Chapter 1 - Broken Balance

Ren was not overly phased by the boy's objection. The answer he had given, after all, was one she'd been expecting. The boy quite clearly lacked natural wings, and, as he was almost certainly not a Rihnei, she doubted that he would be able to summon a set, either. However, despite those doubts, she found the revelation that he was incapable of flight to be, nevertheless, quite troublesome. She hadn't wanted to do this. And yet, she also found herself unable to simply leave him there to die at the hands of the skirmishing parties on the top of the plateau. She'd have to carry him, then, she realized, which would in turn mean allowing him to touch her. That, in turn, would give him the perfect chance to dispose of her the moment they touched down. In any case, even had she not feared that she was just being used, there was still the principle of the thing. She didn't allow anyone to lay hands on her. It just wasn't something she tolerated. She hated being touched. It reminded her of what things had been like when people had been able to poke, prod, strike, or restrain her whenever they felt like it. Those days were gone, and she did not intend to go back to the way things were then. Not ever again would she allow herself to be treated like an animal, touched and toyed with as her tormentors saw fit. She would rather never touch anything again, if it meant that she herself could no longer be grasped.

And yet, there was no other choice. And so, grimacing, she turned to the boy, braced herself, and then, flooding her body with all the power she had left, prepared to take off. In an instant, the scarlet grid covering her body flared brightly to life, surrounding her in a glistening aura of radiant power as she prepared for the strain she was about to put herself through. Spreading both her wings and her arms, she ignored the sounds of charging footfalls rushing towards them. They'd be gone from this place soon enough, in any case.

"Silence yourself! That problem can be rectified!" Ren shouted. With those words as her only warning, she wasted no time in kicking off, and, with a mighty beat of her wings, tackling the lad in much the same way as she had pushed the two Demons over the edge of the cliff. The only difference was that now, she was actively holding her victim, clinging with all her strength onto him so as not to risk dropping him and dashing him to pieces on the rocks below. "Save your breath! It'll be in short enough supply while we're falling!" She shouted in his ear as the two of them flew over the edge of the cliff. With those words, she sucked in as much air as she could, and then folded her wings. Actively using her control over the celestial power flooding through her own body, and the metal in her wings, she propelled herself downward with tremendous speed. The Demons rushing after them reached the edge of the cliff, hoping to catch hold of them with magic and pull them back up, only to find them falling swiftly out of range, and out of sight. This was good, since it meant they'd surely escaped from the battle. But, on the other hand, there was now the small problem that they were falling at a truly ridiculous speed, crossing about half of the distance to the ground within a matter of seconds. There was no time to steady their descent and ease out into flight. No, Ren realized. The only option she had was to...

"Hold on," She directed as she charged power throughout her body, at the same time detaching the wings on her head, affixing their mass to the larger wings on her back to broaden their span. At the same time, she deployed every last ounce of the power within their cores to encircle the boy, forming an arcane protective screen that would prevent his bones from being crushed by the strain. Unfortunately for her, however, as she herself was just working with her natural endurance and the small store of power within her body itself - she couldn't risk breaking any more of her wings, or else she wouldn't be able to level out in time -she had a feeling that her own experience would be much less harmless and far more painful. But, there was no choice. And so, bracing against the full force of gravity... she spread her wings, and willed the metal grafted into her back to pull her up, controlling her own body indirectly as though she was her own marionette. The air screamed around them as she felt a wave of agony building up within her back and then exploding throughout her entire body as she struggled against gravity, an overwhelming pressure crushing into her chest even as her wings felt as though they were being simultaneously ripped out of their sockets and plucked. Torn free by the force of the air against which they strove, countless feathers began to scatter one by one as her wings slowly began to crumble, unable to sustain themselves against the overwhelming force applied to them as Ren's concentration began to buckle, fatigue and pain forcing her thoughts out of focus. Her vision seemed to blur and twist as a sudden feeling of lightheadedness came over her, stars clouding her vision and blurring out the ground below. And yet, despite all these things, she continued to spread her wings, beating them downward with all her might as their descent swiftly slowed. Her bottom wings shattered into black feathers, and yet, exerting the full force of her will, Ren gathered up as much of the power within them, and the wings themselves, and fused them forcibly to her remaining pair. Red light flickered around her and began to die out as her strength failed her. The shield encasing the boy, as well as the starlight reinforcing her own body, both slowly faded into mere sparks which soon vanished, trailing out behind them as they fell like the tail of a crimson comet. The grid-like patterns covering Ren's body disappeared, leaving her tired and fragile before the force of the buffeting winds. And yet, that wind seemed far less potent than it had before, for they were no longer falling, but rather gliding on the air beneath the Rihnei's two remaining wings, slowly floating down towards the ground below.

