The Land of Chaos: Part III

DK raised a brow. "But if you go back to the hotel you can turn the air all the way down so the room gets really cold, that way you can stop melting and me and Fara can just go stay in Hunter's room since Batsu is staying here," he said quickly. "And then I can fly you back to the hotel really fast, that way the wind makes you cold so you can start freezing." He was near breathless, but he wasn't done. "Right Fara? Tell him he should go back to the hotel and recover so that things can go back to normal." He then looked to Cross. "Make him go back."

Boreas blinked at DK's speed talking, not really having been expecting for him to protest his decision so readily. "I..." He hadn't thought of having DK going to stay with the human, mostly because he didn't even want to think of the guy. He frowned lightly. He didn't really want Fara in the same room with that creep. But the small fairy was nodding in agreement with DK. Even Cross had chimed in, noting that the weather changed so unpredictably here that it would be hard for him to freeze. The ice chakra sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll go back," he mumbled, lightly rubbing the back of his neck. It was a bit sore. Probably from sleeping against a tree.

Cross had spoken only because DK had implored. In reality, he now wondered if it was okay for Alice to go back. He didn't want her in the room by herself, and he didn't want to ask Hunter to watch her if he was going to have DK and Fara in the room. And he wasn't planning on staying in the Unknown tonight, he was planning on going out to hunt more infected creatures. If it came to it, he would just stay in the Unknown with the little white haired girl. Even though she was impervious to harm inside the Unknown, Cross was sure that her father wouldn't appreciate him leaving her alone, especially not with Oblivion wandering around. Maybe he could ask Batsu if he could leave her with him for an hour or two. The dark haired male nearly sighed. Suddenly he was feeling quite restless. He didn't want to stay still for an entire night.

DK was glad when everyone took his side. He hoped up and cheered. "Yay, let's go," he said with a smirk. "Alice, are you coming with us. Surely Hunter wouldn't mind you staying in his room too. Just so you don't get lonely." He then started for the exit. "Let's go, let's go, let's go," he called excitedly. "I'm ready to take to the skies and fly through the night as if there were no tomorrow," he said with a grin. "Afterwards we can rest up like there's no tomorrow," he mused. DK was suddenly in a very good mood.

Alice smiled when DK jumped up, nodding at his question. "Sure am!" She giggled when he said Hunter wouldn't mind. "I hope not. I don't want to bother him." Cross found himself uncertain on whether or not he should come, and explain what was going on to Hunter. He decided to ask the purple haired child. "Do you think you can explain things to Hunter for me?" he didn't like asking for favors, but even though he was tired, he was also restless, and didn't want to sleep right away. He wanted to do...something, anything to make sure he didn't stop existing. After all, if he stopped existing, who would protect Alice?

Boreas sighed and shook his head when DK suddenly got all excited over nothing, but pushed himself up and let the ice around him melt. He paused after it did. He felt very much vulnerable without his ice, and even weaker than before without its cold around him. Once he was sure he was defrosted enough, he let Fara land on his shoulder and started unsteadily over to the entrance of the Unknown.

DK nodded to Cross. "Will do sir." He then ran over to Boreas and helped him out of the Unknown. "See ya later." The little dragon transformed as soon as he was outside, turning into a nice white dragon. He lowered himself to the ground an waited for everyone to come to him. He would have said all aboard if it wasn't for the fact that he was currently in his dragon form. Yellow eyes were gleaming as he waited for them to climb onto him before he took off at high enough speeds to keep Boreas cold. When the arrived at the hotel he walked his friend up to the room and then left him once he was settled. He then went to Hunter and explained everything that was going on. When the guy agreed, DK happily skipped into the room and took a seat on the bed. "All is well," he mused lightly as he soon fell asleep.

Once they were at the hotel, Alice waited for DK to get Boreas all situated before following the purple haired boy into Hunter's room, giving him a quick greeting. Boreas, on the other hand, turned down the room's thermostat as low as he could. While the ride had certainly helped cool him off, he was still warmer than he should have been. So, he laid down on the bed and curled up without the blankets (which he never used anyways), and allowed himself to start frosting over again.

