"Bye Ridley!" The girl could be heard calling from the swing set, the boy stopping to wave in return, but he didn't shout, he was certainly not capable of raising his voice like that yet, once again he turned towards Kazan and Robyn, taking the toy from Robyn and grinning quite broadly,
"Can we.. Come here again someday?" He asked, Kazan nodding in response before he grasped the boy suddenly, lifting him up quite easily to prop Ridley on his shoulder, easily balancing the child on one shoulder whilst he placed his other hand in his pocket,
"I dont see why not, Ridley. That girl might want to see you again."
"Misha." Ridley responded, making Kazan pulled a confused face, but Ridley continued, smiling broadly still, "Her name is Misha."
"Oh? You got her name already?" Kazan asked, chuckling again, "Didn't know you were so smooth with the ladies, Rid, you should give me some tips." he joked, the boy actually iggling in response,
"You need all the help you can get." Ridley responded, Kazan wincing a bit, "That's what Papa Bear always says."
"Ouch.. That's cold Ridley.." He snickered, "Bear really said that, huh?" He asked out loud, a nod of confirmation from Ridley made the soldier laugh, "He probably meant it as a compliment.."

As they made their way back, Kazan handed off his own money to Robyn so she could handle that while he and Ridley went through the stalls that were open one by one, letting the boy pick what he liked, although to get one thing he really liked the deal was he had to have something good for him that he didn't normally like, Kazan was surprisingly immovable on the matter. But Ridley was definitely fool enough still to fall for it. They'd worked their way up north along the stalls and around the northern wall, heading back around and down south again.

Kazan stopped however, the couple bags of groceries in tough hide bags, one slung over Kazan's shoulder. Ridley making an effort to carry a slightly lighter one on his own. The soldier was looking over his shoulder at the north wall, almost suspiciously. Then up at the clouds.. He was sure he'd seen something.. Seen the clouds shape and formation somewhere before..
He turned back to stare at Robyn, un-slinging the heavier grocery bag form his shoulder and handing it over to her,
"Here, I'll be home in a minute." He commented as he turned about to look up at the wall with a little more focus, head turning to look at the nearby shops. That feeling that something was off.. Again it haunted him, tore at his gut like some hideous little goblin.
Maybe it was nothing.. Maybe it was just his mixed thoughts and feelings arguing with one another, maybe a lack of sense was purely confusing him.. He trudged slowly back in the direction of what he now considered home after a good few minutes, again wrestling with his innermost thoughts, not really paying attention yet.. Something was stirring.. But what..?

Robyn couldn't help but snicker a bit as she listened to the exchange between Kazan and Ridley. The two sounded almost like brothers already, even though Ridley was still a little shy. He'd taken huge steps at the park, though, and it was really all because of Kazan. She tried to crush the little feeling of jealousy in the back of her mind. She was so used to being the one that Ridley trusted, and Kazan had gotten so far with him so quickly... She did her best to shake that away, but it was persistent and seemed to just get reinforced when Kazan handed her the money and wandered off through the market with Ridley. Logically, she knew it was best if she did the grocery shopping, but still... They hadn't even asked if she wanted to go with them. Trying to shake it away again, she went about her shopping.

She opened her mouth to greet them when they got back, but stopped when she saw how distracted Kazan looked. Before she could ask what was wrong, though, he handed her his bag and walked off again, towards the north wall. It was strange, but she couldn't follow him and ask about it.

"Come on, kiddo," she said instead to Ridley. "Let's get back home, and you can help me cook dinner, alright? We have to make enough for all of us, especially if you want to take some home to Papa Bear."

Where had he felt this all before? Kazan could barely understand what was wrong as he looked at the stalls, things seemed strangely slow, his eyes caught onto one young man running in the opposite direction, he turned, watching the teen find his way up onto the wall. And then came the thunder. It boomed through the surrounding grasslands and fromt he direction of the northern forests.. But.. That was no thunder! Kazan stared as the north wall exploded in a blast of smoke and debris.

The shock-wave following the explosion caused the man to stand back slightly, mouth agape at what he was witnessing. One of the buildings closest to the wall suddenly followed suit, being torn apart by an explosion, wooden beams falling, roof tiles showering the grounds nearby. The soldier raised an arm as small bits of dirt could be felt pelting him.
That wasn't thunder, it was artillery fire, a steel batallion division.. But why? Why would they do this? Civilians were being harmed and they didn't even seem to care, they'd blasted a home of all things. People were being hit by the shrapnel!

Kazan felt something at his leg, two small arms grabbing at it. He half turned and looked down to see Ridley holding desperately onto the his pants leg. What was the kid doing here?! He'd sent Ridley home with Robyn hadn't it? In truth at the loud sounds, Ridley had run back out to investigate, immediately going to grab Kazan. The boy looked terrifed, scrunching his eyes closed as another house exploded into a shower of wood splinters and stone, several bodies flying from it. That one was closer, but Kazan knew the shelling would continue, at least to open the way until they could send footsoldiers in. He'd seen the tactic used before, they tried to preserve their shells for in case they had to fight back a response from their target.

Kazan grabbed Ridley by the scruff, picking the boy up and watching as another shell soared through the air, the trajectory was headed directly for a nearby home. He didn't have time to think, no time to do anything as he knelt down suddenly, bracing his arms about the boy and placing his back to the building. The back end of the hom shattered whilst the front blew outward. a great deal of the heavy materials flying overhead butt he front fell forward, seemingly engulfing Kazan and Ridley. He wouldn't let the boy take the brunt of the attack.
He couldn't..