The Nephilim gasped for breath, struggling to keep her red eyes open, pained as they were by the dust and the air that had buffeted them during her rapid descent. And yet, despite the unbearable pain of both her wounds - which had been little helped by the force of the wind - and the strain she had undergone, Ren did not cry out, merely gritting her teeth and bearing it as best she could. She had long since learned never to scream or cry, even in the face of horrendous agony. It only showed you for the weakling you were, and gave others satisfaction in knowing their superiority over you. Above all else, she wouldn't show that fragility, no matter what. And so, she remained silent, simply enduring and persevering as best she could.

At last, after what had seemed to her like an eternity - although it had more likely been a matter of seconds - Ren found the ground at last directly beneath her. And so, folding her remaining two wings even as the large part of their feathers fell uselessly from them, she lowered her tired, battered legs, planting her feet on the hard earth and then immediately beginning to half run, half stumble forward. Hampered by the weight of the boy, however, she found herself almost instantly overbalanced. Releasing the boy, she staggered forward on her own, struggling to retain her footing until at last her legs simply gave way, and she found herself falling limply forward, collapsing to the ground. The earth rushed up to meet her, and then, with a jarring impact, her tired body fell to the ground, left without strength as the last of her feathers and the final sparks of her celestial fire faded into nonexistence, too weak to remain corporeal any longer. She gasped for breath, feeling all too keenly the scarlet claret slowly flowing out from her wounds, staining both her garments and the dirt beneath her in a monochrome of unsightly red. It didn't matter. Those wounds would heal by themselves. Right now... right, she had to stand back up, didn't she? If she simply lay here, then the boy would probably realize that she was helpless. He could kill her as he saw fit, then, or at the very least cripple her, leaving her as a decoy to occupy the hunters, should they follow, while he made his escape. She had to bluff, to pretend that she was still just as strong as ever, even if she was, in fact, only barely able to stand. And so, she rose. She didn't know nor care how she did it. She simply did. Lurching with agonized slowness to her feet, she took several moments to find her balance, very nearly falling back on her face again before she finally managed to retain her footing, although, given how she constantly tilted to one side or the other, and the trembling of her tired, straining legs, one had to wonder how long this position would last. Coughing several times to clear her throat - a motion which very nearly knocked her back over - she gasped for breath, having had the large part of the air knocked out of her by the descent. Sizing up the boy, Ren grimaced, unconsciously raising a hand to clutch her wounded shoulder, which was currently screaming in protest from the strain it had undergone in supporting the additional weight of the boy's body. Almost immediately, however, she drew back with hand with a stifled, sharp intake of breath, the contact with her wound having only sent sharp lances of pain rushing down the entire side of her body. Glancing down at her palm, she grimaced. Even if it had only been an instant, her hand bore a prominent coating of warm red blood. That blade... how deeply had it cut her...? To be bleeding so profusely... While most of her wounds did indeed bleed a great deal due to her flawed body, this was even worse than usual. That must have been the reason why she felt weak. She supposed that it was inevitable that she pass out from blood loss long before her wound actually finished closing itself. That... she couldn't allow that. She had to heal herself. Quickly, she had to gather some of the Aether in her body to close the cut...! But, to her dismay, she found none of the strength that should have availed her. Her reserves were entirely spent, leaving her on the brink of incapacity even without taking the gashes across her body into account.

Damn... it... I have to... stay awake! If I fall now... I am as good as dead... I have to... keep my eyes open...! Damn... it... all...

Seeing that there was no way for Lucio to convince the guards to let him in, he just sighed and continued his walk. However after few steps, he heard a loud explosion coming from facility. Soon after that sirens went off signalizing alarm. Lucio noticed how one of guards picked up his phone and after receiving some short instructions, hurried inside the facility. Since Lucio was the kind of person who always tries to help others, he took this chance and rushed inside the facility.

As Lucio got inside the building, he hurried to the direction where he had previously heard the sound of explosion. Suddenly a bunch of guards came out of one of many rooms, but none of them paid any attention to the idol, they just ran pass him, hurrying to place of explosion. Seeing how serious had things gotten, Lucio followed them to see what was happening. The idol was amazed how guards knew their way around the facility, it all looked the same to him. It's like a maze inside a building and the light blue color was having a rather disturbing effect.

