The Castle (IC) [M] {04}

[Boog]

Jeremiah was alive, but out cold. Even unconscious he flinched away from the cold of Mel's touch, and murmured something incoherent. Judging by the way his eyes were moving behind their lids, he was dreaming.

[Cogidubnus]

 As Catastrophe reached the apex of its swing, Keaton suddenly cried out and clutched her hands, reflexively bringing them close to her body and hissing. The mace tumbled end over end, hitting the ground with a resounding ring before settling at the Jackal succubus's feet.

Cog lowered his hand, his eyes soft, and without a growl or preamble began walking towards Keaton, mumbling low under his breath.
"...angels of rain and thunder, hear! The skies a blade, the storm an edge..." he murmured, keeping his eyes carefully on Keaton and Sal behind her. He couldn't kill Keaton, and probably couldn't kill Sal without killing Keaton. That left nonleathal options. He had moments before one of the two made a move. Less, probably.

"The skies, they are ashen and sober." Cog finished, standing stock still, and tapped the ground with his sword tip. Blue, crackling energy flowed up from the ground and into the sword, and with a flick of his wrist, Cog suddenly -moved-.
Within the span of a moment, Cog was suddenly there, right in front of Keaton, and before she could bring her hands or focus herself enough to attack the wolf Cog touched the Jackal, the succubus suddenly going rigid.
Cog held on to her as he fed electricity into Keaton, all the muscles in her body contracting simultaneously.

It wasn't quite enough amperage to hurt the Jackal, as long as he didn't keep it up for more than...well. More than ten or so seconds, but...it should be enough to break the hold the mindspider had on the Jackal. Ignoring Sal for the moment, Cog reached around Keaton's neck, searching for the damn arachnid...

[Prof B Hunnydew]

A sad Fae cat also coming to Jeremiah side.  "Mel, I fear the Frog may live, but Kefete is losing her battle for her own mind.  Is there nothing we can do to help her."  

Bam turns places her hands on both sides of Kefete face and looks into the cat's eyes...  

"Kefete Are you there? " asks Bam as she pours light magic into the fallen feline.  Bam hoped the girl can hear her, and the light magic would help drive the mean spirit out of Ketefe.  Still, Bam looked at the Feline as she felt herself in control again, but for how long?.

PBH

[Stygian]

The next moment, Stygian was there, out of the shadows as always. Keaton was shaking in Cog's grip, Sal was standing, tense and on edge, looking between the jackal, wolf and tigress. And then up, at Stygian. He glared at her, eyes narrowing.
   The spider reached out and grabbed Cog, bending his grip off of Keaton and using her furious strength to push both him and the jackal apart. At the exact same time, Stygian threw out his hand. A black rush shot between them and hit Sal head, and threw her straight back, smashing her unconscious against the wall and then dissipating.
   She knew, the bitch, Stygian thought, already pacing past Cog and crouching down to free Rynkura. 'This is getting out of hand. Is she down there?' he asked, moving his hand over the web and sending razor-sharp, acidic tendrils of darkness out all over the tigress' form, freeing her from the web as quickly as he could. 'Cog! Get Keaton and guard Sal! We will aid Aisha.' They would be lucky to find that their foe hadn't brought more reinforcements with him.

- -

Swerving to the side, the demon struck out, and a green blast of energy ripped through the incoming lashes of fire. Aisha closed the distance between them with rage-driven speed and struck at him with full power, but the man dodged with an upward kick that she only barely managed to avoid and then spun, coming at her again with his sword trailing green smoke.
   '¡Su familia no era nada! Le creamos!' he growled at her, and pressed her back so hard she flew again. '¡Y que la madre lamentable suya tuvo suerte de tener un fragmento de nuestra sangre!' He opened his palm toward her, green flames flickering. She barely had time to make a rolling flip before the burst of dark magic blasted the floor where she had been black, bounding off the stone and hitting a wall with a series of ripping sounds.
   The panther snorted and walked against her slowly, his sword falling to his side. 'Not to mention that idiot father of yours. Had it not been for him I would have considered the disgrace to our family settled once your mother was dead. But he just wouldn't stop, the scumbag. And then he had help.' He suddenly grinned again. 'If it weren't for that the bastard probably wouldn't even have been able to touch us. As it was...'
   Slowly, the demon lifted the edge of his right sleeve, until his entire arm came into view. A large, reddish scar, smooth but jagged and ugly wrapped around the upper part of his rock-like bicep. It was plain to see what had happened. How he had managed to make the arm grow back was a mystery.
   'A little present your dad left me. I didn't get to take his arm as payment, so I promised him I'd take yours instead,' he said, voice full of hatred. Slowly, he raised his sword at her. 'I'm not about to go back on my promise.'

[lucas marcone]

Ian was left griping air. "Whuzzat?" He looked around the room with a puzzled face.

[Sunblink]

Halfway through the moment Catastrophe was about to reach Rynkura's vulnerable frame, something unexpectedly stung at her mind's insides and something forced her to instinctually cry out and her formerly vehement grip on the mace's elongated pommel to waver. Catastrophe was released from her spasming fingers as she clutched and wrung at her wrist, making a Herculean effort to wring some sort of reaction out from her frozen arm. Gritting her teeth, she opened her eyes and snarled at the wretched wolf, the fire issuing in the center of her eye-stone blazing. He was walking towards her, devoid of apprehension or contempt, something which normally would've jolted Sal's control on her and created a lapse in her resolve, but the possession was stronger this time, and she had no reaction other than an infuriated roar.

Cogidubnus was chanting under his breath, making the spider affixed to her neck squeal in agony. As though her bones were petrified, she couldn't bring herself to move. The wolf's efforts were working, up until Sal had launched herself at him and severing the connection. Keaton pulled back defensively, just as Sal was simultaneously thrown against the wall and knocked unconscious by a flare of dark energy, one Keaton, even in her delusion, clearly recognized.

Looking in horror at the fallen spider, Keaton glared back and forth between the incapacitated Sal and Stygian, then shrieked out a curse, "You BASTARDS!" Feet moved into motion as she broke the paralysis, Keaton scooping up Catastrophe and running at Cog. "You wanna play, bitches?! YOU WANNA FUCKING PLAY!?!" Then she flung herself at Cogidubnus, swinging Catastrophe back and sweeping it at his body, hoping to send him flying with a surge of dark magic and brute force combined. It was now too risky to use the shadows when Stygian was in the room, but at least he was distracted. Once the wolf was down, she could focus her efforts on Stygian.

If she died, that was of no concern to her. If they didn't kill her on the spot that would be their mistake. At least she would've died for something useful.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Gareeku]

Listening to the Panther speak, Gareeku could feel the anger within him continue to rise. What he said...the way he said it...it brought back memories to when he fought the demons who had brutally murdered his father. The anger began to turn to hate; hate for the bastard who had taken everything away from someone he deeply cared for. His fangs bared in an angry snarl, the wolf's knuckles began to ache from gripping the hilt of his sword so hard.

It was then, however, that Rynkura appeared, her white fur making her shine like a beacon of light in the surrounding darkness. Gareeku would not have much time to dwell on this, however, as he was suddenly upon by the panther's monstrous guard dogs. It would seem that the battle had begun.

