw Troy? I need to check that..."

 

"Don't quote me on that...I could still be wrong."

 

"Fine. But it's still some lead…The more we know, the better."

 

Melody finishes cleaning up the mess that is his arm and starts threading a needle.

 

"I have a feeling I heard this name before..."

 

Melody gets ready to start stitching the wounds again. "Huh? How is that possible?"

 

"I don't know. I might have heard of him. I can't remember now..."

 

She begins sewing his flesh closed, no hesitation. "I'll try to get this over quick."

 

He clenches his teeth answering with sarcasm. "Tch... Take your time..."

 

The smirk that appeared on her face felt nice in the middle of all this chaos. "Once we find them, are you really going to be able to fight?" She sounds concerned.

 

"I better be... I have some score to settle..."

 

"I can put this arm in a sling so you don't re-open these again." She works fairly fast, seems pretty practiced. "I have some things to help out a little bit too."

 

"I still have my other arm. Mortine knew how to counter and react to thaumaturgy... Someone must've taught him this..."

 

She nods, finishing up the dirty work and applying a thick paste to the stitch work. "Do you suppose we can assume there will be another magic user there than just Mortine?"

 

"Too late for assumptions. This is sure like death and taxes..."

 

"Alright. So let's say there are two highly competent mages, and likely her father and brother-in-law. So at least four enemies."

 

"We are going to need help..."Someone who might give us proper distraction or snatch Martsia while we provide one...but we will see about that when Ana's back...Listen, Melody..."

 

She's re-applied the burn ointment that got wiped off during their argument and is now bandaging his arm again.

 

"I'm sorry about what happened before..."

 

She stays silent as she finishes her work, not looking at him yet.

 

"If you want me to leave after all of this.. I will."

 

Her eye twitched. She put his arm back in his lap and finally looked at him. The hurt was plastered on her face. "I don't want that. But...you can't let it happen again."

 

He couldn't even dare to look at her.

 

She gets up and goes to pick up his broken glasses, feeling like that was warning enough. "These are no good anymore."Turning back around, she goes back to him and kisses his forehead gently. "Do you have any spares?"

 

He'd only shake his head. He looks like a mess.

 

She brushes the hair out of his face to get a better look at his green eyes. "Are you able to see well enough?"

 

"Could be worse"

 

His eyes look tired. The dark circles underneath were even darker and bigger than usual.

 

She gives his cheek a timid caress. "I need to get some more things from my room. You better still be here when I come back."

 

"I will..."

 

"I'll be right back." She goes down the hall for a few minutes.

 

Jig layed on the couch on his left side and closed his eyes for a moment.

 

Melody comes back into the room lugging a heavy-ish looking chest nearly the size of her torso, and a small blanket over one shoulder. She drops it down on the floor with a small thud, and sees Jig laying down already. With a small smile, she'd drape the small blanket over him.

 

He opens his eyes slightly and smiles faintly at her. "What's this...?" he mumbled half-concious already.

 

"Just working on a little invention."She says softly, giving his cheek a quiet kiss as she tucks him in.

 

"Should I be scared...?

 

She chuckles as she sits on the floor and opens up the chest. She looks at him real quick and adjusts her glasses with one finger. "Only if you’re at the receiving end." She pulls out a small cheap looking vial and shows it to him. It's packed full of red and black granular powder.

 

"What is this?"

 

She puts on a glove from inside the case and grips the vial in her fist. Her fist produces a fireball and she tosses it in the fireplace. A small explosion goes off.

 

"Firepowder...?"

 

Melody nods, "Black powder and fire sands."

 

"Where did you get that idea from...?"

 

She shrugs and pulls out a bunch of empty vials of the same variety as well as two sacks of the aforementioned ingredients. "I've just been thinking of different ways to play to my strengths. I even got to test them recently, so I know they're effective." She manages a grin.

 

"Clever girl..." he muttered.

 

"A... plus..."he's passing out again.

 

She watches him falling asleep and starts making as many explosives as possible. "Get some rest while you can. I'll wake you when I hear from Ana."

 

Finally the Professor drifted off to sleep and Melody continued making quick work of the reagents for her mini-bombs. After working on them for a few bells, she ran out of fire sands. Wanting to be fully prepared, she decided Jigumundo was deep enough asleep and she herself was mentally stable enough to make a quick run into town to make a quick purchase. She left a small note on Jig saying what she was doing in case he woke up. It didn't take very long for Clef to take her to the gate to Limsa. Once Melody was in the city, she made her purchases as quick as she could and headed back right away. She and Clef were just heading up the last few stairs when Ana's linkpearl went active.

 

 

 

[E'jusana]

Ana strode determinedly out the door, not waiting for Melody or Jig to put up a fight about her going without them. She crossed the yard, the sun beating down on her in the hot Limsan day, to the chocobo stables where her icy-blue feathered friend was sleeping in the cool of the shade.

 

“Come on Terra, we’ve got to go” she said to the bird urgently. She started gathering the reins and saddle as she spoke “We’re going home to find Martsia. Get up, we have work to do.” Terra looked up at Ana with groggy disbelief, snorted, and laid her head back down. Ana looked down at the stubborn bird and nudged her with her foot. “I know you just laid down but get your feathered arse up, we need to go, now!” as she finished Ana gave the ornery bird a good push and managed to get her on her feet.

 

The red-headed Moqo’te placed the gear on Terra without much resistance from her old friend and mounted her. “Alright, let's go!” she gave the bird a quick pat and they headed off towards the nearest aetheryte.

 

Dressed in her green and brown garb, Ana waited at the Carline Canopy in a darkened corner table for her meeting. Only a few moments passed before she saw three familiar faces, Ana smiled and stood to welcome them. She gave each of them a hug as they greeted each other.

 

The first to speak was a weathered yet handsome looking Miqo’te with jet black hair, a thin tail, and slightly sun-kissed skin. “It’s great to see you E’jusana, but what is your urgency?” he said with concern as he sat down and rested his chin on his hand. A younger Miqo’te with strawberry blonde hair and fair skin chimed in with a soprano voice “Yeah, sis', what’s goin’ on? We don’t see you for six months and then you show up out of the blue with all this swift secrecy.” The third was a tall, fair-skinned Elezen. His chocolate brown eyes matched his hair and as he spoke he laid a gentle hand on Ana’s arm, almost intimately. “Are you alright, Ana?”

 

Ana examined the three old friends sitting in front of her matter-of-factedly. “It is very nice to see you all again. We can catch up later but right now a friend of mine needs us and I need you to help me find her.” Ana caught them all up on what all had transpired at the Midnight Moogle and showed them the envelope containing the berry branch. They all agreed to help and started dividing up the area into search patterns. Ana wrapped a shawl around her crimson locks and all four of them headed out.