The thunder stopped in the distance, more homes in various districts burst, flames spreading. And through the north wall, like a nightmare emerging, a full squadron of soldiers, fifty or so, well armed, began to march in, the roar of gunfire from their rifles being hear as they picked off visible targets and approaching guardsmen.. They didn't stand a chance, not against a wall of death like that. They would alternate, the front line firing and stepping back of the next line and the next, taking turns at the front, guarding one another and reloading, though after a while their ranks opened up, various laughs and chuckles being exchanged between them.
This was going to be the easiest attack they'd ever initiated on a city.
And they loved it..

Robyn felt a sort of uneasy tension as she and Ridley went inside. She didn't know why, but it kept her glancing back over her shoulder until she had the door closed. Thunder suddenly rattled the windows, but she didn't think much of it. It had looked like rain before, hadn't it? The door opened behind her, and she turned around to find Ridley gone.

"Ridley?" Dropping the groceries, she ran after him. She was barely out the door when she was knocked off her feet by the shockwave. Oh no... No no no. Hadn't they just been raided a few days ago? Wasn't that enough? Scrambling to her feet, she rushed to find Ridley. The next shockwave knocked her down again, but she was quicker to get to her feet that time. She looked around frantically, her heart pounding. "Ridley? Kazan?" She couldn't see either of them. People were running all over the places, buildings were collapsing, there was rubble everywhere-- The soldiers started to pour in from the remnants of the north wall. Her eyes widened. Since when was her town important enough to warrant a fully-armed assault? Something was very, very wrong. The first shots rang out, and she flinched. Anyone with any sense would be running away from the firing line. She almost did the same, but she paused for a split second. Before she could second-guess herself, she braced herself and threw her magic out around her. She didn't have the skill to separate the Varstradt guns from everything else, but she would be able to fix everything else later. Her magic ran through everything in seconds, and she tore it all apart. She didn't have time to be careful about it. Everything mechanical for blocks sparked and fell to pieces.

She swayed, feeling faint. Her magic was running out; she'd never used so much of it at once before, nor used it all so fast. The wave of magic wavered, and then dissipated as she fell to her hands and knees. She felt dizzy and lightheaded. Even if she could have fought her way back to her feet, she wouldn't have had the strength to go anywhere. Besides, she had to find Kazan and Ridley...

The soldiers were at surprised to say the least as they advanced, the closest to Robyn practically ready to fire, but their curiosity overcame their trigger fingers. What could she possibly d-Oh.. The men jumped back as the rifles in their hands were torn asunder by the magical force propelling from the girl, even the handguns strapped in to their chest holsters. Those further back gave shouts of confusion and surprise, their major advantage had suddenly flown out the window.

The men closest yelled suddenly,
"You bitch! What did you do?!" The apparent leader demanded, stomping towards her, but an odd rumbling made him freeze. The ground before his feet beginning to move. Was she doing something else now? No she looked like she was already too drained to follow up with anything else. But then what on earth was going on? Several slabs of wood shifted apart, sliding in various directions as a larger one, like a trap door, swung open.
Aiding in this bizarre scene was the sound of an animal, enraged, infuriated, the strangled cry of of a man gone near feral, Kazan's form emerging from the debris. The stunned Varstradt soldier looked at the scene before him, Kazan stood, his white shirt torn, blood-stained, a cut to his forehead bathing the right side of his face in red, his muscles twitched and a this feet lay a boy, silent, but shifting, breathing.

Kazan stared down at the child, droplets of blood falling from his own face and hitting the cheek of the child.. It was never his own.. The nightmare that had haunted him.. He half turned to look back at Robyn, but Kazan was not the same man she may have seen before. A look of anger.. A man pushed to an edge he should never have gone to. He turned again, watched as Bear appeared from his shop, running over in long strides. Even he couldn't speak after what he was seeing.

A hand grabbed Kazan, it was that of the Varstradt leader, as he pulled out the tags that marked Kazan as a soldier,
"HEY!! How did you get this?! Who are you?!" The soldier demanded, but his demands fell on silence. Kazan turned his head to look at the man and without further delay promptly thrust a punch into the mans gut. The armor did nothing to protect him, in fat a loud crack was heard as it split entirely before Kazan grabbed the man by the skull and twisted savagely, breaking his neck. He didn't let go yet, instead using his might to toss the body aside.

The air seemed to crackle with energy, but it wasn't the air, it was an aura, Kazan walking forward, past the boy, red streaks of lightning traveling down his form, jumping out into the air and dissipating. Two of the soldiers leaped forward, one brandishing a backup knife. He took a swipe, but missed, Kazan shifting back to let it slide past him, but he moved forward just as fluidly, grabbing the arm and forcing it into the soldier's gut, the blade sinking in deep before Kazan lifted and threw him, tossing him into his partner, the two tumbling backward while Kazan retained the knife, turning it around in hand, reversed.

Again and again the soldiers tried, running forward to attack the man whom had risen from an apparent grave, and time again did they fail, Kazan moved and struck them like a demon, animal cries, berserk strikes as he senselessly beat them back, one by one, or even two, three at a time. The further he got, the more reluctant the men became, some even beginning to step back, terrified. Those surviving people in the street were also shocked, stunned at the strength of the man they viewed only days before as almost harmless seeming.