Grunting loudly as he was thrown to the side by one of the dogs, the wolf warrior then readjusted himself in mid air, the shimmering blade of his katana revealing itself as he removed the weapon from it's sheath. Landing on his feet, the wolf would be ready for the assaulting creatures, holding his blade in a defensive position. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Aisha had also begun to fight. Rynkura, however, was being prevented from aiding her student in battle. It looked like it was just Aisha and Gareeku for the time being.

Then, he saw it. Looking on with widened eyes, Gareeku watched in horror as Aisha was sent tumbling over the stairs; a three story drop.
"No...NO!" the wolf cried out, completely forgetting about the canine creatures as he started to run to where she had fallen from. "AISHA!"
However, he would be soon stopped in his tracks before he made it to the edge. Feeling a sharp pain in his back, Gareeku cried out as he was suddenly flung backwards. It seemed that one of the canine creatures had grabbed hold of him in it's teeth, before throwing him back. After cry of pain soon followed, as the wolf landed hard against a wall, before falling to his hands and knees on the floor.

Again the canines approached, stalking their downed prey, their razor sharp, dagger-like fangs, dripping with their saliva in an almost hungry-like fashion, beared in sinister snarls as they drew nearer to the down wolf.
"Two against one seems hardly fair..." the wolf muttered in a low, growling voice, his eyes closed as he coughed slightly from the blow to the wall. "But then neither is what I am going to do to...I will make you suffer!"
Climbing to his feet as he picked up his sword, Gareeku glared at the two canines in a snarl of anger and hatred. "If you want me...come and get me!"

[Aisha deCabre]

As the fight continued, Aisha barely listened to his words.  They were nothing to her but distractions, serving to try to break down her defense.  She had been trained against that, too.  Swerving away as the panther demon came at her again, throwing dark magic strikes against her, she didn't take her eyes at all away from her enemy.  The panthress was pumped, energized, flowing with hatred, ready and able to dodge most anything thrown at her with the agility of any feline.

But of course, he was feline too.  They were matched in natural speed, he having more in natural strength and firepower.  Yet there was no room in Aisha's mind for doubt.  The fires of the holy blade still outlined her form, the amulet protecting her from the heat that would otherwise consume her skin.  Whether or not she'd live, she was still determined to paint the floor with his blood...

"Mi familia eran MAS honorable que suyo (My family was more honorable than yours)!" Aisha growled back as she righted herself from being pushed away, barely dodging the dark blast that had literally ripped against a portion of the stone wall.  She stood watching as he came for her, one arm out to the side as she crouched defensively, like she was using it for balance.  Her face was contorted into a fearsome grimace.

As she watched the demonstration of his arm, the scar across the base making her eyes widen, she stood up straight and uttered a short, dark laugh.  "My arm, huh.  Maybe there was a good reason for him to have done that, demonio."  The fingers on the hand that was outstretched began to curl, claws easily seen unsheathed.  Her voice was a venomous growl.  "Instead of a limb, he should have taken out of you whatever passes for a heart."

And that's when she made a quick slashing motion with her arm, and instantaneously the boomerang, which had still been in the air, came down on command and slashed at the flesh he had exposed, before disappearing again in one fluid movement.  The light magic energy that had been imbued within gave it a blinding glow.

"You'll get my arm if you can pry it from my dead body.  And also..." another downward motion, from the other side, against his other shoulder.  SLASH, and gone.  It was hard to tell where the boomerang was going to come from again.

Her eyes narrowed as his previous words processed into her mind.  Her body was quivering with untold amounts of anger that rose from it.  Between each word of her next sentence, her hand cut through the air from several different directions...and at its command the boomerang came just as quickly, disappeared, and came again, perhaps shaving off a portion of air, and sometimes actually hitting the flesh.  "Beast.  Liar.  Murderer.  Don't.  Ever.  Call.  My.  Mother.  One.  Of.  You.  AGAIN!"

And then she made one last slashing motion downward, aiming the lightning-fast sawblade, aiming to embed it in his spine.  And while it descended, she came at him again, her quick movements rushing in a zigzag pattern before she spun quickly on one foot and had the flaming blade rush against the hand that held his sword, hoping to slice it off or dislodge it from his grip...

*     *     *

Rynkura was struggling against the webbing that pinned her too the floor, trying to use her conjured dart spell to release the strands while a battle went on around her.  She couldn't reach the blade on her back, so it would do, but all too slowly.  Before she knew it, the tigress was staring up at a repossessed Keaton, who was coming for her with her mace in hand, ready to slam it down.

Were it not for Cogidubnus, Rynkura would have had to resort to her most drastic of measures...the last thing she wanted was to hurt the jackal.  But the way things were going, it was almost impossible that anyone wouldn't be hurt.  Sal suddenly then rushed the silver wolf, hoping to separate the struggle between him and the succubus.  It was too hard for Rynkura to get free...she could release her wings if she could just reach the jewel-embedded sleeves on her upper arms...

And then came Stygian out into the hall, in one effortless sweep sending the arachnoid flying off.  The tigress sighed with relief as he proceeded to cut away her bonds.  "Thank you, Sebastian.  Yes, Asal sent himself and Aisha over the edge," she said, trying to keep her voice from that frantic tone while she stood up, brushing the webbing off, and quickly turning toward the stairwell.

She won't die.

[Stygian]

The slash tore open another gash under the scar on Asal's arm, but his flesh seemed hard and tough enough that it only pierced the skin and made a shallow cut, a flesh wound. The demon snarled and grabbed his arm, then spat some vile curse at her and bobbed on his feet, weaving between her attacks with practiced fluidity. He watched her with fiery intensity, waiting for the crucial moment...
   She spun, a fiery whiplash heading for him as she sent her blade around, and that was all he needed. That close, she was in ideal range. The demon swept his hand out and down, and before Aisha's attack could land, a spherical shockwave of green energy and distorting air blasted out from him, smattering against the floor and hitting her head-on. She felt as the air was pushed right out of her and her skin stung as if for an instant glowing hot needles had passed in a ripple over it. Then she hit the floor again, hard.
   Asal stood in place for a few moments, his open palm trembling slightly, directed down toward the floor. Then, his eyes narrowed, and he moved.
   It was it must have looked like when she activated her amulet. The other panther dashed toward her in a blur, so fast she had no time to dodge. His foot hit her in the side, hard, and she flew slightly off the floor before she landed and scraped along it in the direction of one of the many corridors emanating out from the stairwell. Her legs buckling under her, she couldn't get up quickly at all. And then he sped into her again, grabbing her and shoving his fist into her stomach and pushing her along a good bit before throwing her down the corridor.
   'I can't believe it. You have her blood, our blood, and you're still this weak!' His distorted snarl was distant in her throbbing ears. She lay half a dozen meters or so down the corridor from him. In the dark corridor he seemed to tower over her, a green-eyed statue come to life, a reaper with a venomous blade. Slowly, he paced against her. She tried bringing up her sword, but his boot sent it clattering along the floor.
   'No right, no power and no hope,' he said, his words like the sentence of a judge, his eyes flaring down at her from his almost entirely shadowed face. 'Just a pitiful being without a prayer.'

