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Post by Tribe on Jan 31, 2007 18:27:44 GMT -5
Tribe was standing underwater. She did not need to come up for air, nor thrash to stay under, because she had no real body, just this feebel projection... The downsides of that had never hit her so hard as they had laitly. Maybe she couldn't even die? Maybe she would be alive forever? But was this even really living? Her eyes didn't even ache from the hours she had held them open, unblinking, in the chlorinated water.
An apparition appeared before her, a vision from her past, under the water. A wavey form, no two forms, slowly formed in front of her. They were dificult to make out at first, but when they became defined, she screamed, her voice not dilluted by the water.
It was a vision of the shadow, Malachi, with his hands on Brandon. A sight that made her feel both guilty and sick.
She quickly became a shadow, and reformed outside the pool. She shivered, and put her arms around herself.
That's when she noticed him, sitting on one of the pool chairs with his hands crosses out in front of him. He appeared... thoughtful. Maybe even worried?
"What do you want?" She didn't want to talk about what she had just seen, but was sure he already knew. He always knew when she was on the verge of insanity.
"Would you ever want to see him again?" he asked calmly, not looking at her.
"Yes! I've been so worried ever since..." Living with Malachi was hard enough without having to think of Brandon. With his new form, it was simple enough to forget, if only for breif periods of time, that he was the black shadow that had caused so much of the pain in her life. "He's blind... easy bait. He's probably dead by now."
"What if he wasn't? Would you want to meet him?"
"Of course I-"
"What if I told you that he was going to have to die soon? That after you met him, he would die?"
"Malachi, what are you saying?" The sick feeling in her stomach began to grow. It couldn't be possible... it just couldn't.
"I'm saying, if you killed Brandon, would you still want to see him?" He looked at her for the first time, as he stood up to face her.
"Malachi... Let me see him, now."
From out of his own shadow, Malachi pulled Brandon's form.
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Post by Brandon/Valkyrie/Xion/Nen on Jan 31, 2007 18:33:29 GMT -5
He silently waited in the shadows, pulling in all those things that made him whole. He bit his lips, shielding his thoughts and his form. Who knows ahwt the Shadow would do? Suddenly, he felt the flow of air on his skin again, and the sound of... water? A face quickly entered his mind, a face that he wanted to protect... A face that was oh so very precious to him. Her smile made his day in the past.
"T- Tribe?" He whispered into the wind as a metal cane quickly formed in his hand as the wind blew. The hassle of being blind...
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Post by Tribe on Jan 31, 2007 18:41:08 GMT -5
Tribe quickly ran foward hugged Brandon to her. Mixed emotions clouded her mind, the joy of seeing Brandon alive, the guilt of the pain she'd caused him, and the fear for them both. She pulled him back, out of Malachi's immediate reach. Not that it would slow him down any, but it made her feel safer.
Bloody hell... What was I thinking? This was probably the worse possible thing I could have done in this situation. But, that's what I get for feeding my own desires... Might as well just enjoy the fun. "You still haven't answered my question, Cristina..." he reminded her smoothly.
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Post by Brandon/Valkyrie/Xion/Nen on Jan 31, 2007 18:47:33 GMT -5
"Tribe? Is that... really you?" He asked as two arms hugged him tightly. No... Something is wrong... How could the Shadow... And then he felt he was pulled away, and probably out of the Shadow's hands for then.
The Shadow? Tribe? They were somehow seperated...
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Post by Tribe on Jan 31, 2007 18:58:18 GMT -5
"Malachi, will you permit me to talk to him? Alone? Atleast for a little while?" The sickness in her stomach had dropped, becoming a ball of sorrow and hollowness.
"If that is what you wish," Malachi said. "But you're never alone, my dear."
As Malachi disapeared, Tribe looked at Brandon and said, "I suppose I have alot to explain to you..." Sat down against the wall after she lead him with one hand. "Sit. This could take awhile."
