[IC] A Hero Tale {Complete}

[Hatman1801]

Alvios had nothing better to do besides walk forwards. It couldn't have been that long, but he felt like he had been out here for hours. The sun was hot enough and the land dry enough to be quite uncomfortable; he had grown accustomed to Corona's sea breeze. Well, at least he had discarded his jacket before coming in here.

He looked around in all directions, as he had done several times already, before continuing his walk forward. He had Vale's sword at his hip now, letting the ever-sharp blade leave a nice gouge in the ground in case he needed to retrace his steps. "I immediately regret my decision," he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't know if I'm simply in some absolutely foreign part of the world, or if I'm in a separate dimension. If Yzeira's plan to stop us was to just throw us into different parts of the cosmos, well, I suppose we walked right into it. More literally than I would have liked."

Another few minutes, and he looked around again. "Does anything exist out here besides dirt?!"

[tex]

"Feel empty," a writhing voice crept through the silence, from behind Alvios. But, rather than approach him from behind, or below, or in any sneaky fashion, Shaidra popped out of thin air in front of the swordsman, several yards away, walking on all fours. "Deserts are empty Shaidra. You may have an easier time thinking, there, than you would by the sea."

[Hatman1801]

Alvios' eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed, teeth bared in anger and sword drawn without hesitation. "You," he snarled, walking closer. "I've been waiting to deliver your retribution for a long time, Shaidra. You and Yzeira will answer for what you did at the Festival of Lights."

[tex]

Shaidra scampered backwards, holding one hand up defensively. "No," She whispered, jumped back even further and stopping in place.

[Hatman1801]

"Give me one reason why not. You killed Rebecca. Your master Yzeira killed dozens, nay, hundreds more. And that's just in one town. The number he's killed is immeasurable. The number you'll kill alongside him will be comparable. No, you immortals, pretending to be gods, upsetting the balance of light and darkness." Alvios paused in his step, his mind flashing back to the terrified and confused Shaidra he had encountered. The one hardly able to form coherent words. It seemed like she had.. matured slightly. He stopped as well, although he held Vale's sword, his sword, at the ready.

"One reason."

[tex]

Shaidra reassured her posture, and stood up on two feet, hunched forwards. She looked at Alvios, her eyes drooping slightly. "Balance is a farce," She said, stern and resolute without warning, "Unable to differentiate between arrogance and resolve, petulant insistence and stubbornness, sad little creatures will always insist, and insist, and insist..." Shaidra lowered back down. "Insist and insist and insist and insist and insist and insist... And insist..." The small woman grabbed her head and swayed back and fourth like a metronome. "Insist that their insistance is... I ask myself, can they stop and think? Are they even capable of that?.. Nrggh.."

[Hatman1801]

Alvios was resolute in his stance on the matter. "Balance is a belief, an ideal. It's not something that inherently exists, it is something that we strive to achieve. There is no way to eliminate chaos, but happiness and peace are won by the belief that it can be repelled. That good people will have freedom and certainty, while those who would harm others selfishly will be punished. "I am balance. I harm others selfishly, to bring that peace and freedom to as many as possible. That is the purpose I make for myself."

Alvios kept his eyes trained on her. He didn't think she would understand his words, but they were words worth saying, if even a fragment of their meaning reached her, made her focus, maybe he would be able to make use of that. He knew that Shaidra's prominent role in the Order seemed to be transportation of the other members; he might be able to make it back to the tower through her. Wait...

"...Why are you here, Shaidra?"

[tex]

Shaidra glared at Alvios for a few moments after he spoke, her eyes narrowing slowly. "Insist" She mocked, slowly raising her hand to point at him. "Insist" Her hand dropped again, and she dropped her body even closer to the ground, like a cat ready to pounce. Slowly, she started to circle him, keeping her distance relatively consistent. "Why..? Fear is weak. Stop fretting over silly things. You won't change, like that." She rose from her crouch for a brief moment.

[Hatman1801]

Alvios sighed through his nose. Still without reason, it seemed. Talking to her like a normal person wasn't going to get him anywhere. Whether she was always like this or simply twisted beyond reason by something the Order did, didn't matter. He was shifting his stance constantly, always being sure to face her without opportunity of a flank. He didn't bother explaining himself to her any further; he had tested to see if she grasped what he said before, and she wouldn't grasp what he said now. Still, he needed her, either dead or helpful.

"I ask again. Why are you here? I'm not asking about your purpose, I'm asking why you bothered to come to this wasteland. To bother me? To kill me? Or is there something you actually want to know, because your boss is kind of planning on destroying the universe, and I presume you aren't here to take me back to him."

[tex]

Shaidra swung her head backwards and rolled her eyes, scratching at her scalp in annoyance. She flung her head forwards and repeated: "Fear!" She spat, "Stop fretting. Stop fretting over... Things." Her eyes narrowed again, tensely this time. She placed one hand to her cheek and then shrugged it off, as if she didn't want to be touched, even by herself. Then, she stood up, and opened a rift in her black clothes with both hands, tearing it open around her tummy, to reveal traces of a massive scar that reaped across her body. "Scars are unbecoming of a lady," She mused in yet another tone of voice.

