[[ I couldn't make it through more than two days without someone bringing up their friend Michael or their friend Seth. =~=;;; ]]

Seth rocked back on his heels after Michael finished explaining what was wrong. "Blue eyes.." He repeated, trying to envision the girl. Seth ruled out the idea that it was the person who talked to him in his dreams- nothing was adding up. It bothered Seth to know that there were more beings involved in the chaotic mess than just the small handful of people he knew; nevertheless, he enjoyed the company of others. "I wonder who could possess that power?" Seth thought aloud. A moment later, he heard a loud swooshing sound of something massive being swung through the air. The meteor Alex launched soared by in a flash, missing the small exposed area by the tree by a foot or so. The black flames that trailed behind the rock dragged a strong gust of wind behind them followed by a loud crashing sound as the rock took out two trees before skidding across the ground and turning into water. Seth stood, stunned, before he moved backwards from the shadow of mini black flames that still danced across a bit of the grass where the meteor passed. He checked to make sure Michael was okay, but Seth became quickly preoccupied with the idea that Alex would have to be stopped, regardless of how.

Meanwhile, Alexander took a mean blast of voltage into the tip of his sword. As intended, the Onyx had helped absorb most of the electricity but Alex was lacking just a pinch of speed in letting go of the sword so he took half of the force. Pissed and off-balance, Alexander barely landed on both feet when the blade flipped into the ground. ~*~*"An elemental, you say?"*~*~ he asked. ~*~*"Why don't we play fire with fire, then?"*~*~ That said, Alex put his hands out and summoned a wall of black flames that grew to create a small barrier around him in some parts and then lash forwards in others.

Michael shrugged lightly at Seth's question. His midnight blue eyes went wide when he saw the meteor. The events that took place after that only made his situation worse. The black flames triggered something in the back of his mind and he grit his teeth. "The Nightmare" was trying to awaken within him.

Sophie growled as she watched her enemy, then shook her head. "I'm done playing Alex, you're not much fun." She hissed. Her bright golden eyes burning with anger. Sophie took her staff and enveloped it in shadows, making the staff look like a sword warped by black flames of the purest forms of darkness. "I'll end you one way or another- whether I go down with you or not, at least you'll be dead." She whispered her last sentence as she sprang towards him, attacking in a way that would take a miracle for him to dodge.

Time slowed. Alexander was given the luxury of seeing a colorless past echo behind the present and a saturated future leap out in front of it. When the colorful image turned on him, he loosely crossed his arms in front of him with an expression of apathy; his favorite, and last, spell to be cast. Alex let out a small sigh in the process. ~*~*Would you like the trade, now?*~*~ A deep voice echoed from within, sounding in the future, then present, and finally echoing in the past. 'No, just take us both if she contacts. Don't bother if not.' Alexander thought, grinning in the present. He waited as the colorful future slowly faded through the time warp.

"Michael!" Seth yelled, as always, but he couldn't make his feet work. Traitor. Suddenly, he felt stranded in the middle of a fierce pull in two different directions. Hatred. He wanted to be free to move. Hope. Something wrenched Seth backwards and almost put him in the middle of the battle to get himself killed. Regret. Seth's eyes softened when he finally saw it; when he let himself drift through the motions of settling down next to Michael's side. Truth.

[[ **Edits**: Nova-chan, I brought in a god-mode character (Onyx), so it is now up to you whether only one or two souls are torn from their present life. .o. Said soul(s if wanted) will be back (if desired).** ]]

[[Ah, it's okay ^^' um.... i don't know what's gonna happen so don't sweat it. whether one dies or they both die is up to "fate" so it would've happened sooner or later, right? O.o]]

Michael glanced over at Seth when something felt off. He watched as Seth settled down beside him and gently interlaced his fingers with the ones of his lover and held it there- never wanting to let go. Every time he let go...something bad happened and he came close to feeling like he damn near lost Seth- too many times. That and he didn't wanna be alone to fight the battle between himself and his "other side". Michael locked eyes with Seth, a small smile across his thin lips. "I love you..." He whispered just loud enough for Seth to hear him, and only Seth.