 

Ana and the Elezen had been scouring their appointed areas on the map when her linkpearl went off. The soprano's voice spoke softly through the creamy pearl, "We think we've found something of interest. You said your friend's brother was a black mage, correct? This area of forest is all withered and has signs of thaumaturgy everywhere, you'll want to see this." Ana collected the coordinates then she and the Elezen rushed to meet the others. When they drew nearer the location indicated Ana noticed the unusual dead plant matter and signs of burns on tree trunks and surrounding vegetation.

 

As they approached Ana dismounted and spoke softly to the others. "Good job," she nodded to the two Miqo'te. "There is a house several yalms away. We haven't seen any signs of life but the area seems to indicate at minimum of four Lalafells have been here recently," the male Miqo'te reported in a whisper. "Thank you. You all have been very helpful," Ana looked at her surroundings and to her friends deep in thought. "It's almost like the life has been sucked out of this area of the Shroud," her eyes furrowed and then she said adamantly, "I'm going to call for the others, things might get bad very quickly and I do not want any of you here when it does. You all have done me a great favor, do me one more. Please, leave this place. I cannot have any of you here if things go sour. I love you all and will contact you when it is safe to do so."

 

She gave each of them a hug farewell and sent them away. The three left trusting Ana knew what she was doing and that her Midnight Moogle family would be strong enough to support and protect her. They swore if she died that they would seek revenge on not just this friend's family but on Ana's new family for not keeping her safe.

 

Ana safely hid Terra nearby then went closer to find the house. She silently moved through the forest to a tall, leafy tree where she could keep watch on the house in question yet not be seen. With little effort Ana climbed the tree. Once situated she pulled out her linkshell and activated it. "Melody, I think we've found where the Troy's are keeping Martsia" she whispered into the pearl. She gave the details of the area to Melody then heard her familiar voice say with excited panic, "Send me your coordinates and wait there for us."

[Martsia]

WARNING, THIS POST CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF TORTURE

 

 

Martsia couldn't tell what time it was, but she knew her body felt heavy, her limbs tingled numb. She heard scraping and clattering sounds near her and tried to glance over. She was startled when Bortun kicked her chair over onto the floor, slamming her head against the hard floor of the cellar. 

 

 

"Fu..cker..." She gasped out. Nothing wanted to work, it was hard to even blink at this point. 

 

 

"Ya shoulda known this was next, sis! Ye didn't agree to any o our demands....ya been escapin an even converted Mort to yer side." He said, slowly sharpening a knife in his hands. Around him he had an array of strange devices. One was a jar of oil. Another was a needle. She didn't understand what was happening, but she wanted to leave. She wanted to leave now. Her limbs still failed her and she let out a startled gasp when he placed the heel of his boot none too gently against her ribs. "Just agree to our demands and we'll let ya go after the babe is born!"

 

 

"N...ever." She gritted out. He sighed and reared back, slamming his foot into her left side, hearing a loud crack. She couldn't help but scream...a sound heard by Mortine and Kershaw in the next cellar. 

 

 

"What is he doing to her?" Mortine asked, struggling against his restraints. His arrow had been weaker than hers, he'd already regained most of his strength. "Kill me...do what you want just stop hurting he-" Everything went white, the last sound he heard was the whistle of air against the iron poker as he was hit in the head with it. He could feel blood flowing freely down the left side of his face and let out a soft sob. 

 

 

"Ye will be good...and just wait...and listen." Kershaw said, raising the iron again and watching his son flinch. "Good boy."

 

 

"Ye....SONOFA-" She let out a harsh cry as he kicked her again, and he left her there.

 

