Matter of the Soul [Job/Gil/Lexa]

~~Dreaming~~

The haze of voices, a stir, the sensation of a cold solid platform on her back, and the cold embrace of a chilly wind... 'Where... where am I?' Lexa thought to herself, noting that her inner voice sounded... younger... She began moving her wrist, but the world was still dark. "Shit! Subject X-003's waking up, get the sedative!" a voice shouted through the haze, muffling out at the end as Lexa's hand relaxed. "Never mind, it was just an energy spike." the muffled voice said, followed by the clock of something hitting a metal surface. 'I... I have to go back... I have to... open my eyes.' she though to herself, her inner voice was scratchy, and young, as though she were a child again. Light entered her eyes as they began forcing open, the face of several men wearing doctors masks was blurry but still noticeable. "God dammit, her mind's racing!" a voice in the near expanse said with urgency. A beeping sound, much like a heart monitor began increasing in pace, faster and faster but being drowned out by "X-003's going into tachycardia, sedate her! She's the only one who's come this far, I don't feel like starting from scratch again!" the voice from earlier said, followed by the sound of a pneumatic syringe, forcing a drug into her, and then the darkness creeping back in.

Once again, her mind returned to the haze, but this time feeling a cool sensation around her. "Her mind's beginning to race again." a voice from the outside was heard, but it was as if Lexa were listening through a wall. "If X-003 begins to wake, you know what to do." a voice replied. She moved her hand, feeling a type of liquid around her. It was extremely thick, kind of like swimming in jello that was almost at the point where it was ready to eat, but you could still stir it just a bit. The sound of bubbles forming was heard. 'I'm in a tank...' Lexa thought to herself. 'But why?' she asked, wanting to find answers. 'I needa break free...' her thought faded as she heard the syringe pumping even more medicine into her, and causing her mind to fade out again.

In the real world, or the dark celestial world where Lexa's body was, some of her circuits were emitting a small spark. As if she were a computer, and her circuits were processing the information around her. The lights weren't nearly enough to produce light to be guided by, but it was plenty sign to let others know Lexa was in fact, mostly alive.

Being led by he shadowy lion, and holding the trembling hand of the Rune Knight, Kuro, Kateri was the first to see the faint light off in the distance. She stopped abruptly, leading Kuro's hand to her shoulder and letting her hold onto that. Kateri reached for her sniper and aimed down the scope, getting a very clear view of what was ahead. She then slid the scope off and handed it to Kuro so she could get a look at what she saw. It was a massive, probably three kilometer across at least, platform with several gilded mirrors in the middle, four by Kateri's count, all facing the direction the group was coming from. Once Kuro would pass the scope back, Kateri would re-attach it to the sniper at set the weapon back on the gun rack. 

After the short, two hour long walk to the beacon of hope that was the massive, circular platform, Kateri marveled at the structure. The platform was perfectly lit, with no shadows in the middle of the circle. There was a set of four steps leading to the main platform, which raised it only a foot or two off the darkened ground. The architecture of the monument rivaled that of the Colosseum during its glory days, and was pure white marble just like her guild hall. 'Be wary my lady, those mirrors are abnormal.' Kazimir said in Kateri's head. 'How so?' she replied. 'Once you look inside, they'll summon an exact version of yourself.' he answered. 'Is that good or bad, and how do you know?' she asked the demon. 'Those mirrors were made by a very weak, but annoying demon who enjoyed watching other beings fight themselves. I advise you to take time to strategize with your companions before you fight...' he answered the Lamia Scale she-wizard.

Kateri stopped just ten meters from the mirrors and turned around to address her allies. "Kazimir, get out here and explain." she said. At that moment, her shadow on the ground changed to a more masculine appearance, the hair shrunk to medium male length and a pair of green eyes glowed on the shaded visage. "I am Kazimir, the peace keeper demon." he said, the mouth of the shadow looked, and moved as if it were physically present, and not just a shadow. "Before you lays your selves, but you must defeat them in order to leave. Don't underestimate them, they're exactly the same as you are at this very point in time..." he said before vanishing, causing Kateri's shadow to revert to the smaller, feminine form. "With that said, I think it'd be silly to fight ourselves." Kateri said, staring directly at Kuro to make sure she was in on the plan. "Kuro, you'll have to fight Gil's clone. Since I use guns more than magic, I'll have an advantage over both of you. Gil has his summons to coordinate with, so if you can survive long enough Kuro or myself can help you deal with the other me. That said, I'll fight Kuro. She seems to use long ranged attacks, so my Rifle should have the upper hand." Kateri said, hoping the plan wouldn't fall apart. "But what about her..." she said under her breath while looking at Lexa, who was still asleep. "He-he, I'll be her opponent silly. Don't worry, I like fighting so I'll wait for her to wake up! You can play with the others..." the voice came from behind, sounding sweet... young... and, just like Lexa.

