Meta let out gasps as she winced in pain, being held up by Jihad, her hand getting painful as he tried to crush it. She extended her other arm, moved her hand closer to Jihad.

"Anything..." She uttered.

Her hand started to glow, surrounding itself with a dark aura of multi-coloured energy, and she would place her hand on Jihad's head.

"...can be killed..."

It was then that she would blast the energy straight into her opponent's thick skull, in the hopes of ending him with it.


~ Japan ~

The girl stirred in her sleep again. The dreams had faded away before her mind's eye. A slight smile of happiness covered her sleeping face. Her eyes closed harshly, their corners wrinkled, before, blinkingly, they fluttered open. Slowly the girl rose up. She was... in a bed. It was weird, why was she in a bed? The last things she could clearly remember were sights of a shadowy forest, before everything became black and cold and after that... nothing. Vague remnants, visions she thought to have seen since that, floated through her mind, but she couldn't make heads or tails of it. She rubbed her eyes, and sniffed. She hoped she was safe, and that all the bad things she had seen had really all just been bad dreams. She pulled her legs close to her and leaned to the post of the bed, burying her face within her arms, and there she sat still.

Slight, nearly imperceptible sounds of bedsprings moving on the other side of the house were picked up in R.D. and Alasea's ears, despite the chatter happening at the table. The two teenagers looked at each other, and R.D. nodded to her. Alasea excused herself from the table as R.D. asked Bryant, "So where exactly was that Chronoscepter piece found?"

The Daughter of Dawn walked calmly to the guest room where R.D. and Maya had been sleeping, and the door had been left slightly ajar. When she peeked in, the girl was sitting on the bed, her face covered by her arms. She opened the door, letting it squeak slightly to alert the girl to her presence. "Hey," she said kindly, walking over to the bed, "How are you feeling?"

The girl's head shot upwards as her ears picked up the sound of squeeking, and a voice talking to her. Her eyes stood frightened, looking at the young woman who was talking to her. She crawled back a little more as she stared at the other person in the room. She made no sound, didn't speak, just sat there.

"It's okay," Alasea said soothingly, sitting down on the bed, "It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you, you're safe here."

After a moment, Alasea decided things would work best if the girl could identify her by name. "I'm Alasea," she introduced herself, smiling reassuringly at the girl, "What's your name?"

The girl was silent for a while, looking at the strange young woman, this "Alasea", with eyes opened wide, distrustful, fearful. She had heard her clearly asking for her name, but she did not want to answer the question. The things that were going on seemed too foreign and weird to her right now for her to trust anyone, let alone answer a question, even a simple one. Yet somehow, she felt compelled to answer. She lifted her head a little. "Maya." She whispered with a sore throat, incredibly softly.

Alasea smiled softly at Maya when she answered. "Hi, Maya," she greeted once more, "Did you sleep well?"

Maya stared at Alasea with her wide eyes and frightful look, and she hugged her legs close to her body as she sat against the bed post. "No." She answered the question, stating her answer as if it was pretty much an obvious one. Maya's eyes shifted for a moment, looking away for a split second, moving to look at the door and seeing the young boy. He appeared unfamiliar to her, and not very threatening either, and she turned her eyes back to the bigger, older girl, the young adolescent woman in front of her, sitting on the same bed as her.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Alasea said kindly, watching the girl. Her eyes darted to the doorway quickly, spying Mercy there, and she smiled once at him, her expression telling him that she had it covered and to join the others.

She looked back at Maya and said reassuringly, "If you had nightmares, just know that they can't touch you here. You're safe here, I promise."

Maya still looked at Alasea with her wide eyes, as if in disbelief, as if she thought that she still was in a nightmare and Alasea was some kind of demon trying to gain her trust and then crush both her trust and her along with it. Her eyes shot to Mercy, looking at him about the same way, although slightly less frightened. "Whu--what's a zailano?" She asked with her soft voice.


~ Obsidian Realm ~

Meta fell to the ground. Staring up with wide eyes akin to Maya's, except they were red ones, she crawled back until her back touched the wall, looking up at the mighty newly-arosen Nightmare God who had reclaimed his body and just crushed the purple shade that had possessed him. Who... what just happened?

Meta felt an unusual, awkward feeling come over her as the cold metal of the gauntlet of the Nightmare God touched her shoulder. Looking down, she let out a soft gasp, noticing her wounds to be no longer existant. She looked up at Xoquoxitill in wonder. How?

