[IC] Fateful Convergence

[Vocalia]

With the three men busy, Hayley and Arlia took to the skies, the former wanting her out of the picture and the latter struggling to restrain her urge to turn back on Nigel's requirement of the deal. "What sort of promise did you make with Signor Howeland, Summerland? I find it perplexing that he is doing all that he could to keep you alive!" she yelled as she blocked a downward hit from Hayley. "Why don't you ask him?! He's your fuck buddy, not mine!" Furious at her crude comment about her colleague, Arlia screeched and fired a volley of arrows at Hayley which the latter reciprocated in kind, further escalating the fight. "Don't you dare sully Signor Howeland, you street rat!!"

[Daxam]

While the women were fighting in the sky, Sean and Nigel were glaring at each other on either side of the street, Nigel's body blazing with orange flame while Sean only stood there, a smirk on his face. "I didn't wish to fight you, Sean," Nigel says, "but you give me no choice but to sweep you aside like trash!" Within seconds, Nigel was in front of Sean, a fist flying toward the man's face. However, Sean only sidesteps, spinning around to Nigel's back. Grabbing the back of his shirt, Sean throws the British man into a nearby empty store. "Is that all you've got?" he asks, a bored expression on his face. "I swear, when I was working for you guys, you were a much better fighter. Now, it seems you've forgotten everything you were taught back then."

[Vocalia]

Arlia frowned when she saw Nigel's body flying towards an empty building, long enough for Hayley to return fire and aim a kick on her turned back, nearly causing her to plummet to the ground if not for her better flight skills. "Where do you think you're lookin' at?!" Hayley hollered, black-and-gold eyes glaring at the blue eyes that glared back at her. The two women could be heard yelling and screeching as they fought like a pair of high-strung cats, one trying to bite the other's head off. In the heat of the moment, Arlia completely forgot about Nigel's stipulation about Hayley and, in the scuffle, fired a beam with such force that it sent Hayley crashing to the ground, breaking the pavement as her body unceremoniously landed. Hissing and groaning in pain, the blonde surprisingly managed to stand up after a brief moment of disorientation. "Man... That hurts... Not as much as I thought it would, but it still hurts..." she murmured and glared back at a smirking Arlia before resuming their catfight.

[Daxam]

Nigel wasn't having a good time. Every time he'd try attacking, Sean would easily deflect it and send him flying into the air, the ground, or into a building. One building had so many holes in it, it was a miracle that it was still standing. Nigel, bloody, bruised, and panting, hunched over as he attempted to catch his breath while Sean stood in front of him, not tired in the least, his white shirt still as pristine as it was before he started fighting. "Just give up, Howeland," he says. "I promise, you won't die unless you carry on like this." Nigel, black fire flickering on his body, looks up at Sean and mutters, "Fuck...you..." He then throws a punch, moving as if the simple action caused him great pain. Sean sighs and stops the attack with one finger. "That's enough," he says, tapping Nigel's forehead and knocking him out instantly.

[Vocalia]

Nigel's own humiliating defeat came moments before Arlia plummeted to the ground, crashing onto the same area where Hayley had crashed onto. In her shock, she had given the blonde the opening she and her 'other self' needed to finally end the fight with a super-powered hit on her chest, knocking the wind out of the auburn-haired mafia girl. Battered, bloody and with feathers and small chunks of hair missing, Hayley landed on the ground and stomped on an unconscious Arlia just in case she was playing dead. "Not bad... for a... noisy bitch..." Hayley panted, looking no better than her own crumpled enemy.

[Daxam]

Somehow, Nigel knew Arlia had fallen and manages to regain consciousness. Rolling over onto his stomach, he pushes himself to his feet and staggers over to the Medici woman. Falling to his knees, he looks up at Hayley and says, "No...more...Don't...hurt her...anymore..." Sean looks at the wounded British man for a few moments before saying, "Don't worry. If you get out of here now, no harm will come to her." Nigel looks back at Sean and, gratitude shining briefly in his eyes, he rises to his feet, pulling Arlia's arm over his shoulders, and staggers down the street. Much later, he all but collapses in an alleyway after setting Arlia up against a wall, breathing heavily.

