(Only Greg, Sorin, and Doc in this one.)[/size]

The [i]White Night[/i] moved through the stars quite peacefully. Aside from the few Heartless ships that were shot down quickly, there were no other casualties for the base of the villainous Collective. Indeed, it seemed to be another uneventful night for them.

But that was far from the truth. In the entrance hall, Ignis Fatuus had been sitting upon his throne, a wide smirk across his face for so long. Things have been going very well for him lately. Upon that moronic power copyist finally leaving their group, something he had expected to happen, he had had his number one enemy kill him off, something he knew would have been a big blow to her psyche. Not only that, but upon his death, he had the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee turn on the pathetic Dream Mage for such an act. Soon, he'll have the rest of the worlds turn on her, break her down slowly and painfully before he can finally be rid of her.

And now tonight, he finally got the other two things that he had wanted.

"You've been smirking like that for quite a while, dear Will-o'-the-Wisp." The Nightmare Illusionist looked up to find Dani sauntering over to his side. No surprise; he had specifically called for her attention. She also seemed to fair well, in spite of her failure on Sera. Not that it really mattered to her, anyway. The Hypnotic Seductress leaned over against the armrest and asked, "Do you mind telling me why?"

His smirk grew even wider. "Of course. In fact, that is why I wish to speak with you." With her full attention, he sat up straight, and told her, "As it has occurred...I've finally collected my precious raven and the Holy Mother."

The woman had to blink beneath her shades. He managed to capture them this quickly? "Really now? And they did not put up a fight?"

"Oh believe me, they did," Ignis said with annoyance laced in. "I was very nearly castrated and stabbed to death. But at least I managed to throw them off with Dr. Crane's fear toxin." His smirk returned. "They are trapped within their own minds. Delusion; a useful Nightmare spell, if I may say so myself. Not even their extraordinary levels of willpower will be able to break them out. Slowly, their minds will shatter until there is nothing."

Here, he looked directly at the hypnotist. "And that is where you come in. Once there is nothing left, you will hypnotize them into their proper roles. Mother Alessa to fully accept her role as the Mother of God, and my dear Kalas to be my faithful servant. Nothing should break them free after that."

Dani nodded after listening to her partner. It did seem to all work in the end. However, there were still one issue to address...

"You do know that half of this goes against Miss Ian's contract, correct?" she asked, an eyebrow raised. "After all, you've mentioned a while back that the Holy One is involved with one of the Zivaku boys. Are you not worried that this may ensure a betrayal?"

Ignis just waved it off, not very concerned on the matter. "Yes yes, I am aware of that. But honestly, do you even expect those two to last very long? I highly doubt it."

"You should still be on the lookout in the case she turns on you for this. Better yet, you should make sure she has not contacted anyone to come to their aid." Here, venom laced her tone. "Especially if that 'aid' is my pathetic excuse of a former host. She may enter those mental cages placed upon them and set them free, like she had when she took my Sorin away. And after what you've done to her, there is no doubt that she will come for petty revenge."

Though the man had to frown as he considered all this, he just looked at the hypnotist, completely straight-faced. "Dani, as much as I appreciate your concern, I will only worry if that is to happen, which I highly doubt."

Dani 'hmph'ed before she backed away. "I was merely giving a word of caution. I just hope you know what you are doing." She then turned, about to walk off. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to practice my piano some more."

Ignis merely waved her off as she left for her ballroom. He did have to take what she said at heart, but for the most part, he was unconcerned about it all. Besides, he really doubted that girl would come after them even if she were told, probably sitting in her room crying about how she was manipulated again and how much of a murderer she was. That was all she was good for, anyhow. The Nightmare Illusionist stood from his throne and walked off himself. With the death of the power copyist, he had a room to alter into his own personal bedchambers now.

~*~

Unfortunately for Ignis Fatuus, things were about to go very wrong for him. Somewhere in Gummi Space, probably not too far from the [i]White Night[/i], the pink-lined red ship that was the [i]Dream Weaver[/i] had been...well, weaving through the stars. Though the driver was currently unaware of the situation, she was still here for a reason.

It wasn't that long ago since Audrey M. Jones had killed off Levins for the second time. Though that wasn't much of a problem, since he deserved to die anyway. The real problem was that the minute she killed that man, they all came back to her. The flashes of all those innocent people dying at her hands, all for pathetic reasons...

But the other reason was that she had done this out of a promise of reconciliation from her archenemy. She had done this just so he could leave her and her friends be. But of course, she had been played with again. He had reported the death to the RGRC, out of a guise that she had killed an innocent civilian. She was caught redhanded, and without a way to convince them the truth, she was forced off the world, on a word to never return again. To think, they would actually take Ignis' words...no, the words of [i]'Ignazio D'Aleo'[/i], the name of her real life grandfather, over hers.

The Dream Mage had already spent the whole day crying. For now, she just looked on solemnly, wading through space to try and get what happened out of her mind. Sorin was on the ship with her, having heard what happened and doing all he could to help her out. She was thankful for that, but even her lover's words couldn't get through to her. Part of her just wanted to die right now...

Before she could continue any thoughts of suicide, she saw her comm light start to blink. Audrey frowned, unsure if she wanted to take this now, or leave it be. After a bit, however, she sighed and activated the comm link. "Audrey here. What is it?"

====

(This thread takes place soon after "Criminal Elements" for Isaac and Kira.)

The call that came in was from one voice first, a female one as a familiar face came up on her holographic monitor on this ship. Pale skin, black hair, the entire form highlighted in a light blue around the edges. Her arms were crossed, her expression serious. It softened only slightly at Audrey's own demeanor, but quickly hardened again as K1-R4 began to speak, arms crossed over her chest in annoyance. [i]"Situation over here. Two missing, at least one you kn--"[/i]

Another voice came over at that, though without a face to match it.

[i]"Oh quit the damned introduction, Kira, this is serious!"[/i]

===

On his own ship, Isaac Zivaku had both hands gripping the controls, guiding it alongside the [i]Dream Weaver[/i]. "Cheryl and Kalas are missing, Audrey. Fatuus caught them both when I was too far to stop him, blamed it on Azumi. We've got a lock on her signal at least, and we know she's heading to the ship of one Rikka Masami of the 'Collective', a group including Fatuus, Jonathan Cr--"

He cut himself off. "You know what, this is pointless! Kira, get the data I got on the Collective via my scan that I put on that file over there, [i]now[/i]. And get them that beacon you said 'Bruce' gave her. Not that VISR crap you said she--"

A scowl over her expression on the monitor in front of him as well. [i]"Watch your damned attitude. I don't give a crap about the Second Law, not that you know a thing about it. And she's not looking her best either, and she's not the one who [b]f***ing[/b]--"[/i]

"[i]Do it, damn it![/i] Or we are [i]all [b]f***ed![/b][/i]"

===

Kira's avatar rolled her eyes at the screams on her end. [i]"Don't mind him. He's just upset his girlfriend--"[/i]

More shouting to hurry up.

[i]"I'm [b]doing it![/b] Shut the hell up, [b]Demon[/b] Zivaku, or I'll take the controls again!"[/i] She just let her own picture on the monitor shrink, going into a bottom right corner as the data came in.

Names of all four members, with one "Levins" crossed off as deceased, and one other member, Azumi, listed, albeit with a note about not being willing. List of Ignis' powers as far as Isaac knew from talking to Cheryl, of Rikka's list of all Light Magic spells and guards from his scan of her and the dying Abigail. More and more, though not a lot in depth about some of the others, seeing as no introduction was strictly necessary. A casualty list was begun... but cut off after just the letters "Ab" were put, stopped for irrelevance and deleted to keep space open for the next piece.

A clickable icon. One in the shape of a yellow, horizontal oval, with a black "bat" silhouette in the center.

Kira spoke as she pointed to each of them, her finger causing them to highlight. [i]"All info on the Collective. I gather you probably know at least some of these, but it's best to just know everything now.

"And that..."[/i] Off to the icon, which clicked in, opening up to a map of the immediate Gummi Space in three dimensions on the screen, a line from the [i]Dream Weaver[/i] to a location labeled with just a blinking dot. [i]"Got that off of Batman of the DC Animated Universe. Don't ask. Short version: He's got some interest in keeping her safe in some degree. I'd give more details, but I don't know if you care about the guy. I can probably hack my way in through a backdoor if you can get there yourselves and get in with Zivaku's omnitool, but you two need to know what's up. It was this or it was just going to be me and him holding off the hordes of who knows what. He's not in the greatest mood. I blame stress, not that it matters when he needs to get going on this."[/i] A brief pause. [i]"Now you know the stakes and all. If you want to go to it, start moving [b]now[/b], before he starts on his way to bring about some kind of Order-related apocalypse or some such."[/i]

====

Sorin had been with Audrey ever since she had called him.  As if he didn't have enough reasons to hate Ignis this was just another thing he wanted to get him for.  While it was good that Levins had been taken out again, how Ignis tricked everyone made Sorin mad.  The Samurai's hand rested on his reforged blade.  He wished he could cut down Ignis for all the things he did to Audrey and the others.

He had left Audrey on her own for a bit and knocked on the door of the cock pit to check in on her.  "Hey Audrey, you okay?"  He asked, not hearing that someone was calling her.

====

As the heroic Interferences were communicating between ships, a lone figure flew through Gummi Space.  Yes, that's right, a person, not a ship.  Jonathan Crane, more commonly referred to as the Scarecrow, could easily use the power of his Qwardian Power Ring, energized by the pure fear of his victims, to act as a sort of life support, and even give him the power of flight.  No need to waste his funds on a ship when he could easily fly wherever he needed.  It was even an enjoyable experience for him, not having to worry about complicated flying mechanisms, only having to point where he needed to go.

As usual, he was in his Scarecrow oufit, the black shirt bearing the insignia of the Yellow Fear Energy.  He had been heading back to the White Night after some rather interesting experiments dedicated to making his fear toxin even stronger.  Although he hadn't quite found it yet, he could feel that the correct formula was just beyond his grasp.  He was close to reaching even more understanding of the pyschology of fear.

