Broken (CVU Semi-Open Event)

It didn't matter where it began, what mattered was why. Sahi's mind had been toyed with much as everyone else's had during the events of another world concept, some called it HU. Time Siphon memories and minds were infinitely complex and exceptionally fragile...the arrogance of toying with it would be paid for with blood. Sahi's ability to contain her inner animal degraded into utter non existence and the deep, dark part of the Time Siphon psyche took hold. Her drives changed, her ability to perceive the world changed. Gone were her cares, her motives...replaced with Preservation, Hunger and Fear...in that order. The Animal Sahi had only one natural opponent on Earth...her daughter.

Sahi landed in a town somewhere in Germany and was about to begin feasting on the cattle that called it home, cattle with the audacity to name their species Humanity. As if cattle had any right to name themselves at all. Pandorika appeared in front of her, her temporal blades in both hands but neither activated. "Mother, you can't. Come with me, we'll find a way to fix the dam..." Her speech was cut off with a contemptuous wave of the hand and Pandorika's defenses kicked into high gear. Both women stood across the street from each other, hands extended one towards the other and for a moment it seemed as if nothing was occurring. Citizens of the town gathered in curiosity, some filming with their phones.

Suddenly, it began. It was faint at first, little ripples in the air like what you see in the height of summer when it's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk...then it expanded...fast. Soon it seemed as if reality itself was warping and twisting between the two Time Siphons, the air buckled and rippled, the ground between them cracked and flowed like water and people began to ease back in fear. As the air rippled, thunder cracked and time and space bent as two great wills sought to twist time against the other, one to kill and the other in self defense. Such were Time Siphon fights and as it continued visible cracks materialized through the air, as if the fabric of reality itself were beginning to tear...because it was.

The video soon went viral.

Pandorika looked from side to side, biting her lip as she concentrated, she could feel her mother's overwhelming power, the raw ability of an unleashed Time Siphon was too much for the girl to hold off forever. She would fail long before reality did. Risking a slip of concentration she flicked her right wrist, tapping into The Force and hurling a car straight for her mother from off to the left. When Sahi turned to defend herself the damage to reality ceased and Pandorika leaped into the air, engaging the anti-gravity motors of her Temporal Armor. Sahi soon followed and their battle continued.

The battle of wills degraded to a battle of blades as they flew. Temporal Blades clashed again and again, time distortions left in their wake with every impact and Pandorika's superior skills with a blade held her blood lusted mother at bay, for now. It was all she could do to try and direct the combat away from populated areas, she took it over the Mediterranean and caught her mother's temporal blade in the v of her twin blades combined. With a twist she wrenched the weapon from her hand and sent the deactivated handle plummeting to the sea below.

Temporal power once more met temporal power in repeated and rapid fire clashes as Sahi tried to penetrate her defenses. Pandorika's mind raced for solutions, she wasn't yet as powerful as her mother and with Sahi essentially little more than a predator, events became increasingly difficult to control and contain. She knew what had to be done, the only way to repair the damage was to force Sahi to regenerate...but so far...Come on...think...think!

Sahi crashed into her, their hands locked in desperate embrace and their eyes met. It tore at Pandorika's heart to see the pain and hunger in her mother's eyes and for a moment, she very nearly lost her focus. Temporal distortions rippled the air between their locked hands. So engaged, neither of them saw the anti-aircraft missiles coming as they flew into Saudi airspace. The resulting explosion tore mother and daughter apart, sending them both racing to the ground at break neck speeds. Sahi altered her flight path with a few last moment adjustments and Pandorika did what she could but she was far less experienced with flight.

Sahi slammed into the ground on the outskirts of Mecca, her armor cracked and spider webbed from the impact. Pandorika crashed through the outside wall of a building, tore through several floors and exploded out the other side. She hit the ground like a comet, bounced and rolled. Already weak from the fight and emotionally strained...Pandorika lost consciousness, most of her armor in shards behind her.

Sahi stood, ignored the unconscious Time Siphon and went for the nearest targets without preamble...the crowd that had gathered to see what had happened. Everyone within a thirty foot radius of Sahi cried out in agony almost as one, their bodies withered away in sudden age and collapsed into piles of dust as she fed on their time. Sahi tore her plasma pistol from its holster and opened fire on those that had been outside of the radius. As they tried to run she melted their legs from their bodies with flawlessly aimed shots. Once they were rendered unable to flee, some tried to crawl...none escaped. As with everything else in human society, this event went viral. Twitter storms and video posts exploded across social media as Sahi renewed her attack, moving casually through the city and murdering anyone unfortunate enough to come within thirty feet without even a gesture.

The news media picked up on the social media panicstorm and posted the news across the world. The Unity feed picked up on events next and Xae had the system alert all members to the ongoing event, classified Time Siphon Incursion Level Three. With the alert came a stream of data on Sahi, her known powers and a psyche profile that indicated these events were out of character, even for the chaotic daughter of the Time Siphon known as Raeyn.

Meanwhile Sahi was confronted by woefully unprepared police officers. A hail of bullets disintegrated long before they could reach her, cars melted under plasma assault and police officers died screaming as she advanced nonchalantly on their position, a god among mortals...a predator among cattle. Sahi held no anger or remorse, reduced to a temporal apex predator, she cared only for the three primal instincts of her kind. Everyone she was cattle, their lives were meaningless so long as their deaths served to temporarily sate her hunger. When Sahi attacked it was without contempt, one did not feel contempt for one's food.

The first hero to respond was a fifteen year old local who's experiences would soon let her down.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you do this" She cautioned and swept her fingers over her phone. A purple 'pause' image flew from the phone at high speed and crashed against Sahi's chest...but nothing happened. Fighting a Time Siphon with time abilities was like fighting a fire with gasoline. The temporal goddess destroyed the effect before it could do anything. The quick thinking hero tried more potent means such as a stop button and finally lock images but neither had more impact than the pause symbol had.

The girl paused as Sahi advanced, looked down at her phone and frowned. She shifted her gaze to the streets and discovered a discarded phone next to a pile of ash behind Sahi, well out of her range. The girl vanished into the digital data stream and re-materialized above the other phone. She backpedaled swiftly and a few key swipes of her phone paused another wave of police cars before they could make the same mistake as the initial first responders.

Sahi turned and the girl ducked a plasma burst, spun away from another and finally dodged behind a vehicle. The vehicle vanished into a pile of rusted dust and she sprinted down an alley. She needed a moment, any moment would do. With another glance around she tapped into the other dropped phones and used them to project dozens of images of her. It would only distract a Time Siphon for a brief second...hopefully it was all she needed.

"Form of the fox!" She called on her other power set and her form altered to a fox themed suit with an associated flute. She lifted the flute to her lips and stepped into the streets again, about to use its power to craft a potent illusion and try to trap the Time Siphon in her own head.

"Aliya!" Both Time Siphon and hero paused, their attention drawn instantly to a six year old girl running towards Aliya, terrified mother close behind. Sahi smiled...it was not a good smile.

"No!" Aliya shouted in panic as she realized Sahi was instantly drawn to her younger sister.

"No...please!" She begged. "I...take...take me, you'll get my powers one day, that's how it works right?" She stepped selflessly and fearlessly between the Time Siphon and her family. Something of Sahi's memory kicked in and for just a moment there was a kernal of...something...

"Please..." Aliyah groveled. "Not them...please..."

Her family meant everything to her, everything in the whole world.

"Run." Sahi instructed the mother as she scooped her frightened six year old up in her arms. The mother watched in horror as Aliya, sweet Aliya, knelt in submission. She turned her youngest's face into her shoulder.

"You can have my life...and my powers...but you'll never take satisfaction from it." The girl said in a last moment of defiance. Sahi placed a hand on her shoulder and she was true to her word. World splitting agony rippled through her body as every cell screamed out in pain...but she made no sound, didn't even wince as her body aged...and collapsed into dust. Mother and six year old ran.

Sahi returned her attention to the civilians...

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

Oc: Rp inviting all of Unity. If anyone outside of Unity wants to participate just let me know.

@sahi_: Rayne Yggdmillennia was one of the first metahumans to arrive to be honest she was already in the German City for family business before the commotion began, naturally she would have rushed ahead as a journalist to see what was going on but there being no heroic Metahumans near by meant that she would have to hold the line for the time being. With absolute caution and stealthy maneuvers she disappeared out of sight during the panic and later reappeared under the disguise of her alter ego Enyar.

An alteration spell to summon his enchanted armor in privacy was all that was needed before he opened a mini crystal gate to retrieve his sword from, by the time Enyar was ready for combat he saw the time siphon turn a child into dust.

"Hello there"Enyar commented calmly towards the time siphon with the accent of a noble British knight then casually rested the sword he carried on his shoulder, the knights physical form remained confident and bold however he took notice on the Siphon's current displayed abilities and decided not to advance instead opted to see what other abilities the hostile had before taking action.

@sahi_: @yggdmillennia: @unitypeople

"Heads up, boys and girls, we've got a problem." As far as beginnings to a communication could go, Nathan Graie wasn't very pleased with it. That didn't stop it from being true, though. It had started out as a perfectly normal day, too. Get in to the office, have a cup of coffee while Ashley investigated the floor, skim the news sites for anything worthwhile and start collating more of Unity's database backlog. Computers handled a lot of it, and did a very good job, but Nathan and Xae were both in agreement that the system should have a human - or at least a biological being - overlooking the process.

