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Dissonant Hearts (Degusaurusrex x AndrewS)

"Shut up, Ignas, I wasn't asking you!" She snapped at the demon angrily as Ember came pattering over and jumped up on her mistress' lap.

"I have to agree with the demon, as much as I hate to." Her familiar's tone was disdainful and remorseful all at once. "Your emotions are all over the place, it's no surprise your magic is being difficult." Great, now even her familiar was siding with Ignas. Just great!

"Fine, now that we've established everyone thinks my emotions are out of control, can we go?" Adelaide scowled from the couch, taking the ice off of her hand and throwing it onto the coffee table before looking at Isen expectantly. "Everything's packed, I can deal with my hand later. I'll just.. Figure something out once we get there. I need to learn healing spells anyway." This was a disaster.

"...I wonder if Samara knew about my father and just kept it a secret." That was a very, very good question. The witch knew a lot she didn't bother to share, and Adelaide had every intention of questioning her once they actually got there. "We need to have a talk with that witch, anyway." Forcing herself up off of the couch, Adelaide grabbed one of the bags and waited patiently for Isen to gather the rest before they left the apartment.

"Well.. It was nice while it lasted."
 
Isen felt a little bad for Adelaide. It seemed as though she was being ganged up on. From her reaction, it appeared as though Ember had agreed with Ignas about how emotional she had been and it caused an annoyed scowl to appear upon her face as she faced what they had said. Maybe once they got away from this place, she would be able to calm down. He could take her to get food, that always seemed to work.

It was melancholic for him to leave, especially in such a hurry. This place had already had a place inside his head, it had helped him find some of his humanity again. Most of that was because of her, but he wouldn't forget their time on the roof or the disastrous attempt at cooking he had gone through to try and cheer her up. "We'll find another place like this some day." He told her, simply, hoping it would make her feel better. The connotations of that were numerous, ranging from them living together to him still being around after the DSTF had been dealt with, but he let it linger as just that, a statement, for now. He just wanted to make her feel better, she had been through enough already.

Outside of the apartment complex, they would need to flag down a cab but he didn't suspect it would be much trouble for her. She had her spell, assuming she could use it properly still, so they probably wouldn't even have to pay. He had taken the rest of the bags with him, easing the burden of saying goodbye just a little, but had now sat them down on the curbside while he waited.

"Isen."

Ignas tried to get his attention but Isen was, as always, more preoccupied with making sure Adelaide was okay. He was checking on her again, glancing down at her bruised fist.

"Isen."

Ignas repeated. "Isen, answer me, you idiot. This is important."

With a groan, Isen responded, sounding annoyed by having to do so. "What is it, Ignas?"

"There's something nearby that you should be concerned about. Witch, you can feel it too, can't you? Stop licking your wounds and focus."

"What is it?"

"Dark magic. Not mine, not hers. There's something else nearby."

Was this her grandmother's doing? Or was there something else? He looked towards Adelaide for confirmation on the claim.
 
"Maybe." Adelaide shrugged. The thought of having an actual home was so far away that she refused to get her hopes up, especially now that everything she still owned was in a bag as they stood at the curb. Hearing the demon begin to speak again wasn't doing the situation any favors, she would never have a home while he still resided with Isen, that wasn't part of the deal.

"I'm not licking anything, shut up." She had a hand in the air trying to flag down a cab as Ignas persisted in getting their attention, and it was only his mention of dark magic that made her drop her arm and freeze. Had her grandmother come for them so soon? Why let them leave if she was just going to come and try to snatch them off of the street? False hope? The woman was insane!

"That's.. Not Lorelei." She looked confused and surveyed the street, trying to find the source of this new magic that Ignas had pointed out. "Yeah, I feel it. It.. Reminds me a lot of the ring. Not like Ignas' magic, but definitely something dark." Had they sent someone else after them? "Oh god. I think it's a catalyst."
 
"A catalyst?" Both Isen and Ignas asked the same question with a similar amount of surprise to hear Adelaide's verdict. Ignas seemed to focus a little further on what he was feeling and now that he was made aware of what it could be, he seemed certain as well. "She's right. It's coming closer."

So, it wasn't Lorelei, but it was also something that was absolutely a threat to them if it happened to be coming directly in their direction. They needed to go, now. They were too wide open, there were too many people around for a fight and with her head in the state that it was, she was a danger not only to herself but also to everybody around her if her emotions flared and she lost control of her own Catalyst.

"Get us a cab. We need to go, now." He told her, urgently, hoping that they still had enough time to flag one down and put some distance between them and whatever was quickly approaching them.
 
"Yes, a catalyst. Shit!" This was the absolute last thing that they needed right now. "I'm trying, Isen!" She waved her arm frantically in the air, nearly stepping into the street as she spotted the familiar type of vehicle approaching. If she had to damn near throw herself in front of it to get them to stop, then that's what she was going to do.

"Mistress, be careful!" Ember sounded frantic inside her head, catching onto the severity of the situation and the fluctuation of emotions between everyone. Despite being so young and so new a familiar, the feline was learning quickly that the entire situation was shaky at best, and life threatening even on the best of days.

"Please don't hit me, please don't hit me," Adelaide was busy chanting the words as the cab continued to fly down the road while she waved frantically, half of her body in the street as the driver seemed to notice them last minute and come to a screeching halt that sent snow flying all over the front of the mage. "In in in!" She was breathless by the time the vehicle stopped rocking from the abrupt stop, and she yanked the back door open before throwing both her bag and herself in before Ember joined, followed by Isen.

"Cresthaven."
 
"Adelaide, be careful..." Isen groaned as she threw herself practically out into traffic, unaware that Ember was giving the same warning. He wanted to just grab her and pull her out of the way before she got herself hit by a car but the cab seemed to stop, barely, the tires screeching against the pavement as they struggled to hold the car back from hitting her.

"So close." Ignas mumbled. Isen ignored him, stuffing their bags inside the vehicle and joining her in the back. The driver seemed less than pleased about their sudden, erratic stop, but with the distance they were about to travel, he must have been seeing dollar signs and suddenly, his anger faded away and he put the car back into drive. Turning around in the parking lot, within a moment or two, they were back on the road and headed in their direction.