 

~~~~WARNING....it gets a bit Gory?~~~~

 

 

Bortun sighed and walked over to the table and picked up a large silver spoon and poured some oil into it, holding it over a small torch he had set upon the wall. He watched it until it bubbled and then walked over to her. She couldn't move, she couldn't fight...she could only wait. He purposefully spilled some of the hot oil onto her arm, and watched as she helplessly cried out. He finally knelt next to her and stared her in the face.

 

 

"Just do as we say and it will all be over! I won't do any more." She could feel it in her mind...shouting at her to just do what they said...but the outcome was far worse than this...she wouldn't. He apparently had waited long enough, and he sighed, holding the spoon above her right eye. "Suit yourself."

 

 

Mortine heard an inhuman screech come from the other cellar and struggled against his restraints. He was crying again and calling out to his sister. Kershaw grumbled and hit his son in the arm with the iron, almost enjoying the sounds Mort made. He continued to hit the same spot until he was sure it was broken...and until he could hear begging amidst the weeping. He put down the iron and headed for the door. 

 

 

"I hope he doesn't kill her...we need her after all." He said, leaving the cellar and closing the door behind him. He ventured over to the next cellar and opened the doors. "How's it goin down here?"

 

 

"She's as stubborn as ever! I can't seem to break through to her!" Bortun said, refilling the oil in the spoon. Kershaw tisked quietly as he approached her. Her right eye was severely burned, the surrounding areas had deep burns that would remain for a lifetime. "I figured we should even it out!" Bortun said, holding a freshly made spoon over her face. Kershaw stopped his hand, some oil spilling out and slotching, burning her left cheek. She wasn't making much noise anymore....in fact.

 

 

"Is she even breathing, Bortun?" Kershaw asked. Bortun looked down and noticed her chest wasn't moving anymore and he panicked, throwing the spoon down onto the floor and quickly beginning to aid in her breathing. "YE DID TOO MUCH BORTUN SHE'D BETTER NOT DIE BECAUSE OF YOU!" Kershaw roared...a phrase that could even be heard in the woods, where a certain Miqo'te was waiting and watching.

[Martsia]

As Mar is being tortured in the cellar by her ruthless family, Jig, Mel, and Quki are on their way atop Jig's magnificent Magitech Reaper, ready for an all out assault on the Troy house to rescue her. Meanwhile Ana, spying on the Troy house in the trees of the Shroud, is waiting for her friends to show up in order to save her friend. She has tracked her down, due to the clues Mortine sent to the Midnight Moogle...but unfortunately things are not going to be according to plan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

*The following is a group chat RP between Jig, Mel, Mar, Quki, and Ana...the format is going to reflect such! All times are EST and are not the time of day in the RP*

 

 

6:30 PM - Ana Fhuz: Ana was sitting in the tree waiting and watching when all of a sudden she heard inhuman cries coming from one of the cellars. Her breath quickens and she whispers "Martsia?" She quickly grabs her linkpearl and speaks hurriedly into it "Mel! Somethings bad is happening" just as she says that she hears more screaming and cries "I can't just sit here, I'm going to do something. Please hurry!" She jumps down from the tree, picks up a rock, all in one fluid motion and throws it at the cellars closest window. Knowing this will atract wanted attention she hides in some shrubs along the tree line and waits to see what happens.

6:30 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *turns the speed up on his Magitech Reaper* "Better hold on. It's going to get bumpy..."

6:32 PM - Melody Adagio: *Melody speaks into her linkpearl*  "We're on our waaAAAAY"

6:32 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw isn't expecting a rock to crash through the cellar window, letting out a loud thud against the bars and nearly cracking the window frame. The air in the room becomes stifling as his power grows. Who is stupid enough..."Bring her back Bortun...." He says, opening the cellar doors and slamming them shut. Bortun hears the chain and lock click into place. Kershaw, outside, glances around.

6:34 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki sits at Jigumundo side, looking eerily focused. Her expression is hard to read, just pure focus. She is grasping Jigumundo staff tightly, and clearly on the edge. Any signal and she would explode in a blast of fire and ice to anything. "..."

6:34 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana peeks thru the leaves as she sees the Lalafellin man come out of the cellar. She slowly and quietly grabs her bow from her back and readies an arrow.*

6:35 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw is angry. This is his pride....his legacy. He is working to attain the status his family once held, and no one would get in his way. He steps forward and the air thickens, plants start wilting and almost singeing on the tips. "COME OUT!" He shouts, pulling his staff from his back and extending it, ready for a fight.

6:35 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *Jig furrows his eyebrows and looks upon the readings on the reaper's console* We're closing in. Get prepared.

6:36 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody is holding onto anything around her for dear life, eyes wide with the adrenaline rushing through her little body.

6:37 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana prays to the twelve that the others get there soon and lets the arrow fly*

6:38 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki closes her eyes, tilting her hat , hiding her eyes mostly. She has an spell pretty much ready to cast, she will begin mayhem just the way she likes it "With a bang~..."

6:38 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "One minute..."

6:38 PM - Martsia Troy: Bortun is still trying to bring Martsia back, but he does not feel any breath come, and he can feel her heart slowing to a gradual.....stop. Kershaw feels it, and in an instant the arrow bursts into flames, only ashes and a few bits of the arrowhead fluttering against his skin. He knows where his enemy is now and unleashes a forceful wave of energy at Ana. The blast tears trees from their roots and approaches the Miqo'te.

6:39 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "30 seconds..."

6:39 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody prepares herself to be ready for anything, bracing for impact.

6:39 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *Jig shivered* Black magic...

6:40 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *presses a few buttons* "15 seconds... Ququki. Main cannon is ready. Fire on my command."

6:40 PM - Martsia Troy: In the cellar Mortine quakes, feeling the ground tremble with the ferocity of is father's attack. He tries to break himself free of these bonds, and only ends up on the floor, hearing his arm crunch grossly. "Gods..."

6:41 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody slips a couple of her vials into her free hand.

6:41 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "10 seconds! Get ready!"

6:42 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki has a small smile on her expression, her hand positively twitching. She...likes it. This feeling of danger, of incoming mayhem...she wouldn't ever admit to the others, of course, but it was quite clear she was excited for the chaos that wound be wrought upon the ones that dared take her belo- I mean friend

6:42 PM - Ququki Quki: "Come on Jig we don't have all day!~"

6:42 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana sees the wave coming at her at lightning speed and rolls to the side trying to dodge it but the force throws her into a tree. She lands on the ground with a thud, gasping for air. She looks up and grabs another arrow.*

6:43 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Five!"

6:43 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Four!"

6:43 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Three"

6:43 PM - Martsia Troy: "There!" Kershaw sees her now and raises his staff for another attack, "YOU WILL DIE!"

6:43 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Two"

6:43 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "ONE!"

6:43 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw feels the ground rumble

6:44 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana gets up and dashes behind a tree letting her poisoned arrow fly towards Kershaws chest* Damn, guys. Please, hurry! *she cries to herself*

6:44 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *The magi-tec reaper leaps off into the air, bouncing from a small hill. It flies a considerable distance and lands with a powerful, ground shattering slide really near Kershaw* "FIRE!"