Of course today ended up being one of those days where mundane went off the rails, and within a couple minutes of the initial broadcast going live, he had gotten in touch with the members of Unity (at least, those who were wearing their coms) and sent out the general alert.

"Time Siphons..." Most of Nathan's experience with the group was with Raeyn, but he knew the others. They were dangerous. "Avoid physical contact," he added, that seeming to be the most important thing to get out initially, "I'll send out the rest of our info manually. We're going to need support in that location as soon as possible - get the civilians out of range quickly. Youngest first. After that we'll try to talk her down if we can. I'll be online for support, and I'll see if I can acquire any additional information or support." Likely, that meant getting in touch with Raeyn herself, and Nathan wasn't sure if that was going to make things better or worse. Right now, though, they needed people on the ground before he could start worrying about extras.

Hopefully someone could get there soon. For now, he watched helplessly as a brave little girl tried to save them all, and when that didn't work, she knelt and gave her life to buy time for others by selling her own to someone who didn't deserve it. "Aliya," he echoed, the child's name. Aliya, Ashley, Alison. He turned the com off for a moment and got out of his chair, picking up his own little girl, who remained innocent of the proceedings. Nathan held her to his chest, tightly, caught up in sorrow for someone else's child. Somebody else's baby, who wouldn't be coming home tonight. Somebody else's sister, gone forever.

"Shhh..." he whispered softly to Ashley, even though she wasn't the one crying, "It's okay, baby. Daddy's got you."

She wrapped a little hand around his finger, and for a moment, he just held on tight. It was probably a good thing that he was in the computer room with Ashley. If he'd been out there, he would have found it very hard to be a hero right now.

He returned to the com, quiet, keeping Ashley on his lap, just to remind himself that she was there. He wasn't going to forget that little girl in Mecca, though. No. He imagined she'd be haunting his dreams for a long time to come. Probably longer than the few short years she'd been alive.

She couldn't have been older than Rana.

Something else to have nightmares about.

He'd calmed himself down enough that his voice was almost steady on returning. "There's another person on scene," he added, calmly, "No match yet on database, someone newish. I'll be looking for references, for now seems like they're on our side, or at least neutral. Cautiously labeled a friendly, and if anyone can get us more detail let me know."

He'd just have to hope the silver knight didn't tarnish too quickly.

@sahi_: @yggdmillennia: @bladebrave:

"Extracting civilians from the area as much as possible." Which for Gaige was a rather easy task. With twenty drones to take to the skies and her own mech and a gross abundance of ammunition it was easy to drop people into slipspace and move them away from the fight scene. Meanwhile with her history of fighting for victimized gods, for the French during wars, for Japan in a fight against oni, for Noc Haven when under take over, for Gothic, for Washington, Sierra Leone, and remaining a presence even after the events, Lizzy had a trust from the people. Some hated her still, in the unpredictable nature of heroes and grand sized battles she had made mistakes. There was a trust however in the pilot to try and look out for the people. So arriving in an instant and able to move at mach speeds between one point and the next the pilot would seek to clear the area. To many had fallen already by the siphon and with such an opposition there wasn't time to spare.

Meanwhile Rana would take to the scene she didn't consider herself a member of Unity really. She was an ally though, helped them a few times and was the daughter of the best man in that organization. Least she sure as hell thought so. Course he probably wasn't going to be to happy with her being here she had to be though. After what the siphon had done to a sister how could she not? Given the need to extract people it seemed to her like someone like herself and Landon should be in the fight so that Lizzy and one of the speedsters of Unity could take action for the people. They needed time to extract civilians and taking someones sister away from someone before Rana's mixed colored eyes was enough to make blood boil. Then there was just the abstract nature of Siphon's they were a complicated opponent with an even more complicated changing move set. Different tactics seemed like the go to solution then just brute force.

The motorcycle sped down the road, sound of a devil in an engine as it tore down the road the sixteen year old raced toward a building at a breakneck pace. She takes a stand on the bike and thinks of her boyfriend and with that the gusts of hell back her movements. A leap off the bike tossing helmet as well swallowed by the portal to the damned place Rana knew all to well. Wind helps cushion the landing and maintain speed strong gusts allowing her to run and jump to the roof of the building with little difficulty a short cut toward the opposition. "Do we have to? After all that?" Much as Rana tried to be humble and sweet the enemy of this particular night didn't seem worthy of such an attitude. More the kind of individual you make spine belts out of, well some kind of skeletal jewelry belts were a special occasion.

Raven hair and long enough to take an hour of maintenance flowed behind her as she landed. Made about as much noise as rustling leaves as the wind about her subsided. "Rana Graie sorry have to meet in a situation bleak as this." The heterochromia hero remarked towards the knight. Her free hand briefly extending for a fist bump before her attention turned to the siphon. "Know a girl who says you helped her quite a few times save people." Her head tilted to the airborne pink mech in the distance. "Know of another one who says you're kind our untrustable monsters who only act on hunger."

"So which is it? Can we help you or are you just a glutton?" She smiled, a ruby eye flashed and behind her the air distorted and rippled. She didn't use her powers all the time wanted to be more her own champion then the instrument of hell. She had to learn how to master her abilities however and there was a poetry to the moment she rather liked. She thought of moments like thanksgiving not so long ago with friends and family and Drake and got hungry. Allowed her to tap into the circle for gluttony, at a cursory glance it looked like a series of snakes was gathering around her the size of boa constrictors. A closer look however and it was clear they were actually more like a series of multi headed worms with ravenous fangs within their odd mouths. Drool of the demons was of a stomach acid that ate at the concrete and asphalt with ease. "Sorry to say it but I'm leaning toward the latter opinions myself." Rana concluded disappointed by the fact but unable to change it, meanwhile her fingers flexed over her katana's handle, a subtle action while she tried to figure out how malleable the distortions were she made with hell. She wasn't sure if she would need it or if she could do it, but to avoid being consumed she theorized maybe she could use hell to cut off her connection from the rest of the world for brief moments.

@iridum: @yggdmillennia: @bladebrave:

Time Siphons were creatures of Show. When two heroes arrived to stop Sahi however she initially didn't respond to their presence. When she did, it was silent and sudden, without preamble. Once in only one location she was suddenly in two, burning some of her recently acquired temporal gains as she created a Temporal Duplicate betwixt the Knight and the daughter of hell. The duplicate had only seconds so it assaulted the ground beneath their feet. The pavement aged nearly instantly and fell apart, the dirt beneath it suffered a different fate. Though dirt itself didn't age, it did change over time and as she sapped it of its time in seconds, it became shifty, its stability changing as it passed through different stages of its history in heart beats, becoming an unstable and treacherous quagmire beneath their feet, hopefully leaving both of them spending their efforts regaining their footing on more solid ground.

At the same moment the original Sahi stayed where she was, unmoving as the support beams and walls of a building suddenly crumbled and with a groan the entire structure began to topple, threatening to crush the pair of heroes beneath its shifting mass. The time duplicate vanished. Confident or uncaring Sahi began to walk away even as the building was collapsing into the street. If she were successful both of her foes would be dead, if not they would confront her again. Either way the Time Siphon animal was more concerned with food than the adventures of a pair of heroes.

Sahi's temporal vision granted her three hundred and sixty degree sight and vision through solid objects. Those trying to hide in the buildings nearby should have been revealed to her in the form of their temporal lines...but someone else was acting in the area, teleporting her easy targets out of the region so she'd be left with only hard targets...building and heroes. Sahi snarled, a soul piercing sound as she paused and turned slowly back towards the falling building and pair of heroes. If the easy food was gone, she would feast on these two, if the building didn't kill them first.

All of this would have gone differently, or more likely never happened, had Human arrogance not insisted on toying with the Time Siphon's memory network. What they now dealt with was the raw animal of a Time Siphon, driven by instinct and uncaring for the world around it. Human arrogance had removed personality and aspirations, stripping the Time Siphon down to its basest instincts...there was nothing left to control it, nothing left to add drama and flare that often provided dire portents of impending assault...and nothing left to keep it from attacking whole cities without military support of its own. The heroes would have to take the good with the bad.

@yggdmillennia: @bladebrave: @sahi_:

The demon fiends looked to move beneath the feet of the two heroes who dared to fight. Looking to be stepped on so that the champions didn't sink. "Please mind your step sir." She remarked looking from her extended fist awaiting a bumping to the floor as it began to change. And with a thought the heterochromia hero swiped with her blade and along the drawn line a cerberus worm grew large enough to ride upon. It spat acid from it's mouth and shot upward a building looked to fall on them for at least Rana however it found the worm instead. it chomped and spat a volatile stomach acid looking to devour the structure as it drew near. Some of the impact couldn't be halted however, the worm eventually was crushed and debris lacerated it's figure. It impaled the crumbling structure however and it's bleeding broken maw shielded the young hero enough. Hopefully the counter force and acid enough for the other figure to find a means of escape from the fight.

Think of Drake and her gift from hell changes an ability over winds. The blitzing gusts of hell that chilled to the bone and cut like daggers. These pushed her forward and upward, rocketing through the air she twirled to adjust angle of her fall. "Weight of the damned" she muttered under her breath, a small incantation she'd worked on sense her boyfriend had taught her magic. She didn't think herself all that strong in any particular area she was however she thought versatile. This particular spell equipped her free hand with brass knuckles and a slight striking buff.

