“Each breath you draw is a curse to the world, an unholy blessing sent to wipe clean these lands with desolation and destruction. I knew it the second I laid eyes to those spiteful eyes of yours; I knew it the second they gave the order to ripe your life from you. Now, now I will be the one to put an end to you, to save the world from ultimate destruction. Prepare yourself for a cleansing, Manic.”

Empty in his stare, all attention would be drawn down to the child in his arms bleeding. All the words spoken, all the words said would continue their endless ring in his head, never allowing him rest in this fateful event that occurred. Why out of all the things, why the child and why now…? Where the hell had this kid come from…? A light snarl escaped his larynx as he continued to gaze down at the lifeless form, before finally slipping an arm out from underneath the kids head only to rest it gently upon the ground. From there he would rise to an upright stance, eyes dancing around his surroundings before the voice repeated again in his head.

“Look, all you do is bring suffering and pain, why continue life when there’s no point? Do yourself a favor and give yourself to the abyss, no one gives a damn in you live or die…What kind of shattered life can you exist in when you know you killed your family, when you’re the reason they’re dead. And now…Now another victim falls to your hands Manic. This child was not my responsibility and he’d be fine if it weren’t for your inability to simply just give up.”

Just give up…It seemed so easy, but it wasn’t something he was familiar with. How could he simply stand and let a fate be decided for him without trying to change it, without trying to press his will into it…? Would anything be different anyway? The questions frustrated him, but there was no visible sign of it upon his face, only the cold empty stare down upon the child in front of him. “You’re a monster!” A cold chill trailed up his spine at the thought of the voice and the words. Life was a lot easier when everyone just stayed out of his business, but then again what kind of life was he leading?

Lifting his eyes from the motionless form bellow him, they would glide their way to his upturned blackened hand to gaze at its appearance. Blood dripped effortlessly from the palm, causing him to cringe at the thought. It was the only time he felt any real remorse for anything, especially for something that wasn’t entirely his fault if at all... Glancing down at the child again, a wayward sigh would part his lips. The regeneration spell would hopefully be enough to recuperate the child back to stability, but what could he possibly do with him now. He could bring him back to his home, but to be truthful he had no real clue where the hell him or Cordelia even lived…If he had brought him to a doctor, then it would still surely be traced back to him and if that happened the wrong idea would be placed in mind. But if he stayed and lingered here it wasn’t good for the child and if Moriel or Cordelia showed up it wouldn’t be good for him either.

A sudden unease began to washed over him as he stood there, causing his eyes to slide to the left and then the right. With no sign of anything, he simply turned his body off to the right where he would instantly freeze, eyes locking with that of Cordelia, “Cord…” Was the only word he managed to croak out through strained vocals, “This isn’t what it looks like, I didn’t…..I mean, it wasn’t me…He…” For the first time in his entire life time he was left completely and utterly speechless. A knot began to form in his throat, twisting and constricting his breath like a snake. It was truly an odd feeling for him, but it wasn’t something he was going to draw much attention to, because there wasn’t a complete certainty on how Cordelia would react. And given the past couple of days, he was damned near 100% sure that she wouldn’t believe him in the least. With that bit of knowledge, Manic tried to mentally prepare himself for anything she may do, but his body would take a lot more coaxing to get it into action, especially since he really didn’t want to fight Cord.

The pit in her stomach began to expand with each step she took, spanning in all directions from her core and numbing her body. The sinking feeling trailed down like an infection into the nerves of her legs, but instead of binding her and causing any movement she made to falter, it sped her up, driving her onward with such force and purpose that she didn’t even really realize she was moving. Cordelia was an absolute nervous wreck at the moment and could hardly even think. She had left the house to feed; leaving Kaiden alone like she did every other night, except when she returned this evening there had been no other presence of life other than her own. She never should have left him alone! That was so stupid and so careless! Despite the fact that there had been no sign of a struggle, the idea that he had been forcefully taken was still in her head and she couldn’t believe what an idiot she had been to leave him alone. What sort of mother left their child alone, especially in a town like Balefire?! She prayed Kaiden was all right and that if he was, in fact, perfectly well that he would forgive her for this.

As she walked, her arms swung at her sides and the sheath to her poison blade and dagger batted against her thighs. Her signature maroon coat was open, flying backward a few inches away from her body due to the speed at which she was walking. With every step she took her head whirled around in all directions, looking into each alleyway and each nook and cranny of this town. Cordelia couldn’t begin to fathom why he wasn’t there in the first place; none of her enemies could possibly know where she lived, and he was far more intelligent than to go out on his own! The thought was quickly dismissed with a desperate sigh; the reason behind it didn’t matter in the end, all that mattered was that her beloved Kaiden was missing and she wasn’t seeing him anywhere. Cordelia sped up her pace, worry beginning to shake her form as she started into a jog. What if he was hurt somewhere, crying without her there to comfort him? What if he was dead? He couldn’t even call out too her because he didn’t have a larynx. He couldn’t even scream for help, and she feared that no one would be there to save him like she had the day she had found him in Taras.

As soon as she turned the next corner, all of her movement stopped instantly. For a moment she was so hit with the sight before her that she wasn’t quite sure how to react or if it was even real. Kaiden was on the ground and she could smell his blood, and from her current position she could see that he wasn’t moving. Just that detail was enough to make her eyes widen and her jaw to drop. The icing on the cake, however, was moving her eyes just slightly from her son’s form to that of Manic’s. Her eyes locked with his and immediately her jaw closed and clenched, her teeth grinding together so hard that it hurt. All of the worry began to return to her core where it was shifting into anger. She should have known he would be behind this; he was always the one to blame. Her lower lip began to trembled, followed shortly by her hands at the complete and utter betrayal he had just displayed.

“This isn’t what it looks like, I didn’t…..I mean, it wasn’t me…He…”

Cordelia’s breath became ragged and her fists clenched. Smart as he was, he couldn’t come up with a better excuse? Her eyes narrowed and seemed to take on a soft red tinge, though whether that was due to the frustrated tears of rage or the incomparable fury that was building inside of her was up for debate. “Get. Away. From my SON.” Cordelia snarled; that was clearly the only warning she was going to give. “How dare you, Manic…” she growled, taking one loud, menacing step toward him. “I told you not to get my son INVOLVED in this!” In one movement she unsheathed the blade, the jagged edges scraping against the sheath, causing the sound to echo throughout the vicinity. “I said I was sorry, what more did you want?! I should have known you were serious… because really, this is payback, right? Getting innocent kids involved in this is payback, right?!”

Cordelia was shaking all over from the anger and pain, glancing briefly to Kaiden. He needed her to take care of him right now, but at the same time she had to make sure Manic would never hurt them again. “My poor baby…” she whispered heartbrokenly before her piercing glare returned to Manic. “What did you do to him?! What made you so angry with me that you had to hurt my son?! Oh, forgive me, stupid question – you never have reasons! You say there’s always a reason but the only excuse you have is who you are and whatever the hell that ‘wasn’t you’ crap was! I thought you were smarter and stronger than to come up with something as lame and fake as that, Manic. I’m not stupid… you have such a grudge against me and so little compassion that this completely makes sense. A life for a life… did you really want to test out that theory?! I… I… I can’t even believe how stupid you are – how stupid I was – I thought I had actually come to respect you…” Cordelia was completely at a loss for words now. Why was it that every single time she started to trust or put her faith in someone, it just shot back right at her like this? She was so angry that she didn’t even know if she could fight him, but she knew that this was necessary. Cordelia sheathed her blade, deciding to use magic to get this over with faster. Between her hands a green globe began to form, wispy at first before solidifying and bubbling slightly because of the acid. Cordelia aimed it for his chest; the chest was a high enough area that should it miss it wouldn’t go anywhere near her Kaiden. The last thing she needed was for him to get hurt even more in this mess.

(( OOC: Hope it's good. ))

Cordelia’s expression told a thousand words all on its own, but the words that would depart from her lips in the wake would only cause him to frown slightly. It was to figure that she wasn’t going to believe him, but there was no reason to fight her if he could do what he could to diffuse the situation. Besides, her main concern was for the child and not him, if this lasted long then there wasn’t much time for the kid. There was no doubt in his mind that he could take down Cordelia in a matter of moments, but should he do so then that would only blind his innocence in her eyes. But then again, if he was to take her down swiftly then he could handle the kid on his own accord. The only question would then reside on how the kid would view him…No matter what the outcome it seemed he would turn out to be the bad man.

Absentmindedly Manic would begin to back peddle from the child in slow methodical steps, respecting the request of Cordelia, which was quite uncharacteristic all on its own. Never did he really abide by commands, whether they were needed or not. Again his thoughts continued to bounce around scenarios and outcomes until they finally fell upon him. It wasn’t an option he really was looking forward to, but if it got her attention off of him and upon the kid then it would work out for the best. Swallowing roughly, all of his muscles would brace themselves as his body shifted into a stance. All of her words were nothing more than simple mumbles to his ears, because his main focus was centered upon the blade in her hand. No movement sparked in his frame, no thought of weapons crossed his mind, and no usage of magic was listed on his priorities. That of course changed once he witnessed her formulating energy into her hands and that was the entire cue he needed.

Crossing both of his arms in front of his chest, only to then shoot sharply off to his flanks where they would lift underside up. At that display; a faintly visible glass like globe lifted up around his body in a large span of area. Once her spell left her hands and entered the realm of space engulfing him, it would simply peter out into nothingness just as it had come to be. Even at the success of his spell, no emotion would play across his face, nor would any movement spark up in his form as he simply stood to wait for her next move. After a spell of time, a hand would lift to his face to brush aside the single white strand of hair that ran across his visage, only to tuck it behind his ear, “Cord, we don’t need to do this. I didn’t do this to him…I’m sure you don’t believe me though and I don’t really expect you to. I just only wish you would…There isn’t the time for this.” Hopefully that would be enough to coax her to stop this stupid thing.

But given her state of mind it was rare that she would more the less listen to a single word he said. In all the times he had stood in front of her and tried to push her to that breaking point, this would have to be the only time he had ever seen her this angry. But it wasn’t under these kinds of circumstances that he wanted to push her to that point. There were no changing things now, it was much too late and the die has been cast. It was now time to play the game of battle and it would need to be executed straight down to the tee. Sucking in a deep breath, Manic’s chin would lift itself defiantly upwards as both of his arms would span off to his flanks, positioning themselves parallel to the ground. It would be an action he would later regret, but if it helped to move things along then it was needed. Again he took in another breath, before speaking up loud enough for her to hear, “If you still want to continue this, come with everything you’ve got, because you’ll need it. I’ll even give you the first swing…” Swallowing again, he would simply wait and bide out the time it took for her to spring to action. The hell was he doing this for anyway…? Would it even prove to be beneficial or was it just another false hope…? Whatever it was that he was doing, even he was confused by it….

((OoC: your post was lovely, as always. hope mine is okay... it seems blehhh-y to me. X_x))

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To be honest, Cordelia was taken aback when Manic backed away from Kaiden. For once, he had actually done something she had requested of him and he hadn’t even protested. Was he feeling so guilty that he couldn’t even act like himself? Then again, something like that was impossible; Manic didn’t feel guilt. Remorse wasn’t in his vocabulary. She wasn’t quite sure why he had done it, but at least he had and she didn’t have to force him away from the boy’s body.

A soft growl passed through her when her spell failed. She was familiar with that barely visible globe, and the idea of being unable to use magic made her uneasy. Even if she didn’t have that many spells, the few she had were useful and it was a shame that she wouldn’t be able to use any them, especially enervation. A slight frown pulled at her mouth when she realized that not even the poison in her blade would work, considering it was magically infused. He really was serious about getting rid of her and Kaiden… she would have thought he’d have been a bit more smug, but perhaps he didn’t get that sick satisfaction when he wasn’t playing games.