Meanwhile Bear had rushed over to Ridley, picking the boy up and moving back to Robyn,
"That lad's gonna get himself killed lass! Even he ain' gonna survive if they fire up them rollin' tin cans!" Bear stated desperately, looking about, "Wheres them damn resistance lads when there's a real problem goin' on eh?!" He demanded, still no sign of them. Most likely Robyn had destroyed even their weapons.

Kazan had come to a stand still, staring at the remaining soldiers. Behind him there was a littered path of fallen Varstradt soldiers. Their blood caked the stone, it stained the wooden beams, the ground itself, some were left in shapes the human body wasn't meant to take, but the last lot of the squadron were backing away even further,
"What?!" Kazan yelled suddenly, "Isn't this as easy as you thought it would be?!" He demanded, flipping a second knife in his hand and tossing it with great force. It found its home in the skull of a man further way who fell back after the sudden shock. Dead on impact. The remainders immediately began to flee. Another knife found its home in the spine of one of the soldiers.

The enraged Kazan could only stare at the cowards as they ran, sure he could have picked up another knife and kept going, but no.. no he had something far better in mind. He could feel the energy practically trying to burst form his body.. but not yet.. Not yet...
"Robyn!" He yelled, looking over his shoulder with his good eye, "Two black crystal handguns, repaired! NOW!" He called, a ruthless, dark tone overcoming him, he seemed to be fighting to stay in control, even then as he regained enough of his ability to reason. But the darker half was ready to tear them apart with his bear hands.. It wouldn't do. Those tanks needed to be dealt with in the proper way..

It took Robyn a few moments to get back to her feet. She was still dizzy and off-balance, and had to grab on to Bear's shirtsleeve before she fell over again. She'd used way too much magic, she was very nearly about to pass out, but somehow she managed to stay on her feet. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. There were soldiers everywhere, people were hurt... And Kazan was like a madman. It's like he wasn't even there anymore. Robyn didn't like it at all, but at the moment, there was nothing she could do but try to help him by doing what he said, and she wasn't even sure she could do that.

It took her a couple of tries to gather her thoughts enough to control her magic again. It took another couple of tries to put together two of the handguns she'd taken apart before. She knew how they were supposed to be put together, which was probably the only reason she was able to do it now. After she put them together, though, she had to fight off another dizzy spell. That was all she'd had left in her.

Kazan returned to them, still blood soaked, now not only from his own but from that of the soldiers he'd killed. He waited, breathing deeply on occasion, he was fighting off the tension inside, even as he reached down to claim the guns, hands gripping them tightly before he turned around, beginning to walk back down the now devastated street. A call from Bear made Kazan stop,
"This what yer kind does, lad?! Y'any different to'em?" He demanded, shifting Ridley in his grip so he could place the boy against Robyn and scoop her up, the boy supported on top of her as he looked at the almost immobile Kazan, who turned to look back at him, slightly wide-eyed, the right still closed,
"I would never betray the ideals of Varstradt!" He yelled in return, "But this isn't the way.. This.." He stared around at the fallen bodies, the broken houses, he could hear screams and shouts int he distance as other soldiers invaded other parts of the town, but they would probably meet with the resistance sooner or later..
"This.. It's not the way of Varstradt!!"

Bear watched as Kazan turned down the street again, running for the gap int he wall. The boy was fixin' to do something terrible, but Bear couldn't leave. He had to witness just what Kazan was about to do. He'd already proven himself capable.. He fought like a demon.. A monster no less. Bear had seen many men claim to be warriors and soldiers, knights and swordsmen, but he'd never seen a man's own volition make him so dangerous.
He looked on as Kazan stood at the gaping mouth of the wall.

Kazan stared at his sides for a moment, resistance members on the walls were shooting towards the tanks with little to no effect, if anything they were going to provoke more shelling. The men he'd sent fleeing were scrambling across the plains away from him and back towards the safety of steel battalion, though it didn't seem to be the full force, only a single division.
He didn't care about the soldiers anymore. He had to take away their major advantage. The Tanks.

The same red crackling of energy begin to light up around him, illuminating the place upon which he stood, streaks of energy arcing off him and tearing along the nearby ground, leaving scorch-marks of uncontrolled magic, an overflow that threatened to explode from him entirely, but he forced it forward, hands raised, guns pointed at the closest tanks until he'd focused every bit of energy he could into the handguns, particularly into the crystals before he pulled the triggers.

Kazan hadn't revealed everything about the crystals. Primarily they provided the ability to fire the weapon with no solid ammunition, instead firing a single streak of light like a bullet with the much enhanced effect of downing targets more effectively than any normal slug. However, a solid bullet could be infused with magic, changing its ability, its force. Kazan had infused the bullets with magic energy, and thye blazed through the air like miniature comets, a trail of smoke in their wake as they impacted against two of the tanks, piercing the hulls with ease.
The two tanks erupted, exploding into a pair of blazing pyres. Kazan pointed at the next two, again he fired and once more they exploded. His hands were burning, he wasn't sure why, his body was even heating up.. It was the blood pumping through his body, he was so infuriated and angered that he fought to keep in control, each carefully aimed shot taking everything he had.. But even as he took out two more he found his control of it all slipping. his arms dropped, watching the six burning tanks, but he noticed something else.. The other tanks were retreating.. They were afraid to lose them.. They were afraid..