She would fall from above, a violent downward swing meant to take an arm from the body and a small cyclone of slicing winds about her figure. Her blade made of a world tree didn't care all that much about one's durability as it's edge rather left a brief tear of reality along it's edge. Be she blocked in the air or landing on her feet a follow up would come fast as the wind would carry her. A fist would launch for the gut of the opposition with ten tons of force she didn't know what her opposition could take. Rana did however trust that between that force and a gust of wind she would blow herself backwards and away from most at least physical counters.

"You don't need a body count to feed. Sahi right? Don't be the monster some think your mom to be." Attempt two in trying to talk down the terror running a muck. This didn't have to be a fight of brutality and death. There was lives taken to atone for, and apart of Rana wanted to kill the woman here and now. For the girl who'd recently lost her sister. That was just being the same kind of devil some thought Rana herself to be however. She had to at least try and give others lost a chance to be more. "Any ideas?" She inquired speaking into her communication device.

@sahi_: @iridum: @yggdmillennia:

Nathan was already filtering everything he had on Time Siphons through the Unity devices, but he had a feeling that it wasn't going to be enough, not right now. Sahi was unstable at the best of times, and he had a feeling she'd gone well beyond unstable at this point. Lizzy Leet dropped in to the area and started the process of evacuating the civilians so that casualties could be minimized. Tactically, it was exactly what she should be doing.

But it left the insane Time Siphon being engaged alone by an unknown knight, and by Nathan's sixteen-year-old daughter. He watched the data scroll a moment longer, then picked Ashley up. "Come on, little squirt, we're gonna go visit Auntie Vai."

'Auntie Vai,' who Nathan had never actually called that to her face, was one of the easiest people to find, usually being under.... well, thankfully, this time it was her motorcycle, and best not to finish that sentence. Ahem."Vai!" he announced, upon entry to her workshop. "Your mom's busy and I need to go play backup on a Situation. Keep Ashley out of trouble for me. You can give her to your mom if she's back before I am. All her stuff's in my office if you need it."

Vai herself seemed a little uncertain about being unceremoniously handed a small bundle of wiggles, but Nathan had noticed the two of them had gotten on just fine at Thanksgiving, and he firmly felt that anyone he invited to Thanksgiving dinner could be called on for emergency babysitting services every once in a while. Besides, he had no doubt Ashley would have her thoroughly charmed in about five minutes. She seemed to do that to everyone.

That situation taken care of, he grabbed a set knives and patted his pocket where the little cube Raeyn had given him rested securely. Dimensional trinket - not necessarily the best of weapons, but he had a feeling it'd be a hell of a distraction. If nothing else he could pull the "Don't make me call your mother" card. Unity's teleportation device activated and dropped him in the middle of the street in Mecca, just as Rana was executing her attack from above, closing in far too quickly, and far too closely. Dammit! I told her to stay out of range! It's not safe.

That, of course, necessitated a much sooner action than he had planned. "Hey," he announced, glaring at the crazy Time Siphon and channeling his inner Molly Weasley, "Not my daughter, you brat." Maybe that would attract enough of her attention - at least enough to give Rana a chance to get out of the way. Once she was safe, then they could figure out the finer points of tactical thinking and whether or not she was going to be grounded if she gave him a heart attack like that again.

@sahi_: @bladebrave: @iridum:

Rana's arrival was an unexpected factor for Enyar who in all honesty was not expecting another combatant to arrive on scene nevertheless he nodded his armored head towards the young girl in a respectful manner before answering her gesture for a fist bump with well one of his own albeit in a awkward delay "I am Enyar, no need to apologize lass" Enyar turned focus back to the time siphon whilst generating microscopic crystals from his body which would then be carried across the battlefield through the presently favorable wind currents. Enyar heard Rana speak of the individual infront of them and found the new knowledge to be quite interesting as well as useful for deducting what he could be expecting, of course not too long afterwards violence had broken out yet Enyar still did not take action as his present ally appeared to be more than competent enough to counter their opponents intial attack.

Rana's creatures beneath Enyar's feet supplied him with valuable stability to counteract the unstable ground however the collapsing debris from the building infront could not all be stopped by the 'worms' and so Enyar finally took manners to his own hands and raised one hand forward towards the crashing threat and cast his Alteration spell 'Feather' which momentarily enveloped the incoming debris in a pinkish hue that made the combined thousands of pounds in weight to now weigh as little as a few dozen ounces. The debris bounced off Enyar's armored form as if the Time Siphon's attack was just knocking over a small tower of styrofoam onto him, once all the materials finished rebounding off of Enyar he moved his hand towards his shoulder and nonchalantly dusted away some crushed concrete powder that was left over "Miss Rana, I do not believe this particular individual is presently capable of understanding what you have to say. If food is the motive of this individual as it seems you have implied perhaps she is stuck in a bestial state" Enyar began leisurely pacing towards the Time Siphon after making this statement when once again a new combatant arrived suddenly seemingly out of thin air who then began what seemed to warn as well as insult the dangerous threat.

"Well while the intro's have been quaint I believe that enough families have been killed today and as such we don't need to see that happen again"Enyar stated clearly and outloud in a sort of snipe to Rana and Nathan, then in a lazy manner Enyar tossed his empty hand towards the sky and snapped his fingers which signaled the command for the crystals he seeded earlier to rapidly grow. A moment later hundreds upon hundreds of meter long floating crystals suddenly appeared seemingly every where "Sahi is it?"Enyar asked rhetorically before pointing a index finger at the Time Siphon and only aiming to after Rana created some distance away from Sahi did Enyar nudge it upwards slightly to signal another command, hundreds of these floating crystals suddenly began launching towards Sahi "good bye Sahi" like ballistic projectiles they zoomed faster than the speed of sound towards their mark with each individual crystal carrying enough force to easily pierce through a meter of reinforced steel.

@yggdmillennia: @sahi_: @bladebrave: @iridum:

Oh dear God no. I recognized the woman in the footage there was no mistake we had spent an entire night together a couple of months ago right after I learned Maoli had died. This was the Artist also known as Sahi the fact that I knew her gave me pause but also the first person to reach the scene was a young woman I had met in the false world. Sahi's daughter what was her name again Pandora? Pandorika? Maybe that second one but Sahi clearly had no hesitation at beating her own child as well as that poor local heroine who stepped in and got herself killed protecting those she loved. I watched the video for a while longer hearing the alert go out through the network, then seeing Rana and some unknown hero respond to Sahi's threat. That was enough to cause me to start getting ready and putting on my armor but the moment that I heard Nathan had decided to get into the fight was when I started to panic I wanted to send the message telling him to leave he had a daughter at home who would need him but he also had one in the battle as well," Damn it, Nathan."

I didn't have time as I grabbed the final pieces I would need namely my daggers but I needed a plan Gaige's drones were on the scene and Rana while having amazing versatility due to her Eye of Hell preferred to get in close which was what Nathan would likely do too. Which left the knight the unknown factor on the field what abilities did they have? Hell if I knew I just hope the person could hold out against Sahi and whatever she would throw at us. But what was the plan? I was needed in the battle immediately but Pandorika for a moment seemed equal to Sahi before getting beaten down. With her help maybe we could offset or even nullify her time powers to give us the edge we need so I needed to ask Lizzy a favor. Now for the worst part of the job. The teleport...

I'd always wanted to come to Mecca but not to worship I was Catholic but it just would have been a nice experience to have and the circumstances didn't make this trip very good as I appeared feeling like my organs had been rearranged during teleport. But I didn't have time to throw up right now I had a job to do," Lizzy, I've just arrived on scene and I'm planning to get into the battle as soon as I can but I need to find that young alien woman who was fighting Sahi earlier we may need her help during this fight." I needed to find Pandorika quickly and see if she was going to be able to help us in the fight against her mother if not Gaige would need to get her out of here so we could deal with the crisis. It wouldn't take long just following the path of destruction until I came across a hole in the road with the young woman inside. Well no time to waste as I jumped inside and landed next to Pandorika," Pandorika can you hear me?" I snapped my fingers and waved my hand in front of her face seeing if she was awake." Hey, you may not remember me but that doesn't matter at the moment. How are you feeling? Can you fight? Because if so we are going to need your help to stop your mother. Come on I'll help you stand up." I held out my hand waiting to see if she would take it and manage to help us if not well Lizzy would get her out of here. No matter what happened next I would run towards the battle and join in the fight hoping to prevent my friends from getting hurt from the monster Sahi had become.

The battle wasn't far but it was just about as brutal and ferocious as I thought it would be I could see Sahi currently engaged with the Knight and Rana but also soon to be Nathan. But I needed to make sure she wouldn't go after Nathan either," Sahi!!!" Maybe she was to far gone now to care but maybe she would considering our history. Now I needed to attack before she could manage to hurt anyone else or me for that matter so the best option would likely be to dehydrate and I would track her using the water in her body in she did some kind of weird timey whimey thing. Now to apply the pressure as I began to manipulate the water in her body hopefully tearing it out without much of a problem leaving the beautiful woman shriveled but not dying.

