OOC: This post shouldn't be into effect until relevant. Arc finally gets some character development.

IC: Arc flipped as he landed, a small cloud of dust coming out from where he was. He straigtened, and brushed some dust off of his clothes before walking deeper into the demolished temple. It had been hammered badly. But, once you got past the rubble it was fairly stable.

He walked into the strangely comforting shadows, almost invisible. The only sign he was there was the very very quiet taps of his feet.

"Trying to atone?" said a voice, seemingly from nowhere.

Arc spun to see an older man walking out of the shadows. "Sensei! Sorry....I can't stop it, so...I can at least give what I take back."

The old man shook his head while tssking. "You gave in a long while ago. It took you long to learn, yet you expect to forget instantly. There is an upside. You've progressed far faster than any other pupil I've ever taught before. Yet...you must answer one question before I'll finish teaching you. Who are you?"

Arc sighed. He HATED deep moralistic questions. "I'm Arc. I was Ghast, but he died in the mines. Ghast was a thief, I am trying to redeem him."

The old man shook his head. "We don't wipe our past out that easily. You refuse to accept that you were once different."

"THAT WASN'T ME!"

The old man sighed and said, "Think. If you hadn't become a thief, where would you be? You would still be cooped in that inn, being a slave, or you would be dead. You would never have backstabbed, outwitted, and scared the hundred nobles you have, and for it they would never have rethought their safes. They would still be being ripped off by new goons. You would never have gone to the mines and changed. You would never have come here, met Blyr. You would never have met me, and then helped take down those many Magitek. You wouldn't have done many things, met many people. If you want a face, think about it like this. If you had never been such a backstabbing underhanded little scheming bastard, you would never have met Carolina."

Arc flinched.

"Aw, you love her, don't you?"

Arc raised his head and shot a glare at his sensei that could burn a hole clean through Ciaran's entire palace. "Forgive me for being like every other worthless freak on the planet, and thinking about what if."

The sensei sighed and said, "If Ghast is truly dead, then why is Arc here? He can redeem someone who's no longer existant, and seems to never have been, he can only redeem himself."

"SHUT UP!" Arc flung a knife at him, which his sensei effortlessly caught.

"Our lives are not plates which can be washed off and redone at will. We are given our meal, but we decide how we will deal with it. You refuse to accept that you are Ghast. You have changed, but you're still Ghast. That will never be erased. Accept it now."

Arc could feel tears starting to sting his eyes. "You'll...never understand."

"I can understand your will is weakened by denial, and that's why you steal so much. Your abilities are a tool. Not a way of life. That's all I can tell you until you learn to accept."

He tossed a pair of Tanto like swords before Arc and said, "When those blades break, you had better be ready to accept." Then he stalked off into the shadows.

OOC: Brilliant. I sense an epiphany in the future.

Marche kept his eyes open as they walked back. He didn't want to be caught off guard again like just now. And he certainly didn't want anyone to sneak up on Miss Kairi and himself as easily as that thief had...

I never like lying. Blyr sat on a branch on a tree, above the camp. He kept a part of mind concentrating some geomantic power into the branch, as it would likely snap under hi weight if he didn't.

I just wanted them to get some rest, I don't think sleep will come to me for a while. He pondered what the dragoon taught. I'd best practice a little bit, perhaps using my nunchaku routine with the staff. He stood, and pulled it out of it's holding strap on his back.

"Let's begin." Blyr said to himself. He entered into a pseudo-meditative state of mind, blocking out everything in his senses besides him, the branch, and his staff.

To and fro, he twirled it, switching hands, above his head, behind the back, with such speed that a constsant *woosh* sound could be heard. The full moon clearly illuminated hi from his perch, but he didn't know (or care) if anyone was watching.

The staff would have probably fell out of his grasp, but it felt very familiar to him, as if it was once his a long time ago. He could easily feel the spirits of the forest swirling around him, as if in some spiritual wind, more so than using any other means of previous meditation.

And thus he continued into the night, not caring if anyone saw him, as nothing would distract him from his training.

Ripel and Redael stood side by side in front of the small group they have gathered. Only those who felt could be trusted be here, which only meant his old friends, his new ally, the person who had saved him, and her companion.

Deamon was out making sure everyone was getting ready to leave, partly because they needed to leave soon and partly because Redael still didn't trust the man completely.

"This," Ripel began, motioning Dezil forward, "Is Dezil. You might recognize him as the commander of the N'Revat troops sent to destroy us, or rather, me today.

"Now before you do anything, know he's going to help us from here on out. Any questions?"