- -

Standing up, Stygian looked down at the end of the corridor. Even as he did, Gareeku was fighting the horrid shadow-hounds, trying to hold his own but only succeeding moderately. A swift grab, and he was hurled back, trapped with the two approaching things between him and the others.
   Quick thoughts. The wolf-things seemed to walk in slow motion for a second, a second that was much too long. Gareeku could use light magic, couldn't he? But exposing oneself to one hound while another came in from the flank...
   Stygian's bare claws nearly dug into the hard floor as he sprinted, dark wings flaring behind his pallid, almost glowing form. He ran right for the thing closest to him, and just hoped that Gareeku would target the other.
   'Gareeku!' he roared. 'Light!'

[Gareeku]

Waiting for the shadow-hounds to attack, Gareeku then spotted something out of the corner of his eye; Sebastian. Hearing his words, the wolf said nothing, only resheathing his sword. As soon as he did so, white flames burst in life and enveloped his hands, shining brightly against the forboding darkness that surrounded him. Then, with a roar, Gareeku raised his hands up above his head, before bringing them down again, slamming them palms down onto the ground. As soon as his hands touched the floor, spectacular waves of light magic roared up from the ground like huge waves, looking to engulf the shadow-hound nearest him.

[lucas marcone]

"Mel," Ian said just noticing Jerimaiah was down "What happened to Mr. brainypants here?" Ian carefully picked up the frog and carried him to a couch. "Here ya go man, better than the floor."

[Aisha deCabre]

As she was freed, Rynkura had turned to the stairway...but she didn't approach it.  Something--a notion, or a sense--kept her from her instinct on wanting to help Aisha.  She knew that the panthress wouldn't forgive anyone who'd take the battle away from her.  The honor was hers to win back.  It was what Luc would have expected from one of his descendants, the healer assented to herself.

She was shaken out of her thoughts, however, as a great flash of light caught the corner of her eye.  Gareeku was doing a job dispatching of the dog beasts with an awe-inspiring burst of light, with Stygian having rushed to help.  That left the battle going on in the other side.  Sal was out of commission at the moment, leaving Keaton facing the wolf.  Rynkura wasn't about to stand on the sidelines any more than she had been.

As Keaton's attention set on the assault toward Cogidubnus, a blast of light suddenly surged toward her hands...nearly blasting Catastrophe from her grip, the magic went around the jackal's wrists like a pair of cuffs, halting her arm's movements.  Rynkura's hands were glowing, her fist clenched as she tried to hold the succubus at bay with the magic restraints, which were crackling with the slightest bit of electricity.  "I'll try to hold her, get the spider!" she shouted toward the silvery canid.

*     *     *

As soon as his blast of magic slammed into her midsection, Aisha was inwardly cursing herself.  As she flew through the air, her mind was reeling, trembling with the frustration that her mind tried to expel while the pain dissipated through the fire that healed her body of the dark magic sting.  She was fast.  Resourceful.  But...it...wasn't...enough!  How is it that I can barely touch him?!

The panther felt her magic grip on the boomerang weaken, and could hear the audible clang as it was let glow and out of her reach, falling to the ground.  And soon, she was about to feel the impact of the floor.  She skidded and tried to stand...then all she could see was a blur as his fist found her aching stomach.  The impact almost caused her to vomit, it was so strong...and before she could register it, she ended up on her back with a grunt.  Too fast...too damn fast!  I have to...

Then the flames around her body ceased as the holy blade was knocked straight from her grip...and suddenly the pain from each blow that she had received came thundering back.  Her head throbbed, ears ached, stomach bruised...only the adrenaline still coursing like a river through her body kept the pain from making a faltering impact on her mind.

His words cut through as sharp and poisonous as the blade he carried, seething and drilling.  But it only made her anger rise.  She had their blood, he said.  No power.  No hope.

Pitiful being.

She looked up at his looming form, eyes like green pinpricks of light in the enveloping darkness.  The memories surged back.  Her heart raced.  That night...

She drew the last weapon that was hiding on her belt as he stood, the magic-resistant Dragonblade held in a grip strong enough to turn her knuckles white, and came to her feet.  "Shut up!  Just shut up with the lies!" Aisha roared...and then her voice quieted to a hiss.  "I'm not one of you, and I'm not weak.  I've spent my life killing all of you to earn my honor."

Her crimson eyes seemed to flare, the pupils in her eyes small compared to the red that surrounded them.  She unlatched the cape from around her neck, letting it fall to the floor so the fabric wouldn't hinder her.  The look was fearsome, hate-crazed, enough to send any other demon into a shred of doubt that she could manipulate.  That doubt was always their death.  Always.  She took her shaking hand and gripped the amulet.

"I am the RISEN!"

And then, suddenly with a dark bluish blur, Aisha wasn't there...she was behind him, having leaped into the air, the blade coming down toward his neck with the speed and force of a guillotine...

[Stygian]

The dark corridor erupted into flaring light as Gareeku smashed his hands into the ground, and a shockwave of ripping white tore up against the dark, hound-like creatures. Stygian couldn't stop immediately, but threw his hands up and his wings before his face to shield himself from the light that scorched and reflected off hundreds of shiny surfaces. The blast was less fierce than the one Mel had discharged, but lasted longer and tore one of the hounds almost into nothingness, the other staggering back as its front end writhed and seethed. Neither of the two beasts had the chance to attack again. Stygian had skidded down on the floor, but once the light was gone he had the perfect opportunity and no problem of repeating the process with the dark thing he had encountered previously. He sped over and laid his alabaster fingers on the nearest monster, and with pained barks and howls the thing disintegrated, its darkness and the lingering shadowy puddle of the other hound drawn to him.
   Again, the bat sank down and shuddered. But there was little for him to catch his breath. Grunting and pushing himself up, he broke off at a run again, leaving the others behind before he leaped off down the stairwell, sailing over the railing and flipping over forward. In an impossible leap he hit the massive marble floor at the bottom hard and stood shakily, turning around, searching. In moments, he saw them.
   'Aisha!' He cried out and ran for the corridor.