@orange_water:@yggdmillennia: @sahi_: @bladebrave: @iridum:

Battle Theme

Rana preferred close combat, a style that suited her but also put her well within the lethal range of the blood lusted Time Siphon. Fortunately others were looking out for her and a plethora of distractions materialized to prevent Sahi from focusing on the teen's temporal line. Sahi was unable to deflect the blade in time but Temporal Armor did it's job as reality slicing blade met the fabric of space time at her shoulder plate. The site of the collision instantly cracked and spider webbed, an effected followed by an alarmingly visible distortion of space time and the blade deflecting off as the two opposing paradigms rejected one another. The follow up attack no distraction could account for. The moment her fist impacted the Temporal Armor Sahi had direct contact with every Temporal Line in Rana's body. Sahi's attack went to the point of contact as she sought to near instantly age the tendons, muscles and bones in Rana's hand and wrist to the point of total decay. The ten ton force of impact would potentially both crush her (potentially) decaying wrist and smash into Sahi's armor. Sahi stumbled back under the impact, a small crater formed in the armor with spider web cracks shooting out in every direction from the impact zone as the armor absorbed the vast majority of the kinetic impact.

She was about to further counter Rana's attack when dozens of crystalline projectiles flew in her direction at high velocity. With precious little time to respond she didn't target the projectiles at all, but rather used a move she had learned months before in France. She focused on the temporal lines trailing behind the projectiles and rushed them forward in time to a point when the projectiles would lose their momentum. The first dozen all impacted her armor before her counter could take hold, splattering craters and cracks all over her head and torso. Her helmet flew off, the false armor far less important than the see through temporal armor beneath it.

Sahi opened her eyes, nothing but raw temporal power glowing inside of them as the predator smirked, watching the rest of the crystals fall uselessly to the ground. Sahi staggered under the impact only to get hit with yet another attack. For a moment she seemed deeply influenced by the loss of water, but her Temporal Reserves were still strong, she burned the energy taken from the crystal's momentum and used it to heal her body, repairing the damage caused by the loss of water by accelerating her ambient time to a point when she would have re-hydrated. Importantly, Orange's attack kept her from benefiting from the energy absorbed by the crystals, an all important if not visual step. Temporal Reserves were the batteries that powered Time Siphons, they provided them with their powers and their ability to Regenerate. If she was able to increase her reserves sufficiently her power would quickly expand and the situation would become exponentially worse. It was absolutely imperative they prevent her from accessing more Memory Shards.

Sahi made no verbal responses, nor did she seem to recognize anyone calling her name or even that she was being addressed. Now in a target rich environment she whipped her plasma pistol from its holster and unleashed hell in the form of a roiling ball of plasma, aimed straight for Nathan's chest. A heart beat later and she engaged her anti-gravity systems, rocketing up and dropping back down like a comet, she landed in a flawless three point stance between both Rana and Orange Water. She began to coil around their temporal lines. If she weren't forced from her attacks within seconds the drain process (A process that typically lasted only seconds) would begin. The only warning to the two victims was the hairs on the back of their necks standing up on end and the sensation of someone walking over their grave.

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Pandorika's eyes flickered open when Orange Water tried to wake her, for a moment an aura of golden temporal energy surrounded them and then faded. She turned her head and looked at him, though at first she didn't register what he was saying. After a moment she seemed to get her bearings and then took his offered hand. Golden temporal energy flowed around it like water, an aura of reconstructive power as she slowly eased herself to her feet, trying not to count the broken ribs. Her mother's Temporal Armor was far stronger than her own because unlike Pandorika, she had not ignored her temporal needs.

The Temporal Half Breed blinked a few times to clear the haze from her eyes as her body worked to slowly repair itself. She was burning temporal energy unconsciously to repair the almost lethal damage done by her impact with the ground at terminal velocity. The self healing was much slower because her body had begun the process on its own, it was not the focused effort of a Time Siphon but in exchange it didn't cost the temporal energy of a full blooded Time Siphon either. She could heal herself more quickly, but would be left hungry, a state she didn't enjoy and they didn't need.

The force wielder, one of the last known Guardians of Light, levitated her Temporal Blades into her hands but she put them back on her belt. "Thank you." She said quietly. When he left she focused and stepped out of phase with time, soon re-appearing near Nathan. "You have to force her to regenerate, whatever they did to form that whole thought experiment, it scattered her Memory Pane, she's got nothing but instinct now...it'll take the full reconstruction of her body to get her mind right. I'm sorry...I can't help you fight her...I'm not strong enough. She's the full blooded daughter of Raeyn...I'm just..." She left out the words 'half-breed' but they were certainly implied. All these people died because I couldn't stop her.

Pandorika's own mind was hazy, mostly due to the reconstruction job currently repairing her body. She'd been dangerously close to regenerating. "You have to get through the Temporal Armor first, the more damage it takes, the more temporal energy it will require to maintain...eventually she'll have to let it fall or it'll consume everything she has to repair itself...it's greedy like that."

Attacks impacted Sahi's armor, breaking off pieces but not doing any visible damage that he could tell. That didn't mean they'd been altogether useless, though. Her eyes opened, crazed and disturbing, and he felt unsettled, thinking back to the New York altercation... was it almost a year ago now? It must be. That was hard to believe, but it had been last spring. He'd fought with a young woman rendered insane - Alexis Shepard, sometimes known as Contingency - and with Liath, hound of the blood witch. Liath was trying to be a different person now, calling himself 'Lloyd Errin.' Nathan supported him where he could. He'd checked in on Alexis as well, but stayed out of her way for the most part out of a feeling she didn't really want to talk to him, which he could respect. For a time, she'd worked for Gale Xanders. He didn't know what she was doing now, he'd heard little of her recently.

The insanity of New York had broken the both of them, though. Nathan didn't like fighting the insane. Whatever they were at the moment, they were still a person inside of all of that, and anything that happened was almost certain to make it all worse. There has to be some sort of way to force a containment. His mind immediately jumped to Xae's stasis setup - it had worked for her, for aeons. Of course, it had broken her mind in places that still wouldn't mend and that she wouldn't even acknowledge were there, but it had contained her. She'd never agree to its deployment as a weapon, though, he knew that. No, she'd refused to even agree to its deployment as a safeguard. Still, maybe that was something he could look in to, quietly, when she wasn't around.

Just in case.

None of that, though, helped the current situation in the slightest. Sahi was beyond conversation, farther gone even than Contingency had been, which meant that his half-idea of threatening to call her mother was probably out. He didn't actually want to call her mother - calling Raeyn was never something to be done lightly. Especially since calling her here would be asking her to get involved, and he of all people understood Raeyn's desire to move to the background. No, following through on that threat wasn't the right decision, but he didn't know what the right decision was.

And he didn't have time to think about it, either. Sahi's hand reached down to the pistol holstered at her side, taking quick aim and firing at him. He'd barely had time to register the motion, adrenaline surging, cracking open capsule matrices still laced throughout his system - speed, reflex, strength. A time ago, the blades would have been out, prepared to defend. They were gone now. Between them was only the cracked pavement of the streets of Mecca and the shadows they both cast upon it beneath the ball of plasma.

They twisted together, writhing form and shape into a figure that rose, hand extended, catching the plasma and holding it, far too solid as the light splashed against it. Maybe that should have been impressive, but Nathan was distracted far too much by the figure itself, only an outline, but he'd have recognized her anywhere. Any time.

He never had been able to let her go. She held the plasma ball, a shield that only made her stronger. It, Nathan knew. Not her. It wasn't really her. It was only a shadow. It had always been only a shadow. Never really her.

And he still couldn't let her go.

@orange_water: @bladebrave: @iridum: @sahi_:

"Tsk"A sigh of disappointment escaped Enyar's lips as the results of his attack turned out to end up doing more bad than good nonetheless he maintained his confident composure and took this failure to heart as a lesson learned, Enyar paused his actions then and there as he mentally reviewed all the information gathered mid battle whilst also further enhancing his physicals with a Alteration spell. As he quickly reviewed his mental notes such as the range and speed of Sahi's abilities he happened to over hear Pandorika's conversation with Landon thanks to the perception enhancement from her recently cast alteration spell "Ah so she seemed to have siphoned the energy of my crystals in motion however when Miss Rana attacked with her sword it appeared as if Sahi was unable to do so in that moment, it appears that I must engage in close quarters combat" Enyar murmured his words softly before gripping his sword dubbed 'Void' with both hands.

Sahi moved swiftly launching an attack on Rana's 'Father' but it seemed he had his own defenses that protected him against the plasma barrage however focus soon turned to Rana and the new individual on scene, here now Enyar had a choice knowing that the two were in danger from a temporal attack and they needed support but Enyar believed it better to places odds in supporting the individual whom in his opinion seemingly displayed better combat capabilities and that person was Rana. With a slight nod towards Rana he attempted to cast his most powerful spell 'Bulwark' such was the power of this spell that it would surround Rana in a field of absolute invulnerability even to temporal manipulations that would attempt to bypass the defense as well as attempts to loophole around the spell such as ending it prematurely, Bulwark's invulnerability came with its own costs however with it only being able to last a mere ten seconds after being cast as well as surrounding the target in what visually appeared to be a cyan field of electricity.

"Miss Rana ATTACK WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE NOW!" Enyar shouted as he felt a rather large portion of mana from his body go into the spell, after shouting he launched his own attack with a hundred meter dash towards Sahi in less than a split second where he aimed to swing his indestructible sword horizontally at Sahi's mid section but this was just an opening to his real attack which came from his armor that attempted to use its special life force siphoning attack which would simultaneously if successful also begin to nearly instantly restore Enyar from the inevitable temporal counter attack. Enyar presumed as long as he was able to drain Sahi's life force he could create a stalemate between them where neither of the two could drain the others essense dry for a victory since their siphoning abilities would cancel the others out and thus force the two to fight in a more traditional manner.