Sophie's golden eyes went wide when she felt the air around Alex grow thick and heavy. 'He's planning something... What if this is the last battle...? Hehe, I had fun... So even if I go down with him- I'll know that I friends that I could protect...' Her thoughts whispered ever so softly as if knowing that she wouldn't make it out of this alive unless a miracle happened. She tightened her grip around the handle of her shadow-engulfed staff/sword, running Alexander through as hard as she could. Smirking when the felt the blade pierced through his chest and through his back. He was screwed. Sophie held the blade there for a moment before ripping it back out. ~*~*I'll see you in Hell, Alexander. She whispered in a cold tone when she pressed her lips against his ear.

[[ Indeed. :> Those who don't belong in the next world yet shouldn't stay so far away from home anyway, right? ]]

Seth could hear the voice again as he kept his eyes closed, letting Michael hold his hand without any push or pull away. It was distant and far-off, like the echo of a firework long after the actual event, like Seth right then. "Don't lose Darkness!" it seemed to plead. "We can't afford it in this situation!" The euphony of cries that slowly began overlapping each other gave Seth the vibe that there was an aura in his surroundings that was very wrong. Stranger, not a single thing was out of place in the real world. Everything was so surreal and he couldn't force himself to accomplish anything but stay out of the battle for another minute.

Alexander braced himself when the saturated colors and faded echo flowed into a slowed reality the split second the sword pierced him. For a split second, he felt it strange that such a cold object could still be colder than he was. The force that took the blade away from him in an equally short amount of time beckoned him forwards and off of his feet with a jolt that allowed time to continue running at its usual pace. He staggered for a second before nearly crashing into the ground with his knees, one hand on the ground for support and some of his dark strands of hair falling off of his shoulders. He swore that if he had the strength to, he would have stabbed Sophie back; not because of her killing strike, but simply because of her half-kiss. What he did still cling to, aside from the gaping puncture through his chest and some dark stains bleeding through his clothes, was hope, hatred. Alex reached forwards and clamped his remaining hand on Sophie's shoulder, the ground beginning to create a dark circle around them in the grass with giant black chains pulling in different directions. ~*~*"Then... Allow me.. To escort you."*~*~ He managed to say, still focused more on the ground and on his casting than on Sophie.

[[ >~< //weird-stuff-happening-when-people-try-and-cling-to-life// ]]

[[ right! :P -- it's fine, and true actually... O.o'' ]]

Sophie's eyes went wide when Alex grabbed her shoulder. Her golden orbs flickered around when the dark circle began to form. Her shadowed-form slowly drained away and she slowly returned to her original self. Tears welled up within her dark purple eyes and she sank to her knees- knowing there wasn't an escape from this. She allowed her eyes to close, allowing the tears to flow. Yes, she was scared- but she knew what was going to happen and part of her, most of her, was okay with that. //Michael... Seth... I'm sorry... Thank you for giving me a second chance...//

Michael's eyes darted over to where Sophie and Alex were, them going wide when he realized what was going on. He wanted to get up and run over to them and pull Sophie away from him- but he knew that her heart had decided. No one could do anything... Michael moved his eyes to the grass, he fought so very hard to keep his rage controlled- to keep his "true self" from gaining control. His grip on Seth's hand tightened, but not enough to hurt him- just enough to say that something was wrong.

