Jacque raised an eyebrow at the figure who'd just intercepted Amber with minimal effort on his part, "My my, aren't we the imposing one. While I appreciate the assistance, the one you would have to worry about would be that one." he said before jerking a thumb at Amber. The phoenix was more brazen that Jacque had imagined, Amber being so eager to attack someone who had just stated that they'd taken down older, more experienced members of her species just made her seem like a fool, however the cloaked figure that intercepted the attack put Jacque on edge. Not only had this creature blocked a fist full of fire with no sign of harm, but it had completely slipped through Jacque's senses, not even showing up as a small blip like Spartan or the other bio-mechanical members of the team. Jacque mentally pushed away the feeling of unease and looked up at the figure. "So-" Jacque began before summoning the water back into his pack with a light tap of his foot, "who might you be then tall dark and creepy?".

Amber didn't believe this guy, she grit her teeth as her hair blazed
"listen here "Death" but I don't care who you are, that bastard your protecting is a murderer of my people! he admits it with a grin, and I going to burn it off his face! even if I have to go trough you!" Amber exclaimed as she charged at Malthael to knock him down as flames enveloped her

Jacque's smirk faded as Death introduced himself, the very idea seemed ludicrous after all, to have such an entity reveal himself to mere mortals. Before Jacque had the chance to ask the supposed undertaker of souls a question to prove his authenticity, the phoenix saw fit to charge again while claiming that she would burn Jacque's face off, only to be stopped by the figure. Jacque rolled his eyes and flicked his hand ever so slightly, and in doing so ushering forth a torrent of water from his bag again. The elemental scarecly moved as the water bent around Death's scythe and slammed Amber into a wall, keeping her pinned while extinguishing the flames she emanated, "Oh please, i've killed countless elementals. Your kind, and many others to include my own. You'd do well to remember that I have more than a century of experience on you." Jacque hissed, even going so far as to branch the liquid upward until it was just barely below her nostrils, "I could drown you here and now. If you tried to boil the water away then I would just fill your lungs with it without moving from this spot. Now sit quietly, the adults must talk." he said flatly, all his boisterousness replaced with an cold tone and somewhat emotionless stare and vibe that read 'I will do this without hesitation'. Jacque cleared his throat to readdress death, "Speaking of said killings, if you truly are Death, then surely you know how many beings i've taken from this world in my hundred and twenty years of life. By chance do you have the exact number?" Jacque asked, having long since lost count himself decades ago.

Amber's eye's widened as her punch went right through the being self-proclaimed to be death, the next thing she knew was the blade of a sickle being held less then a few millimetres from her neck
"w-what the..... hell..." she said in disbelief as she grit her teeth, she then slowly looked Malthael
"your starting to piss me off...." she said trough grit teeth as he hair began to blaze again, but then she was thrown into a wall by the water boy, she Grit her teeth in pain as she glared at him
"bastard..." Amber said trough grit teeth

Amber's eye's widened at hearing this, her rage was building, he killed so many, and he didn't discriminate, men, women, children and elders, he even had the audacity to threaten the phoenix queen, now Amber was angry, as soon as Death phased through Jacque and left the hallway, Amber exploded, her yell echoed down the halls of the castle, the water around her was instantly vaporised as flamed erupted from her, the wall she was pinned up against was now melting stone as well as the floor beneath her as she hovered over it
"you.... have no idea.... Who your Dealing WITH!!!!" Amber exclaimed as flames enveloped her, a blinding bright light could be seen coming from Amber as she powered up, after the light died down, there hovered Amber in her Phoenix form, glaring into Jacques soul
"for every one you killed, I'm going to avenge them, by beating you within an inch of your life!" Amber exclaimed as an intense skin burning heat wave flowed from her at incredible speed