“Cord, we don’t need to do this. I didn’t do this to him…I’m sure you don’t believe me though and I don’t really expect you to. I just only wish you would…There isn’t the time for this.”

Had this been a less serious situation, Cordelia probably would have thrown her head back and laughed at the poor excuse and how pathetic he had become. Instead of that, though, her eyes narrowed as the words hit her, not really absorbing. They were lies, anyway; why should she pay any attention to such dishonesty? It was odd that he was trying to say it wasn’t his fault, though. She would have thought that he would be standing there with that proud, arrogant smirk on his face, spewing all that garbage about how much they hated each other and daring her to make a move. Why wasn’t he acting like himself? Why wasn’t he being patronizing like he always was? It all tied into the fact that he had actually complied to her earlier demand. For a moment Cordelia entertained the notion that he might have been telling the truth, but that was merely wishful thinking. “Lies, lies, and more lies… that’s all you know how to do, isn’t it? Lie and hurt and kill! Granted the lies have gone downhill since last time, but of course they’re still there, clear as ever. If you didn’t do it, then who the hell did?! You’re the only one around here, Manic! You’re the only person I know who hates me so much you would hurt him, and you even said you would! There’s plenty of time for this, so you had better start explaining if you even think you can!”

She wasn’t about to believe any of it for a second. She might have been idiotic enough to leave her young son home by himself and to think that Manic wouldn’t betray her like this, but she wasn’t stupid enough to actually believe anything Manic said. Still, though, she had to wonder if there really was time for this. Kaiden needed help, she could very easily see that, but if she didn’t take care of Manic he would get away with this. Both were of extreme, equal importance and needed to be taken care of now, but thinking about this was useless; she had already made her decision. If worse came to worse with the child, then there was always the option that sometimes dwelled in the very back of her mind. For now, though, she wasn’t going to think about that; it was only a back up plan if everything else failed and she hoped things wouldn’t have to go to that.

“If you still want to continue this, come with everything you’ve got, because you’ll need it. I’ll even give you the first swing…”

“Just shut up…” She wasn’t about to say all was forgiven when he had taken his anger for her out on her darling child. Once again Cordelia unsheathed her blade, a bit disappointed that she couldn’t use the poison. Oh, well; she wouldn’t have wanted him to have been poisoned by it anyway. The poison would make his death all too simple and quick and she certainly didn’t want that for him. He didn’t seem very prepared to fight, but that was his own fault and she wasn’t about to start caring. She finally ran at him, lifting her sword and swinging it for his right shoulder once she was close enough to do so.

(( OOC: It's always good, don't second guess yourself. =P ))

It was of no apparent use to sit here and try to explain things out to her; there was nothing that would make her listen. Now his options were beginning to thin out and change with each passing moment he stood in front of her. Every word she spoke was simply out of spite and it was her hate that drove her into attack against him. Perhaps he could get through to her if he backed her into a corner, restrained her, and perhaps tried talking things out with her again. The question would reside in whether or not he wanted to take that chance or not. And he preferred not to even make a single attempt to do that. So that left only one option and that was to make her think that she had beaten him, but even then…Would she cease? Did it even matter if she would or wouldn’t…

Again and again the words of Moriel came to his mind, causing him to growl under his breath at the sheer thought of their meaning. This wasn’t the time to even think about that, what the hell was wrong with him? Manic was a warrior, a magister, and a God…This wasn’t something that should even effect him that much, but it still did. Even Cordelia’s words seemed to linger in the recesses of his mind, but only faintly. Finally deciding upon a choice on what he should do, the first signs of her movement would lead him to believe she was coming in for an attack. Such a reckless thing to do considering the distance, but it wasn’t like he was going to attack her anyway.

Carefully Manic studied the woman’s approach and the pathway in which she moved the blade, scrutinizing every detail of her actions to transfer it off into his movements. Sucking in a deep breath, his body would suddenly twist its right side off, before following with the left, causing the blade to simply glide mere inches through the air in front of his shoulder. Now was the perfect time to follow through with the counter, since her body would be the most vulnerable because of the follow through with the miss, but he simply stilled his frame instead of lifting into action. Lifting his hands up from his side momentarily, they would then dip themselves into the confines of his jacket, “You have no idea how foolish you’re being. If I was the one at fault here, I could have put you down by now. Yet, here I stand letting you look like an idiot. Are you that foolish Cordelia? I don’t want to fight you, does it hurt you that bad to try and even believe me?”

Simply shaking his head at the thought, a hand would part from his jacket to once again brush aside the rebelling group of white hair from his features before slipping back into his pocket. Knowing full well that his words would fall upon deaf ears, Manic would proceed to back up until he was finally a good distance outside of the globe, intending to use magic at this point. The only reason he threw up the globe was to keep the child out of the way of the magic and now that he was inside and they were on the outside, there would be no limit to what Manic could and couldn’t do. If he wanted, the city would burn, if he willed it the innocent would die, and if it came right down to it…He would put Cordelia down for the count…Each day they confronted each other, each minute they spent together, she continued to push him and push him. The final breaking point would be reached within time…And should that happen, Cordelia would meet the true devil…

Cordelia was stunned by his sudden movement. She knew that he was bound to somehow get away from her unharmed, but still the quickness of it all was just as surprising as it was frustrating. Why couldn’t he, for once, just give up and allow her the chance that she deserved to hurt him more than slapping him on the face? She supposed she had already done that, though; she had managed to tear him apart inside, which was just as rewarding as hurting him physically might have been. Hurting him so terribly had resulted in this however, and while it was pleasing to know that she had driven him to such desperate methods, she would make sure he would rue the decision.

The sword merely swiped through the air, having missed its target. She growled quietly, stumbling a little bit at the weight before quickly regaining her balance. She knew that this was when she would be most vulnerable, and was therefore surprised to see that he hadn’t made any sort of move against her. He had hurt her son, lied to her, and yet he wasn’t fighting her at all. He had had no qualms hurting her in the past, so what was with the sudden change of heart? Cordelia peered over her shoulder at Manic, gripping the hilt of the blade so tightly her knuckles were turning white. Her eyes narrowed as he began to speak. Every time he opened his mouth, the most ridiculous trash came spilling out and this time was no different. Who did he think he was to call her foolish? While it might have been true in many situations, that certainly didn’t apply to this. She was hardly foolish to fight against him when he had done that to Kaiden! She had so much reasoning behind this that this was probably the smartest thing she had ever done.

“Yeah, you could have put me down – so why the hell haven’t you?! Are you so ashamed of yourself that you can’t even fight back?! You don’t want to fight me, yet you’ll fight a little kid like him?!” She heard his words, but she wasn’t listening. She only cared about what he said so that she could spit it right back in his face. Considering the kind of state she was in, she would probably have difficulty with anything hurtful, but she wished she could have. She wished she could have brought up his family against him, but she had already made the decision to not do that anymore. Then again, that had been before he brought Kaiden into the ordeal. “I have no reason to believe you… with the way you act, the way you contradict yourself over and over, how could anyone believe you?! You keep saying it wasn’t you, that it wasn’t your fault – how do you expect me to believe that after what you’ve done, and especially when you don’t offer any other kind of story?! I know it would only be more lies, but please, a little consistency wouldn’t kill you! If it wasn’t you, dammit, then tell me who the hell it was! Stop patronizing me!” Cordelia was still firm in the belief that Manic had done this, but if anyone else was involved in this she would have to go after them as well. She would allow no one, not even people she considered friends, to get away with such an atrocious act. And maybe he wasn’t really being condescending, but Cordelia would blame him for whatever she could right now. Besides, she had a tendency to be just a little bit overdramatic.

As he began to back away, Cordelia followed him, taking one step forward for every one he took backward. She noticed that he was leaving the circle, which made her smirk inwardly. At least if she did that she could use her own magic… but he could use his own as well, despite the fact that he had said he didn’t want to fight. Manic just kept on lying and lying, didn’t he? He couldn’t break the cycle by now, and that was truly a pity. Had she been in the right state of mind she probably would have been a bit more wary, since she knew better than anyone what sort of spells he had in his collection. Upon finally leaving the globe, she kept the poison within the blade ineffective, deciding that she would only activate it if things got extremely out of hand and difficult. Even though she had realized that she very well could use magic by now, it hadn’t entirely sunk in, causing Cordelia to once again go at him and swing at him for wherever she could hit. It was a reckless decision, but by now that was nothing new. Enervation probably would have been easier, but this was probably a more productive way to get out all that pent up anger.

(( OOC: Hope it doesn't suck and if you don't like what I did, just let me know I'll change it. This topic will continue, only with another character, just so you know. ))

She was like a little child for crying out loud, every word she spoke was like an annoying ring in his ears and only proved to annoy and push him closer and closer to that edge. That fine line that a single strand of hair could break on moments notice, but how far past that she would push would remain to be seen. The inner demon howled deep within him, summoning up whatever strength it held to fall into his more than capable hands. Suddenly a long chain worked its way under his flesh like a worm burrowing through a hole. The sick suckling and sloshing noises of the action could be heard through the silence that separated her huffs of words, only to be soon confirmed to sight in the form of a black snaking chain that reached down to the ground bellow him. Blood dripped carelessly down the links of the chain only to reach the ground after a period of time. Spanning out his digits, they would turn and grasp tightly around the chain, holding onto it tightly for extra support and further control for its usage.

“I try to make you see my side, but your eyes see right through, that’s all they do. There’s no point anymore, there’s no more effort I should put into this. Yet here I stand, risking what little sanity I still hold to try and make you see what you should see. I must thank you though…You’ve shown me how pointless lust and love is, you’ve shown me how pathetic all the rest of these emotions can be. Cordelia Brooks…” No emotion betrayed the darkly hidden features of his face, but instead the soft tinted glows of his eyes were the only thing that sparked up through the darkness; staring up and through the stands of his raven black tendrils that strewn across his face, the form of Cordelia became their primary sight. In one predictable movement the woman kicked up in her movements towards him, which immediately brought a spell to his mind and within moments it was brought to the surface. Limbs, appendages, and torso all fell into ethereal appearance at seconds notice to the weapons introduction to his body, causing it to slide effortlessly through his body, un-resisted.

The resulting action would more the less through Cordelia’s body off kilter again, but he wasn’t about to take the chance just in case it didn’t. Shortly after his body would begin to formulate into physical presence, before his eyes would blind to send him a good distance forward and just a mere foot from the anti-magical field. Turning around, he would simply wait until she would begin to move in a manner that would signal her turning. Once that action sparked his attention, his arm chained arm would jolt off to the opposing flank, before lurching back in an arcing motion out in front of his torso. The chain would follow in the wake of the action, extending the entire time to close the distance between Manic and his target; Cordelia’s blade. With a loud clang of metal against metal, the chain sparked to life at the collision upon the blade as it coiled tightly around its center, using the jagged ridges of it to hold itself there without contestation from the wielder.

Manic kept his arm extended and began to retract the chain back further into his arm until it grew taut in nature. From there, Manic’s arm would flex and proceed to pull upwards and towards his body. No spell aided the action, so it would more the less be resisted by the woman. Whether she matched his base physical strength of not purely rested upon her determination to try and jar the blade from the bind of the chains. More the less she would pick the wiser decision to simply abandon the weapon to Manic, but if she should choose otherwise…

Without much delay, Manic’s other arm lifted upwards, flicking palm outwards and spreading its digits. Just then a bright red light began to formulate from the tips of his digits and collect itself within the palm of his hand. The sheer sight of it would more the less make Cordelia re-think what she was about to do, or what she could do. A fireball in the palm of a man he had used it against her prior in their meetings, no less the fact that he was now the one blocking the only salvation she could seek from the hell he could unleash upon her. Darkening his eyes in their cold dead stare at the woman, a little more pressure would apply itself to the chain as he continued to draw it further back if she would allow it. “OPEN YOUR GODDAMNED EYES! You stand NO chance against me, you know this full well yet you cease to realize it! If I had willed your death or Kaiden’s death, you both wouldn’t still be drawing breath! You’re dense, spiteful, and down right dumber than a box of rocks if you don’t see what’s more important here! Fighting a man who was unarmed and asked you not to carry through with what you were doing, or helping the only person who gave you importance. That sparked that lovely fire in your eyes when it fell to protecting. The thing that gives you existence on this shattered world! YOU’RE SO STUPID!” Barring his teeth in the fit of spoken rage, they would gnash themselves together as his hands clenched themselves tightly into woven fists.