A flash. There was no other way to describe it. A spinning blur, a whirlwind of blades and magic. The demon spun, ducking low to the floor and sliding backward, his blade fending off Aisha's. Sparks flew as the swords met, again and again, the two dancing around each other, faster and faster, driven by adrenaline and hate. Faster than Aisha had ever fought before.
   Aisha heard a shout, and then a white and black shape was hurtling toward them. Neither Aisha nor Asal seemed to pay Stygian any heed, but the demon certainly noticed. Backing up, he smashed Aisha's blade way off with a burst of strength, and bought time to get away, kicking her back against the wall. Snapping his head around, he looked at Stygian, nearing them terribly fast, then at Aisha. And then he snorted. The demon grabbed her, shoving her in front of him and toward the end of the corridor. She managed to get in another slash at him before he punched her again, and she flew far back. With her out of the way, the demon raised his sword high, green light enveloping the weapon, and then slammed it down into the floor. A shudder like an explosion shook the corridor as green flames erupted and Asal ran back. Far too late, Stygian stopped, throwing his wings before him, then turning, his breath quick and his knees weak, shape blurring as he tried phasing back along the shadows of the hallway. Then, with a rumble like a splintering cliff, the roof came down over him and the walls broke, tumbling in and burying the bat in stone.
   Dust and mortar blew out in a gray cloud against Aisha from what little was left of the hallway. Only the whisper of the tiny particles on the floor was heard. Then, a shadow formed amid the cloud, and she heard slow footsteps. A towering, dark form was approaching her, calm as a serpent who has already poisoned his kill.
   'It doesn't matter what you say, girl.' His voice was dark and echoing among the pillairs of the hall they were now in, amber light reflecting from candles but his shadowy form somehow defying the light. His wings were spread now, she saw, back to their true shape, and his green eyes glowed in the dark as he approached. 'You are of our blood, a part of my weakling brother's legacy. And you are a stain on our honor that must be removed.' There was something in his hand now, something sharp and longer even than those horrible, black claws. He twirled it between his fingers as he walked over against her. 'You have killed us. Your father killed us. Your grandmother abandoned us and your mother spat on us. And for what?' he hissed. 'What do you think you have accomplished, other than destroy and steal? Did you think you were doing any good by demolishing our power, however dark it may be?' He scoffed, an almost rhythmic sound accompanied by his footsteps. '"The end does not justify the means". Isn't that what you people always say?'
   It seemed like forever, in that bathing, orange light. But it was still much too quick. In a moment he was upon her, and she felt his heavy shape as he knelt down, pressing his knee into her midsection. Pain flared up, like a hot blade pressed into her side. At least one of her ribs was broken and poking into her lung. She had trouble feeling her legs and she was bleeding from the mouth. Her eyes blurred, so she probably had a concussion as well. But she could still not take them off his face, that vile, ivory snarl of a grin and those horrid, green eyes.
   She heard a rip and felt every bruise on her body as he shredded the arm of her jacket and ripped out the buttons, simply tearing the cloth into pieces around her and then grabbing her arms, pushing her down under him. The shadows of his wings seemed to obscure the very world.
   'This is the end that you have pursued. You wish to know? Very well then. I will answer your questions. And I hope that they will bring you pain!'

[Sunblink]

As Keaton attempted to bring down Catastrophe onto Cogidubnus's body in the midst of her catapulting charge, she barely noticed the flash of light which ignited out of the very corners of her peripheral vision up until the moment it rocketed toward her, ensnaring her wrists and holding them together like a set of ethereal shackles. Startled by this sudden fettering, Keaton's gaze darted to and fro, hands insistently clutching Catastrophe, refusing to release it even as she pulled and strained against the empyreal cuffs, feeling their lightning coalesce along her skin. Somehow, it didn't hurt, but whether or not this was her numbness or the actual effect of the spell was unknown to her.

No. No. She couldn't--she couldn't give in. Even when trapped, she couldn't give in. Snarling, Keaton's fists gripped Catastrophe's pommel, purple-red lightning surging along its ornately-designed length. Crawling downward, the writhing bands of electricity thrashed upon their golden counterpart, attempting to wrap around the cuffs entirely and smother them, but being driven back every time. Keaton concentrated, purple smoking from the flaming core of her eye-stone, reflective of the black energy which started to mingle with the light.

Hopefully--just hopefully--she could channel enough dark magic to combat the spell. Just hopefully. She just had to remain calm. She had to focus.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog struggled to wrap his hand around the shaking Jackal's neck, his fingers -just- closing on the arachnid's body when another cold, chitinous hand grabbed his wrist. He looked up from Keaton's neck to stare straight at Sal's face, the larger arachnid suddenly pulled and pushing the wolf and jackal apart.

Sal was far stronger than she looked. Despite the wolf's own struggles, and the eletricity that still coursed through his hands, the spider managed to practically make Cog stumble backwards in but a moment, pushing them apart quite easily. Cog cursed, and tightened his grip on his sword. He'd hoped to free Keaton first, but if the spider really wanted his attention right then...

With starling speed Cog flung his sword over his head and tilted it, the curve it made almost a flowing, watery opaque for a moment as the reflective metal obscured the air and with a silver arc. Cog tightned his grip, the work of a fraction of a second, and aimed his strike, the edge planned to stop right above Keaton's shoulder.

Before he could strike, however, a stream of darkness flashed between Cog and the Jackal. The velvet-smooth tendril of darkness snaked past them and into the spider, slamming Sal into the wall and knocking the arachnid unconscious. Sebastain's crouched form knelt near the spider, cursing, and the bat moved quickly to free Rynkura. Cog lowed his sword, and nodded his head as Sebastian spoke.
"Cog! Get Keaton and guard Sal! We will aid Aisha!"

Guard?, Cog thought, his face souring somewhat at the suggestion. He sighed, swallowing his apprehension, and nodded at the bat. The bat had his reasons for wanting Sal alive - Cog would be damned if he walked ahead of her again, however. Sebastian had Rynkura freed shortly, and Cog turned his attention back to Keaton.

His eyes widened, the sight of a mace looming in his vision.
At some point between being incapacitated and her sudden freedom at the hands of Sal, Keaton had managed to recover, scoop up her mace, and fire a very well-aimed swing at the wolf. Fire danced in Keaton's eyes, and very real flames glowered out of one of them, Cog noticed. The wolf narrowed his eyes and turned on his heels, backpedaling and slamming both hands into the hilt of his blade as he tried to get something between him and the massive, bludgeoning mace.

And then, Keaton stopped, nearly dropping the mace altogether as he wrists suddenly slammed together. Although she managed not to drop the huge weapon, such a position was very awkward for holding something like Catastrophe, and the jackal was struggling to keep the mace in her hands. She seemed almost fixed on it.
Cog narrowed his eyes.

His sword returned to his side in the blink of an eye, sheathing the blade with the almost instantaneous skill of a Iaidoka swordsman, and sliding up almost next to the Jackal he grabbed at the haft of her mace and her wrists, pushing up on the mace's end and pulling down on her hands.
Predictably, Keaton would not let go, and was forced into falling down and forwards, Catastrophe's hilt moving farther and farther down and away, the Jackal's hands dragged by Cog's manipulations.

The phrase was true - wherever the head goes, the body goes also, but the reverse can also be true. Wherever the body goes, the head must also go, and down and forward went Keaton's head. As it dipped past Cog the wolf dropped the mace and grabbed at the Jackal's neck, his hands instantly finding the little parasitic arachnid's body, and wrapping his fingers around it he incanted a short, three-syllable incantation. Power flowed through his hands, enough to cook flesh, and the mindspider deflated under his electricity-imbued hands.

He pulled on it gently, all resistance having left the thing, and pried it off Keaton's neck. Dropping it to the floor and letting go of Keaton, he gave it a single stomp before looking back up at the Jackal.
"Keats?"

[Aisha deCabre]

The moves were quick...so quick.  Blow for blow, step for step, Aisha's blade met Asal's with too much ferocity to be dizzy from the blinding clash...the naked eye would have only picked out blurs, growls, and flashes of steel.  She too was dodging and parrying at every step, eyes burning with such ferocity...she showed no sign of giving up, nor he any sign of weakness.  Resilient and determined, the panthress was going to have her retribution.  It was no longer a fight for vengeance.  It was for one's very honor.  Straight on to death.

And then at one point, Aisha thought she had caught her name shouted...she couldn't make out the voice, though for just a split second she tried.  That distraction was what would cost her.  Before she knew it, the Dragonblade had been flung out of her grip...and she the other way to land hard against the far wall.  "UGH!" she grunted, expelling so much air that it was hard to take a breath afterward as she slumped to her knees.