His thoughts came to a halt as he spotted a Gummi Ship flying near to him.  Of course, he knew he couldn't just get in one and fill the ship with fear toxin, but there was something about it that piqued his interest, especially the red and pink color scheme, which seemed familiar.  He thought it at least warranted a look, and it wasn't like the ship's occupant could stop him from doing so.

Crane flew closer to the Gummi Ship, until he flew alongside it.  Picking up the speed, he moved forwards until he was ahead of it, and then turned until he was flying backwards, getting a look through the cockpit window at whomever was piloting the ship.

With a slight jolt of surprise, Scarecrow realized that it was one of his subjects, Audrey Jones, as he had learned from Ignis.  Smiling beneath his mask, Scarecrow flew forwards, and landed in the front of a ship with a thump, crouching.  He tapped on the window with the hand with his needles full of fear toxin, certain that it would remind the Dream Mage of their first encounter, and placed the hand bearing the Ring palm down on the window.  The powers of this Ring was nearly limitless, and Scarecrow intended to use it however possible.  In this case, it would send the vibrations caused by his voice through his arm and the Ring, transforming them to sound waves on the other side of the glass.

"Audrey M. Jones.  How long has it been?  Suffer any recent psychological breaks that I should know about?  I [i]do [/i]have a degree, after all."

The smile beneath the mask grea wider, even stretching the 'mouth' on the mask into a slight smile.  The needles began scraping on the glass now, instead of just tapping.

"I heard about Levins, the poor fool.  Another to the kill count, eh?  Not like it's terribly important.  He was a waste of brain matter."

====

Audrey couldn't help but to frown the minute she saw Kira appear on the holo-screen. Just seeing that program reminded her too much of when she went into the program's mind to try and save her from rampancy. However, rather than think on the horrifying memories, she began to listen in as she brought up the situation, that two people were missing. Before she could ask who, Isaac Zivaku had cut in, and she could hear the stressed edge in his voice.

And it was no surprise why. When she heard it was Cheryl and Kalas that were missing, the Dream Mage had to frown more at this. But then she heard who it was that was responsible. Anger began to fill her very being once more; first that bastard tricks Leon and the gang to turn against her, and now he's gone and kidnapped her two canon friends. However, she kept calm before she could fly off the handle, just looking at the screen as the information started to come up. Normally, she would make fun of Isaac over his worry for Cheryl, but right now, she just wanted to know how she can save them.

When she first saw the list of these 'Collective' members, a scowl crossed her face. Just about every villain she had ever faced was on this list, aside from this "Rikka", whom Audrey could tell was just an alternate version of Yuki. Probably a mirror version, though she couldn't tell. Seeing Azumi on the list, however, brought another frown on her face. She couldn't imagine what they could have done to force her into this; when she last saw the soldier during that incident with Kira, she had been undergoing PTSD...could they have preyed on that?

Audrey didn't bother to read everything else. Though she got the spell lists, all she wanted to know was where they were now. Though she did have to note the familiar Batman icon that suddenly appeared; she'd have to be an idiot or an unaware Internal to not recognize it. Since this was apparently Azumi's signal, she had to wonder how she got to ally herself with the infamous Dark Knight. Whatever story she had, though, it was good to know that she was still on their side.

With all this in mind, Audrey had what she needed. They had to save their friends, before who knows what Ignis will do to them. As much as she wanted that man dead, the Holy Mother and Divine Child were her first priority. Before she started moving, however...

"Sorin, we have a situation here," she called back to the Samurai when he knocked to check on her. "Cheryl and Kalas are--OH GOD!"

The Dream Mage fell back from her seat at that surprised shout. There he was, the Scarecrow, right in front of her windshield. Normally, she would ask how a mere person could travel through space like this, but with the Batman villain...she remembered the day he tricked her into a hallucination, made her believe she had killed her friends. The minute she saw his needle hand tapping against the window, she almost froze up. All her life she hated needles, and to see the particular type that forced her into that nightmare...

However, that all changed when he brought up Levins. Once again, anger filled her being, even after the villain scraped the needles against the glass. She didn't want to deal with this, and unless he now had teleporting powers, Scarecrow had no way of entering her ship proper. Instead, Audrey got back up and grasped her controls, prepared to drive off.

"Listen here, Crane," she began, glaring at the masked man before her. "I'm not in the mood to deal with you. I know you're working for that bastard, so unless you're here to try and stop me from saving my friends from him, just f*** off or I'll shoot you after throwing you off!"

And with that, she pushed the [i]Dream Weaver[/i] at full speed without warning, in an attempt to throw the Scarecrow off. She didn't want to waste her time with this; she had to hurry and make it to the [i]White Night.[/i]

====

Upon the arrival of Jonathan Crane, Kira was rather glad that her icon she picked would disappear as it was clicked. She didn't have an actual physical link to the [i]Dream Weaver[/i], simply transmitting through the [i]Hati[/i], but she still was glad for it nonetheless. She didn't take the controls, though she did keep monitoring them as she spoke again. [i]"While I can't doubt the absolute wisdom of charging to that ship at ramming speed and flattening the Scarecrow, I do doubt how effective it would truly be."[/i] Sarcasm? Sure, but it wasn't exactly wrong. [i]"With a Qwardian power ring... well, if you know of the mythos of the Green Lantern Corps, you would know what it does. He can probably teleport, definitely fly and, unlike Batman, breath in space, and countless other things. Yes, precisely as bad as it sounds."[/i]

In the [i]Hati[/i], Isaac scowled at the costumed man. From the introduction Audrey gave, he was one of their members. "Not sure if you can hear this, doctor," he said, his voice level with malice. "But if you don't get off that ship, you might be the first ever Gummi Space roadkill. We're in a hurry to get somewhere you probably don't care for us to be." Or care if they were there. Whatever worked. "So you explain what the hell is going on, and we'll be on our way as we go. You understand that, Crane?"

Even in his stress level, he did understand the need for negotiation to get things done.

====

One second Sorin was standing by the door and the next he was right by Audrey's side, hand on his blade.  It was mostly instincts, after all trying to slash the Scarecrow while he was on the outside of the ship wasn't possible no matter how much he would have liked to.  Despite not knowing as much about things like games as some of the other Externals, Sorin knew who Scarecrow was.  And that made it easy to understand Audrey's reaction to him.  And that made Sorin want to cut him even more.

If they were going to deal with the Scarecrow they would need something to make sure they don't breath in that Fear Toxin.  But as long as he was on the outside they should be safe for the moment.  "What's wrong with Cheryl and Kalas?"  Sorin asked.

====

Scarecrow hardly moved as the ship sped up, using his Ring to easily stick to the ship's surface.  Although he did stop with the needle-scraping, and mask's 'smile' disappeared.

"I would listen to the smart hologram, miss Jones.  Ramming into the [i]White Night[/i] will only kill yourself and your irritating boyfriend.  Whereas I can easily shield myself.  While you both may mask it with anger, I can feel your fear."

But something Audrey had said did strike him, and was soon confirmed by another voice and her boyfriend.  Ignis hadn't recently captured anyone that he was aware, but then again, he had only just been on his way back to the ship.  Had Fatuus taken some of these Interferences' friends hostage while he had been away?  It was likely.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about."  For once, the Scarecrow was entirely sincere.  "And why should I care if Ignis took some of your little friends?  I'm more interested in if they'll make good test subjects."

====

At first, Audrey almost discounted Kira's words, just wanting the Scarecrow off of her ship. However, when she saw that the Batman villain had managed to stick on no matter how hard she tried to throw him off. She wasn't all that big on Green Lantern, but she got the idea of what it could do, both from the AI's explanation and Crane's words. With that, she just sighed and slowed down the speed of her ship, still moving fast, but not to dangerous levels.

"Ignis got them, Sorin," the Dream Mage then said to her lover, looking over to him. "I know you want him dead as much as I do, but we have to save them before he does anything, especially if it might threaten the worlds."

Back to the Scarecrow, the scowl returning. "And you will not use them for your experiments, if you haven't already. Even if you don't know or care about what that bastard did, I know you'll still stop us for that. I'm not about to let that happen."

Right as she said that, they had reached their destination. The exterior of the [i]White Night[/i]...well, to put it short, it was essentially a [url=http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Realm_of_Light]moving palace[/url] that was [url=http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Light_Barrier]surrounded by a bright light that acted as its shield[/url], with a few cannons at the bottom for any sort of combat. Audrey held back the urge to comment on this, instead going on to address the Scarecrow again.

"Now, unless you can help us get in somehow, which I really doubt you will, I suggest you get lost right about now. You don't say anything about our infiltration, we don't do anything about your sorry hide."


Kira gave a brief signal that she was going to leave to him and cut off the signal, leaving only the information she had gathered aside from the icon of Batman. Best to keep that secret, and Crane was a biochemist, not a technician.

The demon, on the other hand, scowled at the speech, talking through the radio once more. "Because if anything happens to Cheryl, that's on all of your heads." He was well aware he probably made their relationship clear, but with Ignis on this place and his power sets, it was unlikely it really mattered if he kept it a secret.

Finally, they approached the ship, the [i]White Night[/i]... and his face was completely, utterly deadpan. The fact that they had this sheer amount of showy nature... well, not exactly unusual, but a bit embarrassing. Even from the heroic side, he thought that whole idea was pretty bad, yes. His response thereafter was rather simple. "So, Crane, if you'd let us just take who we came for and leave, we'd appreciate if you could take the [i]tree[/i] out of the docking port here. Or if you could get us another inconspicuous way in where your allies would not see us." As he spoke, he scanned the doctor's cold heart, skimming it for information... and found what he needed. Some basics on enemies, not a lot. Some knights of a sort who could be harnessed as Rikka Masami's bodyguards, random civilians for other lackeys.

"So you gonna let us through or what?"

====

Sorin blinked at the sight of their target.  Was that supposed to be a Gummi Ship or a flying city?  Getting in would be a problem but a ship of that size it would be fairly easy to move around without being found out.  That is, if Scarecrow didn't alert the ship of what they were planning to do.  And even if the Scarecrow did help them, Sorin didn't trust him not to betray them the first chance they get.