With the academy and the entire town slowly becoming a memory in their rear view mirror, Isen breathed a sigh of relief but he wasn't ready to drop his guard yet. "Can either of you still feel it? Are we in the clear?"

"Isen! Incoming!"

No sooner had he spoken the words did he receive an answer and not in the way he would have liked to; the entire cab seemed to rock suddenly, to the left, as though something had impacted the passenger's side, forcing the heavy, metal vehicle to topple over. It rotated onto it's hood and all of the windows shattered instantly as it rolled. One of Isen's arms instinctively moved in front of Adelaide, holding her back against her seat while the other acted on reflex, grabbing hold of Ember before her tiny body could be vaulted out through the now-open window. Bracing them both for impact, he held them steady until the vehicle came to a stop. It had rotated back onto it's wheels but it was far away from being in any condition to actually drive again. He couldn't see the driver or his condition from where they were but he could hear foot steps approaching, crumbling the shards of glass left behind from their wreck. Someone was coming.
 
"I can't tell where it is, but it's getting---" Closer, she had been able to say closer when the impact of something struck them hard enough to flip the entire vehicle. There was glass everywhere before the cab had completed its roll fully, spraying down over her head and all over everything as she found herself flush against the door and gasping for air. Isen's arm had been the only thing that had kept her from flying over the seats and through the windshield when they'd been hit, but judging by the thin lines of red running down the windshield the driver hadn't been so lucky.

"Isen.." She wheezed out his name, wiping at her face to try and clear off some of the glass before looking around to survey the damage. "Get the driver out. As much as I hate cabbies.. I don't know if he'll survive whatever's coming if you don't get him out." She grasped around the seat for one of the bags, just barely able to find the strap and tug at it before she put her shoulder against the crumpled door of the cab and pushed.

"Who the hell is that?" She stumbled out of the cab as Ember wriggled her way away from Isen to follow her mistress, both of them sputtering and wiping at the glass that had misted onto them during the accident. "Isen?"
 
Isen was glad he wasn't capable of feeling pain in that moment because if he were simply human, every part of his body would have been shaken and aching from the crash, if not badly injured. Because of that, he was able to keep his wits about him, protecting Adelaide and Ember from a worse fate. Unfortunately, the driver hadn't gotten off so lucky and yet, despite their lives being in terrible danger, Adelaide was concerned about him and ordering Isen to get him out. He clambered out through the broken window, glass cutting into his clothing and his skin. He pulled the driver's unconscious body out of the driver's side and tugged him down into the small ditch at the edge of the road. That was as best as he could do for now.

"He's here, Isen."

Moving around to the front of the car, Isen could see a figure in the near distance getting ever closer. His hand appeared to be wrapped around the handle of some sort of weapon but it was pulsating with a green-hued energy. The side of the car that had been hit was dented heavily, the metal sizzling from the force and power of whatever had impacted it and from what Isen could tell, this man was the perpetrator. By putting himself in line of sight, he was shielding the back door where Adelaide still was, doing as he had when he tried to protect her from her grandmother.

"Isen Hiyori. Finally." The man's voice spoke, gruff and weathered, as though it had been searching for him for ages. "You're a difficult man to track down, you know."

"What can I say? I don't like to stay in one place for too long. It tends to attract the type of people who attack taxi cabs."

"You're in a good mood for somebody who just got into a car wreck. And not a scratch on you, either, nor a broken bone. What they say about you is true, isn't it?"

"More or less. Depends on what you've heard."

"That you can't die. That you've shed your humanity, became something beyond human. And that you're protecting a very popular girl."

So, he wasn't just here for him?

"Leave her out of this. If you've come searching for me, then you have no reason to involve her."

His hand tightened as he lifted his weapon. It was clearly a sword, though it wasn't like Isen's. It was radiating energy, it's blade possessing a prominent curve. "I was searching for you and you alone at first but then I received an offer I couldn't refuse."

"And that was?"

"Like I said, she's a very popular girl. You have something I want, she has something they want. It was business, really."

"You're working with the DSTF?"

"I wouldn't say 'working', but we have an agreement. Don't worry, I'm not here to kill her. You, on the other hand...I want to test the limits of that curse of yours."

That was all the motivation Isen needed to kill this man. Not only had he attacked them but he was threatening Adelaide and he was working with the DSTF? That just made it easy.

Isen began to move towards him, slow at first, drawing Onigoshi and holding it out in front of him. His pace quickened until he closed the distance and prepared to swing towards the man but he moved. Fast. It was like Isen's own speed had been used against him. He wasn't expecting such a swift foe but his opponent had moved aside quickly, swinging their own blade forward. As he did, it released the energy that was crackling across the blade in an arcane wave that vibrantly cut across the distance between them, impacting against the center of Onigoshi and pushing Isen backwards from the force.

"Isen, that weapon of his is his catalyst. And it's a strong one."

"Yeah, I figured that much out." He groaned, shaking off the initial shock. "Ignas, tell Adelaide to get out of here."

"She's leaving? But I've only just gotten here. No, that won't do at all..." The man commented, turning his attention back towards the car and sprinting towards it quickly, forcing Isen to give chase to try and cut him off before he reached them.
 
Their attacker was here for Isen? Why, now, did someone have to come out of the woodwork to come specifically for Isen? Adelaide was still catching her breath beside the car, crouched out of sight and leaning back against it as she probed at her sore ribs. It didn't seem like anything had broken during the accident, no doubt thanks to Isen keeping her in her seat, but she was definitely sore from the initial impact.

She listened to the conversation without speaking, checking that Ember was near her as she tried to figure out what their options were. From everything she'd gathered from the moment of impact until now, their adversary had a catalyst, and one powerful enough that Isen and Ignas couldn't just take him down easily. That was not good, especially when she was as scrambled as she currently was.

"Shit." Her magic wasn't steady enough to teleport them anywhere at the moment, but she had to do something now that she could hear the sound of weapons colliding. This was bad, this was really, really bad. "Oh, fuck it." Maybe she could try to draw from it like she had from Isen's, at least long enough to distract the man so that they could get the advantage.

"Mistress, what are you doing?!" Adelaide ignored Ember's protest and the way the animal tried to bite at her leg, skidding around the vehicle and spotting their enemy as she stared with wide eyes.

"You wanted me? Here I am."
 
