In the Grasp of Evil (IC) Pan and Dan-Nal-Khali

[Pandava]

Zenan watched Nal disappear, noticing her inability or lack of want to speak in response. Her body language was enough though and the boy had merely bowed his head in understanding. His grubby little fingers reached down and picked up a scrap of iron which lay on the ground. Idly, childishly, he wondered if iron burned.

The pile of bodies shifted again, a few of the Piranhas throwing rocks into the flame. The dark green sky above them loomed, but the Piranhas were mostly happy. They had defeated their most immediate threat. Despite the temporary loss of their newest member, they decided tonight was a time to celebrate.

Jax came up behind Zenan, rubbed his knuckles roughly through Zenan's short hair. Zenan struggled out of the playful gesture and stuck his tongue out at the long-haired boy.

"Boy, you're getting scruffy. I'm gonna have to hose you off one of these days," Jax laughed genially and shoved Zenan's shoulder lightly. "Good job today, bro," he complimented lightly. "Saw you knife that Collector right in the back. That was a pro move."

Zenan beamed under the compliment and shrugged, "Well, I'm just good. Better than you." The last part caught Jax by surprise apparently, the way his mouth fell open in offense, but Zenan took off before Jax could grab him. His voice was highlighted by a fit of giggles as he ran.

"Yeah that's what you think!" Jax stated as his hand fell through empty air in the effort to catch Zenan.

---

The voice. It surprised her to hear that voice so soon, to hear Nal break the silence so unexpectedly. Syn glanced up, surprise unmasked. And suddenly nerves hit her stomach like a brick. Nervous?! Since when did she get nervous? If Syn had been alone she would've growled at herself in frustration, but she fought the urge and slowly stood.

It was true, earlier she'd wanted to speak to Nal but she could not recall over what. Syn knew she was confused by Nal, drawn to her, and was beginning to care about her. Yet, it's not like she could just voice all that and look sane in front of Nal.

"Well," Syn faltered as she opened her mouth. A look of confusion passed through her expression. "I ..uh.." Was she stuttering? Where the hell was her confidence. It was at this point she realized she hadn't really been alone with anyone in a very long time. Syn ran a hand through her short hair, anxious and still lost as to what to say now. She had a chance to speak with her alone and couldn't find any words to say. At a loss for words, Syn motioned for Nal to come make herself comfortable.

"I realize you're concerned about Sedra," Syn surmised after a minute of gathering herself, and was glad to find that her words seemed to be coming out now. "I feel I should've done something to ...I don't know. Stop Garrit." Her guilt was obvious.

"My greater concern is you, at this present time," her booted heels scraped along the floor, Syn just now becoming aware that she was anxiously and slowly pacing the floor of the bunker. "Garrit had grabbed you...by the neck, very roughly. You had a head wound but Unnie healed it of course, when I called for him."

Image. An image of an unconscious Nal cradled in her arms painted her expression with what could only be construed as pain. It hurt Syn to see Nal hurt, or unconscious even.

"I just wanted to be sure you feel alright," Syn stated, expression of pain brief but passing. Her wings rhythmically folded and unfolded against her back, nearly fully developed at this point, horns still the same length. Her silhouette must be strange to people now. Her wings, leathery and demonic, must look strange. "To make sure you've not suffered too badly from the fight. And to thank you for your help today, with the strategy. I'm not good with strategy and I think you may have saved all of our lives today."

Syn didn't know what she had planned to say to Nal previously, before the battle had even begun. She was having a hard enough finding words now and speaking them. An occasional falter or stutter still seemed to slip into her words, "So I guess I'm asking .. are you okay?" The question came out in a surprisingly human, concerned, unsure tone.

By now Syn realized that for some reason, she couldn't hide behind walls anymore, not around Nal. Something about this woman made her completely unable to hide any of her emotions. Damn it all to hell. Syn cursed in her mind, glancing up for Nal's response as she finally managed to still her pacing feet.

[Dan-Nal-Khali]

“You.. don’t have to jize-lee-pol-ap… Sed’ll be fine… I don’t think Rit-Gar will hurt him now.” Nal sighed, moving to settle on one of the mattresses. She was stiff and tired from the battle, but to charged with adrenaline to sleep just yet.

“You… couldn’t have fought her,” Nal continued. “You would… have died. Rit-gar is… she is very, very strong. …I’m not tan-cer, but I think she has the same… errs-pow as Sed… but she doesn’t get-for.”

She ran a hand through her hair, working out the bloodied tangles, distracting herself. Syn was worried about her, Syn; who owed her no debt of gratitude or service. Nal had never been helped by someone out of the goodness of their hearts before, it was an odd feeling.

“Thank you… for ing-ree-wor out-ab me… it’s nice… that you care.”

Looking up and the ceiling, Nal came to a decision.