Kazan dropped the guns, hands twitching, form heaving as he breathed heavily.. His hands continued to burn, the sensation refusing to abate. The man from Varstradt looked down at his torn shirt, the blood, the mess.. And the tags.. The memento of Varstradt... He gripped them, then pulled, ripping it from his neck and tossed it to the ground before he knelt and punched down, crushing the tag into the ground under his fist.
A strange sensation.. specks of cold as the coming rain finally began to fall, it felt almost as if it had simply been his own body tingling. He breathed heavily, exhausted, body screaming with pain, but the cold of the rain touched him, tried to cool him, the light droplets beginning to get heavier, bit by bit as Kazan sat down at the broken wall, putting a hand to his face.
He was realizing what he'd done, but more, wishing instead that he could just have had another, normal.. Quiet day with Robyn.. What would she think of him now..?

Robyn didn't protest as Bear picked her up. She wrapped her arms around Ridley to hold him steady, although, her grip wasn't very strong. She was completely wiped out from using up all of her magic. She felt weak, barely able to stay awake, and she had no idea how long it would take to get her magic back. She'd never used so much of it at once before, and had never reached the end of her reserves at all. She looked around to Kazan when she heard Bear yelling at him.

She regretted looking.

Kazan looked inhuman. He was covered in blood, wielding the two guns that Robyn had managed to piece back together, and he had this manic look in his eyes that scared Robyn. It seemed like he would turn those guns on her any second and shoot her, shoot Bear, even shoot Ridley. There was no mercy in those eyes, no sanity. She didn't know what to think. This couldn't be her good-natured, if slightly jaded Kazan. They couldn't be the same person. "Kazan..." she whispered. Her vision blurred oddly, and it took her a moment to realize that she was crying. Finally, both the shock and the exhaustion caught up to her, and she finally passed out quietly against Bear.

Bear turned away after Kazan had finished, walking away with Robyn and Ridley carefully cradled in his arms. He heard Robyn's whisper, the faint sound of it seeming to strike an odd chord in Bear. He was positively shook himself. Kazan reflected the kinds of things the Lastdvellan's were rather afraid of. , but he'd turned against Varstradt, whether he wanted to admit it or not. He'd taken up arms and fought against his own kind. In responce to what they had done, something he'd believed was wrong. He made it very clear.

Bear worked his way into his forge and through it, on into his home so he could take Ridley and Robyn up to his large bed, placing them down. He had to tend to Ridley, but they really were mostly scratches and bumps. He could get back to it. The husky man made his way back out, grabbing a heavy coat and walked down the devastated street. Sadness filled the old smiths eyes as he watched parts of buildings still crumbling, rain spreading the blood across the streets, but washing it away from the top layer.

He stopped finally, staring down at Kazan. The lad barely moved, but to breath heavily.. Was he.. Crying..? He could see something more than rain streaming down those cheeks, even hidden behind his hand. Bear said nothing, instead dropping the cloak over Kazan's shoulders and forcing him to stand. Kazan continued to hang his head, but shifted it slightly in Bear's direction,
"I would.. Never.. Betray.." He spoke with the same anger, but it was softened.. Into grief.. Despair..
"Aye lad.. You wouldn't, but perhaps yer guardin' somethin' else, not Varstradt's ideals." Bear responded, the naive idea Kazan seemed to have that it was actually Varstradt he was serving needed to be rooted out, or he'd never get himself out of his own emotional mess. Kazan looked up at him, not sure how to respond as the two walked back along the street,
"Ridley..? Robyn..?"
"They'll be fine lad. But you need to pull yer act together!" Bear chided, Kazan flinching a bit, "Look at what ye've done an' think fer a sec, y'let yerself go way outta control! What's wrong with ya lad??" He demanded, lightly knocking Kazan on the back of the head, but the soldier just looked ahead, barely even fazed,
"I don't.. I don't know.."

Bear sighed, supporting Kazan back to his home and leaving him on the couch were he remained, staring at the floorboards, the red stains on his shirt, his hands. He was lost, in himself and his thoughts, int he events, his doubts his fears and everything else that had suddenly made his simple life so complicated.
Bear meanwhile had begun tending to Ridley, cleaning away the blood and the dirt, cleaning up the wounds and patching them gently so as not to wake the boy. Bear was thankful for one thing.. Ridley was safe, and practically unharmed, Robyn too. There was hope for Kazan, but only if he could control himself.. The smith hoped he'd never have to witness to Kazan's darker half again.

Robyn wasn't sure how long she was unconscious. She groaned slightly when she opened her eyes, and closed them again against the light. Trying to sit up, she winced. Her whole body ached, and she still felt oddly empty where her magic still hadn't regenerated. Once she managed to sit up, she realized that she wasn't on her own bed at home. The one she was on was different, although not uncomfortable. Opening her eyes again cautiously, she looked around. Definitely not the master bedroom back home. Everything seemed to be a bit oversized, which told her that she was at Bear's. For a moment, she wondered why, and then the events from before came back to her.