Kairi raised an eyebrow when Dezil was introduced, "One question, how do we know we can trust him. If I remember correctly, he was inches away from burning you to a charcoal, and now we're all friends or something?" She bit her lower lip, "Something just doesn't sit right with that."

Ciaran toyed with his new pendant, which replaced his crown, as he walked down a hallway, heading toward the workshop. The most devilish idea had entered his mind as he had waited for the jeweler to finish his pendant. An anti-life field. He figured it would work on the same idea as the A-M fields, but with a death materia as it's main component, as opposed to reflect. He only had to find out if it was possible and order the work to be done.

As he entered many of the engineers turned toward him, but, as that engineers rarely knew much of social graces, they neglected to bow or do anything else of that nature. Ciaran didn't mind, however. He liked the engineers, as he had liked the late Dezil. They gave him power and made his life easier... and, with the exception of Dezil, they rarely had the foresight and vision to see how their inventions could be misused. It could even be said that they were his favorite subjects, despite their less than reverant nature. A smirk grew across his face and he walked over to a man by the name of Glam, who had taken over for Dezil when the master engineer was presumed dead.

"You there... Glam, isn't it?" Ciaran asked in a personable and friendly manner. His good mood was showing, he just hoped he wouldn't hear anything to ruin it.

Glam nodded and stuttered a bit... he was nervous. Not only was he not used to being addressed by the ruler of his country directly, but he was afraid that Ciaran may have discovered his part in helping Dezil escape. "Y... yes, s... sir?"

Ciaran chuckled a bit at the man's nervous behavior and crossed his arms behind his back. "I'd like to discuss an idea with you... I was wondering if it would be possible to alter the antimagic fields to accept any materia and create a field with it?"

Glam thought for a few minutes and then nodded, letting out a little sigh of relief as he realized the emperor only wished to talk shop... although he was a bit confused. He hadn't realized that Ciaran cared at all for magitek engineering. "Well... Yes... it should be... although it would take some work..."

Ciaran's smirk turned into a full out smile as he received his answer. "Good... create one that can make a field with the death materia. Inform me when it's done."

A thinly veiled expression of horror spread across Glam's face. Even he, with his lack of vision, was able to see how horrible a death field would be, but he knew, as Dezil knew before him, that if he refused to comply with Ciaran's orders he would be lucky to receive only death. The engineer nodded and mumbled, "Y.. yes sir..."

Ciaran smirked. "You have two weeks." He realized that the man may try to put it off continually, in hopes that he could get away without doing it all, and so the emperor gave him a deadline. He assumed the work wouldn't take long, as he had seen Dezil's abilities. Besides... he wanted to see it as soon as possible.

Glam nodded and Ciaran picked up an apple out of one of the engineer's open lunches, and walked out of the room whistling happily to himself and munching on the ill-gotten fruit.

Dezil said, "I nearly made a mistake. I felt that if I could just take out these few probelms for Ciaran, maybe the situation would change, but I knew deep down that it wouldn't. He has ruined what the N'Revat once were, and has corrupted it into a thing of sin and greed. The only way that will ever change is if he is stopped once and for all. I also just gave Ripel the largest weakness in the Magitek Anti-Magic Fields, and in the future that will definitly help to wipe them out. I may not trust me if I was in your position, but I can assure you my intentions are genuine."

(OOC: He was evil before but... stealing his minion's fruit from his lunch? Now that's just barbaric. heheh.)

"Hm." Kairi looked skeptically at Dezil, "I suppose we can give you a chance, but just know if you double cross us, you won't get far before I catch up and introduce you to the sharp end of my partisan."

(OOC: She's so kind... a real people person.)

It was at that moment that Arc walked into the tent.

He pointed a finger at Dezil and yelled, "AAH! EVIL MAGITEK MAN! KILL HIM!"

Then tackled him.

ooc-Actually, Ripel considers Ark and Carolina his friends. They're there, since they were part (unknowingly) part of Ciaran's scheme.

Ripel nodded, then sighed. He closed his eyes, but it could be told he knew what they were doing. "Look...I trusted Ciaran. In exchange for my life and the lives of my comrades I was to kill the king. I knew he would break his word sooner or later, and attack us, but...I was hoping for some time to prepare. I believed that, after I was ready I could go back and fix things I had done wrong.

"Unfortunately, he went back on his word sooner than I thought. He hadn't even released General Clique like he promised, and just after a week's time he decided to 'take care' of the only other one who knows for sure what had happened to the king. Me. It was partly my fault the village was assaulted.

"I have no choice but to trust this fellow now. Without his help...

"Look, we need him. That's that."