"Audrey you bring us in, I'm going to grab something alright."  Sorin told his lover before running to his room.  Ignis and Dani were mainly threats because of their eyes.  Avoid looking at them in the eyes and you can avoid the illusions and hypnotism.  Avoiding he Fear Toxin would be much harder...unless they had something in order to block it out.  Which Sorin was looking for.

====

The Scarecrow just continued squatting on the Dream Mage's ship as everyone said their piece.  It was rather funny actually, how these foolish children thought they would so easily defeat him, given the chance.  Not too long ago he would have agreed, with so many powered people against him, but now that he had his Qwardian Power Ring, he had practically infinite power as long as these people feared him.  And he knew they did, one way or another, directly or indirectly.  The Ring didn't discriminate in where it got it's power from, it simply absorbed the fear energy and made it easy for him to use.

As the boy on the other end of the communications line commented on the [i]White Night's[/i] design, Crane rolled his eyes beneath the mask.

"I certainly didn't choose the design.  I would've much preferred something more inconspicuous, myself.  Perhaps a large neon sign reading "evil base located here"."  The sarcasm practically dripped from his voice.  He certainly didn't approve of Rikka's goddess complex making things more complicated than necessary.

But he did stop to think about what they said for a moment.  Of course it was true that Ignis had captured some of their friends, they wouldn't lie about attacking their base.  As 'heroes', they had every reason to normally, anyways.  But there was something else...

"Did you mention a Cheryl?  Cheryl Mason?"  Naturally, after the contract between Azumi and the Collective had been completed, he had asked the solider woman who exactly the Zivakus and their romantic companions were.  After all, it would be idiotic to break the contract purely out of not knowing who he wasn't supposed to be experimenting on, and Ian, having an iota of common sense, had agreed and explained.  Cheryl Mason was one of said romantic partners, to Isaac Zivaku.

"If it is her,"  Scarecrow continued, "than perhaps Ignis is more foolish than I had thought.  Allow me to explain.  Miss Ian, you may know her, had joined our little group on a contract, specifying that no one in the Zivaku family or any of their romantic partners were to be harmed by the Collective, or the contract would be void, and she would no longer work with us."  He allowed that to sink in for a moment.  He certainly had no qualms against revealing Azumi worked with them, as these Interferences may not know her.  And if they did, well, there was always the chance they could take it the wrong way, and the Sergeant's reputation would be slandered, something Crane would get no small satisfaction out of.

"Therefore, if this is Cheryl Mason you are talking about, then you are perfectly within your rights to be here.  Meaning I have no reason not to let you pass.  And since I have a particular interest in upholding the contract, I'll even help you inside."

With that, the Scarecrow lifted off the ship, and began flying ahead of that, towards the entrance of the [i]White Night[/i].  Of course, he knew that these Interferences wouldn't trust him for a moment, and in their defense, that was rather smart.  Had he not had plans that required the contract to remain intact, he would have taken them all inside and simply handed them over to the other members of the Collective.  The contract would certainly be of no consequence at that point, with no one able or willing to stand up for it, and these children couldn't stand up to him, Ignis, Rikka, and Dani, no matter how tough they thought themselves.  In fact, as they were most likely not expecting his help, it was rather foolish for them to have come here without some form of apparent backup.

It certainly was lucky for them that he was on their side.  Something he intended to hold over their heads for as long as possible once Cheryl and Kalas were free.  He did hope that Ignis had enough sense to realize what he was doing and to not try and kill them all.  He was one of the only members of the Collective that Crane reasonably got along with.  It would be a shame to have to kill him.

Of course, it was simple for him to get the Interferences past the ship's defenses.  After all, he was recognized as an ally, and allowed to pass through along with the ship.  They all landed in the golden, and tacky, in Crane's opinion, halls of the [i]White Night[/i].

"This way, children."  Scarecrow said, cocking a needle-bearing finger.  "I believe I know which room Ignis will be holding your friends in."

====

Audrey nodded as Sorin went back to grab something, looking back at the Scarecrow with a scowl. Though she had to admit his comment on the ship's design was amusing, she was still considering just throwing him off and breaking in herself. Sure, he would probably inform his allies that way, but none of that mattered to her right now. Friends first, kill the bad guys later, were her priorities right now.

However, before she could even try, Crane had then gone on to explain Azumi's place within the Collective. A frown crossed her face; she had received the information, yes, but she had no idea this was all because of a contract. Not only that, but this meant she was only betraying them on one condition. While it seemed unfair on one side, she decided not to question this. The point still stood that the sergeant was still forced into this.

Though that did leave one question: Why did Ignis even think of betraying her by kidnapping Cheryl? Did he know at all? Or did he just think they wouldn't have gone that far? The latter seemed likely; even though she did think they would work together, from the last time she spoke to Cheryl, they didn't seem to be the very image of romance. But even so, that didn't mean the Nightmare Illusionist had to kidnap her for whatever means he had.

The Dream Mage said nothing to Crane's sudden offer to help them, all because of an interest in upholding the contract. Truthfully, she wasn't sure if she wanted to believe him. After all, what were the chances that he would sell them out after they found the survival-horror and JRPG protagonists? But, it wouldn't do them any good to attack him now. They had the advantage, so she would take the Batman villain's word for it for the time being. She would still have to watch her back, but other than that, she would take this chance. So with that, she followed the Scarecrow in once they got past the ship's defenses.

Once they landed inside, Audrey couldn't help but to wince at the gaudy nature of this ship. She knew Ignis, and Dani to an extent, had overblown egos, but she didn't expect them to have [i]this[/i] much of an expensive taste. She left out making a comment, instead nodding to the ex-psychologist, though kept her face expressionless. Just because she was allowing his help, didn't mean she fully trusted him.

"Lead the way, then." A pause. "...and for the record, I'm twenty. Hardly a child."


Isaac couldn't help but smirk just the slightest bit at the "Evil Base Here" line. It was true, some standards had to exist. Still, it disappeared almost immediately.

A frown replaced it. So it was his family's fault that she was in this role? Not surprising, or at least not overly surprising. But who of the web of connections was the one? Not him, of course. In any case, he did understand the reasoning for Scarecrow to help them. A servant staying with them of that magnitude was probably an illegal prisoner. Not to mention he probably wouldn't like a coming apocalypse. Or at least not long...er than two years. Tops. Probably.

[i]Back to the situation at hand[/i], he thought. He did scan the yellow-devoid heart of the Scarecrow, though, watching... and spoke into his communications again. "He's clean," he told Audrey. "Or clean as we're gonna get here."

Finally, he boarded with the rest, similarly wincing. He had Kira in his inactive omnitool, scanning for data, for a map, for anything anywhere. But no speech. He followed the Scarecrow as well, keeping alert, summoning his Abyss out of precaution for his eye on it to look around. "Just bring us over there," he agreed. "And Audrey, I think he might just be saying he's in his seventies or something. You never know with these. Just go with it and help out, alright? Oh, and keep an eye out. Something tells me we aren't welcome here. Probably the fact that everyone is probably trying to kill us or worse, but I've been wrong about causes before."

====

As soon as they had landed into the giant ship Sorin had to roll his eyes.  Really who thought this was a good looking ship?  It was going to give him a headache just to look at.  But he could be able to ignore the decor.  What he couldn't ignore was the fact that they were being lead through an enemies ship by the Scarecrow.  He didn't know much about this Azumi that Audrey knew but he wasn't sure why Scarecrow seemed to care so much about this contract.

"Let's just move.  We need to get this done quickly."  Sorin said.  If they got caught they would be at a severe disadvantage and that was counting on the fact that Scarecrow wouldn't betray them.

While on that line of thought Sorin quickly handed Audrey and Isaac some thick cloths.  "Here, just in case Scarecrow tries something."  Sorin whispered.  The cloth came from some of the heavier clothes the Samurai owned, for the colder worlds but he had cut up a shirt to get them something that could block out the Fear Toxin.

====

"You're all a little young to be doing something like this, I can assure you that."  Scarecrow said.  "And thirty-six, for the record."  He said, glancing back at Isaac, choosing to disregard his gibes for the moment.  Finally, he looked at Sorin, and let out a small chuckle as he handed out the cloths.

"Your attempt to block out my fear toxin is laughable, young man.  Have you forgotten about these?"  He held out the needle-laden hand.  "Of course, even if you can keep me from getting close, I can think of at least a dozen ways of restraining you."  He turned and walked on, still talking.  "I could create a construct of some fire-arm that could shoot my syringes too fast for you to dodge, or create unbreakable ropes to hold you down."  He continued talking nonchalantly.  "Or perhaps I would inject your girlfriend with the toxin first, causing you to lower your guard just long enough for me to inject you.  Or, given enough time, and keeping you away from the others, I may be able to talk you into injecting [i]yourself[/i].  So many possibilities."

He turned down another hall, and stopped at a door.

"But as I said, I have no plans of betraying you.  Now, we're not here to get your friends yet.  This is a short little stop."  He opened the door, revealing a bedroom, decorated in a Spartan fashion, except for the very large closet that Rikka had insisted be put in.  A desk in the opposite corner of the closet, and a bed in the back.

"Some friends here to visit you, miss Ian."  Crane said to the woman who was obviously, to his trained eyes, feigning sleep.

"After all, you have as much a right to preserve your interests as they do."

====

Isaac followed, nodding to Crane's answers to Sorin's feeble defense. He did, tie it around his mouth, however, keeping it up. "He does have a point. There's about twenty ways this could go wrong, and that's not including the ways [i]with[/i] his ring if the data feed I got is right. Or the likely countless guards hidden somewhere, or the invisible ones Masami has on her. Also? Maybe looking like a bandit isn't the best way to go when we have to steal some people off a ship. I'm only going along with it because my reputation isn't the best anyway."

Still, he waved off all other concerns, just wanting to get the underlying lack of sense inherent in the Solar Samurai's plan out of the way. He knew that Kira probably agreed, but she was busy scanning, not talking. Good plan.