“We have… a few days… for-bee the dog is healed… would you… like to see Hope?”

~*~

//

What is this place? I can’t muster enthusiasm and I can’t say that I really care.
You were taken here.
He sounds a little on edge and I can’t help but join him in his uneasiness.
Are we in danger? The “we” comes naturally, me and this demon of mine, but he seems to take offence.
You, Sedra, you. There is no “we”, no “us”, not anymore.
He’s angry, truly angry, and I can’t help but want to know: Why?
Look at your hands, Sedra, that’s why.
The voice is cold, and I notice that he only seems to use my given name when he’s being serious.
I look at my hands. Oh. My hands are branded. Branded in black. I’m not sure how I feel about that… marks on my skin. Something tells me that it would be bad, very bad, but these marks are different.
HELTHAS SEDRA. Left hand, there for all the world to see. And the right: RUN.
You see?
Quite honestly; I don’t see. I don’t see at all. Why would the back of my hand be telling me who I am. Why would the back of my hand be telling me to run?
Why would a voice inside your head be telling you anything, lover, ever think of that?
He’s enjoying my confusion far too much, but I let him be: I have bigger things to worry about, after all.
Am I in danger? He didn’t answer that question earlier, so I assume the answer is a negative, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
He scoffs. Typical.
If they were going to kill you, they would have done it while you were unconscious, genius. Or, if they wanted you for something [i]unpleasant, they would have, at the very least, tied your worthless hide to the bed.[/i]
Oh. I’m beginning to hate it when he’s right. Stupid, arrogant little thing that he is.
What are you called, love? Surely, you have a name? I think it would be easier to deal with him if I knew what to call him. Also, him knowing so much more than I do is beginning to make me feel on edge. I realise that there is no way for me to gain the upper hand here, but his name would, at least, put my mind at ease.
I have many names, lover, many names.
He seems to be enjoying himself, in his own, unique and predatory fashion.
What do I call you, little love? I don’t intend to give up before I get my answer.
Jack. Clubs Jack. I can practically feel the grin.
It’s been a long time since you’ve asked that one, Sedra my love. Feeling lonely?
Honestly; I don’t know if I’m lonely, I guess I must be, having never met another soul.
You speak as though we do this often, Clubs Jack. There is a blanket on the bed, I drag it across my shoulders in an attempt to banish the chill.
Oh, but we do, lover, we do. Too many times to count now, of course.
That is… a little disconcerting. How often do I lose my memory? I’m not at all sure that I really want to know the answer to that question.
That all depends.
Well, isn’t that a helpful answer. What do you mean?
A sigh.
Damn it, you really are stupid this time round, I’m beginning to think you hit your head harder than I first thought.
So I hit my head? Well, that would explain why it hurts so much.
Now, don’t go jumping to conclusions on me. Yes, you hit your head, on the ground, during a period of distress; to be precise. But you can’t remember because you’re Sedra. Don’t you go connecting the two.
If my head didn’t feel like a beaten drum I think I would be tearing at my hair, this Jack is infuriating!
I never made a connection between the two, love, that was you jumping to conclusions, not I. Even in my own mind, I sound a little haughty.
My demon seems to find it entertaining, he sniggers a little.
Now, don’t get all grumpy, I’m being nice.
If this is his being nice I hate to think how he would be if he put his energies into tormenting me.
Fine, “lover”, seeing as you’re feeling so “nice” how about you elaborate. I produce a scoff of my own. Help this poor concussed fool understand, Jack?
I know I’m being petty but, damn it, it’s worth it.
My, my, you really are in a bad mood, love.
I can here the yawn in his voice, insufferable creature.

//

[Pandava]

Syn's pacing, which she had previously thought was stopped for good, had continued up until she heard Nal's offer. She bit her bottom lip, as if assessing whether or not she'd actually heard what she thought she had. An eyebrow raised, palm over her mouth, she waited a moment. Syn pivoted after a moment, wings instinctively flexing out of excitement and then settling against her back once more.

"Hope?" The word came out almost reverently. It was ironic, that the one name which held the most hope for her was very literally Hope. This person she had never met, held Syn's future in her hands in the sense that she was a mirror of Syn's possible future self. Syn's mind rambled on for a few minutes in a frenzy. Would this woman even want to meet her? Would this woman even care?

"You know where she is?"

The question hung between them and Syn found herself sitting before Nal, her eyes having locked on the woman before her, and they remained unmoving. Syn wondered, in the back of her mind, if Nal understood the depth of meaning this had to her. She wondered if Nal was offering out of kindness or out of boredom...or something else. Syn's mind was spinning. She had so many questions for Nal, so she kept her lips locked tightly in an effort to keep them spilling out all at once.