[Vocalia]

Hayley frowned as Sean simply let Nigel and Arlia away and Alexis was more than ready to go after them, but after noticing how the British man essentially begged for her to spare the mafia captain, the blonde reluctantly relented, if not because of what happened between them. We'll get them next time... Hayley said to her displeased 'other self'. "This is most illogical. We are close to the completion of our objective. Why did you and Sean Anderson not eliminate these threats?" Closely watching their two enemies disappear down the street, she calmly replied to her. I have no fucking clue, but I felt that this is the right thing to do...

---

Arlia, weakened and in great pain, struggled to regain her vision as she laid against the wall, groggy, disoriented and visibly distraught. "Where... am I?" she murmured and struggled to get back to her feet, ignoring the pain that began to dull as her recovery kicked in. Looking around, she spotted Nigel, looking no better than herself, weak and seemingly unconscious. Seeing them looking so badly battered, her heart was filled with anger and disgust. "What a disgrace..." she hissed in pain and leaned against the wall. "And here I thought I could be of much better use... Am I really such a useless tool?"

[Daxam]

"No, Arlia," Nigel mutters, apparently wide awake. Turning his head toward her, he says, "You aren't...useless..." Tilting his head back, he rests it against the wall and continues, "I wouldn't have fared much better than you did, honestly. Those people, Hayley especially, are a tough bunch." In the silence that follows, he looks over at the Italian woman and can't help but think how attractive she looked, even though she was badly beaten. As he watched, he could see her wounds mending themselves, leaving him to jealously wish that he had the same ability. After a while, he asks, "Are you alright?"

[Vocalia]

Arlia looked surprised, as if she wasn't expecting Nigel to care at all about herself, but nonetheless nodded and replied, hoping to salvage his image of her, "I'm alright. I've been through much worse, I can assure you..." While she appeared calm on the outside, Nigel would be able to hear a hint of panic in her voice, as if she was anticipating something unpleasant from their ordeal. "How about you? It seems that Signor Anderson did a number on you too," she asked in an inconspicuous effort to try and keep suspicion away from her.

[Daxam]

"I'm as fine as I can be," Nigel says, rubbing his arm, which he was certain was broken in at least two places. "For a genius like him, Sean sure can pack a punch." However, instead of letting the topic drop, he had heard the panic in Arlia's voice and felt concern suddenly, and surprisingly, spring up inside of his chest. "Is everything alright?" he asks, the concern palpable in his voice. "You sound a little...on edge."

[Vocalia]

"I'm fine, Signor Howeland. I'm perfectly fine! You don't have to worry about me" Arlia answered somewhat hastily, taken aback by how emotional Nigel sounded, which only served to make herself look even more suspicious. A tiny part of her wanted that concern Nigel was showing her, along with something more. She felt her entire body shudder as she imagined how her 'family' would react to the utter failure of their joint operation. She didn't know how Nigel worked with his organization, but the Medicis frowned on failures, especially if it involved one of their capos. She could still recall how her father punished her when she made her first failure years ago, how even her fellow capos would 'treat' her and the lingering trauma left behind. "I'm merely disappointed for our failure in this joint operation. This is... most unfortunate."

[Daxam]

Nigel looks at Arlia for a long few minutes, knowing that she was hiding something. However, figuring that it wasn't his place to know, he decides to let the topic drop. After a few more minutes of silent resting, he turns to look at Arlia once more and sees that she had almost fully healed. Without the bruises and blood on her face, she wasn't just attractive; she was absolutely stunning. After a few moments of trying to find something to say, he finally asks, "Do you need help getting home?"

[Vocalia]

Arlia's face turned red when Nigel mentioned about her home. She gulped and shuddered again before finally calming down and shaking her head. "No, I should be able to head home on my own, but thank you for your offer," she replied. In their moments of silence, the auburn-haired woman took a closer look on Nigel. His accent was already a turn-on for her when they first met, but she didn't expect him to put any attention to her beyond the minimal needed for the success of their joint operation. Pulled by an unseen attraction, she slowly began to move towards him, then crouched to look at him at eye level. "What about you? Why are you so concerned about myself when you are in no better shape than I am?" she asked, sounding like a curious child than the flirty woman she showed herself to be.