Finally, they came to the room. Yes, it had rather spartan decoration, albeit having necessities like two chairs, a table and night table, and a bed in addition to Rikka's compulsory, wall-built dresser (though not her vanity [pun intended]). The colors of the room were the total inverse of Rikka's others, a midnight blue with silver decorations. But he did notice certain things about the room that may have missed others' eyes. The dresser was wall-built, meaning it probably stretched into the wall. To somewhere else? Perhaps, if the extended piece from the wall was not all. A servant would not need a desk, so perhaps she wasn't as bad as she sounded.

That aside, he was surprised by how large the room was. Most likely not by choice, but he doubted she complained. He was, however, mildly alarmed when she sat up.

The woman seemed to have had far better days. He hadn't seen clearly, but she had bloodshot eyes, sweat on her brow, her eyes angry and crazed both. She sat up suddenly, quickly pulling her blanket and sheets around herself for decency that she proved to really have (a hint of beige kevlar shown for the briefest moment as she sat up and rearranged things herself). She looked to Crane first of all. "Damnit, Crane! Knock for once! I'm not your f***ing errand g--" She cut herself off then, for two reasons. First, he could easily throw that in her face about Rikka and even possibly Dani. Second, she saw the three people who had come.

"You brought help," she said, relieved, to Isaac first. Then it fully dawned on her. "Oh sh**, you brought more... And you knew where I am...." She fell back into the bed at that, sighing before sitting up as Isaac spoke, looking somewhat defeated. She couldn't even keep her contract intact. It was only a matter of time until Rikka decided to fully break her into her role if this was as bad as could be.

Isaac just tilted his head at her state of dress. "You're welcome, by the way. And yes, I knew already. I just didn't bother to tell you."

She sighed, just falling back again. "So much for secrecy..."

"Comes with nigh-telepathy." He summoned his omnitool to his arm, and did a small degree of typing, linking to Azumi's (not on her at the moment) and sending over his list of Rikka's spells. "Okay, I did my part. Now, Cheryl. Where is she? Tell us right now."

"Crane gonna crow about it?" she asked.

"...okay, I admit that one's pretty good." He decided to just go look around, walking around the room. He saw a stack of papers--

"Nobody touch those or even look at them or interact with them at all!"

...right, not a good idea. Back to his search as he let the others talk.


Audrey said nothing as she followed Crane down the hall. Though she took the cloth, she didn't tie it around her, instead putting it away in her pocket just in case. She hated to admit it, but the Scarecrow was right with what he said. He did have other ways of injecting the toxin aside from the canisters, and there was also that magic ring of his. For now, the Dream Mage had to put her trust in this villain in order to save the captured canon compatriots.

She just hoped this wouldn't bite her in the ass later on.

When they came to the room, she couldn't help but to look around, glad to be away from the overly extravagant designs of the rest of the ship. As large as this room was, it was at least easier on the eyes...well, save for that dresser. Before she could really take note that it was wall-built, the young woman had to look at Azumi, only to wince the minute she saw the state she was in. Awkward as this was, having noted the kevlar before she pulled the sheets up, she could only imagine how hard this whole thing must have been for her...

Still, after Isaac said his piece and went on to look around, Audrey sighed and looked to Sorin, gesturing to the woman. "Sorin, Azumi. Azumi, Sorin." Ignoring the awkwardness of the situation, the Dream Mage walked up to the sergeant, stopping just before the edge of the bed. Though her approach was more soft, her face remained expressionless for the moment.

"For the record, it wasn't just Isaac who explained everything," she began, a bit of a stern edge to her tone. "Crane also let us in on this contract you have with these guys, so I know this is the only way you're turning against them."

...but then her look turned soft, as well as her voice. "But honestly, I don't blame you for any of this. They had forced you somehow; it doesn't make you any less tough. In fact, I think what you're doing is smarter than what any of us would do; I fought back against an offer Ignis gave me, and I ended up getting burned alive for it." A pause. "...then again, it was either getting burned or brutally raped, but..that's not the point." Back to reassuring as best as she could. "The point is that this isn't entirely your fault, and you're still on our side."

Here, she pressed her hands against the edge of the mattress, looking straight at the woman. "Speaking of crow...if you know where Cheryl and Kalas are, if you can tell us where to look, I think it would help a lot. Ignis betrayed part of your contract, right? I think you have a right to backstab him right back for this."

====

Honestly Sorin knew that Scarecrow had a point but he didn't care too much.  It was better than nothing and even if Scarecrow didn't try anything that didn't mean Sorin trusted that Ignis or Dani had access to some Fear Toxin.  Better to be prepared over something that might not happen.

Well at least there was one room in the damn ship that didn't give a headache.  That was a plus.  On the downside was the owner of the room.  She looked awful and didn't seem to be fully dressed.  Good thing she had her covers or else things would have gotten awkward.

But Sorin finally got a good look at Azumi, who made a contract with one of Scarecrow's allies.  Despite how Sorin disagreed with it, Sorin admits he couldn't fault her for taking it after all Audrey got a similar offer.

Wait.

Sorin turned and gave Audrey a rather annoyed glare.  This was the first time he heard about this deal with Ignis and once this was all over with Sorin was going to have a talk with Audrey.  As if Sorin didn't have enough reason to hate Ignis already.  But turning back to Azumi Sorin said.

"I might not know you as well as Isaac or Audrey but I'm not going to blame you for taking the deal.  You had your reasons for doing it and they were probably good reasons.  So don't worry about it and let's focus on what is in front of us and that is saving Kalas and Cheryl."

"We're going to need a plan on how to find them, get them free and get out of here without alerting everyone in the ship and what to do if we do.  Even with this contract Ignis isn't going to let us grab them and go.  Even with Crane working for us."  Sorin added.

=====

The Scarecrow took on a slightly miffed expression, even through his mask.  The Batman villain aimed this look at the samurai, already his evaluation of Sorin's intelligence dropping.

"I'm not working [i]for [/i]you, I'm working [i]with [/i]you.  One implies I'm beneath you in rank, which is certainly not true."

But he did take into account the rest of what Sorin had said, as well as choosing to ignore the others' comments, considering it.  Getting past the rest of the members and releasing their friends quietly was the best case scenario, for sure.  However, Crane knew from many past battles with the Batman that the best case scenario rarely occurred.

"I'm certain that I can create any construct necessary to free your friends from whatever bind they may be in.  In case of the possibility that we are attacked by Fatuus, I'm willing to hold him off.  My Ring provides more than enough power, and I know the others would back me on this, particularly Rikka, who wouldn't want her maid to escape her, I'm sure."  He tapped a finger to his chin.  "We just need a way to get past their defenses without being spotted.  I know this ship well enough to get around, but I doubt I could sneak past all of them, particularly since Ignis will be on high alert.  He's smart enough to know someone will try and come for them."

He looked at the Sergeant.  "Miss Ian, you've been here nearly as long as I have.  I don't suppose you have an idea?"

====

Azumi sighed, covering her face with her hands as she listened to them all. What could she do? What would she be capable of doing?

All she did was speak softly, first to Audrey. "So you guys don't blame me?" She was quiet for a moment. "That makes three of you then." She didn't include herself on purpose, and hoped they understood what she meant. "I did make contingencies for if someone here betrayed me. So yes, I can do something, just not a lot."

She looked to Sorin. "I'd really like it if you didn't focus on what's in front of you, seeing as that's me. Nobody knocks anymore."

Wrapping the blanket around herself, she looked over at Crane as she sat up a bit. "You misunderstand, Crane. I never said I was leaving. I'm following what I said and agreed on to the letter. I just think that it's time to call in the contingency clause."

She pointed to the closet, which Isaac went over to and opened. Inside, the space was [i]enormous.[/i] On the left side were copies upon copies of the incredibly revealing catsuit that the Mirrorverse Jessica had forced her to wear. On the right were copies of her maid dress, including the nylons, the roses, and everything involved in making it up.

The demon just looked over at her, deadpan. He didn't blame her or not, just didn't bother with an opinion as of yet. "Should I--?" He wasn't going to waste time right now with a scan when he needed to hear her talk.

She looked to her covers, shifting uncomfortably. "Not even slightly. Two grades of humiliation. I was cleaning up in there and here when I saw them at the end. It's a huge hallway. They're at the end, and I wasn't able to get them out. Mostly because I don't have anywhere to bring them, and he'd..."

She stopped then. "Just... just go get them. I just hope you understand what I'm risking here. If he finds out I helped..."

Isaac took a breath. "You already told us, and he can look into your mind at random, I think. I think you already sealed your own way through this if you hadn't already. We can't promise we're going to get you off scott free. If you come wi--"

"No!" She froze, realizing what was happening, and just fell back in bed, closing her eyes, shivering despite the covers. "You're right... I'm a f***ing martyr... just go. Close the door if you feel like it. I need to do this... it's the only chance, the only thing I have that'll help me at least try to protect people these days. So much for being 'tough'."

(The next poster can probably just assume Isaac is following in. There is no armor in there. Rikka has it, so she can't choose to wear it or casual clothing unless she asks.)

====

Though Audrey at first glared at Crane in regards to his response to Sorin, she said nothing; they'd be here all night if she were to go into "overprotective girlfriend mode". Instead, she considered everything said, though doubting that everything would go smoothly. Considering her luck so far, she had a feeling they would end up having to fight soon.

The Dream Mage didn't say anything on that, instead looking to the closet as Isaac opened it. She too had to deadpan as she saw the many copies of clothes; was her armor even in there at all? She kept from asking, however, just listening as Azumi explained where she had found them. Though she had to frown at the last part, when she just told them to go, wouldn't have any of what they could say. She couldn't help but to pity the sergeant, knowing how hard this must have been for her. Even the strongest of all of them had a chance to break.

With that, she just turned, about to walk through the closet. Before she did, she just told Azumi last, "We'll find a way to get you out of this, Azumi. Maybe not tonight, maybe not right away...but one of these days, we'll get you away from these bastards. I promise." And so she walked into the closet, making her way through the large hallway. Though not without taking one of the maid outfits for safe-keeping beforehand.

However, she had been unaware that, just before she had walked in, one of the hypnotized servants had peered into the room, and caught sight of the young woman right then. In spite of the given orders, to take her out on sight, she turned back down the hallway, off to warn the others...


