(Soma)
Grumbling obscenities under his breath, Sha-Vare scooped Soma's unconscious body off the ground. "Damn him," he whispered coarsely. "I'm gonna kill him for this outrage."
He began to make his way through Death Tower, Soma still in his arms. After a few seconds of travel, Soma moaned, shuddering slightly. Her muscles began to tremble as a black aura surrounded her. Cautiously, Sha-Vare set her on the cold crystallne floor of the tower, watching the aura envelop Soma.
Seconds passed, Sha-Vare tensing himself in preparation for a skirmish. Finally, the black aura faded away, revealing Soma, dressed once again in her black leather outfit. Moaning and grunting, she sat upright, opening her eyes.
"Soma?" Sha-Vare asked, his voice mixed- relief that his Soma had reappeared, but cautious over what had happened before. "Are you all right?"
Silently, Soma stood up, fixing her gaze on Sha-Vare. She took two steps towards him, then collapsed to the ground. With a shrug, Sha-Vare picked her up and said, "Libra."
A green grid appeared around Soma, as scanlines passed through her body. After six seconds passed, the scanlines disappeared, and Sha-Vare grumbled. "......Damn him," he said as he continued downwards to the dungeon, Soma in tow.
All she could do was transmit a desperate message: Sane... it's me. I still look like I'm Sha-Vare's bride... but I'm not! I'm somewhere in what he calls Death Tower... please, Sane... tonight, the New Moon of Alis will rise over Ryukross... if you don't kill Sha-Vare before it rises... the dark magic he infused me with... they... they'll turn me into his queen... forever.
Please, Sane... I love you. Help me...
(Dorn/Nara/Kyle/Sara)
"Find any seams yet?"
Sara shook her head, the motion still vaguely visible in the dim room. "Nothing, Dorn," she called to him. "This wall's solid as a rock... Sorry."
"Nothing over here, either," Nara said as she searched a wall. "It all looks like one continual piece of stone."
"Hmm..." Dorn scratched his chin, then gazed up at the distant ceiling of the room. "Kyle?"
"Nope. Nothing. Why don't we check the floor?" Kyle replied. "I mean, all four walls aren't hiding anything."
---
Sani Mint and Misty
"So Mint, what can you tell me about yourself?" Sani asked. The staircase continued on higher and higher, never seeming to end. The two girls began having a slight conversation with each other. "Hmm? Oh theres nothing really to explain. I'm just your average teenager. I lived in a big city called Kanto, went to school everyday with my friends, I really enjoyed watching programs about space. It seemed like Elencia will never find a way to travel to other solar systems." She said.
"Elencia? Is that the name of your planet?" Sani replied. "Yea, nothing special really. This all seems like a dream to me." Mint said. Mint felt a slight thump on her head, Sani looking over to notice Misty sitting on top. "What about Dean Mint.. Aren't you two engaged?" She asked. Mint blushed for a minute, then grabbed ahold of the sylph. "How did you know that?! I haven't told anyone about him." She said angrily.
Giving a slight chuckle Misty flapped her tiny wings and flew out of Mint's grasp. "I know everything. I do live inside your conciousness afterall. Or did you forget?" She said. Sani continued looking at the two, her mind wandered as the two argued. "Must be nice, having someone you love. I wouldn't know, everyone who I've ever loved has been taken away from me." She thought.
The two continued walking up the staircase, the light dimmed as they came around a corner. Night had fell over the Silence Zone, their task would only get dangerous the higher they went up the tower.
---
(Dorn/Nara/Sara/Kyle)
".....Nope. Nothing, not even on the floor."
Kyle groaned and kicked the spot he had searched. "Damn it... nothing on the walls, nothing on the floor, and the ceiling's too high up to get back to the invisible maze..."
With a sigh, Nara sat against one of the walls. "Looks like we're a bit stuck then," she said. "Unless someone else arrives."
"No. We're not stuck yet," Sara replied. "We'll figure this out."
"Yeah," Kyle told Nara. "Just like we'll figure out how to get to that alcove up there."
"What?" Dorn raised an eyebrow. "What alcove?!"
"The one about twenty feet above Nara's head," Kyle said, pointing it out to the others. "I don't know where it goes, but it's worth getting to."
"But..." Sara sweatdropped as she looked at the high-up opening. "None of us are that tall..."
(four minutes later)
"Ugh... God, you're crushing my spine!"
Kyle was on the very bottom of a human tower, with Dorn right above him, on his shoulders. Nara stood, balancing carefully on Dorn's shoulders (taking care not to hurt him too much), while Sara, the lightest of the group, climbed up onto Nara's back.
Of course, Sara weighing the least didn't exactly matter to Kyle- he could still feel her, Nara, and Dorn's combined weight and mass compressing his back painfully, each of their movements threatening to send him to his knees and collapse the tower.
"Hey, guys?" Kyle called up the tower. "Look, I want to get out of this hole and catch up to the inherent hotness that is Sani Ruglia as much as the rest of you, but... this really hurts."