6:45 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki pretty much punches the fire button with all her strength, and giggles, pointing the staff, and releasing a pent up ball of eletricity following the blast

6:45 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody ducks and stays as low as possible during the instant chaos.

6:46 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw has little time to act, he focuses all the energy of his attack, and through arrows and lightning and fire, he holds a steady barrier. "IS THIS CHILDS PLAY?!" He shouts, stomping the ground and soaking up all life through it, even the ground begins to decay and sink.

6:46 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana looks up with utter delight and surprise as the Reaper comes into view* Thank the twelve

6:47 PM - Ququki Quki: She turns to Jigumundo surprised and a bit shocked

6:47 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Cookie... Unleash hell!"

6:47 PM - Ququki Quki: "Is he not afraid of bringing Greenwrath?!"

6:47 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "FIRE ALL CANNONS!"

6:48 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Melody! We're going to take care of him! Go get Ana! We'll keep him busy!"

6:48 PM - Ququki Quki: She nods, smirking. That just dug his coffin extra deep after all. She flicks all the switches and attack buttons she's aware, the reaper roaring like a beast before opening the mouth and sides, machine guns and Photon Blasts wreacking havoc on Kershaw and his property. Wisely, Quki avoids hitting any tree on the shroud

6:48 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw knows these woods, they are his. and in a quick movement he stomps the ground again, disappearing beneath into a sinkhole full of underground paths

6:49 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana sneeks around to flank Kershaw keeping low as to not atract attention and winces as her back bends and stretches the new injuries on her back*

6:50 PM - Ququki Quki: "...well I did not expected that." She stands up on the reaver, taking her combat position and glancing at all directions. He could come from anywhere

6:50 PM - Martsia Troy: He moves quickly, letting the chaos and the rising dusts cloak him. knowing he is near the reaper he raises a hand to the dirt and soaks up every last bit of life, feeling everything caving in, even the tunnels beneath the reapers feet

6:50 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Shit! He's gone..." *checks all of the reaper's devices* "I can't get his readings..."

6:50 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw holds a spherical barrier around himself, ready for the machine to come crashing down.

6:50 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody makes a flying leap off the reaper and rolls onto the ground towards Ana's direction. She books it as fast as she can to the Miqo'te. "Ana!"

6:51 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Shit!" *Jig pulls the lever as strong as he could to make Reaper jump out of the way*

6:51 PM - Martsia Troy: The ground all around the Troy house gives way, falling about six  or seven feet, and dragging any dependant plant life with it.

6:51 PM - Ana Fhuz: *She stops and looks around defencivly then to Melody rushing towards her* "Mel, be careful!' She quickly moves towards Melody

6:52 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "He's building the trenches... Clever bastard..."

6:52 PM - Martsia Troy: Bortun feels the floor beneath him crack and stops working on Martsia. "I'm getting out!" He takes off and only then realizes the door is locked.

6:53 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Cookie! Freeze the ground!"

6:55 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki snaps her fingers and quickly blasts a Ice Wave on the ground, the Ice stricking the ground and keeping the reaver in place...barely. The ice cracks a bit, considering the weight of the machine and the angle

6:55 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody feels the ground give way on her way towards Ana and tries not to stumble. She tries to move away and not get sucked in with the earth under her feet.

6:55 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana feels the ground beneath her feet fall and throws herself towards Melody, grabs her, and holds her protectively as they are taken down in the landslide*

6:56 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki turns to Jigu " Try to know where the others feel, Professor! We can't fire and just hit them too!"

6:56 PM - Martsia Troy: Mortine feels the ground give beneath him and hears the sound of the house standing beam crack and give way. He knows if he doesn't do something he will die here.

6:56 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody conjures a barrier around herself and Ana, praying for the best.

6:56 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *Jig notices Mel and Ana falling with the landslide and points at the girls direction* There! Wall! Now! Stop them from falling!"

6:57 PM - Martsia Troy: Bortun is slamming against the cellar door, trying with all of his might to break the chains, but they are in good condition. He watches as The floor sinks away, taking Mar down a bit with it

6:57 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana hold Mel with one hand and grabs at the air hoping to catch something to keep them from falling*

6:58 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw waits, his barrier surrounding him and when he knows its about time he stops and breaks it, unleashing a feiry shockwave, knocking trees back and breaking apart part of his brother's own house.

6:59 PM - Martsia Troy: Bortun hears something and before he knows it his face is burning, the door to the cellar blown clear off, as he is thrown back into the room

6:59 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki screams in pain, her skin getting slightly singed. She closes her eyes for a bit, curling in pain and still holding the staff

7:00 PM - Ququki Quki: "FIRE TO THE MIDDLE JIGU. HE'S THERE THE BARRIER IS OFFAAAAAA"

7:00 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: Jig covers his face with his healthy hand and d shouts to cookie "FREEZE HIM!" He doesn't realize she can't attack.

7:00 PM - Martsia Troy: The ground settles into an almost charcoal phase around him, and Kershaw looks past the devistation to see Jig. "Well well...Jigumundo...." He says. Hearing their fleeting and futile cries.

7:01 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *Jig quickly pushes down fire button unleashing the main cannon*

7:01 PM - Ana Fhuz: *Ana catches a sturdy root and holds tight as she and Melody are protected from the blast by Mel's barier. She starts pulling them up to more solid ground.*

7:01 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody's barrier held off most of the fire blast, but it didn't stop them from getting a few burns before it broke.

7:02 PM - Melody Adagio: "Do you know where Mar is, Ana?" she coughs. Dirt was everywhere. She looked around at the wreckage of the building and felt her stomach drop.

7:02 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw sees a heated blast coming his way. and sighs. He breaths in, the area around him going dark...purple...he starts to sap the very fire from the cannon, the very moisture from the air. "I didn't think I'd see you here." He says. He doesn't know how his misuse will affect the world.

7:12 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody heads towards the wreckage and carefully starts manuevering around, trying to keep a low profile.  She would glance up every so often to make sure Kershaw's attention was kept away.

7:16 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Kershaw Troy..." *Jig leaned out of the cover that his Reaper naturally made for him* "Or should I say. K.T. I kenw there was something familirar with that name... So you're behind this." *while talking he gives Cookie some gestures showing her to stay low and flank him*

7:25 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki nods, and uses Kershaw focus on Jigumundo to sneakily fall out of the reaver, and points her staff to direction of Ana on her field of view, the Aetheric teleportation quickly moving her to the direction. She lays low, almost kissing the ground to let the dust hide her movements, and cuts the spell halfway throught, and holds on a burnt root for support. The dust still rose, but when she had a clear sight of Kershaw she would attack. Keeping her eyes half closed inside the dust cloud, she waits