"Huh. So he only counted the phoenixes...I though for sure he'd mention the other creatures. Ah well..." Jacque said as he patted his stomach a bit to relieve the cold feeling in his guts. Despite the wariness Jacque showed earlier, the elemental's unease vanished as soon as Death left the room, truth be told he wasn't completely afraid to die so long as he went out fighting. Jacque's internal musing of how many he'd slain was cut short by a blinding light and a wave of heat as Amber attained her phoenix form, prompting an annoyed sigh from Jacque "You don't get it yet, do you?" he said as he flicked he coated himself with water before the burning wave hit him. As the water turned into steam, Jacque slowly withdrew manō and twirled the blade around his fingers, "You aren't the first one to take that form before falling. In the elemental war there was to be no mercy for anyone. All were soldiers then. I've slain fire elementals, waters, earths, even the occasional lightning without hesitation." he explained coldly as the sound of rushing water could be heard outside of the castle window.

Jacque looked back to Nao and gestured to the meeting room briefly, "Feel free to make note of anything in the meeting that seems important. This one's determined to ruin herself here, so I guess i'll have to show her just how inept she is.". Within seconds of Jacque's warning, a torrent of water smashed through the window and enveloped Amber before flinging her outside. Jacque scoffed and hoped from the window, landing on a pillar of water a meter below before drawing his sword and pointing it at Amber, "Before you continue this suicidal act of stupidity, perhaps I should tell you who I am. If your kind still have books about the war then i'm sure my name will be somewhere in there.". The water beneath Jacque swirled slowly, its placid surface belying its destructive power, "My name is Jacque Baila,and this is Manō Kaika.", the sword glowed aquamarine as Jacque spoke its full name "During the war we were known in certain circles as 'Maelstrom'.".

as soon as the water that grabbed Amber and flung her out the window it was vaporized seconds later, Amber had an enraged look on her as she hovered in the air
"I know exactly who you are, murderer...." Amber said hatefully
"but I get the feeling you haven't the slightest clue who I am, I am the Phoenix Queen, descended from powerful royal blood, I guarantee you, I'm more powerful then any phoenix you've ever faced...." Amber explained as she grit her teeth, the sky began to change color as the clouds began to circle above in the form of a halo, the clouds turned black as red lighting jumped between them, the sky turned red as the grass below began to combust into flames
"I'll show you! that you not the biggest fish in the sea!" Amber yelled as she pointed to the ground under Jacque, less the a second later, the earth beneath Jacque ruptured, it then glowed bright red before the ground shook violently, white hot magma then erupted from the ground with explosive force and sped up towards Jacque

Nao could see where the entire conversation was going, and at the moment Archer had arrived, Nao fired off a couple round into the ceiling to get everyone's attention," Now calm down here, We're not all here to kill each other, or at least half of use would be dead right now, We're here to do save lives not fucking kill each other damn it !" She yelled. " Spartan take care of your damned troops and stop them from making this into a free for all." Nao said to the machine man.

Archer had caught the last parts of the conversation, and was wondering what was going on, she could feel that the conversation could lead to violence, then heard Jacque's body count." Sheesh that body count isn't even a lucky number, also Amber I thought your people were those Ninja ? Now your back to the firestarters, God damn can't you make up your mind already, and let shit go, hell I've been blown up by a nuke and had my sister killed, you don't see me all vengeful and weird when I meet the killers, and honestly give it or burn out like the rest of your people." Archer said to Amber.

Jacque weaved around the magma with the use of the pillar of water he'd used as a platform at the cost of half of its volume, then, witnessing the area starting to go up in flames, Jacque dispersed the remainder of the pillar to dose the flames and cool the magma into slabs of rock. Jacque had to admit it, the child was strong yes, but she seemed to be too ruled by her emotions, whats more, she clearly lacked the experience that a phoenix knight or champion would boast. Before he could unleash an attack of his own, Nao fired into the ceiling and berated him and Amber and told Spartan to handle the situation. "No need to get him involved." Jacque sheathed his sword and withdrew what water he could from the small puddles remaining into his pack to refill it, "You're right lady, now isn't the time for me and this beast to battle it out." he stated flatly as he used the new slabs of rock to climb back up to the shattered window, grunting as he crawled through. Jacque would never admit it, but Nao had earned his repect by being the only other soldier on the team to have fought countless battles throughout the decades and come out alive, so for now he'd listen to her to an extent, still though, there was a matter that needed to be addressed. "A battle between me and here would only end when one of us was dead at the others feet.". Jacque brushed a bit of dirt off of his clothing, acting as though he'd never engaged Amber in a fight mere seconds before, "For now i'll wait until this dimension is safe. When thats done, i'll happily remove the phoenix's head from her shoulders.", Jacque turned and pointed to Amber with a smirk "You here that? When this is over, we duke it out until one of us is dead. You're not allowed to die unless i'm the one killing you and vice versa. That sound good?".

