poly_chromatic | 32 - Tie Your Heart At Night To Mine

[He'll be disappointed when he finds her, school uniform pressed and pristine, red eyes soft and unsure. Only the bejeweled sword in her hand and the tightness of her grip show anything of the Saya she keeps far buried, the one who took Karl's arm.]

[Were it up to her, she'd never lift a sword nor be that person again. Part of her hates Diva, Karl, all of them for forcing her to keep that part of herself alive and well.]

[She'll kill him for it. As many times as it takes. For Father, for Riku, for Joel. Forever.]

[Karl's unpredictable behavior has her narrowed eyes scanning, her blade lifted and ready at the slightest movement. Even as she wishes for Haji, she won't let herself hesitate.]

[ And if it's up to him, he'll ensure she doesn't relapse to that sniveling schoolgirl again. Human, vulnerable, pathetic? Never. She's a Chiropteran. Sister to his wonderful, vicious Queen. She can either accept her heritage. Or die resisting at his hand. ]

[ He appears beyond her in a blue-black whoosh. Bright-eyed, manic, his smile like a brilliant unsheathed dagger. ]

[ For a moment, it's all he can do to drink her in. ]

Well well. In the flesh~

[ His whole aura vibrates with a feral impatience. He wants to fly at her. Tear her limb from limb, and relish the answering red spark of bloodlust in her eyes. ]

[Though she'd never acknowledge it, there's a part of her that responds to his nearness, revealed only in the slightest shift in her stance and a flicker in her red eyes. Her free hand is steady above her blade, ready to slice her palm and infuse the sword.]

Where is she? [Her voice is firm, as though she knows beyond doubt that Diva is here when truly, she knows no such thing. A Chevalier separated from their Queen sounds wrong, unnatural, and yet Saya is without hers. As such, she feels naked as she stares Karl down, even with the glinting steel of her sword between them. The way he's looking at her doesn't help the tinge of anxiety, but she won't back down.]

[One piece of her life that has always been constant through the decades and miles: Saya is never one to give an inch.]

[ Her stance shifts, and his own transforms, dancelike, menacing -- a predator's waltz. Her glare, her voice, her very proximity infuses him with a delicious shiver. How very like his Diva. When she's before him, everything else dissolves. ]

Now is that any way to greet an old friend? [ Hand on his chest, feigning hurt. ] After all, it's been so long. We've a great deal of catching up to do.

[ Immovable Object. Meet Irresistible Force. Because he won't stop until she's at at the mercy of his vengeance. ]

[Saya can feel that force, all of his will focused fully on her, making her want to run and flee. But she refuses to indulge him even a single step backwards, instead perched to spring at the merest queue.]

Where is she? [And then she pauses, recalling his words,] Is Solomon here too? [Whether he's here, able to help Saya or not, his name might prompt Karl into doing something other than standing and staring and making Saya's nerves stand painfully on end.]

[ He does do something. He drifts closer, circling around her.The razor-sharp smile lingers on his lips. It's all he can do not to lunge at her -- gale-force. ]

I'm afraid my darling Diva is elsewhere. Such a pity. But that does leave us with more time to ourselves. [ At the mention of Solomon, his eyes narrow. Contempt darkens his tone, which is always, always, edging on theatric. ] You needn't worry about him. [ Since Saya's last departure from the City, Solomon has sunken into a listless depression. Tragic, in some ways. Wonderful in others. ] I'll be your only dance partner for the evening.

[Sharp eyes follow him, tracking his path around her -- no doubt exactly as he wishes, but she can do little else. Even as the mention of Diva tugs her awareness astray, Saya's focus is forward, only.]

[At the veiled reference to Solomon though, she does react, red flaring in her eyes. What might become of him alone with Diva and her servants?]

[She will have her answers, all of them. Even if it means playing Karl's sick little game.]

[Her hand twitches down to part beneath her blade, her lifeblood infusing the sword with red and her with resolve. She launches forward, blade flashing.]

[ What might become of Solomon? Oh, Saya. You'd be shocked. The very family he betrayed, the very brother he killed, has kept him as a houseguest in his manor. Karl's feelings for Solomon are a racemose pattern -- resentment and hatred dovetailing with empathy. Can't be helped. ]

[ They are obsessed with the same woman, after all. ]

[ He smells her blood, rich and spicysweet, as it infuses her sword. He sees her lunge at him, and multiple flashes of her strobe through his eyes, flaring and fizzling, each a different time and place -- but identical in their aura of radiant violence. While her eyes are hard, Karl's are filled with fury and morbid delight. His left hand distorts, a jagged green claw. The right remains hidden in the folds of his coat. She'll notice in a moment, but it's missing. Traded to the Deities in exchange for Diva's babies. ]

[ The empty sleeve flaps behind him as swoops in, lightning-fast. ]

[Perhaps not shocked so much as guilty. She never managed to give Solomon all that he needed from her; she'd always known she never could. It took everything she had to manage merely herself while her own grief suffocated her.]

[Saya does notice the missing arm, in that distant, tactically-oriented way that tells her to pivot right instead of left. She brings her blade down in a bright arc, its blood-tinted edge driving down toward the empty sleeve in a rushing blur.]

[ Allow him, Saya, to suffocate in emotion with you. He's always seen them as a pair -- two beings straddling loneliness and ruin, lapsing toward nothingness. There's so very little for them in life. But perhaps, in death, they'll find a perfect oblivion. ]

[ When she swings the sword, he pivots, deflecting with his claw. Steel crashes off leathery flesh with a clang not unlike metal on stone. He's spent the past few months in the City slaughtering monsters, sparring with angels. He's quicker than he was -- if no less reckless. ]

[She too is faster than when she last fought him, training day and night with Haji at her side, defeating Karl's mistress. There's no more hesitation left over from Saya's former life, back when she had Riku and Kai and everyone to lose. Now it's just her and her blade, and the thing she wants to drive it through.]

[She pushes off, jumping back before launching overhead, her momentum focused in her sword arm as she whips it around, the tip aimed at the back of his neck. Just one good hit...]

[ Every lethal move, every livid expression -- he relishes it. The closest she's been that that terrifying Valkyrie in Vietnam. The one who chopped off his arm and sent him spiraling into utter desolation. She'd shown him how very lopsided and incomplete his existence was. ]

[ She'd proven that unless he could destroy her, he'd never know peace. ]

[ He whirls -- a sweeping flourish like a dancer's, deflecting her blow with his demonic forearm. Blood thrumming, exhilarated to finally play out their battle. One he's tried to replicate in every spar, every deathmatch, but found no likeness of anywhere. His smile is equal parts sanguinary and dreamy. ]

A splendid move, dear Saya.

How wonderful, that you've stopped hiding from what you truly are.

I was never hiding. [She lands spryly on the balls of her booted feet, rocking forward in preparation for another attack. But not yet, without Haji beside her she has to be cautious.] I'm just not what you think I am. I'm not like you.

Do you truly believe that? [ His voice is thick with disdain, barbed to cut. This is better than best, it's perfect. It doesn't matter when they're clashing like this that the City is surreal or that Karl is not truly breathing. Everything falls away. This is what he knows -- it lets him forget everything but the tangle of screams in his head of black hair and blue/red eyes. ] How many days would you go without blood, hm~? How many weeks pretending to be innocent and pathetically human -- before you give in to what you are. Attack the first person in sight? Friend. Foe. It wouldn't matter. Because you're a monster -- driven by instinct.

And that's all you'll ever be.

32 - Tie Your Heart At Night To Mine

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