[IC] Fateful Convergence

[Vocalia]

Time seemed to stop for everyone in the vicinity as the bullet whizzed through the air from the muzzle of the rifle and nesting inside Sarah's chest. Arlia watched as Sarah's body flinched from the recoil and then crumpled to the ground, her green eyes already teary and weary. Alexis, on the other hand, found her control over the body wrestled from her by a hysterical Hayley. After what seemed like an eternity, time seemingly began to flow again as Arlia and Hayley, the latter's body still bearing the coating of black goo though retained her original eye color, let out a heartbreaking scream.

"SARAH!!"

[Daxam]

Nigel stares at his sister's body, completely speechless. Slowly, as all of the fight drains out of him, his cloak vanishes and his hair returns to normal. Isaac slowly wrenches his eyes from his old lover's body and fixes them on the man who ordered the shot. "How...dare you?" he asks, shrugging off Sean's hand as the older man attempted to hold him back. "She was an innocent girl. She had no part in any of this! Who gave you the right to shoot her like a dog?!" The senior officer chuckles and says, "She refused to listen. I had to show her that I was not a man to be trifled with, as you'll now find out for yourself."

The men around the senior officer raise their weapons, but suddenly find themselves unable to move. Slowly, their arms turn black as Isaac assumes control of the carbon making up their flesh and bone, forcing them to turn their weapons on each other before firing. The machines move to stop Isaac, but quickly crumple like paper, crushing the pilots inside. Isaac, the marking on his right arm glowing brightly as shards of iron and carbon begin to rise out of his skin, making blood trickle down his face, arms, and anywhere else visible to the naked eye, says, "I promise you: starting this very moment, I am going to personally show you what hell really is, asshole." Then, to everyone else, he yells, "Leave him to me! Stay out of my way and you guys won't get hurt!"

[Vocalia]

A stunned Arlia and a partially fused Hayley were too stunned to dare defy Isaac. In fact, they were more focused about trying to save Sarah's life. "Sarah, please hold on! You're gonna be okay!" Hayley pleaded to her as Alexis tried to extract the bullet out of her body and accelerate her recovery, but Hayley's mental state, combined with Alexis' hampered performance, seemed to be working against them. With no healing powers of her own, Arlia could only weep as she held onto the younger Howeland's hand, pleading tearfully, "Please stay with us, Sarah! We will help you, we promise. You promised me to teach me how to cook... and you've never broken your promise before... Please... don't... go..." By this point, Arlia had lost all her will to fight and her body reverted to normal as she wept and cried, trying to comfort the dying woman.

[Daxam]

The man laughs as he says, "Oh, you're going to show me hell, are you?" Raising his hand, a spike of bone slides out of his palm as he says, "We'll see about that." He charges Isaac, then attempts to stab him with his bone spike. However, Isaac reaches out and grabs it, easily shattering it in his grip. The man barely manages to process this before Isaac's fist slams into his face, sending him flying back a few yards. However, something stops him in midair. Looking around, he doesn't see anything out of the ordinary, except for a thin shaft of light, tinged blood-red. Looking closely, he sees that it was a strand of iron, as thin as fishing line, piercing his skin and holding him in the air. "The human body has a surprising amount of iron in their blood stream," Isaac says as more threads of iron pierce through the man's skin, wrapping around everything near him. "The pain must be excruciating," Isaac goes on as the man screams, the blood running from the threads of iron beginning to turn him red. "Before you die, you'll feel pain no one ever thought possible," Isaac promises.

Sarah coughs, wheezing as she continues to pull oxygen into her body. Sean appears at her side, Nigel following behind in disbelief. "Dammit," Sean mutters, recognizing the sound. "The bullet pierced a lung...she's drowning in her own blood..." Slowly, Sarah opens her tearful eyes and looks at her brother. "Nigel..." she whispers. Hearing his name, Nigel kneels next to his sister, tears streaming down his face. "I'm...I'm scared..." she whispers. Nigel, attempting a reassuring smile, says, "No, no, don't be! Y-you're gonna be fine! Sean'll fix you up!" Turning to the older man, he asks, "Right?" Sean slowly shakes his head and says, "I can't. Even if we could get the bullet out, there's too much blood in her lungs..."