Alexander caught a glimpse of the spirit changing forms next to him before he focused his eyes forwards, towards the words of his spell that seemed to flow through the senses, with the scent of death reeking no more than the bright black structure that the chains formed a kind of metal out of. The loud echo of chains shifting and shaking underneath the grass grew with each syllable. Still, her tears leaked through his own thoughts like the small drops of rain that could slip into an old shack in the middle of nowhere after a few severe storms had drained its durability away. Suddenly his craftsmanship skipped a beat and Alex realized that he was losing control of when the Gates would open, or rather that he was never in control of anything for that matter-- the spell was already complete. For the briefest of moments, his questioning eyes drifted towards Michael and Seth before they surrendered their curiosity, fixing on Sophie, as a burst of darkness surged out of the site of his most prominent injury like a waterfall curved into a sphere and he felt at ease. The embrace of a soft, cool, river-like blanket soothed Alex, starting from his chest and immediately rushing to his fingertips, across the palm of his hand, and to Sophie and so on before it engineered a quick spread of numbing nothingness until he could not see nor feel.

Meanwhile Seth's own hand remained rather chained to Michael's, sure to not let either one of them go anywhere near a black hole-type danger such as the one not thirty feet ahead of them. He had since stopped listening to the roar of voices in his own head that ranged from pure anger to warning calls; "Don't let them get a hold of Darknessss!" they would hiss, or "Stay far away, FAR AWAY, should you wish to not follow their footsteps in the same bind, the same bind!" It confused him severely and gave to him the gift of being helpless yet again, unsure of how to handle the situation since it was yet another unknown. It wrenched him in seven different directions- then it stopped. Seth didn't even breathe through it. There, in front of him, was the dark misty view of the only intangible attachment to his past, only it was vaporizing from the bottom up in a beautiful gust of leaves, like the negatively photographed tongues of flames devouring a sheet of paper that once guarded the secrets of a wonderful biography-- if that didn't rip the light right out of Seth's eyes, only one other event would. His insides crumpled in rather debilitating ways and tried to withstand the wall of pressure that choked his insides and numbed his strength, but it was useless. It was over. "Alex," he mouthed, no sound following in response.

Sophie kept her eyes sealed shut as the process went on. She could hear the sound of the chains forming under them and it simply added to the fear she felt. She did her best to zone out, making the sound of Alex's words and rattling chains go mute. It was just her inside of a black space. She did this until the feeling of numbing nothingness ran through her. Sophie's tears dried and she allowed her blank dark purple eyes to slowly open, just so she could get one last look of where she was able to start over and live anew.

As Michael watched the events unfold, it became so much harder to keep the darkness in his heart at bay. He couldn't watch, he had to avert his eyes. With an effort, he moved his darkened midnight blue eyes to the grass beneath himself and Seth, firmly keeping a hold of his hand. One thought kept him from letting himself fall to pieces or "sinking" into darkness, a promise he made to the one person he couldn't bare to lose. It was a bit overwhelming, the tug between staying sane and falling into insanity, and before long he lost consciousness.

[[ I just thought about it and I think Michi's a light-weight when it comes it keeping himself sane... o.o' ]]

Seth immediately exhaled a short, quick breath of air when he noticed Michael's hand cease to hold onto his own. He knelt over Michael under the influence of a brief panic before he could actually think. If he had it his way, he would have already screamed Michael's name a thousand times in that one moment, but there was no one to hear him so he accepted the silencer on his speech. Instinctively, Seth checked Michael's pulse and breathing, no matter how small it may have been, and by doing this Seth found a dose of relief in his chaos. Michael had the power to Seth's mind away from everything else, regardless of whether or not he tried to do so.

Seth's own intake of air slowly inched towards the path of normality as the silence moved forwards at its constant, unchanging rate of time. At that point, Seth shifted so he wasn't quite so invading of Michael's space but rather so he was sitting to the side-- of course, he was still close enough to be able to place his own hand lightly on top of Michael's. Then, he found serenity enough to close his eyes and try to process what the hell his deceased friend had tried to do. It made him so mad that when he opened his eyes it showed in his expression how frustrated and pissed he was. Seth had no reason to feel pity sorrow- the friend he knew was already gone by the day he was stabbed- so anger took its place in the form of a passive repression otherwise known as hatred, calmed only by its polar opposite.