@orange_water: @bladebrave: @yggdmillennia: @sahi_:

Her dad showed up, just as much a distraction for the Siphon as it was for Rana in a way. She of course knew her dad could hold his own in a fight had even seen it. A time Siphon was different however and problematic. Was a lot of dirty tricks that could be handled with a dodge or parry, admittedly a shadow came to his aid to help with some of that. Didn't ease the mind any, Rana would rather he play catch with Yusha then his shadow play catch with Sahi. The shadow had been rather dormant and unused for awhile and realistically Rana would of preferred it to stay that way.

Needed to focus on the fight though, blade strikes but there's only cracks time manifested into matter withstood the blow. A punch lands, impact denting and cracking armor further. Her own physical force and lack of footing provided leverage for the winds of hell to sweep the hellion away. As she skidded to a halt however she felt the brass knuckle arcane object to be gone, usually it'd of lasted much longer time had eaten away at it though. Probably would of been leagues worse to if she had used her hand alone. Other attacks similarly only went so far against the opposition, there was so much a temporal leach could do after all. And soon enough it was the chance for the opposition to move.

"Yusha find light" she muttered to herself quickly. The small fox back home went and curled up on Rana's bed with the lamp nearby his shadow grew thin and the bleed off came to the heterochromia hellion. Her shadow against the concrete seemed to ripple like a stone tossed into a pond and with the ripples grow. Wasn't to long before it sprang up like a tide to blanket the heterochromia hero in a skin tight suit as dark as the night sky. The ideas was simplistic in design, to put her shadows time before her own. If she was to be drained further it would come from the shadow.

Her own ability with magic only went so far, she'd of liked it to one day replaced the hell that constantly plagued her. From what understanding she did have though and a yell directed at her she knew Enyar had done something to support her in combat. She was told to attack with everything so she'd do her best to do just that. Or at least what she could without supplying the opposition with to much of a meal.

She pulled back with her hand looking to fling herself forward, air to propel her forward was from trying to withdraw the air from around her foe. To leave Sahi briefly in avacume and with oxygen pulled from her lungs. Closing the distance came with a blink as Rana thought about the idea of losing a sister like someone had before her eyes from this very person. It triggered wrath and with such came blood bending and enough strength to rip most humans limb from limb.

As for the moves of choice she started with an attempt to seize the blood in the body and send it all to the heart. To make the vital organ expand like a balloon before bursting while the rest of the body would largely in theory shut down as it was denied fuel. the gust while was hard to know if it would choke the opposition flung Rana forward with good speed and she curled up in her brief flight looking to spring outward in a kick to the forehead. Enough force behind it to push a car backwards at the very least she hoped to cause a skull fracture. Landing on her feet she could squeeze in one more move she felt before she needed to worry about the longevity of support sent her way.

Her blade would thrust forward, a two handed jab meant to dig into the soft tissue of the gut and find its way between spinal columns. She doubted she'd be fortunate enough to impale her foe in her rage and bloodlust though she certainly did try. Her left hand would then briefly launch forward in an upward palm strike. Intention being to push Rana back some for defensive purposes while delivering enough force in her blow that most sternums and rib cages would be noting but an internal fragmentation grenade more then the integral aspects of the skeleton they were meant to be.

@iridum: @orange_water: @bladebrave: @yggdmillennia:

A Time Siphon with all her faculties is generally a cautious creature, well aware of their vulnerabilities and that their best powers come at a cost. They balance their combat needs with their temporal reserves and rely more on technology in some instances than on their temporal abilities. a Temporal Predator had no such compunctions. It immediately tapped into its temporal reserves, first burning energy to tap into one of those ever present generic Time Siphon abilities that could have the greatest impact upon a battle...she altered the flow of time for herself, in essence, dramatically increasing her speed and response time at the cost of Temporal Reserve. When she lost her grip on Rana she adjusted tactics on the fly to the more brutal options. What should have been a split second assault by the knight was reacted to almost as if it occurred in slow motion, she moved aside and in her place, a temporal duplicate who met sword swipe with energy buckler. The sword slammed into the buckler and energy snapped and sparked in every direction. The temporal duplicate was thrown off its feet and vanished, but it had achieved its objective.

While this was occurring, Sahi focused her efforts on Rana but if she could not feast on the teen now...she would try to do so later. She closed her eyes, drawing focus and shutting out the outside world. She didn't focus on the girl...she focused on where she was. As Rana closed in for a furious assault, Sahi focused on the ground at her feet. This time she would not age it, she'd burn even more temporal energy for a quick 'kill' attempt. The attempt to draw out the air from around Sahi and form a vacuum was an intelligent move, except Sahi was a Time Siphon and, more importantly, wearing Temporal Armor. Temporal Armor was parasitic and half sentient, it assumed appearances that fit with the look the Time Siphon was wearing at the time (or, the Time Siphon could force it to change). In some cases this meant the fully enclosed, completely vacuum hardened armor would appear transparent. The helmet was not part of her armor, it was for show because the Temporal Armor did not form a visible helmet. The false helmet had been discarded already but the true helmet...was invisible. The result was that her armor simply supplied her with her. She could have been tossed in a radiation zone or flung into space and the armor would have protected her against the void. There was no shame in not being aware of this, more than one foe had made the mistake in the past.

Blood Bending was another matter, Time Siphons and, indeed, Temporal Armor, had no particular defense against it. Sahi had practiced using her abilities to stop it in the past but the animal Sahi didn't have that memory or capacity. What it did have was an alien body and the ability to heal itself. Sahi stumbled and was immediately exposed as her heart burst...but heart bursting was not instantly fatal, the brain still had blood in it and even a decapitated person might have a few seconds of thought before death. The result was that her brutal series of strikes all hit home, in particular because Sahi was focusing. There was no soft gut tissue though, no soft skin at all, only the temporal armor. Assaults slammed into it, cracks spread across its surface, including perhaps most enlighteningly, the invisible regions that looked like exposed skin or shirt material.

Temporal energy flowed from Sahi's eyes as she used the moments she had to launch her assault. The Knight was only temporarily deflected and, though it had not landed a physical attack, it had forced considerable use of Temporal Reserves and altered the animal's assault on Rana entirely...physically not much...esoterically, critical. In the next few seconds, two things happened that might well decide the fate of the battle. The first was offensive. The Time Siphon had focused on the area beneath Rana's feat, following her motions through its temporal vision even while other assaults ravaged its armor and heart. It was mere moments from completing its attack, a neck hair raising...isolation. If successful, if Rana wasn't forcefully removed from the area in time or if the Time Siphon wasn't suddenly disabled or forced to abandon its course again, Rana would be removed from the time stream entirely, locked in a temporary stasis so the Time Siphon could isolate and feast on her later. The second critical juncture came as it finished its attack and tried to make up for lost ground on its heart, racing to reverse the damage through Temporal Healing. It was entirely possible that if forced to focus more on one or the other...it would not be able to complete one of them in time.

@sahi_: @yggdmillennia: @iridum:

The Time Siphon seemed to be focused on other things besides Nathan, probably because they were attracted to timelines and at the rate he was doing stupid stuff lately, he'd be lucky to make it until Tuesday. Nonetheless, at least with her attention elsewhere, he was likely to make it until five minutes from now, so that was a positive thing. Maybe? He wasn't all that sure what to do about the shadow of his girlfriend that he apparently had going on, but it didn't take more than a moment's thought before she faded again, leaving nothing there but a bunch of questions he wasn't going to be able to answer any time soon. He'd just have to... deal with that later. Not right now, though. He didn't need to worry about it right now. Whatever it had been, it seemed harmless... and the insane Time Siphon was anything but.

He wasn't sure what Landon had done, but something had staggered the crazy Time Siphon, and it seemed like the series of attacks was having some effects on her. "Good work, people," he stated, "Gotta get her down, though." It didn't seem like it mattered too much what he said in front of Sahi, as she seemed to be well beyond listening. "I think once she hits Siphon Regen it'll neutralize the insanity aspect and we might be able to get through to her. Or... um, him, at that point." The database specified that it could get a bit weird. "Just play it safe." Please, Rana, play it safe.

Once they managed to get her down, he'd try to take over with the talking. Nathan was pretty good at talking, at least. He knew how to handle scared kids... and he was pretty sure that once the regen wave hit, that's what Sahi was going to be. Get her down, hit the regen, talk to her long enough to call her mom... And pray Raeyn's figured out how to be a better mom than she was once.

If she hadn't... well, if she hadn't, Nathan would just have to double down on his Dad act.

No big deal, right? If he could handle a hellspawned teen, an insane Time Siphon should be no trouble.

@bladebrave: @sahi_: @yggdmillennia: @iridum:

Sahi had become a monster the boogeyman underneath the bed. There was nothing left to her except hunger and the power to kill her ‘meals’ with a thought. But now without the helmet, I was reminded how beautiful she was as well. A beautiful monster like Ruby except there was no talk maybe it was best to call Sahi an angel of death. Damn, I need to stop this monologue in my head and concentrate on the fight in front of me.