The man had been making his way directly for Adelaide but when he saw her presenting herself so willingly, he seemed to stop up out of confusion, giving Isen a chance to catch up. He tackled the male from behind, sending them both crashing down into their dirt, their weapons scattering in opposing directions as they began to struggle for control of the situation.

"What are you doing??" He yelled out towards Adelaide while trying to over power his foe who appeared just as powerful as he was. With his attention divided, he wasn't fully focused on the battle and his opponent realized this. The man let his hand drop down flat against the ground, palm open and then clutched his hand. When he did so, the energy in his discarded weapon crackled again and began to propel it towards his hand. He caught it and lifted it upwards in one smooth motion, burying the sharpest curve of the weapon into Isen's side, directly beneath his rib cage.

Isen didn't feel the blade pierce his skin. He did, however, feel it once it started to move inside of him, the magic in the sword slicing through him and causing him to groan in sudden panic. His blood started to pour out of the wound and he lost his hold on the man beneath him who tossed Isen's injured body aside. He crumpled against the dirt, painting the ground and what snow remained crimson.

"Isen! You fool." Ignas grumbled.

It was the first time he had been wounded fatally since he and Adelaide encountered that general on the first time they met. Like before, Onigoshi began to react, it's energy fluttering from the blade towards the wound to try and heal Isen, to bring him back from the brink of death. His eyes shut while staring over towards Adelaide, hand out reached.

The wielder of the curved blade watched in fascination as the energy transferred from the sword to Isen's wound, beginning to seal it. "Ah. So it is true." He stepped towards the sword and, kneeling down, he picked it up into his hand. Even though Ignas tried to repel him, he was able to hold it and lift it freely from the ground. The dark energy inside the sword lashed out against his palm but it appeared the other catalyst was combating against it, allowing him to do what nobody else should have been able to do; lift Onigoshi and, in turn, interrupt the healing process. "You're mine now. Finally." There was a satisfaction in his voice, a smirk across his lips and a deathly glare being thrown in Adelaide's direction.

"The hell I am!" Ignas yelled, flaring his energy again. "Isen! Witch! Do something!" He yelled out at her when his attempts at freeing his sword-body failed.

Now, he was walking back towards Adelaide. As he passed Isen's lifeless body, he kicked it aside, dismissively. "I expected more from him. He definitely wasn't worth the chase. What about you, Lancaster? Are you going to put up a real fight?"
 
"Distracting him, what does it look like?!" Was he seriously going to yell at her for trying to distract the man long enough to give him an opportunity? Were both of their brains scrambled? She watched in what felt like slow motion as the other man's blade sank into Isen's side and stained the snow red, hearing Ignas shout at Isen in a mixture of rage and what almost felt like.. Worry? It was definitely worry when the other man was able to pick Ignas up and wield him, and her eyes darted between him and Isen's seemingly lifeless body. Why wasn't he getting up yet?

"Ignas, why the fuck aren't you healing him? Ember? Oh come on, someone has to do something!" She backed up into the remnants of the car as Ember hissed loudly from beside her, feeling the desperation and rage coming from her mistress as she watched Isen's body for any sign of life. Nothing.

"Give me the demon," She ground out the words, fixated on the sword in his hand as her own flattened back against the vehicle. Oh, if she could just get close enough to wrap her hands around his throat, she'd choke the life out of him for what he'd just done. Isen couldn't be dead, they hadn't come this far for him to just die and her to be captured by the DSTF. They hadn't shared their pasts with each other, she hadn't opened herself up and cried multiple times for it to end this way.

"Ignas, you pathetic fucking demon, you're really going to let him just take you after all the big talk you've done?" The man had gotten so close to Adelaide now that she had nowhere else to go, and by the time she felt her magic flowing freely and racing to her fingertips there was a blur of color flashing before her eyes and she was bodily pushed out of the way.

What had been a tiny kitten just moments before had become an enormous feline pouncing on their enemy, sinking claws into him and wrenching the sword from his grasp. Oh, Ignas was going to spend the next while complaining about cat slobber, but none of that mattered in the face of seeing her familiar transform into a snarling, spitting wildcat.

"Holy shit." Another glance at Isen showed him still lying in the snow as Ember rolled off of the man and snarled loudly, her head whipping between him and Adelaide inquisitively as Adelaide finally felt her magic form a tight ball and then explode through her fingers as she turned and then pushed the car as hard as she could. Metal whined and scraped across the snowy road as it slid and then rolled toward Ember's victim, and Adelaide found herself laughing hysterically at the sight of it all. What the fuck was going on?
 
"I can't. I'm trying!" Ignas scowled back, his power flaring but still failing to so much as burn the man's hand to free himself.

"I'm not giving you anything." He replied, calmly. He felt in full control of the situation and seemed to be reveling in the fact that his search had finally come to an end. "You have one too, don't you?" He asked, noting the ring on her finger. "I could always use a third...I think I'll take that one too."

The man couldn't seem to decide which sword he wanted to raise towards her; his own or the one he had stolen. He opted to lift his, it's blade once more sizzling with green energy as if charging a second shot. He was blindsided, entirely, by the sudden emergence of what appeared to be a large, solid black wildcat that had somehow managed to leap from the back seat of the taxi cab? To say he was confused was an understatement, both blades raising in an x-formation in front of him to defend from the attack. Onigoshi seemed to repel against the energy of the man's catalyst, however, as Ignas finally managed to output enough energy to make a difference. By creating a break in their defense, the man was open to Ember's attack, jamming Ignas's body against her teeth.

"Oh, come on!" He practically growled in response. "Be careful, furball. I'm going to pluck your whiskers out if you damage me!"

A burst of energy emitted from his curved blade, managing to separate himself just before Ember's fangs could sink into his shoulder. This gave some separation but it was just enough of an opening for another, unexpected attack to connect with it's mark. The taxi cab had collided with the man in full force, blowing him backwards into the tree and separating him from both catalysts again. Onigoshi landed, blade down, stabbing into a snow bank, free from the interference. It's energy began to pour back into Isen, sealing up his wound.

"I have no idea what's happening but I've never been more proud of you." Ignas sneered. Clearly the idea of being taken by someone else was not sitting well with him and her freeing him seemed to be something that almost made him thankful.