With everyone gone, Cross headed out of the Unknown, and in search of another infected creature. He could handle the exhaustion his body was feeling. Since it was night out, Cross took to the skies and stayed low over the tops of the trees he passed over. There was a full moon out, giving him adequate light to see whatever lurked about on the ground. The first thing he saw was what looked like a wolf with blue fur and scaly armor on certain parts of its body. As soon as Cross landed, the creature spotted him and charged. Not being able to move away fast enough after landing so quickly, the raven haired male took the creature's horns, but when it kept going, he was pushed back into a tree, the wolf snapping at his arm, even as he held onto its horns. Cross had to move his head to the side as the thing's tail snapped up and aimed for his head. Instead of hitting though, the tail tore a chunk out of the tree where his head had been seconds before. Considering that Cross was in a situation he didn't see himself getting out of anytime soon, he started pulling on the Madness from the creature. As soon as he did though, the wolf pulled its horns away and backed off quickly, forcing Cross to let go, or else run the risk of being dragged away. In the next moment though, the winged male felt the horns pierce into his skin just above his abdomen. The thing had pulled away and then immediately charged back into Cross. Blood spilled from the winged male's mouth and he grabbed onto the thing's fur, as its horns were still lodged in him, and pulled on the Madness. The creature lifted Cross on its horns and flung him to the side, sending him rolling across the ground. He hadn't expected this creature to be so hard to subdue. Regardless, he felt more alive than he had in a while. He hated the idea that pain could be the only thing that could keep him from fading away. Pushing himself to his feet, he saw the wolf about to charge at him, and he pulled a sword of light from the palm of his hand. When the thing got close enough, trying to snap it's powerful jaws down on his arm, Cross ducked to the side and brought the sword to the side of the thing's leg, causing it to stumble. Cross took the chance and pulled himself onto the thing's back, holding on as best as he could as he pulled what was left of the Madness from the creature, even as it thrashed around. What resulted was the thing shrinking into a smaller wolf with even smaller horns protruding from its head. With one hand covering his stomach, Cross brought the creature back to the Unknown, and then left again.

By the time morning came, Cross had brought back three smaller creatures and one more larger creature and was sitting just inside the gates of the Unknown, leaning heavily against a tree with his eyes closed and his arm over his stomach. While that had been the worst of his injuries, he'd gotten plenty more from the one larger creature he'd dealt with. Most of them weren't immediately apparent, because he'd left his jacket in the Unknown when he'd gone out the second time, but he had several large gashes along both arms, because the second large creature had a habit of whipping blades around. Well, more like, its arms were the blades. Cross sat with his eyes half closed. He'd gotten no sleep that night, but he at least knew he was still alive. He had his jacket back on, and the only wound he wasn't able to conceal was the one on his stomach. While he'd wrapped it up, it was obvious his shirt was torn, and the red shown through the bandages. He'd managed to get his arms wrapped too, but he really wasn't worried about those.

Batsu woke the next morning with bright grey eyes. He felt a thousand times better and even though his wings hadn't fully returned he was glad to see that they were growing. He was thinking about staying the night again in order to completely grow them back, but they had work to do and he wanted to talk to the group about some fairly important things. Stretching he looked to Saionna to see if she was awake. He had a bit of a plan for the group, but he wanted everyone's opinion on it before hand.

Hunter woke up pretty early, but let the kids sleep. It was around eleven before he woke DK and Alice up as well as Fara. "Time to go meet the others. DK, you can go get Boreas, I'll be in the lobby." He then left out the room after a shower. DK started down the hall for his own room, knocking on the door as he waited for Boreas to answer. Rocking back and forth he wondered what they would be doing today. He didn't really want to fight today.

Boreas woke up to the knock on the door, having slept straight through the night. His dreams had been more fragmented memories than actual dreams, though he didn't mind. He wondered if he'd see Jasper again, and if he'd be going to the same place as the human. He wondered if he had a soul, or if chakras were different altogether. Getting up, the ice chakra stretched for a few moments. He felt much better. It was only when he stood up did he notice why. The whole room was cased in ice or frost. Even though he was alone in the room, he felt severely embarrassed. "One minute," he called, glancing around. He walked over to the thermostat and turned the heat up. He actually felt kinda bad for whoever had to clean this all up after it melted. It would probably take a long time to dry. Which meant that DK would probably have to go to Hunter's room again tomorrow. Sighing, he walked over to the door and quickly slipped out of the room. "Hey kiddo," he said with a light smile.