Kateri spun around with her guns drawn, amazed that Lexa didn't make a sound. It was at that moment that the other three stepped out, and Kateri immediately walked to stand in front Kuro's shadow self. "Hey, what gives? You don't wanna play with yourself!?" the other Kateri asked. "It's not that, it's just that I'd rather fight a battle I can win. You get to kick the false princes ass over there if it makes you feel better." Kateri said, her dark self nodded with a massive smile on her face. The dark version disappeared, teleporting all the way across the field to her preferred distance from opponents. Out of the cloak she war, a small wyvern popped out. "Well... at least you won't have to worry about that now... he can only do it once." Kateri said to Gil. "Stay at a distance, trust me." she added, hinting that up close fighting was more dangerous that being at a distance.

Lexa began opening her eyes slowly, using a hand to feel what she was laying on. 'Fur? But... it's so cold...' she thought as she touched the dark lion. "Oh, it looks like you're awake." the voice, same as her own when she felt like being childish, sounded off. Lexa slowly pushed herself up, letting the sleep induced haze of just waking up ware off, revealing a small distance away from her was herself. "The others are already going, and I'm getting bored." the other Lexa said. Lexa slid off the dark beast and looked around at the world. Kateri was fighting Kuro... Kuro was fighting Gil... and Gil was fighting Kateri... and Lexa was looking at herself... 'What's going on...' she asked herself. "I'll give you a few seconds to clear up you head. After all, I want you full awake when I kill you fr-" the sentence was cut short by the force of Lexa donning a pair of wings and using the speed to make a would-be powerful first strike at her opponent. The dark Lexa had anticipated the reaction, and used her own sword to block the attack. Despite being on the defensive, or so it seemed, and being forced hundreds of meters back by the original Lexa's attack, she was smiling from ear to ear. She then donned her own wings, spinning the real Lexa over and ramming the back of her head into the ground, causing a massive crack to form as she continued flying. The original Lexa was then grabbed by the throat, and then hauled into her ears. A knee to the stomach caused her to spew blood from her mouth, along with some saliva, and tears on top of sending her further into the air. Another kick, this one to the face sent Lexa flying across the the kilometer expanse and into one of the many pillars lining the platform. Falling from the crater in the pillar, Lexa hit the floor and was immediately met with a heel to the back of the head, along with the adult sounding laughter of the deranged Dark Lexa filling her ears.

~~Dark Kateri~~

A cold wind stirred about the mage as her wyvernic opponents approached, signaling she was activating her most dangerous spell. A second force enacted, the night-like ambiance of the world around them caused Dark Kateri's true power to come out, allowing her even more damaging attacks, recognized by her glacial blue eyes turning white as snow. Kateri swung one hand to the left causing a cold wind to encircle Kateri in a 15 meter radius sphere, and then moved the other hand to the right to bring up by a second wind that was cast simultaneously that contained a plethora of super fine ice shards. Kateri smiled once more as her attackers approached, and slammed her hand on the ground causing a much larger burst of wind to rise. The third attack was thirty meters in all directions consisting of super-chilled winds, all who were unfortunate enough to enter Dark Kateri's blizzard would find themselves frozen solid for a post. While in her frozen assault fortress, Dark Kateri pulled out her assault rifle and began firing in bursts at the Shadow Beast, attempting to keep Gil locked in place. When that ran out, she would place it in her holster which automatically reloaded it, but switch to her sub machine guns to save time on pulling it back out. After the subs were out, she placed them in the holster, and switched back to the AR with only 5 or 6 seconds between each barrage of magical bullet. Meanwhile, supposing Gil's wyverns were normal summons and not grand or immaculate summons, they would be killed by the time they got within 10 meters of Kateri.


~~Real Kateri~~

Kateri had a small smirk on her face as the fight commenced. She would use Shadow's Teleport ability to avoid the first attack Dark Kuro would make on her, moving 10 meters back and slightly to the side just in case it was that strange gem she shot off earlier. After that, she would pull out her sniper rifle, using shadow to get in close and asking him to make as many attacks on the girl as possible. Shadows' small size, being 1 foot 7 inches long and only a few inches wide, as well as his agility would make him a difficult, but still possible target to hit. Meanwhile, Kateri would pull out her Sniper Rifle, and attempt to take careful aim at Kuro. She would aim for something large, namely the Dark Kuro's torso, and then pull the trigger. The 14.5mm round would rip through the air, and hopefully impact the dark-Rune Knight directly in her heart. Should the shot miss, Kateri would press her hand on the ground to cause a series of Ice-Spike to rise up under the Dark Knight and impale her. The spell would deal no damage, but would lock her in place for a post while Kateri lined her next shot up, pulled the bolt, and fired once more at her heart.