“If you won’t let go of this stupid little belief of yours, then I will. Go help your child, I concede to this fight.” With that, Manic would release all the energy collected into his right hand, while his left would release the chain that would soon grow limp and retract back into his arm. From there, Manic would drop to a single knee to bow his head, “You win. Take it and cherish it. I’m sure it’s the only thing you’ve wanted to hear from me since you’ve met me. Take care of your child, I’m done with you.” Rising up from his knee, Manic would simply peer through the veil created by his hair at the woman, before scoffing lightly, “My vendetta against you has ended, I don’t want a damned thing to do with someone as pitiful as you. It’d be a true dishonor to dirty my hands on your wasteful blood…but…If you come for me, or if you stand in my way; I WILL cut you down. We’re done…” With that Manic turned on his heels to enter the anti-magic field, where he would continue walking to send a passing glance down at Kaiden, before pushing past and through the barrier. Pausing momentarily, Manic’s head would rear backwards slightly, “If you wish to speak to Alaina at any point in time. You just better hope to the God’s she doesn’t tell me or that I don’t find out, because you will pay for disregarding my warning.” With that, Manic simply blinked a couple of times and his form would soon disappear into the darkness that swathed its way through the city.

“… You’ve shown me how pointless lust and love is, you’ve shown me how pathetic all the rest of these emotions can be. Cordelia Brooks…”

All this time he continued to ramble, not answering a single thing she said or bothering to help her make sense of this. He repeatedly said that he was innocent, that he had done nothing and that it wasn’t him, yet when she asked him to tell her who had done it he said nothing. She would have thought he’d be smarter than that, but it wasn’t like it really mattered now. Manic had been caught in the act and now apparently it was all her fault. “I’ve seen more than enough,” she assured him. There was nothing more to this than what she had stumbled upon. Manic had hurt her son, just like he had threatened to, and he didn’t seem to remember that statement about a life for a life. Cordelia wasn’t low enough to hurt Alaina, but she could sure as hell tell the child everything that her father had done to turn her against him.

Once again her attack failed; this time because he was using one of his fancy little spells. If he was so innocent then why was he even bothering with this? He should have just left by now so she didn’t have to worry about two things at once. He wasn’t wanted or needed here and everything would have been so much better if he had just left for good. He always came back for more, clearly unable to understand what it meant to walk away. Shaking her head, Cordelia turned around to face him again, grunting when the chain that had grown out of Manic hit against her blade. He wasn’t going to just give up, was he? Even now, when he said that this was pointless, when every word he said fell upon deaf ears, he wasn’t going to give up. Any other time she might have admired that, but right now it was only sending her farther and farther over the edge.

She held tightly to the weapon, not about to let it go at all. Allowing Manic to have it would signify her defeat and her surrender, and this battle was far from over, regardless of whether or not he wanted to fight it. As he pulled the chain back toward his body, Cordelia stumbled slightly as she walked forward, simply to keep her blade with her. She wasn’t as strong as he was, and there was a tiny part of her that was afraid of falling flat on her face because of these actions. His other hand came into action then and her eyes flicked over to it, widening at the sight of the fire. Just as he had planned she began to re-think things; he could do so much to her, hurt her worse than she could have imagined. He had caught her with a rope of fire and then blinded her, and even now she could remember the pain as if it had happened yesterday. If he could do all of that… then why wasn’t he? When he tried to pull the chain back even farther, she pulled her blade toward her body, growling lowly. She wasn’t going to take such a threat lightly. Now wasn’t the time to be afraid or to capitulate; now was the time to prove that she wouldn’t be manipulated by him ever again.

“… If I had willed your death or Kaiden’s death, you both wouldn’t still be drawing breath!...”

“How many times do you have to say that?!” she screamed without waiting for him to finish. “Every time you hurt me you say I’m only alive because you didn’t want me dead, just MAKE UP YOUR MIND!” No matter what happened or what either of them did, she was always only alive because of him. She couldn’t believe how absolutely arrogant and egotistical he was… half of the things that had happened to her wouldn’t have if Manic wasn’t so unstable. Everything was always his fault, whether or not he wanted to believe it. Manic went on to once again insult her, but she didn’t care. By now Cordelia was used to it and frankly she agreed with him, albeit for different reasons. She was only stupid for ever trusting him and getting involved.

“You win. Take it and cherish it. I’m sure it’s the only thing you’ve wanted to hear from me since you’ve met me. Take care of your child, I’m done with you.”

Cordelia became stiff when he said that he conceded to the fight. The fire in his hand went out, and the chain went limp. As soon as it did she lowered her sword slightly, still ready should this be a trick. She won…? This was completely and utterly unlike him. Cordelia’s eyebrows furrowed as she stared at his figure. The only way to describe him was being weak now. Completely and utterly weak, emotionally and physically. He refused to fight her, to give her an explanation, and hurt her child instead of her. It was all too sneaky and cowardly for her taste. “We’re done,” she hissed. “Whatever, it’s over! I don’t care about this any more! It won’t ever be me that gets cut down and you know it. You’ve already proved you’re nothing like what you used to be and that is the pity here. Don’t ever involve me in any of your schemes ever again, go kill whoever you want and do whatever you want but don’t you ever involve me in any of it ever again!” Cordelia’s chest heaved as she spoke, so angry that it was hard to breathe. Her blood was absolutely boiling; she didn’t even hear the last thing he had said due to how infuriated she was. She was glad to see that he was gone and watched as he fell into the darkness. “GOOD RIDDANCE!” she screamed, even though she couldn’t see him anymore.

She sheathed her blade angrily and finally turned her attention to Kaiden, running to his side without a moment’s hesitation. Immediately she dropped down on her knees and exhaled a shaky breath, doing her best to hold back tears and to think clearly. How could anyone hurt this poor child? How could anyone live with themselves after it? Kaiden was the sweetest little kid that she knew and he didn’t deserve any of the things that had happened to him. She had rescued him from Calvin… but she hadn’t been able to rescue him from Manic. Carefully so as not to hurt him further, Cordelia slipped an arm under his shoulders and another beneath his knees, pulling him up onto her lap, resting his head on her left shoulder to support him. “Oh, my baby…” she said quietly, all that anger from before morphing into a sudden depression. She lifted her right hand and swept a couple stray locks of hair from his face, staring down at him. “I’m so sorry…” She hadn’t been there to save him, she hadn’t been home to prevent this, and there was only one thing she could do at this point. One look at his beaten body and she knew what was necessary. “You’ll forgive me for this, won’t you? I’d ask you if you wanted but I don’t have a choice right now… just don’t hate me when you wake up, please…” Cordelia had no idea as to whether or not he could even hear her, but she felt the need to speak anyway. If he could hear, then she wanted him to know – and if he couldn’t, then the words at least comforted her.

Considering he didn’t have a throat, this would have to be done a little bit differently than normal. She was sure it would work, though, since all that really mattered was that he somehow got her blood inside of him. Cordelia took a deep breath, running over this again in her head. There was a possibility that he wouldn’t want what she was giving him, and would resent her for everything it would do to him, but it would bring him back to her and it might even regenerate all of his other wounds. Finally she took his wrist gently within her hand and brought it to her mouth, sinking her fangs into the flesh near the vein as gently as she possibly could. She didn’t plan on taking much, since he was a child and had already been bleeding. After about a minute she parted her lips from the two tiny wounds, licking away any spare blood before lifting her own wrist. “Bear with me, Kaiden,” she said quietly. “It’ll be done in a second. I’m sorry if it hurts, sweetie, I don’t mean for it to… but you’ll be better.” As soon as the last word left her lips she slashed her wrist completely open with her fangs. Blood began to ooze from the open wound and she cut it a little deeper, tearing away any of the skin that might prevent the blood from flowing easily and spitting it out behind her. She kept that wrist still and used her other hand to take Kaiden’s again, slashing a similar wound across his, although it wasn’t as deep. She placed her bleeding wrist onto his open one, doing her best to keep her wound bleeding into his instead of the blood going anywhere else. She just prayed that it wasn’t too late… she had lost one son – to lose another would be absolutely unbearable.

Stillness defaulted across the child’s entity, playing no movement, belying no emotion, nor a simple twitch of a muscle. One could almost presume the child dead, especially when it came to the touch. The flesh was cold, chilled by blood loss and the fact that he was unconscious. All of Cordelia’s actions seemed all for naught, at least until she introduced her blood to his own. Deep down inside of him something sparked to life, formulating and culminating up into a form of physicality upon his exterior. With a jolt of movement, the child’s hips thrust upwards, while his head rocked backwards to elevate his body up high enough so his shoulders barely touched the ground. A wave of pain rushed across his features as they twisted into the appearance of agony. Mouth stretched wide attempting to release a cry, but nothing would escape out into the silence of the night.

After a few moments his body dropped back into a relaxed state upon the cobblestone roadway, but just as he had a few noticeable changes had begun to take place. First was the expansion of flesh and muscle in his neck as necessary organs filled in where they were required. The next change would take up on his appearance in entirety, starting first with his height. Legs lengthened, arms elongated, and the torso filled in to match the changes. Kaiden’s visage would also follow suit as it changed into a more mature appearance, taking on that of a teenager. The once scruffy looking black like trusses of hair that framed his features had begun to take on a change as they bleached into that of a near silverfish shade of color.

Slowly his eyes began to open, blinking a couple of times to refocus themselves upon his surroundings, before landing upon the blurred figure of Cordelia standing over him. A smile traced his lips, before signing, “I’m fine.” With that, he would proceed to push himself up to a sitting position, using his arm to prop himself up as he continued to look around trying to snap his focus back on track, before making the attempt to get to his feet. Once satisfied, Kaiden would proceed to roll off to his right flank, using his hands and knees to help push himself up to his feet where he would stumble slightly. Something didn’t feel right…Unable to place a finger on it; his eyes would fixate themselves upon his body as he studied it curiously trying to sense something out of the ordinary. A slight frown crossed his lips, as he gazed up at Cordelia with his now intense crystal blue eyes, “Odd, my clothes shrunk,” were the only signs to leave his digits.

Blinking a couple of times, his eyes continued to remain transfixed to Cordelia’s before lifting a curious brow, “Is something wrong…?” No more than his hands returned to his sides, a voice caused him to turn around and peer upwards at a distant building. Eyes widened at the sight of the figure, knowing full well who it was. Absentmindedly Kaiden proceeded to take a couple nervous steps backwards, trying to keep as much distance from him and the man as he could, but he would back pedal no further than right alongside of Cord.

----------

Arms crossed over his chest, the figure loomed high over the two of them, studying them intently with glowing green eyes through a mask of steel. An oddly styled hat covered the rest of his head, barring a symbol upon the front that overlapped the forehead of the mask. The man’s body appeared quite slim, almost frail in appearance. A soft breeze swept through the city, stirring the portions of cloth that hung and framed his legs in gentle sway. “Congratulations, Cordelia Brooks. I had my doubts about you, now I see they’re all confirmed. Not only did you manage to piss of a very dangerous man, but you’ve also bastardized your child’s existence by turning him into something not far better than what he was. Yes yes, I understand you wanted to save him. Funny thing is, he didn’t need saving, because he wasn’t going to die.”