She curled back up on the bed as she tried to sort through her thoughts. More than the soldiers invading the town, Kazan had scared her, and she wasn't sure she wanted to go downstairs at all yet. She didn't know if he would be down there, or if he would even still be in town after what had happened. After a moment, she got up anyways. If nothing else, she would go down and let Bear know she was awake, and offer to fix the scale in the smithy again. She was pretty sure it was broken after her little trick before. She would fix Ridley's toys as well, she was very sure those were broken. It wouldn't take much to fix the toys and the scale again, though, she could do those by hand easily enough. Once she had a bit more of her magic back, she would go around the town and fix everything else that needed fixing.

Bear had moved Ridley to his own bed. The boy would come to, be a little sore, but he'd be fine. Bear was more concerned about Kazan. Not for physical injuries. Those were easy to patch up. But Kazan had gone from all crazed and having the direction of a charging juggernaut to being completely lost, like a child in the big city whom had separated from its parent.. In some ways, he had been. Bear was unsure even as Kazan asked for Robyn's keys to the home, though Kazan reasoned it was only to get a change of clothes. He'd accumulated a couple more sets over the last days.

Bear hadn't seen hide nor hair from Kazan since. And this unsettled him.. Who knew what that lad was up to.. Bear looked over from his couch when Robyn came downstairs finally, a solemn look on his face. He had a lot of things to contemplate, the attack on the town, Ridley's safety, Robyn, Kazan.. And more.. A lot more.. He looked in the opposite direction at a large obsidian case. It lay open, a red velvet interior behind home to the fine blade he'd been working on all day. It looked seamless, perfect. The red ruby in the hilt gleamed, but it also looked to have asad appearance, as though it was just as upset by today's events.

Bear could hear the rain hammering down still, his large figure standing eventually as he looked to Robyn,
"The lad went home." He started simply, "Your home, I mean." Bear added, "Haven' heard anythin' from'em since." The smith clomped over to Robyn and placed a hand on her head,
"Yer old master woulda been proud o'you. He tried the same thing once.. Never could get it quite right, y'know?"

"I swear, I'll fix the scale again before I leave," Robyn said. She couldn't help but smile a bit when Bear said that O'Brien would have been proud of her. "And I'll fix Ridley's toys. I couldn't separate what was ours and what wasn't..." She trailed off. "I wasn't sure I could get it right, either. If I hadn't gotten the chance to take one of the guns apart a few days ago, I don't think I could have." She wasn't surprised that Bear already knew about her magic. Bear just seemed to know everything, and he didn't treat her any differently from anyone else, so she wasn't worried about it at all.

Her hand went to her belt, and she found her tools were gone. That didn't surprise her, either. Bear had probably put them somewhere for safekeeping until she woke up. "Did you take my tools? How long was I out?" she asked after a moment. "Is Ridley okay? He didn't get hurt at all, did he?" She was worried about the boy. He was like a brother to her, and she felt terrible that she wasn't able to protect him. Bear trusted her to keep an eye on him, and she'd failed. She would understand if Bear wasn't pleased with her for that.

"Kazan took yer tools on home." Bear replied, shaking his head a little, "Needn' worry 'bout it all that much lass, scales kin be replaced, lives cant, eh?" He hugged Robyn gently in his arms then let go, smiling,
"Aye, Ridley'll be alright.. Tough lil cookie he is," Bear responded, patting Robyn on the head again, other hand on his hip, but the man sighed a little, "Just.. Be careful around that lad in yer home, alright, lass?" the smith warned, "The lad lost somethin' back there. If'n it changed him too much, might not be the same lad y'knew, aye?"

Bear moved over to the gleaming silver sword and knelt by it, using a cloth to polish it a little, though there really wasn't much more to do, miniscule speckles of dust were hardly doing it much harm, but it was much like the prized piece in an art gallery. Bear had a good few swords in the smithy itself, but this one was one of the few that actually had a special place within his home. At least for now,
"Tell me bout those guns, Robyn lass." Bear suddenly stated, standing up and looking back at her, "Lad seemed pretty adamant when he hollered fer'em, 'ow'd he use'm like that? People dun normally take on tanks wit' firearms, aye?"

"From what I understand, they're magic," Robyn replied. She looked around for a moment before grabbing a sheet of paper and a pencil. Quickly, she began to sketch the major parts of the handguns and how they fit together. The sketch was too rough to be considered 'blueprints,' but they were detailed enough to be more than just a drawing. "This is what I remember the parts all doing... They fit together like this... And then there's this chamber that has a crystal in it, which makes it so they don't need actual bullets to work." She handed the sketch to Bear. "I'm not entirely sure how that works, though... Kazan never explained." She went quiet, thinking about what had happened during the invasion. "I don't know how he managed to take out a pair of tanks with them... I mean, for all intents and purposes, they're just handguns..."

Standing up again, she handed the sketches to Bear. "Here, keep them, see if you can do anything with them. I should go back and get my tools, and start going around to fix what I had to take apart." She hesitated. "I hate to ask, because of everything going on, but... Some of my tools are worn out, and..." She trailed off, not quite wanting to ask him to make her new tools, but still needing to.

Bear looked at the roughly sketched blueprints, but his attention was more drawn to the crystal she'd mentioned, crystals as conduits for magic. He actually knew about such things from once-legendary weapons. Although there were many enchanted swords and other types of weapons out there, applying a crystal to a standard weapon was still not a normal trend. At least, not magic crystals. Such powerful stones were the aids of wizards and mages, especially those in training. A focus crystal could amplify and direct magical energy, and these crystals might even hold the same effect, or indeed be exactly the same thing.