Then after 5 minutes of following soldiers, Lucio finally got to the place of incident. It was something he had never imagined. A human girl was now shooting laser guns which were coming out of her arms everywhere. "Robot?" Lucio thought to himself, however when he looked into girl he saw that her expression was pained. Without a doubt she was human or at least some part of her was. Most likely she was the main experiment in this facility and now she wanted nothing more than freedom. However if she would get outside in this enraged state she would surely kill innocent people. Lucio had to calm her down first. But how? With all the soldiers around he doesn't even have a chance to get close to the girl.

Suddenly one of soldiers quickly backed away from the girl that was shooting lasers and stumbled onto Lucio, making his hat fall down and sunglasses shatter into pieces thus leaving a little scrape on idols forehead and also revealing his true identity.

The only preparation for what was to come that she had given him was the creation of a crimson aura around her before she spread her odd wings and did somewhat startle Vayne, who was unused to such things. Of course, he stood still in the face of her strange look, and the look of fear did not make itself shown until after she had spoken and abruptly grabbed him.

"Silence yourself! That problem can be rectified!" she suddenly yelled, gripping him as she tackled him heavily, even knocking the wind from his lungs and shouting something else as she dived off the edge of the cliff and probably reached Terminal Velocity within a mere second. It was now that Vayne learned two things; One, was that he was terribly fearful of heights, and the other was that this woman was insane. So very insane. He wasn't sure if it was because he didn't have the air in the lungs to do so, or because hew as so terrified, but he didn't yell during the whole crazy free-fall they had going on. It most certainly did not feel like she had wings; it felt like they were falling to their demise. Vayne closed his eyes so tight he thought he might break them or something. There was so much bearing pressure on him that if he didn't have his eyes open when this started, he might have thought he was being crushed instead of falling. Back in Farra, they had no planes or any such thing, so he was not expecting any of this at all. It scared, hurt and confused him all in one instant, and only made this trip more harmful to him than it should have been.

In truth, it didn't take a minute to slow down, but Vayne would disagree, since it felt like he had been there for hours, days even. But the ride did seem to calm down and when he managed to take a glance for the first time since he closed his eyes, he noticed they were a helluva lot closer to the ground than before, but also descending in a much kinder pace too. As they hit the ground, the woman still held him for a moment in a bit of a stumbled sprint, but then let go. As soon as she did, he noticed that he had absolute lack of strength in his lower limbs, and they couldn't support him. Fear, or maybe an after-effect of flight for all he knew. But before he could worry about standing himself to his feet, another very painful urge churned about in his stomach before he was forced to point his mouth straight towards the ground and watch his last meal surge forward. And it took him about a minute before the process of heaving was finished. Vayne definitely wasn't meant to fly, this told him.

Luckily, he hadn't gotten any of that on himself, for he wasn't sure when he'd get to bathe anytime soon. Well, those were his thoughts until he looked down on himself and realized he was still bloodied from the prior battle he was involved in. His shirt had at once been of bluish coloring, but was now a darker crimson, a color which seemed to be the them of today. Blood red. The young, tired, confused, unsure man pushed himself up off of the dirt ground and looked towards the girl who, in his expert opinion, looked like shit. He instantly spotted the look of great fatigue on her, and obviously saw the wounds that poured blood from her. Even if she wasn't Farran, she had to have been hurt something fierce. "I believe you not to be such an immediate threat if you haven't attempted to kill me just yet." he outright stated his stance on her. He wasn't one for prettying up words anyways. "So I would hope that this means you don't plan to kill me. Or maybe you hope to later? Either way, you aren't going to do much in your condition." he pointed out. If she was trying to hide how truly injured she was, it wasn't going to work on him. He could spot injury from a mile away, and years of doing this only refined this skill to help him accurately judge how bad a wound really was. "It's a longshot but..." he muttered under his breath, knowing that the plants here looked much different from his home, so they probably didn't have the same plant-life as he did. "...Is there any Dee-root around here? I might be able to stop the bleeding if there is."

Lacia's eyes were filled with tears and rage. She never wanted to kill anybody. All she wanted to do was help. Wasn't that what she had signed up for? But no... This was necessary. She couldn't let them have their way any longer. More security guards, military soldiers swarmed around her and even the military's combat fighters hovered overhead as well. Lacia took aim at one of the fighters and fired a focused beam of deadly energy from her guns. Her attack pierced through the metal hull and the fighter burst into flames , exploding overhead. The wreckage of the destroyed craft plummeted right into the crowd of soldiers and onlookers. Lacia, upon finding an opening, took this moment of confusion to flee. If she stayed any longer, she would not be able to hold hem all off forever.