Cocking his head off to the side, a few idle pops reigned out from the columns of his spine, before doing the same with the other side. “Kaiden was a homunculus, a creature created through taboo with the use of Alchemy. One that apparently didn’t want to live to run out in our little battle earlier…That, I guess he doesn’t have to worry about that now since you changed him into a vampire. Perhaps you don’t know anything about Homunculus’s eh? See, they really don’t die…Their body simply shuts down and goes into a state called, ‘Suspended Animation.’ This is ALMOST like being dead, but not quite.” It was almost a certain thing that Cordelia was getting annoyed by his speech, but unlike Manic he held little to no care and simply continued, “You know…You’re quite humorous the way you’re nothing but a vindictive little spit fire. While that was quite the humorous thing all on its own, you go and take it out on Manic. But the thing is Manic was completely innocent…For once. It’s going to be so delicious to watch him rip you apart the next time you stumble across him again. In all honesty, I don’t believe I’ve seen him snap quite like that, other than one time a long long time ago. All I have to say about that is count each day you live to the fullest; you don’t have any allies left and a ton of enemies.”

Shrugging to himself at the thought of the fate that awaited the woman, his voice would continue to pick up in its heavily accented tone, “Say…Kaiden, why don’t you tell Cordelia what you did to get yourself hurt by me, hmm?”

Kaiden looked from the man lowly and glanced up at the Cordelia briefly, before shaking his head and shrugging as if he didn’t know what happened.

Moriel frowned at the response and simply shrugged again, “I guess I’ll have to tell her since you seem to have issues recollecting. Should we start with the part where I was aiming for Manic, or should we just pick up where you pushed Manic aside and took the hit instead? Should we tell her why you did it too? It’s not because you like Manic now is it?” The man jeered at the boy trying to get some sort of rise out of him in order to confirm that he was correct.

The plan worked like a charm, because the second that Moriel mentioned pushing Manic aside and then the reasoning, Kaiden’s hands rose up in front of him as if to say, ‘stop it.’ Sucking in a breath and issuing a sigh, Kaiden looked up at Cordelia briefly, before shaking his head, not really sure what to say to her.

((OoC: blehhhhhhhh. I don't like the end... but I was going crazy editing over and over again, and I finally said screw it. anyway, hope it's an all right post dear.))

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He moved. That movement brought a spark of relief and joy to her before, filling her stomach and causing a faint smile to curve her lips. She didn’t know what she would have done if it hadn’t worked. At that point Cordelia removed her wrist from his, setting her hand down on the pavement and allowing the blood to drip as she waited for it to become still once again. As soon as she noted the pain he was going through, however, that smile faded and was replaced by a rush of guilt so strong that the ache pulled at her heart. For a moment she averted her eyes, not wanting to look at him while he was going through that.

In time she looked back to him, simply to make sure everything was going as it should have been. The flesh of his throat returned, which she had expected to happen, but that did relieve her just as his previous movement had. However, as his body changed her eyes widened and her eyebrows shot up, a sudden uneasiness coursing through her. What was the meaning of this? It was still her Kaiden, she wasn’t stupid enough to believe otherwise, but why had he changed like that? While he was still young, a teenager now took the place of the child that had been there just moments ago. She began to wonder if she had really done the right thing, considering already how much he had changed and how much he possibly would in the future.

“I’m fine.”

His eyes proceeded to open and he actually smiled at her. He was well enough to still use his hands, which was good. She wondered if he even realized yet that his throat had grown back – surely he would feel different, something would feel off, or maybe even he’d realize he wasn’t as ‘broken’ as he thought he was. She managed a smile, albeit it was lopsided and half forced and half genuine, as she was still unsure as to what she was supposed to do. “… Are you sure about that?” she questioned, her eyebrows remaining lifted though her eyes were no longer enlarged. “I, I mean…” Her throat closed on her and she shut her eyes, sighing inwardly. The question had sounded odd, almost rude or mocking, which was rarely a tone she ever took with Kaiden. In fact, she didn’t think she had ever taken it with him, except for in jest. Cordelia ran a hand through her hair, trying to figure out the right words to say. It wasn’t like she could just go on ahead and casually mention what had happened to him. Really, it wasn’t everyday that one’s son who was supposedly just a kid, still in single digit age numbers, grew into a teenager just because of new blood introduced to his system.

Her eyes opened again when he stood up, deciding she might as well to do the same. Cordelia pushed herself off of the pavement, brushing herself off. She frowned as she looked at Kaiden, noticing how much taller he was now. It wasn’t like it was a bad thing, but the last time she checked kids were supposed to grow gradually, not shoot up in a matter of moments. It was just the tinniest bit upsetting. She managed a half hearted laugh at the mention of his clothes shrinking before that confused, saddened look crossed her face again. When he asked if something was wrong she wasn’t quite sure how to word her response, but she figured she had to at least say something. “Kaiden, sweetie, you do realize that – ”

Cordelia stopped when she heard a voice and when Kaiden walked backwards to her side. Great, more interruptions! Any trace of her former worry was replaced by an agitated look and she took a tiny step in front of Kaiden, just as a precaution. She gazed up at the man on the roof, a tad concerned by the fact that Kaiden seemed so uneasy with him near and also by the fact that he knew her name. Really, this was becoming an annoying little trend. Cordelia was so sick of having to put up with person after person who patronized her, especially right now. After dealing with Manic for hopefully the last time, she hardly wanted to put up with anyone else right now.

“Oh, congratulations to you too – because the more you talk the more you’re pissing me off. Pissing Manic off isn’t that big of a deal, I’ve done it in the past plenty of times – you act like it’s hard.” Cordelia paused for just a moment to roll her eyes. She probably shouldn’t have been speaking like this in front of Kaiden, since she did still think of him as being a young, impressionable kid, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted that guy to go away and if acting like this would do it, then so be it. “Seriously, who the hell are you and why are you bothering me? And what the hell gives you the right insult my son?!” Her eyes narrowed and she heaved a deep breath, her fists clenching at her sides. She was getting angry all over again. Who did he think he was, to just completely interrupt them while they were in the middle of something important and go on and on about absolutely nothing?

“… See, they really don’t die…Their body simply shuts down and goes into a state called, ‘Suspended Animation.’ This is ALMOST like being dead, but not quite.”

So she hadn’t done the right thing, after all. Cordelia looked at Kaiden, an apologetic look on her face. Still, as bad as she felt, she wasn’t sorry that it had brought him back and out of that suspended animation thing. “Quite frankly, I don’t think that really matters anymore,” she hissed. “He isn’t a homunculus thing anymore, so you know what? I think you should shut that ugly mouth of yours because, here’s a shocker – I don’t care.” Cordelia flashed an innocent looking smile and extended her arms out to her sides bent at the elbow, shrugging with her palms faced upwards. She wasn’t usually this snappy, and was usually more straightforward, but she didn’t care.

“… But the thing is Manic was completely innocent…For once. It’s going to be so delicious to watch him rip you apart the next time you stumble across him again. In all honesty, I don’t believe I’ve seen him snap quite like that, other than one time a long long time ago. All I have to say about that is count each day you live to the fullest; you don’t have any allies left and a ton of enemies.”

Cordelia snorted and rolled her eyes when he said Manic was innocent. “Yes, of course, I’m sure he was,” she said sarcastically, folding her arms over her chest. There was a faint possibility that this was true, but after everything that had happened, she doubted it. He was guilty every other time something like this happened, and she wasn’t about to have some stranger try and tell her otherwise. The only person she would believe in this situation was Kaiden, considering she trusted him more than anything and he would know better than anyone what had happened. “I hope you’re good at waiting, because I don’t intend to run into him for a very long time. I don’t really know what you expect from me, though; I don’t owe you any explanations and you are absolutely no one to be telling me what’s going to happen and how I should live each of my days. Get off of your high horse…” Not only was she so sick of all these people that kept patronizing her, she was sick of all of those people being so arrogant and cocky. How long was it going to take before they finally faced reality? It was absolutely sickening.

“I guess I’ll have to tell her since you seem to have issues recollecting. Should we start with the part where I was aiming for Manic, or should we just pick up where you pushed Manic aside and took the hit instead? Should we tell her why you did it too? It’s not because you like Manic now is it?”

Her eyes widened briefly before narrowing, her face darkening as anger pulsed through her. Not only was it completely unfair to turn to Kaiden like that, but it seemed that this man was the reason behind it all. At least that explained why Kaiden didn’t seem to want to be near him. But… then that meant Manic really was innocent… as strange as it was to think that. Even so, this all could have been a set up. She didn’t really think Manic was capable of coming up with such a huge, intricate scheme, especially when he hadn’t even known that she would show up, but this guy could have even just been covering for him. Unlikely as it was, it was still a possibility, especially since she was so desperate and so intent on making sure Manic stayed the bad guy. It was just like he had said; it almost hurt to believe him and trust in him. Cordelia turned to Kaiden, biting her lip as she tried to decide what to do and what to believe. He didn’t seem to want to talk about this, what with the sign he had given and the way he was looking at her. She nodded at him, just to assure him that she would take care of this. “We’ll talk about this later,” she said quietly, for his ears only. “Tell me the truth then.”

With that done she turned back to Moriel, still angry and uncertain, but doing her best to hide the latter emotion. “God dammit, would you just shut up?!” she shouted. “You have no right to be telling my son what to tell me and to be treating him like that! If you did hurt him then you don’t even have the right to be alive! I don’t want to hear anything from you when Kaiden is completely capable of telling me himself. I don’t need you skewing the details and honestly, I just don’t want to hear your voice anymore! You stand up there like some coward and then try and dictate how we should be living and what we should be saying? Hell no. I want you out of here, and I want you gone now, is that clear enough for you? Or are you too stubborn and dense to understand that?”

Even if what he was saying was the truth, she didn’t want to hear it from him. She wasn’t going to believe some stranger, especially if that person had been the one to hurt her son. She wanted to know why Kaiden had done it and if, in fact, Manic was innocent, but she wasn’t going to take the information from just anyone. The idea of Manic being innocent made her feel a little guilty, especially after what she had said and done, but nothing was set in stone yet so she wasn’t about to go and be remorseful until she was sure of what the truth was.

(( OOC: My post is way worse than yours, so shoosh. ))

Cropping a brow upwards, there would be a deep throated laugh that would emit forth from the depths of his larynx, “I have all rights, and all claim to do as I please until your existence holds no more interest to me. Whether that involves your death or the elimination of that I’m after. You hold no command over me to make me leave and honestly…Your little tantrums do nothing more than amuses me. Remember, I’m nothing like Manic…” When she broke off into another rant he simply shook his head. Taking a couple of steps forward and towards the edge of the building, a foot would lift and plant itself just on the edge of the flat raised wall surrounding the top of the building, using it as a support to lean forward. Using his right elbow, his head would rest itself chin first into the upturned palm of his vertically positioned right arm. Again she continued to talk, so in response his left arm would lift haphazardly before dropping lifelessly to his side again, as if to say does this ever end…?

Once she finally stopped though, he would pick up in the wake of her voice, “You’re not so kireii yourself there, Tanaka-San.” There was a smile that played itself across his face beneath the mask, but it wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye, instead the only thing that could be seen was nothing more than the cold stoic features of the metallic mask that bound his features. “You say you won’t run into Manic, how many times have you said that now…? I do believe the number is quite large and yet…You always do. Stop being foolish Cordelia, we all know how things work out between you two and unless you plan to remain huddled up in that little rag tag home of yours…I doubt you’ll avoid him for long. Remember, you have to feed and so does you child, now. Have you told him yet what that’s going to be like…To feast from another HUMAN being, to draw blood, to act like an animal? To risk killing and going against a philosophy that all children hold, which is the inability to hurt, maim, or kill? You’ve really screwed that kid over and yet here you stand as proud as ever, challenging the man could very well end you should someone else not get there first.” Rocking back from his perch at the edge of the building, he would straighten out his stance before speaking swiftly, “Before you open your mouth, shut it.”