"An' you say those handguns the lad were usin'.. They 'ad 'ese crystals, eh?" Bear wondered thoughtfully, rubbing at his chin, "Ah'm inclined t'say yer friend migh' be a mage an' not totally realize it, ey?" He added, handing the sketch back to her, it wasn't really of use to bear, he wasn't a mechanic, he could only shape metals and forge solid weapons. It would do more good in her hands, he was sure of that. But the suggestion that Kazan might be a mage made him wonder once more. O'brien never used them, he was already in tune with finer control of magic, it was how he could fix things so well, same as with Robyn.

Magic seemed as much a mystery to Bear as it did before, all these different possibilities and results made his head spin but he could at least concentrate on what he could do, especially as Robyn said she would fix everything again, Bear shook his head a little, but smiled when the girl suggested she needed new tools,
"Ya don' even need t'ask, lass." Bear responded, "But don' put too much responsibility on yerself. Yer actions probably saved alotta lives, eh? Fix what ya can, lett'em do the rest, y'cant fix everything or ye'll be at it for weeks, months even. No, there's somethin' else needs fixin' right now.." Bear looked at the front door a moment, then back to Robyn,
"Y'best go check on Kazan, see if the lad's 'imself again, eh?"

"Still, I feel bad about it..." Robyn replied. Even she wasn't sure if she was talking about breaking all the mechanical things or about asking for new tools. Folding up the sketches, she tucked them into a pocket. "I can at least fix the scale before I leave, that won't take much, and it's the least I could do..."

Without waiting for an answer, she went through the door and into the smithy. The large brass scale, what was left of it, was on the sturdy wooden table against one wall. Robyn went over to it and started to sift through the pieces. As far as she could tell, every piece was there, so it was just a matter of putting it back together properly. Carefully, she tested her magic. She didn't have much of it back yet, but she had enough to at least put the scale back together. Piece by piece, she willed the scale to come back together properly, putting things back into place by hand when necessary. It took a little while, but soon the scale was as good as new. Robyn's hands shook a little, but she smiled. She went to find Bear again.

"All fixed," she said. "It should work just fine." She shifted from one foot to the other. "I should be heading back now, I think..." She gave Bear a quick hug, and then went out the door, heading back for home. She wasn't quite sure what she would find when she got there, but she still needed to go and talk to Kazan. She needed to make sure he was alright.

Robyn returned to a slightly different looking home. Mostly because of what had been added to it. On a sheet int he corner, where Kazan's armor used to lay on its own, there were now dozens of metal protectors and chest plates, all Varstradt in origin. Taken from the fallen. in another corner on a freshly laid mat were dozens more pieces of guns ad rifles, the pieces mostly assorted, and on a table a pile of tags not unlike Kazan's mostly tangled, but a distinct one sat out of place of the others. Kazan's own tag, half bent from being punched.

Kazan really wasn't sure why he'd done what he did, but he could barely focus as it was. Again sitting at the study where had been just this morning. Bandaged and plastered, but still quite awake. He'd been trying to draw things for the last few hours, but every idea came to him incomplete, or his hands would start shaking and ruin the idea, the burning pain was still there, he'd grit his teeth and continue on through it, but it was hopeless, they would continue to twitch and shake irritably.

Perhaps it was still the rush of adrenaline, burning through his system, the remaining rage refusing to ebb away.. But he didn't feel the rage as much as the sadness, at least not anymore. He threw aside yet another scrap of paper. It was odd but a good eye could see that each piece of parchment on the floor held different parts to the same riddle.
The most prominent perhaps was a large case-like structure with drawings of mechanics within, firing mechanisms, and even multiple chambers for crystals. It was a fragmented, single idea, but the scale suggested no ordinary man could just pick it up and use it, even Kazan couldn't, but another drawing that looked like a raised platform on struts suggested it was more like a turret-based weapon, designed to be supported as a heavy weapon.
The rest looked messy, incomprehensible, surefire signs that his hands had been shaking still.

Kazan stared at the next empty piece of paper, but nothing came to him, his hands quivered and he took a sharp breath, shaking his head and tossing the pencil aside. He didn't know what he was doing anymore. His thoughts were lost back in the battle.. It was the worst he'd ever felt, bar none, during it.. After.. The way he shouted, at his own Varstradt brothers, at Robyn.. The thought of Ridley injured.. The uncalled for attack. It all haunted him like a nightmare, a bad dream he wished he could wake up from.
But it was still all real..

Robyn stood in the doorway for a moment and watched him. She wasn't sure what to say to him, after everything that happened. Kneeling down, she picked up one of the discarded scraps of paper and uncrumpled it. It looked like a concept design of some sort, but there was something off about it. She studied it for a few minutes before she figured out what seemed wrong.

"This is all unbalanced," she commented, finally breaking the silence. Softly, she walked over to the desk and picked up a pencil. "If you built this thing and set it up like you have it drawn, the recoil would fling it backwards and it would completely crush anyone behind it." Carefully, she drew over his lines, altering the sketch. She completely redesigned the turret base, adding support and reinforcement against recoil. Then she moved the firing base up a little higher for better aiming and visibility, and added a swivel joint for maneuverability.