Isen began to stir from the snow, pulling himself back up. His hand grasped at his side, where blood had soaked through his shirt, but he found no wound underneath. He surveyed the surroundings in utter confusion, noting the sudden wildcat and the taxi cab that had been somehow moved to the complete other side of the road. Glancing back at Adelaide, who was not only safe but laughing at the destruction, he found none of his questions were being answered.

"Isen! Pick me back up before that asshole recovers!"

He didn't need to be told twice. Retrieving his weapon, Isen approached the land fall of the car and found the man crawling out from underneath, moving towards his own weapon. Isen, however, stepped on his wrist, pinning it down into the snow, the point of Onigoshi angled towards the attacker's neck. "Talk. Now."

"You have...no idea the gift you've been given, do you?" He gasped, coughing, but it wasn't the kind of cough Isen would have expected. It sounded like this man was sick, desperately grasping towards his catalyst. "...and you're trying to give it away. Eternal life...wasted..."
 
"Ember, please go get the bags out of the car." Her familiar gave an annoyed look and growled, shaking her head as she tried to adjust to a form she hadn't even known she was capable of wearing. Now the problem was figuring out how to turn back into a normal cat, and the fact that they'd drawn the attention of everyone within sight. People were starting to gather and move closer now that there was no danger of flying cars of cats, and Ember disappeared back to the destroyed vehicle and began tugging their other bags out. At the very least, they'd managed to salvage their belongings.

"He is dying, mistress." Ember's words surprised her, and Adelaide found herself moving closer to where the two men were at their standoff. Well, their position, anyway, considering that Isen had the man pinned down by a foot on his wrist. That looked.. Painful, to say the least, and the cough that he kept repeating wasn't a common cough one got with the flu. No, this was a cough so deep she was surprised he wasn't adding more blood to the snow, one that shook his entire body despite the fact that Isen had him partially pinned down.

"Hurry it up, Isen, whatever you and the demon are planning. We've got people watching, and people recording." She caught sight of several phones out and aimed at them, and with a curse she scrambled for the bags Ember had gotten. The thing Priscilla had given her! Zippers nearly tore in her haste to dig through the bags and locate the device, and she murmured under her breath the moment her hand wrapped around it, and then she pushed the button.

"Hey, what the hell?!"

"Did your phone just get all weird?"

"Mine too!"
 
"Isen, this man is ill." Ignas told him. Isen had a suspicion from the way he coughed. "I suspect his catalyst was keeping him healthy. He's defenseless, what are you waiting for?"

"Let me die. That's what you do, isn't it, Reaper? You kill." The man goaded, coughing again. He didn't seem desperate, he just seemed defeated, as though everything he had been working towards had crumbled down around him. Isen couldn't help but feel a little bit of regret for the man who had struck him down. Clearly there was more here than he knew. The old Isen would have drove his blade through the man's neck, following the whim of his demon, but not this version of him.

Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed the attention they had garnered and also, Adelaide's quick thinking in shorting out all of the cameras and recording devices the students around them had been using to record what had happened. They were already wanted, a couple more viral videos wouldn't have changed anything, but it was probably for the best that whatever footage had been recorded was lost to time itself.

"Why do you want this sword so badly?"

"Because I'm fucking dying. I needed to know the rumors were true, that it could stop death itself. You're so eager to throw away the one thing that could save my life."

Isen had thought of Ignas and the sword only as a curse. It hadn't crossed his mind that for somebody on death's door, the prospect of eternal life would have been worth throwing their life away for and making a deal with the devil. The DSTF probably told him where they were in hopes that someone with a Catalyst could stop him and get Adelaide for them.

"Your catalyst?"

"It can't bring me back from the dead, it just slows down my suffering. Not that any of that matters now. Just leave me alone." He coughed again, blood finally coming out of his mouth. The longer he was away from his blade, the quicker his sickness seemed to take hold again.

Isen sighed and Ignas immediately knew what he was doing.

"Isen, you can't be serious? Are you stupid? He just tried to kill you! He wants to take me! What is wrong with you?"

"You said it yourself, he's dying, he needs it."

"He's going to attack you again. You saw how powerful that thing was. You can't just hand it over to an enemy. We should take it ourselves, use it against the DSTF. Imagine the power you would have."

Isen walked over towards the blade which had died down, no longer sizzling with energy. He contemplated it, for a quick moment, before kicking it, letting it slide across the snow, closer to the man who greedily reached out to grab it and draw it to his chest. When he did, it lit back up again, it's magic reconnecting with it's host. The old Isen would have never considered sparing a foe. He hoped now that he wouldn't regret this choice. "Don't come for us again. What I have is a curse, nothing more than that. You are privileged for the right to die a natural death."

Isen began walking back towards Adelaide, past the crowd that had begun to circle around them.

"Wait! Hiyori!" The man called out, stumbling back to his feet and beginning to follow him. "Don't walk away from me! Finish the job! Coward! Finish it!"

Isen ignored his pleas and the man began to break into a sprint towards him again. This time, Isen was ready, and the assailant had yet to recover so he was capable of turning around, raising his sword and parrying the swing aimed directly towards his back. The force of the block sent the sickly man back to the snow again, leaving him looking back up at them both.
 
"I can't believe I'm agreeing with Ignas again, but let the man die, Isen. He tried to kill you just to save himself, he tried to take me away and give those bastards exactly what they wanted! LET HIM DIE!" Adelaide stashed the EMP back in the bag and yanked the zipper closer before jolting to her feet, starting toward Isen as she saw him nudging the weapon back to their enemy. For all the talk of protecting her he'd done, even promising he would fight or kill her grandmother if it was to protect her, he was going to arm their enemy and assume they would stop attacking? The man was insane.

"Idiots, the lot of you! Ember--" The wildcat gave her a surprised look and then looked at Isen, tilting her head as she watched him easily push back at the weak attack directed toward him.

"Isen, you're going to get killed again, and we can't--You can't do that to me!" She stomped her foot angrily as she reached his side, grabbing at his arm and nearly ignoring the man on the ground. "No, we're leaving, we're leaving, I don't care if I have to kill him myself to make sure that he doesn't hurt you again."