Saionna hadn't slept much while Batsu was asleep. Only for a few hours. She kept getting woken up by weird voices talking to her. When she'd looked around, there'd been nobody around them, so she'd disregarded it, thinking that it was probably just in her head. When Batsu woke up, she looked to him and smiled, giving him a wave.

DK blinked when Boreas slipped out of the room instead of letting him in. "Could you let me in...I'd like to shower before we leave. And grab Batsu's hoodie because this," he pointed to his neck, "Looks like I've been abused." The dragon tapped his foot as he waited.

Batsu smiled and waved back when Saionna waved to him. "Let's go," he told her. He made his way onto the path and then started for the exit. His gaze went blank for a moment when he saw Cross. Seeing the other male injured, Batsu went over to him. "What happened?" He asked. He knelt beside Cross and then leaned forward a bit. "We need to talk when you have free time," he said quickly before he started to apply pressure to Cross's wound. "Saionna, find Silence," he told her.

Boreas frowned lightly and looked off to the side in embarrassment when DK asked if he could go in to take a shower. "I don't think you want to take a shower in there," he mumbled. He blinked when the boy said the red marks make him look like he'd been abused. "Good point," he sighed. "But I really don't think you could wear it, even if you got it out of the room."

Cross brought his gaze up when he heard Batsu coming over to him. He didn't say anything, but his gaze seemed blanker than usual. He saw the orange haired girl trailing after the male who seemed to have gotten his wings back, even though they were smaller than Cross remembered. He nodded lightly when Batsu said they needed to talk, flinching lightly when the guy put pressure on the wound. "It's fine," he said finally. He'd already bandaged it, though he didn't realize that the bandages were soaked already because he hadn't bothered looking down. Even though Cross had said it was okay, the orange haired girl ran off anyways to find Silence.

DK blinked when Boreas spoke. "What do you mean," he asked. DK wanted to shower and change clothes. He was tired of wearing the same stuff over and over. Purple eyes looked up at Boreas as the guy continued to stall, telling him he wouldn't be able to wear it anyway. "Again, what do you mean?" DK looked at the door, it did look a little funny and he could feel cold air seeping under the door. "What did you do to the room," he asked suspiciously.

"You say you're fine but you have blood all over you," Batsu said. His grey eyes were focused on the wound. He only tore his gaze away to make sure Saionna wasn't still standing near him. When he saw that she was gone he spoke. "Cross, you weren't able to see souls until recently, right?" He removed his hand from the wound and started to pull off a few feathers to place onto the wound. Batsu's feathers were oddly soft even though they could be extremely lethal as well. Kymin would know all about that. "I'm asking you this because up until this point, I hadn't take much care to look at anyone's soul," he said. "But when I was consumed in Madness I saw yours." He was silent for a long moment. "Your soul is fading Cross." He had been planning on waiting, but the guy needed to know this now because Batsu knew what happened with fading souls. "How long have you been alive?" Batsu wasn't being his normal you mind your business and I'll mind mine self. He was concerned because to him, all souls, even fading souls needed to be kept intact.

Boreas looked a bit more embarrassed as DK continued to press, asking him what he meant. And then he went and asked him what he'd done to the room. "I'd only meant to freeze myself over," he mumbled, handing DK the key to the room. Looking off to the side, Boreas rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Cross didn't say anything to what Batsu said about the blood. He wasn't going to waste breath explaining if Batsu was going to continue being worried anyways. He nodded at the red haired male's first question. His gaze followed Batsu's hand when he took a few off his own feathers to cover the wound. And then his gaze fell. He listened to Batsu speak about how he'd seen his soul, only looking to the other male when he was finished. While his gaze was normally blank, his current lack of any kind of expression said that he already knew this. He only shrugged at Batsu's question. He didn't remember how long he'd been alive for. He knew it had been a long time, but he had a feeling that he'd been around far longer than he'd been alive.