Trying to get up only earned her another fist to the ribs...having been flung like a ragdoll across the corridor, her claw slash having hit...but only in vain, the simple action of a feline scorned.  She slammed into the floor, her nerves now nearly shocked into submission and all senses nearly obscured.  All but her hearing.

What she thought she felt and heard was the world collapsing...

*     *     *

As Keaton struggled against her magic restraints, trying to forge a resistance from the mace she still held onto, Rynkura only kept up the magic as strongly as she could to fend it off.  Cogidubnus heeded her instructions with swiftness, taking the mace that was in her grip and using it to help lever her hands...and thus her body and neck...into his reach.  A moment, and the spider was flung to the floor near their feet, dead and all control of its host lost.  It was then the tigress let go of the spell, freeing Keaton's wrists, the electricity dissipating altogether.

The tiger hadn't time to speak, however.  Just before, she had spotted the bat flinging himself over the edge of the stairway.  The tigress cast him an incredulous look, wondering what in the world he was doing.  And it hit her.  There was only one thing downstairs.

The battles were finished on their floor.  There was only one thing left to do, and Rynkura couldn't disagree any longer...and there was no time to think of caution even for her nature.  The tigress left her staff leaning on the wall and deactivated the spell that was on the enchanted jewels over her sleeves.  There was a slight flash.  And then, with a flare of two immense white and bold-black striped feathered wings, she took one step over the railing and another over the side...and dropped headlong after him.

The floors fell away one by one as the tigress descended with impressive flight speed...but she wasn't nearly as fast as Stygian fell, and he was ahead...and thus, it was too late when she arrived.  The ground at her feet was shaking.  She ran.  And found the roof coming apart as if at the seams, right upon Stygian, before she could help.  "Gods..." she muttered, as if in a desperate plea.  Things had fallen apart, literally.

And what came as worse...Aisha and the demon were nowhere in sight.  "Dammit.  DAMMIT!" she cursed loudly.

*     *     *

Aisha could barely see through the dust blown towards her as the pieces stopped falling.  She tried to get up, only to fall down again by sheer exhaustion trying to take over her body.  Couldn't run, couldn't move.  The adrenaline rush was now trying to recede, leaving her exhausted.  The panthress heard the destruction...surely the demon was caught in it...?

...No such luck.  Her heart raced again as his form crept across the corridor at her, a predator whose prey only needed finishing off.  She gazed up at that form, claws unsheathing again with unbattered rage...her body quivering with a sudden, breathing and crawling too real fear... the light didn't even fall on him.  Just like it didn't when she saw him through the fires that consumed their home.  His gaze was the same murderous one that he had given her father.  His demonic wings were now outstretched, and he carried a knife in one hand.  No guess what he planned to do with it.

But still, as he talked...her mind reeled.  What he said couldn't have been true...that she had the blood of a demon, that he who stood before her was related to her...there was a sudden onrush of sickness.  Aisha shook her head fiercely and bared her teeth, spitting at him in defiance, her voice now ragged and malformed...but strong and unwavering.  "We destroyed you because you destroyed us!  You destroy lives!  There is a right to fight ba--ACK!"

Her sentence was cut short.  His knee suddenly jammed into her midsection, causing her to cough large droplets of blood, and pinned her back to the ground.  Her bound fury went unheeded and unused, the girl rendered helpless.

"I don't want your answers!" she screamed.  "I want your death!"  But it was useless.  Her weapons gone, arms bound to the floor, shirt ripped, and his knife poised...she couldn't stop the flow of tears from coming.  Her eyes closed...and she saw the memory as vividly as always.

Her father, his heart having been ripped from his very body by this creature and lying in a puddle of blood.  His vivid green gaze turning to her next.  She ran in fear, thinking...believing that she'd be next.  And now she was going to be.  Twelve years later, her preparation was for nothing.  She was as nothing.  Her honor decimated...

No.  NO!

Something overtook her mind right then.  The horrid memory kept playing back.  Over and over again until the cords snapped.  Unbound energy took her.  The pain was gone, even the recent, searing pain that caught the nerves in the base of one arm.  Only the burning remained...the burning that surged through her blood, reached into the hand that she still felt, and made her entire body just FLASH...!

"Get...OFF!" Her voice roared, empowered like nothing before.  The sudden burning freed her arm from Asal's grip, just long enough to push his chest and send him careening back with an intense, blazing, searing comet of red fire.  The intensity of it masked the glow her eyes took, encompassing even her pupils.

And past the fire, suddenly, in one last effort of unmatched speed, she had her holy blade back from where it had dropped in the corridor...seeking to impale it through the demon's body.

The flash that followed was immense, so much so that it could very carefully be seen as a deep orange glow that lit up the stairwell.

Whether the blade hit or not, she couldn't feel...but as the fires died down, her eyes started to glaze over...she glanced down to see the bleeding stump that was all that was left of her right arm.  "Bastard took it after all..." she murmured.  And then, she fell, the sword falling from her other hand's grip...

Everything faded to black.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Okay  Ah Ian Can you help me get the frog on a sofa and we need to get Ketefe on one, too.  I think.. Mel, If you can heal Jeremiah.   I will see what we need to do and make this room secure.  Stygain will need somewhere to fall back to once he rescues Aisha and the others." says Bambi.

Gina and Bam help non-reactive Ketefe to sit and lounge on a love seat on one wall.  After Bam repairs the broken door from the vixen's attack with a wood mending spell,  she goes to check the "Back" door to the Hall.

"Who is there?"asks Bam as she looks at some ripple of black against the dark... She goes to close this door..

PBH

[Sunblink]

In the midst of her frenzied struggling and her quickly-escalating sense of agonizing panic, Keaton barely noticed the presence of Cogidubnus smoothly lurking behind her until he was carefully anchoring her body backwards, manipulating her position to his advantage so he could snatch up the exposed and vulnerable spider and vaporize it. During this maneuver she had briefly struggled, but how he orchestrated her body and the restraints keeping her hands fettered, combined with the additional pressure of the energy she was investing in combating the light energy, had minimized her efforts to just some uncomfortable squirming and snarling.

Then the spider was gone, its presence swept off of her neck and quickly demolished. In that flickering instant, its corrupted influence had been pried off of Keaton's polluted mind, its devilish roots snaking away and disintegrating on the spot, crumbling into ashes. The light shackling her wrists was gone, as was the only support keeping Keaton's body suspended. Unceremoniously, the slumping, delirious-looking jackal hit the floor in an uncomfortable-looking heap, Catastrophe clattering nearby.

Instantaneous to that impact, the delirium-inflicted jackal was startled out of her stupor, her body thrashing back upright at the moment Rynkura had grown wings and was rushing past her, leaving her to rigidly register the fact that she was, ironically, an Angel, and for her to recollect herself. Initially, she didn't understand anything that was going on, post-possession weariness having gripped her. Disheveled-looking, the jackal's still slightly-hazed eyes stared up at Cogidubnus, the glow in her left eye having died down to its normal, harmonious flow, while her brown eye resumed its chocolate sheen, although considerably more fogged than before.

"Cog?" Keaton asked, voice slurred. "Wha's goin... wha..."