She gave not a thought to what she must look like: eager gaze locked on Nal, her hands wringing around one another in an effort to keep calm, eyes shining with hope and excitement and...gratuity. Gratuity was the overpowering emotion in Syn's eyes as she looked at Nal.

Speak. Syn felt she should speak right now but her questions would spill all out before Nal could even get a word in.

"You have no idea what it would mean to me," Syn breathed out, the words barely a whisper but full of untapped emotion, a knot locked in her throat as her dark eyes studied Nal's face, as if at any moment Nal would burst out with Just kidding!

No one had done a kind thing for her before, not like this. Or offered her such sudden salvation and hope. Syn wasn't used to this much emotion within herself, wasn't used to this much solid, overpowering feeling in her heart and it was a little frightening. So much to say, to do, in return for Nal's immense kindness. Her unexpressed emotion was swelling up in her chest and she was sure...she was certain Nal could see it, could read her like a book.

The frantic way in which Syn's mind circled within a mere few minutes was almost overwhelming, and at that moment she was glad she hadn't opened her mouth since her last breathy sentence. Syn's breathing, even had stilled nearly to a full pause. And she felt foolish. She felt so many things, but as her eyes lingered on Nal, she knew...well, Syn hoped at the very least, that someone finally, truly understood her. Someone wouldn't judge her, or expect a thing from her. And in all of this cluster of emotion and thought running rapidly through her, Syn felt more human than she had ever felt before.

[Dan-Nal-Khali]

Nal could feel Syn’s deep apprehension, her long ingrained fear of those offering gifts, but she was not offended. In a world of pain and scraping a living in the ruins of a once prosperous society, one learned to doubt sincerity in order to survive.

“Hope… lives with the Vers-we. So did I… a long time go-a.” Nal’s eyes hardened, memories of peace shattered by acid and fire invading her mind.

“You should know… she’s not the same as when the to-pho… was ken-tay. The Vers-we fought a war… they made Him ree-ang…” She shook her head, unable to say more, seeing once again what had been unleashed on the peaceful tribe. It was sick, sick and wrong, and Cirus would pay in blood for what he had done.

“She will… still see you… but she does not… look the same… and she is sad now… her soul mate… Tan-chris, he was hurt very lee-bad.”

It had been years since Nal had seen the Weavers, but she knew that she could find them, even after so long.

“If you… want to come… we can leave… at dawn.”

~*~

Garrit frowned, eyes fixed on Sedra through the glass of a one-way mirror. It had been exactly seventy-two minutes since the man had woken, and Garrit had to admit his behaviour was… strange.

Garrit had learned, and been told, many things about Helthas Sedra over the years. Her guardian had said that he was a courageous man, brave beyond measure, but that was a lie. It was true that one night, in the midst of a fierce storm, Helthas Sedra had come to the house of an old woman, pounding on the door in distress. He had been haggard, bloody and hysterical, pressing a new born child into the woman’s hands and running away.

Garrit had been told that Sedra must have been on the run from something terrible, giving away his child to protect her. His few, confused words were taken to be her name, and if that were true then Garrit would have been proud, as she was when she was a child and believed such foolishness.

But time, research and endless searching had taught Garrit that Sedra was little more than a coward, a man who ran from confrontation and seemed to totally disregard promises he made. It had been reported that he could be the best of friends with a person for months, but then dismiss them like a stranger on a whim.

Garrit had assumed that her father was simply fickle and without value for others, but now that she saw him, huddled pathetically under a blanket in her cell, she had to wonder if she was missing something.

“Who am I?!” It was the only thing Sedra had uttered since he had woken, save for a peal of wild, out of control laughter. The man seemed mad, confused, lost, and Garrit was beginning to think that there was more to Sedra than met the eye.

She was intrigued, interest peeked as it hadn’t been in years, and she vowed to learn all of Sedra’s dirty little secrets before she dealt with him once and for all.

[Pandava]

Syn still felt the swelling of emotion in her chest, "I still would adore...meeting her," she tried her best to keep the overwhelming emotion in her words..out of them. "It's difficult to explain but," she faltered at her words and was up pacing again. "I believe you understand. If you were to find someone with the exact same condition as yourself, only older. It'd be similar to.." Syn continued, her mind a bit frantic in trying to understand, "Looking into the future. Your future. And though the environmental factors are different for her, as well as the stimuli, it'll provide me with such..comfort."

And her steady stream of words stopped, not for lack of thought behind the words, but she realized, embarassingly, that she was rambling. "Sorry," she apologized softly after she stopped her pacing.

"The level of gratitude I have for you, I just can't even express, Nal," her words were warm and soft, almost like a lover's purr as she said Nal's name.

"First you save the lives of my Piranhas, with your strategy. You bring me hope, very literally, in knowing I was not some accidental creation. And I don't think..I can fully express what I feel at the moment." Syn smiled.