It was only pre-cautionary to open with a quick statement like that given the fact of how quick she was to jump the gun with her mouth. Instead of wasting what little time he had before getting interrupted, both of his hands would pick up an odd positioning as they joined together and pressed themselves outwards a good two feet in front of him, directly aimed towards that of Cordelia. Both of his eyes slid carefully shut and all concentration would draw itself to the matter at hand, taking grave and careful diligence to focusing solely upon the woman’s spirit. After a couple of moments he began to speak, eyes still closed, “Your fates are numerous and quite vague…The first holds you standing by yourself against a being coursing with red energy, signaling an undying hatred towards you, meaning there’s nothing that would keep the person from ripping your apart, my guess is that would be Manic. Now your second has you by yourself in front of three others with no one at your side. Two of these are featured in red signaling hatred towards you, the other is gray, signaling neutrality but seemingly along for the ride. There’s also a possibility of a forth, but it’s ethereal and in red. I’m sure you know who each of those people are and can place them in your head. Now…” Once again falling silent in his speech, all concentration would continue its conveyance to that of Cordelia, “Your next you would appear alongside that of a blue being, signaling ally. Against me, a being pictured in red…And now for the last, you’re pictured alongside the same being in blue, standing before a being in gold…A creature of great power or of great servitude to the greater cause. Essentially meaning holy.”

Sucking a large gasp of breath the sign would break itself and the man would take a couple steps back where each of his hands would then drop off to his sides, “Each of those fates have you pictured to the fate of death, Cordelia. Meaning at any of those confrontations there’s a high chance you will die, survival is a limited option. You’re alone in these many battles without an ally in sight and you know who the only probable ally you have is. But given the appearance of the first image I was given when looking at you, it doesn’t look very promising anymore, unless you know of someone else, but that’s doubtful. You’ve screwed yourself over Cordelia; I would take each day and cherish it, because you won’t live long enough to by with your kid there. Which is humorous really, because just looking at you, I could definitely see why all of these images hold you by yourself, with the exception of the last couple. I couldn’t see a single being that could possibly stand your attitude, with exception of the child over there. Who knows, maybe he’s going to be the being of blue in those images.” There was a break of uncontrollable laughter that would erupt from the being atop the building, signaling that perhaps the man wasn’t completely right in the head. Once it would subdue itself, the creature would step up onto the edge of the building, before folding his arms over his chest.

“I’m stubborn, I’m on a high horse, and I’m going nowhere. Come, remove me, and take me from my horse. I would love to see the look on your child’s face as I’m grinding your face against the brick of these building walls. I would break you…I would break you AND Manic together…But come, challenge me and see how you fair if you have the guts.” From those words his legs would bend, before thrusting himself up and off of the ledge only to come to the ground bellow in a soft patter of steps and into a low stanced crouch. Using a hand to keep balance, the man would re-erect his frame to a looser and limber positioning upon his feet. Crossing his arms over his chest, the dark glowing green eyes would pierce into that of Cordelia’s, before breaking down across her frame noting what she held upon her person and looking for any signs of movement, “Well….I’m waiting, come and remove me if you’re so strong.”

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The exact moment Cordelia stepped in front of him; Kaiden would slink further behind her for a moment, simply listening to what the man said. Not liking in one bit, a look of disgust and confusion crossed his features. Why would he do that…He wasn’t anything different than what he was and he never hurt a person in his life. Deciding to shrug it off, Kaiden would proceed to scoot off to the right side of Cordelia to see what the man was up to, before blinking a couple of times at the odd sign the man was making. Then the mentioning of him came up again, leaving him clueless again. Why was this all involving him now…What the hell was even going on…? It was truly confusing, because he hadn’t done anything to anyone that warranted the attention he was getting, but then again Cordelia seemed to be gathering a lot of attention lately, so he simply pinned her as the cause of it. Albeit it wasn’t her fault, but it made more sense than him being the reason for it.

Glancing over to Cordelia briefly, his attention would Cute over to the man who was now standing upon the ground before them, challenging Cordelia to try and remove him. Not wanting something to happen to Cordelia, both of his hands would jolt out to her right arm, grasping one around her wrist and hooking the other around the front of her bicep, before trying to pull her back. If she resisted he would simply add more strength to his efforts in order to keep her from Moriel. This wasn’t the time or the place for this and besides if the man wanted to fight Manic, he had to be strong and there was no way he was about to let Cordelia try and fight him.

“You’re not so kireii yourself there, Tanaka-San.”

“… What the hell?” Cordelia asked, glancing to Kaiden for a moment before returning her gaze to Moriel. She obviously had no idea what it meant, and she was pretty sure that wasn’t even English. No matter what it meant, though, she was pretty sure it had to be something mean. After all, everyone always, for some unknown reason, felt like being mean to her. When his voice picked up again she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth in irritation, simply wanting this to end already. Was that really too much to ask? She had asked him to leave and yet for whatever reason he felt the need to continue on about how she was being foolish.

“… Remember, you have to feed and so does you child, now. Have you told him yet what that’s going to be like…To feast from another HUMAN being, to draw blood, to act like an animal? To risk killing and going against a philosophy that all children hold, which is the inability to hurt, maim, or kill? You’ve really screwed that kid over and yet here you stand as proud as ever…”

At those words Cordelia hissed, completely ignoring what he said next about keeping her mouth shut. “How dare you!” she shouted. “Who are you to judge us?! I know what I’m doing and god dammit, didn’t I already tell you I wasn’t going to explain myself to you? You call us animals, but look at yourself – you already took the blame for being the one to hurt him yet you feel no guilt at all! Maybe you should sit this one out sweetheart, considering how little you even know.” It was one thing to insult her, to call her an animal or a monster or any other words he had, but it was completely different to call Kaiden that. Maybe it would end up hurting him when he found out that he was going to have to kill to survive now, but it was better than him dying. She already had that pit in her stomach from worrying what Kaiden would think of her for doing that to him and what he would think of himself when he realized what he was, and didn’t need this guy making it any worse. She didn’t know how long they had until he started feeling the thirst, but whenever that happened she didn’t want Moriel around. More importantly though, the only person who should have been telling Kaiden about this was her – not someone who would taint this and turn it into something worse than what it was. Really, it wasn’t that bad, and in time she knew Kaiden would become used to it. That time would take longer, though, if anyone intervened like this.

Once his hands raised to her, she became uneasy and made sure Kaiden was a good distance behind her. If he had anything planned to hurt her, she was just going to have to grab him and bolt out of there. Cowardly as it might have been, she had to be there to take care of him and she couldn’t let some squabble get in the way of that. To her surprise, however, he wound up mentioning her fate. Her eyebrows lifted and she almost started laughing, considering she wasn’t too sure how accurate any whatever he said could be. He continued to mention each of the visions with her being by herself, against a lot of people that seemed to hate her. There were plenty of people who didn’t like her, but she was pretty sure the only people who hated her enough to kill her would have either been Manic, Fehade, Yaksha, Nicodemus, or Gibbon. As soon as she realized how many people there were that wanted her dead she felt the tinniest bit anxious, but tried her best not to let that show. One of those visions had four people against her, and looking back at all those people, there weren’t many too many options on who they could be. Of course he went on to say that he was one of those beings in red, and she silently added him to that growing list. At least there was one being in blue that seemed not to want her dead, though the options for who that could have been were much slimmer. It was either Eliel or Sherise, and it was most likely the former.

“Each of those fates have you pictured to the fate of death, Cordelia. Meaning at any of those confrontations there’s a high chance you will die, survival is a limited option…”

Without even waiting for him to finish what he had to say, Cordelia started laughing quietly. “You expect me to believe that?” she said. “No, no, no. First of all, it’s a load of crap if you think you can somehow predict the future, especially my death. I’m not going to die, it’s that simple!” Cordelia shook her head, trying to force away those doubts. She had powerful enemies, she knew that much, but as long as she didn’t come across them she was more than likely safe. If she just kept telling herself that she was fine and that none of that could happen, she was sure she would eventually come to believe it. As soon as he mentioned Kaiden being the blue one, she looked again to her child, clenching her jaw when Moriel began to laugh like that. She wouldn’t ever allow Kaiden to get mixed up in her feuds… that was just plain irresponsible. “So not only are you delusional, but you’re crazy, too?” She cocked her head to the side before laughing to herself once more. “Well, you’ve now confirmed that none of that is possible at all. I don’t trust anything the crazies say. But go on, you’ll go on ahead and keep saying how it’s all going to happen, just like you’ve been doing all along. You’re too dense to understand anything else. A shame, really, that you’re so senile… but I suppose it can’t be helped.” Cordelia shrugged, since it wasn’t really her fault and she didn’t care.

“… I would break you AND Manic together…But come, challenge me and see how you fair if you have the guts.”

Oh, great. Another fight. Cordelia’s left hand slipped down to her blade, resting at the hilt as she stared at him. If he wanted to fight her, then he could. She wasn’t really in the mood, but he was part of the reason that she had been forced to turn Kaiden into what he was now. Growling, she watched as he leapt from the building and stood before them, her eyes focusing completely on him. She had the chance to fight the person who was really to blame and she wasn’t about to pass that up. With her blood starting to boil all over again, a little bit of a smirk crossed her face at the thought of how bad she wanted to hurt him. “Oh, trust me, I’ll – ” Cordelia’s mouth shut when Kaiden grabbed her right arm. She turned to look at him, the enraged look on her face melting away. He didn’t want her to fight…? He didn’t want her to get revenge for him? Cordelia allowed him to pull her back, the anger still very present inside of her but beginning to fade away from his actions.

As much as she wanted him dead, she wanted to be around for Kaiden more and in the end she knew that was what she was going to do. She let go of her blade, turning her body away slightly so he knew she wasn’t interested this time around. “I would love to do that, but my kid is more important to me than some worthless fight with a person like you, who isn’t even worth my time. There will be others who will knock you off your pedestal and I’ll just laugh along with them when that happens. Ta-ta for now, I suppose.” Cordelia flashed another innocent smile, just like she had before, and returned her full attention back to Kaiden. She knew that Moriel was still there and was prepared should he try to do anything while her back was turned, but she really didn’t have that urge to fight him anymore. That grudge was still there and would probably remain for a long time, but tonight wasn’t the night to finish this.

“Let’s go, dear,” she said with a nod and a genuine smile, not bothering to turn to look behind her or to remove her arm from Kaiden’s. “I think I have some explaining to do.” She bit the inside of her lower lip, letting out a deep sigh and running her free hand through her hair. She just really hoped he wouldn’t hate her and that, even if he did become upset, that he would forgive her. She had only done it because she loved him and because at the time it had been the only way.

“How can something that doesn’t live, doesn’t breathe, doesn’t feed, and doesn’t hold emotions be considered crazy…? But it’s fine; it’s your choice if you want to claim my visions as a lie. If it’ll make you feel better in that façade of a world of yours then so be it. One day you’re realize, maybe not today or the next but within due time…” The voice betrayed no hint of emotion to it, but instead remained monotonous with its accented tone. Carefully the man would wait in the silence that would follow his words, watching the movements of the woman only to then take note of the child’s hands on her arms and the words that would follow with her back to him. “Awww isn’t that cute, the kid fears for your safety. How degrading to be spared by your child, but its fine I wouldn’t wish to spill your blood before him anyway. Our meeting will come, with or without Manic in the mix. And if it doesn’t then consider yourself lucky.”