Saionna tried to move quickly through the Unknown, looking for Silence. She didn't know where to find him. After a few minutes, she stopped running and tried something different. "S-Silence?" she called, looking around for the guardian being.

As if his name was taboo Silence appeared from a thin slither of light in the darkest part of the forest. "Is there a need for me, young one?" The guardian looks upon the smaller being with black eyes. He was concerned that with the Madness still inside of her that Alice would be harmed, but he was entrusting Cross with his child's life. If there were a point in which the agreement was compromised, Silence would not be the peaceful guardian everyone knew him as.

Batsu was a bit surprised that Cross knew what was going on. Why was it like that? Why was he fading when he had something to live for? "You have Alice," he said with a shake of his head. "Why would you fade when you have someone that means something to you? Is she not enough to make you live?" Grey eyes were questioning. "How long has it been like this," he asked. "This need to fade as though there were nothing left." The last time he'd met someone who was fading it had been Serenity and he'd talked her into living and he'd been the old Batsu then.

DK narrowed his eyes when Boreas explained. He took the key and opened the door, his eyes wide at the sight. "Oh my god, what did you do?" He let his head hang for a minute. "They're going to kick us out...." He turned to Boreas and crossed his arms. "How am I supposed to shower now? How am I supposed to cover this up?" The young dragon couldn't believe this. "Hmph. Let's just go meet up with the others," he finally decided.

Saionna blinked when Silence appeared. Was that really all they had to do to call him? She nodded at the guardian's question, waving him along as she started back to Batsu and Cross at a jog. Batsu had made it sound like it was important. She hadn't seen that the raven haired man was injured, but if he said that it was important, she'd hurry.

Once more Cross's gaze fell when Batsu said he had Alice. He knew that. How could he not know that? He felt like he was betraying the girl and her father by being the way he was now. But he didn't know how to stop it from happening. When he brought his gaze back up to Batsu, there was just a hint of coldness in them. "This isn't my choice," he said plainly. He wasn't so fond of talking at the moment. There were so many things he could say wrong and so few that would be right in this situation. "Nearly a week now," he said, turning his gaze to the side. He didn't want to be like this. It felt like he was leaving with business that was unfinished. He would be leaving Alice unprotected if he disappeared, and she would be left wondering what happened to him. There was definitely a pain to having one's soul fade, but to Cross, that wasn't what hurt most. What hurt most was not knowing if the little girl would be okay.

Boreas crossed his arms and looked off to the side. "It was an accident, alright?" he huffed. Uncrossing his arms, he adjusted his gloves. He wasn't fit to be in places like this. In human settlements, where he had to be careful of every little thing he did. He'd much rather have slept somewhere outside at night. It was cold outside at night. "Ask H..." Boreas stopped and looked to the side, tensing up rather suddenly. How could he have been about to tell DK to ask the human? "Tch. I don't know, figure it out," he said gruffly, shrugging when DK decided they should just go meet up with the others. "Sounds good to me."

"It never is," Batsu started plainly when Cross pretty much snapped at him. "I'm asking because I want to help you." Get eyes met Cross's emerald ones. "If you'd let me." Cross was his friend and like Saionna, Batsu would give his life in order to save the guy. Cross had something, he did not. He was more than willing to sacrifice everything, rather than watch the guy fade. He then fell silent as he heard Saionna and Silence arrived. Batsu gave the winged male is last look before rising up his feet and allowing Silence to take over and heal him. "Thank you Saionna."

DK went ahead and started down the stairs with a scowl on his face. This was stupid. When he got down in the lobby with Hunter he headed straight for the door and made his way to the the gates of the Unknown. He wasn't flying anyone.

"Isn't it," Cross asked quietly, his gaze off to the side. He'd heard of people, immortals, 'fading' because they just couldn't handle it anymore. He'd never seen it happen though. The winged male nearly flinched when he realized that Silence was there. When had he started fearing seeing the guardian of the Unknown? He purposely hadn't said anything in response to Batsu's saying he wanted to help. He didn't know how the guy could help. His soul was fading, not Batsu's.