She wasn't good at cheering people up, really. She was a mechanic, not a therapist. This was really the only way she knew how to help. She set the pencil down softly and passed the sketch back to Kazan.

"Ridley will be alright," she said after a moment. "Bear's been keeping a close eye on him." She looked at the pile of tags on the table and reached out to them. Slowly, the chains untangled themselves and coiled up neatly. She looked over at Kazan, not sure what else to say.

Kazan looked over his shoulder for a moment when Robyn spoke, a single eye staring at her, the right, it had reopened after a little while. Some bruises could be seen on his flesh but they really weren't too prominent except for how they marked his skin like dirt smudges. He watched as her much steadier hands reworked the design, she really was better than him at this, he only had ideas, only relatively workable ideas but ideas nonetheless. He stared at it for a while, his fring hanging forward, hiding the upper half of his face.

Her informing him of Ridley wasn't entirely necessary, he was already aware that the boy would be fine. His hands twitched again but he withdrew them from the table, forcing them into his pockets and lowered his head a little further,
"Robyn... I'm sorry.." He stated, it was sincere, it was difficult not to be sincere, "I never meant to shout at you.. Or get so angry.. I've never felt like that.." He gritted his teeth, letting out a strangled sound as though he were straining to control something, "I.. I looked at Ridley and felt like it just didn't matter anymore.. I wanted to tear them apart even worse than I did, I just couldn't express how much anger there was in me.."

Kazan took a deep breath and sighed,
"Every night for the past week.. I've dream't about that very moment.. Or rather, the nightmare I've awoken from.. I saw Ridley, just like that. Perhaps hurt worse.. And I didn't want it to happen, I didn't think it would, it was just a nightmare, a figment of my imagination.. But the looks you and Bear gave me.. Like I'd let you both down.. I saw it again today.." He looked bahind him at the drawings he'd been working on,
"I cant piece it all together.. After I got here it was all I could think about.. Something to tell Varstradt they couldn't just push innocent people around, they couldn't just kill children and parents and destroy homes and just get away with it, laugh about it. But every time I draw one part another idea conflicts with it.." Kazan stood up, looking down at the blank piece of paper, then back over into the main room,
"I took the armor and what I could find of the guns because if something like this was going to built, then I wanted the first to be made of something from my homeland. Something created with metals forged in Varstradt. It would be like me, in a sense, away from my homeland and now no longer willing to serve it, except to teach it aboutt he injustices it has performed. The metals are strong, lightweight, the guns have crystals, the rifles have more complex and larger firing mechanisms, something new for you to piece together once i show you what belongs.." He then turned to the tags, looking at how they'd been re-arranged,
"And these.. I want to send back.. Its tradition for our military to present families with an item belonging to the fallen, it became the tags. A lot of soldiers died today." He paused briefly, placing his palm over what was originally his own tag, "Including one Kazan Leinfauld."

Listening to Kazan speak broke Robyn's heart. She hadn't realized just how torn-up he'd been over the last few days, and she wanted to kick herself for not noticing sooner. When he stood up, she went over and hugged him. There wasn't much she could offer by way of comfort, but this she could do.

"It would have been so much worse if you weren't here," she said softly. "So many more people would have died... The entire town was caught by surprise. Ridley and I would probably have still been out at the market, and we would be dead." Letting him go, she stepped back a bit and glanced from his face to the tags and then back. "You don't have to send your tag back... You're still here. Can't you at least leave your family that much hope?" She tried to understand why he would sent his own tag away, but she knew how she would feel if she thought that someone she cared about wasn't coming home. She knew she wouldn't be able to do that to her own family, and she didn't think she could watch Kazan do it to his. Even the vague hope that a loved one would come home was better than grieving, right? Reaching over, she gently picked the bent tag up from the table. "I'm sure Bear could straighten this out for you again... I bet I even have some chain for it, to replace the broken one."

Robyn's hug was as much a surprise to Kazan as it was welcome, the tension in his body seemed to ease away and relax but disappointment soon followed when she let go. His attention on the tags wasn't hard to break but her response only made him smile a little,
"Thank you, but.. It would be a dishonor on the family name if a living member of it were a traitor. it is better to let them think I am dead. The purpose of bringing an item from the lost is so that they can say at least the one who fell was found and that a part of them has returned home to rest forever. It does not bring happiness, but it does bring my people eventual peace." Kazan replied, shaking his head, "My mother was proud of me wanting to serve as a soldier, to serve the empire. Its always been a belief of my family that Varstradt's ways and laws are right without question and serving them is the greatest honor we can achieve. But we were raised on older ideals. I don't think Varstradt is what it used to be anymore, not after what I've seen here."

Kazan winced a little, another sharp throb of pain going through his hands. He couldn't understand why they hurt so much. He'd broken his arm once and fractured his hand and it still didn't hurt quite like this. The man looked at Robyn longingly for a moment, but realized he was staring and shook his head a bit,
"Speaking of tradition.. At times there are things people want, but if they never request it, no-one ever knows that they wanted it in the fist place. Whether they get it is another question altogether, but in the same sense I do have something I want to ask you.. Actually, a lot of things.. But I think the most important one comes first." He stood by Robyn and looked down at her, an off-skew smile in place,
"May I have another hug..?" He asked.
Yes, he realized how odd it probably sounded coming from him, but it was something he did want, purely because of how much better it made him feel to be in contact with Robyn.