"For God's sake, did this really have to be so huge? There's practically nothing!" Audrey complained as she and her allies walked through the secret passageway. Even though it was simply a straight path, the fact that it was so needlessly long was driving her mad. It was like the bastard knew they would have to go down this way...actually, if he did, he'd set up some obstacles along the way.

Nonetheless, the healer just continued going down the hall, hoping that they would reach their friends soon. If they weren't, she swore that she was about to break something soon...whatever it would be around here. Probably the walls, or something. Not only that, but she was starting to have that tense feeling...that something wrong was about to go down. It might have just been her paranoia speaking, but knowing their line of work...

Her line of thought was cut off then, as something had reached her ears. A monstrous snarl...one that she recognized. The Dream Mage picked up her pace, breaking into a jog so she would reach the end of the hall quicker. Sure enough, she reached the spacious room at the end, where she came across a familiar demon dog, bound by the legs and muzzle by some rope. He struggled and growled for a bit...until he spotted the girl. Almost instinctively, he stopped right then, seemed to calm down in immediate response.

In turn, Audrey knelt before the dog, beginning to untie the ropes. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of this." Thankfully, it didn't take too long to do just that. The bonds easily slipped off from his legs, as did the makeshift muzzle. The minute they were off, the Mauthe Doog tackled the young woman and slobbered at her face, the girl laughing as he did.

"Okay, okay! I'm happy to see you too, Jacks--Lucifer!" After a bit, Lucifer did step off, just looking at the girl with a lolling tongue and his tail wagging happily. Audrey wiped the slobber off her face with a small smile, but then looked at the hellhound sternly. "Is your master nearby?"

Lucifer's expression turned, his ears going back and giving a whine, but nonetheless trotted to the corner to collect his captured owner. Before he did, he nudged one lying body nearby to get their attention before going over to the other one.

Audrey couldn't help but to frown as she saw who it was. Cheryl Mason, out like a light...and garbed in a long red dress, [url=http://images.wikia.com/silent/images/9/93/Godandangels.jpg]much like the depiction of Silent Hill's Goddess.[/url] Unsurprisingly, the Dream Mage felt disgusted to see her this way; she knew Ignis was seriously screwed in the head, but she didn't think he'd be the type to change someone's clothes upon capturing them. But she did have to wonder...if Cheryl was dressed like this...what was Kalas...?

She got her answer as Lucifer dragged the next body over...and the girl couldn't help but to stare. There he was, dressed in what looked to be a [url=http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFp__bHSf19xM4TgPyYweskVgLJyJsifs-OcfwBuOPd8vHAjWcfdAII6Z2]male Arabian dancer uniform.[/url] Added with jewels in his hair and around his waist, arm streamers, and a veil concealing the lower half of his face.

What did Audrey have to say to this?

"...that's hot..."

Quickly realizing what she just said, however, she shook her head quickly before kneeling down beside her unconscious friends, trying to shake them awake. "Come on, you guys. We gotta get out of here as fast as we can."

====

Scarecrow followed the group down the hallway that had been hidden in the closet.  He did consider commenting on how, no, her friends would probably not saver her, or at least not do so with her sanity intact.  He could see the signs already, how she was torn between obeying the contract.  The depression, obviously, was having a large toll as well.  It would be only a matter of time before she cracked completely.  Crane held his tongue, though.  He had already earned the group's ire, and didn't want any more.

After all, he was here to help them.

So, he simply followed quietly, thinking to himself, until Audrey commented on the lengthy of the hall.

"Rikka is to blame for that, of course.  She seems to value ridiculous extravagance over practicality, something that I'm sure we can agree is most annoying."

But eventually, they reached the end.  Scarecrow stepped out behind them, glancing at the strange dog, but not giving it much of a second though.  He did, however, see Kalas.  Ah, it only figured.  Ignis had stated before that the winged boy was one of his prime targets, and Scarecrow had agreed that he had been such an interesting experiment.  So much so, that he almost considered arguing to leave Kalas.  After all, he wasn't apart of the contract.  But no, they would most likely fight him for their friend, and that was the last thing he wanted at the moment.

Instead, he bent over Cheryl, shaking her slightly.  Of course, the woman wouldn't wake up.  He had already deduced why Ignis would keep them here without restraints.

"I believe that Fatuus has used one of his spells on them.  They're trapped within their own subconsciouses, unable to wake up.  There is probably some cure for this, but one I am not able to procure.  The best solution would be to carry them out, as unwieldy as it may be.  I can create a construct to lift them."

====

Sorin just rolled his eyes at Crane but said nothing.  That kind of thing was getting him all worked up?  As much as Sorin could have responded he held himself back.  First now was not the time for bickering and second Sorin just decided that Crane just wasn't worth responding to.

As they walked down the hallway Sorin seemed to not be looking at the maid outfits for some reason.  He didn't seem to want to look at them at all and was almost always facing the other side of the hallway.  Though he had to wonder who thought it would be a good idea to use such a large hallway as a closet of all things.  This Rikka was probably one of the most arrogant people Sorin had seen and he had yet to meet her.

Well the good news was that they were able to find Kalas and Cheryl.  Bad news it looked like was Ignis put them under some kind of spell and considering it was from Ignis, that was never a good sign.  Actually it sounded a lot like what had happened to him when he was under Dani's hypnotism, minus having to do whatever she says.

"Audrey might be able to get them free.  She can enter their hearts, but the problem with that is she'll be unconcious when she does it.  So we need to decide if we should do it now or wait until we're back on the ships to do it.  Unfortunately one doesn't seem to be better than the other."  Sorin said with a sigh.  Things were not going to be easy from here on.

====

Isaac was frantic when they finally arrived. She was right there, but nothing was helping. He realized that they had been wrong on Ignis' power set when Crane explained, though before Sorin said it he knew the solution. He'd been through enough warps with Audrey in Kira's mind to know what she was capable of.

That didn't mean he was going to ask nicely.

"We are not going to just drag them back and hope that in the meantime that ba***** doesn't have some kind of nightmarish programming erasing them. Too risky. Sorin, you and I are going to hold off any attackers who might come and defend Audrey here." He looked to the Dream Mage. "You go in there right now. I know that you can, you've done it before. Do it now and fix her, dammit." He turned back to Crane. "A shield of some sort, something to help if the ring will work."

His omnitool crackled blue for a moment. Kira's magic would possibly help.

"Didn't you hear me, Jones? NOW!"

====

Audrey had to frown as Crane explained the situation. A spell that traps people in their own subconscious...in a way, the complete opposite of her Dream Walker. She sighed; another case where she had to risk using her ability and facing more horrors. Considering Silent Hill was definitely going to be involved, that was more likely to happen. She was about to consider the Scarecrow's offer to carry them out, fight their way out so they can return to their ships to do this...

...but then Isaac started pushing her into entering their minds right now. Sure, he had a point, but the fact that he was rushing her brought her to snap towards him and shout back, "Maybe I'll get to it quicker if you STOP RUSHING ME! I know you care about her and all, but yelling at me to fix things isn't going to help!"

Though Isaac was about to continue the argument, he stopped himself from doing so, and instead let out a sigh. Can't have her hating him [i]now.[/i] "Look, can you blame me for being stressed? Just...please try to fix her."

Audrey let out a sigh as well, calming herself slightly. She really couldn't blame him for that, stressed out herself. "She's not the only one I have to save, you know."

With that, the Dream Mage had gone right down to business. She placed her hands on both Kalas and Cheryl's foreheads, pink mist beginning to surround the three of them. After a moment, there was a small pulse, not reaching out to everyone like before, but once it all died down, the young woman had fallen unconscious beside her friends, having entered their dreams.

Right as the sound of footsteps was heard approaching from the hall...

Isaac took a deep breath, looking to her, then to the two men with him to help. "Crane, if you're gonna keep that contract intact, you're gonna have to help us still. Making sure we all can escape with them."

He gripped the Abyss in his right hand tightly, holding out his left hand to the one entrance to this chamber. "Make sure nobody comes from either end. I'll cover this direction. Sorin, you keep Audrey protected more directly, no matter what direction, but keep an eye out for the doctor's allies. Good? Good."

Finally, he flexed his fingers, thrusting his palm forward slightly. A new spell came to his mind in this moment of stress, one that he knew could help him here. He heard it in his mind as he spoke it.

[color=brown][i]"Sulfur."[/i][/color]

A dark cloud of blackest pitch rose in the hall of the direction from which the people were coming more audibly, a faint itching burning smell coming off of the gas, flits of purple and green flickering within it. This spell was just as black as pitch as his Doubt spell, but would also cause the health of the enemies to sap, and making breathing hard. Hopefully it would cause the enemies to get too tired to fight effectively, making a bottleneck for them to carve through if necessary, and perhaps causing ally to attack ally instead of the heroes.

And Scarecrow, of course.

[size=1](I'd say we have about 2 rounds of fighting off the servants. The dream sections will be in scrapbook form sometime in the future.)[/size]

====

If it was a better time Sorin might have told Isaac not to yell at Audrey but now wasn't the time.  Plus they were all stressed.  No need to add to that stress with a stupid argument.  "We'll get them out of here Isaac.  Cheryl is our friend too.  Same with Kalas no matter how much of an ass he can be."  Sorin said as he put a hand on Isaac shoulder.  No matter how much of a jerk Isaac could be, Sorin wasn't going to let him down.

Still now that they had a plan and now that they were found out.  Sorin moved back to where Audrey, Cheryl and Kalas were.  Even with his various spells he was still a close range fighter.  Better to stay back and let Isaac take care of most of them from a distance with that smoke like spell.  But even with Isaac's spell a couple made it through and went straight for the unconcious trio.

"I got them!  You focus on the rest!"  Sorin told Isaac as he drew Battosai.  From the way they looked their attackers were people Dani had hypnotized into being her servants.  Sorin wished they could do something for them but there just wasn't enough time.  But that wasn't going to mean Sorin was going to kill innocent people when he could avoid it.