The man’s shoulders shrugged and his eyes would slide shut briefly, “Beware of the Kyton. A beast of a creature with chains extending forth from its appendages, along with chains that would drape across its features…Each chain also holds sharp chunks of metal to be used as weapons. Those very chains seem to act with a will of their own, summoned to life by the sheer thought of the Kyton itself. Trust me…The information will come in handy when the time is presented, you can shrug it off if you want. But when you run into a creature like that, the best option you have is to run and fast. Now…Since you have no interest to try and fight me, then I have no will to start a fight with someone that doesn’t want one. I have a code of honor afterall…And hurting the child was unintentional, perhaps he will tell you the truth, perhaps not. And who knows maybe you just won’t listen, but I guess it’s not my worry to care I can’t make you believe, considering how mull headed you were being with Manic. On any account, enjoy your life how frivolous and short it may be.” Turning on the balls of his heels the man would proceed off down the street almost like he was just another face in the crowd until he was soon swallowed whole by the night.

----

With the man finally out of sight, Kaiden’s full attention shifted up to that of Cordelia for the time being. What did she have to explain…Was it about what the man had said and if it were…He wasn’t even sure he’d understand. It had been such an odd and trying conversation, which most of it fell upon deaf ears since a lot of the words he wasn’t able to place with either him or Cord. He wasn’t an animal…Neither was she, at least he didn’t view her that way. It was all too confusing for him and the moment that he lost track of the conversation it continued to spiral downwards from there, leaving him puzzled by the time it had all drawn to an end. Sucking in a deep breath of air, a soft and heavy sigh would part his slender lips, “Home…” was the only sign that took action into his hand as it parted briefly from her arm, before returning. Not bothering to wait for a response the young man would proceed to drag Cordelia along behind him.

Passing through the corridors of the winding city, Kaiden couldn’t help but to take extra grave care to make sure that he wasn’t being followed or that someone wasn’t lurking around the corner. Before long they would arrive at her home, only to shortly after enter the door and emerge through the threshold into the open room. Parting from her arm, Kaiden would quickly close the door, making sure to seal it tight with the few locks it had. Glancing around the room, his eyes would lift to Cord and then drift off to the table where a book laid open. It was the very book that caused all this mess, the book that unraveled the mystery of himself, and the book that told him exactly what he was or what he used to be rather. Swallowing roughly, the child lifted a hand up to point at the book, before dropping his gaze down to the ground, “Reason, run away.” Would be the signs to follow the action, but he doubted that Cordelia was avid enough in her signs by now to comprehend what he just signed. All he could really do was hope that she would understand exactly what he meant and if not then there was nothing he could really do about it.

“I feel bad, all this my fault, I’m sorry.” Kaiden continued to sign absentmindedly in his blank stare at the ground, unsure whether or not Cordelia would even understand that much, but she did surprise him with what she had managed to learn in such a short time that it was still within the realm of possibility for her to understand. Heaving another sigh, the young man would rock his head backwards and allow it to fall back against the door behind him, his body following suit shortly after, before finally sliding back against the door down to a sitting position with legs propped up. Blinking a couple of times, Kaiden would peer at his arms, noticing the great variance in the length of his arm opposed to the length of his sleeve. Frowning discontentedly, he proceeded to use one hand to tug at the opposing sleeve in order to lengthen it to cover his arms, until it appeared it was of no avail. Deciding not to bother with it anymore, his attention would stray again this time down to his legs and the tightness that seemed to reign prominent in the material that stretched over his knees. Shifting a leg to the side his eyes would glance down at his exposed ankle, which would warrant the half disgusted expression that would play his features.

What the heck was going on today, not only were his clothes suddenly shrunken, but everything else seemed to go down a slippery slope of all hell? That’s when he noticed the greatest change as he swallowed again…And that was just that…He swallowed. It was a behavior that was quite unfamiliar to him and felt quite strange. Carefully a hand would lift up to his throat, lightly groping around the at the flesh and meat that formed up the structure of it, noticing that it was no longer as it had once been. Glancing up at Cordelia with a puzzled look, his free hand would sign, “What?” Knowing full well that she would know what he meant by it.

“Home…”

Cordelia recognized the sign and nodded, stumbling for a moment as Kaiden proceeded to drag her along. She smiled a little bit, deciding to forget about what had happened with Moriel at least for now. She had no idea what that whole thing about the Kyton or the chains had meant, but she wasn’t sure she really wanted to find out. She had bigger things to think about, at least for the moment. A frown pulled at her lips as she looked down at Kaiden, a look of guilt written in her eyes. She couldn’t really see him killing, as much as she tried to picture it. For the time she had known him he had always been sweet and to her knowledge he had never hurt anyone or anything. She couldn’t bide her time for much longer. In time he would see the changes in himself and when that happened he was going to want answers, some of which he might not have wanted to hear.

They arrived home soon enough, and Cordelia managed a smile at how securely he was closing the door. She had noticed him looking behind them every now and then on the streets of Balefire, which as adorable as it was that he was looking out for the both of them, worried her. Balefire wasn’t the safest city, she knew that, but even so his paranoia was getting to her. After what had happened to him today, though, she couldn’t say she blamed him. She would have been paranoid too if she had gone through what he had. As she looked around she spotted the open book on the table, her stomach sinking slightly and her head tilting to the side. She recognized it as one of the books they had taken from the library together, but her gaze didn’t linger on it for very long as she soon turned back to Kaiden. The only signs she recognized were ‘reason’ and ‘away’, but those were really the only ones she needed to. She took a few steps over to the table and leaned over the book, scanning the page briefly and looking for anything in bold. It certainly didn’t describe a homunculus – what Kaiden was supposed to have been – as anything extremely great. She shouldn’t have allowed him to take such a book from the library. If she had just put her foot down, then he never would have had to read those words.

She leaned down, grabbing the cover of the book and closing it. She shook her head, not wanting either of them to read anything more about it. Kaiden wasn’t one of those anymore, so there was no point in dwelling on it. If had been up to her she would have ripped that book apart right there, but she didn’t think Kaiden would want her to do that. Straightening herself back up, Cordelia turned back to her son and returned to him, shaking her head at what he signed next. Again she didn’t understand all of it, but she understood enough. “Don’t apologize,” she said quietly, watching him as he leaned back against the door and slid down. “It’s not your fault, darling. Don’t blame yourself. Don’t ever blame yourself.” In all honesty Cordelia wasn’t sure who was to blame for this, or if there was anyone to blame at all. There was always someone to blame, though, always a reason. It wasn’t Kaiden, though. It could never be Kaiden.

Cordelia leaned against the wall near the door, not sitting down. It was eating away at her inside that he hadn’t noticed anything yet. She didn’t want to be the one to bring it up, mostly because she didn’t know how. With everyone else she was fine with being blunt, straightforward, and unafraid of hurting feelings, but with Kaiden she had to be gentler. He was still a child, even if he was now older than what he had been previously, and to top it all off he was her child. He had already been hurt enough in his lifetime; she didn’t want to add to that at all. Sighing, she watched in uneasy silence as he tried to pull at his sleeves, smiling weakly when she remembered what he said about his clothes having shrunk. That certainly hadn’t been the case. Back then would have been the perfect time to talk to him about what she had done, but of course she never got what she wanted and someone had to interrupt. What was she supposed to do now? She couldn’t keep waiting and waiting until the opportunity arose. She either had to be straightforward or simply not tell him at all, and the latter of course just wasn’t an option.

“What?”

Opportunity was knocking again. Perfect time, too, it seemed. Cordelia was silent for a moment, running a hand through her hair as she began to debate the right ways to say this. Noticing his throat was probably the best way to go about this – it was one of the more minor, and yet most significant, changes that had already happened and one of the good things as well. If they started out with that then maybe things wouldn’t be too bad. “I…” she started, trying to choose her words carefully, “healed it for you.” A lopsided smile crossed her face. That wasn’t exactly true, considering she hadn’t done just that, but it was the only way to phrase it so that she didn’t seem like she was being cruel. “And you don’t have to worry about that damn book or homunculus stuff either anymore. I changed that, too.”

So far this was going all right. Her word choice probably could have been better, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. “Your clothes didn’t shrink, hunny. You grew.” That wasn’t the most normal thing she had ever said, but then again this whole situation was anything but normal. “But see, there’s one little catch to all of this that I don’t think you’re going to like very much…”

Why was it so hard to say it? Under any other circumstances she wouldn’t have been this worried, this nervous about how someone would react, but this was Kaiden. He was the only person whose opinion actually mattered to her. If he wound up hating her for this she didn’t know what she would do, and with any luck breaking it gently would decrease the chances of that happening. “See, what I did, I changed you into what I am. It healed you by the looks of it and brought you out of that state, but you’re going to have to drink blood now. It doesn’t mean you have to kill or anything, that you’re an animal or anything, oh no. That guy was exaggerating for some reason. It just means that you’ll have to come with me when I leave so that you can feed, too.” At that point Cordelia looked away for a moment, for some reason even more anxious now than when she hadn’t told him. “You’ll get nifty little fangs, if you don’t already have them.” Hopefully he would see that as another redeeming quality. Hopefully.

A look of perplexment took a prominent place upon his features at the sheer thought of what she was telling him. It still really didn’t explain anything to him, but the words blood and feed seemed to stick out over every other word she spoke. That of course was until silence befell upon the both of them, leaving him with a racing mind and so many unanswered and elaborated questions. Shaking his head slowly, Kaiden placed both of his hands upon his knees and grunted as he pushed himself up to an erect stance. Diligent piercing blues eyes swept their way up from the ground and up to that of Cordelia, noticing that he no longer really required such strain on his neck to gaze at her face. And that’s when something sparked in his mind…

Deciding to confirm it, he would raise both of his arms in front of himself, extending them out from his body and keeping them parallel to the ground bellow. Slowly his eyes observed them, soaking in every bit of detail, only to note that nothing seemed as he remembered it. Everything about him had changed on an instant from what it seemed, but he still didn’t want to believe it no matter how truthful it may be. So instead he continued his exploration, this time using his hands and fingers upon his face to feel out his features, noting each and every structure until they trailed down to his neck where they would remain. Uncertainty played his features as a thought entered his mind. Sucking in a breath of air, his mouth would begin to open to release a murmured sound. Immediately his mouth shut at the sound and his face twisted into that of discontent before shaking his head.

“I…” The finger pointed at himself for a long while as his mind tried to piece together what to sign in its wake, “I’m confused……I think you mean what I think you mean, but I can’t believe that you would…Do that or make me do that. What happened to me…? None of this makes sense, I’m so confused…” Frustration was apparent on both his face and in his signing by this point, but he would continue, “…What am I? I don’t want to do something gross like drink blood.” Just as the last sign left his fingers, both of his hands would place themselves to face to both shield it from her gaze and to try and calm himself down a bit if that would even work. The sheer thought of having to do something like that made him feel uneasy and somewhat ill inside. It wasn’t really the most appeasing thought, especially considering the stipulations, but there wasn’t much he could but simply wait for cordelia to speak in rebuttal to his words.

((OoC: -hides- bleh bleh blehhhh! I tried to get this a bit better, but I do believe I failed. I hope it's all right, if anything needs editing let me know.))

----------------------

Cordelia had expected that look to come to his face and she sucked in a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for whatever he had to say. Hopefully it would be some of the more obvious questions and not anything that would catch her off guard. While the silence remained she merely observed his actions, not saying or doing a single thing that might interrupt. Kaiden rose to his feet and began to inspect himself, which she supposed was the response to her saying that he had grown. It was actually slightly surprising to her that he hadn’t noticed beforehand, but she figured he had a good excuse. She would have been too caught off guard if he had noticed any earlier, so it was probably a good thing that this was all happening now. Now, at least, she thought she could find the words to reply to anything he said.