It’s a good thing I did this because monster Sahi had decided to come to us and land between me and Rana. The position she had taken didn’t seem altogether threatening if she were human that is but this is possibly one of the most dangerous aliens in the galaxy. They aren’t called a time siphon for nothing but this inner monologue has led to hesitation which could only cost more lives. Luckily for some reason, Sahi didn’t drain us of our life force or whatever it is she drains focusing the fight on Rana instead giving me a chance to observe and plan for a moment.

I heard Pandorika mention that the only way to end this fight was with a kill. Sure Nathan believed there might be a way to save her by burning off temporal energy but that would require a great risk on our part including possible death or me aging to 50 in the span of seconds if she could even do that. So what I was left with was who should be the killer? Rana was quite young for the body count she already had and this mysterious armored knight well who even wants to attempt a guess there. That left Pandorika and Nathan who I couldn’t allow to get involved he had two daughters to raise and if he were to die it would tear Rana apart. But Pandorika as a time siphon had the best chance to kill Sahi although this monster was her mother and that would be messed up to watch. That left me to do the deed Rana deserves the semblance of a normal life killing shouldn’t be apart of it and Nathan under no circumstance should fight risking himself. I’ll add another… I can deal with it.

“I’m sorry Sahi,” there was ways I could kill her quickly certain attacks I hadn’t used targeting her blood and water specifically making her boil alive, causing the blood inside of her to expand outwards probably causing massive internal bleeding and finally freezing portions of her blood into tiny spiked objects that traveled through her bloodstream ripping her blood vessels apart. The difference was the first two were instantaneous which she could probably heal from instantly and the third one would build damage over time making it more difficult and probably causing her to lose more temporal energy over time. I wouldn’t start off with this attack first though instead, I pulled out my dagger.

I took aim and threw it at Sahi if I was lucky it would go into where I aimed it which was her back. The only thing I wasn’t for sure on was what kind of effect would her powers have on my invincible dagger. But that didn’t matter at the moment if I were to miss with her dodging the dagger and instead of heading for Rana the dagger would become dull making sure it wouldn’t harm her at all instead falling harmlessly to the ground waiting for its master’s next command. Now for the true attack as my eye turned blue and I raised my hand and started my manipulation of her blood creating microstructures throughout her bloodstream that would rip her apart from the inside. “ Again I’m so sorry…”

I yelled out towards Pandorika for a moment and asked,” How much energy does she need to burn before regeneration?” One of the few powers I knew for sure all time siphons had.

@yggdmillennia: @sahi_: @bladebrave: @orange_water:

Rana found herself impressed by the technology being used by the siphon. It was one thing to provide air, another to keep it within the body despite it being attempted to be ripped away. One would think a throat would be torn apart by counter force still though her foe stood. Assault on a heart did a number on the opponent but still she stood. Cracks and damage in strikes progress being made and yet not enough to win the fight quite yet. It came in an attack she couldn't prepare for or defend against. Hair stood up and then it seemed like the world had disappeared.

Lost In Time

"You like it don't you seeing them die for you? You keep walking and walking but it goes nowhere does it? Find Drake, Nathan, Ashley like the stupid girl you are theres always hope and to what end?" Before her another projection of hell as Drake was eviscerated by blades of damnation. Bleeding before her and the sight of it ripping at her heart. It was at times easy to look past the projections of hell she knew it was in her head largely. That the demons that haunted her weren't physical manifestations. That wasn't true here though.

Locked away in a place devoid of time and the reality she had come to know it all become increasingly more real. The hand over her mouth was warm and running cold as vermillion warmth found the teenager's leg. She had to watch him die, knowing nothing was there for her to do.

Here she couldn't call on magic, her own abilities weren't used for good things. She could try and keep the organs in but hands would never suffice. It passes all the hurt and they just expose her to more. She has to watch love die, they trick her as an attacking fiend only for it to end up portrayed as someone she loves. Killer of what she holds dear she finds eventually she doesn't want to fight back in fear of what she might do. So then it becomes an experience of pain until pleasure as she won't resist them.

Her flesh is flayed away again and again. The sights within her mind became synonymous with what she experienced for herself. "Why do you keep enduring this."

"What you strip from me will let me not miss a moment with them right?" Hell cackled at that statement delighted in her embracing of hell and what it brought through her all for what she held dear. They continue to play memories etched into her mind all to real and seeming not to end. They take what feels like everything from her again and again until it's hard to cry despite all the pain. Stories and experiences she didn't have a longing to tell once back if it could be imagined they just might have put a girl through it. She'd have given everything to come back to them however.

Return From Depths

"You took a year." The seventeen year old remarked materializing back into reality at the end of Landon's move. For what had been seconds to them of a sudden absence of Rana had been a year for her. She hated being here, her body having felt only washed in blood. Clothes a torn up mess, the various terrible fragrances of hell so accustomed to her now that she couldn't tell but knew their sickening presence was there. Lingering on her as uncomfortable mementos of her avarice and countless sins.

Rana didn't halt frustration had boiled over into all that she was. Everything she had been through demanded some form of release from the teen. And so immediately she channeled once more the winds of hell and a control over air. She'd look to turn oxygen within the woman into a cyclone forget tearing it free, just tear from within, to turn the human body into a blender internally. Meanwhile the heterochromia hellion propelled herself forward not in step but torrents of wind.

Gusts tore at the streets as it launched the teen through the air at just over two hundred and fifty miles per hour. Her blade leaving shimmering trails of distortion briefly in the air as Rana attacked. She really had no ceasing in her mind, a mix of tears and anger were simply being channeled into her attacks. The sword looking to find legs and spine, throat and shoulder, guts and heart it didn't matter what she took. It was only a rush of attacks from a devil longing for blood.

@iridum:@yggdmillennia: @sahi_: @bladebrave: @orange_water:

Time Siphon, Temporal Vampire, Monster...child...alone...darkness. Time Siphons do nothing the way normal mortals do...and that includes death. For most the period between death and rebirth is...nearly instant. A time Siphon senses a moment of darkness and then rematerializes back in the real world...except...sometimes. Like when their armor was trying to eat them alive. Sahi stood alone in a dark universe, surrounded by an infinite expanse of...nothing...absolutely nothing. She turned around, examining her surroundings before resigning herself to the fact of nothingness. It didn't last. Images appeared, brief snap shots of life dating back to her first memories as her memory pane convulsed and her cells fought against starvation, seeking for temporal reserves that were rapidly fading to fuel a parasite.

She watched quietly...ignoring most of the memories, everything except...the things she had done. People, faces...cities...nations...the collapses of civilizations she had caused, the burning of Grim City. She saw screaming, death...and...one thing she could associate with the most of all. Loneliness. She lowered her head and closed her eyes, trying to shut it all out, close away the memories forever and spend her last moments not having to reflect on a life spent primarily causing pain and loneliness in others. It didn't work...when you were in the depths of your own subconscious it was impossible to simply close your eyes.

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Externally her body collapsed, unable to withstand further esoteric assaults without the intellect behind the powers. Sahi would have had creative solutions...the animal had nothing. The body died, almost instantly, long before it hit the ground. The armor began to repair itself, cracks that covered its entire surface began to suddenly shrink, spider webbed damage began to vanish...even the dirt began to disappear. Temporal energy flowed from her body to the armor in such quantities as to make itself visible, a golden aura of raw power siphoning from one being to another...from one monster to its parasite.

That was the truth of Temporal Armor, it was a precursor to the much more powerful Temporal Hounds, a combination weave of Spatial Strings and Temporal Energy...except unlike the Temporal Hounds it wasn't invisible and it was only semi-sentient. As a Time SIphon's reserves grew, so did the ability of the armor to take and absorb damage. As they shrank, so did the armor's ability. Temporal Armor could be overwhelmed, it could fall apart...it could...die. Like any living being its primary instinct was survival so when the Time Siphon that wore it was no longer able to resist, it would tap into their temporal reserves to absorb energy and repair itself. Sometimes this was only a minor inconvenience but in Sahi's condition it was potentially lethal.

So the armor took...and it took...and it took. The armor itself was near death, barely alive and close to total collapse by the time Sahi fell. Her own reserves were low...one of them would live...but not both.

Fortunately there existed one other being in the near vicinity with an understanding of Raeyn's invention. When the obvious (to her) became obvious and Rana refused to halt her attack Pandorika, despite her wounds, moved into action.

Pandorika race in between her mother and Rana, sliding to a halt and drawing upon the force to pull both of her Temporal Blades into her hands. She assumed a defensive position. "Stop!" It wasn't a question, or a request, it was a snarled command that echoed through the street. All of Pandorika's usual kindness and reserve was missing from her tone, instead it sounded very much...well...very much like a furious Raeyn. (thought fortunately it was not) If necessary she would fight every single one of them to preserve her mother's life. Now that she was down, she refused to let her die permanently.

Of course, there were two problems with that...one...she was injured herself and two...the armor was still eating Sahi alive. Life hung in the balance, one that certainly many of the people gathered there had a reason to end. "We need to get that armor off of her before it kills her." Pandorika said through pain gritted teeth. Her voice wasn't softer, it hadn't lost its edge but it now contained a hint of desperation. In truth...Pandorika couldn't stop the armor, as a Time Siphon herself it would simply attack her as well if she touched it. Her mother had never been so vulnerable...nor surrounded by so many people that had every reason to want her dead...and all she could do was ask for their help.