Sorin drew Battosai and looked at the five servants that were approaching.  They weren't well armed at all.  Only a couple of them had a knife.  It wasn't going to be a fair fight at all.  These people weren't chosen because they could fight, only because they had bad luck to run into Dani.  This Sorin could handle easily.

Sorin charged right into the small group.  As he charged Sorin flipped his blade.  The first Servant threw a punch at the Samurai but the movements were slow.  This was not a experience fighter so Sorin could see it coming.  Because of that Sorin was able to move to the side and brought his blade up, striking right at the side of the man's head.  The servant went down.

One down four to go.  Seeing the first of them go down, one of the two with knives attacked next, going to stab the Samurai.  Despite having lost he ability to use most of the Hiten Mitsurugi Style Sorin could still use a couple moves.  As the knife got close to his chest Sorin spun, getting past the servants guard and used the momentum to strike the back of his head with Battosai.

Sorin would take the next move, moving low to get under the guard of the next servant and struck the bottom of his jaw with the hilt of his sword.  Sorin for a second thought he could hear the sound of the man's jaw breaking but he couldn't stop and check.

The other servant with a knife attacked at the same time with the last unarmed one.  Sorin couldn't help but smirk slightly as he grabbed the arm of the armed servant as he stabbed and kicked away the other servant.  With a twist and a snap Sorin broke the man's arm and a blow to the head would knock him out.  As the last man tried to get up, Sorin walked over and finished him off with one final blow.

Sorin sighed slightly.  It had been a while since he had to fight without killing someone.  It wasn't easy as even though he was using the blunt side of his sword he was still swinging a metal object at them.  As there was no one else coming through yet, Sorin checked his victims, just to make sure he didn't accidentally kill them.

====

As per the Zivaku brother's instruction, the Scarecrow created a shield that covered the three sleeping Interferences from all around, in the shape of half of a sphere.  He looked back at Isaac.

"Any other [i]requests[/i]?"  He asked, not liking being ordered around, before turning calmly back to the oncoming minions.  He could try ordering them to stop, as he normally was allowed some degree of control, but since they had found them at all, it was a safe bet to assume that Dani had ordered them to not listen to him.  Well, it seemed violence couldn't be avoided.  Oh well.

Another pair of constructs were created, this time hatchets in his hands.  Unlike the samurai, Scarecrow had no qualms against killing these people.  After all, it was unlikely that Dani would ever release them from her control.  They were really nothing more than mindless zombies.  Still, it was much easier to simply take them down, as opposed to killing them.

One of the hatchets was thrown into one's leg, another into another slave's bicep.  They both fell, writhing in pain.

He then flew upwards, throwing various other weapons at the slaves, some penetrating vital areas.  He managed to get in close and stab them with the syringes of fear toxin on his hand.  He noted that his toxin was effective at overriding Dani's programming.  Interesting, although she most likely hadn't as put as much effort into hypnotizing these people, so that was a possible explanation.  Still, it warranted further experimentation.  He wished he could take down some notes, but unfortunately, he didn't have any on him.  A shame.

A scythe appeared in his hands, which he proceeded to sweep into another slave's gut.
_______________________

[size=1](Greg's post)[/size]

"Keeping a deal would be great!" the Silver Tongue shouted as the chaos began.

Finally, the smoke cleared, wafting away. Azumi would probably have to fix the slight burn damage to her clothes on the hooks, but it wasn't too big of a deal.

A few of the servants lay dead, others gasping or moaning in agony as others jumped over them to come down the hall. The innocent, hypnotized civilians, being painfully killed in order to protect Audrey and the others. Sorin had restraint, at least, with his knockouts.

Isaac, on the other hand, really didn't see it as much of his problem. Abyss stabbed into a leg, was twisted until a knife was forced off target, sliced out and severing tendons to allow him to knock the weapon out of the target's grasp. He turned the man around, grabbing him by the shoulder and using him as a human shield to take another stab to the gut, kicking him forward afterwards and slicing another arm, then kneecap, with both ends of the weapon.

Another came from his left, but got a ball of blood red Hellfire in the face. As he screamed, he dropped the knife, which Isaac grabbed in his open hand and rammed into his side, forcing him to his knees, where a kick to the head knocked him out.

Next one came from behind him as he took down the former. Without pause, the young man stabbed backwards, then wrenched the bloodied blade out of his foe, spinning around and slashing across the wound and forcing him to the ground as well.

Normally, Isaac wouldn't have cared too much. Now, he just thought of this as an obstacle.

Cheryl [i]would[/i] be saved. And presumably Kalas as well.

====

As Sorin had been checking to see if the servants he got were alive, another hypnotized subject had come up behind him, ready to stab him with the knife. Just before he could, an electric surge had fired right out of Isaac's omnitool, striking the man dead on and leaving him paralyzed. Kira's magic had provided some assistance, though only by a margin.

In the meanwhile, the Mauthe Doog had found himself in between two servants, ready to close in on him. He snarled, got into a stance...and then leapt out of the way as pounced in, instead stabbing each other. With those two out of the way, Lucifer then ran to the next servant, trying to find his way over the shield construct that Crane formed around the unconscious three, and grabbed him by the leg in his mouth, yanking him down. Before he could get back up, the demon dog pounced right on him and shredded into the man's face.

Meanwhile, the Dream Mage had a sudden twitch in her hand. Though still unconscious, she was close to breaking her friends free...

~*~

Unfortunately, the mayhem within the closet storage was not inaudible. Ignis Fatuus looked up from his current room tailoring to the commotion, and for once, couldn't help but to frown. Though it didn't take him long to guess that someone was trying to free his captives; even for all of his smugness, he figured it were to happen eventually...no, what he [i]did[/i] have to wonder was how they had breached the securities, for this was not the typical warning he had expected to have...

Ordering the two female servants who had been with him, and therefore unaware of the conflict, to carry out the tailoring, the Nightmare Illusionist exited out into the hall, where he found several more servants who received word from the others. The minute they saw one of their directed masters, however, they stopped right away and bowed their heads in respect. Normally, Ignis would have basked in this; now was not the time to stroke his own ego.

"Each of you wouldn't happen to know what is going on, would you?" he asked, even though the answer was obvious.

In turn, one of the women answered, in complete monotone, "It is the girl. We are to kill her on sight, as commanded."

...the minute those words escaped her mouth, Ignis found himself frozen in place. He knew very well what was meant by "the girl"; Dani had explicitly told him such. It seemed the hypnotist had been correct in her assumptions, that she would steal from him out of petty vengeance. Normally, he would have let it slide, since he had trapped them in their subconscious...but when he had spoken with that little wretch last, he had scanned her with his eye, seen what spells she had now. And among them was a spell for her to enter the mind of another...

Ignis took a few shaky breaths to keep himself calm. Of all the things he didn't want was for that pathetic girl to foil him again, but he would not lose it like a stereotypical villain. Instead, he looked as calmly as he could at the servants and said, "Take me to her."

And with that, the hypnotized civilians had led one of their masters to where the chaos was happening. Ignis thought to have warn the other villainesses, but decided against it. Best to handle things personally, he said to himself.

====

Sorin honestly could have handled the servant sneaking up on him but Kira seemed to have gotten to it first.  And since the servant wasn't dead Sorin wouldn't mind.  Though he was a bit annoyed at Scarecrow and Isaac's lack of restraint.  While he expected this from the villain he was hoping Isaac would have tried more to keep the deaths as low as possible.

But Sorin couldn't really worry about that right now.  They were still coming and Audrey still had yet to get up.  If Audrey doesn't finish freeing Cheryl and Kalas too, they might catch the attention of Ignis or Dani or this Rikka.  Even a single one of them joining the fight could easily change how the rescue goes.

Sorin pushed those thoughts away as another couple servants made their way toward him.  Sorin let them come closer and as one they both attacked.  Sorin had been waiting for this and just said "Eclipse."  The dark barrier appeared around Sorin and the Servants ran right into it and got blasted back with the same force they hit it with.

A new group came closer sticking close together.  Sorin would have charged them as well when he felt something.  The Samurai smirked slightly as he readied his katana.  Black wind started to swirl around the blade as Sorin prepared his newest spell.  "Enrise!"  Sorin shouted as he swing toward the group of servants.  Compared to the wave that Sorin's Solar Wind creates, Enrise's wind was a more focused tunnel of wind that sent all the servants flying in different directions.

With the last distraction gone, Sorin turned to look back at Audrey.  He didn't like having to watch over her like this.  He would much rather have her fighting right beside him.  Then Sorin knew she was strong enough to take care of herself.

====

The Scarecrow was as much in the thick of things as his temporary allies.  He had already taken down or killed quite a few of the servants, and there were only a few left to fight.  One aimed a slash at him with a knife, but Crane easily dodged, and spun around behind the slave, and stabbed him in the back with the tip of his scythe construct.

The next was even easier to defeat.  The fool rushed him, practically running straight into the needles on his hand, ending up injected with fear toxin.  The man fell to the ground, writhing in the intense terror caused by the hallucinogen.  The third was a little more careful, although equally as stupid.  The mind-controlled servant tried to dodge, but it was clumsy.  Dani really did have to do better at this.  He was quickly brought to his knees by a scythe slash to his thigh, and then Scarecrow brought the scythe down on the exposed neck, not fully decapitating the man, but it was certainly enough to cut open the major artery.  The slave would bleed out quite soon.

The final servant was easily disposed of.  She had been attempting to sneak up on him, obviously not realizing Crane was far more attentive than she thought.  He spun around with the scythe construct held out, the momentum carrying the blade into her side, cutting deep.  She fell.

That was the last of them, and Scarecrow allowed himself a short rest, standing up straighter out of the fighting stance.  He looked to the samurai.

"I do hope your girlfriend doesn't take too long in there, for your sake.  You might actually [i]die [/i]if they send reinforcements.  It would be a shame, really, you could make for such an interesting experiment."

====

Of course, it was right after that very statement that the Dream Mage had stirred awake. With a groggy moan, she slowly pushed up and turned to her knees, shaking her head. Though she didn't get her bearings completely straight, she still managed up a glare towards Crane, showing that she had heard him completely. "Don't even lay a finger on him..."