"That won't be necessary, Adelaide." Her head snapped to the side at the sound of a familiar female voice, and the crowd parted as Lorelei pushed through with a thoroughly exasperated expression. "He'll be lucky if I don't do it myself. Why was I not informed of this? Why did you come after the Lancaster girl without consulting me?" Adelaide yelped and grabbed Isen tighter, her other hand reaching out and grabbing a handful of her familiar's fur before her ring pulsed and they were gone.

They went tumbling down in a pile of limbs and fur, boots and bags as they hit the floor of Samara's shop, Ember yelping and Adelaide groaning as she tried to extract herself from the pile that had arrived in a panicked teleportation.

"That.. God, you're so heavy, Isen."
 
Isen could understand Adelaide's frustration with him but, in that moment, he truly didn't feel as though this man was a threat any longer. He had been weakened from his separation and he seemed as though he had all but lost the will to live long before he had ever found them. Getting to Isen and his sword was the one thing keeping this man going and now, his desperation had given way to the realization that nothing he could do was going to save his time from running out.

She pulled at his arm, tugging him away from that man who remained in the snow, holding his blade against his chest for the comfort it brought to his ailment. "I can't do that to you?" He asked, curiously, recalling what she had said. Before he could coax an answer out of her, however, they had received another unwanted visitor.

Whereas Isen had been ready to let this man live and wasn't about to finish off someone who had already been sentenced for death, the moment he saw the source of this new, familiar voice, he was on guard again in front of Adelaide, blade drawn and held outwards across his chest. He still felt just as intimidated as he did back in the diner when he looked upon Lorelei Van Dyne, but he was also every bit as stubborn about trying to protect her from her grandmother as he had been then as well.

"M-Ms. Van Dyne?" He stammered. Upon hearing her call him out for how he had acted and without informing her, he did the only thing he could in that moment when he realized what Adelaide was up to. He had been briefed about her abilities, he knew she could perform teleportation and this seemed a reasonable a time as any to assume she was about to do so. He lunged forward, grabbing at Isen's leg as Adelaide tugged on him and as the two of them, and Ember, disappeared, so too did the dying man who clung to Isen the way he had tried to cling to his life.

Isen had landed at Adelaide's side though he wasn't sure yet where they had been sent. Hearing her comment puzzled him because he wasn't anywhere near her. That was when he realized that their unwanted visitor had joined them and was strewn across Adelaide's waist. Upon seeing this, Isen inexplicably moved to push him away, immediately, perhaps out of a need to protect her or simply because of the compromising position and how that had made him feel. Scrambling to pick up his sword again, he realized they had arrived in Samara's shop, the squawking of her familiar being a telling sign before the visuals had sunk in.

The bird moved towards Ember in confusion. "Priscilla, get away from that thing! Wait, Ember?" Samara asked as she came out from the back room. Peering over the counter, she realized that it wasn't just Ember in a strange new form but Adelaide, Isen and another stranger, who had appeared out of nowhere in the lobby of her store. "This is a surprise. I mean, I was expecting the two of you back at some point but this..." She gestured towards Ember and then the man who had joined them whom was just starting to recover from being sent into a daze by the rush of teleportation. "...this I didn't see coming. Wait..., is that another Catalyst I sense?"

She lifted her hand and the man's blade began to float into the air, just out of his reach. He grasped at it from on his knees, coughing again, immediately, as though he could hardly breathe at all without being in contact with it.

"He needs it. He's dying without it." Isen instructed Samara as he helped Adelaide up into a sitting position, his arm behind her back for support.

"So, you expect me to just hand it over? To a stranger, no less? In my shop? Do you not know me at all? And what, pray tell, have you done to that beautiful cat of yours, Adelaide?" She chastised, wanting answers immediately.
 
"You're not Isen!" Adelaide shrieked upon realizing that they'd brought an extra body with them, flailing and jolting back as soon as Isen had gotten the man off of her. No sooner had she gotten free and disentangled herself from everything, Samara was sweeping into the room after her own familiar, watching the scene in a mixture of shock and curiosity before she stole away the sword and then addressed Adelaide. A very embarrassed Adelaide who was only now half upright thanks to Isen's help, her cheeks red as she looked between Ember and Samara before stuttering.

"I didn't do anything! He," She pointed at the coughing man accusingly, "Was coming after me after killing Isen, he had the demon sword, and then all of a sudden Ember appeared like that!" She threw her hands up, sucking in air after spewing the entire sentence with little pause. "And now she won't turn back, and I didn't mean to bring whoever this guy was, but my grandmother showed up and I panicked and teleported us and.. And.." She finally ran out of steam, dropping her hands to her lap and realizing just how absolutely filthy she was from the accident. Damp from the snow, still partially covered in glass, and there was an occasional smear of blood on her clothing from either her own small cuts or Isen's ruined shirt.
 
"You didn't do anything, hm?" Samara asked, glancing quite obviously between Adelaide and Ember in her new form as if to silently pass judgement on her. "Interesting. Very, very interesting." The witch continued to listen to Adelaide's rambling before breaking out into a chorus of amused laughter. "I'm sure we can find a way to change her back but I'm fascinated by how you were able to make her change to begin with. I've never been able to do anything of the sort with Priscilla! And I've tried! I presumed it was possible but I didn't have any proof, I've done research and..." It was Samara's turn to ramble as she found curious fascination in this phenomenon. Priscilla got closer to Ember, landing on her head, plucking at her mane curiously while Samara continued to go on and on with no end in sight.

She was, however, interrupted by Isen, who still seemed to be slightly concerned for the dying man who was practically choking on his own blood beside them.

"Samara."

"Oh! Right, this guy." She glanced down, noticing that his coughing had produced blood on her floor. "You have got to be kidding me. You're just going to bleed all over a lady's floor like that? Unbelievable. You both are cleaning it up. Actually, you're cleaning up this whole mess, as a matter of fact!" Samara moved her fingers again and the blade dipped down. She pinned it against the male's chest but then shackled his arms back against the wall with arcane bindings, keeping him from grabbing the blade but still allowing contact to be made. It flared up with it's magic but because he couldn't actually operate it, there was no immediate threat. At least it cured the coughing, putting Isen at ease. "There. All better."

Samara watched as it lit up. She seemed to have so many questions and not nearly enough patience to ask any of them.

"Who are you...?"

