(OOC: time for me to get back into the story... ^^;; )

Kairi rode along the way with her new chocobo who had saved her from the battle earlier. She was starting to lose faith that she was going to find them. She wondered how Marche and the others were doing.

Lost in her thoughts, she almost missed the figure, wounded on the ground. Kairi jumped off of her chocobo and ran to the person, a girl, lying in a pool of her own blood.

"Dammit, what I wouldn't give for a white mage about now... or an Elixer...." She focused on any first aid she knew, then got to work.

Before long, the girl had her arm wrapped, and a few other home-made bandages on her. She had gotten enough treatment that she had a chance at living. "Alright, now we need to get you to a medic of some sort..." Kairi said as she put the girl on the chocobo and walked along beside, leading the chocobo, "...But first I need to find a town of some sort."
She really didn't want to abandone her task of looking for the others, but this girl needed her help, and she hoped that if she could find a town to help the girl, she might be able to find a hint to where the others have gone.

Peace. It surrounded him, seemed to encompase him. Light flowed around him, almost hypnotically. It wasn't harsh on his eyes, nor did it cast any shadows. With a yawn that showed he'd slept well, Ark stood up. He stretched his shoulders out, and flexed his wrists, as well as his wings.

Wait.

Wings?

Ark's perception snapped dangerously back into focus. He was exactly in the middle of nowhere, with only a gate behind him, and a man behind a podium in front of him.

The man was sheathed in pure white, with glowing wings coming from his back.

"Finally, you wake up. No clue what is with these damn new people and their insistence on trying to be dead."

Hands instinctively went for weapons. Weapons that were not there. Ark flinched, and backed away.

"Where the hell am I!?"

"Poor choice of words lad. Might just get you sent there."

"What is going on!? What happened!?"

The man walked around the podium and said, "Harsh tidbit of news here. You're dead. Very dead in fact."

Ark closed his eyes, trying to find some reason, any reason to not believe this guy. Then the memories hit him. They hit him hard.

The first of the demons came at him. Both swords were freed almost instantaneously, and he flipped over it, stabbing it three times as he did so.

It didn't die. It only seemed pissed.

"RUN!" Ark yelled at the nearby knot of children as he dodged its attack, letting it and a companion slam heads together before he did his best to ginsu one. No luck there either.

It snapped at him, and he flipped, and drove both blades into the base of it's neck. That dropped it flat. He freed both blades and cleanly severed a head that was coming at him before dropping, spinning, and cutting off a pair of legs.

Then the big one came. It was huge, shivering with black energy. Right then and there, somehow, Ark knew he was going to die. He dodged a massive overhand blow, and shredded the wrist before he had to dodge.

Then dodge again. And again. Ark realized his entire style, his entire nature was now being told it was useless. There was nowhere to hide now. Nowhere to run. No underhanded tricks to pull, nothing to steal. Nothing to do but grit his teeth and try to force his way through.

He caught a fleeting image of Blyr starting to turn towards him and yelled, "NO! I'LL SAVE MYSELF THIS TIME!"

Then the demons were in the way again. Ark whirled about, blades flashing.

Then both blades shattered. Ark abruptly stopped. He looked at the broken remains and recalled what he'd been told. The blades were broken. Was he ready to accept.

He barely noted the fist arcing towards him, slowly to him. He was Ghast. He was a coward, a scoundrel, a weak-willed pest. He'd tried to change who he was, to be noble, honest, and to help.

The reality of all of his darker qualities came crashing down on him all at once. He was ready to accept.

But he never could. By the time that the realization of who he was finished, Ark was no more.

Ark shook his head. That couldn't be right. That....he couldn't be dead.

The man shook his head and went behidn the podium and started reading from a scroll. "Wow...long list here of fellonies. Deceit, greed, many many others. Got some redeemin' ones he-"

He heard a click and looked back up. The gate back to earth was open. Ark was gone.

"Oh bloody hell."
I heard that,

***

Almost hypnotically, Ark sighed. He was away from where he'd died. He still had wings. But they were now a shade of grey, and he was back in black. And he noted one other thing. There was now a long curved katana in his hand.

The edges were white, the rest of the blade was a blue, and glowing yellow runes rested on it.