[Hatman1801]

Alvios eyed the scar for a moment, but didn't seem particularly moved by it. If Shaidra wasn't a member of the Order, hadn't done the things she'd done, or even had the capacity for redemption, he might have tried to navigate the twisted corners of her mind. Help her find herself, find reason. Answer all of the questions she seemed to endlessly have.

Then again, maybe he didn't have a choice. Killing her might weaken Yzeira, but it might not. It might open up a path back home, but it might not. Whatever she might reveal wasn't useful; his communicator wasn't working, so he couldn't relay the information. Typical that Jeff didn't account for interdimensional cosmic interference. "You tell me to not fret over things, but you're fretting over your own curiosity and uncertainty." He gestured barely at the scar with his sword. 'Scars are unbecoming of a lady.' Did Ada tell you that?"

[tex]

Shaidra looked down at her scar and let the fabric close itself up. Thwip. She looked to the right, and then to the left, and back at Alvios one more time. The little wraith said nothing for a few moments. Then, she placed a hand against the smokey fabric that covered most of her body. "Bad, scary," she grunted. She pointed at Alvios. "Good, scary," Shaidra stopped and looked around, bemused. Her eyes fluttered up for a moment, and her posture dropped "Everything is terrifying." Her eye flashed for a moment, bringing a tinge of life to the blackness. She looked up again, and viciously pushed into her chest with five fingers. "Stop fretting. Want it." She stopped, and her head spun away from Alvios, like she'd caught something in the distance. But there was nothing.

[Hatman1801]

Alvios sighed, and thought back to their first encounter. That's right. She can only parrot what others say. This was going to go nowhere, unless Yzeira had a terrible habit of telling Shaidra his deepest secrets and weaknesses. It was possible she didn't even understand half of what she herself said.

"Alright, this is going nowhere. I don't know what you can understand, but I'll speak simply. Take me back to the Tower or die." His Ki flared up, a white aura flowing around him and his sword.

[tex]

Shaidra's eyes went dark. A low growl bubbled up from the bottom of her throat, and she pressed her hands into the ground. Black claws erupted fourth from the base of her hands, and began to tear away at the ground. "Insist," She growled, "Die like the rest," She roared, lunging towards Alvios with her claws at the ready, like an animal.

[Hatman1801]

"I'd say 'I'm not like the rest', but that would be falling on deaf ears." Alvios swung once with the blade, launching a large wave of Ki at Shaidra. At the end of the swing, he took his left hand off the hilt and lashed out with the arm, a wide fan of smaller light blades following the first.

[tex]

Shaidra phased through the wave of light, bounding off the ground and jumping again, moving through the blades that followed as well as she swiped with he right hand, extending it into a much larger claw of black smoke.

[Hatman1801]

Ah, right. Phases through attacks. How did I beat her before? Her intangibility had suddenly stopped back then... Alvios decided to see if it was an all-or-nothing technique, activating Lightforge and moving to slash her rather than evade her attack. The veil of light melded with his skin to protect and heal him from whatever damage he might take. If she had to phase her entire body to avoid attacks, she should pass through him harmlessly to avoid getting cut down. If she could choose portions...well, he'd cross that bridge when he reached it.

[tex]

Shaidra faltered mid-swing. Her smokey claw shrinking, barely enough to harm Alvios, although it did hit its target, rending through his outer layer of defense briefly before fading. Alvios' blade did pass through her moments earlier, but in the last second, as it left the side of her torso, a small spurt of blood flew outwards, and she stopped in midair, poofing out of sight. He phasing stopped for a moment. It might have been unclear, but there was a very obvious pang of fear that exerted through her expression in the moments before she disappeared. Unfortunately, the injury she'd just received had been glancing at best, but for the moment, Alvios had freed himself of her presence.

"She doesn't often act that way around people," Another voice began to close in from all around. Nexus' form clearly faded into view, a few feet in front of Alvios, just moments after he spoke. "Shaidra is very scared of you."

[Hatman1801]

Alvios blinked, curling his mouth once before straightening his stance and looking the newcomer over. Her own attack had done little more than sting, and the pain was gone in an instant. He let the light fade from his skin as he exited his Lightforge state, but didn't retract all of his Ki, sword still ready in his hand.

"Oh good, another Order member. Come to avenge Shaidra's tiny wound like Yzeira did?" Alvios raised an eyebrow at the tear in Nexus' mask. Did he get into a fight with one of the others? Or did he get into a fight with another Order member? He didn't remember talking about any of the members with a tear in their mask or blue eyes. "...Don't think I've heard about you. Between you and Vale, I feel like getting briefed on the Order members was a waste of time. I keep running into the mystery crew."

[tex]

Nexus cocked an eyebrow back. "Has Jenso not told everyone about me? I am Nexus," He stated clearly, "I've just finished speaking with Bruce and Jenso, in their respective jail cells. I was eager to speak with you as well,
but the situation is... Complicated." He eyed Alvios' sword and sighed. "I see that Vale served a different purpose, than he initially planned."