Lacia took off into the smoke of the burning wreck. Sirens and screams rang loudly in her ears and the heat of the fires scorched the sensors on her skin. This was nothing. Nothing compared to THAT place. She wouldn't let anything get in her way, even if she burned half to death. The smoke was thicker than she expected and suddenly Lacia found that she was running blind. The smoke stung her eyes, adding more tears to the ones she had already cried. She had no choice but to go forward and she prayed that she wouldn't run into anything. Unfortunately, she did. Letting out a cry of fear and surprise, Laica lashed out and grabbed whatever it was that blocked her path. She hesitated for a moment. Was that civilian clothes? The person she had grabbed didn't feel like he/she was wearing military gear. Had she run into a bystander by mistake? She had to make sure. Pulling whoever it was closer to her so she could see, she also brought up her other arm, still armed with her lasers to be sure she wasn't pulling the enemy closer into striking range.

"Who-!"

Lacia could not finish her question. Was she hallucinating? Was is the adrenaline or maybe the smoke? This man she had grabbed could not be Lucio Baer! There had to be some mistake. There was no way her favorite idol could be caught up in this. Where were his security guards. She prayed dearly that she didn't kill them on accident. What would he say to that? What? No. There was no time to be thinking about that. She had to get out of there. Flustered and confused, the girl let go of Lucio silently. She didn't know what to say and she knew it was best to find her way out as soon as possible. But her eyes could not leave the idol's face. She couldn't just leave him here. What if the soldiers shot him by accident. They almost had the same hair color and it would be easy to mistake someone in this smoke. No... She couldn't leave him. But should she take him with her? He would just be in more trouble if they were caught together. No.... She couldn't leave him.

"C-come with me.... Hurry!!!" Lacia grabbed a hold of her idol's hand and ran... Just ran....

Suddenly bunch of smoke appeared leaving Lucio and all the guards around him blind. Confused, idol tried to spot the girl before the soldiers but then something ran into him. It took him a while to realize that it was the girl scientists experimented on. At first Lucio thought she would attack him, but he could see sign of shock and disbelief in her eyes. At first it seemed that girl would simply run away, but then she turned around and grabbed idol by his hand and ran: "Come with me... Hurry!!!"

When Lucio finally came back to his senses, he squeezed girls hand tighter to make sure that she wouldn't let go and started running faster pulling her after him. Luckily idol had great memory so he remembered the way out of facility. However obviously soon enough soldiers were following both, desperate to retrieve their experiment. Lucio couldn't help but feel angry with these people, because only thing this girl wanted is freedom. When both got closer to entrance, idol quickly took off his jacket and put it onto his head thus hiding his face and hair.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of here safely, but I can't show my face in public otherwise my fans could try to help me when they see me and get hurt and I don't want anyone to get hurt. You too, please don't shoot anyone anymore be it soldier or civilian. I know that what they've done to you is awful however that doesn't give you the right take to lives away," Lucio explained to the girl who he was still firmly pulling after himself. Suddenly as Lucio had finally gotten out of facility, his head started hurting and another vision came into his mind. This time he saw a red portal appearing in air right next to the biggest tower in the city which happened to be right across the facility. Understanding that this was their chance to escape, Lucio ran straight for the tower with bunch of soldiers following them.

Ren's eyes narrowed, and she took a step back as the boy rose, sizing her up with an unreadable, cocksure expression that she most certainly didn't like the looks of. It was the face of one who has seen through another, a countenance of smug superiority that seemed to the Rihnei that it was hanging her own helplessness over her. His words only cemented Renevari's suspicions as he spoke bluntly, calmly, and yet, in her opinion, threateningly. It wasn't that he sounded like he was mocking her. Rather, it was because he was speaking so calmly and matter-of-factly that it seemed like he had to be implying something. And, given his words, it wasn't too hard to guess what that implication might be.

"I believe you not to be such an immediate threat if you haven't attempted to kill me just yet, so I would hope that this means you don't plan to kill me. Or maybe you hope to later? Either way, you aren't going to do much in your condition," The boy said casually. Ren grimaced, giving a quiet "tch" as she spat her breath from her bloody lips. "So what?" She asked hoarsely, giving a mirthless smirk. "I take it... that you don't have any such difficulties... then." She gave voice to her words as clearly as she could, but nevertheless found herself gasping for breath rather quickly, breaking her speech apart as she struggled to keep taking in air. "So what do you intend to do...? Slay me so that I do not... hinder your escape... and use my body... to keep those dogs off your trail?" Although her words seemed bold enough, the way she clenched her teeth and glared with impotent disgust and hate as she spoke seemed to imply that there was a hidden fear behind her words. Although she was trying her best to seem brave, not wanting to let any sort of weakness slip through, she couldn't entirely conceal the fact that she now seemed to be cornered, exhausted, wounded, and powerless to help herself in the presence of an unknown individual with unknown powers, unknown skills, and unknown intentions.