As soon as that quiet sound came from his throat, a smile broke onto Cordelia’s face. That was nearly enough to prove to her she had done something good. There had been nothing there originally except for some muscle and the bones of his spine, but clearly now his vocal chords had returned. Hadn’t that been the reason he had believed himself to be broken, to be nothing more than a burden on her? The sudden look of discontentment on his face confused her greatly. Was it because of his voice? She would have thought he would be happy to have that back… unless of course it was because all that had been produced was that tiny sound and no actual words. Regardless, that look made her original feeling sink slightly, but she still knew that this had been worth it even if it came at a cost. At least now if she was no where nearby, he was capable of taking care of himself or at least yelling for help. He hadn’t been able to do the latter back in Taras that while ago, but now that was finally reversed.

At that point Kaiden began to sign and Cordelia forced the smile to be wiped clear from her face. He seemed to be struggling with what to say, so she waited patiently, bracing herself both for what she expected and even maybe for what she didn’t. She averted her eyes at the mention of him being unable to believe that she would make him do that, that statement striking her more than any of the others. He was confused, but that would be taken care of in time – but the disbelief could turn into resentment and more than anything she didn’t want that. A rising feeling of paranoia began to spread through her, causing her to once doubt her actions. Just moments ago she thought she had done the right thing and now she wasn’t sure at all. What the hell was wrong with her?

“…What am I? I don’t want to do something gross like drink blood.”

Cordelia’s eyes shifted back to him immediately when his hands began to move again. She had probably neglected to take a few things into consideration, but she couldn’t go back and change things now. Even if she could, she wasn’t quite sure if she would have done anything differently. At least he hadn’t gotten so angry that blew up, or done something she had thought he wouldn’t. As much as that last statement had cut her, he hadn’t done anything irrational and for that she was grateful. “Well if you want to get all technical about what you are now, you’re a vampire,” she said. Quickly she glanced to the book she had just closed, hoping nothing about vampires was in there. She didn’t want him reading some book or getting information from anyone but her. “I know you may not want to, but sweetie, you have to. It may seem gross now, but that will wear off soon and you’ll find it isn’t terrible. Really, it’s not that bad. And it’s good for you too.” She offered a sort of smile, but she knew that just saying that probably wouldn’t do anything. If anything, that might even make it worse. Time was really the only thing that could change his mind.

Cordelia raked a hand through her hair before deciding she had to reply to everything else he had said. “I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t a life or death situation, sweetie. I was so scared of losing you that I acted impulsively and gave you my blood… it was the only thing I knew that I could do. I knew it would change you, bring your throat back, but not make you grow like this. If I had known that it wasn’t really necessary to being with, then I never, ever would have. I wouldn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to, but there really wasn’t a choice with this. You know I care about you; I couldn’t just stand there if you were going to die. You know I’d do anything to keep you safe, to protect you, and at the time changing you was what I had to do.” Clearly, though, she just hadn’t done enough. Cordelia looked down, mostly because she was uncertain that her words would reach him. She had to be the strong one here, since she didn’t expect Kaiden to be that one at all. Lifting her head back up again she looked at Kaiden, even though he had his face covered. “I’m sorry, okay? I probably shouldn’t have, I know, but when faced with the decision how could I just let you lie there and potentially bleed to death? I know you’re confused and I’ll do my best to try and help you with that… you’re not alone in this. I’m still here for you and you can ask anything you want to. Besides, blood is just one teeny tiny gross thing out of all the good stuff! I mean, you got your throat back and stuff, right? That and, uh, sunlight and fire aren’t going to be very good for you anymore.” Cordelia knew she probably shouldn’t have added that last part, but he had to know somehow and she would rather he find out from her than on his own.

(( OOC: I hope to God this makes you laugh as hard as I did. ))

There wasn’t much he could do or say the entire time she talked. Sure he wasn’t happy about what had taken place but there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it, especially now. And when faced to think about it now it wasn’t her fault and there was no reason he was trying to take his anger out on her. The man that was responsible for it was nothing other than himself. If he didn’t get that crazy notion, that crazy idea to run out and try to help Manic none of this would’ve happened. Heaving a distraught sigh, the boy’s hands dropped lifelessly off to his sides to land with subtle thuds upon the hard floor bellow. There wasn’t anything he could do…Absolutely nothing.

The thought bothered him; it bothered him so bad that he wasn’t quite sure what to do…Blood wasn’t his thing. He couldn’t stand seeing it or smelling it and now to be faced with drinking it just damn near terrified him. To think that someone could live a life like that disturbed him and to know that it was the very woman in front of him made it that much worse. She was someone he looked up to, someone that respected him for who and what he was, but now that light had been changed. The light that once shined so brightly upon her like a ray of sunshine was nothing more than a dark brooding color that masqueraded her into a being of darkness. At least that was how he viewed things now…

Again another sigh passed his slender lips, before pushing himself back up to his feet with a slight grunt. Standing only a couple inches shorter than her, his eyes lifted to hers in defiance, “I won’t do it….” Were the only signs to leave his fingers. “I won’t…I can’t, I—I would rather die.” Of course that probably wouldn’t be what Cord had expected to see from him, no less the bluntness in his words. But it was the way he felt, whether it would turn out to be his definite choice or not, he would do his best to keep it from occurring, to keep himself from doing such a horrific task. Of course the thirst when it would take place would play a different chord to the strings of his life, but for now those strings would be muted at his whim.

All attention seemed to slide from Cordelia, only to land upon a figure not too far off from Cord. Blinking a couple of times, his eyes strained and narrowed to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things, before finally cocking a brow in question. It didn’t seem like a threatening figure, but the shadows were good at playing games with a person’s mind. Then again, perhaps he was simply seeing things…Before he could come to any conclusion though; the figure moved out from the shadows slowly and leaped up onto the arm of the couch in the room.

Perching on the arm of the furniture, the girl would bend her legs at the knees and place both of her hands upon the arm and between her legs to help maintain a balance of equilibrium upon its structure before speaking, “Don’t be a baby. So what? You drink blood, deal with it. I’m not exactly a saint myself, neither is anyone else.” Giggling at the thought of her being a saint, she would rock forward to use her arms as further support, as both of her legs lifted and shot to a somewhat erect state behind her, before slinging down and to the ground where she would land with a slight bounce. The second she did both of her arms would lift from the couch arm, before clasping together in a loud slap, “Hi hi Cordie, hope you don’t mind my intrusion. I came in through the back and I’m not gonna tell you how either. You’ll have to guess.”

Shooting the woman a wink and a wide spanning grin, all attention would drift back to the boy, “Manic’s a demon, Cordie you know what she is, and I’m a demon, sorta…Kinda…Maybe.” For the last couple words a puzzled look would take upon her face as she lightly rubbed at the side of her face with a free hand, “Eh, that still confuses me. No matter though…OH! That Mathy guy is a Sa—Satear? No no…Satyr…Ah heck iono…He’s something weird.” With that she grinned widely, before fading into a look of thought again, “Oh and then there’s Gibbon…He’s…Y’know I really don’t know what he is. All I know is he’s something!” (( OOC: -Laughs hysterically.- Good lord she’s loopy. Definitely Manic’s child. )) Issuing a slight shrug and a coy grin, her eyes would move over to Cordelia, “Would you mind if I stayed a while? Pleeeeeaaassssseeee? I’ll be a good girl, Manic told me to find a safe place sooooo; this is the only other place I know now. Oh and I have a friend too!”

At first the appearance of the girl annoyed him, but the longer talked the more she made him laugh. Even though he really didn’t want to, there wasn’t anyway he could really help it. But once she turned her attention to Cordelia, a look of discontent took upon his face, before pointing at her and signing to Cord, “You can’t let her stay; she’s insane. Listen to her once.”

Cordelia became uneasy by his silence. She didn’t think he would say anything while she was speaking, since he was such a respectful little thing, but now she had finished and he was on the floor. As much as she tried to reassure herself that everything would turn out fine, that was probably a bit naïve. Whether it was naïve or not didn’t really matter though, because she was intent on making sure he got over it and that everything did turn out fine. Usually she was able to pull something off if she wanted it enough; anyone that knew her knew she was stubborn and that getting her to change her mind was like pulling teeth.

Kaiden rose to his feet, which made her feel a bit better. Maybe he understood now, or was at least willing to try it. It wasn’t like he had any other choice, as horrible as that might have been. The look of defiance and the words that left his hands quickly slaughtered those little tiny rays of hope and she bit the inside of her lip. He would rather die? The breath seemed to be knocked out of her at those words, stunned to the point where she was speechless and thoughtless. She knew he was a child and that children didn’t like to harm people, but it wasn’t like it was that bad. For the first time, Cordelia thought her patience with him was running just a tad thin. To rather die than just have to drink blood was melodramatic in every sense of the word. Perhaps the idea was just scary or she had worded something the wrong way, but either way it didn’t matter. That opinion would change in due time, and until it changed she was just going to have to be patient with him. “Right,” she said, only because it was the only word she could come up with at the moment. “Kaiden, you’re just going to have to trust me.” That was all she could say anymore. He was going to believe what he was going to believe until he decided to listen to her, and she had no idea when that was actually going to be.

“Don’t be a baby. So what?...”

With the new voice in the room, Cordelia’s eyebrows shot up and she turned around, her back having been turned. At the sight of Alaina her face twisted into a look of confusion and her head tilted to the side. How had she even gotten in, and how did she possibly know where she lived? The questions weren’t given the attention they needed though when she began to talk to the boy. She had to admit that she didn’t approve of the way she had just talked to Kaiden, but the girl wasn’t Cordelia’s child to reprimand. The thought of Alaina not being a saint however surprised her – every time she had ever met with the girl she had been nothing but a sweet, caring, innocent little girl and she didn’t like the thought of her being anything else.

“Hi hi Cordie, hope you don’t mind my intrusion. I came in through the back and I’m not gonna tell you how either. You’ll have to guess.”

Unable to help herself, Cordelia chuckled at the girl’s antics and at her words. “Aww, keeping secrets and making me guess? That isn’t very nice of you,” she said, tapping her index finger against her chin and sticking her lower lip out in a pout. Alaina had brightened the mood immediately, since even Kaiden was laughing and just a few moments ago he had been incredibly upset. Though the girl’s sudden appearance was a mystery in itself, she would question her reasoning later when it was more important if she didn’t proceed to tell her. “But you did say you aren’t a saint, now didn’t you?” She grinned, just to show that she was kidding. Cordelia didn’t believe those words at all and wouldn’t until Alaina actually did something to prove it, which hopefully she wouldn’t.

As Alaina continued speaking, the grin remained on her face, as she was entirely amused. The girl was entertaining and good to have around, to say the least. Again Cordelia laughed, nodding to herself. There was no doubt in her mind that what she said about being Manic’s daughter was true with this little display. Granted the child wasn’t as violent or mean, but she was just as crazy and random. At the mention of allowing her to stay, though, most of the lightheartedness was drained from her features. Cordelia wouldn’t have had a problem with it if Manic hadn’t so plainly threatened her. “Hope to the gods I don’t find out…” he had said. He had made empty threats to her in the past, saying they had merely been to keep her out of his hair, but how many times could he say those things until they began to mean something? Manic had already tried to kill her which had resulted in her being blinded, so she knew if he got angry enough he would make good on his threats. Of course he had yet to use her organs as carrying bags and whatever else he had said, but it still bothered her greatly.