7:31 PM - Ana Fhuz: Ana follows closly behind Melody towards what was left of the house and cellars. She leads Melody to the remnants of Martsia's cellar door and peeks inside. She notices the stairs are missing and the large drop to the floor. She also sees Martsia tied to a chair, laying on the ground, and another male Lalafell. The man is scrambling from under the fallen cellar door, bleeding profusely. She narrows her gaze knowing this, this is the man who has been torturing her friend. While he is distracted Ana carefully chooses an arrow, pulls a vile filled with a terrible, fast acting poison from her pack, and places the contents on the arrowhead. "This is for all the pain you've caused our family." she whispers and aims the arrow at the man's chest. She motions towards the man telling Melody silently what she was going to do. Filled with rage she lets the arrow loose towards it's target.

7:34 PM - Martsia Troy: Bortun doesn't have time to react when he feels the arrow thud into his chest. He collapses to his knees and scrambles weakly over to Mar, grabbing her hair. "She's already dead you know....good fucking luck." He feels something coming up his throat and vomits blood onto the ground and soon he falls down completely, convulsing.

7:35 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw sighs. "Clever boy Jigumundo! Youve come a long way from a terrified murderer trying to rebuild. And this is where we are similar...I am also trying to rebuild....so leave me be and I'll leave you all relatively alive." He growled.

7:42 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *in secret Jigumundo slowly absorbs aether from Reaper's generator and the one leftin the air by kershaw's spells, rebuliding his own Aether levels.* "My apologies, but I am not able to fulfill that request... You see there is one slight detail that you missed in your perfect little plan. And that is messing with wrong family. Growl all you want K.T. I'm not scared of you nor your goons... Since I can't call them your family. See... as I speak, I am gathering more and more power from the one you used up, slowly getting powerful with every word I speak. See... what I learned in Garlemald military academy was... to be a good strategist and your chaotic actions here, never EVER was near any strategy. You are desperate. Black Magic can't help you now..." *Jig waits for dust to fall, smirking confidently, Nearly taunting Kershaw with his devilish smile.* "Also... who's the murderer here?"

7:43 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody watched the man die on the floor beneath them.  The sight was sickening, but she grit her teeth at the bastard and sent a silent curse his way.  When she heard him say Mar was dead, she looked back down at Mar's unconcious body and saw that she in fact was not breathing.  Her breath caught in her throat and she immediately found the safest looking drop down, gesturing for Ana to come with her.

8:01 PM - Ququki Quki: As the dust settles, the tip of her hat starting to poke from the dust cloud, she gives a smile. She finally got the plan, huh. Smart, just as she expected of the Professor. Quickly, she releases from the root, sliding on the floor, as she aims Jigumundo's staff, and casts a massive ball of thunder, powered by the staff towards Kenshraw, and pulls from her inner coat another, one handed staff. She throws Jigu's staff on the air and aims with her staff an explosion of unaspected, aiming close to the staff. It works, and the staff is propelled high speed towards Jigumundo. Quki eventually falls on the ground, rolling and coughing a bit, looking up to see where exactly she ended up.

8:05 PM - Ana Fhuz: Ana's face still set with anger she lets out a bit of a sigh of release and nods to Melody seeing her motion to jump down. Ana scoops up Melody and hops carefully down into the cellar not wanting to send the whole place crumbling around them. As they land Ana lets out a whelp of pain feeling the burns and the large bruise on her back from flying into that tree. Her head throbbed, as did her side, was that a broken rib? She sets Mel down and clutches her side as they hurry over to where Martsia is. Melody rushed to her side and started checking the girl. As Melody's hands flitted around the practically lifeless lalafell Ana pulled a knife from her belt and began cutting the ropes loosing her and laid her flat on the ground.

8:10 PM - Martsia Troy: Martsia is lifeless, eyes half lidded and dirt caked against the oiled burns on her face. Meanwhile Kershaw is caught a bit off guard with the lightning blast and moved to dodge it, it striking him in the right calf. His leg twitches and he grumbles, hearing the sound of Jig's staff sailing overhead. He raises his own and shouts something in another language. A large ball of of ice forms and shatters into tiny shards. He sends them at the legs of the Reaper, hearing them hit their marks. He will bring Jig to his level, and they will settle this. "THE GIRL IS MINE!"

8:21 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody grimaces at the horrible wounds on Martsia, but will have to take care of those later.  "Breathe, Mar, come on." she talks in a whispery panic and tries to remember what she'd read to do in this situation.  She listened for a heartbeat...Nothing. Cursing, she placed both hands on Martsia's sternum and put all her strength into getting this girl back alive. After a few strong pushes, she tips Mar's chin up, pinches her nose and blows her air into Mar's lungs.  Then back to pushing.  "Come on Mar!" she starts to freak out, but then stops when she feels Martsia start coughing and sputtering back to life.  Melody stops and almost laughs at the elated feeling that the girl was alive.

8:22 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Clever girl..." *Jig smiled and pushed his glasses up his nose. When the ice shards connected, Jig is nowhere to be seen as Reaper collapses on it's back with it's legs completely wrecked. Kershaw would look around, searching for him. Jig was in fact over Kershaw's head. Teleported away A MOMENT before Troy's attack connected to grab his staff mid air and fly behind the Black Mage* "You forgot one thing, Troy!" *as soon as Jig grabbed the staff mid-air, he casted his signature move... He'd shower his opponent with fireball barrage. Lots and lots of fireballs flying high-speed towards Kershaw. Jigumundo made his landing behind his adversary.* "...never underestimate your opponent." *standing back to back with the place where by now, giant series of explosions should appear*

8:27 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki would be impressed by the Professor's amazing skills, or his impressive entrance and casting. However, the first thing that popped from her head wasn't that. Was the sound of the wood cracking even more, as Jigumundo's impact weakened even more the already fragile structure "Professor you...hmm...kinda over did it." Cursing a bit, she runs to the entrance she saw Ana and Mel got in, silently hoping they would move fast before the underground collapsed upon itself. She however, holds a small smile. Her admiration for her da- Jigumundo grew exponentially.

8:27 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki waits at the entrance for Mel, Ana and hopefully Marty.

8:37 PM - Ana Fhuz: Ana sits worried and prays as she watches Melody try and push life back into Martsia. It seemed like eternity but then Martsia lets out a cough and starts breathing on her own. "Thank the twelve!" she claps and sheds a tear of relief. "Come on, let's get you out of here. Mel, is she safe to move?" Melody answers, "Not sure. Let's just focus on getting ourselves out before this building buries us alive." Ana nods and gently picks up Martsia. The three of them walk over to where the stairs should be. "This will prove interesting." she looks at the two "Mel, I have an idea. I'm going to toss the two of you up there, can you hold Martsia?" the girl nods and Ana picks up both lala's. She gathers all her strength and throws the two up thru the opening with a loud grunt. The force of her toss threw Ana to the ground. She laid there with ragged breath as she clutched her side and a pained look on her face. "I-I'll be--" she gasps for air "r-right up!" she calls to Melody as she sees them safely at the door.

8:41 PM - Martsia Troy: Mar wasn't anywhere particular after death....or maybe because she was still salvagable she never truly left her body? All she knew is that everything was blurry, hazey, even the sounds seemed muffled and far off. She felt herself being held and moved, and she wanted to scream, for the love of all that was holy she wanted to scream. But nothing came out. She felt gravity shift as she was tossed up and out of the cellar. She finally let one eye shakily move to see Mel and she felt a wave of relief, but she knew this wasn't over. There was no way. "W......wher....s............." She took in a ragged breath and finally, quietly pushed out. "Mortine...." 