[Vocalia]

Upon Sean's declaration, Arlia screamed and wept, pressing Sarah's hand against her chest and coughing as her own tears began to block the airflow into her lungs. "Sarah... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." she sobbed, her tough composure broken. "Lex... Please tell me you can still patch her up..." Hayley murmured, desperate for a miracle, but Alexis' reply finally sealed Sarah's fate. ... I cannot stop the unintended flow of blood into the punctured lung. Her circulation system has lost too much blood to be able to properly recover, Alexis said, sounding almost as if she was reluctant to and angry at herself deliver the grim news despite her robotic voice. "No!!" Hayley whimpered and lowered her head in shame and disbelief. "Come on, Lex! There must be something you can do! You can do a lot of things, can't you?!" Alexis registered Hayley's emotion and remained silent for a brief moment, not stopping her attempt for a second despite the futility.

After an agonizing minute, Alexis' voice echoed from Hayley's mouth. For the first time, she had registered a psychological impulse within herself that seemed to bring a sense of heaviness into her words. The manifested dark entity couldn't logically describe her emotion, but through observations and interactions with different people since her awakening, she could only use one word to closely describe her current state of mind: sadness.

"I sincerely apologize... Sarah Howeland."

[Daxam]

"Please, stop!" The man screams as the iron threads, now so numerous, they turned a small space around his body silver. "Please, don't kill me! I'll give you anything you want, just let me go!" Isaac steps up to the man and growls, "You don't want me to kill you? Why shouldn't I when you shot an innocent girl." Drawing carbon out of the air, he creates a small blade, not large enough to cause a fatal wound, and drives it into the man's stomach. "She never hurt anyone!" he yells, slamming the small knife into the man again. "She's never even thought of wanting anyone hurt! She's always done her damnedest to keep people safe! ...To keep me safe..." The man, barely conscious now, groans as the pain from the threads and Isaac's small blade begin to take their toll. Isaac slams the knife into him one more time and leaves it there. "I'll leave you here," he quietly says, the sadness in his voice equal to the rage. Without another word, he turns around and walks back to Sarah and the others.

As she lays there, the dying woman hears Alexis apologize and, despite what was happening, manages a soft smile. "It's....okay..." she whispers, her voice making it obvious that she had come to terms with what was happening. Soon, she sees a tall, black-haired man appear at her side and feels more tears roll down her face as he crouches next to her. "Isaac..." she whispers, reaching up to caress his face. "I've...missed you..." Isaac, feeling his own tears trail down his face, reaches up and takes Sarah's hand. "I'm so, so sorry," he whispers. "I never meant to hurt you...I just didn't want you to...to get hurt..." Sarah slowly nods and whispers, "I know, Isaac...I know..." Looking up at Alexis, Isaac quietly asks, "There's nothing you or Sean can do...?"

[Vocalia]

"Blood has accumulated inside the punctured lung. Neither of us are capable of removing the bodily fluid from the damaged organ. The injury Sarah Howeland has sustained is, unfortunately, fatal," Alexis spoke, her robotic voice now breaking like a broken record of grief. Though she still maintained eye contact with Isaac as she spoke to him, the iron and carbon bender would be able see tears gradually forming at the corner of her eyes, which she soon noticed as a drop of tear fell onto Alexis' goo-coated hand. "... Water?" she asked, looking very confused as she she her very first tear. "Why is this body secreting water from the eyes?"

[Daxam]

"You're crying," Nigel quietly says, holding his sister's head in his lap. Sarah looks at Alexis and, not knowing that she shared Hayley's head, says, "Hayley...thank you...for being my friend...You and Arlia...were the best friends...I could ever ask for..." Looking at her brother, she whispers, "Nigel...look after...Mum and Dad for me..." Hearing Sarah say that, Nigel, his breath hitching with sobs, says, "I will, Sarah...I will..." Looking over at Isaac, Sarah gently places her hand on her chest. Slowly, Isaac feels a pleasant warmth spread through his body as his wounds, both from the battle and self-inflicted, slowly heal until they were completely gone. "At least...I could help you...once, Isaac..." she whispers as her eyes slowly begin to glaze over. Seeing the light from her eyes slowly fade, Isaac, his voice filled with grief, whispers, "I love you, Sarah..." Sarah smiles and, with her last breath as her eyes close for the final time, whispers, "I love you...too..."