Then the resounding thunder of the roaring of the hellhounds caught Keaton's hearing. Using her feet, she propelled herself backwards, snatching up Catastrophe and holding it in a defensive angle before her. "FUCK! FUCKFUCKFUCK!" Keaton shrieked, then her eyes, as they skittered rapidly from event to event occurring in the room, landed on the unconscious form of Sal, and everything clicked. All those memories came flying back.

Again.

It had happened again.

Keaton would've screamed. She would've cried. She would've absolutely torn everything in that room to pieces, if they weren't in the middle of the crisis. But that didn't stop her pupil from dilating and her teeth from sinking into her lower lip again, tearing back open the once-congealed wound and dividing a rivulet of red down her thoroughly-matted chin, spilling like the water she wanted to release in her mad-looking eyes. Again, fire mushroomed in the heart of her eye-stone, and it looked like she was about to go berserk again, but no such thing happened.

Instead, she lowered Catastrophe in a dejected gesture and looked over to where Rynkura had escaped. Where the hell was she going, anyway? Why did she look so--

Aisha.

It all clicked.

Fuck.

"FUCK!" Keaton screamed. She ran for the edge of the stairway, abandoning all her agony for that moment as she ungracefully scrambled her way to the banister, which she grasped with her free hand. Eyes wide, she stared down at the abyss below them, struggling to make out everything. Certainly her new eye could penetrate through the darkness, but distance hindered the shapes she saw below. Cursing fitfully in a rapid mantra, Keaton looked back and forth, then proceeded to work her way around, hoping to find her way down.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel felt a great discharge of magic, magic that didn't feel like the stuff currently permeating the building. Bam was bustling about and bossing everyone. And the dragon was at the end of her patience. The castle was literally going to hell and she was not going to be kept safe like a pet. She had endured a lifetime of protection. "Ketefe is regaining control since the succubus died, give the bracer time. There is nothing physical wrong with Jeremiah, give him a minute to wake up." The dragon walked to the door Bam was messing with. "You are a fae, you can defend this area with help from Ian and Gina. The other two just need time, not a healer. But a healer might be needed out there. I will be back when I can." With that she took the door from Bam's hand, exited, and firmly closed it behind herself. It was easy enough to find her way to the others, Keaton was screaming obscenities.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cogidubnus stared at the jackal with a mixture of concern and sadness, his eyes catching a brief glimpse of Keaton's own eyes, her chocolate and golden irises flashing in pain and rage. The wolf sighed, averting his gaze to the ground for a moment as Keaton screamed out, and Cog took a step back. He expected the Jackal to attack the floors, or the walls, or the unconscious body of Sal slumped behind him. Something. But, although Keaton seemed as tightly strung as a piano wire, she did none of that, simply moaning out a final "FUCK!" before hefting her mace again and running for the banister behind her.
Of course. Sebastian. Rynkura. That damned green-coated panther...

Cog cursed and began to follow, stopping suddenly to turn and stare at Sal lying on the floor behind him. Sebastian's words rang through his mind, and the wolf stood still for a moment with indecision before jogging back to Sal's unmoving body. Picking up various arms in an attempt to raise the body up, Cog shook his head and finally settled on an arm, pulling up on her and managing to get the spider-woman's body raised off the marble floor, just a bit.

"Damn..." Cog murmured, buckling for a moment under Sal's weight before he managed to get it fully on both legs. She was much, much heavier than she looked. Cog cursed softly again as he began to drag her along, one of her arms slung over his shoulders and Cog's free arm holding her up by her waist.
He had to guard the spider. Didn't mean he had to stay in the same spot with her.

Unable to make such a leap as Rynkura or Sebastian had made, Cog simply made his way to the stairwell, dragging the spider along with him...

[Prof B Hunnydew]

*sigh*  Bam stops  bustling about and listen to Mel, and with *sigh*.  "Thanks, Mel... I will hold the Fort..." Bam salutes Mel, but the Dragon was already out the door.

"Remember the secret knock!" yell the fae after Mel. Bambi continues to repair the broken door and waits for the others to awake or the Bat and other warriors to return.  Standing listen to the distant sound of the battle, the fae grows worried for her friends out there.

PBH

[Stygian]

It was dark. That couldn't be right. It was never dark to him. Not that way. And he was... numb, somehow. There were parts of his body that just felt wrong. He couldn't express or understand the odd feelings of these things, partly because he felt so shook up he just wanted to fall back to sleep. The problem was, he was still in pain, and while his thoughts were jarred his memory was not. He didn't even know what was going on, didn't know whether if he would be able to do anything at all. The confusion itself should have made him pause and consider for a while. But he just knew that was not an option.
   He tried reaching out, stretching out through the dark and feeling his surroundings. For a second he couldn't, and he was truly afraid. How, when there was darkness, could he not feel? Then the sensations reached him, and he understood. Spiderwebbing cracks. Heavy, mute stone. His mind tired, just like his body. And beaten up. He was buried alive. That thought immediately made him despair. He was strong, yes. He could slide and phase through darkness. But in this situation? In this situation all his strength might just not be enough. It's like at the bottom of the ocean, or after an earthquake, he thought. And I'm broken. I'm bleeding...! He might be trapped, might be bleeding out his life even as he was thinking. He couldn't see his injuries, couldn't feel anything but blind pain. Black memories rushed through his mind, and he felt himself shiver. It might be just like...!
   He almost thrashed, but stopped himself and slowed his breathing when he felt the pain. That was not an option. He had learned to deal with pain and misery and hindrances long ago. He knew how to work with what he had. And in time that power had grown far beyond puny things like physical restraints and perceived boundaries.
   The shadow flows, he thought. And the darkness seeps. It waits, working its way forth as the light fades. The shadow is everywhere... He stretched out more, forced his mind to alertness and his darkness to spread, to take shape. He moved his arm, carefully, and felt the heavy burden shift. The darkness is, behind the light. Through air and stone and the depths of the ocean... He could feel the stone ending in front of him, feel the dark and its openness, feel the hall beyond, the currents of darkness and the smooth hardness of the pillars, the warm softness of the body on the floor...
   Aisha...
   Slowly, inch by inch, he began using his darkness, working a way out through the rubble.

The castle was labyrinthine. Apart from the main seven floors, there were expansions and outbuildings apart from the original structure, which even itself was a complicated, if beautiful layout. At least, it had been beautiful. Before darkness took the place.
   Keaton was followed closely by Mel, reaching the bottom of the stairwell in a hurry. The gaping wound of an opening before what had previously been a hallway was telltale of what had happened, and quick, receding steps down another hallway to the side gave them a direction to follow as Rynkura rushed ahead of them. Catching up with the tigress would be hard, judging from her speed. But there was little else they could do.
   They found themselves weaving and running through more hallways than seemed right. Moving only with only their general sense of direction to guide in this unfamiliar part of the Blue, they tried to keep as close to the corridor as they could, but had to go up and around, then down again before they made a turn and were going in the right direction. The tigress was just ahead of them, but it wasn't until on the last short stretch that they saw her. When her steps slowed, right in the middle of a corridor emanating out into a grand side hall. And she stopped. Someone was approaching.
   He came limping out of the darkness, his moonlight white form barely concealed by ragged strips of black clothing that blended together with the gaping, dark wounds on his body, oozing smoky darkness. His wings, furled up on his back, were as amorphous and perfect in their blackness as ever, but his form was broken almost beyond recognition. His left leg was a mangled mess, more black than white, so destroyed that he shouldn't have been able to walk on it. The left side of his torso had also been scraped up, his ivory ribs showing through the gaping wound, just as the side of his face had been worn down to the bone, his skull grinning involuntarily through his cheek and much of his scalp peeled away. He had no left arm anymore, just a torn stump. On his right arm, comparatively unharmed, was Aisha, her clothes torn and her arm, like his, a gaping wound.
   'T-take... her...' he said, stopping. His voice's cracked distortion had a slight gurgle to it. 'He's... dead... Scorched. Cinders.' He stumbled to the side and placed his back to the wall, slowly sinking down. 'Ma- make sure her arm is tied. S-she's... lost a lot of blood...' He turned his face toward them, and then smiled, a horrid sight with almost half his skull showing and those gleaming points he had for pupils.
   'You don't mind... if I sleep a bit, do you...?' he said, and closed his eyes. 'I'm a little tired...'

