[IC] Fateful Convergence

[Vocalia]

While Sean and Hayley stayed with Nigel to back him up, Isaac departed for the alley where Arlia, now shielding Sarah with her light prism. She knew things had gone to hell when Crey suddenly stormed in and the auburn-haired woman now found herself playing as guardian to Sarah, a role she wasn't exactly proficient in, but a task that she would do her darnest best to perform. Hearing the noises of someone running, but unable to discern who it could be, her first reaction was to halt the intruder and face him to protect Sarah, but she was stunned to see Isaac on the other end of the alley. "What business do you have here, Isaac Ryder?!" Arlia glared at him, determined to protect Sarah at all cost.

[Daxam]

Isaac opens his mouth to reply, but stops as he hears a frightened voice whimper, "I...Isaac?" Looking inside of the prism of light, he sees a young woman with long, silver hair and intelligent, dark eyes. "Oh, my God," she says, raising her hands to her mouth as tears stream from her eyes. Without wasting another moment, she runs forward and wraps her arms around Isaac's waist, sobbing joyfully. "Isaac! My God, I thought you were dead! I...I never thought you'd still live in this city, let alone be alive..." As Sarah sobs into his chest, Isaac looks down at the crying, silver-headed girl. Instinctively, his arms had gone around her, as if she were someone he had been missing for a long, long time. Reaching up with one hand, he rests his hand against his head as a sudden pain begins lancing through his head.

[Vocalia]

Arlia was about to stop Sarah when Isaac slowly pulled her into an embrace, further confusing the auburn-haired angel. Do they know one another...? she thought, recalling Sarah's story about her supposedly deceased lover. Lowering her hands, Arlia slowly approached the pair, her eyes glued to Isaac, but then became cautious as Isaac placed one hand on his head, as if he was suffering from a particularly painful headache. "Sarah, I would suggest you stay away from this man, now," she said to her, now no longer knowing what to expect.

[Daxam]

"No!" Sarah says, uncharacteristically defiant. "I've already lost him once...I'm not going to let him go, again!" Sean appears at the end of the alleyway and calls, "Isaac! What the hell's taking so--" Seeing Sarah in Isaac's embrace, the latter holding his head as his headache worsened, Sean swears quietly. Turning to face some unseen enemy, he reaches out and assails them with a jet of flame before running into the alleyway. "Isaac!" Sean says, grabbing the younger man's arm. "Get ahold of yourself! Worry about your memory some other time and let's go!" My...memory? Isaac repeats internally. Almost immediately afterwards, images begin flashing in his head: Him and Sarah lying under a tree during a spring day; him, Sean, and Nigel talking over a meal of some sort...the body of a blond woman, lying in a pool of her own blood. Grunting in pain, Isaac releases Sarah and grips his head. As if some floodgate was opened, memories begin flooding into his mind, causing an immense amount of pain to the iron-and-carbon bender.

[Vocalia]

Between Isaac now being in immense pain and Sean now coming into the alleyway, Arlia gritted her teeth and immediately grabbed onto Sarah's wrist, forcefully pulling her away from the two men, and encased both of them in a protective prism of light. If the two men were here, Arlia suspected that Hayley wasn't too far behind, but between having to hold her ground and backing Nigel up, and the noise of the battlefield, the blonde didn't know what was happening in the alleyway as she stayed close to a partially healed Nigel, Alexis having returned to her body. "We have to get out of here, now! Where's your sister?!" she asked.

[Daxam]

Nigel points over to the alley and says, "She and Arlia are in there, along with Isaac and Sean! You go check on them, I can hold these guys off!"

Meanwhile, long, agonizing moments pass until the pain in Isaac's head all but disappear, as if being blown away by a strong wind. "I...I remember..." he says. Sean looks down at Isaac and asks, "Remember what?" Looking over to Sarah, Isaac whispers, "Everything." Standing up, Isaac turns and walks out of the prism of light, his skin turning black as he becomes bulletproof. "Isaac!" Sarah calls from Arlia's arms. "What are you doing? Please, don't leave me, again!"