[Vocalia]

Arlia continued to weep and cry until she felt Sarah's dead hands slowly becoming cold and stiff. Her face soaked in tears, she gently placed the departed woman's hand on her chest and drew a small cross of light above her chest, praying in Italian for her kind soul to be given the peaceful rest she deserved. Alexis, reeling from her major failure, closed her tearful eyes and retreated back into the shared subconscious, leaving Hayley to face back reality in a state of sorrow and grief. The two opposing factions now stood as parties united in grief over the death of a loved one, but as time slowly ticked by, Hayley wiped her tears, gathered her composure, and said to the group, not drawing distinctions between her old foes and friends, "Let's leave... At this point, it's only a matter of time before everyone finds out about this mess..." Looking back at Sarah's body, she added, "We should find her a nice final resting place."

[Daxam]

"I have a good place in mind," Nigel says, his voice hoarse with grief. "There's a field outside of the city, about an hour's drive." Isaac nods and whispers, "I know it. She and I used to hang out there, underneath a big oak tree..." Looking at Nigel, he says, "Let me carry her. It's the least I could do after everything that's happened." Nigel opens his mouth to refuse, then closes it. Nodding, he gently extracts his legs from underneath Sarah's head and stands up as Isaac scoops her up in his arms. Wrapping his arms around Arlia, he kisses the side of her head, whispering soothing words to her. Isaac waits until everyone else had gone on ahead before slowly following them, his old lover limp in his arms.

[Vocalia]

Seeing that Sean's jeep couldn't fit in all of them, before Arlia could even speak up, Hayley suddenly assumed her demonic form and began to hover with her wings, silently telling the group that she would follow the vehicle herself and seeing that Arlia would most likely need Nigel's support by her side. There was too many questions she now had about everyone in her group as a whole for her to blindly put herself amongst them, especially with regards to Isaac. She had always suspected that he might have something of a deep, dark past and was ready to accept it, but she never knew just how deep and dark that past was and she now found herself having difficulties in swallowing everything she had learned today. Looking at the blonde-haired demoness, Arlia knew what she was trying to say from the look in her golden eyes and went into the vehicle with the group, watching as she took flight up high in the sky alongside the vehicle as it sped off to its next destination.

[Daxam]

Isaac watches Hayley fly above them, Sarah's body laid out across his lap. After meeting Sarah, he had recovered some memories, mostly about his time with her, but there was one that stuck out in his mind: an image of him standing over the body of a blond-haired woman. For some reason, he had a sneaking suspicion that, even before he met Hayley thirteen months ago, they were somehow caught up in each other's lives. The ride out of the city was spent in silence, Sean driving up front while Nigel and Arlia comforted one another. Soon, however, after brief guidance from Isaac, Sean pulls up in front of a large hill, topped with a massive oak tree. Slowly, he climbs out of the jeep, Sarah's body in his arms, and waits for the others to join him as he looks into Sarah's face. Even though he knew she was gone, he still found himself hoping and praying that she would suddenly wake up, that Alexis and Sean were both somehow wrong.

[Vocalia]

As the jeep came to a stop, the group disembarked and Hayley landed beside the jeep, looking at the secluded, serene location. I can see why he and Sarah used to meet here... It's such a nice place... Hayley thought to herself as she looked around, the natural atmosphere slightly soothing her sorrowful soul. Arlia slowly approached the tree and looked back at Isaac as he carried Sarah's body. Opening her hand, she summoned several spheres of light, waiting for the instruction as to where Sarah's body would be laid to rest. Once they all came to a spot under the big oak tree, Arlia directed her spheres to cut a portion of the Earth then watched as Hayley dug her armored claw into the portioned soil and pluck it off as if she was lifting a body-sized pillow, a shallow grave now prepared to welcome Sarah back to the Earth she belonged.