8:45 PM - Martsia Troy: Kershaw didn't have time to react to the blasts, and they rained down on him. All he could do was take and take and take more energy, but the forest was deadened now, and he felt something erupt inside of him, taking his own energy from within. When the dust cleared they saw him....parts of him. His head, part of his torso, organs dangling in midair like they were in a body. He had one arm, and a foot. What filled in the gaps was the purple/black hazed matter that could only be from one thing....It wouldn't have been possible for him to be alive, but as he let out a horrifying screech a clawed arm erupted from his mouth, shattering his jaw. Slowly more and more parts erupted, the air growing grim, and finally, shredding the last pieces of flesh that would bind him....the voidsent screeched in triumph. It was an Anubys, wielding a giant axe, it towered over the Lalafells and roared.

9:00 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody and Mar landed with a thud outside the cellar and Mel held a thumb up for Ana to know they were fine up here.  She heard Mar mutter about Mortine and shook her head.  "We haven't seen him." she answered quietly.  She didn't care at all what happened to that bastard.  All of a sudden, explosions happened and the building started to shake unsettlingly. "Ana...Ana you may want to hurry!" she said.  She got up and started dragging Mar away from the wreckage and away from the fight.

9:05 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Oh shit..." *Jig cursed upon seeing the voidsent* "Cookie... You might want to run. Go help Melody and Ana. I'll take care of this..."

9:08 PM - Ququki Quki: "...No." Quki merely rushes at the professor, clutching her one handed staff, and gets into position, next to Jigumundo, focused. "You can't possibly take care of this alone, I'll help" She looks a bit afraid, but determined

9:10 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "This is out of question! I'm not taking a risk of you being swallowed and devoured by a voidsent! Now move out of way!"

9:12 PM - Ququki Quki: She turns to Jigumundo, her expression a mix of focus and a eery calm "I am not moving anywhere. I am not risking yourself too, I know you are hot-blooded and can take more than you can chew. You either cast me a sleep spell, which will make me a sitting duck, or accept my help. If you try teleporting me away, I will simply move myself back with Aetheric Movement.

9:13 PM - Ququki Quki: " Anna will bring them back. So, for your sake and the others, focus on the voidsent and not me "

9:24 PM - Ana Fhuz: Ana catches her breath and stands up quickly as she feels the whole cellar quake. "Uh oh!" She readies herself and then springs up catching the ledge and pulls herself up and out just in time to see the the hideous, axe weilding voidsent standing there where Kershaw was last she'd seen. "Damn it! What have you guys been up to, another?!" she says teasingly looking at the scene with disbelief. She shakes her head trying to focus again and draws her bow not sure what to expect from this thing. Just as fast as she drew her bow Jig threws a fire ball at the thing. As the dust and smoke settled she waited and watched standing defensively infront of Melody and Martsia.

9:18 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: *Jig groaned furiously, gathering some more Aether due to his use of black magic and casually threw a huge fiery projectile towards the Voidsent, without even looking at it. "You stubborn, impertinent, disobedient, risktaker brat!"

9:29 PM - Martsia Troy: Mar doesn't know what is happening, things seem like they should be loud....but it all still seems so far away. As her vision begins to improve, in her left eye at least, she realizes her father's torn apart body is lying at the feet of a monsterous voidsent...She tries to move, her broken ribs telling her no. "Mor....sent the letters.....I have...." Her body finally gives her a big NO when she feels herself get light headed and collapses back into Melody's arms. "I can't see Mel....I can't see...." She keeps repeating it, beginning to go into a full on panic. The voidsent is hit with the feiry ball and just shakes it off, feeling despair somewhere it locks eyes with Mar and begins it's path towards the two lalas and Ana. "fuckfuckFuckFUCKFUCKFUCK!!!!!"

9:34 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody sees this thing start making a beeline towards them and starts to panic a little.  She keeps dragging Mar back with on arm and uses her others to grab a few vials from her belt.  "A little help over here!!" she yells out.  She sends a fireball containing the vials hurling at the voidsent's face and they would explode on impact.

9:36 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki widens her eyes in Alarm, and quickly casts ice on the field where the Voidsent walks towards them, freezing the ground. She knew it would be momentary but she needed all the time she could get. She starts charging a caste of her, closing her eyes in concentration.

9:36 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Oh no you don't!" *Jig focuses a little and shouts* "Arctic Dungeon!" *he''d slam the tip of his staff to the ground, sending a cold wave through the ground towards the monster, freezing everything in it's way. When it connects it should lock the monster in a small iceberg*

9:45 PM - Ana Fhuz: Ana sees the voidsent now encased in ice. With a fire in her eyes, she steadies her arrow and aims at it's unprotected chest waiting for an opening unsure how long it will be immobilized.

9:49 PM - Martsia Troy: The anubys roars as the ice forms and as it raises an arm it is sliced clean off by Jig's spell. It's blood begins to melt through the ice, leaving little rivers of thaw, and as it struggles the ice begins to crack. Mar is stunned into silence, hoping to all gods it doesn't break free. Meanwhile, in the other cellar, Mortine finally wiggles free enough. All of the activity caused his broken arm to slide out of the ropes. He is thankful, but also hates his father and blames him for all of this. As he makes his way up the nearly broken steps he hears a roar and peeks out, seeing the voidsent. He quickly but clumsily climbs out of the cellar and dashes away, into the charred woods.

9:53 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody breathes a small sigh of relief when the others wound the monster. She focuses all her efforts to getting Martsia as far away as fast as possible.  She notices movement from the rubble and glances to see what looked like Mortine running away into the woods.  Melody hoped some woodland predator would eat him.  "Calm down Mar, its okay.  Mortine got away." she says to Martsia through gritted teeth.

9:56 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki jabs him on the ribs, smiling. "I know you got a hidden ace, cast it I'll hold it!" She turns to the voidsent, determined, and repeatly renews the ice locking the Voidsent, it barely being capable to even stretch it's maw

10:06 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: Jig grinned sinisterly, as he looked upon the frozen voidsent. Light casted by fire devouring the trees, reflected from his spectacles, completely covering his eyes. "I told you, Troy... You messed with wrong family..." Jig rasied his staff up in the air. Everyone could feel that wind stopped blowing and the fire extinguished. It was getting colder and colder. The Moogle crew could see a small spark of light piercing through prism of the ice. "Almighty void as I am your servant, lend by thy power. As I command you, lay waste with a fiery shower. Let those who dare stand in my way, extinguish their life. With the glowing spark, you shall end my strife!" As he spoke, the ice where the monster was trapped began to glow even more as Jig's were covered in purple flames. He'd look upon the rest. "You might want to run now... It's gonna get bumpy..." As he said that he'd finish his incantation. "Those who stand before me and feed my wrath! Let be punished and be cast on a proper path! Destroy everything as I command...." Ground starts shaking. "...for this is my humble demand...". A spark of victory appeared in Jig's eyes. "Checkmate, Troy... FLARE!" As he yelled and the rest made their escape a giant explosion followed by a blinding flash, shook the surroundings...

10:09 PM - Ququki Quki: "THAT WAS INCREDIBLY AWESOME I NEVER SAW SOMETHING SO GREAT THIS IS AAAAAA" She runs from the blast, her fingers twitching in sheer joy and happiness, giggling like a small girl...smaller than now of course

10:12 PM - Ana Fhuz: Ana heard Jig's warning and didn't wait a single moment. She turned, grabbed Melody and Martsia, and ran as fast as she could. As Jig finished his incantation she shielded her eyes and the two lalas in her arms as everything grew white with light and the ground trembled with fear.