Lexa felt nothing but haziness for a few seconds, and then forced herself to snap back to reality as she remembered what the dark version of her would do when she got bored. The dark Lexa was walking away, making her approach to intervene in Kateri and Dark Kuro's fight. She stood up slowly, nearly falling back down from being hurt so badly. "Get your ass back here..." she said with an angered voice, causing her darker version to stop in her tracks. Lexa's magic circuits lit up bright gold, and she resolved herself to not die until she killed the Dark version. Both Lexa's, the dark one with a smirk on her face, placed a hand in the air and said "Stargazer Armour!" which caused them both to be engulfed by light. When the light vanished, both Lexa's were wearing an older looking armour, more akin to an assailant than anything. The real Lexa considered the other three her friends, even if Kuro was a bitch, and thus the entire group shared the benefits of the armour's passive. The two Lexa's began charging towards each other, both with blades drawn and very intent on killing the other. The Dark Lexa disappeared from sight, making the normal Lexa stop in place to anticipate the attack. However, she was unable to keep up with her darker counterpart when she activated a series of light and dark mobility spells that made her appear fourteen times in under a second, each time a new cut was made into the real Lexa. A final attack came from the Dark Lexa when she appeared last, ramming her sword into the real Lexa's heart. Lexa fell to her knees, eyes glassed over as the dark Lexa ripped the blade out, bending over to pick up the real Lexa's version of the weapon. She hit the floor, watching as Dark Lexa began slowly approaching Kuro with both blades visible, a large, generous, evil grin on her face at the thought of what she would do to Kuro. "I'm sorry nee-san..." she whispered weakly as a tear fell from her eye as she couldn't move, but enacted her only form of hope to them. First would be a healing effect, that also restored magic to them; and second would be an armour she would place on Kuro composed purely of light. This armour would also heal Kuro over time, and hopefully be enough to save her from the other Lexa.

HP: 350/200

The Dark Kuro was smart, knowing Kateri would go for a kill-shot. However, Kuro had never once seen Kateri's magic, so Dark Kuro would hold no knowledge of it. That said, she only found out as the pillars of ice shot out the ground that Kateri was a caster, and due to being immobilized, the Dark Kuro was helpless against the 14.5mm sniper round that barreled in and out of her chest. The pillars were left with nothing in them as the Dark Kuro disappeared into the darkness, unable to use many of  her spells in light of her much longer ranged opponent. Kateri ordered Shadow to teleport the real Kuro away from the 7 foot tall man with golden hair, but ultimately Kuro would be unaffected by the wyvern's ability if she didn't want to be moved. Meanwhile, Kateri turned her barrel to the dark version of herself, aiming the scope through the white haze of the three part attack. 'Wind speed accounted for... distance accounted for... adjusting by ten degrees vertical... adjusting twenty-seven degrees horizontal...' she thought to herself, running through the careful calculations she'd rehearsed countless times over several months while training to use her sniper rifle properly. 'Accounting for target movements...' she said, taking in the repetitive motions of the Dark Kateri as she switched between Assault Rifle and Sub Machine Gun, ignorant of the approaching wyverns. A loud explosion sounded, echoing a third time through the platform and originating from the sniper Kateri held. At the same time the sound occurred, the Dark Kateri exploded into shadows with a hole in he heart. 'Target down.' she said to Shadow as he flew about, making sure to keep out of the real Kuro's little barrier. Kateri then adjusted her sniper, taking aim at Lexa on the ground, determining it was the real on as it was yet to become shadows. She them moved her sniper over and took aim at the opposing Dark Lexa, getting ready to pull trigger if she needed to.