[Vocalia]

Not wanting Sarah to throw herself into danger, Arlia used all her power to hold onto her and not let go. "Sarah, no! It's dangerous!" she pleaded, not wanting to lose her only friend to the cruel battle raging around her. Right on cue, Hayley entered the alleyway and saw the familiar, silver-haired woman. "Sarah!" she yelled at her, not even stopping when Arlia turned to look at her, the two rivals looking at each other in the eyes. She entered the prism of light and looked around, seeing Isaac walking out with his bulletproof suit. "What's going on...?" Hayley asked, now completely at a loss.

[Daxam]

"It's Isaac," Sean says, watching his friend summon an enormous amount of iron, which slowly begins taking the shape of a large sword. Standing up, he turns to Hayley and says, "A little over a year and a half ago, he had his memory wiped clean. My guess is he couldn't live with what he used to do, anymore, so, instead of taking his life, he asked me to wipe his memory. But, it runs deeper than that: I was actually under orders to wipe his memory as part of a top-secret project. He only made it easier on me. Now, he's beginning to remember everything." Turning to the three women, he goes on, "Before his memory was wiped, he was in love with someone, but the procedure made him forget that, too. My guess is that after seeing her again, it unlocked his dormant memories. That girl is Sarah."

[Vocalia]

"Sarah?" Both Arlia and Hayley muttered with shock in their voices, the former for not being aware of how much he was intertwined with the woman she tried to keep secret from and the latter for not realizing the connection between the two sooner. "Does that mean he used to work together with you and Nigel, given that you two used to be buddy buddies from what I've heard? What exactly did you guys do for a living?" Hayley frowned, wondering if her allies, friends, and enemies really were what they really were, the revelation slowly digging out her own hidden memories that were buried by trauma.

[Daxam]

Sean stays quiet for a few minutes until he finally says, "I...I wasn't in the field. By the time I graduated from all of the colleges and universities I attended, I became the head of Crey's Research and Development team. Isaac and Nigel...they were assassins. And they were the best, too. When Crey needed someone killed, they'd use either one of them. Isaac was especially talented. His power lets him manipulate all iron, even that found in the blood of living creatures. He would sneak in and disappear with no trace he was ever there, except for a corpse." Sighing, he then says, "But, that wasn't the kind of man he was. In fact, Isaac was so against killing others, my team was tasked with Operation Janus...better known as Vincent's birth. We split his mind, creating the perfect killing machine, as well as the perfect cover."

[Vocalia]

"Isaac... an assassin...?" Hayley muttered in disbelief, not wanting to believe that the man she came to love turned out to be not so different to her silver-haired male "frenemesis". In addition to the revelation, Sean's information about Isaac seemed to have triggered something as Hayley suddenly hissed in pain, one hand holding her head as she was suddenly assailed by a headache so painful that it felt as if someone was cracking her head open with a jackhammer. She felt as if something was trying to surface inside her head, but it was being held back by something. Whatever it was, it was certainly not Alexis as she quickly assumed control over her body, pushing her distraught "operator" into her subconscious to recover. The telltale signs of red eyes with pitch black irises and black good coating her skin made Arlia turn to her and, having ever encountered Alexis personally, gasped in shock, "Dio! What exactly are you, Hayley Summerland?!"

[Daxam]

Meanwhile, in the street, Isaac was slicing the foot soldiers to ribbons, wielding the massive sword as easily as if it were a twig. Eventually, he and Nigel stand back to back, the British man's black, flaming cloak feeling warm against Isaac's back. "Just like old times, huh?" Nigel says, although there was no humor in his voice. Somehow, he knew Isaac had regained his memories, as well. "I guess," Isaac replies, his voice flat and emotionless. "Just stay out of my way, Nigel. I don't want to slice you in half, even though you've plagued us for who knows how long." That said, he dashes forward, moving faster than the normal eye can follow, leaving a crimson trail behind him, littering the streets with body parts as he descends on the outmatched men like a storm.

Sean walks over to Hayley and crouches next to her. Seeing the strange eyes, he says, "Alexis, give me a status report. What's going on with your host?"

[Vocalia]

Alexis remained silent for a moment, herself seemingly trying to assess what was happening to Hayley before finally coming to a conclusion. Standing back to her two feet, Alexis replied, her voice cold, robotic, and distorted, "I detected extreme signs of emotional duress and mental trauma. The information you have supplied has triggered stimuli surge which appears to have attempted to trigger neurological memories that have been selectively removed. I am unable to locate or recreate these missing memories. I have isolated the audio stimuli in the form of the words "assassin" and "corpse" as the primary cause, but I am unable to find any other related causes to the symptoms of pain of my operator."