"I should be asking you the same question. The fledgling witch and her handsome, broody boyfriend, I know but you? How come I've never heard of you before, hm? I know things, it's what I do, and yet you have a catalyst I've never seen or heard of before. Do you have a name, mystery man?"

"...my name is Takami Ora."

"Ora, as in the clan Ora? You're kidding. They're all dead."

"...mostly. I am still alive but not for much longer."

"Samara, can you do something to cure him?"

"When did you grow such a conscience? Hm, no. I don't think there's much I can do. Healing magic doesn't quite work like that, remember? And if the power of his catalyst isn't enough to cure his illness that must mean...ah, he wanted yours, isn't that right?"

Clever as always, she was piecing things together rather quickly. It was her whole thing, after all.

"You said he was part of the Ora clan and they're all supposed to be dead. Why?"

"Supposed to be." She nodded, emphasizing that fact. "The DSTF wiped the floor with all of them. They were a family of skilled warriors who were harboring mages, hiding them when the DSTF came collecting...they didn't take too kindly to that."

"They killed your family? And still, you decided to work with them?" Isen asked, seeing the obvious parallel between Takami and what seemed to be happening with the Lancasters. He diverted his eyes to Adelaide to see if she was seeing the same things that he was.

"...like I said, they made me an offer that could have saved my life. I am not proud of what I have done. I know I've betrayed the memory of my family but that family lineage dies with me. I did what I could to try and preserve it."

"Let me guess. They wanted you to kill Isen and bring Adelaide back to them. In return, you keep the sword and it's demon companion and voila, no more dying."

Takami groaned and nodded his head, affirming Samara's deduction.

"I hate to break it to you, but that's not something I can allow to happen even if you were able to beat the two of them in a fight. They have a role to play, a role larger than you trying to preserve your family's legacy." When Samara said that, Isen was inclined to believe it. She said it with conviction, she said it as though she had seen something that she couldn't say out loud to any of them.

"So, we just let him die?"

"...yeah? That's exactly what we do. Judging by the look of you, he already got a couple of shots in. He's admitting to the fact that he's hunted you down to kill you and he was going to turn Adelaide over to the bad guys, why are you suddenly trying to find redemption in the unredeemable?" She asked, looking in Adelaide's direction now. "OH. This was all you, wasn't it? You finally got through to him, melted that ice cold heart." She was practically swooning. Ignas groaned in detest. "I said it before and I'll say it again, I thought he was hopeless but look at you now. Transforming your familiar, taming the Reaper, I've never been more proud to call you my protégé!"

She had never called Adelaide that but again, when she said it out loud, it sounded as though she believed it wholeheartedly.
 
She'd somehow done something that even Samara couldn't do? That didn't seem right, even with the newfound information about her father's lineage. She was half mage and half witch, but that shouldn't make her stronger than someone like Samara who could do things just by thinking them, as she was once again showing now. The way that she so easily created bindings to keep the enemy in place while also keeping his catalyst in contact so that he didn't continue to stain her floor with blood. Speaking of, when Samara had said they both were cleaning up the mess, Adelaide sincerely hoped she meant Isen and this Takami character. Honestly, what was with all the foreign names?! At least this one looked foreign, whereas Isen.. Well, not so much, but she wasn't going to waste time trying to sort out the technicality of names.

"Harboring mages?" So his family had been helping her kind and was killed for it, yet he was siding with them? It was starting to sound like he was just as deranged as her grandmother, but the more than she listened the more she began to understand. It didn't lessen her anger toward him, and she was alarmed to realize that most of it was because of the fact that Isen had almost died permanently because of him. Wait, had Samara called Isen her boyfriend?

"I--What? Don't pin this all on me! I told him to just let the bastard die when we were back at the scene of it all. He was already half dead after I threw a cab at him and the sword was out of his reach. So unless we're going to turn him into some sort of lackey to help us against.. Oh." Now that was an interesting thought, and she looked between Takami and Isen curiously.

"You're scared of Lorelei, aren't you? You know if you go back there after what you did, she's probably going to kill you in the worst way possible."
 
"You threw a cab at him?" Samara asked, incredulously, giggling at the thought and the mental image. "I take it back. Now I'm proud to call you my protégé!" She was having too much fun with this, but her jubilant attitude seemed to take a down sing when Adelaide mentioned Lorelei. "Oh, you finally met her. Adelaide, look, I'm sorry. I knew this was going to happen eventually but it was something that I couldn't tell you. You know how these things work...I see stuff that I can't speak out loud. If I do that then there's a chance what I saw won't come true and that opens up a whole different can of worms." For a moment, there seemed to be genuine concern in her voice, it was a little shocking to see her act in such a sheepish manner while she tried to reason out why she hadn't warned them.

"Of course I'm scared of her. But I'd rather die by her hand than choke on my own blood. If you're not going to give me what I need, and you're not going to kill me, then send me back and let her finish the job instead."

"If that was what you wanted, you wouldn't have tagged along when we teleported out. You want to live. It's okay to admit it." Maybe he should have been saying that to himself, not Takami...

"Speak for yourself, demon." Takami's words were loaded with venom. It truly felt like he hated Isen. Not for anything he had done personally but just for taking fore granted what Ignas and Onigoshi gave to him.

"At any rate, you probably remember how I asked you to find the one named Van Dyne and end their life for me? I wasn't talking about your grandmother, no, I meant her husband. I know that doesn't matter right now but...I don't want you to think I sent you off to kill your own flesh and blood."

Samara continued to seem affected by this. Even Ignas was curious now as to why she was acting this way.

"Isen, ask her why she wants the general dead."

"...Samara? What did General Van Dyne do to make you want him dead so badly? Besides the obvious, I mean."

She shook her head. For a split second, Samara trembled, her eyes squinting as if she was trying to hold something back. As always, her demeanor shifted on a dime and she was back to acting as though nothing was wrong. "Never mind that! Adelaide, Ember! With me! We need to figure out how to get you back to your cute little self. Isen, be a dear and clean up the mess you made of my shop. And as for you, Ora, I'm not going to send you back to Lorelei. We'll decide what to do with you later. For now, feel free to...hang out." She laughed, given the way Takami was suspended, walking off towards the back room. Priscilla plucked on Ember's mane once more before taking to the air to follow her master inside, leading Adelaide to do so as well.