And all Sahi could do was hope for that same moment that her mother once had. An act of kindness that could change the course of a life. Or an act of understandable cruelty that could end it.

Either way, the choice was out of the hands of two Time Siphons and in the hands of several mortals and deep down Pandorika knew they could simply refuse to act and her own code wouldn't allow her to attack them for it.

Somewhen...there was another pair of eyes on the event as well.

@yggdmillennia: @bladebrave: @orange_water: @sahi_:

"Youve no idea how much I don't want to." The seventeen year old growled in frustration. Her scarlet eye trembled with wrath her hand tighted in anger. She wanted to cut lose to scatter a monster into just pieces discarded about the field. Wanted limbs and organs splattered in every which way. Everything she'd been through made her crave for an outlet.

For the deflowering of all she held dear, sights of death all to real. To find a way to get the pain out of her chest and into someone else. Her knuckles went white and then her stance turned to the others instead. "I know what it's like to be monster. Try to kill one and I swear you'll go through another to do it."

She knew what it was like having that side of you furious and rampant. To feel like nobody understood or would help. Isolated and afraid, she doubted a siphon would say it was the same but that didn't matter. Monsters wouldn't be alone anymore. She'd protect the siphon, there were things to atone for as well and death was to easy of an out from things. Rana still burned with a bloodlust as well nearly daring someone to try anything else but to assist in a revival.

"She should have a year from me I would imagine help her access that to remain alive. Then tell me how to kill the armor, cause isn't anything that sounds better to me anyway." It might not bleed, but that desire in her from a year of torment was willing to settle for whatever it could get. It was hard to suppress what screamed within her mind, a foe down it wouldn't be hard to end it. A sister cried for what the siphon had done and a warrior wanted to give a revenge for that loss. That pain didn't fade away no matter the time, just an illusion of hell in her mind and it haunted her tirelessly. It didn't feel right letting it end so briskly either. Rana didn't want to hurt those gathered either, she'd rather challenge them then see someone's mother die though today.

@iridum: @sahi_: @orange_water: @yggdmillennia: @pandorika: @timesiphon:

A moment ticked, and his little girl was gone. A knife, cold as ice, twisting in his chest. Nathan hadn't killed anyone since Saikea. He hadn't thought he had the capability, not any more. It only took an instant to realize he had been very, very wrong about that.

The moment passed, and she was back, but her words were no comfort: "You took a year." Condemnation, accusation - he should have gone after her. Sometime in that heartbeat's time, he should have found a way to get to her and bring her back. She looked like hell. Nathan could make a guess, then, what she'd been through in that year. Her voice sounded older. Harder. Colder. He didn't know what she had been through, and he didn't think he would ever know how she had found the strength to survive it. He wanted to go to her and hold her and lie to her - tell her it was going to be all right. She'd moved forward, though, not back, approaching the dying Time Siphon, poised between destruction and kindness.

He couldn't much care about the girl Pandorika, or what she had to say. It didn't matter - not with what Rana had been through. She hurt you. She hurt everyone. She hurt my little girl. No, he definitely could have killed her, right then, and not felt bad about it in the slightest. Rana stood over her, and Nathan ceded that she had the right to be the one to drive the blade home. Let her slay her monster, then take her home and give her what comfort he could. Try to make up for a year that they would never get back, one of the last remaining years of Rana's childhood. Try to heal his broken child and see if the rupture had broken his family.

Break someone else's family, instead.

Fluff. Rana had stopped, choosing to attempt kindness, even after everything. It gave him time to slow down, to stop, to consider the desperation in Pandorika's voice as she watched her mother die. Nathan wasn't really swayed by that - he thought the kid would be better off without Sahi, to be honest. But it wasn't his family. And he didn't have the right to make that choice for her. Rana had lost a parent. For a moment, Nathan had lost a child. He drew a slow, careful breath, then went up to his little girl and put a hand on her shoulder. He could feel the stickiness - blood, and he didn't know what else. Later, he thought, there would be tears. Maybe some of them would be hers. Right now, though, he would acknowledge that even with all the forces of Hell hounding her, his little girl was still the better person, so he held her, and watched Sahi dying without further malice.

A hand slipped into his pocket, the tiny cube he held there. Raeyn had given it to him, to watch over. He could have set it down, given it to Sahi. Devouring the thing would have been enough to ensure her survival and more. He cradled it in his palm a moment. "Life. Single-cellular," Raeyn had said, last time they had met. He didn't know how fast that had changed. Maybe within, someone else had a little girl, who he had no right to condemn to death either.

He touched it instead in the sequence he knew would call Raeyn forth. He'd let Rana make the choice, but all that was left was to find out how to make it happen. He waited until Raeyn was there, then spoke quietly. "Rana wants to kill the armor. Your grandchild thinks that will save your daughter." He raised his eyes then. Maybe it was madness to stare the destroyer of the cosmos in the eye without fear or pity while her daughter lay dying in agony, but with his hand wet with the blood of his child, he did not care in the slightest. He put his arm around Rana, holding her closer, and tossed the cube back towards Raeyn.

"Don't you ever let your family hurt mine again."

@orange_water: @iridum: @bladebrave: @sahi_:

The threat was over, Enyar had remained in the background silently upon the defeat of the Timesiphon even staying for some time out of curiosity to hear more about the individuals he's never met before but as the conversations went on the more he felt out of place.

This isn't my story Enyar finally concluded as he turned his back on the individuals with more pressing manners at hand and began pacing away but only when he picked Sahi's discarded helmet did he truly disappear from the scene.

@bladebrave:@iridum: @sahi_: @orange_water: @yggdmillennia: @pandorika: @timesiphon:

Raeyn watched him for a few moments without saying a word. The cube hung in mid air, it's flight path arrested by some unknown means, likely by the stoppage of time...in fact if anyone had the tenacity to look around in that moment they would soon discover the entire area had stopped moving. While they were still very much acting and interacting with one another, those beyond their immediate circle had ceased to move at all, even grains of dust in the air and the arriving military police vehicles were frozen. Raeyn plucked the cube out of the air, walked over and placed it gently back in Nathan's hands. "The Key of Time needs to stay away from my species." She told him. "Anyone else would have used it for their own gain by now. Keep it." All that was in Raeyn's eyes was age and pain. Perhaps it was an effect of who or what she was...but people did not tend to lock eyes with her and what was revealed to Nathan was generations of desperate sorrow that extended well beyond the moment they were in...and...a certain amount of weariness, as if existence had on some level become exhausting.

Reayn took his hand and gently folded his fingers around the cube with her other hand. "It's time we all stop living in the past." She pulled away from him then and spotted Orange Water moving to attempt to remove the armor. "Press your fingers to the inside of her left thigh for three seconds, then to the base of the neck for six and then again to the base of the spine for four...no more...no less." Temporal Armor had a singular weakness, designed by its inventor in the event she should never need to disable another Time Siphon's armor. It was a killing blow. When Orange Water finished the process the armor fell apart completely, literally unraveling before their eyes, its Strings vanishing into the aether. "Temporal Armor was a precursor to the Temporal Hound, it's composed of Spacial String and Temporal Energy but it's a parasite, it feeds on the temporal reserves of its host to survive. When a Time Siphon is conscious, they can deactivate it...in this state though..." She let the words go, the rest was obvious. Raeyn knelt beside the figure of her daughter. "What did they do to you?" She asked quietly, stroking her fingers over the fallen Time Siphon's hair. She didn't mean the gathered party though, rather the individual who had ruined her mind. She breathed, silent for a moment and closed her eyes.

As golden temporal energy began to emit from Sahi's hands and face Raeyn stood back and waited. The pain of regeneration was extraordinary, so agonizing that it defied description. Sahi screamed, rolling onto her back as her body quite literally tore itself apart at the molecular and sub-molecular level and then reconstructed itself using the template of a victim. When it was over...she stood up slowly, trembling a little and her eyes still burning like twin stars as residual temporal energy faded away. Sahi breathed the first breath of new lungs and looked down at herself, straightening her shirt instinctively and looking at her hands as if they were new..indeed they were new. She half twisted, getting the best glimpse of her backside as she could without a mirror, like a girl trying on new pants in the clothing store.

"I don't remember this one..." Sahi said in a new voice. She narrowed her eyes and touched her shirt. "Hey...that's cloth." She glanced up, as if suddenly aware of her surroundings and looked...confused. "Mom?" She questioned.

Raeyn nodded. "We had to destroy your Temporal Armor." Fortunately the Regeneration had been kind enough to provide her with clothes. "Oh...well I'll just get more from your..."

Raeyn cut her off with a shake of her head. "No."

"No?" Sahi wondered.

"No." Raeyn confirmed. "You have a lot to account for Sahi Ecami Velana and it's time you started. You can have armor again when you've earned it." Raeyn motioned to those gathered around. "Meet the judges of that. Your new form looks to be...fifteen in human years. You're going to live that. Nathan is going to be so kind as to enroll you in whatever serves as a school in LA and you are going to attend."

Sahi looked...terrified. Horrified even.