Tch. I knew it. This boy is no different from those hounds from which I just escaped. Showing myself, an outcast, before a potential enemy with such reckless abandon... I might much more easily have committed suicide and saved myself the trouble of dying slowly here, Ren thought wryly. However, to her surprise, the next words that came out of the boy's mouth were not a threat, but rather...

"It's a longshot but... Is there any Dee-root around here? I might be able to stop the bleeding if there is." The Nephilim's scarlet eyes widened in surprise. This boy... what? He was offering to stop here and heal her even though his enemies were still so close behind him? Was he insane? No, no, wait. This was far too good to be true. There was no way somebody would risk themselves to save an unnatural person, least of all one they didn't even know. Well, except her, but she liked to think of herself as being different from other beings. In any case, she couldn't trust this boy. If she accepted his offer, then it would show her lack of confidence in her own remaining strength, and it would provide him with the perfect opportunity to do whatever he wanted with her. She couldn't risk that.

"H-how do you expect me to know the answer to that?!" She asked angrily, still glaring at the boy and watching his every move, made even more suspicious than before by his seemingly generous offer.

Trust no one. Rely on no one. If you risk yourself by believing in others, it will only hurt you in the end. That is, was, and will always be this world's only truth.

The girl drew back her sword from his hand and stabbed his shoulder, sending him backwards into a tree.

"I'm not a murderer. Killing this forest was worst enough. Sorry, but try to understand that I can't let you through. You hate people and won't hesitate to kill some other race like humans for instance. They're not nearly as peaceful as xigmas and would most likely try you into their experiment because of your strength," the girl explained and pushed Riot to the ground making him to sit near the half burned tree, where he spat in anger.

"Now you're going to stay here until you change your mind or when portal closes," she said and took down the cloak that covered her body, then tied him to the tree.

Then girl went by the portal and sat down near it, apparently guarding both it. Riot's fury boiled white-hot, but the animals around him began to tend to his injuries, licking his wounds clean, placing chewed leaves onto the cuts. Useless, considering the amount of damage done to Riot's muscles, but this act of kindness from his friends made him calm down. It was quite the scene, a lone injured Xigma surrounded by all those creatures. Just for a slight moment, it seemed as if it radiated with a faint shine of happiness. Nimbo rubbed its back against his binds and cut the cloak used to bind him. He moved his hand to rub and pat a few of the smaller animals, and even touching heads with a smile to those larger ones. With their help, Riot stood and limped his way to the girl.

When he was within earshot distance, he threw her torn up cloak at her with a disinterested look on his face, almost like he was bored.

"You killed the forest, and killing a person isn't any different. We all have souls." he had his angry frown trained on his face, before his mocking chuckle yet once again emerged from his sculpted lips. "Humans? Experiment on me? Whatever they are, they don't seem very nice. So what use if there to LIKE?"

"If everyone in this universe is the same as it is here, I'd rather STAY here then." he spat to the side. When he glared back at the girl, his eyes glowed again.

"I don't need your portal anymore." he told her bluntly, and surprisingly truthful before walking away with his small herd of animals.

After walking a short distance, he collapsed once from his injuries, before he got up with help from the animals. He gave one of the deers a rather desperate hug.

"I'm alright, I'm alright." he chanted methodically, a mixture of reassurance and sadness in his voice. "I can stand."

With a deep breath, he stomped onto his feet, causing blood to suddenly spurt out from the impact. He hissed through his teeth but continued to walk away with his animals, leaving a clear, bloody imprint of his sole against the earth. When it was time to leave them, he gave them each a light kiss to the head, making them leave. He then managed to climb, or to be honest, crawl, his way back up the hill and onto the ruins.

Making his way to the middle of the ruins, Riot folded his legs and sat there. Closing his eyes, he fell into a deep meditation that he had learnt and mastered from one of the murals in some of the ruins he had visited. An ancient meditation meant to completely heal oneself from wounds and sickness, at an incredibly fast rate. According to history... the meditation was used for warriors to heal quickly after a grievous fight... but oddly enough... were Xigmas fighters before?

Slowly, his flesh began to knit together by themselves, and even the cauterized wound on his calf was reforming into his originally smooth skin. Riot's eyes seemed to move underneath his eyelids and ever faint, it seemed that his eyes were once again glowing underneath his eyelids.

And this was confirmed when Riot opened his eyes suddenly, releasing a burst of yellow light when his eyelids lifted to reveal his eerie glowing eyes.