[Boog]

It was that same dream again. Five-No, that's not right, there's a new one...- Six people, sitting at in a casino playing some card game. A demonic bull, a severe looking undead doberman woman, a gryphon who looked as though she hadn't eaten or slept in days, a well dressed angelic lion, a grinning mongoose cubi with half his face smashed in... And the new player, a masked frog with a skin pattern of black and orange blotches who wouldn't stop laughing.
Jeremiah shuffled the cards, tugged at the collar of his too-tight dealer's suit. The one in the mask didn't really know how to play yet, but the lion and the mongoose both were assembling powerful hands. He couldn't let that work. He carefully counted and rearranged cards as he shuffled. The house always had to win. Even when the players cheated back.
Finally, the hands were called. Jeremiah pulled a hand of five cards out of his sleeve and lay them on the table. The bull, the doberman, and the gryphon all folded, and the masked man fanned out his cards on the table with a flourish. The lion looked at his hand again, briefly, and put it down. So far, his was the high one. Finally, the mongoose placed his cards on the table with a chuckle, and tentatively flipped them each up one by one. Slow rolling, the bastard.
A bong over the casino loudspeaker wiped the smirk off the mongooses face, and Jeremiah breathed a sigh of relieve as he reached out to scoop up the pot with his green, webbed hands.
"I'm sorry sir, but we're closing. The house wins. Better luck tomorrow."
"Ey..." Oh gods, that voice. A welsh-with-tuberculosis accent. A dying thing that refuses to let the living alone, "I had a winning hand." The mongoose reached out and caught Jeremiah's wrist.
"Then why didn't you show it?"
"Oh yeah, smartass? You pathetic little whelp, just look at it," Bal's hand darted away to flip that last card.

--

Jeremiah's eyes snapped open. He was lying on a couch, in the hall... What had happened? His head...
"Wh-whuttappened?"

[Sunblink]

As though she couldn't bear being close to Cogidubnus or any of the people she believed she had betrayed again, Keaton kept a rapid pace at the head of the group, unaware of the fact the wolf had delayed in order to scoop up the unconscious body of Sal. In her shock, Keaton hadn't even the opportunity to throw herself at the spider and try to rip her limb from limb.

No matter how much preparation Keaton was brewing during their steady descent into the gaping maw of the abyss, somehow, she had the feeling that no matter how much she braced herself nothing would ever fully anticipate her for the hideous results. In a once frequently-neglected and spontaneous corner of her mind which had bloated over the duration of her stay in the Castle, Keaton was plagued repeatedly with rapidly increasing, droning voices, spawning from intermittent pockets and spaces seated throughout her brain, each one horrific, each one reminding her how much of an impairment she was.

Just a dead limb that needed to be amputated. At first it would be painful, but if it remained it would infect, and fester, and need to be destroyed.

Little did she know how eerily reflective that comparison was. By the time she skidded down the last of the stairs and onto the floor where Stygian and Aisha were, she had almost convinced herself that she was thoroughly prepared for what she was about to see. This had instantly shattered the moment she saw the maimed and mutilated Stygian sway to his ragged feet, his remaining, decomposing hand keeping the body of Aisha aloft.

A body which, garbed in torn clothing, was clearly missing one arm. At first glance, Keaton thought she was dead, but another stare confirmed that she was still alive. Damaged, but alive.

Keaton felt something inside of her break.

Everyone else was catching up. At this point Keaton felt her fingers go terribly stiff, her face perpetually frozen in an expression of blood-caked guilt, a cold contrast to the pallidness of her skin and the rigidness of her muscles. That same dead rigidness petrified her insides, turning her organs to stone and blood to ice, leaving them frozen in their veins. Stygian was leaning his head against the wall, looking as though he was going to collapse at any minute, and take Aisha with him.

She couldn't even articulate the amount of guilt she felt with a profanity. It was as though her lips had been sealed shut. So instead of speaking, Keaton acted, moving without her full permission towards the injured bat.

Keaton sheathed Catastrophe in the holster strapped to her back, and carefully took Aisha in her arms. Lower-body muscles rippled for a moment, pain stabbed furiously at her insides as retribution for daring to try to summon her tentacles when they weren't completely recovered, but ultimately, she was able to conjure up a set of tentacles to help carry Aisha's body with some amount of dignity. Not to mention the felid was taller than her, so she needed more physical assistance and couldn't request it from anyone else. It was of no consequence, as ostensibly it didn't affect her.

Worse things were hurting her.

"I'll take her," Keaton said in a voice which was very much unlike her normal one, turning away from Stygian.

Rigidly, she walked to Mel with the unconscious Aisha in her arms, keeping her body fully supported with the relatively stable lengths of the tentacles from her midsection. Once she reached Mel she indicated Aisha's body the best she could with her nestled in her arms, her expression and countenance ice cold.

"Heal her." It was said bluntly, not as a demand, not as a request, but just as a statement.

And then her mind formulated a plan.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel quickly caught sight of the yellow flash that was Keaton, and lost her almost as quickly as the jackal dashed down the stairs. Gareeku and Cog were there but the urgency of Keaton's movements caused Mel to follow her. Their descent was rapid, at a dash aided by the winged species lack of fear of falling. At the bottom Mel caught sight of Ryn running further ahead. With her lack of knowledge of what had gone on Mel could only obey her instincts and keep up with the marathon run.

So it was with shock that the dragon saw the horribly battered Stygian emerge from the darkness with the crushed panther in his arms. She took the moment that Keaton rescued Aisha from the slowly collapsing Stygian to shove her questions to the back of her mind and bring all her healing knowledge to the fore. Ryn was a more skilled healer but she wanted to spare the tiger as much as she could. When Keaton handed the dismayingly broken body to her Mel adjusted her size upward again, to the eight feet maximum where she could still walk upright. This enabled her to gently cradle Aisha rather than use a tighter hold against broken bones.

Moving quickly Mel applied a tourniquet spell to Aisha's arm, unknowingly a similar spell to the handcuff spell Rynkura had used earlier. There was barely enough blood left in the feline to keep her heart pumping. The dragon took the pendant off her own neck, the hated but useful reminder of her childhood. She laid the filigree and ruby item on Aisha's chest, it was very good at keeping oxygen levels up in the blood.

She turned to the tiger angel, "You seem to know your way around. Where is the nearest bed?"