Saionna gave the red haired male a smile when he thanked her and nodded. She found it was easier to just not talk, even when she had the option to and knew what to say. It was...difficult, to learn how to talk.

Boreas followed DK downstairs, his frown turning into a smile when he saw Fara flutter over to him. "Hey little sister," he smiled, glancing to her as she landed on his shoulder. However, she was up a moment later, hovering by the side of his face. She poked his cheek where his skin had changed color the day before. He hadn't noticed that it had changed color the day before except that DK had told him. And he wouldn't have noticed it was back to its normal color if Fara hadn't pointed it out. "Yeah, I'm alright now," he promised her. "Good morning to you too," he said, when Alice came up and said good morning to him before going over to DK and asking what was wrong, because he looked mad.

DK looked to Alice when she came over to him. "Boreas froze the room so I couldn't shower or change clothes," he said with a sigh. "And instead of suggesting a solution he told me to figure it out myself. What a jerk."

Hunter walked in the middle of the group. He was a bit curious as to why DK looked so mad, but then again the kid had just come from meeting with Boreas.

Silence healed Cross and then stepped back, his black gaze plain. "You are healed." He turned to Batsu. "And you are free to go. Continue your mission and save those who are lost in madness."

Batsu simply nodded. He knew what his mission was and he had no intentions of turning back. He liked to Cross. "Let's go outside and wait for the others," he says with a small stretch. He started for the exited without waiting for an answer.

Alice blinked when DK said Boreas had froze the room, then turned to look at the ice chakra. "Why'd you do that?" she asked curiously, even more curious when Boreas turned red and crossed his arms. "It was an accident," he mumbled. "Whatever, let's just go." Something told him DK wasn't going to let him live this down anytime soon. Without waiting, he started out of the hotel. He definitely felt better than yesterday. The fact that his ice in the room hadn't melted any proved that he was back in good shape, at least.

Saionna followed behind Batsu as he went out of the Unknown, looking back at the place. Something was telling her that she wanted to explore the Unknown a bit more, but she wanted to stay with Batsu. The voice telling her otherwise was the same voice that had prevented her from sleeping most of the night.

Cross bowed his head to Silence after the guardian healed him. "Thank you." Once Batsu said they should go out to meet the others, he pushed himself up slowly, glancing to the white haired guardian that so much resembled his little girl. After that short moment, the black winged being turned and started out of the Unknown as well. He should have told Silence to withdraw the Madness he'd collected, but he'd already went and got himself hurt. He could withstand more Madness before he was at his limit.

Hunter was relieved to see Batsu and Cross had made it through the night in the Unknown. Both looked well enough and both seemed to have been waiting for them. "Good morning," he greeted.

"Morning," Batsu responded. He looked at the group. "Let's find a place to sit, I want to ask you all some things before we head out." He gave a small wave and then started for a shady spot near the edge of the Unknown. When they were settled he looked the group over. "First off, thank you ask for yesterday and I apologize for my irrational actions that put your lives in danger." He paused and then continued after DK spoke a quick, "It's cool." "Because of yesterday's actions, Saionna would like to accompany us," he said as he glanced to the orange haired girl. "But before she can do that, she must have your approval, this includes the approval of Alice and Fara."

Cross just gave a nod to Hunter, but didn't say anything. He'd been more quiet, like his old self, since he'd realized what had been happening to him. He was completely silent as Batsu spoke, but Boreas gave the red haired guy a small grin and a shrug, clearly repeating DK's words in actions. However, Boreas paused when Batsu said that the girl would like to accompany them. "My question is, can she control herself? She still has madness in her, which for whatever reason, we can't withdraw." He wondered if she was just naturally feral, or if the Madness was actually a part of her soul. At that point, Alice spoke up on something a bit different. "Her name's Saionna? That's pretty! Saionna, I'm Alice," she said happily, to which the orange haired girl blinked in confusion. She understood what Alice was saying, but that girl was a bit strange...not to mention she looked a lot like Silence. As usual, Cross was silent, but he seemed to be waiting for Saionna's answer as well as Boreas. When the orange haired girl gave a small wave to Alice, the white haired girl giggled lightly. "Well, can you control yourself?" Boreas repeated. In response, Saionna glared at him, which made the ice chakra raise an eyebrow. She clearly didn't like him for some reason. "You're not helping your case very much," he said. Saionna huffed and crossed her arms in an almost childish way before giving a firm nod.