10:15 PM - Martsia Troy: Mar was being carried when she felt everything go white. For a moment she thought she was dying again. When they got a ways away she saw a familiar face in the bushes and struggled out of Ana's hands. Her first....and only thought, was to pick up the nearest rock and chuck it. It cracked her brother square in the face and he cursed loudly and continued to run. As he jumped past bushes and trees she sighed. "THANKS YOU FUCKER!" She screamed hoarsly.

10:19 PM - Martsia Troy: And finally as it let out a screech, the voidsent vaporized, leaving nothing behind....it was gone....done.

10:19 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: As dust fell down they could notice Jig laying on the ground. He wasn't moving. Every piece of plantlife around him was withered and dead. The sling that was holding his limp arm was bloodsoaken. His staff lied near him... all red from the heat. Purple sparks were still wandering and jumping over his seemingly lifeless body.

10:19 PM - Ququki Quki: ...

10:23 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody shut her eyes during the white light brightness, grinning devilishly knowing that Jig had utterly destroyed the voidsent. Once they were safely away and Ana put them down, she hurried to Mar to start checking her wounds.  On her way, she saw that Jigumundo had likely overdone it yet again with that attack.  "Ana, can you help Cookie bring that idiot over here too?" she asked of the miqo'te with an exasperated tone.

10:25 PM - Ququki Quki: She looks at Jigumundo...and sighs. Yep, he overdid himself. Normally she would be shocked, or desperate, but that wasn't the first time he did that, and Mel's tone left clear that weren't going to be the last. She picks him up, still with a smile on her expression. "That was...AWESOME PROFESSOR".

10:34 PM - Ana Fhuz: Ana sees the dust fade and relaxes a bit. She feels a warm, wet sensation on the back of her neck as her head pounds more and more, her body aches all over. "Damn it, that'll probably need some stitches," she thinks to herself. She takes a quick look around at all the damage and withered plant life around her and then to her friends with awe. She smiles a sad smile when her gaze reaches Martsia. Melody says "Ana, can you help Cookie bring that idiot over here too?" Ana nods and seems a bit confused as she hurried to help Cookie. She sees Jig looking almost dead, knows of Mel's feelings for him, and yet hears her odd choice of words but shrugs it off wanting to focus on the task at hand. "Come on Jiggy boy." She aides Cookie but doesn't take him from her. The odd bending while walking makes her head start to spin. She sits on the ground close by and rests soon after she makes sure Jig is where Melody can begin to care for his wounds.

10:38 PM - Martsia Troy: Mar sighs to herself, it's over. And at first she feels elated, but she gazes upon the decaying wreckage of her uncle's house....a place that was only supposed to be a safe haven. She looks back to Jig, to Ana, Quki, Mel. They all came here....she knew they would. And it was then that something fell upon her. The urge to just scream, and cry, and just openly sob. The urge was so strong that she slumped over, holding her head in her hands. She couldn't let it out...not here. Jig needed help, he needed help badly...and Ana- she pulled back her hand and took a layer of skin from her face with it. Looking down at it now all she felt was shock, and panic and she couldn't hold back the scream.

10:45 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody looked around at all of them, burned, bloody, bruised, and un-doubtly some broken.  "I'm not going to be able to do everything until we find a way home..." she sighs to herself, wincing at a burn on her face.  She saw Jig lying there and looked at him briefly...he'd survive. She leaves him where he is for now and goes to Mar as she heard the girl scream.  "No no no! Mar you need to calm down." she held Mar's hand and immediately started to clean her up.  "Quki.  I know the Professor will be fine, but can you cool him down?  He's likely gotten a fever again.  Ana, I'm sorry but I could probably use your help holding Mar while I do this." she looks at Ana apologetically.

10:47 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "I'm... fine...." Jig muttered as he briefly opened his eyes and tried to sit. "Just... everything hurts..." He'd rub his forehead. "That was quite a blast wasn't it...?"

8:45 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki grimaces a bit. Sure, the worst was over, but now with Jigu again wounded due to his efforts, and Marty's skin and burns, she was a bit disheartened. But she swallowed the lump, she had to keep a straight head about this. Crouching, she took off her pratice gloves. She barely used them, since she was much more proeficient with a staff, but she still kept around. Who knows? Applying a small amount of Ice casting on her gloves and wincing a bit due to the stinging ice, she applied her icy gloves on Jigumundo's forehead, hoping the quell his raging fever.

8:56 PM - Ana Fhuz: She felt like a herd of buffalo had kicked her around like a rag doll. Everything was sore and her head needed stitches but this wasn't her first time like this. She would push past the pain and keep up her strength as long as she could. Her body was reminding her that she hadn't slept and had just come back from a hunt, how much longer could she keep this up? She took a deep breath trying to clear her head and went over to help Melody. She firmly held Martsia against her chest in an unyielding bear hug. She tried to close her mind to the screams of her friend and gently made comforting hushing sounds near the lalafell's ear as Melody did her work.

9:04 PM - Martsia Troy: Mar felt Ana's arms go around her and she wanted to struggle. Everything hurt, her ribs hurt under Ana's grip and she just kept screaming. There was nothing to stop her really....it was pure panic and fear now. She saw Mel prepare to clean her wounds and she started to cry, shaking her head.

9:11 PM - Melody Adagio: These screams weren't helping anything, but no amount of comforting words or hushes were calming Martsia down.  Mel just grit her teeth and her emotions and focused on cleaning up the horrifying burns covering Mar's face and arms.  That eye...She wasn't sure if she could handle that one with her current know-how.  Definitely not here in the middle of the Shroud.  Melody moved as fast and efficiently as she could with Mar's constant struggling.  Once the wounds were as clean as possible, she got to work applying burn ointment on everything.  "How's the professor doing, Quki?" she took a quick glance away to check on the half-dead Jigumundo.

9:13 PM - Ququki Quki: "N-not good Mal! We gotta get to Gridania, and fast! His wounds from now and from...whatever happened before piled up!" She grunts frustrated, her gloves glowing blue and green, both from the ice, and the physick she applies on his forehead "I really think we need a Conjurer!"

9:13 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "I'm fine..." he groaned trying to sit with some hardship. "Everything hurts now... that's all. Cookie... remember the sleeping spell? It might be helpful now... AAGH!" He grabbed his right hand in pain. "Bollocks..." he cursed as the sling holding his left arm grew crimson red from blood flowing from opened wounds.

9:15 PM - Ququki Quki: "Sure!" She hurriedly got her one handed staff and casted the spell, relaxing the professor muscles and mind to rest

9:16 PM - Jigumundo Darkbore: "Not... mee..." he'd fell asleep.

9:17 PM - Ana Fhuz: "Hey, Cookie. How about some of that over here?" she motions to the screaming Martsia in her arms

9:18 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki nods, and applies the same procedure to Marty...then it dawned on her "Oh, she meant her not him!

9:19 PM - Melody Adagio: "Doesn't matter at this point.  I can deal with him awake or not."

9:21 PM - Ququki Quki: "Well sleeping is easier right!" It's clear Quki is trying to cover her clear embarassment

9:24 PM - Martsia Troy: Mar could feel the sharp burning pain of the cleaning and she saw the look in Mel's eyes when she looked at her. Her eye. "Mel-" Suddenly her body felt heavy and she began to breathe easier. She saw everything slipping into darkness and then she was gone. Asleep

9:31 PM - Melody Adagio: "Phew..." Melody sighed and relaxed when she watched Martsia fall asleep. "Thanks, Quki." She is now able to mostly finish bandaging Mar up.  "Ana, if you need to rest now it's fine.  Thank you for all your help.  I'll tend to you after Jigumundo." Mel took this opportunity to clean that damaged eye up as best she could think how before applying one last bandage to cover it.  It was messy to say the least.  Melody picked up her stuff and brought to the snoozing Professor and immediately began stopping the bleeding from his arm.