[Aisha deCabre]

Rynkura was almost frozen after witnessing what she had seen...the flash that illuminated the whole of the hall that she was in, the flare of absolute power flowing through everything...and finally the ominous, heart-rending smell of burned flesh, even through the engrossing and nasal-irritating presence of dust from the collapse.  The Angel fanned her wings out to get rid of that scent, but she couldn't get rid of the ashen smell of the dead.

Aisha...no...  Rynkura felt like staying there, sobbing.  Her student...the girl who was like a daughter to her, dead...it was unimaginable.  One passage was blocked off by the quiet rubble.  Her feet started flying, a speedy move made almost literal by her wings.  She had to find a way around...!

It was too hard.  The castle was a labyrinth, its beauty marred by the darkness that consumed it.  Rynkura banned all thoughts of leaving the castle just yet, that she had before.  It was a mission now, after witnessing all of this.  To help stop it.  On the way, she could hear the others catching up with her...it was Mel and Keaton.  The tigress kept up a good pace with the jackal, now freed and herself once more.

And when they finally stopped, their eyes came upon the figure...no, figures that emerged from the darkness.  The pale white figure that she recognized as Sebastian, even when he appeared so injured and marred to the extent that rivaled anything that an Undead would look...and the there was the one cradled delicately on his working arm.

At first, Rynkura had to clench her teeth to keep from uttering a cry.  Aisha looked no more like a disheveled and beaten heap of black fur...much like she had found her as a child.  But her ears perked at Stygian's words, just slightly, despite the somber atmosphere.  Asal was dead...the flash hadn't come from him...

And that could only have meant...

There was a slow smile on her face, hidden by a slight tear.  So you've done it.  Finally.  She looked at the flowing blood that was left of her right arm.  And have paid as spectacular a price.

It was Keaton, surprisingly, who stepped forth first and offered to take Aisha from him.  The succubus, as delicately as she could manage, carried the panthress to where Mel stood.  She cast a hopeful smile at the dragon.  A good choice...Rynkura couldn't do the entire healing job alone, not without a chance of killing her.

"Thank you for retrieving her, Sebastian, many thanks," the tigress said in a solemn voice to the bat, who was now just wanting to rest, himself.  She hummed thoughtfully and stood near Mel, watching the panther with still disbelief.

Alive...barely, but alive...her vengeance served.  A day to be remarked upon, whenever she awoke.  But her ear turned to Mel, followed by her eyes as she asked her question.

"I..." she started, shaking her head slightly.  "Mh, well she can't stay here.  This place is still far too dangerous.  I say we can curb her bleeding here.  And then I can perhaps carry her back upstairs, a well-guarded bedroom," the old Healer offered in a soft voice.  "High is the best place, and quickly..."  At this, her wings rested about her shoulders like a sort of feathered cape.  "I've flown her while injured before...I can do it again," she assured.

[Sunblink]

After Aisha's body was passed into Mel's custody, Keaton unabashedly drew away, staring numbly at the shadows splayed and spiderwebbed across the floor. Under the darkened atmosphere and extinguished lights they were more plentiful than ever, making it an ample source of nests for demons and other manner of abominable monstrosities. Not that she was an expert at the habits of such hellish entities, but it seemed logical, in her mind, that they would be attracted to dark, shadow-suffused areas. Remaining distant, Keaton turned silently away from Rynkura and Mel, at first partially because she didn't want to look at the tigress's expression, but also because she noticed that the tattered alabaster frame that was Stygian was still slumped against the wall.

Still keeping quiet, Keaton walked over to him, inspecting her surroundings. As far as she could tell there were no remaining creatures to vanquish. Good enough for her. No competition. She edged over to Stygian, observing his injuries in full. Skin had been peeled and shed away to reveal the tainted muscle and enamel bones beneath on several parts of Stygian's body, and his leg was mangled beyond superficial repair. Assuming that she could still heal him after the transition of dark energy they had made earlier, Keaton let her hands surge with pulsating, jagged sparks of red and purple energy.

"Hey. Hey Sebastian," Keaton said, voice as cold as her face. She set her hands close to the lacerated flesh of Stygian's ribcage, feeling it was most prudent to start there. Reacting to her commands, the shadows surrounding Keaton began to writhe and form a wide, thorned nest around her, tendrils of wispy darkness shrouding her hands as she carefully attempted to weave together the flesh. "You... don't.... don't fall asleep, okay? Don't... just... stay. Stay awake. I--you're gonna be okay."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

 Although those below him were probably far too distracted to notice, a slow, rhythmic thump echoed down the staircase and into the hallways below, one dull thud followed by another as Cogidubnus dragged Sal down the stairs along with him, the spider's torso striking the marble stairs with each step they took. Cog was the last one to make it down the stairs, the heavy spider-woman slowing his progress dramatically.

As Cog finally made it all the way down the stairwell, he forced himself to move quicker, pumping his legs to a trot as he hauled Sal down the hall with him. He absently blew a strand of hair out of his eyes as he ran, his breath low and muttering with curses.

As he rounded a corner he saw Mel, transformed almost eight feet tall into her dragon form and seemingly bent over something in front of her. He dragged Sal the rest of the way down the hall, bending over and setting the spider down as he finally sidled up next to Mel. Blood covered the ground around them, and as he rose Cog blanched, his face falling as he stared at the form Mel cradled.

"Aisha..." Cog murmured, his voice pained. His face twisted a moment, the wolf closing his eyes and looking at the ground. He sighed, a forlorn, despairing sound. His face suddenly hardened, the wolf sparing a look at the spider behind him, and then back at the panthress laying in Mel's arms. He raised his hands, as if to touch her, and then dropped them, instead turning to Rynkura. "I'm sorry." Cog said softly.

That damned spider.

They shouldn't have let her go. Cog shouldn't have stopped Keaton from killing her, shouldn't have turned his back on the spider. Should have made Sebastian blow her brains out in the hall. Maybe then Aisha might...

Sebastian.

Cog's gaze fell on the bat, and the wolf's hardened demeanor broke instantly, brushing past the healer to run for the torn bat. Cog's face twisted with sorrow - the bat...he looked almost dead! He looked...
"Da-dammit! Sebastian..."

[Stygian]

The darkness drew inward, melting and making Keaton's sensation of it tingle even as it touched the bat's black flesh, seeping into it and becoming part of it. The contrast between black and pallid white was deceptive and strange to their eyes. Keaton could almost swear she felt the glow, right through the darkness, as if it were entwined with it. It was and odd feeling, to say the least.
   A shiver shook the bat, and he drew a quick, ragged breath and arced his back, teeth gritting in pain, yet his eyes remained closed. It was only after he sunk back down that Keaton noticed his hand holding her wrist. Mumbling, the bat's voice rose just a bit between his black teeth. 'Oscurum est undique... Occupo...' He went still again, for so long it almost seemed as if he had truly drifted off. Then he drew another breath, and spoke again.
   'Help me stand...' he said. His lips didn't move, and his voice was faint, but clear. 'We must go...'

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel almost objected to handing Aisha over. All this changing of hands was not good for the  internal damage the panther had sustained. But one look at the tigress and she saw in her eyes that the woman needed the comfort of holding her student. With a nod she passed the limp body over and gestured for her to lead the way.

Out of the corner of her eye she was relieved to see Cog and Keaton helping Stygian to stand.