Normally, Isaac would make a comment to that. However, there was still the one priority; he practically raced up to them, turning to Crane temporarily. "Lower the goddamn shield, now." Pressing his hands against the yellow shield, he asked, "She's okay, right?"

Audrey said nothing, just turning to her friends. Though she did have to mention one thing beforehand, "Turned out I had to save a third in there..."

Before anyone could ask what she meant, sure enough, Cheryl groaned as she slowly awoke. She placed both of her hands against her head as she sat up, mumbling to herself, "Feel like I got hit by a truck..."

Isaac breathed out a sigh of relief. Even if everyone was watching, if it had not been for the barrier construct, he would have run up to her and hold her tight. As it was, he just looked to her softly and told her, "Everything's gonna be okay, Cheryl..."

The Holy Mother looked up to Isaac then, blinking once. "Isaac? What...what just...." She stopped herself from finishing her question, as she had taken notice of the dress she was wearing now. Nothing but dead silence came from her, the events leading up to the now catching up with her. She had been knocked out by...by...

Noticing her expression now, the Silver Tongue attempted to calm her in a way, "It...looks nice on you?"

No dice. Cheryl just sat there, a blank expression on her face. She had shut down, and needed to be rebooted.

Audrey just palmed her face in response. "Smooth..." she muttered, but then heard a hard groan beside her. She sighed, knowing that the Silent Hill heroine had not been worse for wear. Literally.

Kalas was on his hands and knees, one hand on his forehead as he groaned again in pain. "Oh stars...think I drank too much..." In spite of the hangover, however, the Divine Child had recalled immediately what had happened before this. That damned illusionist knocking both him and Cheryl out with some spell via a kiss. It angered him that he would mess with him again like that. However, there was one other thing he remembered...

[i]'Xelha? You okay there?'[/i] The Ice Queen had been with them in the dream, the spell having reached to her through their mindlink. As if he weren't angered enough by what that man did to him, he also had to mess with her one more time...

[i][color=fuchsia]'Yeah...I think so...'[/i][/color] Hearing her voice had him sigh in relief, glad to know she was okay. However... [i][color=fuchsia]'You might want to keep yourself from looking down...'[/i][/color]

...unsurprisingly, he did just that, and saw the state of dress he was in.

"......."

~*~

The other servants had been nearing Azumi's room by then. Ignis had to frown at this, knowing this was where the maid had slept. He should have known that she might have betrayed him, if she had--

His thoughts were disrupted as, all of a sudden, a loud scream had echoed across the halls:

[size=5]"I'M GONNA KILL HIM!!!!!!!!!!!"[/size]

The voice of his raven, almost destroying his ears. The Nightmare Illusionist let out a grunt; they had awakened. Once again, everything was falling apart right before him, after everything had gone so well...

"Open the damn door." The command was strict, the man very nearly losing his patience to all of this. Without a word, the slaves just barged right in, stepping aside for their master to step in.

As if immediately, Azumi had hid under the covers, once again pretending to sleep. She would have yelled to knock first...but she knew Ignis had found out. She knew he was pissed off, knew he would blame her for it, even though it was his fault. She wasn't ready to confront him, not until everyone got out safely.

Thankfully, Ignis didn't even look her way as he walked into the room, doing all he could to keep as calm as he can. He would deal with her later; right now, he would wait for the Dream Mage to step right out of that closet, confront her on her thievery of his things. She had messed with him for the last time...

====

Now Sorin will admit he underestimated how skilled Scarecrow was in terms of combat.  He clearly wasn't the same from the cartoon.  However that didn't mean Sorin would let the villain talk down to him like that.  "If more come you should worry about yourself.  I am not worried, they might actually force me to start taking this a little more seriously."

Thankfully at that moment Audrey woke up with Cheryl and Kalas.  Sorin moved to his girlfriend's side and helped her to her feet.  His face showed how relieved he was to see everyone was okay.  Even if he might have lost his hearing for a few seconds from Kalas shouting at the top of his lungs.  "Geez Kalas be a little louder, I don't think the ships on the other side of the universe could hear you."

Sorin quickly went back to being serious.  "Alright we need to get out of here now.  I think our best bet would just be to charge right through them and make a break to the ships.  They can just send waves after waves after us and wear us down.  If Kalas and Cheryl can fight it will be easier otherwise me and Isaac can make a whole in their defenses for the rest of you to go through."

====

The Scarecrow lowered the shield to allow the others to get to Cheryl and Kalas.  He simply stood aside as the others went to be with their respective friends and lovers.  However, he knew they had little time.  If they had already defeated the servants, than Ignis and the rest of the Collective would soon be there.  He was certain he could talk Dani and Rikka into agreeing that the Interferences were within their rights to be here, but he doubted Fatuus would follow suit.

"As touching as this little reunion is,"  He said, interrupting the heroes' moment.  "It would be wise to leave as soon as possible.  The samurai's plan is sound, if only because it is our [i]only[/i] option.  I, however, will lead the attack.  I have no reason to 'escape', and the Collective trusts me.  Therefore, the best plan is to allow me to do the talking.  The other members will not be far behind the slaves."

With that, Crane began to go back through the closet hall, expecting Ignis to show up at any moment.  He wouldn't let his guard down just because they were allies.  After all, he knew the entire Collective, himself included, were simply waiting for the chance to stab each other in the back and take all the power and wealth for themselves.  After all, just look at what had happened to Levins, the fool.  It was best to be prepared for anything.

====

Audrey smiled at Sorin after he helped her up, giving a thumbs-up to assure that everything went okay. Though she had to wince herself as Kalas screamed at the top of his lungs, she just sighed and went to help him, as well as to keep him from tearing his clothes off right then. No need to embarrass himself any further.

Isaac just rolled his eyes. "Eh, you'll be fine." He then looked to Sorin and Scarecrow as they discussed the plan to escape. "If that all goes to hell, I can just 'port us out. Mind you, there'll be side-effects, but better than nothing."

That said, he turned back to Cheryl, who was still in a BSOD. In an attempt to snap her out of it, the demon wrapped his arms around her in as comforting an embrace as he could manage, tried to tell her that she was safe. Unfortunately, she continued to stare blankly, completely unresponsive. Isaac sighed, having to fall to the last resort. He just looked to Audrey and told her simply, "Not one word."

And with that, he faced the Holy Mother once more...and pressed his lips against hers.

...which had then earned him an immediate shove to the side. Falling flat on his back, he just had to deadpan, "Yep, she's back to normal now."

Cheryl wiped her lips afterwards, muttering about needing a shower. Getting up to her feet herself, she then said to the matter at hand, "Okay, that bastard dies. Where the hell are my things?"

The minute she asked that, Lucifer trotted to the corner, nudging at the pile of clothes, Cheryl's scattered weapons, and Kalas' Magnus deck and winglet left lying around. It looked like Ignis didn't quite avoid the many pitfalls of typical villainy.

"Let's just pick them up and get out of here. We'll kill everyone next time," Audrey said, tugging on Kalas' sleeve...arm-streamer...whatever. "You hear that, Mr. Revenge-Seeker?"

Kalas was completely silent for the past few moments, unresponsive to what was going on after his yell of rage. The reason why was because he had his full attention on Crane, even as he walked ahead through the hall. Immediately, he recalled the last time he had encountered the masked man, what he had done to him. For that, he had been about to just go after him, finish him off while he had his back turned.

But, he stopped himself, not just because of the Dream Mage's words, but because he knew now wasn't a good time. Next time, he told himself, he'll make them all pay... "Fine."

With that, after the released victims had picked up their things, the group began walking through the closet hall, prepared for anymore coming slaves. Surprisingly enough, none had come after them, providing a safer passage through. It seemed they had given up, or those that had known of their intrusion had run out.

However, before anyone would start to think this was too easy, it all changed the minute they stepped out of the closet. Standing before them now was the perpetrator himself, along with several more of his servants.

"I should have known you would all break in to steal from me..." was all Ignis Fatuus said, his face bearing no expression whatsoever.

====

Sorin was rather amused by Isaac's way of getting Cheryl to respond.  He was definitely going to remember that for once they are out of here.  Once they get out of here being the key words.  They still weren't out of this yet.  With Crane taking the lead Sorin followed back with Audrey and the rest.  Sorin was rather surprised they didn't run into any more servants but the reason why was obvious once they got out.

"Ignis."  Sorin said as he drew the Chaos Seal.  Ignis was nothing like the servants and just using Battosai against him or any of his allies would be just foolish.  He would have to go all out just to be sure.  He wasn't even going to respond to him.  As much as he hated to admit it they were going to have to rely on Crane again.  If he could just keep Ignis back for a couple minutes the rest of them would be able to get out of here.

====

Crane, of course, couldn't resist making a comment towards Kalas.

"It's been too long, Kalas.  I was hoping to be able to find you again.  My research notes on your interesting case of Dissociative Identity Disorder were getting a tad dusty."  He let that hang in the air for a few moments.  "Ah, but sadly, now is not the time.  Just remember, and this goes for all of you..."  He looked back at the entire group, his mask once again stretching into a smile.

"You all owe me.  Don't forget that."

He turned back to the path ahead, and eventually came out at the entrance to Azumi's room, where, surprise surprise, Ignis was waiting, and looking none too happy as well.  He just had to talk to Fatuus, and hopefully convince him to keep his rage in check (he knew he could never convince him to not be angry, no matter how logical the argument), and to leave him alone and let the others leave.

"Fatuus, [i]you [/i]are the one who broke the contract, which you signed and agreed to like the rest of us.  You are well aware that these children are within their rights to be here, and are not 'stealing' in any light.  Now, let them go without harming them, or you may lose your allies today."

====

To Crane's comment towards him, Kalas just glared sharply. The fact that he compared his issue with the Angel of Darkness to a split-personality disorder didn't help his mood one bit. He had been about to tell him straight off, both on correcting him and that he doesn't owe him anything.

"You have DID?" Cheryl had to ask, looking back with a raised eyebrow.

Kalas just breathed out a frustrated sigh, "No. I don't."

"He probably means the White Winged Darkness," Isaac replied nonchalantly, just walking his way through.