Kaiden didn’t seem very pleased with the idea either, calling the girl insane. Cordelia curled in her lower lip and bit it gently, both to keep herself from smiling at the accusation and in thought. “Alaina, hunny,” she started slowly, running a hand through her hair as she continued to contemplate. If Manic found out that Alaina was staying with her, she didn’t know what he would do. Knowing him he would probably wind up thinking that she had kidnapped the child to get revenge on what she had thought he had done to Kaiden or some other junk like that. She could already picture in vivid detail how that could go and she did not want that to happen. “I wouldn’t mind… but I don’t think Manic would be very happy if he found out you were staying with me, of all people.” She heaved a sigh, wondering if there was a way they could somehow pull it off. “You know he doesn’t like me very much. He’d kill me if he found out.” Cordelia laughed nervously, unsure if she meant that literally or not. Her eyes slid to Kaiden, feeling the need to appease him yet also feeling the need to keep Alaina out of harm’s way. “Besides, lonely as Norwood is, it isn’t that dangerous, is it? It has to be better than Balefire, even if this is the only other place you know of. How did you know I lived here, anyway…?”

If worse came to worse, Cordelia supposed she could stay for a day or two. After that she would either send her back to Norwood or help her find somewhere else to stay. She didn’t want the girl in any sort of danger, but she didn’t exactly want to get murdered by her father or have Kaiden upset with her for doing that either.

Kaiden eyed the girl for a couple of moments, before glancing up to Cordelia when she spoke. Another sigh would pass his lips at the sound of her words before shaking his head at her, “I trust you…I just don’t want to do that…” But just on the flip of a second all of Cordelia’s attention drifted to the woman, leaving him slightly stranded on his conversation with her. Of course he could pull at her arm to get her attention, but that was considered quite rude and he wasn’t about to do that, so instead he patiently waited for them to end so he could have Cord’s attention again.

The moment Cordelia began speaking to her a slight chuckled escaped her slender lips, “That’s right, you don’t see any wings now do you? So I can’t be an angel, but I could be one in disguise.” The thought was purely absurd for her so she couldn’t help but erupt into a folly of laughter that would only be cut short by her voice again. This time though, her features turned to a more serious look and all laughter would fall to silence, “Well…y’see I know all of this…I’ve given it thought lots and lots of it buuuut.” Sucking in a deep breath, she would let her head roll backwards to allow herself to easily gaze up at the ceiling as she thought, but the action seemed to cause her to lose her balance and begin to fall backwards. In a last ditch attempt to catch and regain her balance, her entire body would thrust itself forward in order to counteract the fall and cancel it out so she could return to a solid base yet again.

Coughing lightly, she would glance up to Cordelia, before rubbing the back of her head nervously. My, she must have looked stupid just now, but that was beside the point because there were more pressing matters at hand. Though…Just to make sure that she wouldn’t do the same thing again she would move around to the front of the couch, before plopping rear end first upon the arm of the couch. “The thing is that Manic doesn’t want me alone in the woods anymore, not with that…Batista/Moriel dude around…Manic says he would probably hurt me to get at him. Also said that the guy probably already knows I stay there alone, which is creepy in itself. Someone watching me.” To signal her disgust she would shiver involuntarily, before doing a, ‘bleh’ like noise.

“And yeah he told me about you, he was really serious about it, because he was gripping my arms really tight when he said this. But he told me that if I ever stepped with five feet of you there would be consequences. Also he told me that if he ever sees you when I’m around, I’m supposed to get as far away as possible. Oh and the last thing…He knows that I would probably come to you if no one else. So he told me to send a message should I run into you. The bell tolls only five times, at the fifth the funeral comes to rest and in the grave lowers the casket. Cordelia Brooks has tolled four times too many and the next time I ever see her, the fifth and final ring will have rung and beneath the ground she will lay. Honestly…I don’t think he’s kidding; consider it a warning from a friend. There’s not much I can do to help you…He’s hard to follow and for me to try and keep him from you is far from plausible. Besides he said that if I did happen to stay in your company, then he would respect that. But once I leave that’s another story. Since I’m already here…He’s going to know I’ve been here. There’s not much I can do…Because I’m sure I’ve picked up your scent by now if I can smell it.”

With that the girl pushed herself back up to her feet where she would stand only to cross her arms over her chest, “I didn’t mean to make this a mess for you…But I REALLY don’t want to try and keep away from that scary looking guy forever and it’d help if I had someone to assist me if it came down to it. Oh! And you asked how I found this place.” Taking an arm, she would lift it only to point out at Kaiden, “I watched the entire thing, because I was following Manic. But he knew I was there the whole time the cheater. I wanted to do something to help Manic; but that kid there did it instead…I thank you.” With that she bowed her head respectfully to Kaiden, before glancing back to Cordelia, “See I followed Manic because I didn’t want to be alone and then ended up following you guys here, where I broke in the back.” With that she coughed a bit and lightly rubbed at her neck, “Break is such a harsh word though…Lets say…I eased in the back….Or something like that.”

((OoC: lol, here I go, saying 'blehhhh' again. oh well.))

-------------------------

“I trust you…I just don’t want to do that…”

Well, at least he trusted her. He’d get over the whole not wanting to do that thing with time, then, and she had no other choice than to accept that and be patient. “We’ll discuss this later,” she said quietly, nodding once to confirm the statement. She had too much on her plate right now and couldn’t exactly handle it all at once, and as much as she hated to put Kaiden second for even a few minutes, she thought it was understandable that she would want to keep herself from being violently murdered.

Cordelia became slightly nervous when Alaina nearly fell and she held her breath, ready for the girl to crash down onto the floor. The child regained her balance however and Cordelia sighed, allowing her temporarily tense shoulders to relax. She had enough to worry about already between taking care of her son and worrying about the man who hated her more than anything, and Alaina falling and breaking her neck wasn’t something she wanted added to the list. That would probably only wind up making things worse when it came to Manic. A single eyebrow lifted at the mention of Moriel and the fact that he probably already knew where she stayed in Norwood. Cordelia didn’t like the idea of her staying out there alone, either, if he already knew and was willing to hurt her. What was the point of this? Knowing Manic he had to have enemies, but to go after a kid was simply inexcusable.

“… He told me that if I ever stepped with five feet of you there would be consequences… four times too many… Besides he said that if I did happen to stay in your company, then he would respect that. But once I leave that’s another story…”

As Alaina continued on with speaking, Cordelia averted her eyes, looking down at the floor and focusing on it. Manic was so hypocritical that she could have laughed, but the situation was far too serious for her to do that. How could he tell Alaina there would be consequences if she came so close to her, and yet at the same time understand and respect the fact that she would probably go to her before anyone else? If he was so worried about Alaina being safe, he should have taken her in and brought her with him wherever he went, not leave her alone in some forest or expect her to find somewhere safe on her own. She was a kid; what was she supposed to do? Cordelia looked up from the floor then, though she kept her gaze away from both of the children. “This is ridiculous,” she said. “Absolutely ridiculous. I didn’t even do anything that bad to him! He has no reason for this….” Cordelia sighed and shook her head. There were only two terrible things that she had done that really warranted that death threat, the first having been when she had worked with Gharik to bring him down and the second having been not too long ago at the tavern in Kellen. Nothing else, none of the arguments, could really count considering how petty they were. Besides, he had already gotten revenge for her betrayal by blinding her and she had apologized at the inn after she had pushed him over the edge. “There’s no way half of that stuff even counts anymore! I would think our actions toward each other would cancel them all out, since he’s done stuff to me too, but nooo, he just has to be all dramatic and threaten me, right? Like everything is my fault and he’s completely innocent! Does he not even realize how arrogant he is? I don’t know how to can stand to be around him. I know he’s serious, but there isn’t a reason for this anymore. So what’s he going to do once he finds out you’ve been here, huh? Track me down? He says he respects it but there’ll be a price… I can’t even believe him.” Well, actually, she could. By now, she expected these sorts of things from Manic. He had made so many empty threats in the past, but now that he had actually told Alaina about this she really did believe that he was finally serious.

“I didn’t mean to make this a mess for you…”

Cordelia closed her eyes for a moment and raked a hand through her hair, trying to come up with a proper response that didn’t sound entirely bitter. “Too late now,” she said with a huff, not doing a very good job of accomplishing what she had wanted. “I mean… it was a mess before you even got involved.” Both were the truth, and even if Alaina coming here had probably made things ten times worse, there was no need to push any blame onto her shoulders. Alaina was a kid and it wouldn’t be right for her to do that, especially when she had only come for protection and at least had the decency to warn her about Manic’s murderous intent. She was more exhausted than afraid, anyway – at least, that’s how it was for now.

“… I wanted to do something to help Manic; but that kid there did it instead…I thank you.”

At that Cordelia looked to Kaiden immediately, almost feeling dizzy from hearing what Alaina had said. She wanted more than anything to believe that that wasn’t true, to laugh it off and say that such a statement that was absurd, but there was no way she could possibly do that. If Manic, Moriel, and now even Alaina had said it, what was she supposed to believe? Alaina was the only one out of those three that she trusted. “So it’s true…?” She didn’t even know what could prompt him to do such a thing. Sure, he was a sweet kid, but she didn’t think he was stupid enough to just go on ahead and risk his life for someone. “Manic didn’t hurt you, then…?” While it was stated as a question, it was really more of a statement that was more to herself than to the others. She felt like an absolute idiot. She probably should have listened to him to begin with and kept her mouth shut, but it was too late now to change the past and for that she was probably going to pay. What else would she have done, anyway? Manic should have expected that sort of reckless behavior from her! Either way, she supposed that was just one more thing to add to the list. Still, then it only added up to three, not five. At that point she turned back to Alaina, a question nagging at the back of her brain that she wasn’t quite sure if she should ask or not. “You were there watching and then you followed us… so you saw everything? I mean, everything? Absolutely everything?” There was clearly more to it than that, but Cordelia decided to wait for an answer before she got ahead of herself.

Alaina frowned at Cordelia the entire time she spoke. She hadn’t expected it to be really all of her fault, but now that the realization had come about, a sudden sinking feeling gathered at the pit of her stomach. “I’m sorry, Cordie…I’ll leave right now and he won’t ever have to know…” A sincere look of concern took upon her features as the words spilled out of her mouth, “But yes…” She finally allowed after a period of silence, “I saw everything…I didn’t like it in the least either, but I trust your decision and judgment. I wasn’t really worried about Manic either, especially when he handled himself the way he did…”

She paused again to take some time to mull over her words. Taking her right hand she would place it against the side of her face, tapping it in thought. Shortly after the action her voice would puck up, as she leaned back to the couch where her rear end would make contact with the arm in order to aid her support to her leaning nature, “Those scary read eyes...I've seen them a lot now. He’s changing, Cordie…I wouldn’t doubt you’re the reason for it with the way you’ve treated him. I can’t blame you…It’s just…”

The once quizzical look that had graced her soft countenance changed and twisted into one of blatant irritation. To help disguise the look though, she would place her hand over her face, only to drag it downwards over her eyes and nose only to stop just over her mouth, “He used to be so pleasant to be around, a person I could talk to all the time. He used to talk a lot about you; how you were just like my Mother and that perhaps there was more of a purpose for him even after what all had taken place so long ago. Now he barely visits me, says nothing but how you’re a plague to his existence and…I like you! I really do! I don’t want to be forced to pick sides; I don’t want to watch…I just don’t…”

Quickly glanced from Cordelia briefly, her eyes picked up a flurry of movement from Kaiden’s hands only to be able to decipher one of the signs, “Baby…” she muttered softly, “At least I’m not crying about how much my parent cares about me because I don’t like a little bit of blood. Boo hoo…Go over in the corner and cry, you don’t need to be in our conversation.” Of course her words were quite brash and rude but there was a method to her madness, even if there really seemed to be none in present sight. And just like clockwork she got the response she had expected from the kid.

Crinkling his nose at the words of the girl, Kaiden sighed a rather…Spicy word in rebuttal, but what signaled his irritation even further was the fact that he had finally moved out from behind that of Cordelia and began his way towards the girl, only to stop inches in front of her. At his current height Kaiden almost appeared much like that of a giant in comparison, but it really didn’t matter, the only thing that mattered was the fact that he would set her straigh