[Daxam]

Nigel felt his face warm up slightly when Arlia brought her face close to his own. After a moment, he then says, "Uh, no reason, of course." Groaning in pain, he pulls out his phone, which had miraculously survived his fight with Sean, and presses the screen three times. Bringing the phone to his mouth, he says, "This is Nigel Howeland requesting extraction at my GPS location." Turning the phone off, he turns to Arlia and, trying to remain professional despite the blush in his cheeks, says, "Well, it's been a pleasure, Miss Medici, but I must be off." Holding his hand out to her, he adds, "I hope to see you around sometime in the near future."

[Vocalia]

Slightly frightened and confused, it took Arlia sometime to finally take Nigel's hand. "Yes, of course... I hope we can cooperate again in the future. This failure will not happen again," she replied and stepped away from him, looking at him again before making her way out of the alleyway and soaring through the skies back home. There was something about Nigel that began to interest her beyond a superficial level. His voice, his face and his warm touch lingered in her memory. She clasped on her hand, still feeling the remnants of Nigel's body heat. "Signor Howland..." she whispered as a soft sigh escaped her lips.

[Daxam]

Nigel watched as Arlia took off, then looked down at his hand, still feeling her soft hand in his. As if drawn to it, a single white feather drifts down and lands in his palm, surprising him slightly. Hearing the helicopter close in, he closes his hand around the feather, not wanting to lose it, and watches as the helicopter hovers over his head. A rope then falls from the helicopter. Nigel sets his foot in the noose at the end and lets the person in the cabin pull him up. Once up there, Nigel says, "Return to base." He then takes a seat away from everyone else and stares at the feather in his hand. Smiling, he whispers, "I truly do hope I get to see you again, Miss Medici."

[Vocalia]

An hour later, Arlia was back in a familiar surroundings. As she had expected, her father was displeased with her failure, but due to his busy schedule, he left his underboss to dispense his punishment. Believing that she deserved to be punished severely for tainting the name of the Medici to an outside party, he had her stripped naked, tied against a pole and blindfolded. Back in the past, such punishment would, at least, made her struggle to flee before being brutally beaten down, but she had since learned to enjoy the punishment in a desperate effort to make it less stressful. She could hear the door open, followed by the noises of footsteps. Her ears picked up the hushed excitement in the voices of whoever were in the room and her body shuddered when she listened to what they were talking about.

Taking a deep breath, she braced herself as the unseen people approached her.

---

After Nigel and Arlia made their hasty retreat, Hayley had followed Isaac and Sean away from the scene of the fight to recover. By this time, her wounds had healed, but her hair and wings would need more time to return to their original appearance. "Fuck that bitch... For a mafia princess, she really knows how to deal a world of hurt, I'll give here that..." she muttered.

[Daxam]

"I wish I would've done something to help you," Isaac says, the guilt for letting her get hurt so badly, even though she healed rather quickly. "You wouldn't have lasted long," Sean taunts. "They're both in a league higher than your own. There's no way you'd be able to stand up to Arlia." Isaac, even though he heard the joking tone in Sean's voice, took the words to heart. Slowing down, he eventually comes to a stop. Sean, haven't noticed it, turns around and opens his mouth to ask what was wrong, but Isaac cuts him off and says, "Train me."

[Vocalia]

Hayley couldn't tell whether Sean was being serious or he was just trying to pull her leg again, but his comments about Arlia and Nigel's skills made her feel inadequate. It not only upset her, it also made her become more determined to surpass them, to someday grind them into nothing but dead piles of blood, flesh and bones. She had a brief glimpse of Sean's overpowering skills and how he easily curb-stomped Nigel to hell and back while neither her nor Isaac could even land a hit on him. Still, she didn't expect Isaac to finally break the silence and point-blank asked Sean to train him. "Hey, Isaac! Are you sure...? Do we really want to be involved with this guy?" Hayley asked, the knowledge of his invasion of privacy and his still-unclear connection to Nigel and Isaac making her wary of anything he did.

[Daxam]

"I'm sure," Isaac says, feeling just as certain as he did when he realized he loved Hayley. "Something tells me we can trust him. I just know it." Sean regards Isaac for a few minutes before shrugging. "Why not?" He then turns to Hayley and grins, adding, "Looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of each other. Don't worry, the offer applies to you, too. Oh, by the way, sorry for getting off on the wrong foot." Holding his hand out, he smiles and asks, "How about we start over?"