"After we seperated, I wandered alone for a long time. I thought the shadow was gone for good, just like you did. But I was wrong.
"We never really defeated him, Brandon. He just let us capture him to suit his own needs. He... He's been following me for a very long time, before i even knew you. I didn't know it untill recently, but that's why Adam died, and why you're..." she trailed off, unable to continue for the guilt.
"Well, not long ago, I started to go crazy. Not 'I lost control of my powers again', but really crazy. Human crazy. My past has finally caught up to me. Malachi, that's his name..." It felt discusting to admit that she was on first name basis with the shadow. "He says that I'm a schizophrenic. But he's the only thing keeping me from going really insane. Whenever I start to have an episode, he stops it..."
"He had started talking to me before i started losing my mind. Usually to make snide remarks, or something. But when I had my first episode, he put me to sleep and took over my form. Feuer found him out, and then I woke up. He used lili's dark powers to seperate us. But we're not really seperate. We exist as two, but he's still connected to me in someway.
"I'm so afraid, Brandon. I don't know. I don't know what to do anymore! I can't just run away from this..." She began to cry. She grabbed onto the sleve of his shirt and cried into it, burrying her head on the side of his sholder. "Oh god, I thought you were dead. I thought that I'd killed you."
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Post by Brandon/Valkyrie/Xion/Nen on Feb 1, 2007 3:11:36 GMT -5
The boy merely hugged back at the girl. The warmth of her breath... this was too good to be true. Too good to be true... "You had never harmed me in any way, Tribe." He whispered into her ears as he swept her wet hair. "You never did. So don't cry." He gave her a genuine smile of joy and happiness. Malachi... The Shadow... It doesn't matter for now. At least for this moment.
"I am happy to be back with you again." His word held true. "Time to tell my part of the story, Tribe. After what happened between us... I was saved by an old couple. They... took care of me, Tribe and so I did what I could to help them. It was a stable life, but then..." He bit his lips as his blinded eyes began to get wet.
"Tribe... The government decided to clear that region of infectees, claiming that the chaotic situation had seriously deterioration the safety of the citizen there. The couple had to let me go... They have the army out to get us, Tribe!" He started to shake incontrolably. "At first I thought they would just send us to another place, but no... They have us 'disappear' one by one... I manage to escape just when it was my turn to disappear... I am the last..."
"There was nothing I could do... after that, I wander from town to town, city to city, back and forth until I finally... feel you out there, Tribe. I don't know how, but I just follow that feeling... and I'm now here..." He paused a while.
"And I think I know why..." For a moment there, the world seemed still for both of them. As he held her gently, tightly, ignoring the sounds of the rain, and the echoed, and the sharp scream he got from inside his head to tell him to let her go, that danger was near.
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Post by Tribe on Feb 1, 2007 15:11:34 GMT -5
"B-brandon?" Tribe leaned up to look at his sightless eyes, forgetting for a moment that he couldn't see. She had to look away. "What do you... What do you mean?"
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Post by Brandon/Valkyrie/Xion/Nen on Feb 1, 2007 17:32:21 GMT -5
"It's the Shadow... he had something planned for us... I don't know what but it has something to do with his grand design. Some of him is inside of me... that's why..." He held her in his hands for a little longer before letting her go. A sad decision...
"Malachi, or whatever your name is Shadow... I know you're still there. Come out. No need to play hide and seek with us anymore... It's time both of us end this."
His cane suddenly became sharp and pointy at the end as he took it in his hand. He whispered in the air his prayer as he waited.
"I'm sorry Tribe..."
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Post by Tribe on Feb 2, 2007 17:29:13 GMT -5
"Ready to die?" Malachi asked softly as he appeared in a swirl of shadow. He didn't look at either of them, he held his eyes downcast. He didn't really have a plan for what he was about to do, he was uncertain.