Isen looked towards Adelaide and sighed, gesturing towards the back room, telling her to go and get Ember checked while he did what he was told to. That meant he would be in the room alone with Takami, something he expected would lead to an awkward conversation or two, but as long as Adelaide was able to get her familiar back to normal, he would endure it.
 
Adelaide only shrugged in response to Samara's apology. What could she say to that? Even if Samara had known and withheld the information from her, the mystery inside man was the one who had sent her directly to Lorelei. Or had Samara known that would happen too? At this point, was there anything the witch didn't know? Just what was the greater purpose that Adelaide and Isen apparently had?

"I figured it was her husband." Adelaide shrugged. Samara didn't seem so cruel as to send her off to murder her only remaining family for some petty revenge mission. She didn't seem the type to send her to do it at all, but at this point Adelaide wasn't sure what to think. There were too many questions, too many people, too many things running rampant in her brain at the moment.

"Uh.." That hadn't been the type of reaction she'd expected from Samara, even though she'd grown accustomed to the witch's moods being whiplash in the form of a woman. "Just.. Be careful, Isen." It wasn't that Adelaide doubted Samara's binding would be good enough, but more that she was still shaken up by seeing Isen's lifeless body not healing, courtesy of the very man Samara had suspended on her wall.

"Alright, alright." Shrugging off her coat and leaving it with the mess of bags that had fallen through with them, she rubbed at her sore hand before nudging Ember to follow after the witch and bird. Samara was right, they did need to tend to getting her back into her kitten form before they got into too much trouble.

"I can't tell if I like being big or not." Adelaide snorted as she heard Ember in her head.

"Ember can't decide if she likes being big or not." Once they'd gotten fully into the back room she relaxed slightly, glancing down at her hand and making a face before turning her attention fully to Samara.

"I need to learn about that healing magic, while we're here."
 
"What if she didn't have to choose between big cat, little cat?" Samara asked, curiously, her head tilted slightly. She began to rummage through the shelving in her back room, searching for something. Eventually, she pulled out a tome that was far less dusty than the others, implying what she had said before about having researched this was very correct. The book was heavy and full of pages, making a thud against the desk as she dropped it down and began to thumb through. "If you were capable of transforming her in the first place, it would stand to reason that you may be able to do so again. If you could master this ability, you could bring her between forms as you saw fit. That would be pretty handy, wouldn't you say? Hmm..." Samara mused, her finger nail tracing the words as she scoured through the passages.

"Do you remember what you did when it happened the first time? What you felt? Maybe what you said? Did you interact with any other type of magic?" She asked questions, trying to come up with a suitable explanation while cross-referencing it with the text. "Hm, healing magic? I can show you a thing or two but it will cost you." She smirked, leaning forward a little bit. "I want the details on you and Mr. Broody out there. What happened?"

~~~

Isen started tidying up the mess they had made, picking up some of the merchandise that had fallen over. He was doing so clumsily, of course, he was far from the type of person who was concerned with cleaning. Takami seemed to be amused by it, watching in quiet judgement that Ignas picked up on.

"He's laughing at you. Are you sure you don't want to cut his tongue out?"

"I'm sure."

"Why not? After what he did to you, to us, he deserves it."

"We're not killing him."

"Debating with your other half, are we?"

"...something like that." Isen responded though he didn't really want to engage in a conversation. He continued to clean up but Takami wasn't going to let them both exist in the same room in such silence.

"It's right, you should kill me. As long as I am still alive and you have what I want, I'm never going to stop coming for you." Well, at least he was honest.

"May I ask you a question?"

"That depends on your intentions."

Isen placed down another book and turned towards the bound warrior. "This sickness is threatening your life. What is it?"
 
"It would be extremely helpful, yes." Honestly, if Ember hadn't transformed in the first place, they probably would have been in a lot more trouble. How long could Isen stay dead, separated from Ignas before it was too late for the demon's magic to bring him back? What if even another minute or two had made all the difference that had kept him dead? They never would have completed their goal, never would have fulfilled the deal that they'd made. Even if they had, did she really want him to die, and like that? Just the sight of his blood on her hands from their transport into Samara's shop was enough to make her wonder just how attached she'd gotten to her partner in crime.

"There was that other guy, but I don't think I'd taken any of his magic," Not that she'd been aware of, anyway. "I was mad. Really mad. Wait, what?" Adelaide's cheeks turned bright red at the witch's insinuation, and she busied herself inspecting her injured hand before shrugging.

"Nothing happened. We're not.. Like that. I mean, we've talked to each other about our pasts, and he tried to cook dinner at the apartment, which was a terrible, terrible mess." She laughed at the memory and rubbed the back of her neck. "Like.. Burned food, dirty dishes, it was terrible, but he tried to make me dinner to cheer me up after I saw my grandmother last night," The reminder of Lorelei wiped the smile from her face.

"And we sent off lanterns in honor of the people who have died along the way, but other than that we've been on the move all day. I tried to attack Lorelei and then we left, but I couldn't teleport again after we got back to the apartment," She sighed and found herself stroking Ember absently. "So we were going to take a cab, and then the accident happened and we ended up here. I wasn't expecting to bring an extra passenger with us, although that probably explains why I'm so tired."
 
Samara lifted a brow as Adelaide began her response, watching the way her cheeks burned bright and she had to divert her gaze to try and hide it. "Not like that." Samara repeated her words back to her with a laugh of her own. "Your face is telling me otherwise. He tried to make you dinner, you had a romantic heart-to-heart underneath the starlight! How could it be anything else? But fine, you're not like that...yet. I give it another couple of days before it hits you." Was she saying that because she could read the situation? Or had she seen something that Adelaide couldn't be told?

Seeming satisfied with the details, Samara glanced back down towards the book, continuing to scroll through it. "You tried to attack her? Are you crazy? Your Catalyst isn't like his, remember? It's not going to bring you back from your death wish." The witch scoffed. "You're going to need a whole lot more than healing magic if you're going to keep acting like that. How do you think Isen feels knowing you're putting yourself in danger like that? He would clearly do anything to protect you but that doesn't mean you should put yourself in a situation where he has to." Samara seemed to be hinting at something, though perhaps it was just some basic advice. "Losing control of your emotions will make you lose control of your magic as well."

After a couple moments of skimming through the tome a little more, she finally seemed to find what she was looking for. Her finger pressed down against the page, pointing it out. "Here it is! I knew I saw it somewhere." Samara was, as always, piecing together what had happened and now, she seemed to have a theory. "Your familiar is an extension of you the same way that Priscilla is an extension of me. When you lost control of your emotions, it made the link between the two of you unstable. I believe that your anger caused the magic inside of Ember to react and changed her physiology based on the emotion you felt; it was anger, was it not?" A wild cat certainly seemed angry enough. "Whatever spell you cast, purposeful or not, should be imprinted upon you now. That means you should be able to do it again...maybe your emotional instability is an asset after all. That's why I could never do it! I never lose control." She giggled as she said that, a hint or connotation of something beyond their conversation in the distant background of her voice tone.

"So, the real question is how do we trigger it? Hmm..." Samara placed her finger against her chin next, thinking for a moment before staring at Adelaide, intently. She began to move her fingers, threading energy back and forth like tying a knot. "If anger turned Ember into a big kitty, we just need to find the emotion that turns her back. Once you know, you can manipulate it, but...this isn't going to be fun for either of you." Samara had wrapped the spell she had weaved around her fingers and then pressed them against Adelaide's temple. "It's a simple spell. It's meant to manipulate one's feelings, their emotions. I'm going to try several different feelings and when it hits you, I want you to think about Ember, think of the form you want her to take. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, we just find the right combination. I'm sorry, though, this is going to feel pretty intense." The magic heated up against Adelaide's skin as Samara began the spell, forcing the first emotion into her head. "Alright. First up...we may as well get it out of the way. This one's fear."