"Relax," Dorn grumbled. "Just give Sara another minute."
"Another minute, and my spine's gonna telescope. Oh, not that I'm complaining, but, uh, Sara?" Kyle sweatdropped. "For a simple farm girl, those are really naughty looking panties-"
Blushing, Sara adjusted her dress as she finally stood on Nara's shoulders. Below her, she heard a "Thwack!", followed by Kyle's obscenity-laced response to Dorn.
"Are you almost there?" Nara asked, trying to tune out the argument starting below her.
"Almost... I can get my hand on the bottom of the alcove........." With a grunt, Sara lunged upward, resting her hands on the bottom lip of the opening. "There! I'm good!"
"Great, Sara," Dorn said. "I'll throw some rope up there- try to find somewhere to tie it off."
Once she was up into the opening, Sara caught Dorn's rope. Winding it around her arm a few times, she started advancing into the opening, looking for a safe place to tie it. Only a few steps in, her foot caught something soft, yet firm. She screamed as she lost her balance, landing on the strange mass.
"Ouch!" "Ow!"
Immediately, Sara's eyes widened in shock- she was not alone up here.
---
<Chris>
Chris stared at the ceiling a bit. When he caught his breathe and was about to sit up, a body fell on top of him. The little progress he made in sitting up completely diminished. He looked down and saw a face staring at him. He froze up, not knowing what to do or say. He thought quickly and managed to stutter, "A-are you okay?" He looked of to the side slightly avoiding eye contact with this stranger.
---
(Sara)
"I... I.... I-i-i...."
Immediately, Sara's thoughts drifted to her late mother, hearing her scolding voice: That's five "I"s in one breath, Sara. Makes you sound very egotistical, young lady, hmm?
"Yes, thank you," Sara said, her voice a quiet whisper as she stood up. Offering her hand to the young man she tripped over, she asked, "Are you all right? Here, let me help you up." She gave him a sweet smile.
(Dorn/Nara/Kyle)
"She's sure taking her time," Kyle said, crossing his arms.
"I thought I heard a scream or two up there," Dorn added. "I hope she's all right."
(Ta-Nari)
It had taken her some time, but Ta-Nari had worked her way into Piata Academy, quickly converting the dean's office into a makeshift throne room- she had ordered several of her slaves to Krup to commission a real throne for herself ("And please, Forty-six? Nine? Act normal," she had ordered) in the meantime.
Sitting back in the dean's Laz-E-Dood chair, Ta-Nari propped her high-heeled feet up on the desk. It's good to be the queen, she thought. Slaves, power... every girl's dream come true. And best of all, Celeith... this all could have been yours! But, no, you had to be Lil' Miss Healie. Oh, well... She snickered. To the victorious go the spoils.
She sat upright, then rolled her shoulders and sighed. I should go get a new slave, she decided. Maybe one with a * scar.
In the meantime, she took a walk through the Academy, nearly abandoned in Motavia's crisis. Most of the male student body remained, doing maintenance work in an attempt to keep up to Ta-Nari's standards of decor.
"You! You there!" The voice was female, and very angry. "You picked the wrong girl, lady!"
Ta-Nari stopped in her tracks. A blue-haired girl stood at the end of a corridor, a sharp looking knife in her hand. She slowly approached the red-haired demoness and continued, "You stole my boyfriend from me!"
"Your boyfriend?" Ta-Nari asked. "Number Sixty-Seven, I believe?"
"His name is Nathan!" The girl took another step forward. "I want him back!"
"You don't say. Well, tell me..." Ta-Nari struck a pose, smirking at the girl. "How do you plan on getting him back, hmm? Kill me? He won't want a murderess in his life..."
"Doesn't matter! This is for all the girls whose boyfriends you stole! Kyaaaaah~!"
Charging Ta-Nari, the girl raised her knife. Feigning a yawn, Ta-Nari stepped to one side and grabbed the girl's wrist. She put her other hand on the knife's pommel and pushed her elbow in, burying the knife in the girl's stomach. She collapsed with an agonized cry.
"Hmm... I thought not," Ta-Nari said, ripping the knife out of the girl. Kneeling down, her blue lips curled into a cruel, taunting smirk as she continued, "And now... it looks like you'll never see this boy of yours again..."
"You... you'll pay... for... this..."
"Oh, by the way..." The demoness crossed her arms and laughed. "I taught your boyfriend some wonderful things. If he weren't mine, and you weren't dying, why... I think you'd enjoy them."
The girl's hand formed a universal obscene gesture. Nonchalantly, Ta-Nari stood over the girl and slammed her heel into the girl's head, delivering a powerful coup-de-grace. The girl twitched once with the impact, before finally falling still. Ta-Nari then snapped her fingers, calling "Number Fifty-One o/`"
"Yes, Mistress?"
She pointed at the body on the floor, blood pooling around her partially crushed head. "Take it away," she ordered.
---