"You... are you the father of Sin?" Meta asked him ponderingly.

Meta looked up at Xoquoxitill in awe, he seemed quite different from what she had thought to expect of him. What had she expected, really? Even now, she could not remember, not even if she actually had expected something. Once again, she stared at her own body, noticing the holes in her clothes and armour there where the claws of Jihad's gauntleted fist, the very same one as the one that Xoquoxitill has used to heal her, had pierced it. Only black skin was visible through the holes. Meta struggled to stand up, and then she took a look around. "We're back." She stated. Whirling around, she looked back at Xoquoxitill. "How did you do all this? What are you really?"

Meta followed after Xoquoxitill, curious about what was to happen. As with Sin, she trusted this strange figure for some reason. Perhaps it was the mere presence that emanated from him, or the fact that he had healed her and appeared to have granted her some power.

"What power have you given me that I can use outside of this realm?" She questioned Xoquoxitil. "Also, do you perhaps know of any other Gods that could grant me power to defeat my father?"

Warily, Meta looked into the portal. She had listened intently, and with great care, to the words Xoquoxitill, the Nightmare God, said to her.

"What will happen when I enter that portal?" She asked Xoquoxitill. "And for that matter, what will happen when I one day will not need this power any more, and come to you to return my newly gained title?"

Alasea sighed and stood up from the bed, walking over until she was in front of Mercy. She leaned down in front of him and said "You're scaring her, and she's already afraid," she said, "I'm trying to calm her down, but you're not helping. Just leave things to me, okay?"

Meta still did not have a very trustful feeling concerning the portal and where it lead to. The Temple of Flesh? Sounds like some kind of weird bar. She thought to herself as she leaned her head on her hand. She decided to trust Xoquoxitill for now, for whatever it was worth, and she stepped forward, into the pool, the portal that would lead her to her next destination. She sighed, closed her eyes and braced herself. She suspected that the tentacles would come back.

Alasea put a hand on her hip as Mercy left, frowning. After a moment, she spun back around, a cheerful demeanor on her face once more. She walked over to the bed and sat back down on it and looked at Maya. "Don't worry what he said," she remarked, "I've got your dreams warded; I would've known if something foreign was there. Nothing will hurt you here, I promise."

Layzner finally came back online. As he looked around, he realised he still didn't remember anything. ...What a waste of time! he thought. Just then, he looked at the panel on his forearm and said "Rei, why can't I remember anything?" Just then, he stopped and realized that some of his memories returned. He remembered the name of his internal computer, at least. "Most of the memory circuits were damaged beyond what I can repair. You must use a Grados repair chamber in order to fully repair those circuits." replied Rei.

He looked at what options he had. Maybe he could find a Grados ship somewhere on this planet and could be fully repaired. "Rei."

"Ready!" replied the computer.

"Keep the coordinates of this shrine in your databanks. We're going on a world tour." said Layzner.

"Roger."

Layzner found his way outside and saw that the area was covered in snow. This must be some sort of backwater world. I don't detect anything around here. He activated his thrusters and flew away.

Edited by SPT Layzner on October 30, 2007 at 13:36:25.

May seemed to relax a bit, with Mercy gone and Alasea smiling and reassuring her, though she wasn't about to fully trust anything here yet. She let go of her legs and crawled across the bed a little closer to Alasea, and swung her legs over the edge. The eight-year-old looked curiously at the older woman, and blinked for a moment. "Who are you?" She asked suddenly.


~ Nightmare Realm ~

Meta again felt the awkward feeling of the liquid lava tentacles touching her, and she shivered at the thought that it could perhaps be sentient, it nearly acted that way. Arriving upon her destination, she made sure to step out of the pool quickly, but when she looked around, her facial expression distorted into disgustfulness. "Great." She said, looking around. "Just... fleshy." Setting her eyes to look in front of her, she started to walk over to what appeared to be a throne much like the one she had seen Xoquoxitill sitting on. She looked around it's corners, only to see nothing, noone sitting in it. With a hint of a smile, she knew that it was hers. Meta sat down on the throne and leaned backwards, letting out a sigh of satisfaction. "With some relocation or redecoration, I might just be pleased with things so far." She mused, speaking to herself.

Alasea blinked as the young girl asked her question. Her smile stayed the same, however, and Alasea easily answered the question after straightening out the belt that held her bathrobe together.

"I'm Alasea," she said as she sat down, "I'm a Daughter of Dawn. I'm someone who protects others from the evils in the world. Why do you ask?"