Audrey had her attention over then, blinking once. "Didn't we fight that before? And wasn't that where you were saying something like...'look at my beautiful wi--'"

"Don't. Bring that up. Again," Kalas growled right back.

Back to the matter at hand. The minute Audrey found Ignis before them, she scowled, her blood already beginning to boil. For all the things this man had done to her and her friends...she very nearly summoned Inari to her hand, just wanting to kill this monster right then and there. But...she knew it wouldn't do her any good. There was no advantage for any of them. So she just stood back, keeping her eyes trained on her arch nemesis in case he tried anything. Though she couldn't hold back a comment towards Crane as he spoke to Ignis.

"For a moment there, I thought you were about to sell us out."

Cheryl could barely hold back herself, only gripping the handgun and keeping herself from whipping it right out. After what the Nightmare Illusionist had done to her, she would be more than happy to see him dead, even more than the crazy woman responsible for the death of her father. But, he would probably find some way around it, like he always did. So she also stayed back, allowed the others to do the talking if it will get them out of here.

Kalas, on the other hand, didn't have quite as much restraint. Practically on instinct, he brought his sword and dagger right out of their Magnus, prompting some of the servants to step forward. However, that was all he had done; as angered as he was at this monster for all he did to him and Xelha, he wouldn't charge forward blindly. He would just stand at the ready, should a fight end up breaking out after all.

"Crane has a point about that, Fatuus," Isaac said, his arms crossed as he looked expressionlessly. In spite of his own anger, with Cheryl safe now, he was able to keep his emotions in check. "So, you gonna let us go, or do we have to do this the hard way?"

Ignis just glared sharply for a moment longer. The result of his anger wasn't because he was about to lose his captives; he had expected that to happen sooner. No...it was because it was the damned Dream Mage that freed them, broke into their base to do so. Dani was right; he really should have known that she would come for petty revenge, even though she had killed that fool herself.

But, on the other hand...this was indeed the result of his own betrayal of the contract. And he didn't want to lose any allies today...

"Yes...you indeed have a fair point, Crane," Ignis admitted with a sigh. "It was foolish of me to assume that the demon Zivaku and the Holy Mother wouldn't make it so far."

"How about you wait for us to break it up next time?" At Cheryl's incredulous glare, Isaac just mouthed back to her 'play along.'

"I'll keep that in mind. For now, I will look for other ways to obtain power without her Otherworld." With that, the Nightmare Illusionist gestured for his servants to stand back. "So, I will allow you all to leave quietly...with Miss Mason." He then gestured his cane towards Kalas, who very nearly snarled at him. "All I ask is that you leave my little raven with me, for he is not part of the contract."

Audrey could barely hold back anymore. "You can't seriously believe that we'll hand over our friend just like that!"

That moment, Ignis' smug grin had returned. The advantage was his once again. "Oh, I know that, my dear Dream Mage. But consider the consequences if I were to take him back by force. Do you think I would let you and Sorin go so easily? I could just let Isaac and Cheryl go and imprison the rest of you."

"I'd like to see you try it," she retorted, now ready to summon her glaive. That was, until...

"No...you don't have to do that," Kalas said with a sigh, reverting his weapons back into cards. "If that's what he wants, then you all go on without me. Better me than any of you."

Audrey looked to the winged boy, almost wanting to argue. She just couldn't find the right words to say. Cheryl, on the other hand, just looked with a disgusted expression as she asked, "You're seriously gonna stay with this sicko?"

Kalas just gave a small smirk and a peace gesture. "Trust me on this one. Just take Luce with ya and go ahead."

Though Isaac had to frown, he had to scan the Divine Child's heart, just to be sure if he meant what he said. Once he got the information, he nodded and held a hand to open a portal out of here. "He knows what he's doing. Let's go."

Audrey looked to Isaac, and then back to Kalas with a frown. She then sighed and stepped back, giving Lucifer a gentle scratch on the head to get him to follow her. Though he let out a whine, the Mauthe Doog got out of his battle stance and stood at the Dream Mage's side.

Kalas just nodded to his friends, then lowered his head and walked up to Ignis. The Nightmare Illusionist just grinned even more, placing a hand under the boy's chin and tracing it with a finger.

"It is good to know that you understand your place, child."

Holding back the urge to vomit, Kalas just nodded solemnly. "Yeah...you don't even have to put that spell on me again. I can't outsmart you, outfight you, or even outclass you..." However, it was right then that he pulled out a Magnus, and looked up with a smirk.

"But...I can outstupid you!" And from that Magnus appeared...a cake. To which Kalas just smashed into Ignis' face before he had a chance to act. Right after, he brought his knee into the man's gut. "And that one's for Xelha, you son of a bitch!"

All around, everyone just...stared blankly at the boy's action. Even the servants, for all of their droned states, didn't make a move after their master was attacked, as if some bit of their consciousness had addressed this. Even Ignis, after doubling over, couldn't find the words to say, just too appalled by the stupidity of it all.

"...that's...one way to go about it," was all Isaac had to say, right as the portal opened, like a Dark Corridor without the Nothing Threads. He motioned for everyone to enter the portal; once they had, the demon looked at Ignis once more, a scowl crossing his face, and briefly taking out his Collector Assault Rifle, aiming it right at the man's vital points.

"In spite of what I just said, if you even think of kidnapping Cheryl again, you will lose what's most important to you." And with that, he placed the rifle away and walked into the portal last. As it closed, Neo Shadows and Dark Balls had appeared in their place, closing off any chance of chasing after them.

Of course, before any of the slaves could try their flimsy attempts at taking care of the Heartless, Ignis, having regained composure, had willed his black flames to burn the Purebloods to a crisp. Shaking off the last traces of cake on him, he then turned to the lump in the bed, where Azumi still stayed hidden.

In spite of his admitted betrayal, he wasn't about to let the woman get away with this...

~*~

Back on the [i]Dream Weaver[/i], the rescue team and their rescuees had appeared on the bridge of the ship. Kalas had fallen on his back, and began laughing like a madman.

"Hahahaha! Oh man! You should have seen the look on all of your faces when I did that! That was priceless!"

Of course, in his thoughts, Xelha was less than amused. For a different reason, however. [i][color=fuchsia]'That...that was one of my cakes, wasn't it? You even said you would try it later! Why would you do that!?'[/color]

'Xelha, it was for the greater good! I could have killed him on the spot, but who's to say he'll just avoid that?'[/i] Before the argument would continue, he made for a quick save. [i]'I still have your chocolates. I'll have some when I try to forget what happened.'[/i]

Audrey just shook her head at the winged boy's antics, but said nothing. It did get them out, after all. Isaac, however, couldn't resist a remark.

"I wouldn't be laughing with you dressed like that."

Immediately, Kalas stopped laughing and got right up to his feet, glaring sharply with his face turning several shades of red. "Sh-shut your mouth!"

"Honestly that was the stupidest thing I have ever seen."  Sorin threw in his own comment as he shook his head.  "Though you might want to save that outfit for Xelha Kalas.  I'm sure she would love to see you dressed like that."

[i]"In spite of that[/i] brilliant [i]bout of idiocy,"[/i] Kira's voice had spoke on the intercom then, her voice dripping with sarcasm as usual, [i]"I would say that this rescue mission was a success, for once."[/i]

Isaac had been about to make a comment in response, when he was suddenly turned around. Before he could ask, his face was then met by the violent force of Cheryl's palm, leaving a visible mark on his cheek.

"'How about you wait for us to break it up next time?' You were seriously thinking of throwing me under the bus again like that!?" the Holy Mother yelled at him, having not been able to let go of that bit since he said it.

Isaac placed a hand on his cheek, muttering about 'ungrateful rescues', and said right back, "That was a [i]suggestion[/i]. Didn't mean that I would ever want him to do that again. And you probably didn't see, but I [i]threatened[/i] him not to do that again before I left." After a brief pause, he then said, "You're welcome, by the way."

Cheryl just continued to stare at the demon, still livid, but not saying another word. She just let out an 'ugh' and threw her hands in the air. With a smirk crossing his face, Isaac just couldn't stop there.

"So, how was that kiss?"

Immediately after, "I'm gonna go take a shower."

"That good, I take it?"

Cheryl whipped back towards Isaac then, once again about to say something, but couldn't find the right words. She just growled something under her breath and stomped right towards the washroom of the ship.

"...smooth," was all Audrey had to say to that.

"That is probably not helping."  Sorin added though he seemed rather amused by the whole thing.

"Hey, I'm just saying as it is," Isaac said with a shrug. Looking to the Dream Mage, his demeanor had softened right then. "Thanks for helping her though, Audrey. I owe you even more than ever now."

Audrey just nodded in response. "She's my friend, too. I wasn't about to let her go with that bastard."

"Yeah there was no way we were going to let him get a hold of any one we care about."  Sorin said as he nodded as well.

"Gee, thanks for the concern over me, too," Kalas snapped back, picking up his clothes.

"I was there to save you as well, Kalas; don't jump to conclusions," Audrey said with a sigh.

"Whatever. I'm gonna change back before I go. And I'm gonna burn this stupid outfit while I'm at it." With that, the Divine Child walked to the hall, towards one of the rooms. But not before Audrey had one last say in it.

"You do look sexy in that, though."

"SHUT UP!"

With a shake of her head, Audrey just walked up to Sorin and rested against him, still somewhat exhausted from her dream venture.  Though she was glad that her friends were safe from the clutches of her arch nemesis...the young woman still had to frown. Azumi was still there, still partly responsible for them taking the two back. Part of her wished to go back, try to save her before Ignis could do anything...but it was too late for that. She just hoped the soldier would be safe, somehow...

Sorin put his arm around Audrey holding her close to him.  The whole incident just raised his hatred of Ignis and his desire to kill the Illusionist.  Taking his friends and doing this to them was unforgivable.  But at the same time he thought about that Azumi.  He didn't live leaving anyone that close to Ignis but there was nothing they could do.  It wasn't the way Sorin wanted it to end but it was the best they could do.  He just hoped the best was enough.

[size=1](And that ends this thread. Good work, you guys.)[/size]