Batsu could see that Saionna was not going to be friendly with Boreas, but at least Alice liked her. "She seems to be incapable of speaking words that she hasn't heard," he said in defense of Saionna not answering Boreas. "And I can watch over her," he said. "If she gets out of control then I'll handle her." At that Hunter spoke up. "You can't seem to handle yourself very well, how are you to handle someone else? The babysitter should not have to have a babysitter as well." Batsu's grey eyes narrowed and he looked as if he were going to hurt Hunter. "I didn't ask you to be my babysitter," he replied shortly. "I asked if it would be okay for her to stay with us."

Hunter crossed his arms when Batsu responded. "I don't really care, just remember that there are kids here and although the adults are very much capable of stopping any issues that arise it would be better if we didn't have to waste time worrying about her going off. It's enough that we have to worry about whether or not you'll lose it. I mean let us be honest Batsu, we all know what you're capable of. Who's to say that you still don't posses the ability to destroy villages like you did before."

DK looked between the two talking males. He wondered if this was really about Saionna or Batsu. When Hunter brought up how Batsu had been fairly destructive, the little dragon shrunk behind Boreas feeling a bit nervous. He didn't like where this was going. "Can't we all just get along," he asked quietly. "I don't think she's bad anymore, she saved Batsu after all."

Boreas, though he hated to admit it, saw the logic in Hunter's argument. When DK hid behind him, he put his gloved hand reassuringly on top of the boy's head for a moment. He glanced at Saionna. The girl didn't like him, but she was pretty attached to Batsu. He'd feel bad for leaving her alone in a time like this. She was probably capable of defending herself, but what if madness took over again? And more importantly, would staying with them help her to be able to fight that madness? "Back off," he growled at Hunter. "This isn't about him. Yeah, he went off, you would too if you'd consumed as much of that black curse as he had." There was so much more he wanted to add, he wanted to tell that no-good off for trying to act like he knew what he was talking about. "If that girl gets out of hand, then Batsu will take care of her, like he said. And if Batsu goes off again, I got his back. Got it?" Boreas crossed his arms. "My vote is she comes with. Who knows, maybe she'll learn to fight off whatever madness is left in her."

Cross looked on at the scene without care. If Batsu said he'd watch out for the girl, that was good enough for him. But if she did get out of control, and Alice was hurt in the crossfire, Batsu wouldn't have to worry about her any longer.

Batsu was glad that DK and Boreas had his back on this one. The grey eyed male knew what he'd once been and he knew that deep down he was still capable of such things, but he'd chosen not to use that power. He didn't want to accidentally hurt anyone with that power for fear that he'd get out of control. He then looked to Fara, Alice, and Cross after Hunter mumbled a simple fine. "And what about you three?" He'd figured Alice had already made her decision, but what about the other two. Cross seemed indifferent to most things, but he didn't know much about the fairy.

Boreas looked down at DK with a small smile. The kid was starting to grow on him, honestly. Adjusting his gloves, he glanced to the small fairy on his shoulder as Batsu asked about her, Cross, and Alice. His smile grew into a small grin when Fara held two thumbs up. "Fara's cool with it," he told them simply.

Alice nodded happily at the question. "I'd like it if she stayed with us," she smiled. Cross knew that would be her answer. The small girl would never deny someone an opportunity to prove themselves good, even if they didn't deserve it. Not that this orange haired girl didn't deserve it. "Sure," Cross shrugged.

Batsu nodded and smiled when everyone said okay. "Thank you all." He then looked to Saionna and nodded. Turning back to the group he spoke. "Another thing I wanted to talk about was our living situation. It's too expensive to continue living in the hotel. We need permanent residency while we're together. The other day I spotted a small two story building that could work. It's close to a river and a forest. I think we could make it work, but since of us would have to share rooms since there's so many of us. What do you all think?"

DK was ecstatic on a personal note. Living in an actual house meant he would sort of have a family. He hoped so. "I don't mind sharing a room, I say we go look at it together," he said confidently.