"Great. Dead and back again in the same day. Trying to redeem my life, close up loose ends. And the world is most likely going to be destroyed in the process."

He walked in a direction that felt right. "Morals are a bitch."

OOC: Demons never fought or chased... (Edit) Of course, that will probably be ignored so you can do your little wing thing and glowy sword...

A small falcon flies down in front of Kairi's face and squeaks, then flies right back off into the sky, looping widely around and into the forest trees. Seconds later, Naras emerges on his own chocobo, with Jiju coming out from behind him and landing on his shoulder. At first he waves to her, happy to have finally found this missing member of his party after looking for her for so long. "Hello, Kair--"

But he pauses and stares at Cassie's limp body when he sees it slumped over her chocobo. He hops down from his mount quickly and hurries over, asking, "What happened to her?"

(( *killing several birds with one stone* ^^; ))

Kairi was relieved to see Naras, her hope for finding the group restored. She glanced back at the limp body of the girl she had found, "I'm not sure what happened, I was traveling and I found her passed out in a pool of her own blood... I think she'll be alright for now, but we need to find a white mage for her... How far are we from everyone else?"

"Not too far; about half-day's walk," He says, walking over and stroking the girl's wounds gently. "Let's see..."

He reaches into his coat pockets and removes a flask of red fluid, then removes the cork and pours it over her slowly, carefully drenching all of her effected areas. The potion dissolves into her body, giving off a pale blue healing glow and sparkles of white magic dots that circle her and spiral to the ground. Finally, the potion finishes its work and disappears softly. He steps back and places the empty bottle back into his sack, looking her over from head to toe and inspecting her fully healed wounds.

Cassie groggily opened her eyes to find some guy staring at her. She also realized that she was on a Chocobo as she fell off. "What happened? Where am I?" She said as she inspected her now healed wounds. "I was on my way to the next town and blacked out...oh yea!" She got up, a little too fast for her liking, but at least she wasn't bleeding to death. "We have to go to Peros. A giant Death Field was released and almost the entire city was dessimated. Can you help me?"

Kairi glanced over at Naras, "If that's where the rest of my group is, we would be more than happy to help you get there." She sighed, noticing the girl was still rather weak, "But you should rest before we do any major traveling."

(OOC: I'm sort of in charge of Marche now too, so I'm going to just say he's helping out with everyone else, worried about Kairi)

After a few moments of relatively silent travel the small group arrived at the library. Upon entering the large room, with it's domed ceiling and walls lined with books and tables laden with books, even bookshelves throughout the room. A few scholars were sitting milling about the room, studying the principalities of this, or the laws of that. Ciaran waved a hand at them non-chalantly and they all exited the room, taking whatever texts they were working on with them. Once the group was alone in the room, Ciaran walked directly over to one of the walls, gesturing everyone to gather around him. Once they were all near him he pushed a completely normal looking stone. As the stone moved the sound of relatively ancient magitek could be heard powering up in the walls, and a few moments later the floor beneath them trembled a bit and then glided downward. A magitek elevator.
The machine sped downward, fast enough that the small group could feel wind whipping up around their bodies, causing their clothes and hair to flutter up. Ciaran simply stood with his hands crossed behind his back until the elevator reached the bottom level. Ciaran then led everyone from the elevator stone, and it headed back up to hide the entrance once again.

"I found this by having one of the mages enchant a rat so that they could see through it's eyes, and then having it follow the king... unfortunately, the king found out about the mage's indiscretion, and had the poor man killed. He never knew my part in it, however."

(OOC: Translation, "I had a mage spy on the king, and when I knew what I needed, I turned the mage in myself." Shhhh)

Naras steps back forward and removes another potion from his robes. "Yes, you are tired...but, this should help if you insist on leaving now."

(( Super Ultra Turbo Caffeinated Generic Chocolate Energy Drink! GUARANTEED to make you into a hyper, bouncing bunny in no time flat! =D ))

He turns around and heads back for his chocobo, talking to Kairi on the way. "They are close to Preos. We saw the dome from afar, and one of the bandits, Blyr, and Dezil went in to inspect it. The rest of us made camp, while I went out to search for you."