"But...I..." Raeyn put a finger on Sahi's lips, cutting her off. "No buts young lady." Raeyn said firmly. "Your old life is over, get past it, build a new one. You and I have spent lifetimes living in the past and wallowing in our own ridiculous misery while completely ignoring the misery we've caused. Nathan or Rana could have killed you." She looked back at the both of them. "And would have been within their rights to do so. You hurt his daughter, that will be the first damage you start to make up for." Among other things, Sahi wasn't sure why "no buts young lady" was such a frightening thing to hear. She'd never actually been scolded by her mother before. It was new...it was...nice.

@iridum: @sahi_: @orange_water: @yggdmillennia: @pandorika: @timesiphon:

Raeyn met his gaze with sorrow. Pain. Exhaustion. All those things that he couldn't find it in him to feel sympathy for right now. His fist closed around the cube again, not because he wanted it, but because acknowledging that she shouldn't have it was probably a smart decision for Raeyn right now. Maybe the only smart decision. His fist clenched, and maybe a part of him was hoping the cube would shatter, but it didn't. Instead, he remained silent as Landon moved up and deactivated the armor Sahi had been wearing. The gold light swirled around her, and she changed, her old body gone.

The one that rose in the place was far too familiar. He knew, instantly, the face of the brave little girl that Sahi had so casually murdered only a few hours earlier. Did she remember the face of the baby sister that body had died protecting? The mother who had cried when Sahi had ripped the timeline out of the child and devoured it? No. He didn't think so. Her voice - the child's voice - when she spoke, was full of novelty. She remembered enough, though. Enough to know what she was, if she didn't know who she was.

Raeyn had all sorts of ideas about how this was going to work out. He wondered how many centuries ago they might have actually been appropriate. When she tried to bring him into this mess, he shook his head firmly. "No."

His accusation, when he made it, was half towards Sahi for the monster she'd been, and half towards her mother for the monster she'd raised, and the monster she'd done nothing to stop. "How many families are you going to let her ruin? She doesn't look like a child because she's innocent, she looks like a child because she slaughtered one. She doesn't belong in school. She belongs in prison. I'd put her there myself if I knew of one that could hold her." He shifted his gaze between the two of them, both of them oblivious, as if murdering little girls and ruining lives was just something that could be made up for - that they could actually believe that after all she had done, he would want Sahi anywhere near his family was completely unfathomable. "Find someone else to redeem her, Raeyn. It isn't going to be me."

"We're done."

@orange_water: @sahi_: @bladebrave:

"Raeyn. Grow up, for someone with as much time as you have. Spend some time being a damn parent. You enroll her, you take care of your family. You've spent lifetimes not." Her voice was course and had a hint of a growl there was a rage she desperately wanted to let out. That wasn't what needed to happen here though she had to remind herself. "And give her enough time to unlock the memory of what she did. Sorry if that's cold but I feel it's right." With that she turned to face the woman now in a sense younger then herself weirdly enough.

A hand moving to rest on the shoulder of a monster in a pretty disguise. Perhaps the grip a bit tighter then was necessary. "When you're ready if you wan't my help I'm around. You have to accept however before then that you killed. And not the life of a villain, or a soldier, but of a girl who was willing to give everything for her family's safety. That's who's skin you wear. I'm sorry but if you ask me that should either sicken you, or be something you'll work tirelessly to live up to." She sighed then sheathed her blade and hugged her dad either to just go home.

Return to LA and the first thing Rana did was move to a sink to wash her hands. Clean it of the filth from a year lost that she didn't long to speak about. The various stains not something she wanted to be rubbed off on Ashley if it could be helped. Her footsteps were as gentle as she could manage so as to not disturb the bundled up thing. "Hey you" she remarked not succeeding in fighting back the tears that sought to escape her. A small hand clasped around Rana's own. The visions and experiences she could solidify as not being real. They'd been experiences with every sensory feature accounted for though to a point it felt like it was.

A small fox was patient enough to wait until things had settled a bit. But eventually nipped at the seventeen year old's toe in a demand for food. She let go of her sister and made sure sheets were tucked before extending a fist to the fox. A paw bumping into it, refusing to act like anything had changed. Take the time to feed the pet act like it was another night for those who hadn't lost time or as close as she could get away with. Then she looked to her dad and swallowed her pride. "I'm going to be in the shower for an hour. Sorry, I'm just not okay."

@iridum:@sahi_: @bladebrave:

Too much happened all at once with Rana popping out and back into existence in the span of seconds saying that she had just lost a year. Then once Rana had attacked Sahi goes down… hard. It seems she won’t be getting back up from this,” So what now?” Pandorika rushes in and says that to save her we must cut off the armor. But should we? She has just murdered a ton of people. I wanted to stand there and say “no” but I couldn’t too many had already died today. I couldn’t allow another but before I could say “how” someone else was barking orders about how to kill the armor.

I recognized the voice from a meeting I had a couple of months ago. Raeyn another time siphon telling me how to dismantle the armor. As I followed the instructions I made a mental note of how to do this again if ever necessary. As I backed away from Sahi I almost asked: “what next?” But before I could a golden glow suddenly emanated from her. Damn time siphons keep interrupting me...now a brand new Sahi emerged new body and maybe a new personality? I guess we’re about to figure out.

For the next several minutes Raeyn speaks to us and Sahi. For an actual moment, Raeyn acts like an actual mother before she laughably fails to try to pass her daughter onto Nathan to take care of. Now I understand what happened to Sahi! Her mother is a problem and understandably Rana and Nathan are angry considering how many people she just killed. The truth is Sahi is just as broken as I am and maybe we could help each other heal,” I hate myself so much Gaige if you can hear me ensure that no images or video hit the internet over Sahi’s new body. As far as the world knows the “terrorist” who did this is dead only Unity can know the truth.” I let out a sign I knew this was a bad idea but the broken have chance to be repaired.

“I’ll do it.” This would likely gather several impresses and concerned looks including the question of “what?!?!” Yeah, no interrupting this time siphons. “I’ll do it on one condition Raeyn. The others are right your a terrible mother to Sahi odds are if she goes with you she will end up back here with us eventually. So what is the condition you ask? Well simply while Sahi is in my care you come and visit her and bond with her every once in a while.” I didn’t care this may be the only right thing to do and I won’t lie it was fun telling Raeyn off.

“If I learned anything about myself in that alternate reality it’s that I’m tired of being broken. I’m tired of being alone I’m gonna do what I should have done long ago but I’ve been too stupid. I need to make a couple of calls but if Sahi needs help getting back on her feet I’ll do it. By finally calling Ryth, by finally finding my brother and maybe by helping Sahi heal I will as well.” This wasn’t the damn time to be some emotionless professional it was time to be the human being I knew I was. I lifted my hands to my helmet and with a small crack I took it off and dropped it to the ground letting them see my face. The face of a man tired of this pointless game and angry at himself and Raeyn for their mistakes. The problem is Raeyn is still unwilling to fix hers but I’m willing to fix mine.

I held out my hand towards Raeyn for her to shake,” I’m ready and willing to help.”

@orange_water: @iridum:@sahi_: @bladebrave:

Something flashed in Raeyn's eyes and she turned her attention fully to Nathan. "Well aren't you a little hypocr..." She trailed off when Pandorika stepped forward and put a hand on her arm gently. Raeyn glanced to her and all the anger melted away. She could be mad at her daughter, at the circumstances, at Nathan for being sort of right but also a jerk...but not at Pandorika. She couldn't even look at her granddaughter and feel any level of anger, regardless of its source.

"I think some people are saying things they will regret later." Pandorika told...everyone. "Emotions are high, I think it's best if everyone stops before they go too far."

Sahi pushed past them both and walked up to Nathan, she stopped a healthy thirty five feet away. "I don't remember anything, I have no idea what I did, I wasn't in control." She said. "I'm sorry, if I hurt Rana...I wouldn't have if I was in control. I wouldn't have killed anyone either. When I was the Artist I was trying to be a better person, I went out of my way not to kill people." She sighed and looked down at her hands. "I gather from the conversation that I killed this girl not very long ago. There aren't words that can make that better. I am sorry...I do wish it hadn't happened and I wouldn't have done it myself. I don't get to choose what form I take when I regenerate, it's random...we think. I'll try to live up to the standards this girl set, at least as much as I can."

She glanced around at everyone and shook her head a little. "Really, this wasn't me. I wish I could undo all of it, but I'm not strong enough and that's not the kind of powers I have anyway. In fact...that's not really how it works at all." She shifted her eyes back to Nathan's. "If it helps...I've been in prisons before. Pandorika is a result of one of those prisons. I won't go to prison again, I don't care which one it is. Our species started off in a prison, I was tortured in a few of them, I will not experience one again. I also know that everyone here has killed people and the only one of us that is excused for it is Pandorika...because they were enemy soldiers in war time. I think it's best if we don't start talking about who should go to prison because the answer is probably all of us."

She looked down for a moment and then back up. "I'm not going to claim to have been a good person. When I was in that...other universe or whatever memory altered place that was, I was shown what it's like to be a good person...and to be a good mother. I thought I couldn't live up to either of those. Maybe I can...I can at least try. I'm glad your daughter is alive." She turned away from him and nodded a little thanks to Rana. She took her glasses off, playing with them in quiet contemplation.

Raeyn looked at Orange Water's offered hand after his offer was made. She reached out, took his hand in one hand and gently closed his fingers down on his palm with the other. "Never touch a Time Siphon." She told him gently, removing her hands. "It's like sticking your hand in the Lion's cage. I think you're right...and I will do what I can to live up to that offer, thank you."