Robyn wasn't familiar with the concept of 'dishonoring the family name,' but she tried her best to understand, she really did. It just wasn't something she was familiar with. How could one person's actions dishonor an entire family's name? One person wasn't the entire clan, were they?

"My parents wanted to marry me off like every other girl, and I went and became a mechanic instead," she said. "But they didn't disown me for it or anything." She knew it wasn't the same, but she was just trying to get her point across that it didn't make any sense. When Kazan asked for another hug, she couldn't help but smile a bit as she nodded and hugged him again. She didn't mind hugging him. Somehow, she enjoyed hugging him. There was just something about it that made her feel better as well. Something about him made her feel safe, even after everything that happened.

"If you want me to, I'll give you hugs whenever you want," she offered. "I don't mind."

Kazan tilted his head slightly, but shrugged to himself on her response,
"We're different people.. Honouring tradition is my way of life." He replied, "I suppose my mother would not have been too upset if I was not a soldier, but it was still my choice." Kazan shifted his arms slightly so she could hug her arms around him before he pulled his hands from his pockets and embraced Robyn, okay so sure he probably smelled a little of healing salves, but he hoped she didn't mind that, after all, he was holding onto her pretty tight, head lowering a little.

He felt a strange connection between himself and Robyn, though he really only considered it to be their continuelly growing friendship. Or was there something more to it? The longer he held on to her, the less his hands seemed to hurt, even the shaking was gone. Atleast only so long as he was holding onto her he was pretty sure, or perhaps he was so distracted he didn't noticed that they were still hurting. Robyn's presence was too soothing to let even pain disrupt the moment of serenity he could experience.
But there were things that needed doing..
"Varstradt.. This new Varstradt.. It wont give up after one attack.. It's going to come back even worse." Kazan stated, backing off a little and placing his hands on Robyn's shoulders, they quivered again and he winced, visibly fighting off the sharp shock of pain, "We need.. We need to finish this weapon, load it with several crystals. We need stronger barrels will be able to resist the effects, barrels made from the armors metals should do nicely. And that truck Mr. Green had. It's going to be one of a kind so it needs to be mobile, if we load it up on the back and have some-one driving the truck we can take out more of their tanks more quickly. If the costs outweigh the potential benefits, they'll back away and consider a new approach, giving ample time for rebuilding defences, crafting more weapons." He looked back at the sketches,
"But as you can see I'm no mechanic, I keep messing up the designs.. Only you can fit it and balance it, design a working firing mechanism and loader." He stopped, then looked at Robyn quickly,
"And there's a new rule..! Something I didn't mention before.. Solid ammunition and magic rounds can be fired separately yes, but infusing a bullet with magic through the crystal can increase its destructive force, its how I destroyed the tanks with handguns, I released as much energy as I could into every shot and used the solid ammunition to pierce their fuel tanks, the energy and sparks reacted with the fuel and blew the tanks up. Most people dont realize its near the front of the armoured scoop on the right hand side, it was a design oversight that they've tried to keep secret.."

"Bear was wondering about that," Robyn commented when Kazan explained a bit more about the crystals. "I was wondering about it, too." It made sense. Magic was a strange thing, sometimes. It didn't surprise her at all that magic was able to make the handguns turn out to be more than just the sum of their parts. Varstradt was more technologically advanced than Lastdvell was, after all.

Robyn was a little disappointed when Kazan let her go again. She liked being in contact with him, for some reason. She didn't exactly know why, yet, but she would figure it out at some point. She noticed him wince when he pulled away, though. "Are you alright?" she asked. She knew he had healing salve, or something similar, under his bandages, and she knew it had mild painkillers in it, so he shouldn't be in that much pain... Gently, she took one of his hands. "Come on, you shouldn't be up and about for so long, not while you're still healing. Let's get you upstairs and into bed so you can rest. I'll look over the last of these sketches you made, and I'll see what needs to be corrected." She would do that much, at least. She would probably even have Bear take a look at both the concept sketches and the remnants of the armor to see what could be done with them. She would be working very closely with Bear if they were going to create this weapon, after all.

"I'm fine, Robyn." Kazan responded, but even whens he was gently with his hand he flinched, shoulders hunching a little and eye closing, that obviously negated any feeling of fine he had going for him as he looked towards the hand she'd taken a hold of, he still didn't get it at all,
"Its just my hands.. They feel like they're burning." He admitted finally, fingers twitching a little, "Theres nothing wrong with them.. The bones are intact, the muscles are still all working, there's no major scratches or wounds but they just keep burning like I've put them in boiling water."

Kazan didn't realize it, but it was actually something heard about among magic circles. A magic burn. Younger acolytes and adepts would sometimes overuse their magic abilities in an attempt to force out stronger attacks, but they would go so far that they'd overextend themselves and essentially burn their magic reservoirs out to the point they suffered pain continuously, it made casting and controlling magic even more difficult if it wasn't attended to. In fact no-one was sure if there was even an end to the sensation, it could be cured, yes, but if some-one didn't get it healed then there might be a chance it would never stop until they sought out a healers aid in the matter.
As much power as Kazan had produced, he'd also released far too much at once. As precise and perfect as his attacks had been, on the soldiers and the tanks, he'd still burned his hands. An understandably inexperienced mistake on his part, he didn't really know the depths or limitations of magic as well as he would have liked.

[Over 3000! Woo! :D]