Amber was hovering in the air with her arms crossed as she watched Jacque weave around her attack a put out her flames on the ground, when she heard the gunshot she noticed the Jacque had stopped his actions so she paid attention to the one speaking, she shrugged at her words and watched as Jacque walked up the cooled magma and back into the castle, she began to make her way to the shattered window, to which she seen an opportunity, the second Jacque said that he'd happily remove her head, Amber rushed him, when he went to point at her Amber was more then halfway to him, she was going at full speed, the second his finger managed to point in her direction, she was right in front of Jacque, she reeled back her right foot as she got closer and put all her strength into her foot as it became enveloped by flames
"Fine! By!! Me!!!" Amber exclaimed as she launched a fully powered right kick at blinding speed, right into Jacque's groin, when it hit a powerful shockwave erupted from the contact point, the windows in the hall all shattered, so were the electric lights, and the torches were blown out, Amber then jumped back with her arms crossed with a glare
.
Spartan winched slightly as he watched
"ooooh...... that's gotta hurt...." he said before he took a serous look and looked to Nao
"their not my troops, their my team mates, and I'm their leader" he said before he looked to the others, but mostly to Jacque and Amber
"and for a team to work, they need to work together" he said in a scolding tone
"not be at each other necks" he finally said with his hands behind his back
.
Eve heard the shockwave and turned to see what was going on, only to widen her eye's, Magnus however didn't even care he just slept

Jacque surprisingly didn't move as Amber came at him with a kick for his family jewels. There was a faint hissing sound as steam floated around the air, "You know, you fight awfully dirty for royalty." Jacque finally said after a few moments of silence as he looked down at his waist which he'd just barely been fast enough to turn into water at the last moment. Jacque grimaced at the hole were his groin would have been and slid back before channeling a bit of water from the bag and refilling the hole. Despite his placid demeanor not only was Jacque quite pissed at the attempt on his family jewels, but he was once again exhausted. It was hard enough to transform into water when he was surrounded by it, but to do it without any other liquid and with so little time to do it took a heavy toll on his energy reserves. Jacque took a deep breath and willed his lower body to regress back into its solid form before turning and walking into the meeting room, "At least the others I fought didn't use such dirty tricks. They may have been the enemy but at least they were honorable until the end." he said before flopping down in a seat and looking at Spartan, "So is hitting below the belt a common thing for the women in this group? Because thats the second time this has happened to me today. Do I need to invest in a cup?" Jacque asked/joked tiredly.

Amber's temper was still through the roof and didn't have the patience to deal with this water elementals arrogance
"you better sleep with both eye's open, Jac*ss" Amber said hatefully as she walked into the room with her arms crossed
.
"That's Enough! both of you!" Spartan commanded with a stern glare as he looked at them
"now, lets get to business, we're here to do on thing, after we've done it you two can have at each other, but until this dimension is safe I won't allow you two to be at each others necks" Spartan said in a serous tone as he looked to Amber and Jacque before looking to everyone else
"right.... as you know we need a way to get to the dimensional rift, just outside the caste there is an advance military hovercraft, with more then enough room for everyone, it's fast, maneuverable, can go over almost any surface and it's tough" Spartan said as he walked around the table in the middle of the room
"before our previous leader Jacob left, he showed me this" he said before a holographic projection of some sort of device was shown, it was being held in place by four robotic legs