Dark Lexa pointed her sword at Kuro and began running, the blade glowing with a black aura as she ran. Several inches before the blade would have touched Kuro, a being appeared in a burst of light. Covering her body was golden circuit markings, and her back held the end of the blade piercing through next to the hole from the first time she was ran through. Utilizing the boost in power Kuro lent her, Lexa would fight to the death if only to protect her. The blade twitched as the Dark Lexa tried to pull it out, finding that her real world version was keeping a very firm grip on the hand. Lexa's free hand formed a crescent that was rammed into the Dark Lexa's throat. "You... you'll never... win..." she said between choking sounds. "Oh really?" Lexa asked, her voice sounding quite adult. The golden circuit markings on her body turned pure black, sparking with dark energy. As the markings on her fingers finally turned black, the markings on the Dark Lexa's neck, where the real Lexa was grabbing it, began to spread out and turn gold. A massive spark of energy erupted from Lexa, causing the Dark Lexa to go stiff and begin shrieking in absolute pain, causing the air to feel like it was shaking as the shrill sound came out. Lexa released the grip she had on the Dark Lexa, spinning and ramming her leg into her stomach and sending her flying into the Dark Gil's torso. She began walking, ignoring Kuro who was off to the side, and in very plain view of Lexa. "You tried to kill my sister..." she said, looking at the two dark versions. She grabbed the sword that was stuck inside her and began pulling it out, ignoring the immense pain radiating from the wound. Blood pouring from the now open wound, Lexa looked at the Dark Gil and Lexa duo with hatred, and pure vengeance in her bright blue, shimmering eyes. "I'll kill you both..." she said before disappearing. Knowing Kuro's barrier wouldn't be strong enough to suppress her power, Lexa reappeared in front the dark Lexa, ramming her fist into her stomach and causing a massive pillar of darkness to rise from the ground as the other Lexa flew up. The pillar of darkness resulting from the Shadow Punch would deal some damage to the Dark Gil, but not kill him. Lexa then disappeared, meeting her darker half mid air and disappearing a total of 13 times in bursts of alternating light and dark clouds, each time cutting her with her own weapon. The final time Lexa appeared before her darker counterpart, she rammed the back of her heel into the Dark Lexa's head, sending her slamming into Gil followed by a bright ray of light. The ray of Light would deal significant damage to the two dark opponents in the newly formed crater as it counteracted their natural element. "Meteor Storm!" Lexa called out while she allowed herself to fall. Seconds later, a massive barrage of flaming rocks riddled the field, one of which struck the dark Gil in the head, permanently ending his existence. 

Flames, rising from smoldering craters riddles the small area as Lexa stood in front the Dark Lexa, both seeming to be on their last legs. The two poured energy into their hands, the real Lexa's hands glowed with Black energy on the left, and White energy on the right. It was vice versa for the Dark Lexa. The two charged at each other looking as if they were going to clash, but the duel was over when the real Lexa made a final disappearing act, and reappeared at the Dark Lexa's back. Protruding from the Dark Lexa was a hand coated in light, and a still beating heart made of darkness being held in it. The Dark Lexa had a smile on her face as she began to disappear, her head being the last to vanish as she said "You win..." with a childish voice. Lexa, having lost nearly all the blood in her body among many other injuries collapsed to the ground and passed out with the knowledge and satisfaction that she'd protected her family, even if the other party didn't want to be considered as such.

HP: 2/450

MP: 50/100

Kateri walked over after watching the fight through the scope of her sniper and decided that it was time Kuro had a change of heart. She pointed the rifle at the head of Gil's shadow beast and pulled the trigger, doing the same action to her own shadow beast. Kateri looked at Kuro, saying "Oh dear, it seems our pseudo-mules are dead..." with a sarcastic voice. She then walked over to Lexa, picking her nearly lifeless corpse up and setting her down on Kuro. "She saved your life twice today. Show some honor and carry her to safety." she said while kneeled down looking Kuro in the eye. She then got up as a bright light appeared, opening a portal on the far end of the platform that seemed to lead out of this dark, and dreary place. Kateri looked at Kuro once more and said "The two of you should get your shit straightened out." with an unhappy voice, feeling that the petty squabble between the two was silly. The only reason Kateri held respect for Lexa, is that in the end she was willing to put that aside to save Kuro. The only reason she held respect for Kuro, was that she gave Lexa a bit of power at the last minute.


Walking through the portal opened by the bright flash of light, Kateri saw a tunnel with a door at the end. The tunnel was barely wide enough for the group to walk through in single file, but at the end was an massive field in what Kateri recognized as the area between Peace Village, Neutral Ground, and Hargeon. This was deduced since the Sky Tower was off to the far west. "Looks like the nearest town is Peace Village." she said to her allies. She looked at Kuro and said "To get to Silver Island you need to take a ferry from Hargeon Docks, platform 17 ship number 11 on the right side. The driver's name is Skippy. He won't ask for the passcode if you have Lexa, but you'll need it next time. He'll take you to a place called Lavantir Port, the guild hall's just a bit down the road from the docks. Again, you won't get too much trouble if you got a member of Black Rose with you, some dirty looks, but that's the worst. Stay in the infirmary, or come straight back to Fiore, it's your choice once you drop her off." She said before turning around and beginning to walk a few feet. "Alright, let's go home." she said moments before her pet flew out from under her black cloak. It grew to a tremendous size in a matter of moments, so long it was able to make a large circle around the group of mages. She got on Shadow's back and gave a smile to the two remaining mages before taking off in the direction of Hargeon. 'You could have offered them a ride...' Shadow said. 'But that'd be too easy.' Kateri replied in her head.