Tribe jumped back abit when she saw the cane's new sharpness. "Brandon? What are you doing? I don't understand, what do you mean?" she began to panic. The beating of her heart escalated as Malachi reformed in front of them. "M-malachi? What are you both..." Her eyes widened as Malachi threatened to kill Brandon. Not threatened, promised. "No! Malachi, you can't! You've hurt him enough! You don't have to kill him!" Tribe could bairly process what was going around her, or atleast, that's what she's like to say. The truth was, her mind was on overdrive, each cell of her brain thinking of how horribly this could end.
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Post by Brandon/Valkyrie/Xion/Nen on Feb 2, 2007 17:40:19 GMT -5
"I don't understand it either, Tribe... I just know. Just like how he reached for me... It was him." He pushed Tribe softly backwards as he prepared for the inevitable. He took down his glasses and his iris, pale as the gray sky above and an essence of shadow seems to web itself around his them. The colors were very unnatural.
"I am ready to die, Malachi..." He gave him a weak smile as his grips tightened.
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Post by Tribe on Feb 2, 2007 17:55:47 GMT -5
Malachi dared a glimps at Tribe. She sat on the ground at Brandon's feet, stareing up at him in horror. Her eyes, nearly the same color as his, but without the charactic wholeness of the eyes of the blinded, darted towards him. Their eyes met for just a moment before he had to look away.
Tribe looked over at Malachi, but his eyes weren't on him. No, he couldn't do this. He won't do this. He can't!
"Ma...Bra..." She didn't know which of the boys she should be adressing. Could she stop Malachi? Could she protect Brandon?
As she watched, black tears streaming from her eyes, Malachi raised his arm up, pointing his fingers at Brandon. His face was grim, set in what he was going to do. She had just an instant to scream as the hand became a dagger of darkness, aimed for Brandon's heart.
"No!"
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Post by Brandon/Valkyrie/Xion/Nen on Feb 2, 2007 18:01:30 GMT -5
He smiled as he could feel the shadow approaching. Soon... In quick succession, the black dagger connected with the metalic cane as he reflexively deflected the attack. "Time to return what is yours, eh?" He whispered under his breath as he darted away from Malachi as he threw several metalic needles towards Malachi with speed. At the sharp end was a small glow of darkness...
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Post by Tribe on Feb 2, 2007 18:07:17 GMT -5
"...Troublesome pest..." Malachi became a shadow on the floor as the daggers shot towards him. When they were past him, he reformed, and sent shadowy spikes jetting up out of the floor where Brandon was, each on aimed for the boy.
Tribe was jolted back into movement by Brandon's attack. To her supprise, she didn't want Brandon to hurt Malachi, but she definatly didn't want Brandon dead. She had to stop him. He was more powerful. He could kill them both. She had to stop him...
She moved as fast as she could, aiming for his neck with her own shadowy hands.
"D amnit Cristina!" Malachi yelled, twisting around to grab a hold of her by the neck. He lofted her off the ground, his hand clamped tight around her form. "Why did you have to do that?"
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Post by Brandon/Valkyrie/Xion/Nen on Feb 2, 2007 18:13:30 GMT -5
Brandon anticipated he attack. After all, he was gifted with one thing that allowed him to survive till now. His own blindness... and the side-effects given by Malachi's attack. His cane plowed through the shadow like a knife through whipped cream and the darkness dissipated harmlessly into the air.
Suddenly, he felt a shift. He looked at the general direction of Tribe and Malachi, and a blade appeared in mid-air an seemed to cut off Malachi's hand into a shadowless form...
"Leave her out of this Malachi. Your business is with me."
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Post by Tribe on Feb 2, 2007 18:28:52 GMT -5
What... the hell? Malachi thought as the blade severed the arm that held tight to Cristina. The attack didn't hurt, of course. He didn't have any feelings. But he would admit that this boy's new power could prove difficult to deal with.
"You want me to leave her out of this? Fine." His hand darted down and peirced Tribe through her forhead. Her eyes fluttered for a moment, before closeing completely. Her form disapeared, assimilating with his. "Now, is this what you want?"
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