~~~

"...lung cancer?" Isen knew what cancer was but he had never really had to deal with it. He knew how dangerous it was, how it could be fatal, how many people died from it. Their world was a dangerous one full of monsters, both human and Dissonant, but sometimes the most effective killers were diseases, things that couldn't be fought with a sword and a magic spell.

"Terminal. If not for my catalyst, I would be dead already."

It was that bad? That was why he could barely breathe when they were separated, Takami was knocking on death's door with every breath he took and his catalyst was the one thing preventing that door from swinging wide open.

"...and Onigoshi would save you. Or, I guess, it would prevent you from dying to begin with. That's why you've been searching for me." Adelaide had been searching for him too, but she had been looking for a different side of his curse than Takami had been.

"The DSTF has been tracking you. Both of you. You think you've been safe but they've known your position this entire time. They traded it to me in exchange for my cooperation in bringing the Lancaster girl back to them. They knew you'd never let her go, they thought if I could kill you with my catalyst, capturing her would be easy."

They were being tracked? It made sense. The DSTF had eyes and ears everywhere and access to powerful magic. Adelaide's friend knew exactly where to find them as well and he was affiliated with them. That was...concering. They probably already knew the two of them were back in Cresthaven

"Adelaide is strong. With or without me."

"You care about her, don't you? It's obvious." Takami laughed, shaking his head. "That's going to get her killed and probably you along with it. What happens when the magic in that sword runs out? Or you're separated for too long?"

Isen had never really thought about it. Was there a finite limit to how many times Ignas could bring him back? If they had been separated for much longer while he had been dead, would he have been brought back at all? He had tried to separate himself from Ignas in the past, when he wanted to die, but Ignas was always able to get back to him. In a case like this, however, that wouldn't have been a possibility; Takami's catalyst had allowed him to carry Onigoshi, there would have been no return if Adelaide hadn't been there.

"Ignas, is that true?"

"...theoretically. Being inside a catalyst does limit my true power, it is possible that eventually, something like that could happen but you know that I would never allow it. I will never let y-"

"...never let me go. Yeah. I've heard that before." Isen grumbled, shaking his head.

"You're on a suicide mission if you think the two of you can take them down. The Van Dynes are only the tip of the iceberg, Isen Hiyori."
 
"Nothing is going to hit me, Samara, we're just friends." Adelaide scowled. "We have a mutual goal to accomplish, and I promised him something as part of our deal, too." The scowl only increased when Samara began to chastise her about her actions, as if Adelaide wasn't well aware she had made a mistake attacking the older woman. It had been purely instinctual when she'd been told about her mother, she hadn't even stopped to think before lunging over the table, it had happened so fast even Isen hadn't been able to stop her.

"I'm not trying to make him do anything! I can take care of myself pretty well; I don't want him to keep dying just to keep me safe." So Ignas and Ember were both correct about her emotions being the reason that her magic had been out of control. She had put both Isen and her familiar in danger because she couldn't control herself, that was just bloody fucking lovely. How could they ever succeed in their mission if she was holding them back and forcing Isen to step in and protect her? They were never going to get anywhere if he was constantly distracted trying to take care of her!

"Yeah, I was angry." She stared down at the floor with still red cheeks, her hands balled into fists at her sides as Ember tried to reassure her by rubbing against her leg. It was only Samara's next words that made her lift her head just in time to feel the fingers touching her, her eyes drawn to the light that was the magic woven around the witch's fingers.

"Wait, what?" She'd barely had time to finish speaking before a feeling of intense dread exploded inside of her. Fear. Such a deep, gut wrenching fear that for a long moment she wasn't sure which way to look. Ember was snarling beside her as Adelaide stumbled back and into the nearest wall, knocking several items over as her arms came up to block her face as if an attack was incoming.

She had already been afraid before the witch had even touched her with the spell, had been afraid that her presence was going to be the downfall of the lot of them. Her inability to control her magic when her emotions flared, and now it was happening to her all over again. The fire that sparked out of nowhere hovered in the air before her and she waved her arms wildly, trying to dispel the flame but only succeeding in making it larger before it sizzled and then abruptly extinguished as though it'd never been there to begin with.

"Undo it! Samara, undo the fucking spell!" The warning she'd been given had not been sufficient enough to prepare her for the feeling, and she wasn't sure even a week of preparation would have helped to combat the sheer fear and panic coursing through her body as she backed across the room still bumping into things. Ember. She was supposed to be focusing on her familiar and getting her back to normal, but it took every ounce of her concentration just to be able to breathe.

"God, I'm going to fuck it all up. Samara, undo it!"
 
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