Almost sheepishly, her lips curled in an embarrassed half-grin as she finished her rambling. The demon-hybrid slowly sat back down again, posture slightly demure out of feeling abashed by her own rambling.

She hoped Nal didn't think her ridiculous at this moment. She felt ridiculous herself, merely because she had never been so open with anyone, not even young Zenan. Syn never allowed herself weakness or emotion, yet here she was spilling all her emotion out before Nal, someone who barely knew her.

Yet she trusted Nal fully. Syn didn't know what Nal even thought of her, and found herself chewing her bottom lip nervously; another apology was stifled in doing so, figuring the response would be the same as her first apology. At the moment, she was glad the bunker was empty save herself and Nal.

[Dan-Nal-Khali]

Nal was silent for a long time, her gaze turned inwards. Something in Syn’s voice, coupled with her words, had struck a deep note, reawakening an old, long buried, hurt.

I’m not jealous… Nal told herself, but she knew that she was lying.

Nal had been a baby when she was found at the steps of a church, already altered beyond recognition. The priest, although well within his rights to kill her or turn her away, had cared for her as if she was his own daughter, teaching her the ways of God.

Nal had been happy with him, he had been her father despite there being nothing legal or genetic binding them, and she had loved him with all her heart. Together, they had maintained the church, holding services for anyone that came, offering sanctuary to those that needed it. Even though as the years went on, less and less people came, faith dying along with the government, they held the weekly mass. Never stopping, even when they were the only ones to attend.

And then Cirus’ men had come… they had come and taken her father away, raising the church to the ground.

Nal still remembered the fire. Her father had hidden her in the steeple, crouching among the bells, when he had seen the men approaching, Nal hadn’t understood until it was too late. She had watched, horrified but unable to do anything, as her father had been dragged outside and executed and a petrol bomb had been tossed into the church. Nal hadn’t known how to escape, young and shocked as she was, so she had remained, clinging to the largest of the bells, as the fire and smoke reached for her.

It was the Weavers that had saved her, Hope, her great wings beating back the inferno, flying them away from the blaze. She didn’t remember much after that, only that she stayed with the Weavers for several years, accepted, but never belonging.

It was the Weavers and their immense information network that had confirmed what Nal had long believed: she was unique, a freak experiment gone wrong. She had not been made for a reason, just as a test, and it was the only because of the pity of a scientist that she had survived at all.

It came as a shock to Nal to find that she was crying.

[Pandava]

Tears? Why tears? Syn suddenly felt a terrible guilt and shame fall upon her like a heavy, claustrophobic atmosphere. To her own surprise, she found herself delicately pulling Nal toward her, allowing the woman to cry into her arms. A hand sifted gently through Nal's hair. She couldn't tell exactly what Nal may be feeling, but despite not knowing, she had a hunch. And Syn felt guilty. Nal could bring Hope to Syn, but Nal couldn't bring any sort of hope to herself. She had been made unique, and therefore she had been made for loneliness. This hardened leader held Nal close in her arms and felt sorrow for her.

"Nal," she cooed the name softly as she felt Nal's tentative crying. It was not a full-on sob, but the way Nal heaved every now and again betrayed her tears, her depth of suffering, "I cannot bring you the same thing you've brought me. I have no answers, no reassurances," Syn found the tone of her own voice surprising. She'd never known herself to sound so gentle. So compassionate.

Nal truly seemed to bring out the best in people; a gift perhaps the woman had overlooked before. Syn made a note to point that out to her.

"I can offer you nothing but a place here, with us," Syn paused. Did she dare? Should she? Her thoughts were passive, and too slow for her already speaking tongue, "with me. I have nearly nothing to offer, but it is everything I have to offer you. My gratitude, and a place to always be welcome."

Each of the Piranhas was stunningly different from the other, and that's what unified them. They were so magnificently different from one another that it bonded them closer. It made them stronger, each complimenting a weakness or a strength of another.

Syn's eyes glanced up at the door. She hoped no one would come in, at least not right now. She needed time to comfort Nal, to make her feel better and perhaps save her the embarrassment of being seen in inexplicable tears. Syn listened to the quiet cries, "Though you haven't been here for long, you've already brought out .. a kindness in me I didn't realize I was capable of. You bring out the very best in those around you, and yet are left startlingly alone."

Her breath rose and fell as she spoke, unsure of where these words were spilling out from. "You don't have to be alone anymore. That's my truest offer to you." Syn was still surprised at her own words, her own sincerity. She was so often full of cynicism and vengeance that she had not time for weakness, for softness. "You don't have to be alone," Syn repeated, her tone like a gentle, comforting purr.

"I mean, just as long as you don't tell anyone I'm a big softie on the inside," Syn attempted to lighten the mood, lips curling in a light, half-grin, fingers continuously sifting through Nal's surprisingly soft hair.