9:38 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki nods, giving one last hug at the sleeping form of the professor before rushing to Ana. She puts her two still icy gloves on each side of Ana's ribs and casts a continuous aura of Physick. Since it's continuous, it is more of a painkiller than anything, but at least makes her wounds easier to burden for as long as Quki holds it "Sorry Anny, my Physick isn't strong enough to mend deep cuts or bones..."

9:48 PM - Ana Fhuz: "I hope you don't hate me for this," she whispers in Martsia's ear as her body relaxes. She loosens her hold and carefully lays the girl on the ground. Her hands move to untie the shawl that is now hanging around her shoulders, folds it and places it under Martsia's now sleeping head. She tucks a bit of hair behind Martsia's ear "Sleep deeply, Martsia." Ana's eyes begin to well up with tears as she recalls all the recent events and sits down heavily on the ground. She squeezes her eyes close and tries to breath normaly. "Oh" her breath catches "Don't worry about me, Mel. Nothin' I can't handle." she tries to sound indifferent. Suddenly she heard litle feet come upon her and tiny, icy gloves touch her sides. She looked up to see Quki and hear her say "Sorry Anny, my Physick isn't strong enough to mend deep cuts or bones..." Ana tries to smile at Quki "Thanks, this will do fine." She already could feel the pain ease and could breath a little more normal now. She whistles to Terra and the bird comes out of hiding and joins tattered and bruised group.

10:14 PM - Melody Adagio: Melody sits down next to Jig's sleeping form and got to work unwrapping the blood-soaked bandages around his gimped arm.  Deciding she'd had enough of trying to keep his damned stitches from tearing, she'd save herself and him a bunch of trouble and cauterize the wounds closed once and for all.  She grabbed some metal tweezers from her med kit and snapped her fingers.  She watched a little flame light up above her fingertip and watched it for a moment.  A frown appeared on her face as she realized it was a little weak.  She let her thoughts drift to the argument she'd had with him in the Moogle, how he nearly hurt her, how he is always almost killing himself, how he'd propos- *the flame starts to look more like a small blowtorch the longer she thinks* Melody held onto this strength and used it to burn his open wounds closed.  The tweezers helped keep the burns small. Snapping her fingers to put out the flame, she let out her breath and continued working on him until he had clean bandages and his arm was back in the sling. She'd brush his hair back out of his face a bit, and get up to go tend to Ana next.

10:22 PM - Ququki Quki: Quki keeps up her Physick on Anna, waiting for Mel

10:29 PM - Ana Fhuz: The ease of pain is helping her think more clearly and Ana pushes back the sadness for now, it's time to get these guys out of here. "Mel, you can patch me up later. Let's get everyone home. We can put Jig and Martsia on Terra, you may also fit if you're careful." She turns her head to Quki, "Do you think that thing will still work or should we leave it here for now?" she motions towards the mecha. "Number one priority right now is to get everyone safely out of here, we should head out as soon as you say they can be moved, Mel."

10:34 PM - Melody Adagio: "They could both be moved now.  Be more careful with Mar.  She might have some broken bones, but I'll be better able to deal with those at home.  Yours too, Ana." she sees the huntress having trouble breathing and assumes broken ribs. "Would Terra be able to carry you and the two of them?  It seems Quki and I are good to stay on foot."

10:44 PM - Ququki Quki: "Yeah, me and Mel can go. The Reaper however..." She looks at the broken and drained mech, wincing a bit "That ain't going anywhere. It's pretty broken, and the quiver and lancers could see. We should get outta here as soon as possible before we're taken as Garleans..."

10:47 PM - Ana Fhuz: "Alright, I'll take Jig and Mar on Terra. We should make our way to Brentbranch, that will be the nearest and quickest way to get home. Let's go."

 

*END RP*

 

As the battle weary group finally came upon the Midnight Moogle, they felt a wave of relief. Ana carefully carried Jig inside and laid him on the couch, and then brought Mar inside. She took Mar to her own bedroom and laid her down on top of the covers. When Mel believed that Jig was in a decent state she places a cold rag on his forehead and left him with his pupil. She was exhausted from the battle, and quite frankly didn't want to put her friend in any more pain than she already was in. But the layers of burnt flesh bothered her. When she finally made it into Ana's room, medkit in hand, she unwrapped the bandages, already soaked with pus, blood, and sweat, and saw just what she had feared. The damage was causing the burned flesh to decay. She had been working on a healing ointment, similar to the shots she'd given Mar for her sprained ankle. She took a liberal amount in her fingers and began to apply it around the burns on the arm first, so as to get a base test first.

 

Everyone, despite restless, slept for a good few hours. Mel woke again to check onthe wounds and noticed they had actually begun the healing process. Her ointment was a success! She did the same process with Mar's left cheek, the burns there were awful, but still couldn't be worse than the ones around the right eye....and in. She left Mar to sleep, asking Quki to use another sleep spell on her to ensure she did not wake. She spent the next several hours working on some drops, a liquid form of her healing product, so she could use them in the eye. Ointment would be a bit too harsh, and all she really needed to do was thin it enough to put in the eyes. She asked Jig, who was now at least semi-consious, how she should go about this, but got more answers from the resident botanist, Ana, on how to thin it naturally and make it have less of a reaction. So, in a group effort, they made the tiniest vial of drops, for one time use only.

 

Martsia woke up screaming, panicking and not knowing where she was. The last thing she really remembered was skin, a whole layer just peeling off when she touched it...and then. And then Mel was helping her and she was screaming and...Mel came in the room and she started crying. Mel did her best to calm her, hugs and gently pets on her hair. "It'll be okay, don't worry...we have you, you are safe." Finally, after calming enough to hear Mel's explaination, Mar agreed, to the experimental drops. She had to be held down by Ana, and the drops hurt and burned, causing a panic attack, but after 20 minutes or so, at least a fourth of the inflammation had gone down. She tried her best to remain calm when the ointment was applied to the severe burns around her eye, and a bandage wrapped around her head. 

 

A few days later, Jig was for the most part, healthy, except the injuries to his arm, which he was stubbornly avoiding treatment...as usual. After treatment, Ana's ribs were healing nicely, as well as the injuries during the fight. Any injuries Quki and Mel had were easy enough to heal. After four days, Mar finally left Ana's room. Her burns were healing nicely, and the bandages were finally allowed to be taken off. For the first few hours, she just listened to people chat. around her, and kept her right eye closed. Around 1pm mar finally opened her eye. To her dismay, she couldn't really see anything except for faded blurs of color, if that. She did her best not to cry during that day. 

 

That night, Jig suprised her with a pair of glasses, which helped a small bit, but it was at least worth the tiny bit of sight she got back. She thanked him profusely, and he mentioned it was also a bit of Mel's idea, at least to give her hope to hold onto. That night, a man they had interviewed to work as Brio's personal bodyguard showed up. He had an eye patch, and seemed very upset and angered at the fact that she was injured to that degree. She realized that night that when she tried to smile or laugh, the burned skin would crack or split, and had to be taken care of by Mel again. She was getting fed up with everything, and the one thing that made things worse was when Brio finally saw her. 

 

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" He exclaimed...and she couldn't take it...everything was stressing her out, she had broken down and cried in front of a complete stranger, that Ana had to take out of the house while Mel consoled her, she kept hurting herself whenever she smiled or even tried to be happy, and now Brio was shouting about her injuries?

 

"SHIT HAPPENED BRIO!" She screamed back. This startled both Mel, and her brother. Brio told her there was no reason to take it out on him, and after a brief talk, and apology, she was allowed to take a peek upstairs...at a dream coming to life...a new legacy of the Moogle was being born.

 

 

And thus, this tale of terror, fate, vengeance and hope...comes to an end...and the Troy legacy changes for the better, and will never be the same again.