[Daxam]

Sean thinks about what Alexis says, then says, "Thank you. Continue to monitor her condition until you deem it suitable to let her retake control. While you're at it, help Arlia protect Sarah. We don't want anything to happen to her, or else we may not be able to get those two back." As Sean turns to return to the battle, he stops, hearing Sarah's voice as she asks, "What would happen to them?" Sean stays silent for a few long moments before saying, "Just stay here and we won't have to find out." That said, he covers himself in earth and runs back into the battle.

[Vocalia]

Arlia was now stuck watching Sarah and her apparently possessed nemesis, the latter replying with a cold "Affirmative." and creating a dome of hardened black goo above the light prism to bolster their defense. The angel could feel her hair standing on its end and felt as if whatever was possessing Hayley was giving off a cold, inhuman air. "Just what exactly are you...? What happened to Summerland?" Arlia asked her, but Alexis remained silent and unresponsive, her emotionless, empty red eyes staring in front of her.

[Daxam]

Sarah had remained silent throughout the entire conversation, her arms wrapped around her knees and her face buried in her legs. She couldn't believe it; she had gone so long believing that her boyfriend, the only man she truly loved in her life, was dead...and then he appears out of nowhere, alive and well. "Why?" she mutters, tears beginning to stream down her face. "Why did he leave me? Why would he rather forget about me and start over than talk to me about what was bothering him...?"

[Vocalia]

"I suspect that it has something to do with him not being able to remember you at all... Sean did say that Isaac had his memories wiped. I doubt that he is the sort of person who would do such a thing and, knowing what he does now, whatever things he had would have put you in immense danger, Sarah," Arlia replied and wrapped her arms around her, trying her best to console her only friend. Suddenly, Alexis began to mutter, her voice oddly sounding like Hayley's, "Forget..." Alexis suddenly let out a grunt as Hayley's condition became so unstable, it's starting to affect her "system". She placed one hand on her head as the black dome began to liquify, eventually dissolving into the shadows as the body Alexis was occupying was beset with great headache, one that was so severe that it also began to breach the barrier that was supposed to keep the two entities mutually exclusive and independent of one another. "Hayley! What happened?!" Arlia began to panic when she saw that the only ally who was strong enough to help them both was also incapacitated, her concentration breaking and the light prism beginning to fade.

[Daxam]

Sarah watches as the dome and prism begin to disappear. From outside of the alleyway, she can hear the gunfire from the foot soldiers, as well as large machines advancing. It's only a matter of time before they're overrun, she thinks. Looking down at her hand, she sees a soft, green glow envelop her hand and forearm. "I can help them," she whispers. Without warning, she jumps to her feet and runs from the two women charged with protecting her. "Even if you've moved on," she says, tears running down her face, "I still want to be useful to you, Isaac..."

[Vocalia]

Arlia turned just in time to watch Sarah leave, running straight into the battlefield. "Sarah!!" she frantically screamed and tried flying after her, but by the time she had noticed the younger Howeland leaving, she had already covered a distance from them. Seeing her charge charging into the battlefield, Alexis tried to stop Sarah in spite of the lancing pain in her head, but at her current state, she was working well below her "effective standards" and her powers became affected as she was unable to stop Sarah with her barriers. The two women were now forced to run after Sarah, Alexis on foot and Arlia on her wings.

[Daxam]

Isaac was kneeling, clutching a gash on his arm as he looks at the line of Crey soldiers and machines, aiming their weapons at him, Nigel, and Sean, who was forced to surrender, Isaac and Nigel's lives on the line. Isaac was about to attempt one final, desperate charge until he heard feet running toward him. Slowly, he turns around and sees Sarah running toward them. "Halt!" one of the senior officers yells at her. "Turn back now or be shot! This is your one and only warning!" Sarah continues running toward them, despite the threat. "Shoot her," the officer says. Isaac turns back and attempts to stand...only to stop as he hears the rifle fire, the bullet whizzing past his face, only to find a home in Sarah's chest.