[Daxam]

As everyone looks toward Isaac, waiting for him to lower Sarah into the ground, he looks down at her. As the realization she was really gone finally sinks in, he pulls her as close to himself as he can, nuzzling his face into her shoulder. "I'll see you again, someday," he whispers as iron and carbon slowly begin to flow into the grave. Moments later, a beautiful casket was lying in wait, open to allow Sarah inside. Before Isaac lays her inside, Sean summons a multitude of plants, which float from the ground and into the coffin, making a soft resting place inside for the woman's body. Seeing what he did, Isaac nods his thanks to Sean before gently laying Sarah inside of the casket. After a few moments of looking at her, he gently closes the lid and stands up. Turning around, he walks over to Hayley and, despite his memory and the feelings associated with it, wraps his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder as his own shoulders begin to shake with grief. Sean quietly fills in the grave and walks down to the jeep, letting Isaac and Nigel comfort themselves with their loved ones.

[Vocalia]

As the grave was filled and the casket finally disappeared from their sights under the soil, Arlia broke down into tears once more and buried her face in Nigel's chest as her hands gripped onto his arms as if fearful of losing the only other friend she had, sobbing and wordlessly weeping into his bloodstained chest. Similarly, Hayley wordlessly pulled Isaac into her comforting embrace, her black wings draped around his back like a second pair of arms, with one hand gently stroking his hair and another hand holding onto him. Even as she stayed quiet without so much as a peep, she could feel her tears flowing like a river down her cheeks, still reeling from the loss of the woman she saw as her own friend.

[Daxam]

Minutes pass until Nigel and Arlia walk back down the hill toward the jeep. Another few minutes come and go until Isaac finally lets go of Hayley. Turning around, he creates a beautiful, intricate cross at the head of Sarah's grave with her name and the inscription: "The world becomes a darker place without your light." Turning back to Hayley, he whispers, "I'm sorry, Hayley. I didn't mean to keep all of this from you...Sarah, what I used to do...I wish I could've told you everything when we first met."

[Vocalia]

"It's not your fault, Isaac. You've told me everything you could remember back then," Hayley replied, sounding much calmer now as the pair went back to the jeep. "I should be the one apologizing to you. I should've told you about Sarah as well, but seeing that she was Nigel's sister, given how much we're trying to wring each other's necks, I chose not to tell you about her..." Looking at Isaac, she paused for a brief moment before saying, "Everything that happened today made me wonder if there is a part of me that I'm not aware of as well... I've always thought that I had a clear view of who I am, who my friends are, and who my enemies are, but everything I know has been flipped upside down. Your case of missing memories... made me realize about my own missing memories."

[Daxam]

Isaac looks down at Hayley, not sure he knew what she meant. After a few moments, he asks, "Does...does that mean you don't trust me anymore?" He hopes and prays that she would say she still trusted him. He wasn't sure if he could handle it if he somehow lost Hayley, too, so soon after finding and losing Sarah all over again.

[Vocalia]

"No, you dolt!" Hayley groaned as Isaac, much to her chagrin, went for the wrong conclusion, so she promptly slapped him in the back of his head as a response, looking somewhat annoyed. "I'm just saying that, just like how you couldn't recall some things, I also couldn't recall a few things myself, but it's not like they would change my future anyway, especially if they're already in the past. Besides, your past aside, I still trust you. Isn't that what lovers are supposed to do?" she asked as she rubbed the back of her neck, her face now a faint shade of flustered red.

[Daxam]

Isaac looks at Hayley for a few moments, listening to her as he rubs the back of his head. Then, he smiles and wraps his arms around her. "You're right," he says, looking down into her flushed face. "We're supposed to trust each other, no matter what." Resting his head on top of hers, he adds, "I don't know why, but you calling us 'lovers' somehow makes me feel so much better." Touching his forehead to hers, he says, "I love you, Hayley."