"it's of the upmost importance that this device is not damaged in the slightest, it's the only one of it's kind and it's highly unstable, I'd go so far as to say scratching the paint could set it off, we're going to deliver this device to the dimensional rift and toss it inside, when it activates I calculate that the energy given off by the device should be enough to throw the dimensional rift back into order, we'll have to make sure we're nowhere near the rift before the device goes off, otherwise we'll get caught up in the blast, it'll be stored inside the hovercraft's cargo area for safety" Spartan instructed as he looked to everyone with a serous stare
"now, lets move out" he said as he activated his jets and flew out a window towards the hovercraft he mentioned earlier, he was shortly followed by Amber, Eve, and Magnus

Spartan had gotten in the and went to the bridge of it, Eve was on deck with Magnus and Amber was inside the bridge with Spartan
"so, how long is this trip going to be?..." Amber asked him

"no longer then a few days, give or take a few hours" he said as he went over system checks
"so, Kori left...." Spartan said to her, Amber's eye's widened slightly as she looked to him

"how did you-"

"I seen him leaving your room, I knew why he was leaving, so I let him be..." Spartan said as he looked to her

"oh... yeah... he left me a note, I understand his reasons for doing so..." Amber said as she looked away with her arms crossed

Jacque yawned and rubbed his eyes tiredly as the meeting concluded and the machines and that cursed fire beast took their leave for the ship, "My my, that boy, Spartan, was it? Seems to be suffering a severe combination of anhedonia and acute paranoia. I understand how important it is that we succeed and all, and how that contraption is the key to holding this dimension together, but that guy's treating the machine as though its some sort of fragile egg. Honestly, i've seen entire cults that didn't guard their holy relics with such ferventness..." the water elemental said as he got up from his seat and followed the crew out of the meeting room and towards the ship.

While some of the others were coming into the hovercraft Archer was already there, she had gotten there before the rest did, she overheard Amber and Spartan talking about Kori's departure and didn't respond to it feeling that the hovercraft they had didn't need another exit, when Nao came on board she quickly engaged Archer in a conversation about the group they were in.

---

Seiko gotten into the hovercraft and went into the command room to be around the leader of the group, a thought in her head still lingered in her head wondering if the hybrid would keep her threat or just be all talk.

---

In a dark corner of the command room there was a figure of someone, it was a woman from the shape, she was leaning on the wall and had her arms crossed, she over heard the conversation going on between Amber and Spartan, when they were finished there was a chuckle from the woman," Just be glad that your kids didn't leave you as well Amber, I'm sure they would be eager to get away from a hot headed mother they would try to burn them if they did wrong, actually what would your clan think if they were alive and saw you with a fucking ice elemental ?" the figure asked " Would they banish you, outcast your bastard children or would they just kill your kids and you on the spot like they probably should ?"

Amber looked back to the dark corner where a woman's voice came from, hearing what she had to say Amber wasn't impressed and looked back to Spartan, ignoring the woman
"so Spartan what happens if this airbag you call a ride runs a flat?" Amber asked him

"we won't have to worry about that, the airbag is made of a burst proof material, it's nearly indestructible, so we don't have to fear any terrain" Spartan said with a confidant smile as he went back to his system checking
"but on the off chance it does become deflated, there is a spare" Spartan said with a slight grin

The figure stayed in it's same position and listened to the duo speak." Ah I understand, your just a stone cold bitch mother that would've threw either of her children under the bust to save her own life, truly Amber Breaker your one fucked up person that should die with the rest of your race and make them extinct, they never belonged in this world and need to burn in hell to fuel it's flames like coal to a grill fire. " the figure said giving Amber a good definition.

Amber looked to Spartan with a smile
"I think the bathroom must be near the bridge" Amber said as she looked to the woman speaking to her
"I can hear a lot of sh*t coming from it...." she said with a dull glare to the woman before looking back to Spartan
"I'll leave you to your work Spartan, I'm going to let of some steam..." she said as she left the bridge and closed the door behind her
.
Spartan watched as Amber left and looked to the woman before looking back to his monitor
"well, this is going to be one hell of a trip..." he said as he tried to focus